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 SLAYERY aUESTIO^f^ 
 
 OFTHB 
 
 m 
 
 m^ YORK GENERAL ASSOCIATIOlf, 
 
 wtrt', 
 
 26th august, 1855. 
 
 Thk object which the subscriber has in having the fol- 
 lowing " Report of the New York General Association" 
 of 26th August, 2855, printed and circulated in this form, 
 is simply this : to cupply the ministers of religion and the 
 public in Canada with some information as to the standing 
 of some of the religious organizations in the United States, 
 which are more familiarly known, chiefly by name, in 
 Canada; and in order that the said information will be 
 received, and that no objections on the plea of ignorance 
 may hereafter be taken by religious societies and book- 
 selling establishments, and ministers of religion and the 
 public in Canada, this Report is printed for gratuitous dis- 
 tribution, and will be forwarded by mail to every county, 
 «o far as an edition of one thousand copies will extend. 
 The " Report" refers to five religious societies, viz.: — 
 I. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions, of Boston, Massachusetts, commonly styled 
 the A. B. C. F. Missions. Organized. 18 16. 
 
 C^ 
 
 I 
 
 ,^^«j--. 
 
II. American Missionary Association, of 48, Beekman 
 Street, New York. Instituted in 184C. 
 
 III. The American Home Missionary Society, New 
 York. 
 
 IV. The American Tract Society, 150, Nassau Street, 
 New York. (1826.) 
 
 V. The American Sunday School Union, 316, Chestnut 
 Street, Philadelphia (1824), and combined, too, in the 
 New York and American S. S. Union, of 147, Nassau 
 Street, New York. 
 
 ^ The two latter Societies (JV. and V.) are those which 
 are more familiarly known to us in Canada by their issuea 
 01 books and tracts, and their penodicah^The American 
 Messenger, Childh Paper, Sunday School Jcmrnal, and 
 Y<yuthyenny Gazette, The S. S. Union is, however, to 
 be distmguished from the Tract Society in this: that the 
 Union circulates school books, hymn books, catechisms, 
 and Sunday school libraries, and has a republican basts (it 
 IS smce found that the American Tract Society has a 
 stronger republican basis than the Sunday School Union ^ 
 see Home Evangelization," a review of the wants of our 
 country) m Its system too plainly expressed in words to be 
 disguised, mdependent of its pro-'slavery bear'i -s, and is 
 Uierefore more sinister and fatal in its designs .oeginning 
 
 extended beyond its own republican borders. This mark- 
 er f ^°°^7«h°"ld cause its repudiation in our own free 
 enlightened, and loyal province. ' 
 
 'n,I^'f°''// '"''" / '^"'' ^^" '""''''^^ ^^i^h i« f^e and 
 pure of all pro-slavejy tendencies, is the « American Mis- 
 sionary Association," which was formed, and still con- 
 ofTh! T'^!'' on account of the pro-slavery inclinations 
 of the American B. C. F. Missions; and therefoie,-to 
 
Atrangers to their histories, at a distance,— it was most 
 disingenuous and «inful for the New York General Associa- 
 tion to amalgamate tlicm, as has been done, in tiie Report. 
 This is not the "place to give a hktory of each of these 
 societies; but notwidistanding the amiableness of the 
 A. B. C. F. Missions, and the talent which surrounds and 
 labours with it in its operations, and that talent of educa- 
 tion and eloquence perhaps the greatest met with in 
 Ai^erica at one time, at its annual meeting,— and the 
 gloss put upon it in Great Britain on account of such talent 
 «ind labours, extended laudably, we admit, to the "Turkish 
 Missions,"— still it retains the features, the workings, the 
 timorousness of a society involved and carrying in its 
 fcosom, and with its prominent supporters, very marked 
 feelings not to discard the cringing sycophancy to the 
 «lave power of the United States. It wants the pure and 
 hearty hoiaesty of declaration and brevity of purpose, prac- 
 tically carried out, which is to be expected from a society,-- 
 fcy its self-laudatory praise,— claiming the approbation of 
 •Great Britain, and of a whole world for its operations 
 ^rora the celebrated letter of 18-18, of Mr. Treat, one of its 
 managers, and from its reports on its Indian Missions to 
 the Choctaws and Cherokees (U.S.), the many pages written 
 •and published appear to be only a history and narration of 
 tissues"— which only a very patient reader will wait to 
 get through with-and verify, in too many instances, in a 
 heavy clothing of verbiage, the old saying of « searching 
 for a needle in a haystack," and as like, after all, not find 
 the object looked for ! It is not piously warm in principle 
 and action in the anti-slavery cause, nor yet cold to its pro- 
 savery actings: This is to be regretted. We write, this, 
 also, after a perusal of the proceedings, including the long 
 report of the Rev. Mr. Wood on the Indian Missions, at its 
 annual meeting, held at Utica, U.S., on llth September 
 
1855, and three following days, and at which many hundreds 
 were present, whose united voice, if lifted up righteously on 
 behalf of the rights of the slave and his brethren, would 
 cause not only a rejoicing, but its being heard and attended 
 to, in the United States. But that voice was wanting ! 
 
 We have circulated nearly one thousand copies of the 
 « Unanimous Remonstrance'' of the Fourth Congregational 
 Church, Hartford, Connecticut, 1855, p. 34, which contains, 
 at length, the objections to, and meets all the specyus 
 argument of the American Tract Society ; and to a read- 
 ing of that Remonstrance, we earnestly invite all enquiring 
 good men. It can be obtained for $\\ per 100 copies. It 
 is more full, and, as a literary production, complete than 
 the subjoined "Report," and will bespeak for itself that 
 superiority which it is, by its evangelical bearing, entitled 
 to. But yet that Remonstrance does not specially refer to 
 dl the expurgations, nor to those of the S. S. Union. 
 
 To any philanthropic mind,— to any one conversant with 
 the subject of the wrongs done to the sons and daughters 
 of Africa,— a country and a people styled heathen, by the 
 civilized Christian nations and people, and more especially 
 by those of the United States of America,— to those who 
 have lived to know, both personally and by history, 
 of the exertions of a Clarkson, a Wilberforce, and a Buxton 
 in the cause of humanity,— to those, in short, who have 
 attentively read and studied on the facts as developed in 
 the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, written and compiled by 
 Mrs. H. B. Stowe, of Boston (Jewett & Co.'s pure edition), it 
 will appear, in this, the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury,— an enlightened era,— as the greatest monument, 
 from our Saviour's time till now, of irreligion, infidelity, 
 inhumanity, and vileness, the attitude of the American 
 Protestaiit churches and religious organizations in their 
 support of the system of slavery as it exists in the United 
 
States. Well, truly, has one of their own writers — the 
 Hon. James G. Bimey — styled the " American churches 
 the bulwark of slavery !" 
 
 But this Report embraces merely a tithe —a mere tithe — 
 of the history of the religious literature developments of the 
 religious denominations and societies in the United States 
 in their course of obliquity and sin. The plea of ignorance 
 cannot avail them. A list of nearly one hundred prominent 
 religious societies can be obtained, of which, perhaps, only 
 five or six are pure on this question in their publications 
 and intentions. There are, it is believed, between forty and 
 fifty thousand Protestant ministers of religion scattered over 
 the United States, and they now circulate many millions 
 of copies of religious publications and periodicals ; but 
 what avails all ? The slave system, with its injustice and 
 its horrors, has increased, — the minds of the people, from 
 their childhood (instanced by the Child^s Paper)^ have been 
 kept quiet and silenced on the sin and system of slavery, 
 and on vital points of our Christian faith, — ^the ^''silent 
 literature" on the sin of their country is mute ! 
 
 1 . Prominently and so briefly putting the matter as above, 
 before a Canadian people, let us next enquire, asijbriefly, 
 what have our own Religious societies and minteters of 
 religion in Canada been doing, for the last twenty years, in 
 the cause of the slave's rights, for the freedom of the African. 
 They have, neither more or less, been following, — at however 
 as remote a distance as they themselves will be pleased to 
 put their position,— just in the " wake" of the American 
 organizations. With the exception of the generous and 
 humane Buxton Mission of the (Free) Presbyterian Church, 
 and the exceptions of mere declarations by way of Resolu- 
 tions proposed, seconded, and carried against slavery, at 
 annual meetings (and these chiefly in summer of 1855) 
 what have our ministers of religion been doing ? They have 
 
 n 
 
done this : certain of the American societies named in the 
 report have prepared and published religious books and 
 periodicals in the United States, of the pro-slavery tendency 
 referred to, and the religious societies of Canada, aided by 
 the advice and help of ministers of religion therein and 
 thereout, have sold, and are selling, and circulating them ! 
 
 2. And also, what have our religious periodicals been 
 doing previous to September 1854, in that question of 
 slavery ? Did they, any of thern, previous to that date^ point 
 out, and endeavour to enlist public sympnthy in the expo- 
 sition of the errors and fault j of these societies and religious 
 bodies in the United States ? No, it was reserved for the 
 secular press, the Globe and Examiner of Toronto, of 25th 
 and 27th September, 1854, to effect this. We were led to 
 investigate the matter and labour less or more for the past 
 twelve months in the cause, solely by the just and spirited 
 remarks of the editors of these papers at that date, and we 
 pray to be spared, and hope to see a proper reform and 
 change, in our religious organizations in Canada, on this 
 
 subject. 
 
 3. Fsom all stores, from the religious book store of John 
 DougJiir in Montreal, to the Upper Canada Tract Society 
 at Toroiito, (in both of which establishments the books of 
 the pro-slavery societies are sold,) all moral men and 
 religious societies engaged in the trade and philanthropy 
 of religious literature, should expel from their bookshelves 
 and colporteur's packages, every memorial for sale which 
 would tend to shew a fraternity or relationship, with such 
 business transactions with the Tract and Book stores or 
 " book concerns," of all pro-slavery religious book establish- 
 ments in the United States. They act sinfully and are not 
 to be trusted in religious literature. 
 
 4. As British Colonists, let us turn our plans and means, 
 to obtain our British religious literature in books and tracts 
 
and Sunday school libraries, in an unmutilated and pure 
 form, direct fiom the British and Irish Religious Societies 
 and Book Establishments, — and such will not militate 
 against obtaining also the books of American authots 
 from American book establishments when desired. 
 
 6. And this question should be considered by our minis- 
 ters, — Shall we in our churches continue to fraternise, to 
 officially receive and have church fellowship with the 
 ministers and members of the pro-slavery American so- 
 cieties and churches of the Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, 
 O. S. and N. S. Presbyterian, and Congregational (South) 
 denominations, — admit their ministers to our pulpits, and 
 act as though they were guiltless of a publicly viewed sin 
 and stain ? 
 
 JOHN J. E. LINTON. 
 
 Stratford, C.W., October 15, 1855. 
 
 Publications to be consulted: 
 
 1. The " Unanimous Remonstrance" referred to — and this " Report" 
 
 2. The American Churches, the Bulwark of Slavery. By J. G. Birney. 
 
 3. Part 4, of " Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin;" chapters 1, 2, & 3. 
 
 4. Minutes of Greneral Association of Michijjan, and Report as to A. Tract 
 
 Society, May, 1854 Ann Arbor, Mich. 
 
 5. Letters respecting American B. C. F. Missions, and American Tract 
 
 Society. By Hon. W. Jay, 1853, N. Y. 
 6 Gospel Method of Evangelization. Sermon by Rev. H. Peck. (A. 
 Missionary Association,) Sept. 1853, N. Y. 
 \merican Slavery, a formidable obstacle to conversion of the world. By 
 W. Goodell, N. Y. 1854. ' 
 
 8. American Slavery in connection with American Christianitv, incladln<r 
 
 Dr. Perkins' sermon. H. B. Knfght, N. Y. 1854. 
 
 9. Tracts of American Reform Tract and Book Society, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 No 1. Separation from Sin and Sinners ; and Tracts 3, 14. and 15. 
 
 10. Report of Synod of New York. Dec. 1844, (11 vears ago) aa to 
 
 mutilations by A. Tract Society, of D'Aubignes History of tha 
 
 Reformation, and other books. 
 n. An Appeal to Methodist Episcopal Church. By Rev. 0. Scott, of 
 
 Lowell. Boston, 1838, (& most valuable book.) 
 12. A brief notice of American Slavery. By J. B. Estlin, F.L. S. Second 
 
 Edition, London, (Eng.) Tweedie, Strand, (an excellent epitome.} 
 (These all can be obtamed fay any bookseller in Canada, and are a mere 
 trine in expense each.) 
 
NEW YORK GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 REPORT OF THE NEW YORK GENERAL ASSOCIATION 
 ON THE RELATION OF THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES 
 TO SLAVERY. Umakimoublt ADorrKD, Auotbt 26, 1855. 
 
 U 
 
 The Committee appointed at the last meetmg of the 
 General Association " to investigate and report to this body, 
 in regard to the course pursued by the American Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Mis- 
 sionary Association, the American Home Missionary So- 
 ciety the American Tract Society, and the American 
 Sunday-school Union on the subject of Slavery," respect- 
 fully submit the folowing report :— 
 
 The first endeavour of the Committee was to determine 
 accurately the question oi fact as to the relation of the 
 several societies named in the resolution, to the sub- 
 ject of slavery. In order to do this they have collated with 
 care such acts and documents of these Societies as would 
 serve to indicate their general policy upon this subject.; 
 and in submitting the results of this investigation as to mat- 
 ters of fact, the Committee might deem themselves dis- 
 charged from any further consideration of the question. 
 But since it Was obviously the design of the Association 
 to collect facts as the basis of suggestions, the Committee 
 have also added to the statement of facts in each case, such 
 recommendations as seem to them important for the just 
 testimony of this body upon the momentous subject ol 
 the resolution. They will therefore submit both the facts 
 and their related suggestions, in the order of the Societies 
 named. 
 
9 
 
 I* THIS AMERICAIf BOARD AND THB AKKRICAIf MlflSIONAftY 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The position of the American Board on the subject of 
 slavery was so fully canvassed at the meeting of the As- 
 sociation last year that it would be superfluous to define it 
 here with much detail. The Association then expressed 
 its confidence in the Board, and its " reasonable expecta- 
 tion" that the Board would " soon stand before the world 
 the avowed, uncompromising foe of oppression at home 
 as well as abroad." 
 
 This expection has been in a good measure realized by 
 the action of the Board at Hartford, upon the case of the 
 Choctaw Mission. That action, endorsing the principles 
 of the well-known letter of Mr. Secretary Treat, has placed 
 the Board in a position on the subject of slavery, that 
 should satisfy every reasonable mind. Nothing further can 
 be demanded of the Board as to the principles that should 
 govern its missionaries wherever they come in contact 
 with slavery. It only remains that these principles be 
 faithfully applied by the missionaries, and that the applica- 
 tion of them be made a condition with all who are received 
 or retained in the service of the Board. That these principles 
 will be respected by the missionaries among the Choctaws 
 and Cherokees, the Committee have been assured upon 
 the best' authority ; and we confidently hope that the ap- 
 proaching session of the Board at Utica, will fulfil the " rea- 
 sonable expectation" avowed by this body at Madrid. 
 
 The principles of the American Missionary Association 
 on the subject of slavery, are clearly defined by its Consti- 
 tution, and are generally understood. Without entering 
 into a discussion of those features of its Constitution, which 
 are supposed to distinguish it from the American Board, 
 we rejoice in its continued prosperity ; but after the very 
 full and cordial recommendation of that Association given 
 by this body last year, the Committee see no occasion for 
 further action. 
 
 II. THE AMERICAK HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 The next Society in the order of the resolution, is the 
 American Home Missionary Society. 
 
10 
 
 The principal point at which this Society comes in con- 
 tact with the system of slavery, is through certam churches 
 which admit slaveholders to their fellowship, whose pas- 
 tors are in part sustained by funds from the Society. Ihis 
 contact is less direct than is that of the American Board 
 through its Choctaw Missions ; for the Amor can Home 
 Missionary Society has not even that virtual control over 
 the churches it assists, which the Board has over its 
 mission churches. The relation of this Society io a 
 church it aids, is in no case ecclesiastical, but pecuniary 
 and to a certain extent moral. It assists the church to sup- 
 port its pastor. True the society makes an evangelical laith 
 and disiplint -as in the case of churches composed ot lor- 
 eigners— a condition of its aid ; and so it might make the ex- 
 clusion of slaveholders such a condition. But this would be to 
 determine upon abstract grounds, that it is impossible tor 
 one who sustains the legal relation of a slaveholder to be a 
 Christian, but surely no Christian should be shut out Irom 
 church-fellowship. Your Committee are not prepared to 
 demand this of Any such Society. 
 
 They therefore recommend, as regards the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society, the general principles laid down by the 
 Albany Convention. This is expressed in the followag 
 
 resolution of that body : ^ - , . ^ 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Convention, it is 
 the tendency of the Gospel, wherever it is preached in its 
 purity, to correct all social evils, and to destroy sin m all 
 Its forms ; and that it is the duty of Missionary societies 
 to grant aid to churclies in slave-holding States, m the sup- 
 port of such ministers only as shall so preach the Gospel, 
 Slid inculcate the principles and application ot Gospel dis- 
 cipline, that, with the blessing of God, it shall have its lull 
 e€eet in awakening and enlightening the moral sense in 
 regard to slavery, and in bringing to pass the speedy aboli- 
 tion of that stupendous wrong; and that, wherever a Min- 
 ister is not permitted to preach, he should, m accordance 
 with the directions of Christ in such cases, depart out ot 
 
 that city ! " , . , • • i 
 
 In the spirit of the foregoing resolution the missionaries 
 rfrfthe Home Missitmary Society in Missouri, Rev. Messrs, 
 
11 
 
 Starr and Reeve, have recently left their fields of labour in 
 that State, because they could no longer maintain their 
 position of non-eomplicitjR, with slavery, without peril to 
 their lives. Few churches remain as beneficiaries of the 
 Home Missionary Society, which have any complicity 
 with s'avery; and since the incidental connection of that 
 Society with slavery arises wholly from the co-ope ration^of 
 the (N. S.) Presbyterian Church therewith— for no Congre- 
 gational churches assisted by the Society have any connec- 
 tion with Slav 3ry— the manifest drifting of that Church to- 
 wards separate ecclesiastical action in Home Missions, 
 virtually relieve the Home Missionary Society of all em- 
 barrassment upon the subject of slavery. 
 
 III. THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 The third society ei.amerated in the resolution is the 
 American Tract Society. The question as to the course of 
 this Society upon the subject of slavery has reference main- 
 ly to the policy of its Publishing Committee. The fact has 
 of late elicited extensive comment, that in the two thou- 
 sand distinct publications of the Tract Society, there is not 
 to be found one pointed condemnation of American Slavery 
 as a system of iniquity or a hindrance to the success of th© 
 Gospel ; but that, on the contrary, there is a studious avoid- 
 ance of this topic, and in some cases has been a suppression 
 ox alteration of phrases originally penned by pure and holy 
 minds to condemn a system at war with every principle of 
 humanity and every dictate of the Gospel. 
 
 The fact of suppression has been made conspicuous in 
 two or three prominent examples. 
 
 ALTERATION AND SUPPHRSSION. 
 
 The first example of the suppression and alteration of 
 sentiments on the subject of slavery, is in the reprint of 
 Cotton Mather's '''Essays to Dr, Good." The preface to the 
 Tract Society's edition states that " in this edition, such 
 pojtions of the original essays are omitted, and such chang- 
 es have been made in the phraseology, as might be expect- 
 ed alter the lapse of more than a century since the work 
 was written." 
 
V, \ 
 
 19 
 
 I,, Cotton Mather's book, as he wrote It, occurs this sen- ^ 
 
 *^ "''n'That the souls of our slaves were more i^egf d«<i ^y 
 Sit we mightgive a better demonstration that we dos- 
 us ! that we raigui give , f^y ^jje souls 
 
 pise not our own souls, by doing ^hat jve can lor 
 
 to Christianize »« »'!;y*' ;"„.., ^ omiis the sentences in 
 The edition of the Tract Sociey omits ine it reads 
 brackets, and substitutes " servants" for slaves. U 
 
 '^J°nT„'tl,e souls of our servants were more regarded by 
 jrrm^gSr'riabe.^^^^^^^^ 
 
 t do no more to Christianize our servant^ .^ ^^ 
 
 ^:jli^:s:^^r:^'^ tt rrsodet,. edi. 
 
 Slaves in the f'-f "^ '.h^ has "^f ten'done, that the 
 iV^^TrouTmav ^rbe Cndin^he skirts of our nation; 
 Wood of «o"l^ "Y 7 ^ith our colonies may be removed, 
 controversy ol heaven «' . however, the honorable 
 
 SfmC^ce S'his'SZs In the^ mean time, the slave- 
 S is ; spectacle that shocks humanity. 
 
 And barter teubU« for the 8oul« of men ; 
 
 Th. Shes tbey to ObrWlim dime; brmg o'er 
 
 To^^ve wo?M heathen, than m did before 1" 
 
 «„^t, B.rc the " changes in phraseology, which might be 
 4!:?ed":f*r^he laps! of more than a cenUjor. ^^ 
 
y 
 
 s- 
 Is 
 
 3! 
 
 ly 
 '.] 
 
 re 
 
 m 
 
 ,ds 
 
 by 
 
 ;3- 
 uls 
 len 
 
 the 
 idi- 
 
 him 
 
 rom 
 
 ■the 
 
 (ine- 
 
 t the 
 
 ion; 
 
 fved, 
 
 ■able 
 
 e re- 
 
 lave- 
 
 htbe 
 
 16 So- 
 
 Exer- 
 
 la 
 
 CISC of love to God.'*'' The original edition reads, page U%: 
 « If this love had always prevailed among professing 
 Christians, where would have been the sword of the cru- 
 sader? Where the African slave-trade ? Where the odious 
 system which permits to man a property in his fellow-men, 
 and converts rational beings into marketable chattels ?" 
 In the Tract Society's edition, page 142, we read :— 
 " If this love had always prevailed among professing 
 Christians, where would have been the sword of the crusa- 
 der ? Where the tortures of the Inquisition ? Where every 
 system of oppression and wrong by which he who has the 
 
 {>ower revels in luxury and ease at the expense of his fel- 
 ow-men ? 
 
 For the " slave trade," which in this country is a real, 
 palpable horror, is substituted the " Inquisition," which is 
 known to us only from the pages of history ; and the thought 
 of the reader is transferred from the present crimes of Vir- 
 ginia to the obsolete crimes of Spain. And instead of ^* thai 
 odious system which permits to man Si property in his fel- 
 low men, and converts rational beings into marketable chat- 
 tels,^'' we have a vague and feeble generalization about 
 ** every system of oppression and wrong." 
 
 It helps the matter not at all, as regards the position of 
 the Tract Society, that Mr. Gurney was induced to consent 
 to these alterations in the hope of a wider circulation of 
 his book. The responsibility of the change rests with those 
 who made this a condition of publishing the book in this 
 country. 
 
 Still another example of such alterations is found in the 
 Society's edition of the Memoir of Mary Lundie Duncan, 
 In the preface we are told that " a few pages which the 
 Committee deemed of less interest to the general reader, 
 or which alluded to points of disagreement among Evangeli- 
 cal Christians, have been dropped." The following is a 
 specimen of this expurgation. In the original diary we find 
 this entry under date of August 1st : 
 
 " Freedom has dawned this morning on the British colo- 
 nies. [No more degraded lower than the brutes — no more 
 b&wed down with suffering from which there is no redress,] the 
 sons of Africa have obtained the rights of fellow subjects— 
 
14 
 
 H 
 
 the rights of man, the immortal creation of God. Now thep 
 may seek the sanctuary fearless of the lash — they may call 
 their children their own,) Hope will animate their hearts, 
 and give vigor to their efforts. Oh ! for more holy men to 
 show them the way of salvation ! The Lord Jteep them 
 from riot and idleness ! They have been so little taught 
 that He only can avert confusion and tumult as the result 
 of their joy." 
 
 The lines in brackets and italicized are omitted in the 
 Society's edition. The fact that slaves are degraded, that 
 they fear the lash, that they cannot call their children their 
 own, are suppressed ; th^^ prayer that they may be kept from 
 riot and idleness is retained. Such are the examples of 
 suppression and alteration! 
 
 AVOIDANCE OF THE SUBJECT* 
 
 Not less evident is the studious avoidance of this topic, 
 in all the later pullications of this Society. Some of the 
 earlier publications of the Tract Society contain incidental 
 allusions to slavery as an evil and a sin. But these allu- 
 sions are only occasional — ^for the sake of illustrating some 
 other topic ; and they were made at a time when the con- 
 science of the South was not as yet so far debased upon 
 this subject as to attempt to vindicate slavery from the Bible; 
 when slavery was generally conceded to be an evil to be 
 abolishf' V and before it had become the great commercial 
 and political interest of the country, to be extended and per- 
 petuated by the sanction of Congress and the patronage of 
 the federal executive. 
 
 Of late years the subject of slavery has either been avpid- 
 ed altogether in the publications of the Society, or has been 
 alluded to with a measured circumlocution that betrays a 
 timid mind and renders nugatory the passing reference. 
 
 This avoidance of the topic of slavery in the publications 
 of the Tract Society, is not dictated by any intelligent 
 Christian principle. The plea of its defenders is, " that the 
 Catholic basis" of the Society forbids the discussion of a 
 subject upon which there is such diversity of opinion 
 among good men. The first article of the constitution of 
 the Tract Society is as follows : " This Society shall be 
 
15 
 
 denominated the American Tract Society, the object of 
 which shall be to diffuse a knowledge of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of sinners, and to promote the 
 interests of vital Godliness, and sound morality by the 
 circulation of religious tracts, calculated to receive the ap- 
 probation of all evangelical Christians." 
 
 THE CATHOLIC BASIS. 
 
 The Catholic basis so much referred to, is one of doc- 
 trinal belief, rather than of practical morals. This Catholic 
 basis did not forbid occasional references to slavery in the 
 earlier publications of the Society. It does not preclude 
 the publication of tracts upon wine drinking and dancing, 
 about which there are diversities of opinion and practice 
 among Christians. Between twenty and thirty of the tracts 
 published by the Society are devoted to the subject of in- 
 temperance in various relations. But, however Evangeli- 
 cal Christians are agreed in their estimate of the sin of 
 drunkenness and the evils of intemperance, there is among 
 them a notorious diversity of opinions as to the remedy of 
 these evils, and as to the principles and measures upon 
 which the temperance reform should be conducted. Yet 
 this does not deter the Society from publishing tracts upon 
 one side of this now political and agitating question. Nay 
 the Society itself rebukes the apathy and the opposition of 
 some professing Christians to its own view of the temper- 
 ance reform, in this unmeasured language : — 
 
 " Our next opposition is from a band clothed in whtte^pro- 
 fessors of our holy religion, enlisted soldiers of the Church, 
 ent^aged to every good work of benevolence ; they come to 
 intercede for the Monster (moderate drinking) and oppose 
 our enterprise. What can be the meaning of this ? Oh ! 
 where lies this astonishing witchery ? What has put the 
 Church to sleep ? What has made her angry at the call to 
 come forth from the embrace of her deadliest foe ? " 
 
 Here the Catholic basis of the Society does not hinder a 
 strong expression cJ opinion, on a point of morals upon 
 which there is much diversity of opinion and practice 
 among Evangelical Christians. , rr 
 
 The same is true of dancing^ upon which the Tract So- 
 
16 
 
 ciety has published tracts condemning saltatory motions in 
 unmeasured terms, regardless of the diversities of opinion 
 and practice among Evangelical Christians. 
 
 The Tract Society condemns sleeping in Church as a sin 
 though certainly there is a diversity of practice among 
 Evangelical Christians in that particular. 
 
 The Committee have just published a tract agair&t the 
 use of tobacco. Upon no point of minor morals, probably, 
 is there a greater diversity of practice among Christians 
 than on this. Some staid supporters of the Tract Society 
 have not wholly foreswore the pipe ; others are hardly less 
 particular as to the flavor of a cigar than as to the apostoli- 
 city of ordination; some large ecclesiastical bodies still give 
 occasion for the Temonstrance of parishes against defiling 
 the house of God with the juice of the weed ; some theolo- 
 gians are wrapped in the fogs of German pipes as well as of 
 German metaphysics ; and to come nearer home,there are 
 among ourselves most Orthodox smokers and chewers as 
 well as violent haters of the weed. What right, then, has the 
 Tract Society to meddle with such a theme ? Moreover, 
 since tobocco is a staple of Virginia, an assault upon it is 
 an assault upon a " local " or " sectional " institution, 
 looking toward the possible abolition of slave-labor. 
 
 The Tract Society has repeatedly denounced novel-read- 
 ing in the most sweeping terms. But there is a great di- 
 versity of opinion among Christians, as to the comparative 
 advantages of the reading of the American Messenger, and 
 the reading of such works of fiction as Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
 as a means of grace. The Catholic basis of the Society is 
 surely invaded by the indiscriminate denunciation of works 
 of fiction, so frequent in the Messenger, 
 
 We are sorry to say also, that there is some diversity of 
 practice among Christains who sustain the Tract Society 
 as to the propriety of attendance upon the opera ; but this 
 does not restrain the Publishing Committee from issuing a 
 tract condemning the opera as an Anti-Christian institution 
 which cannot be countenanced without sin. 
 
 The ground taken by the Committee of the Tract Society 
 that its Catholic basis precludes it from " publications in- 
 volving subjects of controversy among evangelical Chris- 
 
17 
 
 lians, " is inconsistent with its own action in many cases, 
 and would at once sweep from its list some twenty stand- 
 ard tracts upon points of Christian morality. 
 
 Tliis Catholic basis does not forbid the occasional men- 
 tion of slavery in other lands. Nay, whenever the books of 
 the Society do allude to the existence of slavery, it is as to 
 a system unknown to the people of the United States, but 
 existing somewhere as a phenomenon in other parts of the 
 world. 
 
 Thus in one of the books of the Society where a passing 
 allusion is made to a state of servitude, a foot-note explains 
 that in some countries of the Ea»^,men are bought and sold 
 and held in bondage. In some of the tracts on Temperance, 
 arguments and illustrations are drawn from the slave-trade 
 as this exists in Brazil and in Africa. Thus in reply to 
 the objection of the distiller that he cannot sacrifice his 
 property, it is said : — 
 
 " Suppose you were now in Brazil, and the owner 
 of a large establishment to fit out slave-traders with hand- 
 cuffs for the coast of 4/Wm,and could not change your busi- 
 ness without considerable pecuniary sacrifice, would you 
 make the sacrifice, or would you keep your fires and ham- 
 mers goincr ?" And again : " If a man lives only to make 
 a descent on the peaceful abodes of Africa, and to tear 
 away parents from their weeping children, and husbands 
 from' their wives and homes, where is the man that will 
 deem this a moral business?" "Other men will prey 
 on unoffending Africa, and bear human sinews across 
 the ocean to be sold. Have you a right to do it ?" 
 (No. 305.) 
 
 Once more, speaking of the duty of rescuing the drunk- 
 ard, it is asked. " What would you not do to pull a neigh- 
 bor out of the water, or out of the fire, or to deliver him 
 from Algerine captivity ? '» (No. 422.) 
 
 It is only with reference to slavery in the United States 
 that the Society holds its peace. This studious avoidance 
 of the subject, where alone the candid discussion of it can 
 be of any moment, is a sad evidence of that fatal spell 
 which the great dragon of the South has cast over many 
 good men in the land. 
 
If i 
 
 'i 
 
 . \ 
 
 u 
 
 TflH committee's DEFENCE. 
 
 Most humiliating, too, is the defence of its policy which 
 the officers of the Tract Society have lately issued. Several 
 churches, associations, religious journals, and private in- 
 dividuals, members of the Society and contributors to its 
 funds, having remonstrated with the Executive Committee 
 upon their policy on the subject of slavery, the Committee 
 have at length issued a document by way of vindication, 
 entitled " Principles and Facts of the American Tract So- 
 ciety." This reply is a beautiful specimen,of typography, 
 embellished with a very pretty picture of the Tract House. 
 But the document itself is a most remarkable illustration of 
 the timid policy of the Committee upon the subject of slavery. 
 It ignores the very question at issue. Only by the most re- 
 mote allusion does it recognize any dissatisfaction with the 
 the course of the Committee upon slavery — a system which 
 it does not so much as name in a tract of 16 pages. That 
 allusion is in the following terms : " This Society was 
 formed by Christians of various denominations, to publish 
 the great evangelical truths in which they are agreed. It 
 is thus precluded from publications involving subjects of 
 controversy among evangelical Christians. Nor can to- 
 pics of a local or sectional character be expected in the 
 issues of a national Catholic institution." 
 
 It occurs to your Committee in this connection to sug- 
 gest, that the crime of polygamy will soon become " a to- 
 pic of a local or sectional character," through the political 
 relations of tho Mormon community to the United States. 
 On the principle of this Catholic basis, as interpreted by 
 this statement, the Society could not publish a tract upon 
 the sanctity of marriage. 
 
 The remainder of this document treats entirely of the 
 material interests of the Tract Society, of its mechanical 
 arrangements, its evangelical character, and its general 
 work; repeating the common places, of every annual report, 
 of every sermon by Secretary or Agent, and of almost every 
 number of the American Messenger. 
 
 Good men, men of standing in the church and in society 
 whole churches and associations, the religious press, all 
 ask of the Society : Why do you not, in some of your many 
 
19 
 
 thousand publications^ condemn that systematic wrong which 
 defrauds the lalmrer of his hire. ! 
 
 The Committee answer—" The Tract House, at 160 
 Nassau-street, is eighty feet by ninety-four,and five stories 
 high, besides basement for storing paper, and cellar for 
 coal." [p. 1.] 
 
 The inquirers ask, Why do you not^ in some of your many 
 thousand publications, maintain the sanctity of the marriage 
 institution, and condemn that system which forcibly separates 
 husband and wife, which encourages concubinage and licen- 
 tiousness, and ivhich makes the most sacred of all unions a 
 mere commercial expedient for increasing marketable stock 9 
 
 The Committee answer — " T4ie machinery of the Tract 
 House is propelled, and the entire building is also heated 
 by steam. The central court is excavated and forms a 
 boiler room." [p. 1.] 
 
 The inquirers ask, Why yo you not, in some of your fifty 
 thousand daily issues apply the Gospel to the stupendous 
 wrong of holding in bondage three millions of people upon 
 the soil of this free Christian country ? 
 
 The Committee answer — " The American Messenger 
 has obtained a circulation of more than two hundred thou- 
 sand copies. The Society has issued publications in 117 
 languages and dialects. Dr. Duff said he had attempted 
 to analyze the Society's list of publications, but found them 
 so varied as to excite his wonder and admiration. Tpp. 9 
 10, and 21.] 
 
 The inquirers ask,TF/»y6?o you nnt in some of your varied 
 publications, enforce the duty of teaching all men to read, of 
 giving to all men the Bible ; and condemn the crime of keep- 
 ing from any the light of God's word') 
 
 The Committee answer — "The society employs 619 col- 
 porteurs and publishes more than 200,000 copies of the Fam- 
 ily Christian Almanac." (p. 9.) 
 
 The inquirers ask. Why do you not in some of your 
 thousand publications condemn the traffic in hnman flesh, and 
 show that " men-stealers " as well as " drunkards " and " co- 
 0ffetous persons " are shut out from the kingdom of God ? 
 
 The Committee answer, " The following is a form of a 
 bequest to the American Tract Society." (p. 16.) 
 
1 ! 
 
 SO 
 
 Wo have not caricatured the document isflucd from the 
 Tract House as a virtual reply to the inquiries and remon- 
 Btrances of thousands of the friends of the Society, a» to its 
 policy on the subject of slavery. It is humiliating to find, 
 that the Committee of a great institution for spreading the 
 Gospel of Christ, have neither the coijrage to apply the 
 Gospel to the system of slavery, nor the magnanimity to 
 give a reason for their silence. Such an answer as is given 
 in this pamphlet to the respectful inquiries of thousands of 
 the supporters of the Society, however well meant, is little 
 less than an insult to the understanding of the Christian 
 public. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THIS POMCY. 
 
 This policy of omission, suppression, and evasive silence 
 on the subject of slavery, which may be fairly said to char- 
 acterize the present administration of the Tract Society, 
 tends to d' grade the moral sense of Christians at the South 
 with reference to that system of iniquity, which Mei/ should 
 labor continually to abolish. 
 
 Mr. Gumey, who was widely known and beloved as a 
 sincere, humble, intelligent and devoted follower of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, declared that the habitual exercise of 
 love to God by professing Christians, would do away with 
 the African slave-trade, and with the " odious sy&t' xn which 
 permits to man a property in his fellow-men, and converts • 
 rational beings into marketable chattels " The Publishing 
 Committee of the Tract Society so alter this passage, as to 
 take away the author's testimony against slaveholding and 
 the slave-trade. The natural eftbct of this change upon the 
 conscience of a Southern Christian, is an impression that his 
 fellow Christians who support the Tract Society, did not 
 agree with Mr. Gurney in the opinion that holding men as 
 " marketable chattels " is contrary to the love of God. 
 
 That devoted young Christian, Mary Lundie Duncan, 
 expressed her thanksgiving to God that the sons of Africa 
 in the British colonies are " no more degraded lower than 
 the brutes ; that they may seek the sanctuary fearless of thi|| 
 lash, and may call their children their own." This thanks- 
 giving was retained in on edition of her memoirs published 
 
tl 
 
 by the MessrR. Carter, of New York, which was widely oir- 
 culated at the South, and it was never objected to by the 
 Southern press. But the Committee of the Tract Society, 
 unnolicited by its Southern patrons, and against the sacred 
 remonstrance of Mrs. Duncan — who never gave even a for- 
 ced consent till long after the change was made — canceled 
 this thanksgiving ot a heart that remembered the poor before 
 the cross, and thus declared to the South that Mary Lundie 
 Du ncan had exaggerated views of the evils of slavery and 
 of the benefits of emancipation ; and now the edition of the 
 Messrs. Carter, before unquestioned, is challenged at the 
 South as infected with " abolitionism." 
 
 Tlie timid policy of the Committee of the Tract Society 
 has debased the moral sense of Southern Christians upon 
 the subject of slavery, and thus has helped to create that 
 vicious and arrogant public sentiment for slavery, before 
 which this great Society of evangelical Christians now bow 
 in humiliating silence. 
 
 THE REMEDT. 
 
 In these circumstances your Committee see but one feas- 
 ible mode, in which the Christian sentiment of the suppor- 
 ters of the Tract Society on the subject of slavery can find 
 a just expression. Reports, resolutions^ memorials, remon- 
 strances are of no a^'ail. These meet only with studied sL 
 lence or casuistic replies. It is in vain also to attempt to 
 cripple the resources of an institution, which, through the 
 benefactions of the Christian public, has obtained a position 
 of wealth and independence^ equal to that of the largest 
 publishing houses. Nothing is to be accomplished by a 
 •divisive movement, or by the organization and support of an 
 anti-slavery Tract Society. What we need is not another 
 anti-slavery Society, but the American Tract Soci- 
 ety, with its tried and established character for usefulness 
 with its Catholic evangelical basis, with its rich catalogue 
 of publications, with its efficient system of colportage, with 
 its hallowed memories, with its well husbanded resources, 
 HOT turned into a machinery of anti-slavery propagandism, 
 jnot made distinctly or prominently an anti-Slavery Society, 
 but brought to bear with its legitimate influence, in the or- 
 
i ■ 
 
 n 
 
 2i 
 
 dlrtaiy and natnml crmrs« of its publications, upon the sys- 
 t(Mii of slavery as antaf»onlstic to the (iospel of ('hrist and 
 d(?stined to be done away through ilie progress of that Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 In order to this result, the members of the Society must 
 labor directly with its Executive Committee and its St'cre- 
 taries. There is no reason why an olficer of any benevolent 
 society, however valuable his services, or however estimable 
 his cliaracter, should have a life-lease of his office, or should 
 be cbhtinued in that office for form's sake, when he is un- 
 filing to conform the policy of the institution to the known 
 wishes of the great body of his constitutents. Every life-mem- 
 ber of the American Tract Society — made such by the pay- 
 ment of twenty dollars — is entitled to vote in the election of 
 its directors. Every life-director is entitled to vote in the 
 Board of Directors at the election of Secretaries and the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee. Let then the members of the Society, 
 severally or in companies, address to each member of the 
 Publishing Committee, and to the Secretaries the simple 
 inquiry : Are you in favour of bringing^ the injlvence of the 
 American Tract Society^ through its ordinari) publications to 
 bear against the system of American Slavery ^ as sinful and 
 hostile to the Gospel of Christ 9 
 
 If this question shall be answered in the affirmative, the 
 course of the Society in future will be plain. If in the neg- 
 ative, on the part of any or all the members of the Committee 
 or of the Secretaries, let there be at the annual elec- 
 tion of the Board of Directors a vote equivalent to a vote in 
 the British Parliament of " want of confidence " in the exist- 
 ing ministry. Whenever the constituents of the Society 
 shall make it apparent to its officers, that ihey intent i ^m ap- 
 ply the principle of the responsibility of repr> .^entutives to 
 the management of that Institution, the policy of the Society 
 upon the subject of slavery will be made to conform to an 
 enlightened Christian sentiment. 
 
 IV. A MERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 
 
 • The hx-^^Si 'AeXy upon the list is the American Sunday 
 S*;h«;;-oi "uiJon. 
 
 The policy of this Society upon the subject of slavery is 
 
H^entical with that ol the American Tract Society. Thi. 
 was lir«t rnade iimnifest in the year 1848 through the sup- 
 pression of a book which contained a description of the 
 Hnn if ?? i^^T^-r^ ™^ ^"^^ was prepared from an edi- 
 Galhl ^J' London Tract Society, by the late Hev. Thos. H. 
 .7,^1 n«T. "^ "^«'^«»-'l) and after hi» careful revision wa» 
 lln^in n'^r*' the approval of the Committee of the S. &. 
 ^ill^\u S T ^.^^^ representation of an otficer of the Soci- 
 ^U « / y''"^^*! y'V ^m^^'^^- The book is the sto- 
 iollows ^""^ *^^ offensive passage is at 
 
 vant^'^*^ '^ ^ ^^*''®' motl»er?" asked Mary, "is it a ser- 
 
 ^^HJT^v!^^^'^^ ^^^ mother, " slave* are servants; for they 
 work for their masters and wait on them ; but they are ncJ 
 
 havp i!ntK ""'V ^* u^^ ."^ *^°"S'^* ^°d ««^d iike beasts, and 
 have nothing but what their masters choose to give them. 
 
 mlZT.^T'^ '° ^?f^ ^"'^ ^^'^' ^"^ sometimes their 
 mas ers use them cruelly, beat them, and starve them, and 
 
 th^v nr.L '^7 ^T "°^"^^ *« ^^^P ^h^^"- Sometimes 
 they are chained together and driven about like beasts." 
 
 thpir rj t °^l' 'l'"^ ^^'y ^ " ^"^ w*^y ^« «ot they leave 
 their masters when they use them ill ? The other d/y Mar- 
 garet lelt you, mother, because she was tired of living here, 
 though you never treated her unkindly : I wonder that the 
 slaves hve with their masters who are not kind to them." 
 
 «t K„t .h^ """^ ^'^^ ^"^ ^^ ^^^^^«'" answered her mother : 
 but they are not permitted to leave their masters when- 
 ever they xyish. Servants are paid for working for their mas- 
 ters and mistn^sses, and, if they do not like to stay, they may 
 go and live somewhere else. But the poor unhkppy slaves 
 are obliged to stay with their master as long as he chooses 
 to keep them. And if the master is tired of his slaves! 
 then he may sell them to another if he wishes to." 
 is as folTows"-^^ Committee gives for suppressing the book 
 
 "It appears that the book in question was reprinted from 
 an English copy, nearly twenty years since, when the state 
 ^public feeling on this subject was very different from 
 what It IS at present, and when such a passage (though as 
 
indefensible then as now) might have easily escaped ob- 
 servation." 
 
 " The Committee do not consider the exciting subject of 
 slavery as at all involved in these proceedings. With that 
 subject it is not the province of the Society to intermeddle ; 
 lior can we do so without a palpable violation of the orig- 
 inal and fundamental principles on which the Society wa» 
 oi^nized, and has uniformly acted." 
 
 The Sunday-School Union still adheres to the policy 
 thus defined ; and your Committee would rectuiimend that 
 the same means of reform be adopted with respect to thi» 
 Society that have been recommended toward the Tract So- 
 ciety. In conclusion the Committee would suggest the 
 comprehensive principle, that all societies, whose Secre- 
 taries and agents are accustomed to seek the pulpits of our 
 churches for the collection of fnnds, be urged to give more 
 prominence to the idea of the strict responsibility of their 
 Executive officers to the general Christian sentiment of their 
 constituents upon the subject of slavery. 
 
 rsiMtHo AT Tna aiicsi otmom, ^ mna strkbt vsbt, immH9. 
 
 ■f*-