Chapter X: Part 10

Again, we are told, that in attempting to bring about amalgamation, and in preventing Colonization, we are interfering with the _purposes_ of God; fighting against His ordinances, and exposing Africa to the horrors of extermination, should the descendants of Shem or Japhet colonize her shores, and not the black man who has sprung from her tribes. I confess I am somewhat surprised, when told by a Presbyterian clergyman of Calvinistic sentiments, that I am to regulate my conduct towards my fellow-men by the _purposes_ of God, rather than by the _law_ of God. This is surely a new doctrine! What, I ask, have I to do with the decrees of the Almighty? Has he not given me a law by which to walk? Has he not told me to love my neighbor as myself? to "honor all men?" Am I not told that God hath made of _one_ blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth? Where is the prohibition to marry with Shem or Ham. I know of no directions in the Old Testament respecting marriages, save such as were founded on religious differences, and I have yet to learn that there are any in the New Testament. That blessed Book declares, that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but all are _one_. The only injunction I am aware of is this, "be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."

Mr. Breckinridge made a considerable parade of his knowledge of Universal History, and pretended to build his theory upon the most correct historical data. While upon this subject of _amalgamation_ and _extermination_, I will take the liberty of submitting one or two inquiries to Mr. Breckinridge.

Is there any law in America forbidding ministers to celebrate marriages between Japhethite American Christians and Jewesses, (by birth, even if Christians by faith,) and Jews, (even if Christians.) to marry Japhethite, American females? If there be not, then, why may Shem and Japhet intermarry, but Ham with neither? Again: If there be no such law, then the doctrine about Noah's three sons, is not a principle on which the American people act, but Mr. B.'s individual dogma, got up to defend a line of conduct really proceeding without reference to any such principle. If it be said that Jewish and Japhethite Americans are very nearly, if not altogether, of the same color; and that there are no political evils to be dreaded from the intermixture of Jews with Japhethites; I reply, that, admitting the truth of both these representations, is not the sin of mixing Noah's sons, and counter-working the designs of God, the same in the case of Shem and Japhet as it would be in the case of Japhet or Shem with the tribes of Ham? Again,

Did the Romans, (Japhethites,) exterminate the Jews, (Shemites?)

Did the Arab Shemite conquerors of Egypt exterminate the ancient inhabitants (Hamites,) who still exist, and are known by the name of Copts or Cophti?

Did not the Tartars, now Turks, a (Japhethite tribe,) when they conquered the Caliphs, embrace the religion of the conquered, who were Mohamedans and Shemites?

Did not the Shemite Mohamedans conquer the Persians, (Japhethites,) a part of whom, who would not embrace the Mohamedan religion, and could not be tolerated by the Mohamedans in theirs, (viz. fire worship,) flee to India, where they still exist, known by the name of Guebers, while the rest of the people, embracing Mohamedanism, amalgamated with their conquerors; and is not the modern Persian language a proof of this, in which all the terms of religion and science are Arabic, (Shemite,) the rest of the language being a colluvies of the Deri, Zend, and Pehlavi dialects, which the most eminent phylologists consider as all resolvable into Sanscrit, the most ancient Japhethite speech existing?

The cases of the Romans and Jews, and of the Arab conquerors of Egypt and the Copts, are instances of conquest _without extermination_; the parties remaining dissevered by religious differences. The cases of the Tartar-Turks, and the Arabs, and of the Arabs and the Persians, are cases of conquest without extermination, and _with amalgamation_; the conquerors in the first case having adopted the religion of the conquered, and the conquered in the second case, that of the conquerors.

Instead of the Americans proceeding in their conduct towards the colored people with any reference either to the divine laws or the divine decrees, they act solely under the influence of their pride and prejudice. How their prejudice was in the first place produced, it is not necessary at this time to inquire. I may just remark that color has long been the badge of slavery. Long have the negroes been an enslaved and degraded class. The child is tutored to look upon a colored man as an inferior, and this feeling of superiority, implanted early in the mind of the child, growing with his growth, and strengthening with his strength, becomes at last a confirmed and almost invincible principle, disposing him with eagerness to adopt any views of revelation which will permit him to cherish and gratify his pride and hatred towards the colored man. Hence has arisen the aristocracy of the skin. Hence the many lamentable departures from the spirit and precepts of the gospel, every day witnessed in the United Slates. Two illustrations of the force of prejudice are now before me. The first is a short article from the New York Evangelist, copied into the Scottish Guardian of this city. I will read it entire. It is as follows:

A HARD CASE. A native born American applied to our
authorities this morning for a license to drive a cart. He
has been for years employed as a porter in Pearl Street,
principally among the booksellers, who were his petitioners
to the number of forty firms. He is an honest, temperate, and
in every respect a worthy man; of an amiable disposition,
muscular frame, and of good address, and every way calculated
for the situation he seeks; besides being a member of the
Society of Friends, a sufficient recommendation of itself;
for the office is now filled in part by swearing, drunken,
quarrelling foreigners, who are daily disturbing the quiet of
our streets by their broils; and endangering the lives of our
citizens by their infuriate conduct.

Wm. S. Hewlett was refused by our Mayor, on the ground of
public opinion! because

"----guilty of a skin
Not colored like his own."

Hewlett owns property in William Street, to the amount of
20,000 dollars; but prefers, unlike many of no more income, a
life of industry and economy, to seeking "otium cum
dignitate."

"What man seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head to own himself a man."

The next is found in a letter written by a Professor Smith, of the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, who, while vindicating the University from the charge of having expelled a young man "for the crime of color," makes the following admission:

"That it would be difficult, in the present state of public
feeling, to preserve a colored individual from inquietude in
any of our collegiate schools, and to render his connection
with them tolerable, is not denied."

I come now, (continued Mr. T.) to the state of the American Churches, in regard to Slavery; and to attempt a justification of the heavy charges I have brought against them. If at the close of this address it shall appear that I have misrepresented the Christians of America; that I have stated as facts, things which are untrue, I solemnly call upon those who have hitherto vindicated my reputation, and sustained me as the truthful advocate of the cause of human rights, to discard me as utterly disqualified to be their representative in so sacred a work, because, capable of pleading for JUSTICE at the expense of TRUTH.

Of slaveholding ministers in America, Mr. Breckinridge has asserted, that they are as ONE IN A THOUSAND, or at most, as ONE IN FIVE HUNDRED. The first document I shall quote to disprove this assertion, will be a letter in the "Southern Religious Telegraph," of October 31, 1835, addressed to the Presbyterian Clergy of Virginia; written to warn those ministers against pursuits calculated to injure their spirituality, destroy their usefulness, and prevent those revivals of religion with which other portions of the Church of Christ had been favored; also to account for an apparent declension in piety in the State generally. It is proper to remark, that the letter from which I make the present extract, was not written to promote the cause of abolition; that the writer never imagined it would be used on such an occasion; and that the newspaper in which it appears is _pro_-slavery to the very core.

"In one region of country, where I am acquainted, of rather
more than THIRTY Presbyterian ministers, including
missionaries, TWENTY are farmers, viz. (planters and
SLAVEHOLDERS,) ON A PRETTY EXTENSIVE SCALE; three are school
teachers; one is a farmer and a teacher; one, a farmer and a
merchant, and joint proprietor of iron works, which must be
in operation on the Sabbath; and one is a farmer and editor
of a political newspaper. These farmers generally superintend
their own business. THEY OVERSEE THEIR NEGROES, attend to
their stock, make purchases, and visit the markets to make
sale of their crops. They necessarily have much intercourse
with their neighbors on worldly business, and not
unfrequently come into unpleasant collision with the
merchants."

O, Sir, what a revelation of things is here! These are not the calumnies of George Thompson, but the confessions of one, striving earnestly to awaken the attention of the Virginia clergy to a sense of the degradation and barrenness of the church, and to direct their attention to the main causes of such lamentable effects.

Next, permit me to request your attention to an extract from "An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, proposing a plan for the instruction and emancipation of their slaves; by a Committee of the SYNOD OF KENTUCKY. Cincinnati: published by Eli Taylor, 1835." We shall, in this document, get at the opinion of men, sensitively jealous for the honor, purity, and usefulness of the Presbyterian churches, from which Mr. Breckinridge is A DELEGATE. What say they of slavery in general, and the practice of THEIR CHURCH in particular:

"Brutal stripes, and all the various kinds of personal
indignities, are not the only species of cruelty, which
slavery licenses. The law does not recognize the family
relations of a slave; and extends to him no protection in the
enjoyment of domestic endearments. The members of a slave
family may be forcibly separated, so that they shall never
more meet until the final judgment. And cupidity often
induces the masters to practise what the law allows. Brothers
and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are
torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These
acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and
the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim with a
trumpet-tongue, the iniquity and cruelty of our system. The
cry of these sufferers goes up to the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. There is not a neighborhood, where these
heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a
village or road that does not behold the sad procession of
manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances
tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts
held dear. Our church, years ago, raised its voice by solemn
warning against this flagrant violation of every principle of
mercy, justice, and humanity. Yet WE BLUSH TO ANNOUNCE TO YOU
AND TO THE WORLD, THAT, THIS WARNING HAS BEEN OFTEN
DISREGARDED, EVEN BY THOSE WHO HOLD TO OUR COMMUNION. CASES
HAVE OCCURRED, IN OUR OWN DENOMINATION, WHERE PROFESSORS OF
THE RELIGION OF MERCY HAVE TORN THE MOTHER FROM HER CHILDREN,
AND SENT HER INTO A MERCILESS AND RETURNLESS EXILE. YET ACTS
OF DISCIPLINE HAVE RARELY FOLLOWED SUCH CONDUCT."

Follow me now into the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, convened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May, 1835, and let the individual who addresses you be forgotten, while you listen to the things uttered in the midst of that solemn convocation. At the time when the passages I am about to read, were spoken, there were sitting in that Assembly, men from all parts of the country. The Southern Churches fully represented by row upon row of ministers and elders from every region of the slaveholding States. In that Assembly, one year from this time, did the Rev. J. H. Dickey, of the Chilicothe Presbytery, Ohio, (a clergyman who had passed thirty years of his life in a slave State.) and Mr. Stewart, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of Schuyler, Illinois, make the following statements, which have remained, I believe, uncontradicted to this hour:

"He (Mr. Dickey,) believed there were many, and great evils
in the Presbyterian Church; but the doctrine of slaveholding,
he was fully persuaded, was the worst heresy now found in the
Church."

"MR. STEWART--I hope this Assembly are prepared to come out
fully, and declare their sentiments, that slaveholding is a
most flagrant and heinous SIN. Let us not pass it by in this
indirect way, while so many thousands and thousands of our
fellow-creatures are writhing under the lash, often inflicted
too by MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH."

* * * * *

"IN THIS CHURCH, a man may take a free born child, force it
away from its parents, to whom God gave it in charge, saying,
'Bring it up for me,' and sell it as a beast, or hold it in
perpetual bondage, and not only escape corporal punishment,
but really be esteemed an excellent Christian. NAY, EVEN
MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, may engage
in this unholy traffic, and yet sustain their high and holy
calling."

* * * * *

"ELDERS, MINISTERS, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, ARE WITH BOTH
HANDS ENGAGED IN THE PRACTICE. * * * * * * A Slave-holder who
is making gains by the trade, may have as good a character
for honesty as any other man."

* * * * *

"No language can paint the injustice and abominations of
slavery, But in these United States, this vast amount of
moral turpitude is (as I believe) justly chargeable to the
Church. I do not mean to say those church members who
actually engage in this diabolical practice, but I mean to
say THE CHURCH. Yes, Sir, all the infidelity that is the
result of this unjust conduct of the professed followers of
CHRIST; all the unholy amalgamation; all the tears and
groans; all the eyes that have been literally plucked from
their sockets; all the pains and violent deaths from the
lash, and the various engines of torture, and all the souls
that are, or will be eternally damned, as a consequence of
slavery in these United States, ARE ALL JUSTLY CHARGEABLE TO
THE CHURCH; AND HOW MUCH FALLS TO THE SHARE OF THIS
PARTICULAR CHURCH YOU CAN ESTIMATE AS WELL AS I."

* * * * *

"The judgments of God are staring this Church full in the
face, and threatening her dissolution. She is all life and
nerve in matters of doctrine, and on some points where men
may honestly differ; while sins of a crimson dye are
committed in open day, BY MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH WITH PERFECT
IMPUNITY."

I appeal to you, Sir, and this audience; did George Thompson ever utter charges against the American churches more awful than those contained in the extracts I have read--extracts from speeches made in the General Assembly of the body from which Mr. Breckinridge is a delegate? I leave for the present the Presbyterians, and proceed to notice the state of the

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.

Mr. Breckinridge displayed great regard for the reputation of this body. He believed they were almost free from the sin of slaveholding--their discipline was most emphatic in its condemnation of it, and he defied me to show that any Methodist was engaged in the infernal practice of slave trading. First, as to the probable extent of slavery in the church. On this point I shall quote from a solemn and authenticated document issued by a number of ministers in the Methodist Episcopal body in New England, entitled:--

"An appeal on the subject of Slavery, addressed to the
members of the New England and New Hampshire conferences of
the Methodist Episcopal Church;" and signed by

SHIPLEY W. WILSON.
ABRAM D. MERRILL.
LA ROY SUNDERLAND.
GEORGE STORRS.
JARED PERKINS.

Boston, Dec. 19th, 1834.

In answer to the question--

"When will slavery cease from our church, if we continue to alter our rules against it as we have done for some years past?" they observe--

"But we will not dwell on this part of our subject; it is
painful enough to think of; and as members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and as Methodist preachers, we readily
confess we are exceedingly afflicted with a view of it, and
still more with a knowledge of the fact, that the "great
evil" of slavery has been _increasing_, both among the
membership and ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at
a _fearful rate_, for thirty or forty years past. The general
minutes of our Annual Conferences, announce about 80,000
colored members in our church; and it is highly probable,
from various reasons which might be named, that _as many as
sixty thousand, or upwards of these, are slaves_; but what
proportion of these and _others_, are enslaved by the
_Methodist members_ and _Methodist preachers_, we have no
means of determining precisely; but the _alterations_ which
have been made in the discipline, show at once that _the
number is neither few nor small_; and if this evil was a
"great" one fifty years ago, what must it be now? What will
it be fifty or a hundred years hence, _should the discipline
be_ ALTERED _as it has been during half a century past_? Who
can tell where this "great" and growing "evil," will end? We
frequently hear Christians and Christian ministers expressing
the greatest fears for the safety of the "political" union of
these United States, whenever the subject of slavery is
mentioned; but no fears as to the prosperity and peace of the
Christian church, though this "evil" be ever so "great," and
though it be increased every day a thousand fold. But can it
be supposed that any branch of the Christian church is in a
healthy and prosperous state, while it slumbers and nurses in
its bosom so great an evil."

In reply to the challenge to produce one instance of a slave trading Methodist, I give the following from "Zion's Watchman," a Methodist newspaper, published in New York. It is from a letter of a correspondent of that paper:

"A man came among us where I was preaching, a class-leader,
from Georgia, having a regular certificate, who appeared to
be very zealous, exhorting and praying in our meetings, &c. I
thought I had got an excellent helper; but, on inquiring his
business, I found he was a SLAVE TRADER: come on purpose to
buy up men, women, and children, to drive to the South!!! I
expostulated with him; but he said it was not thought wrong
where he came from. I told him we could not countenance such
a thing here, and that we could hold no fellowship with him."
He farther told me that on inquiring of a slave he had with
him, what sort of a master he was, he replied, "I have had
four masters, but this is the most cruel of them all;" and
told him, as a proof of it, to look at his back, which, said
the minister, "was cut with a whip, from his head to his
heels!!" The Rev. S. W. Wilson, of Andover, United States,
gives also an extract of a letter he had seen from a
gentleman of high standing, who was at the South at the time
of writing, which says, "The South is too much interested in
the continuance of slavery, to hear any thing upon the
subject. The preachers of the gospel are in the same
condemnation, and METHODIST PREACHERS ESPECIALLY. The
principal reason why the Methodists in these regions are more
numerous and popular than other denominations is, THEY STICK
SO CLOSELY TO SLAVERY!! THEY DENOUNCE BOTH THE ABOLITIONISTS
AND THE COLONIZATIONISTS."

To show the extent to which THE BAPTIST CHURCHES SHARE THE GUILT OF THE SYSTEM OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA, it will be sufficient to read an extract from a letter addressed to the Board of Baptist ministers in and near London, by the Rev. Lucius Bolles, D. D., the Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. The testimony is the stronger, because the whole letter is a carefully written apology for Southern religious slaveholders, and an attempt to silence the remonstrances of the English churches.

"There is a pleasing degree of union among the multiplying
thousands of Baptists throughout the land. Brethren from all
parts of the country meet in one General Convention and
co-operate in sending the gospel to the heathen. Our Southern
brethren are liberal and zealous in the promotion of every
holy enterprize for the extension of the gospel. THEY ARE,
GENERALLY, BOTH MINISTERS AND PEOPLE, SLAVE-HOLDERS."

In this connection, I may notice the recommendation of the work of Drs. Cox and Hoby. We are assured by Mr. Breckinridge, (though he confesses he has not read the book,) that every representation it contains relative to slavery among "the Baptists in America," may be relied on. That book, thus endorsed by Mr. B., informs us that the deputation were permitted to sit in the convention at Richmond, Virginia, only on condition of _profound silence_, touching the wrongs of more than two millions of heathenized slaves. We are gravely told that the introduction of abolition would have been "an INTRUSION, as RUDE as it would have been UNWELCOME." It would, says the Delegates, have "FRUSTRATED every object of our mission;" "awakened HOSTILITY, and kindled DISLIKE;" "roused into EMBITTERED ACTIVITY feelings between Christian brethren, which must have SEVERED the Baptist churches." It would have occasioned the "UTTER CONFUSION OF ALL ORDER, the RUIN of all Christian feeling," and "THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP;" and the Convention would either have been "DISSOLVED" by "MAGISTERIAL INFLUENCE," or "THE DELEGATES WOULD HAVE DISSOLVED THEMSELVES." Yet this was "a sacred and heavenly meeting," in which "the kindliest emotions, the warmest affections, the loveliest spirit towards ourselves, (the Baptist Delegates,) towards England and mankind" existed! Oh, Sir, is it possible to draw a more affecting picture of the withering and corrupting influences of slavery, than is here presented to our view in this description of the triennial convention of Baptist ministers, assembled in the city of Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1835.

AMOS DRESSER'S CASE.

I proceed to notice the case of Amos Dresser; the young man who was so inhumanly tortured by the citizens and professing Christians of the city of Nashville, Tennessee. I can assure my opponent, that the discrepancy in my statements which he has noticed, is an error in reporting. I am not aware of having ever stated the number of elders in the committee to be _eleven_. My statement of the case has always been simply this--that Mr. Dresser, a pious and respectable young man, was apprehended in Nashville, on suspicion of being an abolitionist; brought before a Vigilance Committee, and, according to "Lynch Law," was sentenced to receive twenty lashes with a cowskin, on his bare back. That he was so punished; and that upon the Committee were seven elders of the Presbyterian church, and one Campbellite minister. The whole case as narrated by Mr. Dresser, and published in the Cincinnati Gazette, is now before me. The Committee, by which Mr. Dresser was tried and sentenced, is called a "Committee of Vigilance and Safety."

The following are the names of the seven elders in the Presbyterian Church:

JOHN NICHOL,
ALPHA KINGSLEY,
A. A. CASSEDAY,
WM. ARMSTRONG,
SAMUEL SEAY,
S. V. D. STOUT.
S. C. ROBINSON.
The name of the Campbellite Minister, THOMAS CLAIBORNE.

The Committee, after examining his books, papers, and private memoranda, and hearing his defence, found him guilty--1st. "Of being a member of an Anti-Slavery Society in Ohio." 2d. "Of having in his possession periodicals published by the American Anti-Slavery Society." And 3d. "They BELIEVED he had circulated these periodicals, and advocated in the community the principles they inculcated." The Chairman, (says Mr. Dresser,) then pronounced that I was condemned to receive twenty lashes on my bare back, and ordered to leave the place in twenty-four hours. This was not an hour previous to the commencement of the Sabbath. Mr. Dresser gives the following account of the infliction of the sentence:

"I knelt to receive the punishment, which was inflicted by
Mr. Braughton, the city officer, with a HEAVY COWSKIN. When
the infliction ceased, an involuntary feeling of thanksgiving
to God, for the fortitude with which I had been enabled to
endure it, arose in my soul, to which I began aloud to give
utterance. The death-like silence that prevailed for a
moment, was suddenly broken, with loud exclamations, "G--d
d--m him, stop his praying." I was raised to my feet by Mr.
Braughton, and conducted by him to my lodging, where it was
thought safe for me to remain but for a few moments.

"Among my triers, there was a great portion of the
respectability of Nashville. Nearly half the whole number,
professors of Christianity, the reputed stay of the church,
supporters of the cause of benevolence in the form of tract
and missionary societies and Sabbath schools, several members
and most of the elders of the Presbyterian church, from whose
hands, but a few days before, I had received the emblems of
the broken body, and shed blood of our blessed Saviour."
(!!!!)

Mr. Breckinridge has twice referred to the appearance of a runaway slave at my lectures in London, and has accused me of carrying him about with me, to enact interludes during my meeting. I can assure Mr. Breckinridge that I never had any thing to do with the attendance of Moses Roper at my meetings, or with the speeches he delivered. On neither of the occasions mentioned had I any knowledge of his being in the chapel until I found him among the rest of my auditors. As for denying the facts stated by him, knowing as I do the brutalizing effects of slavery, and the state of society in the slave States of America, it is out of the question. I see nothing in the facts stated by Moses Roper at all improbable. Since I last came to this city, I have read in an American newspaper, an account of an affair in Tennessee, at which the blood runs cold. A black man having committed some crime, was lodged in prison by the authorities, but being demanded by the citizens, was given up to them, tied to a tree, and BURNT ALIVE! During my residence in the United States, a negro was burnt alive, according to a sentence given by one of the constituted tribunals of the State! It was called an exemplary punishment, and many of the papers throughout the country were filled with long and learned articles, justifying the horrid outrage. Mr. Breckinridge may point to the laws and the constitution of the country, but I tell him they and the authorities appointed to enforce them are alike powerless. I point him to the atrocities of Lynch law all over the land; to the brutal massacre of the gamblers in Mississippi, where men in the broad daylight were dragged forth, and tied by the neck to branches of trees, their eyes starting from their sockets, and their wives driven across the river, in open boats; their lives threatened, for daring to ask for the dead bodies of their husbands. I ask if any law reached the fiends in human shape, who perpetrated these deeds. I ask Mr. Breckinridge if any law punished the felons of Charleston, who, seizing the public conveyances, violated the constitution, and the law of the State, by robbing the mail bags of their contents, and burning them? Did not the Post Master General encouragingly say, "I cannot sanction, but I will not condemn what you have done. In your circumstances I would have acted in a similar manner." Need I remind Mr. Breckinridge of the mobs at the North; the riots of New York; the sacking of Mr. Tappan's house, and the demolition of colored schools? Laws there may be, but while slavery exists, and is defended by public sentiment, and while the ferocious prejudice against color remains, they will want the "executory principle," without which they are but cruel mockery.

A glance at the moral and religious state of the slave population will show the amount of care and attention exercised by the Christian churches at the South.

What says the Rev. C. C. Jones, in a sermon preached before two associations of planters in Georgia, in 1831?

"Generally speaking, they (the slaves,) appear to us to be
without God, and without hope in the world, a NATION OF
HEATHEN in our very midst. We cannot cry out against the
Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the common
people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life, for
we WITHHOLD the Bible from our servants, and keep them in
ignorance of it, while we will not use the means to have it
read and explained to them. The cry of our perishing servants
comes up to us from the sultry plains as they bend at their
toil; it comes up from their humble cottages when they return
at evening to rest their weary limbs; it comes up to us from
the midst of their ignorance, and superstition, and adultery,
and lewdness. We have manifested no emotions of horror at
abandoning the souls of our servants to the adversary, the
roaring lion that walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

Again: what said the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in a report on the state of the colored population, in respect of religious instruction?

"Who would credit it, that in these years of revivals and
benevolent effort, in this Christian Republic, there are over
TWO MILLIONS of human beings in the condition of HEATHEN, and
in some respects in a worse condition. From long continued
and close observation, we believe that their moral and
religious condition is such, that they may justly be
considered the HEATHEN of this Christian country, and will
bear comparison with heathen in any country of the world. The
negroes are destitute of the gospel, and EVER WILL BE UNDER
THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS. In the vast field extending from
an entire State beyond the Potomac, to the Sabine River, and
from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are to the best of our
knowledge, not TWELVE men exclusively devoted to the
religious instruction of the negroes. In the present state of
feeling in the South, a ministry of their own color could
neither be obtained NOR TOLERATED."

Again: what says a writer in a recent number of the Charleston, South Carolina, Observer?

"Let us establish missionaries among our negroes, who, in
view of religious knowledge, are as debasingly ignorant as
any one on the coast of Africa; for I hazard the assertion,
that throughout the bounds of our Synod, there are at least
one hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same language as
ourselves, who never HEARD of the plan of salvation by a
Redeemer."

A writer in the Western Luminary, a respectable religious paper in Lexington, Kentucky, says,

"I proclaim it abroad to the Christian world, that heathenism
is as real in the slave States as it is in the South Sea
Islands, and that our negroes are as justly objects of
attention to the American and other Boards of Foreign
Missions, as the Indians of the Western wilds. What is it
constitutes heathenism? Is it to be destitute of a knowledge
of God; of his holy word; never to have heard scarcely a
sentence of it read through life; to know little or nothing
of the history, character, instruction and mission of Jesus
Christ; to be almost totally devoid of moral knowledge and
feeling, of sentiments of probity, truth and chastity? If
this constitutes heathenism, then are there thousands,
millions, of heathen in our beloved land. There is one topic
to which I will allude, which will serve to establish the
heathenism of this population. I allude to the universal
licentiousness which prevails. It may be said emphatically,
that chastity is no virtue among them; that its violation
neither injures female character in their own estimation, or
that of their master or mistress. No instruction is ever
given; no censure pronounced. I speak not of the world; I
speak of Christian families generally."

Again: I give the words of the son of a Kentucky slaveholder, who became an abolitionist at Lane Seminary, and has since induced his father to emancipate his slaves. Hear James A. Thome.

"Licentiousness. I shall not speak of the far South, whose
sons are fast melting away under the UNBLUSHING PROFLIGACY
which prevails. I allude to the slaveholding West. It is well
known that the slave lodgings, I refer now to village slaves,
are exposed to the entrance of strangers every hour of the
night, and that the SLEEPING APARTMENTS OF BOTH SEXES ARE
COMMON.

"It is also a fact, that there is no allowed intercourse
between the families and servants, after the work of the day
is over. The family, assembled for the evening, enjoy a
conversation elevating and instructive. But the poor slaves
are thrust out. No ties of sacred home thrown around them; no
moral instruction to compensate for the toils of the day; no
intercourse as of man with man; and should one of the younger
members of the family, led by curiosity, steal out into the
filthy kitchen, the child is speedily called back, thinking
itself happy if it escape an angry rebuke. Why is this? The
dread of moral contamination. Most excellent reason; but it
reveals a horrid picture. THE SLAVE CUT OFF FROM ALL
COMMUNITY OF FEELING WITH THEIR MASTER, ROAM OVER THE VILLAGE
STREETS, SHOCKING THE EAR WITH THEIR VULGAR JESTINGS, AND
VOLUPTUOUS SONGS, OR OPENING THEIR KITCHENS TO THE RECEPTION
OF THE NEIGHBORING BLACKS, THEY PASS THE EVENING IN GAMBLING,
DANCING, DRINKING, AND THE MOST OBSCENE CONVERSATION, KEPT UP
UNTIL THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT, THEN CROWN THE SCENE WITH
INDISCRIMINATE DEBAUCHERY. WHERE DO THESE THINGS OCCUR? IN
THE KITCHENS OF CHURCH MEMBERS AND ELDERS!

I shall now take the liberty of reading two letters from highly respectable gentlemen in the South, to friends in New England. The first is from a clergyman in North Carolina, to one of the Professors in Bowdoin College, Maine.

"You remember that when I was with you last summer, I was
much opposed to the Anti-Slavery Society, and contended that
the colonization scheme was a full, and the only remedy, for
the evils of slavery, and that I made a sort of talk before
the students on the subject of slavery. It was a poor talk,
for it was a miserable theme. I do not think what I said had
any effect against the Anti-Slavery people, or at all
strengthened the cause of the Colonization Society. Be this
as it may, I feel it a duty I owe both to myself and to the
friends I have with you, to say, that my views and feelings,
which were then wavering, have since, after mature
deliberation and much prayer, been entirely changed, and that
I am now a strong Anti-Slavery man. Yes, after mature
reflection, I am the sworn enemy of slavery in all its forms,
with all its evils. Henceforth it is a part of my religion to
oppose slavery. I am greatly surprised, that I should in any
form have been the apologist of a system, so full of deadly
poison to all holiness and benevolence as slavery, the
concocted essence of fraud, selfishness, and cold-hearted
tyranny, and the fruitful parent of unnumbered evils, both to
the oppressor and the oppressed, the one thousandth part of
which has never been brought to light.

"Do you ask, why this change, after residing in a slave
country for twenty years. You recollect the lines of Pope,
beginning,

'Vice is a monster of such frightful mein,
That to be hated, needs but to be seen.'

I had become so familiar with the loathsome features of
slavery, that they ceased to offend; besides, I had become a
Southern man in all my feelings, and it is a part of our
creed to defend slavery. I had also considered it was
impossible to free the slaves in this country. But it is
unnecessary to investigate the ground of my former opinions.
As to the Colonization Society, I have this among many
objections that it has two faces, one for the North, and a
very different one for the South. If the agents of the
Colonization Society will come here and say what I heard them
say in New York, I will insure them a good coat of tar and
feathers for their labor. That Society has few friends here,
a few large slaveholders who by it hope to send off the free
people in their neighborhood, and a few others, whose
consciences are not quite easy, get a salvo by advocating the
Colonization Society. These last are many of them ministers.
The mass of the people regard it as a Yankee plan, and hate
it of course. I remember, among other things, I told the
students in my address, that the only way to do away slavery
was to give us more religion. This argument then seemed to be
good. Send us preachers said I, and as religion spreads,
slavery will melt away, it cannot stand the gospel. I did not
reflect that the religion we have here, justifies and upholds
slavery. Our religion does not permit the preacher to touch
the subject. It is not the whole gospel. I have not yet seen
the man who would venture to take for his text, 'Masters,
give to your servants that which is just and equal.' If every
man in the country was a professor of religion, the religion
we have, it would not much help the cause. I think that I can
safely say that as a general thing, the Presbyterians are by
far the best masters, and give more attention to the
religious instruction of their slaves than others, but I know
one of these, an elder, who contends that slavery is no
violation of the law, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself,' and whose slaves are driven in the field with the
long whip! But it is just to add, that they are not
over-worked, and they are well fed and clothed. You are at
liberty to inform the students, and others who heard me on
that occasion, that I am now an anti-slavery man; but I do
not wish the letter published with my name to it, as it would
be copied by other papers, and find its way back, and do me
injury, for no man is free, fully to express his thoughts in
this country."

The next is from a merchant in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Clergyman in New Hampshire.

SAINT LOUIS, Jan. 18, 1835.

Very Dear Brother.

I want to say a good deal to you, Brother, on the subject,
which seems to interest you much at this time. I am now, and
was before I left Hartford, an abolitionist; and that too,
from deep and thorough conviction that the eternal rule of
right requires the immediate freedom of every bond-man in
this and every other country. Since my residence in this
slaveholding State, I have seen nothing which should tend to
alter my previous sentiments on this subject, on the contrary
much to confirm me in them. You, who reside in happy New
England, can have but very faint conceptions of the blighting
and corrupting influence of Slavery on a community. Although
in Missouri we witness Slavery in its mildest form, yet it is
enough to sicken the heart of benevolence to witness its
effects on society generally, and its awfully demoralizing
influence on the slaves themselves: being counted as property
among the cattle and flocks of their possessors, (forgive the
word,) their standard of morality and virtue is on a level
(generally) with the beasts with which they are classed: and
I am credibly informed that many emigrants from the slave
states, who own plantations on the Missouri River, finding
themselves disqualified by their former habits of indolence
to compete with emigrants of another character in enterprize,
turn their attention to the raising of slaves as they would
cattle, to be sold to the Negro dealers to go down the river.
What sort of standard of virtue, think you, will have place
on such a plantation; and at what period in the history of
our country will these degraded sons of Africa be
christianized under existing circumstances.

The ungodly man who is a slaveholder, is well enough pleased
with the efforts and views of the Colonization Society,
because he can manage to throw off responsibility, and date
far a-head the time when he shall be called upon to do right;
but state to him the sentiments and principles of the
abolitionists, and he at once begins to froth and rage--all
the malignity of his nature is called into action--and why?
He feels the pressure of responsibility, he acts very like an
impenitent sinner, pricked with the truth, and like him, too,
he either comes on the side of right, or is hardened into a
stern opposer. It is gratifying to notice the gradual
influence the abolition principles are obtaining over the
hearts and consciences of every slaveholding community,
especially over the hearts of Christian slaveholders. Many of
them who have allowed the subject to have a place in their
thoughts, are greatly agitated, and dare not sell or buy
again for their peace-sake. But more of this another time."

I shall now lay before the meeting the sentiments of General George M'Duffie, Governor of the State of South Carolina; as contained in a message delivered by him to the two branches of the Legislature, towards the close of the last year. I charge these sentiments upon the State, 1st, because the representatives of its citizens, in a series of resolutions presented to the Governor, unanimously expressed their special approbation of them; and 2dly, because I am not aware that any protest has been entered against them by any part of the Christian community. Sentiments more atrocious were, perhaps, never penned.

The first extract, recommending legislation, has reference to the diffusion of Anti-Slavery publications.

"IT IS MY DELIBERATE OPINION THAT THE LAWS OF EVERY COMMUNITY
SHOULD PUNISH THIS SPECIES OF INTERFERENCE BY DEATH WITHOUT
BENEFIT OF CLERGY, REGARDING THE AUTHORS OF IT AS ENEMIES TO
THE HUMAN RACE. Nothing could be more appropriate than for
South Carolina to set the example in the present crisis, and
I trust the Legislature will not adjourn till it discharges
this high duty of patriotism."

Let us look at the theological views of this profound Statesman on the subject of Slavery.

NO HUMAN INSTITUTION, IN MY OPINION, IS MORE MANIFESTLY
CONSISTENT WITH THE WILL OF GOD, THAN DOMESTIC SLAVERY, and
no one of his ordinances is written in more legible
characters than that which consigns the African Race to this
condition AS MORE CONDUCIVE TO THEIR OWN HAPPINESS, THAN ANY
OTHER OF WHICH THEY ARE SUSCEPTIBLE. Whether we consult the
sacred Scriptures or the lights of nature and reason, we
shall find these truths as abundantly apparent as if written
with a sun-beam in the heavens. Under both the Jewish and
Christian dispensations of our religion, DOMESTIC SLAVERY
existed with the unequivocal sanction of its prophets, its
apostles, and finally its great Author. The patriarchs
themselves, those chosen instruments of God, were
slaveholders. In fact the divine sanction of this institution
is so plainly written that "he who runs may read" it, and
those over-righteous pretenders and pharisees, who affect to
be scandalized by its existence among us, would do well to
inquire how much more nearly they walk in the way of
godliness, than did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That the
African negro is DESTINED BY PROVIDENCE TO OCCUPY THIS
CONDITION OF SERVILE DEPENDENCE, is not less manifest. It is
marked on the face, stamped on the skin, and evinced by the
intellectual inferiority, and natural improvidence of his
race. THEY HAVE ALL THE QUALITIES THAT FIT THEM FOR SLAVES,
AND NOT ONE OF THOSE THAT WOULD FIT THEM TO BE FREEMEN, they
are utterly unqualified not only for rational freedom, but
for self-government of any kind. They are in all respects
physical, moral and political, inferior to millions of the
human race, who have for consecutive ages dragged out a
wretched existence under a grinding political despotism, and
who are doomed to this hopeless condition by the very
qualities which unfit them for a better. It is utterly
astonishing that any enlighted American, after contemplating
all the manifold forms in which even the white race of
mankind are doomed to slavery and oppression, should suppose
it possible to reclaim the Africans from their destiny. THE
CAPACITY TO ENJOY FREEDOM IS AN ATTRIBUTE NOT TO BE
COMMUNICATED BY HUMAN POWER. IT IS AN ENDOWMENT OF GOD, AND
ONE OF THE RAREST WHICH IT HAS PLEASED HIS INSCRUTABLE WISDOM
TO BESTOW UPON THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH. IT IS CONFERRED AS
THE REWARD OF MERIT, and only upon those who are qualified to
enjoy it. Until the "Ethiopian can change his skin," it will
he vain to attempt, by any human power, to make freemen of
those whom God has doomed to be slaves, by all their
attributes.

Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing intermeddlers
who seek to destroy our peace, imagining that they are
serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the
decrees of his Providence. Indeed it would scarcely excite
surprise, if with the impious audacity of those who projected
the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the
battlements of Heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom
for having put THE MARK OF CAIN AND THE CURSE OF HAM upon the
African race instead of the European.

The Governor then proceeds to give his views on the political bearings of the question, and thus sums them up:--

"DOMESTIC SLAVERY, THEREFORE, INSTEAD OF BEING A POLITICAL
EVIL, IS THE CORNER STONE OF OUR REPUBLICAN EDIFICE. No
patriot who justly estimates our privileges, will tolerate
the idea of emancipation, at any period however remote, or on
any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable. I
would as soon think of opening a negotiation for selling the
liberty of the State at once, as for making any stipulations
for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep is my
conviction on this subject, that if I were doomed to die
immediately after recording these sentiments, I could say in
all sincerity, and under all the sanctions of Christianity
and patriotism, GOD FORBID THAT MY DESCENDANTS, IN THE
REMOTEST GENERATIONS, SHOULD LIVE IN ANY OTHER THAN A
COMMUNITY HAVING THE INSTITUTION OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY."

The conduct of the clergy of South Carolina, may be inferred from the following account of a great _pro_-slavery meeting, held in the city of Charleston, to denounce in the most malignant spirit, the abolitionists of the North:

(_From the Charleston Courier._)

GREAT AND IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETING.

One of the most imposing assemblages of citizens in respect
of numbers, intelligence and respectability that we have ever
witnessed, met yesterday morning at the City Hall, to receive
the report of the Committee of twenty-one, appointed by the
meeting on the 4th inst. on the incendiary machinations now
in progress against the peace and welfare of the Southern
States. THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS ATTENDED IN A BODY,
LENDING THEIR SANCTION TO THE PROCEEDINGS, AND AIDING BY
THEIR PRESENCE, TO THE IMPRESSIVE CHARACTER OF THE SCENE!

After thundering forth the most violent threats against the discussion of the subject of slavery, the meeting closed with the following resolution:

On the motion of Captain LYNCH,

"_Resolved_, That the thanks of this meeting are due to the
Reverend gentlemen of the CLERGY in this city, who have so
promptly, and so effectually, responded to public sentiment,
BY SUSPENDING THEIR SCHOOLS IN WHICH THE FREE COLORED
POPULATION WERE TAUGHT; and that this meeting deem it a
patriotic action worthy of all praise, and proper to be
imitated by other teachers of similar schools throughout the
State."

The following document will speak for itself. I commend it to the consideration of ministers of Christ throughout the world.

CHARLESTON PRESBYTERY ON SLAVERY.

Extract from the minutes of Charleston Union Presbytery, at
their meeting on the 7th of April, 1836.

With reference to the relation which the church sustains to
the institution of slavery, and the possibility of attempts
to agitate the question in the next General Assembly, this
presbytery deem it expedient to state explicitly the
principles which they maintain, and the course which will be
pursued by their commissioners in the Assembly. It is a
principle which meets the views of this body, that slavery as
it exists among us, is a political institution, with which
ecclesiastical judicatories have not the smallest right to
interfere; and in relation to which any such interference,
especially at the present momentous crisis, would be morally
wrong and fraught with the most dangerous and pernicious
consequences. Should any attempt be made to discuss this
subject, our Commissioners are expected to meet it at the
very threshold, and of any report, memorial or document,
which may be the occasion of agitating this question in any
form. And it is further expected, that our Commissioners,
should the case require it, will distinctly avow our full
conviction of the truth of the principles which we hold in
relation to this subject, and our resolute determination to
abide by them, whatever may be the issue; that it may appear
that the sentiments which we maintain, in common with
Christians at the South, of every denomination, are
sentiments which so fully approve themselves to our
consciences, are so identified with our solemn convictions of
duty, that we should maintain them under any circumstances;
and at the same time, the peculiar circumstances in which we
are placed, constitute an imperious necessity that we should
act in accordance with these principles, and make it
impossible for us to yield any thing in a matter which
concerns not merely our personal interests, but the cause of
Christ, and the peace, if not the very existence of the
Southern community.

Should our Commissioners fail of accomplishing this object,
it is expected that they will withdraw from the Assembly,
with becoming dignity; not willing to be associated with a
body of men who denounce the ministers and members of
Southern churches as pirates and men-stealers, or who
co-operate with those who thus denounce them.

In conclusion, this Presbytery would suggest to their
Commissioners the expediency of conferring with the
Commissioners from other Southern presbyteries, that there
may be a common understanding between them as to the course
most suitable to be pursued at this crisis, and on this
absorbing question. And may that wisdom which is from above,
which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be
entreated, be their guide in managing the important trust
committed to their hands.

_Resolved_, That this expression of our views be signed by
the Moderator and Clerk; that a copy be given to each of our
Commissioners to the General Assembly, and that it be
published in the Charleston Observer.

E. T. BUIST, _Moderator_.

B. GILDERSLEEVE, _Temporary Clerk_.

Resolutions of the Presbyterian Synods of South Carolina and Georgia, December, 1834.

"_Resolved unanimously_, That in the opinion of this Synod,
Abolition Societies, and the principles on which they are
founded, in the United States, are inconsistent with the best
interests of the slaves, the rights of the holders, and the
great principles of our political institutions."

The following declaration of sentiments has been published in Charleston, South Carolina, by the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society, of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church:

"We denounce the principles and opinions of the abolitionists
in toto; and do solemnly declare our conviction and belief,
that, whether they were originated, as some business men have
thought, as a money speculation, or, as some politicians
think, for party electioneering purposes, or, as we are
inclined to believe, in a false philosophy, over-reaching or
setting aside the Scriptures through a vain conceit of higher
moral refinement, they are utterly erroneous, and altogether
hurtful. We consider and believe that the Holy Scriptures, so
far from giving any countenance to this delusion, do
unequivocally authorize the relation of master and slave. We
hold that a Christian slave must be submissive, faithful and
obedient, for reasons of the same authority with those which
oblige husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sisters, to fulfil
the duties of these relations. We would employ no one in the
work who might hesitate to teach thus; nor can such an one be
found in the whole number of the preachers in this
Conference."