At
the time I thought this was merely playful, and I answered it
accordingly. But in his reply to me he renewed it as a serious argument.
In seriousness, then, the facts of this proposition are not true as
stated. God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make
his choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree of the
fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of certain death. I should
scarcely wish so strong a prohibition against slavery in Nebraska.
But this argument strikes me as not a little remarkable in another
particular--in its strong resemblance to the old argument for the "divine
right of kings." By the latter, the king is to do just as he pleases with
his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the former, the
white man is to do just as he pleases with his black slaves, being
responsible to God alone. The two things are precisely alike, and it is
but natural that they should find similar arguments to sustain them.
I had argued that the application of the principle of self-government, as
contended for, would require the revival of the African slave trade; that
no argument could be made in favor of a man's right to take slaves to
Nebraska which could not be equally well made in favor of his right to
bring them from the coast of Africa.
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