STEREOTYPE EDITION. 
 
 THE 
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF THIEVES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PIGTUIRB 
 
 AMERICAN CHURCH AND CLERGY. 
 
 BY STEPHEN S.FOSTER. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, 25 CORNHILL. 
 
 1844.
 
 THE 
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF THIEVES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 AMERICAN CHURCH AND CLERGY 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 NATHANIEL BARNEY, 
 
 OF NANTUCKET. 
 
 BY STEPHEN S.FOSTER. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, 25 CORNHILL. 
 1844.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY C" C 
 
 SArvTA BARBARA 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 ESTEEMED FRIEND : 
 
 IN the early part of last autumn, I received a letter from 
 you, requesting me to prepare an article for the press, in 
 vindication of the strong language of denunciation of the 
 American church and clergy, which I employed at the late 
 Anti-Slavery Convention on your island, and which was the 
 occasion of the disgraceful mob, which disturbed and broke 
 up that meeting. In rny answer, 1 gave you assurance of 
 prompt compliance with your request ; but, for reasons satis- 
 factory to myself, I have failed to fulfil my promise, up to the 
 present time. The novelty of the occasion has now passed 
 away; the deep and malignant passions which were stirred 
 in the bosoms of no inconsiderable portion of your people, 
 have, doubtless, subsided ; but the important facts connected 
 with it are yet fresh in the memories of all ; and, as the oc- 
 casion was one of general, not local, interest, and the spirit 
 which WHS there exhibited was a fair specimen of the gen- 
 eral temper and feeling of our country towards the advo- 
 cates of equal rights and impartial justice, I trust it will not 
 be deemed amiss in me to make it a subject of public notice, 
 even at this late period. 
 
 But in the remarks which 1 propose to make, it will be no 
 part of my object to vindicate myself in the opinion of the 
 public, against the foul aspersions of those whose guilty quiet 
 my preaching may have disturbed. Indeed, to tell the truth, 
 I place a very low estimate on the good opinions of my 
 countrymen quite as low, I think, as they do on mine, if I 
 may judge from their very great anxiety to have me speak 
 well of them, which 1 positively never can, so long as their 
 national capital is a human flesh-mart, and their chief magis- 
 trate is a slave-breeder. The most that I can do is to pledge 
 myself never to mob them, nay, that I will not even be dis- 
 pleased with them, for speaking ill of me, while their charac- 
 ter remains what it now is. My opponents, among whom
 
 rank most of the church and clergy of the country, have 
 disturbed a majority of the meetings which I have attended, 
 within the last nine months, by drunken, murderous mobs, 
 and, in several instances, they have inflicted severe injury 
 upon my person ; but I value this violence and outrage as 
 proof of their deep conviction of the truth and power of 
 what I say. I deem the reproach of such men sufficient 
 praise. And I here tender them my thanks for the high 
 compliment they have so often paid to my opinions, in the 
 extreme measures to which they have resorted to compel me 
 to speak in their praise. But so long as their character re- 
 mains such that I can bestow no commendations, I shall 
 ask none in return. 
 
 Nor is it my intention, in this letter, to weaken, by expla- 
 nations, the force of my testimony against the popular reli- 
 gion of our countiy, for the purpose of allaying the bloody 
 spirit of persecution which has of late characterized the 
 opposition to my course. True, my life is in danger, espe- 
 cially whenever I attempt to utter my sentiments in houses 
 dedicated to what is called the worship of God ; but He who 
 has opened to my view other worlds, in which to reap the 
 rewards and honors of a life of toil and suffering in the 
 cause of truth and human freedom, in this, has taught me 
 to " be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that 
 have no more that they can do." Hence I have no pacifica- 
 tory explanations to offer, no coward disclaimers to make. 
 But I shall aim to present to the comprehension of the 
 humblest individual, into whose hands this letter may chance 
 to fall, a clear and comprehensive view of the intrinsic moral 
 character of that class of our countrymen who claim our 
 respect and veneration, as ministers and followers of the 
 Prince of Peace. I am charged with having done them 
 great injustice in my public lectures, on that and various 
 other occasions. Many of these, who make this charge, 
 doubtless, honestly think so. To correct their error to 
 reflect on their minds the light which God has kindly shed 
 on mine to break the spell "in which they are now held by 
 the sorcery of a designing priesthood, and prove that priest- 
 hood to be a " Brotherhood of Thieves " and the " Bulwark 
 of American Slavery " is all that I shall aim to do. 
 
 But I ought, perhaps, in justice to those who know nothing 
 of my religious sentiments, except from the misrepresenta- 
 tions of my enemies, to say, that I have no feelings of per- 
 sonal hostility towards any portion of the church or clergy 
 of our country. As children of the same Father, they are 
 endeared to me by the holiest of all ties ; and I am as ready
 
 to suffer, if need he, in defence of their rights, as in defence 
 of the rights of the Southern slave. My objections to them 
 are purely conscientious. I am a firm believer in the Chris- 
 tian religion, and in Jesus, as a divine being, who is to be 
 our final Judge. I was born and nurtured in the bosom of 
 the church, and for twelve years was among its most active 
 members. At the age of twenty-two, 1 left the allurements 
 of an active business life, on which I had just entered with 
 fair prospects, and, for seven successive years, cloistered my- 
 self within the walls of our literary institutions, in "a course 
 of study preparatory to the ministry." The only object I had 
 in view in changing my pursuits, at this advanced period of 
 life, was to render myself more useful to the world, by ex- 
 tending the principles of Christianity, as taught and lived out 
 by their great Author. In renouncing the priesthood and an 
 organized church, and laboring for their overthrow, my object 
 is still the same. I entered them on the supposition that 
 they were, what from a child I had been taught to regard 
 them, the enclosures of Christ's ministers and flock, and his 
 chosen instrumentalities for extending his kingdom on the 
 earth. I have left them from an unresistible conviction, in 
 spite of my early prejudices, that they are a "hold of every 
 foul spirit," and the devices of men to gain influence and 
 power. And, in rebuking their adherents as I do, my only 
 object is to awaken them, if possible, to a sense of their guilt 
 and moral degradation, and bring them to repentance, and a 
 knowledge of the true God, of whom most of them are now 
 lamentably ignorant, as their lives clearly prove. 
 
 The remarks which I made at your Convention were of a 
 most grave and startling character. They strike at the very 
 foundation of all our popular ecclesiastical institutions, and 
 exhibit them to the world as the apologists and supporters of 
 the most atrocious system of oppression and wrong, beneath 
 which humanity has ever groaned. They reflect on the 
 church the deepest possible odium, by disclosing to public 
 view the chains and hand-cuffs, the whips and branding-irons, 
 the rifles and bloodhounds, with which her ministers and 
 deacons bind the limbs and lacerate the flesh of innocent 
 men and defenceless women. They cast upon the clergy the 
 same dark shade which Jesus threw over the ministers of his 
 day, when he tore away the veil beneath which they had 
 successfully concealed their diabolical schemes of personal 
 aggrandizement and power, and denounced them before all 
 the people, as a "den of thieves," as "fools and blind," 
 " whited sepulchres," " blind guides, which strain at a gnat, 
 and swallow a camel," "hypocrites, who devour widows'
 
 6 
 
 houses, and for a pretence make long prayers," " liars," "adul- 
 terers," " serpents," " a generation of vipers," who could not 
 "escape the damnation of hell." But, appalling and ominous 
 as they were, 1 am not aware that I gave the parties accused, 
 or their mobocratic friends, any just cause of complaint. 
 They were all spoken in public, in a free meeting, where all 
 who dissented from me were not only invited, but warmly 
 urged, to reply. I was an entire stranger among you, with 
 nothing but the naked truth and a few sympathizing friends 
 to sustain me, while the whole weight of popular sentiment 
 was in their favor. Was the controversy unequal on their 
 part ? Were they afraid to meet me with the same honor- 
 able weapons which I had chosen ? Conscious innocence 
 seldom consents to tarnish its character by a dishonorable 
 defence. Had my charges been unfounded, a refutation of 
 them, under the circumstances, would have been most easy 
 and triumphant. My opponents, had they been innocent, 
 could have acquitted themselves honorably, and overwhelmed 
 their accuser in deep disgrace, without the necessity of re- 
 sorting to those arguments which appeal only to one's fears 
 of personal harm, and which are certain to react upon their 
 authors, when the threatened danger subsides. 
 
 But if all that I have alleged against them be true, it was 
 obviously my right, nay, my imperative duty, to make the 
 disclosures which I did, even though it might be, as you well 
 know it was, at the peril of my life, and the lives of my 
 associates. 
 
 In exposing the deep and fathomless abominations of those 
 pious thieves, who gain their livelihood by preaching sermons 
 and stealing babies, I am not at liberty to yield to any intimi- 
 dations, however imposing the source from which they come. 
 The right of speech the liberty to utter our own convic- 
 tious /reefy, at all times and in all places, at discretion, un- 
 awed by fear, unembarrassed by force is the gift of God to 
 every member of the family of man, and should be preserved 
 inviolate; and for one, I can consent to surrender it to no 
 power on earth, but with the loss of life itself. Let not the 
 petty tyrants of our laud, in church or state, think to escape 
 the censures which their crimes deserve, by hedging them- 
 selves about with the frightful penalties of human law, or the 
 more frightful violence of a drunken and murderous mob. 
 There live the men who are not afraid to die, even though 
 called to meet their fate within the gloomy walls of a dismal 
 prison, with no kind hand to wipe the cold death-sweat from 
 their sinking brow ; and they scorn a fetter on limb or spirit. 
 They know their rights, and know how to defend them, or to
 
 obtain more than an equivalent for their loss, in the rewards 
 of a martyr to the right. While life remains, they will speak, 
 and speak freely, though it be in " A Voice from the Jail ; " 
 nor will they treat the crimes and vices of slave-breeding 
 priests, and their consecrated abettors of the North, with less 
 severity than they do the crimes and vices of other marau- 
 ders on their neighbors' property and rights. Nor should the 
 friends of freedom be alarmed at the consequences of this 
 faithful dealing with "spiritual wickedness in high places." 
 The mobs which it creates are hut the violent contortions of 
 the patient, as the deep gashes of the operator's knife severe 
 the infected limb from his sickly and emaciated body. 
 
 The fact, that my charges against the religious sects of our 
 country were met with violence and outrage, instead of sound 
 arguments and invalidating testimony, is strong presumptive 
 evidence of their truth. The innocent never find occasion to 
 resort to this disgraceful mode of defence. If our clergy 
 and church were the ministers and church of Christ, would 
 their reputation be defended by drunken and murderous mobs? 
 Are brickbats and rotten eggs the weapons of truth and Chris- 
 tianity ? Did Jesus say to his disciples, "Blessed are ye when 
 the mob shall speak well of you, and shall defend you"? The 
 church, slavery, and the mob, are a queer trinity ! And yet 
 that they are a trinity that they all " agree in one " cannot 
 be denied. Every assault which we have made on the bloody 
 slave system, as I shall hereafter show, has been promptly 
 met and repelled by the church, which is herself the claimant 
 of several hundred thousand slaves; and whenever we have 
 attempted to expose the guilt and hypocrisy of the church, the 
 mob has uniformly been first and foremost in her defence. 
 But I rest not on presumptive evidence, however strong and 
 conclusive, to sustain my allegations against the American 
 church and clergy. The proof of their identity with slavery, 
 and of their consequent deep and unparalleled criminality, is 
 positive and overwhelming, and is fully adequate to sustain 
 the gravest charges, and to justify the most denunciatory lan- 
 guage that has ever fallen from the lips of their most inveterate 
 opponents. 
 
 I said at your meeting, among other things, that the Ameri- 
 can church and clergy, as a body, were thieves, adulterers, 
 man-stealers, pirates, and murderers; that the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church was more corrupt and profligate than any house 
 of ill-fame in the city of New York ; that the Southern min- 
 isters of that body were desirous of perpetuating slavery for 
 the purpose of supplying themselves with concubines from 
 among its hapless victims ; and that many of our clergymen
 
 8 
 
 were guilty of enormities that would disgrace an Algerine 
 pirate ! ! These sentiments called forth a burst of holy indig- 
 nation from the pious and dutiful advocates of the church and 
 clergy, which overwhelmed the meeting with repeated showers 
 of stones and rotten eggs, and eventually compelled rne to 
 leave your island, to prevent the shedding of human blood. 
 But whence this violence and personal abuse, not only of the 
 author of these obnoxious sentiments, but also of your own 
 unoffending wives and daughters, whose faces and dresses, 
 
 nwill recollect, were covered with the most loathsome filth ? 
 s reported of the ancient Pharisees and their adherents, 
 that they stoned Stephen to death for preaching doctrines at 
 war with the popular religion of their times, and charging 
 them with the murder of the Son of God ; but their suc- 
 cessors of the modern church, it would seem, have discovered 
 some new principle in theology, by which it is made their 
 duty not only to stone the heretic himself, but all those also 
 who may at any time be found listening to his discourse with- 
 out a permit from their priest Truly, the church is becoming 
 "terrible as an army with banners." 
 
 This violence and outrage on the part of the church were, 
 no doubt, committed to the glory of God and the honor of 
 religion, although the connection between rotten eggs and 
 holiness of heart is not very obvious. It is, I suppose, one of 
 the mysteries of religion which laymen cannot understand 
 without the aid of the clergy ; and 1 therefore suggest that the 
 pulpit make it a subject of Sunday discourse. But are not 
 the charges here alleged against the clergy strictly and literally 
 true ? I maintain that they are true to the very letter ; that the 
 clergy and their adherents are literally, and beyond all contro- 
 versy, a " brotherhood of thieves ; " and, in support of this 
 opinion, I submit the following considerations : 
 
 You will agree with me, I think, that slaveholding involves 
 the commission of all the crimes specified in my first charge, 
 viz., theft, adultery, man stealing, piracy, and murder. But 
 should you have any doubts on this subject, they will be easily 
 removed by analyzing this atrocious outrage on the laws of 
 God, and the rights and happiness of man, and examining 
 separately the elements of which it is composed. Wesley, 
 the celebrated founder of the Methodists, once denounced it 
 as the " sum of all villanies." Whether it be the sum of all 
 villanies, or not, I will not here express an opinion ; but that 
 it is the sum of at least Jive, and those by no means the least 
 atrocious in the catalogue of human aberrations, will require 
 but a small tax on your patience to prove. 
 
 1. Theft To steal, is to take tbat which belongs to an-
 
 9 
 
 other, without his consent. Theft and robbery are, morally, 
 the same act, differing only in form. Both are included under 
 the command, " Thou shall not steal ; " that is, thou shalt 
 not take thy neighbor's property. Whoever, therefore, either 
 secretly or by force, possesses himself of the property of an- 
 other, is a thief! Now, no proposition is plainer than that 
 every man owns his own industry. He who tills the soil has 
 a right to its products, and cannot be deprived of them but by 
 an act of felony. This principle furnishes the only solid basis 
 for the right of private or individual property; and he who 
 denies it, either in theory or practice, denies that right also. 
 But every slaveholder takes the entire industry of his slaves, 
 from infancy to gray hairs ; they dig the soil, but he receives 
 its products. No matter how kind or humane the master may 
 be, he lives by plunder. He is emphatically a freebooter ; 
 and, as such, he is as much more despicable a character than 
 the common horse-thiefj as his depredations are more ex- 
 tensive. 
 
 2. Adultery. This crime is disregard for the requisitions 
 of marriage. The conjugal relation has its foundation deeply 
 laid in man's nature, and its strict observance is essential to 
 his happiness. Hence Jesus Christ has thrown around it the 
 sacred sanction of his written law, and expressly declared 
 that the man who violates it, even by a lustful eye, is an adul- 
 terer. But does the slaveholder respect this sacred relation ? 
 Is he cautious never to tread upon forbidden ground ? No ! 
 His very position makes him the minister of unbridled lust. 
 By converting woman into a commodity to be bought and 
 sold, and used by her claimant as his avarice or lust may 
 dictate, he totally annihilates the marriage institution, and 
 transforms the wife into what he very significantly terms a 
 " BREEDER," and her children into " STOCK." 
 
 This change in woman's condition, from a free moral agent 
 to a chattel, places her domestic relations entirely beyond her 
 own control, and makes her a mere instrument for the gratifi- 
 cation of another's desires. The master claims her body as 
 his property, and, of course, employs it for such purposes as 
 best suit his inclinations, demanding free access to her bed ; 
 nor can she resist his demands but at the peril of her life. 
 Thus is her chastity left entirely unprotected, and she is made 
 the lawful prey of every pale-faced libertine who may choose 
 to prostitute her ! To place woman in this situation, or to 
 retain her in it when placed there by another, is the highest 
 insult that any one could possibly offer to the dignity and 
 purity of her nature ; and the wretch who is guilty of it 
 deserves an epithet compared with which adultery is spotless
 
 10 
 
 innocence. Rape is his crime ! death his desert, if death 
 be ever due to criminals! Am I too severe ? Let the offence 
 be done to a sister or daughter of yours ; nay, let the Rev. 
 Dr. Witherspoon, or some other ordained miscreant from the 
 South, lay his vile hands on your own bosom companion, and 
 do to her what he has done to the companion of another, 
 and what Prof Stuart and Dr. Fisk say he may do, " without 
 violating the Christian faith," and I fear not your reply. 
 None but a moral monster ever consented to the enslavement 
 of his own daughter, and none but fiends incarnate ever en- 
 slaved the daughter of another. Indeed, I think the demons 
 in hell would be ashamed to do to their fellow-demons what 
 many of our clergy do to their own church members. 
 
 3. Man-stealing. What is it to steal a man ? Is it not to 
 claim him as your property ? to call him yours? God has 
 given to every man an inalienable right to himself, a right 
 of which no conceivable circumstance of birth, or forms of 
 law, can divest him ; and he who interferes with the free and 
 unrestricted exercise of that right, who, not content with the 
 proprietorship of his own body, claims the body of his neigh- 
 bor, is a man-stealer. This truth is self-evident. Every man, 
 idiots and the insane only excepted, knows that he has no 
 possible right to another's body; and he who persists, for a 
 moment, in claiming it, incurs the guilt of man-stealing. The 
 plea of the slave-claimant, that he has bought, or inherited, his 
 slaves, is of no avail. What right had he, I ask, to purchase, 
 or to inherit, his neighbors ? The purchase, or the inherit- 
 ance of them as a legacy, was itself a crime of no less enor- 
 mity than the original act of kidnapping. But every slave- 
 holder, whatever his profession or standing in society may be, 
 lays his felonious hands on the body and soul of his equal 
 brother, robs him of himself, converts him into an article of 
 merchandise, and leaves him a mere chattel personal in the 
 hands of his claimants. Hence he is a kidnapper, or man- 
 thief. 
 
 4. Piracy. The American people, by an act of solemn 
 legislation, have declared the enslaving of human beings on 
 the coast of Africa to be piracy, and have affixed to this crime 
 the penalty of death. And can the same act be piracy in 
 Africa, and not be piracy in America? Does crime change 
 its character by changing longitude ? Is killing, with malice 
 aforethought, no murder, where there is no human enactment 
 against it? Or can it be less piratical and Heaven-daring to 
 enslave our own native countrymen, than to enslave the 
 heathen sons of a foreign and barbarous realm ? If there be 
 any difference in the two crimes, the odds is in favor of the
 
 11 
 
 foreign enslaver. Slaveholding loses none of its enormity by 
 a voyage across the Atlantic, nor by baptism into the Chris- 
 tian name. It is piracy in Africa ; it is piracy in America ; 
 it is piracy the wide world over ; and the American slave- 
 holder, though he possess all the sanctity of the ancient 
 Pharisees, and make prayers as numerous and long, is a pirate 
 still ; a base, profligate adulterer, and wicked contemner of 
 the holy institution of marriage ; identical in moral character 
 with the African slave-trader, and guilty of a crime which, if 
 committed on a foreign coast, he must expiate on the gallows. 
 
 5. Murder. Murder is an act of the mind, and not of the 
 hand. "Whosoever hateth his brother 'is a murderer." A 
 man may kill, that is, his hand may inflict a mortal blow, 
 without committing murder. On the other hand, he may 
 commit murder without actually taking life. The intention 
 constitutes the crime. He who, with a pistol at my breast, 
 demands my pocket-book or my life, is a murderer, whichever 
 I may choose to part with. And is not he a murderer, who, 
 with the same deadly weapon, demands the surrender of 
 what to me is of infinitely more value than my pocket-book, 
 nay, than life itself my liberty myself my wife and 
 children all that I possess on earth, or can hope for in 
 heaven ? But this is the crime of which every slaveholder is 
 guilty. He maintains his ascendency over his victims, ex- 
 torting their unrequited labor, and sundering the dearest ties 
 of kindred, only by the threat of extermination. With the 
 slave, as every intelligent person knows, there is no alterna- 
 tive. It is submission or death, or, more frequently, pro- 
 tracted torture more horrible than death. Indeed, the South 
 never sleeps, but on dirks, and pistols, and bowie knives, 
 with a troop of blood-hounds standing sentry at every door! 
 What, I ask, means this splendid enginery of death, which 
 gilds the palace of the tyrant master? It tells the story of 
 his guilt. The burnished steel which waits beneath* his 
 slumbering pillow, to drink the life-blood of outraged inno- 
 cence, brands him as a murderer. It proves, beyond dispute, 
 that the submission of his victims is the only reason why he 
 has not already shed their blood. 
 
 By this brief analysis of slavery, we stamp upon the fore- 
 head" of the slaveholder, with a brand deeper than that which 
 marks the victim of his wrongs, the infamy of theft, adultery, 
 manstealing, piracy, and murder. We demonstrate, beyond 
 the possibility of doubt, that he who enslaves another that is, 
 robs him of his right to himself, to his own hands, and head, 
 and feet, and transforms him from a free moral agent into a 
 mere brute, to obey, not the commands of God, but bis claim-
 
 12 
 
 ant is guilty of every one of these atrocious crimes. And in 
 doing this, we have only demonstrated what, to every reflecting 
 mind, is self-evident. Every man, if he would but make the 
 case of the slave his own, would feel in his inmost soul the 
 truth and justice of this charge. But these are the crimes 
 which J have alleged against the American church and clergy. 
 Hence, to sustain my charge against them, it only remains Tor 
 me to show that they are slaveholders. That they are slave- 
 holders party to a conspiracy against the liberty of more 
 than two millions of our countrymen, and, as such, are guilty 
 of the crimes of which they stand accused I affirm, and 
 will now proceed to prove. 
 
 It may be necessary for me first, however, to show what 
 constitutes slaveholding, as there seems to be no little con- 
 fusion in the minds of many on this point. And here let me 
 say, the word itself, if analyzed, will give an accurate de- 
 scription of the act. It is to hold one in slavery to keep 
 him in the condition of a chattel. But slaveholding, in all 
 cases, is necessarily a social crime. A man may commit 
 theft or murder alone, but no single individual can ever 
 enslave another. It is only when several persons associate 
 together, and combine their influence against the liberty of 
 an individual, that he can be deprived 6f his freedom, and 
 reduced to slavery. Hence connection with an association, 
 any part of whose object is to hold men in slavery, constitutes 
 one a slaveholder. Nor is the nature or criminality of his 
 offence altered or affected by the number of persons con- 
 nected with him in such an association. If a million of 
 people conspire together to enslave a solitary individual, each 
 of them is a slaveholder, and no less guilty than if he were 
 alone in the crime. It is no palliation of his offence to say, 
 that he is opposed to slavery. The better feelings of every 
 slaveholder are opposed to slavery. But if he be opposed to 
 it, why, 1 ask, is he concerned in it ? Why does he coun- 
 tenance, aid, or abet, the infernal system ? The fact of his 
 opposition to it, in feeling, instead of mitigating his guilt, only 
 enhances it, since it proves, conclusively, that he is not un- 
 conscious of the wrong he is doing. 
 
 It is a common but mistaken opinion, that, to constitute one 
 a slaveholder, he must be the claimant of slaves. That title 
 belongs alike to the slave-claimant, and all those who, by 
 their countenance or otherwise, lend their influence to sup- 
 port the slave system. If I aid or countenance another in 
 stealing, I am a thief, though he receive all the booty. The 
 Knapps, it will be recollected, were hung as the murderers 
 of Mr. White, though Crowninshield gave the fatal blow, and
 
 13 
 
 that, too, while they were at a distance from the bloody scene. 
 It matters little who does the mastery, and puts on the drag- 
 chain and hand-cuff's, whether it be James B. Gray, the Bos- 
 ton Police, Judge Story, or some distinguished Doctor of 
 Divinity of the South ; the guilt of the transaction consists 
 in authorizing or allowing it to be done. Hence all who, 
 through their political or ecclesiastical connections, aid or 
 countenance the master in his work of death, are slavehold- 
 ers, and, as such, are stained with all the moral turpitude 
 which attaches to the man who, by their sanction, wields the 
 bloody lash over the heads of his trembling victims, and 
 buries it deep in their quivering flesh. Nay, the human 
 hounds which guard the plantation, ever eager to bark on the 
 track of the flying fugitive, are objects of deeper indignation 
 and abhorrence than even its lordly proprietor. 
 
 How stands this matter, then, in regard to the American 
 church and clergy ? Is it true of them that they are either 
 claimants of slaves or watch-dogs of the plantation ? Such, 
 1 regret to say, is the shameful and humiliating fact It is 
 undeniably true, that, with comparatively few exceptions, 
 they occupy one of these two positions in relation to the 
 " peculiar institution." Thousands of the ministers, and tens 
 of thousands of the members of the different sects, are actually 
 claimants of slaves. They buy and sell, mortgage and lease, 
 their own " brethren in the Lord," not unfrequently breaking 
 up families, and scattering their bleeding fragments over all 
 the land, never to be gathered again till the archangel's trump 
 shall wake their slumbering ashes into life. In confirmation 
 of this statement, if proof be asked, 1 submit the following 
 testimony of Rev. Samuel Heuston, late of Utica, N. Y., an 
 accredited minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, who 
 formerly resided at the South. In reply to several questions 
 by Rev. George Storrs, of the same church, Mr. H. says, 
 
 "I know that members of the M. E. church sell slaves at auc- 
 tion, to the highest bidder ; and it is not considered a disciplinary 
 offence. I know of Methodist preachers buying slaves with no 
 apparent design to better their condition, but evidently for the 
 sake of gain. 
 
 " I should think nearly one half, at least, of the ministers of 
 our church hold slaves and trade in them; and nearly all the 
 members, who are able to own slaves, not only hold them, but buy 
 and sell them. 
 
 " I know an official member of the M. E. church, Col. , 
 
 that bought in one purchase about fifty thousand dollars' worth of 
 slaves. 
 
 " Esq. , of , S. C., an official member of the M. E. 
 
 church, who made it a business to buy and sell slaves in lots to
 
 14 
 
 suit the purchasers, has become rich by his speculation in them, 
 and still continues his trade in human beings trading not only 
 for himself, but as an agent for others. His house is head-quarters 
 for Methodists a home for the preachers. He is a chief man in 
 the church; very benevolent." 
 
 The opinion of Mr. Heuston as to the extent to which the 
 Methodists are engaged in breeding and trafficking in slaves, 
 is corroborated by the testimony of Rev. James Sinylie, a 
 Presbyterian clergyman of Mississippi, who affirms the same 
 thing of all the other large denominations. In a pamphlet 
 which he published in defence of slavery, in 1838, I think it 
 was, we find the following passage : 
 
 " If slavery be a sin, and advertising and apprehending slaves, 
 with a view to restore them to their masters, is a direct violation 
 of the divine law, and if the buying, selling, or holding a slave, 
 FOR THE SAKE OF GAIN, is a heinous sin and scandal, then, verily, 
 
 THREE FOURTHS OF ALL THE EPISCOPALIANS, METHODISTS, BAP- 
 TISTS, and PRESBYTERIANS, in ELEVEN STATES OF THE UNION, are 
 of the devil. They ' hold,' if they do not buy and sell slaves, and, 
 with few exceptions, they hesitate not to 'to apprehend and restore ' 
 runaway slaves when in their power." 
 
 The statements of these individuals apply to the South 
 only. It is only in that portion of the country that Mr. S. 
 says, and says truly, that if slavery be a sin, (and no man 
 doubts that it is,) three fourths of all the Episcopalians, Meth- 
 odists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, are of the devil. But as 
 the Northern branch of the church is much larger than the 
 Southern, a large majority of the ministers and church mem- 
 bers of the whole country hold no property in slaves. But 
 while it is true that they are not claimants of slaves, it is 
 equally true that they are the apologists and supporters of 
 the system. For the sake of union with the South, the 
 Northern church and clergy, in concert with non-professors, 
 have made their respective states hunting-grounds for South- 
 ern kidnappers, and themselves the hounds. They have 
 covenanted with the South that whenever one of her slaves 
 shall make his escape to Massachusetts, Judge Story, and the 
 United States marshal, with his posse comitatus, shall dog 
 him down, secure his person, and in due time deliver him up 
 to the original kidnapper. Nor is this all. They have con- 
 sented to become the body-guard of the slave-master, and 
 have pledged themselves to protect him against every attempt 
 of his slaves to throw oft' their chains. 
 
 It is to this union, and pledge of protection from the North, 
 that the slave system owes its perpetuity to the present time. 
 Such, at least, 'is the opinion of the slave-claimants them-
 
 15 
 
 selves. Hence they shriek out in dismay at the first propo- 
 sition of the abolitionists to dissolve the Union, and leave 
 them alone in the enjoyment of their peculiar institutions. 
 Such, too, is the opinion of every man of sense who knows 
 any thing of the past history or present condition of our slave 
 population. The North, as he very well knows, are emphat- 
 ically the slave-holders. They are the soldiers who level the 
 musket, as the South gives the word of command. Indeed, to 
 satisfy himself of this, the humblest and most uninformed of 
 our citizens needs but a little reflection on the facts already 
 within his knowledge. Who does not know that in this 
 country are two and a half millions of people who are 
 doomed to a state of " bondage, one hour of which is fraught 
 with more misery than ages of that, which our fathers rose in 
 rebellion to oppose?" Confederated with them are not Jess 
 than half a million of abolitionists, and free people of color, 
 who believe in the right arid duty of self-defence, and who 
 are ready to join in every feasible measure to secure their 
 liberty. Now, I ask, by whose agency this vast people are 
 kept in their present horrible condition. To say that they 
 are held by their claimants, would be to talk like one bereft 
 of his reason. They are but a mere handful of men, at most, 
 less than three hundred thousand, or, on an average, about 
 one to every ten slaves. From this vast inequality in numbers, 
 it is certain that their masters are not alone concerned in their 
 enslavement. To keep a million of robust, athletic men and 
 women in a state of abject servitude, requires a force far be- 
 yond what they are competent to furnish. Whence, then, 
 comes that force ? Who are the allies and abettors of these 
 horrible tyrants, who live upon the blighted hopes of pros- 
 trate millions? Are they the crowned despots of the old 
 world? Have Algiers and Constantinople disgorged them- 
 selves, and sent forth swarms of troops to form a living, 
 impregnable bulwark around these execrable monsters, and 
 Khield them from the righteous indignation of outraged hu- 
 manity? The South herself shall answer this question. She 
 shall speak, and disclose her accomplices in this work of 
 death. 
 
 Says the editor of the Maryville (Tenn.) Intelligencer, in an 
 article on the character and condition of the slave popu- 
 lation, 
 
 " We of the South are emphatically surrounded by a dangerous 
 class of beings, degraded stupid savages, who, if they could but 
 once entertain the idea that immediate and unconditional death 
 would not be their portion, would react the St. Domingo tragedy. 
 But the consciousness, with all their stupidity, that a tenfold force,
 
 16 
 
 superior in discipline, if not in barbarity, would gather from the 
 four corners of the United States, and slaughter them, keeps them 
 in subjection. But to the non-slaveholding states, particularly, we 
 are indebted for a permanent safe-guard against insurrection. 
 Without their assistance, the white population of the South would 
 be too weak to quiet that innate desire for liberty which is ever 
 ready to act itself out with every rational creature." 
 
 In the debate in Congress on the resolution to censure John 
 Quincy Adams for presenting a petition for the dissolution of 
 the Union, Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, made the following 
 very just confession a confession which concedes all that 
 I have ever claimed in regard to the guilt of the North, and 
 which the church and clergy must disprove, or admit all that 
 I have alleged against them. In speaking of the effect of a 
 repeal of the Union on slavery, Mr. U. said, 
 
 " They (the South) were the weaker portion, were in the minor- 
 ity. The North could do what they pleased with them ; they could 
 adopt their own measures. All he asked was, that they would let 
 the South know what those measures were. One thing he knew 
 well that the state which he in part represented, had perhaps a 
 deeper interest in this subject than any other, except Maryland 
 and a small portion of Virginia. And why ? Because he knew 
 that to dissolve the Union, and separate the different states com- 
 posing this confederacy, making the Ohio River, and Mason and 
 Dixon's line, the boundary line, he knew as soon as that was 
 done, slavery was done in Kentucky, Maryland, and a large por- 
 tion of Virginia, and it would extend to all the states south of this 
 line. The dissolution of the Union was the dissolution of slavery. 
 It had been the common practice for Southern men to get up on 
 this floor, and say, 'Touch this subject, and we will dissolve 
 this Union as a remedy.' Their remedy was the destruction of 
 the thing which they wished to save, and any sensible man could 
 see it. If the Union were dissolved into two parts, the slave 
 would cross the line, and then turn round and curse his master 
 from the other shore." 
 
 This confession of Mr. Underwood, as to the entire depend- 
 ence of the slave-masters on the citizens of the nominally free 
 states to guard their plantations, and secure them against 
 desertion, is substantially confirmed by Thomas D. Arnold, of 
 Tennessee, who, in a speech on the same subject, assures us 
 that they are equally dependent on the North for personal 
 protection against their slaves. In assigning his reasons for 
 adhering to the Union, Mr. Arnold makes use of the follow- 
 ing remarkable language : 
 
 " The free states had now a majority of 44 in that house. Un- 
 der the new census, they would have 53. The cause of the 
 slaveholding states was getting weaker and weaker, and what
 
 17 
 
 were they to do ? He would ask his Southern friends what the 
 South had to rely on, if the Union were dissolved ? Suppose the 
 dissolution could be peaceably effected, (if that did not involve a 
 contradiction in terms,) what had the South to depend upon? Ml 
 tite crowned heads were against her. A million of slaves were 
 ready to rise and strike for freedom, at the first tap of the drum. 
 They were cut loose from their friends at the North, (friends 
 that ought to be, and without them the South had no friends,) 
 tchither icere th-ey to look for protection? How were they to sus- 
 tain an assault from England, or France, with that cancer at their 
 vitals? The more the South reflected, the more clearly she must 
 see that she had a deep and vital interest in maintaining the 
 Union." 
 
 Testimony, to the same effect, might be multiplied to an 
 indefinite extent. But more is unnecessary. Every person, 
 acquainted with the politics of the country, knows that slavery 
 is incorporated into the constitution of our government, and 
 is made a part of its settled policy. 1 have already said that 
 slaveholding was, necessarily, a social crime ; that it was only 
 by means of a social organization, by which the power of a 
 whole community could be combined and concentrated on a 
 given point, at a given time, that the liberty of an individual 
 could be crushed. The federal and state governments, linked 
 together as they now are, constitute such an organization. 
 The protection of the slave system was one of the objects for 
 which the Union was formed. By the terms of the federal 
 compact, the citizens of every state in the Union are required 
 and pledged to protect the slave-claimants, in each of the 
 states where slavery exists, against any attempt of their slaves 
 to regain their liberty by a resort to arms. The army, the 
 navy, and the militia, of the whole country, are placed at the 
 bidding of the slave power ; and every officer in them, from 
 the highest to the lowest, is put under oath to fight the battles 
 of slavery at the master's call. Already have the United 
 States' troops been twice employed (at South Hampton, Va., 
 and at Wilmington, N. C.,)to suppress insurrection among the 
 slaves ; and a call is now made upon the country for a large 
 increase of the navy, for the better protection of the "pecu- 
 liar institution." The Florida \var also furnishes another and 
 more recent instance in which the nation, as such, has un- 
 sheathed the sword in defence of slavery. The sole object 
 of that war, which has cost the country more than 7000 lives, 
 and exhausted its treasury of $40,000,000, be it remembered, 
 was the recapture of fugitive slaves, and to prevent further 
 escapes. And the same mighty influence which has exter- 
 minated the poor Indian in the everglades of Florida for 
 making his rude wigwam a refuge and home for the panting 
 2*
 
 18 
 
 fugitive, is now waiting to " gather in tenfold force from the 
 four corners of the United States, and slaughter " the pining 
 bondmen of the South, should they attempt to throw off their 
 chains, and assert their right to liberty. 
 
 The guaranty of personal security against their slaves, 
 given by the North to the slave-claimants, is the very life- 
 blood of the slave system. Divested of the protection of 
 Northern bayonets, the slave power could not sustain itself 
 a single hour, as the South herself is forced to admit. " Sup- 
 pose the Union to be dissolved, what has the South to depend 
 upon? All the crowned heads are against her. A million 
 of slaves are ready to rise and strike for freedom at the first 
 tap of the drum." And why, I ask, do they not now rise ? 
 Not, surely, because, in a country like ours, such a step would 
 be deemed morally wrong. The doctrine taught in all our 
 pulpits, and received by the church universally, is, that " re- 
 sistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Our clergy tell us 
 that self-defence, and the protection of our families, is a duty 
 which we may not innocently neglect, while they denounce 
 non-resistance as a " doctrine of devils." Why, then, do not 
 the slaves assert their freedom, and meet the invaders of their 
 rights in mortal combat, as our fathers did? Why is not 
 Madison Washington George Washington? And why are 
 not Charles Remond, and Frederic Douglass, and Lundsford 
 Lane, the Henrys, and Hancocks, and Adamses, of a second 
 American revolution ? 
 
 But one answer can be given to this question, and that is 
 the one already given by the Maryville Intelligencer. The 
 consciousness that, in a controversy with their masters, they 
 must meet the combined forces, military and naval, of the 
 whole country, alone deters them from such a movement. 
 It is not the lily-fingered aristocracy of the South that they 
 fear, as the South herself tells us, but the " white slaves" of 
 the North, who have basely sold themselves for scullions to 
 the slave power, and who are always ready to do the bidding 
 of their haughty proprietors, whatever service they may re- 
 quire at their hands. The slaves know too well, that, should 
 they unfurl the banner of freedom, and demand the recogni- 
 tion of their liberty and rights at the point of the bayonet, 
 the Northern pulpit, aghast with holy horror at the incendiary 
 measure, would raise the maddening cry of insurrection the 
 Northern church, animated by a kindred spirit, and echoing 
 the infamous libel, would pour forth her sons in countless 
 hordes, and a mighty avalanche of Northern soldiery, well 
 disciplined for their work of death by long experience in 
 Northern mobs, would rush down upon them from our
 
 19 
 
 Northern hills in exterminating wrath, and sweep away, in its 
 desolating ruins, the last vestige of their present " forlorn 
 hope ! " Do I misrepresent the church and clergy ? No ! 
 You, at least, know that this would be but to redeem their 
 plighted faith. They stand, before the world and before high 
 Heaven, sworn to protect every slave-breeder in the land in 
 his lawful business of rearing men and women for the mar- 
 ket ; nor have they, as a body, ever shown any symptoms of 
 an intention to violate the requirements of their oath. They 
 preach and practise allegiance to a government which is 
 based upon the bones and sinews, and cemented with the 
 blood, of millions of their countrymen, and hold themselves 
 in readiness to execute its every decree, at the point of the 
 bayonet. Thus, emphatically, are they the holders of the 
 slaves the bulwark of the bloody slave system and as 
 such, at their hands, if there be any truth in Christianity, will 
 God require the blood of every slave in our land. And, for 
 one, so long as they continue in their present position, I deem 
 it the duty of every friend of humanity to brand them as a 
 brotherhood of thieves, adulterers, man-stealers, pirates, and 
 murderers, and to prove to the world that, in sustaining the slave 
 system, they do actually commit all these atrocious crimes. 
 
 The Federal Compact contains another provision, as I have 
 already intimated, which, in its operation, is no less fatal to 
 the liberties of our enslaved countrymen than that which we 
 have just considered ; and one which implicates every friend 
 and supporter of the Union in all the guilt and moral turpi- 
 tude of slaveholding. I refer to that article of the Constitu- 
 tion which requires the surrender of fugitive slaves. If the 
 Northern States were really free, the slaves would forthwith 
 escape into them, and slavery would soon become extinct by 
 emigration, as Mr. Underwood has well said. But what is 
 now the fact ? Is there liberty for the slave any where within 
 the borders of the United States ? When he steps upon the 
 soil of Pennsylvania, or New York, or Massachusetts, do his 
 shackles fall ? Can he stand erect, and say, " 1 am free " ? 
 No ! He is still a crouching slave still clanks his chains, 
 and starts affrighted at the crack of the driver's whip. Hotly 
 pursued by the human hounds which, like the fabled vulture 
 of Prometheus, have long gorged themselves upon his vitals, 
 he reaches forth his imploring hands to the professed min- 
 isters and followers of the meek and loving Savior, and, 
 with looks that would draw tears from adamant, beseeches 
 them by all that is endearing in the ties of our common na- 
 ture, and by all that is horrible in the doom of a recaptured 
 slave, to save him from the fangs of these terrible monsters.
 
 20 
 
 But what is their reply ? " Go back " Shame, shame on the 
 church ! "Go back, and wear your chains ! True, ' all men 
 are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain 
 inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness;' and God said, 'Thou shall not deliver to 
 his master the servant which is escaped from his master 
 unto thee' but but but we have covenanted with the 
 wretches who have robbed you of these rights, never to give 
 you shelter, nor protection ; but to return you, if found within 
 our borders, again into their power." 
 
 This is no picture of the fancy, as thousands of our unhap- 
 py countrymen would testify from sad experience, if they 
 could but speak. Indeed, it is the language of every citizen 
 of the North who holds any other relation to the Federal 
 Compact than that which George Washington and the first 
 American Congress held to the colonial edicts of George III. ; 
 for that instrument, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, 
 pledges all who assent to it to withhold protection from every 
 man who is claimed as a fugitive slave, and allow him to be 
 dragged back into bondage. But have the Northern church 
 and clergy ever refused to fulfil the requisitions of this in- 
 famous compact with Southern man-stealers ? Have they 
 trampled its provisions under their feet, and indignantly de- 
 manded its repeal ? Never ! On the contrary, with com- 
 paratively few exceptions, they have ranged themselves in one 
 of the two great political parties which have long vied with 
 each other in their support of slavery, and at the same time 
 have waged an exterminating warfare against every move- 
 ment in favor of universal freedom. In connection with 
 these parties, they have kidnapped and returned into slavery 
 vast numbers of those who, at different periods, had been so 
 fortunate as to escape from the power of their masters ; and in 
 more instances than one have they indicted and imprisoned 
 abolitionists for giving them succor. Thus have the church 
 and clergy of the North voluntarily consented to become the 
 watch-dogs of the plantation ; and from long and intimate 
 acquaintance with their fidelity in this service, I have no hesi- 
 tation in recommending them to their southern masters, as 
 worthy candidates for the honors of a brass collar. And if I 
 were to specify cases of extraordinary merit in this regard, I 
 should name Chief Justice Shaw and Judge Story, and the 
 clergy generally of the city of Boston, as especially entitled to 
 remembrance by James B. Gray, for their prompt and cordial 
 acquiescence in his recent claim of George Larimer. It 
 would be but an act of justice in Mr. G. to expend a part of 
 the money for which he sold George in collars, inscribed with
 
 21 
 
 the initials of his own name, for these distinguished kidnap- 
 pers. Their conduct on that occasion, as I can testify from 
 personal observation, richly entitles them to some such lasting 
 memento of their loyalty to the slave power. 
 
 There is another view of this subject, which presents the 
 guilt of the Northern church and clergy in a still more glar- 
 ing light. It is this : To legalize crime, and throw around it 
 the sanction of statutory enactments, is, undeniably, an act of 
 much greater wickedness than to perpetrate it after it has 
 been made lawful. Thus the members of a legislative body, 
 which should enact a law authorizing theft or murder, would 
 more deserve the penitentiary, or the gallows, than the man 
 who merely steals, or, in a fit of anger, takes his neighbor's 
 life. The former justify crime, and make it honorable, and 
 thus obliterate all distinction between virtue and vice ; the 
 latter merely commits it, when legalized, but attempts no jus- 
 tification of his offence. But the religious professions of the 
 country have legalized slavery and the infernal slave-trade, in 
 the District of Columbia, and in the Territory of Florida! 
 They have made their national capital one of the greatest 
 slave-marts on the globe ; and they now hold in slavery, by 
 direct legislation, more than thirty thousand human beings, 
 whom they have sternly refused to emancipate. No sect can 
 claim exemption from this charge. In whatever else they 
 differ, they have all united, without exception, by the almost 
 unanimous voice of their members, in opposing the abolition 
 of slavery in those places where they have the power to 
 emancipate, and have declared to the world, by their vote, 
 (the most effective way in which they could speak on the sub- 
 ject,) that it was their sovereign will and pleasure that the 
 traffic in human beings, which they have branded as piracy on 
 the coast of Africa, should be lawful and honorable com- 
 merce in the United States ; and that the capital of this land 
 of boasted freedom should be the Guinea Coast of America. 
 Not a mother has been robbed of her babe within the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, not a solitary woman has been sold there, 
 without the legal sanction of more than seven eighths of 
 every religious sect of the North. Even the Free-Will Bap- 
 tists and the Quakers, with all their professed abhorrence of 
 slavery, and their numerous public testimonies against it, in 
 consideration of the paltry sum of four hundred dollars paid 
 into their national treasury, license the auctioneer in human 
 flesh in the city of Washington. I charge this offence upon 
 these denominations, because the immediate agents in grant- 
 ing these licenses are men of their own choice, and men, too, 
 who were selected with a full knowledge of the fact that they
 
 22 
 
 were in favor of legalizing the slave-trade, and, if elected to 
 office, would license it in the District of Columbia. The 
 abolitionists have long and earnestly besought the pretended 
 ministers and followers of Christ, of the different sects, to 
 elect men to office who would abolish all legal enactments in 
 favor of slavery, wherever they had the power to do it ; but 
 their entreaties have been totally disregarded, and themselves 
 treated with the most profound contempt 
 
 The nature and enormities of the domestic slave-trade 
 which is now carried on in the District of Columbia, on an ex- 
 tensive scale, under the legal sanction of nearly the entire 
 body of the church and clergy, may be seen in the following 
 eloquent and just description of it, from a Southern pen. 
 The language is severe, but it is the severity of truth. The 
 only fault 1 find with it is, that its heaviest strokes are not 
 aimed at those who have thrown the shield of government 
 around this infernal traffic, and made it lawful and honorable 
 commerce. I copy it. 
 
 [From the Millennial Trumpeter, Tenn.] 
 
 " Droves of negroes, chained together in dozens and scores, and 
 hand-cuffed, have been driven through our country in numbers far 
 surpassing any previous year. And these vile slave-drivers and 
 dealers are swarming like buzzards round a carrion, throughout this 
 country. You cannot pass a few miles in the great roads without 
 having every feeling of humanity insulted and lacerated by this 
 spectacle. Nor can you go into any county, or any neighborhood, 
 scarcely, without seeing or hearing of some of those despicable 
 creatures, called negro-drivers. 
 
 "WHO is A NEGRO-DRIVER? One whose eyes dwell with de- 
 light on lacerated bodies of helpless men, women, and children ; 
 wnose soul feels diabolical raptures at the chains, and hand-cuffs, 
 and cart-whips for inflicting tortures on weeping mothers torn 
 from helpless babes, and on husbands and wives torn asunder for- 
 ever. Who is a negro- d ri ver ? An execrable demon, who is only 
 prevented by want of power, fellow-citizens, from driving your 
 wives, and sons, and daughters, in chains and hand-cuffs, with the 
 blood-stained cart- whip, to market. Yea, his hardened heart would 
 make but little difference, whether he made his ill-gotten gain by 
 selling them to a merciless cotton or sugar grower, or by sending 
 them directly to the flames of hell. Is your insulted humanity, ye 
 sons of Tennessee, your insulted sense of right and wrong, your 
 abused conviction of the rights of man, satisfied by saying the 
 tears, and groans, and blood, of these human droves are not the 
 tears, and groans, and blood, of our wives, children, brothers, and 
 fathers ; or these ' blood-snuffing vultures ' of hell should not set 
 their polluted tread on our soil with impunity ? Their lives should 
 atone for their audacity. And is the fountain of your sympathies
 
 23 
 
 dried up for the poor oppressed African, merely because he is help- 
 less and defenceless ? Is the hand of efficient aid drawn back, 
 merely because the enchained, bleeding victim cannot help him- 
 self? Is not the African thy brother? Is he not a man, with all 
 the sympathies and sensibilities of our nature ? Was he not made 
 in the image of God ? Did not Christ die to redeem him ? And 
 shall we suffer these miscreant fiends to drive our fellow-men in 
 chains before our eyes, as brutes are driven to market. 
 
 " The laws, you say, protect these ruffians in their nefarious 
 traffic. Yea, the laws are often made by wretches whose charac- 
 ters are frequently afac simile of these negro-drivers, whose moral 
 picture would darken the black canvass of the pit. There are, at 
 this very time, miscreants engaged in this trade, who once polluted 
 our legislative halls. But suppose villains enough of the right 
 hue let into the legislature, and pass laws that one order of society 
 may violate the honor of your wives and daughters ; would such a 
 law on the pages of our statute-book secure the perpetrator from 
 condign punishment ? What can the dead letter of a statute-book 
 do, in opposition to the public opinion of an enlightened and vir- 
 tuous community ? " 
 
 Dark and revolting as is the picture which 1 have here 
 drawn, there yet remains to be added another shade of still 
 deeper hue. Through whose agency was it, I ask, that a 
 thief now fills the presidential chair ? John Tyler, the present 
 head and representative of the federal government, is a vet- 
 eran slave-breeder a negro thief of the old Virginia school, 
 who has long supported his own family in princely luxury 
 by desolating the domestic hearth-stones of his defenceless 
 neighbors, and whose crimes in this regard, had they been 
 perpetrated North, instead of South, of Mason's and Dixon's 
 line, would have consigned him to the state's prison for at 
 least two centuries, or until released by death from his igno- 
 minious confinement. Of Mr. Tyler's cabinet a majority are 
 negro thieves five of the judges of the Supreme Court are 
 negro thieves the president of the United States Senate is 
 a negro thief the speaker of the House of Representatives 
 is a negro thief the officer first in command in the U. S. 
 army is a negro thief a majority of all our ministers to 
 foreign courts are negro thieves. And yet these men were all 
 elected to office by the votes, direct or indirect, of the great 
 body of the Northern church and clergy. But why have the 
 clergy and their adherents shown this~preference for thieves 
 to rule the nation, and shape its destinies ? Doubtless, be- 
 cause they are a "brotherhood of thieves," as like always seeks 
 its like. Away, then, with all their pretensions to Christian- 
 ity, or even common honesty. The man who votes with either 
 of the great political parties does necessarily and inevitably 
 legalize slavery, both of these parties being pledged not only
 
 24 
 
 to execute all the provisions of the Constitution in favor of 
 slavery, but to go even farther, and perpetuate the system, with 
 all its abominations, in the District of Columbia; the man 
 who legalizes slavery, and throws around it the protecting 
 shield of the government, is the most guilty and atrocious of 
 slaveholders; and eveiy slaveholder, as I have already shown, 
 is guilty of the crimes of theft, adultery, man-stealing, piracy, 
 and murder. It follows, then, as a legitimate and certain 
 conclusion, that, as the ministers and members of the Northern 
 church, with comparatively few exceptions, have ranged them- 
 selves in the ranks of the Whig or Democratic party, and 
 have thus not only voluntarily formed a political alliance with 
 the slave-claimants, in all the different states of the Union, 
 guarantying their personal security, and the return of their 
 fugitive slaves, but have also given their direct sanction to sla- 
 very, by legalizing it, and refusing to emancipate those whom 
 they have a constitutional right to set free, they are slavehold- 
 ers in the most odious sense of this term, and, as such, are 
 guilty of all the crimes alleged against them in my first charge. 
 
 From the conclusion to which we have here arrived there 
 is no possible escape. Two and a half millions of our coun- 
 trymen, now loaded with chains and fetters, demand their 
 liberty at our hands. Shall they be free ? What say the 
 Northern church and clergy? By voting for men to rule the 
 country who are known to be the uncompromising opponents 
 of abolition, they answer No! By refusing to annul that 
 portion of the Federal Compact which requires them to return 
 fugitives from slavery, and put down the slaves, should they 
 attempt to regain their liberty by a resort to arms, they answer 
 No ! By stifling the voice of free discussion, and stirring 
 up mobs against the abolitionists, they answer No ! What- 
 ever influence they possess, as citizens, is all thrown into the 
 scale of slavery. They looked upon John Tyler as he robbed 
 the frantic mother of her babe, and forthwith made him pres- 
 ident of the United States ! They have seen Henry Clay and 
 John C. Calhoun tear the tender and confiding wife from the 
 fond embrace of her husband, and sell her to a stranger, and 
 they are now eager to confer on them the same splendid 
 honors ! And at this very moment they stand with sword in 
 hand, ready to thurst it into the heart of the slave, should he 
 assert his freedom, and extend the hand of protection to his 
 insulted and outraged wife and daughters ! 
 
 Should these charges chance to meet the eye of the guilty 
 authors of this wrong, they will doubtless ask, "Is thy servant 
 a dog, that he should do this great thing ? " YES, I answer, 
 emphatically, ye are dogs the watch-dogs of your Southern
 
 25 
 
 masters, whose plantations ye guard and as such, ye are more 
 brutal and inhuman than the servant of the Syrian king. Ye 
 daily rob more than three hundred of your own country- 
 women of their new-born babes, and doom those babes to a 
 fate more horrible than death, breaking the mother's heart ! 
 Ye have recklessly trampled under foot the sacred institution 
 of marriage, consigned every sixth woman in the country to a 
 life of hopeless concubinage and adultery, and turned your 
 famous Ten-Miles-Square into a mart, where the rich aristo- 
 crat may lawfully sell the poor man's wife for purposes of 
 prostitution, thus legalizing violence on female chastity in its 
 most horrible and disgusting forms. Think, ye fathers and 
 mothers, against whom' I bring these tremendous charges; O, 
 think of your own daughters on the block of the auctioneer, 
 to be sold to any vile and loathsome wretch who may choose 
 to purchase them, to pander to his beastly lusts ! See your 
 own darling son, in the person of George Latimer, kidnapped 
 in open day, in the heart of New England's metropolis, and 
 under the very eye of her pulpit : behold him manacled in 
 open court, and dragged in chains through the streets of that 
 proud city, not by a drunken mob, but by the police, with the 
 city marshal at their head ; and finally immured with felons in a 
 dismal cell, there to wait, for weeks, with trembling anxiety, 
 the horrible doom of a recaptured slave and tell me if they 
 are not dogs, nay, fiends incarnate, who perpetrate such out- 
 rages ! But remember, " Thou art the man ! " What I have 
 here supposed to be done to thy son and daughters, thou hast 
 done to the son and daughters of another! 
 
 No intelligent person, man or woman, who is in concert 
 with the Whig or Democratic party, or who votes for any 
 other than an uncompromising abolitionist for civil office, or 
 silently countenances such voting, can say, in truth, he is inno- 
 cent of these crimes. It is impossible ! Sooner will Pontius 
 Pilate shake from his spotted robes the blood of the murdered 
 Jesus ; sooner, far sooner, will the infatuated Jew, who cried, 
 " Away with him, away with him, let him be crucified," stand 
 acquitted before the bar of his final Judge, than such a man 
 exculpate himself from the 'guilt of slavery. In imitation of the 
 Roman judge, he may wash his hands before the people by 
 passing resolves against slavery, or excluding slave-claimants 
 from his communion-table, and say, " I am innocent of the 
 blood of the slave ;" but it is of no avail. Still in his " skirts is 
 found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents." For 
 private ends he continues to sustain, by his vote, a system 
 which, in words, he has repudiated, as the supple tool of the 
 envious Pharisees condemned to death the man whom he had 
 3
 
 26 
 
 previously pronounced without a fault; and hence, in his 
 ecclesiastical condemnation of slavery, he only adds to the 
 crime of slaveholding the guilt of base hypocrisy. So long as 
 a solitary slave shall leave his foot-prints on our soil, or clank 
 his chains in our ears, no position can be innocent, nor safe, 
 but that of uncompromising hostility to whatever is in fellow- 
 ship or alliance with the slave power ; and they alone who 
 have assumed this position, can justly claim exemption from 
 the charge of slaveholding. 
 
 I might pursue the political aspect of this subject still far- 
 ther, and bring together a great amount of additional proof in 
 support of my positions. But it is needless. Indeed, more 
 evidence would only lumber and confuse the mind, instead of 
 aiding its conclusions. I will, therefore, conclude with a 
 single additional consideration. 
 
 The remark which I wish to add is this : The clerical and 
 lay members, with few exceptions, of all the various religious 
 sects in the country, are identified with one of the two great 
 political parties which administer and control the government, 
 either by actually voting for their candidates, or by a silent 
 acquiescence in, and approval of, their measures. Those 
 clergymen, who absent themselves from the polls, but fail to 
 rebuke the members of their respective churches for voting 
 with those parties in support of slavery, are as responsible for 
 their votes as they would be, had they deposited them in the 
 ballot-box with their own hands. This, at least, is the doctrine 
 of the ancient prophet : " When I say unto the, wicked, O wicked 
 man, thou shall surely die ; if thou dost not speak to ivarn the 
 wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; 
 but his blood urill I require at thine hand." (Ezekiel xxxiii. 8.) 
 Hence, politically, the sects are Whigs and Democrats ; and 
 up to this hour, they have gone all lengths with these parties 
 in their "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" and " Kinderhook " con- 
 ventions for the election of slave-masters, and "Northern men 
 with Southern principles," to fill the highest offices in the gift 
 of the people. Now, I ask, were their own children in sla- 
 very, would they be found in the ranks of these parties ? If 
 you say. yea ; then I- reply, would they honor with the highest 
 offices in the government the men who had debauched their 
 own daughters, and sold the flesh, and bones, and blood, of 
 their sons in human shambles. If you say, nay; then, with- 
 out further argument, are they individually convicted of 
 knowingly and intentionally contributing of their influence to 
 support the slave system a system that robs two and a half 
 millions of our countrymen of every right and privilege which 
 renders life a blessing; and therefore they must answer to
 
 27 
 
 God, not for the enslavement of one or two individuals 
 merely, but of every victim of our country's wrongs who 
 now pines in his chains. And if Christianity be not a fable, 
 Christ will say to them, in the day of judgment, not only lor 
 what they have actually done to sustain slavery, but for what 
 they have neglected to do for its overthrow, "I was a hun- 
 gered, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and 
 ye clothed me not; sick and in prison," down on the planta- 
 tions of the South " and ye visited me not." "Depart from 
 me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels." For, "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye 
 did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." 
 
 In the former part of my letter, I have shown that slavery 
 is an American and not a Southern institution, and that the 
 North and South are leagued together politically in its sup- 
 port. I have also shown, both by reference to facts, and from 
 the testimony of distinguished men at the South, that the 
 slave power could not sustain itself a single hour, without the 
 aid and protection of the general government, but must fall at 
 once before the avenging arm of its outraged victims; and, 
 consequently, that all who sustain the government in its pres- 
 ent pro-slavery character, do thereby sustain the slave system, 
 and should be held responsible for all the guilt and misery 
 which it involves. But while the federal government, that 
 is, the electors of the country, are the direct and visible agents 
 on whose authority and fostering care slavery depends for 
 support and perpetuity, there is in this case, as in most others 
 of a like nature, "a power behind the throne greater than the 
 throne itself;" for in a country like ours, civil government is 
 of no force, any farther than it is sustained by popular senti- 
 ment. The will of the people for the time being is the 
 supreme law of the land, the legislative and executive depart- 
 ments of the government being nothing more than a mere echo 
 of the popular will. Hence the power which controls public 
 opinion does, in fact, give laws to our country, and is, there- 
 fore, preeminently responsible for the vices which are sanc- 
 tioned by those laws. That power, in this case, is the priest- 
 hood, backed up and supported by the church. They are the 
 manufacturers of our public sentiment; and, consequently, 
 they hold in their hand the key to the great prison-house of 
 Southern despotism, and can "open and no man shut, and 
 shut and no .man open." 
 
 There are in our country more than 20,000 of this class of 
 men, scattered over every part of the land, and at the same time 
 so united in national and local associations as to act in perfect
 
 28 
 
 harmony, whenever concert is required. They constitute wnat 
 may properly be termed a religions aristocracy. Among the 
 exclusive privileges which they claim and enjoy, is the right to 
 administer the ordinances of religion, and to lead in all our re- 
 ligious services. The ear of the nation is open to them every 
 seventh day of the week, when they pour into it just such sen- 
 timents as they choose. And not only are they in direct and 
 constant contact with the people in their public ministrations, 
 but in their parochial visits, at the sick bed, at weddings, and 
 at funerals, all of which are occasions when the mind is pe- 
 culiarly tender, and susceptible of deep and lasting impres- 
 sions. Amply supported by the contributions of the church, 
 their whole time is devoted to the work of moulding and 
 giving character to public sentiment; and with the advan- 
 tages which they enjoy over all other classes of society, of 
 leisure, the sanctity of their office, and direct and constant 
 contact with the people as their "spiritual guides," their 
 power has become all-controlling. It is in a fnite. sense omni- 
 present in every section of the country, and is absolutely ir- 
 resistible, wherever their claims are allowed. Hence what 
 they countenance it will be next to an impossibility to over- 
 throw, at least till their order itself be overthrown ; and what- 
 ever system of evil they oppose, must melt away like snow 
 beneath the warm rays of an April sun. 
 
 To illustrate the strength of their power more fully, I will 
 suppose a case. The car of temperance rolls back its ponder- 
 ous wheels, and we become a nation of drunkards. Midnight 
 gloom covers the whole land. The voice of the reformer is 
 no longer heard in stern rebuke, against the general debauch 
 which is now rife in every rank ami grade of society. The 
 traffic in intoxicating drink is legalized in all parts of the 
 country, and by a law of Congress for the District of Co- 
 lumbia, every person who visits the seat of government on 
 business, or for pleasure, may be compelled to drink to in- 
 toxication, on penalty of thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, 
 inflicted at discretion of the rum-sellers of the district. 
 
 In this state of things, suddenly some daring spirit starts 
 up, and with the watchword of reform gathers around him 
 a little band of fearless coadjutors, who with himself pledge 
 their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to the 
 glorious work of delivering their country from the scourge 
 and curse of intemperance. Struck with the sanctity of their 
 professions, they naturally look to the priesthood and church 
 for aid and cooperation. But to their surprise, they find that 
 thousands of the clergy are not only the victims, but the 
 apologists, and advocates, of this degrading vice and crime ;
 
 29 
 
 many of them are among the best customers of the rum-seller ; 
 they often go reeling and staggering from the grog-shop to the 
 meeting-house, and are obliged to ascend the pulpit on bor- 
 rowed feet ; and it not unfrequently occurs, during the Di- 
 vine services of the Sabbath, that the sentiments of melting 
 tenderness which flow forth in supplication from the pious 
 heart of the officiating priest, are interrupted on their pas- 
 sage by a sudden explosion of the contents of the decanter 
 from his surcharged stomach. Deacons, too, in countless 
 numbers, are drunkards ; the communion season is often a 
 Bacchanalian revel ; and much of the revenues of the church 
 is the profits of the distillery. Doctors of divinity and presi- 
 dents of our theological seminaries are often found engaged 
 in amassing wealth by rum-selling; and not a few of the 
 members and officers of the American Board of Commis- 
 sioners for Foreign Missions, and of the American Bible 
 Society, are addicted to habitual intoxication ; while the en- 
 tire body of the priesthood and church, of all denominations, 
 are united in electing to the highest offices in the gift of 
 the people men who are not only notorious drunkards, but 
 who are also known to be in favor of perpetuating the in- 
 famous law, in the District of Columbia, which allows the 
 rum-sellers of the district to compel the citizens of the place, 
 and strangers from abroad, to drink to intoxication, or sub- 
 mit to thirty-nine lashes on their bare bucks. 
 
 Schooled in the philosophy of the apostle who taught that 
 "judgment must begin at the house of God," the reformers 
 call first upon the church and priesthood to repent, and sign 
 the pledge of total abstinence. A few comply with the call, 
 and not only sign the pledge, but advocate its merits ; but 
 much the larger portion continue to drink ; and to save their 
 own reputation, they pour contempt and ridicule on the 
 friends of total abstinence, and wink at the mobs which are 
 got up to put them down. Presbyteries resolve that drunk- 
 enness " is not opposed to the will of God." The General 
 Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church declare, by an 
 overwhelming vote, that they have no " right, wish, or in- 
 tention," to abolish intemperance. Professor Stuart comes 
 out in a published letter, and denounces the lectures on total 
 abstinence as mere " spoutings and vehemence," and boldly 
 declares that men may get drunk "without violating the 
 Christian faith, or the church." President Fisk endorses this 
 doctrine, and asserts that it " will stand, because it is Bible 
 doctrine." Some of the smaller sects, and local bodies in the 
 more influential ones, pass resolutions in favor of temperance, 
 but at the same time slander and traduce its firmest and most 
 3*
 
 30 
 
 unflinching friends, because they refuse to recognize a rum- 
 drinking and rum-selling church and clergy as the represen- 
 tatives and followers of Christ ; and as if to give undoubted 
 proof of their hypocrisy, they still continue to vote for drunk- 
 ards, and the advocates of the compulsion law, for the presi- 
 dency and all other important offices in the gift of the 
 people, and sternly resist every importunity of the friends of 
 temperance to aid in the election of men who are in favor 
 of repealing that infernal enactment 
 
 Now, with the church and clergy in this position, what 
 progress, I as*k, could the friends of temperance hope to make 
 in their work of reform ? It requires all the moral power 
 which they can command to make headway against the de- 
 praved appetite of the drunkard, with the church and clergy 
 nominally in their favor. What, then, could they do with this 
 mighty influence openly pitted against them, and on the 
 side of the drunkard ? Would they ever dream of putting 
 down intemperance by political action, so long as the land 
 was cursed with a drunken and besotted church and priest- 
 hood, and they were themselves in full fellowship with that 
 church and priesthood ? Surely, no man in his sober senses 
 would ever seriously entertain such an idea. Men of sense 
 would see, at a glance, that the church and clergy were a 
 strong and impervious rampart around the citadel of intem- 
 perance, and that the only hope of our country was in their 
 speedy conversion or utter overthrow. 
 
 But is there any analogy between the case I have here sup- 
 posed and the one under consideration ? Is it true that 
 thousands of the ministers of our country are slaveholders ? 
 Are our deacons, in countless numbers, slave-Breeders and 
 slave-traders ? Do doctors of divinity, and presidents of 
 our theological seminaries enhance their wealth by plun- 
 dering cnulles and trundle-beds ? Do members and officers 
 of the A. B. C. F. M. and of the A. li. S. claim their neigh- 
 bor's wives and daughters, and appropriate them to their own 
 use as chattels personal ? Have presbyteries passed resolves 
 that " the holding of slaves, so far from being a sin in the 
 sight of God, is nowhere condemned in his holy word ? " 
 Has the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church publicly declared that it had " no right, wish, or in- 
 tention," to abolish the infernal slave system. 
 
 Has Professor Stuart denounced the lectures of aboli- 
 tionists as mere " spouting and vehemence," and boldly de- 
 clared that the strong may enslave the weak, without violating 
 the " Christian faith or the church " ? And has President Fisk 
 endorsed this doctrine, and asserted that " it will stand, be-
 
 31 
 
 cause it is Bibk doctrine"? Do those sects and local ec- 
 clesiastical bodies which adopt resolutions in favor of anti- 
 slavery, at the same time slander and vilify the character of 
 its firmest and most unflinching friends, because they refuse 
 to recognize a pro-slavery church and clergy as the followers 
 of Christ ? And do they, as a body, still persist in voting for 
 slave-claimants and pro-slavery men to fill the highest offices 
 in the gift of the people, and that, too, agaiust the earnest re- 
 monstrances and entreaties of the abolitionists ? Truth, I re- 
 gret to say, requires an affirmative answer to all these ques- 
 tions! The entire body of the church and clergy of the 
 country are in Christian fellowship with slavery, that is, with 
 those who legalize the system ; while a large proportion of 
 them are its open and unblushing advocates and apologists ! 
 Not a solitary sect in the land, of any magnitude, has espoused 
 the anti-slavery cause. They all, without exception, stand 
 on the side of the oppressor, and legalize his atrocities. They 
 pass from the communion-table to the ballot-box, and there 
 deposit their votes for the man who has robbed his neigh- 
 bor's cradle, to fill the highest office in the gift of the people. 
 Not a chain has been forged not a fetter has been riveted 
 on any human being in the District of Columbia, without their 
 sanction ! The question has often been put to them, " Do 
 you, the professed ministers and followers of Christ, wish the 
 capital of your country to remain a human flesh-mart, where 
 your Savior may be sold, in the persons of his followers, 
 under the auction hammer ? " and they have as often returned 
 an affirmative answer ! And whenever the abolitionists have 
 sent up their petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery, 
 the church and clergy have sent men there as their repre- 
 sentatives, who have basely trampled those petitions under 
 their feet ! 
 
 But it is not in their political capacity that the influence of 
 the church and clergy has been most prejudicial to the cause 
 of emancipation. True, they have rivalled the infidel and 
 nothingarian in their support of pro-slavery parties ; and their 
 recreancy at the ballot-box has been such as to merit the 
 severest epithets which I have ever bestowed upon them. 
 But in their ecclesiastical character, they have publicly defended 
 the slave system as an innocent and Heaven-ordained institution, 
 and have thrown the sacred sanctions of religion around it, by in- 
 troducing it into the pulpit, and to the communion-table ! At the 
 South, nearly the entire body of the clergy publicly advocate 
 the perpetuity of slavery, and denounce the abolitionists as 
 fanatics, incendiaries, and cut-throats ; and the churches and 
 clergy of the North still fellowship them, and palm them off
 
 32 
 
 upon the world as the ministers of Christ. I know it will be 
 said that there are exceptions to this charge ; but if there be 
 any, I have yet to learn of them. I know not of a single ec- 
 clesiastical body in the country which has excommunicated 
 any of its members for the crime of slaveholding, since the 
 commencement of the anti-slavery enterprise, though most of 
 them have cast out the true and faithful abolitionists from 
 their communion. 
 
 I might with great propriety pursue these general remarks, 
 and indulge in a somewhat severer strain ; but to understand 
 the true character of the American church and clergy, and 
 the full extent of their atrocities, you must hear them speak 
 in their own language. Should I tell you the whole truth 
 respecting them, and tell it in my own words, I fear you 
 would entertain the same opinion of me that the Bramin did 
 of his English friend, who, on a certain occasion, as they 
 were walking together along the banks of a beautiful river, 
 admiring the richness of its scenery, imprudently remarked, 
 that in his country, during the winter season, the water be- 
 came so solid that an elephant could walk upon it. The 
 Bramin replied, " Sir, you have told me many strange and 
 incredible things respecting your country before, yet I have 
 always believed you to be a man of truth, but now I know 
 you lie." So, if I tel) the truth respecting the American 
 church and clergy, I am afraid you will think me guilty of 
 falsehood. I will therefore introduce several of the leading 
 sects, and let them speak for themselves, through the resolves 
 of their respective ecclesiastical bodies, and the published 
 sentiments of their accredited ministers ; and although you 
 might not believe me, should I tell you that they have " no 
 wish or intention," to abolish slavery, yet you will believe 
 them, I trust, when you hear the declaration from their own 
 lips. I will begin with 
 
 THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 This church extends, in territory, over the whole Union, 
 and embraces in its communion, at the present time, over 
 1,000,000 members, of whom probably not less than 100,000 
 are slaves. It comprises 32 Annual Conferences, from which 
 delegates are chosen to meet in General Conference, once in 
 four years. The church is governed by six bishops, who are 
 elected by the General Conference, and whose duty it is to 
 preside at the Annual Conferences ; fix the appointment of 
 preachers ; ordain bishops, elders, and deacons ; and oversee 
 the spiritual and temporal business of the church.
 
 33 
 
 The first meeting of the General Conference, subsequent to 
 the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was in 
 Cincinnati, in May, 1836. On the evening of the 10th of May, 
 the Cincinnati A. S. S. held a public meeting, which was ad- 
 dressed by two of the members of the Conference. On the 
 12th of May, Rev. S. G. Roszell presented to the Conference 
 the following preamble and resolutions : 
 
 " Whereas great excitement has pervaded 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 
 members 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 suspicion 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, 
 
 1. "By the delegates of the Annual Conference in General 
 Conference assembled, that they disapprove, in the most unqualified 
 sense, the conduct of the 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. ." By the delegates of the Annual Conference in General Con- 
 ference assembled, that they are decidedly opposed to modern 
 abolitionism, and wholly disclaim any right, wish, or intention, to 
 interfere in the civil and political relation between master and 
 slave, as it exists in the slaveholding states of this Union." 
 
 These resolutions, after full discussion, were adopted by the 
 Conference the first by a vote of 122 to 11, the last 120 
 to 14. 
 
 Accompanying these resolutions, as they went forth to the 
 world to " define the position " of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church on the great question which is now agitating the land, 
 was a Pastoral Address to the churches, which contains the 
 following passages : 
 
 " These facts, which are only mentioned here as a reason for the 
 friendly admonition which we wish to give you, constrain us, as 
 your pastors, who are called to watch over your souls, as they must 
 give account, to exhort you to abstain from all abolition movements 
 and associations, and to refrain from patronizing any of their pub- 
 lications, &c. 
 
 " From every view of the subject which we have been able to 
 take, and from the most calm and dispassionate survey of the whole
 
 34 
 
 ground, we have come to the conclusion, that the only safe, scrip- 
 tural, and prudent way for us, both as ministers and people, to 
 take, is, wholly to refrain from this agitating subject" &c. 
 
 Such was the language of the representative body of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church on the great question of emanci- 
 pation, in 1836. They here declare, emphatically, that they 
 have no "wish or intention to interfere in the civil and political 
 relation between master and slave," and exhort their brethren 
 to " abstain from all abolition movements and associations," 
 and " wholly to refrain from this agitating subject ! " And 
 what could a conclave of demons in hell have said more ? 
 Surely no other banditti on earth would have gone so far 
 not in hypocrisy, at least, if they had in cold-blooded bar- 
 barity. Mark the language of the reverend scoundrels. They 
 have no "urish or intention" to abolish the infernal slave 
 system ! Every circumstance of the scene contributes to 
 heighten their guilt. They claim to be ambassadors of Christ, 
 assembled for the purpose of extending his kingdom on the 
 earth, before them lie two millions of their countrymen, 
 ground into the very dust beneath " a bondage, one hour of 
 which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which 
 our fathers rose in rebellion to oppose;" and yet they have 
 "no wish or intention to interfere witli their civil and political 
 relations ! " ( These hapless victims of republican despotism 
 are prohibited by law from learning the letters of the alphabet, 
 and, of course, from reading the Bible ; and as a necessary 
 consequence of their condition as chattels, they are de- 
 prived of the institution of marriage, and doomed to a life of 
 universal prostitution and concubinage and yet they have 
 " no wish or intention to interfere with their civil and political 
 relations ! " A million of American women are daily thrown 
 into the market, and offered for sale for purposes of prostitu- 
 tion, to any person of sufficient wealth to command their price 
 and yet they have "no wish or intention to interfere with 
 their civil and political relations ! " They see before them 
 men and women, many of them members of their own church, 
 chained together by dozens and scores, hand-cuffed, and 
 driven from their homes, and all that is dear to them on 
 earth, to a distent market, and there sold with the meanest 
 brutes and yet they have " no wish or intention to interfere 
 
 " 
 
 with their civil and political relations ! " They look 
 over the country, and behold the hundreds of mothers who 
 are daily robbed' of their darling babes, and witness the keen 
 anguish and perfect desperation to which they are often 
 driven by the strength of maternal affection and yet they 
 have " no tvish or intention to interfere with their civil and
 
 35 
 
 political relations!" No, they have not one solitary word of 
 consolation for the poor, heart-broken, despairing slave ! They 
 have "no wish" to see him free ! So they tell us. The clank 
 of the chain, and the crack of the driver's whip, are rnusic to 
 their ears ! They cannot even pray that this nefarious system 
 may come to an end, for " they are decidedly opposed to modtrn 
 abolitionism" Not less so, doubtless, than Beelzebub him- 
 self! They prefer the continuance of slavery ! And not con- 
 tent with merely passing by their robbed and bleeding coun- 
 trymen, like the priest and Levite of old, and leaving them to 
 the charity of others, they must turn aside from their pious 
 calling, to give a dagger-thrust at the reputation of those who 
 are kindly binding up their wounds ! 
 
 The next meeting of this body was in Baltimore, in 1840. 
 It was to be hoped that the rising spirit of liberty which was 
 now agitating the country, and opening the eyes of thousands 
 to the wrongs of our enslaved countrymen, would reach the 
 ministry of the Methodist church, and in some degree, at 
 least, soften their obdurate hearts. But the action of this 
 Conference shows that the preaching of the truth, so far as 
 they were concerned, had only proved "a savor of death 
 unto death." Instead of lightening the burdens of the pre- 
 vious Conference, their little Jinger was thicker than their 
 predecessor's loins. The Conference oflg36 had chastised the 
 slaves and their advocates with -whips, but they chastised 
 them with scorpions. Up to this date, the slaves in this 
 church had, nominally at least, enjoyed that last privilege of 
 the oppressed, the right of complaint But, for reasons to 
 which I shall hereafter refer, this sacred right was now 
 wrested from them, and all recognition of their manhood 
 totally annihilated at one fell swoop, by the adoption of the 
 following resolution, which was presented by the Rev. Dr. 
 A. G. Few, of Georgia : 
 
 Resolved, 
 
 " That it is inexpedient and unjustifiable for any preacher to per- 
 mit colored persons to give testimony against white persons, in any 
 state where they are denied that privilege by law." 
 
 By this rule which is now a part of the discipline of the 
 church, more than 80,000 of its colored members are denied 
 the right to testify against a white brother or sister in any 
 case whatsoever. No matter what the crime may be, or 
 how aggravating the circumstances. The reverend mover of 
 the resolution can now violate the chastity of the colored 
 members of his church with entire impunity. He is no 
 louger in any danger of being censured and silenced by his
 
 36 
 
 more fortunate brethren, as the late Rev. Dr. Fay was. Should 
 he unfortunately be "overtaken in a fault," the church has 
 'provided a way of escape." And an ample provision it is, 
 even for the chiefest of sinners. Neither the reverend doctor, 
 nor any of his coadjutors, could desire greater liberty or 
 privileges, as they might term it. The lips of their victim 
 and her friends are now hermetically sealed up, both in the 
 church and in the civil tribunals. The aggrieved party can 
 now obtain no redress, however aggravated the offence. The 
 state has declared her body to be the property of her white 
 brother; and the church has decided that it will entertain 
 none of her complaints, whatever use he may make of it. 
 What more could even the clergy ask ? But I forbear. 
 
 The course of the faithless miscreants who adopted this 
 and the preceding resolutions, was acquiesced in by all the 
 local Conferences, and cordially approved by most of them, 
 and by nearly all the distinguished and influential ministers 
 in the denomination. 
 
 In support of the position assumed by the General Con- 
 ference, the Ohio Annual Conference 
 Resolved, 
 
 "That those brethren of the North, who resist the abolition 
 movements with firmness and moderation, are the true friends of 
 the church, to the slaves of the South, and to the constitution of 
 our common country," &c 
 
 The New York Annual Conference 
 \ Resolved, 
 
 "'"1. That this Conference fully concur in the advice of the late 
 General Conference, as expressed in their Pastoral Address. 
 
 " 2. That we disapprove of the members of this Conference 
 
 patronizing, or in any way giving countenance to a paper called 
 
 ".Zion's Watchman," because, in our opinion, it tends to disturb 
 
 / the peace and harmony of the body, by sowing dissension in the 
 
 , t church." 
 
 Resolved, 
 
 3. "That although we could not condemn any man, or withhold 
 our suffrages from him on account of his opinions merely, in refer- 
 ence to the subject of abolitionism, yet we are decidedly of the 
 opinion that none ought to be elected to the office of deacon or 
 elder in our church, unless he give a pledge to the Conference, 
 jthat he will refrain from agitating the church with discussions on 
 [this, subject." 
 
 The Georgia Annual Conference 
 
 Resolved unanimously, 
 
 1. "That it is the sense of the Georgia Annual Conference, that 
 slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil.
 
 37 
 
 Resolved, 
 
 2. " That we view slavery as a civil and domestic institution, 
 and one with which, as ministers of Christ, we have nothing to 
 do, further than to ameliorate the condition of the slave, by en- 
 deavoring to impart to him and his master the benign influence/ 
 of the religion of Christ, and aiding both on their way to heaven." 
 
 Which religion, in the opinion of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, is not opposed to the perpetuity of slavery ; but al- 
 lows one member of the church to claim and use another's 
 wife as his property, and to appropriate her to such use as he 
 may deem proper or desirable, the enslaved woman having 
 no right to enter and substantiate a complaint against her 
 master before the church ! This is Methodism ! This is the 
 religion which the Methodist clergy "impart" to the poor 
 heart-broken slave, and to his inhuman master. This, too, is 
 the religion which they " impart " to their poor, deluded vassals 
 at the North. Bear with me while I present a few more 
 specimens of it, from the lips of its most distinguished advo- 
 cates. 
 
 Rev. E. D. Simons, professor in Macon College : 
 
 "These extracts from HOLY WRIT UNEQ.UIVOCAI.LY ASSERT THE 
 RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN SLAVES, together with the usual incidents 
 of that right ; such as the power of acquisition and disposition in 
 various ways, according to municipal regulations. The right to 
 buy and sell, and to transmit to children by way of inheritance, is 
 clearly stated. The only restriction on the subject is in reference 
 to the market, in which slaves or bondmen were to be purchased. 
 
 " Upon the whole, then, whether we consult the Jewish polity 
 instituted by God himself, or the uniform opinion and practice of 
 mankind in all ages of the world, or the injunctions of the New 
 Testament and the moral law, we are brought to the conclusion 
 that jlavery is not immoral. 
 
 ' ""Having established the point, that the first African slaves were 
 legally brought into bondage, the right to detain their children in 
 bondage, follows as an indispensable consequence. 
 
 " Thus we see that the slavery which exists in America was 
 founded in right." 
 
 llev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., late president of the Wesleyan 
 University, Connecticut : 
 
 " The relation of master and slave may, and does, in many cases, 
 exist under such circumstances, as frees the master from the just 
 charge and guilt of immorality. 
 
 " The general rule of Christianity not only permits, but, in 
 supposable circumstances, enjoins a continuance of the master's 
 authority. 
 
 " The New Testament enjoins obedience upon the slave as an 
 obligation due to a present rightful authority."
 
 38 
 
 Elijah Hedding, D. D., one of the six Methodist bishops : 
 
 J{ \ "The right to hold a slave is founded on this rule : ' Therefore, 
 'J\ jail things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 'even so unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets." 
 
 Rev. William Winans, of Mississippi, in the General Con- 
 ference, in 1836:-- 
 
 " He was not born in a slave state he was a Pennsylvanian 
 by birth. He had been brought up to believe a slaveholder as 
 great a villain as a horse-thief; but he had gone to the South, and 
 long residence there had changed his views ; he had become a 
 slaveholder on principle." * * * " Though a slaveholder himself, 
 no abolitionist felt more sympathy for the slave than he did 
 none had rejoiced more in the hope of a coming period, wheji__the 
 print of a slave's foot would not be seen on the soil." ' t_^"lt 
 was important to the interests of .slaves, and in view of the~ques- 
 tion of slavery, that there be Christians who were slaveholders. 
 Christian ministers should be slaveholders, and diffused through- 
 out the South. Yes, sir, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, should 
 be slaveholders: yes, he repeated it boldly there should be 
 members, mid deacons, and ELDERS, and BISHOPS, too, who were 
 slaveholders." 
 
 Rev. J. C.Tbstell, Orangeburg, South Carolina, in an ad- 
 dress at a public meeting called for the purpose of opposing 
 abolition : 
 
 "From what has been premised, the following conclusions re- 
 Bult : 1. That slavery is a judicial visitation. 2. That it is not a 
 moral evil. 3. That it is supported by the Bible. 4. It has existed 
 in all ages. 
 
 -*' It is not a moral evil. The fact, that slavery is of DIVINE 
 APPOINTMENT, would be proof enough with the Christian that it 
 cannot be amoral evil." * * " So far from being a moral evil, it is 
 a merciful visitation. If slavery was either the invention of man, 
 or a moral evil, it is logical to conclude, the power to create has 
 the power to destroy. Why, then, has it existed ? And why does 
 it now exist amidst all the power of legislation in state and church, 
 and the clamor of abolitionists? It is the Lord's DOINGS, AND IT is 
 MARVELLOUS IN OUR EYES ; and had it not been for the best, God 
 alone, who is able, long since would have overruled it. IT is BY 
 
 DIVINE APPOINTMENT." 
 
 The same individual to the editor of Zion's Watchman 
 
 " To La Roy Sunderland, &c. 
 
 " Did you calculate to misrepresent the Methodist discipline, 
 and say it supported abolitionism, when the General Conference, 
 in their late resolutions, denounced it as a libel on truth, f ' O 
 full of all subtlety, thou child of the devil ! ' all liars, saith the sa-
 
 39 
 
 cred volume, shall have their part in the lake of fire and brim- 
 stone. 
 
 " I can only give one reason why you have not been indicted for 
 a libel. The law says, ' The greater the truth the greater the li- 
 bel ; ' and as your paper has no such ingredient, it is construed but 
 a small matter. But if you desire to educate the slaves, I will 
 toll you how to raise the money, without editing Zion's Watch- 
 man. You and old Arthur Tappan come out to the South this 
 winter, and they will raise one hundred thousand dollars for you. 
 New Orleans itself will be pledged for it. Desiring no further 
 acquaintance with you, and never expecting to see you but once 
 in time or eternity, that is, at judgment, I subscribe myself, the 
 friend of the Bible, and the opposer of abolitionists. 
 
 "J. C. POSTELL. 
 
 " Orangeburgh, July 2Jst, 1836." 
 
 Rev. Geo. W. Langhorne, of North Carolina, to the editor 
 of Zion's Watchman : 
 
 " I, sir, would as soon be found in the ranks of a banditti, as 
 numbered with Arthur Tappan and his wanton coadjutors. 
 Nothing is more appalling to my feelings as a man, contrary to 
 my principles as a Christian, and repugnant to my soul as a minis- 
 ter, than the insidious proceedings of such men. 
 
 " If you have not resigned your credentials as a minister of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church, I really think that, as an honest 
 man, you should now do it. In your ordination vows you sol- 
 emnly promised to be obedient to those who have rule over you; 
 and since they (the General Conference) have spoken, and that 
 distinctly, too, on this subject, and disapprobate your conduct, 1 
 conceive you are bound to submit to their authority, or leave the 
 church." 
 
 Rev. Mr. Crawder, of Virginia, in the General Conference, 
 1840: 
 
 " Slavery is not only countenanced, permitted, and regulated, 
 by the Bible, but it was positively instituted by GOD HIMSELF 
 he has in so many words ENJOINED it." 
 
 Such is the present ecclesiastical position of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church, in relation to the system which John Wes- 
 ley denounced as the sum of all villanies, and which, as I have 
 clearly shown, no person can support or countenance, directly 
 or indirectly, without thereby becoming a felon of the most 
 odious and criminal character. "Nearly one half of the min- 
 isters," in eleven states of the Union, " hold slaves and trade 
 in them " that is, they claim their neighbors' wives, rob cra- 
 dles and trundle-beds, and sell their own church members for 
 purposes of prostitution, (if the purchaser choose to put them
 
 40 
 
 to that use ;) and the church, meanwhile, through its highest 
 tribunal, by a vote of 120 to 14, declares itself ' decidedly op- 
 posed" to the abolition of this monstrous wickedness, and 
 asserts that it has " no right, tvish, or intention, to interfere " 
 with it ; and one of the six bishops, and he a Northern man, 
 the Rev. Elijah Redding, D. D., tells us that " the right to hold 
 slaves " that is, to claim his neighbor's wife and daughters 
 as his property, and to use them as such "is founded on the 
 rule, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that others 
 should do to you, do ye even so to them ! ! " Is not this church, 
 then, a " Brotherhood of Thieves " ? Is it not, rather, a con- 
 clave of incarnate Jiends, whose influence is as much more cor- 
 rupting to the morals of the community than the influence of 
 the theatre, as its doctrines are more damnabk ? For one, 
 much as I deprecate the erection of a theatre, I deprecate the 
 erection of a Methodist meeting-house more .' The stage does 
 not teach my neighbors that the New Testament allows them 
 to enslave my wife and children ; but the Methodist pulpit 
 does ! I know not in what light you view this subject, but for 
 myself, I regard every intelligent communicant in the Meth- 
 odist church as more guilty and infamous, in the sight of God, 
 than the common prostitute, the pickpocket, or the assassin ; 
 and I cannot associate with him on any other terms of inter- 
 course than those which 1 stipulate for these infamous char- 
 acters. 
 
 But the Methodists are not sinners above all the sects in the 
 land. All the other large denominations are of a kindred 
 character, as will appear from an examination of their eccle- 
 siastical history, and the sentiments of their most distinguished 
 ministers. They all legalize slavery, and most of them, as we 
 shall see, own slaves, and publicly vindicate the system, or 
 are silent as to its wrongs. This is specially true of 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONAL 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The Presbyterians and orthodox Congregationalists of the 
 United States, numbering in all about 600,000 communicants, 
 are virtually one sect, or denomination ; their only difference 
 being about church government. On all other points of reli- 
 gious faith, slavery not excepted, they are agreed. They are 
 all in Christian fellowship with each other; and are con- 
 nected together by Associations, Presbyteries, Synods, and
 
 41 
 
 General Assemblies. They are united in their missionary 
 operations ; their ministers intermingle on exchanges and pa- 
 rochial settlements ; their communion table is common ; and 
 they recommend and receive members from one to the other 
 without any change of faith. And to make the fellowship 
 more complete, and the connection more perfect, the General 
 Associations of the Congregationalists, in all the New England 
 States, where the Congregational church is mainly located, 
 send delegates to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 church, and receive their delegates in return. In 1838, the 
 General Assembly separated on some unimportant points of 
 doctrine ; but the denomination is still one and undivided; and 
 the separation was nothing more than the cleaving of air, 
 which closes immediately behind the intersecting instrument. 
 Hence, connected as all the local churches are with the gen- 
 eral body, no person can unite with any one of them without 
 being thereby brought into fellowship with the whole ; for 
 there is no local church in the country, of which 1 have any 
 knowledge, which is disconnected from the main body ; and 
 it is not material whether we fellowship slave-claimants di- 
 rectly, or fellowship those who are in fellowship with them. 
 In either case, the chain which binds us to slavery being 
 unbroken, we partake of its sins, and must receive of its 
 plagues. 
 
 Now, there are in this church a large number of clergymen, 
 men of great influence with the denomination, who gain their 
 subsistence by preaching sermons, making prayers,and stealing 
 babes ! These " spiritual guides " of the Presbyterian church, 
 like their brethren of the Methodist church, claim their 
 neighbors' wives and daughters, and appropriate them to their 
 own use. They tell us that these women are theirs that 
 they own them. Of course, if they own them, they can do 
 what they ivill with their own ; and what a clergyman would 
 be likely to do with his own women women over whom 
 he not only possessed unlimited power, but to whose bodies 
 he had a divine right those can best judge who are ac- 
 quainted with the records of that department of the Female 
 Moral Reform Society, which treats of the licentiousness of 
 the clergy. And what is done by the leaders is also done 
 by the people. Thousands of the lay members of this church 
 are slave-breeders, whose chief or only source of income is 
 the sale of human flesh ! Their plantations are stocked with 
 women, members, in part, of the same church, whom they term 
 BREEDERS ; and not a few of them are engaged on an ex- 
 tensive scale, in raising boys and girls from these breeders, for
 
 42 
 
 the rice and cotton fields of the far South ; as the Berkshire 
 farmers raise cattle and horses for Brighton market! ! 
 
 But the clergy of this genteel and influential sect have not 
 been content with merely upholding slavery by the force of 
 then 1 example. Like faithful sentinels on its watchtowers, 
 they were the first to descry the dangers of abolition ; and 
 from the commencement of the anti-slavery enterprise, they 
 have been among the most active and energetic in arousing 
 the people to determined and obstinate resistance. No sect 
 in the land has done more to perpetuate slavery than this. Its 
 deliberate and cold-blooded sanction and approval of the slave 
 system, and its murderous appeal to the mob to put a stop to 
 the progress of free principles by Lynch law, is enough to 
 make one's blood curdle in his veins ! But hear them in 
 their own words, recollecting, meanwhile, that they claim to 
 be the ministers of Christ, and that before them lie 2,700,000 
 wretched slaves, imploring relief at their hands. Here is 
 their answer to the demand of crushed humanity for the 
 recognition of its inalienable rights. 
 
 Charleston Union Presbytery: 
 Resolved, 
 
 " That in the opinion of this Presbytery, the holding of slaves, 
 so far from being a sin in the sight of God, is nowhere condemned 
 in his holy word that it is in accordance with the example, or 
 consistent with the precepts, of patriarchs, apostles, and prophets, 
 and that it is compatible with the most fraternal regard to the 
 best good of those servants whom God may have committed to 
 our charge." 
 
 Harmony Presbytery, South Carolina : 
 Resolved unanimously, 
 
 "1. That, as the kingdom of our Lord is not of this world, his 
 church, as such, has no right to abolish, alter, or affect, any insti- 
 tution or ordinance of men, political and civil merely, &c. 
 
 " 2. That slavery has existed from the days of those good old 
 slaveholders and patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who 
 are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to the time when the apostle 
 Paul sent a runaway slave home to his master Philemon, and 
 wrote a Christian and fraternal epistle to this slaveholder, which 
 we find still stands in the canons of the Scriptures; and that 
 slavery has existed ever since the days of the apostle, and does 
 now exist. 
 
 " 3. That, as the relative duties of master and slave are taught in 
 the Scriptures, in the same manner as those of parent and child, 
 and husband and wife, the existence of slavery itself is not opposed 
 to the will of God; and whosoever has a conscience too tender 
 to recognize this relation as lawful is ' righteous overmuch,' is 
 ' wise above what is written,' and has submitted his neck to the
 
 43 
 
 joke of man, sacrificed his Christian liberty of conscience, and 
 leaves the infallible word of God for the fancies and doctrines of 
 men." 
 
 Synod of South Carolina and Georgia : 
 Resolved unanimously [Dec. 1834,] 
 
 " That, in the opinion of this Synod, Abolition Societies and 
 the principles on which they are founded, in the United States, 
 are inconsistent with the interests of the slaves., the rights of the 
 holders, and the great principles of our political institutions." 
 
 Rev. Robert N. Anderson, Virginia : 
 
 " To the Sessions of the Presbyterian Congregations within the 
 Bounds of West Hanover Presbytery: 
 
 " At the approaching stated meeting of our Presbytery, I design 
 to offer a preamble and a string of resolutions on the subject of the 
 use of wine in the Lord's supper ; and also a preamble and a string 
 of resolutions on the subject of the treasonable and abominably wicked 
 interference of the Northern and Eastern fanatics with our political 
 and civil rights, our property, and our domestic concerns. I myself, 
 dear brethren, have no reason to doubt the perfect soundness of all 
 my clerical brethren of this Presbytery on these subjects. But you 
 are fully aware that the present state of things loudly and imperi- 
 ously calls for an expression of their views on these subjects, and 
 particularly on abolitionism, by all church bodies at the South. 
 You are aware also, that our clergy, whether with or without rea- 
 son, are more suspected by the public than are the clergy of other 
 denominations. Now, dear Christian brethren, I humbly express it 
 as my earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men ; that every 
 congregation send up both to the Presbytery and to the Synod the 
 ablest elder it has. The times rely upon it the times demand 
 it. If there be any stray goat of a minister among us, tainted with 
 the blood-hound principles of abolitionism, let him be ferreted out, 
 silenced, excommunicated, and left to the public to dispose of him in 
 other respects. 
 
 " Your affectionate brother in the Lord, 
 
 "ROBERT N. ANDERSON." 
 
 Rev. Thomas S. Witherspoon, of Alabama, to the editor 
 of the Emancipator : 
 
 " I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament, to hold the slave in bondage. The principle of hold- 
 ing the heathen in bondage is recognized by God." ' 
 "When the tardy process of the law is too long in redressing our 
 grievances, we of the South have adopted the summary remedy 
 of Judge Lynch and really I think it one of the most whole- 
 some and salutary remedies for the malady of Northern fanaticism 
 that can be applied, and no doubt my worthy friend, the editor of 
 the Emancipator and Human Rights, would feel the better of its 
 enforcement, provided he had a Southern administrator. I go to 
 the Bible for my warrant in all moral matters." ****
 
 44 
 
 " Let your emissaries dare venture to cross the Potomac, and I can- 
 not promise you that their fate will be less than Hainan's. Then 
 beware how you goad an insulted but magnanimous people to 
 deeds of desperation." 
 
 Rev. Wm. S. Plummer, D. D., Virginia: 
 [To the Chairman of a Committee of Correspondence ap- 
 pointed by the citizens of Richmond, to oppose the progress 
 of anti-slavery principles at the South.] 
 
 " 1 have carefully watched this matter from its earliest existence, 
 and every thing 1 have seen and heard of its character, both from 
 its patrons and its enemies, has confirmed me, beyond repentance, 
 in the belief that, let the character of abolitionists be what it may 
 in the sight of the Judge of all the earth, this is the most meddle- 
 some, imprudent, reckless, fierce, and wicked excitement I ever 
 saw. 1 am willing at any time that the world should know that 
 such are my views. A few things are perfectly clear to my mind. 
 
 " 1st. The more speedy, united, firm, and solemnly resolute, but 
 temperate, the expression of public opinion on this subject in the 
 whole South, the better it will be for the North, for slaveholders, 
 and generally for the slaves. 
 
 " Sid. If abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but 
 fair that they should have the first warming at the fire." 
 
 " Lastly. Abolitionists are, like infidels, wholly unaddicted to 
 martyrdom for opinion's sake. Let them understand that they 
 will be caught, if they come among us, and they will take good 
 heed to keep out of our way. There is not one man among them 
 who has any more idea of shedding his blood in this cause, than he 
 has of making war on the Grand Turk. Their universal spirit is 
 to stand off, and growl and bark at men and institutions, without 
 daring to march for one moment into their midst, and attack them 
 with apostolic fearlessness. 
 
 "With sentiments of great respect, I remain yours, &.c. 
 
 "WM. S. PLUMMER." 
 
 I know of no language in the vocabulary which is adequate 
 to express the horror and abhorrence which must be felt by 
 every untainted mind towards the authors of the atrocious 
 sentiments contained in the three last documents, and also to- 
 wards the church and denomination that will sustain them, 
 and palm them upon the world as ministers of Christ. What! 
 has it come to this, that pastors of churches and doctors of 
 divinity can not only steal their neighbors' ivives without fear 
 or reproach, but openly advocate LYNCH LAW, and that, too, 
 in its most frightful shape, for the suppression of free discus- 
 sion ? William S. Plummer is not only a doctor of divinity, 
 but one of the most popular ministers in all the South. He is 
 at the head of the New School in the Presbyterian church,
 
 45 
 
 and is a prominent member of the A. B. C. F. M. And yet 
 his letter is a direct appeal to the mob to BORN us ALIVE, if 
 we go among them ! He calls upou the citizens of Richmond 
 to react the Vickeburg tragedy! to "catch" the abolition- 
 ists, and give them a " warming ai the fire, I " And this call 
 comes to them from the pulpit, endorsed by every Presby- 
 terian and Congregationalist in the land, for they all recognize 
 William S. Plummer as a Christian minister! These three 
 men are execrable murderers, if Christ's definition of murder be 
 the true one ; and yet they are of no doubtful standing in the 
 Presbyterian church! They are the men whose delegates 
 are annually received by every Congregational Association 
 in New England ! 
 
 Rev. Moses Stuart, professor in Andover Theological 
 Seminary, Massachusetts : 
 
 [To Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., president of the Wesleyan 
 University, Connecticut.] 
 
 "Andaver, \Qth April, 1837. 
 
 " Rev. and dear sir, Yours is before me. A sickness of three 
 months' standing, (typhus fever,) in which I have just escaped 
 death, and which still confines me to my house, renders it impos- 
 sible for me to answer your letter at large. 
 
 " 1 . The precepts of the New Testament respecting the demeanor 
 of slaves and their masters, beyond all question, recognize the ex- 
 istence of slavery. The masters are in part " believing masters," 
 so that a precept to them, how they are to behave as masters, rec- 
 ognizes that the relation may still exist, saivafide et salva ccclesia, 
 (without violating the Christian faith or the church.) Otherwise, 
 Paul had nothing to do but to cut the band asunder at once. He 
 could not lawfully and properly temporize with a malum in se, 
 (that which is in itself sin.) 
 
 " If any one doubts, let him take the case of Paul's sending 
 Onesimus back to Philemon, with an apology for his running 
 away, and sending him back to be his servant for life. The rela- 
 tion did exist, may exist. The abuse of it is the essential and 
 fundamental wrong. Not that the theory of slavery is in itself 
 right. No; "Love thy neighbor as thyself," "Do unto others 
 that which ye would that others should do unto you," decide 
 against this. But the relation once constituted and continued, is 
 not such a malum in se as calls for immediate and violent disrup- 
 tion, at all hazard. So Paul did not counsel." 
 
 " After all the spouting and vehemence on this subject, which 
 have been exhibited, the good old book remains the same [that 
 is, in favor of slavery.] Paul's conduct and advice are still safe 
 guides. Paul knew well that Christianity would ultimately tie- '' 
 stroy slavery, as it certainly will. He knew, too, that it would 
 destroy monarchy and aristocracy from the earth ; for it is funda-
 
 46 
 
 mentally a doctrine of true liberty and equality. Yet Paul did not 
 expect slavery and monarchy to be ousted in a day ; and gave 
 precepts to Christians respecting their demeanor ad interim. 
 " With sincere and paternal regard, 
 
 " Your friend and brother, 
 
 " M. STUART." 
 
 Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., to a friend: 
 ' { This, sir, [referring to the preceding letter,] is doctrine that 
 will stand, because it is Bible doctrine. The abolitionists, then, 
 are on the wrong course. They have travelled out of the record ; 
 and if they would succeed, they must take a different position, and 
 approach the subject in a different manner. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, W. FISK." 
 
 There are several things in this letter, and the endorsement 
 by Dr. Fisk, which deserve particular attention. 
 
 1. The writer and the endorser, at the time of its publica- 
 tion, were both engaged in fitting young men for the minis- 
 try, and the former still occupies the same responsible station. 
 
 2. They were elected to their respective offices by New 
 England ministers ; and no objection has ever been made to 
 their retaining their offices on account of their opinions on 
 slavery. They may, therefore, be considered as the repre- 
 sentatives of the New England clergy, on the question of 
 slavery. 
 
 3. The opinions of no clergymen in the country have 
 greater weight iti their respective sects than those of Pro- 
 fessor Stuart and President Fisk. 
 
 4. Both are united in opposing emancipation ; and they 
 are equally responsible for all the sentiments and statements 
 contained in this letter. 
 
 5. The letter is as full and complete a recognition of sla- 
 very as any slave-claimant in the land could desire. It ex- 
 pressly says " that the relation may exist ; " that is, one man 
 may claim and use another's wife and children as his prop- 
 erty " without violating the Christian faith or the church ! " 
 "Slavery," it adds, "did exist, may exist! The abuse of it is 
 the essential and fundamental wrong ! " That is, to convert a 
 man into an article of merchandise, and exercise unlimited 
 power over him, is not sinful ; but whipping him unneces- 
 sarily may be. This is the doctrine of thefletter. 
 
 6. To maintain this doctrine, the letter states a gross and 
 palpable falsehood. It says that Paul sent Onesimus back to 
 Philemon "to be his servant for life." Nothing could be far- 
 ther from the truth than this statement Had the reverend 
 authors of it said that Jesus himself was a slaveholder, they 
 would not have been guilty of a greater libel or more horri-
 
 47 
 
 ble blasphemy! Paul's language to Philemon cannot possibly 
 be misunderstood. He calls Onesimus his son; and tells 
 Philemon to receive him as his "oion bowels ;" that is, as his 
 own offspring. He tells him expressly to receive him " not 
 now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, both in 
 the Jiesh and in the Lord" He tells him still further, "re- 
 ceive him as myself; " that is, as you would the great Apostle 
 to the Gentiles ; and he adds, " if he oweth thee aught, put 
 that on my account; 1 will repay it." And he remarks, in 
 apology for sending back Onesimus, that he had perfect con- 
 fidence in Philemon, that he would do even more for him 
 than he had asked. And yet with this plain and unequivocal 
 statement before them, these distinguished biblical scholars 
 have the audacity to tell us, that Paul sent Onesimus back "to 
 be a servant for life ! " Alas ! to what lengths slave-claimants 
 and their abettors will go, in supporting their horrible system ! 
 They will beat, imprison, and burn abolitionists, and lie, and 
 blaspheme the God of heaven, in its defence ! We have here, 
 in immediate connection, five clergymen, three of them pub- 
 licly advocating Lynch law; and the remaining two publish- 
 ing to the world the most glaring and libellous falsehoods, for 
 the purpose of destroying the remnant of sympathy which is 
 still felt for the helpless victims of their power ! 
 
 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES, OLD AND NEW 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 The course pursued by these bodies on the subject of slave- 
 ry is a facsimile of that adopted by the United States Congress. 
 They have never taken any action on the subject in favor of 
 emancipation, and have generally succeeded in preventing a 
 full discussion of it; although it h.-is at times crept in, and 
 caused them no little trouble. This, however, is nothing more 
 than was to be expected of bodies composed mainly of man- 
 stealers, and those who legalize manstealing. Indeed, eccle- 
 siastical action against slavery, while their character remains 
 what it now is, is not to be desired. 
 
 The first thing which they can do for the slave, is to "re- 
 pent and be converted," and become abolitionists indeed. 
 Till then, the adoption of resolutions against slavery would 
 only render them more dangerous arid formidable enemies of 
 the cause of freedom, since it would enable them the more 
 effectually to deceive and beguile many of its honest, but less 
 discerning, friends. 
 
 I might go into an extended narration of their proceedings ;
 
 48 
 
 but they are too barren of interest to warrant the trouble. 
 Suffice it to say, that while they refused, at their late meet- 
 ings, to pass any censure on slaveholding, the Old school pro- 
 nounced a man guilty of "INCEST," and deposed him from the 
 ministry, for marrying the sister of his deceased wife ; and the 
 New bore a formal and very solemn testimony against dan- 
 cing, as a sin not to be tolerated in the church ! 
 
 What would be thought of the Bey of Tunis, or the Sultan, 
 should he enact a law prohibiting dancing in his dominions, 
 as a crime, and at the same time allow one class of his subjects 
 to enslave and imbrute another, or sell them in the market, 
 as the executors of the late Rev. Dr. Furman, president of the 
 Baptist Triennial Convention, recently sold twenty-seven native 
 Americans under the hammer of the auctioneer, with " his 
 theological library, two mules, one horse, and an old wagon " ? 
 Such a demonstration of barbarism in a Mahometan prince 
 would excite the astonishment and indignation of all Chris- 
 tendom. But in Christian "divines" it is all well enough. 
 At least, the great body of the people think so. Coming as 
 it does from their priests, it is to them all gospel. 
 
 But it is due to the Bey of Tunis (the man whom our 
 American clergy look upon as a heathen, and to whom they 
 are now sending missionaries) to say, in this connection, that 
 he has not only not enacted a law against the very harmless 
 amusement of dancing, (David and the old prophets danced,) 
 but that he has enacted a law prohibiting slaveholding in his 
 dominions. Let the clergy of our country read the following 
 letter from him to the British residents at Gibraltar. If it 
 does not raise a blush upon their cheeks, it will be because 
 they are lost to all sense of shame. 
 
 Translation. 
 " Praise be to God ! 
 
 " From the servant of God, Musheer Ahmed Bashaw Bey, Sov- 
 ereign Prince of the dominions of Tunis, to the perfectly honored 
 Englishmen, united together for the amelioration of the human 
 race. May God honor them ! 
 
 " We have received the letter which you have forwarded to us, 
 by the honored and reverend Richardson, congratulating us upon 
 the measures* that we have adopted for the glory of mankind, to 
 distinguish them from the brute creation. 
 
 " Your letter has filled us with joy and satisfaction. 
 
 " May God aid us in our efforts may he enable us to accom- 
 plish the objects of our hopes and may he accept this our work ! 
 
 " May you live continually under the protection of God Al- 
 mighty ! 
 
 " Given at Tunis, 26th day Elhojah, 1257, [7th Feb. 1842.] " 
 
 * The abolition of slavery throughout his dominions.
 
 49 
 
 THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 This church contains nearly 1,000,000 members, not far 
 from 100,000 of whom are in slavery, and many of them the 
 goods and chattels of their own ministers, and brethren. In 
 territory, it embraces the whole Union ; but its members are 
 most numerous at the South. The different congregations or 
 churches are independent of each other in regard to ecclesias- 
 tical jurisdiction ; but they are all united in one body, through 
 their state and other local associations, and a General Con- 
 vention, which meets once in three years, and under whose 
 direction the foreign missionary operations of the church are 
 carried on. Besides the General Convention, there is also a 
 Baptist Home Mission Society, and an American and Foreign 
 Bible Society, in which all the different sections of the coun- 
 try are represented, and through which the bond of union 
 aiid fellowship between the local churches is strengthened, 
 and rendered more apparent to the world. 
 
 The communion table of each of the churches is free 
 to all the others, except in a few cases where resolutions 
 have been adopted excluding slaveholders, (slave-claimants ;) 
 but these churches invite to their table those who commune 
 with Southern man-stealers, so that their connection with 
 them is unbroken. No church has yet severed itself from 
 the slaveholding body ; and hence all who are connected 
 with any one of them, are members of that body, and re- 
 sponsible for its acts ; nor is there any essential difference 
 in the moral condition of the different members, for the same 
 blood which flows about the heart circulates into the most 
 distant extremity of every limb. No church has espoused the 
 anti-slavery cause in opposition to the body, and demanded 
 its division. In this regard the North arid South are essen- 
 tially alike. In both, slavery finds warm friends and firm 
 supporters. In both, there are also those who desire its abo- 
 lition, but whose desires are not sufficiently strong to induce 
 them to separate from a slaveholding church. They love 
 their church organization, corrupt as it is, better than they 
 love the cause of the bleeding slave. Hence they cling to it, 
 and oppose the genuine abolitionists, who go for entire sepa- 
 ration from slave-breeders and their Northern abettors. 
 
 Soon after the last Triennial Convention, a Provisional For- 
 eign Mission Committee was appointed by the disaffected 
 Baptist ministers of the New Organization, for the ostensible 
 purpose of carrying on a sys'em of missionary operations 
 among the heathen, disconnected with slavery ; but it proved 
 to be a mere trick, of the clergy, to quiet the anti-slavery agita- 
 5
 
 50 
 
 tion. All the movers of it are, to this day, in full fellowship 
 with the Baptist church or denomination, as a Christian body; 
 and that church is made up, mainly, of slave-claimants and 
 those who legalize slavery. And besides, a large sum of 
 money that was raised from abolitionists, on condition that it 
 should not be mingled with the blood-stained contributions 
 of the South, was appropriated to the use of the old man- 
 stealing board, as will appear from the following resolution, 
 unanimously adopted at the first, or an early meeting of the 
 Provisional Foreign Mission Committee : 
 
 " Whereas the Foreign Mission Board have recently sustained a 
 heavy loss by the failure of their banker at Calcutta, and thus ap- 
 propriated supplies are cut off from the missionaries in Asia ; 
 Therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, 
 
 " That the treasurer of this committee be instructed to forward, 
 as soon as possible, five hundred dollars, from funds now in the 
 treasury, to the relief of the missionaries, to be expended under 
 the direction of Dr. Judson and Mr. Vinton. 
 
 " SIMON G. SHIPLEY, Chairman. 
 
 " Charles W. Dennison, Recording Secretary." 
 
 A second missionary association has recently been formed 
 by a portion of the same disaffected members, called the 
 American and Foreign Baptist Missionary Society ; but it is 
 only another limb of the old rnanstealing Baptist body. The 
 leaders in it are still in Christian fellowship with Drs. Sharp, 
 Bolles, and Wayland, and Hon. Richard Fletcher, all of 
 whom are officers of the old board ; and also with the Bap- 
 tists generally of the North, who legalize slavery. The or- 
 ganization of these new missionary associations is only a 
 family quarrel, and not a division of the family. But the case 
 is one which demands separation, like that which took place 
 in the Congregational church when a portion of it embraced 
 the Unitarian faith. 
 
 The last General Convention of the Baptist church was 
 characterized by base servility to the slave power, and utter 
 recreancy to every principle of Christianity. The North and 
 South there met together in loving fellowship, to advance 
 the kingdom of the Redeemer. Every section of the church 
 was fully represented. The slave-claimant, the Northern 
 apologist of slavery, and the New-Organizationist, were all 
 there, and sat do\yn together. They took the object of their 
 meeting into "prayerful consideration" and invoked the di- 
 vine blessing upon it. But O, tell it not in Algiers! 
 their first act was to choose a THIEF to preside over their de-
 
 51 
 
 liberations! Subsequently, another thief was selected to 
 preach the sermon ; and yet another to make the prayer pre- 
 paratory to the election of the Missionary Board ; and he, 
 doubtless, prayed to the God of thieves ; lor their next act 
 was to drop the venerable Elon Galusha from the board, and 
 elect a fourth thief to fill his place! And to close the farce, 
 they united over the communion table in singing the hymn, 
 beginning with the following lines : 
 
 " Lo, what an entertaining sight 
 Are brethren who agree ! " 
 
 Such was the character of the last Triennial Convention. 
 And yet the New-Organized Baptist ministers, who had se- 
 parated from the American Anti-Slavery Society because 
 women were allowed to stand upon its platform, saw no occa- 
 sion to withdraw from it. They could participate in a Bap- 
 tist Convention whose president was a manstealing doctor of 
 divinity ; but they could not remain in an anti-slavery meet- 
 ing, where women were permitted to speak. Alas, how true 
 it is that a sectarian cannot be an honest man ! But I am 
 consuming too much time with my own remarks. I will let 
 the Baptists speak for themselves. They can tell their own 
 story better than I can tell it. 
 
 Rev. Wm. H. Brisbane, corresponding secretary of the 
 American and Foreign Baptist Missionary Society (formerly 
 a slave-owner ) : 
 
 "As a body, the Baptists of this country are still united in sup- 
 porting, directly or indirectly, slavery and slave-trading, and, by 
 consequence, all its terrible evils. Baptists who have no slaves 
 themselves are in intimate communion with those who have them. 
 A very considerable proportion of Baptist ministers are slaveholders, 
 and yet they have free access to the pulpits in almost every part 
 of our common country ; yea, they administer, oftentimes by invita- 
 tion of those who possess no slaves, the sacred elements of the 
 Lord's supper. In the Baptist General Convention, for the thirty 
 years of its organization, slaveholders and non -slaveholders have 
 met in common fellowship. Its presidents have, for the most part, 
 been slaveholders." 
 
 Rev. Lucius Bolles, D. D., corresponding secretary of the 
 American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions : 
 
 " There is a pleasing degree of union among the multiplying- 
 thousands of Baptists throughout the land. Brethren from all 
 parts of the country meet in one general convention, and coop- 
 erate in sending the gospel to the heathen. Our Southern brethren 
 are liberal and zealous in the promotion of every holy enterprise for
 
 52 
 
 X f fiol-'. "' HJSW Y'i J ' : 
 
 */ie extension of the gospel. TJiey are generally, loth ministers and 
 people, slaveholders. 
 
 The Baptist man-thieves of the South are liberal and zealous 
 in the promotion of every HOLY enterprise, forsooth ! ! 
 So says a leading D. D. of the Baptist church of the North. 
 And he tells us, further, that there is a pleasing degree of 
 union between these manstealers and the multiplying thou- 
 sands of Baptists throughout the land! This is doubtless 
 true ; but to whom is this union pleasing ? Not, surely, to the 
 despairing slave ; nor to God, who can himself, of course, have 
 no possible union with thieves, although they may be very 
 good Baptists and Baptist ministers. But it is pleasing to 
 the slave-master, and to the Baptist clergy generally ; and it is 
 doubtless pleasing to their father. Slavery is greatly strength- 
 ened by it : and whatever strengthens that institution, cannot 
 be otherwise than pleasing to him. 
 
 Rev. W. B. Johnson, D. D., of South Carolina, president of 
 the last General Convention : 
 
 " When, in any country, slavery has become a part of its settled 
 policy,, the inhabitants, even Christians, may hold slaves without 
 crime." 
 
 Rev. Daniel Sharp, Massachusetts, to Rev. Otis Smith : 
 " In regard to church action in the case, I consider it both inex- 
 pedient and unscriptural. There were, undoubtedly, both slavehold- 
 ers and slaves in the primitive churches. I therefore, for one, do not 
 feel myself at liberty to make conditions of communion which neither 
 Christ nor his apostles made. I do not consider myself wiser or bet- 
 ter than they were. Nor have I yet made such progress in knowl- 
 edge as to believe that a good end sanctifies unjustifiable means. I 
 believe that a majority of the wisest and best men at the North 
 hold to these sentiments. But if I stood alone, here I shall remain 
 immovable, unless I gain some new light, which, at my period of 
 life, I do not expect. I am yours, truly, 
 
 "DANIEL SHARP." 
 
 Rev. R, Furman, D. D., South Carolina, to the governor of 
 the state, 1833 : 
 
 " The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy 
 Scriptures, both by precept and example." 
 
 On the death of Dr. F., which occurred soon after, among 
 the property advertised by his executor to be sold at public 
 auction, was " a library of miscellaneous character, chiefly 
 theological, twenty-seven NEGROES, some of them very prime, 
 two mules, one horse, and an old wagon." Query Were any 
 of the Negroes which Dr. Furman left, at his death, to be
 
 53 
 
 sold at auction with his mules and horse, his own children ? 
 I am much inclined to think they were. For the doctor de- 
 rives his sanction for holding slaves from the "example" of 
 the patriarchs ; and if my memory serves me, they made con- 
 cubines of their handmaids. I know of no good reason why 
 their example should not serve in the one case, as well as in 
 the other. Nor will the revelations which have been made 
 within the past few years warrant me in thinking that our 
 modern doctors of divinity would be less likely to imitate the 
 example of Abraham, in the use which he made of his prop- 
 erty, Hagar, than in his claim to her, as such. I know nothing 
 of the private habits of Dr. Furman, but he was a slaveholder, 
 and an advocate of slavery ; and I have already shown that 
 every slaveholder is an adulterer ; nay, that he is guilty of a 
 crime of a much deeper dye. I should be afraid to trust a 
 friend of mine in the company of any man who would sell, 
 or hold, her. or any other woman, as a slave! Such a man is 
 a libertine at heart, and has not the least possible regard for 
 female chastity ; otherwise he could never consent to see, 
 much less to hold, any of the sex in the helpless and unpro- 
 tected condition of a slave. It is proper to add that Dr. 
 Furman was president of the Baptist General Convention a 
 short time previous to his death. 
 
 The Charleston Baptist Association (extract of an Ad- 
 dress to the Legislature of South Carolina) : 
 
 " The question, it is believed, is purely one of political econo- 
 my. It amounts, in effect, to this Whether the operatives of a 
 country shall be bought and sold, and themselres become property, 
 as in this stale; or whether they shall be hirelings, and their labor 
 only become property, as in some other states; in other words, 
 whether an employer may buy the whole time of laborers at once, 
 of those who have a right to dispose of it, with a permanent re- 
 lation of protection and care over them, or whether he shall be 
 restricted to buy it in certain portions only, subject to their con- 
 trol, and with no such permanent relation of care and protection. 
 The right of masters to disj>ose of the time of their slaves has been 
 distinctly recognized by the Creator of all things, who is surely at 
 liberty to vest the right of property over any object in whomsoever 
 he pleases. That the lawful possessor should retain this right at 
 will, is no more against the laws of society and good morals, 
 than that he should retain the personal endowments with which 
 his Creator has blessed him, or the money and lands inherited 
 from his ancestors, or acquired by his industry." 
 
 What will the working men and women of the North say 
 to this doctrine of the Baptist clergy, that " the operatives of 
 a country shall be bought and sold, and themselves become
 
 54 
 
 properly " ? At the South, many of the Baptist brethren are 
 the property of their priests : are the Northern brethren ready 
 to become the property of theirs ? Dr. Bolles and Dr. Sharp, 
 who are now enjoying " a pleasing degree of union" with this 
 same Charleston Baptist Association, would doubtless be glad 
 to own some of them. They are now nothing but " HIRE- 
 LINGS," in the estimation of the Charleston Association : 
 would it not suit as well, if a slight change were made in their 
 relations, so that, instead of being " hirelings? as at present, 
 they should become the property of their employers ? I am 
 amazed that any working man or woman in the country can 
 look upon the Baptist church with any other feelings than 
 those of abhorrence and alarm ! These ministers would sell 
 every soul of them into slavery, if they had the power to do 
 it ; for they have no more regard for their rights and liberty, 
 than they have for those whom they now hold in bondage. 
 
 The Goslien Association, Virginia : 
 Resolved, 
 
 "1. That we consider our right and title to this property [slaves] 
 altogether legal and bonafide, and that it is a breach of the faith 
 pledged in the Federal Constitution, for our northern brethren to 
 try, either directly or indirectly, to lessen the value of this prop- 
 erty, or impair our title thereto." 
 
 Resolved, 
 
 " 2. That we view [in the movements of the abolitionists] the 
 torch of the incendiary, and the dagger of the midnight assassin, 
 loosely concealed under the specious garb of humanity and reli- 
 gion, falsely so called." 
 
 The Savannah River Baptist Association, in reply to the 
 question, 
 
 " Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a char- 
 acter as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties 
 ought to be allowed to marry again," 
 
 Answer, 
 
 " That such separation among persons situated as our slaves 
 are, is civilly a separation by death, and they believe, that, in the 
 sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages 
 in such cases, would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger 
 hardships and strong temptation, but to church censure, for acting 
 in obedience to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce 
 in a regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the 
 spirit of that command which regulates marriage among Chris- 
 tians. The slaves are not free agents, and a dissolution by death is 
 not more entirely without their consent, and beyond their control, 
 than by such separation."
 
 55 
 
 Hung be the heavens in sackcloth ! Let the sun hide his 
 face in darkness, as when the infatuated Jews nailed the Son 
 of God to the cross ! and let there be a jubilee in HELL ! 
 What have we here ? An ecclesiastical decision which sets 
 the authority of Jehovah at nought, and blots out the heaven- 
 ordained institution of marriage among 2,700,000 of our own 
 countrymen ! the decree of a council of Baptist clergymen 
 in favor of second marriages, whilst both the parties to the 
 original are still living ! ! These vile hypocrites are not satis- 
 fied with tearing asunder the loving pair whom God has joined 
 in holy wedlock, and forcing them to take to their bosoms 
 other companions whom they cannot love, and should not, if 
 they could ; but they must make God accessory to the infer- 
 nal deed. They gravely tell us that, he regards it as " a sepa- 
 ration by death," and, of course, that he will bold them guilt- 
 less. This is the religion of the Baptist church ! These are 
 the men with whom Dr. Bolles assures us the multiplying 
 thousands of Baptists throughout the country are enjoying a 
 pleasing degree of union. 
 
 If there be a God in heaven who takes cognizance of the 
 actions of men, and if there be in reserve a place of punish- 
 ment for the guilty, where every one shall receive his due re- 
 ward, I think the day of final retribution must be a trying one 
 to the Baptist church. No crime was ever perpetrated by 
 depraved mortals which, as a body, they have not sanctioned. 
 They have wrested the sceptre of dominion from the hand 
 of Jehovah, abrogated his law, and made themselves the 
 supreme sovereigns of thousands of his children, whose 
 bodies and souls they have converted into merchandise, and 
 now offer for sale in market with the neighing horse and 
 lowing ox. 
 
 They have annihilated the sacred institution of marriage, 
 and legalized adultery and rape in their most odious and hate- 
 ful forms, making thousands of the female members of their 
 own church the BREEDERS on then- plantations, whose off- 
 spring are torn from them with as little reluctance as the calf 
 is torn from the cow! Their crimes would put Atheism it- 
 self to the blush. Did ever Thomas Paine or Abner Knee- 
 land advocate forced concubinage ? Did they ever contend 
 for man's right to unlimited power over woman ? But this 
 is advocated by the Baptist church. Slavery is nothing but a 
 system of forced concubinage and adultery ! It gives woman 
 up into the power of her owner, to do with her as he pleases ! 
 Thousands of the Baptists of this country claim, and exercise, 
 this power over the female sex ; and more than nine tenths of
 
 56 
 
 the remainder authorize their claim and assist them to main- 
 tain it 
 
 Can any woman in the Baptist church be pure in heart ? I 
 think not, if she possess sufficient intelligence to understand 
 the nature of her church relations. She is an adulteress at 
 heart ; otherwise she could not fellowship a church which had 
 annihilated the marriage institution, and thrown a million of 
 her sisters into the market for purposes of prostitution. By her 
 fellowship of slaveholders, she shows that she has, at heart, 
 110 abhorrence of an adulterous connection ; and if she is her- 
 self kept from it, it is only by the force of external circum- 
 stances. If Jeremiah could say of the Jewish church in his 
 day, that they were " all adulterers," with how much more 
 force and propriety may this charge be brought against the 
 Baptist church, whose most distinguished ministers " have 
 given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they 
 might drink! " nay, who have even sold GIRLS for wine for 
 their communion table. ! ! But I must leave this painful picture, 
 and turn to 
 
 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 Of this church I have little to say ; for, from the very na- 
 ture of its organization, and the character of the elements of 
 which it is composed, it is the very last of all the sects to which 
 any cause of reform should look for aid. From the com- 
 mencement of our enterprise, it has been an inveterate enemy 
 of abolition, and has thrown its entire influence, as a body, 
 into the scale of slavery. Among its members have been 
 found a few sterling abolitionists, but fewer probably, in pro- 
 portion to its whole numbers, than in any other denomina- 
 tion. I believe the first instance of the opening of its meeting- 
 houses for anti-slavery lectures is yet to be recorded ; and if, 
 in its ecclesiastical capacity, it has done less to sustain slavery, 
 by positive action in its favor, than some of the other sects, it 
 has not been for want of love for the system, but from its 
 haughty and dignified indifference to all matters of general in- 
 terest. Many of its ministers and members are slave-claim- 
 ants, and nearly all of them legalize slavery, and strenuously 
 oppose its abolition in the District of Columbia; and in abu- 
 sive treatment of people of color, they have, if possible, ri- 
 valled even the Methodist church. 
 
 Some idea of the spirit which pervades this body towards 
 that portion of our countrymen to whom God has given a 
 complexion differing from ours, may be gathered from the 
 following extracts from a recent work from the pen of Judge
 
 57 
 
 Jay, himself a Churchman, entitled " Caste and Slavery in the 
 American Church." 
 
 Mr. Jay says : 
 
 " In the month of June, 1839, the Board of Trustees of the Gen- 
 eral Theological Seminary, composed of the bishops and clerical 
 and lay delegates fro;n tiie different states and territories, met at 
 New York ; and their proceedings were subsequently published in 
 a pamphlet. From the minutes, it appears that a candidate for 
 holy orders in the diocese of New York, now the Rev. ALEX- 
 ANDER CRUMMELL, applied to them, by petition, to be allowed to 
 enter the seminary as a student ; that the petition was referred to 
 a committee consisting of the RIGHT REV. BP. H. U. ONDER- 
 DONK, REV. DRS. JAMES MILNOR and HUGH SMITH, and WM. 
 JOHNSON, DAVID B. OGDEN, and EDWARD A. NEWTON, ESQUIRES, 
 who, after deliberate consideration, recommended a resolution of 
 rejection, which, on the motion of the Rev. FRANCIS L. HAWKES, 
 D. D., was adopted; that the Right Rev. Bishop DOANE asked 
 leave to enter his protest against the decision, and that leave was 
 not granted. Neither the reasons for their decision, nor the dis- 
 qualification of the candidate, are even intimated by the minutes ; 
 but it does appear, that the right of every candidate for orders to 
 enter the seminary was expressly guarantied by the constitution, 
 which the trustees were bound to obey ; and that this fact was 
 well known to them, also appears from an amendment proposed 
 by the bishop of New York, while the matter was pending, to the 
 very clause upon which-they were trampling. 
 
 " The true cause which led the trustees to nullify the constitution 
 and deny the right of the candidate, and which they were ashamed 
 to acknowledge, was, that he was a colored man ; and this was the 
 only cause his diocesan, Bishop Onderdonk, of New York, having 
 declared in ' The Churchman,' (Nov. 4, 1839,) that he explicitly 
 stated to them, ' that if they should think it right and proper to 
 admit a COLORED MAN into the Seminary, he considered the appli- 
 cant before them, one in whose case it might with great safety and 
 propriety be done.' 
 
 " The Rev. Peter Williams, for many years a respectable clergy- 
 man of New York, was never allowed to sit as a member of the 
 Diocesan Convention, nor has the Church of St. Philip, of which 
 he was the pastor, been yet represented in that body. He died 
 soon after the act of the trustees, upon which we have been re- 
 marking, was exposed to the world ; and to counteract, as far 
 as possible, the indignation it had excited, the clergy, in a body, 
 attended his funeral, and the bishop of New York pronounced from 
 the pulpit a high eulogium upon his character. Several of the 
 clergy admitted that it was done merely for effect, and one of them 
 bitterly remarked at the funeral, that the empty honors to the life- 
 less dust were a poor atonement for the insults so often offered to 
 the living man. The Rev. Mr. De Grasse, another colored clergy- 
 man of the Episcopal church, of fine talents, excellent acquire- 
 ments, and amiable disposition, who, three years previously to the
 
 58 
 
 application of Mr. Crummell, had been excluded from the Semi- 
 nary, and who, after a residence of some years in this city, sought 
 in the West Indies the respectful treatment and sympathy he could 
 not find at home, and there ended his early years by a Christian's 
 death, once said to the writer, with tears in his eyes, ' I feel that 
 the bishop and many of the clergy are against us that they do 
 not want any colored clergymen in the church. I have struggled 
 against the conviction, but it is impossible to resist it ; the proofs are 
 too strong; I experience it daily ; I know it is so.' 
 
 " In the diocese of Pennsylvania, an express canon debars the 
 African church from being represented in the Convention, and 
 excludes the rector from a seat. Truly ! a singular picture to be 
 exhibited by Christians meeting as a council of the church ; but 
 the limits of caste stop not here. Beautifully says the poet 
 
 ' Are we not brothers? 
 So man and man should be ; 
 But clay ajid clay differs in dignity. 
 Whose dust is both alike.' 
 
 " Since Shakspeare wrote, even the dust has learned to claim 
 precedence over dust ; and Noli me tangere is daintily inscribed upon 
 the mouldering coffin-lid. 
 
 " Ay ! this ' aristocracy of color ' is maintained, not only in 
 God's temples, but even in that last abode where all distinctions 
 have been supposed to disappear. In the very graveyard where 
 Death reigns as conqueror, and worms revel on the mouldering re- 
 mains of manliness and beauty ; where pride, and pomp, and 
 power, have doffed their trappings, and have said to corruption, 
 Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my 
 sister; where the voice of passion is forever stilled, and the heart 
 that has ceased to beat is cold as the marble beneath which it re- 
 poses ; even here, among the tombs, Prejudice has his dwelling, 
 like the demoniac of old, and Caste, under the sanction of the 
 church, rears his hideous and revolting form. How many similar 
 instances there may be, we know not ; that we cite has come under 
 our immediate notice. The vestry and wardens of an Episcopal 
 church in the diocese of New York, a few years since, accepted a 
 deed for a cemetery, which was demised to them upon the express 
 condition imbodied in the indenture, ' that they should never suffer 
 any colored person to be buried in any part of the same;' and all the 
 subsequent conveyances on the part of the church, of vaults and 
 burial-places, are subject to the same condition." 
 
 THE UNITARIAN AND UNIVERSAL1ST CHURCHES. 
 
 Whoever has bestowed an hour's serious reflection on the 
 nature and tendency of ecclesiastical institutions, will see that 
 these churches have much less power to harm any work of 
 reform, than those sects which are called evangelical. From 
 the looseness of their organization, and the anti-Pharisaic
 
 59 
 
 character of their professions, their ecclesiastical influence is 
 comparatively limited, either for good or for evil. Their in- 
 fluence is more that of the individual ; and in relation to 
 slavery, they stand much nearer the position of non-church- 
 communicants, than do the other sects. But still they have 
 an ecclesiastical existence, and, of course, some ecclesiastical 
 influence; and that influence, however trifling it may have 
 been, has all been given in support of slavery. As a body, 
 they have given the anti-slavery cause no countenance. The 
 least that can in truth be said of them is, that, ecclesiasti- 
 cally, they have walked in the footsteps of the priest and 
 the Levite, straight by the poor, bleeding slave, on the other 
 side, or have turned aside only to cast a cold and heartless 
 look upon his wretchedness; while in the capacity of citi- 
 zens, they have joined his oppressors, and assisted in strip- 
 ping him of his rights, and plundering his domestic hearth- 
 stone. And as they profess to be Christians, and members 
 of the church of Christ, and at the same time legalize slavery 
 and the slave trade, and also fellowship slave-claimants as 
 Christians, there is no essential difference between them and 
 the other sects. They are all under the same condemnation, 
 and are alike the enemies of truth and impartial freedom. 
 
 THE FREE-WILL BAPTISTS, AND THE SOCIETY 
 OF FRIENDS. 
 
 These sects, like all the others, when weighed in the bal- 
 ance of truth, are found wanting. As bodies, they claim to be 
 anti-slavery; but their claim is like that of the Pharisee, who 
 thanked God that he was not like that publican who stood 
 by his side, when at the same time he was the more guilty of 
 the two. It is true that they have spoken against slavery ; and 
 spoken, too, in strong terms of reprobation ; but it is equally 
 true, that with both hands they have upheld it ; and they now 
 stand before the world in a more reprehensible light than any 
 of the other sects. From motives of self-interest, or an un- 
 willingness to depart from a rule introduced by their fathers, 
 they admit no slave-claimant to their fellowship ; but at the 
 same time, as a body, they stand entirely aloof from the anti- 
 slavery enterprise, or openly oppose it. And while sending 
 forth to the world their resolutions and testimonies against 
 slavery, they legalize it, and do whatever lies in their power 
 to render it popular, and consequently permanent, by electing 
 manstealers to fill the highest offices in the government. At 
 the ballot-box, no sect in the land is more notoriously sub- 
 servient to the slave power than the Free- Will Baptists.
 
 In New Hampshire, where they are very numerous, they are 
 principally connected with the Democratic party ; and it was 
 chiefly through their instrumentality, that that poor apology for 
 a man, Charles G. Atherton, was returned to Congress, after 
 having disgraced himself and his country by consenting to 
 be made a cat's paw by Southern slave-breeders, to tear in 
 pieces the sacred right of petition ! It was in their power to 
 prevent his reelection, and return to Congress a thorough- 
 going abolitionist in his stead ; but he was the man of their 
 choice! And yet, at this very time, they were passing flam- 
 ing resolutions against slavery, and making loud professions 
 of abolitionism ! 
 
 I have said that the American church and clergy, as a body, 
 were PIRATES. Is this charge true, so far as it relates to the 
 Free-Will Baptists and Quakers ? It is, if aiding and abetting 
 pirates, and protecting them while engaged in perpetrating 
 their atrocities, constitutes one a pirate ; for both of these 
 sects legalize and protect a species of commerce in the United 
 States, which they have declared to be piracy, when carried 
 on upon the coast of Africa. Am I told that they have acted 
 ignorantly in this matter ? My reply is, if they are men of 
 common sense, they must and do know that voting for slave- 
 claimants and the advocates and supporters of slavery to legis- 
 late for the country, tends to perpetuate the bloody system 
 Would they vote for such men, if their own wives and chil- 
 dren were in slavery ? So long as they are connected with 
 slaveholding political parties, their resolutions and testimonies 
 against slavery only serve to enhance their guilt, and aggra- 
 vate their condemnation. 
 
 If the government had instituted a system of idol worship, 
 and a hundred oxen were daily offered in sacrifice on the 
 altar of some distinguished god, in the city of Washington, by 
 an order of Congress, what would you say of that religious 
 sect, who should pass resolves against idolatry, and at the same 
 time vote for men to represent them in Congress who were 
 opposed to the abolition of these sacrifices, and also elect a 
 high-priest of this deity to fill the presidential chair ? But 
 such conduct would not be more hypocritical and reprehen- 
 sible than the conduct of the Free-Will Baptists and Friends, 
 and the other religious bodies which have adopted resolutions 
 against slavery ! 
 
 The remarks which I have made upon the Free-Will Bap- 
 tists and Friends, will apply with equal force to those branches 
 of other sects which have adopted resolutions against slavery. 
 This kind of action, so long as they stand connected with pro- 
 slavery parties, either political or ecclesiastical, only renders 
 their influence more formidable to the anti-slavery enter-
 
 61 
 
 prise ; and consequently their guilt is proportionably increased. 
 They tell us that slavery is a heinous sin and crime, and 
 
 S;t act in concert with those who advocate and uphold it ! 
 ence, on their own confession, they are tbe " companions of 
 thieves" and in fellowship with adulterers. In my general 
 charges, therefore, against the sects, no exception is required 
 in tkvor of those local churches which claim to be anti-slavery, 
 on the ground of having adopted anti-slavery resolutions, 
 while they are still connected with their respective sectarian 
 denominations, and in Christian fellowship with those who 
 act in concert with pro-slavery political parties. The least 
 that can in truth be said of such churches is, that they are the 
 LUKEWARM friends of the slave, whom God will spew out of 
 his mouth. 
 
 1 had intended to speak, in this connection, of the character 
 and tendency of our so-called benevolent institutions; but 
 having already far exceeded the limits which I originally pro- 
 posed to myself in this letter, I must pass them by with the 
 single remark, that connected with the Boards of most of them 
 are more or less slave-claimants, and their treasuries are pol- 
 luted with the price of human blood! and that the money 
 which our clergy beg of poor widows to send the gospel to 
 the heathen, goes into the hands of such men as Rev. Wm. S. 
 Plummer, D. D., the man who called upon the Richmond 
 mob to " catch " the abolitionists, and give them a " WARMING 
 AT THE FIRE " ! For the same reason, I have also omitted to 
 notice several of the smaller religious denominations. I 
 would here say of them, however, that they are all composed 
 of sectarians, and not of abolitionists; and hence they belong 
 to the same category with the larger and more influential 
 sects, and should be regarded in a similar light. 
 
 But I trust I have already adduced abundant evidence on 
 this heart-rending subject, to substantiate my allegations 
 against the American church and clergy. With this picture 
 before him, no one, I think, will say that I have done them 
 injustice. True, I have brought against them the most tre- 
 mendous charges! I have denounced them, as a body, as 
 
 THIEVES, ADULTERERS, MANSTEALERS, PIRATES, and MURDER- 
 ERS ! But who, in view of the frightful and accumulated 
 proof of their guilt which I have here presented, can deny 
 these charges? Who, that has a mind capable of understand- 
 ing the political and ecclesiastical connection of the church 
 and clergy with the slave system, as I have here portrayed it, 
 and can comprehend the direful consequences of that con- 
 nection, will dare to say that God will hold them guiltless of 
 these crimes? Gladly would I believe them innocent; but 
 G
 
 62 
 
 reason, conscience, and my outraged sense of justice, all for- 
 bid the thought. 
 
 I will close this part of my argument with a few specimens 
 of the fruits of slavery, as it exists in the midst, and under the 
 control, of the religious influences of the country. As your 
 eye glances over the horrible picture which I am about to 
 present, bear in mind that it is the legitimate and inevitable 
 result of the system which the church and clergy generally 
 not only legalize, but baptize into the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is heart-rending, in- 
 deed, to see humanity thus mangled and bruised ; but so it 
 must ever be until slavery itself shall be abolished ; for it 
 cannot exist without the exercise of the most horrible cruelties. 
 It is only in the presence of whips, and chains, and branding- 
 irons, that the slave will submit to his degraded condition. 
 
 The following advertisements are from Southern newspa- 
 pers, and are only a very few of the many thousands of similar 
 ones, which blacken the columns of the Southern press. 
 
 " Committed to jail as a runaway, a negro woman named 
 Martha, 17 or 18 years of age has numerous scars of the whip on 
 her back." D. JUDD, Jailer, Davidson County, Tenn. 
 
 " Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, very much scarred 
 about the neck and ears by whipping.'' 
 
 ROBERT NICOLL, Mobile, Ala. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro woman, named Maria some scars on her 
 back, occasioned by the whip." 
 
 BRYANT JOHNSON, Fort Valley, Houston County, Ga. 
 
 " Stolen, a negro woman, named Celia on examining her back, 
 you will find marks caused by the whip." 
 
 JAMES T. DE JARNETT, Vernon, Autauga County, Ala. 
 
 " Lodged in jail, a mulatto boy, having large marks of the whip 
 on his shoulders and other parts of his body." 
 
 MAURICE Y. GARCIA, Sheriff of the County of Jefferson, La. 
 
 "Was committed, a negro boy, named Tom is much marked 
 with the whip." R. J. BLAND, Sheriff of Claiborne County, Miss. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro fellow named Dick has many scars on his 
 back, from being whipped." 
 
 JAMES NOE, Red River Landing, La. 
 
 " Committed to jail, a negro slave ; his back is very badly 
 scarred." WILLIAM CRAZE, Jailer, Alexandria, La. 
 
 " Committed, a mulatto fellow his back shows lasting impres- 
 sions of the whip, and leaves no doubt of his being A SLAVE." 
 
 JOHN A. ROWLAND, Jailer, Lumberton, N. C.
 
 63 
 
 " Committed to jail, a negro man his back much marked by 
 the whip." J. K. ROBERTS, Sheriff, Blount County, Ala. 
 
 " Ran away, the negro slave named Jupiter has afresh mark 
 of a cowskin on one of his cheeks." H. VARILLAT, N. O. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro man named Johnson he has a great many 
 marks of the whip on his back." 
 
 CORNELIUS D. TOLIN, Augusta, Ga. 
 
 " Ran away, Bill has several LARGE SCARS on his back, from a 
 severe whipping in early life." 
 
 JOHN WATTO.N, Rockville, Montgomery County, Md. 
 
 " Ran away, a boy named Jim with the marks of the whip on 
 the small of the back, reaching round to the flank." 
 
 SAMUEL STEWART, Greensboro', Ala. 
 
 " Brought to jail, a negro man named George he has a. great 
 many scars from the lash.' 
 
 S. B. MURPHY, Sheriff, Wilkinson County, Ga. 
 
 " Was committed to jail, a yellow boy named Jim had on a 
 large lock chain around his neck." 
 
 WILLIAM TOLER, Sheriff of Simpson County, Miss. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro named David - with some iron hobbles 
 around each ankle." " HASLET LOFLANO, Staunton, Va. 
 
 " Ran away, negress Caroline had on a collar with one prong 
 turned down." T. ENGGY, New Orleans. 
 
 " Ran away, a black woman, Betsey had an iron bar on her 
 right leg." JOHN HENDERSON, Washington County, Mi. 
 
 " Was committed to jail, a negro named Ambrose has a ring 
 of iron around his neck." 
 
 WILLIAM DYER, Sheriff, Claiborne, La. 
 
 ' Ran away, a negro man named Charles had on a drawing 
 chain, fastened around his ankle with a house lock." 
 
 FRANCIS DURETT, Lexington, Lauderdale County, Ala. 
 
 "Ran away, the negro Manuel, much marked with irons." 
 
 A. MURAT, Baton Rouge. 
 
 " Was committed to jail, a negro boy had on a large neck iron, 
 with a huge pair of horns, and a large bar or band of iron on his 
 left leg." H. GRIDLEY, Sheriff of Adams County, Mi. 
 
 " Ran away, the negro George he had on his neck an iron col- 
 lar, the branches of which had been taken off." 
 
 FERDINAND LEMOS, New Orleans. 
 
 " Committed to jail, a man who calls his name John he has a 
 doer of iron on his right foot which will, weigh four or five pounds." 
 B. W. HODGES, Jailer, Pike County, Ala.
 
 04 
 
 " Detained at the police jail, the negro wench Myra has sev- 
 eral marks of lashing, and has irons on her feet." 
 
 P. BAYHI, Captain of Police. 
 
 " Ran away, Betsey when she left she had on her neck an iron 
 collar." CHARLES KERNIN, Parish of Jefferson, La. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro woman and two children a few days before 
 she went off, / burnt her, with, a /tot iron, on the left side of her 
 face : / tried to make the letter M." 
 
 MICAJAH RICKS, Nash County, N. C. 
 
 " Ran away, Mary, a black woman has a scar on her back and 
 right arm near the shoulder, caused by a rifle ball." 
 
 ASA B. METCALF, Kingston, Adams County, Mi. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro man named Henry, his left eye out, some 
 scars from a dirk on and under his left arm, and much scarred with 
 the whip." WILLIAM OVERSTREET, Benton, Yazoo Co., Mi. 
 
 " Ran away, Sam he was shot a short time since through the 
 hand, and has several shots in his left arm and side." 
 
 O. W. LAINS, Ark. 
 
 " Ran away, my negro man Dennis said negro has been shot in 
 the left arm, between the shoulders and elbow, which has paralyzed 
 the left hand." R. W. SIZER, Mi. 
 
 " Ran away, my negro man named Simon he has been shot badly 
 in his back and right arm." NICHOLAS EDMUNDS, Va. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro girl called Mary has a small scar over her 
 eye, a good many teeth missing the letter A is branded on her 
 cheek and forehead." J. P. ASHFORD, Adams County, Mi. 
 
 " Committed, a negro man is very badly shot in the right side 
 and right hand." S. B. MURPHY, Jailer, Irvington, Ga. 
 
 " Ran away, a negro man named Ned three of his fingers are 
 drawn into the palm of his hand by a cut has a scar on the baek 
 of his neck nearly half round, done by a knife." 
 
 ISAAC JOHNSON, Pulaski County, Ga. 
 
 " Was committed to jail, a negro man says his name is Josiah : 
 his back very much scarred by the whip, and branded on the thigh 
 and hips, in three or four places, thus, J. M. the rim of his right 
 ear has been bit or cut off." 
 
 J. L. JOLLEY, Sheriff of Clinton County, Mi. 
 
 " Fifty dollars' reward for my fellow Edward he has a scar on 
 the corner of his mouth, two cuts on and under his arm, and the 
 letter E on his arm." 
 
 THOMAS LEDWITH, Jacksonville, East Florida. 
 
 " Ran away, Anthony one of his ears cut off, and his left hand 
 cut with an axe." STEPHEN M. JACKSON.
 
 Co 
 
 " Ran away, Gabriel has two or three scars across his neck, 
 made with a knife." 
 
 LEMUEL MILES, Steen's Creek, Rankin Co., Mi. 
 
 " Ran away, my man Fountain has holes in his ears, a scar on 
 the right side of his forehead has been shot in the hind parts of 
 his tegs is marked on the back with the whip." 
 
 ROBERT BEASLEY, Macon, Ga. 
 
 " TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from the 
 subscriber, on the 14th instant, a negro girl named Molly. She is 
 16 or 17 years of age, slim made, LATELY BRANDED ON THE LEFT 
 
 CHEEK, THUS, R, AND A PIECE TAKEN OFF OF HER EAR ON THE 
 SAME SIDE J THE SAME LETTER ON THE INSIDE OF BOTH HER 
 
 LEGS." ABNER Ross, Fairneld District, S. C. 
 
 The Wilmington (North Carolina) Advertiser, of July 13, 
 1838, contains the following advertisement: 
 
 " RAN AWAY, my negro man RICHARD. A reward of $25 will be 
 paid for his apprehension, DEAD or ALIVE. Satisfactory proof 
 will only be required of his being KILLED. He has with him, in 
 all probability, his wife, ELIZA, who ran away from Col. Thomp- 
 son, now a resident of Alabama, about the time he commenced his 
 journey to that state." D. H. RHODES. 
 
 In the "Macon (Georgia) Telegraph," May 28, is the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 " About the 1st of March last, the negro man RANSOM left me 
 without the least provocation whatever. I will give a reward of 
 $20 for said negro, if taken DEAD or ALIVE, and if killed in any 
 attempt, an advance of $5 will be paid." BRYANT JOHNSON. 
 
 " Crawford Co., Ga. 
 
 On the 28th of April, 1836, a colored man, named Mcln- 
 tosh, was seized by a mob, in the city of St. Louis, fastened 
 to a tree in the midst of the city, in open day, and burnt to 
 death, in presence of an immense throng of citizens, who had 
 assembled to give their countenance to the deed. The Alton 
 (111.) Telegraph contains the following notice of the scene : 
 
 " All was silent as death while the executioners were piling 
 wood around their victim. He said not a word, until feeling that 
 the flames had seized upon him. He then uttered an awful howl, 
 attempting to sing and pray, then hung his head, and suffered in 
 silence, except in the following instance : After the flames had sur- 
 rounded their prey, his eyes burnt out of his head, and his mouth 
 seemingly parched to a cinder, some one in the crowd, more com- 
 passionate than the rest, proposed to put an end to his misery by 
 shooting him, when it was replied, ' that would be of no use, since 
 he was already out of pain.' ' No, no,' said the wretch, ' I am not;
 
 I am suffering as much as ever; shoot me, shoot me.' ' No, no,' 
 said one of the fiends, who was standing about the sacrifice they 
 were roasting, ' he shall not be shot. / would sooner slacken the 
 Jire, ifthctt. would increase his misery ; ' and the man who said this, 
 was, as we understand, AN OFFICER OF JUSTICE ! " 
 
 The following scene is related by Rev. James A. Thome, 
 son of Arthur Thome, of Augusta, Ky. 
 
 " In December of 1833, 1 landed at New Orleans, in the steamer 
 
 W . It was after night, dark and rainy. The passengers 
 
 were called out of the cabin, from the enjoyment of a fire, which 
 the cold, damp atmosphere rendered very comfortable, by a sudden 
 shout of, ' Catch him catch him catch the negro.' Theory 
 was answered by a hundred voices ' Catch him kill him ; ' and 
 a rush from every direction toward our boat indicated that the 
 object of pursuit was near. The next moment we heard a man 
 plunge into the river a few paces above us. A crowd gathered 
 upon the shore, with lamps, and stones, and clubs, still crying, 
 ' Catch him kill him catch him shoot him.' 
 
 " I soon discovered the poor man. He had taken refuge under 
 the prow of another boat, and was standing in the water up to his 
 waist. The angry vociferation of his pursuers did not intimidate 
 him. He defied them all. 'Don't you dare to come near me, 
 or 1 will sink you in the river.' He was armed with despair. 
 For a moment the mob was palsied by the energy of his threaten- 
 ings. They were afraid to go to him with a skiff, but a number of 
 them went on to the boat, and tried to seize him. They threw a 
 noose-rope down repeatedly, that they might pull him up by the 
 neck ! but he planted his hand firmly against the boat, and dashed 
 the rope away with his arms. One of them took a long bar of 
 wood, and, leaning over the prow, endeavored to strike him on the 
 head. The blow must have shattered the skull, but it did not 
 reach low enough. The monster raised up the heavy club again, 
 and said, ' Come out now, you old rascal, or die.' ' Strike,' said 
 the negro ; ' strike shiver my brains now ; I want to die ; ' and 
 down went the club again, without striking. This was repeated 
 several times. The mob, seeing their efforts fruitless, became more 
 enraged, and threatened to stone him, if he did not surrender him- 
 self into their hands. He again defied them, and declared that he 
 would drown himself in the river, before they should have him. 
 They then resorted to persuasion, and promised they would not 
 hurt him. Til die first,' was his only reply. Even the furious 
 mob was awed, and for a while stood dumb. 
 
 " After standing in the cold water for an hour, the miserable 
 being began to fail. We observed him gradually sinking his 
 voice grew weak and tremulous yet he continued to curse ! In 
 the midst of his oaths he uttered broken sentences ' I didn't steal 
 the meat I didn't steal my master lives master master 
 lives up the river [his voice began to gurgle in his throat, and 
 he was so chilled that his teeth chattered audibly] I didn't
 
 67 
 
 steal I didn't steal my my master my I want to see 
 my master I didn't no my mas you want you want to 
 kill me 1 didn't steal the ' His last words could just be heard 
 as he sank under the water." 
 
 The Natchez Free Trader of June, 1842, gives the follow- 
 ing account of the burning of a negro at Union Point, Miss. 
 
 " The body was taken and chained to a tree immediately on the 
 bank of the Mississippi, on what is called Union Point. Fagots 
 were then collected, and piled around him, to which he appeared 
 quite indifferent. When the work was completed, he was asked 
 what he had to say. He then warned all to take example by him, 
 and asked the prayers of all around ; he then called for a drink of 
 water, which was handed to him ; he drank it, and said, ' Now set 
 fire I am ready to go in peace ! ' The torches were lighted and 
 placed in the pile, which soon ignited. He watched unmoved the 
 curling flame, that grew until it began to entwine itself around and 
 feed upon his body : then he sent forth cries of agony painful to 
 the ear, begging some one to blow his brains out; at the same time 
 surging with almost superhuman strength, until the staple with 
 which the chain was fastened to the tree (not being well secured) 
 drew out, and he leaped from the burning pile. At that moment 
 the sharp ringing of several rifles was neard: the body of the 
 negro fell a corpse on the ground. He was picked up by some 
 two or three, and again thrown into the fire and consumed not a 
 vestige remaining to show that such a being ever existed." 
 
 " STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ) 
 Lenoir County." ) 
 
 " Whereas complaint hath been this day made to us, two of the 
 justices of the peace for the said county, by William D. Cobb, of 
 Jones county, that two negro slaves belonging to him, named 
 BEN (commonly known \>y the name of Ben For) and RIGDON, 
 have absented themselves from their said master's service, and are 
 lurking about in the counties of Lenoir and Jones, committing 
 acts of felony; these are, in the name of the state, to command 
 the said slaves forthwith to surrender themselves, and turn home 
 to their said master. And we do hereby also require the sheriff of 
 said county of Lenoir to make diligent search and pursuit after 
 the above-mentioned slaves; and them having found, to apprehend 
 and secure so that they may be conveyed to their said master, or 
 otherwise discharged as the law directs. And the said sheriff is 
 hereby empowered to raise and take with him such power of his 
 county as he shall think fit for the apprehension of said slaves. 
 And we do hereby, by virtue of an act of the Assembly of this 
 state, concerning servants and slaves, intimate and declare, if the 
 said slaves do not surrender themselves, and return home to their 
 master immediately after the publication of these presents, that 
 any person may kill and destroy said slaves by such means as he 
 or they think fit, without accusation or impeachment of ami crime or
 
 68 
 
 ce for so doing, or tcithout incurring any penalty or forfeiture 
 by. 
 
 " Given under our hands and seals, this 12th of November, 1836- 
 B. COLEMAN, J. P. [Seal.] 
 JAS. JOKES, J. P." [Seal.] 
 
 200 DOLLARS REWARD. Ran away from the subscriber, 
 about three years ago, a certain negro man named Ben, (com- 
 monly known by the name of Ben Fox.) Also, one other negro, 
 by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on the 8th of this month. 
 
 I will give the reward of one hundred dollars for each of the 
 above negroes, to be delivered to me or confined in the jail of 
 Lenoir or Jones county, or for the killing of them, so that I can 
 see them. W. D. COBB. 
 
 November 12, 1836. 
 
 I will only add, in this connection, that these atrocious 
 outrages were mostly perpetrated under the sanctions of 
 American law ; and in no solitary instance have the perpe- 
 trators been brought to condign punishment. Indeed, they 
 are but the legitimate offspring of the slave system, and are 
 inseparable from it. And yet Prof. Stuart tells us that that 
 system " may exist, and that too without violating the Chris- 
 tian faith ; " and the Hon. Edward Everett, (a church member,) 
 once, on the floor of Congress, volunteered military aid in 
 its defence. " Sir," said he, addressing the speaker, " I am no 
 soldier. My habits and education are very unmilitary. But 
 there is no cause in which 1 would sooner buckle a knapsack 
 on my back, and put a musket on my shoulder, than that of 
 putting down a servile insurrection at the South. * * * 
 Domestic slavery is not, in my judgment, to be set down as 
 an immoral or irreligious relation." 
 
 I have now done with the proof which I intend to present 
 in support of my first charge, and come to the second, which 
 is, "That the Methodist Episcopal church is more corrupt 
 than any house of ill-fame in the city of New York." To con- 
 vince you of the truth of this charge will require no labored ar- 
 gument. The case needs but to be stated, to be fully proved. 
 Those dens of infamy in New York, where the libertine re- 
 sorts to satiate his depraved desires, are tenanted by women 
 who devote themselves to purposes of prostitution. But are 
 these abandoned characters compelled to lives of infamy and 
 crime ? Is there for them no escape from the paths of vice ? 
 Can they not, on the other hand, change their course, and lead 
 a virtuous life, whenever they choose to do so ? But in the 
 Methodist church there are 50,000 women who are inevitably 
 doomed to lives of prostitution. With tliem there is no alterna- 
 tive. They are sold in market for the domestic SERAGLIO,
 
 69 
 
 they are the " BREEDERS " on the plantation, and are com- 
 pelled, on pain of cruel scourging, and even death, to submit 
 to their owners' wishes, whatever they may be! And yet this 
 church has assured us, through its highest ecclesiastical tri- 
 bunal, by a vote of 120 to 14, that it has "no WISH or INTEN- 
 TION to interfere in their civil and political relations!" It would 
 not place them in a situation where their virtue would be 
 secure against the brutal marauder, if it could ! The church, 
 as a body, sanctions, and great numbers of its members perpe- 
 trate on their slaves, the very crime which the laws of your 
 state punish with death! 
 
 My third charge is, "That the Southern ministers of the 
 Methodist Episcopal church are desirous of perpetuating sla- 
 very, for the purpose of supplying themselves with concubines 
 from among its hapless victims." From the nature of the 
 case, the proof of this allegation must necessarily be circum- 
 stantial. But it is not, on that account, the less satisfactory ; 
 for men never act but from motives ; and the actions are a 
 sure index to the state of the heart. The tree is known by its 
 fruit In charging the Southern ministry with a desire to per- 
 petuate slavery for the purpose of supplying themselves with 
 <-oncubines, I do not assert that this is their only motive in 
 supporting it, but that it is a motive ! 
 
 Now, that these men are desirous of perpetuating slavery 
 there can be no manner of doubt; for they tell us plainly that 
 they have no wish to see it abolished. They must, therefore, 
 have some motive in wishing to perpetuate it. That motive, 
 surely, cannot be a sincere desire to spread the knowledge of 
 Jesus Christ, and the triumphs of his kingdom ; nor can it be 
 love of wealth, that master-passion of the human breast, 
 for slavery is fast bankrupting the whole South. Nor is it 
 found in their love of reputation, nor yet in their regard for 
 the quietude of domestic life ; for these would both be greatly 
 enhanced by the abolition of slavery. It is, doubtless, found in 
 part, however, in their love of power; but is this their only 
 inducement ? Is it from a desire of domination alone that 
 they sustain a system which their founder denounced as the 
 " sum of all villanies," and which is fast filling the land with 
 pauperism, ignorance, and crime? That surely cannot be. 
 There is a stronger motive in this matter than the love of 
 power; and that motive is revealed to us in the history of the 
 private morals of our Northern clergy. If Northern ministers 
 possess such strong predilections for adultery and concubi- 
 nage, as the painful disclosures of the few past years force us to 
 believe, hedged about, as they are, on every side, with the safe- 
 guards of virtue ; if they are often willing to hazard the loss of
 
 70 
 
 reputation, and even the disgrace and sufferings of incarcera- 
 tion in the state penitentiary, to gratify those predilections, is 
 it not natural to suppose, nay, is it not morally certain, that the 
 Southern clergy, nursed as they have been in the very hotbeds 
 of pollution, would be anxious to perpetuate a system which 
 affords them ample scope for indulgence, without danger, or 
 even the fear of disgrace ? That such is the fact, is abundantly 
 proved by the adoption, by the General Conference of .1840, of 
 the resolution denying to persons of color "the right to testify 
 against white persons, in cases of church discipline." Pending 
 a motion to reconsider that infamous resolution, the strongest 
 remonstrances were urged against it by Southern ministers, 
 who even went so far as to threaten a dissolution of the church, 
 if the resolution should be rescinded. I must give you a speci- 
 men of their expostulations. They betray a sensitiveness and 
 warmth of feeling, as you will perceive, which no other ques- 
 tion has ever called forth. 
 
 The Rev. William Winans, of Mississippi, said, 
 " He was never more deeply impressed with the solemnity of his 
 situation the act of this afternoon will determine the fate of our 
 beloved Zion ! .... If you wrest from us that resolution, 
 you stab us to the vitals ! . . . . Repeal that resolution, and 
 you pass the Rubicon ! Dear as union is, sir, there are interests at 
 stake in this question which are dearer than union ! Do not regard 
 us as threatening ! . . . . But what will become of our be- 
 loved Methodism? The interests of Methodism throughout the 
 whole South are at stake ! " 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Collins, of , 
 
 " Admonished the Conference, that the moment they rescinded 
 that resolution, they passed the Rubicon. The fate of the con- 
 nection was sealed." 
 
 The Rev. William Smith, of Virginia, 
 
 " Agreed with the brother from Mississippi, that there were in- 
 terests involved in this question dearer than UNION itself, however 
 dear that might be. Southerners are not prepared to commit their 
 interests, much less their consciences, to the holy keeping of 
 Northern men. Conscience was involved in this matter, and they 
 could not be coerced." 
 
 Whence, I ask, is this mortal fear of colored testimony? 
 Why do the clergy see in it a dagger, that will " stab them to 
 the vitals " ? What evil have they done, that they would sooner 
 see the "UNION itself" dissolved, than permit their sister, whom 
 Christ has washed and cleansed in his own blood, to give ut- 
 terance to her thoughts, in an assembly of his saints ? What 
 mighty truth lies hid in the bosom of the slave, that needs but
 
 71 
 
 to be revealed to explode the church " determine the fate 
 of our beloved Ziou" and blast the rising "interests of 
 Methodism, throughout the whole South ? " But one answer 
 can be given to this question, and that answer abundantly 
 confirms the truth of my charge ! 
 
 I come now to the last charge in the long catalogue of alle- 
 gations which I have made against the American church and 
 clergy. It is this " That many of our clergy are guilty of 
 enormities that would disgrace an Algerine pirate." And 
 needs this allegation any further proof, after the appalling de- 
 velopments which I have already made ? If so, I challenge a 
 comparison between the conduct of many of the American 
 clergy, and the Algerine pirate. Look on the darkest page of 
 Moorish history, and tell me, has the Algerine ever sold his 
 sister of the same faith for a " BREEDER " to " STOCK " the 
 plantation of her haughty proprietor with human cattle, per- 
 chance the offspring of his own body? Has he shipped his 
 brother Algerine to a foreign realm, and sold him for a galley- 
 slave, to one of a religion differing from his own ? Has he 
 denied to a portion of his own countrymen the right to read 
 the Koran, (his Bible,) and sold those countrymen into slavery 
 to raise funds to send that same Koran to those who were ig- 
 norant of its contents in other lands ? Has he ever claimed 
 the wife and daughters of his Mahometan brother as his prop- 
 erty ? Has he robbed the frantic mother of her babe, and 
 with the price of that babe's body and soul replenished his 
 communion cup? Nay, has he even compelled the heart- 
 broken mother, if she observe the ordinances of her religion 
 at all, to drink from that cup the wine which was purchased 
 with her own child's blood ? Such enormities even the tongue 
 of calumny dares not impute to the Algerine pirate, in a soli- 
 tary instance. And yet they are the settled policy of no in- 
 considerable portion of the American clergy ! They stain 
 and darken almost every page of the modern history of the 
 American church; and if generally known, they would render 
 that church a stench in the nostrils of the heathen of every 
 realm on the globe ! 
 
 My task is done. My pledge is redeemed. I have here 
 drawn a true but painful picture of the American church and 
 clergy. I have proved them to be a BROTHERHOOD OP 
 THIEVES ! I have shown that multitudes of them subsist by 
 ROBBERY, and make THEFT their trade! that they plunder 
 the cradJe of its precious contents, and rob the youthful lover 
 of his bride ! that they steal " from principle," and teach 
 their people that slavery " is not opposed to the will of God," 
 but "is A MERCIFUL VISITATION"! that they excite the mob
 
 72 
 
 to deeds of violence, and advocate LYNCH LAW for the sup- 
 pression of the sacred right of speech ! I have shown that 
 they sell their own sisters in the church for the SERAGLIO, 
 and invest the proceeds of their sale in BIBLES for the heathen ! 
 that they rob the forlorn and despairing mother of her babe, 
 and barter away that babe to the vintner for wine for the 
 Lord's supper ! I have shown that nearly all of them legalize 
 slavery, with all its barbarous, bitter, burning wrongs, and 
 make PIRACY lawful and honorable commerce ; and that they 
 dignify slave-holding and render it popular, by placing MAN- 
 STEALERS in the Presidential chair ! I have shown that those 
 who themselves abstain from these enormities, are in church 
 fellowship with those who perpetrate them ; and that, by this 
 connection, they countenance the wrong, and strengthen the 
 hands of the oppressor ! I have shown that while with their 
 lips they profess to believe that LIBERTY is God's free and 
 impartial gift to all, and that it is "inalienable" they hold 
 2,500,000 of their own countrymen in the most abject bond- 
 age ; thus proving to the world, that they are not Infidels 
 merely, but blank ATHEISTS disbelievers in the existence of 
 a God who will hold them accountable for their actions ! 
 These allegations are all supported by evidence which none 
 can controvert, and which no impartial mind can doubt. The 
 truth of them is seen on every page of our country's history ; 
 and it is deeply felt by more than two millions of our en- 
 chained countrymen, who now demand their plundered rights 
 at their hands. In making this heart-rending and appalling 
 disclosure of their hypocrisy and crimes, I have spoken with 
 great plainness, and at times with great severity ; but it is the 
 severity of truth and love. I have said that only which I 
 could not in kindness withhold ; and in discharging the pain- 
 ful duty which devolved upon me in this regard, I have had 
 but a single object in view the redemption of the oppressor 
 from his guilt, and the oppressed from his chains. To this 
 darling object of my heart, this Letter is now dedicated. As 
 it goes out, through you, to the public, a voice of terrible 
 warning and admonition to the guilty oppressor, but of conso- 
 lation, as I trust, to the despairing slave, I only ask for it, that 
 it may be received with the same kindness, and read with the 
 same candor, in which it has been written. 
 
 With great respect and affection, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 S. S. FOSTER. 
 Canterbury, N. H., July, 1843.

 
 READER^ are you a member of either of the great 
 religious sects of the country? or, in other words, do 
 you belong to the "Brotherhood of Thieves"? If so, 
 quit, I entreat you, this unfortunate and inglorious con- 
 nection ! " Come out from among them, and touch not 
 the unehean thing;" and henceforth " enter not into their 
 counsels." Turn your back upon the church, and repu- 
 diate your allegiance to, the government; for they have 
 conspired together for the enslavement of a sixth portion 
 of your countrymen ! You cannot retain connection 
 with either without giving character and countenance to 
 slavery, and thereby involving yourself in its enormous 
 guilt. God and the good of every nation abhor such 
 connection, and it is most disgraceful to yourself. 
 Would you join a church whose members legalized 
 horse-stealing ? Would you enter into political relations 
 with freebooters, pledging them aid and protection, and 
 uniting your destinies with theirs, both in peace and in 
 war ? If not, then separate yourself from the political 
 and ecclesiastical institutions of the country, and become 
 an abolitionist indeed ! Too long already have you 
 upheld the hand which holds the 'lash ! Too long have 
 you quieted the guilty conscience of the enslaver ! Too 
 long have you dishonored yourself by standing before 
 the world in political and ecclesiastical fellowship and 
 alii nice with the worst enemies of the human race ! 
 Quit, then, your unnatural and unmanly position, and 
 enlist, heart and hand, in the glorioxis moral revolution 
 which is now sweeping over the land like a mighty 
 tornado, and whose motto is, " No UNION WITH 
 SLAVEHOLDERS ! "
 
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