But this was a regulation which applied to the case of all servants
who leave their masters in an improper manner. Apprentices, children,
even wives, if it might be supposed that a wife would ever leave her
husband, were to be restored as well as the slaves. Were this not
provided, the different states would form to each other the most
horrible neighborhood that could be imagined. No state is expected to
say, that any man is of right or should be 'held to service' of any
kind, in another state; for such are the words of the Constitution.
But the purely internal arrangements of each state, must necessarily
be respected by all the others; or eternal border wars must be the
result. In the re-delivery of a run-away slave, or apprentice,
therefore, the court of the one state is only required to say what are
the law, and the fact of the other state from which the claimant
comes, and to decide accordingly. And when Mr. T. says that this
proceeding is not only contrary to the spirit of the gospel, but to
the express command of God under the Jewish dispensation, I need only
to defend the practice, by questioning his biblical capacities, and
referring for explanation to his second printed speech before the
Glasgow Emancipation Society. In that, he states a fictitious case as
regards Ireland--resembling remarkably the case recorded in holy writ,
of Egypt under the government of Joseph; and while all men have
thought that Joseph came from God, and was peculiarly approved of
him--Mr. T. has represented, that he who should do in Ireland, very
much what Joseph did in Egypt, could be considered as coming only
'from America, or from the bottomless pit!!!' As long as the Holy
Ghost gives men reason to consider certain principles right, they may
be well content to abide under the wrath of Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson
said, in the fifth place, that slavery was a national crime, because
the states were all bound to assist each other, in suppressing
internal insurrection. To this he would answer, that as it regarded
the duty of the nation to the several states, there were two, and but
two great guarantees--namely, the preservation of internal peace, and
the upholding of republican institutions, tranquillity, and
republicanism. Carolina was as much bound to assist Rhode Island as
Rhode Island was to assist Carolina. All were mutually bound to each;
and if things went on as of late, the South were as likely to be
called on to suppress mobs at t