The Liberator from Boston, Massachusetts • Page 1

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BEFUQS Or HONESTY AND DECORUM. A very honest gentleman, (anonymous,) at Cincinnati, has sent the following ebullition of his generous feelings towards Mr. Theodore D. Weld, of the Lane Seminary, the postage costing us only 25 cents. (For the net Edition of Buck's Theological Dictionary.

Wclditcs This is the name of a most deluded sect, the leader of which was a fanatic bv name Theodore D. Weld, who under the show of great discernment, unequalled powers of mind, and more than apostolic self-denial, was at heart, a most proud, arrogant, eelf-conceited, disorganizing man. It was Jiis glory to be4at the head of a party, to lead about whithersoever he listed, his devoted satellites. In year 1834, by the aid of a few men of some note in the religious world, he excited a great tumult on the subject of abolishing slavery at once, amalgamating blacks and whites, overturning the order and peace of the country, for the sake of giving liberty and equally to a set of mon who were incapable of self-government. From one grade of folly or madness, he proceeded with rapid Btridcs to another, until at length he was held Co be a fit subject for a prison or a madhouse.

All men of good sense recoiled from his projects, because of their treasonable and anti-christian character; while a few, who- were heretofore held in some estimation by the better part of society, persisted in shouting the praises of their besotted leader. The 19th century, has not before witnessed so strange a compound of folly, madness, vanity, ambition, self-com- nnA tntal rnnfpmnt nf Innr rl public sentiment. From present appearances, the monster will not be long-lived, and it must go down to posterity as a kindred spirit with the vagaries of Joanna Southcote, the ravings of Irving, and the idiocy of Mor-rnonism. LIES! The Philadelphia Commercial Intelligen-er, which, in infamy and desperate maligni ty, ranks next to the New-York Courier Enquirer, has a most abusive article against our estimable friend Dr. Edwin P.

Atlee of that city, of which the following are extracts: 'We have opposed the madness of the abolitionists. We have, time after time, reason ed with them on the destructive tendency of their course. We have told them that they were exciting a storm, which, though easily raised, it might be impossible to lay. We said that the effort to effect immediate abolition, was a violation of the constitution was an outrage upon the rights of the South, calculated to increase the irritation of our brethren in that section of our country, and produce, not immediate abolition, but immediate disunion attended with' a perpetual civil war to us, and an eternity of bondage to the slaves. We pointed out to them the madness of attempting, in the present state of public feeling, to produce a social equality among the blacks and whites and solemnly warned them against the dire consequences of their unnatural and fanatical doctrines of amalgamation.

We said that an explosion must ensue, if they persisted in their criminal and insane policy, and implored them to reflect on the subject with the cool philanthropy of common sense, and not rnsli madly on beneath the sanguinary banner of a wild and headlong fanaticism. Our object was to prevent the danger that we knew to be impending; and while we reproved the mnd-Ticss of the fanatics, we besought the public to avoid and discourage all violent and illegal opposition to them. Such has been our course. We are proud of it, and proud of the public approbation with which it has keen regarded. Onr predictions have been realized.

The results which fanaticism panted for, have 'been attained. They have succeeded at length in effecting a collision between the whites and blacks, and our streets have been filled with midnight mobs, and the sleep of our people broken with the shout of an infuriated multitude, or the shrieks of their belp-. less victims. Yet these men, who come from this scene "with the cries of the sufferers ringing in their ears, and our repeated warnings Ircsh in their recollection, instead of hiding their guilty heads in retirement, and shunning the gaze of their injured fellow-men, dure to persist in their mad and guilty policy. Their appetite for violence is unsated.

Like Othello, in the play, they still cry blood! Hood! Instead of doing all in their power to heal these wounds in the public peace, and brine back the reign of reason and the laws, their voice is still for war. i hey nil the papers with incendiary appeals; and denounce those who have condemned their dreadful course as 'ACCESSORIES TO MURDER. By Dr. Atiee's confession, it appears that there has been a combined effort among the Abolitionist of this city, to proscribe these papers which have opposed them. This is a specimen of the Christian spirit of these men.

Should these efforts be continued, it vecome necessary to asu now ia.r ii proper in tho public to patronize them to extend encouragement to those whose days and nights are devoted to the excite-ment of revolution end insurrection, and to the encouragement of sentiments the most unnatural and abhorrent. Should they pro-teed much further, it will become necessary for fathers to ask themselves if it be prudent to admit within their domestic circle, physicians who will teach the doctrine of amalgamation to their daughters as the will of heaven, and encourage by precept and example, sentiments which degrade the race to a level with the very brutes. We have been anxious to avoid the disagreeable and unprofitable duty of exposing the designs of the abolitionists. Their own madnesK, however, rr it necessary. We will, since they force us to live task, paint them and their purposes in their proper col i i of by oe of it tor I at it of on.

They are powerful, much more than IV. oouiiTR-sr BOSTOJV, 31ASSACHUSETTS. the community at present conceives possible they have a complete party organization, possessed of wealth and strength, and are straining- every nerve to accomplish their unnatural ends. Unless they are stayed, unless the people rouse from their lethargy, and check their onward career, they will leave to our children a legacy of The adjacent parts, of New Jersey has been overrun by fugitive persons of color from Philadelphia but many have returned home, and we hope will riot be again disturbed. Let us ask, however, what is to become this people, always increasing and, not being admissible into society, becoming more and more degraded They are, indeed, an unfortunate class on whom a mad set of enthusiasts are heaping injury upon injury, discouraging their emigration to Africa, where an opportunity is held out, to worthy persons of their color, to obtain rank amongst men, as rational beings a rank that cannot hoped for in their own native land.

AY speak not of the right in these cases but refer to the facts as they exist, and will remain, without the hope of change. Greensborough (A. Patriot. From the Cincinnati Journal. TO THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRES11YTER1AN CHURCH IN KEN-- TUCKY.

Dear Brethren, I have concluded to address to you a lew remarks on the subject slavery one that has, for a long time, deeply interested my own heart, and on which I have bestowed very careful consideration. Were I to set you down as indifferent to it, I know it would be doing you great injustice. Indeed, so much do 1 count upon your right desires in relation to it, that, although I come clothed with no official authority in that branch, of God's church to which we belong, yet do I presume that you will read, meditate upon, and with a just balance, weigh, any arguments that may be submitted to you in a christian spirit, come from what quarter they may. It is not my intention, at this time, to take up the whole subject of slavery, and discuss in its details, or to answer the multiplied excuses that have been made by christians and others, for the help they have brought its continuance. 1 mean rather to present: 1.

Some of the most prominent characteristics of slavery. 2. Some of the excuses of our church lor not purifying herself "from this sin, with answers to them and 3. The consequences to the church and the state at large, if she should at once enter upon her duty. The characteristics to which now ask your 1.

It originated, has always bten, and is1 this day, maintained by a viotence that is utter.y at variauce with the mud spirit or the gospel. a. It wrests from one set of men, without crime on their part, the fruits of their bodily toils, lor the support and ease ot another. 3. Its effects upon its subjects are to stu- pify and benumb the mind, to vitiate the conscience, to multiply sins of the grossest character, to exclude the knowledge of God and Christ, as well as of the necessity of any preparation for the world to come and, of course, to prepare them for hell.

4. Its effects upon those.trto maintain it, and in some measure upon those who witness and consent to, it, are indolence, diabolical passions, decdness to the claims of justice and the calls of mercy, a worluly spirit, and contempt for a lurge portion of our fellow creatures therefore, as far as their qualifications for an eternal state are modified by slavery, rather prepares them for the sentence of the damned than for the invitation ot the blessed. That the above are some, but by no means all, of the characteristics of slavery, no one, with our opportunities of witnessing the thing itself, will deny. Now, does it not seem passing strange, that a 4 monster of such hideous mien' should have been received within the very midst of the church God that it should find in its bosom its surest and softest resting place that it should be fondled, sleeked, and cherished there and that if any one attempt to tear him from his lodgment, with one consent all cry out, let him alone let him alone ire hate become so accustomed to his presence, that much of his deformity has been taken away, and ice cannot do tcitkout him tee are preparing him for his discharge, which, as he is slow to learn, he trill probably be ready for, in some hundred or two years the he can be dismissed without injury to any one concerned; but don't disturb him how he is very quiet, mil things are going on well. Make what preparation you please for his future dismission, but by no means touch him at this time.

The church! the church you'll endanger the church, and make more unpopular than it note is. I charge you, wait for a more convenient season. God is oven ing the way for his discharge in his oicngood time. If you attempt it ow, you will not only utterly fail, btcause all the church will be against you and besides, then will call you, and join' with those who are ithoct in calliitg you, a madman and a fanatic and your influence trill be destroyed This is no caricature it is solemn, serious truth should be denied, mere are clouds of witnesses' to prove it. Uut to return.

It would make this address too long, were I to notice exceptions which the scrupulous might raise or stop to present modifications that I mifht. under other circumstances, uiidk it uesirabie to make, of mv positions or to fortify mv- sclf carefully, as I proceed, with defences, as if I were contending with enemies. 1 Imll not detain vou to do so. I write not to cavillers, nor to such as are determined tore- main unmoved bv any thin? that can be said but to brethren beloved, as I trust, by oar common Lord, who arc Hi'linj to do HAM i Aril 2 am iir THE WORLD OUR whatever may hasten his glorious reign on earth, and add to their own eternal weight of glory in heaven. -f, then, slavery be characterized by violence, oppression, injustice by tendencies to the ruin of the souls of both master and slave why should you hesitate to say it ought to cease at once You reply, the Bible does not decisively condemn slavery.

In support of this yci say 1. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the friend of God, had servants, or as yon would render it, Now, admitting all that is asked in the case of Abraham, and that the word translated servants means it will be found to prove a great deal more than you desire. For if it be argued because he had slaves, therefore I may have them, it will equally follow that prevarication, if not falsehood, and concubinage may be justified for Abraham was guilty of both. But the word 1 apprehend, means here, the' subjects of Abraham, as a prince. The same word is used in reference to the courtiers of Saul, and to the most confidential part of the faithful little army that adhered to David during his persecutions by Saul.

And in the Oth chapter of the first of Kings, it is used in exact contrast to Besides all this, in the same chapter in which the persons who constituted the army of Abraham are called his 'servants the patriarch himself calls them 'young men. 2. The Hebrews were directed to make slates of the surrounding nations. This is very true, when applied to the seven nations particularly mentioned in the 7th chapter of Deuter-. onomy, who, for their sins, had been devoted to-destruction.

But does it follow, because the people whom God had specially selected as the instrument to execute his judgments, and had, cn this account, except ed from the great law of love to Uie stranger, that ice are excepted from the obligation of this law Every exception to a general law must be specially pleaded; and, according to the demands of common sense, clearly proved. To show the absurdity ef this excuse If the sheriffof Fayette county should execute a murderer, in pursuance of the sentence of death duly pronounced upon him, would this act, entirely justifiable, because directed by proper authority, furnish even an excusatory plea, much less one that would go to the entire justification of the sheriff of another county, for having put to death an innocent man, uncondemned by any form of law, merely for the gratification of his own malignant temper, or for the promotion of some selfish purpose It is useless to give an answer to this statement. 3. The Savior himself said nothing in condemnation of slavery, although it existed in great aggravation whilst he was upon earth, lie said nothing about it, and to my for this very good reason, that he did not preach to the Romans, or to the people of any other country where slavery prevailed but to the Jews, among whom the abolition principles of Moses' laws had already very nearly, if not entirely, extin-tinguished it. On the same principle we may account for his silence concerning many practices that are condemned by.

the spirit of his gospel, such as gambling, gladiatorial and other cruel exhibitions, and offensive and ambitious wars so common in his time and carried to such enormity by the Romans and other Gentiles. 4. Hut Paul and Peter establish, or recognize as established, the relation of master and servant, (slave,) when they give admonition to both as to their reciprocal behavior. Jl is very certain that this would not have been done, they being holy and inspired merL, if the relation itself was sinful or if there was any thing in the subjection of one human being to the will and caprice of another that was forbidden by God's law. Now, if the word servant be used by Peter and Paul to mean 'slaves exclusively a meaning that I admit only that the excuse may have all the force it can claim their exhortation to persons in this condition amounts to no more than what had been impressed before upon all who were, or might become, the victims of injustice or oppression, to bear it patiently.

It was given with the same object and in the same spirit, as the command of the Savior hiinaeltj that the persecuted should pray for their persecutors. Had it been a common evil during the ministry of Paul and Peter, to which christians were exposed, to be cast into prison by the lawless power of individual persecutors, would the exhortations of these apostles to thera to bear their sufferings with resignation and meekness, establish, or re cognize as established, the relation of persecutor and persecuted! or authorize christians to exercise grievous oppressions upon one another, or upon such of the heathen as they might be able to circumvent and bring into their power Or when Paul, through Titus, admonishes his brethren to be 'subject to principalities and powers, and to obey does he in the slightest manner sanction the imperial atrocities of a Nero, a Domitian, or any of their legitimate suc cessors until now I know you will say, he does not ana that he would have con demned in the conduct of those tvrants to wards their obscurest subjects whatever was inconsistent with the great and universally binding law, thou shalt do unto others as ye would that they should do unto If, then, Nero, for example, had submitted to the gospel that aul proclaimed in his capi tal, and become an obedient disciple of the apostles although he might have retained the power and authority of an emperor, yet his oppressions, itis cruelties, would have ceased, the very temper that prompted them would have been power would have been put forth tor good, not for ertt, and he would have been seen a prince dispen sing justice in mercy, and finding his own happiness in that which he daily scattered over a grateful people. Would he, tinier SLAVES MORSES other otrv ETOBE 4 SOU) AT 0a AXIXI ALL i i in in in at i ii ii i vna-rwn in tstsm PauTs discipline, have seized upon the poor, the weak, the defenceless of his that be night exact from them toil unrequited during their whole lives, and consign them and their innocent children after thorn to social and civil degradation in the midst of happy millions to personal bondage, to mental darkness to the power of vice and the dominion of sin to hopelessness in this world to shame and evrlastmg contempt ia that which is to come Or had the. converting grace of God found him acting Uie bloody and relentless tyrant, and thus ful filling his relation to the oppressed, would he, 1'aid beisg his teacher, have continued it during his lite And not content with this, wouid he calling upon 1 aid to indue his last will and ttstameni have perpetuated by legacy to his issue this continually growing mass of blood and groans ot misery and tears. But let us come down down from the tyrant over millions, to his miniature brandishing the ensign of his authority over some half dozen of his fellow-creatures and see Low the matter stands.

You insist that Paul recognized that is, acknowledged to be right the relation of master and ser vant among his cotemporaries, of course, that it could not have been wrong iAe, when tested by the great principles of man's duty to his fellow man, preached by hiin in his own time, and which we consider as preached to all persons since. The inference you would deduce from these premises one which is unavoidable is, that, as these prin ciples can never change, as they were intended for the direction of men, in all time, (to say nothing of eternity,) this relation then right, must be so now. This I believe is a fair statement of the position assumed, on this passage, by the scriptural advocate for continued slavery. Admitting all uie premises to be true, the conclusion to which you have come would be altogether undeniable and we would be authorized now to inflict upon our fellow-men, white or black, who might be reduced into our power, all the enormities of Roman or Grecian slavery. But there is an essenUai part ot your premises the approbation of Paul of Vie injus tice and cruelty of the master, covered up un der thevery comprehensive word, relation, that I.

apprehend ia very farfrotn beingtnain-tainable For if it can be maintained, it must be by making him nullify all those prin ciples of moral action which he had been unceasingly inculcating upon his fellow-men, and of which he had been giving in his own conduct a bright example. For if Uiis re lation, in "which are to be included all the atrocious powers conferred by the lloman laws in the time of Paul, as well as the powers, not much less atrocious, exercised in some parts of our own country now be right it follows.consequentially, that to do any thing fairly necessary in the estimation of the su perior in the rcIaUon, to maintain it, cannot be wronsr. 1 bus, among uie IComans, mas ters could put their slaves" to death, at pleasure and it was done with great cruelty and frequency they kept their slaves chain ed to the door posts as janitors, they brand ed them in the forehead, and, if tbe master was slain at his own house and the murderer undiscovered, all his domestic slaves were liable to be put to death. Under this power, four hundred were put to death on a single oc casion. Will you drive the apostle to a recognition of such horrible deeds? To an acknowledgment, that they were right? That there was in them no violation of the great law of love? No, you replv; this is too horrible.

I rejoin, end say, that you can not, then, on your own principle, charge hiai with the recognition of any violation, how small soever it may seem, of this law. For the' same purpose, (the maintenance of the re lation,) it may be thought necessary by mas ters among us, to keep back the hire of the laborers who reap down their fields, (this is injustice that, it a slave, in obedience to the very constitution of man's nature, when self-interest, the mainspring of action is taken from him, become indolent if he be reluctant to spend gratuitously for another that property which the great author of his being has given him in his own physical powers, in his own bones and muscles and sinews he may be beaten and scourged to any extent, however cruel, till this indolence, this reluctance to an unrequited transfer of his labor to another, this natural tendency to self-indulgence, be overcome. ('Phis is oppression.) To the same end, it may be necessary, in the opinion of the master, in order to derive that profit from the relation which only makes it worthy of being maintained, that, marriages among his slaves be The natural tendency of slavery is to tbe second deatlioi liberty, to eternal life, although there are exceptions in both slaves frequently Riving good evidence of piety, and wen who are fret abusing their freedom to their destruction. Tin: then, is engaged in maintaining a svjtcjn which leads to death, whilst God is maintaining oue which leads to life. The slaveholder is conducting his five, ten, or tweuty slaves down to tbe pit, whilst God is striving, as far as He thinks proper to influence rational mind, to raise them to hearen.

What a reflection for the disciple of tbe merciful Savior! Let him not slop here, but make a calculation of die increase of his slaves for the next twenty, fifty or hundred years, (it is too awful to proceed further.) taking for his basis the increase of the whole number of slaves in the United States for the last forty years, that he may see what multitudes he is, as far as we can tell, qunlifying lor perdition. The chris-tran who holds slaves duriug his own life, and 4 tcillt them to bis children afterwards, is doing, according to my poor apprehension, all that he can do to defeat The benevolent purposes of God. (These ttUls will be bloody evidence at the judgment seat of Christ.) He sins himself, and produces suffering as long as God gives him the physical power not satisfied with this, be fusions the habit of wfWng on bis slaves and their posterity, and die habit of sinning on his own. May there not be strong grounds to fear, that, as be Las been chief in this world in he dread preparations for misery, be he fearfully preeminent in the dread retributions of that which is to come Can such an one dwell ia the presence of a God of merty If he can. tell me I pray you, in what part of the Bible yuu rind a war- nit for vour belief I have not et found it.

SATURDAY, tf O. 40. OCTOBER 4, 1S34. discouraged, and a gross state of concubinage permitted; that the wife be torn, at midnight, from the man of her love, and her screaming children wrunar from her frantic grasp that the husband find his manly anns, intended for the protection of his helpless offspring, bound in the weighty and sure fetter of the southern slaver and the last, the sole atom of earthly happiness they were all enjoying, cast upon the winds. This is cruelty unmixed and to justify it, you bring the noble-minded apostle, who suffered persecutions without number, distress anddenth, that he might bring men to lore ono Further: it might be that the whole life of a master, would be passed in the perpetration of injustice, the exercise of cruelty and oppression that a relation might be perpetuated, whose substance is the aliment of the most overbearing despotism on the one part, and Uie vilest abjectness on the other.

If the sins that may be said to be inherent slavery; if injustice, cruolty, aud oppression, were habitually committed against persons not in th relation, and tuirepented of, the perpetrator, by the judgment of all men, would be damned forever if they were committed against our white a furnace hot as Nebuchadnezzar's would be too cool for him. Yet, notwithstanding his character may, by the indulgence of the worst passions against his slaves, have become as mean, as vicious, as degraded, and as unfit for the society of Uie just made perfect, as if he had indulged them against free persons, and his equals in society because, forsooth, hiti slaves are in the relation, there seems to bo no harm done, and at his death lie is' taken, up to heaven, where all the treatment of slaves they being in the relation, goes for nothing. Thus it would appear that Paul and Peter, after exhorting men to do all even to their eating and drinking, for the glory of God to be holy in all manner of conversation are found supporting a relatifrn whose sole object is, on Uie one side temporary convenience, at the expense of personal degradation on Uie other, and Uie moral pollution of both whose universal tendencies upon the parUes concerned, and upon society at large, have been mischievous, polluting, and unholy. To these apostles I do not think can fairly be attributed such miserable logic to support such miserable morals. For further illustration suppose that during the ministry of Paul, a christian slave at Colosse, thinking lumsell treated in an unchristian manner by his christian master, had brought his case before the church whilst Paul was on a visit to that city.

He would allesrs asrainst his master, that instead of giving him, as Paul had directed, what was jnst and equal for his services, he gave him nothing but his food and clothing, and these, in many instances adjusted to his wants with the moet scrupulous nicety that his threat ening were manv, and his scourgings not a few. The master may be supposed to have admitted all the facts of the case, and to have justified himself in such words as these As to the command to give my slave what is just and equal, I have never interpreted it to mean what Uie standard of justice among equals would require but rather that I 6hould give him just what suited my convenience and as to giving him what is equal, or, as he understands it, a fair equivalent for his services, it never once entered my head for I miirht as well have no slave at all as to do this indeed, he would, if this be the mean mr of it. soon be as free as 1 am. And as to the threatening and scourgings that I have bestowed upon him, his own insolent claims, now reiterated have jusUy provoked them. They are absolutely necessary to keep mm humble and obedient, make mm know his place, and to perpetuate the relation which vou yourself have recognized, and know, ought by all means to be What now do you Uiink Paul would "liave done, after hearing such an harangue as this WoulJ he have sent for Uie Phrygian slave code, have collected the laws, and heard tes timony as to all Uie recognized and approved customs of oppression Or would he have taken up the word of God, the perfect law of liberty, and quoted to him, in all things whatsoever ve woxdi that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them Brethren, if such a case should be brought before you, how would vou decide? By the laws and customs of slavery as they exist in Kentucky, or by Uie book of God If by the latter, what becomes of slavery It is shivered to atoms.

In the most flourishing period of Greece, women held a most degraded rank they were considored rather as Uie slaves than the companions of man. There is no proof that in Uie time of the apostle, during her declen sion, their condition was in any manner ame Iiorated. Among the itomans, it was per mitted to men to divorce their wives at pleas ure, with, or without caue. By the Roman laws, absolute power over Uie child was given to-the parent, even to the selling cf Jnm into slavery, or to the tak ing away of his life. Power almost as tin limited was giveu to the creditor over- hi: insolvent debtor.

If any one was indebted to several persons, and could not find a cau tioner, (security,) his body, according to some, might be cut to pieces and divided among his creditors. Now, Christianity recognizes these relations also: and at the very time, too, when all the enormiUes perpetrated by the superiors in tbe relation were authorized by Yet, what christian, allowing even that there were no restraints of municipal laws would, at this day, jusuTy or palliate the unprovoked dis mission of a wife, or unfeeling ana cisnon orable treatment of her, on the part of a husband professing Christianity, on the plea, that us Paul had recognised Uie relation as it then was, every thing that was iken practised under it wa allowable no Or who la there, that, on the same principle, would fortify christian parent for veiling his chili into slavery, or for taking away his life on any ptovocaUon or christian creditor who would insist upon his rightt, it debitor in paries stcttndof in reference to hie insolvent debtor No one because Christianity-, although recognixing these, and whatever other relations may be necessary for the reel welfare of society, has cleared them from every foreign and hurtful ingredient; ah has lepped off from them every thing that is offensive to her own purity, and injurious to their most healthful and salutary exercise. Whilst she exacts from Uie wife, subjection, she has secured her from all degradation by requiring the husband to honor his wife. Whilst children arc taught obedience to parents in all things not inconsistent with their higher duties to God, they are protected from injury and outrage by Uie requisition upon Uie parents to rear them in the nurture and admonition of Uie Lord, and to lead lives of pict? themselves. And Uie creditor, in one of the beautiful parables of the Savior, is exhorted by the highest motive that can affect man, his own happiness, to be merciful to Uie unfortunate and ruined debtor.

The consequence has been, and always will te, that in societies where Uie duties of these relations have been performed in accordance with thesa directions of wisdom, there has been more of domestic happiness and spiritual comfort, as well a9 of social order, and of intellectual and mora and political power. Let slavery as it exists among os be tested by the same rules that have been applied so successfully for their melioration to the rela tions above mentioned let it undergo the same christian purgaUon that they have, and what will remain of it? Nothing but the master who pays and the servant receives what is iiist and equal, (a fair equivalent) for his services. This is the relation which the apostles establish, because there is notbinp; i iu ii incompauoie wiui me gospej, ana it tears up slavery by the roots. Thus much for some of the chief grounds which it is supposed the Bible furnishes for the continuance of slavery. You will see I have thought hints would bo sufficient, and that I have not carried out the arguments to the extent of which they are susceptible.

This I leave for you knowing how capable you arc of doing it, from your intimate ac quainUnce with the scriptures, your habits of intellectual exercise, and your desire to know the truth that you may do your duty. But is there not among us a large number, who, advancing a step further than those who equip themselves in the armor of the gospel. acknowledge that 'slavery is criminal ia the sight of God that it cannot be palliated that it is injustice, theft, robbery that it gives rise to atrocities which even to think of make the cheeks burn yet, insUt tbat 'how and trren'it shall cease, are questions by fto means clear cf difficulty? Against such doctrine as this, so replete with fallacy and tending, to bring upon the cause of truth a reproach that it noes not merit, and an injury whoso cAiciii cauiioi oe loreseen, 1 wisu iu enter my It certainly requires do common boldness to take the position belore an en lightened community, that an acknowledged sin one proved to be such, too, by God's" word and providence, should not be repented of and forsaken at once. With what face would any of you who are ministers, after proving to your congregations that injustice, violence, oppression, were sins in Uie sight of God, and that He bad denounced a' wo unto him that nseth his neighbor's service without wages, and givelh him not for his work, tell them how and when these sins were to be repented of was a matter not clear of difficulty If while men were the Bufferers from the perpetration of such sins, all Would declare that Uie quesUons were clear of doubt. And is it true that when committed against the negro slave, God looks upon them as less criminal, and authorizes a different measure to be meted out, and a reasoning sui generis to be applied Would you not rather tell them, as the Savior and all his true ministers since have done, repent not to-morrow, or next day, but now and by restoring at ones what hu been withheld by injustice and fraud and force, do works that consist with repentance and prove its sincerity You would not, surely, at this time of day, in the(pres-v ent stats of mental philosopy and religious -1 i i scitriice in uie presoyierian cimrcii, leu yuur congregations that they have been committing sin for a long time, are doing so now, and yet say to them, all you ask of them as Uie ambassador of God, is, that they prepare to repent, that is, that they prepare to leave it off some ten, fifteen, or twenty years hence; or if any of them should in Uie meantime be hurried to their dread account, their children or posterity will do it for them.

You would not declare to them, all your master required was, that they should enmo to a full conviction of the sin note, but that from fear of loss, of the world, of Uie chirge of fanaticism, of disparagement in fashionable estimation, of personal convenience, or of giving any shock to the structure of society, they might practise it until God in his own good time should remove the matter out of the way. This I am confident you would not do and yet, is not this the very doctrine that is preached when slavery is acknowl- rdfTfd tn lif but ihrt it i tn rPiiRA at. some yVi ure time But tbis has been found too bold for any but the most de tennined slaveholder." It has therefore been much modified in its dress by suvinir. 'there are no snecific commands in the Bible on the subject of resembling those on adultery, theft, it is abolished ia the Bible under lhe general do urJa ollurs as ye would that others should do unto you, and in fulfilling these commands it our duty to take into consideration the probable consequences of our conduct. And has it come to this, in Uie presbyterian clrurch, that a duty which eral command above quoted, may be post- poneu on mat account; ana ni ptuunu-anca is less imperative than Uie performance of such 03 are specified; and Uiat a man who, 'at one fell swoop has robbed anoUierof all his rights as a fellow-being, and put him into the road to death, is not bound to as ex- psditious restitution as he who has stolen from his rich neighbor a six-pence! that, in Uie first cse, the nggressor may take time to consider the probable consequences to his own estate, hi name and standing ia socie- a and more than this, whpthpr.

rrvsf of -all his rights will not be injurious to the sufferer, and whether it would not be better for him, as he is accustomed to it, to remain crushed and trodden down, and that his pos terity come into the enjoyment of Uie rights that have been wrested from whilst in the latter he is bound to immediate restitu tion I will venture to say, if these be Uie prevailing horailetics of onr church, the sooner she loses her name and individuality and influence, the better for Uie country and Utt world..