The voice of freedom. [volume], May 18, 1839, Image 1

About The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848

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FMEB
ALLEN &. POLANP, Publishers.
Published under the sanction of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society.
CHAUNCEY L. KNAPP, Edi J
VOLUME I.
ITIOxTIi:i,IEi:, VERMONT MAY 18, 1839.
I UMBER 1
THE YOICE
OF
OM
For to Voice of Freedom .
Mb. Editor:
Some time since I received a Newspaper from New York,
entitled " Christen Journal, Extra." I had a right to ex
pect from such ' caption, that the paper contained some mat
ter of signal importance to the Christian oommunity. But
I was surprised and mortified to find it completely filled,
and closely printed too, with a controversy between the Ex.
Committee of the Am. A. S. Society and the Board of Man'
agera of the Massachusetts A. S. Society, the gist of which
seems to lie in the question whether one party has, or has
not, been wanting in courtesy to the other. That great and
good men, associated in one of the grandest enterprizes that
ever called forth the energies of the master spirits of the
world, could be diverted from their object long enough to
preface and publish the Extra in question, that they could
appropriate the sum necessary to cover the expense, that
they could call the attention of the public, especially the
noble army who have struck for the extermination of slave
ry, and the deliverance of three millions of their coutry.
men from worse than Egyptian bondage, to a controversy so
trilling, and about which, neither party ought to have be
stowed fifteen minutes' thought, is to my mind a lieart-
ickening consideration.
My anti-slavery brethren in this region, I am sure, will
ay, " It is a dreadful leetle thing for men to contend
about." Should our Southern brethren, whom we are so
desirous of reclaiming from the sin of slaveholding, get
hold of the " Extra" I should not blame them for burning
it. It is sad to think how much the cause of Freedom might
have been advanced by the same sheet had it contained, in
stead of the worse than useless matter that fills it, an affec
tionate and earnest address to our brethren of the South,
clearly setting forth the obligation, and beseeching them
by every motive which can be drawn from Heaven, Earth
and Hell to comply with the obligation to emancipate their
slaves. Such an address Mr. Stanton, Mr. Birney, or Mr.
Leavitt is abundantly able to prepare. Let me not be sup
posed, Mr. Editor, to represent Courtesy as of small im
portance between man and man, or between different bodies
of men. Christianity, in the loveliness of its heavenly
spirit, demands it of us all in our treatment of each other.
But I beg that where a question arises whether it has been
properly observed, the parties would settle it among them
selves. Let me add that while charity is careful torender
Courtesy, she is slow to demand it of others, slow to be
lieve it has been withheld, and slow to complain when it
manifestly has been. C. WRIGHT.
For the Voice of Freedom.
Mb. Editor:
It is sometimes said that slaves are contented and hap
py. 1 am not able to form an opinion to what extent this
remark may be true, if it be true at all ; for I was never in
a slave slate, technically so called, although there is some
thing of slavery even in Vermont. I hope, however, that
the opinion that slaves are contented to remain in their
present condition, is not true, in any instance, if their con
tentment is but another name to stupidity and ignorance re
specting their natural rights. Those who make this apol
ogy for slavery, certainly do not mean by it, that slaves are
contented and happy because they are willing to submit to
cruelty and oppression upon christian principle. Such an
apology would be too palpably absurd. There seems how
ever to be various opinions relative to the question, wheth
er what is assumed in this apology be true or false. If I
may be allowed to express an opinion, where I am rather
destitute of facts to support it, I should say that I fear it is
too true, that in a multitude of instances, slaves become in
sensible to their inalienable rights, and that they feel a
contentment, at timet, like that of the well-fed ox. But
tell me not that the slave is contented and happy ! A hu
man being, held in servile bondage, deprived of the privi
leges and rights which God has given him, contented and
happy! Ah, how fallen! His oppression has subdued the
noble feelings of his nature. If he has not worn chains up
on his feet or his hands, his mind has been enchained, and
it has withered and palsied under the weight of oppression.
He has forgotten that he is a man, capable of exercising the
feelings of a human being. Tell me not, therefore, that
men are contented in their bondage, if you would convince
me that the evils of slavery are tolerable. For in no way
can you more forcibly illustrate the ruinous effects of this
cruel system. I know there is a christian submission,
which ws cannot but reverence wherever we find it. That
slave who gives his back to the smiter from christian prin
ciple is worthy of admiration. But he who has had the
nobis feelings in his soul which were placed there by his
maker, palsied instead of chastened and sanctified, is an ob
ject of pity. A man must have firmer nerves than I possess
to see human beings driven to market like brute-beasts, or
to see them cruelly goaded to their daily labour by a cruel
and insulting tusk-master. But these are merely inciden
tal evils connected with slavery, when compared with the
tu'ip of the intellectual faculties, consciousness of natural
rights and moral feelings. You may talk of whips, of
stocks, of lacerated backs, or, of the cruel rack, but do
not tell me that the slave has forgotten that he is a man.
It makes my soul sick ! It makes me tremble for my coun
try I Could we know that the slave, under all his priva
tions, maintained a lively sense of what he is and what he
may be, by walking in the fear of the Lord, we might com
miserate his condition, but our concern would be mingled
with consolation. But when we are told that he has so far
forgotten that he is a man entitled to inalienable rights as
man, the sad tale is completed and you have proved the
system to be wholly cruel without one extenuating circum
stance. H. C.
Spiritual Dignify. We hoard of a judicatory
of the church, once, that had been guilty of a ty
rannical act, towards a member who is an aboli
tionist, and it was intimated to this sufferer under
ecclesiastical Lynch law, that if he would furnish
them some nretext thev would restore him. The
man in tb simnliriiv of his heart, exclaimed, ' If
they have done wrong why do they not say so ;
what do they want a pretext for?' Oh,' said
the negotiator, it will not do for a court to retract
its steps ; they must have some pretext ; they can
not lose their spiritual dignity.' Then let them
keep it,' said the suspended brother, ' and make
the mofctof it ; I must live and die an honest man.'
Mass. Abolitionist.
To the Manufacturers, Mechanics, and Labor
ers of the V. States.
CONCLUDED.
Third. Slavery is inimical to liberty from the
pernicious influences it exerts upon the moral sen
timents oj slaveholders themselces.
Take for example the following proofs :
Chancellor Harper, of S. C. in an address de
livered before a literary society in S. Carolina as
serts
' It is'the order of nature and of God, that the
being of superior faculties and knowledge, and
therefore of superior power, should control and
dispose of those who are inferior; it is as much
in the order of nature that men should enslave
each other, as that animals should prey upon each
other.
Hence, we may infer the reason why those pos'
sessing the power deem it necessary to prevent as
much as possible the acquisition of knowledge on
the part of those subjected to their control, lest
they should become troublesome chattels. A prao
tical commentary is furnished us, in the fact that
in a majority of the slaveholding States, there ex
ist severe penal laws prohibiting the laboring clas
ses irom acquiring the knowledge ol letters, or
the art of reading. It will be observed, in - the
above abominable sentiment of a Southern Judge,
no allusion is made to color as constituting a bar
rier to the encroachments of tyranny. In fact that
distinction, if it ever did exist, is fast fading; away
in that polluted region, under the operations of a
system that places the children of the same father
in the incongruous and unnatural relation of mas-
ter'and slave, and that mingles the worst pas
sions of human nature with the ties of blood.
They have become so accustomed to the spectacle
ot white slaves that they contemplate Northern
operatives (the farmers and mechanics of the free
States) in any other light than as the legitimate
property of the capitalist, tone bought, and work
ed, and flogged, and sold at the will and pleas'
ure oi the master.
Governor McDuflie, in his annual message to
tne legislature ot South Carolina, a little more
than two years ago, said :
lNo community ever existed without domestic
servitude, and we may confidently assert none
ever will. In the very nature of things there must
be classes of persons to discharge all the differ
ent offices of society, from the highest to the low
est. Some of these offices are regarded as de
grading, though they must and will be perform
ed. When these offices are performed by members
of the political community, A DANGEROUS
ELEMENT IS OBVIOUSLY INTRODU
CED INTO THE BODY POLITIC. . . .
It will be fortunate for the non-slaveholding states,
if they are not, IN LESS THAN A QUARTER
Ub A CiSNTUKY, driven to the adoption of a
SIMILAR INSTITUTION, fslavery,! or to take
refuge from robberv and anarchy under a militarv
despotism. ... In a word the institution of
domestic slavery supersedes the necessity oj an or
der of nobility. (! !)
We do not find here, either, any allusion to col
or, on the contrary the laborers of the North are
pointed out as fitting subjects for the slave trader.
" A dangerous element," according to this high
functionary, is introduced into the body politic,
when they are permitted to be represented or be
come members of a community. These are not
the opinions of a solitary individual, they were
responded to by the Legislature of South Caroli
na, and are held in common by the leading poli
ticians and statesmen of the South. One of them
told Senator Morris (see his letter to the trustees
of the Pennsylvania Hall) that it was ' one of the
unchangeable laws of Providence that one man
should live upon the labor of another, and that
American slavery was the best modification ol
that unalterable decree."
Mr. Leigh, in the Virginia Convention of 1829,
said :
" There- must be some peasantry j and as the
country fills up, there must be more that is, men
who tend the herds and dig the soil, who have
neither real nor personal capital of their own, and
who earn their daily bread by the sweat ot their
The following advertisements, extracted from Southern
papers, will serve to snow the working ol the system at
the south, and give us an insight into that contemplated to
embrace the laborer of the North.
GiJEAT BARGAINS, SPLENDID PJ?OPEi?TY ON
LONG CREDIT.
A full set of FliJST i?ATE MECHANICS,
a large stock of horses, mules, &c. H. STIDGEi?.
Vicksburg, (Mi.) .Register, Sept. 26, 1836.
HlOR SALE, a MAN, who is well acquainted with run
JL ning a steam saw mill. Those wishing to obtain so
valuable a boy, &c. THO. H. MEAittLL.
North Alabama, Tuscumbia, May II, 1838.
WANTED to purchase two first rats SEAMSTRES
SES, not over 22 years of age. Apply to
DOUGLASS & PHILPOT.
Mobile Morning Chronicle, June 8, 1838.
Here a mother and child are advertised to be sold ' sep
arately' or in lots.'
WILL bs sold at Public Auction, without reserve, El
liott, 35 years of age, Tom, 14 years of age, yel
low, Claring, 17 years of age, with child, born Aug. 17,
1837, Charlotte, 19 years of age, Alahaly, 31 years of age.
Will be sold together, or separately, in lots to -suit pur
chasers.
F. II. DOLBEAiJE k co. Auctioneers.
Enquirer, Columbus, Geo. May 24, 1838.
Osffe DOLLARS i?EVAi?D. fan away, a man nam-
&fel Hambleton, li mps in his left foot, where he had
beon shot but a few weeks ago, while running; away.
THOMAS I1UDNALL.
Vicksburg .Register, June 13, 1838.
n UiNAWAY , Mary a black woman, has a scar on her
JL wback and right arm near the shoulder, caused by a
.Rifle Wall. ASA 15. METUALF.
Southern Argus, Columbus, (Mi) June S, 1838.
If you imagine your complexion will secure you and
your children from being the subjects of similar advertise
ments, read the following from tin Iew Orleans Joee.
DETAINED in jail, MARIA, p.et ending herself free,
round face, CLEAR WHITE, complexion. The
owner of said slave, &c.
r. BAYHI, Captain of the Watch.
New Orleans Bee, C3My 18111.
The following phrases are all copied from advertisements
of PROPERTY.
Stevedore, boat hand, carpenter, drayman, eartma, axe
man, sawyer, cartor, butcher, farmer, seamstress, oIer,
washer and ironer, coachman, cooper, blacksmith, gardihr,
driver, bricklayer, steamboat fueman, saddler, tearnsie
brow. J ask gentlemen to say, whether then be
lieve that those who depend on their daily subsist
ence, can or do ever enter into our political affairs?
THEY NEVER DO, NEVER WILL, NEVER
CAN."
Professor Dew, of William and Mary College
in Virginia, speaks of slavery in the following
impious strain :
" I would say, then, let cherish this institu
tion which has been built up by no sin of ours
Let us cleave to it as the ARK OF OUR SAFE
TY. Expediency, morality, and RELIGION
alike demand its continuance; and perhaps
would not hazard too much in the prediction, that
the day will come when the "whole Confederacy
will regard it as the sheet anchor of our country s
t" m n m f a -
LW&K. l x." Again he says :
' Domestic slavery, such as ours, is the only in
stitution which I know of, that can secure the
spirit of equality among freemen, i. e. among the
aristocracy, so necessary to the true and genuine
leeling ot republicanism, without propelling the
body politic at the. same tune into the dangerous
vices ot agrananism, and legislative intermeddling
between the laborer and the capitalist. The oc
cupations which we follow, necessarily and una
voidably create distinctions in society, lo sav
tnat all corner equal honor, if well followed even,
is not true. THE HIRELINGS WHO PER
FORM ALL THE MENIAL OFFICES OF
LIFE, WILL NOT AND CANNOT BE
TREATED AS EQUALS BY THEIR EM
PLOYERS. And those who stand ready to ex
ecute all our commands, no matter what they may
be, for mere pecuniary reward, cannot feel them
selves equal to ICT'US in reality, however
much their reason may be bewildered by the
voice of sophistry." Professor D. then goes on
to denounce ' universal suffrage in a State where
there are no slaves.'
" rolitical power fat the South! is thus taken
from the hands of those-who might abuse it, and
placed in the hands of those who are most inter
ested in its judicious exercise, i. e. the slavehold
ing tyrants. HU W (JAN HE GET WISDOM
THAT HOLDETH THE PLOUGH, THAT
DRIVETH OXEN AND IS OCCUPIED IN
THE LABORS, AND WHOSE TALK IS OF
BULLOCKS ? ... But whilst the politi
cal effects of our social system are so perfectly
beneficial, the moral effects are no less striking
and advantageous (!!) I have no hesitation in af
firming that the relation between the capitalist and
laborer in the South, is kinder and more produc
tive of genuine attachment, than exists between
the same classes any where else on the globe (!!)
Free from that constant feeling of insecurity,
that continually haunts the poor man of other
countries, he moves on in the round of his ex
istence, contented and happy."
Fourth. Slavery is dangerous to political lib
erty from the pernicious injlueuce it exerts in the
national council.
Educated as slaveholders are to look upon labor
as a servile employment, belonging to the igno
rant and degraded, and considering themselves as
born to command ; the wealthy among them cul
tivate exclusively those arts which will enabl
them most effectually to exercise an influence over
their lellow men, and increase their power. Does
not the history of our government furnish a mel
ancholy proof with what success they have cult
vated those arts ? The unequal representation in
our government, obtained in its organization by
the pro tier of a bonus, (a taxation proportionate)
which they subsequently eluded paying, is the
hrst proot and one in point; not content with this
they have doubled the number of slave Slates
and thus increased their uniust representation.
And although yet in the minority on the floor o
Congress, the South may be said to rule the na
tion, for, she has carried every important measure
in her own way. Even the constitution itself op
poses no barrier to the accomplishment of her
wishes, her thirst lor dominion. Witness the ac
quisition of Louisiana and Florida, (and her more
recent attempts to add that of Texas,) the embar
go the late war the violation of Indian treaties
the tariff and its repeal, and more recently the
uAU Resolutions ol Mr. ratton, forced upon the
House without permitting debate, by the mandate
of the Convention of Southern members: The
adoption (in substance) of Mr. Calhoun's RpsoIu'
tions in the Senate : Ihe indefinite postpone
ment or rejection, by the same body, of Mr. Mor
ris' and Mr. Smith's Resolutions in favor of free
dom of speech and of the press; the Resolution
of Charles G. Atherton, the Northern assassin of
liberty, introduced at her bidding, on the 12th of
Dec. last.
When the constitution provided for the repre
sentation of slaves, it was alleged that the South
had not her share of power in the Senate, and that
slavery would soon cease. Now, when 4,000,000
free inhabitants of the South have the same pow
er in the Senate with 7,000,000 at the North, the
people of the South have 24 representatives for
their ' property.' In 1833, 3,797,577 free inhabi
tants of the slave States had the same power in
Congress as 5,854,133 free inhabitants of the free
States, i. e. 2 at the South overbalanced 3 at the
North, and this disproportion constantly increases
Thus we give them power over us as a bounty
on slaveholding.
If Northern freemen were as Inrgely represent
ed as Southern slaveholders were in 1833, 4,525,-
879 inhabitants would be entitled to our whole
power in Congress, thus leaving 2,450,905 virtu
ally UNREPRESENTED, a population which
at the average of Southern representation, would
be entitled to 15 Senators, and 63 Representatives. t
Ihe etiect in all questions where freedom and sla
very come in collision, is the same as if all New
England and Ohio were unrepresented ! ! !
of the
of
Like a horse in a bark-mill.
24 1
tThe power of the North in 1833 was of
141 261 48 2
Senate, & of the House, of the whole power
210 480
Congress, while by the census of 1830, the North had
810
more than of the free population. At the same time
480 219
the power of the South was while her free population
170 480
This inequality is still to be made greater by
the admission ot rlorida as a slave State, altho
none will pretend that she could be included in
the alleged compromise.
ramiuar wi'.h injustice- and oppression irom
their infancy, slaveholders are disqualified to ap-
fireciate the lorce ot moral obligations in their po
itical as well as social relations, and consequent
ly trample the rights of others under foot.
We will not now quote those newspaper para
graphs which have asserted that ' the people at
the North must HANG ABOLITIONISTS in
order to preserve southern trade,' or that ' public
opinion at the South would justify Southern mem
bers of Congress in DRAGGING from their floor'
an ex-President of the United States, or that any
man who should presume to speak to the slave
holders on the immorality of slavery, 'in that
same moment should have his tongue cut out and
cast upon a dung-hill.' Let those things go for
their value. We take official documents.
The following is extracted from resolutions
' agreed to by both houses of the Virginia Legis-
ature, eb. lb, letfo.'
. " Resolved, That the non-slaveholding States
are respectfully but earnestly requested prompt
ly to adopt. PENAL. ENACTMENTS, or such
measures as will EFFECTUALLY SUPPRESS
ALL associations within their respective limits,
purporting to be, or having the character of, nbo-
ltion societies."
The following is from resolutions ' read three
times and ratified in General Assembly' of N. C,
Uec. 19, laya.
"Resolved, That our sister States are respect
fully requested to enact PENAL LAWS, prohib
iting the PRINTING within their respective lim-
ts ALL such publications asMAi have a 1EI-
DENCY to make our slaves discontented."
The following is from resolutions 'unanimously
adopted by both branches of the South Carolina
Legislature, Dec. lb, IbSo.
"Resolved, That the Legislature of South
Carolina, having every confidence in the justice
and friendship ot the non-slaveholding States,
ANNOUNCES her CONFIDENT EXPECT
ATION, and she earnestly requests that the gov
ernments of these States will promptly and EF
FECTUALLY SUPPRESS ALL those associa
tions within their respective limits purporting to
be abolition societies," &c. &c.
From resolutions adopted ' unanimously' by the
Legislature of Georgia.
" Resolved, That it is deeply incumbent on the
people of the North to CRUSH ihe traitorous de
signs of the abolitionists.
From resolutions of Alabama Legislature, Jan.
7, 1S36.
" Resolved, That we call upon our sister States,
and Tespectfully reqiiest them to enact such PE
NAL LAWS as will finally PUT AN END to
the malignant deeds of the abolitionists."
The spirit which dictated these resolutions will
not rest satisfied until the all-grasping; spirit of
slavery has swallowed up all rights except the
right claimed by the strong and the cunning to
traffic in the bodies and souls of the weak and ig'
norant.
Political liberty, it would seem by their vocab
ulary, consists in enslaving their fellow men ih
robbery of the poor as one of their inalienabl
rights ; and the bare discussion of those subjects.
by the citizens of the non-slaveholding States,
gross mlraction, or in their own language, ' an in
vasion of their vested rights that must be silenc
ed and put down,' in the dignified language of
Mr. Wise, ' with cold steel and Du Foul's best.'
From the foregoing it must be obvious that in
stitutions so at variance with each other as are
those of the North and the South, cannot long co
above all, let us imbue the minds of our elf
with a just abhorrence of the occupation f
man-stealer, that when they'come to take o
ces on the stage of active life, they may cai
our principles with zeal and efficiency
ISAAC J IERCE, i
John W. Hill, J
CoMMvn
laundress, porter, tailor, cabin boy, wagoner, pilot, mid-,wli loss than of the whole.
wife, plaitcr, child's nursn, cook. 1 480
exist under the same general government. W
have seen with what strides the demon of oppres
sion has advanced upon us. The foul leprosy
which the framcrs of the constitution clearly saw
was so repugnant to its fundamental principles
that they refused to name it ; under the delusive
expectation that it would soon be banished by the
force of truth and justice, has been extended by
their recreant sons, and the oUU.UUU victims have
increased to 2,SOO,000, seven new slave States
have been added to the Confederacy, with a terri
tory of 16,000 square miles, larger than that of
all the free States.
We have witnessed the arrogant and tyranni
cal encroachments of its advocates and supporters,
threatening to ingulph every vestige of liberty
Thank heaven, the dormant spirit of liberty has
been awakened in the North its faithful watch'
men have sounded the alarm no one who has
watched the signs of the times can doubt for a
moment that the struggle has commenced. A cri
sis is approaching in which one or the other must
obtain the ascendancy. We have a deep interest
at stake in the conflict. We have seen that south
ern statesmen now defend slavery on the ground
that the colored race are the legitimate property
of the white but that laborers are rightfully the
property of the capitslist. How soon and in what
manner this conflict must terminate must depend
in a great measure upon the yeomanry and me
chanics of the free States the numerical power is
with us we have yet a majority of members on
the floor of Congress, provided they were faithful
and true to our interest. If we are united in our
efforts and unflinching in purpose, the victory will
be ours. Not a victory of blood obtained by the
sword, the musket and the bayonet, the instru
ments so often invoked by the dealers in human
flesh both in and out of Congress, but by the
peaceable and constitutional instrumentality of the
ballot box.
" That weapon that comes down as still
As snow flakes fall upon the sod,
But exocutes a freeman's will
As lightning does the will of God."
Finally brethren, we have only to will, that here
the proud waves of Southern arrogance shall be
staid, and it is done. Let us firmly resolve not
to sunnoit anv man as a candidate for any office
j . i i i
or station, nossessmff influence in me decision oi
the important question, be his other qualifications
what they may, who is not the unequivocal, un
compromising advocate of equal rights. Let us
worship at no altar, enter no temple where he who
officiates as minister is the apologist of oppres
sion. Let us abstainas much as possible from abov
the use of the prodtKtof unreiiijr"' M'-' ''XtMh
Ecclesiastical Action. !
We extract the following excellent remark
the subject of ecclesiastical action, from the fd
annual report of the Maine Anti-Slavery Soct
" The evils of slavery in a political and
nomical point of view, enormous a3 they are
utterly insignificant, when compared with 't
of a moral and religious nature. The Commi
cannot therefore but regard with deep interest
movements of the different religious bodies in
lation to the cause of the slave
It cannot for a moment be doubted, that it is
the power of the Southern Church, understandii
by. this expression the great body of professei.
christians at the South, to bring about the speedy
termination of Slavery. We speak not in exag-,
gerated terms when we say, that the Southern
Church holds in her hands the keys of the great f
prison house of American bondage. She may,
when she pleases, open the doors, break the chains
of the captives, bring them out to the glorious
light of day, and restore them to the sweets of I
liberty and to all the immunities and privileges of f
the free. "'. 1
The solitary individual, who may, at the South;. '
bear his testimony against its giant iniquity, may s
be laughed down as a poor deluded fanatic, as a '
miserable specimen of moon-struck humanity; or .
he may be subjected to the inflictions of the cods
Lynch ; or, in accordance with Senator Preston's -murderous
threat, be hung upon the gallows. '
But this cannot be done with the whola church.
Let the great mass of professed Christians at the
South or any one of the leading denominations, l
awake to the discharge of duty ; let those who
minister at the altar cry aloud and spare not; let
them lift up tliair voice as a trumpet to warn the
people of their great transgression ; let the pri
vate members enforce their teachings by a consis
tent example and the deathblow to "slavery is
struck. In this view of the subject, the actual po
sition of the southern church in reference to tho
enslaved, becomes a matter of deep and solemn
interest. And how mournful the spectacle here
presented ! The great body of the church pollu
ted with the very sin it ought to reprove ! The
southern church hugging closely and more close
ly still, to her bosom, the putrid carcass that, by
her own confession, is sickening and destroying
her! She that could be a light to others, herself
the source of darkness! she that should be the
teacher of others, herself the blind leader of the
blind ! she that should be a fountain of purity
and life, the noxious communicator of moral pes
tilence and death !
As a general fact, southern church members are
holders of slaves. Yea, even from their own
brethren in Christ, they withhold the lamp of life,
deny them marriage as a legal right, consign
them over to concubinage or indiscriminate pros
titution, sell for gain the image of their Lord, and
make merchandize of the purchase of his blood.
Says the Rev. James Smylie of Mississippi, him
self a Rev. defender of slavery, If the buying,
selling or holding a slave for the sake of gain is
a heinous sin and scandal, then verily, three fourths
of all the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists,
and Presbyterians in eleven Slates of the Union
are of the devil. They hold, if they do not buy
and sell slaves.'
Southern christians and christian ministers
stand in the front rank of ihe apologists of slave
ry, side by side, with the Calhouns, the Harpers,
the McDuffies of the South. They come out in
public, with the Bible in their hands for its de
fence. They torture the writings of prophets and
apostles in its support, and blasphemously charge
the sanctioning this mystery of iniquity, this mon
strous system of outrage and. wrong, upon Him
whose express command is, ' to loose the bands of
wickedness, lo undo the heavy burdens, to let the
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.'
Openly and unblushingly, is the doctrine now
taught by Southern christians, in accordance it is
feared with the general sentiment of the churches,
that there is no moral evil in slavery, no moral
evil in a system which darkens intellect, destroys
responsibility, efiaces the image of uod lrom the
soul, and pollutes all that are connected with it !
Thus, so far from exerting an influence for the de
struction of slavery, the Southern church has be
come its main pillar and support.
Ihe truth of these allegations may be estab
lished by the most indubitable testimony. We
omit the sickening details however, with a few ex
ceptions by way of illustration.
ihe Rev. J. C Postell in an address to the
citizens of Orangeburg, S.C. draws the following
conclusions, viz :
" From what has been premised, the following
conclusions result : 1. That slavery is a judicial
visitation. 2. That it is not a moral evil. 3.
That it is supported by the Bible. 4. It has ex-
sted in all ages It is not a moral evil. Ihe lact
that slavery is a Divine api'ointment, would be
proof enough with the Christian that it cannot be
a moral evil. So far from being a moral evil; it
is a merciful visitation. It is the Lord's doing
and marvellous in our eyes.
The Charleston Union Presbytery,
Resolved, That in the opinion of this Presbyte
ry, the holding of slaves, so far from being sin in
the sight of God, is no where condemned in his.
Holy Word that it is in accordance with the ex-
ample, or consistent with the precepts of patri
archs, prophets and apostles.
Ihe Harmony Presbytery ot South Carolina,
passed unanimously the following among other
resolutions :
Ifesolved, That as the relative duties of master
and slave are taught in the Scriptures, in the
same manner as those of parent and child, and
husband and wife, the existence of slavery itself
is not opposed to the will of God ; and whosoever
as a conscience too tender to recognize the; vnai
tion as lawful, is-' righuou owrrnjaji-., ,..
above what iJwrienou nii-
-4?