AMERICAN

STATES, CHURCHES, AND SLAVERY.

BY THE

REV. J. E. BALME,
AN AMERICAN CLERGYMAN, AUTHOR OP THE
" L E V E R OF THE GOSPEL," "MIRFvOR OF THE GOSPEL," "MAGNET OP THE GOSPEL,"
" TELEGRAPH OF THE GOSPEL," " TELESCOPE OF THE GOSPEL,"
" TEMPERANCE AUXILIARY TO THE GOSPEL," AND
"AMERICAN WAR CRUSADE."

* * " What I have written is no idle fictioned rhyme,
I paint the shadow of the curse of our country's blasting crime—
A curse upon whose blackness—a wall of solid night—
Comes a scroll of 'MENE,' ' MENE,' in lines of lurid light."

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO.
MDCCCLXIV.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE,

.

.

.

.

.

P A R T I.—SLAVERY.
Slave Laws,
.
.
.
.
Negro Marriage,
Relative importance of Law, .
Slave-holders,
Clothing, diet, and inborn love of freedom of the Slave,
Instruments of Torture,
Barbarisms of Slavery,
Slaves sold at Auction,
Advertisements and Examination of Slaves,
Average value of Slaves,
Slave Breeding,
.
Fugitive Slaves and Canada, .
Character of instruction given to Slaves,
Christian Appeal,
'
.
P A R T I I . — O N AMERICAN STATES AND SLAVERY.

Kaleidoscope of Nations,
Rise and Progress of America, .
American Downfall and Ruin, .
Slavery the primordial root of this catastrophe,
Tariff a Secondary Cause,
Missouri Compromise, another do.
John Brown's Raid, another do.
Election of Lincoln, another do.
Opponents to the above theory, .
Colorphobia, or Negro hatred, .
Colonization,
Emancipation, God's irrevocable decree, .
Lincoln and Pharaoh, .
.
The Plagues of America,
God's uplifted hand,
.
America, the Great Transgressor,
Severity of the Divine Proceedure,

iii

CONTENTS.

P A E T I I I . — A M E R I C A N CHURCHES AND SLAVERY.

Character of American Christianity,
Different Versions of the Bible,
Eevival and Slavery,
.
.
.
.
Relationships of the Churches and Slavery,
• American Eeligious Societies and Slavery,
'
Earthly Guides,
Nonconformists of 1662 and American Missionaries of 1862,
False Pleas, .
Caution to be used,
Grand Dramatic Scenes,
.
. •
Tender and Earnest Appeal,
.
.
American Clergy, Laity, and Slavery,
Anti-Slavery men made easy, .
Abolition Clergy and Laity,
Elijah Lovejoy,
.
.
.
John Brown's Life, Character, and thrilling events,
Eev. Dudley A. Tyng,
.
'
.
„ D. M. Conway,
.
.
.
.
„ Dr. Cheever,
.
.
.
.
Manchester Cotton Morality,
"War Crusade of the Abolitionists,
Ends of Civil Government lost sight of, .
Vested Eights of the Constitution,
Fearful Eesults of Northern Teachers and Professors,
Character of Federal Treason, .
Cowper and Men of Blood,
Beecher and the ever-tightening serpent folds of Slavery,
Wendell Phillips,
.
.
,
.
Progressive War Friends and the President,
Abortive efforts of the Abolitionists,
Cheever and the Trent affair,
Edinburgh Ladies' Anti-Slavery Committee,
"W. Duncan's Letter to the Scotsman,
T h e Author's reply and summing up,
History of the Trent affair,
Letter to the Eev. Mr. Eobertson by the Author,
The Author's position defined, .
P A E T IV.—CONCLUDING CHAPTER.

American Coin,
.
.
.
American Civil and, Eeligious Liberty,
Fourth of July and Spread Eagle Oratory,
Missionary Institutions and Missionaries,
Fast Days and Form of Prayer,
Description of a true Fast,
Grand Army of the North,
Laek of Sound Judgment,
Jeremy Diddlers,
Secession of Coney Island,

CONTENTS.
PAGB

' Windbag of Vanity,"
The Idols of America,
Black Picture of the North,
Separation of the South from the North, .
Unsound Commercial Policies, .
Grand Oldfashioned system of Christianity,
Whittier's Poem,
.
.

517
525
534
538
540
541
544

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.

Anecdote of the Fly,
.
.
.
.
„
„
Rev Dr. Hopkins,
„
Slavery and Snakes, .
New Found Relation, .
Northern " Helps,"
God-men true,
Porpora,
.
.
.
.
The Prayer-Book and Frontispiece, or Bishop Potter and the Negro,
The Sleepy Deacon, .
Jarne, the Slaveholder,
Sword of Frederick the Great, .
The Humming Bird and Butterfly,
The Countryman and Viper,
The Bear and Kettle, .

12
13
186
203
273
312
347
351
354
372
390
468
513
513

SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS R E F E R R E D TO.

Church Anti-Slavery Society, .
Do.
do.
Methodist Episcopal do.
Congregationalist's do.
American Board of Missions,
Do.
do.
Turkish Aid Missions,
Do.
do.
Bo.
do.
Baptist Missionary Union,
Do.
do.
Free Mission Union,
American and Foreign Bible Union,
Free Church and American Missions,

97
104
140
142
163
313
165
169
318
310
435
229
305
• 337

PREFACE.

THE author of this book is a descendant of the
Puritans. For generations back his ancestors were
of that school; and he covets earnestly their best
gifts—their principles, virtues, faith-—their unearthly
desires, heaven-born tempers, self-sacrificing spirit,
ardent love, and zeal. These are better than
" armorial bearings, or animated busts" that rise to
mark the lots or spots on earth of poets, orators,
senators, warriors, nobles, princes, or any of this
world's grandees whose names may fill historic page,
or deeds be sung in song. Such noble gifts are of
inestimable worth, priceless blessings, associated
with honour which comes from God alone and distinctions peerless, endless. Happy mortals whose
thoughts are raised above the grovelling cares, and
things, and scenes of earth, borne as on the pinions
of a dove beyond this world of noise and strife, and
centered in a paradise of bliss!
These men are peculiar, like the truth of God, in
their nature, origin, character, virtues, position,
objects, and aims, and must be tried, but in their
trials the grace of God that is in them will be seen

iv

PREFACE.

to be more gracious still, add to their lustre,,and'
cause them to come forth clad in the beauties of
holiness exquisitely lovely, grand. Nor need they
be surprised that in the fiery process of their trials
they should have so much dross to be removed, for
this world is full of canker, rust, or what is sinful
and defiling.. But the Christian's greatest trials
come not from men of worldly minds, but from those
who profess like precious faith and practice with
themselves. Had it been an enemy T could have
borne it, said David. But it was thou, a man mine
equal. We took sweet counsel together, and walked
to the house of God in company. Psalm Iv. 14.
There was the rub—the stunning blow—the
fearful laceration of the wounded spirit. Christian
persecutors, so-called, are the most intolerant^ bigoted,
cruel, and oppressive on earth. They out-Herod
Herod, or Nero. 'Tis pity that it should be true.
And true it is though pitiful. The author has
known many such. Some of this class have lately
been in Canada. One of them writing to the
Baptist Freeman, says—" Our Canadian neighbours
are quite tired of us/' J. B. Gough has been trying
to lecture there on temperance, but found the
Canadians so enraged about our revolters that he
gave up his appointment. He recently said in Troy
(New York)—" There are many good people in
Canada, and a great many snobbish people. The
British residents there endeavour to be much more
English in their habits, customs, and prejudices than

PREFACE.

V

those who dwell in England. They play second
fiddle to English snobbery." "• The present season,"
says the writer, the Eev. Dr. Eddy, the Boston
correspondent of the Freeman:—" The present
season I had an engagement there, but after lecturing nine evenings in different places the language
and conduct of the people in reference to this country
(America) became so unbearable, that one day 1 sat
down and wrotQ a letter and declined to fulfil the remaining engagements. These two great Christian
nations had better treat each other in a Christian
way." "The Canadian neighbours are quite tired
of us." That is a good sign to begin with. "There
are a great many good people in Canada, and a
great many snobbish people." And who are the
"good people in Canada?" They are our genuine
native, home-spun Yankees, who have emigrated to
Canada, and taken with them our peculiar American
notions—in regard to our very peculiar institutions
—which they generally maintain in their own
peculiar way—to attain their own peculiar ends—
and with our blessed peculiarities to demonstrate,
" We air the greatest nation,
In all the Lord's creation,
We air the hull world's wonder,
En we hev the loudest thunder,
Accordin' to popilation,"

These men have such a hatred to every thing
British, that one of their clan or clique on being
invited to go to a meeting in Boston, held in com-

VI

PREFACE.

memoration of the Pilgrim Fathers refused with
indignant scorn because they were " foreigners !"
Such are the "good men" spoken of in Canada.
But these "snobbish people," that "play second
fiddle to English snobbery," and that are "much
more English in their habits, customs, and prejudices
than those who dwell in England"-—those "British
residents in Canada," what are their opinions that
that they should be trampled under the cloven feet
of Dr. Eddy and J. B. Gough, be met with such
fierce malignity, and have such an ignoble badge
fixed on "them by these men? These men hold
that man can never be the property of another man,
by any law, precedent, compact, purchase, bequest,
inheritance, or any combination of circumstances, or
usurpation of power, or stretch of prerogative
morally or legally in the sight of God—that slavery
is the sum of all villanies, cruelties, crimes, robberies,
piracies, and murders, and whatever else is impure,
unholy, and accursed^-and that slaveholders have
no rights which human beings are bound to respect
except where those beings have entered into a partr
nership concern and maintained an intimate companionship, then there is the honour which is claimed
by the brotherhood of thieves and knaves.
They hold that Governmental and ecclesiastical
union with slaveholders and negro-haters is an
atheistical rebellion against every principle of
justice, every law of nature and of God, which no
possible circumstances can warrant, and no con-

PREFACE.

vii

ceivable conditions justify—-that this rebellion
extends throughout the Northern as well the
Southern States of America-—and that the Northerns
are the most guilty of the two.
They hold the sentiment to be true, that " honour and shame from no condition," and from no
complexion rise—that man is a nobler creature
than an animal—^and that the negro is coequal and
coeternal with themselves, and therefore have no
sympathy with our refined Yankees who reason^—
as the negro is to the white man so is the crocodile
to the negro, and as the negro may rightfully treat
the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man
may rightfully treat the negro."
And it is easy to multiply these opinions in
favour of these a snobbish people" in Canada; and
therefore, J. B. Gough and Dr. Eddy could not do
a better service to the Canadians than rescind their
engagements and betake themselves back to Yankeedom, and act out what men of a similar class
and spirit advised the author to do at the Bloomingdale Convention, Illinois, because of what they
called his "snobbery." The great disturbing cause
of all our relations, whether civil, political, moral, or
religious, has been slavery. No cause has been
more powerful to subvert the principles of martyrs,
maxims of sages, precepts of moralists, laws of senators, or the teachings of our Divine Lord and
Saviour than this in America. More than all other
<>

causes combined it has contributed to destroy the

viii

PEEFACE.

end of civil and ecclesiastical government, and hurl
us into a sfcate of political, social, financial, and
moral ruin, proclaiming as with the voice of thunder that as a people we have all gone out of the way
of understanding, deviated from the path of rectitude, trampled upon every feeling of humanity,
principle of reason, claim of justice, clause in the
decalogue, and feature in the sublime and heavenly
beatitudes of our holy religion taught by the immaculate and ever-blessed Jesus. And, therefore, it
is no wonder that our American people have not
liked to retain the negro in our prayer-books,
churches, schools, railway cars, steamboat saloons,
states, affections, or hearts.
There is no subject which has been more ignored
by ecclesiastical bodies than Christian relationships,
or on which they have tried to make " confusion
confounded/' With obliquity in their eyes as thick
as a ward-rope, they have taken up the telescope
of God's truth, and shouted, we can't see it. And
when those of us who have been divested of that
obliquity have pointed out to them that as the
doctrines of Christ repudiate the theories of the
slaveholder and negro-hater, so the terms of communion require of men, above a,nd beyond all other
things, next to repentance and faith in Christ, to
obey the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, that they might love each
other with pure hearts fervently, 1 Pet. i. 22. Ant1
where there is no purification of the Spirit from

PEEFACE.

ix

the criminality of slaveholding and negro-hating
through obedience to the truth, there can be no
peaceable and loving fellowship in the churches of
Jesus Christ, James iii. 17, no unity of the faith
and of the knoweldge of the Son of God unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 12. Those, therefore,
who would contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and earnestly desire the intercessory prayer of Christ to be fulfilled, John vii. 21.,
or to see the church of Christ covered with the
mantle of divine charity like the seamless robe of
Christ, must co-operate with those who are seeking
x>o remove these great disturbing causes from the
churches.
In what the author has written he has been
guided by principles and facts, and in these mosaics
you will find no false principles introduced, such as
"Christian slave-trading" on which to ground appeals, nor false terms of communion that gather up
in their latitudinarian embrace lady pious slaveholders, nor given any falsification of history in the
religious ascendancy of our nation or more powerful
influence of the clergy amongst the nations, like the
authoress of " Uncle Tom/' as shown in her key;
and in the Principia, now edited by the Eev.
Geo. B. Cheever, in conjunction with that slanderer
of nations as well as individuals, the Rev. William
Goodel. In proof of which see the Principia in its
attacks on this country in the case of the Trent,

X

PKEFACE.

Feb. 6,1862,—in the case of Lord Brougham, June
19, whom they now make to uphold " the wild and
guilty phantasy" legally, that "man may hold
property in man,"—-in the case of Lord Palmerston,
July 3, 1862, whom they charge with a "misapprehension of facts concerning General Butlers
Proclamation," and an eagerness to inspire hatred of
this country (America), whilst they rake up from
the musty records of the past, as a plea of extenuation, the supposed watchword of General Packenham
in his attack on New Orleans, viz,, "Beauty and
Booty," and belabour you for having such a " ridiculous figure" for a "Prime Minister."
How sad to think that these scathing insults
come to you from men whose stabs in your wounded
honour are produced by spears winged with feathers,
bought to a large extent with British gold • and
these falsifications of the facts of history and slanderous accusations laid to your charge are not only
malignant but persistent, as shown in a recent diatribe of the New York Herald recently'published in
the Edinburgh Review, and also in the following
paragraph of the Principia, June 19, 1862 :—
" The slaveholders, the day before compensation was awarded to them by the British Parliament, stood below par in British society, and
could scarcely gain social recognition. O'Connell
would not shake hands with any one of them.
Compensation raised them almost immediately in
the public estimation, and they have been rising

PREFACE.

xi

ever since, till the miscreants Mason and Slidell
find sympathy as "Southern gentlemen" who have
been maltreated by the "Northern mob/'
The
father of lies may now give up his honours, and
hand over the belt and palm of falsehood to Goodell,
who so evidently carries with him the venom '%f
the rattlesnake, rapacity of the wolf, fury of the
tiger towards the people of this country, and whose
tongue is (< set on fire of hell" against you in the
way of vituperative abuse.
The writer would offer his most grateful acknowledgments for personal acts of kindness shewn by
the Rev. Dr. Brewer of Leeds, Revs. W. Lindsay
Alexander, D.D., Geo. Johnston, D.D., and W.
Tulloch, and a lady ministering angel, in Edinburgh, and also to the Revs. J. P. Mursell of
Leicester, H. Dowson of Bradford, J. W. Fox of
Manchester, and the good Bishop of Clough Fold,
Rawtenstall, Lancashire. May blessings leap up to
meet them by the way, come raining down upon
them from above, rush on them like the clustering
blessings of the cross, and take them " prisoners of
amaze."
In prosecuting his mission in this country the
author has met with great difiiculty, not from any
diminution of attachment to the great principles of
liberty on the part of the British people, but from
the heartless and cruel disposition of a number of
the pretended friends of freedom in Edinburgh and
England, in consequence of their misguided zeal.

xii

PKEFACE.

This, in connexion with the unslumbering activity
of the false friends of freedom from America in this
country, to mystify our positions and to mask our
real condition, has caused the author to knock in
vain at the doors of multitudes of the churches for
admission. Men who gloat with satisfaction on our
fiendish war, and who have always played loose and
fast on the great principles of liberty, can boast of
an enthusiastic welcome, but not so the men who
come without the if8 or huts.
In view of the treatment of the Reformer in all
ages, and of the ultimate success of his cause, the
Scottish poet Mackay well says :—
" The man is thought a knave, or fool,
Or bigot plotting crime,
Who for the advancement of his kind
Is wiser than his time.
For him the hemlock shall distil,
For him the axe be bared;
[For him the gibbet shall be built,
For him the stake prepared.
Him shall the scorn and wrath of men
Pursue with deadly aim ;
And malice, envy, spite and lies
Shall desecrate his name.
But truth shall conquer at the last;
For round and round we run,
And ever the right comes uppermost,
And ever is justice done."

PREFACE.

xiii

In the autumn oi; 185 8, the Church AntislaverySociety was instituted, with a view to purge our
American Churches of the dreadful sins of slavery
and negro hatred, and to remove the foul stains'
from the escutcheon of our land. Enchanted with
its noble declaration of principles, the author took
his harp from the willows on the banks of the Mississipi, and, amidst the people of our strange land,
sung—
" There's
There's
There's
There's

a fount about to stream,
a light about to beam,
a warmth about to glow,
a flower about to blow.'*

But, alas for the above society, since its moral
have been merged into military issues (see page
190); so that instead of being a stream to fertilise,
a beam to cheer, a fire to create enthusiasm, or a
flower to excite our admiration or win our esteem,
it is now an omen of evil—the synonym of what
is ignorant, intolerant, vicious, and ferocious, as
seen in its organ, the Principia, on page 209.
At the extraordinary meeting called by its Hon.
Sec, in his own Church, at the close of 1859, he
and his Church raised the first war-cry in our
land, for an account of which see page 99.
Since then the war passions have been let loose,
the war flame has spread far and wide, embattled
squadrons of hostile legions have piled up their
heaps of slain, fertile lands and smiling villages
have been laid waste, churches and barns have
b

XIV

PKEFACE.

been turned into hospitals and crowded with sick
and wounded soldiers, the sighs of orphans and
wails of widows have been made to float on every
breeze, the rights of state sovereignties have been
invaded, military governors and provost marshals
with unlimited powers have been called into existence, the Habeas Corpus Act has been suspended,
and martial law proclaimed, our land has been
filled with spies, informers, and conscripts, forts,
jails, and dungeons, with inner wards, marked
No. 4, have been thrown open to swell the prison
rolls with persons against whom no accusation has
been brought, and to whom no opportunity for
self-defence has been given; deacon-inquisitors, in
the persons of the Gordons and Washburns, with
their apparatus of torture, have appeared on the
stage in the terrible drama that is now being
enacted; clergymen, as well as brigadier-generals
and grave judges, have taken up the bugle to
sound the war-blast, and to call up new recruits
for the army; contractors have put in their sickles
and reaped a rich harvest from the demands created
by the war ; an enormous war-tax has been placed
like a heavy burden on the shoulders of the people;
a more enormous debt has been made to hang over
their heads like the sword of Damocles; gold, the
barometer of commerce, has been made to indicate
a coming storm of financial sorrow and distress,
and through the hot pressure of misguided zealots,
the " beloved Union," like a rotten piece of ice, has

PREFACE.

XV

been brought into the rapids, and is nearing the
verge of the rocks where it will soon disappear
beneath the foaming cataract, to be hurled into the
region of annihilation for ever. And, to the above,
a cup of hatred and deep resentment has been put
into the hands of the different combatants, whose
bitter ingredients will probably be drunk by them
and their descendants for generations to come, and
also a cup of privation and suffering has been put
into the hands of multitudes of innocents in other
countries, to be drained in consequence of the barricades of our blockade, the more stringent tariff,
and a blasted commerce, created by our unnatural
fratricidal, savage, inhuman, and wicked war.
Gigantic efforts have been put forth by the
Federalists to subdue the South and restore the
Union as it was. Their task was only to be a
" ninety days " wonder, and the requiem of " treason," so-called, was to be sung by succeeding generations to the end of time; but Generals Lee,
Stonewall Jackson, and Stuart have made the task
too formidable for them. And according to the
testimony of the " New Yorker," in his " Narrative
of Adventures in the Eebel Army," has revealed a
scene of unity, self-sacrifice, generosity, and devotion in their struggles for independence in the
South, that their invaders in the North might
envy.
" On the great question of the struggle/' he tells
us, " there is perfect unanimity—rich and poor, of

xvi

PREFACE.

all grades and both sexes, being determined to aid
the Government to their utmost until the struggle
is brought to a successful end. The discipline of
the armies is admirable. Here and there a drunken
riot may occur amongst raw Irish recruits; or
there is grumbling when pay is in arrears for more
than a few weeks, or a soldier impressed (like the
New Yorker) against his will is guilty of desertion;
but the control of officers over men is complete.
In the camps there is abundance of provision; in
the Ordnance, an actual excess of stores. Every
white man who can fight is ready to enlist. The
women display the same spirit. At every town
where regiments come, the ladies hasten out
to meet them with fruit, flowers, and wine. In
the hospitals, the women of highest rank and
most delicate nurture are not content with serving as nurses, like Florence Nightingale and her
staff, but exert thamselves to turn the convalescent wards into drawing rooms. They not only
bring with them daily supplies of kitchen dainties,
but they decorate the rooms with the best furniture
of their own homes, and spend hour after hour in
singing to the soldiers, or playing to them on pianos.
Speaking of the Selma hospital, the New Yorker
says : " Here, again w^e were burdened with kindness from the ladies. Wines, jellies, strawberries^
cakes, flowers were always abundant, served by
beautiful women with the most bewitching smiles.
. . , . The young ladies vied with each other

PBEFACE.

xvii

in delectating us with the ' Marsellaise/ 'Dixie/ and
like patriotic songs, interspersing occasionally something about moonlight walks in Southern bowers,
&c, which my modesty would not allow me to suppose had any reference to the tall young surgeon."
One of these same Selma ladies, on her lover seeming disinclined to enlist, sends him a lady's skirt and
crinoline, with the brief note, " Wear these or volunteer." Even misers become generous under the influence of patriotism. At Mobile, an old gentleman,
^hose avarice is notorious, enters the hospital with
a roll of bank bills in his hands, and passing from
cot to pot, gives to each wounded man a five-dollar
bill, l< repeating, with a spasmodic jerk of his head
and a forced smile, ' Make j^ourself comfortable;
make yourself comfortable, my good fellow f" Not
only dp churches, court-houses, factories, plantations,
and public institutions contribute their bells to the
Government foundries, but private houses are stripped
of their metal fittings for the good of the State.
"The people/'' says the New Yorker, "furnished
large quantities of old brass of every description;
and irons, candlesticks, gas-fixtures, and even door
knobs. I have seen waggon-loads of these lying at
railway depots, waiting shipment to the foundries."
Speaking of the exceptional acts of needless brutality
which are features of a hard-fought field, the writer
says—" I must do the rebel officers the justice to
state, that they always condemned them, and warned

xviii

PREFACE.

us against acts not sanctioned by the laws of civilised
warfare/'
In his review of the Southern Ordnance, which,
he reports, is in no danger of failing, the New
Yorker says that the finest cannon and small arms
have come from England. We can give him another fact for this section of his book, when the
second edition, is called for. The Southern agents,
who at the beginning of the war were buying arms
in London to the full extent of their resources, now
say to the gunsmiths, "We don't want to buy any
more arms. We take more than we want!'
Some of the anecdotes given of Southern officers
are worthy of preservation :—
"The hardships of Fort Wright were here renewed
—that is, hard work and harder drill. At one time
we worked twelve hours out of every thirty-six, so
that every other work-turn came at night. Generals
Polk, Pillow, Cheatham, and M'Gown were present
day and night, encouraging the men wTith words of
cheer. General Pillow at one time dismounted and
worked in the trenches himself, to quiet some dissatisfaction which had arisen. The night was dark
and stormy, the men were worn out, and many gave
utterance to their dissatisfaction at having to work
on such a night. General Pillow was sitting on his
horse near by, and occasionally urging on the men
the necessity of pressing on with the work; when
an old Mexican war veteran, named W. H. Thomas,
who was allowed some little latitude by his general,

PREFACE.

xix

called out, c Old Gid, if you think there is so much
hurry for this work, suppose you get down and help
us a while/ The general, seeing that he had an
opportunity to gain popularity with the men, dismounted, and laying aside his sword and cloak,
worked for several hours. This was a feather in his
cap, in the eyes of the poor fellows, for many a day."
Among other stories told of Capt» J. H. Morgan,
the guerilla leader, are the following:—
"Morgan, as a citizen in times of peace, maintained
the reputation of a generous, genial, jolly, horseloving, and horse-racing Kentuckian. He went into
the rebellion con a7)%ore> and pursues it with high
enjoyment. He is about thirty-five years of age,
six feet in height, well made for strength and agility,
and is perfectly master of himself; has a light complexion, sandy air, and generally wears a moustache,
and a little beard on his chin. His eyes are keen,
bluish grey in colour, and when at rest, have a sleepy
look, but he sees every one and every thing around
him, although apparently unobservant. He is an
admirable horseman, and a good shot. As a leader
of a battalion of cavalry, he has no superior in the
rebel ranks. His command of his men is supreme.
While they admire his generosity and manliness,
sharing with them all the hardships of the field, they
fear his more than Napoleonic severity for any departure from enjoined duty. His men narrate of
him this—that upon one occasion, when engaging in
a battle, he,directed one of his troopers to perform

XX

PBEFACE.

a hazardous mission in the face of the enemy. The
man did not move. Morgan asked, in short, quick
words, 'Do you understand my orders?'—'Yes,
captain, but I cannot obey/
' Then, good-bye,'
said Morgan, and in a moment the cavalryman fell
dead from his saddle. Turning to his men, he
added, ' Such be the fate of every man disobeying
orders in the face of an enemy/ No man ever hesitated after that to obey any command. But Morgan
is not without generosity to a foe. A Federal
cavalryman related to me, since my escape, an unusual act for an enemy. Losing the command of
his wounded horse, which, goaded by pain, plunged
wildly on, he was borne into the midst of Morgan's
force. (Don't shoot him !' cried Moagan to a dozen
of his men who raised their pistols ; i give him a
chance for his life/ The pistols were lowered, and
the man went back to his own lines unharmed."
The "soldier's death" of General Albert Sidney
Johnson is thus described :—
" When I had come within about ten rods of
Johnson's staff, a shell burst in the air about equidistant from myself and the staff. . The missiles of
death seemed to fill the air in every direction, and
almost before the fragments had found their restingplace, I reined up my horse and saluted. General
Johnson, who was in front of his staff, had turned
away his horse, and was leaning a little forward,
pressing his right knee against the saddle. In a
moment, and before the despatch was delivered, the

PREFACE.

xxi

staff discovered that their leader was wounded, and
hastened to his assistance. A piece of the shell,
whose fragments had flown1 so thick around me as
I came up, had struck his thigh half way between
his hip and knee, and cut a wide path through,
severing the femoral artery. Had he been instantly
taken from his horse and a tourniquet applied, he
might perhaps have been saved. When reproached
by Governor Harris, chief of staff and his brotherin-law, for concealing his wound while his life-blood
was ebbing away, he replied, with true nobility of
soul, 'My life is nothing to the success of this
charge; had I exclaimed I was wounded when the
troops were passing, it might have created a panic
and defeat/ In ten minutes after he was lifted
from his horse he ceased to breathe."
"With the same glorious resolution to do his duty
to the last, fell Brigadier-General Gladden, of South
Carolina:—
"Brigadier-General Gladden, of South Carolina,
who was in General Bragg's command, had his left
arm shattered by a ball on the first day of the fight.
Amputation was performed hastily by his staffsurgeon on the field; and then, instead of being
taken to the rear for quiet and nursing, he mounted
his horse, against the most earnest remonstrances
of all his staff, and continued to command. On
Monday, he was again in the saddle, and kept it
during the day; on Tuesday he rode on horseback
to Corinth, twenty miles from the scene of action,

xxii

PREFACE.

and continued to discharge the duties of an officer.
On Wednesday, a second amputation, near the
shoulder, was necessary, when General Bragg sent
an aid to ask if he would, not be relieved of his
command. To which he replied, ' Give General
Bragg my compliments, and say that General Gladden will only give up his command to go into his
coffin.'
Against the remonstrances of personal
friends, and the positive injunctions of the surgeons,
he persisted in sitting up in his chair, receiving
despatches and giving directions, till Wednesday
afternoon, when lockjaw seized him, and he died in
a few moments. A sad end was this, for a man
possessing many of the noblest and most exalted
eh aract eristics. *'
The above picture shews that the Southerns are
thoroughly in earnest, and demonstrates as one of
your own oracles has avowed in connexion with the
British Cabinet, that "Jefferson Davis has made a
nation/'
But other elements of bitterness and strife have
been infused into the war-cry for the Union, one of
these is the destruction of slavery, not because it is
inherently sinful and criminal in itself; but because
it threatens the existence of the Union. " If need
be" say the crusaders of the North, "slavery must
bend to the great purpose of restoring the Union,
and crushing out the last living and manifested
fibre of rebellion/' in proof of which see page 436.
Extermination, therefore, is now the order of the

PREFACE.

xxiii

day. And under its fierce demands the " grand
army of the Potomac" must make another advance,
and the President issue a proclamation of the slave's
deliverance, although he himself had given the public to understand that it would be as inoperative as
" a Pope's Bull against a comet.'' And, accordingly,
the whole civilized world has been startled with its
announcement, not as an act of mercy, or measure
of justice to the slave, but a military necessity, or
brutum fulmen to frighten the " rebels," so called,
into subjection.
These things have given a new edge of exasperation to the united South; and should a servile insurrection be added to the horrors of our fratricidal
war, St. Domingo and Cawnpore scenes of rapine,
lust, and murder would be multiplied, and cover
the vast regions of the South, except the Southerns
made a counter proclamation and armed the slaves
to help them to drive their invaders from the South.
And in such a case they would roll back the tide
of war from their shores and frontiers with the
might of invincible power and ease; then what
would become of our great political Juggernaut
which Our ecclesiastical bigots have so reverently
worshipped and adored. Then the existence of the
South would not be so much threatened as the
North.
The editor of Blackwood's Magazine in his November monthly, says—" If separation takes place,
New York will cease to be the entrepot of the

xxiv

PKEFACE.

Southern trade. The ' Empire City/ which has
grown fat on that trade, will dwindle—will become
stationary or actually decline; while Charleston,
Mobile, and New Orleans will go ahead. That first
act of barbarism, the choking up of the harbour of
Charleston with stone-laden vessels, showed the
bitter jealousy of the New-Yorkers, and their desire
to obliterate the very existence of a rival port in
the South. New York must come down from its
high place, half of its merchants will be beggars, if
the South takes its trade into its own keeping. And
what is New York, whose fall is thus threatened ?
It is the very heart of the North: it is the centre
of its resources, the seat of nearly all the available
wealth and ready money. It is its bankers and
merchants who take the State-loans; but for them
Mr. Chase might shut up his office to-morrow. And
who but they have been foremost in equipping
regiments, and offering bounties for recruits ? Pariots ?—they are but worshippers of the (almighty
dollar/ They give their money lavishly, in order
that they may retain the source from which their
money comes. They do not desire emancipation,
nor a servile war; for that means the ruin of their
customers; but some of them assent to the proclamation, in the hope that it may force the South
into submission, and others because if the South is
to go free, and if Southern trade is to seek other
channels, they will rather see the South a desert,
than other cities rising into rivalry with New York,

PREFACE.

XXV

with the gains which formerly poured into Yankee
pockets."
But-be the above as it may, our Northern army
will have plenty of work on its hands amidst the
fury of Southern desperation. It is wonderful to
contemplate that, amidst the boundless assumptions
put forth by our American people in regard to
" freedom/' a war of subjugation should have been
entered on to rob each other of its "exuberance" of
liberty, and that the talismanic words, " On to
Eichmond," should have floated on every Northern
and Western breeze, and have been wafted from
Maine to California, and from the shores of Lake
Superior to Cape Cod. But it is more wonderful
still, that a people who avow that the names of the
Puritans are stamped in broadest characters on the
rocky tablet of their history, and that their faith,
principles and deeds are being transmitted down to
those who shall come after them with brightening
lustre, that they are now raising the cry of extermination ! The editor of Blackwood's Magazine, in
the able article to which we have referred, says:—
" It is extraordinary the amount of ferocity which
exists among the population of the Northern States,
especially among the Puritans of the New England
States. The clergy, who are entirely dependent on
their congregations, show themselves on this, as on
former occasions, ready to pander to the worst passions of the people, and even take the lead in expressions of ferocity. Even in the churches the war

xx vi

PREFACE.

fever rages. ' Twenty churches of a night/ writes
Manhattan from New York, ' hold prayer-meetings
to get recruits/ And what is the language of the
clergy on these occasions ? Here is an instance :
The Eev. W. J. Sloane, pastor of the Third Reformed Presbyterian Church of New York, was
reported in the newspapers to have said, in a speech
abounding with similar atrocities, ' th%b it was
better that the six millions of white men, women,
and children of the South should be slaughtered
than that slavery should not be extinguished;'. and
being censured by an editor for expressing such
atrocity, Mr. Sloane replied that what he really said
was only as follows: ' But suppose emancipation
should lead to insurrection ? Let this, which I by
no means admit, be for the time granted; then I
affirm that it is better, far better, that every man,
woman, and child in every rebel State should
perish in one widespread, bloody, and indiscriminate slaughter; better that the land should be a
Sahara; be as when God destroyed the Canaanites,
or overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, than that this
rebellion should be successful/
General Wadsworth, who has been nominated by the Republicans
as their candidate for the governorship of New
York, expresses the feeling of his party in no less
ferocious terms. 'We intend/ he says, f to hold the
country together at whatever cost of life, blood,
and suffering. We will devastate it, if necessary,
but not survive its dismemberment/"

PEEFACE.

xxvii

Its dismemberment is certain, and therefore these
men of violence had better make suitable and
speedy preparation for their exit.
The author has been reproached and villified, and
followed with savage vehemence, both publicly and
privately, because he has put the hot irons of reprobation on our American war, and hurled the
thunderbolt of indignation at Cheever, Beecher,
Mrs. Stowe, Good el, and the whole fraternity of our
religious crusaders, who are now displaying such
inhuman zeal to fill up the regiments of the "grand
army of the North," so-called, and to fan the war
passion into a flame. I t is pleasing, however, to
him to see his opinions in the above respects, expressed so freely in this volume, confirmed by the
editors of the above ably-conducted journal, and
also by that old veteran reformer and distinguished
philanthrophist, Lord Brougham, in his annual
letter to Lord Radnor, which expresses the modest
hope that the Federal Government will abstain
from exciting a servile insurrection, the only aggravation whereof the deplorable contest is capable.
Such a calamity, he says, is /'more to' be dreaded
by the friends of the negroes than by those of their
masters, for the chief sufferings would be theirs."
And yet no remonstrance has been presented to
these men from the vast and mighty religious organisations of this land, no tocsin of alarm has
been sounded by your religious editors, and the
Churches have looked coldly and silently, if not to

xxviii

PREFACE.

a great extent approvingly on. What evil spirits
can have possessed and obscessed them ? Surely
they must have fallen a prey to some evil influences, or they would have entered their deep, solemn, and earnest protest against the policy of those
who have raised the war cry, and, as with the voice
of thunder, have rebuked those "Christian' Robespierres who have gone forth into the synagogue
and forum crying blood, blood, blood, as if the
churches and ministers had been turned into a carnival of madmen, or a " pack of devouring wolves."
It seems as if the great arch-deceiver of men had
been at work transforming our American clergy and
people into demons, as they are so vehemently
savage for the letting out of blood. And should
your mission have not been successful in putting a
curb on their ferocious passions, it would have been
one of peace, and the blessings of peace would have
been your noble heritage.
Recently a constant succession of changes have
been rung both on the platform and the press controlled by Northern men in this country, on the
sentiments put forth by Southern advocates of
slavery, such as Dr, Barton, a member of the New
Orleans Academy of Science, the Rev. Dr. Palmer,
of the same city, the Hon. James Williams, late
American minister to Turkey, the Editor of the
Richmond Enquirer, Stephens and Jefferson Davis,
and other leading influential men in the South.
And because these men have sought to maintain

PREFACE.

xxix

intact the black heritage of slavery, and to found a
new Government thereon as its chief corner-stone,
this fact has been presented as demonstrative proof
that the Northern States are opposed to slavery,
and that the. present war is in the interests of freedom. But " ours is not a war of emancipation/'
said the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in a sermon
which he preached on the " Island of Two Brothers/'
to a Brooklyn regiment of soldiers. " We cannot
make the war one directly for emancipation constitutionally," writes the Rev. Dr. Baron Stowe, of
Boston, to the Baptist Freeman, Feb. 26th, 1862.
The Rev. Dr. Cheever, in a letter dated April 4th,
1862, and published in the Scottish Press, says:
" I t is not our piety, our sense of duty, our
humanity, or our desire to obey God, that influences us, but only expediency and necessity."
Wendell Phillips, Esq., in his celebrated " Abingdon
Oration/' says: " Better the South should go to-day,
than lose another life to prolong the war on the
present detestable policy. • We shall never have
peace until slavery is destroyed. As long as you
keep the present turtle at the head of the Government you make a pit with one hand and fill
it with the other. Jefferson Davis, if he has
the power, will never take Washington.
Bid
he do so, he knows well that the North would
cry out, as with one voice, "Down with slavery;
down with everything, but save to, us our Republic?
And the uprising masses of the Northern Democ

XXX

PREFACE:

crats, who are now carrying the elections in the
Free States, at once and for ever tear off the mask
from such pretensions, and scatter the false pleas
put forth on behalf of Northern freedom in the war,
like chaff before the wind. So that, whilst the*
South is for slavery, the North i& not against
And it is in vain that the above class of men refer
to the Republican programme, with its clause, " no
more slave territory"—the abolition of slavery in
the. district of Columbia, or to President Lincoln's
proclamation in justification of their pleas—the
Peace Congress that met at Washington to patch
up the Union by offering to the South all territory
south of thirty-six-thirty for new slave states—the
compromise entered into between President Lincoln
and his administration, and the late Judge Douglas
and the Democratic party to restore the old Union
as it was^—the execution of the fugitive slave law
under the worst exasperations in the district of
Columbia, and the recent avowal of Horace Greeley,
in the New York Tribune, that "if the Southerns;
would return to their allegiance to the Federal
Government before the date given for Lincoln's
proclamation to come into operation, the Federal
Government would give them new guarantees for
slavery;"—these> and other accumulations of proof
at hand, make a clean sweep of their refuge of lies.
Black, therefore, as is the picture of the South, the
Northern one is darker and blacker still, since the
hypocrite is worst ehan the libertine. This is now

PREFACE.

XXXI

being made patent to all civilised nations, and will
be indelibly written on the page of history.
At the close of this volume the reader will perceive that the author has met with considerable
favour at the hands of reviewers. Some have taken
up the pen to curse and used it to bless ; others
have separated his statements from the facts given ;
a few have made most grave and ludicrous mistakes', both in regard to the author's spirit, the
.subject matter of his book, and his rich relations,
as if they had never read the ninth commandment,
or had been made acquainted with the fifteenth
Psalm. There are those, too, who have made a regular onslaught on him and his book, which is not
to be wondered at, since this class of reviewers
have doubtless trembled for their " popular deities,"
just as our Unionists in America are now doing
for their idol, the Union; but, as the Herculean
navvy said of his pigmy wife, when she beat him,
" I t pleased her, and did'nt hurt him." But the
most contemptible class are those who have resorted
to concealment, perversion, distortion, falsehood,
assertion without limit, and assumption without
end. One of these, we have been informed, is
called Pagan. On referring to the list of books
on the title-page, this man says, " none of which
we have ever been privileged to see or hear of."
Perhaps not; and for the best of all reasons, if
Mr. Pagan had been a Christian, he would have
taken an interest in Christian books, and probably

xxxii

PREFACE.

not have been so ignorant of the books referred to ;
but should he get an "inkling" after an acquaintance
with the noble truths of Christianity, the author
will be happy to present him with one of the above
elementary treatises of the gospel, more especially
as they have had a wide circulation, shewn in the
sale of fifty thousand copies; and should he desire
to distinguish himself as a temperance reformer,
and become zealously affected in the good work of
taking stumbling-blocks out of the way of the
gospel, he may hear of something to his advantage
by stepping into the League office, Hope Street,
where the good Samaritan, the hon. secretary, will
doubtless give him a tract written by the author,
entitled " Temperance Auxiliary to the Gospel," with
one hundred and forty-eighth thousand copies sold,
marked on the cover. He says, "to all appearance
he (Mr. Baline) stands in great need of the latter
virtue (a heaven-born temper), for he is not evidently
blessed with the temper of Job." All temper is
good or bad ; if not heaven-born it must be Satanic;
as Job's temper was heaven-born, and the author is
not blest with Job's temper, therefore, his temper
must be Satanic; but what proof does he give of
this ? Insinuations are not evidences, The author
is quite aware that he has used strong language,
from the conviction, tjiat deep-rooted disease requires
powerful medicine, Of what avail would be the application of rose-water in such cases! But our
critic proceeds on the assumption that it is deroga-

PKEFACE,

xxxiii

tory to Christian temper to call a spade a spade,
or a falsehood a lie; and manifests a lack of discrimination "between virtuous indignation and anger ;
the author would remind him of the fact, with which
he evidently appears unacquainted, namely, that
our Saviour had a more blessed temper than Job,
and yet he thundered in the ears of transgressors,
" Woe unto you, Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites."
Moreover, if the charge were true, which the
author denies, is our critic the proper person to turn
meek reprover? Passing over an article in the
Glasgow Examiner, headed, " Amenities of Journalism/' October 18, in which the editor of that paper
recommends our reviewer to stand with revolvers at
twelve paces, with the editor of the Daily Review.
Passing over the above, the writer finds, so recently
as the fourteenth day of November, an article from
his pen, in which he speaks of neighbouring editors
as "heaven-born," and as "scribes that lied the
hardest, and asses that brayed the loudest," and
yet claims to have an "unruffled temper," and to
derive "certain consolations" from the following
story, which he recites with great gu^to :—
"At the sessions of a certain Court in America,
the Judge was violently assailed by a hypocritical,
lying, and impudent attorney. To the surprise of
everybody present, the Judge heard him quite
through with great patience, and made no reply.
After the adjournment of the day, and when all had
assembled at the hotel, where the Judge and many

XXXIV

PKEFAGE.

of the officers of the Court had their lodgings, one
of the company, referring to the scene which had
taken place, took leave to ask the Judge why he
had not rebuked the impertinent fellow. ' Permit
me/ said the Judge loud enough to be heard by all
present, among whom was the fellow in question,
' Permit me to tell you a story. My father, when
we lived down country, had a dog, a mere puppy, I
might say. Well, nothing would serve this puppy
but he would go out every moonlight night and
bark at the moon for hours together/ The Judge
paused, as if he had done with his story. ' Well,
what of it ? exclaimed half-a-dozen of the audience
at once. ' Oh ! nothing—Oh, nothing whatever—
the moon kept right on just as if nothing had happened/ 0 modesty, where is thy blush! What
a story on which to point the moral, that those
who live in glass houses should not throw stones !"
Again, our critic says: " Mr. Balme is an abolitionist of the most uncompromising description, and
all the learned divines, lecturers, and pamphleteers
of the New World are slow coaches on this subject
in comparison with the rev. gentleman." From the
disclosures made in this book, it is quite evident
there is needs-be for great improvement amongst the
parties referred to in the New World, whom he designates as " slow coaches/' since their wheels are
filled with the spokes of a crooked policy, and have
become deeply imbedded in the slough of expediency, so that we can assure him any person who

PKEFACE.

XXXV

is "uncompromising" in his character, principles,
and spirit, may be of some service, and the author
presents his grateful acknowledgments for the compliment.
He again says: " Mr. Balme does not appear to
know much about slavery, except by reading and
report, but through these channels he has supped
full of horrors, and the good man groans in spirit
over the wickedness and sufferings of the human
race." The author can assure our reviewer that
what he has seen of slavery has not made it so
familiar to his vision that he could behold no "hideous" features in it. In his estimation he is free to
confess the vicious " chattel" system has not been
transformed into a "virtuous, domestic, or patriarchal institution." And his "supping full of
horrors" and "groaning in spirit" over the wickedness of the slaveholder and negro-hater, and the
sufferings of the down-trodden, present him in the
footsteps of his divine Lord and Master, who had
not only a heart that could feel, but an eye which
shed tears over the wickedness and sufferings of men.
Christianity does not teach men to cherish a philosophical and stoical indifference to human suffering
and woe. And it is no degradation to sob, and
groan, and moan over the condition of so many
millions who are robbed of their " God-given" rights,
or the wilful and chosen infatuation and delusion
of those who practise, tolerate, extenuate, or connive
at such monstrous practices.

XXXvi

PREFACE.

He says, " we have letters from unknown correspondents, and extracts from books, journals, and
speeches, all tending to show that the slaveholders
of the Southern States are a brutalised and accursed
race, totally unfit and undeserving the companionship and sympathy of their fellowmen/' He has
ignored our statement on page 12, where the author
says, " Amongst slaveholders, as others, there are
men who are humane, and also those who are inhuman. When slaves fall into the hands of humane persons they are generally treated with kindness, but when they fall into the hands of men who
are inhuman, they are treated with great brutality;"
and as to the influence of the "barbarisms of
slavery" on the best of men, our reviewer would
do well to study page 1 ] and 12, where "persons
not unknown to fame/' whose names " rise as far
above his own as the blue sky above corruption/'
have pronounced on the " demoralisations of
slavery."
When referring to the " South as a dark prisonhouse, horrible on all sides round," quoting the
paragraph, " There is the auctioneer's hammer, which
has sundered the dearest and tenderest of ties—?
husband, wife, parent, child, sister, brother, lover,
and friend, as if they were so many horses, cattle,
oxen or sheep,—invading the sanctity of private life,
and scattering its sacred rights and treasured en^
dearments to the winds"—when referring to the
above, the editor of the Herald makes himself

PKEFACE.

xxxvii

merry over the construction of the above sentence,
as if the horses and cattle, &c, were made to invade
" the sanctity of private life," &c.
The author concedes that the sentence, made to
read thus, "invading by his terrible vocation" would
be an improvement, with the proper punctuation;
but as slaves in all their relationships are treated
in the slave states of America as "horses and
cattle," and placed in the same category by " slave
laws," and also the Federal " Fugitive Slave Law,"
we must say that our critic, with all his " 'cuteness,"
must be very dull of comprehension not to perceive
at first sight that it was the auctioneer with his
hammer that invaded the sanctity of private life,
and not the slaves, who are described as " resembhng
sheep."
Our reviewer remarks :—•" This is a hideous picture, and one which is doubtless true enough in
some cases; but, for the credit of human nature, it
is to be hoped that scenes like these are the exception and not the rule." Human sales in the slave
states are not the exception but the rule; and the
cases are rare where the feelings of the husband,
wife, parent, child, lover, or friend, are consulted in
those slaves in their separation.
He says, "Mr. Balme's book is full of grandiloquent passages, intended, doubtless, to work upon
the nervous temperaments of women and simpleminded philanthropists;" and then he continues:
"Take the following as a specimen:—'Around on

xxxviii

PREFACE.

its (the South) dismal floors are scattered in great
profusion splinters from their (the slaves) broken
hearts, which, if collected, would form mountainous
piles, lifting themselves on high beyond the power
of man to reach, and rising one above each other
until they are lost in the distance." Commenting
on the above, the editor of the Herald says, " Mr.
Balme has stuck a point of admiration or exclamation at the end of this sentence, and well he might,
for it stands unique in the annals of literary composition. We have heard of broken hearts, and we
are prepared to believe that such things exist, although we never saw them; but who ever heard of
heart splinters being piled up in mountains, until
the topmost pinnacles were cleaving the clouds?
Surely this style of waiting is metaphor run mad,
or a clamjamphray of long-winded words, signifying
nothing at all." In the above remarkable comment, our critic " has heard of broken hearts, and
is prepared to believe that such things exist." If"
they exist, therefore they are not imaginary, but
real; and, being real, if our critic will collect them,
Mr. Balme will engage <l to pile them up in mountains, until the topmost pinnacles were cleaving the
clouds." He adds, " surely this style of writing is
metaphor run mad, or a ' clamjamphray' of longwinded words, signifying nothing at all," and therefore " broken hearts," and the splinters therefrom,
which he believes to exist, " signify nothing at all."
Are there no simple-minded philanthropists, and

PKEFACE.

XXXIX

what he calls " women with nervous temperaments"
in connection with his neighbours at the " Religious
Institution Rooms" who will volunteer to go on a
mission to our critic's office, armed with primers
and catechisms, and St. Luke's gospel, that they
may teach him the nature and uses of metaphor,
induct him into the mysteries of its mystical meaning, by pointing him to the moral disorders and
deficiencies which the metaphorical language of our
Saviour in the 4th chapter of Luke and 18th and
19th verses denote, and their particular application
to the slave? And, when inducted, they might
appropriately employ their time in pointing him to
the broken hearts amongst the slaves, and their
wide-spread sea of bruises, and remind him, without the use of any " clamjamphray" of words, that
the "pile" of their broken hearts was so huge, and
their sea of bruises so vast, that no figure of speech
or stretch of imagination can exceed the reality.
At length, however, he comes to what he calls a
"sell."
" It is a sale by auction evidently, and here follow the various lots :—" A very likely negro man,
aged twenty-six; two hundred thousand feet of
seasoned lumber; fifty acclimated slaves, consisting
of men, women, and children; a number of hogsheads and jowls ; a likely woman and her two children ; ten and a-half barrels of mackerel; a likely
negro, thirty-three years old; one hundred barrels

xl

PREFACE.

of mess pork; several likely negroes; and Mrs.
Gore's new novel, " The Birthright/'
The editor of the Herald remarks: " Now, that
advertisement is evidently a " sell," and Mr. Balme
has been sold when he took it for a genuine article.
It bears the trade-marks of abolition fingers on its
very face, and the man who could not perceive
them must be credulous indeed. There are too
many likely negroes about it to be a likely story;
and the way that a negro " lot" is always slipped in
so very neatly between "lots" of seasoned lumber,
mackerel, and mess pork, and the " The Birthright"
as a wind-up, are strong proofs that the story has
been manufactured to order, and only to be swallowed by "gaping marines." To crown the whole,
the editor significantly remarks—" The above was
taken from the Natchez Daily Whig, date not
named."
Our reviewer has already given us a story about
a Yankee Judge, a hypocritical, lying, and impudent
attorney, and a dog; and be it observed no " date"
is given, or " name !" Now, is there a " gaping
marine" that would swallow such a story as that
about a "Yankee Judge." And yet the author does
not doubt that a dog will bark at the moon. But
there is no evidence to shew that such an incident
occurred in America at all. The above is a rehash
of an old story associated with a new name, and
doubtless pirated by some Yankee Judge to shew

PREFACE.

Xli

his cleverness at the expense of truth, for lying and
piracy are no uncommon things in our "land of the
free and home of the brave." But the above advertisement, which the author cut out of the Natchez
Daily Whig, he can assure his critic was no " sell,"
but a terrible reality. It was printed in his paper,
the Western Olive Branch, at the time, with his
comments thereon. And the above was not a solitary case, as the writer has extracted hundreds of
advertisements from Southern newspapers in which
slaves have been classified with other property for
sale, some of which read, "persons, horses, and
cattle, in lots to suit purchasers." And what is
there to prevent it? No people are better than their
laws; and such is the law of the case in the slave
states. Then comes the finishing touch in his review:—"In short, Mr. Balme's 'American States,
Churches, and Slavery' are something like the
'Tales of the Borders,' that is, historical, traditionary,
and imaginative; and Mr. Balme himself is too
much of an enthusiast to be relied on implicitly as
a standard authority on the vexed question of
slavery." From the above review, the reader will
have no difficulty in detecting the kind of spirit
that lurks under our critic's comments and inuendoes,
and his capacity to judge.
Some of the reviewers have represented him as
cherishing "personal hatred" towards others, and
being at " feud with them." The writer, however,

xlii

PREFACE.

disavows all personal hatred; it is against sin he
wages an "uncompromising" warfare; and whatever
others may say, he hopes to cling to his principles
as the Spartans did to their shields.
In the following letter and comment thereon, b y
Edward Baines, Esq., M.P., one of the editors of the
Leeds Mercury, the reader will perceive that the
author is no recent convert to the cause of freedom.
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

" We have received the following letter from a
minister of religion, relative to the almost universal
prevalence of a sympathy for slavery in the United
States. Perhaps there may be some exaggeration
in i t ; but it confirms the impression we have long
had, that an out-and-out opponent of slavery, who
refuses to hold religious communion with slaveowners, must lead the life of a martyr in that
country. There are indeed great numbers who
abhor slavery ; but in almost every religious community, even in the Free States, there is a majority
who, whilst disliking slavery themselves, decline
to make opposition to it a leading article of their
political and religious creed, and would object to
form either political parties or religious associations
on the basis of thorough and constant antagonism
to the dreadful crime of slave-holding. This fact
has done serious injury to the cause of religion
itself in the United States, because it has preju-

PREFACE.

xliii

diced persons against religious men and bodies who
act thus inconsistently :—
" ' To Edward Baines, Esq., Editor of the Leeds
Mercury.
St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
July 4th, 1855.

" * SIR,—On our arrival in the United States in
1852, we had the impression that the Churches in
the Free States were not connected with those of
the South; but despite their speaking strongly
against slavery, and adopting stringent resolutions
condemnatory of it in their conventional solemnities, we soon found that there was an awful disagreement between their professions and practice;
since pastors of slave-holding churches are everywhere welcome to the desk or pulpit in the free
churches, and to a seat amongst ' Brethren beloved'
at conventional gatherings and in their religious
anniversaries—while Eastern, Western, Northern,
and Southern Churches are all linked together in
the organizations of the Bible, Tract, and other
great religious societies. That stern material called
principle appears to be so universally lost sight of,
that it can nowhere be found as the basis of operation in the Church, the expediency doctrine being
its miserable substitute; and amongst the religious
communities who profess to reeognise principle,
there is an entire amalgamation in action of the
pro and con; so that Free-will Baptists and Non-

xliv

PREFACE.

Free-willers, Free Missionists and Non-Free Missionists, meet in cordial greetings, and, linked in
fraternal embrace, can he seen in loving fellowship
acting together, as they throw a plummet in to
sound the depths of each other's experience, and
talk over the sweet mercy and love of God.
" f Throughout the Free States, where is the
minister of Jesus Christ to be found who may not
be arrested and condemned for high treason in the
betrayal of his commission in dealing with slavery,
both in the way of direct transgression and omission—yes, from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
down to the most ordinary minister ?
" ' Members of Churches in the Free States hold
the key to open the door of the house of bondage,
and yet, though the chains of three and a half millions of slaves clank in their ears and ask them to
set them free, they look on them with the most
stolid indifference.
" ' And editors of the religious press, who profess
to take the key-bugle and sound sound an alarm in
God's holy mountain, sink generally into the gulf of
laxity, and speak of men holding slaves and not
loving the Lord Jesus much; and also show the
greatest eagerness to place on record in their journals the ' revivals of religion' in slaveholding
churches ! which mean the extension of a spirit in
the churches of the South that reads the Scriptures,
sings psalms, offers prayers, gives lengthy orations
on the obedience of the slave to the master, places

PKEFACE.

xlv

men, women, and children on bills of sale with
seasoned lumber, hogsheads, and jowls, and appropriate monies derived from the blood-cemented
traffic of slavery to high and holy uses, either in
sending missionaries to Turkey or India. Having
called attention to these things from the pulpit and
by the press—by the fireside and wayside—every
door of usefulness in the church has been closed
against us, and every indignity and inconvenience
to which we could be subject, has been meted out
to us. Having shaken off the dust ^ of our feet
against the impurity and laxity of the American
Church, we have been honoured with the most
opprobrious names—charged with dishonesty, because we have refused to give up church property
made over to us in consequence of a personal investment of money—had our house dwelling rent
x advanced by the application of church officers to the
proprietor—had fences torn down in our beautiful
little farm—a valuable colt shot in the hind legs
—and had our own persons violently assaulted and
our lives threatened. A year ago I went to Canada,
but found no opening there available; and our private letters of introduction, which were sent to Dr.
Pyper, of Toronto, have been withheld, although
repeated applications have been made for them.
Apart from the church, no truly honest Englishman
can live here, unless he brings the means of subsistence with him ; and in the church no English
minister can breathe unless he bows his neck to the
d

xivi

PREFACE.

yoke of servility, and compromises the last item of
principle which he possesses; hence your readers
may judge of the anomalous position of the English
clergy who are in active service in the American
church.
" ' So soon as we can dispose of our private property it is our intention to return to old happy
England, which, with all its faults, we still regard
with feelings of undying attachment and love.
" ' Yours respectfully,
" ' J . R BALME/"

GLASGOW, November 15, 1862.

PKEFACE.

xlvii

In the comment made by Mr. Baines on the
above letter, he says : " There are great numbers
who abhor slavery, but in almost every religious
community, even in the Free States, there is a
majority, who, whilst disliking slavery themselves,
decline to make opposition to it a leading article of
their political and religious creed, and would object
to form religious parties or religious associations on
the basis of thorough and constant antagonism to
the dreadful crime of slaveholding." A strong
minority in 1855 would have wrought wonderful
changes in America, on the basis of a " thorough
and constant antagonism" to slavery and negro
hatred ; but not to speak of a majority, the author
would be glad to hear the names of those at that
period, amongst the minority, who disfellowshipped
the slaveholder and negro hater, and honestly and
fairly acted out their principles—he would not say
there were none such, but he did not know of any
when he wrote the above letter. There were many
who claimed the exalted position and honour, but
few who have proved themselves worthy of it like
the noble hero and martyr, John Brown.
Again, Mr. Baines says, " This fact has done
serious injury to the cause of religion itself in the
United States, because it has prejudiced persons
against religious men and bodies who act thus
inconsistently."
Many, like Mr. Baines, have made the above
concessions so far as the Southern Churches and

xlviii

PREFACE.

clergy are concerned, but claim exemption for the
Northern ones. The Rev. George Gilfillan, in a
sermon reported in the Glasgow Herald, Dec. 24,
1862, on Stonewall Jackson, exclaims, "Whenever
an American sceptic was at a loss for an argument,
he had only to raise a finger and point South ;"
we would remind him that the same sceptic, with
greater force, and more terrible sarcasm, may turn
and point to the inconsistencies of Northern professors (p. 225). It is most strange that Russell,
in his Diary, " North and South," should have
fallen into the same mistake. But it is urged by
the abettors of the North in this country, that
there have been great changes toward slavery;
there was great necessity for this when John
Bright, in a recent speech at Birmingham, said,
that " but for the secession of the South, nothing
bat a miracle could have hastened the destruction
of slavery." In such a case, the majestic uprising
of the masses for liberty in the North would have
been mere phantoms of the imagination.
Are
they less so now, when, after all their efforts to
preserve slavery and the Union, the overwhelming
mass of the Unionists point to slavery, and exclaim,
if need be, we must destroy slavery to preserve the
Union. And in this religious military crusade for
the preservation of the Union, we find Emancipationists leagued in close fellowship, and making
common cause with negro haters to make the sword
leap from its scabbard at the throats of slave-

PREFACE.

x

lix

holders; but if, as they say, it is right to do this,
because they are slaveholders, is it not equally so
to use the same means to destroy the lives of
negro haters with whom they are now in intimate
companionship ? , How dishonourable ! What a
triumph to the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Recently, a body of Evangelical Christians in
France, in an address issued by them in favour of
the North, assumed that the doctrines and principles disseminated by Northern Churches and people
were based on a love of liberty; and the old pretexts used as a cover to mask their real sentiments
and covert zeal are enumerated to enlist sympathy
on their behalf, the enumeration of which are eliciting the sneers of some of our Northern abolitionists
under the name of " Gradualism.1'
The author presumes that the people of Liverpool will sit easy under the unfounded charge of
abetting slavery by the Eev. Dr. Cuyler, because of
contributions to aid the Confederates to establish
their independence; and they can well smile at
the novel assault to be made on them—"not to
open batteries, but butteries" and "sack their
town with sacks of flour." But what position
would Cuyler, Baird, Grosvenor, Graham, Cheever,
Ward Beecher, the multitudes of our religious war
crusaders, occupy in an assault on themselves by
the " modern unbelievers" of the present age ?
How would they withstand their attacks ? And

I

PREFACE.

what a grand scene for a painting it would be to
, see those limping crippled " war crusaders" after
the assault, borne on the backs of British Christians whom they had succeeded in blinding, amidst
the derision and scorn of infidel jesters, into the
camp of the enemy, to be the sport of the Philistines.
The following illustration serves to show the
different treatment which our American proslavery
clergy, and an uncompromising abolitionist, receives at the hands of a Scottish critic in the
United Presbyterian Magazine for December 1862,
in a review of two books, one of which is headed
" Christian Faith and Practice," and the other
" American States, Churches, and Slavery."
When referring to the writer of the former, the
IT. P. critic says, " The author of this work has,
with others of the name, shed a lustre on American
theological literature." In allusion to the latter, he
enquires, "Who is the Rev. J. Balme?" To which,
he says, "The book before us furnishes us with
two very different answers to this question. The
one directly from his own pen, which tells us he is
an American clergyman, an author skilled in
natural philosophy—for is he not the author of
the ' Lever of the Gospel/ the e Magnet of the Gospel/ &c.; a descendant of the Puritans, a disinterested opposer of slavery, a sufferer in the cause of
the poor slave, a much-injured and ill-used man,

PBEFACE.

li

who considers himself a reformer, to whom the
words of the poet are applicable—
* Him shall the scorn and wrath of men pursue with deadly aim,
And malice, envy, spite, and wrath shall desecrate his name.'

The other an inference from the facts stated in the
book, supplied by many who at first espoused the
author's cause, but afterwards saw reason to change
their opinions, and by those very testimonials
which form an appendix to the volume. And this
is the answer," which the U. P. critic professes to
gather from the contents of the book : "A restless,
flighty minister, unsettled in his habits, combining
in one the duties of a minister, landed proprietor,
and newspaper editor. Better that he kept more
closely by his ministry, and remembered the apostolic words, that the ' love of money is the root of
all evil/ "Whoever he be, he has come to this
country as a friend of the slave, ruined in advocating this cause; while the truth seems to be, that
his private speculations failed, and he, a ruined
man, has come to this country to try and raise a
little money as an anti-slavery lecturer. His story
reminds us very much of a well-known streetpreacher, who itinerated between Glasgow and
Edinburgh. He was imprisoned in one of the
country towns on the charge of stealing a sovereign, and when liberated used to inform his audience that he had just been liberated from prison,
into which he had been thrown for the Word of

lii

PKEFACE.

God's sake. So Mr. Balme, ruined by his own
follies, casts it all upon the cause which he thought
most likely to excite sympathy here—the cause of
the poor slave. The author is an American, but a
very unpatriotic one, devoting no small part of his
book to running down his fellow-countrymen who
happen to be opposed to his sentiments^ and to
reopening such old sores as the Trent difficulty. If
he expect to gain sympathy in this country by
means such as these, he will soon find himself, if
he has not already found himself, looked upon with
suspicion and distrust."
The topics in the former volume., the U. P. Critic
says, has given the opportunity for exhibiting great
variety of excellence, as well as the results of deliberate thought, to a mind of no ordinary acquirements and vigour. Concerning the latter he says,
" As a whole, the book is really worthless. It has
no practical aim, unless it be that of raising money.
It consists of detached notes on America—an unsparing abuse of his enemies and of the Free Church
of Scotland, which very properly refused to fraternise with him before they knew what manner of
man he was/' The opening discourse in * Christian
Faith and Practice/ on Modern Unbelief," he says,
" is a precious and most seasonable warning, which
we would gladly see circulated by thousands in the
trying' and perilous crisis of religious history on
which it is evident we in this country are now
entering/'

PREFACE.

liii

The U. P. Critic says, " We turned to the preface in ' American States, Churches, and Slavery/
to discover the author s object in writing his book,
but we searched in vain, the preface being devoted
to a somewhat lengthy argument, proving that
Canada is largely inhabited by British who detest
slavery."
The U. P. Critic says, "We proceed to give from
another part of the former volume a specimen of
the work, which, we are persuaded, will do more
than anything we can say to show its character,
and secure for it the early and earnest attention of
our readers :—- *
' If the Keformation did no more, it taught us,
that among the cinders of that old altar lay coals
of fire, which needed but the stirring and the
heavenly breath to make1 them flame up to heaven.
All the stories of romance wither and seem insipid
when compared with Keformation history.
You
cannot read an hour about Luther, Calvin, Zwingle,
Melancthon, Knox, or Melville, without feeling that
you are communing with men. They had something to live for. They had some principles to die
for. There were doctrines at stake. It is a symptom of the wretched, flaccid, pulseless condition of
sundry in our day, that they never speak of theology, of catechisms, of doctrinal sermons, but with
a sneer. The religion which they would like, if,
indeed, they have thought enough to know their
own mind, would be all sentimentality and all soft-

liv

PREFACE.

ness. Their weakened mental organs reject the
strong meat. Know ye, O my beloved young
friends, that manly bone, sinew, and muscle do
not form themselves on the emollient regimen of
Christianity without doctrines. The men who, of
old, went to the stake, went for doctrines. These
doctrines they had learned in the Scriptures, elaborated in meditation, methodized in system, preached
to listening thousands, digested in the succinct
formulas of definition, and left for us, their children, in those permanent crystals of the Eeformed
Catechisms, which are scoffed at by amiable wits
and religious petit maitres. Men—men, who can
stand fast in the faith, who can stand alone, who
have vertebral columns, who can bear, who can
forbear, who can advance, who on due summons
can strike,—men, armed with the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left—that is,
with sword and shield—are bred in great study of
God's Word, and great familiarity with those high
evangelic truths which are the motive powers of
the spiritual universe.'"
In speaking of the latter book, the Critic says,
" not that the book is so utterly unreadable, for the
author writes well on two of his subjects—Slavery,
and John Brown of Harper's Ferry, the latter of
which will repay a perusal.
"As a specimen of what the author can write,
take the following on slavery :—
'And opening up to your view there are also

PREFACE.

Iv

drops of sorrow and grie£ flowing so profusely from
their deep gashes, gaping wounds, putrifying sores,
and bruised spirits, so as to form a sea of misery
that no human plummet or line has ever yet
fathomed. And yet those vast multitudes in that
dark prison-house are robed with the same nature
as yourself, endowed with the same grand attributes, understanding, memory, will, judgment, affections, and conscience, which are lodged in the
depths of their being, constituting them grand links
in being's endless chain, midway from nothing save
the Deifcy, making them responsible to Him for
their opportunities of receiving instruction and doing good, and associating them with the boundless
duration of one eternal scene beyond the grave.5
" I t is, however, futile to endeavour to select
what is really good out of such a mass of rubbish,
and we leave the task to those who can find time
to read such publications as this."
One author is garlanded and charioted, the other
reviled, crowned with infamy, and gibbeted with
scorn, and after being classified with the " congregation of the dead," has had his lips stuffed with
slanderous sentiments, his name associated with
thieves and scoundrels, whilst the most false and
calumnious charges have been brought against him
—that he is a restless, flighty minister, unsettled
in his habits, has been ruined by speculation, is
imposing on the benevolent by casting the ruin of
his follies on the cause of the poor slave, is unpatri-

lvi

PEEFACE.

otic, and cherishes an unsparing abuse of his enemies and the Free Church of Scotland, &c, and
with the above there is coupled, by h|s defamer, a
special request to remember the Apostolic words,
that the " love of money is the root of all evil," as
•if he had never practised self-denial, cherished selfsacrifice in seeking to promote the interests of
Christ's cause, or felt the noble impulses of generosity. But the reader is requested to ponder well
the character and position of the author of "Christian Faith and Practice," whom the U* P. Gritic
introduces to public favour, and delights to honour
with others of the name,—the difference that exists between them and the author, whose name is
cast out as evil, whose person is contemned and
despised, and against all this manner of evil is
spoken falsely. From the foundation of the government of the United States of America national
dangers have been increasing, through the connivance at, forbearance with, and ultimate endorsement
of, the fearful sins and crimes of slavery, and negrohatred by the clergy and laity of' our land, a source
of criminality which has produced the " Modern
Unbelief" referred to, by the author of " Christian
Faith and Practice," and caused our country to go
clanking down the abyss of ruin.
These dangers brought with them duties and
obligations of the highest order and most responsible character, which were binding on citizens and
Christians, magistrates and divines; whilst sur-

PREFACE.

lvii

rounded by them there was abundant scope for
" Christian Faith and Practice," the exercise of
" principles/' and the dissemination of " doctrines "
that ;were worth living and dying for. O that we
had had the men " bred in the great study of God's
Word, and great familiarity with those high evangelical truths which are the motive powers of the
spiritual universe,"—the men who could " stand
fast in the faith," who could " stand alone,"—the
men " who had vertebral columns, who could bear
and forbear, advance and strike, armed with the
armour of righteousness on the right hand and on
the left—such men as Luther, Calvin, Zwingle,
Melancthon, and Knox,"—if indeed we had had
such men amongst the descendants of tlie Puritans,
our country would not now have been laid waste
with ruin, made desolate with the sword, or turned
into a field of rapine, lust, fire, slaughter, and blood.
But may we not look for such men, and hope to
find them in the " Alexanders," who, by the U. P.
Critic, are introduced with such a flourish of trumpets. If you turn over the pages of the " Biblical
Repertory," to which they were special contributors,
you will find no protests from their pens against
the wilful perversions of the Scriptures, and the
monstrous doctrines which were therein advocated,
p. 346. If you look over the reports of the American Board of Missions, and examine its long list of
slaveholding and negro-hating members and directors, you will find none of the grand characteristics

Iviii

PREFACE.

in the Alexanders which distiDgnished the noble
jand of the old reformers, who, in contradistinction
to them, not only rejected the doctrines of inhuman
bondage and one man's inferiority to another, but
spurned from their embrace " Christian" slaveholders and negro-haters, so called. Just imagine the
Alexanders propounding our American new-fangled
theories and doctrines of liberty for the white man,
to the exclusion of the black man—" theories and
doctrines which they had elaborated in meditation,
methodized in system, preached to listening thousands, digested in the distinct formulas of definition,
and left for their children in those permanent crystals
of what are called ' Keformed Catechisms.' " Imagine the Alexanders propounding the above theories
and doctrines to such men as Theodore Parker,
William Lloyd Garrison, Ealph Waldo Emerson,
Frederick Douglas, or any of our modern Pantheists
and unbelievers, who make virtue their "god," and
discard the Scripture theory that the life is in the
sacrificial blood (Deut. xii. 23); and would it not
require the pencil of Hogarth to describe the biting
sarcasms, as well as the scenes of ribaldry and scorn,
which their teachings would create ?
The " Christian Faith and Practice" so called of
such preachers in our land have been a delusion,
mockery, snare. From their lips or pens have proceeded no elaborate treatises, burning paragraphs,
talismanic or household words, or heroic deeds to
guide our country or quicken the languid, moral

PEEFACE.

lix

pulse of the people in this dark hour of danger.
They, therefore, lack the evidence that the Heavenly
Breath found any doctrines or principles, like coals
of fire lying among the cinders of depravity, under
the altars of their hearts, that He would or " could
stir, or make to flame up towards heaven." Such
men at the close of their eloquent sermons on
"Modern Unbelief" and the "Keformation," like
Satan at the close of an exultant speech to his congress of devils, according to Milton in his sublime
poem, " Paradise Lost," may wait for the world's
applause, but, as in the case of Satan, instead of a
shout of triumph, there will be one loud, deep, protracted, universal hiss. It has been the author's
honour and happiness, for many years, to stand in
the old paths, and endeavour to walk in the good
ways of true piety; and although he has lived very
far beneath his privileges, he can attest to the
sublime satisfaction which he feels in having endangered position, property, and future prosperity,
when by a slight deviation from the noble principles
of Christianity, he could have enjoyed the sweets
of office, the pleasures of worldly wealth, and the
world's applause. This course has made him singular, placed him under the ban of proscription,
cut him off from the transaction of ordinary business, made him an exile from home, caused the
shafts of calumny to be hurled against him, and his
name to be cast out as evil amongst men. What
an illustration is this of the different treatment

lx

PREFACE.

between false Reformers and true ones! And yet
the U. P. Critic, when he penned the above articles
in his review would doubtless, be surrounded by
pictures in his room of the "Reformation Struggle"
in Scotland, in which Knox, Melville, and their coreformers are represented as bequeathing their
labours to posterity, swearing to preserve them,
whilst in some of the stirring scenes their fiery
heart-and-soul earnestness is described in pointing
to the solemn covenant to which the people are
subscribing, and enjoining them to maintain it, and
hand it down to posterity unimpaired in its lustre.
It is no wonder that the reviewer of the U. P.
Magazine in the Morning Journal, December ] Oth,
when he comes to the TJ. P. Critics review of the
"American States, Churches, and Slavery," should
say, " We do not think so meanly of Mr. Balme or
his book, but de gustibus"
Pass it along, therefore, that the charges preferred against the author
of this book, and endorsed by the U. P. Critic, are
not true, but wicked and false. To each and all of
them the author gives his emphatic and indignant
denial, and is prepared to meet the above charges
openly and publicly. To shield his malignant attack, the IT. P. Critic says, " Many who at first
espoused the author's cause, afterwards saw reason
to change their opinion," and that those men " supplied facts stated in the book/' The statements,
miscalled "facts" w^ere from the " Principia," and
the editor of that paper, the Rev. William Goodel,

lxi

PEEFACE.

now co-editor with the Rev. Geo. B. Cheever, D.D.,
in the same journal—this Rev. William Goodel has
declared what he knows to be false, and if the
reader will turn to page 209, and ponder over the
calumnies he has heaped upon this country, and
some of its most distinguished patriots and orators,
the reader will not feel surprised that he should
slander the author when it equally serves. his purpose to do so. This is not an unusual thing in
America, but that the U. P. Critic should take
shelter under the cover of a malignant pen or
tongue, is utterly discreditable and disreputable.
Besides, the author has not received any intimation of any change towards himself on the part of
those who have endorsed him or his book. The
follwing letter was received by the author from Mr.
Stephenson, a medical man, when in Edinburgh, in
regard to Dr. Cheever:—
" GRANGE VILLA,

\

"Friday, January Slst, 1862.

" D E A R S I R , — M y sister has informed me of your
visit last night, and the conversation with you regarding your letter from Miss Wigham. I spoke to
you the last time I saw you of the impression the
letter you published in the Scotsman made upon
my mind, and the regret I felt at its appearance.
With my mind preoccupied by other matters, 'I had
not given the matter much thought, but since you
redirected my mind to the subject, I have given it
a most careful consideration, the result of which, I
e

lxii

PKEFACE.

must say, has been the deepening of my previous
impression.
"Not to enter further on the merits of the case,
your letter was at least uncalled for; and when I
remembered that the person against whom the
letter was written was the same whose letter of
recommendation had, I may say, almost alone caused
you to be so favourably received among the friends
here, I could not but think that you have placed
yourself in the very position you desire to place
Dr. Cheever. I have not seen Miss Wigham, but
feel confident that she has come to the same conclusion.
" I regret that I have not had an opportunity of
stating my views to you in person, but take this
method of communicating them to you, that you
may not be in ignorance of them. I presume you
will not now use Dr. Cheever's letter.
Certainly
he would recall it did he see yours.
" I deeply regret your having written that letter
in the Scotsman, as you have withdrawn from
yourself that support which you otherwise would
have had. For myself, I cannot feel that interest
for you I at first gave you.—But I remain,
"Yours truly,
" WILLIAMV STEPHENSON.
«' Mr J, R, BALME of America,"

The above communication is the only one the
author has received in regard to any person or

PKEFACE.

Ixiii

persons whose certificates or testimonials on his
behalf have been given. It appears, however, that
the U. P . Critic is in possession of information the
author has not received or seen. As soon as it
comes to hand, he will deal with it as the case
requires.
As to the opinions expressed, or statements
made in connexion with the testimonials printed
at the close of his book, the author would have the
reader to understand that he is not responsible for
anything but that to which he has subscribed with
his own hand.
The U. P. critic, however, dwells with great
emphasis on the " constant introduction of himself
and the real object of his mission to this country,
viz., the repairing of his own shattered fortunes;"
and he also makes merry over the " P.S." at the
foot of his circular, not a very Christian way adopted
by our critic of testifying his respect for and
sympathy 1 with ministers who have maintained a
faithful and intrepid testimony against slavery and
negro-hating as sins, and consistently carried out
that testimony by refusing all fellowship with
slaveholders and negro-haters.
The author would remind the U. P. critic that it
was not thus the Synod of the United Presbyterian
Church testified its respect to the Eev. Dr. Cheever,
for which see p. 440 of their " Proceedings," 1 8 6 1 ;
and yet, Dr. Cheever has never gone more than
half-way as a reformer in the anti-slavery cause,

lxiv

PREFACE.

shown on p. 16 3 of this book. The Rev. Dr. Cheever
never lost all official patronage in the American
Churches for his opinions, received one stiver less of
his salary as an avowed minister of Jesus Christ; has
never been endangered in his property, interfered
with in his business relationships, cut off from
social life, separated from loved ones, doomed to
spend years in exile, like the author, or been subject to a millionth part of the inconvenience, privation, hardship, indignity, or loss which he has had
to endure for " going the whole hog," as the Rev.
Highland Garnet publicly testified in regard to the
author at Newcastle, when referring to his thorough
antagonism to American sins and crimes.
Neither was it thus the people of Edinburgh
dealt with one of our supposed " angel cabinet of
worthies," Mrs. Harriet Reecher Stowe, who, as we
have seen on page 146, not only avowed that she
could dispense with your sympathies, but according
to the New York Evening Post has taken a petition which contained the names of the Duchesses of
Sutherland, Redford, and Argyle, Ladies Palmerston,
Russell, and Shaftesbury, and Mrs. Gladstone, and
thousands of others, imploring the Americans to use
their utmost endeavours to hasten the abolition of
slavery. Mrs. Stowe, according to the above journal,
has taken this instrument to chastise you with.
" The husbands of most of the signers of this address," says the New York Evening Post, " having
thrown all their influence in favour of the South

PREFACE.

Ixv

against the North, and bolstered up slavery with
all their powerful support, Mrs. Stowe has written
' a reply to this address, which will appear in the
Atlantic
Monthly'"
The author is quite aware that small favours
bestowed through the "Penny Collecting Cards/'
issued on behalf of Dr. Cheever, were not despised
or sneered at.
The Committee of one of the
Glasgow Anti-slavery Societies no doubt thought
they did great things when they voted £20 each
in 1861 to those anti-Christian and anti-British
editors of anti-slavery newspapers, the Rev. Wm.
Goodel and Frederick Douglas, for which see pp.
209 and 217 ; and the Eev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor,
referred to in p. 228, who is now a candidate for
your favours, will not make his appeal in vain,
since " brand new mantles of charity," of the most
approved style, are thrown over these men, to
show that God's grace in British Christians can be
more gracious in their forgiveness of sin without
confession—their complacent regards towards the
persons of men without the repudiation of their
guilt. But those men who have a mind of their
own,—who dare to go against the stream of popular opinion and vices,—who fling themselves
against a continent of evil-doers, and bare their
breasts to the lightning and thunder, and are made
to feel the keen, bitter, winter blasts of irony and
scorn—these men, poor fellows, must now be
erased from the list of the world's benefactors, and

lxvi

PREFACE.

the so-called wise, and good, and great must revel,
and riot, and make merry over their tales of suffering and woe. Alas for the charity, judgment,
and manly or womanly virtues of such learned
critics and saints.
By this time the author surmises the U. P. critic
will know " who is Mr. Balme," and he is happy to
inform him and his friends that he is making progress in pecuniary matters ; and that it is as much
his prerogative to obtain an honest livelihood by
the sale of his boo& as it is for him to propagate
slander.

GLASGOW, January 0, 18G3.

A VOICE FEOM THE FLAMES.

ON SLAVERY.

I F you look through the iron-grated windows of the
slave's Sing-Sing,- or prison-house, in our great
American house of bondage, a scene of horror will
present itself to your view, such as the eye of man
never beheld before, or the mind of man conceived!
Much has been made known by the pen and tongue
of the miseries, cruelties, and horrors of slavery;
but had you the majestic eloquence of a Brougham,
the trumpet-tongued voice of Knibb, or the descriptive powers of Gabriel, you would fail to set them
forth in their darkest features or fullest extent.
The complete record, therefore, must be reserved for
that chapter which Sir Thomas More dedicated "to
the unknown future."
On casting your eye along the dark corridors of
this prison-house, and into its deep dungeons, and
through its vast enclosures, you will see multitudes
of helpless victims there imprisoned for no crime of
their own, dragged down into the horrors of the vilest
servitude, inconceivable to all but those who are
A

2

ON SLAVERY.

spectators of the scene, and galled with a barbarism
unsurpassed in the dark ages of the world, whilst
the darkness of ignorance, like a funeral pall, rests
on their understanding, shutting out the light of
Heaven's truth, and blinding their eyes that they
cannot find their way to Calvary's cross, or up to
the gate of heaven. And this is in a land that claims
to be "earth's loveliest paradise/' the "garden spot
of beauty," the "paradise of the universe!" or more
generally, " the land of the brave and the home of
the free!"
How dark is the scene, and horrible on all sides
around! Here is the cold steel which has been
struck deep into the heel of their humanity, stripping them of their personality, and reducing them
to a thing!
There is the auctioneer's hammer which has
sundered the dearest and tenderest of ties,—husband, wife, parent, child, sister, brother, lover, and
friend, as if they were so many horses, cattle, oxen,
or sheep, invading the sanctity of private life, and
scattering its sacred rights and treasured endearments to the winds! On yonder wall is suspended
the whip, soddened with human gore, by which they
are made to grind in their prison-house of bondage,
and promiscuously to herd together like the brute!
And by its side is the tyrant usurper's rod, who has
robbed them of their God-given rights, and kept them
in "durance vile," depriving them of their right to
life, liberty, and pursuits of happiness!

ON SLAVERY.

3

Around on its dismal floors are scattered in great
profusion splinters from their broken hearts, which,
if collected, would form mountainous piles, lifting
themselves on high beyond the power of man to
reach, and rising one above each other until they
are lost in the distance! And. opening up to your
view there are also drops of sorrow and grief flowing
so profusely from their deep gashes, gaping wounds,
bruised spirits, and putrefying sores, as to form a sea
of misery that no human plummet or line has ever
yet fathomed! And yet those vast multitudes in
that dark prison-house are robed with the same
nature as yourself, endowed with the same grand
attributes, understanding, memory, will, judgment, affections, and conscience, which are
lodged in the depths of their being, constituting
them grand links in being's endless chain, midway
from nothing, save the Deity-^making them responsible to Him for their opportunities of receiving instruction and of doing good, and associating them
with the boundless duration of one eternal scene
beyond the grave.
- They are also endowed with natural rights, such
as the right of a man to himself, the husband to the
wife, and the parent to the child ; such as the right
of a man to the fruits of his industry, and to mental,
moral, and social culture; and also to educate himself to the highest standard of intellectual ability,
refinement of taste, purity of life and morals, and
order of religion!

4

ON SLAVERY.

And these rights being inalienable, whenever and
wherever and by whomsoever they are usurped,
that usurpation or robbery becomes a crime of the
most fearful and appalling magnitude, compared with
which every other crime committed against man is
light and trifling; subjecting those who commit
or sanction this outrage to the most terrible indignation of the Almighty, as saith Jehovah, " Woe
unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness
and his chambers by wrong, that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for
his work." (Jer. c. xxii. 13 v.) " I will be a swift
witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow,
and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of
Hosts." (Mai. a iii,, 5 v.) And in vain do they
plead the sanction of human law, in the vindication
of their outrage on, and robbery of, the slave, for
this usurpation of the rights of man can never be
made legal in the sight of God. No, not even
though a thousand years had elapsed, or a thousand generations had lived and died in slavery
since the original robbery was committed. Nor
even ^should courts and judges have decided to
the contrary, however supreme their authority or
distinguished for their learning or their legal
acumen ; nor even when Presidents, senators, poets,
orators, or the overwhelming masses of the people

ON SLAVE LAWS.

5

endorse, ratify, or approve the outrage, robbery, or
wrong.
ON SLAVE LAWS.

These in Louisiana affirm that " a slave is one
who is in the power of the master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his
person, his industry and labour.
He can do
nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but
what must belong to his master." .
The Hon. J. K. Paulding, an eminent authority
in America on these questions, when speaking of
the laws of the slave states, says, " Slaves may be
bought and sold by all persons capable of buying
and selling other property. They are held to be
personal estate, and as such may be levied upon
and sold for the debts of the owner/'
The Hon. Charles Sumner says, " A slave is
simply held for the use of his master, to whose behests his life, liberty, and happiness are devoted,
and by whom he may be bartered, leased, mortgaged, invoiced, shipped as cargo, stored as goods,
sold in execution, knocked off at public auction,
and staked at a gaming table at the hazard of/a
card or die."
" Nor is there," says the same distinguished
senator, "anything within the limits of life inflicted
on a beast which may not be inflicted on a slave.
He may be marked like a hog, branded like a

0

ON SLAVE LAWS.

mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like an horse,
driven like an ass, sheared like a sheep, maimed
like a cur, and constantly beaten like a crew."
The above laws are fenced about with provisions
or clauses which shield from all fear of punishment
the slaveholder guilty of murder or other offence
committed upon a slave; or subject him only to
the same penalty as that which is inflicted on a
person who kills an ox or a horse in the free
states. They certify that no slave, free negro, or
mulatto can testify in any court against a free
white person. They also prohibit the emancipation of slaves in the slave states. And a slave
found off his master's premises after sunset, and before sunrise, without a written pass, may be taken
before a justice of the peace by any white person,
and whipped on the bare back, and imprisoned
until next day, to be then released on the payment
of costs by the owner. Whilst the slave laws are
thus fenced about, they make no provision for the
marriage of the slave. A runaway slave was recently asked, says a correspondent of the Baptist
Freeman, if he was married. He said, " Yes ; but
not by no book, massa. And de overseer took my
wife to hisself; and she now has a child as white
as any children of the overseer." The word " not
by the book" is very significant. They allow
them to have forms of marriage among themselves,
but the marriage not by the book, signifies that
they have no legal marriage.

A NEGRO MARRIAGE.

7

A NEGRO MARRIAGE.

The following is a form of marriage which took
place between two negroes, with a negro minister,
at Live Creek, Georgia, and is the form generally
used there:—"Here is a couple who have walked
out to-night, wishing to be jined in and through
love, and wishing all them that have any ting
twixem dem come forward and speak now; if not,
let them hold their peace now and for evermore.
I wants every ear to hear, and every heart to
enjoy/'
" Mr. Jim Thompson, whosoever stands fastly by
your left side, do you take her for your dearly beloved wife, to wait on her through sickness and
through health, safe and be safe, holy and be holy,
loving and be loving? Do you love her mother,
father, brothers, sisters, master, mistress, and God
best?
" Answer.—' I do/
"Miss Mary Jackson, whomsoever stands fastly
by your right side, do you take to be your dear
beloved husband, to wait on him through health
and through conflution, safe and be safe, holy and
be holy? Do,you love his mother, father, sister,
brother, and God the best ?
" Answer.—' I will/
" I shall pronounce Mr. Jim to hold Miss Mary
fast by the right hand, and shall pronounce you to
be man and wife by the commandments of God.

8

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF LAW.

We shall hopes and trusting through God that
you may live right, now and for evermore. Now
Mr, Jim, slew your bride."
" Let us sing a hime.
*' * Plunged in a gulph of dark despair,
Ye wretched sinners are,' &c.' "

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF LAW.

All laws are good or bad in themselves. If
good only when founded on the principles of immutable equity and truth, what must be the
iniquity of the above laws which are based on the
usurpation of the rights of our fellow-men ?
And if rulers, judges, or magistrates can only
add weight to their characters, bring glory to their
principles, or secure honour to their names, by
lifting up the dignity and majesty of righteous
laws, in dealing out even-handed justice to all
classes of men, irrespective of rank or station, caste
or colour, sex or age, what ravening wolves those
must be who devise, execute, or approve the slave
laws of America!
Some claim that the slave laws are divine, and
associate them with divine ordinances, appointment, and authority! But, alas! for divinity,
when poor, frail, shattered, imperfect, and debased
humanity is lifted above it; and when divinity is
associated with the chain, thumb-screw, cow-hide,
caW-nine-tails, branding irons, and dungeon !

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF LAW.

b

Others say that these laws are humane, since
they make provision for the slaves from infancy to
decrepitude and old age! Consequently, say the
abettors and promoters of slavery, the slaves are
very well off! But this is descending low in the
scale of rationality, since their food is only that of
convict's fare! Besides, no provision is made to
meet their mental and moral necessities; so that,
could they live on the dainties of a king, they
would not be satisfied with their condition. Between, therefore, the divinity and humanity of the
slave laws, the rights of slaves ar.e sacrificed, and
they themselves ground into fine dust as between
two mighty mill-stones. Thrown under our American Juggernaut, its ponderous wheels roll over
their scarred bodies and crushed rights !
Some talk of mitigating some of the grossest
abuses in connection with the slave laws, repressing some of the revolting cruelties and abomina>tions which flow out of them, and yet would let
them remain under what they call a mild form.
But is there any mildness in connexion with a
system or code of law which lays down the principle that man may hold property in his fellow-man;
an act which outrages all feelings of humanity,
does violence to every principle of reason, and
tramples on all righteous laws whether human or
divine. This is the source whence the gigantic
evil springs which looms up before us in America,
covers the heavens with its darkling wing, and

j.0

T £ E SLAVEHOLDERS OF AMERICA.

emits fiery flashes which wither and blast, corrupt
and destroy whatever they touch.
THE SLAVEHOLDERS OF AMERICA.

In some of the slave states these men stand
six feet high, wear long beards and slouched
hats. Belts are fastened round their waists, into
which they put their revolvers and Bowie knives,
whilst bloodhounds lay crouching at their feet.
These are what they call the social graces, and
reveal their manners and customs, since their will
is law, and ,to it there must be absolute obedience
on the part of the slave, or death. For the slave
has no protection. His oath is not taken in any
court of justice. And seldom or ever will a white
man testify against a fellow white man in the
slave states; so that slaves are in the irresponsible
grasp of these men. And how fearful is the influence which slavery exercises on them ! Ponder
well the following testimony given by some eminent authorities in regard to slaveholders:—
Col. Mason, a slave master from Virginia, says,
" Slavery produces the most pernicious effects on
the manners of the slaveholders. Every master is
born a tyrant."
Jefferson certified, that " t h e whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of
the most boisterous passions.
It produces the
most unremitting despotism on the one part and

THE SLAVEHOLDERS OF AMEBICA.

11

degrading submission on the other. And the man
must be a prodigy who retains his morals and
manners undepraved by such circumstances."
John Locke, the great essayist in his day, said,
" That it is hardly to be conceived that an Englishman, much less a gentleman, should plead for it ?
What, then, must those be who practise it ?
Dr. Johnson, the celebrated lexicographer, testified, " That the slaveholders of America are a race
of mortals whom no other men wish to resemble."
He, therefore, never dreamt that a John Mitchell
would rise up with such pure and exalted philanthropy as tp covet a slave plantation, and desire to
have it well stocked with negroes!
Dr. Livingstone, a man whose fame will fill the
niche of immortality, avows " that no one can understand the unutterable meanness of the slave
system on the minds of those who, but for the
strange obliquity which prevents them from feeling
the degradation of not being gentlemen enough to
pay for services rendered, would be equal in virtue
to ourselves. Fraud becomes as natural to them as
paying one's way is to the rest of mankind."
The Hon. Charles Sumner declares, that "the
men distinguished for urbanity, kindness, benevolence, and love amongst slaveholders, are so
impregnated with the essential barbarisms of slavery,
that whilst they speak with the voice of a Jacob
in conversation, they put forth the hands of an
Esau."

12

THE CLOTHING AND DIET OF THE SLAVE.

And the above picture is not surprising when we
think of the impiety, brutality, robbery, and cruelty,
which are inseparably linked with slavery. And
therefore, it is in vain to urge the humanity or
refinement of the slaveholder, since no man can be
associated with such a system without being degraded by it. For no one can breathe the atmosphere of slavery, or live on its foulness without
being discoloured by it, vitiated in their character,
and covered with moral leprosy.
THE CLOTHING AND DIET OF THE SLAVE.

This is of the lightest and coarsest kind. Some,
however, fare better than others in these respects.
Amongst slaveholders, as others, there are men who
are humane, and also those who are inhumane.
When slaves fall into the hands of humane persons
they are generally treated with kindness.
But
when they get into the hands of men who are inhumane they are treated with great brutality. Under
the best of masters, however, they are dissatisfied
with their condition ; like the fly which the slavewaiter in a country tavern in Virginia enclosed in
an empty tumbler, whilst feasting on some crumbs
of sugar and biscuit. The fly on being deprived of
its liberty flew around the glass in the most excited
and agitated manner to try to get out. Even so,
the condition of the fly under the tumbler is that
of the slave. And could their yokes be lined with

THE CLOTHING AND DIET OP THE SLAVE.

13

silk, or they be surrounded with the luxuries of a
Dives, they would still desire to be free. The late
Dr. Hopkins, an eminent clergyman in America,
and one of the ever memorable few, who have been
true to the cause of freedom, once called on a neighbouring clergyman who owned a slave. Hopkins
demanded of this slaveholding clergyman to set his
slave free. "Free," said he, "my slave will not
accepted his freedom/' " Will you give it to him,"
said Hopkins, " if he will accept it." " I will," said
the other. The slave was immediately sent for, and
on the question being put, " Would you have your
liberty if it was offered to you?" He instantly
replied, " That he would like to be free." At once
his manumission papers were made out, and executed ; and the slave made a free man to the great
joy of his heart.
And there is the same yearning desire for liberty
everywhere amongst the slaves. Of this we have
abundant proof, not only on the part of the slave
but from others.
Judge St. George Tucker, of Virginia, Professor
of Law in the University of William and Mary,
published a letter to a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1801. In the course of it he says:—
" The love of freedom, sir, is an inborn sentiment.
At the first favourable moment it springs forth and
defies all check. Whenever we are involved in war,
if our enemies hold out the lure of freedom, they
will have in every negro a decided friend."

14

THE CLOTHING AND DIET OF THE SLAVE.

In a debate in the Virginia Legislature, in the
winter of 1831-32, Mr. Moore said—"I lay it
down as a maxim not to be disputed, that our slaves
are now, and ever will be, actuated by a desire for
liberty. They will always be disposed to avail
themselves of a favourable opportunity for asserting
their natural rights. It may safely be assumed
that wherever the slaves are as numerous as the
whites, it will require one-half of the effective force
of the whites to keep them quiet/'
On the same occasion, Mr. M'Dowell, since Governor of Virginia, said :—" Sir, you may place the
slave where you please, you may oppress him as
you please, you may dry up to your uttermost the
fountains of his feeling and the springs of his
thought; but the idea that he was born free will
survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality ; it is the ethereal part of his nature, which
oppression cannot reach.
In the same debate, Mr. Preston said :-—" My old
friend (Mr. Bruce) has told us that the Virginian
slave was happy and contented. Mr. Speaker, that
is impossible. Happiness is incompatible with
slavery. The love of liberty is the ruling passion
in man, and he cannot be happy if deprived of it."
In the same debate, Mr. Gholson, of Virginia,
said :—" The love of freedom, and the prospect of
obtaining it, would inflame their hearts and inspire
revolution."
M'Call, in his " History of Georgia/' alluding to

THE CLOTHING AND DIET OF THE SLAVE.

15

the slaves, says :—" This class of people, who cannot be supposed to be contented in slavery, would
grasp with avidity at the most desperate attempts
that promised freedom."
The Rev. J. D. Paxton, of Virginia, who was
reared in the midst of slavery, and had himself been
a slaveholder, published a volume of letters on
.slavery, in which he thus states the result of his
observation :—" The slaves—man, woman, and
child—are longing for freedom."
William T. Allen, son of a Presbyterian clergyman in Huntsville, Alabama, published a statement
in 1839, in which he says : — " I t is slavery itself,
and not cruelties merely, that makes slaves unhappy.
Even those that are the most kindly
treated are generally far from happy. The slaves
in my father's family are almost as kindly treated
as slaves can be, but they pant for liberty."
The editor of the Maryville Intelligencer, Tennessee, in a paper published in October 1835,
says:—" We of the South are surrounded by a
dangerous class of beings. It is the consciousness
that a tenfold force would gather from the four
corners of the United States, and slaughter them,
that keeps them in subjection. To the non-slaveholding States we are indebted for a permanent
safeguard against insurrection. Without their assistance the white population of the Southern States
would be too weak to quiet that innate love of
liberty which is ever ready to act itself out."

16

INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE.

To the above testimonies, which develop such an
immense latent force amongst the slaves which is
ever ready to welcome liberty, the author will add
one more from the pen of the Hon. Horace Greeley,
Editor of the New York Tribune, who says, "this
human instinct in favour of liberty is ineradicable."
INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE.

These are many and various, such as the iron
collars slaves are sometimes made to wear—-the
chains with which they are loaded down—the
branding irons, which are used to mark the slaves
as property—the whips with which they are driven
to their work—the paddles with which their backs
are blistered and bruised—the blood-hounds with
which they are hunted down like wild beasts when
they try to escape—and the revolvers and bowieknives with which they are sometimes shot down
and mutilated. By these or similar instruments,
the slaves are kept in subjection and punished.
Some of the whips have handles about a foot in
length, and two lashes intertwined with wire.
These whips never fail to cut a deep furrow in the
back of the slave. Eussgll, the correspondent of
the London Times, in one of his letters gives an
account of a female slave, saying, that she had a
•kind master, because he did not intertwine any wire
with the leather which formed the lashes with which
he punished his slaves!

A SLAVEHOLDER'S INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE.

17

Some of the chains used to load down the slaves
are so heavy, that Ann H. Judson, the wife of the
missionary, Adoniram Judson, who counselled the
so-called Southern " Christian slave-holders to
treat any irritating remarks made in regard to
them with dignified silence, when offered by
Northern Abolitionists"—the wife of this man on
one occasion is reported to have said that she felt
more happy that a female slave whom she had seen,
loaded with a heavy chain, could lie down and
sleep without it after it had been taken off
A paddle is an instrument made of wood with
holes bored through it. The first blow generally
rakes a blister. The second breaks it and reduces
the flesh to a kind of pulp or jelly. The following
letter will describe what a terrible instrument of
torture an iron collar is. The letter is headed as
foEows :—
A SLAVEHOLDER'S INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE.

Sergeant Dewey, of Dodge's Battery, 4th Eegiment, Iowa Volunteers, sends, the following letter
to an American paper:—
Montgomery City, Missouri, Jan. 24, 1862.
" I send you the sketch of an instrument used
by the Secession slave-masters of Missouri to punish
their negroes. Not long since one of these wretched
victims came within our lines with an instrument
of this description round his neck. It was securely
B

18

A SLAVEHOLDER'S INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE.

rivetted there, and required an hour's filing before
it could be removed. This proved to be a very
painful operation to the poor ' contraband ;9 for his
neck was so snugly encased by the iron band, and
the instrument was of such a peculiar shape as to
render the operation difficult of accomplishment.
The negro stated that he had worn it two -months,
and this statement has been corroborated by reliable
Union men of the same county. The form of the
instrument prevented him from lying down and
taking his rest at night; and its weight and close
fit rendered it very burdensome during the day. I t
consisted of a; heavy iron ring fitting closely round
the neck, from which there extended three prongs,
each about two feet in length, with a ring on the
end. I suppose the design of the instrument was
that a chain should be attached to it, and thus
secure the victim beyond all possible hope of escape;
but this negro had been running loose, with the
thing round his neck for two months ; and finally,
ascertaining that Federal soldiers were near, speedily
repaired to them for deliverance from his tormentor.
Of course he found the deliverance which he sought,
and the instrument of torture is preserved by us as
a mournful example of the deep degradation to
which the soul, tainted by Secession, may descend.
It is needless to say that we did not send the negro;
back to his master ; but, so far as we are concerned,
left him perfectly free to do his own will. The
name of the person who has thus proved himself

A SLAVEHOLDER'S INSTRUMENT OF TORTTXRE.

19

destitute of all humanity is Dudley Wells, of Montgomery County, Missouri. He is now a prisoner,
held as a traitor to his country, and awaiting the
punishment due to his crime; and if he does not
receive it at an earthly tribunal, he certainly will at
the tribunal of an outraged conscience.
" Sergeant CHARLES 0. DEWY.

" Dodge's Battery,
4th Regiment Iowa Volunteers."
And if the above reveal to us the terrible instruments by which slaves are tortured, the following
frank confession on the part of a slave-master will
show the use which is made of a common pair of
pincers, given in Olmstead's Texas Journey :—
" I can tell you how you can break a nigger of
running away, certain," said a slave-master. " There
was an old fellow I used to know in Georgia, that
always cured his so. If a nigger run away, when
he caught him, he would bind his knee over a log, and
fasten ham so that he could not stir ; then he'd take
a pair of pincers and pull one of his toe nails out by
the roots; and tell him that if he ever run away
again, he would pull out two of them, and if be run
away again after that> he told him he'd pull out'
four of them, and so on, doubling each time. He
never had to do it more- than twice; it always
cured them."
i A letter writer from the camp of Dawfuskie
Maud gives,an account of a slave who came in to
them'!' feom. the ; Barnwell district. %t He had run

20

SLAVES TREATED AS BRUTE BEASTS.

away several times, was pursued and captured, and
was one of the most frightful objects which he ever
saw. His arms were covered with the marks
of the teeth and claws of blood-hounds.
His
back was furrowed all over with the marks of the
lash. He is quite an intelligent negro," says the
above writer. " When asked why he was whipped
so severely, he replied, kase, massa, dey wanted me
as de driver to whip my mother, and I could not do
dat. Eader than dat I ran away. Pompey, that
being his name, has been employed by the sutler in
the camp at Port Royal, and the writer says, has
received more money for his services than he ever
saw in his life." In e^rly life, the author has been
horrified with reading the stories of Bluebeard and
the tortures of the Inquisition! How strange that
these tragedies should be re-enacted in the New
World. But enough of these instruments of torture !
0, that we could assign them a place in some
museum as relics of the barbarism of the diark ages
of the world ! Alas for man's inhumanities to
man, which make countless millions weep. But who
shall describe the barbarities and cruelties practised
on slaves?

SLAVES TREATED AS BRUTE BEASTS.

They are driven into the field, by the whip, as
if they were so many horses or cattle; and sometimes flogged to &h§w tbe lordly authority of the

SLAVES TREATED AS BRUTE BEASTS.

21

slaveholder or overseer. And if they were to rebel,
their rebellion would be whipped out of them, even
to an inch of their lives ; nay, though life itself
should be taken. Whose feelings have not been
harrowed up with the account, which a short time
ago went the round of the newspapers, concerning a
slaveholder in Virginia, named Hudson, who stript
his female slave naked—tied her to a persimmon
tree —flogged her for three consecutive hours,
reduced to stumps fifty-two switches which he had
used on her loins and bare back, when death put an
end to her (Sufferings ?
A Charlottesville, Virginia, newspaper gives the
following account of the murder of a slave by one
Nash, an overseer of Mr Eugene Garth, near
Gordonsville. " The negro, after being severely
whipped, Was tied hands and feet and plunged head
downwards into a hogshead of water, where he was
held three-quarters of a minute. Upon being taken
out he died within three minutes. An inquest was
held, and the verdict of the jury was, died of congestion of the brain."
At the Court of Petersburgh, Virginia, Cornelius
Holloway was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in killing a negro, and fined twenty
dollars. Involuntary manslaughter! Pray, what
kind of manslaughter is that! And what a punishment! About the price of a cow in America!
At the same place; a slave was shot at, squeezed
in a vice, torn&a pieces by bloodhounds, and then

22

SLAVES TEEATED AS BRUTE BEASTS.

cut up and given to the dogs by a monster of a
man named Thomas Motley. Was ever murder
more cruel, atrocious, or barbarous, put on record in
the darkest ages of the world ? Had a fiend from
the bottomless pit accomplished this deed, h e '
could not have exceeded the flagrancy of it, or
more deliberately, or with greater malignity, have
despatched the victim \
Look at the scene, The slave possessing a deep
inwrought conviction that God had given him the
title-deeds to his own liberty, breaks away from the
yoke of his oppressor, and sets out with a determination to reach the land of freedom. The incarnate
demon who claimed him set out in pursuit with his
bloodhounds, got upon his track, hunted him down,
fired upon him, and after torturing and mutilating
him, gave him to be eaten up by dogs ! Whose
heart is not affected by such a scene of horror!
And whose lightning flashes of indignation are not
kindled by it, brought to play around it, and to
strike down a system which is so essentially arid
fundamentally vicious as to eradicate every feeling
of humanity from the human breast, violate every
principle of reason and equity, and transform men
into brutes and fiends in human shape!
" Shall tongues be mute when deeds are wrought
Which well might shame extremest hell ?
Shall freemen lack the indignant thought ?
Shall mercy's bosom cease to swell ?
Shall honour bleed ? Shall truth succumb ?
Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb ? "

SLAVES SOLD ON THE AUCTION BLOCK.

23

SLAVES SOLD ON THE AUCTION BLOCK.

Like other property, slaves are put up for sale.
The auctioneer sometimes dwells on their physical
capabilities, moral qualities and Christian virtues,
but more frequently, as in the case of female slaves,
on their age and beauty. This is fearfully corroborated in the following dark picture of a sale,
which took place at the east door of the City Hall,
Saint Louis, Missouri, Oct. 7, 1858 :—
The auctioneer was an aged man, and inclined to
do his part of the business in a respectable manner,
but the traffickers in men's bodies and souls presented an appearance on the occasion no language
can describe. The first lot put up was a middle
aged woman, with an infant, said to be eighteen
months old, in her arms. The poor mother was
subject to much sharp questioning and most indecent
personal examination. One of the bidders took so
many outrageous liberties, that even the auctioneer
Came to the rescue with the exclamation of " n o
gentleman." The bidding was slow, and it was
only after a great amount of hammering that the
lot was knocked down for six hundred and ten*
dollars,.
" IVe got plenty more like ye, said the buyer, as
he coolly asked the down-east mother if she was
glad he had bought her." The insolent interrogatory
was well answ#re<J ;on the part sof jthf slave, who

24

SLAVES SOLD ON THE AUCTION BLOCK.

replied, saying, " If yer' a good master Tse glad."
The man who bought her was evidently a wellknown breeder or dealer, for when he walked away,
a bystander remarked that " the man who bought
this lot bought them all."
The next lot consisted of a single woman called
" Kissie," who, as the auctioneer said, had a good
countenance, and was about eighteen years old.
She stood the jeers of the depraved crowd remarkably well, and sold for seven hundred and ninetyseven dollars and fifty cents.
Then came another woman, aged twenty-three, a
tidy looking creature, whose merits were earnestly
dwelt upon by the auctioneer. She was sold for
six hundred dollars, and was pronounced " a remarkably cheap nigger."
Then a boy was put up, who said he could do
everything, but his abilities were not appreciated,
for not a bid could be had.
Then an old man, venerable and dignified, who
stood erect like a Roman noble, was brought to the
block. His age was against him, and his grey hairs
were the subject of considerable coarse jesting. At
the auctioneer's beck, he said " he could do a heap
of work," and he was finally knocked down for
three hundred and fifty-eight dollars.
Minnie, a sprightly looking girl, was then placed
on the stand. Her virtues were dwelt upon. And
as she submitted to the bold handling of several
traders, she was made the object of the most loath-

SLAVES SOLD ON THE AUCTION BLOCK.

25

^some insults from the lookers on, not a few of whom
were only half-grown boys.
Several boldly
intimated that for purposes of prostitution she was
worth a large sum, and would soon pay for herself.
She was bought for seven hundred and ninty-five
dollars.
" Her sale was followed by that of Harriet, a girl
of good appearance, who said she could do all
manner of house work, After considerable bantering, she was sold for eight hundred dollars/'
And thus the day's sale closed. But with the
termination of these sales, the system of slavery
produces no bandages by which the wounds caused
by these sundered ties, can be bound up, or
ointment to mollify them. Instead of binding and
healing, it re-opens the cicatriced wounds of the
slaves afresh, as the husband is separated from his
wife, and parents from their much loved child,
never to see each other again—thus prdducing the
most violent paroxysms of grief, and piling on the
spirit of the stricken and sorrowing slave the most
excruciating agony.
An officer in a New England regiment, now on
service with Burnside, writes to his father a letter,
which we find in the Hartford Press, and from
which we extract as follows :—
" I was in a negro house yesterday, and had some
conversation with the inmates. I asked one gray
headed old negress if she had ever had children sold
away from her. "Sold! Dey all sold! chil'en,

•26

SLAVES ADVERTISED FOE SALE.

and grandchil'en, and great grandchil'en, dey sell
eb'ry one!" She clasped her bony hands over her
head and looked up at me as she spoke—" Dere
was one—de last one—de only grandchile I did
hab lef. He neber knowed his mammy. I took
him when he dat little. I bringed him to.massa^
and I say, massa, dis my little grandchile, may I
keep him 'bout heah % And he say, ' I don't care
what you do vnd him/ So I take him; he dat
little. Den one mornin' when he all rolled up in
blanket 'tween my knees, massa Green com'd in and
say, ' Dis boy sold/ and dey take him V a y ! Oh;
Lord Jesus, help me pray!"
" I can't begin to do justice to the way in which
she told me this, nor describe the earnestness of
voice and gesture which made it impressive. I
wish some of our Northern editors who cringe just
as abjectly as ever before their old masters, and
howl in consternation whenever it seems likely that
the war may interfere, directly or indirectly, with
their pet deviltry—I wish some of them could have
heard and seen her/'
H. W. C.
SLAVES ADVERTISED FOR SALE.

Before the sale takes place, the slaves are advertised in most of the local newspapers, to be sold in
lots to suit purchasers, and not unfrequently put
in. the same category with other property, like the

SLAVES STRIPT NAKED FOB EXAMINATION.

27

following, which I extract from the Natchez
Daily Whig:—
" A very likely negro man, aged twenty-six.
Two hundred thousand feet of seasoned lumber.
Fifty acclimated slaves, consisting of men, women,
and children. A number of hogsheads and jowls.
A likely woman and her two children. Ten and a
half barrels of mackerel. A likely negro, thirtythree years old. One hundred barrels of mess pork.
Several likely negroes. Mrs Gore's new novel, the
Birth-right."
SLAVES STRIPT NAKED FOR EXAMINATION.

Before the sales commence the slaves are taken
into separate slave-pens, ordered to strip off all their
clothing, and present themselves for examination to
the masses of congregated white humanity, who represent traders, planters, tob*acco factors, and loafers
generally. In Boston Traveller, July I860, there
is given a painful description of such a scene previous to a sale which took place in Richmond,
Virginia. Dr Parsons, of Windham, Maine, a competent and reliable witness, in a book of which he
is the author, called the Inside View of Slavery,
says, " They are stripped entirely naked to be
punished, not only on the plantations, but by the
city marshalls, in the cities to whom the masters
send them for this purpose. And often they are
exposed in public for sale in the same condition,"

28

THE AVERAGE VALUE OF SLAVES.

The Eev. G. W. Higginson, also a clergyman, of
Worcester, Masschusetts, in a letter to the New
York Tribune, July 2d, 1856, which gives a description of a visit which he made to Mr Corben
Thomson's negro yard, in St Louis, Missouri, where
he saw a bargain made between the owner of the
yard and a gentleman of that city for a coloured
girl, and overheard the following conversation:—
Gentleman, " Girl is sound I suppose," addressing
himself to the slave-trader, "Wind and limb,"
responded the trader, " But strip her naked, and
examine every inch of her, if you wish, for I never
have any disguises with my customers/'
THE AVERAGE VALUE OF SLAVES.
This is .constantly given in the newspapers of
the slave States, the same as the average price of
cotton in the Manchester market, or of corn in
Mark Lane, London.
In 1860, a slave-trading firm in Eichmond,
Virginia, gave the following intelligence concerning
the market in human beings on writing to a party
in the State of Mississipi :--—
"No. 1, of domestic slaves sell at from sixteen
hundred to sixteen hundred and fifty dollars.
"No. 2, from fourteen to fifteen hundred
dollars.
"No. 1, class of field girls sell at from fourteen to
fifteen1 hundred dollars.

SLAVE-BREEDING.

29

" A n extra one sold to-day at fifteen hundred
dollars.
" The tendency of the market is upwards."
Since that time, downwards.
And there has
been a great loss, arid but little doing in this kind
of property, although there haye been desperate
efforts made on the part of the traders and breeders
in the South, and the brokers and negro-haters of
the North to maintain tha preserves of slavery
intact,
SLAVE-BREEDING.

In the slave states there are districts set apart
for slave-breeding, the same as some parts of England and Scotland are appropriated for the breeding
of cattle. And the slaves thus bred are taken from
the slave-breeding districts of Virginia, Missouri,
and Georgia, into the citron, sugar, cotton, and rice
plantations of the further South for sale, the same
as cattle are taken from the agricultural to the
manufacturing districts for a market.
And this slave-breeding is not confined to
irreligious men so called, since vast numbers.of men,
who profess to be the disciples of the meek and
lowly Saviour, Jesus Christ, engage in this impious
work. ' Neither is it restricted to the Border States,
which are called the slave-breeding States.
The Hon. Charles Sumner, in his address on the
" Barbarism of Slavery," says, " Every slave-master

30

SLAVE-BREEDING.

on his plantation is a Bashaw, with all the prerogatives of a Turk."
Olmstead, in his journey in the seaboard slave
States, confirms our statement, " A planter told me,"
says he, u That the practice of licentious connection
with slave women was not occasional, or general,
but universal. There is not, he said, a likely looking black girl in this State that is not the paramour
of a white man. There is not an old plantation in
rwhich the grandchildren of the owner are not
whipped in the field by his overseer/'
Mrs Margaret Douglas, a Southern lady, who
was imprisoned in the common jail of Norfolk, for
the crime of teaching free coloured children to read,
in the Personal Narrative of her Sufferings—says,
" Amalgamation between the blacks and whites
pervades the entire society. Its followers are to
be found among all ranks and occupations and professions. The white mothers and daughters of the
South have suffered under it for years, have seen
their dearest affections trampled on, their hopes of
domestic happiness destroyed, and their future lives
embittered to agony by those who should be all in
all to them as husbands, sons,, and brothers. I
cannot use too strong language in relation to this
subject, for I know that it will meet with a heartfelt response from every Southern woman. I would
deal delicately with them if I could, bttt they know
the fact, and their hearts bleed under its knowledge,
however, they may have, attempted- to conceal their

SLAVE-BREEDING.

31

discoveries.
Southern wives know that their
husbands come to them from the arms of their
tawny mistresses. Father and son seek the same
sources of excitement, scarcely blushing when detected, and recklessly defying every command of
God, and every tie of morality and human affection."
Linda Brent, also, an escaped slave, in her
" Deeper Wrong, or incidents in the life of a
Slave Girl," says, " No pen can give an adequate
description of the all prevailing corruption produced by slavery.
The slave girl is reared in
an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear.
The
lash and the foul talk of her master and his
sons are her teachers. When she is fourteen or
fifteen, her owner, or his sons, or the overseer, or
perhaps all of them, begin to bribe her with presents.
If these fail to accomplish their purpose, she is
whipped or starved into submission to their will.
She may have had religious principles instilled by
some pious mother, or grandmother, or some good
mistress ; she may have a lover, whose good opinion
and peace of mind are dear to her heart, or the
profligate men who have power over her may be
exceedingly odious to her, but resistance is hopeless."
" The poor worm
Shall prove her contest vain. Life's little day shall pass,
And she is gone."

$[:• What a frightful picture to contemplate ! And it
Opuldnotbe otherwise where every restraint is removed
#MQk>§Kiel$3 the virtue of the female slave,—where

32

THE FLEEING BONDSMEN.

every possible opportunity is offered for the indulgence of licentiousness amidst the seclusion of the
plantation,—-where there is no fear of public opinion as there is no danger of detection, the slave
being compelled to submit in silence—as there is
no loss of social position in consequence of the
grossest licentiousness—as the libertine maintains
a high and honoured standing in the church and
state-—and as the law decrees that every child born
of a slave shall follow the condition of its mother 5
and thus not only extends no protection to virtue,
but a premium to vice.
THE F^EEINQ BONDSMAN.

Numerous instances are put on record of slaves
taking themselves into their own keeping, and
setting out from their slave cabins with a determination to attain their freedom, or to perish in the
attempt.
Fugitives from bondage generally travel by night
and hide by day in deep forests, in the clefts of
rocks, or amongst the tall grass in some deep morass
or swamp,
On being missed, their masters advertise them in
the newspapers. Here are a few specimens taken
from slaveholding newspapers.
In the North Carolina Standard, Mr, Micaiah
Eicks advertises " a runaway negro woman and two
children. A few days before she went oft, I branded

THE FLEEING BONDSMEN.

33

her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face. I
tried to make the letter M."
In the Natchez Courier, Mr. J. P, Ashford, advertises a "runaway negro girl with a good many
teeth missing, and the letter A branded on her
cheek and forehead."
In the Lexington Observer, Kentucky, Mr. Wm.
Overstreet advertises a " runaway negro with his
left eye out, sears from a dirk on his left arm, and
much scarred with the whip."
In the Georgian Messenger, Eobert Beasley,
Macon, advertises his "runaway man, Fountain.
Has holes in his ears, a scar on the right side of
his forehead, has been shot in the hm/1 part of his
legs, and is marked on the back with the whip."
The slave owners, also, send a description of their
missing slaves to slave hunters—a class of men
who make slave hunting a business, and keep blood
hounds which are trained to hunt the fugitive.
And should they get upon the track of the fugitive slaves, and come up with them, these men
hunters will allow the blood-hounds i>Q seize them,
and to tear them if they should attempt resistance,
or try to defend themselves; but if they quietly
submit they will call them off.
Many are thus captured and made a terrible
example of as a warning to others, by having their
nails torn off with pincers, by cutting the tendrils
of their heels .and hamstringing them, and thus
maiming thenrfbr life, by stripping them and tying
C

34

THE FLEEING BONDSMEN.

them lip by the Wrists to the joists in the roof, and
when their veins are swollen, whipping them until
the warm blood falls at their feet, by tying ropes
round their bodies, suspending them from the
ground, kindling fires above them, and roasting
pieces of pork, from which scalding drops of fat
continually fall on their bare flesh.—See Linda
Brent's Autobiography.
But should the fugitives run the gauntlet of
bullets and bloodhounds and reach the Free States,
so called, they are not safe. These States are hunting ground for slaves. And dangers stand thick
through all the ground to them in the non-slavebolding States of America.
Margaret Garner, a slave, gathers her four children around her, prays to the God of the oppressed,
points them to that brilliant lamp hung out of
heaven,—the North Star, and starts for freedom.
She conducts her little flock by night, and hides
them in caves by day, taking from herself almost
her last rag to cover them, and gathering roots and
berries in her long and perilous journey to feed
them, until at last she put her dear little flock, as
she thought, on the soil of a free state. But, no ;
the man-hunters were upon her tracks, and she was
caught in Cincinnati, the metropolis of Ohio.
Gathering up all the courage of a mother's heart,
she heroically fought for herself and children, until
fighting was vain, when in the frenzied madness of
despair she seized her youngest born and tore it

THE FLEEING BONDSMEN.

35

from the grasp of her pursuers, and with one stroke
of her knife gave it back to God. Before she could
slay the rest, she wa£ overpowered, and with her
remaining children carried back into slavery. In
1860, the author saw a fugitive slave who had been
arrested taken into Court in Philadelphia—that city
of brotherly love> put through a mock form of trial,
remanded back to bondage by Judge Cadwallader,
and taken through Chesnut Street at noon-day, to
the railway station, escorted by a body of policemen armed with revolvers, amidst thousands of
people, who with the exception of a small number,
looked silently and approvingly on. And afterwards the lawyer, Benjamin H. Brewster, who was
counsel for the claimant of the fugitive, was publicly serenaded. And he will never forget how cheer
on cheer rose from the excited populace, "when
Brewster made his appearance and harangued the
crowds from his windows, exclaiming, " I firmly
believe slavery to be politically, socially, and morally
right. It is the law of God, as well as the law of
man. It requires no defence. To those who exercise their reason, and acknowledge the force of their
obligations, public and private—who respect the
rights of property, and value domestic tranquillity,
and glory in national honour and prosperity. To
those, I say, it is plain and clear that it has been
wisely given to us, where it most exists, as a means
of national greatness, and a vital element in the
work of civilization, "v^e have to accomplish for the

36

SLAVES KESCUED.

whole human race." What a city to be called the
" City of Brotherly Love!" And, yet these records
of infamy are not restricted to Philadelphia. There
are similar records in Boston in the rendition of
Burns, when cannon were planted in the public
streets, and chains hung round the public building
where Burns was examined; and when the military marched in procession to convey him on board
the steamer, which was to bear him to the land of
chains, and stripes, and slavery! That was a dark
day in the history of Boston.
SLAVES KESCUED.

There are a few instances on record of slaves
who have been delivered from the grasp of their
pursuers, and consigned to the care of a merciful
Providence by the Under Ground Bailway to
Canada. And when they reach Niagara, and behold
the white cloud beckoning them to be free, and
hear the waterfall shouting freedom, what emotions
of joy must fill their hearts as they pass under the
arch of rainbows to the dominions of Queen Victoria,
where no bloodhound can reach them, no revolver
be fired at them by their pursuers, but where the
black man as well as the white can sit under his
vine and fig-tree, and none dare molest him or make
him afraid.
A slave, by the name of Bill, found his way into
Pennsylvania, where he established his "home,

SLAVES RESCUED.

37

sweet home." His master found out the place of
his residence, and went there with five or six men
armed with revolvers. They entered his house,
asked for breakfast, and were fed by this fugitive.
On rising from their meal, they seized him, and
handcuffed him. Being a strong man, he broke
from his irons, gave them some sturdy blows and
ran to the river, plunged into its waters, and waded
up to the neck. There he stood, until his pursuers
who were chasing him, came up to its banks.
Whilst standing on its margin, numbers of people
collected from the surrounding neighbourhood to
witness the scene. The slave catchers called on
him to come out, or they would shoot him. " I
would rather die," said he, " than go back into
slavery." On refusing they fired once, twice, a
third, fourth, and fifth time, which took effect.
He sprung out of the water, exclaiming that " he
was a murdered man." And, yet, no one interposed. The murderers concluding that their victim
had received his death-wound, made off.
Afterwards, learning that the fugitive was alive, and
had been taken out of the water by another slave,
named Eex, they returned, bid him stand off.
Ultimately, however, he was rescued, and reached
Canada in safety. How his fevered brow would
be calmed when he entered that city of refuge!
How His heart made warm with gratitude would
give expression <to the silent thoughts within him,
as they started into form and life ! And with what

38

CANADA A GEEAT EYESOEE.

joy would he sit down on the banks of the lake or
river, and as he viewed the broken manacles of his
bondage under his feet, feel that liberty with its
touch of fires had woke his lyre and set his spirit
free
" To the whirlwinds roar on the desert mountain.
To the zephyr's whisper among the trees,
To the still small voice of the pebbly fountain,
And the sudden swell of those inland seas."

CANADA A GEEAT EYESOEE.

Our American people have always had a vigilant
eye on Canada. And, again and again., have they
threatened to annex Canada, that they may scatter
the last embers of the slave's hope for freedom—
and shut down the slaves in the darkness of the
everlasting night of oppression. But their threats
have called forth such a sublime embodiment of
loyalty to the throne of Queen Victoria, and attachment to her person and devotion to her government,
as to scatter every vestige of hope of ever planting
the stars and stripes on Canadian soil.

ON THE CHAEACTEE OF THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN
TO THE SLAVE.

In the following questions and answers, extracted
from the Slave's Catechism, published in the Southern
Episcopalian, issued at Charleston, South Carolina,

SLAVE INSTRUCTION.

39

you have a specimen of the instruction which the
slaves receive.
"Who keeps snakes and all bad things from
hurting you ?
God does.
Who gave you a master and a mistress ?
God gave them to me.
Who says that you must obey them ?
God says that I must.
What book tells you all these things ?
The Bible.
What is the Bible ?
The Bible is God's Word.
How does God do all His work?
He always does it right.
Does God love to work %
Yes, God is always at work.
Do the good angels work ?
Yes, they do what God tells them.
Do they love to work %
Yes, they love to please God.
What does God say about your work ?
He that will not work shall not eat.
Did Adam and Eve have to work \
Yes, they were to keep the garden.
Was it hard to keep that garden ?'
No, it was very easy.
What makes the crops so hard to grow now ?
Sin makes it.
What makes you lazy ?

40

SLAVE INSTRUCTION.

My own wicked heart.
What makes you break the Sabbath ?
My own wicked heart.
"What makes you curse and fight ?
My own wicked heart/' etc.
What a gospel to preach to them! And, yet,
this is all the gospel the vast mass of slaves get!
Dr Nelson, the well-known author on infidelity,
after a residence of more than forty years in North
Carolina, gives the following testimony in relation
to the instruction of the slaves : - ^
" I say what I know, when I speak in relation to
this matter. I have been intimately acquainted
with the religious opportunities of the slaves, and
in the constant habit of hearing the sermons which
are preached to them. And I solemnly affirm that
during the forty years of my residence and observation in this line, I never heard a single one of these
sermons, but what was taken up with the obligations and duties of slaves to their masters. Indeed,
I never heard a sermon to slaves, but what made
obedience to masters by the slaves the fundamental
and supreme law of religion."
And how fearful must be the condition of the
slaveholders themselves! This is seen in the
following dialogue, given in the Parish
Visitor:—
" Do your communicants go to balls ?" said one
to a city rector.
" Yes/'
"Play cards?''

SLAVE INSTRUCTION.

41

"Yes—there is nothing which they do not do."
Many have said to us, they never were asked to
give up any of these things, never promised to give
them up, and never intended to give them up.
" What, then, did you promise to renounce—anything in particular ?" After a pause—
" Nothing in particular."
Such is an example of teaching and of learning.
The time for confirmation arrives. The class is presented to the Bishop, a goodly array to look at, as
they stand around the chancel. The ceremony is
completed; and what is the result—a witnessing
church, or souls deceived to their eternal undoing %
There are four millions of slaves in this state of
heathenism in America! And their slave-masters
will neither point the slaves to the sweet stream of
Christ's mercy nor allow others-^—neither exhort
them to confide in Jesus love nor permit others
who have the desire and the ability.
And the
managers of Bible, Missionary, Tract Societies, and
Colleges and Pastors and members of Churches, with
but few exceptions have hitherto looked silently
and approvingly on! The slaves, therefore, are
subject to a darkness which is appalling ! And the
habitations of their masters are full of cruelty. But
degraded as is the position of the slave, the men
who take away from them the keys of knowledge
are more degraded still! Shall no efforts be made
to rescue the one from the galling yoke of ignorance,
and the other from the more terrible yoke of

42

SLAVE INSTRTCTION.

Satanic delusion? You cannot say "Am I my
brother's keeper ?" Or who is my neighbour and be
guiltless ?
Men, brethren, fathers in Christ, arise and make
your mighty moral influence felt—fling forth your
sentiments in thoughts that breathe, words that
burn, and actions " telling and sublime/' against
this man debasing, Christ dishonouring, and heaven
defying sin of slavery. And sustain the men whom
God has raised up to stand in the breach against
the enemy—warn the people from God, with the
warnings which the prophets gave the men who
own the Christ once more, bound, manacled, and
scourged in his blameless poor—-the men who take
the flaming bolts from Hosea's hand, and shake
them over our guilty land in America. We are
your brethren in ancestry, literature, language, and
religion. Men of God, help. God is opening our
way with his retributive Providencies, whilst
punishing our people for their sin ! Never were
there such facilities for lifting up the flag-staff of
freedom, marshalling God's moral forces for the
glorious conflict before us, throwing out the vanguard of freemen, or bringing up the rank and file
of the little army of Abolitionists to scale the
strongholds of the enemy, plant on his ramparts the
standard of victory, and wave our flag in triumph
over the destruction of the tyrant usurper, slavery;
that fell destroyer of our race.

ON THE

AMERICAN STATES AND SLAYERT.
What an ingenious and wonderful instrument is
a Kaleidoscope. The world we inhabit, may justly
be compared to one of these instruments, in which
the nations of the earth form so many different
compartments.
KUSSIA IS ONE OF THEM.

A few years ago, on approaching the Kaleidoscope of nations, we found public attention concentrated on that country. And, then, scarcely
anything was read, thought, heard, spoke, or dreamt
of, but* the Crimea with its confused noise of
warriors, and garments rolled in blood.
CHANGE OF SCENE.

By a turn of the Kaleidoscope, Italy presented
itself, and Garibaldi with his romantic adventures,
dashing exploits, and brilliant victories, became the
hero of every scene, and the burden of every song.

44

RISE AND PROGRESS OF AMERICA.

SCENE MORE WONDERFUL STILL.

By another move in the Kaleidoscope, and we
have brought before us America, with her lofty
mountains, fertile vallies, vast extended prairies,
magnificent forests, majestic rivers, mighty inland
seas, fashionable and elegant cities, and peaceful
clustering hamlets stretching away from the seaboard of the stormy Atlantic to the beautiful shores
of the sunny Pacific.
RISE AND PROGRESS OF AMERICA.

In tracing these from its first settlement down to
the present, we are like a traveller that begins to
climb the mountains in Switzerland, who, on reaching the top of the first one, finds that there is
another above, and beyond him which he has got
to climb. And when he has planted his feet on
the summit of the second, there are others, still, to
invite his wearied feet and limbs, surrounded by a
boundless perspective of beauty, where "every
prospect pleases, and only man is vile."
MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS OF GREATNESS.

On ascending the first one, we point you to the
beautiful "Mayflower, with its immortal pilgrims,
who first colonised the New World—to their land-

MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS OF GREATNESS.

45

ing on Plymouth rock—to the ocean, which
became a pathway, to transfer ciyilization from
the Old World to the New—to the subjugation of
barbarous and warlike tribes—to dreary wastes,
reclaimed from the wilderness, and converted into
the beauty, and fertility of the garden—and to the
early settlers, living in log cabins, with the wolf at
the door, and the savage Indian, hiding in every
thicket, to waylay and murder the settler with his
scalping-knife ; and, yet, these settlements grew up
into the order of peaceful communities, and carried
on the practices of civilized life." This is what we
call the first mountain height of American greatness.
The next connects us with the struggles of its
early settlers for their independence at Yorktown,
Lexington, Saratoga, Ticonderago, Bunker's Hill—
their successful termination—declaration of Independence—the division of the country into thirteen
states, with each a separate government, and the
union of the thirteen into one, under the title of
the United States of America—its continued rapid
growth, until, to the original thirteen, twenty-one
new states were added. This is our second height
of American greatness.
"We have got still one more mountain height of
greatness to climb; and this associates us with
American agriculture, which clothes her prairies,
with a vast abundance of corn and wines, yielding
every species of fruit and grain—with her minerals,
which disclose every species of metal, mined in her

46

THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS.

vast domain—with her arts and sciences, which
shew us the vast resources of her inventive skill and
genius, in the bridging of rivers, the opening up of
extensive canals, and the construction of railways,
which bind together, with their iron bands, the
Ohio, Missouri, and the Mississipi> those vast
rivers, which stretch their arms, from the arctic
regions, to the tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
It also unites us with the vastly increasing commerce
of her merchant princes, whose ships whiten every
sea with their sails, opening up friendly intercourse
with every nation on earth—-with her wide spread
literature, which piles up volumes on the shelves
of almost every library, and spreads its newspapers
on the tables of almost every reading room, throughout the world—and her ample provision for the
education of her sons and daughters; and her
nobler provision still, for the maintenance of religious
worship, because voluntary, and without the aid of
one single red copper from the State, This is the
third height of American greatness.
THE GREAf AMERICAN CRISIS.

We had fondly hoped that she would have
reached greater heights still, until she had become
the best, wisest, purest, and greatest empire on
earth. But, alas! in this we are disappointed, for
suddenly the great drama in her national progress
has been arrested. The unfolding scenes of her

THE GEEAT AMERICAN CRISIS.

47

greatness and glory have been marred. America
has entered the pathway of the downfall of nations.
One of the most fearful and tremendous convulsions
that ever rocked a country, has shaken her from her
centre to her circumference. Almost at a single
bound, she has been hurled headlong into the
throes and pangs of dissolution.
She is now
smouldering in the fires of ruin, and if ever she
shines again with renovated lustre, it must be like
the fabled Phoenix from the ashes.
THE CAUSE OF THESE STUPENDOUS CHANGES, OR
DREADFUL CATASTROPHE.

If you look a>t the root of the tree of our national greatness, you will find a worm possessing
terrible fangs, busy and active. Or cast your eye
on its huge massive trunk, you will see a huge
serpent coiled around it, poisoning and defiling
everything within its reach, and breathing its deep
protracted hiss, and threatening with its deadly
venomous bite all who would crush the serpent's
head!
Fixing your eye on our young Giant of the West,
you will see a cancer that has eaten into his heart,
and is preying on his vitals ; or a vampire that is
drinking his life's blood ! This worm, serpent, cancer, vampire, is slavery.
This is the boundless element of mischief that
has thrown up mountain rising above mountain,

48

OUR SECONDARY CAUSE.

and piled mountain on mountain of national guilt,
drawing down the thunderbolts of Jehovah's indignation on our land, and attracting the lurid flashes
of his vengeance to punish us for our sins. Nor will
the vindictive wrath of Jehovah be stayed until the
worm at the root of our national tree is destroyed ;
the serpent uncoiled from its trunk and slain; the
scab, cancer, and barebones of slavery are removed
from our young giant's back and vitals; the vampire is killed.
OUR SECONDARY CAUSES

The above is the great primary cause of the terrible catastrophe which has befallen our country,
laying its vast fabric in ruins, and levelling it with
the dust. There are secondary causes. But slavery
is the great cause. As to secondary causes, one of
these is the Tariff.
There is nothing more clear or certain than the
fact, that no man or nation can ever ultimately
prosper at the expense of others. For whatever is
the interest of each is the interest of all. God has
ordained that all shall be dependent, one on each
other. And whenever, wherever, or by whomsoever this law of dependence is infracted, whether
amongst individuals or nations, financial derangement must follow. " The eye cannot say to the hand,
I have no need of thee. Nor, again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you."

OUR SECONDARY CAUSES.

49

The Southerns have always been at variance witt
the Northerns, on the ground of a sound commercii
policy, to be adopted and pursued by the two,
The former have had just, clear, and comprehensive views in regard to Free Trade. The latter has
been narrow, exclusive, selfish, grasping, intolerant,
and defiant in its commercial intercourse.
The one has not only been prepared to receive
advantages, but to reciprocate them. The other
has wrapped itself up in the folds of self-conceit
and vanity, and smiled with " squatter-sovereignty"
contempt on being dependent on the rest of mankind. With a sharp eye to greed, it would take,
but never give.
This discrepancy has often provoked collision between the North and the South, and led to intimidation, menace, and insult. The Southern people were
so determined in their hostility to what they called
the "Black Tariff," that the North, by stratagem,
had to compromise with them.
With their principles in their pockets, the Northern people said to the Southerns, " if you will allow
us to rule you commercially, you may rule us politically." " Granted," said the South ; " if you will
adopt a moderate tariff" The bargain was struck !
The infamous " pact" was concluded! And the
parties remained in close and intimate fellowship
until the removal of the Missouri compromise, with
the exception of a little "jollification," or squabble
D

50

MISSOURI COMPROMISE.

now and then, as our Americans called i t ; such as
the caning of Sumner.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE.

This was .another secondary cause of the present
unhappy strife that now prevails in our land. The
above Act was passed to restrict the area of slavery.
I t was a mutual concession to allay agitation, and
to preserve the Union intact. The Missouri Act
was repealed, ostensibly to give every State the option of electing their own form of government, and
controlling their own institutions and laws.
The real design, however, was to carry slavery
wherever the Constitution of the United States went.
When, therefore, the minions of the slave oligarchy
abolished this Act, it gave rise to renewed agitation,
in which leading Senators in the South boasted that
they would call the roll of their slaves under the
shadow of Bunker's Hill Monument.
And our
Northern people were not slow to resent them.
But the Southern people did not rest in threats.
Their leaders, in connexion with a large dominant
party in the North, combined vigorous action with
well-devised schemes, to go in and possess the land.
Kansas was the goal of their destination, the arena
of their conflict, the battle-field where slavery was
to win its triumphs. They had every facility to
encourage them in this nefarious design.
The United States government, with all its vast

JOHN BROWN'S RAID.

51

machinery, was under their control, and made subservient to their designs. The territorial officers
were willing instruments in the furtherance of
their designs; and they had the advantage of a
start in the race. For a season Northern men,
with Southern hearts, and the slaveholders controlled
Kansas, The game appeared to be won.
But
the " shrieks of Kansas" arose. " Bleeding Kansas"
afforded sensation articles for every newspaper. A
fierce conflict was waged. Murder, rapine, lust,
outrage, robbery, and wrong, followed each other in
quick and rapid succession. Emigrants poured in.
The deliverer of Kansas stood forth in the person of
John Brown. The black tide of despotism wag
rolled back. Government intrigues were defeated,
and Kansas was made free!
JOHN BROWN'S RAID.

This was another secondary cause. When Brown
made his appearance in his unselfish devotion to
the cause of the slave, at Harper's Ferry, with a
band of seventeen men, to rescue a number of
slaves- from their tyrant usurper's grasp, the entire
South was filled with excitement and alarm for
their safety. And the North was equally surprised
with ihe spectacle of his sublime and heroic devotion.—" The affair," says the Richmond Whig, " was
a regular abolition conspiracy extending throughout
the North, and embracing a body of twelve or fif-

52

JOHN BBOWN'S EAID.

teen hundred men, who were pledged to active personal participation in the invasion. And how many
others rendered aid to the enterprise we have
no means of knowing." The Charleston Mercury
says, " Events are often important, not on account
of their immediate magnitude, but on account of
their significancy. A pimple on the cheek may be
a very trifling disorder, but if it betokens erysi-1
pelas, it is the indication of disease which may be
fatal. And so it is in the political world. The
importance of any event, however insignificant in
itself, must be measured by the principle which it
involves, or the policy it indicates. For twentyfive years the Northern people have been keepingup a continual agitation in the Union, concerning
the institution of slavery. They have broken up
our churches; they have run off with our slaves; they
have excluded us from our territory, on the ground
that the institution of slavery is too iniquitous to
expand. And they have now organised a vast controlling party in the North, looking to the possession of the general government to further their
purposes of emancipation. So far from creating
any surprise, we do not suppose that there is a
thoughtful man in the South, who has not been
anticipating for years past such events as those
which, lately transpired at Harper's Ferry. Our
connexion with the North is a standing insurrection in the South. Instead of that domestic tranquillity, which the constitution of the United States

JOHN BROWNS RAID.

53

openly asserts that it was established to secure,
Congress is a vast abohtion conventicle, and the
Union itself a powerful organization, by which
domestic disquietude is created, and the mightiest
dangers impend over the South. Instead of tranquillity and protection, hostility and insurrection
are now its natural fruits. The Harper's Ferry
invasion, therefore, if wisely considered, is of vast
significancy; and should lead the people of the
South to prepare for those future events, of which
this is only the premonition." The above extracts
speak volumes, reveal the weakness and danger
of the South, and John Brown's noble sacrifice on
the altar of freedom, which led many in the North
to examine their position, abjure all sinful expediences, and prepare themselves to take their proper place, and act worthily their part in the great
drama of the irrepressible conflict, now waging with
such deadly strife in our land.
John Brown's ghost meets them at every turn
in the South; and his noble death has given the
greatest impulse to freedom in the North, and will
live when Mrs Stowe and her Uncle Tom will be
forgotten as a dream, and the expediency actors
and tricksters, who have cut their capers, and
danced around her, are consigned to the grave of a
common oblivion. And also when Pantheistical
abolitionists, who have made the anti-slavery platform and their newspapers a means of attacking
evangelical men and things, will be gibbeted with
scorn.

54>

ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

This was another secondary cause of the disruption. The Southern people had no real cause of
danger in his election, since they had a clear majority of senators, and Congress men, in both Houses
of the Legislature, in their favour. And all the
clauses of the Constitution, both in letter and spirit,
•which constitute the great Magna Charta of liberty,
were interpreted and sworn to by " Honest Abe," as
he is called, on his assumption of the reins, and
sweets of office, in favour of slavery. To elect Lincoln, however, a great political dodge was resorted
to by the Republican party; and this was the
adoption, as a part of their programme, of " no more
slave territory," in order to secure abolition votes,
to carry the election of the President in their
favour.
On the election of Lincoln this was abandoned,
not formally but practically, in the endorsement
given to the Peace Congress at Washington, when
William E. Dodge, Esq., and other Northern men,
with Southern hearts, met in Washington, to devise
a plan to reconstruct the Union, by offering to the
South all south of thirty-six-thirty, for new slave
states, but which the Southern people rejected.
Lincoln then called to his council and aid his political opponent, Judge Douglas, the leader of the
Democratic party in the North, and the boasted

ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

55

squatter-sovereignty champion, who was the instrument to lure the South into the dangerous policy of
abolishing the Missouri compromise. And, conjointly, they hit upon the plan of uniting the
Republican and Democratic parties in the North, to
save the Union. The basis of this scheme was
revealed in a telegram to the boards of trade at
Chicago and Milwaukie, "which was to save the
Union and let slavery alone."
Douglas was, to be rewarded with an appointment as major-general in the army for his share in
this transaction, but did not live to enjoy its supposed honour. Lincoln, however, faithfully executed
his part of it in the dismissal of Fremont, Cameron,
and others, and in filling up every office in his gift
with those who supported the Union with its compromises.
But, ever and anon, the tide of public feeling in
the North kept giving unmistakeable signs, that if
the Union could not be saved with slavery, it must
be saved without slavery.
But it is the opinion of able correspondents that
a too rapid success, on the part of the North, or
submission of the South, would induce the North,
gladly, to enact strong guarantees for slavery, as it
exists in the " slave states," which are under the
control of their state governments. One. writes,
" The rebels could not do a better thing for themselves, or a worse for anti-slavery men, than to
submit now, when they could have easy terms, and

56

ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

might walk over gently with the air of conquerors.
But delay will be death to them. Had they been
wise they would have negociated a peace, as soon as
they heard of our surrender to England in the Trent
dispute; for up to that time, and some weeks
later, fortune was on their side. They should have
improved the season offered them by the obscuration of the American sun ; have repented, been forgiven, and resumed their sway/' Again, he says,
" The President points to the possibility of America
becoming a free country, But assuredly nothing
will bring about this result in a nation of politicians,
but their being made to smart for slavery. Those
persons who care nothing for slaves, and who have
no real hostility to slavery, comprise two-thirds of
the population of the free states, and must be made
to see and feel in their pockets, that wrong done to
a whole race must be paid for, and at a high rate
too. When a rich pro-slavery merchant or property
holder, finds himself paying a direct tax of two of
three thousand dollars, for no other purpose than to
protect and uphold slavery, it is possible that his
eyes may be opened to the sin of permitting the institution longer to exist at the cost of him and his.
When their property and business is dotted all over
with imposts, for no other reason than that slavery
may live for ever, they will be speedily converted
to the belief, that it is time to treat the slaves and
negroes with justice."
The above presents complete and ample evidence

OPPONENTS OF THE ABOVE THEORY.

57

that the South had no real cause for a separation in
the election of Lincoln. But beyond all these
secondary causes there has been a Great First Cause,
a guiding hand unseen, that has been so manifest
in these tremendous upheavings and mighty overturnings, that men must be blind not to see amid
the crashing thunders of the Almighty, and the fiery
stream of his vindictive wrath, God's avenging hand
for our sins.
, OPPONENTS TO THE ABOVE THEORY.

There are those, however, who are opposed to the
above theory. And amongst them are President
Lincoln and Frank Blair of Missouri. These maintain that the brood of evils let loose upon our land
have their source and find their centre in the fear
or dread that negro freedom is to carry with it
negro equality. "Slavery," say these men, "is
only indirectly chargeable with the war." The above
is the real groundwork of aversion on the part of
the South to the North, and that nothing will
so surely extirpate the opposition to emancipation, as a knowledge that the two races are to be
for ever separated."
In a speech delivered in the House of Kepresentatives, April 1862, by Blair, whose opinions the
New York Times says coincide with President Lincoln's views on the subject, and enunciate his po-

58

OPPONENTS OF THE ABOVE THEORY.

Key,—in the above speech, when speaking of the
cause of the rebellion, Mr Blair says:—
"The superficial observers who believe that the
rebellion grew out of slavery, and is, as they term
it, a slaveholder's rebellion, when it is known to be
true that the non-slaveholding regions of the South
are for the Union, it is natural that it should occur
to them that the proper course to carry all the nonslaveholders against the rebellion would be to decree emancipation. But a closer scrutiny demonstrates the contrary to be true; such a scrutiny
demonstrates that the rebellion originated chiefly
with the non-slaveholders resident i n the strongholds of the institution, not springing, however,
from any love of slavery, but from an antagonism
of race and hostility to the idea of equality with
the blacks involved in simple emancipation. This
idea among slaveholders was naturally of greater
intensity in proportion to the number of slaves
about them, and its force in neutralising Union
feeling diminishes as we approach the high and
mountain regions where the slaves are few. Every
man acquainted with the facts knows that it is
fallacious to call this a 'slaveholder's rebellion.'
If such was the fact, two divisions of our army
could have suppressed it without difficulty; the
negroes themselves could easily have put down the two
hundred and fifty thousand slaveholders; but it is a
matter of history that the slaveholders, as a body,
were the last and most reluctant to join the rebel-

COLORPHOBIA.

59

lion. The representative men of that interest, like
Badger of North Carolina, Aiken of South Carolina,
and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, struggled as
long as there was hope against the rebellion, and
for the obvious reason that the entire interests of
the slaveholders were put in extreme jeopardy
It
was the negro question and not the slavery question which made the rebellion—questions entirely
different, and requiring entirely different treatment;
and it is as necessary to deal with it successfully,
as it is that the physician should know the disease which he is called on to treat and to cure. If
the rebellion was made by two hundred and fifty
thousand slaveholders, for the sake of perpetuating
slavery, then it might be a complete remedy to extirpate the institution; but if the rebellion has
grown out of the abhorrence of the non-slaveholders
for emancipation and amalgamation, and their dread
of 'negro equality/ how will their discontent be
cured by the very measure the mere apprehension
of which has driven them into rebellion V9
COLORPHOBIA.

The antagonism of races, or this difference of
colour on the skin, according to the above testimony, is the source of danger, the awful curse under which the land groans, to remove which the
races are to be separated, and the coloured people
colonised. But it is not true that these deep inve-

60

IS COLONIZATION PRACTICABLE?

terate prejudices referred to by Blair and his coadjutors, exist to any great extent in the South,
since the South has long since given up these prejudices, if it ever had any. But the North, to
cover up its own deep criminality in this matter,
adroitly seeks to transfer its own guilt to the South
by the above process of cunning and fraud. But
just as certain as the strife between the North and
South will be prolonged to exterminate the odious
system of human bondage, so will the North be
stript of its subterfuges, have its refuges of lies
swept away by the overrunning flood of God's desolating vengeance; and be brought to recognise the
real matter at issue. But supposing colonisation
would be beneficial, how is it to be accomplished?
TS COLONISATION PRACTICABLE ?

After reviewing the struggles which have taken
place between the North and the South, Mr Blair
says:—
" Many assume that Mr Lincoln's programme of
conciliation by separation of the race is inadequate,
because the blacks are so numerous that they cannot all be removed, and time will be required to
remove even a small portion of them. They argue
that because the Liberian colony has failed to attract
the free negro population in considerable numbers,
that any schemes of colonisation must also be a failure. There is a vast difference, however, between

IS COLONISATION PKACTTCABLE?

61

the idea of being colonised on our own continent,
under our own flag, and being buried in Africa, It
is the difference between life and death, home and
banishment. The fact that even now many of these
persons are going to Hayti, and that multitudes of
them have been for years looking out for an asylum
in some neighbouring country, has not attracted the
attention of those who have not been interested in
the subject. They do not know that a Delegate
Convention was held at Cleveland by them in the
year 1857, to consider the subject, and a Commis
sion appointed to examine and report. I was not
aware of this myself when I made my first speech
in the House, in 1857, on the vsubject. That and
other speeches attracted the attention of these people,
and I have since been furnished with copies of their
proceedings, and received letters from their leading
men, evincing not only the deepest interest in the
subject, but displaying a comprehensive knowledge
of it, which shows that they have men among them
fitted to be the founders of a new nationality. I
was assured by the organ of this Convention that
if the Government would act on my proposition, he
was already authorised to speak for five thousand
persons, who had some means, who would embrace
it in the first year. I do not myself doubt that
ten times that number would be found in the first
year, and that the establishment of such a colony
would be followed by an outpouring of this population like the outpouring of the Mississippi when

62

IS COLONISATION PRACTICABLE?

a crevasse is opened. It is indeed so manifest that
this population tends by nature to that region, that
I could as soon doubt that water would find its
level when permitted to flow, as that this race
would not seek its natural home when permitted to
go there. The census shows that it gravitates to
the tropics, so that, even under existing conditions,
it is but a question of time; and that it will free
itself when it gets there, we have also sedn. So irresistible is natural law. Mr Lincoln only proposes
to obey this natural and irresistible law, and facilitate its operations. It is the disregard of it which
has created the disorder under which the body
politic is now suffering. Can it be doubted that
the fever will abate rapidly when his policy is adopted ? And, indeed, such is the nature of the case
that I feel warranted in saying that the disturbance
will cease as soon as it is known that the nation
ha& accepted Mr Lincoln's policy, and before a single
nqgro has left the Union. The outbreak, as I have
already said, sprang from the conviction in the common mind in the disturbed region that the negroes
were to be liberated and put upon an equal footing
with the whites. The mere idea of this amalgamation was instrumental in producing the rebellion.
There was no actual emancipation. The idea of the
separation of the race is a complete antidote to that
poison. I t is the duty of the National Government
to make the provision Mr Lincoln recommends. That
Government alone has the control of our external

IS COLONISATION PEACTICABLE ?

63

relations, and therefore, the States could never be
relieved of this race without the action of the Federal Government. - And I will take occasion to saythat, in my judgment, the Representatives of the
North will very soon find that they will be called
on to act by their own people. The contrabands
are going North, and it will soon be demonstrated,
I think, that the working men of the South do not
differ from their brethren of the North in desiring
that this population shall be* provided with a more
suitable home than is to be found among the white
population. The Wisdom of Mr Lincoln's policy
will vindicate itself then, if not before/'
The above theory of Blair, Lincoln, and the republican party, however plausible, is delusive and
impracticable. In illustration of which, ponder well
the following article, taken fron the Toronto Globe,
April 5, 1 8 6 2 : —
" The difficulties in the way of the deportation of
the slaves from North to Central America are stupendous, and would, under other circumstances, be
a sufficient condemnation of the project. But the
appalling question has to be answered—what shall
be done with the negroes ? And it seems better to
Mr Lincoln and Mr Blair, that the difficulties in the
way of the project they endorse should be boldly
encountered with all the resources of the nation,
than that the cause of quarrel between the North
and South should remain as a source of continual
disgust, and of perennial weakness* However that

64

IS COLONISATION PRACTICABLE?

may be, the task these men would have undertaken
is no light one.1 The slave population of the United
States is 4,000,000. The total number of emigrants who arrived in the United States from Sept.
80, 1819, to Dec. 21, 1855, was 4,212,000. Estimating the natural increase of the slave population
at 20 per cent, each ten years—somewhat less than
it really is—we have an annual increase of 80,000.
The average emigration per annum to the United
States during the thirty-six years named, was 117,0 0 0,
so that at the same rate, and with the same means,
it would require twenty-four years to deport the
natural increase alone of the slave population from
North to Central America. It may be urged, however, that it is not fair to take so extended a series
of years as a crite7*ion to judge by, as the means of
transporting large bodies of men are now almost incalculably greater than they were twenty or thirty
years ago. Our object in giving the above figures
is merely to gain something like a comprehension
of the immense numbers involved. We find that
in 1854 no less than 256,000 emigrants arrived in
the United States, an unprecedented number. At
this rate, more than fifteen years would be consumed
in deporting the slaves, without taking into account
the natural increase of those left behind while the
first went forward. Sixty-four vessels, making four
voyages a-year, and carrying a thousand passengers
each voyage, would be required to accomplish the
task. We might carry the illustration further, but

THE QUESTION OF EIGHT.

65

the immensity of the undertaking is sufficiently
apparent.
The difficulties of transportation are not the only
obstacles in the way. Though the Southerns may
have no regard for the feeling of their slaves, the
Northerns would not dare so to outrage the sense
of the civilised world as to expel them from the
country against tl^eir will. Mr Blair argues that
the negroes will be willing to emigrate, and that
the movement once inaugurated, the stream will flow
until the source is dry. And again, though the
negroes were willing to be deported, it by no means
follows that the governments and the people of Cen«*
tral America will be willing to receive them, and
we suppose their wishes would have to be consulted
in the matter. Furthermore, there are the difficult
ties of settlement. The negroes would certainly not
be induced to leave the States, unless provision were
made for them when they got to the new land, and
to make this provision would perhaps be the most
difficult part of the whole undertaking."
THE QUESTION OF EIGHT.

Mr Blair says,—" It is objected, however, that
we have no right to remove the negroes from their
own country against their will, I do not believe
that compulsory colonisation is necessary to the ultimate success of this plan, but neither do I regard
it with any abhorrence, On the contrary, I look
E

66

THE QUESTION OF RIGHT.

upon it as the greatest boon we can confer upon
this race—greater by far than the gift of personal
freedom in a land in which they must for ever remain in a condition of social inferiority, among a,
people who* will treat them with every imaginable
indignity. Contest this with the policy which will
build them up as gt great nationality, in a country
peculiarly adapted to their physical organization, in
which their natural vigour and endurance make them
-superior to all other races, and whose vegetable and
mineral wealth exceeds that of any other portion of
the world. I look with confidence to this movement as the true and only solution of this question
—a question by Which the life of the nation has
been so often put in peril—a movement by which
two races of men will be delivered from an unhappyconjunction, fatal to both, and by which two empires are to be established to bless mankind by their
beneficent influences through all future time."
No abhorrence of compulsory colonization ! The
greatest boon that can be conferred on the coloured
population, to drive theln out of the land of their
nativity,—to throw them on some inhospitable shore,
where they will be free from every imaginable indignity of the white major-domo; and with nothing
but a great goblet of flattering unction to make their
physical organization, natural vigour and endurance
rise head above shoulder amongst other nations.
What a deep study is human nature ! But despite the double games that are played by these po-

EMANCIPATION AS A MILITARY MEASURE.

67

litieal tricksters, the most flagitious of all knaves,
the question of emancipation keeps forcing itself on
the attention of the people, and on these wily demagogues
EMANCIPATION AS A MILITARY MEASURE.

Mr Blair says,—" No wise man desires to increase
the number of enemies to the State within the hostile regions, or divide its friends outside. Mr Lincoln knew that a decree of emancipation simply
would have this effect. Such an Act he knew was
calculated to make rebels of the whole of the nonslaveholders of the South, and at the same time
to weaken the sympathy of a large number of the
working men of the North, who are not ready to
see their brethren in the South put on an equality
with manumitted negroes. In accordance with this
view of the subject, which he proclaimed before he was
named for the Presidency, and has acted since he has
been President. To disarm the jealousy of race, which
he knew lay at the bottom of the rebellion, he recommended in his first annual Message that /homes
should be provided in some neighbouring country
for such of the blacks as should be made free by the
events of the contest. But this did not complete
his view of the subject. While a^are that the chief
cause of the rebellion was the antagonism of race,
stimulated by the disappointed and defeated politicians, who had made it the source of their power

68

EMANCIPATION GOD'S WILL,

over the Government, he also saw that the progress
of events had affected, and would still further affect,
the class who had property interests in the subject.
And while it was true that the class had not originated the policy which culminated in the rebellion,
they were now involved in it, many of them actually
engaged, and all, whether sympathising with it or
not, having their property staked on it, and, therefore, in danger of being drawn into it. To do justice to those who were not engaged in the rebellion,
and to prevent them from being drawn into it by
their property interest, and invite their co-operation
in ridding the country of this disturbing element,
he now proposes a measure of compensation for their
interests/'
EMANCIPATION GOD'S WILL.

This is the irrevocable decree of Jehovah. He
hath sworn to it, and will not repent. And amongst
the boundless stores of His great arsenal, or the innumerable creatures of His power, He will not
be at a loss for means, or agents to accomplish His
will. On His avowed disciples and followers the
great work devolved, in America, of preparing the
way for the establishment of His kingdom in that
land, by the use of His Word and Spirit. But as
they trifled with the grand opportunities put in
their power to level mountains, and fill up vallies
of wickedness, and to remove huge opposing ob~

EMANCIPATION GOD*S WILL.

69

stacles to His coming and kingdom, He has now
let loose the whirlwinds of His vengeance, that by
more terrible instrumentalities and agencies, this
vast system of oppression and outrage, which degrades our country, may be uprooted and scattered
to the four winds of heaven. And no dodgings
behind constitutional forms of law or etiquette, can
save slavery or color-phobia from destruction. This
conviction is deepening and gathering force every
day.
0 that the administrators of our government
had the wisdom, courage, and determination, equal
to the grave emergency. But, whilst the voice of
Jehovah in His word and providences has thundered
in their ears, " Let my people go," they have clung
more closely to them, tried to make their chains
tighter and faster, extinguish every ray of hope in
their deliverance, and deepen and widen the gulph
of antagonism which wicked men have made between the races. But while amidst their vain imaginings and wicked devices, the meshes of their
infernal plots, and wily Jesuitical political-intrigues,
down came the plagues of Jehovah on our land.
These plagues have followed each other in rapid
succession. At first our modern Lincoln Pharoah's
heart was very hard, and his edicts were very mandatory, haughty and vindictive, as shewn in his
inaugural address.
Let God's people go. " No, no," said this modern Pharoah; " w e will soon shew that it will be

70

EMANCIPATION GOD'S WILL.

better for all," whether they occupy " official or
private positions' in life; better that they do not
trouble us about these slaves, hold sacred their own
convictions in regard to their inherent rights, or
cherish any conscientious scruples, touching these
matters." Such was the essence and purport of the
above address.
The first plague of secession filled him with unbounded levity, and provoked his pity and scorn;
causing him to treat it with an air of indifference^
and to speak of it in his speeches as " artificial,"
whilst receiving the grand ovations of our people
on his way to the Capitol!
The second plague of the destruction of commerce, made him more grave and serious, as the
repudiation of debts, and the interruption of the
vast arteries of commerce compelled him to meet the
Storm of coming events, which cast their shadows
before hand.
The next plague of open violence roused his indignation, and directly he combines his forces under
the cry of the Union, " One and for ever"-—the old
Union with its compromises. And straightway,
with stern resolve and determined will, he dismisses
the men who would place in jeopardy the compromises of that Union,
The plague of waste and destruction is made
manifest, and he begins to reason about the matter
of letting God's people go; but concludes in his
message to Congress, December 1861, that i( email-

EMANCIPATION GGD?S WILL.

71

cipation would be a John Brown's raid on a gigantic
scale, and suicidal, by throwing against the Federal
Government the Border Slave States; and that if the
scheme be entertained the ligaments of the country
had better be taken up to prevent bleeding to death."
The fearful plague of privation and suffering
makes its appearance, and our modern Pharoah's
heart relents, and " in view of all the circumstances," he opens the prison doors in the district
of Columbia, and finds a few aged, infirm, decrepit
slaves, whose freedom will be no loss to their taskmasters • the " likely," or able-bodied ones, having
mostly been pirated away into the old slave states
farther south. His white republican friends received
the news with " moderate satisfaction;" the democrats with avowed hostility and dislike; but the
abolitionists with joy.
His heart has grown suddenly hard again, by
the discovery that slavery is not the cause of their
troubles, but the antagonism of races. More fearful judgments are impending still. Perhaps the
plague of financial ruin may be the next visitation
from Jehovah, to bring another pressure on his
" view of all circumstances." But whatever it may
be it will not be withheld that God's people, in the
persons of the slaves, may go forth to serve God,
not in the wilderness of Liberia, Abbeokuta, or
Central America, but of their own native country
America! There may be a fearful struggle in our
modern Pharoah's h§art, or amongst his political

72

EMANCIPATION GQD'S WILL.

advisers, but God's own right hand will obtain the
victory.
No glory will accrue to Sumner, Garrison, Henry
Ward Beecher, Dr Cheever, or Mrs Stowe. No
— i t will be God's work-—-and His alone.
Some of the above would shut God otit of the
work. And others have gone about it, with such
loose principles and marked indiscretion, that God
would not be much honoured by them in the work.
But should our modern Pharoah, with his government, continue to oppose the revealed will of Jehovah in the deliverance of the slaves, then amidst the
rising tide of events the horsemen and riders would
be whelmed with political destruction, and their
Babel schemes and Jesuitical intrigues would be
swept away with the boisterous waves of popular
indignation.
(KXD'S UPLIFTED HAND A SOUBCU OF SORROW BUT
NOT OF SURPBISE.

Nothing is more clearly substantiated in history
or the experience of mankind, or more fully certified
to, in the Bible, than the fact, that God punishes
nations, just the same as he does individuals, who
depart from the law of absolute right, with this
exception:—
Whilst individual trangressors, generally, receive
their punishment in the world to come, except they
repent, believe in Jesus Christ, and cherish loving

AMERICA THE GREAT TRANSGRESSOR.

73

obedience to his commands ; he punishes nations
in this world, when they depart from first principles, except they turn from the evil of their
ways, and humble themselves before God, like the
Ninevites.
AMERICA THE GREAT TRANSGRESSOR.

There is no nation under heaven that has so
openly, wilfully, wickedly, or flagrantly departed
from first principles as America. And, yet, there
has been no sincere, or genuine sorrow on account
of this most base and criminal rebellion against God,
amongst our American people as a nation, or abandonment of their sin.
Hence, as sorrow succeeds sin, or punishment
transgression, just as effect the cause, even so,
now, the storms of God's wrath are coming down
upon us from above, and bursting up from beneath,
and rolling forth in floods of desolation, to overwhelm us in misery and ruin, because of our departures from God.
AMERICA IS ALONE RESPONSIBLE FOR HER GUILT,
SHAME, AND PUNISHMENT.

How strange that in high places, and from influential leading statesmen in this country,
" Statesmen the friends of truth—with souls sincere—
Faithful in action—and in honour clear"—

74

THE SEVERITY OF THE DIVINE PROCEEDURE.

Yes. It is surpassing strange, that men such as
Earl Russell, should put forth the sentiment again
and again, that " Great Britain gave to America the
black gift of slavery"—that poisoned garment which
has hung around us from the first hour of our independence. This, however, is not true, since the
Dutch were the first to introduce it into the State
of New York, which was then one of their colonies.
But supposing that Great Britain was the original
transgressor. What then ? Would she share with
us in our guilt, and participate with us in our
punishment. There is sad evidence that she shares
with us in the latter but not in the former^ since we
Americans, and we alone, are responsible for the
sin of slavery.
When the Government of this country levied
their taxes on our American tea, we took it, and
threw it into the blue waters of Boston. And why
was not slavery thrown there too ? For if the one
was unjust, cruel, and oppressive, the other is much
more so.
THE SEVERITY OF THE DIVINE PROCEDURE.

I t is most fearful to contemplate the privations,
terrors, and horrors which are associated with the
fratricidal conflict now waging in America,
How frightful to think that a land so beautiful
in its landscapes, fertile in its soil, and abundant in
its resources, should be a threshing floor—-

WAR A TERRIBLE SCOURGE.

75

Northern and Southern troops, flails of vengeance
in the hands of the Almighty—whilst both are
terrible instruments, to pound each other, and the
whole people, for the sin of oppression.
WAR A TERRIBLE SCOURGE.

Since the war began in America, thousands of
warm hearts have ceased to beat. And multitudes
of widows and orphans have been brought to mourn
in desolation for husbands and fathers, who will return no more, whilst fields have been laid waste
and made unproductive, and smiling villages and
prosperous towns reduced to blackened heaps, by
hands made red with the gore of human blood.
On yonder battle-field there is heard the distant
hum of voices. Harsh and discordant sounds rise
on the air. The deafening roar of cannon comes
thundering on the breeze. Smoke rises over the
embattled hosts like a cloud. Rifles and muskets
send their continuous flash along the lines of hostile
forces confronted in battle array. The dead lie
piled on heaps. And the shrieks of the wounded,
and the groans of the dying, are mingled with the
bloody strife. Such is the glory and the pomp of
war. And how desolating its effects! Look at
the following picture, drawn by a newspaper correspondent, in connection with the New Jersey
Brigade:—
" The army could with difficulty make its way a

76

THE WAR NOT YET OVER.

few miles into the country. The rails and sleepers
had been piled in heaps by the road-side, and
burned. The bridges had been pulled down or
blown up.
There were wide rivers and wider
swamps to cross. There were no villages, and butfew houses. A collection of log huts marked the
site of a deserted camp. The rick-yards of the
widely-scattered farms were empty. The ill-made
highways were nearly obliterated by the tramp of
men and horses a-nd the roll of wheels. The spring
rains following on the winter snows had made the
fields well-nigh impassable. Here, one might say,
the desolation is complete; here the fury of man
has done its worst to mar the face of nature ; here
all the arts and industries and pleasures of ordinary
life had been driven out of sight by the ruthless
goad of war."
THE WAR NOT YET OVER.

Vengeance, still is in store for us, more severe and
terrible than any which has yet been poured out
upon us, unless the people, and the Government,
and the President of America deliver themselves of
the "pernicious embrace of slavery," and colourphobia ; or, treating coloui as a crime. As there
are degrees in guilt, so there are in punishment.
And though God is slow to punish, it is nevertheless sure, where there is no repentance or reformation. And if Jefferson, an infidel, trembled for his

SIGNS NOT HOPEFUL.

77

country, when he reflected that God was just, how
much more ought we, as our national guilt is much
greater now than then.
SIGNS NOT HOPEFUL IN CONN^CmON>WITH THE
FEDEBAL GOVERNMENT,

Great hopes have been raised, and exuberant feelings of gladsome excitement produced by the message
of the President, which made an offer to aid the
slave states if they would emancipate their slaves ;
and also, in the ratification of the Act which was
passed to buy up the slaves in the district of
Columbia. But how it must abate this overflowing enthusiasm, check this wild excitement of joy,
and put far distant the day of their deliverance, if
the grand heroic personage, President Lincoln, so
called, is to be the man to fulfil the responsibilities
of the occasion when such is his line of action
revealed by Blair, except some terrible judgment
comes down upon the land, or some mighty rushing
wind of popular enthusiasm, requires him to brace
himself up, and make1 himself ready for such a work,
and use the vast machinery under his control for its
accomplishment. In such an event, he would not
allow any military generals, commodores in the
navy department, or members in his Cabinet to
outstrip him in the race, such as Wool, Fremont,
Lane, Siegel, Stringham, or Cameron.
On the first appearance of the race for this hon-

78

PRESIDENT A MAN OF ALL WORK.

our being contested, Wool is caged up in a fortress
in Munroe, Fremont dismissed, Lane superseded in
his command, Siegel made. so unpopular by the
President's menials as to be impelled to resign his
command, Stringham put out of service, and Cameron sent to an official penal settlement in Russia.
On the other hand, if the popular voice required
the Union to be preserved and slavery too, he is
ready to contest the field for the championship in
the race against all competitors, whether Seward, or
the dummy, Quaker-General as he is called, M'Clellan, or any other man, and has laid his plans,
marked out his course, and accustomed himself to
his work, so that at a bound he may outdistance
all his competitors.
PRESIDENT A MAN OF ALL WORK.

He is not at all particular as to the work to be
done. He never inquires is it right, or will it conduce to the public good, or subserve the interests of
morality, virtue, or religion. These things are not
a matter of much concern or importance with him,
so abundantly made manifest in his anxious desire
to float down the river of popular enchantment,
which may throw him into the dead sea of popular
hate, like his predecessor Buchanan, and make him
like a dead chip floating on its surface, or turn his
influence into a dead sea of bitterness whose waters
are brackish or poisonous in their tast£, in which no

BOOK OF PROVIDENCE.

79

instinctive love of virtue can live, and over which
no grand living moral action can wing its flight.
BOOK OF PROVIDENCE.

If in the thickening chaplets of the above book
there should be found a leaf where President Lincoln is to attain the achievement of freeing four
millions of slaves with a stroke of his pen, to use the
language of John Milton, " would he not still need
enfranchising, enlarging, and lifting up many degrees above himself," with his well-known hatred
of a black man, or a mulatto, fco restrain him from
uniting with the citizens of his own free State, Illinois, so called, not only to shut them out from that
particular State, but from the United States, except
there was another hurricane of popular feeling to
come sweeping along,
" As the winds come when forests are rended,
Or as the waves when navies are stranded ? "

Then the existing barriers in his prejudices against
colour would not only be swept away, but
his own sympathies, which had been u cribbed,
cabbined, and confined" so long, would be let loose,
to swell the current of national sentiment, until, by
its turbulent sweep, his own " bugbears" of Africanisationism would be swept onwards and downwards
into the regions of annihilation, and the negro race
stand up erect, not only disenthralled by the genius
of universal emancipation, but in the full privilege

8 0 DELIVERANCE OF THE SLAVE NOT YET EFFECTED.

to sit on juries, record their votes as citizens, and
hold office in Church and State, as well as eat the
bread which their own hands have earned, like President Lincoln when he was inducted into the
mysteries of <( rail splitting "
DELIVERANCE OF THE SLAVE NOT YET EFFECTED.

The furor of excitement in regard to the proposal for gradual emancipation, enkindled by the
President, and sustained by the Congress and many
influential men in Church and State, will be found
to, be of a transient and evanescent character, as the
people, who are being burdened by an enormous
taxation, will not so much as touch with their little
fingers the heavy burden of compensation to slaveholders, when they can enrich themselves by the
adoption of free labour, clothe their meadows with
enchantment, and turn their fields almost into paradisaical beauty, making them well-nigh to reflect
the hues of the<( Better Land," clothing the landscapes
with greater loveliness, and suffusing the air with
sweeter odours through its influences, so that, if men
who are now marching to the conquest of the South
should exclaim, " Zounds 1 what a land to live in,
get rich i n ; we will never go back/' what would
the cry be then ? And how great would be the
rush to make the South a chosen home, a source of
wealth, and a means of leaving the world better
than they found it by doing good, like the cobbler

AMERICANS NOT FOND OF TAXES.

81

who went to law with that object in view with the
Marquis of Richmond, and succeeded, so that the
footpath which had been closed by him was reopened.
AMERICANS NOT FOND OF TAXES.

Congress has been slow to move, and very cautious in its proceedings in regard to taxation ; but as
the tremendous accumulations of the national debt
keep looming up like a great mountain, the Federal
Government has been impelled to make a move, in
the attempt to frame, adopt, and ratify an enormous
war tax, to prevent itself from getting into a fix,
like the whole of our country where it is to operate.
A SCOTCHMAN'S VIEW OF THE MATTER.

"Assuredly," says the editor of the Scotsman,
April 1 8 , 1 8 6 2 , " the Americans at present extant,
though swift to spend, and not slow to borrow, are
in so little hurry to pay, that even the beginning of
the payment appears not unlikely to fall more upon
the next than upon the present generation. A great
many new taxes have been proposed, but almost
none of them have as yet been really imposed, and,
so far as we can find, none at all have been collected.
The Tax Bill was a wonderful list of taxes ; but it
was almost as wonderful for what it omitted as for
what it comprised, and it is being talked over in
the Congress with a leisureliness which is in strange

82

A SCOTCHMAN'S VIEW OF THE MATTER.

contrast with the urgency of the need. For instance, it is strange that, while taxing apparently
every article that can be named, no mention is made
of the great articles of coal and iron, the import of
which is taxed almost protectively. The explanation given,, besides the fact, of these commodities
having long been the favourites of American ' protection/ is, that the chairman of the committee that
framed the bill was a representative of Pennsylvania,
whose staples are the exempted articles. Yet this
omission appears not even to have been objected
to in the House of Representatives—while another
equally remarkable omission was objected to without the slightest success."
The editor of the Scotsman goes on to say:—
" I s it not strange that, while not only every
kind of property, but every kind of movement made
by a free citizen, down even to a ride in an omnibus, is to be taxed, there is no tax whatever proposed on one of the greatest and most conspicuous
kinds of property existing within the States that
were and are again to be1 United. No tax is proposed on slaves, though these are, by American law,
" chattels" of the most absolute and well-defined
character. A proposal to supply this omission was,
we find,, very strongly urged in the House of Representatives; ; but, by 61 against 42, it was decided
that, alone of all property, property in human bodies
and souls should go untaxed. Of the same House
that made this refusal, we read thus :—

A SCOTCHMAN'S VIEW OF THE MATTER.

83

'Washington, March 31.
' To-day the House of Representatives went into
committee of the whole on the Tax Bill. The
leather clause of the bill was amended as follows :—
' On patent or enamelled leather, five mills per
square foot.
'On patent japanned splits used for dasher
leather, four mills per square foot.
' On patent or enamelled skirting leather, one
and one-half cent, per square foot.
6
On all sole and rough or harness leather made
from hides imported east of the Cape of Good Hope,
and all damaged leather, five mills per pound.
' On all other sole or rough leather, hemlocktanned, eight mills per pound.
' On all finished or curried upper leather except
calf-skins made from leather tanned in the interest
of the parties finishing or currying such leather not
previously taxed in the rough, 1 cent a pound.
' On bend, butt, and harness leather, 1 \ cent per
pound.
1
On offal leather, five mills per pound/
And so on, through kinds and qualities of leather
three times more numerous than those here named.
The spectacle of a nation spending at the rate of
£500,000 a-day, and imposing, or rather only talking about imposing, taxes by tenths of a halfpenny
on "japanned splits/' rather indicates an inadequate
idea of the amount and nature of the work which the
events of the last twelve months have carved out."

84

DAY OF BECKONING.

The above war-tax has been dragging its long,
slow length along for some time, and coiling itself
up in the bureaus of the different departments of
Congress; but it is only just beginning to lift up
its ugly head and shew itself to our American
people. When, however, they begin to feel its
deadly bite, and the poison of its venomous fangs,
what an outburst of indignation and of popular
resentment there will be against the men and the
day that plunged them into war. The war-tax
will be more than sufficient, then, without the compensation tax, to satisfy the people in regard to the
blind leaders of the blind, who sacrificed the North
with the South, and tumbled tne whole of us
together into the ditch, or rather gulph, of irretrievable disaster, ruin, and woe.
DAY OF BECKONING.

This will come with the Government, just as it
has done with our people, whom the Almighty is
now calling to account and punishing for their
sins. And how soon it may come! For our
American people are as fickle and inconsistent as
our rulers. They are the creatures of impulses, so
that those who shout their hosannahs to-day may
hurl their anathemas to-morrow. This may be
near. Indications of the coming storm are at
hand. Nothing shews this more clearly than the
mode in which the leaders of the Federal Govern-

DAY OF BECKONING.

85

ment are tossed about like straws, hither and
thither, by the conflicting elements in the mighty
maelstrom of public opinion which is drawing them
down and hurling them along into the mighty
vortex of ruin. Amid the darkness of the scene
the proclamation of freedom to the slaves by Gen.
C. Hunter in his military district, which comprises
three of the Gulf States, adds to the fierceness and
bitterness of the hurricane, that is sweeping with
such velocity and destructiveness across our land,
and shews that grave events are looming up on the
Gulf coast,—events which will carry sadness to
multitudes of hearts and fill their woe cups to the
brim. For should his policy be carried out there
will be the most frightful horrors and dreadful
tragedies* Every plantation would be the scene ot
massacre, and the sad picture, made so dark and
dismal with the results of our fratricidal war
already, would present increasingly direful and
cruel results, and reveal an extent of horror and
misery unparalleled in the history of the world.
The insolent demand made by the editor of the
New York Journal of Commerce on the people of
this country betrays the feverish, restless anxiety
of the supporters and defenders of our Government
in regard to its coming fate.
" England must assist us in preserving peace.
She must do this by suppressing her anti-American
sentiments, by discouraging her abolitionists, who
have for years assisted our American abolitionists in

86

DAY OF BECKONING.

bringing about the present state of our affairs.
She must, if necessary, overthrow her ministry, and
rule out certain members whose sympathies are so
hostile to America. She must rapidly assume a
position of friendly feeling to our Government, and
withdraw her recognition of the rebels as belligerents, instead of parleying with the American
rebellion, as if she hoped the supporters of the
Gladstone principle may one day be her friends.
She must at once look on them as disorganisers,
rebels, and enemies of their own government."
Here is dictation with a vengeance. But who
are to be the instruments to supply the motive
power to the word must? Dire is the necessity,
and hopeless is the case of our political adventurers,
charlatans, card-players, wire-pullers, or tricksters
when, devoid of all sense of propriety, decency, or
shame for their own conduct which has sacrificed the
patriotism, virtue, and interests of our country, they
now with unblushing impudence turn to you in the
hour of their trouble, and with a scowl and menace,
say to you " you must/' Of beggars, to say the
least, this is very impertinent, and not likely to
impress you very favourably with the oracles of our
political wisdom, or beau ideals of human freedom.
But, as if to put the climax on the scenes of
horror that are now witnessed in our land, Gen.
Butler has issued a proclamation in New Orleans
demanding that all churches and shops should be
opened for service and business, so that the soldiers

MEN OF PKINCIPLE.

87

and army attendants may obtain goods with Federal
paper money, which is a legal tender, but worthless
in the South, and that " service may be held as in
times of profound peace."
It is thus, say the editors of the Edinburgh Daily
Review, May 28, 1862, that the "people are to go
to their Maker, mocking at their own grief, with
their civil rulers in the dungeon, the armed tramp
of military despotism in the street, and sons, brothers,
and fathers amongst the corpses floating on the
Mississippi." Need we wonder that the whole civilised world should look on the above frightful scenes
with a shudder of horror, and shrink with a virtuous indignation from their contemplation; or that
their authors will be visited with the scorn of mankind. Amidst the revelations that are to come,
nothing now can appal or surprise us.
MEN ®F PKINCIPLE.

These alone will be able to stand the scrutiny of
history, time, nations, or individuals ; and whilst
all others will go down into the fossil remains of
society, never to be dug up again, but lie dead and
buried like Pearce and Buchanan, James Gordon
Bennet, Benjamin Hallett, and William E. Dodge
in their living graves, the Conways, Newtons,
Thomes and Sloans and others will work their way,
up and up through all the substratums of prejudice,
until they stand in the clear sunshine

88

TRUE PRINCIPLES DESTINED TO TRIUMPH.
il

Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form,
Swells from the "vale and midway leaves the storm ;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
TRUE PRINCIPLES DESTINED TO TRIUMPH.

Before the victory is won in the cause of freedom,
the struggle will yet be fierce and furious. Tremendous efforts will have to be put forth, and great
sacrifices made on the part of the friends of the
slave, before we are delivered as a people from the
pernicious embrace of slavery or colorphobia; and
it will require many vials to be poured out upon us,
in connection with God's retributive justice, before
either the slaveholders, or the Federal Government,
or the people, will let the slaves go free, or recognise the negro as a man with a living soul within him3
whose personality and rights are as dear as others
are to them.
GOD'S VIALS WORKING WONDERS.

These are removing tremendous barriers that have
stood in the way of the early pioneers of freedom,
and prevented them from taking possession of the
land. But now that grim-visaged war, wifch its
frightful train of visitors and scenes of woe, has
come to their aid, huge opposing obstacles, like
mountains that intercepted us, are being swept away,
and an open door is being presented through which

NOBILITY OF THE MISSION.

89

the consecrated sons and daughters of freedom may
go forth and travel on the king's highway of principle, to prosecute their mission of peace and goodwill to man, in the good old way, and by the grand
old-fashioned means, sanctified and sublimated by
our divine Lord and Saviour, the great emancipator
of men.—Luke iv. 18.
NOBILITY OF THE MISSION
IN WHICH EMANCIPATIONISTS ARE ENGAGED.

Nobler than which never engaged the attention,
aroused the energies, enlisted the sympathies,
warmed the affections, called forth the activities,
engaged the prayers, or laid under tribute the resources of mankind. Liberty! how sweet is the
name —lovely and beautiful her angelic form
—incalculable the benefits which she diffuses
among men—and noble the thoughts, desires,
affections, purposes, plans, and deeds which she
calls forth, causes to come sweeping along, and to
defile before us! Those who are engaged, therefore, in securing this incalculable boon to men, are
promoting a cause most great and good; noble,
holy, just, and true; majestic and sublime—glorious ; for 'tis the cause of right o'er wrong, humanity
o'er brute force, meekness over provocation and insult rude, justice over iniquity, honour over baseness and dark deeds of shame, truth over falsehood,
light over darkness, wisdom over suicidal folly and

90

NOBILITY OF THE MISSION.

reckless madness, love over hatred and strife, Christ
over Belial, God over Satan, and heaven, with all
its legions of spirits bright arrayed against the
powers of hell, contesting every inch of ground—
the struggle fierce and furious—sometimes inspiring
hope and then producing black despair—now wresting a victory from the enemy's grasp on the lofty
battle height, and then again retiring discomfited
with disaster and defeat; but in the death-grapple
the shout ascends victorious over every foe, the
powers of earth are vanquished, alien sons and
daughters are scattered and put to flight, the tyrantdespot slain, the prison-doors thrown open, millions
of fetters broken, and the imprisoned slaves set free.
Now lay aside the sword and spear,
And put your armour by;
The battle's won, O glorious word!
Peal forth the note of victory.
Prepare the feast of jubilee,
And in oiie grand acclaim
Make known the shoutings of the free
O'er continent and main.
Then tune your harps with gladness,
Repeat the joyous song,
And with praise and thankfulness
The glorious deed prolong.

And freedom's cause cannot be ennobled or dignified by the greatest kings or noblest queens—
no, not even Victoria—presidents, statesmen, senators, orators, or the poet laureate; ambassadors,

NOBILITY OF THE MISSION.

91

noblemen, merchant princes, knights, or squire
Peabody; squatter sovereigns, like John Brown, a
man of heroic conscience, blameless life, and noble
deeds; or ministers of Jesus Christ; no, not even
a Guthrie with his ready wit, genuine humour,
lofty soul, and brilliant intellect; or that man of
nobler intellect, more commanding genius, and
mightier influence, whose name is Spurgeon—a
man whose vast globe of intellect is on fire with
love to God and man—a master spirit—facile
princeps—the wonder of the age—the world. But
whilst it receives not, and borrows none, it has
honour and dignity superbly grand and unspeakably glorious to bestow on its illustrious sons and
daughters; distinctions shining very bright, and
undying fame upon historic page. It digs out of
heaven's eternal mine the brightest gems to grace
their crowns with brightest lustre; deepens within
them and makes wider their sea of bliss beyond the grave, and writes their names on monuments more durable than brass, embalms their
virtues, and makes their worth more precious than
gems of gold or solid silver, or any work of art.
A nation, did we say? No, we recall the word,
and fearlessly avow that such are the world's joy,
its admiration, praise. And when all hereditary
honours and titles have passed away, or have been
forgotten as a dream, those who have laboured in
this cause, constrained thereto by a Saviour's love,

92

GOD'S PIONEER

will be held in everlasting remembrance, and be
covered with imperishable glory and renown.
Such, doubtless, have been slandered, but their
names now gather lustre from reproach. Their
characters may have been shut out from view of
men by clouds and storms of misrepresentation,
calumny, obloquy, and abuse. The fiery serpent's
hiss of deadly hate may have breathed around
them, turned up its envenomed eyes, and flung its
darts, and their persons felt the wounds of poisoned
arrows from persecutor's hands. But the clouds
now form an amphitheatre to take up and fling
forth their virtues in every shape of brilliant hue
and lustre, and with coruscation beautiful, dazzling
with glory bright; a glorious scene, delightful to
behold. And in that scene, the scars and wounds
which they received have become most conspicuous
and grand, calling forth feelings exultant with delight, transports run wild with joy.
" To side with truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause brings fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be
just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands
aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."
THE WAR A BREAKER UP IN GOD'S PROVIDENCE, OR
PIONEER.

Though a blunder and a crime, God is overruling it, and making it subservient to His own de-

GOD'S PIONEER.

93

signs of infinite benevolence and love.
As a
pioneer, it is levelling mountains and filling up
vallies, making rough places plain, and crooked
places straight for the John the Baptists with
their wilderness cry of repentance and reformation
in regard to our great national sins. In this respect the war is doing more to facilitate the progress of our cause and the triumph of our principles than the labours of all Abolitionists put together from the commencement of the conflict in
the cause of freedom until now. Dr. Cheever,
writing to one of his friends in Edinburgh, in an
excerpt given in the Scotsman, April 15, 1862,
says: " I have made some most interesting visits
to Washington, and enjoyed rare opportunities in
preaching in the Capitol on the duty of abolition;
also in lecturing in the Smithsonian institution,
on the same subject. Next week I am to speak
before the legislature of this State. Everywhere
there is a hearing ear, if not an understanding
heart." And the above testimony is corroborated
by a noble senator in Tenessee, named Ethridge,
who, in a thrilling speech made at Nashville, said,
" That the war was working revivals in the cause
of freedom, ripping up the roots of an old civilization, and planting a new one; that slavery could
never have the security it had before; and that
the people were now talking freely everywhere of
negro bondage, as a thing that would have to give
up the ghost/' This testimony is more important

94

GOD'S PIONEER.

and valuable than Cheevers, since Etheridge was
born in a slave state, was nursed by slaves, brought
up among them, has owned a number of them, but
confesses that he is sick of the institution.
But the testimony of the negro clergyman who
preached a sermon on Thanksgiving-day at Washington, April 13, 1862, in imitation of Cheever
and other white preachers,—his testimony is the
best of- all, with the exception of his fastening the
guilt of America on all nations. c The black clergyman preached a very good sermon from the text,
" If God be for us, who can be against us ?" to an
audience of 200 or 300 of his own people. He
spoke of the deliverance of Moses and the children
of Israel from bondage; and by a natural transition,
referred to the condition of the slaves in America,
and especially in this district. He thanked the
Lord most fervently that he had been permitted to
live to see this day; 43 years ago he was tarred
and feathered in Washington because he would
preach the Lord Jesus as he understood it; " b u t
now/' shouted the sable speaker, "let Ethiopia lift
up her hands to God, for a great good is coming
out of this war—a good for me, for us, and for our
people whom every nation has set its heel upon!"
His audience was boisterously joyous,, from the beginning to the end of the discourse. Of course,
the expressions and demonstrations were extravagant-—true to the quick faney and fervent hearts
of the race. Some rubbed their hands in glee,

GOD'S PIONEER.

95

some laughed outright, some leaped up in the air
or twisted themselves into grotesque attitudes, as
if their joy was too intense to be entertained at a
staid perpendicular; many shouted, " Glory to
God!" " Hallelujah !" "Amen!" " The blessed day
has come/' &c.; while nearly all were in tears.
When the speaker thanked the Lord that the
slaves were to be free, the jubilee became utterly
indescribable. What a Babel of triumphant voices!
An old "aunt," off in the right hand upper corner,
shouted and wept persistently. Probably she had
a reason for it, I thought—perhaps two or three
of them, helpless, and in the hands of kidnappers.
" Glory to God I" said the preacher, solemnly and
slowly. "Glory to Lovejoy!" yelled a voice at
the right that belonged to a strongly-built mulatto.
" No," commanded the speaker instantly. " I tell
you glory to God!" for he seemed determined
from the first word that God should have the undivided praise, refusing to give a moiety to the
President or Congress. A pair of hands clenched
spasmodically the top of the seat in which I was
sitting. I looked back and the man was hopping
up and down, as if he had just caught a glimpse of
heaven, and presently interrupted the speaker by
trying to sing, " I am bound for the land of
Canaan." His face bore a deep scar across the
nose, and tears were streaming from the long furrows of his cheeks. He had seen thirty years,
perhaps, and the light gray rags that he gathered

96

MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED.

about him told me that he had "come out of the
house of bondage." Most of the hearers were
partly white; many were mulattoes, quadroons,
octoroons—and one or two women, I imagined,
would attract attention, for their good looks, in
Broadway. But what a day of sunshine it was to
the stricken souls! They seemed to think little of
the kidnapper; they were full of hope, and looked
ahead. Such a chorus of exultation I never heard
before; such joyful gestures I never beheld—it was
a spectacle for men and angels."
MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED.

These are God's Word and Spirit, the source of
whatever is good among individuals or nations.
The roaring thunder, flashing lightning, and rolling
flood have their use like the deep silent river and
the gentle dew. But none of these agencies are so
mighty and powerful as the Word and Spirit of God.
And they are so adapted to meet the exigencies of
all men and nations, and so efficient wherever
applied, that they never fail to produce fruit which
gladdens the hearts of philanthropists, patriots, and
Christians, But these means have not been used
in the cause of freedom in America, unitedly and
systematically, by our professors of Christianity,
otherwise, in humble dependence on God for his
blessing, they must have succeeded. For everything depends on the use of the right means with

THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

97

the attainment of the end. The late venerable
Judge Jay* Arthur Tappan, Esq., and a few others,
now and then lifted up their voices for the slave,
but only served like solitary stars in the firmament
to make the darkness in the churches and states
more visible. But, until 1858, no concentrated
action had been resolved upon by Christian men.
This the author had long seen and deplored. And
after speaking of it to the Rev. Dr. Kelly of Liverpool, during a brief visit to England in that year,
on his return to New York he waited on Dr.Cheever,
and urged the necessity of the formation of a society,
whose sublime mission, should be to separate our
churches from the sins of slavery and colorphobia;
and seek to demonstrate the axiom laid down by
the Eev. Dr. Barnes of Philadelphia, " that if slavery
was not inside our American Churches, it could not
exist one hour outside/'
The interview with
Cheever led to the formation of the Church Anti*
slavery Society in October of that year.
PROGRAMME OF THE ABOVE SOCIETY, OR DECLARATION
J

OF PRINCIPLES.

" The rights of man, as man, sacred and inalien*
able, without distinction of blood or races.
" Property in man impossible, as being without
grant from the Creator, and equally contrary to
natural justice and revealed religion.
" The system of American slavery, and the prac*
G

98

THE CHUKCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

tice of slaveholding essentially sinful and antichristian; and to be dealt with as such by Christian
churches and states.
" The utter inability and impossibility of any
remedy or relief for slavery, but one that insists on
its inherent wrongfulness, its totally intrinsic baseness, and denies absolutely the wild and guilty
fantasy that man may hold property in man.
•4 The duty of one part or section of the Christian Church to rebuke and refuse fellowship to
another section of the visible church, that denies
the rights of man, and the common brotherhood of
humanity, by defending s]avery, and folding to its
bosom slave-sellers, slave-buyers, and slave-holders.
" No compromise with slavery allowable, but its
total extinction to be demanded at once, in the
name of God, who has commanded to loose the
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free* and that ye break
every yoke.
" The total abolition of the vast system of American slavery to be accepted as the providential mis-_
sion and duty of the American clergy and churches
of this generation.
" The Church and the ministry to form the conscience of the nation in respect to slavery, and to
make it loyal to the law of God, against all unjust
judgments of courts, and unrighteous legislation of
Congress.
" The word of God our charter for freedom, and

*THD CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

99

our armoury against slavery, and any assertion that
the Lord God sanctions slavery practical infidelity.
" Ultimate success sure, in the warfare with
oppression to a faithful ministry and witnessing
Church."
It was thus the above society was launched into
existence, and made its appearance on the horizon
of our hemisphere in the new world as a " thing of
life," or like a star on the dark brow of our American night. Numbers of branch societies have been
formed as auxiliaries, since its commencementj and
had the above programme, or noble declaration of
principles, been fairly and earnestly acted out, it
would have been a power in America at the present
time for good. Eut, alas, evil counsels have prevailed, and men of violence and blood have had the
control of its management, and wantonly and
wickedly violated its principles by making haste to
shed blood to save our country from disruption,
anarchy, ruin and woe, by the reconstruction of the
Union through physical force.
On the last fast day called by the late President
Buchanan, the Eev. H. T. Cheever, Secretary of the
Church Anti-slavery Society, and pastor of a congregational church, Jewett City, Connecticut, called
his flock together, and presented the following resolutions, which were adopted, and endorsed by him
and his people:-—
" Resolved, that it was held to be manifestly and
imperatively the duty of the President of the United

100

THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

States, promptly to enforce the laws, and put down
rebellion and treason, now upheld and perpetuated
in South Carolina by all the disposable force of the
army and navy of the United States.
" Resolved that we declare our deliberate opinion,
that all the Christian people of the country should,
and that an overwhelming majority of them will,
sustain the President in such a decisive suppression
of the rankest treason and rebellion.
" Resolved, that if he should not do this as being
due both to the safety and dignity of such a people,
that he be further impeached at the bar of the
Senate of the United States." What a prostitution
of the office of the Christian ministry, as well as
abuse of the functions of a Christian Church !
The Eev. Wm. Goodel, in his Principia, May 1,
1862, which is the accredited organ, or the principal medium of communication with Christian abolitionists, says:—The " only issue is the preservation
of the Republic by a national abolition of slavery
in the States, or the dismemberment and fall of the
Republic, The only serious obstacle* to the nation's
deliverance now, is the same that has been the chief
obstacle for fourteen years past. It is the false,
foolish, heartless, heathenish pretence, that under
the most free, enlightened, christianised institutions
on earth, the Government has no constitutional
power to shield the inhabitants of the land from
chattel slavery-—a practice which, if true, would
justify the civilised jsmd Christian world in praying

THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

101

most devoutly that such a deceitful sham should be
overthrown. Is it not high time that the people
of the United States should indignantly spurn the
aspersion on their free institutions and on themselves? Have they no national Government that
they have taken up arms against those State despotisms ? Is it \ Let the people decide, and make
their voice heard." Such are the men who have
sworn fealty to the noble declaration of Principles,
given in the programme of the Church Anti-Slavery
Society, avowing the "Word of God to be the charter
of their freedom, and armoury against slavery," and
who swing their sign-board in the Principia every
week before the public, with the blazing inscription
written on it, as follows :—
"Our object by this publication is to promote
pure religion, sound morals, and Christian reforms ;
the abolition of slave-holding, caste, rum traffic, and
kindred crimes; the application of Christian principles to all the relations, duties, business arrangements, and aims of life; to the individual, family,
Church, State, and nation ; to the work of converting the world to God, restoring common brotherhood to man, and rendering society the type of
heaven. Our text-book is the Bible; our standard
the divine law; our expediency, obedience; our plan,
the gospel; pur trust, the divine promises; our
panoply, the whole armour of God."
Let us look, therefore, at the positions of the
above men. The first one, by an extraordinary

102

THE CHUBCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

stretch of power in the exercise of his Church rights
as a member of a Christian Church; and also by a
fearful invasion of prerogative as a minister 6f Jesus
Christ, raises an issue to be joined by the Federal
Government with the States in. the South—an issue
which the late President Buchanan repudiated, and
whose example "honest Abe" would have done well
to copy in this respect. When notified by Governor
Wise of a threatened "invasion" to rescue John
Brown and his fellow-prisoners, and to seize citizens
as hostages in case of execution, President Buchanan
replied that he could "discover nothing in any provision in the Constitution or laws of the United
States which would authorise him to take steps for
the purpose of preserving peace between the States,
by guarding places in surrounding States, which
may be occupied as depots and rendezvous by desperadoes to invade Virginia/' If, therefore, it was
the duty of the respective States to break up depots,
and prevent their citizens from making incursions,
it is the duty of the Governments of the respective
States to put down disunion. Buchanan further
said "that, if the Federal Executive were to enter
these States and perform this duty for them, it
would be a manifest usurpation of their rights.
Were he thus to act, it would be a palpable invasion
of State sovereignty, and, as a precedent, might prove
highly dangerous."
This issue has been taken by President Lincoln,
and, consequently, in accordance with the above

THE OHUECH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

103

interpretation, there has been a palpable invasion
of State sovereignty, which, to all human appear^
ance, has not only been highly dangerous, but destructive to the Union. At first, when the mounds
of authority were thrown down in the usurpation
of the rights of man in connection with our Government, like the banks of the Mississippi in a crevasse,
then a remedy might have been found through State
sovereignties by the Federal Government, in harmony with all the requirements of the Constitution.
But now that the country is flooded with the
mighty evils of slavery and colorphobia, and State
sovereignties, with millions of people, have been
drawn down into the mighty vortex by their turbulent sweep through the long-continued connivance
of the federal Government and people, alas! for the
position of those men who have resorted to the
force of arms to preserve the Union, since "its fall
and dismemberment is a thing which the author has
predicted, and invariably maintained for many years;
for "never (says Milton), can true reconcilement
grow where minds of deadly hate have pierced so
deep." This is shown in the manifesto of the Mayor
of New Orleans, which says:—"The surrender of an
undefended city would be an unmeaning ceremony.
The city is yours by power of brute force, but not
by choice or consent of the inhabitants. It is for
you to determine the fate that awaits us here.
There is no man in our midst whose hand or head
would not be paralysed at hoisting a flag not of our

104

THE CHUECH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

own adoption. You may trust in the honour of the
inhabitants, but you may not count on their submission to unmerited wrong. Your occupation of
the city does not transfer the allegiance of the inhabitants from the Government of their choice to
*
one which they have deliberately repudiated. They
yield the obedience which the conqueror is entitled
to exact from the conquered." And in the London
Times, May 27, 1862, the editors say "that no
Union feeling has been discovered in the South, and
it is now no longer expected." In such a predicament our Unionists in the North are in an awkward
plight with the cloven foot of military despotism
on the necks of millions in the South, "and the
people in the vanquished districts inimically opposed
to the Federal Government, and no obedience can
be obtained from them, but such as is enforced by
strong military power." We need not wonder that
the Executive of the Church Anti-Slavery Society,
at the time of its anniversary in the spring of 1861,
should make the startling announcement by circular,
recorded in the Principia of April 10, 1862, that
they were "hoping that by another year they might
lay down their trust, and advise to the dissolution
of a society whose work should have been done."
What is slightly taken up is easily laid aside.
There could have been no just conception of the
magnitude of the work in which they were engaged,
or of the Himalayan barriers which obstructed
their progress, both in regard to slavery and pre-

THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

105

judice against colour, or they would not have
penned the above paragraph. Or if they had, the
fumes of war had given them such a distaste for
their own avowed legitimate work, that they did
not care to prosecute it further.
How lamentable and grievous are the mistakes
which have been made in the cause of freedom.
What vast expenditures of monies have been worse
than wasted! And multitudes of people, both in
the Old World and New, have been made she-asses
^o be milked.
If the right men had been in the right place,
systematically combining the use of God's appointed
means for the slave's emancipation, and the removal
of all vexatious imposts and deeply seated, stubborn,
and cruel prejudices against colour, what dreadful
calamities might have been avoided, and peaceful,
bloodless victories attained ! Alas! that golden
seasons should have been allowed to pass away by
the avowed disciples of Christ, who alone possessed
the qualifications, and controlled the agencies requisite for the working out and the attainment of the
glorious results which might have been produced.
The author himself reached a sublime stand-point
in connection with his advocacy of liberty, as editor
of the Western Olive Branch, but was obliged to
abandon the enterprise for the want of means.
Other Christian men had to do the same. And
with sad hearts, as they have retired into the
private walks of life, they have "pointed to the

106

THE CHUBCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

threatened storm of Jehovah's indignation, and
requested the people to put their ears to the ground
that they might catch the distant rumbling of the
thunder that was coming to shake the nation to
its foundations." And the people shouted " crazy."
But who were the crazy men, the men that warned,
or the people that refused to take warning ? By
the silence, inaction, or opposition of our American
people to the men who sought to act as God's gapmen, but were driven back and put to silence;
" they have sown the wind, and are now reaping
the whirlwind." Hosea viii. 7.
It is written that " when God's judgments are
abroad in the earth, the people learn righteousness."
Isa. xxvi. 9. But our people are so full of national
conceit and vain glory, and so intoxicated with the
fumes of war, that we find scarcely any trace of
righteousness visible. " Shrouds of fire, and winding sheets of military glory," seem to be the allabsorbing theme that fires every imagination.
There is no music apparently so sweet as the sound
of the; battle axe, or the roar of cannon—no apparel
so suitable to drape our American pulpits or communion-tables as the stars and stripes—no anthem
so sweet as "Hail Columbia !" The London Times,
May 27, 1862, says, "Americans have embraced
war as a trade, and engage in it as the most enrapturing pursuit in the world. No difficulties daunt
one party, or defeats appal the other. And while
Europe is appalled with the prospect before

LIONS SOARING.

107

America, New York is enchanted with the position
and prospects of the nation/' And all classes of
men are now drawn down into the vortex of the
war spirit—the Beecherites, Cheeverites, and even
the Garrisonians! In proof of which read the
letter of Mrs Stowe to Lord Shaftesbury. And
yet, the latter are the men who have been sustained
almost entirely by the members of the Society of
Friends in this country t The author fears there
are few emancipationists in America who stand
aloof from the " war spirit." And these will have
a hard road to travel, and great difficulties to encounter. Even John Bright now says that "the
conflict in America may soon be its grave/'
LIONS ROARING.

As good men and true go forth to battle with
the enemies of freedom, the unjust, bloody, and
deceitful men of every hue and species will surround
their path, and send forth their deafening shouts of
defiance in opposition, and use their deepest strategy
and skill to waylay their influence, and to scatter
every vestige of their reputation to the winds; but
whom need they fear, so long as Judah's lion roars
in their defence ; or of what ought they to be afraid
when the hand that " spreads forth the heavens,
flings abroad the stars, piles the mountains, curbs
the seas, pours the sunbeams, and darts the lightnings," is their guide as well as security. He who

108

NORTHERN PEOPLE TAME AND SUBMISSIVE.

is for, is more than all they who can be against
them. Kom. viii. 32.
AN HYPOTHETICAL VIEW.

It has been said, that if the slaveholders submit
to the authority of the Federal Government slavery
would then get a new lease of its life, like Popery
at Eome through the paternal care of the Emperor
of the French. This would not create any surprise,
since the assurance has been given, and repeated in
every variety of form, and from every part of our
vast continent, that our Federal Government and
people are not making war for emancipation, but
for a common nationality, based on what are called
constitutional rights, or the compromises of the
Union!
NORTHERN PEOPLE TAME AND SUBMISSIVE.

They are passionately in earnest in their desire
for the reconstruction of the Union. And to attain
this would guarantee the maintenance of slavery in
the Slave States; and make new laws to secure the
carrying out of the unanimous oaths which the
President said, in his inaugural address, were taken
by the members of the Federal Congress, and also
to enforce the old laws, not against kidnappers or
men hunters, but the men who stand between the
slaves and their oppressors, and are a wall of fire
round about them, and the glory of the Lord in tli£
midst of them. Zech. ii. 5.

ATROCIOUS SCENES.

109

FALSE ZEAL AND MISGUIDED PHILANTHROPY.

And these stringent measures would be undertaken under the light of what they call an accurate
and lofty statesmanship, and feelings of genuine
and exalted philanthropy, and a self-sacrificing
sense of patriotic duty, in order to pacify the
South; add new cement to patch up the broken
bonds of the Union; allay the irritation of the
North, created by the threatened destruction of our
grand national idol, called the Union; curb those
fanatical fools and madmen, so called, who are now
seeking the removal of earth's greatest anomaly,
our nation's shame and woe, and purge the foul
stains of slavery from our national escutcheon.
ATROCIOUS SCENES, OR TEMPESTS OF OBLOQUY AND
SCORN.

The scenes witnessed recently in Cincinnati, and
in Burlington, Vermont, in connexion with the
pelting and stoning of the author's excellent friend
and benefactor, Wendell Phillips, and of the Bev.
Mr Aarn, a Baptist clergyman, would be the rule
and not the exception; for the old spirit of persecution is not dead, but sleeping; and every Unionist in such a case would rise in stern antagonism
to the men who would dare to touch the obscene
idol, the goddess of slavery, or the grander idol

110

COUNTER MOVE.

called the Union, which sheltered and protected the
lesser one.
NEXT PROBABLE MOVE OF M

f EDElRALISTS,

On the other hand> if the Confederates rallied
and concentrated their forces in self-defence, to protect their fires, altars, and homes, the confiscation
of their slaves will be the next step of the Federal
Government-—a measure which would help to turn
the slaves against their masters, cause them to
throw themselves in one mighty bound into the
embrace of the Federalists, make the re-establish*
ment of the Union to go by acclamation through
the world, and give the Unionists an impelling
power to drive through every difficulty, so far as
slavery is concerned.
COUNTER MOVE.

The prospect of such an act would in all probability lead the Confederates to proclaim freedom to
their slaves in order to counteract the influence of
their opponents, for such is the deep and impassable
gulph of hatred created by the present unnatural
and unjustifiable war between the North and the
South, and such is the keen and burning resentment produced by it, that no moral or political
bridge can now be constructed to reunite them, or
Federal ointment made to cool down, soften, sub-

NORTHERN ARISTOCRACY OF SKIN.

Ill

due, or heal the wounds inflicted on each other.
In such a case, not only would slavery be abolished,
but the Union would be overthrown* and this
grand* idol of our nation dashed into a thousand
atoms, since every slave would then join hand, heart,
and soul against the Federals,
GRAND ALLIES IN NATURE TO HELP THEM.

Air, earth, and skies would work for them. Not
a breathing of the common wind, not a sluggish
stream that flows into their dead and stagnant
marshes, not an exhalation from the sun, the mighty
forest, a tuft of withered grass, nor a flower would
forget them. Hearts muffled by the beat of death,
and mounds newly raised, would proclaim the
widow's wail, the crushed and buried hopes of fond
parental hearts, the friend's lament, and a nation's
loss in the slumberings of men laid low in the dark,
cold grave, many of whom were, doubtless, the life,
soul, and toss of every circle where they moved, a
father's pet, a mother's darling, the wife's sweet
solace, and the child's loved guide and guard. Other
allies, also would come to their aid.
NORTHERN ARISTOCRACY OF SKIN.

In such a case, supposing they were alive to the
exigencies of the times, and equal to the great
emergencies of the occasion, the above would greatly

112

NORTHERN ARISTOCRACY OF SKIN.

help the Confederates. For of all the aristocracy in
the world that of skin is the most odious the world
ever saw, or the sun ever looked down upon.
Talk of aristocracy and monarchy biting the
dust, but what is more fearful, atrocious, loathsome,
adapted to call forth a world's scorn, or a pandemonium's hiss, than our boasted democracy in its aristocracy of skin, and which almost exclusively rests
in the pernicious embrace of the North, where
their strong and chosen delusions are such that
Bussell, the correspondent of the London Times, in
a letter dated Washington, March 4, 1862, says,
"The State of Illinois has evinced its sincere desire to benefit the negro by the adoption of a resolution to prevent men, black men or mulattoes,
entering the State."
The Constitutional Convention which conceived
this monstrous project and nursed it into life, proclaimed it to the world, and now sustains it, subjecting themselves to the world's derision and scorn,
and a prominent place on the black roll of infamy in
connexion with the register of Pandemonium—this
Convention, says Russell, " was made up of delegates from all parts of the State, and on approving
the resolution, agreed on the report by a majority
of forty-five against fifteen."

REFLECTIONS ON THE FEDEEALISTS.

113

JUDICIAL ACTION" AND LEGISLATION SUPERFLUOUS IN
REGARD TO THE COLOURED POPULATION IN SUCH
A CASE.

Where such high-handed outrages are perpetrated,
and fantastic tricks played, there would be no necessity for Dred Scott decisions, making black men
have no rights which a white man is bound to
respect, or Fugitive Slave Laws to catch the flying
bondsman, or Personal Liberty Bills to make the
Free States, so called, asylums of liberty, to shield
the hungry, weary, thirsty, panting, trembling
fugitive from the much dreaded and terrible manhunter and kidnapper.
In such a case there would -be no black men or
mulattoes to be despoiled of their rights where they
were not allowed to enter,
SEVERE BUT JUST REFLECTIONS ON THE FEDERALISTS.

Is it any wonder that Eussell, in the article
referred to, should indulge in keen satire when he
reviews the unworthy motives, bad feelings, and
infamous policy cherished by the Federalists in
connection with such manifestations as the above.
" One might," he says, if almost suspect that the
clamour for emancipation springs rather from the
selfishness of the white, and hatred towards the
black man, than any regard to freedom, or diglike
to slavery. The bugbear of abolitionism is AfriH

114

KEFLECTIONS ON THE FEDERALISTS.

canizationism. The Federalist fears contact with
the negro, like® them to be happy as far away as
possible, and surveys their Liberia through the
enchanting influence of distance."
Is such an aristocracy to- be the buttress to support the- President, Congress,, and the Unionists in
their grand proposal of gradual emancipation to
the slaves, which, say they, and their abettors and
supporters, u is to mark a new epoch in our history,
introduce the day-star of a new national dawn, and
create an event the most important that has
occurred since the- outbreak of the conflict which
has taken place in America—an event fraught
with the issues both of peace and war, and with
the destinies both of the living and future generations—an event which will carry gladness to the
hearts of the friends of justice, truth and freedom
throughout the world, and enlist on the side of the
great and the good man who is at the head of the
Government of the United States, the sympathy
and moral support of all the peoples and governments of the civilised world/' If such an aristocracy of skin is to be the support of the proposal
referred to, what a terrible damper it will put on
the hopes excited, enthusiasm enkindled, eras created, issues flowing forth, and broken fetters falling to the ground from such sources, and lay prostrate in the- dust the " grandness, goodness, wisdom
and greatness of the man who rises into the enjoyment of a brief popularity under the mask of a

KEFLECTIONS ON THE FEDEKALISTS.

115

misguided philanthropy," and make all his schemes
" gang a glee/' as the unhappy interests that spring
out of them are at variance with the solid, immovable, and eternal principles of equity and truth.
Think of it. If slavery is to be destroyed by the
Federal Government, it is because the Union is in
peril! And if the negro is to be rescued from the
jaws of the above ravenous monster forthwith, he
is to be sent to the penal colony of Liberia, as a
penalty for wearing a different colour on his skin
from themselves. Imagine that you see our President and his brother aristocrats lifting up their
lean, thin, wiry, gaunt, skeleton forms in their
presence, and exclaiming, we are not holier, but
whiter than you; therefore you must pass on, and
go down into the holds of the "Ebony" line of
steamers that are to bear you away to Afric's
sunny land, where you may sit under the shade of
the beautiful palm-tree, rise to empire, and be
grand instruments in shedding the mild beams of
genius, philosophy, and religion;: to enlighten and
instruct the posterity of Ham, whilst the Atlantic
heaves its high and everlasting barrier between
your land and ours, and our country, won by the
chivalry of the white man, and adorned with the
arts and elegancies of civilised life, remains to us
untarnished by the footprint of him who hath been
a slave.
But should they be proof against such flattery,
and present dignified remonstrance; then the com-

116

HIGH TARIFF OF THE FEDERALISTS.

mand is given, with the stern voice of authority,
Take these " black rogues," and march them out of
the country; they cannot be allowed to remain
here a proverb and nuisance to frighten or pollute us with the horrors or touch of their black
skin, or to endure every "imaginable indignity" at
our hands.
Yonder they are marching, column after column.
Military bands are playing grandly and merrily to
drown their sorrows and stifle their cries with the
tune of " Yankee Doodle/5 And as ship after ship
departs, thanksgiving services are held, sermons
preached, and banquets spread, whilst under the
flare of sky-rockets, whizzing of crackers and
squibs, booming of cannon, loud huzzas are heard,
to celebrate the deliverance of the whites in the
riddance of the blacks !
What a ground swell of sympathy these cruel
prejudices against colour must create in favour of
the South, in connexion with the vast ocean currents of the world's sympathy, to help the South
in tiding over their difficulties with the North, if
they should anticipate the Federal Government in
its movements by proclaiming the liberty of the
slaves,
PIGH TARIFF OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLE, OR
FEDERALISTS.

In such a ease, as we have hypothecated, the

PROTECTIVE DUTIES INJURIOUS.

117

above would be another grand ally with the South
against the North, and create an overwhelming
tide of feeling—a perfect gulf stream of sympathy
in connection with the civilised world against the
North, because the Southern people are known to
be favourable to free-trade, whilst the Federalists
keep raising the tariff higher and higher, until in
the end it will resemble the ancient wall of China,
which for centuries shut out the rest of the world
from intercourse and commercial pursuits as barbarians.
PROTECTIVE DUTIES INJURIOUS.

Then our Northern people would be isolated
among the nations until their selfish theory of protection and commercial restrictions was exploded
by the tide, of events, and they themselves, by
terrible disaster and wide- spread ruin, were brought
to feel there was a brotherhood of nations as well
as men; and that, as no man can prosper at the
expense of another, so no nation can hope to gain
by the ruin of another. And though Morrell
tariffs and other legislative enactments may be
made legal, the great principles of free trade will
stand the test of ages, come out of every ordeal
with clearer and brighter lustre, fling forth an influence which will command the homage of nations
as well as men, lift up their myrtle wand to spread
a blessing on every sea and land, and rear her

118

PKOTECTIVE DUTIES INJURIOUS.

monumental trophies, where earth's tribes are meeting to reciprocate the beautiful sentiments of the
poet laureate, dedicated to the opening of the International Exhibition, and sung at its festival, as
he bids them—
" Uplift a thousand voices full and sweet,
In that wide hall with earth's invention stored,
And praise th' invisible universal Lord,
Who lets once more in peace the nations meet,
Where Science, Art, and Labour have outpour'd
Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet.
O, silent father of our kings to be,
Mourn*d in this solemn hour of jubilee,
For this, for all, we weep our thanks to thee .
*
The world-compelling plan was thine,
And, lo! the long laborious miles
Of Palace; lo! the giant aisles,
Kich in model and design;
Harvest-tool and husbandry,
Loom and wheel and engin'ry,
Secrets of the# sullen mine,
Steel and gold, and corn and wine*
Fabric rough, or Fairy fine,
Sunny tokens of the Line,
Polar marvels, and a feast
Of wonder, out of West and East,
And shapes and hues of Part divine f
All of beauty, all of use,
That one fair planet can produce.
Brought from under every star,
Blown from over every main,
And mixt, as life is mixt with pain,
The works of peace with works of war.

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

119

0 ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign,
From growing commerce loose her latest chain
And let the iair white-winged peacemaker fly
To happy havens under all the sky,
And mix the seasons and the golden hours,
Till each man find his own in all men's good^
And all men Work in noble brotherhood,
Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers,
And ruling by obeying nature's powers,
And gathering all the fruits of peace and crowned with
all her flowers."

THE OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

Such a dissimilarity exists between the two
that could the former rise from the dead, they would
not be able to trace out any likeness either in
principle or practice amongst the latter. The old
puritans felt that they were men, and not brutes,
had souls as well as bodies, there was a God as well
as a devil, and heaven as well as hell—that their
lives on earth were associated with a boundless,
unfathomable, and inconceivable eternity; their
existence hereafter must be spent in happiness or
misery, pleasure or pain, bliss or woe, and by an
interest in Jesus Christ they could only escape the
misery of the one, and attain the happiness of the
other, that a holy life was the chief evidence of
their rising into the enjoyment of a higher life in
Christ—that they were accountable for all their opportunities of doing good whilst in this world, and
that a life of extraordinary humility, unspotted

120

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

purity, unfeigned'faith in Christ, supreme devotedness to God, and burning zeal for his glory, would
entwine brighter wreaths around their brows in the
regions of heavenly glory, make more verdant the
palms which they would wave before Jehovah's
ever-lasting throne, and more brilliant the crowns
which they would cast at His feet, cause them to
rise higher in the scale of infinite blessedness,
rejoice louder in their thanksgivings and praises to
God, and be wedded more closely to God and
happiness for ever.
Such men were seen and known from afar—seen
and known in their beautiful simplicity and sweet
disposition of temper—in their unbending integrity
and uprightness—in the benignity of their every
aspect, the spirituality of their minds, and the
heavenly disposition of their souls—in the unreserved and hearty consecration of themselves to
God, and their constraining love to the Saviour—in
their unfaltering determination to serve1 God, to the
utmost limit of their faculties, and unremittingly,
until their work was done-—in their self-sacrificing
and self-denying efibrts to do good, and perseverance in well doing—in their unshaken reliance in
the promise, and presence of the Almighty; and in
the happy boundings of their spirits, which made
their hearts light> and their souls glad at the fireside and by the wayside,, in the sanctuary, counting
house, shop? field, drawing-room, cell, garret, prison,
or on the deck of the "Mayflower."
To reach,

OLD PUKTTANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED. 1 2 1

therefore, the mental and moral elevation on which
they stood, we shall have to ascend mountain after
mountain in greatness and goodness until we attain
the Mont Blanc of moral excellence amongst men.
For in resemblance to Christ, and in nearness to
Him they stood on the verge of heaven, far above
the world, whilst in the world, bathing themselves
in the sunny firmament of God's love beyond the
mental mists and fogs of error, lazy indifference,
sluggish dullness, and sottish vice, that beclouded,
and contaminated the dwellers in the vales beneath.
And whilst they viewed their trials as disciplinary,
and resigned their earthly cares, into the hands of
their loving Father, and blessed Lord and Saviour,
such light, love, peace, and joy flooded their spirits,
that their commanding moral elevation presents to
us a grandeur of scene and beauty, resembling the
Mount of Transfiguration, when the disciples of
Christ exclaimed, " Jesus, master, it is good for us
to be here." Mark xi. 5. But whilst Peter and
James and John said, " Let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for
Elias," they accounted not earth, but heaven their
home, "looking for a city, which hath foundations
whose maker and builder is God." Heb. xi. 16.
Glancing their eyes onwards and upwards to those
blest regions, which are
" Beyond, beyond this lower sky,
Up where eternal * e^es roll,
Where solid pleasures never die,
And fruits immortal feast the soul,"

122

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

they pointed to the bright inheritance above, the
sweet field beyond the swelling flood, the bright
mansions of the blest, the city and palace of the
great King, and said,
" There is our home and portion M r ;
Our treasure, and our hearts are there
And our abiding home."

And what an influence they flung forth amongst
men; such an influence that if we would imitate
them, we must enter the "world's great field of
battle," camp out in the great " bivouac of life,"
take time by the forelock, and grab it by the nape
of the neck, feeling that there are souls within us,
and a God above us combining his rich blessing
with untiring industry which would help to
" Miake our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time.
Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and ship-wrecked brother
Seeing, shall take heart again."

What a noble legacy of principles the Puritans
left behind them—principles more powerful than
princes, rulers, cabinets, governments, political
demagogues, ecclesiastical despots, any earthly combination, or power whatsoever,—and, therefore, are
destined in the order of God's Providence to subvert
war with all its untold horrors and frightful calamities and woes,—-stem the tide of intemperance, and
close up its floodgates of misery and ruin,—sweep

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

123

slavery away with its lashes, fetters, and horrors,
and send it down into that hell whence it sprung
-—abolish every monopoly and restriction, which
prevents the free intercourse of nation with nation,
and man with man—destroy all coercive policies,
and systems, which give men,.governments, churches,
or nations, undue authority over men—develope
the arts and sciences, promote the spread of literature—east out Satan from the world, the great
usurper amongst men, and bring it back into allegiance' to its rightful Lord and King.
And how securely the old Puritans dwelt at ease,
like treasures in ocean caves, a thousand fathoms
down beneath the currents which agitate its surface ;
or stars resting on their beds of repose, millions of
miles beyond the winds and storms that agitate the
terraqueous globe on which you stand. And this
was the grand secret of their security and happiness. They made the Bible their handbook and
heartbook. Its principles were their guide. And
to depart from them in any, the least degree they
felt was sinful and unholy. They digged deep
and centred their all on the Rock of Ages, the foundation that standeth sure, Christ Jesus. And when
the rolling floods came upon them, the howling
winds blew around them, and the fearful tempests
raged and roared above them, they felt that there
were no shifting sands beneath them, or rude storms
of violence without them, that could destroy their
happiness, or disturb their peace.

124

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

Their lives being hid with Christ in God, in the
majestic uprising of their thoughts, and in the
swelling grandeur of their feelings, they could take
up the triumphant language of Paul, and raise their
mighty anthem, or peal forth their hallelujah chorus
of praise to God, singing—>
" No change of time, nor place, nor state,
The Spirit's love can separate
From Christ her Lord ;
No tribulation nor distress,
Violence, want, nor nakedness,
Peril nor sword.
"That through Him the soul adores
We are more than conquerors,
And not all the powers that dwell
In heaven above, or earth, or hell,
Or height above, or depth beneath,
Things present, future, life, or death,
Can one single link remove
From the golden chain of love."

And such were the forty-one pilgrims that left
the shores of the old world to seek a home in the
new one. And as they neared the coast of America,
descended into the cabin of the " Mayflower," commended themselves, each "other, and their mission
to God; and then covenanted to "observe equal
laws to all men whatever it might cost them."
But look at the contrast in their successors in
America, when they took John Brown, a lineal
descendant of Peter Brown, who formed one of
those that composed the noble band of pilgrims in
the above named vessel—yes, took John Brown

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

125

and put him to death for doing the very thing the
old Puritans covenanted to do. And the whole
nation gazed on the humiliating spectacle, consenting to his death. Some maintaining that it was
better " one man should die, than the whole nation
perish." Others, like Henry Ward Beecher in his
Harper's Ferry Sermon, stigmatising him as an
"insane man." Others shouting with Secretary
Seward, "Thank God they hung him." But by far
the greatest number taking up a position of dignified silence with Harriet Beecher Stowe, feigning
stoical indifference to the outside world, yet quivering to the centre of their souls for the fate of their
beloved idol, the Union, in consequence of the tremendous blow which Brown gave to its unnatural
combination of liberty with slavery—a combination
which overwhelming masses of the Unionists in the
North have tried to maintain, although it has placed
them in the lowest depths of political and Jesuitical
knavery, cunning, and fraud.
So that if the
Southerns who cling to slavery are fools, the
Northerns who go for the Constitution with its
compromises, and shout liberty, are knaves. And
a knave is worse than a fool. Low, therefore, as
the depths of barbarianism may be into which
slavery has sunk the South, the overwhelming mass
of the people in the North have reached a lower
depth, a deeper abyss of infamy still. And in this
abyss we find the authoress of Uncle Tom, as shewn
in her letter to Lord Shaftesbury, which demon-

126 OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.
strates beyond cavil that Mrs. Stowe, like the
Unionists, is bemired in the deep slough of expediency, involved in a labyrinth of prevarication,
associated with a meanness and continuity of shuffling that puts her and all Union compromisers
beyond the pale of sympathy and qharity. This is
natural, and need excite no surprise*,, as the editor
of the Caledonian Mercury, May 15, 1862, when
speaking of some obstreperous Paving Board, says>
" a tortuous policy invariably produces crooked
results, and expediency compromises almost as certainly leave matters in a worse position than that
in which they were originally found." What dumping it would require from the Paving Boards of
Union savers to fill up the depths of servility in
connection, with the great Federal Slough of expe^
diences? What a vast amount of material they
would require to bridge over the wide gulf of
meanness associated with it ? And what innumerable skeins of thread they would need to disentangle
them from their tortuous policy. No petard would
be required to shiver to pieces the Babel constructions of Union savers and shriekers, and the above
editor's sympathies with them. They would disr
appear of themselves in the midst of such a slough,
and for ever be buried out of sight.
Such, however, was the indignant scorn, biting
sarcasms, envenomed malignity, fiery abuse, and
blasting reproach of the masses of these Unionists,
which burst on the head of the noble martyr John

OLD PURITANS AND NEW ONES CONTRASTED.

127

Brown, that few dared to lift up their voices on his
behalf, to pay their tribute to his memory. And
those of us who did so were held up to public scorn,
and assailed with a tempest of obloquy and reproach.
For the part which the author took in the meeting
held to eommemorate the eventin a coloured church in
New York, he was pilloried in the New Fork Herald,
because of his avowal that John Brown "made the
cross glorious, or added lustre to it like our Saviour."
And for the testimony he bore on his behalf in
answer to questions put to him, he was requested
to leave four different boarding-houses in New
Yorfc, where he made it a rule never to introduce
any public question in the sitting-room. And when
Cheever, Wendell Phillips, Sloan, and a few others,
met in Cooper's Institute- in honour of the event,
the excited populace ran in crowds,* threatened the
speakers with violence, and turned the place into a
theatre for tke display of the worst passions and
the most brutal exhibitions, which made the place
a pandemonium in miniature, whilst Dr. Cheever's
eSigy was marched in procession outside and burnt
by the people.
And these manifestations were
general, and prevailed not only in the degraded
South, but in what the editor of the London Daily
News, April 22, 1862,. calls the "moral and religious North."

128

THE DAY OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE FATHERS AND FOUNDERS OF THE GOVERNMENT
CONTRASTED WITH THE INFLUENTIAL AND LEADING
STATESMEN OF AMERICA.

When you think of the former, you must put
your finger on the day of Independence in America,
and connect with it the "Glorious Fourth" of
July in our American calendar, which is the
Great Celebration Day in that land. And could
you visit us on that day, you would see myriads of
squibs, crackers, and rockets flying in the air, every
one of which is supposed to scorch, or come down
upon the head of, and kill a Britisher, You would,
also, hear multitudes of guns and cannons, with
their sharp cracks and deafening roar, which prefigure the sweeping of whole battalions of the same
into the regions of annihilation, whilst bonfires and
illuminations are designed to put the climax of glory
on the scene, in honour of victory. And during the
time all this is going on, blisters are rising on the
backs of slaves, their hands are being pinioned, and
feet made fast by the fetters of an inhuman, wicked,
and cruel bondage, husbands torn from wives, and
parents from children, free coloured men kidnapped,
and fugitives hunted with bloodhounds, the slaves
deprived of mental, moral, and spiritual illumination, and others who own a different skin to the
whites made the victims of a cruel prejudice. And,
yet, the above day is to be celebrated, say our
American orators> poets, statesmen, divines, and
missionaries, by succeeding generations as the great

THE DAY OF THE SLAVEYS DELIVERANCE.

129

Anniversary Festival—to be commemorated by
solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty, and to be
solemnised in the manner we have described from
this day forth and for evermore.
THE DAY OF THE SLAVE'S DELIVERANCE.

This is a day which will throw into the shade the
day of our Independence, as one hour of the negro's
bondage, according to the testimony of Jefferson,
exceeds ages of that we rose in rebellion to oppose.
What a glorification day that will be to the
slaves and the friends of liberty ! What music will
drop from their fingers! What ecstacy will be
flashed from their emotions ! And how their hearts
will run wild with transports of jpy!
The celebration of such a day would not be confined to America or to Americans. I t would find
its way into the calendars of all nations, and into
the hearts of all peoples, tongues, and tribes, Happy
day, we hail the glory of thy rising! Come, thou
bright auspicious period, and usher in this grand
jubilee among the nations J
It is not far distant, as the signs and events of
the times indicate. But if in these we should be
deceived, and our hopes frustrated for the present,
the dream of it is certain and the interpretation
sure. God has sworn and will not repent, that the
whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, (Hab. ii. 14).
I

130

THE GREAT TRANSACTION.

But this cannot be until it becomes the abode of
free men and women.
THE GREAT TRANSACTION PERFORMED, OR THE
GLORIOUS DEED DONE IN CONNECTION WITH THE DAY
OF OUR INDEPENDENCE.

This is the next thing that comes up in the
annals of history, leaflets of memory, and mementos
of experience^ in close< and intimate association with
the fathers and founders of our country and their
successors. This achievement was to convey the
precious legacy of liberty as an heirloom to be
handed down from father to son.
Its clauses are definite and complete, elegant and
beautiful, massive and powerful, sublime and glorious; and withal so simple and plain as to require no process of reasoning, flowers of rhetoric,
or fires of logic to remove any obliquity from the
minds of those who could not understand or comprehend them, and yet containing such vast issues
as to be fraught with undying interest to myriads
of the human race. The trumpet of fame was never
to hear the last of principles which were to annex
kingdoms and nations, and make kings, queens, and
aristocrats: bite the dust, and lift up our "sovereign
squatters" as the great saviours, deliverers, and
benefactors of men ! But look at the results of our
freedom and equality doctrine, one of the precious
legacies conveyed to us by the glorious fathers and

THE GREAT TRANSACTION.

131

founders of our country in the Declaration of Independence, which commences, "All men are born free
and equal, and are entitled to life, liberty, and the
pursuits of happiness."
When Sir Christopher Wren had erected that
noble structure in London, which was dedicated to
St. Paul, he looked on it, doubtless, with feelings
of profound satisfaction and exultant delight; and,
in honour of the event, his friends constructed an
epitaph, and put upon it the beautiful and appropriate inscription : " Eeader, do you ask his monument, look around." The old fathers and founders
of America, like Sir Christopher Wren, could look
with complacent feelings on the creation of their
genius in America, when they ushered into being,
from the womb of time, the United States; although
their work was not made so complete as that of the
great architect referred to; for when they established
the era of Independence they allowed slavery to remain
—the source of our nation's ruin and the cause of
its downfall. It is a well-authenticated fact, however, that they made no provision for its maintenance,
but treated it as obsolete, expecting that it would
soon cease. On this subject, however, there has
been a variety of opinions; for men have differed in
sentiment in regard to the great charters of human
freedom,' which were drawn up and bequeathed as a
legacy to their country and posterity by the fathers
' and founders of our American republic. As, however, there can be but one opinion in regard to the

132

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

Declaration of Independence, which commences—
"All men are born free and equal," even so, all
ought to be agreed in sentiment in regard to the
Constitution.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

In its exordium it says:—"When the people of
the United States, in order to form a more perfect
Union, to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America."
Such is the great decree of the Constitution, its
solemn ordination and covenant.
The Constitution farther shows who are the parties to the contract. It says : " The people of the
United States are parties to this contract/' The
people—not the blacks or the whites—but the
people. There is no distinction of blood or races in
the above clause; and whatever it provides for one
it provides for all. Amongst its general provisions
we find the Act of Habeas Corpus, which is the
great charter of personal liberty, and destined for
the use of the people mentioned in the decree above
referred to, This Act of Habeas Corpus gives power
to the people to cite before the Courts the person
who deprives another of liberty, and requires him
to show just cause for that deprivation, or the per-

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

133

son arrested must be set free. It provides for trial
by jury, and guarantees that no man amongst the
people must be deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law. It also makes provision for the exercise of religious opinions, freedom
of speech, the press, right of petition, to bear arms,
and security of person. If the above clauses had
been put in force in accordance with the Habeas
Corpus Act, without restriction, limitation, or distinction, slavery could not have existed, or the vexatious imposts under which persons of colour labour.
There are other general provisions of the Constitution which are prohibitory, and refer to " Bills of
Attainder" and " Expost-Facto Laws/' But there
are special provisions in the Constitution. In Art.
4, sec. 2, and clause 3 of the above document, there
are these words: " No person held to do service or
labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping
into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service
or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the
party to whom such service or labour may be due."
The above words—"persons" and "service d u e " —
place the Constitution, beyond all controversy, in
favour of liberty. Our slave-laws of America define
that a slave is not a person but a thing—an article
of American merchandise ; and the words " service
due" presuppose contract; and what contract or
agreement has there ever been between the master
and the slave ? If any person was brought into

134

COTEMPORANEOUS HISTORY.

your Courts of Justice for service due, the first
question that would be put from the bench of judicature would be, What is the contract or nature of
agreement ? And in the absence of any being sworn
to, there would be no case, and it would be instantly
dismissed.
And as the Constitution commences with a solemn
decree, on behalf of the people of the United States,
even so, it concludes with a solemn covenant:—
" We, therefore, the representatives of the United
States of America, in general Congress assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for
the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, and
by the authority of the good people of these Colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, that these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free, and
Independent States, and have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, and do all other acts and things which
Independent States may of right do. And for the
support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honour."
COTEMPORANEOUS HISTORY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

In Madison and Elliott's debates, Madison
" thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the
idea that there could be property in man. We

COTEMPORANEQUS HISTORY.

1 .3-5

intend the Constitution to be the great charter of
human liberty to the unborn millions who may
enjoy its protection, and who shall never see, that
such an institution was ever known in their midst/'
The Convention concurring in these opinions without debate, unanimously resolved that the words
"slave" and "slavery" should be stricken out; and
the words "such person" and "other persons" should
be substituted wherever they occurred. On motion
of Randolph of Virginia, the word " servitude" was
stricken out, and "service" was unanimously adopted.
Governor Morris, who was as much opposed to
slavery as were Washington, Madison, Randolph, or
Franklin, says in a letter to a friend, " The hand
which writes this letter wrote the Constitution."
To avoid prolixity we do not give all the declarations of members to the effect " that man could not
have property in man."
Mr. Geary said, as "Congress would have no
power over the institution within the States, we
ought to be careful to lend no sanction to it."
In the House of Representatives in 1789, on the
resolution upon import duties, Mr. Parker moved,
to insert a clause imposing a duty on the importation of slaves.
Roger Sherman, a member from Connecticut said,
" he could not reconcile himself to the insertion of
human beings as an article of duty among goods.
The Constitution does not consider these persons
as a species of property."

] 36

CONTEMPORANEOUS HISTORY.

The Hon. J, E. Giddings, in a letter to Hon. T.
H. Benton, inserted in the New York Tribune,
Feb. 26, 1857, says, "some of the Slave States
proposed an amendment to the clause in the Habeas
Corpus Act, in regard to persons being deprived of
life, liberty, and property, without due process of
law, feeling that this provision would be fatal to all
future right to property in man, unless it were
within state jurisdiction. The amendment proposed
to limit the above clause to free men, so as to make
it read, no free man shall be deprived of life, liberty,
and property, without due process of law. The
issue, therefore, was made in regard to property in
man, met, and decided against the Slave States.
The requisite nuniber of States declared in favour of
the Habeas Corpus Act as it now stands. So that
the above Act is handed down to us unimpaired as
a part of the Federal Constitution.
The above facts incontestably prove that it was
the deliberate purpose, not of individual members
alone, but of the Convention who framed the Constitution, to exclude from the Constitution, not only
the hated word "slave/* but the detested thing
" slavery." And, therefore, we have the right to
insist, before it can be asserted with any title to our
respect, that this august and intelligent body
affirmed or established the right of property in a
"slave," and thus reversed the established law of
the Constitution on that subject. It belongs, therefore, to the degenerate sons of these noble sires, to

CHRISTOPHER WREN'S WORK.

137

shut out from the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the bright angel of liberty, and to smuggle in
the foul demon of slavery, to make it carry the fetters of an ignoble bondage and not the eagles of
freedom. And had the administrators of the Government been dealt with as the case required, most of
them would have fceen convicted of treason, and
have expiated their crimes on the gallows.
THE DIFFERENCE IN THE REMAINS BETWEEN SIR
CHRISTOPHER WREN'S WORK, AND THE FATHERS
AND FOUNDERS OF OUR AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
AND COUNTRY.

In the epitaph of Sir Christopher, the visitor is
invited to look around. Myriads have obeyed the
injunction, and looked with feelings of admiration
and wonder, on the vast structure of his genius.
And myriads more, probably, will do the same.
But where are the remains of the work in connection with the men referred to above, in honour
of which the day of our Independence was to be the
great birthday of our nation, and the immortal
principles contained in our Great Magna Charta
Deeds were to be the heritage of the people, honourable alike to the great master spirits that then
moulded the public mind, and worthy of a transcript in the albums of the people, and to be written, as with the point of a diamond, in the leads
upon the rocks for ever, or engraven on tablets of

138

DEGENERATE SONS OF NOBLE SIRES.

gold. Oh, yes! where are the remains of that
work? And what is their character? Is the
grand, living, sublime, glorious reality so often
pictured by our poets, orators, philosophers, statesmen, and historians to be found in the embodiment
of the Christianity of our teachers and professors,
our freedom of speech, or of the press ? Or are the
principles and legacies of our noble sires taken up
and handed down by their successors ? Oh, no!
Our sanctuaries have been converted into heathen
temples for the exhibition of the false gods of the
nation! Our presses have been turned into vehicles
of slander, party strife, and abuse; whilst our
adminstrators have had one kind of policy for the
Republicans, another for Democrats, and another for
the Abolitionists. They have gone for the Constitution with its own loaded dice of compromises put
into it to suit the Republicans—given strong
assurances to the Democratic party that slavery
should not be interfered with in the Slave States,
and made prominent their election dodge of "no
more slave territory" to curry favour with the
Abolitionists. And to secure the good will and
cordial esteem of white people, enchanting prospects
are held out to contrabands, and free coloured people
in Liberia and Abeokuta; and should they cling to
their cabins or the land of their birth, these administrators, doubtless, like their predecessors, will gladly
take them out of bed, fetch up all arrears on their
tender skins, until they are brought to the conclu-

CHUKCHES OF AMERICA.

139

sion that is better for them to say farewell to home
and country, rather than continue to dwell amongst
a prejudiced and persecuting people.
BUT WHAT OF THE CHURCHES ?

Ah! there is less hope there when the great
orator, "Wendell Phillips, Esq., put the question
solemnly, gravely, and deliberately, to one of the
most respectable and numerously-attended audiences
ever convened in connexion with the anniversaries
of the Anti-slavery Society in Boston, in 1860:
" Are there as many ministers who are Abolitionists
in America as would have saved the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah V A voice came from that vast
audience that " the estimate was too low." Phillips then advanced to the front of the platform,
and in dramatic form raised his right arm towards
heaven, and made his appeal, exclaiming, " Count."
The people begun to count. The first-named was
" Henry Ward Beecher." Up went one finger on
the hand of Phillips.
The second was "Dr.
Cheever;" when another finger was raised, The
name of the Kev. R T. Cheever was next given,
and this brought out another finger. The Bev.
Mr. Sloane was then announced, and another finger
was lifted. A solemn pause then succeeded, and a
deep and profound silence stole over that vast
assemblage of persons, which was only broken by
the orator observing that he had not got through

140

BUT WHAT OF THE CHURCHES?

his first hand yet, and some of these not worth
twenty-four to the dozen—referring to Beecher;
when there was such an outburst of feeling as the
author has seldom witnessed. Now here was a
large intelligent audience, which could only call
to remembrance the names of four ministers who
were Abolitionists; and as Phillips justly said,
some of them of a doubtful character. And not
one of them, except it may be Sloane, that had not
at that time, if not now, an u i f and a but" in
connexion with their advocacy of liberty. As a
stranger from the Far West, the author was present, and witnessed the scene, and was very much
amused as well as distressed with the result of the
above test, and the cause which produced it. Think
of it. Forty thousand pulpits, and only four
names given. Things were not very promising in
1860.
On the twenty-sixth day of the Methodist Buffalo Conference, the reports of the proceedings say,
" The majority and minority reports on slavery
were continued to-day, amidst the most intense
excitement. Speeches were made by the Southern
delegates, Drs. Slicer and Sewall of Baltimore, and
replied to by Dr. Kingsley, the Chairman of the
Majority Beport. Dr. Slicer, in the course of his
remarks, said to the majority members, "If you
believe slaveholding to be as sinful as polygamy,
idolatry, and drunkenness, put it in the book."

BUT WHAT OF THE CHURCHES?

141

Voices in the assembly responded, "Amen, amen.
They dare not do it."
t Dr. Curry and a number of voices exclaimed,
"Certainly, we intend to." Dr. Slicer: "You intend to, do you ? I wish the Border to take notice that Dr. Curry, on behalf of the Majority, has
announced that they intend to make this prohibition." Dr. Kingsley "rose, and in an excited
manner," say the reporters, called Dr. Slicer to
order, observing that " Dr. Curry did not speak by
authority of the majority, and he protested against
Dr. Slicer saying so." A number of delegates then
said," that a number of the majority men sitting
near them endorsed Dr. Curry." Dr. Reid said,
"no response of that kind was heard here." Dr.
Kingsley "then avowed that there were not ten
men here who would endorse Dr. Curry." Not
ten men, on the authority of the Chairman of the
Majority Committee, leported to be friendly to
real liberty—not ten men in the Buffalo Conference who would place slavery under the ban of
condemnation the same as idolatry, polygamy, and
drunkenness! If there had been a herd of buffaloes there from our Far Western Prairies, and their
liberty had been in danger, would they not have
shown their instinctive love of liberty ? But this
element in the Buffalo Methodists was not suffiU
ciently strong in the Bishop, who 1 preached a
grandiloquent sermon that contained such "thrills"
and " flashes," as to have been worth, it was said,

142

HON. EDWARD EVERETT AND MRS. STOWE.

a journey across the Atlantic to be heard—or in
ten men in the assembled crowd of delegates from
all parts of the Northern Circuits of Melhodism,
to put the brand of infamy on a system that reduces multitudes to a condition far worse than
buffaloes. And the Congregationalists of America,
with all their boast of liberty, are not much better,
when, during the time Dr. Cheever was in England,
the Congregationalist Body in and around New
York, resolved to withdraw from all fellowship,
and suspend all connexion with his church.
The above are melancholy but astounding proofs
of the fallen greatness of our country. And those
who make merchandise of feigned words, such as
the Hon. Edward Everett, or the celebrated authoress of <( Uncle Tom," Harriet Beecher Stowe,
cannot gainsay it.
HON. EDWARD EVERETT AND MRS. STOWE.

Everett tried to do so in a grand oration at Boston
in 18 6 0, but it was a most signal failure. Cautiously
feeling his way, he said: "Let us notice the inquiry, whether the great design of Providence, in
the planting of a free representative Government,
in the bestowment of a written constitution and
laws—in the adoption of a free, cheap, and all pervading press—and in the voluntary and bountiful
expenditure of our people for the maintenance and
support of religion, is in the course of a steady and

HON. EDWARD EVERETT AND MRS. STOWE.

143

progressive fulfilment"—what an assumption!
Taking it for granted that it was so. But lofty
pretension and tremendous assumption does not
make it so; or our free representative government,
which proclaims that all men are born free and
equal, would secure it, and prevent its citizens
from annihilating the persons of their less favoured
brethren, and sinking them into chattels—stripping
them of their natural rights, such as men, husbands, parents, and children, and tearing up those
tender, endeared, and time-honoured relationships
by the roots—usurping irresponsible control over
them, and robbing them of the fruits of their
labours, polluting their bodies, and scourging them
at their will and pleasure—making the white
man's blood to course in their veins, to improve,
the stock of what our refined citizens, and even
clergymen, call %" superior animals," or " highly domesticated brutes," and selling their own blood,
bones, muscles, sinews, nerves, and brains, to the
highest bidder. You see, therefore, that Everett
caused them to jump over the black heritage we
have referred to at a single bound; and his lofty
pretensions led him to cover up the above fearful
harvest of pain, shame, ignominy, and woe, which,
instead of causing joyous chimes and merry peals,
responding to triumphant salvoes, are at this very
moment, by the retributive providences of Jehovah, associating us with funeral bells, minute guns,
and the "Dead Marches of Saul." And yet, in

144

HON. EDWARD EVERETT AND MRS. STOWE.

the above grand performance of Everett's, by putting forth the whole power of his rhetorical skill,
and making the most majestic flourishes with his
thrilling eloquence, and flinging forth the most
brilliant corruscations of his commanding genius,
which he transcribed to his canvass, as he made
the enchanting panorama -of his word painting pass
before the eyes of his dazzled and bewildered audience, he fairly concealed the above feat of jugglery,
Jesuitical piece of cunning, and monstrous fraud
from their view. 0 what a farce or burlesque for
such a man to take the name of free institutions
into his lips, written constitutions and laws, or a
free church, and all-pervading press, and make
them expound, define, and maintain that those
laws, constitutions, and institutions are free for all;
or that the religion taught by our divines, and for
the support of which there has been such a bountiful expenditure, as set forth in America, has inculcated, that if " any one would be master he must
become the servant of all"—that " God has made
of one blood all nations that dwell on the face of
the earth "—that " we must love our neighbour as
ourselves "—and that " all things whatsoever we
would that men should do to us, we must do to
them!"
How strange that there should be an assembly
of intelligent and highly educated people in Boston,
America, that should have been so blinded by his

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

145

sophistry, the fascinations of his eloquence, as to
be overreached by his misstatement of facts !
But it was the most strange of all that they
should greet him with their deafening plaudits,
and literally shower down upon him their favours!
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

She, in her letter to Lord Shaftesbury, calculated
on storming the citadel of British hearts as easily
as Everett carried the hearts of the Bostonians by
his coup-de-main, July 4, 1860, but the celebrated
authoress of Uncle Tom had a different class of
people to deal with—a people who have a love of
candour and truth, know how to discriminate, are
earnest in comparing statements with facts, feel untrammelled by human authorities, but have a
supreme regard to those which are divine, and are
prompt and courageous to repel what is false, and
embrace what is true. Consequently, Mrs Stowe's
letter caused a feeling of general dissatisfaction,
defeated the object for which it was intended, and
failed to enlist the sympathies of England on behalf of our Northern people, government, and institutions.
Mrs Stowe's expectations were, therefore, cut off
in regard to the heavy disbursers of public opinion
in our favour in the North from this country. And
writhing under the disappointment, in a pettish,
sullen mood of temper, or freak of frenzied madness,
K

146

FATHERS OF THE COUNTRY.

she wrote a letter to the New York Independent,
in 1861, in which she said, "We Americans can
dispense with the sympathy of England." She
was not in Edinburgh then, stretching out her
hands to receive the heavy disbursement of a thousand pounds, or in Leeds, to grasp two hundred
bright spanking guineas I
THE FATHERS AND FOUNDERS OF THE COUNTRY AND
GOVERNMENT.
Is man valuable on account of what he is himself, and not for what he has? The above possessed rare excellences in their characters, rose superior to the cliques of parties, discovered a loftiness in their statesmanship, and a nobility and
magnanimity of soul, that caused them to spurn
every thing that was low, mean, or selfish. In
their presence, and when contrasted with them, the
present race of our politicians are reduced to small
dimensions, and are dwarfs indeed.
The former left behind them great charters of
human freedom, which were the best and noblest
inheritance they could bequeath, and were a credit
to their heads and hearts.
The latter have turned the Declaration qf Independence into a splendid and glittering generality,
which requires the word " white" before you can
command the key of their position, viz., all " white"
men are born free and equal. Whilst the Gonsti-

THE OLD FATHERS JUSTLY ESTEEMED.

147

tution, which was framed so as to exclude property
in man, and all who enjoyed its protection might
never know from the written record that such an
institution as slavery ever existed in their midst,
has been turned by their successors, into an engine
of despotism, and associated with scenes compared
with which the Star Chamber of the Stuarts, the
tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, and the cold
blooded atrocities of Ferdinand the II. of Italy, are
not worthy of a moment's consideration. So that
what should have been, and what were designed
to be, the safeguards of liberty, in the hands of
wicked administrators have been perverted, misapplied and prostituted to form a receptacle where
the common sewers of depravity meet, reeking with
corruption, iniquity, and fraud, or to make an infernal Juggernaut, to trample down and crush out
the life blood of millions of our fellow immortal
beings, and with it the honour, virtue, and patriotism
of our land.
THE OLD FATHERS JUSTLY AND DESERVEDLY
ESTEEMED.

They were types of whatever was noble, virtuous, or good. When we approach them, we come
into the presence of greatness and goodness. And
when we think of the day to which they gave birth,
and of the great charters of freedom which they
left behind them, as a precious legacy to their de-

148

THE OLD FATHERS JUSTLY ESTEEMED.

scendants, we cannot use too deep or broad an
emphasis, swell, or compass of voice, or notes made
soft yet sweet, enriching and yet enchanting with
melody to immortalise their names. But with what
loathing and contempt must we regard the type or
class of men, such as Secretary Seward, President
Lincoln, and Hon. Edward Everett.
When Everett was an ambassdor to the Court of
St James, he was invited to a Lord Mayors banquet,
where he had the boundless assurance, and matchless impudence to avow "that America was an
asylum for the oppressed of all nationalities." On
the discovery of the trick, a member of the British
Cabinet rose in the audience, and desired to "remind him that he had made a slight mistake in
forgetting the relationship in which Canada stood to
America with its cities of refuge."
When the Hon. Wm. H. Seward branded that
brave old man, John Brown, as a felon, shouting,
" thank God they hung him," he also avowed that
the " worst slave state was in advance of England/'
A state where the press is gagged, free speech
muzzled, abolitionists tarred and feathered, and skies
are lit up with fires from the piles of burning
negroes; and yet was in advance of this grand
old country that has produced a Shakespeare,
Milton, Howard, Elizabeth Fry, and now contains
a Carlyle, Brougham, Spurgeon, Florence Nightingale, and a noble Queen Victoria in her bosom !
His excellency, President Lincoln, in a proclama-

THE OLD FATHERS JUSTLY ESTEEMED.

149

tion issued April 10, 1862, has provoked the
world's merriment and scorn by appointing a day of
thanksgiving for " victories achieved/' and " averting from our country the dangers of foreign intervention and invasion." The victory to be celebrated
on the above day turned out to be a defeat, since
Beauregard, at the close of the battle at Corinth,
retired into his batteries with seven thousand
prisoners and a considerable number of pieces of
artillery.
But supposing a victory had been achieved, there
has been no lofty principle to sustain the Federalists,
in the terrible campaign which they are waging
with the South, and which has caused the outpouring of so much blood and treasure. The editor of
the Baptist Freeman, April 16, 1862, says, " W e
will not captiously scan and criticise motives of
Politicians and Statesmen, as such are bound to shew
a political cause for what they do. We rejoice that
we can at last give the Federalists the right hand
of fellowship, and devoutly wish them God-speed in
such work from the Potomac, the Ohio, and the
Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico."
The above
paragraph applies to the emancipation of the slaves
in the district of Columbia. And by its God-speed
to men, who are brought to yield, like Pharaoh,
" from expediency and in view of all the circumstances," is most wonderful. The editors may well
say, we will not "captiously scan and criticise."
Can what is morally wrong be politically right?

150

THE OLD FATHEES JUSTLY ESTEEMED.

And as the administrators of the Federal Government ignore the sacred and supreme rights of the
slave and the coloured people, are they entitled to
sympathy on the broad grounds of philanthropy and
justice ? But to obtrude the fratricides referred to
above, from lust of dominion before God, is the
height of impropriety and mockery. In the Principia, April 17, 1862, we are reminded that the
Rev. Dr. Cheever and his people met on that day
for its due observance, although the Doctor in a
letter to an Edinburgh lady, dated April 11th, says,
" Our President is not from principle or conviction
himself opposed to slavery, and therefore we cannot
expect from him a decided abolition course," and
also, " in the proclamations issued by him, there is
not a reference in them to our obligations of mercy
to the enslaved !" But what is more strange still,
the Principia gives a synopsis of the Doctor's
"Thanksgiving discourse," taken from the New
York Herald, and speaks of it with feelings of
highest praise ! But when the author called attention to a synopsis of Dr. Cheever's discourse on the
Trent affair, copied by the newspapers in this country
from the New York Herald, " its sayings and doings"
were not to be relied upon, and the above paper
was designated "ignominious and vile !" Dr. Cheever
was not afraid of being found out in the former.
He only dreaded this in the latter. There is a
glory, it appears, in devouring the Southern artichoke when surrounded by an encircling fire of

THE OLD FATHERS JUSTLY ESTEEMED.

151

military glory! But the Trent outrage was not a
bad thing, in Cheever's estimation. No. It was
only a bad thing for his utterances in regard to it
being found out in this country !
The President also refers to " foreign intervention
and invasion!" When? Where?
How? By
whom ? In this phrase there are couched mysterious
landings of armies on the shores of our country—
mysterious battles on land and sea—mysterious
prowess and valour, and a mysterious termination
of the whole affair ! So that we have here mystery
in a maze—mystery in a flzzel—-mystery within a
mystery. But mysterious as it is, it is to go up to
the divine throne, and the figment of the brain, the
phantom of the imagination, the nightmare of apprehension, the ignis fatuis, or will-o'-the-wisp that
threatened us with the deep and terrible bog of a
calamity, but from whidi our Grand Army of the
North and Great Armada on the sea, so mysteriously
delivered us, is to be made the subject of special
and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God!
What a wise magician we have got at the White
House ! How noble and glorious for him to shout
before he has got out of the woods! And what a
might he possesses to annihilate armies and navies
in their invisible state before they can present themselves in any tangible shape or form to our notice!
But what led him to suppose that there was any
danger to ourselves, as there has been no design,
purpose, or act, on the part of any foreign Govern-

152

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

ment to indicate any intervention or invasion of
our country. There was nothing in the "Trent
affair/' for that was entirely, beginning, middle, and
end, one sided. We had not the shadow of justice
on our side in the outrage we committed on a
friendly flag. And it was well for us that we had
the prudence and good sense to acknowledge our
error. But to conjure up victories in connection
with imbecility and folly, to threaten intimidation, or
vow vengeance on an unoffending nation or people
are the seeds of bitterness, of which we Americans
can only reap the shame. It is the stone of
Sysiphus rolled up to come down again with double
vengeance on ourselves.
THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

It has been well and wisely said, that a more
precious legacy cannot be conveyed from sire to
son, than the inheritance of an honoured name.
If so, our American divines and people have a noble
bequest in their possession in the well known
names of Dwight, Edwards, Hopkins and others;
names world wide in their celebrity, and worthy
of a bright record on the page of history. They
were men of commanding talents and influence,
exalted piety, deep humility, unswerving fidelity,
and heroic devotion in the cause of Christ. And
no class of men ever set forth more vividly the
cruel oppressions of the negro, or the frightful
horrors of slavery.

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

153

Take one specimen out of many we could give.
It is from the pen of Timothy Dwight, from the
poem " Greenfield Hill," dedicated to John Adams :
" Ceaseless I hear the smacking whip rehotmd—
Hark! that shrill scream! those groans of death resound.
See those throng'd wretches pant along the plain,
Tug the hard hoe, and sigh in hopeless pain!
Yon mother, loaded with her sucking child,
Her rags with frequent spots of blood defll'd,
Drags slowly fainting on; the fiend is nigh,
Eings the shrill cowskin, roars the tiger cry.
In pangs the unfriended suppliant crawls along,
And shrieks the prayer of agonizing wrong.
Why glows yon oven with a sevenfold fire ?
Crisp'd in the flame behold a man expire!
Lo! by that vampire's hand yon infant dies;
Its brains dash'd out beneath its father's eyes!
Why shrinks yon slave with horror from his meat ?
Heavens! 'tis his flesh the wretch is forced to eat!
Why streams the life-blood from that female throat ?
She sprinkled gravy on a guest's new coat!
Why crowd those groaning blacks the docks around ?
Those screams announce that cowskin's cracking sound.
See that poor victim hanging from the crane,
While loaded weights his limbs to torture strain.
At each keen stroke far spouts the bursting gore,
And shrieks and dying groans fill all the shore.
Around in throngs his brother victims wait,
And feel in every stroke their coming fate;
While each with palsied hands, and shuddering fears,
The cause, the rule, the price of torment bears.
Hark, hark! from morn to night the realm around,
With cracking whip, keen taunt, and shriek resound.
O'ercast are all the splendours of the spring,
Sweets court in vain; in vain the warblers sing.
Illusions all! 'tis Tartarus around me spreads
His dismal screams and meiancholy shades,

154

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

The damned sure here clank th' eternal chain,
And waste with grief or agonise with pain.
A Tartarus new! emission strange of hell,
Guilt wreaks the vengeance, and the guiltless feel,
The heart not formed of flint here all things rend,
Each fair a fury, and each man a fiend,
From childhood train'd to every baleful ill,
And their first sport to torture or to kill."

But how have their descendants in America used
these names ? What influence have they had on
our people? Where are the men that reflect
honour on their names, or preserve their representation in our American churches ? Have the
fathers been reproduced in their sons ? In an
article by Rev. D. E. Neil, of Saint Paul, entitled
" Minnesota—Present and Prospective/' he says,
" Our nation to-day is essentially what the Puritans,
Scotch Presbyterians, and Huguenots, who formed
its original elements, made it." But did they, or
those noble men referred to above, separate principle
from practice, or diverge in their theories so as to
concede that men might "hold property in men,
and be good Christians"—that these men were
proper subjects for Christian fellowship ? No. It
is here where the departure from first principles
began. And could the old Fathers rise from the
dead, and take up the Key of " Uncle Tom," and
read of " pious ladies," in regard to instructing their
slaves, exclaiming, "we are ashamed to teach them
what is right. We know that they know as well
as we do that it is wrong to hold them as slaves.

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

155

And we are ashamed to look them in the face!"
Or turn to the words Mrs. Stowe says were attributed to Mrs. Shelby, and read the words, " I never
thought it was right to hold slaves. I always
thought it was wrong when I was a girl, and I
thought so still more when I came to join the
Church/' If they were to request Mrs. Stowe to
put the above language into the mouths of
drunkards, Pharisees, or Pantheists, and then to say
whether she could call them " pious," what a
blush of shame would mantle on her cheeks ? And
how instinctively she would shrink from their
presence, as they tore off the veil of her flattery,
and rebuked her for helping to deepen, widen,
and make more fearful the wide wasting ruin which
has come upon our land though the above concessional crevasse or flood-gate of misery; a crevasse,
or flood-gate, through which mighty floods have
poured with amazing velocity to bury us in one
common ruin—the opening of which has done
violence to all instinctive love of liberty, the conclusions which rise from principles of natural
justice, and the full orbed precepts of Christianity,
left the perpetrators and abettors of such suicidal madness not a single inch of ground in connection with morality and virtue to stand upon,
and subjected them to the fearful crime of sinning
against their better judgments and strongest convictions, and also to the severest punishments of the
Almighty, where he says, " Woe unto them that

156

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter." Isa. v. 20. But who shall measure the depths of their criminality, meanness, baseness, cunning, fraud, or judgments should they die
with their sins unpardoned, and their hearts uncleansed from the abominations of such iniquity !
Could these same old Puritan Divines, or Fathers,
have visited a Presbyterian Convention held in St.
Louis, and seen the Rev. D. E. Neil, now a chaplain
in the Federal army, in fellowship with slave-holding professors of Christianity and clergymen; and
then, a few days after, have taken up a St. Paul
newspaper, and read a letter, signed D. E. Neil,
expatiating on liberty as if he was going to lay his
head on the block, they would have been somewhat
startled with the "essentiality" of the likeness
claimed between himself and themselves. And
what a sublime reading they would have given the
above clergyman, in the way of a profound homily
on the discrepancy between profession and practice !
And not less so on their visit to the annual
festival of the American Board of Missions in the
case of the Eev. Dr. Cheever, or his brother, the
Rev. T. R. Cheever, in Samson Street Hall, Philadelphia, 1860, when, at the formation of the Church
Antislavery Society, he fell into the same delusion
and snare as Mrs. Stowe, that "men might hold
slaves and be Christians ;" or of Dr. Barnes who, on
the testimony of Professor Cleveland, a member, if

THE OLD DIVINES AND NEW CONTRASTED.

157

not an oflSce-bearer, in his church, avowed at a
meeting of the Church Antislavery Society, adjourned from Samson Street to the First Eeformed
Presbyterian Church—avowed that " Christian
slaveholders," so called, communed with them
"year in and year out;" or of the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher and his father, Dr. Lyman Beecher,
making broad their garments, and phylacteries, and
walking in grand dramatic style to record their
votes for a man of straw, in the person of President
Lincoln on his election to the Presidency—of the
Free Missionists in their complicity with the Bible
Union—of numbers of the clergy who have abandoned their professions to become military chaplains
in our army, now engaged in an unholy and bloody
strife-—in every rank, amongst every profession,
and in every department of the churches and states !
But in none more so than in the editorial, so amply
illustrated and confirmed in the following article
by the oracle of Brooklyn, which appeared in the
Few York Independent, January 17, 1862, and
now fearfully illustrated by our abolitionists in
general, who have become enamoured with the beatitudes of Henry Ward Beecher, given as under:-—
PEACE ITEMS

FOR GENERAL M'CLELLAN.

«—The way to improve Government finances.
Fight!
—The way to gain the respect of England and
France. Fight!

158

PEACE ITEMS

FOE GENERAL M'CLELLAN.

—The way to increase our army to a million of
men. Fight!
—The way to entertain rebels, pirates, and
traitors. Fight!
—The way to sustain the Government and show
we are in earnest. Fight!
—The way, and the only way, to have peace.
Fight!
—The way to do justice and promote freedom.
Fight!
—The way to have Bible faith is to have works.
Therefore, FIGHT !

The Rev. Dr. Campbell, in his British Standard,
Jan. 17, 1862, comments as follows:—
"Are these the heads of a Brooklyn sermon?
They are, at any rate, a curiosity in a c religious
journal.' Had Mr Beecher been in the place of
General M'Clellan, the troops would probably have
had less reason to complain of wearisome inaction.
They would have had fighting to their hearts' content. The order of the day would have been-^—
" Soldiers, kill, or be killed." Either, carried out,
would have brought peace.
" I t may be worth President Lincoln's endeavour
to try to call out Mr Beecher, and make him a
general of cavalry. The great Roman critic said of
Caesar, that he c spoke with the same vigour with
which he fought,' and Mr Beecher, we doubt not,
would 'fight with the same vigour with which he
speaks/ His versatility is that of a swivel, and hi&

PREJUDICE AND CLAMOUR.

159

genius is equal to anything. Before twelve months
he would be Commander-in-Chief; and then Jefferson Davis had better set his 'house in order;' for in
all probability his days would be numbered. Seriously, in Mr Beecher's present frame of mind, as a
General of Division or Commander-in-Chief, he
would be far more in his element than as a Bishop
in Brooklyn."
" These are the issues of our great moral battle-field
in America," which the editor of the Principia
(May 8, 1862), " charges upon Godi" These are
spots in their characters, blemishes in their piety, and
hindrances to their usefulness, which never belonged
to their noble sires.
PREJUDICE AND CLAMOUR.

In lifting up the above discrepancies, the author
may be assailed on all hands, and by all parties, with
the terrible indictment of having committed an unparalleled breach of charity. He is quite aware, as
Spurgeon has appropriately remarked, "that all men
now-a-days are freely admitted into the magic circle
of brotherhood and love, except those who have a
mind of their own. We are allowed to differ, if we
will conceal the difference;-but our name will be
erased from the list if we dare to intrude our peculiarities.5' And this, says the world-renowned
Spurgeon, " is called charity !" But is it charity ?
If so, the author is a very great sinner, like the

160

PREJUDICE AND CLAMOUR.

honoured martyr, John Brown, who would not allow
" pro-slavery clergymen to pray for him/' and has
been subjected to severe penalties both in the Old
World and New, compared with which a martyr's
death would have been a paradise. The above class
of latitudinarians claim "special indulgences" and
"justificatory circumstances" for their favourite sin
and idol. It may be the interposition of a veto to a
young man at college, who has got " a pistol to fire
off rather than let it burst in his hand." It may be
the abrogation of Church rights and denominational
polity, as in the case of a young minister thrown
overboard, without a personal hearing or reason
assigned, twenty years ago, at an annual festival
held in Harrison Road Chapel, Halifax, Yorkshire,
scorching the fingers of the men immediately concerned. It may be the taking of a public building
by an overt act, after a season of indefatigable voluntary labour and personal outlay of money, to found
a church and build up her institutions, as in the case
of Arthur Street, London. It may be because
slavery is treated as a sin, and slaveholders as manstealers, and that slaveholders and negro-haters are
disfellowshipped, that these special indulgences and
justificatory circumstances are claimed. But when
these claims are invaded, what torrents of abuse and
bitter invective are poured out upon the men who
" intrude their peculiarities," and comply with the
demand—them that "sin rebuke before all" (1 Tim.

EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

161

v. 20); or that other Scriptural precept, " Thou shalt
not suffer sin on thy brother/' (Lev. xix. 17.)
A thousand times the plea is thrown out, like a
shell in the air, and comes down, bursting harmlessly
in our midst, " Slavery must be a good thing, because I have an uncle, brother, or friend who is a
slaveholder, and he is a good man; or the men to
whose policy and conduct exception has been taken
are men endeared by many virtues, have rendered
eminent service in the cause of Christ, written eloquent books, made brilliant speeches, and suffered
great persecutions, and therefore it will injure the
cause to lay bare these inconsistencies." But then,
the above commands are peremptory. They do not
say slander or abuse them, but rebuke them ; and
this is not to be done privily but openly; or on a
particular brother, but on thy brother. It is to be
without limitation, restriction, or distinction ; there
is to be no exception.
EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

Seeing is believing. The author was present
when the Eev. H. T. Cheever, at a Church AntiSlavery meeting, held in Philadelphia, I860, made
the above startling announcement. And in the
comment made on it in the Anti-Slavery
Standard
there is the following paragraph:—
" I s it not singular that many who took part in
the Church Anti-Slavery meeting, while careful to
L

162

EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

avoid co-operation with the American Anti-Slavery
Society, appear to have no scruple whatever against
standing in religious fellowship with churches which,
at the best, utterly ignore the claims of the slave.
We think that an Anti-Slavery Society which does
not rebuke its members for recognising as Christian
those churches which tolerate slave-holding, or
refuse to denounce it as a sin, has small claim to
call itself * Christian/ "
From Samson Street Hall, the meeting was adjourned to the First Reformed Presbyterian Church.
And as the author was the originator of the Parent
Church Anti-Slavery Society, through Dr Cheever,
he rose in the assembly to make a few remarks in
regard to the inherent sinfulness of slavery, but
on making the observation that a " match from
God's truth had been applied to the pro-slavery
stubble in Dr Cheever's church, and kindled a tremendous conflagration, and that Henry Ward
Beecher, and others, had got the stubble to
burn up in their churches/' the committee of
managers took the alarm, and he was interrupted
and rudely put down. At a later stage of the
meeting, a resolution was submitted to the meeting
" t o disfeUowship slaveholders," when a coloured
person'rose and called attention to the discrepancy
between the theory which the Rev. H. T. Cheever
had laid down, " that a man could be a slaveholder and a Christian," and their action in the
above resolution, and expressed a desire that

EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

163

some one would explain matters, as he could not
reconcile the two positions; and he thought that
if men could hold slaves and be Christians, they
were proper subjects for fellowship.
Professor
Cleveland, who was' in the chair, rose to explain.
He said he was a member of Barnes's church, and
that " slaveholders communed with them year in
and out, but he was not responsible for it."
If a Mormon, or any other notorious profligate
sinner, had communed with them, would he not
have been scandalised in his conscience by the
wicked thing, and also have felt that the church to
which he belonged had suffered reproach % And in
the latter case they would soon have had elders at
the gates of the church to keep such church sinners
out. And why not in the other, for bad as Mormonism is, slavery is much worse, as it takes up
polygamy and other sins in its embrace. There is
this difference, however, in America slavery was a
popular fashionable thing, until the great idol of
the people, called the Union, was in danger, whilst
Mormonism was justly and deservedly an outlaw.
If you turn over the records of the American
Board of Missions, you will find the name of Dr
Cheever as one of its corporate members, although
the Board has been double-dyed with the sin and
crime of slavery. And if you read over the reports
of the annual festival of the above Board, held in
Philadelphia, 1860, you will find a protest made
by the Rev. Doctor against their complicity with

164

EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

slavery; and also yon will see that when he arose
to address the meeting, a storm of opposition was
created, the clouds of disapprobation became dark
and threatening, the tempest gathered in strength,
and came sweeping on towards him and around him,
until it bursb on his devoted head. This was natural. And it is a matter of surprise to the author
that any enlightened man could think otherwise, as
a pro-slavery religion is not the religion of Jesus
Christ; and its abettors and supporters were sure
to rise, in their superfluity of naughtiness and wickedness, to wreck their vengeance on the head of
Cheever. Cheever did well and nobly to enter his
protest, but Cheever's membership on the above
Corporate Board is neither creditable to his head nor
heart. Is the question presented to Cheever, What
doest thou here, Cheever? And does he reply, I
am here in the above corporation as a reformer, to
cast out the old leaven of slavery, to join issue with
them in their complicities with such wickedness.
Dr Cheever made a little mistake, like Melancthon, in
regard to human nature, and the unslumbering activities of the great adversary of souls. And, like
Melancthon, it is no wonder that he felt "Old
Adam" too strong for him. He also made a greater
mistake in joining fellowship with men who condemn
horse-racing, thieving, fighting, dancing, hooping
women's silly skirts, but spare the great sin which
gives all the others the whole width of the way on
which to travel,
Infidels and Pantheists, mo-

EYE AND EAR WITNESSES.

165

ralists and secularists have marked the above inconsistency in Cheever, and severely criticised his
motives, and used many hard words against him.
But the greatest and most monstrous inconsistency in Cheever is to commend the missions and
missionaries of the above Board, whilst at issue
with them. And here is the proof.
TURKISH AID MISSIONS.

"To the Secretary of the Turkish Missions
Society,

Aid

" M Y DEAR S I R , — I have learned with regret since
I left England that an impression has gone abroad
detrimental to the Turkish Missions Aid Society—
in its being represented as connected with the
American Board of Missions, with whose action in
regard to slavery I have been at issue for some
years.
"It ought to be understood by the friends of the
English Society and of the great cause of missions,
that the constitution and operations of this society
are quite distinct and separate from those of the
American Board, and entirely independent of any
American complicity with any political or social
iniquity.
(
'I am glad of the opportunity afforded me of
publicly testifying my personal admiration and
appreciation of such a charity. Its friends send

166

TUKKISH AID MISSIONS.

forth their generous aid only for the evangelization
of Turkey—entrusting their funds for application
to the hands of American missionary brethren—•
esteemed and beloved wherever they are known; the
funds thus bestowed being exclusively applied to
the development of native Christian agencies.
"The existence of such a society at this crisis is
most providential. It gives opportunity to the
friends of the cause of Christ—at a time and in a
direction where the most important and successful
instrumentalities for its advancement are in danger
of being totally crippled—to supply a great deficiency. The friends of missions in this country
(England) are invited to take upon themselves the
responsibility of sustaining the Oriental missionary
work, now in so great a peril in consequence of the
withdrawal of supplies in America essential for
carrying it forward.
The Turkish Missions Aid
Society is providentially established for such a
juncture, and we trust its importance will be proved
by its present generosity and efficiency. It does
honour to American missionaries by such a manifestation of confidence in their missionary work,
and is important, as cementing international bonds
of Christian interest and affection between England and America, by the intercourse which this
society labours so cordially to cultivate and increase.
" I most heartily commend it, and wish it, in the
name of our common Lord and His cause, " God

TURKISH AID MISSIONS.

167

speed," Its support at this time is one of the most
manifest requisitions of Divine Providence upon
English Christianity.
GEORGE B. CHEEVER."

The above letter affords matter for severe comment, and places the Board and Dr Cheever in a
most painful position before the public.
Turn out the Letter Bag and examine the different
items, one by one, and mark the words American
Board, and their complicity with political and social
iniquity—-" his issue with it for several years"—
that the Turkish Aid Missions, " in their constitution and operations are quite distinct and separate
from those of the American Board," and yet entrust
their funds for application to the hands of the American missionary brethren, esteemed and beloved
wherever they are known, "although th eagents
of the above Board with which he is at issue "—
that " the existence of such a society at this crisis is
most providentiar—that " it is providentially established for such a juncture"—that its " importance
will be proved by its present generosity and efficiency"—that " it gives opportunity to the friends of
the cause of Christ, at a time and in a direction
where the most important and successful instrumentalities for its advancement are in danger of being
totally crippled, to supply a great deficiency"—that
"the friends of missions in England are invited to
take upon themselves the responsibility of sustain-

168

TURKISH AID SOCIETY.

ing the Oriental missionary work now in so great
a peril in consequence of the withdrawal of supplies
in America essential for carrying it forward/'—that
" it does honour to American missionaries by such a
manifestation of confidence" in their missionary
work—that it is ''important, as cementing international bonds of Christian interest and affection between England and America by the intercourse
which this society labours so cordially to cultivate
and increase"—that " i t is one of the most manifest
requisitions of Divine Providence upon English
Christianity,"—that he is glad of any opportunity
afforded him of publicly testifying his personal
admiration and appreciation of such a charity—
and that he can bid the Turkish Aid Missions
'Godspeed!'"
Examine them one by one, trace their connection
one with another, and ring them, and say whether
the above coin in his letter-bag contains the right
sound in them.
In the presence of the above jumbled-up mass of
contradictory evidence, the Turkish Aid Missions,
like the American Board, does not harmonise in its
operations with the simplicity of the gospel, the
purity of its fellowship,—its unalterable requirements to come out and be separate from the
unclean,—or its unyielding demands to let not
your good be evil spoken of, give no offence to
Jew nor Greek, and to abstain from the appearance of evil.

UNWISE POLICY.

169

UNWISE POLICY.

Nothing is more adapted to mislead the Christian public than such a course. On the publication of the above letter in the Leeds Mercury, Oct.
2, 1861, there was the following editorial paragraph printed in connection with Cheever's letter:—
" TURKISH MISSIONS.—Many of our readers are

aware that the Turkish Missions Aid Society, established a few years ago in this country, has suffered materially from an impression that it was
affiliated with the American Board of Missions, and
indirectly contributing to support slavery, with
which system the Choctaw and Cherokee missions
of this Board were formerly implicated. Such was
never our own opinion, and consequently we have
as occasion offered advocated the interests of the
Turkish Missions Aid Society as peculiarly deserving the support of a people who like the English
had done so much to maintain the political existence of the Ottoman empire. We are glad to find
at this time when, owing to the civil war in the
United States, the American missions in Turkey
are greatly straitened for want of funds, and when
also the facilities for spreading the gospel in the
Sultan's dominions are greater than at any former
period, that Dr Cheever, the uncompromising advocate of negro rights in America has expressed his
opinion of the claims of the Turkish Missions Aid
Society in terms which cannot fail to dispel all

170

BLOOD MONIES*

errors respecting it, and excite fresh interest in its
behalf."
In the above you will see that great stress is laid
upon affiliation with the American Board, by the
Turkish Missions Aid not being true. But, can
there be an affiliation with their missionaries without a covert and indirect maintenance of the
Board ?
To remove all complicity on the part of the British churches with our American churches, let the
Turkish Missions Aid take American missionaries
into their pay, and support them, if our American
churches cannot sustain them, and if they are satisfied that they are sincere in their statements that
they are as much opposed to American slavery, or
colorphobia, as any persons in England, which, to
say the least, is very doubtful, until they come out
from their unhallowed relationships with the American Board and give up their salaries which come
from a general fund partially created by what are
called Christian slaveholders; and, yet, made members and directors of the American Board of Missions on the payment of a certain sum of money
kept back by fraud from slave-butlers, slave-washerwomen, slave field lands, and whipt out of their
muscles.
BLOOD-MONIES.

It cannot be a pleasant thing for a truly en-

BLOOD-MONIES.

171

lightened and pious man to be maintained by the
price of blood—to circulate tracts created by
these terrible bloodmonies—or to preach out of
blood-stained Bibles. And the Memorial Church of
the Martyrs in Southwark, London, is the last
place in God's creation, where such a Bible ought
to have been received as a gift from the American
Bible Society, through the Kev. Dr Paton. The
Bible may be a superb work of art, splendidly
bound and embellished. But then, there is no martyr spirit or principle in its origin, execution, or
design; since it was printed, bound, and ornamented
with monies from a fund which contained the
" price of blood"—the avails of robbery and shame.
Some, however, are very unscrupulous about the use of
means. An American clergyman, who has recently
been on a visit to this country, has put it on record
that he would " go down to the chambers of hell
for the Lord's money! V And it has been stated that
a distinguished minister in Scotland once lifted up,
a piece of money, probably out of the saddlebags of
Cunningham and Duff, men who were said to " pay
homage to the great principles of the Reformers/'
to be " stars that woulcl rise when other stars disappeared," and to have anchored the Free Church
" over the ground of the old and sound theology
which Paul revered, Calvin illustrated, Knox interpreted, and William Cunningham nobly defended,"
and, the author may add, so badly practised in
America, and where the Free Church is now drift-

172

BLOOD-MONIES.

ing among the breakers, dragging Cunningham's
anchor where he himself made such a fearful plunge.
The author had read of the minister of the above
church sacrificing his martyr principles and spirit
in the advice which he gave to professors of Christianity at Philadelphia in 1860, "not to turn aside
to side issues but march straight on to victory, as if
the question raised on the motion of Dr Cheever
was a side issue, and was foreign to the work of
Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil,
1 John iii. 8. But now, alas! we have got the
climax on the above inconsistency in the acceptance
of the Bible Presentation referred to above. As
the other minister took up the piece of money, he
said, " he could not see any blood upon it." Perhaps not, but it was there notwithstanding. And
his saying so did'nt make it so. Neither did it
cover up the inconsistencies of the above delegates,
which will be remembered in the New World when
their many virtues and excellences are forgotten.
And the cry, " send back the money" in the Old
World is proof positive that the blood-monies in the
above saddlebags caused many a thrill of anguish
in pious hearts, and created many sad thoughts,
which like bolts cleft or rived their hearts to the
centre with sorrow and grief, shewing that the " old
and sound theology" requires to be practised as
well as revered, illustrated, imported, and defended.
There is no mistake that what the noble Guthrie

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.

173

calls the " eloquence of action/' or deeds, was more
important than the eloquence of the tongue. The
latter may be worth five thousand pounds in the
market of the Church, the same as at the bar, as
Guthrie intimated when putting his hand on the
head of Dr Gandlish in the Free Church Assembly,
May 3, 1862, but only fetches one thousand when
discounted by prudential committees;
But the
former cannot be valued by one, five, or fifty
thousand. Its purchase is beyond the price of
rubies. It is the priceless blessing or gem. Even
young striplings understand something of its
worth, when they put their " mouths to the keyhole," as reported in the case of Dr Candlish's son,
and shout " send back the money."
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.

The old divines never inquired, is a thing expedient, but is it just. On principle they planted their
feet as on solid rock, and this gave them a might
and a power which was truly sublime.
And is there anything which can meet the exigencies of the present time but the above? Unless
it underlays the operations of Christians now, there
can be no fidelity to conscience, truth, or God, or
lustre reflected on the names of those great characters or illustrious personages which have come
down to us as a rich legacy. It is this cool, cold,
and icy indifference to principle, and abounding

174

OUR NATIONAL TREE,

laxity in connection with a profession of attachment
to it, that has proved our ruin in America*
In some of the old missionary maps of America
there are figurative representations of the condition
of the country before the introduction of the gospel
of Jesus Christ into that land, sketching Indians
armed with poisoned arrows, scalping knives, and
tomahawks.
Ough]b there not to be some more maps issued,
giving pictorial sketches of our country after the introduction of the above gospel, to show its misapplication and abuse, making it to supply war
hatchets and war paint to our modern Christian
divines, causing them to lift up their "knuckledusters" in approved style and form, and to drape
our American pulpits and communion tables with
the United States' banner, not to save men's lives,
but in honour of their destruction. "Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do."
OUR NATIONAL TKEE.
This was once a noble tree. But now it has
become one towering upas, under whose shade
spring " things perverse, most monstrous, abominable, unutterable, worse than fable, ever feigned, or
mind conceived."
Since it was first planted it has had the black
graft of slavery engrafted into it, with all its concomitant evils, such as the brutal lusts of polygamy,

OUR PRESIDENTIAL BRANCH.

175

violence of murder, meanness of theft, blasted oaths
of perjury, colorphobia, anglophobia, &c. &c.
Let us examine it.
OUR PRESIDENTIAL BRANCH.

This comes first. It has been said to yield the
fruit of wisdom and goodness, and to be grand and
great in itself. Surely, then, there will be some
pleasure in the exercise. But in this you will be
disappointed, as it has been made light with levity
and vanity, and twisted into so many fantastic
forms by violence, fraud, and the circumvention of
falsehood, that it is surprising any one sees anything
wise or good, beautiful or noble in connection wTith
it. And if you lift it up you will see nothing but
rottenness and decay. Of this we have abundant
proof at hand in the fruit which it bears.
From the above branch the author has culled a
little fruit, and placed it in juxta-position, so that
you may look on this picture and on that. By
the aid of Lincoln's published speeches the work
has been made quite easy.
LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN BOOK.
" I hate slavery, because of the
monstrous injustice of slavery
itself—because it deprives our
republican example of its just
influence in the world—enables
the enemies of free institutions,

"If the territories having a
fair chance and a clear field
should do such an extraordinary
thing as to adopt a slave constitution, I see no alternative if
We own the country, but to

176

LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN BOOK

with plausibility to taunt us as
hypocrites — causes the real
friends of freedom to doubt our
sincerity — and especially because it forces so many real good
men amongst ourselves into an
open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty,
criticising the declaration of
Independence, and insisting that
that there is no right principle of
action but self-interest."—p. 74.
" He yields all, who yields to
any policy that recognises
slavery as being right, or as an
indifferent thing."—p. 267.
" The declaration of Independence, which contains self-evident
truths, that all men are born free
and equal, and entitled to life,
liberty, and the pursuits of
happiness, is the patriotic cord
that links the hearts of patriotic
and liberty loving men together,
and will do so as long as love of
freedom exists throughout the
world."—p. 23.
" A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe
this Government cannot endure
permanently half-slave and halffree.
I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved. I do not
expect the house to fall. But I
do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one
thing or all the other. Either
the opponents of slavery will
arrest the farther spread of it,
and place it where the public
mind shall rest in the belief that
it is in the course of ultimate
extinction, or its ajdvocates will
push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the

admit them into the Union."—
p. 89,

" I have no purpose directly
or indirectly to interfere with
slavery in the States where it
exists. I believe I have no
right to do so. I have no inclination to do so."—p. 194.
" I am not, nor ever have been,
in favour of making voters or
jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to
intermarry with white people."
—p. 193.

"The negro is not my equal
in many respects, certainly not
in colour, perhaps not in intellectual and moral endowments, but in the right to eat
the bread without the leave of
anybody else which his own
hand earns he is my equal, and
the equal of Judge Douglas, and
every other man."—p. 194.

LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN BOOK.
States, old as well as new—North
as well as South."—p. 1.
Lincoln quoting the clause in
the Constitution, which is made
by pro-slavery parties to refer to
the reclamation of fugitive
slaves:—
" No person held to service or
labour in one State, under the
laws thereof, shall in consequence of any law or regulation
therein be discharged from such
service or labour, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the
party to whom such service or
labour may be due." There
again, says Lincoln, "There is
no mention of the word negro,
or of slavery."—p. 229.

" Judge Douglas," Lincoln
says, " assumes that slavery is a
rightful thing within itself, and
was introduced by the framers
of the Constitution. The exact
truth is," says the President,
"they found the Institution
among us, and they left it as
they found it. But in making
the Government they left this
Institution with many clear
marks of disapprobation upon
it. They found slavery among
them and they left it among
them because of the difficulty,
the absolute impossibility of its
immediate removal."—p. 229.

M

177

" I will tell you (Kentuckian
slaveholders) so far as I am
authorised to speak for the
opposition, what we mean to do
with you when we beat you.
We mean to treat you as near a8
we possibly can, as Washington,
Jefferson, and Madison treated
you. We mean to leave you
alone, and in no way interfere
with slavery, to abide by all and
every compromise of the Constitution, according to the examples of these noble fathers.
We mean to remember that you
are as good as we, that there is
no difference between us, other
than that of circumstances. We
mean to recognise, and bear in
mind always, that you have a
good hearts in your bosoms as
other people, or as we claim
to have, and to treat you accordingly."—p. 263.
In his Inaugural Address on
the 4th of March, 1861, he says,
"There is much controversy
about the delivering up of
fugitive slaves from service or
labour. The rendition clause
is as plainly written as any other
of its provisions. It is scarcely
questioned that this provision
was intended by those who made
it for the reclaiming of what we
call fugitive slaves. And the
intention of the lawgiver is the
law. AH Members of Congress
swear to support the whole Constitution, and to this provision
as much as any other. To the
above proposition their oaths
are unanimous*

178

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND GENERAL WOOL.

BASE OF THE COLUMN ELABORATED ON WHICH TO
PRESENT THE SPECIMEN FRUIT WHICH WE HAVE
CULLED FROM! THE PRESIDENTIAL BRANCH OF OUR
NATIONAL TREE IN AMERICA.

To judge from the specimens given in the left
hand department of our " International Exhibition,"
of the fruit referred to^ you would suppose that an
all-enduring monument might be uplifted in honour
of his Excellency, Abraham Lincoln; but that
right hand department is adapted to give his
admirers and patrons the most nervous twitches in
their souls. Let us look at the base of the column
referred to, and, by a few characteristic items presented to your notice, you will see how the President has yielded all, by yielding to a policy which
has recognised slavery as being "right/' or as an
" indifferent thing."
PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND GENERAL WOOL.

He to whom, more than any military commander, the country was looking to hold the
highest post next to General Scott, was first sent
off to occupy a commissary post at Albany; and
when the voice of the people demanded his appointment to a military command, he was housed up;
in Fortress Monroe.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND GENERAL LANE.

179

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND COMMODORE STRINGHAM*

On taking possession of Hatteras, he had the
imprudence, so-called, to employ the help of coloured
refugees in doing it, and of stating the fact to their
credit in his report. The Commodore was put out
of active service immediately.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND FREMONT.

This General proclaimed freedom to the slaves
of rebel slaveholders in Missouri. The proclamation was immediately modified, and in humble obedience to the demands of the pro-slavery press and
the legislature of Kentucky, he was superseded in
his command, on the eve of a battle which, had it
been fought, would probably have cleared Missouri
of the Confederates, and gained important advantages to the Federal cause in Missouri, in accordance with their own line of military policy, from
which the author dissents, as they are in the field
passive agents to act out God's will in opposition
to their own.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND GENERAL LANE.

When he proposed to enter upon the same
South-western expedition that had been contemplated by General Fremont, he took care to stipulate that he should be allowed to conduct it in his

180

GENERAL M'CLELLAN AND THE PRESIDENT.

own way, which was understood to be the employment of all recruits who would come to his banner.
But just as he was about to start, the supreme
command of the expedition was placed in the
hands of General Halleck, who expelled from his
camp all fugitive slaves.
THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY CAMERON.

He makes a report in which he vindicates the
policy of employing slaves to put down the rebellion. The President strikes out that part of his
report; and soon after, in obedience to renewed
demands by the Kentucky legislature, he removes
the Secretary from office, and sends him to an
official penal settlement in Russia.
GENERAL SIEGEL AND THE PRESIDENT.

This energetic commander was reputed to be so
unfriendly to slavery as to be caused to be snubbed
by his superiors, which made it necessary for him
to resign. And yet there was no dismissal of
those superiors by the President.
GENERA^ M'CLELLAN, THE HUTCHISONS, AND THE
PRESIPENT.

When the Commander-in-Chief approved the
act of General Franklin, who forbade the Hutehinsons to sing a song in honour of freedom, com-

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.

181

posed by Whittier, in our strange land to the
soldiers, there was no interference by the President.
GENERAL SHERMAN AND THE PRESIDENT.

When this General issues a proclamation to propitiate the slaveholders of South Carolina, and forbore to push his conquest for a time beyond the
neighbourhood of Fort Pulaski, he was not rebuked
or dismissed, but continued to enjoy the confidence
and approbation of the President and the Federal
Government.
THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.
" A Proclamation by the President of, the United
States.
"Whereas, there appears in the public prints
what purports to be a proclamation of Major-General Hunter, in the words and figures following, to
wit ;—
" e General Orders—No. II.
<
" Head-quarters, Department of the South,
Hilton Head, S.C., May 9, 1862.
" ' The three States of Georgia, Florida, and
South Carolina, comprising the military department
of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United
States of America, and having taken up arms
against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law.

182

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.

This was accordingly done on the 25 th day of
April 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free
country are altogether incompatible. The persons
in these three States—Georgia, South Carolina,
and Florida—heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared for ever free.
" ' Official.

" ' DAVID HUNTER,

" 'Major-General Commanding.
" ' Ed. W. Smith, Acting AssistantAdjutant-Gen eraU
"And, whereas, the same is producing some excitement and misunderstanding,
" Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, proclaim and declare that the Government of the United States has no knowledge
or belief of an intention on the part of General
Hunter to issue such a proclamation, nor has it
yet any authentic information that the document
is genuine; and, further, that neither General
Hunter nor any other commander or person has
been authorised by the Government of the United
States to make proclamation declaring the slaves of
any State free, and that the supposed proclamation
now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration.
" I further make known that, whether it be
competent for me, as Commander-in-Chief of the
army and navy, to declare the slaves of any State
or States free, and whether at any time, or in any
case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable
to the maintenance of the Government to exercise

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.

183

such supposed power, are questions which, under
my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I
cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of
commanders in the field. These are totally different questions from those of police regulations in
armies and camps.
" On the 6th day of March last, by a special
message, I recommended to Congress the adoption
of a joint resolution, to be substantially as follows :—
" 'Resolved, That the United States ought to
co-operate with any State which may adopt a
gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such
State, in its discretion,, compensation for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such
change of system/
" The resolution, in the language above quoted,
was adopted by large majorities in both branches
of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite,
and solemn proposal of the nation to the States
and people most interested in the subject-matter.
To the people of these States I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue. I beseech you to make the
arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you
would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg
of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them,
ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common cause
for a common object, casting no reproaches upon
any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it

184

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.

contemplates would come gently as the dews of
heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will
you not embrace it ? So much good has not been
done by one effort in all times past as, in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to
do. May the vast future not have to lament that
you have neglected i t !
" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my
hand, and caused the seal of the United States to
be affixed.

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

" By the President—Wm. H. Seward, Secretary
of State.
" Washington, May 19, 1862."
The proclamation of Lincoln therefore reserves to
himself the sole prerogative of " declaring the slaves
of any State or States free; and whether at any
time, or in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the government to exercise
such supposed power."
I t abrogates the orders issued by Major-General
Hunter. It ingeniously puts the burden of all responsibility in connection with the slave's deliverance on the Slave States and the people more immediately interested in the subject matter, and
tenderly appeals to those who have been so long
accustomed to do evil to learn to do well, in the
hope they will listen to his counsels; or as if they
would be influenced by moral suasion, enforced by
a man who stands over them with a drawn dagger
at their throats.

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL HUNTER.

185

I t points them to the "signs of the times"—begs
of them a calm and enlarged consideration of them,
and reminds them that no reproaches are cast upon
any of them, not even General Floyd, whom our
Northern people have charged with robbing the
Treasury of the United States> or Jefferson Davis,
the Confederate President, whom Lincoln's soldiers
intended to have hung with the halters they took
with them to Manassas, and whom the Hon. W. P.
Cutler of Ohio, in his speech in the House of Bepr£sentatives, Washington, April 23, 1862, would
make to go down alive into the pit, with their men,
goods, and every thing that pertained them, and
cause the earth to close on them, as in the case of
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, in terrific testimony
of their base and criminal rebellion, because they
would not submit to the people's election of Lincoln.—Numbers xvi 35.
It also disclaims all Pharisaism, calls up before
them the vast issues within their power, and expresses a hope that the vast future may not have
to lament their neglect of their great opportunity
and its tremendous responsibility.
This is very gracious of President (Lincoln, who
has scattered arrows, firebrands, and death on every
side in the invasion of their State sovereignties,
and plunged the whole nation into the vortex of
financial ruin, so that, whatever the vast future may
do for us, the terrible present is ominously sad and
horribly dismal!

186

SLAVERY AND SNAKES.

SAD DISCLOSURE.

The above is amply corroborated in a letter from
Postmaster-General Fremont, given in the documents of his published defence, in which Blair declared that the military operations of the Western
Department cannot expect aid from the administration, because Secretary Chase cares more for
keeping treasury notes at par than for the lives of
soldiers, and never voted a democratic ticket in his
life, while President Lincoln is of the Whig school,
and that brings him naturally not only to incline
to the feeble policy of the Whigs, but to give his
confidence to such advisers."-—New York Tribune,
March 13, 1862.
THE HORRORS OF LINCOLN'S POSITION AND POLICY
DEFINED AND COMMENTED ON SLAVERY AND
SNAKES.

"The following is one of Mr. Lincoln's illustrations
in his late speech at New Haven. Speaking of the
rights and wrongs of slavery, among other things,
he said :'•—
" ' I f I saw a venomous snake crawling in the
road, a man would say I might seize the nearest
stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed
with my children, that would be another question.
(Laughter.) I might hurt the children more than

SLAVERY AND SNAKES.

187

the snake, and the snake might bite them.
(Laughter and long applause.) Much more, if I
found it in bed with my neighbour's children, and
I had bound myself by solemn compact not to
meddle with his under any circumstances, it would
become me to let that particular mode of killing
the gentleman alone. (Great laughter.) But if
there is a newly made up bed, to which the
children are to be taken, and it was proposed to
take a batch of young snakes and put them there
with them, I take it no man would say there was
a question how I ought to decide. (Prolonged applause and cheers.)
"' That is just the case. The new Territories are
the newly-made beds to which our children are to
go, and it lies with the nation to say whether they
shall have the snakes mixed up with them or not.
It does seem as if there could not be much hesitation as to what our policy should be. (Applause.)'"
" Such is his deep and anxious care for the results
of freedom!"
What an association! "Snakes, children, and
beds I"
What an infernal compact not to meddle with the
snakes, slavery, in the slave States under any circumstances, but allow it to slime over, and devour
the slaveholders and their children whilst dozing in
their peaceful slumbers ! No sword is to be put to
the monster slavery's throat! " We mean to let
you slaveholders alone."

188

SLAVERY AND SNAKES.

Lincoln's deep concern for freedom is also shewn
in his resolution " to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution."
The fallacy of this position is shewn by Whately
in his Essays on Lord Bacon, where he says,—" To
expect to tranquillise and benefit a country by
gratifying its agitators, would be like the practice
of the superstitions of old women with their
sympathetic powder and ointments ; who, instead
of applying medicaments to the wound, contented
themselves with salving the sword which had inflicted it. Since the days of Danegelt downwards ;
nay, since the world was created, nothing but evil
has resulted from concession made to intimidation."
Essay 15, p. 134. Charles James Fox, also, in a
letter to Lord Holland, June 18, 1804, says, "To
humour the disposition of slaveholders, or to compromise, is a certain, absolutely certain, confirmation of the evil. No nation ever did or ever can
recover from slavery by such methods." Lincoln
further says, " You slaveholders in Kentucky are as
good as we, and carry as good hearts in your bosom
as other people, and as we claim to do"—men who
inflict upon their slaves the deadliest injuries,
subject them to the most scathing insults, rob them
of their chastity, virtue, happiness, all; and are
frequently reduced to the necessity of taking their
own sons and daughters and selling them in the
open market! " As good as himself,'' and " carry
as good hearts in their bosoms!"

BRANCHES IN OUR NATIONAL TREE.

189

What a black heart, then, the President must
have! "And the only difference one of circumstances !"-—But such circumstances, and attended
with so much guilt!
Such is the Presidential Branch of our national
tree, and a portion of the fruit we have culled.
How these apples of Presidential hatred to slavery,
freedom and equality doctrine, Constitutional, and
Legislative freedom, turn to ashes in your hands,
like the apples of Sodom and Gomorrah! And so
they will do in the hands of our people in America!
What hope can you have of a man who wires in
and out, turns and twists, writhes and wriggles, is
driven hither and thither, tossed up and down by
the force of circumstances—Pharaoh-like, only
bends to the pressure of God's Providences, as they
are brought to bear upon him ? And like Pharaoh
and his hosts, he and his abettors and supporters,
as well as the slaveholders who are confronting
them in battle array, may be buried in one common
grave of financial'ruin, whilst passing through Henry
Ward Beecher's "Red Sea of agitation," with its
billows of war, " Redder than blood, and fiercer
than fire/'
THE GOVERNMENTAL BRANCHES IN OUR NATIONAL
TREE OF AMERICA.

These constitute the heads of departments or the
main boughs from which a number of others branch

190

BRANCHES IN OUR NATIONAL TREE.

off. And if we turn to the Secretary of State, we
find the same unsoundness in this Governmental
limb.
In a speech which he made in the Senate
Chamber of the United States, in 1859, just before
his European tour—a speech which was called by
the slaveholders " his Bloody Eochester Speech"—
in the above, he avowed " that there was an irrepressible conflict between the opposing and all-enduring
forces of liberty and slavery."
On his return to America in 1860, he softened
down his irrepressible conflict speech, and turned it
into a non-repressible one. At this time he had
his eye fixed on the Presidential chair, like Webster
when he was at Alexandria, and learning what an
embittered, angry feeling there was against him in
the hearts of the vast bulk of the " Body Politic,"
he made an ingenious attempt to win popular
favour by artifice. Consequently, on his appearance
in the Senate Chamber, he startled the whole
country by the announcement that the slave States
were "Capital States" and the free States "Labour
States," and consequently, our conflict in America
is only fanciful and not real. What guilt, therefore,
rests on Sec. Seward, who is now helping to stop so
many breathings between the air and the lungs,
and to close so many mouths against the stomach,
and, therefore, rob Capital and Labour of so many
sons of genius and toil, and throw such vast multitudes on the charities of society and the Government!

SECRETARY SEWARD.

191

SEWARD'S CONDEMNATION OF THE POLICY OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN INTRODUCING COMPROMISES INTO THE CONSTITUTION.

In a speech made at St. Paul, September 18,
1860, Seward said, " t h a t the Federal Council at
Washington have permitted statutes to be made,
and judgments to be recorded in their name, declaring that men are not freemen, but that in certain
conditions, and in certain places, they are merchandise." " That the Supreme Court of the United
States never rises without recording judgments and
directing executions for the sale of men; women,
and children as merchandise. And this is done in
your name and mine." " The constitution never
declared, never intended to declare, and was never
understood by its framers to declare, that any man
could be a chattel or merchandise."
In his Capital and Labour Speech, Seward also
said, that "if a fugitive slave, weary, hungry,
tempest tossed, desponding, was to come into the
neighbourhood of his dwelling, the Constitution
not only forbade him to regard him as a man and
a brother, but to confess him to be a chattel/'
If so, then the Constitution degraded the man
who recognised it more than the man whose rights
it usurped, and made him inflict the deadliest injury
on the slave, and divested himself of all manhood,
decency, and propriety, by impelling him to confess

192

SECRETARY SEWARD.

what he knew was an atrocious falsehood, since his
calling him a chattel did not make him so? " A
man's a man for a' that/'
He further said, " You are sovereigns on the subject of slavery within your own borders, as we are
on the same subject within our borders. I t is well
and wisely arranged. Use your authority to maintain
what system you please, we are not distrustful of
the result. If our authority shall be assailed within or without by any enemy, or for any cause, and
we shall have need, we shall expect you to defend
us. If you shall be so assailed, no matter what
the cause or pretext, or who the foe, we shall defend
your authority as the equivalent of our own."
This is a Personal Toleration Act with a vengeance, which connives at some of the most cruel
enormities and detestable atrocities ever perpetrated
by man ! It is also a recognition of the sacredness
of those state sovereignties who maintain and
uphold the execrable system of slavery, with all
its concentration of crimes and compendium of
villanies, which sovereignties Seward and the
administrators of the Federal Government are now
trampling down under the black hoof of military
despotism!
And in the same speech Seward made the following extraordinary statement, "The world, prepossessed in our behalf, by our early devotion to the
rights of human nature, as no nation never engaged
before its respect and sympathies, asks in wonder

SECRETARY SEWARD.

193

and amazement what all this demoralisation means f
It has an excuse better than the world can imagine,
better than we are generally conscious of ourselves,
a virtuous excuse. We have loved not freedom so
much less, but the union of our country so much
more, and surrendered the safeguards of freedom to
propitiate loyalty of Capital," meaning the slave
oligarchy, and " stay its hands from doing violence
to the Union."
The "world's prepossession" in our favour in
America cannot have been very substantial, or itwould not have been withheld in our present trying emergency, as we have not had a single expression of condolence or sympathy from any nation in
our present ordeal of trial and calamity, in honour
of our avowed " devotion to the rights of human
nature!"
And the so-called "virtuous excuse" of Hon.
Secretary Seward, which is an excuse of virtue, will
make more unsubstantial still the "world's prepossession" in our behalf, and diminish its supposed
ocean currents of " respect and esteem " into infinitesimal drops in favour of our " early devotion to
the rights of human nature," which has produced
such demoralisation, and made us the pest-house of
fraud, lazar-house of corruption-—a great world
nuisance!
There are two clauses in Seward's Despatches to
Earl Kussell, which put the climax on the sagacity
and wisdom of Seward, whom Train says, can talk

194

SECRETARY SEWARD.

diplomacy with Lyons, war with Palmerston, Latin
with Kussell, Greek with Gladstone, or Hebrew
with Rothschild!
These are as follows : " The United States policy
is based on interests of the greatest importance,
and sentiments of the highest virtue, but those of
European nations on selfishness and ambition."
This is rich. He next conceded the "justice" of
your demand in the case of the "Trent," but
avowed that "if the safety of the United States
required the detention of the captured prisoners, it
would be the right and duty of the government to
detain them!"
Under another governmental head of department,
a contractor had bought a contract of the government for thirty-two thousand dollars, and in one
half-hour after receiving it, sold it for twenty-six
thousand dollars more than he paid for it, without
moving from his chair !
And Congressman Dawes's report, in connection
with a Committee of Investigation into the profligate waste of the public resources, has thrown open
a Pandora box of peculation and fraud under all
the governmental heads of departments; so that
men everywhere have been brought to the conclusion, that either the foundations of society have
given way, or that the moral sense was wanting.
In the above report, made by Dawes in the
House of Representatives at Washington, he certified that "contracts for horses, beef, shoes, arms,

SECRETAEV. SEWARD.

195

and all the requirements of an army in the field,
were jobbed in our American go-a4iead fashion,
and that the fortunate and favoured contractors'
represented all classes, from ex-judges and exgovernors, to ministers and newspaper editors/'
What a subject on which to point a moral, and to
tell a tale! A Nero fiddling while Eome was in
flames—wreckers who disgraced humanity by preying on unfortunate vessels stranded on the coast—
sailors rushing on spirit casks when the ship was
on fire—or wretches who botanised on their mother's
graves, reckless and mad as their course appears
to have been, is yet insignificant and trifling when
compared with our American people, who have
wooed and worshipped the "Almighty Dollar" in
our country's awful and rugged crisis, and played,
, and danced, and sung to the endless variations of
the tune of self-interest amidst our country's conflagration.
Whilst all has been on fire around them, instead
of helping to turn the fire-engines upon the burning
pile, they have used them to water their own gardens. Our country " was dying from atrophy; and
that was the time they chose to feather their own
nests." What a tale to tell. And the moral to be
pointed is as fearful and terrible as the tale that has
been adorned. For if men will rob the blacks they
will rob each other, and ride rough shod over patriotism, virtue, probity, honour, and all the tenderest feelings of humanity.

196

LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES.

This indeed, is quite natural, and is only what
might have been expected, for the men who make
tnoney as slave owners and slave brokers, are just
the men to realise fifty-eight thousand dollars over
the fair market price on an army contract for cattle.
In the case referred to, Mr Dawes says the original
contractor put into his pockets, without stirring
from his chair, thirty-two thousand dollars!
THE JUDICIAL BRANCHES.

If we lift up these branches we have increased
evidence of rottenness and decay in the Dredd Scott
decision, which makes a black man have no rights
which a white man is bound to respect;" and in the
fact already put on record by Secretary Seward,
"that the Supreme Court of United States never rises
without recording judgments and directing executions for the sale of men, women, and children, as
merchandise.
CONGRESSIONAL BRANCHES.

These also give proof of the moral unsoundness
of our national tree. The Missouri Compromise
was evidence of this. It was generally styled the
" Landmark of Freedom." But would more appropriately have been named the Landmark of
Despotism, since compromises have always been
based on expediency, made a virtue of necessity,

LEGISLATIVE BKANCHES.

197

united truth with falsehood, used the smooth
tongue of flattery, built their castles on the air of
fiction, and covered themselves with the cobwebs
of sophistry and deceit. This Landmark, in connexion with our Federal-tree, however, has been
removed, but it has left its deep scar on its legislative branches.
The Fugitive Slave Law is another proof of
decay and rottenness.
This law is based on the idea that man may hold
property in man, and therefore rises in unalterable
hostility to every attribute of God's nature, and
every principle of His moral government.
It
tramples under foot the veracity of God, and whilst
He commands that you shall not return the servant that escapes from his master unto you, this
law reminds you that if you do not return him
you shall be subject to the penalty of a thousand
dollars or imprisonment. Christianity is a system
of love flowing from God to man—from man to
God—and from man to man as the genuine fount
of philanthropy—a system that comes blazing out
of God's own heart to man, and reaches down His
benevolent arm through all the grades of suffering;
and takes hold of the lowest link of humanity,
and says, stand up, for thou also art a man—whilst
Jehovah does this, the Fugitive Slave Law seeks
to arrest His arm and to rob Him of His rightful
authority by asserting that the fleeing bondsman
is a " chattel" and not a man.

198

LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES.

" I will have mercy and not sacrifice," saith the
Lord of Hosts. But what mercy is there in the
Fugitive Slave Law, which delivers the spoils into
the hands of the spoilers—turns the Free States of
America, so called, into hunting ground for slaves,
associates America with the dark ages of the world,
and makes her a byeword and reproach among the
nations?
And who have been the main pillars to support
this infamous law % Not Senator Mason who devised
it, or the statesmen or legislators who pleaded for
it, or the President who signed it, and made it
legal. If our American clergy, churches, and people
had not supplied the power and the men to execute
the wicked law, it would have fallen from the hands
of the Executive as a dead letter. To sustain it,
therefore, a batch of reverend doctors, who had
climbed to the pinnacle of popularity and touched
its capstone, came forward in their pontifical robes,
and with Bibles in their hands swore fealty to the
terrible enactment! And if Mason who devised
this infamous law deserves to be hung, the men who
support and execute it, deserve the same fate, from
the .President down to the meanest official in the
land,
LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES.

In these there is the same unsoundness as the
General one.

CELEBRATING A VICTORY,

199

Eecently a gentleman had a ''pet scheme" that
would be advantageous to himself in a pecuniary
point of view. To carry it out he required the
endorsement of the State Legislature and the seal
of the Governor. He went to the capital of Albany, paid his personal respects to the members,
distributed amongst them eight thousand dollars,
got his bill put through both branches of the Legislature, and returned to his home proclaiming the
wonderful feat which he had accomplished, thinking that he had done something quite clever.
But the following puts the climax on the above!
It is taken from the Herald and Mercury, April
12, 1862:—
CELEBRATING A VICTORY.

One of the most degrading scenes that ever disgraced a Legislative Assembly, says the Montezuma
(Iowa) Republican, was enacted at Des Moines last
week, on the reception of the news of the capture
of Fort Donnelson. Both Houses immediately adjourned upon the announcement of the glorious
intelligence, and made preparations for a general
" drunk/' Adjutant-General Baker mounted a desk
in the House, moved the suspension of the Liquor
Law for a time, put the motion to vote, which was
of course carried, and licence was granted for a
grand spree. Headed by the Governor, the Legislature and State officials repaired to the Des Moines

200

CELEBRATING A VICTORY.

House, where in a short time the rattling of decanters, the tingling of glasses, the gurgling of
liquors, and the bacchanalian shouts of revelry told
but too plainly that the " upper crust" were " going
in" on their honours. Governor Kirkwood " spread
himself* in fine style before he guzzled down bis
fifteenth glass, and was followed by his pet Baker,
who managed to make a fool of himself, but the
members were too much " overcome1' to notice it.
After the gassy element was expended a minister of
the gospel was " nabbed" while passing, hauled into
the midst of the drunken rabble, and requested to
make a speech, which he refused, when he was
lifted upon the table and compelled to before he
was released. Every one who came within hailing
distance was dragged into the hall and made to
" drink the health'* of our brave soldiers at Fort
Donnelson. After revelling as long as the liqour
held out, the victims of Bacchus, one by one, slipped
off to their rooms to hide their disgrace. The leading temperance member of the House staggered
round to the Eegister Office and requested the
editor not to publish his " precarious situation/' as
it might injure his fair reputation as a temperance
man among his constituents. We are happy to
state that about one-fourth of the Legislature refused
to participate in this disgraceful proceeding—some
Republicans declining from principle, and a number
of Democrats because their sympathies were enlisted
on behalf of the conquered rebels. What a picture

EDITORIAL BRANCHES.

201

to present to the intelligent people of Iowa, and
send forth to sister States—the State officials and
legislators on a " drunk," law-makers transformed
into law-breakers, imitating the example of the besotted inebriate, and descending to the level of the
reeling toper ! For shame t We derived these facts
from a responsible member of the Legislature, who
denounced it as the most disgraceful scene he ever
witnessed. He says he was sober.
EDITORIAL BRANCHES.

In our National Tree there are no branches more
withered with fraud, decayed with corruption, or
rotten with falsehood than these.—The vast mass
of our editors, both religious and secular, have
sanctioned and upheld slavery and colourphobia, supported, sanctioned, and blest the whole fraternity
of slaveholders and negro haters who have used
Christianity as a cloak to cover them up—swelled
their chorus of appeal into a voice like thunder,
exclaiming " preach the gospel and let slavery and
colourphobia alone/'-—taken up their abodes in the
low grounds of expediency—associated themselves
with duplicity and cunning, and cherished the grossest
vituperation and abuse towards those who have
entered their protests against their venality, abject
servility, and utter destitution of what is noble,
manly, great, and good.
The laxity of our American press has become

202

EDITORIAL BRANCHES.

proverbial. This has been long and painfully manifest. Take the following illustrations as specimens
of multitudes which the author could give. In the
Journal and Messenger, April 21,1834, a Baptist
paper, published in Cincinnati, the editor says—
•'A man cannot love the Lord Jesus much, and
enslave men, rob them of their earnings, task them
to the utmost, lacerate their backs with stripes,
feed them on a peck of corn per week, clothe them
poorly in the meanest apparel, separate husband
from wives and parents from children, hunt them
with rifles and bloodhounds when they run away,
and deprive them of the privilege of learning to
read God's word." A man can do all these things
and love the Lord Jesus, but not " much." Who
would associate the love of Jesus with dishonesty,
drunkenness, or adultery. And yet here is a sin
which combines all vices in itself that is linked with
love to the Lord Jesus Christ, but the editor admits
it cannot be " much."
Our editors have everywhere raised their warning voices on the hill tops, and made the deep
broad tones of their indignation sweep through the
vallies of our land against bad thoughts, which
cause bad words, and bring up bad deeds in " the
rear, often pointed to by the forefinger of time."
Bad thoughts, say they, like the editor of the Child's
Paper, an American Newspaper,—
" Bad thought is a thief: he acts his part;
Creeps through the window of the heart;

THE NEW FOUND BELATION.

203

And if lie once his way can win,
He lets a hundred roBbers in."

And yet, with their own consent, they almost universally let in slaveholding, slave-breeding, slavebrokering, and negro-hating robbers by the million.
Welcome is written on the doors of their churches
in the principal denominations, dwellings, sanctum
sanctorums, columns of their newspapers, and
!
hearts!
To shew their regard and piety for suffering
humanity amongst the whites, our editors have
skipped over hills of delight, leapt on mountains of
joy, and like the bounding roe, gone through vallies
of gladness, to put on record the following case :—
THE NEW FOUND EELATION.

In the year 1839, a poor Austrian officer, who
appeared very ill, arrived one day in a town in
Germany celebrated for its baths, to which crowds
of invalids were constantly flocking, with the hope
of being cured of their various diseases.
The officer seemed to be dying and very near his
end, and he was refused admission into several of
the hotels, as they feared he might die in the house.
When he presented himself at the last hotel where
he could hope to get rooms, he was told as usual
that there were none vacant; but one of the gentlemen living in the hotel, having heard this answer
given by the landlord, stepped forward and said :—

204

THE NEW FOUND EELATION.

" This officer is my near relation, and he may
share my room with me. He may have my bed,
and I can sleep on the sofa/'
The landlord could not venture to make any
objection to this, and the half-fainting invalid was
carried to the room of the gentleman who had
claimed him as a relation. When he had rested a
few minutes to recover his strength a little, his first
question was—
" May I ask your name, my kind friend ? How
are you related to me?—on what side V9
" I am related to you through our Lord Jesus
Christ, for I have learned from Him that my neighbour is my brother."
Not contented with thus kindly receiving a
stranger, the generous man did all he could to assist
him both in temporal and spiritual things. He
nursed him kindly, and carried to him with his own
hands the first glass he took of the healing waters.
He cared also for his soul, and tried to lead him to
Jesus, the Physician of souls, who heals all our
diseases, who is the comforter of the afflicted, and
the Saviour of sinners.
This good man had understood aright and also
profited by the parable of the good Samaritan, and
the command with which our Lord concludes it—
" Go thou and do likewise."
There are relations, however, which our editors
have almost universally ignored. These are their
relations to the slave, and men who own a skin not

THE NEW FOUND RELATION.

205

coloured like their own. Theoretically, some of
them have held that they are not men, but "niggers"
or chattels, whilst others have maintained that they
have as much right to their personality as themselves, but it,must not be in the steamboat, railway
car, church, State, or country, but far away in the
jungles of Africa, or wilds of Central America.
Practically, therefore, our coloured population are
ignored, and are the victims of a cruel prejudice. And for this they are the most to blame
themselves; since large numbers of their leaders
have tasked their ingenuity to the utmost to found
new Black Kepublics, and wormed themselves into
the good graces of Blair, Seward, Lincoln, and the
administrators of our Federal Government to aid
them in their bubble schemed, that they might
reign in Africa rather than serve in America. But
as these men are so qualified, according to the testimony of Blair, to be the founders of a new nationality ; surely they ought to be able to set a noble
example to our Northern editors, clergy, and people,
in pleading the cause of the dumb, in stating the
laws of Christ's realm, describing the statutes of
His empire, unfolding the decrees of His sovereignty, setting forth the rights of His subjects,
and the justice of their cause, enforcing the demands
of equity and truth by every principle of equity,
consideration, and motive of the mightiest and tenderest import, that could be brought to bear on the
human mind; unfolding the volume of God's writ-

206

THE NEW FOUND EELATION.

ten word as the terra firma—the basis of unshaken
and unshakeable righteousness on which to ground
their support, claiming a judgment in their own
favour, in accordance with the terms of the well
and wisely arranged compact made known to all
true and faithful witnesses or labourers in the cause
of God, and anticipating the triumphs of success.
But, alas! our coloured brethren and leaders have
lain down squat under the white man's Ithuriers
spear, and continued motionless until all life has
nearly been squeezed out of them, except to fawn
and flatter their white "dominies," or to yelp and
scream about the " peelings and scatterings of my
race" when they get over to England. If speech,
written or spoken on the above subject, had diffused
righteous sentiments from righteous principles, and
in a righteous spirit, deeply, broadly, fully, clearly,
that heaven and earth might hear ; what judgments
would have been averted, benefits diffused, good
flowed to man, exaltation to Christ, and glory to
God, in America!
Nothing, however, has revealed more the laxity
of our American press than the war. The Union
cause in the North has been fearfully damaged by
the records of misrepresentation contained in our
American newspapers; and these have been so complete and general that communications have appeared in the newspapers of this country, headed
"Wait a Week," to request a suspension of your
judgment before giving credence to our American

THE NEW FOUND KELATION.

207

news. And Lord Brougham, in his magnificent
Inaugural Address at the Social Science Congress,
held in Westminster Abbey, June 5, 1862, says,
" the prevalence of epidemic slander and falsehood,
in all their forms, makes it impossible to trust the
accounts which reach us."
What a depth, therefore, our Northern editors
and people have reached in the way of abounding
laxity, when all self-respect, noble regard for truth,
and that stern thing called principle, which alone
forms a solid basis for manly virtue, with its stately
mien and dignity to rest upon, that it may present
a rosy hue and graceful aspect to the view of men
—when all are buried out of sight!
The duplicity and fraud practised by our American editors, is in harmony with their laxity. It
requires no eye of an Argus to discern this. It is
apparent to the most cursory observer, familiar with
our American press; and, therefore, cannot be concealed beneath the mantling ivy of charity thrown
around it, or the fulsome show of flattery spread
over it. Where are the newspapers that have not
come to us with Janus faces, blowing hot and cold
w7ith the same breath, combining what is angelic
with what is devilish, folding in their loving embrace " Christian slaveholders.," so-called, and avowing that they have no sympathy with the detestable
and accursed thing called slavery, ratifying dollar
bonds between the Northern and Southern churches,
and maintaining that the Northern churches have

208

THE NEW FOUND RELATION.

been separated from the Southern; and presenting
that charming specimen of a man, our Northern
negro-hater, to the view of their readers as a model
and type to kings and queens, in his squatter sovereignty, virtues, and graces ; and yet, now and then,
under some severe visitation, or qualm of conscience,
holding him up to ridicule in the parody of Cowper,
where he says,—" He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own, and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause,
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.''

If you consider the venality of our American
press, a scene of unutterable meanness, transcending
all human description, will present itself to your
view. This is wide spread, universal. The press
is held vassal by the " Almighty Dollar."
Wendell Phillips, when recently addressing a
large meeting on the grave events of our country,
in the State of Massachusetts, exclaimed, "your
press is vassal. The press of the Connecticut
Valley is as base as that of the sea-board. If
Massachusetts saves herself it will be in spite of
her editors." And this vile, abject, mercenary
spirit is not restricted to the eastern or seaboard'
States of the Atlantic, but sweeps through the land.
Everything is viewed by the editorial fraternity in
its relationship to the "Almighty Dollar." The
question, " will it pay," that was put to the author
by a leading editor in New York, on his application

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

209

for an appointment as a correspondent, is the grand
key to explain the servility of our American press.
And the vituperation and abuse of our American
press, is without a parallel in the history of the
world.
In the following letter, addressed by the author
to the British Standard, March 24, 1862, there are
one or two specimens from newspapers which profess to be in advance of the rest:—

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

" S I R , — A few numbers of the Principia, an
abolition newspaper published in New York, and
edited by the Eev. Wm. Goodel, an orthodox
minister, have been put into my hands by a gentleman in this city; and, as this newspaper has for its
special correspondents the Rev. Dr. Cheever and his
brother, the Rev. H. T. Cheever, who have never
entered their protests against the ' farrago of rabid
intolerance and pitiable imbecility' of its editor
against this country and those of us who have had
the honour of a birthplace in the Old World, I have
taken the trouble to jot down a few items of
scurrilous and mendacious falsehood, from one single
article, contained in an editorial of the Principia
February 6, 1862, that your readers may see to
what, and to whom, and for what purpose their
monies go, when they are made she asses to be

o

210

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

milked by the avowed leaders of anti-slavery
societies on both sides of the water.
"'America and liberty have enemies in England
who have controlled their Government.'
"'The despots of Europe have joined affinity
with the despots of America/ meaning the slaveholders.
" ' The British Government is guilty of a moral
dereliction in taking advantage of a technical legal
error, committed from motives of courtesy, magnanimity, and humanity, to make a demand on the
Government of America for the surrender of Mason
and Slidell, in order to throw the American Government in the wrong, and find pretexts- for war in a
matter originating in a violation of the Queen's proclamation of neutrality/
'"That the British Government has covered
itself with dishonour in the sight of Christians and
philanthropists of all nations, who are now waiting
to see whether it will consummate the deed
by its already half-threatened recognition of the
confederacy of pirates/
'"That it is bent on being again steeped in the
dishonour of trampling under feet its own timehonoured doctrine of belligerent rights of search and
seizure, for the precious pleasure of hugging to its
bosom the rebel pirates Mason and Slidell, and
arranging with them for a recognition of their
piratical nation/
"' That sympathy with the piratical Confederacy

AMERICAN AFFAIKS.

211

is the epidemic disease of Birmingham, with its
heart of steel, and Manchester, with its heart of
cotton, and other towns/
"'That the British heart has gone out after its
covetousness, as all orthodox Christians might have
foreseen and expected/
"' That there are British abolitionists who
sympathised with the pro-slavery rebellion against
the American Government, and preferred the Slave
States to the Free, such as Lord Shaftesbury and
Harriet Martineau/
"'That the spirit of abolitionism in England
has declined/
"'That Britain of 1862 is not the Britain of
1832/
"'That the tide of absolutism and pro-skveryism
is returning and sweeping over this land/
'"That the American rebellion is the great test
of the Christianity and abolitionism of both hemispheres/
"' That we have learned and are now learning the
spuriousness of the abolitionism, the Christianity
that quietly endures hereditary oligarchies, landed
aristocracies, and pampered Church-and-State pries fchoods/
'" And that the oppressors of India, the invaders
and violent poisoners of China, the oppressors of
Ireland, the persecutors of the Christian Chartists,
and the imprisoners of Arthur O'Neil, are not to be
depended upon in the day of trial to sympathise

212

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

with American slaves, American abolitionists, or
the supporters of the Government against the
most base and criminal rebellion of the Confederates/
" The above are all taken from one article flowing
from the pen of this abolition Christian divine, and,
had all hell been let loose, it could not have grouped
together in the same space more atrocious falsehoods
than this lying spirit, under the garb of Christianity
and liberty.
" We had thought the case was bad against us
in America when the Rev. H. Ward Beecher, from
his oracle the New York Independent, Jan. 30,
flung forth his slanders against this country in the
following paragraph, where he says, ' Except in the
madness of our Southern rebels it would be difficult
to find a parallel for the malice which the whole
English nation—Government, newspapers, priests
and people, a few individuals excepted (such as John
Bright, George Thompson, and Richard Cobden),
have exhibited towards the American Union and its
loyal citizens in the crisis of their greatest trial and
danger;' but when the Rev. Wm. Goodel, a man
whom we had been wont to consider of the
Cromwellian stamp, cherishing a loftiness of principle, a nobility of soul, and a manliness of action
which placed him as far ahead of the pastor of the
Pilgrims' Church at Brooklyn as the stars are above
the dunghill,—when he appears as a slanderer of
nations and a persecutor of the saints, we cannot

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

213

but think that there is terrible judgment in store
for our land. How lamentable that a good cause
should suffer from such suicidal madness and folly!—
Yours for truth and liberty,
J. R. BALME."
In the Principia, April 17, 1862, there is a
letter from an Edinburgh lady, signed L. P. C. C,
who sends two pounds for five subscribers of the
above, and accompanies the material aid with the
following expression of sympathy and good will :
" Sincerely hoping that the Principia may receive
a large and ever increasing measure of that blessing which maketh effectual, and the wide dissemination of those principles which it advocates so
seasonably and suitably for both hemispheres!" And
in the Principia, April 10, there is another letter,
from Dublin Avenue, Dublin, dated 15th 3d mo.,
1862, and signed Maria Webb, addressed to William
Good ell, which commences—" Dear Friend, The
Irish Ladies' Auxiliary Society has authorised me to
request thy acceptance of five pounds as a small
token of their appreciation and regard;" and concludes with " best wishes for the wide circulation
of the Principia in its new form/'
In the Principia for April 17, 1862, there is a
stanza of wretched doggerel rhyme, which appropriately sums up the above remarkable business.
I t reads—
" What poor shortsighted worms we are,
"For we cannot calcilate

214

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.
With any sort of sartainte,
What is to be our fate!"

W. S. Lindsay, Esq., the great shipping merchant,
in a letter to the London Times, complained that
he had been misrepresented by our American press
in the lecture which he gave on " Our Country,"
and such was his sensitiveness that he must have
blubbered and cried because a business-house at
Portland in the State of Maine suspended all business relationships with the firm of Lindsay & Co.,
in consequence of his expression of opinions. The
author can deeply sympathise with him, since he
has not only suffered extensively in his temporal
concerns, but has been slimed over by the editors
of the press in all parts of the American continent
that they might smooth their jaws in his destruction.
The following from Fred. Douglas' Monthly, June
1861, an abolitionist newspaper published in Kochester, New York, is ample evidence. I t is from
the pen of Julia Crofts, the wife of a New Connection Methodist Minister stationed in Leeds. The
letter is dated from Salem Parsonage, Halifax, England, April 27, 1 8 6 1 : —
" M Y DEAR FRIEND,—There are now so many
lecturers traversing the country, and soliciting aid
for their respective objects, that it is desirable all
friends of the slave should make due inquiries as to
who and what it is they are assisting. The singular
man I named to you sonie time since, from the

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

215

Western territory, whose hatred of you is most intense, is carrying on his alleged determination to
c
injure you as much as possible, wherever he goes/
You know far better than I whether it will be
well for you to notice his attacks. You have in
times past survived many violent attacks made by
false friends, as well as malignant enemies, and I
do not doubt your surviving the present one, made
by a man ' off whose roof (some of his friends say)
there is a slate' The alleged object of his mission
is-to re-imburse himself for losses sustained in the
United States from his fidelity to the cause of the
slave, and to secure assistance for the future. He
seems a kind of Ishmaelite ; no Balm of Gilead falls
from his lips ; but he plentifully distils wormwood
and gall, and is never likely to do good, either to
himself or any one else. I again repeat, that I trust
the anti-slavery friends will make inquiries before
they give aid to any person who presents himself,
recommended by himself! There are so many important objects needing aid, and calling for aid, in
connection with alati-slavery, that it is a pity a
single pound should be thrown away.
JULIA G. CROFTS."

, Mrs Crofts has been a resident at Eochester, New
York, and under the training of her "dear friend" Fred.
Douglas, has perfected herself in our American mode
of warfare to such a degree as to be entitled to a
first-class certificate for her accomplishments in the

216

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

above slanderous and libellous letter, and which for
falsehood could not be exceeded by the Father of
lies.
With the above there was coupled in Douglas'
editorial article, the following paragraph from the
pen of Douglas;
" The individual referred to in the letter of Mrs
Crofts, is the Eev. Mr Balme of Chicago. He is
travelling and soliciting money among anti-slavery
friends in England to indemnify himself for alleged
pecuniary losses incurred at Chicago in consequence
of his fidelity to the anti-slavery cause. From
what we know of Mr Balme, his losses at Chicago
were more the result of his temper and spirit, than
of his fidelity to the slave. The shoulders of antislavery are broad, but they are hardly able to bear up
under the weight of all the idiosyncrasies which some
of the men who espouse the cause would fain lay upon
them. Eev. Mr Balme is at the pains, we are
told, of making us a special object of attack, as a
means of recommending himself to those from
whom he solicits assistance. His principal charge
seems to be that we, several years ago, at an antislavery meeting, denounced or ridiculed the doctrine of the atonement. The charge is of course
false, and wholly inconsistent with our invariable
mode of advocating the cause of the slave, the constant aim of which is to unite men of all religious
opinions and persuasions on one common platform
of justice and humanity, in the work for the over-

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO jDOUGLAS.

21 7

throw of slavery. But we have no words to waste
upon our defamer, and simply meet his allegations
with our unqualified and emphatic denial.
On the above being brought under the notice of
the author, he at once took up his pen, and through
the Secretary of the Leeds Antislavefy Society, addressed the following triumphant vindication of
himself to Douglas' Monthly.
THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.
To FREDERICK DOUGLAS,

SIR.—Knowing that it is in vain to seek a place
in your columns to rebut the falsehoods and slanders
which you have grouped together against myself in
your June Monthly; and yet, to leave the responsibility on yourself of adopting and following out to
the bitter end our American mode of warfare—
viz., that of crowding an opponent out of their
columns when attacked, or mutilating his defences
by giving insertion to as much of his communication as is convenient to suit their purpose, that
they may annihilate him by misrepresentation,
calumny, and abuse; or by falsifying his position
by side issues. When I reached Halifax last year,
I heard that whilst in that town, on your last visit
to England, you partook of the Lord's Supper in
Salem New Connexion Methodist Chapel. Not
having heard of your reconversion to the faith you
once professed, and even preached, I at once went

218

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

to the " celebrated parsonage" of Salem chapel, to
make inquiry if such was the fact of the case.
Being assured that it was so, and as no account was
given of your conversion, I remarked that it was
surpassing strange; since we did not know you on
our side of the water, in America, as a believer in
Christ, in the Christian sense of the term. When
this statement was called in question, I fell back on
the evidence which I had in my possession, in the
second number of the Western Olive Branch, where,
in a review which I gave of a lecture which you
delivered in Warner's Hall, Chicago, from carefully
written notes which I took of the lecture, I find, in
addition to the flaming brand which you threw at
England, as Ireland's oppressor,—to the charge in
which you placed to the account of the clergy of
England, the monomania of a clergyman in Liverpool, who made an appeal to the authorities of that
city to break up a soup kitchen, on the plea that
some of his parishioners had been subjected to inconvenience in going to church, in consequence of
the footpath being crowded by multitudes of starving Irish, who had come over from Ireland to
Liverpool, during the famine, to obtain relief,—and,
also, in addition to the ridicule and contempt you
poured on a celebrated doctor in London, because,
after giving the great big loaf of bread with one
hand to the Irish, he stretched out the other and
offered religious tracts to them—in addition to the
above there is the following sentiment, " Chris-

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

219

tianity, in its grand distinctive element, its broad
constructive principle, was the basis of the golden
rule." The remark we made at the time in our
newspaper, was one upon which we have no desire
to improve—viz., " we had always thought that the
atonement was the grand distinctive element, the
great constructive principle of Christianity; and the
example of Christ, presented in the living embodiment of the principles and precepts laid down in
the golden rule, constituted the evidence of love to
the Saviour/' And therefore we confess that we
were much startled with the anouncement made in
your antislavery lecture, not of the believing, but
the working plan of salvation.
During your same visit to the West, you gave a
second lecture in Plymouth Congregational Church,
an evangelical place of worship, on the Sabbath
evening. On that occasion, the Rev. Mr. Shippen,
a Unitarian minister, and a Dr. Elder, a Pantheist,
were with you on the pulpit platform. On commencing the service you called on the Rev. Mr.
Shippen to engage in prayer. In the address you
gave after the prayer, you " counselled us not to be
led away with the doctrine of the atonement, but
to build our hopes of heaven on the golden rule."
Being present I sprung to my feet, and with the
deepest earnestness appealed to you in the following language, and before you could utter the next
sentence, " whenever, wherever, and by whomsoever
was the golden rule exemplified apart from the

220

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

atonement, from which you advised us to turn
away?" To this appeal you made no reply, but
continued your lecture. At the close of your
address you introduced your friend and brother,
Dr. Elder, who in his brief speech spoke of " Christ's
little ones as mediators." So that, in the above
service, we had in the prayer offered a false foundation laid down as the basis of human hope, in
the merit of human performances and sufferings
which were dwelt upon, your own strange counsel,
and Dr. Elder's mediation in Christ's little ones.
Severe comments were made on the above in the
third number of our newspaper. The above also
gave rise to a letter from the Eev. Eben. Conant, a
Universalist minister, which was addressed to us in
consequence of the above remarks ; and which letter
was inserted in the Olive Branch, and commented
on by us, disclaiming all personalities in the matter,
and avowing that our warfare was with principles
and their moral bearings. It also gave rise to a
sermon, which was prepared and published in the
Olive Branch, and mailed to your address, with the
expressed desire in its columns that it might help
you to come to right conclusions on the doctrine of
Christ's atonement, bring you to the best of all
decisions, and stimulate you to higher and holier
actions for liberty, temperance, and truth; justice,
and right; virtue, love, and charity. The sermon,
now before me, along with Conant's letter, is a
standing monument of the falsity of your position,

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

221

in the unqualified and emphatic denial which you
have given to the inveterate dislike and peculiar
repugnance you showed to the atonement, on the
occasions referred to.
There is also corroborative proof of the strongest
kind in your own anti-slavery newspapers of the
above. Out of many which I could select, take
the following article in your paper for Jan. 6, 1854,
the sentiments of which have never been repudiated
by you or your fraternity in your newspaper. The
article reads as follows, " I heard Theodore Parker
last Sabbath. No man preaches more truth than
this eloquent man, this astute philosopher. He is
bold, fearless, daring, sometimes impetuous. The
orthodox clergy refuse to give him the right-hand
of fellowship, but this does not seem to disquiet his
equanimity. He pursues his onward course, resolved
to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness. He is what is styled a radical reformer. Reform without radicalism is no reform at
all. Though denounced and held up to the world as
an infidel, he is a practical Christian. Those professed Christians who cry out unclean against him,
are practical Atheists. They virtually deny the
existence of a God." Now, when it is remembered
that Theodore Parker was one of the bitterest opponents to evangelical Christianity ever raised up or
known in America, here you are not only assaulting
the atonement, but with the opponents of Christianity
assaulting the men who make the atonement the

222

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

foundation of their hopes, and calling them atheists.
What a strange use is the above of your press,
which was bought with the gold of British
Christians. Is such a maniac-like use of the dagger
the way to unite the friends of liberty on one
common platform % Moreover, during your last
visit to England, it -has been remarked to me by
leading distinguished evangelical ministers and
laymen in this country, that your obnoxious religious sentiments cropt out in your anti-slavery
lectures like the "gnarled rocks in nature." And
since your return to America, " your editorial prayer
—when referring to the Branch Church Antislavery Society, formed at Rochester last year—is
in entire harmony with your suicidal madness and
folly in your anti-slavery advocacy as an avowed
" practical Chris Wan." Methinks I catch the tones of
your canting hypocrisy, as you turn up your eyes
in mockery towards heaven, " exclaiming," in your
Monthly, Aug. 1860, " May God help the men inside
the Church, that are moving against the infidelity
that has well nigh made the Church and the
ministry a laughing stock to those outside." A
glorious prayer, truly, for one who crept inside the
Church of Salem New Connection Methodist Chapel,
and partook of the emblems of the blood shed and
body broken of Christ for the remission of sins.
0 consistency, what a bright jewel.—Yours, &c,
J. R. BALME.

THE AUTHORS REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

223

The above was placed in the hands of Mr James
Walker, the Hon. Secretary of the Leeds Young
Men's Anti-slavery Society, to be forwarded to
Frederick Douglas, at Rochester, New York, on the
day the letter was written, and the following is the
receipt:—
"LEEDS, October 1, 1861.

" DEA$, SIK,—Pressure of business, together with
the inclemency of the weather, prevented me from
letting you have this certificate of my having sent
your communication to Mr. Douglas, on Saturday
Dight, as I promised.
" I read your letter, and forwarded the same in
due course, but it has not as yet appeared in his
Monthly, nor have I seen any remarks upon it in
the two issues which have since come out.—Yours
truly,
JAMES WALKER,

Hon. Sec. L.Y.M.A.S.S."
The charge made by Mrs. Croft is as wicked as it
is false, that the author has sought to reimburse himself for pecuniary losses sustained in the cause of
freedom in America. Both himself and his heroic
and 4©voted wife, have counted it an honour thus
to suffer in such a cause, and the author's circular,
given elsewhere, is ample proof of the falsehood of
the statement referred to. And as he has come out
of the wars of freedom, crippled in health, his
afflictions have been turned into wormwood and

224

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

gall, and the vinegar is here given by Julia for the
author to drink.
It is thus Mrs. Croft and Douglas have sought to
cover up their own wickedness and hide their own
shame by making the author the victim of calumny,
or to convert him into a scapegoat to bear off their
own sins into the wilderness.
" Friend/' said a Quaker " to a dog," to which he
had conceived some dislike, " I will not bite thee,
neither will I kill thee, but I will give thee a bad
name." Thus saying, he opened the gate and dismissed his enemy, doing him no other injury than
calling after him, as loud as he could, " mad dog."
The village rose in arms, and the dog received a
hundred wounds on account of a madness which had
no existence except in the fertile imagination of the
Quaker himself. In the author's eventful life he
has often been thus stoned and clubbed, and received
injury for imaginary wrongs.
" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my sake. Eejoice and be
exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you." Matt. v. 11, 12.
In consequence of bitter persecution when in
a state of single blessedness, the author has
bounded along through this grand old country,
" By the streams and fountains,
By the hills and mountains,

THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS.

225

By the wide-spreading plains,
By the finest domains,
By the groves and forests,
And the cliffs and turrets;
Under the sun's scorching heat,
The deep shady retreat,
The cool refreshing shower,
The fine, bright, sunny hour,
The lowering of the storm,
And the sweet breath of morn.

And "whilst his spirit often brimmed with sadness, it was as often filled with joy when merrily,
merrily, he made rocks, caverns, high towers, lowly
dwellings, earth, air, seas, and skies echo with his
once favourite hymn—
*' A single being I,
My sole defenee
Omnipotence,
Who hears my cry,
Whom shall I fear ?
Not earthly woe
Nor mortal foe,
Since my defence is near."

No persecutions could damp his energies, nor difficulties deter, nor dangers affright him. And by
the help of God he has run through many a troop
of the Claverhouses, and leapt over the topmost
ridge in many a mountainous range of difficulty.
And now in his double state of blessedness, with
a double pledge of protection from his Almighty
Helper and Maker, God, what chance is there for
P

226

ATTACK ON LORD SHAFTESBURY.

robbers, tigers, serpents, vultures, despots and demons. When John Brown was informed, by an
ex-governor of Kansas that a price was put upon
his head, with a brilliant sparkle of fine frenzy rolling in his eye, he stretched himself out exclaiming,
" b u t the Lord campeth around me/' Ps. xxxiv. 7.
" The Lord eneampeth round the dwellings of the
just."
During the ten years' residence of the author in
America, he never knew of a ease where the honourable amendment was made for injuries inflicted, or
scandal poured out, except in the case of Lord
Shaftesbury, whom they had slandered by placing
to his account a libellous paragraph, and which they
circulated like bad coin. As you will see from the
following he has had the satisfaction of nailing it
to the counter.
ATTACK ON LORD SHAFTESBURY AND HIS DEFENCE.

An extract of what was purported to be a speech
delivered by his Lordship on the American question, has been extensively circulated in our American newspapers, for false news> like base coin,
travels more quickly than the real and true, until
it is stopped. It was as follows:—Lord Shaftesbury said,—<*•" I, in common with almost every English statesman, sincerely desire the rupture of the
American union. I t has been the policy of England to brook no rival in the direction of her own

COLLEGIATE BRANCHES.

227

greatness. We justly fear the political and commercial rivalry of the United States. If not checked
they will soon overshadow Great Britain."
His Lordship in reply states, " I express my
sincere thanks for your fellowship and kindness in
giving me an opportunity to deny altogether that
gross and unprincipled statement made by one of
your American journals. I t is a fabrication from
first to last. I have been to no meetings, delivered
no speeches, and neither said nor thought any thing
so foolish and mischievous as the contents of the
extract of "Thurlow Weed's Albany
Journal."
Lord Shaftesbury is what our Americans call a real
"live Lord/' And as the multitudes of our squatter
sovereigns ape the British aristocracy, but lack their
manly sense of honour, probity, magnanimity, and
virtue, Lord Shaftesbury's letter was welcomed, and
the honourable amendment accorded. John Brown
closed his brilliant career under clouds of misrepresentation, but now the sun of his reputation is rising
above them and they are disappearing like mists on
the mountain side. And so it will be with others.
COLLEGIATE BRANCHES.

These profess to teach the higher duties of life,
but few of them make the higher laws of God the
.basis of all lower laws in their teachings, or training for the family, the counting-house, workshops,
senate, church, pulpit, or the world. And in regard

228

COLLEGIATE BRANCHES.

to those who profess to do this there is a fear*
ful discrepancy between their teachings and practice.
A gentleman one day called on a Dr Channing.
On being introduced to him, he said, " Are you Dr
ChanningV* "Yes,"was the reply. "You are strangely
altered, then, in your appearance," said the gentleman. " Ah !" said the Dr., " I am the Dr Channing
that practises, you want Dr Channing that professes!"
Profession and practice are two different things.
This is illustrated in the case of the Eevs. Cyrus
P. Grosvenor and E. Matthews, now collecting for
the New York Central College and Baptist Free
Mission in this country. At the annual meeting of
the Baptist Union reported in the Baptist Freeman,
May 2, 1862, Grosvenor said, " there was the American Baptist Free Mission Society, which was
founded on the broad principle of universal brotherhood amongst men/' In other words, on abolition
principles totally, unconditionally, and without any
concessions to the "god expediency." There is
no sentiment more adapted to mislead the British
public and churches than the above. Since any one
on reading the above would suppose there were
Baptist ministers and laymen under the above Society that were fairly, fully and honourably acting
out great and noble principles in connection with
the professed universal brotherhood amongst men,
but this is not so. We have sad proof to the contrary, and in gr§at abundance, which you will find

FREE MISSIONISTS.

229

in the following letter addressed to the editor of the
Nonconformist, Oct. I860, by the author :—
" S I R , — I n a recent number of the American
Baptist Free Mission Newspaper there is the following remarkable language :—' The old Eoman
god Janus had two faces : Christianity in our Free
States has much the same appearance. It is hard
to tell whether it is going backwards or forwards.
We do not know that Baptists are more inconsistent
than other denominations, but it is evident that we
are an enigma both to our neighbours in the South
and to our English brethren over the water/ A
very frank confession, and an 'enigma' all must
assuredly confess them to be in the presence of the
following proofs of their abounding laxity, astounding duplicity, and unparalleled hypocrisy. On the
list of life directors, members, and committees of
the Bible Union, published in the Bible Union
Quarterly for November 1859, and February 1860,
there are the following names, viz., Rev. N. Brown,
D.D., chief editor of the Baptist Free Mission Newspaper, and corresponding secretary of the Baptist
Free Mission Society; Rev. John Duer, sub-editor
of the same, and one of the trustees of the society;
Rev. J. L. Batchelder, formerly sub-editor of the
same; Rev. W. S. Hall, one of its trustees; Rev.
Hiram Hutchins, a vice-president; the Rev. Messrs.
J. Q. Adams, M. C. Kempsey, and F. Remington,
&c, all active Free Missionists, residing in New
York, or its immediate vicinity. Are these a soli-

230

FREE MISSION1STS,

tary, fragmentary, erratic member spreading their
meteoric flash on our vision ? And to show their
fraternisation with pastors and professors of slaveholding churches and colleges, in the same numbers
of the Baptist Union Quarterly you will find the
following black list of names of persons acting with
them as vice-presidents, life-directors, and members
of the Board of Management, or on committees of
the Bible Union :—Rev. J, E. Rue, South Carolina;
Rev. Q. H. Trotman, North Carolina; Professor C.
L. Loos, Yirginia; Professor Alexander Campbell,
Virginia; Rev. R. Ryland, D.D., Virginia; Rev. T.
Stringfellow, Virginia; Rev. T. G. Jones, Virginia;
Rev. William F. Broaddus, D.D., Virginia; Rev. D.
R. Campbell, LL.D., Kentucky; James Edmunds,
Esq., Kentucky; Elder R. Marshall, Arkansas ;
Elder T. Fanning, Tenessee; Professor William C.
Duncan, D.D., Louisiana; R B. Brokaw, Esq., Missouri ; L. P. Bayne, Esq., Maryland. There is not
a blacker slaveholding list in connexion with any
institution of a religious character in America, and
yet here are the Free Missionists in large numbers
and in full fellowship with them, and at the annual
convention held in Broome Street, New York, in
October of 1859, sat on the same platform with
them, sung psalms with them, prayed with them,
pleaded the cause of Bible revision with them,
and sat on committees with them ! Would
they have done so with sheepstealers ? If not,

BAPTIST DOCTORS OF DIVINITY.

231

why should they do this wicked thing with menstealers %
"In a recent number of the Baptist Freeman, that
devoted friend of the slave, J. A. Horner, Esq., says
' that no man can be a real opponent of slavery who
fellowships the slaveholder/ and, I would add, their
abettors. If so, what a set of begga-rly shams and
forgeries the above Free Missionists must be! And
how mean and frivolous is the pretext which the
Free Mission Society puts forth in their seventeenth
annual report, printed June 26, I 8 6 0 , viz., that
their society and their paper are opposed to fellowship and intercommunion with slaveholders and their
abettors, like the Baptists in and around London.
The statement is as wicked as it is false, and vice
versa. In a review of Dr Cheever's book on slavery,
the above editors say ' that within the present year
three Baptist Doctors of Divinity have appeared
before the public (in connection with the Bible
Union) for the purpose of showing that the servants
of the Old and New Testament were slaves, and that
slavery was an institution recognised and sanctioned
in both the Jewish and Christian Churches/ And
yet, when these same doctors and their beloved
brethren who hold the same views openly defended
the institution of slavery at the annual convention
referred to in New York, these Janus-faced editors
and Free Missionists had not the courage to rebut
them!
"Lest the editors of the American Free Mission

232

BIBLE ITNIOK

Baptist and the Free Missionists should say, ' We
cannot help persons putting our names on the list
of Directors and Boards of Management in the Bible
Union/ they can most assuredly help their names
being retained in such a connection.
" And to meet the plea that they were there as
reporters, we ask if reporters sit on committees, like
Rev. N. Brown, J. Duer, W. S. Hall, J. Q. Adams,
M. C. Kempsey, and F. Remington; for which see
the Bible Union Quarterlies above mentioned.
" In the report of the Bible Union for 1859, a
tender and earnest appeal is made by the American
Baptist Free Mission Society for a donation of Bibles
whipt out of the muscles of the slave and wrung
from their life-blood; and the Revs. N. Brown and
W. S. Hall, Free Missionists, sat on the special committee to take into account the application of the
Free Mission Board on behalf of the Free Missionaries, Messrs Rose and Brayton. See Bible Union
Quarterly for November, 1859.
"In the report of the American and Foreign Bible
Society, another society which has an utter disregard
of right and wrong, and which also fellowships the
bloody and deceitful man with the just and upright
man, we see appeals of a similar character from
coloured churches, the missionaries of the General
Baptists in England, the Free-will Baptists of the
United States, European Missions in Germany, and
also from the Baptist Free Mission Board for Goble,
in Japan, and their missionaries in Hayti. See

AMEEIGAN FOKEIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

233

twenty-third report ofAmerican Foreign Bible Society,
1860. Perhaps the missionaries preaching out of
those blood-stained Bibles will feel as uncomfortable
as some of the holy and excellent English divines
would have done if they had worn those distinguished
pro-slavery caudal appendages sent to them from
the Pro-slavery Colleges of America. Perhaps the
agent of the Free Mission Society in England will
say whether the board which he represents is to be
held responsible for its official actions in these humiliating appeals to these corrupt pro-slavery boards.
" The American Baptist Free Mission Society professes to have separated from the Baptist Missionary
Union, because of its pro-slavery spirit and practices, and yet in the far West, to my own knowledge, it has persistently received the Missionary
Union agents, in their Free Mission Conventions,
invited them to preach, and allowed them to take
up collections—thus extending to them the right
hand of fellowship, and giving the Free Missionists
an opportunity to support what they condemned.
" In a convention held by the Free Missionists in
Chicago, in 18 5 4,1 called attention to this anomaly,
but was met with a perfect shout of disapprobation.
And when I proposed a test similar to the one
adopted by the Baptist Mission Board in London,
they called it by the mild names of 'fog and gammon? and Elder Joslyn, who figured as a star of the
first magnitude in that convention, f expressed his
regret that he could not rise to an altitude to meet

234

AMERICAN BAPTIST.

the test proposed with the contempt which he said
it deserved/ Rev. A. Kenyon was in the chair.
" In another convention, held by the Free Missionists during the same year, at Bloomindale,
Illinois, I made the inquiry, what relationship do
the societies and objects, represented in that
convention sustain to slavery? I was modestly
reminded 'that if I did not like to take the American societies as I found them, I had better go to
Canada/ and was ostracised in consequence.
" Such was Free Missionism in 1854 in America.
And from the facts given above, is it any better
now?
From the foundation of the American
Baptist Free Mission Society, to the present, it has
conceded a Christian status to pro-slavery churches
and professors. In evidence of which see the entire
issue of the " American Baptist/' and you will find a
column of proof miles in length, in the record given
in the above paper of the appointment of professors
in pro-slavery colleges and ministers in pro-slavery
churches, their revivals in colleges and churches socalled—notices of Missionary Union meetings, and
of all the old, rotten, corrupt boards, and even
obituary notices of pro-slavery professors, giving
them a bright record of usefulness, when from the
beginning to the close of their religious career, they
have used the Bible to buttress up a system that
gathers in its embrace a depth of villany and a
climax of depravity, the vilest the sun ever looked
down upon. And this has been done with their

FREE MISSION STATIONS.

235

silent unqualified approval. And in these inconsistencies the Free Missionists frankly confess that
they are not alone. This may be flattering unction
to them and their fellow-delinquents in the editorial
chairs, amongst the innumerable staff of professors
in colleges and in the ranks of the American church,
but it is no badge of honour or crown of joy. In
the presence of such unhallowed relationships, and
whilst hurried headlong into such a deep gulf of
debasement, the Baptist Free Mission Society and
its agent with his challenge, and the antislavery
editorial abettors with their rhetorical flourishes,
surrounded by the literary excellence of their
articles, the comprehensiveness of their views, and
their faithfulness to the slave, may be safely left to
their own reflections; and also the Kev. E. Matthews
with his insinuation that sympathy with the slave
is inseparable from that willingness to do justice to
those whose lives are devoted to the work of emancipation, Nothing can be lost by tossing up our
thoughts to the sunlight of public opinion. It is
the smothering process which does the mischief.
" Besides, if its position towards the slave and the
American church has been 'consistent and persistent/ which is claimed for it, the more light there
is on the subject the better; but there is the rub.
There is one remark more before we dismiss the
Baptist Free Mission Society from our thoughts as
a thing unworthy of our affections. It is this. In
their last report I see mission stations for Canada,

236

AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Hayti, Japan, and India, but not a single station
for the poor slave. In this respect it has come far
behind5 the American Missionary Society, of which
Lewis Tappen, Esq., is the treasurer, whose noble
missions in Kentucky have placed them far in
advance of all other missionary enterprises in
America, and whose missionaries resemble in spirit
and action those who lived in the primitive ages of
the church. I must confess that I am no admirer
of our American Missionary Societies going to the
ends of the earth to seek up the heathen, when
there are four millions of slaves in a state of
heathenism at our very door. Yours etc.,
J. R

BALME."

On page 398 of "Facts for Baptist Churches,"
the Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor is given as Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Free
Mission Society, and is guilty of uttering what is
false in his statement in regard to the Baptist Free
Mission Society. The Baptist Free Mission Society
has never had any association with the above principles, except in the, dead letter. With such men
to fill the staff of professors in our colleges, however
eminent their ability, what blessing can the colleges
have in them, except as they may lead some men
to aspire after the distinction of being called Rabbi ;
and making broad the phylacteries of their garments,
which has been a curse more than a blessing, as it
has ied to the purchase of these caudal appendages

SANCTIFIED LEARNING AND PEACTICE.

237

that are freely bestowed in our Collegiate Institutions, on the payment of fees that make them Life
Directors, or the bestowment of a donation, or a
gift, and other free contributions to win favour to
our corrupt institutions. What monuments or
rewards will such men have in the hearts of the
friends of education and humanity throughout the
world ?
God Almighty knows, and you ought to know,
that we have got a great deal too much of this
sanctified learning in our American colleges, unless
we had got more sanctified practice. For it is this
severance of the two that has " adorned the pulpit
and the bar in our new style of American fashion,
by shooting down the Lovejoys of blessed memory,
trying to crush out the entire race of abolitionists,
and seeking, to make succeeding generations better
and happier by their superior wisdom in putting a
mark on the foreheads of the above men, and giving
an eternal quietus to all who presume to touch our
very domestic, peculiar institution, which has been
so long the corner stone of the Federal Republic, or
dare to rebuke the prejudices of our people against
colour; but which we hope now, by the hurricane
of God's providential interpositions and visitations,
will be swept away into the dead sea of forgetfulness for ever.
In connexion with the above divorce of profession and practice, men who have claimed to be the
advocates of justice, liberty, humanity, and reli-

238

SCHOLASTIC BRANCHES.

gion, have sought the aegis of your protection,
sympathy, and support for themselves and the institutions which they have represented; and yet
such has been their practice and zeal in covering
up and sustaining false relationships and their
policies that our colleges and missions have been
brought into disrepute by them. Britishers may
do as they please, but the author has resolved that
should the above class of men fill the valleys with
their attestations and rejoicings over the wonders
of the sacrifices which they profess to have made,
or re-echo their joys from the mountain tops, as
they lift up what our Americans call " dough
faces" towards the God of the universe, shouting;
" God be praised," he will tear the mask from their
hypocrisy, and denounce their villany from th©
house tops.
SCHOLASTIC BRANCHES;

These, too, are made to yield bitter fruit, and
are the source of some most vexatious and cruel
imposts.
" US BLACK BOYS DON'T GO TO SCHOOL."

So said a little boy in Kentucky not long since,
to a gentleman who inquired of him if he went to
school. Poor little fellow! " His voice seemed to
falter as he spoke," and perhaps down deep in hi3

" US BLACK BOYS DON'T GO TO SCHOOL."

239

little heart were depths of sadness that the observer did not fathom. If he has been taught
that there is a God; that He has given to man a
book that tells about the Lord Jesus, who can say
that he, with many others deprived of the same
privilege, does not sometimes indulge reflections
like the following :—
" Alas! I am a coloured boy, a little negro slave I
I cannot go to school like you, to whom our Father gave
A fairer skin, or sunny locks, or birth in Freedom's land;
But why I should be treated so, I cannot understand.
*' Fm sure Fd love to learn to read!—they say there is a book
That tells about a Holy One—0, how Fd like to look
And see if they have told me right about God's blessed Son—
Why won't they let me go to school ? What wrong thing have
I done?
"'Tis said that when He lived on earth, a long, long time ago,
He took and blessed the little child—0 how I'd like to know
If He is ever coming back! and can it be that He
Would kindly look upon, and bless, a poor black boy like me ?
" And would He take me in His arms, and very gently say,
' I love you dearly, little child, I love you every day?'
O, if I only knew He would, 'twould fill my heart with joy,
To think that God's own holy Son could love the negro boy.
M.

The author was one day standing near one of
the school-houses in Saint Paul, at the period of a
City election. A well-known banker, who was
seeking to be elected to the office of a School Commissioner, came to him to solicit his vote. The
author at once replied in the negative* He asked

240

MUNICIPAL BRANCHES.

for a reason. He was informed that " the author
gave no votes to men who closed the schools
against coloured children." When, with a degree
of surprise, he exclaimed, " Do you go in for amalgamation ?"
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE BRANCH.

The polling booths at Baltimore have acquired a
distinguished celebrity in connection with " Plug
Uglies," who have closed up every avenue of access
to them, and elected their men by violence. And
it has been recorded by men high in position, that
as many fraudulent votes were given in the city of
Philadelphia for Buchanan, when he contested the
Presidential Chair, as secured his election.
MUNICIPAL BRANCHES.

These Branches also partake of the general unsoundness of our National Tree. In the Albion
newspaper, New York, Dec. 16, 1861, an address
is published of the Nominating Committee of Tax
Gatherers in New York, making an appeal to the
better classes of citizens to rescue them from the
degradation into which the municipality had been
placed by rowdies.
This Committee says: "We regret to say that
the idle and irresponsible classes have for several
years taken the most active part in our city elec-

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

241

tions, and those persons have been elevated to
power, which have rendered office a reproach, and
conferred nothing but disgrace on this important
city. If you can have an enlightened, efficient,
and upright government, there is a great future
before you and your children; but if fraud and
robbery, peculation and deceit, are to govern your
city, the history of cities and states in past ages
tell you we cannot be either prosperous or happy."
0 ! that mine enemy could write a book V
ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

These are the most unsound and rotten of all.
As a specimen, take the denominational branch of
the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church. In
the Report of the Leeds Anti-slavery Society for
1860, there is a letter from the pen of the Rev.
H. Mattison, of New York, a travelling preacher in
the above denomination, which gives sad and painful disclosures:—
" For myself, I am fully satisfied from figures
that 'will not lie/ and from enquiries and correspondence upon the subject for years, that we cannot have to-day less than 10,000 slaveholders and
100,000 slaves in our Northern Methodist Episcopal Church, and the number is rapidly increasing
every year. And, still worse, our people raise, and
buy, and sell slaves, as others do, without rebuke
or hindrance. The territory covered by our Church
Q

242

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas, contains one million of slaves
—one quarter of all the slaves in the Union. This
belt of States constitutes the great breeding ground
of slavery for the citron, sugar, and rice regions of
the farther South. About 50,000 slaves go hence
annually towards the Gulf States. The annual
sale from Virginia alone is 20,000, amounting to
thirteen millions of dollars. Missouri sold some
1 2,000 last year to go 'down the river' to Mississippi and Texas; and yet her late census shows
her to have more slaves to-day than she had five
years ago. Now the slaves of Methodists in all
this region increase as fast as do the slaves of
others. What, then, becomes of them ? Do they
free them? Seldom or never. Are their slave
families expanding twice as fast as those of others %
Not at all. They are sold, as other breeders sell
their slaves, and there is no denying it. I write
it with shame and sorrow, but it is true; and the
Christian world ought to know it before we are
utterly debauched and ruined."
How frightful to contemplate the above picture !
"What low depths of moral degradation it reveals
to us !
This is a spectacle of dishonour and shame unparalleled in the history of the church of Christ.
And in the minority Report of the Buffalo Conference we find a large number of its ministers and
delegates avowing that " the Northern Methodist

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

243

Episcopal Church has done more to diffuse antislavery sentiments, mitigate the evils of slavery,
and abolish the institution from civil society than
any other organisation, either political, social, or
religious!"
If so, how lamentable and deplorable must be
their condition? The above is the Church which
the Methodist Recorder, April 25, 1861, says, has
" ever held high principled views on the subject of
slavery, to have suffered an enormous secession
rather than have lowered her standard, and to have
accomplished her desired work I"
The following letter on the subject from the Rev.
G. B. Macdonald, a Wesleyan travelling preacher in
this country, made its appearance in the London
Star, Dec. 1 8 ^ 0 : —
" TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'STAR' AND * DIAL.'

SIR,—In your review of Mr Edge's most important book on the ' Contest between Free and
Slave Labour in the United States/ a quotation is
given from his work, which, by implication, denies
or ignores the fact that the English Wesleyan Conference has spoken out unmistakeably on the subject of slavery in its fraternal communications with
the American Methodist Episcopal Church. That
your reviewer has so understood Mr Edge is evident from the appeal which he makes :—' The Baptists of this country have recently addressed a faith-

244

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

ful remonstrance to their co-religionists in America.
Will the English Methodists imitate this good example 1 or will they, by their criminal silence, plead
guilty to the charge of conservation which Mr Edge
brings against them?
For many reasons I believe Mr Edge to be incapable of a malicious intention to injure the character
of English Wesleyan Methodism; but through a
most unaccountable ignorance of this particular part
of the subject on which he writes, such injury has
been committed by him. No one reading his book,
and unacquainted with fects to be ascertained from
other sources, would suppose that there existed moie
than one General Conference of Methodists in America, and that its jurisdiction extended over the whole
denomination of Episcopal Methodists in the United
States. Mr Edge ought to have known that, in
1845, the several annual conferences, of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the slave-holding States
formally and legally renounced the jurisdiction of
what, till that time, had been the general conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and formed
these conferences " into a distinct organisation, to
be known by the style and title of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South/' I quote their own
form of designation. This secession arose from the
increasing anti-slavery feelings of the North, as
manifest by more stringent laws affecting official
members of the Church holding slaves.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is most

ECCLESIASTICAL BKANCHES.

245

notoriously a slave-holding Church; and if it be
true, as I believe it is, that the American Churches
are the bulwark of American slavery, the heaviest
curse of God rests upon that Church.
"Now, what has been the attitude of English Methodism in reference to this secession ?
" The British Conference has never had any communication with it. Members belonging to it,
visiting England during the assembly of the British
Conference, have applied for the courtesy of attending some of its sittings, and have been refused permission to cross the threshold.
" We blush that the name of Methodism should be
connected with the pollution of slavery, not merely
as that is tolerated but sanctioned and defended by
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
"The Methodist Church, North, is a protesting
anti-slavery Church. It is based on that principle,
or it cannot defend having been the occasion of the
Southern secession. With that Church the British
Methodist Conference holds fraternal intercourse.
"In the territorial division which took place when
the South Church seceded from causes which I need
not now state, the Methodist Episcopal Church,
North, included within it the slave territory of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and
Arkansas. In these border States, slavery and antislavery principles are in antagonism. There can be
no question that a number of Methodists, avowedly
belonging to the Northern Church, hold slaves in

246

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

these States. The number probably is not large,
but on a question of principle the terms large or
small, as affecting a violation of it, are inadmissible.
A noble effort is being made by earnest men in
the North to bring the letter of the law on the subject of slave-holding to affect the Church membership of any one retaining communion with their
Church. The General Conference, North, which
is held once in four years, assembled in Buffalo
in May last. A distinct motion was made for
the amendment of the rule, as I have specified. The delegates of the Border Conferences, as
might have been expected, were united against it.
The discussion lasted for seven or eight days. It is
only fair to state that on both sides the horrid enormity of slavery was admitted, and that the discussion really turned "on what was the most
scriptural and effectual way of discountenancing
and overthrowing the iniquity." The vote was
taken on May 20. Two hundred and thirteen
members of the Conference were present, and 139
voted for the change of the rule, and 74 against it.
A vote of two-thirds of the Conference, however,
is required for the change of a rule, and the motion
was lost by three votes only.
But what action did British Methodism take on
this subject at the Buffalo Conference? An address
from the Wesleyan Conference was presented, containing these words:—" We take the present opportunity of reaffirming our declarations against the

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

247

entire system of slavery; and from your own avowed
principles, as well as from the efforts and sacrifices
which you have already made in support of them,
we entertain a confident persuasion that, at your
approaching General Conference, you will use all
practicable means to separate the Church and the
land from so great an evil."
"Nor was this all that was done by British
Methodism. Believing in the sincerity of the Conference in all its protests against the evil and sin of
slavery, many of the Wesleyan ministers and officebearers sent memorials on the subject to the General
Conference. When presented to the Conference, it
was decided by the chair that the speaker was not
in order at that time,
The rejection of the
memorials, even as an ab-extra interference, was
actually moved by a sensitive advocate of a change
in the rule. The London Review says that f the
memorials were treated with mortifying, but not
undeserved contempt.' A paltry sneer, unworthy
of the literary organ of English Methodism, but
indicating the arrogance with which some men,
united with others for a common object, assume the
wisdom of their own course, and the folly of that
which others adopt. The friends of the memorials
adopted a better plan than urging their reception
on the Conference. They printed 8000 copies of a
catalogue of the memorials, giving the names of
places, ministers, &c, appended.
Forty - six
memorials were sent, signed-by 104 Wesleyan

248

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

ministers, and 1047 mostly official members; and
thus, in a measure, representing about 30,000
members in their several circuits.
"These were placed in the hands of all the
delegates and visitors, and on the authority of a
minister present, I may add, ' the moral effect was
even greater on the Conference .than it could have
been, had the memorials been quietly received and
referred when presented/
" I fear that I have trespassed on your time and
patience, but the importance of the subject must be
my apology. ' The signs of the times' are significant
for the future of Methodism in America, as well as
for the States themselves.
The election of a
Republican President will strengthen the hands of
the anti-slavery party, and whoever lives to see the
General Conference of the Episcopal Church, in
1864, will witness the purgation of that Church
in all its dependencies, so far at least as statute
law can accomplish it, from all complicity with
' buying, selling, or holding men, women, or children,
with an intention to enslave them/—I am, sir,
yours, &c,

" GEORGE BROWNE MAODONALD."

Manchester, Dec. 15, 1860.
The author addressed an elaborate comment on
the above to the editor of the Star and Dial, and
received the following letter:—
"LONDON, Dec.

28,

1860.

" The editor of the Star and Dial is unable to

ECCLESIASTICAL BBANCHES,

249

devote time to reading, or space to inserting communications so lengthy as the enrolled. He waives
the rule however, not to return rejected correspondence, as an acknowledgment of Mr Balme's
kindness in offering it to the Star and Biol!'
On receiving the above, the author condensed his
letter so as to give a short but pithy review of the
above, but it never appeared.
Had the author been in America, he would
not have felt surprised at such an extraordinary
proceeding, as there is no such thing as fair and
honourable discussion in connection with our
American press, but to meet with such indignity as
the above in this grand old country, where " truth
is let loose to grapple with falsehood," like sounds
echoing from a hill, it woke up feelings of resentment
to the burning insult from every crevice or faculty
of his soul.
Much stress is laid on the separation of the
Methodist Episcopal Church North from the South.
This is not true since the Northern Church has
seven conferences with their Circuits in the South.
The cause of the " enormous secession spoken of
rather than lower her standard," was owing to the
persistence of Bishop Andrews in maintaining his
equal right to hold slaves with his brother local
preachers, trustees, class leaders, and the wives of
travelling preachers and bishops, allowed in the
Book of Discipline in the Methodist Episcopal

250

ECCLESIASTICAL BRANCHES.

Church until this day. The Book of Discipline,
however, makes the ridiculous discrimination
between bishops and other officials in the Church,
deduced probably from the passage of Scripture, " a
bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife."
But be this as it may, Bishop Andrews, doubtlessly,
reasoned within himself that if it was right for
other officials and members of the Church to hold
slaves, it was right for him. Remonstrance was
used. The Bishop was unyielding.
Hence the
secession. What anti-slavery sentiment, feeling,
principle, or practice, is there in the history of the
above secession, founded on the unimpeachable or
incontrovertible facts of the case %
Just imagine Bishop Simpson and Dr. M'Clintock,
towards whom Wesleyan brethren in this country
have put forth their stem from the seeds of their
affections, lifted up their trunk, struck deep their
roots, flung forth their branches, that they may
clasp them to their embraces and press them to
their heart of hearts—imagine the above men
reproving Bishop Andrews for trafficking in the
bodies and souls of men—with burning indignation
and withering sarcasm he would say, " Gentlemen
be it so, it is infinitely more revolting and disgraceful for you to breed them for us." What a low
depth of moral degradation !
Is it any wonder that the Methodist Episcopal
Church, whilst sunk in such a depth, should in her
last Buffalo Conference, take the address from the

FEDERAL UNION.

251

British Wesleyan Conference, referred to by Macdon aid, and put it on the table, nay, throw it under
the table. And Bishop Moms, who presided at the
Conference, asking if the discussion was at an end
—on being assured that it was so—brought down
his gavel on the desk with great force, and with
deep, broad, and mighty emphasis said, "So may
it continue, world without end."
Viewing, therefore, our Federal Union, or
National Tree in America from the topmost to the
lowest branches, is it any wonder that the thunder
storms of Jehovah's wrath should roll1 over it, or
the lightning strokes of His vengeance should rive
it to its centre.
Wm. E. Dodge, Edward Everet, Mrs. Stowe, Henry
Ward Beecher, Drs. Eddy, Baron Stowe, Cheever,
and Wm. Goodell; the author's friend and benefactor Wendell Phillips, Wm, Loyd Garrison, and
the Quakers; Lincoln, Seward, and the Administrators of the Federal Government; John Bright,
Richard Cobden, George Thomson, the Edinburgh
Herald and Mercury, the London Star and Dial,
and Daily News; and the majestic uprising of
the masses of our Northern people, are in deep
anxiety about the fate of our Federal Tree with its
withered, corrupt, decayed, and rotten branches as
the Almighty appears on the scene with his retributive axe upheaved like the woodman to cut it
down.
Some of them, like Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs.

252

FEDERAL TREE.

Stowe, and Wm. E. Dodge are in deep distress, and
as they point to the Constitutional Branches of the
Federal Tree earnestly and agonisingly cry—
" Do, Lord, spare that tree,
Touch not a single bough,
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now."

No sooner does this party disappear than Cheever,
Goodel, and their new converts to the Constitutionality of the Tree, Wendell Phillips, Garrison,
and Governor Andrews, come up in solemn acts of
devotion, and in beseechings made soft with tenderness, and watered with many tears about the fate
of the Tree, begin to urge their plea, " Lord, not at
the roots, or the trunk, but yonder rotten branches/'
But the Almighty knows where the blow is wanted,
and Wendell as he casts his eye up the old rotten
trunk has his misgivings about its soundness, for
with all the assurances of his friends about the
soundness of the trunk, he is ill at ease about the
effects produced on the Tree itself, by the Black
Grafts grafted into it, called the " Compromises of
the Union." But these, Cheever and Goodel think,
can be removed, and the trunk saved with some of
the branches! But such is the condition of the
Tree, as well as the branches, that conviction is
lighting up the universal mind among surrounding
nations that the Tree is doomed, and that as God
has upheaved his retributive axe he will not withhold the blow. And this must be nigh at hand,

OLD GREY TREE.

253

when John Bright in his famous Birmingham
Inaugural yields to despair ! Others still, however,
only feel concern in the Tree as it affects their
half! These are like the two slaveholders who
owned a slave between them. Each prayed that
" the Lord would bless his half of the negro." So
multitudes are praying that God would spare our
National Tree, but only bless their half of it, and
curse the other. But let what will come, can come,
shall come to our Federal or National Tree, there is
no pleasure in surveying its corrupt, withered,
decayed, and rotten branches or trunk.
Not so, however, with the old "Grey Elm5' of
Kttsfield Park.
Hurrah for the Old Grey Tree.
" Tell us a tale, thou grey old tree,
A tale of thy leafy prime;
For thou was mate of the forestry,
Ere our bold fore-fathers' time.
Thou sawest the wild-wood all alight,
With the bale-fire's direful glare,
Where now the murkiest gloom of night
Our household fires make fair.
Chorus—Then tell us a tale, thou grey old tree,
A tale of thy leafy prime,
Of the wild-eyed red man roaming free,
Or our fathers' deed sublime ?
" Say, when the gorgeous laurel flowers
And sweet-briar's bloom were gay,
What loves, in the forest's fragrant hours,
Led the dusky maids astray.

254

OLD GEEY TREE.
Sadly, we know, the captive's sigh
With thy murmuring sound was blent;
Oh, tell of the love and courage high
That the captive's bondage rent.
Chorus—Ay, tell us a tale, etc.
" Tell us the tale, how the forest fell,
And the graceful spire arose,
And, charmed by the holy pealing bell,
How the valley found repose.
Our heritage here, with the blow and the prayer.
Was won by the good and brave,
While over their toils, like a banner in air,
They saw thy branches wave.
Chorus—Then tell us a tale, etc.
" Ah, dearly we love thy wasting form,
Thou pride of our stern old sires,
Though torn by the rage of the darting storm,
And the lightning's scathing fires.
And dearly the sons of the mountain vale,
Wherever their exile be,
Will thrill as they list to the song or tale,
If it speak of their home and thee !
Chorus—Ay, tell us a tale, thou grey old tree,
A tale of thy leafy prime,
Of the wild-eyed red man roaming free*
Or our fathers' deeds snblime

ON

AMEEICAN CHUBCHES AND SLAVEEY.

THE CHARACTER OF OUR AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.
TRUE Christianity is the noblest gift of God to
man. It is the bright ministering angel of God
that breathes thoughts of kindness, drops "words of
sweetness, and scatters the blessings of goodness in
its pathway, through this sin-stricken and sin-disordered world. But of all the blessings which
Christianity brings with it from God to man, there
is no blessing in its bestowmenb more sweet, lovely,
or precious, than liberty—liberty personal and relative^—temporal and spiritual—civil and religious.
How calculated to fill the mind with the most elevated feelings of gratitude, love and joy!
'• O liberty, the prisoner's dream,
The poet's muse, his passion and his theme;
Place me in climes where breathes the fiercest air,
And I will sing if liberty be there—
And I will sing at liberty's dear feet;
In Afric's torrid zone, or amid Georgia's fiercest heat."

256

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

What a talismanic word liberty has been in
years past! What a mighty influence it has exerted on the minds of men! And how it has
called forth their most devoted attachments ! For
it heroes have fought, patriots bled, martyrs died,
confessors kissed the stake, poets strung their harps
to sweetest and most melodious sonnets, and historians made more bright the page of history.
And this word is and shall be felt
"While onward ages roll,
Till every chain and shackle breaks,
And drops from every heel and soul."

When we think of liberty, the names of the
mighty dead rise before us, and as their shadows
pass over us, we take up their fallen rnantles and
cry, " God of our fathers, be thou the God of our
succeeding race," for none greater among uninspired men have been found than Russell, Hampden, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, Grattan, Clarkson, Wilberforce, or a Knibb. With multitudes
who have gone before we have flung our tributes
at their feet, and garnered their names in our
memories. And to those who come after us we
will transmit them, to be revered and treasured up
until their names, virtues, and deeds shall
" Linger o'er the world's decay,
And gather brightness as old time grows grey."

Is such Christianity, when presented in its
truest features and sublimest dignity—-the self-

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

257

telling evidence of its goodness and glory—the
champion of heaven's rights, and the almoner of
heavens gifts ? What is Christianity in its spurious form, when it comes to us divested of liberty?
If you take the oxygen out of the atmosphere, what
animal can breathe, plant grow, or fire burn in
such an atmosphere? The above is like taking
liberty out of Christianity. It is then robbed of
its life-blood, vitality, value, It then ceases to be
true, and becomes spurious and false. Such a
Christianity never goes from bad to good, but invariably from bad to worse. It then becomes an
engine by which deceit is engendered, morality inverted, liberty suffocated, and virtue heathenised.
And God can, never look on such a mass of seething corruption, huge imposture, beggarly sham or
forgery, or piece of boundless rascality, but with
feelings of infinite detestation and abhorrence.
(Hab. i. 13). And to bring such an offering to
God, and lay it upon his altar in the heart, or
upon the heights of the sanctuary, is an abomination in the sight of God, and must bring down on
those who offer it the indignation of God, which
came down upon the hypocrites in Zion in ancient
times, when He said, " Cursed be the deceiver who
hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing." (Mai. i. 14).
If you throw such a Christianity as the one referred to into the conscience of the " Christian" slaveholder, trader, broker, or negro-hater, so called, what
R

258

CHAEACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

effect will it have in separating him from his sins,
or in changing his habits i practices, and institutions in these respects ?
But lodge a Christianity, which comes filled
with a love of liberty, in the conscience of these
men, and at once they will give up slave-holding,
slave-trading, slave^brokering, and negro-hating.
From being old men in these respects, they
would become new men in other respects. Their
old habits, practices^ and institutions would pass
away, and they would become new men in Christ.
The former may make them Pharisees, give them
the cup and platter, and beautify the exterior, but
will leave them full of rottenness and dead men's
bones. But the grand old-fashioned Christianity
of the- latter puts men into the old paths, and
causes them to stand in the old ways of wisdom,
piety, and godliness.
The one robs the fires of the sanctuary, and
kindles sacrifices to Moloch* The other brings
living sacrifices, which are acceptable to God, and
presents them as free men and women in Christ.
How sad to think that we have got but little of
this true Christianity in America, whilst the spurious or false is that which leavens the masses.
This is obvious from the fact, that wherever
true Christianity is introduced amongst men, whatever their tribe or clime, if it does not find liberty
it creates it—Creating it, it opens facilities for itsi
Spread, and promotes its progress, until it culminates in the jubilee, in accordance with the grand,

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

259

prophetic announcement of Christ, where He says :
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that
are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the
Lord." (Luke iv. 18).
But where are the creations, progress, and
jubilee of American freedom?
Where, indeed,
except in the way of God's judgments! And
the Bev. George B. Cheever, in his Thanks-'
giving Sermon, Nov. 24, 1859, has nothing, better
to throw into the "heart of the South" on his own
behalf, and of the abolitionists which he represents,
but "horns of powder, torches of Greek fire, percussion caps, and explosive biscuits, to set the whole
slave population into a sudden revolt for the assertion of their own freedom, and the obliteration of
those horrible laws that make property of man,
concubines of wives, adulterers of husbands, bastards of children, chattels and brutes of immortal
beings." Such policy, " was it in their power," says
Cheever, "was beyond question your duty and my
duty. " Just imagine Paul and Silas, Peter, James,
and John, or Timothy Dwight, Jonathan Edwards,
and the old Puritan divines arming themselves with
these terrible weapons of warfare and instruments
of death, instead of the word of God, would they
not have prostituted their office and betrayed their
commission? Is it less so in the Eev. Geo, B.

260

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.
i

Cheever, his brother, Henry Cheever, Wm. Goodell,
or Henry Ward Beecher % Did not Paul repudiate
all associations with material warfare, and disavow
all intentional use of such weapons on behalf of
the followers of Christ, when he said, " the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting
down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Cor. x. 5. What mental and
moral obliquity is here manifest on the part of Dr
Cheever and our physical force abolitionists which has
so obscured their sun that they cannot intelligently
decipher in their operations the noble principles
sketched on their own "signboard" in the Principia !
What stupefaction rests on them, laying their
senses, reason, and consciences asleep, and making
them dose away in peaceful slumbers, dreaming that
the " moral underlays the political, and it controls
the military/' and therefore the military is now the
sole conductor by which the electricity of moral
influence is to reach mankind or the world in accordance with the grand panacea of Henry Ward
Beecher in his Peace Items to General M'Clellan,
and the kettle-drum beat of Dr Cheever on the subject of " divine ordinances in the civil government"
to take his " horns of powder, torches of Greek fire,
percussion caps, and explosive biscuits" to turn the
South into another St Domingo, or as they call it
in the Principia, " a type of heaven!" How hor-

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

261

ribly mesmerised by the fascinations of Bellona
they must be, when they can gloat with satisfaction
on armed slaves entering the dwellings of their
masters, murdering their households and bridging
their way to liberty over the bodies of the slain.
;
The Rev. Geo. B. Cheever, however, speaks of
Northern Churches as " preserves of fatted game for
Satan," "confectionaries where the Word of God is
boiled down into pro-slavery syrups and sugars," to
be converted into "lozenges" for free distribution
through the American Tract Society ; and where the
"self-sealing cans of perdition are sealed up for
Satan's profit and use/' And his expressed opinions of Lincoln and the administrators of the Federal Government in the North, as we have seen,
not being very favourable or nattering to them,
surely we shall have some fearful missiles and tremendous battering rams brought to bear on them
and hurled against them by Cheever, more especially as they are within his reach, and he has no
apology to plead in such a case for the want of
power or authority, as May 6,1862, he makes Christ
say, " Go to Decapolis and preach as well as fight."
When the infernal apparatus is forged by his
inventive genius and skill, and the terrible engines
come forth as the result of his " boundless philanthropy," we shall have some very direful disclosures.
Lincoln, Blair, Seward, and all the vast multitudes
of our negro-haters in the North, like Jeff. Davis in
the South, will have to put their houses in order, as
he and Goddell and the brute force abolitionists

262

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY.

approach them with lighted torches to fire their
terrible destructives and hurl their missiles in
their mission to make another "type of heaven" in
the North! Cheever says that it is " wonderful
piety, amazing sanctity of soul for a minister of
Christ," referring to Dr Gardner Spring, "who is
said to have declared that if he could emancipate
all the slaves with one prayer, he would not dare
to utter it/' But the above is far exceeded by
Cheever, equipped with his weapons of death to
hurl destruction on the slaveholders, and scatter
firebrands, arrows, and death on their plantations in
his efforts to do good. This is commanding fire to
come down from heaven with a vengeance on the
Southerns ! But there is to be no hurling of ruin on
Northern delinquents, or Federal Compromisers who
throw their blazing shields to protect the manhunter whilst plying his vocation in the national
capitol, as shewn in the following tragical scenes:—
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE EXdlTEMENT IN AMERICA.

The following, extracted from the New York
Independent May 29,1862 shows that Henry Ward
Beecher is waking out of sleep, like John Bright:—
" There will be no end to slavery agitation till
slavery itself is at an end. When slavery was
abolished in the District, some sanguine persons
imagined that the agitation of the whole question was set at rest. It was not so. This very
day there is more excitement, more agitation on

FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.

263

the subject of slavery here than there was when
slavery was defended by the statutes of the District. And there should be agitation here, for
Washington, during the last week, has been turned
into a pandemonium. There is not a capital in
the world in which such atrocities are committed as
those which have made honest men blush in our
streets during the last few days. For the first time
since the war broke out, I have despaired of success
in this war against the rebellion—it has sometimes
during the past week seemed as if God would not
permit a Government and people who wink at such
things to triumph.
"On Friday evening, while taking a leisurely walk
upon our great street,- Pennsylvania Avenue, I saw
a white fiend pounce upon a coloured man, who,
neatly dressed, was passing up the street with his
young wife. The first act of the officer was to knock
the negro down, or nearly so, to prove the white
man's superiority. He then collared him, every
now and then shaking him, as if he were a dog, instead of a man. " I am not a slave!" cried the
victim. "Hold your tongue !" was the reply. The
poor wife followed crying, beseeching, " Don't take
him off—he is not a slave. Where are you taking
him to ! Don't strike him in that way. Oh dear!
oh dear! oh dear!" Eeply from the white brute:
"Keep still, now mind, will you? I'll arrest you
if you don't!" That scene I witnessed while taking a little walk after dinner upon the Broadway
of the capital, and it was but one case out of a hun-

264

FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.

dred that have made the last week one of horrors
in the capital of a country professing to be Christian and free. The shrieks of wretched slaves have
been heard night and morning, at noonday and at
midnight, until it has become too terrible for a man
with ordinary sympathies to bear.
" A few days since a Maryland slaveholder came
here and got out a warrant for his fugitive slave.
He succeeded in capturing him, put manacles upon
his wrists, and just at night started off with him
for his somewhat distant home. In the course of
the evening the poor fellow escaped the second time,
and the master being on horseback failed to capture
him. After repeated struggles the captive broke
his chains in twain, but the links still clung to his
wrists. When the next morning's sunlight fell on
the marble walls of the Capitol it revealed a sight
to make a man ashamed of home, country, Government—almost of his race. There sat the panting
negro on the Capitol steps, the iron links of his'
manacles jingling against the marble column upon
which he leaned. Was he guilty of any crime 1
Nothing. He simply desired to own his own body
and soul, and in attempting to assert this right he
fled to the American Capitol. There was no protection for him there, and the wretched man was
again recaptured and dragged off to jail.
" If this Government will protect such heavendefying atrocities, does it deserve success in the war
it is waging ? What act of Jefferson Davis, Government is any more heinous in the sight of God than

FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.

265

the seizure of innocent men and women by the
agents of the Government, that they may be returned to slavery.
" Congress is mainly responsible for this. It
can repeal the Fugitive Law. If it does not, then
we have the confession before the world, that under
the Constitution every voter in the Free States is
made directly responsible for the worst outrages of
slavery."
In the midst of the darkness made visible on all
sides round in America, the fact looms up to our
view like a great mountain that can never be dissolved by any process of sophistry or argument, or
annihilated by mental mists or fogs, that no nation
under heaven, with the same amount of population,
possesses more churches, schools, colleges, printing
presses, bibles, books, newspapers, ministers, teachers,
professors of theology and literature, with their
plentiful supply of D.D/s, LL.D/s, and other titles
as long as fiddles, and as high sounding, but as barren
of distinction in multitudes of cases as the tutor's
mind at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was said
to be "full of emptiness ;" and an abundance to
spare for all applicants from the Old World who
desire them, and to be thrown at the feet of Revs.
Mr. Brock, the Hon. Baptist Noel, and others if
they will condescend to wear them.
Surety if this vast array of agencies, instrumentalities, and activities had been actuated and controlled by the enlightened principles of Christianity,
we should have had less stealing of babies, whipping

2 6 6 FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT IN AMEHICA.

of women, making " concubines of wives, adulterers
of husbands, bastards of children, chattels and
brutes of immortal beings" in the South; and also
of such incarnations of depravity as those given
above under the shadow of the capitol at Washington, and of the haughtier at the North, which Blair
says, subjects the coloured people to " every imaginable insult/' and of the servility of the coloured
people who have lain down under the incubus of
despotism, until all life has nearly been trodden out
of them; and who are only constrained at last to
shew signs of moral life when the white lords of
creation talk of removing them out of the country
to put the climax on their own guilt and shame, or
fill up the measure of their iniquity to the brim,
whilst the Rev. Highland Garnet pays lofty tribute
to their memories, and a regiment of them volunteer
their aid to help to keep the South in subjection to
" Military Governors" in direct opposition to the
vested rights of the Constitution, who are now reconstructing the union on the basis of compromise
with slavery. Surely with all the mighty array of
agencies and instrumentalities in our churches, we
ought to have had less blisters on the backs of
slaves, and fewer victims amongst women subject to
a fate worse than death from licentious overseers
and masters—but alas, these have been made the
means to increase them, and to forge heavier chains
wherewith to manacle their limbs, to make hotter
the flames through which they have been made to
pass in sacrifice to the Moloch of slavery, corrupting

FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.

267

all the fountains of justice and morality, and turning the Church of the living God into a heathen
temple, where the false gods of the nation have been
exhibited, worshipped, and adored, until the divine
hand appeared:—
" Painting the shadow of our country's crime,
Until, upon its blackness like a wall of solid night,
There came a scroll of Mene, Mene, in lines of lurid night."

When the Government of America was first formed
there were only six hundred and forty-seven thousand
slaves. Now, alas! there are four millions. What
stronger proof can be given, or need be required, of
the fact already recorded that Christianity in
America has become an engine by which deceit has
been engendered, morality subverted, liberty suffocated, and the churches heathenised? How vastly
different to that Christianity which led primitive
Christians to sell the vessels of the sanctuary to
effect the deliverance of their fellow-Christians from
bondage, and to set apart a portion of the Sabbath
on which to offer special gratitude and praises to
Almighty God on their being redeemed from
slavery to liberty, an act which would be considered
by the Scribes and Pharisees that now throng many
Christian temples to be unseemly and an intrusion,
and make them very wrathful and vindictive. And
the numerous Pantheists in America have done
nothing towards supplying men with a better faith
or a sounder creed than our old-fashioned Christianity, which has been so much perverted and
abused by its avowed friends and open foes. These

268

PROSLAVERY VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

perversions, however, have furnished them with
a pretext against Christianity, and led them with
exultant delight to " speak of orthodoxy as pulverizing to the dust of ages," or " as a dead sea of rottenness."
But that orthodoxy in its grand old elements
will yet march over the graves of Theodore Parker,
Emerson, Wm. Loyd Garrison, and all the fecund
tribe of Pantheists to final conquest and victory.
PROSLAVERY VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

In the dark ages of the world the opponents of
Christianity used every effort, and resorted to every
stratagem in their power to stop the circulation of
the Bible; but perceiving that they might as well
try to arrest the sun, chain the lightning, hush the
voice of thunder, control the tides of ocean, or unite
the. poles, they abandoned their vain and impious
project, and sought to corrupt what they could not
destroy. Hence the Bible was printed and circulated with their gloss upon it. The slaveholders
and proslavery professors of Christianity in America
have taken a leaf out of their book, resolved that
wherever the Bible goes their false interpretations of
the Bible should also go! And there is not a tithe
of the treachery or fraud in the Church of Rome
that exists in the Protestant churches of America
in connection with the wilful perversions, the fearful mutilations, the dangerous interpolations, and
the unwarrantable translations of Scripture.

A NEW VERSION OF THE MOSAIC RECORD.

269

Out of many specimens which the author has
collected, take the following:—
" I n a critical examination of the 1st chapter of
Genesis and the 24th verse, Dr Samuel A. Cartwright, a learned divine in New Orleans, says, in
an article which he gives in De Bow's Review, entitled the " Unity of the Hebrew Bible."
A NEW ORLEANS VERSION OF THE MOSAIC RECORD.

An "August" number of De Bow's Review contains
an article entitled, "Unity of the Human Bace disproved by the Hebrew Bible," from the pen of Dr.
Samuel A. Cartwright, of New Orleans. The doctor
says :—" If we take the Hebrew Bible for a guide,
and faithfully interpret it, there can be but one
opinion on the question. That book positively
affirms that there were at least two races of intellectual creatures with immortal souls, created at
different times. Thus in the 24th verse of the 1st
chapter of Genesis, ' The Lord said : Let the earth
bring forth intellectual creatures with immortal
souls after their kind: cattle, and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth, after his kind, and it was
so.' In our English version, instead ofi intellectual
creatures with immortal souls/ we have only the
words ' living creatures/ as representing the Hebrew
words 'naphesh chaiyah.' The last word means
' living creature/ and the word i naphesh/ which
invests < chaiyah/ or living creatures, with intellectuality and immortality, is not translated at all,

270

THE PARABLE OF THE TARES,

either in the Douay Bible or that of King James.
But it stands more durable than brass or granite,
inviting us to look at the negro and the Indian, and
then to look at that, and we will understand it.
Mississippi and Louisiana are half full of negroes,
so is the Hebrew Bible, but our English version has
not got a negro in it. Fifty years ago, Dr. Adam
Clarke, the learned commentator of the Bible, from
deep reading in the Hebrew, Arabic, and Coptic
languages, was forced to the conclusion that the
creature which beguiled Eve was an animal, formed
like man, walked erect, and had the gift of speech
and reason. He believed it was an ourang-outang,
and not a serpent. If he had lived in Louisiana,
instead of England, he would have recognised the
negro gardener."
A NEW VERSION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TARES.

In a sermon preached on the above parable, by
the Rev. Mr Remington, a distinguished Episcopalian minister, Brooklyn, New York, on a FastDay, in 18 6 0, he said :—" We have got the tares
of slavery; shall we pull them up ? No, (said he)
lest we pull up the wheat of liberty." He might
have continued saying, we have got the tares of
drunkenness, and shall we pull them up \ In accordance with his version, they must not be disturbed, lest we pull up the wheat of sobriety!
What a license to sin! What tremendous facilities
it opens up to do the work of Satan! And yet no

OTHEE VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

271

doctrine, theoretically or practically, has had more
numerous supporters in our American Churches!
OTHER VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE,

In the Evangelical Magazine for March 1861,
there is an exposition given of a passage of Scripture from the Psalms, by the Eev. Dr. Palmer.
The text is, " shall the throne of iniquity have
fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a
law." Ps. xciv. 20.
In the rendering of this passage of Scripture,
the Doctor defines the throne of iniquity to be
" emancipation;" and framing mischief by a law,
"to be the opening up of facilities for its spread!"
And, strange to say, abolition ministers, Christians,
and churches have been regarded as the greatest
criminals and plague-spots in the land—nuisances
to be swept away !
The Eev. Peniel Coombe, of Philadelphia, a
travelling preacher in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, openly, exultingly, and without rebuke, in
the last Buffalo Conference held in 1860, called the
attention of the assembled ministers and delegates
to what he called the fact, that the Golden Kule
recognised slaveholding; and on the basis of that
interpretation grounded an appeal, exclaiming, " let
each one who opposes slavery look into this moral
mirror, which God has hung up before all humanity,
and ask himself this question, ' Were I in the position of our brethren in the Border (i. e., the " Chris-

272

OTHEB VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

tian slaveholders," and slavebreeders), would I have
a right to desire that they who oppose slavery
should do unto me what I am now trying to do
unto them V" And most strange to say, not a hand
less was given to him in fellowship, or a Christian
salutation withdrawn from him, as a so-called
" Christian brother," on the manifestation of his
mental and moral obliquity, by the members of the
Conference!
On a fast day in 1861, the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher said, " Did Christ say, ' I came to open the
prison doors,'" that is the text now used to justify
men in shutting and locking them up ! Did Christ
come to loose those that are bound ; that is the text
used out of which men spin cords to bind men,
women, and children ? Was it his mission to carry
light to those that sit in darkness, and also deliverance ; this is also used to create infernal meshes
and snares by which to keep men in bondage!"
The Bible Union, of which the Bev. Thomas
Armitage is president, produced three Baptist Doctors of Divinity in 1860, who translated the word
servant into slave ! And the above divine has been
most earnestly commended, in the Baptist Freeman, January 29, 1862, to the sympathies and
hospitalities of British Christians by its Boston
Correspondent, the Rev. Dr. Eddy.
In 1860, the author met with an eminent Presbyterian clergyman in Philadelphia, who was a
Bible defender of slavery. On asking for his authority, to his surprise, he quoted the well known pas-

OTHER VERSION'S OF THE BIBLE.

273

sage " servants obey your masters/' As the author
observed that "his position was untenable/' the
Eev. gentleman, with an air of apparent triumph,
exclaimed, "does not the original word doulos
mean slave ?" Falling back on the general rule of
biblical interpretation—viz., that of interpreting
one passage of Scripture by another, the author
said, "let us put your interpretation to the test/'
There is that interesting passage of Scripture where
Peter and John presented their fervent supplications
to Almighty God, 'Grant unto thy servants that
with all boldness they may speak thy word/
Acts iv. 29. In your interpretation, therefore,
you must take out the word servants and put in
slaves/' " But were they not bought with a
price?" said he. "Bought for slavery!" replied the
author; " the thing is monstrous, horrible."
And Paul, referring to the fact, triumphantly exclaimed, "now are ye freemen in Christ." To
what terrible shifts these corrupters and defilers
of God's heritage are reduced. The interpretation
of the word servant into slave, has become so
general in America, that the time-honoured name
of servant is everywhere unpopular, except at the
South, where they call their slaves servants; but
in tjie North "helps!"
And you could not give
a greater offence in the Free States, so-called, than
by calling a domestic a servant.
On visiting at a clergyman's house at Beloit,
s

274

PRO-SLAVERY VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

Wisconsin, a few years ago, the author happened
to call the "help" in the family by the name of
servant, when she instantly turned upon him like
a tigress, and the " dominie" had to come to his
rescue, by saying "that no insult was intended, as
it was common for persons brought up and trained
in England to use the word servant." He had
great difficulty, however, in cooling down her resentment ; as with haughty contemptuous looks, and
the fires of indignation blazing in her soul, she left
the room, saying, "she would not be insulted that
way again."
Tracts have been extensively circulated in America
by pantheistical infidel men, full of specimen texts,
with the interpolations of pro-slavery commentators
and divines inserted. Take the following as specimens : " He that stealeth a man," except he has
African blood in him, " and selleth him ; or if he be
found in his hands," except the laws forbid emancipation, " he shall surely be put to death."
" He that despiseth his neighbour," except he
has a coloured skin, "sinneth !"
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me,"
except when slaveholders enact that a slave owes
to his master, and to all his family, a respect without bounds, and an absolute obedience.
" Cry aloud," not against slave-holding, but
abolitionism, " spare not/' not the slave-holder, but
the abolitionist, '' lift up thy voice like a trumpet,

PRO-SLAVERY VERSIONS AND INFIDELS.

275

and shew my people their transgressions and sins/3
except they are slave-holders and negro haters.
However enlightened Christian men may
mourn over the circumstance, they cannot disavow
that such have been the theories taught almost
universally in our American churches, and by
whole ecclesiastical bodies in their synodical
capacity, when they have advised their churches,
ministers, and delegates wholly to refrain from
delivering the poor and needy, when they cry
for help, and from ridding them out of the hands of
the wicked slave-holders and slave-breeders. And,
what is still worse, where the above theories have
not been openly taught, they have been almost invariably acted upon in the American churches!
Hence, at the foot of one of the tracts referred to,
there is the following reflection : " Such is the
practical reading of the Bible by pro-slavery men.
Thus do they derive comfort and encouragement in
approving or apologising for a system of iniquity."
" With all the foregoing texts before our eyes/' say
these men, " how can any person be so fanatical
and stupid as not to see that the Bible is a proslavery book!"
With such interpretations and readings, what
advantage hath a pro-slavery professor of Christianity over a pantheistical or infidel anti-slavery
man ? Who does not see that the vantage ground
is on the other side? and were true Christians

276

PRO-SLAVEBY MEN AND INFIDELS.

shut up to such "versions" of the Scriptures, with
their fearful mutilations and dangerous interpolations, infidels, pantheists, and the fecund tribe of
universalists, would wag their heads in triumph,
exclaiming, " So would we have it." But we are
not thus shut up. And there is nothing these
pro-slavery divines or pantheists so much dread as
the men of God who take the fire of God's living
truth to burn up the rubbish of such interpretations and perversions of God's truth. Sometimes,
however, the former will come up to us who let
loose the lightnings and thunderings of God Almighty's truth on them, and with tongues of slander, and faces of brass, like Ahab when he met
Elijah, demand, "Art thou he that troubleth
Israel ?" and we have each a ready response like
the old prophet: " I am not he that troubleth
Israel; but thou and thy fathers, in that ye have
forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed Baal." (1 Kings xviii. 17, 18).
And the latter have thrown open their newspapers for assaults on the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible, and attacks on evangelical men,
as we have seen in the case of Frederick Douglas,
and as also certified to in the Liberator, July 6,
in the case of the Iowa Convention. They have
also used the Sabbath for giving political antislavery addresses, of which we have many specimens given in Fred. Douglas' Monthly for 1861.
They have also turned the platform of the Anti-

GARRISON AND THEODORE PARKER'S CREED. 2 7 7

slavery Society into a medium of attacking the
doctrines of the cross of Christ, and propagating
Pantheism, as shown in the scenes which took
place at the anniversary of the Anti-slavery Society,
held in Boston in 1860, when Wm. Loyd Garrison
protested in vain agaiinst the breach of impropriety,
but was ruled out of order. And, strange to say,
Mr. Garrison, at a later stage of the same anniversary, more egregiously erred in the address which
he gave in honour of the late Theodore Parker;
when he uttered the following sentiments, extracted
from the Liberator. In the tribute which he paid
to Theodore Parker, Wm. Loyd Garrison said:
" But what of his theology ? Mr. G. did not know
that he could state the whole of Mr. P.'s creed, but
he remembered a part of it:—There is one God and
Father over all, absolute and immutable, whose love
is infinite, and therefore inexhaustible, and whose
tender mercies are over all the works of his hands;
and whether in the body or out of the body, the
farthest wanderer from the fold might yet have
hope. He believed in the continual progress and
final redemption of the human race; that every
child of God, however erring, might ultimately be
brought back. You may quarrel with that theology," said Mr Garrison, " if you please. I shall not.
I like it. I have great faith in it. I accept it!"
" It is nothing to me," said Garrison, " that any man
calls himself a Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, or
Universalist."

278

GARBISON AND BEITISH ABOLITIONISTS.

"Many years ago Thomas Jefferson uttered a
sentiment which shocked our eminently Christian
country as being thoroughly infidel:—" I do not
care," said he, "whether my neighbour believes in
one God or twenty gods, if he does not pick my
pocket."
" I believe in immortal life not as a matter of
logic or metaphysics, for it does not come within the
scope Df these—but I feel it in every fibre and nerve
of my system, in every drop of my blood, in the
very instincts, necessities, and desires of my nature.
The soul secure in her existence, smiles at the
drawn dagger, and defies its point."
" This thought," said Garrison, " in view of any
mortal bereavement, however great, fills the soul
with complete satisfaction, and inspires it with a
new life/'
What had Theodore Parker's theology to do with
the anti-slavery platform any more than the fallacious doctrines of universal redemption and the
denial of a future punishment against which Mr
Garrison had protested at the above anniversary
meeting? The author had read the statement which
Mr Garrison had put on record in a speech printed
in the Liberty Bell in 1856, that "in England and
Scotland especially, extraordinary pains have been
taken in public and in private, by an artful appeal
to sectarian narrowness, to hold up the American
Anti-Slavery Society as unworthy of all countenance in any degree on account of its infidel cha-

DR CHEEVER AND GARRISON.

279

racter. Contributions designed for the National
Anti-Slavery Bazaar have been withheld, or directed
into hostile channels, and the most devoted advocates of the slaves treated with coldness, suspicion,
or contempt. In all this no strange thing has happened. It is an old device to direct attention from
the true issue. It is a malicious fabrication, a
mad-dog cry to effect the death of the hated object."
In the presence of the above sentiments, given as
uttered by Mr Garrison, which the author heard
delivered, and finds recorded in his anti-slavery
newspaper as extracted—in their presence, what
becomes of this disavowal previously made to such
an unwise policy ? And how are we to regard the
foolish statement of Dr Cheever, made in Edinburgh
in regard to Mr Garrison. In a letter by J. A.
Horner, Esq, to the Baptist Freeman, during the
time of Dr Cheever's visit to England, Horner says,
•" at a recent meeting in Edinburgh Dr Cheever paid
a noble tribute to Garrison, with whom he had
held many long and earnest conversations. He,
Dr Cheever, could testify to his being an}7thing but
an infidel. On the contrary, he could testify to
his being a man who lived in the fear of God and
the love of Christ as his Saviour."
And the statement of Henry Ward Beecher is
equally absurd and foolish, when he said, " By and
by, when you and I are gone down below the horizon, and men see none of us, they will behold
standing as high as a star Wm. Loyd Garrison."

2 8 0 • GARRISON AND THE PRATTLING BABE.

Garrison has many noble traits in his character,
and has set a noble example and made sacrifices to
promote a noble cause, which ought to shame multitudes of men who profess to be swayed by nobler
principles and influenced by a nobler faith, and
ought to stimulate others of them to heroic endurance and to the performance of nobler deeds. But
be this as it may, the smallest prattling babe that
has begun to lisp the grand old fashioned doctrines
of Christianity, is greater than Wm. Loyd Garrison,
the late Theodore Parker, or the greatest unbeliever
or Pantheist that ever filled a niche in the temple
of fame.
The sad history of America, however, demonstrates
that whilst, through the unfaithfulness of ministers
and churches, our country has been overwhelmed
with a deluge of universal ruin, men holding sentiments like "Wm. Loyd Garrison have not been owned
and blessed of God to roll back that deluge, close
up the mighty floodgates, and save our ruined land.
Amidst the universal wreck and gloom that prevail
in our land, all eyes are turned to President Lincoln.
And many are anxious that he should write peace
by the sword of war, and use the slaves for the
attainment of this object. But what hope is there
of Lincoln, when God has appeared as the avenger
of his elect who have cried day and night unto
Him, and is now stretching His Almighty hand from
the clouds to punish our nation for its sins. " And
it shall come to pass at that time that I will search

AHABS AND PANTHEISTS.

281

Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that
are settled on their lees, that say in their heart the
Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil."
Zeph. i. 12. This day this Scripture is fulfilled in
America, and as the candles of the ministry are
snuffed out, the candles of God's divine judgments
are lit up, and "God is making inquisition for
blood." Ps. ix. L2.
But should God in His all-wise providence—
through His furnace blast—and pangs of tribulation
—give us an open door with his own instrumentalities and agencies, one of us could chase a thousand of the pro-slavery, pantheistical, or brute force
men. And with such a field and no favour we
could not doubt the issue of the conflict with slavery,
color-phobia, anglo-phobia, or any other phobia, pantheistical, infidel, or otherwise; since God has given
us mountain ranges of truth, where we can take
hold of mighty avalanches of texts to crush out the
positions of men who tamper with, waylay, or seek
to hinder the progress of the truth of God. The
pen is mightier than the sword—the printing
press than a park of artillery—and a " thus saith
the Lord," is mightier and more powerful than any
Armstrong ever invented or brought into use.
The success of these Ahabs on the one hand, and
pantheists on the other, however, has been so great
in leavening the public mind with their delusive
theories, by their subtle processes of reasoning, their
shifting policies, and their terrible expediencies,

282

THE BIBLE A.ND PROVIDENCE.

that the conflict will be fierce and furious. But
God has committed his Bible, ]ike his cause, to
the same wonderful Providence, as in the days of
the early reformers and martyrs in Europe,
And He is now watching over it with the eye
of an Argus to guard and preserve it with shield
of flame, in all its entirety, uncorrupted, unmutilated,
and unbroken. And we can take sweet solace and
comfort in the assurance that His " Holy Book"—
the " bright candle of the Lord," like his own cause,
will never be extinguished, or wax dim, but shine
with a clear and steady lustre, to fling its radiance,
if necessary, across the fire-paved pathway of the
consecrated sons of God, as in the case of those
eminent Christian martyrs in the cause of freedom
in America, Elijah Lovejoy, and John Brown, or to
antedate the blessedness of heaven to those of us
who have fought our way through the gigantic
jungles of difficulty, which have hedged up our path
in America, created by these pro-slavery divines,
and pantheistical tricksters and demagogues—leapt
over their abattis—taken them by the beard
and smote them under the fifth rib of their consciences, or cloven them with the scimitar of God's
truth from the " cranium to the oscoccygus," shouting " Jerusalem our Happy Home."

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

283

A revival, in its widest and most extended
signification, embraces life imparted and reproduced. It first begins iu the Church, and then
extends to the world. And when spiritual life is
implanted in one human soul, what interest is
excited in heaven, mighty anthems sung, and
thundering hallelujahs rolled forth to celebrate the
event, making heaven's mansions to resound with
their everlasting songs of praise! Luke, xv. 10.
It is life from the dead. Amen! So let it be!
And as this life leaps up and courses through the
veins of the newborn child of God, we will take
up the sweet music of these angelic melodies and
send back their chorus from earth to heaven, with
those sweet messengers who visit this lower world,
to bear to their own bright world of joy and blessedness the tidings of one, another, and yet another, when
he or she is converted to God, shouting " another
dead man is alive! Another lost one is found.
Another pilgrim has left the City of Destruction for
the Heavenly Jerusalem!
Another soldier has
enlisted into the army of Christ! Another witness
has been raised up to testify to the richness of the
Saviour's love and the power of His Almighty
grace ! Another herald has been created to help to
roll the name of Jesus around the globe and his
everlasting throne in heaven ! Another monument
has been reared on which is inscribed, to the praise
of God's name, and glorious grace! Another trophy
has been won to shew forth the honour of the

284

ON EEVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

Redeemer's name and the triumphs of His cross !
Another jewel to adorn Immanuel's crown!"
On approaching the Heavenly City, heaven is
astir. And as its gates fly back to welcome these
angel messengers who sound their trumpets along
its golden streets, the most gracious smiles light
up the countenances of the blessed inhabitants of that
city—fires of transport burn more brightly in their
bosoms—rivers of harmony flow forth from their
melodious harps—their praises go sweeping over
the luminous hills of Paradise—and down through
the flowery vales between—to be taken up by immortal groves 'midst fields of living green and sent
back with an ever increasing tide of melody in
honour of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
the Lamb for ever!
What a day when such an event occurs. How
blessed the day when the slave wakes up to the
consciousness that his fetters are broken and limbs
set free! It is a glorious day to him. So it is to
the newborn soul. It is the day of his deliverance
and espousals to Christ. Day above all others to
be remembered, treasured up, honoured, commemorated. And what a point of communication it
opens between heaven and earth, not only in connection with the ministries of angels, but with the
Saviour himself. For spiritual life imparted in
conversion proceeds from union with Christ. And
where there is union, there must be blessed communion with the Saviour. And what a sweet

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

285

solace to the spirit is communion with Christ!
How it allays prejudice, opens the upper and
nether springs of the divine favour, and assimilates
the spirit to the likeness of our Lord!
A Revival is also a reproduction of life in the
soul-—a re-establishment of Christianity in its empire over the soul, the intellect, and the body. It
is a thorough-felt awakening—a full and unreserved
devotion of all that we are and have as stewards of
the manifold mysteries of the grace of God to the
great end of life, the good of universal being.
It
implies, as a necessary demand of its nature, an unqualified and perpetual consecration to the law of
right in all its varied claims, so far as understood,
as any thing short of this would leave us in servitude to sin and exposed to external death. A true revival, therefore, must give a new direction to human
conduct, secure obedience to the law of right, the expulsion of selfishness from the soul, and the prevalence of universal disinterested benevolence, the willingness of the happiness of God and the universe.
Towards God it produces love, reverence, and obedience. Towards man, mercy, kindness, honesty,
phVy, forbearance, justice, truth, and benevolence.
Now, between such a revival as that which we
have attempted to describe, and those which have
been of frequent occurrence around us in America,
there is a world wide difference. Revivals in
America have produced an excitement of the sensibilities, but the great objects of practical life and

286

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

action have been left uncared for. Deep emotional
experiences have been cultivated, while the comprehensive claims of a world-wide benevolence have
lain a dead letter in the Bible, unheeded and unneeded. By some unaccountable agency, multitudes
have been stirred up to profess love towards God,
and yet towards man they have taken slave whips,
fitted out the slave ships, or put up slave boards at
noonday prayer meetings, with the blazing inscription on them, " no controversy allowed here," which
means in America, there must be no allusion to the
slave, slave-holder, or, slavery in your prayers to
God, or addresses to men; or fence off the communion table, the railway car, and even the
State, as in the recent case of Illinois, with the
inscription " No black man or mulatto allowed
here !"
Dr Cheever, in a sermon preached on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 14, 1859, said, "We have had
revivals, 'mighty years of grace.'" And yet even
he, with his quick perceptions and penetrating
genius, has been impelled to avow, on the heels of
the above concession, that there has been no application of this spilitual power for the deliverance of
the enslaved by the American Churches, or for the
hurling to its foundations of that huge wall of caste
that separates the black from the white.
Dr
Cheever adds, " after such a baptism of mercy and
grace to exercise mercy to others, or to labour for
the deliverance of the oppressed, there is in many

ON EEVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

287

quarters a deadlier, deeper, and more terrible oppression. The churches and ministry have not only
refused to speak out on behalf of the enslaved, but
very generally demand silence and denounce the
agitation of the subject. The Free States pass new
black laws against the coloured race, and the Slave
States pass deadlier slave laws to thrust the free
coloured population into slavery for ever."
Dr Cheever's testimony does not go far to substantiate his own statement of years of baptism and
grace ! What a fallacy to suppose that such revivals are a baptism of grace and mercy, without the
fruits meet for repentance.
Suppose that John the Baptist could rise from
the dead, and was to read the flaming accounts that
have been given in the Neiu York Independent,
Observer, and the American Baptist, and other
papers scattered over the land, of the great revivals
that have taken place amongst the slave-holders
and slave-breeders of the South, and the slavebrokers, negro-haters, and knuckle-dustermen of the
North. And that he should visit some of their
crowded assemblies where the Caugheys, Finneys,
and Knapps, were in the midst of what Dr. Cheever
calls "mighty years of grace." And that John
was to stand up and turn towards these men
above referred to, who profess to have fled
from the wrath to come, and ask them, "what
is the nature of Christianity?" Of course they
would reply, "repentance, faith, and loving obedi-

288

ON EEV1VAL AND SLAVEEY.

ence to the Saviour's commands." But "what of
the fruits meet for repentance?" continues John.
"Are the furrows on the slave's back, ploughed
with your wire-twined whips; or the mothers who
are weeping for their children, like Rachel in the
days of Herod, and they are not; or the rude
savages who are torn from their homes in Africa to
be engulphed in the deeper abyss of woe, in connexion with American slavery; the expulsion of
Christ's black little ones from the steamboat saloon,
railway car, social circle, communion table, sanctuary, and from the State, and their banishment to
the black penal colony in Liberia—are these, or
any of them, fruits meet for repentance?" What
would these arch deceivers and hypocrites say?
We have heard some of them say, but more frequently read their sayings in print, " we are friendly
to freedom, but must not offend!1 And with their
calf-kissing consciences they never do offend the
parties who are in the ascendant, whether in Church
or State. And as the slave power has hitherto
borne the rule in both departments, at least up to
the time of the disruption, those who have brought
a pressure to bear on their consciences have had to
meet a hailstorm of the missiles of their misrepresentations, and to bear up, Atlas-like, under a world
of their obloquy and reproach.
But, by-and-by, when our cause becomes popular,
these very men will press forwards into the front
ranks, and we old veterans, who have been sub-

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

289

jected to the peltings of their " pitiless storm" will
be crowded off the platform, hurled into the shades
of obscurity, treated with indifference, or it may be
with contempt, whilst they, gracious souls, will
climb up into the tree of slavery, which we have
made rotten by cutting off its roots ; and as the old,
blasted, withered trunk comes down with a mighty
thundering crash to the ground, they will leap
amongst the branches, and exclaim, like the Irishman in connexion with an old rotten tree, that he
thus brought down on Staten Island, " didn't we
bring her down aisy!"
In the dialogue of John the Baptist, therefore, we
see that Revivals without reforms are "sounding
brass and tinkling cymbals"—beggarly shams and
forgeries — counterfeits — or as Sheffielders say
— " wasters." And those flaming Revivalists to
which we have referred, have had nothing better to
shew in America!
This is most surprising, since some of them make
large pretensions to a superior sanctity in connection
with the perfectibility of human nature, or complete sanctification as they call it. And therefore
they have terribly baulked their work, when they
have left standing, in the midst of these " mighty
years of grace and mercy," those rough and rugged
stumps of pro-slavery proclivity on which they
have knelt, over which they have shook hands with
these generations of vipers, and around which they
T

290

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

nave made themselves merry with the songs of
Zion, singing
"Blest fte the dear uniting love."

In the midst, therefore^ of these years of baptism
and grace, a Revival is still needed to " reform the
sentiments, practices, and habits of the people ; and
even of church members,, new converts,, and Revival
preachers."
Why ? 0 ! why, should not Revivals and reformations be combined in one % But be this as it
may, we must ever discriminate between Revivals
that reform men, and those which merely proselyte
them. " Mahometans, Pagans, Mormons, and proslavery men have their revivals, and multiply their
converts, but produce in them no real change of
heart or life. There are many important and useful
reformations that fall short of a Revival of religion,
or we should be able to classify many who make
no profession of religion with Christians." Let us
then ever connect the two,, since Revivals without
reformation are spurious, whilst reformations without Revivals are atheistical, pantheistical, or infidel.
What God hath joined let no man dare to put asunder.
Judged by the above test, the author feels no hesitation, at the risk of being called a lunatic, in avowing that the American Revivals have been defective.
Thrown into the crucible of God's word they will
not stand the test. The author has applied the
test personally in Fulton Street Prayer-Meeting,

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVEKY.

29]

Mew York, by simply praying for the slave amongst
other objects for prayer and has been expelled from
the room. On rising from his knees, two grave men
standing by the door presented the following questions, " Are you acquainted with the rules of our
meeting ?" He observed " that he knew of no rule
in prayer but the word of God." " Are you aware
that no controversy is allowed here V " He said
that he had yet to learn that there was such a
thing as controversy in prayer, and that it was a
bad thing that would not bear praying over." Then
they said, " we shall not allow you to pray here."
On finding that they trembled at his poor and
unworthy prayers just as Queen Mary did with
those of John Knox, he retired and has not troubled
them since in Fulton Street. On another occasion
he went to Cooper's Institute, where a " Eevival
Prayer Meeting" was held every Sabbath afternoon.
After the meeting was thrown open and all were
invited to take a part, the author rose, and on
casting his eye slowly but solemnly around the
vast crowd assembled, he asked what was the
nature of Christianity ? He pictured one individual
rising in a far distant part of the building, saying,
" 0 ! Sir, it is a supreme love of Christ." And
another rising in another part of the building,
exclaiming, " 0 ! Sir, it is a separation from all sin."
He replied, "very good." But whilst we "have
any amount of the former, have we got any amount
of the latter;" remarking, "what is the former

292

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

without the latter ?" He then gave an illustration,
" Suppose a man comes into this assembly and says,
' Oh ! Sir, I supremely love Christ/ but you know
that he is a sheep-stealer, and he makes no concealment of sheep-stealing, would you give him the
right hand of fellowship,—throw a plummet into
the depths of his experience to ascertain how
matters stand between God and his soul,—enquire
of him if there were any Revivals of religion in the
neighbourhood whence he came,—deal out Christian
salutation to him,—or bid him God speed. No.
You would meet him with lightning, thunder, and
earthquake until he gave up his sheepstealing.
" If you would thus deal righteously with the
sheepstealing professor of Christianity, let us see how
the matter stands in another case. Another
person makes his appearance, and says, ' 0 ! Sir,
Christ is my Saviour. I feel him to be precious/ and
you know that he is a slaveholder, or a man-stealer
-—where is there a person in this assembly that
would refuse to recognise him as a Christian or a
brother in Christ \ Where is the individual that
would reprove, exhort, or rebuke him until he gave
up his slaveholding or man-stealing ? How is it
that sheep-stealing is a crime, and man-stealing a
virtue?" At this point, the persons near the
author seized him by his coat, and dragged him
with violence to his seat, whilst the gentleman
who presided, shouted, "Time, time," And it is
never considered the "time" to raprove sin in

ON REVIVAL AND SLAVERY.

293

America. This work is always considered unseasonable there. And if any one should dare to commit
the above unpardonable sin, the claws and cloven
feet of the Claverhouses will soon be upon him.
Dr Cheever, in a powerful speech, called " The
fire and hammer of God's word," says, " An individual was met recently by a friend, who asked how
it was with him, when he said he had been busy
all winter in the revival, and was at a prayer
meeting every morning at six o'clock. In the course
of the conversation he was asked how he felt in
regard to the iniquity going on in Congress, ' Oh/
said he, ' I don't trouble myself about that at all;
and as long as I and my family get enough to
• eat and drink Congress may do what they choose.
I have no concern about it/"
Commenting on the above, Dr. Cheever justly
observes, " Now of what possible avail can whole
churches of such Christians be ? What effect can
tons of such piety have upon the morals of the
community ? How will Eevivals of religion reach
the sins of the nation, if piety is content with
eating, drinking, and attendance at six o'clock
morning prayers, while the nation marches steadily
on to wrath and ruin." And the above is a sword
that cuts two ways. What effect must it have on
themselves? Can a connivance at, or forbearance
with sin in any of its forms be well pleasing to
God? No. God thunders in the ears of such
" cribbed, cabined, and confined souls"—" If ye

294

SLAVERY A CARDINAL VIRTUE.

regard iniquity in your hearts I will not hear you."
" Bring no more vain oblations, they are an abomination to me. Your hands are full of blood !"
Isaiah i. 10-1 5.
ON THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE CHURCHES TO
SLAVERY.
SLAVERY A CARDINAL VIRTUE.

I t has been inducted into the churches of nearly
all the principal denominations in America—and
inaugurated as a cardinal virtue.
Dr. Cheever, in his own peculiar and emphatic
style says, " This crime which has been gibbeted by
the law of God, is taken from the gallows, galvanised
into a hideous life by gospel resurrectionists, covered
with the habiliments of piety, and put down in the
churches of America by the side of faith, hope, and
charity/' And even nursed in the angelic arms of
charity and love. And when we take the fire of
the living God, and thrust it within the hideous
skeleton, and try to burn it up, we ourselves are
denounced and thrust .out of the churches as the
greatest criminals! But, though all the churches
on earth were to receive this crime into their communion, or all christians were to enshrine it in the
innermost circle of their hearts, they could not transform it into a virtue.

CHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP.

295

INTERCHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN NORTHERN
AND SOUTHERN CHURCHES.

This is another characteristic of the leading
denominations. Persons have generally taken letters from the Northern churches where they have
been members when they have gone South, and
become bona fide members of Southern, or slaveholding churches. And vice versa in regard to the
vast bulk of the churches in the North, whilst
Christian abolitionists, and churches based on these
principles, have been often cast off, abhorred and
treated as the oflscouring of all things. And the
interchanges in regard to the pulpit have been frequent and intimate. The Rev. Dr Fuller of Baltimore, one of the most popular clergymen in our
Baptist denomination in America up to a recent
date, has held numbers of slaves in his own right.
And yet there has been no slaveholding minister
more popular in our Northern churches than this
man. When a new sanctuary is dedicated to God
the preference is generally given to him above all
others next to Henry Ward Beecher. In 1860, he
opened a new Baptist church at Newark, New
Jersey. Crowds of people flocked to hear him. Had
he brought his slaves with him, there would have
been no small stir perhaps, but was he less guilty
when he left them behind him? If he did not bring
his slaves he brought his slaveholding guilt with

296

INTERCHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP.

him in his conscience, and was enthusiastically
welcomed and received! In the first Baptist
Church, Chicago, over which the author has presided, he found that one of its former ministers—a
Rev. Mr Hinton, a relation of the honoured family
of Hintons in England, went from that church to
preside over a slaveholding church in New Orleans,
where he died! Another clergyman who has been
the pastor of the Chicago church, went also to he
pastor of the same church in New Orleans, and has
recently been engaged in fighting against the Federal troops, and was taken prisoner at Fort Donnelson, and is now in custody at Chicago as a prisoner of war, the very place where he was formerly
a minister. The present minister was formerly
pastor of a slaveholding church in Louisville, Kentucky !
There are exceptions taken by the Covenanters
or Reformed Presbyterians and Free Will Baptists
to these interchanges, but, with a few exceptions,
the resolutions on their church books to disfellowship slaveholders have been a dead letter. The
author has seen such discrepany between theory
and practice in this respect that he has the profound
conviction that those resolutions have been like a
large wall around a prison. And the churches
themselves the author could compare to nothing
but prison houses, or the cavern mentioned in
an ancient legend, in which was to be discerned a
large army of men, equipped at every point for

.INTERCHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP,

297

active and instant warfare, but under the influence
of some enchantment, dead. Beside them lay a
trumpet, and he who should sound a certain note
might awaken these all to life. The mail-clad warriors referred to, with a few exceptions, have lain
supine in the prison-houses or caverns of their
churches, where neither pledge, hope, nor interest
could move them. What a grand opportunity the
British delegates had of taking the keybugle of the
gospel, and, as with an apocalyptic blast from their
trumpet, have roused them from their deep slumbers,
brought them to their feet, formed them into line,
and marshalled them for the conflict, that column
after column, and battery after battery, might be
brought to bear on the strongholds of slavery, until
the flagstaff of freedom was planted on the battle
height, and the slaves come forth from the deep
dungeons of their misery, "redeemed, regenerated,
and disenthralled by the genius of universal emancipation." But, alas ! instead of sounding an alarm
fell a prey to evil influences and unwise counsels
until lulled to sleep by opiates, they went to sleep
with our American divines and churches.
And thus your avowed intrepid heroes slumbered
and slept, thinking, doubtless, that a still tongue
"makes a wise head. And still they were, for we
had not a single bark or yelp from Cunningham,
Duff, Oncken, Hannah, Arthur, Waddington, Robinson Scott, Grattan Guinness, Edgar, Dill, and others.
None but the Rev. Dr Burns ever raised his voice,

298

INTERCHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP.

so as to give a clear sound from his shrill clariontrumpet. Dr Jobson claimed that if he went again to
America he would get into prison from his preaching to a coloured church in Baltimore. But there
is no danger of that so long as he lets slavery and
colourphobia alone in the white man's church. Robinson Scott lost one of the grandest opportunities
that ever fell to the lot of man, when at the Buffalo Conference in I860, of making his mark to
all coming time, and handing down his name to
posterity. When he arose to take his leave of the
Conference there had been a debate extending over
seven days between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum.
A rule on the Methodist Book of Discipline prohibited men from buying and selling men, women,
and children with a view to enslave them. This
rule was sought in that long debate to be changed
as follows:—We prohibit men buying, selling, and
holding men, women, and children, &c. When
Scott arose he had a full perception of this gigantic
quibble, as he said " on his part he could not see in
what the Brethren differed. Probably it was because he weighed it with the logic of an Irishman.
Perhaps it would be considered an Irishman's impertinence to speak about it. He hoped they would
forgive him." Dr Edgar, at a large meeting in Fulton Street said, " he was determined to be pleased
with everybody and everything." And Dr Waddington, as we have seen, might have won double
honours as the representative of the Church of the

INTERCHANGE OF FELLOWSHIP.

299

martyrs, but trifled with the occasion, causing his
" Memorial Church'' to rise up like our long poles
of contradiction in America, in mockery of his proceedings in Philadelphia, When a collection was
taken up in Henry Ward Beecher's Church for the
Memorial Church in London, Beecher took out his
pocket-book, turned over a large roll of dollar
bills on the pulpit stand, and threw some of them
into the plate, saying he would want to preach
on his next visit to England. And as he will
bring his knuckle-dusters with him, it will be a most
fitting place to try his hand to make a few martyrs
that they may be enshrined in the. Memorials of the
above Church!
NEGRO CASTE.

This is another characteristic of our American
churches. There are few coloured men in attendance at Ward Beecher's church. In Dr Cheever's
church the battle has only recently commenced
against colourphobia. Until 1860 no coloured person was allowed to sit in the body of the Church
of the Puritans. An English nobleman on his way
to Bermuda had to spend a Sabbath in New York,
and went to the above Church with his family and
black servant. Presently one of the trustees directed
the coloured servant to go up into the gallery, reminding him that " no coloured person was allowed
to take a place in that part of the Church/' The

300

NEGKO CASTE.

nobleman thinking he had got to the wrong place
of worship, asked if "that was Dr Cheever's
church.'' On being answered in the affirmative, he
at once with his family and servant left the place.
In the evening of that day, Dr Cheever for £he first
time in public denounced these cruel and inveterate
prejudices against people who owned a colour different to themselves. Since that time all obnoxious
imposts in regard to colour have been swept out of
the church of the Puritans, and now it is as free
for the blacks as for the whites. Who has not
heard, however, of the respectable white man's pew
in connexion with the Eev. Dr Baron Stowe of
Boston, who tried to pass himself off for an antislavery clergyman in England, but was challenged
at Leeds and stript of his mask. In the Rev. Dr
Stone's Church on Boston Common, a coloured person rented a pew but was not allowed to take
possession of it and occupy it. And time would
fail to tell of the cruel system of caste which meets
them in every walk of life.
But our coloured brethren are not free from blame.
Instead of manfully standing up for their rights,
they tamely and quietly submit to the deprivation
of their rights in the churches, schools, and institutions of our land! and even allow white men to
become trustees in the churches and schools
which they erect for their own use! nay, in all
respects to be treated as "niggers." These separate
interests are being extensively carried out in America,

NEGRO CASTE.

301

^vhere persons speak the same language, and are
destined to meet in one common home in the skies;
and are even being introduced into Canada, and
fostered by British Christians ; although the system
builds up and strengthens the wall of caste, and
must be offensive to Him who is no respecter of
persons, and who has declared by his Apostle John,
that he who hateth his brother is a murderer. 1
John iii. 15.
Our coloured brethren in America have made
grave and serious mistakes in the adoption of the
above policy. And some of the most enlightened
and influential amongst them, seeing that it does
not help to secure for them either social, political,
or religious equality, have sighed to reign in Africa
rather than serve in America. Hence the formation of African Emigration Aid Societies, and the
invention of Abbeokuta schemes and bubbles,
rather than face the stern work before them and
battle for their rights or die in the struggle. Their
present course of building up separate interests, as
we have seen in the speech of Blair, is fatal to
their hopes of success and suicidal to their interests.
To the blacks as well as the whites, therefore,
the author would say, down with the separate
churches and schools, that we may have free access
to the wall of caste with the battering rams of
God's truth, double-shotted guns of sound argument,
and with the exercise of mortar principles, that we

302

NEGRO WEDGE OF GOLD AND GARMENT.

may hurl to its foundations this tremendous wall of
caste, and blow it into millions of fragments.
THE NEGRO'S WEDGE OF GOLD AND GARMENT.

This is another characteristic of our American
churches. And how fearful to contemplate an
association with criminality so base, or guilt so
tremendous ! Who do not tremble for our churches
and nation when they think of the robberies which
have been so long perpetrated on helpless negroes
—robberies of their persons, dearest friends, and
bosom companions, wages, virtue, and rights. Is
not God the same as when he avowed his hatred to
robbery for a burnt-offering—caused the clouds of
his disapprobation to look dark and threatening
against the Israelites because of the wedge of gold
and Babylonish garments—and made his judgments
a great deep in the punishment of Achan for his
sin? Josh. vii. 10—26. And is there no analogy
between the condition of Israel and our American
churches ? But whilst there was only one Achan
who troubled Israel, we have got myriads in our
American churches. And God's red hand stretched
out from the clouds to punish us for our sins, is the
strongest proof of God's abhorrence of our sin.
How earnestly ought we to pray that our valley
of Achor may be to us a door of humiliation and
purification from our sin, and thus become to us a
door of hope to God's returning favour and love.

NEGRO WEDGE OF GOLD AND GARMENT.

303

It is in vain to point to our long spires, which
almost cleave the sky, and speak of them as conductors to ward off danger. Such a course is
imbecile and foolish, when the churches are so full
of materials which attract the thunderbolts of
Jehovah^ and draw down upon them the lightning
flashes of His vengeance !
Such being the characteristic features of our
American churches, ought fellowship with such
churches, Christians, or ministers to be maintained
in America, England, or by Christian churches in
any part of the world ?
Hear what Dr. Adam Clarke in his day said,
when referring to these slaveholding and negrohating professors of Christianity, " Ye most flagitious of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off the
mask of religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, whilst you continue in such practices."
Cowper sublimely sketches their characters, pronouncing them to be "most guilty, villanous, dishonest men, wolves in the clothing of the gentle
lamb, dark traitors in Messiah's holy camp, lepers
in saintly garb, Satan masked in virtue's robe, vile
hypocrites accursed."
As with giant's might, hurling mountain on
mountain, Spurgeon says,. " I would fling my most
vehement protests against men owning professors
of Christianity."
The Apostle John says, " If there come any unto

304

NEGKO WEDGE OF GOLD ANB GARMENT.

you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not
into your house, neither bid him God speed. For
he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds." 2 John 10.
And are not the doctrines of human bondage,
one man's inferiority to another, and the propagation of the gospel by the material sword, different
doctrines to those which the apostle taught ? Do
you say most assuredly ? Then, although they may
be as learned as a Eabbi, rich as Croesus, or eloquent
as an angel, yon must meet them on the threshold
of your dwellings, churches, and hearts, with the
cry, Procul profane, like the good Bishop of Milan,
who thurst back the blood-st?<ined emperor from
the portico of his church.
" Now we command you, brethren, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly."
Is the conduct of those whom we have referred to
above, in accordance with the spirit and practice
of the gospel ? Then the command is peremptory to
" withdraw."
Paul triumphantly made his appeal, " What
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness,
and what communion hath light with darkness—
and what concord hath Christ with Belial—what
part hath he that believeth with an infidel—and
what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?"
But what do we see in the churches of America ?
We see even the Church Episcopal treating seces-

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

305

sion towards man as criminal, and suspending their
connexion with her clergy who favour or befriend
the South; but secession towards God is overlooked,
treated with indifference, allowed wide berth. But
can oil and water, fire and gunpowder, coalesce?
These are not more antagonistical than slavery and
liberty, hatred and love!
THE AMERICAN KELIGIOTJS SOCIETIES AND SLAVERY.
BIBLE SOCIETIES.

. These have an especial claim on our notice. But
in this department of benevolent enterprise we shall
only notice the American and Foreign Bible Society.
This society is formed of members, life members,
and life directors. The constitution of the society
is set forth in the following preamble. The Board
says, "Confined exclusively to the work assigned
them, the officers, managers, and agents of the
Society are obviously exempted from all misconstruction ; and should have no inclination, as they
have no authority, to turn aside from their appropriate duties to interfere officially either with the
moral or civil rights of communities or individuals.
Among contributors to the treasury of the institution, no distinction is recognised except that which
arises from superior benevolence. In application
for funds we are restricted by no peculiarity of
sentiment, or sectional limits, but presenting everywhere the claims of the Society, we receive with
XT

306

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

gratitude whatever donations any may be disposed
to make, and leave, as in duty bound, all our
patrons in the undisturbed possession of their inalienable rights of private judgment."
On this basis, and with these clearly defined
objects, a board of management is appointed and
created by the votes of members and directors, who
become so by the payment of a stipulated sum.
Before the author is a report of this society for
1860. In the published list of members and
directors there are hundreds of slave-holders, who
are all eligible to vote.
In the obituary list there is a bright record of
men who have lived and died as pastors of slaveholding churches, such as the Eev. T. Curtis, D.D.,
of South Carolina. And the sorrowful lament is
uttered of missing their accustomed faces and
voices at their annual gathering ! Ought they not
to be missed and marked ?
In the financial department, reference is made to
monies expended by them through the Missionary
Union— viz., English Baptist Missionaries £10,000.
In Germany, France, and parts of the North of
Europe, chiefly through Mr. Oncken £20,000.
In their estimates for the New Year, they say
we shall need for the missionaries of the General
Baptists in England, and Free Will Baptists of the
United States £500, and for European Missions,
including Onckfcn's work, £1000.
In the epistolary department, there are expres*

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

307

sions of " invaluable service," rendered to the Orissa
Mission by this "noble society/' from the pen of the
Kev. Mr. Buckley; and an appeal, urgent in the
extreme, from Stubbins, the successor of Sutton in
Orissa.
In the sermonic department, there is a brilliant
oration by the special correspondent of the London
Baptist* Freeman, who divides his discourse into
two departments. In the one he makes a vigorous
assault against infidelity. In the other against the
corrupted Christianity of Eome. But not a word
about the nefarious system sanctioned and fostered
by a multitude of the supporters, and patrons, and
members of the society, that do more to create infidelity and pervert Christianity than all the Infidels
and Pantheists throughout the world !
In the agency department, the author was introduced to a Mr. Chauncy Blake in 1852, who was
sent by this society to New Orleans. He was placed
under the direction of a committee in connexion with
the slave-holding churches of that city. Being supplied with Bibles and Testaments he distributed some
amongst a number of slaves. The police arrested
him, and threw him into prison. He was taken
before the magistrates. The committee went into
Court; and when he was placed in the dock, they
turned to the magistrates and said, " Our agent had
no instructions from us to give a Bible to the slave."
The magistrates then appealed to him, and " asked
him what he had to say for himself/' The agent

308

MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND SLAVERY.

" observed that if they would forgive him that time
he would never do so any more." He was then
dismissed with a caution, that "if he was found
doing the same thing again, it would go hard with
him." He never got into prison again, or subjected
himself to suspicion on that ground.
In the directory department, and on the board
of management, there is the Rev. D. M. Graham of
New York, who in 1860, when this report was
printed, was in England, shouting anti-slavery
through the land, and speaking of his devotion to
the cause of liberty, and his suffering in it • as if he
had narrowly escaped martyrdom, or was prepared
to lay his head on a block, like the Rev. D. E. Neil,
for his attachment to liberty! Attention was called'
to his position when in England. And an appeal
was made to him to reconcile his profession and
practice, in connection with this pro-slavery board,
and his avowed attachment to liberty. Thinking
probably, that discretion was the better part of
valour, he remained silent, and made no reply to
what must have been an unpleasant reminiscence
to himself. It is to be hoped that when he left
England, though a sadder, he would become a much
wiser man.
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND SLAVERY.

The cause of Missions has a special glory in it.
Its field is the world, Its agents enter at a thou-

MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND SLAVERY.

309

sand gates. Obstructions have to be removed—
rugged paths smoothed—valleys raised—and mountains levelled to the plain before the cedar, olive, or
the pine, by their instrumentality, can be planted
in its wilderness, or the savage rock clothed with
verdure, spreading the beauty and flinging forth the
fragrance of Carmel and Sharon.
Happy they who are honoured to sweeten and
subdue the cold and sterile soil, to toil patiently,
and yet successfully, in reclaiming its barrenness,
and under God's blessing to soften and change the
stern features of its desolation. Not only are such
men happy but honoured. But can the end contemplated in the cause of missions crown the unsanctified means which are used in connection with
most of our religious organisations in America1?
What a pity that the worm of corruption, the
canker or rust of slavery should rest on, pollute,
blast, wither, or impair, the usefulness of institutions which profess to point to no other object than
the glory of the Lamb, and to seek no other success in their recompense, than the rescue and immortal happiness of sinful men for whom Christ
shed his most precious blood!
Alas that such should have to be the testimony
the author, from a sense of duty, is impelled to
give.
And as these Societies are in deep distress from
the war, which is causing multitudes of our American professors of Christianity to cover themselves
with war paint, and to provide themselves with

310

BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION.

the war hatchet, and even to drape our American
pulpits and cover the tables at the communion of
our Lord, as in Dr Osgood's church, New York,
with our United States' banner, as they are thus
paralysed and plunged into financial difficulty they
are now turning to you for aid. Let us, therefore
look at some of these societies.
BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION.

In the October number of the Baptist Magazine
for 1861, the above Society is introduced to the
notice of British Christians, and its claims urged
on their attention, and yet it has a history written
in the blood of the slave!
, A few years ago, a Baptist clergyman brought
his Christian slave with him to the annual meeting
of the above Society, which was held that year in
Philadelphia. And whilst surrounded by a vast
multitude of ministers and delegates, he rose in the
assembly and said, " here is a Christian slave, who
desires to go and preach the gospel in Africa. I
will sell him for two hundred dollars, if you will
buy him for that purpose." There being no response,
he continued, saying, " now is a chance for you in
the North to try your hand in buying this slave!"
One would have supposed that this exhibition in a
religious assembly would have been met by a most
vehement and indignant protest. But neither Dr
Wayland, who was present, nor any other one had

BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION.

311

the courage to rebuke this fleshmongering clerieal
salesman! A. slaveholding missionary was sent by
the Board of the same Society to the Cherokees.
John Mitchell like, he coveted a plantation and
stocked it well with slaves. When this became
known, it produced some excitement and opposition
in a few of the churches of the Northern States.
This, however, evoked counter opposition amongst
the clergy and churches of the Southern States,
who threatened to secede, if Bushyhead was dismissed.
. The Board was between two fires ! What was
to be done ? Done! Our American people are
never at a loss for expedients. If they cannot succeed by fair, they will by foul means ! The Board
therefore hit on a plan of buying him off. And
by this process of legerdemain got him to resign,
and then, turning to the slaveholding churches and
clergymen of the South, they roared out like sucking doves, exclaiming, " as we have treated you
before, we are willing to treat you now, on the same
grounds of moral and social equality." But the
Southern Churches and ministers discovered their
trick, lost all confidence in them, and charging them
with a want of honesty withdrew!
In the address which the Kev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor gave at the Baptist Union Meeting, recently
held in London, he spoke of a solitary missionary
which the Missionary Union had sent to Africa, but
was afterwards withdrawn. One Sabbath morning

312

BAPTIST MISSIONAKY UNION.

in Dec. 1859, the author went to a Concert Prayer
Meeting held in the Eev. Highland Garnet's Church,
New York. A returned missionary from Africa
addressed the meeting. He said " that when the
missionaries reached Africa from America they were
called ' God-men'—-that ' the natives were very
suspicious of them until they proved them'—and
that if they found that the missionaries had nothing
to do with stealing men, they called them ' Godmen true/" The missionary was a stranger to the
author. And he was so deeply interested in his
narrative, and so anxious to glean a few more scraps
of information about these American "God-men
true/' that he rose in the meeting and asked permission to put a few questions to the missionary.
Consent being given, the following questions were
put. What are the names of the missionaries from
America in Africa who are " God-men true ?" What
Society employs them? And do the Societies
employing them contain any slaveholders on their
lists of life membership, or Boards of Directors?
He said he had been sent out by the Missionary
Union, and that it had separated from the South.
At this stage of the proceedings, the coloured gentleman who presided interposed his veto, and said that
was not the time or place to introduce such questions, and the Eev. Highland Garnet, although not
present, yet, afterwards expressed his strong disapprobation of the author for introducing the questions given above. The author was overwhelmed

AMERICAN MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

313

with surprise that such an ebullition of temper and
bad feeling should have been the result of his
inquiries, in such a place, and amongst such a
people* But his surprise was not long continued,
as a few days afterwards he learnt that the above
missionary was Secretary to the African Emigration
Aid Society, of which the Eev. Highland Garnet was
President! " God-men true" are scarce in America.
The cases of Messrs. Mitchell, and Dr, Pennington
are additional proof of this as shown in the Baptist
Freeman.
Their rarity enhances their value.
But they don't grow on the bush of the Missionary
Union Tree, or of the African Emigration Aid
Society. As well might you look for grapes from
thorns, figs from thistles, fruit under the icy poles,
or substance in a world of fleeting shades, as look
for " God-men true" in either of the above departments of beneficent enterprise.
The Missionary Union has undergone no change
constitutionally. Synodically it is to-day what it
has always been. And yet, covered with the
leprosy of slavery, it comes franked and endorsed in
its appeals to your purses, and stretches out its
dove-like wings, and tenderly implores you to take
it under your protection to be sustained by your
contributions in this hour of its peril and danger.
AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

" This Board, from the beginning of its history

314

AMERICAN MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

until now, has sought out objects of compassion in
almost every part of the world, but left four
millions of slaves at their own doors without the
Bible, or a messenger of mercy to teach them the
way of salvation by Jesus Christ. It has always
allowed slaveholders and slavebreeders as t life
directors and life members ; and also as members of
its Choctaw and Cherokee missions.
" I t expressly admits that no instruction has
ever been given to its missionaries in regard to
slavery.
"By a unanimous vote it rejected a resolution
presented by one of its members, ' That slaveholding
is a practice which is not to be allowed in the
Christian Church !' I t discontinued its mission to
the Choctaws in 1859, to get rid of f embarrassments' and perplexities/ whilst it continues the
equally slaveholding Cherokee mission, without
rebuke to its slaveholding church members, or to its
pro-slavery missionaries!
" On the first Sabbath of 1859 a Christian slave,
who was the mother of eight children, and a
member of the Rev. Mr. Byington's Church, one of
the Society's missionaries, was burnt alive, on the
alleged crime of conniving in her master's death.
She, however, persisted in her innocence, and died
with the language of prayer and praise on her lips;
and yet there has been no report of the murder of
this slave made by the missionary to the Board!
"The Board has uttered the language of con-

AMERICAN MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

315

demnation against licentiousness, drunkenness,
dancing, and silly women's skirts ; but it has never
put on record a single protest against American
slavery.
" The Secretary of the Board, the Eev. Mr. Treat,
to whom the Rev. H. W. Beecher has awarded the
honour of being the author of a New Epistle to the
Corinthians, in a report of the Society says—'It
does not appear to be the aim of the brethren t<?
exert any direct influence, either by their public or
private teachings, upon the system of slavery ; and
they discovered, as they suppose, a sufficient warrant
for this course in the New Testament 1" If so, it
was not in the old Epistles of St Paul, but in the
New Epistle of the Secretary 'St. Treat!'
"During the summer of 1860, some inquiring
converts in Syria appealed to an English resident to
know the truth of a statement made in the London
Times concerning a number of free coloured people
expelled from the South, simply because they were
coloured. On the statement being affirmed, they
turned to each other and said, ' This is just what
the priests told us/ They then avowed ' that they
would go no more to the American chapel, or read
the American books/ The English gentleman then
tried to make them understand the difference
between the North and South in this respect which
he thought obtained; but the reply was,' Let those
of the North then go home and convert those of the
South before they come to preach to the Arabs/

316

AMERICAN MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

A sensible conclusion. f Even the Turks/ said they,
'never do such things as these.'
" The Rev. David T. Stoddard, who spent his life
in the East, said, f We do not dare to let our converts know that slavery exists in America, for how
could we reconcile it with our professions as a
Christian nation!"'
" How/' inquires Brayton, an American missionary, "is the following objection to be met, which I
hear wherever I go among the Karens, ' If we become disciples, when you get a large number of us,
you intend to entice us away, and make slaves of
us in your own country/ This objection is often
urged with as much seriousness and confidence as
though they were actually acquainted with the
system of American slavery. Did these ignorant,
but slave-hating heathen, but know the slaveholding character of the American churches, would
they not say to our faces, ' Go back, thou hypocrite
—Go back, and teach the heathen of your own
country, and give them the Bible, before you come
here to impose upon us/ I am fully persuaded, that
if they did know it, this would in substance be the
language of many a wild Karen,"
Kincaid says, " If the heathen were aware of the
slaveholding character of our churches in America
by whom the missionaries are sent out, the usefulness of the missionaries would be at an end/'
Mason, on receiving a box of clothing, says, " No
sooner did I put on these articles than associations

AMERICAN MISSIONS AND SLAVERY.

317

connected with slavery spontaneously arose in my
mind. I thought of the articles I had on as being
the fruit of the blood and sweat of slaves till the
thought was unendurable, and I pulled them off,
resolving not to wear then! again," &c.
Another writes, "That the fruits of robbery are
unacceptable as an offering to the Lord, appears
clear; and that slavery is robbery of the most
aggravated description we know; that its gains are
the reward of iniquity, and the price of innocent
blood. And if it is wrong in others to make such
an offering, it is wrong in others knowingly to
receive them from their hands. By sharing in the
spoils we countenance their deeds and participate
in their guilt. That is a fearful charge which God
brings against his professing people, Ps. 1. 18,
* When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst
with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers/ "
Another writes from Persia, saying, " We dare
not tell the Nestorians that such an institution as
slavery exists in free, happy America!" Slavery,
freedom and happiness linked in fraternal embrace!
How astounding in the presence of the above incontrovertible facts that such missions should be
taken under the patronage of enlightened men, that
the plate should be held out in this country to aid
such missions, and that the discovery of a new
mantle should have been made to cover up such
inconsisencies in the divine household. Is it any

318

TURKISH AID MISSIONS,

wonder that infidels or Pantheists should raise their
paeans of triumph as they marshall their forces with
humanity for their watchword, and the conscience
of the world on their side, and swell the chorus of
exultation, shouting, " All that pass by clap their
hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the
daughter of Jerusalem, saying, is this the city that
men call the perfection of beauty, the glory of the
whole earth." How necessary that the demand
from conscience, reason, and revelation, and from
the scarred bodies and crushed rights of millions of
our fellowmen, should be pressed with sevenfold
force on your attention to wash your hands of all
pro-slavery missionary enterprises, and negro-hating
professorships, that you may stand clean, clear, and
pure of all complicity with these heinous sins and
crimes.
TURKISH AID MISSIONS.

•

As we have already seen these are not American
but British. They are not real bona fide missions,
but Tulchans, and designed, like them, to be auxiliary, so that the churches may give .freely the
milk of support to our American missions. Under
the above euphonious name, therefore, they are well
calculated to mislead and deceive the Christian
public! The above missions place the managers
and supporters of them in a false position before the
Churches and the world, with a figtree pretext for

TURKISH AID MISSIONS.

319

a covering, and however softly and blandly they
may assure you that they are free from all complicity with slavery, remember the Apostle's injunction, to prove the spirits as well as the doctrine that
you may see whether they be of God. And if the
case be of doubtful distinction, you must cry, Paul
you know, and Christ you know, but who are you?
The missionaries of the Old American Board, however, are knowingly wrong, and deliberately sinning
against their strong convictions and better judgments, since the astounding disclosures we have
made are matter of public notoriety, and have long
been the scoff of infidels, as they are of demons. Besides, a number of missionaries in the Sandwich
Islands have dissolved their union with the American Board of Missions from a feeling of embarrassment that it was supported in part by slaveholders
and they "could not with a good conscience receive
their support from a treasury which received the
price of blood i" And memorials, year after year,
have been sent to the Board by the churches
which support the American Missionary Society which separated from the above for the same
cause—these churches have memorialised the Board
to purge itself from all contempt, but have done so
in vain.
EARTHLY GUIDES.

In vain is allusion made to the Eev. Henry Ward

320

EARTHLY GUIDES.

Beecher, who has pronounced the " American
Board" clean, clear, and pure; or to Dr. Cheever,
who, as we have seen, smites the " Board" but
spares the missionaries; or to Dr. Candlish, who in
an introduction to a book, written by the Bev.
J. W. Alexander, D.D., New York, says—" I esteem
it an honour to have my name associated with his."
And, yet, the same Dr. Alexander, in the above
book, commends the missionaries of the " American
Board" of Missions to the American churches for
their excellence as a disclaimer against infidelity, the
dram-shop, and drunkenness—admits that the negro
women can be made wise unto salvation, and lays
down rules for the white poor, which neither Alexander, nor the American Board, nor their missionaries
ever sought to carry out towards God's " black
poor I" We are not to take men for our guides in
these matters but Jehovah. Besides, it has been
seen of late that the above men do not wear the
robes of infallibility, so that if you are guided by
them, you will be more likely to copy their errors
of judgment and practice than the good there is in
them. Whilst in Edinburgh, the author took up a
newspaper one day in which there was the following record. " The Bev. Dr. Candlish seconded the
adoption of a resolution in the Presbytery to take
considerable time in honouring the men of 1662."
Two or three days after the author was present at
a meeting of the Turkish Aid Missions, where the Dr.
moved the adoption of a resolution commendatory

GOOD THEY DO.

321

of the Eev. Mr. Ford, a missionary of the American
Board, and of his missions, recommending them to
the cordial support and esteem of the friends of
Missions.
NON-CONFORMISTS OF 1 6 6 2 AND THE AMERICAN
MISSIONARIES of 1 8 6 2 .

What a difference! The former were men of
mark and honour. But the latter axe not on the
way to distinction or esteem, since they are terribly
bemired in the deep slough of expediency. The old
Non-conformists never stooped to vulgar arts by
which to acquire an ephemeral popularity or for
selfish ends. But not so the above missionaries.
And yet, with all their covert zeal, private intrigue,
and adroit skill or stratagems, they cannot mask
their position ! Pity they should attempt it. But
how unfortunate their euphonistical name!
GOOD THEY DO.

This is a plea which has often been urged on
behalf of men engaged in works of philanthropy,
piety, charity, and love. And when urged on behalf
of men who abjure all sinful expediencies and questionable policies, like such men as the martyred
Williams, the immortal Carey, the world renowned
Moffat, the heroic Knibb, or the world's benefactor,
Livingstone-—in such a case it is befitting and
x

322

GOOD THEY DO.

beautifully appropriate. And it will command
weight and importance. But when urged on behalf
of a Dr Perkins, who is said by the editors of the
Baptist Freeman, March 18, 1862, to have given a
written language and printed Bible to the Nestorians;
and to be so celebrated for his usefulness as to lead
them to avow that he was " a man of whom the
United States is hardly worthy/' or of other
missionaries in the pay of the American Board,
whose hire is with the price of blood, and whose
written languages and printed Bibles are dependent*
on monies wrung from the grasp of unrequited
toil, then we say the plea is misapplied, perverted,
and abused.
" 0 ! live for those who love you,
For those who know you true,
For the heaven that smiles above you
And awaits your spirit too.
" For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrongs that need resistance,
For the future and the distance,
And the good that you can do."

Never was there greater or more urgent necessity
for good to be done in any country in the world
than in America.
Never were there more direful evils or wrongs
that need resistance ! And the heaven instituted
and ordained churches which had a commission to
sweep them away, have awfully betrayed their trust
and wickedly prostituted their influence in nursing

CAUTION TO BE USED.

323

them into life, shielding them by their mighty
power, and, now that they threaten the country
with ruin, fly from the moral to the martial forces
for aid, so that amidst the dark scenes of God's
Providences and the sweeping storms of His wrath
we have no voice to plead for us but the hoarse and
terrible voice of God's retributive justice.
The flag of distress has been raised by the
churches and Mission Boards, and appeals have been
made to your sympathies and benevolence, but the
author maintains that the Missions referred to,
their missionaries, vast machinery for evangelization,
new translation, and written languages, had better
go to the bottom of the sea than they should be
allowed to do evil that good may come ; and thus
bring a reproach on the cause of Christ, dishonour
the name of our blessed Lord and Saviour, wound
and cicatrice their own consciences, and place themselves in peril of the fearful and terrible retribution
of the Almighty amid the solemn disclosures of the
last judgment, when He, the Great Judge, will turn
to men who have written languages, printed Bibles,
and done wonderful works, and yet say unto them,
" I never knew you, depart from me ye workers of
iniquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23.
CAUTION TO BE USED AND DISCKIMINATION TO BE
EXERCISED.

There is a needs-be for this.

It is a source of

324

GRAND DRAMATIC SCENES.

deep lamentation and poignant sorrow and grief
that such men or missions should have been tolerated
or encouraged for a moment in America. But more
so in this country where slavery was never allowed
a " habitation" in your churches, either home or
foreign—-where the names of a Knibb and Wilberforce are your bright but common heritage—and
where even now you think that an allusion to our
so called -' Christian slaveholders, breeders, brokers,
and negro-haters" in America is a matter so far
beyond the pale of decency in your thoughts, and
as a thing not fit to be named, if true, just as it
is not meet that it should be seen by star-light,
much less by sun-light, and in the presence of a
large fashionable assembly where there are soft
cushioned seats and beautifully painted and dim
religious windows-—is a desecration of your solemn
assemblies, subjecting those who dare lay bare such
frightful enormities and diabolical wickedness to
personal indignity in fiery ebullitions of temper, hard
words about the reverence and sanctity of the place,
and the slamming of the vestry doors on our heels,
as the author can attest to.
GRAND DRAMATIC SCENES.

We have had many such in America, not merely
in large buildings called theatres, places which the
author never frequents; and concerning which, he
unhesitatingly avows, from what he has seen of the

GRAND DRAJMATTC SCENES.

325

tendency of such places, that the best side is the
outside, and ought to be shunned like some contagious
disease, noisome pestilence, or deadly upas. It is
not to such scenes the author refers, but to dramatic
scenes in churches. We have referred to one such,
when the parson-salesman cried, " 0 ! what a
chance for you who are anxious for the slave to try
your liberality. My slave is very pious.
Who
will bid two hundred dollars for him to send him to
Africa to preach the Gospel."
That was another, when the great feat of jugglery was achieved which, by a process of legerdemain, got Bushyhead, the slave-holding missionary,
to resign in the hope of avoiding wrangling dissensions, fierce disputations, and hurricanes of angry
passion, and volcanoes of disruption.
That was a grand master scene, when Henry
Ward Beecher assumed the military champion, and,
with his eye on the belt, entered the list singlehanded with " Johnny Bull," as Americans designate
this country, and bent his fist in grand pugilistic style
in his broad, good-humoured face, amid the overwhelming plaudits of his people. But the climax to be put
on these dramatic scenes is the Great Farcical Comedy that is being enacted in the churches of this
country, in the Great Pantomime that has recently
been celebrated with so much state, pomp, and ceremony, in the " Grand Union" which has taken
place between the churches of this country and
America!

326

THE GREAT OFFICIAL DIGNITARY.

THE NEWLY ELECTED BRIDE.

In these masquerade scenes lift up and cause to
pass in review before you the bride. As you have
seen she has got many very ugly features and evil
propensities, and some terrible claws, but frantic
with delight at the prospect of such a realisation
of her wishes, her countenance beamed with ineffable
delight, and with exultant voice and spirit she
clapped her hands and shouted for joy.
THE BRIDEGROOM.

This is personified in the churches of this land,
which breathe an atmosphere of purity, lift up an
aspect of benignity, consolidate a strength of principle, cherish noble impulses of generosity, command
an influence which makes them resemble the sun
surrounded by a belt of ever-spreading splendour,
and are a chosen instrument to bear Christ's name
before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel!
THE GREAT OFFICIAL DIGNITARY.

This is a person high in office and esteem, stately
in his mien and character, a man of mark and
honour. His name is Prof. Rob. S. Candlish, D.D.
And what gracious smiles the bride puts on to
mask her darkened visage and her iron-hearted soul

THE GREAT OFFICIAL DIGNITARY.

327

as this clerical dignitary, clothed with robe pontifical, and armed with full credentials and delegated
power, steps forth to consummate or crown the
nuptial scene.
Never, oh! never, did the Bride before feel such
thrills or flashes of emotion in her soul, cast such
•V

bewitching glances, or hold her votaries more captive
in the thralls of her enchantment, than when he
joined the pure hand of the bridegroom with her
own hands of impurity, his person of dignity with
hers of shame and ignominy, and his character of
righteousness with hers of iniquity, sorcery, witchcraft, and crime, in the bonds—the blessed and
holy bonds, of matrimony and love, exclaiming with
measured word and voice, " I unite you for better
and worse." And when the nuptial tie was formed,
with what solemn majesty and commanding dignity and graceful felicity, he called high heaven to
witness the deed that has been performed, whilst
congratulations were offered, sympathies expressed,
and their oneness defined in language most forcible,
as in the address given there is the weighty paragraph, " However the nations of the earth may be
divided, the Church of Christ is one. "Whatever
discord there may be in the world, there is unity in
the Church. Alas! that the world should so often
succeed in thrusting its discord into the Church!
Let the Church try if she may not put some of her
unity into the world by shewing that in spite of
all the hostile tendencies of human nature, the

328

SPECTATORS WHO WITNESSED THE SCENE.

divine law prevails in the divine household all over
creation. When one member suffers all the members surfer with it." Thus this great transaction
has been completed. The intelligence has been proclaimed in heaven, and its dark deed made known
in hell, whilst the address, duly signed, has been
handed over to all immediately concerned.
The
address bears date, Nov. 20, 1861.
THE DAY AND CITY IN WHICH IT TOOK PLACE.

The day bears even date with the address, and
the place was Edinburgh, the Queen City of the
North, the city of palaces, distinguished by one of
ancient date named Holyrood, and celebrated by
halls of science, literature, sculpture, painting, works
of art, religious culture, deeds of noble daring, and
persons of heroic fame, whose statuary forms stand
erect and present themselves to view on every side.
THE SPECTATORS WHO WITNESSED THE SCENE.

The Commissioners of the General Assembly
of the Free Church of Scotland were amongst
the privileged ones—bright angels from their
crystal spheres of light and beauty and glory in
heaven—-multitudinous spirits from the vasty depths
of woe—and Old Arthur from his seat. Some
let fall their tears,—others were elate with joy.
The Commissioners had their deep channels choked
too full for utterance. But, hark! old Arthur

THE GREAT SEAL OF AUTHORITY.

329

growls dissatisfaction, and swears that his majestic
seat may as soon be hurled into yonder sea, as
this day's dark transaction be blotted out, or its foul
stains removed!
THE GREAT SEAL OF AUTHORITY.
Here it is, look at it, and examine it well.

This is very significant.
Eeport says that old
Dame Kirk " had got many wrinkles on her countenance, put on superior airs, and was sometimes
very haughty in her manners; that she had such
grand relations with the prince of this world,
like her twin sister, Church of England, and
withal was so snobbish in her temper that she
could brook no control from within, and disdained
all pressure from without. Hence, with frowning
aspect, and strong avenging hand, she resented all
attempts to reform her manners and change her in
her behaviour. The very thought agonised her
soul, threw her into paroxysms of grief and fits of
desperation, causing her ducal patrons and lordly

330

THE GKEAT SEAL OF AUTHORITY.

squires to shout in her defence: ' 'Tis ours to rule,
and yours to obey. Here is the tyrant's rod, kiss
it or be gone;' like the society in Dr. Cheever's
church, which sought to usurp undue authority,
and lord it over the church, but was vanquished,
as all the rest will be, because 'thus saith the
Lord/ the mighty thunderbolt of heaven, thunders
from God's mighty heavens against them, threatens
to take off their chariot-wheels, or to throw them
into some Cardross sea of difficulty, where they can
neither move back nor forth. But should they
perchance obtain a victory, like old Dame Kirk, it
will be her great defeat. And, though they may
renew their strength, and shine with meteoric flash;
their Establishment principle is not a fixed star
among principles called 'Celestial Bodies/ but a
meteor like themselves, and must soon for ever pass
away. And strange that Guthrie, in surveying
those heavenly bodies with wrong end of telescope,
should mistake a meteor for a star." Such is the
news picked up from rolls of dusty parchment and
books in halls of library, in marts of merchandise,
on 'Change, in columns of newspaper, by the fireside, on steamboat, in railway car, at reading rooms,
and halls of public meeting, where tangled skeins
of opinion, statement, or history are unravelled to
reach the threads of fact embodied in the rope of
fiction—processes of reasoning elaborated, which
make new thoughts start forth like insects from
their chrysalis state, winged with marvels of new

THE GREAT SEAL OF AUTHORITY.

331

beauty, leap up like gems in a coronet, spread out
and lift themselves on high in one grand pile of
crystal glory, the creations of master minds, with
Koh-i-noors of intellect, now flashing forth the red
blaze of indignation, against the wickedness of men
and things—now paying homage to the scintillations of virtue, refreshing like the emerald green,
and then to character, with its softening splendour,
like rays of sun in the deep blue, cerulean sky unfolding scenes most lovely, beautiful, grand. Now
comes a stroke of wit and genuine humour that
makes the audience roar with laughter, and then a
ponderous heavy blow on some gigantic form of
error, vice, or tyranny, that knocks off its head, or
splits it up, evoking thunders of applause. Now a
thrilling story leads the audience captive, and binds
it down as by the witchery of some mighty spell;
and then an electric force of argument strong, clear,
definite, enamelled with the touch of rhetoric,
is thrown into their midst, which stirs their fires
within, makes their eyes sparkle with delight,
voices shout with exultation, hands clap with joy,
feet dance with gladness, and their spirits deepen
and widen into one grand sea of respect, esteem,
admiration, love and gratitude, which they present as their libation in homage to lofty principle,
commanding genius, and sterling worth, more valuable than necklaces, bracelets, or diadems, sparkling
with diamonds of the finest water, crusted over
with brilliants, or thickly set with opal, torquoise,

332

THE GREAT SEAL OF AUTHORITY.

ruby, emerald, or all the precious stones of dazzling
beauty, or works of art in the London Exhibition,
or throughout the universe, although their price is
fabulous, displaying their inestimable worth. What
an illustration of a happy moment, if not a happier
life—a plan infinitely more powerful to reform,
purify, elevate, ennoble, and dignify mankind, than
to bind them with the chains of military despotism,
pin them with bayonets, threaten to treat the
gentler sex " as women of the town," and do deeds,
as Othello says, "Which makes heaven weep, all
earth amazed, for nothing canst thou to damnation
add greater than this." It shows that Old Dame
Kirk had noble sons and daughters, who had souls
that they could call their own, were men and women
and not serfs—individuals who knew their place,
but defied the usurper's whips, thongs, tongues of
scorn, hoofs of iron, coats of mail, and faces of
brass.
It reveals the heaven-born purpose conceived of
leaving manse and glebe, and stately pile of ancient
fabric, made venerable by years and - centuries of
time, and sacred by scenes of hallowed interest and
love; and also its noble execution in the disseverance of many links of strongest friendship, ties of
warmest love, the interment of fondest hopes, and
the banishment of feverish dreams within her pale.
I t displays their inward might or power for good.
Their fancied weakness was their strength, and their
apparent discomfiture their glory.
Samson's

BRITISH WOOERS.

333

riddle was fulfilled and here made known. Out
of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong
came forth sweetness. And where can you find
better gospel food than in the Free Church, socalled, or more sweetness or fragrance than in
the graces of her cherished sons and daughters?
Her fame went forth to earth's remotest bounds.
And high heaven is jubilant with songs of praise
to God.
And the more you view their sufferings in their nature and causes, the brighter
will the lustre of their graces shine. Clad with
beauty and in honour bright they may view with
sunny smiles and joyous looks their future prospects
with transports glad or feelings charming with delight. But where much is given of them much
shall be required. How sad, then, to think that
she should trifle with her high behests through
any of her members or her gifted sons, and by authority with her seal perform an act of which she
must repent, or for ever bear the shame. Her graces
have been tried and shone brighter from the flame.
O! would that you" could say, no fearful sin or
crime, or awful deed, had been conceived or planned^
or brought forth, or made known, to cloud her sky,
pollute her name, or dim the lustre of her fame.
THE WOOERS WHO HELPED TO BRING ABOUT THIS
NUPTIAL SCENE.

These were Cunningham, Duff, Oncken, Wad-

334

BRITISH WOOERS.

dington, Edgar, Grattan Guinness, Jobson, Scott,
Arthur, Hoby, Cox, Hannah, and others.
The event was looked forward to by some with deep
anxiety and interest, but owing to the ill-starred and
bad-omened condition of the Bride, hope deferred
made their hearts sick, and their spirits heavy and
sad with delay. But through the tender wooings
and earnest beseechings of the above, and the
solemn asseverations, boundless assumptions, and
delightful assurances of a Stone, Stowe, Armitage,
Eddy, Church, Cuyler, Thompson, Simpson, and
M/Clintock, the way was opened, arrangements
made for the grand ceremony, the authority of the
Commissioners issued, the official dignitary engaged, the day fixed, and the seal given which was
to ratify the bond that made complete the alliance.
The wooers were exceedingly adroit and skilful,
and won golden opinions amongst the Bride's admirers, supporters, and friends! And the newly
elected Bride bestowed upon them many favours,
shewn in their richly embroidered saddlebags, embellished with beautiful engravings and interspersed
with hieroglyphics, which, when deciphered, read—
" charity suffereth long, is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave
itself unseemly, seeketh not, her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things,
believeth all things, endureth all things, never
faileth." If the above charity did not cover their

BRITISH WOOERS.

335

multitude of sins, it covered their multitude of
dollars in their saddlebags, which were weighed
down with monies stained with human blood. One
wooer, named Waddington, used a great big goblet
filled with flattering unction, boiling up from
depths of hell, and made Satan's mouthpiece to pour
it forth to her heart's content, whilst, in a letter to
the New York Independent, Aug. 22, 1860, he
says, " You Americans are a-head of us immeasurably. You have statesmen, jurists, orators, and
poets, seriously occupied, and with talents of the
highest order devoted to the work of freedom. And
yet we hear it said in ignorance of the march of
intellect among you, that it is not safe to give 1
utterance to anti-slavery sentiments; and that any
man who is faithful must be regarded as a prodigy
and a martyr." Dr Edgar, in 1860, at a grand
public reception in John Street, New York, said,
" that he was determined to be pleased with everybody and everything." Dr Scott excused himself
from saying anything about "foibles," and what some
call her " indifferent peccadilloes on the eternal
nigger question," on the ground of his " Irishman's
logic and impertinence to intermeddle." The beloved Arthur, with his "Tongue of Fire," looked smilingly and approvingly on, and spoke very complacently of the bride elect, And so on and on
they went, and round and round again on the
eddying circle of pleasure, sacrificing duty and
principle to expediency and custom, and thus pav-

336

THE DOWER OF THE BRIDE.

ing the way for the Gordian knot that was to
follow, and the grand connubial scene!
THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EVENT, AND THE DOWER
OF THE BRIDE.

. The bride, be it remembered, like Dame Kirk,
had got " church militant powers," which she
abused, and fond of squatter sovereignty rule,
when open resistance was shewn to the civic
power, resolved, by wave of hand, word of voice,
look of eye, nod of head, blow of fist to make the
civic President's cause her own to annihilate his
enemies and write victory on his banners.
But in this sad business, her hopes and happiness have been well nigh wrecked; her strength
enfeebled, and her finances crippled. Hence her
terribly exhausted state and distressed condition.
And as she is very philanthropic abroad, and
cherishes a burning zeal for the far-off heathen,
although " gingerly miserly," and crabbedly selfish,
and snobbishly surly in regard to the black heathen
at her own doors, yet her funds must be replenished, and her credit for generosity sustained.
Under the authority of the Great Commissioners
who made ready for her nuptials, therefore, the
mandate went forth that a dower was to be given,
which dower was also ratified by the great seal
referred to on the 20th day of Nov. 1861. The
decree stands—*

THE MANIFESTO TO THE CHURCHES.

337

" THE FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN
CHURCHES.

"At Edinburgh, the 20th day of Nov. 1861.
" Which day, the Commission of the General
Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland beingmet and duly constituted,
" I t was moved, seconded, and unanimously
agreed to, that the Commission recommend a Congregational Collection to be made throughout the
bounds of the Church in support of the Foreign
Missions of the American Churches on the fourth
Sabbath of January next. And the Commission
appoint a Committee to take charge of the necessary notices with respect to the transmission of the
funds which may thereby be raised."
THE MANIFEST TO THE CHURCHES.

This is signed Rob. S. Candlish, Convener, and
is accompanied with an intimation that Ministers and
officiating Probationers are requested to intimate
the collection on Sabbath, the 19 th of January.
The programme of the manifesto reads as follows :—
" I t is believed that the loss upon the annual
revenues of the two great Missionary institutions,
which may be said to represent the missionary
y

338

THE MANIFESTO TO THE CHUKCHES.

spirit in America, is very considerably greater than
the sum named in the letter. And, with all their
efforts, our American brethren have been quite unable to make it up. A large proportion of the loss
is occasioned by the entire withdrawal of Southern
contributions.
When the Commission: resolved to recommend
this collection, there was peace between our country
and the States. We had avowed our intention of
observing a strict, neutrality in the, straggle between
the North and South* and there seemed to be no
room for our position being misunderstood by either
party. Since that time there has been the most
imminent risk of our being involved in sad hostilities, against our earnest desire. The sword has
been all bufr drawn; the din of warlike preparation
has been heard in all our borders; an army, it may
be said, fully furnished and equipped, has crossed
the wide Atlantic. All Christian men have been
holding their breath in anxious suspense, while
they have been praying with their whole hearts
that justice might be done, and peace maintained.
Had the gathering thunder-cloud burst in a bloody
storm,, our Church's well-intentioned movement
might have been cruelly arrested. Let us warmly
bless God who, in answer to prayer,, has averted the
dire calamity which we have been fearing. Let us,
in these happy circumstances, make this collection
an offering of praise and thankfulness to our Father
in heaven* as well as an offering of friendly love to

THE MANIFESTO TO THE CHURCHES.

339

OAV brethren. Let us seize the opportunity of casting oil upon the troubled waters. Let our prompt
and liberal help to their missions be the proof and
pledge of the cordial regard for our fellow Christians
in America,—our lively sympathy with them in the
present most unhappy condition of their country,—
and our earnestness in pleading at a throne of grace
that it may please God speedily to stay the plague
of civil and intestine war, to redress every wrong,
and to restore a safe and permanent tranquillity to
the great nation in which, as springing from among
ourselves, we can never crease to feel a fraternal
interest. Who can tell what influence such testimonies of unabated goodwill, on the part of Christians and Christian Churches here, may exert in
calming and softening the minds of men on the
other side of the Atlantic, and leading, by God's
blessing, to the speedy prevalence of reasonable and
pacific counsels over the wild clash of arms ?
Since it has been put into our hearts, as we may
hope by the Lord, to do this thing, let us do it
heartily, as unto the Lord. Let it be done in faith
and love. However the nations of the earth may
be divided, the Church of Christ is one. Whatever
discord there may be in the world, there is unity in
the Church. Alas! that the world should so often
succeed in thrusting its discord into the Church!
Let the Church try if she may not put some of her
unity into the world, by showing that, in spite of
all the hostile tendencies of human nature, the

340

THE DOWER OF THE BRIDEL

divine law prevails in the divine household all
over creation: ' When one member suffers, all the
members suffer with it/
7
ROB. S. CANDLTSH, Convener!
THE DOWER, OF THE BRIDE.

This amounted to one thousand pounds from the
collections of the Assembly of the Free Church.
Five hundred pounds, or more, from Taunton, Somersetshire, and two thousand pounds were offered
by the Committee of the British Bible Society,
under stipulation that she would remove from her
painted cheeks some of her rouge, cast off her
mighty airs, and open the sources of her sympathy
and benevolence to her outcasts, but which she rejected with assumed air of affectation, and conceited
smile. 0 tell it not in Gath, and publish it not in
the streets of Askelon, that such credulity has been
imposed on British churches, and that so monstrous
and grievous an inconsistency has been associated
with men in the above comedial scene—men who
have taken the key bugle in one hand, and sounded
the death knell of slavery as with a blast coming
from an apocalyptic trumpet, and with the other
taken the Bride's flag of distress and waved it high
to excite your pity and enlarge her dower, although
she has long been associated with tears, groans, and
blood of slaves, and under her black hoofs trampled
down without pity on the crushed rights, and

TENDER AND EAENEST APPEAL.

341

scarred bodies of God's poor "little ones!" " 0 !
that our heads were waters and our eyes a fountain of tears, that we might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of God's people/' Jer. ix. 1.
DIVORCE NECESSARY.

In the midst of such dishonour done to the cause
of our great Lord and Master shall no thunderbolts
fly forth or lightning flashes blaze in connexion with
the magazines of your indignation to smite down
such an act of wickedness? Shall no plea be put
forth on the basis of an unshaken and unshakeable
righteousness to demand a separation from ,such a
polluting embrace, or dignified remonstrance, or
solemn earnest protest made against such stupendous sham, beggarly forgery, gigantic swindle, delusive snare, and abominable fraud ?
TENDER AND EARNEST APPEAL.

Descendants of the Puritans and noble Covenanters, is this the day or age in which such a
crime, sin, and abomiuation can ! be wrought in
Israel and you look coldly, indifferently, or silently
on?
Are these the times you are to receive in the
midst of your Bicentenary scenes the impersonations
of the Tulchans, whether they come from Germany,
Syria, Persia, or America?

342

TENDER AND EARNEST APPEAL.

"Will you be satisfied with those fearful complicities with so called Christian slavery and negrohating propagandists—persons so deeply stained
with the above leprosy, so corrupted with its
manifold evils, burdened with the weight of its
monstrous and enormous guilt, and disfigured as
well as covered with its polluting stains %
Are, there no Missionary Societies in America,
clean, clear, and pure of so great an evil as slavery
and of treating colour as a crime, that you should
pass by the true one and take up with Tulchans or
false ones?
If oil and water, fire and gunpowder will not
coalesce, can you expect to unite God and mammon,
Christ and Belial in the Union, cemented between
the liberty loving churches of this country, and of
the slaveholding and negro-hating churches of
America ?
In these evil times of Erastianism, latitudinarianism, pro-slaveryism, Africanizationism, and Anglophobiaism and diabolism, will you not send your
noble impulses through all the veins and arteries of
society until you stir up the big heart of the great
world against these corrupters and defilers of God's
heritage, who make large pretentions to freedom,
virtue, humanity, and religion, and go shouting
through the land in the name of mercy and justice;
and yet, perform deeds at which mercy weeps and
on which justice frowns ? Whilst numbers of your
fellowmen are thus drawn down into the terrible

TENDER AND EARNEST APPEAL.

343

whirlpools of corruption and fraud, and whirled
round with their currents in their mad and turbulent sweep, will not you who profess to have attained
to a higher level of self-sacrifice and Christ-like devotion, shew yourself worthy descendants of noble
sires, by lifting a beacon to warn others of danger,
even though the cry of wolf or mad-dog be raised
against you, or the forked tongue of slander should
be busy and active to defame and injure you %
Away, then, with these Tulchaiis—these compromises—these coverings up' of moral delinquency
—these tamperings with conscience, truth, and the
interests of immortal souls—these gibbetings of
manly thought and action, and burkings of noble
emotions, convictions, and practice, which entail an
inheritance of remorse, guilt, shame, and woe.
Voices from nature, history, and God within you,
around you, beneath you, above you, before you,
and behind you, appeal to the angels of your better
nature, the desires, affections, hopes, and interests
of your immortal spirits to stand near to the
oracles of God, catch the faintest whisper, mark the
inflections of the tone in which the divine will is
expressed, interpret it in its most delicate exactness,
demand that you dare to think, speak, and act in obedience to your heavenly calling, lead the way as God
will give you opportunity in the onward march of his
ransomed people, lift up your voices to sustain, rally,
cheer, and animate the sacramental hosts of God's elect
in their death-grapple with the armies of the alien,

344

AMERICAN CLERGY, LAITY, AND SLAVERY.

throw yourselves into the breaches of the walls of
the enemy, plant your feet on his ramparts, scale
the battle heights with the banner of victory, and
wave it triumphant over death and hell—be faithful to the trust reposed in you, fulfil your great and
noble destiny and prepare the way for the coming
of our Lord, the greatness of his kingdom, and its
exceeding glory when the voices of universal nature,
Jehovah's providences, and Christ's elect bride, the
Church of the living God, in the language of John
Milton, will be heard reverberating through earth
and in high heaven : " Come forth out of thy royal
chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth.
Put on the invisible robes of thy Imperial Majesty.
Take up thy unlimited sceptre, thy eternal Father
hath bequeathed thee, for now thy bride calls for
thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed."
AMERICAN CLERGY, LAITY, AND SLAVERY.

In the key to " Uncle Tom" Mrs Stowe says—
" There is no country in the world where the religious influence has a greater ascendency than in
America, and where the clergy are more powerful."
As we have already seen what kind of a religious
influence has hitherto been wielded by our churches,
let us look at the character and teachings of our
American clergy, for whom the authoress of " Uncle
Tom" claims such a world-wide reputation, and
examine the basis of their lofty "moral superiority"

AMEBIC AN CLEBGY, LAITY, AND SLAVERY. 3 4 5

which gives their religious influence such an
" ascendance" in our churches, country, and the
world ?
This inquiry is most important, as, with Cowper,
the world must ever " acknowledge the pulpit to be
the safeguard and ornament of virtue's cause." But
as virtue's cause has been crucified between the two
thieves of Church and State in America, we tremble
for the pulpit.
Amongst our American divines there are three classes
—-the men who uphold the doctrine that man may
hold property in man—the anti-slavery men made
easy—and the abolitionists.
Until recently our clerical defenders and abettors
of slavery have been the most numerous. This class
has comprised nearly all our leading Professors of
Theology and Doctors of Divinity.
Professor
Stuart, Andover College, leads the way, in a letter,
dated April 10, 1837, maintaining that " t h e precepts of the New Testament recognise the relation
between believing masters and slaves, salva fide et
salva ecclesia, without violating the Christian faith
or the Church"—and that after all the spouting and
vehemence on this subject, the good old book remains the same. The late Wilbur Fisk, D.D.,
President of the Wesleyan University, Connecticut
— a name, which, Dr. Barnes says, stands deservedly
high—Fisk avowed that "the New Testament
enjoins obedience upon the slave as an obligation
due to a present rightful authority." The Biblical

346

AMERICAN €LERGY, LAITY, AND SLAVERY.

Repertory of Princeton College, with its celebrated
D.D/s, for April 1836, in an article on slaveholding
and slaveholders—says that slavery is not necessarily sinful—that the Scripture® nowhere forbid or
condemn it, but sanction and acknowledge it to be
consistent with the Christian character and profession—-that it is in vain to contend that slavery
is a sin and profess a reverence for the Scriptures
—that to declare it to be a heinous crime, is a
direct impeachment of the word of God—and
that those distinguished moralists, Dr. Channing
and Dr. Wayland, " admitted that the apostles did
not preach a religion proclaiming freedom to the
slaves—that Paul did not assail slavery—that the
Gospel did not proclaim the unlawfulness of slaveholding, and that it did not forbid it."
Dr Lord of Dartmouth College, says, " slavery is
in accordance with natural and revealed religion,
and is perfectly consistent with the law of love."
The Rev. J. Vandyke says, that he finds slavery " in
Providence and nature;' Dr Nehemiah Adams, in
the beneficent workings of society; Dr Baron Stowe
in social intercourse, as " he does not find his New
Testament authorise him to deny any courtesy to a
Christian brother because he is a slaveholder;" and
Dr Thornton Stringfellow, one of the vice-presidents of the Bible Union, says, " slavery is a divine
ordinance," boldly asserting, "that abolitionists
make themselves wiser than angels and apostles, that
the slave views with grateful aifection his master

ANTI-SLAVERY MEN MADE EAST.

347

and chain more than the feeble attachments of wife,
home, and friends, and that he looks with disdain
on the free labourer, whilst his heart swells with
pious exultation at the thought of being a slave."
Such men deserve the stool of Jenny Geddes, and
ought to be visited with the " Devil's colic/' as Jenny
once prescribed.
With such teaching need we wonder at the sentiments held by Edward Everett, Hallett, Cushing,
Dodge, in the North; or Jefferson Davies, Stephens, Toombs, and the innumerable major-domos
of the south, now so ostensibly put forth by a
clique of partisans both in America and Great Britain.
" How long, O Lord, how long
Shall such a priesthood barter truth 'away,
And in Thy name for robbery and wrong
At Thine own altars pray ? "

ANTI-SLAVERY MEN MADE EASY.

These are the men that put themselves on both
sides of the fence, like the toll-gate keeper at Manasses, who said, " that was the way to catch the
fox."
An amusing anecdote is told of Porpora, who, in
composing the music for many of his operas, used,
without hesitation, to interpolate a non or a si
extra in the libretto when he wanted a syllable for
a note more in the music. On one occasion, when
composing the music of a mass, he took the liberty,

348

ANTI-SLAVERY MEN MADE EASY.

in setting the Creed, to introduce a non to fill up
the rhythm of his music, and thus, unluckily, made
his version of the Creed run:—Credo non Credo,
non Credo in Deum, &c. This innovation attracted
the dangerous notice of the Inquisition, but Porpora
was allowed to escape the consequences through
pleading his inability to understand Latin.
There are points in the above that apply with
tremendous force to the class of men under consideration, for these men are strong believers in
liberty—true liberty and equality—but with the
nonbelief in their practice they commence their
solos, Credo non Credo, non Credo in Deum, &c,
Then, with the bright angel of liberty wrapt in
swaddling clothes in their arms, they commence
their duettos, trying to hush it to sleep, singing:—•
11

Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber
Holy angels guard thy bed."

But when they come to the chorus, " Cling to
the Union/' which they sing to the tune, " Wait for
the Wagon/' there is quite a " hullaballoo."
Here is the song:—
" There is a right and wrong in parties,
And the right is on our side;
So let us mount the wagon,
And let the Union ride.
The nation is the wagon.
And the people are its springs;
Every lover of his country
For the Union sings—
Cling to the Union; cling to the U n i o n Cling to the Union, and let the factions slide.

ANTI-SLAVERY MEN MADE EASY.

349

This wagon is a noble one—
'Twas built in Seventy-six;
'Twas driven by George Washington,
Through stormy politics;
With Eastern oak and Western pine,
And Northern ash 'tis bound,
Palmetto, cypress, cotton wood,
In spokes and wheels are found.
Cling to the Union, &c, &c.
When Webster shook the friendly hand
Of noble soul'd Calhoun,
'Twas here, upon this wagon box,
They sit in sweet commune.
Henry Clay he drove the wagon, then,
And Cass was by his side,
And never did the Union take
A safer Union ride.
Cling to the Union, &c, &c.
We tell the Northern fanatics
To let our slaves alone—
The Southern fire-eaters
Had better hie to their home ;
We are all true conservatives,
Whatever may betide;
God bless our glorious Union,
And may it safely ride.
Cling to the Union, &c, &c.

By the noise which this class of clergymen keep
up you may judge they are pretty numerous, and
embrace many influential names, such as the Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher, Bishop Alonzo Potter, Dr
Barnes, the great commentator, and a multitude
of others.
The Eev. H. Ward Beecher, in 1855, said, " I f

35

BISHOP ALONZO POTTER.

ny slaveholder professing Christianity, comes and
Knocks at the door of Plymouth Church for admission, the door must be shut against him/' In 1860,
at a large meeting held in his own church, Beech er
said, "there is nothing good in itself, and nothing
bad; slaveholding is not necessarily sinful. A man
may hold slaves and be a Christian. And if he
comes to Plymouth church, Beecher said, he would
commune with him, and Christ would commune
with him." In 185 5, he nails his thesis to the
church doors, and says, no admission to the slaveholder; in 1860, he takes it down, and says to the
slaveholder, come in thou blessed of the Lord. And
the editors of the New York Herald, Express, and
Observer shouted this otlr brother was dead and is
alive again; was lost and is found.
BISHOP ALOJSTZO POTTER.

In a beautiful sermon which this Bishop preached
from the text, " Brethren, if God so loved us, we
ought also to love one another," he uttered some
noble sentiments. " The neglected and ill-fated
race for whom I plead, are brethren with us of
one family. The hand of the Creator may have
imprinted on their features a line of complexion
less delicate than ours. Man's rapacity may have
torn them from their native land, and reduced them
to the condition of slaves and menials here. And
weighed down by oppression, bereft of hope, and

BISHOP ALO&ZO POTTER,

35 1

having none to care for their ^ souls, they may too
often have sunk into vice and debasement, But
my friends, standing in this holy place, in His immediate presence who has made of one blood all the
nations of the earth, and given his Son to be a ransom
for the inhabitants of every one alike, I can listen
to no such facts as an excuse for apathy or avarice."
In the above we see what Bishop Alon^o Potter is
in theory, let us examine his practice. In the
course of God's Providence they wanted a
new prayer book in his dioeese. Commissioners
were appointed to get it up, who entrusted
the work to the Bishop*—-the Episcopalians in
America being fond of nice velvet for covers, and
gold for clasps, and a picture for a frontispiece.
After selecting the velvet and the gold the Bishop
looked abroad for a picture, The one drawn by
Ary SchefFer, a celebrated artist, fixed his attention. It was called Christ the Comforter, In this
picture Christ was represented as standing in the
centre of a group or circle thai represented the different tribes of the human family.
When the
new prayer-book came out multitudes examined it
with eager interest. After praising the soft, delicate
smoothness of the velvet,, admiring the clasps, they
turned to the frontispiece, when, to their surprise,
they found that the negro was lost out of the picture.
This event has called forth severe comment on the
Bishop, and when the author left America there
was a rumour that another picture was to be got

352

BISHOP ALONZO POTTER.

up, representing the lost negro found, with Christ
bearing him on his shoulders, surrounded by myriads of angels with trumpets in their hands who
proclaim the glad news, while Christ exclaims,
" This my son was dead and is alive again, was lost
and is found." The Eev. Dr Barnes of Philadelphia has written like an angel on the subject of
liberty, and yet, on page twenty-one of his " Scriptural Views on Slavery," he says, that "few writers
on morals in America, and probably none of reputation, would undertake to defend a position that
was plainly against the teachings of the Bible,"
whilst his own book is full of examples of men who
have done that very thing—gives a powerful illustration of it in the rule which he has prescribed for
himself to conceal his sentiments on slavery in the
pulpit, and also in his apostolic strain for the silence
of Northern pulpits ; and yet he admits that " there
have been more published defences of slavery from
the Bible at the North than there have been at the
South." Here is the passage which conveys the
all but universal feeling that has been prevalent in
America in regard to preaching against this sin.
Dr Barnes says:—" The people to whom I minister
will bear me witness that I have not concealed my
views from them on the subject of slavery. I have
endeavoured to give it the place which it appeared
to me it ought to occupy in my ministrations in
the circumstances in which I am placed. But my
lot is not cast in a slaveholding community. I do

BABNES THE COMMENTATOR

853

not know that I have an advocate of slavery in
my church, or that there is one who steadily
attends on my ministry, who would willingly he
the owner of a slave. I confess also that it seems
to me that any one topic, except the Cross of Christ,
however important in itself, may be introduced too
frequently into the pulpit, and that an undue prominence is given to this in many churches where
slavery does not exist. I do not suppose that this
occurs too frequently in those places where slavery
does exist; but where the pen is free, it is better
to endeavour to influence the public mind in some
other method than by making any one topic a very
constant subject of discourse in the pulpit. Slavery, though a great evil, is not the only evil in
the land * * * * But I may be allowed to suggest that the prominent evils which we should
assail in preaching are those which are near, and
not those which are remote." Sentiments like these,
whatever might be intention of the author, are in
effect an apology for not preaching against the sin
of slavery. This is the very style adopted by those
who have never preached against it on the Sabbath.
They say, "Go South and preach. We have no
slaveholders in our congregations. It is not a suitable subject for the pulpit."
At the same time that Mr Barnes furnishes this
apologetic strain for the silence of Northern pulpits,
he goes on to say that "there is at the North a
hesitancy in speaking of slavery as an evil; a desire
z

354

THE CINCINNATI DEACON.

to apologise for it, and even to defend it as a Scripture institution, which by no means meets the convictions of the great body of men at the South; and
for which they do not thank us. * * * * They
little thank the professors in Theological Seminaries,
and the pastors of the churches, and the editors of
papers, and the ecclesiastical bodies at the North,
who labour to convince the world that it is not an
evil, and that it is one of the designs and tendencies
of Christianity to rivet the curse on them for ever.
* # * * There have been more published defences
of slavery from the Bible at the North, than there
have been at the South." Mr Barnes closes the
above statement with the letter of Professor Stuart,
referred to already, so that slavery is not a sin which
is the proper subject of preaching at the North—
not a sin to be marked and branded, condemned
and cast out as the accursed thing by northern
pulpits. In the above category may be classed a
Mr Graham, Dr Eddy, the late Frelinghuysen, and
others.
The author seldom thinks of the above class of
men without calling to remembrance the anecdote
of the " Cincinnatti Deacon/' who fell asleep one
Sabbath in church.
The deacon was the owner and overseer of a
large pork-packing establishment, and placed himself at the head of the scalding trough, .watch
in hand, to " time" the length of the scald, crying
„ Hog in," when the slaughtered hog was to be

THE REMARKABLE SCENE.

355

thrown in the trough, and " Hog out," when the
watch told three minutes. One week the press of
business compelled the packers to unusually hard
labour, and Saturday night found the deacon completely exhausted. Indeed he was almost sick the
next morning, when church-time came ; but he was
a leading member, and it was his duty to attend
the usual Sabbath service, if he could. He went,
but soon fell asleep. The occasion was one of
unusual solemnity, as a revival was in progress.
The minister preached a sermon well calculated for
effect. His peroration was a climax of beauty.
Assuming the attitude of one intently listening, he
recited to the breathless auditory—"Hark! they whisper; angels say—

" H o g in!" came from the deacon's pew in a
stentorian voice. The astonished audience turned
their attention from the preacher. He went on,
however, unmoved—
" Sister spirits, come away!"

" H o g out!" shouted the deacon; "tally four/'
This was too much for the preacher, who sat down
disconcerted, whilst the audience was convulsed
with laughter. Some broke for the door snickering
all the way and laughing most heartily outside—
whilst others tried to bring the deacon to a sense of
his unconscious interlude. The " Hog in," and the
" Hog out/' however, unfitted preacher and hearers

356

ABOLITION CLEEGYMEN AND LAITY.

for the service, and the congregation was summarily
dismissed. The above class of clergymen, acting
from expediency and in view of all circumstances,
when it has suited them in regard to slavery, like
the deacon, have cried " Hog in"—and vice versa
<{
Hog out." And amidst the grand dramatic
Providences that are now sweeping across our land,
there are many such asleep like the deacon, and
playing the same fantastic trick amidst the convulsive laughter of mankind.
ABOLITION CLEEGYMEN AND LAITY.

These are men who treat slaveholding as a crime
—slaveholders as men-stealers—and denounce all
distinction of blood or race.
From a variety of
causes, the above class of men have been infinitesimally small. So fierce and furious have been the
storms of popular vindictiveness, fury, and hate
against the taint or smell of abolitionism, that few
have cared or dared to face them. Besides questions
of worldly interest have their influence on ministers
as well as other men, as a Presbyterian clergyman
observed one day to the author, " I f I was to take
your stand-point I could not live." And it cannot
be concealed this living has had a great deal to do
with reducing the dimensions of the above class of
men and contracting their numbers. If liberty
should become popular, abolition clergymen as well
a.s laymen will be as numerous as blackberries.

ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY.

357

Let us look, therefore, at the little band of Christian
heroes who have chosen like Moses to endure privations, have their names cast out as evil, and to face
persecution, and in a few cases death, rather than
enjoy the pleasures of sense or sin,
ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY.

This noble martyr in the cause of freedom, was a
native of Maine, and a graduate of "Waterville
College. For some time he practised law in St.
Louis, but subsequently entered the Church, and
finally became the editor of a religious journal in
that city.
On a negro being publicly burned to death, he
fearlessly but faithfully rebuked the savage outrage. But, for this act, he had his press thrown into
the Mississipi, whilst he himself was driven out of
the State. He next established himself at Alton,
the Egypt of Illinois, and flung his banner to the
breeze in the publication of the Alton Observer.
But for his fearless exposure of the evils of slavery
and withering rebukes of its abettors and supporters,
his office and press were thrice destroyed. By the
aid of friends it was again replaced, but whilst it
was landed, and being conveyed to a warehouse, the
news was spread by the enemies of freedom through
the city, and a mob was collected who went to
the warehouse to destroy it. Lovejoy and his friends
had taken possession of the warehouse to defend

358

JOHN BROWN.

their property.
The storm of popular violence
arose and swept through the streets and a cry was
raised to burn the warehouse, Lovejoy on hearing
this cry went to the door of the warehouse and presented himself to the crowd to try to allay the excitement, but the infuriated masses were frenzied
with madness, and he was shot dead by a person in
the crowd. This was on the evening of November
7, 1837. When his mother received the tidings of
his death, she exclaimed, " I t is well, I had rather
he should die a martyr in such a cause than he
should prove recreant to his principles/' Lovejoy
was a man of great intellectual ability. In his life,
he was a grand living embodiment of what he professed, preached, or made known by tongue or pen.
And in his death, through the merits of that
Saviour whom he loved and honoured, he received
the martyr's crown.
JOHN BROWN.

This man was both a hero and a martyr. And
when his spirit joined the glorious company of
martyrs who have sealed Christ testimony with
their blood, he left a name which will be eulogised
in history, chanted in song, inscribed on marble,
repeated in household story, and treasured up in
human hearts as the watchword of the free.
John Brown was born at Forrington, Connecticut,
May 9th, 1800. His father was a pious, sincere,

BROWN'S DESIRE FOR THE MINISTRY,

359

devout, and earnest man—a great stammerer, but it
is said, never stammered in prayer. Blest with pious
instruction, Brown soon became the subject of religious impressions. An example was set, principles
inculcated, and prayer offered, which, under God's
blessing, were successful in leading him to chose a
religious life as the most rational, useful, and happy one
that can be spent on earth. At the age of sixteen
he made a public profession of his attachment to
Christ, and became a member of a Congregational
Church at Hudson, Ohio. He firmly and tenaciously
held fast both his profession and principles. And
in his last interview with his wife, he enjoined that
those principles which had been his support and
guide should be impressed on their children and
children's children.
BROWN'S DESIRE FOR THE MINISTRY, AND ITS
ABANDONMENT.

A deep and earnest desire springing up in his
heart to do good and be good, he sought to prepare himself for the ministry; and in the pursuance
of the above object he received preparatory instruction from the late Eev. Moses Hallock of Plainiield,
Massachusetts. At this time he was attacked with
inflammation in his eyes, which ultimately became
chronic, and precluded him from the further pursuit
of his studies. This providence changed his plans
and altered his pursuits in life. And, in advancing

360

HIS NOBLE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES.

life, we find him a tanner, farmer, shepherd, and
ultimately a deliverer of captives, a teacher of righteousness to the nation, and its pattern saint and
martyr.
HIS NOBLE CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES.

He was a man of sweet simplicity, unbending
integrity, unsullied purity, and genuine and unaffected piety. He pre-eminently lived in the love
and fear of Almighty God. The above virtues were
so conspicuous in him, that they raised him on
high, and placed him on a lofty pedestal of moral
worth amongst men. And this was all the more
beautiful because it was rare, and stood out in bold
relief and striking contrast with the race of men
around him, who claimed the honour and homage
of being descendants of noble sires, but lacked
their virtues, principles, sacrifices, and consecrated
zeal. In this respect he was a bright gem in an
age of paste—a huge reality amongst beggarly
shams—a cedar on the mountain-top, seen and
known from afar—God's gapman—a beacon fire, to
light up millions of other fires in the cause of freedom. And such was the depth of his penetration,
soundness of judgment, maturity of principles, consistency of character, unfaltering purpose in life,
and sublime devotion to the cause of his divine
Lord and Master, that it would have been as easy
to^drive a shadow into the centre of a granite block

BEOWN'S EELIGION PEACTICAL.

361

as a pro-slavery thought into his heart. He not
only had a supreme regard to the glories of the
Saviour's divinity, but also to the sorrows of suffering humanity. As our Saviour came from a height
so lofty, to a depth so low, to raise men up from
the deep debasement in which their nature is sunk;
so he went down to the lowest link in connection
with the chain of human existence, to be the means
of their deliverance and elevation, both physically
and spiritually, temporal and future.
BEOWN'S EELIGION PEACTICAL.

Such was his humanity that he would not allow
a white man to endure privation, or suffer injury,
when it was in his power to give relief. On one
occasion, when a neighbour was in distress who
had seen better days, he hit upon an ingenious plan
to convey to him relief. He sent a friend to make
an inquiry if he wanted help, and commissioned his
friend to inform his distressed and suffering neighbour that if he did, John Brown would lend him a
little money. On the assurance of the person who
had been deputed to wait on him, the person in
distress called on Brown, and asked him if he
would do so. Brown inquired "how much would
help him." He replied "thirty dollars." "When
will you be able to repay me/' said Brown.
He
fixed a time. A promissory note was drawn up,
signed, and the money paid. At length the time

362

JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS.

came when the money was to be refunded. And
when the person called on Brown to say that circumstances beyond his control rendered it impossible for him to meet his engagement, Brown
checked him by saying, "not another word, since
my religion teaches me to feed the hungry and
clothe the naked."
JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS.

In the removal of the Missouri Compromise, a
statute which prohibited slavery in " all Territory
of the United States north of thirty-six degrees and
thirty minutes/' the pent up waters of agitation
on the slave question broke forth afresh, and a race
was commenced between the North and South for
the possession of those fertile regions which are
included in, and bounded by the domain of Kansas.
For a season the South outstripped the North in
the race, and " Northern men were driven back,
tarred and feathered, their claims seized, their cabins
burnt down, and themselves ordered to leave the
territory under the penalty of death/' This caused
a furor of excitement in the North. An Emigration Aid Society was formed. Meetings were held.
And Henry Ward Beecher contributed his twentyfive " Holy Rifles" to help on the cause of freedom
in Kansas.
John Brown regarded these stirring events in
God's providence, as a " call" from the Almighty on

BBOWN MADE A CAPTAIN.

363

himself, and on the people in the Free States; and
forthwith girded himself for the arduous conflict
there was before him, in the open door and wide
field for which he had been waiting twenty years.
He at once volunteered, and, on obtaining the
requisite funds, joined his four sons in Kansas, who
had already preceded him to that country. He
established himself at ,Ossawatamie—a place made
illustrious, and will ever be held sacred in remembrance of the heroic deeds of this brave old man.
BBOWN MADE A CAPTAIN.

On the invasion of Lawrence by what were called
the " Border Ruffians," from Missouri, Brown made
his appearance with his four sons in Lawrence,
fully equipped for the contest. A small military
company was formed, and Brown received the
appointment to the command. A compromise,
however, was made by the political men of Kansas
with the invaders, against the most earnest remonstrances of Brown, and a temporary peace was
obtained between the parties, which was soon
annihilated, and the conflict broke out afresh, and
was waged with deadly effect, as by the desultory
warfare practised, many Northern men were murdered in cold blood.

864

BATTLE OF BLACK JACK.

WINGS OF THE SHADOWING FEDERAL EAGLE.

Encouraged by these, Lawrence was laid siege to
a second time. A newly finished hotel, and the
offices and presses of the Northern papers were
destroyed ; property was plundered to a large
amount. And to rapine and lust was added the
violence of murder. Presently a rumour was borne
on the wings of the telegraph, to all parts of the
Continent, of the murder of five persons belonging
to the Border Ruffian party in the Pottawattamie
district. The Missourians, or "Border Ruffians,"
soon made their appearance on the scene. Captain
Brown's party were at the house of Dr. Graham, to
hear preaching and for " prayers," when one of their
watchers came running in, shouting the " Missourians are coming." Presently six Missourians galloped
to the place where they were assembled, when
Brown and his party rushed out of the building,
and took four of them prisoners. The other two
made their way back again with all speed, amid the
whizzing of bullets, to report the capture of their
companions.
BATTLE OF BLACK JACK.

The "Border Ruffians" being encamped in the
neighbourhood, took up their position in the above
place, under the command of Captain H. Clay Pate.

OSSAWATAMIE SACKED.

365

They were about sixty in number. On the side of
Brown there were ,only twenty-six men in all.
On the alarm being given, on the following
morning, that the " abolitionists" were coming, both
parties made ready for battle. Brown attacked
them from two points, drove them from their entrenchments, behind their waggon^, into a ravine,
where they surrendered to this little band of
intrepid devoted men.
OSSAWATAMIE SACKED.

After the battle of Black Jack the Missourians
poured into Kansas in larger numbers. The United
States troops made their appearance on the scene,
released the prisoners taken by Brown, and obtained a promise from the above parties to disperse.
But their word of honour was violated in their
attack on the above place, where they perpetrated
the most atrocious outrages, and practised the most
horrid cruelties; as the " tears and shrieks of terrified women, folded in their polluting embrace, failed
to touch a chord of mercy in their brutal hearts;
whilst the mutilated bodies of men were hung on
trees, or left to rot upon the prairies or deep ravines,
to furnish food for vultures or wild beasts." And
the climax was put upon the above dark scene in
the breaking up of the legislature at Topeka, by the
United States troops.

366

LAWRENCE DEFENDED.

BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENT OF BROWN.

When the dark cloud hung heavy on the prospects of freedom, and the hearts of the free had been
brimmed with tears, Brown, undaunted, husbanded
his resources, and resolved to strike terror into the
hearts of the oppressors. About this time his son
Frederick had been shot dead by a pro-slavery
preacher named White. This roused the brave old
man to an elevation of heroism and grandeur, which
made him daring, impetuous and almost invincible.
With a party of sixteen men he kept in check an
opposing party of five hundred, killing thirty-two,
and wounding fifty others before he gave the order
to retreat, which was done in safety and without
the loss of a single man. In consequence of his
retreat Ossawatamie was sacked and burnt. But
the above feat of bravery turned the tide of success
in favour of the Free State Settlers, which led them
to sweep the invaders from their soil, and preserve
Kansas to freedom.
LAWRENCE DEFENDED.

This place was next attacked by the Border
ruffians. And Brown, who happened, to be in town,
was made commander-in-chief on the occasion.
After stationing his men in different parts of the
city, with his little company of fifty riflemen he

BROWN THE CHILD OF PROVIDENCE.

3G7

took up a position a half mile in advance, on the
prairie where the Border ruffians were encamped in
large numbers. Brown arranged his men from two
to three paces apart from each other, in a line
parallel to the enemy^ and instructed them to lie
down on their faces until the order was given to
fire. A simultaneous movement brought them face
to face. Night came on> but amidst its darkness a
continuous line of fire and rifle balls told with
deadly effect. Assistance was sent from Lawrence,
but before it reached the battle-field the victory was
won, and the little Spartan band had put four hundred to flight.
Brown was thus the grand instrument of scattering these lawless banditti, and giving tranquillity
and peace to the people of Kansas.
BROWN THE CHILD OF PROVIDENCE AND A MAN OF
EARNEST PRAYER.

He was a great observer of God's providences.
This was manifest in his interpretation of the providence which subjected him to the chronic disease
in his eyes when preparing for the ministry, and
when the hordes of despotism broke through the
bonds, to which they subjected themselves in the
Missouri compromise, for the purpose of acquiring
new states, to be blighted with the fearful curse and
woe of human bondage. And God in his good and
gracious providence often observed him. On one

368

BROWN'S DISCRIMINATION.

occasion when reminded that there were parties in
hot pursuit to capture him, with a glance of enthusiasm and defiance in his eye, he said—"Any who
will try to take me and my company are cowards;
and one man in the right ready to die will chase a
thousand. Not less than thirty guns have been
discharged at me, but they have only touched my
hair. A man dies when his time comes. And a
man who fears is born out of time."
He knew where his strength lay. And those
who shared with him in his dangers and toils have
left it on record, that he often retired into the
"densest solitudes to wrestle with God in prayer."
It was in these resources, obtained from the Almighty,
that he acquired the power to string his arm in
grand exercise to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
shelter the outcasts, stand as a wall of fire between
the oppressor and the oppressed, execute God's purposes, and do His will. Prayer was offered up in
all companies of men with which he was connected,
and no food was tasted by him without asking a
divine blessing on it. He had no graceless meals,
and performed no graceless exploits.
BROWN'S DISCRIMINATION.

His keen eye soon detected every artifice, whether
in regard to the avowed resolve of the Free State
men to drive persons of colour out of Kansas; or
of the duplicity and fraud practised by the United

BROWN'S DEEP STRATEGY.

369

States officials, which exposed them to the assaults
of the Border ruffians, and subjected the abolitionists and republicans to such frightful atrocities, and
untold calamities and sufferings. He set himself,
therefore, resolutely against all selfishness of rule
and caste and interest; and nobly battled for freedom and truth for all men, and before all men. He
abhorred all hypocrisy and villainy, and he so mortified and disgusted some Free State Democrats
from Indiana, that they went over bodily to the
pro-slavery party, and joined the " Border ruffians."
The truth, therefore, everywhere flashes forth in the
history of Kansas, that John Brown preserved the
bright angel of liberty from being sacrificed by the
political intrigues of wily demagogues and subservient tools, secretly leagued with the slaveholders
and " Border ruffians/' under the cover and with the
sanction of the United States Government, for the
preservation of slavery.
BROWN'S DEEP STRATEGY.

He frequently entered the camp of invading
forces without raising a suspicion as to what he
was, or what was his object; and, unchallenged,
conversed with them, found out their plans, and
then mysteriously disappeared. On one occasion,
accompanied by two persons, he went out to the
prairies where a number of invaders were encamped,
and pretended to survey the country, when he drove
2A

370

BROWN'S DEEP STRATEGY.

his imaginary lines through the middle of their camp.
At that period all the officials of the United States
Government in Kansas and their understrappers
were "ultra pro-slavery/' and the Border Ruffians
in league with them, These men not doubting that
Brown was a Government surveyor, his "political
orthodoxy was never questioned/' The men in the
camp freely told him their plans. " There was an
old man of the name of Brown/' they said, "who
had several sons here, whom it was necessary to
get out of the way. If they were driven out or
killed the other settlers would be afraid to offer any
resistance They told him that Wilkinson, the
Doyles's, and a Dutchman, named Sherman, had recently been in Missouri, and succeeded in securing forces to drive out the Browns; and that it
was determined to kill them in the latter end of
May. They mentioned several other prominent
Free State men who were to share this fate."
Brown left the camp, notified the settlers who
had been marked out for destruction, of the murderous design of these - Missourians. A meeting
of the intended victims was held ; and it was determined on the first indication of the massacre
" t h a t the Doyles's—a father and two sons—
Wilkinson and Sherman, should be seized, tried
by f Lynch law,' and be summarily executed;"
which in their own self-defence was done by some
party or parties unknown who had charge of the
business.

BROWN MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES.

371

On the evening of the 24th of May 185 8, the houses
of the Browns were invaded, indignities of the
grossest character in word and act were offered
to a daughter and daughter-in-law of Brown,
and vile threats of murder and brutality were used.
They had no means of redress or protection. The
law was in the hands of Wilkinson, one of those
ruffians, who was the magistrate of the district.
Brown had left home for the purpose of procuring
aid, but the sentinels on guard stept in and secured
the miscreants, subjected them to a trial, in which
they confessed their guilt, were ordered to prepare
for death as a warning and example to all midnight
assassins and robbers of the fate which awaited
them, and inspire them with a salutary dread, and
save the community from a repetition of the brutalities and murders which were committed. After
making confession they were allowed time to pray,
and then were executed.
BROWN MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES.

The Scriptures were his constant study, and his
daily meditation. But those passages of Scripture
which refer to the slave so entered his heart, and
became like fire in his bones, that his love and zeal
became intensified on their behalf. And in remembrance of those that are in bonds, and to deliver
some that were drawn unto death, he went into the
State of Missouri, and there, without firing a shot,

372

THRILLING INCIDENTS.

rescued a number of slaves and conducted them to
the Queen's dominions.
" By this act," Brown says, " all pro-slavery, conservative, Free State, dough-face men, were filled
with holy horror," and a price was put upon his
head, premiums were offered for his capture, and a
party organised for his pursuit.
THRILLING INCIDENTS.

To prevent an alarm being given, Brown took
Jarne, a slaveholder, prisoner, and carried him into
the territory of the United States, where he was
released. Whilst on their way, one female who had
been his slave tried to console him, but he was not
to be comforted. On perceiving which the sympathetic negress exclaimed, " Gosh! massa's in a bad
fix—hog no killed—corn no gathered—nigger run
awayi Laws-a-me! What'll massa do?" Another,
who had been rescued, named "Jim," who was
driving an ox4eam, supposed to belong to his
former master, and taken in compensation for unrequited toil, Jim, in charge of the team, asked
one of the liberators, "How far it was to Canada?"
" Twenty-five hundred miles,'' was the reply.
fC
Twenty-five hundred !" Laws-a-massa, not get
dar 'fore spring!" cried Jim, as he raised his heavy
whip and brought it down on the ox's back, and
shouted impatiently, " "Whoa, ha, Buck, get up dar,
glang, Bejlf

ATTACK OF THE PURSUERS AND THEIR FLIGHT.

373

A little boy of the party grasped his father by
the leg and asked, " Hows ye feel, fadder, when
you's free?"
The liberated slaves constituted four families—
one man, his wife, and two children, a widowed
mother, two daughters and a son, a young man, a
boy, and a woman who had been separated from her
husband. When the slaveholder was released, he
served as a clue to put the pursuing party on the
track of the liberators.
They rested for a while in their fortified position
known as "Bain's Fort," on the little Osage in
Kansas. On the 29th of January 1859, they left
for Canada by way of Nebraska with their precious
charge, the number having been increased by the
birth of a child, which was named Captain John
Brown, during their brief residence in Kansas.
ATTACK OF THE PURSUERS AND IGNOMINIOUS FLIGHT.

On the third day of their journey they reached
a place called Holton, which was known as a resting place of " Jim Lane's army." Here a party of
thirty pro-slavery men from Lecompton came so
near them that it was necessary to " halt and make
a defence/' Five white men and three negro men
against thirty!
Brown took possession of two log cabins in the
wood, which they surrounded in the distance, and
whilst in this position a reinforcement of twelve

374

REINFORCEMENT TO HELP BROWN.

joined the attacking party, making forty-two against
eight. Whilst preparing for an assault Brown and
his party issued from the woods for the purpose of
shewing fight, when the pro-slavery Lecompton
banditti turned and fled without a shot being fired,
with the exception of four men who stood their
ground, and they were made prisoners.
Brown caused them to dismount, and put the
negroes on their horses. They swore. He ordered
them to be silent, as he would permit no blasphemy
in his presence. They swore again. "Kneel!"
said the old man, as, with stern earnestness, he drew
his pistol. They knelt down, and he ordered them
to pray. He detained them for five days, and compelled them to pray night and morning.
They
never swore again in the old man's presence. On
returning to Atchison one of them made known the
above incident, when it overwhelmed them with
ridicule which drove them out of the place.
REINFORCEMENT TO HELP BROWN.

News had spread that Brown was surrounded by
the Lecompton Posse of Kidnappers; and from
Topeka a company of forty mounted men were
despatched to help Brown. But on their appearance
Brown had won his victory, and had possession of
his "lawful prey." Some of them advocated that
an example should be made of them, but Brown
resisted. On being released they asked " the old

JOHN BROWN'S SAYINGS,

375

man to restore their horses and weapons." " No,"
said John Brown, gravely. " Your legs will ca,rry
you as fast as you want to run. You will not find
any more old Browns between this and Atchison."
Seventeen of the above reinforcement volunteered to accompany him. As they travelled slowly
along, the men of violence and blood swarmed
around his track, and followed like a pack of
hungry wolves, panting for the price of blood; but
the fear and terror of Sharp's rifles kept them at a
proper distance. In the different villages through
which he passed, he was kindly helped by the
friends of freedom. At Grinnell, a collection in
church was taken up for them. When they reached
Chicago his company disbanded, whilst he with two
others proceeded to Detroit, which place he reached
March 12, 1859, when he immediately crossed over
to the Queen's dominions, and placed his charge
under the lion's mane, secure from the talons of
our American eagle,
JOHN BROWN'S SAYINGS.

In the above remarkable journey, some of his
utterances were treasured up, and afterwards published.
These utterances make him say, " That it was
nothing to die in a good cause; but an eternal disgrace to sifi, still in the presence of the barbarities
of American slavery."

376

JOHN BROWNS SAYINGS.

"Providence/' said he, "has made me an actor,
and slavery an outlaw/'
" A price is on my head, and what is life to me."
" An old man should have more care to end life
well than to live long."
" Duty is the voice of God, and a man is neither
worthy of a good home here, nor a heaven hereafter,
that is not willing to be in peril for a good cause."
" The loss of my family, and the troubles in
Kansas, have shattered my constitution; and I am
nothing to the world but to defend the right, and
that, by God's help, I have done, and will do."
He said, "he scouted the idea of rest, while he
held a commission direct from God Almighty against
slavery."
This scouting of rest led him to,—
" Count that day lost whose low descending sun
Viewed from his hand no worthy action done,"

and soon brought him into more prominent notice,
and placed him before the world as the grandest
"actor in God's providence" ever raised up in
America.
With his " direct commission from the Almighty"
he went on the same sublime mission to Harper's
Ferry. But this time was taken prisoner by the
United States' troops and thrown into prison.
Poor James Buchanan, who ordered out those
troops, has gone down to the fossil remains of
society, where he is unnoticed; or, if noticed, is

HARPER'S FERRY,

877

kicked under the foot as refuse and dung. But
what honour cleaves to the name of the noble
Brown! And how his virtues are being brightly
developed; whilst his character and fame are
historic.
It has been avowed, however, that if Brown had
had those three hundred and eighteen trained servants of the old patriarch Abraham with him, he
would have whipt Virginia and the United States
unitedly.
Multitudes have thought that if the reinforcement expected by Captain Brown from Frederick
Douglas had been at hand, according to arrangement, the issue would have been different, and
Brown's life would have been spared ; or if Brown
had taken Cook's advice, " t o retreat to the mountains with his prisoners, and what arms they could
gather, they would have been able to succeed; and
that, as it was, the enterprise only failed through
the cowardice of the negro abolitionist, Frederick
Douglas, who was to have arrived at the schoolhouse with a large band early on Monday;" but
Cook said, " I conveyed the arms to the schoolhouse for him, and waited till nearly night, but the
coward didn't come."
Such was the information given to the reporters
by the persons who took John Brown and his men
prisoners, and published in the New York Herald,
and other papers at the time. And the taking of
the arms by Cook to the school-house, a place pre-

378

HAEPER'S FERRY.

viously fixed upon, where the above were to repair,
and also Cook's hovering about the above building
on that eventful Monday, give strong circumstantial
evidence in favour of the above report.
" The coward didn't come !" There is the sting
for the man who, on a great public occasion,
stretched out his brawny arms, and pleaded for the
necessity of brute force, whilst a female negro cried
out, " Is God dead, Fred ¥'
As it was, Brown nobly contested the scene with
his heroic party of seventeen men against overwhelming odds. For two days two thousand Virginians
were awed into submission by this noble band of
men, and held in " durance vile." And when the
troops of two States were gathered against them,
they barricaded themselves in the United States
Armoury, until their stronghold was forced by the
United States troops, when many of them fell
covered with wounds. Captain Brown was here in
the thick of the fight. With one son dead by his
side, and another dying, he felt the pulse of his
dying son with one hand, and held his rifle with
the other, commanding his men with the utmost
composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell
their lives as dearly as possible.
When the affray began, Brown urged the
prisoners to keep themselves out of the reach of
danger. At its close he received a severe bayonet
wound in his side, and when brought out with the
rest that were taken prisoners, his face and hair

THE THERMOPYL^ OF AMERICA.

379

were clotted with blood. Thus Brown, "finding
himself abandoned, fought with a handful of heroic
men, struggled, fell, himself riddled with bullets,
his two sons, martyrs of a holy cause, dead at his
side." This was Harper's Ferry ! The Thermopylae
of America!
The news was flashed along the wires. The
most intense excitement and interest was everywhere awakened. Every incident was treasured
up, and with the greatest eagerness and anxiety
the world looked forward to the coming trial of
this heroic man; multitudes " crying away with him,
crucify him." Others exclaiming " let no man pray
that Brown be spared. Let Virginia make him a
martyr. Now he has only blundered. His soul
was noble. His work miserable. But a cord and
gibbet would redeem that, and round up Brown's
failure with a heroic success." Whilst others of us,
knowing that as Brown was placed in the ravenous
jaws of Virginian slave-holders, by the United
States authorities, felt that Brown's fate was foreshadowed ; and that, whilst our prayers ascended to
God on his behalf, nothing was left for us but to fling
the tribute of homage to his romantic genius, high
daring chivalry, and sublime moral worth, since John
Brown was heroically true to his mission, conscience, country, and God. Prospectively, therefore,
we could sing that he was right on the scaffold.
" But that scaffold sways the future, and hehind the dim unknown,
Standeth God, within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."

380

HARPER'S FERRY ENGINE HOUSE.

SCENE IN THE HARPER'S FERRY ENGINE HOUSE.

Immediately on Brown being captured, Governor
Wise, Senator Mason, Johnston, a United States
Marshall — Vallandigain, a Member of Congress
from Ohio, and others, visited him in the above
place. A number of questions were put to him, to
which he made noble replies. Being asked " what
was his object in coming to Harper's Ferry, he at
once replied, to free the slaves. How do you justify
your acts ? You, the slaveholders, are guilty of a
great wrong against God and humanity. I say it
without wishing to be offensive, and it would be
perfectly right for any one to interfere with you, so
far as to free those you wilfully and wickedly hold
in bondage. I hold that the golden rule, do unto
others as you would that others should do unto you,
applies to all who would help others to gain their
liberty."
To the questions, " do you believe in the Bible,
he replied, Certainly I do. Did you get up this
expedition yourself? I did. Do you consider this
a religious movement! I t is, in my opinion, the
greatest service a man can render unto his God.
Do you consider yourself an instrument in the
hands of Providence ? I do. I was here carrying
out a measure which I deem perfectly justifiable,
and not to act the part of an incendiary or ruffian ;
but, on the contrary, to aid those suffering under a

BROWN'S HASTY TRIAL.

381

great wrong. I wish to say, furthermore, that you
had better all—you people of the South—prepare
yourselves for a settlement of this question.
It
must come up for settlement sooner than you are
prepared for it, and the sooner you commence that
preparation the better for you/' During the above
conversation, Brown "lay on the floor/' his gray
hair matted and tangled, his hands and clothes
smeared with blood and begrimed with dirt, the
effect of continued exposure to the smoke of powder.
And yet, the reporters tell us, " that his conversation
was courteous and affable, and that he appeared to
make a favourable impression on his visitors/' as
Governor Wise, on retiring from the scene, said
" that he was the gamest man that he ever saw."
BROWN'S HASTY TRIAL.

He had revealed to the world the weakness of
the slaveholder's cause, and excited their unmanly
fears. The most terrible apparitions, phantoms,
and nightmares haunted them, and as Victor Hugo
has graphically said, "Brown stretched upon a
truckle bed with six half closed wounds—a gun
shot wound in his arm, one in his loins, two in the
chest, two in the head—almost bereft of hearing,
bleeding through his mattress—the spirits of his
two dead sons attending him—his four fellowprisoners crawling around him—Stevens with four
sabre wounds—-justice in a hurry to have done

382

BROWN'S NOBLE REPLY.

with the case—an attorney, Hunter, demanding that
it be despatched with sharp speed—Judge Parker
assenting—the defence cut short—scarcely any
delay allowed—forged or garbled documents put in
evidence—witnesses for the prisoner shut out—the
defence clogged—two guns loaded with grape
brought into Court, with an order to jailors to
shoot the prisoners in case of an attempt at rescue
—forty minutes' deliberation—then sentenced to
death/' To the above, add the trial of Faithful in
Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and you have a perfect exhibition of the mockery and insult of the
trial of John Brown, five days after he was consigned to prison on the charge of treason.
BROWN'S NOBLE PROTEST.

In connection with the above trial there are two
things worthy of note.
When Brown was brought into Court he addressed the Court as follows :—" Virginians, I did
not ask for any quarter at the time I was taken, I
did not ask to have my life spared. The Governor
of the State of Virginia tendered me his assurance
that I should have a fair trial, but under no circumstances will I be able to attend my trial. If you
seek my blood you can have it any moment without
this mockery of a trial. I have had no counsel.
I have not been able to advise with any one, know
nothing about the feelings of my fellow-prisoners,

BROWN'S DEFENCE.

383

and am utterly unable to attend in any way to my
defence. My memory don't serve me. My health
is insn fficient, although improving. If a fair trial is to
be allowed us, there are mitigating circumstances I
urge in our favour* But if we are to be forced with
a mere form of a trial for execution, you might
spare yourselves that trouble. I am ready for my
fate* I do not ask a trial, I beg for no mockery of
a trial—no insult-—nothing but that which conscience gives or cowardice would drive you to
practice. I ask again to be excused from the
mockery of a trial. I do not know what the special
design of this examination is. I do not know what
is to be the benefit of it to the Commonwealth. I
have now little further to ask, other than that I
may not be foolishly insulted, only as cowardly
barbarians insult those who fall into their power 1"
What a noble protest against such mockery.
Brown's address to the Court was more noble
still.
BROWN'S DEFENCE.

" May it please the Court I have, a few words to
say :—
" I n the first place, I deny everything but what
I have all along admitted—the design on my part
to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have
made a clear thing of the matter, as I did last
winter, when I went into Missouri, and there took

384

BROWN'S DEFENCE.

slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side,
moved them through the country, and finally left
them in Canada. I designed to have done the
same thing again on a larger scale. That was all
I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason,
or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite
slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.
" I have another objection. That i s : It is
unjust I should suffer such a penalty. Had I
interfered in the manner which I admit, and which
I admit has been fairly proved—had I so interfered
on behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent,
the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their
friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife,
or children, or any of that class, and suffered and
sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would
have been all right, and every man in this Court
would have deemed it an act worthy of reward
rather than punishment. This Court acknowledges,
I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a
book kissed here, which I suppose to be the Bible,
or, at least, the New Testament. That teaches me
that 'all things whatsoever I would that men
should do unto me, I should do even so to them.'
I t teaches me further to remember them that are in
bonds as being bound with them. I endeavoured
to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too
young to understand that God is any respecter of
persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have
done, as I have always freely admitted I have done,

BROWN IN PRISON.

385

in behalf of this despised poor, was not wrong but
right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I
should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends
of justice, and mingle my blood with the blood of
my children, and with the blood of millions in this
slave country, whose rights are disregarded by
wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit.
So let it be done."
These were noble words, and ought to be written
in letters of burning light to be scattered on the
pathway of life. Thus it was he appealed to the
better judgment of these men and the noblest feelings of their nature. But, alas! in vain. Whilst,
however, the appeal will go down to the last
syllable of recorded time, as the utterance of one
of earth's noblest heroes and martyrs, the name of
Judge Eichard Parker, who pronounced on him the
dark decree of death, will be covered with infamy.
BROWN IN PRISON,

Numbers of slaveholders visited him in prison,
and among them Governor Wise. Some of them
called him a robber and a pirate. , He at once, with
the utmost self-possession of mind, indignantly repelled the charge, saying, "Ton, the slaveholders,
are the robbers." Governor Wise rebuked him,
saying, " He had better not make those hard allusions, as his grey hair was crimsoned with blood,
and devote his time to a suitable preparation for
2B

386

BROWN IN PRISON.

another world/' Brown observed, that " there was
an eternity in tr±e past, and an eternity to come,
and this world was only a little speck in the middle.
I am prepared for the eternity to come, but you,
Governor Wise, have got to begin; and as he
thought he would not survive him more than
thirty years> he had better give up his sin of
slavery and attend to the interests of his soul/'
And Brown was right, for he felt that no person
could be so educated into the belief that slavery
could be right, when the instincts of their own
natures, conclusions arising from principles of natural justice, and the bright blaze of light flashing
from the full orbed precepts of Christianity, told
them that it was inherently sinful and wrong.
He, therefore, was no believer in the Shelbys of
Uncle Tom; or that, men,, whether they were called
pious or profane, could hold property in man and
be guiltless, or had a claim to our respect and
esteem, for the fairest side of slave life, with all its
" easy indulgence and good-natured forbearance," is
marked and spotted with the dark ulcerous stains
of crime. What a position for Mrs Stowe to
assume as the apologist of sin and the conniver at
crime! To what disadvantage, therefore, Mrs Stowe
appears in the presence of John Brown. When
Colonel Smith asked him in the jail " as to whether
he had any desire to have a clergyman to administer
to him the consolations of religion," Brown said,
" he did not recognise any slaveholder, lay or cle-

BROWN IN PRISON.

887

rical, or any man sympathising with slavery, as a
Christian, and would as soon be attended to the
scaffold by blacklegs and robbers of the worst kind
as by slaveholding ministers, or ministers sympathising with slavery, and that if he had his choice he
would prefer being followed to the scaffold by largefooted, bare-legged, ragged negro children, and their
old grey-headed slave mother than by clergymen
of this character." And when a number of proslavery clergymen visited him in jail, and offered to
pray for him, to one he said his "prayers would be
an abomination;" to another, that " he would not
insult his God by bowing down with one who had
the blood of the slave on his skirts;" and to the third
he said, " I respect you as a gentleman, but it is as
a heathen gentleman."
He had no sympathy with "easy indulgences,
and good natured forbearances" with such criminality.
When the day arrived that he was to be hung,
he took leave of his fellow-prisoners, and then commenced his journey to the scaffold. On coming
outside the gates, a black woman with a child in
her arms stood near his path. He paused for a
moment, and with the tenderness of one whose love
was as " broad as the brotherhood of man," he took
up the child and kissed it affectionately. " God
bless you," cried the black woman, " I wish I could
help you, but I cannot." As he passed along with
cheerful step, radiant countenance, and a tender,

388

BEOWN ON THE SCAFFOLD.

loving heart, a Mr Saddler, one of the procession
said, "You are a game man, Captain Brown."
" Yes," said he, " I was so trained up; it was one
of the lessons of my mother, but it is hard to part
from friends though newly made." "You are more
cheerful than I am, Captain Brown," responded Mr
Saddler. " Yes," said the brave old man, " I ought
to be."
As the procession entered the field where he was
to die, he saw a vast concourse of military men, but
with his discriminating eye, he remarked, " I see
no citizens here; where are they?" "The citizens
are not allowed to be present, none but the troops,"
was the reply. " That ought not to be," said Brown,
" citizens should be allowed to be present as well
as others." On the scaffold being reached, he bid
his attendants "good bye," and with unfaltering
step, mounted the scaffold, and there with calm
eye and majestic mien surveyed the scene before
him, impressing all with the dignity of his bearing,
his courageous fortitude, and insensibility to fear.
With graceful motion he took off his hat and threw
it on the platform, and prepared himself for death.
And when his elbows and ankles were pinioned,
the white cap drawn over his eyes, the hangman's
rope adjusted around his neck, and all made ready
for his triumphant death, the Sheriff asked, " shall
I give you a handkerchief and let you drop it as a
signal V9 " No," said the glorious martyr, " I am
ready at any time; do not keep me needlessly wait-

BBOWN'S EXECUTION.

389

ing." In mockery, however, of some imaginary foe,
the execution was stayed by a martial order, "not
ready yet/' when a vast military show of parade
and sham display began under the orders of the
commanding officer. On this being ended, the
order of execution was given. And as the rope was
severed with a hatchet, the trap fell, and its hinges
gave a wailing creak, and he was launched into
eternity.
Thus lived and died this man of God, who to a
blameless life combined a victor's death. How
noble thus to die in a cause so holy and divine,
and in honour of the noble principles of justice,
truth, and liberty. Who would not take his place
against the chances for another world of all the
slaveholders and their abettors and promoters that
have ever lived? And what ignominy is there in
a scaffold whose steps lead triumphantly to the
throne of God, or a prison which is exchanged for
a palace of glory in heaven? In such a case the
cap is transformed into a crown unfading bright,
and the pinions on his arms to a sceptre of immortality. But with the creaking of those hinges
another sound rose on the breeze, not only expressive of the grief that rose from sympathising hearts,
but of victory.
" They may hang him on a gibbet, they may raise the victor's ery,
When they see him darkly swinging like a speck against the sky;
A h ! the dying of a hero, that the right may win its way,
Is but sowing seed for harvest in a warm and mellow May!

890

BKOWN'S ENEMIES.

Now his story shall be whispered by the fire light's erening
glow,
And in fields of rice and cotton, where the hot noon passes slow,
Till his name shall be a watchword from Missouri to the sea,
And his planting find its reaping in the birth-day of the free!"

To counteract, however, the influence of this
noble martyr, numbers cried " crazy/' "madman."
But was Leonidas crazy in the pass of Thermopylae? or Arnold at Winkelreid, when he gathered
in his side the fatal " sheaf of Austrian spears," and
perished hefore them ? And can we call that man
mad who dropt like a bombshell into the bastile of
slavery at Harper's Ferry, shook its mighty bulwarks to their foundation, sent a terror through the
hearts of tyrant despots, and created a panic in
their ranks? No. And the sword which he held
in his hand on the whole of that prophetic Monday, when he defended himself in the armoury of
the United States, with his little band of noble men
-r-that sword which was presented by Frederick
the Great to General Washington, bearing the inscription, "from the oldest general in the world,
to the greatest," its history now proclaims that
from Washington the greatest general, it had descended to John Brown, one of the purest and
kindest.
False shepherds, like the Eev. J. B. Taylor of
Richmond, Virginia, with the synoirism of kindness,
and wisdom of counsels, placed to their account by
the Boston Watchman and Reflector, June 7, 1860,

THEIR FALSE TESTIMONY.

391

stuffed Brown's dead lips with blasphemous sentiments, putting into his mouth the most monstrous
falsehoods, which made him say, "Christ was a
pretty good teacher, plenty of others like him, I
don't believe Him as a Saviour, I don't want anybody else to bear my sins, I am not such an extra
sinner, etc." How dexterous was this move on the
part of the enemies of freedom, hoping thereby to blast
his fame, ancl destroy his reputation I But the
grand religious elements of his character, which had
been the ruling motive of his life, made him a
Christian patriarch in his family, a consistent
member of the church to which he belonged, an
earnest expounder of God's truth, both in public
and private, as opportunity presented ilself, and a
faithful martyr to his principles, so that these false
shepherds are just as much at discount in their
testimony as the Papists in the case of Luther and
the early Reformers—Sir Walter Scott in the case
of the Covenanters—or the Puritans in the case of
the immortal Roger Williams.
Others cried "traitor!" But where was his treason?
And in what did it consist ? If to release or deliver
slaves unrighteously held in bondage as property,
be treason, then the patriarch Abraham ought to
have been hung when he armed his hired servants,
pursued Chedorlaomer, and rescued his brother Lot.
John Brown could not commit treason in seeking
the deliverance of captives, because the law of God
required it, and his obedience to it demanded that

392

JUDGE CONWAY'S DEFENCE OF BKOWN.

he should set at nought all the wicked desires of
men as unrighteous and forbidden of God.
There were those, however, who charged him with
the murder of Doyle and others. But he has received a triumphant acquittal at the bar of public
opinion and justice.
The author's remark in the case of Lord Shaftesbury applies to living men. John Brown terminated
his career under dark and heavy clouds of misrepresentation, associated with torrents of abuse which
came down upon him on every side, swelled up
against him and threatened in one mighty deluge
to sweep him away. Interested and heated passion
did its worst to conceal his virtues, misrepresent
his opinions, destroy his usefulness, and injure his
character. But now this is entombed with him in
the grave. A change has come over the scene.
His name is the synonym of all that is great and
good. His sayings are household words. And
the multitudes who shouted, " crucify him," are now
celebrating his virtues and noble deeds in heroic
song. John Brown when living had been charged
with the death of Doyle and others. But no
sooner was he hung on the scaffold than the following vindication of his character appeared from the
pen of Judge Conway :—-

VINDICATION OF JOHN BROWN.

393

VINDICATION OF JOHN BROWN.
TESTIMONY OF
JUDGE CONWAY, OF KANSAS.

The following letter from Judge Conway, of
Kansas, in vindication of the memory of John
Brown, appears in the Boston Journal:—
" SIR,—-I am very much surprised to find, in a
late number of your paper, a letter from your
excellent correspondent, A. D. Richardson, Esq., in
which my name is used to corroborate a most
atrocious slander upon the memory of old John
Brown, of Osawatamie. Mr. Richardson does not
himself indorse this wicked calumny, but refers to a
conversation he had with me, in which he says that
I informed him that Brown admitted to me that he
was engaged in the killing of Doyle and others, on
Potawatamie bank> in 1856. He also cites a conversation with Captain Walker, to the same effect.
This, sir, is a mistake, so far as it relates to me,
which I cannot see how a gentleman of Mr Richardson's intelligence could contrive to fall into. Mr.
Richardson must, therefore, pardon the directness of
my answer, when I assure him emphatically that I
never told him any such thing. Captain Walker
will also pardon me, when I say to him, most
courteously, that I do not believe that Brown ever
told him any such thing. It is, indeed, a wonderful circumstance, taken from any point of view, how
many persons have recently sprung up to whom

394

VINDICATION OF JOHN BROWN.

John Brown long since confided a dreadful secret—
a secret which, if exposed, would have cost him his
life, and which, not being exposed, made any one
in it liable to the penalties of a capital offence.
And still more wonderful, that those persons are of
a class with which Brown never had any sympathy,
and toward which he always maintained a profound
aversion!
" These witnesses are certainly too swift. They
pretend to have been the bosom friends of the old
man • to have shared with him the most awful
secret of his soul, and yet they are among the
loudest in execration of his memory. They pretend
to be in possession of a secret which could only
have been conveyed under bonds of the most sacred
private friendship ; and yet they are ready to expose
this secret to blacken the name of their friend. This
is unnatural and impossible; I distrust all such testimony? From what I know, I am convinced that
Brown never had any personal participation in the
hilling of the men on the Potawatamie, and that, of
course, he never told anybody he had. My recollection of what I said to Mr Richardson, on this topic,
is very distinct, and to this effect--—namely, that
John Brown said to me in Boston, two years prior,
that he was not at the killing on the Potawatamie,
but that he approved it. Mr. Eichardson could not
have been doing me the honour of giving me his
attention at the time, or he would not so have misapprehended me. This statement made to me by

VINDICATION OF JOHN BBOWN.

395

Brown was precisely the same made by him to all
his best and most confidential friends touching the
subject, and may be very safely taken for the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in the
matter.
" The fearful story of his seizing five or six men
in their beds at night, tearing them away from the
arms of their weeping wives and children, killing
them by slow degrees, within hearing of their
families, and then wantonly mutilating their dead
bodies, was invented and propagated by one of the
most notoriously lying rascals in the United States ;
an individual who has been doing all manner of
base work for three years past, in this vicinity, for
the Democratic party, and getting paid for his
wretched services in hard cash. It was of course
seized on by all the enemies of Old Osawatamie as
soon as it appeared, and hawked about the country
as embodying the indubitable record of the € Potawatamie Massacre/ But it is utterly unworthy of
credit, and should be discarded by every honourable
mind as a malignant attempt to injure the fame of
one who, whatever, in the estimation of some, may
have been his errors or his crimes, was the purest
embodiment which the country affords of exalted
self-sacrifice; and, as such, dear to any friend of
humanity.
" It may, perhaps, add something to the estimation in which this tragical romance of the Potawatamie should be held, to inform the public that,

396

BROWN'S VIRTUES AND CHARACTER

since it was first published, the author has fled the
country in disgrace. The weekly journal edited
here by him has become extinct, and his wife
has filed a petition in the County Court, praying for a divorce, charging him with being an
' inhuman monster,' which, from my own knowledge
of the animal, I will very promptly testify to, if
summoned as a witness in the case. Eetributive
justice is sometimes speedy, as well as always sure.
Very respectfully, yours,
M. F. CONWAY."
LAWRENCE, K. T., Jan.

23,

1860.

When John Brown was questioned in regard to
the above murders before his death, he said, " I
had no hand in it, but, in view of the circumstances
of the case, endorsed i t ; and that time and the
honest verdict of posterity would approve every act
of his."
The efforts of his enemies, therefore, were completely thwarted in their attempts to fix the stigma
of reproach c-n his name. And his name, like his
noble virtues and manly character, will be endeared
to myriads yet unborn. But the example of his
personal activity and usefulness have left a mighty
track behind it on the ocean waves of life, which
will quicken thought, lead men to institute deep
searchings of heart on account of sin, and deep sorrow therefor—to make Christ their only hope and
trust, and cherish a manly and open avowal of
attachment to Him—to show the heavenly origin

BROWN'S NOBLE PIETY.

3 9"
J

of the divine life, which Christians claim in thei]
purity, the holiness of the heart evincing itself ii
the holiness of the life; their spirituality, foundec
on a vivid realisation of unseen and eternal things
and the recognition of God in everything; in theii
meekness under provocation, gentleness amidsl
strife, forbearance and endurance whilst suffering
wrongfully, not "eager for a martyr's name, bm
willing to bear a martyr's sorrows amidst a martyr'*
ignominy;" and in zeal enlightened with knowledge
strengthened with fortitude, tinctured with pru
dence, and enflamed with love and holy boldnes;
in the diffusion of the knowledge and influence o
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in seeking to remov<
all obstructions which impede its progress. N<
man understood better the law of happiness, whicl
led him beyond himself to promote the good o
others, than John Brown. He was not slow t(
learn from nature. For the sun shineth not fo]
itself. The rivers flow not for themselves. Anc
the cattle on a thousand hills browse not for them
selves. In nature everything is tributary, Anc
so it is in grace. For those that are made gooc
must evidence this by doing good, in imitation o
Christ who went about doing good, not speculating
about it, but effecting it—doing good, not periodi
cally, but incessantly and systematically, making i
the element of their being and bliss.
Here was the secret of John Brown's strengtl
and usefulness. In a pre-eminent degree he mad

398

THE LATE EEV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

the cross of Christ his resting place, and the glory
of Christ his aim. He not only owned Christ as
his Saviour, but, in an extraordinary degree, walked
in his steps. This threw a peculiar charm around
him when on earth—made bright his prospects for
another world—filled him with joyous hope in view
of death—secured for him a triumphant exit when
he bade adieu to the sorrows of this life, in his departure from this world to heaven, where he has
exchanged the mists and clouds of earth for the
full blaze of the heavenly glory; and it caused him
to leave a rich legacy of principles behind him,
which, to use his own language, are more " precious
than a crown set in a socket of gold."
His epitaph is not yet filled up,
" But though the sceptic's tongue deride
This martyr who for conscience died;
Yet, long for him the poet's lyre,
Shall wake its notes of heavenly lire.
His name shall nerve the patriot's hand,
Upraised to save a falling land;
And piety shall learn to burn
With holier transports o'er his urn."

THE LATE REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

This honoured minister was driven from his
church and congregation, as Eector of the Church
of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, for preaching a sermon on "National Sins and National Duties," on
the evening of Lord's day, June 29, 1 8 5 6 ; nearly

THE LATE EEV* DUDLEY A. TYNG.

SO9

the only service1 which he ever rendered to the
cause of freedom, but which noble act has made
his name fragrant, and secured for it a place in the
niche of immortality.
During the delivery of the above sermon, he was
publicly interrupted by some of the members of his
church and congregation, and afterwards, in a
vestry meeting, September 15, 1856, they sought
to justify the above act, alleging that the interruption was " demanded by the unprecedented character of the discourse, both the subject and manner
of treatment being unsuited for the Lord's day and
the sanctuary. And as the above resolution was
allowed to be put on record by the vestry, though
not adopted by them; the following exceptions
were directed by the late Kector to the vestry of
his church, to be inserted on the minutes, to wit:
" That they describe him as introducing sectional
politics into the pulpit, when, in defence of suffering humanity, his theme was National Sins and
National Duties, a theme in his view entirely
becoming one commissioned to reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.
" That such censure is beyond the pale of the
legitimate action of a Vestry, inasmuch as nowhere,
either by the Constitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church, by the charter and byelaws of the Church of the Epiphany, or by the
fundamental principles of the church of Christ, are

400

THE LATE REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

the members of a vestry invested with any censorship of the pulpit.
" That he would further declare, with all deference
for the recorded disapprobation of those whose approval he would gladly have in his official action,
that in the preparation and delivery of the said discourse on our ' Country's Troubles/ he acted under
a solemn sense of his duty to God and his country,
and the souls of his hearers ; and that now, after a
careful review of all the circumstances, he stands
justified therefor at the bar of his own conscience.
•Hoping that the vestry will not deny him the
privilege of recording, for those who shall come after,
this defence of his conduct, he remains, in the bonds
of charity, their fellow-servant in Christ, Dudley A.
Tyng, Eector of the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia."
" Sectional Politics " was the badge of dishonour
and infamy sought to be put on this noble
minister by the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites
who rose against him, and tried to blast his reputation. But nobly did he repel the charge, and lift
up his emblazoned shield to defend himself from
their attacks. The above class of men are numerous
in America, and the author has met with some of
a similar spirit in this country. If you approach
them, and try to interest them in behalf of suffering
humanity, they will meet you with dark withering
frowns, shrugged-up shoulders, and fling the uncouth
word "no answer," from tongue of fiery hate, or
drop it from their lips of icicle; or more uncouth

THE LATE BEV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

401

still, present the barbed arrow " we don't know you,
and we don't care to know you."
" National sins and national duties" was Dudley
Tyng's theme, and what more appropriate, or
more necessary, and as he said, becoming one commissioned to reason of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come? Acts xxiy. 25. The theme
was unusual and startling in a slumbering church
and nation, and as unexpected in an Episcopal
church " whose unbroken unity/' Dr Cheever says,
" was supposed to be as sacred and insured from the
intrusion of such a pestilence of benevolent fanaticism as the quarantine at Canada, or the North
Pole itself in the dead of winter from an incursion
of yellow fever."
The theme was most noble,
With such a theme the " greater ascendancy of our
religious influence and power of our clergy" ought
to have put our nation, if not on an equally " intellectual and moral superiority" with yourselves as
Mrs Stowe claims for them in her key to Uncle
Tom—if it could have done 'this it surely ought to
have stepped forth holding in its hands the censer
of God that the plague of God's wrath might have
been restrained or stayed. But alas ! for Mrs
Stowe, her brother Henry Ward Beecher, our American clergy, the "religious ascendancy of our nation,"
and the "more powerful clergy," amongst the nations
when the judgments of God are necessary to bury
us in one common ruin.
And innumerable precedents are furnished to
2c

402

THE LATE EEV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

justify him at the bar of conscience^ as in the
case of Paul at the bar of Felix, when by his persuasive eloquence, pertinents illustrations and faithful applications of the truth of" God he made Felix
tremble on his judgment seat-^-Paul a prisoner at
his bar, and yet Paul the preacher, and the judge
the convict! Nor a#e there wanting examples in
more recent times. Biography gives us records of
noble characters illustrative of noble men who
knew their Master's will, and knowing dared to
avow it. On March 11, 1797, Dr. Eippon preached
a sermon " on Cruelty a natural and inseparable
consequence of Slavery, and both diametrically
opposed to the Doctrine and Spirit of the Christian
religion." His text was Ps. lx. 16, The Rev.
John Lidden of Hemel Hempstead, Herts, about the
same period, preached a sermon "on Compassion
the Duty and Dignity of Man,, and Cruelty a disgrace of his nature, from Jer., 1. 33. But above all
there is the example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who opened the roll of His commission, and
solemnly and earnestly read the sublime description
of his own character and work as the emancipator
of men. Luke iv. 18, 19.
This conscientious and faithful discharge of duty
brought down upon the Eev. Dudley A. Tyng not
only the political brand referred to, but the open
censure and rebuke of his parishioners. And why ?
For doing what Dudley Tyng believed the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church—the

THE LATE REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

403

bye-laws of the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia—the word of God—and his own conscience
required him. to. do. The author knows little of the
first, and less of the second. But from a more intimate acquaintance with the Word of God and the
rights of conscience, he unhesitatingly avows that
it is beyond the legitimate action of any party or
parties in Church or State to interrupt, censure, or
seek to injure a man for doing what he deems in
his conscience a duty, and an intelligent belief that
what he does is in accordance with the revealed
will of God—not making his conscience the rule,
but the broad definite utterances of the Almighty
inscribed on the scroll of Holy Writ; which read,
" It is written; it is written; thus saith the
Lord."
There is some sense in an appeal to the law and
the testimony; but there is none in tongues of
fiery abuse, or slamming of vestry doors. But when
the irrational and vulgar appeals come, we will
cry—
" If on my head for Christ's dear name,
Shame and reproaches he,
All hail reproach and welcome shame,
If Christ remember, me.'

" Open thy mouth wide for the dumb," saith
Jehovah. And the command is re-echoed for the
dumb in Hungary, Poland, and the supposed dumb
in Ireland. But when the mouths of some have
been opened for the dumb slave there are some of

404

THE LATE REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

us can attest with the late Dudley A. Tyng that
voices bellowing like thunder have woke up on
every side not only in the dark'and degraded South,
but in our " moral and religious North/' exclaiming, " what will this babbler say, shut him up, cast
him out, put a mark on his forehead, club him,
scatter every vestige of his reputation to the winds,
and hunt him to death."
" He that hath a dream, let him tell a dream,"
said the old prophet.
But let him not proclaim it as the Word of God
when it is only a dream.
He that hath a fact let him communicate it
whether in America or Scotland, in imitation of
Solomon, Ecclesiastes iv. 1., for all trnth has its
relative importance and bearings upon the cause of
Jesus Christ; and none more interesting or important is, or can be with greater interest fraught, or
of richer value, or of greater esteem to man, than
those which take in, assuage, alleviate, bind up,
soften, comfort, sustain, or remove sources of deepest
sorrow or poignant earthly grief amongst the human race. God's glory is enhanced, his kindness
made more kind, whilst his benevolence and love
are more conspicuous and with brighter lustre
shine, when His Almighty arm brings sweet relief to
those who have no other source of comfort, hope, or
love to call their own. For such are poor indeed
who have no earthly friend, whose dearest ties are

THE LATE EEV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

405

often severed, crushed down with sorrow, and bereft of hope.
"Remember them that are in bonds/' is the
divine cemmand. Under the sun's bright effulgence,
the softer radiance of the moon, at morning's early
dawn, and amidst the darkness of the evening shade
remember them, feeling as though their sorrows
and their chains were all your own. On the house
tops proclaim their burdens and their griefs. By
the wayside forget them not; around the social
hearth remember them and in the railway car, on
land or sea, in the forum or the chamber of the
senate, but above all, and beyond all other places,
scenes, or spots on earth, be this your thought, aim,
purpose, desire, and prayer to remember them when
you go up and stand in God's most holy place, his
blessed sanctuary, the place of His delight. It is at
your peril you forget them there. But may you
not ask the squire, lordly deacons, the Right Rev.
Bishops, or the Pope? No. You must not ask
them if you may speak, or if they will hear, but
speak the Word—the Word which God hath given,
with utterance clear, deep, broad, definite, grand,
majestic, divine as the God and everlasting Father
of us all, the Prince of Peace, that none might here
mistake their calling, or their way, misinterpret
His vast purposes of love or merciful designs towards men. Unclasp the book, or unfurl the roll,
and as you read, or make known to men God's
mind and will, point to the bright record which

406

THE LATE REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG.

can never be erased or blotted out by wicked priest
or king. For "it is written, it is written"—written
so that men might not diverge to right or left—
written so that you may fix your eye with steady
purpose and determined will on God's most holy
hill and oracle divine—written that when men
near God's will made known you may catch the
softest, sweetest whispers of his approving love, or
bend down the soul to His almighty power, with
supreme regard amid the thunder tones of his rebuke, gladly confessing that you know no other
will. For it is his prerogative to command, yours
to obey. And oh! what happiness is linked with
knowledge such as this and obedience sincere.
Tyrants may oppose, bigots frown, dark plots be
conceived, deep stratagems with subtle skill laid to
ensnare and ruin, and crowds infuriated may cry
traitor, fanatical preacher, imprudent political madman, let him be marked, rejected, deserted, and
disgraced.
" But let the hostile lion roar,
How vain his threats appear!
He cannot match Jehovah's power,
Then wherefore should I fear ?"

Yea, even then, his joys are crystallised with his
tears, his drops of grief made big with rivers of
delight, and his imprisoned sighs exchanged for
songs of noble praise.
Such was theEev.DudleyA.Tyng,of Philadelphia.
Thus thought, spake, felt, and lived that holy man

REV. B. M. CONWAY.

407

of God. And as the Rock of Ages was the centre
of his every hope and trust in life, even so in death
it was the threshold of his everlasting bliss.
Calmly he lay down to die. Sweetly he commended his sorrowing wife and friends to his
blessed Lord and Master, and resigned himself into
His hands. And with the song of bliss on his lips :—
" Rock of Ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee"—

he bounded over the deep dark gulph of death, into
the sea of bliss beyond, inconceivable, unfathomable,
where he has gone to hide himself in Christ—and
to be with him. "Let me die the death of the
righteous, and my last end be like his." Num.
xxiii. 10.

REV. B. M. OONWAY.

Conway has long been well and favourably known
in the cause of freedom. And the author has an
abundance of material in his possession to shew the
nobility of the principles which he has cherished
and the sentiments h,ehas diffused; his promptitude
to seize on all passing events, and to embrace every
opportunity in his power to rouse a slumbering
church to a sense of its duty, and save his country
from that inevitable abyss of ruin into which it has
been so long drifting. In a noble comment on the
act of Bishop Alonzo Potter, already referred to, in

408

KEV. D< M. CONWAY.

connection with the " Christus Consolator" of Ary
Scheffer, the artist, he says—" It is our mission to
engrave the complete ' Christus Consolator' on the
heart of America, to restore the figure of the fettered
negro back to the place from which the unchristian
church has erased him. We must paint that picture
on the land, though, if need be, our heart's blood
go for pigment, I am glad that literature and art
have expurgated the negro. It is the outspeaking
of a fact. He is erased there because he is erased
from the heart and conscience of the popular church.
If he had been left in the Pennsylvania Prayer
Book, it would have been a falsehood. Be ours,
therefore, the sublime enterprise of restoring that
effaced figure, to print the complete frontispiece on
every heart within its pale of influence, to do away
with a spurious and expurgated Christianity."
What utterances were ever better adapted to
smite down the huge imposture touching colour,
which our American people are now trying with
such artfulness and earnestness to impose on themselves and the credulity of others ! And never did
the imperious necessity of the times in America
demand the rebuke of such cruel prejudices as now.
And John Bright, George Thomson, and Richard
Cobden, whom our American people claim as their
special friends in this country would be much better
employed in using their mighty talents in helping
to remove these prejudices than joining their
sympathies with the Unionists in this insane war

CONWAY'S TKUE NOBILITY.

409

which God has brought down as a punishment on
the North as well as the South for their united sin
of oppression,

CONWAY'S TRUE NOBILITY AND SUBLIMITY.

There is heart, life, soul, will, purpose, and principle, and a combination of all in one that places
Conway, not only in the front rank of Abolitionists,
but far ahead of others to whom has been conceded
the honour of marshalling the good men and true
for the conflict before them in America. "Whilst
our American Israel has forsaken the true God, and
worshipped the false gods of slavery, colour-phobia,
and the Union, Conway has stept forward for the
redemption of God's people, like Gideon. And in
doing so, we have never seen any mantles of covering, pleas of extenuation, concessions of Christian
status, or fraternisations with the class of religionists
to whom Cowper makes such a thrilling appeal,
where he says :-—
" Canst thou, and honoured with a Christian name,
Buy what is woman born, and feel no shame;
Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead
Expedience as a warrant for the deed ?
So may the wolf, whose famine has made bold
To quit the forest, and invade the fold:
So may the ruffian, who, with ghostly glide,
Dagger in hand, steals close to your bed side ;
Not he, but his emergence forced the door,
He found it inconvenient to be poor/'

410

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

Neither have we seen from Conway any appeals
to the material sword. But amidst the general defections that have obtained in this respect, it is
difficult to say who amongst the little band of
Christian emancipationists have stood true to their
mission of peace and good will! As far as we know,
however, his appeal has been to the law and testimony. And the two edged and keen-bladed sword
of God's Spirit he has used with mighty power.
REV. DR. CHEEVER.

The author, in his private and public references,
has been wont to pay grand and lofty tribute to
the above clergyman, in consequence of the noble
sacrifices he has made for his attachment to the
truth, and the fiery ordeal through which he has
had to pass, like those of us who have tried to
maintain a course of unswerving fidelity in the cause
of Christ, and consciences void of offence towards
God and man. But many things have combined
to modify the opinion of the author in regard to
Cheever—things which have overwhelmed him with
surprise, and caused him to mourn over the irreparable injury he is doing to the cause which he
has espoused.
The Rev. Dr. Cheever is minister in a church
which bears the honoured name of the Puritans.
And yet, in his church we find a society existing
separate from and independent of the church—an

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

411

irresponsible and governing power, to which the
church is, and must be, subservient to some extent,
and can only be brought into harmony with its
wishes by electing persons to the society or board
of trustees favourable to themselves. This irresponsible power is an invasion of all the rights of
a Christian Church, and makes the Church its vassal
or bond slave when necessity demands it, or circumstances require it. And when the occasion
arose in the Church of the Puritans, New York,
the victory was only obtained by the appointment
of new trustees, when the time came for a new
election to be made, "according to the articles of
agreement between the society and the church."
What an anomaly in a church that bears the name
of the Puritans! Did the old, original Puritans
hand over their " Church Rights" by " Articles of
Agreement" or otherwise, to any privileged class or
order of men ? Is it any wonder that Dr. Cheever
or his church should have had trouble in connexion
with such a sacrifice of vested rights, and more
especially when the pastor and church were brought
to conflict in opinion or sentiment with the society
or board of trustees. In such a case it is no
wonder that the conflict was long and severe. And
more especially when the society or trustees were
aided by an influential minority in the church, and
could claim the active sympathies and co-operation
of two or three deacons, who put on superior airs
of piety in order to mask ulterior designs. This

412

REV. BR. CHEEVER.

was so obvious in Cheever's church, that the author
spoke of it to one of the members of the above
church, and was thought of, if not spoken of, harshly
and censoriously at the time for the remark. But
the open revolt of the deacons referred to soon
demonstrated his remarks to be true.
How strange, with Cheever's knowledge of congregational principles, and avowed attachment to
them, that he should be a party to submit to such
an arrangement as that which hands over the rights
and independence of the Church of the Puritans, by
articles of agreement, to a society or trustees ! It
is no wonder, therefore, that he and his people
should have had their difficulties and trials enhanced
when they were in the power and at the mercy of
their foe, until the time of a new election.
Another thing which struck the author's mind,
was the loose discipline of the Church of the Puritans. There is an old adage which embodies a great
truth, "like priest, like people." If the members
of the church, who composed the society or board
of trustees, with one honourable exception, and the
deacons in their open revolt, had been drummed
out of the Church of the Puritans, just as the Eev.
Dr. J. P. Thompson and the ex-parte council ought
to have been drummed out of the denomination to
which they belong—or officially strung up by excommunication as an example to future generations
for taking part with a society against a church, to
help the society to lord its authority over the church,

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

413

and make the church its bond slave—if this had
been done, Dr. Gheever and his people would have
been saved a world of trouble, and flaming paragraphs would not so often have appeared in the
public newspapers, under the title of " more trouble
in Dr Cheever's church/' But they erred on the
ground of leniency, either from fear of the society,
which they had invested with extraordinary powers,
or from their own incapacity or disinclination to
discharge their obligations and duties in consequence
of abounding laxity. The investiture of a society
with an authority supreme over the church, is an
anomaly in a church that claims the honour of representing the principles and polity of the Puritans,
and reflects no credit on the name of Cheever or
his people to have allowed such a departure from
New Testament polity or precedent. But their
laxity, as well as falsity of principle and practice
has added immensely to their difficulties and
troubles in the Church of the Puritans, and made
more severe and trying their conflicts. The author
was so convinced of this, that one evening in the
Spring of 1860, at the monthly prayer meeting for
the slave in Cheever's church, he called attention
to the laxity that everywhere prevailed in our
American churches—-laxity of principle as the
foundation of practical operation, and medium of
Christian fellowship in accordance with the requirements of the gospel. He had no sooner, however,
sunk his shaft, in his address, through all the sub-

414

BEY. DR. CHEEVER.

stratums of worldly policy and expediency, down
to the solid rock of principle, and begun to make
his appeal to them on the urgent necessity of a
reformation, by the application of scriptural principles, in order to purify the churches and prepare
them for high and holy enterprises, than he was
rudely interrupted; and after emphasizing the sentiment, that until the Church of Christ was purged
of evil-doers Christianity would be shorn of her
moral strength, sat down, His excellent friend, E.
Gilbert, Esq., a member of Dr. Cheever's church,
was in the chair, and called on him to finish his
remarks, but he refused. The subject, however, led
to an animated discussion, as Oliver Johnson, the
editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard, rose and said,
"he loved the Saviour, and held sweet communion
with him ; but he did not know of any church
where he could conscientiously take a 'church
right,' or become a member/' The Rev. Mr. French,
a Methodist minister, said, " come and take a church
right with us." Dr. Cheever then made his appeal
to him, "to go and take a church right in Dr.
Harvard's, or Dr. Tyng's church." Johnson replied,
saying, "would you have me go and take a church
right in a Roman Cathohc church." " Yes," said
Cheever, " if you can do good," quoting the passage
of Scripture, " where two or three meet together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt,
xviii. 2 0. " And can we doubt," said Cheever,
" that there are the two's and, three's in the places

REV: DK; ClfEEVEK,

415

above mentioned who love the Savionr and meet in
his name." What an application of such a passage
of Scripture! How ingeniously it was made to
support the doctrine of devils! Rom. iii. 8.
The aboVe theory Dr. Cheever has faithfully
carried out in practice as a Member of the Corporate
Board of American Missions, by smiting the committees, directors, and members of it with one hand,
and binding them up and mollifying their wounds
with the ointment of Christian fellowship with the
other.
During Cheever's visit to this country his reiterated advice to the British Government, regarding the recognition of the Southern Confederacy,
called forth one of the grandest homilies of the
times from the editors* of the Leeds Mercury, explanatory of the nature and duties of civil governments, and their relationships to each other, giving
an elaborate exposition of the enlightened policy
and lofty statesmanship of Great Britain, in her
noble bearing and conduct towards de facto governments. The above was one of those noble contributions to literature which have helped to make
the Leeds Mercury a " power ,,; in Yorkshire, and
grand old Yorkshire a power in the government of
the United Kingdom. <
The above editors out-distanced Cheever at a
single bound, in their far-seeing views on the above
subject; and out*generalJed him, as by one single
blow they annihilated his positions, stripped him

416

KEV. DR. CHEEVER,

of every plea, and ought for ever to have silenced
his misrepresentations of the British Government
and people; since his insinuations and sneering
allusions to their envying and coveting America,
like Ahab coveting the inheritance of Naboth, is
both unjust and unkind. And it shows a " cribbed,
cabined, and confined" soul when Cheever would
not only put the strait jacket on individuals, but
nations, because they are sinners, and cut them off
from all intercourse with the outer world!
Dr Cheever's references to the cotton morality of
Manchester, and a selfish commercial jealousy, are
also unfortunate. In a discourse delivered by him in
the Church of the Puritans, New York, in the autum of 18 61, on his returning from this country, a
synopsis of which is given in the Leeds Mercury,
Oct. 14, 1861, he says:—" The cotton morality of
Manchester is not our friend, and a selfish, political, or commercial jealousy can pever be our friend."
We Americans ought to be the last people in the
universe to hurl a charge of selfishness or jealousy,
either politically, commercially, or morally, against
any other nation, for there is no nation in existence more demoralised, selfish, or cruelly sensitive
and jealous than ourselves. And never was statement more thoroughly disproved than Cheever's
in regard to the " cotton morality" of Manchester.
The scene has become morally sublime in the cotton districts of Lancashire, where the starving
masses- are shewing such meek resignation and

REV. DR. CHEEVER*

417

and long continued and patient forbearance under
their severe privations and sufferings, brought on by
no imprudence or crimes of their own, except it may
be that of blind confidence in our countrymen,
measuring them by their own standard of intelligence, probity, liberality, keen sense of justice and
honour. Here the Manchester men and the people
of this country have trusted to a broken reed, and
there are strong symptoms of increasing evidence
that your unbroken stillness and quiet of resignation is interpreted by our people as a sign of weakness and will subject you to renewed exercises of
trial. Would to God we had the cotton morality
of Manchester in America. It would be of great
service to us in our present hour of need.
Dr Cheever's advocacy of the war power of the
Federal Government to put down slavery involves
him in deep criminality as an avowed minister of
Jesus Christ. It is a virtual abandonment of the
use of those means which have given heroic distinction on the page of history to the Waldenses and
Albigenses, Scotch Covenanters, Smithfield martyrs,
and Mayflower pilgrims, and associated their names
with imperishable honour in the cause of Christ.
I t is also a confession of weakness—an acknowledgment of the inability of truth to grapple with error
—that it lacks the power to teach that " right is
more than right, and justice more than mail." But
necessity is pleaded, and want of power on his own
part and on the part of his people, as we have
2D

418

REV. DR. CHEEVEB.

already seen, of the necessity would be no hindrance to their hurling the missiles of death into the
heart of the South. An alleged necessity has
throughout all time been the apology for wrong*
Such was the plea and practice, according to Milton, among fallen angels—
" So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.*'

We had fondly hoped that the age of brute force
—the reign of bullets was over—that ideas were
gradually ascending to absolute power—that it was
the privilege of Christians to rely upon moral agitation—the omnipotence of abstract principles, in
seeking the overthrow of evil—that the truth of
God, and fidelity to it from conscience within, were
to guide their actions, and regula-te their conduct,
and not circumstances from without—that a higher
level of self-sacrifice to do good and to overcome
evil with good was to be the battle-cry of the
followers of Christ-—that the 'lights of history
kindled on the hill-tops of the past, were to be
a warning that revolutions effected by force,
always ended sooner or later in re-establishing the
tyranny they undertook to overthrow, of which the
Rev. Wm, H. Furness of Philadelphia says " our
American Revolution is an impressive instance"—
that the avowed followers of Christ in the vanguard
of the faithful were seeking to stand nearer and
nearer to the oracles of God, "that they might

EEV. DR. CHEEVER.

419

catch the faintest whisper, marking, as it were, the
inflections of the tone in which the divine will is
expressed"—that wakeful vigilance in maintaining
and holding fast the doctrines of the crucified One,
Jesus of Nazareth, combined with deep earnestness
in prayer and unslumbering activity in the cause
of Christ, were not only to lead them to equal but
to surpass in deeds of valour, moral heroism, the
mighty eloquence of action of the Christian heroes
of the past—and thus demonstrate to succeeding
generations anew, like the fishermen of Galilee,
their heaven-born natures, mission, and uplifted
deeds, and that—
* New occasions teach new duties—Time makes ancient good
uncouth—
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of
truth.
Lo! before us gleam her camp fires, we ourselves must pilgrims
be;
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate
winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted
key.'

But, alas! here is the Rev. Dr Cheever, his brother the Rev. Henry T. Cheever, the Revs. Henry
Ward Beecher and Wm. Goodell, with the " Bloodrusted Key of the Past" in their hands to open the
" Portals of the Future," leading the van in the
battle-cry of an unrighteous war.
How lamentable when Christian men drink deep
into the cup of blood, and, like Robespierre, run to

420

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

and fro crying blood, blood, blood, avowing that the
" war is the only way of peace"—the sword of war
must write the bond of peace—what the pen of the
legislator could not do, the sword of the warrior
would do-^and that this sword of the warrior
must put the crown on heroic sacrifices, precious
blood, and the doctrine and faith of the Fathers."
There was a period when Wm. Lloyd Garrison and
party, who make no pretensions to evangelical religion, held nobler sentiments than the above, clung
to nobler principles, as they disclaimed all appeals
to brute force, repudiated all associations with " rash
and bloody hands"—the "folly that seeks through
evil good," whilst, in strains of heroic appreciation,
they avowed the noble resolve in the following
language, as they advanced to the moral conflict to
promote the deliverance of the slave:—
" Not by the sword shall your deliverance be,
Not by shedding of your master's blood,
Not by rebellion, nor foul treachery
Upspringing suddenly like swelling flood;
Revenge and rapine ne'er did bring forth good,
God's time is good, nor will it long delay."

But when avowed Christians lead the way in
their stern appeal to the arbitrement of the sword,
what shall we say of pantheistical men trying to
keep pace with them, and branding all as cowards
and knaves who refuse to quaff the cup of blood
with them, ancj a4opt the motto of war to the

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

421

knife; misquoting and misapplying the language
of Burns-^" Who would be a traitor knave,
Who would fill a coward's grave,
Who so base as be a slave ?
Let him turn and flee.
Lay the proud usurpers low.
Tyrants fall in every foe,
Liberty's in every blow,
Let us do or die.'*

Never was language more perverted or misused.
Can there be treason to a government where the
law-makers and administrators have been persistently law-breakers—where at the present time the
executive in the person of Lincoln confesses that
the constitution cannot be applied to the South,
and where that sublime instrument has always been
made the instrument of cruelty and injustice!
Who ever heard of treason committed against a government or people who have been traitors—a
government that has thrown clown a41 the mounds
of authority, trampled under feet all law whether
human or divine, made its judges "evening wolves,"
given an.unbounded license to the slave States to
usurp the sacred, inalienable, and heaven-born
rights of men, and never made one single attempt
on the broad grounds of humanity or justice to protect a black man in the possession of his rights as a
man, or of delivering the slaves from the galling
yoke of their oppressors? So that whilst our

422

REV. DR. CHEEVER

United States Government has always been powerless for good to the slave and the coloured population, it has always been mighty for evil in protecting and shielding the iniquity of slavery and the
oppression of the coloured population. In the
presence of such an astounding, incontrovertible
fact, what becomes of the claim of supreme allegiance and authority by the United States' Government? With such an example before us on the
part of our Presidents and administrators, Wm. Lloyd
Garrison and party have proclaimed for thirty years
the Stars and Stripes to be a " flaunting lie"—denounced in the most eloquent and vehement language the iniquity of our political rulers in their
"covenants with death and agreements with hell,"
and anticipated the period which would throw
them into the seventh heaven of bliss when
the South would be separated from the North,
to, relieve the North of * the shame and disgrace of its companionship and co-partnership
with the South. But now these same men,
whilst our Government and administrators have
made no radical change in the application of the
Constitution, and still ignore the rights of men as
sacred and supreme, are standing under the stars
and stripes, and hailing the tread of military men,
in utter opposition to their former opinions and
sentiments, and renouncing their peace principles at
any price. And here is Cheever, also, charging
rebellion, treason, and disunion on the South, and

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

423

shouting liberty, fraternity, and equality in the ears
of corrupt demagogues and political tricksters, in
imitation of the French Revolutionists, during the
Reign of Terror in France, when the streets run
down with blood. And yet Cheever, in the Principia, May 22, 1860, says—"The States are
supreme for wickedness, but the United States is
impotent for protection and justice. The Government of the individual State may compel the
Government of the United States to respect slavery,
but the United States cannot compel the individual
State to respect freedom. The Government of the
individual State may prevent the United States
from making a slave of one of its citizens, but the
United States cannot protect one of its citizens from
being made a slave by the States/' What a
country to claim an analogy between England, Ireland, and Scotland, either in the Government or
the governed. How futile, hopeless, imbecile, and
absurd the task for such a people to talk of rebellion ! Besides, the Constitution of the Federal
Government interposes its veto to fence round, protect, shield, and make sacred the spot where the
rulers have the consent of the governed.
The remarkable clause referred to reads, " when
the end for which the rights of Government are
instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed—or when any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to

424

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

institute a new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organising its powers in such
form as to them shall assure most likely their safety
and happiness/'
There is no nation under heaven where the ends
of civil government have been more lost sight of
than in America, or the forms of Government perverted or corrupted. What then ? " It is the right
of the people to alter, abolish, and institute a new
Government." This is just what the South has
done* And what they believe they have a right
to do; and most assuredly what the Constitution
empowers them to do.
There is another remarkable clause in the Constitution. It reads, " The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," Art. 10. The above,
says the Rev. Wm. Goodel in his lecture on the
Constitution, delivered at Washington in the spring,
"is no bar to the Federal abolition of slavery."
Whenever did any State or States delegate its
powers to the Federal Government, and abandon its
own reservations of state rights to forego the
allegiance of its citizens ? And supposing that an
instance could have been found of a State or States
handing itself or themselves over to the keeping of
the General Government without reserve, what
then? In such a case, would not the pact be
virtually and practically at an end, when the

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

425

governors and the governed throughout the whole
country set aside the legal document and make
agreements subversive of the end of civil governments by selling their birth-rights for a morsel of
red pottage, as our Northern States and people have
done invariably with the Southerns, as shewn in the
history of our country and Government.
What was this but a virtual understanding that
the "black gift, the poisoned garment," or what
Lincoln calls the " snakes and the beds" of the
Patriarchs in the South should not, and which he, in
his celebrated Eh ode Island speech, said, was not to
be interfered with.
But who shall storm the black citadel of the
oppressor now and overthrow the mighty foe when
slavery has acquired such colossal strength in
Church and State ? If the best and wisest men that
ever controlled the Government of the United
States confessed their weakness, and avowed their
disinclination to attempt to remove what they considered insuperable, where are the men of might and
wisdom equal to the mighty task now ? Since then,
all the fountains of justice and morality have been
perverted" in its favour, and Church and State have
been used as the mighty shield to protect, support,
defend, and extend the domain of slavery, and to
a large extent its victims. Through the teachings
of our Northern D.D.s and Professors in Dartmouth,
Princeton, Andover, Shurtleff, Waterbury, Bethany,
and other Colleges, slavery has been let into our

426

EEV. DK. CHEEVEE.

Churches with all its monstrous brood of e v i l s its family of serpents, inwardly consuming and selfdestructive. " For when they list into the womb,
they breed a dreadful progeny, and return and howl
and gnaw!" The result, therefore, of this direful
calamity has been made manifest in the fearful and
tremendous howlings and gnawings of persecutors,
turning almost every Church, College, Mission
Board, Tract and Bible Committee Room into a
castle where Giant Despair held his levees, deep
laid his schemes, sent forth his emissaries with dark
design, or used his forces to decapitate, lay prostrate,
and blast the reputation of faithful men. And
when the Church has thus become possessed and
obscessed, what can we expect of the State ? We
have seen that whilst under the influence of despair,
as shewn in the Circular of the Church Anti-slavery
Society, our Christian emancipators have contemplated
turning away from the line of legitimate action in
the Churches with some pleasing degree of hope to
the Federal Government to make it do with the pen
of legislation and the material sword, what they
virtually confess in the Circular previously referred
to they are unable to accomplish ! But can the
legislator, or the military hero, grapple with the
tremendous difficulties before us ? Cheever and
party say they can. What,, then, is the work
assigned by them to the civil government and
military hero \ Turning to the " freedom power of
the Constitution," these men say to the adminis-

EEV. DE. CHEEVEE.

427

trators of our Government and legislators and
senators in Congress, "Proclaim justice and liberty
to the people throughout the land." But then, as
we have seen, our administrators and law-makers
have been the law-breakers from the days of Washington down to the present; and when our present
President took the oath administered on his election
to the Presidency, hie renewed his political and
moral partnership with the Federal compromisers to
maintain the black heritage of slavery intact with
all its woes—and in the two great acts of his administration since which rescinded the orders of
Fremont and Hunter, he has reaffirmed his own
declaration, that "emancipation would be a John
Brown's raid on a gigantic scheme"-—and that
rather than adopt such a scheme of " suicidal madness, the ligaments of the country had better be
taken up to prevent bleeding to death."
And with no moral stamina in the Church or
State, or in the presence of its confessed inefficiency
to grapple with vast and mighty issues before the
country, Cheever would have the President let loose
all the brutal passions of men, and call forth new
and more terrible agencies still, and bring them to
bear in the savage warfare in which we are now
engaged. And because he clings to "expediency
and necessity as the rule of justice and humanity,
instead of the obligation of justice and humanity as
supreme," in his favourite Principia, June 5, 1862,
he presents the President in the attitude of a meek

428

REV. DR. CHEEVER.

but earnest suppliant standing with outstretched
arms beseeching " the rebels—men and States in
armed rebellion and war against his own country
and Government, to set free the slaves whom"
Gheever says, " he has himself just cast anew into
bondage." Thus it is that President Lincoln, says
Gheever/'turns preacher to them, casts no reproaches,
gives back their slaves as slaves, and then implores
them to make them free as gently as the dews of
heaven, beseeches them to embrace the opportunity
given them of God by one effort to deliver the
wretches whom he has just enslaved and thrown
at their feet in bondage. He tells them so much
good has not been done by one effort in all past
times, as in the Providence of God it is their privilege to do. The sermon to these hordes of rebels
and rebel states is said by our public presses to be
solemn and affecting. If President Lincoln delivers
a few more such, accompanied with the unction of
such prayers, the people of Europe as well as of
this country will deplore the inscrutable providence,
or popular mistake that spoiled so pathetic a field
preacher for the sake of a political leader." Dr.
Gheever lays great stress in the above on " hordes
of rebels" in the South. Now, what are our
Northern people ? Do they not stand in the relationship of the teacher and the taught to the South ?
Where have the Southern people learnt their bad
manners and contracted their bad habits ? What
are the names of the ministers who instilled into

EEV. DR. CHEEVER.

429

them such bad principles ? And where have their
young men mostly graduated who now make up
those hordes of rebels ? Dr. Cheever is very eloquent
in denouncing the Southerns and araigning them
for treason against the Government of the United
States. But this treason has been very contagious
in America. It led the Northern people to adopt
the compromises of the Constitution, and for many
years to tread out under their black hoofs almost
every spark of abolitionism lest the flame of liberty
should be lighted and go crackling, roaring, blazing
across our vast and mighty continent and consume
every particle of their wood, hay, and stubble of
pro-slavery proclivity—make their roots go up as
rottenness and their blossoms as dust ? What has so
often put the Federal Government of the United
States in vile subserviency to the separate States,
making the separate States supreme over the
Federal State according to Dr. Cheever's own testimony, as we have already seen 2 Was this legality
or treason % And it is this that put the administrators of the Federal Government now in an
obsequious, servile, beseeching attitude towards the
South! .
What a country! On the one hand, Cheever
says the Southerns are " hordes of rebels !" And
on the other, the Southerns say the Northerns are
" hordes of traitors ! " To reach the one, Cheever
and party direct the force of their appeals to
"Honest Abe," so called, and concentrate all their

430

REV. BR. CHEEVER.

energies to bring an influence to bear in the work
of throwing, through him, the terrible messengers
of death into their hearts! To meet the others,
the Southerns respond, " we will make you smell
Southern powder, and feel Southern steel," and
shew you something of the difficulty, peril, and
dangers of your hazardous undertaking—an undertaking from which the fathers and founders of the
Government shrunk when slavery was in its infancy, avowing, that as they " found slavery among
us, they would leave it among us because of the
difficulty, the absolute impossibility of its removal/'
And what horrors the fratricidal conflict unfolds !
How fearful the tragedies which are perpetrated !
And how dreadful the calamities which follow in
the wake of these scenes of carnage and blood!
But have Cheever and party counted the cost % If
the work was confessed to be insuperable by the
fathers, the accumulations of difficulty are much
more great now, and the task more stupendous.
But speculation is rife, and the fleshly mind is at
work, and what God's Word and Spirit cannot do,
the " horns of powder, torches of Greek fire, explosive biscuits, and iron globes are to do !" When
Cowper in his day contemplated the sickening
scenes of war, with its untold calamities and frightful horrors, he exclaimed :—
" O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,

REV. DE. CHEEVER.

431

Gf unsuccessful or successful war
Might never reach me more! My ear is pained,
My soul is sick with every day's report
Of Wrong and outrage with which earth is filled."

If Oowper had. been now alive, in what sombre
and melancholy strains would he have dwelt on the
harrowing scenes of the unnatural and bloody strife
that is now taking place in America 1 But whilst
Cheever and party have raised the war cry to put
down slavery, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and
the overwhelming mass of the Unionists have raised
the war cry to put down the rebellion, and slavery
only as it interferes with the Union. On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1861, Beecher says :—
" Our country has long lain in the ever-tightening
serpent folds of slavery. The perplexing questions
of race, caste, condition, and climate cast into the
nation by the African bondman, which the wisest
and strongest knew not how to deal with, were
likely to be solved by the war. A direct political
emancipation was impossible. We were bound to
conduct the war in accordance with the Constitution, or else acknowledge the failure of our Republican Institutions. He wished he could declare
political emancipation. He wished Adam had not
sinned, and his posterity had not been affected;
but that did not help the matter. He wished our
fathers had stood out against the compromises of
the Constitution, for a serpent just hatched was
not half so dangerous as a full grown serpent

432

EEV. Dft. CHEEVEB.

We had declared our fealty to the Constitution,
and we -could not now break the pact. The war
had not driven us into revolution. The Constitution was not superior to right, conscience, or liberty.
We must keep by our plighted faith, and when we
could not abide by our promise we had better stand
apart as two separate peoples. Were we, then,
shut up by this reasoning ? No. What the pen
of the legislator could not do, the sword of the
warrior would do."
The Constitution was not superior to right, conscience, or liberty. Questions of race, caste, condition, and climate, perplexing to the wisest and
strongest, but all to be unravelled in their intricacy
and solved by the magic touch of Mars ! A direct
political emancipation impossible because the Constitution, with its compromises, won't allow of i t ;
and if we don't maintain the Constitution, with its
compromises or "Pact," the world will witness the
failure of our Kepublican Institutions ! If this
wonderful Pact can't be maintained, the two peoples
had better stand apart! Because we have not
hitherto succeeded in that line, it is because- Adam
had sinned and his posterity had been affected !
And what the pen of the legislator could not do,
the sword of the warrior would do ! Wonderful
logic ! Wonderful Pact! Wonderful results ! And
wonderful means to repair the breaches of the
Union and cement the Pact!
There. is evidence that Wendell Phillips, Esq.,

WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.

433

the author's friend and benefactor, has long withstood the evil counsels of these Christian men of
violence; and though he himself makes no pretensions to evangelical religion, he has given wholesome counsel and advice which ought to put to
shame these men in their dreadful haste to shed
blood and plunge the nation into the gulph of ruin,
disaster, and woe. In an excerpt from a speech
made by him, given in the Edinburgh
Review,
June 28, 1862, he says, "Many times this winter,
here and elsewhere, I have counselled peace, urged,
as well as I knew how, the expediency of acknowledging a Southern Confederacy, and the peaceful
separation of these thirty-four States," But a
change has come over his dreams, and he says,
" One of the journals announces to you that I come
here this morning to retract these opinions. No.
Not one of them. I need them all—every word I
have spoken this winter. Civil war is a momentous evil. It needs the soundest, most solemn justification. I rejoice before God for every word
that I have spoken counselling peace. And I rejoice with an especially profound gratitude that for
the first time in my anti-slavery life, I speak under
the Stars and Stripes, and welcome the tread of
Massachusetts men marshalled for war."
What a position for our country to be in! One
party in their remedial measures are shouting their
" Eureka," in the " Freedom Power of the Constitution, and demanding it to be put in force.
2E

434

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DIFFERENCES.

Press " the letter and spirit of it/' they say, " by
all the available force of the army and navy of the
United States 1" Another party is shouting " No,
the remedy is not there, since the Constitution has
no power for such a purpose. It shields slavery.
But what the pen of the legislator could not do,
the sword of the warrior would do." Therefore,
"on to Richmond-—on to the South!" One party
makes the Constitution utter the clear, ringing,
thrilling shouts of liberty. The other finds in it
nothing but whips, thongs, thumb-screws, courtmartials, and the groans of despair. And the South
shouts amen! Hallelujah!
The first party ignores the obsolete character of
the constitution for good—the fact that it has been
made powerful for evil, the immense difficulties of
the work before them, and making no allowance
for human passions, weaknesses, and errors, are
concentrating every energy to bring an influence to
bear on the Executive to take the Constitution in
its latent and undeveloped forces and apply it in
the South, though a thousand bloody battles should
be the consequence! The Executive, as the representative in his own private opinions of the other
party, thunders in their ears, " t h e constitution
cannpt be applied in the South." And the Southerns re-echo the reply again.
Amen! Hallelujah! " You taught us that slavery
was a divine and holy thing. You made slavery
sacred as an institution of the South, and fenced it

AMERIC1AN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION.

435

about without, whilst we made it secure, within!
You helped to enthrone slavery in the supreme
government of the States and Churches of our
land! And when you quickened us into life, and
nursed us into power, you bowed your necks to
the yoke in servility, crouched at our feet and
crawled in the dust to pick up the " almighty dollar" in your commercial policy that we might bear
political rule over you ! Where was the constitution then? And where were your black hoofs?
And as you have long set us the example of trampling upon what you call " constitutional rights and
forms of enlightened government," now you think
to rob us of our commercial dues when you take
back your political power and rule ! But in this
you are mistaken. At least we shall see what
we will see." And such is the history of the case
—the inexorable logic of facts and events ! But it
is alleged that there have been great and mighty
changes amongst ecclesiastical as well as political
bodies of men in regard to slavery.
In regard to ecclesiastical bodies the following
intelligence has been recently flashed along the
wires in this country, and chronicled in the newspapers both of a secular and religious character:—
"The American Baptist Missionary Union, a
body whose high intelligence and character every
one must have been impressed with who attended
its recent session in this city, has, if we mistake not,
generally abstained frnm any severe expressions

436

NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTEEIAN ASSEMBLY.

against slavery. But on Wednesday night it
declared with unanimity that slavery was the origin
of the rebellion, and that " a safe, solid, and lasting
peace cannot be expected short of its complete overthrow."
" The General Assembly of the New School
Presbyterian Church has just been in session in
Cincinnati. That church, most respectable in numbers, talent, and character, is decidedly firm in its
opposition to slavery. The Assembly, at its last
session, adopted a series of resolutions drawn by
the venerable Dr Beman, of Troy. One of them
states that "this whole insurrectionary movement
can be traced to one primordial root, and only one,
—African slavery, the love of it, and a determination to make it perpetual/'—and that everything,
slavery if need be, must bend to the great purpose
of restoring the Union and crushing out the last
living and manifested fibre of rebellion. Another
resolution is so aptly worded that we copy it entire:—" Resolved, That while we have been utterly
shocked at the deep depravity of the men who have
framed and matured this rebellion, and who are now
clad in arms, manifested in words and deeds, there
is another class, found in the loyal States, who have
excited a still deeper loathing: some in Congress,
some in high civil life, and some in the ordinary
walks of business, who never utter a manly thought
or opinion in favour of the Government, but they
follow it, by way of comment, by two or three

OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY.

437

smooth apologies for Southern insurrectionists, presenting the difference between an open and avowed
enemy in the field, and a secret and insidious foe in
the bosom of our own family."
But in the Old School Presbyterian Assembly, at
Columbus, 0., we have the most remarkable change.
This body is one of the few religious organisations
which had not before the war been separated into
a Northern and Southern division by avowed differences on the slavery question. So late as a year
ago, weeks after the war had begun, a very large
number of the members stoutly opposed a resolution introduced by Dr. Spring, declaring it to be
the duty of Churches " to uphold the Federal Government in the great exercise of its functions
under our noble Constitution." They feared that
it would cause troublesome discussions. But this
year a paper, presented by that veteran patriot, Rev.
Dr Robert J. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, has been
adopted, in spite of opposition from some of the
Border States' members, by a vote of 199 to 26.
Among its declarations is this:—" The system that
makes or proposes to make the relation of master
and slave hereditary, perpetual and absolute, must
be wrong, as it is a negation of the principles and
precepts of the gospel, and of the very idea of civil
liberty and inalienable rights."
In the abofe we at once reach the "primordial
root of their opposition to slavery, as well as of the
insurrectionary movement. These are defined to be

438

PROGRESSIVE QUAKERS.

the rebellion and slavery. Slavery, therefore, is a
sin which is only palpable and grievous in their
estimation because of the rebellion, but neither disqualifying for civil or church rights, companionship
or fellowship !
Had the above changes recognised the obligations
of justice and humanity towards the slaves, and
those who wear a skin not coloured like their own,
the case would have been different. They would
have confessed before heaven and earth their former
criminality in aiding and abetting the sinfulness of
holding slaves—protested in emphatic and vehement
language against all classes who have sought to
enthrone slavery in the Church and State—and
demanded that all slaveholders, traders, brokers, and
negro-haters be at once disfellowshipped.
But
whilst, in former years, the ecclesiastical bodies
referred to have advised their constituents wholly
to refrain from discussing the vexed question of
slavery—decapitated those who have dared to
offend, or advised them to go to Canada, as in the
case of the author at the Bloomingdale Convention,
Illinois, they have not mourned over their sins and
turned away from them.
And the following report of an interview which
took place at Washington on the 20th of June,
between the President and the religious society
called the Progressive Friends, on <fehe subject of
general emancipation, will be read with interest :—
The delegation was composed of Thomas Garrett,
of Delaware ; Oliver Johnson, a well-known aboli-

THEIR NAMES AND MEMORIAL.

439

tionist of New York; Alice Hambleton, Dinah
Mendenhall, William Barnard, and Eliza Agnew, of
Pennsylvania; and was presented to the President
by Senator Wilmot, accompanied by Kepresentatives Kelly, Davis, and Campbell, of Pennsylvania.
Mr Johnson addressed the President, and said that
they did not come representing any personal or
party interest.
Their clients were 4,000,000
slaves, who could not speak, but lifted up their
chained hands in agonising supplication for freedom,
which prayer it was in the President's power, in
this solemn crisis, to grant. He then read a
memorial adopted at a late meeting, calling on the
President to issue a proclamation freeing all slaves,
and stating that in his speech, delivered at Springfield, before his election to the office of chief magistrate, the President expressly declared :—
" A house divided against itself cannot stand. I
believe this Government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house
to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or the other/'
After the memorial had been read the President
said, as he had not been furnished with a copy of
the memorial in advance he could not be expected
to make any lengthy remarks. He was pleased
that the delegation had not come as office-seekers,
for they occasioned him much trouble and perplexity. The next most troublesome subject was

440

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S REPLY.

slavery. He agreed with the memorialists that
slavery was wrong, and differed only in respect to
the ways and means of getting rid of it. The
extract from his Springfield speech in the memorial
he said was incomplete, not including the sentence
in which he had indicated his views as to the effect
upon slavery itself of resistance to its extension.
If a decree of emancipation would do the work,
John Brown would have done it at Harper's Ferry.
The Constitution was binding upon the people of
the South, but it could not be enforced at present.
Did they think a decree of general emancipation
would be any more effective? Mr. Johnson said :
" True, Mr. President, the Constitution cannot now
be enforced at the South, but you do not for that
reason give up the struggle. The memorialists
believe that the extinction of slavery would attain
your object." The President said that he felt the
magnitude and importance of the task before him,
and hoped to be rightly directed in the embarrassing
circumstances surrounding him. He felt deeply his
need of divine aid and guidance, and had sometimes
thought he might be an instrument in the * hands
of God in accomplishing a great work, and certainly
he was willing to be one. Perhaps God's way of
accomplishing the end which the memorialists had
in view was different from theirs; at any rate, he
should endeavour to do his duty with firm reliance
on the divine arm, and seeking for light from above
to do his duty. The delegation then retired.

OLIVER JOHNSON'S CHURCH RIGHTS FIXED.

441

Oliver Johnson has at last turned up with his
"church rights" in a religious society called the
" Progressive Friends!" We hope they will teach him
the progressive theory that slander is not truth, nor
abuse argument, as in an article in the Anti-slavery
Standard extenuating the conduct of the Rev. D.
M. Graham, and defending his anti-slavery professions and practice^ he says, "We would not for the
world injure Mr. Balme, but he does harm to the
cause he has espoused, by his injudicious advocacy."
This is very easily said, but the burden of proof is
with him, and we challenge him to produce a single
sentence the author has ever uttered, or statement
made that he would recall or wish to expunge, and
few that he would desire to alter. But no party of
men on the American Continent of which Oliver
Johnson has been one of the leaders, has done more
to try to efface the Church of the living God as an
institution by representing it as " effete," and trying,
but in vain, to light up the universal mind with
the conviction " that it has had its day!" They
have spoken of the Church, like Fred. Douglas in
his Monthly, June 1860, "as a broken tooth," or
a "foot out of joint," branding her as unprincipled,
and sunk in the slough of theological expediency,
but have never themselves taken those grand old
theological principles and doctrines, with a sound
theological practice that would have repaired the
"tooth/' or replaced the "foot out of joint."
" The house divided against itself cannot stand ;"

442

CLIENTS OF THE PROGRESSiyE QUAKERS.

and yet, all the disposable force of the army and
navy of the United States is now used by President
Lincoln to make, what he himself confesses, cannot
stand to stand! And here are the " Progressive
Quakers" urging upon the President to apply the
same forces for insurrectionary and revolutionary
purposes, what they virtually confess cannot be
done by the might and power of the word and spirit
of God !
" Their clients were four millions of slave." And
we have long pitied the poor slaves, that they have
had no better representatives; for, however the
Church as an institution has failed of its duty,
Oliver Johnson and party has not done much to
help them. In Fred. Douglas* Monthly, before referred to, when reviewing the labours of this class of
emancipationists, says—-"Little progress has been
made in twenty-five years of anti-slavery effort.
There have been many mistakes to be corrected. And
there has been much force used up by needless
faction, between contending factions." And in
Douglas1 Monthly, for August 1860, Fred. Douglas
says that Wendell Phillips, Esq., an emancipationist
who has stood head above shoulders amongst the
class of abolitionists referred to, for candour, magnanimity of soul, self-sacrificing efforts to do good, and
benevolence of feeling and aspect—he says, Wendell
Phillips the other day spoke of twenty years of
"bootless effort" in the cause of freedom. "And,
why," says Fred. Douglas % " Because the effort has
not come from the bondsmen themselves/' quoting

SENTIMENTALISM OF THE PEESIDENT.

443

the couplet that was so often used by Daniel
Q'Connell in the Irish agitation a few years ago—" Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not who would be free
Themselves must strike the blow ? "

" The Constitution was binding, but could not be
enforced at present. The physical or brute force
sentiment was not strong enough for emancipation
purposes yet. It only took the direction of the
South, and threatened them on account of their ' base
and criminal rebellion.' But by and by, when the
tide of public opinion rises against slavery as it has
done towards the rebellion, then ' he should endeavour to do his duty with firm reliance on the divine
arm, and seeking for light from above to do his
duty.' ' He felt,' however, (the magnitude and
importance of the task before him, and hoped to be
rightly directed in the embarrassing circumstances
surrounding him. He felt his need of divine aid
and guidance, and had sometimes thought that he
might be an instrument in the hands of God of
accomplishing a great work, and certainly he was
willing to be one. Perhaps God's w^ay of accomplishing the end which the Memorialists had in view
was different from theirs. But at any rate he would
endeavour to do his duty/"
We have seen already how the President has
done his duty—how he could utter noble sentiments
as a sentimentalist, when "sprung on by sudden
impulses/' And we have also seen how he has

444

PROGRESSIVE QUAKERS AND THE WAR PAINT.

" given ground when pressed by stern opposition \"
But when the proper time comes, like Pharoah, he
hopes by God's grace and favour to do his duty ! j
" The ends the Memorialists or the Progressive
Quakers have in view." This is to press into force
the civil sword for the deliverance of the slaves.
But, " if a decree of emancipation could have done
it," says the President, " John Brown would have
done it at Harper's Ferry." These are the peace
men at any price! How would they look covered
with war paint, the war hatchet in their hands,
wading up to the knees in blood, quaffing the cup
of blood, to satiate their thirst for war, and plunging their implements of death into the quivering
muscles of the body politic of the South, whilst the
still small voice of the angel of peace was drowned
beneath their hideous roar! What a degrading
appeal to the beggarly elements of this world!
What an imbecile mode of righting the moral sense
of our American people, and rousing their consciences against oppression! Unspeakable as the
degradation of slavery is, and ignoble as is its
badge of human bondage and woe, the author fearlessly maintains, in the words of Shakespeare, that
it is better all evils come on us in the Northern
States than a dishonourable alliance or sanction to
dishonourable warfare.
" Better all evils come on us than these,
Better dearth, pestilence, and famine,
Better the plagues of Egypt,

ALL PAETIES PLAYED OUT.

445

Better the sword of the enemy,
Better that we sink beneath the waters."

Better all that could be endured than dishonour.
Cheever and party, however, are still at the van
with the war cry for their motto, urging its " duty
and necessity/' as shown in the Leeds Mercury,
October 14, 1861. And if the Southerns won't
listen to the pathetic appeals of our Presidential
preacher to his refractory Southern citizens, then,
like spoilt children, say the overwhelming masses
of Unionists in the North, they must be made to.
But whilst Northern and Southern people have
made the Constitution the harp of a thousand
strings, to play a thousand different tunes, all
parties have been played out, and the work has
passed out of human hands actively, into the divine
hands retributively ! And to-day forty thousand
ministers, and five millions of Christians, with all
their "poets, orators, jurists, and legislators, who
are ahead of you immeasurably," according to Dr.
Waddington, have no visible hand in shaping the
policy of the nation according to the laws of God,
or the principles of immutable equity and truth !
But Dr. Cheever is not to be beat. He has not
only abandoned the moral for the brute force, as we
have already seen, or put the onus operandi of this
work on the shoulders of the Federal Government,
shifting the responsibility from himself and the
church of the Puritans, to the administrators of the
civil power at Washington, proven in the synopsis

446

REV. DR, C H E E V E R ' S NEW DISCOVERY.

of his discourse given in the Leeds Mercury, October
14, 1861—the leading idea of which, the editors
say, <( appears to be the war power a duty and necessity/' Dr. Cheever has not only made these rapid
strides in his progressive speculative theories,
answering to the description of those whom an inspired writer has so vividly sketched in Col. ii.
18, 1 9 ; but he has taken another step in advance.
Amidst the Babel confusion of tongues and strife,
the clangour of trumpets and the clash of arms, the
crack of rifles and the roar of cannon, the bursting
of bombs and the rain of iron globes, he puts himself into the attitude of a meek, patient, humble,
earnest listener to his divine Lord and Master,
anxiously enquiring, Lord " what wilt thou have us
to do." " The answer is," Cheever says, " Deliver
others as I have delivered you. Go to Decapolis
and preach, as well as fight, (announce) deliverance
to the captives, as well as submission to the rebels."
Is this the answer of Christ ? It was the answer
Cheever put into our Saviour's lips, in a speech
delivered in Cooper's Institute, New York, May 6,
1862. But is there no mistake? No, since the
editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard says, in a
paragraph at the head of Cheever's printed speech,
"we are permitted to print the more important
parts of the above address referred to, as prepared
by Cheever's own hand." Consequently there is no
possibility of throwing any blame on reporters, who

BRUTE FORCE PERVERSION OF THE BIBLE.

44?

arq often made scape-goats to bear off other men's
sins into the land of forgetfulness.
We have got pro-slavery versions of Scripture—and pantheistical versions, as we have already seen,
in Wm. Lloyd Garrison's description of Theodore
Parker's creed—and now we have got the Christian
abolitionist's version by Dr. Cheever, " Go to Decapolis and preach as well as fight" and therefore
fight as well as preach. This a new kind of armour
for Christian ministers, and, however the two Cheevers,
Henry Ward Beecher, William Goodel may look,
surrounded by their " starvation shells, hot shot,
chained thunderbolts, and hail of iron globes/' we
hope theirs is an example that will never be imitated. But, oh! what a monstrous perversion of
the language of Christ, to interpolate his words of
peace and goodwill with the bloody and brutal
words of human warfare, and make Christ say,
" preach as well as fight," or fight as well as preach!
It has been said that all parties and classes of
civilians and Christians are standing shoulder to
shoulder in this war. There was once such a grand
conjuncture in the history of our world, like that
now presented to our view in our "free, happy
America/' so-called,
It was when Herod and
Pontius Pilate united their influences to crucify the
Lord of Glory. May we not have to mourn over
the crucifixion of the white man's liberty as well as
the black man's in America, and the re-establishmenfc
of tyranny under the heel of military despotism.

448

THE RECENT ANGLO-AMERICAN CRISIS.

DR. CHEEVER ON THE REGENT ANGLO-AMERICAN
CRISIS.

The New York Herald gives a report of a
" harangue" delivered by Dr. Cheever, in his church,
on Sunday evening the 29th December:—
"From the applause which greeted him during
its delivery, we fancied ourselves at a political meeting in Tammany Hall, rather than in an edifice
supposed to be dedicated to God. The reverend
Doctor chose his text from 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. The
leverend gentleman said, that the injustice of this
Government to the African race had brought this
country to the verge of ruin; but God had arisen
to avenge the violation of this law in a way almost
as awful as the crime itself, which cried to Heaven
for vengeance. The Government, in refusing to
abolish slavery, took upon itself the whole guilt of
a deliberate establishment of i t ; and this renewed
guarantee of slavery in the war made it, so far as
slavery was concerned, atrocious, and brought it
directly beneath the reprobation of the Almighty.
Slavery had taken away all our .manliness, nobleness, and independence, and made us tremble at
our enemies, and, at the command of Great Britain,
justice had been defrauded of its due, by the release
of two of the greatest criminals.
The slave-owners
being the prime movers in the rebellion, a price
ought to have been set on their heads ; for if all

THE EECENT ANGLO-AMERICAN CRISIS.

449

the slave-owners were condemned to death, it was
but carrying out what God had appointed to be
done beforehand. The course of dignity, and honour, and justice, before God and man, would have
been to have apprehended Mason and Slidell immediately, and solemnly have tried them for the
crime of high treason ; and if their complicity in
this vast conspiracy had been fully proven, they
should have been taken from the prison to the scaffold, and hanged till they were dead, no matter
whether all the nations of the earth threatened to
make war against us ! (This sentence was greeted
by the audience with two rounds of applause.) It
was God-appointed justice. It was justice already
allotted by the Government to the slaver^ Captain
Gordon; and why should not Mason and Slidell
meet the same fate ? The crimes of the author of
the Fugitive Slave Law were against the race, but
those of Captain Gordon only against individuals.
It was not justice that the understrappers should
be hanged and the principals feed upon thanksgiving turkey, and be set free. (Applause.) Now,
in regard to Great Britain, who claimed to be injured by the taking of these State criminals, if this
country had committed an error they were bound
to make reparation—to acknowledge it, and ask
forgiveness.
But in the present case, the reverend
gentleman contended that, no insult being intended
to England, there could be no cause for war.
America had exercised too much leniency in the
2F

450

THE BECBNT ANGLO-AMERICAN CRISIS.

matter, and the "whole thing could have been made
so plain, that every nation upon earth would have
cried shame on Great Britain for demanding reparation for this supposed insult
It would have
been considered the most boundless cruelty on record—^excepting, perhaps, the war on China for
the sake of forcing opium on that unfortunate
people. But if war came, it would be owing to
our madness in not striking at slavery. Had this
been done three months ago, there would have been
no danger of offending England or France,% and no
hazard of the recognition of this slave-trading Confederacy—-this nation of pirates. It was not to be
supposed that the nations of Europe, with their
low views of moral duty and political obligation,
would much longer delay the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy, and the consequence would
be a breaking up of the blockade; and we should
thus have the shame and humiliation of doing for
the Confederacy, by our re-organising slavery, what
it could not do for itself—giving it a place among
Christian nations.
It looked as though Great
Britain would embrace that nation of slave-traders.
If we had declared for the freedom of the slaves,
we should have had the sympathy of all Europe;
but now we had only their scorn, and must only
have the anger of the Almighty. The speaker said
it was the duty of the President to issue a proclamation, not for the partial, but for the total, emancipation of the slave, which should be circulated

BR. CHEEVER ON THE SAN JACINTO OUTRAGE. 4 5 1

among all the generals of the army, who, together
with their commander-in-chief, should be called upon
to aid, by every means in their power, in carrying
into effect such proclamation," (Loud applause.)
On the appearance of the above paragraph in the
newspapers of this country, the author took up his
pen and wrote the following letter to the Scotsman,
which was inserted January 4, 1862 :-—
DR. CHEEVER ON THE SAN JACINTO OUTRAGE.

SIR,—We had fondly hoped that with the unworthy fling of the Rev, Dr. Cheever against England in his Wanderings of a Pilgrim, on page 35,
we had seen the last of his anti-British feelings,
and more especially after his kind reception and
the tangible manifestation of practical sympathy
shown to him during his recent visit to the " old
world;" but to our extreme sorrow, and mortification, and disgust, we have been pained to witness
a renewed manifestation of it in his comments on
the Trent outrage in a sermon preached by him in
the Church of the Puritans, New York, December
29, 1861. In the summary given of this sermon
in the Morning Chronicle, January 16, 1862, the
Rev. Dr. Cheever maintains that "we Americans
were right in boarding the Trent, and in taking
out Mason and Slidell with their understrappers \"
That "no insult being intended, there was no cause
for war!" That "justice had been defrauded of its

4 5 2 DK. CHEEVER ON THE SAN JACINTO OUTRAGE.

due in the release of, these men in compliance with
the demand of the British Government!" That
this release "made us the scorn of other nations—
gave Great Britain an advantage over us, and drove
us to the humiliating necessity of submitting almost
to any concession, even when we were in the right!"
That when Mason, Slidell, & Co. were landed from
the San Jacinto " they ought to have been solemnly tried for high treason, and if their complicity in this vast conspiracy had been proved,
should have been taken from the prison to the
scaffold and hanged until they were dead, no matter whether all the nations of the earth threatened
to make war upon us !" That " these things ought
to have been made so plain that every nation on earth
would have cried shame on Great Britain for this
supposed insult !" That this demand made by the
British Government on America "was considered by
him, and ought to be considered by others the most
boundless cruelty on record except the war on China,
for the sake of forcing opium on that unfortunate
people!" That but for our being stript of all
manliness, nobleness, and independence by slavery,
we should not have trembled before our enemies (as
at Bull's Run), or at the command of England ; and
therefore the Doctor has left the inference that we
in' such a case, but for slavery, would have driven
the Southerns into the Gulf of Mexico, blown Johnny
Bull and his little island to atoms, or have sunk
them fifty fathoms under water! That, in the

DR. CHEEVER ON THE SAN JACINTO AFFAIR.

453

midst of our disgrace and weakness " we had exercised too much leniency already towards England."
That " from the low vievjs of moral duty and political obligation of the nations of Europe, they
would not delay much longer the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy, or the raising of the blockade." That to England would be reserved the
" special sha'me and humiliation of doing for the
Confederacy what it could not do for itself—namely,
that of giving it a place among Christian nations!"
and that as England, according to Dr Cheever's
theory, by treaty engagements with other nations,
had god-fathered the infidelity of France, the polygamy of Turkey, and the superstitions of Spain, so
now she was about to put the crown on her shame
and guilt "by taking into her embrace a nation of
slaveholders!'''
This is the last feather which is to break the
camel's back of England!—the culminating guilt of
your crimes which are to hurl you from your preeminence amongst the nations, and to associate you
with the things that were amongst the powers that
be ! How dismal to think that such sentiments
should be associated with the name of Cheever!
What a public misfortune that he should be the
man to utter them! How it makes our hearts
sore to think of the injury such madness and folly
do to the cause he is professing to serve! Our
cause has often been injured by injudicious advocates in America; but no Frederick Douglas, Pills-

454

REV. J. E. BALME, DR. CHEEVER, AND SLAVERY.

bury Parker, William Loyd Garrison, or Joseph
Barker, or any pantheist, infidel, or atheist, has
the power to produce such irreparable injury as a
Harriet Beecher Stowe showed in her letter to Lord
Shaftesbury, or a Henry Ward Beecher made manifest in his defence of that old, rotten, and corrupt
pro-slavery Board of " American and Foreign Missions," for which a collection is now being made by
the Free Chutch of Scotland; and now, alas! a Dr
Cheever, as is demonstrated in his furious tirade
against Great Britain in the sermon referred to.
We had begun to think that better and brighter
days in the cause of liberty were beginning to dawn
upon us when God in his providence raised up
Cheever, and brought him to espouse the cause of
the slave; but, alas! our hopes are dashed to the
ground, and we are left to mourn over such exhibitions of folly, whilst the admonition falls on bur
ears, " Cease from man."—Yours for the slave,
J. E. BALME."

The publication of the above subjected the author
to the vindictive wrath of the ladies of one of the
Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Societies, as will appear
from the following letter to the Scotsman:—
REV. J. R. BALME, DR CHEEVER, AND SLAVERY.

2 St. James' Place,
Edinburgh, February 11, 1862.
SIR,—Last month, I received a kind invitation

REV. J. R. BALME, BR. CHEEVER, AND SLAVERY. 4 5 5

from Miss Wigham, Secretary of the Ladies' AntiSlavery Society, with which she is connected, to
give an address to the ladies of the committee, and
availed myself of the opportunity to do so, when
the following minute was put on record by them :—
" ' We have had a visit from the Rev. Mr Balme
from America. He has given us a touching account
of his sufferings and losses from his adherence to
anti-slavery principles. We feel much interest and
sympathy for him and his wife under their trying
circumstances of persecution. The credentials he
has produced from well-known friends of the antislavery cause confirm us in the opinion that he has
a claim on the sympathy of all interested in the
struggle for emancipation in the United States.'
" A copy of the above, signed on behalf of the
committee by Eliza Wigham, secretary, was forwarded to me on January 9,
" On the 24th of last month my letter appeared
in your paper, calling attention to the anti-British
feelings of Dr Cheever, in a sermon preached by him
on the 29th of December last, in the Church of the
Puritans, New York, on the San Jacinto outrage, an
extract or summary of which is now being extensively copied into the papers. In the above letter,
I expressed my deep sorrow that Dr Cheever should
be the man to utter the sentiments contained in
that summary.
" This brought a letter from Miss Wigham on the
25th of January, requesting the withdrawal of the

456

BALME, BE. CHEEPER, AfrD MISS WlGHAM.

copy of the minute forwarded to me, charging me
with being ' an accuser of the brethren, holding up
to reprobation the friends of the slave/ and ' taking
advantage of the intensely British feeling, in order
to enlist sympathy for myself/ maintaining, also,
'that no good could ensue to the cause of the slave
or of peace from the publication of the letter in
question;' and assigning as a reason for the withdrawal of the copy of their minute, 'an implied
sanction' of the above 'denunciations' and ' proceedings' on my part.
"On receiving the above, I wrote to Miss Wigham,
to make the inquiry as to whether she was authorised by the committee of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery
Society, of which she was secretary, to make the
demand contained in the above, and on the 1st of
February I received a reply saying that it was ' on
behalf of the committee' that she had written her
former letter ; also expressing her regret that she
had 'imputed motives to J. R B., but in other
points her letter expressed her present sentiments
and those of the committee.'
"To the above charges I give my most emphatic
and indignant denial, and, in the absence of proof ,
the ladies of the committee of the above society,
with the honorary secretary, must take home to
themselves the above unworthy accusations.
" It is conceded by those who know the history
of Dr Cheever that he has been an ill-used man,
and has been much vilified by the pretended friends

BALME, DR. CHEEVER, AND THE TRENT.

457

of freedom ; but his ordeal has almost been like a
paradise compared with what some of us have had
to pass through in America.
In 1860, when Dr Cheever was denounced and
vilified in a string of resolutions by William Loyd
Garrison & Co., denouncing him as an " enemy of
freedom," at the anniversary of the Anti-Slavery
Society, held in the Assembly Booms, Broadway,
New York—William L. Garrison, Esq., in the chair
— I sprang to my feet and commented on the discrepancy contained in the resolutions; thanked them
for the concessions made in the resolutions that the
Gospel must destroy everything hurtful to man ;
urged the inquiry as to where we were to look for
the men to apply it but to such men as Cheever;
reminded them that he was only a " babe' newly
born in the cause of freedom, but a promising one;
and appealed to them if it was wise, Christ-like,
or God-like, to put the brand of infamy on his brow,
&c. At the close of my address, the large assembly
unanimously vetoed the resolutions, with the exception of three persons, viz., Parker Pillsbury,
Charles Burleigh, and my friend and benefactor,
Wendell Phillips, Esq. But in the San Jacinto's
outrage on the Trent—an indefensible act, and condemned by the whole civilised world, it appears,
but the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society's Committee
and their secretary, and our American people—in
the above act, to endorse Dr Cheever's language,
sentiments, or spirit, in the summary of his dis-

458

BALME, DR. CHEEVER, AND THE TRENT.

course referred to, would he to show myself unworthy of the name I bear, and of Old England, the
country which gave me birth.
In a recent letter addressed to your paper, doubts
have been thrown out as to the utterance of such
statements by Cheever; but those who are acquainted with his peculiar style can have none,
since both the language and style is Oheeverian,
beginning, middle, and end, and in' keeping with
the general sentiments of our American people during their "crowing" time over the great feat of
sending a cannon ball across the bows of the unarmed Trent, and taking the Commissioners out of
her.—I am, &c.
J. R BALME/V
Another letter appeared after the above, requesting the public to suspend their judgment until Dr
Cheever was heard from, and contained a sarcastic
fling at Mr Balme for unworthy haste. The newspaper containing the letter has been mailed off to
America, and he has not been able to obtain another
copy.
DR CHEEVER.

" 2 St James' Place, Edinburgh,
February 26,1862.
" SIR,—There is a report in circulation that Dr
Cheever has been heard from by the party who
wrote to your paper to ask the public to suspend
their judgment until his letter came in regard to his

BE CHEEVER ON EUROPE AND AMERICA.

459

"ignoble defence of the Trent affair" and "unworthy attack on this country." Is it right that
his letter should be withheld, now that it has come,
since I was charged with unworthy haste in calling
attention to the summary of his discourse?
J. R BALME.

DR. CHEEVER ON EUROPE AND AMERICA.
Edinburgh, April 14, 18 6 2.
" S I R , — I n the Scotsman of the 24th January
there appeared, under the above title, a letter respecting Dr Cheever of New York, signed (J. R
Balme, an American clergyman/
"The letter mentions that Dr. Cheever lately
preached a sermon in New York, in which he commented on the affair of the Trent, and goes on to
show that, according to the summary of the sermon
in the Morning Chronicle, he uttered some extraordinary and offensive sentiments with respect to
the conduct of Great Britain, and to the position
and feelings of Americans on the affair. Take, for
example, the following, which is given as having
been uttered by him:—' That but for our being
" stripped of all manliness, nobleness, and independence bj slavery" we should not have trembled at
our enemies as at Bull's Run, or at the command of
Great Britain; and, therefore, he has left the inference that we Americans in such a case, but for

460

DR. CHEEVER ON EUROPE AND AMERICA.

slavery, should have blown Johnny Bull and his
little island to atoms, or have sunk them fifty
fathoms under water/ In the letter Mr Balme
expresses his ' extreme sorrow and mortification and
disgust' at the sentiments of Dr. Cheever, the ' more
especially after his kind reception, and the tangible
manifestation of practical sympathy shown to him
during his visit to the Old World.'
" It was impossible for any friend of Dr. Cheever
in this country to make any reply to the letter at
the time other than this, that Dr. Cheever was not
a man to talk of blowing Johnny Bull and his
island to atoms, or sinking them fathoms under
water, or to use words leading to any inference of
that sort, and that Mr. Balme might have been a
little more slow to believe ill of a man of so high
and estimable a character.
" I am now, however, in a situation to state, and
I do so at the desire of a number of Dr. Cheever's
friends, that he never uttered the sentiments imputed to him.
"A copy of the Scotsman found its way to America;
and there has been sent to me an excerpt from the
Principia (Rev. W. Goodell's paper), in which, referring to the letter in the Scotsman, the editor of
that paper observes:—' Mr. Balme repeats, as
authentic, a summary of a sermon of Dr. Cheever,
given, as he says, in the Morning Chronicle (which
we take to be a British paper), but which we judge
must have originated in the New York Herald, or

BR. CHEEVER ON EUROPE AND AMERICA.

461

some kindred paper, and in which Dr. Cheever is
represented as using offensive language towards
Great Britain. It is almost needless to say that
nothing of this kind was uttered by Dr. Cheever/
" Another copy of the Scotsman was sent to Dr.
Cheever himself, and in a letter which has been
received from him he says:—' At length we see
light on our horizon. The President's Message is
out, in favour of a Governmental emancipation, and
it settles the policy of the Government in that
direction. You will rejoice with us that the great
cause is moving on. We were glad to get your letter,
though sorry to learn what Mr. Balme had done in
Edinburgh. I am surprised that any credit should
be attached to any report of my doings or sayings
in the Herald newspaper, from which the slanderous
account of my sermon was copied. Be assured that
I always speak the truth in regard to the state of
feeling in Great Britain as I know it in reference
to this country. There is a better feeling now in
regard to England.
I have made some most
interesting visits to Washington, and enjoyed rare
opportunities of preaching in the Capitol on the duty
of abolition, also of lecturing in the Smithsonian
Institution on the same subject. Next week I am
to speak before the Legislature of this State. Everywhere there is a hearing ear if not an understanding heart, and the sentiment of abolition, and the
demand of justice to the enslaved, are growing in
favour and power. But the outrages still perpe-

462

THE REV. J. R. EALME AND W. DUNCAN.

trated are atrocious.
Our Generals send back
fugitives, and the fugitive Slave-law, infamous as it
is, is not repealed. Now that the President's proclamation favours emancipation, all our victories, it
may be hoped> will tend the same way. At any
rate, we are grateful for any ground of encouragement. "We wait beneath the furnace-blast the
pangs of transformation." Our country's institutions and principles are in the crucible, and we hope
they will yet come out bright. We are sure that
the arm of the oppressor will be broken, and the
oppressed will go free/
" I should hope that these proofs of what are the
true facts of the case will be as gratifying to Mr.
Balme as to Dr. Cheever's personal friends in this
country.—I am, &c.
" WM. DUNCAN."

DR. CHEEVER AND THE REV. J. R. BALME.

2 St. James' Place,
Edinburgh, April 16, 1862.
S I R , — I trust you will give me an opportunity
to reply to Mr, Duncan.
The "slowness of belief" and the imputation of
" illness" of feeling in regard to Dr. Cheever, he has
got to take back, like the Edinburgh ladies, as
being unworthy and dishonourable, since my statements and 'inferences were fair and logical, from
the paragraph given in the newspapers concerning

THE KEYS. J. R. BALME AND W. OOODELL.

463

Dr. Cheever's sermon on the "Trent affair," and
amply illustrated in his misguided policy when in
this country, in the gratuitous advice which he was
constantly urging on and giving to the British
Government, as if they had no rule to guide them
in their recognition of and treaty arrangements
with nations; and also, in a more offensive manner,
on page 35 of his "Wanderings of a Pilgrim."
Again, Mr. Duncan says, " I am now, however,
in a position to state, and I do so at the desire of
a number of Dr. Cheever's friends, that he never
uttered the sentiments imputed to him."
And, in proof, he produces an excerpt from the
Principia, a Christian abolition newspaper, edited
by the Rev. William Goodell, to which the Eevs.
Dr. Cheever and H. T. Cheever, his brother, are
special contributors.
In the excerpt, the editor says, " I t is almost
needless to say that nothing of this kind was
uttered by Dr. Cheever."
In the following extracts, taken from a dozen of
a similar nature, given in an editorial article in
the Principia, February (5, 1862, you will see
whether the Rev. W. Goodell is a reliable witness:—
This reverend firebrand says— u That America
and liberty have enemies in England which have
controlled their Government." " That the tide of
absolutism and pro-slaveryism is sweeping over
this land." " That the spirit of abolitionism has
declined in England ; and that the England of 1862

464

THE REVS. J R. BALME AND W. GOODELL.
.

is not the England of 1832/' " That the American
rebellion is the great test of abolitionism and Christianity in both hemispheres " " That the oppressors
of India, the invaders and violent poisoners of
China, the oppressors of Ireland, the persecutors of
the Christian chartists, and the imprison ers of
Arthur O'Neil, are not to be depended on in the
day of trial to sympathise with American slaves
and abolitionists." "That there are British abolitionists who sympathise with the pro-slavery rebellion against the American Government, and preferred the Slave States to the Free, such as Lord
Shaftesbury and Harriet Martineau." And "that
he," the editor, " would not have been surprised had
not Dr. Cheever travelled in this country for the
purpose of correcting the misrepresentations of our
enemies/'
In the presence of such a farrago of intolerance,
imbecility, and falsehood, can the testimony of such
a man be taken on behalf of Dr. Cheever or others?
If so, I envy not the men who can do so, or Dr.
Cheever with his "high and estimable character,"
who can keep company with such a man, or fellowship with him, or support his lying sheet by his
pen, tongue, or influence.
So much for Mr, Duncan's first proof, let us
examine the second.
But before we do so, it is necessary to bear in
mind that a letter was addressed to your paper
requesting your readers to suspend their judgments

THE REV. J. R. BALME AND W. DUNCAN.

465

until Dr. Cheever be heard from; also, that his letter
has been received for some time, and yet has not
been published. But now that an excerpt from
Goodell's scurrilous sheet has been found congenial
to their purpose, another is taken from Dr. Cheever's
letter, in order to make out a case in the doctor's
favour, which is both unfair to myself and the
public, and dishonourable to the parties concerned.
Publish the letter.
In Mr. Duncan's second excerpt, Dr. Cheever
says, "We were glad to get your letter, though
sorry to learn what Mr. Balme had done in Edinburgh." I have no doubt that the paragraph m
question and my inferences from its statements,
were unpleasant to Dr. Cheever and his friends, but
so much the worse for Dr. Cheever and them in the
unmanly course adopted,
In the excerpt given, however, he owns that he
preached a sermon on the "Trent affair," in his
reference to "my sermon/' Why not give his real
sentiments, if those put to his account were not
his own? " H e " says, "that the account given by
the New York Herald was a slanderous one." But
in what ? and how ? Was it in the applause which
greeted him, turning the house of God into a
theatre; or in the sentiment reported ; or both ?
Dr. Cheever also says that no credit should be
attached to any of his sayings or doings in the
above newspaper. Is his favourite newspaper, the
Prineipia, any better ?
2G

466

THE KEV. J. E. BALME AND W. DUNCAN.

Dr. Cheever, again, says, "Be assured that I
always speak the truth in regard to the state of
feeling in Great Britain, as I know it, in reference
to this country/' If so> does his intimate friend,
the Rev. W. Goodell, do him justice in what he
states was the purpose of his visit to this country ?
Finally, Dr. Cheever says, "there is a better feeling now in regard to England." Why not come
out nobly and manfully, and say, I was wrong, and
am sorry for my utterances in the " Trent Affair"
and in my " Wanderings of a Pilgrim," towards this
country, which have done so much to create antiBritish feeling, and alienate persons allied in ancestry,
language, and literature.
But if this feeling has changed in regard to himself, it is doubtful in regard to others, as shown in
the Principia, the organ of the Christian abolitionists, and the fiery harangue of the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, recently given in your paper, revealing the wildest demonstrations of applause in response to his pugilistic or Heenan style of combating this country. And if the charge be real, we
shall have his deeply earnest and broadly emphatic
protests against the course adopted by the above
clerical gladiators and libellers.
And if my protest in your paper—although itt
has subjected me to many rude personal indignities,
and the slanders of an Edinburgh anti-slavery committee of ladies, who have lost all sense of decency
and propriety, and raised the mad-dog cry on both

THE REV. J. E. BALME AND W. DUNCAN.

467

sides of the water; yet, if it further the ends of
justice, no one will rejoice more than myself, as it
has been an additional bitter ingredient in the cup
of my persecution in America, to have battled for
this grand old country when she has been right, as
well as for liberty, until I was battled from my
pulpit, press, and home, and (driven into exile.—
I am, &c<

J. R

BALME.

In the above attack made upon the author, there
is sad proof that the race of Cain, Ishmael, Esau,
and Claverhouse is not dead. It appears there are
some of them still alive in their representatives.
And had he been in America, he would have
had a very slim chance of obtaining a hearing at
the bar of public opinion. But bigots and partisans
here cannot have all their own way. Their only
chance anywhere is in the indulgence of personalities. And in reviewing. the controversy in regard to Dr. Cheever, you will see how soon the
author's opponents invaded the domain of conscience, as well as his personal right to examine the
utterances of any man or class of men. Now, what
had they to do with my personality ? Is it not as
dear to me as theirs is to them? Has he not a
living soul enshrined within him as well as themselves ? And as he would not trifle with their
feelings, why should they trifle with his % If the
author has an empty purse, it is no sin to be poor,

468

THE HUMMING BIRD AND BUTTERFLY.

although it is too much the way of the world to
treat poverty as a crime.
" Honour and shame from no condition rise,
Act well thy part; 'tis there the honour lies."

Besides, he that is down to-day may be lifted up
to-morrow, and those who are up come down a spoke
or two in connection with the wheels of Providence,
And though the author's circumstances have caused
him to be trodden under foot as refuse, and treated
as dung by many, by a turn in the wheels of Providence, he may become their superiors in position.
And therefore the author can commend, with all his
heart, to the above class of personages, the following beautiful allegory :-—" A humming-bird met a
butterfly, and being pleased with the beauty of its
person, and the glory of its wings, made an offer of
perpetual friendship. ' I cannot think of it/ was
the reply, ' as you once spurned me, and called me
a crawling dolt/
' Impossible !' exclaimed the>
humming-bird; ' I always entertained the highest
respect for such beautiful creatures as you/ 'Perhaps you do now/ said the other,/but when you
insulted me I was a caterpillar. So let me give
you a bit of advice: never insult the humble, as
they may some day become your superiors/ " Vile
insinuations were placed to the author's account,
because of his criticisms of Cheever in the ignoble
defence which he made of the St. Jacinto outrage
on the Trent. This was done to prejudice the religious community against the author, and silence

THE ST. 3ACINT0 OUTRAGE.

469

his utterances on any public question. And this is
easily done in the most enlightened communities,
since there are a class of men almost everywhere to
be found who scent carrion in every breeze, and are
disposed to treat every man as a rogue, until he
proves himself to be an honest man. But whilst
discrimination is to be used, it is to be made subservient to embody and illustrate the injunction,
" Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some
entertain angels unawares/' And if now and then
a wolf does come to you in sheep's clothing, it is
better to lean to virtue's side than punish the innocent for the guilty. To the insinuation of " bad
feeling" and base motives, were added an imputation of " unworthy haste." But this has come with
bad grace from his opponents, since the above imputation was entirely one-sided; like the St. Jacinto
outrage on the Trent. The English mail steamer,
the Trent, was going quietly and peacefully on her
voyage on the great highway of nations, bound
from one neutral port to another. Our American
commander fired a shot under her bows, stopped
her in her course, and took Mason and Slidell, with
their understrappers, out of her, in open violation of
international law, against the protest of the commander of the Trent, and in defiance of the British
flag. This wonderful feat of stopping an unarmed
steamer gave rise to public banquets, votes of
thanks from Congress and the Navy Department,
crowned with exultation the heart of Governor

470

LORD PALMERSTON AND THE TRENT.

Andrews of Massachusetts, excited the most jubilant feelings throughout the land, and brought
dissertations, homilies, sermons, orations, speeches,
proverbs, maxims, and poetic muse to justify and
embellish the wondrous act. Meanwhile, the news
was wafted across the mighty deep, and across this
island of the sea, and borne on pinions of the telegraph, swifter than eagle's wings to earth's remotest
bounds. This grand old island-home, with her sober
sense, solid judgment, and merry hearts, slow to
resent but quick to feel when touched in her most
sensitive part, and wounded in her honour, instinctively turned her eyes to Lord Palmerston, who,
with firm step, planted his feet on the serene
heights of patriotic duty, and, with unquivering
muscle and unfaltering voice, kindly, firmly, and
promptly made his demand for the surrender of the
Commissioners.
The demand created a chorus of vituperation that
pealed forth its mighty thunderings from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and was re-echoed from the Arctic
regions to the Gulf of Mexico. The Eev. H. W.
Beecher was the first to give the key note.
In the Independent, Dec. 26, 1861, he says,
" Should the President yield to the present necessity as the less of two evils, and bide our time with
England, there will be a sense of wrong, of national
humiliation so profound, and a horror of the unfeeling selfishness of the English government in this
great emergency of our affairs, such as will inevi-

THE REV. H. W. BEECHER AND THE TRENT. 471
tably break out by and by, in flames that will be
extinguished only by a deluge of blood." " We are
not living the whole of our life to-day. There is a
future to the United States, in which the nation
will right any injustice of the present hour." Mark
the words "wronged/'—humbled,"—the "unfeeling
selfishness" that must be punished—the volcano
of indignation that will leap up in resentment—the
deluge of blood that will follow, and the nearness
of these sanguinary scenes, as this deluge of blood,
says Beecher, is to be poured out in " our life,"—
and, that, then the injustice of Lord Palmerston's
demand will be righted ! Since December, however,
our clerical Robespierre has come to the conclusion
that it would not be Christian to let out the volcano, which is to be extinguished only by a deluge
of blood. In a paragraph in the Edinburgh Scotsman, April 9, 1 862, extracted from the New York
Times, i t is stated, referring to the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, it is stated as follows :—
" The Rev. H. W. Beecher has been lecturing and
preaching on the conduct of the British Government
in the affair of the Trent, 'When our rebellion
broke out/ said he, ' if there was any nation under
heaven that we looked to for sympathy and help
it was the mother country—Old England. But
how did she treat us ? She sympathised with our
enemies, arid when we were all engaged with the
rebels, and had as much as we could do on our
hand, she kicked up that contemptible fuss about

472

BR. CHEEVER AND THE TRENT.

the Trent, and took our rebel citizens from us,
' Oh/ said he, with sarcastic emphasis, ' it was
mean ! it was mean /' The audience cheered the
sentiment.
'And now/ said he, 'what are we
going to do about it ? When we. get this Avar off
our hands, and have time to attend to these matters' {suiting a strong pugilistic action to the word),
c
shall we give England what she deserves V The
house came down with thunders of applause of
assent. As it subsided, 'No !' said he, 'we will do
no such thing.
That would not be right; that
would not be Christian'
'Do not nail*his ears to
the pump,' it would not be Christian. But is it
Christian in this Boanerges of the Tabernacle to
lash up the popular mind to a frenzy of hatred in
this manner ? There are many here who think not,
and I am of the number."
As we have seen, the Rev. Dr. Cheever on Dec.
29, 1.861, was the next to grasp the sword, spear,
and tomahawk, and try his hand with "perfidious
Albion," as England is often called.
Next came upon the scene; with his poisoned
chalice for you to drink, the Governor of Maine.
In his annual message . to the State Legislature for
1862, he says, "On the breaking out of the slaveholder's rebellion there was not a loyal man in all
the North, who did not rely with unquestioning
confidence upon the warmest sympathy and heartiest
good wishes of England; but in all this they have
been grievously and sadly disappointed. And it is

GOV. RAMSAY, AND DR. EDDY, AND THE TRENT. 473
not to be denied that their feelings have been
sorely wounded. They thought that the land of
Russell, Sidney, Charles Fox, Gladstone, Milton, and
Tennyson, Would have denounced the insurrection
as inexcusable in its motive and infamous in its
aims. But in its steiad they find the sympathy of
the British nation not with the free North, fighting
for the preservation of their government, and upholding the cause of civilisation and humanity, but
with those who are endeavouring to destroy that
government."
Then Governor Ramsay, taking up the language,
whispered by the Rev. Newman Hall in the whispering gallery of the Old World, which went thundering down the sides of the New World until, it
reached Ramsay in his chair of state in Minnesota,
when he took up the sound and shouted, " that
cowardly blow of England/'
Dr. Eddy of Boston, the correspondent of the
Freeman, vowed that henceforth there could be no
brotherhood between England and America, as seen
in the above journal, Feb. 22, 1862.
A gladiatorial scene came next, with oath affirmative in the style of Hannibal of " inextinguishable
hatred" from Lovejoy to the country that gave his
country birth. The wretch—the wretch. And
then the press, how clamorous and vengeful, speaking of " outstanding accounts," and " power to prescribe the extent and limits of European power"—
and scattering "seeds of everlasting hatred;" but

4 7 4 REV. J. K BALME AND DE. CHEEVER'S FRIENDS.

settling down into " submission from necessity in
the hope of avenging the surrender hereafter."
But in the face of these indignant scowls, and
hurricane of blasting reproaches, the righteous demand of Palmerston was complied with, and acknowledged to be such by all other civilized nations—
and by Thurlow Weed, the right-hand man of
Secretary Seward, who said, that the " bottom of
the case we Americans had relied on to justify the
seizure, had tumbled out"—and by Seward, who
conceded that your " claim was just," but avowed
that u if it had been to the interest of our countrymen to have detained the Commissioners, they
would not have been given up."
The opposition the author has met with in
Edinburgh has been, therefore, precisely the counterpart of the position of our American people
towards this country. How unpatriotic, senseless,
on the part of Cheever, but more especially his
Edinburgh anti-slavery friends. But what can we
think of Goodel, Cheever's friend, who bore false
witness for his neighbour Cheever and against his
neighbouring English friends? Is he a proper
companion, counsellor, and friend? And the above
were not the only falsehoods uttered by this man.
A paragraph, the half of which was given by Duncan, contained other falsehoods as base, mean, and
infamous as ever were uttered by man. It is as
libellous as it is false, that the author ever spoke,
wrote, or dreamt of the word " English clergyman,"

THE REVS. J R. BALME AND ROBERTSON.
.

475

after he was ordained in Chicago, took out his naturalisation papers and availed himself of his preemption rights as an American citizen. And that
the author got into trouble by speculation is equally
false. Let any one read the brief sketch of the
author's history and say how they would have
withstood the peltings of the pitiless storm so long
and so well under such fearful odds. It is of the
Lord's doings and marvellous in our eyes! Two
clergymen in Edinburgh have doubted the existence of our property, the author addressed the following letter to one of them:—
January 10th, 1862.
REV. MR. ROBERTSON,

S I R , — I called yesterday with demonstrative proof
of the fact that I mentioned to you, that I do not
come to you as a pauper, but a victim of persecution, as I have incontrovertible proof in my
possession of our being owners of property, never
called in question before; and as to a man having
property in America, your friend Wm. Duncan can
assure you that a person may own a vast amount
(like one of his own friends who has property in
"Wisconsin), and yet not be able to sell it, and if
forced on the market would not fetch a " note
song" You and Dr. Candlish may doubt this, but
others better acquainted do not. And just as God
in His Providence has shut up real estate men who,

476

THE REVS. J R. BALME AND ROBERTSON
.

own property in America, by the unnatural, and
fratricidal internecine war going on in that land, so
as to prevent them realising, even so previous to
the above wicked and cruel war, I was shut up by
the overwhelming powers of persecution, so that
from a twofold cause I have been crumpled up,
and made destitute.
But if you or Dr. Candlish want a fine estate to
retire upon, now is a splendid chance for either of
you, and at a great bargain.
So that if you have any desires in that way,
now is your opportunity, and " legal proof" in the
conveyance will soon be forthcoming (from Mrs.
Balme, who is in legal possession,) in addition to
the demonstrative proof now on hand.—Yours, &c.
J. R BALME.

At Mrs. Ferguson's, 2 St. James's Place.
It is a matter of deep regret for their own sakes,
but not the authors, that they should have adopted
such a course. The old book says, "the wicked
flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are
as bold as a lion, Prov. xxviii, 1. The author
after braving a thousand storms and facing ten
thousand foes across the water, would have deserved the censures and scorn of mankind if he
had yielded or fled, or feared in the assault, so
thoroughly unprovoked, and so totally unmerited
at the hands of the avowed friends of the slave in
this city. What becomes of their friendship of

THE REV. J. R. BALME AND HIS PERSECUTORS.

477

the slave when a love to, or sincere desire to
benefit him is inseparably linked with a love of
justice to those who have laboured on their
behalf. Such a course must ever be considered
disgraceful by every honourable mind, and be a
sword lifted up that will come back again with a
fearful rebound on themselves. Besides, insinuations are not evidences, no more than slander is
truth, or abuse argument. But generally, when a
person is marked out for the slaughter, insinuation
comes first, and then some false malicious charge
afterwards. "Whom the gods intend to destroy
they first make mad."
Having miscalculated in their application to
Cheever for a denial in the hope and with the assurance that the " lying Herald" of New York could
not speak the truth—that the man who gave the
synopsis of Cheever*s discourse on Thanksgiving
Day for the celebrated victory at Corinth, which
was extracted and applauded in the Principia,
could not have given a faithful rendering of Cheever's discourse in his synopsis on the Trent. But,
alas, put off with a "believe me, I always speak
the truth in regard to the state of feeling in Great
Britain as I know it in reference to this country."
Or, "if any of my friends volunteer an answer, they
do it on their own responsibility and out of their
own spontaneous friendship, but I go on just as
nothing had been uttered, and declare the truth as
God gives me opportunity and ability." Here was

478

THE REV. J. R. BALME AND HIS PERSECUTORS.

an opportunity for him to declare the truth. And
can any one doubt that he has not the ability ?
But it is not convenient; and we have seen what
a mess his special friend Goodel has got him into
by denying what he himself does not dare to say.
The author, therefore, has now come out of this
ordeal unscathed! Instead, of standing up to their
guns and facing the music, they have had to sound
an ignominious retreat!
And what disgrace attaches to their dishonourable mode of warfare! By such a course the author
will neither be deterred from vindicating what
he believes to be the truth, nor discussing any
question which he deems may be needful or profitable, nor examining the false positions or utterances
of men. And if they think that their despoiling
of the sacredness of his right will in the end either
crush or strangle him, they are equally out of their
reckoning, and demonstrate the obscuration of their
sun with mental mists and fogs. It has subjected
the author to many petty annoyances and not a few
rude insults, but made more sweet and more great
in themselves many little acts of kindness shewn to
the author to which he would accord the mark of
grateful tribute and high appreciation for their
kindness.

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED,

479

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED AND THAT OF HIS
EXCELLENT PARTNER.

In May 1852, the author and his heroic and devoted wife left England for America in the Great
Britain Steam Vessel, after her voyage of discovery
in seeking a new passage to America by Dundrum
Bay. After spending a few weeks in the State of
New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, they
went West. On reaching Chicago, the author had
the unwelcome task of preaching a farewell sermon
for the minister, who was on the point of leaving
the first Baptist Church. This led to an engagement. On entering upon his work, he soon found
that a large number of the Members in the Church,
and some of the Deacons, were warm and earnest
defenders and apologists of slavery ; and his faithful dealing with the conscience, and pungent applications of the truth of God, were. so different to
what they had been accustomed, that it soon became evident that his labours there would terminate.
Had he known their true position, and the relation in which they stood to the very tender, delicate, and patriarchal Institution of the land, which
by many was boasted of as their chief glory, but
is now proving their greatest curse, neither he nor
his partner would ever have put themselves in the
false position which they occupied in that Church,

480

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

a thing they never looked back upon but with
feelings of deepest sorrow and unfeigned regret.
On reaching America they were everywhere assured, in the Free States, that if they wanted
slavery, they must go south for it. They had to
feel their way and learn by painful experience.
When they found out their true position, it
caused many deep searchings of heart and deep and
earnest prayer for guidance and assistance.
On mutual consultation and prayer, we came to
the conclusion, that as our position in the above
Church was in the order of Providence, although
we could not justify or defend the abounding laxity
of doctrine, principle, or practice that prevailed, or
the perverted fellowships which obtained amongst
its Members; yet we resolved, let what would,
could, or should come, ours should be one of unswerving fidelity to the cause of Christ. The news
was soon spread that we were Abolitionists, which
immediately caused a distance to be observed and
a feeling of alienation to spring up in the minds of
some of the Members ; but more especially so in
the case of one Eev. Jirah D. Cole, the agent of the
"Missionary Union in the North West. This man
assumed lofty airs, especially at the author's ordination, which took place in the first Baptist Church,
Chicago, September 29, 1852, when the Revs. C.
H. Roe, Solomon Knapp, Silas Tucker, and J. F.
Childs took a part in the service.
When the author put the brand of condemnation

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

481

on slavery, placing it in the same category with
other gross sins denounced in the Decalogue, some
of the leading influential Members began to remonstrate, saying, "Preach the gospel, and let slavery
alone."
That was a new and novel process of reasoning
to him, and sounded strangely in his ears, and he
could not help but smile at their credulity, to suppose that he could "preach the gospel, and let
slavery alone," any more than he could let drunkenness or any other sin alone. But in that they
were just as much out of their reckoning as one of
the Knapps, of Washington Market celebrity, New
York, who wanted a preacher one Sabbath in 1859,
but,refused the appointment to the author, except
he would pledge himself not to preach against
slavery, which the author respectfully declined to
do, although his empty purse would have made the
engagement doubly welcome. An argument was
also used, as novel as the reasoning, "You will soon
be converted to our theory," said they ; " other
ministers that come from the old world soon fall
into our modes of thought, and conform to our
customs and practices.. Besides, you will find it to
your interest to be silent on the vexed question of
slavery." On remaining true to our convictions,
and what we considered to be the truth of God,
clouds gathered, dangers threatened, hard names
were used, until at length a crisis was reached. A
clergyman from St. Louis was on a visit to Chicago,
2H

482

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

and it being customary to invite clergymen who
were strangers to take some part in the services on
the Sabbath, one Sabbath morning he was brought
up to the pulpit stand by one of the Deacons,
who introduced him, saying, "We wish you to
invite him to officiate on some part of the Sabbath/' Knowing that he was pastor of a slaveholding ehurch in St. Louis, the author at once
promptly but respectfully replied, that " he should
not do any such thing." "But," said the Deacon,
" you must do it;"
The people were collecting for worship, and not
wishing to have any altercation, the author left the
pulpit-stand and went into a pew. The author's
refusal became matter for grave comment—a storm
of indignation arose, and the opposition, gaining
strength and becoming more violent, the author resigned his position and requested letters of Dismission according to the custom or practice that obtains
in the Churches in America. At the same time the
author addressed a letter of deep regret that caused
the necessity for such a course in connection with
those who claimed to be the descendants of the
Pilgrim Fathers. This letter was returned by the
Church without note or comment, accompanied with
the letters referred to above. And thus terminated
their connection with the first Baptist Church,
Chicago.
The author then paid a visit to the Egypt of
Illinois, and supplied for a month a vacant church

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

483

at Jacksonville, where he was informed that the
Church were unanimous in their wishes to give him
an invitation, with the exception of one rich
" Nabob," who opposed him because he was an
Englishman by birth. And that is considered a
great bar to promotion in our American Churches,
except when the ministers from the old country
have got what our Americans call " the plastic forms
of soft diplomacy." Then those bars could easily
be overcome, as is shown in the sad history of many
European ministers who have emigrated to America.
The author has often been pained with the wholesale flattery of these men in their hero-worship of
Washington and Judson to minister to American
vanity; but let a minister from the old country
have the smallest taint or smell of abolitionism
about him, and he will soon be " spotted," isolated,
and caricatured in America; and also have his
position jeopardised, and his reputation at fault.
The author had the following letter of introduction from L. D. Boone, Esq., one of the deacons of
the First Baptist Church which he had just left:-—
" As our highly-esteemed brother, Kev. J. R Balme,
is about leaving the city with a view to making the
acquaintance of brethren of our Baptist Churches,
and as he is comparatively a stranger in the country,
I take great pleasure in stating that we regard him
as a brother of high-toned piety, and possessing an
order of pulpit talents eminently qualifying him for
usefulness in any field where God in his providence

484

THE AUTHOE'S POSITION DEFINED.

may appoint him to labour. Mr Balme has preached
in our pulpit with much acceptance, and we greatly
desire that the proper field of usefulness should
speedily present itself to himself and his excellent
companion.—L. D. Boone, Chicago, Oct. 26, 1852."
Boone is a descendant of the famous Kentucky
Boone, whose name is historical in connection with
the early settlement of the western regions of
America. And though Boone was considered a
" Conservative" in the West, and can show his
tiger instincts in the case of parties whom he deems
his lawful prey, yet at the time he wrote our
letter he was labouring under the delusion that our
abolitionism was " ephemeral/' Boone's letter, however, and the wishes of the Church at Jacksonville, were
of no weight with the rich "Nabob," and, therefore,
the Church had to acquiesce. The author then paid
a visit to the Slave States, where he saw for himself " slavery as it is"—that hideous monster which
had been baptised into the Churches of the land and
enthroned in the State.
And never will he forget on reaching St. Louis,
in the State of Missouri, the thrill of horror that
flashed through his spirit, when a slave came up to
him and modestly but earnestly put the question,
"Will you buy me?' " Buy you?" " W h a t do
you mean V The slave continued, " IVe got a bad
massa, and Pse be glad to get a better."
The
author thanked the slave for the compliment, but
observed, " that slave-holding was not in his line of

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

485

business, that his soul loathed and detested it, ai*d
that he abhorred the wicked thing with all his heart."
The echoing thunders in connection with the
above blaze of indignation which the thought awakened against the system of slavery, appear to rise
up from every crevice of his soul every time the
author thinks of it. One scene after another passed
under review in the Slave States in connection with
negro yards where slaves are kept, their sales on
auction blocks, working in chain • gangs, and the
demoralising scenes which sprung out of the system,
until he became so affected by the sight that flitted
before him by day and haunted him by night, that
he felt impelled to leave the South.
On his return to Chicago, he found that a little,
small band of disciples had met for prayer. He
was invited to preside at their meetings. A building was rented for worship. At length a church
was formed. Then a large warehouse was bought
and moved through the streets to a vacant lot which
the author leased. It was fitted up for church,
school, and printing offices, which involved a considerable outlay. One hundred and forty pounds
were collected in the city towards it. The rest
was advanced by the author, who was to hold it as
security until the debt was liquidated. Services
were held on the Sabbath and week days ; a Sabbath School was formed; an abolition newspaper
was issued, of which the author was editor and
proprietor.

486

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

A Ladies' School was also established, under the
superintendence and management of Mrs. Balme.
The Church department was environed with difficulty from its commencement to its close, in consequence of our non-fellowship with slaveholders and
negrohaters. Every member was tormented and
harrassed in their business relationships by those
who were opposed to us. Our abolition newspaper
presented a bold front to the enemy, and was a
terrible thorn in the sides of our opponents and
persecutors. Lifting up the supremacy of God's
law over man's law, and principle over expediency,
it raked down in turn the general Government,
State Governments, Churches, colleges, mission
boards, tract societies, the soTcalled free Press,
whether secular or religious, Sabbath and free mission conventions, our national gigantic feat of
jugglery in introducing the compromises into the
original draft of the Constitution; fugitive slave
law, and every institution and thing which excused
slavery, tolerated it, or allowed it to sleep at their
side and in their midst as undisturbed as pearls in
the caves of ocean, a thousand fathoms down beneath the storms which agitate the surface of the
ocean. The effectiveness of our continuous battery
was shown in an editorial issued by the " Democratic
Press" of Chicago, one of the leading secular papers
of the West, requesting the American Government
to suppress our newspaper, maintaining that no

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

487

person born in the old country ought to be allowed
to publish a paper in America.
This brought out the Rev. A. Kenyon, of Chicago, in our defence, and also many tributes in homage of our principles and personal devoted attachment to the cause of freedom.
We give the
following as a specimen.
The Rev. D. F. Newton, editor of the Golden
Rule, an excellent anti-slavery newspaper, wrote as
follows :—
" Dear Brother Balme,—I am pleased very much
with the Olive Branch, especially with the decided
stand you take against oppression. Such a paper
is greatly needed in this day of perpetual backsliding. 'Lord help, for the godly man ceaseth/
The Lord bless your labours,—Yours, &c,
D. F. NEWTON."

Another clergyman wrote to u s : —
" Rev. J. R. Balme,—Sir,—To see a minister of
the gospel willing to give up his bread and butter,
sacrifice his dignity, honour, and all popular applause, to be hissed at and denounced, not only by
the world, but by the majority of professed Christians as a false brother and disturber in Zion, turning the world upside down, fit only to be dealt
with as an heretic, is what my soul longs to see.—
P, M. B. Nicholville, St. Laurence County, New
York/'
On the signboard of our Western Olive Branch
'we had this motto—" Justice and mercy have been

488

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

classed amongst the highest attributes of majesty
and might in all ages, whilst the despotism and
tyranny of the strong over the helpless and weak,
have been regarded with indignation and disgust."
And the publisher and proprietor's name was given
in each number, in connection with his residence
on the Church Premises, Chicago. , Our Ladies'
Seminary succeeded the best. During the first
year it brought in two hundred pounds, and our
prospects were still more encouraging the second
year, until some coloured ladies applied for admission, which broke up the establishment, as the
white ladies walked out when the coloured ladies
came in,- and this closed the concern. Then commenced our disasters, as the church and newspaper
were both pensioners on our bounty ; and as the
bulk of our property consisted of real estate,
which was unproductive, we soon began to see the
breakers ahead, as we could not realise. After a
season of indefatigable toil in the church and by
the press, the press had to be suspended for the
want of means to carry it on—not that it was a
failure, but because we had based our calculations
on its maintenance from the resources supplied by
the seminary, until it could establish itself, and pay
its own bills. But when the school went down, it
dragged down the newspaper with it, as it took
from three to four pounds a week to sustain it, in
addition to our subscription list. Sorrowfully and
mournfully, therefore, we had to close a second de-

THE AUTHOB'S POSITION DEFINED,

489

partment, and one in which we had the promise of
the greatest usefulness, for never was a paper more
needed in any country, or at any period of the
world, as the Western Olive Branch was and is now
required in America. There is a terrible lack of
the right kind of agency in the press. And in regard to those who have entered this department of
labour, so many of them have been like Joseph's
coat-of-many-colours, that, from lack of principle,
they have been powerful for evil more than good ;
whilst others, such as the Principia, have placed
themselves beyond the pale of public sympathy and
encouragement by their unscrupulous and unblushing slanders and falsehoods.
When our hopes were annihilated in the other
departments of labour, we had to abandon the
church also, because of our crippled finances. A
church meeting was called. T. G. Jones and N.
Holden, Esqs., from the two other Baptist Churches,
were present, when the author tendered his resignation, and gave an intimation that the premises in
which the above enterprises had been conducted
would be conveyed to any party they might appoint, on payment of the monies advanced by the
author on the building for alterations, and a reasonable compensation for his toils during the eighteen
months he had presided over the church without
fee or reward. As no party came forward to undertake the responsibility, six months were offered
to Ijhem to try to make arrangements.

490

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED,

At the end of that time the Church was convened,
and as no arrangement had been made in equity to
meet our claims on the property, the Church was
dissolved—letters of credential were issued to each
member and the pastor—and the premises were put
into an agent's hands for sale or to rent, when the
author and his wife left Chicago to look after their
property in Minnesota.
The author's pastoral letter reads as follows :—
"This is to certify that the Rev. Joshua Rhodes
Balme has sustained an honourable relationship
with us as pastor and member of Salem (Baptist)
Church, Chicago; and we can heartily commend
him to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
" Signed on behalf of the Church this day, dissolved by mutual consent.
" JNO. BICKNELL, Clerk, pro tern.
" THOS. HIDEN, Deacon, Chicago.

"June 21, 1854."
No sooner, however, did they leave Chicago, than
all the different editors placed a most unfounded
calumny on their track that we had libelled the
fair fame of the city in regard to its sanitary condition, so that when we reached our new home in
Minnesota, we were inundated with salvos from the
guns of our adversaries. And when the author
visited Chicago a few months after on business, he
found that every form of vituperation and abuse
had been resorted to, to destroy every vestige of
our reputation and usefulness. And amongst our

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

491

defamers was this veritable L. D. Boone. This
course had been adopted to cripple us in our new
home. On tracing out some of these vituperative
missiles in the public newspapers, the author took
Judge Maniere and some other gentlemen with him
to the office of the Chicago Christian Times, to
obtain the honourable amendment in connexion
with the mendacious course adopted by the parties
who assailed the author in the above scurrilous
newspaper, in accordance with the laws of newspaper propriety. But the author found to his surprise that there was not a spark of soul or honour
left in the editors of the above paper. His equitable demand was refused. And all the satisfaction
he could ever get was in the following letter
in the Congregational Herald of Chicago, Oct. 23,
1854. "Editors of the Congregational Herald.
The laws of newspaper proprieties demanding that
an individual shall have the right of defence in a
case of personal attack, will you have the goodness
to insert in your paper that I have been denied this
right in Chicago by the editors of the Christian
Times.—Yours,
fee.
J. R BALME, Chicago."
To the above there was no answer. When in
Sheldon's bookseller's shop, New York, in I860,
one of the editors of the Times, brother-in-law to
Sheldon, came up to the author and stretched out
his hand to him, but in the presence of one of the
Sheldons the author reminded him that " he could
not reciprocate the courtesy until he had made the

492

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

honourable amendment referred to above." And
his brother-in-law took the author's part against
him, " saying that I was entitled to fair play."
Fair play is a bright jewel. But such jewels are
rare in America. And of inestimable worth in that
country. The agent in whose hands the author
had put the premises in Chicago used for the purposes above specified—not being able to dispose of
them, rented them for an hotel. This appropriation
of them caused blind and bigoted partisans to brood
over it with " malice prepense ;" and with " obdurate pride and steadfast hate" they henceforth sought
to make capital out of it against the author.
Buoyant with hope that the above appropriation
might give them a plausible pretext to blacken the
character of the author, and gathering "resolution
from despair" they uttered their dark forebodings,
and lifted up their hands with dismal howls of
lamentation, and in lachrymose style shed their
tears that they could be so " duped" in such an
artful way in the appropriation of the above premises. Some said that he had sold the property
and run away with the money. The building,
however, remained in possession of the author until
it was afterwards burnt by incendiarism; so that
the " fanatic and villain," so called, lost all remuneration for his labours during a period of indefatigable
toil of eighteen months to build up A church, and
a portion of his own investment in the property.
This, however, did not distress him or his worthy

THE AUTHORS POSITION DEFINED.

493

partner, as they esteemed it a privilege to endure
worldly loss for Christ.
In our new home at West St. Paul, the author
tried to cultivate a portion of his large estate, which
he owned in Minnesota, but in this he was unsuccessful, as persecution broke out in its most violent
forms, in the midst of which one of Churchill's
vigorous satires often came up with tremendous
force to his spirit—
" The man whose hardy spirit doth engage,
To lash the vices of a guilty age,
At his first setting forward ought to know,
That every rogue he meets will be his foe."

There were many who tried to rob the author,
and when they failed, fell savagely on himself and
all he had, in the way of vituperation, abuse, and
the destruction of his property. For two years in
succession his fences were torn down, and crops destroyed by hogs and cattle. One year he was so
vigilant that the work was difficult for them to
succeed in their fiendish operations. But just before the crops were matured, a neighbour, whose
wife had often sought our protection from the
brutality of her husband, removed the line fence
seven feet back, so that at one end that amount of
space was thrown open to the common, and the
author could not block it up without a trespass.
The cattle and hogs soon found their way in, and
made sad destruction amongst the crops. Four
neighbours blocked up the gap, but the owner of

494

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

the ground soon threw it open again. The case
was taken into Court, Persons were brought up
to swear away the value of our crops. Our
principal witness, a Mr. Freested, although subpenaed,
failed to appear, and the author's own testimony
was thrown out because of his unpopularity by
the aid of a singular law in Minnesota, made to all
appearance to protect rascality. The law referred
to places every plaintiff at the mercy of the defendant, so far as the plaintiff's testimony is concerned, if the defendant can bring up two or more
more witnesses to swear that the plaintiff was a
man of " no reputation, and that they would not
believe him on oath." And as by violent partisans
abolitionists have been regarded in America, if not
now, as the greatest monsters of wickedness, except
when they march in stately steppings to the music
of the Union, which is now a redeeming quality,
this law was put in operation on the vile testimony
of a number of persons who- swore to the above
effect, although it was rebutted by J. C. Burbank,
Esq., and others, in counter evidence. The author
was only allowed twenty minutes to bring up his
witnesses, and was taken under a disadvantage.
But as it was, the villainous design of the defendant
was most signally defeated, if justice had been done.
But judgment was turned away backwards, and
justice stood afar off in the streets of Saint Paul.
And neither truth nor equity entered into the above
case, shown in the voluminous testimony given, and

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

495

now on record in the Courts of Minnesota. Nominal
damages were given to the author, and he was involved in the costs of the case. A yoke of oxen
were taken from the author one day by an Irishman and his son, and as he drove them off, swore
that "no jury would ever give" the author "a verdict, because he was unpopular;" and the sequel
proved it. When the case came into Court, he
trumped up a story that he had bought the oxen
on credit; and although there had been no transaction or agreement, and the circumstantial evidence was against the belief that the author would
have sold to a man a yoke of oxen who had no
money to pay for them, yet the jury, consisting of
eleven Irishmen and a Dutchman, which had been
impannelled by an Irish Sheriff, gave a verdict in
favour of the Irishman. And the lawyers employed by the author in the above cases put the
climax on Minnesota justice by sending in an extortionate bill, equal to the value claimed for the
crops and oxen, so that the author was in bad
hands, and was victimised.
Whilst these acts of outrage and robbery were
going on, our loose cash kept getting less, and, as
we could not dispose of any of our property, we
soon felt the pressure of difficulty. This caused the
author, in June 1858^ to work his way to England, with the title-deeds of his property in his
possession, and with introductions from H. H.
Sibley, Esq., then Governor of Minnesota; Franklin

496

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

Steele, Esq., of Fort Snelling; E. Rice, Esq., President of the Pacific Railway Company ; J. C. Burbank, Esq, the Expressman, all leading influential
citizens of Saint Paul and its immediate vicinity.
His object was to try to negotiate a loan on his
property, but failed. He then worked his way
back to Minnesota, but when he reached home
after his long and weary journey, he was in the
same position of difficulty as when he left. Stern
necessity, therefore, impelled him to leave home a
second time to obtain a subsistence for himself and
excellent wife.
Four years have nearly passed
away since he left her sorrowing on the beach of
the river, whilst he jumped on board one of the
steamers of the Mississippi, without a red copper in
his pocket. He had a letter of introduction to a
church in Ohio, where they wanted evangelistic aid.
But how was he to get there ? The place was
twelve hundred miles away. Onwards, however,
he went, overcoming one difficulty after another,
until he reached Chicago. When in that city he
called on Mr. Sargent, the superintendent of one of
the railways, to try to get a free pass. He promised him a half pass, if he could get a line from
his old friend, L. D. Boone. The author at once
waited on him, and received from him the following
letter :—" Mr. Sargent. Dear Sir,—Mr. Balme, the
bearer hereof, has called on me this morning for an
endorsement, which will commend him to your
favourable consideration. I desire to be very care-

THE AUTHOE'S POSITION DEFINED.

497

ful in all such cases; and, as I do not feel as well
qualified to speak with reference to Mr. Balme as
L. C. P. Freer, and John M. Van Osdel, Esqs., are, I
would prefer to refer you to them, or either of them,
for information.—Very respectfully yours, L. D.
BOONE.

Chicago, Nov. 20, 1858."

You have already seen that Boone was qualified
to speak for the author in a former letter. Boone's
second letter, addressed to the Chicago Christian
Times, gives sad evidence of Boone's dexterity and
sublime audacity in the way of slander and abuse.
The Father of lies himself could not have invented
a letter more fraught with subtlety, cunning, and
falsehood. The author regrets that his copy of
this letter has been left in some luggage lying in
New York. But now we see, in this last letter of
Boone's, " that he is not so well qualified to speak
with reference to Mr. Balme as L. C. P. Freer, Esq.,
and John M. Van Osdell, Esq., are." Mr. Sargent
handed over Boone's letter to the author, in order
to see the above gentlemen referred to. The following are the results of the author's interview with
them.
The first letter is from L. C. P. Freer, " To whom
it may concern,—I was some few years since
well acquainted with the Kev. J. R Balme, a clergyman of the Baptist denomination, then resident in
this city. I found him an honourable, fair man.
I am not a member of his denomination, but aware
that, by reason of certain differences of opinion be21

498

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

tween Mr. Balme and his Baptist brethren in this
city, he was treated by them rather as a Dissenter
than otherwise. Mr. Balme is on his way to take
charge of a church in Ohio. From a considerable
acquaintance with him, I am firmly convinced that
he is better entitled to the immunities afforded to
clergymen while travelling than the average of our
doctors of divinity.
L. 0. P, FREER.
"Chicago, Nov. 20, I860."
Our next letter is from John Van Osdel, Esq.,
architect, Chicago, and a member of the First Baptist Church where the author officiated. It is dated
" Chicago, Nov. 20, 1850.—-To whom it may concern. This will certify that I am acquainted with
the bearer of this, Mr Balme, and know him to be a
minister of the gospel of good reputation in the
Baptist denomination, and in good standing. Being
short of means whereby to reach his destination, I
would recommend him to the courtesy and consideration of superintendents of lines of travel to aid
him in reaching his destination, as he is on his way
to take charge of a church in Ohio.—John Van
Osdel/' The above letters enabled the author to
make another start forwards; but on reaching his
destination at Conneaught, he found that the mere
pittance which they gave for evangelistic aid prevented the author from making himself known to
them.
The author concluded that it would be as comfortable to be starved to death inofficially as offi-

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

499

daily in such a place, and therefore took up his
pilgrim's staff, and bound on his sandals afresh to
renew his journey, when he started for New York
where he arrived with blistered feet and crunching
pain in his limbs from rheumatic fever, the very
picture of penury, sorrow, and grief. These things
were written on his countenance, pockets, and appearance. He looked around for the "kind and
gentle hearts that feel another's woe," but the author
was an abolitionist, and was shunned as the plague
by the mass of the clergy and laity in New York;
and the author found it no better with the abolitionists with few exceptions.
There were but few pulpits to which he could
get access, and when he did there were but few engagements that ministered relief. I t was the same
in Philadelphia. In Boston it was a little better,
as God in his gracious and all-wise providence
raised up Wendell Phillips, Esq., to act the part of
a benefactor. The author had been impelled from
necessity to borrow some money, for the use of
which he had to give large securities for a mere
note song of debt. He tried incessantly to negotiate a loan to get the securities transferred, but in
vain, until he reached Boston, when Phillips advanced the money necessary to liquidate the claim,
and unencumbered property was made over to him
as security, which is now in course of liquidation.
This was a noble act of Phillips, and when accomplished through a joint letter of introduction, signed

500

THE AUTHOR'S POSITION DEFINED.

By the Be vs. Stockbridge, Manning, Eddy, Murdoch,
and Duncan, clergymen in Boston, he obtained the
means to secure a deck passage to England, where
he is now trying to raise means to re-establish his
mission in America by the agency of the press.
Full particulars are given in his circular at the
close; and those whose sympathies may be enlisted
on his behalf may there see how they can reach
him. Whilst here the author has literally had to
hew his way through a gigantic jungle of difficulties,
in consequence of the unwearied efforts that have
been made to prejudice the public mind against
him. Besides, he has come out of these buffetings
and trials,—-exposures to wind, and weather, and
changes of climate,—a great sufferer in health ; but
his hand is on the staff of the divine promise, and
his feet are standing in the faith and power of the
Almighty. And sometimes he feels in the midst of
these earthly sorrows and trials the laughing waters
of joy in his soul, which are infinitely more refreshing than the laughing waters of Minnesota at the
falls of Minnehaha, where the stream goes on its way
rejoicing, laughing itself away in childish glee at the
graceful feat it has performed in bounding over the
precipice. Longfellow, in referring to the scene,
&ays '-—
f* Stars in the silent night
Might be enchained,
Birds in their passing flight
Be long detained;

CONCLUSION.

501

And by this scene entrancing
Angels might roam
Or make their home
Hearing in waters dancing,
'Mid spray and foam,
Minnehaha."

CONCLUSION.

Such is the picture the author has to present.
And, yet, how full of vain boasting! And what
swelling words of vanity we use ! Our coin is *
stamped with glaring capitals of liberty, from the
cent to the dollar, and the dollar to the eagle !
But if each piece of coin could speak, what a history it would give! One would say I represent
the value of that beautiful babe, which was torn
from the embrace of its mother, and sold on the
auction block, because the condition of the child
follows that of the mother in accordance with the
well-known law maxim in operation amongst us in
America, " partus sequitur ventrem," which determines that every child descended from a slave
mother shall be a slave; and therefore puts the
brand of ignominy on the child as well as mother.
The following nuptial tragedy, taken from a New
Orleans newspaper, will illustrate the workings of
this law:—
" A wealthy American merchant, of the city of
New Orleans, married a Creole lady of fortune, and
with the estates and servants, came into possession

502

CONCLUSION.

of a mulatto seamstress and her daughter, a child
of seven years. The gentleman was so much struck
with the extraordinary beauty of the child, which
had the purest Italian features and complexion, that
he resolved to save it from a life of degradation
which was before it, and to free it and educate it.
He sent the child to a Northern school, and there
she remained until her sixteenth year—by all supposed to be a patrician Creole maiden. She herself
knew not to the contrary> so young was she when
sent to the North. Beloved by all her companions,
the idol of the institute, and caressed by every one,
she left it, to return South, as she supposed, to the
roof of her uncle. A young Louisiana gentleman,
who had seen her in Philadelphia, and loved her,
and was beloved by her, sought her hand on her
return. The marriage day was fixed, nay, arrived,
when the mother, who had been long sold away in
La Fourche interior, in order that she might never
appear as a witness against her child, reappeared,
and in the bridal hall, in the very hour after the
ceremony had been performed, claimed the magnificent and now miserable bride, as her own
daughter—a bound slave by birth, and an African
by blood ! The scene, as described by one who was
present, surpassed the power of pen to portray.
That night the bridegroom, after charging the
adopted father of the bride with gross deception,
shot him through the body, and disappeared, carrying, no one knew whither, his infamy and bitter

CONCLUSION,

503

sorrow. The next morning the bride was found a
disfigured corpse in the superb nuptial chamber
which had been prepared for her reception. She
had taken poison. Education, a cultivated mind
and taste which made her better understand how
great was her degradation, now armed her hand
with the ready means of death. The unhappy
planter recovered from his wound, and has gone to
the North, where he resides, buried in the deepest
seclusion—the residue of his years embittered by
th$ keenest regret."
Other pieces of coin would exclaim, " we represent the value of that accomplished and handsome
lady's maid, sixteen years of age, raised in a genteel
farriily in Maryland ; and now proposed to be sold,
says the National Intelligencer, published at Washington, not for any fault of her own, but simply
because the owner has no further use for her!"
And lots of this coin clinking in the saddle-bags
of European delegates, would proclaim, " w e were
stolen by Christian slaveholders, breeders, and
traders, so called, from slave nurses, coachmen, butlers, mechanics, and field hands for pious and holy
uses in Scotland and Germany/ 1 —whilst masses of
it would shout, "And we belonged to the slaves for
their unrequited toil, but were pirated to print
Bibles, tracts, and to send the Gospel to Syria,
China, and India, sacrificing the end to the means
employed, and worshipping the means as the end
in direct opposition to the revealed will of Jehovah,

504

CONCLUSION

where, in solemn affirmation, the Almighty says, I
the Lord love judgment; I hate robbery for a
burnt-offering. Isa. lxi. 8.
Under the dawning light of the Sabbath the
prayer is offered on the heights of every sanctuary,
" 0 Lord, we thank thee for our civil and religious
liberty !" But what kind of a liberty is that ? In
the history of the past it has run up to commanding heights to bear down with chain and thong on
millions of men, women, babes, and children—to
subject those who have a different colour on their
skin, according to the testimony of Blair, " to every
imaginable insult, to expel abolitionists from the
field, and then brand us as extremists."
The plea of despotism, in all ages, has always
been, that the men who have met wrong-doing -with
the thunder tones of rebuke have been ultraists,
heretics, fanatics, fools, and madmen, and, consequently, on the basis of the above plea, have had
to experience indignities, reproaches, privations, and
,the loss of friends and property.
And these things are what persecutors say have
ever been a just penalty for what they call the
reckless folly and madness of these men. At least,
doubtlessly, so thought the Ephesian rioters, when
they rose against Paul—-and Romish persecutors,
when they burnt Protestant preachers—and the
Puritan Fathers, when they drove the incorrigible
Roger Williams into exile; and our persecutors and
oppressors in America no doubt think the same.

CONCLtTSIOH.

505

And one of the Ladies' Anti-s]avery Societies' Committees has fallen into the same snare in Edinburgh ?
These crazy men, say the persecutors, cannot
change the customs and habits of society, alter the
character of our institutions, or benefit society or
the world; and therefore we must get rid of these
pestilent fellows by fair means or foul; and if not
by fair, then we must use tar and feathers, or ride
them on rails, or put them in barrels and roll them
from the tops of hills into deep rivers beneath, or
drive them from their homes, or put a brand on
their persons to .destroy their reputation, or roast
them to death over slow fires; for " it is not fit,"
say they, " that these men should live."
Besides, we must have peace in our families,
churches, and country, be subject to the powers
that be, and not allow our business to be interfered
with, which must be, say they, if our institutions
are meddled with; and, moreover, we have a great
metaphysician and an astute philosopher in the
person of the Hon. W. H. Seward, whom the
eccentric George Train says, can " talk diplomacy
with Lyons, war with Palmerston, Latin with Russell, Greek with Gladstone, and Hebrew with Rothschild, and whose despatches are model specimens of
patriotism and eloquence"—the illustrious patriot
and statesman, "to whose form and features," Judge
Goodrich says, "the artist of our day is eager to
give immortality !" and before whom " the vast con-

506
1

CONCLUSION.

course of Americans shall dissolve from the face of
the earth," says the same Judge, " the daguerrean
impression fade away, the photograph vanish, the
bronze corrode and become as dross, and the marble
that shall symbolise him shall crumble into dust
beneath the all-conquering hand of time, during the
reign of that immortality which awaits his deeds—the man that is revered by the great and good of
all parties—by the North and the South, the East
and the West-—by the soldier in his camp, the
peasant in his cot, the ploughman in his field, the
mechanic in his shop, the merchant and banker who
whiten the bosom of every sea beneath the sun
with the rich sails of our commerce—by they who
go to the sea in great ships, by the stern warrior
who is clad in mail, and the sage in the halls of
the national councils." Yes, this demigod says,
that " epochs have arisen repeatedly in the history
of our country when the safeguards of freedom have
been surrendered at the demands of slaveholders,
not that we love freedom less, but the Union more."
And this is what Seward calls " a virtuous excuse,"
and if so, the excuse of virtue ! But, could virtue
speak whilst under the black hoofs of this demigod,
would she not enter her most solemn and earnest
protest against such an exercise of exalted philanthropy on the part of Seward—such a mode of its
manifestation—and such whining hypocrisy and
cant like the above; and also like that which he has
shown in one of his model despatches to Lord

CONCLUSION.

507

Russell, in which he charges you Europeans with
being " governed by selfishness and ambition;"
whilst we Americans—dear, sweet, innocent creatures—"have all our policy based on interests of
the greatest importance, and sentiments of the
highest virtue!"
•-• And would not outraged virtue have something
to say about that other wonderful man we have
got in America, whom Train says is every inch a
President, possesses many more cubic inches of solid
brain, and a larger amount of Puritan honesty and
Christian patriotism, along with the members of his
Government, than ever filled the Cabinet before ?
Oh, yes! virtue would have something to say to
President Lincoln, who, at the close of the Republican Convention held at Springfield, Illinois, June
17, 1858, avowed that his "hands were free in the
Cause of freedom, that his heart was in the work,
and that he had an anxious care for the result."
And yet, forsooth, in his last presidential message
to Congress, he said " that emancipation would be
equivalent to a John Brown's raid on a gigantic
scale—that our position was surrounded with a
sufficient number of dangers already, without taking
up such a revolutionary scheme—that abolition
would throw against us the four States of Missouri,
Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland, which it is costing the nation such efforts to regain—that we have
our hands full as it is, and might as well cut loose
all at once, and begin taking up the arteries to pre-

508

CONCLLSION.

vent bleeding to death." But, oh! virtue, in vain
wouldst thou plead, remonstrate, protest, for the
rubicon is past, and thy fate is sealed; and with
thee, thy country, America's doom !
Our fourth of July is annually ushered in with
music and banners, triumphal arches and long processions, booming of cannon, and what are called
shoutings of the free, and the orators of the occasion point with dramatic power and attitude to the
day, deed, and men bound up with the era of our
independence, and fling their magnificent bouquets
made up of " Spread eagle oratory," with all their
mellifluous sweetness at the feet of our young giant
Republic as he lifts himself up to take hold of England with one hand and France with the other, exclaiming, like Joshua of old, " Sun and moon stand
still!" And whilst all this is going on we have got
our feet as a nation on the necks of four millions of
slaves who are subject* to a tyranny unequalled in
the annals of the world; and are devising schemes
and plans to sacrifice the friendships, endearments,
and all those sacred and inalienable rights which
our American free-coloured population claim in common with the rest of mankind.
On looking at our Missionary Institutions you
would be ready to imagine that America was the
paragon of nations—the grand Eden of the world,
heaven appointed and ordained to bless and save
mankind. But look at the sources whence the
funds are created to carry out our missionary work

CONCLUSION.

509

—-sources which contain the fruits of unrequited
toil—the avails of robbery and shame—the price of
blood! Consider the so-called Christian slaveholders, breeders, brokers, negro-haters, and Missionaries who bring and take these terrible "bloodmonies/' extracted by sweat and toil, lash and
thumbscrew, from the strained sinews and furrowed
backs of slaves. How horrible the thought that
the above men should be called " Christian!" What
" hotels of beatitude" our American Mission Boards
must be with such men for life members, directors,
managers, agents, and missionaries!
1
Can their missionaries be " thoroughly educated,"
as the Rev. Dr. Hannah avowed from his pulpit in
Free St. John's, Edinburgh, January 1862? And
are they entitled to be called the " noblest missionaries on the face of God's earth," as the excellent
Dr. Guthrie maintained in his speech before the
Chamber of Commerce at Dundee? Nay, we go
farther, and assert that those who recognise them
want a finishing touch in their education. They
are not up to the mark. And to put such missionaries first and foremost on the roll of missions
is a libel on their honoured name. No Carey, Morrison,- Knibb, or Williams would have polluted their
hands by the touch of monies from such sources
like Judson, Perkins, Scudder, and other American
missionaries, with the exception of those who have
been sent forth by the American Missionary Society of which Lewis Tappan, Esq. is treasurer.

510

CONCLUSION.

With what deep emotional feelings multitudes of
our clergy and professors have turned towards
heaven on our Fast-days to thank God for our " free
institutions, cheap press, and bountiful expenditure
for religion," and then prayed not for the removal
of our national sins, but like the Wisconsin clergyman that "God would knock off the horns of
"Johnny Bull," destroy his power to raise the
blockade, as in the case of the millions referred to
by the Boston correspondent of the Baptist Freeman, January 29, 1862, or enable onr young giant
America to sit smiling at her grief, like patience on
a monument, until she can break through the
" plastic forms of soft diplomacy," and by a remorseless sweep of physical force punish you for your
sublime endurance of our wrongs, and forbearance
with our snobbish tempers and manners, as shewn
in the following prayer recently offered in the Senate
Chamber of the United States, by the Rev. Dr.
Sunderland :•—
" 0 Thou just Ruler of the World, in this hour
of our trial, when domestic treason stabs at the
^ nation's heart, and foreign arrogance is emboldened
to defeat the public justice of the world, we ask
help of Thee for our rulers and our people, that we
may patiently, resolutely, and with one heart abide
our time; for it is indeed a day of darkness and
reproach—a day when' the high principle of human
equity, constrained by the remorseless sweep of
physical and armed force, must for the moment sue-

CONCLUSION.

511

cumb under the plastic forms of soft diplomacy.
Yet, in the face of this, will we not be shaken in
our conviction that Thou art ever with him who
in the interest of human liberty and Christian faith,
by all the means in his power, works righteousness
and defends the truth; and that in such a cause
Thou will approve and seal the
* Patient search and vigil long
Of him who treasures up a wrong.'

0 God, give to this our nation honesty, unity
and courage : bring this unnatural rebellion to a
speedy end, and then prepare us to assert upon a
broad scale, and with a vaster force, the inalienable
rights and responsibilities of man, through Jesus
Christ. Amen."
But in the midst of such mockery God has
thundered in the ears of our people, " Is not this
the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of
wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the
oppressed go free> and that ye break every yoke."
Isa. Iviii. 6. How strange that in the midst of
our religious solemnities the overwhelming mass of
our people in America should have forgotten the
above inspired description of an acceptable fast—
that it was given to be a directory for every occasion of that kind—that their sins which have
brought down the wrath of God on themselves and
nation required it—and that all complicity with
slaveholding and negro-hating must be put away, or

512

CONCLUSION.

that God would meet their mockery with his own
more terrible mockery, whilst in righteous indignation he demands, " To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me ? I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. And
I delight not in the blood of bullocks, lambs, or hegoats. When ye come to appear before me who
hath required this at your hand to tread My courts ?
Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons, sabbaths, and
calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is
iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new
moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth.
They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear
them. And when ye spread forth your hands I will
hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you, make
many prayers I will not hear. Your hands are full
of blood." Isa. i. 1 1 - 1 5 .
And our grand army of the North and great
armada on the seas were to girdle the South, and as
with the power of the Anaconda, were to strangle
the rebellion at one mighty bound and with one
terrific blow. But twelve months have passed away
and the sweet music of the Union has not yet
" played the artillery requiem of death to treason,"
so-called. But should complete success crown the
efforts of our Federal Government with all their
vast superiority of force by land and sea, what
glory can be associated with such a war? No
laurels can bloom on such a field of carnage,

CONCLUSION.

513

Victory in such a cause is defeat. " W e are not in
the field to put down slavery/' says the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, " Ours is not a war of emancipation."
Who has not heard of the countryman, who took
up a viper which was apparently lifeless and placed
it in his bosom, when it came to life and stung him.
This has been precisely our position in America, and
we have not had the manliness to kill the viper
slavery, whilst it is now stinging us to death. A
bear on one occasion went into a log cabin. The
man who lived in it stole away as he saw the bear
approach, in a cowardly manner, and left his wife to
protect herself in the best way she could. On
perceiving her danger, she took the kettle filled
with boiling water from the fire, and threw it at
the bear, It seized the kettle and hugged it in its
embrace, but the more it clutched it, the more the
water scalded it, and the more it screamed with
pain until the kettle with the boiling water killed
it. The Southern States of America are not unlike
that kettle filled with boiling water. And our
Northern people have not the sense apparently to let
them go, And, therefore, there is every probability
they will be our death financially, and overwhelm us
with ruin, disaster, and woe. But supposing our
financial life should " know of no retiring ebb/'
and that we will be able to conquer and hold the
Southern people in subjection and maintain our
control over them. And as there is no Union life
in the South, this difficulty is clear to all nations,
2K

514

LACK OF SOUND JUDGMENT.

but our Northern people. The war,, therefore, is a
blunder morally, financially, and politically.
No enlightened or judicious men can give us
any sympathy in our insane, fratricidal conflict, or
offer their God-speeds in connection with our fire,
slaughter, and blood,
LACK OF SOUND JUDGMENT'.

It is becoming an incontestable fact, that the
safest and wisest policy of our Northern people
would have been to let the Southerns go. All
other nations see this. And so from clinging to the
South,: we in the North ought to have been glad of
an opportunity to get rid of them, since our alliance
with the South involves the most fearful complicity with the sin, crime, and the curse of slavery,
and binds us together in a partnership, which includes
a companionship and a degradation the vilest the
world ever saw. And, therefore, rather than have
tried to retain, or whip them back into co-partnership,, we ought to have given them a premium
to go. But alas ! our wise men lost their wisdom,
and our men of might found no strength. And no
parties have disgraced themselves more than the
avowed friends of the slave, since every shade of
them whether Christian,infidel, or pantheist, as shewn
in the Principia and Mrs. Stowe's letter to Lord
Shaftesbury, have gone insanely and wickedly into
the war. "God," says Wendell Phillips—"God

JEREMY DIBDLERS.

515

appealed first to the pulpits—they were barred to
his messenger. He appealed to ballots—they were
too slow for his method. He appeals to bullets—
and the slaves of the district are the first trophies
of his victory !" But how barren that victory!
Bullets—bullets! nothing but bullets.
These
are the ten commandments—and the sermon on the
mount, as we have seen in the beatitudes of Henry
Ward Beecher.
JEREMY DIDDLERS;

When the disruption first broke out, leading
statesmen, popular divines, distinguished editors,
and influential citizens spoke of it as "artificial"
and " ephemeral," a thing for the imagination or
fancy, like the bubble that rises on the air, becomes
the sport of the fancy, and then disappears. And
when it approached them in the shape of hurricane
and covered one-half of the country with thick
clouds and darkness, like a funeral pall, the other
half made figures of rhetoric and danced for joy,
under the illusion that it would only be a " nine,"
and then a "ninety days wonder."
The following is a specimen of the manner in
which our country's crisis and danger was regarded
by the New York Evening Post, which ridiculed
the disruption in comparing it to a little island in
the neighbourhood of New York, where the fishermen pick up clams for baits.

516

SECESSION OF CONEY IS1JLNU

SECESSION OF CONEY ISLAND.

" It is stated on trustworthy authority that his
Excellency, the Governor of Coney Island, has determined to withdraw from the Union, without waiting for any overt act on the part of the incoming
administration. Governor Davis will establish a
strictly despotic Government, commerce with the
United States will strictly be prohibited under the
severest penalties, and direct trade with Europe and
New Jersey^ will be established. The tariff on
clams will be increased, so that importation will be
virtually abolished. Governor Davis has invited
the intervention of his Holiness the Pope, and he,
on leaving Rome, will proceed with all the Papal
forces to Coney Island, where he will in future make
his permanent residence ; in consideration of which
foreign liquors will be admitted free of duty, &c.
" Later.—Since writing the above, we learn that
the standard of rebellion has actually been raised,
and that Governor Davis has issued the following
proclamation:—
" Whereas long and painful experience has demonstrated that it is impossible for the people of
Coney Island to remain in the Confederacy of the
United States, and at the same time preserve those
sacred rights which have been wrested from them
by violence, and whereas the people of the said
United States have recently elected a President

DR. CHEEVER AND THE NATIONAL WIND-BAG. 517
in utter disregard of the well-known and oft-avowed
sentiments of this island, f I, Governor Davis, the
lawful governor and ruler of Coney Island, do
hereby issue this proclamation, declaring the said
island to be henceforth and for ever a free, independent, and sovereign empire. I further order all
bridges connecting these free dominions with the
United States to be cut down and destroyed; and
I forbid any of my subjects, under the penalty of
death, to trade, deal, or barter with the inhabitants
of the United States. And I farther declare all
laws and statutes of the United States to be null
and void in these dominions of free and independent
Coney Island. The sons of Coney Island will stand
upon their arms.'"
What buffoonery, imbecility, and madness !
THE BLOWERS THAT HAVE FILLED OUR WIND-BAG OF
NATIONAL VANITY.

In years past the Rev. Dr. Cheever has been a
mighty power in helping to fill this wind-bag, in
confirmation of which take one illustration :—The
scene is laid in the Church of the Puritans, New
York, which is said to be becoming rich in grand
historic interest. The church is densely crowded.
The preacher is the Rev. Dr Cheever, described to be
a man of high genius, noble character, and boundless
philanthropy. He is giving one of his celebrated
lectures on Switzerland. As he proceeds, he climbs

518

CHEEVER, WORDSWORTH, AND MURRAY,

with his hearers the mountains, until he hears the
eagle scream in the mountain pines, the tempests
roar, or the avalanches thunder. At length they
reach the shadow of Mont Blanc, and whilst on this
commanding point of vision the rev. doctor puts his
finger on one of Wordsworth's sonnets, and with
marked emphasis reads—"Two voices are they.
One is of the sea; one of the mountains; each a
mighty voice." Commenting on this stanza, Cheever
says, " When Wordsworth penned this 12th of his
Sonnets to Liberty, he thought the voice of Switzerland had perished ; but how wonderful God works?
Whose voice is now the mightiest—that of the
mountains or of the sea,—Switzerland or England ?
The voice of the mountains (i.e., Switzerland) surely"
—(applause.) Again, he says—"The voice of a
nation is the voice of its great rrien; and the voice
of the great men of England just now is the hoarse
melancholy cry of expediency in the sacrifice of
principle, while that of the great men of Switzerland
is the clear, ringing, thrilling shout of spiritual
liberty"—(renewed applause.) Carried away with
the enthusiasm of his audience, the doctor continued
— " I cannot help warning you against the sneers
of some Englishmen and books—Murray's Handbook in particular—in regard to the moral and
political condition of the country. In some parts it
is bad enough, we all know; but I have thought
that sometimes the English seemed vexed and envious enough at the existence of so much freedom,

BADGER'S VISIONS AND THE WIND-BAG.

519

happiness, and greatness in a little unaristocratical
republican canton like Geneva. May I be forgiven
if I judge them harshly; but such envious hatred
is a hateful thing. In regard to America they are
glad to have some shadow of excuse for their own
bitterness, as is afforded them in Mississippi repudiation, Irish riots, and negro slavery"-—(tremendous applause, amidst which the curtain drops.)
The above is given in Dr. Cheever's "Wanderings
of a Pilgrim," p 35.
The next scene of blowing is in connection
with Cochituate Hall, Massachusetts. It is filled
with a vast assemblage to hear the recitation of a
"brilliant and beautiful poem" on Liberty, by the
poet orator, "William E. Badger, Esq,, which he had
composed and dedicated to the Goddess of Liberty.
The poem is said to present to our view " Earth's
noblest citizen, in the person of General Washington,"
who is supposed to be sleeping on the banks of the
Potomac, where our "grand army of the North"
long slumbered and slept, when Columbia's guardian
angel approaches him, accompanied by a pale
shrouded figure, and reveals to his soul a series of
visions emblematic of the history of Liberty. The
first vision represents ancient Greece in the zenith
of glory—the nine Muses surrounding the chariot
of Liberty, rejoicing only in her smiles, and languishing only when Liberty suffers. Badger says :
" Who stabs at freedom ends the Muses' days,
They have no breath to sing the tyrant's praise."

520

GREECE, ITALY, ENGLAND, ANE> AMERICA.

-—(Applause.) Then follows the melancholy picture
of Grecian glory, when liberty was banished, but
found a welcome at last in Italy, where "Rome
adopted Athens as an orphan child." The rise and
fall of the Koman empire are then symbolised, and
the poet passes to the next vision, exclaiming—
"Thus spoke the picture, as it passed to gloom,
And now the stars are shining o'er a tomb ;
Dark gleams the night, when dawns the Attic day,
And History's lamp but shines to gild decay.
Unless some saviour come to raise the dead
The soul of freedom hath for ever fled."

—-(Cheers.) The next vision represents the resurrection of Liberty after the world had wTorn sackcloth for a thousand years, and Liberty had moved
a mourner amid the sister spheres—when she again
found a home in Europe, and the Arts and Sciences
once more flourished. And here the poet pays a
passing tribute to Shakspeare—
" Whose name shall linger o'er that isle's decay,
And gather brightness as old time grows grey."

(Cheers.) Next is revealed the flight of Liberty from
the Old World to the New—-not from England to
Geneva, where Dr. Cheever builds her chosen home
—but from grand Old England wdth her sunny
memories to the United States of America, where
Badger says she has established her empire; Here
the vision ends, and Washington awakes to clasp
fair Freedom to his heart.
Rising up under the influence of these visions,
Badger says :—

M N I E L WEBSTER'S BLOWERS.

521

" He strikes for liberty, for "home, and God;
With eye inspired, he only sees the gleam
' Of that bright image of his youthful dream;
And on his sword the flame of vengeance burns,
"While hostile Britons tremble where he turns.
As Memnon's harp with inspiration sang
When early sunshine played its chords among,
So his high heart, its greatest purpose woke,
When o'er its springs the light of freedom broke."

•—(Tumultuous applause.) The poet then traces
the progress of freedom in Columbia after having
been triumphantly crowned by General Washington, and pays a tribute to the memory of Webster
and Clay, which concludes with the following
prayer:—
" God grant these men, too precious to he sold
N
By love of office or by lust of gold;
Great men, whom Satan cannot bribe nor buy,
Who dare to speak, and yet dare not to lie.
Men whom the heavenly inspirations teach
To preach the truth, and practise what they preach;
Then o'er the world shall float their honest fame,
And tyrants still shall tremble at thy name."

—(Waving of hats, and showers of bouquets from
the ladies.)
The next scene presents to oar view the late
eloquent Daniel Webster with his blowers in full
blast! He is kneeling down in the presence of
the slave goddess at Alexandria, a watering place in
Virginia, whilst surrounded by a multitude of her
votaries, offerir-g his devotions at her shrine, and
throwing his homage at her feet, exclaiming,, " This

522

THE HON, W. H. SEWARD BLOWING AWAY

North mountain is high; the blue ridge higher still;
the Alleghany higher than either; but this higher
law that men speak of ranges farther than an
eagle's flight above the highest peaks of the Alleghany. No common vision can discern i t ; no conscience not transcendental and ecstatic, can feel it.
The hearing of common men never discerns its high
behests, and therefore I should think it not a safe
law to be acted on in matters of the highest practical moment. It is the code of the factious and
fanatical abolitionists of the North." Never did
the obscene goddess of slavery put on more gracious
smiles, or were her numerous worshippers more
electrified with joy than with these utterances of
Webster—a man whom the poet Badger made " too
precious to be sold by the love of office or the lust
of gold/' and " who dared to speak, and yet dared
not to lie."
HON. W. H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE.

He is the next blower that claims our attention.
The scene is in the grounds of the Capitol, St.
Paul, Minnesota, September 18, 1860. On the
memorable occasion Judge Goodrich took the censer
and waved it before him. And whilst the cloud of
incense rose up and made Seward drunk with personal vanity, he stept forward and said,—Gentlemen, Wide Awakes, follow citizens. Standing here
and looking far off into the North-West, I see the

TO MAKE THE WIND-BAG AN ENORMOUS SIZE. 5 2 3

Russian as he busily occupies himself in establishing seaports, and towns, and fortifications on the
verge of this continent, as the outposts of St. Petersburg, and I can say, "Go on and build up your
outposts all along the coast, up even to the Arctic
Ocean—-they will yet become the outposts of my
own country—monuments of the civilization of the
United States in the North-West." So I look off
on Prince Rupert's Land and Canada, and see there
an ingenious, enterprising, and ambitious people,
occupied in bridging rivers and constructing canals,
railroads, and telegraphs to organize and preserve
great British provinces north of the great lakes, the
St. Lawrence, and around the shores of Hudson
Bay, and I am able to say, it is very well; you are
building excellent States to be hereafter admitted
into the American Union. [Applause.]
I can look south-west and see, amid all the convulsions that are breaking the Spanish-American
Republics, and in their rapid decay and dissolution,
the, preparatory stage for their reorganisation in free,
equal, and self-governing members of the United
States of America. In the same high range of
vision I can look down on the States and the people
of the Atlantic coast of Maine and Massachusetts,
of New York and Pennsylvania, of Virginia and
the Carolinas, and Georgia, and Louisiana, and
Texas, and round by the Pacific coast to California
and Oregon. I can hear their disputes, their fretful controversies, their threats that if their own

5 2 4 LONDON EXAMINER AMONGST THE BLOWERS.

separate interests are not gratified and consulted by
the Federal Government they will separate from
this Union. I am able to say, " peace, be still."
How foolish must the people be in submitting
to the enormous war expenditure,, and be at the
trouble of taking multitudes from the peaceful avocations of life, and of sacrificing so many lives by
the foul demon of war, when here is one man, who
can still the tumult of the people, and say, " peace,
be still I"
The above blower, whilst on a visit to Canada,
August 22, 1857, is reported to have "dropt the
opinion as a national conceit, that Canada was soon
to be taken in by the Federal Union;" and that
then, there, and on that day, came to the conclusion
that British-America would become a sort of protestant and civilised Bussia. But this does not
harmonise with his sentiments at St. Paul's in 1860.
The most perceptible enlargement is manifest where
the London Examiner, in poetic strains, stretches
out the goblet of flattering unction to your gigantic
daughter in the West, shouting :—
" We drink to thee across the flood,
We know thee most, we love thee best,
For art thou not of British blood.
Should war's mad blast again be blown,
Permit not thou the tyrant powers
To fight thy mother here alone,
But let thy broadsides roar with ours.
Hands all around,
God the tyrant's cause confound;

ON THE CHRISTIAN TDOLATKY OF AMERICA.

525

To our great kinsmen of the west—my friends:
In the great name of England, round and round.
Arise, our great Atlantic sons,
"When war against our freedom springs;
0 speak to Europe through your guns,
They can be understood by these.
You must not mix our Queen with those
That wish to keep the people fools ;
Your freedom's foemen are her foes,
She comprehends the race she rules.
Hands all around,
God the tyrant's cause confound;
To our dear kinsmen of the west—^my friends
And the great cause of freedom, round and round."

This caused our American wind-bag to receive a
tremendous swelling, until it was well nigh bursting. Guthrie says, " God's great knife of retribution is ripping it open;" and what he says is true.
But what will be the effect—the upshot of all these
heavings and upheavings in America? When our
over-weening vanity and supercilious airs have
made their escape out of the wind-bag, we shall
have a fearful destruction of our grand national
idols.
ON THE CHRISTIAN IDOLATRY OF AMERICA.

Let us look at our idols ! In America we have
idols, many—but not of wood or stone—not in
honour of Mercury, Minerva, Apollo, Mars, Bellona,
or Jupiter! No ! But, nevertheless, we' have idols
that hold the people captive—entrance and spell-

526

THE EAGLE-IDOL.

bind them with the witchery of their charms, and
wrap them in the thralls of their enchantments !
When the author first went to America, a number
of the people said, "we have got some curiosities
in America which we would like to shew you/* On
enquiry, he found these were the grand national
idols!
The first pointed out to him was the " Eagle."
"Yonder/' said they, "is its grand nest, built on
the Alleghanies—-and the eagle, perched on one of
its lofty peaks or mountain ranges, has one wing
stretched towards Cuba, and the other towards
Canada; its tail touches the waters of the Pacific,
and its bill is in the Atlantic; and should the
British lion wag its tail, or utter the least growl,
our eagle will open its bill and swallow up
" Johnny Bull and his little island!" But where
is the Eagle now ? Has it flown towards the blazing sun of liberty ? Has some fowler from beneath
brought it down from its pride of place? No.
When it essayed to balance its wings, and plume
itself for flight, they were so stiffened with the
blood of the slave, and its limbs so weighed down
with the fetters of his ignoble bondage, that it
tumbled headlong from its lofty eyrie, and in a
whirling, circling flight, went down into the gulf
of Mexico, where this grand idol lies dead and
buried. And, to all human appearance, all efforts
to recover and regalvanise it to a hideous life, will
be vain and abortive.

THE SKIP OF STATMDGOL

527

Another idol, described to the author, was the
" Ship of State !" Yonder it is : don't yon see it?
How beautifully and gracefully it lies in the still
waters of freedom, and how majestically it rides on
its mighty billows; skimming the ocean and ploughing the seas of freedom as a thing of life! The
first Captain was General Washington. When he
took his first voyage, his papers, like the deck of
this celebrated " ship of State/' were " clean, clear,
and pure;" and the hold was freighted with a cargo
of lofty principles ! But in every succeeding
voyage, the ship's papers became blotted and blurred,
and the decks filthy and bloody ; whilst the hold
became the cage of every unclean beast—a den for
filthy reptiles and the hissing snakes of wickedness.
Moreover, slavery, like the dry rot, got into the
timbers of the vessel, and spread from plank to
plank, and deck to deck, until the ship became
rotten with corruption, and black with fraud [
But what was the worst of all, Buchanan, the
late President, threw the state vessel amongst the
breakers. The flag of distress was hoisted ! A cry
for help was raised ! President Lineo]n grasped
the helm with a complacent smile ! And Secretary
Seward, the first mate, made himself merry with
laughter at the thought of danger! But nevertheless, the "ship of state " parted "mid-ships," and
foundered! And thus this idol is prostrate, amid
the terrible confusion and dismay of its worshippers!
Another idol made known was the " Temple of

528

THE IDOL-TEMPLE OF LIBEETY.

Liberty!" This idol was described to be majestic
in its conception—-beautiful in its proportions—>
solid in its foundations—and so magnificent, grand,
and glorious in its superstruction, that the glory of
it was to excite the admiration of mankind, and go
down to the last syllable of recorded time, as a
monument of the wisdom of the Almighty ! Its
trumpet of fame had been blown by the Hon.
Edward Everett and John Bright! And the world
was never to hear the last! When the foundation
of this temple was first laid, it was placed on the
sacred principles of freedom ! But in the process of
time, this corner stone was replaced by the black
marble stone of slavery, which has endangered the
whole building—opened up tremendous fissures in
its walls—caused many of its grand national pillars
to fall out of the building—and its old grand walls
to crumble into dust! And nothing now remains
of this once far famed temple but its historic
memorials of the past. And if you go in amongst
the broken splintered columns, or once massive
ornaments of this temple, you will see fragmentary
parts of the goddess of slavery and liberty that were
once linked arm in arm, and made to sing " blest
be the tie that binds our glowing hearts in one!"
Here is a piece of the noble statue of Washington that had a slave chained to it by his collar !
There the splinters of an eagle that once had its
talon buried in the heart of a slave ! Here is an
angel bust of liberty that terminated in the slimy

THE UNION-IDOL.

529

fold of slavery with its head knocked off!
And
yonder is the part of a printing press that was controlled by a demon of despotism and threw off proclamation fasts which called on the people to observe
fast days, to smite with the bands of wickedness—
to invoke the aid of the Almighty to rivet faster the
chains on the slave—and thus to bring vain oblations, and sacrifice corrupt things to the Lord,
instead of offerings in righteousness, as God commanded by his prophets of old.
Mai. iii. 3 ; Isa.
lxxxviii. 6, 7. This magnificent idol-temple, which
was set forth as an object of wonder and a centre
of attraction, the boast of the age and the glory
of the world, has crumbled into ruins and is levelled
with the dust; not from any blow of violence from
without, but from inward rottenness and decay !
And nothing now remains of its grandeur, but these
memorials of its shame !
THE UNION.

It is the next idol to which the author was introduced. "This," they said, "was the guardian
angel of the land! The angel, which we have
observed, combined the angelic with the devilish—
the conglomerate with the adhesive—and bears in
its hands the Stars and Stripes/' fit emblems of its
dignity and shame.
To the shrine of this "Guardian Angel" long
pilgrimages have been made by its devotees, or
2L

530

THE TJNION-IiXXL.

worshippers,
Recently the Guardian Angel has
lost the homage received from multitudes of its
votaries.
Besides a great rent has been made in
its flag, tearing the stars from the stripes!
The
late ambassador Dallas when leaving this country
for America, said he would help to patch up the
rent in the flag; but it has taken a great deal of
darning, and the work is not yet accomplished!
The witchery of the charms of this mighty enchantress has been broken % Over several states of
the Union she no longer keeps guard by day, or
watch by night! With multitudes of her former
votaries she is now in deadly combat. TPheir passions are enflamed with the keenest resentment and
the most rancorous malignity against each other!
Whilst to subdue and reclaim them is costing the
presiding genius, or the guardian angel of the
Federal Uuion much blood and treasure !
Supposing she was victorious, and uplifted and
unfurled her flag as before, of what advantage would
it be to the public, since the battles of liberty would
have to be commenced anew ? Besides, there would
be the additional stigma and reproach of fighting
for an ignoble object-—and of ruling over the slave
states with the foot of military despotism on the
necks of the people-—a thing more difficult than
that of subduing them, and more expensive.
Some have predicted that, at the close of the
present war, the guardian angel called the Union,
would come up on the banks of the Potomac robed

THE UNION-IDOL.

531

in light, with thirty-four stars for her diadem,
millions of broken fetters under her feet, and an
olive branch in her right hand. If so, she would
be no longer the grand old idol the people have
worshipped.
Her stars then would be severed
from her stripes, and multitudes would be delirious
with joy.
But as yet there are no signs that this prediction
will soon be fulfilled, as the war now waged is to
re-establish the Union,, with her hole in her coat,
and the great big grease spot of slavery on it, as
illustrated in the case of the missionary in China,
whose coat had been worn into a hole in the elbow,
and blemished with a great grease spot. Having
some new cloth, he called in a Chinese tailor, and
requested him to make him a new coat after the
pattern of the old one. When he brought the new
coat, it had a hole in one of the elbows, and a big
grease spot on it like the old one which had been
given to him as a pattern.
So say the old worshippers of the Union, " the
first duty of the Federal Government is to secure
the Union on the basis of the Constitution/' which,
with their interpretation of the Constitution, means
union with slavery, and the preservation of sla/very
as a Constitutional right. This is neither desirable
nor practicable, although many in their judicial
blindness and hardness of heart, have defined the
old Union to be the chief hope of humanity. The
Times' correspondent, Nov. 12, 1861, refers to an

532

THE UNION-IDOL.

American General, saying "that it would be humiliating to reflect that the world would go on, if the
Great Republic was to break up." And it is
lamentable to think that this grand old idol should
get such a strong hold of the poet Longfellow's
affections as to cause him to say that
" Humanity with all its fears,
With all its hopes of future years,
Hangs breathless on its fate."

We are, therefore, on the verge of a terrible
crisis, not only in America, but throughout the
world, since God is putting forth His hand to
shiver to pieces this tremendously powerful idol,
which has ministered so much to our national
vanity in America.
But the world will go on, and America and other
nations will flourish more when this great national
idol is smashed to atoms !
The attempt to preserve it places the true friends
of America between two burdens, like Issaehar of
old—burdens which are very oppressive. These
are " slavery and an imbecile administration/'
The Rev. Mr. Conway says " that the Government
is not strong enough to preserve the Union and
slavery too."
The New York Times., Aug. 13, 1861, maintains
that it is abundantly able to perform the mighty
task. " In looking over the whole field," the editor
says, " i t is surprising to see, not how much we
have, lost, but bow immensely we have gained,

THE UNION-IDOL.

533

We can now count on the tried loyalty of twentytwo millions out of twenty-seven of our white
population."
We have taken from the contest in a great
measure its aspect as a slavery question. " And
these," says the Editor above referred to, " are the
peaceful victories which we have been quietly
achieving—victories that outweigh in importance
twenty such reverses as Bull's Eun, which, says he,
taught us a great deal of wisdom at a comparatively
small cost."
The New York Times is one of the most ardent
supporters of the Federal Government, and ought to
know what it is about.
The Principia, June 19, 1862, says—that
Governor Johnson, who is President Lincoln's Military Governor of Tenessee, in a speech made at
Columbia, June 2, 1862 says, in reply to the
citizens of that State, who had raised the cry of
having lost their rights. " Let me tell these clamourers that there are 800,000 white people and
only 33,000 Slaveholders in Tenessee. You are
disturbing the stability of Slavery by your senseless cries, and making it valueless. Its sole protection is the Union." And another leading Union
man in Kentucky, shouts, " l a m a Union man, for
my property, my niggers and other property are
worth nothing without the Union."
Contrast these sentiments with Harriet Beecher
Stowe's statement in regard to the " majestic up-

534?

THE BLACK PICTURE.

rising of the masses in the North in favour of
liberty," in her letter addressed to Lord Shaftesbury,
see Baptist Freeman, August 28, 1861. And also
with John Bright's glowing picture of his Model
Country, which he sketched from the top of his
"exceeding high mountain," and presented to his
friends and neighbours &t Rochdale, at the complimentary dinner which they gave him on Wednesday evening, March 4, 1861.
In this rhetorical picture, John Bright says, "the
free States of the North now stand before the world
the advocate and defenders of freedom and civilization." Also that the United States Government "is
the most free government of the world."
In order to form a correct estimate of the antislavery sentiment and their professions of supreme
regard to liberty in the North, let us bear in mind
the following facts :<—
There is the Dred Scott decision, which makes a
black man have no rights which a white man is
bound to respect, laying down a rule and presenting
a precedent for all similar cases in our supreme
court, and quoted as law by all lawyers in the courts
of the different States.
There is our President, turning the safeguards of
freedom in the constitution into an instrument of
injustice and cruelty, and thereby assuming the position of a, jail-keeper in the house of bondage, with the
Hon. Secretary Seward for his chief turnkey, and
the Rev. H. W. Beecher and Mrs Stowe, with the

THE BLACK PICTURE,

585

majestic uprising of the masses amongst the clergy
and laity in the North, to cover them with the wing
of their protection and support.
There is the wicked and inhuman fugitive slave
law hanging in the North, like the sword of Damocles, over the fleeing bondsman, and the heads of
Northern liberty-men who lift up a shield to protect
the weary, hungry, destitute, and helpless fugitive,
or seek to deliver him from His pursuers.
There is the recent abrogation of all personal
liberty bills in the States of the North.
There is the brokerage system of slavery, which is
almost universally done in the North by influential
bankers and merchants, who fill up nearly every
office in the churches of large cities, as well as
largely swell the list of presidents, vice-presidents,
and directors and memberships of the great religious
organizations ; whilst their ministers do the Bible
defence work of slavery, transforming it into a great
cardinal virtue, or, as Dr. Cheever says, boiling it
down into "Christian syrups and sugars for good
Christian people under the sanction of the Church;"
or converting it into lf pro-slavery lozenges, to be
distributed amongst the people of the land."
There is the law which made slavery piracy on
the seas, and covered it with the black flag of death,
pro forma, until recently for the sake of convenience,
and to keep up appearances with civilized nations;
and yet on land, by a tremendous feat of jugglery,
the same thing is turned into a virtuous, domestic,

536

THE BLACK PICTURE.

patriarchal institution, and committed to the guardianship of the Federal Union, under the protection
of the " Stars and Stripes,"
,
There is our system of caste, which excludes persons of colour from churches, schools, railroad cars,
steamboat saloons, and all the rights of citizenship
save one; and this, says our President, on page 194
of his election campaign book, " is the right to eat
the bread which his own hands have earned without
the leave of anybody else." And even this wonderful solitary concession of the President in favour of
the coloured man is to be withdrawn, so far as America is concerned, as " Honest Abe " has had some
heart relentings on the subject; since, in his message to Congress, December 1861, he said " h e
would have to ask an appropriation of money from
Congress to buy new settlements for tbem, and to
make provision to send them out of the land."
There is the law of "squatter-sovereignty" rights
vested in our President to arrest any person or
persons on suspicion, and throw them into prison
without any accusation laid to their charge, or process of law, or proclamation of martial law, and
subject them to a treatment that makes Austrian
despotism white-robed innocence when compared
with it.
There are our navigation laws, tariffs, and stone
fleets and bluster, which destroy the brotherhood of
nations as well as men.
There is the election dodge of the republican

M.P.'S AND THEIR RHETORICAL CASTLES.

537

party in putting on their programme " no mom slave
territory" to get abolition votes to elect Lincoln,
who,* when elected, sanctions the Peace Congress
held in Washington, which offered to the South all
territory south of 36 deg. 30 min. for slave States
if they would come back into the Federal Union,
endorses the telegram of Seward to the West that
henceforth slavery no more shall be taken into account in order to unite the democratic with the
republican party to subdue the South, dismisses
Fremont, sends Cameron to an official penal settlement, and speaks of proclaiming liberty as a John
Brown's raid, an insurrectionary movement, and
suicidal policy. And there are the brutal and ferocious persecutions of all who denounce slavery and
negro-hating as criminal, and slaveholders and
negro-haters as men-stealers and murderers. How
effectually these disclosures take the groundwork
of John Bright, W, E. Forster, M.P., and innumerable
others who have spoken on the American question
from under them, and leave them buried under the
ruin of the elegant rhetorical castles which, by the
most elaborate processes of argument, they have
constructed in favour of the North !
In the light of the above facts how fearful is the
guilt of those who maintain that the war in America
is in support of the interests of freedom, humanity
and civilization, and to mislead the public for the
purpose of enlisting the people of this country in
favour of our Northern people, who in church and state

538

THE GREAT JUNCTURE.

have "grasped much and yielded much, asserted the
most extravagant rights, and abandoned the most
obvious principles !"
But what will be the upshot of all those tremendous convulsions, outbursting volcanoes, vast
and mighty upheavings, sweeping whirlwinds of
the vengeance of Jehovah? If individual States
liave been supreme over the General State in the
past, will the Federal Government be able to reduce
the Southern States to subjection, and have the
power and resources to control them ? Multitudes
think not. To reconstruct the Union on the old
basis is undesirable, if not impracticable. To attain
this object we have war on the grandest scale, and
associated with the most tragic scenes, features, and
events—results of the highest science in the military, naval, engineering department, and the resources of wealth have been brought to bear on the
work, but there is no submission on the part of the
States in the South as yet, whilst each battle fought,
or act of personal gallantry on either side, will
deepen the resentment already enflamed against
each other, make more wide the gulf that now
separates them, and be succeeded by hereditary
strife for years to come. The great juncture in our
history was to let the South go. This was the
voice of Jehovah in his providence. And had the
Northern people done so, then they could have*
formed a government on the basis of freedom and
equity, turned the free states into cities of refuge,

THE GREAT JUNCTURE.

e

539

where the fleeing bondsman would have found rest
for the soles of his feet, and the coloured people
have been admitted into the magic circle of human
brotherhood, and have sat down under their vines
and fig-trees, none daring or desiring to molest
them, or make them afraid. Such a course would
have been productive of the most cheering results,
for no slave state could long exist side by side with
a free state. In such a case the slaves would have
come into the Free States at ten thousand g a t e s free labourers would have entered into the South—
arid land would have been turned into the fertility
of the garden, "the angel of beauty would have
come down every morning, and swung in mid-air
her censer, diffusing the odour of the sweetest
flowers," whilst commerce wTould have leapt up
on every side, and have overleapt its boundaries,
making busy the marts of merchandise, and filling
our warehouses with richly laden stores. But, alas,
the great juncture has come and passed, the golden
opportunity has been neglected; and smiling fields
are now laid waste, skeleton forms of famine, like
spectres, haunt the scenes of desolation, the widow's
wail floats on every breeze, and orphans vow vengeance for loss of friends on these misguided, reckless, and blood-thirsty men. In our dire extremity,
however, the angel of peace has once more spoken,
and her voice has been heard above the harsh and
dissonant sounds of war, but will her voice be
heeded? Mediation is talked of. And it is becom-

54iO

REVISION OF COMMERCIAL POLICIES.

ing a question of deepest and profoundest interest,
whether if our American people have the right,
wickedly and insanely to punish themselves, the
right belongs to them in accordance with the comity
of nations to make. the innocent suffer with the
guilty. Eapidly changing scenes and mighty events
to come will soon determine.
Unsound commercial policies and systems amid
the remorseless sweep of events will undergo a revision, both in regard to banks and tariffs, and men.
It is no part of the office or duty of civil governments to turn bankers, to build up tariffs, or to
buttress one of the most gigantic forms of oppression that ever disgraced our world. Our prospects
are dark and gloomy at present, but the day is not
distant when our legislatorial magi will feel the
ruinous effects of their own policy in giving money
a fictitious value, impairing the national credit, and
throwing the whole nation headlong into the ahyss
of insolvency and financial ruin.
Nor is their
policy less ruinous in seeking to increase the tariff,
seal up our ports and country, laying an embargo
on commerce, which will promote a fearful and
tremendous stagnation of trade amongst ourselves,
cut us from intercourse with the outer world, and
help to accelerate our ruin. For America no more
than China or Japan can grow or flourish as a spring
shut up, or fountain sealed.
Besides, as thought is to kindred thought, and
mind to mind, so is intercourse with nations. But

OLD FASHIONED SYSTEM OF CHRISTIANITY.

541

no tariff can hide the golden link in the chain of
dependence, or erase the feeling that there is a
brotherhood of nations as well as men. Men may
make the vain and impotent attempt, but should
they build a tariff wall as high as heaven, heaven's
great, all-wise, and fixed decree, that nations must
have intercourse with each other, as free as man
with man, will spring a mine to blow it up, and
topple it down amidst the derisive cheers and convulsive laughter of mankind.
The grand old-fashioned system of Christianity will
be more brightly developed.
In ^ outward forms,
emotional experiences, and abstract theories, we
have been fully up to the mark amongst the overwhelming mass of professors in our country, and
more—as we have superadded the doctrines that
man may be the property of his fellowman, and
that one man is inferior to another by virtue of his
colour, but in the grand sublime embodiment of a
sound practice there has been a general deficiency.
What makes your fountains of justice and morality
in connection with the outer world so pure in this
country? It is because the churches are pure
within. And if our vast multitudes of professors
had purified their spirits through obedience to the
truth, God's avenging hand would not now have
been stretched forth to punish us for our sins. 0
for that love which assimilates man to God, and
puts us in our Master's steps in the sheepfolds, and
going out beyond the outermost verge of refinement,

542

THE SUN A BEAUTIFUL EMBLEM.

like our Saviour, richly freighted with blessings to
our fellovvmen. Such a Christianity is like the
sun that comes forth from its chambers in the east,
clothed with robes of dazzling brightness, and encircled with a wreath of glory flinging forth a radiance that streams over land and sea; so Christianity invests the believer with the robe of purity,
and points him to a glorious immortality beyond
the grave where its encircling wreath will shed its
bright lustre on name and character, whilst it possesses him with blessings of the most exalted character temporal and spiritual^ present and future.
How enlightening and quickening is the sun! so is
Christianity. It diffuses light, and imparts life.
The sun confers its blessings everywhere on the
evil and the good, the lofty and the low; so Christianity seeks to promote the interests of men every
where, without distinction of blood or race, sex or
age. " It possesses a noble loftiness of aim. It
has upon it the stamp of true philanthropy. It overlooks all geographical boundaries.
The proper
sphere of its work is the world—the object of its
interest is man. It goes forth against spiritual
ignorance and insubordination wherever found, and
nothing but the subjugation of the entire human
family will satisfy its largeness of purpose." The
sun is sometimes shut out from the view of men
by clouds, or mountains, but in its advancing course
it turns the mountains into diamonds, and the
clouds into crystals; so the evidences of the Chris-

THE RIGHT GODSPEED.

543

tian may be beclouded when he may not be able
to read his title clear to the bright mansions of the
blessed, but as he keeps his eye fixed with steadfast
faith on Christ, Christianity flashes over his mountains of difficulty and through the clouds of misrepresentation, and fills his spirit with such gladness
that the truth of God is more precious than diamonds. Impressed with such considerations, who
would not say, "Thou glorious gospel go on in thy
benign, heavenly, godlike system, with thy blessed
and glorious conquests. The deepest and holiest
sympathies of our hearts are engaged to thy great
purpose of saving a lost world. The most fervent
prayers of our faith shall ascend for thy success,
and our luxuries and comforts, and even what we
have been taught to call our necessaries, shall be
taxed to furnish resources for thy benevolent operations."
Go forwards in thy evangelizing career. It is
thine to accomplish the purposes of eternal love and
redeeming mercy. Thine to fulfil the predictions
of ancient prophecy. Thine to deliver this fallen
and apostate world from the dominion of Satan,
and to restore it to the dominion of the Prince, of
peace. Thine to consummate the mission and to
adorn with its brightest honours the crown of
Immanuel.
The groans of creation wait for it.
The thunders of a regenerated world will hail it.
Had such a gospel been applied in America, we
should not now have been clanking down the abyss

544

THE FUKNACE BLAST.

of ruin. God's red hand would not have been
stretched from the clouds. But blinded as our people
have been by the teachings of false prophets, and ensnared, perverted, and corrupted by political tricksters
and demagogues,the iniquities ofour State and churches
will be laid bare, unholy ties and relationships will
be dissevered—questions which have been allowed
to slumber like pearls ten thousand fathoms beneath
the surface will be brought to light, discussed, and
entertained—gems of truth will be unlocked whose
" charms the star-born diamond mock"—the appeal
to the ministries of angels will go forth, tell us ye
angelic hosts, ye< messengers of love, shall slaves and
coloured men have no redress. O yes, these shining
angels will back reply. To us is knowledge given
that God's decree will be fulfilled when every
tyrant's chain is sundered, and every negro right
restored that has been plundered. Meanwhile,
We wait beneath the furnace blast
The pangs of transformation:
Not painlessly doth God recast
And mould anew the nation.
Hot burns the flame
Wl^ere wrongs expire;
Nor spares the hand
That from the land
Uproots the ancient evil.
The hand-breadth cloud the sages feare
Its bloody rain is dropping;
The poison plant the fathers spared
All else is overtopping.

THE FURNACE BLAST.
East, West, South, North,
It curses earth;
All justice dies,
And fraud and lies
Live only in its shadow.
What gives the wheat-field blades of steel ?
What points the soldier's cannon ?
What sets the roaring rabble's heel
On the old star-spangled pennon?
What breaks the oath
Of the North and the South ?
What whets the knife
For the Union's life ?—
Hark to the answer: SLAVERY !
On lesser foes we 've wasted blows,
In strife unworthy freemen,
God lifts to-day the veil that shows
The features of the demon!
O North and South,
Its victims both,
Can ye not cry,
"Let Slavery die!"
And union find in freedom ?
What though the cast-out spirit tear
The nation in his going ?
We who have shared the guilt, must share
The pangs of his o'erthrowing.
Whate'er the loss,
Whate'er the cross,
Shall they complain
Of present pain
Who trust in God's hereafter ?
For who that leans on His right arm
Was ever yet forsaken ?

2M

545

THE WRNA'CE BLAS1\
What righteous cause can suffer'ha'rm
If He its part has taken ?
Though wild and loud,
And dark the cloud,
Behind its folds
His hand upholds
The calm sky of to-morrow!
Above the maddening cry for blood,
Above the wild war-drumming,.
Let Freedom's voice be heard, with gopd
The evil overcoming.
Give prayer and .purse
To stay the Curse
Whose wrong we share,
Whose shame we bear,
Whose end shall gladden Heaven !
In vain the bells of war shall ring
Of triumphs and revenges,
While still is spared the evil thing
That severs and estranges.
But blest the ear
That yet shall hear
The jubilant bell
That rings the knell
Of Slavery for ever!
Then let the selfish lip be dumb,
And hushed the breath of singing;
Before the joy of peace, must come
The pains of purifying.
God give us grace
Each in his place
To bear his lot,
And murmuring not,
Endure, and wait, and labour!
WHITTIEK.

Just Published, in Crown 8vo, cloth extra, Price 7s. 6d.

AMERICAN
STATES, CITJRCHES, AND SLAVEM.
BY THE

REV. J. R

BALME,.

AN AMERICAN'CLEKGTMAN.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
ct

Mr. Balme writes with considerable observation, some
humour, and a positive air of .sincerity. .There, is a sledge
hammer method of oratory with which he knocks down all
the idols of American enthusiasm, which renders it very
easy to believe: that he made himself a most unpleasant
neighbour among the idolaters of the TJnion. * The Jesuitical cunning of Everett, the Pharoah's hard-heartedness of
Lincoln, the hypocrisy of the Beechers and Mrs. Stowe, the
unblushing sophistry of Seward, the impious inconsistency
of most of the negro-hating emancipationists who are still
clamouring to reduce the South by war, are held up to
universal 'loathing and contempt' with a fervour which
would probably land him in Fort Lafayette, if he were now
within the reach of President Lincoln's police."—Saturday Review, Nov. 8, 1862.
" At the present momentous epoch in American affairs
hardly anything can be published which does not contain
more or less interest. Pamphlets and volumes which may
have been published years ago are eagerly enquired after,
since they are almost certain to contain facts and allusions
which in some way bear on the great crisis that has suddenly
riven a continent in twain. Mr. Balme's work, in spite of
itg imperfections, contains a vast amount of useful and important facts, which are probably unknown to the great pro-

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

portion of English readers. Arid though much of what he
writes is well known to them, it is acceptable as being recorded in a permanent form. His opinion of the President,
the Secretary of State, and other men in the government, is
by no means flattering, and some extracts from their writings and speeches are peculiarly interesting. As, a book
of reference, and containing much that is useful and curious
this work will, we doubt not, find many readers."—Christian
News, Aug. 30, 1862.
" The author of this volume is British-born, but having
emigrated to America he acquired property, and was naturalized as a subject of the United States. Taught from
his early years to regard slaveholding as a monstrous wrong,
he did not, like very many of our countrymen who emigrate, lay aside his anti-slavery thoughts and feelings, imbibe the prevailing prejudices against the coloured races,
and palliate and defend the enormities of the "institution."
Instead of this, the more intimate his knowledge of the system the more deep-rooted became his abhorrence of it.
Instead of speaking with bated breath npon the subject, he
lifted his voice like a trumpet in behalf of the down-trodden
negro, and vehemently denounced all who were directly or
indirectly engaged in the accursed traffic. The result was
such as might have been anticipated. He was subjected,
not to petty annoyances and foul reproach, but to the most
truculent and unrelenting persecution, being compelled,
after a narrow escape from Lynch-law, t6 sail for England,
in which he landed two years ago in a state of destitution.
True to his mission as an apostle of emancipation, we find
him here coming forward with unconquered spirit, telling
the people of this country what he thinks of the Federals
and the Confederates in their connection with slavery, showing the fearful extent to which the ministers of religion and
the Christian denominations are implicated, and declaring
that, in the war now raging, with its accumulated horrors,
there are the tokens of Heaven's vengeance on the unfaithfulness of those who profess to be witnesses for God. The

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

writer expresses his views with no small strength of language, but his character as a man of veracity is attested
by abundant evidence, and he is careful to support the
more important of his statements by documentary proof.
" At the commencement of the war the people of the
Free States had a golden opportunity of washing their
hands of all further share in the guilt of slaveholding, and
if they had at once taken the bold and honest step of declaring all men equal before the law, recognising at the
same time the claim for compensation on the part of those
who, under the protection of legal guarantees, had acquired
property in slaves, they would have secured- the moral support of Europe; but few or none had the idea of equal rights
to the black and the white man, and many who resisted
the extension of slave territory were equally prepared to
resist the removal of the legal brand of inferiority which
was stamped on the African. The Union was the idol of
the people, and to preserve it they were willing, not only
to abate their demands on the subject of extension, but to
fence round the vile system with new and more effectual
barricades. Having sown the wind they are reaping the
whirlwind.
" Those who are really desirous to kndw the position of
the American Churches in regard to slavery will do well to
procure this volume. They will find ample evidence that
even the Cheevers, and the Beechers, and the Stowes are
not absolutely free of the taint, that the anti-British feeling
of these is intense, and that they condescend, when it suits
their purpose, to pander to the worst passions of the mob.
We shall be glad to learn that Mr. Balme's book has a large
circulation."—Morning Journal, Aug. 25, 1862.
" We have already given samples of this thrilling volume;
but we cannot withhold a general and very fervent recommendation of it. Its appearance is peculiarly seasonable,
and its extensive circulation can scarcely fail to give an
impulse to the reviving anti-slavery spirit of England. It
is replete with facts, many of them of the highest import-

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.;

ance as touching, individuals, churches and Christian communities. It is a book which may be opened anywhere
and read straight on, for a spirit of life pervades the whole.
It is quite a repertory of slavery matters, and greatly suited
to the eventful hour which is passing over us."—Bkitish
Standard, Aug. 29, 1862.
" Mr. Balme may be regarded as a John Brown redivi-.
vus, except that he. has not yet sealed his testimony with
his blood; and being an English Baptist, who only went
to America in 1852, he has entered with energy into a
matter of American sins and sorrows. We have said that
this volume is amusing, but it is also instructive. Mr. Balme
has gathered together a number of sayings of their leading
men (Americans), whieh tell painfully against them, and
illustrate the rotten state of their boasted civilization."—
Scotsman, Aug. 16, 1862.
" Mr, Balme expounds many phases of American society,
and draws pictures that ought to startle those, who, like
John Bright, have been in the habit of lauding the institutions of the new world as vastly superior to those of the
old. He is unflinching in his denunciation of slavery and
slave-owners, but he also strongly condemns the war carried
on by the North against the South. He writes clearly, and
enunciates his opinions fearlessly. We commend his book."'
-r-Leed's Intelligencer, August, 27th, 1864.
" W e sincerely wish that these letters could be put into the
hands of every person in this country, inasmuch as they
are calculated to correct many of those misconceptions into
which not a few of our countrymen have fallen, respecting
the great quarrel in which the States of America are now
engaged. The author shews himself to be perfectly familiar
with all the facts and circumstances connected with the
history of the United States."—Staffordshire Sentinel. May
21, 1864.

OPINION OF THE PRESS.

" It illustrates wide spread errors through all classes of
the American community, and exhibits no less the mischiefs
resulting from the dereliction of the fundamental duties on
which their political institutions repose."—Morning Post,
Aug. 29, 1862.
" The circumstances of Mr. Balme's life have been such
as to make him practically acquainted with the horrors of
slavery. He had suffered much in behalf of the cause of
freedom. For his advocacy of this cause we give him all
honour."—-Daily Review, Sept. 8, 1862.
"Mr. Balme's experience enables him to teach with
authority."— Wendell Phillips, Esq., Boston, Sept. 22,1862.
" Mr. Balme is a very extensive author, and the work
before us is a very able exposure of slavery in all its forms
and with all its patronage. The book is well got up, and
will, we trust, have a rapid sale."—Glasgow Examiner,
Sept. 13, 1862.
" His book is replete with interesting matter; a well
furnished store house of facts."—Morning Advertiser, Aug.
7, 1862.
" Eev. J. P . Mursell, said, Mr. Balme had long been
known to him by name as one of the most unflinching
advocates of freedom in America, and had made it his
object to purify the Church of the dreadful sin of slavery.
He quite sympathised with his fervour and enthusiasm, and
honoured him for it. He had not only advocated freedom,
but suffered for it."—Report of a Public Meeting at the
Town Hall, Leicester May, 1861, in the Leicester Mercury.