The voice of freedom. [volume], May 25, 1839, Image 1

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

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THE
VOICE
ALLEN &. POLAND, Publishers. Published under the sanction of the Vermont Jlnti-Slavery Society. CHAUNCEY L. KNAPP, E'ditou. '
VOLUME I. MOATPELIER, VEKlTIOMT, !fSr 23, 1839. NUMBER SK
TOUOil IF gIBIBISIPCPEgo
For the Voice of Freedom,
wim. Annual nnnrt of the Board of Man
agcrs of the Anti-Slaverjr Society of Ferris
burgh and Vicinity.
CONCLUDED.
Thl rhnno-e in the nublic feeling towards the
abolitionists has been the means of bringing some
- mnl-s ivhnsp subseaucnt conduct nas
mnni'fasted that their motives were iar diileren
fmm those which nctuated the pioneers in the
cause. The latter had been enabled to overleap
all sectarian party-lines, and to unite with each
other in terms of the mast entire confidence and
harmony, on one common ground of humanity
they had but one condition to their terms of com
munion a deep conviction of the sin of slavery
and but one test of their worthiness of member
ship a persevering application of ajl the means
Rnnptinnod hv lnur. hnmnnitv flnH rpliffinn fnr its
immediate overthrow:- leaving each individua
to the free exercise of his own judgment and con
science, to determine what course was consistent
for him to persue in accordance with his views
of these obligations. Whilst the former were
constantly in jealous anxiety lest the peculiar
views of some prominent abolitionists, on subjects
totally disconnected with our common cause, should
come in collision with their favorite creed. It is to
be remarked that the abolition enterprize neither
originated with the clergy, nor has it as yet had
their support ; but with a few exceptions.it has
met either their paralyzing neglect or their active
opposition. Une reason for their thus standing
aloof from the enterprize, is to be found in the fact
that it originated with an individual then in ob
scure life, who had never received the honors of
a theological seminary nor even of a New Eng.
land College: but who had thoroughly investi
gated the whole system of slavery ; and having
himself experienced something of the cruelties of
its spirit, he was prepared to sympathize with the
crushed victims of its power ; and beholding the
indifference and apathy of nearly the whole na
tion on the subject, he felt called upon to speak out
in strong and startling language, in great plainness
of rebuke, declaring the northern apologist to be
equally guilty with the southern slaveholder, and
censuring with deserved seventy those prolessed
ministers of the Gospel who studiously avoid ma
king any appeals in behalf of the heathen of our
country, whilst they manliest great zeal lor those
of all other lands.
Another reason why the clergy have so gener
ally opposed the Anti-Slavery cause, is, they had
nearly all, of every denomination, committed them
selves in favor of the Colonization Society. They
had preached and taken up collections in its be
half; and many of them had made laudatory
speeches at its anniversaries ; and now, to see it
denounced as an enemy to the colored race, and
its great schemes of professed benevolence called
in question, and that too by a mere mechanic, was
more than they could complacently bear. Hence
the hue and cry about the harsh language and the
reckless spirit of the abolitionists, and especially
the editor of the Liberator; and hence, since the
cause of abolition has become more popular, has
the demand been reiterated from those who have
thus stood aloof from the struggle, " Change your
leaders," "soften your measures," "DISMISS
GARRISON from your ranks, and you will have
all the clergy of New England with you." And
it is painful to add, that a disposition has been too
plainly indicated, by some in our ranks, to respond
to this demand. The notorious Clerical Appeals,
and more recent demonstrations from the same
quarter, are instances of this kind.
This brief and imperfect sketch of the progress
of the Anti-Slavery cause is given, in order to a
right understanding of our present position. We
have arrived at a crisis in which it is of the utmost
importance that we should have frequent recur
rence to our fundamental principles, and to the
original terms of our union that, casting aside all
sectarian and party jealousies, and cherishing the
utmost indulgence to the conscientious scruples of
all our brethren and sisters, we may continue with
all the force of our united and harmonious labors,
to urge onward the glorious car of freedom, that
none of our strength may be wasted in striving to
pull each other down from the eminence they may
have justly earned ; but that now, when so much
needed, it may all be expended to the best account
for the furtherance of our single object the peace
ful redemption of the slave.
The discussion of the principles 'and measures
of the abolitionists, which, for the last few years,
has agitated almost every corner of our country,
has brought into vigorous exercise and qualified
for usefulness hundreds and thousands of minds,
which without some occasion would have remain
ed like the marble in the quarry, or the bright
gems which the " dark unfathomed caves of ocean
bear."
A multitude of men and women of respectable
talents, and some of superior minds, have by this
means been raised up and trained for moral war
fare, who would otherwise have continued to pur
sue the smooth and even tenor of their way, con
tent to take for truth the creeds of their forefathers
or the dogmas of their spiritual guides ; without
ever being at the pains to investigate any princi
ple of morals for themselves, or the foundation of
any of their social or civil obligations ! The free
and unreserved investigation of the question of
slavery, and the irresistible conclusions to which
such investigation has led, contrary to the time
honored theories of slaveholding divinity, and in
opposition to the publicly avowed sentiment of a
large proportion of those classes whose opinion
had long been regarded as law, and their judg
ment as infallible, have necessarily induced a hab
it of independent inquiry on other subjects ; and
it mnv now be regarded as one of the most auspi-
nf ihp times, that the public mind is be
coming more prone to individual examination of
11 cnK not nrpsented to US nonce anu insieau 01
receiving for doctrines the commandments of men,
tA Virinnr nvprv flliPStlOn of morality and religion
in iht. Inst of free discussion, before the tribunal of
reason, scripture and the sure teachings of the
Holy Spirit. , .
Another improvement of the age, for which we
are indebted to the discussions on moral subjects
which have been carried on for the last few years,
and especially to the discussion of human rights,
is, the disposition to carry principles out to their
legitimate results. Honest men are no longer sat-
isnea to acknowledge m theory the truth of a
great moral principle, or a self-evident proposition,
and in practice to give it a flat denial. The whole
strength of our warfare against slavery lies in the
simple proposition that all men are morally bound
to carry out in practice the truth of the Declara
tion of Independence, that " all men are created
equal" and the plain and positive requirements of
the UUbriiilj and love our neighbor as our
selves, and to do to others as ive would that they
should do to us. When men and women have
been trained in such a school as that which the
Anti-Slavery enterprize has furnished, and have
fully realized the power and efficacy of the prin
ciples which it has taught ; when they have stood
up, and m the face of those to whom they had
been accustomed to look as their superiors and
guides, have advocated the correctness and dem
onstrated the truth of those principles when they
have seen the folly and the error of depending up
on others for instruction, without exercising their
own powers ot mind ; in snort wnen tney nave
accustomed themselves to refer all their actions to
the test of examination and the scrutiny of con
science, and to yield willing obedience to its die-
tates, it is in vain to attempt to restrain them in
the exercise of their moral and intellectual facu
ties, or to dictate to them any code of morals, (
any course ot action, which will not Dear the test
ot their own investigations, and meet the appro
bation of conscience.
The unparalleled success which has attended
the efforts of the modern abolitionists, must be at
tributed, in a great measure, to the fact that, at th
commencement of the enterprize, their principles
embraced the whole ground necessary to be occu
pied in order to accomplish the object they had tn
view.
The doctrines of Immediate Emancipation, first
asserted by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and subse
quently set forth by the American Anti-Slavery
Convention, simple and self-evident as they are
comprehend the entire ground of controversy,
which has since been so vigorously maintained
between their advocates and the defenders of sla
very.
indeed they constitute the elements of all ra1
tional liberty. Unlike the apostles of some other
great moral enterpnzes, abolitionists have never
had to spend their energies in the arduous andun
profitable work of re-con verting their brethren, or
of raising their standard above the position which
it at first occupied. But fixed and immovable as
are our principles, the measures, which are the re
suit of those principles, have with propriety been
varied according as a change of circumstances has
indicated the utility of assigning to one or anoth
er a greater or less degree of prominency. Hence
the removing of obstacles thrown in our way by
tne colonization society ; me uniocicing oi meet
ng-house
doors, closed against us by timid
or
mercenary hirelings, or bigoted sectarians : the
maintaining of the right of free discussion, and a
free press, in the face of lawless and brutal mobs
the right to an equal privilege of the United States
mail ; the right of petition : church action, and
political action, these and many other measures
ave, each in their turn, demanded and obtained
liferent degrees of attention, at different times
and in different sections, as the interests of the
cause seemed to require. It is not surprising that
n an association like that of the American Anti
Slavery Society and its auxiliaries, embracing men
and women of almost all complexions, creeds and
parties, extending over a wide spread territory.
and requiring but one test of communion, there
should be a great diversity of sentiment on many
collateral questions, and on the degree ot impor
tance which should be attached to ainerent meas
ures in order to accomplish the result the over
throw of slavery.
W hilst one. believing that the system ot south
ern slavery is mainly upheld by the support of
orthern churches, and therelore, that church ac
tion is the all important weapon to be wieiaea
... ii 1
gainst it, may be zealously engaged in trying to
ose a 1 the northern miinits against the slave
holding minister, and to exclude the slaveholding
professor from the northern communion tables, an
other equally confident that the ballot box is the
most effectual instrument for its abolishment, may
be as actively employed in enforcing the duty of
all consistent abolitionists, who go to tne pons, to
remember there the bond-men as bound with them
In these diversities of views and corresponding
action, there need be no contention among breth
ren indeed there will be none, so long as we all
keep in view the original conditions of our asso.
ciation. and are content that each should work in
his own way to discharge his duty to the slave
so long as he does not by one act nullify his other
labors in his behalf and so long as all strive to
maintain that spirit of chanty without which all
our professions are but as sounding brass or a
tinkling svmbal.
Let us then strive to walk together in love. To
labor yet a little a longer, with the full assurance
that if we faint not we shall reap an abundant re
ward.
Rowland T. Robinson, Sec'y.
At the Annual Meeting of the A. S. S. of Fer-
risburgh and vicinity, held 15th 3d month, 1839,
Voted, unanimously, that the Annual Report,
just read by the late Secretary, be adopted and of
fered for publication in the Voice of Freedom, Vt.
Telegraph, Vergennes Vermonter, and Zion's
Watchman.
Nicholas Guindon, President,
Henry Miles, Secretary.
Conscience Speaking out. A learned man in
this country, who has written a lime argument
which many of his readers consider as an attempt
to defend American slavery, or at least to apolo
gize for the " institution," and who has in various
ways refrained rather obstinately, from beingon the
side of the oppressed recently, after a conversation
with an anti-slavery lecturer, which was conducted
on both sides with good temper, remarked to him,
" you are right in your principles after all." In
deed ! And why has not this erudite ecalesiastic
had moral courage to say so publicly? Why! Be
cause he stands committed that's all. Mass. Abo.
Abstract of the Sixth Annual Report
OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN
ANTI SLAVERY SOCIETY.
In presenting the sixth Annual RpJtft, the Ex-
! . . r . r ' ' it . c
ecuuve committee oi uie American, Anu-Diavery
Society congratulate the friends of free institutions
that the doctrine of IMMEDIATE EMANCI
PATION is now established on a basis from which
it cannot be dislodged, either by the malice of its
enemies or the unfaithfulness of its friends. What
a few years ago was wild, visionary and danger
ous, is now mere sober sense and common hones
ty. While the human advocates of liberty have
been arguing the safety of immediate disenthral
ment, (from the known principles of our common
nature) God, in his blessed providence, has work
ed out the problem by the liberation from bondage
of oUU,UUU slaves. Ihe present year has seen
the keystone of the divine argument placed in its
eternal home.
The organization of, societies has extended it
self during the year by the addition of JU4 new
societies, making, in addition to the 1346 reported
last year, a total of 16o0.
The number of presses open to the discussion
of the subject of slavery or avowedly advocating
the freedom of the slaves, has greatly increased
during the year. There are now nine weekly,
one semi-monthly and four monthly papers main
ly if not exclusively devoted to abolition. Aside
from gratituitous distribution, those papers circu
late to subscribers upwards of 25,000 copies per
week, and receive a support from subscriptions to
the amount of at least $40,000 per annum.
The report of the Treasurer shows the receipts
during the year to be $47,280 74, being more than
the previous year by $4,356 15.
While this sum has been expended by the Na
tional Society, the State Societies have continued
their operations, and several of them have very
much increased their expenditures and their effi
ciency. That of New York, especially, has
made efforts worthy of the State. Though the
cause, thus divided by State action, does not pre
sent so commanding a front as if all its resources
were concentrated in the national association, it is
perhaps not less dangerous to the dominion of
slavery. Those separate institutions powerfully
provoke each other to ' love and good works,' and
the forgers of chains have little peace to hope for
while this rivalry continues.
Ihe publications ol the society during the year
have been as folfows :
Emancipator 213,120
Human Rights, 148.S00
Circulars and Prints, 38,460
Bound Volumes, 19,958
Tracts, 93,875
Pamphlets, 210,639
Total
724,862
The committee have felt the importance of re
vealing to the neoDle of the free States the actual
condition of the slaves, as slaveholders have exten
sively succeeded in persuading them that it is bet
ter in tact than in law. . 1 he difficulty of the at
tempt is obvious. The gibbets announced by Mr.
Preston in the Senate of the United States, stand
up to deter observers, and to prove that the dispo
sition to conceal the real character of the system
is not less than the facility with which it may be
effected. Slaveholding hospitality presents a still
more formidable obstacle. Men who in a strange
land find themselves lodged fed and flattered with
the most unstinted liberality, are little disposed to
inquire at whose expense they are entertained.
At the well spread table of the slaveholders, the
eyes of witnesses are blinded as well as their
mouths stopped. Yet the truth may be found by
digging sufficiently deep. The labor of holding
a grand inquest on the actual condition of the
slaves has been committed to hands most singu
arly well qualified for the task, and the result is a
work upon the subject which defies incredulity.
Out of the mouths of slaveholders themselve
they are convicted of treating in the most bruta
manner the millions whom they have made brutes
in law. And to their testimony is added that of a
multitude of persons who have long resided at the
South, with the best opportunities to understand
the working of its ' peculiar institutions.' The
committee respectfully entreat the public to exam
ine this mass ol testimony, pledging themselves to
set aside any of it which can be proved to be
false. If the great mass of it cannot be set aside
slavery must be, or the days of the nation are
numoerea ana nnisneu. u u oe true, our country
is a wine-press of wrath, and the blood ot oppres
sion has risen to the horse bridles.
It is with gratitude to God that the committee
refer to the final triumph of truth and justice
over slavery in the Untish colonies. Divine
Providence seems to have conducted British eman
cipation with a vievv to furnish the strongest pos
sible refutation of all the theories which conflict
with the duty of immediate abolition. It has not
only proved immediate liberation to be safe, but
preparation to he both needless and impracticable.
t has shown that black laborers, so far from be
coming a nuisance by being made free, are con
idered as highly valuable or rather absolutely
necessary to the communities in which they re
side, thus teaching us to dispense with all concern
about their colonization. Finally, it has begun to
set us up an example of the white and black races
ving together in peace as well as freedom, even
where the latter greatly preponderates.
Ill did the friends of slavery calculate the con
sequences, when they essayed by brutal violence
to drive George Thompson from our shores. But
for his agitation from city to city throughout the
United Kingdom, the apprentices might still have
groaneu unaer tneir oia yoke with a new name,
with little prospect that the first of August, 1840,
would find strength enough to shout in the jubi
lee. To his eloquence and untiring zeal, added
to the self-denying labors of Joseph Sturge and
is associates, the world is indebted for this most
blessed of victories.
It is fortunate for immediatism that the British
Government perversely refused to abolish the sys
tem by a direct act of Parliament. The act which
they were obliged to pass, and beyond which, by
a small majority, they obstinately refused to go,
only required of the planters a faithful fulfilment
f the conditions of the apprenticeship. Their
refusal tp accept such a law, and preference of di
rect emancipation, shows both that the design
the apprenticeship had been perverted, and that it
was practically absurd, between wages and th
whip as motives to labor, there is no intermediate
stage.
Many of the West India planters, but especial
ly the hired managers and attorneys of absentee
proprietors, have submitted to the necessity
emancipation with a very ill grace, and have en
deavored to make freedom more intolerable than
slavery, by refusing adequate wages and extqrting
exorbitant rent. Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor
of Jamaica, said to a public assembly of planters
auornies ana managers in tne island, iou are
anxious to produce a panic to reduce the value o
property; to create dismay in order that you may
speculate. It was not denied. Mere we have
the origin of those evil reports which seem so
much to the taste of most of our editors. That,
notwithstanding all, abolition has worked well for
all the parties concerned is as clear as the sun
at noon in an unclouded sky. Real estate has
risen in all the colonies, and sales have been made
at great advances upon the prices asked six
months betore emancipation. Crime has dimin
ished. In Barbadoes, the punishments for all de
scriptions of olicnces for the two and a half
months immediately preceding the 1st of August
1827, were 3825, for the same period immediately
succeeding emancipation, in 183S, they were 657.
At a later period, a iJarbadoes newspaper asserted
that tn the country prisons, among a population of
aUU.UUU, but two prisoners were confined for any
cause whatever. So great has been the rivalry
among the various colonies, to procure the services
of free laborers that they have almost proceeded
from a war ot words to one of blows. Ihe most
thinly populated colonies have passed laws givin
special inducements to immigration, and some of
them have even endeavored to obtain free colored
laborers from our own country. Public improve
ment has remarkably advanced m all the important
colonies, and Banks, Insurance Companies, Rail
road Companies, institutions quite unknown in
those islands under the slave system, have begun
to flourish, tuven bavings Banks have been eS'
tablished in Jamaica, and are receiving the wages
of the freed laborers, a proof that foresight and
economy return with reviving manhood, ihe
emancipated population are eager for education,
and crowd into schools and chapels of the mission
aries. These are facts of a general nature which
cannot oe denied. On the other hand all the dif
ficulties that have attended the change may be
fairly imputed to the avaricious desire of the plan
ters to procure labor for less than its value, or bring
the new system into disrepute.
It is too late to talk of the failure of the Brit
ish experiment. The visions of blood and desola
tion have all passed away. The working of free
dom among the colonial laborers of the West In
dies, is now no more a matter of doubt, than it is
among the freemen of New York and Pennsylva
nia. What the malcontent planters may do to
restore despotism it is not easy to say, but that the
laborers will continue peacefully to work when of
fered fair wages, one may predict as safely as the
rising of tomorrow's sun.
If liberty under law is safe in the West Indies,
where the colored so vastly outnumber the white
population, why should it be unsafe in the United
States, where the whites in the slave States are
two to one? Our republican advocates of slavery
have settled this question in advance, for they
have always claimed that our slaves were in a
better condition than those of the British, both
phyeically and morally. Up to the date of the
British Abolition Act, our standing self-justification
was a comparison with the West Indies.
That our slaveholders may be safely defied to show
any reason why freedom will not work as well in
the United states as in the West Indies, is evi
dent from the fact that no less an orator than Hen
ry Clay could only meet the argument by preten
ding to have ' gloomy forebodings' of an ultimate
failure in the experiment, and by showing a want
of analogy between the powers of the two govern
ments. J hat tne great problem whether the eman
cipated slave will peaceably labor lor wages has
been worked out in favor of freedom, Mr. Clay
dared not deny.
If the obstinate adherence of the South to the
doctrines and practice of despotism be taken for
proof that the glorious facts of the West Indies
are making no impression upon southern minds,
a great mistake will be committed. It is to be re
membered that the minds of the whites as well as
the bodies of the blacks are enslaved. No favor
able change of public opinion will be perceived
till it becomes equivalent to the repressing power,
and, indeed, breaks out in a moral insurrection.
That the change is proceeding and not slowly, we
have evidence which cannot now be produced
without endangering the lives of parties at the
South.
The committee are rejoiced to say, that . the
sound anti-slavery sentiments expressed in minor
religious bodies ot various denominations have
been, during the past year, too numerous to be
embodied in a report. Theso expressions have
come from Christ's visible church which are most
active in every branch of true Christian charity a'
home and abroad whose religion benefits their
next door neighbors as well as their antipodes
and may well be taken as the voice of true Chris
tianity. It is to be deplored, however, that the
pirits which lead the chief ecclesiastical organiza
tions are, most of them, still hostile to immediate
justice on Ihe soil, lliey stni copy me pumy
whiVh. n ITnnoress. rrasrs discussion nnn irum pies
nn tlit. rmht nf netition. Not only are they deal
' "-r ' o o . .
to the cry of the two ana a nan millions who
have fallen among thieves, but they seem resolved
on expelling from their pales all sympathy for
them as near as may be in a republic, by hurl
ing bolts after the manner of the great spiritual
power of Europe. All such ecclesiastical pro
scription the committee cannot but regard as the
seal of Divine approbation upon their labors, when
they remember what a system oi unparalleled
wrongs it is employed to support.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian
church furnishes a most signal proof that a reli
. . i i - ?.i
gious body cannot embrace slavery wnnoui em
bracing death. The very year after this body
shuffled aside the claim of humanity on the plea
that to attend to it would destroy the peace of the
church, it was rent in sunder and divided into two
jealous and hostile sects. This is the same body
which, in 1818, declared slavery to be a gross
violation of the most precious rights of human na
ture, and utterly inconsistent with the law of God,'
and which testified that the evils to which the?
slave is always exposed, often take place in their
very worst degree and form ; and when all of
them do not take place, still the slave is deprived!
of his natural right, degraded ns a human being,
and exposed to the danger of passing into the
hands of a master who may inflict upon him all
the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and
avarice may suggest.' Since the separation of
the General Assembly, the leading influences of
both parts have thought it best to abstain from all'
action which might displease the upholders of a
system which violates the most precious rights of
human nature as well as the law of God. On
one side we are told that the peace of the church
was sacrificed to keep peace with slaveholders.
and that the old school party is pure from aboli
tionism ; on the other we see a thorough going;
defender of slavery translated from Richmond to
Philadelphia to take charge of a newspaper, which
proposes to make itself the principal organ of the?
new school party. Are we mistaken in suppos
ing that the great body of Presbyterians cannot
much longer be hi by men who' cast off and con
temn its solemnly recognized obligations to the
slave? One Presbytery, that of Chilicothe, Ohio,
we understand, has already withdrawn and estab
lished itself on a thoroughly anti-slavery basis.
At the same time the southern portions of the
church are endeavoring to get rid of the intolera
ble restraints of humanity and honesty, by declar
ing their independence. For this purpose a pa
per has been established in Charleston, and we
meet with expressions from many minor bodies,
like the following resolution passed by the Pres
byterian church of Petersburg, Va.
" Resolved, That as slaveholders, we cannot
consent longer to remain in connexion with any
church where there exists a statute conferring the
right upon slaves to arraign their masters before
the ludiciaryot the church, and that too for the
act of selling them without their consent first bad
and obtained."
A similar influence is at work to bring the Meth
odist Episcopal Church to the support of slavery.
The founders of this body, Wesley, Coke and As
bury, were strongly opposed to slavery, and the
two latter encountered great personal danger in
rebuking it from the pulpit in the slave States.
Strong anti-slavery sentiments were incorporated
in the earliest standards of the denomination so
strong that it was deemed best to publish an oui
tion of their book of discipline for circulation at
the South, from which that part which treats of
slavery was left out. The southern Methodist
now insist that they shall not be rebuked in their
r .i. r .1 it. i i
sin. in tnat contradiction oi their oia standards,
the Baltimore Conference has justified the ' PUR
CHASE, or oALiv of slaves ' if unattended wth
circumstances ot rrurIlj.V5njustir nr.inhumanitY.
The Georgia Conference has declared that slavery
is not a moral evil;' the South Carolina Confer
ence that it is sanctioned and ' authorized by the
word of God, and yet strange to say that it is not
a proper subject for church action. At the same
time the leading men of the church at the North,
while obliged to confess that slavery is a ' great
moral evil,' are waging ecclesiastical war against
their brethren who proclaim it a sin, for the sake
f keeping peace with those who unblushingly
eclare that it is not a moral evil. These men,
when they have had the power, as in the Nctf
York Conference, have suspended their brethren
from the ministry for the crime of attending a
Methodist Anti-Slavery Convention, and have
condemned the Zion's Watchman in this city, for
taking the part of the slaves. In the New En
gland Conference, where they have found them
selves in the minority, they have endeavored to
entrap their brethren into a relinquishment of their
principles under the guise of ' pacification.' It is
gratifying, though but a matter of course, to say
that these champions of slavery, headed by a bish
op who quotes the Golden Rule as good authority ,
for slaveholding, have done nothing but advance
the cause of abolition.
We might add similar statements in regard to
other great denominations. While the leading
men at the North are madly striving to keep the
peace of christian fellowship with the perpetra
tors of robbery, and the justifiers of adultery,
their fellow christians are beginning to be arous
ed to their duty, and to take the earliest opportu
nity to perform it. This committee may be ac
cused of stepping out of its sphere to disturb the
peace of the churches ; but their real disturbers are
their old professions of faith and rules of practice.
Would they but abide by these their peace might
be ' as a river,' but while they violate them, and
there is a free tongue left to upbraid them, they
must expect to be like the troubled see that can
not rest.
From the Pennsylvania Freeman.
Abolition in Maryland. Were we to judge
from the complaints of slaveholders and coloniza
tionits, we should suppose that abolitionism of the
most " incendiary" sort was rife in Maryland.
The Centerville (Md.) Times complains pitcously
of the " abstraction" of Henry Clay's law-made
property by " abolition knaves" and says :
" We know ol two gentlemen of the neighbor
hood, who have just been compelled to sell to the
south five or six valuable young negroes, on ac
count of their attempts to get off, and constantly
the same unpleasant scenes will have to be gone
through with by the masters of slaves here. Un
der the discouraging circumstances, (the abstrac
tion from amongst us of so much valuable labor,)
our farmers helds cannot be improved, nor their
lands properly cultivated ; indeed, we do not see
ow many ot the larmers who nire mere own lorce
entirely, will be able to cultivate at all, and if they
cannot cultivate their lands, they will be driven to
other states or other occupations for the support
of their families.
Anti-Slavery Books Abroad. The British
Emancipator, of Feb. 6lh, contains a letter from
Richard D. Webb, of Dublin, urging upon the
Britrsh Abolitionists the importation and circula
tion of the publications pf the American Anti-
1
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