... And now that it has been discovered publicly
to be a fraud, we find that Judge Douglas manifests no surprise at
all.... But meanwhile the three are agreed that each is a most
honourable man.
_Notes for Speeches. October 1858_
Suppose it is true that the negro is inferior to the white in the gifts
of nature; is it not the exact reverse of justice that the white should
for that reason take from the negro any part of the little which he has
had given him? "Give to him that is needy" is the Christian rule of
charity; but "Take from him that is needy" is the rule of slavery.
The sum of pro-slavery theology seems to be this: "Slavery is not
universally right, nor yet universally wrong; it is better for some
people to be slaves; and, in such cases, it is the will of God that they
be such."
Certainly there is no contending against the will of God; but still
there is some difficulty in ascertaining and applying it to particular
cases. For instance, we will suppose the Rev. Dr. Ross has a slave named
Sambo, and the question is, "Is it the will of God that Sambo shall
remain a slave, or be set free?" The Almighty gives no audible answer to
the question, and his revelation, the Bible, gives none--or at most none
but such as admits of a squabble as to its meaning; no one thinks of
asking Sambo's opinion on it.
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