God never sanctions a curse without an adequate cause; a cause under the approbation of his law, sufficient to produce the effect the curse announces. The conduct of Ham to his father proved him to possess a degraded, a very debased mind; but that alone could not produce so vital, so interminable a change in the moral and physical condition of his offspring. And where are we to look for such a cause, unless in marriage? And with whom could such an intermarriage be had, except with the cursed race of Cain? The ill-manners of Ham no doubt accelerated the time of the announcement of the curse, but was not the sole cause. The cause must have previously existed; and the effect would necessarily have been produced, even if it had never been announced. But again, the condition of slavery imposed on the descendants of Ham, subjected them to be bought and sold; they became objects of purchase as property, for this quality is inseparable from the condition of the most abject slavery. Now the very name _Cain_ signifies “_one purchased_.” “I have _gotten_ a man from the Lord.” The word “gotten,” in the original, is the word his mother Eve gave her son for his name, “Cain.” _I have purchased_, &c., evidently shadowing forth the fact that his race were to be subjects of purchase. The history of man since the flood is accompanied with a sufficiency of facts by which we are enabled to determine that the descendants of Ham were black, and that the black man of Africa is of that descent. “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him would kill him.” The word “_mark_” is translated from אוֹת _oth_; its signification is, _a mark by which to distinguish_; _a memorial or warning_; _miraculous sign or wonder, consisting either in word or deed, whereby the certainty of any thing future is foretold or known_; and hence it partook of the nature of a prophecy. In the present case it was the mark of sin and degradation; it was the token of his condition of slavery, of his being a vagabond on the earth. It distinguished his rank of inferiority and wickedness, proclaiming him to be the man whose greatest punishment was to live and bear his burthens, _below all rivalship_. Hence its protective influence. Now, by the common consent of all men, at all times, what has been the mark of sin and degradation? Were we even now, among ourselves, about to describe one of exceedingly wicked and degraded character, should we say that he looked very white? Or should we say that his character was black? And so has been the use of the term since language has been able to send down to distant times the ideas and associations of men. “Their visage is blacker than a coal.” “Our skin was black.” “I am black: astonishment hath taken hold on me.” “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.”