measure until they are "ripe for measures for emancipation." They add: "It is evident that, as a body, our slaves do not enjoy the public ordinances of religion. Domestic means of grace are still more rare among them."

From a sermon of Bishop Meade, it may be inferred that the religious condition of slaves is not better in Virginia.

The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in 1833, published a statement in which they said of the slaves: "There are over TWO MILLIONS of human beings in the condition of heathen, and some of them in a worse condition." They may justly be considered the HEATHEN of this country, and will bear a comparison with heathen in any country in the world. The negroes are destitute of the gospel, and ever WILL BE under the present state of things. In the vast field extending from an entire State beyond the Potomac [i. e., Maryland] to the Sabine River, [at that time our South-western boundary,] and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are, to the best of our knowledge, not twelve men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the negroes. In the present state of feeling in the South, a ministry of their own color could neither be obtained NOR TOLERATED. But do not the negroes have access to the gospel through the stated ministry of the whites? We answer, No. The negroes have no regular and efficient ministry: as a matter of course, no churches; neither is there sufficient room in the white churches for their accommodation.

We know of but five churches in the slaveholding States, built expressly for their use. These are all in the State of Georgia. We may now inquire whether they enjoy the privileges of the gospel in their own houses, and on our plantations? Again we return a negative answer. They have no Bibles to read by their own firesides. They have no family altars; and when in affliction, sickness, or death, they have no minister to address to them the consolations of the gospel, nor to bury them with appropriate services."

Again, in 1834, the same Synod said:

"The gospel, as things now are, can never be preached to the two classes [whites and blacks] successfully in conjunction." "The galleries or back seats on the lower floor of white churches are generally appropriated to the negroes, when it can be done without inconvenience to the whites. When it cannot be done conveniently, the negroes must catch the gospel as it escapes through the doors and windows." "If the master is pious, the house servants alone attend family worship, and frequently few or none of them." "So far as masters are engaged in the work, [of religious instruction of slaves,] an almost unbroken silence reigns on this vast field."

The Charleston (S. C.) Observer, and the Western Luminary, Lexington, (Ky.,) fully corroborate thesë statements. So also does Rev. C. C. Jones, of Georgia, who says further: "We cannot cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the

way of life, for we withhold the Bible from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, while we will not use the means to have it read and explained to them."

The North Carolina Baptist Convention adopted a Report concerning the religious instruction of the colored people, with a series of Resolutions, concluding as follows: "Resolved, That by religious instruction be understood VERBAL communications on religious subjects !"

But not even verbal instructions, it seems, could be tolerated in South Carolina. In 1838, the Methodist Conference of South Carolina appointed a missionary, Rev. Mr. Turpin, to labor among the colored people, but it was soon suppressed by the principal citizens. The Greenville (S. C.) Mountaineer of Nov. 2, 1838, contained the particulars. A Committee was appointed, who addressed a note to Mr. Turpin, requesting him to desist. This was backed up by a Remonstrance to the same effect, signed by James S. Pope and 352 others. The document is before us. It argues at length the incompatibility of slavery with the "mental improvement and religious instruction" of slaves. "Verbal instruction," say they, "will increase the desire of the black population to learn. We know of upwards of a dozen negroes in the neighborhood of Cambridge who can now read, some of whom are members of your societies at Mount Lebanon and New-Salem. Of course, when they see themselves encouraged, they will supply themselves with Bibles, hymn books, and Catechisms"! "Open

the missionary sluice, and the current will swell in its gradual onward advance. We thus expect that a progressive system of improvement will be introduced, or will follow, from the nature and force of circumstances, and, if not checked, (though they may be shrouded in sophistry and disguise,) will ultimately revolutionize our civil institutions." "We consider the common adage that 'Knowledge is power,' and as the colored man is enlightened, his condition will be rendered more unhappy and intolerable. Intelligence and slavery have no affinity with each other." The document refers to the laws of the State, and hopes that "South Carolina is yet true to her vital interests," &c., &c.

The missionary enterprise was thus suppressed, or was relinquished. The Editor of the Mountaineer said: "The opposition to the late Home Mission among us comprised the great body of the people."

"No people are found to be better than their laws."

"The legal relation" of slave ownership, as understood at the South, requires all this. And the Church and ministry there either acquiesce or succumb!

At every point we have found an utter repugnance and opposition between the Slave Code and the Christian religion. And the Slave Code is nothing more nor less than the truthful exponent and the vigilant guardian of the so-called "legal relation of master and slave." While the one remains, the other remains, with all the practical results that naturally. grow out of them.

CHAPTER VIII..

LEGISLATIVE, JUDICIAL, AND CONSTITUTIONAL

OESTRUCTIONS TO EMANCIPATION.

The Statutes of the Slave States not only make no provision for a general Emancipation, but they obstruct and prevent Emancipations by the Master. And the Constitutions of some of the States forbid the Legislatures to abolish Slavery.

WE have seen that slavery is hereditary and perpetual in the nature of its tenure, and that the code by which it is defined contemplates no period of its termination, and points out no conditions upon which the slave or his posterity can escape from it. (See Chap. XXI. of the former series.) One avenue of hope only remains for him. The slave master may himself emancipate. In very many instances, slave masters have done so. The hope has been thus inspired of such an increase of manumissions as should weaken and ultimately terminate the whole system.

The hopes of humanity, in this direction, have not outrun the fears of the majority of slaveholders, who control the legislation of the slave States. The laws accordingly interpose obstacles t› emancipation. The reasons urged at the South for legislative and