But even here, you cannot Second, we agree in looking upon the slave as a man and a brother; a sharer in that humanity in which the Lord of Glory walked our earth; in which he suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, rose again, ascended into heaven, sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, and shall come to judge the quick and the dead. enter with us into the full meaning of all this, you cannot look on the slave in the same light that we do, unless you are far, very far, in advance of ninety-nine-hundredths of the New England Congregationalists. So much for the course of the Church on this subject. The fourth and fifth chapters are full of paralogisms; I can only notice a single one. I refer to the parallel you draw at the end of the fifth chapter, which is, in truth, no parallel, but a parody. Did you really think, when writing the last paragraph, that the white man, at the South, had taken anything from the negro ?—that he had not, on the contrary, given him all he has, and all he hopes for, for time, and for eternity? If you did, then I have nothing further to say: it would be a waste of breath to no purpose. In Chapter Sixth is the following: "There is an argument which has been much employed on this subject, and which is specious. It is this. That the apostles treated slavery as one of the lawful relations of life, like that of parent and child, husband and wife. “The argument is thus stated: The apostles found all the relations of life much corrupted by various abuses. "They did not attack the relations, but reformed the abuses, and thus restored the relations to a healthy state. “The mistake here lies in assuming that slavery is the lawful relation. Slavery is the corruption of a lawful relation. The lawful relation is servitude, and slavery is the corruption of servitude. "When the apostles came, all the relations of life in the Roman empire were thoroughly permeated with the principle of slavery. The relation of child to parent was slavery. The relation of wife to husband was slavery. The relation of servant to master was slavery." The sophistry of this argument is transparent, and the wonder is that you did not see through it yourself. If, as you say, "the lawful relation is servitude, and slavery is the corruption" of "that lawful relation," why did not our Lord require of all who would be his disciples that they should manumit their slaves and turn them into hired servants. This they could have done without coming into collision with the civil power, as I have already shown (p. 63), and as you yourself admit in the paragraph next following the one last above quoted, in which you tell us that "by Roman law," (and the whole civilized world was then under Roman law,) the son could be "formally liberated" only "by an act of manumission three times repeated, while the slave could be manumitted by performing the act only once;" and it would have been, moreover, nothing strange, for hired servants were not at all uncommon, as is shown by St. Luke xv. 17, and St. James v. 4. The fact, therefore, that while our Lord did prohibit even the formal relation of polygamy and concubinage, as being corruptions of the marriage relation (Matt. xix. 3-9, Luke xyi. 18, et al.) he did not prohibit the formal relation of slavery, shows clearly that he did not regard it as a "corruption of servitude." "What is to be done?" This is the title of your last chapter. "What is to be done?" Nothing! Let the whole subject alone! Every time you touch it, you make things worse, not only for the slave but for the free colored man. They understand this, if you don't. Read the following resolutions, being the first and second of a series adopted by a "Convention of the Free Colored People of Maryland," composed of Delegates from the several counties, and which assembled in Baltimore, July 26, 1852, and continued in session for several days. Resolved, That while we appreciate and acknowledge the sincerity of the motives and the activity of the zeal of those who, during an agitation of twenty years, have honestly struggled to place us on a footing of social and political equality with the white population of this country, yet we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that no advance has been made towards a result to us so desirable; but that on the contrary, our condition as a class is less desirable than it was twenty years ago. Resolved, That in the face of an immigration from Europe, which is greater each year than it was the year before, and during the prevalence of a feeling in regard to us, which the very agitation intended for good, has only served apparently to embitter, we cannot promise ourselves that the future will do that which the past has failed to accomplish. Take their advice; the advice implied in these resolutions. This, of all subjects, should be let alone by empirics. No good can come of bungling: · Stat contra ratio, et secretam garrit in aurem, Bend all your efforts another way. Give your time, your talents, and, let me add, your money, to help on the success of the Liberia experiment: it is the only atonement you can make to the black man for the wrongs you have done him. Engage your English friends in the work-and a great work it is of regenerating the Jamaica negro; and let your and their efforts conspire together to build up a great African Empire. In this way you may do something for "this persecuted race," and every real well-wisher to the colored man will bid you God speed in the doing of it. APPENDIX. APPENDIX, A The following are a few of the many specimens that might be given of Abolition Literature: From the Boston Traveller, of June 1, 1850. NEW-ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION. The meeting on Wednesday morning was fully attended. Calvin Fairbanks addressed those in attendance-mostly in the gallery—who were unwilling to listen patiently to the sentiments of the Convention. He said he was ready to go even further than S. S. Foster did yesterday, in relation to the sanction of slavery by the Old Testament. He believed that it did sanction oppression, and he was prepared to trample under foot all sentiments in it which were contrary to known natural truths. He said, perhaps this would be thought saying considerable for a Methodist minister (cheers and hisses). From the Boston Commonwealth. A REV. DR. FULLER.-Wednesday's Journal says "it is gratifying to witness a Christian slaveholder welcomed to the hearts and pulpits of his brethren here." This "Christian slaveholder" is the Rev. Richard Fuller. He was welcomed to the hearts and pulpits of the churches in Rowe street and Charles street, as we have before mentioned. million of this Christian slaveholder's sisters have no protection against the lusts of a million of his brothers. Husband, father, mother, brother, victim,-all equally powerless! With a knowledge of this, the churches in Rowe street and Charles street welcome a Rev. "Christian slaveholder,"-one of those who hold the keys of this vast brothel,-to their "hearts and pulpits." (211) From the New York Herald, (Weekly,) of May 14, 1853. AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY :-FANATICISM RUN MAD. The Chairman next introduced Mr. Wendell Phillips of Boston, who addressed the assembly as follows:-I can say, with the utmost sincerity, that so far as the Anti-Slavery Society is concerned, there is no necessity that I should address this audience, and I think it almost a waste of time that I should spread either facts or arguments before an intelligent American audience, in the twenty-second year of the Anti-slavery Society. The motto of our organ in this city is, "Without concealment without compromise." I read with great satisfaction some of the speeches with which our faithful friend Mr. Hale was received in Boston; and yet it seems to me that the tone with which that meeting addressed the American public should be distinct from that which we should address it. They are full of hope -we are not. They can call this a glorious Union. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth before I call it a glorious Union. (Applause and hisses.) Two, adjectives distinguish them from us. With them the Union is glorious-with us it is accursed. With them the character of Washington is heroic; and with me I dare not thank God for giving him to us. (Great hisses.) Do you suppose that the brutal slaveholders could ever have sustained slavery in this country till the year 1853? Do you suppose that profligate priests could have dragged slavery behind the altar? No. She would have sunk a hissing and a shame were it not that she hid herself behind the great proportions of Washington's name. (Hisses.) It is because Americans dare not call things by their right name; it is because we like the great names of the present and the past; it is because that we spread a beautiful mist before the Union-that idol which we worship that slavery still continues. It is to tear away the veil from the American eyes that the object of this society is. Our friends tell us that the Union must be preserved; it is a part of the soil-a part of the blood-not to be spoken of, much less abjured. I do not deny that it has some merits-but so had Nero. A rose bush was planted on his tomb some months after his death-planted by some Roman to whom his life was not an unmitigated tyranny. The pulpit, with only here and there an exception, if it speaks freely, speaks itself out of its pulpit. The press that lives on the popular voice and reflects it, what is it? Pro-slavery. Free speech is only to be bought here at the price of martyrdom. It is with pain I have asked the tenants of country pulpits to preach an anti-slavery sermon, krowing that if they obeyed me they obeyed me at the sacrifice of the bread of their children. You send your delegates to the June Anniversaries of London-they will be hissed there. Our religion is ever a butt. There is an American religion, distinct from Christianity. This is a glorious Union ! We cannot reprint an English book without expurgating it. Your Bible Society dare not offer a Bible to one having a drop of black blood in his veins. 'Tis a glorious Union. Free speech! Men walk about, and dare not tell their names, and that's your glorious Union. The man who stands under the shadow of the Union is |