Of course, if a witness is too degraded to feel the sanction of an oath, his testimony should not be received. Such is the unquestionable suggestion of reason; nor can it make any difference that the witness is white or black. But the slave is not necessarily and universally so degraded as to merit exclusion, nor is his interest to conceal or deny the truth different materially from that of other persons,--although it is undoubtedly true, that, under the instinct of self-defence, and against the exactions of Slavery, he learns to deceive. But in every State except South Carolina _the oath of the slave is received against colored persons_, which could not be done, if he could not be trusted under oath. A judge of South Carolina has vindicated the capacity of the slave in this respect, and thus unintentionally repelled the rule of exclusion. “Negroes, slaves or free,” says Judge O’Neall, “will feel the sanction of an oath with as much force as any of the ignorant classes of white people in a Christian country. They ought, too, to be made to know, if they testify falsely, they are to be punished for it by human laws. The course pursued on the trial of negroes, in the abduction and obtaining testimony, leads to none of the certainties of truth. Falsehood is often the result, and innocence is thus often sacrificed on the shrine of prejudice.”[96] But this learned judge of South Carolina is not alone in vindicating the propriety of examining the slave on oath. Judge Clayton, of the High Court of Errors and Appeals in Mississippi, in delivering the opinion of the Court, thus expressed himself: “It is also objected, that there ought, in the case of slaves, to be some evidence of a sense of religious accountability, upon which the validity of all testimony rests, and that the same presumption of such religious belief cannot be indulged in reference to them as in regard to white persons. As to the latter, it is said the presumption is in favor of their proper religious culture and belief in revelation and a future state of rewards and punishments; as to slaves, it is contended the presumption does not arise, because of a defect of religious education. It is true, that, if the declarant had no sense of future responsibility, his declarations would not be admissible. But the absence of such belief must be shown. The simple elementary truths of Christianity, the immortality of the soul and a future accountability, are generally received and believed by this portion of our population. From the pulpit many, perhaps all, who attain maturity, hear these doctrines announced and enforced, and embrace them as articles of faith.”[97]