"Igipe thr/t Books
far the faujtuSiag of a. College in ihtf Colony'

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE
PERKINS FUND
1902.

OLAjricO /l9fbrtJlAy.

PULPIT POLITICS;

ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION ON SLAVERY,

IN ITS

DISTURBING INFLUENCES

^]Sd:ERio^]sr TJisrioN.

BY PROF. DAVID CHRISTY,
iDTHOE OP "COTTON IS KINO," "ETHIOPIA," " CHEMISTET OP ASEIOULTKBE," ETC.

CINCINNATI:
FARAN & McLEAN, PUBLISHERS.
1862.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
FABAN & McLEAN,
in the Clerk's Office of the Difltrict Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio.
STEREOTYPEO AT THE FHANKLIN TITPE FOUHDRV, CINCINNATI, 0.

INTRODUCTION

In a former work — Cotton is King — the author has discussed
the Economical Relations of American Slavery. That production
was written in a conservative spirit, 4nd with the view of laying
before the public. North and South, the facts necessary to demon
strate the inestimable value of the Union, and the wide-spread
ruin that must follow its dissolution.
In another volume — Ethiopia — written with the design of
promoting African Colonization, the author attempted to show,
among other things, that, of all the population torn from Africa
by the slave-trade and consigned to slavery, the colored people
of the United States alone had made sufficient progress to justify
the hope that any portion of the race were capable of carrying
back a Christian civilization to the land of their fathers.
The present volume — Pulpit Politics — aims at presenting
the Ecclesiastical Legislation on Slavery, at the North, in its dis'
turhing influences upon the American Union. The aim here is
equally conservative ; the design being to place before the people
all that is known on the subject of slavery, in its bearings on
the moral progress of the African race. By this means it is
believed that the public will be able to judge, with greater ac
curacy, how far the action of the Churches may have been in
accordance, strictly, with the legitimate duties of the Gospel
ministry ; or how far it may have partaken of a fanatical char
acter, calculated unnecessarily to disturb the peace of the Church,
and endanger the safety of the Union,
In selecting a title for this work — Pulpit Politics — it is not
intended to bring the charge of political preaching against the

iV INTRODUCTION,
majority of clergymen. The moral mania of abolitionism has
by no means been universally prevalent among the members of
the sacred profession,. On the contrary, there have been very
many of them, who have acted on the principle that the king
dom of their Divine Master "is not of this world;" alnd who
have, consequently, resolutely opposed all ecclesiastical legisla
tion in civil aifairs.
If it be claimed as a right, that the divine shall review the
action of the civilian; it is equally the right of the civilian to
review the action of the divine. In the pulpit, proclaiming the
Gospel of peace, the minister is sacred ; on the stump, or in the
pulpit, announcing his political opinions, he is only a politician ;
and, there, his sacred character does not attach to him. Hence
it is, that a political parson is always treated as a mere politician,
and rightfully loses his influence as a divine.
The class of clergymen who have conducted the controversy on
slavery, and forced many of the Churches into the vortex of aboli
tionism, have long been directing attention to civil affairs, and
asking for changes in the Constitution and laws of the country in
relation to that institution. In turn, it is now proposed to bring
the action of the Churches, in reference to emancipation, before
the bar of public opinion, there to be judged as to the wisdom of
their policy, by the fruits it has borne.
If it shall be found, on contrasting the condition of the African
race throughout the world, that fewer obstacles to their evangeli
zation exist in the United States than anywhere else ; if it shall
be found, indeed, that no obstacles to the accomplishment of that
object exist, except such as have been created by the inconsiderate
zeal of clergymen themselves ; then the country must be convinced
that the agitation in favor of emancipation has been uncalled for,
and not necessary to the discharge of any christian duty toward
the colored people ; and that Christian ministers, therefore, have
been inexcusable in agitating the subject of slavery, so as to dis
tract and divide the Churches, and lead to the ruin of the country,
A word in reference to the causes which gave to abolitionism its
early advantages and rapid growth. When the work of foreign
missions had been fairly commenced, the hope began to be enter
tained that the progress of the Gospel would be equally as rapid

DJTKODUCTION, V
as its extension over the world had. been in Apostolic times.
This expectation did not originate with the less informed but
zealous-minded christian. It was the out-growth of a high intelli
gence, a deep-toned piety, a broad philanthropy, and a strong
faith in the promises of God. But the mind that conceived it was
unendowed with the knowledge of future events, and knew nothing
of the purposes of the Almighty — knew nothing of the obstacles
to the extension of the Gospel existing among the heathen. On
this point, almost a half century since, the declaration was made,
"that the energies of Christendom, wisely directed, and attended
with the blessing of the Spirit, might send the Gospel over the
world in a quarter of a century." This hopeful sentiment was
uttered in connection with the action of the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was, at first, only the
expression of an individual ; * but it was accepted by the Pruden
tial Committee of the Board, and formally adopted by the Board
itself, at its meeting in 1816. f The pulpit of America was then
strongly represented from the Theological Schools of Great Britain.
The missions in the West Indies had been greatly hindered, in
their success among the slaves, by the hostility of the planters.
In consequence of this, slavery, among the British people, was
considered incompatible with the progress of the Gospel. This
view, based upon the results in the West Indies alone, seems to
have been adopted by the American ministry without examination,
and accepted as a theory of universal application. Gradually
diffused as a floating sentiment upon the surface of society, it led
to a common conviction that, in some way not explainable, slavery
was an evil which demanded eradication as a preliminary step to
the evangelization of the African race. Those holding this opinion,
seem to have adopted a logic something like this : As slavery can
not prevail under the universal domination of the Gospel, there
fore the abolition of slavery is essential to the world's conversion
to Christianity. In this way they failed to view the Gospel as a
curative remedy for human degradation and indolence, and as
capable of lifting the lowly of the race to an elevation where

*EeT. Dr. Worcester, as quoted in the Memorial Volume of the Board, 18C1.
t Memorial Volume, pages 130, 131.

VJ INTRODUCTlOlSr.
slavery might no longer be necessary to the promotion of industry,
and would, therefore, become a useless institution among men.
The christian men who then entertained these views, never
counseled violence as a means of overthrowing American slavery ;
and uniformly expressed their aversion to the aims and actions of
the abolitionists. But in admitting that slavery presented ob
stacles to the progress of the Gospel, and that emancipation was
a measure that should be promoted by all lawful means, they
were but preparing a soil upon which the abolitionists could sow
their seed, and reap an abundant harvest.
That a radical error prevailed upon this question^ among good
men, is demonstrated by the history of foreign missions during
the last half century. The spread of the Gospel in heathen
countries, has made no such rapid progress as the projectors of
foreign missionary enterprises anticipated would attend the labors
of the good men sent forth to that work. The facts in this volume
will show, that slavery in America, by freeing its subjects from
all connection with heathen superstitions and idolatries, and in
having trained them in the use of the English language, has ac
complished, for four millions of people, once barbarous, what all
the foreign missions in the world have done for less than one-fifth
of that number of heathen ; and that the actual number of con
verts, among the colored people of the Slave States, is nearly
double that of all the converts in the whole of the heathen mis
sions of Protestant Christendom,
The burden of the ecclesiastical legislation of the United States
on slavery, has been based upon the theories started in Great
Britain. It is well, therefore, that some allusion should be made
to them here. The principal one, as argued by Mr. Buxton, in
1823, and stated by Mr. Canning, is as follows : " The continuance
of slavery, and the principles of the Christian religion are incom
patible. " * In the course of the debates Mr. Canning said :
" Religion ought to control the acts and to regulate the consciences
of governments, as well as of individuals ; but when it is put forward
to serve a political purpose, however laudable, it is done, I think, after
the example of ill times; and I can not but remember the ill objeeta

* Canning's Select Speeches, page 409.

INTKODUCTION. VU
to which in those times such a practice was applied  If it
be meant that in the Christian religion there is a special denunciation
of slavery — that slavery and Christianity can not exist together — I
think the honorable gentleman himself must admit that the proposi
tion is historically false ; and again I must say, that I can not consent
to the confounding, for a political purpose, what is morally true with
what is historically falao. One peculiar characteristic of the Chris
tian dispenaation, if I must venture in this place upon such a theme,
is, that it has accommodated itself to all states of society, rather than
that it has selected any particular state of society for the peculiar ex
ercise of its influence. If it has added lustre to the sceptre of the
sovereign, it has equally been the consolation of the slave. It applies
to all ranks o,f life, to all conditions of men ; and the sufferings of
this world, even to those upon whom they press most heavily, are ren
dered comparatively indifferent by the prospect of compensation in
the world of which Christianity affords the assurance. True it cer
tainly is, that Christianity generally tends to elevate, not to degrade,
the character of man ; but it is not true, in the specific sense conveyed
in the honorable gentleman's Resolution ; it is not true, that there is
that in the Christian religion which makes it impossible that it should
coexist with slavery in the world, Slavery has been known in all
times, and under all systems of religion, whether true or false. * , , , ,
" The honorable gentleman can not wish more than I do, that under
this gradual operation, under this widening diffusion of light and lib
erality, the spirit of the Christian religion may effect all the objects
he has at heart. But it seems to me that it is not, for the practical
attainment of his objects, desirable that that which may he the in
fluencing spirit should be put forward as the active agent. When
Christianity was introduced into the world, it took its root amidst the
galling slavery of the Roman Empire ; more galling in many respects
(though not precisely of the same character,) than that of which the
honorable gentleman, in common, I may say, with every friend of
humanity, complains. Slavery at that period gave to the master the
power of life aud death over his bondsman : this is undeniable —
known to every body. ^ Ita servus homo est!' are the worda put by
Juvenal into the mouth of the fine lady who calls upon her husband
to crucify his slave. If the evils of this dreadful syatem nevertheless
gradually vanished before the gentle but certain influence of Chris
tianity, and if the great author of the system trusted rather to this
* Canning's Select Speeches, pages 403, 404,

VIH INTKODUCTION.
gradual operation of the principle than to any immediate or direct
precept, I think parliament would do more wisely rather to rely upon
the like operation of the same principle, than to put forward the
authority of Christianity in at least a questionable shape. The name
of Christianity ought not to be thus used, unlesa we are prepared to
act in a much more summary manner than the honorable gentleman
himself proposes."
In referring to the dangers of the measure proposed, Mr. Can
ning gave the following eloquent and prophetic warning of the
consequences of removing the shackles from the barbarous negro,
and instead of emancipation urged a system of religious instruc
tion for his moral elevation :
" Sir, we must remember that we are dealing with a being, posses
sing the form and strength of a man, but the intellect only of a child.
To turn him loose in the manhood of his physical strength, in the
maturity of his physical passions, but in the infancy of his uninstructed
reason, would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction
of romance ; the hero of which can sketch a human form, with all the
corporeal capabilities of a man, and with the thews and sinews of a
giant ; but being unable to impart to the work of his hands a percep
tion of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has only created a
more than mortal power of doing mischief, and himself recoils from
the monster of his own creation."*
It is time that the slavery question was disposed of forever.
Its agitation has done a fatal work. The Church is in fragments ;
the nation in ruins. If the author's labors will tend to the heal
ing of the divisions in the one, and the reconstruction of the other,
he will be amply compensated for his toil,
* Canning's Select Speeches, page 421,

CONTENTS.

Introdcotion  3
CHAPTER I.
British theories op African Evangelization, as derived from the effects of the
Slate Tradb and British Colonial Slavery  17
Early condition of Africa, 17 ; efforts for its redemption, 17 ; Lord Mansfield's de
cision, 18 ; Granville Sharp's achievement, 18 ; helpless condition of the liberated
negroes, 19 ; founding of Sierra Leone, 19 ; liberality of the laws of Mr. Sharp's
colony, 19 ; rebellion on the change of laws, 20 ; government take the colony in
charge, 20 ; missions for the benefit of the colony, 20 ; their failure on account
of slave trade, 20; effects of England's abolition of slave trade, 21; additional
missions, 21 ; all missions unsuccessful while slave trade continued, 21 ; increase
of slave trade, 21 ; theories based upon these results, 21 ; abolition of slavery in
West Indies demanded, 22; war against slavery popular in Great Britain, 22;
emancipation expected to be a profitable measure, 22 ; the results very different
from the expectations, 22 ; theory that evangelization of Africa required the
suppression of the slave trade true, 22 ; measures based on this theory, 22 ; col
onization and Niger expedition, 22 ; moral degradation of population in "West
Indies, 23 ; missions for its Christianization encouraged by Parliament, 23 ; great
moral degradation of Jamaica, 23 ; opposition of the planters to missions, 24 ;
emancipation put an end to persecution, 24 ; history of missions in the several
islands — St. Vincents, 25; Barbadoes, 26; Virgin Islands, 27; Bermudas, 27;
Bahamas, 28 ; St. Thomas, St. Jan, St. Croix, 29 ; Jamaica, 29 ; Antigua, 30 ;
some favorable results of emancipation on the missions, 30 ; some unfavorable
results of emancipation, 31 ; colonies not all hostile to missions, 31 ; missions iu
the West Indies during slavery, not unsuccessful, 32 ; emancipation demanded
as a means of more rapid missionary progress, 32 ; remarks, 32 ; extent of the
slave trade with Jamaica, 33 ; cruelties of its slavery, 33 ; unfavorable character
of early settlers of Jamaica, 34 ; theories deduced from the whole of the facts
stated, 34.
CHAPTER II.
Examination op the errors in the British theories, as applied to American
Slavery before West India Emancipation  35
SECTION L
That the Slave Trade is incompatible with Apeioan Evangelization  35
This theory sustained as far aa regards Africa, 35 ; the slave trade in its more ex
tended results on the moral condition of Africa, 36 ; its origin and extent, 36 ;
condition of the Christian world at that date, 37 ; Reformation then in its in
fancy, 37 ; Samuel J. Mills, and the origin of American missions, 37 ; Isaac Tay
lor on the progress of early Christianity, 37 ; wisdom of the measures devised for
conducting foreign missions, 38 ; Providential interpositions in behalf of the
African race, 38 ; part of the race taken into contact with Christian civilization,
and missionaries sent to the other part in Africa itself, 38 ; difficulties to be over-
(ix)

X CONTENTS,
come in that field, 39 ; lessons learned from the results, 39 ; Africa can only bO
redeemed by African men, 39; the slave trade a means of placing thern where
they could be prepared for this work, 40 ; Rev. Samuel Crowther a case in illus
tration of this point, 40; the barbarian brought to the Christian, 41 ; the moral
effects of his new relations, 41 ; refusal of some Churches to accept the charge
of the care of the souls of the Africans, excepting they were liberated from
slaTery, 42 ; subsequent strifes and divisions of these Churches, 42, 43 ; slavery
unaccompanied by Christianity, not an element of moral progress, 44 ; mission
of the slave trade, 44; results of neglecting the teachings of Providence — upon
France — upon England, 44; United States more fully met the divine demands
as to the moral culture of the negroes, 44 ; the British theory, as to the slave
trade being incompatible with the Gospel, true, as applied to Africa directly, 45 ;
its indirect action a grand demonstration of the manner in which G»tt can bring
good out of evil, 45. SECTIO'N II.
That Slavbey, wheeeveb it pbevails, is adverse to an increase op population, 45
Review of the history of the slave trade, 45 ; the blacks increase under American
slavery and decrease under British slavery, 46 ; the controversy on this point,
46 ; Buxton's theory true aa to British West Indies, but untrue as to United States,
46 ; differences in the slavery of the West Indies and the United States, 47 ;
theory proved as to West Indies, disproved as to United States, 47.
SECTION III.
That Slavery presents an insuperaplb barrier to the Evangelization of the
Africans subjected to its control  .,  48
Investigations here limited to a period preceding West India Emancipation, 48 ;
plan of investigation, 48 ; American slavery affords a favorable means of settling
this theory, 48 ; slaves and freemen here brought face to face, 48 ; Four topics
discussed, 49 ; Topic First — character, opinions, and measures of the founders of
the government, 49 ; differences of character between them aud the early set
tlers of Jamaica, 50; the barbarism of the negro a barrier to colonial progress,
50 ; resolutions of colonists in reference to a redress of grievances, 51 ; their
effects upon British commerce, 51 ; opposition to slave trade designed to cripple
British trade, 52 ; emancipation not contemplated by colonies, 62 ; Declaration
of Independence designed to apply to the white population in its relations to the
British people, and not to include Indians and Negroes, 52 ; this view true, be
cause they were excluded from citizenship by the Constitution, 53 ; elated views
attending success of Revolution, as to value of personal liberty, 53 ; fundamental
principles partly overlooked, 63 ; Legislative action in reference to emancipation,
53 ; action of the Churches in relation thereto, 64 ; Southern clergymen acqui
escing conditionally, 54; the great problem to be solved — the possibility of the
conversion of the negroes while in slavery, 64 ; the progress already made in this
work, 55 ; Topic Second — Opinions of Revolutionary statesmen on slavery, etc.,
56; opinions of Mr. Jefferson on negro equality, emancipation, etc., 56 ; of Dr.
Franklin, 56 ; emancipation without instruction dangerous, 57 ; no disposition to
emancipate in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 57 ; sentiments of
founders of the Republic adverse to emancipation, 57 ; Topic Third — effects of
freedom upon the negroes of the United States, previous to West India Emanci
pation, 57 ; ecclesiastical legislation up to 1830 conservative, but indicating a
clerical disposition to rule in civil affairs, 58 ; moral culture of free negroes neg
lected, 68 ; their degradation indicated by prison statistics in the free States, 58 ;
Boston Prison Discipline Society's Reports, 61 ; negligence of clergymen in rela
tion to free colored people, 62 ; Topic Fourth — contrast between negroes North
and South, 62; freedom without the means of moral elevation — restraint with
the means of moral progress, 62 ; carelessness of clergymen in noting facts, 63 ;
moral progress of the blacks at the South overlooked, 63 ; the favorable resiilta
of the labors of the Methodists among the slaves, 64; important statistics on this
subject, 64, 66, 66 ; the success of the Methodists disprove the British theory, 67;
important deductions, 68 ; delusions of anti-slavery clergymen, 69.

CONTENTS, XI
CHAPTER III,
Examination op the eeeoes in the Beitish theoeies as applied to American
Slavbey apter West Inbia Emancipation  70
SECTION I.
The 0IR0UMSTAN0E3 under which Abolition took its eise in the United States, 70
Colonization too tardy a remedy for the philanthropy of the times, 70 ; it is opposed
by abolitionists, 71 ; American Anti-Slavery Society organized, 71 ; its efficiency
and fanatical zeal, 71 ; colonization greatly depressed, 71 ; the doctrine that
slavery is sinful, progressing, 72 ; slavery had been viewed aa a moral evil, but
not iu the sense of being sinful, 72 ; the new doctrine gains access to the eccle
siastical courts, 72 ; no difference essentially between anti-slavery and abolition, 72.
SECTION II.
What the early anTi-slatery writers taught in relation to the Bible and
Slavery  73
First impulse given to abolition by attempts to purge the Church of slavery, 73 ;
the doctrines advocated by the Christian Intelligencer, 73 ; its plan of operations,
73 ; character of the men who commenced the anti-slavery agitation, 76 ; they
refuse free discussion, 75 ; remarks upon their teachings and plan of action, 76 ;
slaveholder ranked with slave-trader by them, 80 ; American slavery pronounced
more horrible than any ever existing, 81 ; this statement historically false, 81 ;
absurd Tiews of Apostolic action on slaTery, 82-87 ; denial of the plenary inspira
tion of the Apostles, 84 ; remarks on this strange assumption, 84-90 ; perplexity
of the editor in proTing slavery a sin per se, 91 ; further remarks on the editor's
perplexites, 93-96 ; theory denying the practicability of the mental and moral
culture of the slaves, 96 ; Geological anecdote illustrative of the subject on hand,
97 ; preaching ou slavery required by a Presbytery, 98; practical results of declar
ing slavery sinful, 98. SECTION III.
How THE Abolitionists were met by arguments against their Bible theoeies... 99
Conservative spirit holding abolition in check, 99 ; views of Dr. Bangs, 99 ; of
Bishops Emery and Hedding, 100; Dr. Fisk, 100; Dr. Bond, 100; Prof. Stuart,
101 ; Dr. Clarke, 101, 102 ; Dr. Fisk, 103 ; Dr. Elliott, 104 ; Board of Bishops, 104 ;
complaint against the press, 106; Dr. Chanuing, 107; Princeton Review — it
predicts disunion as a result of abolition, 109.
SECTION IV.
Inquiries into the difference dp degrees of success attending the attempts to
Evangelize the African race throughout the world  108
Importance of the inductive system of reasoning, 108; especially aa applied to
slavery, 109 ; obstacles to African evangelization throughout the world — in South
Africa, 110 ; in West Africa, 125 ; in Cuba, 140 ; in Hayti, 140 ; in British West
Indies, 143 ; in Mendi, West Africa, 154 ; in French West India islands, 168 ; in
United States and Canada, 170 ; moral condition of free colored people in United
Statea, 171 ; Gerritt Smith on this point, 172 ; New York Tribune, 173 ; Rev. H.
W. Beecher, 173; views unfavorable to emancipation, 176; emancipation de
manded by abolitioniats as a means of elevation, 175; evidences of neglect of
' free colored people at the North, 175, 176 ; disruption of Methodist Church un
favorable to its continued influence over the blacks North, 177 ; the Bishops re
buke the abolition clergymen for their neglect, 178 ; decrease of colored members
North, 178; colored prejudice against the whitea by abolitionists, 179 ; infidelity
among the colored men North, 180; persistent piety of religious colored men,
180 ; the African Methodist Church organizations and their encouraging success,
180, 181, 182; sound views of their Bishop as to Constitutional law, 182, 183;
the African Baptist churches, 184; statistics in full not obtained, 184; violent
resolutions of one Association, 185 ; obstacles to the moral progresa of the free

XU CONTENTS,
colored people, 186, 187; Canada, ita discouraging missionary aspects, 187, 188j
Rev, Mr. King, and his encouraging labors, 189 ; Colonel Robert Lachlan, and
his public services, note, 189 ; general condition of Canadian free colored people,
as to morals, as shown in Colonel Lachlan'a Report, 189-194; Elgin Association, -
194 ; remonstrance of the people of Chatham against influx and settlement of
free negroes, 194-197 ; response of colored people, 197 ; the municipal council
of the Western District remonstrating also, 197 ; Colonel Prince, and the colored
people, 198-201 ; Grand Jury presentation against the colored people, 202 ; judge
coincides with jury, 202 ; remarks of the author, 203 ; obstacles in connection
with American slavery, 204 ; favorable testimony of New York Evangelist, 204 ;
of mission board of Louisiana Conference, 205 ; other testimony, 206 ; of Presby
tery of Roanoke, Virginia, 206 ; of Presbytery of South Carolina, 207 ; of Mobile
Tribune, 209 ; of Report of Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 210-213 ; teati-
timony of Rev. Dr. Elliott, 213 ; of Dr. Bond, 214,
SECTION V,
Interesting pacts in relation to the Methodist Episcopal Church and its Rule
ON Slavery  >  215
Prominence of Methodist Episcopal Church in the work of African evangelization,
215 ; its early success, 215 ; ita original Rule on slavery soon modified, 216 ;_ its
change corresponding with Mr. Wesley's Rule for West Indies, 217 ; historical
statement by Bishop Hedding, relating to Rule, 217 ; confirmed by Dr. Elliott,
218 ; Rule for West Indies, adopted in England, 219 ; stringent Rule for United
States, first adopted by Dr. Coke, 219 ; Rule modified to suit the Southern Statea,
219j final settlement of Rule, in 1816, 219 ; influence of abolitionism in disturb
ing the harmony of the Church, 220 ; colored membership in Church when dis
ruption occurred, 221 ; powerful appeal of Rev, Dr. Capers in behalf of Southern
missions among the slaves, 222. SECTION VI.
Inteeestino pacts connected with the Congeeoational and Baptist Chueches op
THE United States in theie relations to Slavery  224
Congregational Churches decidedly anti-slavery, 224; their own admitted ineffi
ciency as compared with other religious bodies, 225-227 ; Baptiat Churches in the
Northern States decidedly anti-slavery, 227 ; their spiritual dearth as described
by some of their religious newspapers, 228; remarks ou these admiaaiona, 229 ;
opinions of the editor of Christian Intelligencer, that there may be too much
preaching on slavery, 229. SECTION VII.
Results op the Foreign Missionary work of the American Churches, as compared
with the results of their Domestic Missions among the Slaves of the
United States  230
1, Methodist Episcopal Church, 230 ; 2, American Baptist Missionary Union, 231 ;
3. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 233 ; 4. American Board of Commis
sioners for Foreign Missions, 233 ; 5. Board of Missions of the Protestant Episco
pal Church, 234 ; 6. American Missionary Association, 235 ; 7. Reformed Prot
estant Dutch Church, 236 ; contrast of the whole with miaaions among the slaves
— the results startling, 237. SECTION VIII.
General results of the Missionary effobts among the African race, in Freedom
AND IN Slavery, placed in contrast  238
Results of missions in West Indies, 239 ; in South Africa, 239 ; in West Africa, and
African islands, 240 ; in Canada, imperfect, 240 ; total in all these fields, 240 •
contrast of these results with those in the slave Statea, bring out astouiahine
results, 240.

CONTENTS. XIU
SECTION IX,
Contsast op all the Missionary force employed by Protestant Christendom,
with the results of the Missions in the Slave States op the United
States  240, 241
SECTION X,
Contrast of the success of the Scottish American Peesetteeian Churches, with
THAT OF THE MISSIONARIES IN THE SOUTHERN SlaTE StATES  241
SECTION XI.
Contrast op the success of the General Assembly Presbyterians, with that op
THE Missionaries in the Southern States  243
CONCLUDING SECTION.
The Christian character of the conterts in the missions among the heathen,
' contrasted with that op the converted slates in the United States,... 243
Ignorance of the Church in relation to the character of the negro race, 243 ; degra
dation of Africa elicited Christian sympathy, 243 ; difiiculties surrounding the
question of African evangelization, 243 ; free negroes of the North degraded, 244 ;
encouraging progresa of the Goapel among the alavea, 244 ; erroneoua views of
African Christian converts, 244; the Christian instruction and Church discipline
of slaves identical with the rules observed North, 245 ; testimony of Mr. Pierce,
in Atlantic Monthly, as to high Christian character of slaves at Fortress Monroe,
246 ; Christian attainments do not necessarily qualify for civil duties, 246 ; im
portant teatimony of American Board on thia question, 246 ; comparison of Chris
tian character of heathen converts with that of converts in Christian countries,
247 ; the standard not so high, 247 ; slave converts at least equal to heathen con
verts, 248 ; heathen converts not yet prepared for Self-government, 248 ; slave
converts in precisely similar condition, 248 ; African race nowhere capable of
self-government, but every where sustained by superior race, 249 ; essential
means of conversion aud salvation supplied to slaves, 249 ; testimony of Ameri
can Board, 250 ; ultra views, and strange misrepresentations of the clergy, in
1857, note, 251 ; superior advantages of American slaves over population iu
heathen countries, 262 ; Isaac Taylor on the progress of early Christianity, 252 ;
its success where Jews and Jewish .Scriptures were present — its failure among
barbarous peoples, 263 ; this historical fact illustrates the reaaon why American
slavea are more accessible to the Gospel than the heathen populations of Asia,
253 ; this lesson teaches the great importance of modern missions in giving the
Scriptures to every nation, tongue, and language under heaven, 253,
CHAPTER IV,
African Slavery and African Emancipation in theie effects, respectively, upon
the national welfare of the caucasians  265
SECTION I.
Effects of Emancipation in Brazil, Mexico, and the South American Repub
lics  255
SECTION II,
Effects op Emancipation in the Island of Hayti  259
SECTION III,
Effects op Emancipation in the British West India Islands  265
Contradictory testimony as to effects of West India emancipation, 265 ; the separa
tion of the question important to its comprehension, 265 ; Jamaica taken as a
type of the whole, 265 ; its exports from 1772 to I860, 266 ; explanatory remarks
on these facts, 266; mistakes corrected, 267; the increaEing prosperity due to

XIY CONTENTS,
imported coolie labor, not to negro free labor, 267 ; thia proved by statistics of
certain islands, 268 ; Jamaica without coolie labor, and with black free labor
alone, is still declining in its exports, 269 ; facts aa to Barbadoes, 269 ; remarks on
preceding facts, 269 ; other testimony confirmatory of the failure of emancipa
tion in its expected" results,. 270, 271 ; effects of emancipation upon the national
welfare of Caucasians most injurious, and of no advantage to Africans, 272.
CHAPTER V
West India Emancipation a total failure in frs expected results  273
SECTION I.
General condition op the West India Islands at this moment  273
SECTION II.
Some intbhestinq pacts and speculations in eeferenosI to the introduction op
Coolies into the West Indies  291
SECTION III.
The social, moral, and industrial condition op Jamaica, as illustrating the
effects of emancipation where it is unaccompanied by adequate means op
moeal progress  296
SECTION IV.
The CIVIL position of the Planters under Emancipation, and the causes of theib
EUIN,  ,  304
SECTION V.
Eppects op Emancipation upon the moral and physical condition op the negroes
IN the British West India Islands, as oompaebd with that of Slatery upon
THE same race IN THE UNITED STATES  330
CHAPTER VI,
The Legislation op the General Assembly Peesbyteeian Church on Slavery, 343
SECTION I.
Eaely Legislation on the subject of Slatery  343
SECTION II.
The Legislation op the General Assembly (0, S.,) after the division op the
Chuech  }ii6
SECTION III.
The Legislation of the General Assembly (N. S.,) after thb ditision of the
Church  351
SECTION IV,
Bbmarks on the Ecclesiastical Legislation of the General Assembly Presby
terians  ,  355
CHAPTER VII.
Legislation of the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches on Slavery,.,, 338
SECTION I,
The Legislation of the Associate Synod op North America on Slavery  358

CONTENTS, XV
SECTION II.
The Legislation op the Associate Reformed Synod of the West on Slavery. 361
SECTION III.
The Legislation op the Reformed Presbyterian Church on Slavery  364
. SECTION IV.
The Legislation of the United Presbyterian Church on Slavery,.,  369
SECTION V.
Opinions of British Churches on American Slavery  375
SECTION VI.
Brief remarks on the foregoing Legislation  380
CHAPTER VIII.
The Methodist Episcopal Church and Slavery  383
Remarks on ita ecclesiastical action  418
CHAPTER IX.
Congeeoational Churches and Slavery  421
Remarks on their ecclesiastical legislation  426
CHAPTER X.
Movements op the Abolitionists  ,  426
SECTION I.
Rise op Political Abolitionism and the unconstitutional teachings of its lead-
BES  426
Ecclesiastical legislation on slavery designed to transfer the subject to the arena
of politics, 426 ; the scheme successful, 426 ; the basis laid was accepted by aboli
tionists, 426 ; thia action created alarm at the South, 427 ; measures adopted to
counteract the dangers threatened, 427 ; Nullification and the Tariff a pretext,
427 ; abolition claimed the right to use both moral and political meana for the
overthrow of slavery, 429 ; the principlea of the Liberty party, and also of the
Garrisonians, 430; abolitioniem.iu the Presidential campaigns, 430; abolition
Convention of 1841 in Ohio, and its resolutions and address, 431-434 ; abolition
Convention in New York, its ultra resolutions advising negroes to steal, etc., 434 ;
opinions of Mr. Birney in 1843, 436 ; in 1844, 436 ; speech of Mr. Chaae, 437-440 ;
South- Weatern Liberty Convention, 1845, at Cincinnati, 440 ; speech of Mr. Bir
ney, of Mr. Wills, of Judge Stevens, resolutions, addresa, 440-442 ; remarka on
the incendiary productions of these men, 442^61 ; notice of the dogma that
"slavery is the creature of local law," 443 ; Hon. J. W. Stevenaon on thia point,
443 ; he quotes Lord Stowell aa repudiating the doctrine, 444 ; he notices other
eases illustrative of hia views, 445-448 ; Mr. Clay ou abolitionism, 448 ; argu
ment of Charles O'Connor in Lemmon case, 451-466,
SECTION II.
The Slavbey agitation in Congeess  466
Abolition in 1835, the offspring of ecclesiastical action, 466 ; political abolitionism
not then organized, 456 ; abolition used as a means of promoting the sectional
intereata of New England, 456 ; General Jackson's condemnation of abolition iu
hia message, 457; abolition petitions in Congress, 458; debates upon them, 459-485.

XVI CONTENTS,
remarks ou the debates, 485 ; on Mr, Slade'a avowal of the necessity of abolition to
prevent the ascendency of the South to the injury of the Bast, 485 ; the Westnot
to be gained to the East on account of physical obstaclea to trade in that direction,
hence abolition, aa a moral lever, was necessary to dissever it from the South,
487 ; the means of accomplishing this had been supplied by the Churches iu
generating and fostering abolition, 487 ; the West weaned from the South would
leave the East triumphant in its protective policy, 487 ; secession threatened by
Bostonians through their representative, as early as 1811, 488 ; Mr. Adama and
Mr. Madison on the right of secession, 488, 489; secession never popular, 490;
it ruined Mr, Webster's prospects for the Presidency, 490 ; remarks on other
speakers, 490-492 ; burning of "Cotton ia King," note, 492; remarks on Mr.
Johnaon'a charge of conspiracy against abolitionists, 493 ; manifesto of Mr. Adams
and others, threatening dissolution of the Union, 494, 495 ; South also threaten
ing dissolution, per Mr. Wise, 496, SECTION III.
Opinions of Individuals, etc., eelating to the subject op Slavery, as illusteatino
THE Abolition movement  501
SECTION IV.
Movements Noeth and South peeoipitatino civil war  622
CHAPTER XI.
The Cotton Cbop in its relations to Amebican Commerce  549
SECTION I.
Early movements op Great Britain to eeteieve her losses consequent upon West
India Emancipation  549
SECTION II,
Condition of Cotton Question in 1850  561
SECTION III,
Progress of events connected with Cotton Culture after 1850, and their results
at the opening of 1860  665
SECTION IV.
Agencies engaged in promoting measures tending to destroy American Commerce,
by lessening the dependence op Europe upon us for Cotton  673
CHAPTER XII.
Pulpit Politics in its practical application to Public appaie8  592
SECTION I.
The Cleegt op New England and the Wae of 1812  692
SECTION II.
The thebb thousand and fifty Cleegymen of NeV England, and the Congress op
1864  697
SECTION III.
The Cleegymen op Chicago, and the Hon, S, A, Douglass  604
SECTION IV
Pulpit Politics in its practical eesults  610
CONCLUSION  620

CHAPTER I,
BRITISH THEORIES ON AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, AS DERIVED FROM
THE EFFECTS OF THB SLAVE TRADE AND BRITISH COLONIAL
SLAVERY,
The condition of Africa had long enlisted the sympathies of
the benevolent, before anything was attempted for the moral and
social elevation of its inhabitants. Its degradation was known
to be extreme, but its true situation was involved in mystery.
To the traffic in slaves was attributed much of its wretchedness.
Time, however, showed that the iron despotism of its kings,
the absoluteness of its domestic slavery, the objects of its idol
atrous worship, the modes of performing its religious rites, its cruel
superstitions, its degrading customs, its human sacrifices, its can
nibalism, must have dated their origin far back beyond the com
mencement of the slave trade. This traffic, it became evident, had
not originated the greatest evils under which Africa suffered, but
was itself one of the natural fruits of the social and moral degra
dation previously existing.
At length the darkness of that barbarism was to be penetrated
by the light of civilization, and the attempt made to lift the Af
rican up to the level of the Caucasian. This effort was not a
voluntary one, springing spontaneously from the mind of the
philanthropist, and undertaken out of pure sympathy for Africa.
The people were forced into action, for its accomplishment, in
such a manner as God only can lead men into important meas
ures for human progress. It was inaugurated by the adoption
of such schemes, and conducted in such a way, as seemed best
adapted to determine the question, whether the black man can be
2 cm

18 PULPIT POLITICS.
made the equal of the white. It was begun, too, at the very
moment when the white man, on the American continent, was
commencing his attempt at solving the mighty problem of man's
capability of self-government. It was a most important moment,
this, when the first steps were taken towards the redemption of
Africa. * None, for a moment, supposed that the task could be
performed in a thousand years to come. The work was an un
tried one — such a work as had never before been attempted upon
earth. Nations had conquered nations — had destroyed their
captives or enslaved them — but never had the strong devoted
themselves to the elevation of the weak. Two thousand years
had the whites struggled, unaided, to gain the boon of constitu
tional freedom; and, even then, but a single nation had suc
ceeded. Could the blacks do more — could they advance, at a
single stride, from barbarism to civilization ! We shall see.
On the 22d May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the celebrated
Somersett case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in
Great Britain, f Previously to this date many slaves had been
introduced into English families, and, on running away, had been
delivered up to their masters, by order of the court of King's
Bench, under Lord Mansfield; but now the poor African, no
longer hunted as a beast of prey in the streets of London, slept
under his roof, miserable as it might be, in perfect security. J
To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement.
By the decision referred to, about 400 negroes were thrown upon
* We refer, of course, to the first efforts which had been productive of favorable
results. Earlier attempts had been made to introduce the Gospel into Africa,
but without success. On this point, Mr. Tracy, iu his History of Colonization
and Missions, says:
"Catholic missionaries labored for two hundred and forty-one years, but
every vestige of their influence has been gone for many generations. The
Moravians, beginning in 1736, toiled for thirty-four years, making five at
tempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and effected nothing. An English attempt, at
Bulama Island, in 1792, partly missionary iu its character, was abandoned in
tTjo years, with a loss of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs
from England, in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London
Edinburgh and Glasgow Society, commenced three stations in 1797, which were
extinct in three years, and fiTC of the six missionaries dead."
t See subsequent notices of the opinions of Lords Mansfield and StowelJ,
t Clarkson's History of the Slave Trade.

COLONIZATION AT SIERRA LEONE, 19
their own resources. Without any one to care for them, they
soon found themselves to be but mere outcasts, with none to pro
tect or employ them. In despair, they flocked to Mr, Sharp, as
their patron ; but, considering their numbers, and his limited
means, it was impossible for him- to afford them adequate relief.
To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and
navy, were afterwards added, who, by their improvidence, were
reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp
determined to colonize them in Africa; but, possessing only a
limited fortune, it was impossible for him to effect this object
without aid from others. That aid could not be obtained ; and
fifteen years passed away before any thing could be accomplished.
By this time, the blacks — indigent, unemployed, despised, for
lorn, vicious — had become such nuisances as to make it neces
sary they should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to
infest the streets of London, * At length the Government came
to the aid of Mr, Sharp, and supplied the means of their trans
portation and support, f
In April, 1787, these African freemen, to the number of 400,
were put on shipboard for Africa; and bidding farewell to the
soil of Britain, where freedom had wrought no good for them,
were landed, in the following month, at Sierra Leone, The next
year a few new emigrants arrived, and, after much difficulty and
suffering and a great reduction of their numbers, the colony was
•considered as established.
In March, 1792, a reinforcement of 1,1-31 colored persons,
arrived at Sierra Leone, These men were fugitive slaves, who
had joined the English during the American Revolutionary war,
and had been promised lands in Nova Scotia; but the Govern
ment having failed to meet its pledge, in consequence of the op
position of the whites, and the climate proving unfavorable, they
sought a refuge in Africa, to which they were removed under the
care of Mr, Clarkson,
The control of the colony soon passed from the hands of Mr.
Sharp, to those of a Company, When this change occurred, the
liberal system of government adopted by Mr, Sharp, which ad-
* Wadstrom, p. 220.
t Memoirs of GrauTille Sharp.

20

PULPIT POLITICS,

mitted colored men to a share in its administration, was super
seded by more rigid laws, excluding them from voting and from
office. This led the American blacks to rebel, and they were
only subjected to the control of the Governor, after a hard fought
battle, in which he was aided by some natives, and by 550 free
negroes from Jamaica, who landed on the day of the engage
ment. Three of the rebel leaders were captured and afterwards
executed — thus extinguishing this little spark of democracy in
the colony. The 550 maroons (mulattoes) who thus arrived so
opportunely to the aid of the Governor, were a set of turbulent
freemen, of the mountains of Jamaica, who had first been shipped
to Nova Scotia, and thence to Sierra Leone,
On the first of January, 1808, the Government relieved the
Company from its difficulties, by assuming the sovereignty of
Sierra Leone, In this year the slave trade was prohibited, and
the colony became necessary to the crown in carrying out its
purposes towards Africa.
With this introductory historical sketch of the foundation of
Sierra Leone, the way is prepared to enter upon the missionary
history of the colony, and to determine how far the opinions of
British Christians, on the subject of slavery, have been influenced
by that important event — an event purely providential, and not
of man's devising, ,
Missions for the benefit of this colony had been first attempted
in 1792, again in 1795, and again in 1797; but all these efforts
had failed. In 1804, the Church Missionary Society sent out its
missionaries, with orders to seek for stations among the natives
outside of the territory of the colony ; because of the opposition
within it, which had originated from the efforts to coerce the col
onists into subjection to the authorities ; and because of the prev
alence of the slave trade, at that time a legal traffic for British
subjects within its limits, as well as to all other nations through
out the whole of Africa, But the efforts of these missionaries
also failed, and they had to await further developments.
In 1808, when the slave trade was abolished by Great Britain
this same mission commenced ten stations as directed, but were
unable to sustain them. The natives, not under the control of
the colony, but interested in the slave trade, burned the mission

EMANCIPATION AND MISSIONS. 21
houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the mission
aries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them.
When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, it so happened
that she thereby only surrendered its monopoly into the hands
of France, Portugal, and Spain, who had tropical territory which
demanded an increase of labor. Hence, there was no diminution
of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of
both : and, although the missions from 1792 to 1808 had failed,
both in and out of the colony, yet the continuance of the traffic,
beyond its limits, after 1808, drove the missionaries within its
jurisdiction, in the hopes of better protection. But these out-
stations were not wholly abandoned until after a long struggle to
sustain them — the last one having been maintained until 1818,
In 1811, the English Wesleyans sent out a missionary to the
Nova Scotia blacks, in Sierra Leone ; who was successful in es
tablishing a mission among them on a permanent basis. The
Church Missionary Society also continued its labors with success,
directing its efforts, mainly, to the improvement 'of the natives.
These natives have been of two classes : first, those living in the
colony and its vicinity ; and, second, those recaptured from slave
ships, after the system of an armed repression of the slave trade
had been adopted. But no missions could succeed, until after
the suppression of that traffic had been effected in Sierra Leone,
and British authority began to exert a controlling influence upon
the coast. This led to the conviction, that Africa could not be
evangelized while the slave trade prevailed. The present naval
force, on that coast, had no existence then, nor until many years
after the traffic in slaves was prohibited ; while, at the same time,
the demand for slaves was so great as to give the utmost activi
ty to the trade. This is clearly indicated by the fact, that while
the entire exports of slaves from Africa, from 179,8 to 1810, num
bered 85,000 annually, they had increased, in 1815, to 106,000
annually ; or more than 20,000 annually over the former exports, *
These results led British Christians to the conclusion, that the
slave trade could not be suppressed and Africa christianized,
except by the destruction of the markets for slaves. Destroy the
demand, argued the English people, and the supply will cease.
* See Parliamentary Reports.

22

PULPIT POLITICS,

But this demand could only be destroyed by universal emanci
pation ; and, therefore, it was urged, that all the enslaved must
be set free — that West India slavery must be abolished.
To reconcile the nation, generally, to the proposed measure of
abolition in the colonies, arguments were offered on the econo
mical aspects of the question. The theory was broached, that
free labor was doubly profitable over slave labor — that one free
man working uiider the stimulus of wages, was worth two slaves
toiling beneath the lash. As a result of the prohibition of the
slave trade, in cutting off the ordinary supplies of labor, the
exports from the islands had fallen off thirty-three per cent,
Freedom, it was nevertheless urged, would fully restore their
prosperity ; and, thus, emancipation would not only be the dis
charge of a moral duty, but it would also be a profitable meas
ure. In this way, the war against slavery became a popular
movement in Great Britain, and was zealously prosecuted, until,
in 1833, the emancipation act was carried in Parliament,
The results of emancipation upon the prosperity of the Islands,
as well as upon the slave trade and emancipation at large, have
been very different from what was anticipated by the people of
England, These points will receive attention as we progress. It
need only be remarked here, in addition to what has been al
ready stated, that the exports of slaves from Africa, according
to Parliamentary Reports, were increased immediately after West
India Emancipation, or from 1835 to 1839, to 135,800 annually ;
being 50,800 more than were exported yearly, when the crusade
against the slave trade was commenced by Mr. Wilberforce.
The theory that the evangelization of Africa could not be ef
fected during the existence of the slave trade, had very many
facts to sustain it, and it became the universal creed of Chris
tendom. It lay at the foundation of the organization of the
American Colonization Society ; and, twenty-five years later, in
connection with commercial objects, it put in motion the costly,
yet fatal Niger expedition. From this belief, there was but a
step to the conviction that the African race, at large, could not
be christianized as long as they remained in bondage.
This theory, too, had then much to give it support, as is ap
parent from the results of missionary efforts in the West Indies,

MISSIONS IN THB WEST INDIES, 23
Look at the facts recorded in the general history of missions ;
and also at the testimony of individuals familiar with the condi
tion of the Islands. The Rev, J. M. Phillippo, for twenty years
a missionary in Jamaica, and who has written its history, says:
" Upwards of 120 years after Jamaica had become an appendage of
the British crown, scarcely an effort had been made to instruct the
slaves in the great doctrines and duties of Christianity ; and although,
in 1696, at the instance of the mother country, an act was passed by
the local legislature, directing that all slave owners should instruct
their negroes, and have them baptized ' when fit for it,' it is evident,
from the very terms in which the act was expressed, that it was designed
to be, as it afterwarda proved, a dead letter — a mere political manoeu
vre, intended to prevent the parent state from interfering in the man
agement of the slaves."
From this time to 1770, a period of 74 years, the question of
slave instruction in Jamaica received no attention. When, in
1770, Parliament put certain questions to Mr. Weddeburn, as to
the actual state of religious instruction of slaves in the island,
he replied : " There are a few properties on which there are Mo
ravian parsons ; but, in general, there is no religious instruction."
The same testimony was borne at the same time by Mr. Fuller,
agent of Jamaica, and two others, who, when asked " what re
ligious instructions are there for the negro slaves," answered,
" we know of none such in Jamaica."
The Rev. Dr. Coke, who was sent out on a missionary explo
ration, in 1787, says :
" When I first landed in Jamaica, the form of Godliness was hardly
visible ; and its power, except in some few solitary instances, was totally
unknown. Iniquity prevailed in all its forms. Both whites and blacks,
to the number of between 300,000 and 400,000, w.ere evidently living
without hope and without God in the world. The language of the
Apostle seems strikingly descriptive of their entire depravity : ' There
is none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that understandeth, there
is none that seeketh after God. Their throats are an open sepulchre ;
with their tongue they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under
their lips ; their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace
they have not known."

24 PULPIT politics.
In 1796, Mr. Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, in
his place in the House of Commons, when speaking of sending
missionaries to a certain point in Jamaica, said :
" I speak from my own knowledge when I say, that they are canni
bals, and that instead of listening to a missionary, they would certainly
eat him."
The introduction of the Gospel into Jamaica, as well as into
the other West India Islands, met with the most rancorous op
position from the planters, who, with some honorable exceptions,
viewed the religious instruction of the slaves as " incompatible
with the existence of slavery." The work of missions therefore,
though begun in Jamaica, by the Baptists in 1814, and by the
Methodists in 1789 and again in 1815, made but little progress,
being resolutely opposed until about 1820. In 1824, the Mora
vians, who had commenced so far back as 1754, had four stations
and four missionaries ; the Wesleyans eight stations and eight
missionaries; and the Baptists five stations and five missionaries.
Though overawed by the mother country, the planters still
manifested bitter hostility to the religious instruction of the
slaves. In 1824, they renewed their persecutions of the mission
aries, and in 1832, on a partial insurrection of the blacks ^be
ginning in December, 1831 — their wrath overflowing all bounds,
they commenced an indiscriminate destruction of the mission prop
erty. In this frightful crusade against the Gospel, they destroyed
no less than 14 chapels, with private houses and other property,
belonging to the Baptists, amounting in value to |115,250 ; and
6 chapels belonging to the Methodists, and property wprth $30^
000. Every species of cruelty and insult was inflicted upon the
missionaries. The emancipation act of the following year, 1833, going into
effect August 1, 1834, by which the slaves became apprentices
and afterwards, in 1838, were set entirely free, forever put it out
of the power of the planters to repeat such acts of violence and
injustice. The missions have since been continued among the
colored people of the British West Indies, with varying results
as we shall hereafter see.
To gain a true idea of the varied conditions of the population

MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 25
of the several British West India Islands, a more definite state
ment must be made. The principal facts are taken from New-
comb's Encyclopedia of Missions, second revised edition. New
York, 1858. *
Antigua, settled in 1632, had a total population, in 1846, of
33,726, of whom 23,350 were blacks. The Gospel was intro
duced into this island in 1760, by one of its leading public men,
Mr. Gilbert, who had become a convert to Christianity, under the
preaching of Mr. Wesley, during a visit to England, Nearly 200
persons were united in Christian fellowship under his superinten
dence ; but while thus zealously employed, for the good of his
own slaves and that of others, he was removed by death, and the
flock left as sheep without a shepherd. In the prosecution of his
labors, he was encountered by bitter hostility. His loss to these
converts was supplied by a pious shipwright, who for about eight
years kept them together, until Dr, Coke, in 1786, supplied a
permanent missionary to the island.
This mission appears to have enjoyed, for many years, an al
most uninterrupted prosperity, until 1826, when all the mission
aries, with part of their families, 13 in all, perished at sea, in re
turning from a district meeting held in St, Christophers.
St. Vincents, settled in 1763, had, in 1846, a population of
26,533, of whom 18,114 were blacks. The first missionary was
introduced into St. Vincents in 1787, by Dr. Coke. At first the
mission was successful, and the opposition, for several years, was
confined to some lawless individuals; but at length the arm of
authority was turned against the mission, and the Colonial As
sembly passed certain laws calculated to root out the Wesleyans
from the island. The law was extremely severe, including ban
ishment and death, under certain circumstances. The majority
of the people, however, were opposed to the law, and it remained
in force but a short time — the king having vetoed it, as contrary
to the principles of toleration. While it was in force, however,
the missionary was arrested, imprisoned, and banished. Before
the passage of this law, the converts numbered about 1,000 ; but,
* The dates of the settlements of the islands, severally, with the number of the
population, are taken from the Missionary Guide Book, 1846, London, which
gives, as its authority, Murkay's ENCYCLOPiEDiA or Geography. — Newcomb.

26 pulpit politics.
soon afterward, were reduced one-half by the dispersions which
followed. In 1794, two missionaries were sent out to renew the
work ; and many returning from their wanderings, the congrega
tion began to increase. But the spirit of hostility was rather
smothered than subdued. In March, 1797, a mob, headed by a
magistrate, attacked the Methodist chapel, threw down the rail
ings, broke the lamps, pulled down the communion rails, and tore
the Bible in pieces. About a year after, an attempt was made
upon the lives of the missionaries. Their house was broken open
in the night, and some ruffians, armed with cutlasses, entered the
sleeping apartments, turned up the bed and searched for them in
every corner. Happily, the missionaries, anticipating the attack,
had taken refuge for the night at the dwelling of a friend,
Barbados, settled in 1624, had a population in 1846, of 120,-
000, of whom 66,000 were blacks. The mission work, among the
slaves, was commenced in 1788, but the missionary soon met with
violent opposition, on the ground that he was disseminating among
the negroes, notions incompatible with their condition as slaves.
Repeated attempts were made by the mob to interrupt the meet
ings for worship, in which they conducted themselves in the most
violent and outrageous manner. An appeal to the magistrate for
redress proving fruitless, the dwelling of the missionary was at
tacked with stones, and his wife struck with violence. His suc
cessor, in 1791, found the prejudices so far dispelled, that he had
access to more estates than he couldvisit. Persecution had now
nearly ceased, but it had given place to a settled contempt for
divine things. But, in October, 1823, intelligence was received
that an insurrection had broken out among the slaves of Jamai
ca, and the Methodist missionaries were accused of being acces
sory to it, by teaching sedition under pretence of giving instruc
tion. The intelligence raised a storm of wrath against the mis
sion here, and every indignity was heaped on the missionary, A
mob assembled and tore down the chapel, and the life of the mis
sionary being in danger, he left the island for St. Vincents, These
outrages led to a censure upon the inhabitants by the British
House of Commons ; and, to relieve themselves of the odium, 94
of the principal men signed a declaration, expressing their re
gret at the occurrence, and their approbation of the sentiment;

MISSIONS m the west indies, 27
of the House, But, in 1826, when another missionary arrived,
•placards were posted up, calling upon the mob to tar and feather
him, and the president refused him a licence to preach. Yet, af
terward, he proceeded in his work without molestation, a new
chapel was erected, the prejudice against the Methodists subsided,
and a prosperous mission was established.
Virgin Islands, settled in 1660, had 7,731 inhabitants in 1846,
of whom 4,318 were blacks. The mission work was begun, in
this group of islands, in 1789, A large society was soon col
lected at Tortola, and, other missionaries arriving, the wofk was
extended to Spanish Town, and other islets in the vicinity. But,
in December, 1805, a most brutal outrage was committed, by a
mob, on one of the missionaries at Tortola, by which he came
near losing his life. This was done in revenge for ajp alleged
publication in England, respecting the morals of the people of the
island. Before the commencement of this mission, every species
of wickedness prevailed among the negroes; but since the Gos
pel entered, their superstitious practices have been abandoned.
No early statistics of membership are given, but, in 1853, the
church in Tortola, is said to have had 1,604 members.
Bermudas, settled in 1612, had a population, in 1846, of 8,-
720, of whom 3,314 were blacks. These are a numerous cluster
of small islands, included in the West Indies, and belonging to
the British, A mission was commenced on Somer's Island, in
1779, which had to encounter the prejudices of the whites and
the heathenish superstitions of the blacks : the latter being found
under the slavish dominion of witchcraft, as it prevails in Africa ;
but it was not long before the Gospel began to exert its influence.
Yet this was no sooner manifested, than the hostility of the
whites was aroused. Laws were passed similar to those in Ja
maica ; and the missionary was imprisoned six months in the com
mon jail, by which his health was so impaired that he was re
called, and the island left destitute of the Gospel for six years.
In 1808, another missionary visited the island, but found the so
ciety previously gathered by the first missionary dispersed. Ob
taining permission from the governor, he commenced his labors,
but without any great success. In 1853, the Church members
numbered 445.

28 PULflT POLITICS.
Bahamas, settled in 1783, had a population, in 1846, of 18,718,
of whom 7,734 were blacks. These islands are the most western
of the West Indies, extending along the coast of Florida, toward
Cuba. The first mission, in these islands, was commenced in
1800 ; and though a law had been previously enacted, prohibiting
the instruction of slaves, the missionary, having obtained permis
sion to preach, soon succeeded in raising a small society. Other
missionaries arriving, the work was successfully extended to sev
eral of the islands, where a great reformation followed their
labors.* But, in 1816, the legislature passed an act prohibiting,
•under severe penalties, meetings for divine worship earlier than
sun-rise and later than sun-set, thus depriving the slaves of the
privilege of attending. After a few years, however, the legisla
ture retrq,ced its steps, and repealed the restrictions which had
been laid upon the poor negroes. In 1853, the Methodist mission,
in the Bahamas, had 2,800 members.
Besides the missions already noticed, the Methodists established
many others, the details of which are not given in the work from
which we quote.
As the final result of the whole labors of the Methodists, in
the West Indies, including Hayti, Guiana, and some of the Dutch
and Danish Islands^ their church members, in 1853, numbered
48,589, This included the converts among the coolies, for whom
missionaries have been appointed.
In noticing the results of tlie missionary efforts in Jamaica,
the Baptist missions were referred to as having suffered along
with the Methodists, The Baptists entered that field in 1814.
Encouraged by early indications of success, the Society pressed
forward in its work, increasing the number of its laborers and
forming new stations, till, at the annual meeting of the missiona
ries at Falmouth, in April, 1831, the number of members reported
was 10,838, The year following, the terrible mob violence,
already noticed, broke up all their missions and destroyed their
property. But they were again soon reorganized, and the
churches continued to prosper to such a degree, that they were
never in a better condition than when the emancipation act was
carried into full effect in 1838, In 1841, the number of members
had increased to 27,706 ; and, in Jamaica, in 1842, the ministers

MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 29
unanimously resolved, as an appropriate commemoration at once
of the day of freedom and the jubilee of the mission, to detach
themselves from the funds of the parent society, after the first of
August ensuing. This proved to be an ill-advised measure, and
injurious to the cause of missions.
The Baptists extended their missions to some of the other
islands, particularly after the passage of the emancipation act;
but, as our aim in this part of our investigations is, chiefly, to
trace the progress of the Gospel under slavery, we shall not add
further details here, but leave them to be noticed hereafter. The
population of Jamaica, in 1846, was 380,000 of whom 255,290
were blacks, the remainder being mulattoes and whites.
The Island of St, Thomas, settled in 16 — , had, in 1846, a
population of 5,080, of whom 4,500 were blacks. In 1732, the
Moravians commenced their mission in this island ; and in 1736,
three persons were baptized. In 1738, a negro named Mingo
was baptized, and became a zealous assistant. Through his
preaching an awakening took place over the whole island. But
the planters opposed the work, and persecuted and imprisoned
the missionaries. Count Zinzendorf, however, who unexpected
ly arrived in the island, procured their liberation, 'She mis
sions were extended to the other Danish islands, St, Croix and
St, Jan; and the work progressed, until, in 1832, a centennary
jubilee was held, and the important and encouraging fact was
reported, that during that period, 37,000 souls had been baptized
in these islands. All this work was accomplished under slavery,
as emancipation, in the Danish islands, was not effected until 1848,
The Island of St, Jan, in 1846, had a population of 2,430, of
whom 2,250 were blacks ; and St, Croix 31,387, of whom 29,164
were blacks.
There are, at the present time, in the three Danish islands,
St, Thomas, St, Croix, and St, Jan, belonging to the Moravians,
8 stations, 35 laborers, and 9,398 converts, of whom 2,892 are
communicants. In Jamaica, the Moravians, in 1804, fifty years from the found
ing of the mission, were able to report but 938 negroes as having
been baptized. In 1831 and '32, as before stated, they greatly
suffered from mob violence. In 1851, in a review of the Jamaica

30

PULPIT POLITICS,

mission, the Moravian Church Miscellany represents it as com
prising 13 stations, and the negroes, in connection with the
churches, as numbering 13,388, young and old.
In Antigua, a mission was commenced by the Moravians in
1756, which had to endure much persecution from the planters ;
yet, in 1788, they numbered more than 6,000 converts. In 1823,
there had been received into the Church, within the preceding
fifty years, 16,099 converts, young and old. In 1826, the num
ber of slaves receiving instruction was 14,823 ; and, at the pres
ent time, the number of members reported is 8,000, there having
been some diminution attributed to the encroachments of other
denominations. The Moravians also established missions in St,
KiTTS, Barbados, and Dutch Guiana, with varying success.
The Church Missionary Society : the Society for the propaga
tion of the Gospel; the London Missionary Society; and the
United Scotch Presbyterian Church, have all established missions
in the West Indies — a portion of them previous to emancipation,
but, mainly, since that epoch. The statistics of their operations,
previous to 1833, are not accessible.
In closing the history of the Methodist missions in Jamaica, up to
the period of emancipation, the writer from whom we quote, says : *
" The emancipation of the negroes was quickly followed by very
important changes. The Sabbath was observed with hallowed strict
ness. Nothing was to be seen on that day but decently dressed people
going to and from their places of worship ; congregations were in
creased and multiplied ; old chapels were enlarged, and new ones
erected. Education was also greatly extended. A great change took
place also in the public opinion of Jamaica, as to the Methodist mis
sionaries. Formerly no names were too vile, no treatment too bad for
them ; even their chapels were shut up or razed to the ground as pub
lic nuisances. Yet within five years after the late insurrection, the
House of Assembly of Jamaica made a grant of £500 to aid in the
erection of a Methodist chapel in Kingston ; and, during the discus
sion of the subject, the highest eulogiums were pronounced on the use
fulness of the Wesleyan missionaries. The Common Council of King
ston, and several of the parochial vestries, followed the example of
the Assembly, and made grants for similar purposes."
* Encyclopaedia of Missions.

MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES, 31
The Bishop of Barbados, too, thus described the results :
" First. Wives and husbands hitherto living on different estates be
gan to live together.
" Second. The number of marriages greatly increased. One of hia
clergy had married ten couple a week, since the first of August.
" Third. The schools greatly increased ; a hundred were added in
one district.
'' Fourth. The planters complain that their whole wooding gang
(children), instead of going to work, go to school.
" Fifth. All the young women cease to work in the field, and are
learning female employment.
'• Sixth. Friendly societies for mutual relief have increased.
" Seventh. The work of the clergymen is doubled. One of the
chapels which held three hundred is being enlarged, so as to contain
nine hundred, and still will not be largo enough."
Under these encouragements, the missionaries pressed onward
in their work, so that in six years after full emancipation, 1844,
they had a membership, in Jamaica, numbering 26,585, But 1853
shows a falling off in the members to 19,478, This astonishing
result is thus accounted for, in the work from which we continue
to quote : *
[' Yet, though at the first the prospects seemed to brighten, after a
few years they grew worse. Many of the colored people purchased
sihall lots of land, sometimes in the mountains, built cottages, and cul
tivated the ground for a living. Many left their old homes and aought
employment elsewhere, often at a distance from the house of God.
Many grew worldly-minded, made money the great object of their pur
suit, and sought for happiness in earthly things. Some even returned
to their vile heathenish practices, which, it was hoped, they had utter
ly forgotten."
In justice to our common humanity, it must be stated that —
" In some of the colonies, there were not only no persecuting lawa,
but the missionaries were greatly encouraged, both by the local gov
ernment, and by the ownera of slavea. Even in those islanda where they
met with persecution, they had many frienda among the planters and
others of the white inhabitants. Some built chapels on their estates.

* Encyclopaedia of Missions.

82 PULPIT POLITICS.
and others subscribed handsomely to their erection in the neighbor
hood." *
It will now be apparent, that so far as the influence upon the
blacks was concerned, the missionary success m Jamaica, while
the work could be prosecuted peacefully, was fully equal to that
of any other missions in any part of the heathen world. Ihe
history of these missions proves, that slaves are not rendered in
accessible to the Gospel, merely because of their subjection to
slavery; but that, wherever the master favors the work, encour
aging success is to be expected. When closely analyzed, the mo
tives prompting British Christians to urge emancipation so ve
hemently, appear to have originated in the belief, not that the
blacks were incapable of christianization under slavery, but that,
while slavery prevailed, the masters would continue to interrupt
the mission work, and thus render the conversion of the slaves
impracticable. It may be very easy, at this day, to point out defects in the
measures of British Christians, for giving the Gospel to the West
India slaves ; but it must be remembered, that they were engag
ing in a work in which the lights of experience afforded no aid.
Where the moral gloom appeared the darkest, there they first at
tempted to let in the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Had
the masters been first brought under the influence of the Gospel,
like the christian master of Antigua, Mr. Gilbert, they would
have been most efficient auxiliaries in the work of instruction
among the negroes. All masters could not have become teachers,
but all would have given the missionaries free access to their
slaves. Under this state of things, British Christians would not
have felt that emancipation was indispensable to the conversion
of the blacks ; and the churches, effecting their object under ex
isting laws, would not have demanded the abolition of slavery.
But the opposite course having been pursued — the throne having
been invoked to constrain the masters, and force them to allow
the instruction of their slaves — a position of antagonism was
produced between the churches and the planters, producing re-
• Encyclopaedia of Missions, p. 770.

MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 33
suits, as we shall see, that have been ruinous to all the best in
terests of both whites and blacks.
Another subject needs examination here, as it is connected with
the British theory that slavery is unfavorable to an increase of
population. Twenty-six years after England conquered the island of Ja
maica, 1696, up to which time the importation of slaves still con
tinued, the whites numbered 15,198, and the slaves 9,500. At
the end of an additional forty-six years, 1742, during nearly the
whole of which period the monopoly of the slave trade was held
by England, the whites numbered 14,000, and the slaves 100,000.
The annual importation of slaves into Jamaica, now reached 16,-
000, so that at the end of another twenty-eight years, 1770, they
numbered 200,000, while the whites had scarcely increased 2,000.
These numbers show, that from 1742 to 1770, the number of
slaves who sunk under the lash of the Jamaica task-master, must
have been 248,000, or almost 9,000 annually. The whole num
ber of slaves imported into this island by the English, up to 1808,
when the slave trade was forbidden, was 850,000, to which must
be added the 40,000 previously imported by the Spaniards, mak
ing the total number of Africans transported to Jamaica, amount
to 890,000. And yet the startling truth must be told, that when
the census was taken, in 1835, under the emancipation act, so as
to determine the distribution of compensation to the masters, in
stead of there having been any increase on the numbers imported,
they amounted to only 311,692.
But Jamaica was not alone in this wholesale destruction of hu
man life. Taking the whole of the British West India Colonies,
and the most astonishing results are presented. The total im
portation of slaves into these islands — including Jamaica — up
to 1808, was 1,700,000, while the number left for emancipation,
including their descendants, was but 660,000.*
Such are the leading facts upon which British philanthropists
based their theories upon slavery, in its effects upon population
and upon African evangelization. We shall again have occasion
to refer to these theories.
* See Compend of U. S, Census, 1850, — also " Ethiopia."
8

34 pulpit POLITICS*
But whence originated the white men, who so resolutely op
posed the introduction of the Gospel into the West Indies, and
impiously attempted to shut out the light of heaven from the
darkened souls of its slaves ? In answer to this question, we shall
draw, briefly, upon the history of Jamaica, before referred to, by
Rev, Mr, Phillippo, as a type of the whole :
" The Island of Jamaica, discovered in 1492, was settled by a col
ony of Spaniards in 1509, who, by their oppressions and savage cruel
ties, in less than fifty years wholly exterminated the native Indian
population, originally numbering from 80,000 to 100,000. African
alaves seem to have been introduced at an early day as substitutes for
the natives ; and up to 1655, when the English, then at war with Spain,
took possession of the island, 40,000 slaves had been imported by the
Spaniards, only 1,500 of whom were then surviving. Jamaica, by this
change of masters, was not much improved in its social and moral con
dition, which, under the 146 years of Spanish rule, had been deplora
ble. It now became the rendezvous of buccaneers and piratical cru
saders, a desperate band of men from all the maritime powers of Europe,
who continued to perpetrate almost every degree of wickedness, both on
sea and land, until 1760, when peace was made with Spain, and a more
vigorous administration of law attempted."
The English people deduced four theories from the facts de
tailed :
1, That the Slave Trade is incompatible with African evan
gelization, 2, That Slavery, wherever it prevails, is adverse to an increase
of population,
3, That Slavery presents an insuperable barrier to the evan
gelization of the Africans subjected to itjs control,
4, That Free Labor is more profitable than slave labor  the
labor of one freeman, under the stimulus of wages, being more
productive than that of two slaves, toiling under the dread of the
lash. These propositions we propose to examine, in detail, in -the
following pages, so as to judge of their applicability to American
Slavery,

ERRORS IN BRITISH THEORIES. 35

CHAPTER II,
EXAMINATION OF THE ERRORS IN THB BRITISH THEORIES, AS AP
PLIED TO AMERICAN SLAVERY BEFORE WEST INDIA EMANCIPA
TION,
In turning from the consideration of the results of British Col
onial Slavery, to inquire into the results of American Slavery, *
" some very striking facts are presented, which show a well-marked
diversity in the two systems. The theories entertained by the
English, were of slow growth, and not fully adopted until near
the period of West India Emancipation, To form a correct judg
ment in relation to American slavery, and to fairly contrast it
with the British system, a period must be embraced of equal ex
tent to that required to fornfi the English theories. They were
four in number, as stated in the close of the preceding chapter;
and, with a view to the more distinct understanding of the whole
of the questions to be examined, we may consider them in sep
arate sections :
Section I, — That the Slave Trade is incompatible with
African Evangelization,
This theory was fully sustained by the effects of the slave trade
upon Africa itself. Looking at the question from that point of
view alone, it was a logical deduction from the facts then revealed
in the history of that traffic. It presented no redeeming trait in
its character, and not a solitary circumstance connected with its
prosecution, that tended, in the slightest degree, to work the least
* The term " American Slavery," unless otherwise stated, applies to that of
the United States.

36

pulpit politics.

improvement in the moral condition of its subjects. On land, it
greatly aggravated the warlike disposition of the natives, and
caused the soil of Africa to whiten with human bones. In the
holds of the slave ships, despair and death were ever present, and
hope and joy never entered.
But when a broader view of the subject is taken, the hand of
God is perceivable in this wonderful movement. Africa was sunk
in the deepest moral darkness, and had wholly forgotten the only
Creator. Among her gods were gods of blood, and human be
ings the offerings sacrificed upon their altars. Wars were waged
to multiply captives, that the number of sacrifices might be en
larged, and the anger of the deities more fully appeased or their
favor more certainly secured. The slave trader presented him
self in the midst of the worshipers, and offered a price for the
victims. Superstition, overpowered by cupidity, accepting gold
instead of blood, dropped the sacrificial knife, and the devoted
one gladly went into slavery to escape the impending horrible
death. The Portuguese took the lead among European nations in the
traffic in slaves. The first experiment was made in 1442. It
proved successful, and many private adventurers soon afterward
embarked in the trade. In 1481, the king of Portugal, taking
the title of Lord of Guinea, erected many forts on the African
coast for the protection of the traffic. As early as 1503, a few
negro slaves had been sent into St, Domingo ; and, in 1511 Fer
dinand had permitted them to be imported in great numbers. In
1518, some Genoese merchants, who had purchased the monopoly
of the traffic in slaves from a favorite of Charles, commenced
their transportation from Africa to America, * and brought the
slave trade into that regular form which it long maintained. The
French next obtained its monopoly, and kept it until it yielded
them, according to Spanish official accounts, the sum of $204 -
000,000. In 1713, the English, at the treaty of Utrecht, secured
it for thirty years ; but Spain, in 1739, purchased the British
right, for the remaining four years, by the payment of $500,000.
The Dutch also participated in the traffic ; and, in 1620 intro-

» "America " here refers to the West Indies, Mexico, South America, Brazil &c

SLAVE TRADB AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION. 37
duced the first slaves into the North American Colonies, In 1808,
the traffic in slaves was prohibited by both the United States and
Great Britain,
In the earlier years of the slave trade, the Christian world was
in no condition to send the Gospel to heathen lands. In 1516,
says an eminent historian, " Religion was regarded only as an in
strument of government," * The Reformation, then only begin
ning, was long in making such progress as enabled Protestant
Christians to engage in attempts to propagate their religion. They
were more concerned for themselves, and for their children, than
for the world aX large ; as it was long doubtful whether they could
maintain their ground in opposition to the power wielded against
them. These were days of darkness and discouragement, but
light and hope at length arose, and Christians began to put on
their armor to battle for the extension of the kingdom of Christ.
It was not until near the close of the 18th century, that Chris
tian missions were vigorously commenced, by some of the Brit
ish churches ; and it was only in 1812, that the first American
missionaries went into their fields in Asia, Six years earlier, the
father of our Foreign Missionary scheme, Samuel J, Mills, re
corded this memorable sentence : " I think I can trust myself in
the hands of God, and aU that is dear to me ; but I long to have
the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be preached to the poor
Africans." A few years later brought around the organization
of the African Colonization Society ; and Mr, Mills offered him
self, as an explorer, to find a highway for the colored man's re
turn to the land of his fathers. He accomplished his object, 1817,
only to find his grave, on the return voyage, in the midst of the
sea. The Christian Church had now become awakened to the impor
tance of extending the Gospel to the heathen throughout the
world. Asia, with its pagan inhabitants and its false religions,
was not unknown to the Christians of Europe and America. But
Africa, with its barbarous hordes and murderous religious rites,
was known only to the slave trader. Much had to be learned in
relation to the mode of conducting Christian missions. In turn
ing over the historic page, it was found that —
* D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation.

38

PULPIT POLITICS,

" Christianity, at first, went wherever a preparation had been made
for its reception by the scattering and settlement of the Jewish race,
and by the preexistent diffusion of the scriptures of the Old Testament,
in the Greek language. Within these limits tho Gospel seated itself,
and there it held its position with more or less of continuity ; and be
yond the same limits it was, indeed, carried forth, and it won its tri
umphs ; but soon it lost its hold ; soon it retreated, and disappeared,
leaving only some scattered and scarcely appreciable fragments on its
spots, to denote the course it had taken." *
If primitive Christianity could only sustain itself permanent
ly, in the midst of the civilized races of men, what security
was there that, in the 18th and 19th centuries, it could be ex
tended among the barbarous tribes of Africa, or of any other
country ? Whether the founders of modern missions had doubts
upon this subject or not, they wisely resolved, in sending out
missionaries, that the school and the church should be insepara
ble. This was the more necessary, as, in every field occupied,
whether in Asia, Africa, the Islands of the Sea, or among tbe
Indians of North America, a strange language had to be studied
before the missionary could deliver his message of salvation.
But what was God doing, while man was thus tardily preparing
fbr the evangelization of the world? British and American Chris
tians, enjoying religious freedom, and using a common language,
were the most active and zealous in promoting the work of mis
sions. The slave trade had brought to their doors its thousands
of thousands of Africans, who, under slavery, had been taught
the English language, and were thus prepared to be instructed,
directly, by the Christian teacher, who knew only his mother
tongue. Many Christians, both English and American, beheld
the hand of God in this movement, and accepted it as a Provi
dential dispensation, bringing within their reach a race of men
otherwise inaccessible to the Gospel, Others, equally devoted to
the cause of Christ, and anxious to extend his kingdom among
men, consecrated themselves to the work in Africa itself The
barbarism of that benighted people was thus assailed at the two
extremes. In the West Indies the teachers were few, and met

* Isaac Taylor's Wesley and Methodism, p. 293.

SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, 39
with Opposition ; while, in the United States they were numerous,
with none to interrupt their labors. The results among the en
slaved Africans were most encouraging ; but the results in Afri
ca itself were not so successful. The efforts to plant the Gospel
in that barbarous land led to the discovery of many facts of sig
nificant import, which convey lessons of instruction not to be
overlooked. The climate of Africa proved itself so unfavorable
to the health of white men, that only a few of the missionaries
90uld labor long in that field. It was farther found, that the
men and women of mature years were incapable of compre
hending moral or religi'ous truths ; and that, from the degraded
condition of the population, it was impracticable to elevate the
youth to the practice of a sound christian morality, except by
carefully excluding them from the society of the natives. To do
this, the teacher had to exert a despot's power, as the only means
of restraining them from the ways of evil. He had to limit their
' liberties, as the only means by which he could preserve their
morals. To let them run at will, rendered his teachings power
less for good, and ensured their moral destruction. * These re
sults were nothing new in the history of the workings of fallen
human nature. Neglected children, in the midst of a vicious
population, whatever their color, always run to ruin. No exemp
tion from the workings of this law prevails in Africa, any more
than in other lands ; on the contrary, the fatal results, in that
country, to the unrestrained youth, are only the more certain,
because of the greater degradation of its population.
These facts include lessons of grave importance, God rules
among the c|iildren of men. He, alone, knows how to carry out
measures sufficiently broad to secure the accomplishment of his
purposes. He seemed to have decreed the redemption of Africa,
To effect that work, it was necessary that Africans themselves
should be educated for the execution of the task : for in its cli
mate the white man sickens and dies, where the black man may
dwell in safety. The slave trader carried away the sons of
Africa, and placed them in contact with British and American
civilization ; where the restraints of slavery forced them to ac-
* See the Report of Bishop Scott, on his return from Liberia.

40

PULPIT POLITICS.

quire a knowledge of agriculture, mechanical arts, literature,
science, and religion. The hand of God is as plainly discernible
in this dispensation of his Providence, towards the African race,
as it was in sending Jacob into Egypt with his sons, and permit
ting the enslavement of their posterity, that they might afterward
rise above their former pastoral condition. Without the knowl
edge of the arts, sciences, and agriculture, acquired by them
under Egyptian slavery, the people of Israel never could have
become a great nation.
Such is precisely the condition of the black race of men.
Africa had slumbered on, for thousands of years, in sloth and
pollution. The slave trade came as a means of mental excitation
to her people. Carried away from a life of indolence to one of
active industry, the intellect of the negro became awakened under
the very chains which bound him. Visited by the disciples of
Jesus, he found that human sympathy was a reality. Amazed at
the discovery, he listened with joy to the story of redeeming love.
Convinced, from past experience, that mankind are in open re
bellion against God, and that each individual heart is depraved
and sinful, he willingly accepted the offered salvation. This ac
complished, that same Providence which permitted the slave trader
to bring him away from Africa, now influences the master's heart
to send his Christian slave back to the land of his fathers, with
the tidings of salvation to its people, *
Again, we repeat : Providence, unquestionably, designs to teach
a lesson to Christians, by the permission of the African slave
trade and African slavery, By the introduction of these two
» Among the Episcopal missionaries who went to Abbeokuta, in 1846, was
the Rev. Samuel Crowther, a native of Yoruba, who had been captured by the
Fellatahs, in 1821, and sold to the traders at Lagos. Shipped on board a slaver
for Brazil, recaptured by an English cruizer, educated at Sierra Leone, ordained
to the ministry of the Gospel iu England, he had now returned, after twenty-
five years of absence from his natiTe land, to proclaim the way of salvation to
his relatives and countrymen; and he had the inexpressible gratification of
finding his mother and two sisters, soon after his arrival, and of being instru
mental in the conversion of his mother to Christianity. "Ethiopia," p, 215.
Mr. Crowther, although carried off by the slave traders, was never enslaTed—
being recaptured before reaching Brazil. Other similar instances haTe occur
red, where the captiTCS have returned, after having endured many years of
slavery.

SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, 41
great elements of progress, into connection with modern civili
zation, not only were the Christian nations awakened to the im
portance of commerce and manufactures, as means of national
aggrandizement, but they, were made acquainted with the condi
tion of Africa and its population. The abject state of its people
was not the effect of their subjection to a superior race ; but the
deep degradation into which they had sunk was the result of
their own doings. The slave trade, in some respects, had ren
dered African society less bloody in its customs, while in others,
perhaps, it had increased its rapacity. But all these things were
to be swept away before the dawn of the millennial glory, and the
Gospel brought to bear upon Africa as upon other lands. How
was this to be done ? The fatality of its climate to the white
man, would effectually prevent his rendering much aid in the
work, as a resident missionary. And, again, the delays that
would be imposed upon him, in the study of a new language,
would increase the difficulties attending the introduction of the
Gospel among that people. Foreseeing these, and all other ob
stacles to African evangelization, as also the action of the Church
in behalf of the African race, events, under Providence, were so
ordered, that the barbarian was brought to the Christian, instead
of awaiting the tardier and more dangerous plan of the Christian
going to the barbarian.
But this was not all. The removal of the African from his
own country, to take his place beside the christian teacher, in a
distant land, so far anticipated the awakening of the Church to a
sense of her duty, that the slave, using a foreign tongue, was
taught the Christian's language, and prepared to comprehend the
teachings of the Gospel, before the message of salvation reached
his ears. Here was a very mysterious providence, requiring not
the aids of inspiration for its interpretation. And more than this
was effected. These children of Africa, instead of roving hither
and thither at will, were compelled to remain, from year to year,
on the same estates, thus allowing each succeeding Sabbath to
present the same persons to the religious teacher — a condition
of restraint that could not be secured in Africa, and which, at
tended with Christian instruction, was more favorable to moral
improvement than any elsewhere afforded to the colored race.

42 PULPIT POLITICS.
And, yet, there were those in the United States, as well as in
the West Indies, who refused to accept this providential revelation
of the Divine will to the Church. But this refusal was from very
different motives, and by very different classes of persons. In
the West Indies, the opposition to giving Christian instruction to
the blacksy came from the slave owners ; in the United States, it
came from the ministers of the Gospel. In the former case, it
has been reckoned as purely Satanic in its origin ; in the latter,
its results have been sufficiently disastrous to indicate that it had
a similarity of origin. With us, whole denominations, nearly,
shrunk back from the task of giving the Gospel to the slaves,
except on condition that the master would first set them free.
This was not exactly the form of the proposition, but practically
it amounted to the same thing. In the early days of slavery,
there were no regular missionaries, as now, among the blacks.
The ministers could not be supported except by the patronage
of the master ; and he would not pay a ministry that cast him
out of the church. The ministers, therefore, had to leave, and
both master and slave were suffered to remain without the
means of grace ; or, else, were forced to seek some other denom
inational connection, where their relations were understood and
recognized. And what has been the history of these religious bodies, who
thus refused the Gospel to the poor barbarian slave, unless they
could, at the same time, place him on terms of legal equality with
his civilized master ? What has become of these professed am
bassadors of Christ, who could stand aside and see the poor bond
man sink to perdition, without offering him the salvation that
would lead him to heaven, except on the condition that they could
first secure to him his personal freedom on earth ? We shall call
upon one of the aged ministers of the Gospel, to answer this
question.* He once took the lead, as we shall see hereafter, in
the anti-slavery movement in his Church, In the Christian In
structor, of Philadelphia, October, 1861, we find him saying :
" The truth must be spoken at all hazards. There is but ' one body • '
Christ has but one Church on earth. But it is sadly rent and dis-
^' Rev. David McDill, D. D., now of Illinois.

SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, 43
figured by divisions, so that it does not appear to be ' one.' Its glory
is sadly sullied with envying and strife.
" And the divisions, and their accompanying envyings and strifes,
have been greatly multiplied within the last half century, though we
have been accustomed to regard it as the era of Bible and Missionary
Societies, as well as of greatly increased Christian activity and enter
prise. The writer can look back to a tinle within his remembrance,
when there was one Baptist, one Methodist, one Associate, one Asso
ciate Reformed, one Eeformed, and one General Assembly Presbyterian
Church. " How is it now — ^how has it been during the period of which we
have just spoken? The Baptist Church has divided into three parties,
the Methodists into three, the Associate into three, the Associate Re
formed into three or four, the Eeformed into four, the General Assem
bly Presbyterian into six, viz : The Cumberland Presbyterians, the
Old School Presbyterians, the New School Presbyterians, tho Free
Church Presbyterians, the Old School Presbyterians South, and the
New School Presbyterians South. True, some of these parties contin
ued but for a little time, but still, they wore divisions, and they existed
long enough to produce some strife, and some scandal. Instead of
preaching Christ, and him crucified, they were under a kind of neces
sity which led them too often to inveigh against the errors and cor
ruptions of all the others, especially of those who came the nearest to
themselves in faith and practice, and from whom they had separated,
to convince all that the schism was not causeless, and that they were
the only party or ' church ' which was fashioned according to the
pattern shown in the Mount. Thua the attention of many was, in a
sad degree, directed to some 'peculiarities,' and turned away from the
vital truths of the Gospel. Without inquiring who was to blame, or
who was not to blame, for causing these divisions, have we not reason
to regard Christ as addressing us — we mean the body of professing
Christians — and putting the question to our consciences : Whereas,
there are among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not
carnal ?  We are not to look for much more Christian
union, till the Church in all her branches become less carnal and more
spiritual," But lest any one should imagine, as some have done, that the
advancement made by the negro race under slavery is a necessary
result of that system, "and is not due, alone, to the Christian in
struction they have received, in connection with slavery, it is only

44 PULPIT POLITICS,
necessary to refer to the condition of the slaves in those countriea
where they have not enjoyed the teachings of the Gospel. In all
such cases, their barbarism is yet complete, and they are left as
monuments to admonish Christendom that nothing, save their
careful moral instruction, can ever elevate them to the level of
the civilized races. Indeed, before this volume is complete, it
will be demonstrated, that freedom and slavery are both alike
powerless in the redemption of the African race, where careful
Christian training is not employed; and more than this will be
proved, as the facts will show that, in their present condition,
wherever freedom prevails, and they are left unprotected and un
restrained, they are, generally, so far incapable of caring for
themselves and their offspring, that they are every where tending
to extinction, instead of advancing in numbers and intelligence.
It would seem, then, that the mission of the slave trade,
considered in a Providential point of view, when all the facts
before us are taken into accounf, has been to bring African bar
barism into contact with Christian civilization, as a preliminary
step toward the ultimate evangelization of the negro race. Nor
has this work of negro instruction been required, without an
equivalent being rendered. The contact of civilization and bar
barism, in this case, has been of such a nature as to be of the
greatest possible advantage, in^an economical point of view, for
a long series of years, to the nations engaged in tropical and sub
tropical cultivation ; and it was only after centuries had elapsed,
during which the moral instruction of the negroes had been
neglected, that the nations so acting were deprived of their slaves,
and their tropical possessions involved in ruin, A noted example
is found in the loss of Hayti by the French ; and an equally strik
ing one exists in England's losses in her West India colonies.
In these islands, the planters very generally refused the religious
teacher any access to their slaves ; and a whirlwind of excitement
raised in England, neariy three hundred years after the introduc
tion of slavery, swept away their property interest in the black
man forever.
The United States, -as we shall see, has most fully met the
designs of Providence in permitting the slarve trade ; as ^rom the
first, the religious instruction of the slaves has been an object of

influence of slavery on POPULATION. 45
attention. Nor has she been content with the home instruction
only of her slaves. By means of the Colonization Society, she
has taken the preliminary steps necessary to the ultimate evan
gelization of Africa, thus aiming at obeying the teachings of
Providence, as connected with the permission of the slave trade
to the civilized nations.
But we must conclude our remarks on this head. The theory
under consideration — that the slave trade is incompatible with
African evangelization — may be considered as sustained, only so
far as its direct action upon Africa is concerned; but it is subject
to modifications, so far as relates to its indirect action, and sup
plies a grand example of the manner in which the Almighty can
bring good out of evil. The history of the slave trade, while
revealing to us the heaven-daring wickedness of the people of
Africa, affords a striking illustration of the general truth, that
when God has designs of mercy toward a wicked people. He visits
them with judgments which are adapted to secure their repent
ance and lead them back to Himself.
Section IL — That Slavery, wherever it prevails, is ad
verse TO AN increase OF POPULATION, *
A brief review of the history of American Slavery, will demon
strate that this theory is not of general application, however true
it may have been as applied to British Colonial Slavery,
The act of Congress prohibiting the slave trade, took effect in
1808, The act of the British Parliament, to the same effect, went
into operation at the same time. The two nations made an equal
start in attempting to arrest that traffic. The importation of
slaves into the United States, at this date, including the periods
before and after their independence, was about 400, 000, f The
importation into the British West Indies, including the period in
which they were under Spanish rule, was 1,700,000, f After
*The reader may not understand the lawa of population; it may, therefore,
he remarked, that in all prosperous communities, the births are from four to
six per cent, per annum, and the deaths from two to three per cent., giving an
increase, annually, of from two to three per cent, to the population.
t Compend. of U. S. Census, 1850.
i Of this number the Spaniards imported 40,000.

46 PULPIT POLITICS.
1808, the traffic in slaves could no longer be prosecuted under
the sanction of law in either country, and their importation was
discontinued. The United States census for 1830, shows that our African
population at that date had increased to 2,328,642, of whom
319,599 were freemen, being an increase on the 400,000 originally
imported of more than 1,900,000. The census of the British
West Indies, taken in 1835, under the emancipation act, shows
that these islands, at that date, had a negro population of only
660,000, being a decrease of more than 1,000,000 on the number
originally imported, *
From these facts, the difference in the American and the British
systems of slavery, in their effects upon the increase of popula
tion, can be readily inferred; and it will be easy to perceive,
also, how the American and the Englishman — like the two
knights of old, when looking at the opposite sides of the bi-col-
ored shield — should have adopted antagonistic theories on this
question. It is only in the light of these facts, that any satisfactory ex
planation can be given, why that eminent philanthropist. Sir
Thomas Fowell Buxton, in 1831, when commenting on the
enormous decrease of the slave population in the West Indies,
should have employed this language :
" Where the blacks are free they increase. But let there be a
change in only one circumstance, let the population be the same in
every respect, only let them be slaves instead of freemen, and the
current is immediately stopped." f
Here is the theory of a British philanthropist, based upon the
workings of slavery under British rule. Must the American ac
cept this theory, because a philanthropist is its author? Must
he let it pass unquestioned, while five distinct American census
returns stamp it as erroneous? Why did not Mr. Buxton ex
amine these returns, before announcing his theory ? Why did he
not state the true cause of the constant decrease of the slave.
« See Compend. of U. S. Census, 1850.
t North British Review, August, 1848.

INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON POPULATION. 47
population in the West Indies, and its corresponding rapid in
crease in the United States? The cause of this difference in
results, could have been easily explained. In the West Indies,
the disparity in the sexes, and the neglect of infants, produced a
continuous decrease of population; while in the United States,
the care taken of infants by white women, and the equality of
the sexes among the slaves, produced the enormous increase given
above. Added to this, was another feature in the history of the
two systems of slavery — the British and American — which
marks, in a striking manner, their difference of effect upon human
life. Before the cultivation of cotton and sugar had assumed
any very prominent position in the commerce of the United
States ^indeed, before any regular exports of cotton had com
menced — provision had been made for the abolition of the slave
trade. The American planter, therefore, when regular exports
had commenced, and were rapidly increasing, was placed in a
position in which his reliance for an increase of labor had to
depend, entirely, on the natural increase of his slaves already in
possession. And, even had he been desirous of greatly increas
ing his laborers, by importations from Africa, between the periods
of the adoption of the Constitution and the prohibition of the
slave trade, he could not have done so, as the Revolution had left
him too little money to effect that object. The care of the slave
children thus became a matter of great importance to the Ameri
can master. Quite different, however, was the situation in which
the English planter had been placed in the West Indies, There,
for a century before the prohibition of the traffic in slaves, tropi
cal cultivation by slave labor had been conducted with great
profit. To -secure to herself the advantages of this cultivation.
Great Britain, in 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, obtained the
monopoly of the slave trade for thirty years. The great activity
with which the traffic was prosecuted, at this period, is referred
to elsewhere. Such was the ease, then, with which slaves could
be procured from Africa, that it became much less expensive to
import them, than to raise them on the plantations. The labor
of the mother in the field was vastly more valuable than her
services in the nursery. Again, as the most aggravated feature
in the whole system, it was found that, by over-working, a slave

48 PULPIT politics.
could be made to produce as much in four or five years, as, by
ordinary labor, he would do in eight or ten. The aim of the
planter — or rather of his overseer, the owner of the estate being
usually a non-resident — was, therefore, to get the greatest possi
ble amount of work out of the slave in the least possible time !
Such was West India slavery as compared with that of Amer
ica, It will now be apparent to the most superficial thinker,
that the theory under consideration received a sad proof of its
truth in the history of British Colonial slavery; but that it is
wholly untrue, as applied to the slavery of the United States.
Section III. — That Slavery presents an insuperable bar
rier TO the Evangelization of the Africans subjected to its
CONTROL. We shall limit the investigations under this head, in the pres
ent chapter, to the period preceding West India Emancipation,
so that the contrast between British slavery and American slav
ery, as retarding or promoting the conversion of the colored
people, can be more clearly made out, and the differences in the
results be better understood. When this is done, the contrast can
be continued in another chapter ; so as to show the difference in
the missionary success under freedom, in the West Indies and
other parts of the world, and under slavery in the United States,
The claims set up for emancipation as an economical measure,
must also be considered, in connection with the question of its
moral advantages.
More than this, however, will be necessary, to illustrate the
whole of the bearings of American slavery, and to determine
whether, in the present condition of the colored people, their sub
jection to servitude does or does not present a barrier to their
christianization. This point, fortunately, can be determined more
readily in connection with American slavery, than with the ope
rations of the system of African bondage anywhere else ; because
the work of emancipation began, in the United States, at an early
day, and soon a large number of colored people, in a state of
freedom, appeared in the community. Thus, the two classes —
slaves and freemen — have existed together ever since the origin

EARLY AMERICAN COLONISTS AND SLAVERY. 49
of the government — the first census, in 1790, showing a free
colored population of nearly 60,000. The fact that a large por
tion of the freedmen have been wholly separated from the slave
population, by a geographical line, makes the task of tracing the
results the more easily performed. In this field of investigation,
as well as in that concerning the West Indies, many collateral
topics must be introduced, in illustration of the subject under
consideration. The character of these discussions may be infer
red from the following statement of the subjects examined:
1. The Christian character of the early immigrants of the North
American Colonies ; their estimate of the influence of barbarism
upon free institutions ; and the diversity of the means adopted to
avoid the evils anticipated by an increase of the negro popula
tion. 2. Opinions of Revolutionary statesmen upon the subject of
negro slavery, and the propriety and prospects of general eman
cipation. 3. Effects of emancipation upon the negroes of the United
States, previous to the period of West India Emancipation.
4. Contrast of the results of freeing the blacks in the North,
with the continuation of them in slavery in the South.
5. Deductions from the facts stated.
With this approximate statement of the topics to be examined,
we may proceed with our investigations :
1. The. Christian character of the early immigrants of the North
American Colonies; their estimate of the influence of barbarism
upon free institutions; and the diversity of the means fidopted to
avoid the evils anticipated by an increase of the negro population.
As, in closing the preceding chapter, the godless character
of the white settlers in Jamaica is referred to as contributing,
mainly, to the hindrance of the Christian missions among its
black population, so, in approaching the investigation of the
facts relating to the favorable influence which American Slavery
has exerted over the cause of the Gospel among our African pop
ulation, it will be necessary to refer to the Christian character
of the early white settlers of this country, as contributing, chief
ly, to the greater success here.
4

50

pulpit politics.

Like the white settlers of Jamaica, numbers of the earlier emi
grants to America, were exiles from the country of their birth —
not as criminals, self-exiled, to escape the punishment justly due
for crime, but exiles on account of their religious belief. The
intolerant zeal for religious uniformity, prevailing in Europe,
compelled many of its population to flee from persecution to this
country, where they could worship God according to the dictates
of their own consciences. No lengthened eulogy of these men is
needed — the Christian character of the majority of them being a
matter of history. With them the school house and the church —
the sources of intelligence and morality — were objects of the
first importance. They believed that the perpetuity of the free
institutions they hoped to found, would depend, not upon any
magic in the mere possession of freedom, but in the intelligence
and morality of their posterity.
These were not the men to deny the Gospel to any human be
ing. On the contrary, the Indian and the African both received
attention, and both were instructed in the Christian faith. But
while they labored for the moral elevation of these children of
barbarism, they refused to admit them to the privileges of citi
zenship. No morbid sentimentality, upon the subject of human
rights, could induce them to overlook the dangers into which they
might precipitate themselves, by conferring upon savage men, or
even the half-civilized, equal privileges in the government of the
country. Time rolled on, and the period of the American Revolution
approached. The slave trade, forced upon the colonies by the
mother country, was revealing, more and more, the difficulties
attendant upon the presence of a barbarous population in the
midst of a civilized people. At the North, where slave labor in
the field proved to be profitless, it was felt to be a grievous bur
den. So fully had this sentiment fixed itself upon the public
mind, especially in the northern colonies, that there was no diffi
culty in securing an expression of opinion hostile to the slave
trade. It was not so much because the negroes were held as
slaves, that the colonists objected to their importation, as because
their barbarism presented a barrier to the prosperity of the coun
try. This was the true state of public opinion.

EARLY AMERICAN COLONIST.S AND SLAVERY. 51
An opportunity for the expression of 'these sentiments was
presented, when the Boston Port Bill passed the British Parlia
ment. All commerce was at once destroyed, and various meet
ings were immediately called, to consider the best plan to be
pursued for the redress of grievances. The measures finally
adopted, by the colonies, were designed mainly to be retaliatory
upon the commerce of Great Britain. Accompanying the reso
lutions adopted by the Colonists generally, were another class
of resolutions upon the question of the slave trade. These were
passed in many of the counties of Virginia, in some of the Col
onial conventions, and, finally, in those of the Continental Con
gress, in which the slave trade, and the purchase of additional
slaves, were specially referred to as measures to be at once dis-
continuetj. In substance they declare, as the sentiment of the
people :
" That the African trade is injurious to the colonies ; that it ob
structs the population of thorn by freemen ; that it prevents the immi
gration of manufacturers and other useful emigrants from Europe from
settling among them ; that it is dangerous to virtue and the welfare of
the population ; that it occasions an annual increase of the balance of
trade against them ; that they most earnestly wished to see an entire
stop put to such a wicked, cruel, and unlawful traffic ; that they would
not purchase any slaves hereafter to bo imported ; nor hire their vessels,
nor sell their commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned
in their importation. South Carolina and Georgia did not follow the
example of Virginia; and North Carolina, in resolving against the slave
trade, but acquiesced in the non-intercourse policy, until the grievances
complained of should be remedied." *
The plan adopted by the Colonists, to force Great Britain to
terms, included the policy of non-intercourse. Her foreign com
merce had then a value of but eighty millions of dollars per
annum, nearly one-half of which, directly and indirectly, was
dependent upon her North American and West India colonies,
and the African slave trade. The colonies resolved not to import
or consume any British manufactures, or West India products;
and not to export to the mother country, or the West Indies, any
* Cotton is King embraces, in detail, the facts on this subject.

52

pulpit politics.

of their own productions. * The non-importation of negroes
formed a part of this policy.
" The North American colonies could not have devised a measure so
alarming to Great Britain, and so well calculated to force Parliament
into the repeal of her obnoxious laws, as this policy of non-intercourse.
It would deprive the West Indies of their ordinary supplies of pro
visions, and force them to suspend their usual cultivation, to produce
their own food. It would cause not only the cessation of imports from
Great Britain into the West Indies, on account of the inability of its
people to pay, but would, at once, check all demand for slaves, both in
the sugar islands and in North America — thus creating a loss to the
mother country, in the African trade alone, of three and a half millions
of dollars, and putting in peril one-half of the commerce of England." f
These details are necessary to enable the reader to understand
the true nature of the opposition to the slave trade existing at
that period.
Another remark, in this connection, upon a different point:
That the emancipation of the negroes was not contemplated by
those, in general, who voted for the non-intercourse resolutions,
is evident from the subsequent action of Virginia, where the
greater portion of the meetings were held. They could not have
intended to enfranchise men, whom they declared to be obstacles
in the way of public prosperity, and as dangerous to the morals
of the people. Nor could the signers of the Declaration of In
dependence have designed to include the Indians and negroes, in
the assertion that "all men are created equal;" because these
same men, in afterwards adopting the Constitution, deliberately
excluded the Indians from citizenship, and forever fixed the ne
gro in a condition of servitude, under that Constitution, by in
cluding him, as a slave, in the article fixing the ratio of Con
gressional representation on the basis of five negroes equaling
three white men. The phrase — " all men are created equal " 
could, therefore, have meant nothing more than the declaration
of a general principle, asserting the equality of the Colonists, be
fore God, with those who claimed it as a divine right to lord it
over them. The Indians were men as well as the negroes. Both
* See American Archives, vol. I. t Cotton is King, page 233, 3d edition.

EARLY AMERICAN COLONISTS A^"D SLAVERY. 53
were within the territory over which the United Colonies claimed
jurisdiction. The exclusion of both from citizenship, under the
Constitution, is conclusive that neither was intended to be em
braced in the Declaration of Independence, with any reference to
their admission to an equality with the whites, in the government
about to be established.
The successful issue of the American Revolution, left the peo
ple highly elated with their achievement. Exalted ideas of tbe
value of personal freedom prevailed, and its power in remedying
all human ills was believed to be almost omnipotent. Every
measure, therefore, which promised an enlargement of human lib
erty, was readily accepted by the public. For a time, the maxims
of the fathers — that intelligence and morality are essential to
the success of free government — seem to have been overlooked.
This, however, was true only in reference to the North; and
even there, the public sympathy was not extended to the Indian,
but limited to the negro.
It was under these circumstances, and during the prevalence
of these opinions, that the Legislatures of the Northern States
commenced their legislation on the subject of slavery. The Rev
olution had closed, the treaty of peace had been signed. Sept, 3,
1783, and the new Constitution adopted, March 4, 1789,
In 1780, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed their meas
ures for the abolition of slavery : the latter by a Constitutional
provision, and the former by a legislative act — the one making
emancipation immediate, the other gradual. Eight years later,
Connecticut and Rhode Island followed their example. The work
of emancipation, begun, by the four States named, continued to
progress, so that in fifteen years from the adoption of the Fed
eral Constitution, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and New
Jersey had also enacted laws to free themselves from slavery —
some of them by the immediate and others by the gradual sys
tem. *
* Dates of Emancipation in the United States;
Pennsylvania, on March 1, 1780, by Act of Legislature.
Massachusetts, on March 2, 1780, by Court,
Connecticut, on March 1, 1784, by Legislature.
Rhode Island, on March 1, 1784, by Legislature.

54 PULPIT POLITICS.
The earlier legislation of the Churches occurred in connection
with these schemes of State emancipation. In the measures
adopted by the ecclesiastical courts, generally, they only aimed
at a friendly cooperation with the civil authorities. But while
this was substantially the case, they, at the same time, used lan
guage of general application, guarding it, however, by exceptions
as to the States which had not passed emancipation laws.
The clergymen of the South readily acquiesced in the measures
proposed. As ambassadors of Christ, they were to proclaim his
Gospel to fallen men. Where no hindrance existed to the per
formance of their duties, they were not concerned about the re
peal or modification of civil laws. As they were not required
by their northern brethren to unchurch believing slaveholders,
or to make war upon the institutions of the Southern States, they
were perfectly willing to allow northern clergymen, in turn, the
fullest latitude in their experiments upon the negro at the North,
So long as they of the South were exempted from the rules
adopted on slavery, they cared not what terms of church fellow
ship were imposed at the North, * i
It was a great problem that was about to be solved. Could the
negro population be rendered more accessible to the Gospel by
freedom, or would the restraints of slavery, properly regulated,
afford equal advantages in laboring for their conversion. The
test, so far as it had been made in the West Indies, where the
planters opposed the missionaries, had been unfavorable to the
theory that slavery might not be adverse to the work of the Gos
pel among the blacks; but this did not discourage efforts at the
South, where the masters acknowledged their Christian obliga
tions, and were willing to have the precepts of religion taught to
their slaves.
Practically, the question at issue between the ecclesiastics of
the North and the South was this : Can the negro be evangelized
while in slavery ? Southern clergymen accepted the challenge.
New Hampshire, on Feb. 8, 1792, by Legislature.
Vermont, on July 4, 1793, by Constitution.
New York, on July 4, 1799, by Legislature.
New Jersey, on July 4, 1804, by Legislature.
* See the Rules of the Methodist Church, ou a subsequent page.

opinions of early statesmen on SLAVERY. . 55
and, to test this question, proceeded to enlarge their fields of
operation for the conversion of the slaves. They did this the
more confidently, because they were not about to enter upon an
untried experiment. Already had the Gospel made considera
ble progress among the blacks. The Methodists, in 1793, report
16,227 colored members in their churches, while, in 1787, they
had but 1,890 — such had been their rapid increase. From some
cause, perhaps the working of the emancipation laws, the mem
bership was reduced, in 1795, to 12,170,*
From other deno\ninations we have no regular statistics for this
period. In the history of the Presbyterians, however, it is stated
that the work of the religious instruction of the blacks had been
commenced as early as 1747, in Virginia, with very encouraging
success. In one congregation in that State, in 1755, about 500
colored members are reported, and about an equal number in
another congregation. In a third congregation, some time later,
200 are reported, for the care of whom black men had been
ordained as elders. It is further stated, that multitudes of the
colored people, in different places, were willingly and eagerly
desirous to be instructed in religion,-}-
2. Opinions of Revolutionary Statesmen upon the subject of
Negro Slavery, and the propriety and prospects of Emancipation.
Before proceeding to contrast the results of the efforts. North
and South, in behalf of the blacks, it may be well to notice, more
at large, the opinions entertained, in relation to the negro race
and the propriety of emancipation, by some of our statesmen,
subsequent to the Revolution.
* See Minutes of Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The sta
tistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as presented in the published Min
utes of that denomination, first separate the colored from the white members
in 1787. From this date to 1795, the returns are given by congregations, as
follows:

In 1787, 1,890 members.

In 1792,

13,871 members.

" 1788, - 6,545

ti

" 1793,

- 16,227 "

" 1789, - - 8,243

ll

" 1794,

13,814 "

" 1790, -11,682

ll

" 1795,

- 12,170

" 1791, - - 12,884

\i

t Hand Book of the Slavery Question, by Rev. John Robinson.

56 PULPIT POLITICS. '^
On the question of negro equality, by emancipation, and the
social and civil commingling of the two races, black and white,
Mr. Jefferson took negative ground. He was inclined to consider
the African inferior " in the endowments both of body and mind "
to the European; and, while expressing his hostility to slavery
earnestly, vehemently, he avowed the opinion that it was impos
sible for the two races to live equally free in the same govern
ment — that "nature, habit, opinion, had drawn indelible lines of
distinction between them " — that accordingly, emancipation and
"deportation" (colonization) should go hand in hand — and that
these processes should be gradual enough to make proper pro
visions for the blacks in a new country, and fill their places in
this with free white laborers. *
That Mr. Jefferson was considered as having no settled plans
or views in relation to the disposal of the blacks, and that he was
disinclined to risk the disturbance of the harmony of the country
for the sake of the negro, appears evident from the opinions
* entertained of him and his schemes by John Quincy Adams.
After speaking of the zeal of Mr, Jefferson, and the strong man
ner in which, at times, he had spoken against slavery, Mr, Adams
says : " But Jefferson had not the spirit of martyrdom. He
would have introduced a flaming denunciation of slavery -into the
Declaration of Independence, but the discretion of his colleagues
struck it out. He did insert a most eloquent and impassioned
argument against it in his Notes on Virginia ; but, on that very
account, the book was published almost against his will. He pro
jected a plan of general em.ancipation, in his revision of the
Virginia laws, but finally presented a plan leaving slavery pre
cisely where it was ; and, in his Memoir, he leaves a posthumous
warning to the planters that they must, at no distant day, eman
cipate their slaves, or that worse will follow; but he withheld
the publication of his prophecy till he should himself be in the
grave." f
Mr. Jefferson was not alone in his views of the difficulties at
tending emancipation. Dr. Franklin, in 1789, as President of

* Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol, I, page 370.
tLife of John Quincy Adams, pages 177, 178.

opinions of early I statesmen on slavery. 57
the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, issued an appeal for aid
to enable his society to form a plan for the promotion of industry,
intelligence, and morality among the free blacks, and he zealously
urged the measure on public attention, as essential to their well-
being, and indispensable to the safety of society. He expressed
his belief, that such is the debasing influence of slavery on human
nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with care, may
sometimes open a source of serious evils ; and that so far as
emancipation should be promoted by the society, it was a duty
incumbent on its members to instruct, to advise, to qualify those
restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty.
The state of public sentiment, at this period, on the subject of
emancipation, was stated by Mr, Jefferson, January 24, 1786, in
his answers to questions propounded by M, de Meuisner :
"I conjecture there are 650,000 negroes in the five Southern States,
and not over 50,000 in the rest. In most of these latter, effectual
measures have been taken for their future emancipation. In the
former, nothing is done toward that. Tbe disposition to emancipate
them is strongest in Virginia. Those who desire it, form, as yet, the
minority of the whole State, but it bears a respectable portion of the
whole in numbers and weight of character, and it is continually re
cruiting' by the addition of nearly the whole of the young men as fast
as they come into public life.' I flatter myself it will take place there
at some period of time not very distant. In Maryland and North
Carolina a very few are disposed to emancipation. In South Carolina
and Georgia, not the smallest symptom of it, but, on the contrary,
these two States, and North Carolina, continue importations of slaves.
These have long been prohibited in all the other States." *
These statements of Mr. Jefferson, made the year preceding
the founding of Sierra Leone, contradict the claims set up in
modern times, that the sentiments of the fathers of the Republic,
were almost unanimously in favor of emancipation. Dr, Frank
lin, too, as above quoted, while favoring emancipation, was con
vinced that many difficulties and dangers surrounded that policy,
both to the negroes themselves and to society, unless the means
of instruction should accompany their admission to freedom.
• Jefferson's Complete Works, vol. IX, page 290.

58 pulpit POLITICS.
Time has shown that the views of Dr. Franklin were the most
rational of all those who wrote upon the subject of emancipation.
3. Effects of Freedom upon the Negroes of the United States,
previous to West India Emancipation.
The tone of the ecclesiastical legislation, up to 1830, will be
seen by reference to the chapters on that subject. It was con
servative in its character, generally, and in some instances
agreed with the opinions expressed by Franklin. But it partook
of the foreign type, strongly indicating that the disposition of
clergymen to interfere in civil affairs, would be the same here, in
this free government, that it had been in Europe for centuries
past. Yet, notwithstanding this zeal for emancipation, the moral
culture of the free colored people, may be said to have been
almost totally neglected; and their degradation, throughout the
North, had become so much a matter of public notoriety, as to
lead to the adoption of Colonization, as the only hope of their
elevation. Their separation from the whites was considered
essentialto their moral redemption. This had become the prev
alent sentiment from 1816 to 1830, Why had this opinion been
adopted? Why had not the moral progress of the blacks kept
pace with their advancement in personal freedom ? Leaving these
questions to the reader, we shall proceed to the statement of the
results which followed the emancipation of the blacks :
" How far Franklin's influence failed to promote the humane object
he had in view, may be inferred from the fact that, forty-seven years
after Pennsylvania passed her act of emancipation, and thirty-eight
after he issued his appeal, one-third of the convicts in her penitentiary
were colored men ; though the preceding census showed that her slave
population had almost wholly disappeared — there being but two hun
dred and eleven of them remaining, while her free colored people had
increased in number to more than thirty thousand. Few of the other
free States were more fortunate, and some of them were even in a worse
condition — one-half of the convicts in the penitentiary of New Jersey
being colored men.
" But this is not the whole of the sad tale that must be recorded.
Gloomy as was the picture of crime among the colored people of New
Jersey, that of Massachusetts was vastly worse. For though the num-

EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION AT THE NORTH, 59
her of her colored convicts, as compared with the whites, was as one
to six, yet the proportion of her colored population in the penitentiary
was one out of one hundred and forty, while tho proportion in New
Jersey was but one out of eight hundred and thirty-three. Thus, in
Massachusetts, where emancipation had, in 1780, been immediate and
unconditional, there was, in 1826, among her colored people, about six
times as much crime as existed among those of Now Jersey, where
gradual emancipation had not been provided for until 1804," *
The moral condition of the colored people in the free States,
generally, at the period we are considering, may be understood,
more clearly, from the opinions expressed, at the time, by the
Boston Prison Discipline Society. This benevolent association in
cluded among its members. Rev, Francis Wayland, Rev, Justin
Edwards, Rev. Leonard Woods, Rev. William Jenks, Rev. B, B.
Wisner, Rev, Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappan, Esq,, John Tappan,
Esq,, Hon, George Bliss, and Hon, Samuel M, Hopkins,
The first annual report of this Association was made in 1826,
the second in 1827, In discussing the progress of crime, with
the causes of it, they give the first place to the degraded character
of the colored population ; and, from the facts stated, derive an
argument in favor of their education. They mention, also, as a
remarkable fact, that about one-fourth part of all the expense in
curred, by the several States mentioned, is for the colored con
victs ; and argue, that, if their character can not be raised, where
they are, a powerful argument is thereby afforded in favor of
colonization. The statistics presented by the society, enable us
to state the proportion of the whole population sent to the peni
tentiary, with the proportion of the colored population imprisoned
therein, for 1826, in the five States named below, and the propor
tion of the colored to the white convicts :
Proportion of the Proportion of the Proportion
Population sent to Colored Popu'on of Color' dto
Prison. sent to Prison. white conv' ts.
In Massachusetts, 1 out of 1665 1 out of I40 1 to 6
In Connecticut, 1 out of 2350 1 out of 205 1 to 3
In New York, 1 out of 2153 1 out of 253 1 to 4
In New Jersey, 1 out of 3743 1 out of 833 1 to 3
In Pennsylvania, 1 out of 2191 1 out of 181 1 to 3
* Cotton is King, page 37.

60 PULPIT POLITICS.
The second report shows that, in New Jersey, the proportion
of the colored convicts to the white convicts was one to two, while
the proportion of the colored population to the white was one to
thirteen. In Massachusetts the proportion of the colored popu
lation to the white was 1 to 74, in Connecticut 1 to 34, in New
York 1 to 35, and in Pennsylvania 1 to 34.
To the testimony of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, may
be added that of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church, on
the degraded condition of the free colored population. In 1819,
the question of encouraging the American Colonization Society
being overtured to the Assembly, they adopted, along with an
approval of that Society, the following language :
" The situation of the people of color in this country, has frequently
attracted the attention of this Assembly. In the distinctive and indel
ible marks of their color, and the prejudices of the people, an insu
perable obstacle has been placed to the execution of any plan for ele
vating their characterj and placing them on a footing with their
brethren of the same common family."
The Assembly, after thus acknowledging that the free colored
people are placed in a position in which insuperable obstacles
exist to their elevation, proceed to express the hope that their
removal to Africa may not only favor their elevation, but be the
means of introducing the Gospel to the benighted nations of that
continent. Again, in 1825, the Assembly recur to the subject,
in connection with colonization, and say:
" The General Assembly having witnessed with high gratification
the progress of the American Colonization Society, in a great work of
humanity and religion, and believing that the temporal prosperity and
moral interests of an extensive section of our country, of a numerous,
degraded and miserable class of men in the midst of us, and the vast
continent of Africa, now uncivilized and unchristian, are intimately
connected with the success of this institution, therefore, resolved," &c.
The resolution recommends the churches, under the care of the
Assembly, to make contributions to this object on the 4th of
July. That the common conviction of the community, at this period,
was nearly uniform, as to the degraded condition of the free

EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION AT THE NORTH. 61
blacks, and the undesirableness of having them as neighbors, is
still more apparent from the action of the Indiana Yearly Meet
ing of Friends, in 1826. The following we extract from their
published minutes :
" The committee charged with the concerns of the people of color,
made the following satisfactory report :  We having received a
communication from the Trustees of the North Carolina Yearly Meet
ing, describing the difficult and perilous situation of a number of per
sons of color under the care of Friends, and informing, that some of
them inclined to remove to the States north of the Ohio river, and re
questing our attention to them. After solidly deliberating on the sub
ject, and having our minds clothed with feelings which breathe ' good
will to men,' we have come to the conclusion to inform Friends, that
we are free to extend such assistance to those who may be found among
us, as our means will permit ; and, although it is desirable to avoid an
accession of this class of population as neighbors, we are concerned to
impress it on the minds of all, that our prejudices should yield when
the interest and happiness of our fellow-beings are at stake' ; and that
we exert no influence that would deprive them of the rights of free
agents, in removing to any part of the world congenial to them ; and
that Friends everywhere render them such assistance, in procuring
them employment, and promoting a correct deportment among them,
as occasion may require."
The testimony in relation to the degraded condition of the free
colored people, at the period under consideration, might be great
ly multiplied, as the facts were very fully brought out by the
discussions on Colonization; but we care not to dwell upon this
melancholy topic. As, in England, the negroes, declared free by
Lord Mansfield's decision, became a nuisance requiring govern
ment aid for its abatement; so, in the United States, the free
colored people became a burden too heavy to bear, and demanding
the aids of Colonization to remedy the evil. Thus, in both eases,
the efforts for Africa's redemption were produced by the evils
falling upon society, as a necessary consequence of emancipation.
Nearly a half century had now elapsed, since the Northern
States had commenced the work of emancipation, and since the
first acts of ecclesiastical legislation, favoring that object, had
been spread out before the Christian world. The free blacks, as

62 PULPIT POLITICS.
a body, had made no progress, morally, beyond that of their con
dition in slavery; but remained overshadowed by all the moral
gloom which had darkened their souls under African barbarism.
The facts show that northern Christians, busied with their own
cares, either had grossly neglected their duty ; or the freedom of
the colored man, while commingled with a superior race, was
unfavorable to his evangelization.
But the history of the times proves more than this. It is a
fact, the truth of which cannot be controverted, that the clergy,
at the period under consideration, much more willingly engaged
in efforts to control the civil legislation of the country, in refer
ence to slavery, than in projecting and sustaining measures for
the elevation of the free colored men, at their doors, to the po
sition in morality and intelligence which a patient course of
Christian instruction was calculated to effect.
Here, now, is an accurate picture of the moral condition of the
free colored population of the North, at the period approaching
the time of the West India Emancipation, and of the inaugura
tion of modern abolitionism in the United States, The difference
in the moral condition of the free colored people at the North,
as contrasted with that of the slave population at the South, will
be understood on the examination of the facts given in the next
chapter. It was at the close of the period we have been con
sidering, that the British theories on slavery began to be urged
on this country, and universal emancipation claimed to be indis
pensable, both to the economical prosperity of the South, and to
the evangelization of the blacks,
4, Contrast of the results of freeing the blacks in the North,
with the continuation of them in slavery at the South.
Under the preceding head, we have seen the discouraging con
dition into which the free colored people were thrown, at the
North, by the systems of emancipation adopted. We shall now
proceed to give the main facts, in reference to the moral progress
of the slaves at the South, so that the legitimate results of the
two systems may be brought into fair contrast : the North giving
freedom, and withholding the means of moral elevation; the South
subjecting to restr.aint, but supplying the means of moral pro-

RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION, NORTH AND SOUTH, 63
The American clergymen who accepted the British theory —
that slavery and African evangelization are incompatible — must
have taken but little care to understand the question, or else they
must have -willingly closed their eyes to the most important facts,
British Colonial slavery furnished them the data upon which they
based their opinions ; but they failed to perceive, that the hin
drances to the Gospel, in the West Indies, arose, not essentially
from slavery, but from the hostility .of the slaveholders. They
were blind, as only a fanatical spirit can render men blind. They
had before them not only the facts which demonstrated that the
blacks had made progress under American slavery ; but they had.
the additional fact, that the free colored people of the North had
made less progress, as a body, than the slaves of the South. The
reason of this difference in results is obvious. At the North, the
negro, while a slave, was considered a burden, to be cast off at all
hazards; and when he was driven into freedom, no one felt any
responsibility for his moral culture. Thrown upon society in a
state of destitution, what could the poor colored man do, but —
as he did in London, under the decision of Lord Mansfield — fall,
as a helpless child, into neglect and degradation — filling the
jails and workhouses, instead of taking the proud stand which
freemen should maintain. But it was not so in the South, so far
as the progress in crime was concerned. This was due, doubt
less, to two causes : the restraints of slavery, and the increasing
attention paid to their religious instruction. Many Christian
masters felt their responsibility, before God, for the welfare of
the souls of their slaves. Under the influence of this obligation,
they either gave instruction themselves to their blacks, or allowed
the ministry to teach them. With fixed homes, and the rigid
restraints of slavery, controlling their movements, the religious
teacher was certain, from Sabbath to Sabbath, of finding the
same slaves meeting him for moral training. If this had not been
the case, how could such results have followed, as are found to
have occurred. Let us examine them :
All the religious denominations can tell of the fruits of their
labors, in this field of toil, and can point to the evidences of their
success. But the Methodists were not only eminently successful
in the work, but have preserved accurate statistics of the results.

64

PULPIT POLITICS,

From the minutes of that denomination, therefore, we shall cull
out the evidences to disprove, triumphantly, the British theory
on slavery, as applicable to slaves in America ; and to show, con
clusively, that the northern ecclesiastics were in error in sup
posing that slavery necessarily prevents the evangelization of the
blacks. They overlooked the great truth, that God, in his Prov
idential care of the world, never places men in conditions where
the blessed Gospel of his Son is not adapted to their circum
stances. Had this truth been felt, in its legitimate power, by
northern Christian hearts, the free colored people would not have
been so strangely neglected, as though they had no interest in
the Great Salvation !
But we must proceed with the proof of these assertions. The
minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1796 to 1801,
was given by States, and presents the following as its colored
membership :

STATES.

1796 1797 I 1798 1799 1800 1801

Vermont 
New Hampshire 
Maine 
Massachusetts 
Rhode Island 
Connecticut 
New York 
New Jersey 
Pennsylvania 
Delaware 
Maryland 
Virginia 
North Carolina 
South Carolina  ,
Georgia 
Tennessee 
Kentucky 
North West Territory..
Upper Canada 

218105
380 811
4,910 2,468 1,288 826 146 ,43

2
16
238127198832
6,106
2,490
2,071 890 148 42 67

11 1
22
245163
224 939
4,9602,4321,8101,179 222 49 51

11 1
17
276
167.309 900
6,079
2,3121,659 1,169 216 5166

1'otal  11,280 12,218 12,302 12,236 13,462 15,688

3
25
223173300
867
5,497
2,531
2,109 1,283 252 62
115

6
3
12 3
24
284 172
507
1,4476,8152,5782,0921,360 202 62
115

The dotted lines (  ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized The dash (  )
that the Church had been organized, hut had no colored members of that date. '

Here, at the very time when it was doubtful whether a mission
ary could maintain a foothold in the West Indies, the Methodists
in the United States had a colored membership exceeding 15,600,
of whom more than 14,000 were in the States which had passed

RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION, NORTH AND SOUTH.

65

no emancipation laws — New York having passed hers in 1799,
and New Jersey in 1804.
To understand the point illustrated by the foregoing statistics —
the degree of success attending the labors of the Methodists
among the colored population — it is necessary to show the rate
of progress among the whites also; and to give the number of
free blacks and slaves in the several States. They stood as
follows :

STATES.

WHITE
UEMBEBS. 1796

WHITE
UEMBEHS. 1800

FREE COL'b'D
POPULATION. 1800

SLATE
POPULATION. 1800

Maine  , 

^ 357 68

1,197 171
1,096
1,571 224
1,6466,141
2,8672,8871,6266,549
10,869 6,3633,399 1,403 681
1,626

818856 557
6,4623,3045,330
10,374 4,402
14,661 8,268
19,587
20,124 7,043
3,1851,019 309
741

8
381951
20,343 12,422 1,7066,153
106,635
345,796133,296146,151 59,40413,584
40,343

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

822220
1,042
3,8262,2462,631 1,417
7,606
11,321 7,426
2,8341,028 603
1,666

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey...,' 

Pennsylvania 

Maryland 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Total 
44,912
50,226
106,930
886,173
The dotted lines (  ] indicate that the Church had not yet been organized.
Continuing these statistics to 1811, during which time the mis
sions at Sierra Leone had made no progress, and the slaves of
the West Indies were still, mainly, in the darkness of barbarism,
we find that the colored membership of the Methodists, had in
creased to more than 35,700. The statistics are given by Con
ferences. It will be noticed that the greater number, by far, are
in the slave States :
66

PULPIT POLITICS.

CONFERENCES.

1803

1804

1806

1806

1807

1808

1809

1810

1811

464
2,8153,7946,4148,561 14
391

518
3,446
3,767 6,877
8,442 69
432

736
3,8313,6736,805
8,914 66
401

630
4,3894,548 7,2219,782 62
625

621
4,432 5,6687,453
10,899 66
734

795
5,1115,834
7,143
10,524 64
837

1,1176,284
5,7397,200
10,534 73
937

1,1448,2026,150
7,452
10,714 69
942 61

1,467
9,129
6,2327,438
10,364 986^ 53

South Carolina 
Virginia 

Philadelphia 

New York 

Genessee 

Total 

22,453
23,531
24,316
27,257
29,863
30,308
31,884
34,724
35,732
The dotted lines (  ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized.
Passing by an interval of several years, during which the Con
ferences were multiplied, and the colored members greatly in
creased, we next select the nine years ending with 1834. This is
an important epoch, as it was in this year that the British Eman
cipation Act went into operation in the West Indies, and the
slaves were all placed in the relation of apprentices to their old
masters. The returns are given by the Conferences :
CONFERENCES.
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
Pittsburgh 
194 184
2,S21 64
""339 1,4852,1122,494
16,708
206196
2,812 126356
1,620
2,075 2,724
i6,'556
201208
3,660 124
""335 1,864
2,267 3,283
18,460
176
193
3,682 116
""350 2,0122,4993,676
21,276
163
268
4,884 172
""414 2,182 3,248
4,247
24,538
175
274
5,284 276451
2,362 3,733
-»4,247 19,144 6,1679,194
10,906 8,549 418 261 8
69
187344
4,594 204
"'Hbi 2,3193,624 6,186
20,197 7,3308,210
11,566 8,516 615 289 8
56
261 321
4,651 61
182766
2,316 3,805
2,6452,770
22,326 7,9467,447
12,732 8,960 586
304 8
49
285 502
5,709 72
273996
2,593
4,674 2,6223,163
22,788 7,421
8,083
13,861' 9,025 516 320 8
109
Ohio 
Kentucky 
Illinois 
Indiana 
Alabama 
South Carolina 
Georgia 
7,8479,406
7,650 378250 6
110 36
8,567 9,607
8,043 371248 6
120 12
9,090
10,402 8,354 428252 1
136 12
9,766
10,302 8,159 371220 3
3910
 74
9,967
10,454 8,169 281245 10
45
Baltimore 
Canada 
Troy 
Oneida 
 88 8
""iii 11
ill 11
60
111 6
69
69 8
New Hampshire and
Vermont 
Total 
51,084
53 542
59,066
62,814
69,383
71,589
73,817
78,293
83,156
The dotted lines (  ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized The dash {  \
that the Church had been organized, but had no colored members of that date. • \ I
* The last year's report.
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE FACTS STATED. 67
Here, at the very moment of British emancipation, and when
the British theories were considered as demonstrated, the Metho
dist Church in the United Statea had more than 83,000 colored
members, only 2,231 of whom were outside of the slave States
and the Philadelphia Conference. This Conference covers con
siderable territory in the slave States, The total converts among
tho colored people, in all the religious denominations in the
United States, at this date, could not have fallen far short of
160,000,* It is worthy of note, that the colored membership of
the Methodist Church, in the six New England States, was less
than 330; while in seven of the slave States it was more than
65,000, The New England States at this date, 1834, had a free
colored population of 21,331, Nothing, therefore, is plainer,
than that the spiritual welfare of the colored people was better
promoted in the South, under restraint, and with the means of
moral progress, than it was in the North, under freedom, but
without the means of moral elevation,
5. Deductions from the facts stated.
The moral condition of the free colored people in the United
States, at the period under consideration, can now be understood.
The founders of the American Republic had not erred in opinion,
in reference to the burden which the African race might lay upon
the shoulders of the people, Franklin, with the forecast of a
philosopher and statesman, foresaw that emancipation, without
education, would be fruitless of good to the negroes, and might
open up a series of evils to themselves and society. The reports
of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, the declarations of the
Presbyterian General Assembly, and other authorities quoted, in
relation to their degraded condition, are ample proofs that the
early opinions entertained were founded in sound views of the
negro character, in his then barbarous condition. The Prison
Discipline Society's Report shows, that, in Massachusetts, after
nearly fifty years of freedom had prevailed, one out of every one
hundred and forty of the free colored population of that State
* This estimate is based on the fact, that the Methodist Church, at present,
has less than one-half of the colored members in the slave States.

68 PULPIT POLITICS.
were in the penitentiary ; while the Presbyterian General Assem
bly asserts, that "in the distinctive and indelible marks of their
color, and the prejudices of the people, an insuperable obstacle
has been placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their
character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of
the same common family." And, again, the Assembly speaks of
them as "a numerous, degraded, and miserable class of men in
the midst of us."
In contrast with this deplorable picture of the moral degrada
tion of the free colored people of the United States at the date
of West India emancipation, we have the encouraging fact, that
the religious progress of the slave population had not fallen be
hind that of the whites, as to the rate of increase in church
members, in any part of the Union. Of the 83,000 colored mem
bers in the Methodist Church at that date, not less, probably,
than 75,000 were in the slave States, and were either slaves or
dwelling in the midst of slavery. The other denominations,
doubtless, had an equal number, making the total membership,
among the colored people in the slave States, about 150,000.
As the total slave population of the preceding census, was over
2,000,000, it appears that nearly one out of every thirteen was a
church member. *
Thus, then, about the same time that one out of every one
hundred and forty of the free colored people of Massachusetts was
in the Penitentiary ; about one out of every thirteen of the col
ored population in the slave States was in the Christian church —
a happy difference of condition, truly, and supplying a forcible
example of the difference in the effects of the northern and south
ern systems of policy upon the negro race.
But we have a double contrast to make. In comparing the
missionary results in the West Indies, during the existence of
slavery, with those in the United States, among the slave popu
lation, during the same period, it does not appear that there was
any difference in the degrees of success attained. Their missions
were frequently broken up ; ours went on without interruption.

» This estimate is only intended as an approximation. It does not include
the free colored people in the slave States.

DEDUCTIONS FROM THB FACTS STATED. 69
Their religious teachers had to be supplied from Great Britain,
and were fewer in number than ours ; the teachers of our colored
population were more numerous, and lived among them, preach
ing to them, mostly in connection with their white parishioners.
At the time of final emancipation, in 1838, they must have had
near 80,000 African converts ; in 1834, we had not less than
166,000, including slaves and colored freemen.
The conclusion, then, to which we are forced is, that the Brit
ish theory under consideration — that slavery presents an insu
perable barrier to the evangelization of the Africans subjected to
its control — is not sustained by the results which happened up
to the date of emancipation ; and that, therefore, the American
ministers, who adopted it as true, have been laboring under a
delusion — a delusion that has been fatal to the peace of the
Church; fatal to the welfare of the African race; fatal to our
beloved country I

70 PULPIT POLITICS.

CHAPTER III.
EXAMINATION OF THB ERRORS IN THE BRITISH THEORIES AS AP
PLIED TO AMERICAN SLAVERY AFTER WEST INDIA EMANCIPA
TION.
Section I. — The Circumstances under which Abolitionism
TOOK its Rise m the United States.
The preceding chapters bring the history of the movements
in behalf of the African race, down to the period of the final
action of Great Britain on her Colonial Slavery. It was this im
portant measure that gave the impulse to the abolition movement
in the United States. The American people had been looking to
Colonization, for the previous seventeen years, as a means of
relief from the burdens imposed by emancipation. But the sys
tem of Colonization worked tardily. The Society bad been unable
to remove a tithe of the increase of the colored population. It
was too slow in its operations to satisfy those who had been ac
customed to look forward to the total extinction of slavery. They
had become excited by the passage of the British Emancipation
Act ; and demanded, for the American bondmen, a more speedy
redemption than that promised by Colonization, But Coloniza
tion had many supporters, who had full faith in its beneficent
results, and who would not abandon the enterprise. Its contin
uance was considered, by many anti-slavery men, as an obstacle
to the success of emancipation. The South, becoming jealous of
the Society, denounced Colonization as an abolition scheme in
disguise. The Society, in self-defense, had to define its position,
as ha-ving reference only to the removal of the free colored peo
ple, and that it had no design of interfering with slavery. For

ORIGIN OF anti-slavery MOVEMENT. 71
this reason, " the Anti-Slavery Society began with a declaration
of war against the Colonization Society." * The doctrine of " im
mediate, not gradual abolition," had been announced in England
as the creed of the friends of the African race. Emancipation,
they contended, was indispensable to the success of the Gospel
among the blacks. Under various degrees of modification, this
view was adopted by the anti-slavery men of the United States.
In 1831, the first abolition society, of the modern type, was or
ganized in Rhode Island. In 1832, the anti-slavery movement
was begun in Boston ; and, in 1833, a national organization,
under the name of The American Anti-Slavery Society, f was
founded in Philadelphia. This body boldly took the ground that
nothing short of immediate and unconditional emancipation, could
satisfy the demands of justice, and fulfill the righteous law of
God — that as slaveholding, in every form in which it prevailed,
was sinful, it was the duty of all engaged in it to cease immedi
ately, and that there could be nothing to fear from the conse
quences of so doing. |
The North now everywhere resounded with, the cry of " im
mediate abolition : " but while this motto was borrowed from the
English abolitionists, their American imitators had no disposition
to act upon the magnanimous principles adopted by the British
government, in giving a liberal compensation to the masters. The
South were required to sacrifice all their wealth upon the altar
of northern philanthropy : and British eloquence, in the person
of Mr. George Thompson, was employed to give an impulse to
the fanatical scheme.
The year 1837 found the abolitionists numbering 1,015 socie
ties, having 70 agents in the field, and an income, for the year,
of $36,000. II The Colonization Society, on the other hand, was
greatly embarrassed. Its income, in 1838, was reduced to flO,-
000; it was deeply in debt; the parent society did not send a
single emigrant that year to Liberia ; and its enemies pronounced
it bankrupt and dead. §
The doctrine previously held by the few — that slavery is ne-
* Gerritt Smith, 1835. f This may be best designated by the term Abolition.
t History of the Separation in Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends.
II Life of Benjamin Lundy, .§ Cotton is King, p. 62.

72 PULPIT POLITICS.
cessarily sinful— and which lies at the foundation of all abolition
action, now became the doctrine of the many. It demanded the
exclusion of all , slaveholders from the communion of the Church.
This element in the controversy on slavery — so unlike anything
taught by the Saviour and his Apostles, while laboring in the
midst of slaveholders — can be dimly traced throughout the early
ecclesiastical legislation of the North. In general, slavery was
declared to be a moral evil; but the idea connected with this
phrase was the same as that attached to monarchical and despotic
forms of government. According to the notions of right and
wrong then prevailing, all laws which limited the personal free
dom of men, were pronounced moral evils, to be removed as
speedily as possible, so that the whole world, ultimately, might
become democratic. The idea of sinfulness was not generally
attached to the phrase, in the sense that slavery, as a moral evil,
was to be classified with blasphemy, robbery, or murder. In the
churches legislating on the subject, this view was long held, and
all efforts were directed to the reform of abuses ; while, at the
same time, they gave a hearty cooperation to the civil authorities
in the promotion of emancipation, wherever that policy was agreed
upon. At length, however, the doctrine that slaveholding is a sin
began to prevail, and was introduced into church legislation. In
some churches it soon gained the ascendency, in others it was
held in check by more conservative principles. There was this
difference between the aims of the churches and those of the
Abolitionists. The ecclesiastical legislation, avowedly, aimed only
at freeing the Church from slavery ; while the abolition action
demanded, imperatively, that the government also should free it
self from the crime of human bondage, by immediate emancipa
tion. Thus it was, that there seemed to be a wide distinction
between these two parties ; but it was a distinction without a
difference. Both parties aimed at accomplishing the same ob
ject : the one by church legislation, the other by political ac
tion — both expecting their efforts to be crowned with the aboli
tion of slavery. J

anti-slavbry doctrinbs and policy. 73
Section II. — ^What the early Anti-Slavery Writers taught
IN relation to the Bible and Sla-vbry.
We must go back a little, in order to examine the opinions
advocated by the earlier anti-slavery writers, who inaugurated
the scheme of excluding slaveholders from the communion of the
Church. This is the more necessary, as the clergymen to whom
we refer, gave the impulse to the abolition movement, while un
dertaking only the task of purging the Church from slavery.
We open Volume 1st of the Christian Intelligencer, published
at Hamilton, Ohio, and edited by Rev. David McDilL, * assisted
by two other neighboring ministers of the Gospel. This period
ical was started at the time that the Associate Reformed Synod
OF the West had under consideration the question of making
slavery a term of communion — that is, the casting of slave
holders out of the Church. As this was a novel doctrine, it re
quired novel means to bring the people of that Church to assent
to the proposition. On page 6th, we find this statement, as
embracing the condition of the slavery question at that early day.
The date is January, 1829 :
" The question of slavery is, at the present time, agitated in several
branches of the Church : but its character is much changed from what
it once was. Formerly, as a practice which had long prevailed, and
had rarely been called in question, it was supposed to be probably
lawful ; (1 1) and what was necessary to be done was to prove its im
morality ; (2) and by depicting its horrors, and showing its contrariety
to the ' holy, just, and good law,' endeavor to awaken the public mind
to a sense of its moral turpitude. (3) This ground is nearly won : and
the object of the present and future efforts on the subject, must be, for
the most part, to shew, that being a heinous sin, a system mpst contrary
to the spirit of the Gospel, it ought not to be connived at in the
Church. And so very different are these questions — so generally are
Christian men now convinced, it would seem, that slavery is a moral
evil of no small magnitude, that all reasonings from its moral character
* Now Rev. David McDill, D. D., of Illinoia.
t The reader on subsequent pages, will find remarks on the points here noted
by numerals.

74 PULPIT politics.
are pronounced inapplicable to the question at issue, i. e. whether the
obstinate, irreclaimable holder of slaves should be excluded from the
communion of the Church. If this be so — if so great a change has
already been wrought on the public mind, that proving the immorality
of slavery is only proving what no one denies, there is encouragement
to hope that what remains will also in due time be accomplished : —
that it will soon be conceded, that a system which is so bad, that no
person can have a word to say in its direct vindication, ought to be
speedily banished from the pale of the Church ; (4) and that we ought,
all of us, to cease, and cease at once, from holding a language, which
slaveholders do view as a special pleading for their practice."
After referring to several Churches — the General Assembly
Presbyterians, and his own, among the number — which had not
yet taken decided action, the editor continues :
" When we consider what has been done, and is still being done by
the Quakers, Methodists, &c., if these bodies of professing Christians
which have been mentioned as having the subject under consideration,
would only disenthral themselves from all human schemes of policy
and prudence, and stand forth on scriptural grounds, the decided advo
cates of justice, humanity, and equal rights and privileges to all God's
rational creatures, in that system of things with which we are connec
ted, what happy results to the family of man might not be anticipated,
from their harmonious and well-directed efforts. If, instead of fold
ing up their hands and saying, we cannot touch the subject of slavery —
the evils admit of no remedy, at least till the millenium — the laws
lay an embargo on the cause of emancipation ; — they would only con
sider that public opinion is superior to the laws, so that tyrannical and
oppressive laws cannot stand it out against correct and enlightened
public opinion — that, if any of our fellow Christians are withheld
from doing their duty, by laws which are an usurpation on the rights
of men, and an enormity under the government of God, it is because
public opinion has become corrupt through the apathy and supineness
of those who ought to have been exerting themselves to keep it in a
pure and healthy state ; and if every man who possesses a particle of
influence, either direct or indirect, on the common weal, would rise up,
and come forward, and bring with him all the aid in his power, to cor
rect the stream of human blessing in its fountain head ; — we should
soon find laws relaxing from their rigor, customs melting down into
goodness, and the obstacles which obstruct the current of emancipation

anti-slavery DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 75
giving way, (5) sooner than many who make goodly professions would
be willing to see them." *
The men who first commenced the anti-slavery agitation, are
not to be charged with evil intentions ; but they are liable to the
imputation of having been influenced by a spirit of fanaticism
that blinded their judgments — that led them to overlook the pro
gress made in the conversion of the slaves in the United States,
and to greatly exaggerate the cruelties practiced upon them by
their masters. The plan of action they adopted to revolutionize
public sentiment, we have said, was a novel one. At that day,
free discussion was not considered the best means of establishing
a theory ; as, to allow it, might defeat the object of the reformer.
Here is the language employed by the editor of the Christian
Intelligencer, to announce the principles upon which the contro
versy was to be conducted :
" As slavery is a plain practical question, claiming the attention of
every one who has any part to act in the affairs of the day, it is diffi
cult to see how any one can be without an opinion on the subject.
Our object, so far as this question is concerned, was, from the first, to
show our opinion : and those who wish to meet and refute our views,
or to see them met and refuted, must apply elsewhere. We can have
no hand, either directly or indirectly, in perpetuating an evil so repug
nant to the laws of God, and so afflictive to the family of man ; nor
are we under the influence of so much of that neutral feeling, which is
necessary to the more perfect examples of prudence, that we can obtain
our own consent to labor in balancing the scale of argument, for the
pleasure of leaving it in a state of equipoise." f (6)
It may be well to explain, that the question of excluding the
slaveholder from the Church, had been brought before the Synod,
some two or three years before the Christian Intelligencer had
been started ; and that one chief object of its publication was to
advocate that measure, and free the Associate Reformed Church
from all connection with slavery. A communication in opposition
to the policy had been sent to the editor, and, on publishing it,
* Christian Intelligencer, January, 1829, p. 7.
t Ibid., June, 1829, p, 180. The italics are the editor's.

76 PULPIT POLITICS.
the foregoing announcement was made. Having thus secured
himself against all assailants, the way was open for the circula
tion^ among the people of the Church, of any opinions which the
editor and his associates might choose to utter. Some of these
opinions we shall present to the reader, that he may learn how
the public became tinctured so readily with abolition sentiments.
Appearing, as they did, from the pens of men who could quote
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the statements made were received by
their readers as true ; and no contradiction being allowed, their
demonstration was reckoned complete. With the reasonings em
ployed, we need have nothing to do, at this late day. The con
clusions at which the writers arrived, are all that it is necessary
to notice. The object they had in view, it must be remembered,
was to secure the passage of an act, by their Church, excluding
slaveholders from its communion.
But before proceeding to make additional quotations, it will be
well to analyze the programme of action adopted : *
1. It is admitted by the editor that slaveholding, formerly, was
supposed to be probably lawful. This was the opinion held by
the British Churches, in reference to the Christian master, Mr.
Gilbert, who first introduced the Gospel into Antigua ; and in
reference, also, to the masters, in the other islands, who built
chapels on their estates, or aided in building them in their neigh
borhoods, for the benefit of the slaves. In all these cases the
Christian slaveholder was treated as a brother beloved. The same
sentiments long prevailed in the United States ; and only those
slaveholders who refused to allow their slaves the benefits of the
Gospel, were ranked as unchristian in heart and conduct.
2. Such being the fixed opinion of Christians, generally, it was
found necessary, before a revolution of sentiment could be pro
duced, to prove the immorality of slavery itself. To have labored
for the conversion of the masters, and by that means tb have se
cured their cooperation in the work of evangelizing the slaves,
was not in accordance with the designs of the movers in the
anti-slavery reform. This policy might have led to the conver
sion of both masters and slaves ; but then, such a result, leaving
* The reader will observe that the several points noticed are indicated by
numerals, and refer to corresponding figures in the quotations from the editor.

r
ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINBS AND POLICY. 77
Christians contented with these fruits of their labors, would have
tended to perpetuate slavery. Indeed, where masters were en
gaged in the religious instruction of the bond-men, the act was
looked upon with suspicion, by Northern men, as not being
prompted by any care for the spiritual welfare of the colored
population ; but only as a means of satisfying public opinion, and
perpetuating the legal claim to their slaves. On this subject the
Synod of Indiana, in a memorial to The General Assembly
OF THE Presbyterian Church in the United States, in 1829,
uses the following language :
'' In fine, believing that the encouragement of Sabbath school in
struction, and other religious exercises, are too often resorted to by
slaveholders merely as a compromise with public opinion, and to soothe
the clamors of conscience, without any intention to ' let the oppressed
go free,' so soon as by those means they may be prepared for the en
joyment of civil liberty — we do most earnestly, yet most respectfully,
entreat your venerable body to take the subject into consideration, and
to adopt such measures as in your wisdom may appear best calculated
to effect a speedy and entire abolition of slavery within the bounds of
tho Presbyterian Church," *
3, The next step taken, according to the programme, was to
depict the horrors of slavery, and show its contrariety to the Di
vine Law, so as to awaken the public mind to a sense of its moral
turpitude. In their discussions of this topic, no reference was
made to the success attending the labors of other denominations
among the slaves ; none to the fact, that the Methodists, alone,
in that same year, 1829, reported their colored membership, in
the United States, at 62,814, most of whom were slaves; none to
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, May, 1829, p, 145.
Note. — Even as late as 1844, this feeling was still entertained, aud received
ita expression in the Fraternal Letter of the Stnod of Nokthern Indiana, in
the following language :
" That many masters strive to avert these evils from their slaves does not
alter the general efl'ect ; aud their example, by presenting the fairest aspect
of slavery, quiets the conscience of the holder; and it may be said, without
exaggeration, that the better a limited portion of the slaves are made, the
worse it is for the whole, since the good of the few becomes a palliation for
the evil of the many."— See Robinson's "Hand-Book of the Slavery Contro
versy."

78 PULPIT POLITICS.
the fact, that the several missions in the West India Islands had
at least 80,000 converts among the slaves ; and none to the fact,
that the denominations which had become most zealous in the
anti-slavery movement, had, themselves, a very meager member
ship of whites, and had done little or nothing among the blacks. *
4. The horrors of slavery being depicted, and the public mind
awakened to its moral turpitude, the future mode of action was
to show that, being a heinous sin, slaveholding ought not to be
connived at in the church.
.' 5. The churches having .taken their stand in denouncing slav
ery as a sin, and being firm in the discharge of duty in the ex
clusion of slaveholders from the church, their moral infiuence, it
was believed, would be such as to bring the people to mould the
legislation of the country, so as to prepare the way for emanci
pation. ••
6, Emancipation, then, being the object at which the anti-
slavery men aimed, the next step to be taken was the closing of
the columns of their organ against all free discussion. The
church was the agent to be employed in producing the proposed
revolution. The exclusion of the slaveholder from its communion,
was the means to be used in awakening public attention to the
subject. But the ministry could not act without the concurrence
of the people. The members of the church, therefore, were the
tribunal to whom the decision had to be referred; but only the
advocates on one side of the case were permitted to plead, and
only the testimony that would sustain their claims was allowed to
be offered. These things seem strange at this day. Men having
confidence in the justice of their measures, and intending to ad
here strictly to truth in their discussions, would blush, now, to
ask such advantages in controversy. And yet, these gentlemen,
doubtless, intended to act in strict conformity with duty. Their
fault was that of the age in which they lived. There was more
or less of a disposition among certain clergymen of that day, to
distrust the judgment of the people upon moral and religious
questions. This was especially the case with those of the smaller

» The Associate Synod only reported 10,141 members, and the Associate Re
formed Synod of the West had a less number; the two combined not having
over one-third aa many members as the Methodists had of colored converts.

anti-slavery DOCTRINES AND POLICY, 79
denominations, who were taking the lead in attempts to purge the
church from the sin of slaveholding. Take an example or two.
The Associate Synod had a rule prohibiting its people from hear
ing aught but the sermons of its own ministers. To listen to a
sermon from any one else, was to incur the censures of the church ;
and if the offender manifested no sorrow for his sin, he was cast
out until brought to repentance and reformation. The Reformed
Presbyterian Church had a different rule, but it operated with
equal efficiency in keeping its people from worshiping with those
of other religious bodies. Its members were not censured, like
the Associate Synod's people, for " occasional hearing," but were
required ' to meet in " Society," on their silent Sabbaths, and
always to be present when their own minister preached. The
rules of both these denominations were carried out, at the period
under consideration, with a great degree of strictness, and tended
to foster and intensify the prejudices of their people against all
other denominations. The Associate Reformed Church was more
liberal in its rules, and allowed its people to exercise their own
judgments as to listening to sermons from other ministers than
their own. The editor, from whom we have quoted, was a minis
ter in this church ; but while he was liberal in church discipline,
he was unwilling to trust the people with a free discussion of the
slavery question. To have permitted this in his periodical, he
tells us, might have left the minds of his readers in " equipoise,"
and led them to reject the proposed reform in the discipline of
the chjirch. But his fault, and that of his associates, as we have
said, was that of the age in which they acted. Men of education
had not all learned to reason on the inductive system, but in
dulged in conjectures after the manner of the wise men of olden
times. They were not careful to note all the facts and principles
involved in the questions considered, but, indulging much in
speculation, they ran into hasty generalizations, like tyroes in
science, and, consequently, -fell into egregious errors. In this
fact is to be found the source of nearly all the conflicting theories
in relation to the negro race. At best, all that had then been
done for the colored people was mere experiment, and results,
such as we have now, were unknown. It is not surprising, there-

80 PULPIT POLITICS.
fore, that what was then held as orthodox, should now be scouted
as fanatijCal.
" The aim of the writers for the Christian Intelligencer, in under
taking the agitation of the question of slavery, in connection with
ecclesiastical legislation, can now be understood. They found
public sentiment endorsing the doctrine of the probable lawful
ness of slavery, and only condemning its abuses. To accomplish
their object, they must change this public sentiment; and this
they proposed to do, by proving the immorality of slavery itself,
separate and apart from its abuses. This they expected to effect,
by depicting its horrors, showing its contrariety to the Divine
law, and thus proving its great moral turpitude. When this
should be accomplished, and the practice of slavery proved to be
a most heinous sin, the Church would be easily persuaded that
she must no longer tolerate the system. This point gained, it
was believed that the influence of the Church, expressed through
her judicial acts, and thereby enforced upon her people, could
control civil legislation and thus secure the emancipation of the
slaves.* ^^
This, then, is the scheme they proposed ; and we may now pro
ceed to show how it was carried out. To depict the horrors and
show the moral turpitude of slavery were the first steps to be
taken. The world had unanimously pronounced the slave trade
a crime of the deepest dye. To show the moral turpitude of
slaveholding, the editor thus classifies it with the slave trade :
" The Africans were stolen from their country ; no man will do him
self any credit by denying it : and that the actual holder of property
which is known to be stolen, is as criminal as the thief, is both logic
and law." f
Again the editor says :
" The principle of slavery is unrighteous — this is its condemnation.
The practice can not be spared, and so regulated as to make it on the
•  . —  —  »
* It will he seen, by reference to Chapter VII., that a few years later, the
Associate Church attempted to carry out this policy, by interdicting freedom
of opinion in her members in relation to voting.
t Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, June, 1829, page 184.

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 81
whole a blessing to any part of the human family — more than any
other sinful practice." *
From the editor, we turn to one of his assistants, who under
takes to show the horrible character of American slavery, as
compared mih all other systems which ever had an existence.
He comes to the following conclusions :
" The slavery which existed in the Roman Empire in the Apostles'
time, waa by no means so debasing, hopeless, and oppressive, as negro
slavery in our country."  " No one  can escape the
conclusion, that slavery in modern times exists in its mildest form in
countries where the Roman Catholic religion is the established religion,
and where the government is despotic or purely monarchical, as in tho
Spanish and Portuguese colonies — that it becomea more ferocious and
oppressive in Protestant countries, where the government is a mixed
monarchy, as in the British colonies — and that it is most debasing of
all in countries, where the religion is purely Protestant, and the gov
ernment free and republican, as our own." f
This wholesale denunciation of American slavery, as the most
ferocious, oppressive, and degrading system that ever existed, |
and this unqualified condemnation of his own government, as
sanctioning cruelties unheard of in the history of the world, may
have been necessary to maintain the positions assumed in the
anti-slavery programme ; but it was all based upon the sheerest
conjecture as to Roman slavery, and was wholly destitute of any
support from existing facts, so far as concerned American slavery
as compared with that of the Portuguese, Spanish and British
slave colonies. The reader will find these assertions fully sus
tained, by the opinions and facts elsewhere stated in this work.
In the farther prosecution of the efforts to show that American
slavery was contrary to the Divine law, and thus to influence
Church legislation, it was necessary to refer to what the Apos
tles — the founders of the Church — had said and done in refer
ence to Roman slavery. Here, however, was complete silence,
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, February, 1829, page 64.
t Ibid., August, 1829, page 230.
t The writer, in his discussions, refers to slavery, generally, as well as to
that of Rome. 6

82 PULPIT POLITICS.
They found precepts to regulate the relation, but not a word of
condemnation. This silence proved an exceedingly embarrassing
difficulty. But it had to be met, and one of the assistant editors
make§ the attempt to dispose of it as follows :
" Now, considering all these things, is it not, on the aupposition that
the Apostles did tolerate slavery, most unfair to reason from what the
Apostles, in their circumstances, did, to what we, in our circumstances,
should do, in regard to the toleration of this acknowledged evil ? May
not much more be expected of us, and may we not attempt much more
in its abolition ? And now let the reader take into the account not
only our more favorable civil relations, but also the superior knowledge
of the age and nation, and the fact that in many important respects,
the slavery which our opponents wish us, amidst all the circumstances
of the times, to tolerate from Apostolic example, is far more hopeless
and debasing than that which, they say, the Apostles tolerated," *
Again, he says :
" I defy the world to prove that slavery was tolerated by the
Apostles, and that it ia in harmony with the spirit of the Christian
religion," f
And, again :
" Slavery ia contrary to the general principles of the Word of God,
and to the spirit of the religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, our
compassionate Redeemer. As might be expected of such a system, it
gets no support from the Apostles. There is no evidence that they
tolerated, in the Church, the slavery which existed in the Roman
Empire ; and, even if they did, there is evidence, that the slavery of
the Roman?, bad as it was, did not poasess many of the most cruel,
degrading, and hopeless properties of negro slavery, with which we
have to do," J
But what does all this amount to ? The writer says, that even
supposing the Apostles did tolerate Roman slavery, that is no
reason why we should tolerate American slavery — the latter, in
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, August, 1829, page 242,
t Ibid., August, 1829, page 229.
i Ibid., September, 1829, page 266.

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY, 83
his opinion, being so much the more unrighteous of the two. But
laying aside his hypothetical case, he becomes more bold, and
defies the world to prove that slavery was tolerated by the Apos
tles. Then, again, as if doubtful of this point, he comes back to
the first supposition, and avers, that even if Roman slavery was
tolerated by them, there is no evidence that it was as bad as our
slavery. Here we are still upon the old platform — that the
Church is only required to deal with the abuses of slavery. If
Roman slavery had been as bad as American slavery, then, ac
cording to this writer, the Apostles could not have remained
silent, but must have spoken out in its condemnation.
A step beyond this had to be taken, therefore, so that some
thing more convincing than hypothesis and assertion might be
afforded. Another assistant editor, coming to the rescue, thus
attempts to meet the difficulty :
" Again it is said, slavery was practiced in the visible church while
the Apostles were yet living ; and that instead of testifying against
slavery, they put it under regulation, giving directions to masters and
servants ; which fact, it is thought, gives us a warrant to tolerate it
now  I deny that they taught the lawfulness of such slavery
as this : or that they tolerated such an evil without testifying against
it. They could not do every thing at once, although they were in
spired men.. I think any person who will take a view of the history
of God's Church throughout the former dispensation must see, that
idolatry and other abominations were practiced in the church while
she had inspired teachers : reader, look into the writings of the proph
ets, and see if this were not the case. Why did not the inspired men
keep out all visible immorality ? Yea, there were inspired men who
practiced polygamy. Now, if it be no reflection upon these inspired
men to purge out certain evils which they did not keep out, neither is
it any reflection upon the Apostles to endeavor to purge out what, ac
cording to some, they did not purge out."*
Here, again, is a denial that Roman slavery was as bad as ours,
or that the Apostles tolerated it, without testifying against it.
And, as an apology for their seeming neglect, in not making it a
prominent object of discipline, as they did idolatry, he supposes
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, March, 1830, page 65.

84 PULPIT POLITICS.
they found it impracticable to do every thing at once ; and then
goes on to say, that idolatry, and other abominations, were prac
ticed in the Church of God, under the former dispensation, while
she had inspired teachers ; and that, if it be no reflection upon
them that they did not keep idolatry out of the Jewish Church,
neither is it any reflection upon the Apostles that they did not
purge out slavery from the Christian Church, which they were
founding. The writer, however, neglects to remind the reader,
that all the inspired teachers were loud in their denunciations of
idolatry, and did extirpate it whenever they had the power, as the
priests of Baal found to their dismay and ruin; but that the
Apostles, in no instance, denounced slavery, or ever attempted to
make such an example of any slaveholder, that all should be
deterred from the practice by the dread of the judgments of
Heaven. But we must hear this writer some farther :
" I will go a step farther and state, that if the Apostles did not per
ceive that such slavery as existed among us is contrary to the law of
God, it does not follow that it is sanctioned by that law. Bishop But
ler compares the sacred penmen to the collector of certain memoirs
written by others. He who wrote the memoirs is supposed to under
stand fully what he intended in his own writing, and what he intended
is the true sense. The compiler, however, may not always see the
whole of what was intended : so God always understands all the proper
applications of his word, though the penman, perhaps, in many in
stances did not see the whole of its intention  The prophets
had to study their own writings : the Apostles we may suppose had to
do the same. What they wrote we likewise have to study as the
Providence of God directs." *
Now, what have we here, but a denial that the Apostles com
prehended, with certainty, the Divine mind, as to the plainest
moral duties. Why should such a startling and unscriptural doc
trine as this be advocated by these writers? The reference is
not to prophecies relating to future events, such as were recorded
by the Old Testament prophets, but to moral duties relating to
the conduct of the members of the Christian Church. The answer
is at hand. The writers had been met by the startling fact, that
' Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, March, 1830, page 65,

ANTI-SLA-VBRY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 85
the Saviour and his Apostles adopted no rule to exclude slave
holders from the Church. Idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery,
robbery, bearing false witness, covetousness, were all broadly con
demned as inconsistent with the Christian character. But slavery
was nowhere specifically forbidden. On the contrary, the relative
duties of parent and child, husband and wife, magistrates and
people, master and servant, were all clearly pointed out. The
logical inference from this fact, was, that all these relations were,
in themselves, lawful, and that abuses of authority, only, were to
be condemned, ,
But our reformers had demonstrated, to their own satisfaction,
that American slaveholding was a heinous sin — a sin as heaven-
daring as the slave trade — which could not be tolerated by the
modern churches. How to reconcile their doctrines with the
action of the Apostles, presented a difficulty of no small magni
tude. Resolute men, however, do not stop at difficulties ; it is
their province to overcome them. With military men, what can
not be accomplished by fair combat, is to be carried by strategy.
Surely, ministers, in warring with the Prince of Darkness, may
profit by the example — being careful, however, that they are not
manning a masked battery of the enemy of souls. Having
silenced the opposition, by refusing free discussion in their col
umns, these writers could utter any charges they chose against
the system of slavery, or against their own government for con
tinuing to give it support.
But the silence of the Apostles on the subject of slavery, seems
to have given the editor quite as much trouble as it did his asso
ciates. He had pronounced slaveholding as equally criminal with
slave trading. That was surely to stamp the character of the
master as so blackened with crime, as to make him a fit associate
only for demons ; and, hence, he must be cast out of the church,
and delivered over to Satan, In accomplishing this work, the
task would have been easy, but for the want of scriptural precept
or example. The silence of the Apostles on the subject, there
fore, was an exceedingly vexatious fact that had to be disposed of
in some plausible manner. The assistant editors had been unable
to demonstrate the sinfulness of slavery, in the abstract, from
either the acts or the writings of the Apostles ; and, unless this

86 PULPIT POLITICS,
could be done, the people could not be induced to abandon their
old theory — that slavery, like prevailing forms of despotic gov
ernments, was not necessarily sinful, but became so only by
abuses of the power possessed. The editor also lent his aid, to
give greater certainty to the work.
In replying to strictures made upon views which he had pre
viously expressed, * he said that he had taught that idolatry was
"a system incorporated with the civil institutions of the Romans,
and diametrically opposed to the doctrines of the Gospel ;" and
that slavery was " a system incorporated with the' civil institutions
of the Romans, and contrary to the spirit of the Gospel indeed,
but yet not so diametrically opposed to the Gospel but that the
two might coexist for a time : and hence reasoned, that though
the Apostles may have pursued a different course in relation to
the one from that pursued in relation to the other, the church
may, notwithstanding, under her present circumstances treat them
both as really if not equally deserving her censure." f
This is still an admission, that Roman slavery could not have
been considered, by the Apostles, as sin per se, like idolatry,
otherwise it must have been denounced as equally sinful with idol
worship ; and, yet, the editor, without informing us how the trans
formation was effected, assures us that slavery should now be
considered as being really as censurable an offense as idolatry.
But how does he reason himself into this belief? Simply, by
denying that the Apostles were enabled to decide a question of
this kind, as they had been in reference to the subject of idolatry.
In effect, he says, of the Divine teachings, that slavery in despotic
relations will be slurred over ; but in connection with republican
governments it is condemned. Look at it now, and it is wicked ;
but look at it in a given former period, and its immorality is too
doubtful to admit of attention. The Gospel is only a remedy for
a part of human ills ; of some it can take no notice at all. When
evils are complicated in civil relations, the sacred Scriptures will
speak of them ; but in such a way as can only be understood after
the lapse of ages and the change of nations. Evils and immor-

* The Overture on Slavery, addressed to the Churches, is here, referred to,
which was prepared by the editor.
T Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, February, 1829, page 34,

ANTI-SLAVBRY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 87
alities, interwoven in civil relations, they will make a league
with ; but when the civil relations are dissolved, they will attack
them. Their moral tone is clear, and their utterance decided;
but we must wait, in order to find this out, when the needed
changes take place. But the editor continues :
" In the details of their office — in the application of the ' law and
the testimony ' to many particular cases, they [the Apostles] had only
that kind of gracious assistance which may be ordinarily expected by
the ministers of the Gospel ; and had to consult, deliberate, and deter
mine, as we have to do, according to the wisdom given them, before
they acted." * " No man can — an Apostle could not, do every thing
at once  And be it remembered, the church waa not com
pletely organized — or if you will, the whole system of doctrines and
duties, was not delivered to the Church, till the last Apostle had writ
ten his last Epistle. As these Epistles were scattered among the
churches to which they were written, there ia not the least reason to
believe, that any one individual, or any one church, had ever seen all
the inspired books of the New Testament, till long after the last Apos
tle had gone to be ' present with the Lord.' To suppose, then, that
any one of the churches could have that knowledge, on any article of
faith or duty, which lay ever so little out of the Apostle's common
track of preaching, which we may have, by comparing all the scrip
tures one with another, is supposing a perfection among the Christians
of that day, which we have no reason to suppose existed. The con
clusion, therefore, almost forces itself on us, that practices and omis
sions of duty, might have existed among them, which ought not to be
tolerated in the Church now." f
This is a picture of the primitive church, which few will be
willing to recognize as true in fact. The Apostles, before the
crucifixion, had been assured by the Saviour, that the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, should teach them in all things, and bring
all things to their remembrance, whatsoever- he had said unto
them. J And, again, he assured them, that when He, the Spirit
of truth, should come, he would guide them into all truth. § This
gave the Apostles the most positive assurance, that they should
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, February, 1829, page 35.
tibid., February, 1829, page 36.
t John's Gospel, xiv: 26. JJohn, xvi: 13.

88 PULPIT POLITICS.
have the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, and to bring to
their remembrance whatsoever the Saviour had said to them.
Now, is it possible, as the editor would have us believe, that the
Saviour left his disciples to grope their way in the dark, on a
question affecting the personal rights of one-half the population
of the Roman Empire ? Is it possible that the Holy Spirit would
withhold all knowledge of the Divine will from them, on so im
portant a question ? And, is it possible, that the Apostles would
be contented to remain in uncertainty, during all their lives, as to
what duty required in relation to sixty millions* of bondmen,
without once asking for Divine direction ? Most assuredly, they
could not have thus acted, or been thus ignorant on the subject.
The Saviour had informed them, most particularly, that their
prayers should be heard. His language is incapable of misinter
pretation : " And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask
anything in my name, I will do it." f Now, according to the
editor, the Saviour could never have instructed the Apostles as to
slavery, the Holy Sjiirit could never have revealed to them the
truth on the subject, nor did the Apostles ever ask for Divine
direction to guide them in duty as to the slaves ! For, if any one
of these things had occurred, the Apostles could not have been
ignorant on so grave a question.
But the editor had a theory to sustain, and an object to ac
complish. His object could not be effected, unless he could es
tablish his theory. He must prove that slavery in the abstract
was sinful — that was the task he had undertaken — or the church
would not cast out the slaveholder. He, therefore, attempts to
convince his readers, that the Apostles had been silent on the
subject — not because slavery was not sinful, but because they
* Rev. Albert Barnes, in his work on Sla^rery, quotes and adopts, from the
Biblical Repository, the following statement iu reference to the number of slaves
in the Roman Empire in the Apostles' day: "It is unnecessary to enter into
proof that slavery abounded in the Roman Empire, or that the conditions of
servitude were very severe and oppressive. This is conceded on all hands,"
 "Of course, according to this, the number of slaves could not have
been less than sixty millions in the Roman Empire, at about the time when the
Apostles went forth to preach the Gospel."
t John, xiv: 13, 14.

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY, 89
had so much else to do that it 'had to be overlooked — the Holy
Spirit seeing proper to give them, individually, no special reve
lation on slavery, but leaving the whole question to be determined
by the church, in after years, from the careful study of the com
pleted revelation. And there it stood, without notice, from age
to age, until the Christian Intelligencer, more than eighteen hun
dred years afterwards, began to shed its light upon the subject!
Reader, can you suppose that slaveholding is sinful, and yet,
that the Apostles never could find five minutes to say so; or
never had any Divine directions how to deal with the slaveholder !
To say that the Apostles could not do everything at once, will
in no wise account for the difference in the clearness of the sa
cred Scriptures on idolatry and slavery. If they could not do
everything at once, in regard to slavery, neither could they in
regard to idolatry ; and the excuse that they did not declare in
regard to slavery, because they could not do everything at once,
implies that their action in regard to idolatry was not inspired,
but because it was in their power to attend to it at once.
The editor continues :
" As to the general subject of slavery, there was a reason why the
Apostles might regard it as lying out of their way, which does not exist
with ua. If there is any such thing as a historical verity, the Chris
tians to whom they wrote, lived under a military despotism — a gov
ernment most remote in its character from a Representative Republic,
The people had no influence on the making or administration of the
laws, more than our slaves. But we, the people, make our laws ; and
from ua, all our civil institutions take their character. In the sins of
the government under which they lived, they had comparatively no
share : and hence slavery, an evil growing out of their civil institu
tions, was a thing for which they were not accountable, as we are.
The Apostles could not direct ' those whom they reformed ' to set im
mediately about the ' work of reforming the social system.' They
could only watch unto prayer, and wait in faith and hope till ' the
greatness of the Kingdom ' should be on the side of righteousnesa.
" The attention of the Apostles might not have been particularly
turned to the subject for another reason. The condition of a slave
was but little different from that of his master. The great mass of the
population were rude and ignorant — human rights were not under-

90 PULPIT POLITICS.
stood — were little regarded — for any practical purpose, it was a
matter of comparatively small importance, whether an individual en
joyed his inalienable rights or not." *
Truly, the silence of the Apostles, on the question of slavery,
must have been a great puzzle to the editor. This is an addi
tional conjecture, as to the reason why they may have passed
slavery unnoticed, as well as failed to require emancipation as a
condition of receiving the slaveholder into the Church. Let us
examine it : the Roman government was despotic, the great mass
of the population rude and ignorant, human rights not understood
nor regarded, and, for all practical purposes, it was a matter of
comparatively small importance, whether an individual enjoyed
his inalienable rights or not. Here are the reasons, offered by
the editor, why the Apostles did not urge emancipation. Can he
tell us, if freedom would have been of no importance to an ig
norant Roman 1 slave in the first century, of what value it would
be to a still more degraded African slave in the nineteenth cen
tury? But ignorance and degradation were not universal in
Rome. Art, science, literature, flourished in a high degree. Even
slaves were often men of letters and of science, though subjected
to the rigid rule of their masters. Surely, liberty would have been
of value to them ; and yet the Apostles took no measures for
their relief. If, then, the Apostles attached so little importance
to human rights, as compared with the salvation of men, that
they gave no directions for freeing the social system from slavery,
why should the ministers of the Gospel now consider it necessary
to make that topic one of leading interest in their ecclesiastical
councils ? Again : if the Apostles found it necessary to occupy
themselves so constantly in preaching the Gospel, that they found
no time to attend to civil afi'airs, how is it that ministers can now
turn aside to dabble in politics, without being chargeable with
treason to their Divine Master, whose kingdom is not of this
World? And, again: if slaveholding be necessarily sinful, why
was it not so under despotic Rome, as well as under Republican
America ?

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, April, 1829, page 109.

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 91
We must here repeat one of the editor's strongest propositions :
" The Africans were stolen from their country ; no man will do him
self any credit by denying it : and that the actual holder of property
which is known to be stolen, is as criminal as the thief, is both logic
and law."
Failing to prove slaveholding a sin per se, by either Scripture
precept or example, the editor, to accomplish his purpose, be
takes himself to logic and law. He maintains, that the crimi
nality of the slaveholder grows out of the principle in law which
makes the receiver of stolen property equally criminal with the
thief. This is a novel mode, certainly, of settling the question
of the sinfulness of slaveholding. But it is one that the Apos
tles seem not to have recognized as correct, in their intercourse
with the Roman people. The slaves then in the Empire numbered
sixty millions of souls, and consisted, perhaps universally, of
captives taken in war or their descendants. The wars in which
the captives were taken, had been waged for the aggrandizement
of the reigning tyrants, who, from generation to generation, had
ruthlessly deluged the earth in blood, to gratify an unhallowed
ambition. These were the slave traders of old, from whom the
Roman masters, from reign to reign, had obtained their slaves.
The slaveholders in the Apostles' day, very generally, must have
been the inheritors only of slaves who were the descendants of the
original captives ; just as, in 1829, the slaveholders in the United
States, very generally, were only inheritors of slaves, and had
no complicity with the African slave traders, who had ceased their
vocation in 1808, * Were the Roman masters, in the Apostles'
day, equally criminal with the remorseless conquerors who brought
their captives to Rome to be sold into bondage? The logic of
the editor says they were ; but the practice of the Apostles says
they were not. The Apostles set an example which the editor
and the churches may well imitate. They recognized the gov
ernment of Rome as the ordinance of God for the execution of
his purposes toward a world sunk in sin ; and they gladly recog
nized the Divine hand in the movements which had brought, from
* Only about 400,000 slaves had been imported between 1620 and 1808, while
at the latter date, the whole number of slaves was 893,041,

92 PULPIT POLITICS.
the uttermost parts of the earth, the slavea who stood before
them. Instead of demanding emancipation as a condition of
preaching the Gospel, the Great Salvation was everywhere of
fered to both masters and slaves.
But not only is the editor's logic at fault here ; his theology
is equally as defective, and much more pernicious. The doc
trines taught by him and his associates, if true, would place the
church in a deplorable attitude, as it would leave her no sure
foundation of faith. According to this view, the example of the
early Christians is not to be our guide ; and the declarations of
the Apostles are to be no rule of action to us. They could not
comprehend the Divine mind, as revealed to them, with as much
certainty as we can ourselves, now that we have a full revelation.
Here is a masked battery of Satan, erected by the professed dis
ciples of Christ, and afterwards used with effect by the infidel
wing of the abolition army. Look well at this point. If the
Apostles did not understand the Divine will as to slavery, what
assurance is there that they comprehended it in relation to any
revealed duty ? Such doctrines are not in accordance with those
of the Christian church. Prophecies of future events, for potent
reasons, were not always understood by their writers ; but moral
duties were of present obligation, and, when revealed, must have
been fully comprehended by the Apostles. Any other view is
infidel in its tendency, and could only have been uttered by or
thodox men, under the blinding infiuence of a fanatical zeal for
a theory that could not otherwise be sustained. We repeat, if
the Apostles were not competent judges of the morality or im
morality of Roman slavery, they cannot be safe guides on any
other doctrine or rule of duty : so that, if this be true, there re
mains no certainty that any thing they enjoined is binding on the
conscience, but all is left to human reason, and nothing to the
word of God, as interpreted by the Apostles.
The force of these general objections to the grounds of the
Christian Intelligencer's position on the subject of slavery, will be
strengthened by an examination of the particulars of their posi
tion in detail. 1. We are told, that the Apostles might do, " in
their circumstances," what we may not do " in our circumstances ;"
which amounts to nothing more than an endeavor to protect ua

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 93
against the pernicious influence of their example, if they failed to
condemn slavery. The contrary of this doctrine, is that which is
expressly taught by inspiration : Phil, iii : 17 ; 2 Thes, iii : 9, In
these passages the authority of apostolic example is directly en
forced, 2, In justification of this position, and in farther carrying of it
out, we are told, that "there were inspired men who practiced
polygamy," and if it was " no reflection upon these inspired men "
that they did not " purge out certain evils," " neither is it any
reflection upon the Apostles," that they did not, and that they
permitted slavery to go uncondemned. The Apostles did not
tolerate " such an evil without testifying against it : " or, if they
did, it is nothing more nor less than was in correspondence with
the practice of even inspired men, some of whom were polyga-
raists. The Apostle Peter spoke reverently of inspired men, and
called them "holy men of God;" [2 Pet, i: 21,] but as their
course did not suit the editors, they account for the fact by class
ing them with polygamists,
3, But there is still "a step farther " that may be taken, "If
the Apostles did not perceive that such slavery as existed among
us is not sanctioned by the law of God, it does not follow that it
is sanctioned by that law," The Apostles did not " understand
fully " what was intended in their own writings. This is indeed
" a step farther," Slavery is condemned in the Bible, but the in
spired penmen themselves were ignorant of the fact. Their course
in regard to the institution is not to be insisted upon, for, such is
the possibility, they themselves might have condemned it in their
own writings, and yet not have known it. If this is true, it is
easy, in any given case, to get the Apostles out of the way, and
whenever they are troublesome to be wholly rid of them, on the
simple ground that they did not know their own sayings. In this
" step farther," there is, moreover, an intimation that there is a
directing Providence, as well as an inspired word, and this, that
is apart from the word, is so essential that we " have to study as
the Providence of God directs," Now as the Apostles " had " to
study just as all other men, and all men are at liberty to judge
for themselves as to how Providence directs, it is clear that this
Providence may direct them, in their own estimation, to views in

94 PULPIT POLITICS.
the widest possible degree differing from those of the Apostles, and
so these ancient worthies be effectually and entirely disposed of.
Turning from these views of the Apostles, we may next direct
attention to the estimate placed upon the sacred writings, and
the notions entertained respecting the first Christians. If they
were not understood to condemn slavery, in the times of the
Apostles, it was because they were not all written at the same
time, arid all put in circulation together. Those who had them,
had them in various portions, and not as a connected whole —
"the whole system of doctrines and duties," — as we now have
them. In the first place, there had all along been scriptures
among the Jews, and these were continually referred to, as when
our Saviour said : " search the scriptures ; " [John v : 39 ;] and,
in the second place, there was no such contrariety in the Old and
New Testament scriptures, as that the rules of morality and of
holy living, only, were known, as some portions of the New Tes
tament had been happily obtained. Paul addressed Timothy [2
Tim, iii : 15] saying, that " from a child " he had " known the
Holy Scriptures," and they were such scriptures as "were able
to make " " wise," and he who had this wisdom would be saved.
" Long " before " the last Apostle had gone to be ' present with
the Lord ' " the pen of inspiration had declared [2 Tim, iii : 17]
that through the then existing scriptures, the man of God ( a
beautiful epithet,) might be " thoroughly furnished," and that
"unto all good works." Our editors say, not quite "all;" we
have no reason to suppose that they equaled ourselves. So far
from being "thoroughly furnished," they were not up to our
standard in "any article of faith or duty which lay ever so little
out of the Apostle's common track of preaching," Who does not
see that this representing of the primitive church as without any
scriptures, except to a meager extent, is contrary to the repre
sentation of the Apostles, who maintained that they not only
possessed them, but that they were " profitable " to the ends for
which they had been inspired, and urged home upon all the ob
ligation to be " thoroughly furnished " by means of them ? -Who
can fail to observe, also, that this position makes the commenda
tion of the Bereans, [Acts xvii : 11,] for their study of the Scrip
tures, to convey the false impression, that the Church had suit-

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 9$
able and sufficient scriptures for their guidance and instruction
where they had not ? Besides all which, it leaves the Apostles
to the task of founding the Christian church, without the aid of
a written literature that was fully available, until after the last
of their number had gone to be " present with the Lord " — a
position which could not be maintained, as is further evident,
because it is contrary to all the analogy of God's providence;
which, from the beginning, has made a written literature to be
indispensably connected with the establishment of the true relig
ion, and to that end first gave language, and then the first rec
ords, in language, that were ever known to the human family.
It is not strange, therefore, that this theory of the editors brings
them into direct confiict with the declaration of the inspired pen
men in such passages as these: [2 Peter i: 9 :] "We have," (not
there will be, after the last of us has gone to be "present with
the Lord ") " also, a more sure word of prophecy (or instruction,)
to which we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place." Again, [Col. iii: 16,] "Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching," &c.
This representation of the earlier Christians, by the editors, as
being without the Scriptures, is with a view to establish two
points : 1. The clearness of the Scriptures as possessed by us,
makes the overthrow of slavery to be obligatory upon us, while
it was not upon them. 2. It takes away all the force of the ex
ample of primitive and Apostolic times, as they were in part
without the Scriptures. " Practices and omissions of duty might
have existed among them, which ought not to be tolerated in the
church now," He therefore strenuously objects to " supposing a
perfection among the Christians of that day " equal to what is
attained by those of our day.
The plausibility of this position is attempted to be sustained
by the farther suggestion of its reasonableness, "No man can —
an Apostle could not do everything at once." Again, "they
could not do every thing at once, although they were inspired
men." It is unreasonable to suppose, according to this view, that
the primitive church could have been framed so as to afford a
suitable example. There was too much to be done, and, there
fore, if we find anything to condemn which it did not condemn,

96 PULPIT POLITICS.
such as slavery, it need be no matter of surprise. Having found
an easy way to dispose of the Apostles, it was easy to dispose
of that which was built upon their " foundation." [Eph. ii : 20,]
To what straits will not men be driven by a theory ! The
character of the Apostles, inspired as teachers in the primitive
church, and clothed with power of working miracles to establish
their authority and to confirm their mission; the fullness, the
sufficiency, the clearness, and the purity of the inspired Scriptures
of truth, no less remarkable in the manner of God's preserving
them, than in the fact of his having given them ; the church that
was established with "Jesus Christ himself" as "the chief corner
stone ; " all these are assailed with surmises, and innuendoes, and
suppositions, and for what ? Why, that seventeen centuries after
the last of the Apostles had gone to be " present with the Lord,"
it might be possible, through a directing Providence, to make
room for new light on the subject of slavery !
One topic alluded to in the Christian Intelligencer, yet unno
ticed by us, remains to be briefly handled, and we have done. It
is in an article from the pen of an assistant editor, and will be un
derstood from the title which is at its head : ^'The Emancipation
of the Slaves practicable — their Mental and Moral Culture im
practicable." * This production was, substantially, an endorse
ment of the British theory — that slavery and African evangeli
zation are incompatible. The writer, in support of his theory,
quoted certain laws, in the slave States, which prohibit the educa
tion of slaves, but altogether avoided any mention of the success
that had attended the missionaries in the West Indies, where slav
ery then prevailed ; and, with equal care, neglected to notice the
results of the labors of the Methodists, and others, among the
slaves in the United States. He theorized entirely, offering no
facts to sustain his proposition ; or, rather, he avoided any notice
of existing facts, that would be in opposition to his theory, f
The course adopted by this writer, in his pertinacious adher
ence to his theory, while facts enough existed around him to dis-
* Christian Intelligencer, March, 1829, page 65.
t In justice to the editor, it must be said, that he corrects the writer so far
as to say, that- very few of the laws referred to absolutely prohibit the menial
instruction of the slaves.

ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 97
prove its correctness, reminds us of an anecdote told in relation
to an eminent Geologist, who had a fashion of never yielding a
favorite theory, however much newly developed facts might make
against him.
In a certain mountain district, an excitement had long pre
vailed in relation to the discovery of copper ores. Several very
valuable mines had been found and opened. The Geologist was
attracted to the spot, and, before leaving, received an invitation
to a locality a few miles distant, where some new excavations,
in a different class of rocks, had been made. Examining the pile
of rocks around the mouth of the shaft, he at once pronounced
their labor as lost — stating, that the slate rocks in which they
were digging, had long been familiar to him, in various sections
of the country, and were uniformly barren of all metallic ores.
The miners listened patiently, until he closed his remarks, and then
politely invited him to descend the shaft, and see the strata of
rocks in a side-drift which they had run out from the bottom.
He readily complied, remarking, that sections of newly cut rocks
were always interesting to Geologists, Down they went, lamps
in hand, and, on reaching the spot, a magnificent vein of copper
ore met his astonished vision ! Fact exploded theory.
Reader, descend the shaft excavated into the strata of the his
tory of negro instruction, by the preceding chapters, and behold
the West Indies, at the time the writer quoted prepared his argu
ment, with over 90,000 Christian converts among the slaves, and
the United States with about 120,000 ; and, then, never again rely
upon any theory that is based upon speculation instead of ascer
tained facts.
The arguments on slavery, by which the revolution in church
discipline was effected, are now before the reader. They contain
the germs of nearly all the arguments afterward employed by the
abolitionists, in their fiery assaults upon the system, and upon
those who sustained it. Even the infidel abolitionist found his
warrant therein for assailing the Bible, and the semi-infidel for
demanding "an anti-slavery Constitution, and ant]-slavery Bible,
and an anti-slavery God."* Garrison, too, could point to more
* Anson Burlingame, 7

98 PULPIT POLITICS.
than one assertion in justification of his declaration, that the
"United States Constitution is a covenant with death and an
agreement with hell." *
Such was the office performed by the writers in the Christian
Intelligencer, for the Church and for the country, f
The progress of ecclesiastical legislation, from the terms of the
old platform to the new, may be seen by reference to the chapters
on that subject. The churches, generally, which had pronounced
slavery a moral evil, to be speedily remedied, were not able at
once to carry out the new rule proposed, in its literal meaning,
because of the opposition of conservative men. Exceptions to the
rule were made, in some cases, in relation to those of their mem
bers who resided in States disallowing emancipation. One denom
ination proposed that a moral emancipation might be substituted
for a legal manumission — the master still holding his legal title
to the slave, not as property, but as guardian — thus freeing the
slaveholder from all guilt by this fictitious change of relation, |
But this rule, in the view of anti-slavery men, would be liable to
great abuses, as under it every slaveholder might take refuge,
and the abolition of slavery never be effected. The broader doc-
* Garrison's Liberator.
t Note. — It may be doubted, that preaching from the pulpit on the subject of
slavery, was authorized and required by any ecclesiastical legislation on the
subject; but such doubts must yield to the facts in the case. The editor, and
associate editors, of the Christian Intelligencer, belonged to the First Presbytery
of Ohio, in connection with the Associate Reformed Synod of the West. They
drew up the Reports, and managed the Slavery Question, it is understood, when
it was under consideration in that Synod. At the meeting of this Presbytery,
in September, 1833, the subject of the action of the Synod was brought for
ward, considered, reported on, and the following resolution, among others, was
adopted, as the principles which should thereafter regulate the Presbytery and
the churches under its care:
" Resolved 1 . Ministers should not fail, by the pulpit, and, so far as practica
ble, by the press, to show, in a faithful and temperate manner, from the Word
of God, the iniquity and ruinous consequences of this sin. The truth on this
subject is always important, but it derives very great present importance from
the prevalence of slavery in our country, and from the interest which the
subject excites in 'the public mind." — Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio,
July, 1834.
X See Chapter VII.

VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 99
trine of the Christian Intelligencer, and its disciples, the abolition
ists, that slaveholding is malum in se — in itself a sin — under all
circumstances, was, therefore, urged upon public attention with
great zeal, and no small amount of success. A practical applica
tion of this doctrine, by a few of the religious denominations,
soon resulted in the withdrawal of their ministry, as heretofore
stated, from the whole of the slave States — thus leaving both
master and slave in total destitution of th^ ordinances of religion.*
Section IH. — How the Abolitionists were met by argu
ments AGAINST THEIR BiBLE THEORIES.
We have said, that, in the outset of the abolition movement,
the conservative element predominated in some of the churches,
so as to hold in check the fanatical spirit every where manifesting
itself. This was so fully the case, in the Protestant Episcopal
Church, that the subject of slavery was never agitated in its
councils, so as to lead to legislation on the subject. The same
thing is true of the Christian Church, (otherwise called Camp-
bellites.) The Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the General
Assembly Presbyterians, both had a long struggle on this ques
tion. The discussions in the former body, in attempting to keep
the Church from taking ultra ground, were very ably conducted ;
and the Church was saved from the evils of abolitionism for many
years. In this controversy, their ablest men were engaged ; and
the conclusions at which they arrived, were very different, indeed,
from those of the writers in the Christian Intelligencer. Rev.
Dr. Bangs, in 1834, thus wrote :
" At the time he (Christ) made his appearance in our world, slavery
existed all over the Roman Empire, not excepting even the highly
favored land of Judea, to such an extent that it has been estimated
* A striking example of this kind is recorded by the British Friend, of 1854,
as having occurred iu Virginia. The agitation of the subject of slavery began
among the Society of Friends, at an early day, in the district to which it
refers. " There were, at the time," says the Friend, " seven meetings of Frienda
iu that part of Virginia, but they have all long since been deserted, and the
country literally desolated."

100 PULPIT POLITICS.
that about one-half of the population of that vast empire were in a
state of civil bondage  When Jesus Christ sent out his
Apostles to preach, did he give them a command to denounce those
masters because they held slaves ? and to tell them that unless they
let those oppressed go free, they could not repent and enter the' king
dom of heaven ? Nothing of this. We do not recollect a single in
stance of his having uttered a word on this subject," *
Bishops Emery and Hedding, in an address of September,
1835, say, that "within the Roman Empire, slaves were both
more numerous, and their legalized condition worse, than the
legalized condition of the same class in any portion of our own
country." Rev. Dr. Fisk, and others, in the " Counter Appeal," say, that
" Christianity spread in a land where slavery existed as cruel and
licentious as ever existed in this country," And in referring to
Ephesians vi: 5-9, they assert, that "it places it beyond debate
or a doubt, that the Apostle did permit slaveholders in the Chris
tian Church." And, again, in commenting on Colossians iii : 22,
they say :
" We say, then, that this text proves to a demonstration, that, in the
primitive Christian Church at Colospe, under the Apostolic eye, and
with the Apostolic sanction, the relation of master and slave was per
mitted to subsist. The slave is addressed as continuing a slave, the
master as permanently a master ; the former is exhorted J;o obedience,
the latter to justice and equity in the exercise of his authority. Who
can assert, in the face of this text, that no slave-master is ' truly
awakened,' nor can be endured in a Christian Church ? "
Rey. Dr. Bond, thus wrote : f
"Slaveholding itself is no where in terms forbidden in Scripture,
though the practice was general in the time of our Lord and his
Apostles; yet there is no expresa prohibition to Christians to hold
slavea, though there are express exhortations to slaves to obey their
masters, and to make this a matter of conscience." f
* Christian Advocate and Journal, December 5, 1834.
t As quoted by Rev. Dr. Elliott, in his " Great Secession," page 260.

views op conservative men. 101
Professor Stuart, of Andover, having been addressed on the
subject by Rev. Dr. FfsK, who asked for historical information,
thus wrote :
" Every one knows, who is acquainted with Greek and Latin antiqui
ties, that slavery among heathen nations has ever been more unqualified,
and at looaer ends, than among Christian nations. Slaves were prop
erty in Greece and Rome. That decides all question about their
relation. Their treatment depended, as it does now, on the temper of
their masters. The power of the master over the slave was, for a long
time, that of life and death. Horrible cruelties, at length, mitigated
it. In the Apostles' day, it was, at least, aa great as among ua."
 "1 Tim. vi : 2, expresses the sentiment that slaves who are
Christians, and have Christian masters, are not, on that account, and
because as Christians they are brethren, to forego the reverence due to
them as masters. That ia, the relation of master and slave is not, as a
matter of course, abrogated between all Christians. Nay, servants
should, in such case, a fortiori, do their duty cheerfully. Thia senti
ment lies on the very face of tho verse."  "The precepta of
the New Testament respecting the demeanor of slaves, and of their
masters, beyond all question recognize the existence of slavery. The
masters are believing masters, so that a precept to them how they are
to behave as masters, recognizes that the relation may still exist, salva
fide et salva ecclesia — without violating the Christian faith of the
Church. Otherwise Paul had nothing to do but to cut the bond
asunder at once. He could not lawfully and properly temporize with
a malum in se- — that is, itself a sin. If any one doubts, let him take
the case of Paul's sending Onesimus [a slave'\ back to Philemon [his
master, '\ with apology for his running away, and sending him back to
be his servant for life. The relation did exist, may exist. The abuse
of it is the essential, fundamental wrong." *
Rev. Dr. Clarke, (Comment. 1 Tim. vi : 1,) says :
"The word Sou^ot ('servants,') here means slaves converted to the
Christian faith ; and the ^vyoa, or yoke, is the state of slavery."
* These quotations, as well as the others in reference to the Methodist Epis
copal Church, are taken from the pamphlet of Rev. Nathan Scarlet, of the
Kansas Conference.

102 PULPIT politics.
Again, he says, (Tit. ii : 9) :
" The Apostle refers to those who were slaves, the property of their
masters," Again, (Col. iv : 1,) he says :
" The condition of slaves among the Greeks and Romans was
wretched in the extreme ; they could appeal to no law ; and they
could neither expect justice nor equity,''
Again, (Comment, 1 Tim, vi: 3):
" With political questions, or questions relative to private rights, our
Lord scarcely ever meddled ; he taught all men to love one another ; to
respect each other's rights ; to submit to each other ; to show all
fidelity ; to be obedient, humble, and meek ; and to know that hia
kingdom waa not of this world,"
Again, (Comment, 1 Cor, vii : 24) :
" It is very likely that some of the slaves at Corinth, who had been
converted to Christianity, had been led to think that their Christian
privileges absolved them from the necessity of continuing slaves, or, at
least, brought them on a level with their Christian masters. A spirit
of this kind might have soon led to confusion and insubordination, and
brought scandals into the Church. It was, therefore, a very proper
subject for the Apostle to interfere in; and to his authority the per
sons concerned would doubtless respectfully bow."
Again, (on 1 Cor, vii : — end of the chapter) :
" The conversion which the Scripture requires, though it makes a
moat essential change in our sotds in reference to God, and in our works
in reference both to God and man, makes none in our civil state ; even
if a man is called, i. e., converted, in a state of slavery, he does not
gain his manumission in consequence of his conversion ; he stands in
the same relation both to the state and to his fellows that he stood in
before ; and is not to assume any civil rights or privileges in conse
quence of the conversion of his soul to God. The Apostle decides
the matter in this chapter, and orders that every man should abide in
the calling wherein he is called."

VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN, 103
Again, (on Phil, — end of the chapter,) he says :
" Christianity makes no change in men's civil affairs ; even a slave
did not become a freeman by Christian baptism,"
And, again, in remarking on another passage, he says :
" The Apostle, therefore, informs the proprietors of these alaves
that they should act toward them both according to justice and equity ;
for God, their Master, required this of them, and would at last call
them to account for their conduct in thia respect,"
Rev. Dr, Fisk, in the " Counter Appeal," says :
" ' Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to
the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto Christ;
not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing
the will of God from the heart ; with good-will doing service, as to
the Lord, tnd not to men ; knowing that whatsoever good thing any
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond
or free. Aid, ye masters, do the same thing unto them, forbearing
threatening ; knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; neither is
there respect to persons with him.' On this text we remark : 1. It
places leyond debate or doubt, that the Apostle did permit slaveholders
in the Christian Church. There were already such in the Church of
Ephesut, or he would not have addressed them by the term master, aa
a legitinate and continuous title ; without one word of emancipation,
he directly enjoins upon them the mild exercise of that authority,
'forbearing threatening.' 2. He exhibits the difference between slave-
holdiig in the hands of a Christian master, and a tyrannical and heathen
mastfr. While the former might exercise the proper duties of the
staiicn, the latter would, no doubt, be guilty of all the cruelties and
aboiinations of which Greek and Roman slavery was preeminently
ful. Yet the enormity of its abuses did not, in his opinion, require
theimmediate abolition of the relation itself. 3. The New Testament,
hoE and elsewhere, enjoins obedience upon the slave as an obligation
du: to a present rightful authority. They are to be ' obedient,' not
deeitfully, but with 'singleneaa of heart,' and 'to please them in all
thjigs, not answering again, not purloining, but ahowing all good
fidlity.' — Titus ii : 9. ' It is perfectly ludicroua to pretend that thia
injmction is parallel with the command to be passive under inflictiona
foi righteousness' sake. It is perfectly irrelevant for our brethren to

^Q4 PULPIT POilTIC^.
challenge any man in the, world to sho-ff how, by our rules of inter
pretation, the command to pray for persecutors does not justify per
secution. To say nothing of the fact that we find no persecutors
holding an acknowledged standing in the primitive Christian Church ;
that we find no injunctiona to persecutors to discharge their dutiea
with moderation, ' forbearing threatening ; ' that we find no successive
addresses to Christians persecuted, and Christian persecutors, mutually
to perform toward each other the correlative dutiea of those respective
characters. ' We challenge any man in the world to show,' if the ease
of the slave and the persecuted Christian be parallel, how the former
is not justified in 'gainsaying,' in refuting, in 'answering apin,' and
in fleeing from one city to another. What command obliged the per
secuted Christian to please his persecutor 'in all things,' with 'single
ness of heart,' and 'with all good fidelity?' These are exhortations
that sound like injunctions to perform duties of at lea^ a present
rightful relation. If that relation be invariably sinful, how, indeed,
can any slave be justified in perpetuating the oppressive system upon
others by submission to it himself? How could the Apostle be justi
fied in thus obliging them to aid in that oppression by evenforbidding
a breach of 'fidelity?' and how are abolitionista justified -[-who repel
the charge of preaching insubordination or escape — in conniving, by
their silence, at the slave's ignorance of his rights, and thlis cpmbin-
ing with their oppressors in perpetuating the yoke ? "
Rev. Dr. Elliott, in his " Great Secession," page 818

" And those few churches in recent times, which have madi or at
tempted to make absolute noh-slaveholding a term of membeijship,
have done little or nothing religiously to benefit slave or master ; or
they have shut themselves out entirely from the field of labor. The
reason is, they have adopted a mere arbitrary theory in the plale\of
the Gospel panacea, of enlightenment, regeneration, and sanctificatim,
and therefore could not succeed. This is history, and can not be ijet
except by dogmatism and self-sufficiency, and with some mixture if
fanaticism and narrow sectarianism."
The Board of Bishops, in their address, in 1840, say :
" We are fully persuaded that, aa a body of Christian ministers,
shall accomplish the greatest good by directing our individual ad
united efforts, in the spirit of the first teachers of Christianity, o

VIEWS OP CONSERVATIVE MEN. 10i5
bring both master and servant under the sanctifying influence of the
principles of that Gospel which teaches the duties of every relation,
and enforces the faithful discharge of them by the strongest conceiva
ble motives. Do we aim at the amelioration of the condition of the
slave ? How can we so effectually accomplish this ia our calling as
ministers of the Gospel of Christ, as by employing our whole influence
to bring both him and his master to a saving knowledge of the grace
of God, and to a practical observance of those relative duties ao clear
ly prescribed in the writings of the inspired Apostles. Permit ua to
add, that, although we enter not into the political contentions of the
day, neither interfere with civil legialation, nor with the administra
tion of the laws, we can not but feel a deep interest in whatever affecta
the peace, prosperity, and happiness of our beloved country. The
Union of these Statea, the perpetuity of the bonds of our National
Confederation, the reciprocal confidence of the different membora of
the great civil compact — in a word, the well-being of the community
of which we are members, should never cease to lay near our hearta,
and for which we should offer up our sincere and most ardent prayers
to the Almighty Ruler of the Universe. But can we, aa ministers of
the Goapel, and servanta of a Maater ' whose kingdom is not of this
world,' promote these important objects in any way so truly and per
manently, as by pursuing the course just pointed out? Can we, at
this eventful crisis, render a better service to our country than by
laying aside all interference with relations authorized and established
by the civil laws,- and applying otirselves"' wholly and faithfully to what
specially appertains to our ' high and holy calling ; ' to teach and
enforce the moral obligations of the Gospel, in application to all the
duties growing out of the different relations in society."
•J It is not necessary to trace these discussions any farther. The
controversy extended itself to all the religious denominations, but,
as before stated, a few of them managed to prevent its introduc
tion into their legislative councils. V The debates were often of the
most exciting character, and the press, availing itself of its rights
in a free country, gave an interest to their columns by reporting
the speeches. The reproach which this was calculated to bring
upon a fanatical ministry soon became obvious, and, in certain
quarters, the offending editors were rebuked with severity. We
find the following in the Christian Intelligencer, for February,
1836:

106 PULPIT politics.
" Religious Papers. — We are, moreover, of opinion that, however
valuable and popular the New York Observer may be, it does more
mischief than all our religious newspapers put together; and the
editors are acquiring popularity at a fearful expense to our church
and the reputation of her ministry. To attend our judicatories
in times of excitement, and publish all the angry words and half-
inch speeches, which good men utter, may gratify a morbid cu
riosity ; but exposes our church and her ministry, in the very worst
attitude in which they can be placed before the public eye. Their
virtue and devoted and active piety are thrown in the shade, and
the moment of excitement is seized to draw their likeness and place
it in bold relief before a censorious and scoffing world." — PitU-
burgh Christian Herald.'^
Upon this the editor of the Intelligencer thus remarks :
" This is a great truth. Mr. Baird deserves the thanks of the
Christian community for daring to utter it. Such is the desire of
many editors of 'religious papers' to swell their subscription list,
that they will gratify this ' morbid curiosity,' and furnish ' views ' to
suit all kinds of readers at all hazards; and, unless it is checked,
the time must soon come, when no church will be permitted to keep
its business in its own hands. Not a measure will be taken up, or
even mentioned in an ecclesiastical judicatory, but it will be reported
in the newspapers, and placed before the public mind in some false
attitude — the prejudices of some will be excited, and the passions
of others inflamed, so as entirely to preclude the possibility of cool
and rational reflection."
This shrinking from the scrutiny of the public press, comes
with an ill-grace from parties who were clamorous for free dis
cussion : and, the more especially is it so, when the whole of the
church enactments on slavery were put to vote, and carried,
under the highest state of excitement. But, with them, free dis
cussion must have been like submission to church authority by
William Tennent, and his fellow Protesters, in 1741, when re-
* The complaint of the editor of the Herald may have had reference to the
trial of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., for heresy, which had taken place some
time before the date of the above remarks, and which had been reported for
the New York Observer, but it will apply with equal force to the slavery
controversy, then rife in the churches.

VIEWS of conservative men. 107
quired to submit to the decisions of the Presbyterian Synod. In
effect they asserted : " If we were the majority, it would be bind
ing on you to obey the rules ; but, seeing you sightless and
Christless ones are in the majority, the rules are null, and, like
yourselves, fit only to be despised." *
It would be easy to make a volume of extracts, from abolition
documents and speeches, of the period between 1830 and 1840,
showing the vehement spirit animating those who conducted the
crusade against slavery, and the fanatical spirit by which they
were animated ; but we shall allow Rev. Dr. Channing to draw
their portrait. In 1836, in one of his works, he says :
" The abolitionists have done wrong, I believe ; nor ia their wrong
to be winked at becauae done fanatically or with good intentiona ; for
how much mischief may be wrought with good designs ! They have
fallen into the common error of enthusiasts, that of exaggerating
their object, of feeling as if no evil existed but that which they op
posed, and aa if no guilt could be compared with that of countenanc
ing and upholding it. The tone of their newspapers, so far as I have
seen them, has often been fierce and abusive. They have sent forth
orators, some of them transported with fiery zeal, to sound the alarm
against slavery through the land, to gather together young and old,
pupils from schools, females hardly arrived at the years of diacretion,
the ignorant, the excitable, the impetuous, and to organize these into
aaaociations for the battle against oppreaaion. Very unhappily they
preached their doctrine to the colored people, and collected them into
societies. To thia mixed and excitable multitude, minute heart
rending descriptions of slavery were given in piercing tones of pas
sion ; and slaveholders were held up as monsters of cruelty and crime.
The abolitionist, indeed, proposed to convert slaveholders; and for
thia end he approached them with vituperation and exhausted on
them the vocabulary of abuse. And he has reaped as he aowed."
"'J The tendencies of the abolition movement, did not escape the
attention of discerning men. It was foreseen, and predfcted, that
its ultimate results would be the dissolution of the Union, as a
necessary consequence of the alienation of feeling which it en
gendered between the North and the South. '^ Two or three years
• Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church in America, p. 164.

108 yuLPiT politics.
after Dr. Channing uttered his views of abolition, the Princ^tim
Review made this prophetic declaration :
•J " The opinion that slaveholding is itself a crime must operate to
produce the disunion of the States and the division of all ecclesias
tical societies in the country.^ Juat so far as thia opinion operates
it will lead those who entertain it to submit to any sacrifices to carry
it out, and give it effect. We shall become two nations in feeling,
which must soon render us two nations in fact."
To check the tendencies to this result, many of the most pious
and intelligent men in the church, as well as in the state, set
their faces, as steel, against the abolition movement. The same
year that Dr. Channing expressed his opinion of the abolitionists,
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, hold
ing its session in Cincinnati, passed a series of resolutions in
reprobation of abolitionism, by an overwhelming majority. *
But we must leave this part of our field of discussion, to pre
sent a class of facts which are indispensable to a. proper under-.
standing of the question of the best mode of promoting African
Evangelization. We shall, however, resume the discussion, in
another chapter, of the abolition movements, in their connection
with the ecclesiastical legislation at the North, so as to show that
they were the natural outgrowth of that legislation.
Section IV. — Inquiries into the difference in the degrees
OF success attending the attempts to Evangelize the African
Race throughout the World.
Among an unthinking people, writers and orators may frame
acceptable theories, based only on the speculations of their own
imaginations ; but he who would secure attention from . an intel
ligent public, must found his theories upon facts. In no field of
investigation is an appeal to facts so imperiously demanded, at
this moment, as in that of the slavery question. False theories,
on, the subject have done their fatal work upon our country. A
writer has recently observed, that " It is in the arena of politics.
* See Chapter VIII., session of 1836.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 109
that every moral and theological short-coming reaches maturity,
and meets its final penalty." This has been strikingly true in
reference to the United States, "'« The pulpit began the crusade
against slavery, and the press brought it to maturity upon the
arena of party politics : the nation is now meeting the penalty, * vf
But I am met with the assertion, that certain evils are so in
imical to the interests of humanity, that an exemption from them
is cheaply purchased by war. This may all be true ; but, then,
if the evils complained of cannot be remedied by war, a terrible
responsibility rests upon those who provoke it. How is it in
the present case? "The evil complained of, is the degradation
of the negro, under slavery, in the Southern States, His moral
elevation, it is contended, can be effected only by emancipation,
as a means of making him accessible to the Gospel." This has
been the burden of the cry of the abolitionists from the begin
ning," It is well, therefore, to ascertain whether the moral ele
vation of the negro will necessarily follow emancipation. This
cannot be determined by theorizing about the natural equality
of men, but only by an examination of the facts connected with
the history of the African race. And if it should appear, under
all the varied circumstances in which the Providence of God has
placed the colored man, that his condition in the United States,
under slavery, has been the most favorable to his evangelization,
then there can be no longer any reason for Christian men to
wage war upon the system, so as to endanger the peace of the
country. In prosecuting this inquiry, attention is asked to the principal

* Near the close of 1838, in the midst of the abolition excitement, the Ver
mont Chronicle, in commenting upon Guizot's History op Civilization, and ap
plying some of the teachings of history to the condition of slavery in the Uni
ted States, made the following sensible remark;
" Whatever of religious influence there is, therefore, among slaveholders and
slaves, ought to be fervently rejoiced in, and sedulously cherished. To de
nounce all religious effort in slaveholding countries, is not only unchristian
and injurious conduct toward the population of those countries, but treason
against religion itself. The history of the progress of liberty, under any other
than religious auspices, is not such, surely, as to encourage Christian men in
relying on any other than Christian principles for " breaking every yoke."

110 PULPIT POLITICS.
facts connected with the various Christian missions among the
Africans throughout the world, whether in bondage or in freedom :
1. The obstacles to African Evangelization in South Africa.
In this investigation, we must avail ourselves of former labors,*
to some extent ; and before commencing the missionary history
of South Africa, a brief reference must be had to its civil history :
The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy
waa followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town
and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hot
tentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of
this feeble race. The English captured Cape Town in 1795, ceded
it back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and still hold it in possession.
The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Eu
ropeans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it
became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon
the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the
Dutch, who were designated by the term Boers, f They remained in
the Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act of the
Britiah Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the
Boers, that they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape
Colony. In seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus,
as already stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful peo
ple. Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed
on to the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear
from them again.
The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of
Capo Town, soon came into collision with the Caffres ; who, being a
powerful and warlike race, made a vigorous resistance to their ad
vances. The Caffres stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites
retaliated on the Caffres. These depredations often resulted in wars,
each of which gave the English government a pretext to add a portion
of the Caffre territory to its own. As war followed on war, the Caffres
improved in the art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies,
and learned the use of European weapons. Thus every Caffre war
became more formidable, requiring more troops, costing more money,
and, of course, demanding more territory. In consequence of these
* See " Ethiopia," for full particulars, t The German term for farmers.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 111
r
various annexations from the Caffres, Zulus, and others, the English
possessions in South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 aquare
milea ; 105,000 of which have been added since 1847.
The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest,
must also be very brief.
A Moravian mission, begun in 1736, among the Hottentota, was
broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and ita
renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it
was again interrupted in 1795, but soon afterward restored under
British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch government to
Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a
period of half a century.
A miaaion to the Caffres, begun in 1799, by Dr. Vanderkemp, was
abandoned in a year, on account of the jealousies of that people to
ward the whites, and their plots to take hia life. The other missiona,
of various denominations, begun ftom time to time, in South Africa,
have also been interrupted and retarded by the wars of the natives
with each other, and more especially with the whites.
The pecuniary losa to the Engliah, by the war of 1835, was
$1,200,000 ; and by that of 1846-7, $3,425,000. This, however,
waa a matter of little importance, compared with the moral bearings
of these conflicts. The missions suffered more or less in all the wars,
either by interruptions of their labors, or in having their people
presaed into the army. In that of 1846-7, the London Society had
its four stations in the Caffre country entirely ruined, and its mis
sionaries and people were compelled to seek refuge in the Colony.
But the most disastrous of all these conflicts, and that which has
cast the deepest gloom over the South African Missiona, waa the
Caffre war of 1851-2-3. Theae missions, with the exception of that
to the Zulus, were under the care of ten missionary societies, all of
which were European. They had recovered from the shocks of the
former wars, and were in an encouraging state, when, in December,
1850, the Caffre war broke out. In consequence of that war, many
of the missions were reduced to a most deplorable condition ; afford
ing a sad commentary on the doctrine that the white and black races,
in the present moral condition of the world, can dwell together in
harmony. The missions of the Scotch Free Church were in the very seat of
war, the buildings of two of them destroyed, and the missionariea
forced to flee for their lives ; while the third waa only saved by being
fortified.

112 PULPIT POLITICS,
The Berlin Missionary Society had its missionaries driven from tWo
of its stations, during the progress of the war.
The Mission of the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, which
consisted of three stations, was all involved in ruin. The war laid
waste the mission stations, scattered the missionaries and converts,
suspended entirely the work of instruction, and did an amount of
evil which can scarcely be exaggerated. The Report for 1853 de^
clar'ed that the mission could not be resumed on its old basis, as tha .
Caffres around their stations were to be driven away ; and though
the native converts, numbering 100, might be collected at one of the
stations, it was deemed better that a delegation visit South Africa;
and report to the Board a plan of future operations.
The London Missionary Society also suffered greatly, and some of
their missionaries were stript of every thing they possessed. The
Report for 1853, says : " This deadly conflict has at length termi
nated, and terminated, as might have been foreseen, by the triumph
of British arms. The principal Caffre chiefs, with their people, havfe
been driven out of their country ; and their lands have been allotted
to British soldiers and colonists. And on the widely extended fron
tier, there will be established military posts, from which the troops
and the settlers are to guard the colony against the return of the
exiled natives."
Such, indeed, was the hostility of the whites toward the mission
aries themselves, at one of the Churches in the white settlements,
that bullets were not unfrequently dropped into the collection plates.*
Both Moravian and Wesleyan Missions have been destroyed. In
one instance, 250 Hottentots perished by the hands of English sol
diers, in the same Church where they had listened to the word of
God from the Moravian missionaries ; not because they were enemies,
but in an attempt to disarm a peaceful population. Such were the
cruelties incident to this war !
The Paris Missionary Society had thirteen stations in South Africa.
Its Report, for 1853, complained of the interruptions and injuries
which its missions had suffered, in consequence of the military com
motions which had prevailed in the fields occupied by its mission
aries. In alluding to the obstacles to the Gospel which every where
existed. Dr. Grandpierre, the Director of the Society, said : " But
how are these obstacles multiplied, when the missionary is obliged
to encounter, in the lives of nominal Christians, that which gives the
» Missionary Mag. and Chron., Oct., 1883.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 113
lie to his teachings. Irritated by the measures which are employed
against them, may not the aborigines rightfully say to the whites,
with more truth than ever, ' You call yourself the children of the
God of peace ; and yet you make war upon us. You teach justice ;
but you are guilty of injustice. You preach the love of God ; and
you take away our liberty and our property.' "
One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Caffre war, when
summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy pic
ture: " All missionary operations have been suspended ; the converts are
either scattered or compelled, by their hoatile countrymen, to take
part in the revolt; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the
scenes of their benevolent labors; hostile feelings have been excited
between the black and white races, which it will require a long pe
riod to soothe down ; and the prospects of evangelizing Caffreland have
been rendered dark and diatant."

We turn now to another class of missions, and, for the brief
synopsis presented, are indebted to the Missionary Magazine, the
organ of the American Baptist Missionary Union, which
copies from the London Missionary Chronicle — the paragraphs
descriptive of the Bushmen being from the London Quarterly
Review. The first mission of the London Missionary Society, in South
Africa, was begun in 1799, among the Bushmen, The station
selected was 400 miles from Cape Town, on the Zak River. This
station was abandoned in 1805, owing to the quarrels of the
native tribes, the difficulty of obtaining the means of subsistence,
&c. The next effort among the Bushmen was made in 1814, at
Thornberg, and two- years afterward, a removal effected to a point
nearer the Great Orange River, which they called Hepzibah. In
this place some success followed their efforts; but, through the
infiuence of the Boers, the British authorities peremptorily or
dered the missionaries within the colony, on the plea that " these
institutions were detrimental to the colony." Though the Society
has never since been able to form a mission to the Bushmen,
nevertheless, in connection with the Griquas, the Hottentots at
Kat River, and among the Namaquas and the Bechuanas, out
stations have been formed for Bushmen, among whom some deeply
8

114 PULPIT POLITICS.
affecting instances of spiritual good have been witnessed. * The
following account of the Bushmen will interest the reader. It is
from a late number of the London Quarterly Review:
"On the banks and in the valleys of the Snowberg or Snowy
Mountains, which form the northern boundary of the Cape, human
ity is found in the very lowest state of degradation in which it has
ever been exhibited. The Bosjesmans, or Bushmen, two or three
specimens of which race were brought to this country a few years ago,
present an exaggeration even of the hideous form which charaeter-
izea the Hottentot. Hunger, and cold, and nakedness, and every
description of privation and distress, have so dwarfed their forms and
depraved their minds, that they present a spectacle painful to look
upon. The stature of these pigmy inhabitanta of the desert rarely
exceeds four ffeet, or four feet two inches. Thieves by profession,
cruel and treacherous, without a fixed habitation, without society,
without any sort of common interest or government, and living only
from day to day, and from hand to mouth, they were objects of
loathing to neighboring tribes, even before Europeans had approached
their country. The more civilized of the Hottentots and Caffres
waged a deadly war against them; and the sight of one of these
diminutive savages is said to rouse the passions of that race to an
unaccountable fury. Many years since, a Caffre saw in the Govern
ment Houae at Cape Town, among the other domestics, a Bushman
eleven years of age. With the impulse of a beast of prey he darted
upon him, and transfixed him with his aggesai.
" The little intelligence which the Bushmen possess is displayed
chiefly in robbery and the chase. Rivaling the antelope in fleetness
and the monkey in agility, they accompany their wild, half-famished,
savage dogs until they come within bowshot of their game, or run
down the objects of their pursuit. Arrayed generally with a bow, a
quiver full of arrows, a hat and a belt, leather sandals, a sheep's
fleece, a gourd, or the shell of an ostrich's egg, to carry water, these
puny creatures wander over their parched and desolate plains, sup
ported by a food which, unless when occasionally varied by the lux
uries of the chase, consiata entirely of roots, berriea, ant-eggs, grass
hoppers, mice, toads, lizards, and snakes. They smear the arrows
which they use for hunting, and in war, with a poison which, extracted
from a bulb, and mingled with a venom drawn from the jaws of the
* Missionary Magazine, Jan., 1861 — copied from London Miss. Chron.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 115
yellow serpent, forms a compound of the most noxious character, for
no creature was ever pierced by a dart prepared with this deadly virua,
and lived. They have another poison more fearful in its effects,
which is extracted from a caterpillar. The agony produced by it,
Dr. Livingstone says, is so intense, that the person wounded cuts him
self with knives, and flies from human habitation a raving maniac.
The effect upon the lion is equally terrible. He is heard moaning in
distress, becomes furious, and bites trees and the ground in his rage.
" They are said to be totally void of natural affection ; ' and there
are instances,' adds a missionary, (Mr. Kicherer) who lived for some
time in the neighborhood, ' of parents throwing their tender offspring
to the hungry lion who stood roaring before their cavern, refusing to
depart until some peace-offering was made to him. They shun the
face of strangers, concealing themselves amongst the rocka and buahea,
and even throwing themselves over precipicea rather than fall into the
hands of their enemies. But they have been known, when escape
has been cut off, to fight with the most determined reaolution. Re
ligion they have none. They regard the thunder as the voice of an
angry demon, and they reply to it with curses and imprecations.
Their language is inarticulate to all but themselves ; and there appears
to be scarcely even a possibility of either civilizing or converting them.
In the north-east of Natal, where the Bushmen appear in their lowest
type, they reside in holes of the earth scraped out with their nails, or
rather with their claws. ' They will not receive kindness,' says a close
observer of their character ; ' or if they do, they only make a return
of treachery, robbery, and murder. No presents of cattle or corn, no
inducements to locate and settle, can prevail upon them to relinquish
their wild life, or to make any approach toward civilization.' The
only satisfactory thought connected with them is the belief of their
gradual extinction. They exist, in the meantime, an awful proof of
the degradation to which humanity, in its gradual deterioration, can fall,
and an instance of physical and moral degeneracy probably unparal
leled in the world."
How are the principles of the Declaration of Independence to
be applied to this people? Suppose they were in the United
States, would the abolitionist claim for the Bushmen a political
equality with the intelligent white man?*
* The Lowest Type oe Humanity. — The following extract is from an Article
on "Barbarism and Civilization, in the Atlantic Monthly, 1861:

116 PULPIT POLITICS.
Intimately connected with the mission to the Bushmen, was
that to the Namaquas and Corannas, living north and west of
Cape Colony, and chiefly beyond the Orange River. It was, like
that to the Bushmen, attended with great privation and extreme
peril, and, by the Divine favor, with instances of marvelous suc
cess. " It is difficult to imagine the arid, desolate, barren, rocky
surface, which this part of Africa presents. The migratory tribes
that removed from fountain to fountain to find grass for their
cattle were as ignorant and spiritually necessitous as the Bush
men." In 1805 they set out for the mission, and in 1807 bap
tized their first converts. In 1810 the missionaries fled to the
colony to escape from the sword of Africaner, a noted robber
chief, who destroyed the mission, reducing the buildings to ashes
after having secured the plunder. In 1812 the mission was re
newed at a point south of the Orange River. Africaner, having
had the missionaries commended to his care, welcomed one of
them to his village, and afterwards became, himself, a truly con
verted man. In 1818 Mr. Moffatt reached Africaner's kraal, and,
under his instructions, the former man of blood became a preacher
of righteousness. He died in 1823, cheered to his latest hours
by the hopes of the Gospel of Christ. In 1830 the Gospels,
which had been translated into the Namaqua tongue, were printed
and welcomed by the people, *
The mission among the Griquas was commenced in 1801.
" This people were numerous, at this time, and comparatively rich '
in cattle, more intelligent, and by the possession of fire-arms,

" On the island of Borneo there has been found a certain race of wild crea
tures, of which kindred varieties have been discovered in the Philippine
Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in South Africa. They walk, usually, almost
erect, on two legs, and, in that attitude, measure about four feet in hight; they
are dark, wrinkled, and hairy; they construct no habitations, form no families,
scarcely associate together; sleep in caves or trees; feed on snakes and vermin,
on ant-eggs, on mice, and on each other; they cannot be tamed nor forced to
any labor; and are hunted and shot among the trees like the great gorillas, of
Which they are a stunted copy. When they are captured alive, one finds to his
surprise that their uncouth jabbering sounds like articulate language; they
turn up a human face to gaze at their captor, and females show instincts of
modesty; and, in fine, these wretched beings are men."
? Missionary Magazine, January, I86I; taken from London Missionary
Chronicle.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 117
more powerful than the tribes among them ; but in morals and
social condition, little, if at all, superior to the Bushmen. They
were indolent and improvident, wandering from place to place, as
they found pasturage for their herds. The missionaries followed
their movements, and endured aU the discomfort and privation of
such a mode of life, in order to induce them to receive their mes
sage." Finally, a part Of the Griquas were induced to settle
down to agriculture, under the care of one of the missionaries,
while the other missionary accompanied those who went with the
cattle. This was the commencement of a settled habitation among
them. The headstrong perverseness of the people, the want of
suitable and sufficient food, the exposure to attacks from bands
of marauding Caffres, and long continued and alarming illness,
greatly depressed the missionaries during the earlier years of
their labors; but they kept their great object — the salvation
of the souls of the people — steadily in view ; and, after six years'
labor, administered baptism to twelve individuals, and, before the
close of the year, a church of converted natives was organized,
and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper celebrated. A few years
later the mission was disturbed by an order from the government,
at Cape Town, demanding twenty men to serve in the Cape regi
ment, and the appointment, subsequently, of an agent to reside at
the town. Suspectingthat the missionary had favored this meas
ure, the people lost confidence in him; and a portion of them,
rather than submit to the imposition, withdrew from the settle
ment to a mountainous part of the country, where they determined
to resist any attempt of the government to enslave them, and to
oppose that portion of their own people who were even favorable
to the presence of a government agent among them. These evils
were increased by other incidents, and for the space of fifteen
years after the peace of the settlement had been destroyed by the
demand of the government for men, the mission suffered a series
of fearful calamities. The missionary never recovered the con
fidence of the people, but, broken in spirit, retired in 1820. The
seceding party, maddened and reckless, committed fearful ravages
and murders among the defenceless tribes, attacked and burned
part of Griqua Town itself, and were only induced to retire by the
persuasions of the missionary, who went to their intrenchments,

118 PULPIT POLITICS.
prayed with them, and exhorted them to desist. The Church was
reduced from 200 to less than 30, and the mission brought to the
verge of ruin. In 1830, the mission began to revive, and the
other stations which had been commenced in the meantime, began
to bear fruits, so that, in 1840, the congregations at the several
stations averaged between 3,000 and 4,000; the communicants
were 630, and 900 were taught in the schools. Causes altogether
beyond the control of the missionaries or people, had, however,
been some time in operation, which threatened ultimately to drive
both from the country. The Boers removed, in 1845 and 1846,
in large numbers and settled among the Griquas and neighbor
ing tribes. They soon made war upon the Griquas, and when the
British government interfered in 1848, they rose in rebellion, but
were defeated. By the treaty which followed, the country was
surrendered to the Boers in 1854, and the Griquas left in their
power. Additions have been every year made to the communi
cants, which amount to 400 ; but the evils and disturbances created
by the conflict between the Boers and the natives, and their politi
cal difficulties, are forcing them — after the people have occupied
the country for the best part of a century, and the Society has
labored among them for sixty years — to seek in some distant
region another, and, as they hope, a more peaceful home. Though
the district connected with Griqua Town has been exemptifrom
disturbance by the Boers, the people have been impoverished and
dispersed by severe drouths, sometimes continued through six or
seven successive years. Among those who remain, religion^ ob
servances are maintained, at the several stations, where from 1,200
to 2,000 assemble for worship every Lord's day. An attempt
was making, at a point thirty miles distant, to irrigate the lands
with waters from the Vaal river, and on the success of this effort
the continuance of the mission in its present locality seems to
depend. Lekatlong, another mission, has been itself but slightly
troubled, though assaults in other stations have increased the
numbers, amounting to 13,000, now depending on its efforts, of
whom 690 are united in Christian fellowship. *
We turn next to the mission among the Bechuanas. This tribe
* Missionary Magazine, April, 1861, copied from London Miss. Chronicle.

missions under freedom and slavery CONTRASTED. 119
lives in the country east of the Namaquas and north of the Gri
quas. It may be said to be composed of numerous tribes all
bearing the name of Bechuanas. In 1813, the proposition was
madQ to the chief to receive Christian teachers. " Send them,
and I will be a father to them," was the reply. In 1817, the
missionary removed from the station first occupied, with the peo
ple, to the Kuruman, where, in 1821, he was joined by Rev. Mr.
MoFEATT, the well-known historian of South African Missions.
In 1823, a horde of 40,000 fierce Mantatees, who had desolated
every country over which they had passed, approached the Kuru
man, but were arrested through the vigilance of Mr. Moffatt,
who secured the aid of the Griquas ; and the mission station, as
well as tke adjacent portions of the colony, were saved from
ruin. After twelve years' severe and patient toil, the missionaries
welcomed lo their Christian brotherhood, their first convert. He
was soon afterward followed by six others; a Christian church
was then organized, and the first communion celebrated in the
same year, 1829. The Psalms and the New Testament were
translated into the language of the natives, and brought to the
mission in 1843. The work was then prosecuted with great vigor
and success. At the principal station, civilization and social im-
prov3ment advanced rapidly, the schools received a new impetus,
and;he church numbered 400 communicants. In 1851, the station
at l^iamusa was broken up by a conflict between the natives and
the Boers, who had taken possession of the country beyond the
Vad river. A treaty with the British secured the country to the
BoffS and left the natives exposed to their tyranny, without the
me^ns of defence, as the British were bound not to sell the
natves any arms or ammunition. The Boers soon manifested
thf.r intentions toward the natives and the missions ; Mabotsa
anl Matebe were broken up, and the people dispersed; Kolo-
leng was attacked and burned, numbers of the people killed, and
)r. Livingstone's house plundered of its contents, while two other
lissionaries were required to leave the country in fourteen days,
.nd Mr, Moffatt and the Kuruman threatened. But the Governor
)f the Cape interfered, and that mission is yet safe. The labors
of Dr. Livingstone, as an explorer, opened up new fields for mis
sions, and the Christians of Britain are supplying them with mis-

120 PULPIT POLITICS.
sionaries as rapidly as possible. " Thus while the Society has
abundant reason to acknowledge the Divine goodness in the work
which the devoted brethren, who have labored during the last
sixty years in Southern Africa, have been enabled to accomplish, it
is deeply impressed with the urgent necessity for increased effort
and more constant prayer in relation to the extehded and im
portant fields to which Divine Providence now invites its labors." *
Again, we must turn to former labors for the principal facts in
relation to the only remaining mission which we shalj' notice —
that to the Zulus of South Africa : f /
The Mission of the American Board to the Zulus, in Soiith Africa,
waa begun in 1835, One station was commenced among tht maritime
Zulus, under king Dingaan, who resided ou the east side of the Cape,
some seventy miles from Port Natal ; and the other amongthe interior
Zulus, under king Mosilikatai. J This station was broken/up in 1837,
by a war between the Zulus and the Boers, who were thei emigrating
from the Cape. The miaaionaries were forced to leave, aid join their
brethren at Natal ; but, in doing this, they were compellel to perform
a journey of 1,300 miles, in a circuitous route, 1,000 of ^hich yas in
ox wagons, through the wilderness, while they were greatly enf^hled
by disease, and disheartened by the death of the wife of one ofUheir
party. 1
The missionaries to the maritime Zulus, when their brethren from
the interior joined them, had succeeded in establishing one stition
among king Dingaan's people, and another at Port Natal, whde a
mixed population, from various tribes, had collected among the Ditch
Boers, then settling in and around that place. In 1838 a war occulted
between Dingaan and the Beers, which broke up the missions Ind
compelled the missionaries to seek refuge on board some vessels, pnv-
identially at Natal, in which some of them sailed to the United Stses,
and others to the Cape. ',
Peace being made in 1839, a part of the missionaries returned ti
Natal and resumed their labors. But a revolt of one-half the Zulu
in 1840, under Umpandi, led to another war, in which the new chie^
and the Boers succeeded in overthrowing Dingaan. His death by thi
hand of an old enemy, into whose territory he fled, left the Zulu!
* Missionary Magazine, June, 1861, from London Miss, Chronicle, 1
tSee "Ethiopia," for full particulars. i
t See Moffatt' s South African Missions.

missions under FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 121
under the rule of Umpandi. This chief allowed the mission in his
territory to be renewed in 1841. But, in 1842, a war broke out
between the Boers, at Natal, and the British ; who, to prevent the
Boers from organizing an independent government, had taken posses
sion of that place. In thia contest, the Boers were forced to submit
to British authority, and British law was extended to the population
around Natal. This led to large desertions of the Zulus to Natal, to
escape from the cruelties of Umpandi ; and he, becoming jealous of
the missionary, attacked the mission and butchered three of the prin
cipal families engaged in its support. Thus, a second time, was this
mission broken up and the mission family forced to retreat to Natal,
Hero, then, at the opening of 1843, nearly eight years after the
missionaries reached Africa, they had not a single station in the Zulu
country, to which they had been sent ; and they were directed, by the
Board, to abandon the field. From this they were prevented, by the
timely remonstrances of the Rev. Dr. Philip, of the English mission
at the Cape.
A crisis, however, had now arisen, by which the conflicting elements
hitherto obstructing the Gospel, were rendered powerless or reduced
to order, by the strong arm of Great Britain. The fierce Boers had
destroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the
Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs ;
while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority,
along with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis
of a colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at
Natal, which afforded security to the missionariea, and enabled them
to establish themselves on a permanent basis. An attempt was also
made to renew the mission in the Zulu territory, but Umpandi refused
his assent, and the strength of the mission was concentrated within
the Natal Colony.
Owing to the continued cruelties of Umpandi, the desertions of his
people to Natal increased, until the Colony included a native popula
tion, mostly Zulus, of nearly 100,000.
No serious interruptions have occurred, since the British occupied
Natal ; and opportunities have been afforded for studying the Zulu
character, and the remaining obstacles to missionary success among
that people. Time has shown, that the tyranny of the chiefs, and the
wars of the tribes with each other, or with the whites, are not the
most obstinate difficulties to be overcome.
From the Report of the Board for 1850, we learn, that though there
were then, in this field, 12 missionaries, 14 assistants, 6 native helpers.

122 PULPIT POLITICS.
18 places of preaching, and 8 schools; there were but 78 church
members and 185 pupils. The report attributes the slow progress
made, to the extreme moral degradation of the population ; and, in
mentioning particulars, names polygamy as the most prominent. As
among the native Africans generally, so is it here, superstition and
sensuality are the great barriers to the progress of the Gospel.
But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from perse
vering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing
the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields
can only be removed by God's appointed means, the Gospel; and,
that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual.
Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good ; and,
in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the
Report of 1850, recommends the establishment of a Theological
school for training a native ministry for that field. The Reports for
1851 and 1852 are more encouraging, and show an increase of 86
church members, 16 children baptized, and 15 Christian marriages
solemnized. The Report for 1853 is less encouraging. The whole
number of church members is now 141, of whom only 8 were received
during the year. Family schools are sustained at all the stations;
but none of the heathen send their children. Three day-schools are
taught by native converts, in which the children of those residing at
the stations, where they are located, receive instruction. One girls'
school, consisting of about 20 pupils, is taught by Mrs. Adams.*
The Christian Zulus are advancing in civilization and in material
prosperity; but the heathen population are manifesting more and
more of stupid indifference or bitter hostility to the Gospel. This is
more particularly indicated in their refusal to send their children to
school. The passage of this mission from the class beyond the protection
of the Colonies, to that of those deriving security from them, released
it from the annoyances occasioned by native wars, and left it to con
tend with the obstacles, only, which are inherent in heathenish bar
barism. It had, consequently, begun to progress encouragingly. But
a new element of disturbance has recently been introduced, which
threatens to be no less hurtful than the old causes of interruption
and insecurity. We refer to the immigration of the English into the
Natal Colony, and their efforts to dispossess the Zulus of their lands.
Before taking any further notice of this threatening evil, we must
* Missionary Herald, for December, 1853, and January, 1854.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 123
call particular attention to another point, the importance of which has,
perhaps, been too much overlooked. In January, 1853, the Rev, Mr.
Tyler thus wrote :
"I have many thoughts, of late, concerning the great obstacle
which lies in the way of elevating the Zulus. It seems to me that it
is their deep ignorance. We find it exceedingly difficult to throw even
one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted by sin 
Of the great mass who attend our services on the Sabbath, but few,
probably, have any clear knowledge of the plan of salvation through
faith in Christ. Especially is this true of the female sex, whose con-
ditition, both temporal and spiritual, seems almost beyond the reach
of improvement."
Mr. Tyler proceeds to show, that the Zulus, in their religious belief,
their worship, and their blind submission to the witch-doctors, evince
the moat deep, gross, and stupid ignorance imaginable ; but he pre
sents nothing as belonging to that people, which is not common to
the African tribes generally. Without, at present, remarking on the
relation which the ignorance of barbarism bears to the progress of mis
sions, we shall recur to the effects of the immigration of the whites
into the Colony of Natal.
When the Zulus deserted their king and took refuge at Natal, there
were but few whites present to be affected by the movement, and allot
ments of landa were readily obtained for them. Soon afterward, how
ever, an emigration from Great Britain began to fill up the country.
The main object of the whites was agriculture, and the best unoccu
pied lands were soon appropriated. The new immigrants then com
menced settling on the possessions of the Zulus. The designs of the
whites soon manifested itself so openly, that the missionariea have
been obliged to interpoae for the protection of the natives. Accord
ingly, a committee of their number was deputed to wait upon the
Lieutenant-Governor, to learn his intentions on the subject. The report
of the interview, as made to the American Board, read as follows :
"He plainly gave us to understand, that instead of collecting the
natives in bodies, as has hitherto been the policy, it was his purpose
to disperae them among the coloniata, and the colonists among them.
The natural result will be, to deteriorate our fields of labor, by dimin
ishing the native population, and by introducing a foreign element,
which, as all missionary experience proves, conflicts with christianizing
interests. Nor did he assure us that even our stations would not be

124 PULPIT POLITICS.
infringed by foreign settlers ; but our buildings and their bare sites,
he encouraged us to expect, would at all events remain to us undis
turbed. But lest this statement convey an impression which is too
discouraging, we would say, that many of our fields embrace tracts of
country so broken, as not to be eligible as farms for the immigrants ;
and, hence, no motive would exist for dispossessing the native occu
pants, unless it would be to transfer them to the more immediate
vicinity of the white population, in order to facilitate their obtaining
servants ; which at present is so difficult as to be considered one of
the crying evils of the Colony. So deep is the feeling on this subject,
that many and strenuous are those who advocate a resort to some
system of actual imprisonment. This seems a strange doctrine to be
held by the sons of Britain ! "
Then, after expressing an opinion that the obstacles in the way of
thia meaaure may prevent its, execution for aome years to come, the
report concludes :
" Yet it is more than probable, that some of our stations will ex
perience the disadvantages of the too great proximity of white settlers.
The evils of such a proximity are aggravated by the prejudices which
exist against missionaries and their operations. And perhaps we
should say, that, as American missionariea, we are regarded with still
greater jealousy. We fear it will require yeara to live down these
prejudices. Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the infiuence
of unprincipled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their
labors, or the native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the
original proprietors, are naturally jealous and envious of those who,
they suppose, would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights.
If we speak at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice
and truth. If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are
misrepresented, and our motives are impugned. So that whichever
course we take, we can not expect to act in perfect harmony with all
the interests of all the men who, within the last few years, have come
to the Colony." *
Passing on to 1861, we find the annual report of the Board
stating the strength of this mission thus : stations 12, out-stations
6, missionaries 14, female assistant-missionaries 14, native helpers
2, members 283.
* Missionary Herald, February, 1853.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 125
The government now takes an interest in the mission, and has
given titles to the land upon which the buildings of the several
stations are situated. The report says, in relation to the success
of the mission :
" To the ten churches established by our brethren among the Zulus,
there have been received, in all, 283 members, who, for the most part,
have exhibited a conaiatent Christian deportment, certainly to as great
extent as could have been expected, when we take into view their
former lives and the circumstances in which they are placed. It is
not surprising that there have been cases of defection. Twenty-six
were added to the churches during the last year."
This closes what is necessary to understand the condition of
the South African missions, and the relation they sustain to the
missions elsewhere established for the benefit of the African race.
These missions, in 1858, stood as follows, as estimated in the
Encyclopedia of Missions, Ten Missionary Societies occupied
the field, and their number of converts, as far as reported, was
14,258 — three of the smaller societies not reporting any members.
The missionaries among the American slaves have rested upon
downy pillows, as compared with the hardships endured by those
of South Africa.
2. The obstacles to African Evangelization in West Africa.
The missions at Sierra Leone have been noticed in Chapter I,,
and the reader will take note of the facts in this connection. No
progress whatever was made so long as the slave trade prevailed ;
but from the date of its suppression the work began to prosper.
The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has
been continued without interruption, except what necessarily
arose from the great mortality among the missionaries, A col
lege and several schools were established at an early day, in
which orphan and destitute children were boarded and instructed.
Besides teaching the schools, the missionaries preached to the
adults, a few of whom embraced the Gospel; but no very en
couraging progress was made for many years. In 1817, how
ever, the labors expended began to unfold their effects, and the
mission to make encouraging advances ; so that, by 1832. it had

126

PULPIT POLITICS.

638 communicants and 294 candidates in its churches, 684 Sab-
bath-scool scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its day-schools.
Thus, in forty-five years after the founding of Sierra Leone,
and twenty-four after the abolition of the slave trade, was the
basis of this mission broadly and securely laid. Since that period
it has been extended eastward to Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos.
In connection with all these missions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone,
the Episcopal Church, in 1850, had 54 seminaries and schools,
6,600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and 7,500 attendants on public
worship. Of the teachers in the schools at Sierra Leone, it is
worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans, while fifty-six
were native Africans.
The mission of the English Wesleyans, in 1831 — twenty
years after its commencement — included 2 missionaries, 294
church members, and about 160 pupils in its schools. This mis
sion, like the Episcopal, progressed slowly at first; but as it
collected the elements of progress within its bosom, it, also, began
to expand, and is now advancing prosperously. Its stations have
been extended westward to the Gambia, and eastward to various
points, including Cape Coast Castle, Badagry, Abbeokuta, and
Kumasi. In connection with these missions, the Wesleyan Meth
odists, in 1850, had 44 chapels, 13 out-stations, 42 day-schools,
97 teachers, 4,500 pupils, including those in the Sabbath-schools,
6,000 communicants, on trial 560, and 14,600 attendants on pub
lic worship.
The missions of both these Societies, established to the east
ward of Sierra Leone, have encountered many difficulties from the
wars of the natives, provoked, mainly, by the influence of the
slave traders.
The strength of these missions, in 1860, stood as follows : *

DENOMINATIONS.

MISSIONARIES.

TEAOHEHS.

SCHOLABS.

MEMBERS.

Episcopal Church. 

120 20

200
160

6,000 5,000

3,000
18,000

Methodist Church 

Total 

140

360

11,000

21,000

The missions connected with Liberia are' also of great interest
¦-'Scotch Record, as quoted by the Missionary Magazine.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 127
in connection with the subject under consideration. Details of
their history, at length, need not be given, as the results of the
establishment of the colony are familiar to all.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States
has one of its principal missions in Liberia, The nucleus of this
mission consisted of several members, and one or two local
preachers, of the Methodist Church, who went out, in 1820, with
the first emigrants. In March, 1833, Rev, Melville B. Cox, the
first ordained missionary, landed in Monrovia. In 1853, this
mission embraced 1,301 members, of whom 116 were natives, and
there were 115 probationers. The mission had 15 Sunda,y-schools,
with 839 pupils, of whom 50 were natives; and 20 week-day-
schools, with 513 scholars. There were also 7 schools among the
natives, with 127 pupils.
According to the Report for 1861, this mission embraces 1,392
Americo-Liberian members, 89 probationers, 72 native members,
600 scholars in week-day-schools, and 930 in Sabbath-schools,
On contrasting these results, with those of a few years back, it
would appear that the progress of this mission, among the natives,
has not been very encouraging. There have been adequate causes
for this — causes which the Christian world, and especially the
American abolitionist, should calmly consider. Their nature may
be inferred from what has been reported on the subject by Bishop
Scott, who made an official visit to Liberia — leaving at the close
of 1852, and returning in April, 1853, having spent seventy
days in the Colony. He represents the spiritual condition of
the mission, as generally healthy and prosperous ; and the work
as going steadily onward. In relation to the civil and social con
dition of the Colony, the Bishop bears the following testimony :
" The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on
the model of our own, and ia wholly in the hands of colored men,
seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a
people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and
I heard not one profane word. The Sabbath is kept with singular
strictneaa, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly wor
shipers," But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says,

128 PULPIT politics.
very little indeed has been done — much less than the friends of the
mission seem to have good reason to expect — much less than he him
self expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering,
and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed.
These results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithful
ness on the part of the missionaries ; as other denominations have
not been more successful — perhaps not quite so much so — but are
the result of the peculiar condition of the native population.
The first difficulty, says the Bishop, which meets the missionary,
on going to this people is an unknown tongue ; a tongue, too, which
varies so much,, as he passes from one tribe to another, within the
space of only a few miles, that it often amounts to a different language.
The nature of this obstacle will be so easily comprehended, that the
details given by the Bishop, need not be quoted. He thus proceeds :
" But now another difficulty assails him — one which his knowledge ¦
of men in other parts of the world had given him no reason to antici
pate. Though he may in some way get over the difficulty presented
in a rude foreign tongue, yet he now finds, to his utter surprise, that
he can not gain access to this people unless he dash them, (that is,
make them presents,) and only aa he dashes them. When, where, or
how this wretched custom arose I can not tell, but it is found to pre
vail over most parts of Africa, and, so far as I know, no where else.
But what shall our missionary now do ? Will he dash them ? Will
he dash them ' much plenty ? ' Then they will hear him — they will
flock around him — nay, he may do with them almost as he wists,
and a nation may be born in a day. But let him not be deceived, for
all is not gold, here especially, that glitters. So soon as he withholds
his dashes, ten to one they are all as they were. But is he poor and
can not dash them? — or able, but on principle will not? Then, as a
general fact, he may go home. They will not hear him at all, nor
treat him with the least respect. Indeed, they will probably say,
'He no good man,' — and it will be well for him if they do not get
up a palaver against him and expel him from their coasts. This
dashing is a most mischievous custom — dreadfully in the way of mis
sionary labor, and I know not how it is to be controlled. I am sick
of the very sound of the word. The Lord help poor Africa !
" But the difficulties multiply. Now a hydra-headed monster gapes
upon our missionary, of most frightful aspect, and as tenacious of life
as that fabled monster of the ancient poets. It is polygamy. He
finds to his grief and surprise, that every man has as many wives as

missions under freedom AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 129
he can find money to buy. He must give them all up but one, if he
would be a Christian. But will he give them up? Not easily. Hoi
will give up almost any thing before he will give up his wives. They
are his slaves, in fact; they constitute his wealth. And then it is
difficult, not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow
morally wrong to put them away. ' Me send woman away ? — where
she go to ? — what she do ? ' This I consider the hugest difficulty
with which Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this peo
ple, and makes me think that she must look mainly to the rising
generation. "But here, too, a difficulty arises. The female children are con
tracted away — are sold, in fact — by*t.heir parents while they are yet
very young, often while they are infants ; and if the missionary would
procure them for his schools, he must pay the dower — some fifteen
pr twenty dollars.
" But our missionary finds that the whole social and domestic organ
ization of these people is opposed to the pure, chaate, and comely
spirit of the Gospel, and that, to succeed in this holy work, it must
not only be changed, but revolutionized — upturned from the very
foundation. Is there no difficulty here? Are habits and customs, so
long established and so deeply rooted, to be given up without a
struggle ? The native people, both men and women, go almost stark
naked, and they love to go so — and are not abashed in the presence
of people better dreaaed ; they eat with their hands, and dip, and
pull, and tear, with as little ceremony and as little decency as monk
eys, and they love to eat so ; they sleep on the bare ground, or on
mats spread on the ground, and they love to sleep so ; the men hunt
or fish, or lounge about their huts, and smoke their pipes, and chat,
and sleep, while their wives, alias their slaves, tend and out and house
their rice — -cut and carry home their wood — make their fires, fetch
their water, get out their rice, and prepare their 'chop' — and all,
even the women, love to have it so. And to all the remonstrances of
the missionary, they oppose this simple and all-settling reply : ' This
be countryman's fash.' They seem incapable of conceiving that your
fash is better than theirs, or that theirs is at all defective. Your fash,
they will admit, may be better for you, but theirs is better for them.
So the natives of Cape Palmas have lived, in the very midst of the
colonists, for some twenty years, and they are the same people still,
with almost no visible change."
The Bishop next notices their superstitions and idolatries, and the
9

130 PULPIT POLITICS.
evils connected with their belief in witchcraft ; and says, that though,
by the influence of the colony and missions, their confidence is, in
some places, being shaken in some of them ; they generally even yet
think you a fool, and pity you, if you venture to hint that there is
nothing in them. But we must not quote him farther than to include
his closing remarks :
" But what ! Do you then think that there is no hope for these
heathen, or that we should give up all hopes directed to that end?
Not I, indeed. Very far from it, I would rather reiterate the noble
saying of the sainted Cox : ' Though a thousand fall even, in this at
tempt, yet let not Africa be given up.' I mention these things to
show, that there are solid reasons why our brethren in Africa have
accomplished so little ; and also to show, that the Churches at home
must, in this work particularly, exercise the patience of faith and the
labor of love. We must still pound the rock, even though it is hard;
and our mallets be but of wood. It will break one day." *
The other missions, established in Liberia, are under the con
trol of the following denominations : American Protestant Epis
copal Church, The Presbyterian Board of Missions, '(0, S,,)
* It will be proper, here, to add some testimony from another source, in ref
erence to the terrible moral degradation of the inhabitants of Africa, where
civilized men have not yet extended their sway. Within the jurisdiction of
Sierra Leone and Liberia, the cruelties of African superstitions can n(> longer
be practiced with impunity. This result, alone, will amply repay the toil and
treasure expended upon these colonies.
The New York Observer, of September 5, 1861, has the following article:
" Heathendom at the Present Houk. — Du Chaillu, in his new and popular
book on Africa, as well as in his -lectures, has brought prominently before the
Christian public the horrible effects of a belief in witchcraft among the tribes
in the interior of Africa. Other writers have testified to the same state of
things, and we refer to a recent letter written by a missionary of the United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, for the purpose of citing a few facts to ex
hibit the condition of society at the present moment within sixty days' travel
of our church doors:
" ' His death was the occasion of a painful display of the evil passions that
are nurtured by the superstitions of heathenism. All Africans believe that
certain persons know how to make charms that are potent to destroy human life.
It was alleged that an uncle of the deceased, named Egbo Eyo, had thus destroyed
his nephew. There was also a feud between this man and the slaves of his
brother, old King Eyo; he regarded them with scorn, and they cherished
toward him a fierce hatred.
"'The body was buried on the day after the decease, in the manner usual

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 131
The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist
Convention, and The American Baptist Missionary Union.
In addition to these missions in Liberia, there are others, among
the native Africans, in Western Africa, which deserve a notice.
These are the missions of the American Board, on the Gaboon,
and the mission of the American Missionary Association, at
Mendi, with a few others,
among the Efik people. Many valuables, and a large amount of goods, were
put into the grave, along with certain parts of a cow, slaughtered for the pur
pose. On that day, the news having spread, many of the slaves gathered into
the town. Egbo Eyo, along with the other freemen of the town, busied him
self in the funeral ceremony . It would appear that the slaves began to regard
him with an evil eye, either from having heard the report already mentioned
or under the influence of the hatred which they bore to him, or both; ..and
early next morning they made an attack on his place, fired into it, and shot
one of his women. Seeing escape hopeless, the poor man surrendered; and the
infuriated mob dragged him to the market-place, slashing him with their cut
lasses, and beating him with sticks and the butt end of their guns. The poor
man was no craven; he behaved with the greatest courage; coolly and sharply
answered the taunts of the armed mob; and neither tried to flee nor stooped
to beg. The probability is that they would have killed him outright at once,
but for the interference of the Europeans who happened to be at Creek Town
that morning. The missionary at that place being on a sick bed, and unable
to be on the scene, the teacher, Mr. Timson, exerted himself on the poor man's
behalf, which his knowledge of the language enabled him the better to do.
But their united efforts could not save the victim — the people were determined
that he should die; but they agreed to talk over the matter, in regular Efik
form, with the freemen of the town, and with a deputation who came from
Duke Town. The greater part of the day was spent in this palaver; but noth
ing that was said produced the slighest effect on the minds of the people.
There was no power in the country to take the man out of their hands; and,
at length, after he had lain in his blood in the sand all day, they hung him on
a tree, he himself helping to put the rope round his neck.
" ' The same evening they hung a slave, who was believed to have made the
charm for Egbo Eyo, by means of which King Eyo had died. One of his women
also was dragged out by a band of women, and, after being severely beaten,
was mercilessly hung. Some days afterward, a slave of Egbo Eye's, who was
accused of having been art and part with his master, was caught and hung.
" 'But a more painful illustration of heathen wickedness remains to be told.
Between two of the daughters of old King Eyo, hy different mothers, an old
and growing hatred existed. One of these, Ansa, -^fho was a sister of the late
King by the same mother, came forward to accuse her half sister, Inyang, of
having killed their brother by a secret power called ifot, and also of having
by the same means destroyed the reason of a younger brother, who appears to
he in a state of hopeless idiocy. She alleged that this had been revealed by

132

PULPIT POLITICS.

The present condition of all these missions — and, also, of the
English missions at Sierra Leone, and their out-stations — appears
from the following statistics, which we find in the Missionary
Magazine, June, 1861, which copies them from the Scotch Record:

EELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

MISSIONAR'S.

TEAOHEES.

MEMBERS.

SCHOLABS.

Wesleyan Methodist, (English) 

» 20
t 120 23
2325 13 63
It
15

160
200 22
20 27 15

18,000 3,0001,400 700
' 150369130 40
t 307

5,000 6,000 850500200650300
400 150

Methodist Episcopal, (American)...
Baptist Mission, (American) 

Presbyterian Mission, (American).
Episcopal Mission, (American) 

American Missionary Association,

Scotch Presbyterian, ( United Seces-

1 Total 

265

444

24,096

13,950

several abudiong whom she had consulted; and she demanded that Inyang Eyo
should be tried hy the ordeal of the esere . The esere is a bean of a very poison
ous nature; and it is believed that if a person who has ifot eat this bean he is
sure to die, while if he have it not he will certainly vomit all up. Inyang de
fended herself, admitting that she had had many a quarrel with their deceased
brother about their father's property, but declaring that they had been recon
ciled, and denying that she had ever done anything against the life of their
brother. She refused to take the esere by herself, but if her accuser were made
to take it along with her, she would consent. But the malice of the other was
not to be thus baulked. She distributed new muskets among some of the peo
ple, pledging them to shoot Inyang, if she did not die by the esere. At length
the poor woman gave in, was conveyed into one of the yards of her father's
place, took the ordeal, and died.'
" The people among wh^m such atrocities are perpetrated to-day, are accessi
ble to the arts and appliances of civilized life, and if there was any power in
education or trade, to rescue them from the degradation and misery of such a
state of society as is here disclosed, it would be the dictate of common human
ity to attempt to save them. But Christians believe there is power in the
Gospel to transform such sujierstitious and cruel beings, into kind, humane,
and happy people. The Gospel has done it for others, and may do the same
for them. Yet there is not enough practical Christianity iu the whole world to
enlighten the interior of Africa with the knowledge of salvation, and it is
probable that the present generation, if not the next, will pass away before any
thing effectual will be done to dispel the darkness of those habitations of cruelty."
* In addition, there are 75 local preachers.
t This includes native assistants, many of whom are ordaiaied
i These figures are from the American Christian Record, 1860.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 133
The obstacles to missionary success in Africa, referred to by
Bishop Scott, are not the only ones operating in that field. The
unhealthiness of the climate has been very fatal to the health
and lives of the white missionaries. The extent of this mortality
may be inferred from the fact, that —
Of the white missionariea who entered the field in Liberia, during
the first thirty years of its existence, but two or three remained at
the close of that period — all the others having died or been dis
abled by the loss of health. Take, as an example, the Episcopal
Mission, Twenty white laborers, male and female, entered that mis
sion, up to 1849, of whom only the Rev. Mr. Payne and his wife,
and Dr. Perkins, remained. All the others had fallen at their posts
or been forced to retreat. Take that of the Presbyterian Board
also : Of nineteen white missionaries, male and female, sent out, up
to May, 1851, nine had died, seven returned, and three remained;
while of fourteen colored missionaries, male and female, employed,
but four have died, and one returned on account of ill health. Take
the Methodists likewise : Of the thirteen white missionaries sent
out, six had died, six returned, and one remained, in 1848 ; while of
thirty-one colored missionaries employed by this church, only seven
had died natural deaths, and fourteen remained in active service.
The extent of this mortality among the white missionaries will be
comprehended, when it is stated, that their average period of life,
up to nearly the last-named date, has been only two years. The
mission work in Liberia, therefore, has neoeaaarily fallen into the
hands of colored men ; and, thua, the Providence of God haa afforded
to that race an opportunity to diaplay their powers, and to show to
the world what, under favorable circumstances, they are capable of
achieving.* A more striking illustration of the dangerous character of
these mission ¦ fields, to white missionaries, will be afforded by
giving the details of one of them — the Baptists'. This mission
was, begun, in 1822, under the care of Lot Carey and Collin
Teage. On the death of Mr. Carey, the mission had to be sup
plied from the United States ; and the following are the results :
In December, 1830, Rev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wife
*See "Ethiopia."

134 PULPIT POLITICS.
and two children, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission.
They were all seized with the African fevfer, soon after landing, and
Mrs. Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as to
embark for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of
the passage.
In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as a
physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony.
Soon after his arrival, he recommended the Baptist Board to establish
their mission, for the benefit of the natives, among the Balsa tribe,
In 1835, two other white men. Rev. G. W. Crocker and Rev. Mr,
Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accom
panied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring
nearly three years, was forced, by ill health, to return to the United
States. Mr. CroiJker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840,,
to Miss Warren, who had gone out aa a teacher. She died aoon
afterward, and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to
leave for the United Statea.
In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by
Rev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites^ who continued to occupy the
station, and labored with great success for several years.
In December, 1840, Messrs. Conatantine and Fielding, with their
wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both
died in six weeks ; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated
by the fever that they were compelled to return home in 1842.
In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored,
that he resolved to return to Africa ; and, having been united in
marriage to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two
days after landing. " Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes,
and at an unexpected moment, a missionary of no common zeal and
devotion to the cause."*
On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the
mission, and labored for its advancement for two years ; when the
wreck of her constitution, under the influence of the. climate, com
pelled her to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home.
In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so com
pletely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they
left the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried
at his post too long ; death overtook him on the passage, and the
sea supplied him a grave.

* Gammel'a History of the American Baptist Missions.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 135
Thus, after thirteen years' labor, and the sacrifice of a noble band
of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mis
sion left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the
native converts. Among them, there was one preacher and four
teachers, who kept up the organization of the little church, and
continued the schools.
It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of mission
aries for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or
retreated. In that year, however. Rev. J. S. Goodman and Rev. W.
B. Shermer, and their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and
were accepted. They set sail November 27, 1852, and were accom
panied by Mrs. Crocker, who longed to return to the mission and
devote her life to the service of her Lord and Master.
This Mission family was permitted to reach ita field of labor in
safety ; but recent information bringa the painful intelligence of the
death of Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Shermer ; and that Mr. Shermer
himself, had also been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by
way of England. In writing from London, under date of January
13, 1854, he aays : " That during the past twelve months, six mis
sionaries of different denominations have died, and eight have been
and are obliged to return to America ; all of whom had gone to
Africa within the last year. This is indeed a fearful mortality among
African missionaries. Yet God has a people there, and if the white
man can not live to evangelize them, he can and will raise up other
agencies. Eduoalsed colored men, in all probability, must and will be
the only instrumentality employed in the conversion of Africa," *
The Episcopal Mission in Liberia has its principal seat at
Cape Palmas. Rev, Mr, Payne, long at its head, was appointed
a Missionary Bishop for Africa, in 1850,
In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic
of Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement : " It is now
very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by
her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far
as we may, for their great work. And since colonists afford the
most advanced materiel for raising up the needed instruments, it
becomes us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our
efforts in the most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most
* Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1851.

136 PULPIT politics.
important points should be occupied, to become in due time radiating
centers of Christian influence to Colonists and Natives." *
The missionaries and teachers in Liberia are nearly all colored men,
and citizens of the Republic, who yield a cordial support to its laws,
and enjoy ample protection under its government. These missionaries
have the control of the schools and churches ; and, consequently, they
possess the entire direction of the intellectual, moral, and religious
training of the youth. Liberia, therefore, may be denominated a
Missionary Republic. And such is the influence the colony has ex
erted over the natives, that their heathenish customs and superstitions
are fast disappearing before the advancing Christian civilization. In
the county of Messurado, including the seat of government, there no
longer exists a single temple of heathen worship. \
The Gaboon Mission is under the care of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Its statistics are not
included in the preceding table, but will be found in the tabular
statement of the converts in the missions of the Board. Its first
missionaries landed in Africa in 1834, and commenced their labors
under the protection of the Colony at Cape Palmas. Believing
they could succeed better in an independent position, they re
moved, in 1842, to the mouth of the Gaboon river, 1,200 miles
eastward from Liberia. They took with them a few converts from
Cape Palmas. The missionaries have labored devotedly, but have
suffered many interruptions, both from sickness, and the inter
ference of the slave traders. The coolie traffic, also, conducted
by the French, has likewise presented obstacles to success. In
speaking of the obstacles in general, one of the missionaries, a
few years since, remarked, that here, as elsewhere, the habit of
taking many wives, or rather concubines, operates as a great
hindrance to the Gospel ; and that, " demoralizing as this state
of things is, the people are, nevertheless, firmly attached to it,
and will continue to be so, until they are inspired with better and
purer feelings by the Holy Ghost." This mission, in 1850, con
sisted of one church of 22 members; but the report for 1859,
instead of showing any increase, states that there was a reduc-

* Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.
t OfiSoer of U, 8. Navy, in Mr, Gurley's Report, 1853,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 137
tion of the membership to 12. The annual report of the Board,
for that year, 1859, thus speaks of the discouraging prospects of
this mission :
" The Gaboon mission is attended with more difficulty. The climate
is unhealthy ; the tribes of people reached by the mission are small, scat
tered, and changing in their locality, and often warring on each other.
After a series of exhausting labors, continued for many years, during
which about half of our missionary force, on an average, have been
obliged to be absent from the field, for the recruiting of health, but
one church, now consisting of twelve members, is reported. Our
work is one of faith ; we would wait the returns of harvest ; still, in a
range of labors ao extended and varied as those of this Board, that
particular localities and missions should be surrendered for others of
less discouragement, and greater prospect of success, is a matter to be
expected. Some change respecting the Gaboon miaaion seems to be
demanded. The committee have grave doubts respecting the wisdom
of continuing it as at present constituted, and while they are not
ready to recommend its abrupt termination, they highly appreciate a
suggestion in the Prudential Committee's Report, that efforts be made
to obtain native preachers and helpers from Sierra Leone and other
places, and train them for the work."
The Report for 1861, contains the suggestion, from one of the
missionaries who had investigated the subject, that the discourage
ments at the Gaboon are not peculiar to that place ; and that no
change of locality would give a more hopeful field. It is also
stated that a more decided religious interest had prevailed during
the last year than for a long period before. The members, as
given in the " Memorial Volume," number 15.
The Mendi Mission is one of peculiar interest, and will be
referred to in connection with the West India Missions. The
results of this mission, as -well as that at the Gaboon, serve a good
purpose, as illustrating the mistaken views of the abolitionists, in
their estimate of the character of the African race in its barbar
ous state.
3. The obstacles to African Evangelization in Brazil.
The blacks transported from Africa to Brazil have been sub
jected to influences as unfavorable to moral improvement as those

138 PULPIT fOLITlCS.
taken to any other country. Unfortunately for Brazil, its early
settlers from Europe failed to secure to themselves any d-egree of
liberty of conscience in the exercise of their religious principles ;
but, in accordance with the spirit of the times, the most rigid and
extreme measures were adopted to preserve unity of faith. Two
ministers and fourteen students, sent out to Brazil by the Prot
estant Church of Geneva, were prevented, by the sanguinary
fanaticism of the adherents of the established religion, from in
troducing a Bible Christianity. The leading men of the party of
Huguenots, who fied to Brazil in 1555 from persecution in France,
were thrown into prison ; and, after eight years' confinement,
John Boles, the most prominent of the prisoners, was martyred,
at Rio de Janeiro, " for the sake of terrifying his countrymen, if
any of them should be lurking in those parts." The Methodist
Episcopal Church of the United States, a few years since, at
tempted to enter Brazil as a missionary field, but the effort,
proving unsuccessful, was abandoned.
Without the Bible as a moral instructor of youth, and without
the presence of the advocates of religious liberty, as rivals to
stimulate and liberalize the state religion, it is not a matter of
wonder that the Brazilians should have sunk in the scale of moral
being. The population of Brazil, in 1850, included but 1,500,000
whites, while there were 3,000,000 slaves, and 2,500,000 Indians
and free negroes. The rising generations of whites, coming more
or less under the influence of the native heathenism, could not
attain as high a standard of intelligence and morals as those
which had preceded them. It was to be expected, therefore, that
the costly church edifices, erected by the pious zeal and profuse
liberality of the early Portuguese emigrants, should often be per
verted from the use to which they were originally consecrated;
and, as is asserted in Kidder's Brazil, that the preaching of the
Gospel should not be known among the weekly services of the
church ; and, also, as declared by Southey, that its practices
should be those of polytheism and idolatry. Such were the evil
tendencies of the religious system of Brazil, that, in 1843, the
minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs, addressed the Im
perial Legislature on the subject, and called for reform. Among
many other things he said :

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted, 139
" The state of retrogression into which the clergy are falling ia
notorious  It may be observed, that the numerical ratio
of those priests who die, or become incompetent through age and in
firmity, is two to one of those who receive ordination 
This is not the place to investigate the causes of such a state of things,
but certain it is, that no persons of standing devote their sons to the
priesthood, ,  In the province of Para, there are parishes
which, for twelve years and upward, have had no pastor. The dis
trict of the river Negro, containing some fourteen settlements, has
but one priest; while that of the river Solemoens is in similar cir
cumstances. In the three comarcas of Belem, and Upper and Lower
Amazon, there are thirty-six vacant parishes. In Maranham, twenty-
five churches have, at different times, been advertised as open for
applications, without securing the offer of a single candidate. The
Bishop of St, Paulo affirms the same thing respecting vacant churches
in his diocese, and it is no uncommon experience elsewhere. In the
diocese of Cuyaba, not a single church is provided with a settled
curate, and those priests who officiate as stated supplies, treat the
Bishop's efforts to instruct and improve them with great indifference.
In the Bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, most of the churches are supplied
with pastors, but a great number of them only temporarily. This
diocese embraces four provinces, but during nine years past not more
than five or six priests have been ordained per year."
Among this general dearth of religious instruction among the
Brazilians, it will of course be expected that the moral training
of the poor slave has been totally neglected, and that he yet
remains in all the darkness and degradation of barbarism. An
American in Brazil, writing to the Boston. Advocate, from Rio, in
1849, says :
" Every one, on his first landing at Rio, will be forced to the con
clusion that all classes indiscriminately mingle together ; all appearing
on terms of the utmost equality. If there be any distinction, it is
perceptible only between freedom and slavery. There are many blacks
here quite wealthy and respectable, who amalgamate with the white
families, and are received on a footing of perfect equality. The
mechanical arts are at least half a century behind those of our own.
The churches, some fifty in number, are falling to decay, which gives
to the city a look of dilapidation ; few are still observant of its cere
monies ; but little or no attention is paid to the Sabbath. The stores

140 PULPIT politics.
do business, and the workshops are open, the same as on other days.
A few may be seen going to worship on the Sabbath, but a greater
number resort to billiard tables in the afternoon, and to theaters at
night. The slave population is estimated at three times the number
of that of the whites. They are allowed to go almost naked, the
upper part of the body of both male and female entirely so,"
4. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in Cuba.
In relation to Cuba, the tale is soon told. According to M'Queen,
its slave population, some years ago, was four hundred and twenty-five
thousand, of whom one hundred and fifty thousand were females, and
two hundred and seventy-five thousand were males. This dispropor
tion of the sexes will sufficiently indicate the social evils growing out
of such a condition of things. Since that period, the slave trade has
received a great stimulus, by the opening of the English markets to
slave-grown sugar ; and the continued importation of slaves into Cuba,
gives her at present six hundred thousand. She has also one hundred
thousand free colored persons, and six hundred and ten thousand
whites. A report read before the London Anti-Slavery Society, 1843, rep
resents the plantation slaves of Cuba as never receiving the least
moral or religious instruction. " Most of them are baptized, because
the curate's certificate of baptism serves as a title deed in the civil
courts of the island. They live, in general, in a state of concubinage.
They have not the most distant idea of Christianity. The annual
decrease by deaths over births is, among the plantation slaves, from
ten to twelve per cent., and among the others from four to six pei
cent. The births exceed the deaths among the free colored popula
tion, from five to six per cent." *
5. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in Sayti.
Hayti has not been passed unnoticed by the Christian world
As early as 1816, the English Wesleyans commenced a mission
in the Island, but in 1819 the missionary had to leave on account
of persecution from the adherents of the prevailing religion.
Religious freedom was not allowed. The missionaries found
ignorance and immorality predominant at this period, and, in
one or more instances, had sufficient evidence afforded to prove
* See " Ethiopia " for full particulars.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 141
that idolatry was practiced in the island. In the outset. Presi
dent Boyer manifested the greatest readiness to encourage and
promote the plans of the missionaries ; and, on their departure,
not only expressed himself as highly satisfied with their con
duct, but transmitted a donation of £500 to the Society, After
the missionaries took their leave, the small congregation they
had gathered could only meet by stealth ; and, on one occasion,
a number of them were seized by the police, and carried to
prison. On trial, they were prohibited, in the name of the
President, from meeting together ; still, however, a few remained
faithful, and in 1834, another missionary arrived, followed after
wards by others, so that, in 1853, the mission had 429 converts
in its connection. In 1860, the Society report, that the new
government look with favor on the mission, and is as liberal as
they can desire. The attendance on preaching is encouraging.
In 1835, the American Baptist Missionary Society made an
attempt to establish a mission in the island, which at first prom
ised success, but was abandoned in 1837.
" About twenty years ago, a society of Wesleyan Methodists estab
lished a mission in the town of Porto Plata. The Church atill Uvea,
and ia, by foreigners, comparatively well attended; but they have
not converted a single Catholic, by preaching, from that day to this.
The reason is, the Catholics will not go to hear them. Yet, for the
benefits of an education, about one hundred and fifty children were
sent regularly to school, and there, by the ' infidel ' teaching of the
Wesleyans, they soon learned to distrust the ceremonies of the
mother Church. Unfortunately, about two years since, this school
was discontinued, and, having succeeded in weaning the people from
positive Catholicism, without yet embracing the Protestant religion,
it seems to have left them with a general belief in every thing, which
is, aa I take it, the nearest point to a belief in nothing."*.
Of this mission, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, in 1860,
thus speaks : " The missions in St. Domingo have not recovered
from the confusion and difficulty created by political changes."
Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United
* Summer on the Caribbeean, by Mr, Harris, an intelligent colored man,
and Emigration Agent.

142 PULPIT politics.
States to Hayti was conducted, transferring 8,000 free colored
persons to that island, the expenses of 6,000 of whom were
paid by the Haytien government.* This emigration scheme was
undertaken by those who distrusted the Colonization Society;
but failing to send missionaries and teachers along with the
emigrants, they never were able to reap any fruits from their
sowing. This incident in the history of the black man affords
another lesson of instruction : standing alone, the uneducated
negro was as helpless in Hayti in 1830, as he was in London in
1787. The social and moral condition of the island, at the time Boyer
was overthrown, may be inferred from the fact, that a leader of
the revolution entered into correspondence with Christian men
in the United States, in relation to the introduction of mis
sionaries. One of the letters from the Haytien, dated in 1843,

"You have exactly hit on the essential points in recommending
the establishment of individual families by marriages, to serve as a
basis of the great social family, the establishment of institutions for
the diffusion of moral and religious instruction," etc.
In 1849, one of the editors of the Christian Reflector visited
the island, and in reporting on its condition, socially and mor
ally, he said:
" The Sabbath is the great business day of the week to the middle
and lower classes, while the rich employ it as a holiday, , It is the
day especially devoted to military parade and marketing. The pub
lic squares are crowded with buyers and sellers, and all the shops
are thronged with customers as on no other day of the week. The
marriage relation is, for the most part, sustained without a marriage
contract, and divorce and polygamy are too common to excite atten
tion. The faithful husband of a wife is a character so rare as to be a
marked exception to the general rule  In a word, the insti
tutions of the Sabbath and of marriage are alike prostrate. Both
have a name ; but the Divine object of neither is secured, with a vast
majority of the population. As a legitimate consequence, profane-
* Life of Benjamin Lundy.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 14o
ness, intemperance, and vulgarity extensively characterize all classes
of society,"
In 1860, Mr. Harris, before quoted, in speaking of the Haytien
end of the island, and the policy of President Geffard, says :
" Under Protestant influences, also, several large schools, in which
hundreds .of young girls and boys are being educated, promise in due
time to present to the world a virtuous female offspring of these
heroic revolutionists, adorned by all the graces attending the use of
both the French and English languages, and a body of youths skilled
at once in commerce, and in the sciences of government, the sword,
the anvil, and the plow."
In speaking of an emigrant settlement of colored Americans,
not far from Porto Plata, the same writer remarks :
" How happy will be the effect of such an enterprise on a non
progressive people, you have probably anticipated from what I have
previously observed ; " and, then, as an evidence of the indolence of
the population, he elsewhere adds, " there is but one saw-mill on the
Spanish end of the island, near St. Domingo city, and that not now
in operation."
These facts indicate, very clearly, that African Evangelization
has made but little progress in Hayti. Now that Spain has taken
possession of the Spanish part of the island, it remains doubtful
whether Protestant missions will be tolerated therein ; and should
France reclaim the other portion, the whole island may become
closed to the Protestant missionary.
6. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in the British West
India Islands.
While it was believed that the Christianization of the blacks
was impracticable under slavery, there were good reasons why
British Christians should use all lawful means to have that hin
drance to the Gospel removed. This was a moral duty which
the British subject, as a Christian, could not overlook. Under
this view of the question, emancipation became a necessity. But
the view was founded in a misconception. Time has shown, that

144 PULPIT politics.
it was not the condition of servitude which hindered the Gospel
among the blacks in the West Indies. Indeed, as in the case of
the Wesleyan mission in Jamaica, emancipation was not every
where followed by a corresponding efficiency in the mission work ;
but, on the contrary, in a few years grievous backslidings occurred,
and the population became less inclined than before to yield them
selves to religious control.*
The rise of the mission work in these islands, and its' progress
during the period of slavery, is noticed quite fully in Chapter I.
Some references are made to the results down to the present
date ; but the main facts occurring since emancipation were left
to be used in this contrast. To that task we now proceed.
More information has come into our possession, relative to mis
sionary operations in the West Indies, from American than from
British sources. The American testimony is all from anti-slavery
authorities, and may, therefore, be considered as reliable in refer
ence to the questions it is brought to sustain. The details are
more extensive than we could wish, but they better represent the
facts than if more condensed. In adopting this plan, we are able
to employ the language of the Associations quoted, and can thus
avoid the charge of not being sufficiently full in the particulars.
First, we shall notice the mission of the Associate Synod in
Trinidad. This mission is the more interesting, because it was
attempted by the Church which first pronounced slaveholding a
sin. This term, sin, was used as early as 1808, in reference to
slaveholding, by one of the Presbyteries which constituted this
Synod.f The Associate Synod, at its meeting in Philadelphia, 1848,
appointed missionaries to Trinidad, who soon after set sail for
that island. The incipient steps towards establishing this mis
sion had been taken in 1841, They chose Savanne Grande as
the place of their operations, where they erected a church and a
dwelling-house, and the mission was for some time in successful
operation. The death of one of the missionaries, the year fol
lowing, required the appointment of another to supply his place.
He, however, remained but a short time in the field, having felt
* See Chapter I. t See Chapter VII.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 145
it to be his duty to return. The other missionary returned with
him, leaving the mission vacant; but he was reappointed, and
resumed his labors. In 1847, a gentleman and his wife were
added to the mission, as teachers. In 1848, the missionary again
presented himself before the Synod, a vote approving his labors
was passed, and he once more returned to his work. The Synod
had resolved to increase the mission, but the mission board were
unsuccessful in obtaining the services of another missionary. In
the mean time, the teachers returned, leaving the devoted mission
ary alone upon the field, who, in consequence of ill-health, ob
tained leave to return, after the expiration of six months. No
missionaries being obtained to succeed him, he left the field, com
mitting his charge to the care of a Scotch missionary, residing
seven miles distant. It was not until June, 1851, that another
missionary set sail for Trinidad, accompanied by his wife, and a
female assistant, as a teacher ; but he returned in the same year,
leaving the mission, as before, under the care of the Scotch mis
sionary. In 1853, the Synod placed the mission under the care
of this Scotch brother, who labored in it until sometime the next
year, when he came to the United States, after placing the mission
under the oversight of another Scotch missionary, who could only
render it occasional services. The mission being thus left entirely
destitute, with the exception of the little attention the Scotch
missionary could render, the Synod, in 1855, transferred the mis
sion to the Free Church of Scotland, with a donation of four
hundred dollars, annexing, as a condition, that it might be resumed
again, by Synod, at any future time. It was not, however, until
November, 1866, that a missionary could be obtained ; when one
was sent out, but who, after laboring with encouragement until
near the close of the last year, was compelled, from failure of
health, to leave his field of labor. *
" This mission has been an exceedingly expensive one to the Asso
ciate Synod. It has met with many reverses, and experienced severe
trials, but it is believed to have exerted a most happy influence, and
has not been without special tokens of the Divine favor." f
* The facts, in this last case, are taken from the Christian Instructor, May
15, 1861.
t This statement with the exception referred to in the last footnote, is con-
10

146 PULPIT politics.
It was the privilege of the author to listen to the explanations
of some of the missionaries who returned from Trinidad. The
greatest obstacle to success, which they had to encounter, was the
unsettled state of the population. Emancipation left the people
without fixed homes, or any certainty of constant employment in
the same situation. The hearers of a sermon on one Sabbath,
were often out of the reach of the preacher on the next. Con
gregations of listeners could be readily gathered, but could not
be retained together. The low wages offered for labor, by the
planters, had little fascination for the new-born freeman, who
rioted in his liberty to run where he listed. What was' true of
the efforts to sustain congregations, was true, also, of the attempt
to establish schools. But this unstable condition of things, seems
likely to terminate in a few years. The necessities of existence
inevitably force population into positions where bread can be
made most secure. Where the soil, and not the chase, yields the
means of subsistence, people must find fixed homes as soon as
they become crowded. This has long been true as to Barbadoes
and Antigua.* The large influx of coolies, imported into Trini
dad, to supply the deficiency of labor resulting from emancipation,
is fast tending to concentrate the colored people of that island
also, by lessening their chances to squat at will over the island.
Thus far the mission of the Associate Church, in Trinidad, haa
accomplished but little, except to prove the error of that Church
as to the advantages of emancipation in promoting the conversion
of the negroes ,
It was most fortunate that this denomination undertook a mis
sion in the West Indies. Its ministry and people are of the best
in the Christian Church. Their family discipline is rigid, and
religious instruction made imperative. At an early day, the
Synod took decided action against slavery, and, ultimately, dis
engaged itself from all connection with slaveholders. In com
mon with the prevailing American sentiment, its people placed a
high estimate upon human freedom; and, falling in with the
densed from the Church Memorial, 1858, a volume published under the patron
age of the United Presbyterian Church, into which the Associate Synod is now
merged. * See Chapter V., for full particulars.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted, 147
British theories — or importing them, rather, as the ministers
were mostly from Scotland and Ireland — they considered slavery
as antagonistic to the progress of the Gospel. Having placed
themselves, by their ecclesiastical legislation, in a position which
rendered it impossible for them any longer to approach the colored
man in slavery, they resolved to reach him where he reveled in
freedom. But the Trinidad mission brought them into contact
with the negro, as a barbarian. Wrenched by force from the
midst of African barbarism, he had made but little advancement
under British slavery, except to learn the English language. One
generation had succeeded another, without the lights of civiliza
tion having penetrated their darkened understandings. The mis
sionaries, therefore, found the barbarism of the population a much
more stubborn element to subdue than had been anticipated. It
was the first foreign mission that this Church had attempted ; and,
consequently, its missionaries had but little experience in relation
to the difficulties connected with attempts to control the wills of
savage men. The mission was projected only three years after
the emancipation of the slaves, and the work was begun exactly
at the moment when the Jamaica missionaries found the popula
tion most difficult to control.
This mission has done but little toward African evangelization.
It is at present, (October, 1861,) destitute of a' missionary.
The American Missionary Association have a mission in
Jamaica. The mission is occupied mainly with labor in behalf
of the emancipated colored people of that island. It was com
menced by five Congregational ministers, who sailed from New
York in the fall of 1839 — the year following the final emancipa
tion of the blacks. They went to Jamaica with the expectation
of receiving a moderate support from the emancipated people
themselves ; but in this they were disappointed, and as there was
then no missionary society in the United States that could under
take the support of a mission there, they were reduced to circum
stances of distressing privation. They, too, had formed no just
conception of the work before them, A committee was organized
of gentlemen residing in New York and New England, called the
West India Missionary Committee, who received and forwarded
contributions for this mission, but without undertaking its support.

148 PULPIT politics.
In 1847, the mission was transferred to the American Missionary
Association, under whose care it remains. In 1843, the mission
aries formed a Congregational Association, under the name of the
Jamaica Congregational Association; and the mission is now
kno-wn in the island, as the American Congregational Mission. *
This mission, in 1858, is represented as embracing 12 stations,
7 missionaries, 2 male assistants, 13 female assistants, 4 native
assistants, 8 churches, 433 members, and 716 scholars. The fuU
details can be found in the Encyclopaedia of Missions, from which
we quote.
Turning from the statements in the Encyclopaedia, to the reports
of the American Missionary Association itself, f much light is
derived in relation to the moral condition of the people of Jamaica.
In its seventh Annual Report, 1853, page 30, it is said :
" One of our missionaries, in giving a description of the moral con
dition of the people of Jamaica, after speaking of the licentiousness
which they received as a legacy from those who denied them the pure
joys of holy wedlock, and trampled upon and scourged chastity, as if
it were a fiend to be driven out from among men — that enduring
legacy, which, with its foul, pestilential influence, still blights, like
the mildew of death, every thing in society that should be lovely,
virtuous, and of good report ; and alluding to their intemperance, in
which they have followed the example set by the governor in his
palace, the bishop in his robes, statesmen and judges, lawyers and
doctors, planters and overseers, and even professedly Christian min
isters ; and the deceit and falsehood which oppression and wrong
always engender, says: 'It must not be forgotten that we are following
in the wake of the accursed system of slavery — a system that unmakes
mMn, by warring upon his conscience, and crushing his spirit, leaving
naught but the shattered wrecks of humanity behind it. If we may
but gather up some of these floating fragments, from which the image
of God is well nigh effaced, and pilot them safely into that better
land, we shall not have labored in vain. But we may hope to do more.
The chief fruit of our labors is to be sought in the future, rather than
in the present' It should be remembered, too, (continues the Re
port,) that there is but a small part of the population yet brought
within the reach of the influence of enlightened Christian teachers,
* Encyclopsedia of Missions, 1858, page 773.
-fThis Association is strictly an Abolition Institution.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 149
while the great mass by whom they are surrounded are but little
removed from actual heathenism." Another missionary, page 33,
says, it is the opinion of all intelligent Christian men, that " nothing
save the furnishing of the people with ample means of education and
religious instruction will save them from relapsing into a state of
barbarism." And another, page 36, in speaking of certain cases of
discipline, for the highest form of crime, under the seventh com
mandment, says ; " There is nothing in public sentiment to save the
youth of Jamaica in this respect."
The Report, near its close, says :
" For most of the adult population of Jamaica, the unhappy vic
tims of long years of oppression and degradation, our missionaries
have great fear. Yet for even these there may be hope, even though
with trembling. But it is around the youth of the island that their
brightest hopes and anticipations cluster ; from them they expect to
gather their principal sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest."
The American Missionary, a monthly paper, and organ of this
Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation from the
letters of the missionaries, recently received, in further confirma
tion of the moral condition of the colored people of Jamaica :
" From the number of churches and chapels in the island, Jamaica
ought certainly to be called a Christian land. The people may be
called a church-going people. There are chapels and places of wor
ship enough, at least in this part of the island, to supply the people
if every station of our mission were given up. And there is no lack
of ministers and preachers. As far as I am acquainted, almost the
entire adult population profess to have a hope of eternal life, and I
think the larger part are connected with churches. In view of such
facts, some have been led to say, ' The spiritual condition of the pop
ulation is very satisfactory.' But there is another class of facts that
is perfectly astounding. With all this array of the externals of
religion, one broad, deep wave of moral death rolls over the land.
A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a Sabbath -breaker, a profane man,
a fornicator, an adulterer, and such like — and be known to be such —
and go to chapel, and hold up his head there, and feel no disgrace
from these things, because they are so common as to create a public
sentiment in his favor. He may go to the communion table, and

150 pulpit politics.
cherish a hope of heaven, and not have his hope disturbed. I might
tell of persons guilty of some, if not all, these things, ministering in
holy things,"
Coming down to a later date, we find the report of the Associ
ation, for 1858, giving the membership of its West India Mis
sions as 308, in the four principal stations — the other three sta
tions not being reported. Again, in 1860, the membership, in all
the stations, one excepted, is given as 404, and the whole num--
ber of scholars in the week-day schools, one out-station excepted,
as 450.
The report of 1858, in noticing the progress of the missions,
in two of the stations, says that the advices from the missionary
affirms,' " that no satisfactory advance has been made during the
past year, either in educational or spiritual things ; " and then
quotes from him as follows :
" We trust there is a remnant here, a church within the church,
through and by whom God can work. The few yet left of those who
during the darkness of slavery received and followed the truth as
they understood it, and who follow it still as the light shines clearer ;
the few who were truly converted in the great ingatherings into the
Church at and just after emancipation ; and a few of those who from
time to time have been admitted of late years — theae are the hopes
of Jamaica. They are the salt of the land, notwithstanding their
light, it may be, is dim, their strength but feeble, and much dross
may be mixed with the gold."
Another quotation is made, from the missionary at a third sta
tion, as follows :
" A few weeks ago I commenced having inquiry meetings, and the
number that attend has gradually increased, until thia week twenty-
six were present  In the little meetings which we hold among
the people, the truth aeems to take effect  We see some indi
cations of the Holy Spirit among the people  Only a few of
the Church mem-bers appear to understand the part Christians have
to do in gathering souls into the kingdom of God  I am often
made to feel that the masses will go down to eternal death. We are
stimulated to labor and do what we can, and we find promises in the

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 151
Word of God that cause us to hope that our labors will be blessed
in saving souls,"
From the fourth and fifth stations, another writes :
" The statistical table shows, that in these two churches the past
has been a dry year. Happily the other churches of the miaaion
have been more blessed, although throughout Jamaica generally,
spiritual deadness seems to prevail in as marked a manner as at pres
ent spiritual activity in the churches of our native land. With a
grade of moral culture so vastly below that of the churches of Amer
ica, I do not believe that we could reasonably expect a movement
like 'that ; but the Spirit of God knows how to move on all hearts,
barbarian and civilized, and I would fain hope that our brethren at
home rejoice in this favored time, and will not forget to pray that
the good work may spread into other lands. The progress of the
people in outward prosperity has been quite encouraging during the
past year."
The Report of 1860 mentions several encouraging features con
nected with these missions, and some, also, that are discouraging.
A quotation from one of the missionaries shows, that correct
views are forcing themselves upon his mind. He says:
" Whatever may be true in other places, I am convinced that it is
the sheerest folly to think of upholding missionary operations here,
without giving an active support, in one way or another, to relig
iously-conducted schools. The government ought to care for this,
and, very meagerly it does so ; but what it leaves undone must be
supplied by Christian zeal, here and abroad, except so far as the peo
ple can be persuaded to do it themaelves ; and they do not now value
education sufficiently to lay any very heavy tax upon themselves in
support of it."
From another station, during this, year, 1860, comes this lan
guage, as contained in the report:
" From what we observe in our neighborhood, and from what we
hear from other parts, I do think we may say the day dawneth.
There are some unmistakable signs of improvement. Very much
that is lamentable and reproachful still remains, but no candid, thor
ough observer can speak of Jamaica now otherwise than hopeful,"

152 FULPIT POLITICS.
'fhe report on the Jamaica mission closes with this paragraph,
explanatory of the relative condition of the crowded and pro
ductive population of Barbadoes and the squatter farmers of
Jamaica :
" Some extracts have been published in the American Missionary,
from the communications of the correspondent of the Times, forming
a perfect vindication of the people of Jamaica, from the slanderous
charges that have been brought against them, and proving that the
emancipated people and their descendants in Jamaica do work as
diligently as those of Barbadoes; but for themselves, on their own
freeholds, instead of for the planter on his estate. Wisdom is justi
fied of her children. In Jamaica, as elsewhere, God has demon
strated that it is safe, even for man's pecuniary interest, to obey
God, and refrain from injustice."
It must be remembered, that the whole of the preceding quo
tations come from the same body of men, writing at different
dates, and having different objects to accomplish, at the different
times their pens were employed. It is no part of our duty to
reconcile any seeming discrepancies. But, as in accord with
what they have said, and as indicating one of the sources of
" the slanderous charges " referred to, it may be well to give,
in connection with what has been quoted above, a few extracts
from the Annual Report of the American and Foreign Anti-
Slavery Society, for 1853, which discoursed thus, in its own
language, and in quotations which it endorsed.* It is the lan
guage of American Abolitionists, going out under the sanction
of their annual reports :
" The friends of emancipation in the United States have been dis
appointed in some respects at the results in the West Indies, because
they expected too much. A nation of slaves can not at once be con
verted into a nation of intelligent, industrious, and moral freemen."
 " It is not, too much, even now, to say of the people of
Jamaica,  their condition is exceedingly degraded, their mor
als woefully corrupt. But this must, by no means, be understood to
be of universal application. With respect to those who have been
brought under a healthful educational and religious influence, it ii
* Page 170.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 153
not true. But as respects the great mass, whose humanity has been
ground out of them by cruel oppression — whom no good Samaritan
hand has yet reached — how could it be otherwise ? We wish to
turn the tables ; to supplant oppression by righteousness, insult by
compassion and brotherly kindness, hatred and contempt by love and
winning meekness, until we allure these wretched ones to the hope
and enjoyment of manhood and -virtue." *  " The means of
education and religious instruction are better enjoyed, although but
little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the people. It
is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming somewhat
enlightened  But while this is true, yet their moral condi
tion is very far from being what it ought to be  It is exceed
ingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most alarm
ing extent among the people. .... The almost universal prevalence
of intemperance is another prolific source of the moral darkness and
degradation of the people. The great mass, among all classes of the
inhabitants, from the governor in his palace to the peasant in his
hut — from the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his rags — are
all slaves to their cups." f
This is truly a dark picture of the moral degradation of the
West India black population. But it comes from the pens of
Abolitionists, who expect the Christian world to accept their
assertions as true. Being themselves the prime promoters of
abolition, they, of course, must be allowed to announce the results
of their own policy. Such declarations, however, as to the moral
gloom overshadowing the West Indies, should be taken with some
allowance, on account of the peculiar position occupied by the
missionaries who make the reports. Their honesty of intention,
and devotion to their work, none will doubt ; but they belong to
an organization preeminently partizan in its character,- and dis
tinguished for the strength of its zeal in behalf of abolition theo
ries. This association was based, by its founders, upon the
assumption, that all existing denominations tolerated sin — tole
rated the use of tobacco, intoxicating drinks, slavery, caste, and
polygamy — and that a pure Church was necessary to the uni
versal success of the Gospel. The element of Christian charity,
-* Extract from the report of a missionary, quoted in the Report, page 172.
t Extuaot from the report of another missionary, page 171, of the Report.

154 PULPIT POLITICS.
in its exercise toward other professors of religion, exists in that
body in a much less degree, it is feared, than the spirit of hatred
of all who will not accept their claims to preeminent holiness, and
their divine commission to dictate laws to the civil as well as the
ecclesiastical world.*
But notwithstanding the high pretensions of the American
Missionary Association, they have not succeeded any better than
other missionary societies, in lifting the heathen out of their bar
baric darkness. The Holy Spirit has not descended in any
greater power upon their missions than upon others; and they
apologize to the world for their failures, by assigning, as a rea
son for their want of success, that slavery is accountable for the
results — that the Gospel is powerless where the black man has
been reduced to a " chattel " by the white man. Now, if this
has been the true cause of their impotency among the African
race, where slavery to the whites has prevailed ; all they have
to do, to insure success, is to transfer their labors to Africa,
where barbarism, in its uncorruptedness, holds undisputed sway.
This experiment, fortunately, they have tried, and the results
in Africa, where the white man, to use a favorite abolition phrase,
has not " reduced the negro to the condition of a chattel," can
now be compared with those in the West Indies, And what does
this comparison show ? Have patience, reader, and you shall see.
The American Missionary Association established a mission, in
connection with the return of the Amistad Africans, at Kaw-
Mendi, in Africa, in 1842 ; only four years after emancipation in
the West Indies, and three years later than the origin of their
mission in Jamaica. The reports of the earlier years of the
Mendi Mission, are details of trials, sufferings, and deaths, among
the missionaries ; arising from the fatality of the climate, the
untutored savageism of the natives, and the frequency of the
wars of the hostile tribes. Encouraging seasons often sprung up,
succeeded by disappointments calculated to sadden the hearts of
the truly zealous missionaries. The Report of the Association
for 1858 gives the extent of the mission as embracing three sta
tions and seven out-stations ; but neither that report nor the one
* See the resolutions of the Chicago clergymen. Chapter XI., for a, specimen
of the claims set up by abolition clergymen.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 155
for 1860, * present any statistics, in tabular form, of the member
ship of their churches. Some details, however, are given in the
extracts from t]^e letters of the missionaries, which are of great
mterest, when taken in connection with similar facts in the mis
sions of other denominations in Africa. It seems to be a settled
question, in missionary operations among the blacks, that little
success,' in their moral elevation, can be hoped for, excepting
where the children are separated from their parents, and taken
into the families of the missionaries. Where this is impracticable,
the natives may dwell along-side of the missions, or the civilized
colonists, and still retain all their heathenism of mind and soul.
" So the natives of Cape Palmas have lived, in the very midst of
the colonists, for some twenty years, and they are the same people
still, with almost no visible change." f The controlling influence
of the superior race seems essential to the inferior, to impart the
moral courage necessary to resist surrounding temptations. Un
restrained by the white man, the black falls an easy prey to the
vices of his heathenish neighbors. The proximity of the barbar
ous man to the civilized, without proper moral control, results in
the former copying the vices of the latter, rather than his virtues.
It is for reasons such as these, that African missions seem to pro
gress so slowly; and that some, hitherto hopeful as to African
evangelization, are now almost despairing of the possibility of
subjecting the population of Africa to the laws of Christian
morality. The American Missionary Association have been operating in
Africa almost twenty years. A reference to the statistics of its
West India mission, which was begun twenty-two years since,
shows, that its church members, and the pupils in its schools, in
that field of labor, are so few in number as to prove a great source
of discouragement to the missionaries. Indeed, setting out with
the high pretensions made by the Association, the results may be
considered as almost a failure — attributed, by them, as we have
seen, to the preexistence of slavery upon the ground. But the
results in Africa have been still more discouraging. How is this
* We have not that of 1859 at hand.
t Report of Bishop Scott, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States, in relation to his visit to the missions of Liberia.

156 POTPIT POLITICS.
to be accounted for? Is the difficulty inherent in the African
race, sunk as it has been, for thousands of years, in the darkest
barbarism ? Or can it be, that the Association, with its mission
aries, hold opinions so much at variance with the Gospel — em
ploy themselves so much with side issues about human rights,
to the neglect of the salvation of human souls — that the Great
Head of the Church refuses to make them the honored instruments
in the evangelization of the African race ?
But let us examine the results of the African missions of the
Asssociation. From Good Hope station, in 1858, the missionary
wrote: " Twenty-five children live under my roof, and receive daily school
instruction  Our out-school is taught in the chapel by a
man from Sierra Leone, and numbers over twenty scholars 
Our sabbath-sohool for a long time was attended only by the children
in the mission family, but now we have about fifty scholars, and three-
quarters of them can read in the Bible,- and they understand English
quite well  Our congregation numbers about one hundred
and fifty  Our prayer -meetings are pretty well attended,
and we have a few people with ua, who are, we think, true Christians.
 Though we do not see the people flocking to Christ, and
are not able to report a great ingathering of converts, still the truth
is doing its work, and is like leaven, affecting the whole community,"
The station at Kaw-Mendi, says the Report for 1858, is 'less
encoiiraging. The missionary, above quoted, thus writes in rela-
lation to this station :
" I removed Mr, Jowett, our native teacher at Kaw-Mendi, to this
place, (Good Hope,) some six months since, because I had no teacher
for the out-school here. He met with very little encouragement
there. For a long time after I returned from America, he had but
ten scholars. Afterward it increased to thirteen. Seven of these
were supported by the mission. The people there manifested a great
deal of indifference about the school  Father Johnson is
as suitable a person to have charge of the meetings at Kaw-Mendi,
and watch over the few church members, as any one we could find.
There are not more than five or six persons there whom Father John
son and Mr. Jowett think give evidence of conversion."

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 157
From Boom Falls station, the only remaining one under the
care of the Association, the missionary thus writes, as copied in
the Report :
" Some of the boys are, to all appearances, loving the Lord I
 Eight of them are now anxious about their souls 
The family at Mo-Tappan house has been increased during the year.
We have now fourteen boys and four girls  Our family is
a very pleasant one, and for it I entertain high hopes. Some of ita
members are hopefully pious."
The Board closes its Report on its African missions, character
istically, by speaking in strong terms of reprobation against the
colonization of Africa from the United States — thus still exhibit
ing their hostility to the American Colonization Society.
The Report for 1860, in speaking of Good Hope station, says :
" The formation of the Church at Good Hope was reported last year.
At its close it numbered eighteen members. Two new members'had
been added in April. Our Sabbath-school is gradually increasing in
numbers. We now have between sixty and seventy,"
In May six new members were added to the Church, two by
letter, and four on profession of their faith, from the mission school.
The mission school numbers twenty-five scholars, all of whom are
wholly under the care of the mission.
" Their proficiency in ordinary studies has been all that could have
been reasonably expected, and their acquaintance with the Bible and
its precious truths, is such as might well put to shame thousands
brought up in a Christian land with the advantages of Sabbath-school
and sanctuary privileges  The out-school now numbers
over thirty scholars,"
A new station established, had been attacked by a war party
and robbed of its movable effects.
The report for 1860, thus speaks of the Boom Falls station :
"The church at Mo-Tappan, that numbered fourteen at our last
report, numbered twenty-four the first of January, six having been
baptized and added to it at the last preceding communion 

158 PULPIT POLITICS.
Regular Sabbath services, generally preaching, were held in eight
different places, A school was taught during the week at the station,
and three small out-schools, under the care of native teachers, in as
many different towns."
The missionary, and three of his native assistants, were con
stantly engaged in itinerant missionary labor, each in turn leav
ing the mission on Monday morning, and returning on Saturday
evening, A small school has been commenced at another station.
The missionaries consider the country as fully opened to mission
ary labor, and plead most urgently to their friends at home to
send forth more laborers into that part of the moral vineyard of
the Lord.
But while the missionaries express themselves as very hopeful
as to the future, it is apparent, from the facts given in the Report
of the Association, that the African mission has been even less
successful than the one in Jamaica; and that, therefore, slavery
can not be fairly chargeable with the failures in the West Indies.
On the contrary. West India slavery, like that of the United
States, had prepared the blacks for the more ready acceptance of
the Gospel, by having trained them in the use of the English
language — the want of which, in Africa, being a great obstacle
to missionary success.
The truth is, the American Missionary Association has had much
to learn in relation to the real condition of the barbarous inhabitants
of Africa, They set out with false notions, and have had to reap
the fruits of their errors. Cherishing bitter prejudices against
the slaveholder, they could not say too many extravagant things
in reprobation of slavery. Ignoring the Providence of God in
that great movement which transferred millions of barbarians into
contact with civilized men, they could only see, in the movement,
the cruelties and oppressions of the agents who were permitted
to perform the work. Like professional philanthropists, in gen
eral, they based their action on a single idea, and repudiated with
indignation every fact that would not sustain their theory,. Ex
pecting that their claims to superior sanctity would be endorsed
in heaven, they felt confident that the Holy Spirit, in Pentecostal
abundance, would be out-poured upon their labors, so that, soon, the
heathen would be given to them for an inheritance, and the utter-

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 159
most parts of the earth for a possession. Are their pretensions
and expectations over-estimated? Listen to the language of
their Report for 1858 — remembering that they have charged, by
implication at least, all other ecclesiastical organizations with
tolerating sin :
" The Gospel is to be taught and preached; the whole Goapel — not
an emaaculated Gospel ; not such portions only of the true Gospel as
men are willing to receive. The Gospel is to be inculcated upon ' all
nations ' — the accessible part of every nation ; not a selected nation,
or selected portions of a nation merely, where it is easy, convenient,
and safe. Not alone in China, in Hindostan, in the islands of the
sea, in the free States of the American Union, but in all countries ;
in the slave States as well as in the free States ; among the Indian
tribes, not omitting the Choctaw and Cherokee nations. They also
are to have a full, unadulterated, free Gospel preached to them.
" Among the slaves and the slaveholders, the Gospel, as it came
from its divine founder, is to be preached without concealment or
compromise. Wherever God opens the way, it is to be preached, and
preached faithfully, whether human enactments authorize or forbid
it, ' The field is the world.' It belongs to Christ, and his word is
not bound. His followers are to remember that his commands con
stitute the ' higher law ; ' that they are to be obeyed at all hazards,
and if human enactments come in conflict with the divine statutes,
human enactments are to be trampled under feet. They are not to
be resisted by force of arms, but simply disobeyed. . ... . Nothing
is to be taught as the Gospel which is not a part of it  The
Christian teacher, be he a minister. Sabbath-school teacher, mission
ary, colporteur, editor, or private Christian, is to go forth in the name
of the Great Captain of his salvation, among his fellow-men, among
gainsayers, opposers, enemies of truth, and ' lower law ' men, wher
ever he has opportunity, as a soldier of the cross, faithful to his
marching orders : ' Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord
God : Be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though
briars and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions ;
be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though
they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto
them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear ' 
' speaking the truth in love.'
" It was in view of these truths, and under a full persuasion that
they had been grievously overlooked, that the American Missionary

160 PULPIT POLITICS.
Association was organized. Its fbunders deeply felt the necessity of
a new missionary organization ; one that would aim to bring about
the development of the mind and heart of Christ in the Church, in
missionary societies, in the religious institutions of the country, and
would send forth missionaries at home and abroad, to preach a free,
an evangelical, an anti-slavery Gospel ; a Gospel that made no com
promise with sin ; that had no complicity with caste, polygamy, or
slaveholding; that would fearlessly and perseveringly, in the name
and spirit of Jesus Christ, proclaim freedom, peace, temperance, holi
ness, the equality of man before the law, and the impartial love of
God. "Believing that they were led by the Great Head of the Church,
and recognizing the unmistakable hand of Providence in their earli
est movements, they formed the Association, promulgated their prin
ciples, solicited funds, appointed missionaries, and embarked in the
great undertaking of publishing in this and other lands what they
understood to be the true Gospel, and carrying out its holy and evan
gelical principles, as God should give them ability, the means, and
opportunity  On all fit occasions, without considering the
Association an anti-slavery society, we have not hesitated to proclaim,
as became a missionary institution, the anti-slavery character of the
Asaociation, and its agreement with an anti-slavery Gospel. We are
anti-slavery, because we deem slaveholding a great obstruction to the
conversion of the world."
This will serve to convey a clear idea of the pretensions and
expectations of this Association. The results of their missionary
efforts, assuredly, do not meet their anticipations. Their experi
ments, however, have a very important bearing, as the effects
resulting therefrom cast much light upon a very important ques
tion. Acknowledging the want of success among the adult pop
ulation of Jamaica, the missionaries assume that slavery so
thoroughly " unmakes man," that the Gospel can not prevail in
its " wake," Passing over to Africa itself, no better success
attends their labors. Why, then, do they not acknowledge their
error, and attribute the inefficiency of their missions to the true
cause — the deep mental and moral degradation of the African
race, where they are not subjected to proper restraints and care
fully instructed by a civilized people.
It has already been remarked, that some allowance, perhaps,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLA"VERY CONTRASTED. 161
should be made in considering the testimony borne by the Amer
ican Missionary Association, in relation to the missions of the
other denominations in Jamaica, on account of the peculiar views
held by that society. The use of spirituous liquors and tobacco
are viewed as sinful, or at least so inconsistent with Christianity,
that those who use them are considered unfit to assume the
offices of religious teachers, and none such are commissioned by
the Executive Committee of the Association.* In speaking so
disparagingly of their neighbor missionaries, in the West Indies,
this society, of course, include, among the sins tolerated by others,
the use of tobacco and rum — thus undertaking to decide a ques
tion properly belonging to the medical profession, whether nar
cotics and stimulants may not be essential to health in tropical
climates. Making allowance, then, for whatever of prejudice
may have influenced the judgments of the missionaries, in report
ing on the present moral condition of the mission churches in the
West Indies, belonging to other denominations, we are to remem
ber that, as they are men of truth, there may be some founda
tion for the charges made. But if the charges do approximate
the truth, then the emancipation of the blacks has not produced
the favorable moral advancement which was expected to follow
that measure.
This point demands careful examination. By referring to
Chapter I., it will be seen that, during slavery, where no oppo
sition prevailed, very encouraging success accompanied the labors
of the missionaries of all denominations, in both the English and
Danish islands ; and yet, notwithstanding this, we are now asked
to believe that the colored population of these islands, since
emancipation, are almost wholly inaccessible to the Gospel. If
this be true, the logical inference from the fact is, that a state
of freedom is less favorable to the evangelization of the African
race than a state of slavery. Are the American Missionary As
sociation not aware, that their testimony very strongly corrobo
rates the testimony of Southern slaveholders — that the moral
advancement of the negro progresses much more rapidly under
slavery than under freedom ? The falling off in the number of
* See I4th Annual Beport, 1860, p. 62.
11

162 PULPIT POLITICS.
church members, in the West India missions, heretofore noticed,
which occurred a few years after emancipation, may also be cited
as sustaining the views held by the missionaries of the Associa
tion — that the present condition of the freedmen of the West
Indies is exceedingly unfavorable to the success of the Gospel.
But as the missions conducted during slavery, when undisturbed,
were very successful, the present want of success can not be a
consequence of the preexistence of slavery, but must be attrib
uted, as heretofore suggested, to another cause — the want of
proper moral control over the negroes.
If nothing more, then, has been done, by this attempt of the
American Missionary Association, to propagate an anti-slavery
Gospel, this, at least, has been determined: that circumstances
have existed, under which slavery was more conducive to Afri
can evangelization than freedom. This is an important fact;
and the slave may well rejoice at the result, as, hereafter, it must
not be claimed that emancipation shall precede all efforts for his
conversion, and he be left without the means of salvation until
his freedom is secured.
But to return to the West Indies. An examination, a little
more in detail, of the results of missionary labors in the West
Indies, before and after emancipation, will be useful in forming
a judgment upon this question — the effects of slavery upon the
African race, in reference to their conversion to Christianity.
It will be observed, in the preceding pages, that the member
ship in the Moravian missions, in the Danish islands, during the
ninety years ending in 1832 — that is, the number of persons
baptized during that period — was 37,000 ; in Antigua, during the
fifty years preceding 1823, the number of converts, young and
old, was 16,099 ; in Jamaica, in 1804, the number that had been
baptized was 938; and in St. Kitts, in 1800, the converts were
estimated at 2,000 — making a total of 56,000. This is an unu
sual mode of presenting statistics, but they are not accessible in
any other form ; nor could they be obtained for later dates, so
as to exhibit the results of the Moravian missions up to the
period of emancipation.
The statistics of the English Wesleyan missions, in the West
Indies, have not been obtained to any important extent, for the

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 163
period preceding emancipation ; but six years afterward, 1844,
their membership was, in Jamaica alone, 26,585 ; and in St, Vin
cent, in 1794, it was over 1,000, From the other islands we
have no returns for this slavery period. This 26,585, in Jamaica,
may be taken as representing the whole membership.
The Baptist missions, in Jamaica alone, had a membership, in
1831, of 10,838, and in 1841, of 27,706,
These statistics do not include all the missions, and yet they
foot up 94,400, as the probable number of converts, under slavery,
within the islands named, *
Here, now, was the basis upon which the missions, after eman
cipation, had to operate. It was a very different foundation,
indeed, from that upon which the first missionaries to these islands
had to build. They began with a population who had never heard
the Gospel, and many of whom were new imports from Africa —
the slave trade being then in full activity. In addition to this,
the planters, mostly, were opposed to the missions, and frequent
ly broke them up. The present missions may all be said to
have had their origin since emancipation, as the circumstances,
by which they have been surrounded, are entirely different from
those in which the first missionaries were placed. The planters
have made no opposition to the missionaries ; and they have had
the advantage — if advantage it be — of laboring among a popula
tion of freemen. Such is the difference in the condition of the
two classes of missions — the one operating before emancipation
and the other after the abolition of slavery.
Let us examine the results : The Wesleyan Methodist Mis
sion, in Jamaica, which, six years after emancipation, numbered
26,585, was reduced, in 1853, to 19,478 — a loss of over 7,000,
being a decrease of twenty-seven per cent, during eleven years of
freedom !
Later information, in reference to these missions, is contained in
the proceedings of the English Wesleyan Missionary Society, at
its anniversary for 1860, but no statistics are given, f They
speak of Antigua as having improved financially. The St. Vin-
* See Chapter I., for full particulars.
t Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, June, 1860.

164 PULPIT POLITICS.
cent and Demarara district, is represented as containing "eleven
circuits, in only one of which any increase has taken place during
the year ; the numbers in all the rest being somewhat reduced."
Of Jamaica they say :
"Its condition presents at least one hopeful feature, in the steady
and successful efforts made to reduce the chapel debts, and thus to
place the financial affairs of the several circuits in a more satisfactory
position. The members in society do not increase."
This will be a matter of astonishment to American anti-slavery
inen, of all grades — the members in society, of the zealous Meth
odist missionaries, in Jamaica, do not increase ! Already, they
had been reduced, in 1853, under eleven years of freedom to th6
extent of twenty-seven per cent. ; and still they do not increase !
The English Baptists, it will be remembered, were actively
engaged in the mission work, in Jamaica, during the period of
slavery, and suffered greatly from the persecution of the planters.
The Missionary Magazine, March, 1861, embraces a synopsis of
the report of a deputation which had visited the Baptist churches
of Jamaica. The Magazine copies from the London Missionary
Herald. There are several points made in the Report, a few of
which we shall notice :
1, " The prompt, vigorous, and searching discipline usually main
tained throughout the churches, whether under the pastorate of
European or native brethren, and the respect paid to the decisions of
the church on all matters relating to the spiritual well-being of the
fellowship. If the number of exclusions is a source of deep regret,
yet are they clear evidence of the attachment of the churches to
righteousness and purity. If, in our judgments, the discipline on
some points is too severe, yet the general effect on'the moral tone of
the community at large, in the repression of superstition, in the
respect shown to the ordinance of marriage, (which, indeed, yet re
quires further elevation, in the general estimation of the outside
population,) has been most valuable."
2. This point has reference to the tender interest manifested by
the church, toward those who have been excluded from fellowship.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 165
3. The delegation express themselves as greatly pleased with
the devotedness of the deacons and elders, in their care of the
spiritual interests of the people.
The membership of the churches, in 1859, as stated by the
delegation, was 19,360, in the Island of Jamaica. After giving
some statistics on the subject, it is remarked :
" It thus appears that while there has been a continuous diminution
in the number of the churches, there has also been a small but steady
decrease in the sums contributed to the pastors. At the same time
the general contributions of those in membership do not appear to
have become less, but to have increased since 1849  The
pastors have suffered rather from the diminution in the number of
their members, than from a decline in their liberality. These facts
certainly prove that their appeals for assistance are not without a real
foundation." The membership of the Baptists, in 1841, was 27,706. * In
1859, as above stated, it was 19,360 — a decrease of 8,346 in
eighteen years, being a loss of thirty per cent. All this decrease
has occurred under freedom, as the final emancipation took place
only three years before the year 1841, when the church census
was taken. In that year, it -will be remembered, the churches
declared themselves independent of the parent society, and became
self-supporting ; now, they have to appeal to the society for aid,
and thus manifest their conviction that the Jamaica negroes must
stiU be cared for by the white race.
" The history of the London Missionary Society's operations in
Jamaica is brief, extending over little more than twenty-five years.
By the Act of Emancipation, in 1834, eight hundred thousand of our
fellow-creatures passed from a state of abject and cruel slavery to one
of comparative freedom, called ' apprenticeship.' This happy change
afforded greatly increased facilities for usefulness among the agricul
tural laborers in the West Indies ; and of these advantages the direc
tors promptly availed themselves, anxious to take a part in preparing
them for the still greater change which would, in a few years, take
place in their social condition, when they would be put into the full
possession of their rights and privileges as freemen."
See Chapter I.

16& PULPIT POLITICS.
Thus discourses the Missionary Magazine, of August, 1861.
The views presented are in accordance with the British theory.
Let us see, then, how the results stand, as compared with mission
ary operations among the American slaves. The society sent out
six missionaries, with their wives, to Jamaica. They had no
difficulty in finding locations ; and they so selected their positions
as to form centers from which to operate by means of out-stations.
Some of the out-stations soon became of sufficient importance to
induce the directors to send out additional missionaries to occupy
them ; and the work has progressed, so that; in 1860, the mission
stands thus: European missionaries 6, native pastors 3, native
candidates for the ministry 3, native catechists and schoolmasters
11, Sabbath-school scholars 2,243, day scholars 1,346, church
members 1,691 — a very small increase, indeed, as compared with
the accessions of colored members, during the same period, to the
churches South.
The Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Mora
vians, at the triennial meeting of the Provincial Synod at Beth
lehem, Pennsylvania, June, 1858, presents the condition of its
missions in the West Indies, In eight of these islands — five
British and three Danish — the Moravians have 38 stations, 104
missionaries, and 36,441 converts. This does not include the
missionaries and converts in Tobago, the returns of which are not
given, *
Contrasting the present condition of the missions of this church,
in the West Indies, with what it was during the period of slavery,
and it is found that they have not held their ground. During
slavery, their converts could not have been less than 50,000 ; f
and now they are reduced to 36,441 — a decline, under freedom,
of 13,559 ! A reported revival during last year has afforded some
encouragement of better prospects in the future ; but, thus far,
freedom has done nothing for the greater increase of converts
among the blacks under the direction of the Moravians.
Taking, then, the total number of church members, in all the
missions in the West Indies, as indicated by the reports quoted,
and the contrast between Slavery and Freedom stands as follows :
* American Christian Record, 1860. t See Chapter I.

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 167
Under Slavery, the various missionary societies, commencing
their labors among the barbarous blacks, gathered more than
94,400 converts.
Under Freedom, eight missionary societies, commencing their
labors with 94,400 converts as a basis, and with freedom upon
which to progress in their work, have increased the converts to
112,807* — being an actual addition of only 18,407.
The results of the mission-work in the West Indies, under
slavery and under freedom, respectively, are now before the
reader. The statistics for the first period are not complete. They
are sufficiently full, however, to show that the mere condition of
slavery was no barrier to African evangelization ; but that the
checks it received, arose only from the hostility of the masters.
In the estimates for this period, it must be observed, that the four
years of apprenticeship are included, from 1834 to 1838. This is
done from necessity, as the statistics are only accessible for the
dates used ; and, besides, these two periods are properly classified
together, as the apprenticeship was a system of rigid constraint —
more so, even, than the slavery which preceded it — the only
difference being, that the missionaries had uninterrupted access to
the population. In every other respect, the bondage of the negro
was as complete as while he was in slavery. Three years of free
dom are included in the statistics of the Baptists, and six years
in those of the Methodists, But as an offset to this, the missions,
under freedom, have had the advantage of all the membership
gained during slavery. Taking into account, then, all the circum-
* These Missionary Associations , with their membership, are as follow^
DENOMINATIONS. MEMBERS.
Wesleyans, ... . . 48,000
English Baptists, - - . 19,360
Church of England, - .... 696
London Missionary Society, . - - 4,000
Moravians, ..... 36,441
Scotch Presbyterians, ...... 3,900
American Missionary Association, . . - 404
United Presbyterian Church, U. S., ... 6

Total, - - ... - - 112,807
A portion of these statistics are from the Enoyclopasdia of Missions,

168 PULPIT POLITICS.
Stances, it is apparent that the success has been greatest during
the period of servitude. None of the missions have even main
tained the ground gained under slavery. This result disproves
the theory of the American Missionary Association, that the
present inaccessibility of the population to the Gospel is due to
the preexistence of slavery; because, if the missionaries were
successful in christianizing the blacks while in bondage, the want
of success under emancipation must be due to some other cause
than slavery.
The history of missions in the West Indies affords a useful
lesson to those who have been struggling for the extension of
human rights, to the neglect of the use of the means appointed
to promote the salvation of the souls of men — to those who
have been careful to tithe the mint, anise, and cummin (to
bacco, whisky, and rum,) to the neglect of the weightier mat
ters of the law. The results are the more startling, when it is
considered that there has been a large increase of missionaries
in this field, and that no interruption of their labors has occurred,
from the planters or others. Freedom, full and absolute, was
granted to a barbarous people — barbarous, except to the extent
to which the mission-work had progressed — and the results have
been nothing more than should have been expected. In dispo
sition and knowledge, the African race, with few exceptions, are
but children, as compared with the white race ; and when 'thrown
upon their own resources, like neglected children, of any color,
they must necessarily run to ruin.
7. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in the French West
Ini^ia Islands.
The moral condition of the negro population of Hayti, before
emancipation, may be taken as the type of that of the blacks of the
other French islands. We find that the question of their moral
condition, under slavery, was a subject of investigation in 1839.
" Some time ago, a commission was appointed to examine the ques
tion of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. The follow
ing extract is taken from a summary of the report presented by M.
de Tocqueville, in the name of the commission : " *
* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, December, 1839.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 169
" The report passes lightly and contemptuously over the arguments
in favor of slavery, and takes for granted the conviction, in every
mind, that it ought to be done away with. It pasaea immediately to
the queation of its being neceaaary to prepare the alave for emancipa
tion, previous to liberating him. M. de Tocqueville, in the name of
the commission, asserts that all attempts to improve, enlighten, and
prepare the slave, as long as he is a slave, are impoaaible  The
commiasion, therefore, abandons the idea of preparing the slave for
freedom by any regulations of his treatment while a slave. Eman
cipation, it adds, can not be deferred. The prospect of it, the idea
of its necessity, of its necessary arrival at no distant time, render the
slave incapable of tranquil obedience and good conduct as a slave.
He is in a false position. The master can no longer retain him, espe
cially at night."
It was not until 1848 that emancipation was declared in the
French West India Islands, by a decree of the Republic. Their
population, including free persons and slaves, we find stated as
follows : *

COLONIES.
Martinique  (1846)..,
Gaudaloupe  (do)....
Bourbon  (do)...,
Nossi Be and Nossi Cumha  (do), l
Nossi Falli and Nossi Mitsou....(do). J
St. Mary Magdalene  (do)..,,
Senegal  (1845).,.
Algiers, (estimate) 
Total 

47,35240,428 46,51214,512 3,465
8,427

159,696

SLAVES.

75,330
89,349 62,154 7,698
2,415
10,11310,000

257,059

A fact or two will illustrate the effects of emancipation upon
the economical interests of these islands. When M. de Tocque
ville made his report, the production of cane sugar, in the whole
of the islands, was 161,500,000 Ibs.f per annum. In the first
nine months of 1847, the exports to France were 168,884,177 lbs.
This shows that the production of the islands was on the increase,
previous to emancipation. But the abolition of slavery, in 1848,
at once arrested cultivation, so that, in the first nine months of
* Anti-Slavery Reporter.
t This was the crop of 1840.

170 PULPIT POLITICS.
1849, the exports were reduced to 96,929,336 lbs. * — being a
reduction, during the second year of freedom, of more than fifty-
seven per cent. This sudden falling off in the production of the
colonies soon led to the supply of a laboring population, to sup
plant the idle free negroes, by the adoption of the " immigration "
system. The imported laborers were brought from Africa, and
their procurement, as will be remembered, produced some trouble
between the French and the authorities of Liberia. It also
greatly interrupted the American Board's missions on t)ie Ga
boon river.
We find in M. de Tocqueville a zealous disciple of the English
theories — that the moral elevation of the blacks can not be
secured under slavery. Time has shown that this gentleman, as
well as the English theorists, were extremely short-sighted in
reference to the effects of emancipation. They can now see, that
freedom to a barbarous population is not necessarily followed by
the intellectual and moral elevation of the people set at liberty.
No Protestant missions have been established in these islands.
The planters are no longer responsible for the slaves of which
they were robbed; and, in the midst of. continuous importations
of barbarians from Africa, they can not improve.
8. The Obstacles to African Evangelization among the Free
Colored people of the United States and Canada.
It may be well, in the outset of this investigation, to refer
again to the moral condition of the free colored population at the
North, as indicated by the statistics of crime. The preceding
chapter shows what it was, up to 1826 and 1827 ; it is only neces
sary, therefore, to direct attention to their moral condition since
that period. The results will enable us to determine whether the
anti-slavery zeal of the North, for the good of the African race,
has spent as much of its force for the elevation of those already
free, and at their doors, as has been expended by them in efforts
for the emancipation of the slaves at the South, The statistics
below are from the Compendium of the Census of the United
States for 1850 — those of 1860 not being out :
« See " Ethiopia," page 136,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 171

" Tabula/r Statement of the number of the native and foreign white
population, the colored population, the number of each class in the
Penitentiaries, the proportion of the convicts to the whole number of
each class, the proportion of colored convicts over the foreign and
also over the native whites, in the four States named, for the year
1850:

CLASSES, ETC.
Native Whites 
In the Penitentiary 
Being 1 out of. 
FosEiGN Whites 
In the Penitentiary 
Being 1 out of. 
Colored Population 
In the Penitentiary 
Being 1 out of. 
Colored convicts over foreign  ,
Colored convicts over native
whites 

MASS.

n. YORK.

PENN.

OHIO.

819,044 264

2,388,830 836

1,953,276 205

1,732,698 291

3,102

2,860

9,528

6,954

163,598 125

655,224 546

303,106 123

218,099 71

1,308

1,202

2,464

3,077

9,064 47

49,069 257

53,626 109

25,279 44

192

190

492

674

6.8 times

6.3 times

5 times

. 6.3 times

16,1 times

15 times

19.3 times

10.3 times

" It appears from these figures, that the amount of crime among
the colored people of Massachusetts, in 1850, was 6^jj times greater
than the amount among the foreign-born population of that State,
and that the amount, in the four States named, among the free col
ored people, averages five-and-three-quarters times more, in proportion
to their numbers, than it does among the foreign population, and over
fifteen times more than it does among the native whites. It will be
instructive, also, to note the moral condition of the free colored peo
ple in Maaaachuaetts, the great center of abolitioniam, where they
have enjoyed equal righta ever since 1780. Strange to say, there is
nearly three times as much crime among them, in that State, as exists
among those of Ohio ! More than this will be useful to note, as it
regards the direction of the emigration of the free colored people.
Massachusetts, in 1850, had but 2,687 colored persons born out of the
State, while Ohio had 12,662 born out of her limits. Take another
fact : the increase per cent., of the colored population, in the whole
New England States, was, during the ten years from 1840 to 1850,
but l-j-^^'^, while in Ohio, it was, during that time, 45//^.
" There is another point worthy of notice. Though the New Eng
land abolition States have offered equal political rights to the colored
man, it has afforded him little temptation to emigrate into their
bounds. On the contrary, several of these States have been dimin-

172 PUIPIT POLITICS.
ishing their free colored population, for many years past, and none
of them can have had accessions of colored immigrants ; as is abund
antly proved by the fact, that their additions, of this class of persons,
have not exceeded the natural increase of the resident colored popu
lation."* A useful lesson is here taught, in relation to the great problem
of the progress of the African, in civilization, side by side with
the Caucasian.
But we must not pass over an important fact, embraced in the
question of the moral condition of the free colored population.
Look again at their condition in Massachusetts, as compared
with Ohio. In the former, in 1850, one out of every 192 were
in the Penitentiary, and in the latter, only one out of every 574.
Why should the colored people be so much better in Ohio than
in Massachusetts ? In Ohio, more than half the number were
born out of the State. On coming to Ohio, where did they emi
grate from ? Massachusetts ? Scarcely a man of them. The im
migration of the free colored people, into the We,stern free States,
is nearly all from the slave States. This is a significant fact,
showing that, even under slavery, the colored man makes more
progress in morality and industry, than he can do under the shade
of abolition philanthropy in Massachusetts !
From the testimony afforded by statistics, we turn to that fur
nished by abolitionists themselves; so as to learn whether, in
their opinion, the free colored people have made any advance
within the last thirty years. Listen to that well-known aboli
tionist, Hon. Gerritt Smith, who, in addressing Governor Hunt
of New York, in 1852, said :
" Suppose, moreover, that during all these fifteen years, they had
been quitting the cities, where the mass of them rot, both physically
and morally, and had gone into the country to become farmers and
mechanics — suppose, I say, all this — and who would have the
hardihood to affirm that the Colonization Society lives upon the
malignity of the whites — but it is true that it lives upon the vol
untary degradation of the blacks. I do not say that the colored peo
ple are more debased than the white people would be if persecuted,
* See Cotton is King, for full details.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 173
oppressed and outraged as are the colored people. But I do say that
they are debased, deeply debased ; and that to recover themselves
they must become heroes, self-denying heroes, capable of achieving a
great moral victory — a two-fold victory — a victory over themselves
and a -victory over their enemies."
In referring to the action of the free colored people of New
York, in 1855, to secure to themselves the right of suffrage, the
New York Tribune said:
" It is not logical conviction of the justice of their claims that is
needed, but a prevalent belief that they would form a wholesome and
desirable element of the body politic. Their color exposea them to
much unjuat and damaging prejudice ; but if their degradation were
but skin-deep, they might easily overcome it  Of course,
we understand that the evil we contemplate is complex and retroac
tive — that the political degradation of the blacks ia a cause as well as
a consequence of their moral debasement. Had they never been en
slaved, they would not now be so abject in soul ; had they not been so
abject, they could not have been enslaved. Our aborigines might
have been crushed into slavery by overwhelming force ; but they
could never have been made to live in it. The black man who feels
insulted in that he is called a ' nigger,' therein attests the degradation
of his race more forcibly than does the blackguard at whom he takes
offense ; for negro is no further a term of opprobrium than the char
acter of the blacks has made it so."
Rev. H, W, Beecher, in referring to the degraded condition of
the free colored people at the North, in his sermon in reference
to the Harper's Ferry affair, said :
" How are the free colored people treated at the North? They are
almost without education, with but little sympathy for their ignorance.
They are refused the common rights of citizenship which the whites
enjoy. They can not even ride in the cars of our city railroads.
They are snuffed at in the house of God, or tolerated with ill-disguised
disgust. Can the black man be a mason in New York ? Let him be
employed as a journeyman, and every Irish lover of liberty that car
ries the hod or trowel, would leave at once, or compel him to leave I
Can the black man be a carpenter? There is scarcely a carpenter's
shop in New York in which a journeyman would continue to work.

174 PULPIT POLITICS.
if a black man was employed in it. Can the black man engage in the
common industries of life? There is scarcely one in which he can
engage. He is crowded down, down, down through the most menial
callings, to the bottom of society. We tax them and then refuse to
allow their children to go to our public schools. We tax them and
then refuse to sit by them in God's house. We heap upon them
moral obloquy more atrocious than that which the master heaps upon
the slave. And notwithstanding all this, we lift ourselves up to talk
to the Southern people about the rights and liberties of the human
soul, and especially the African soul !  The degradation of
the free colored men in the North will fortify slavery in the South ! "
Mr, Beecher never uttered anything nearer the truth, than the
last sentence quoted. The failure of the abolitionists of the North,
to enable its free colored people to profit by freedom, has effect
ually barred all farther State emancipation at the South,
From such facts as the preceding, it appears that emancipation,
as heretofore conducted, has left the colored man unprotected and
unsupported, to fall, ultimately, as a helpless burden upon the
whites, or to sink down again toward his original barbarism.
Lord Mansfield's decision had this effect upon the colored people
of England ; and the burden was only removed, by their transfer
to Africa, The results of emancipation in the British islands
have been of a similar character, producing wide-spread ruin,
generally, in the economical interests of the islands, which has
only been arrested where large importations of coolies have been
made to carry on the cultivation, or where the density of the
population has compelled the blacks to labor or starve, * No
better results have followed the freedom of the negroes in Hayti ;
and, now, it is likely to be wholly blotted out as a republic, and
restored to its former productiveness, under the control of a
superior race. The same results, substantially, followed the lib
eration of a portion of the slaves, at an early day, in the United
States — leading to colonization as a means of relief from the
presence of a helpless class of freemen.
After the abolition movement had been fairly inaugurated, the
subject of the helpless condition of the free colored people was a
frequent topic of discussion ; and it became a popular argument
* See what Mr. Sewell says, in Chapter V. of this volume.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, ¦ 175
against farther emancipations, as useless, because valueless to the
colored people themselves. It was urged by the abolitionists, in
reply, that the elevation of those who had been liberated, could
not be hoped for, so long as any of the race remained in bondage.
This was, practically, to say : we of the North find it impossible
to elevate the few thousands whom we have humanely set free ;
therefore, you of the South must emancipate the several millions
which you own ; so that the whole of the African race, among us,
may be improved, in their moral condition, by one grand move
ment embracing the whole country. This position of the aboli
tionists, -was in direct opposition to the opinions which had been
held at the North, in relation to the benefits of emancipation;
and was, in fact, an admission, substantially, that the South had
been right in its views of the inefficiency of mere personal free
dom, as a means of advancement to the negro race. *
That there had been gross neglect of the colored men in the
North, is abundantly apparent from what has been stated ; but it
will appear still more apparent, from the additional statistics of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1836 to 1845, including
the period of the disruption of this Church.
* That a determination existed to force emancipation upon the South, regard
less of consequences, and without consulting the history of past experiments,
is apparent from the fact, that, as early as 1831, fifteen petitions were presented
in Congress from Pennsylvania, praying the abolition of slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia, and the abolition of the slave trade therein. Mr. Adams,
in presenting these petitions, very frankly gave it as his opinion, that the
abolition of slavery in the District was improper, and he would not support
any such measure; but as the existence of the traffic in slaves within the Dis
trict might be a proper subject of Congressional inquiry, he would move the
reference of the petitions to the committee having charge of its interests.
Whatever his opinion of slavery in the abstract, or of slavery in the District
of Columbia might be, he said he hoped the subject might not be discussed in
the House. He would say that the most salutary medicine unduly administered,
was the most deadly poison. It might have been well for the peace of the
country, if Mr. Adams had ever afterward maintained the ground here taken
on the slavery question.
The petitions were referred to the committee on the District of Columbia, of
which Mr. Doddridge, of Virginia, was chairman, who afterward made a report
asking to be discharged from the farther consideration of so much of said peti
tions as asked the abolition of slavery in the District. In 1817, seyeral peti
tions were presented against the slave trade between the Middle and Southern
States, which were read and referred. — [See Polit. Text-Book, by M. W. Cluskey.

176

PULPIT POLITICS.

Colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1836
to 1845, the year 1840 being omitted as imperfect in its returns :

CONEERMCES. 1836 1837 1838 1839 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845

New England..
Maine 
N. Hampshire.
New York 
Troy 
Providence 
Oneida & Black
River 
Genessee 
Now Jersey.
Pittsburgh.. Erie 
Ohio 
North Ohio.
Michigan ,..
Indiana 
North Indiana.
Illinois 
Rook River..
Iowa 
Missouri 
Kentucky....Tennessee....Holston 
Memphis 
Arkansas 
Texas 
Florida 
Alabama 

396 3
16
434 61

381 18
434 61

393 12
538
105

235

235

139

462 105

Georgia.South Carolina.
North Carolina,
Virginia 
Baltimore 
Philadelphia...

318
"465

240

1,1896,321
4,693 2,189

3,4632,5317,204
23,643

7,081
13,867 8,961

8766
502
298 34
564

95 73
478 296 33
537

40
836

69
308

109

940
4,951 3,901 1,997

812
4,7704,598 2,129

692

2,884 2,1
1,841 l,5g7 7,126

23,166

6,117
1.3,527 7,777

23,498 3,8962,960
13,301 8,112

96 63
496
427 46
613

327

182

906
5,8545,190
1,820

683

3,530 3,9058,358
24,822 4,3152,951
13,544 8,304

Total  82,296 76,240 79,236 87,197 101,236106,478127,574144,535149,150

406 78

9250
542
474 60
662 9112
407

1,224 6,321
4,4052,4201,995 726
230

5,821
4,178 9,989
30,481 4,480 3,086
13,904 8,778

419 89
104 2688
643
487 52
606 8914
236

4418

1,3996,761
4,234 2,832
2,289 828
407

7,505
4,089
11,457
30,860 ¦4,733 3,558
13,626 9,086

440 8493
113 60
769532 61
611128
-¦ 5
245

1,874 8,544
4,3363,806 3,536
1,091 536

9,373
6,048
14,056 33,375 6,1633,777
17,995 10,712

424 149

119 78
817
495 72
640 65
20
257

2,388 9,9516,478
4,001
4,451 1,804 856

12,061 7,087
16,34637,952 6,226
4,799
16,97310,917

380 92

119 74
763
406 86
623 4010
159 47 71
2312
2,630 9,362
6,869
4,001
4,843 1,775
1,006
2,663
13,537 7,799
13,99439,495 6,390
'4,949
16,412
10,742

The dotted lines (  ) indicate that the Church had not yet been orpianized.
that the Chnrch had been organized, but had no colored members of that date.

The dash, (  )

But did the disruption of the Methodist Church, and the dis
connection of the- Northern ministers from those of the South,
give them any more power over the free colored people ? Let
the statistics of the succeeding years answer that question ; it
being remarked, that the border States, to some extent, remained
with the Church North ; and that the Philadelphia Conference in
cludes the State of Delaware and a part of Maryland,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 177

Colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, from
the disruption until the Annual Conferences ceased to distinguish
the colored from the white members :

CONFERENCES.

1846 1847 1848 1849 lg50

Baltimore'* 
Philadelphia 
Providence 
New Jersey 
New England....
New York 
New York East .
Troy..

New Hampshire ..
Vermont 
Black River 
Pittsburgh 
Western Virginia..
Oneida 
Wisconsin 
Erie 
Rock River 
North Ohio 
Genessee 
East Genessee 
Maine 
East Maine 
Ohio 
Missouri 
Iowa 
Illinois 
North Indiana 
Michigan 
Indiana 

17

,316
1,637 748
393

23
391

16,387 9,992 699 379
"'97

20
346

4742 33
164

""se

"'86

61

68

19

27

31

55

58

58

"e'so

514

32
60 50 8
174

16,156 9,612 718
381
"'84 633

16,759 9,306 676
268

170378

345 10
26 73
21
161

16,802 8,938 641
257

118
382

402 226 3036
32
144

Total  29,725 29,041 28,289 27,626 27,022

346197 15
27 17
177

The dotted lines (  ) indicate that the Chnrch had not yet been organized. The dash, (-
that the Church had been organized, but had no colored members of that date.

-)

It was with such returns as these before them, of the failure of
the Methodist ministry to benefit the free colored people, that the
Bishops, in the General Conference of 1844, New York City, felt
constrained to give the subject their most serious consideration.
We quote but a few sentences, referring the reader to their Letter
at large : f
" We can not but view it as a matter of deep regret, that the spirit-

* The figur.es for the year 1849 and 1850, in the Baltimore Conference, include
members and probationers, t See Chapter VIII,, session of 1856,
12

178 PULPIT POLITICS.
ual interests of the people of color, in these United States, have been
so long and so greatly neglected by the Christian churches. And it
is greatly to be feared that we are not innocent in this thing 
Let facts give the answer. From an examination of official records,
it appears that there are four annual conferences, in which there is
not a single colored member in the church. Eight others have an
aggregate number of four hundred and sixty-three, averaging less
than sixty. And taking fifteen, about one-half of the conferences in
the connection, and some of them among the largest, both in the
ministry and membership, and the whole number of colored members
is but one thousand three hundred and nine, giving an average of less
than ninety. It is well known that in many of these conferences
there are a numerous population, and in each of them a considerable
number. It is presumed that the freedom of the people of color,
within the bounds of these conferences, will not be urged as the
cause of their not being brought under religious influence, and gath
ered into the fold of Christ. We are certainly not prepared to admit
that a state of servitude is more favorable to the success of the Gos
pel, in its experimental and practical effects, than a state of freedom.''
The force of the remarks of the Bishops-, and the pungency
of the rebuke they administered, will be understood, when it is
stated, that the conferences which had done the least for the free
colored people were those which, as a general thing, had been
the most zealous in forwarding abolition memorials to the Gen
eral Conference.
This question will be well understood by a careful examination
of the preceding statistical tables. From 1836 to 1845 the col
ored membership increased from 82,296 to 149,150, nearfy the
whole of which increase was in the slave States. Exclusive of
the Philadelphia Conference, there was an increase of only 640
in the free States, during these nine years !
This Church resolved to divide in 1844, but the statistics were
not taken separately until after 1845. From this date, then, the
conferences at the North are no longer trammeled by an alliance
with the South — some of the border churches and conferences,
only, remaining with the Church North. What, then, are the
results? The statistics from 1846 to 1850, inclusive, show a de
crease of the colored membership, in these four years, of 2,703 —
2,102 of which decrease was in the border conferences of Balti-

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 179
more and Philadelphia, and 601 of the decrease in the other
twenty-seven conferences. Truly, the disruption of the Meth
odist Church has been disastrous to the cause of African evan
gelization, so far as the Methodist ministry are concerned, not
only in the border slave States, but throughout the free States
generally. The language employed, in reference to the churches
among the freedmen of Jamaica, applies with equal force to the
conferences in the Northern States, so far as relates to their col
ored converts : . " The' members in society do not increase ! "
The Methodist Church was not alone in having lost her influ
ence with the free colored people of the North, as a consequence
of the abolition controversy. Very few of the churches of the
whites had any considerable number of colored people in their
communion ; and where they had, they were rarely able long to
retain them. The abolition controversy was so conducted as to
awaken the most bitter prejudices in the minds of the colored
professors against the whites. They were taught to believe that
no slaveholder could be a Christian, and that the churches, whose
jurisdiction extended into the slave States, were not Christian
churches. We must not be understood, here, as attributing these
ultra views as coming, in this form, from any ecclesiastical body
of respectable standing, but mainly from the abolitionists and
their lecturers, who traversed the country to propagate abolition
doctrines.* They were further taught, that the Almighty pos-
* Gerritt Smith, on August 5, 1857, in addressing the editor of the New York
Tribune, used the following language," from which it will be seen that he urged
the colored people to abjure all churches whiclr spared slavery — all, of course,
who did not occupy abolition ground :
"Our colored people complain of your treatment of them. I think myself
that it is sometimes too rigorous, though, in the main, I candidly approve it.
You are their friend in demanding that they shall, by their own good conduct,
redeem themselves from their deep debasement. You deal but justly with
them, when you declare that their own bad influence goes further than the
arts of the worst slaveholders to uphold slavery.
" So far from making their wrongs and outrages an excuse for their con
tinued degradation, the free colored people should, in view of these wrongs
and outrages, arouse themselves to the irresistible determination to equal and
surpass their persecutors in all that honors manhood. They should swear that
they will be Pariahs and lepers no longer. To this end, they should quit the
towns, in which they are wont to congregate, and where they are but servants,

180 PULPIT POLITICS.
sessed no attribute which Could tolerate or sanction the principle
of slavery, or the holding of " property in man." This doctrine,
advocated by the Christian Intelligencer, was copied into the abo
lition papers, and proclaimed throughout the North.
And what was the consequence of this teaching? Among the
educated young colored men were some who had a little knowl
edge of logic. More than once the author has heard them dis
cuss this point, of " the right of property in man," and dispose
of it thus : " The Almighty can neither sanction nor tolerate
the holding of property in man : the Bible sanctions the holding
of property in man : therefore the Bible is not the word of God."
They relied upon Exodus xxi : 20, 21, to sustain them in their
position : " And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a
rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished.
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be
punished ; for he is his money," They insisted that the last
clause of this quotation clearly taught, that the slave is the prop
erty of his master — " for he ia his money." These young infi
dels are men now advanced in life, but they have never embraced
the Bible as the word of God. Who is responsible for mislead'
ing them?
Fortunately, the entire mass of the colored professors of reh^
gion were influenced more by their piety than they were by the
logic einployed against the Biblcj, And, though their alienation
of affection for the white churches became complete, they still
adhered to their profession of religion, and went into the organ
ization of African churches. This task was the more easily per
formed, because churches of this class had been established in
the country at an early day. A brief notice of these organiza
tions will be necessary to a proper understanding of the position
of the colored professors of religion in the North.
African Methodist Church. — This body had its origin in
and should scatter themselves over the country in the capacity of farmers and
mechanics. They should cease from the habit of wasting their earnings iu
periodical balls. They should never Wet their lips with intoxicating drinks
nor defile theta with tobacco. Thejr should never so war upon their self-
respect as to join a Church which spares slavery, or join a political party
which knows law for slavery."

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted, 181
the pity of Philadelphia, in 1787, owing to difficulties growing
out of the colored people and the whites meeting together for
public worship. Bishop White of the Episcopal Church, sympa
thizing with the colored people, ordained one of their own num
ber as pastor. In 1793, their numbers had so increased that a
meeting-house was erected for them, and dedicated by Bishop
Asbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, under the name of
Bethel — the members giving a preference for the Methodist
Church. Various difficulties beset them, in their relations with
the Methodist Church, when, in 1816, a convention was called in
Philadelphia, for the purpose of organizing on a broader basis,
so as to include the colored professors in Baltimore and else
where. An organization was formed under the name of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church. The first annual confer
ence was held at Baltimore, April, 1818 ; " since when, the Church
has been making quiet but steady progress. It has a Book Con
cern and a Missionary Society." *
ZioN African Methodist Episcopal Church, — The rise of
this society was also due to disagreements between the whites
and colored people. It had its origin in New York city, and its
first church was built in 1800. In 1820, the society erected
itself into a distinct and independent body. It received into
connection with it several other Churches, and, in 1821, held an
annual conference in New York city. Twenty-two ministers
were in attendance, and the number of church members reported
was 1,426. At the annual conference, in 1838, the society elected
its first superintendent.
The estimated membership of the Bethel and the Zion Meth
odist Episcopal Churches is 26,746 ; the traveling preachers 193 ;
the local 444, f
We have before us the Report of the Twelfth General Confer
ence of this African Methodist Episcopal Church, held in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1860. The conference was presided
over by Bishops Quinn, Nazrey, and Payne, all colored men.
Seven conferences were represented, besides that of Canada,
from which a delegate was present.
* American Christian Record, 1860, pages 141, 142. t Ibid., p, 143.

182 FULPlT POLITICS.
In the course of the proceedings relating to Canada, it was
decided to be expedient that the conference in that province
should be separated from the General Conference of the United
States ; and the following very sensible reason was assigned in
its favor:
" Becauae all societies, in their organization, in order to receive
protection from civil law, must be subject to the government, and
recognize the authority that exista. In the preaent state of things
this can not be done by the Canadian Conference, while they uae our
form of Discipline.
The conference also passed resolutions in recognition of the
Liberia Methodist Episcopal Church. This is a movement in the
right direction, and shows that the bitter hostility once existing
against Liberia is yielding under the progress of intelligence in
this body.
But the most important portion of the proceedings is the argu
ment of Bishop Payne, defending himself against the decision of
a committee who had disapproved his action in a case where he
had rejected an applicant for deacon's orders, on the ground that
he was not a member of the annual conference, and to ordain
him, therefore, would be a violation of Discipline. The Bishop
took an appeal from the decision of the committee, and was sus
tained by the conference.
We refer to this case, to make a short quotation from the argu
ment of the Bishop, It is a fair example of the advantages of a
little common sense, in dealing with questions which, in its ab
sence, have led men's minds into inextricable confusion. The
applicability of the Bishop's argument to the abolition interpre
tations of the Constitution of the United States will be at once
apparent. Had his strong common sense, as applied to a ques
tion respecting constitutional church polity, been exercised in
relation to the National Constitution, we should never have had
the troubles that are now upon us. But let us hear the Bishop,
at the same time keeping in mind that what he says is designed
to be applied by us to the subjects discussed in the chapter on
Political Abolitionism:
'' In every well-organized government, which has continued for any

missions- UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 183
length of time, say a single generation, there will be found three dif
ferent kinds of laws :
" 1, Constitutional law.
" 2. Statute law.
" 3. Common, or unwritten law.
" The Constitutional is that which enters into the structure of the
government, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, and is sometimes
called the organic law. It is, therefore, fundamental and supreme.
Being supreme, it controls both the statute and common law,
" Statute laws are legislative enactments, made for the purpose of
accomplishing some end expressed or implied in the constitutional,
and, therefore, must always be subordinate to the constitutional ;
never subversive of it,
" Whenever a statute law is subversive of the constitutional, it
becomes null and void — a mere dead letter.
" The common, or unwritten, law derives its authority from custom
or usage. In the State it is always called the common law; in the
Church it is always called usage. The common law, or usage, like
the statute, must always be subordinate to the constitutional. If
subversive of the constitutional, it must be set aside, and trampled
under foot.
" Now, the verdict of the committee is based upon a statute law of
the American Methodist Episcopal Church, to which they refer in
Discipline of 1856.
" But the venerable committee seem to have forgotten that there is
a higher law than the one to which they refer, for they make no allu
sion to it ; I mean, the constitutional 
"It is also maintained that it is the usage of our Church to ordain
local preachers who are not members of the annual conference. But
what is usage, in the presence of constitutional law? Why nothing
more than chaff before the wind. That man who suffers statutes or
usages to subvert the constitutional law, is not a good governor, but
a bad one. To do this is to be guilty of misrule 
" Men ! brethren ! fathers ! I call upon you to sustain the gov
ernment !
" Remember that the privilege ia not to be given till the obedi
ence is yielded; nor the right secured and enjoyed till the duty is
performed. " Brother Miehum requests a pri-vilege before he yields the required
obedience — he demands a right before the duty is performed. Will
you do this ? Nay ! You will not ; — you can not.

184 jptrLMT poiiiTica.
"Meti! brethren? fkthers! I call on you to preserve the statute
in harmony with the constitution ; and both in obedience to the law
of God."
The details of the condition of the conferences of this Church
are not in our possession. One only, the Report of the Cincin
nati Conference, has come within our reach. Its session of 1860
reported, as under its care, 16 stations in principal cities and
towns ; 70 circuits ; 3,902 members and 283 probationers. This
conference seems to cover the territory of Ohio and Western
Pehnsylvattia. In relation to the colored Baptist Churches, we have been un
able to obtain full information. We have before us, however, the
Minutes of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Union
Anti-Slavery Baptist Association, which met in Pike county,
Ohio, 1857. Two preceding reports are also before us. The
report of 1857 embraces 27 churches, which had received, by
baptism, during the year past, 161 members, and they had a total
membership of 1,423 — four of the congregations not reporting,
but which had previously reported 144 members, making a prob
able total, in 1857, of 1,567. The report for 1856 gives an in
crease for the year, by baptisms, of 135, and a total membership
of 1,282 — the statistics being full, and 22 churches represented.
The report for 1855 gives a*increase, by baptisms, for the year,
of 83, and a total membership of 1,430 — there being three con
gregations not represented, two of which, in the report of 1856,
give a membership, of 107, thus giving a total of more than 1,537.
It appears from these statistics, that no very encouraging pro
gress has been made by these colored Baptist churches, if we
compare them with the success of the Baptists South among the
colored people.
We have also before us the Minutes op the Twenty-Fifth
Anniversary of the Providence Anti-Slavery Baptist Asso
ciation, held in Jackson county, Ohio, 1859. Delega.tes to the
number of 40 were present. Several churches were not repre
sented. The total membership reported is 980, there being three
congregations which made no returns. This organization seems
to be limited to Ohio. It issued a most excellent Circular Letter,
which breathes the true spirit of Christian piety, humility, and

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 185
devotion. But on the very next page, we have a fair illustra
tion of the injurious effects of clergymen interfering in civil
affairs. In referring to the arrest and imprisonment of the col
ored men who rescued a fugitive slave from the United States
marshal, and were then suffering the penalty of their violation
of law, the Association passed the following resolutions :
" 16th Item, Resolved, That C. H. Langston and his worthy asso
ciates, who, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law, rescued the man
John from his claimants, gave a practical illustration of Christianity
in that act, which needs to be often repeated, if we would save Chris
tianity from the sneer of the infidel ; for, that Christianity which ex
pends itself in distributing tracts, in making long prayers, in erecting
splendid church edifices, and reclining upon richly cushioned seats,
listening to invectives against crinoline, chewing tobacco and dancing,
while it opens not its ears to the piteous groans of the bleeding slave,
as they issue from the hell of slavery, and through fear of imprison
ment and bonds, loaa of reputation and money, will permit the poor
alave, as he flees, all trembling, broken-hearted and bleeding, to be
clutched by his blood-hound pursuers, and dragged back into the hell
of slavery, is certainly not the religion of the holy Jesus, but a lie,
and they who preach and practice it, are hypocrites.
" Resolved, That in rescuing John, despite the rigors of the Fugi
tive Slave Law and the insolence of governmental officials, which they
knew would be mercilessly exercised over them, Langston and his
associates rendered themselves illustrious as practical, Christian phi
lanthropists. " Resolved, That our brethren every where emulate each other in
striving to show who can do the most to relieve those men from
their pecuniary embarrassments, occasioned by that noble act.
" The reading of these resolutions brought pretty much the whole
Association to their feet, all of whom, as they could get opportunity,
warmly advocated their adoption.
" Unanimously adopted."
These councils, coming from professed ministers of the Gospel,
are not calculated to give the impression that such men are well
prepared to act their part as safe members of civil society. It
is such a spirit as this, in the free colored men, that determines
all sober-thoughted citizens to resist the emancipation of a race

186 pulpit politics.
who never have, while standing alone, been able to maintain civil
institutions ; and who, in connection with the superior races, have
always; to a greater or less extent, been a disturbing element in
civilized communities. Encouraging resistance to law, under the
guise of religion, is no palhation of the crime, come from whence
it may. But the colored ministers, in extenuation of their offense,
can plead the example of white ministers of the Gospel. This,
however, is only an additional evidence of their want of a sound
judgment, and of the ease with which they yield to their pas
sions and prejudices when under the influence of bad men.
The obstacles to the moral progress of the free colored people
in the North have been very great. A moment's attention to this
point is necessary to a correct understanding of their true posi
tion. As in the South so in the North, there had been colored
men admitted into the ministry upon whom the Gospel had ex
erted its influence ; and who were laboring not only to keep them
selves unspotted from the world, but to bring others, also, into
the practice of Gospel purity. Aware of the advantages of edu
cation to preachers of the Gospel, the effort was made, by lead
ing colored men, to establish institutions of learning for the edu
cation of colored youth. Without adequate wealth of their own,
they appealed to the whites for aid, but, generally, without any
great degree of success. Nor did the leaders of abolitionism
seem to take much interest in direct efforts for the elevation of
the colored men already free ; but, on the contrary, these appU-
cations for assistance were often viewed as great annoyances.
In speaking of them, the New York Tribune, ' on one occasion,
said :
" At present white men dread to be known aa friendly to the black,
becauae of the never-ending, atill-beginning importunities to help
this or that object of negro charity or philanthropy to which such a
reputation inevitably subjects them."
To give money for the publication of incendiary documents —
for the aid of escaping fugitive slaves — for Sharpe's rifles to
shoot pro-slavery men in Kansas — for anything that would in
jure or annoy the slaveholder — were objects liberally supported
by donations from abolitionists : but to contribute to the estab-

missions under freedom and slavery contrasted, 187
lishment of colleges and seminaries, for the education of the free
colored people, were enterprises that could not enlist their sympa
thies, so as to open their purse-strings. To applications of this
kind we know the reply, in substance, has often been :
" We, abolitionists, are laboring for the destruction of slavery, and,
at present, can do nothing for you. Until that evil is removed, the
free colored people can not rise into respectability, or be relieved
from the prejudice which now bears them down. Universal emanci
pation, thereifore, is the first object to be gained ; as, after that, preju
dice will disappear, and the best schools and colleges in the land be
thrown open to the colored man."
Thus repelled, but self-reliant, the colored men, to whom we
have alluded, toiled on, almost unaided, in the work of Christian
instruction and moral reform. Their field of labor has been beset
with many difficulties. Concentrated mostly in large cities and
towns, the colored population are subjected to many temptations,
thus rendering the task of their elevation the more difficult of
accomplishment. The preachers, in many cases, have to pursue
some occupation to aid in making a support, and have thus less
time for study. That they are able to sustain their churches, in
the midst of so many obstacles to success, argues well for their
faithfulness as ministers of the Gospel.
By reference to the statistics of the Methodist Episcopal
Church (whites) in the preceding pages, it will be seen that the
Pittsburgh and Ohio Conferences, which covered the ground now
occupied by the colored conference, had a colored membership, in
1834, of 921 ; in 1843, of 1,143 ; in 1845, of 968 ; and in 1850,
of only 491. The withdrawal of the colored membership, from
the old to the new organization, will explain this decrease ; and
these statistics also show, that the African Methodist Church
have made an increase, on the former membership in the old
church, extending from 1,143, in 1843, to 4,185, including proba
tioners, in 1860 — an increase of nearly fourfold,
Canada has long been the promised land of the colored man ;
it, therefore, demands a somewhat more extended notice. In the
outset it must be remembered, that the colored population of Can
ada are mainly fugitive slaves. The original colored settlers

188 pulpit politics.
were mostly from Cincinnati, and embraced some men of excel
lence and piety. The American Missionary Association at
tempted to take the religious oversight of these people, and, at
first, with promises of success ; but, after a time, the teachers
and missionaries lost their infiuence, and had, in a good degree,
to abandon the field. Out of four stations, at the opening of
1853, but one school remained at its close. All the others had
been abandoned, and all the missionaries had asked to be re
leased. * Early in the year, one of the missionaries wrote to the
association, saying — " that the opposition to white missionayieg,
manifested by the colored people of Canada, had so greatly in
creased, by the interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored
men pretending to be ministers of the Gospel, that he thought
his own and his wife's labors, and the funds of the association,
could be better employed elsewhere."
In 1857, the association report but one missionary in Canada,
and he had been mobbed by the colored people, and, at one time,
his life was thought to be in danger. In June, his church was
burned down; and, in August following, another building which
he had secured shared the same fate • — both being the worfe of
incendiaries. " This field," says the Eleventh Annual Report,
" is emphatically a hard one, and requires much faith and patience
from those who labor there."
In 1858, the missionary wrote : " My wife's school is in a pros
perous condition. She has nearly forty scholars, and they learn
well. There are numbers who can not come to school for want
of suitable clothing. They are nearly naked." f On another
occasion it is said, " the missionaries find it extremely difficult to
win the confidence of the colored people of Canada." %
The report of 1859 shows that several Sunday-schools and two
churches had been formed among the colored population of the
Canada mission ; and that Mr. Hotchkiss had added eighteen con
verts to the churches under his care in a little more than a year.
But we have an example of a different kind to report, and one
that confirms what we have heretofore said — that it is only
* Seventh Annual Beport of American Missionary Association.
-f American Missionary, October, 1858.
$ African Repository, January, 1858.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLA-VERY CONTRASTED. 189
where proper moral control is exercised, that any real progress
can be made by the blacks :
" Some yeara ago, the Rev. William King, a slave owner in Louisi
ana, manumitted his slaves and removed them to Canada. They now,
with others, occupy a tract of land at Buxton and the vicinity, called
the 'Elgin Block,' where Mr, King ia stationed as a Presbyterian
missionary, "A recent general meeting there was attended by Lord Althorp,
son of Earl Spencer, and J. W. Probyn, Esq., both members of the
British Parliament, who made addresses. The whole educational and
moral machinery is worked by the presiding genius of the Rev. W.
King, to whom the entire settlement are under felt and acknowledged
obligations. He teaches them agriculture and industry. He super
intends their education, and preaches on the Lord's day. He regards
the experiment as highly aucceasful."*
The records of crime in Canada, as in Massachusetts, will fur
nish the best index to the moral condition of the great mass of
the colored population. Aside from the favorable operations of
Mr. King, among his own people, and over whom he exerts about
as much control as he did in Louisiana, we can not learn that any
considerable progress is being made, by the free negroes, in Can
ada. A few points, collated from an extended investigation of
this subject, will set the question in its true light.
On the 27th of April, 1841, the Assistant Secretary to Govern
ment addressed Colonel Robert Lachlan, Chairman of the Quar
ter Sessions for the Western District, Canada, requesting informa
tion relating to the colored immigrants in that quarter. From
Colonel Lachlan's reply, we make a few quotations : f
'* African Repository, January, 1858.
t " Colonel Lachlan entered the public service of the British Government in
1805, and was connected with the army in India for twenty years. Having
retired from that ^service, he settled in Canada in 1835, with the intention of
devoting himself to agriculture; but he was again called into public life, as
sheriff, magistrate, colonel of militia, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and
Associate Judge of the Assizes. In 1857, he removed to Cincinnati, where he
now resides. A true Briton, he is an enemy of the system of slavery; but
having been a close observer of the workings of society, under various circum
stances, systems of law, degrees of intelligence, and moral conditions, he is
dpposed to placing two races, so widely diverse as the blacks and whites, upon

190 PULPIT POLITICS.
" The first time that I had occasion to express myself thus strongly
on the subject, in an official way, was more than three years after my
arrival in the District, while holding the office of sheriff — when, in
corresponding with Mr. Secretary Joseph, during the troubles in
January, 1838, I, in a postscript to a letter in which I expressed un
willingness to call in aid from other quarters, while our own popula
tion were allowed to remain inactive, was led to add the following
remarkable words : ' My vote has been equally decided against employ
ing the colored people, except on a similar emergency ; in fact, though
a cordial friend to the emancipation of the poor African, I regard the
rapidly increasing population rising round us, as destined to be a
bitter curse to the District; and do not think our employing them as
our defenders at all likely to retard the progress of such an event;'
an opinion which all my subsequent observation and experience,
whether as a private individual, as Sheriff of the District, as a local
Magistrate, as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, or as an anxious
friend to pure British immigration, have only the more strongly con
firmed 
" That place may now be regarded as the Weatern rendezvoua of
the colored race — being the point to which all the idle and worthless,
as well as the well disposed, first direct their steps, before dispersing
over other parts of the District — -a distinction of which it unfor
tunately bears too evident marks in the great number of petty crimes
committed by or brought home to these people — to the great trouble
of the investigating local magistrates, and the still greater annoyance
of the inhabitants generally — arising from the constant nightly
depredations committed on their orchards, barns, granaries, sheep-
folds, fowl-yards, and even cellars  In Gosfield, I am given
to underatand their general character is rather above par ; 
while in the next adjoining township of Mersea, so much are they
disliked by the inhabitanta, that they are, in a manner, proscribed by
general eonaent — a colored man being there scarcely suffered to travel
along the high roads unmolested.
terms of legal equality; not that he is opposed to the elevation of the colored
man, but because he is convinced that, in his present state of ignorance and
degradation, the two races can not dwell together in peace and harmony. This
opinion, it will be seeu, was the outgrowth of his experience and observation
in Canada, and not the result of a prejudice against the African race. The
Western District, the field of hia official labors, is the main point toward which
nearly all the emigration from the States is directed; and the Major had, thus,
the best opportunities for studying this question." — [ " Cotton is King," p. 177.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 191
" The flrst thing that forcibly struck me, in these people, was a total
absence of that modest and unpresuming demeanor which I had been
somehow led to expect, and the assumption, instead, of a 'free and
easy ' independence of manner as well as language toward all white
inhabitanta, except their immediate employers ; together with an ap
parent utter indifference. to being hired on reasonable average wages,
though, as already stated, seemingly without any visible means of a
livelihood ; and their also, at all times, estimating the value of their
labor on a par with, if not above that of the white man. And I had
scarcely recovered from surprise, at such conduct, as a private in
dividual, when, as a magistrate, I was still more astonished at the
great amount of not only petty offenses, but of crime of the most
atrocious dye, perpetrated by so small a body of strangers compared
with the great bulk of the white population : and such still continuing
to be the unabating case, Session after Session, Assize after Assize, it
at length became so appalling to my feelings, that on being placed in
the chair of the Quarter Sessions, I could not refrain from more than
once pointing to it in atrong language in my chargea to the Grand
Juries. In July last year, for instance, I was led, in connection with
a particular case of larceny, to observe  ' The case itself
will, I trust, involve no difficulty so far as the Grand Jury is con
cerned ; but it affords the magistrates another opportunity of lament
ing that there should so speedily be furnished no less than five addi
tional instances of the rapid increase of crime in this (hitherto in that
respect highly fortunate) District, arising solely from the recent great
infiux of colored people into it from the neighboring United States —
and who unfortunately not only furnish the major part of the crime
perpetrated in the District, but also thereby a very great portion of
its rapidly increasing debt — from the expense attending their main
tenance in jail before trial, as well aa after conviction ! ' 
"In spite of these solemn admonitions, a large proportion of the
criminals tried at the ensuing September Assizes were colored people ;
and among them were two aggravated cases of rape and arson ; the
former wantonly perpetrated on a respectable farmer's wife, in this
township, to whom the wretch was a perfect stranger; the latter reck
lessly committed at a merchant's store in the vicinity of Sandwich,
for the mere purpose of opening a hole through which to convey away
his plunder. And, notwithstanding 'the general jail delivery' that
then took place, the greater part of the crimes brought before the
following month's Quarter Sessions (chiefly larceny and assaults) were
furnished by the same people I — a circumstance of so alarming and

192 PULPIT POLITICS.
distressing a character, that I was again led to comment upon it in
my charge to the Grand Jury in the following terms : ' Having dis
posed of the law relating to these offenses, I arrive at a very painful
part of my observations, in once more calling the particular attention
of the Grand Jury, as well as the public at large, to the remarkable
and appalling circumstance that among a population of near 20,000
souls, inhabiting this District, the greater portion of the crime per
petrated therein should be committed by less than 2,000 refugees from
a life of abject slavery, to a land of liberty, protection, and comfort —
and from whom, therefore, if there be such generous feelings as thank
fulness and gratitude, a far different line of conduct might reasonably
be expected. I allude to the alarming increase of crime still per
petrated by the colored settlers, and who, in spite of the late numerous,
harrowing, convicted examples, unhappily furnish the whole of ihe
offenses now likely to be brought before you !' 
"But, sir, the wide -spreading current of crime among this unfor
tunate race was not to be easily arrested ; and I had long become so
persuaded that it must sooner or later force itself upon the notice of
the Legislature, that on feeling it my duty to draw the attention of
my brother magistrates to the embarrassed state of the District finan
ces, and to the greater portion of its expenses arising from this disrep
utable source, I was led, in framing the report of a special committee
(of which I was chairman) appointed to investigate our pecuniary
difficulties, to advert once more to the great undue proportion of our
expenses arising from crime committed by so small a number of col
ored people, compared with the great body of the inhabitants, in the
following strong but indisputable language : ' It is with pain and
regret that your committee, in conclusion, feel bound to recur to the
great additional burthen thrown upon the District, as well as the un
deserved stigma cast upon the general character of its population,
whether native or immigrant British, by the late great influx of colored
people of the worst description from the neighboring States — a great
portion of whom appear to have no visible means of gaining a liveli
hood — and who, therefore, not only furnish a large proportion of the
basest crimes perpetrated in the country, such as murder, rape, arson,
burglary, and larceny, besides every other description of minor of
fense -7- untraceable to the color of the perpetrators in a miscellaneous
published calendar ; but also, besides the constant trouble they entail
upon magistrates who happen to reside in their neighborhood, produce
a large portion of the debt incurred by the District, from the great
number committed to and subsisted in prison, etc. ; and they would,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRJ^StED. 193
with all respect for the liberty of the subject, and the gincerest good
will toward their African brethren generally — whom thvSJr would wish
to regard with every kindly feeling, venture to suggest, for the con
sideration of Government, whether any legislative ehecif can possibly
be placed upon the rapid importation of the most wofthless of this
unfortunate race, such, as the good among themselves candidly lament,
as has of late inundated this devoted section of the Province, to the
great detriment of the claims of the poor emigrant from the mother
country upon our consideration, the great additional and almost un
controllable increase of crime, and the proportionate demoralization
of principle among the inhabitants of the country.' 
" Notwithstanding all these strenuous endeavors, added to the most
serious and impressive admonitions to various criminals after convic
tion and sentence, no apparent change for the better occurred ; for at
the Quarter Sessions of last January, the usual preponderance of
negro crime struck me so forcibly as again to draw from me, in my
charge to the Grand Jury, the following observations : ' I am ex
tremely sorry to be unable to congratulate you or the country on a
light calendar, the matters to be brought before you embracing no
less than three cases of larceny, and one of enticing soldiers to desert,
besides several arising from that ever prolific source, assaults, etc. I
can not, however, pass the fbrmer by altogether without once more
emphatically remarking, that it is as much to the disgrace of the free
colored settlers in our District, as it is creditable to the rest of our
population, that the greater part of the culprits to be brought before
us are still men of color : and I lament this the more, as I was some
what in hopes that the earneat admonitions that I had more than once
felt it my duty to address to that race, would have been attended with
some good effect.' 
" In spite of all these reiterated, anxious endeavors, the amount of
crime exhibited in the calendar of the following Quarter Sessions, in
April last, consisted solely (I think,) of five cases of larceny, perpe
trated by negroes ; and at the late Assizes, held on the 20th instant,
out of five criminal cpses, one of enticing soldiers to desert, and two
of theft, were, as usual, committed by men of color ! ! !
" Having thus completed a painful retrospect of the appalling
amount of crime committed by the c'blored population in the District
at large, compared with the general mass of the white population, I
now consider it my duty to advert more particularly to what has been
passing more immediately under my own observation in the township
of Colchester." 13

194 PULPIT POLITICS.
The record from which we quote, has, under this head, the state
ment of the township collector, as to the moral and social condition
of the colored people of the township, in which he says, " that, in
addition to the black women there were fourteen yellow ones, and fif
teen white ones — that they run together like beasts, and that he did
not suppose one-third of them were married ; and further, that they
would be a curse to this part of Canada, unless there is something
done to put a stop to their settling among the white people."
The Report of Col. Lachlan is very extensive, and embraces many
topics connected with the question of negro immigration into Canada,
His response to Government led to further investigation, and to some
legislative action in the Canadian Parliament. The latest recorded
communicationa upon th# subject, from his pen, are dated November
9th, 1849, and June 4th, 1850, from which it appears that up to that
date there had been no abatement of the hostile feeling of the whites
toward the blacks, nor any improvement in the social and moral con
dition of the blacks themselves.
In 1849, the Elgin Association went into operation. Its object
was to concentrate the colored people at one point, and thus have
them in a more favorable position for intellectual and moral culture,
A large body of land was purchased in the Township of Raleigh, and
offered for sale in small lots to colored settlers. The measure was
strongly opposed, and called out expressions of sentiment adverse to
it, from the people at large. A public meeting, held in Chatham,
August 18th, 1849, thus expresssed itself:
" The Imperial Parliament of Great Britain has forever banished
slavery from the Empire. In common with all good men, we rejoice
at the consummation of this immortal act ; and we hope that all
other nations may follow the example. Every member of the human
family is entitled to certain rights and privileges, and no where on
earth are they better secured, enjoyed, or more highly valued, than
in Canada. Nature, however, has divided the same great family into
distinct species, for good and wise purposes, and it is no less our inter-
eat, than it ia our duty, to follow her dictates and obey her lawa. Be
lieving this to be a sound and correct principle, as well as a moral
and a Christian duty, it is with alarm we witness the fast increasing
emigration and settlement among us of the African race ; and with
pain and regret do we view the establishment of an association, the
avowed object of which is to encourage the settlement in old, well-
established communitiea, of a race of people which is destined by

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 195
nature to be distinct and separate from us. It is also with a feeling
of deep resentment that we look upon the selection of the Township
of Raleigh, in this District, as the first portion of our beloved coun
try, which is to be cursed with a systematic organization for setting
the laws of nature at defiance. Do communitiea in other portions
of Canada feel that the presence of the negro among them is an an
noyance ? Do they feel that the increase of the colored people among
them, and amalgamation, its necessary and hideous attendant, are
evils which require to be checked? With what a feeling of horror
would the people of any of the old settled townships of the eastern
portion of this Province, look upon a measure which had for its
avowed object the effect of introducing several hundreds of Africans
into the very heart of their neighborhood, their families interspers
ing themselves among them, upon every vacant lot of land, their
children mingling in their schools, and all claiming to be admitted
not only to political, but to social privileges ? and when we reflect,
too, that many of them must, from necessity, be the very worst spe
cies of that neglected race — the fugitives from justice-^ how much
more revolting muat the acheme appear ? How then can you adopt
such a measure ? We beaeech our fellow-subjects to pause before
they embark in such an enterprise, and ask themselves, ' whether
they are doing by us as they would wish us to do unto them.' ....
Surely our natural position is irksome enough, without submitting to
a measure which not only holds out a premium for filling up our
district with a race of people upon whom we can not look without a
feeling of repulsion, and who, having been brought up in a state of
bondage and servility, are totally ignorant both of their social and
political duties ; but at the same time makes it the common receptacle
into which all other portions of the Province are to void the devotees
of misery and crime. Look at your prisons and your penitentiary,
and behold the fearful preponderance of their black over their white
inmates in proportion to the population of each  We have no
desire to show hostility toward the colored people, no desire to banish
them from the Province. On the contrary, we are willing to assist in
any well-devised scheme for their moral and social advancement. Our
only desire is, that they shall be separated from the whites, and that
no encouragement shall hereafter be given to the migration of the
colored man from the United States, or any where else. The idea
that we have brought the curse upon ourselves, through the estab
lishment of slavery by our ancestors, is false. As Canadians, we have

196 tULPIT POLITICS.
yet to learn that we ought to be made a vicarious atonement for
European sins.
" Canadians : The hour has arrived when we should arouse from
our lethargy ; when we should gather ourselves together in our might,
and resist the onward progress of an evil which threatens to entail
upon future generations a thousand curses. Now is the day. A few
short years will put it beyond our power. Thousands and tens of
thousands of American negroes, with the aid of the abolition socie
ties in the States, and with the countenance given them by our phi
lanthropic institutions, will continue to pour into Canada, if resist
ance is not offered. Many of you who live at a distance from this
frontier, have no conception either of the number or the character of
these emigrants, or of their poisonous effect upon the moral and social
habits of a community. You listen with active sympathy to every
^ thing narrated of the sufferings of the poor African ; your feelings
are enlisted, and your purse strings unloosed, and this often by the
hypocritical declamation of some self-styled philanthropist. Under
such influences many of you, in our large cities and towns, form your
selves into societies, and, without reflection, you supply funda for the
support of schemes prejudicial to the best interests of our country.
Against such proceedings, and especially against any and every
attempt to settle any township in this District with negroes,, we sol
emnly protest, and we call upon our countrymen, in all parts of the
Province, to aaaiat in our opposition,
" Fellow Christians : Let us forever maintain the sacred dogma,
that all men have equal, natural, and inalienable rights. Let us do
every thing in our power, consistent with international polity and
justice, to abolish the accursed system of slavery in the neighboring
Republic. But let us not, through a mistaken zeal to abate the evil
of another land, entail upon ourselves a misery which every enlight
ened lover of his country must mourn. Let the slavea of the United
Statea be free, but let it be in their own country. Let us not coun
tenance their flirther introduction among us ; in a word, let the peo
ple of the United States bear the burthen of their own sins.
" What has already been done, can not now be avoided ; but it is
not too late to do justice to ourselves, and retrieve the errors of the
past. Let a suitable place be provided by the Government, to which
the colored people may be removed, and separated from the whites,
and in this scheme we will cordially join. We owe it to them, but
how much more do we owe it to ourselves ? But we implore you that
you will not, either by your counsel or your pecuniary aid, assist

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 197
those who have projected the association for the settlement of a horde
of ignorant slaves in the town of Raleigh. It is one of the oldest
and most densely-settled townships, in the very center of our new and
promising District of Kent, and we feel that this scheme, if carried
into operation, will have the effect of hanging like a dead weight
upon our rising prosperity. What is our case to-day, to-morrow may
be yours ; join us, then, in endeavoring to put a stop to what is not
only a general evil, but in this case an act of unwarrantable injustice;
and when the time may come when you shall be similarly situated to
us, we have no doubt that, like us, you will cry out, and your appeal
shall not be in vain."
On the 3d of September, 1849, the colored people of Toronto, Can
ada, held a meeting, in which they responded at length to the fore
going address. The spirit of the meeting can be divined from the
following resolutions, which were unanimously passed :
" 1st. Resolved, That we, as a portion of the inhabitanta of Canada,
conceive it to be our imperative duty to give an expression of senti
ment in reference to the proceedings of the late meeting held at Chat
ham, denying the right of the colored people to settle where they
please. " 2d. Resolved, That we spurn with contempt and burning indigna
tion, any attempt, on the part of any person, or peraons, to thrust us
from the general bulk of society, and place us in a separate and dis
tinct classification, such as is expressly implied in an address issued
from the late meeting above alluded to.
3d. Resolved, That the principle of selfishness, as exemplified in
the originators of the resolutions and address, we detest, as we do
similar ones emanating from a similar source ; and we can clearly see
the workings of a corrupt and depraved heart, arrayed in hostility to
the heaven-born principle of liberty, in its broadest and most unre
stricted sense."
These resolutions indicate that the colored people of Canada
had been well instructed in the dogmas of Abolitionism.
On the 9th of October, 1849, the Municipal Council of the West
ern District adopted a Memorial to His Excellency, the Governor
General, protesting against the proposed Elgin Association, in which
the following language occurs :
 " Clandestine petitions have been got up, principally, if
not wholly, signed by colored people, in order to mislead Government

198 PULPIT POLITICS.
and the Elgin Association, These petitions do not embody the sen
timents or feelings of the respectable, intelligent, and industrious yeo
manry of the Western District. We can assure your Excellency that
any such statement is false, that there is but one feeling, and that is
of disgust and hatred, that they, the negroes, should be allowed to
settle in any township where there is a white settlement. Our lan
guage is strong ; but when we look at the expressions used at a late
meeting held by the colored people of Toronto, openly avowing the
propriety of amalgamation, and stating that it must, and will, and
shall continue, we can not avoid so doing. ..... The increased im
migration of foreign negroes into this part of the Province is truly
alarming. We can not omit mentioning some facts for the corrobora
tion of what we have stated. The negroes, who form at least one-
third of the inhabitants of the township of Colchester, attended the
township meeting for the election of parish and township officers, and
insisted upon their right to vote, which was denied them by every
individual white man at the meeting. The consequence was, that the
Chairman of the meeting was prosecuted and thrown into heavy costs,
which costs were paid by subscription from white inhabitants. In
the same township of Colchester, as well as in many others, the inhab
itants have not been able to get schools in many school sections, in
consequence of the negroes insisting on their right of sending their
children to such schools. No white man will ever act with them in
any public capacity; this fact is so glaring, that no sheriff in this
Province would dare to summons colored men to do jury duty. That
such things have been done in other quarters of the British domin
ions we are well aware of, but we are convinced that the Canadians
will never tolerate such conduct."
But here we have testimony of a later date. Hon, Colonel
Prince, member of the Canadian Parliament in 1857, had resided
among the colored people of the Western District; and, like other
humane men, had sympathized with them, at the outset, and shown
them many favors, ¦ Time and observation changed his views, and,
in the course of his parliamentary duties, we find him taking a stand
adverse to the further increase of the negro population in Canada.
Hear him, as reported at the time :
" On the order of the day for the third reading of the emigrants''
law amendment bill being called, Hon. Col. Prince said he was wish
ful to move a rider to the measure. The black people who infested
the land were the greatest curse to the Province. The lives of the

MISSIONS UNDER PREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 199
people of the West were made wretched by the inundation of these
animals, and many of the largest farmers in the county of Kent have
been compelled to leave their beautiful farms, because of the pestilen
tial swarthy swarms. What were these wretches fit for? Nothing.
They cooked our victuals and shampooned us ; but who would not
rather that these duties should be performed by white men? The
blacks were a worthless, useless, thriftless set of beings — they were
too indolent, lazy, and ignorant to work, too proud to be taught ; and
not only that, if the criminal calendar of the country was examined,
it would be found that they were a majority of the criminals. They
were ao deteatable that unlesa some method were adopted of prevent
ing their influx into this country by the 'underground railroad,' the
people of the West would be obliged to drive them out by open
violence. The bill before the House imposed a capitation tax upon
emigrants from Europe, and the object of his motion was to levy a
similar tax upon blacks who came hither from the States. He now
moved, seconded by Mr. Patton, that a capitation tax of 5s for adults,
3s 9d for children above one year and under fourteen years of age, be
levied on persons of color emigrating to Canada from any foreign
country. " Ought not the Western men to be protected from the rascalities
and villainies of the black wretches ? He found these men with fire
and food and lodging, when they were in need ; and he would be bound
to say that the black men of the county of Essex would speak well
of him in this respect. But he could not admit them as being equal
to white men ; and, after a long and close observation of human nature,
he had come to the conclusion that the black man was born to and
intended for alavery, and that he was fit for nothing else. [Sensaticr^.]
Honorable gentlemen might try to groan him down, but he was not to
be moved by mawkish sentiment, and he was persuaded that they
might as well try to change the spots of the leopard aa to make the
black a good citizen. He had told black men so, and the lazy rascals
had shrugged their shoulders and wished they had never run away
from their 'good old massa' in Kentucky. If there was anything
unchristian in what he had proposed, he could not see it, and he
feared that he was not born a Christian."
The Windsor Herald, of July 3d, 1857, contains the proceedings
of an indignation meeting, held by the colored people of Toronto, at
which they denounced Colonel Prince in unmeasured terms of re
proach. The same paper contains the reply of the Colonel, copied

^00 PULPiT POLITICS.
from the Toronto Colonist; and it is given entire, as a specimen of the
spicy times they have, in Canada, over the negro question. The editor
remarks, in relation to the reply of Colonel Prince, that it has given
general satisfaction in his neighborhood. It is as follows :
" Dear Sir: — Your valuable paper of yesterday has afforded me a
rich treat and not a little fun in the report of an indignation meeting
of 'the colored citizens' of Toronto, held for the purpose of censuring
me. Perhaps I ought not to notice their proceedings — perhaps it
would be more becoming in me to allow them to pass at once into the
oblivion which awaits them ; but as it is the fashion in this country
not unfrequently to assume that to be true which appears in print
against an individual, unless he flatly denies the accusation, I shall, at
least, for once, condescend to notice these absurd proceedings. They
deal in generalities, and so shall I. Of the colored citizens of Toronto
I know little or nothing; no doubt, some are respectable enough in
their way, and perform the inferior duties belonging to their station
tolerably well. Here they are kept in order — in their proper place —
but their ' proceedings ' are evidence of their natural conceit, their
vanity, and their ignorance ; and in them the cloven foot appears,
and evinces what they would do, if they could. I believe that in this
city, as in some others of our Province, they are looked upon as nec
essary evils, and only submitted to because white aervants are so
scarce. But I now deal with these fellows as a body, and I pronounce
them to be, as such, the greatest curse ever inflicted upon the two
magnificent western counties which I have the honor to represent in
the Legislative Council of this Province ! and few men have had the
experience of them that I have. Among the many estimable qualities
they possess, a systematic habit of lying is not the least prominent;
and the ' colored citizens ' aforesaid seem to partake of that quality in
an eminent degree, because in their famous Resolutions -they roundly
assert that during the Rebellion ' I walked arm and arm with colored
men' — that 'I owe my election to the votes of colored men' — and
that I have ' accumulated much earthly gains,' as a lawyer, among
' colored clients.' All Lies ! Lies ! Lies ! from beginning to end. I
admit that one company of blacks did belong to my contingent bat-
tallion, but they made the very worst of soldiers, and were, compara
tively speaking, unsusceptible of drill or discipline, and were con
spicuous for one act only — a stupid sentry shot the son of one of our
oldest colonels, under a mistaken notion that he was thereby doing
his duty. But I certainly never did myself the honor of 'walking

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 201
arm-in-arm ' with any of the colored gentlemen of that distinguished
corps. Then, as to my election. Few, very few blacks voted for me.
/ never canvassed them, and hence, I suppose, they supported, as a
body, my opponent. They took compassion upon 'a monument of
injured innocence,' and they sustained the monument for a while, upon
the pedestal their influence erected. But the monument fell, and the
fall proved that such influence was merely ephemeral, and it sank into
insignificant nothingness, as it should, anii I hope ever will, do ; or
God help this noble land ! Poor Blackies ! Be not so bold or so
conceited or so insolent, hereafter, I do beseech you,
" Then how rich I have become among my ' colored clients ! ' I
assert, without the fear of contradiction, that I have been the friend,
the steady fPiend of our western ' Darkies ' for more than twenty
years ; and amidst difficulties and troubles innumerable, (for they are a
litigious race,) I have been their adviser, and I never made twenty
pounds out of them in that long period ! The fact is that the poor
creatures had never the ability to pay a lawyer's fee,
"It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to
live among those blacks, (and they have lived upon us,) for twenty-
four years. I have employed hundreds of them, and, with the excep
tion of one, (named Richard Hunter,) not one has ever done for us
a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, have fed
and clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States ; and
in return I have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a grace-
lesa, worthless, thriftless, lying set of vagabonds. That is my very
plain and very simple description of the darkies as a body, and it
would be indorsed by all the weatern white men with very few ex
ceptions. " I have had scores of their George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons,
James Madisons, as well as their Dinahs, and Gleniras, and Lavinias,
in my service, and I understand them thoroughly ; and I include the
whole batch (old Richard Hunter excepted) in the category above
described. To conclude : You ' gentlemen of color,' East and Weat,
and eapecially you ' colored citizena of Toronto,' I thank you for
having given me an opportunity to publish my opinion of your race.
Call another indignation meeting, and there make greater fools of
yourselves than you did at the last, and then 'to supper with what
appetite you may.' " *
* See " Cotton ia King," for full details, pp. 177 to 196.

202 PULPIT POLITICS.
What was true of the colored population of the Western Dis
trict of Canada, in 1841, "While Colonel Lachlan filled the chair of
the Quarter Sessions, seems to be equally true in 1859. The
Essex Advocate contains the following extract from the Present
ment of the Grand Jury, at the Essex Assizes, November 17,
1859, in reference to the Jail :
" We are sorry to state to your Lordship the great prevalence of
the colored race among its occupants, and beg to call attention to an
accompanying document from the municipal Council and inhabitants
of the township of Anderdon, which we recommend to your Lord
ship's serious consideration :
" ' To the Grand Jury of the County of Essex, in Inquest assembled;
We, the undersigned inhabitants of the Township of Anderdon, re
spectfully wish to call the attention of the Grand Inquest of the county
of Essex to the fearful state of crime in our township. That there exists
organized bands of thieves, too lazy to work, who nightly plunder our
property 1 That nearly all of us, more or less, have suffered losses ;
and that for the last two yeara the stealing of sheep has been most
alarming, one individual having had nine stolen within that period. We
likewise beg to call your attention to the fact, that seven colored per
sons are committed to stand trial at the present Assizes on the charge
of sheep stealing, and that the warrant is out against the eighth, all
from the town of Anderdon. We beg distinctly to be understood,
that though we are aware that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in
the County of Essex, according to the population, are so committed
by the colored people, yet we willingly extend the hand of fellowship
and kindness to the emancipated slave, whom Great Britain has
granted an asylum to in Canada. We, therefore, hope the Grand
Jury of the County of Essex will lay the statement of our case before
his Lordship, the Judge, at the present Assizes, that some measure
may be taken by the Government to protect us and our property, or
persons of capital will be driven from the country.' "
The Judge, in afterward alluding to this Presentment, remarked
that —
" He was not surprised at finding prejudice existing against them
(the negroes) among the respectable portion of the people, for they
were indolent, shiftless, and dishonest, and unworthy of the sympathy

MISSIONS UNDER PREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 203
that some mistaken parties extended to them ; they would not work
when opportunity was presented, but preferred subsisting by thiev
ing from respectable farmers, and begging from those benevolently
inclined." Here, now, are the results of the experiments made in the
Northern States and in Canada for the elevation of the colored
people who had gained their freedom. The testimony relating to
their condition in Canada is all taken from the official action of
its public officers, or the declarations of its public men. All these
witnesses are decided abolitionists. The testimony in relation to
their condition in the United States is also taken from official
sources, or the declarations of abolitionists.
We have included the free States and Canada under one head,
because of the sameness of origin of their colored population;
and because the evangelization of the Africans, thus thrown upon
the care of British and American abolitionists, has been the last
thing they seem disposed to undertake.
It must be apparent to the most superficial observer, when
taking into account the condition of the free colored people, in
both Canada and the free States, that their conduct has rendered
the prospects of the African race, at large, tenfold more dark
and gloomy than it was thirty years ago. And when the results
here are coupled with those in the West Indies, generally, it must
be obvious to all, that what has been attempted for the colored
race is wholly impracticable; and that, in its present low state
of advancement from barbarism, the attainment of civil and social
equality with the enlightened white races, is utterly impossible.
The means employed have been wholly inadequate to the ends
proposed to be attained.
But then, on the other hand, we find such evidences of religious
progress among the colored people, as to afford ample reasons for
believing that their moral elevation is practicable ; but practica
ble, not by their neglect, as hitherto prevailing, but only by their
careful training under the control of enlightened teachers who
will subject them to proper moral restraints. How long it will
take to elevate the black race, by such agencies, we shall not
venture to say ; but of this we feel assured : that the neglect to
which those already free have been subjected, in the midst of .

204 PULPIT POLITICS.
their professed friends, English and American, if continued, will
forever leave them a degraded people.
9. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in connection with
American Slavery.
We come, now, to the examination of the progress of the Gos
pel in the midst of American slavery. The results have been
partially stated in the course of the preceding investigations.
But no accurate statistics, excepting of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, were available for the earlier periods of slavery; and,
indeed, we have none from other churches, stating their colored
membership, until of late years. It now appears that the Meth
odists and Baptists have been most successful among the colored
people. In 1859, the number of colored converts, in the South
were stated to be 453,000, of which the Methodists had 203,000
and the Baptists 175,000 — all the other denominations having
but 75,000. The membership of the Methodist Church, among
the colored people, may, therefore, be estimated as equaling con
siderably less than one-half of the total colored converts in the
slave States. These converts, however, are not all to be taken
as slaves, as, doubtless, the free colored people in the slave
States afford some church members; but the whole number are
within the jurisdiction of slavery, and all afford evidence that
Christianity is not inoperative in the midst of that institution.
The references made, in the course of our investigations, to the
work of African evangelization have not been so full and general
as to convey a true idea of the character and present condition
of that work in the United States. It may be remarked, in pro
ceeding to the execution of the task of giving more extended
details, that the Reports from the South, for 1861, were expected,
but have not reached us, on account of the stoppage of the mails.
This, however, will not materially affect the interest of our pages,
as the older Reports embrace all that is necessary to understand
the nature and extent of the missionary work in that field.
The New York Evangelist, 1858, says :
" The South Carolina Methodist Conference have a missionary
committee devoted entirely to promoting the religious instruction of
the slave population, which has been in existence twenty-six years.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 205
The Report of the last year shows a greater degree of activity than is
generally known. They have twenty-six missionary stations in which
thirty-two missionaries are employed. The Report affirms that pub
lic opinion in South Carolina is decidedly in favor of the religious
instruction of slaves, and that it has become far more general and
systematic than formerly. It also claims a great degree of success
to have attended the labors of the missionaries,"
The Report of the Missionary Board, of the Louisiana Conference,
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1855, says :
" It is stated upon good authority, that the number of colored
members in the Church South, exceeds that o^ the entire membership
of all the Protestant missions in the world. ' What an enterprise is
this committed to our care 1 The position we, of the Methodist
Church South, have taken for the African, has, to a great extent,
cut us off from the sympathy of the Christian Church throughout
the world ; and it behooves us to make good this position in the sight
of God, of angels, of men, of churches, and to our own consciences,
by presenting before the throne of His glory multitudes of the souls
of these benighted ones abandoned to our care, as the seals of our
ministry. Already Louisiana promises to be one vast plantation.
Let us — we must — gird ourselves for this Heaven-born enterprise
of supplying the pure Gospel to the slave. The great question is,
How can the greatest number be preached to? The building road
side chapels is aa yet the best solution of it. In some cases planters
build so as to accommodate adjoining plantations, and by this means
the preacher addresses three hundred or more slaves, instead of one
hundred or less. Economy of this kind is absolutely essential where
the labor of the missionary is so much needed and demanded.
" On the Lafourche and Bayou Black Mission-work, several chapels
are in process of erection, upon a plan which enables the slave, as his
master, to make an offering toward building a house of God. Instead
of money, the hands subscribe labor. Timber is plenty ; many of the
servants are carpenters. Upon many of the plantations are saw mills.
Here is much material ; what hindereth that we should build a church
on every tenth plantation ? Let us maintain our policy steadily.
Time and diligence are required to effect substantial good, especially
in this department of labor. Let us continue to ask for buildings
adapted to the worship of God, and set apart; to urge, when prac-

206 PULPIT POLITICS.
ticable, the preaching to blacks in the presence of their masters, their
overseers, and the neighbors generally."*
" One of the effects of the great revival among, colsred people has
been the establishment of a regular system of prayer-meetings for
their benefit. Meetings are held every night during the week at the
tobacco factories, the proprietors of which have been kind enough to
place those edifices at the disposal of the colored brethren. The
owners of the several factories preside over these meetings, and the
most absolute good conduct is exhibited." f
" In Newbern, North Carolina, the slaves have a large church of
their own, which is well attended. They pay a salary of $500 per
annum to their white minister. They have likewise a negro preacher
in their employ, whom they purchased from his master. J "
And Newbern in this respect is not isolated. For in nearly every
town of any size in the Southern States, the colored people have their
churches, and, what is more than is always known at the North, they
sustain their churches and pay their ministers. §
The Synod of Virginia, in 1858, passed the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the religious instruction of our colored population,
be affectionately and earnestly commended to the ministry and elder
ship of our churches generally, as opening to us a field of most ob
ligatory and interesting Christian effort, in which we are called to
labor more faithfully and fully, by our regard for our social interests,
as well as by the higher considerations of duty to God and the souls
of our fellow men. ||
The following extracts are copied from the New York Observer
of 1859 :
The Presbytery of Roanoke, Virginia, (0. S.,) has addressed a
Pastoral letter, on the instruction of the colored people, to the
churches under its care, and ordered the same to be read in all the
churches of the Presbytery, in those that are vacant, as well as where
there are pastors or stated supplies. It commences by saying :
" Among the important interests of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
* New York Observer, 1855.
t Lynchburgh (Va.) Courier, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858.
X Southern Monitor, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858.
§ Express, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858,
II African Repository,

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 207
Christ, which have claimed our special attention since the organiza
tion of the Presbytery in April last — that the work of the Lord
may be vigorously and efficiently carried forward within our bounds —
the religious instruction of the colored people is hardly to be placed
second to any other."
After speaking of the obstacles and encouragements to the work,
it gives the following statistics :
" In the Presbytery of Charleston, South Carolina, 1,637 out of
2,889 members, or considerably over one-half, are colored. In the
whole Synod of South Carolina, 5,009 out of 13,074 are colored mem
bers. The Presbyteries of Mississippi and Central Mississippi, of
Tuscaloosa and South Alabama, of Georgia, of Concord and Fayette-
ville, also show many churches with large proportions of colored
communicants, from one-third to one-seventh of the whole. Our
own Presbytery reports 276 out of 1,737 members. In the whole
of the above-mentioned bodies, there are 9,076 colored out of 33,667
communicants. Among the churches of these Presbyteries, we find
twenty with an aggregate colored membership of 3,600, or an average
of 130 each. We find also such large figures as these, 260, 333, 356,
525 ! These facts speak for themselves, and forbid discouragement."
Speaking of the obligations to instruct this class, the letter says :
" But these people are among us, at our doors, in our fields, and
around our firesides ! If they need instruction, then the command
of our Lord, and every obligation of benevolence, call us to the work
of teaching them, with all industry, the doctrines of Christ. The
first and kindest Outgoings of our Christian compassion should be
toward them. They are not only near us, but are also entirely de
pendent upon us. As to all means of securing religious privileges
for themselves, and as to energy and self-directing power, they are
but children, forced to look to their masters for every supply. From
this arises an obligation, at once imperative and of most solemn and
momentous significance to us, to make thorough provision for their
religious instruction, to the full extent that we are able to provide it
for ourselves. This obligation acquires great additional force when
it is further considered, that besides proximity and dependence, they
are indeed members of our ' households.' As the three hundred and
eighteen ' trained servants ' of Abraham were ' born in his own house ;
i. e., were born and bred as members of his household, so are our ser
vants. Of course, no argument is needed to show that every man is

208 PULPIT POLITICS.
bound by high and sacred obligations, for the discharge of which he
must give account, to provide his family suitably, or to the extent of
his ability, with the means of grace and salvation."
After dwelling on the duties of the ministry, the letter goes on :
" But the work of Christianizing our colored population can never
be accomplished by the labors of the ministry alone, unaided by the
hearty co-operation of families, by carrying on a system of home in
struction. We must begin with the children. For if the children of
our servants be left to themselves during their early years, this neg
lect must of necessity beget two enormous evils. Evil habits will be
rapidly acquired and strengthened ; since if children are not learning
good, they will be learning what is bad. And having thus grown up
both ignorant and vicious, they will have no inclination to go to the
Lord's house ; or if they should go, their minds will be fOund so
dark, so entirely unacquainted with the rudimental language and
truths of the Gospel, that much of the preaching must at first prove
unintelligible, unprofitable at the time, and so uninteresting as to
discourage further attendance. In every regard, therefore, masters
are bound to see that religious instruction is provided at home for
their people,^ especially for the young.
" If there be no other to undertake the work, (the mistress, or the
children of the family,) the master is bound to deny himself and dis
charge the duty. It is for him to see that the thing is properly done ;
for the whole responsibility rests on him at last. It usually, how
ever, devolves upon the mistress, or upon the younger members of
the family, where there are children qualified for it, to perform this
service. Some of our young men, and, to their praise be it spoken, still
more of our young women, have willingly given themselves to this
self-denying labor ; in aid of their parents, or as a duty which they
themselves owe to Christ their Redeemer, and to their fellow-crea
tures. We take this occasion, gladly, to bid all these ' God speed '
in their work of love. Co-workers together with us, we praise you
for this. We bid you take courage. Let no dullness, indifference,
or neglect, weary out your patience. You are laboring for Christ,
and for precious souls. You are doing a work the importance of
which eternity will fully reveal. You will be blessed, too, in your
deed even now. This labor will prove to you an important means
of grace. You will have something to pray for, and will enjoy the
pleasing consciousness that you are not idlers in the Lord's vineyard.
You will be winning stars for your crowns of rejoicing through eter-

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 209
nity. Grant that it will cost you much self-denial. Can you, not
withstanding, consent to see these immortal beings growing up in
ignorance and vice, at your very doors ?
" The methods of carrying on the home instruction are various, and
we are abundantly supplied with the needful facilities. We need not
name the reading of the Bible ; and judiciously selected sermons, to
be read to the adults when they can not attend preaching, should not
be omitted. Catechetical instruction, by means of such excellent aids
as our own 'Catechism for young children,' and 'Jones' Catechism of
Scripture doctrine and practice,' will of course be resorted to ; together
with teaching them hymns and singing with them. The reading to
them, for variety, such engaging and instructive stories as are found
in the ' Children's column ' of some of our best religious papers ; and
suitable Sabbath-school, or other juvenile books, such as, ' The Peep
of Day,' ' Line upon Line,' etc., will, in many cases, prove an excellent
aid, in imbuing their minds with religious truth. Masters should not
spare expense or trouble, to provide liberally these various helps to
those who take this work in hand, to aid and encourage them to the
utmost in their self-denying toil.
"Brethren, the time is propitious to urge your attention to this im
portant duty. A deep and constantly increasing interest in the work,
is felt throughout the South. Just at this time, also, extensively
throughout portions of our territory, an unusual awakening has been
showing itself among the colored people. It becomes us, and it is of
vital importance on every account, by judicious instruction, both to
guide the movement, and to improve the opportunity.
" We commend this whole great interest to the Divine blessing ;
and, under God, to your conscientious reflection, to devise the proper
ways; and to your fkithfal Christian zeal, to accomplish whatever
your wisdom may devise and approve."
The Mobile Daily Tribune, in referring to the religious training of
the slaves, says : *
" Few persons are aware of the efforts that are continually in pro
gress, in a quiet way, in the various Southern States, for the moral
and religious improvement of the negroes ; of the number of clergy
men, of good families, accomplished education, and often of a high
degree of talent, who devote their whole time and energies to this
work ; or of the many laymen — almost invariably slaveholders them-
* Quoted in African Repository, April, 1858.
14

210 PULPIT POLITICS.
selves — who sustain them by their purses and by their assistance as
catechists, Sunday-school teachers, and the like. These men do not
make platform speeches, or talk in public on the subject of their
' miaaion,' or theorize about the ' planes ' on which they stand : they
are too busy for this, but they work on quietly in labor and self-
denial, looking for a sort of reward very different from the applause
bestowed upon stump agitators. Their work is a much less noisy one,
but its results will be far more momentous.
" We have very limited information on this subject, for the very
reasons just mentioned, but enough to give some idea of the zeal with
which these labors are prosecuted by the various Christian denomina
tions. Thus, among the Old School Presbyterians it is stated that
about one hundred ministers are engaged in the religious instruction
of the negroes exclusively. In South Carolina alone there are forty-
five churches or chapels of the Episcopal Church, appropriated ex
clusively to negroes ; thirteen clergymen devote to them their whole
time, and twenty-seven a portion of it ; and one hundred and fifty
persons of the same faith are engaged in imparting to them catecheti
cal instruction. There are other States which would furnish similar
statistics if they coiild be obtained.
" It is in view of such facts as these, that one of our cotemporaries,
(the Philadelphia Inquirer,) though not free from a certain degree
of anti-slavery proclivity, makes the following candid admission :
" ' The introduction of African slavery into the colonies of North
America, though doubtless brought about by wicked means, may in
the end accomplish great good to Africa ; a good, perhaps, to be
effected in no other way. Hundreds and thousands have already been
saved, temporally and spiritually, who otherwise must have perished.
Through these and their descendants it is, that civilization and Chris
tianity have been sent back to the perishing millions of Africa.' "
The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, 1859, says :
" In our colored missions great good has been accomplished by the
labors of the self-sacrificing and zealous missionaries.
" This seems to be at home our most appropriate field of labor. By
our position we have direct access to those for whom these missions
are established. Our duty and obligation in regard to them are
evident. Increased facilities are afforded us, and open doors invite
our entrance and full occupancy. The real value of these missions is
often overlooked or forgotten by Church census-takers and statistic-

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 211
reporters of our benevolent associations. We can but repeat that
this field, which seems almost, by common consent, to be left for our
occupancy, is one of the most important and promising in the history
of missions. At home even its very humility obscures, and abroad a
mistaken philanthropy repudiates its claims. But still the fact exists ;
and when we look at the large number of faithful, pious, and self-
sacrificing missionaries engaged in the work, the wide field of their
labors, and the happy thousands who have been savingly converted
to God through their instrumentality, we can but perceive the pro
priety and justice of assigning to these missions the prominence we
have. Indeed, the subject assumes an importance beyond the con
ception even of those more directly engaged in this great work, when
it is remembered that these missions absolutely number more converts
to Christianity, according to statistics given, than all the members of
all other missionary societies combined."
The Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, in their Report for 1859, say :
" It is gratifying that so much has been done for the evangelization
of this people. In addition to the missions presented in our report,
thousands of this people are served by preachers in charge of circuits
and stations. But still a great work remains to be accomplished
among the negroes within your limits. New missions are needed, and
increased attention to the work in this department generally demand
ed. Heaven devolves an immense responsibility upon us with refer
ence to these sable sons of Ham. Providence has thrown them in our
midst, not merely to be our household and agricultural servants, but
to be served by us with the blessed Gospel of the Son of God. Let
ua then, in the name of Him who made it a apecial sign of his Mes-
siahship that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them — let us
in his name go forth, bearing the bread of life to these poor among
us, and opening to them all the sources of consolation and encourage
ment afforded by the religion of Jesus."
The Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South,
in their Report for 1859, say :
" At the last Conference, Gideon W. Cottingham and David W. Fly
were appointed Conference African missionaries, whose duties were to
travel throughout the Conference, visit the planters in person, and
organize missions in regions unsupplied. They report an extensive

212 PULPIT POLITICS.
field open, and truly white unto the harvest, and have succeeded in
organizing several important missions. All the planters, questioned
upon the subject, were willing to give the missionary access to their
servants, to preach and catechize, not only on the Sabbath, but during
the week. And this willingness was not confined to the professors
alone, but the deepest interest was displayed by many who make no
pretensions to religion whatever. An interest shown not merely by
giving the missionary access to their servants, but by their pledging
their prompt support. The servants themselves receive the word with
the utmost eagerness. They are hungering for the bread of life ; our
tables are loaded. Shall not these starving souls be fed ? Cases of
appalling destitution are found : numbers who heard for the first time
the word of life, listened eagerly to the wonders it unfolded. The
Greeks are truly at our doors, heathens growing up in our midst,
revival fire flames around them, a polar frost within their hearts. God
help the Church to take care of these perishing souls I Our anniver
saries are usually scenes of unmingled joy. With our sheaves in our
hands, we come from the harvest field, and though sad that so little
has been done, yet rejoicing that we have the privilege of laying any
pledge of devotion upon the altar."
The Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in
their Report for 1859, say :
" We are cheered to see a growing interest among our planters and
slave-owners in our domestic missions. Still that interest is not what
the importance of the subject demands. While few are willing to bar
their servants all Gospel privileges, there is a great want in many
places of suitable houses for public worship. Too many masters
think that to permit the missionary to come on the plantation, and
preach in the gin, or mill, or elsewhere, as circumstances may dictate,
is their only duty, especially if the missionary gets his bread. None
of the attendant circumstances of a neat church, and suitable Sunday
apparel, etc., to cheer and gladden the heart on the holy Sabbath, and
cause its grateful thanksgiving to go up as clouds of incense before
Him, are thought necessary by many masters.
"Notwithstanding, we are cheered by a brightening prospect. —
Christian masters are building churches for their servants. Owners
in many places are adopting the wise policy of erecting their churches
so as to bring two, three, or more plantations together for preaching.
This plan is so consonant with the Gospel economy, and so advan
tageous every way, that it must become the uniform practice of all

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 213
our missionary operations among the slaves. Our late Conference
wisely adopted a resolution, encouraging the building of churches
for the accommodation of several plantations together, wherever it
can be done,"
The South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
in their Report for 1859, say :
" Meanwhile the increasing claims of the destitute colored popula
tion must not be ignored. New fields are opening before us, the
claims of which are pressed with an earnestness which nothing but
deeply-felt necessity could dictate. And the question is pressed upon
us, What shall we do? Must not the contributions of the Church
be more liberal and more systematic ? Must not the friends of the
enterprise become more zealous ? Will not the wealthy patrons of
our society, whose people are served, contribute a sum equal in the
aggregate to the salary of the missionaries who serve their people ?
This done, and every claim urged upon your Board shall be honored.
" This is wondrous work ! God loves it. honors it, blesses it ! He
has crowned it with success. The old negro has abandoned his le
gendary rites, and has sought and found favor with God through
Jesus Christ. The catechumens have received into their hearts the
gracious instructions given by the missionary, and scores of them are
converted annually, and become worthy members of the Church,
Here lies the most inviting field of labor. To instruct these chil
dren of Ham in the plan of salvation, to pre -occupy their minds with
" the truth as it is in Jesus," to see them renounce the superstitions
of their forefathers, and embrace salvation's plan, would make an
angel's heart rejoice."
In referring to the missionary -work in the South, and the suc
cess attending the labors of the Methodist missionaries, the Rev.
Dr. Elliott, in his book, " The Great Secession," 1854, says :
" The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, since their secession,
has carried on the missionary work among the slaves and colored
people with great energy and success. At the present time they
have about 150,000 colored members, or about the same number that
was in the Methodist Episcopal Church before the seeession in 1845.
There are many missionaries laboring solely among the colored peo
ple, with great success, preaching the Gospel, instructing cateoheti-
cally the children, visiting the families pastorally, and benefiting
their charges effectually.

214 PULPIT politics.
" They pursue and carry out the same modes of instruction em
ployed by the Wesleyans in the West Indies, and by the Methodist
Episcopal Church in her missions. They are doing a great practical
work. And whatever exceptions we or others may take to some of
the principles and measures of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, their missionary labors among the slaves of the South have
no parallel in the world at this day. While they are denounced
without stint by Northern and some British abolitionists of the re
cent school, they are doing more good, practically and Scripturally,
for the enlightenment, reformation, elevatiop, and future advantage
ous emancipation of the slaves, than all their censurers are 
Another thing we feel bound to mention here. We mean the warm
and cordial reception and support which our Southern brethren give
to the leading institutions and usages of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Whatever exceptions we may take to some of their posi
tions, they are ardently attached to all the fundamentals and pecu
liarities of Methodism, the instance of slavery excepted. They are
less disposed to innovation than the North is, and hold most"^ tenaci
ously to the leading parts of pure and original Methodism."
Take, also, a short extract from Dr. Bond, as quoted by Dr.
Elliott, (Great Secession, p. 261). He says :
" The Southern ministers are not excelled in piety, zeal, talents,
and usefulness. Men of rare talents have spent years among the
slaves on the rice plantations, exposed to all the ordinary privations
of missionary labor, with the additional danger to health and life of
the deadly malaria from the swamps, acted on by the intense heat of
a Southern sun."
These descriptions of the character and ability of the mission
aries, among the Southern slaves, are but just tributes to the
moral worth and eminent usefulness of these brethren. The
present missionary force, independent of the regular ministry,
is 136.* The results of their labors show, conclusively, that the
eulogy passed upon them is nothing more than what is merited
by them. When Dr. Elliott wrote, the slave converts in the
Methodist Church South were 150,000 ; now they are over 200,-
000 ! A vast work has been accomplished here !
* American Christian Record, 1860.

METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY.

215

Section V. — Interesting Facts in relation to the Metho
dist Episcopal Church and its Rule on Slavery.
The prominent position occupied by the Methodists, in the
great work of African Evangelization, awakens an interest in all
their movements much beyond that of any of the other denomi
nations ; for, although the Baptists have also done a great work,
and are not very far behind the Methodists, yet, in consequence
of the independent character of their churches, the progress they
have made can not be so easily traced. Before closing these
investigations, therefore, some additional particulars, in reference
to the Methodist Church, must be given. Its legislation on
slavery will be found, in detail, in Chapter VIII, The churches
which had been gathered, previous to 1784, were, in that year,
organized into annual conferences, and the General Conference
was permanently created in 1796, At this date the entire col
ored membership, as given by States, stood as follows:

Delaware  811
Maryland  4,910
Virginia  2,458
North Carolina  1,288
South Carolina  826
Georgia  146
Tennessee  43
Kentucky  84

Pennsylvania  380
New Jersey  105
New York  218
Connecticut  8
Massachusetts  2
Rhode Island  none
Maine  none
New Hampshire & Vermont... none

These figures will serve as a starting point, in estimating the
progress of the Gospel among the African population of the
United States ; and they are especially interesting when consid
ered in connection with the civil legislation of that period. Penn
sylvania had adopted a system of gradual emancipation in 1780,
and was still a slaveholding State in 1796 ; New York remained
slaveholding until 1799, and New Jersey until 1804 — both
adopting the same system that Pennsylvania had introduced.
The six New England States, in 1796, were all free,* and had
only ten converts, from the colored people, in the communion of
the Methodist Church; while the States remaining slaveholding,

* See foot note in Chapter II,

216 PULPIT POLITICS.
exclusive of Pennsylvania, had a colored membership in that
Church of 10,878,
It was not until a few years after 1784, that two or three mis
sionaries were sent into South Carolina and Georgia, and the very
name of Methodism had not reached them previous to that date.
From South Carolina, the first missionary was sent into Missis
sippi in 1802, and into Alabama in 1808, As for New England,
in 1784, the bright morning of the birth of Methodism in that
field had not yet dawned. There were no Methodists there,*
And even in 1796, the white membership in Massachusetts was
but 822 ; and, in all the New England States, but 2,509,t New
England, therefore, at the date of the organization of the Gene-
rel Conference was in no very favorable condition to dictate lawa
to the Church at large, with its 40,000 white members in the slave
States ; nor did she make any attempt of the kind, as she was
then in her childhood, as to strength, when compared with the
Churches in the other States, Even as late as 1808, the New
England States had but 64 colored members in the Methodist
Church ; while, at the same time, there were 28,612 colored mem
bers in the slave States, including the Philadelphia Conference,
The New England States, in the early days of Methodism, were
without influence in that body.
The point to which we wish to call attention, here, is the prev
alent opinion, that the history of the legislation of the Methodist
Church presents a constant concession from the North to the
South. That this opinion is not founded in fact, is rendered cer
tain, because Methodism had made but little progress in the free
States, until after the whole question in relation to the Rule on
slavery had been finally settled. The history of this matter may
be briefly stated :
In 1780, the existing societies had disapproved the holding of
slaves and advised their liberation. The organization of the con
ferences was effected in 1784, when all private members were
required to liberate their slaves in the States where the laws al
lowed emancipation. But in six months the Rule was suspended.
In 1796 it came up again, in 1804 again, and in 1808 all that
* Speech of Rev. Dr. Capers, in the case of Bishop Andrews, 1844.
t See statistics of white members. Chapter II,

METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 217
related to holding slaves among private members was stricken out,
and no Rule on the subject has existed since, *
Now, all this legislation, in reference to slaveholding, occurred,
mainly, among the slaveholders themselves — the non-slaveholders
being a very small minority — and the question was finally ad
justed in accordance with the practice of Mr, Wesley himself.
This is apparent from two leading facts : 1. The case that has
been mentioned in reference to the introduction of the Gospel into
Antigua, t In that case, two of the slaves of the planter, Mr.
Gilbert, who had accompanied him to England, were converted
under the preaching of Mr. Wesley, and baptized by him. After
ward Mr. Gilbert himself -was also converted, and oh his return to
Antigua, under the sanction of Mr. Wesley, he became a preacher,
and proceeded to organize the first Society in that island. "^>Mr.
Wesley did not exclude Mr. Gilbert from the ministry, although
he was a slaveholder. 2. But this is not the only instance in
which Mr, Wesley made no distinction between the slaveholder
and the non-slaveholder, in the admission of members to the com
munion of the Church, This rule was general throughout the
West Indies, as appears from the testimony of Bishop Hedding,
Th'fe Bishop, in 1837, presided at the Oneida and Genessee Con
ferences, in New York, when some resolutions of an abolition
stamp were offered, which he was unwilling to put to vote. In
his address to them he said:
" Methodist Societies were formed in the West Indies several yeara
before the death of Mr. Wesley. They were under his superintend
ence, and, from the best information I have been able to obtain, slave
owners were admitted into those Societies ; and, in perfect accordance
with the above views, that practice was continued up to the time
slavery was abolished in those islands by the British Government."
" Let it be further remarked, that for several years before the
organization of our Church, many of our preachers and people in the
South owned slaves ; but they were permitted to do it only under our
Saviour's rule. But who permitted those preachers and members to
own slaves? You will be astonished when I tell you, it was Mr,
Wesley, By his permitting it, I mean he did not hinder it when he
* Speech of Rev. Dr. Durbin, on the case of Bishop Andrew, 1844.
t See Chapter I,

218 PULPIT POLITICS.
had the power to do so. The preachers, in this country, acted under
his direction; and under that direction the preachers had the sole
power of receiving and expelling members. Had Mr. Wesley then
said to his preachers, ' Receive no slave-owner ; ' or, ' expel the slave
owners,' it would have been done, as he commanded. But it was not
done ; therefore Mr. Wesley never commanded it  Mr.
Wesley's views on this subject have been misunderstood and misrep
resented.*. For, after all he said against the slave trade, against the
system of slavery as established by the British Government, and
against men's holding slaves where the laws were such that they could
put them away to the advantage of the slaves, he never said one word,
that I can find, against the Christian man's holding his slave in cir
cumstances where he could not put him away without injuring him,
And the fact of his allowing some of his preachers and members in
this country to hold slaves for several years before our Church was
organized, is sufficient evidence, to my mind, that he saw that nothing
better could be done for the slaves, circumstanced as those owners
were, than to hold, feed, protect, and govern them. While this state
of things continued, Mr. Wesley ordained a Bishop and two Elders,
for this country, sending them over to organize his preachers and
societies into an Episcopal Church, at the same time appointing 3Ir,
Asbury joint superintendent with Dr. Coke, when he must have known
that many, both of his preachers and members in this country, held
slaves. Yet I have been severely condemned for expressing an un
willingness to put a resolution to vote in an Annual Conference tending
to censure our brethren in the South for doing the same thing which
Mr. Wesley allowed their fathers to do when in connection with him,
and when also he possessed full power to prevent their doing so, or to
expel them."
In addition to this testimony. Rev, Dr, Elliott says, in his
" Great Secession," page 107 : " The Wesleyans had slaveholders
in their communion, in the West Indies, without rebuke, up to the
very day on which emancipation took place,"
The true spirit of the Methodist Church, in the early years of
its existence, was to labor for the propagation of the Gospel, and
to avoid all conflicts with the ciyil laws. ' This is proved to be the
fact, from the character of the instructions given, by the English
Wesleyans, to their missionaries in the West Indies. The follow
ing is an extract from the instructions adopted in 1817, being
sixteen years before the emancipation act was passed :

METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 219
" We can not omit, without neglecting our duty, to warn you against
meddling with political parties, or secular disputes. You are teachers
of religion, and that alone should be kept in view. It is, however, a
part of your duty, as ministers, to enforce, by precept and example, a
cheerful obedience to lawful authority  As, in the colonies
in which you are called to labor, a great proportion of the inhabitanta
are in a atate of slavery, the Committee most strongly call to your
recollection what was so fully stated to you, when you were accepted
as a missionary to the West Indies, that your only business is to pro
mote the moral and religious improvement of the slaves to whom you
may have access, without, in the least degree, in public or private,
interfering with their civil condition. On all persons, in the state of
slaves, you are diligently and explicitly to enforce the same exhorta
tions which the Apostles of our Lord administered^ to the slaves of
ancient nations, when, by their ministry, they embraced Christianity."
The stringent Rule on slavery, first adopted at the North, seems
to have been the work of Dr. Coke, one of Mr, Wesley's superin
tendents. The character of these regulations can be seen in
Chapter VIII. It will also be seen, that the regulations were
modified, as follows, in 1804, so as to leave the South in the posi
tion it occupied, on the first organization of the Church, in that
section of the United States :
" Nevertheless, the members of our societies in the States of North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall be exempted from the
operation of the above rules."
This was passed by the General Conference in 1804. In 1816,
it was found that much confusion prevailed throughout the Con
ferences, as to the manner of executing the rules, and it was
deemed necessary to embody the whole requirements of the
Church in a single article, as follows :
" Therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official station
in ouV Church hereafter, when the laws of the State in which he lives
will admit of emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy
freedom." But this article, though quieting discussion for a time, did not
entirely satisfy the ministry in the North. It allowed considerable

220 PULMT POLITICS.
latitude of interpretation. But few of the States positively pro*
hibited emancipation ; yet none of them allowed the free negro
the same enjoyment of freedom which the whites possessed. To
secure this to the emancipated man of color, it was necessary
that he should be removed to a free state. This measure was not
required by the Rule ; and, in most of the slave States, therefore,
the official members could retain their slaves. By the Rule, too,
the private members of the church were left in the full possession
of their slaves ; thus placing the terms of communion, as to private
members, on the same basis that the English Wesleyans adopted
for the West Indies, and Bishop Asbury imposed upon South
Carolina. \ Thus stood the question, as to slaveholding in the Methodist
Church, when abolitionism arose in the United States. The rise
and progress of the warfare waged by the anti-slavery ministers,
against this Rule of 1816, will be found in Chapter VIH.; and
must greatly interest the reader. In 1844, the antagonist parties
were brought face to face, for a trial of strength, on the case of
Bishop Andrew — the South contending that the Rule should
remain unaltered, and the North that it should be abolitionized.
Technically, this was not the ground upon which the prosecution
was based, but, substantially, it embraced this principle, * The
North, here, was the aggressor: the South, being satisfied with
the position she had so long occupied, and which was fully in
accordance with the practice of Mr, Wesley. The disruption of
the Church left some of the border Conferences in connection with
the North, and this has tended to renew the efforts to alter the
Rule — a measure that would have been easily accomplished after
the division of the Church, but for the membership in the border
slave States.
The relation which the Methodist Church sustained toward the
cause of African evangelization, at the moment of the trial of
Bishop Andrew, is a matter of the greatest possible interest.
The ministers in both the North and the South, doubtless, were
equally zealous in their desires to promote the spiritual welfare
of the colored people. But the measures of the two parties were
*See Chapter VIII,

METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY.

221

as opposite in principle as day is to night. One or the other
must have been laboring under a spirit of fanaticism. We have
seen that the ministers in the North were almost wholly unsuccess
ful with the colored people. Let us see how it had been with
those of the South :
Membership, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of colored persons,
at the several dates given below.

CONFERENCES
Philadelphia ¦'¦- 
Baltimore 
Virginia 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia 
Alabama 
Mississippi 
Arkansas 
Texas 
Tennessee! 
Kentucky 
Missouri 
Total 

1826 1830 1834 1838 1842 1845

7,660 9,406
7,847
15,708

2,494

3,597
2,821 339

8,169
10,454 9,967
24,638

4,247

5,430
4,884 414

9,025
13,851 8,083
22,788 7,421
3,163
2,622

7,1676,709 996

8,112
13,301 2,950 3,896
23,498 7,126
2,830 1,587 592
6,727
4,770 812^

9,086
13,526 3,668
4,733
30,84011,457 7,606
4,089 828
407
9,365
6,7611,399

10,74216,412 4,494 6,390
39,49613,99413,637 7,7991,7751,005
15,703 9,362
2,530

49,862

,103 80,825 76,201 103,544 143,238

It will be noticed, that the colored membership of the Methodist
Church, in Virginia, was reduced more than 7,000, between 1830
and 1838. This reduction, doubtless, was caused by the "Nat.
Turner insurrection," and supplies a fair example of the effects
of such movements upon the religious interests of the colored
people. The masters, having full confidence in the missionaries,
allow them free access to the slaves ; but, losing confidence in the
honesty of their purposes, the slaves are forbidden to hear them ;
and the results are disastrous to the progress of religion. It was
in view of this fact, that Rev. Dr. Capers, in his speech on the

* Reference haa frequently been made to the Philadelphia Conference, as in
cluding portions of the territory of Maryland and Delaware. The Report for
1857, gives a colored membership in this Conference, of 8,304, and probationers
848. Of this number there are only 188 members in the North Philadelphia
District, 80 in the South Philadelphia District, and 19 in the Reading District,
being in all only 239; and of probationers in the whole of these Districts there
were but 39 — the remainder being in the slave States.
tThe three Conferences of Tennessee are added together.

222 PULPIT POLITICS,
case of Bishop Andrew, made such a powerful appeal to the
Northern members of Conference, to desist from pressing their
anti-slavery measures upon the attention of that body. Already
the missionaries could show, as seals of their ministry, nearly
150,000 converts among the slaves. It was all-important that
this great work should progress without interruption. This it
could not do, excepting the anti-slavery crusade against slave
holders should be checked in its progress. In attempting to effect
this object, Dr, Capers said :
" I beseech brethren to allow due weight to the considerations
which have been so kindly and ably urged by others on this branch
of the subject. I contemplate it, I confess, with a bleeding heart.
Never, never have I suffered as in view of the evil which this measure
threatens against the South. The agitation has already begun there ;
and I tell you that though our hearts were to be torn out of our
bodies, it could avail nothing, when once you have awakened the feel
ing that we can not be trusted among the slaves. Once you have
done this thing, you have effectually deatroyed us. I could wish to
die sooner than to live to see such a day. As sure as you live, breth
ren, there are tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, whose
destiny may be periled by your decision on this case. When we tell you
that we preach to a hundred thousand slaves in our missionary field,,
we only announce the beginning of our work — the beginning of the
openings of the door of access to the most numerous maases of slaves
in the South. When we add, that there are two hundred thousand
now within our reach who have no Gospel unless we give it to them,
it is still but the same announcement of the beginnings of the open
ing of that wide and effectual door, which was so long closed, and so
lately has begun to be opened, for the preaching of the Gospel, by our
ministry, to a numerous and destitute portion of the people, 0, close
not this door I Shut us not out from this great work, to which we
have been so signally called of God. Consider our position. I pray
you, I beseech you by every sacred consideration, pause in this mat
ter. Do not talk about concessions to the South. We ask for no
concessions — no compromises. Do with us as you please, but spare
the souls for whom Jesus died. If you deem our toils too light, and
that after all there is more of rhetoric than cross-bearing in our
labors, come down and take a part with us. Let this be the compro
mise, if we have any. I could almost promise my vote to make the
elder a bishop who should give such a proof as thia of his devotion

METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY, 223
to, — I will not say the emancipation of the negro race, but what is
better — what is more constitutional and more Christian,-— the sal
vation of the souls of the negroes on our great Southern plantations.
Concessions ! We ask for none. So fiir from it, we are ready to^
make any in our power to you. We come to you not for ourselves,
but for perishing souls ; and we entreat you, for Christ's sake, not to
take away from them the bread of life which we are just now begin
ning to carry them. We beg for this — I must repeat it — with
bleeding hearts. Yes, I feel intensely on this subject. The stone of
stumbling and rock of offence of former times, when George Daugh-
erty, a Southern man, and a Southern minister, and one of the wisest
and best that ever graced our ministry, was dragged to the pump in
Charleston, and his life rescued by a sword in a woman's hand, — the
offence of the anti-slavery measures of that day has but lately begun
to subside. I can not, I say, forget past times, and the evil of them,
when in those parts of my own State of South Carolina, where slaves
are most numerous, there was little more charity for Methodist
preachers than if they had been Mormons, and their access to the
negroes was looked upon as dangerous to the public peace. Bring
not back upon us the evil of those bitter days 
" I said, sir, that we ask for no concessions. We ask nothing for our
selves. We fear nothing for ourselves. But we ask, and we demand,
that you embarrass not the Gospel by the measure now proposed.
Throw us back, if you will, to those evil times. But we demand that
when you shall have caused us to be esteemed a sort of land pirates,
and we have to preach again at such places as Riddlespurger's and
Bantoule swamp, you see to it that we find there the souls who are
now confided to our care as pastors of the flock of Christ. Yes, throw
us back again to those evil times ; but see that you make them evil
to none but ourselves. Throw us back, but make it possible for us to
fulfill our calling ; and by the grace of God we will endure and over
come, and still ask no concessions of you. But if you can not do
this ; if you can not vex us without scattering the sheep, and making
them a prey to the wolf of hell, then do we sternly forbid the deed.
You may not, and you dare not do it. I say again, if by this meas
ure the evil to be done were only to involve the ministry, without
harm or peril to the souls we serve, we might bow to the stroke with
out despair, if not in submissive silence. We know the work as a
cross-bearing service ; and as such we love to accomplish it. It
pleased God to take the life of the first missionary sent to the ne
groes, but his successor was instantly at hand. And in the name of

224 PULPIT POLITICS.
the men who are now in the work, or ready to enter it, I pledge for a
brave and unflinching perseverance. This is not braggardism. No,
it is an honest expression of a most honest feeling. Life or death,
we will never desert that Christian work to which we know that God
has called us. We ask to be spared no trial ; but that the way of
trials may be kept open for us. We ask to be spared no labor ; but
that we may be permitted to labor on, and still more abundantly.
Add, if you please, to the amount of our toils. Pile labor on labor
more and more. Demand of us still more brick ; or even the full tale
of brick without straw or stubble ; but cut us not off from the clay
also. Cut us not off from access to the slaves of the south, when (to
say nothing of " concessions to the South " ) you shall have finished
the measure of your demands for the North."
These appeals were all in vain, and the only means by which
the Southern ministers could maintain themselves in the South,
and continue their labors among the blacks, was to withdraw
from the Northern conferences, and organise the Southern con
ferences on the principles originally adopted by Bishop Asbury,
of dropping the Rule on slavery.
Section VI. — Interesting Facts connected with the Con
gregational AND Baptist Churches, of the United States,
m THEIR RELATIONS TO SLAVERY.
Thus far, no reference has been made to the CONGREGATIONAL
Churches of the United States, in the relation they sustain to
slavery. Their church polity does not bring such questions be
fore their conferences, in a formal manner, with the view of de
ciding any principle relating to terms of Christian fellowship.
All such questions are decided by the congregations separately.
Upon the great question of slavery, we are informed that they
are very harmonious in their sentiments, not only in New Eng
land, but throughout the country. At their General Conference,
some eight or ten years since, a deliverance on the subject of
slavery was given. It was decidedly anti-slavery in its tone, and
may. be reckoned as maintaining the abolition ground. The
"three thousand and fifty clergymen of New England," who
addressed Congress, in 1854, in a protest against the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, included a large number of Congregational min-

congregational churches AND SLA-^ERY. 225
isters. Their views may be inferred from the tone of that docu
ment, which the reader will find in a subsequent Chapter,
together with the debates in Congress, to which ¦ it gave rise.
The memorial on the same subject, from the clergymen of Chi
cago and the North West, and the reply of Mr. Douglass to the
same, will also be found in that chapter. A large portion of its
signers, likewise, were Congregationalists.
A notice of this denomination is quite in place in this connec
tion. They were the first to occupy New England, and, for many
years, had little or no rivalry from other denominations. They
have had many men of great intelligence and piety in their min
istry, and would seem to have had but few obstacles, indeed, to
their success in the propagation of the Gospel. In reference to
slavery, they, in general, held the British theory — that it was
incompatible with the progress of the Gospel. In Massachusetts,
especially, Congregationalism has had a fair field, and should
have made rapid progress, according to their abolition theory, as
compared with the advancement of the Gospel in the slave States.
And how do the results compare ?
During September, 1861, the General Conference of the
Congregational Churches of Massachusetts held its session
at Newburyport.
" At the meeting last year, in Springfield, the following resolution
was passed : *
" Resolved, That in view of the spiritual desolations, which are
known to exist in this Commonwealth, and the fact that so large a
portion of our population are not reached at present by the ordinary
means of grace, a committee of five be appointed by this Conference
to consider and report next year what can be done to reach more
effectually these masses, and more thoroughly evangelize every por
tion of our Commonwealth,
" The committee appointed in pursuance of this resolution, pre
sented at the late meeting of the Conference a carefully-prepared Re
port, intended to answer briefly the question, " What can be done "
by the Congregationalists as a denomination in this matter. Inas
much as this was the first time that such a question was ever pro-
* We copy from the New York Observer's report of the proceedings.
15

226 pulpit politics.
pounded to the representatives of these churches in council, and, aa
it was expected that ' Home Evangelization ' would constitute here
after a prominent object of this General Conference, the Committee
were led to inquire into the adaptation of the Congregational polity
and the agencies in its employ for this work. And in order to pre
sent a full view of the subject, an historical sketch of Congregation
alism in Massachusetts was given, together with a notice of the rise
and progress of the other Evangelical denominations. It was found,
on instituting a comparison, that all these denominations had gained
very much upon the Congregationalists. From the landing of the
Pilgrims to 1790, the latter had almost the entire possession of the
ground. At that period there were no Methodists, only one or two
Episcopal, and a small number of Baptist churches in the State.
From the year 1800 all these denominations increased rapidly, but no
accurate statistics were collected till 1820, or afterwards, so that a
comparison of relative growth can be made. The Committee ob
tained, after much research, the exact number of ministers, churches,
and communicants belonging to the Evangelical denominations in
Massachuaetta at each decade of years, from 1820 to 1860; and,
taking the church membership as the most correct standard of com
parison, it was found that from 1830 to 1860, the gain of the Congre
gationalists had been 101 per cent. ; that of the Baptists, 129 per
cent. ; that of the Methodists, 199 per cent. ; and that of the Epis
copalians, 408 per cent. And that from 1850 to 1860, the gain of the
Congregationalists had been much less than any previous decade of
years. In fact, the additions to the Congregational churches in Mas
sachusetts, for the last ten years, have scarcely made good the loss by
deaths and removals from the State. Whereas, the Episcopalian, the
Methodist, and the Baptist churches have, in the same time, received
large additions. The exact number of churches and members of these
denominations in 1860 was as follows : The Congregationalists had
488 churches, with 76,371 members ; the Methodists, 260 churches,
with 27,788 members ; the Baptists, 268 churches, and 36,250 mem
bers ; the Episcopalians, 73 churches, and 7,744 members. Accord
ing to these facts and figures, it seems that the Congregational de
nomination has not, for some causes, relatively increased equal to the
others here mentioned. These causes this Committee endeavored
carefully to analyze, showing what agencies and influences have been
operating in past years to build up certain denominations more rap
idly than our own. While some of these agencies lie beyond the
range of any religious body, the most efficient are directly under the

baptist churches and sla-vbry. 227
control of every denomination. In comparing and analyzing these
agencies of church action and aggression, the object of the Commit
tee was to inquire wherein the Congregationalists have failed or erred
in the use of such means as both propriety and duty might naturally
impose upon any religious organization."
It is not necessary to copy the apologies offered by the Com
mittee, for the want of success in the Congregational churches.
That the New England ministry have failed, as well as that of all
the other denominations, in coming up to the perfect standard of the
Gospel minister, according to the example of Paul, is lamentably
apparent, from the results attending their labors. Contrast their
preaching on the question of slavery, with the preaching of the
Apostle Paul, as described by himself: "For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him cruci
fied."* The burden of Paul's preaching, both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, he assures us, " was repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." f Felix never would
have trembled before Paul, except with rage, had the Apostle
employed his eloquence in depicting the horrors of slavery
throughout the Roman Empire, and the duty of granting equal
rights to all mankind.
It will be seen that the membership of the Congregational
churches, in Massachusetts, -with all the advantages of an early
monopoly of the ground, is now only 76,371, while the member
ship among the colored people, in the slave States, is 465,000 !
Had the Gospel been faithfully preached in Massachusetts, would
the Head of the Church have left its ministers with so few seals
to their ministry?
The Baptist Church, in the United States, is also Congrega
tional in its Church polity. It divided, several years since, on
the slavery question. The division grew out of the disagree
ments in relation to the mode of conducting their foreign mis
sionary operations ; and they have now two Boards — one North
and the other South. In Section VII., the results of the efforts
of these two Boards are given — the one laboring among free
men, in heathendom, and the other among slaves in the Southern
• 1 Corinthians ii : 2. t Acts xx : 21.

228 / PULPIT POLITICS.
slave States. That Section embraces the whole of the results of
all the mission-work of the American churches, throughout the
world. The condition of the Baptist Church North, as to numbers, at
present, as compared with its condition before separating from
the South, we have no means of determining; but one of the
organs of the Church,* in referring to the spiritual condition of
the congregations, at large, reviews the Associational year as
follows :
" It has been a year of general spiritual dearth. The Presidential
election, with the great issues involved, absorbed the attention of all
good citizens in the last autumn, and activity in the ordinary religious
channels was lessened. The exciting events which have followed,
culminating in a disastrous civil war, have not been favorable to calm
meditation, or deep religious feeling. The newspaper has been read
more than the Bible, the armory has exerted a stronger magnet
ism than the conference-room ; and even on the Sabbath, solicitude
for the country has usurped time consecrated to the Lord, Minis
ters have found it a hard year to preach, from the double difficulty
of arresting the attention of the people, and keeping themselves zeal
ously at work in the study. Superintendents have found a truant
disposition gaining ground among scholars and teachers. Faithful
attendants at social meetings have had occasion to regret that the
zeal of some of their weaker brethren has grown cold,
" We anticipate, therefore, barren reports from the churches. Few
baptisms will be reported, and little spiritual life. The letters will
glow with patriotism, but will say little of growth in godliness,"
The Witness, the Baptist paper of Indiana, has a similar sad tale
to relate. It says, in a notice of a recent Association in that State :
" The letters from the churches indicated great barrenness of spir
itual life and power, and hence a decline of numbers. There seem
few, if any, marks of progress in any of our Associations, except down
ward, and there certainly seems very little effort to turn the current.
The brethren seem unwilling to allow themselves time to even make
reckoning with themselves. Very few seem to be ' weeping between
the porch and the altar ;' very few are ready to cry, ' Watchman,
what of the night ? ' and very few watchmen offer any response. To
our mind the rapid decline of our churches is inevitable. There ap-
* Watchman and Reflector, Boston, September, 1861.

BAPTIST CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 229
pear to be no great objects brought before them, and pressed upon their
hearts. There seem to be no laymen or ministers, impressed enough
with the barren state of things to bring forward any great issue."
These remarks are copied, to call attention to the closing sen
tences of the last article. There is no one " to bring forward any
great issue ; " and, alas ! the progress of the Church is down-
Wards. Here is the true secret, we fear, of the spiritual declen
sion of the churches. During the last half century, the ministry
have brought forward several "great issues" before the people.
Among these issues, slavery has been preeminent ; but it can no
longer serve as a rallying cry, to rouse up the zeal of lax profes
sors. Some new issue, therefore, is demanded. And has it come
to this, that, in a world of fallen men, who are resting under the
wrath and curse of an offended Deity, the very ministry appointed
to reconcile them to God through the Gospel of his Son, have to
lament that they can find no "great issue," of sufficient interest
to attract their perishing fellow-men to the Saviour ! Surely, the
editor was not conscious of the import of his language. He could
not have intended to convey the idea, that the love of Jesus has
no longer any attractions. No issue ! when men are sinking to
perdition ! Why, man, there is no theme, no issue, like that of
perdition on the one hand, and salvation on the other. Drop,
then, all your old stale issues ; seek no new-fangled ones, the
novelty of which will attract men to your standard; but, like
Paul, resolve to preach Christ and him crucified; but above all
things, never again paralyze the piety of the Church by political
preaching. In immediate connection with these remarks, a quotation from
the pen of the former editor of the Christian Intelligencer, written
in 1861, will be appropriate. It will be seen that the editor of
1829 has changed his views, in a considerable degree, in 1861.
With age comes wisdom. He thus announces his present views :
" There may be too much of a good thing. It may well be doubted,
whether, just at this time, many ministers of the Gospel are not in
danger of keeping the subject of slavery too much before their own
minds, and the minds of their hearers, as the source, and the only
source, of our national troubles. A minister may preach long and

230

PULPIT POLITICS.

loud against slavery, or any other sin, and yet not bring one soul to
Christ. In the present crisis, when the question is soon to be tested,
whether, as a people, we have enough of that ' virtue and intelligence '
which is the basis of free government, to save us from bringing ruin
on ourselves, a minister will serve his country best by teaching his
hearers to 'fear God, and keep his commandments.' "*
Section VII. — Results of the Foreign Missionary work of
THE American Churches, as compared with the results of
THEIR Domestic Missions among the Slaves of the United
States. 1, The Methodist Episcopal Church, — This religious denom
ination had become deeply enlisted in the work of foreign mis
sions before its division into two bodies. The Church North is
still prosecuting the foreign work with great zeal. The Forty-
second Annual Report of its Missionary Society, 1861, presents
the following tabular statement of its foreign missions. We add
to it, from the domestic missions, the statistics of its Indian mis
sion — the whole presenting the following results :

MISSIONS.

MISSIONAEIES.

ASSISTANTS.

NATIVE
HEMBEES.

AMERICAN MEMBERS.

Africa 

27 5
10 3
15 6 1
21

26 13
22 4
1713 1
19

72 54
67
1,637 663
1,171

1,481

China 

8

India 

76

Bulgaria 

Germany 

Scandinavia 

South America 

79

Total 
88
124
3,664
1,644
The American members in the African mission, are the colon
ists from the United States. The same class of members in the
China, India, and South American missions, are white residents
in those countries. The missions in Germany and Scandinavia,
being in Christian countries, are not to be classed with heathen
missions. The expenditures, in 1860, for the China mission, were
$25,567; the foreign German mission, $25,664; the India mis-
* Christian Instructor and Western United Presbyterian.
foreign missions op AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 231
sion, $30,642 ; the Liberia mission, $20,937 ; the Norway and
Sweden mission, $6,093 ; the Bulgarian mission, $2,682 ; and the
Buenos Ayres mission, $146. Total, $111,731.
The first introduction of Methodism into Liberia, occurred
in connection with the colonists, about forty years since ; but
the mission was not formally organized until 1832. Something
more than a half million of dollars has been expended on this
mission. From causes assigned by Bishop Scott, and quoted else
where, the success of the missionaries among the natives has not
been very encouraging — there being at present only seventy-two
converts. Deducting the German and Scandinavian converts from
the number of the native converts, and adding thereto the Ameri
can colonists in Liberia, and the whole number of church mem
bers which should be estimated in this connection is 2,845.
The Methodist Church South, including the members in the
border Conferences, can offset this by showing a colored member
ship of over 215,000 ! '-
2. The American Baptist Missionary Union is the agency
of the Baptist Churches North, for conducting their missionary
operations in the foreign field. The missions of this Board, ac
cording to the Annual Report for 1861, stand as follows :

WHERE LOCATED.

o

i o
1

o
i

S3a§S

1 O M
13S S 2
>¦ S m
M B m
5 u <

1a

h

14 2
2

17 7
71

311 9
861

36 6

37 7

387 8
141

288 16
79

16,174 1,600 9,239

N. American Indians...
Europe 

Total 

18

95

1,181

41

44

633

382

27,013

The Baptist missionaries, sent to Asia, were the first who left
the United States for a heathen country. They set sail in 1812.
Nearly fifty years have elapsed since that date, and their missions
in Asia now number 16,174 converts. Those among the North
American Indians, commenced at a later day, have 1,600 ; making
a total membership, in the Baptist mission churches, in their
heathen fields, of 17,774.
232 PULPIT politics.
The Southern Baptist Board of Missions, have their fields
of labor in Africa, and in the Southern States. In the latter field
alone, the number of converts, in 1859, was 175,000 ! This, how"-
ever, includes the whole membership in all the Baptist congrega
tions, missionary as well as anti-missionary. In Africa, they
have had no better success than other churches.
The missions of the Baptist Churches North, were established
among a people called free. Those in Asia had to encounter the
difficulties attending the mission work among an idolatrous popu
lation, speaking a foreign language; while those among the Indi
ans were not more favorably situated. The Northern Board, in
conducting its missions, had the advantage of being supported by
a more numerous people, who could greatly exceed the South in
the amount of their contributions. It had the further advantage,
also, of having the aid of the South for many years, or until the
Northern and Southern churches divided on the question of
slavery. Its heathen missions, alone, are noticed in this contrast,
those in Europe being among a civilized people.
The Southern Board had to send its missionaries among a slave
population, where the world at large averred the Gospel could
make no progress. But in this belief the world was mistaken.
The colored people, under slavery, had never formed any attach
ments to the religion of their fathers ; and they had acquired the
use of the English language. This was a progress vastly beyond
the condition of the population of Asia; and the results show a
corresponding success — the converts in the missions of the North
ern Board being 17,774, and of the Southern Board, 175,000 !
There is a point of great interest here, and at the risk of some
repetition of what is elsewhere said, we call attention to it in this
connection. The slow progress of the mission-work in the foreign
fields, so far as natural causes operate, are the results of the
deeply-seated systems of idolatry which prevail, and the social
practices that are their natural out-growth: all of which are
wholly antagonistic to the pure principles of the Gospel. These
have to be uprooted before Christianity can succeed. The Ameri
can slaves born among a people acknowledging Christianity, are
unaffected by false idolatrous systems of religion, and are, there
fore, more accessible to Christian instruction.

FOREIGN MISSIONS OF AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 238
3. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. — This
Board is the agency appointed by the General Assembly Presby
terians, 0. S,, for conducting their missions in the foreign field.
Its Report for 1861, gives the extent of its missions, with the
results as follows :

¦WHERE LOCATED.

03Koa S

2 ¦

<

n <

n
Is r

i
i om

i
is

Indian Tribea 

732 1
4 1 1

13 9
17 161
2

15
1223 6
13 1
4

3 3

6212
23 5
18 33

86
48 1
17

708
242
3,475 31
188 20

2,179

Africa 

250

259

8

China  • 

161

Total* 
19
48
74
6
126
80
4,664
2,857
These missions are efficiently sustained by the contributions
from the congregations of this denomination. No Christian peo
ple in the world more regularly, zealously, and conscientiously
sustain their religious enterprises. In this respect the Old School
Presbyterians are educated up to a commendable degree of liber
ality, it being no longer necessary to employ agents for the col
lection of funds.
The success of the missions of this Church abroad, has not been
equal to the success of its less systematic efforts at home. The
foreign field, in 1861, gives but 2,857 converts among the heathen ;
while the home field, in 1859, gave 12,000 converts among the
slaves, 4, The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis
sions, — This Board derives its support, mainly, from the Con
gregationalists and New School General Assembly Presbyterians.
It has been in existence fifty years, and has just issued a. Memorial
Volume, for 1860, in celebration of its Jubilee Meeting, The
total expenditure of the Board, from its organization to the date
* The mission to the Jews in New York, of one minister, and that to Papal
Europe, are omitted, as not being Pagan, and as not reporting any members.
234

PULPIT POLITICS.

of the issuing of this volume, or in the first fifty years of its
operations, has been $8,633,381. The expenditure for 1860 was
$361,958; and, for the four years preceding, an average of
$217,680 per annum. This Missionary Association is probably
the best supported and most efficient Board in the country, and
may be considered the model institution of its class.
The following tabular view of the missions of the Board, in
cluding the number of churches established, the number of con
verts received in the congregations during the year, the present
number of the members in the several churches, and the number
of converts from the beginning, will afford a true idea of the
success attending the efforts of the Association:

MISSIONS.

CHURCHES.

RECEIVED THE
LAST YEAH.

PRESENT NUMBER.

NUMBER FROM
THE BEQINNINO.

Gaboon Mission 

1 7
40 3 1
13 2 5
28 935
23 1 5
12 2 3

6
226 196169
11 78
46 13
673132 6
27

16
186
1,277 119 19
385 396 74
126
1,012 457 28
126
14,413 4
248
1,362 91
283

38
1,450 157
401 466
1,278 3a
130
43,768 4

Zulu Mission.... 

Mosul 
Nestorian Mission 
Mahratta Mission 

Arcot Mission, (1857)...

Ceylon Mission 
Three China Missions.
Amoy Mission, (1857)..
Sandwich Islands 
Micronesia Mission 
Cherokee, (1869) 
Choctaws, (1869) 
Dakotas k Ojibwas 
Senecas k Tuscaroras..
Total 

20,621
The number of ordained missionaries and assistant missionaries
sent forth from the beginning has been 1,258 — ordained mis
sionaries 415, physicians not ordained 24, assistants 819 ; males
567, females 691,
5. The Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in North America held its twenty-fourth annual and
eighth triennial meeting in Richmond, Virginia, October, 1859.
The Report, in relation to the foreign fields, exhibits an expendi
ture of money, in the several missions, which indicates a great.
FOREIGN MISSIONS OP AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLA-VBRY. 235
degree of liberality, on the part of the people of this church, in
the support of Gospel ordinances in the heathen world. The sev
eral amounts stood thus : The mission in Greece, $3,300 ; China,
$19,902 ; Africa, $41,321 ; South America, $100 ; Japan, $1,832.
Total, $66,455 — fractions omitted.
" Very marked changes are going on in large portions of the con
tinent of Africa, Exploration has done much to bring to light that
which was before unknown, and to exhibit features in the condition
of the country and its inhabitants, encouraging more intimate rela
tions with those engaged in business and commercial pursuits, and
inviting to largely-increased benevolent and missionary operations."*
In relation to the African mission under the charge of Bishop
Payne, this devoted missionary writes, in October, 1861, that the
mission stands thus : communicants, foreign and colonist, 211 ;
native, 158 : total, 369, Boarding scholars, colonist, 37 ; native,
103: total, 140, Day scholars, colonist, 133 ; native, 250: total,
383, Sunday-school scholars, colonist, 334 ; native, 150 : total,
484, t
The China mission is comparatively of recent origin, but pre
sents encouraging aspects. It consists of a bishop, 3 presbyters,
6 deacons, 2 native deacons, 3 candidates for orders, (2 foreign,
1 native,) 12 female missionaries : total, 27. Baptisms, 12 ; com
municants, about 70. As there have been but 12 baptisms, it is
inferred that the greater number of these communicants are for
eigners, residing in China.
The Board, in reference to Japan, take pleasure in announcing
that, in point of time, their mission was the first one actually es
tablished in that empire.
The mission in South America is also in its infancy.
The statistics of the Greek mission are not given in the work
from which we quote the foregoing particulars. J From the small
amount appropriated for its support, it is inferred that it is an in
fant mission.
6. The American Christian Record, for 1860, has the following
* American Christian Record, I860.
t Report of Bishop Payne, African Repository.
X American Christian Record, I860.

236 PULPIT POLITICS.
notice of the American Missionary Association. It refers to
the report of 1859 :
" The missionaries have been instructed to labor for the overthrow
of slavery, as of any other sin, and they do not receive slaveholders
into the church, nor invite them to communion,
" The number of foreign missions was 8 ; stations and out-stations
29; and 9 out-preaching places. Number of laborers in the foreign
field, including those about to sail, 69. . . . The Jamaica mission had
7 stations, 3 out-stations, and 24 missionary laborers, insluding 4 native
assistants. The reports exhibit a less favorable condition than in
former years. . . . The Ojibue mission being unpromising, the com
mittee recommended its relinquishment. The Ojibue and Ottowa
mission had had 7 additions to the church membership in the preced
ing eight months  Sixty had been added to the church at the
Sandwich Islands. Several Sunday-schools and two churches had
been formed among the colored population of the Canada mission,
Mr. Hotchkiss had added 18 to the churches under his care, in a little
more than a year. The Siam mission was at length beginning to pre
sent cheering indications  The Coptic mission had made no
progress during the year,, in consequence of the illness of Mr. Mar
tin, who had asked and obtained permission to retire."
Of the African mission little more is said, in the work from which
we quote, than what has been already stated. No statistics of
membership are given, so that we are left without satisfactory
data from which to judge of the progress of the foreign mission
ary work of this Board, It must be remarked, however, that
with the exception of the West India, the African, and the Can
ada mission, the fields entered upon have not been long occupied.
The membership in the West Indies is elsewhere stated at 400,
and that of Africa at 300. Total, 700.
7. The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church has three for
eign missions under its care — the Amoy, the Arcot, and the
Japanese. The Amoy mission was founded in 1842, and, in
,1859, was composed of 5 missionaries, and 3 assistant female
missionaries, with 8 native helpers, making 16 in all. There
•vt^re, in 1859, under the care of the mission, 185 communicants, 3
parochial schools, and 4 theological students under its patronage.
i^e Arcot mission has 5 churches, with an aggregate of 146

FOREIGN MISSIONS OP AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 287
members, 29 of whom were received during the year. The mis
sion is composed of 7 missionaries, 5 of whom belong to the
Scudder family, so eminent for their devotion to the cause of
their Divine Master ; and 6 female assistant missionaries and 1
male assistant — in aU 14. Total communicants in these two
missions, 331.
The Japanese mission is composed of 3 missionaries and 4 as
sistant missionaries. This mission is of recent origin.
The Moravians of the United States act in concert with their
brethren throughout Europe. Their missions are, therefore,
omitted in this statement of the operations of the American
churches, but are included in another section, referring to the
missions of Protestant Christendom,
We are now prepared to contrast the missions of the American
churches among the heathen, with those which have been con
ducted among the slaves of the United States. They stand as
follows : '

nBNOMINATIONS.

HEATHEN MIS
SIONS.

DENOMINATIONS.

MISSIONS IN
SLAVE STATES.

Methodists, (North) 

2,845
17,774 2,857
20,621 439 700331300

Methodists, (South) ¦» 
Baptists, (South) 

215,000176,000 12,000 6,000 7,000
10,000
20,000
20,000

Presbyterians, (0. S.) 

Presbyterians, (0. S.) 
Presbyterians, (N. S.) 
Protestant Episcopal Ch.,

Protestant Episcopal Ch..
American Missionary As-

Reformed Protestant
Dutch Church 

Cumberland Presbyteri-

Mr. King's, and others,

Other Denominations 
Total 

Total 

45,867

465 000

¦If we deduct from the converts in the missions of the Ameri
can Board, the church members in the Sandwich Islands, the
remainder, belonging to all the other missions of the Board, will
be 6,208, or only about the same number that the New School
Presbyterians lost to their Assembly, among the blacks of the
South, by the agitation of the subject of slavery.
* This includes all the colored membership in the border Conferences of the
Church North, within the slave States, along with those in the Church South.
238 PULPIT POLITICS.
Comments upon the above figures are not required, to convince
the intelligent reader that American Slavery presents no such
obstacles to the progress of the Gospel as are found in the pagan
world. Section VIII. — General results of the Missionary Efforts
AMONG THE AFRICAN RaCE, IN FREEDOM AND IN SLAVERY, PLACED
IN CONTRAST.
We are now prepared to look at results, in another direction,
and to contrast the success of the Gospel among the slaves of the
United States, with the progress it has made in all the other por
tions of the world, where the missionary has extended his aid to
the African race.
The work of missions, for the benefit of the negro race, may
be considered as having been fairly commenced, only a short time
before the beginning of the present century. The Moravian mis
sions had their origin at an earlier day ; but those of the other
denominations, in South Africa, the West Indies, and the United
States, had then been in operation only a little more than a dozen
years. The missions in West Africa are of a different type from
all the others, as slavery has not prevailed in either Sierra Leone
or Liberia. The British emancipation act gave freedom to both
South Africa and the West Indies. The South African missions
have had their own peculiar obstacles to overcome, and many of
them are yet in a very embarrassing position. The contrast for
the West Indies has already been drawn, between the periods of
slavery and freedom ; and the facts show that, with the advantages
of all the previous missionary labor in the islands, upon which to
found their free churches, and with double the number of societies
actively at work, the colored membership, in these islands, is now
but little advanced beyond what it was before emancipation ; and
the general testimony, contained in the missionary reports, is,
that the membership does not increase.
This result is very different, indeed, from what was expected by
British Christians, while laboring for West India emancipation,
and supplies a striking example of the lack of foresight govern
ing their actions.

MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 239
The missions in the West Indies, in 1858, embraced a member
ship of 92,494, belonging to the several Missionary Associations,
as follows : *

SOCIETIES.
Wesleyans 
English Baptists 
Church of England 
London Missionary Society 
Moravians 
Scotch Presbyterians 
American Missionary Association.
Total 

MISSIONARIES.

79 7
36198723

266

48,689
1 18,009 696
4,000
1 36,441 3,900 300

111,935

18,247 763
384
3,0003,000 513

26,861

The missions in South Africa, in 1858, embraced a member
ship of 14,258, belonging to the several missionary societies
operating in that field, as follows : §

SOCIETIES.

MISSIONARIES.

MEMBERS.

SOHOTiARS.

29 32 8
14 12
39 50
21 6
14

1,882
4,301 109
1,183 166
4,970 1,647

3,483 310
188
7,479 418

Goattel ProDasration Society 
Berlin Missionary Society 
Total 
225
14,258
11,878
In addition to the missionary force here stated, there were 10
European or American assistants, and 154 native missionaries,
and 672 native assistants.
According to the Scotch Record, for 1861, these missions must
have a less number of members now, than in 1850, before the
Caffir war of 1851, '52, '53, as it places the number of scholars,
for 1861, below that of Baird's Retrospect, for 1850, by 5,000,
* Encyclopaedia of Missions, 1858, page 775,
t Includes the churches not now aided by the Society.
i These are later statistics, from American Christian Record, I860,
eludes the Danish islands as well as the British.
§ Encyclopsedia of Missions, 1858, page 58.
This in-
240 PULPIT politics.
The mission of the London Missionary Society, in the African
Islands, reports a membership of 1,170.
The missions in West Africa include those of Sierra Leone
and Liberia, and have a membership of 23,770. *
In Canada, the mission of Rev. Mr. King, in 1859, had a mem
bership of 70, and an attendance of 200 to 300. f We have no
other statistics from Canada, as to the colored churches, but have
seen a newspaper statement that the membership is about 300.
The progress of African evangelization, then, among the free
colored people outside of the United States, will stand as follows :
MEMBERS.
West Indies  „ 111,935
South Africa..  14,258
African Islands, |  1,170
West Africa  23,770
Canada, (estimated,)  300
Total outside of the United States  151,433
Total converts in the Slave States of the United States  465,000
Diiference in favor of missions in the United States  203,667
The result of this contrast must forever silence the advocates
of the British theory — that slavery presents an insuperable bar
rier to African evangelization. But these contrasts would be
incomplete, were we to stop here. The Christian world feels
encouraged to proceed with the missions in heathen countries.
Look, then, at the following section, and see how their results
compare with the results among our slaves.
Section IX. — Contrast of the results of all the Mission
ary Force employed by Protestant Christendom, with the
results of the missions in the Slave States of the United
States. This is one of the most interesting points in the whole of our
contrasts. The Protestant missions, among heathen nations, are
prosecuted by the Protestant Christian denominations throughout
Europe and America, These missions have been extended to
Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, West Indies, and North American
 <  — •
* Scotch Record, 1861.
t Address of Rev. Mr, King, in Glasgow, Scotland, December, 1859,

SCOTTISH AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM AND SLAVERY, 241
Indians. Newcomb's Encyclopedia of Missions, for 1858, gives
the whole number of converts, in all these missions, at 211,389 ;
but more recent estimates make the number, at present, approxi
mate 250,000.
The converts in the slave States are 465,000, and exceed the
whole of the converts throughout heathendom by 215,000 !
Thus, while the larger number of religious men, throughout
Christendom, have been denouncing American slavery as incom
patible with African evangelization ; a handful of pious men, in
the slave States, regardless of the reproaches cast upon them,
have labored for the salvation of the slave, with a success nearly
double thafc*-ettending the efforts of all the other missionaries
throughout the heathen world.
The Rev, Dr, Elliott, in his " Great Secession," on this point
uses the following language ; in speaking of. the success of the
missionaries of the Methodist Church South, among the slaves :
" Their missionary labors among the slaves of the South have no
parallel in the world at this day. While they are denounced without
stint by Northern and some British abolitionists of the recent school,
they are doing more good, practically and Scripturally, for the en
lightenment, reformation, elevation, and future advantageous emanci
pation of the slaves, than all their censurers are."
Section X, — Contrast of the success of the Scottish
American Presbyterian Churches, with that of the Mis
sionaries IN THE Southern Slave States,
Another contrast, here, will be useful. From causes known
only to God himself, many of the religious denominations, besides
those noticed in Section VI. of this Chapter, have made no such
rapid progress as might have been expected from the numbers,
the learning, and the zeal of their ministry. The Scotch Presby
terian Churches were the first to engage, successfully, in the work
of discarding all slaveholders from their communion.* They
once had a stronghold in the slave States, but had to withdraw to
the free States, on account of the rigidness of the rules they
* See Chapter VII, It is true that the Methodists, at the North, attempted
the same thing, at an earlier day, but soon gave it up.
16

242 pulpit politics.
adopted against slaveholding, when they embarked in the anti-
slavery crusade. We have not been able to obtain the early
statistics of these denominations; but in 1829, the Associate
Church had 10,141 members ; the Associate Reformed Synod of
the West, probably not so many ; and the Reformed Presbyterian
Church, then undivided, a much less number. The aggregate
membership was about 25,000, certainly not more than that num
ber. In the year following, the number of Africans in the Chris
tian Church, in the United States, was about 140,000. It was
under these circumstances, that the Scotch Presbyterian Churches
began their anti-slavery excitement, in which it was contended
that the Gospel could not prevail among the slave population,
while they remained in bondage.
The years 1860 and 1861 bring out results that should lead
the clergymen of these denominations, who have heretofore taken
such high anti-slavery ground, to pause and reflect on the results
of their conduct. In 1859, the number of ministers was 525.
Their labors have been devoted to the white population, in the
free States. Beginning before the American Revolution, they have
had a fair field of labor — not an obstacle existing except of their
own creation. Here are the results of their labors on the one
hand, and that of the missionaries among the colored people, in
the slave States, on the other hand :

United Presbyterian Church, 1861  58,781
Reformed Presbyterian Church, (0, S,,) 1861  8,000
Reformed Presbyterian Church, (N, S,,) 1861  10,000
Total membership in Scotch Presbyterian Churches, * ,., 76,781
Total colored converts in slave States,,,,  465,000
Excess of colored members over Scotch Presbyterians,,, 388,219
On which side, now — Scotch Presbyterianism or slavery — do
we find the Gospel most fatally hindered in its progress ? On the
side of the former, the converts have been raised, in thirty years,
from about 25,000 to 76,700 : on that of the latter, from 140,000
to 465,000 !
And, notwithstanding these results, the whole of these denom-

* Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 1861.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESBYTERIANS AND SLAVERY. 243
inations are still pressing their old theories upon public attention,
with as much zeal as though the Gospel had been utterly excluded
from the slave States, and not a child of Africa had been brought
to a knowledge of the Saviour !
Section XI. — Contrast of the Success of the General
Assembly Presbyterians, yrvsn that of the Missionaries in
the Southern Slave States.
The preceding section presents very strange results, indeed, as
compared with what the Northern actors in the abolition drama
expected to accomplish. The General Assembly Presbyterian
Church was also much agitated by the abolition movement. Those
who troubled her held the prevailing abolition theory, that slavery
and the Gospel are incompatible ; and continued to press the ques
tion upon the attention of both General Assemblies, even up to
1861. In 1830, this Church was undivided, and had a membership of
173,329, as against 140,000 colored church members in the slave
States. In 1859, when the Church was divided into two General
Assemblies, the two bodies had a membership of 417,589, as against
453,000 colored members in the Churches in the slave States !
But, in this membership of the General Assemblies there is in
cluded, as elsewhere stated, a colored membership of 18,000 ; leav
ing the white membership of these two bodies somewhat less than
400,000, while the whole colored church members in the South
were, at that date, more than 450,000 !
Concluding Section. — The Christian character of the con
verts IN THE MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN, CONTRASTED WITH
THAT OF THE CONVERTED SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES.
In the earlier periods of African slavery in America, the utmost
latitude of opinion was allowable, in speculating about the moral
elevation of the slaves. But little was then known of the char
acter of the negro race, and still less of the laws governing the
progress of Christian missions among barbarous populations. The
deep moral degradation of the African, throughout the world, was
calculated to enlist the sympathies of Christian men. In project-

244 PULPIT POLITICS.
ing schemes for his relief, speculation had to supply the office of
fact ; and all Church legislation was merely a random venture to
ward a proper discharge of what was felt to be a moral duty — the
Christian instruction of the colored people. In relation to all that
was done, up to 1820, no man could then tell whether any other
measures, than those projected, were more likely to promote the
moral progress of the African race. As time rolled on, how
ever, light began to break in upon the darkness, and at the moment
when the abolition excitement began, say 1830, the developments
of Providence clearly indicated, to unprejudiced minds, the proper
policy to be pursued. Many parts of the North had become
crowded with free negroes, whose deep degradation had united the
public in an effort to transfer them to Africa. Freedom, without
the means of moral culture, had proved itself of no value to the
colored man ; while, on the contrary, slavery, accompanied by re
ligious instruction, had given the Methodist Church, alone, in
1830, a colored membership of nearly 70,000. Of these Chris
tian converts, only 1,280 were in the free States, outside of the
Philadelphia Conference. Thus, the Gospel had begun, fairly, to
show its power over the slave, and to demand of Christians a united
effort for their conversion. But, instead of obeying this unequiv
ocal call of Divine Providence, the Churches, almost with one
accord, suffered themselves to be led onward in efforts to secure
equal civil frights for the slaves, instead of engaging in the more
practical and useful work of preaching to them the Gospel, as a
means of their moral elevation.
As an apology for declining to cooperate in missions among the
slaves, it has been denied that the slave converts are entitled to
be considered as Christian, either in their intelligence, morality,
or piety. In replying to this, it is only necessary to say, that if
the colored members of the Church in the South are not to be
classified with Christian men, then the converts in our heathen
missions must also be denied a place in the Christian Church, as
the standard of Christian morality is fully as high in the former
as in the latter. It has been alleged, also, that the converts re
ported in the Southern Churches have been gathered, largely, by
negro preachers, who, on getting up excitements, proceeded to, en
roll all who offered, regardless of their having any just apprecia-

SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 245
tion of the nature of the step they were taking. But this is not
the mode in which the work has been accomplished. The laws, in
perhaps all the slave States, prohibit negro preaching, excepting
in some rare cases. The mission work is performed by white
ministers, and the same rules are observed in the admission of mem
bers, and in their after subjection to discipline, that prevail among
the white congregations of the respective denominations to which
the missionaries belong. Quite a large proportion of the colored
members, it must also be stated, belong to regularly organized
Churches of white people ; and are, in every respect, subjected to
the same rules which regulate the conduct of their white fellow-
professors. That they are inferior in general intelligence to the
white church members, will readily be admitted. But that they
stand fair as to piety and purity of moral character, we have
testimony from a source which is entitled to the confidence of
every abolitionist. The Anti-Slavery Standard, of a late date,
has the following in reference to this question :
" Mr. Edward L. Pierce, one of the Massachusetts soldiers who
served in the three months' campaign under Gen. Butler, contributes
to the November number of the Atlantic Monthly an interesting arti
cle on the ' Contrabands at Fortress Monroe.' Mr. Pierce was assigned
to the exclusive control and supervision of the negroes, directing the
hours of their labor and their rest, without interference from any one ;
and hence enjoyed peculiar facilities for observing their habits and
arriving at just conclusions in regard to their condition. He shows
us that the slaves are not imbruted savages, but an intelligent and
docile race, ' quite equal,' he says, ' to the mass of the Southern pop
ulation,' if not so thrifty and practical as the Yankees. We copy a
few passages from Mr, Pierce's excellent narrative :
" ' There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must
not be omitted, I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by
them during my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult
to make of any sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in our
army. Indeed, the greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain
a gentleman in the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which
no decent lips would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so
dogmatically pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models
for those who make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian
culture. Out of the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a

246 PULPIT POLITICS.
dozen were members of the Church, generally the Baptist. Although
without a pastor, they held religious meetings on the Sabbaths which
we passed in Hampton, which were attended by about sixty colored
persons and three hundred soldiers. The devotions were decorously
conducted, bating some loud shouting by one or two excitable brethren,
which the better sense of the rest could not suppress. Their prayers
and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a simplicity which is
not unfrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers behaved with
entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, as chil
dren of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer.' "
On perusing these statements, an anti-slavery clergyman re
marked, exultingly, that, if the negroes had made such progress
as this, they should be free. His view of the subject is of a piece
with much of the hasty generalization prevalent in reference to
slavery. But it by no means follows that because a people, rising
from barbarism, have become sober, orderly, and pious, under
slavery, that they are, therefore, prepared for the enjoyment of
independence. On this subject, the American Board is a compe
tent witness. Hear what it says in reference to its most prominent
mission :
" The Board can not be said to have completed the work of any
one of its missions, if this involve the idea of a native Christian
community able to stand alone. Yet several of the heathen commu
nities in which it has labored have been Christianized, in the popular
acceptation of that term. The Sandwich Islands have been thus
Christianized  The nation was composed of thieves, drunkards,
and debauches. The land was owned by the king and his chiefs, and
the people were slaves. Constitutions, laws, courts of justice, there
were none, and no conception of such things in the native mind.
Property, life, every thing was in the hands of arbitrary, irresponsible
chiefs, who filled the land with discord and oppression. But that peo
ple has become a Christian nation ; not civilized, in the modern accept
ation of the term ; not able, perhaps, to sustain itself unaided in any
one great department of national existence. Laws, institutions, civil
ization, the great compact of social and political life, are of slower
growth than Christianity. A nation may be Christian, while its intel
lect is but partially developed, and its municipal and civil institutions
are in their infancy. In this sense, the Hawaiian nation is a Christian
nation, and will abide the severest scrutiny by every appropriate test,"

SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 247
" But, SO much, indeed, was the blood of the nation polluted
by an impure commerce with the world, before our Christian mission,
that the people have a strong remaining tendency to licentiousness,
which the Gospel will scarcely remove till a more general necessity
exists for industry and remaining at home. The weakness of the nation
is here."* Nations are composed of individuals. As a " nation may be
Christian, while its intellect is but partially developed, and its
civil institutions are in their infancy :" so an individual may be
Christian, without possessing the necessary intelligence to make
him a safe member of civil society — a proper judge of the laws
necessary to its protection and progress. This, in the opinion of
the whites at the South, is precisely the condition of the Christian
converts among the blacks; and constitutes a reason why they
will not assent to emancipation.
In comparing the condition of the converts gathered into the
mission churches of the American Board, with the moral stand
ard prevailing among Church members in Christian countries, it
says :
" The fact undoubtedly is, that visible irregularities and disorders, and
even certain immoralities, are more to be expected in churches gath
ered from among the heathen, than in the churches of Christendom ;
and they are, at the same time, more consistent with grace in the
Church, than in countries that have long enjoyed the light and influ
ence of the Gospel  The popular sentiment at home is believed
to have required too much of the missions, A standard has been pre
scribed for their ultimate success, which renders their satisfactory ter
mination quite impossible, or at best throws it into the far, uncertain
future. The Christian religion has been identified, in the popular
conception of it, with a general diffusion of education, industry, civil
liberty, family government, and social order, and with the means of a
respectable livelihood and a well-ordered community. Hence our
idea of piety in native converts has generally involved the acquisition
and possession, to a great extent, of these blessings ; and our idea of
the propagation of the Gospel by means of missions is, to an equal
extent, the creation among heathen tribes and nations of a state of
* "Memorial Volume,'' pages 253, 254, to which the reader is referred for
details.

248 PULPIT POLITICS.
society such as we enjoy. And for this vast intellectual, moral, social
transformation we allow but a short time. We have expected the
first generation of converts, even among savages, to come pretty fully
into our fundamental ideas of morals, manners, political economy, so
cial organization, justice, equity, — although many of these are ideas
which old Christian communities have been ages in acquiring. If we
have discovered that converts under the torrid zone go half clothed,
are idle on a soil where a small amount of labor supplies their wants,
sometimes forget the apostle's cautions to his converts, ' not to lie one
to another,' and 'to steal no more,' in communities where the grossest
vice scarcely affects the reputation, and are slow to adopt our ideas of
the rights of man, we at once doubt the genuineness of their conver
sion, and the faithfulness of their missionary instructors." *
What are we to infer from all this, but that the standard among
the converts from heathenism, in the mission churches of the
American Board, is, in some respects, lower than we find it among
Church members at home ; and that it is not to be expected that
converts from heathenism should, in a single generation, attain a
position, in every respect, equal to that which the Churches in
Christian countries have gained after centuries of religious train
ing. But this admission of the Board is not intended to create
the impression that the converts in their missions are not true
Christians; nor is the admission that the slave converts are not,
in some respects, the equals of the white professors of religion,
intended as an admission that they are not true disciples of
Christ. The further admission of the Board is as important as it is
true : that laws, institutions, civilization, the great compact of so
cial and political life, are of slower growth than Christianity ; and
that, notwithstanding the Christian character of some of their mis
sions, the intellectual development made by the population is not
in proportion to their religious progress ; and that, therefore, they
are not prepared to stand alone, unsupported by the counsel and
control of a superior race. This is exactly the view entertained,
of the negro population of the South, by all considerate men. As
a race, not only in the South, but throughout the world, the blacks
have made no such advances beyond their original barbarism, as
* Memorial Volume, pages 250, 251.

SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED "WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 249
to be able to sustain civilized institutions without the direction
and control of the superior races. It is so in the West Indies
and Sierra Leone, where all civil affairs are under the control of
the British ; it is so in Liberia, where the American Colonization
Society still lends its friendly aid ; it is so everywhere ; and why-
should the opposite rule be demanded for the United States ? We
thank the American Board for its timely testimony in relation to
the workings of Christian missions among the barbarous races.
It gives encouragement to believe that our slave converts are not
behind their fellow-converts in heathen lands.
But it is urged, as an argument for emancipation, that the
means of religious progress are not adequately supplied to the
slave population of the South, The preaching of the Gospel, and
oral instruction in the Sabbath-schools — including the memorizing
of the Catechism and portions of Scripture — embrace about all the
means of instruction now publicly afforded to the slaves. Is this
plan of teaching sufficient to enlighten a people born in the midst
of a Christian civilization, where they have been uninfluenced by
pagan superstitions and idolatry ? Let us again refer to the Amer
ican Board for the results of their experience on this point :
" There has been a growth of experience and skill in the conduct
of missions during the past half century. It is indeed true that our
fathers, at the outset, gave the preeminence to the preaching of the
Gospel, in their theory of missions, as really as do their successors.
Thus they wrote as far back as the year 1813, and nothing stronger
can be said now; 'Important as the distribution of the Scriptures
among the heathen, in their own language, is held to be by us and by
the Christian public generally, it should never be forgotten that the
preaching of the Gospel, in every part of the earth, is indispensable to
the general conversion of mankind. Though the Scriptures alone
have, in many individual cases, been made the instrument of regener
ation, yet we have no account of any very extensive diffusion of Christ
ianity except where the truths of the Scriptures have been preached.
Were the heathen generally anxious to receive the Scriptures and to
learn divine truth, they would, like the Ethiopian eunuch, apply for
instruction to those who had been previously acquainted with the same
Scriptures, and, when asked if they understood what they had read,
would reply, ' How can we, except some man should guide us ? ' The
distribution of the Bible excites inquiry, and often leads those who

250 PULPIT POLITICS.
receive that precious book to attend public worship in the sanctuary.
But the preaching of the Gospel is, after all, the grand means appointed
by Infinite Wisdom for the conversion and salvation of men. With
out this, the Scriptures, however liberally distributed, will have com
paratively little effect among any people, whether Pagan or nominally
Christian.' And again, in 1817: 'The translation and dispersion of
the Scriptures, and schools for the instruction of the young, are parts,
and necessary parts, of the great design. But it must never be for
gotten, or overlooked, that the command is, to ' preach the Gospel to
every creature,' and that the preaching of the word, however foolish
it may seem to men, is the grand mean appointed by the wisdom of
God for the saving conversion of the nations,'
" From this practical view of the work, taken by the Board at the
opening of its career, there has been no intentional departure, either
by the Prudential Committee or by the missions. Schools and the
press have always been regarded as subordinate to preaching. When
agriculture and the mechanic arts have also been taught, as in the In
dian missions, and at first on the Sandwich Islands, it has been as a
subordinate means. At the same time, there has been a tendency in
the more important of the auxiliary influences to transcend their
proper limits. Book-making has sometimes acquired an undue promi
nence, especially in the early periods, when some brethren may have
found it easier to translate the Scriptures than to preach in a foreign
tongue, and when preaching yielded little apparent fruit, and schools
were easily multiplied, and tracts and books could be circulated to any
extent. In the chapter on the difficulties in obtaining the Board's
charter, it was seen how translating and circulating the Scriptures then
preponderated, in the public mind, over preaching as a means of con
verting the heathen,
" The subordinate agencies have been gradually falling into their
places, and it is reasonable to expect, under the lead of the Great
Captain, that the progress of the Gospel will be more rapid in the
second half-century than it has been in the first."
The remarks of the Board on this topic are quoted entire. The
preaching of the Gospel, in its opinion, is the grand means
appointed by Infinite Wisdom for the conversion and salvation of
men. Schools, the press, agriculture, mechanic arts, circulating
the Scriptures, are viewed as subordinate means. According to
this view — and its accuracy will not be denied — the slave popu
lation are in the enjoyment of the grand means appointed for

SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 251
the conversion and salvation of men. They have the Gospel
preached to them ; they also enjoy the subordinate means to a
limited extent; and are in constant training in the pursuits of
agriculture or the mechanic arts — a training essential to progress
in civilization. Upon the whole, their means of improvement are
fully equal to those possessed by the people of the primitive
churches, or their successors, down to the time of the discovery
of the art of printing, and the general diffusion of education by
common schools. If, then, the slaves enjoy as great privileges as
the primitive Christians, and have supplied to them the grand
means necessary to success in modern missions, why should it be
thought a strange thing that they, also, should have accepted the
offered salvation, and been transformed, in the spirit of their minds,
into the divine image of Jesus, in knowledge, righteousness, and
true holiness.*
* Among the various arguments employed to prove the necessity of abolishing
slavery, there is one, remaining unnoticed, to which attention must be called.
The seeming slow progress of the Gospel, in heathen lands, is accounted for on
the principle that the missionaries belong to a country tolerating slavery; and
that, before success can be expected, slavery must be abolished in our country.
A speaker in a religious convention states the case as follows :
"We have a pure Gospel to send, but we disgrace it. If our Christianity
was in pure hands, it would be effective. But we have in bur land covetous
ness, drunkenness and slavery. They to whom we would send the Gospel hear
of these things, and they mock us." *
During the same meeting another speaker said ;
" There are three millions of human beings in bondage in this land to whom
the word of God can not be preached. Our fearful complicity in this giant
wrong is one great reason why God has made the heavens as iron and the
earth as brass." t
Strange, that these reverend gentlemen should be so illy informed, or rather
that they should allow their prejudices to mislead them so egregiously.
What! Slavery now an obstacle to foreign missions, when it presented no
barrier in the days of the Apostles and their successors ! The ministers of the
Gospel at this day, must not be allowed to shield their own inefficiency by any
such plea. Rome had sixty millions of slaves at the dawn of the Christian
Era; and yet the Gospel spread abroad with great rapidity. It is not the
* Address of Rev. J. B. Johnson, before the Convention of the Scottish American Presbyterian
Churches, Xenia, Ohio, March, 1857.
t Bev. B. A. Brown.

252 PULPIT POLITICS.
That the standard of Christian character among the converted
slaves, is as high as that of the converts in the foreign missions,
can not be doubted when the circumstances are considered in
which the two classes are placed — the one growing up amidst the
elevating maxims of Christian civilization, the other under the
debasing customs of heathenism. The reasons offered for ignor
ing the missionary labors among the slaves at the South, on ac
count of any existing imperfections among the Christian converts,
will apply with equal force to missions among the heathen. If
the one should be abandoned on account of inefficiency, the other
should no longer be prosecuted, for the reason of their more lim
ited success. But if both have been successful, as is true beyond
all doubt, then the prayers and contributions of Christians should
not be withheld in behalf of the one any more than of the other.
A word as to the difference in the success of the Gospel among
our slave population, as compared with the heathen populations
addressed by our foreign missionaries. Isaac Taylor, as previous
ly quoted, states, that —
" Christianity at first went wherever a preparation had been made
for its reception by the scattering and settlement of the Jewish race,
and by the preexistent diffusion of the Scriptures of the Old Testa
ment, in the Greek language. Within these limits the Gospel seated
itself, and there it held its position with more or less of continuity ;
and beyond the same limits it was, indeed, carried forth, and it won
its triumphs ; but soon it lost its hold ; soon it retreated, and disap
peared, leaving only some scattered and scarcely appreciable frag
ments on its spots, to denote the course it had taken."*
It is a point of great interest to know why it was that Chris-
abolition of slavery that is so much needed, as a ministry imbued with the
spirit of the Apostles — a ministry that will give heed to teaching the Word,
instead of preaching politics. But the assertion that slavery is a barrier to
the progress of the Gospel in heathen countries, is not more strange than the
declaration that the Gospel can not be preached to the three millions of slaves
in the Southern Stales! We scarcely know how to view such declarations as
we have here quoted. These speakers did not intend to tell untruths, or pre
sent false deductions from historical facts; and, yet, that they did so, is abund
antly evident from the testimony that has been produced. It is from such
careless, such criminal conduct, that the public have been misled,
* Isaac Taylor's Wesley and Methodism, page 293.

SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS, 253
tianity failed in establishing itself permanently, excepting where
the Jews and the translations of the Hebrew Scriptures had im
parted to the population some knowledge of the true God, An
editorial in a religious paper, under charge of the professors in
an eminent theological seminary, says, that one-half of the con
verts in the Roman Empire were slaves ; * and this statement
coincides with the opinions of the historian Gibbon, Many of
these slaves, doubtless, had been brought from the surrounding
nations, where Christianity afterward failed to maintain a foot
hold, t Why was it that those who were captives in Rome, so
much more readily received the Gospel, than those of their coun
trymen who had not been enslaved? It can only be accounted
for on the principle, that their residence in Rome was a means of
bringing them under the influence of the teachings which had pre
pared both Jews and Romans for the reception of the Gospel, In
this result we have a very significant fact ; and one that is ap
plicable to the slave population of the United States, It enables
us to answer, intelligibly, the question, why there should have
been nearly double the number of converts in the slave States,
from the ranks of tbe African race, that there are in all the mis
sions of Protestant Christendom established throughout the heathen
world. The Africans under American slavery, like the captives
in Rome, have had a preparation for the reception of the Gospel,
in consequence of their contact with a people possessing a knowl
edge of the true God, and of the way of salvation through faith
in his Son.
But this lesson from Roman history, confirmed by the results
under American slavery, has still more important bearing, as
affecting the question of the conversion of the world. Our mis-
* Christian Herald and Presbyterian Recorder, Cincinnati and Chicago.
t We have recently seen a statement, made on the floor of Congress, that
Christianity entered Africa only where the Roman arms controlled the popula
tion; that there it greatly flourished as long as the Roman power prevailed;
but that, when Rome declined, and her power was no longer maintained iu
Africa, Christianity also declined, and finally disappeared. Rev. J. L. Wilson,
long a missionary in Africa, on the Gaboon, has expressed the opinion that the
great want of Africa, to render it accessible to the Gospel, is the establishment
of civil government. It would seem then that God puts honor on his own
ordinances — civil government and the Church,

254 PULPIT POLITICS.
sionary systems are doing for idolatrous nations a preparatory
work far more important than the Jews did'for Rome. The sacred
Scriptures, now complete, are being translated into the languages
of every nation under the sun ; and the day seems dawning when
the kingdom of Christ shall have universal dominion in the earth.
A comprehensive view of the agencies at work in the propaga
tion of Christianity, and the certainty of the results which must
follow the general circulation of the Scriptures and the preaching
of the Gospel, makes the heart of the Christian swell with emotions
too great for utterance, and should lead the man who would raise
a finger to obstruct its progress among any class of men, slave or
free, to doubt whether the love of Christ pervades his soul.

CHAPTER IV.

AFRICAN SLAVERY AND AFRICAN EMANCIPATION, IN THEIR EFFECTS,
RESPECTIVELY, UPON THE NATIONAL WELFARE OF THE CAU
CASIANS.
Thus far, mainly, the investigations have had reference to the
moral and religious effects produced upon the African race, in
their connection with the Caucasian, whether as bondmen or freed
men. The object in view would be imperfectly accomplished,
without an examination of the effects which the blacks, under
slavery, and emancipation, respectively, have had upon the eco
nomical and political welfare of the countries into which they have
been introduced. When this is done, it will afford a useful lesson
on the dangers of premature emancipation, and the hasty enfran
chisement of uncivilized men, upon the progress of civil liberty and
the safety of civil government.
Section I. — Effects of Emancipation in Brazil, Mexico,
AND THE South American Republics.
At the time of the prohibition of the slave trade by England
and the United States, Brazil belonged to Portugal, and the re
maining South American provinces and Mexico to Spain. The
most active period of the slave trade, as already shown, was that
which succeeded its prohibition, and that which foUowed West In
dia Emancipation. All the slaves exported westward from Africa,
during this epoch, were taken to the Spanish, Portuguese, and
French colonies of South America and the West India islands.
This gave them a very considerable African population — the slaves
of Brazil, in 1850, being equal in number to those of the United
States, and the number in the Spanish islands falling but little
short of one-third of that number. The French colonies, at the
(265)

256 PULPIT politics.
time of emancipation, in 1848, had a colored population of 416,755,
of whom 257,009 were slaves.
Now, what have been the results with these our neighbors?
Brazil has never emancipated her slaves. She remains a stahle,
progressive, and prosperous government, as compared with the
countries by which she is surrounded, although her slave popula
tion is double that of the white citizens.
Cuba, still belonging to Spain, has never emancipated its slaves,
but continues to augment their numbers by means of the slave
trade. Its productiveness is regularly on the increase, and its
economical prosperity unsurpassed by any equal extent of terri
tory in the world.
Mexico, in 1813, threw off the yoke of Spain, and declared
herself a Republic. But the attempt of Iturbide to restore a des
potism, raising up a race of military chieftains for his overthrow,
afterwards .produced a struggle for power, resulting, in 1824, in
the prohibition of the slave trade, and the adoption of a Constitu
tion declaring free all born after that date. Pedraza being elected
President, Santa Anna, at the head of the military, interposed,
and placed in the presidential chair the defeated candidate, Guer
rero, who — to strengthen himself, and the better to resist an inva
sion from Spain, then in process of execution — issued a decree,
September, 1829, emancipating all slaves.
Thus was liberty and equality at once secured to the blacks of
Mexico, and, under the law, the African, in a moment, made the
equal of the descendants of the proud Castillians who had con
quered Montezuma ; * and thus, also, was another instance of
emancipation effected under circumstances where it was required
by a political necessity, just as, in England, it was demanded
by a conjectural economical necessity. But in neither case was
the good of the black man the principal motive urged to give to
him his freedom — it being in the one case to secure troops to sus
tain a usurper, in the other with the belief that free labor would
be more profitable than slave labor.
And what have been the results of the Mexican expedient to
gain a political advantage, by placing the African on terms of
» See " Ethiopia," page 102.

EPPECTS OP EMANCIPATION IN BRAZIL, MEXICO, AC. 257
equality, side by side with the Caucasian ? Happily, the conse
quences have been depicted by a master hand, in the abolition
ranks. We refer to the late Judge Jay, who thus drew the pic
ture of Mexico to the life, in 1846 :
" The republic of Mexico had long been the prey of military chief
tains, who, in their struggle for power, and the perpetual revolutions
they had excited, had exhausted the resources of the country. With
out money, without credit, without a single frigate, without commerce,
without union, and with a feeble population of seven or eight millions,
composed chiefly of Indians and mixed breeds, scattered over immense
regions, and for the most part sunk in ignorance and sloth, Mexico
was certainly not a very formidable enemy to the United States." *
In addition. Judge Jay states that the exports from Mexico, in
1842, were, exclusive of gold and silver, only one million and a
half of dollars. It has increased but little since that period, owing
to its being torn and distracted by almost constant wars, and be
cause it has none of the elements of progress in its present state
of society.
Here, now, we have the results of the practical application, by
the Mexicans, of the doctrine that all men are created free and
equal ! Indians, negroes, whites, were all declared equal at the
ballot-box ; and scarcely a single President, elected by the popular
vote since that event occurred, has ever been able, for any con
siderable time, to maintain himself in his seat. Such has been
Mexican emancipation, and such its results !
The condition of the South American Republics is so nearly
like that of Mexico, that details in relation to the results of their
emancipation schemes may be spared. The portrait of Mexico,
with some slight modifications, may stand for the whole group ; and
its state of society may be inferred from the character of its pop
ulation. Mr. Jay states it as follows :
Whites  1,000,000
Mixed Breeds  2,009,509
Negroes  6,000
Indians  4,000,000
Total  7,016,509
* Jay's Review of the Mexican War.
17

258 PULPIT POLITICS.
The wisdom and foresight of the Fathers of the Republic of
the United States, averted such evils as have afflicted Mexico, by
not committing the folly of commingling barbarism and civiliza
tion, on equal terms, in the Constitution. Had they emancipated
the negroes, and, like Mexico, admitted both negroes and Indians
to citizenship, the United States, to-day, might have been little
better, in its moral and civil condition, than Mexico has been for
years. By the course which we adopted, the emigrants from Eu
rope, with their labor, skill, capital, and intelligence, flocked to our
shores, instead of to the milder climates of Mexico and South
America. Thus we were strengthened while they remaiiied weak
and distracted — the ignorance and degradation of their barbarous
population rendering it a suitable instrument, in the hands of am
bitious military adventurers, for the disturbance of the public peace.
Had the course of Mexico, toward her uncivilized population,
been productive of the greatest good to the cause of humanity, it
would afford a justification of her action. But no one familiar
with the facts will, for a moment, deny that the great body of
our slaves are better provided for, and have made more rapid
advances in civilization, than the mongrel breeds of Mexico ; and
yet, the Indians, mixed breeds, and negroes, have long been in the
possession of the privileges of citizenship in that Republic — have
long had all the rights which abolitionists claim for the slave,
without any of the blessings which, they insist, will necessarily
follow in the wake of emancipation.
Another remark or two may be useful here, in reference to the
subject of emancipation. Human freedom is the richest of bless
ings, where men are prepared for it ; but it may be productive of
serious evils when prematurely conferred. Take an example, in
another relation of life : the inheritance of wealth is a boon that
may bring lasting happiness ; but the law wisely forbids its trans
fer to the heir, until he has attained an age when it is supposed
he must be capable of using it prudently. The negro and Indian
races are to be considered as minors in their relations to the free
dom guarantied in civilized society, and the great mass of them, at
present, and most likely for ages to come, as wholly incapable of
using it safely. The time may come when it will be otherwise ; but,
till then, the prudent Christian will not be in haste to disturb existing

EFFECTS OF EJIANCIPATION IN HAYTI. 259
relations. Dr. Livingstone, who has enjoyed the very best op
portunities for studying the condition of African society, recom
mends this course of policy to the British nation, in its efforts to
promote cotton culture in Africa. Slavery there is general, and
must be let alone, if increased cultivation be desired, * The peo
ple of Britain, after immense sacrifices in the cause of African
freedom, are now forced to acquiesce in this policy. This point
will be referred to again.
Section n, — Effects of Emancipation in the Island op
Hayti, In Hayti, the negroes found themselves freemen, before they
were prepared to profit by the change. It is not claimed that
they would have been better in slavery. Their masters had done
nothing for their moral advancement ; and a thousand years, under
such treatment as they had endured, would have still found them
savage. But freedom to savage Africans, like the freedom of the
savage Indians, does not, necessarily, become an element of pro
gress in civilization. We have a proof of this in the economical
results of Haytien emancipation. We are aware, however, that
too much importance may be attached to the production of wealth,
as indicating an increasing civilization ; and, yet, it is the best
evidence the world can have on that subject. Abolitionists readily
avail themselves of it as an argument for emancipation, when the
statistics are supposed to be on their side. But while increasing
production certainly shows that intelligence guides cultivation,
the subordinate operatives may be acquiring intelligence in no
greater degree than the mules they drive. Such was, in general,
the slavery of the British West Indies ; and such is now, specially,
the slavery of Cuba and Brazil. The truth is, that increasing
ability to export the products of slave labor, is no proof that the
slaves, themselves, are advancing in civilization. It only shows
that the ruling class, by judicious management, are making slave
labor a profitable system. On the other hand, where a free peo
ple, who are the owners of the soil, are, from year to year, aug-
* The Doctor suggests that to make labor effective, the present condition of
society must be left undisturbed.

260 PULPIT politics.
menting the amount of their exports and imports, or increasing
their manufacturing as well as their agricultural industry, it is
proof positive that they are advancing in civilization. But where
a community of free people, for a long series of years, fail to in
crease the amount of their exports, and do not manufacture their
own fabrics and implements, it is evident that they lack ordinary
industry and energy and can not be progressing in civilization.
And further : where a country has once shown itself as possessing
extensive sources of wealth, and then suddenly loses nearly all its
capacity for production, without any diminution in the fertility
of its soil, the cause of the decline must be sought for in the
changed condition of the people.
Hayti furnishes an illustration of the correctness of the pre
ceding observations. That island was exceedingly productive
before emancipation ; but its productions were the fruits of com
pulsory labor, under the control of superior intelligence. Its ex
ports, then, were very large — being equal to three-fifths of the
produce of all the French West India colonies. They amounted,
in value, to more than $50,000,000; and the island, in return,
consumed, of French manufactures, more than $49,430,000,*
This statement has reference, only, to the French part of the
island, which, in 1789, had a population of 30,826 whites, 27,548
free colored persons, -j- and 480,000 slaves employed in agriculture.
The Spanish part of the island employed only 15,000 slaves in
agriculture, %
" The political troubles of Hayti began in 1790, between the mulat
toes and whites, the slaves remaining industrious, quiet, and orderly.
But in August, 1792, the slaves joined in the rebellion, and the mas
sacre of the whites commenced. The most dreadful scenes of cruelty
and bloodshed continued to be enacted until 1801, when a constitution
was adopted, and the island, under the name of Hayti, formally pro
claimed an independent neutral power. § At the close of this year,
Bonaparte made an effort to reconquer the island, and, in order to
* Blackwood's Magazine, 1848, page 6.
t Westminster Review, 1850, page 261.
X Macgregor, page 1152.
§ St. Domingo was the the name by whioh the island was known previous to
this date.

effects of emancipation in hayti. 261
succeed, the French General, Le Clerc, first attempted to restore the
planters to their former authority over the negroes, many of whom,
in the preceding struggles, had been granted their freedom ; but, fail
ing in this, he was forced, as a last resort, on the 25th of April, 1802,
to ' proclaim liberty and equality to all the inhabitants, without regard
to color.' The Haytien chieftains, Touissant, Dessalines, Christophe,
etc.; being immediately deserted by the blacks, were forced to submit,
and the French sovereignty was again recognized throughout Hayti,
As a first step to deprive the people of their efficient leaders, Le Clero
seized Touissant and his family, in the night, about the middle of
May, and hurried them on board a vessel, which sailed immediately
for France. * This act of perfidy at once aroused the population to
resistance ; and the French, after a loss of 40,000 men by disease
and war, and being menaced by a British fleet, were compelled to
capitulate, November, 1803, and, with a remnant of the army, of only
8,000 men, beg leave to depart from the island. Dessalines now as
sumed the authority, and a general massacre of the remaining French
inhabitants took place." f
The intellect of the island had disappeared amidst the savage
butcheries that occurred, and with it the capacity of the popula
tion for productive industry, J Look at the facts as presented in

* Confined to a loathsome dungeon, he died the next year.
t See Life of Benjamin Lundy, aud also Macgregor, as condensed in " Ethi
opia.'' X The loss of Hayti to France subjected Napoleon to the necessity of furnishing
a supply of sugar for the nation. The cultivation of the beet-root was encour
aged, and by this means, together with the increased production of cane sugar
in the other French islands, the supply was kept up. In 1848, the consump
tion of sugar in France, of all kinds, was 290,000,000 lbs.; of which 140,000,-
000 lbs . were of beet-root sugar produced at home. The emancipation of the
slaves in the French islands took place in 1848. In 1840, they produced of
cane sugar, 161,500,000 lbs. For the first nine months of 1847, the year pre
ceding emancipation, they supplied 168,884,177 lbs., showing a continuous
increase under slavery ; but no sooner had emancipation fairly been inaugura
ted, than, as was the case in the British West India islands, a decrease of cul
tivation followed, so that for the flrst nine months of 1849, they supplied only
96,929,336 lbs., being a falling off to the extent of 71,854,841 lbs. in the first
nine months of freedom. These results have thrown the French people more
and more upon the consumption of beet-root sugar, so that, with a heavy
duty on foreign sugars, they at present consume but very little slave-grown
sugar.

262

PULPIT POLITICS.

the relative amounts of the exports, before and after the freedom
of the island was secured : *

TEAKS.

SUQAK, LBS.

COFFEE, LBS.

COTTON, LBS.

EEMAEKS.

1789 

141,089,931163,318,810 18,634,112 6,443,765
3,790,3002,617,289 600,934
200,451 14,920 6,106
2,020
32,864 1,097
16,199 741
1,363

76,836,21968,161,180
43,420,27026,066,20029,240,91935,137,759
29,925,96124,235,372 33,802,837
44,269,084 36,034,30032,189,784
48,,S62,371 37,662,67230,846,400
49,820,241 7,889,092
46,126,272 34,114,717
1 33,600,000

7,004,2746,286,126
2,480,340 474,118 216,103 346,839
820,563 692,368
332,256
1,028,045 815,697
620,972
1,649,717
1,072,6651,013,171
1,636,420 922,576
1,591,454

Island tranquil.
Whites k mulatto's at war.
Slaves freed in 1793.
Boyer in power.
Exports for whole Island,
Republic declared.

1790 

1801 

1818 

1819 

1820 

1821 

1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1848 

The independence of Hayti dates from the year 1803. Its
population at this time was 348,000, J being 132,000 less than
the slave population in 1789. The preceding statistical table ex
hibits the effects of the freedom of the negroes upon the economi
cal interests of the island in a very suggestive form. The soil,
after the revolution, was owned by the blacks themselves, and it
had lost none of its fertility ; and, yet, the exports soon ran down,
in all the articles requiring constant labor, to nearly nothing.
Even coffee § which grows almost unaided, suffered an enormous
* Macgregor, London Edition, 1847. f Campbell Arnott & Co.
X Macgregor, page 1152. The history is given more at large in " Ethiopia."
J In remarking on the productions of Dominioana, Mr. Harris, in his " Sum
mer on the borders of the Carribeean Sea," explains why it is that the article
of Coffee is still exported to a considerable extent, while all other productions
have been almost entirely discontinued. " There is some Coffee, which grows
wild in abundance through the island and on the mountains, and is collected
and shipped. After the abandonment of the Coffee plantations, the trees con
tinued to grow thick on them, and finally spread into the woods and on to the
mountains, where they now grow wild in great quantities. Lacking the proper
culture, its quality is not the bast, but the climate and soil is capable of pro
ducing it unexcelled by any in Porto Rico or any of the West Indies or Brazil.
The writer is informed, however, that there are a few Coffee plantations under
culture about St Domingo City."

EFFECTS OP EMANCIPATION IN HAYTI. 263
diminution. The subsequent history of Hayti is interesting, as
illustrating the instability of its government :
" The reign of the first emperor, Dessalines, was short and turbulent,
and his designs against the mulattoes cost him his life. After the
death of Dessalines, 1807, General Christophe was made chief magis
trate, and, in 1811, crowned himself King Henry I. Meanwhile the
mulattoes, having cause to distrust him also, elected General Petion to
preside in the southwest, which he did to the entire satisfaction of his
constituents, by many of whom he is still affectionately remembered.
He died in 1818. Christophe shot himself in 1820. In 1822, Boyer,
who had been elected President in 1818, united the whole island
under his government."
The revolution of 1842, which caused Boyer to flee, placed
Reviere in the Presidency. Two years after, the Dominicans
overpowered Reviere, and in February, 1844, reestablished their
government, or rather the present government of Dominicana.
In 1849, Solouque, the President of Hayti, undertook to recon
quer Dominicana, but was defeated by General Santana, its Pres
ident. * The subsequent history of Hayti is familiar to the intel
ligent reader. After passing through the farcical scene, under
Solouque, of calling itself an empire, with an emperor wearing a
royal crown of a half million's value, it is once more revolutionized,
and declared a republic, under Geffard. The other portion of the
island, Dominicana, has recently been threatened by the Spanish
¦government, and may be permanently reannexed to that crown.
Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United
States to Hayti, was conducted, which transferred 8,000 free col
ored persons to that island ; but no good came of it, the moral
condition of the population being such, that the emigrants, unsus-
tained by the whites who sent them, soon sunk to the level of the
natives. The standard of morals and intelligence is very low, indeed, in
Hayti and Dominicana; but we shall omit the details of facts,
here, as not necessary to our purpose. In referring to the igno
rance and degradation of the population, we mean no disparage-
* These historical statements are mainly derived from a small work, by Mr.
J. Dennis Harris, Emigration Agent for Hayti, entitled "A Summer ou the
borders of the Carribeean Sea," I860. The author is a respectable colored man.

264 puLptr POLITICS.
ment of the African race, in the sense that the Haytiens are to be
censured for their ignorance. In Africa the race is barbarods.
Under the slavey of St. Domingo, no adequate provision existed
for their elevation. Freedom brought with it no institutions of
learning for the population in general. Their rulers have been
military despots — necessarily so; — and the youth, like their
fathers, have risen into manhood under circumstances that pre
cluded the possibility of progress.
From the best information possessed, it is safe to affirm, that
the slaves of the United States are greatly in advance, morally
and intellectually, of the free negro population of Hayti. * This
assertion will not be disputed ; and the fact is not stated to afford
an argument in behalf of slavery, but only to illustrate the truth
of the position taken by Franklin, that mere emancipation does
not necessarily elevate the negro in the scale of humanity.
Slavery and freedom are both alike in this respect, where no
means of intellectual and moral culture are provided. Conse
quently, there may 6e progress under slavery, while the intellect
may be at a dead stand-still under freedom. It is in this respect,
mainly, that the colored race in the United States have differed
so widely from their fellows in all other countries. Limited as the
means of improvement may be, which are afforded to the Ameri
can slave, they are very greatly superior to the advantages en
joyed by an equal niynber of the blacks in any other portions of
the world.
A word of explanation is needed in relation to the present
economical interests of Hayti. The amount of its exports, down
to 1848, are given on a preceding page. Its total foreign exports,
at present, are not accessible, but its traffic with the United States,
which is understood to be its principal market, for the year end
ing June 30, 1860, was as follows : The total value of imports
into the United States, from Hayti, was $2,062,723, of which
$1,679,657, was for 15,621,751 lbs, of coffee ; while the exports
to Hayti, from the United States, were, in value, $2,441,905, chiefly
provisions. The exports to Dominicana were only $156,054, and
the imports from it, $283,098.
*The term "Hayti," is used here to designate the whole Island of St, Do
mingo.

EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES, 265
The effects of emancipation upon Mexico, the South American
Republics, and Hayti, in retarding their progress, interrupting
their peace, and destroying their prosperity, can now be readily
understood by intelligent men. On this question there is no longer
any difference of opinion.
Section HI, — Effects op Emancipation in the British
West India Islands,
As regards the British West Indies, there is, however, consider
able difference of opinion, both in Europe and the United States,
in relation to the effects of emancipation, and many contradictory
statements have appeared. Generally, the subject has been argued
in reference to the economical interests involved — some insisting
that emancipation has been an economical failure ; others, that it
has been an economical success. The truth can only be discovered
by a careful examination of the leading facts, in the history of the
British West Indies, under both slavery and freedom. This we
shall proceed to do.
The subject necessarily divides itself into four parts : the pro
ductiveness of the islands previous to the suppression of the slave
trade in 1808 ; their productiveness from that date to the passage
of the emancipation act in 1833 ; their productiveness under the
apprenticeship system from 1834 to 1838 ; and their productive
ness under freedom from 1839 to the present date, as indicated by
the exports.
The statistics can not be obtained for the whole of the British
islands, for each one of these periods; for this reason, and because
it best represents the results of emancipation, the island of Ja
maica is taken. It is, by far, the largest of the whole group, and
has been unaffected by great density of population, or the intro
duction of coolie labor. Sugar being the principal production of
the island, the exports of that commodity alone are given. The
same degree of reduction occurred as to rum also, -which has always
been an important article of export. To save space, the average
exports for several years together, in most cases, are presented;
but in no instance are the figures so collated, as to give an erro
neous impression. The few years given separately were extraor
dinary ones, being either above or below the general average :

266

PULPIT politics.

Exports of Sugar from the Island of Jamaica. *

YEARS. POUNDS.
1772 to 1775  123,979,700
1788 to 1791  143,794,837
1793 to 1798  145,598,850
1799 to 1803  193,781,140
1804 alone  177,436,750
1805 alone  237,751,160
1806 alone  231,656,b50
1807 to 1808  197,963,825
1809 to 1810  180,963,825

TEAKS. POUNDS.
1811 alone  218,874,600
1812 to 1821  183,706,280
1822 to 1832  163,760,43]
1833 to 1835  131,129,100
1836 alone  75,9a0,950
1839 to 1843  67,924,800
1846 to 1848  67,539,200
1856 to 1868  46,466,592
1869 to 1860 

To comprehend the bearing of the foregoing statistics, it must
be borne in mind that the slave trade was prohibited in 1808, and
all supplies of labor from Africa suspended ; that in 1833 the
emancipation act was passed, leaving the negroes, after August
1st, 1834, in the condition of apprentices : and, finally, that
emancipation was fully effected in 1838, since which the cultiva
tion of the island has depended upon the labor of the negroes
alone — no coolies, to any effective extent, having been imported
into Jamaica by the planters. The island has thus been depend
ent upon the emancipated blacks for its cultivation, and has been
losing its ability to export, from year to year, until, in the three
years ending with 1858, its sugar exportation was reduced to an
annual average of 46,456,000 pounds, or more than 191,000,000
pounds less than what it was in 1805. The effect upon the pro
duction of cotton was equally disastrous — the exports of that arti
cle in 1800 being 17,000,000 pounds, and in 1840 but 427,000
pounds. Recently, however, a certain class of writers — while admitting
that the prosperity of the West India islands had been greatly
reduced for some time after emancipation — have represented
them as rapidly recovering from their depressed condition ; and
that they are now exporting a greater amount of products than
they had done while slavery prevailed. The American MissioN-
* These statistics, up to 1836, are taken from a table in Martin's British Col
onies, a work of great research, the facts of which are derived from official
sources. The exports for 1889 to 1843, and 1846 to 1848, are from the letters
of Mr. Bigelow, of the N. Y. Evening Post, in Littell's Living Age, 1850, No.
809, p. 125 ; and those from 1856 to 1858 are from the London Economist, July
16, 1859.

EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 267
ARY Association, in its report for 1857, gives currency to the
assertion that " they yield more produce than they ever did dur
ing the existence of slavery." Mr. C. Buxton, in the Edinburgh
Review, April, 1859, insists that —
Existing facts " show that slavery was bearing our colonies down to
ruin with awful speed ; that had it lasted but another half century,
they must have sunk beyond recovery. On the other hand, that now,
under freedom and free trade, they are growing day by day more rich
and prosperous ; with spreading trade, with improving agriculture, with
a more educated, industrious, and virtuous people ; while the comfort
of the quondam slaves is increased beyond the power of words to
portray. " Now all this seems very encouraging ; but how such language can
be used, without its being considered as flatly contradicting well-known
facts, and what the American Missionary Association, Mr. Bigelow,
and others, have heretofore said, will seem very mysterious to the
reader. And yet, the assertions quoted would seem to be proved, by
taking the aggregate production of the whole British West India
islands and Mauritius, * as the index to their commercial prosperity.
But if the islands be taken separately, and all the facts considered, a
widely different conclusion will be formed, by every candid man, than
that the improvement is due toHhe increased industry of the negroes.
On this subject the facts can be drawn from authorities which would
scorn to conceal the truth with the design of sustaining a theory of
the philanthropist. This question is placed in its true light by the
London Economist, July 16, 1859, in whioh it is shown that the appar
ent industrial advancement of the islands is due to the importation of
immigrants from India, China, and Africa by the ' coolie traffic,' and
not to the improved industry of the emancipated negroes. Says the
Economist :
" ' We find one of the Emigration Commissioners, Mr. Murdock, f
in an interesting memorandum on this subject, giving us the following
comparison between the islands which have been recently supplied
with immigrants, and those which have not :

I * Mauritius is not in the West Indies, as the maps will show, but in the Indian
Ocean. -f- The statement was made at a meeting which met to consider the evils of the
Chinese and coolie system of immigration into the West Indies and Mauritius.

268

PULPIT POLITICS.

ISLANDS.
Mauritius 

NVMEER OF Im-
MIGKANTS.

SOSAB, POUNDS.
The 3 Y£A£S
BEFORE Immi
gration.

svoab, povnds.
The last 3
Yeabs.

209,490 24,946 11,981

217,200,256 178,626,208 91,110,768

469,812,784 250,715,584 150,579,072

Britiah Guiana  

Trinidad 

" ' With these are contrasted the results in Jamaica, where there has
been very little immigration. In the three years after apprenticeship,
Jamaica produced 202,973,568 pounds of sugar, while in the last three
years corresponding to the last column of the above table, the pro
duction of sugar was only 139,369,776 pounds. '
" Here, now, is presented the key to the mystery overhanging the
British West Indies. Men, high in station, have asserted that West
India emancipation has been an economic success ; while others,
equally honorable, have maintained the opposite view. Both have
presented figures, averred to be true, that seemed to sustain their dec
larations. This apparent contradiction is thus explained. The first
ta,ke the aggregate production in the whole of the islands, which, they
say, exceeds that during the existence of slavery ; * the second take
the production in Jamaica alone, as representing the whole ; and thus
the startling fact appears, that the sugar crop of the last three years
in Jamaica, has fallen 63,603,000 pounds below what it was during the
first three years of freedom. This argues badly for the free negroes ;
but it must be the legitimate fruits of emancipation, as no exterior
force has been brought into that island to interfere, materially, with
its workings. In Mauritius, Trinidad, and British Guiana, it will be
seen that the production has greatly increased ; but from a very differ
ent cause than any improvement in the industry of the blacks who had
received their freedom — the increase in Mauritius having been more
than double what it had been when the production depended upon
them. The sugar crop, in this island, for the three years preceding
the introduction of immigrant labor, was but 217,200,000 pounds;
while, during the last three years, by the aid of 210,000 immigrants, it
has been run up to 469,812,000 pounds.
" Taking all these facts into consideration, it is apparent that West
India emancipation has been a failure, economically considered. The
production in Jamaica, where it has depended upon the labor of the

* They must refer to slavery in its later years, after the suppression of the
slave trade. Previous to that event, the production of Jamaica was more than
76 per cent, greater than at present.

EPPECTS OP EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES, 269
free blacks alone, has materially declined since the abandonment of
slavery, and is not so great now as it was during the first years of free
dom ; and, so far is it from being equal to what it was while slavery
prevailed, and especially while the slave trade was continued, that it
now falls short of the production of that period by an immense amount.
In no way, therefore, can it be claimed, that the cultivation of the
British West India islands is on the increase, except by resorting to
the pious fraud of crediting the products of the immigrant labor to
the account of emancipation — a resort to which no conscientious
Christian man will have recourse, even to sustain a philanthropic
theory." In confirmation of the statements here given, in relation to the
falling off in the productions of Jamaica, it is only necessary that
the declaration of the Colonial Minister should be given, as it ap
peared in the New York Tribune, and was thence transferred to
the American Missionary, February, 1859 :
" The Colonial Minister says : ' Jamaica is now the only important
sugar -producing colony which exports a considerably smaller quantity
of sugar than was exported in the time of slavery, while some guch
colonies, since the passage of the emancipation act, have largely in
creased their product.' "
But it is claimed that an exception exists in the island of Bar
badoes, the exports of which having been considerably increased
without the aid of coolie labor. As we shall elsewhere refer to this
point, it need only be remarked here, that that island is a small
one — 22 miles in length by 14 in breadth — and has been very
densely populated for the last hundred years. Its population now
numbers about 800 to the square mile, * When emancipation
came, the negroes had no waste land, like their brethren in Ja
maica, upon which to squat; but had to remain on the plantations,
as the only means of earning their bread, f
These investigations need not be prosecuted any further. Men
of intelligence will no longer claim that any miracle has occurred
in the British West Indies, to demonstrate the moral duty and eco
nomical advantages of emancipation. A people degraded like the
* " Cotton is King " gives full particulars on this point.
t London Economist.

270 PULPIT POLITICS.
blacks of these islands were when liberated, never have become
producers, in agriculture, to an extent much beyond the supply of
their absolute necessities. They have not done it in the United
States, in Canada, in Mexico, the South American Republics, or
Hayti. They never will do it as long as the world stands. They
must be educated before they can rise to the dignity of enlightened
freemen, capable, from their own voluntary industry, of supplying
a large surplus of products to commerce. Indeed, the apology
offered for the abolition of West India slavery, by prominent
British writers, is no longer based upon the economical benefits
resulting from that measure. The downward tendency of the pro
ductiveness of the islands, where negro labor alone is employed,
is fully admitted ; but the advantages of emancipation, it is now
claimed, exist in the fact that free labor can, at present, be intro
duced to an extent equaling the demands of the owners of estates
— a policy that was impracticable as long as slavery existed. The
free labor referred to, it is scarcely necessary to add, consists of
imported coolies ! As long as slavery prevailed, say these writers,
free, labor could not be introduced, because freemen could not labor
by the side of slaves — the control of the two classes requiring
widely different systems of management.
We repeat a previous remark. The domestic exports of a coun
try are not always to be taken as a true measure of the personal
comforts or moral progress of its population. This proposition
has been claimed as having an illustration in the West Indies.
While admitting the diminution of exports, it is asserted that the
comforts of a population are greatly enhanced by the consumption
of an increased amount of their own productions. On this ques
tion, however, some dispute has arisen. As the utmost fairness is
the author's aim, no other testimony, to any considerable extent,
than that of anti-slavery men, will be used on this point, nor shall
even that be extensively paraded.
Mr. Bigelow, of the New York Evening Post, spent a winter in
Jamaica, and became well acquainted with its condition and pros
pects. Since his return, he has still watched the progress of
events in the island with anxious solicitude. In reviewing the
returns published by the Jamaica House of Assembly, in 1853, in
reference to the ruinous decline in the agriculture of the island.

EPPECTS OP EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 271
and stating the enormous quantity of lands thrown out of cultiva
tion, since 1848, the Post said :
" This decline has been going on from year to year, daily becoming
more alarming, until at length the island has reached what would ap
pear to be the last profound of distress and misery,  when
thousands of people do not know, when they rise in the morning,
whence or in what4nanner they are to procure bread for the day."
The London Times, of about the same date, in speaking of the
results of emancipation in Jamaica, says :
" The negro has not acquired, with his freedom, any habits of indus
try or morality. His independence is but little better than that of an
unoaptured brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civiliza
tion, he is amenable to few of its necessities ; and the wants of his
nature are so easily satisfied, that at the current rate of wages, he is
called upon for nothing but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks,
therefore, instead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become
vagrants and squatters, and it is now apprehended that with the fail
ure of cultivation in the island will come the failure of its resources
for instructing or controlling its population. So imminent does this
consummation appear, that memorials have been signed by classes of
colonial society hitherto standing aloof from politics, and not only the
bench and the bar, but the bishop, clergy, and ministers of all denom
inations in the island, without exception, have recorded their convic
tion, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious and educational
institutions of the island must be abandoned, and the masses of the
population retrogade to barbarism."
The remedy for the existing evils, as proposed by prominent
British vvriters, is to force the free colored people into habits of
greater industry by the introduction of coolie labor. The London
Economist recently said :
" We have always been warm advocates of the Coolie immigration
into the West Indies. We are convinced that by no other plan can
the population of these fertile islands be increased up to the high-
pressure point at which alone Africans can be induced to labor hard.
Barbadoes is the only highly successful island among our West India
colonies, because Barbadoes is so fully peopled that the negroes are
compelled to work for their subsistence, and to work hard. Wo can

272 PULPIT POLITICS.
m
not lay too great stress, as Mr. Buxton wisely said, on the duty of
aiding the overflowing population of China and India to fill up the
vacuum in our West India colonies. We know now this can be done
without inhumanity and with the greatest advantage to both the coolie
and the English planter. And it is the part of common sense and
good judgment to do it as effectually as we have already done it in the
Mauritius, and as speedily as possible." *
This, then, is the remedy proposed for saving the British islanda
from the effects of emancipation. The negro will not work volun
tarily. The whip must no longer be applied to compel him to do
so ; but work he must, or British trade and commerce and British
revenues will suffer. Experience has suggested the remedy. The
negroes of Barbadoes " work hard," because where 800 men have
to gain a subsistence from the space of 640 acres of land, they
must work in earnest or starve ; and they must labor, too, accord
ing to some efficient system, devised by intelligence, or, even then,
a subsistence can not be gained from the soil. The proposition
is, that the other islands shall be rendered productive, as Barba
does was during the prevalence of the slave trade, by crowding
them with laborers. It is proposed that they, too, shall be over-
populated, so as to keep the inhabitants constantly at the starva
tion point ; and thus instead of prompting them to action, as under
slavery, by the " beneficent whip," to force them into industry, as
freemen, by the philanthropic application of hunger !
Such are the measures deemed necessary, by British writers, to
remedy the evils growing out of the benevolence of Great Britain
toward the African race ! She resolved that the negroes should
no longer be coerced into industrious habits, and now she is com
pelled to starve them to it, otherwise her own people at home
must be brought to suffering for want of the productions which
they can supply.
The injurious effects of African emancipation, upon the national
prosperity of the Caucasians, can now be comprehended.
* London Economist, 1861,

CHAPTER V,
WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION A TOTAL FAILURE IN ITS EXPECTED
RESULTS.
Section I. — General Condition of the British West India
Islands at this Moment.
Since the completion of the foregoing chapters, the work of
William G, Sewell, Esq,, — " The Ordeal of Free Labor in the
West Indies," — has been laid before us.* There had long been
much of mystery overhanging the free labor systems of the British
West Indies. Mr. Sewell has turned aside the vail more fully
than any other writer consulted, and has given the public a can
did statement of facts which came under his own observation.
But he looks at everything from the "free soil" and "free
labor " point of view ; so that, though he finds ruin overwhelm
ing the plahters, and many grievous evils existing among the
blacks, he yet claims that they are not the results of emancipa
tion, or if they are, that even death is preferable to slavery.
Beginning with Barbadoes, he says : " It must be borne in
mind, that, protected by her small area, and dense population —
a population larger to the square mile than that of China — Bar
badoes, since emancipation, has not suffered for the want of labor
like other colonies. To this cause more, perhaps, than to any
other, she owes her present wonderful prosperity."!
In another paragraph, the author explains the mode by which
the planters secure the labor of the free negroes :
"At the time of emancipation the slaves were left in possession of
their houses and allotment lands, which they continued to occupy after
* Mr. SeweU traveled in the West Indies as correspondent for the New York
1^me$. t Sewell, page 31,
18 (273)

274 PULPIT politics.
their term of apprenticeship had expired. In Barbadoes the tenant
worked for the landlord at twenty per cent, below the common market
rate, and his service was taken as an equivalent for rent. But the
practice produced endless difficulties and disagreements ; the law did
not bear out the planter, and another system was introduced. Under
the new practice, still in force, a laborer has a house and land allot
ment on an estate for which he pays a stipulated rent ; but he is under
an engagement besides, as a condition of renting, to give to the estate
a certain number of days' labor, at certain stipulated wages, varying
from one-sixth to one-third less than the market price. The rate of
wages for field labor, in Barbadoes, is about twenty-four cents per day ;
but the laborer, fettered by the system of tenancy-at-will, is compelled
to work for his landlord at twenty cents per day. He is, therefore, vir
tually a slave ; for if he resists the conditions of his bond, he is ejected by
summary process, and loses the profit he hoped to reap on his little stock,"*
But why should freemen submit to such exactions ? The reason
is explained in a subsequent paragraph :
" I must again repeat that Barbadoes offers a solitary exception to
the general argument. The population here, as I have said, is extremely
dense, averaging eight hundred persons to the square mile, and partly
from an aversion of the negro to leave his home, partly from his fear,
still easily excited, of being sold into slavery, no material emigration
from the island has ever taken place. In Barbadoes, therefore, labor
has been always abundant, and the island, which out of 106,000 acres
has 100,000 under cultivation, presents the appearance of a perfect
garden. Land, as I shall hereafter show, averages $500 an acre ; and
when it is added that the land which brings such a price is purchased
for agricultural purposes only, we have, in the fact, conclusive evidence
of most remarkable prosperity. All this, practically considered, is
owing, in a greater degree, to an adequate laboring population, than to
the special benefits of abolition, as illustrated in an anti-slavery society's
annual report. But no credit is due to the Barbadian plantocracy for
retaining that adequate laboring population in their employ. To the
latter it was the option of work at low wages, and on most illiberal
terms, or starvation."^
Again, on this point, Mr, Sewell says : " Barbadoes is so thickly
inhabited that work or starvation is the only choice." J And again,
* Sewell, page 31. t Ibid., page 33. X Itid-, page 106. ,

economical failure op west INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 275
in contrasting the free negroes of Jamaica with those, of Barba
does, he says : " I do maintain, without any hesitation, that the
Creole of Jamaica works as diligently as the Creole of Barbadoes ;
but with this difference — that the former works for himself, while
the latter works only for a master — that the work of the one is
more profitable because it is well-directed and economized, while
the work of the other is less profitable because it is ill-directed
and wasted."*
From these statements, there is no escaping the conclusion,
that emancipation, while giving a nominal freedom to the blacks,
has really left the population almost as much in the power of the
planter as it was under slavery. And, yet, after saying all that
has been quoted, when, in another place, the author comes to
compare Cuba, Jamaica, and Barbadoes, he says ;
" Barbadoes offers the most perfect example of free labor, and of the
capacity and willingness of the African to work under a free system. "f
, . . , " Now Barbadoes is a living proof that the negroes do work
under a free system. "J ..." The doctrine of emancipation, that
free labor is cheaper than slave labor, is proved to demonstration, "§
Antigua, with 70,000 acres of land, of which 58,000 acres are
owned by large proprietors, was found by emancipation in a sim- >
ilar position, as regards density of population, with Barbadoes.
The planters in Antigua dictate the terms of labor, like those of
Barbadoes, and pay even less wages than those of the former
island. " In Antigua, a field laborer scarcely earns, on an aver
age, twenty cents per diem ; in Barbadoes, he earns from twenty-
two to twenty -five cents ; and in Trinidad, he earns thirty cents." ||
The present population of Barbadoes is estimated at 140,000.*[[
Sugar is the principal production. Its exports, for a series of
years, are given thus :**
1720 to 1800, annual average  '.  23,000 hhds.
1800 to 1830, " "  20,000 "
1836 to 1860, " "  26,000 "
1861 to 1858, " " ¦  43,000 "
* Sewell, page 273. t Ibid., p, 272, X Ibid., p. 273.
? Ibid., p. 273. !| Ibid., page 146. H Ibid., p. 60,
** Ibid., pp. 62-3. iVofe.— Prom 1826 to 1830, the average weight of a hogshead
was 12cwt.; from 1830 to isso, 14owt.; and is now from 15 to 16, and even 17 cwt.

276 PULPIT POLITICS.
In 1858, alone, the exports were 50,778 hhds., being the larg
est crop ever produced in the island, and more than twice as
much as the annual average exports from 1800 to 1830, during
most of which time the slave trade was forbidden and hence, no
supply of labor obtained from that source. From 1720 to 1808,
the slave trade prevailed, and the exports, consequently, were
larger. This was the result in all the islands — a diminution of
production following the suppression of the slave trade. In Bar
badoes and Antigua, alone, has any increased production, to any
considerable extent, followed emancipation. In these islands
only, the overcrowded state of the population leaves the labor
ers under the necessity of submitting to starvation or engaging
in work for the planters. For this reason these two islands are
naturally grouped together in these investigations, Barbadoes
being the larger island, and its crowded condition having en
abled it to export more sugar under freedom than under slavery,
it has been cited as a triumphant proof that free labor is more
productive than slave labor; and many, without examination,
have accepted the fact as the grandest truth of the nineteenth
century. But let us see what will become of this boasting about the
superiority of free labor, by "contrasting its productiveness with
that of the slave labor in the United States. The exports of
Barbadoes, given above, begin with 1720 and end with 1858.
Sugar is the principal article of growth in barbadoes, and cot
ton in the United States. The home consumption of each may
be left out of view, and the exports alone given in contrast.
Cotton, however, was not an article of regular export until 1791.
We must commence, therefore, with that date, and take it at
regular intervals of ten years to the present date — except as to
additions of a year or two as explanatory. The amounts are
given in pounds :

TEAB. 1791  189,316
1800  17,789,803
1810  ,  93,900,000
1820  127,800,000
1830  298,469,102

YEAR,1840  :  743,941,061
1849  1,026,602,269
1860  » 636,381,604
1859  1,372,756,006
1860  1,767,686,339

• The crop of 1850 waa a (hort one,

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 277
The contrast between the rate of increase here and in the sugar
statistics of Barbadoes, must put an end to all boasting. Here
the reader sees what can be done by a slave population, well fed,
well housed, and with proper medical attendance. The slave
trade furnishes no aid here, nor has Coolie labor lent a hand, and
yet the increase is enormous. It will not do any longer to
attempt to impose upon an intelligent public the oft-repeated
tale — as applicable to the negro race — that free labor is more
productive, than slave labor. The negro question can not at
present be argued on that principle ; and it never should have
been placed upon that ground.
From the industrial we turn to the moral condition of the
island. On this subject, Mr. Sewell presents a horrible picture
of degradation :
" I can not speak as highly of the morality of the laboring popula
tion of Barbadoes as I can of their industry. The clergy may publish
church and school statistics, which, I admit, go to show that scholars
and churchmen multiply. But statistics on such subjects are not of
much importance when they run counter to common every-day expe
rience. To prove that the vicious put on a religious demeanor with
their Sunday coat, and will listen patiently to a tedious, incomprehen
sible sermon, only makes the case worse. It is shown that since eman
cipation the higher crimes are less frequently committed than they were
before. Crimes of violence are almost unknown, and in the streets,
thanks to efficient police regulations, the most perfect order is preserved ;
but crimes of calculation, thieving, swindling, and the minor vices, have
apparently increased. I speak from prison statistics; and it must be
borne in mind that over a large number, if not all, of these offenses the
planter formerly had exclusive jurisdiction, and they were never known
beyond the precincts of his own estate. It is, therefore, unfair to make
any deductions from the criminal records of the present day, and com
pare them with those of the past, when no just comparison can be insti
tuted. But I have seen exhibitions of unrestrained passion, of cruelty,
and of vice, to which, in a state of slavery, the negro would never be
permitted to give vent, I have seen parents beat their children in such
an inhuman manner as to make me feel that liberty to them was a curse
to all over whom they were allowed to exercise any authority or control.
I am speaking now of what is the rule rather than the exception among

278 PULPIT POLITICS.
the lowest class of the negro population. Among th-eir other vices,
immorality and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes are almost univer
sal. From the last census, it appears that more than half of the child
ren born in Barbadoes are illegitimate.*
"Against the middle class — as a class — the imputation of unfaith-
fhlness to the marriage vow could not be maintained ; but among the
laboring people, morality, not now through ignorance and compulsion,
but from choice, remains at the lowest ebb. I leave the reader to draw
what inference he pleases from such a state of things. I simply report
facts. But it seems to me that the moral grounds of the abolitionist
for removing the restrictions of slavery, are, in Barbadoes, at least, the
very worst that could be selected. Morality has not kept pace with
material progress. Making every allowance for the influence of cli
mate, there is still no palliation for such a superabundance of vice." f
On the subject of education, it is remarked : " Education in Barba
does is confined to those who have the means to pay for the luxury of
knowledge ; and though statistics show a marked progress since the
date of emancipation, it is rather the progress of a class than of the
whole population  But all the schools are under church influ
ence, and are necessarily imbued with church prejudices; and were
education on such a system much more extended than it really is, one
would scarcely look for any wholesome diffusion of popular instruc
tion."! In relation to social customs, it is said: " The distinctions of caste
are more strictly observed in Barbadoes than in any other British West
India colony. No person, male or female, with the slightest taint of
African blood, is admitted to white society. No matter what the stand
ing of a father, his influence can not secure for his colored offspring
the social status that he himself occupies; and the rule is more rigidly
carried out among women than it is among men. The amalgamation
of the two races is, nevertheless, very general, and illicit intercourse is
sanctioned, or at least winked at, by a society which utterly condemns and
abhors a marriage between two people of different colors  The
amalgamation of the African and Anglo-Saxon, and the exclusiveness
of the latter, have thus combined to build up the half-castes, and make
them somewhat of a distinct people — a people neither African nor
European, but more properly West Indian. This class — the middle
* Sewell, p. 41. t Ibid, p^ 42, X Ibid., 42.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 279
class — is already very large and intelligent, and is rapidly increasing,
It is composed of small landed proprietors, of business men, clerks in
public and private establishments, editors, tradesmen, and mechanics."*
In addition to the exports of sugar from Barbadoes and Anti
gua, it is claimed that many minor productions are now exported
which were not cultivated during slavery ; and that, therefore,
the foreign goods consumed in the islands is a better index to the
actual prosperity and comfort of the population. Judged by this
rule, the follo-yving results are presented : " Turning now to the
imports of Barbadoes, I find that their average annual value,
from 1822 to 1832, was about £600,000 steriing. In 1845, the
imports amounted in value to £682,358 sterling ; and in 1856, to
£840,000, of which about £640,000 were consumed in the
islands." t
As no intimation is given of any re-exports having been made
in 1822 to 1832, of the foreign imported articles, we are at a loss
to know whether the whole of the importations of that date were
consumed in the islands ; if so, then the present consumption
is an increase of only £40,000 on that of the former period.
In Antigua, from 1822 to 1832, the average annual value of
imports was £130,000 sterling; and in 1858, £266,364— being
more than double its former imports. |
The educational progress of Antigua has been more favorable
than in Barbadoes. " It further appears that education has raised
the standard of morality in Antigua. Marriages are much more
frequent than they used to be, and concubinage is discounten
anced. The number of illegitimate births averages 53 per cent.
In some other islands, it exceeds 100 per cent." §
The middle and lower classes, in Antigua, are entirely excluded
from the polls by a high property qualification, thus leaving all
legislation exclusively in the hands of the whites. || The popu
lation of this island equals three hundred and eighteen to the
square mile.ff The black population, for twenty years past, has
diminished at the rate of a half per cent, per annum, although
* Sewell, p. 68. t Ibid., p. 63. X Ibid., p. 145.
§ Sewell, p. 143, II Ibid,, p. 150. IT Ibid., p. 152.

280 PULPIT POLITICS.
the island is remarkably healthy. The mortality is greater now
than in the days of slavery ; and the mortality is less on estates,
at present, than it is in the villages where the laborers reside on
their own lands.* In Barbadoes, the census returns are not very
satisfactory, but no material increase has taken place there since
emancipation ;f so, then, it would appear, that a decrease of
population is the law of freedom in the West Indies — the other
islands, mainly, as it will be seen, having also suffered a dimin
ution of population. This result, we are told, has arisen from
the fact, that " the life of a field laborer has been made so dis
tasteful to the peasant that the possession of half an acre, or the
most meager subsistence and independence, seem to him, in com
parison with estate service, the very acme of luxurious enjoy-
ment."J One fact must be noted here. The plantation labor required
of these blacks is, with a slight difference in wages, exactly what
the Coolie, in other islands, accepts as a munificent inheritance ;
and what Mr. Sewell, as we shall see, considers one of the most
beneficent schemes for the civilization of the Pagans of the East
Indies who may be transferred to the West Indies.
From all the facts before us, we must conclude, that emanci
pation, in Barbadoes and Antigua, has utterly failed in producing
the favorable results anticipated from that measure by the Eng
lish philanthropists. They never conceived it possible that,
under the freedom they were conferring, the black population
of these islands would be forced to labor for the planters or
starve, and that their condition, instead of being improved, would
be virtually that of slaves. Much less did they look to emanci
pation as resulting in a decrease of population, threatening the
ultimate extinction of the African race in the islands, and creat
ing a demand for the transfer of other laborers from abroad, to
prevent the estates from being rendered useless. Nothing at
all of this was anticipated, as will be evident by a perusal of the
book of the good Mr. Gurney, describing what he saw in the
West India Islands soon after emancipation. With the light of
time cast in full blaze upon the British scheme of abolition, no
* Sewell, pp. 154, 156, t Ibid., pp. 60, 61. X Ibid,, p. 154

ECWTOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 281
one can now read the book of Mr. Gurney without marveling
how one so good could be so credulous.
But we must pass on to the other islands, and see how far they
meet or fail in meeting, British expectation, as to the results
of emancipation. And first, of the smaller British West India
Islands. In noticing this class of islands, the references will
be limited to the points of importance in the investigation on
hand. St. VracENT and her Grenadine dependencies, which, before
emancipation, exported, on an average, 25,000,000 lbs. sugar,
now export only 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 lbs.* The population
of St. Vincent, in 1831, amounted to 27,000, and now stands at
30,000.t This estimate is for 1859, so that, in twenty-eight years,
there has been an increase of population amounting to only 3,000,
or a little over one hundred per annum ; whereas, if the increase
had been equal to that of the slaves in the United States, it
would have been more than seven hundred a year, and the popu
lation now have been doubled. "There are now encouraging
prospects that, even in the cultivation of sugar, St. Vincent will
soon be restored to its former prosperity. The island has already
made preparations for the importation of Coolie labor."J The
cultivation and export of minor products has increased ; but the
imports of foreign products, as indicating increasing comforts in
living, are not given. "Out of a population of 30,000, there is
an average church-attendance of 8,000. There is little provision
for educational purposes, and no effort was made to enlighten
the people until 1857, when the legislature established a board
of education. In that year, the school-attendance was about
2,000."§ Grenada, which exported 22,000,000 lbs. of sugar before eman
cipation, now exports something less than half that amount, || The
decline, in Grenada, commenced as far back as 1776, " The total
population of Grenada is now about 33,000, an increase of three
or four thousand over the population of 1827,"^ " Grenada has
taken the lead of St, Vincent in the importation of Coolie la-
* Sewell, p. 75, t Ibid,, p, 79. X Ibid., p. 82,
i Sewell, p, 81, II Ibid., p, 75, T Ibid., p, 86,

282 PULPIT POLITICS.
borers."* In 1857, the imports amounted to £l09,000,t against
£78,000, £73,000, and £77,000, during the years immediately
preceding emancipation.^ " The average church-attendance
throughout the island was, jn 1857, over 8,000, against 7,000
before emancipation ; but the school-attendance is comparatively
small, being only 1,600. Education, among the Creoles of Gren
ada, has been, up to this time, at a very low ebb, for it has been
looked upon with jealousy and distrust."§ ....
Tobago, in 1819, had 15,470 registered slaves ; in 1832, there
were but 12,091, while the number, including non-effectives, for
whom compensation was claimed by Tobago proprietors, was only
10,500. The present estimated population is 15,674, of which
one hundred and sixty are whites. The production of sugar, in
this island, is now from three to four thousand hogsheads, against
seven thousand some twenty -five years ago.|| The average
church-attendance, in Tobago, is large, being forty-one per cent.
of the entire population. There is an average school-attendance
of 1,600.^
St, Lucia, in 1816, had 16,285 registered slaves, and in 1836,
the number was reduced to 13,291, The population is now 25,-
307, of whom nine hundred and fifty-eight are whites. The sugar
exports of St. Lucia, in 1857, amounted to 6,201,875 lbs. against
an average yearly export of from three to five millions before
emancipation. The Metairee system prevails in this island, and
is productive of favorable resultsr— the profits of the production
being divided with the laborer, and tenancy-at-will being dis
pensed with.**
Dominica, prior to emancipation, had a population of 18,650,
and in 1844, the last census, it had 22,220 — there being included
in the number eight hundred and fifty whites. In 1858, this isl
and exported 6,262,841 lbs. sugar, against an annual average of
6,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. The total imports, in 1858,
were valued at £84,906, against an average of £62,000 for five
» Sewell, p. 89.
t Mr. Sewell's book has it marked $, which must be an error.
X Sewell, p, 89, § Ibid., p. 87. || Ibid,, p, 90.
Hlbid,, p, 91, ** Ibid,, pp, 92, 93,

ECONOMICAL PAILUBB OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 283
years preceding emancipation. About 2,600 children, on an
average, receive instruction in the different schools,*
Nevis, in 1830, had a population of 9,250, and has now 9,570.
In 1858, this island exported 4,400,-000 lbs. of sugar, against an
annual average of 5,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. More than
two-thirds of the population, between the ages of five and fifteen,
are receiving instruction. f
MoNTSERRAT, at present, has a population of 7,033, being a
decrease of some 300 on the population of 1828. The exports
of sugar from this island, in 1858, were 1,308,720 lbs., against
an annual average of 1,840,000 lbs. prior to emancipation.
" The value of imports, in 1858, was £17,844 ; and between this
figure and the average value of imports before emancipation,
there appears to be no marked variance." J
St. Kitts, according to the census of 1858, has a population
of 20,741 ; and seems to have decreased nearly 3,000 since 1830.
In 1858, this island exported 9,853,309 lbs. of sugar, against an
annual average of 12,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. There
are 2,704 scholars receiving instruction in the schools. §
The British Virgin Islands have a population of 5,053 per
sons ; but the statistics of their former numbers are not given.
Most of them are rocky islets, unsuited to cultivation. Tortola
is their capital. The islands annually export stock, sheep and
goats, lime, charcoal, salt, vegetables, some five or six thousand
pounds of cotton, and about two hundred thousand pounds of
sugar. The vessels that visit these islands are of inferior ton
nage, and their principal trade is with St. Thomas.
The foregoing statements include the number of the popula
tion, the amount of exports, and the amount of imports, as far
as given, for the several islands named, together with the church
and school-attendance, wherever it is given by Mr. Sewell. The
following tabular statement of the exports and the population of
the several islands, before and after emancipation, places the
figures in contrast, and affords a true idea of the facts. The
highest estimates of Mr. Sewell are taken, and the islands only
included which are complete in their statistics :
» Sewell, p. 161, t Ibid., p. 162, X Ibid, pp, 162, 163, § Ibid,, p, 163,

284

PULPIT POLITICS.

islajtos.

EXP'TS BEFORE
emahoipation.

peesest
EXFOBTS.

population
befobe fmanc.

PftESENT
populatiob.

St, Vincents, etc  lbs.
Grenada  ...lbs,
St. Lucia  lbs.

25,000,00022,000,000 5,000,0006.000,000
6,000,0001,840,000
12,000,000

17,000,000
11,000,000 6,261,875
6,262,841
4,400,000 1,308,720
9,883,309

27,00029,000

30,00033,000

18,650 9,2507,333
23,700

22,220 9,5707,033
20,741

Nevis  lbs.

Montserrat  lbs.
St, Kitts  lbs.

76,840,000

56,116,745

114,933

122,664

Another point needs examination here. The increased con
sumption of foreign imported goods is given by Mr, Sewell, as
indicating, ih dollars and cents, the increased comfort of the free
population at present, as compared with the deprivation to which,
while in slavery, it was subjected. The islands only are given
for which the statistics are complete. The recent imports are
for 1857 and 1858 :

ISLANDS.

Grenada, average 3 yrs..
Dominica, " 5 " ..
Nevis, " 10 " ..
Montserrat 

IMPORTS BEFORE
EMANCIP.

POPULAT'N BEFORE
EMANCIP.

$380,000 300,000 142,500 89,220

29,00018,650 9,250
10,000

IMPORTED COMFORTS
PEE HEAD ,

IMPORTS AT
PRESENT.

POPULA
TION AT
PRESENT.

IMPORTED COMFORTS
PER BEAD.

$13.10 16.08
15.40 8.92

.$646,000 422,630 183,505 89,220

33,000
22,220 9,5707,033

$16.51 19.0119.0612.68

Here, now, are the facts; The foreign imports into these
islands, immediately preceding emancipation — that is, during
the last years of slavery — equaled in value an average of $13,37
per head, for the whole population, white and black ; now, under
freedom and free labor, the imports have risen to $16,81 — being
an increase of barely $3,44 per head. That is to say, emancipa
tion has brought to each individual, providing an equal division
be made, the means of increasing his comforts yearly, beyond
what he enjoyed under slavery, to the extent of less than three
and a half dollars !
But, even this, small as it is, would be very encouraging as a
beginning, were it not for certain other existing facts. By refer
ring to the table of figures immediately preceding the last one, it
will be seen that there has been a decrease in the population of

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 285
Wo of them, and a very small increase in a third, while the other
three have fallen very far short of the ordinary rate of increase
in populations comfortably fed and housed. Taking this tendency
to decrease in the black population, and their probable consequent
extinction in the future, into account, and adding thereto the
wretchedly meager increase of their means of procuring comforts
under freedom, it is impossible to come to the conclusion that
emancipation, in these smaller islands, has been a success at all
approximating what was expected by the British people.
Mr. Sewell, however, comes to a different conclusion, viewing
the matter from his stand-point; and to this theory of his we
shall refer again. In the meantime, we shall proceed to another
of the British islands.
Trinidad, says Mr. Sewell,
" Has been surnamed the Indian Paradise, and as far as external
beauty may entitle it to pre-eminence, it is magnificently pre-eminent
in this Western Archipelago. . In point of size — containing over 2,000
square miles — Trinidad is the largest British West India island after
Jamaica ; and, in positional importance, from its proximity to the
Venezuelan coast, it is only second to Cuba  The whole
island, in its physical character, is one of the most beautiful that it
is possible to imagine  With only a present population of
70,000 or 80,000 souls, Trinidad can sustain a million.* Its soil is
of exceeding richness, and of the million and a quarter acres which
cover its surface, twenty-nine thirtieths are fit for cultivation. Its
resources are immense. Every product of the tropics, and many fruits
and vegetables of the temperate regions, can be grown here ; and a
laboring population is only wanted to develop the wealth that lies hid
den in forests tenanted still by some scattered representatives of the
ancient Carib. The island, as I shall hereafter show, is fast receiving
that laboring population ; and, since the immigration of Indian coolies
commenced, it has sprung from a condition of hopeless lethargy into
one of activity and life — an example and a guide to the other colonies.
Within the last few years, the extension of sugar cultivation has been
very great, and the improvement still goes on." f
It seems, then, that Trinidad, notwithstanding its great natural
* Some estimates place the population at 100,000, t Sewell, p, 101.

286 PULPIT POLITICS.
advantages, had sunk into a condition of " hopeless lethargy,"
under emancipation, and that it was only aroused into "activity
and life " by the introduction of coolie labor. But Mr. Sewell
must be allowed to describe its condition more fully :
"Cotton, coffee, and tobacco can all be cultivated in Trinidad; but
the first two could not, by any possibility, be made as profitable to the
planter as sugar, and the cultivation of the last is not encouraged."*
" There have been imported into the colony, during the last thirteen
years, about 18,000 Eastern laborers — principally coolies — a popula
tion which is fast giving to the island its only want, a laboring class, f
. . . . Trinidad, even under slavery, never had anything like an
adequate laboring population. Barbadoes is 'so thickly inhabited that
work or starvation is the laborer's only choice. In Trinidad, land is
exceedingly rich, plentiful, and cheap, while labor is scarce and extrav
agantly high ; J in Barbadoes, land is dear, and labor is comparatively
cheap. So that it is impossible to make the case of Barbadoes appli
cable, in any one particular, to Trinidad, or vice versd. The only sim
ilarity between the two islands is, that sugar forms the staple produc
tion of both; and that both have been successful, though . from very
different causes, under a free-labor system."
That is to say, Barbadoes secures to itself a plentiful supply
of labor, by making work or starvation the laborer's only choice ;
Trinidad secures to itself an increase of labor, not from the free
negroes of the island, but by the importation of coolies.
The island of Trinidad was originally settled by the Spanish,
and came into the possession of the English, by conquest, in 1797.
"The majority of the people of Trinidad are negroes and half-castes.
They include Creoles of this and other islands, brought here in the days
of slavery and since ; native Africans imported as free laborers from
Sierra Leone ; Africans taken from captured slavers ; and a few hund
red liberated slaves, who emigrated to this island, about sixteen years
ago, from the United States. Many of these people are nearly, and
some are perfectly white, and the census, probably from the fear of
giving offense, does not classify the population according to color. For
convenience sake, I shall speak of all the colored inhabitants of the

* Sewell, p. 101 t Ibid, 106. X The wages are 30 cents per day.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 287
island as Creoles of African descent. Their number, according to the
best information I can Obtain, is in the neighborhood of 50,000. On
looking back to the period immediately preceding emancipation, we
find the total number of slaves to have been 21,000, and the free col
ored about 16,000. Of the former class not more than 11,000 were
field laborers. To-day, the number of Trinidadian Creoles, attached
to sugar and cacao estates, is not more than 5,000."*
To remedy this defect in labor, and extricate themselves from
their difficulties, the planters encouraged inter-colonial immigra
tion, by giving bounties for every laborer brought by captains
of vessels to Trinidad. Immigrants were also obtained from the
United States and Africa. The total importation of negroes,
(including Creoles from other islands,) Africans, and Americans,
amounts to 20,000 ; and if they could have been retained, says
Mr. Sewell, " they, with the Creole laborers of Trinidad, would
have sufficed at least for immediate want. But many of them
returned home ; others bought land for themselves, or engaged
in trade, or as domestics ; and the remnant of this immigration,
and of the native Trinidad laboring force, now working on the
sugar and cacao properties, does not exceed 13,000 estate and
day laborers."t
Here we get some light to explain the causes operating to
produce- an increase of exports from Trinidad. Under slavery,
there were not more than 11,000 slaves employed as field laborers.
The coolies imported, during the last thirteen years, amount to
18,000, Add these to the 13,000 Trinidad laboring forces of all
classes, and it gives 31,000 at present, against 11,000 pi'evious
to emancipation — an increased laboring force of nearly two-
thirds !
With all this additional labor, the results are as follows : " Sta
tistics show conclusively that the increase is principally, if not
wholly, due to the importation of foreign labor, for it is only
since the importation was commenced in earnest that the im
provement is to be noticed. "J The exports, before and after the
introduction of coolies, stood thus, as given by Mr. Sewell :
» Sewell, pp, 107, 108, t Ibid,, pp, 117, 118, 119. J Ibid., p. 138.

288

PULPIT POLITICS.

BErOSK IMMIGRATION. , , ,
TEARS, hhds,
1842  :  20,506
1843  24,088
1844  21,800
1846  26,399

AFTER IMMIORATION, , , ,
TEARS. hhds,
1864  27,987
1855,  31,693
1856  34,411
1857  36,523
1858  37,000

" The highest average exportation before emancipation, during the
same number of years, was 25,000 hhds, of very inferior weight, not
equal to 20,000 hhds, of the present day,"*
The island, it must be remembered, only came into the pos
session of England eleven years before the prohibition of the
slave trade. In 1783, fourteen years previous to its capture by
Great Britain, it had a population of only 2,763, of whom 2,032
were Indians, In 1793, the population had increased to 17,718,
of whom 10,009 were slaves,f Trinidad, unlike the other British
West Indian islands, had not a sufficient slave-labor force to give
any great productiveness to the island before 1808, when the
prohibition of the slave trade prevented any further supply.
This will account for the inferiority of the exports of the island
under slavery, as compared with the other islands.
The necessity for continuous labor, in Trinidad, is thus ac
counted for by Mr. Sewell :
"Perhaps in no island was impending ruin, consequent upon eman
cipation, so glaring, so palpable, so apparently certain, as it was in
Trinidad after the liberation of the slaves. Unlike other Carribean
Islands, the seasons in Trinidad are purely tropical, divided into rainy
and dry. The latter only lasts five months, and if the planter has not
completed his crop operations by the 1st of June, his loss is certain
and irremediable. For this reason, steady labor in Trinidad, during
crop season, was and is of paramount importance, and the planters had
every reason to be alarmed that, in this island, above all others, the
effect of emancipation would be to deprive them of that continuous
labor with which they were so scantily supplied, , , . The labor
ers, as soon as they were free, asked, and for a time received, higher
wages than the planters, incumbered as their property was by debt,

• Sewell, pp, 138, 139,

t Ibid., p. 105,

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 289
could afford to pay ; and when this rate of wages was subsequently
reduced, the majority of the emancipated deserted the estates to better
their condition, and to seek a more independent livelihood 
Instead of endeavoring to promote a good understanding between them
selves and their laborers, the planters adopted, and still retain, in Trin
idad, the odious system of tenancy-at-will. The laborer who lives on
an estate is compelled to work for that estate, and no other, on peril
of summary ejection, with consequent loss of the crop which he has
raised on his little allotment. He is still in a position of virtual slav
ery, and it is a matter which can excite no surprise that, after eman
cipation, those who had the means to purchase parcels of ground, should
have preferred to leave the estates.* . . , They accordingly did
leave the estates ; and, in a few years after abolition, the majority of
the entire laboring force — itself always inadequate to the wants of the
large and rapidly developing colony — were lost to the proprietary.
Several estates, for want of necessary labor, were deserted, and, at one
time, it seemed probable that sugar cultivation, in Trinidad, would be
altogether abandoned."f
About 4,000 of the liberated Creoles remained on the cacao
estates, but very few of them on the sugar plantations. The
7,000 who left the estates, Mr, Sewell believes, have very mate
rially improved their condition — five-sixths of them having be
come proprietors of from one to ten acres, which they now own,
and which they grow in provisions for themselves and families^
To supply their other wants, they give casual labor to the estates,
especially in crop time, J Those who forsook the field for trade,
Mr, S, says, by joining themselves to the free Creoles of the
island, have formed an extensive class engaged in mercantile
and mechanical pursuits — from keeping a store down to selling
a sixpence worth of mangoes in the streets — and, by bringing up
their children to these callings, have given an excess of traders
and mechanics to the island. In several instances, great suc
cess has attended their efforts at money-making.§
Throughout all his remarks, Mr. Sewell is disposed to apolo-
* In another place, where a fuller statement is made, Mr. Sewell says that
a portion of the liberated slaves squatted on the public lands belonging to the
crown. 1" Sewell, p. 110. t Ibid., p. 111. § Ibid., p. 113,
19

290 PULPIT POLITICS.
gize for the free negro, and to defend him from the charge of
indolence — attributing the ruin of the island to the mismanage
ment of the planters, and not to emancipation. Here, however,
he makes a statement, explanatory, which relieves the planter
from the charge of being a hard task-master : " It is true that
the Trinidad planter exacts no rent from the laborer on his
estate, and supplies him with medical attendance ; but the la
borer, in return, is compelled to work for the estate alone, and
for five cents a day less than the current rate of wages. It may
be urged, with truth, that house-rent and medical attendance are
worth more than five cents a day; but for these privileges the
laborer is required to give up his independence, and I do not
think it natural that even the negro should, of his own free
choice, prefer the exchange."*
The industrious and intelligent laborer never imagines he has
lost his independence because his employer requires the fulfill
ment of his contracts. It is only the indolent who are restless
under voluntary engagements, and are disposed to break away
from regular industry to lead lives of desultory labor, for the
sake of independence. Judged by this rule, the negroes can not
take the first rank as laborers.
But, with their emancipation — with their release from the
shackles of slavery — with the liberty of going hither and thither
at will — with the enjoyment of the most unbounded freedom —
have the Trinidad negroes made any moral progress ? This is,
after all, the great question, and the one by which all human
measures must be tried. Liberty is of no value, if it secures not
the moral elevation of those upon whom it is conferred. On this
subject, Mr. Sewell says :
" The moral condition of the people whom I have thus briefly en
deavored to trace from the time of slavery down to the present day, has
not kept pace with their material prosperity ; and all I have said of Bar
badians, in a former chapter, under this particular head, may, with still
greater force, be applied to Trinidadians. The amalgamation of the
European and African races is even more general in Trinidad than in
• Sewell, p. 119,

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 291
Barbadoes ; and though marriage between whites and people of color
is not opposed here with anything like the feeling it meets with in
Barbadian society, yet I find, on examination, that, in Port-of-Spain,
the ratio of births is 100 legitimate to 136 illegitimate — an exhibition
of morality considerably below that of Havana  Taking
up the matter of crime, I find that the annual average of convicted
offenders, for the last five years, is, for felony, 63 ; for misdemeanor,
865; and for debt, 230; against a much lower average before emanci
pation  Trinidad; like all the other islands, is lamentably
behind the age in educational science ; and there is ample room to hope
that when knowledge becomes more general, crime will decrease. Edu
cational statistics do not show that there is any great eagerness, on the
part of the Creole population, to learn, or, on the part of their rulers,
to place the means of instruction within their reach. Before emanci
pation, the number of children attending public and private schools was
above a thousand ; last year, the average of children attending all the
schools and seminaries was considerably under three thousand, account
ing for little more than the natural increase of the population 
In regard to church statistics, I have no means of ascertaining the num
ber of persons who attend places of Divine worship in this island ; but
were they in my possession, I should not have much faith in them as an
evidence of the moral or religious tone of the community. To judge
from appearances, the Creole inhabitants of Port-of-Spain are even fonder
than Barbadians of showing off their Sunday garm,ents." *
Section II. — Some interesting Facts and Speculations in
REFERENCE TO THE INTRODUCTION OF COOLIES INTO THB WeST
Indies, But another subject demands attention, in connection with the
history of emancipation, and its disastrous results in Trinidad.
The workings of the coolie system of labor has been involved in
much obscurity, and contradictory accounts of its nature and
effects have prevailed. Mr. Sewell is very full on this question,
and offers arguments in favor of the system quite in harmony
with the reasons presented by American slaveholders for the
renewal of the slave-trade — its benefits as a civilizing agency.
•Sewell, pp. 114, 115, 116.

292 PULPIT POLITICS.
The reader will, doubtless, be interested in seeing what can be
said in favor of this system :
" The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrived in the harbor of the
Port-of-Spain in 1845, But the importation of Indian coolies was soon
substituted for that of China. The experiment remained for some time
doubtful  But now that it has been fairly and fully tested,
the advantages to the colony of this importation of Indian labor are
so thoroughly established that no one who visits Trinidad in 1859, after
having seen her in 1846, can hesitate to believe that, not only has the
island been saved from impending ruin, but a prospect of future pros
perity has been opened to her such as no British island in these seas
ever before enjoyed under any system, slave or free."*
It appears, from this statement, that the coolie system, in the
opinion of Mr. Sewell, is much more effective than either negro
free labor, or negro slave labor, and he expresses the hope that
it will be continued as a measure alike beneficial to the laborer
and his employer, and that the outcry against coolie immigration
will not be allowed to prevail ;t and why should 'it, as " it is
merely the removing of British subjects from one portion of the
empire to another, and where the prospects of the laborer are
infinitely better and brighter ?"J These coolies "are perfectly
free men and women, and, at their own option, leave the squalid
filth and misery in which they have been accustomed to live, on
a promise, guaranteed by government, of a free passage to the
West Indies, certain employment, and fair remuneration for their
services. . . . They live on the estates, rent free, in com
fortable cottages ; if sick, they receive medical attendance with
out charge ; and their wages are five times more than they could
earn at home."§ ..." The coolie works, on an average,
nineteen and a half days during the month, and receives $5.35."||
. . . . "I heard of a coolie, the other day, who returned,
after a residence in the island of ten or twelve years, with
$9,000;" 51 as this is more than six times the amount of his
wages, even at the highest rates, it would be interesting to know
how so much money came into his possession,
» Sewell, p. 120. t Ibid., p, 121. J Ibid., p, 122,
i Ibid., p. 123. II Ibid,, p. 127. If Ibid,, p, 125,

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 293
The terms upon which the coolies are employed may be learned
from the legislative enactments upon the subject.
"By a colonial ordinance, passed in 1854, the Indian immigrants
who have arrived subsequent to that period are only entitled to a free
return after a residence of ten years, , , . The 'indenture,' of
which I have spoken, is the contract of service into which the immi
grant enters with his employer, and may be general or specific in its
obligations, according to option. The immigrant is indentured for three
years. As soon as that period has expired, he can release himself from
any subsequent indenture, by paying fl.20 to the agent-general for
every month that may be wanting to complete his term. After the
immigrants have fulfilled the obligations to which they bound them
selves, they receive a certificate of what is called ' industrial residence,'
which empowers them to act as independently as they choose for the
future. . . . After they have fulfilled their terms of service, many
voluntarily renew their contracts."*
Mr, Sewell continues :
" The blessing of giving labor and life to the colony is scarcely equal to
the blessing that this immigration scheme has conferred upon the coolie
himself." . . . "A poor pagan, he is brought in contact with civ
ilization, and soon forgets and abandons the gross superstitions in which
he was wont to put his faith. Under this system of immigration more
might be done toward Christianizing and civilizing the people of India
in one year than has been done by all the missionaries that ever emi
grated to the East under the influence, of the most enthusiastic zeal.
The coolies who go back after an industrial residence, go back to spread
abroad the seeds of civilization and Christianity, and, on this ground,
the free return, granted by the government, may be advocated with
some show of reason." f
This is truly an encouraging picture of the coolie system in
its moral bearings, and commends itself to the consideration of
the Foreign Missionary Societies of all nations. To accomplish
more in one year than has been done by the whole of them for
the last fourscore years, would be worth the effort! But Mr.
Sewell fails in explaining one thing, and this may prevent the
• Sewell, pp. 125, 126, t Ibid., p. 128..

294 PULPIT POLITICS.
Christian world from profiting by his suggestion. He has failed
to explain why it is, if the potency of Trinidad, as a school of
morals and civilization, is so great, that it has manifested so
little of its power upon its own negro population !
But the advantages to the island are so great, that Mr. Sewell
seems never tired of referring to them :
" The coolies have saved the island from ruin, but, so far, they have
not nearly supplied its wants,"* , , , " I do not hesitate to say,
and no one in this island will express a contrary opinion, that immi
gration has been the salvation of Trinidad. It is a blessing both to
the. employer and the employed. This is no vague assertion ; it can be
demonstrated ; first, by an exhibition of the improved and improving
condition of the laborer ; secondly, by the increased demand for his
services ; thirdly, by the extension of sugar cultivation on the island ;
and fourthly, by the augmentation of its trade." f , , . "It seems
to have been decreed in the Providence of God that these fair and fer
tile islands should ultimately become an asylum for millions of wan
derers from heathenesse ; and the scheme of immigration, instead of
being condemned, should be upheld, defended, and perfected by phil
anthropists, above all others, as a plan most happily devised for the
elevation of a degraded people, and for the restoration to prosperity of
a splendid inheritance." J
Mr. Sewell shows, by figures which he presents, that the cost
of slave labor, in former years in the British islands, and at this
moment in Cuba, is much greater than the present coolie free
labor, and thus demonstrates, to his entire satisfaction, that free
labor is more economical than slave labor.§ He might extend
the comparison between the two systems still farther, and, in
addition to the favorable moral bearings of the coolie system
upon the immigrants, there might be added other reasons in its
favor, of equal force, in relation to its advantages over slavery to
the planters themselves. Under slavery the industrial life of the
imported slave lasted only about five years ; the period of coolie
labor extends to about ten years. Under slavery the planter
* Sewell, p. 130. t Ibid., p. 135.
X Ibid., p. 134. ? Ibid,, pp, 55 and 279.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 295
had to support the aged and infirm ; under the coolie system his
obligations terminate with his contract, and the laborer then
shifts for himself. Under slavery the planter had to support
the children born on the plantation, a measure more expensive
than to purchase full-grown laborers from the slave-traders ;
under the coolie system the parents maintain their own children,
and, at the same time, labor for a less sum of money than it cost
the planter to purchase and support his slaves. By this mode
of reasoning it would appear that the coolie system, in an econ
omical point of view, has a vast advantage over the old system
of slavery, both to the planter and the coolie himself! The
American planter, therefore, may take a lesson from Mr. Sewell,
and, no longer insisting upon the renewal of the slave trade as a
means of increasing his labor forces, proceed to introduce im
migrants from Africa, as ten-year laborers, returning them to
their native homes after the termination of their "industrial
residence." The failure of emancipation in Trinidad is fully conceded by
Mr. Sewell, and its restoration to prosperity from a condition
of " hopeless lethargy," is attributed entirely to the introduction
of coolie labor.
But is this the successful termination to the scheme of eman
cipation which was expected to follow the destruction of slavery ?
Certainly not. Here we have a change of the whole issue made
in the original controversy upon emancipation. Its success is
placed upon new grounds, never mentioned when the freedom of
the slave was proposed and executed. Then it was contended
that free labor would be more productive than slave labor, and
that emancipation, therefore, would be an economic success.
But the freeman whose labor was to be doubly productive over
that of the slave, was that self-same slave elevated to the con
dition of a freeman. As a freeman, however, he is almost worth
less in the department of labor; and the utter ruin of the island
had been prevented only by the substitution of the labor of a
people of a different race, who can be stimulated to industry by
the offer of wages.

296 PtlLPIT POLITICS.
Section III. — The Social, Moral, and Industrial Condi
tion OF Jamaica, as illustrating the Effects op Emancipa
tion WHERE IT IS unaccompanied BY ADEQUATE MeANS OP
Moral Progress.
Jamaica is the most important of the whole of the British
West India Islands. It is much the largest in size, has the
greatest amount of uncultivated land, and hence affords the best
possible example of the results of negro emancipation. Unlike
Barbadoes, there is no overcrowding of the population. The
planters can not compel the negroes to work, but they are left
free to roam as they please. Whatever of energy or intelligence
may have been possessed by the blacks, ample room for its dis
play has been afforded in Jamaica. Whatever of indolence may
be inherent in them as a race, there has been nothing here to
prevent its broadest development.
Mr. Sewell's book has let in a flood of light upon the indus
trial, social, and moral condition of Jamaica. In the examina
tion of his researches into its condition, the rule adopted in
scientific investigations — that of classifying the facts — will best
serve to elicit truth, and establish a correct theory as to the
results of emancipation. His book supplies much that is inval
uable on the negro question — much that can not be found else
where — and, aside from his eagerness to shield the Jamaica
negro from the charge of indolence, and to prove that emanci
pation has been an undoubted success, he gives an abundance of
facts to enable reflecting men to form their own opinions.
Hitherto, writers of his school had kept back the facts relating
to the prosperous condition of the West Indies, as long as the
planters had a regular supply of laborers through the agency of
the slave trade, and had commenced their investigations with the
suppression of that traffic. It was thus very easy to show — as
will be seen from the statistical table on a preceding page — that
the decline of the exports from Jamaica had commenced nearly
thirty years before the final emancipation of the negroes was
effected; and that other causes, therefore, than emancipation,
must have been at work in producing the gradual ruin of the
island. Mr. Sewell, however, enters upon the whole field of

economical failure of west INDIA EMANCIPATION. 297
inquiry, and admits the prosperity of the island, and of the West
Indies generally, as long as the slave trade continued.* Disbe
lieving the theory that emancipation can have wrought any ill
to Jamaica, and admitting that ruin — wide-spread and desolating
ruin — has overtaken the island, he seeks other causes for the
destruction which wrecked its prosperity. But we must defer
further remarks here, and proceed with our quotations :
"I do not think it can be disputed, if history and statistics are to
be believed, that, since the abolition of the slave trade, fifty-two years
ago, Jamaica has never for a moment paused in her downward career,
I do not think it can be disputed, if actual observation is to be relied
upon, that she has not even yet reached the lowest point of possible
depression. Lower still she can sink — lower still she must sink, if
her people are not imbued with a more pregnant patriotism, if the
governing classes are not stimulated to more energetic action, and are
not guided by more unselfish counsels, I know of no country in the
world where prosperity, wealth, and a commanding position have been
so strangely subverted and destroyed as they have been in Jamaica,
within the brief space of sixty years,f .... No other English
island has the natural advantages that Jamaica possesses ; no other
English island exhibits the same, or anything like the same, destitu
tion; yet all have passed through the same experience — all have un
dergone the same trial. J . . , , If the city of Kingston be taken
as an illustration of the prosperity of Jamaica, the visitor will arrive
at more deplorable conclusions than those pointed out by commercial
statistics. It seems like a romance to read, to-day, in the capital of
Jamaica, the account of that capital's former splendor. Its ' magnifi
cent churches,' now time-worn and decayed, are scarcely superior to the
stables of some Fifth-avenue magnate. There is not a house in the
city in decent repair ; not one that looks as though it could withstand
a respectable breeze ; not a wharf in good order ; not a street that can
exhibit a square yard of pavement ; no side-walks ; no drainage ;
scanty water ; no light. The same picture of neglect and apathy greets
one everywhere  The streets are filthy, the beach-lots more
so, and the commonest laws of health are totally disregarded. « Wreck
* The author of the present volume had executed this task several years
since, in both his " Ethiopia " and " Cotton is King."
t Sewell, p. 160. t Ibid., p. 170.

298 PULPIT POLITICS.
and ruin, destitution and neglect ! There is nothing new in Kingston.
The people, like their horses, their houses, and all that belongs to
them, look old and worn. There are no improvements to be noted ;
not a device, ornament, or conceit of any kind, to indicate the pres-
^ence of taste or refinement. The inhabitants, taken en masse, are
steeped to the eyelids in immorality ; promiscuous intercourse of the
sexes is the rule ; the population shows an unnatural decrease ;
illegitimacy exceeds legitimacy ; abortion and infanticide are not un
known  The marks of a helpless poverty are upon the
faces of the people whom you meet, in their dress, in their very
gait  Have I described a God-forsaken place, in whioh
no one seems to take an interest, without life and without energy, old
and dilapidated, sickly and filthy, cast away from the anchorage of
sound morality, of reason, and common sense ? Then, verily, have
I described Kingston in 1860. Yet this wretched hulk is the capi
tal of an island the most fertile in the world ; it is blessed with a
climate most glorious ; it lies rotting in the shadow of mountains that
can be cultivated from summit to base, with every product of temperate
and tropical regions ; it is mistress of a harbor where a thousand line-
of-battle ships can safely ride at anchor. The once brimming cup of
Kingston's prosperity has indeed been emptied to the dregs."*
Having, in a preceding page, given the exports of sugar from
Jamaica, during a long series of years, quotations from Mr.
Sewell, on this subject, need not be given here. They very fully
sustain all he says in reference to the ruin which has fallen upon
the island. One sentence only need be quoted, as it includes
one year later than our statistics :
"A comparison of Jamaican exports in 1805, her year of greatest
prosperity, with her exports in 1859, must appear odious to her inhab
itants. In the former year, the island exported over 150,000 hhds. of
sugar, and in the latter year she exported 28,000 hhds. The exports
of rum and coffee exhibit the same proportionate decrease." f
But who are the sufferers by this enormous decline in the agri
cultural prosperity of the island?
" The large landed proprietors and merchant potentates of the island,
these are the men who have fallen from their high estate. The slaves
* Sewell, pp. 173, 174, 175. t Ibid., p. 173.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 299
of other days, the poor, the peasantry, these are the men who have
progressed, if not in morality, at least in material prosperity."*
Let us, then, see what is the condition of this population of
freedmen, whose progress has been promoted by the ruin of the
class who " controlled the elements of civilization."
" The people of Jamaica are not cared for ; they perish miserably, in
country districts, for want of medical aid ; they are not instructed ; they
have no opportunities to improve themselves in agriculture or mechan
ics; every effort is made to check a spirit of independence, which, in
the African, is counted a heinous crime, but in all other people is re
garded as a lofty virtue, and the germ of national courage, enterprise,
and progress. Emancipation has not been wholly successful because
the experiment has not been wholly tried. But the success is none the
less emphatic and decided." f
" Jamaica, even now, has a larger number of inhabitants to the square
mile than any State in the Union, except Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New York, and Rhode Island. But she stands in need of immigration
more than any State in the Union, because a working man in America
does as much as ten men in Jamaica." \
" I do not mean to say, for a moment, that the estates have anything
like a sufficiency of labor ; they are entirely without that continuous
labor required, not merely for bare cultivation, but for extension and
improvement. In the remarks I have here made, I wish merely to give
point-blank denial to a very general impression prevailing abroad, that
the Jamaica negro will not work at all. I wish to show that he gives
as much labor, even to the sugar estate, as he consistently can, and that
it is no fault of his if he can not give enough." §
" The latest Blue-book returns give the number of males and females
engaged in agriculture at 187,000 — more than one half of the popula
tion of the island — tending in itself to disprove the assertion that the
people are averse to the tillage of the soil ; but when the further fact
appears, that out of this number 50,000 men, with their families, have
elevated themselves to a proprietary rank, it speaks volumes, not
merely in their own favor, but in favor of general intelligence and a
wholesome progress. These small proprietors can not be said to live
comfortably, in our sense of the word. Their huts are usually made
» Sewell, p. 172. t Ibid., p. 178,
X Ibid., p. 279. The italics are ours. ? Ibid., p. 202.

300 PULPIT POLITICS.
of bamboo sticks, thatched with cocoanut leaves. Most of them prefer
the floor to sleep upon, and few understand the enjoyment of a regular
meal. They eat when they are hungry, and will sometimes take enough
in the morning to last them the entire day." *
" The apprenticeship was, in a moment of bitter excitement, cut short
by the planters themselves, and 320,000 slaves — an undisciplined, de
graded, half-savage crowd — were, without any preparation or training,
left to their own devices. The free colored Creoles numbered 60,000,
and the total black and colored population of the period consisted,
therefore, of 380,000 souls. By the census of 1844, the last taken, the
total black and colored population was only 361,657; and if the esti
mate of mortality by cholera and small-pox within a few years past be
correct, I do not believe, after making every allowance for a proper
increase by birth, that the black and colored population of Jamaica
exceeds, at the present day, 350,000, It will be remarked, and possi
bly with surprise, that the population of Jamaica, between 1834 and
1844, must have annually decreased at the rate of nearly a half per
cent. This decrease, it is true, is nothing like the decrease that went
on prior to emancipation, f but it is sufficiently serious to demonstrate
the existence of some very aggravating causes of mortality among a
people of temperate habits, and in a climate of unquestioned salubrity.
In the absence of statistics on the subject, it is impossible to arrive at
exact conclusions ; indeed, official neglect, in all matters statistical, is
so conspicuous, that I am not disposed to place implicit faith in the
returns of the census itself. But supposing a decline, undoubted as I
believe it to be, fully established, I do not think it difficult to assign
more than one reason. Within a quarter of a century, some 15,000
whites have withdrawn from the island, and the increase of half-castes
has been, in consequence, greatly checked. Another important cause
of the decrease of population, particularly among the blacks, is the
lack of medical practitioners in remote country districts. The mortality
among children, for want of proper attention, is frightful. Nor, unfor
tunately, is this the only evil that deprives Jamaica of a legitimate
increase in her population, and of the wealth that such an increase
would, of necessity, bring. Many of the vices engendered by slavery
remain a heavy burden and curse upon society, and, among them, im
morality of the grossest kind pervades all classes, tainting alike the
* Sewell, p. 248.
t This greater mortality, at that period, we have elsewhere assigned to the
disparity of the sexes, due to imports of an excess of males.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 301
civilization of towns, and the unchecked intercourse of laborers in the
cane-fields. The natural growth of the population has thus been arrest
ed, and some of the most detestable crimes known to society are, even
now, of frequent occurrence,"*
" But Jamaica, with all her faults of omission and commission, offers,
I believe, the best examples that can be produced of the emancipated
negro; her inhabitants are more independent and better off than the
inhabitants of other islands, in which over-crowded labor, or a less pro
ductive soil, has kept the masses in the same position that they occu
pied as slaves. Here the masses have made a great step forward." f
" Of the 320,000 slaves that were liberated, only the tradesmen and
head people, numbering not more than 45,000, had ever picked up the
merest waifs of knowledge. The others — field laborers and domestics —
were almost as savage and untutored as their fathers were when they
were dragged from their homes on the African coast. The change
they have undergone within twenty-two years is, assuredly, no sign of
incapacity, no proof of indolence, no indication of unconquerable vice. "J
" When Government fails, as it fails in Jamaica, to care for human
life, and to see, with unaccountable apathy, the country destitute of
medical aid, it is not surprising that the population should exhibit
an annual decrease. When Government fails, as it fails in Jamaica,
to give any consideration to popular education, it is not surprising
that vice and immorality should alarmingly prevail. [The appro
priations for education are " less than a shilling for the instruction
of each child during a space of twelve months."] Under a rule of
such pernicious neglect, it is not surprising that the Governor, in pro
roguing the Legislative session of 1858, should say that, ' in many
of the country districts, the people are abandoned to the spells and
debasing superstitions of the working Obeah§ and Myalism, and to
the scarcely less injurious practices of other ignorant empirics of the
lowest grade,' "||
" I think that the position of the Jamaica peasant, in 1860, is a stand
ing rebuke to those who, wittingly or unwittingly, encourage the vulgar
lie that the African can not possibly be elevated, , . . I think
the Creoles of Jamaica have disproved, by their own acts, the calumny
of a hostile interest, that they do not work. The most ignorant work
whenever they can get work. There are fully 20,000, of both sexes,
* Sewell, pp. 245, 246. t Ibid., p. 246. X Ibid., p. 247,
i A species of witchcraft practiced among the African negroes,
1 SeweU, p, 257.

302 PULPIT POLITICS,
who work for the estates, and who may still be regarded as a laboring
class. There are, probably, 10,000 who work as domestics. There are
3,000 at work upon the roads, where scarcity and idleness of laborers
are made no grounds of complaint. The small proprietors work 'on
their own lands and on the estates, also, whenever they can."* , . .
"But in all they grow, they may be held to waste five times as much
as they reap."f . . . "No friendly settler from abroad has ever
appeared among them, to stimulate their exertions by showing them
what science has accomplished in other lands." J
" I estimate the laboring force on the estates at 20,000 — about
equal to the number of acres in cane cultivation. This would give some
sixty or seventy laborers to each estate  But it must not
be imagined that these are steady laborers, working on the same estate
from year's end to year's end. Many of them are perpetually on the
move ; others only work on estates for a month or two out of the
twelve ; some offer their services when they are least wanted ; some
have provision-grounds of their own, whioh require their attention when
the estates are most hardly pressed for labor ; nearly all, if they chose,
might be independent of the planter for their daily bread. Jamaica
labor is essentially of this uncertain character." §
" Want of money is certainly epidemic in Jamaica. No Creole seems
to possess the commodity ; and strangers who are believed to possess
it, are made to pay for the general deficiency." || . . . . "I dis
like excessively the sea-port towns of Jamaica  All the
worst fellows in the island collect in them, and give to foreigners a
most mistaken idea of the country people  I do not doubt
that many proprietors really suffer from the partiality of young men to
towns ; but, at the same time, I do not doubt that many of these
young men prefer, and very naturally prefer, the greater certainty of
regular payment that town business offers." ^f
" A stranger in Jamaica, and especially an American, who knew
nothing of its past history or present wants, would never dream that
labor was the great desideratum. He finds, on arriving at Kingston, a
dozen boatmen eager to convey him ashore — a dozen porters ready to
carry his luggage — a dozen messengers quarreling to run his errands.
He is pestered with able-bodied men, and their offers of assistance for
a paltry remuneration. He sees as many attendants in a petty Kings-
» Sewell, p. 254. t Ibid., p. 252. J Ibid., p. 253.
? Sewell, p. 264. || Ibid., p.'205. f Ibid., pp. 205, 206, 207.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 303
ton shop as in a Broadway store, and a government clerk with as many
servants as a foreign embassador. Servants must have under-servants,
and agents, sub-agents. If he travel through the country, he finds
half-a-dozen men watching a herd of cattle, and as many more looking
after a team of oxen. He sees labor everywhere — on the roads, the
streets, the wharves ; and it is only upon the plantations that he hears
any complaint  He will infer, of course, that the labor
market is overstocked rather than understocked, and his inference will
neither be wholly wrong, nor yet wholly right. It will be nearer the
truth to say that the actual labor force of the island is frittered away.
The laboring classes of Jamaica — I mean the men and women who live
by labor for daily wages — dislike plantation-work, and prefer to earn
their livelihood, whenever they can, by any other kind of toil. They
disliked it at first, because it was the badge of a slavery still fresh in
their remembrance."*
" No sum of money would tempt a mulatto to work in the field.
It is the province of the blacks alone. It ceases to be their province
as soon as they buy the acre of land and the independence after which
their souls yearn. It was the badge of slavery ; and it is no matter of
surprise that there should be a prejudice against the emblem long after
the reality has passed forever away.'' f
" I admit that Montego Bay quite charmed me with its clean streets,
neat little patches of garden, and utter quietude, with its air of by -gone
respectability, and the cool complacency of its people, who did not
know or care how they lived from day to day. ' Well, massa, we do
best we can in dese times,' was all the answer I got to repeated
inquiries for a solution of the mystery of life in Montego Bay." J
" Lucea is an unclean, ragged-looking village, without two houses
conjoined, and without one house in decent repair  The
people on the route look as wild as the aspect of the country. They
run away from a stranger, or glare at him, half in terror, half in curi
osity, from behind a bush." §
" It was Christmas-eve — a season at which .the West Indian negro
goes wild with excitement  No negro will work for love
or money during this carnival time. He is literally demented, and
can hardly give a sane answer to the most ordinary questions. All
night long, and for eight successive nights, an infernal din — a concert
of cracked drums, shrill voices, and fire-crackers — is maintained.
• Sewell, p. 284. t Ibid., p. 288. X Ibid., p. 211. ? Ibid., p. 213,

304 PULPIT POLITICS.
Those poor devils who can not enjoy this species of amusement suffer
the most exquisite torture," *
The transportation to market and the sale of the products of
the independent farmers are thus described :
" The road lies through a wooded and rather swampy district, and,
if it be a Saturday morning, the traveler will encounter, for several miles,
a continuous stream of sturdy, good-looking wenches, carrying, on their
heads, to the Spanish-Town market, most marvelous loads of fruit and
vegetables. A few of them, more fortunate than their fellows, have
donkeys, with well-filled panniers, but they do not, on this account,
neglect the inevitable head-load. Considering the distance they come,
the heat of the weather, the size of their burdens, and the paltry
remuneration they get at market, the performance is highly creditable
to the enterprise, energy, and activity of Jamaica negro women, I
doubt whether our laboring men could execute the same task ; they
certainly would not undertake it for the same consideration." f . . , ,
" Commend me to a West Indian market as a fit illustration of Babel
after the confusion of tongues. These people are quite as anxious to
sell as the progeny of Noah were to build. The sum of'their ambition
is to get rid of the little lot of yams and oranges that they have brought
many a weary mile. They get a shilling or two for their produce, and
return as happy as though they were millionaires." %
Here the quotations in reference to the condition of the colored
population of Jamaica may be closed. Before making any com
ments, the position and policy of the planters, and the embarrass
ments by which they have been surrounded, as a consequence of
emancipation^ must be briefly noticed.

Section IV. — The Civil Position op the Planters under
Emancipation, and the Causes contributing to their Ruin,
" The planters of Jamaica constitute no longer the overruling oli
garchy, or 'plantocracy,' that they once actually were, and are still'
somewhat insolently designated in the bitterness of party spirit.
Poverty may not have humbled their pride, nor changed their belief
« Sewell, p. 184. t Ibid., p. 184. X Ibid., p. 187.

economical failurb op west INDIA emancipation, 305
in the 'divine right' of the white man to enslave the black; for, in
their own homes, and on their own estates, and in public, whenever an
opportunity offers, they wage, under different guises, the old war against
free labor. But, as a political body, with power to control the destinies
of the island, they no longer live. One after another, the relics of the
System of coercion to which they clung are being swept away. Their
complaints have been disregarded — their petitions have been rejected —
until, in despair and disgust, they have almost altogether retired from
the contest, and left the field open to their undisguised and uncompro
mising opponents," *
But we must go outside of Mr, Sewell's book to do justice to
the planters, by more fully stating the causes that have led to
their ruin; and, in so doing, the discussions will be extended
beyond the island of Jamaipa,
The first sample of West India sugar was manufactured in
Jamaica, in 1673, In 1713, Great Britain, having secured the
monopoly of the slave trade, at the treaty of Utrecht, proceeded
vigorously in the development of her West Indian cultivation.
By the commencement of the present century, the whole of her
West Indian Islands were exporting 636,000,000 lbs. of sugar,
31,600,000 lbs. of coffee, 17,000,000 lbs. of cotton, and other
products in proportion — Jamaica alone, in 1805, supplying over
237,000,000 lbs. of sugar.f The slave trade having been pro
hibited in 1808, the consequent decrease of population so affected
the production of Jamaica, that from 1807 to 1831, its exports
of sugar fell off 38.38 per cent., and its coffee 33.8-10 per cent.
The exports of sugar from the whole of the islands, in 1831, was
reduced to 459,600,000 lbs. This amount seems to have been
sufficient for the home-consumption of the English people, as the
importation of 65,320,000 lbs. of foreign sugars, that year, was
for re-export alone. J Up to 1844, all foreign sugars were ex
cluded from the British markets, so as to secure a practical
monopoly to the West India planter. The duty on foreign sugar
was sixty-three shillings per cwt. ; on sugar, the growth of her
East India possessions and Mauritius, thirty-seven shillings per
* SeweU, p. 230, t See statistical table, preceding chapter,
X London Quarterly Keview, 1850, p. 97.
20

306 PULPIT politics.
cwt. ; and on her West India colonies only twenty-seven shillings
per cwt. — ^being a difference of ten shillings per cwt. in favor of
the West Indies as against the other British colonies, and of
thirty-six shillings as against all foreign sugars.*
In 1844, however, the first inroad was made on the West India
monopoly, by the passage of an act allowing foreign free labor
sugar to be imported for consumption at a lower duty.f This
measure was demanded by the British people as a public neces
sity — the West Indian colonies being no longer able to supply
the demand for sugar. In Jamaica alone, its exports were
reduced from 237,700,000 lbs. in 1805, to 67,900,000 lbs. in
1843,J The other islands were nearly all in the same depressed
condition. At this date, the English Government found its commerce
greatly lessened, and its home-supply of tropical products falling
below the actual wants of her own people. This diminution ren
dered her unable to furnish any surplus for the markets of those
of her colonies and other countries which she formerly supplied ;
and they were thus left open to the competition of slave-grown
products, and became sources of additional encouragement to
slavery and the slave trade.
This was another of the effects of West Indian emancipation
not foreseen by the projectors of that movement. Emancipation
had not only broken down England's own colonies, but it was
followed by results which tended to encourage directly, in other
countries, both the slave trade and slavery. Here we have an
exhibition of its workings in relation to the slave trade : In 1788,
the exports of slaves, westward, from Africa, were estimated at
100,000 annually ; from 1798 to 1810, at 85,000 ; from 1810 to
1815, at 93,000 ; from 1815 to 1819, at 106,600 ; from 1819 to
1825, at 103,000 ; from 1825 to 1830, at 125,000 ; from 1830 to
1835, at 78,500; and from 1835 to 1840, at 135,800.§
These were alarming facts, and caUed loudly for energetic
* Westminster Eeview, 1850, p. 276. X London Economist, 1850, p. 85
X This is the average of five years.
I Eeport of Select Committee of House of Commons, quoted in Westminster
Review, 1850, p. 263.

economical failurb op west INDIA EMANCIPATION, 307
action. The ablest men in the kingdom came forward to aid
in averting the impending dangers. They did not enter into
discussions to prove that slavery had been, from the beginning,
tending to the ruin of the colonies. It was quite otherwise in
their judgment. Such theories were left for the philanthropists
of a later day. While Great Britain had possessed the monopoly
of tropical production, she had been able to retain her national
ascendency. She was now threatened with a diminution of her
prosperity. To regain her former leading contrcil, she must re
cover the monopoly of tropical cultivation ; and this she could do
only by embarrassing those who had gained an advantage over
her in this golden field of enterprise.
That slavery, sustained by the slave trade, was an immensely
efficient system for the promotion of tropical cultivation, was
abundantly proved by reference to Cuba and Brazil. In 1832,
the exports of sugar from Cuba were only about 100,000,000
lbs,, while, by 1848, they had increased to near 600,000,000 lbs.
Huring the same period, Brazil and the Spanish West Indies,
(excluding Cuba,) increased their exports of coffee from 94,080,-
000 lbs. to 313,600,000 lbs. This enormous increase was all ef
fected in sixteen years, as a consequence of having a full supply of
labor which could be controlled and multiplied to any desired ex
tent; and because England's prohibition of the slave trade, and her
emancipation scheme had left open to their products a vast range
of markets previously supplied from the British West Indies.
But long before 1848, and while these developments were prO'
grossing. Englishmen took the alarm, and began to consider how
the impending evils were to be averted. Hear what McQueen,
the able British statistician, said, in 1844, when urging upon his
government the necessity of securing to itself the control of the
labor and the productions of tropical Africa. The iimportance
of the measure he proposed was thus urged, by showing what the
West Indies had formerly done for the support of the British
throne :
" During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her exist
ence, as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed
by the most intelligent but remorseless military ambition against her.

308 PULPIT politics.
the command of the productions of the torrid zone, and the advanta
geous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great Britain the power
and the resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome
her numerous and reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by
sea or land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the
fabled giant of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her
foes in every region under heaven, and crushed them with resistless
energy." Now, if the possession and control of tropical production gave
to England such immense resources, and secured to her such
superiority and such power in the last century, then she would
not yield them in the present but in a death-struggle for their
maintenance. That struggle had commenced when Mr. Mc
Queen came forward with his appeals to the nation to resort to
Africa for the remedy. Mr. George Thompson had made a sim
ilar appeal, in behalf of India, a few years previous, and the
British people had responded, most heartily, to both these gen
tlemen.* English philanthropy had long been engaged in efforts for the
elevation of the African race. The slave trade and slavery had
both disappeared from English soil. The year 1844 demonstrated
the futility of the schemes pursued. British tropical cultivation,
and the commerce it sustained, both lay in ruins, while the slave
trade and slavery laughed them to scorn. English statesmanship
was now demanded to consider how the nation was to be compen
sated for the losses sustained by emancipation. The country was
found in a position so disadvantageous, arising from the progress
of other nations in tropical cultivation, that one principal means
of her extrication, they believed, was in organizing an extended
system of tropical industry in Africa. The alarm which pre
vailed was well-founded, and its causes were thus stated by Mr.
McQueen :
" The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical pos
sessions is become so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power and
resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this country
• Se» Chapter XI.

economical failurb of west INDIA EMANCIPATION. 309

(England) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary resources,
and in all her political relations and negotiations."
In proof of his assertions, Mr. M. presented the following
facts, contrasting the condition of Great Britain with only a few
other countries, in the production of three articles alone of trop
ical produce :

sugar— 1842.

BRITISH POSSESSIONS. CWTS.
West Indies  2,508,552
East Indies  940,452
Mauritius  544,767

Total  3,993,771

FOREIGN OOUNTEIES.

Cuba  5,800,000
Brazil  2,400,000
Java  1,105,757
Louisiana  1,400,000

Total  10,705,767

COFFEE — 1842.

POUNDS.
West Indies  9,186,655
East Indies  18,206,448

Total  27,393,003

POUNDS.
Java  134,842,715
Brazils  136,000,800
Cuba  33,589,325
Venezuela  34,000,000

Total  337,432,840

COTTON — 1840.

POUNDS.
West Indies  427,529
East Indies  77,016,917
To China, from East Indies.. 60,000,000

Total  137,443,446

POUNDS.
United States  790,479,275
Java  165,604,800
Brazil  26,222,828

Total  981,206,903

This exhibition of facts will be full of meaning to the intelli
gent reader, when it is stated that nearly three-fourths of this
slave-grown produce, according to Mr. McQueen, had been cre
ated within thirty years preceding the date of his calling atten
tion to the subject. Java and Venezuela alone were free-labor
countries, and all the others, Louisiana excepted, were depend
ent upon the slave-trade for the increase of their cultivation. *
England, therefore, must either regain her advantages in tropi
cal countries and tropical products, or she must be shorn of a
part of her power and greatness ; and, more than this, if she
could not effect that object, then the slave-trade and slavery
must advance, notwithstanding the immense sacrifices she bad
made for their extinction. On this point, Mr. McQueen declares :
«See "Ethiopia" for full details.

310 PULPIT POLITICS.
" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the cultivation
of the tropical territories of other powers opposed and checked by
British tropical cultivation, then the interests and the power of such
states will rise into a preponderance over those of Great Britain, and
the power and the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared,
and respected amongst the civilized and powerful nations of the world."
Another aspect of this subject may be considered. The
measures adopted by Great Britain for the benefit of the black
race resulted so disastrously to her own islands, and so favor
ably to the interests of those countries employing slave labor,
by enlarging the markets for slave-grown products, that the dif
ficulty of inducing them to cease from it was increased a hund
red fold. Nor did the expedients to which she resorted prove
successful in extricating her from the difficulties in which she
was involved. A duty of thirty-nine shillings, afterward raised
to forty-one shillings the cwt,, or four and a half pence the
pound, was levied on slave-grown sugar. This was done with
the design of prohibiting its importation into England, and
of securing the monopoly of her markets to the West India
planter. This bonus upon West India free-labor sugar was to be
used in stimulating the negro to labor, so as to restore the
islands to their former prosperity. But it failed to do this, as
we have already seen, and resulted only in taxing the English
people by the increase of prices consequent upon a diminution
of the supply, in a single year, to the enormous amount of
$25,000,000 more than the inhabitants of other countries paid
for the same amount of sugar.* This enormous tax accrued,
during 1840, from the protective duty, but was greatly above that
of any other year during its continuance. The .whole amount of
the bounty to the planter thus drawn from the pockets of the
English people and placed in those of the West India negro
laborer in excessive high wages, in the course of six or seven
years, amounted to $50,000,000.1
To relieve the English people from the onerous tax of the sugar
duties, and, at the same time, in obedience to the dictates of public
* Porter, in his "Progress of Nations." t McQueen, 1844.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 311
opinion, which required the exclusion of slave-grown products from
the British markets, sugar, the product oi free labor, as previously
noticed, was admitted at a duty of ten shillings the cwt. This act,
passed in 1844, at once brought in an increased supply of that
commodity. But these imports of free-labor sugar came chiefly
from Java and Manilla — possessions of Holland and Spain. It
was soon discovered that the Dutch and Spaniards, outwitting
the English for once, were compensating themselves for the
amount of ordinary supplies thus diverted to a profitable market,
by sending to Cuba and Brazil for a sufficient quantity of their
cheaper slave-labor sugar to make up the deficiency. By this
curious but very natural turn in trade, the great object of the
English was defeated. Slavery, instead of having received a
check, by the exclusion of its products from the British markets,
was securing to itself the most active encouragement from the
very measures intended to promote its destruction.
Another course of policy was immediately adopted. The act
admitting free-labor sugar was passed in 1844. In 1845, a gen
eral reduction of the sugar duties was made, which reduced the pro
tection against foreign slave-grown sugars one-half, and, in 1846,
the final act was passed, admitting all foreign sugars on advant
ageous terms. This act made a progressive reduction of the
duties on foreign sugar, so that it should come in on equal terms
with that of the colonies in 1849.* The conditions of the act
being afterwards extended to 1854, the planters had a slight
protection up to that date.
The immense falling off in the exports of the British West
India colonies, which had taken place after emancipation, and
the impossibility of her Eastern possessions supplying the de
ficiency, left the government of Great Britain no other alter
native but a reduction of the sugar duties, and the admission of
slave-grown sugar. A struggle to stimulate the West India
negroes to greater industry, and to advance them in civilization,
had been continued unavailingly throughout thirteen years, from
1833 to 1846, resulting only in taxing the English people, by
protective duties, to the extent of $150,000,000 more than the
* Blackwood's Mag., 1849, p. 85,

812 PULPIT POLITICS.
consumers of other countries had paid for an equal quantity of
sugar. The blacks had passed through a period equaling one
generation of freedom, and the second generation seemed less
efficient than the first. English philanthropy despaired of Afrieai)
barbarism, and the efforts to sustain the planters had to be aban
doned. By this result, the whole field of the foreign markets,
formerly supplied with English sugar, was left open for that of
elave-labor origin.
One point needs a word of explanation. There was a marked
decrease in the number of slaves exported from Africa between
the years 1830 and 1835, and an unusual increase again from
1835 to 1839. The impulse given, among other nations, to the
slave-trade, when it was abandoned by the United States and
Great Britain, received no material check, until 1830, when a
reduction of the price of sugar from forty-four shillings and six
pence the cwt. to twenty-four shillings and eight pence, dimin
ished the export of slaves from Africa thirty-seven per cent., or
from an annual average of 125,000 the preceding five years, to
78,500 the succeeding five years,* But this depression in the
slave trade lasted only during the time that the price of sugar
remained at that reduced rate. In 1836, sugar again rose to
twenty-nine shillings and three pence the cwt,, and gave an
impulse to that traffic that increased the exports of slaves from
Africa seventy-three per cent,, or to 135,800 per annum, from
that time till the close of 1839, f
Such was the condition of the slave trade at the time the
West India emancipation law went into operation. Its subse
quent history is very interesting, but can not be given in this
connection. Ten years later, when the emancipation scheme was manifest
ing its tendency, the measure underwent the most rigid scrutiny.
The low state of civilization in the West India Islands, it was
found, had left the population with few wants. The blacks, for
the most part, could not be induced to labor on the estates of
the planters for more than three or four days in the week, and
from five to seven hours in the day. So few, indeed, were their
* See preceding pages in present chapter, t London Times, 1849.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 313
wants, that they had no adequate stimulant to perform a regular
amount of labor.* This condition of things put it out of the
power of the planters to produce sugar for less than £20 per ton,
on the average, while the cost, in slave countries, was only £12
per ton.f This discloses the fact that the planters of Cuba,
employing slave labor, could manufacture sugar for £8 the ton
less than those of Jamaica could produce it by free labor. As
one of the immediate results of this condition of things, it was
asserted, in 1848, that "the great influx of slave-grown produce
into the English markets has, in the short space of six months,
reduced the value of sugar from £26 to £14 per ton ; while, under
ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost to us, of
placing it in the market, is not less than £20 per to'n," J This
subjected the planter to a direct loss of £6 per ton. But that
was not all of the obstacles with which the planter had to con
tend. The duties on foreign sugar, after 1846, afforded no real
protection to him, and for this reason :
" The slave sugars are all so much better manufactured, which the
great command of labor enables them to do, that, to the refiner, they
are intrinsically worth more than ours. In short, they prepare their
sugars, whereas we can not do so, and we pay duty at the same rate on
an article which contains a quantity of molasses. So that, if the duties
were equalized, there would virtually be a bonus on the importation of
foreign sugar. The refiners estimate the value of Havana, in com
parison with West India free sugar, as from three to five shillings per
cwt, better in point of color and -strength. The reason is, that these
sugars are partially refined or clayed." §
The question in relation to the decline of cultivation in the
British West India Islands, previous to the prohibition of the
slave trade, may now be dismissed with the remark, that the
modern theory — that slavery was precipitating the colonies to
ruin even before 1808 — is not sustained by the facts in the case,
or by the opinions of the ablest British writers. Look at the
statistics of the exports from Jamaica, for a long series of years
« Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 227. t Ibid., p. 230.
X Ibid., p. 230 ; from Eesolutions of a meeting at St, David's Jamaica
a Ibid, May 1848, p. 230.

314 PULPIT POLITICS.
before the prohibition of the slave trade. They show that there
had been, up to that date, a regular increase in the production
of the island, affected only by peace or war, or the influence of
the seasons. The deterioration in the exports of the island did
not begin until after the act of 1808 had cut off all supplies of
labor. Individual instances of misfortune, mismanagement, or
bankruptcy did not affect the general prosperity any more than
occasional failures, in large cities, retard the general success of
business men. Why should the British islands alone have begun
to decline under a system that supplied an adequate labor force,
when it is notorious that the production of Cuba and Brazil has
increased immensely under slavery, while sustained by the slave
trade — the increase of Brazil, in sixteen years, having been nearly
three hundred and fifty per cent., and that of Cuba, in the same
period, six hundred per cent.
With all these facts before us, it is apparent that the causes
leading to the ruin of Jamaica and the other English West India
Islands had their origin subsequently to the prohibition of the
slave trade, and that their nature was such that emancipation
could not remove them.
Before considering this point, however, we must again turn to
Mr. Sewell's book, and conclude our investigations in relation to
Jamaica. " British emancipation may have been unwise ; regSded as a great
social revolution, the manner in which the scheme was executed must
be utterly condemned ; private rights were violated ; their sacredness
was dimmed by the splendor of an act which gave freedom to a people
who did not know what freedom meant ; but the ruin attributed to it
is, in Jamaica, too broad and too deep to be set down any longer as
the effect of that one solitary cause. No other English island has the
natural advantages that Jamaica possesses ; no other English island
exhibits the same, or anything like the same destitution ; yet all have
passed through the same experience — all have undergone the same
trial."* " If the change could be traced solely to emancipation, I should be
loth to justify emancipation, believing, as I do, that it would be wholly
* SeweU, p. 170,

¦ECONOMICAL FAILURB OF VHEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 815
inconsistent with morality or the dictates of a sound policy to degrade
that portion of the population which controlled the elements of civil
ization, in order to enrich an ignorant and undisciplined people. But
the decline of ^Jamaica has been so stupendous as of ^itself to create a
doubt whether it can be laid, in whole, or even in part, to the emanci
pation of the slaves,"*
The aim of Mr. Sewell is to prove that other causes than eman
cipation have produced the pecuniary ruin of Jamaica. Contrast
ing the exports preceding the prohibition of the slave trade with
those of the present day, he fully proves his assertions as to
the ruin which has fallen upon the island. He thus states the
question :
" It will be found, upon examination, that the most prosperous epoch
in Jamaican commerce was that embraced in the seven years imme
diately preceding the abolition of the slave trade. Yet it is a notorious
fact, to be proved by parliamentary blue-books, that even then over
one hundred estates on the island had been abandoned for debt. Dur
ing the seven years indicated, that is, from 1801 to 1807, the sugar
exports of Jamaica amounted annually to an average of 133,000 hhds.
During the seven years succeeding the year in which the slave trade
was abolished, from 1807 to 1814, the annual exports fell off to an
average of 118,000 hhds. During the next seven years, from 1814 to
1821, the annual average was about 110,000 hhds. ; and from 1828 to
1835, it was 90,000 hhds. ; thus showing a steady decline, not so alarm
ing, it is true, as the decline of subsequent years (for the whole sugar
exportation of Jamaica is now only 30,000 hhds.,) but sufficiently seri
ous to demonstrate that Jamaica had reached its maximum prosperity
under slavery, and had commenced to deteriorate nearly thirty years
before the emancipation act was passed, and many years before the
design of such a measure was elaborated, or Mr. Canning's note of
warning was sounded in West Indian ears, A comparison of Jamaican
exports in 1805, her year of greatest prosperity, with her exports in
1859, must appear odious to her inhabitants. In the former year, the
island exported over 150,000 hhds, of sugar, and in the latter, she
'exported 28,000 hhds. The exports of rum and coffee exhibit the
same proportionate decrease. "f
*Sewell, p, 172, t Ibid,, pp, 172, 17

316 PULPIT POLITICS.
Lest any one should imagine that this immense falling off in
the productions of Jamaica, is in consequence of the impoverish
ment of the soil, Mr. Sewell must be permitted to speak on this
point also :
" The island, unlike others that can be mentioned, is in no exhausted
condition, but is fresh and fair, and abundantly fertile as ever, with
every variety of climate, and capable of yielding every variety of pro
duct. Up in these tremendous hills you may enjoy the luxury of a
frosty night ; down upon the plains you may bask in the warmth of a
fiery sun. There you can raise potatoes, here you can raise sugar-cane.
There you will find interminable forests of wild pimento, here inter
minable acres of abandoned properties — a mass of jungle and luxuriant
vegetation choking up the deserted mansions of Jamaica's ancient aris
tocracy. Scenes most wonderfully fair, most picturesque, but most
melancholy to look upon ; scenes that a limner might love to paint,
but from which an American planter would turn in disgust and con
tempt."* " The Jamaica question is prolific of controversy, and I can not hope
that my allegations and inferences will pass unchallenged, I shall, for
this reason, confine myself as much as possible to statements of facts,
, . , I hope to be able to show to others as plainly as the conviction
has come home to myself, that disaster and misfortune have followed —
not emancipation — but the failure to observe those great principles of
liberty and justice upon which the foundations of emancipation were
solidly laid,"f , , , "I admit, and shall prove, that want of labor
has been one cause of the island's depreciation ; but if it were the sole
cause, or even the preponderating cause, it would be only reasonable to
expect that those parishes most sparsely populated would be the first
to abandon the cultivation of cane. The reverse, however, happens to
be the case," J
" This want of capital — quite irrespective of a want of labor, whioh
I admit to exist — has been a fruitful cause of the abandonment of sugar
cultivation. The most hasty tour through the island will convince any
one that contract or permanent labor — wholly independent of the valu
able but transient work of the negroes, who have their own properties
to look after — is absolutely needed before the cultivation of the cane,
in Jamaica, can be largely extended, or real estate command its positive

* Sewell, p, 176. t Ibid., p, 177, J Ibid,, p.

1. 189.

ECONOMICAL FAILURB OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION, 317
value. I do not believe that the absence of this contract labor explains
the present great depression of Jamaican commerce. My belief is,
that the contract Or permanent labor of coolies is needed, as a supple
mentary labor to that of the Creole, alike on the richest and the poorest
estates. There is sufficient labor in Jamaica now for the bare wants
of its reduced cultivation, if the planter had means enough to pay his
laborers, fairly and punctually, the wages they earn. Those wages are
not too high, for they are scarcely one-fourth of what a day-laborer can
command in America. This I state unhesitatingly. But, at the same
time, I state with equal confidence that, in Jamaica, permanent labor,
that is, daily labor throughout the year — that kind of labor which will
enable the planter to improve his property and extend his cultivation —
is wholly wanting, and, it seems to me that, without it, neither capital
nor confidence will ever fully return to the island. The point I make
is this : Jamaica wants labor, but that want is not the preponderating
cause of her decline."* , . . " In a precarious business like sugar-
cultivation, where the loss of an entire crop must, now and then, be
expected, there is no salvation for the Jamaican planter who can com
mand neither capital nor credit when an unfavorable season overtakes
him."t "An intelligent resident of Green Island, himself a proprietor, in
formed moithat he knew of no estate in Hanover whose owner, pos
sessed of capital, or even out of debt, had been compelled, from mere
want of labor, to abandon sugar cultivation. When I have put the
same question to any respectable landholder in any part of the island,
I have, in nine cases out of ten, received the same answer. The want
of continued or contract labor is greatly deplored as a great evil ; but
it is wrong to suppose that that want alone has ever compelled resident
proprietors to abandon their estates to ruin." J
" But the fact remains that the island is nearly destitute of labor ;
that, partly through want of labor, sugar cultivation has been aban
doned ; and by an adequate supply of labor can it only be revived.
Covering an area of over 4,000,000 of acres, Jamaica has a population
of 378,000, white, black, and mulatto. This makes about eleven acres
to each person. In the flourishing island of Barbadoes the proportion
is nearly one and a half persons to each acre. If Jamaica were aa
thickly populated as Barbadoes, it would contain over 5,000,000 of
souls, and would export a million hogsheads. Till its population has
• SeweU, pp. 226, 227. t Ibid,, p, 226. X Ibid,, p, 214,

318 PULPIT POLITICS,
been doubled and trebled, no material improvement can be looked for.
But where is the money — where are the vigor and the energy necessary
to obtain this population ? Whose fault is it that these are wanting,
and that Jamaica, with far greater advantages than Trinidad or Guiana,
has failed to follow the footsteps of their success? Is this also the
result of emancipation ?"*
" During all this time the prosperity of Jamaica was on the decline.
The exportation of sugar had gradually decreased from 150,000 hhds.,
in 1805, to 85,000 hhds., in 1833. It was not emancipation, or the
thought of emancipation, that dragged down the island suddenly from
the pinnacle of prosperity. The deterioration progressed slowly. Be
tween the years 1814 and 1832, the coffee crop was also reduced one
half; and during the fifty years that preceded emancipation, it is esti
mated that two hundred sugar estates were abandoned. The planters
say that the fear of impending abolition induced 'them to withdraw
capital from their estates; but abolition was not dreamed of when the
decline of Jamaica set in. While the slave trade was yet in operation,
over one hundred properties had been deserted—deserted, too, for the
same cause that compelled their desertion in later years — debt and
want of capital." "j"
"Sugar cultivation, it is hardly necessary to say, to be carried on
with profit to the proprietor, and with ordinary chances of ultimate
su6cess, requires an enormous capital, not only at the outset, but to
provide against the losses that unfavorable seasons very frequently
entail." J
" Hypothecation, rendered necessary by the expenses of the slave
system and the extravagance of the planters, increased so fast that nine
out of ten estates, at the time of emancipation, were mortgaged far
beyond their value. Their creditors were English merchants, who
vainly tried to keep up the cultivation of the property that reverted to
them. How could they do so ? Estates that yielded an average annual
income of seven per cent., with the proprietor resident, could not, with
the proprietor absent, pay attorneys and overseers, and still be worked
at a profit.- Many proprietors tried the impossible experiment, and
failed, while the agents and overseers made money, or ultimately bought
in the estate at a nominal cost."§
" Since emancipation, this want of capital has been the chief cause

* SeweU, p. 117. t Ibid., p. 232,
X SeweU, p. 233. ' § Ibid., p. 236.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EilANCIPATION. 319
of an unceasing depression. The sum received by the planner for his
slaves was insufficient to pay off his mortgages ; he had no money to
improve his estate, or even sustain a naked cultivation ; he had no
money to keep roads in repair, or build trainways ; he had no money
to pay for labor ; he had no money to meet misfortune. His mort
gages were foreclosed ; he reduced his cultivation ; he sold small lots
to settlers to meet pressing wants ; the roads were so bad that the trans
portation of sugar to the shipping port became one of his heaviest
items of expenditure ; the laborers, whom he neglected to pay, went
elsewhere ; the day of misfortune came and overwhelmed him with
ruin. He was bankrupt before emancipation ; but it was emancipation
that tore down the vail which concealed his poverty."*
" It was their misfortune, that, between 1815 and 1825, the price of
their great staple fell twenty-five per cent.; that between 1825 and'
1835, it fell another twenty-five per cent. ; and that between 1835 and
1850, it fell twenty-five per cent, yet again. It was their misfortune
that the British nation would no longer consent to be taxed to sup
port them, and that the protective tariff upon West India sugars should
have been abolished. It was their misfortune to have been disturbed
at home and abroad, and to have been the victims of a jealousy that
refused, for years, to Jamaica alone, of all the West Indies, the priv
ileges and the advantages of a wholesome immigration." f
" It was their fault that they listened to no warning — that they
heeded not the signs of the times — that they opposed all schemes
for gradual emancipation, and even for ameliorating the condition of
the slaves, until the crushing weight of public opinion broke the
chain of slavery asunder, and threw suddenly upon their own re
sources an ignorant and undisciplined people. Theirs were the faults
of policy and government that drove the Creoles from plantations,
that kept the population in ignorance, that discouraged education,
and left morality at the lowest ebb. It is their fault that, under
a system of freedom' from whioh there is no relapse, they have made
no brave attempt to redeem past errors and retrieve past misfortunes,
but have been content to bemoan their fate in passive complaint, and
to saddle the negro with a ruin for which they themselves are only
responsible." J
" This was the old plantocracy — the generous, hospitable, improvi
dent, domineering plantocracy of Jamaica. Their power no longer

* SeweU, p. 238. t Ibid., p. 240. X Ibid., p.

241.

820 PULPIT POLITICS.
predominates. They command no credit, and no respect; and they
obtain little sympathy in their misfortune. Even from domestic legis
lation they have sullenly retired, and their places are being fast filled
by the people whom they have so long and so vainly tried to keep
down." *
Mr. Bigelow, already quoted, when speaking of the legislation
of the island, says :
" The center of legislative control is in London, and the members
of the colonial legislature are mere shadows, destitute of the vital
functions of legislators. The veto power of the Governor, who is ap
pointed by the Queen, enables him practically to control all legisla
tion." Is it any wonder, then, that the planters should have retired
in disgust from all legislation, when they were neither permitted
to control the free labor of the island, nor secure a sufficient
amount of labor by coolie immigration ? By the earlier laws,
the enormous property qualification required to make a man
eligible to a seat in the legislature, excluded from that body all
but the landholders, t This placed the legislation within the
control of the intelligence of the island, and measures would
have been adopted, but for the anti-slavery influence in England,
that would have restored confidence, and secured advances of
capital to the owners of the estates. Such has been the policy
in several of the British colonies, and the planters are not only
prospering, but have paid off the mortgages upon their estates.
Jamaica, unfortunately, has had to bear the brunt of the anti-
slavery attack ; J and all the legislation of the planters, for their
own relief, has been rendered a nullity by that influence. It has
not only succeeded in this, but as effected a change in the quali
fications for membership, which, has Mr. Sewell says, has swept
away the power of the planters forever. Let us hear what he
has to say in relation to this change :
" If I were asked to describe, in as few words as possible, the effect
of emancipation on Jamaica, I should say — 'the creation of a middle
• SeweU, p. 242. t Bigelow. J SeweU, p. 230. >

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, 821
class. There was no middle class under slavery, and could be none.
Master and servant made up the population  But one most
beneficial result stands out to-day, so prominently, and in such bulky
proportions, that the most prejudiced can not close their eyes to its
presence. Emancipation has created a middle class — a class who are
born in Jamaica, and will die in Jamaica — a class of proprietors, tax
payers, and voters, whose property, patriotism, happiness, and comfort
are bound up in the island's prosperity."*
'' At the lowest estimate that I have heard given, there are now in
the island of Jamaica fifty thousand small proprietors, owning, on an
average, three acres of land. "f .... " The small proprietors work
on their own lands, and on the estates, also, whenever they can. Very
large numbers work as merchants, mechanics, and tradesmen, and not
a few of the ex-slaves of Jamaica, or their children, are members of
the legislature, and fill responsible offices under government. In the
Assembly alone there are seventeen black and colored members out of a
total of forty-seven." { . ..." Both houses were in session when I
passed through Spanish-Town ; but as I shall hereafter have occasion
to explain the franchise, and the effects of recent legislation in the
island, I lay up these matters for further experience. Nor will I do
unto others as I was done by, and victimize the reader with the de
bates of the Jamaican Assembly. The ability of members, with one
or two exceptions, did not seem to me to reach even a provincial
standard of mediocrity, and the subjects discussed were, of course,
most uninteresting to a stranger." § . . , , " The election law now
in force, and passed in 1858, is a decided improvement on previous
enactments of a similar nature. Under its provisions, a voter must
possess a freehold of a clear rental of £6 sterling a year, or he must
pay £20 rent, or have an annual income, derivable from business, of
£50 a year, or, finally, he must pay taxes to the extent of £2 per an
num. There are, probably, 50,000 freeholders in Jamaica with a clear
income of £6 a year, but the number of actual voters does not exceed
3,000. A tax of ten shillings, per capita, for registration, explains
the discrepancy. The negro does not care so much about voting as to
be willing to pay government ten shillings for the privilege. . . . •
But it must not be supposed that Jamaica legislation is perfect now,
because it is no longer the exclusive prerogative of the plantocracy,
* SeweU, p. 244. f Ibid., p, 247,
X Seweil, p. 254. I Ibid., p. 182.
21

822 PULPIT POLITICS.
It is, in fact, most wretchedly imperfect. Planters, too, of the right
sort, are much needed in both houses. The island depends — no one
can doubt the fact — upon the extension of sugar cultivation for a revival
of prosperity  In Barbadoes, the plantocracy are still able to
rule as they please; in Jamaica, they have been borne down by an
independent middle class, who would not be denied their rights, or
defrauded of their privileges."* .... "I think a majority of the
small proprietors and settlers are intelligent enough to exercise the
right of voting to their own advantage, and to the advantage of this
great dependency of the English crown ; but it is an experiment, which,
if carried out, will entirely remove the government of the island from
the control of the planters — a control that, for some time, they have
seemed utterly indifferent about possessing. The plantocracy of Ja
maica is a thing of the past, and, in its stead, democracy is lifting up
its head." t '^
"I have already explained the system of immigration that obtains
in other colonies, and shall only observe here the peculiarities of the
Jamaica law, which came into force in 1858. By the provisions of this
act, the immigrant laborer is entitled, free of all charges, to a certificate
of 'industrial residence,' after he has worked five years under indenture.
He can shorten this term of service, and receive his certificate, by pay
ing a commutation fee of #20 at the end of the third year, or of $10 at
the end of the fourth year. At the end of the second year, and of each
subsequent year, he can, at his own election, change his employer, and
give his service to whomsoever he pleases." J . . . . "It only
remains to add that, under the Jamaica law of 1858, the entire expense
of immigration is imposed upon the planting interest." § . . . "The
present scheme of immigration is, in fact, a victory of the anti-slavery
party of Jamaica, whose views the planters have been compelled to
adopt. A few years ago, the proprietors scouted any plan that did not
indenture thelaborers for ten years. They are now content that the
indenture shall not exceed two or three years — sufficient to guarantee
the planter a return for his outlay, and to give the laborer a necessary
industrial training. The Jamaica law of 1858 was opposed in England,
very unwisely, as I think, and much more strenuously than it was
opposed even by ultraists within the colony. It can not, under any
circumstances, be considered a triumph of the planting interest ; it is
» SeweU, pp. 258, 259, f Ibid., p. 183,
X SeweU, p. 299. i Ibid., p. 301.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, 823
rather a fair expression of the liberal public sentiment of the island
on a much debated question of the highest importance,"*
Under this act, the planters are authorized to import 50,000
coolies within a year. But such are its provisions, that it seems
doubtful if they will act under it. The coolie needs industrial
training, and, from the intimation above given, it appears that
two or three years are necessary to accomplish this object. The
coolie may leave the planter at the end of two years, or about as
soon as he is prepared to become a useful laborer — the planter
being thus deprived of all advantage from the care he has taken
in his instruction. The whole bill is the result of the efforts of
the " middle class," under English anti-slavery dictation, to ren
der the planters powerless for oppression. The planters, broken
down pecuniarily by British legislation in behalf of the negro
race, — hurled from the proud position assigned them as^ chief
supporters of the crown, f — are now in the humiliating position
of being controlled by the "middle class," — the "democracy
which is lifting up its head," — whose legislators, in ability, do
not " reach even a provincial standard of mediocrity." J
And why have the planters been thus embarrassed by the legis
lation of the island, as well as by that of the British parliament?
Why have they not been allowed a full supply of coolie labor,
enabling them, like the other islands who adopted the system,
to recover from the ruin which followed emancipation? These
questions are readily answered. The English abolitionists fear
the result of the experiment. They have a theory to maintain,
in reference to the capacity of the African race for civilization.
Jamaica affords the best field for their operations. The intro
duction of a coolie population, to the extent of the wants of the
planters, would displace the blacks, and leave them to their own
resources — to ultimate extinction. To save the theory, and pre
vent this calamity, the coolie system was long opposed as a means
of relief to Jamaica ; and when, at length, a law authorizing the
employment of imported labor in the island was passed by the
* SeweU, pp, 304, 305. t See McQueen, on a preceding page.
X SeweU, p. 282.

824 PULPIT POLITICS.
colonial legislature, its provisions rendered it of little practical
importance to the planter. The reason of its inefficiency is eas
ily explained. The legislation of the Imperial Parliament had
long since rendered the planter bankrupt. The colonial law,
authorizing the importation of coolies, throws the cost of their
transportation upon the planter alone. He has no money to
meet that expense. But he could obtain advances from British
capitalists, if there was an absolute certainty that the coolies em
ployed could be retained long enough to enable him to repay his
loan. The provisions of the law give him but two years of ini
tiatory labor, at the end of which he may be again without the
means of cultivating his estate, and paying his debt. The law,
therefore, amounts to nothing, as a means of permanent relief
to any of the planters, excepting such as have capital of their
own on hand — a class which are not numerous.
But another point must be noticed, before this subject is further
discussed. The opinions of the planters have been quoted, show
ing that free labor could not compete with slave labor — that the
free negroes of Jamaica could not be induced to work like the
slaves of Cuba, in the production of sugar, and that the decrease
in its price, consequent upon the great increase of slave labor, had
led to ruinous consequences. But Mr, Sewell presents a different
view of this question. He shows, as he thinks, that, at the pres
ent rate of wages, free labor can compete with slave labor, pro
viding the free labor can be secured. His remarks on this point
are worthy of consideration on account of the admissions made :
" The superior economy of free labor, as compared with slave labor,
can be demonstrated even from the imperfections and shortcomings of
Jamaica. The planter, who complains the loudest against the parent
government for admitting slave-grown sugars on a par with free-grown
sugars, does not deny that free labor is the cheaper of the two. He
attributes his misfortunes to the abolition of one system without a cor
responding introduction of the other. He offers to compete with slave
labor, provided he can command a sufficient supply of free labor. , .
With its present force of 20,000 uncertain laborers engaged in sugar
cultivation, and utterly destitute of capital, Jamaica can not be consid
ered the rival of Cuba, nor ought any conclusion unfavorable to free

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 326
labor be deduced from the depression of the one, and the high pros
perity of the other. It is not a competition between slave and free
labor, but, practically, between slave labor and no labor at all. And
herein we find a state of things for which the Imperial Government is,
in a measure, responsible. It was not that they committed the daz
zling mistake of a too sudden emancipation ; it was not that they with
drew protection from the infant system, and left it, unaided, to fight out
the battle, but that they cut off the reinforcements whioh, in a sparsely-
settled country, free labor imperatively demands ; they refused supplies
of labor, more needed in Jamaica than in northern colonies, and with
out which even the most enduring energy would have been compelled
to halt in the race for empire. It is folly to dream over the mistakes
of British emancipation, if we fail to read in them a practical lesson ;
and such a lesson as will benefit Jamaica at the eleventh hour, is yet
to be learned. By the light of experience we are able now to see that
if a free immigration had been poured into the island before aboli
tion — if free labor had been introduced to fight slave labor on its own
ground — slave labor must have been defeated in the contest ; and no
violent revolution would have marked its extinction. If free immigra
tion had been poured into Jamaica after abolition, there can npt be a
reasonable doubt that the island would have been redeemed from bank
ruptcy, and from other burdens laid upon it by a slave system, and the
peculiar aristocracy that it fostered. Other colonies have thus regained
their lost position. Other colonies established, beyond a peradventure,
the superior economy of free labor, and even Jamaica, with its ruined
proprietary and scanty population — desolate, deserted, degraded Ja
maica, points feebly to the same result,"*
What have we here, but the acknowledgement that the only
hope for the restoration of "desolate, deserted, degraded Ja
maica" to her original prosperity is — not in the improving in
dustry of the blacks, but — in the introduction of coolies? And
what is this, but to admit that the expectations of the British
people, in reference to the moral and industrial progress of the
negroes, under freedom, have been wholly disappointed ?
Mr. Sewell must be consulted a little further. He presents
estimates, showing the difference in the cost, per pound, of the
production of sugar under slavery and under freedom, in Cuba,
* Sewell, pp.' 260, 261, 262.

326

PULPIT POLITICS.

Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbadoes. For the general statements
upon which his conclusions are based, the reader is referred to the
book itself. The estimates for Cuba are for 1852, and though the
crop and the labor force, under the influence of the slave trade,
have increased one hundred per cent, within the last eight years,
yet Mr. Sewell thinks they are as applicable now as then.* His
statement is as follows :

ISLANDS.

POUNDS OF SU

LABOR

AT. OF LBS.

COST OF EACH

COST OF SUQAE

GAR PRODUCED.

FORCE.

PER LAB'RER

LAB. FER ANN.

PER POUND.

Cuba, (slave) 

577,200,000

120,000

4,810

$144,30

3cts,

Jamaica, (slave).
Jamaica, (free)...

160,000,000

70,000

2,286

100,00

4 37-100 cts.

50,000,000

20,000

2,600

50,00

2cts,

Trinidad, (free)..

65,000,000

17,000

3,823

66,00 •

I 72-100 cts.

Barbadoes, (free)

68,000,000

22,000

3,090

44,00

1 2-5 cts.

Now, let us understand this matter, and not intermix classes
of facts which should be kept separate. The prohibition of the
slave trade had been followed by a large decrease in the slave
population, and a corresponding diminution in the amount of ex
ports. This decrease was mainly due to the fact, notorious to all,
that the slave trader, obeying the demand in the slave market,
imported a large excess of males, and that the mortality among
this class of laborers was always very rapid. Great embarrass
ments had fallen upon the planters, in consequence of these
results of the prohibition of the slave trade. British commerce
was also suffering in a proportionate degree. Two objects were
proposed to be accomplished by emancipation. It was to restore
the material prosperity of the planters, and advance the physical
and moral improvement of the negroes. These results, it was
urged, would surely follow the abolition of slavery, because one
freeman, laboring under the stimulus of wages, would be more
than equal to two slaves, toiling beneath the lash ; and then the
negro, desirous of acquiring a position of social equality with the
white man, would eagerly prosecute an education- for his intellec
tual elevation, and avoid every vice that would add a stain to his
moral character. It was expected that these objects would be
accomplished by the harmonious action and co-operation of the
parties interested — the planters and the negroes. But if these
* SeweU, p. 270.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 327
objects failed in the accomplishment, then emancipation would be
a failure ; and not only would the planters and negroes be the
sufferers, but British commerce would also receive injury, and the
nation fail to maintain its ascendant position.
Well, the co-operation of the planters and the negroes has
proved to be wholly impracticable. In no one thing have the
negroes imitated the whites, except in avoiding continuous labor.
As a necessary consequence of this unforeseen result, the planters
have been ruined. It is undeniable, then, that emancipation, in
its expected results, as a measure for the restoration of the econ
omical prosperity of Jamaica, is an utter failure.
But some further examination of this point is needed. It is
useless to contend that free labor is less expensive than slave
labor ; nay, it is mockery to do so, when the free labor cannot be
had. Am I not right in this assertion ? What are the facts ?
Jamaica has lost none of her black population by emigration.
The former slaves, or their descendants, are still upon the island.
The only difference is, that they are now freemen. In the best
days of slavery, when the planters controlled the blacks, they
exported, during the three years preceding the prohibition of the
slave trade — 1805 to 1808 — an annual average of nearly 222,-
600,000 lbs. of sugar. With that same population, or its descend
ants, as freemen, the planters now export less than 50,000,000
lbs. We are told that the cost of the production of this free-labor
sugar is only 2 cents per lb, ; whereas, the former cost of produc
tion, under slavery, was 4 37-100 cents per lb. Be it so ; but
which system — freedom or slavery — yields the greatest aggregate
profit ? The sugar of both kinds sold at, say 7 cents per lb, ; or
a profit of 5 cents per lb, on the free-labor product, and 2 63-100
cents per lb, on the slave-labor product. The net profits to the
planters on the 50,000,000 lbs, of free-labor sugar is, therefore,
$2,500,000, while on the 222,500,000 lbs. of slave-labor sugar it
was $5,851,750 — a difference of $2,351,000 per annum in favor
of slavery. Or, taking the last years of slavery, from 1822 to
1832, when the average annual exports were reduced to 153,760,-
000 lbs., and still slavery receives $4,043,000 for its sugar— being
an advantage over free labor of $1,543,000.

828 PULPIT POLITICS.
This, then, to the planter of Jamaica, is the result of emanci
pation ; and this its effects upon British commerce. The pro
hibition of the slave trade reduced the exports from 222,000,000
lbs, to 153,000,000 lbs. ; and emancipation, still more disastrous,
reduced it to less than 50,000,000 lbs. Never was there a greater
failure in any human expectations than has followed the abolition
of slavery in Jamaica, so far as relates to the economical in
terests involved.
In justice to Mr. Sewell, however, it must be observed, that he
makes the comparison of the relative cost of the production of
sugar under slavery and freedom as an argument for the intro
duction of coolie laborers — a few ten thousands of whom, as in
Mauritius and Trinidad, would, in his opinion, soon restore the
prosperity of Jamaica.
With these remarks in relation to the economical results of
emancipation in Jamaica, we may proceed to the consideration
of its moral effects upon the negro population of that island —
referring, in passing, to the others also.
In a preceding chapter, the history of missions in the West
India Islands, together with the opposition of the planters to the
religious instruction of the slaves, has been very fully presented.
It may be remarked here, that little had been accomplished in
the West Indies by the missionaries until near the time of the
prohibition of the slave trade. The foreign missionary work was
then in its infancy, and but few stations had been established
in heathendom. Encouraging success attended the efforts made
among the slaves, and their moral progress, under instruction,
was fully equal to that of any other barbarous people where mis
sions had been introduced. Any tardiness occurring in the pro
gress of the work was caused more by the hostility of the plant
ers than by any indisposition on the part of the slaves to attend
upon religious instruction. Placed under restraints that confined
them within the limits of the estates to which they belonged, they
gladly listened to the Gospel as the first exhibition of human
sympathy ever made in their behalf. Unable to wander from
their homes, their instruction had a regularity ^hat gave it effi
ciency. Had this system of instruction and restraint been con-

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 329
tinned without interruption, the moral progress of the negroes
might have been greatly promoted ; but the instruction was inter
rupted by the planters, and the restraint wholly removed by eman
cipation. As a necessary consequence of the unstable character
of the blacks, this freedom from restraint greatly embarrassed
the missionaries. Such was the serious nature of the reverses
experienced, as a legitimate result of the abolition of slavery, and
such the diminution in the number of converts, that the greatly
increased missionary force since employed, has scarcely been able
to bring up the missions to the condition in which emancipation
found them.
To the question, whether emancipation was necessary as a
means of moral progress to the blacks, but one answer can be
returned. The planters, especially in Jamaica, continued their
hostility to the religious instruction of their slaves up to the last
moment. There is no reason to suppose that this hostility would
have abated, had they been left to follow their own inclinations.
So far, then, as the planters were concerned, no progress could
have been made by the slaves while the authority of the masters
was continued. Emancipation, or a change in the 'policy of the
masters, was necessary, therefore, under the circumstances, to
the moral progress of the blacks.
But the end to be attained was the moral elevation of the ne
groes, and emancipation was only urged as a measure essential
to the accomplishment of that object. Had the masters all ex
erted themselves for the spread of the Gospel among their slaves,
or had they even permitted the missionaries to have free access
to them, British Christians would not have urged emancipation
as necessary to the Christianization of the blacks. This is appar
ent from the fact that the few planters who introduced the Gos
pel into some of the islands were viewed as men of extraordinary
piety and moral worth, and their deaths lamented as an irrepar
able loss to the Church,
The object, then, to be attained, was not emancipation for the
sake of the measure itself, but emancipation as the only means
by which the slaves could be placed in a position favorable to
moral progress. If that progress could have been attained with-

330 PULPIT POLITICS.
out emancipation, and the welfare of the negro had been the only
question involved, there is no reason to suppose that -the British
people would have insisted upon the abolition of slavery. But,
at that momesnt, there appeared to be no hope for the negro ex
cept in freedom ; and freedom was accordingly conferred upon
him. This, also, was the more cheerfully done, as the advance
ment of the black man was expected to secure a proportionate
increase in the economical prosperity of the islands.
Section V. — Effects of Emancipation upon the Moral and
Physical Condition of the Negroes in the British West In
dia Islands, as compared with that of Slavery upon the
SAME Race in the United States.
The point of greatest interest in our investigations is just here,
and the whole subject, so far as it relates to the colored people,
involves itself in a single question — Has the progress of the
West India negroes, under freedom, been such as was expected
by the British people, or at all proportionate to the sacrifices
made for their advancement? If it has not, then emancipation
has been not only an economical failure, but it has been of so
little benefit to the negroes, that if religious instruction, under
slavery, could have been secured, as is the case in the United
States, then their moral progress and physical welfare would
both have been better promoted while in bondage than it has
been under freedom.
Up to the date of West India emancipation, the physical wel
fare of the slaves of the United States had been so well secured
that their increase was equal to that of any other people in the
world. Their moral progress, too, was quite favorable, as is in
dicated by the numbers who had become converts to Christian
ity. Very different, indeed, was the condition of the slaves of
the United States, in these respects, as compared with the free
men of the West Indies at this moment. Am I not justifiable in
making this assertion?
Taking the testimony of Mr. Sewell, in connection with what
is contained in some of the preceding chapters, as a fair exhibi
tion of facts, no one can doubt that the colored people of the

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 831
whole of the islands have utterly failed in meeting public expec
tation. They have failed in the progress anticipated, both physic
ally and morally, I do not say that they would have improved
under slavery, had emancipation not been adopted, I believe
they could not have made much progress under the system of
West India slavery, because the planters refused to allow them
the means of moral progress. But the Gospel, which was then
refused to them by the planters, is now voluntarily rejected by
themselves. The means of moral elevation, which the despotism
of their masters withheld from them, as slaves, is now repelled
with equal force by their own unbridled licentiousness, as free
men. What says Mr. Sewell as to their condition, both physi
cally and morally ? " Immorality of the grossest kind pervades
all classes, tainting alike the civilization of towns and the un
checked intercourse of the laborers in the cane-fields. The
natural growth of the population has thus been arrested, and
some of the most detestable crimes known to society are, even
now, of frequent occurrence," In the capital of Jamaica, " the
inhabitants, taken en masse, are steeped to the eyelids in immor
ality ;" while "they perish miserably in country districts for want
of medical aid," This rural population " are not instructed ;"
and " they have no opportunities to improve themselves in agri
culture;" so that "in all they grow they may be held to waste
five times as much as they reap ;" and, besides, " a working-man,
in America, does as much as ten men in Jamaica," " In many
of the country districts the people are abandoned to the spells
and debasing superstitions of the working Obeah and Myalism,"
a species of African witchcraft. In Barbadoes, " among their
other vices, immorality and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes
are almost universal. From the last census it appears that more
than half of the children born in Barbadoes are illegitimate,"
In Antigua, " the number of illegitimate births averages fifty-
three per cent. In some other islands it exceeds one hundred
per cent." In Kingston, Jamaica, " promiscuous intercourse of
the sexes is the rule ; the population shows an unnatural de
crease ; illegitimacy exceeds legitimacy," In Antigua, " the agri
cultural population, for twenty years past, has diminished at the

332 PULPIT POLITICS.
rate of a half per cent, per annum, although the island is remark
ably healthy. The mortality is greater now than it was in the
days of slavery ; and the mortality is less on estates, at present,
than it is in the villages where the laborers reside on their own
lands." In Jamaica, "the mortality among the children, from
want of proper attention, is frightful. Nor, unfortunately, is this
the only evil that deprives Jamaica of a legitimate increase in
her population," Among the squatters and small proprietors,
" few understand the enjoyment of a regular meal. They eat
when they are hungry, and will sometimes take enough in the
morning to last the entire day."
Upon this array of facts, from the pages of Mr. Sewell, which
are elsewhere presented in a more extended form, many will be
surprised at the conclusions drawn by that gentleman. But there
is nothing unusual in men drawing false conclusions from the
facts before them. Nothing is more common in the field of the
natural sciences — the branch of geology, for example — .than for
the most successful collectors of facts to prove themselves very
often the poorest in generalization — the least capable of compre
hending the true relations of the materials they have accumu
lated. The case of the Plutonists and Neptunists, in the early
history of geology, is one in point. Every fact discovered among
the rocky strata of the earth's crust proved to the Plutonists
that the world had its origin from fire; while the same kind of
researches, by the Neptunists, led them to contend that all such
things had their origin from water.
So is it of the class of men to whom Mr. Sewell belongs. They
have theories in relation to slavery and emancipation : — that only
evil can come of the one, and only good of the other ; so that
all facts and results which do not accord with these theories
make so little impression upon their minds as to receive no atten
tion in arriving at their conclusions. Hence it is, that all facts
which would show any good results from slavery, or any ill re
sults from freedom, are instinctively rejected by this class of
philanthropists. i
With this solution of the process by which the mental action
of Mr. Sewell is controlled, the reader may solve many seeming

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 333
mysteries in the statements of that gentleman, quoted at large,
in the present chapter. A few only of the prominent defects in
his reasonings need be noted here.
The enjoyment of perfect freedom of action, by the negro, is
held, by Mr. Sewell, to be paramount to all other considerations.
This is a fair inference from much of the language he employs ;
and yet, no doubt, he would deny that he advocates any such an
absurdity. But what are the facts? He commends the negro
for refusing to assent to the abridgement of his liberties, required
by the system of tenancy-at-will. Rather than submit to this
regulation, which demands continuous labor, Mr. Sewell justi
fies him in. taking up his residence beyond the reach of schools,
churches, physicians, and every means of civilization, and almost
every personal comfort — sleeping upon the floor of his bamboo
hut, eating his one meal a day, and leaving his wife to carry to
market, upon her head, the crop of vegetables they produce !
According to Mr, Sewell, the negro endures all these disadvant
ages most heroically, not to avoid slavery — for the question is
no longer between liberty and slavery — ^but merely from an in
veterate aversion to engaging, upon the sugar plantations, in
Regular contract labor. This aversion to continuous industry is
considered by Mr, Sewell as the natural outgrowth of emancipa
tion : because all the ideas of slavery that ever entered the mind
of the negro were associated with sugar culture ; and all the
dreams of liberty that ever agitated his thoughts included the
hope of entire exemption from that kind of work. His master
was a gentleman, but his master never engaged in working at
sugar cultivation ; therefore, argued the negro, to be a gentle
man, he must not work at that employment.
Such sentiments in the negro, Mr. Sewell believes, go very far
in demonstrating that he has made vast progress toward a higher
and nobler manhood ; and yet, the terms of the contract made
with the coolie, and so highly commended in his book, for its
Christianizing and civilizing tendencies, is essentially the same,
in all its provisions, with the tenancy-at-will required of the
negro, and which he rejects with disdain as so insulting to his
dignity !

334 PULPIT POLITICS,
But this point needs no further comment, except to say that
no one who will carefully study the traits of character attributed
by Mr, Sewell to the West India negroes, and fairly contrast
them with t-he well-known habits of the native Africans, can come
to any other conclusion than that the inherent barbarism of the
race is fast resuming its sway over the great majority of the
blacks in the West Indies !
Nor is this result, under the circumstances, a strange one. On
the contrary, it is just what should have been anticipated. The
slave trade found the negroes barbarous : slavery, with a few
exceptions, left them barbarous ; and, destitute as they have been
of the means of moral elevation, they, of course, could make no
moral progress.
But who was in fault in producing these melancholy results ?
Not the negro, but the system adopted for his liberation from
bondage. He had been kept, while in slavery, in utter ignorance
and degradation ; and emancipation, making no provision foV his
education, "delivered him bound hand and foot by his own ignor
ance, incapacity, and vice, to a miserable destruction." *
Is this language too strong? Then, look again at what is said
in relation to the destructive vices prevailing in all these islands,
and the influence which the demoralization of the population has
had in diminishing their inhabitants. This is a dreadful fact,
and, though it has been often referred to in the course of our in
vestigations, it yet demands a more minute examination in this
new aspect of the emancipation question.
To judge accurately in relation to the effects of emancipation
upon the increase or decrease of the African population in the
British West Indies, some suitable standard of reference must be
taken, which will show the ordinary rate of increase of the race
under favorable circumstances. Africa has no statistics. Mexico
and the South American Republics are equally unsatisfactory.
The United States affords the only standard that can be used;
and of it the assertion has been made, that " the slavery which
existed in the Roman Empire, in the apostles' time, was, by no
means, so debasing, hopeless, and oppressive as negro slavery in
* Boston Courier, March 29, 1861.

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 385
our country,"* This assertion was made in the early days of
the anti-slavery movement, when the advocates of the abolition
of slavery first began their employment of the press to influence
ecclesiastical legislation, and secure the exclusion of the slave
holder from the communion of the Church,
But we must again hear the above writer. After referring to
several authors, he says no one can escape the conclusion "that
slavery, in modern times, exists in its mildest form in countries
where the Roman Catholic religion is the established religion,
and where the government is despotic or purely monarchical, as
in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies — that it becomes more
ferocious and oppressive in Protestant countries, where the gov
ernment is a mixed monarchy, as in the British colonies — and
that it is most debasing of all in countries where the religion is
purely Protestant, and the government free and republican, as
our own." f
The standard chosen with which to compare the West Indies,
if we give credit to this writer, should give to these British colo
nies a decided advantage, inasmuch as the slavery of the United
States, in his judgment, has been the most ferocious, oppressive,
and debasing of all other countries — British, Spanish, Portuguese,
Roman. But if it has been otherwise, then we have, in his lan
guage, a fair specimen of the unscrupulous character of the men
who, by gross misrepresentation, misled the churches into meas
ures destructive of their peace, and laid the foundation for that
political agitation which precipitated the country into civil war.
Let us, then, look at the facts, remembering we are writing
history, and not depending upon imagination for the basis of our
conclusions. Already we have drawn the contrast between the
facilities afforded in the West Indies and the United States for
the religious instruction of the slaves. By turning to the history
of that work, in a preceding chapter, and tracing it from the be
ginning up to 1830, it will be seen that the facts are altogether
different from the representations of this writer of 1829, No
reference, therefore, need be made here to anything but the ef
fects of emancipation upon the increase or decrease of population.
• Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, August, 1829, p. 230. t Ibid.

836 PULPIT POLITICS.
Taking the United States as the standard of comparison, it is
found that, at the date of the Declaration of American Indepen
dence, the several colonies had an aggregate of about 500,000
slaves. This fact is stated in the American Almanac, and is
based on satisfactory data.* The first census was taken in 1790,
and from that period to the present, the ratio of annual increase
has been fully ascertained. In the year 1800, the slaves of the
United States had increased to 893,000, and in 1830, to 2,009,-
043 — being an average annual increase, from 1800 to 1830, of
3,10-100 per cent. The ratio of annual increase was slightly
augmented from 1800 to 1810, by the addition of 39,000 blacks,
on the admission of Louisiana; and was diminished, from 1820
to 1830, by the emancipation of the remnant of 10,000 slaves
remaining in New York, in 1827. For all practical purposes,
the ratio of increase of the slave population in the United Stateis
may be estimated at three per cent, per annum, though it- is a
fraction less.
But this statement does not do full justice to the question of
the increase of the African race in the United States. In 1790,
there were only 40,212 free colored persons ; in 1830, they had
increased to 319,599, being an increase at the average rate of
nearly b^ per cent, per annum, and making a total colored popu
lation, slave and free, in 1830, of 2,328,642. Nearly one-half
of the increase of the free colored people must have been by
emancipation. * The estimates are as follows, for the several colonies :
Massachusetts,  3,000
Rhode Island,  4,370
Connecticut,  5,000
New Hampshire,  629
New York,  15,000
New Jersey,  7,600
Pennsylvania,  10,000
Delaware,  * 9,000
Maryland,  80,000
Virginia,  166,000
North Carolina,  76,000
South Carolina,  110,000
Georgia,  16,000
Total,  501,699

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. SiSY
Turning tO the British West Indies, we find, that when the
slave trade Ceased, in 1808, these islands had a slave population
of 800,000 — ^being nearly equal to the number in the United
States in 1800. Did they increase as rapidly as the colored
po{)ulation of the United States ? By no means. Instead of that,
the census of 1835, taken under the emancipation act, shows a re
duction of the slave population to 660,000. This number includes
only the slave population, and not the free colored and the whites.
Had the increase of the blacks in the British West Indies, after
the suppression of the slave trade, in 1808, been equal to the in
crease of the slaves in the United States, these islands would have
numbered, at the time of emancipation, in 1838, nearly 2,000,000 ;
bt(t, from causes before explained, there was no increase during
that period, btit a falling off in their numbers to the extent of
140,000 !
Here, then, is the contrast between the slavery of the United
States and that of the West Indies, in its effects upon the ihcrease
or decrease of the slave population in the tWo cases, respectively,
from the prohibition of the slave trade, by both countries, to the
final abolition of slavery in the British colonies. The comparison
is for an equal number of years,^but not of even date^ — the United
States beginning with 1800 and ending with 1830; the colonies
beginning with 1808 and ending with 1838, The slave popula
tion of each, in the outset, was nearly equal — 893,000 to 800,000
— and the final result shows an increase for the United States,
exclusive of emancipations, of 1,116,000, and a decrease for the
British colonies, on the slave population alone, of 140,000 ! *
But let us proceed to the main point — the effect of em'ancipation
upon the population of the British West Indies, as contrasted with
that of slavery on the slave population of the United States :
* Exactness as to the United States cannot be had, from 1790 to 180S, because
emancipation, on tbe one hand, was adding to the free colored population, and
the slave trade, on the other, was increasing the number of the slaves. The ratio
of increase of the former, from 1798 to 1800, was 8 22-100 per cent, per annum,
and of the latter, 2 79-100. Again, from 1800 to 1810, the increaiseof the fornier
was 7 20-100, and of the latter, including 39,000 from Louisiana, it was 3 34-100
per cent, per annum. The census for 'the British colonies was taken in 1835, but
will represent 1838.
22

838 PULPIT POLITICS.
Beginning where we left off, the slave population of the United
States, in 1830, was 2,009,043, which had increased, in 1860, to
3,950,343 — an increase indicating a condition of physical com
fort fully equal to that of the populations of the civilized world
generally. Between 1830 and 1840, the cholera visited Amer
ica, and the ratio of increase of the slaves was considerably re
duced. The West India Islands, in 1838, emancipated 660,000 slaves.
Besides these liberated slaves, the islands had a considerable popu
lation of whites and free colored people — Jamaica, alone, having
60,000 of the latter.* All the other islands, probably, had about
an equal, number of free colored persons. From the best data
before us, the conjecture is, that the whites of the whole islands
may have been near 50,000. If so, then, the whole population,
including all colors, was about 834,000.
Here, now, as to population, is the point from which the British
West India colonies took their start in the career of freedom.
The whole population was now upon an equality, and white, yel
low, black, could compete, upon equal terms, under the civil law,
for wealth and distinction. A generation nearly had passed
away since any blacks had been imported from Africa. The
sexes had become equalized, and the belief existed, that from the
date of emancipation, and as a necessary consequence of that
measure, the natural increase of the population would be such as
to add rapidly to the labor force of the islands.
We have seen that the slave population of the United States
has doubled since 1830. Has anything so favorable occurred to
the free population of the West Indies ? Alas, no ! American
slavery proves itself, as to its effects upon population, a perfect
paradise of physical comfort and moral influence, as compared
with the British West Indies.
Let us ascertain the facts, as far as practicable. Jamaica
emancipated 320,000 slaves in 1838, and, at the same time, had
60,000 free colored people. This gave her a total colored popu
lation of 380,000, at the time of emancipation. The present
population of Jamaica, exclusive of the whites, is 350,000 f—
» SeweU, p, 245, t Sewell,

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 339
being a decrease of 30,000 in 22 years ! Had there been an in
crease of the colored population of Jamaica under freedom, in the
same ratio in which those of the United States have increased
under slavery, that island, in 1860, would have numbered about
640,000 souls, instead of having had a decrease of 30,000 !
The total population of Jamaica, whites, blacks and mulattoes,
at present, is 378,000,* of which, according to the above statis
tics, 350,000 are mulattoes and blacks. The cholera in Jamaica,
as well as in the United States, was severe among the colored
population ; but their scattered condition in Jamaica, placing them
beyond the care of the whites, and leaving them without proper
medical attention, may have caused a greater proportional mor
tality among them, in that island, than occurred in the United
States. This, however, was one of the consequences of freedom.
In turning to the other British islands, we flnd that Barbadoes,
Antigua, St, Vincent, St, Lucia, Dominica, Tobago, Trinidad,
Grenada, Nevis, Montserrat, St, Kitts, and the Virgin Islands,
embrace an aggregate population of about 395,000, including
whites, blacks, and mulattoes. The first six of these islands in
clude nearly 21,400 whites, at present, but the number of the
whites and free colored persons, and the number of slaves eman
cipated, in 1838, are not given ;f so that it is impossible to de
termine, with exactness, the extent of increase or decrease in
their colored population, .The last six of these islands seems to
have afforded to Mr, Sewell — from whom the statistics are gath
ered — no means of determining their white population, either at
present or before emancipation ; nor has he given the number of
free colored persons in them at the time of the abolition of slavery.
One reason of the defect is, that, under freedom, many of the
islands are careful to exclude all reference to color in the census
returns. By adding the present colored population of these islands —
373,600 — to the present number of the colored people in Jamaica

» SeweU, p. 1 77.
t Their white population stands thus, according to Mr. Sewell : Barbadoes,
15,824; Antigua, 2,172; St. Vincent, 1,500; St. Lucia, 958; Dominica, 850;
Tobago, 160.

840 PULPIT POLITICS.
— 350,000 — the whole colored population of the British West
India colonies, in 1860, is found to be 723,600. This, however,
includes the whites in the last six islands enumerated, and eman
cipation has that advantage in these estimates.
The contrast between freedom and slavery, in its effects upon
population, may be thus summed up :
Total slaves emancipated in 1838,  660,000
By Jamaica,  320,000
By the other islands,  340,000 660,000
Add free colored population in 1838,
In Jamaica,  60,000
In the other islands,  60,000 120,000
Total colored population in 1838,  780,000
Total colored population in 1860,  723,600
Decrease of colored population under freedom,  56,400
Here we have the effects of emancipation upon the increase of
population — resulting, in the aggregate, in causing a decrease
in the population of the islands, during freedom, of more than
56,000 souls out of a population of 660,000, or more than eight
per cent, of a loss in twenty-five years !
In reference to the production of the islands, and the econ
omical failure of emancipation, especially in Jamaica, the late
reports to Parliament fully sustain the assertions of Mr. Sewell,
and corroborate the testimony we have collected from other
sources. The report of the Governor, says the New York Inde
pendent, " gives a good account of the happiness of the popula
tion, so far as a mere animal life of independence is concerned,
but holds out little' encouragement to those who would hope that
labor may be attracted to any system of combined enterprise, such
as the growth of cotton, or of any produce in which joint-stock
capital might be embarked. The four great staples of export are
still sugar, rum, coffee, and pimento ; but the quantities of sugar
and coffee seem rather to diminish than increase. An export of
sugar of about 30,000 tons, more or less, according to the nature
of the seasons, is considered the best result that can be hoped for
from the existing population. . . . The obvious remedy is

ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 341
considered to lie in efforts for obtaining contract laborers from
India and elsewhere. In that manner the island may one day
again become a valuable possession, and meanwhile it is gratify
ing to know that the negro population, although inefficient for
co-operative purposes essential to raise a country to any com
mercial standing, are by no means retrograding to barbarism." *
From many other anti-slavery sources, from year to year, we
have been assured that West India slavery had kept the negro
population in the ignorance and degradation of their original bar
barism. If the truth was then told, the Governor may safely say
that the population is not now " retrograding ;" and, if Mr. Sew
ell tells the truth, we cannot see how the great bulk of the people
can sink to any lower depth of moral debasement than that in
which he found them.
On the question of the economical failure of emancipation, there
can no longer remain the shadow of a doubt upon the minds of
candid men. It is admitted by the Governor of Jamaica ; and his
only hope of the ultimate recovery of the islands to a prosperous
condition, is by substituting coolie labor for that of the negroes.
We can give no more appropriate conclusion to this chapter,
than to copy, from the London Times, a few paragraphs in rela
tion to emancipation and its effects in the West Indies :
"There is no blinking the truth, , . , and it must be spoken
out loudly and energetically, despite the wild mockings of ' howling
cant,' The freed West India slave will not till the soil for wages; the
free son of the ex-slave is as obstinate as his sire. He will not cul
tivate lands which he has not bought for his own use. Yams, man
goes, and plantains ; these satisfy his wants ; he does not care for yours.
Cotton, sugar, coffee, and tobacco — he cares but little for them. And
what matters it to him that the Englishman has sunk his thousands
and tens of thousands on mills, machinery, and plants, which now totter
on the languishing estate, that for years has only returned beggary and
debt ? He eats his yams, and sniggers at ' buckra,'
" We know not why this should be, but it is so. The negro has been
bought with a price^the price of English taxation and English toil.
He has been redeemed from bondage by the sweat and travail of some
* New York Independent, September 19, 1861.

342 PULPIT POLITICS.
millions of hard-working Englishmen, Twenty mil lions of pounds ster
ling — one hundred millions of dollars — have been distilled from the brains
and muscles of the free English laborer, of every degree, to fashion the West
India negro into ' a free and independent laborer,' ' Free and indepen
dent' enough he has become, God knows ; but laborer he is not ; and, so
far as we can see, never will be. He will sing hymns and quote texts ;
but honest, steady industry he not only detests, but despises. We wish
heaven that some people in England — neither government people, nor
parsons, nor clergymen, but some just-minded, honest-hearted, and
clear-sighted men would go out to some of the islands, (say Jamaica,
Bominica, or Antigua,) not for a month, or three months, but for a
year — would watch the precious protegi of English philanthropy, the
free negro, in his daily habits ; would watch him as he lazily plants his
little squatting; would see him as he proudly rejects agricultural domes
tic services, or accepts it only at wages ludicrously disproportionate to
the value of his work. We wish, too, they would watch him, with a
hide thicker than that of a hippopotamus, and a body to which fervid
heat is a comfort rather than an annoyance, as he droningly lounges
over the prescribed task on which the intrepid Englishman, uninured
to the burning sun, consumes his impatient energy, and too often sacri
fices his life. We wish they would go out and view the negro in all
the blazonry of his idleness, his pride, his ingratitude, contemptuously
sneering at the industry of that race which made him free, and then
come home, and teach the memorable lesson of their experience to the
fanatics who have perverted him into what he is," ,
Taking, then, the whole testimony on the subject — civil, social,
moral, physical, economical, — and it is fully proved that West
India emancipation, in its expected results, is a miserable failure.

CHAPTER VI.
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND SLAVERY.
Section I. — Early Legislation on the Subject op Sla-vbry.
1, In 1787, The General Assembly Presbyterian Church
IN North America, while yet acting under the title of the
Synod of New York and Philadelphia, announced its views on
slavery. Six years later, 1793, when the General Assembly had
been fully organized, the action of 1787 was re-affirmed and made
the rule of the Church upon the subject. It was as follows :
" ' The Creator of the world having made of one flesh all the chil
dren of men, it becomes them, as members of the same family, to con
sult and promote each others' happiness. It is more especially the
duty of those who maintain the rights of humanity, and who acknowl
edge and teach the obligations of Christianity, to use such means as
are in their power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every
part of the human race.' (1)
" ' From a full conviction of these truths, and sensible that the
rights of human nature are too well understood to admit of debate,
overtured, that the Synod of New York and Philadelphia recommend,
in the warmest terms, to every member of their body, and to all the
churches and families under their care, to do every thing in their
power, consistent with the rights of civil society, to promote the
abolition of slavery, and the instruction of negroes, whether bond or
free.' (2)
"The Synod, taking into consideration the overture concerning
slavery transmitted by the committee of Overtures last Saturday,
came to the following judgment : —
" ' The Synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly approve
of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in
America, and the interest which many of the States have taken in
(343)

344 PULPIT politics.
promoting the abolition of slavery ; yet, inasmuch as men introduced
from a servile state to a participation of all the privileges of civil
society, without a proper education and without previous habits of
industry, may be in many respects dangerous to the community, there
fore they earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to
their communion to give those persons, who are at present held in
servitude, such good education as to prepare them for the better en
joyment of freedom: (3) and they moreover recommend that masters,
wherever they find servants disposed to makp a just improvement of
the privilege, would give them a peculium, or grant them sufficient
time, and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate
rate, that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits
of industry that may render them useful citizens ; and, finally, they
recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures,
consistent with the interest and state of civil society, in the counties
where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of slavery
in America.' " — Min. 1787, pp. 539-540.
" The Assembly of 1815 declared ' that, although in some sections
of our country, under certain circumstances, the transfer of slaves
may be unavoidable, yet they consider the buying and selling of slaves
by way of traffic, and all undue severity in the management of them,
as inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel. And they recommend it
to the Presbyteries and Sessions under their care to make use of all
prudent measures to prevent such shameful and unrighteous conduct.'
'i The Assembly of 1815 ' expressed their regret that the slavery of
the Africans and of their descendants still continues in so many places,
and even among those within the pale of the Church,' and called par
ticular attention to the action of 1795 with respect to the buying and
selling of slaves.
"In 1818, the Assembly unanimously adopted a report on this
subject, prepared by Dr. Green, of Philadelphia, Dr. Baxter, of Vir
ginia, and Mr. Burgess, of Ohio, of which the following is a part : —
" ' We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human
race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred
rights of human nature, as utterly inconsistent with the law of God,
which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and as totally
irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the Gospel of Christ,
which enjoins that " all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them," Slavery creates a paradox w, the
moral system : it exhibits rational, accountable and immortal beings

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 345
in such oiieumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral
action. It exhibits them as dependent on the will of others whether
they shall receive religious instruction ; whether they shall know and
worship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the
gospel ; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endear
ments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and
friends ; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity, or
regard the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are some of the
consequences of slavery, — consequences not imaginary, but which
connect themselves with its very existence. The evils to which the
slave is always exposed often take place in fact, and in their very
worst degree and form ; and, where all of them do not take place, — as
we rejoice to say that in many instances, through the influence of the
principles of humanity and religion on the minds of masters, they do
not,^still, the slave is deprived of his natural right, degraded as a
human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of
a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries
which inhumanity and avarice may suggest.
" From this view of the consequences resulting from the practice
into which Christian people have most inconsistently fallen of enslav
ing a portion of their brethren of mankind, — for God hath made of
one blood all pations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, — it is
jnanifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the
present day, when the inconsistency of slavery both with the dictates
pf humanity and religion has been demonstrated and is generally seen
and acknowledged, to use their honest, earnest and unwearied en
deavors to correct the errors of former ' times, and as speedily as
possible to efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the
con;iplete abolition of slavery throughout. Christendom, and, if possible,
throughout the world.'
" The Assembly also recommended ' to all the members of our
religious denomination, not only to permit, but to facilitate and
encourage, the instruction of their slaves in the principles and duties
of the Christian religion;' and added, 'We enjoin it on all church
sessions and Presbyteries under the care of this Assembly to dis
countenance, and, as far as possible, to prevent, all cruelty of whatever
kind, in the treatment of slaves, especially the cruelty of separating
husband and wife, parents and children, and that which consists in
selling slaves to those who will either themselves deprive these un
happy people of the blessings of the Gospel, or who will transport

346 PULPIT POLITICS.
them to places where the Gospel is not proclaimed or where it is
forbidden to slaves to attend upon its institutions.' (4)
" The foregoing 'testimonials on the subject of slavery were uni
versally acquiesced in by the Presbyterian Church up to the time
of the division in 1838."*
Section II. — The Legislation op the General Assembly,
(0. S.,) AFTER THE DIVISION OF THE ChURCH.
I. The following embraces the legislation of the 0. S. Gen
eral Assembly, after the division of the Church, in 1838, as
published in the Assembly's Digest, issued by the Presbyterian
Board of Publication, 1846. The subject having been from
time to time, for a series of years, urged upon the Assembly,
it was taken up in 1845, and the following paper adopted:'
" The committee to whom were referred the memorials on' the
subject of slavery, beg leave to submit the following report:
(a.) " The memorialists may be divided into three classes, viz :
" 1. Those who represent the system of slavery, as it exists in
these United States, as a great evil, and pray this General Assembly
to adopt measures for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves,
" 2. Those which ask the Assembly to receive memorials on the
subject of slavery, to allow a full discussion of it, and to enjoin upon
the members of our Church, residing in States whose laws forbid the
slaves being taught to read, to seek, by all lawful means, the. repeal
of those laws.
" 3. Those which represent slavery as a moral evil, a heinous sin
in the sight of God, calculated to bring upon the Church the curse
of God, and calling for the exercise of discipline in the case of those
who persist in maintaining or justifying the relation of master to
slaves. (6.) " The question whioh is now unhappily agitating and dividing
other branches of the Church, and which is pressed upon the atten
tion of the Assembly by one of the three classes of memorialists just
named, is, whether the holding of slaves is, under all circumstances,
a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the Church.
* The synopsis of the proceedings of the General Assembly, from 1815 to
1818, are copied from the publication made by the N. S. General Assembly
at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1857.

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY 347
(c.) " The Church of Christ is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction
extends to the religious faith and moral conduct of her members.
She can not legislate where Christ has not legislated, nor make
terms of membership which he has not made. The question, there
fore, which this Assembly is called to decide, is this ; Do the
Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without regard to cir
cumstances, is a sin, the renunciation of which should be made a
condition of membership in the Church of Christ ? (5)
(d) " It is impossible to answer this question in the affirmative,
without contradicting some of the plainest declarations of the Word
of God. That slavery existed in the days of Christ and his apostles
is an admitted fact. That they did not denounce the relation itself
as sinful, as inconsistent with Christianity ; that slaveholders were
admitted to membership in the churches organized by the apostles ;
that while they were required to treat their slaves with kindness,
and as rational, accountable, immortal beings, and, if Christians, as'
brethren in the Lord, they were not commanded to emancipate them ;
that slaves were required to be ' obedient to their masters according
to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart as unto
Christ,' are facts which meet the eye of every reader of the New
Testament. This Assembly can not, therefore, denounce the holding
of slaves as necessarily a heinous and scandalous sin, calculated to
bring upon the Church the curse of God, without charging the
apostles of Christ with conniving at sin, introducing into the Church
such sinners, and thus bringing upon them the curse of the Almighty.
(e) " In so saying, however, the Assembly are not to be understood
as denying that there is evil connected with slavery. Much less do
they approve those defective and oppressive laws by which, in some
of the States, it is regulated. Nor would they by any means coun
tenance the traffic in slaves for gain ; the separation of husbands and
wives, parents and children, for the sake of ' filthy lucre,' or for the
convenience of the master ; or cruel treatment of slaves, in any respect.
Every Christian and philanthropist certainly should seek, by all peace
able and lawful means, the repeal of unjust and oppressive laws, and
the amendment of such as are defective, so as to protect the slaves
from cruel treatment by wicked men, and secure to them the right to
receive religious instruction.
(/) " Nor is the Assembly to be understood as countenancing the
idea that masters may regard their servants as mere property, and
not as human beings, rational, accountable, immortal. The Scriptures

348 PULPIT POLITICS.
prescribe not only the duties of servants, but masters also, warnijig
the latter to discharge those duties, ' knowing that their Master is in
heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him,'
(g) " The Assembly intend simply to say, that since Christ and his
inspired apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to com
munion, we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to do so ; since
they did not attempt to remove it from the Church by legislation, we
have no authority to legislate upon the subject. We feel ftirther
constrained to say, that however desirable it may be to ameliorate
the condition of the slaves in the Southern and Western States, or to
remove slavery from our country, these objects, we are fully per
suaded, can never be secured by ecclesiastical legislation. Much less
can they be attained by those indiscriminate denunciations against
slaveholders, without regard to their character or circumstances,
which have to so great an extent characterized the movements of
modern abolitionists, which, so far from removing the evils complained
of, tend only to perpetuate and aggravate them,
" The apostles of Christ sought to ameliorate the condition of
slaves, not by denouncing and excommunicating their masters, but
by teaching both masters and slaves the glorious doctrines of the
Gospel, and enjoining upon each the discharge of their relative
duties. Thus only can the Church of Christ, as such, now improve
the condition of the slaves in our country,
(K) " As to the extent of the evils involved in slavery, and the
best methods of removing them, various opinions prevail, and neither
the Scriptures nor our Constitution authorize this body to prescribe
any particular course to be pursued by the churches under our care.
The Assembly can not but rejoice, however, to learn that the minis
ters and churches in the slaveholding States are awake to a deeper
sense of their obligation to extend to the slave population generally
the means of grace, and many slaveholders not professedly religious
favor this object. We earnestly exhort them to abound more and
more in this good work. We would exhort every believing master
to remember that his Master is also in heaven, and in view of all the
circumstances in which he is placed, to act in the spirit of the golden
rule : ' Whatsoever, ye would that men should do to you, do ye even
the same to them.'
" In view of the above-stated principles and facts,
"Resolved, 1. That the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church iu the United States was originally organized,, and has since.

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 349
continued the bond of union in the Church, upon the conceded prin
ciple that the existence of domestic slavery, under the circumstances
in which it is found in the southern portion of the country, is no
bar to Christian communion.
" 2. That the petitions that ask the Assembly to make the holding
of slaves in itself a matter of discipline, do virtually require this judi
catory to dissolve itself, and abandon the organization under which,
by the Divine blessing, it has so long prospered. The tendency is
evidently to separate the northern from the southern portion of the
Church ; a result which every good citizen must deplore, as tending to
the dissolution of the Union of our beloved country, and which every
enlightened Christian will oppose as bringing about a ruinous and un
necessary schism between brethren who maintain a common faith. (6)
" The yeas and nays being ordered, were — yeas, 168 ; nays, 13 ; ex
cused, 4. — Minutes, 1845, page 16."
Some agitation of the question of slavery was subsequently
produced, by petitions presented and by overtures from Presby
teries, but any additional legislation upon the subject has been
deemed inexpedient by the Assembly,
2. At the meeting of the General Assembly, (Old School,) in
1861, after much excited discussion, the following resolutions
were passed :
" Gratefully acknowledging the distinguished bounty and care of
Almighty God toward this favored land, and also recognizing our
obligation to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
this General Assembly adopt the following resolutions :
" 1. Resolved, That in view of the present agitated and unhappy
condition of this country, the first day of July next is set apart as a
day of prayer throughout our bounds, and that on this day ministers
and people are called on humbly to confess and bewail their national
sins, and to offer our thanks to the Father of lights for his abundant
and undeserved goodness toward us as a nation, to seek his guidance
and blessing upon our rulers and their counsels, as well as the assem
bled Congress of the United States, and to implore Him, in the name
of Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of the Christian profession, to
turn away His anger from us, and speedily restore to us the blessings
of a safe and honorable peace.
"2. Resolved, That this General Assembly, in the spirit of that

350 PULPIT POLITICS.
Christian patriotism which the Scriptures enjoin, and which haa
always characterized this Church, do hereby acknowledge and declare
our obligations to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the
integrity of these United States, and to strengthen, uphold and en
courage the Federal Government in the exercise of all its functions
under' our noble Constitution, and to this Constitution, in all its pro
visions, requirements, and principles, we profess our unabated loyalty.
And to avoid all misconception, the Assembly declares that by the
terms ' Federal Government,' as here used, is not meant any particu
lar Administration, or the peculiar opinions of any political party, but
that central Administration which being at any time appointed and in
augurated according to the terms prescribed in the Constitution of the
United States, is the visible representative of our national existence."
As we shall offer no extended remarks upon the proceedings
of 1861, by either of the General Assemblies, we append a re
sponse to that of the Old School Assembly by the Presbytery
of Louisville, Kentucky :
" Regarding the deliverances of the General Assembly not as mere
expressions of opinion of an advisory council, to be quietly ignored
if judged erroneous, but, on the contrary, as our standards teach, in the
light of solemn enactments in the name of Christ, to be received with
reverence, when in conformity with God's Word, or to be distinctly
impugned and rejected, when opposed thereto, the Presbytery of
Louisville, after duly considering the act of the late General Assem
bly touching the political allegiance of ministers and members of the
Church, as found on p. 329, and in answer to protests, pp. 341 and 344,
feels called upon in this solemn manner to testify against the danger
ous errors in doctrine involved in that action, and to repudiate the
same as of no binding effect upon our ministers and churches. It
appears, from the reports of Commissioners, and from the minutes,
(compare p. 329 with p. 303), that this action was taken under con
straint, directly in opposition to the Assembly's own free and uncon
trolled judgment previously given against making any such deliv
erance ; that the pressure from without, from popular clamor, con
strained the Assembly to reverse its decisions. We feel, therefore,
the less hesitancy in setting aside this deliverance on this account.
" The action of the General Assembly on this subject involves these
essential errors.

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY, 351
"First, the assumption of power to determine questions of political
allegiance, is dire'ctly contrary to the teachings of Christ and His
Apostles, who uniformly enjoin obedience to Caesar as a Christian
duty ; but abstain from determining as between the claims of rival
Caesars to the allegiance of Christians. It is notoriously contrary to
the great distinctive doctrine of the Church of Scotland, as attested
by Martyrs, General Assemblies, and Confessions, ' that the power and
policie ecclesiastical is distinct in its own nature from the civil
power,' and that ' the two jurisdictions confounded, which God hath
divided, directly tendeth to the wreck of all true religion.' It is
directly in conflict with the corresponding declaration of our own
confession — ' Synods and Councils are not to intermeddle with civil
affairs,' etc. It is in disregard of the testimony of the fathers who
formed the Constitution of the American Presbyterian Church, who
taking the principle, secured for it recognition by the civil govern
ment in the law of Virginia and the Federal Constitution.
" Second. In the answer to the protest against the resolution of
the Assembly there are interpretations of Scripture which this Pres
bytery hold to be gravely erroneous, and also propositions concerning
the relation of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, which we regard
as dangerous, though we deem it inexpedient to cite them in detail or
make deliverance in regard to them separately from the resolution
of the Assembly. This Presbytery, therefore, utters this testimony
against these errors of doctrine and principle, and solemnly rejects the
action of the Assembly in the premises as unconstitutional and of no
binding force upon us.
" The Presbytery, believing that the kingdom of Christ is not to be
limited by civil bounds, will cordially unite with all true and conserv
ative men in our beloved Church, North or South, in defending and
preserving the purity, unity and prosperity of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America."
Section III, — Legislation of the General Assembly, New
School, after the Division op the Church,
1, The following embraces the legislation of the New School
General Assembly, after the division in 1838, as authorized to be
published by the Assembly of 1857 :
"In the year 1846, the General Assembly made a declaration on
this subject, of which the following is the introductory paragraph : — ¦

352 PULPIT politics.
" ' 1. The system of slavery, as it exists in these United States,
viewed either in the laws of the several States which sanction it, or
in its actual operatioij and results in society, is intrinsically an un
righteous and oppressive system, and is opposed to the prescriptions
of the law of God, to the spirit and precepts of the gOspel, and to the
best interests of humanity,'
" In 1849, the Assembly explicitly re-affirmed the sentiments ex
pressed by the Assemblies of 1815, 1818, and 1846, In the year 1850,
the General Assembly made the following declaration ; — ' We exceed
ingly deplore the working of the whole system of Slavery as it exists
in our country and is interwoven with the political institutions of the
slave-holding States, as fraught with many and great evils to the civilj
political, and moral interests of those regions where it exists,
" ' The holding of our fellow-men in the condition of slavery, ex
cept in those cases where it is unavoidable by the laws of the State,
the obligations of guardianship, or the demands of humanity, is an
offense in the proper import of that term as used in the Book of
Discipline, chap. 1, sec. 3, and should be regarded and treated in the
same manner as other offenses.'
" Occupying the position in relation to this subject which the
framers of our Constitution held at the first, and which our Church
has always held, it is with deep grief that we now discover that a por
tion of the Church at the South has so far departed from the estab
lished doctrine of the Church in relation to slavery as to maintain
that ' it is an ordinance of God,' and that the system of slavery ex
isting in these United States is scriptural and right. Against this
new doctrine we feel constrained to bear our solemn testimony. It is
at war with the whole spirit and tenor of the gospel of love and good
will, as well as abhorrent to the conscience of the Christian world.
We can have no sympathy or fellowship with it; and we exhort all
our people to eschew it as serious and pernicious error.
" We are especially pained by the fact that the Presbytery of Lex
ington, South, have given official notice to us that a number of min
isters and ruling elders, as well as many^ church-members, in their
connection, hold slaves ' from principle ' and ' of choice,' ' believing it to
be according to the Bible right,' and have, without any qualifying
explanation, assumed the responsibility of sustaining such minister^,
elders, and church-members in their position. We deem it our duty, ih
the exercise of our constitutional authority, ' to bear testimony against
error in doctrine or immorality in practice in any Church, Presbytery,

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY 868
or Synod,' to disapprove and earnestly condemn the position whioh
has been thus assumed by the Presbytery of Lexington, South, as
one which is opposed to the established convictions of the Presby
terian Church, and must operate to mar its peace and seriously hinder
its prosperity, as well as bring reproach on our holy religion ; and we
do hereby call on that Presbytery to review and rectify their position.
Such doctrines and practice can not be permanently tolerated in the
Presbyterian Church. May they speedily melt away under the illu
minating and mellowing infiuence of the Gospel and grace of God
our Saviour I
"We do not, indeed, pronounce a sentence of indiscriminate con
demnation upon all our brethren who are unfortunately connected
with the system of slavery. We tenderly sympathize with all those
who deplore the evil, and are honestly doing all in their power for
the present well-being of their slaves and for their complete emanci
pation. We would aid, and not embarrass, such brethren. And yet,
in the language of the General Assembly of 1818, we would ' earnestly
warn them against unduly extending the plea of necessity, — against
making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretense
for not using efforts that are lawful and practicable to extinguish
this evil.' (7)
" In conclusion, the Assembly call the attention of the Puhlication
Committee to this subject, and recommend the publication, in a con
venient form, of the testimony of the Presbyterian Church touching
this subject, at the earliest practicable period.
" The vote upon its adoption was by yeas and nays.
"Adopted: yeas, 169; nays, 26; nan liquet, 2." — Minutes 1857,
pp. 401-404."
The decisions of the General Assembly being so decidedly
anti-slavery in their character, the southern ministers felt them
selves constrained to withdraw from its jurisdiction, and that
body now stands clear of all connection with slavery or slave
holders, 2. At the meeting of the General Assembly (New School,) at
Syracdse, New York, in 1861, the following resolutions, in rela
tion to the " state of the country," were passed unanimously :
" The Committee to whom it was referred to inquire what action,
by reaolution or otherwise, it is meet for the Assembly to take in
28

854 PULPIT POLITICS.
view of the present condition of our country, beg leave to recommend
the following resolutions ;
" 1, Resolved, That inasmuch as the Presbyterian Church, in her
past history, has frequently lifted up her voice against oppression,
has shown herself a champion of constitutional liberty, as against
both despotism and anarchy, throughout the civilized world, we
should be recreant to our high trust were we to withhold our earnest
protest against all such unlawful and treasonable acts.
" 2. Resolved, That this Assembly and the Churches which it repre
sents, cherish an undiminished attachment to the great principles of
civil and religious freedom on which our National Government is
based ; under the influence of which our fathers prayed, and fought,
and bled ; which issued in the establishment of our independence,
and by the preservation of which we believe that the common inter
ests of evangelical religion and civil liberty will be most effectively
sustained. " 3. Resolved, That inasmuch as we believe, according to our Form
of Government, that ' God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the
world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be, under him, over the
people, for his own glory and the public good, and to this end hath
armed them with the power of the sword for the defense and en
couragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil
doers,' — there is, in the judgment of the Assembly, no blood or
treasure too precious to be devoted to the defense and perpetuity of
the Government in all its constitutional authority,
" 4. Resolved, That all those who are endeavoring to uphold the
Constitution and maintain the Government of these United States in
the exercise of its lawful prerogatives, are entitled to the sympathy
and support of all Christians and law-abiding citizens.
" 5. Resolved, That it be recommended to all our pastors and
churches to be instant and fervent in prayer for the President of
the United States, and all in authority under him, that wisdom and
strength may be given them in the discharge of their arduous duties ;
for the Congress of the United States ; for the Lieutenant-General
commanding the army-in-chief, and all our soldiers, that God may
shield them from danger in the hour of peril, and, by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit upon the army and navy, renew and sanctify them,
so that whether living or dying, they may be servants of the Most
High. " 6. Resolved, That in the countenance which many ministers of

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 355
the Gospel, and other professing Christians, are now giving to treason
and rebellion against the Government, we have great occasion to
mourn for the injury thus done to the kingdom of the Redeemer;
and that, though we have nothing to add to our former significant
and explicit testimonies on the subject of slavery, we yet recommend
our people to pray more fervently than ever for the removal of this
evil, and all others, both social and political, which lie at the foun
dation of our present national difficulties,
" 7, Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the offi
cers of the General Assembly, be forwarded to His Excellency, Abra
ham Lincoln, President of the United States."
Section IV. — Remarks on the Ecclesiastical Legislation
OF THE General Assembly Presbyterians.
Attention is called to a few points in the legislation of the
General Assembly Presbyterians,
(1) The Presbyterian ministers, at the time our republic was
founded, had no belief that mere personal freedom possessed
any great advantages to mankind. (2) This is apparent from
the emphatic manner in which they urge the " instruction of the
negroes, whether bond or free," And, besides, while their people
were exhorted to do every thing in their power to promote the
abolition of slavery, they were to act consistently with the rights
of civil society. (3) While approving the general principles in
favor of universal liberty, and the interest which many of the
States had taken in promoting the abolition of slavery, they
yet believed that men introduced from a servile state to a par
ticipation of all the privileges of civil society, without proper
education, and without previous habits of industry, may be in
many respects dangerous to the community ; and they earnestly
recommended, therefore, to all the members belonging to their
communion to give those persons, who were held in servitude,
such good education as would prepare them for the better enjoy
ment of freedom. Such was the position of the Presbyterian
Church in 1787.
(4) While taking higher ground, in 1816, and more strongly
urging the duty of promoting emancipation, the Assembly still

356 PULPIT politics,
gave paramount importance to the question of securing to the
colored people the blessings of the Gospel. The duty of imme
diate and unconditional emancipation was not urged.
(5) In 1845, the Assembly (Old School,) had to meet the
question whether slaveholding, without regard to circumstances,
is a sin? This was a test question, designed to determine
whether the General Assembly Presbyterians should take abo
lition ground, or maintain their former conservative position.
They decided to maintain their old ground, and thus gave a re
buke to the abolition members of the Church, who had kept up
the agitation of the slavery question ; at the same time, however,
the Assembly expressed the opinion, that the abuses of the rela
tion of master and slave were suitable subjects for discipline,
and called for action on the part of their people in applying the
proper remedy. The Assembly further expressed the opinion,
that it is only by the influence of the Gospel upon both masters
and slaves, and the proper discharge of the relative duties of
each to the other, that the condition of the slaves can be im
proved. ¦J (6) But there is here one important declaration that must not
be overlooked. The Assembly give it as their deliberate judg
ment, that the tendency of the abolition movements, by agitating
the slavery question in the Church, was to promote the dissolu
tion of the Union. Alas, this fear was but too well founded ! "^
(7) It will be seen, that the action of the Assembly, (New
School) after the separation in 1838, was more anti-slavery in
its character than that of the Old School. While, however, it
has been considered at the South as bearing the abolition stamp,
we believe the Assembly itself did not contemplate taking aboU-
tion grounds.
The legislation here presented affords no adequate idea of
the excitements which preceded and accompanied it. The docu
ments going out to the public after 1830, are only an embodi
ment of the conservative element existing within the bosom of
the Church, We refer especially to the Old School Assembly.
Had nothing else appeared but the resolutions agreed upon,
there would have been no grounds for alarm at the South, that

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY, 357
the Presbyterians North were determined upon the overthrow of
slavery. But, unfortunately, the violent men found means and
ways of putting into circulation their high-toned abolition senti
ments ; and conservative men, taking no steps to counteract the
effects of such productions, allowed them full sway in creating a
public opinion at the South that was wholly unsupported by the
real facts in the case. In this matter conservative men greatly
erred. They should never have yielded to the abolition storm ;
but have spoken out boldly in reprobation of the fanaticism that
has worked out its ruinous consequences upon both Church and
State. There has no good, but much ill, resulted from the
ecclesiastical legislation of ^the Presbyterian General Assemblies
on the subject of slavery.'^ This must be the conclusion of every
right-minded Christian.

CHA«'TER VII.
the SCOTTISH AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY.
The Churches classed under this head are the Reformed Pres
byterian Synod, the Associate Synod, the Associate Reformed
Synod of the West, and the United Presbyterian General As
sembly. Section I. — The Legislation of the Associate Synod of
North America on Slavery.
This Church, originally, was an off-shoot of the Seceders in
Scotland. The subject of slavery was agitated by the mother
Church as early as 1788, One of the original Presbyteries of
the Associate Church in the United States had its location in
Kentucky, and, as early as the year 1808, sent. up an address to
the Presbytery of Pennsylvania, asking that a warning might be
issued against the sin of slaveholding. With this request the
Presbytery complied, and in their warning declare slaveholding
to be a moral evil and unjustifiable. Another memorial, of a
similar character, was sent to the Synod the same year, 1808,
from Green County, Ohio, asking ecclesiastical action for the
exclusion of slaveholders from the communion of the Church.
This led, in the end, to the adoption of an act, in 1811, which
reads as follows :
" 1. That it is a moral evil to hold negroes or their children in
perpetual slavery ; or to claim the right of buying or selling them ;
or of bequeathing them as transferable property.
" 2. That all persons belonging to our communion, having slaves
in possession, be directed to set them at liberty, unless prohibited
from doing so by the civil law ; and that in those States where the
(358)

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 859
liberation of the slaves is rendered impracticable by the existing
laws, it is the duty of holders of slaves to treat them with as much
justice as if they were liberated ; to give them suitable food and
clothing; to have them taught to read, and instructed in the princi
ples of religion ; and, when their services justly deserve it, to give
them additional compensation.
"3. That those slaveholders who iBfuse to renounce the above
claim, and to treat their slaves in the manner now specified, are un
worthy of being admitted into, or retained in, the fellowship of the
Church of Christ.
"4. That it may be lawful for persons in our communion to pur
chase negroes from those who are holding them in absolute and
perpetual slavery, with a view to retain them in their service until
they are recompensed for the money laid out in the purchase of the
said slaves ; provided it be done with the consent of the negroes
themselves, and that they be treated, in the meantime, according to
the second of these regulations.
" 5. That it is the duty of Sessions to see that the above regula
tions be faithfully observed ; but that, before they be acted upon in
any congregation where the application of them is requisite, care
shall be taken to have the people of that congregation not only ap
prised of these regulations, but instructed concerning the moral evil
of the slaveholding here condemned."
The Synod, at this period, was composed of Presbyteries whose
jurisdictions extended over the States of Virginia, North Caro
lina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as throughout the
Northern States. The provisions of the act of 1811 not being
complied with, the Synod, after having had the subject before
them for a number of years, at another meeting, in 1831, passed
a more stringent act, by which all slaveholders were forthwith
excluded from her communion. The act of 1831 is as follows :
"Resolved, That as slavery is clearly condemned by the law of God,
and has been long since judicially declared to be a moral evil by this
Church, no member thereof shall, from and after this date, be allowed
to hold a human being in the character or condition of a slave.
"Resolved, That this Synod do hereby order all its subordinate judi
catories to proceed forthwith to carry into execution the intention of
the foregoing resolution, by requiring those church-members under

360 PULPIT POLITICS.
their immediate inspection, who may be possessed of slaves, to relin
quish their unjust claims, and release those whom they may have
heretofore considered as their property.
"Resolved, That if any member or members of this Church, in order
to evade this act, shall sell any of their slaves, or make a transfer of
them, so as to retain the proceeds of their services, or the price of
their sale, or in any other wa# evade the provisions of this act, they
shall be subject to the censures of the Church.
"Resolved, Further, that where an individual is found who has
spent so much of his or her strength in the service of another as to
be disqualified from providing for his or her own support, the master,
in such a case, is to be held responsible for the comfortable mainten
ance of said servants."
Then follows a list of directions which the Synod recommends
to be observed in carrying out the foregoing resolutions. It
may be remarked here, also, that a protest, signed by six mem
bers of the Synod, was offered, and answered by a committee
appointed for that purpose.
A few years previous to the date of this act, as appears from
the JMinutes of the Synod for 1824, the Associate Presbyterian
Church had under its care ninety-one congregations, settled and
vacant, of which twenty-eight were in the slave States, and dis
tributed as follows : South Carolina, eleven, North Carolina, ten,
Tennessee, two, Virginia, five.
In 1840, the Synod addressed a letter to the people under
their inspection in the Presbytery of the Carolinas, in which
" some allowance was made for those who might not be able to
effect the emancipation of their slaves, provided they would
agree to what was called a moral emancipation. This letter,
however, was so far from conciliating the feelings of Southern
slaveholders, that a mob of them visited with Lynch-law the
minister* who was appointed to be the bearer of it, and that,
too, while he was engaged with a congregation in the public
worship of God. The effect of these proceedings was to purge
the Church of the sin of slaveholding, and, at the same time, en
tirely extinguishing the Associate Presbytery of the Carolinas."
* Eev. Mr, Kendall, now of Oregon,

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 361
"In 1845, in compliance with the purport of various memorials,
the Synod addressed a pastoral letter warning their people against the
sin of voting for immoral characters. The same subject was brought
before the Synod again in 1853, and a report was adopted in which
the great iniquity of voting for wicked men is pointed out, and minis
ters are particularly enjoined to instruct their people in reference to
this matter, and to warn them against being partakers in other men's
sins, by exalting vile men to high places. (1)
"The course pursued by the government for promoting the cause
of slavery, and the outrages perpetrated by the friends of that system,
were regarded by the Synod of 1856 as loudly calling for some action.
' A report was accordingly adopted, condemning, in very pointed terms,
Ist. Slavery itself; 2d. The Fugitive Slave Law; 3d. The gross and
brutal attack on Senator Sumner ; 4th. The outrages in Kansas. This
report the clerk of Synod was directed to forward to the President
of the United States, and to each House of Congress."-/
The Associate Synod no longer exists as a distinct body, but
has become merged in the United Presbyterian Church, by a
union with the Associate Reformed Church.
The foregoing facts are taken from the Minutes of the Associate
Synod, and from the Church Memorial, a work recently issued,
under the patronage of the United Presbyterian Church, and
embracing an historical sketch of the two bodies which united in
the formation of this Church.
Section II, — The Legislation of the Associate Reformed
Synod op the West on Slavery,
This Church, like the Associate Church, was, originally, the
offspring of the Scotch Seceders, Its action on slavery is
quoted mainly from the Church Memorial, and embraces, sub
stantially, its proceedings down to the time of its being merged
in the United Presbyterian Church, Its action, like that of its
kindred churches, resulted in excluding it from all the slavehold
ing States, excepting a congregation in St, Louis. The legisla
tion of this Church on slavery was as follows :
" At an early period in its history, anxious inquiry was made as to
the course that should be pursued in regard to this system ; and

362 pulpit politics.
extending, as the body then did, into slaveholding territories, it was
a practical question of grave moment. At different meetings of the
General Synod, the subject was discussed, and committees were ap
pointed to prepare statements of the Synod's views, but from various
causes, nothing was effectually done during the existence of that
body.* " At the meeting of the Synod of the West, at Chillicothe, Ohio,
May, 1826, the subject came formally up, in a memorial from the
congregation of Hopewell, in the first Presbytery of Ohio, and a
series of discussions and acts were entered upon, which resulted in
the adoption, at the meeting in Chillicothe again in 1830, of the
following resolutions, which, with some modifications and explana
tions that we shall append in foot-notes, contains the final action of
that portion of the Church :
"1. Resolved, That the religion of Jesus Christ requires that in
voluntary slavery should be removed from the Church as soon as
opportunity in the providence of God is offered to slave-owners for
the liberation of their slaves.
" 2. Resolved, That when there are no regulations of the State to
prohibit it ; when provision can be made for- the support of the
freedmen ; when they can be placed in circumstances to support the
rank, enjoy the rights, and discharge the duties of freemen, it shall
be considered that such an opportunity is afforded in the providence
of God.f
" 3. Resolved, That the Synod will, as it hereby does, recommend it
to all its members to aid in placing the slaves which are within the
jurisdiction of this Synod in the possession of their rights as freemen ;
and that it be recommended to them especially to take up annual
collections to aid the funds of the American Society for colonizing
the free people of color in the United States,J
* This Church was originally composed of three subordinate Synods — the
Synod of the South, of New York, and of the "West — ^represented in a General
Synod. t At a meeting in 1838, the Synod passed tbe following in reference to this
resolution :
" Resolved, that an opportunity in the providence of God shall be considered as
afforded when the master can emancipate his slave, and place him in circum
stances where he shall not be liable to be immediatelj' sold into bondage."
X In consequence of a memorial from Robinson Bun congregation, the Synod,
at its meeting in 1839, adopted the following in regard to this resolution :

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 363
" 4. Resolved, That the practice of buying or selling slaves for gain,
by any member of this Church, be disapproved ; and that slave-owners
under the jurisdiction of this Synod be, as they hereby are, forbidden
all aggravations of the evils of slavery, by violating the ties of nature,
the separation of husband and wife, parents and children, or by cruel
or unkind treatment ; and that they shall not only treat them well,
but also instruct them in useful knowledge aflA the principles of, the
Christian religion, and in all respects treat them as enjoined upon
masters toward their servants by the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ. "Two years afterward, in 1832, the Synod issued a Letter of Warn
ing, or an Occasional Testimony, in which these resolutions were
quoted, and the following extracts will show in what sense they were
intended and understood as the law of the Church : ' Now, brethren,
it is expected that the foregoing resolutions will not be as a dead
letter, but be respected and reduced to practice. It is expected that
Sessions and Presbyteries will see them enforced. It is expected that
slave-owners in the Church will make conscience of seeking and im
proving opportunities, and the very first which offer, of liberating
their slaves. It is expected that in the meantime they will give sat
isfactory evidence to their respective Sessions that they do consider
slavery a moral evil, that they do truly desire to get rid of it as soon
as they can, and that it is their intention to embrace the first oppor
tunity which God in his providence shall give them for so doing.
And it is expected of Sessions that they will require this of slave-
owning church-members or applicants,' etc. (2)
"These acts of the Synod of the West remain unchanged. They
were carried into the General Synod of the West, were recognized in
the union with the Synod of New York, and are strikingly similar to
the Testimony on this subject in the basis of union with the Associate
Church in May last."
The Letter of Warning, referred to above, among the many
"As there are two conflicting Societies operating in the community — the Col
onization and the Anti-Slavery Societies — and as this Synod has recommended
tho former to the patronage of the Churches under its care; and as it is desir
able the Synod should keep clear of this excitement; and as the Church should
not be involved by the operation of bodies over which it has no control, there
fore, "Resolved, That this Synod withdraws the recommendation formerly given to
the Colonization Society."

364 pulpit politics.
topics discussed, embraced the following paragraph, in whioh the
Synod undertakes to interpret the dispensations of Providence :
"God is visiting our land with one of his 'sore judgments' — the
pestilence [Asiatic cholera]. This visitation is a call from the Su
preme Ruler to our nation, to consider their ways and repent; and
when such a call is given, it is the duty of the Church, whose business
it is to sustain the cause of God and righteousness on earth, to point
out those national sins for which the righteous Lord inflicts national
judgments. Now, one prominent national sin, on account of whioh—
as well as on account of Sabbath-breaking, intemperance, and evil-
speaking — the Lord is visiting our country, is slavery,"
Section III, — The Legislation of the Reformed Presby
terian Church on Slavery.
1. The following statement of the course of policy pursued by
this Church, was supplied to the author of the Hand-Book ON
THE Slavery Question, by a venerable father in the ministry
of that Church. Its legislation on the question of slavery, as
in the case of the two Churches before noticed, excluded its
ministers almost entirely from all the slaveholding States — a
few members only, for many years, still adhering to it, in two
or three places South :
" This Church, while recognizing the legitimacy of the relation of
master and servant, has always borne testimony against slavery, as
defined in the slave laws of the States, and colonies before they were
States, of our country. But until the latter part of the eighteenth
century that testimony was not formally judicative. It was given in
the usual course of the ministrations of the sanctuary. At that time,
however, (the latter part of the last century,) the subject was judi
cially acted on, and slavery, as defined by the slave laws of slave-
holding States and their courts, was formally condemned as a personal,
domestic, political, and moral evil; and slaveholding, and the appro
bation of it, as thus defined, excluded from the sacramental fellowship
of the Church, During the present century, no slaveholder, or advo
cate of slavery on the chattel principle, has been admitted to the
ecclesiastical connection of this department of the Church, Such is
the position and such the conduct of this portion of the Presbyterian
family on this subject.

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY, 365
" It ought to be remarked, perhaps, that this body has never de
nounced, as immoral per se, the right of property by one person in
another, nor yet involuntary service as wrong. These, under legiti
mate regulations, may belong to the nearest relations of life. These
do not constitute the slavery of the slave laws of the country. To
confound them with it may perplex, but can not enlighten.
" In reference to the influence of this treasure upon the prosperity
of the body, it may be stated, that, at t^e time, it generally secured
the disapprobation of other religious 'bodies, as indiscreet, if not
wrong. It occasioned the loss of those, as members, who refused to
comply with that measure, they finding an open door for their recep
tion in other ecclesiastical connections. Upon our organizations in
th^ slave States it has not been propitious. While at no time, on
the part of the public functionaries of the States, was there any dis
position to bear hardly or unkindly on Reformed Presbyterians, they
being uniformly recognized as ardent patriots and good citizens ; yet
the existence, maintenance, and general operation of the slave laws
were, in many respects, unpleasant to them. Hence the great body
of this denomination, with their ministers, were induced to seek a
more eligible home in the free States. This step affected the locality
rather than the number of professors.
" But to the picture there is another side, and of it the following
may be said :
" The Church is free, and for nearly half a century has been free,
from the malign influence that goes to degrade the moral and immor
tal being to the class of chattels, made legally incapable of personal
relations and rights. The self-denial evinced, both in the North and
the South, in the ready emancipation of slaves by those who entered
into the views of the Church, had a happy influence upon others in
many respects. Occasion was given to numbers of the consistent
friends of rational freedom, upon examination, to enter into the fel
lowship of the Church. This department of Zion is now, and has
long been, exempt from that unhappy state of agitation which at
present so extensively disturbs the peace of others. With us it is
not a novelty, but a long settled matter.
" It may not be out of place to remark, that while this was the de
partment of the Presbyterian family that flrst took such ground and
action on the subject of slavery, there was no rashness in the measure.
The degrading and cruel chattel principle was repudiated, and made
a subject of ecclesiastical, corrective discipline. The legitimate rela-

PULPIT POLITICS,
tion of master and servant remained untouched. Provision was made
that the aged, the infirm, and minors be taken care of; and, while the
relation of superior and subordinate remained, the subordinate was
secured in all personal rights which the condition of the individual
morally required or admitted. In this case there was no social con
vulsion." The division in this Church, some years since, into what the
public designated as Old Side and New Side, in no way affected
the views of the parties on the question of slavery.
2. In 1859, the 0. S. Synod, at its meeting in Allegheny City,
Pennsylvania, gave the following deliverance :
" That slavery, the holding of men as property, to be bought and
sold as ' chattels personal,' is a malum per se, (an evil in itself,)
wholly at variance with the Divine word.
" That we are more firmly convinced that the Constitution of the
United States is the great stronghold aud bulwark of this system of
violence and oppression, and that, therefore, we will continue to tes
tify against it, refuse to swear the oath of allegiance to it, or obey its
unholy requirements. (3)
" That those who attempt to defend slavery from the Bible, to im
pose upon the community the enormous lie that God, by his word,
sanctions a sin so heinous, are guilty of one of the worst and most
dangerous forms of infidelity exhibited in this age and nation. That
we will labor and pray for the emancipation of the captive, the
coming of that day when God will break every yoke, undo the heavy
burden, and let the oppressed go free."
At the same meeting, the Committee on a Memorial to Con
gress, reported : " That they had prepared a petition which asks
Congress to make such alterations in the Constitution of the
United States, that it will acknowledge the being and authority
of God, an acknowledgment of submission to the authority of the
Church, (4) to recognize the paramount obligation of God's law,
and that it may be rendered, in all its principles and provisions,
adverse to any form of slavery within the national limits."
3. The General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church,
(N. S.,) at its session of 1861, adopted the following propositions
on the " state of the country :"

, SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 367
"1. Whatever may be the incidental causes of the present war,
there can be no doubt that the existence of slavery, and the desire to
continue it, is the fundamental cause.
" 2. Both the light of nature and the plain teachings of the revealed
Word of God demonstrate that there are occasions in which war is not
only lawful, but dutifiil ; and that we believe the present war is one
which is justifiable in behalf of our National Government, and which
every Christian and patriot should be willing to sustain.
"3. The great object of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is to
promote glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good
will to man ; the fruit of the Spirit is peace, the duty of every Chris
tian to seek for the things which make for peace, and which will turn
wars into peace.
" 4. There is reason to believe that the people of the slaveholding
States of our confederacy misapprehend the principles and views of
the people of the non-slaveholding States. It is a mistake to suppose
that there is any intention to interfere with slavery in the States
where it exists, by any other means than such as the right of free
discussion of any subject of interest in politics or religion, properly
conducted, will sanction ; to suppose that there is a desire that the
slaves should rise up in insurrection, murder their owners, and devas
tate their homes; that there is any plan to degrade or subjugate the
South, and deprive its inhabitants of the equal rights which the Con
stitution of our country secures to all. (5)
" 5. Notwithstanding, it is to be distinctly understood that the
people of the North, with few exceptions, regard slavery as a great
moral and political evil, and do desire its peaceable extinction.
sj" 6. Slavery is the volcanic element in our political system ; were
it removed, there is no reason to apprehend any dissolution of the
brotherly covenant which has bound our sovereign States together ;
and the highest welfare of the nation requires that measures should
be taken for its removal. The providence of God is now most sol
emnly and distinctly upon us as a nation to devise some plan for this
object. (6) J
" 7. There are sins in regard to this, as well as other things, with
us as well as our brethren of the South. We feel bound to bear with
them the burden and loss which may be required in the emancipation
of the slave. We believe there are many in the South who recognize
the evil of slavery, and would willingly cooperate for its removal.
"8. It behooves Christians of every name, whether in the North or

368 PULPIT POLITICS.
the South, under the example of our Saviour and the guidance of his
Spirit and his Word, to unite for this purpose."
4. Extracts from the proceedings of the Reformed Presbytery of,
Pittsburgh, (N. S.) on the State of the Country.
At a meeting of the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Reformed
Presbyterian Church, held at Centreville, Butler Co,, Pa,, on
Wednesday, the 1st of October, 1861, the Rev, Dr, Douglas, of
Pittsburgh, offered the following resolutions on the " state of the
country," which, after speeches of the intensest patriotism by the
mover. Rev, John Nevin, the seconder. Revs, George Scott, John
M'Millan, and J, F. Hill, were unanimously adopted:
"Whereas, a number of states in the Southern part of our country
are now in a state of armed rebellion against the government of the
United States, menacing its independence and perpetuation, and there
by endangering our peace, happiness, and prosperity; and whereas,
it is proper for us as a Presbytery, when national affairs assume a
moral and religious aspect, to give a judicial declaration in regard to
them, for the guidance and information of the people committed to
our charge, therefore,
-' " Resolved, That whatever may be its present complications, Ne
gro Slavery is the primary cause of the war which is now dis
tracting our country — prostrating its commercial and every other
interest, "-^
" Resolved, That this war is the infliction of the ju^t punishment
of an offended' God upon our country and our government, for their
aiding and abetting the nefarious sin of human bondage.
" Resolved, That American slavery is radically and essentially wrong,
and ' no possible contingency can ever make it right ;' that it involves
the horrid crimes of robbery, oppression, concubinage, and murder,
and stands alike in antagonism to the laws of humanity and the laws
of God.
" Resolved, That we pledge our support to the government so long
as it conducts the present war on the principle of undying hostility
to slavery, believing, as we do, that as long as slavery exists we never
can have peace. . . , . .
" Resolved, That, in times of rebellion, military authority takes the
place of all municipal institutions — ^slavery among the rest.' That
tho President of the United States, taking advantage of the emergen-

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 869
cies of war, ' has power to order the universal emancipation of the
slaves ' held by the rebels, and that in doing so he would be actino-
for the 'general welfare,' in acoordance with the provisions of the
Constitution ; that military commanders possess the same power in
their respective districts, and that we deprecate any Executive or
official interference that would go to nullify any such proclamations
which have been, or yet may be made. (7)
Section IV. — The Legislation of the United Presbyterian
Church of North America on Slavery.
1, This Church was organized in the year ,1858, by the Union
of the Associate and the Associate Reformed Churches, This
Church, at its organization, made the following declaration of
principles on the subject of slavery :
" We declare. That slaveholding— i-that is, the holding of unoffending
human beings in involuntary bondage, and considering and treating
them as property, and subject to be bought and sold — is a violation
of the law of God, and contrary both to the letter and spirit of Chris
tianity. "Argument and Illustration. — This declaration is in accordance
with the Confession of Faith, chap, iv, sec, 2, Larger Catechism,
ques. 142.
" That slaveholding is, as we have declared it to be, a violation of
the law of God, will appear from the following considerations :
" 1. The Word of God represents the whole human family as possess
ing a common nature. The slave is a man — as really and truly a man
as the most gifted and illustrious of the human family. He is a child
of Adam, who was made in the image and after the likeness of God,
(Gen. i : 26.) He is of ' one blood ' with him who holds him in bon
dage, (Acts xvii : 26.) This being the case, his natural rights must be
the same as those of any other. If man possesses, by the law of
his creation, any natural and inalienable right, that right must be in
consistent with the condition of a person who is considered and treated
as property, subject to be bought and sold. Slaveholding, then, is at
war with humanity.
"2. The word of God, in the grant of dominion which it makes,
restrains the power of man thus to treat his fellow man. He has, by
the authority of God, his Creator, dominion over all the lower crea
tures, (Gen. i : 26.) The possession of such a dominion by a person
24

370 PULPIT politics.
is, in its very nature, inconsistent with his condition as a slave  a
person who is himself considered and treated as property. While
therefore, he is held in this condition, the grant of his Creator is
rendered a nullity. Nor is this all : while this grant of dominion
secures to the slave his right to liberty, it interdicts, by the clearest
implication, the assumption of that right which the slaveholder claims.
The grant of his Creator gives him dominion over the lower creatures.
These he may make his property ; thus far his dominion as owner
extends, but no farther. Slavery, however, assumes this > power. It
reduces to the condition of property him who, by divine right, is lord
of all. (Ps. viii : 6.)
" 3. The law of God recognizes the right of all men to use the
powers of body and mind which their Creator has given them, in the
pursuit of happiness. It sanctions labor with a view to their support,
(Gen. ii : 15 ; iii : 23 ; 1 Thess. iv : 11 ; 2 Thess. iii : 10-12.) But slav
ery, while it dooms its victims to toil, lays its hand upon the fruits
of that toil, and appropriates it to him who has not performed the
labor. It thus takes away from man that incentive to labor which
the Creator has given to him, by giving to him a right to its fruits.
The slave, being himself the property of another, can own nothing,
and, of course, can acquire nothing.
"4. The law of God enjoins it upon masters to give to their sejrv-
ants 'that which is just and equal,' (Col. iv : 1.) The slaveholder
gives nothing to his slave, as a right acquired py labor. What he
gives as a slaveholder, has a reference merely to the support of his
slave, that he may thereby be qualified to labor. The fruits of that
labor he appropriates to himself. He therefore violates the law of
justice enjoined upon the master, and exposes himself to the wo pro
nounced against him who ' useth his neighbor's services without wages,
and giveth him not forthis work,' (Jer. xxii: 13.) Neither does he
give his servant that which is ' equal.' There is no proportion be
tween the labor performed by the slave and what he receives from
his master. The slave may be hired out to another, by whom he is
fed and clothed ; but the owner of the slave receives from the man
to whom he is hired the wages. Nor is there any proportion be
tween what the slave receives and what another receives who performs
the same amount of work. He therefore violates the principle of
equality, which he is bound by the law of God to observe.
" 5. The law of God recognizes marriage as the right of all, (Heb.
xiii : 4.) It requires the parties to dwell together, (1 Pet. iii : 7,) and

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 871
makes the relation indissoluble by man, (Gen. ii : 24 ; Matt, xix : 6.)
But the right which the slaveholder claims to his slave as his property,
subject to be bought and sold, is in direct conflict with these divine
requisitions. He may, by the exercise of his right as a slaveholder,
forbid his marriage, or place him in circumstances in which he can
not enjoy this divine right; or if married, he may, at will entirely
and forever separate the parties. The laws which govern and control
property imply all this.
" 6. The law of God requires parents to bring up their children in
the nurture and admonition Of the Lord, (Eph. vi : 4.) The slave
holder, in virtue of the relation which he sustains, and by the right
of ownership which he claims, may not only interfere with the govern
ment of the parent over his children, but entirely and forever separate
them from each other.
"7. The law of God requires every man to search the Scriptures,
(John V : 39.) The right of the slaveholder interferes with this.
The laws which govern all' property necessarily secure to him the
right of prohibiting his slave from doing anything which may operate
against the attainment of the end for which this species of property,
in common with all others, is held — his own gain.
" 8. The law of God forbids man-stealing (Deut. xxiv : 7 ; 1 Tim, i :
9, 10.) In this the alleged right of one man to make merchandize
of his fellow-man must have originated. As the fountain is corrupt
the stream can not be pure.
"The foregoing considerations clearly show this relation to be, as
we have declared it to be, in violation of the law of God.
"We have also declared it to be contrary both to the letter and
spirit of Christianity. What says the Author of Christianity? He
Bays: 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them," (Matt, vii : 12.) There is no slaveholder who
would not resist being made a slave, and who would not feel an irre
pressible conviction that a wrong had been done him. This being
the case, he is bound, by this express precept of the Saviour, to break
the yoke, and let the oppressed go free, (1 Cor. vii : 21 ; Isa. Iviii : 6.)
And what is the spirit of Christianity ? It is surely love, (Rom. xiii :
10 ; 1 John iv : 20, 21 ; Luke x : 27-37.) Is not, however, the reduc
tion of a fellow-being (he may be a brother in Christ,) to the condition
of a piece of property, liable to be bought and sold, in violation of
this holy and divine principle? Who, that is not a stranger to the
impulses of a Christian's heart, will deny it ?

372 PULPIT POLITICS.
" We have, therefore, in the law of God, and in the letter and spirit
of Christianity, abundant reasons for testifying against slaveholding
as a sin, and consequently a disqualification for membership in tho
Church of Christ. It is the relation itself which we have examined
in the light of Scripture, and which we have found to be so inconsist
ent with it, and not the many cruel laws which blacken the statute
books of the slaveholding States, and the many gross and fearful evils
that result from this relation. A consideration, however, of these
laws and evils, which everywhere attend it, can not fail to impress
the mind with a sense of the inherent wickedness of the system." (8)
;
2. This body, at its meeting in May, 1861, adopted a report
and resolutions, on the " state of the country," from which we
extract the following :
" Our beloved country is in a very deplorable condition. War is
upon us, fraternal war, attended generally with greater ferocity and
destructiveness than other wars. But, in God's great mercy to us, we
are united among ourselves ; and, having able leaders and boundless
resources, peace and prosperity will, ere long, be established on surer
foundations. Nevertheless, great calamities are upon us. They are
from the Lord, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will ; and so the question naturally arises. What meaneth the heat of
this great anger ? The reply to which must be this : Because we have
sinned against the Lord, and have not served him with joyfulness and
with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. That covet
ousness, which is idolatry in the sight of God, and the source of
numberless disorders, has prevailed in every section and corner of
this wide-spread country. Very many are involved in all the guilt of
intemperance and filthy debaucheries. But the sins that have in an
especial manner provoked the eyes of the Holy One, seem to be
these : —
"1. Pride and self-sufficiency; glorying in our supposed wisdom
and greatness.
" 2. Inordinate and excessive ambition.
" 3. Contempt of the unspeakable grace of God in Christ, for whioh
Bethsaida and Chorazin were doomed to woe, and Jerusalem was made
an utter desolation.
"4. Sabbath desecration.
" 5. Obstinacy and iucorrigibleness under former Providential re-

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 873
bukes. We have been visited with drouth and partial famine — with
pestilence and malignant diseases— but we have not heard the Rod.
We have not returned to the Lord , and, therefore, his hand is laid
more heavily upon us.
"6. Slaveholding, the great and immediate cause of the present
trouble, though seldom thought of as an evil by those who are directly
concerned in it. Slavery must be exceedingly flagrant in the sight
of the Great Parent and Ruler of men. If it is murder, the blackest
of crimes, to violate the image of God instamped on man, what is it
to debase and trample on that image, and treat it as a brutal thing?
To tear asunder the tender ties of nature and affection — what is it but
horrible cruelty ? To work a man, and give him no wages, or no suf
ficient wages, is nothing but robbery and oppression. To forbid the
great God to speak to his own creatures, that they may be saved, is
bidding defiance to the very heavens. To deprive a people of the
ordinance and privileges of marriage, is to keep them in beastly con
cubinage. It should not be thought that we, in the free States, have
nothing to do with this monstrous iniquity. Have we not counten
anced those who practiced it? Have we not contributed to extend,
and establish, and fortify it? Paul was guilty of the murder of
Stephen, though he did not cast a single stone. With regard to the
aboriginal inhabitants of the land, it is to be feared that they also
have had cause to complain of injustice and cruel rapacity."
3, Extract from the Minutes of the First United Presbyterian
Synod of the West, held in the First U. P. Church, Allegheny,
Pa., commencing October Ist, 1861.
" The Select Committee appointed by Synod to consider so much
of the Reports and Petitions of Presbyteries as refer to our national
troubles and the judgments with which we are at present afflicted,
would most respectfully submit to Synod the following, as the result
of its deliberations :
" Whereas, The Declaration of our National Independence recog
nizes, in accordance with the Word of God, the unity of the human
race, that all men are created equal, have a right to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness ; and, 
" Whereas, This nation is in the midst of a great and wicked rebel-
-Jion, which threatens the very existence of our Government, and seeks
to fasten permanently upon the nation the system of slavery — a sys-

374 PULPIT POLITICS.
tem at war with the Word of God, with the interests of humanity,
with the Declaration of our National Independence, and the best in
terests, in any sense, of the nation ; and,
" Whereas, We, as a nation, have too much countenanced this insti
tution and given it support, and believe that by this and our other
sins, we have brought our liberties into jeopardy, and subjected our
selves to the judgments of God in pivil war and in other forms ; and,
" Whereas, We can not expect a removal of our afllictions, and our
restoration to the favor of God, until we acknowledge our sins, and
turn from them unto Him ; therefore,
"Resolved, 1. That we will, in every way consistent with the law
of God, defend and seek to hand down to posterity, unimpaired, the
religious and civil liberty inherited from our fathers ; and, that in
order to do this, we will uphold our Federal authorities in the prose
cution of our present war for the suppression of the existing rebellion.
"Resolved, 2. That while, as Christian men and patriots, we zeal
ously and heartily support our National Government in the present
war for the maintenance of its integrity, we are not blind to the de
fects of our institutions, to the defective administration of law, and
our sins as a nation ; that we trace our present national difficulties
mainly to slavery and the evils growing out of slavery ; that by this,
and our other sins, we have offended God, and there is no hope for us
but in repentance and return to Him ; and that we recognize that our
repentance can not be acceptable to God, unless we, as a nation, break
off our sins, unless we acknowledge Him and His law and providence,
and ceasing to countenance this wicked system of slavery, use all the
means in our power to carry into effect the law of the Bible, ' to loose
the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed
go free, and that ye break every yoke,' and remembering that 'right
eousness exalteth a nation,' and that ' sin is a reproach to any people,'
in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of our National
Independence, seek to maintain every man in the enjoyment of his
rights as a man.
"Resolved, 3. That the Slave Power, by inaugurating this wicked
rebellion against the government, has forfeited all claim to any pro
tection or toleration of its peculiar institution ; and as the most speedy
way of establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquillity, and sup
pressing the rebellion, we approve of the manumission, by military
proclamation, of the slaves, and the confiscation of all the property
of those found in arms against the government, in all the military

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 875
districts in which our commanding officers now have, or may hereafrer
have, military jurisdiction." (9)
A committee of six were appointed to go on to Washington,
for the purpose of pressing upon the attention of the President,
etc., the views of Synod, and urging the " necessity of taking
immediate steps to put away our national sins, that we may be
restored to the favor of God."
The Synods of New York, of Hlinois, and Iowa, passed similar
resolutions to the foregoing:
Section V. — -Opinions op British Churches on American
Slavery, 1. In 1860, a deputation was sent to Scotland, from the United
Presbyterian Church, to attend the Sessions of the United
Presbyterian Church op Scotland, The subjoined extracts,
from the proceedings of that body, on the presentation of the
delegates, together with the reply of Rev, Dr. Kerr, so far as he
alluded to the subject of slavery, will interest the reader, as being
in keeping with the whole tenor of the policy of American Anti-
Slavery men,
" The Clerk of Committee of Bills and Overtures said that he had
been instructed to introduce to the Synod the Rev. Dr. David R. Kerr,
"delegate from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian
Church of North America. The credentials of Dr. Kerr having been
read, together with the letter tabled by him from the Church he re
presented, the clerk explained that with one branch of the United
Church the Synod had formerly held fraternal intercourse. The
United Presbyterian Church in North America held principles in
common with the Synod, and adhered to the same doctrines and form
of government. This Church was also honorably distinguished by
their testimony against slavery. They regarded the system of slavery,
as it existed in America, as not merely an evil, but a sin, and treated
it in the same way as any other sin. It was made by them a term of
communion. This fact, along with the other claims they had on their
regards, entitled this Church to their warmest sympathy and Christian
affection. He (the Clerk) had the highest satisfaction, in the absence
of the Rev. Henry Ronton, who had undertaken the duty, but was

876 PULPIT PDLirrcs.
prevented from being present, to introduce Dr. Kerr to the affectionate
regards of the Synod. (Applause.)
"Dr. Kerr then said — 'It is my happiness to appear before this
venerable body to present the salutations of a Church of kindred
origin, of like faith and order, and, with the exception of national
designation, of the same name — the United Presbyterian Church of
North America  We declare, in our testimony, " That slave-
holding — that is, the holding of unoffending human beings in involun
tary bondage, and considering and treating them as property, and
subject to be bought and sold — is a violation of the law of God, and
contrary both to the letter and spirit of Christianity." And we not
only bear testimony, but we bring our discipline to bear against this
great moral evil of our land. We make our declaration on the subject
a term of communion. We deal with slavery just as with other sins
which, after due instruction and admonition, are unrepented of. We
believe this to be the great sin of the American nation and Church ;
of the latter even more than the former ; for if the Church had dealt
faithfully with this subject, if she had brought her testimony and dis
cipline to bear on it, as faithfulness to the law of her King, and to the
claims, not of Christianity simply, but of suffering humanity, de
manded, we may believe that, ere this time, slavery would scarcely
have had a habitation or a name among us. And we may be at a losa
which the more to deplore — the great evil itself, or the feeling of
indifference with which so many Christians in our land have allowed
themselves to regard it. But I am not here to reproach others, but,
in seeking your acquaintance, to let you know precisely what we are
ourselves. And, for my own Church, it is no ordinary gratification
to be able to say that, however other churches may feel at liberty to
deal with this subject, we have felt it to be a duty to array against
slavery an earnest and consistent testimony.' (Cheers.)"*
Not one word have we here, nor in any part of the address of
Rev. Dr. Kerr, in relation to the question of African Evangeliza
tion, by the United Presbyterian Church of America. Four
millions of Africans, nearly, were then in the United States, and
nearly a half million of them were freemen; and yet the Rev.
gentleman could cite no efforts of his Church for their spiritual
welfare; nor did the Scotch brethren ask what their American
* Chriatian Instructor, Philadelphia, August 22d, 1860.

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 877
brethren had done for the Christianization of the colored people.
They seemed to care only to know that persistent efforts for the
overthrow of slavery were still continued in the United States ;
while, at the same time, they were careful not to inform the
American deputation that the British government were preparing
for the coming emancipation in America, by earnestly promoting
cotton culture, by slave labor, in Africa.*
2. It may interest the reader to see the mode in which foreign
Churches have been interfering with the subject of American
slavery. As a fair specimen of this brotherly kindness, we give
the following, which sufficiently explains itself:
"United Presbyterian Church op Scotland on American
Sla-very.
"Resolutions of the Synod of the United Presbyterian Church respect
ing American Slavery and. its faithful opponents in the United, States
at the present time. " At Edinburgh, and within the Synod Hall, Queen Street, -i
on "Wednesday, 22d May, 1861, 11 o'clock, A. M. J
" The Synod of the United Presbyterian Church met, and was con
stituted by the Rev. John Robson, D. D., Moderator, when the Min
utes of last Sederunt were read.
"Transmitted and read Overture by the Presbytery of Kelso, in
favor of the Synod's renewal of the condemnation of American slav
ery, the tenor whereof follows : —
" ' That the disruption of the United States of America by the ele
ment of slavery — issuing, as it has done, in a new Confederation of
the Southern States, founded on the principle of slavery, while the
remaining Union of the Northern and Western States retains all that
was defective in the original Constitution of the United States on that
principle, and all the obnoxious laws which have been passed to up-
* See Chapter XI, on the Cotton Question. See also the Statistics, Section  ,
Chapter III, from which it appears that the membership of both the United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Eev. Dr. Kerr's Church, of the same namp,
in the- United States, is 265,717 less than the number of slave converts in the
South.* *Soe tabulai' statement at end of volnmo.

878 pulpit politics.
hold it — call for much concern and vigilance on the part of all who
are opposed to the monstrous iniquity of treating human beings as
property, that in the close commercial relations subsisting between
Great Britain and the American States, the public sentiment of this
country may not be deteriorated, nor its hostility to slavery abated —
and calls no less for earnest sympathy and moral support on behalf
of all those in the American States who are withstanding that iniquity,
and laboring for its overthrow ;^ and, therefore, that the Synod should
at this time renew its condemnation of slavery and its repudiation of
fellowship with slaveholders, and testify its respect for and sympathy
with, those Christian churches and ministers in the United States who
are maintaining a faithful and intrepid testimony against slavery as
sin, and who are consistently carrying out that testimony by refusing
all fellowship with slaveholders.'
" The Presbytery of Kelso were heard in support of their Overture,
when the Synod, after reasoning, adopted the following resolutions:
" 1. That the Synod, in the different bodies of whioh it consisted
before the union, as well as in its united state since, has ever regarded
slavery with unanimous and unqualified condemnation.
" 2. That the grounds on which this Synod condemns slavery are
not merely that it is impolitic, uujust, inhuman, and subversive of
what are accounted the natural rights of man — personal liberty, the
disposal of his own labor, and the enjoyment of its fruits — but that it
is flagrantly opposed to the revealed will of God, and is, therefore a
heinous sin, when maintained by those who possess the Holy Scrip
tures, and profess submission to them as the supreme rule of faith and
practice. " 3. That of all systems of oppression and legalized iniquity at present
known in the world, this Synod regards that of slavery in the United
States of North America to be the most inexcusable and guilty, as up
held by a nation which proclaims that all men have equal rights to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and which enjoys a widely-
preached Gospel, a free circulation of the Scriptures, a free press, and
public schools for the education of all its children.
" 4. That the same principles which led this Synod and the congre
gations under its care to seek the total and immediate abolition of
slavery throughout the British colonies a quarter of a century ago,
prompt and require its earnest sympathy with those in other lands
who are laboring for a similar end, and especially with Christian
brethren in the United States of America, who, in the present crisis

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 379
of that country, are, amid great opposition and obloquy, contending
for the abolition of slavery throughout its territories.
" 5. That copies of these resolutions bo sent to the Synods of the
United Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the
United States, and to the representatives and organs of the Christian
abolitionists of other denominations in that country.
Appointed the Rev. Henry Ronton and George C. Hutton, with Mr.
James Henderson, Edinburgh, a Committee to transmit the resolutions
to the parties named therein — Mr. Ronton, Convener.
Extracted from the Records of Synod by
David Crawford, Synod Clerk.
3, We append another extract, as breathing the true spirit of
the liberal-minded Christian, The General Assembly of the Free
Church of Scotland held its meeting in Edinburgh, May, 1861.
" On the motion of the retiring Moderator, seconded by the Earl
of Dalhousie, Dr. Candlish was, by acclamation, called to the Modera
tor's chair. In the course of his remarks upon taking the chair. Dr.
Candlish made an eloquent address upon the religious condition of
Scotland and of the world, and alluded to the state of things in this
country as follows :
" ' I own I have felt, I would almost say amazement, at the manner
in which the present portentous spectacle looming upon us from across
the Atlantic has been contemplated on our side. I speak of relig
ious men and religious associations, and I can not but express sur
prise and sorrow that, amid the endless comments and speculations
of politicians, the voice of our common Christianity has been so little
hea^d, either in prayers to our Father, or in pleading with our breth
ren, that this gigantic fratricide may be stayed, and some better way
found for ridding the land of the crime and curse of slavery than the
deluging of its fertile plains with fraternal blood. (Hear, hear). When
war seemed imminent between that country and our own some few
years ago, there was no such silence. It may be that silence — the
silence of suspense and awe — is the most emphatic speech the British
Churches and British Christians can, at this juncture, send over the
ocean. It may be that, in presence of so ominous a thunder-cloud,
they can do no more than behold and wonder, and wait and weep.
It may, however, on the other hand, be matter for consideration in
our Assembly of Scotland's FrCe Presbyterian Church, accustomed to

880 PULPIT politics.
respect the great Presbyterian community in the States, to recognize
among her sons some of the noblest champions of the faith that God
has raised up in our day, and to rejoice with thankfulness in many
revivals within her borders, from of old till now, whether some duty
may not lie upon us, in this solemn pause, when the scarce unsheathed
sword seems to be trembling ere it strike the first fatal and irrevocable
blow. If no cry of ours, appealing to ties of Christian fellowship as
yet unbroken, binding still in one church-communion the stern com
batants in both camps, may be likely to be heard amid the din of
gathering battle, at least our cry can go up to heaven, that it may
please Him who is Head over all things to this Church, and who,
making the wrath of man to praise Him, mercifully restrains the re
mainder thereof — to shorten these terrible days, for the elects' sake,
and to bring, ere long, out of all these troubles a glorious issue of
liberty and peace.' "
Section VI, — Brief Remarks on the foregoing Legislation.
(1) The interference of the Associate Synod with the rights
of its members to vote as they chose, never amounted to any
thing. Her people, generally, were an intelligent class of men,
and considered themselves about as capable of judging in civil
affairs as their ministers. They never bowed the neck to this
yoke. (2) The resolutions of the Associate Reformed Church were
interpreted differently in different sections of the Synod — some
considering them as excluding the slaveholder from the commun
ion of the Church, and others giving them a different interpret
ation. The people of this Church at large never attached much
importance to the slavery resolutions, and but few indeed of its
ministers ever ranked themselves as abolitionists. Some of its
ministers, however, were rigid in their rule of excluding all cler
gymen of their sister Church at the South from their pulpits.
j (3) The repudiation of the Constitution of the United States
is a distinctive feature in the principles of the Reformed Presby
terian Church. They declare, unequivocally, that slaveholding is
sinful. "^ In this view both branches agree ; but the New Side do
not set aside the Constitution as sinful, but will vote and hold
office.

SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 881
(4) The doctrine, that the civil government should acknowl
edge its submission to the authority of the Church, is a peculiarity
of this religious body. Its practical application seems impossible
in the present condition of the Christian Church, torn, as it is, into
so many fragments. It would be somewhat difficult, we think,
to select the particular Church which should have the control of
the Government in questions pertaining to religion and morals.
This view would seem to be a fiction of the olden times, such as
made the Pope supreme over the nations.
Jib) Here we have a solemn truth. The great mass of the
!K[orthern people never have sympathized with the abolitionists ;
and could the Southern people have known this fact, they never
would have been induced to rebel against the Government, from
the fear that the North were determined to let their slaves loose
upon them.
J (6) But, notwithstanding what is said above is true, yet we
have had continuous repetitions of such language as is contained
in the sixth proposition of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ;
and which it is impossible for any Southern man to interpret in
any other way, than that it embodies the essential elements of
ajjolitionism, «'
J (7) This resolution embodies the extreme radical ground since
taken by the abolition politicians. We have here a fair specimen
of the tender mercies of fanatical clergymen,' The successful
declaration of emancipation, under present circumstances, would
be the letting loose of four millions of slaves, to pillage, burn,
destroy, and murder all before them. This result can not but be
foreseen, and yet the Reformed Presbytery of Pittsburgh -would
look with complacency upon the rapine and murder that would
follow in the wake of their scheme of settling our national diffi
culties. (8) The United Presbyterian Church, it will be seen, has
taken the broad ground that slaveholding is a sin.
(9) Here we have, again, the very Christian-like proposition
of letting loose the slave population upon defenseless women and
children! We recommend to the brethren of this Synod the

382 pulpit POLITICS,
declarations of the Rev. Dr. Candlish, of the Free Church of
Scotland, copied on a preceding page.
J In taking* a survey of the ecclesiastical legislation embodied
in the present chapter, it would be impossible for any one, not
otherwise informed, to come to any other conclusion than that
these whole Scottish Churches are intensely abolitionized; and
yet such is not the fact, as to many of the ministry, and the
great majority of their people.^
J Ihe people of these Churches are among the most orderly and
law-abiding of any of the citizens of the Union. At no one time,
within the period of the excitement upon the subject of slavery,
could there have been one-third of them induced to vote for the
emancipation of the slaves at the South, except with the free and
full assent of the masters ; and not one in a hundred could evei
have been induced to assent to a dissolution of the Union, as a
means of being disconnected from slavery. The fanaticism on
this question has been limited to the few, and the many have
acquiesced in what has been done for the sake of peace. The
rabid opinions expressed by the Pittsburgh Synod of the United
Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbytery of Pitts
burgh, are acts done under intense excitement, and will be sub
jects of regret hereafter. The declaration pf emancipation by
the Executive, or by any of the commanding generals under him,
as recommended by these religious bodies, is a measure that has
already received the seal of condemnation by the President, and
will not be attempted again. Why a Church court should volun
teer its judgment upon a political measure of such moment, is a
question that its members must answer for themselves. The
public will naturally inquire, whether the ministers, assuming to
dictate to the Government, have themselves given such evidences
of being imbued with wisdom from on high — ^have had such suc
cess in their own field of duties — as to warrant their assumption
of the office of dictators in civil affairs. -^

CHAPTER VIII.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE U. S. AND SLAVERY.
The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States, as organized under the direction of Mr. Wesley,
had a rule on slavery which aimed at the extirpation of the slave
trade, and the promotion of emancipation. In 1784, the organ
ization of the Annual Conferences was effected, and all business
conducted by them until 1792. In 1796, the organization of
the General Conference may be considered as completed. Its
session for this year was held in Baltimore, and it has met once
in four years since that period.
The action of the General Conference, at the meeting of 1796,
on the subject of slavery, was as follows:
"Question 12. What regulations shall be made for the extirpation
of the crying evil of slavery ?
"Answer 1. We declare that we are more than ever convinced of
the great evil of the African slavery which still exists in these United
States; and do most earnestly recommend to the yearly Conferences,
quarterly meetings, and to those who have the oversight of the dis
tricts and circuits, to be exceedingly cautious what persons they admit
to official stations in our Church ; and, in the case of future admission
to official stations, to require such security of those who hold slaves,
for the emancipation of them, immediately or gradually, as the laws
of the States respectively, and the circumstances of the case will admit.
And we do fiilly authorize all the yearly Conferences to make whatever
regulations they judge proper, in the present case, respecting the
admission of persons to official stations in our Church.
" 2. No slaveholder shall be received into society, till the preacher
who has the oversight of the circuit has spoken to him freely and
faithfiilly on the subject of slavery. (383)

884 PULPIT POLITICS.
" 3. Every member of the Society who sells a slave, shall immedi
ately, after full proof, be excluded the Society. And if any member
of our Society purchase a slavo, the ensuing quarterly meeting shall
determine on the number of years in which the slave, so purchased,
would work out the price of his purchase. And the person so pur
chasing shall, immediately after such determination, execute a legal
instrument for the manumission of such slave, at the expiration of the
term determined by the quarterly meeting. And in default of his exe
cuting such instrument of manumission, or on his refusal to submit his
case to the judgment of the quarterly meeting, such member shall be
excluded the Society. Provided also, that in the case of a female
slave, it shall be inserted in the aforesaid instrument of manumission,
that all her children which shall be born during the years of her
servitude shall be free at the following times, namely : every female
child at the age of twenty-one, and every male child at the age of
twenty-five. Nevertheless, if the member of our Society, executing the
said instrument of manumission judge proper, he may fix the times
of manumission of the children of the female slave beforementioned,
at an earlier age than that which is prescribed above.
"4. The preachers and other members of our Society are requested
to consider the subject of negro slavery with deep attention till the
ensuing General Conference; and that they impart to the General Con
ference, through the medium of the yearly conferences or otherwise,
any important thoughts upon the subject, that the Conference may
have full light, in order to take further steps toward the eradication
of this enormous evil from that part of the Church of God to which
they are united."
In the year 1800, the General Conference again met in Balti
more. During this session resolutions, varying in character, were
presented, but only two of them adopted: the first, asking for
the appointment of a committee to prepare an affectionate address
to the Methodist Societies, stating the evils of the spirit and
practice of slavery, and the necessity of doing away the evil as
far as the laws of the respective States will allow ; the second,
that traveling preachers, becoming the owners of slaves, by any
means, shall forfeit their ministerial character, unless they execute,
if it be practicable, a legal emancipation of such slave or slaves,
agreeably to the laws of the State in which they live.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 385
In the year 1804, the General Conference again held its session
in Baltimore,
" May 16. — A variety of motions were proposed on the subject of
•slavery, and, after a long conversation, it was moved and carried, that
the subject of slavery be left to the three bishops, to form a section to
suit the Southern and Northern States, as they, in their wisdom, may
think best, to be submitted to this Conference.
" May 17. — Read the report of the Committee on Slavery — which,
with amendments, was adopted by Conference, and forms section nine,
'Of Slavery.'"
This document is substantially the same as that of 1796, except
that it has, as its 2d and 5th articles, the following : '
" 2. When any traveling preacher becomes the owner of a slave, or
slaves, by any means, he shall forfeit his ministerial character in our
Church, unless he executes, if it be practicable, a legal emancipation
of such slaves, conformably to the laws of the State in whioh he lives.
" 5. Let our preachers, from time to time, as occasion serves, ad-j
monish and exhort all slaves to render due respect and obedience to
the commands and interests of their respective masters."
In the close of article 4, this amendment is made: "Never
theless, the members of our societies in the States of North Car
olina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall be exempted from the
operation of the above rules." (1)
During the sessions of 1808 and 1812, nothing of importance
was done on the question of slavery, excepting, at the latter ses
sion, to lay upon the table a memorial on the subject.
In 1816, the General Conference met in Baltimore, The Com
mittee on Slavery presented their report, which was concurred in
by the Conference :
" The committee to whom was referred the business of slavery, beg
leave to report, that they have taken the subject into serious consid
eration, and, after mature deliberation, they are of opinion that, under
the present existing circumstances in relation to slavery, little can be
done to abolish a practice so contrary to the principles of moral jus
tice. They are sorry to say that the evil appears to be past remedy ;
25

386 PULPIT POLITICS.
and they are led to deplore the destructive consequences which have
already accrued, and are yet likely to result therefrom.
" Your committee find that in the South and West the civil author
ities render emancipation impracticable, and, notwithstanding they are
led to fear that some of our members are too easily contented with
laws so unfriendly to freedom, yet, nevertheless, they are constrained
to admit that to bring about such a change in the civil code as would
favor the cause of liberty, is not in the power of the General Con
ference, Your committee have attentively read, and seriously con
sidered, a memorial on the above subject, presented from several per
sons within the bounds of the Baltimore Annual Conference, They
have also made inquiry into the regulations adopted and pursued by
the different annual conferences in relation to this subject, and they
find that some of them have made no efficient rules on the subject
of slavery, thereby leaving our people to act as they please ; while
others have adopted rules, and pursued courses not a little different
from each other, all pleading the authority given them by the Gen
eral Conference, according to our present existing rule, as stated in
our form of Discipline. Your committee conclude that, in order to be
consistent and uniform, the rule should be express and definite ; and,
to bring about this uniformity, they beg leave to submit the follow
ing resolution :
" Resolved, by the delegates of the annual conferences in General
Conference assembled. That all the recommendatory part of the second
division, ninth section, and first answer of our form of Discipline,
after the word ' slavery,' be stricken out, and the following words in
serted : ' Therefore no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official
station in our Church hereafter, where the laws of the State in which
he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit the liberated slave to
enjoy freedom.'
In 1820, the General Conference met at Baltimore. Certain
documents from Tennessee were referred to the Committee on
Slavery, which, together with the report of 1816, were acted upon
by the committee, a substitute reported, one of its propositions
adopted, the report recommitted, and the whole subject finally
postponed indefinitely.
In 1824, the General Conference met at Baltimore. The Com
mittee on Slavery, in compliance with the several memorials pre-

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 887
sented, asking provision to be made for the spiritual welfare of
the colored population, free and slave, reported, and, after various
modifications, the following resolutions were adopted :
"Resolved, 1. That all our preachers ought prudently to enforce
upon our members the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the
Word of God; and also that they give time to hear the Word of God
preached on our regular days of divine service.
" Resolved, 2. That our colored preachers and official members have
all the privileges, in the district and quarterly meeting conferences,
whioh the usages of the country in different sections will justify :
Provided, also, that the presiding elder may, when there is a sufficient
number, hold for them a separate district conference.
"Resolved, 3. That any of the annual conferences may employ
colored preachers to travel, where they judge their services may be
necessary, provided they be recommended according to the form of
Discipline. (2)
"Resolved, 4. That the above resolutions be made a part of the
section in the Discipline on slavery."
In 1828, the General Conference met at Pittsburgh, Pa. A
resolution against the bad treatment of slaves was offered, and
subsequently withdrawn, and resolutions passed approving the
course of the American Colonization Society.
In 1832, the General Conference met at Philadelphia. During
this session, the subject of the religious rights and privileges of
the colored people, and also what change should be made in the
section on the subject of slavery, were brought forward by reso
lution, and referred to committees.
In 1836, the General Conference met in Cincinnati, Ohio. The
following resolution was offered :
" Resolved, That the committee appointed to draft a pastoral letter
to our preachers, members, and friends, be, and they are hereby in
structed, to take notice of the subject of modern abolition, that has
so seriously agitated the different parts of our country, and that they
let our preachers, members, and friends know that the General Con
ference are opposed to the agitation of that subject, and will use all
prudent means to put it down.

388 PULPIT POLITICS.
" On motion of S. G. Rozel, a preamble and resolutions on the case
of two members, lecturing on the subject of abolition in this city,.
was taken up, which produced considerable excitement and discussion,
until the time for adjournment had arrived."
The discussion on Mr. Rozel's motion was prolonged through
out three sittings, and the following preamble and resolutions
were finally adopted by an overwhelming majority :
" The whole of the motion, as adopted, is as follows, viz. :
" Whereas, great excitement has prevailed in this country on the
subject of modern abolitionism, which is reported to have been in
creased in this city recently by the unjustifiable conduct of two mem
bers of the General Conference, in lecturing upon and in favor of
that agitating topic ; and whereas, such a course, on the part of any
of its members, is calculated to bring upon this body the suspicions
and distrust of the community, and misrepresent its sentiments in
regard to the point at issue ; and whereas, in this aspect of the case,
a due regard for its own character, as well as a just concern for the
interests of the Church confided to its care, demand a full, decided,
and unequivocal expression of the views of the General Conference
in the premises, therefore,
"Resolved, by the delegates of the annual conferences in General
Conference assembled, 1. That they disapprove, in the most unquali
fied sense, the conduct of two members of the General Conference,
who are reported to have lectured in this city recently upon and in
favor of modern abolitionism.
"Resolved, 2. That they are decidedly opposed to modern abolition
ism, and wholly disclaim any right, wish, or intention to interfere iu
the civil and political relation existing between master and slave, as
it exists in the slaveholding States of this Union. (3)
" Resolved, 3. That the foregoing preamble and resolutions be pub
lished in our periodicals."
During this session a number of memorials on the subject of
slavery were presented, and a report made by the judiciary com
mittee in relation to grievances complained of by the Baltimore
Annual Conference, and others, in which it is said, "that the
exceptions to the general rule in the Discipline clearly apply to
official members of the Church in Virginia, according to the laws

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 389
of the Commonwealth, and do, therefore, protect them against a
forfeiture of their official standing, on account of said rule,"
"The chairman of the committee on the subject of slavery pre
sented a report, which was read and adopted, as follows :
"The committee to whom were referred sundry memorials from
the North, praying that certain rules on the subject of slavery, which
formerly existed in our Book of Discipline, should be restored, and
that the General Conference take such measures as they may deem
proper to free the Church from the evil of slavery, beg leave to
report :
"That they have had the subject under serious consideration, and
are of opinion that the prayers of the memorialists can not be granted,
believing that it would be highly improper for the General Conference
to take any action that would alter or change our rules on the sulyect
of slavery. Your committee, therefore, respectfully submit the fol
lowing resolution :
"Resolved, That it is inexpedient to make any change in our Book
of Discipline respecting slavery, and that we deem it improper further
to agitate the subject in the General Conference at present."
I
- In 1840, the General Conference met in Baltimore. During
this conference the petitions against slavery /were very numer
ous, from almost all portions of the North. There was also a
considerable number of memorials protesting against any action
of the General Conference upon the subject. Majority and
minority reports were made by the committee on the subject of
slavery. The whole subject seems to have been left among the
unfinished business, though considerable discussion was had upon
the majority report. The Address of the Bishops, for this year,
takes notice of the slavery agitation in a conciliatory, conserva
tive, and Christian spirit. The following extract will be found
interesting and important. It would seem that these pious men,
in viewing the tendencies of the slavery agitation, saw, with
almost prophetic vision, that its practical tendency was to en
danger the safety of the Union of these United States :
" The experience of more than half a century, since the organiza-^
tion of our ecclesiastical body, will afford us many important lights

390 PULPIT POLITICS.
and landmarks, pointing out what is the safest and most prudeht
policy to be pursued, in our onward course, as regards African slavery
in these States ; and especially in our own religious community. This
very interesting period of our history is distinguished by several
characteristic features having a special claim to our consideration at
the present time, particularly in view of the unusual excitement
which now prevails on the subject, not only in the different Christian
Churches, but also in the civil body. And, first: our general rule
on slavery, which forms a part of the Constitution of the Church, has
stood, from the beginning, unchanged, as testamentary of our senti
ments on the principle of slavery, and the slave trade. And in this
we differ in no respect from the sentiments of our venerable founder,
or from 'those of the wisest and most distinguished statesmen and
civilians of our own and other enlightened and Christian countries.
Secondly ; in all the enactments of the Church relating to slavery, a
due and respectful regard has been had to the laws of the States,
never requiring emancipation in contravention of the civil authority,
or where the laws of the States would not allow the liberated slave to
enjoy his freedom. Thirdly : the simply holding or owning of slaves,
without regard to circumstances, has, at no period of the existence
of the Church, subjected the master to excommunication. Fourthly:
rules have been made, from time to time, regulating the sale, and
purchase, and holding of slaves, with reference to the different laws
of the States where slavery is tolerated ; which, upon the experience
of the great difficulties of administering them, and the unhappy con
sequences both to masters and servants, have been as often changed
or repealed. These important facts, which form prominent features
of our past history as a Church, may very properly lead us to inquire
for that course of action, in future, which may be best calculated to
preserve the peaee and unity of the whole body, promote the general
happiness of the slave population, and advance generally, in the slave-
holding community of our country, the humane and hallowing influ
ence of our holy religion. We can not withhold from you, at this
eventful period, the solemn conviction of our minds, that no new
ecclesiastical legislation on the subject of slavery, at this time, will
have a tendency to accomplish these most desirable objects. And we
are fully persuaded that, as a body of Christian ministers, we shall
accomplish the greatest good by directing our individual and united
efforts, in the spirit of the first teachers of Christianity, to bring both
master and servant under the sanctifying influence of the principles

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 391
of that Gospel which teaches the duties of every relation, and enforces
the faithful discharge of them by the strongest conceivable motives.
Do we aim at the amelioration of the condition of the slave? How
can we so effectually accomplish this, in our calling as ministers of
the Gospel of Christ, as by employing our whole influence to bring
him and his master to a saving knowledge of the grace of God, and
to a practical observance of those relative duties so clearly prescribed
in the writings of the inspired apostles? Permit us to add, that,
although we enter not into the political contentions of the day, neither
interfere with civil legislation nor with the administration of the laws,
we can not but feel a deep interest in whatever affects the peace, pros
perity, and happiness of our beloved country. The Union of these
States, the perpetuity of the bonds of our national confederation, the
reciprocal confidence of the different members of the great civil com
pact, — in a word, the well-being of the community of which we are
members, should never cease to lay near our hearts, and for which we
should offer up our sincere and most ardent prayers to the Almighty
Euler of the universe. But can we, as ministers of the Gospel, and
servants of a Master ' whose kingdom is not of this world,' promote
those important objects in any way so truly and permanently as by
pursuing the course just pointed out? Can we, at this eventful crisis,
render a better ser-vice to our country, than by laying aside all inter
ference with relations authorized and established by the ci-vil laws,
and applying ourselves wholly and faithfully to what especially apper
tains to our ' high and holy calling ;' to teach and enforce the moral
obligations of the Gospel, in application to all the duties growing out
of the different relations in society ? By a diligent devotion to this
evangelical employment, with an humble and steadfast reliance upon
the aid of divine infiuence, the number of ' believing masters ' and
servants may be constantly increased, the kindest sentiments and
affections cultivated, domestic burdens lightened, mutual confidence
cherished, and the peace and happiness of society promoted. While,
on the other hand, if past history affords us any correct rules of judg
ment, there is much cause to fear that the influence of our sacred
office, if employed in interference with the relation itself, and, conse
quently, with the civil institutions of the country, will rather tend to
prevent than to accomplish these desirable ends." (4)
In 1844, the General Conference met, on the 1st of May, in
New York, The petitions on the subject of slavery, this year.

392 PULPIT POLITICS.
were very numerous. On the 14th, the following preamble and
resolution was introduced :
" In view of the distracting agitation which has so long prevailed
on the subject of slavery and abolition, and especially the difficulties
under which we labor in the present General Conference, on account
of the relative position of our brethren North and South on this per
plexing question ; therefore,
" Resolved, That a committee- of three from the North and three
from the South be appointed to confer with the Bishops, and report,
within two days, as to the possibility of adopting some plan, and what,
for the permanent pacification of the Church."
After a slight amendment, the resolution was adopted.
Almost immediately thereafter, the following resolution waa
offered and adopted : —
" Resolved, That to-morrow be observed as a day of fasting and
humiliation before God, and prayer for his blessing upon the com
mittee of six, in conjunction with the Bishops, on the present diffi
culties ; and that the hour from twelve to one o'clock be devoted to
religious services in the Conference."
This resolutioij was devoutly complied with at the time ap
pointed. On the 18th, Bishop Soule, in behalf of the committee of six,
reported, that
" The Committee of Conference have instructed me to report, that,
after a calm and deliberate investigation of the subject submitted to
their consideration, they are unable to agree upon any plan of com
promise to reconcile the views of the Northern and Southern con
ferences." The report was accepted, and the committee discharged.
On the 20th, a crisis was produced, in this contest, by the
presentation of the following preamble and resolution :
" Whereas, it is currently reported, and generally understood, that
one of the Bishops of the M. E. Church has become connected with
slavery ; and whereas it is due to this General Conference to have a
proper understanding of the matter ; therefore,

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 893
" Resolved, That the Committee on the Episcopacy be instructed to
ascertain the facts in the case, and report the results of their inves
tigation to this body to-morrow morning."
V The person referred to was Bishop Andrew, who had become
connected with slavery by marriage. The history of this case
need not be presented here. It led to the disruption of the
Church. " The Southern members contended that, as the laws
of the State in which the Bishop lived would not permit eman
cipation, the General Conference should not interfere in the case.
The majority of the delegates insisted that as a Bishop was re
quired 'to travel through the connection at large, any connection
with slavery would embarrass both him and the Church in the
performance of his duties,' and declared their judgment to be that
Bishop Andrew should cease from the exercise of episcopal func
tions until he could relieve himself of this impediment. Then
followed that separation which has become one of the great facts
of ecclesiastical history." *
On the 6th June, the Committee on Slavery, after stating that
about 10,000 signatures appeared attached to the various memo
rials from the people, and that they find petitions from nine
Annual conferences, say, that they deem it inexpedient to rec
ommend any farther action, except that suggested in their first
report ; and then proceed to say that they " have also received a
statement of the votes from several of the annual conferences
upon the alterations proposed to be made in the General Rules
upon the subject of slavery. No evidence, however, has as yet
reached the committee that a constitutional number of votes in
the annual conferences has been obtained to make any altera
tions in the General Rules upon the subject of slavery."
The Address of the Bishops, for this year, embraced some
very important statements in reference to the progress of the
Gospel among the slaves, and the very limited success of the
Church among the colored people of the free States. It says :
" Although we have not been able to extend the missions among the
people of color in the southern and southwestern States, according to
* See Minority Eeport on Slavery, 1860.

894 PULPIT POLITICS.
our ardent desires, and the providential openings before us, for want
of pecuniary means, still we rejoice that we have not been compelled
to abandon the fields which we have already under cultivation ; and
that we have been enabled to occupy some new and very promising
grounds. It is a matter of gratulation to the friends of humanity and
religion, and of devout thanksgiving to God, that the unhappy excite
ment which, for several years, spread a dark cloud over our pros
pects, and weakened our hands, and filled our hearts with grief, has
died away, and almost ceased to blast our labors. Confidence in the
integrity of our principles, and the purity of our motives, which, for a
time, was shaken, is restored. New and extensive fields are opening
before us, and inviting us to the harvest. The conviction of the duty
and benefit of giving religious instruction to servants is constantly
increasing. The self-sacrificing zeal of the missionaries is worthy of
the cause in which they are engaged — the cause of humanity; the
cause of the salvation of souls ; the cause of God. Brethren, suffer
us to beseech you, by the tender mercies of God, by the precious
blood of Jesus, and by the crying spiritual wants of perishing thou
sands for whom he died, to strengthen the hands and encourage the
hearts of your fellow-laborers, who are more directly engaged in this
blessed work, by your ceasless prayers to God for them.
" We can not but view it as a matter of deep regret, that the spiritual
interests of the people of color in these United States have been so
long and so greatly neglected by the Christian Churches. And it is
greatly to be feared that we are not innocent in this thing. While
we profess to sympathize with millions of the African race in this
land, being children of the same common Father of mankind, ' who
has made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell upon the face of
the whole earth ;' but who are deprived of equal civil rights and priv
ileges with the white citizens, by the laws and institutions of the
country, over which we have no control , have we not been negligent
of their higher, even their eternal, interests, which we are at perfect
liberty, aud have the means, to promote? And, if so, is not this
neglect, especially in their circumstances, a violation of the laws of
our common nature, and the obligations founded in the relations we
sustain lo them, in a common brotherhood? There is, blessed be
God, no bar iu the laws of our country to prevent them from receiving
religious instruction, or being gathered into the fold of God. Here,
then, we have an open door. We may preach the Gospel of Christ
to them, unite them in the communion of his Church, and introduce

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 895
them to a participation of the blessings of her fellowship, and thus be
the instruments of their preparation for the riches of the inheritance
of the saints in glory. This, as ministers of Christ, is our work, and
should be our glory and joy. This, by the grace of God helping us,
we can do ; but to raise them to equal civil rights and privileges is
not within our power. Let us not labor in vain, and spend our
strength for naught. In this cause we are debtors both to the bond
and the free ; yea, to all men. But are we, as servants of a Master
whose kingdom is not of this world, discharging our obligations to
the utmost extent of our ability ? Have we neglected no means within
our power to promote the present and eternal well-being of this nu
merous and needy class of our brethren ? ' Let /aci!s give the answer.
From an examination of official records, it appears that there are four
annual conferences in which there is not a single colored member
in the Church. Eight others have an aggregate number of four hun
dred and sixty-three, averaging less than sixty. And taking fifteen,
almost one-half of the conferences in the connection, and some of
them among the largest, both in the ministry and membership, and the
whole number .of colored members is but one thousand three hundred
and nine, giving an average of less than ninety. It is well known that,
in many of these conferences, there is a numerous colored population,
and in each of them a very considerable number. It is presumed that
the freedom of the people of color, within the bounds of these con
ferences, will not be urged as the cause of their not being brought
under religious infiuence, and gathered into the fold of Christ. We
are certainly not prepared to admit that a state of servitude is more
favorable to the success of the Gospel, in its experimental and practical
effects, than a state of freedom. Facts will clearly show that this is
not the cause. In the city of Baltimore alone, there are nearly four
times the number of colored people in the Church that we find in the
fifteen conferences referred to ; and yet a vast majority of them are as
free as they are in almost all the states embraced in these conferences.
It may be well for us to examine this subject carefully, in connection
with our high responsibility."* (5)
As necessary to a proper understanding of the position of the
South, in relation to slavery, we present the following historical
statement from the Protest of the Minority of the General Con-
• Journals of the General Conference, 1844.

396 PULPIT POLITICS.
ference, against the action of that body, in the case of Bishop
Andrew. From this view of the subject, it appears that there
has been an "irrepressible conflict" between the North and the
South, almost ever since the organization of the Methodist Church
in this country :
" The law of the Church on slavery has always existed since 1785,
but especially since 1804, and in view of the adjustment of the whole
subject, in 1816, as a virtual, though informal, contract of mutual con
cession and forbearance, between the North and the South, then, as
now, known and existing as distinct parties, in relation to the vexed
questions of slavery and abolition. Those conferences found in States
where slavery prevailed constituting the Southern party, and those in
the non-slaveholding States the Northern, exceptions to the rule being
found in both. The rights of the legal owners of slaves, in all the
slaveholding States, are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United
States, and by the local constitutions of the States respectively, as the
supreme law of the land, to which every minister and member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church within the limits of the United States
government professes subjection, and pledges himself to submit, as
an article of Christian faith, in the common creed of the Church.
Domestic slavery, therefore, wherever it exists in this country, is a
civil regulation, existing under the highest sanctions of constitutional
and municipal law known to the tribunals of the country, and it has
always been assumed at the South, and relied upon as correct, that
the North or non-slaveholding States had no right, civil or moral, to
interfere with relations and interests thus secured to the people of
the South by all the graver forms of law and social order, and that
it cannot be done without an abuse of the constitutional rights of
, citizenship. The people of the North, however, have claimed to think
"differently, and have uniformly acted toward the South in accordance
with such opposition of opinion. Precisely in accordance, too, with
this state of things, as it regards the general population of the North
and South, respectively"/ the Methodist Episcopal Church has been
divided in opinion and feeling on the subject of slavery and abolition
since its organization, in 1784 : two separate and distinct parties have
always existed."'' The Southern conferences, in agreeing to the main
principles of the compromise law in 1804 and 1816, conceded, by ex
press stipulation, their right to resist Northern interference in any
form, upon the condition, pledged by the North, that while the whole

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 897
Church, by common consent, united in proper efibrt for the mitigation
and final removal of the evil of slavery, the North was not to inter
fere, by excluding from membership or ministerial office in the Church,
persons owning and holding slaves in States where emancipation is not
practicable, and where the liberated slave is not permitted to enjoy
freedom. Such was the compact of 1804 and 1816, finally agreed to
by the parties after a long and fearful struggle, and such is the com
pact now — the proof being derived from history and the testimony
of living witnesses. And is it possible to suppose that the original
purpose and intended application of the law was not designed to em
brace every member, minister, order, and officer of the Methodist
Episcopal Church ? Is the idea of excepted cases allowable by fair
construction of the law ? Do not the reasons and intendment of the
law place it beyond doubt, that every conceivable case of alleged mis
conduct that can arise, connected with slavery or abolition, is to be
subjected, by consent and contract of parties, to the jurisdiction of
this great conservative arrangement?
" Is there anything in the law or its reasons creating an exception
in the instance of bishops ? Would the South have entered into the
arrangement, or in any form consented to the law, had it been inti
mated by, the North that bishops must be an exception to the rule?
Are the virtuous dead of the North to be slandered by the supposition
that they intended to except bishops, and thus accomplish their pur
poses, in negotiation with the South, by a resort to deceptive and dis
honorable means ? If bishops are not named, no more are presiding
elders, agents, editors — or, indeed, any other officers of the Church,
who are, nevertheless, included, although the same rule of construction
would except them also. The enactment was for an entire people,
east, west, north, and south. It was for the Church, and every mem
ber of it — for the common weal of the body — and is, therefore, uni
versal and unrestricted in its application ; and no possible case can be
settled upon any other principles, without a direct violation of this
law both in fact and form. The law being what we have assumed,
any violation of it, whatever may be its form or mode, is as certainly_
a breach of good faith as an infringement of law. It must be seen,
from the manner in which the compromise was effected, in the shape
of a law, agreed to by equal contracting parties, ' the several annual
conferences,' after long and formal negotiation, that it was not a mere
legislative enactment, a simple decree of a General Conference, but
partakes of the nature of a grave compact, and is invested with all

898 PULPIT POLITICS,
the sacredness and sanctions of a solemn treaty, binding respectively
the well-known parties to its terms and stipulations. If this be so, —
and with the evidence accessible who can doubt it? — if this be so, will
it prove a light matter for this General Conference to violate or dis
regard the obligation of this legal compromise, in the shape of public
recognized law ! "
In 1848, the General Conference met in Pittsburgh. But one
petition on the subject of slavery was presented, and no com
mittee on the subject was appointed.
In 1852, the General Conference met in Boston. No committee
was appointed on the subject of slavery, and the few petitions re
ceived were referred to the Committee on Revisals,
In 1856, the General Conference met at Indianapolis, in the
State of Indiana. A Committee on Slavery, consisting of one
member from each annual conference, was appointed. The peti
tions on slavery were very numerous, and demanded, among other
things, such an alteration of the Rule on slavery as would exclude
slaveholders. This demand was resisted, on the ground that many
of the border Churches had agreed to remain in connection with
the Northern division, on the ground of pledges given that no at
tempt would be made to alter the Rule, or give to it an abolition
interpretation. The majority of the committee reported at length on the sub
ject. The spirit of this report can be understood from the fol
lowing extracts :
" That the reduction of a moral and responsible being to the con
dition of property is a violation of natural rights, is considered by
most men an axiom in ethics ; but- whatever opinions may have ob
tained in general society, the Methodist Episcopal Church has ever
maintained an unmistakable anti-slavery position. Affirmations that
' slavery is founded in the philosophy of civil society,' that it ' is the
corner-stone of republican institutions,' or that it is sanctioned by the
Bible,' have never met with an approving response in our Church;
contrariwise, the Founder of Methodism denounced the system in
unqualified terms of condemnation, and the fathers unwaveringly fol
lowed the example of the venerated Wesley. The Methodist Episco
pal Church has, in good faith, in all periods of its history, proposed

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 399
to itself the question, ' What shall be done for the extirpation of the
evil of slavery ?' and it has never ceased, openly and before the world,
to bear testimony against the sin, and to exercise its disciplinary powers,
to the end that its members might be kept unspotted from criminal
connection with the system, and that the evil itself be removed from
among men.
" It is affirmed and believed that the Methodist Episcopal Church
has done more to diffuse anti-slavery sentiments, to mitigate the evils
of the system, and to abolish the institution from civil society, than
any other organization either political, social, or religious. It is also
affirmed and believed that the administrators of discipline in our
Church within the bounds of slave territory have faithfully done all
that, under their circumstances, they have conscientiously judged
to be in their power to answer the ends of Discipline in exterminating
this great evil. (6)  —
" We now inquire whether the time has come when it becomes the
duty of the Church, through its representatives assembled in its high
est ecclesiastical court, to so revise the statutes of the Church as to
make them express our real sentiments, and indicate our practice as
it is. We answer, yes ! first, because it is just and equal ; it is right
before God and all men, that in a subject involving directly the per
sonal liberties of thousands, and indirectly of millions of our fellow-
men, the position of the Church should be neither equivocal or
doubtful. Secondly, because we can not answer it to our own con
sciences, nor to God, the judge of all, if we fail to do what is in our
power to bear testimony against so great an evil. Thirdly, because
it is solemnly demanded at our hands by a very large majority of those
whom we represent ; and, fourthly, because the signs of the times
plainly indicate that it is the duty of all good men to rally for the
relief of the oppressed, and for the defense of the liberties transmitted
to us by our fathers.
" We are aware that it is objected, that in the present excited state
of the public mind, to take any action on the subject will be to place
a weapon in the hands of our enemies with which they may do us
essential injury. We reply, that in all cases, to say one thing and
mean another, is of doubtful morality. We judge the rather that on
all questions vital to morality and religion, the honor of the Church
is better sustained by an unqualified declaration of the truth.
" We come now to state what, as it seems to us, is, always has been,
and ever should be, the true position of our Church in respect to

400 PULPIT POLITICS.
slavery. We hold that the buying, selling, and, by inference, the
holding of a human being as property, is a sin against God and man ;
that because of the social relations in which men may be placed by
the civil codes of slaveholding communities, the legal relations of
master to slave may, in some circumstances, subsist innocently ; that
connection with slavery is prima facie evidence of guilt ; that in all
cases of alleged criminality of this kind, the burden of proof should
rest upon the accused, he always having secured to him the advan
tages of trial and appeal before impartial tribunals.
"In view of these facts and principles, the committee recommend
the adoption of the following resolutions :
" 1. Resolved, by the delegates of the several annual conferences,
in General Conference assembled, that we recommend the several
annual conferences so to amend our General Rule on slavery, as to
read, ' The buying, selling, or holding a human being as property.'
" 2. Resolved, by the delegates of the several annual conferences,
in General Conference assembled, that the following be, and hereby
is, substituted in the place of the present seventh chapter of our Book
of Discipline." 
The chapter proposed as a substitute was made to conform to
the first resolution, as interpreted by the majority report.
The first resolution was put to vote, the result being 122 ayes
and 66 nays. " As two thirds of the members did not favor the
motion, it was lost, according to the rule of the discipline in such
cases made and provided."
The second resolution was not called up.
The minority of the committee reported, also, upon this subject,
setting forth the destructive tendencies of the alteration of the
Rule upon the Churches in the border slave States.
In 1860, the General Conference met in Buffalo, N. Y. A
committee of 47 was appointed on the subject of slavery. The
memorials presented were very numerous. They stood thus :
Against a change of the Rule, 32 annual conferences, 137
memorials, signed by 3,999 persons, and from 47 quarterly meet
ing conferences.
Asking for a change of the Rule, from 33 annual conferences,
811 memorials, signed by 45,857 persons, and from 49 quarterly
meeting conferences.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 401
The General Conference met on the 1st of May, and on the
16th the majority report was presented :
MAJORITY REPORT ON SLAVERY.
The Committee on Slavery offer the following report :
When He who spake as never man spake would comprehend the
sum of all human duty as between man and man in one brief sentence,
he embodied that sentence in the following memorable words : " All
things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even
so unto them; for this is the law and prophets.'' The same sublime
epitome of human duty is expressed in the words, " Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself." These precepts form the moral mirror
which God has hung up before all humanity. Into this mirror every
man is bound to look and see his own conduct as others see it, and as
he sees that of others. Or, to change the figure, these precepts form
the moral scales in which every man is bound to weigh his own actions
as he weighs the actions of other men. This Golden Law of God sheds
its divine light upon all the relationships which subsist between man
and his fellow; and that which we would have a right to desire from
any human being with whom we have to do, if we were in his circum
stances and he in ours, is the exact measure of our duty.
The enslavement from generation to generation of human beings
guilty of no crime, is what no man has a right to desire for himself or
his posterity, and what no man ever did or can desire. The constant
liability of the forcible separation of husbands and wives, of parents
and children, even in the mildest forms of slavery, is a state of things
from which every enlightened mind desires to be free. The impedi
ments which slavery interposes in the way of the observance of the
conjugal and parental relations, depriving the parents from governing
and educating their children, and the children from honoring and obey
ing their parents, as God has commanded, is a state of things condemned
alike by the Bible and all enlightened consciences, and from which the_
heart's holiest aspirations struggle to be free. The sacredness and
inviolability of the marriage covenant is one of the corner-stones of
all Christian civilization. Slavery, as it exists in the United States, is
fundamentally at war with this most ancient and sacr^ institution.
What should we desire, and have a right to desire, if we were in the
place of the injured party? This is the measure of our duty.
A system which converts a human being into merchandise, which
denies a man the rights of property, of family, of " liberty and the
26

402 PULPIT POLITICS.
pursuits of happiness," and generally of the power to read the record
which God has given for the regulation of all human conduct, is a
state of things in which no intelligent and right-minded person ever
did or can desire to be placed. In reference to_all these, and to all
other conditions of human wrong, the solemn mandate comes down
from Heaven : "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so to them."
God has laid the foundation of religious education in the family
relationships. His claims upon us find their readiest response where
the honor and obedience due to parents are properly inculcated. The
obligation to love God, because he first loved us, finds its strongest
response where the tenderness and affection breathed upon childhood,
by its divinely constitutod guardians, prepare the young heart for this
high duty.* The strongest terms by which the indissoluble affection
subsisting between God and his Church are expressed in Scripture,
* AU the arguments of this nature are unsound, because they are based upon
a totally mistaken view of the question at issue. "Were the negroes, as a class,
sufficiently civilized to be capable of imparting instruction in morals and relig
ion to their offspring, the argument would have some weight; but, rising slowly
from the lowest barbarism, they possess no such qualifications for teaching as
are required of those who have the care of offspring among professing Chris
tians. To emancipate them, would be to leave them to sink back again into
barbarism; and what does African barbarism do for offspring? Listen to the
story of a Christian missionary on this subject :
" A Sad Scene in Africa. — It was said in one of the Psalms, many years
ago, ' The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.' They
are just as full of such habitations now as they were then, and this is one of
the reasons why we should send missionaries to all the heathens. A short time
ago a missionary in Africa left his home to preach the Gospel in some towns
several miles away from the mission station. As he entered one town his at
tention was attracted by two women, whose conduct was very light and trifling,
and who appeared to be watching some object under the eaves of the opposite
house. "What was that shapeless object they were looking at? He drew near
to see. It was a poor little boy, about three years old, reduced almost to a
skeleton, but still breathing. Every rib in his little body might be seen, while
his back appeared to be broken. By his side there was a raw cajsada, (a kind
of root somewhat like a potato), and a little gourd, holding water, which, with
his poor, thin hand, he was trying to lift to his mouth. But the strength of
the little fellow was unequal to it, and his low wailings of distress were most
piteous, and filled the heart of the missionary with distress. He pointed the
laughing women to the sufferings of the poor child ; but they laughed all the
more at his concern. He then learned that the child was an orphan, and had
become the charge of one of the women of the family. Either through her

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 403
are taken from the parental and conjugal relationship. The inimit
able prayer, commencing, " Our Father which art in heaven," is a
further recognition of the same thing.
What, then, must be the religious effect of an institution which
tramples these sacred relationships in the dust?
In short, there is not, in our judgment, one distinctive attribute
of chattel slavery which is not incompatible with the Golden Rule.
The foregoing considerations, as it seems to us, are sufficient to
justify the opposition which from the beginning we have manifested
toward slavery ; for, be it remembered, this opposition is no new thing
among us, but is coeval with our very existence as a Christian organ
ization. The opinions of our revered founder need not be recounted here.
Imbibing in larger measure, than was common in his day, the spirit
of Him whose sympathies gush forth as an everlasting fountain toward
the poor and the oppressed, Mr, Wesley uttered' a testimony against
slavery immortal as his own name.
His genuine sons in the Gospel have followed his example. The
Conference of 1780 declared " slavery to be contrary to the laws of
God, man, and nature, and hurtful to society ; contrary to the dictates
of conscience and pure religion, and doing that which we would not
that others should do unto us."
The General Conference of 1784 declared the practice of slavehold
ing to be " contrary to the Golden Law of God, and contrary to the
inalienable rights of mankind, as well as to every principle of the
Revolution." The Conference say : " We think it our most bounden
duty, therefore, to take immediately some effectual method to extir
pate this abomination from among us, and for that purpose we add
the following to the rules of our society."
Then followed a plan of emancipation, specifying the age at which
every person held in slavery should be free, and declaring that no
neglect, or from disease, it had become this miserable object, only a trouble to
her, and she had left it there to die while she went to her farm in the bush I
" Two or three native Christian young men were with the missionary, who
proposed to take the child to a little out-station on the opposite side of the
lake, aijd take care of it. "What a contrast between the conduct of these young
Christians and that of the women who had left that child to die, not caring
what might become of it I And what made the difference ? Only the blessed
Gospel ; the entrance into their hearts of the knowledge of Him whose name
is love." — Central Christian Advocate, Feb., 1861.

404 ' PULPIT POLITICS.
person thereafter holding slaves should be admitted into the society
or to the Lord's Supper till he had previously complied with these
rules concerning slavery. A note followed these stringent measures,
declaring that they were to affect the members no further than they
were consistent with the laws of the States in which they resided ; and
also, in view of peculiar circumstances, giving the members in Vir
ginia two years in which to comply with these regulations. As these
measures were admitted to constitute a new term of membership, all
persons were allowed to choose between voluntarily retiring and being
expelled. About six months after, it was thought best to suspend, for the
time, the execution of these rules, and give the members a longer
time before the minute should be enforced. The suspension proved
to be indeflnite, but immediately following the suspension is the dec
laration; "We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the practice of
slavery, and shall not cease to seek its destruction by all wise and
prudent means." In 1789, the General Rule read : " The buying and
selling the bodies and souls of men, women, or children, with an in
tention to enslave them." In 1792, it read : " The buying or selling of
men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave them." From
1808 until now, the rule has read as at present, no one knowing how
the or came to be substituted by and.
For seventy-six years the question at the head of our present chap
ter on slavery has remained substantially what it now is : " What shall
be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery?" During all this
period and more, there has no day intervened in which our Church
has not testified against slavery as a great evil, and one whose extir
pation is to be sought by all lawful and Christian means. Nor has
our acknowledged anti-slavery position been unproductive of good
fruit. There is a power in the truth, when faithfully uttered, to influ
ence the conscience of mankind. The testimony which our Church
has borne has done much toward the formation of a correct public
opinion. Under its influence many thousands of slaves have been set
free ; aiid many thousands, who otherwise would have been slavehold
ers, have refrained ; and many thousands more, who are still holding
slaves, are doing so with consciences ill at ease. But for this testi
mony a number of western States, now free, and embracing a vast
range of territory, would probably to-day be slave States.
These facts are our answer to the question : " What good has our
church-action on the subject ever done?" Is it a small thing that

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 405
thousands of immortal beings have been delivered from bondage ;
that thousands more have been restrained from oppressing their fbl-
low-men ; and that regions of country, by many times larger than
some of the mightiest empires of the earth, have been secured to
freedom ?
To the charge that we are -violating the laws of the land, a brief
answer must suffice. If we choose to keep as free as we can from the
evils of slavery, how do we thus violate the laws of the land? Do
the laws of the land require the members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church to hold slaves ? How do we then violate the laws by declin
ing to hold them? Must we practice every evil which the laws will
permit, lest we be charged with violating them ?
While we have no sympathy with, but, on the other hand, strongly
condemn the mad projects of reckless and desperate men, who, in de
fiance of law, seek, by violent means, either to establish or destroy
slavery, we earnestly pray that the time may soon come when, through
the blessed principles of the Gospel of peace, slavery shall cease
throughout the length and breadth of this fair land.
But why should we seek any change in our Discipline, if it has
worked so well ?
We answer, 1. Much of our present Chapter on Slavery has become
obsolete by the changed circumstances since its introduction, and the
chapter is now, in consequence, no sufficient answer to the question
with whioh it commences. Owing to the present laws of many of the
slave States, the Rule in the chapter can have no practical application
where we have any considerable membership.
Again, the chapter, by making one rule for official and another for
private members of the Church, fails, we think, to embody our real
doctrine on the subject of which it treats. We do not see the pro
priety of having one rule for the class-leader and another for the mem
bers of his class ; one rule for the trustee and another for the member
sitting by his side ; one rule for a steward and another for the person of
whom he collects quarterage. Such discriminations, we presume, will
be admitted to be without any sufficient foundation, and we believe
they are practically disregarded.
2. Within a comparatively recent period differences of opinion have
sprung up as to the bearing our present General Rule has on the sub
ject of slaveholding. A few among us have contended that the Rule
condemns only the African slave trade ; others believe that it con
demns both the foreign and domestic traffic ; others, that while it con-

406 PULPIT POLITICS.
demns the traffic, it thereby legalizes the holding of slaves ; others, and
we think by far the larger portion, hold that while the Rule in express
terms condemns the traffic for a certain purpose, it also, by fair impli
cation, condemns the holding for the same purpose.
To this last view we ask a somewhat more particular attention.
What is the specific thing which the terms of the General Rule for
bid ? Not the buying or selling of a human being simply, but the buy
ing or selling with an intention to enslave. The buying or selling with
an intention to free is not forbidden. What, then, is the meaning of
the qualifying phrase, "with the intention to enslave them?" This
question can admit of but one answer. The person has already been
reduced to slavery before he can be either bought or sold. Even in
the foreign slave trade the persons have been seized and reduced to
slavery before they come into the hands of the trader ; and in the
domestic traffic the persons bought or sold are already in a state of
slavery. What, then, we repeat, is the meaning of the phrase, " with
the intention to enslave them ? " The only answer that can be given
is, it means with the intention to continue them in slavery, by continu
ing to hold and use them as slaves ; or, as in the case of selling, put
ting it in the power of others to continue them in slavery.
What, then, is it which, in the eye of the Rule, gives criminality to
the act of buying or selling ? The only answer is, it is the intention
to enslave them ; that is, the intention to continue their enslavement.
This is what clothes the act of buying or selling with moral turpitude.
It is the enslaving, therefore, by the continued holding and using as
slaves, which gives criminality to the buying and selling. The holding
and using are the only stimulus to the guilty traffic. We conclude,
therefore, that as the holding and using are the only stimulating causes
for the traffic, and as the intention to continue their enslavement is
the only sinful element, so far as the Rule condemns it, the spirit of
the Rule must condemn the holding and the using, as well as the buy
ing and selling. The intention which gives criminality to an act, and
without which the act would not be criminal, must itself be criminal.
We do not affirm that the holding of a slave is, under all circum
stances, sinful; nor is the buying or selling. Otherwise it would be
wrong to purchase a slave, even to free him. And the moral right
to purchase a slave to free him involves also the moral right to hold
the legal relation of owner to that slave until the benevolent intention
of freeing can be carried into execution. So when, owing to what
ever circumstances the immediate sundering of the legal relation

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 407
would be manifestly a greater injury to the slave than its temporary
continuance ; and when the evident intention is to give freedom at the
earliest practical moment, such an act of holding is not only not wrong,
but it may be a duty. It is something necessary to be done in order
to confer permanent freedom upon the person so held. In such a case
the holder is not released from the obligation to give unto the servant
" that which is just and equal," and to guard with the most religious
care the sacred and divine rights of the conjugal and parental rela
tions, and to see by all means that such legal provisions as are prac
ticable shall be made to prevent such persons and their posterity from
passing into perpetual slavery.
From the foregoing considerations it appears to us that the General
Rule should, in plain words, embody the honest doctrine of the Church,
as well on the subject of slaveholding as on that of the slave traffic. If
the traffic for mercenary and selfish purposes should be condemned, so
also should the holding. And if, as is almost universally admitted
among us, the spirit of the Rule condemns mercenary and selfish slave-
holding, then why may we not clothe this spirit in a visible body, and
insert the word holding in our present Jlule, subject to the same dis
criminating clause as the buying and selling ? Such a rule would read :
" The buying, selling, or holding of men, women, or children, with an
intention to enslave them." This, we think, is only embodying in
plain language the true doctrine of our Church on the subject.
So long ago as the year 1840, our bishops, in their Episcopal Ad
dress, in view of the different interpretations put upon the General
Rule, desired the General Conference, then in session in Baltimore, to
give an official exposition of it. The following is their language :
"We think it proper to invite your attention in particular to one
point intimately connected with it, [the subject of slavery,] and, as we
conceive, of primary importance. It is in regard to the true import
and application of the General Rule on Slavery. The different con
structions to which it has been subjected, and the variety of views
which have been entertained upon it, together with the conflicting acts
of some of the annual conferences, North and South, seem to require
that, a body having legitimate jurisdiction, should express a clear and
definite opinion, as a uniform guide to those to whom the administra
tion of the Discipline is committed." This address is signed by R. R.
Roberts, Joshua Soule, Elijah Hedding, James 0. Andrew, Beverly
Waugh, and T. A. Morris.
Without expressing an opinion here, as to the constitutional right

408 PULPIT POLITICS.
of the General Conference to place an official and legal exposition of
the General Rule in the Discipline, without the concurrence of the
annual conferences, we judge it the more prudent course that the ex
position should be embodied in the Rule itself, by a process which can
leave no doubt as to its constitutionality.
We therefore recommend for adoption the following resolutions :
Resolved, 1. By the delegates of the several annual conferences in
General Conference assembled, that we recommend the amendment of
the General Rule on Slavery, so that it shall read : " The buying, sell
ing, or holding of men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave
them." [This resolution required a vote of two-thirds to carry it. There were 138 votes
cast for it, and 74 against it, so it was lost. See Journal, pp, 244-246, — Editob.]
Resolved, 2. That we recommend the suspension of the 4th Restrict
ive Rule, for the purpose set forth in the foregoing resolution,
[This resolution was laid on the table, inasmuch as the first resolution failed.
See Journal, page 262. — Editob.] ..
Resolved, 3. By the delegates of the several annual conferences in
General Conference assembled, that the following be, and hereby is,
substituted in the place of the seventh chapter on slavery :
Question. What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of
slavery ?
Answer. We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of the
great evil of slavery. We believe that the buying, selling, or holding
of human beings as chattels is contrary to the laws of God and nature,
inconsistent with the Golden Rule, and with that Rule in our Discipline
which requires all who desire to remain among us to " do no harm,
and to avoid evil of every kind." We, therefore, affectionately ad
monish all our preachers and people to keep themselves pure from
this great evil, and to seek its extirpation by all lawful and Christian
means. (7) C, KiNGSLEY, Chairman.
B. F, Crary, Secretary.
[Por the action of the conference amending and adopting the third resolution,
and adopting the report as a whole and as amended, see Journal, pages 259;
262,- -Editob.]

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLA-VERY. 409
MINORITY REPORT ON SLAVERY.
The Minority of the Committee on Slavery appointed by this Gen
eral Conference to take into consideration the interests of the Church
in relation to this grave and perplexing subject, and also its duty in
the premises, being unable to agree with the majority of the Com
mittee, and believing that the present occasion demands at our hands
a full exposition of our principles, submit the following report :
In order to present our position on this question with entire clear
ness, we ask attention to the following
FACTS OF HISTORY.
^ Up to 1844 we remained an undivided Church, wonderftilly owned
of God, and eminently successful in spreading Scriptural holiness
over these lands ; our ministers went to and fro, and the knowledge
of God was greatly increased ; the people felt and acknowledged the
power of our anti-slavery Gospel, and by thousands were converted
and gathered into our Methodist fold. In no part of this country
did our Church flnd more favor and meet with more success than in
the slaveholding States. Firm in our convictions, and honest in our
avowal of them, we placed our Discipline in the hands of the slave
holder, containing provisions which limited his authority over the
slave, and made him in reality the slave's guardian, under the super
vision of the Church. In short, we taught the converted slaveholder
to look upon his slave as an immortal being, and to provide for his
moral and religious cultivation, by " teaching him to read the Word
of God, and allowing him time to attend public worship on our regular
days of divine service." Under this Scriptural Discipline we were
instrumental in converting both masters and slaves, besides breaking
the yoke from the neck of thousands even in those States where
emancipation was not possible by law, except under great difficulties. "^
i This was our condition as a Church when the General Conference
of 1844 held its session. An episcopacy till then untarnished by con
nection with slavery had become implicated in the great evil, in the
person of one of our bishops. Then came the trial of our anti-slav
ery principles, and the Border was true to its trust. The South
contended that as the laws of the State in which the bishop lived
would not permit emancipation, the General Conference should not
interfere in the case. The majority of the delegates insisted that as
a bishop was required "to travel through the connection at large,"

410 PULPIT POLITICS.
"any connection with slavery would embarrass both him and tho
Church in the performance of his duties," and declared their judg
ment to be that Bishop Andrew should cease from the exercise of
episcopal functions until he could relieve himself of this impediment.
Then followed that separation which has become one of the great facts
of ecclesiastical history. In this contest for anti-slavery principles
no portion of the Church was more inflexibly true to our Discipline
than that which is now the Border. •'
Returning to their homes, the Border delegates discerned (what has
since proved to be a well-grounded apprehension) a new source of
danger in the preponderance given to the North by this separation.
Already had the spirit of ultraism begun to agitate portions of the
Church, and fears were entertained that innovations, destructive to
the peace of the Border conferences, would be proposed and effected.
These fears were, to some extent, quieted by the assurance that our
Northern churches were true to the interests of the Border, and would
faithfully resist all attempts to destroy its power, or to change the
Discipline. These assurances were corroborated by the sympathy
expressed for the Border in the organs of the Church generally, and
the decided action of at least one of the New England conferences.
The Christian Advocate and Journal asked, about this very time, the
direct question : " Does New England propose to contend for a Rule
of Discipline which shall make the emancipation of slaves by those
who hold them a condition of membership?" Zion's Herald replied:
"Deeming it both unjust and impolitic, it is her intention to abide
by the Constitution of the Church as it now is, and to use her consti
tutional powers for the extirpation of slavery as prudence, the best
interests of the whole Church, and the Providence of God may
demand." New England sustained the Herald in this declaration, and the
Providence Conference, to show its sincerity, and to quiet the fears
of the Border brethren, at its session in 1847, passed the following,
by a rising vote of 54 to 4 :
"Resolved, That we are satisfied with the Discipline of the Church,
as it is, on the subject of slavery; and as we have never proposed
any alteration in it, so neither do we now ; and that, in connection
with our brethren of the other conferences, we will ever abide by it."
This same conference, at a subsequent session, reaffirmed the pledge
previously made, as follows : " We pledge ourselves to maintain the
same conservative and true anti-slavery ground by which the Provi-

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 411
dence Conference has already become distinguished." The late Pres
ident Olin, about the same time, addressed a letter to the East through
its paper, Zion's Herald, declaring that, as the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, was now gone, the internal controversy should now be
considered as closed, and the Church should turn its energies to its
great interests, namely : missions, revivals, education, etc. This was
not only the sentiment of New England, but of the whole Church, and
was fully indorsed by its official action. In support of this, we call
attention to the fact the General Conference of 1848 appointed no
Committee on Slavery, and but one petition was presented on the
subject. The same General Conference abolished the " plan of sep
aration," and took under its care the scattered membership which had
been cut off by that plan in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri.
It created conferences there, and thousands have been converted
and gathered into the Church in those States. The sentiment of the
Church remained substantially the same during the four succeeding
years. At the General Conference of 1852 no committee was appointed on
slavery, and only seventeen petitions were presented on the subject.
These facts are not only significant, but they are conclusive. The
General Conference was satisfied with the position of the Borcler
churches, and the membership North gave these suffering brethren
their most hearty support.
During the eight years immediately succeeding "the separation,"
the Church, in her official action and sympathy, was faithful to her
pledge to abide by the Discipline as it is.
In 1850, the danger of future aggressions, on the part of the North
and East, was distinctly foreshadowed ; and between the sessions of the
General Conference, in 1852 and 1856, this agitation on the question
of slavery in the Church made its first real development. The papers
in those portions of the Church began to denounce their brethren on
the Border, and this so far influenced the popular opinion in the
North as to shake its confidence in the ministry of these conferences.
•J Mere was the origin of the outside pressure, which the North now pleads
as the only reason why the Discipline should be changed on the subject.
^ In the General Conference of 1856, the first official effort to change
the Discipline was made by the ministry of the North, without the
support of the membership. Out of 790,000 not quite 5,000 petitioned
for a change, and most of these were obtained by the personal efforts of
preachers. That this first act of aggression was made by the ministry

412 PULPIT POLITICS.
was admitted in 1856. The reason assigned was that twenty-nine
annual conferences out of thirty-eight had asked the General Con
ference to make a change in our Discipline on the subject of slavery.
In obedience to this demand the first Committee on Slavery for eight
years was appointed, and a report presented in accordance with their
views. That report presented two propositions : one for a general
rule by the constitutional process to prohibit " the buying, selling, or
holding of a human being as property ;" the other for a new chapter
making slaveholding prima facie evidence of guilt, and declaring the
man, charged with this offense, to be guilty until he proved himself
innocent. That chapter was laid on the table, and the new rule failed
to receive the vote necessary to send it to the annual conferences.
The failure of this first effort on the part of the ministry only re
doubled their exertions. They have, during the four years past,
employed both the pulpit and the press to the utmost extent in pre
paring the sentiment of the Church for action at the present Session.
; This controversy has been marked by most peculiar features, and
attended with the most deplorable results. Churches in the North
have been torn and severed, new and independent societies have been
organized, papers in opposition to official organs supported, the friend
ship of years destroyed, confidence and fraternal affection between the
North and the Border lost, our preachers mobbed by lawless and pro-
slavery men, and bitterness of feeling engendered, until it has become
almost impossible for us to become a united people."^
There are now two parties in the Church, the one contending for an
alteration in our Discipline on the subject of slavery, and the other
opposed. The question vital to the issue, therefore, is : Which one
of these two parties has changed its position ? We answer most em
phatically, The Border has not. The Border was truly anti-slavery
in 1844 ; it is as truly so now. It resisted the encroachments of the
South then ; it resists the encroachments of the South now. It has
steadily resisted the South "till this present moment, at fearful cost
and constant conflict. It has resisted pro-slavery assaults in the
pulpit, on the platform, and through the press. The Border has
stood faithfully to the Discipline, under the charge of pro-slaveryism
from- the North, and of abolitionism from the South. It has never
denied being anti-slavery ; it could not if it would, and would not if
it could. The Border stands now where it has ever stood, and
though pressed sorely by the friends it has never forsaken, and by
the foes it has always resisted, its representatives come to this General

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 413
Conference, asking for no change in the Discipline, and willing to
abide by it as it is. v%e have always taught, and still teach, thaT
slaveholding, for mercenary and selfish purposes, is wrong; but we
have never held that the relatiou of master to slave, when either
necessary or merciful, is sinful, ^Un this principle we have received
the slaveholder into the Church, and by it we have regulated our
administration. If in any ease the administration has been defective,
it has been the exception, and not the rule. While our brethren in
the North and Northwest have yielded to the pressure of an ultra
ism which, by their own action, they have largely contributed to
create, we still battle for old-fashioned, anti-slavery Methodism. ^ No
human administration can be perfect, and our Border brethren do not
claim that theirs is any exception to this rule ; but they do claim that
integrity of purpose has characterized their action. With the laws
of the State against emancipation, so far as to prevent the liberated
slave from enjoying freedom without the liability of being arrested
and expatriated, they have, by their moral influence and discipline,
lifted the yoke of bondage from the necks of thousands, who, with
their children, are now contented and happy. Of late, owing to the
agitated state of the country, their influence has been, to some extent,
limited, but for this the Church of the Border is not responsible.
This is the position claimed for itself by the Border, and the claim
is sustained by the testimony of others.
The bishops, in their Address to the General Conference of 1856,
gave the results of their observation in regard to the position and
moral influence of our churches on the Border. In the Episcopal
Address of the present session, they reaffirm their statements, and
refer the General Conference to the language used by them in 1856.
The following is the passage referred to, namely :
" In our administration in the territory where slavery exists, we
have been careful not to transcend, in any instance or in any respect,
what we understood to be the will and direction of the General Con
ference. That body having retained its jurisdiction over conferences
previously existing in such territory, and having directed the organ
ization of additional Conferences, it becomes our duty to arrange the
districts, circuits, and stations, and to superintend them as an integral ¦
part of the Church. As the result, we have have six annual confer
ences which are wholly or in part slave territory. These conferences
have a white church-membership, including probationers, of more
than one hundred and thirty-six thousand, with the attendants upon

414 PULPIT POLITICS.
our ministry, making a probable population of between five and six
hundred thousand. They have a colored church-membership, includ
ing probationers, of about twenty-seven thousand, with the attendants
upon our ministry, making a probable population of upward of one
hundred thousand. A portion of this population are slaves. The
others are mostly poor. They are generally strongly attached to the
Church of their choice, and look to it confidingly for ministerial
services, religious sympathy, and all the offices of Christian kindness.
The white membership in these conferences, in respect to intelligence,
piety, and attachment to Methodist discipline and economy, will com
pare favorably with other portions of the Church.
" In our judgment, the existence of these conferences and churches,
under their present circumstances, does not tend to extend or perpet
uate slavery. They are known to be organized under a Discipline
which characterizes slavery as a great evil ; which makes the slave
holder ineligible to any official station in the Church, where the laws
of the State in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit
the liberated slave to enjoy freedom; which disfranchises a traveling
minister who by any means becomes the owner of a slave or slaves,
unless he executes, if it be practicable, a legal emancipation of such
slaves, conformably to the laws of the State wherein he lives ; which
makes it the duty of all the ministers to enforce upon all the mem
bers the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the Word of God,
and allowing them time to attend upon the public worship of God on
our regular days of divine service ; which prohibits the buying and
selling of men, women, and children, with an intention to enslave
them, and inquires what shall be done for the extirpation of slavery ?
" With this Discipline freely circulated among the people, or cer
tainly within the reach of any who desire to examine it, and with
other Churches existing in the same territory without these enact
ments, these societies and conferences have, either by elective affinity,
adhered to, or from preference, associated with, the Methodist Episco
pal Church. In a few instances their church-relations have exposed
them to some peril, and in numerous cases to sacrifice. But such
have been their moral worth, and Christian excellence, and prudent
conduct, that generally they have been permitted to enjoy their relig
ious immunities, and serve and worship God according to their con
sciences." This testimony of the bishops, in 1856, was corroborated by the
delegates from the Border, and the Committee on Slavery appointed

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 415
at that session confirmed its truth by the following language, which
forms part of their report, namely :
"It is also affirmed and believed that the administrators of Disci
pline within the bounds of slave territory have faithfully done all
that in their circumstances they have conscientiously judged to be in
their power, to answer the ends of the Discipline in exterminating
that great evil."
Such is the position of the Church on the Border, and it is the posi
tion held by most of the members of this General Conference. Very
few indeed of the members of this body believe or teach that slave-
holding, except for mercenary or selfish purposes, ought to be made
a test of membership. Our view of the subject is sustained by the
Scriptures, and also by Mr. Wesley, who received slaveholders into
his societies, and is in strict accordance with the instructions given by
the Wesleyan Connection to their missionaries in Jamaica. These
instructions are in the following words, namely :
" As in the colonies in which you are called to labor a great propor
tion of the inhabitants are in a state of slavery, the Committee must
strongly call to your recollection what was so fully stated to you when
you were accepted as missionaries to the West Indies, that your only
business is to promote the moral and religious improvement of the
slaves to whom you may have access, without, in the least degree, in
public or private, interfering with their civil condition." Who, then,
have changed position on this subject? The Border preachers have
NOT. The change of ground is with those who ask for an altered
Discipline, a new term of membership.
In conclusion, the minority respectfully submit, 1. That the action
proposed in the report of the majority has been recommended without
the proper consideration, in Committee, of the documents referred to
them by the General Conference, whioh, in our judgment, the gravity
and importance of the subject demand.
2. The minority further represent, that the desire of the Church at
large for any important change in our rules on the subject of slavery
is not sufficiently indicated in the petitions that have been referred to
this Committee to demand such action as is set forth in the report of
the majority. The whole number of petitioners is less than one in
twenty of the entire membership, and in those Conferences that have
spoken most largely, two-thirds of the entire membership have re
mained silent. (8)
3. The action of the Annual Conference, as expressed in their

416 PULPIT POLITICS.
recorded votes, does not indicate such a desire for a constitutional
change as to call on this General Conference to inaugurate an attempt
to secure it by sending down a new rule for their action. This will
be evident if we consider that, taking the highest vote obtained in
the several Annual Conferences by any single measure, it falls short,
to the extent of over five hundred of the requisite number among
those voting, and falls short more than three thousand of three-
fourths of the whole number of the traveling preachers in the Method
ist Episcopal Church.
4. The change in the General Rule proposed in the report of the-
majority is still further objected to, in that the action they recommend
approaches nearest in form to the one coming from the Providence
Conference, and would be likely to be understood by our people as
embodying the spirit of that most objectionable of all the changes
which had been previously proposed.
5. The form of the chapter proposed in the report of the majority,
the minority confidently believe will not be considered by the Church
as embodying sufficient advantages over the present chapter to war
rant the risk incurred in making any change. Though being intended
only as a declaration of sentiment, as it is placed in what is regarded
as a book of ecclesiastical law, it may become a source of embarass-
ment by being misunderstood by our people and misrepresented by
our enemies,
6. The minority further represent, that the action proposed in the
report of the majority will very greatly embarrass and cripple, if it
does not altogether destroy our Church in the slaveholding States
and along the border. It is especially calculated to do this in the
present highly excited state of the public mind in that territory.
7. The minority still further believe that such a result would in
volve a loss of position and infiuence in slaveholding territory, by the
most decidedly anti-slavery Church among the larger denominations
of the land, which it might require many long years to regain. Such
a surrender of advantages now possessed must be deprecated by every
one who sincerely asks, '' What shall be done for the extirpation of the
evil of slavery? "
8. It is further objected to the action proposed, that it would oper
ate most disastrously upon the interests of the enslaved. It would
not only deprive them of ministrations by which thousands of them
have been bl'essed and saved, but from those by whom their emanci
pation can only be secured it would withdraw the influence of that

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY, 417
Church, in regard to which the majority of the Committee on Slavery
in 1856 say: "It is affirmed and believed that it has done more to
difiuse anti-slavery sentiments, to mitigate the evils of the system,
and to abolish the institution from civil society, than any other or
ganization, either political, social, or religious,"
9. The members of the minority representing conferences located
in non-slaveholding territory also submit, that the action proposed in
the report of the majority would, in its results, as admitted by the
majority (in committee) themselves, expose our ministerial brethren
and their families, in the Border work, to privations and perils which,
while they ought not to be shrunk from, if necessary to maintain up
rightness and truth, yet, if brought about without sufficient cause,
might properly be considered an unbrotherly recklessness as to their
condition, specially calculated to alienate them from us in spirit and
affection. 10. The testimony of the representatives of tho work on the Paciflc
coast in this Committee, impresses us with the conviction that the
results of the action proposed in the report of the majority would be
highly disastrous in that quarter, destroying much of the fruit of their
past labor, and greatly retarding the work for many years to come.
11. The minority are still further impressed with the conviction
that among the results of the action proposed in the majority report,
one painfully probable is the enfeebling of the prestige and moral
power of the whole Church by the strifes and divisions that may ensue,
which will greatly incapacitate her for the performance of that grand
work, both at home and abroad, to Which God in his providence is
now so evidently calling her, in this the opening of the second century
of her history, and in which, if her resources and influence are
properly husbanded and guarded, she may achieve so eminent and
glorious a success.
12. The minority are not insensible to the fact that an embarrass
ing pressure, produced by misrepresentations of our anti-slavery
position, is felt in some portions of our work in non-slaveholding
territory; but they believe that this may be relieved by a distinct
and emphatic testimony on the subject, in a mode which would not
involve the disasters apprehended from the course to which they
object. They, therefore, recommend , the adoption of the following
RESOLUTIONS :
Resolved, 1. That the Methodist Episcopal Church has, in good
faith, in all the periods of its history, proposed to itself the question,
27

418 PULPIT POLITICS.
" What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery ?" and
it has never ceased, openly before the world, to bear its testimony
against the sin, and to exercise its disciplinary powers to the end that
its members might be kept unspotted from criminal connection with
the system, and that the evil itself be removed from among us.
Resolved, 2. That any change of our Discipline upon the subject
of slavery in the present highly-excited condition of the country
would accomplish no good whatever, but, on the contrary, would
seriously disturb the peace of our Church, and would be especially
disastrous to our ministers and members in the slave States.
Resolved, 3. That the Committee on the Pastoral Address be in
structed to state our position in relation to slavery, and to give such
counsel to our churches as may be suited to the necessities of the
case. John S. Poeter, Chavrman.
P, Coombe, Secretary.
Buffalo, May 16, 1860.
REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING ECCLESIASTICAL ACTION.
(1) The attempt to enforce a rule of the Church, excluding
slaveholders from its communion, having failed, and the neces
sity of dropping it altogether in the South, argues a very differ
ent state of public sentiment, in the days of early Methodism,
an relation to slavery, from what has been supposed to have ex
isted. The duty of emancipation could not have been a common
sentiment, otherwise the Rule of the Church on slavery would
have been easily enforced. That it had to be abandoned, in
both the North and the South, is conclusive on this question.
In this fact we find another ground for setting aside the abo
lition interpretation of the Constitution, which claims that it
must be understood as anti-slavery, because the sentiment of the
country was then opposed to the institution. No such general
hostility to slavery prevailed throughout the country ; and even
in the States where emancipation was finally adopted, the feel
ing in its favor was by no means unanimous.
(2) It will be noted, that as early as 1824, the General Con
ference made provision for the distinct organization of churches
of the colored people, and for employing colored men as travel
ing preachers.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 419
(3) The resolutions of General Conference, in 1836, in con
demnation of abolitionism, are very pointed, and afford unmis
takable evidence of the wisdom of the bishops in laying a strong
hand upon it as a dangerous movement both to Church and
State. (4) Here are considerations, weighty, indeed, presented by
the bishops, in favor of a firm reliance upon the Gospel as the
means of meliorating the condition of the slaves, and against
clerical interference in civil affairs. Had these admonitions of
1840 been heeded by the Methodist ministry, that Church, as
well as our beloved Union, might now have been a unit, instead
of being broken into fragments,
(5) The remarks of the bishops, in 1844, upon the subject of
abolition petitions, and the neglect of the negro population, are
well worthy the most deliberate consideration,
(6) The declaration of the committee of the General Confer
ence, at Indianapolis, 1856, that the Methodist Church " has
done more to diffuse anti-slavery sentiments," " and to abolish
the institution from civil society, than any other organization,
either political, social, or religious," was a proud boast, and may
have been a truth. But, if so, where was the necessity for such
boasting ? If it had affected the committee alone ; if it had been
confined to the North, all would have been well, perhaps ; but it
flew upon the wings of the lightning to the extreme South ; and
there, in consequence of the claims here set up, the Methodist
Church was pronounced an abolition organization, having in
view the promotion of the abolition of slavery wherever she set
her foot. Had not the committee set up such high claims, be
fore Conference, for the efficiency of Methodism as an instru
ment in the promotion of emancipation, the soil of Texas would
not have drank up the blood of the humble Methodist minister
who was martyred on the suspicion that he was an emissary of
abolition, (7) It will be seen that, in the General Conference of 1860,
the alteration of the Rule on Slavery was not carried — there
not being two-thirds of the members in its favor. The chapter
on Slavery, however, was altered so as to conform to the aboli-

420 PULPIT POLITICS.
tion sentiment in the Church — it requiring only a majority vote
for its adoption.
(8) This authoritative statement, coming from the Committee
of Conference, ttat two-thirds of the entire membership of the
Methodist Church have remained silent, while only one-third
had signed the abolition memorials — confirms the opinions here
tofore expressed, that the great majority of the members, in
nearly all the churches which have legislated on the subject of
slavery, have been opposed to the action of their ecclesiastical
courts. In this fact, we are to look for the origin of all the
evils to Church and State which have flowed from the ecclesi
astical legislation on the subject of slavery. Conservative Chris
tian men have remained silent, while their fanatical brethren
have been allowed to occupy public attention, so as to create
the impression that abolition sentiments were in the ascendancy
at the North. Had the facts been clearly known — had con
servative men come boldly forward to rebuke and repudiate the
fanatics who were troubling the land — we should, at this day,
have seen our churches undivided, our Union existing in har
mony, and our people in the enjoyment of their wonted pros
perity. The responsibility of the evils which have befallen us
must rest upon the conservative men who, for the sake of peace,
have neglected to lift up a standard against the errors of aboli
tionism.

CHAPTER IX.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES AND SLAVERY,
Some notice is taken of the Congregational Churches, in their
relations to slavery, in Chapter III. To afford a more definite
view of their position on the great question of the day — forcible
emancipation — we here append some extracts from two docu
ments, which may be taken as representing the opinions of Con
gregationalists in general.
So universally have this body occupied abolition ground, as we
have been told by one of their most intelligent clergymen, that
we have not considered it important to gather up in detail their
Church action upon slavery. Their present position will be un
derstood by what follows :
1. The General Association of New York held its twenty-
eighth annual session at Binghamton last week.*
A committee upon the " state of the country," consisting of Rev.
J. P. Thompson, D. D., J. Butler, and H. N. Dunning, reported
a series of resolutions which, after debate and amendment, were
adopted. There was a deep and strong feeling in the meeting
that slavery, as the original cause and fountain of our national
troubles — as the serpent of evil which has entered our garden of
liberty, to beguile us into sin and ruin, should not be left un
touched by the nation in this eventful crisis, (1) that the occasion
which the providence of God has offered, ought to be seized, to
inflict upon its head a final and fatal blow. Some hesitation,
however, was felt in insisting upon any particular measures as
means of its destruction, which might embarrass the Administra
tion, though it was felt that the public mind ought to be prepared
•New York Independent, Oct. 17, 1861. (421)

422 PULPIT POLITICS.
for this issue, and the Government urged forward to confront and
decide it in every way possible.
The following are the resolutions as adopted :
" It having pleased the Great Ruler of nations in his righteous
sovereignty to visit this nation with the calamity of intestine war,
crippling our industry, disabling our commerce, desolating large porr
tions of our territory, and bringing anxiety and sorrow to thousands
of families ; — therefore,
" Resolved, That we pledge to the Government our constant devo
tion and earnest support in its determination to suppress the iniqui
tous and formidable rebellion of the South, and to re-establish and
enforce the authority of the Constitution over the whole Union, and
" Whereas, The immediate occasion of this rebellion and its foment
ing spirit was the determination of its leaders to secure and perpetuate
the system of slavery ; and whereas, there can be no guarantee of peace
and prosperity in the Union while slavery exists ; — therefore,
"Resolved, That we rejoice in every act and declaration of the Gov
ernment that brings freedom to any of the enslaved, and earnestly
hope for some definite and reliable measure for the abolition of slav
ery as the conclusion of this great conflict for the support of the Gov
ernment and- the Union.
" Whereas, In his good providence, God has opened the way for the
emancipation of the enslaved in this land, either by the instructions
of the Government to military commanders to enfranchise all slaves
within their several districts, or by general proclamation of the Presi
dent, or by act of Congress under the state of war ; — therefore,
"Resolved, That it is our duty, as Christian patriots, in all proper
ways to urge this measure upon the attention of the Government, and
to pray for its consummation, lest the condemnation of those who
knew their duty to the poor and oppressed, and did it not, should be
visited upon the nation.
" Resolved, That whatever the issue of the war upon slavery, and
whatever political phases the question of slavery may hereafter as
sume, this Association will adhere to the testimony it has so often
borne against the wickedness of holding human beings as property,
and against the compound and stupendous iniquity of the whole sys
tem of slavery ; and that as our Congregational ministry and churches
have been so far faithful and persistent in the past, in testifying against
slavery as sinful, so they should continue faithful and unremitting m
their opposition to it, until the iniquity shall be done away."

congregational churches and slavery. 423
• 2. Triennial Convention op Congregational Churches in
THE Northwest.*
The organic rules of the Chicago Theological Seminary pro
vide that in every third year it shall be the duty of the Board
of Directors to call a Convention, consisting of one delegate from
each of the Congregational Churches in the Northwest, and the
ministers of the same, which Convention has the appointment of
trustees, and has a right of perpetual patronage as founders of
the Seminary. The Convention met at Chicago, Oct. 8th, 1861,
and was attended by upward of 130 ministers and delegates.
The " state of the country" also occupied the thoughts of the
Convention. An able committee was early appointed, consisting
of Prof. Joseph Haven, Hiram Foote, G. S. F. Savage, H. D.
Kitchel, Asa Turner, H. L. Hammond, S, D, Cochran, S, Wol-
cott, H, H, Hitchcock, and the second evening allotted to the
consideration of their report. Eloquent speeches were made by
Rev. Asa Turner, of Iowa, Dr. Charles Jewett, of Wisconsin, etc.
"REPORT op the COMMITTEE,
"As lovers of our country and of the cause and kingdom of Christ,
it is with the deepest sadness that we look upon the present state of
this nation, once united and prosperous, now distracted and torn
asunder by civil war — a war which we can not but regard as ground
less — wicked in its origin, and of which the whole fearful responsi
bilities rest, and ever will rest, on those who, without provocation or
any just cause, have conspired to overthrow the Government and sub
vert the Constitution under which we live. If we look about us for
the source of the evils which now afflict us, we can find it only in
the system of American slavery. Whatever other causes may have
contributed to this result, they sink into comparative insignificance
beside this prime source and prolific fountain of all our woes. It is
this which has raised the standard of revolt; it is this which has
armed brother against brother, and State against State ; it is this
which has crippled our industry, wasted our resources, devastated
our towns and cities, dishonored our flag, made desolate our homes,
and brought such wide-spread confusion and disaster upon the nation.
If we seek a remedy for these evils, we can find it only in the eradi-
*New York Independent, October 17, 1861.

424 pulpit politics.
cation arid utter subversion of that which has been their producing
cause. Nothing short of this can or will reach the difficulty. The
present wicked rebellion is purely a rebellion of the slaveholding
portion against the rule of the majority, and against the principles
which lie at the foundation of all purely democratic institutions. It
can be brought to an end only by earnest and well-directed blows at
that which is the real root of the evil. It is no time for compromisea
or sedatives. The black and bloody hand of African servitude is
upon the throat of this nation, and we must break that arm, or it
will strangle us. There can • be no compromise with this gigantic
wrong. There can be no peace, no division of territory, no safe and
permanent adjustment of any kind while this system continues. We
are one nation, one territory, and we ought and shall remain one
people, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico — one from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. Such are our profound convictions, our deliberate opin
ions ; and entertaining these sentiments, we can not, as a Convention
of pastors and delegates representing the Congregational Churches
of the several Northwestern States, consent to disperse without first
bearing our united testimony to the truths which we have uttered,
and which we more definitely express in the following resolutions :
'' Resolved, That the fearful strife in which our Government is now
engaged with the armed traitors who have risen up against it, involv
ing, as it does, the defense of all that is dear to us as citizens and
patriots, and of the principles that underlie all free institutions, is, in
our view, a just and righteous war ; that we are bound, by every in
terest of Christian patriotism and ci-vilization, to prosecute this contest
with vigor, and, as speedily as possible, bring it to a triumphant con
clusion ; and that, in the efficient prosecution of this war, the Govern
ment has our profoundest sympathy, our most cordial support, and
our most earnest prayers.
"Resolved, That the present rebellion is, in our view, the direct
and legitimate result of the system of American slavery, which is at
once the radical cause and the main strength of the whole evil ; and
that, consequently, the conflict can never be brought to a successful
end till that system shall also forever terminate.
" Resolved, That we can not but view, in the present war, the hand
of Providence, that divine Arbiter and Ruler of nations, opening the
way for the termination of this accursed system, this gigantic wrong;
and we pray God that the heart of this great people and of this Gov
ernment may be brought to the fixed determination that that whioh

congregational churches and slavery. 425
has brought this war upon us, shall itself be brought to a perpetual
end ; (2) and that wherever our armies go, and our fiag waves, under
the whole heavens, there shall also go freedom and universal eman
cipation." remarks on the preceding articles.
(1) We have here a very apt illustration indeed. The framers
of our Constitution found a barbarous people in their midst, to
tally unfitted for the rights of citizenship, and held in servitude
under pre-existent customs and laws. Slavery, under the Con
stitution, was declared to be the " forbidden fruit," which was to
remain untouched by the nation at large. The declaration, on
this point, virtually was, " in the day thou eatest thereof, dying,
thou shalt die." The serpent of abolition entered the "garden
of liberty," at the Northern gate, and beguiled the inhabitants
"into sin and ruin." From the day that abolitionism put forth
its hand, from New England, in disobedience to the commands
of the Constitution, to pluck the fruit of " the tree of the knowl
edge of good and evil ;" from that day, briars and thorns have
been springing up, wherever the serpent's trail has left its slime ;
and the ruin now resting upon our Eden is traceable, directly,
to those who, adopting abolition sentiments, taught treason to the
Constitution in reference to the institution of slavery.
(2) Abolitionism being at the foundation of our national
troubles, every true patriot can unite in the sentiment expressed
by the Chicago resolutions, in the prayer to God, " that the heart
of this great people and of this Government may be brought to
the fixed determination that that which has brought this war
upon us, shall itself be brought to a perpetual end ;" that aboli
tionism shall be crushed into non-existence, and secessionism
forced to lay down its arms of rebellion, so that the Union may
once more arise in its glory and its power ; and that, under
our beneficent Constitution, the dominant race may continue to
rise upward, and progress on-ward in intelligence and civiliza
tion, and the lo-wly continue to advance in personal comfort and
Christian knowledge, until the millennial day shall find the whole
human race redeemed from its long years of degradation.

CHAPTER X.
Section I. — Rise of Political Abolitionism and the Un
constitutional Teachings of its Leaders.
We have seen that the early clerical anti-slavery writers, in
discussing the question of slavery, as it affected the moral stand
ing of church-members, believed they could thereby transfer the
agitation of the subj'ect to the arena of politics, and thus array
the legislation of the country against the institution. It is true,
that this party, in its efforts at religious reform, professed to have
only in view the purification of the Church; but the opinions
propagated, and the measures adopted, served as a most efficient
basis for the organization of the Abolition party. The example
of the Apostles, in their teachings on slavery, had been pronounc
ed an insufficient guide to the people of this age, and a doubt
was thus thrown over the Scriptures as an infallible rule of moral
conduct. A higher law than the Bible, as heretofore interpreted,
was demanded for the exigencies of the times. As anticipated,
the ecclesiastical legislation prepared pubic sentiment for politi
cal action, by creating an intense anti-slavery feeling among a
portion of the members of the Church, who were ready to be
roused into energetic effort for the overthrow of slavery, when
ever an opportunity offered. But for the votes that could be
secured at the polls, from the ranks of the religious anti-slavery
men, no political party would ever have made the slavery ques
tion a plank in its platform. In this fact is contained the demon
stration of the proposition, that the Churches are responsible for
the political agitation of this subject, and for much of its deplor
able consequences.
It was from the action of the Churches, almost exclusively,
that Southern statesmen originally took the alarm, in relation to
(426)

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS, 427
Northern interference with their institutions. But in organizing
an opposition to this interference, they did not base their resist
ance upon the true grounds of their alarm — the fear of forcible
emancipation. Other issues at first were made, so that an avowal
of the real source of thejr fears could be avoided. This is appar
ent from the testimony of competent witnesses then residing in
the slave States, one of whom we quote below.* No political
* The foUowing interesting extracts, descriptive of the condition and tenden
cies of Abolitionism, at the period when it had fully manifested its general
character, are from the pen of Jeremiah Hubbakd, Clerk of the Yearly Meet
ing of Eriends in North Carolina, to a Eriend in England, "We copy from the
Christian Intelligencer, of June, 1834:
"But I need not dwell much on the subject of universal emancipation, in
stating the best or worst, or most probable results of such a measure, because
the Southern people have no more idea of the general emancipation of slaves,
without colonizing them, than the Northern people have of admitting the few
among them, to equal rights and privileges. Not even the friends of humanity
here think that a general emancipation, to remain here, would better their con
dition ; and if they did, I believe that none of the slave States' laws admit of
emancipation without sending them out of the State. And the ultra slavehold
ers are as much opposed to the Colonization Society as the Northern manumis-
sionists are, and have, for several years past, been viewing its growing popu
larity, and the Northern policy in Congress, with great jealousy ; which keeps
them upon the ground of nullification and the verge of rebellion, though they
have other pretexts for it, such as the tariff, etc. But it is evident that slavery,
or rather the general anticipation of its being abolished, is the primary cause
of their discontent.-* ... It is a little singular, that the hardened slave
holders and the Northern manumissionists are so decidedly and bitterly op
posed to each other as to threaten a dangerous collision, and a political division
of this government, and, at the same time, are offering and urging the same rea
sons for abolishing the Colonization Society. But here we will leave the slave
holders inclosed iu their chariots of iron, with an iron grasp upon their slaves,
bidding defiance to the denunciations and imprecations of the New England
anti-slavites, and watching, with a jealous eye, the mild, gradually increasing
influence of the Colonization Society, and take a view of the plan of the Colo-
nizationist, and that of the Universal Manumissionist, without colonization,
and see which of the two is likely to abolish slavery in America.
"The primary object of the latter appears to be that of producing such a
revolution in public sentiment as to cause the national legislation to be brought
to bear directly on the slaveholders, and compel them to emancipate their slaves.
And in order to effect this, they have formed themselves into a society, that they
* We omit here his remarks in relation to Colonization, and the dispoBition of a few to melior
ate the condition of the slaTes by that means, etc.

428 PULPIT POLITICS.
organizations for the overthrow of slavery had been effected in the
North, when the hostility to a Protective Tariff, and the advocacy
of the Nullification doctrines were first heard of at the South.
But the action there, to guard against the evils of emancipation,
by arresting all tendencies toward its adoption, only served to
stimulate the efforts at the North for the promotion of that
object. The anti-slavery men claimed that they had a right to
use moral means for the removal of so great an evil as human
bondage ; and that in so doing, either by Church action or indi-
call the New England Anti-slavery Society ; whore they write and print a great
many things against the evils of slavery, and against slaveholders and the Colo
nization Society, in a style and manner that savors more of the spirit of
those who would ask for fire to come down from heaven to consume their ene
mies, than of those that would feed them if they were hungry, and if they were
thirstj', give them drink. Their principal intrenchment appears to be in Boston,
from whence they issue their periodicals, which, I suppose, they circulate pretty
generally through the free States; but whenever one of the papers called the
Liberator, edited by W. L. Garrison, chances to alight in any of the slave
States, it is counted incendiary, and immediately proscribed. Their orators
travel and lecture in the free States; there they propagate their doctrines or
opinions of universal emancipation, coercion, etc., with much zeal and fluency,
and, no doubt, with sincerity on the part of many of them ; but mark, my friend,
they are too discreet, or too timid, to travel and attempt to propagate these views,
and harangue in the slave States. The general course of their efforts, of late,
puts me in mind of what Young says about working the oqean into a tempest,
' to waft a feather or to drown a fly.' . , , The plan of the Northern anti-
slavites, instead of softening, appears to be hardening the slaveholders. . , ,
I would give thee a little specimen of Garrison's style and manner of writing ; in
his opinion of the Colonization Society, he says : ' The superstructure of the Colo
nization Society rests upon the following pillars; 1st. Persecution; 2d. False
hood; 3d. Cowardice; 4th, Infidelity. If I do not prove the Colonization
Society to be a creature without heart, without brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypo
critical, relentless, unjust, then nothing is capable of demonstration!' His
language to slaveholders, or of slaveholders, is, 'They are hypocrites, man-
stealers ; and such as hold o-ffices in the United States,' he says, ' are guilty of
corrupt perjury, and unless they repent, will have their part in the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone.' This kind of language is not at all calculated
to make good impressions on the minds of slaveholders, even on those of whom
it may be true." /
One thing worthy of note is said by this venerable Quaker. The primary
cause of discontent in the South, in 1834, was the general anticipation that
slavery would be forcibly abolished by Northern influence. What was true in
1834 waa equally true in 1860. . ,

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 429
vidual effort, they were not violating the Constitution. To the
Southern people, however, it mattered not whether their enemies
employed moral suasion or physical force — logic, law, or lead —
in promoting abolition measures, as the result to them would be
the same — the loss of their property without their aSsent.
When abolitionism became fairly ingrafted upon the church-
anti-slavery stock, its votaries claimed the right to use both
moral suasion and political means to effect the abolition of slav
ery. Their plans of operation, in the main, contemplated the
aggregate action of the States in the production of this result,
by an amendment of the Constitution ; or, in the event of the
failure of this measure, some of them were determined, as a
last resort, to effect a dissolution of the Union. The northern
States, in abolishing slavery, had done so by their own uncon
trolled action, and had brought upon themselves the burden of
a helpless free colored population. This result presented a bar
rier to the progress of abolition, as the South were well-informed
as to the disastrous results of emancipation in the North ; and
farther manumissions by State action, even where the measure
had once been favorably entertained, could not now be effected.
This made it necessary to the success of abolition, that the united
action of two-thirds of the States should be secured, in the mode
prescribed by the Constitution, for such an alteration of that
instrument as would secure general emancipation, without the
assent of the minority of the States. But the South denied that
such powers had been conferred by the Constitution as would
allow of any change in its provisions on the subject of slavery ;
and held, that each State was sovereign and independent, in rela
tion to all measures not provided for, in express terms, in the
Constitution. The Nullification movement was designed, in part
at least, to serve as an emphatic remonstrance, by the South,
against any interference with her domestic institutions by the
North. The general character of the political action against slavery,
in its varying aspects, will be best understood by presenting the
opinions expressed by representative men, and the principlea
avowed in the party platforms. It is impracticable here to give

480 PULPIT POLITICS.
the history of these movements in detail; but enough can be
presented to afford a true idea of the objects that were expected'
to be accomplished.
It must be remembered, as necessary to the comprehension of
certain movements of the Churches in 1861, that many of the
ministers who had produced the agitation of this subject in the
ecclesiastical courts, continued to participate in the struggle
when it had been taken up by the politicians.
It must also be noted, that after the first whirl of excitement
had passed away, and the disturbed elements had subsided a
little, two classes of political abolitionists were found arrayed
against Southern slavery. The principles held by each are thus
described by Dr, Bailey :
" The Liberty party take the ground that, under the Constitution
of the United States, and the Constitutions of the several States,
powers, fully adequate to the complete extinction of slavery in this
country, are lodged in the hands of the citizens, and that, in sup
porting the Constitution of the United States, and using the powers
it confers, no one is necessarily involved in moral wrong,
" What is called the Garrison party among abolitionists, assumes
that the Federal Constitution is ' a covenant with death and an agree
ment with hell ;' that no man can make oath or affirmation to support
it, without committing an immoral act; and that, consequently, to
seek disunion becomes the duty of the citizen,"*
The Abolition party " first made its appearance in national politics
in the Presidential contest of 1840, when its ticket, with James G,
Birney, of Michigan, as its candidate for the Presidency, and Francis
J. Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania, as its candidate for Vice-President,
polled 7,000 votes. In 1844, with Mr, Birney again as its candidate,
it polled 62,140 votes. In 1848, with Martin Van Buren as the Pres
idential candidate of the Buffalo Convention, and Gerrit Smith as that
of the more ultra anti-slavery men, it polled 296,232 votes. In 1852,
John P. Hale, its nominee, polled 157,296 votes. In 1856, the can
didate of the Republican party, John C. Frfemont, supported by the
entire abolition party, polled 1,341,812 votes. "f
* Cincinnati Morning Herald, July 12, 1845. Editorial.
t Political Text- Book, by M. 'W. Cluskey, Postmaster of the House of Rep
resentatives of the United States Congress.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 431
On the 29th December, 1841, a State Convention met in Colum
bus, Ohio. This meeting was called by S. P. Chase, S. Lewis, T.
Morris, J. Jolliffe, and W. Keys. Its object was to organize a
separate political action, so as " to make the cause of Liberty tri
umphant at the ballot-box."* An address, prepared by Mr. Chase,
was issued, and a series of resolutions adopted. The first reso
lution charges that the General Government, for fifty-three years,
had pursued a course of policy exhibiting great partiality to the
slave States ; the second, that the negotiations with foreign gov
ernments had been so conducted as to secure an admission of
Southern products into foreign markets upon favorable terms,
while the productions of the North, in the same markets, were
subject to the payment of high duties ; (1) the third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh, and eighth were as follows :
" 3. That experience has clearly shown that the institution of slav
ery, which establishes within a State a larger amount of non-laboring
population than the laborers can possibly support in the habits of
extravagance which it generates, always impoverishes the State in
which it exists, and thus creates a demand for the agricultural, me
chanical, and manufactured products, and for the money and mer
chandise of the free States, far beyond the means of repayment, and
is a drain upon the resources so inordinate as to operate as a serious
check upon their prosperity.
"4. That our fathers ordained the Constitution of the United States
to establish justice, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless
ings of liberty ; but the powers which it confers have been used to
promote injustice, endanger the general welfare, and to perpetuate the
evils of slavery. It is the duty of the people to see that the Consti
tution fulfills the ends for which it was established.
" 5. That the exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory
by Congress, in 1787, and the history of that period, clearly show
that it was the settldfe purpose of the Government, not to extend or
nationalize, but to limit and localize slavery, and to this policy, which
should never have been departed from, the Government ought imme
diately to return.
" 6. That the patronage and support hitherto extended to slavery
by the General Government, ought to be withdrawn, and wherever the
* Life of Samuel Lewis, page 308.

432 PULPIT POLITICS.
General Government possess constitutional jurisdiction, slavery ought
to cease,
" 7, That we expressly disclaim, in behalf of the General Govern
ment, all right to interfere with slavery in the States where it exists ;
but we shall ever insist that the General Government may and ought
to interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia, in Florida, and
on the seas,
" 8. That the freedom of speech and of the press, and the right of
petition, and the right of trial by jury, are sacred and inviolable ; and
that all rules, regulations, and laws, in derogation of either, are op
pressive, unconstitutional, and not to be endured by a free people."*
The Address issued by this Convention embraced the views
of the Liberty party. A few extracts will show its tone :
"Against hope, we have persevered, in hope that deliverance to the
people of this country from the manifold evils whioh they suffer in
consequence of the ascendancy of slaveholding influence in all the
departments of our General Government, would arise from the action
of one or the other of the political parties which now claim to divide
the country. All such expectation, however, after having been re
peatedly disappointed and repeatedly resumed, is now flnally relin
quished. . . . The Constitution found slavery, and left it, a State
institution — the creature and dependent of State law — local wholly
in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institu
tion. It gave it no national character — no national existence. . .
We admit — we assert it is strictly a State institution, and that Con
gress has no control over it in the States. . . .
" No candid man, acquainted with the history of his country, will
deny that, at the formation of the Constitution, a general expectation
prevailed that slavery would soon cease in all the States in which it
actually existed. (2) , . , But very different are the facts of his
tory. Encroachment has succeeded encroachment, and usurpation
has followed usurpation, and the influence of slavery runs through
the whole action of the Government, and is felt in the remotest corner
of the land. . . ,
"Fifty-three years have elapsed since the adoption of the Consti
tution of the United States, . , , During the same period seven
slave States have been added to the Union, and slavery has been
'• Cincinnati Gazette, January, 1843,

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 433
maintained by the authority of the General Government in the Dis
trict of Columbia and in the Territories of Louisiana and Florida,
We will say nothing of the admission of Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Alabama into the Union as slave States. The fact that these were
taken from the original slave States may be admitted as an apology,
though not as a sufficient warrant for it. But the continuance of
slavery in the District, and in the Territories purchased from France
and Spain, and the admission of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and
Missouri into the Union as slave States, were in violation of the im
plied pledge contained in the Ordinance of 1787 — in manifest disre
gard of the principles of the Constitution — and utterly at variance
with the original policy of the country in respect to slavery. Thus
has the slave power prevailed in the admission of new slave States,
and in the extension of slavery beyond its original limits.
"For a considerable period after the organization of the Federal
Government, wheat and flour, the products of free States, constituted
our chief articles of export and our principal means of paying for
Supplies from foreign nations. After some years, however, cotton,
the product of slave labor, became the great article of export, and
has since continued to be so. Every energy of our government has
been put in requisition to secure this result. , . . Similar exports
have been made in behalf of tobacco and rice, also, for the most part,
products of slave States. In the mean time wheat, flour, and pork,
and the other products of free labor, have been gradually excluded
from foreign markets, and our government has cared nothing and
thought nothing about the matter. At length the surplus of these
products has become immense, and the free laborer anxiously looks
for a market, but finds almost all the ports of the world nearly or
absolutely closed against him. Thus has the slave power protected
the interests of slave labor, and sacrificed the interests of free labor,
through its influence on our foreign negotiations, . . .
" We ask you, fellow citizens, to acquaint yourselves fully with the
details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly
touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believ
ing that THE HONOR, THE WELFARE, THE SAFETY, of Our country
imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the Gov
ernment from slavery .'*...
"This is the great object of our efforts. We believe that our
national Constitution affords no sanction to the doctrine that man
• The italics and small capitals are in the original.
28

434 PULPIT POLITICS.
can hold property in man. We believe that its only safe refuge,
from universal disavowal and repudiation, is in the constitution of
the separate States which admit and sanction it. We believe that
neither the domestic nor foreign policy of the Government will be
permanently settled so as to secure steady and adequate rewards to
free labor, until slavery shall be confined within the limits of those
States, and the General Government be delivered from the control of
the slave power,
" We would, therefore, withdraw the support of national legislation
and negotiation from the system of slavery.
" We would enforce the just and constitutional rule that slavery ia
the creature of local law, and cannot be extended beyond the limits
of the State in which it exists, (3) , , ,
"We would secure to every man a speedy and impartial trial by
jury, in all cases where life and liberty shall be in question,"*
The Abolition Convention, in New York, held shortly after
this period, is thus noticed by the Cincinnati Gazette, February
2d, 1842:
" The Abolitionists of New York seem to be governed by the fiercest
bigotry. The proceeding of this Convention, as reported in the JW-
bune, are ultra in spirit, and rash to madness. They have addressed
the slaves at the South, recommending them to run away, and so far
as may be essential to their escape, to steal horse, or boat, or food, or
clothing, urging their friends at the South to furnish them with pocket
compasses and locofoco matches for this purpose. , , ,
" The Convention closed by adopting the following resolution by
acclamation :
"Resolved, That we solemnly and deliberately proclaim to the
nation, that no power on earth shall compel us to take up arms
against the slaves, should they use violence in asserting their right
to freedom."
In the course of the proceedings of the abolitionists in their
arrangements for prosecuting the presidential campaign of 1844,
the Hartford Committee addressed Mr. Birney, asking his opinions
oil the various questions of the day. In his reply, Mr. Birney,
under date of August 15, 1843, said :
•Cincinnati Gazette, January 13 and 14, 1842,

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS, 435
" 4. I am not in favor of creating a National Bank while slavery is
continued in our country. Slave labor, on a large scale, can never
support itself; or I should rather say, it can never support the indo
lence and the prodigality which it never fails to beget in those who
lay claim to its fruits.
" 5. My mind strongly inclines to the opinion that, if Congress can
rightfully abolish slavery in time of war, it may abolish it in time of
peace. A vicious and dangerous state of things existing in the com
munity generally, may as certainly, if not as suddenly, become as de
structive of the government as war. The principle, then, on which
Congress might rightfully proceed to abolish slavery as a measure of
relief and safety in war, might be equally applicable and imperative,
on the same grounds, in time of peace. In both cases, the instant at
which emancipation would be ordered to take place would depend on
the sound judgment of the government. (4)
"As a people, we have undertaken, before God and the nations of the
earth, to maintain in our political organization the principles of liberty
asserted in the Declaration of Independence, and substantially incor
porated into the Constitution. Thus have we voluntarily brought
ourselves under a guarantee to purge our country from whatever is in
consistent with these principles. Nothing is more palpably so than
slavery. We are under a pledge, then, to the world, and to one an
other, to abolish it; and, in so far as our government has permitted
slavery to remain at ease — much more to enlarge and magnify itself —
it has proved recreant to its solemn undertaking — has brought on us,
as a people, the charge of hypocrisy, and dishonored us before the
hfavens and the earth.
"Persons of great experience and intelligence, as jurists, have sat
isfied themselves that the Constitution authorizes, in express terms,
the fulfillment of this guarantee, by the Government. Congress, say
they, has nothing to do with the relation of master and slave. Neither
the relation itself, nor the parties between whom it exists, are any
where mentioned in the Constitution, while, at the same time, (Amend
ment IV,) it declares that no ' person ' shall be deprived of liberty
without due process of law : — and this without the slightest reference
to his being a native or foreigner — a citizen or an alien — black or
white. Those who are called 'slaves' at the South, are called 'per
sons' in the Constitution. Are these persons deprived of their liberty?
Yes. By due process of law? No. Then why, it may be asked, are

436 PULPIT POLITICS.
they not entitled to the benefits of the Constitutional provision -within
the words and spirit of which they are so expressly brought ?
" But should the Liberty party be brought into power, a proceeding
wholly unobjectionable as to its constitutionality — as simple as it is
constitutional, and one that would prove as effectual as it is simple,
would, doubtless, be adopted for the abolition of slavery. It is to
confine the appointments to office under the Government to such as
are not slaveholders. The justness and propriety of such a course
would be as unobjectionable as its other characteristics; for, surely,
nothing could *be more reasonable than to exclude from all share in
the administration of the Government — from its offices and its hon
ors — those whose whole lives are passed in open contempt of its fun
damental principles ! (5)
" 6. It is my opinion that Congress can stop the domestic slave-
trade between the States, under that provision of the Constitution
which gives it the power to regulate commerce among them. If it
be said that Congress has no power to obstruct the transit or removal
of persons from one of the States into another — it may be replied,
that, if commerce lay her hands on ' persons,' and transmute them
into things to deal in, she brings herself, by that act, and in relation
to that matter, completely within the scope of the Constitutional pro
vision."* (6)
Again, under date of September 2, 1844, in reply to the Hart
ford Committee, and of August 5, 1844, in reply to Mr. Errett,
of Pittsburgh, Mr. Birney said :
" The sentiments I have expressed above [on the National Bank,
the Tariff, etc.J, would not, I know, meet with acceptance in many
parts of the country. Many, even of the most faithful of the Liberty
party, would probably dissent from them. I have not been forward
to publish them, lest, by doing so, I might, in some degree, contribute
to divert our friends from our paramount object, the overthrow of the
slave power; — and because I felt well-assured, as I still do, that, if
the Liberty party come into power, the whole country will soon be
brought into the most favorable circumstances for harmonizing all its
apparently discordant interests, and for settling, on their proper bases,
all the important existing questions of national policy. Now, the
labor of the country is made up of two hostile parts — slave and free.
» Cincinnati "Weekly Herald, Sept. 24, 1844.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 437
Irreconcilable in their nature, they can never be brought to operate
harmoniously together under one system of legislation. Let no one,
then, look for jarrings and dissensions to pass away from among us,
till slave labor have passed away, or be seen to be passing away, with
a certainty of its speedy and entire disappearance.
" The accession to power of the Liberty party implies, as I take
it, the speedy extinction of slavery everywhere -within our country ;
and, of course, the bringing of all its labor into a homogeneous state.
Till our labor be brought into this state, all legislation for its benefit
must necessarily be, in a great measure, unavailing ; and this can be
done only by the extinction of slavery.*
"But you are ready to ask, how could the Liberty party, if in
power, extinguish slavery, seeing, as is admitted on all hands, that
the General Government — except as a war measure, to save itself —
has no Constitutional power over that institution in the States? I
reply — all that is necessary to be done is for the appointing power of
the General Government to bring into its offices and stations of honor,
and trust, and profit, throughout the South, only such as are not slave
holders — only such as practically acknowledge that all men are cre
ated equal, and entitled to their lives and liberty. No objection can
be made to the constitutionality of such a course. It is as simple,
too, as it is constitutional, and it will be found as effective as it is
simple. Its spirit and object would commend it to all, except the
slaveholders themselves ; for I have always found it true, that how
ever slow a people may themselves be to put away wrong from among
them, yet when once justice is boldly done on it by their rulers, the
act never fails of receiving their heartiest sanction and approbation.
"The slaveholders would first huddle together for their mutual
defense. But it would be unavailing. They could no more with
stand the infiuence of public opinion, now purified by an illustrious
act of justice, and flaming on them from every side, than the snow
drift of an April night can withstand the meridian rays of the next
day's 8un."f
From Mr, Birney we turn to Mr, Chase.
The Cincinnati Morning Herald, May 21, 1845, contains the
great speech of Hon. Salmon P. Chase, on the occasion of his re-
* Here is the first dawn of the " irrepressible conflict."
t Cincinnati Morning Herald, Sept. 23, 1844,

438 PULPIT POLITICS.
caption of a silver pitcher from the colored people of Cincinnati.
A few extracts will show his positions on the negro question.
He said:
"I embrace, with pleasure, this opportunity of declaring my disap
probation of that clause in the constitution which denies to a portion
of the colored people the right of suffrage.* , , , I regard, therefore,
the exclusion of the colored people, as a body, from the elective fran
chise as incompatible with free democratic principles, , , , The ex
clusion of colored children from the schools is, in my judgment, a
clear infringement of the Constitution, and a palpable breach of trust,
I arraign the whole policy of our legislation in relation to our colored
population. I deny its justice ; I deny its expediency. (7)
" Let me turn now, for a moment, to, the condition of the enslaved.
They number two millions and a half. I claim for these the rights
which the Constitution and the law, rightly interpreted, secure to
them. I claim that nowhere, unless within the limits of the original
States, can a single person be enslaved, except in violation of the Con
stitution and the laws. (8) I maintain that the Declaration of Inde
pendence and the Constitution of the United States are the expressions
of the 3,nti-slavery sentiment of an anti-slavery people. In the
former, these expressions assumed the form of a solemn proclamation
of the National Creed, on the subject of human rights. In the latter,
these expressions took the shape of permanent declarations of the
National Will embodied as the fundamental law of the land. The
Declaration assumed the natural equality of all men as the foundation
principle of all just government. The Constitution, acting on things
as it found them, established the National Government, with such
powers and such limitations of power, as would, it was then thought,
secure the final conformity of the actual condition of the people to
the theory of the Declaration.
" In the case of Watson, of which, sir, you have so feelingly spoken,
the constitutional limitations of slavery were fully discussed. In that
case it was my part to re-state the positions and reiterate the reason
ings of the able lawyers associated with me. I may be permitted,
therefore, to say that, in my judgment, the positions were sound and
the arguments unanswerable. The first of these positions, and that
on which the whole argument hinged, was that the Constitution was
not designed to uphold slavery, and conferred no power on Congress
* The Constitution of Ohio is here referred to.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 489
to establish, continue, or sanction slaveholding anywhere. We also
maintained that slaveholding could not be continued anywhere with
out the sanction and aid of positive law. . , . Slavery is an institu
tion of force. If I claim to own you, sir, and require you to do some
service for me, and you refuse, and the law puts forth the power of
the community, in aid of mine, to compel you to submit to my dis
posal, and you are compelled to submit, then you are a slave. Con
gress is not authorized to exert any such power in behalf of the mas
ter. Congress is expressly prohibited from exerting any such power
by the fifth amendment of the Constitution, which declares that no
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law. How, then, could slavery continue in the territory of
Louisiana, after its acquisition by the United States? There was —
there could be no law in the Territory inconsistent with the Consti
tution, which forbade that any person should be deprived of liberty
without due process of law. There was — there could be no law in the
Territory which did not exist either through the adoption or by the
enactment of Congress, or of the Territorial Legislature, which derived
all its power from Congress. Congress could not adopt law which it
could not enact, nor confer a power on the Territorial Legislature
which it did not itself possess. Congress has no power to legalize the
practice of slaveholding. The practice of slaveholding, therefore, in
the Territory could not be legalized. Nor could it be legalized in
any state created out of the Territory, unless it can be maintained
that a part of the people of any one of the States in this Union can
convert another part into property, if they can get possession of the
Legislature and have physical force enough to enforce its detestable
enactments. "I have no doubt of the correctness of these positions, or of the
soundness of the inevitable inference from them, that slaveholding in
Arkansas is unconstitutional, and, consequently, that Watson, having
been conveyed to Arkansas, by his Virginia master, was free. But I
was aware that this doctrine was too little in accordance with the re
ceived pro-slavery theories of constitutional construction, to find much
favor upon a first hearing, and was not disappointed that the judge did
not acquiesce in it. I expect, however, to live to see it recognized in
all courts as sound law, , , ,
" For myself, I am ready to renew my pledge, and I will venture to
speak also in behalf of my co-workers — that we will go straight on,
without faltering or wavering, until every vestige of oppression shall

440 PULPIT POLITICS.
be erased from the statute-book ; until the sun in all his journey froffl;
the utmost eastern horizon, through the mid-heaven, till he sinks be
yond the western mountains into his ocean bed, shall not behold, in
all our broad and glorious land, the footprint of a single slave," (9)
The proceedings of the " Southern and Western Liberty Con
vention," which met in Cincinnati, June 11, 1845, were published
in the Cincinnati Morning Herald. A few extracts from the prO'
ceedings will serve to show the aims it had in view.
James G. Birney, Esq., on the first day of the session, said: "We
are not met to abolish the Union. I have no idolatrous veneration
for the Union. If slavery could not be abolished without the disso^
lution of the Union, I, for one, would go for dissolution. (10) But it
is not necessary. We should feel some charity for those wl^o think
that dissolution is the only way of eradicating the evil. They do not
oppose the Union as it ought to have been ; but as it is, with the
usurpation of the slave power."*
John M. Wills, of Pittsburgh, during the evening session, said:
" Our object must be to build up a power in the North, -jvhich shall
be as much dreaded as the slave power of the South. And we can
do it. In several States we have already the balance of political
power in the free States, We can soon obtain the balance of power
in all the free States, and when we have done that, one of the political
parties must inscribe one fundamental doctrine of the Liberty party,
to wit : the entire divorce of the General Government from all con
nection with slavery. The moment this is done, the necessity of a
Liberty party ceases. All we wish is the accomplishment of our
object, and the party which shall give us this, destroys the necessity
of our longer existence. And it is thus equally the interest of both
Whig and Democratic parties to raise the standard of emancipa
tion,"! (11)
Judge Stevens, of Indiana, during the same session, said : " We
are now a separate moral and political organization. We shall ever
continue so. The other parties may come to us, but we can not go
to them. They are destined to become one simple chemical pub-
stance, fused into one by the Liberty principle, , , , We' are
asked how slavery is to be abolished ? Sir, I will tell you. We must
reach the abolition of slavery over the dead bodies of both the old
? Morning Herald, June 12, 1845. t Ibid., June 13, 1845.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 441
political parties, , . , ' In the second place, we must reach the
abolition of slavery through the doors of 20,000 churches 
But we are told that our plan is seditious and factious , , . , that
we shall divide the churches 1 Sir, division implies separation, and
what shall we separate ? Why the sin of slaveholding from Christian
ity, , s. . We are told, too, that we shall divide the Union — that
we are disunionists. Now, sir, I am for the Union — but I say, if the
only Union we can have with the South, in Church and State, is to
be, and must be, cemented by the blood of three millions of my
brethren, I say, in God's name, let it go down." (12) . . . "Judge
Steven's Address produced a profound impression, and was received
with applause."*
The following resolutions, among others, were adopted by the
Convention :
" 3. Resolved, That we love the Union, and desire its perpetuity,
and revere the Constitution, and are determined to maintain it ; but
the Union which we love must be a Union to establish justice, and
secure the blessings of liberty; and the Constitution which we sup
port, must be that which our fathers bequeathed to us, and not that
which the constructions of slavery and servilism have substituted for it,
"4. Resolved, That, as a national party, our purpose and determin
ation is to divorce the National Government from slavery ; to prohibit
slaveholding in all places of exclusive national jurisdiction ; to abol
ish the domestic slave trade ; to harmonize the administration of the
Government in all its departments with the principles of the Dec
laration ; (13) and, in all proper and constitutional modes to encour
age, and discontinue the system of work without wages ; but not to
interfere, unconstitutionally, with the local legislation of particular
States."t In the Address of the Convention to the people of the United States,
we find the following : " We are willing to take our stand upon propo
sitions generally conceded : — that slaveholding is contrary to natural
right and justice ; (14) that it can subsist nowhere without the sanc
tion and aid of positive legislation ; that the Constitution expressly
prohibits Congress from depriving any person of liberty without due
process of law. From these propositions we deduce, by logical infer
ence, the doctrines upon which we insist, , . . The question of
* Morning Herald, June 13, 1845. t Ibid., June 16, 1845.

442 PULPIT POLITICS.
slavery is, and until it shall be settled, must be, the paramount moral
and political question of the day. We, at least, so regard it ; and so
regarding it, must subordinate every other question to it,"*
We defer additional quotations from other sources, in the pres
ent section, but, if space permits, may do so in a subsequent one,
REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING PRODUCTIONS.
(1) The complaint made by the Columbus Abolition Convention,
in both its resolutions and address, that Northern products were
excluded from foreign markets while Southern products were ad
mitted on advantageous terms, was not founded in an intelligent
view of that question. Foreign nations, generally, were able then,
as now, to grow their own breadstuffs and provisions, but could
not produce their cotton. Hence, while they retained a tariff of
duties on such commodities as the North produced, they were in
terested in admitting the products of the South on the most favor
able terms. The argument was offered, doubtless, for political
effect merely, and to enlist the prejudices of Northern and West
ern agriculturists against the South.
(2) Here we have the first authoritative announcement of the
theory, that, " at the formation of the Constitution, a general ex
pectation prevailed that slavery would soon cease in all the States
in which it actually existed," This view is proven to be false, not
only by the letter of Mr. Jefferson to>M. Muissner, but by the
action of the Methodist Church in dropping its Rule on Slavery
in the Southern States. This theory has been the most danger
ous one entertained by the abolitionists. They did not claim that
the Constitution itself repudiated slavery, but that it was the
general expectation, at the time of the adoption of the Constitu
tion, that slavery would soon die out. This expectation was
limited to the North, and never had an existence at the South.
Southern statesmen never understood the Constitution as contem
plating a course of legislation, under its provisions, that would
secure the abolition of slavery. They adopted it with the dis
tinct understanding, that "the powers not delegated to the
* Morning Herald, June 20, 1845.

MOVEMENTS OF THB ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 443
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Slavery was an existing institution, over which Congress had no
constitutional power granted to it ; that institution, therefore, was
left wholly under the control of the States and of the people. To
urge emancipation on the ground of a sectional opinion, and in
opposition to the plain provisions of the Constitution, was a pal
pable violation of the principles of that instrument, and, neces
sarily, provoked resistance on the part of those to be affected by
the new doctrine.
(3) " Slavery is the creature of local law." This has been an
axiom with abolitionists ever since the decision of Lord Mansfield
in the case of Somersett ; but its accuracy has not been acquiesced
in by later English judges. The discussion of this point came up
in the Congress of the United States, January 30, 1861, when
Hon, John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, in reply to Hon. Mr.
Stanton, of Ohio, said :
" It pained me to hear the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr, Stanton,)
for whom I entertain the highest respect, both as a lawyer and a man,
assert that slavery was never sanctioned by the common law, or law
of nations, but was the creature of local law. Sir, I differ with him,
toto coelo. Where can he show me a statute, in any State, establishing
slavery ? Our ancestors brought the common law with them, and it is
an admitted historical fact, that African slavery existed in the thirteen
original States. Now, if the common law does not sanction slavery,
and no statute can be found establishing it, how was it recognized, and
how did it originally find a footing in the free States ? Whence the
necessity of statutes for its abolition ? Why did not the pernicious
thing perish in the pure atmosphere of Puritanism of New England,
denounced by the common law, and unsupported by any statute ? Yet
it continued for years ; and, strange to say, opposition to the abolition
of the slave trade, insisted on by Southern men, came from the ances
tors of Republicans who wish us now to become their pupils in the
school of morals. Nay, more, Mr. Speaker : I doubt not, even at this
day, in New England, that a note given in New Orleans for the price
of a slave, and transferred to some Boston merchant, could be re
covered before a Republican jury, with a plea impeaching its consider
ation as vicious. If so, then slavery is not contrary to the law of

444 PULPIT politics.
nature, or of morals, since, ' ex twrpi causa, non oritv/r actw,' and I
would cite Republican action against RepubEcan theory,
" Mr. Speaker, I deny that slavery is the creature of municipal law.
It is one of the erroneous corollaries which has been deduced from a
loose noxious obiter dictum of Lord Mansfield in Somersett's case ; and
which, I regret to say, but frankly admit, has crept into the opinions
of many able judges in our American courts, I may be pardoned for
saying it is, nevertheless, a legal heresy. I cannot, however, forbear
making England herself, well known to be no apologist for slavery,
a witness against the position of the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr.
Stanton,) on this point. He is, I know, familiar with the case of
the slave Grace, decided by Lord Stowell, and reported in 2 Hazzard's
Reports, page 94. The facts of that case were, that Mrs, Allen, of
Antigua, came to England, in 1822, bringing her female slave Grace,
She remained with her mistress until 1823, when she returned with.
her voluntarily to Antigua, She continued as a domestic slave with
Mrs, Allen until 1825, when she was seized by the waiter of the cus
toms at Antigua, as forfeited to the king, on having been illegally im
ported in 1823, The vice-admiralty court of Antigua decreed the
slave to her owner, Mrs, Allen, from which an appeal was prayed.
" Lord Stowell affirmed the judgment, in a learned, lengthy, and
able opinion, I commend it to the gentlemen from Ohio, In it, he
reviews Lord Mansfield's opinion in the Somersett case, with a spice
of ironical satire. Lord Stowell says :
" ' The real and sole question which the case of Somersett brought
before Lord Mansfield, was, whether a slave could be taken from this
country in irons and carried back to the West Indies to be restored to
the dominion of his master ? And all the answer, perhaps, which that
question required was, that the party, who was a slave, could not be
sent out of England in such a manner and for such a purpose, stating,
the reasons of that illegality. It is certainly true that Lord Mansfield,
in his final judgment, amplifies the subject largely. He extends hia
observations to the foundation of the whole system of the slavery code j
for, in one passage, he says ' that slavery is so odious that it cannot be
established -without positive law.'
" ' Far be the presumption of questioning any obiter dictum that fell
from that great man on that occasion ; but I trust I do not depart from
the modesty that belongs to my situation, and, I hope, to my character,
when I observe that ancient custom is generally recognized as a just
foundation for all law ; that villenage of both kinds, which is said by

movements of thb abolitionists — BY POLITICIANS. 445
some to be the prototype of slavery, had no other origin than ancient
custom ; that a great part of the common law itself, in all its relations,
has little other foundation than the same custom ; and that the practice
of slavery, as it exists in Antigua and several other of our colonies,
though regulated by law, has been, in many instances, founded upon
a similar authority.'
" Lord Stowell adds, in regard to the suggestion in the Somersett
case, that the air of the island was too pure for slavery —
" ' How far this air was used for the common purposes of respiration
during the many centuries in which the two systems of villenage main
tained their sway in this country, history has not recorded.'
" Again, he says, as to the revival of slavery in the colonies :
" ' I have first to observe that it (slavery) returns upon the slave by
same title by which it grew up originally. It never was, in Antigua, the
creature of law, but of that custom which operates with the force of
law ; and when it is cried out, that malus usus abolendus est, it is first
to be proved that, even in the consideration of England, the use of
slavery is considered as a malus usus in the colonies,'
"Here is a direct authority as to the usage and common law of
England in tolerating slavery, and from a most eminent English jurist.
This opinion, if I am not mistaken, was commended by the late Justice
Story, " Allow me to read another short opinion by the same distinguished
judge, iu the case of Demarara and its dependencies. (6 Admiralty
Reports.) The question arose as to the character of slaves in the
arsenals aud forts of Demarara, on the Slst September, 1803, when it
surrendered to Great Britain :
" ' The slaves are in number three hundred and ninety-nine, of whom
two hundred are no longer the subject of contest, but are now admitted
to have belonged to the estate on which they were employed as gleboe
adscriptitii ; ihej were attached to the soil as part and parcel of the
realty, and, upon that account, the question with respect to them has
very properly been given up by the captors.
******* " ' The first question is, whether slaves are at all given to the cap
tors by the prize act, that is, whether they pass by words " stores of
war, goods, merchandise, or' treasure," which, by the third section of
the statute, are to be deemed prize, and to be apportioned by his maj
esty between the army and navy, when acting in conjunction. Now,
the fact is, that slaves have generally been considered as personal

446 PULPIT POLITICS.
property. The word mancipia, as it has been well observed, signifies
quae manu capiunter. This is unquestionably the meaning of the
word according to the civil law. In our West India colonies, where
slavery is continued, and is likely to continue longer than in any of
the countries of Europe, slaves have been for some purposes consid
ered as real property ; but I apprehend that, where the contrary is-
not shown, the general character and description of them is, that they
are personal property, and I see no reason, in the present case, for
saying that they are not within the general rule, and, consequently,
that they are not to be considered " as goods or merchandise." They
are liable to be transferred by purchase and sale, and although the
owner inay choose to employ them on his own works, instead of trans
ferring them for a valuable consideration, they are not, I apprehend,
the less "goods and merchandise" on that account. The very same
observation applies to all other cases of personal property, for all
such property, if saleable, is merchandise, although the person in
possession may not be a merchant, or mean to dispose of it by sale.'
" Once more : in the case of Le Louis (6 Admiralty Reports') Lord
Stowell is still more emphatic on the subject of the recognition by
the law of nations of the African slave trade, if recognized as lawful
by the country whose bottoms are engaged in it. He says :
" ' It (the Court) must look to the legal standard of morality ; and
upon a question of this nature, that standard must be found in the
law of nations, as fixed and evidenced by general, and ancient, and
admitted practice, by treaties, and by the general tenor of the laws
and ordinances, and the formal transactions of civilized States ; and
looking to those authorities, I find a difficulty in maintaining that the
traffic is legally criminal.
" ' Let me not be misunderstood, or misapprehended, as a professed
apologist for this practice, when I state facts which no man can deny,
that personal slavery, arising out of forcible captivity, is coeval with
the earliest periods of the history of mankind ; that it is found exist
ing — and, as far as appears, without animadversion — in the earliest
and most authentic records of the human race ; that it is recognized
by the codes of the most polished nations of antiquity; that, under
the light of Christianity itself, the possession of persons so acquired
has been, in every civilized country, invested with the character of
property, and secured as such by all the protections of law; that
solemn treaties have been framed, and national . monopolies eagerly
Bought, to facilitate and extend the commerce in this asserted prop-

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 447
erty ; and all this, with all the sanctions of law, public and municipal,
and without any opposition, except the protests of a few private mor
alists, little heard and less attended to, in every country, till within
these very few years, in this particular country. If the matter rested
here, I fear it would have been deemed a most extravagant assumption
in any court of the law of nations to pronounce that this practice, the
tolerated, the approved, the encouraged object of law ever since man
became subject to law, was prohibited by that law, and was legally
criminal. But the matter does not rest here. Within these few years
a considerable" change of opinion has taken place, particularly in this
country. Formal declarations have been made, and laws enacted, in
reprobation of this practice ; and pains, ably and zealously conducted,
have been taken to induce other countries to follow the example, but
at present with insufficient effect ; for there are nations which adhere
to the practice under all the encouragement which their own laws can
give it. What is the doctrine of our courts, of the law of nations,
relative to them ? Why, that their practice is to be respected ; that
their slaves, if taken, are to be restored to them ; and, if not taken
under innocent mistake, are to be restored with costs and damages.
All this, surely, upon the ground that such conduct, on the part of
any State, is no departure from the law of nations ; because, if it were,
no such respect could be allowed to it upon an exemption of its own
making, for no nation can privilege itself to commit a crime against
the law of nations by a mere municipal regulation of its own. And
if our understanding and administration of the law of nations be, that
every nation, independently of treaties, retains a legal right to carry
on this traffic, and that the trade, carried on under that authority, is
to be respected by all tribunals, foreign as well as domestic, it is not
easy to find any consistent grounds on which to maintain that the
traffic, according to our views of that law, is criminal.' — English Ad
miralty Reports, vol. 2.
"Need I refer to the case of the Antelope, in which the distin
guished and lamented Chief Justice Marshall held that —
" ' The African slave trade had been sanctioned, in modern times,
by the laws of all nations who possess distant colonies, each of whom
has engaged in it as a common commercial business which no other
could rightfully interrupt. It has claimed all the sanction which
could be derived from long usage and general acquiescence.'
" The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stanton) will surely not contend
that these decisions sustain his position, that African slavery is a

448 PULPIT POLITICS.
local institution, created exclusively by State laws, or that the com
mon law did not recognize property in a person. Sir, upon what
ground could we have ever obtained indemnity, as we have often
done, for the loss of our slaves on the high seas, if this doctrine were
true? The official correspondence of our ministers abroad abounds
in claims of this character, and many have been successful; but if
foreign nations had followed the doctrines of the Republican party,
our claims, in every instance, would have been ignored."*
(4) We have here the extraordinary claim set up by Mr. Bir
ney, the Liberty party candidate for President, that Congress,
even in time of peace, may rightfully proceed to abolish slavery.
Mr, Clay, about this time, in speaking of abolitionism as a polit
ical element in the nation, used the following prophetic language :
" Mr. President : — It is at this alarming stage of the proceedings of
the ultra-abolitionists, that I would seriously invite every considerate
man in the country solemnly to pause, and deliberately to reflect, not
merely on our existing posture, but upon that dreadful precipice down
which they would hurry us. It is because these ultra-abolitionists
have ceased to employ the instruments of reason and persuasion, have
made their cause political, and have appealed tO the ballot-box, that
I am induced upon this occasion to address you."t
Again, Mr. Clay, referring to the abolitionists, said : " To the
agency of their powers of persuasion they now propose to substitute
the power of the ballot-box ; and he must be blind to what is pass
ing before us, who does not perceive that the inevitable tendency of
their proceedings is, if these should be found insufficient, to invoke,
finally, the more potent powers of the bayonet," J
(5) Mr. Birney here proposes a very simple process indeed,
and as silly as it is simple. His scheme for administering the
Government, and eradicating slavery, is to disfranchise the slave
holders — a measure more easily proposed than executed.
(6) The prohibition of the transit of slaves from one State to
another, has long been a favorite measure with abolitionists. Its
?Speech of Hon, John "W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, on the State of the
Union, delivered in the House of Kepresentatives, January 30, 1861.
t Senate speech, 1839, as quoted in Cincinnati Morning Herald, Oct. », 1844,
X Ibid,

MOVEMENTS OF THB ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS, 449
practical bearing is readily understood. The natural increase of
the slaves, if it were all kept within a State, would soon lead to
over-population ; and thus their labor would become profitless,
and emancipation become a necessity,
(7) The claim set up here for negro suffrage, and the comming
ling of all colors in the same schools, is in accordance with tho
views of the abolitionists, but has never been acceptable to others.
(8) This interpretation of the Constitution is such an extreme
departure from that put upon it by the framers of that instru
ment, that it is no wonder the South took the alarm when the
writer of this Address was elected, by the Legislature of Ohio, to
the United States Senate,
(9) And not only was this novel interpretation of the Consti
tution thrown broadcast over the land, but we have the declara
tion of the determination of these abolitionists to go straight
on, without faltering or wavering, until there shall not be seen,
"in all our broad and glorious land, the footprint of a single
slave," (10) Here we have a candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Birney,
declaring that, if slavery could not be abolished without the dis
solution of the Union, he, for one, would go for dissolution. This
traitorous utterance was a fatal one. The sentiment became a
p'art of the abolition creed, and was afterward repeated by a
thousand tongues,
(11) The policy announced by the Southern and Western Lib
erty Convention, by means of which the abolition of slavery was
to be accomplished, was to persevere in its agitation of the sub
ject until the balance of polftieal power should be secured, and
one or the other of the political parties forced to inscribe upon
its banner the fundamental doctrines of the abolitionists. In con
formity with this scheme, the abolitionists kept up their organi
zation, in one form or another, until they succeeded in "fusing"
with the " Free Soil party," under Mr. Fremont, as the Presi
dential candidate.
(12) It is painful to put upon record the traitorous utterances
against the Union which abounded in the public demonstrations
of the abolitionists at this period. The declaration of Judge
29

450 PULPIT POLITICS.
Stevens, that if the only union we can have with the South, in
Church and State, is to be, and must be, cemented by the slavery
of three millions of his brethren, then, in God's name, let it go
down, was received with applause instead of with execration, as
it should have been.
(13) The idea of making the legislative, judicial, and executive
action of the nation conform to the Declaration of Independence,
instead of to the Constitution, is as absurd as to make our inter
course wiih foreign nations conform to the non-importation, non-
exportation and non-consumption compact of the cplonists pre
vious to the Revolution.* The Declaration had its uses when
announced, and has its uses still, as embodying the great leading
doctrines of human rights — rights that were denied to the colo
nists by the mother country. But the Declaration was never so
interpreted, by those who adopted it, as to include any of the
barbarous races, in the sense of admitting them to civil equality ;
otherwise, as we have elsewhere shown, that equality would have
been recognized in the Constitution. -f The grand error of the
abolitionists has been in the adoption of this fiction in relation to
the Declaration, and their persistence in urging that the Consti
tution must be interpreted in conformity with their negro equality
interpretation of the Declaration. The non-intercourse compact
had its uses also ; but it was temporary in its character. Its his
tory, however, teaches an important lesson, and one that has been
overlooked by the abolitionists. It prohibited all importation of
British goods, and all importation of slaves from Africa; and,
yet, notwithstanding the Declaration of Independence, no sooner
had the Revolution triumphed than the importation of both British
goods and slaves was resumed.. This resumption of the slave
trade was with the assent and co-operation of the northern
States, and could never have occurred had the fathers of the Revo
lution interpreted the Declaration as including the negro race.
(14) The Address of the Convention includes the fiction of Lord
Mansfield, in the Somersett case, that slavery being contrary to
natural law, can have no existence except by positive statute;
*See Chapter II, page 51.
t See discussion of this matter in Chapter II, page 52.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 451
when the well-known fact is, that slavery, though recognized as a
legal relation by almost every civilized nation, never has been
established by positive law, any more than any of the other rela
tions among men which are recognized by the common law.
To afford the reader a clearer conception of this question, we
copy, in addition to the decisions presented by Mr. Stevenson, the
argument of Charles O'Connor, Esq., in the Lemmon case. New
York City, as condensed in the New York Reports, volume 20,
1857: " (2) Negro slavery never was a part of the municipal law of En
gland, and, consequently, it was not imported thence by the first colo
nists. Nor did they adopt any system of villenage or other permanent
domestic slavery of any kind which had ever existed in England, or
been known to, or regulated by, the laws or usages of that kingdom.
They were a homogeneous race of the free white men ; and in a society
of such persons, the slavery of its own members, endowed by nature
with mental and physical equality, must ever be repugnant to an en
lightened sense of justice. Of course the colonists abhorred it — saw
that it was not suited to their condition, and left it behind them when
they emigrated. {Doctor and Student Dialogue, 2 ch., 18, 19; Whea-
ton V. Donaldson, 8 Pet, 659 ; Van Ness v. Pacard, 2 Pet., 444 ; 1
Kent Com., 373; Const. N. Y, art 1, § 17 ; NealY. Farmer, 9 Cobb's
Geo. R., 562, 578.) (3) As neither the political bondage nor the
domestic slavery which the European by fraud and violence imposed
upon his white brethren ever had a legal foothold in the territory now
occupied by these States, the inflated speeches of French and British
judges and orators touching the purity of the air and soil of their
respective countries, whatever other purpose they may serve, are alto
gether irrelevant to the inquiry what was or is the law of any State
in this Union on the subject of negro slavery. {French Eloq., A. D.
1738, 20 State Trials, 11 note ; English Eloq., A. D. 1762, 2 Eden, 117,
Ld. NoRTHiNGTON; Id., 1771, 20 State Trials, 1 Ld. Mansfield;
Scotch Eloq., 1778, id., note; Irish Eloq., 1793, Rowan's Trial, Cur-
ran; Judge McLean's criticism in Dred Scott, 19 How., 535; Lord
Stowell's criticism, 2 Hagg. Ad., 109.) {a) The only argument
against negro slavery found in the English cases at all suitable for a
judicial forum, rests on the historical fact that it was unknown to
English law. Mr. Hargrave, in Somersett's case, showed that white
Englishmen were alone subject to the municipal slaye laws of that

452 PULPIT POLITICS.
country at any time ; that negro slavery was a new institution, whioh
it required the legislative power to introduce. (20 State Trials, 55 •
Com. V. Aves, 18 Pick., 214.) (b) Lord Holt and Mr. Justice
Powell were Mr. Hargrave's high authority for the proposition that
whilst the common law of England recognized white English slaves
or villeins, and the right of property in them, yet it ' took no notice
of a negro." That a white man might ' be a villein in England,' but
' that as soon as a negro comes into England he became free.' It
was only negro liberty that the know-nothingism of English and
French law established. English and French air had not its true
enfranchising purity till drawn through the nostrils of a negro.
White slaves had long respired it without their stoiMS being at all
affected. {Smith V. Brown, 2Salk., 666; 20 State Trials, 55, note)
(c) Lord Mansfield said, in Somersett's case, ' The state of slavery
is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any
reason, moral or political, but only by positive law,' and negrophilism
has been in raptures with him ever since. Nevertheless it was a bald,
inconsequential truism. It might be equally well said of any other
new thing not recognized in any known existing law, {Per Ashhurst,
J, 3 J. R., 63.) .... 2. The judicial department has no right
to declare negro slavery to be contrary to the law of nature, or im
moral, or unjust, or to take any measures, or introduce any policy, for
its suppression, founded on any such ideas. Courts are only authorized
to administer the municipal law. Judges have no commission to pro
mulgate or enforce their notions of general justice, natural right or
morality, but only that which is the known law of the land. {Kent's
Com., 448; Doctor and Student Dialogue, 1 ch., 18, 19; per Maule,
J., 13 Ad. and Ell., N. S. 387, note.) 3. In the forensic sense of the
word law, there is no such thing as a law of nature bearing upon the
lawfulness of slavery, or, indeed, upon any other question in jurispru
dence. The law of nature is, in every juridical sense, a mere figure
of speech. In a state of nature, if the existence of human beings in
such a state may be supposed, there is no law. The prudential re
solves of an individual for his own government do not come under the
denomination of law. Law, in the forensic sense, is wholly of social
origin. It is a restraint imposed by society upon itself and its mem
bers. {Rutherforth's Inst., B. 1, ch. 1, § 6, 7 ; 1 Bl. Com., 43 ; 1 Kent, 2;
Wheaton's Elements of Int. Law, 2, 19; Cooper's Justinian, notes, 405;
Bower on Public Law, 47, and onward.) (1) If there was any such
thing as a law of nature, in the forensic sense of the word law, it must

movements of the abolitionists — BY POLITICIANS. 453
be of absolute and paramount obligation in all climes, ages, courts, and
places. Inborn with the moral constitution of man, it must control
him everywhere, and overrule, as vicious, corrupt, and void, every op
posing decree or resolution of courts or legislatures. And, accord
ingly, Blackstone, repeating the idle speech, of others upon the sub
ject, tells us that the law of nature is binding all over the globe ; and
that no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to it. (1 Wendell's
Blackstone, 40, 41, 42, and notes.) Yet, as the judiciary of England
have, at all times, acknowledged negro slavery to be a valid basis of
legal rights, it follows either that such slavery, in the practical judg
ment of the common law, is not contrary to the law of nature, or, if it
be, that such law of nature is of no force in any English court. {Ace.
Bouvier's Inst., § 9 ; Brougham, Ed. Rev., Apl. 1858, 235.) (2) The
common law judges of England, while they broke the fetters of any
negro slave who came into that country, held themselves bound to
enforce contracts for the purchase and sale of such slaves, and to give
redress for damages done to the right of property in them. This
involves the proposition that there was no paramount law of nature
which courts could act upon prohibiting negro slavery. {Maldrazo v.
Willes, 3 B. and Aid., 353; 18 Pick., 215; Smith v. Brown, Salk.,
666 ; Cases cited in note, 20 State Trials, 51 ; The slave Grace, 2 Hagg.
Adm., 104.) (3) The highest courts of England and of this country
having jurisdiction over questions of public or international law, have
decided that holding negroes in bondage as slaves is not contrary to
the law of nations. {The Antelope, 10 Wheat., 66; 18 i^cfe., 211; The
slave Grace, 2 Hagg. Adm., 104, 122.) (4) When Justinian says, in
his Institutes, {book 1, tit. 2, § 2,) and elsewhere, that slavery is con
trary to the law of nature, he means no more than that it does not
exist by nature, but is introduced by human law, which is true of most,
if not all, other rights and obligations. His definition of the law of
nature {book 1, tit. 2,) de jure naturali, proves this ; his full sanction
of slavery in book 1, {tit. 3, § 2, tit. 8, § 1,) confirm it. {Gushing' s
Domat, § 97; Bowyer on Public Law, 48.) (5) All perfect rights,
cognizable or enforceable as such in judicial tribunals, exist only by
virtue of the law of that state or country in which they are claimed
or asserted. The whole idea of property arose from compact. It
has no origin in any law of nature, as supposed in the court below.
(6 Sandf, 711 ; Rutherforth's Inst., book 1, ch. 3, § 6, 7.) (6) The law
of nature spoken of by law writers, if the phrase has any practical
import, means that morality which its notions of policy leads each

454 PULPIT POLITICS.
nation to recognize as of universal obligation, which it therefore ob
serves itself, and so far as it may, enforces upon others. It cannot be
pretended that there ever was in England, or that there now is in any
State of this Union, a law, by any name, thus outlawing negro slavery.
The common law of all these countries has always regarded it as the
basis of individual rights ; and statute laws, in all of them, recognized
and enforced it. {The slave Grace, 2 Hagg. Adm., 104; Per Shaw,
Ch. J, 18 Pick., 215 ; 1 Kent, 2, 3 ; id., 2 ; 2 Wood's avil Law, 2.)
(a) No civilized state on earth can maintain this absolute outlawry of
negro slavery ; for, in some of its forms, slavery has existed in all
ages ; and no lawgiver of paramount authority has ever condemned it.
{Cooper's Justinian, notes, 410, Inst., book 1, tit. 3 ; Per Baetley, Ch.
J, 6 Ohio N. S., 724 ; Senator Benjamin, 1858.) (6) It has never
been determined by the judicial tribunals of any country, that any
right, otherwise perfect, loses its claim to protection by the mere fact
of its being founded on the ownership of a negro slave. (7) The
proposition that freedom is the general rule and slavery the local ex
ception, has no foundation in any just view of the law as a science.
Equally groundless is the distinction taken by Judge Paine between
slave property and other movables, (a) Property in movables does
not exist by nature, neither is there any common law of nations touch
ing its acquisition or transfer. {Bowyer on Universal Public Law, 50.)
Every title to movables must have anorigin in some law. That origin
is always in and by the municipal law of the place where it is acquired,
and such law never has per se any extra territorial operation, (c) When
the movables, with or without the presence of their owner, come
within any other country than that under whose laws the title to them
was acquired, it depends on the will of such lattpr State how far it will
take notice of and recognize, quoad such property and its owner, the
foreign law. {Bank of Augusta v. Ea^le, 13 Pet., 589.) {d) It has
become a universal practice among civilized nations to recognize such
foreign law except so far as it may be specially proscribed. This
usage amounts to an agreement between the nations, and hence the
idea of property by the so-called law of nations, (e) Hence it will
be seen that property in African negroes is not an exception to any
general rule. Upon rational principles, it is no more local or peculiar
than any other property. And there is so much of universality about
it that in no civilized State or country could it be absolutely denied
all legal protection. 4, In fact there is no violation of the principles
of enlightened justice nor any departure from the dictates of pure

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 455
benevolence in holding negroes in a state of slavery, (1) Men,
whether black or white, can not exist with ordinary comfort and in
reasonable safety otherwise than in the social state. (2) Negroes,
alone and unaided by the guardianship of another race, cannot sustain
a civilized social state, (a) This proposition does not require for its
support an assertion or denial of the unity of the human race, the ap
plication of Noah's malediction, (9 Geo., 582), or the possibility that
time has changed, and may again change, the Ethiopian's physical and
moral nature, (b) It is only necessary to view the negro as he is, and
to credit the palpable and undeniable truth, that the latter phenome
non cannot happen within thousands of years. For all the ends of juris
prudence this is a perpetuity. {Facciolati's Latin Lexicon jEthiops.)
(c) The negro never has sustained a civilized social organization, and
that he never can, is sufficiently manifest from history. It is proven by
the rapid, though gradual, retrogression of Hayti toward the profound
est depths of destitution, ignorance, and barbarism. {McOullough's
Geo., Hayti, 693, 694 ; De Bow's Rev., vol 24, 203.) {d) That, alone and
unaided, he never can sustain a civilized social organization, is proven
to all reasonable minds by the fact that one single member of his race
has never attained proficiency in any art or science requiring the
employment of high intellectual capacity. A mediocrity below the
standard of qualification for the important duties of government, for
guiding the affairs of society, or for progress in the abstract sciences,
may be common in individuals of other races ; but it is universal
among the negroes. Not one single negro has ever risen above it.
{Malte Brun's Geo., book 59, 8; Gregoire's Literature of the Negroes;
Biog. Univ. Supt., vol. 56, 83, Gregoire.) (e) It follows, that in order
to obtain the measure of reasonable personal enjoyment and of useful
ness to himself and others for which he is adapted by nature, the
negro must remain in a state of pupilage under the government of
some other race. (/) He is a child of the sun. In cold climates he
perishes ; in the territories adapted to his labors, and in which alone
his race can be perpetuated, he will not toil save on compulsion, and
the white man can not ; but each can perform his appointed task — the
negro can labor, the white man can govern. . . . , , (c) Who
shall deny the claim of the intellectual white race to its compensation
for the mental toil of governing and guiding the negro laborer ? The
learned and skillful statesman, soldier, physician, preacher, or other
expert in any great department of human exertion where mind holds
dominion over matter, is clothed with power, and surrounded with

456 PULPIT POLITICS.
materials for the enjoyment of mental and physical luxuries, in pro
portion to the measure of his capacity and attainments. And all this
is at the cost of the mechanical and agricultural laborer, to whom such
enjoyments are denied. If the social order, founded in the different
natural capacities of individuals in the same family, which produces
these inequalities, is not unjust, who can rightfully say of the like in
equality in condition between races differing in capacity, that it is con
trary to the law of nature, or that the governing race who conform to
it are guilty of fraud and rapine, or that they commit a violence to
right reason which is forbidden by morality, (4) 'Honeste vivere,
alterum non Icedere et suum cuique tribuere, ' are all the precepts of the
moral law. The honorable slaveholder keeps them as perfectly as any
other member of human society, {Inst, book 1, tit. 1, § 3; \ Bl. Com.,
409; Georgia, b?>2y' ....
Section II. — The Slavery Agitation in the Halls op
Congress. It is not our purpose to enter minutely into the history of the
abolition controversy in Congress, as that itself would fill a vol
ume ; but to present such portions of the debates as will enable
the reader to understand the character of the assaults made upon
the South, and the spirit in which the assailants were met by the
members from that section of the Union. We pass over the
period of "Nullification," by South Carolina, and take up the
Congressional Globe for the Session beginning December, 1835.
There had been no political organization of the abolitionists at
this date, and the ecclesiastical action alone had preceded the
prevailing excitements. This action had then nearly spent its
force, and politicians were calculating how they could best turn
its results to their own advantage. But while the clergymen and
politicians had each their distinct aims to accomplish — the first
to free the church and country from slavery, and the second
to promote their own political advancement — there was another
class, as we shall see, who attempted so to control the abolition
element as to make it subservient to the promotion of sectional
interests. New England was becoming largely interested in
manufactures, and needed a tariff of protection ; but this she
could not secure permanently, so long as the South and West had

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 457
the preponderance in Congress. Southern interests demanded
free trade ; and therefore, so long as slavery continued to extend,
New England could not feel secure in her control of the national
legislation. Abolition thus became an essential adjunct of New
England policy, because of its being the irreconcilable enemy of
the South.
We do not intend to be understood as saying that every man
engaged in advancing abolitionism was doing so to promote the
economical interests of New England. By no means. Each
abolitionist had his own purposes to subserve — some purely phil
anthropic, others partly or wholly selfish. Abolitionists, gener
ally, were not far-seeing men — they never have been so — they
never have been able to foresee the results of their own meas
ures; they have, therefore, been the more easily controlled by
the designing men who undertook to make them an agency for
building up the interests of New England, by overwhelming in
ruin her great antagonist, the South. But we must proceed.
To such an extent had the abolition agitation affected the pub
lic mind, in 1835, that General Jackson, then President of the
United States, felt himself constrained to notice the progress of
abolitionism in his annual message. The following extract from
that document, will serve to show the apprehensions of danger
to the Union, from the abolition movement, which he entertained,
and will be an appropriate introduction to the discussions in Con
gress which followed :
" In connection with these provisions in relation to the Post Office
Department, I must also invite your attention to the painful excite
ment produced in the South, by attempts to circulate through the
mails inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves,
in prints, and in various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate
them to insurrection, and to produce all the horrors of a servile war.
" There is, doubtless, no respectable portion of our countrymen who
can be so far misled as to feel any other sentiment than that of indig
nant regret at conduct so destructive of the harmony and peace of the
country, and so repugnant to the principles of our national compact,
and to the dictates of humanity and religion. Our happiness and
prosperity essentially depend upon peace within our borders; and

458 PULPIT POLITICS.
peace depends upon the maintenance, in good faith, of those compro
mises of the Constitution upon which the Union is founded.
" It is fortunate for the country that the good sense, and generous
feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment of the people of the non-slave
holding States to the Union, and to their fellow-citizens of the same
blood in the South, have given so strong and impressive a tone to the
sentiments entertained against the proceedings of the misguided per
sons who have engaged in these unconstitutional and wicked attempts,
and especially against the emissaries from foreign parts, who have
dared to interfere in this matter, as to authorize the hope that those
attempts will no longer be persisted in. But if these expressions of
the public will shall not be sufficient to effect so desirable a result, not
a doubt can be entertained that the non-slaveholding States, so far
from countenancing the slightest interference with the constitutional
rights of the South, will be prompt to exercise their authority in sup
pressing, as far as in them lies, whatever is calculated to produce this
evil. " In leaving the care of other branches of this interesting subject to
the State authorities, to whom they properly belong, it is, nevertheless,
proper for Congress to take such measures as will prevent the Post
Office Department, which was designed to foster an amicable inter
course and correspondence between all the members of the confeder
acy, from being used as an instrument of an opposite character. The
General Government, to which the trust is confided of preserving in
violate the relations created among the States by the Constitution, is
especially bound to avoid in its own action anything that may disturb
them. I would, therefore, call the especial attention of Congress to
the subject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of passing such a
law as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation, in the
Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended
to instigate the slaves to insurrection." *
On the 16th of December, 1835, petitions were presented to
the House, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia. On motion to lay on the table, they were thus dis
posed of by a vote of 180 to 31, On the 18th of the same month,
similar petitions were again presented; and at various subsequent
periods they continued to pour in upon both Senate and House.
* Congressional Globe, vol, 3d, page 10, 1835,

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 459
A few extracts from the speeches of the members will serve to
show what was then the sentiment in relation to this Northern
mterference with Southern rights.
Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, moved
"That the petitions be not received. The large majority by which
the House had rejected a similar petition a few days ago, had been
very gratifying to him, and no doubt would be to the whole South.
. . , He was not disposed to go into the discussion of the question
involved in the petitions ; though, should it be urged, he would not
shrink from it a hair's breadth ; but he did think it due to the House
and the country, to give at once the most decisive evidence of the sen
timents entertained here upon this subject. He wished to put an end
to these petitions. He could not sit there and submit to their being
brought forward until the House had become callous to their conse
quences. He could not sit there and see the rights of the Southern
people assaulted, day after day, by the ignorant fanatics from whom
these memorials proceed."* .
Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, said :
. . . . " He was unwilling that any imputation should rest
upon the North, in consequence of the misguided and fanatical zeal
of a few — comparatively very few — who, however honest might have
been their purposes, he believed had done incalculable mischief, and
whose movements he knew received no more sanction among the great
mass of the people of the North, than they did at the South.
" For one, said Mr. Pierce, while he would be the last to infringe
upon any of the sacred reserved rights of the people, he was prepared
to stamp with disapprobation, in the most express and unequivocal
terms, the whole movement upon this subject  He felt con
fidence in asserting that among the people of the State which he had
the honor, in part, to represent, there was not one in a hundred who
did not entertain the most sacred regard for the rights of their South-
ren brethren — nay, not one in five hundred who would not have those
rights protected at any and every hazard. There was not the slightest
disposition to interfere with any rights secured by the Constitution,
which binds together, and which he humbly hoped ever would bind
together, this great and glorious confederacy as one family."t
» Congressional Globe, Dec. 1835, page 27. t Ibid., page 33.

460 PULPIT POLITICS.
Mr. Slade, of Vermont, said :
" One of the objections he had heard strongly insisted on, wa? that
abolition had a tendency to disturb the balance of the Constitution.
He contended that the balance was disturbed on the other side by
the gradual increase of slavery. It would not be long before the
representation of the slave-holding States would far outweigh the
proportions settled under the Constitution. And this was not through
the relative increase of the white, but the black population. In the
State of Virginia, the increase of the whites had been eighty-fpur,
while that of the blacks had been one hundred and thirty-six ; and
in South Carolina the increase of the whites had. been forty -four and
a fraction, while that of the blacks had been ninety-four and a half
per cent. This fact, he contended, would show that the progress of
abolition was necessary to preserve the balance of the Constitution,
or rather to restore it, for it had been already disturbed by the pur
chase of Louisiana." * (1)
Mr. Mann, of New York, said :
" The Union and the Constitution, sir, were the result of conces
sion and compromise. The subject under debate formed one of the
points. We agreed — we entered into the compact with our Southern
brethren ; and the question now presented by them to us — the real
question (when the argument is pushed to the full extent) pro
pounded to us of the North, is whether we will live up to the bar
gain we have made — to the compact and union we have entered into ?
For myself, for my constituents and friends, I answer, without hesita
tion or mental reservation, that under all circumstances and in every
vicissitude, good or evil, we will — we will, though the Heavena
fall."t(2) Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, said :
" He saw, in these petitions, that eleven of the States of the Union
were grossly slandered, and no man could put his hand on his heart
and say otherwise. They had refused to receive petitions because
they implicated members of that body, and were they to receive
petitions in which eleven of the States were deeply, basely, and
maliciously slandered? Were they to put more reprobation on the
•Congressional Globe, Dec. 1835, page 49. flbid., page 46.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 461
slander of an individual member than on the slander of sovereign
States ?
"He demanded the question, because these memorials aimed at a
violation of the Constitution. We have not the power, said he, under
the Constitution, to interfere with the subject of slavery. He and his
constituents understood this question. This was a preliminary aboli
tion movement. These abolitionists moved first upon the District of
Columbia, which was the weakest point, in order to operate afterward
on the States ; and he would resist them as firmly in this movement,
as he would on the direct question of emancipation. He demanded
the preliminary question as to receiving these petitions, because he
was averse to an agitation which would sunder this Union. Sir, said
he, we fear not these incendiary pamphlets in the South. The South
was too well aware of what is due to itself, to permit the circulation
of those pamphlets. It was agitation here that they feared, because
it would compel the Southern press to discuss the question in the very
presence of the slaves, who were induced to believe that there was a
powerful party at the North ready to assist them. He objected to
receiving these petitions, because the country was deeply agitated by
them ; because they were sundering the bonds which held this Union
together. As a lover of the Union, he objected to receiving them;
nay, they must cease, or the Southern people never can be satisfied.
And how (asked Mr. C.) will you put a stop to them ? By receiving
these petitions, and laying them on the table? No, no ! The aboli
tionists understand this too well. Nothing would stop them but a
stern refusal ; by closing the doors to them, and refusing to receive
them." *
Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, said :
" They of the South had a right, under the Constitution, to demand
some other action than the Government had pursued. He referred
to the meetings held by abolitionists — the apostles they had sent out
to preach their doctrines — the circulation of publications of every
species, and their exciting character. All of them had seen these
things, and he felt called upon to keep the South informed of them.
They were calculated to spread terror throughout the South, Men's
minds had already been disturbed there. The Government had been
called upon to act upon them. They could not sit by, and see the
•Congressional Globe, January, 1836, page 77,

462 PULPIT POLITICS.
character of their constituents aspersed by ignorant, blood-thirsty
fanatics. They were bound to appeal to the Government. For one,
he did not fear an interference in the rights of the South. You
cannot, said he, interfere with them, either in politics, in religion, in
morals, or physical means. They were bound to defend, by all the
means the God of nature had put into their power, against these
incendiary attempts to wrap their land in flames, and to deluge it in
blood. Sir, said he, they are filling our houses, our fields, and our
hearths, with implacable murderers, and robbing us of our thousands !
Sir, we demand repose ! We insist that the Government shall say to
us, in intelligible language, that you cannot legislate upon this sub
ject — that you cannot receive the petitions of these hot-headed and
cold-hearted fanatics — these men, women,* and children, who are
waging a war of extermination against us. In this free government,
said Mr. P., it may be impossible for the government authorities to
stop them entirely ; but, said he, we ask that Congress will distinctly
and positively interfere between us and these fanatics, and that the
General Government will not directly or indirectly be an agent in this
system of destruction. I fear, unless it stands as an impassable bar
rier between these people and us, that the consequences will be ter
rible. We, in the South, exist under a bond of necessity whioh
cannot be broken — our lives and our property are the ligaments that
bind us together. Civil war was terrible — to the ratiocinations of the
mind, it was dreadful. Interference must be direct or indirect. The
people of the South demanded such action of Congress on these
petitions, as would leave no possible doubt between them and this
exciting subject. It was a matter on which there could be no differ
ence of opinion. He abhorred the idea of mixing up politics with
it. Their sole object was to protect their property and their lives.
In a political point of view, it was extremely important to prevent
agitation on this subject. He spoke of its bearings upon different
sections of the country, and, said he, the overwhelming vortex of
politics sweeps everything before it."f
Mr. Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, said :
" If any one principle of Constitutional law can, at this day, be
considered as settled, it is, that Congress have no right, no power,
* Several of the petitions were signed by women.
t Congressional Globe, Jan. 1836, page 78.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 463
over the question of slavery in the States where it exists. The prop
erty of the master in his slave existed in full force before the Fed
eral Constitution was adopted. It was a subject which then belonged,
as it still belongs, to the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States.
These States, by the adoption of the Constitution, never yielded to
the General Government any right to interfere with the question.
It remains where it was previous to the establishment of our con
federacy, " The Constitution has, in the clearest terms, recognized the right
of property in slaves. It prohibits any State into which a slave may
have fled from passing, any law to discharge him from slavery, and
declares that he shall be delivered up by the authorities of such
State to his master. Nay, more, it makes the existence of slavery
the foundation of political power, by giving to those States within
which it exists representatives in Congress not only in proportion to
the whole number of free persons, but also in proportion to three-
fifths of the number of slaves.
" An occasion very fortunately arose in the first Congress to settle
this question forever. The Society for the Abolition of Slavery in
Pennsylvania brought it before that Congress by a memorial, which
was presented on the llth day of February, 1790. After the subject
had been discussed for several days, and after solemin deliberation,
the House of Representatives, in Committee of the Whole, on the
23d day of March, 1790, resolved, ' That Congress have no authority
to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them
within any of the States ; it remaining with the several States alone
to provide any regulations therein, which humanity and true policy
may require.'
" I hav§ thought it would be proper to present this decision, which
was made about a half century ago, distinctly to the view of the
American people. The language of the resolution is clear, precise,
and definite. It leaves the question where the Constitution left it,
and where, so far as I am concerned, it ever shall remain. The Con
stitution of the United States never would have been called into
existence — instead of the innumerable blessings whioh have flowed
from our happy Union, we should have had anarchy, jealousy, and
civil war among the sister republics of which our confederacy is
composed — had not the free States abandoned all control over this
question. For one, whatever may be my opinions upon the abstract
question of slavery, and I am free to confess they are those of the

464 PULPIT POLITICS.
people of Pennsylvania, I shall never attempt to violate this compact.
The Union will be dissolved, and incalculable evils will arise from its
ashes, the moment any attempt is seriously made by the free Statea
in Congress.
" What, then, are the circumstances under which these memorials
are jiow presented ? A number of fanatics, led on by foreign incen
diaries, have been scattering ' arrows, firebrands, and death,' through
out the southern States. The natural tendency of their publications
is to produce dissatisfaction and revolt among the slaves, and to
incite their wild passions to vengeance. All history, as well as the
present condition of the slaves, proves that there can be no danger of
the final result of a servile war. But, in the meantime, what dread
ful scenes may be enacted, before such an insurrection, which would
spare neither age not sex, could be suppressed ! What agony of
mind must be suffered, especially by the gentler sex, in consequence
of these publications! Many a mother, clasps her infant to her
bosom, when she retires to rest, under the dreadful apprehensions that
she may be aroused from her slumbers by the savage yells of the
slaves by whom she is surrounded. These are the work of the
abolitionists. That their motives may be honest, I do not doubt;
but their zeal is without knowledge. The history of the human race
presents numerous examples of ignorant enthusiasts, the purity of
whose intentions cannot be doubted, who have spread devastation and
bloodshed over the face of the earth." *
Mr. Benton, of Missouri, said :
" With respect to the petitioners, and those with whom they acted,
he had no doubt but many of them were good people, aiming at
benevolent objects, and endeavoring to ameliorate the condition of
one part of the human race, without infiicting calamities on another
part ; but they were mistaken in their mode of proceeding, and so
far from accomplishing any part of their object, the whole effect of
their interposition was to aggravate the condition of those in whose
behalf they were interfering. But there was another part, and he
meant to speak of the abolitionists generally, as the body containing
the part of which he spoke — there was another part, whom he could
not qualify as good people seeking benevolent ends by mistaken
means, but as incendiaries and agitators, with diabolical objects in
• Congressional Globe, January, 1836, page 78.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 465
view, to be accomplished by wicked and deplorable means. He did
not go into the proofs now to establish the correctness of his opinion
of this latter class, but he presumed it would be admitted that every
attempt to work upon the passions of the slaves, and to excite them to
murder their owners, was a wicked and diabolical attempt, and the
work of a midnight incendiary. Pictures of slave degradation and
misery, and of the white man's luxury and cruelty, were attempts of
this kind ; for they were appeals to the vengeance of slaves, and not to
the intelligence or reason of those who legislated for them. He, Mr.
Benton, had had many pictures of this kind, as well as many diaboli
cal publications, sent to him at St. Louis, during the past summer, the
whole of which he had cast into the fire, and should not have thought
of referring to the circumstance at this time, as displaying the incen
diary part of the abolitionists, had he not, within these few days past,
and while abolition petitions were pouring into the other end of the
capital, received one of these pictures, the design of which could be
nothing but mischief of the blackest dye. It was a print from an
engraving, (and Mr. Benton exhibited it, and handed it to senators
near him,) representing a large and spreading tree of liberty, beneath
whose ample shade a slave owner was at one time luxuriously reposing,
with slaves fanning him ; at another, carried forth in a palanquin to
view the half-naked laborers in the cotton-field, whose drivers, with
whips, were scourging to the task. The print was evidently from the
abolition mint, and came to him by some other conveyance than that
of the mail, for there was no post-mark, or mark of any kind, to iden
tify its origin, and to indicate its line of march. For what purpose
could such a picture be intended, unless to infiame the passions of the
slaves? and why engrave it, except to multiply copies for extensive
distribution ? But it was not pictures alone that operated on the pas
sions of the slaves, but speeches, publications, petitions presented to
Congress, and the whole machinery of abolition societies. None of
these things went to the understandings of the slaves, but to their
passions, all imperfectly understood, and inspiring vague hopes, and
stimulating abortive and fatal insurrections. *
" Societies especially were the foundation of the greatest mischiefs.
Whatever might be their objects, the slaves never did, and never can,
understjind them but in one way ; as allies organized for action, and
ready to march to their aid on the first signal of insurrection I It was
thus that the massacre of San Domingo was made. The Society in
•The Nat. Turner slave insurrection in Virginia had taken place in 1831.
30

466 PULPIT POLITICS.
Paris, Les Amis des Nois, Friends of the Blacks, with its affiliated
societies throughout France, and in London, made that massacre-
And who composed that society ? In the beginning it comprised the
extremes of virtue and vice ; it contained the best and the basest of
Ijuman kind ! Lafayette, and the Abb6 Gregoire, those purest of
philanthropists, and Marat and Anacharsis Clootz, those imps of hell
in human shape. In the end, for all such societies run the same ca
reer of degeneration, the good men, disgusted with their associates,
retired from the scene, and the wicked ruled at pleasure. Declama
tions against slavery, publications in gazettes, pictures, petitions to the
Constituent Assembly, were the mode of proceeding ; and the fish-
women of Paris — he said it with humiliation, because American
females had signed the petitions now before us — the fish-women of
Paris, the very poissardes from the quays of the Seine, became the
obstreperous champions of West India emancipation. The effect upon
the French Island is known to the world ; but what is not known to
the world, or not sufficiently known to it, is that the same societies
which wrapt in fiames, and drenched in blood, the beautiful island
which was then a garden and now a wilderness, were the means of
exciting an insurrection on our own continent — in Louisiana — where
a French slave population existed, and where the language of Les
Amis des Noirs could be understood, and where their emissaries could
glide. The knowledge of this event, Mr. Benton said, ought to be
better known, both to show the danger of these societies, however
distant, and though oceans may roll between them and their victims,
and the fate of the slaves who may be excited to insurrection by them
on any part of the American continent. He would read the notice of
the event from the work of Mr. Charles Guyarre, lately elected by his
native State to a seat on llhis fioor, and whose resignation of that honor
he sincerely regretted, and particularly for the cause which occasioned
it, and which abstracted talent from a station it would have adorned.
Mr. Benton read from the work, ' Essai Historique Sur la Louisiana : '
' The white population of Louisiana was not the only part of the popu
lation that was agitated by the French Revolution. The blacks,' en-
. couraged, without doubt, by the success which their race had obtained
in San Domingo, dreamed of liberty, and sought to shake off the yoke.
The insurrection was planned at Pointe Coupel, which was •then an
isolated parish, and of which the number of slaves was considerable.
The conspiracy took birth on the plantation of Mr. Julien Poydras, a
rich planter, who was then traveling in the United States, and spread

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 467
itself rapidly throughout the parish. The death of all the whites was
resolved. Happily, the conspirators could not agree upon the day for
the massacre, and from this disagreement resulted a quarrel, which led
to the discovery of the plot. The militia of the parish immediately
took up arms, and the Baron de Carondelet caused them to be sup
ported by the troops of the line. It was resolved to arrest, and to
punish the principal conspirators. The slaves opposed it; but they
were quickly dispersed, with the loss of twenty of their number killed
on the spot. Fifty of the insurgents were condemned to death. Six
teen were executed in different parts of the parish ; the rest were put
on board a galley, and hung, at intervals, all along the river, as far as
New Orleans, (a distance of one hundred and fifty miles.) The severity
of the chastisement intimidated the blacks, and all returned to perfect
order.' " Resuming his remarks, Mr. Benton said, he had read this passage
to show that our white population had a right to dread, nay, were
bound to dread, the mischievous influence of these societies, even
when an ocean intervened, and, much more, when they stood upon the
same hemisphere, aud within the bosom of the same country. He
also read it to show the miserable fate of their victims, and to warn
all that were good and virtuous — all that were honest, but mistaken —
in the three hundred and fifty affiliated societies vaunted by the indi
viduals who style themselves their executive committee, and who date
from the commercial ^emporium of this Union their high' manifesto
against the President — to warn them at once to secede from associa
tions which, whatever may be their designs, can have no other effect
than to revive ia the southern States the tragedy, not of San Domingo,
but of the Parish of Pointe Coupe6.
" Mr. Benton went on to say, that these societies had already per
petrated more mischief than the joint remainder of all their lives,
spent in prayers of contrition, and in works of retribution, could ever
atone for. They had thrown the state of the emancipation question
fifty years back. They had subjected every traveler and every emi
grant from the non-slaveholding States to be received with coldness,
and viewed with suspicion and jealousy, in the slaveholding States. , .
" Having said thus much of the abolition societies in the non-slave
holding States, Mr. Benton turned with pride and exultation to a
different theme — the conduct of the great body of the people in all
these States. Before he saw that conduct, and while the black ques
tion, like a portentous cloud, was gathering and darkening on the

468 PULPIT POLITICS.
north-eastern horizon, he trembled, not for the South, but for the
Union. He feared that he saw the fatal work of dissolution about to
begin, and the bonds of this glorious confederacy about to snap ; but
the conduct of the great body of the people in all the non-slavehold
ing States quickly dispelled that fear, and in its place planted deep
the strongest assurance of harmony and indivisibility of the Union
which he had felt for many years. Their conduct was above all
praise, above all thanks, above all gratitude. They had chased off
the foreign emissaries, silenced the gabbling tongues of female dupes,
and dispersed the assemblages, whether fanatical, visionary, or incen
diary, of all that congregated to preach against evils which afflicted
others, not them, and to propose remedies to aggravate the disease
which they pretended to cure. They had acted with a noble spirit.
They had exerted a vigor beyond all law. They had obeyed the en
actments, not of the statute-book, but of the heart; and while that
spirit was in the heart, he cared nothing for laws written in a book.
He would rely upon that spirit to complete the work it has begun — to
dry up these societies — to separate the mistaken philanthropist from
the reckless fanatic and the wicked incendiary, and put an end to pub
lications and petitions which, whatever may be their design, can have
no other effect than to impede the object which they invoke, and to
aggravate the evil which they deplore,
" Turning to the immediate question before the Senate, that of the
rejection of the petition, Mr, Benton said his wisji was to give that vote
which would have the greatest effect in putting down these societies," *
Mr. Grundy, of Tennessee, said :
" He thought he was not mistaken when he declared that the mo
ment the citizens of the non-slaveholding States should, in violation
of the Constitution, lay their hands on the property of the slavehold
ing States, the citizens of the latter would instantly consider the Union
dissolved, and the Government at an end. They could no longer con
fide in a government which, instead of protecting, plundered them of
their property. The right of property in slaves is guaranteed to the
citizens of the States where slavery exists by the Constitution as fully as
the right to any other species of property ; and should the non-slavehold
ing States at any time violate these guarantees in so important a particular
as this, it would be such a departure from the great principles of the com-
• Congressional Globe, Jan. 1836, pages 79 and 80,

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 469
pact, that the injured party would at once be absolved from all the obli
gations it imposes on them. It would be impossible tamely to submit to
it. The citizens of the slaveholding States, therefore, entreat those of
the non-slaveholding States to step forward and put down this spirit
of abolition, before it produces the ruin of this Government 
These abolitionists reside among them. There they have to be met.
There the battle has to be fought. They are beyond our reach. If a
straggler comes among us propagating his insurrectionary and incen
diary doctrines, he is sent away with an admonition which will prevent
his return. This is done in defense of ourselves. No other way is
known by which the mischief growing out of this plan of abolition
can be prevented. Therefore, as we have no power to reach these
abolitionists, as we can not prevent their incendiary publications, we
ask our brethren of the North and East to persevere in their efforts in
putting down the labors of these men, which must terminate, unless
they are arrested, in the destruction of ourselves and families. If a
man, whether m/idman, fanatic, or worse than either, shall be seen
approaching a uf ighbor's house with a lighted torch, to consume it,
ought not all good men to arrest him and prevent the mischief? It
therefore seems, said Mr. Grundy, that too much is not asked, when
we say to our friends at the North that it is their duty to adopt such
means as will proTent the threatened danger.* (3)
Mr, PiNCKi-JE-f, of South Carolina, in reply to inquiries made
of him as a member of the committee on the abolition peti
tions, said :
" That the whole number of memorials presented to Congress this
session, amounted to 176 ; that they came from ten States, embracing
an aggregate population of nearly 8,000,000 ; that the whole number
of signatures was about 34,000 ; and that of those, more than two-
fifths were females. He thought these facts ought to be known. The
people of the South ought to know everything respecting these me
morials. They could see the immense disproportion between the
millions of friicmen who are determined to maintain their constitu
tional obligations to their southern brethren, and the band of in
cendiary agitators who would trample on all laws, human and divine,
in the relentless prosecution of their diabolical designs. He believed
that there never was a healthier tone of sentiment in the non-slave-
* Congressional Globe, March, 1836, page 215.

470 PULPIT POLITICS.
holding States, in reference to the domestic institutions of the South,
than at this moment. There was, unquestionably, abundant reason
for vigilance and caution in relation to the fanatics ; but there was
also abundant reason to rely on the enlightened patriotism of the
non-slaveholding States, There are great moral causes at work in
favor of the South. We should trust their efficacy, and watch their
progress. The people of the non-slaveholding States are alive to the
dangers connected with this question, and they are generously fight
ing the battle of the South, They should be encouraged by confi
dence and gratitude, not repelled by vituperation and suspicion, , ,
The South had nothing now to fear, except from those who are de
termined to continue the agitation of slavery for the purpose of
excitement. Abolitionism has attained its hight ; it has begun to go
down, and will soon disappear entirely, if we do not fan the flame
ourselves, and will only allow our friends in the non-slaveholding
States to flght the fanatics in their own way, and not trammel them
in their operations by mixing up extraneous and unnecessary ques
tions with the subject of abolition."*
Passing on to 1843 and 1844, up to which time the agitation
of the subject of slavery was continued in Congress, we find
the demands of the northern petitioners had been extended.
They now required not only the abolition of slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia, but the prohibition of the sale of slaves by
the citizens of one State to those of another ; and also that
Texas should not be admitted into the Union as a slave State.
We have purposely avoided copying the discussions on the
numerous points raised in the course of the controversy, and
have aimed at affording a true conception of the views held on
the main question.
On the 31st January, 1844, Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Ten
nessee, took the floor, and made a speech upon the subject.
We quote from him, because no one can doubt the sincerity of
the man, who, when the conflict came, and he was surrounded
on all hands by enemies, still adhered to the flag of the Union,
and fought under its folds in defense of the Constitution — wil
lingly offering his life for its preservation.
* Congressional Globe, May 19, 1836, pages 386, 387.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 471
Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, said :
" He had a few plain inquiries to make of the abolitionists of the
country, and their organs in this House. One was, if they had it
in their power to abolish slavery now, were they prepared to turn over
two million of negroes loose upon the country, to become a terror and
burden to society, producing disaffection between them and their for
mer masters, finally to be fanned into a flame, wearing into a servile
war, resulting in the entire extirpation of the race in the United
States, besides shedding much of the white man's blood ? But as you
have no right to abolish slavery in the United States, or anywhere
else, are you prepared to tax the owners near ten hundred millions
of dollars, and then give it back to them for their negroes, in the
shape of purchase money? This would be legalized robbery. Are
you prepared to tax the slaveholder and the non-slaveholder indis
criminately, ten hundred millions of dollars, to buy slaves, and send
them to Africa, or anywhere else? This would be plundering one
portion of the community to remunerate another. These inquiries
are made for the purpose of bringing the minds of those wild enthu
siasts to bear upon the immense importance of this subject. . . .
" Perhaps it will be considered uncharitable in me to come to the
conclusion I have upon this subject; but the con-viction fixes itself
upon my mind irresistibly, and I will speak my sentiments, let the
consequences be what they may. I do believe, and have believed
for some time, that there is a deliberate design, on the part of some
gentlemen, to effect, if possible, a dissolution of the Union. But
when we of the South, who represent the interests of the slave States,
contend for our rights, gentlemen say, ' 0 ! you are too much ex
cited — too much heated; your passion outruns your judgment; any
thing that you may say is not entitled to so much weight as that
which proceeds from our calm and sober judgment.' Excitement !
What is it which occasions that excitement? Is not the treatment
which this question receives a sufficient cause for excitement? It
becomes, in the hands of gentlemen on this floor, a question of dis
solution — of Union or no Union — a question in which eleven States
of this Union are vitally interested ; States which possess upward of
$1,000,000,000 of property in slaves. Yet when you are striking a
blow which is to destroy that amount of property at once, to expel
or exclude twenty-one of the ninety-three representatives of the eleven
slave States from this House — nearly one-fourth of their entire dele-

472 PULPIT POLITICS.
gation — and thereby destroying the great compromise of the Consti
tution, agreed upon by the sages and patriots of the Revolution —
we are told, if we exhibit any feeling on this subject, it is southern
heat. 0! no; we must not speak upon the subject, unless we are,
perfectly calm and passionless. Let me tell agitators, the more they
press this question, the greater will be the excitement. It is worse
than nonsense to talk of making a calm, deliberate appeal to them;
it will not do; but when we come to examine the subject, I am
forced to the conclusion that there is a deliberate design to dissolve
the Union. (4.)
" Mr. Johnson here referred to an opinion formerly expressed by
Mr. J. Q. Adams's father, and read from the fourth volume of Mr.
Jefferson's Works, as follows : ' December the 13th, 1803. The Rev,
Mr, Coffin, of New England, who is now here soliciting donations for
a college in Greene county, Tennessee, tells me that when he first
determined to engage in this enterprise, he wrote a paper recom
mendatory of the enterprise, which he meant to get signed by clergy
men, and a similar one for persons in a civil character, at the head
of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his name — he being the Presi
dent of the United States, and the application going only for his
name, and not for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper,
and considering, said he saw no possibility of continuing the union
of the States ; that their dissolution must necessarily take place ;
that he, therefore, saw no propriety in recommending to New Eng
land men to promote a literary institution in the South ; that it was,
in fact, giving strength to those who were to be their enemies ; and,
therefore, would have nothing to do with it.'
" He, Mr. Johnson, said he had referred to this merely as a starting
point at which to date the opposition of New England men to the
Union of the States, and their hostility to the institutions of the
South. He passed on to the Hartford Convention, spoke of its oppo
sition to Mr. Madison's administration, asking a dissolution of the
Union, throwing every obstacle in the way of a successful prosecu
tion of the war — Massachusetts even refusing to let her militia go
beyond the chartered limits of the State, to meet the invading foe.
Now, in this House, the same spirit of opposition is followed up by
J. Q. Adams, endeavoring to destroy the Union and the institutions
of the South, by the introduction of abolition petitions, and resolu
tions from the legislature of Massachusetts, asking an alteration of
the Constitution that amounts to a dismemberment of the northern

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 473
and southern States. Mr. J. Q. Adams's son is now in the legislature
of Massachusetts, engaged in making reports, and procuring the
passage of disorganizing resolutions, both endeavoring to split the
Union in twain, thereby proving the father and grandfather to be true
prophets. Mr. Johnson next referred to the Haverhill petition ; also,
one from the State of Ohio, asking a dissolution of the Union. He
then read extracts from Mr. Adams's speech, made at the extra ses
sion of the 27th Congress, upon the 21st rule, prohibiting the recep
tion of abolition petitions, to-wit :
" ' . . . He would say that, if the free portion of this Union
were called upon to expend their blood and treasure to support that
cause which had the curse and the displeasure of the Almighty upon
it, he would say that this same Congress would sanction an expendi
ture of blood and of treasure, for that cause itself would come within
the constitutional action of Congress ; that there would be no longer
any pretension that Congress had not the right to interfere with the
institutions of the South, inasmuch as the very fact of the people of
a free portion of the Union marching to the support of the masters,
would be an interference with those institutions ; and that in the
event of a war, (the result of which no man could tell,) the treaty-
making power become to be equivalent to universal emancipation.
This was what he had then said, and he would add to it now, that,
in his opinion, if the decision of this House, taken two days ago,
should be reversed, and a rule established that the House would
receive no petition on this subject, the people North would be, ipse
facto, absolved from all obligation to obey any call of Congress.'
"Mr. Johnson asked, what the paragraph just read, meant; what
effect was it calculated to have upon the abolitionists of the North
and the slaves of the South? It is' a stimulant to the one, a lure
thrown out to the other. Is it not saying to the abolitionist of the
North, Persist in your fiendish purpose ; to the incendiary, who is
standing with his torch ready lighted, prepared only for the destruc
tion of the South — Proceed ; touch the match ; wrap the dwellings
of your masters in fiames ; produce a servile war ; make it necessary,
for the preservation of your masters, to call upon the non-slavehold
ing States for assistance, ' and under the treaty-making power ' you
all shall be emancipated ? Gracious God I are we prepared for scenes
like these ? are we prepared to surrender our homes and our fire
sides? are we prepared to see our fields, that now, in due season,
yield luxuriant crops, relapse into their original state, or be converted

474 PULPIT POLITICS,
into fields of carnage ? are we prepared to see the black hands of the
negro reeking in the blood of the white man ? are we prepared to see
innocent women and children, virtue and beauty, all fall a helpless
prey? are we prepared to see the land that gave a brother birth,
drenched with a brother's blood? in fine, are we prepared to see
peace, prosperity, contentment, and happiness, converted irfto discord,
desolation, cries the most heart-rending, lamentations, producing, (to
use the language of the poet,) shrieks
 "'So wild, so loud, so clear.

Even listening angels stooped from heaven to hear ; '
and yet to be calm and deliberate ?
" Mr, Johnson said he wished to call the attention of the South
to a single sentence in a letter recently written by Mr. Adams to the
abolitionists of Pittsburgh, to-wit :
" ' On the subject of abolition, abolition societies, anti-slavery socie
ties, or the liberty party, I have never been a member of any of them.
But in opposition to slavery, I ga as far as any of these ; my sen
timents, I believe, very nearly accord with theirs. That slavery will
be abolished in this country, and throughout the world, I firmly be
lieve. Whether it shall be done peaceably, or by blood, God only
knows ; but it shall be accomplished, I have no doubt ; and, by what
ever way, I say, let it come.'
" In the sentence he had just read, Mr. Adams says he is no aboli
tionist ; but in opposition to slavery he goes as far as any of them ;
and if the emancipation of the negroes in the South has to be effected
by the shedding of blood, he says, ' let it come ? ' Can the South be
mistaken as to the meaning of language like this ? Is it not time to
be on the alert ? Is it not time they were roused from their apathy ?
He said this was a question that the South should unite upon : the
whole ninety-three members from the eleven slaveholding States
should come up on this question as a band of brothers, joining in one
fraternal hug; heart responding to heart; turning their faces toward
heaven, and swearing, by their altars and their God, that they will
all sink in the dust together before they will yield the great compro
mise contained in the Constitution of their fathers.
" In a speech made by the gentleman from Massachusetts, a short
time ago, he says he thinks the consummation of the Christian religion
will not take place until the emancipation of the negroes is effected.
And then, I suppose, we have the commencement of that glorious mil-

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS, 475
lennium which has been so long prophesied. I wish that day would
come ; but I do not wish to attain it by means of bloodshed and the
sacrifice of thousands of lives. If I thought it would come in my day
and generation, I would now be found standing on tip-toe, stretching
my ken to the utmost tension, anxiously endeavoring to descry in the
eastern horizon the first streaks of the glorious morning. How grati
fying it would be to me to have the power to proclaim that the voice
of the turtle was heard in the land ; that the winter was past and gone ;
that the lion and the lamb had lain down together ; when all could
unite in that heart-felt chorus of glory to God in the highest, and
peace on earth, and good will among men. But while thus indulging
this pleasing illusion, while thus enjoying this happy aberration of
mind, (at this moment Mr. Johnson turned his face to Mr. Adams,)
what ill omen is that obtruding itself so abruptly upon our view ?
What evil genius is this hovering around this hall ? Is it some demon,
or a mortal man ? What frightful specter do I behold, sending forth
such unnatural sounds, predicting disunion, dissevered States, and the
shedding of human blood I Frightful vision, this !
" ' Black he stands as night ;
Pierce as ten furies ; terrible as hell ;
And shakes a dreadful dart.' " *
Mr, GiDDiNGS, of Ohio, said :
" , . . . I therefore lay it down as one of the principles on
which our Federal Constitution was based, that each of the several
States should retain to themselves and their people, the entire power
over slavery which they previously enjoyed. In saying this, it is not
my intention to deny the doctrine advanced by the venerable member
from Massachusetts, Mr. Adams, ' that in case of war, when the exis
tence of our government is threatened, we may then avail ourselves
of that right of self-preservation which is based upon the law of
nature ; ' and,, if necessary to the public safety, may release any por
tion, or all, of the slaves in any of the States. It is a power that lies
behind all Constitutional provisions, and is consequent upon a state of
war only, but has no application in time of peace. It is, I believe,
well understood by military men ; it was practiced by General Jackson,
General Gaines, and General Jessup, and I believe by General Scott,
while commanding our armies in the South. They did not hesitate to
•Appendix to Congressional Globe, Jan. 1844, page 97

476 PULPIT POLITICS.
sever the relation of master and slave; wherever the public good de
manded it. In doing that, they merely exercised the power which is
always attendant upon a state of war, and which is denied by few if
any. It therefore forms no exception to the doctrine which I have
asserted, that each of the several States, now holds and enjoys the same
power over slavery, within its own territory, that it enjoyed under the
old confederation ; that Virginia, and each of the slave States, now
holds her slaves as independently of the other States and of the Fed
eral Government, as she does of Mexico, or of other foreign powers ;
that the Congress of the United States possesses no more right than the
Parliament of Great Britain has to interfere with that institution in
Virginia, or any other slave State. On this point, I think Southern
men will agree with me. Indeed, I understand this to be the doctrine
for which they contend, and on which, so far as I am acquainted with
the views entertained by Northern men, there is an entire concurrence
of opinion 
" I regard it as a perfectly clear proposition — one that is not to be
doubted or denied^that slavery is entirely the creature of municipal
law. It is unknown to natural law, and can only exist in direct viola
tion of it.* In Ohio, our people go where they please, for the reason
that no municipal law forbids the exercise of their natural right of
locomotion  Not so with the five thousand slaves who are
held in bondage here. They possess neither of those rights ; and why
not ? Because the municipal law has forbidden them to exercise those
rights which God bestowed upon them. .... Repeal those
laws, and those vested rights would become divested  Let
us throw as much obscurity as we can around this subject, it will
remain perfectly clear to every intelligent mind, that this right of
property and the whole power of the master over his slave is derived
from statute law, which may be repealed at the pleasure of the legis
lature  But the repeal of those laws is objected to, on the
ground that the abolition of slavery here will be likely to affect that
institution in the adjoining States. That objection I regard as a strong
argument in favor of its immediate extirpation from the District. I
deny that we are under the least conceivable obligation to continue
slavery here, in order that it may be prolonged in the States." ....
" Mr. Rayner, of North Carolina, said he wished to inquire whether
* The reader is referred to the argument of Charles O'Connor, and others, on
this point, in the preceding section.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 477
the gentleman from Ohio believes the Decalogue to be of divine
origin I
"Mr. Giddings. I do, but I would not if it sanctioned slavery."*
On May 21, 1844, upon the question of the annexation of
Texas, Mr. Giddings said:
" Now, Mr. Chairman, with all due respect to the legal talents and
constitutional learning of those gentlemen, I may be permitted to
deny that any guarantee in regard to slavery ever found a place in
the Federal Constitution. , , , Sir, the idea that the Constitution
contained a guarantee of slavery is an impeachment both of the sin
cerity and judgment of the framers of the charter of American lib
erty. ... It was, therefore, a most wise and salutary object with
the framers of the Constitution, to withhold all power from the
Federal Government in regard to slavery, except that which has refer
ence to fugitives, on which I have already remarked. The safety
of the South and of the North consists in this wise and salutary ab
sence of all power over slavery. It was foreseen by the framers of
the Constitution, that the subject was of such a delicate character,
that the Federal Government could not interfere with it in any form,
without endangering the existence of the Union. I fully understand
the excuse of Messrs, Upshur and Calhoun for attempting this un
constitutional support of slavery. They say that the continuance of
slavery in the South would be endangered by the abolition of that
institution in Texas. I answer, that the continuance of slavery in
Texas will endanger the freedom of Ohio. . . . We have passed
more than a half century under our present Constitution, and now
the President assumes to himself the power of making slavery a
national, instead of a State institution, and of extending the power,
and influence, and funds, of the Federal Government to its support,
and to a piratical commerce in mankind. In order to effect this
unholy and nefarious plan, he attempts to bring into this Union a
foreign slaveholding government, the effect of which is to place the
balance of political power in the hands of foreign slaveholders, who
have no feelings or principles, either moral, religious, or political, in
common with the great body of the free States, and to transfer the
descendants of our New England pilgrims to the political control and
dominion of Texans and foreigners. Nor do his violations of the

•Appendix to Congressional Globe, Feb. 1844, pages 654, 655.

478 PULPIT POLITICS.
Constitution end here ; he has gone farther, and brought our army
'into the field in hostile attitude to a friendly power, with whom we
are on terms of perfect amity, and has sent a fleet to insult and
provoke that government to hostilities. In short, sir, he has, of his
own acts, by his secret orders, without the consent of the people of
the nation, or their representatives, and without deigning even to con
sult his constitutional advisers, suddenly plunged us into a war for
the openly avowed object and purpose of extending and perpetuat
ing slavery. These profligate acts — these usurpations of power —
these violations of the Constitution — can be characterized by no
term of milder signification than treason — treason against the rights
of the people of this nation — treason against the Constitution, and
treason against humanity itself. I feel it my duty to declare it such
in the presence of the House, and of the country. , , ,
" But we shall not surrender this Union, sanctioned and sanctified
by a half century of national prosperity, in order to try a new Union,
and that, too, with slaveholding Texas ! Sir, every schoolboy must
see, that to form a new union with any foreign power, would be,
ipse facto, a dissolution of our present Union. Now I would say to
an imbecile President, and a demented cabinet, that they have not
the power to form a union between our people of the free States and
Texas, If such a union be ever formed, it will be by the voluntary
acts of the people of our States and those of Texas. The President
and his cabinet may enter into as many treaties as they please, and
make such stipulations as they please, and form such unions for
themselves as they please — we shall adhere to our present Union.
If they wish to leave this Union and go to Texas, I, for one, will bid
them ' God speed.' And if any of our southern sister States are
desirous of leaving our present Union, to form a new compact with
Texas, let them say so with generous frankness. But if northern
States prefer adhering to our present Union, and refuse to follow them
into such new confederacy, do not let them attempt to charge us with
dissolving the Union. I regret that any northern man should speak
of dissolving the Union, if Texas be annexed. Such expressions are
an abuse of language. The aict of uniting with Texas would itself
be the dissolution ; and refusal to unite with that government would
be to maintain the present Union. ... I wish to call the atten
tion of the committee to the expediency of the proposed annexation,
provided it were possible to effect it. The people of New England
are emphatically the moral, political, and religious antipodes of those

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 579
who reside in Texas. They are not homogeneous. Their interests
are as widely separated as are their geographical locations, and can
never be made to unite ! Their habits and their morals are distinct,
as are their local situations. The protective policy of New England
can never be reconciled to the free-trade principles of Texas.^ The
love of universal liberty, so prevalent in New England, is wholly
incompatible with Texan slavery. No act of Congress, favoring the
interests or the views of New England, would be acceptable to the
people of Texas. So, on the other hand, whatever law Congress
may pass favoring the interests of Texas, will be unacceptable to the
people of New England.'' f
On the question of the annexation of Texas, Mr. Buchanan,
of Pennsylvania, said :
"Now, sir, annex Texas to the United States, and we shall have
within the limits of our broad confederacy all the favored cotton-
growing regions of the earth. England will then forever remain
dependent upon us for the raw material of her greatest manufacture ;
and an army of one hundred thousand men would not be so great a
security for preserving the peace between the two nations as this
dependence 
" It has been strenuously contended that the acquisition of Texas
would be a violation of the Constitution of the United States ; and
that no new State can be admitted into the Union, unless it formed
part of our territory in 1789, when that Constitution was adopted.J
On this point I shall be very brief. Mr. Van Buren, in his Texas
letter, has demonstrated this objection to be wholly unfounded. The
language of the Constitution is broad and general, embracing in its
terms all new States, whether these be composed of foreign territory
or not. It declares that ' new States may be admitted by Congress
into the Union.' , , , It has been said, however, that, admitting
this construction of the Constitution to be correct, yet, as Texas is
an independent State, and not, like Louisiana and Florida, a terri
torial dependence of a foreign power, it would be a violation of the
* Here, iu the sentence we have italicized, we have the true secret of the
opposition of New England to the extension of slavery. This institution
demands free trade — New England wants protection.
t Appendix to Congressional Globe, May, 1844, pages 706, 707.
X This was Mr. Chase's " Silver Pitcher " doctrine.

480 PULPIT POLITICS.
Constitution to ratify this treaty. And this in the nineteenth cen
tury, and in the American Senate ! We had the honor, forsooth, to
accept the cession of territories from Napoleon Bonaparte and the
King of Spain, without ever consulting the wishes of the people
whom they ceded ; and yet we have not the power to accept such a
cession from the sovereign people themselves of an independent State !
I shall not waste time upon such an argument. It would prove that
if ever (which God forbid) any of the States of this Union should
shoot madly from their sphere, and establish an independent govern
ment, we would possess no constitutional power, upon their own
earnest entreaty, to restore them to their ancient position." *
On the question of the annexation of Texas, Mr, Woodbury,
of New Hampshire, said :
" If I understand the substance of all the objections to the ratifica
tion of the present treaty, whether expressed in resolutions or debate,
it is this : First, that the Government of the United States does not
possess the Constitutional right or power to purchase Texas, and admit
her people into the Union. Next, that the present Government of
Texas, alone, has not the right or competency to make such a cession
of her territory and sovereignty. And, finally, that it is not our duty
at present to complete the cession, even were the right on both sides
clear  The pretense that such a purchase and admission
into the Union are unconstitutional, is the only plausible justification
for the otherwise treacherous or fanatical cry of disunion, which so
often deafens our ears. That cry originated on an occasion almost
identical with this, when the act for admitting Louisiana as a State,
in 1811, was pending,
" In the debate on that occasion, a member from Massachusetts
overflowed with such threats, till he was called to order for his vio
lence, and escaped censure on an appeal from the Speaker's decision
against him, only from a conviction, in some of his opponents, that his
threats would prove harmless. It was then the memorable saying was
first uttered, which is now ringing again in our ears from the same
class of politicians, and from the same State, but with less point and
elegance in these degenerate days. Mr. Quincy said:
" ' If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually
a dissolution of the Union — that it will free the States from their
" Appendix to Congressional Globe, June, 1844, page 722, where Mr. Bu
chanan enters very ably into the refutation of abolition views of this question.

MOVEMENTS OF THB ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS, 481
moral obligations ; and that, as it will then be the right of all, so it
will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for separation— amicably
if they can, forcibly if they must.' *
" It is true that the madness of faction can threaten disunion on the
smallest, as well as greatest occasions, and may at times venture on it,
unless deterred by a dread of the halter; but it is equally true that
there is no more real occasion or justification for it now, than there
was when so much vaporing passed off harmlessly in 1803 and 1811
about Louisiana, or than there was in the purchase,of Florida, in 1819,
or the admission of Missouri, in 1822. If those purchases and admis
sions were constitutional, so are these ; and in order to allay the re
newed excitement on this point, (honest with many, I have no doubt,)
the patience of the Senate is asked a few minutes."
Mr, Woodbury proceeded with the discussion in a very states
manlike manner, and with arguments that are conclusive, but we
can not quote them at large, A few quotations only can be given :
"Every government that ever yet existed," said Mr. W., "possesses
a competency to add to its territory. It ceases to have the functions
of an independent nation, if it cannot, by treaty or discovery, ob
tain new boundaries for convenience, or new lands for culture, or
new ports for commerce ; and, as before suggested, it is stripped of the
national function of acquiring territory, when assailed by unjust war,
and holding it either for indemnity, or profit, or security. And if we
can acquire it, reason, as well as the words of the Constitution, re
quires us, in due time, to make States out of it, and admit them into
the Union. — (160.) Story says, in a note to this page, that the Hartford
Convention proposed to prevent such admission, unless by a vote of
two-thirds of both Houses ; and by a report in that body, indirectly
denied the authority to admit States or any territory without our
original limits. But this doctrine has slept with that convention since,
it is believed, till revived by Mr. Adams, in his Texas speech, in 1838,
in Congress, and his political address in New York, in 1839.
*See National Intelligencer, Jan. 19, 1819, and Lambut ou Eules, 74th page.
Mr. Woodbury, in this connection, in a foot-note, takes notice of a whig anti-
annexation meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts, which adopted a resolution
"to separate the free States from the others, if annexation prevailed." He
further alluded to the manifesto of Mr. Adams, Mr. Giddings, and others,
copied on a succeeding page, declaring that annexation " would be identical
with dissolution of the Union.'" 31

482 PULPIT POLITICS.
" How little ground exists for such doctrine, even in the opinion of
the greatest constitutional lawyer of his own party, may be seen by
looking to 3d Story, pages 160, 161: ' Sec. 1283. The more recent
acquisition of Florida, which has been universally approved, or acqui
esced in by all the States, can be maintained only on the same prin
ciple, and furnishes a striking illustration of the truth, that constitu
tions of government require a liberal construction to effect their ob
jects ; and that a narrow interpretation of their powers, however it
may suit the views of speculative philosophers, or the accidental in
terests of political parties, is incompatible with the permanent interest
of the State, and subversive of the great ends of all government, the
safety and independence of the people.'
" This construction does not, as the senator from New Jersey argues,
prevent the blessings of liberty from being enjoyed by the posterity of
our fathers as they designed. Because there is enough at the boun
teous table for all that posterity and any new associates. All such can
participate with them in that fi'eedom as they do in the air, water, and
sun, without loss to either, and without exclusiveness and misanthropy.
"In truth, our whole history serves to illustrate the wisdom, on
general as well as constitutional principles, of expanding our limits
with the vast increase of our population and wealth. Such expansion
prevents many of the evils of too dense a population, and secures the
predominance of the safe, virtuous and republican pursuit of agricul
ture. It is said that we have a Sparta, and let us adorn it. But is
there never to be an escape from the infant shell ? nor any enlarge
ment of the shell itself, to suit the growth of the animal within ? Is
our Sparta to be confined forever to a garden spot, or single planta
tion? a single city? or a few barren acres, as in Greece, with iron
only for money, black broth only for food, and our so»is taught stealing
as an accomplishment — instead of spreading over half a continent,
improving the sciences and the whole arts of the civilized world, cover-^
ing remotest oceans with our commerce, and helping to spread abroad
and at home superior education and a purer religion ? Thank God I
the scales fell from our eyes on this subject more than a quarter of a
century ago, when Louisiana was purchased ; and instead of trying to
replace them, if we are able to preserve Oregon — gained both by dis
covery and purchase — and to recover Texas, we can, in another half
century, not only gain, as has been done, double our States, and nearly
quadruple our wealth, numbers, and power, but adorn, improve, and
secure forever all the fair inheritance with which we are blessed.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS— IN CONGRESS. 483
"< . . But these, and many formal exceptions, seem scarcely
suitable to the magnitude of the subject, and the high duties and
national honor and interests which are at issue. One of the most
prominent of these interests is the importance of Texas to the United
States, for security to the commerce of the West and Southwest
through the mouth of the Mississippi river. The freedom of that
commerce was a topic which, as long ago as under the old confedera
tion, agitated the whole country. It then introduced the first geo
graphical division of parties between the South and the North, in
which the latter, unfortunately, was quite as strenuous in resisting
efforts and sacrifices to obtain that freedom, as it is now in resisting
those to secure it, after having been obtained.
" A few circumstances in that age indicate strongly prejudices and
contests not very unlike the present one.
"Mr. Gorham, of Massachusetts, 'avowed his opinion that the
shutting the Mississippi would be advantageous to the Atlantic States,
and wished to see it shut.' *
" But Virginia extended over Kentucky, and claimed all the North
west ; while North Carolina also crossed the Alleghenies into Ten
nessee. Hence, the South, at that early day, became the champions
of western interests, no less than southern ones.
" And though Mr. Aymer, apparently concurring with Gorham,
'thought the encouragement of the western country was suicide on
the part of the old States, f and though the vote of seven States was
at first procured to proceed in the negotiations with Spain, without
insisting on the free navigation of the Mississippi,' — yet Mr. Jeffer
son wrote that the navigation of the Mississippi we must have. J
And Mr. Jay at last admitted our right to it was good.§ And the
old CJongress, before breaking up, in September, 1788, solemnly
" 'Resolved, That the free navigation of the river Mississippi is a
clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same
ought to be considered and supported as such.' ||
"In the Convention, while forming the Constitution, Governeur
Morris frankly stated that ' the fisheries ' and the ' Mississippi ' se
curity to them, were 'the two great objects of the Union.' •[[
" The whole question, as a national one, ' was then settled. That
was the embryo of the present crisis. The duty to secure became
* Madison Papers, 609. 1 3 Madison Papers, page 1466.
X 1 Jefferson's Life, page 433. g 4 Secret Journal, 451.
II 4 Secret Journal, 453, Sept. 16, 1778. t 3 Madison Papers, 1523.

484 PULPIT POLITICS.
as imperative as had been the duty to obtain. A million and a half
of square miles of territory, and what are now nine millions of peo
ple on the waters of the Mississippi and her tributaries, were fore
seen, and were to be shielded in peace as in war ; and tranquillity to
their institutions, no less than safety to their property of every
kind, were, in advance, solemnly guaranteed, and were never to be
neglected. On this implied pledge your public lands have been sold
there and settled. ... It is no new vagary, that, wheh our
farthers, in 1786, finally resolved on their rights to the free naviga
tion of the Mississippi, they, also, in the same act, and by the same
dauntless spirit, meant to enforce that right till successful, and to
defend it, also, when once acknowledged; as they afterward did in
many an Indian war, as well as on the bloody fields of New Or
leans 
" The treaty presents, at the same moment, a fortunate occasion to
do that, as well as to enforce better the guarantees of the Constitu
tion to promote ' domestic tranquillity ' in the South and Southwest,
no less than the West and East. The property and domestic insti
tutions of the former, however different from those at the North, were
secured as amply under the old confederation as those of any other
region ; so are they by the present Constitution, so are they by all
our legislative and judicial decisions; and so must they continue to
be till the compromises of the Constitution are wantonly violated, or
the Union dissolved. Hence the losses or capture of their property
in slaves have often been indemnified ; their escape into other States
has been redressed by a surrender of them ; and the domestic tran
quillity designed for all the States, as set out in the preamble of the
Constitution- as one paramount object for its adoption, has again and
again been sought to be secured, in times of exciteinent and peril,
precisely as they are likely to be by the ratification of this treaty.
. . . The South stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the Rev
olution, with this property and these institutions. They came into
the Union with them on equal terms ; they have so remained for half
a century, and so must they continue, till injustice or fanaticism
or treason violate all the sacred compromises of all we hold dear,
" The annexation has been opposed as not a duty, because inclining
the balance of political power in our system too much in favor of
the West and South, But the same course of reasoning would strip
us of all our great domain on the Pacific Ocean — a country never to
be surrendered while an American whaler visits its waters, or an

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 485
American emigrant chooses to fish, hunt, or plant on the banks of the
Columbia. , . , It is resisted by many for the reason that slavery
exists in Texas, That is an institution, to be sure, which most peo
ple born at the North are, like myself, averse to. But those who
respect the Constitution and the Union, remember that it is an insti
tution which our parent country, before the Revolution, forced upon
both the North and South ; which, after being more deeply inter
woven through the social and political systems of the latter, the rest
of the States did not hesitate to confederate with her in fighting the
battles of independence ; nor to counsel with her heroes, patriots,
and statesmen, in forming the present Constitution, nor to associate
with them in carrying out its great destinies ; nor in guaranteeing
their property and rights in common with the rest, then and during
the half century since, in peace and war, and in weal or wo," *
REMARKS ON THB FOREGOING DISCUSSIONS,
(1) Mr, Slade frankly avowed the principle lying at the foun
dation of the political agitation of slavery, to which allusion has
been made in the introductory remarks to the present section.
He said: " One of the objections he had heard strongly insisted
on, was that abolition had a tendency to disturb the balance of
the Constitution. He contended that the balance was disturbed
on the other side by the gradual increase of slavery. It would
not be long before the representation of the slaveholding States
would far outweigh the proportions settled under the Constitu
tion  This fact, he contended, would show that the
progress of abolition was necessary to preserve the balance of the
Constitution, or rather to restore it, for it had been already dis-
tittrl)ed by the purchase of Louisiana."
The great object of politicians and statesmen, in all their move-
jtnents, is to protect themselves and constituents against the in
crease of any element that may control, adversely to their inter
ests, the legislation of the country. The New England people
could only prosper as manufacturers, and required a tariff on for
eign imports that -would afford them protection. The South could
only flourish as a planting region, and demanded free trade, so that
* Appendix to Congressional Globe, June, 1844, page 760, etc.

486 PULPIT POLITICS.
its productions might enter freely into the ports of all foreign
nations. This placed New England and the South in a position
of antagonism. The acquisition of Louisiana had unsettled the
balances previously existing between the North and South, and
given a preponderance to the planting States, The Louisiana
territory had been subdivided into three States', instead of one,
when Mr, Slade sounded the alarm as to the danger of acquiring
additional territory by the adinission of Texas. Mr. Slade,. there
fore, believed that " to preserve the balance of the Constitution,
or rather to restore it," the successful prosecution of the abolition
enterprise had become necessary. And why ? The West, in its
rapid growth, now held the balance of power. The South ha-d showli
it more favors than the East, and needed its support against the
adverse action of eastern statesmen. While in the colonial con
dition, the South had enjoyed a free commercial intercourse with
the British possessions, carrying its own products in its own ves
sels, and thus keeping in advance of the East in the extent of its
foreign trade. The treaty of Mr. Jay with Great Britain, which
came up for discussion in the Congress of 1795 and 1796, by its
12th Article, not only limited the size of American vessels, trad
ing with the West Indies, to seventy tons and under, but gave
up the carriage, in our own shipping, of cotton, sugar, indigo, and
coffee.* The whole carrying trade of American cotton being
thus placed in the hands of Great Britain, she could forbid all
shipments of that article in her own vessels, and thus prevent
American cotton from being exported to England.f Subse
quently, Mr. Gorham, of Massachusetts, Avith others, had opposed
the opening of the navigation of the Mississippi to the West, as
an act suicidal to the Atlantic States. But the obnoxious feature
of Jay's treaty was not confirmed ; and, through the influence of
Mr. Jefferson, the Mississippi question was settled favorably to-
the West and South ; J and by this means these two sections
became intimately united in a bond cemented by their mutual
interests. .
•Benton's Abridgement of Debates iu Congress, page 709.
t Eeferences elsewhere show that we had then only sent out our first exports;
whereas the "West Indies were then exporting largely.
sfX See Mr. "Woodbury's speech, quoted in this section.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 487
This result was the necessary consequence of the peculiar posi
tion occupied by the West, in her then infantile condition. In the
absence of efficient means of transportation to the Bast, the West
had long been dependent upon the Mississippi for the disposal of
its surplus products, excepting the live stock, which could travel
on foot to an eastern market. By this means the West found its
interests identified with the South, and felt inclined to act with
it in political measures. To interrupt this growing harmony,
and dissever the West from the South, was long the policy of
the East. The " American System," which was to create a home
market, by the increase of manufactures, for the agricultural
products of the North at large, had not received the universal
acceptance of the people, as had been anticipated. To fail in
controlling the vote of the West, was to leave the South in the
possession of the National legislation, and to place the East in a
position of great uncertainty as to the Congressional protection
it could secure for its manufactures. The physical obstacles
forbidding the products of the West from being transported East
seemed insurmountable ; the only hope of success, therefore, in
binding these two distant sections together, lay in the use of
moral means. The opportunity of applying this remedy was at
hand. The Churches at the North had been busied for many
years in creating an anti-slavery sentiment among the people;
and as a similar movement in Great Britain had secured West
India emancipation, it was believed that equal success might
attend the abolition movement in this country. But let that
result as it might, the " progress of abolition," according to Mr.
Slade, would tend "to preserve the balance of the Constitution."
And how ? If abolition should be successful in effecting emanci
pation, then the South would be prostrated at the feet of New
England, and could no longer extend its cultivation westward;
but, failing in this, the East, by means of the hatred of slavery
that could be engendered at the West, would at least array the
people of that section against the South, and thus put a check
upon the progress of free trade legislation. Thus, in either case,
New England would be the gainer, as she could then control the
action of Congress.

488 PULPIT POLITICS.
But these two purposes were not the only measures contem
plated by New England men, to secure to themselves the sectional
advantages they wished to possess. A dissolution of the Union,
as a last resort, was relied upon as a certain means of aggran
disement to their portion of the country.
This idea of " dissolution " was of early birth in New England.
It broke forth from the classic lips of Mr. Quincy, of Boston, as
early as 1811, in the Congress of the United States, when the
admission of Louisiana was pending. His language, as will be
seen by a reference to Mr. Woodbury's remarks, was clear and
unequivocal, that its admission would virtually be a dissolution
of the Union, as it would free the northern States from their
moral obligations, and justify them in separating from the South,
even by force, if necessary.
The right of secession was not held by Mr. Quincy alone. A9
early as 1839, Mr. J. Q. Adams, in an address before the, New
York Historical Society, gave the following deliberate opinion,
not in the heat of debate, but as formed in the quiet of his study
at home :
" Nations acknowledge no judge between them upon earth, and their
Governments, from necessity, must, in their intercourse with each other,
decide when the failure of one party to a contract to perform its obli
gations absolves the other from the reciprocal fulfillment of his own.
But this last of earthly powers is not necessary to the freedom or
independence of States connected together by the immediate action
of the people of whom they consist. To the people alone is there
reserved, as well the dissolving as the constituent power, and that
power can be exercised by them only under the tie of conscience, bind
ing them to the retributive justice of heaven.
" With these qualifications, we may admit the same right as vested
in the people of every State in the Union, with reference to the Gen
eral Government, which was exercised by the people of the United
Colonies with reference to the supreme head of the British Empire,
of which they formed a part ; and, under these limitations, have the
people of each State in the Union a right to secede from the confederated
Union itself.
" Thus stands the eight. But the indissoluble link of union be
tween the people, of the several States of this confederated nation is.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS, 489
after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the day should ever
come (may heaven avert it) when the affections of the people of these
States shall be alienated from each other ; when the fraternal spirit
shall give way to cold indifference, or collisions of interest shall ffester
into hatred, the bands of political association will not long hold to
gether parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated
interests and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be for the peo
ple of the disunited States to part in friendship from each other, than
to be held together by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting
to the precedent, whioh occurred at the formation and adoption of the
Constitution, to form again a more perfect Union, by dissolving that
which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be re
united by the law of political gravitation, to the center."*
But Mr, Adams was not without illustrious authority to sus
tain him in his opinion in relation to the right of secession on
the part of States. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, so
familiar to public men, having been received unfavorably by many
of the other States, were referred to Mr, Madison for further con
sideration and defense. In reporting upon them, he said :
" It appears to your committee to be a plain principle, founded in
common sense, illustrated by common practice, and essential to the
nature of compacts, that, where resort can be had to no tribunal
superior to the authority of the parties, the parties themselves must be
the rightful judges, in the last resort, whether the bargain made has been
pursued or violated. The Constitution of the United States was formed
by the sanction of the States, given by each in its sovereign capacity.
It adds to the stability and dignity, as well as to the authority, of the
Constitution, that it rests on this legitimate and solid foundation. The
States, then, being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in
their sovereign capacity, it follows, of necessity, that there can be no
tribunal above their authority, to decide, in the last resort, whether
the compact made by them be violated, and consequently, that, as the
parties to it, they must themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions
asmay be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition." . .
" The resolution has, accordingly, guarded against any misapprehen
sion of its object, by expressly requiring, for such an interposition,
' the case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous breach of the Con-
* Quoted in the .speech of Mr, Benjamin, in U. S. Senate, Dec. 31, 1860.

490 PULPIT POLITICS.
stitution, by the exercise of powers not granted by it.' It must be a
case not of a light and transient nature, but of a nature dangerous to
the great purposes for which the Constitution was established."
These threats of secession, and these claims of a constitutional
right in a State to secede, coming, as they did, in the first instance,
from Northern statesmen, were well calculated, when taken in
connection with the hostility existing in the East to the doctrines
of free trade, to lead the South to the conclusion that a peaceful
separation of the States might be effected, or rather, that it was
really desired by the North. The Eastern representative men
had so often advocated this' right of secession, and its necessity,
under certain contingencies, that, we 'have little donbt, the South,
in its recent movements, anticipated no trouble in effecting a dis
solution of the Union. Indeed, up to a very recent date, the
right of secession by a State, or States, seems to have been held
by prominent men on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line.
But this doctrine, often as it has been advocated, never re
ceived the assent of the peoplevat large. It was the imputation'
of secession principles that secured the political damnation of
Mr. Webster ;* and that will now damn every politician that has
avowed the- sentiment. The question is not whether, in a strict
construction of the Constitution, the right of secession may not
exist ; but the fact is, that the people, almost en masse, cannot be
brought to contemplate favorably, even for a moment, the idea
that the glorious Union, secured by the bravery and the blood of
their fathers, shall ever be destroyed.
(2) Mr. Mann spoke the common sentiment of the North, at
large, when he pledged himself and his constituents to the fulfill
ment of all the compromises of the Constitution. Mr. Calhoun
and Mr. Preston, though ma,king a strong statement of the alarm
produced by the abolitionists at the South, did not present an
exaggerated picture of the state of public feeling, in their section

*Mr. "Webster was charged with having acted as a secretary of the Hartford
, Convention, and for this reason, perhaps, more than all others, his friends were
always unable to secure for him the nomination to the Presidency. It was con
stantly urged, as areason against him, that he could not succeed before the people,
because of his connection with that band of supposed traitors to the Union.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 491
of the Union, at that moment. The wholesale butchery attend
ing emancipation in St. Domingo was then fresh in the recollec
tions of the people ; and the blood that was shed in the Virginia
negro insurrection was scarcely yet dry upon her soil. Under
such circumstances, none but fanatics, imbued with the rancorous
spirit of demons, would have persevered in their attempts to fill
the South with incendiary documents. Mr, Buchanan, in present
ing the decision of Congress, of 1790, denying any power over
slavery by the national legislature, showed conclusively, that the
abolitionists, by interfering with slavery in the South, were acting
in open violation of the compromises of the Constitution, as inter
preted by those who framed it. To suppress the circulation of
the incendiary publications of the abolitionists was no more an
interference with the rights of the citizen under the administra
tion of General Jackson, than the prohibition of the circulation
of secession documents is unconstitutional under that of Mr.
Lincoln. Mr, Benton, in characterizing as diabolical the docu
ments put in circulation by the abolitionists, made no unjustifiable
charge against their authors. His notice of the causes that led
to the San Domingo massacre, will serve a good purpose, as cast
ing some new light upon that horrible tragedy,
(3) The appeal of Mr, Grundy to the people of the North, to
arrest the progress of abolitionism, before its bitter fruits should
come to maturity, was a reasonable request. But there was no
legal means at the command of conservative men, by which they
could interpose, directly, in the suppression of that movement.
One thing only could have been done : the friends of the Union
should have risen in their might, and protested against the doc
trines and practices of the abolitionists. They should have spoken
out, in thunder tones, the true sentiments of their hearts on the
question of their constitutional obligations. But instead of adopt
ing this course, they quietly suffered the fanatical abolitionists to
assume a dictatorial position, both in religion and politics, until,
emboldened by non-resistance, they imagined the field was won,
and they were conquerors.
It. was the great error of the conservative mpn at the North,
that they allowed the enemies of the Constitution to give tone to

492 PULPIT POLITICS.
public sentiment abroad, so as to create the impression that the
free States had become thoroughly abolitionized. They are now
paying the penalty of their remissness in duty ; and when they
succeed in restoring the Union, then wo to the fanatic, in future,
who shall again dare to plot its overthrow.
Mr. PiNCKNEY presents such facts as prove conclusively that
the abolitionists were vastly in the minority, at the date of these
discussions. But 34,000 persons out of 8,000,000 of population
had attached their names to the abolition petitions. Mr. Pinckney
was also right in another point. If the South had left the ques
tion of the suppression of abolition with the citizens of the North,
it would never have attained the gigantic proportions it afterward
assumed. But instead of leaving the matter to the North, every
few months presented some new case of injury inflicted upon
Northern citizens at the South, on account of their supposed
abolition sentiments and designs. This, whether a deserved
punishment or not, served as fresh fuel for the agitators at the
North to feed their expiring fires ; and had it not been for this,
the abolitionists could never have maintained their ground. But
there were conservative men at the South who disapproved of the
mob violence used against Northern citizens ; and so largely were
they in the majority, that if they had used their influence, they
could have prevented the scenes that occurred.* The conserva
tive men of the South, therefore, were as much to blame as those
of the North ; nay, they were more to blame, because, had it not
been for the cases of violence there, we could have acted with
greater efficiency here. They tied our hands, and then com
plained of us for not flghting their battles,
* The case of the agents for the sale of " Cotton is King," at Enterprise,
Mississippi, early in the year 1860, is one in point. The two young men were
arrested, stripped of their clothing, and the tar and cotton standing rdady to be
applied, while eighty copies of the work were being burned as au abolition in
cendiary publication. The conservative men had sufficient courage to inter
pose, and by placing the agents in prison, under the plea of further investiga
tion, thus rescued them from the mob. After eight weeks' imprisonment, they
were tried, acquitted, and discharged — it having been determined that the object
of the work was to demonstrate the absolute necessity of preserving the Union,
as essential to the prosperity and happiness of both sections, and not designed
to promote abolition and disunion.

MOVEMENTS OF THB ABOLITIONISTS^— IN CONGRESS, 493
(4) The charge made by Mr, Johnson, of Tennessee, that there
existed a deliberate design, on the part of Northern men, to effect
a dissolution of the Union, will startle some of our readers on
account of its boldness. That such designs existed somewhere,
no one can now doubt. But of the section of the Union in which
they originated, few perhaps entertained a coirrect opinion ; the
facts now drawn out, therefore, must greatly interest the public,
and will serve to disabuse the minds of many, in relation to the
views they may have entertained heretofore. The opinion of the
elder Adams, in 1803 — based upon the Louisiana question, then
agitated — " that he saw no possibility of continuing the Union
of the States, and that their dissolution must necessarily take
place," is referred to by Mr, Johnson only as a starting point
from which to date the opposition of New England to the Union
of the States, and their hostility to the institutions of the South.
This' hostility he found manifesting itself in the Hartford Conven
tion, in the Halls of Congress, by the presentation of abolition
petitions, and in the speeches of Mr, J. Q. Adams, in which he,
(Mr. Adaihs,) not only announced his belief that the refusal to
receive the abolition petitions would absolve the North from all
obligations to the South, but, in case of war, the treaty-making
power could declare emancipation.
This power to abolish slavery, in time of war, seems never to
have been lost sight of by the abolitionists ; and could they but
bring on a collision of arms, either civil or servile, their mission
would be accomplished. Reader, keep this in mind, and turn
back to the quotations from the speeches of Mr, Giddings, which
follow those of Mr, Johnson, While admitting that, under the
Constitution, the North has no right to interfere with slavery,
Mr, Giddings seems to dwell with evident satisfaction upon the
fact that, in time of war, slavery could be swept away, as chaff
before the wind, in defiance of the Constitution, But he goes
further, and insists upon emancipation, by Congress, in the Dis
trict, notwithstanding that to have a community of free negroes
in such a central point as Washington might endanger the safety
of slavery in the adjoining States, Nay, more, he urged eman
cipation in the District for that very reason ; thus justifying the

494 PULPIT POLITICS.
accomplishment of an object by indirect means, which can not be
done constitutionally by direct means. • ,
Again, in discussing the question of the annexation of Texas,
Mr. Giddings denounces the project as nefarious, because it would
" place the balance of political power in the hands of foreign slave
holders," and "transfer the descendants of our New England pil
grims to the political control of Texans and foreigners." Here
we have a repetition of the fears entertained by Mr. Slade, that
the balance of the Constitution would settle down to the injury
of the people of New England, and the measures that would ef
fect this, Mr, Giddings pronounces treason. And why? "The
protective policy of New England," says he, " can never be recon
ciled to the free-trade principles of Texas," and, therefore, " the
act of uniting with Texas would itself .be the dissolution " of the
Union — would be treason to New England, That is to say, if New
England could not have a protective tariff, in consequence of the
extension of slavery, she would dissolve the Union.
But Mr. Giddings goes farther, and expresses his willingness
that the President and his Cabinet, as well as our southern sister
States, who were desirous of doing so, might leave this Union to
form a new compact with Texas; and he would bid them God
speed. These views of Mr. Giddings fall in with the general opinions
entertained by New England politicians at that day. During
the preceding Session of Congress, March 3, 1843, a manifesto
against the annexation of Texas was issued by. the members
whose names appear below, Mr. Giddings being one of the num
ber. A f^w extracts will show its true character, and the objects
aimed at by its signers. In speaking of the annexation of Texas,
they say :
" That a large portion of the country interested in the continuance
of domestic slavery and the slave trade in these United States, have
solemnly and unalterably determined that it shall be speedily carried
into execution, and that by this admission of a new slave Territory and
slave States, the undue ascendency of the slaveholding power in the Gov
ernment shall be secured and riveted beyond redemption. . . . The
same references will show, very conclusively, that the particular objects

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS, 495
of this new acquisition of slave territory were the perpetuation of slav
ery and the continued ascendency of the slave power. . . . None
can be so blind noio as not to know that the real design and object of
the South is to ' add new weight to her end of the lever.' , ,
We hold that there is not only ' no political necessity ' for it, ' no ad
vantages to be derived from it,' but that there is no constitutional
power delegated to any department of the National Government to au
thorize it : that no act of Congress or treaty for annexation can impose
the least obligation upon the several States of this Union to submit to
such an unwarrantable act, or to receive into their family and frater
nity such misbegotten and illegitimate progeny. We hesitate hot to
say that annexation, effected by any act or proceeding of the Federal
Government, or any of its departments, would be identical with
mssOLUTiON. It would be a violation of our national compact, its ob
jects, designs, and the great elementary principles which entered into
its formation of a character so deep and fundamental, and would be
an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of nature so unjust
in themselves, so injurious to the- interests, and abhorrent to the feel
ings of the people of the free States as, in our opinion, not only inev
itably to result in a dissolution of the Union, BUT FULLY TO JUS
TIFY IT ; and we not only assert that the people of the free States
' ought not to submit to it ;' but we say, with confidence, they would
NOT SUBMIT TO IT."*
This was signed by the following abolition members of Congress ;
John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel B. Borden,
Seth M. Gates, Thomas C. Chittenden,
Wm. Slade, John Mattocks,
Wm. B. Calhoun, Christopher Morgan,
Joshua R. Giddings, Joshua M. Howard,
Sherlock J. Andrews, Victory Birdseye.
Reader, what think you of this, when taken in connection with
all the preceding declarations of Northern men which have been
quoted? Were there treasonable designs toward the Constitution
here? But we have said that the abolition controversy, "in the hands
of the few who aimed at controlling national events, was used as
•See Niles' Register, May 13, 1843, pp, 174, 175.

496 PULPIT POLITICS.
an element for the promotion of sectional interests. This was
true of the South as well as of the East. After what has been
presented in demonstration of the truth that it has been used for
this purpose at the East, let us turn a moment to the South, and
here we shall not multiply testimony, as no one doubts that the
struggle of the southern States has been maintained to secure
the balance of power in their own favor, that they might, under
the guarantees of the Constitution, be able to protect their prop
erty in slaves. ''
Mr, Wise, in his speech on the Texas question, January 26,
1842, sums up the Southern view of the subject thus briefly :
" True, if Iowa be added on the one side, Florida will be added on
the other. But there the equation must stop. Let one more north
ern State be admitted, and the equilibrium is gone — gone forever.
The balance of interests is gOne — the safe-guard of American prop
erty — of the American Constitution — of the American Union, van
ished into thin air. This must be the inevitable result, unless, by a
treaty with Mexico, THE South can add more weight to her end op
THE LEVER ! Let the South stop at the Sabine, (the' eastern boundary
of Texas,) while the North may spread unchecked beyond the Rocky
Mountains, and the Southern scale must kick the beam."*
Nothing can be clearer to the comprehension of intelligent men
than that the war waged by New England against the South has
been prosecuted for the purpose of sustaining her own sectional
interests, and that the crusade against slavery has been only a
secondary consideration, and employed as a means of accomplish
ing the real object in view. On the other hand, it is equally plain,
that the South have resisted the aggressions of the North from
motives of a similar nature. Both have been influenced by sec
tional interests ; both have equally struggled to maintain the bal
ance of power in their own hands. The North began the warfare,
and the South accepted the challenge. The West, springing into
existence with giant strength, was inclined to fight upon the side
of her foster-mother, the South, Abolition came, with its foetid
* Niles' Register, May 13, 1843, p. 174, where it is quoted in the manifesto
of Mr. Adams and his associates.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 497
breath, to poison the atmosphere, and, under the influence of the
temporary delirium produced, to array her on the side of the
East. The question at issue, substantially, was, whether New
England should multiply her spindles, or the South extend its
slavery ; and, as involved in the issue, whether the West should
have a broadly extending market for its products, by the exten
sion of cotton culture in the southwest, or be shut up to the
meager demand created by the parsimonious stomachs of New
England. The opposition to the admission of Texas, if success
ful, would limit slavery to the States where it already existed.
The natural increase of the slave population, under these cir
cumstances, would soon be such as to render their labor unpro
ductive to the planter, in consequence of their over-crowded con
dition ; and his inability to make money from their labor would
compel him to emancipate them, and thus the natural market for
the products of the western farmer be ruined forever. That the
West took this view of the question of securing Texas to the
Union, is amply demonstrated by the eagerness with whioh her
sons rushed to its rescue when Mexico threatened its subju
gation. The Legislature of Mississippi, during the agitation of the
question of annexing Texas, gave an expression of opinion which
may be taken as representing that of the South generally. It

" But we hasten to suggest the importance of the annexation of
Texas to this Republic on grounds somewhat local in their complex
ion, but of an import infinitely grave and interesting to the people
who inhabit the southern portion of this confederacy, where it is known
that a species of domestic slavery is tolerated and protected by law,
whose existence is prohibited by the legal regulations of other States
of this confederacy ; which system of slavery is held by all who are
familiarly acquainted with its practical effects, to be of highly beneficial
influence to the coikitry within whose limits it is permitted to exist.
' " The committee feel authorized to say, that this system is cherished
by Our constituents as the very palladium of their prosperity and hap
piness ; and, whatever ignorant fanatics may elsewhere conjecture, the
committee are fully assured, upon the most diligent observation and
reflection on the subject, that the South does not possess within her lian-
32

498 PULPIT Politics.
its a blessing with which the affections of her people are so closely en
twined, and so completely enfibered; and whose value is more highly
appreciated than that which we are now considering. . . .
" The northern States have no interests of their own which require
any special safeguards , for their defense, save only their domestic
manufactures ; and God knows they have already received protection
from Government on a most liberal scale; under which encouragement
they have improved and flourished beyond example. The South has
very peculiar interests to preserve — interests already violently assailed
and boldly threatened.
" Your committee are fully persuaded that this protection to her best
interest will be afforded by the annexation of Texas; an equipoise of
influence in the halls of Congress will be secu/red, which will furnish
us a permanent guarantee of protection." *
It will be observed here, that the action of the South was
not so much influenced by hostility to the tariff policy of New
England, as it was by the existing necessity of protecting itself
against the interference of the fanatics of the North with the
institution of slavery. That there was extreme danger, every
Southern man fully believed ; and how could that belief be other
wise, when, as early as March, 1854, such language as the fol
lowing was uttered on the floor of Congress ? Mr. Giddings said :
" Sir, I would intimidate no one ; but I tell you there is a spirit at
the North which will set at defiance all the low and unworthy machi
nations of this Executive, and of the minions of its power. When the
contest shall come, when the thunder shall roll, and the lightning
flash ;_ when the slaves shall rise in the South ; when, in imitation of
the Cuban bondmen, thp Southern slaves of the South shall feel that
they are men; when they feel the stirring emotions of immortality,
and recognize the stirring truth that they are men, and entitled to the
rights which God has bestowed upon them ; when the slaves shall feel
that, and when the masters shall turn pale and tremble ; when their
dwellings shall smoke, and dismay sit on each countenance, then, sir
I do not say, ' We will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your
fear cometh ; ' but I do say, when that time shall come, the lovers of
our race will stand forth and exert the legitimate powers of this
'*NUes' Register, ' May 13, 1843, as quoted in manifesto of Messrs. Adaftis,
Giddings, etc., pages 173, 174.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 499
Government for freedom. We shall then have constitutional power
to act for the g.ood of our country, and do justice to the slave.
"Then we will strike off the shackles from the limbs of the slaves.
That will be a period when this Government will have power to act
between slavery and freedom, and when it can make peace by giving
freedom to the sla-ves. And let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, that the
time hastens. It is rolling forward. The President is exerting a
power that will hasten it, though not intended by him. I hail it as I
do the approaching dawn of that political and moral millennium which
I am well assured will come upon the world." *
We shall not pursue this subject farther than to make one
more quotation, which, when taken in connection with what is
said and quoted in the preceding pages, will throw a flood of light
upon the schemes of the New England agitators. The New York
Anti-slavery Standard, June 21, 1856, made the following revela
tion as to the office performed by the abolitionists, and the designs
they had in view :
"The Whig party, five years ago in power, and with, a reasonable
prospect of maintaining it, now dispersed, is demolished to powder.
. . , , The abolitionists saw that this must come to pass ; but they
did not dream of its accomplishing itself so soon  That
die national parties should, sooner or later, divide on the only real
matter of dispute existing in the country, was inevitable 
But the lines are now drawn, and the hosts are encamped over against
each other. The attempt to keep up a delusive alliance with natural
enemies has been abandoned.
" The abolitionists have been telling these things in the ears of the
people for a quarter of a century. They have had a double part in
what has come io pass, both by preparing the minds of the people of the
North, land by compelling the people of the South to the very atrocities
which have startled the North into attention.^ Nothing but the mad
ness which ushers in destruction, and the pride which goes before a
fall, on the part of the slaveholders, could have roused the sluggish
North from its comfortable dreams of wealth, and made it put itself
even into a posture of resistance. ... . . It is long since this
paper took the ground that the first thing, though by no means the
« Political Text-Book, p. 23.
tThe sentence we have italicised is an important declaration.

600 PULPIT POLITICS.
only thing needful, was the formation of sectional parties — of parties
distinctly Northern and Southern, and, of necessity; slavery and anti-
slavery. We rejoice that our eyes behold the day of that beginning
of the end." *
Here we have a choice revelation ! The office-holding aboli
tionists had declared that a servile or civil war, or both combined,
would afford them an opportunity for abolishing slavery, irrespect
ive of constitutional obligations to the contrary ; and had rejoiced
at the thought that they could see thd wished-for day approach
ing. On this ground they had taken their stand, and were only
awaiting the sounding of the war-trumpet to hasten to the execu
tion of their purpose. On the other hand, the abolition editors,
clergymen, and civilians, after having educated the North up to
this point, as they supposed, were perseveringly engaged in
attempting, first, to promote servile insurrections among the
slaves, and, second, in provoking the people of the South to the
perpetration of the atrocities which would excite the North to
resistance, and thus bring on the terrible collision of arms which
would usher in the moral millennium of Mr. Giddings ! A slave
insurrection, or a rebellion, would equally promote their abolition
schemes. Was not Mr. Johnson right in charging that there was
a deliberate design, on the part of the abolitionists of the North,
to dissolve the Union ? We have it here confessed ; and the
scheme was to goad on the South to acts of resistance against
the aggressions of the abolitionists, and then, when the collision
came, and they had a sectional Executive, the abolition of slavery
could be effected by a single dash of his pen. They have suc
ceeded in the first, but, thank God, they have failed in the last.
But we shall pass on, and before completing our remarks on
this topic, we must present the views of numerous individuals,
so as to show the wide spread disaffection to the Union which
prevailed at the North, and contributed so efficiently to the pro
duction of our present national calamities.
• Political Text-Book, p. 18,

MO'VEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 501
Section III. — Opinions of Individuals, etc., bblaung to
THE Subject op Slavery, as illustrating the Abolition
Mo'vement. As before stated, we are not preparing a connected history of
the abolition movement, but presenting such facts as will serve to-
illustrate its character and objects. In addition to the produc
tions of'the political abolitionists, and the debates in Congress, we
ROW turn to such of the leading incidents and opinions of indi
viduals, or puhlic assemblies connected with this fanatical cru
sade, as may best serve still further to illustrate its inner life.
At the opening pf Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia, in 1838, a
leading abolition lady, who had been recently married, and whose
bridal attendants were composed of one half whites, and the other
half blacks, offered the following resolutions, which were adopted :
"Resolved, That the prejudice against Color is the very spirit of
slavery, sinful in those who indulge it ; and is the fire which is con
suming the happiness and energies of the free people of color.
" That it is, therefore, the duty of the abolitionists to identify them
selves with the oppressed Americans, by sitting with them in places
of worship, by appearing with them in our streets, by giving them our
countenance in steamboats and stages, by visiting them at their homes,
and encouraging them to visit us, receiving them as we do our white
fellow-citizens." * (1)
Among the letters received by the committee having charge of
the proceedings connected with the opening of the Hall above
referred to, is one from Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania,
dated May 5, 1838, which reads as follows :
" Gentlemen : — I have delayed answering yours until this time, that
I might be- able to decide with certainty whether I Could comply with
your invitation to be present at the opening of the Pennsylvania Hall
for the free discussion of liberty and equality of civil rights, and the
evil of slayery,
"I regret that I can not be with you on that occasion, I know
no Spectacle which it would give me grea-ter pleasure to witness, than

' Washington Globe, Extra, Sept., 1840, p. 203,

602 pulpit politics,
a dedication of a temple of liberty. Your objects should meet with
the approbation of every free man. It will meet the approbation of
every man who respects the rights of others as much as he loves his
own. Interest, fashion, false religion, and tyranny may triumph for a
while, and rob a man of his inalienable rights; but the people can not
'always be deceived, and will not always be oppressed."*
The Legislature of Ohio, during its session of 1840, passed a
resolution, two only voting in the negative, that slavery is an in
stitution recognized by the Constitution ; and another, declaring
that " the unla-wful, unwise, and unconstitutional interference of
the fanatical abolitionists of the North with the domestic institu
tions of the southern States was highly criminal," f That was
then the sentiment of Ohio, and is still its sentiment, if fairly
expressed. On the 25th of February, 1850, Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, pre
sented two petitions from citizens of Delaware and Pennsylvania,
praying Congress, without delay, to devise and propose "some
plan for the immediate, peaceful dissolution of the Union."
Mr, Webster suggested that there should have been a pream
ble to the petition in these words : —
" Gentlemen, members of Congress : — Whereas, at the commence
ment of the session you, and each of you, took your solemn oaths,
in the presence of God and the holy evangelists, that you would sup
port the Constitution of the United States, now, therefore, we pray
you to take immediate steps to break up the Union, and overthrow
the Constitution of the United States as soon as you can. And, as
in duty bound, we will ever pray,"
On January 16, 1855, Rev, H. W. Beecher, in a lecture, in
New York, on the subject of cutting the North from the South,
said :
"All attempts at evasion, at adjourning, at concealing, a,nd compro
mising, are in vain. The reason of our long agitation is not, that
ministers will meddle with improper themes, that parties are disre-
gardful of their country's interest. These are symptoms only, riot
the disease ; the effects, not the causes.
•"Washington' Globe, Extra, October, 1840, p, 315,
t Niles' Register, February 8, 1840,

movements of the abolitionists — BY individuals. 503
"Two- great powers, that will not live together, are in our midst,
and tugging at each other's throats. They will search each other
out, though you separate them a hundred times. And if by an in
sane blindness you shall contrive to put off the issue, and send this
unsettled dispute down to your children, it will go down, gathering
volume and strength at every step, to waste and desolate their heritt
age. Let it be settled, now. Clear the place. Bring in the cham
pions. Let them put their lances in rest for the charge, Sound the
trumpet, and God save the right!"*
At a public meeting held in his church, to promote emigra
tion to Kansas, the Rev, H, W. Beecher made the following re
marks, as reported in the N. Y. Evening Post :
" He believed that the Sharp rifle was truly moral agency, and
there was more moral power in one of those instruments, so far as
the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hundred Bibles.
You might just as well," said he, "read the Bible to buffaloes, as to
those fellows who follow Atchinson and Stringffellow ; but they have
a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifies.
The Bible is addressed to the conscience ; but when you address it to
them it has no effect — there is no conscience there. Though he was
a peaee man, he had the greatest regard for Sharp's rifies, and for that
pluck that induced those New England men to use them,"f (2)
Simeon Brown, Esq,, of Massachusetts, the Free Soil candidate
for Lieutenant-Governor, gave a statement, while canvassing the
State, of the political objects in view by his party, as follows :
" The object to be accomplished is this : That the free States shall
take possession of the Government by their united votes. Minor in
terests, and old party affiliations and prejudices must be forgotten.
We have the power in number; our strength is in union," J
Mr. Burlingame, in one of his speeches, said:
" If asked to state specially what he would do, he would answer :
. , . He would have judges who believe in a higher law, and an
anti-slavery Constitution, and an anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slav
ery God 1 Having thus denationalized slavery, he would not menace
it in the States where it exists ; but would say to the States, it is your
* PoHtical Text-Book, p, 19. f Ibid,, p, 20, X Ibid,

504 PULPIT POLITICS.
local institution — hug it to your bosom until it destroys you. You
must let our freedom alone. [Applause.] If you but touch the hem
Of the garment of freedom, we will trample you to the earth. [Loud
applause.] , , , In conclusion, he expressed the hope that soon
the time might come when the sun would not rise on a master, nor
set on a slave."*
Rev. Andrew Foss, of New Hampshire, at the American Antj-
slayery Society meeting at New York, May, 185f., said :
" If the angel Gabriel had done what their fathers did, he would
be a scoundrel for it. Their fathers placed within the Constitution a
provision for the rendition of fugitive slaves, and therein did a wicked
thing. . , , Where slavery and freedom are put in the one nation,
there must be a fight — there must be- an explosion, just as if fire and
powder were brought together. There never was an hour when this
blasphemous and infamous government should be made, and now the
hour was to be prayed for when that disgrace to humanity should be
dashed to pieces forever." f ^
Rev. B. 0. Frothingham, of New Jersejr, at the American
Anti-slavery Society meeting. New York, May, 1867, said: "
" They demanded justice for the slave at any price — of Constitu
tion, of Union, of Country, This was the principle of the anti-slavery
association. It was it which urged their next demand — the immediate
emancipation of the slave — for the same reason as they would demand
of a person pursuing a vicious course of (irunkenness, gambling, or
debauchery, that he should desist from it at once, at any cost of phys
ical pain. Immediate emancipation presented no financial or political
difficulty. He believed that this Union effectually prevented them
from advancing in the least degree the work of the sla-ve's redemp
tion  The Northern people were beginning to see that the
South was divided from them by its system of labor and by its ideas
of human righlis. They wanted to make that gulf of division deeper.
. . , , As to the word ' Union,' they all knew it was but a politi
cal catch-word," J '
The Hon. Horace Mann,§ while representing Massachusetts
in the 31st Congress, said :
» Political Text-Book, p. 20. t Ibid. X Ibid,, p, 21.
J Late of Ahtioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio,

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 505
" In conclusion, I have only to add, that such is my solemn and abid
ing conviction of the character of slavery, that, under a full sense of
my responsibility to my country and my God, I deliberately say, bet
ter disunion — better a civil or servile war — better anything that God
in his providence shall send — than an extension of the bounds of
Slavery."* (3)
Edmund Quincy, of Massachusetts, at the meeting of the
American New York Anti-slavery Society, at New York City,
May, 1857, said:
"He wished for a dissolution of the Union, because he wanted
Massachusetts to be left free to right her own wrongs. If so, she
would have no trouble in sending her ships to Charleston, and laying
it in ashes. There was no State in the Union that would not contract,
at a low figure, to whip South Carolina. Massachusetts could do it
with one hand tied behind her back. He did not like such a republic
as this. It was against his conscience. He hated and abhorred it.
In order to hold any office under the Government of the United States,
a man must swear to support the Constitution, and, consequently, to
support .slavery in its various phases. It was as as inevitable that this
Union should be dissolved as that water and oil must separate, no
matter how much they may be shaken. They could not tell how it
was to be done, but done it must be." f
Hon, JosiAH Quincy, at Boston, August 18, 1854, said:
" The Nebraska fraud is not the burden" on which I now intend to
speak. There is one nearer home, more immediately present, and more
insupportable, ^ Of what that burden is, I shall speak plainly. The
obligation incumbent upon the free States to deliver up fugitive slaves
is that burden — and it must be obliterated from that Constitution at
every hazard. "|
The American Foreign Anti-slavery Society, in the resolutions
passed at one of their meetings, revealed the foreign sources of
the abolition strength in this country, by expressing their thank
fulness for the munificent contributions they had received from
the " earnest men and women " of Great Britain. These con
tributions, it must be noted, have been made in the midst of the
•Political Text-Book, p, 25. tIbid,, p. 26, t Ibid,-, p. 26.

506 PULPIT politics.
protestations of the abolitionists, tliat they were laboring for the
overthrow of the American Unionw One of the resolutions reads
thus :
"Resolved, That the discriminating sense of justice, the steadfast
devotedness, the generous munificence, the untiring zeal, the industry,
skill, taste, and genius, with whioh British abolitionists have co-oper
ated with us for the extinction of slavery, command our gratitude.
"From the abolitionists of England, Scotland, and Ireland, we have
received renewed and increasing assurances and proofs of their con
stant and enlightened zeal in behalf of the American slave. Liberal
gifts from all of these countries, falling behind none of the most
bounteous of former years, helped to fill the scanty treasury of the
slave."* (4) ,_
•'•»¦¦ ' ' '
A convention held in Boston, in 1855, adopted,, by a unani
mous vote, these resolutions :
"Resolved, That a constitution which provides for a slave represen
tation and a slave oligarchy in Congress, which legalizes slave-hunting
and slave-catching on every inch of American soil, and which pledges
the military and naval power, of the country to keep four naillipns of
chattel slaves in their chains, is to be trodden under foot and pro
nounced accursed, however unexceptionable or valuable may be ita
other provisions, ,
"Resolved, That the one great issue before the country is, the dis
solution of the Union, in comparision with which all other issues with
the slave power are as dust in the balance ; therefore we will give our
selves to the work of annulling this ' covenant with death,' as essen
tial to our own innocency, and the speedy and everlasting overthrow
of the slave system."-]-
The Legislature of New Hampshire, in 1856, passed the fol
lowing resolution, in reference to the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise :
"Resolved, That the people of New Hampshire demand, as a right,
the restoration of said Compromise, and the amendment of the Kansas
Nebraska Bill, so-called, so as to exclude slavery from said territories,
and will never consent to the admission into the Union of any' State
out of said territory with a constitution tolerating slavery,"}
• Political Text-Book, p, 26. t Ibid,, p, 26, X Ibid,, p. 26.

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS— BY INDIVIDUALS, 507
¦ Hon. W. R. Sapp, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives,
1st session; 34th Congress, said :
"Yes, with freedom and Fremont and Dayton emblazoned on the
ample folds of our national banner, we will drive the base minions of
slavery from their control of the Government, and we will use its
powers to build up our new country free from the taints of slavery,
and make America worthy of being the North Star of freedom, by
which the eye of the exile can, be guided with safety to the asylum
of liberty."*
Senator Wade, of Ohio, in a speech at a mass meeting of the
Republicans, held in Maine, in 1855, according to the Boston
Atlas, said :
" There was really no Union between the North and the South, and
he believed no two nations upon the earth entertained feelings of more
bitter rancor toward each other than these two sections of the Repub
lic. The only salvation of the Union, therefore, was to be found in
divesting it entirely from all taint of slavery. There was no Union
with the South. Let us have a Union, said he, or let us sweep away
this remnant which we call a Union. I go for a Union where all men
are equal, or for no Union at all, and I go for right."t (5)
Judge Spaulding, of Ohio, in the Republican Conventoin, said :
" In the case of the alternative being presented of the continuance
of slavery or a dissolution of the Union, I am for dissolution, and I
care not how quick it comes. "J
Senator &umnbr, of Massachusetts, in a speech delivered in
Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the 2d November, 1855, said :
" Not that I love the Union less, but freedom more, do I now, in
pleading this great cause, insist that freedom, at all hazards, shall be
preserved. God forbid that for the sake of the Union, we should
sacrifice the very thing for which the Union was made."§
During the debate in the Senate, on the 26th June, 1854, Mr.
Butler, of South Carolina, said :
" I would like tO ask the Senator, if Congress repealed the fugitive
* Political Text-Book, p, 27, t Ibid,, p, 29. X Ibid., p. 28. § Ibid., p, 28.

508 PULPIT POLITICS.
slave law, would Massachusetts execute the Constitutional require
ments, and send back to the South the absconding slaves? .
" Mr. Sumner. — Do you ask if I would send back a slave?
" Mr, Butler. — Why, yes.
" Mr. Sumner. — Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?
" Mr. Butler. Then you would not obey the Constitution, Sir,
standing here before this tribunal, where you swore to support it, you
rise and tell me that you regard it the office of a dog to enforce it.
You stand in my presence as a co-equal Senator, and tell me that it
is a dog's office to execute the Constitution of the United States [ "
To which Mr, Sumner said :
" I recognize no such obligation,"*
A convention was held in the city of Buffalo, In 1843, at which
the following resolution was unanimously adopted, with Mr, Chase
as chairman on resolutions :
"Resolved, That we hereby give it distinctly to be understood, by
this nation and the world, that, as abolitionists, considering that the
strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes for it in
our conformity to the laws of God and our support of the rights of
man, we owe to the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our
allegiance to Him, iu all our civil relations and offices, whether as
friends, citizens, or public functionaries sworn to support the Con
stitution of the United States, to regard and treat the third clause of
the instrument, whenever applied in the case of a fugitive slave, as
utterly null and void, and, consequently, as forming no part of the
Constitution of the United States, whenever we are called upon or
sworn to support it."f (6}
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING EXPRESSIONS OP OPINION.
(1) This extreme view of negro equality was once popular
among the early abolitionists ; but, for many cogent reasons,
founded upon the actual workings of the system, the social equal
ity of the black man is not now practically recognized in respect
able circles of the abolitionists. '
(2) It is well to note the eagerness of Rev. H. W. Beecher, as
• Political Text-Book, p. 28. t Ibid, p, 27,

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 509
early as 1855, for the conflict that was to cut the North loose
from the South ; and, in this connection, to put upon record the
declaration of that clergyman, that " one Sharp's rifle " had more
moral power " than a hundred Bibles." His assertion may prob
ably be true, if restricted to that sacred volume as interpreted by
himself. (3) Passing by the extravagance of persons of minor consid
eration, we cite, as a representative man, the language of Hon.
Horace Mann. He but gave utterance to the traitorous senti
ments common among abolitionists, when he said: "Better dis-
uiiion^-better a civil or servile war — better anything that God in
his providence shall send — than an extension of the bounds of
slavery." In this, he but expressed the wishes of the Massachu
setts lords of the cotton spindle, whom he represented, Edmund
Quincy, of Boston, too, had to express his abhorrence of our
republic, because of the compromises of the Constitution, and
predicted the dissolution of the Union as inevitable, Hon, Jo-
siah Quincy, of the same city, expressed the determination that
the fugitive slave clause must be obliterated from the Constitu
tion at every hazard. These traitorous sentiments passed unre-
buked by conservative men, because no danger was apprehended
from such insane ravings.
(4) It is instructive to find, in the midst of the labors of the
abolitionists for the destruction of the American Union, that
British gold was poured with "generous munificence" into their
treasury to aid them in their unhallowed purposes. It is equally
so, too, to find a convention in the city of Boston, without rebuke
from its citizens, as long ago as 1855, pronouncing the Constitu
tion of the United States "accursed;" and asserting that the
one great issue before the country was "the dissolution of the
Union," (5) Hon, B. F. Wade, Hon. Charles Sumner, and Judge Spauld
ing, in expressing their desire for a dissolution of the Union,
rather than that slavery should be continued, gave utterance to
what, at the time, was a common sentiment among abolitionists.^
(6) The convention at Buffalo, in resolving to repudiate the
clause of the Constitution for the rendition of fugitive slaves,

510 PULPIT POLITICS.
notwithstanding their oaths to support the Constitution, is to be
taken as a fair index of the extent to which the revolutionary
sentiment of the North had progressed. It seems strange, in a
civilized country, to hear men openly avow the determination to
repudiate Constitutional engagements, when they could not but
know that it must lead to civil war, whenever the sentiment be
came general, and was incorporated into, legislative enactments.
How, then, did it come to pass that such Opinions as these
became prevalent among the people ? How did they become
educated up to the belief that they could, without perjuring their
souls, deliberately violate their oaths to support the Constitution?
In answering these questions we must remark, that, for a long
while, there was no settled creed among abolitionists that would
cover all the cases of conscience that might arise ; and the neces
sity for such a production became so pressing that the desid-erT
atum was at length supplied. Lysander Spooner, Esq., of New
York, undertook the task, and though his production may not
have been universally approved by abolitionists, in all its prin.-
ciples, it yet afforded the basis of the greater portion of all sub
sequent abolition action. It was published in 18^5, just after
the complete organization of political abolitionism ; and its pre
cepts and reasonings are to be found ever afterward running
throughout the productions of abolitionists. A synopsis of the
teachings of this work, at large, can not be given, for want of
space ; but enough is presented to afford a true idea of its rad
ical and revolutionary tendencies. He chose for his title, " The
Unconstitutionality of Slavery." We shall begin with what he
says of law:
" Law is an intelligible principle of right, necessarily resulting from
the nature of man ; and not an arbitrary rule, that can be established
by mere will, numbers, or power  Natural law, then, is the
paramount law. , , , And this natural law is no other than that rule
of natural justice which results either directly from men's natural rights,
or from such acquisitions as they have a natural right to make, or from
such contracts as they have a natural right to enter into 
Natural law, therefore, inasmuch as it recognizes the natural right of
men to enter into obligatory contracts, permits the formation of gov-

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS, 511
ernment, founded on contract, as all our governments profess to be.
But in order that the contract of government may be valid and lawful,
it must purport to authorize, nothing inconsistent with natural justice,
and men's natural rights,"*
"If the majority, however large, of the people of a country enter
into a contract of government, called a constitution, by which they
agree to aid, abet, or accomplish any kind of injustice, or to destroy or
invade the natural rights of any person or persons whatsoever, whether
such persons be parties to the compact or not, this contract of govern
ment is unlawful and void. . . . Such a contract of government
has no moral sanction. It confers no rightful authority upon those
appointed to administer it. It confers no legal or moral rights, and
imposes no legal or moral obligation upon the people who are parties
to it. The only duties which any one can owe to it, or to the govern
ment established under color of its authority, are disobedience, resist
ance, destruction.
"Judicial tribunals, sitting under the authority of this unlawful
contract or constitution, are bound, equally with other men, to declare
it, and all unjust enactments passed by the government in pursuance
of it, unlawful and void. ... No oaths, which judicial or other
officers may take, to carry out and support an unlawful contract or
constitution of government, are of any moral obligation. It is im
moral to take such oaths, and it is criminal to fulfill them.
If these doctrines are correct, then those contracts of government,
State and National, which we call constitutions, are void and unlaw
ful, so far as they purport to authorize (if any of them do authorize)
any thing in violation of natural justice, or the natural rights of any
man or class of men whatsoever. And all judicial tribunals are bound,
by the highest obligations that can rest upon them, to declare that
these contracts, in all particulars, (if any such there be,) are void and
not law. . . . Such is the true character and definition of law." t
" It being admitted that a judge can rightfully administer injustice
as law in no case, and on no pretense whatever ; that he has no right
to assume an oath to do so ; and that all oaths of that kind are mor
ally void ; the question arises, whether a judge, who has actually sworn
to support an unjust constitution, be morally bound to resign his seat ?
or -whether he may rightfully retain his office, administering justice,
» Unconstitutionality of Slavery, by Lysander Spooner, pp. 5, 6, 7,
tIbid., pp. 9, 10.

512 PULPIT POLITICS;
instead of injustice, regardless of his oath ? The prevalent idea is,
that he ought to resign his seat ; and high authorities may be cited
for this opinion. Nevertheless the opinion is, probably, erroneous;
for it would seem that, however wrong it may be to take the oath, yet
the oath, when taken, being morally void to all intents and purposes,
can no more bind the taker to resign his office than to fulfill the oath
itself. The case appears to be this : The office is simply power, put
into a man's hands on the condition, based upon his oath, that he will
use that power to the destruction or injury of soma person's rights.
This condition, it is agreed, is void. He holds the power, then, by
the same right that he would have done if it had been put into his
hands without the condition. Now, seeing that he can not fulfill, and
is under no obligation to fulfill, this void condition, the question is,
whether he is bound to resign the power, in order that it may be given
to some one who will fulfill the condition ? or whether he is bound to
hold the power, not only for the purpose of using it himself in defense
of justice, but also for the purpose of withholding it from the hands
of those who, if he surrender it to them, will use it unjustly ? It is
clear that he is bound to retain it for both of these reasons."*
In illustration of the principle here stated, the author of the
work from which we quote, puts the following case :
" Suppose A and B come to C with money, which they have stolen
from D, and intrust it to him, on condition of his taking an oath to
restore it to them when they shall call for it. Of course, C ought
not to take such an oath to get possession of the money ; yet, if fie
have taken the oath, and received the money, his duty, on both moral
and legal principles, is then the same as though he had received it
without any oath or condition : because the oath and condition are both
morally and- legally void. And if he we-re to restore the money to A
and B, instead of restoring it to D, the true owner, he would make
himself their accomplice in the theft — a receiver of stolen goods. It
is his duty to restore it to D.
" Suppose A and B come to C with a captive, D, whom they ha-ve
seized with the intention of reducing him to slavery ; and should leave
him in the custody of C, on condition of C's taking an oath that he
wiil restore him to them again. Now, although it is wrong for 0 to
take such an oath for the purpose of getting the custody of D, even
* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, pp. 147-150.

MOVEMENTS OP THB ABOLITIONISTS— BY INDIVIDUALS. 513
with a view to set him free, yet, if he have taken it, it is void, and his
duty then is, not to give D up to his captors, but to set him at liberty
— else he will be an accomplice in the crime of enslaving him."*
At this stage of the ipvestigation, it is obvious that an anti-
slavery man, aiming at attaining a seat on the bench of the United
States Supreme Court, to operate against slavery, could not do
so, excepting by committing a moral wrong in swearing to admin
ister justice according to the Constitution and laws — these laws
sanctioning slavery, and requiring the judge to order the return
of fugitives from slavery back again into bondage.
Now, here comes in the distinction between the Garrisonians
and the adherents of the Liberty party. The former believed
that the Constitution authorizes and protects slavery, and that
its destruction is necessary to the extinction of that institution.
The latter believed that slavery might be abolished under the
Constitution, by a strict construction of its provisions, and that
anti-slavery men, therefore, may consistently vote and hold Office
under the Government. But this view demanded a totally new
theory of interpretation of the Constitution; and this was at
hand as soon as needed. Mr. Spooner, before quoted, supplied
the desideratum, though others had been beforehand in some of
the principles belonging to his system. We shall attempt to
state his theory, and we do it the more willingly, because the
quotations already made from Lord Stowell and Mr. O'Connor,
and others, present a complete expos6 of the fallacies and absurd
ities of his positions.
According to Mr. Spooner, slavery, probably, neither has, nor
ever had, any constitutional existence in this country.f Our an
cestors brought with them from England the common law, the
writ of habeas cqrpus, the trial by jury, and the other great prin
ciples which have rendered it impossible that her soil should be
trod by the foot of a slave. These principles were incorporated
in all the charters granted to the colonies,} No one of all these
charters contained the least intimation that slavery had, or could
have, any legal existence under them. Slavery was, therefo:ce, as
* UnconstitutionaUty of Slavery, p. 151. t Ibid., p. 20. X Ibid., p. 21.

514

PULPIT POLITICS.

much unconstitutional in the colonies as it was in England.*
Lord Mansfield's decision, made before the revolution, settled the
question that slavery could have no existence upon British soil.
This decision was equally obligatory in this country as in Eng
land, and must have freed every slave here if the question had
been raised.f The fact that England tolerated the African slave
trade at the time, could not legally establish slavery in the colo
nies, any more than it did in England.} Besides, the mere toler
ation of the slave trade could not make slavery itseli— the right
of property in man — lawful anywhere; not even on board the
slave-ship. Toleration of a wrong is not law.§ Even if a wrong
can be legalized at all, so as to enable one to acquire rights of
property by such wrong, it can be done only by an explicit and
positive provisipn,|| The English statutes, on the- subject of the
slave trade, never attempted to legalize the right of property in
man, in any of the thirteen North American colonies.^ But Lord
Mansfield said, in Somerset's case, that slavery was " so odious
that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law." No
such positive law was ever passed by Parliament — certainly not
with reference to any of these thirteen colonies.** There was,
therefore, no constitutional slavery in the colonies up to the time
of the Revolution. ff
So much for British legislation. Up to the time of the Revo
lution, according to Mr. Spooner, slavery had not been established
by positive law, by the mother country, in any of the North
American colonies ; and, as it is contrary to natural law, slavery
could, therefore, have had ho legal existence here, excepting
where it may have, been established by colonial legislation. But
the colonial legislation, says Mr. Spooner, was not only void as
being forbidden by the colonial charters, but in, many of the
colonies it was void because it did not sufficiently define the per
sons who might be made slaves.}}
" When slavery was first introduced into the country, there were no
laws at all on the subject. Men bought slaves of the slave-traders as
* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p, 23, f Ibid, X Ibid, § Ibid., p. 24,
1 Ibid. H Ibid. *» Ibid. tt Ibid., p. 31. XX Ibid., p. 32.

MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 515
they would have bought horses. . . . Yet all the while no act
had been passed declaring who might be slaves. Possession was ap
parently all the evidence that public sentiment demanded of a master's
property in his slave."*
Slavery not being established by positive statute, either by
British or colonial legislation, it is argued by Mr. Spooner that,
at the date of the Declaration of Independence, there could be
no legal slavery in the country.
But admitting that slavery may have had an existence prior to
the Declaration of Independence, either by British or colonial
enactments, Mr. Spooner argues that the adoption of this instru
ment, as It absolves the people of the colonies from all allegiance
to British law, so it freed every slave in the country — all former
laws being thereby abrogated, and the principles of the Declara
tion only applying to the population. These truths, he insists,
have never been denied or revoked by the American people, and
are, therefore, in full forCe.f He then proceeds to say, that
" Our courts would want no other authority than this truth, thus
acknowledged, for setting at liberty any individual, other than one
having negro blood, whom our Governments, State or National, should
assume to authorize another individual to enslave. Why, then, do
they not apply the same law in behalf of the African ? Certainly not
because it is not as much the law of his case as of others. But it is
simply because they will not. It is because the courts are a party to
the understanding, prevailing among the white race, but expressed in
no constitutional form, that the negro may be deprived of his rights
at the pleasure of avarice and power. And they carry out this un
expressed understanding in defiance of, and suffer it to prevail over,
all our constitutional principles of government — all our authentic,
avowed, open, and fundamental law."}
Mr, Spooner proceeds from the Declaration to the State Con
stitutions, and says, that of all of them that were in force at the
adoption of the Constitution of the United States, in 1789, not
one of them established or recognized slavery ; and that alk those
parts of the old thirteen States that recognize and attempt to
* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 33. f Ibid., p. 38. X Ibid., p. 39.

516 PULPIT POLITICS.
sanction slavery, have been inserted, by amendments, since the
adoption of the Constitution of the United States.* In their orig
inal form, he says, they generally recognized the natural rights
of men ; and not one of them had any specific recognition of the
existence of slavery.f And, after reviewing the Constitutions
of the several States at length, he repeats what he had so often
asserted, that
"Slavery is so entirely contrary to natural right; so entirely desti
tute of authority from natural laW; so palpably inconsistent with all
the legitimate objects of government, that nothing but express and ex
plicit provision can be recognized, in law, as giving it any sanction."}
In his examination.j next, of the Articles of Confederation, as
well as elsewhere, Mr. - Spooner undertakes to prove ¦ that the
word " free " is used as the correlative of " aliens," and^ not of
" slaves," and that the negroes are thereby recognized as " citi
zens " and " inhabitants," but never as slaves. § • ;
Lastly, the Constitution itself comes under consideration, and
here Mr. Spooner says : '
"We have already seen that slavery had not been authorized cr
established by any of the fundamental constitutions or charters that
had existed previous to this time; that it had, always been a mere
abuse sustained by the common consent of the strongest party, in
defiance of the avowed constitutional principles of their governments.
And the question now is, whether it was constitutionally established,
authorized, or sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States ?"j|
In answering this question Mr. Spooner decides that it is per
fectly clear thiat
"The Constitution of the United States did not, of itself, create
or establish slavery as a new institution ; or even give any authority
to the State governments to establish it as a new institution. The
greatest sticklers do not claim this. The most they claim is, that it
recognized it as an institution already existing, under the authority
* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p, 39, t Ibid., p. 40.
t Ibid,, p, *3. § Ibid., pp, 51, 62, 6S. |1 Ibid,, p. U ,

MOVEMENTS OP THB ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 5X7
olthe State governments ; and that it virtually guaranteed to the
States the right of continuing it in existence during their pleasure.
And this ia really the only question arising out of the Constitution
c| the United Sta,tes on this subject, viz., whether it did thus recog
nize and sanction slavery as an existing institution? This question,
ig, in reality, answered in the negative by what has already been
shown ; for if slavery had no constitutional existence, under the State
constitutions, prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States, then it is absolutely certain that the Constitution did not recog
nize it as a constitutional institution ; for it cannot, of course, be pre
tended that the United States Constitution recognized, as constitu
tional, any State institution that did not constitutionally exist. Even
if the Constitution of the United States had intended to recognize
slavery, as a constitutional State institution, such intended recognition
would have failed of effect, and been legally void, because slavery
then had no constitutional existence tobe recognized, *
" We might here safely rest the whole question — for no one, as has
already been said, pretends that the Constitution of the United States,
by its own authority, created or authorized slavery as a new institu
tion; but only that it intended to recognize it as one already estab
lished by authority of the State constitutions. This intended recog
nition — if there were any such — 'being founded on an error as to what
the^ State constitutions really did authorize, necessarily falls to the
ground, as a defunct institution,
"We make a stand, then, at this point, and insist that the main
question — the only material question — is already decided against slav
ery ; and that it is of no consequence what recognition or sanction the
Constitution of the United States may have intended to extend to it,
"The Constitution of the United States, at its adoption, certainly
took effect upon, and made citizens of all ' the people of the United
States,' who were not slaves under the State constitutions. No one
can deny a proposition so self-evident as that. If, then, the State
constitutions then existing authorized no slavery at all, the Consti
tution of the United States took effect upon and made citizens of all
'the people of the United States,' without discrimination. And if
all ' the people of the United States ' were made citizens of the United
States, by the United States Constitution, at its adoption, it was then
forever too late for the State governments to reduce any of them to
* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, pp. 64, 55,

518 PULPIT POLITICS.
slaivery. They were thenceforth citizens of a higher government,
under a Constitution that was 'the supreme law of the land,' 'any
thing in the constitution or laws of the States to the contrary not
withstanding.' If the State go-vernments could enslave citizens of the
United States, the State constitutions, and not the Constitution of the
United States, would be the ' supreme law of the land ' — for no higher
act of supremacy could be exercised by one government over another,
than that of taking the citizens of the latter out of the protection of
their government, and reducing them to slavery."*
Mr. Spooner next discusses the question of " the understand
ing OF THE PEOPLE " in reference to the establishment of slavery
by the Constitution, and comes to this conclusion :
" Now is it not idle and useless to pretend, when even the strongest
slaveholding -States had free constitutions — ^when not one of the sepa
rate States, acting for itself, wo'uld have any but a free constitution —
that the whole thirteen, when acting in unison, should concur in estab
lishing a slaveholding one ? The idea is preposterous. The single
fact that all the State constitutions were at that time free ones, scatters
forever the pretense that the majority of the people of all the States
either intended to establish, or could have been induced to establish,
any other than a free one for the. nation. Of course it scatters also
the pretense that they believed or understood that they were establish
ing any but a free one."f ....
"At the adoption of the Constitution of the United States', there
was no legal or Constitutional slavery in the States. Not a single
State constitution then in existence, recognized, authorized, or sanc
tioned slavery. All the slaveholding then practiced was merely a
private crime committed by one person against another, like theft,
robbery, or murder. All the statutes which the slaveholders, through
their wealth and infiuence, procured to be passed, were unconstitu
tional and void, for the want of any constitutional authority in the
legislatures to enact them."}
Having thiis proved, as he supposes, that slavery is unconsti
tutional and illegal, Mr, Spooner proceeds to determine how the
liberty of the slaves is to be secured; and this he decides is to
be accomplished by the courts^ under the writ of habeas corpus.
He states the case as follows :
•Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 56. t Ibid., p. ,126. { Ibid., p. 271.

MOVEMENTS OP THB ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 519
" This right of personal liberty, this sine qua non to the enjoyment
of all other rights, is secured by the writ of habeas corpus. This writ,
as has before been shown, necessarily denies the right of property in
man, and therefore liberates all who are restrained of their liberty on
that pretense, as it does all others that are restrained on grounds in
consistent with the intended operation of the Constitution and laws
of the United States  As the government is bound to
dispense its benefits impartially to all, it is bound, first of all, after
sequring 'the public safety, in cases of rebellion and invasion,' to
secure liberty to all. And the whole power of the Government is
bound to be exerted for this purpose, to the postponement, if need be,
of everything else save, ' the public safety, in cases of rebellion and
invasion.' And it is the constitutional duty of the government to
establish as many courts as may be necessary (no matter how great
the number,) and to adopt all other measures necessary and proper,
for bringing the means of liberation within the reach of every person
who is restrained of his liberty in violation of the principles of the
Constitution.* .... The power of the General Government to
liberate men from slavery, by the use of the writ of habeas corpus, is
of the amplest character  If thes,e opinions are correct,,
it, is the constitutional duty of Congress to establish courts, if need he,
in every county and township even, where there are slaves to be liber
ated; to provide attorneys to bring the cases before the courts, and
to keep a standing military force, if need be, to sustain the proceed-
ings."t With such an interpretation of the Constitution as we have
presented here, all obstacles to swearing to support it, on the
part of Judges of the United States Courts, are fully removed;
and with the bench filled vyith abolition judges, thei work of eman
cipation could progress with rapidity. It was under the convic
tion of the truth of this interpretation of the Constitution, that
Mr. Burlingame asserted that one of his aims, as a member of
Congress, was to have judges who "believe in an anti-slavery
Constitution;" and who would, consequently, use their official
power in promoting emancipation ; and it was in the same spirit
that the Free Soil candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of Massa
chusetts, Mr. Brown, declared it to be the object of the free
• Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 275. . t Ibid,, p. 277,
k. .
hi

520 PULPIT POLITICS.
States to take possession of the Government by their united
votes. To have succeeded in this would have enabled the Free
Soil party to control the Courts, and thus promote the work of
abolition. ' '
But the conservative men of the North rebuked this spirit of
fanaticism by the defeat of the Free Soil party ; and the present
dominant party came into power under the pledge of non-inter
ference with slavery where it exists. One wing of this party
had other aims, we know, in giving it support; but the great
mass of the people belonging to it repudiated the charge that
they contemplated promoting the abolition of slavery.
The whole theory of the abolitionists, in reference to the un
constitutionality of slavery, and the consequent exemption of the
citizens of the North from all obligations to recognize the- right
of the master to his slave, is based upon the fiction of Lord
Manfield, in which he asserted that slavery can only exist as the
creature of. local law ; and that, therefore, where no positive stat
utes exist, establishing slavery, there no slavery can prevail, if
the courts do their duty. But the discussions of Lord Stowell
and others, quoted in the present chapter, show that" Lord Mans
field's opinion has not been recognized as correct; and the fact
that American slavery has been treated as a legal relation by the
American Congress, in various ways ; by Great Britain, in paying
for slaves illegally taken from their American owners ; and by
the Emperor of Russia, as an umpire in the case referred to
him ;* all go to prove that slavery requires no positive statutes
for its establishment ; but that, at the time i the Constitution was
* " Right ot Pkopeety xs Slaves recognized by Gkeat Bkitain. — The
London Courier says: 'His Excellency, Mr. Stevenson, the American Minister,
attended yesterday at the treasury department and Bank of England, and
closed the negotiation which has been pending so long between the Govern
ment and that of the United States, relative to the number of slaves claimed
by American citizens as their property, and which, having been shipwrecked,
some eight or nine years ago, in the Bahamas, were liberated by the authorities
of Nassau. The amount of compensation which we understand her majesty's
Government finally agreed to pay, and was yesterday received by the Ameri
can Minister, amounted to between thirty and forty thousand pounds sterling.'
—Niks' Register, Februarys, 1840."

MOVEMENTS OP THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 521
adopted, African slavery was everywhere recognized as a lawful
institution. The whole history, of the country, so far as the
African race is concerned, shows conclusively that no notice
was intended to be taken of slavery by the framers of the Con
stitution, because, over that question the people did not intend
to give the National Government any power whatever. The
South so understood the compact; the North so understood it;
and no one ever dreamed of giving the Constitution any other
interpretation, until the ria^ of abolitionism. In no other sense
than that in which it was adopted, can it be binding. Mr, Spoon-
er's theories, therefore, are s^ fudge; and yet much of the action
both in and out of Congress, on the part of the abolitionists, has
been based upon his theories. Indeed, they are the only ones
that can justify the treason of abolitionism — the only ones that
will clear the conscience of the fanatic who, attempts to resist the
execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, or destroy the Union.
We might have extended the quotations in this section indef
initely ; but as they are used only for illustration, it was not im
portant that they should be multiplied. They show very clearly
the feeling existing at the North against the Constitution and
the Union, on account of slavery ; and when taken in connection
with the documents presented in the two preceding sections,
prove conclusively that the right of secession, and even the dis
solution of the Union, were questions favorably entertained at
the North, even by men who had solemnly sworn to support the
Constitution. It will be noticed that the expressions of sentiment, which are
quoted, date back several years, to a time when there was room
for calm reflection ; when deliberate purposes could be formed,
and suitable measures to carry them out adopted. After the war
began, individual opinions varied from day to day, and as these
later opinions had no influence in producing it, they have no con
nection with the objects before us.
How far any of the opinions given were designed for mere
local political effect, we shall not undertake to determine; the
practical results at the South were the same as though the North
was in earnest in these utterances. They were spread broad-

522 PULPIT POLITICS.
cast over the slave States, and produced that alarm which en
abled the political leaders to precipitate the people of the South
into acts of rebellion. Conservative men were as remiss in duty
there, as they have been here. The penalty is now being exe
cuted upon them.
Section IV. — Movements North and South precipitating
Ci-vil War.
A HISTORY, in detail, of the movements in the ' South, con
nected with counter-movements in the North, which precipitated
the nation into civil war, is not necessary to the purpbsC we have
in view. A few leading facts and incidents, in relation to the
sectional contests resulting so fatally, will serve to convey a cor
rect impression of the manner in which the' actors brought on the
final collision of arms, and compelled conservative men to rally
for the preservation of the Union.
The year 1832 found South Carolina in the midst of her nulli
fication measures. All the other slave States remained loyal to
the Government ; and even a large portion of the citizens of that
rebel State continued true to the Union, and were most efficient
agents in the work of restoring harmony when the proclamation
of General Jackson appeared. At this period, therefore, the
South at large were not contemplating secession and disunion.
But the peace of the country, secured by the energy of Gen
eral Jackson, and by the statesman-like abilities of Henry Clay,
who, in connection with the President, devised a compromise
which satisfied both the discontented State and the General Gov
ernment, was again to be disturbed, '^The pulpits and ecclesias
tical councils at the North kept up the agitation on slavery.
With two or three exceptions, every religious denomination stood
pledged to labor on, and labor ever, for its overthrow. One of
the most prominent Churches in the nation, at every succeeding
conference, asked the question : " What can be done for the ex
tirpation of the evil of slavery ? " The clergymen who had become
tainted with abolition sentiments, were crying aloud that they
would give neither sleep to their eyes, nor slumber to their eye
lids, until the last slave in the land should be proclaimed a free-

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 523
man. Lecturers, commissioned and paid by abolition societies,
swarmed over the North like the locusts of old, when, in judg
ment, they darkened the land of Egypt in their flight, and de
stroyed every green thing upon which they descended ; and
agents from Great Britain came to their help, to aid in the work
of assailing the South,* Abolitionists boasted that British gold
was not lacking, but supplied with liberal hand, to promote the
work of ruin which, it had been decreed in Exeter Hall, should
overtake the American planter.
But the efforts of the abolitionists were not to be limited to
moral means alone. New political parties were organized, ex
pressly to lend their aid in promoting the work of abolition.
The old established political parties reeled under the blows of
the new, or, taking them to their bosoms, perished in the em
brace. The original interpretations of the Constitution were set
aside, and new ones adopted that would justify an aggressive
warfare upon Southern institutions. Agencies were formed, ex
tending into the slave States, to entice the slaves to escape from
their masters ; and provision was made in the free States, to en
able the fugitives to flee in safety beyond the reach of their pur
suers. The legislatures of many of the northern States passed
enactments forbidding the execution of the original law of Con
gress for the return of runaway slaves ; and the re-enactment
of the Fugitive Slave Law, to meet the existing obstacles to the
fulfillment of constitutional engagements, was made the occasion
of renewed attacks upon the institutions and men of the South,
But, up to this date,t the balance of power between the slave
and free States had remained undisturbed, Texas was in the
Union, and its territory, though capable of being subdivided into
five States, could not be made available to the South for an in
crease of power, as, according to the treaty of admission, two of
the additional four States must be free, and the two remaining
ones slaveholding.
* Englishmen seemed not to have forgotten the declaration of the Earl of Dart
mouth, when, in opposing the abolition of the slave trade, shortly before the
American Revolution, he said: " Negroes cannot become republicans; they will
be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly colonists."
tThe Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850.

524 PULPIT POLITICS.
A little previous to this,* a.n unsuccessful attempt had been
made to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, so
that all territory acquired by the Mexican War, and lying South
of that, line, might be secured to slavery. This measure failing,
left the South in a position of great uncertainty as to the future;
and the fears entertained were well-grounded, as, in the subse
quent organization of California, a large area of country lying
South of the Missouri line was included in the territory of that
State, and slavery excluded from the whole. The admission of
California as a free State,-j- with more than one-third of its
territory South of 36° 30', was viewed by the South as a
virtual abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, and as indicat
ing an intention of putting the " Wilmot Proviso " into practical
operation.} ,
As the territories then remained. New Mexico alone lay Sou,tll
of 36° 30', while immense regions were North of it, awaiting the
westward flow of population, to come into the Union as free
States. § The South had no corresponding quantity of territory
on its side of -the line ; and unless its institutions could be spread
North of that line, so as to maintain the balance of power, it
must soon be overwkelmed by the anti-slavery forces from the
North. And even New Mexico, though South of 36° 30', might
share the fate of the Southern portion of California, and be
wrested from the South by congressional enactment.
The Missouri Compromise had excluded slavery from all, the
territory North of 36° 30' which was obtained by the purchase
of Louisiana. The extension of slavery, therefore, to the North
of that Une, could not be effected except by the repeal of the Mis
souri Compromise. Minnesota and Oregon were preparing for
admission into the Union, and Kansas and Nebraska were asking
for territorial organization. In the Congressional bill for the
* August, 1848 — the Mexican "War having been closed in May previous.
t California was admitted in 1850.
X The " "Wilmot Proviso," brought forward in Congress in 1846 and 1847, but
never adopted, proposed to exclude slavery from all territories ever acquired on
this continent.
§It will be well for the reader to examine a map.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 525
organization of these territories, the Missouri Compromise was
repealed,* and the territories both North and South of 36° 30'
thrown open to the competition of the opposing forces — slavery
and anti-slavery. This brought on the Kansas troubles, in which
the South was overwhelmed by the superior forces thrown into
the territory from New England.
All this vast territory north of 36° 30', extending, we may say,
to the Bacific, was included in tlie Louisiana purchase, and, con
sequently, slave territory,! But as the purchase had been made
by the common funds of the nation, the North laid claim to a part
• of the territory, and, by the Missouri Compromise, took the lion's
share of it. The South was looking toward Mexico to maintain
the balance of power, by gaining territory better adapted to slav
ery, south of 36° 30', and submitted to the loss in patience.
But the developments of abolition principles at the North, by
which it became evident the South would be denied access to the
territories with its slave property, and that no more slave States
would be admitted, left it but one resource to secure its safety.
This was to protect itself against interference with slavery within
the States where it existed ; and this could only be effected by
the insertion of a new clause in the Constitution, Such an
amendment was the more necessary, as the new doctrines em
braced at the North, that slavery is unconstitutional, and can be
abolished by the courts, was entertained by not a few. No one
could tell at what moment the small party holding this doctrine,
and having the balance of power at the North, might gain the
control of the Government, and force the question to an issue.
In the meantime, th^e results of emancipation in Hayti, Mexico,
Bolivia, the British West Indies,- and the French Islands, were
manifesting themselves to the world, and demonstrating the utter
worthlessness of a free negro population as a laboring force in
the cultivation of staple productions. AU these results were per
fectly well known at the South, and its people fully believed that
•This bill was passed in 1854.
t John Quincy Adams, in his speech on the admission of Arkansas, said thai
slavery existed there at the time of the acquisition, and that he was, therefore,
bound to admit her with slavery.

526 PULPIT POLITICS.
emancipation would result in ruin to themselves and their pos
terity, as well as in the extermination of the weaker race. They
were not alone in holding this belief. " M. de Tocqueville, who
had judged America with so sure an eye,"* in speaking of
negro slavery in the United States, had said :
" Hitherto, wherever the whites have been the more powerful, they
have held the negroes in degradation and slavery; wherever the ne
groes have been the more powerful, they have destroyed the whites.
This is the only account which can ever be opened between the two
races." Already the ground had been taken that no more slave States
should be admitted, and that slavery should not be extended into
the Territories. The manner in which these doctrines were met
by the statesmen of the South, may be inferred from the debates
in Congress during the session of 1855-56. A few extracts will
serve as illustrations.
Mr. Cox, of Kentucky, in the House, December 20, 1855, said:
" When you tell me that you intend to put a restriction on the Ter
ritories, I say to you that upon that subject the South is a unit, and
will not submit to any such thing. You do not Understand that, or
you would not press it so pertinaciously, "f
Mr. Campbell, of Kentucky, in the House, Dec. 19, 1855, said:
" It is an interference with our institutions, when our citizens are
denied the same rights in the new Territories with the citizens of the
North ; for that Territory belongs as much to us as it does to you.
. . . We regard this confederacy as secondary in importance, and
when a government falters in carrying out its guarantees for the pro
tection of life, liberty, and property, it is no longer entitled to the
fealty of its citizens. And in addition to that, I will avow this seti-
timent, believing that it will be indorsed by my constituency, that
whenever this Government makes a distinction between a Southern
and a Northern constituency or citizenship, then we shall no longer
* Count de Gasparin uses the quotation here made in his recent Essay on the
" Co-existence of the two Eaces after Emancipation."
t Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 30.

movements precipitating civil war. 527
consider ourselves bound to support the confederacy, but will resort
to the right of revolution, which is recognized by all."*
Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in the House, Dec. 24,1855, said :
" The gentleman from Massachusetts has announced to the world
that, in certain contingencies, he is willing to ' let the Union slide.'
Now, sir, let his contingencies be reversed, and I am also willing to
', let the Union slide,' — ay, sir, to aid in making it slide. ... I
hesitate not to say, that if his construction of the constitutional power
of Congress over the Territories shall prevail in this country, I, for
one, heartily indorse the sentiment,"-f
Mr, BoYCE, of South Carolina, in the House, Jan. 4, 1856, said :
" I have thought, and I still think, and I have expressed the opin
ion, that there are circumstances which are hurrying us almost irre
sistibly to disruption. ... I have seen at the North the formation
of a great party, based upon the single idea of hostility to the insti
tutions of the South. The only question with me, then, as to the
continuance of the Union is, whether that party will take possession
of the North? If they do, in my opinion, the Union is at an end.
. . . What is that party pledged to ? The great boasting idea of
that party is, that freedom is national, and slavery is sectional. That
party, then, are obliged, if they come into power, as is recommended in
the resolutions of the State of Maine, presented to the Senate yesterday,
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and to prohibit it in all
the Territories, arsenals, and dock-yards in the United States. Well,
then, it seems to me that if that party comes into power, pledged to
those measures, we shall be in the midst of chaos, and anarchy, and
revolution, " This great sectional party at the North, goes upon the idea that,
by uniting together at the North, they can obtain the control of this
Government, and dispense its vast patronage among themselves, and
reduce the people of the South to a secondary and subordinate con
dition, . , , That party which places itself upon the position of
giving power to the North, will eventually succeed ; and when that
party does succeed, in my opinion, the Union will be at an end,"}
* Congressional Globe, p. 56, t PoUtical Text-Book, p, 601,
X Congressional Globe, p. 143.

528 PULPIT POLITICS.
Mr. BococK, of Virginia, in the House, January 19, addressing
himself to the Republicans, said :
"You cheat -yourself with the delusion that your platform makes
you national. "Tou declare war on the institution of slavery wherever
the strong arm Of this Government can reach it, and call that a national
platform. To justify so absurd a positiun, you love to employ the
specious phrase that ' freedom is national, and slavery sectional.' I
tell gentlemen that it is a cheat and delusion. . . . When, in
your platform, you come forward and say that your institutions alone
are entitled to the protection of the Government, and that ours are to
be discountenanced and restricted by its action, then you lay down a
sectional platform, and. array yourselves into a sectional party. You
put us beyond the pale of the Constitution, and you force us to fight
you by every fair and honorable means, and we shall do it."*
Judge Butler, of South Carolina, in the Senate, March 27,
1856, said :
"I say now, calmly, that when a Northern majority shall acquire
such a control over the legislation of this. country as to disfranchise
the slaveholding States, in any respect in which they have an equality
under the Constitution of the country, I will not agree to live under
this Government, when the Union can survive the Constitution, , ,
All that I have Contended for is, that the domain of this Government,
acquired by the common blood and treasure of all parts of the United
States, shall be just as free to one class of citizens as another, , ,
But, sir, if an insulting interference were to be made by a majority
of Congress, or such an interference as would exclude a slaveholder
on the broad ground that he was unworthy of equality with a non-slaye-
holding population, do you suppose I would stay in the Union if I
could get out of it?"-}:
Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, in the House, Jan. 17, 1856, said :
"I was willing to divide, as an alternative only, but a majority of
the North would not consent to it; and now we have got the great
principle, established in 1850, carried out in the Kansas-Nebraska
bill, that Congress, after removing all obstructions, is not to intervene
* Congress, Globe, p, 264. t Ibid., p. 758, and Political Text-Book, p. 603.

movements precipitating CIVIL WAR. 529
against us. This is the old Southern Republican principle, attained
after a hard and protracted struggle in 1850, and I say, if Coiigress
ever again exercises the power to exclude the South from an equal
participation in the common Territories, I, as a southern man, am for
resisting it."*
Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, in the Senate, Feb. 25, 1856, said :
" We ask nothing but what the Constitution guarantees' to us. That
much we do ask. That much we will have. I do nqt wish to be excited
about this matter. We do not mean to be driven from our propriety,
but there is a fixed, immutable, universal determination, on the part
of the South, never to be driven a single inch further. If we are not to
enjoy our rights under the Constitution, tell us so; and if we may, let
us separate peaceably and decently. ... I tell you, in every hand
there will be a knife, and there will be war to the knife, and the knife
to the hilt,"t
Mr. Letcher, of Virginia, in the House, March 13, 1856, s^id :
" If you undertake to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, and deprive
us of the means of recovering our property when it is stolen from us.
, , . , If you undertake to abolish slavery in the District of Colum
bia, and prohibit it in the Territories of the United States by Congress
ional legislation, , , , you will find that the South, if it has a
particle of self-respect — and I know that it has — will be prepared to
resist any, and all, such measures." }
Mr, Warner, of Georgia, in the House, April 1, 1856, said :
" We have been told by those who advocate this line of policy,
that they do not desire to interfere with slavery in the States where
it exists ; and yet it is their intention to prevent the extension of
slavery, by excluding it from the common territory, , , . It mat
ters but little with me, whether a man takes my property outright,
or restricts me in the enjoyment of it, so as to render it of but little
or no value to me. . . . Slavery can not be confined within cer
tain specified limits without producing the destruction of both mas
ter and slave ; it requires fresh lands. , , ,. If the slaveholding
•PoHtical Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 60.
T Political Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 95.
X Political Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 230.
34

530 PULPIT POLITICS,
States should ever be so regardless of their rights, and their power,
as co-equal States, to be willing to submit to this proposed restrio-
tion, . , , they could not do it. They ought not to submit to
it on principle, if they could, and could not if they would,
"It is in view of these things, sir, that the people of Georgia have
assembled in convention, and solemnly resolved that, if Congress shall
pass a law excluding them from the common property, with their
slave property, they will disrupt the ties that bind them to the Union,
This position has not been taken by way of threat or menace. Georgia
never threatens, but Georgia always acts."*
Mr. Shorter, of Alabama, in the House, April 9, 1856, said :
" I believe in the right of a sovereign State to secede from the
Union whenever she determines that the Federal Constitution has
been violated by Congress ; and that this Government has no consti
tutional power to coerce such secediifg States. ... I think South
Carolina mistook her remedy — secession, and not nullification, ought
to have been her watchword. , , , The extraordinary exertions
made by Massachusetts , . . . ' to rob the South of her equal
rights in the Territories has had one effect. , You have thoroughly
aroused the southern States to a sense of their danger. You have
caused them coolly to estimate the value of the Union ; and we are
determined to maintain our equality in it, or independence out of it.
" The South has planted itself where it intends to stand or fall,
Union or no Union, and that is, upon the platform laid down by the
Georgia convention. . , . We tell you plainly that we take issue
with you ; and whenever you repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, or refuse
to admit a State on account of slavery in her Constitution, or our
equality in the territories is sacrificed by an act of Congress, then the
star of this Union will go down to rise no more  Should
we be fdrced to dissolve the Union in order to preserve Southern in
stitutions and Southern civilization, we will do it in peace, if we can ;
in Var, if we must ; and let the God of Battles decide between us,
" The shadows, sir, of the coming storm already darken our path
way. It will soon be upon us with all its fury."f
Mr, Barksdale, of Mississippi, in the House, July 23, 1856,
said :
* Political Text-Book, p. 604, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 297.
t Political Text-Book, p. 604.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR, 531
" Sir, I make no threats ; but I tell the gentlemen on the other side
of this House, plainly, as it is my solemn duty to do, as the represen
tative of a hundred thousand freemen upon this floor, that we submit
to no further aggressions upon us, ' there is a point beyond which
forbearance ceases to be a virtue,' and that, for the future, 'we tread no
steps backward.' We are done, gentlemen, with compromises. All
that have been made you forced upon us ; and while we have observed
them in good faith, you have shamelessly disregarded and trampled
them under foot. I hold up before you the Constitution as it came
from the hands of its immortal authors, Northern and Southern men —
itself a compromise ; we claim our rights under that, and we intend to
have them." *
In this connection it may be well to lay before the reader the
opinions of Mr, Jefferson in relation to the dangers of the creation
of sectional issues, and the domineering spirit of New England fed
eralism. We copy from the Political Text-Book, page 336 :
, " In reference to the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Jefferson said :
" ' The question is "'a mere party trick. The leaders of federalism,
defeated in theii: schemes of obtaining power by rallying partisans to
the principle of monarchism — a principle of personal, not of local
division — have changed their tact and thrown out another barrel to
the whale. They are taking advantage of the virtuous feeling of the
people to effect a division of parties by a geographical line ; they ex
pect that this will insure them, on local principles, the majority they
could never obtain on principles of federalism ; but they are still put
ting their shoulders to the wrong wheel; they are wasting jeremiads
on the miseries of slavery, as if we were advocates of it. Sincerity
in their declamations should direct their efforts to the true point of
difficulty, and unite their councils with ours in devising some reason
able and practical plan of getting rid of it.' f
"In a letter to Mr. Adams, dated Jan. 22, 1821, Mr. Jefferson

" ' Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question.
What does the holy alliance, in and out of Congress, mean to do -with'
us on the Missouri question? And this, by the way, is but the name
•Political Text-Book, p. 605. t Jefferson's "Writings, vol. 7,

582 PULpiT POLITICS. :';.;
of the case ; it is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment.
The real question, as seen in the States afilicted with this unfortunate
population, is, Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and a
dagger ? For, if Congress has the power to regulate the conditions
of the inhabitants of the States within the States, it will be but an
other exercise of that power to declare that all shall be free. Are
we, then, to see again Athenian and Lacedemonian confederacies?
To wage another Peloponnesian war to settle the ascendancy between
them ? Or is this the tocsin of merely a servile war ? That remain's
to be seen; but I hope not by you or me. Surely they will parley
awhile and give us time to get out of the way. What a bedlamite
is man ! '
"In a letter to Lafayette, dated Nov. 4, 1823, Mr. Jefferson
said : — '
" ' On the eclipse of federalism with us, although not its extinction,
its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the false front of
lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of producing
a geographical division of parties, which might insure them the next
President. The people of the North went blipdfold into the snare,
and followed their leaders for awhile with a zeal truly moral and laud
able, until they became sensible that they jWere injuring instead of
aiding the real interests of the slaves ; that they had been used
merely as tools for electioneering purposes, and that trick of hypocrisy
then fell as quickly as it had been got up.'
"In a letter to Mr. Short, dated April 13, 1820, Mr, Jefferson
said : —
" 'Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write,
talk, or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and
had, therefbre, ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question
aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of Federal and
Republican threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and
united them together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence
of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line,
once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the
mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing
irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to
render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been among
the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long du-

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 533
ration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great distance,
and the direct consequence of this question ; not by the line which
has been so confidently counted on — the laws of nature control this 
but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or more probably the Mis
sissippi, upward to our northern boundary. My only comfort and
consolation is, that I shall not live to see it; and I envy not the
present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their
f|,thers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the
experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable
of self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize
their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the model of their
predecessors.' " ' I thank you, my dear sir, for the copy you have been so kind as
to send me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri ques
tion. . . , But this momentous question, like a fire-bell in the
night, awakened me and filled me with terror, I considered it at
once as the knell of the Union, It is hushed, indeed, for the mo
ment ; but this is a reprieve only, not-a final sentence, A geograph
ical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once
conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be
obliterated ; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper,
, , , If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they
will throw away, against an abstract principle, more likely to be
eftected by union than by scission, they would pause before they could
perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against
the hopes of the world.' *
" ' I am indebted to you for your two letters of Feb. 7th and 19th.
The Missouri question, by a geographical line of division, is the most
portentous one I ever contemplated; * * * is ready to risk the
Union for any chance of restoring his party to power, and wriggling
himself to the head of it; nor is * * * without his hopes,, nor
scrupulous as to the means of fulfilling them.'f
" ' The banks, bankrupt laws, manufactures, Spanish treaty, are
nothing. These are occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will
pass under the ship, but the Missouri question is a breaker on which
We lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what more, God only
* Letter to Jno. Holmes, dated Monticello, April 22, 1820,
f Letter to Mr, Madison,

534 PULPIT POLITICS.
knows. From the battle of Bunker's Hill, to the treaty of Paris, we
never had so ominous a question. It even damps the joy with which
I hear of your high health, and welcomes to me the want of it, I
thank God I shall not live to witness its issue,' *
" ' The line of division lately marked out between different portions
of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and
we are now trusting to those who are against us in position and prin
ciple, to fashion to their own form the minds and affectioiis of our
youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three hundred thousand
dollars a year to tlie northern seminaries for the instruction of our
own sons, then we rnust have five hundred of our sons imbibing opin
ions and principles in discord with those of their own country. This
canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and, if not arrested
at once, will be beyond remedy,' f
" ' The Missouri question is the most portentous one which ever
yet threatened our Union, In the gloomiest moment of the Revolu
tionary War, I never had any apprehension equal to that I felt from
this source,' "} i- .
. What Mr, Jefferson perceived in the distant future, Mr. Clay,
twenty years afterward, saw as rapidly approaching. In addresg.-
ing Rev. Walter Colton, his biographer, Mr. Clay expressed his
opinions, in relation to abolitionism, as follows :
" AsHLAOTtt, Sept 2, 1843.
"My Dear Sir : — -Allow me to select a subject for one of your tracts,
which, treated in your popular and condensed way, I think would be
attended with great and good effect. I mean abolition.
*'' " It is manifest that the .ultras of that party are extremely mischiev-'
ous, and are hurrying on the country to fearful consequences. They
are not to be conciliated by the Whigs. Engrossed with a single idea,
they care for nothing else,. They would see the administration of the
Government precipitate the nation into absolute ruin before they would
lend a helping hand to arrest its career. They treat worse, and de
nounce most, those who treat them best, whO so far agree with them
as to admit slavery to be an evil. Witness their conduct toward Mr.
Briggs and Mr. Adams, in Massachusetts, and toward me.
-* Letter to John Adams, December 10, 1819,
t Letter to General Breckenridge, February 11, 1821.
X Letter to Mr, Monroe, March 3, 1820.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 535
¦ " I will give you an outline of the manner in which I would handle
it : Show the origin of slavery. Trace its introduction to the British
Government, Show how it is disposed of by the Federal Constituticfn ;
that it is left exclusively to the States, except in regard to fugitives,
direct taxes, and representation. Show that the agitation of the ques
tion, in the free States, will first destroy all harmony, and finally lead
to disunion — perpetual war — the extermination of the African race —
ultimate military despotism.
" But the great aim and object of your tract should be to arouse the
laboring classes in the free States against abolition. Depict the con-
Sequences to them of immediate abolition. The slaves, being free,
would be dispersed throughout the Union ; they would enter into com
petition with the free laborer — with the American, the Irish, the Ger
man — reduce his wages, be confounded with him, and affect his moral and
social standing. And as the ultras go both for abolitionism and amal
gamation, show that their, object is to unite in marriage the laboring
white man and the laboring black woman, to reduce the white labor
ing man to the despised and degraded condition of the black man.
"I would show their opposition to colonization. Show its humane,
religious, and patriotic aim. That they are those whom God has sep
arated. Why do abolitionists oppose colonization? To keep arid
amalgamate together the two races, in violation of God's will, and to
keep the blacks here, that they may interfere with, degrade, and de
base the laboring whites. Show that the British Government is co
operating with the abolitionists for the purpose of dissolving the
Union, etc. You can make a powerful article,' that will be felt in
every extremity of the Union. I am perfectly satisfied it will do
great good. Let me hear from you on this subject.
" Henry Clay."
But we must pass on. The year 1859 found the prevailing
excitement on the negro question quickened into new life, by the
attempt of John Brown to raise a negro insurrection in Virginia ;
and his execution, near the close of the year, producing at the
North many strong manifestations of sympathy for himself and
the cause he had espoused, was the occasion of fresh alarm at the
South, And was there not cause for alarm ? One class of politicians
had declared their intention to proclaim emancipation whenever
a servile insurrection should occur, or a civil war break out.

536 PULPIT POLITICS.
John Brown had attempted to accomplish the task of arousing
the slaves ; and in the North his death was pronounced that of a
martyr to a holy cause, and every token of respect shown to his
memory in many pulpits, and in one legislative hall,* The
courts of justice, too, in at least one case, were adjohrned on the
day of his execution, to signify an approval of his conduct,f
The abolitionists, having failed in exciting the slaves to insur
rection, were still persevering in their attempts to provoke the
South to acts of rebellion. John Brown had been but the em
bodiment of the spirit of this party ; and Joshua R, Giddings had
identifi.ed himself with it, when he thus wrote to the Ashtabula
Sentinel :
"We have ourselves paid money to redeem Southern slave^ until we
have become disgusted with the practice, and prefer that our future
donations shall be made in powder and Balls, delivered to the
SLAVES, TO be USED AS THEY MAY DEEM PROPER,"
Thfe counter-movements in the South, to guard against the
schemes of the abolitionists, progressed, from day to day, until
it became evident that the safety of the Union was endangered.
Reflecting men, both North and South, began to take the alarm,
and to deyise measures for the removal of the causes which
threatened such a dreadful calamity.
And here, as elsewhere,, we shall not attempt to trace with
regiilairity the proceedings of the actors in this dramai, because
we wish to avoid coming into contact with the movements of
political parties. This much, however, we can say, that the
great majority of the two leading parties — Republican and Demo
crat — were determinedly hostile to a dissolution of the Union.
But the Republicans, at the North, were powerless, except by the
abolition vote ; and the abolitionists, beUeving they had now
* Massachusetts.
t 'The court at Akron, Ohio, on motion of Attorney-General "Wolcott, was
adjourned on the day of the execution of John Brown, as a mark of respect
to him, and of sympathy for the cause in which he lost his, life. And what
makes this latter case the more marked, is, that Mr. "Wolcott was afterward
appointed a member of the Peace Congress, at Washington, by the Governor
<iif Ohio, and aided in defeating the compromise of the national difficulties.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 537
worked up the country to a point when a collision could be pro
duced, and' slavery abolished, were determined to push matters to
the last extremity, and bring on the long-wished-for crisis. The
Democrats, on the other hand, could not elect their candidate ex
cepting by the united vote of the South, Less fortunate than the
Republicans, they could not secure that united vote — could not
affiliate with the secession party — and were, therefore, defeated.
The event proved that the abolitionists held the balance of power
at the North.
It does not fall in with our plan to give any detailed statements
as to the views of the President upon the subject of slavery.
That they have been conservative, in the main, appears from the
assaults made upon him by the ultra abolitionists, immediately
after his election. The New York Times, November 9, 1860, in
noticing a speech of Wendell Phillips, in Boston, says :
" It is one of Mr. Phillips's sharpest and most stinging diatribes;
Every sentence hisses with malignant scorn and indignation. Lin
coln, Seward, Banks, and all the practical statesmen who concur in
their opinions, are branded as traitors and hypocrites. . . . It is
scarcely necessary to say, that the grounds on which Mr. Phillips de
nounces Mr. Lincoln are precisely those on which the country bases
its hopes that he will have a successful and beneficent administration.
Whatever Mr. Phillips may do, a President of the United States can
not ignore the Constitution, nor disregard or evade its requisitions.
Whatever he may think of slavery, he must recognize its existence in
States over whose domestic affairs the Federal Government has no
control, and give full weight to the rights and interests of those whose
fortunes are identified with it. Mr. Phillips, some time since, paid
Mr. Sumner the very damning compliment of saying that he thought
him incapable of keeping the oath he had taken to support the Con
stitution of the United States. We are very glad to find that he has
no such praise in store for Mr, Lincoln. He does him nothing more
than justice in denouncing his purpose to abide by the Constitution
in all its parts."
That the Republican party at large were very anxious to have
it understood that Mr. Lincoln would occupy national ground in
the administration of the Government, is further apparent from

538 PULPIT POLITICS.
the remarks of, Hon. Horace Greeley, at a Republican mass meet?
ing, in New York City, on the evening of November 8, 1860,
when the election of Mr. Lincoln had been ascertained. He said :
" It was not the fault of the Republican party if they had hot been
allowed to proclaim their principles in all sections of the country,
Had they been thus allowed, the South would have been disabused of
their errors in regard to the party, and he believed they could haVe
fairly challenged the support of a majority of Southern men. As it
was, he believed that when they come to be better understood, as they
would be after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, their measures would
be cheerfully acquiesced in by all the moderate men of the South,"*
But these conservative views, attributed, we believe, justly, to
Mr, Lincoln, did not stand alone among Republicans, or they
would have contributed to the preservation of the peace of the
country. At this very same meeting, William Cullen Bryant,
who acted as chairman, and who was one of the electors on the
Republican ticket, on taking the chair said:
" That they had met to-night to celebrate one of the most import
ant moral and political victories that had ever been achieved. The
youngest of his hearers might live till the next century, and not wit
ness another election so pregnant with great results as the one through
which they had just .passed. And, best of all, they had triumphed.
'[Applause.] The enemy was conquered. At their feet lay the carcass
of that odious slave oligarchy, which, for so long a period, had ruled
our country, ruled Northern men, and. tyrannized over both. [Tre
mendous applause.] And they, the young men he saw before him,
had aided in dealing that terrible blow, which had, at length, struck
the creature to the earth. [Renewed applause.] There it lay before
them, dismembered, lifeless, dead, and from that death there was no
resurrection. [A voice — ' Thank the Lord !']."t
Thus, while conservative men in the Republican party were
rejoicing over the election of a President who, in their opinion,
would sustain the compromises of the Constitution, there' were
others,' in that same party, who took a very different view of the
• New York Times, November 9, 1860. t Ibid.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 539
effects of the election. Mr. Bryant may be taken as one of the
opposite class, who anticipated the entire extirpation of slavery
through the agency of Mr, Lincoln. The truth is, that the abo
litionists were now resolved to reap the harvest they had been
so long engaged in sowing.
On the other hand. South Carolina was equally determined to
carry out at once her long-cherished policy of secession. Her
politicians believed that compromises were no longer practicable,
as they could not be relied upon to secure the objects for which
they stipulated. The Constitution itself had been a compro
mise, and yet, in some of its provisions, it had been repudi
ated, not only by political parties, but by States. The parties
claiming that slavery was unconstitutional, held the balance of
power at tke North, and, it was believed, could control the in
coming administration. South Carolina, therefore, persuaded
herself that secession was the only safeguard for. her institutions,
and that, sooner or later, she must resort to that remedy ; and
that the longer it was deferred, the worse it would be for the
whole South. The North, by foreign immigration, was, year by
year, growing stronger and stronger; while the South, having
only its natural increase, was by no means able to keep up its
numerical strength to an equality with the North. The longer
the delay, therefore, the less the chances of success — the less
the ability of the South to resist the aggressions of the North
upon its institutions.
Here, now, stood the champions in this conflict. South Caro
lina, determined on secession as the only means of protecting
her slave property, was arrayed on the one side. New England,
determined on the extinction of slavery, or the dissolution of the
Union, stood upon the other.
But South. Carolina stood alone — the other slave States believ
ing that their rights could be best secured under the Constitutio'h
and in the Union. As, however, it had been denied at the North
that slaveholders had the same constitutional rights, as to prop
erty, which the non-slaveholders possessed, they demanded that
proper guarantees should 'be given, so that, hereafter, no inter
ference with slavery should be attempted. Accordingly, the

640 PULPIT POLITICS.
propositions were brought forward as a peace measure, whioh
afterward took the name of the '' Crittenden Compromise."
But Congress failed to secure the necessary vote to carry this
compromise. The "Peace Congress" was equally unsuccess
ful. Conservative men of both parties-^Republicans and Demo
crats — tremblingly alive to the necessity of settling the contro
versy, and averting- the impending civil war-r— united in entreating
South Carolina to stay her incendiary hand, and not to apply
the torch to the edifice which had cost, -for its erection, the toil
and the blood of their patriot fathers. They appealed, also, with
equal fervor, to the fanatical abolitionist, to relax his zeal in a
cause that must end in the ruin of the race he would benefit, as
well as the destruction of the only free government oh earth.
But, no ! Carolina stood ready to light the flame : the aboUtion-
. ist, holding the legal control of the issue in his grasp, refused
the guarantee to the South, and called for the effusion of blood.
We are not judging harshly. At the moment when it was
thought that the "Peace Congress" might adopt measures to
restore the Union, and prevent war, and when Michigan held
back, and would not send delegates to that body, Senator Chand
ler wrote to Governor Blair, of that State, urging that the Legis
lature would retrace its steps, and at once send on its delegates.
The following is his letter, and no other conclusion can be drawn
than that the object was to prevent the passage of any compro
mise measures, so that civil war might be precipitated upon the
country : "¦Washington, February \\, 1861,
" My Dea/r Governor : — Governor Bingham and myself telegraphed
you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to
send delegates to the Peace or Compromise Congress, They admit
that we are right, and they wrong ; that no Republican State should
have sent delegates ; but they are here, and can't get away, Ohio, In
diana, and Rhode Island are caving in, and there is danger of Illinois,
and now they beg us, for God's sake, to come to their rescue, and save
the Republican party from rupture. I hope you will send stiff-bdclced
men, or none. The whole thing was got up against my judgment and
advice, and will end iti thick smoke. Still, I hope, as a matter of

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 541
courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the dele
gates. Truly, your friend, Z. CHANDLER.
" His Excellenoy, Austin Blair.
" P, S, — Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would
be AWFUL, Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, in my
estimation, be worth a rush."
That a compromise would have been effected, and that the
whole South would have accepted it, save South Carolina only,
and the Union have been maintained, by the adoption of some
one of the compromises proposed, is a truth that can not be
disputed, and that was not denied when it was asserted upon the
floor of Congress, Hear Mr, Douglas, in his speech in the
Senate, January 3d, 1861, when urging the adoption of his com
promise :
" I believe this to be a fair basis of amicable adjustment. If you
of the Jlepublican side are not willing to accept this, nor the propo
sition of the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. Crittenden,] pray tell us
what you are willing to do ? I address the inquiry to the Republicans
alone, for the reason that, in the Committee of Thirteen, a few days ago,
every member from the South, including those from the cotton Slates,
[Messrs. Toombs and Davis,] expressed their readiness to accept the
proposition of my 'Venerable friend from Kenfucky [Mr. Crittenden] as
a final settlement of the controversy, if tendered and sustairied by the
Rfipublican members. Hence, the sole responsibility of owr disagree
ment, and the only difficulty in the way of an amicable adjustment is
with the Republican party."
Again, we have the testimony of another Senator, Mr, Pugh,
in his speech, March 2d, 1861, upon the Corwin resolution to
amend the Constitution of the United States, He said :
" The Crittenden proposition has been indorsed by the almost unan
imous vote of the Legislature of Kentucky, It has been indorsed by
the Legislature of the noble old commonwealth of Virginia, It has been
petitioned for by a larger number of electors of the United States than
any proposition that was ever before Congress, I believe, in my heart,
to-day, that it would carry an overwhelming majority of the people
of my State ; ay, sir, and of nearly every other State in the Union,

542 PULPIT POLITICS,
Before the Senators from the State of Mississippi left this chamber, I
heard one of them,, who now assumes, at least, to be President of the
Southern Confederacy, propose to accept it, an,d to maintain the Union,
if that proposition could receive the vote it ought to receive from the
other side of the chamber. Therefore, of all your propositions, of all
your amendments, knowing, as I do, and knowing that the historian
will write it down, at any time before the first of January, a two-thirds
vote for the Crittenden resolutions, in this chamber, would have saved
every State in the Union but South Cq,rolina."
These declarations were made in the hearing of Messrs.
Seward, Wade, Fessenden, Trumbull, and all the Republican .
Senators, none of whom denied their truth ; and Mr. Douglas
also heard it, and confirmed it|S truth thus :
" The Senator has said, that if the Crittenden proposition could have
passed early in the session, it would have saved all the States except
South Carolina. I firmly believe it would. While the Crittenden pro
position was not in accordance with my cherished views, I avowed my
readiness and eagerness to accept it, in order to save the Union, if we
could unite upon it. No man ha^ labored harder than I have to get
it passed. / can confirm the,, Senator's declaration, that Senator Davis
himself, when on the Committee of Thirteen, was ready, at all times,
to compromise on the Crittenden proposition. I will go farther, and say
that Mr. Toombs was also."
But if more is wanting to prove that the South would have
accepted the Crittenden Compromise, we have it in the language
of Mr. Toombs himself, who, in his speech in the United States
Senate, January 7, 1861^ said: >
" But although I insist upon this perfect equality, yet, when it was
proposed — as I understand the Senator from Kentucky now proposes —
that the. line of 36° 30' shall be extended, acknowledging and protect
ing our property on the south side of the line, for the sake of peace —
permanent peaee, I said to the Committee of Thirteen, and I say here,
with other satisfactory provisions, I would accept it."
The arrival of new delegates to the Peace Congress, upon the
appeal made to the States not represented, placed the conserv
ative Republicans and Democrats in a position which rendered

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 543
them powerless for good. No compromise could be effected; and
the die was then cast. The South had demanded protection or
dissolution : the protection being refused, dissolution was at
tempted. But there is another act in the drama, which must be noticed
briefly, in order to have a better understanding of the causes
contributing to our present national distress, Hon, Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, had charged upon the anti-slavery men
of the North the formation of a conspiracy to dissolve the Union,
The right of secession had been claimed by Mr, Quincy, of Boston,
in 1811 ; by J, Q, Adams, in 1838 and 1839 ; and by many other
Northern men. As the present crisis approached, or toward the
close of 1860, and after the Presidential election, one of the lead
ing anti-slavery papers, and its editor a representative man among
abolitionists, gave utterance to the following sentiments, perhaps
as a lure to lead the South to hope that peaceful secession was
practicable :
" If the cotton States consider the value of the Union debatable, we
maintain their perfect right to discuss it. Nay, we hold with Jefferson,
to the inalienable right of communities to alter or abolish forms of
government that have become oppressive or injurious ; and if the cot
ton States shall become satisfied that they can do bettor out of the
Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to
secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists, nevertheless ; and we
do not see how one party can have a right to do what another party
has a right to prevent. We must ever resist the asserted right of any
State to remain in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof; to
withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. And whenever a
considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out,
we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope
never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue
by bayonets."*
" If the cotton States unitedly and earnestly wish to withdraw
peacefully from the Union, we think they should and would be allowed
to do so. Any attempt to compel them, by force, to remain, would be
contrary to the principles enunciated. in the immortal Declaration of
•New York Tribune, Nov. 9, 1860.

544 pULPIT POLITICS.
Independence — contrary to the fundamental ideas on which Human
Liberty is based."*
, " If the people of seven or eight contiguous, States shall pretty unani
mously resolve to secede and set up for themselves, we think they
would do so, and that it would be most unwise to undertake to resist
such secession by Federal force. Why is it that those who want to
enforce this doctrine make their attack on something else ?"f
South Carolina opened her guns upon Fort Sumter, and a shout
of exultation arose from the abolitionist. Listen to the Anti-
slavery Standard, sounding the glad tidings over the land, and
glorying in its treason to the Constitution :
" For the last ten years, yea, eleven, next seventeenth of March, the
Hunkerdom of the North has been engaged in a constant effort to save
the Union. The abolitionism of the^JSTorth has been all the time busy
in the opposite direction, trying to break it up. Well, we have beaten —
the Union is dissolved, in spite of the Hunkers. It is nothing odd that
they should rage and imagine strange things. Nobody likes to be
licked: That is just what they are. Let us be patient with them,
and let them expend their froth and fury. Better times' are at hand,
and all the nearer, the worse they behave. One thiiig is certain, the
Union is dissolved."
The unceasing efforts of the abolitionists to secure emancipa
tion by military proclamation, and their attacks upon every one —
the President not excepted— who stood in the way of the execu
tion of their policy, can now be' understood. But in what way
can we reconcile the declarations of Mr, Greeley, in favOr of peace
ful secession before the war, with his ferocious denunciation? of
the secessionists since its commencement, and his desire that the
war shall be one of utter ruin to the South, excepting upon the
theory of Senator Johnson, that there existed a conspiracy to
effect a dissolution of the Union ? Hear him, shortly after the war
had commenced :
" Therefore shall we imitate the South no more in war than in peace.
But, nevertheless, we mean to conquer them — ^not merely to defeat,
but to conquer, to subjugate them — and we shall do this the most
* New York Tribune, Nov. 26, t Ibid,, Dec, 10.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR, 545
.tnerciftilly the more speedily we do it. But when the rebellious
traitors are overwhelmed in the field, and scattered like leaves before
an angry wind, it must not be to return to peaceful and contented
homes. They must find poverty at their firesides, and see privation
in the anxious 6yes of mothers, and the rags of children."
Mr, Greeley's language to the South, before its rebellion, was
practically this : " Go on and secede, we do not longer want you,
and we shall not molest you," But no sooner had the secession
fiag been fairly unfurled, than he calls for the direst vengeance
to be executed upon all its inhabitants, mothers and children not
excepted. About the same time that Mr. Greeley called for destruction to
the traitors, the New York Independent, the paper of Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, used the following language :
"The grand result — the only solution of the question- — is fast
ooming up — the emancipation of the slaves by the nation. What other
escape is there from our difficulties ? Why should not our people and
our statesmen look it fair in the face ? The South is far stronger and
better supplied than we suppose. She is in earnest. She believes her
self bitterly wronged. She is not likely to think herself less so after
a blockade and a campaign. She is encouraged by the base sympathy
of England, She never could feel any surety for slavery in another
Union with us. She hates us  Evidently there is but
one path to safety and victory — one to a permanent settlement — one
to the quiet or subjugation of the South, Do not fear it! Look it
boldly in the face — namely : the emancipation of the slaves.
¦" Let our armies, as a ' military necessity ' , and strategical act, de
clare 'freedom' to all, and in a moment we have an army of four
million human beings on our side — -allies in every house and on every
plantation. The enemy is demoralized. Panic sweeps through the
Southern land. Here is a foe more dreadful than Northern armies.
Fighting so near our own forces, we may hope the revengeful feelings
of these poor oppressed creatures would be restrained. Still, there
would inevitably be desolation and destruction sweeping like a tempest
over the Southern land. And it would be just. These men have borne
the wrongs of centuries, and why should not their uprising be bloody?
Let them have their freedom,, if they can win it, even though it be
.over the coi^pses of their, masters and the ashes of the ruined honie-
35

546 PULPIT POLITICS.
steads. After this tempest of fire and havoc, would arise a better era
for the South. Free laborers would pour in ; wasted fields would be
cultivated by new hands ; ruined cities would be built up by Northern
capital and ingenuity, and the problem and the task for the civiliza
tion of the coming age would be the education and preparation of
4,000,000 of blacks — perhaps through some system of apprenticeship,
for the rights and the privileges of free laborers,
" For such a glorious reSUlt, even if it come through tears and blood,
do we devoutly pray."
It would be an onerous task, indeed, to copy all the outpour
ings of'the gall and the wormwood of clerical abolitionists, on the
question of the subjugation of the South as a means of emanci
pation. One or two only need be presented. The American
Reform Tract and Book Society,* an abolition association in
Cincinnati, in one of its Occasional Tracts, (No. 5,) undertakes
thus to frighten the Government into emancipation, by declaring
what is the will and purposes of the Almighty in the present con-,
dition of the country :
" We shall fail before the rebels until the nation act as He demands
at our hands. Defeat will attend our arms, corruption and misman-
agerrtent our affairs, destruction brood the nation, the history of Pha
raoh and Egypt be ours, unless we yield thus to His will,
" Then let the decree go forth from the nation, through its authori
ties; in obedience to the Word, and Spirit, and Providence of God;
in compliance with the enlightened sentiment of the civilized world ;
in response to the moral convictions of our own people ; in answer
to the emphatic demands of Public Safety, and in clear conformity
with a just Public Integrity — the decree that 'This Slaveholding
Interest, being in rebellion against the nation, and threat
ening IT with destruction, shall no longer have protection
UNDER the national LAWS ; BUT IS FOREVER OUTLAWED AS A PUB
LIC ENEMY ; AND SLAVEHOLDING HENCEFORTH EXCLUDED WHEREVER
the national power EXTENDS.' "
Another Occasional Tract, (No, 6,) printed by the same society,
and delivered as a sermon by the pastor of the Ninth Street
* 'This Society and its tracts have been recommended by the General Assem
bly of the United Presbyterian Church.

MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 547
Baptist Church, Cincinnati, December 8th, 1861, contains the
following diabolical utterance :
" Let every city be razed to the ground, swept, sacked, and burned —
let Washington, Baltimore, New York, Cincinnati and St. Louis lie
in ashes, rather than we yield, or reconstruct, or Compromise : for
now there is no compromise except in yielding."
We leave the reader to judge of the motives of Northern poli
ticians, in first advocating the right of secession, and then de
manding coercion, as soon as that right was asserted by the
South. In the quotations made, the opinion is openly avowed
that abolitionism was necessary to preserve the balance of the
Constitution; and that, in the event of that balance being made
to turn in behalf of the South, by the extension of slavery, the
North would dissolve the Union. These oft-repeated threats, on
the part of Northern politicians, were equally as criminal as any
similar ones ever made at the South, so long as nothing but
threats were employed. They were conditional on both sides;
those of the North threatening a withdrawal from the Union,
should slavery be extended ; those of the South threatening the
same course of action, should any attempt be made either to de
stroy or limit that institution. Both parties acted in a criminal
manner, because such threats were familiarizing the people to
the idea of the dissolution of the Union; and in allowing the
parties iising them to escape the most withering rebuke, scorn,
contempt, indignation, has been the great sin of conservative men
upon both sides of Mason's and Dixon's Line, The only differ
ence between these parties who talked so daringly about disunion,
is, that while it was mainly employed as mere buyikum, for poli
tical effect, at the North, it was no unmeaning phrase at the
South,' There, the value of property, the peace and safety of
society, the lives of wives and children, were involved in the
issue of the controversy which the secessionists of the South
held with the disunionists of the North, They were terribly in
earnest, and, under such goadings as those quoted from Gid
dings and others, they have had the courage to carry out their
threats into actual treason; and are now suffering the penalty

548 PULPI?; POLITICS.
justly due to the enormity of the offense they have com
mitted. Had they waited, the conservative men of the North
would have forced Congress to give them the guarantees they de
manded under the Constitution. Of this there can be no question.
But they are not suffering alone. We have more than once
referred to the fact, that the conservative men of the country are
responsible for the calamities brought upon the nation, by the
opposing sectional factions who have used the slavery question
as a means of promoting sectional interests. The penalty for
their remissness is now being visited upon them ; and these con
servative men are at last aroused to a sense of the dangers that
surround them, but which should have been prevented by them.
They are at last taking a just view of the dangers of abolition
ism, whether it presents itself in the pulpit, the press, or the
ecclesiastical council. The disturbing influences of " pulpit poli
tics," whether ringing from Southern pulpits in support of sl^iv-
ery, or from those of the North against it, have overwhelmed
them in a mighty struggle to preserve the Constitution and the
Union, and they are freely offering their property, their blood,
their lives, to consummate that object. And when that task is
done, they will have learned a more striking lesson than did the
nation of Israel, under King David, when the three years of fam
ine fell upon the land, as a judgment for the violation of, its
covenant with the Gibeonites, made centuries before the violation
occurred.* And, here, we would remark, that it seems never to
have occurred to the minds of the demagogues among the clergy,
to study the history of the Gibeonites, and there to learn that
covenants between peoples must be sacredly kept; because
Heaven takes cognizance of the violation of covenant engage
ments among men.
But we must not pursue this subject. The roar of cannon
sounding in our ears, the noise of the rush of armed men to the
battle, the cries of the wounded, the groans of the dying, the
tears and wailing of the widow and the orphan forbid it ! A dread
ful responsibility, before high Heaven, rests upon the authors of
these woes.
*-II Samuel, chapter 21.

CHAPTER XI.
THE COTTON CROP IN ITS RELATIONS TO AMERICAN COMMERCE.
Much misconception has existed in the United States in refer
ence to the question of the production and supply of cotton, and
much misrepresentation, in relation to the facts in the case, has
been set afloat through the medium of the press. Were we to
pass this subject without notice, our investigations would be in
complete. In entering upon its examination, a historical review
of the movements of Great Britain will best serve to exhibit the
true relations which the American cotton planter has sustained to
the cultivation of this commodity throughout the world.
Section I. — Early movements of Great Britain to retrieve
HER LOSSES CONSEQUENT UPON WeST InDIA EMANCIPATION.
The death blow to cotton cultivation in the British West Indies
was given by the act abolishing the slave trade. At the begin
ning of the present century the exports of cotton from these
islands nearly equaled that from the United States — the one
exporting 17,000,000 lbs., the other 17,780,000 lbs. But upon
the suppression of the slave trade, and the consequent diminution
of labor in the islands, its cultivation began to decline, so that, by
1834, when the emancipation act went into operation, it had dimin
ished to 2,296,525 lbs. This enormous decline in cotton culture,
in the West Indies, was a source of great alarm to British manu
facturers. Emancipation was expected to remedy this great mis
fortune, on the principle that the labor of the negroes, when free,
tvbuld be much more productive than it had been while they were
slaves. This was the British theory of that day, as to the benefl-
cial effects of emancipation ; upon this theory Parliament based
its act for the abolition of West India slavery ; and, as a conse
quence of this act, the English people confidently anticipated an
(549)

550 PULPIT POLITICS.
enlarged production of all the commodities usually cultivated in
the islands.
Even as late as 1839 this theory was still held as true, as ap
pears from an address delivered in Boston, by Mr. Scoble, a gen
tleman who had been secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-
Slavery Society, which we find noticed in the .Christian Watchman
of that year. * Mr. Scoble haid recently visited the West Indies,
and professed to speak from actual observation. He represented
the prosperity of the islands as on the increase, and this he " ac
counted for by saying that one free laborer would do more than
two slaves."
All this, it is now well understood, was mere dunkikrt, designed
to influence the people of the United States to follow the example
of England in abolishing slavery, ^sop would have illustrated
the designs of Mr. Scoble by his fable of the fox that lost his tail
in the trap, and who urged upon a convention of other foxes the
great convenience he experienced in having that bushy appendage
out of the way.
The year 1839, in which Mr. Scoble came over to instruct us as
to the benefits of emancipation, found the West' Indies exporting
but 928,425 pounds of cotton, and the year 1840 but 427,529
pounds as against 17,000,000 exported in 1800. Cotton cultiva
tion was about at an end in the West Indies. The labor neces
sary for its production could not be commanded; and, even if it
had been in sufficient abundance, prices had so fallen, in conse
quence of the immense production of the United States, t}ien
equaling, for export alone, 743,941,000 pounds that year, (1840,)
that attractive wages could not be offered to the ne-«'ly emanci
pated blacks.
The American planter had the monopoly of the supply of cotton
to the markets of the Christian world ; and the West India planter
as far as he could command labor, chose to employ it in the pro
duction of sugar rather than upon cotton. This left the British
manufacturer at the mercy of the slaveholder of the United States
for bis supplies of that commodity — a position that he chose not
to occupy a moment longer than it could be avoided. We find,
* The article is quoted in the Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, Octo
ber, 1839, page 284.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 551
accordingly, that at the same time that Mr. Scoble was telling the
American people about the increasing prosperity of the West
Indies, and the greater efficiency of the free negro over the slave,
a movement was set on foot, in England, to transfer the seat of
cotton cultivation to the East Indies. George Thompson, Esq.,
the Abolitionist, was placed in the foreground in this movement,
and, during 1839, in a course of lectures, undertook to prove that
all the elements of successful cotton cultivation existed in India ;
and that the English people might soon obtain their supplies of
cotton from that country, and thus be enabled to repudiate that
of the United States. The appeal was made to Parliament to ex
tend a helping hand to cotton culture in the East Indies ; and
the object to be gained by the measure proposed was the emanci
pation of the slaves of the United States, by destroying the
markets for its cotton. In one of his lectures he thus exclaiims :
" The battle-ground of freedom for the world is on the plains of
Hindostan/ Yes, my friends, do justice to India ; wave there the
scepter of justice, and the rod of oppression falls from the hands
of the slaveholder in America ; and the slave, swelling beyond the
measure of his chains, stands disenthralled, a free man and an acknowl
edged brother."*
The introduction to the American edition of the lectures deliv
ered by Mr. Thompson, on that occasion, which was written by
Wilkam' Lloyd Garrison, contains the following sentences, f They
sufficiently indicate what were the anticipations of the advocates
of the measure :
" If England can raise her own cotton in India, at the paltry rate
of a penny a pound, what inducement can she have to obtain her sup
ply from a rival nation, at a rate six or eight times higher? It is
stated that the East India free labor costs three pence a day — African
slave labor two shillings ; that upward of 800,000 bales of cotton are
exported from the United States annually to England ; and that the
cotton trade of the United States with England amounts to the enor
mous sum of $40,000,000 annually. Let that market be closed to this
* Lectures of George Thompson, Esq., 1839, page 121.
t Introduction to Thompson's Lectures, page 9,

5S2 , PULPIT POLITICS.
slaveholding republic, and its slave system must inevitably perish
from starvation ! "
In pursuance of this policy, cotton-seed from the United States
was sent to India, and experienced planters from Mississippi, at
high salaries, were employed, to superintend its cultivation. , But
the enterprise was not successful, and the Mississippians, after
several years' experimenting, returned home to their own planta
tions. The public are fully informed on this subject, so that the history
of the enterprise need not be traced at large. ,
Paragraphs like the following, from time to time, frequently,
met the eye of the general reader. It is taken from a reliable
periodical :
" Late accounts from India, (through the English press,) represent
that the attempts of the British capitalists, during the last two or
three years, to cultivate cott6n in the district of Dharwar, from whioh
much was expected, have signally failed. In 1847-'48, about 20,000
acres were cultivated. It is now ascertained that the crop has rapidly
decreased, only 4,000 acres having been under cultivation the past
year." Toward the close of this East India experiment, the London
Times, under the head of " Cotton in India," said :
" The one great element of American success — of American enter
prise — can never, at least for many generations; be imparted to India.
It is impossible to expect of Hindoos all that is achieved by citizens
of the States. During the experiments to which we have alluded, an
English plow was introdiiced into one of the provinces, and the natives
were taught its use and superiority over their own clumsy machinery.
They were at first astonished and delighted at its effects, but as soon
as the agent's back was turned, they took it, painted it red, set it up
on end and worshiped it."
But this attempt of Great Britain, to secure her supplies of
cotton from other sources than the United States, does not stand
alone. Seeing, as if by prophetic forecast, that the attempt to
cultivate the better qualities of cotton in India would prove a
failure, a nearly simultaneous effort was made to extend its culti-

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE,

553

vation to Africa, The West Indies, as a field of cotton supply,
seemed to be closed forever, as a consequence of emancipation. *
It was the expectation of the British that the United States could
be made to share the same fate, by the success of abolitionism ;
and that the monopoly of the American planter being thus de
stroyed, the price of cotton would necessarily rise, so that it could
be grown and exported, at a profit, from more distant fields.
The circumstances which gave rise to the attempt to make Africa
a field of cotton production are of very great interest, and must
not be overlooked. They may be briefly given in a few extracts ;
"The following table, extracted from Parliamentary documents,
presents the average number of slaves exported from Africa to Amer
ica, and sold chiefly in Brazil and Cuba, with the per cent, amount of
loss in the periods designated :

DATE

ASinjAI, ATEK-

ATERAGK OASTJAITIES OF TOTAGE..

EXPOKTED.

PEE CENT.

AMOUKT.

1798 to 1805  ,....

86,000 86,00093,000
106,000106,000103,000 126,000 78,600
135,800

14 1414
25252525
25 25

^ 12,000

1805 to 1810 

12,000

1810 to 1815...; 

; 13,000

1815 to 1817 

26,600

1817 to 1819 

26,60025,800

1819 to 1825 

1825 to 1830 

.31,000

1830 to 1835 

19,600

1835 to 1840 

33,900

" The late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton devoted himself with unwea
ried industry to the investigation of the extent and enormities of the
foreign slave trade. His labors extended through many years, and
the results, as published in 1840, sent a thrill of horror throughout
the Christian world. He proved conclusively that the victims to the
slave trade in Africa amounted annually to 500,000. This included
the numbers who perish in the seizure of the victims, in' the wars of
the natives upon each other, and the deaths during their march to the
coast and the detention there before embarkation. This loss he esti
mates at one-half, or 500 out of every 1,000, The destruction of life
during the middle passage he estimates at 25 per cent,, or 125 out of
the remaining 500 of the original 1,000, The mortality after landing
and in seasoning he shows is 20 per cent,, or one-fifth pf the 375 sur-

« The coolie trafEc was not then begun, and no means existed, apparently, for
restoring the islands to their former productiveness.

554 PULPIT POLITICS.
vivors. Thus he proves that the number of Jives sacrificed by the
system bears, to the number of slaves available to the planter, the pro
portion of seven to three — that is to say, for every 300 slaves landed
and sold in the market, 700 have fallen -victims to the deprivations and
cruelties connected with the traffic.
" This enormous increase of the slave trade, it must be remembered,
had taken place during the period of vigorous efforts for its suppres
sion. England alone, according to McQueen, had expended for this
object, up to 1842, in the employment of a naval force on the coast of
Africa, the sum of $88,888,888, and he estimated the annual expendi
ture at that time at $2,500,000.
"The disclosures of Mr. Buxton produced a profound sensation
throughout England, and the conviction was forced upon the public
mind, and ' upon Her Majesty's confidential advisers,' tfiat the Sla-ve
trade could not be suppressed by physical force, and that it was 'in
dispensable to enter upon some new preventive system calculated to
arrest the foreign slave trade.'
" The remedy proposed and attempted to be carried out, was ' the
deliverance of Africa by calling forth her own resources.'
" To accomplish this great work, the ca;pitalists of England were to
set on foot agricultural companies, who, under the protection, of the
Government, should obtain lands by treaty with the natives, and em
ploy them in its tillage ; to send out trading ships and open factories
at the most commanding positions ; to increase and concentrate the
English naval force on the coast, the rivers, and the interior. These
measures adopted, the companies formed were to calf to their aid a
race of teachers of African blood, from Sierra Leone and the West
Indies, who should labor with the whites in diffusing Intelligence, in
imparting religious instruction, in teaching agriculture, in establishing
and encouraging legitimate commerce, and in impeding and suppress
ing the slave trade. In conformity with these views and aims, the
African Civilization Society was formed, and the Government
fitted out three large iron steamers, at an expense of $300,000, for
the use of the company.
" Mr. McQueen, who had fOr more than twenty years devoted him
self to the consideration of Africa's redemption and Britain's glory,
and who had become the most perfect master of African geography
and African resources, also appealed to the Government, and urged
the adoption of measures for making all Africa a dependency of the
British Empire. Speaking of what England had already accomplished,
and what she could yet achieve, he exclaims ;

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE, 555
^ « ' Unfold the map of the worid : We command the Ganges. For
tified at Bombay, the Indus is our own. Possessed of the islands in
the mouth of the Persian Gulf, we command the outlets of Persia and
the mouths of the Euphrates, and consequently of countries the cradle
of the human race. We command at the Cape of Good Hope. Gib
raltar and Malta belonging to us, we control the Mediterranean. Let
us plant the British standard on the island of Sooatora — upon the
island of Fernando Po, and inland upon the banks of the Niger ; and
then we may say Asia and Africa, for all their productions and all their
wants, are under our control. It is in our power. Nothing can pre
vent us.'
"The African Ci-vilization Society commenced its labors under cir
cumstances the most favorable for success. Its list of members em
braced many of the noblest names of the kingdom. Men of science
and intelligence embarked in it, and when the expedition set sail, a
shoutof joy arose and a prayer for success ascended from ten thousand
philanthropic English voices,
" But this magnificent scheme, fraught with untold blessings to
Africa, and destined, it was believed, not only to regenerate her speed
ily, but to produce a revenue of unnumbered millions Of dollars to
the stockholders, proved an utter failure. The African climate, that
deadly foe to the white man, blighted the enterprise. In a few
months, disease and death had so far reduced the number of the men
connected with the expedition, that the enterprise was abandoned." *
In 1844, Mr. McQueen again sounded the note of alarm in the
ears of the people of Great Britain, and urged upon public atten
tion the necessity of recovering the former advantages, in tropical
productions, which the nation had possessed. The strong manner
in which he put the case, will be seen from an extract or two :
" During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her ex
istence as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed
by the most intelligent, but remorseless military ambition against her,
the command of the productions of the torrid Hone, and the advanta
geous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great Britain the power
and resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome
her numerous and reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by
sea or land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the
» " Ethiopia," pages 12, 13, 14.

556 PULPIT POLITICS,
fabled giant of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her
foes in every region under heaven, and crushed them with resistless
energy," As remarked in a previous chapter, if the possession and control
of tropical production gave to England such immense resources,
and secured to her the superiority and such power, in the last cen
tury, then she would not yield them in the present, but in a death-
struggle for their maintenance. That struggle had commenced
when Mr. McQueen came forward with his appeals to the nation,
to resort to Africa for the remedy. British philanthropy had
wrought out its results in the West Indies, and demonstrated the
futility of the schemes it had pursued. British tropical cultivation
and the commerce it sustained both lay in ruins, while the slave
trade and slavery laughed the nation to scorn. In urging imme
diate action upon the government and people, he proceeded to
show that "the increased cultivation and prosperity, of foreign
tropical possessions is become so great, and is advancing so rap
idly the power and resources oi other nations, that these are em
barrassing this country (England,) in all her commercial relations,
in her pecuniary resources, and in all her political relations and
negotiations." In proof of his assertions, he presented the official returns of
the exports from the British tropical possessions, as compared with
those of a few only of those of other nations, in three articles alone
of tropical products. The following are the results :

ABTIOLES.
Suerar. ITds.. 1842 

BRITISH FOSSES^IONB.

> 'rOBEIGN OOTJN-KttlES.*

447,302,352 27,393,003
137443,446

1,199,044,784 337,432,840981,206,903

Coffee, lbs.. 1842 

Cotton, lbs,, 1840 

This exhibition of figures is full of meaning. Nearly three-
fourths of the products of these foreign countries had been created
-within thirty years of the date of the appeal of Mr. McQueen ;
* The British Possessions referred to, include the East Indies, West Indies,
and Mauritius; the foreign countries, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Java,
Venezuela.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 557
and, aside from the United States, Java, and Venezuela, all were
dependent upon the slave trade for the successful prosecution of
their cultivation, Mr. McQ., therefore, proceeded to say :
" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the tropical
territories of other powers opposed and checked by British tropical
cultivation, then the interests and the power of such states will rise
into a preponderance over those of Great Britain ; and the power and
the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared, and respected,
among the civilized and powerful nations of the world."
From the foregoing facts it is easy to perceive that the slave
trade had been very sensibly and very seriously affecting the in
terests of the British Government ; * that it had been an engine
in the hands of other nations, by which they had thrown England
into the back ground in the productions of those articles of which
she formerly had the monopoly, and which had given to her such
power and influence; and that she must either crush the slave
trade, or it would continue to paralyze her. Here is the true
secret of her movements in reference to the slave trade and
slavery. Her first step— ^ the prohibition of the slave trade to
her colonies — gave to Spain, Portugal," and France all the advan
tages of that traffic ; and the cheaper and more abundant labor
thus secured, gave a powerful stimulus to the production of trop
ical commodities in their colonies, and soon enabled them to rival
and greatly surpass England in the amount of her production of
these articles. It was considered absolutely necessary, therefore,
to the prosperity of Great Britain, that she should regain the ad
vantageous position which she had occupied, in being the chief pro
ducer of tropical commodities, or, at least, that she should lessen
her dependence upon other countries.
But the Government and its advisers now found themselves in
the mortifying position of having blundered miserably in their
emancipation scheme, and of having landed themselves in a dilem
ma of singular perplexity. The prohibition of the slave trade,
and the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, resulted so favor
ably to the interests of those countries employing slave labor, by
enlarging the markets for slave-grown products, that the difficulty
* For details see Chapter V,

558 PULPIT POLITICS.
of inducing them to cease from it, was increased a hundredfold.
In relation to the embarrassments under which the British nation
was laboring, Mr. McQueen said :
" Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical productions, and
next nearly all Europe, as she formerly did, she bad scarcely enough
of some of the most important articles for her own consumption, while
her colonies were mostly supplied with foreign slave produce, , . .
... In the meantime, tropical productions had been increased from
$75,000,000 to $300,000,000 annually. The English capital invested
in tropical productions in the Bast and West Indies had been, by eman
cipation in the latter, reduced from $750,000,000 to $650,000,000 ;
while, since 1808, on the part of foreign nations, $4,000,000,000 of
fixed capital had been created in slaves and in cultivation wholly dcr
pendent upon the labor of slaves,"
The odds, therefore, in agricultural and conimercial capital and
interest, and consequently in political power and influence, arrayed
against the British tropical possessions, were very fearful — six to
one. This, then, was the position of England from 1840 to 1844,
and these the forces marshaled agaitist her, and which she must
meet and combat. In all her movements hitherto, she had only
added to the strength of her rivals. Her first step, the suppres
sion of the slave trade, had diminished her West India laborers
100,000 in twenty-three years, and reduced her means of pro
duction to that extent, giving all the benefits arising from this and
from the slave trade to rival nations, who had but too well im
proved their advantages. But besides her commercial sacrifices,
she had expended $100,000,000 to remunerate the planters for the
slaves emancipated, and another $100,000,000 for an armed re
pression of the slave trade. And yet, in all this enormous ex
penditure, resulting only in loss to England, Africa had received
no advantage whatever ; but, on the contrary, she had been robbed,
since 1808, of at least 3,500,000 slaves, * who had been exported
to Cuba and Brazil from her coast, making a total loss to Africa,
by the rule of Buxton, of 11,666,000 human beings, or one mil
lion more than the whole white population of the United States in
"* McQueen.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 569
1830, and more than three times the number of our present slave
population. *
Now, it was abundantly evident that Great Britain was- im
pelled by an overpowering necessity, by the instinct of self-pres
ervation, to effect the suppression of the slave trade. It was
true, no doubt, that considerations of justice and humanity were
among the motives which influenced her actions. Interest and
duty, therefore, combined to stimulate her to exertion. The meas
ures to be adopted to secure success, were also becoming more
apparent. Few other nations are guided by statesmen more quick
to perceive the best course to adopt in an emergency, and none
more readily abandon a scheme as soon as it proves impractica
ble. Great Britain stood pledged to her own citizens and to the
world for the suppression of the slave trade, , She stood equally
pledged to demonstrate that free labor can be made more pro
ductive than slave labor, even in the cultivation of tropical com
modities. These pledges she could not deviate from nor revoke.
Her interests as well as her honor were deeply ihvolved in their
fulfillment. But she could only demonstrate the greater produc
tiveness of free labor over slave labor, by opposing the one to
the other, in their practical operations on a scale coextensive with
each other. She must produce tropical commodities so cheaply
and so abundantly by free labor, that she could undersell slave-
grown products to such an extent, and glut the markets of the
world with them so fully, as to render it unprofitable any longer
to employ slaves in tropical cultivation. Such an enterprise, suc
cessfully carried out, she conceived, would be a death-blow to
slavery and the slave trade. " But," says McQueen, " there re
mained no portion of the tropical world, where labor could be
had on the spot, and -^'hereon Great Britain could conveniently
and safely plant her foot, in order to accomplish this desirable
object — extensive tropical cultivation — but in tropical Africa,
Every other part was occupied by independent nations, or by peo
ple that might and would soon become independent," Africa,
therefore, was the field upon which Great Britain was compelled
to enter and make her second grand experiment, f
* This refers to 1860.
t See " Ethiopia," pages 48, 49.

560 -PULPIT POLITICS.
But even this field was not as fully open as it had beep when
the " Niger Expedition " was fitted out. The failure of that en
terprise occurred while the Government was engaged in adjusting
its difficulties with China, which grew out of the ^' Opium Ques
tion," and in conducting its war with the Sikhs of India. When,
therefore, attention was again turned to Africa, it was found that
much of its territory, also, had been occupied by other nations.
Briefly, we must once more refer to the labors of McQueen for
the main part of our facts :
" France, fully alive to the importance of the commerce with Afri
ca, had, within a short period, securely placed herself at the mouth of
the Senegal and at Goree, extending her influence eastward atid south
eastward from both places. She had a settlement at Albreda, on the
Gambia, a short distance above St. Mary's,, and which comniands that
river. She had formed a settlement at the mouth of the Gaboon, and
another near the chief mouth of the Niger.. She had fixed herself
at Massuah and Bure, on the west- shore of the Red Sea, commanding
the inlets into Abyssinia. She had endeavored to fix her flag at Brava
and the mouth of the Jub, and had taken permanent possession, of the
important island of Johanna, situated in the center of the northern
outlet of the Mozambique channel, by which she acquired its cpm-
mand. Her active agents were placed in Southern Abyssinia, and
employed in traversing the borders of the Great White Nile ; while
Algiers, on the northern shores of Africa, must speedily be her own.*
Spain had planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the island
of Fernando Pq, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the
rivers from Cameroops to the equator. Portugal, witnessing these
movements, had taken measures to revive her once fine and still im
portant colonies in tropical Africa. They included 17° of latitude
on the east coast, from the tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly
19° on the west coast, from the 20th° south latitude, northward to
Cape Lopez. The Imaum of Muscat claimed the sovereigntyon the
east coast, from Zanzibar to Babelmandel, with the exception of the
station of the French at Brava. From the Senegal northward to
Algeria was in the possession of the independent Moorish princes.
Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt were north of the tropic of Cancer, and in
dependent tributaries of Turkey.
" Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also
'* This has been accomplished.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 561
the west coast from the Gambia northward, was found to be in the
actual possession of independent sovereignties, who, of course, would
not yield the right to England. Southern Africa, below the tropic of
Capricorn, already belonging to England, though only the same dis
tance, south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are north of it, is
highly elevated above the sea level, and not adapted to tropical pro
ductions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before noticed,
extending from near the British South African line to Cape Lopez,
excluded England from that district. From Cape Lopez to the mouth
of the Niger, including the Gaboon and Fernando Po, as before stated,
was under the control of the French and Spanish.
" The only new territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized coun
tries, which could be made available to England for her ^reat scheme
of tropical cultivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia, em
bracing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude."
Subsequently to the summing up of the facts here stated. Rev.
Dr. Livingstone's discoveries, in the interior of Africa, have added
much additional territory to the fields upon which Great Britain
can enter.
Section II. — Condition of the Cotton Question in 1850.
Before attempting to show what has been done in Africa, or
elsewhere, toward increasing the supplies of cotton to the English
manufacturers, the exact condition of this question in 1850 must
be given ; as it will afford a starting point from which to estimate
the true progress made by England in her efforts to become in
dependent of the United States, for her supplies of this commodity.
For information on this subject we are indebted to the London
Economist, January, 1850. After a most elaborate investigation,
the editor thus sums up the results :
" Now, bearing in mind that ihe figures in the above tables are, with
scarcely an exception, ascertained facts, and not estimates, let us sum
the conclusions to which they have conducted us : conclusions suffi
cient, if not to alarm us, yet certainly to create much uneasiness, and
to suggest great caution on the part of all concerned, directly or in
directly, in the great manufacture of England.
"1 That our supply of cotton from all quarters {excluding the
36

562 PULPIT POLITICS.
United States,) has for many years been decidedly, though irregularly,
decreasing. "2. That our supply of cotton /row all quarters, (including the
United States,) available for home consumption, has of late years been
falling off at the rate of 400,000 pounds a week, while our consump
tion has been increasing during thg same period at the rate of 1,440,-
000 pounds a week.
" 3. That the United States is the only country where the' growth
of cotton is on the increase ; and that there even the increase does not,
on an average, exceed three per cent., or 32,000,000 pounds annually,
which is barely sufficient to supply the increasing demand for its own
consumption and for the continent of Europe.
"4. That*no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual
increase, as the planters' always grow as much cotton as the negro
population can pick.
"5. That consequently, if the cotton manufacture of Great Britain
is to increase at all — on its present footing -^it can only be enabled to
do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth of cotton in other
countries adapted for the culture."
The writer also presents the following historical sketch of the
cotton trade of England, and closes with a statement of the, reason
why other countries have diminished their production of cotton.
It will be seen that it is duC to the fact that they are unable to
compete with the United States in its production. We can supply
the markets so much cheaper than they are able to do, that our
cotton is driving theirs from the English market. The writer says :
" Within the memory of many now liyingj a great change has taken
place in the countries from which our main bulk of cotton is procured.
In the infancy of our manufacture our chief supply came from the
Mediterranean, especially from Smyrna and Malta. Neither of these
places now sends us more than a few chance bags occasionally. In the
last century the West Indies were our principal source. In the year
1786, out of 20,000,000 pounds imported, 5,000,000 came from Smyrna,
and the rest from the West Indies. In 1848, the West Indies sent us
only 1,300 bales, (520,000 pounds.) In 1781, Brazil began to send us
cotton, and the supply thence continued to increase, though irregular
ly, till 1830, since which time it has fallen off to one-half. About
1822, Egyptian Cotton began to come in considerable quantities, its
cultivation having been introduced into that country two years before.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE,

563

The import, exceeded 80,000 . bales, (32,000,000 pounds,) in 1845,
The average of the last three years has not been a third of that quan
tity. Cotton has always been grown largely in Hindostan, but it did
not send much to England till about thirty years ago. In the five
years ending in 1824, the yearly average import was 33,000 bales;
in 1841, it reached 274,000 ; and may now be roughly estimated at
200,000 bales a year, (80,000,000 pounds.)
" Now what is the reason why these countries, after having at one
time produced so largely and so well, should have ceased or curtailed
their growth within recent years ? It is clearly a question of price.
Let us consider a few of the cases :

AT THE CLOSE OF THE
TEAKS,

.as

1

1
1 -

s.«.
II
1 =

+3 i
%

S
1^

1836-1839 inclusive 
1840-1843  .' 

9KdId

36

md 5%d
i%d

42

lOJ^d 7d .
i%d

4S

i%d
3^Ad 2%d

1844^1848 

40

" Here, surely, may be read the explanation of the deplorable fall
ing off in our miscellaneous supply."
But we may extend these examinations so as to embrace a range
of facts that will show the true position of all Europe at this
period, 1850, in relation to the cotton question, POUNDS.
The total consumption of cotton by England in 1849  624,000,000
By France  :  156,000,000
By the remaining Contineptal countries  129,920,000
To which add that of the United States  270,000,000
Total consumption of cotton in 1849  1,179,920,000
The sources from which these supplies were obtained reVeals
the extent to which slave labor and free labor, respectively, con
tributed of their products to make up the amount consumed.
They were as follows : *

•These statistics are mainly taken froni the London Economist, and the
details may be found in "Ethiopia.''

564 PULPIT POLITICS.

SLAVE LABOR COTTOIT CONSUMBD IN 1849. POUNDS.
By England, from Brazil  30,000,000
By England, from United States  522,530,800
By France, from United States  147,000,000
By France, from Brazil, say  ,. 3,000,000
By other Continental countries, from United States  128,800,000
By United States, growth of United States  270,000,000
Total slave labor consumption  1,101,330,800
J-RBB LABOK cotton CONSUMED IKT 1849.
PO-UNDS.
By England, from all sources  71,469,200
By France, say  6,000,000
By other Continental countries..,.  ,  1,120,000
Total free labor consumption  78,589,200
Grand total cotton consumption  1,179,920,000
This was the condition of the cotton supplies, so far as they
depend upon slave labor and free labor respectively, upon the
ushering in of the year 1850.
For the year 1859, the imports of cotton into Great Britain
from all sources, excepting the United States and the East Indies,
were only 50,125,000 pounds, while the monthly consuruption of
her looms was 46,600,000 pounds. Nor did India, at that moment,
present any very encoaraging prospects^ as she furnished but
70,838,000 pounds of the 755,469,000 pounds that year imported
into England.
Here had been a ten years' struggle on the part of England to
render herself less dependent upon America for cotton. That the
attempt failed is fully admitted, and that India could not be relied
upon as a field in which to compete with the United States is re
luctantly conceded. On this point the London Economist, after
showing that Brazil, Egypt and the East Indies could not be made
to meet the wants of the English manufacturers, said :
" Our hopes lie in a very different direction ; we look to our West
India, African, and Australian colonies, as the quarters from which,
would Government only afford every possible facility, we might, ere
long, draw such a supply of cotton as would, to say the least, make
the fluctuations of the American crop, and the varying proportions of

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMEBCB. 565
it which falls to our share, of far less consequence to our prosperity
than they now are."
It was of vital importance to Great Britain that she should be
able to promote the cultivation of cotton in her own territories.
Thus far she had failed, and a renewal of her efforts was all that
she could do, while, in the meantime, she remained hopelessly
dependent upon the American planter.
Section III. — Progress op events connected with Cotton
Culture after 1850, and their results at the opening of 1860.
The great leading interest of England — her principal depend
ence for the maintenance of her power and influence — is her
manufactures. Out of this interest grows her immense commerce,
and from her commerce arises her ability to sustain her vast
Davy, giving to her such a controlling influence in the affairs of the
world. " Wealth, civilization, and knowledge add rapidly and in
definitely to the powers of manufacturing and commercial indus
try." All these Great Britain possesses in an eminent degree.
" It is asserted that the manufacturers of England could in a short
time be made to quadruple their produce — that so vast is the power
which the steam-engine has added to the means of production in com
mercial industry, that it is susceptible of almost indefinite and im
mediate extension — that Manchester and Glasgow could in a few
years prepare themselves for furnishing muslin and cotton goods to
the whole world — that with England the great difficulty always felt
is, not to get hands to keep pace with the demand of the consumers,
but to get a demand to keep pace with the hands employed in the pro
duction." *
We have seen that the low price of cotton — an average of 7
91-100 cents per pound — from 1840' to 1849 — was the principal
cause of the decrease of its production in countries other than the
United States ; and that an increase of price was essential to the
encouragement of its extended cultivation in the countries which
had been supplying it, as well as in new fields where its growth
might be introduced. No permanent increase of price occurred,
* " Ethiopia," page 56,

566 PULPIT POLITICS. ¦
however, until 1857, when it rose to 12 55-100 cents per pound;
but this was in consequence of the short crop made by the Amer
ican planters, who exported that year 303,159,226 pounds less
than in the preceding year. The years 1850 and 1851 had also
been unfavorable — the former supplying for export 391,220,665
pounds less than the exports of 1849, and the latter 99,365,180
pounds less than those of that year — the average price per pound
for the two years being 11 7-10 cents. The five years succeeding
1851 furnished, abundant crops in America, and the price averaged
only 9 12-100 cents per pound. No increased production could
be secured under these prices ; but the rise of 1857 brought Eng
land 250,338,144 pounds of cotton from India, being 69,841,520
pounds more than the imports from that country during the pre
ceding year. In 1858 and 1859, the United States produced her
usual abundant crops, and thus again resumed her monopoly of
the cotton markets^ — flinging to the winds the temporary prosper
ity of India, and reducing her supplies, in 1858, below those of
1857, more than 112,000,000 pounds.
But though the American cotton crops of 1858 and 1859 were
large — that of the latter year allowing an export of 1,372,755,000
pounds — yet owing to the increasing consumption on the conti
nent and in the United States, the supply of England was not
equal to her wants; and the anxiety in relation to her cotton
supplies continued to engage attention.
The year 1859, it will be seen, supplies another point Hke
1849, from which to institute investigations as to the progress,
made by the English people, in developing the cultivation of cot
ton in fields not before devoted to that object. The success at
tending their efforts — or rather the failure of their schemes —
will be apparent when the facts are fully presented. Again we
quote from the London Economist : *
"We are nOt surprised that the future supply of cotton should have
engaged the attention of. Parliament on an early night of the session.
It is a question the importance of which can not yieW be overrated, if
we refer only to the commercial interests which it involves, or to the
social comfort or happiness of the millions who are now dependent
* February 12, 1859.

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 567
upon it for their support. But it has an aspect far loftier, and even
more important. At its root lies the ultimate success of a policy for
which England has made great struggles and great sacrifices — the
maintaining of existing treaties, and perhaps the peace of the world.
Every year as it passes, proves more and more that the question of
slavery, and even the slave trade, is destined to be materially affected,
if not, ultimately governed, by considerations arising out of the culti
vation of this plant. It is impossible to observe the tendency of pub
lic opinion throughout America, not even excepting the free States,
with relation to the slave trade, without feeling conscious that it is
drifting into indifference, and even laXity. In every light, then, in
whioh this great subject can be viewed, it is one which well deserves
the careful attention equally of the philanthropist and the statesman."
The Economist then proceeds to say, that in 1840 the total sup
ply of cotton imported into England was 592,488,000 pounds ; and
that, with temporary fluctuations, it had steadily grown until it had
reached, in 1859 and the two preceding years, an average annual
amount of more than 900,000,000 pounds, showing an increase of
fifty per cent.
"Nevertheless," continues the editor, " the demand had been con
stantly pressing upon the supply, the consumption has always shown
a tendency to exceed the production, and the consequent result of a
high price has, during a majority of these years, acted as a powerful
stimulus to cultivation. But, practically speaking, we possess but twO
sources of supply, and both present such powerful obstacles to extend
ed cultivation, that we are not surprised at the habitual uneasiness of
those whose interests demand a continually-increasing quantity. Those
two sources are the United States and British India. It is true that
Brazil, Egypt, the West Indies, and some other countries, furnish
small quantities of cotton ; but when we state that of the 931,847,000
pounds imported into the United Kingdom in 1858, the proportion
furnished by America and India was 870,656,000 pounds, leaving for
all other places put together a supply of only 61,191,000 pounds; not
withstanding the many laudable efibrts both on the part of Govern
ment and of the mercantile community, to encourage its growth in new
countries, it will be admitted that, as an immediate and practical ques
tion, it is confined to these two sources. They are not only the sources
from whence the largest supplies are received, but they are also thOse
where the chief increase has taken place."

568 PULPIT POLITICS.
Extending these investigations, w,e find that in 1859 the imports
of cotton into Great Britain, fro'm all sources, was ,1,215,989,072
pounds, of which 1,154,038,144 pounds were from ¦^the United
States and the East Indies, leaving but 61,951,928 from all other
countries, or an increase from them of only 760,000 pounds dur
ing the year ! The progress in Africa was too inconsiderable to
merit much attention.
The powerful obstacles to extended cultivation in the United
States, alluded to by the Economist, exist in the inability of the
cotton planters to increase their labor forces in any greater ratio
than that of the natural increase of the slave population. This
increase is about three per cent, per annum, and the ratio of in
creasing production of cotton has generally been limited to that
amount. From 1857 the prices remained more than two cents
higher per pound than during the five preceding years, and thus~a
great stimulus was afforded to the American planter to increase
his cultivation. But while the prices richly remunerated him, they
were at least one cent per pound too low to allow of any serious
competition from India. At 12 55-100 cents per pound, in 1857,
the East Indies sent to England 250,338,000 pounds; butinl858j
at 11 72-100 cents per pound, only 138,253,000 pounds were for
warded from that quarter,
. It was plain, therefore, that if the American planter could keep
the price of cotton below about eleven cents per pound, he could
retain the monopoly of the markets of Europe by preventing an
increased supply from India. But here, at this very point, a diffi
culty presented itself. The increase of the demand for cotton, as
has been estimated by a British writer, would equal five per cent.
per annum, were it practicable to augment the production to that
extent; and the American planter could only increase it in the
ratio of three per cent.
An important question arose here, as to who should supply this
increasing demand. The American planter could not do it, ex
cept by extending the area of slave labor ; and the British people
dare not attempt it, while cotton maintained the low prices which
had prevailed. The English introduced the coolie system of labor,
to revive their lost fortunes in the West Indies ; and, fearing the
Americans would renew the slave trade, they again commenced

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE,

569

their efforts to prevent such a result. It was readily perceived,
by English manufacturers and statesmen, that if the slave trade
should be renewed by the United States — an opinion for which
there never was any just foundation — all their hopes of regaining
a monopoly of tropical cultivation, as well as their expectations of
divorcing themselves from the cotton planters of the United States,
would be at an end. It was of the utmost importance, therefore,
that such a calamity to England, as the renewal of the slave trade
by the United States, should be averted at all hazards.
In referring to this subject, the London Economist, of the date
before quoted, says :
" But with what an enormous interest does this view of the case in
vest the cultivation of cotton in India ? It is the only real obstacle
we can interpose to the growing feeling in favor of slavery, and the
diminishing abhorrence of the slave trade in the United States. It is
the only field competition with which can, for many years to come, re
dress the undue stimulant whioh high prices are giving to slave labor
in America."*
That the editor was well sustained in his opinions, by actual re
sults, is apparent from the fact that no marked increase in the
production of cotton had taken place excepting in the United States
and East Indies. This was true not only as to late years, but has
been true from the day that the American planters began their
shipments of cotton in any considerable quantities. Here are tbe
facts, as indicated by the imports into Great Britain, from all
sources excepting the United States and the East Indies, for the
years stated, in pounds :

YEAHS. POUNDS.
1786  19,900,000
1800  48,000,000
1821  48,500,000
1832  36,997,000
1840  27,620,667
1841  21,363,706
1842  24,764,698
1843  32,744,867
1844  40,252,866
1845  36,892,115
1846  31,367,738
1847  26,273,710
» February 12, 1859.

1848  28,670,712
1849  60,126,447
1860  51,691,007
1851  68,113,811
1852  79,229,472
1853  64,978,793
1854  35,346,794
1866  64,943,313
1866  63,349,664
1857  64,172,704
1868  61,139,866
1859  61,950,928

570

PULPIT POLITICS.

These were startling results, truly, to those who had been flat
tering themselves that British capital and enterprise could force
the cultivation of cotton in new fields of production, or augment
it in the old ones from which the original supplies had been ob
tained. Let us now look back for a moment to the state of the cotton
supplies and cotton manufacture in Great Britain, a few years after
the outbreak of the American Revolution, Her cotton manufac
tures were then in their infancy. In 1781 her imports of cotton
were 5,198,778 pounds, nearly all of which was manufactured
within the year. In 1786 the imports had increased to 19,900,000
pounds, and her consumption to 19,475,000 pounds. From that
date to 1832, the year preceding the passage of the West India
Emancipation Bill, the sources whence the cotton supplies were
derived may be inferred from the following statement of the im
ports of that article into Great Britain, from the countries named,
at the different dates given. The quantity is stated in pounds :

YEABS.

TJNITED
STATES.

EAST INDIES.

WEST INDIES.

BEAZIL.

TURKEY AND
SMYBNA.

OTHER
COUNTRIES.

1786 
1791 . . ..

*189,316
*9,330,000
«I7,789,803
n24,893,405*322,216,122

1,622,000
30,000,000 50,000,000
t5,178,625

5,800,000
12,000,00017,000,000 9,000,000 1,708,764

$2,000,00020,000,000
24,000,000
28,000,00020,109,560

5,000,000
?5,500,000
|9,ll3,890

||?,100,000 7,000,0006,000,000 964,933

1798 

1800 
1821

1832 

From these statistics, we pass on to 1840, two years after final
emancipation in the West Indies, and select the years that fairly
represent the condition of the cotton supplies of Great Britain,
from all sources, from that date to 1860 :

Imports of Cotton into Great Britain for the years

stated.

YEAES.

DHITED STATES.

BRAZn.

MEDITER RANEAN.

EAST INDIES

WEST IN
DIES AND
GUIANA.

OTHER COUN
TRIES.

TOTAL.

1840 
1845.. 
1849 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
I860.-. 

487,866,604 626,660,412634,604,050 780,040,016
664,758)048 732,403,840
> 961,707,264
1,116,890,608

14,774,17120,157,63330,738,13321,830,70429,910,832 16,466,800 22,478,960
17,286,864

8,324,937
14,614,699
17,389,843 34,616,848
24,882,144 34,8fi7,84037,667,06643,946,064

77,011,83958,437,42670,838,516
180,496,624250,338,144138,253;360192,330,8S0 204,141',l68

866,157
1,894,447 944,307
-462,784
1,443 668
9,86
11,80 9,66

3,649,402 725,336
1,074,164 6,439,3287,968,160
2,272
4,912 6,048

692,488,010721,979,963 756,469,012
1,023,886,304 969,318,806931.847',056
1,215,989,0721,391,929,752

"* See notes on next page.

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 571
Here we have Brazil supplying less cotton in 1860 than in 1791 ;
and the West Indies and all " other countries," a considerably less
quantity in 1860 than the British West Indies alone was able to
furnish in 1800. The increase from the Mediterranean — princi
pally from Egypt — has been but slight as between 1856 and
1860, being only 9,329,000 pounds, or enough, merely, to supply
the spindles of Great Britain for three days. There is, therefore,
no disguising the fact stated by the Economist, that the East In
dies and the United States are the only countries from which in
creasing quantities have been obtained to any important extent,
notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts made to produce a differ
ent result. In relation to Brazil the Westminster Review for April,
1861, says :
" Since the abolition of the external slave trade in 1850, an increase
in the available supply of labor sufficient to extend in any great degree
the cotton cultivation has become impossible, and for that reason we
have little to hope from this quarter,"
In 1860, then, the United States and British India were the
only prominent rivals in the great cotton markets of the world.
The American planter had the decided advantage in the contest
for supremacy in very many respects ; but still he had obstacles
to overcome of a very stubborn nature, among which, as already
noticed, were the difficulties in the way of the extension of slave
labor. To retain his monopoly of the cotton markets, he must not
only increase his production, but, at the same time, keep the prices
depressed below the rates at which it could be supplied from India.
To allow any measures to be adopted which would greatly dimin
ish the production of American cotton, would be to promote the
interests of the East India planters, and enable them successfully
to rival those of the United States. The existing difficulties in the
way of the East Indies, at the opening of the year 1859, are thus
stated by the London Eeonormst:
* These figures include the total exports.
tEast Indies and Mauritius.
X Reported as from Portuguese colonies, Brazil being a Portuguese colony.
g Turkey and Egypt.
II From French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies.

572 PULPIT POLITICS.
" In some important respects the conditions of supply from India
differ very much from those which attach to and determine the supply
from America. In India there is no limit to the quantity of labor.
There may be said to be little or none to the quantity of land. The
obstacle is of another' kind; it lies almost exclusively in the want of
cheap transit. Our supplies of India cotton are not even determined
by the quantity produced, but by that which, when produced, can be
profitably forwarded to England. It is, therefore, a question of price
whether we obtain more or less. A rise in the price of one penny the
pound in 1857, suddenly increased the supply from 180,000,000 pounds
in 1856, to 250,000,000 in 1857. A fall in the price in 1858 again
suddenly reduced it to 138,000,000 pounds. It was not that the pro
duction of cotton varied in these proportions in those years, but that at
given prices it was possible to incur more cost in the transit than at
others. The same high price, therefore, which at present renders a large
supply possible from India, creates an unusual demand for slaves in
the United States. But would not the same corrective consequence
be produced if we could diminish the cost of transit in India ? Every
farthing a pound saved in carriage is equivalent to so much added to the
price of cotton. Four-pence the pound in the Liverpool market, for
good India cotton, with a cost of two-pence from the spot of pro
duction, would command just as great a supply as a price of five-
pence the pound if the intermediate cost were three-pence. The
whole question resolves itself into one of good roads and cheap con
veyance. Labor in India is infinitely more abundant than in the
United States, and much cheaper ; land is at least as cheap ; the cli
mate is as good ; but the bullock trains on the miserable roads of
Hindostan can not compete with the steamers and other craft on the
Mississippi,' , . , , , Whatever, therefore, be the financial sacrifice
which in the first place must be made for the purpose of opening
the interior of India, it should be cheerfully made, as the only means
by which we can hope permanently to improve the revenues of India,
to increase and cheapen the supply of the most important raw mate
rial of our own industry, and to bring in the abundant labor of the
millions of our fellow-subjects in India, to redress the deficiency in
the slave States of America, and thus to give the best practical cheek
to the growing attractions of slavery and the slave trade." *
From all the facts and considerations before us it can no longer
be disputed that the manufacturers of Great Britain, in 1860, as
* London Economist, February 12, 1859.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE.

573

in 1850, were still dependent upon India and the United States for
their cotton supplies ; and that an increased production of cotton
in the United States, at the low rates at which it had been previ
ously furnished, would crush out all the hopes of enlarged exports
from India, or extended cultivation anywhere else. It is easy to
perceive, therefore, that Great Britain has long been deeply inter
ested in the promotion of whatever policy would tend to diminish
the production of American cotton, and enhance the price of that
commodity, so as to stimulate its cultivation in her own prov
inces. The following statement of the prices of cotton from 1821 to
1860, inclusive, will enable the reader to discover the causes which
have produced the fluctuations in the production of cotton through
out the world, as far as its culture was controlled by the price of
the article. The table of prices is taken from the Congressional
Report on Finance, for 1860. The price stated is the average per
pound for the year :

AVEEAGE POUND

COST PEE
IN CENTS.

AVERAGE COST PER
POUND IN CENTS.

AVERAGE COST PEE
POUND IN CENTS.

AVERAGE COST PER
POUND IN CENTS.

1821 
1822 
1823 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 

 16.2.
 16.6
 11.8
 15.4
 20.9
 12.2
 10
 10.7
 10
. 9 9

1831.....  -9.1
18,32...  9.8
1833  11.1
1834  12.8
1836  16.8
1836.  16.8
1837  14.2
1838  10.3
1839  14.8

1841  10.2
1842  8.1
1843  6.2
1844  8.1

1861  .12.11
1862  8.06
1863  9.85

1864  9.47

1845  5.92
1846  7.81
1847  10.34
1848  7.61
1849  6.4
I860  11.3

1855  8.74

1866  9 49

1867  12.55

1858  11.72
1869  12.72
I860  „ 10 85

1840.  8 6

Section IV. — Agencies engaged in promoting measures
TENDING TO DESTROY AMERICAN COMMERCE, BY LESSENING THE
DEPENDENCE OP EUROPB UPON US FOR COTTON.
The question of the "cotton supplies," and who shall possess
their monopoly in the future, is one of grave import to the Gov
ernment and people of the United States. Let us look at the in
terests which it involves, and what it is that is risked to the nation
in the loss of the cottOn crop — a loss which many at the North
have professed to believe would be no detriment to the prosperity
of the country.
574 PULPIT POLITICS. i
The quantity and value of our exports of domestic products is
annually reported to Congress. The report on the finances for
1860, gives the total value of all the exports of the country since
1821. The several classes of products foot up as follows :
Breadstuffs and Provisions  $lj006,951,235
Rice  r 87,864,6i'l
Tobacco  336,181,067 '
Cotton  2,574,834,0«1
Here the value of the cotton crop, to the foreign commerce of
the country, stands out in its true proportions. And if to the value
of the cotton we add that of the tobacco and rice, the entire ex
ports of the Southern States, in these three products alone, reach
a value of nearly three billions of dollars, or thrice the amount of
the whole exports of all the other products of the soil.
These fact^ give us a clear idea of the character of our foreign
commerce during the last thirty-nine years, and the extent to which
the Northern and Southern States, respectively, have supplied the
commodities exported — tBose of breadstuffs and provisions, main
ly, being of Northern prodiiction, and the tobacco, rice, and cotton
of Southern. To illustrate this point more fully, take the three
years ending with 1860, as a means of comparison between the
North and the South, in their present relations to our foreign com
merce. The exports of the products of the soil, for the three
years named, stood as follows :

PRODUCTS.
Breadstuffs and Provisions,
Tobacco 
Rice 
Cotton 

1858.

% 60,683,28617,009,767 1,870;578
131,386,661

1859.

$ 38,305,991
21,074,038 2,207,148
161,434,923

1860.

$ 46,271,85015,906,547
¦ 2,667,399
191,806,656

The man of intelligence can now comprehend the extent to
which the cotton crop enters into the foreign commerce of the
country, and the ruinous consequences to our national progress
and prosperity which must follow the discontinuance of its pro
duction, or its exclusion from foreign markets. Strike out the ex
ports of tobacco^ rice, and cotton, and the commerce of the United
States, in the products of i the soil, would at once dwindle down
from two hundred and fifty-five millioris of dollars per annum to.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 575
less than fifty millions of dollars. The history of the commercial
operations of the country, for the last forty years, demonstrates
the truth of this proposition.
But, again, by taking the monied value of all the commodities
exported for the last thirteen years — from 1847 to 1860 inclusive
— cotton will still be found occupying an imperial position in the
commerce of the country. The fiscal year ends June 30, and the
several amounts were as follows :
Cotton  $1,489,869,591
Tobacco  172,319,772
Specie and Bullion  438,097,554
Products of the Sea  46,489,946
Productsof the Forest  141,604,708
Breadstuffs and Provisions, including Rice  661,018,096
Manufactures  331,747,346
Raw Produce  28,107,694
$3,308,144,607
Deducting the specie and bullion, and the cotton alone, through
put a series of thirteen years, is more "than half the value of all
the articles exported.
We can now comprehend the extent of the risks to the national
prosperity of the LTnited. States which are involved in the diminu
tion or destruction of the cotton crop, and the importance to the
people of Great Britain of securing to themselves the monopoly
of the cotton supplies. From this stand-point, then, we can pro
ceed with our examination of the agencies engaged in promoting
the interests of Englishmen in their efforts to regain their monop
oly of tropical cultivation.
The struggle, at present, for the monopoly of the cotton sup
plies, as we have seen, is narrowed down to a contest between the
United States and India. But, from the day that Hon. George
Thompson lectured in old England, to induce its government and
people to engage largely in cotton culture in the East Indies ^—^
from the day that this same gentleman undertook to lecture in New
England, to promote the abolition of slavery in America — ^our
planters have maintained their advantageous position,, and India
has remained prostrate at the footstool of the American planter.
Not only have the questions of price and transportation been against
India, but the character of her staple, very inferior at the outset.

576 PULPIT POLITICS.
has not been- improved in quality to the present day. So long,
therefore, as the production of cotton received no check in Amer
ica, so long India failed to make any improvement in the quality
of her product, or in the means of its transit from the interior;
because this improvement was a matter dependent upon large in-
vestnaents of capital, and British capitalists shrunk instinctively
from a contest with the monarch of America — King Cotton. But
the production of a better staple in India was dependent not simply
upon an increased outlay of capital ; the advanced civilization of
the population was also necessary to the accomplishment of this
object. On these points the London Examiner says, in a late
issue :
" As for the opportunity, has it not been the same for India as for
America for the forty-eight years of free trade which have elapsed
since the year 1813, and what has been the result ? Here it is from
the unquestionable authority of Mr. Henry Ashworth :
" ' The proportion of India cotton consumed in this country last
year (I860,) formed only seven per cent, in quantity, and only four
and a half per cent, in value ; and although 216,832,000 pounds were
actually imported and brought to market, the great bulk — say more
than two-thirds — was too poor to find buyers for English consump
tion.' " Is it by bringing more of this trash into our market that India
cotton is to prove a substitute for American ? The cotton of India is
just now exactly what it was when first imported seventy years ago,
having in all that time sustained no improvement. It is probably now
what it was four thousand years ago, and what it will continue to be
for another four thousand years, if it shall continue* to be cultivated
by an ignorant, poverty-stricken Asiatic peasantry, to whom the death
of a pair of bullocks is bankruptcy."
That India can not compete with us in the culture of cotton is
apparent from the following facts in relation to the cost of its pro
duction in that country. The statement is taken from the Cal
cutta Englishman of 1861, a paper familiar with the subject it
discusses :
" The following table shows the expense of cultivating an acre of

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE, 577
land with cotton in the Raichore Doab, the yield of which will be 260
pounds, or when cleaned 70 pounds :
Government land tax  ; £0 5 0
Cost of preparing land  03 0
"Weeding  ....'. 0 10
Cost of 20% pounds of seed  0 4 0
Sowing with drill  0 2 0
- Picking the cotton  0 10
Cleaning the cotton  0 13
Carriage to seaport  0 4 8
Freight of £3 10a per tun  0 2 0
Screwing, baling, (ire  0 0 11
£1 4 10
Commissions at 2)4 per cent., 7}4A  0 0 0
Brokerage at M per cent., l^d  0 0 9
Total  £1 5 7
Or nearly 4Jd. per pound, exclusive of any profit whatever, either to
the cultivator or shipper. It is thus clearly perceptible that the
present price of India cotton in the Liverpool market is not sufficient
to induce any increase in the cultivation, the more so as the charges
here given are irrespective of the thousand and one demands made on
the trader by every native agent through whose hands it passes."
But let us turn a moment from India to Africa. When, in 1850,
it became obvious to the British people that India must fail in^her
competition with the United States, the most vigorous efforts were
made to promote the cultivation of cotton in Africa, as a field
more hopeful of favorable results. This enterprise, however, could
he prosecuted only by the employment of slave labor ; yet it was
not discouraged on that account by the English people. It is
known to every one familiar with the civil condition of Africa, that
slavery everywhere prevails throughout all its territory, inhabited
by the negro race. To cultivate cotton in Africa, therefore, is to
establish slavery on a profitable basis, in a new field of tropical
production. But to do so, it was argued, was justifiable on the
ground of philanthropy, as it would tend to paralyze the slave
trade, and prevent its renewal in America ; that is to say. Eng
lishmen assented to the establishment of slavery in Africa, pro
vided its success there would destroy it in the United States,
" Once let the African chiefs find out, as in many instances they
87

578 ¦« PULPIT POLITICS.
have already' found out, that the Sale of the laborer can be only a
source of profit once, while his labor may be a source of constant and
increasing profit, and we shall hear no more of their killing the hen
which may lay so many golden eggs, for the sake only of a solitary
and final prize,"
Thus spoke the London Economist early in 1859. In comment
ing on the consequences of the movement for promoting cotton
culture in Africa, the American Missionary, an anti-slavery publi
cation, very truthfully remarks :
" There is, however, one danger connected with all this that can
not be obviated by any effort likely to be put forth under the stim
ulus of commerce, or the spirit of trade  The danger to
which we allude is not merely that of worldliness, such as in a com
munity always accompanies an increase of wealth, but that the slavery
now existing there, may be strengthened and increased by ihe rapid rise
in the- value of labor, and thus become so firmly rooted that the toil
of ages may be necessary for its removal." *
As early_ as 1858, Lord Palmerston took ground in favor of the
vigorous prosecution of the growing of cotton in Africa. He made
no objection to the measure on account of the slavery which would
be employed in its production. He said nothing about the sinful
ness of slavery,; because the British Government had never adopt
ed that belief as a rule of action. The theory that slavery is
sinful, was designed for American use, and as a maxim that might
overthrow American slavery. In referring to the encouraging
prospects for cotton culture in Africa, during the debate of July
13, 1858, he said:
" I venture to say, that you will find on the west coast of Africa a
most valuable supply of cotton, so essential to the manufactures of
this country. It has every advantage for the growth of that article.
The cotton districts of Africa are more extensive than those of Indfa.
The access to them is more easy than to the India cotton districts,
and I venture to say, that your commerce with the western coast of
Africa in the article of cotton will in a few years prove to be far
* American Missionary, March, 1859. Th^ italics are the author's.

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 579
more valuable than that of any portion of the world, the United
States excepted." *
Details of the progress of cotton culture in Africa, and- else
where, can not be given here without extending this chapter to
too great a length.
It is only necessary, to a clear understanding of the subject of
the cotton supplies, to state that, up to the close of 1860, no in
creased importations of cotton into Great Britain, from either the
old or the new fields of production, had taken place, to such ex
tent as would warrant her manufacturers in entertaining the least
hope of freeing themselves from continued dependence for that
staple upon the United States, so long as its production with us
remained undisturbed. On the contrary, the imports of Great
Britain, in the aggregate, from the West Indies, Africa, and " other
countries," which were less by more than twa million pounds in
1860 than they were in 1859, f have suffered a still further dimi
nution in 1861.
Thus, for the year 1861, from every source, the imports of cotton
into Great Britain, as compared with those of 1860, show an in
crease from Africa, the West Indies, and " other countries," of only
595,280 pounds ; from Brazil, an increase of but 3,472 pounds ;
and from Egypt, a decrease of 3,061,978 pounds ; being, from all
sources, excepting the East Indies and United States, a total
detrease below the imports of 1860, of 2,463,406 pounds. From
the East Indies the increase has been 164,899,280 pounds over the
imports of 1860, but only 118,702,304 pounds over the imports
of 1857. These results must greatly disappoint those who were
anticipating largely increased ^supplies from other sources than
the United States. J
In reference to the extent of the recent supplies of cotton re
ceived in Great Britain, from new sources, Mr. William Cross, of
Parnwarm, near Manchester, says in a communication in the Lon
don Post, June 21, 1861 :
" It has been stated in several newspapers that 40,000 ' bales ' of
* Westminster Review, April, 1861.
t See preceding tabular statement of imports into Great Britain.
X From Official Reports in the London Economist, March 1, 1862.

680 PULPIT POLITICS.
cotton have been received from fifty-eight new or revived sources.
These statements are erroneous. A bale of cotton is about four hun
dred pounds weight, but a large proportion of the so-called bales are
only small sample-bags, containing a few pounds of cotton. Of the
remainder, 18,924 bales are from Tuticorin, the shipping port of the
Tinnovelly District ; and inasmuch as Tinnovelly cotton has been well
known to the London and Liverpool cottOn merchants during many
years, it is false to describe that district as a new source of supply.
Down to the present time, notwithstanding the assertions of the Cot
ton Supply Association, there has not been received as much cotton
from new sources as would find employment for one moderate sized
cotton-mill during the space of six months ; and I believe I am quite
within the mark when I assert that the several cotton-procuring com
panies which have been advertised in Lancashire are not in possession
of as much paid up capital as would purchase a twelve month's supply
of cotton for one cotton-mill of moderate dimensions."
It follows, as a logical deduction from the facts before us, that
the successful development of the growth of cOtton in the tropical
possessions of Great Britain can only be secured by effecting a
derangement of the labor forces enga.ged in its production in the
United States, and that this derangement must be effected to such
an extent as will diminish the production of American cotten, so
as to give permanency to high prices for that commodity. This
done, and British capital, in a proportionate degree, can be em
ployed safely in both India and Africa for the improvement of the
quality and the increase of the quantity of their cotton. But
until this is done — until the American planter is crippled or pros
trated — British capitalists, as we are assured by advices from
abroad, will not venture upon extended cotton culture in any por
tion of the world. They had hoped to reverse this condition of
things, and to have lessened the American production of that
staple, by its increased cultivation in India, but this scheme was
soon found to be impracticable, and its increased growth in India
can only succeed by first interrupting its culture in the United
States. Now, on arriving at' this point in our investigations, it is very
easy to comprehend why the people of Great Britain have made
such extensive and persevering efforts to promote the abolition of
slavery in the United States. Emancipation, they very well know.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 581
would at once ruin the American planters, and completely destroy
the production of cotton on their estates. It is also very obvious
why the English abolitionists, on failing in their schemes in refer
ence to the immediate abolition of slavery in this country, 'have,
with such perfect unanimity, approved of the proposition of the
American abolitionists, to confine slavery within the limits of the
States where it now exists ; because, to prevent the extension of
Southern slavery, is to diminish the production of our great com
mercial staple, and to allow the monopoly of the cotton supplies,
ultimately, to pass from the hands of our own citizens into those
of the subjects of Great Britain.
We do not complain of the English people for using peaceful
means to place themselves upon an equal footing with those of
the United States in the competition for the grand prize of sup
plying the cotton markets. But we can justly say that the Ameri
cans who are playing into their hands are no friends to the com
mercial prosperity of their own country. They should be able to
see that the hostility of the British people, at large, to American
slavery is not based on moral considerations — as is apparent from
their being industriously engaged in establishing slavery in Africa,
as a means of procuring supplies of cotton ; and that, therefore, in
the present condition of the world, the abolition of slavery in the
United States must, necessarily, force its establishment in Africa
upon a footing commensurate with existing demands for tropical
products, and huipanity thereby reap no advantages by the aboli
tion of slavery in America.
The tendency of the abolition movements in the United States
are now easily discerned. The history of emancipation every
where, without exception, proves that the great mass of the blacks
will not work voluntarily, to any useful extent, beyond what is
necessary to supply their absolute necessities., The blacks of the
Unit,ed States can form no exception to the general rule. Eman-
cip9,tion in our Southern States, therefore, would be the death
blow to our cultivation of cotton, as it was in the West Indies to
the production of both cotton and sUgar. * '
The crisis in American cotton culture is now upon us. The
* The reader will find the facts relating to the West Indies in Chapter "V,

582 PULPIT POLITICS.
prices have gone up three hundred per cent. With,^ these prices
prolonged, by the withholding of the American crop from the
markets for three or four years, but, especially, by the discontin
uance of the culture of cotton in the South for want of hands to
perform the labor, the supplies of cotton from other countries may
be increased, so that the American crop may be no longer a desid
eratum to European manufacturers. Lord Palmerston seems to
understand the question in this light. At the late Lord Mayor's
dinner in London, the American minister, Mr. Adams, being pres
ent, the noble Lord, in alluding to ftie want of cotton from Amer
ica, said :
"That temporary evil will be productive of permanent good —
(cheers) — and we shall find in various quarters of the globe sure and
certain and ample supplies, which will render us no longer dependent
upon one source of production for that which is so necessary for the
industry and welfare of the country."*
The extent of the dependence of Great Britain upOn cotton,
will be understood when it is stated that the total value of all her
exports, for the year ending December 31, 1860, f estimating the
pound sterling at $5,00, was $679,214,085. Of these exports the
value of cottons, cotton yarns, etc, of all descriptions was, $260,-
067,410; raw cotton, 350,428,640 pounds exported, at say 11 cents
per pound, $27,547,150 ; to this add the British domestic consump
tion of cottons, estimated at $120,000,000 ; making British in
terests in cotton alone at $407,614,560.
Reader, can you now comprehend the question of the cotton
supplies as it affects Great Britain !
We do not say that the abolitionists of America desired to
destroy our cotton cultivation for the benefit of the colonial pos
sessions of Great Britain. Their movements may be interpreted
on other principles. It has been conjectured, by a curious writer,
that Satan maintains his influence in the world, not by constant
attention to every man whom he is able to mislead — because he
is not omnipresent — but mainly by setting afloat such false max-

-* New York Observer, November, 1861.
t London Economist, March 2, 1861.

THB COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 588
ims in society as, on being accepted as rules of conduct, will cor
rupt mankind and mislead them to their ruin.
So it has been in reference to the abolitionists of the United
States. They have adopted, from time to time, one theory after
another in reference to slavery, and all of which nearly are now
demonstrated to be historically false. These theories, mostly,
were of foreign origin, and, like the false maxims of Satanic origin,
were designed to mislead the simple and the unwary. *
As in the moral and religious aspects of slavery, false maxims
have prevailed to a ruinous extent, so in reference to its economi
cal relations, theories equally untrue and absurd have, from time
to time, been set afloat, and as eagerly seized upon to promote the
interests of abolition. Who does not remember the labored at
tempts to prove that the Union, to the North, was of but little
value, pecuniarily — about thirty-nine cents, perhaps, to each per
son in the North, according to one abolition organ — and that,
therefore, the Northern States would be more prosperous were the
Southern States cast off as a useless burden ! The story of the
hay crop — not a pound of which is exported, as being of more
value than the cotton crop, two hundred millions of dollars worth
of which are exported — is still fresh in the memory of the intel
ligent reader. Because, forsooth, we had three hundred millions
of dollars worth of hay, we could very well do without the two
hundred millions worth of cotton! The mountaineer gentleman,
as the joke runs, has a costly pair of spurs and a glossy shirt-
collar, therefore he has no need of coat or other garments !
A few facts will set this point in its true light. Hay, instead
of being a standard of wealth, is but the indication of severity of
climate and prolonged winters. This proposition may be illus
trated by examples taken from a few of the Northern States,
which save large quantities of hay, as compared with the same
number in the South, which save but little hay; and yet, the
Southern States are able to subsist a much largCr amount of live
stock, from the fact that their climate is so favorable as to afford
pasturage throughout the winter:
* The preceding Chapters are devoted to the exposure of the false theories
of the anti-slavery men of the United States,

584

PULPIT POLITICS.

STATES.
New Hampshire.
-Vermont.. ,.l. ......
Maine 
C6nnecticut ., 
Michigan 
Georgia 
Alabama ....n 
Mississippi ,... 
South Carolina....
Arkansas..., 

HA-f, TUNS.

HORSES, CAT
TLE, ETC.

598,854

302,162

866,163

410,123

'755,889

385,115

516,131

239,603

404,943

333,073

123,449

1,306,238

32,685.

915,911

12,504

903,977

20,925

912,340

3,976

364,466

384,756
1,014,122 451,677 174,181
746,435560,435
371,880304,9'29
285,551 91,256

63^8766,29654,69S
76,472
206,847
2,168,6171,904,540.1,682,734
1,065,603 836,727

But we must not dwell upon the absurdities of these ruinous
theories, gotten up to familiarize the public mind, at the North,
with the idea of disunion.
Another topic claims attention, as illustrating, more fully, the
facility with which errors on economical questions, as well as upon
moral ones, may be propagated. When our national difficulties
were approaching a crisis — with an object in view not requiring
notice here — the attempt was made to create the impression that
Europe was not so dependent upon American cotton as had been
represented. ¦ Statements were set afloat which were calculated to
deceive the careless thinker ; and which did deceive tens of thour
sands of men, otherwise intelligent and guarded in their acceptance
of theories and maxims. Take an example of a later date, as
representing the whole, and which is as amusing to the public, as
it must now be mortifying to its victim :
The senior editor of the New York Observer— a, religious paper
always in opposition to abolition — on retiring to his country seat,
in the forepart of the summer of 1861, thus wrote :
" Ten years hence India will furnish aa much cotton within a trifle
as America will, even if the rate of increase continues in this country
as rapidly in the next ten years as it has in the last decade of years.'!
This opinion of the editor was based on the statements made in
an article in the North British Review, which contained the esti
mates of the increase alone in the British supplies of cotton, froiH
the several cotton-growing countries, from 1850 to 1857. Thie
Review says :

" During that period the increase of 300,000,000 pounds, in round

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 585
numbers, in our imports of cotton was furnished by the fbllowing
countries : POUNltS.
United States  161,604,906
Egypt  5,910,730
West Indies  1 134 657
East Indies  131,465,402
Africa and others  5,896,462
The article quoted appeared in the course of the summer of 1861.
The deception practiced is in the selection of the seven years
ending with 1857, The years 1850, 1851, and 1857, gave short
crops in the United States, and there was consequently a largely
increased importation from India, because of the increased prices.
Had the contrast been made bet-ween India and America for the
years 1858, 1859, and 1860, the increase of imports into England
would have ranged so as to lead to a very different conclusion
from that indorsed by the Observer. It was as follows :
POUNDS.
United States, increase  383,486,768
East Indies, increase,  ¦....,  65,887,808
West Indies and other countries, decrease  ,  ,... 196,224
Egypt, increase  ,  9,077,224
Brazil, increase  820,064
These statistics tell a very different storyi as to the present con
dition of the cotton supplies, from those quoted by the New York
Observer. Again, the Observer quotes from the Review :
" If we take the fourteen years from 1843 to 1857, we find that the
cotton countries increased their shipments to England as follows :
FEE CENT.
United States  15
Egypt  140
Brazil  54
East Indies  •  288
Africa  ^O"
A still greater deception is here practiced upon the careless read
er, by giving results in per cents., than even by the mode of contrast
above noticed. The year 1843 gave 65,709,729 pounds of cotton

586 PULPIT POLITICS.
from India — a much less quantity than in the two preceding
years ; while 1857 gave 250,388,144 pounds — a great increase over
that of any year before or since, except 1861. The premeditated
deception here practiced is apparent, when it is further stated,
that, owing to our short crop, England received 125,281,978
pounds less from us in 1857 than she had the previous year, and
461,132,560 pounds less than in 1860. Had the contrast been
drawn between the years 1857 and 1860, the result, instead of
showijjg an increase from India, would have presented a decrease
of twenty-three per cent. The increase from Africa may have
been at the rate of three hundred per cent., but then the whole
imports from the favored African districts of Lagos and Abbeo
kuta, in 1857, were only 35,000 pounds.
And, again, the Observer quotes :
" If we take the import of 1857 as the basis, and assume the in
crease of the fourteen succeeding years to be in the same ratio, the
rate of increase in 1871 will be as follows : POUNDS.
United States  753,911,764
East Indies  720,973,853
Brazil  ,.  ,  45,464,464
Egypt  31,216,849
Africa and others  23,758,480
It is only necessary, in noticing this formidable array of figures,
to say that the imports of cotton into Great Britain from the
United States, for 1860, were 1,115,890,608 pounds, or 362,297,-
854 pounds in excess of what it was to be, according to the Ob
server, in 1871 ; and that the supplies from India, in 1860, instead
of having increased at the rate of two hundred and eighty-eight
per cent,, were actually decreased below those of 1857, to the
amount of 45,196,976 pounds ! Brazil, too, instead pf having
had an increase between 1857 and 1860, supplied less in the latter
year than in the former by 12,623,968 pounds. Egypt alone sup
plied more in 1860 than in 1857.
These examples of the manner in which the most absurd and
erroneous propositions may be ^et afloat and accepted as true,
must suffice as illustrations of the mode in which the public mind
in the United States has been misled on the subject of slavery.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 587
A remark or two, and we have done. It will be seen that the
amount of cotton imported from India, by Great Britain, in 1861,
though one hundred and sixty-four millions pounds larger than
during the year 1860, is only a little over one hundred and eighteen
millions more than her imports were in 1857. Her imports
from the United States during the year, have been 819,500,528
pounds, all of which, nearly, must have been shipped before the
blockade of our ports. As this is considerably more than she
received from us in the whole of the year 1858, or any preceding
year, it is evident that the loss of the American cotton crop is
only beginning to be felt in its full force in England, Indeed, the
London Economist, in its estimates, showed that, by working short
time, the manufacturers, with the supplies on hand, might avoid
much suffering until the first of July of the present year; but
that the strange counter -movement of reexporting cotton largely
from Liverpool back to New England, in consequence of the ad
vantages gained by the American manufacturer through the Mor
rill tariff, would probably bring on the crisis by the first of May.
In relation to the chances that the East Indies might gain such
advantages, by the American war, as to secure to itself the markets
of Great Britain, the Economist, January 25, 1862, says :
"Such an entire misapprehension appears to prevail on this subject,
and such strange and transparent delusions are daily propagated
through the various organs of the Press as to the true merits of the
controversy, that we must endeavor, even at the risk of repeating our
selves and wearying our more attentive readers, to e'xplain once for all
the real facts — or rather the one fact — which lies at the root of the
competition between cotton the growth of the slave States of America,
and cotton the growth of our own East India possessions 
It is the more essential that the public should Clearly understand the
matter in hand, because we find among many sagacious persons the
impression that if the India cotton can only have a year or two's start,
so as to establish itself in the British market, it will be able to hold
its strong ground and even to supersede the American ; that this year
or two will be secured to it by a continuance of the civil war and the
blockade; and that, therefore, we ought, rather to rejoice at than to
deprecate that continuance. The notion is so wholly fallacious, and
so very mischievous, that no time ought to be lost in eradicating it.
 The case is briefly this. India cotton has for the last

588 PULPIT POLITICS.
half century been as well known and as habitually used in this coun
try as American cotton. It has been just as regular an article of im
port and consumption as its rival  . It has always reached
us in the quantities requisite to supplement the American crop. When
the latter was abundant, comparatively little Surat * was used ; when
it was scanty, the demand for Surat increased  The Orleans
cotton was alvrays worth just half as much again as the Surat, for
nearly all purposes for which the latter could be used at all, i. e., for
the coarser yarns and fabrics  When Orleans could be
purchased at 3d or 4:d a pound, the consumption of' Surat almost
ceased  The explanation of this is very simple. The
fibre of the Orleans cotton is much longer, more even, and more silky
than that of Surat  So much of the Surat cotton, falls
down as dust, or flies off as dust and flock, in the process of working it
into yarn, that a pound of it makes much less yarn or cloth than a pound
of Orleans, Being shorter in fibre, also, it requires more twisting to
give it the required strength, and, therefore, can not be made into
yarn so fast. From these two causes, its value to the manipulator is
never more than tworthirds that of an equal weight of its American
rival — and never can be more, whatever improvements and adaptations
of machinery may be introduced, so long as its quality and character
remain unaltered — for not only is its quality inferior, but its character
is peculiar  The plain, simple, conclusive truth is that
the American cotton has more in it than the India  The
moment the American cotton redppears in Liverpool, it will resume its
old position of superiority  The American and India cot
ton are specifically different.  The cultivation of the im
ported article has never been able to spread — the plain truth being
that the one is a natural and the other an artificial cultivation 
But of this we are confident — till Africa is settled and civilized, the
Southern States of the Union will always be the cheapest and best
cotton field in the world." f
The "cotton question" can now be comprehended by the reader;
and the disastrous effects of either the prolongation of the war,
or the emancipation of the slaves, upon the manufactures and
commerce of Great Britain, as well as of France, can be easily
discerned. In all other cotton producing regions, of any practical
* Surat is the trade name for India cotton, and Orleans for the American,
t The italics are the Economist's own, throughout the quotations.

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. ' 589
importance, there has been a reduction of exports ; and the East
India cotton can not be made to supersede the American. These
are the present facts.
Our government, therefore, by a wise policy, might have con
tinued to enjoy the monopoly of the cotton markets, and to reap
the rich rewards it secured. But there is a party in England,
alluded to by the Economist, who believe that the British colonies
can be restored to their former prosperity, and the owners of the
ruined estates elevated from poverty to opulence, by the prostra
tion of the American planter ; and we have in our midst an asso
ciation of men who boast that they are sustained, by the munifi
cence of Englishmen, in their labors for the destruction of the
Constitution and the Union, as a means of putting an end to cot
ton culture by slave labor; and they well know that the negro,
when free, lies as an incubus upon the country which retains him.
As to the colonization which they propose, it is all a delusion ; it
is wholly impracticable, except by force, and would be the destruc
tion of the colored people subjected to the experiment.
We have also had a party in this country, who grieved over the
loss, by the South, of the direct trade with Europe, and who im
agined that they could, by a dissolution of the Union, secure to
themselves not only the advantages of the commerce based upon
the crops of tobacco, rice, and cotton ; but that they would also,
by political independence, become the most prosperous nation in
the world.
These two parties may be considered as having had their chief
seats in New England and South Carolina. Both were struggling
for the same object, the overthrow of the Republic. The seces
sionist desired the dissolution of the Union, that he might retain
and enlarge his slave labor forces, secure a direct trade with
foreign nations, and maintain the monopoly of the cotton markets
of the world. The abolitionist wanted the secessionist out of the
Union, but not until he should be robbed of his slaves, so that the
American cotton monopoly might be destroyed forever, and British
subjects be enabled thereby to recover the losses arising from thefr
philanthropic experiments with the negro. These objects were
not all openly avowed; but that they formed a part of the designs

590 PULPIT POLITICS.
in the abolition movement, has been apparent from the first to
discerning men.
This, then, is the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged.
The success of secession will lessen the foreign commerce of the
nation, at once, to the extent of more than two hundred millions
of dollars. The success of abolition will lessen it to an equal ex
tent ; and, at the same time, it will reduce the Southern States to
the condition of Mexico, which is able only to raise its own bread,
and has less than two millions of dollars of annual exports of
agricultural products.
Now, a word here, as to the position of the Great West. The
success of secession deprives us of the free navigation of the Mis
sissippi, and presents us as humble suppliants at the footstool of
the South, for a market for our surplus products. We must pay
them tribute, or have the fruits of our labor left to Tot upon our
hands. The success of abolition leaves us in precisely the same
condition, as to a loss of our Southern markets, excepting the
payment of tribute. The South, with four millions of free negroes,
can not carry on its cotton culture, as all past experience proves ;
and can not, therefore, continue to purchase the productions of
the West. In either case, therefore, the West will be ruined.
And, here, those who laughed at Mr. Lincoln, for talking of
giving " protection " to Western corn, will find, perhaps, that there
was more meaning in it than at first appeared to the minds of the
iron masters, who called out the remark. Illinois and Iowa
understand, now, the necessity of protection to their corn. The
Southern market cut off, leaves them with only the Eastern market,
and many, many leagues of railroads between their corn-cribs
and the purchasers of their corn. Sixty-five cents per bushel, in
New York, they may get; but they must pay fifty-five for its
transportation, besides commissions. Truly they need protection ;
and that protection can only be found in the preservation of the
Constitution and the Union — in the recovery of the navigation
of the Mississippi — and, for this, ttieir sons are pouring out their
blood like water.
The war now waged is a contest for the richest boon a nation
ever possessed. The position of the Bxecntive at Washington, is

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE, 591
one of peculiar responsibility. On the one hand he has to con
tend against those who would destroy American commerce by
emancipation; on the other he is combating forces who seek to
wrench more than two hundred millions of dollars' worth of domes
tic exports from the nation by secession. The success of either
party, for the present, sounds the knell of American greatness
and glory. To the nation the question is, whether our foreign
commerce, in the products of the soil, shall be fifty millions of
dollars or two hundred and fifty millions ; whether among com
mercial nations we shall become a second-rate power, or maintain
our late position of one of the first class. It is a question whether
fanaticism at the North or rebellion at the South, shall succeed in
the destruction of the Union ; whether the President shall yield to
the one or to the other, and sink, along with his Government, into
the depths of degradation and ruin; or whether, rising, like the
true statesman, above the influence of faction, he shall plant him
self upon the Constitution, and, rescuing the country from destruc
tion, shall crown himself with immortal fame. May the nation in
its majesty, and the army in its power, resolve to sustain him in
his determination to, preserve the Constitution and the Union !

CHAPTER XII.
PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION TO PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
We can not select a better introduction to this closing chapter
than the foillowing extract from the eloquent Bdrke :
"Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement, No
sound ought to be heard in the Church but the voice of healing charity.
The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that
of religion, by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper
character, to assume what does not belong to .them, are, for the greater
part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character
they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world, in which they
are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs, on which
they pronounce with so much confidence, they know nothing of poli
tics but the passions they excite. Surely the church is a place where
One day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities
of mankind."
Section I. — The Clergy of New England and the War
OF 1812.
To afford the reader a correct idea of the extent to which clerr
gymen may be roused by political controversy, and the reproach
which they may bring upon religion by yielding to the excite
ments of the day, we need only refer to the character of the
preaching in- New England, in relation to the War of 1812.*
The quotations are taken from sermons of New England clergy
men who opposed the war, and threw the whole weight of their
influence upon the side of the politicians who labored to embar
rass the Government in defending itself against a foreign foe.
* "We copy from the Olive Branch, a volume published by the venerable
Matthew Carey, in 1815.
(B92)

THB CLERGY AND THE WAR OF 1812. 593
The bitterness of that controversy is little known to the people
of the present day, but may be inferred from the violence of the
pulpit productions which it elicited. A few extracts only can be
given, as our Volume is afready swelled much beyond the size at
first contemplated. It will be seen, from the very first sentences
quoted, that New England clergymen were talking of secession —
of "cutting the connection" — as early as 1812; and that Mr.
Quincy, of Boston, before quoted, was not alone in his opinions
of the duty of dissolving the Union.
The Rev. Mr. Gardiner, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston,
July 23, 1812, in his sermon on Psalm cxx : 7, said :
" The alternative is, that if you do not wish to become the slaves of
those WHO OWN SLAVES, and who are themselves slaves of French
Slaves, you must either, in the language of the day, cut the connec
tion, or so far alter the national compact as to insure yourselves a due
share in the government.''
" Let no considerations whatever, my brethren, deter you, at all times,
and in all places, from execrating the present war. It is a war unjust,
foolish, and ruinous. It is unjust, because Great Britain has of
fered us EVERT concession SHORT OF WHAT SHE CONCEIVES WOULD
BE HER RUIN."
"As Mr. Madison has declared war, let Mr. Madison carry it on."
" The Union has been long since virtually dissolved, and it
IS FULL time that THIS PART OF THE DISUNITED STATES SHOULD
TAKE CARE OP ITSELF."
The Rev. David Osgood, D. D., Pastor of the church at Med-
ford, said:
" If, at the command of weak or wicked rulers, they undertake
an unjust war, each man who volunteers his services in such a cause,
or loans his money for its support, or, by his conversation, his writings,
or any other mode of influence, encourages its prosecution, that man is
an accomplice in the wickedness, loads his conscience with the blackest
crimes — brings the guilt of blood upon his soul, and — in the sight
OF God and his Law, is a murderer."
"My mind has been in a constant agony, not so much at the inevit
able loss of our temporal prosperity and happiness, and the complicated
miseries of war, as at its guilt, its outrage against heaven, against all
38

594 PULPIT POLITICS.
truth, honesty, justice, goodness — against all the principles of social
happiness." " Were not the authors of this war in character nearly akin to
the deists and atheists of France; were, they not men of hardened
hearts, seared consciences, reprobate minds, and desperate wickedness,
it seems utterly inconceivable that they should have made the declar
ation." " One hope only remains, that this stroke of perfidy may open the
eyes of a besotted people ; that they may awake, like a giant from his
slumbers, and wreak their vengeance on their betrayers, by
driving them from their stations, and placing at the helm more skili-
fhl and faithful hands,"
Rev. Elijah Parish, in a discourse delivered at Byfield, said :
"Such is the temper of American republicans, so-called, A new
language must be invented before we attempt to express the baseness
of their conduct, or describe the rottenness of their hearts,"
"New England, if invaded, would be obliged to defend herself. Do
you not, then, owe it to your children, and owe it to your God, to make
peace for yourselves?"
"A thousand times as many sons of America have probably fallen
victims of this ungodly war as perished in Israel by the edict of Pha-
roah. Still the war is only beginning. If ten thousand have fallen, ten
thousand times ten thousand may fall."*
" Should the English now be at liberty to send all their armies and
all their ships to America, and, in one day, burn every city from Maine
to Georgia, your condescending rulers would play on their harps, while
they gaze at the tremendous conflagration."
" Here we must trample on the mandates of despotism I or here we
must remain slaves forever."
" You may envy the privilege of Israel, and mourn that no land of
Canaan has been promised to your ancestors. You can not separate
from that mass of corruption, which would poison the atmosphere of
Paradise, You must, in obstinate despair, bow down your necks to the
yoke, and, with your African brethren, drag the chains of Virginia des
potism, unless,^you discover some other mode of escape."
* " Those who take the trouble of multiplying, will find that ten thousand
times ten thousand make. 100,000,000, who are to perish out of a population
of 8,000,0001"— Ofwe Branch.

the CLERGY AND THE WAR OF 1812. 595
"Let every man who sanctions this war by his suffrage or influence,
remember that he is laboring to cover himself and his country with
blood. The blood op the slain will cry from the ground
against him ! "
" How will the supporters of this anti-Christian warfare endure their
sentence — endure their own reflections — endure the fire that forever
burns — the worm which never dies — the hosannas of heaven — while
THE smoke of their TORMENTS ASCENDS FOREVER AND EVER I " '
We could multiply extracts, but here are enough to prove that
clergymen, on political questions, are about as liable to be wrong
as right. As these are some of the clerical gentlemen referred
to in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, page 445, volume VI, we
shall present his views upon the question of ministers preaching
politics in the pulprt.
" On one question only I differ from him, (Eev. Mr. McLeod, of
New York City,) and it is that which constitutes the subject of his
first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs in the pulpit. I
add the last words, because I admit the right in general conversation
and in writing ; in which last form it has been exercised in the valu
able book you have now fevered me with.
" The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the
field of knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best
advantage is so extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole
himself, and much less in that degree necessary for the instruction of
others. It has, of necessity, then, been distributed into different
departments, each of which, singly, may give occupation enough to
the whole time and attention of a single individual. Thus we have
teachers of Languages, teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philoso
phy, of Chemistry, of Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government,
etc. Religion, too, is a separate department, and happens to be the
only one deemed requisite for all men, however high or low. Collec
tions of men associate together, under the name of congregations, and
employ a religious teacher of the particular sect of opinions of which
they happen to be, and contribute to make up a stipend as a compen
sation for the trouble of delivering them, at such periods as they agree
on lessons in the religion they profess. If they want instruction in
other sciences or arts, they apply to other instructors; and this is
generally the business of early life. But I suppose there is not an

596 PULPIT politics.
instance of a single congregation which has employed their preacher
for the mixed purpose of lecturing them from the^ulpit in Chemistry,
in Medicine, in Law, in the science and principles of Government, or
anything but Religion exclusively. Whenever, therefore, preachers,
instead of a lesson in religion, put them off with a discourse on the
Coperhican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of gov
ernment, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is
a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service
for which they are salaried, and giving them, instead of it, what they
did not want, or, if wanted, would rather seek from better sources in
that particular art or science. In choosing our pastor we look to his
religious qualifications, without inquiring into his physical or political
dogmas, with which we mean to have nothing to do. I am aware that
arguments may be found, which may twist a thread of politics into the
cord of religious duties. So may they for every other branch of human
art or science. Thus, for example, it is a religious duty to obey the
laws of our country ; the teacher of religion, therefore, must instruct
us in those laws, that we may know how to obey them. It is a religi
ous duty to assist our sick neighbors ; the preacher must, therefore,
teach us medicine, that we may do it understandingly. It is a religi
ous duty to preserve our own health ; our religious teacher, then, must
tell us what dishes are unwholesome, and give us recipes in cookery,
that we may learn how to prepare them. And so, ingenuity, by gen
eralizing more and more, may amalgamate all the branches of science
into any one of them, and the physician who is paid to visit the sick,
may give a sermon instead of medicine, and the merchant to whom
money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief instead of it. But
notwithstanding this possible confusion of all sciences into one, com
mon sense draws lines between them sufficiently distinct for the gen
eral purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to understand that a recipe
in Medicine or Cookery, or a demonstration in Geometry, is not a lesson
in religion. I do not deny that a congregation may, if they please,
agree with their preacher that he shall instruct them in Medicine also,
or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these, from the pulpit, become
not a matter of right, but of duty also. But this must be with the
consent of every individual ; because the association being voluntary,
the mere majority has no right to apply the contributions of the minor
ity to purposes unspecified in the agreement of the congregation. I
agree, too, that, on all occasions, the preacher has the right, equally with
every other citizen, to express his sentiments, in speaking or writing.

THE CLERGY AND THB CONGRESS OF THE U. S., 1854. 597
on the subject of Medicine, Law, Politi^, etc., his leisure time being
his own, and his congregation not obliged to listen to his conversation
or to read his writings ; and no one would have regretted more than
myself, had any scruple as to this right withheld from us the valuable
discourses which have led to the expression of an opinion as to the
true limits of the right. I feel my portion of indebtment to the rev
erend author for the distinguished learning, the logic, and the elo
quence With which he has proved that religion, as well as reason, con
firms the soundness of those principles on whioh our Government has
been founded, and its rights asserted.
" These are my -views on the question. They are in opposition to
those of the highly respected and able preacher, and are, therefore,
the more doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry,
and inquiry to truth ; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere
object of us both. We value too much the freedom of opinion sanc
tioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in
opposition to ourselves.
" Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery, in the expression of my
opinions, I have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by
your letter and present. And although I have not the honor of your
acquaintance, this mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of
esteem so kindly expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence
that observations not intended for the public wall not be ushered to
their notice as has happened to me sometimes. «' Tranquillity, at my age,
is the balm of life.
" While I know I am safe in the honor of a McLeod, I do not wish
to be east forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and theRobespierres of
the Priesthood ; I mean the Parishes, the Ogdens, and the Gardiners
of Massachusetts. " Thomas Jefferson.
" MonTiCELLO, March 13, 1815."
Section II. — The three thousand and fifty Clergymen op
New England, and the Congress of 1854.
In 1854, during the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, three thou
sand and fifty clergymen of New England forwarded a protest
to the United States Senate, against the passage of the Ne
braska Bill.
This protest, on being presented to the Senate, led to much
excitement and considerable debate. The opinions expressed by

598 PULPIT POLITICS.
the senators who took pa^t in the discussion, are of great in-
'terest, as embodying the sentiments of public men of eminence
upon the question under consideration. They are important
also, as presenting' a faithful ijidex to the general sentiment of
the public at large, on the question of the interference of cler
gymen in the political agitations of the country, and should be
well Considered by the spiritual teachers of the people. The
question is not, whether clergymen have the same rights, poli
tically, as other citizens ; this no one denies ; but their indul
gence in political preaching, or their separate action in reference
to political topics, presents a subject for prudential consideration
alone, as it affects their usefulness among those amidst whom
they labor. See how the matter presents itself in a practical .
way. On none of the questions in relation to slavery, or any
other one connected with party politics, are the clergymen united
in opinion. What, then, are the unevangelized portion of the
community to think, when they see one party of ministers of
the Gospel come before the legislative councils of the nation, de
manding, in the name of Almighty God, the adoption of a par
ticular course of policy ; -while another party, equally respectable,
present themselves before the same a-uthorities, demanding,, in
the same sacred name, the. very opposite policy ? Surely, before
the world at large, such a scene could be viewed only as a solemn
farce !
Protest of 3,050 New England Clergymen, of all Denomina
tions and Se,cts in New England, remonstrating against the
passage of the Nebraska Bill.
"To the Honorable, the Senate and House of
Representatives, in Congress assembled : —
" The undersigned, clergymen of different religious denominations
in New England, hereby, in the name of Almighty God, and in his
presence, do solemnly protest against the passage of what is known
as the Nebraska Bill, or any repeal or modification of the existing
legal prohibitions of slavery in that part of our national domain which
it is proposed to organise into the territories of Nebraska, and Kan
sas. We protest against it as a great moral wrong, as a breach of

THB CLERGY, AND THE CONGRESS OP THB U. S., 1854. 599
faith eminently unjust to the moral principles of the community, and
subversive of all confidence in national engagements; as a measure
full of danger to the peace and even the existence of our beloved
Union, and exposing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty :
and your protestants, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
"Boston, Massachusetts, March 1, 1854."
The presentation of this document brought on a full and free
discussion of the subject, from which we can make but a very
few extracts.
Mr. Mason said:
" I trust I shall never see the day when the Senate of the United
States will treat the authors of such petitions, upon any subject proper
for legislation pending before the body, coming from the people of
the United States, with aught but respect. But I understand this
petition to come from a class who have put aside their character of
citizens. It comes from a class who style themselves, in the petition,
ministers of the Gospel, and not citizens. They come before us — I
have not understood the petition wrong, I believe — as ministers of
the Gospel, not citizens, and denounce prospectively the action of the
Senate, in their language, as a moral wrong ; and they have the temer
ity, in the presence of the people of the United States, to invoke the
vengeance of the Almighty, whom they profess to serve, against us.
Sir, ministers of the Gospel are unknown to this Government, and
God forbid the day should ever come when they shall be known to
it. The great effort of the American people has been, by every form
of defensive measures, to keep that class away from the Government ;
to deny to them any access to it as a class, or any interference in its
proceedings. The best illustration of the wisdom of that measure in
our Government is to be found in this. Ministers of the Gospel, I
repeat, are unknown to the Government. Of all others, they are the
most encroaching, and, as a body, arrogant class of men. . . ,
If thirty thousand, or three hundred thousand citizens come from
New England, let them be heard ; but when they come here, not as
citizens, but declaring that they come as ministers of the Gospel, and,
as the honorable Senator from Texas declared them to be, vicegerents
of the Almighty — so I understood him to declare, possibly he meant
vice-regents to supervise and control the legislation of the country-^
I say, when^they come here as a class unknown to the Government,

600 PULPIT politics.
a class that the Government does not mean to know in any fOrm or
shape, not to recommend or remonstrate, but to denounce our action as
a great moral wrong, because they claim to be the ' -vicegerents ' of the
Almighty, we are bound — not from disrespect to them as citizens, not
from disrespect to the cloth which they do not grace, but from respect
to the Government, from respect to the sacred public trust which has
been committed to us — to carry out the policy of the Government
and refuse to recognize them. Sir, their object, as was well said by
the Senator from Illinois, has- been agitation — agitation; and I pre
sume that their cloth and their ministry will enable them to agitate
with some success."
Mr. Butler said :
" I have great respect, Mr. President, for the -pulpit. I have such
a respect for it that I would almost submit to a rebuke from a minister
of the Gospel, even in my official capacity ; but they lose a portion of
my respect when I see an organization, for, I believe, the first time in
the history of this Government, of clergymen within a local precinct,
within the limits of New England, assuming to be, as the Senator
from Texas said, the vicegerents of H.eaven, coming to the Senate of
the United States, not as citizens, as my friend from Virginia has
said, but as the organs of God— for they do not come here petitioning
or presenting their views under the sanction of the obligations and
responsibilities Of citizens under the Constitution of the United StateSj
but they have dared to quit the pulpit, and step into the political
arena, and speak as the organs of Almighty God. Sir, they assume
to be the foremen of the jury which is to pronounce the verdict and
judgment of God upon earth. They do not protest as ordinary citi
zens do ; but they mingle in their protest what they would have us
believe is the judgment of the Almighty. When the clergy quit the
province which is assigned to them, in which they can dispense the
Gospel — that Gospel which is represented as the lamb, not as the tiger
or the lion — when they would convert the lamb into the lion, going
about in the form of agitators, seeking whom they may devour, instead
of the meek and lowly representatives of Christ, they divest them
selves of all respect which I can give them. Sir, the ministers of the
Gospel are the representatives of the lowly and poor lamb — of Christ ;
but when the men who have signed that paper — I do not know with
what ends ; I do not say a word against them as individuals, for I

THE CLERGY, AND THE CONGRESS OF THE U. S., 1854. 601
have no doubt they are good and respectable, and many of them
Christians— assume to organize themselves as clergymen, to come be
fore the country and protest against the deliberations of the Senate
of the United States, they deserve, at least, the grave censure of the
body," Mr. Adams, of Mississippi, said :
" I trust I have as high a regard for their vocation as any other in
dividual, and as much respect for the ministers of peace and ^ood-will
on earth as any other individual ; but when they depart from their high
vocation, and come down to mingle in the turbid pools of politics, I
would treat them just as I would all other citizens, I would treat
their memorials and remonstrances precisely as I would those of other
citizens. It is so unlike the apostles and the ministers of Christ at an
early day, that it loses the potency which they suppose the styling them
selves ministers of the Gospel would give to their memorials. The
early ministers of Christ attended to their mission, one which was given
to them by their Master ; and under all circumstances, even when the
Savior himself was upon earth, and attempts were made to induce him
to give opinions with reference to the municipal affairs of the govern
ment, he refused. These men have descended from their high estate
to assail the action of this body. The Senator from Massachusetts,
(Mr. Everett,) in presenting the petition, has done what he considered
to be his duty; but I would remark, however, that with all the respect
which belongs to the high character of those individuals as ministers
of the Gospel, their petition should, under the circumstances, receive no
more respect from us than if it came from any other private citizens.''
Mr. Douglas said :
•' Now, sir, what is this remonstrance ? These men do not protest as
citizens. They do not protest in the name either of themselves or of
their fellow-citizens. They do not even protest in their own names, as
clergymen, against this act, but they say that ' we protest in the
NAME of Almighty God ;' and in order to make it more emphatic,
that they claim to speak by authority in their remonstrance, they un
derscore, in broad black lines, the words ' in the name of Almighty
God.' It is true, that they describe themselves as ministers of the
Gospel, but they claim to speak in the name of the Almighty on a
political question pending in the Congress of the United States. It

602 PULPIT POLITICS.
is an attempt to establish in this' country the doctrine that 'a body of
men, organized and known among the people as clergymen, have a
pecuhar right to determine the will of God in relation to legislative
action. It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our
politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative
power of this country subordinate to the Church. It is not only to
unite Church and State, but it is to put the State in subordination to
the dictates of the Church. Sir, you can not find, in the most despotic
countries, in the darkest ages, a bolder attempt on the part of the min
isters of the Gospel to usurp the power of government, and to say to
the people : ' You must not think for yourselves ; you must not dare
to act for yourselves ; you must, in all matters pertaining to the affairs
of this life, as well as the next, receive instructions from us ; and that,
too, in the performance of your civil and official, as well as your relig
ious duties.'
" Sir, I called attention to this matter for the purpose of showing that
it involved a great principle subversive of our free institutions. If we
recognize three thousand clergymen as having a higher right to inter
pret the will of God than we have, we destroy the right of self-action,
of self-government, of self- thought, and we are merely to refer each of
our political questions to this body of clergymen, to inquire of them
whether it is in conformity with the law of God and the will of the
Almighty, or not. This document, I repeat, purports to speak in the
name of Almighty God, and then enters a protest in that name. We
are put under the ban, we are excommunicated, the gates of heaven are
closed, unless we obey this behest, and stop in our course and carry out
these abolition views.
" The Senator from Texas says the people have a right to petition.
I do not question it. I do not wish to deprive ministers of the Gospel
of that right. I do not acknowledge that there is any member of this
body who has a higher respect and veneration either for a minister of
the Gospel, or for his holy calling, than I have ; but my respect is for
him in his calling. -I will not controvert what the Senator from Mas
sachusetts has said as to there being, perhaps, no body of men in this
country, three thousand in number, who combine more respectability
than these clergymen. Probably they combine all the respectability
which he claims for them ; but I will add, that I doubt whether there
is a body of men in America who cpmbine so much profound ignorance
on the question upon which they attempt to enlighten the Senate, as this
same body of preachers. How many pf them, do you suppose, sir,Tiave

THE CLERGY AND THE CONGRESS OF 1854. 603
ever taken up and read the act of 1820, to which I allude ? Do you
think there is one of them who has done so ? How many of them
ever read the votes by which the North repudiated that act of 1820 ?
Do you think one of them ever did? How many of them ever read
the various votes which I quoted on that act and the Arkansas act?
Do you think one of them knew anything about them ? How many
of them have ever traced the course of the compromise measures of
1850 on record? One of them ? Yet they assume, in the name of the
Almighty, to judge of facts, and laws, and votes, of which they know
nothing, and which they have no time to understand, if they perform
their duties, as clergymen, to their respective fiocks.
" They do not pretend to judge from the knowledge of this world,
from the records of the Senate, or from the statute-book, or from any
of the sources of information on which Senators and citizens predicate
their action ; but by the will and the law of God, and in his name, and
in consequence of their divine mission, they overrule all these, and pre
scribe a new test, and, in that name, they tell us that, by the passage
of the bill which we have passed, we have committed a moral wrong.
They tell us that it is subversive of all confidence in national engage
ments. " Now, let me ask, are these men particularly tenacious of national
engagements ? Did they, in their pulpits, in 1850 and 1851, tell their
followers that they were bound by their oaths, and by their religious
duty, to surrender fugitive slaves, in obedience to the Constitution ?
Did they tell their people that they must perform national engage
ments? Did they then tell their flocks that the Senate was right in
carrying out the provisions of the Constitution ? Have they been
particularly in the habit of enjoining in the pulpit and from the sacred
desk, as a matter of conscience, that the people should perform the
national engagements contained in the Constitution of our country,
and which we are all sworn to support ? Sir, I do not remember that
any one of these three thousand preachers, at the time when in Boston
and other points of this country there were attempts to resist the Fugi
tive Slave Law by force, came forward and said it was a divine duty to
perform national engagements. If they did, I have not seen the evi
dence of it. If they felt it was a matter of conscience and of duty on
the part of the clergy to supervise the fulfillment of national engage
ments, to preserve the public faith, and the public honor, where were
they then? when your Constitution was trampled upon, when oaths
of office could not bind men to perform their constitutional duty, when

604 PULPIT POLITICS.
public honor was being outraged, where then were these three thou
sand clergymen ? We did not hear from them on that occasion.
There was a national engagement which no man can deny ; yet they
did not raise their voices against its violation. But in this case,
merely because some abolitionists from this body have said that an
act of Congress constituted a national engagement, although the state
ment is contradicted by the record, they come forward at the bidding
of an abolition junta, to arraign the Senate of the United States in
the name of the Almighty I '-y
"Sir, I deny their authority, I deny that they have any such com
mission from the Almighty to decide this question, I deny that oUr
Constitution confers any such right upon them. I deny that the Bible
confers any such right upon them. They can perform their duties
within their sphere without my censure or my interference, and they
are responsible to the Almighty for the manner in which thfey perform
those duties; and I must be left to perform my duties within the sphere
of my functions, with no other responsibility than to my constituents
and to the Almighty, without the interference of those men. I do
not acknowledge them as an intermediate tribunal. I do not acknowl-
ledge that they are, as the gentleman from Texas has called them, the
vicegerents of the Almighty, and that they are to perform the duty
of overlooking our conduct. I repudiate the whole doctrine as at war
with the pure principles of Christianity, at war with the spirit of our
institutions, at war with our Constitution, at war with every principle
upon which a free government can rest."
Section III.— The Clergymen of Chicago and the Hon.
Stephen A. Douglas.
A FEW weeks after the 3,050 clergymen of New England for
warded their protest to Congress, the clergymen of Chicago and
the Northwest, to the number of twenty-five, also sent on a simi
lar protest " To the Senate and House of Representatives, in
Congress assembled."
The Chicago document was identical with that of New England,
with the exception of the addition of the words, " as citizens,"
and the difference in locality. Accompanying this protest were
several resolutions, expressive of the sentiments of the protestors,
and in one of which they passed a censure on Mr. Douglas and

THE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 605
Others. To this assault Mr. Douglas made a defense, and so
effectually has he exposed the dangers of their assumptions of
power, that we must copy a portion of it. Mr. Douglas says :
" With the exception Of the description of your locality ' in the
northwestern States ' instead ' of New England ' and of the interpola
tion of the words ' as citizens,' this protest is an exact copy of the one
presented to the Senate from the clergymen of New England, upon
whioh the debate occurred which you have condemned. After reading
that debate, and seeing the nature of the objections urged to the New
England protest, it seems that you determined to present youselves to
the Senate in a two -fold capacity — the one 'as citizens' and the other
'as ministers of the Gospel of Christ.' Nobody questions your right;
no one denies the propriety of your exercising the constitutional right
of petitioning government for redress of grievances in your capacity
as citizens ; nor can there be any well-founded objection to your add
ing these other words, ' as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if
done only as illustrative of your relations to society and of your pro
fession and occupation in life. This was not the obnoxious feature in
the New England protest. The objection urged to that paper was,
that the clergymen who had signed it did not protest in their own
names, as clergymen, or citizens, or human beings, or in the name of
any human authority or civil right, but they assumed the divine pre
rogative, and spoke to the Senate ' in the name of Almighty God 1'
" With the full knowledge that Senators, in the debate to which you
have alluded, understood the New England protest in this light — and
as asserting a di-vine power in the clergy of this country higher than
the obligations of the Constitution, and above the sovereignty of the
people and of the States — to command the Senators, by the authority
of Heaven, and under the penalty of exposing them ' to the righteous
judgment of the Almighty,' to vote in a particular way upon a given
question, you now re-adopt the protest, and repeat the command in the
identical language in which it was originally issued. This looks as
if it was your fixed and deliberate purpose, as clergymen, to force an
issue upon this point with the civil and political authorities of the
republic. If there were room for doubt or misapprehension, in this
respect, on the face of the New England protest, you have removed
all obscurity, and avowed the purpose distinctly and boldly in the
resolutions which you adopted at the time you signed the protest :
" ' Resolved, 1. That the ministry is the divinely-appointed institu-

606 PULPIT POLITICS.
tion for the declaration and ehforcement of God's will upon all points
of moral and religious truth ; and that, as such, it is their duty to, re
prove, rebuke, and exhort, with all authority and doctrine.'
" This resolution appears to have been adopted by you at an anti-
Nebraska meeting (composed exclusively of clergymen, twenty-five in
r umber), and called for the purpose of considering that question, and
none other. It was adopted in connection with the protest, and forms
a part of the same transaction. The protest denounces the Nebraska
Bill 'in the name of Almighty God,' as 'a great wrong' — as 'a breach
of faith eminently injurious to the moral principle of the community,'
and ' as exposing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty.' The
resolution declares ' that the. ministry is the divinely -appointed institu
tion for the declaration and enforcement of God's will upon all points
of moral and religious truth ! ' Do not the protest and the resolution
refer to the same question, to wit, the Nebraska Bill, now pending be
fore Congress? Surely you will not deny that such was your under
standing. You assembled to consider that question, and none other.
You acted upon that subject, and that alone. Your resolutions were
declaratory of the extent, of your rights and powers as clergymen, and
your protest was your action in conforimity with those assumed rights
and powers, I understand, then, your position to be this : that you are
' ministers of the Gospel ;' that ' the ministry is the divinely-appointed
institution for the declaration and enforcement of God's will upon all
points of moral and religious truth ;' and this ' divinely -appointed insti
tution ' is empowered ' to declare ' what questions of a civil, political, ju
dicial, or legislative character, do involve 'points of moral and religious
truth ;' that the Nebraska Bill does involve such ' points,' and is, there
fore, one of the questions upon which it is the duty of this ' divinely-
appointed institution ' to 'declare and enforce God's will;' and that,
clothed with ' all authority and doctrine,' this ' divinely-appointed
institution' proceeds to issue its mandates to the Congress of the United
States 'in the name of A}mighty God,' This being your position, I
must be permitted to say to you, in all Christian kindness, that I differ
with you widely, radically, and fundamentally, in respect to the nature
and extent of your rights, duties, and powers, as ministers of the Gos
pel, If the claims of this ' divinely -appointed institution ' shall be en
forced, and the various public functionaries shall yield their judgments
to your supervision, and their consciences to your keeping, there will
be no limit to your temporal power, except your own wise discretion
and virtuous forbearance. If your < divinely-appointed institution ' has

THE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 607
the power to prescribe the mode and terms for the organization of Ne
braska,^ I see no reason why your authority may not be extended over
the entire continent, not only to the country which we now possess, but
to all which may hereafter be acquired.
"Nor do you propose to confine your operations to the supervision
and direction of the action of Congress, in the organization of territorial
governments, and the admission of new States into the Union. It is
difficult to conceive of any matter of private or public concern, pending
before Congress, or in the Legislatures of the different States, or in tEe
judicial tribunals, which does not, quite as much as the Nebraska Bill,
' involve some point of moral and religious truth ;' and we are informed,
in your resolution, that 'upon all points of moral and religious truth'
the ' ministry is the divinely-appointed institution for the declaration
and enforcement of God's will. I do not wish to be understood as in
timating that it is your present purpose, through the agency of this
' divinely -appointed institution,' to declare and enforce God's will in all
matters affecting our foreign policy and domestic concerns, nor that
you intend to direct the movements of the political parties, and control
the local and general elections throughout the country. It is enough
to fill with alarm the mind of every patriot, and to bring sorrow and
grief to the heart of every Christian, that you have asserted the right
to do this in all cases, and have, in one case, attempted the exercise of
this divine prerogative ' in the name of Almighty God.' It is true that,
while you assert the right in the broadest terms, and propose now to
establish a precedent which will justify its exercise in all future time,
in your second resolution you ' disclaim all desire ' to do certain things,
from which it might be inferred, on first view, that you do not intend
to meddle with party polities, nor attempt to control the political move
ments of the day. This, however, turns out to be illusory, on a closer
examination. " ' Resolved, 2. That while we disclaim all desire to interfere in ques
tions of war and policy, or to mingle in the conflicts of political parties,
it is our duty to recognize the moral 'bearing of such questions and
conflicts, and to proclaim, in reference thereunto, no less than to other
departments of human interest, the principle of inspired truth and
obligation, '
" You do not ' desire to interfere in questions of war and policy.'
Thus far I heartily approve. I rejoice to see that you are willing to
leave the question of war where the Constitution has placed it — in the

608 PULPIT POLITICS.
hands of Congress, as the representatives of the people and the States
of the Union.
" You ' disclaim all desire,' also, ' to mingle in the conflicts of polit
ical parties.' This sentiment is admirable. It will meet the cordial
approbation of every patriot and Christian. But you immediately
follow it with the declaration that ' it is our duty to recognize the
moral bearing of such questions and conflicts 1 ' Ys>vl do not desire
to engage in war, nor to fight the battles of your country, but you do
claim that it is your right, and, if you please, your duty, by virtue of
your office as ministers, through the agency of this divinely-appointed
institution, to declare, in the name of Almighty God, a war in which
your country is engaged with a foreign power, to be immoral and un
righteous, although the representatives of the people and of'the States,
in pursuance of the Co'Bstitution, have declared it to be just and neces
sary. And this, not in the course of your ordinary pastoral duties to
your several congregations, but as an organized body speaking to the
constituted authorities of -the nation. I can not recognize^ the prin
ciple that, while you are protected in the enjoyment of all your rights
as citizens; of all your just rights as nynisters, you are yet released,
by virtue of your office as ministers, from your allegiance to your
country during war, and from your obligation of obedience to the
Constitution and laws, and constituted authorities at all times.
" You also say, that you consider it your duty to take cognizance
of ' the moral bearing of the conflicts of the different political parr
ties.' The moral bearing of the Democratic party, and of the Whig
party, and of the Abolition party, are each to be recognized by your
divinely-appointed institution ; and you then add, that it is yOur duty
'to proclaim, in reference thereunto, the principle of inspired truth
and obligation.' You propose^ through your divinely-appointed insti-
tu'tion, to apply the test of 'inspired truth' to each of^the political
organizations and to their respective conflicts, and ' to repf ove, re
buke, and exhort with all authority and doctrine,' in the name of the
great Jehovah. With all dufe respect for you, as ministers of the
Gospel, I can not recognize in your divinely-appointed institution the
power of prophecy or of revelation. I have never recognized the
existence of that power in any man on earth during my day. . . .
Your claims for the supremacy of this divinely-appointed institution
are subversive of the fundamental principles upon which our whole
republican system rests. What the necessity of Congress, if you can
supervise and direct its conduct? Why should the people subject

THE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 609
themselves to the trouble and expense of electing legislatures for the
purpose of enacting human laws, if their validity depends upon the
sanction of your divine authority ? Why sustain a vast and complex
judicial system, to expound the laws, administer justice, and determ
ine all disputes in respect to human rights, if your divinely-appointed
institution is invested with all authority to prescribe the rule of deci
sion in the name of the Deity? If your pretensions be just and
valid, why not dispense with all the machinery of human government,
and subject ourselves, freely and unreservedly, together with all our
temporal and spiritual interests and hopes, to the justice and mercy
of this divinely-appointed institution ?
" Our fathers held that the people were the only true source of all
political power ; but what avails this position, if the constituted au
thorities established by the people are to be controlled and directed
— not by their own judgment, not by the will of their constituents,
but by the divinely-constituted power of the clergy? Does it not
follow that this great principle, recognized and affirmed in the Con
stitution of the United States, and of every state in this Union, is
thus virtually annulled, and the representatives of the people con
verted into machines in the hands of an all-controlling priest
hood? " The will of the people, expressed in obedience to the forms and
pro-visions of the Constitution, is the supreme law of this land. But
your ' office as ministers ' is not provided for in the Constitution.
The persecutions of our ancestors were too fresh in the
memories of our revolutionary fathers for them to create, recognize,
or even tolerate, a church establishment in this country, clothed with
temporal authority. So apprehensive were they of the usurpations
of this, the most fearful and corrupting of all despotisms, whether
viewed with reference to the purity of the Church or the happiness
of the people, that they provided in the Constitution that ' no reli
gious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or
public trust under the United States.' Still, fearful that, in the process
of time, a spirit of religious fanaticism, or a spirit of ecclesiastical
domination, (yet more to be dreaded, because cool and calculating,)
might seize upon some exciting political topic, and, in an evil hour;
surprise or entrap the people into a dangerous concession of political
power to the clerg^, the first Congress under the Constitution pro
posed, and the people adopted, an amendment to gUard against such
a calamity, in the following words :
39

610 PULPIT POLITICS.
" ' Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli
gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'
" The doctrine of our fathers was, and the principle of the Consti
tution is, that every human being has an inalienable, divinely-con
ferred right to worship God according to the' dictates of his own
conscience; and that no earthly 'institution,' nor any 'institution' on
earth, can rightfully deprive him of that sacred and inestimable
privilege. " However, it is no part of my purpose to inquire into the extent of
your authority in spiritual affairs. That is a question between you
and your respective congregations, with which I have neither right
nor wish to interfere.
"All I have said, and all that I propose to, say, has direct ref
erence to the vindication of my character and position against the
Unjustifiable assaults which you have made in regard to my official
action in the Senate. I repeat, that your assumption of power from
the Almighty, to direct and control the civil authorities of this
country, is in derogation of the Constitution, subversive of the -prin
ciples of free government, and destructive of all the guarantees of
civil and religious liberty. The sovereign right of the people to
manage their own affairs, in conformity with the Constitution of their
own making, recedes and disappears, when placed in subordination to
the authority of a body of men, claiming, by virtue of their offices as
ministers, to be a divinely-appointed institution for the declaration
and enforcement of God's will upon earth."
Section IV. — Pulpit Politics in its Practical Results.
We have now held up the mirror to pulpit politicians, as it
comes into our hands from some of the ablest men of the nation.
They can behold themselves as Jefferson beheld them, in 1812 ;
and as the Senators' of the United States beheld them, in 1854.
If they do not like the portraits, they must hot again place
themselves before the daguerreotypist. It may seem defective
to them, but it is, nevertheless, a true picture — a true reflection
of the lineaments of their countenances.
But there is another aspect to this question. Suppose, for a
moment, that the clergyman who delves into politics may accom
plish some good for his party ; is not the service thus rendered
just so much of time, talent, and energy diverted from his legi-

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 611
timate duties ? and are we not to expect that his congregation
will suffer in proportion to his neglect of their spiritual inter
ests ? What was the argument used to justify the organization
of the " Business Men's Prayer Meetings," but that the clergy
had so far lost their hold upon the confidence of the people that
their efficiency had become greatly impaired, and laymen must
turn their talents and graces to account, or vital religion would
continue to decay or totally expire ?
It is well, therefore, to turn the attention of the class of cler
gymen to which we refer, to the results of the secularization
of the pulpit upon the interests of religion itself; and in doing
this we shall not ourselves draw up the statement, but profit by
the labors of an abler pen. And as Massachusetts has been the
chief seat of political preaching, it is very important to have one
of her own sons to describe its effects, after fifty years' labor
have been performed in that department of public teaching.
About the first of February, of the present year, the Boston
Courier contained the following article, under the head of " Po
litical Preaching : "
" Our genial and amiable cotemporary, the Saturday Evening Gaz
ette, says :
" ' The fact is, from some cause or other, there seems to be a
great falling off among our people in attending church services ; as,
comparing the number of our population with the seatings in our
churches, the preponderance of the former over the latter is very
marked. Some of the clergy are trying to solve the question, but
have not yet found tfie remedy.'
" It is not remarkable that the clergy are not competent to solve
this question ; a man is not able to see anything which is on the top
of his own head. The fact is true beyond all controversy, and a mel
ancholy fact it is too. Not only in this city, but throughout this
State — and, we fear, through most of New England — the interest in
religion, and in the observance of religion, is declining. The attend
ance upon church services is comparatively meager. Practical, if not
theoretical infidelity is spreading like a dry rot throughout the land.
The number of men who are living virtually without God is on the
increase. The heathen virtues of pride, self-esteem, self-reliance,
active courage, are rising in estimation, and the Christian virtues of

612 PULPIT POLITICS.
meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, are declining. Among
young persons, especially, of both sexes, there is a marked want of
vital and practical Christianity, and a prevailing lack of interest in its
ministrations and observances. The general characteristics of young
persons are impatience of discipline, resistance to authority, a fierce
assertion of assumed rights. To exact obedience is an outrage ; to
yield obedience is a weakness. Restraint of all kinds is resented as a
wrong ; and unchecked liberty — the power to do anything and every
thing that the natural and unregenerate heart prompts, without let or
hinderance — is valued as the highest good of man.
" And what is the cause of this unhappy state of things ? What
has led to all this free-thinking, and to this lawless conduct, which is
the legitimate child of free-thinking? No one cause can explain it
all ; but certainly the clergy themselves are in part to blame for it.
In the tenth chapter of Leviticus, we read that Nadab and Abihu
' offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they
died before the Lord.' In these words, the narrative of a transaction,
there is also a symbolical sense, and the expression of a vital and en
during truth. The clergy of New England have been offering ' strange
fire before the Lord ;' and the inevitable retribution has followed. And
this ' strange fire ' is the vulgar fire of secular politics — the fire of
worldly passions — ^which wastes and consumes the heart on which it
feeds. In such a heart the Christian graces can no more take root
than roses and lilies will flourish in the slag and refuse of a furnace.
Politics are usurping the place of religion, to a deplorable extent, in
the pulpits of New England. Sermons are degenerating into stump
speeches. The clergy are taking a more and more active part in
political movements. You will hardly find a political convention in
which one or more of the most active and noisy members are not cler
gymen. If you enter a New England church on any Sunday in the
year, the chances are at least even that you will hear a political
harangue, which part of the audience will be moved to applaud, and
part to hiss.
" And the political opinions which are enunciated from the pulpit,
are generally accompanied with a most offensive dogmatism and posi-
tiveness. This is natural enough. The clergyman is regarded with
peculiar deference, as a man removed from secular struggles and sec
ular stains, and set apart to break the bread of life to the people. He
is rarely contradicted ; he is treated by men as men treat women ; he

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 613
is never subjected to an intellectual rough and tumble; an atmosphere
of respect surrounds him, which protects him as cotton protects dia
monds. Upon sacred and religious topics he has a right to speak
with authority ; not only to soothe and heal and bless, but warn and
rebuke and admonish; he is false to his trust, if he do not. But
the habit of mind thus generated is easily transferred to secular
themes. The priest's authoritative tone is easily assumed when he
speaks on topics on which he and his parishioners stand on the same
plane of observation, and where their vision is quite as likely to be as
good as his. How common it is to see a young chick, just hatched
from a divinity school, running about with the shell yet on his head,
who will undertake to settle any question of administration or govern
ment as easily as he will pull off his glove ! The mistake is in sup
posing that, in regard to these problems, you can come to a satisfac
tory solution by some short cut of inspiration, by the intuitive moral
sense ; whereas the contrary is notoriously the fact. There is often a
ludicrous disproportion between the tone and manner with which
dogmas are uttered from the pulpit, and the substantial value of the
opinions themselves. To hear and see the preacher, one would sup
pose that he was enunciating the oracles of God, while what he is
really uttering is some shallow, sentimental or mischievious nonsense,
such as might have been picked up at an infant's school, a milliner's
shop, or a lunatic asylum.
" What we have been saying has particular reference to the subject
of slavery, on which this country has been growing stark mad for the
last few years. The clergymen of New England are all, or nearly
all, anti-slavery in sentiment and feeling. We do n't object to this ;
it needs no ghost from the grave to tell us that slavery is a great
social and economical evil, and that every patriot and every Christian
should be glad to see it removed. But most New England clergy
men are also Republicans, and here the trouble/ begins. Republican
ism involves two very distinct elements : first, that slavery is an evil,
wherein we are all agreed ; and, second, that the Republican method
of dealing with slavery is the true one ; wherein we are not all agreed
by any means. But the Republican clergymen can not or will not see
the distinction. In this view, the man who is not a Republican is not
opposed to slavery ; is pro-slavery, in short. And this narrowness
and intolerance comes from the fact that he mistakes emotion for in
sight — moral instincts for intellectual perceptions — a mistake under
which the universal New England mind is now suffering.

&14 PULPIT POLITICS.
" A religious congregation is not, and ought not to be formed on
the ground of unity in political faith. The same religious truths —
the same warnings, expostulations, encouragements, consolations-^are
to be addressed to Whigs, Democrats, Republicans, or Native Ameri
cans. Before the throne of God these distinctions melt away like
those of station, wealth, or dress. It is one of the most beautiful ele
ments in the Christian faith, that it brings together men who on secu
lar topics differ most widely. In the congregation of the over-zealous
Republican clergyman there will be, or may be, some persons who are
not Republicans. They are just as conscientious in their anti-Repub
licanism, as he is in his Republicanism. But they are constantly
exposed to the chances of hearing their convictions denounced, their
motives impugned, and having their blood stirred by insulting insinu
ations. They are obliged to sit still, and hear a clerical dogmatist,
from his vantage-ground of the pulpit, attack them with flimsy argu
ments, whose fallacy they have long since detected, aud could easily
show, if it were a proper place for discussion. They are Sent home
in a frame of mind anything but Sabbatical, if not muttering half-
suppressed curses between their teeth. The natural result follows;
they refuse to go to church where they are visited by denunciation,
and exasperated by abuse.
"Nor do we put the objection to political preaching solely oa the
ground that such preaching offends the earnest political convictions
of a portion of the congregation, and thus keeps them away from
church., The objection exists in hardly less force as to that part of
the congregation who may agree with the preacher in his views. The
preacher's duty is to teach religion, and not politics. The general
sentiment of the public would discountenance a clergyman who, in
stead of sermons, should give essays on banking or agriculture, on
political economy, on dietetics, on the use and abuse of medicines.
Why should such peculiar latitude be given to partisan politics ? Lay
men do not wish, on Sunday, to have their thoughts disturbed, and
their tempers tried, by the heating discussions and jarring conflicts
of the past six days. They go into the house of God to escape from
them. "'Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares,
Of earth and folly born,'
is the heart's natural language. On Sunday a man seeks to clear the
soul of the dust and soil of earth, and to garnish it with pure thoughts,
tranquil aspirations, ethereal hopes — flowers that have sucked the

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 615
dews of heaven— and how can he do this if his spiritual guide in
sists on shooting into the rubbish of politics ?
"The effect upon the clergy themselves of this habit of preaching
politics is most injurious. It acts upon the mind in much the same
way as dram-drinking acts upon the body. It begets a craving for
coarse, vulgar excitements, utterly inconsistent with a proper interest
in the appointed functions and appropriate meditations of the pas
toral office. The more engaged the clergyman becomes in political
issues, and the success of this or that political party, the more coldly
and languidly will he turn to religious themes and spiritual contem
plations. Once upon a time, a worldly man, who was wholly absorbed
in the accumulation of property, was gently remonstrated with by
his clergyman, and reminded of the necessity of preparing for another
world. ' Do n't talk to me of another world,' was the reply, ' one
world at a time is as much as I can attend to.' There is a frank
ness, a freedom of hypocrisy, in this answer, which we like. It in
cludes an obvious truth. No man, be he clergyman or layman, can
be wholly absorbed in the interests and issues of this world, and leave
due space in his heart for those of another. You can not serve God
and politics, any more than you can serve God and mammon.
" To general strictures like the above there are, of course, reason
able qualifications and exceptions. They are not true of every sect ;
still less are they true of every clergyman in any sect. But we appeal
to the great body of laymen in our community — especially those who
are no longer young — if there be not too much truth in what we have
said. That the spirit of religion is decaying, and the influence of the
clergy is declining, are melancholy facts. We are sorry for both ;
as sorry for the latter as tl^ former. Both facts are symptoms of
.the same disease ; and the same remedy is needed for both."
The author designs no unkind attack upon the clergy, in gen
eral, in the present work. Those who know him best, will believe
him incapable of such an act; on the contrary, they know the
better part of his life, and all his pecuniary means, have been
devoted to a " well-meant effort " to supply the churches with
sound theological reading ;* and that he commenced his efforts to
afford a safeguard against the sad errors in religion which were
coming in like a flood, in connection with the movements for
* The Calvinistic Family Library is here referred to, a work commenced and
prosecuted by the author for several years.

616 PULPIT POLITICS.
social and moral reform in general, and of philanthropic effort
in behalf of the African race in particular. His relation to the
Churches, as a working layman, has afforded to the author the
opportunity of investigating the general movements of Chris
tians for the evangelization of the world; and has enabled him
to trace their missionary movements, and bring out the results
in the most interesting contrasts preisented in the close of the
third chapter.
But that relation has enabled him to do more than this. It has
afforded him opportunities for observation as to the practical re
sults of " political preaching " upon the usefulness of the clergy
men who have indulged in the practice ; and he must say, iu
truth, as a general thing, that the devil can not have been much
alarmed at the rate in which they were making inroads upon his
kingdom. They were, mostly, much better qualified to divide
and distract congregations than to build them up ; much more
successful in generating angry disputes among their parishioners,
than in promoting brotherly love and kindly co-operation in car
rying on their Master's work, " By their fruits ye shall know
them ;" and lest some might suppose that the unfavorable opinion
here expressed proceeds from personal dislikes or prejudices, a
few quotations from the sayings of some of the clergy themselves,
will show that we have not underrated their want of efficiency in
the propagation of the Gospel. At a convention held at Xenia,
Ohio, a few years since, composed of delegates from the Scottish
American Presbyterian Churches, to lament over the ruins of
Zion, and project measures for the rebuilding of her broken-down
walls, the following declarations were made in the course of the
remarks of the speakers :
" We have been watching sins in sister Churches more than those
coming in on us from the world. . . . We ought to watch the
signs of the times more closely, and fall in more carefully and faith
fully with the movings of Providence in the world around us. We
have not done Our duty."*
" We must wait on God, and not trust too much in self. We must
"* Church Memorial, p. 234.

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 617
not go out of the means He has instituted, and substitute some ancient
tradition or new invention."*
" That covetousness which is idolatry has reached the ministers of
the Gospel as well as the farmers and business men of the land."t
" Rev. * * * said, the want of an intelligent faith in God produces
deadness in the Chureh. He mentioned several things in illustration
of this, viz., ministers' distrust of God to give them a support or com
fortable livelihood. . . . '. The want of discipline, through fear
that there will not be an increase in numbers  Immense
multitudes of souls are' going to perdition, and we are asleep. "J
" Religion has not been made a personal matter, and brought home
with sufficient directness and earnestness to the consciences of sin-
ners."§ "The Church, the ministry, and members of the Chureh, have been
trying to serve both God and mammon. "||
" Schism is a sin of the day. A divided Church is a weakened
society. The standard of piety is so low among us that if we did not
see men baptized at the Church, or see them at the communion-table,
we would not be able to tell who are Christians, and who are not. We
can not distinguish them from the men of the world in the market or
other places."*[[
" One favorable symptom of the time is a general dissatisfaction both
in and outside the Church. They feel that there is something wrong.
This is the feeling, not of one, but of all — not in one locality, but in
all localities. . , , Other nations, once enjoying the Gospel, have
now given it up. . . . Fifty years ago, the Scotch Presbyterian
influence had a controlling power; now rationalism, infidelity, and
skepticism abound. What have we to meet this ? Take all the
Churches represented here, and Old and New School Presbyterians,
if you please, and there is a decrease in the number of theological
students, while our population is increasing. A famine, not of bread
and water, but of hearing the Word. What is the cause ? Some say,
because ministers are kept at starvation prices. Parents turn their
children to some lucrative employment. This is a very business-like
view of the matter. One that is prevalent, and ministers give strength
to it — the secular press takes it up, and even fiction lends its aid, all
warning our youth against entering the ministry. After all, this is
* Church Memorial, p. 235. t Ibid., p. 235, J Ibid,, p. 236,
I Ibid., p, 237. II Ibid., p. 237. H Ibid,, p, 238,

618 PULPIT POLITICS.
not the cause. Offer them such salaries as bishops of England receive,
all would be vain to raising up ministers in the Church. The cause is
the declining, dead state of matters in the Church. Show us a revived
Church, and you will find plenty offering themselves to the work of
the ministry. See how it was after the day of Pentecost. They or
dained elders in every city. Isaiah is an illustration^^ a seraphim
touched his lips with a coal from the altar ; that coal was love ; when
he had touched his lips, a voice from the throne on high said, Whom
shall I send, and who will go for us? .The Lord reads to him his
commission. All terrors from poor salaries not to be compared to
the terribleness of that commission. There was no drawback when the
call had touched his lips and heart. Here is what we need ; we need
our young men prepared as Isaiah was. . . .
"Let me ask you to look at our want of success. The Gospel min
istry is for the conversion of sinners, and for the perfecting of the
saints. How little has it accomplished in our hands ! You have felt
this subject, every renewed heart has wept over it; sinners shun our
ministry. How many in a year follow you to your closets? The most
of us will have to say, not one. And what advancement in holiness
in our respective congregations ? In self-denial and that godly life
which should distinguish the Christian ? We have not been success
ful. What has been the cause? Will not the Spirit give the bless
ing? True, but can a ministry under the influence of faith be so
unsuccessful? Look back to the day of Pentecost. As long as the
Pentecostal spirit remained, there was continued success. When the
reverse came, there came a reverse effect."
At a meeting of the same parties, subsequently, in Philadel
phia, the following remarks were made :
" What are we doing ? There are hundreds of young men in our
congregations, but how many of them are brought forward to preach
the Gospel ? Perhaps not one ! They dribble into God's treasury
fifty or one hundred dollars for missionary operations, but not one
soul for God's ministry."*
" Rev. * * * 's impression was, that the Church's sin was the mind,
being withdrawn .from the great principles of salvation." ^
" I think it then of the first moment to get our minds affected with
this truth, that we, not this or the other people, or the Church here
* Church Memorial, p. 296, t Ibid., p, 297.

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS, 619
or there, but we ourselves, are in a spiritually lifeless condition. The
evidences we have before us. A state of death is a state of in
action."* " The rubbish must be removed, and Zion must be rebuilt. There
will be a separating from the nations. So it was in the Pentecostal.
Ministers disconnected themselves from everything else. They would
not even consent to distribute gold and silver, but deacons must be
chosen for this very work. Look at the result. The people came
forward and laid their possessions at the Apostles' feet. A man would
be accounted a madman in this land who would do as these did
under the Apostles' ministry. Let us take up our cross and follow
Jesus." f
But we must hold our hand. These penitential utterances are
sufficient to subserve our purpose ; which is to show that a pre
vailing sentiment exists that the Gospel ministry of the present
day are failing to come up to the standard of efficiency required
by the vows which are upon them. But in this, as in much else,
there is, we believe, a great amount of misconception on the part
of the ministry, as well as upon the part of the public. A min
ister considers his life unsuccessful, unless he can show such
brilliant successes as shall demonstrate clearly that he is a bright
particular star. This result may flatter his pride, but it is not
God's plan of promoting the kingdom of Christ in this world.
It is the quiet men who are the. successful men, though they
may die without being conscious of having wrought much good;
and in thus dying, they demonstrate the great truth connected
with God's moral government of the world. His rule of action
is this: "My glory I will not give to another, nor my praises
to graven images ;" and the minister who aims at personal glo
rification in his ministry, must expect to be disappointed. He
may do good ; but, as a Paul may plant, and an Apollos water,
yet it is God who giveth the increase, so God will take all the
glory of the world's redemption to himself.
A remark here, and we have done. How does it come, that
a body of men who exhibit so much humility in the practice of
their sacred profession, should be so daring in their claims of a
right to dictate in civil affairs?
* Church Memorial, p, 298. t Ibid., p, 311.

CONCLUSION.
Our labors are now terminated. Had not so many more pages
than was anticipated been filled by the materials used, we should
have closed with a somewhat extended representation of the points
proved in our book. But, as the passing comments upon each
subject discussed are often quite full, we must leave the intelligent
reader to make his own generalizations. A few propositions, how
ever, out of many that are fully demonstrated, may be noted, to
serve as guides to those who wish to gain an intelligible view of
the great problem before the country — the restoration of the Con
stitution, and the reconstruction of the Union, through the co
operation of the loyal population in the revolted States, and those
who may return to their allegiance.
This, as we read events, is the great aim of the President, and
is the only scheme for saving the country that has the merit of
being both practicable and beneficent. A reference to a few of
the points proved in this volume, will show that every other
measure proposed can bring nothing but ruin in its train. Among
other things, we have proved :
1. That the British theories on slavery are untrue, as applied
to America; and that slavery is not necessarily a bar to the
evangelization of the African race, but may be made greatly sub
servient to the promotion of that object.
2, That the ecclesiastical legislation, based upon the supposed
truthfulness of the British theories, has been uncalled for, injudi
cious, and destructive to the harmony of the Church, and the peace
of the country.
3. That, but for the ecclesiastical legislation at the North on
the question of slavery, political abolitionism could never have
had a basis upon which to found its action ; and that, but for these
(620)

CONCLUSION. 621
two causes combined — ecclesiastical and political abolitionism —
the South would have had no cause of alarm for the safety of its
constitutional rights, and would have felt no necessity of defending
itself against aggressions from the North.
4. That the early anti-slavery writers, in their efforts to prove
that slavery was sinful, were driven to the necessity of denying
that the Apostles of Christ understood their duties in relation to
Roman slavery ; and that, by denying that the teachings of the
Apostles are a proper guide to us now, on American slavery, they
were laying the basis for the rejection of the Scriptures as infal
lible guides upon other moral questions, and thus promoting doc
trines of infidel tendency.
5. That the converts to Christianity among the African race,
in all the mission fields outside of the United States, are more
than two hundred thousand less than the colored converts within
the slave States ; and that the Christian character of the converts
in the slave States is at least equal to that of the converts in
the Protestant missions anywhere throughout heathendom.
6. That the colored church-membership, in the slave States, is
nearly ten times greater in number than the converts in all the
foreign missions of all the American Protestant churches; and
that it is almost double the whole number of converts in all the
heathen missions under the care of all the churches of Protestant
Christendom. 7. That the whole of the white membership in both branches
of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church, in 1859, fell short
of the number of the colored church-members in the slave States,
to the extent of more than fifty thousand ; and that the member
ship in the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches, in 1861, fell
short of the number of the colored membership by more than
three hundred and eighty thousand; and yet, these Churches
were the first to pronounce slavery a barrier to African evangeli
zation ! /
8, That emancipation does not necessarily improve the moral
and physical condition of the colored race, but, on the contrary,
in many instances, it has been injurious and ruinous ; that care
ful moral training alone, under suitable constraint, can elevate

622

PULPIT POLITICS.

the colored people, whether in bondage or in freedom ; and that
as the Gospel is extensively preached to the slaves of the South,
and with eminent success, the Churches can find no justification
for attempting to interrupt that work by emancipation. -
9. That the African race, wherever fully emancipated, and left
free to act — though capable of fitful labor to the extent of sup
plying the actual necessaries of life — have proved themselves
wholly unreliable in the cultivation of staple productions, such as
now enter so largely into the commerce and manufactures of the
world ; that when thus set free, and left unaided by the superior
race, they invariably show themselves incapable of making any
intellectual or moral progress ; and that this result has been so
uniform, and so universal, that emancipation, in the southern
States, must necessarily be expected to lead to an almost total
suspension of the culture of their staple products, and the relapse
of the colored population itself back again toward its original
barbarism. 10. That the southern States have been increasing the annual
exports of the products of their soil, until it had reached, in 1860,
the value of more than two hundred millions of dollars, while the
northern States supplied, of similar products, for export, not more,
at any time, than fifty millions of dollars ; and that the dissolution
of the Union, or the emancipation of the slaves, would be equally
fatal to the prosperity of the country, as it would deprive it of this
immense amount of the elements of its foreign commerce.
11. That the success of abolitionism would prostrate, for gen
erations to come, the agricultural interests of the West, by de
priving its people of the only practicable market they have ever
possessed ; that the success of secession, in addition to affecting
this market injuriously, would leave the Western agriculturist
liable to the payment of tribute to the Confederacy, for the use
of the Mississippi, and subject the country to the frequent recur
rence of civil wars ; and that neither emancipation nor secession
can be allo-wed, as either would bring ruin upon the Northwest,
as well as upon the country at large.
12. That with the light we now possess on the " Cotton Ques
tion," there can no longer be any doubt that the restoration of

CONCLUSION. 623
the Union would at once enable the United States to resume and
perpetuate the monopoly of the cotton markets, so as to make the
worid again tributary to us for that commodity, and restore to the
Northwest its former prosperity, by once more putting it in pos
session of the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the profitable
markets the Southwest affords for Northwestern productions.
13. That as the slave population of the South have made
greater moral progress than, the same number of Africans any
where under the sun, whether slaves or freemen ; and as, by the
Constitution, the government is bound to protect all loyal men
in possession of their slaves;* there can be no argument for
emancipation based upon the grounds of humanity, and much less
can there be any justification of it upon Constitutional grounds :
because the liberation of one-half the slaves, or those belonging
to the disloyal, would render the remainder worthless in the pre
sence of so many free negroes, and thus the innocent be involved
in ruin along with the guilty — the government thus showing
itself unable to protect its loyal citizens.
14, That the conservative men, both North and South, in
allowing two antagonistic sectional factions to keep the country
in a continual uproar, and, ultimately, to involve it in civil war,
have been criminally remiss in the discharge of their Constitu
tional obligations, and are now justly suffering the penalty of
their apathy to the safety of the Union,
The bearing of the question of the preservation of the Union
can now be perceived. If the abolitiomsts succeed, the markets
of the Northwest will be almost annihilated, and the foreign com
merce of the country dwindle down to insignificance as compared
with its former extent. If the secession movement prevails, every
section of the Union will suffer, and the nation at large be ruined.
But if the plan of the Executive is sustained, so that the Consti
tution and the Union shall be restored to what they were before
the rebellion, and the secessionists on the one hand, and the
abolitionists on the other, are forever driven into the insignifi
cance they deserve, by the frowns of an indignant people, then,
* See opinion of Judge M'Leau, in the Dred Scott case, where he asserts that
the right of the master to his slave " is guaratiteed by the Constitution."

624 PULPIT POLITICS.
we may feel secure -'in the prosperity and perpetuity of the Re
public to the latest generations of men.
What, then, is the duty of conservative men, but to rally to
the support of the President, irrespective of party interests or
relations, and strengthen his hands for the important task im
posed upon him by the Constitution. -

THB END.