<*n <^ ♦ « "^^..♦* .». '.' .^"-^^^ *. > .^°-^*. tr^-^^ ^^^J^. .-^^ .^^. ^^6 i-J^" ^-..^* /^-^ X/ .#C^ >> ' • • • « v> ^V. > ^^ ' "^ 0^ lV^. •P^r ^*" :m£\ %J^ : 'oK • 4 0» * , >*.^'.^ 55^1* ^ ^0^ •'v?^" 9-. J"^ .•1555^>kI' ^ / LETTER TO MINISTERS AND ELDERS, ON THE SIN OF HOLDING SLAVES, AND THE DUTY OF IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. BY JAMES G. BIRNEY. TO THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN KENTUCKY. Dear Brethren— I have conchided to address to you a few remarks on the subject of slavery-one that has for a long time, deeply interested my own heart, and on which 1 have bestowed very careful consideration. Were I to set you down as indifferent to it, I know it would be doing you great injus- tice Indeed, so much do I count upon your right desires in relation to it, that although 1 come clothed with no official authority in that branch of God's church to which we belong, vet do 1 presume that you will read, meditate upon, and with a just balance, weigh, any arguments, that maybe submitted to vou in a Christian spirit, come frotn what quarter they may. It is not my intention at this time, to take up the whole subject of slavery, and discuss it in its details, or to answer the multiplied excuses that have been made by Christians and others, for the help they have brought for its continuance 1 mean rather to present : 1. Some of the most promiiient char- acteristics of slavery. 2. Some of the excuses oi our church for not purifying herself from this sin, which answers to them ; and 3 The consequences to the church and the state at large, if she should at once enter upon her duty. The characteristics to which I now ask your attention, are— 1 It originated, has always been, and is at this day, main- tained by a violence that is utterly at variance with the mild spirit of the gospel. . , . • *i, • 2 It wrests from one set of men, without crime on their part, the fruits of their bodily toils, for the support and ease of another. .^ . , a^4.u.. 3 Its effects upon its subjects are to stupify and benumb the mind, to vitiate the conscience, to multiply the sins of the grossest character, to exclude the knowledge of God ana Christ, as well as of the necessity of any preparation for tne world to come, and of course, to prepare them for hell. 73789 JAMES G. BiKNEY'S 4. Its effects upon those wlio maintain it, and in some mea- sure upon those who witness and consent to it, are indolence, diahohcal passions, deadness to the claims of justice and the calls of mercy, a woricily spirit, ?nd contempt for a large por- tion of our fellow-creatures ; therefore, as far as their qualifi- cations for an eternal state are modified by slavery, it rathei prepares them for the sentence of the damned than for the invitation of the blessed. That the above are some, but by no means all of the char- acteristics of slavery, no one, with our opportunities of wit- nessing the thing itself, will deny. Now, does it not seem passing strange, that a " monster of such hideous mien" should have been received within the very midst of the churcli of God — that it should find in its bosom, its surest and softest resting place — that it should be fondled, sleeked and cherished there ? and that if any one attempt to tear him from his lodgment, with one consent all cry out, " Let him alone ! let him alone 1 ive have become so accustomed to his presence, that much of his deformity has been taken away, and we cannot do with- out him ; we are preparing him for his discharge, which, as he is slow to learn, he will probably be ready for, in some hundred or two years : then he can be dismissed without injury to any one concerned ; but don't disturb him now ; he is very quiet, all things are going on well. Make what preparation you please for his future dismission, but by no means touch him at this time. The church ! the church ! you'll endanger the church, and make it more unpopular than it now is. I charge you, wait for a ' more convenient season.' God is opening the way for his discharge in his own good time. If you attempt it iioil\ you will not only utterly fail, because all the church will be against you ; and besides, they will call you, and join with those who are without in calling you, a madman and a fanatic — and your influence will be destroyed.'' This is no caricature ; it is solemn, serious truth ; should it be denied, there are " clouds of witnesses" to prove it. But to return, it would make this address too long, were I to notice exceptions which the scrupulous might raise ; or stop to present modifications that I might under other circum- stances think it desirable to make, of my positions ; or to for- tify myself carefully as I proceed with defences as if I were contending with enemies. I shall not detain you to do so. 1 write not to cavillers, nor to such as are determined to remain unmoved by any thing that can be said ; but to brethren be- loved, as I trust by our common Lord, who are willing to do whatever may hasten his glorious reign on earth, and add to their own eternal weight of glory in heaven. If then slavery be characterized by violence, oppression, injustice — by tendencies to the ruin of the souls of both master SECOND LETTER. 3 and slave — why should yon hesitate to say it ought to cease at once ? You reply, The Bible does not decisively condemn slavery. In support of this you say: 1. Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God, had servants, or as you would render it, " slaves." Now admitting all that is asked in the case of Abraham, and that the word translated " ser- vants" means "slaves," it will be found to prove a great deal more than you desire. For if it be argued — because he had slaverj, therefore / may have them, it will equally follow that prevarication, if not falsehood, and concubinage may be justi- fied ; for Abraham was guilty of both. But the word " servants," I apprehend, means here the subjects of Abraham, as a prince. The same word is used in reference to the courtiers of Saul, and to the most confidential part of the faithful little army that adhered to David during his persecutions by Saul. And in the 9th chapter of the first of Kings, it is used in exact contrast to "bondmen." Besides all tiiis, in the same chapter in which the persons who constituted the army of Abraham are called his " servants," the patriarch himself calls thern "young men." 2. The Hebrews were directed to make slaves ^)f the sur- rounding nations. Tliis is very true, when applied to the seven nations particularly mentioned in the 7th chapter of Deuteronomy, who for their sins had been devoted to destruc- tion. But does it follow, because the people whom God had specially selected as the instrument to execute his judgments, and had on this account excepted from the great law of love to the stranger, that lue are excepted from the obligation of this law ? Every exception to a general law must be specially pleaded; and, according to the demands of common sense, clearly proved. To show the absurdity of this excuse : If the sheriff of Fayette county should execute a murderer, in pur- suance of the sentence of death duly pronounced upon him, would this act, entirely justifiable, because directed by proper authority, furnish even an excusatory plea, much less one that would go to the entire justification of the sheriffof «no?/?ej- county, for having put to death an innocent man, uncondemned by any form of law, merely for the gratification of his own malignant temper, or for the promotion of some selfish pur- pose ] It is useless to give an answer to this statement. 3. The Savior himself said nothing in condemnation of slavery, although it existed in great aggravation while he was upon earth. He said nothing about it, and to my apprehen- sion for this very good reason, that he did not preach to the Romans, or to the people of any other country where slavery- prevailed, but to the .lews, among whom the abolition princi- ples of Moses' laws had already very nearly, if not entirely extinguished it. On the same principle we may account for his silence concerning many practices that are condemned by ft JAMES G. BIRNEY S the spirit of his gospel, such as gamblings, gladiatorial and other cruel exhibitions, and offcMisivc and ambitious wars, so common in his time, and carried to such enormity by the Romans and other Gentiles. 4. But Paul and Peter establish, or recognize as estabhshed, the rehition of master and servant, (slave,) when they give admonition to both as to their reciprocal behavior. It is very certain that this would not have been done, they being holy and inspired men, if the relation itself was sinful; or if there vi^as any thing in the subjection of one human being to the will and caprice of another that was forbidden by God's law. Now if the w^ord '■'servant'''' be used by Peler and Paul to mean '■^slaves'''' exclusivel}- — a meaning I adm.t only that the excuse may have all the force it can claim — iheir exhor- tation to persons in this condition amounts to no more than what had been impressed before upon all who were, or might become, the victims of injustice or oppression, to bear it pa- iiently. It was given with the same object and in the same spirit as the command of the Savior himself, that the perse- cuted should pray for their persecutors. Had it been a connnon evil during the nunistry of Paul and Peter to which Christians were exposed, to be cast into prison by the lawless power of individual persecutors, would the exhortations of these apos- tles to them to bear their sufferings with resignation and meekness, establish or recognise as established the relation of persecutor and persecuted ? or authorize Christian.^ lo ex- ercise grievous oppressions upon one another, or upon such of the heathen as they might be able to circunn^ent and bring into their power T Or when Paul, through Titus, admonishes his brethren to be "subject to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates," does he in the slightest manner sanction the imperial atrocities of a Nero, a Douiitian, or any of their legitimate successors until now] I know you will say he does not; and that he would have condemned in the conduct of those tyrants towards their obscurest subjects whatever was inconsistent with the gr(!at and ui\iversaliy binding law, " Thou shalt do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." If then Nero, for example, had suiimitted to the gospel that Paul proclaimed in his capitol, and become an obedient disciple of the apostles— although he might have retained the poivcr and authority oi an emperor, yet his op- pressions, his cruelties, would have ceased, the very temper that prompted them would have been suppressed, his power would have been put forth for good, not for evil, and he would have been seen a prince dispensing justice in mere}', and find- ing his own happiness in that wliich he daily scattered over a grateful people. Would he under Paul's discipline have seized upon the poor, the weak, the defencelcbs of his empire, that SECOND LETTER. O he might exact from them toil unrequited during their whole hves, and consign them, and their innocent children after them, to social and civil degradation in the midst of happy millions — to personal bondage — to mental darkness — to the power of vice and the dominion of sin — to hopelessness in this world — to shame and everlasting contempt in that which is to come? Or had the converting grace of God found liim acting the bloody and relentless tyrant, and thus fulfilling his relation to the oppressed, w^ould he, Paul being his teacher, have con- tinued it during his life 1 And not content with this, would he — calhng upon Paul to indite his last will and testament — have perpetuated by legacy to his issue this continually grow- ing mass of blood and gro;ms — of misery and tears.* But let us come down from the tyrant over millions to his miniature — brandishing the ensign of his authority over some half dozen of his iellow-creatures — and see how the matter stands. You insist that Paul recognised — that is, acknowledged to be right — the relation of master and servant among his cotera- poraries ; of course that it could not have been wrong fheti, when tested by the great principles of man's duty to his fellow- man, preached by him in his own time, and which we consider ns preached to all persons since. The inference you would deduce from these premises — one which is unavoidable — is, that as these principles can never change, as they v/ere in- tended for tlie direction of men in all time, (to say nothing of eternity,) this relation t/icn right, must be so 7icw. This I be- lieve is a fair statement of the position assumed, on this pas- sage, by the Scriptural advocate for contimied slavery. Ad- mitting all the premises to be true, the conclusion to which you have come would be altogether undeniable ; and we would be authorized now to inflict upon our fellow-men, white or * Tlie natural tendency of slavery is to the second death — of liberty, to eternal life although there are exceptions in both — s]aves frequently giving good evidence of piety, and men who are /rcc aliasing their freedom to their destruction. The slaveholder, then, is engaged in maintaining a system wliich leads to death, whilst God IS rnaiiitaniing one which leads to life. The slaveholder is conducting his five, ten, or twenty slaves down to the pit, whilst God is striving, as far as he thinks proper to nifluence rational mind, to raise tiiem to heaven. What a reflec- tion for the disciple of the merciful Savior I Let him not stop here, but make a calculation of the increase of his slaves for the next twenty, fifty, or hundred years, (it is too awfui to proceed further,) taking for his basis the increase of the whole initiiber of slaves in the Thiited States for the last forty years, that he may .see what tnultitudes lie is, as far as we can tell, qualifying for perdition. The Christian who holds slaves during his own life, and 'wills' them to his children afterwards, is doing, according to my poor appreliension, all that he cm do to defeat the btnevolent purposes of God. (These ^ wills ^ will be bloody evidences at the judgment seat of Christ.) He sins himself, and produces suffering as long as God gives him the physical power— not satisfied with this, he fastens the habit of suff'-ring on his slaves and their posterity, and the habit oi sinmnsj on his own. Maytlioi e not be strong grounds to fear, that, as he has been chief in this world in the dread preparation for misery, he will be fearfully pre-eminent in the dread retributions of that which is to come ? Can such a one dwell in the presence of a God of mercy ? If he can, tell me I pray you, in what part of the Bible you find a warrant for your belief ? 1 have not yet found it. 1* 6 JAMES G. BIRNEY*S black, who miglit be reduced into our power, all the enormi- ties of iionian or Grecian slavery. But there is an essential part of your premises — the appro- bation of Paul of the injustice and cruelty of the master, cov- ered up under the very comprehensive word, relation, that I apprelKMid is very far from beintr maintainable : For if it can be maintained, it nuist be by making him nullify all those prin- ciples of moral action whicii he had been imceasingly incul- cating upon his fellow-men, and of which he had been giving in his own conduct a briuht exan^ple. For if this relation, [in which are to be included all the atrocious powers conferred by the Roman laws in the time of Paul, as well as the powers, not much less atrocious, exercised in some parts of our own country now,] be right ; it follow^s consequentially, that to do any thing fairly necessary in the estimation of the superior in the relation, to maintain it, cannot be wrong. Thus, among the Romans, masters could put their slaves to death at plea- sure ; and it w^as done with great cruelty and frequency : they kept their slaves chained to the door-posts as janitors, they branded them in the forehead, and, if the master was slain at his own house and the murderer undiscovered, all his domestic slaves were liable to be put to death. Under this power, four hundred were put to death on a single occasion. Will you drive the iipostle to a recognition of such horrible deeds'? To an acknowledgment that they were right 1 That there was in tjicm no violation of the great law of love ? No, yon reply; this is too horrible. I rejoin, and say, that you cannot then, on your own principle, charge him with the recognition of any violation, how small soever it may seem, of this law. For the same purpose, (the maintenance of the relation,) it may be though t necessary by masters among us, to keep back the liire of the laborers who reap down their fields, (this is injus- tice) — that if a slave, in obedience to the very constitution of man's nature, when self-interest, the mainspring of action is taken from him, become indolent — if he be reluctant to spend gratuitously for another that property which the great Author of his being has given him in his own physical powers, in his own bones and nuiscles and sinews — he may be beaten and scourged to any extent, however cruel, till this indolence, this reluctance to an unrequited transfer of his labor to another, this natinvil tendency to self-indulgence be overcome. (This is oppression.) To the same end, it may be necessary, in the opinion of the master, in order to derive that profit from the relation which only makes it worthy to be maintained, that marriages among his slaves be discouraged, and a gross state of concubinage permitted; that the wife be torn at midnight, from the man of her love, and her screamiufr (diildren wrung from her frantic grasp ; that the husband find his manly arms, SECOND LETTER. 7 intended for the protection of his helpless offspring, bound in the weighty and sure fetters of the southern slaver; and the last, the sole atom of earthly jiappiriess they were all enjoy- ing, cast upon the winds. This is cruelty unniixcd — and to justify it, you bring the noble-minded apostle who suffered persecutions without number, distress and death, that he might bring men to love one another!!! Furtlier: It might be that the whole life of a master would be passed in the perpetration of injustice, the exercise of cru- elty and oppression ; that a relation might be perpetuated v/hose substance is the aliment of the most overbearing des- potism on the one part, and the vilest abjectness on the other. If the sins tiiat may be said to be inherent in slavery — if in- justice, cruelty and oppression were habitually committed against persons not in the relation, and unrepented of, the per- petrator, by the judgment of all men, would be damned for ever — if they were committed against our white "neighbors," a furnace as hot as Nebuchadnezzar's would be too cool for them. Yet, notwithstanding his character may, by the indul- gence of the worst passions against his slaves, have become as mean, as vicious, as degraded, and as unfit for the society of the just made perfect, as if he had indulged them against free persons, and his equals in society; because, forsooth, his slaves are in the relation., there seems to be no harm done, and at his death he is taken up to heaven, where all this treatment of his slaves, they being in the relation, goes for nothing. Thus it would appear that Paul and Peter, after exhorting men to do all — even to their eating and drinking for the glory of God — to be holy in all manner of conversation, are found sup- porting a relation whose sole object is, on the one side tempo- rary convenience, at the expense of personal degradation on the other, and the moral pollution of both — whose universal tendencies upon the parties concerned, and upon society at large, have been mischievous, polluting and unholy. To these apostles I do not think can fairly be attributed such miserable logic to support such miserable morals. For furtlier illustration : suppose that during the ministry of Paul, a Christian slave at Colosse, thinking himself treated in an unchristian manner by his Christian master, had brought his case before the church whilst Paul was on a visit to that city. He would allege against his master, that instead of giving him, as Paul had directed, what was just and equal for his services, he gave him nothing but his i'ood and clothing, and these in many instances adjusted to his wants wdth the most scrupulous nicety ; that his " threatenings" were many, and his scourgings not a few. The master may be supposed to have admitted all the facts of the case, and to have justified himself in such words as these : " As to the command to give 8 JAMES G. BIRNEY's my slave what is just and equal, I have never interpreted it to mean what the standard of justice among equals would re- quire ; but rather that I should give him just what suited my convenience : and as to giving him what is equal, or, as he understands it, a fair equivalent for his services, it never once entered my head — for I might as well have no slave at all as to do ihis ; indeed, he would, if this be the meaning of it, soon bo as free as I am. And as to the threatenings and scourgings that I have bestowed upon him, his own insolent claims, now reiterated — have justly provoked them : Tliey are absolutely necessary to keep him humble and obedient, make him know his place, and to perpetuate the relation wdiich you yourself have recognised, and know^ ought by all means to be main- tained." What now do you think Paul would have done, after heariijg such an harangue as this? Would he have sent for the Plirygian slave code, have collated the law^s, and heard tes- timony as to all the recognised and approved customs of op- pression? Or would he have taken up the word of God, the perfect law of liberty, and quoted to him, "m all things what- soever ye tcoidd that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them ?" Brethren, if such a case should be brought before you, how would you decide ! — By the laws and customs of slavery as they exist in Kentucky, or b}^ the hook of God 1 If by the latter, what becomes of slavery 1 It is shivered to atoms. In the most flourishing period of Greece, women held a very degraded rank ; they were considered rather as the slaves than the companions of man. There is no proof that in the time of the apostle, during her declension, their condition was in any manner ameliorated. Among the Romans, it was per- mitted to men to divorce their wives at pleasure, with or without cause. By the Roman laws, absolute power over the child was given to the parent, even to tlie selling of him into slavery, or to the taking away of his life. Power almost as unlimited was given to tlie creditor over his insolvent debtor. If any one v/as indebted to several persons, and could not find a cau- tioner, (security,) his body, according to some, might be cut to pieces and divided among his creditors. Now, Christianity recognises these relations, also; and at the very time, too, when all the enormities perpetrated by the superiors in the relation were authorised by law. Yet, what Christian allowing even that there were no restraints of mu- nicipal laws— would, at this day, justify or palliale the unpro- voked dismission of a wife, or unfeeling and dishonorable treatment of her, on the part of a husband professing Chris- tianity, on the plea, that as Paul had recognised the relation as it then was, every thing that was then practised under SECOND LETTER. 9 was allowable now 1 Or who is there, that, on the same prin- ciple, would justify a Christian parent for seUing his child into slavery, or for taking away his life on any provocation 1 — or a Christian creditor who would insist upon his rights, " de de- hitore in paries secundo^'' in reference to his insolvent debtor % No one : because Christianity, although recognising these, and whatever other relations may be necessary for the real welfare of society, has cleansed them from every foreign and hurtful ingredient ; she has lopped off from them every tiling that is offensive to her own purity, and injurious to their most healthful and salutary exercise. Whilst she exacts from the wife, subjection, she has secured her from all degradation by requiring the husband to honor his wife. Whilst children are taught obedience to parents in all things not inconsistent with their higher duties to God, they are protected from injury and outrage by the requisition upon the parents to rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to lead lives of piety themselves. And the creditor, in one of the beautiful parables of the Savior, is exhorted by the highest motive that can affect man, his own happiness, to be merciful to the unfor- tunate and ruined debtor. The consequence has been, and always will be, that in societies where the duties of these re- lations have been performed in accordance with these direc- tions of wisdom, there has been more of domestic happiness and spiritual comfort, as well as of social order, and of intel- lectual and moral and political power. liCt slavery as it exists among us be tested by the same rules that have been applied so successfully for their melioration to the relations above mentioned ; let it undergo the same Christian purgation that they have, and what will remain of it? Nottiing but the master who pays and the servant who receives what is just and equal, (a fair equivalent,) for his services. This is the relation which the apostles establish, because there is nothing in it incompatible with the gospel, and it tears up slavery by the roots. Thus much for some of the chief gronnds which it is sup- posed the Bible furnishes for the continuance of slavery. You will see I have thought hints would be sufficient, and that I have not carried out the arguments to the extent of which they are susceptible. This I leave for you; knowing how capable you are of doing it, from your intimate acquaintance with the scriptures, your habits of ii;tellectual exercise, and your desire to know the truth that you may do your duty. But is there not among ns a large number who, advancing a step further than those who equip themselves in the armor of the gospel, acknowledge that "slavery is criminal" in the sight of God; that it cannot be palliated; that it is injustice, theft, robbery ; that it gives rise to atrocities which even to 10 JAMES G. BIKNEY's think of make the cheeks burn; yet insist that "/iou; and xohen''^ it shall cease are question;^ by no means clear of diffi- culty 1 Against such doclrine as this, so replete with fallacy, and tendnig to bring upon the cause of truth a reproach that it does not merit, and an injury whose extent cannot be fore- seen, I wisli to enter my protest. It certainly requires no common boldness to take the position before an enlightened community, that an acknowledged sin — one proved to be such, too, by God's word and providence, should not be repented of and forsaken at once. With what face would any of you who are ministers, after proving to your congregations that injus- tice, violence, oppression, v/ere sins in the sight of God, and that he had denounced a " Wo unto him that useth his neigh- bor's service wilho^U icagc.s, and givcihlnrn nought for his work,''^ tell thom " how and when" tlics'e sins were to be repented of was a matter not clear of difficulty ] If white men were the sufferers from the perpetration of such sins, all would declare that the questions were clear of doubt. And is it true that when committed against the negro slave, God looks upon them as less criminal and authorizes a diflrrent measure to be meted out, and a reasoning sui generis to be applied '\ Would you not rather tell them, as the Savior and all his true ministers since have done, '^repent'''' — not to-morrow, or next day, but — now; and by restoring at one. what has been withheld by in- justice, and fraud, and force, do works that consist with repent- ance and prove its sincerity] You would not, surely, at this time of day, in the present stale of mental pliilosov)hy and re- ligious science in the Presbyterian church, tell your congre- gations that they have been committing sin for a long time, are doing so now, and yet say to them, all you ask as the am- bassador of God is, that they prepare to repent, that is, that they prepare to leave it oQ'some ten, fifteen, or twenty years hence; or if any of them should in the meantime be hurried to their dread account, their cliildren or posterity will do it for tbem. You would not declare to them, all your Master required was,t!iar they should come to a full conviction of the sin now, but that from fear of loss, of the world, of the charge of fanaticism, of disparagement in fashionable estimation, of personal convenience, or of giving any shock to the structure of society, they might practise it until God in his own good time should remove tlie matter out of the way. This I am confident you would not do ; and yet, is not this the very doc- trine that is preached when i^lavery is acknowledged to be sin, but that it is to cease at some f tit k re time? But this has been found too bold for any but llio most de- termined slaveholder. It has therefore been much modified in its dress by saying, "There are no specific connnands in the IJible on the subject of slavery, resembling those on adul- SECOND LETTER. 11 tery, theft, &c., that it is abohshed in the Bible under the general commands, Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you, &c., and in fuliilling these commands it is our duty to take into consideration the prohahle consequences of our conduct." And has it come to this in the Presbyterian church, th;it a duty which is clearly ascertained to fall under the general command above quoted, nsay be postponed on that account ; and that its performance is less imperative than the performance of such as are specified ; and that a man who at one fell swoop has robbed another of all his rights as a fellow- being, and put him into the road to death, is not bound to as expeditious restitution as he who has stolen from his rich neighbor a sixpence ! — that in the first case, the aggressor may take time to consider the probable consequences to his own estate, his name and standimy in society, and more than this, whether restitution of all his rights will not be injurious to the sufferer, and whether it would not be better for him, as he is accustomed to it, to remain crushed and trodden down, and that his posterity come into the enjoyment of the rights that have been wrested from him, whilst in the latter he is bound to immediate restitution ? I will venture to say, if these be the prevailing homilies of our church, the sooner she loses her name, and individuality, and influence, the better for the coun- try and the world. I will now proceed to examine, very briefly, some of the parts of that alchymy by which the leopard has been made to change his spots, the contrivances of men to put aside the claims of God, and sin to become no longer sin.* I shall con- sider the objection — 1. That slaves are not qualified for freedom. — AVherever I go among the slaveholders of our cliurch, this excuse is rife ; and * It is an inquiry not devoid of interest, though by no means very flattering to human pride, to trace how readily, arguments for slavcholding' accommodate themselves to circumstances. At first, men are to be enslaved for tlie good of their souls ; when any attempt is made for their moral and intellectual elevation, the slaveholder insists that it has no other tendency than to make the slaves unhappy and himself insecure. When from the increasing light of Christianity its professors become ashamed any longer to persist in the plea of brutifying their fellow-men, that they might hold them as slaves ; and some stir is made by the friends of liberty and the country towards emancipation, the Christian slaveholder cries out, " Not yet I not yet '. for the world, not yet I it will be the ruin of the slaves if they are set free noio ; the present generation are very ignorant, totally unqualified for freedom, the next will be prepared, and then what every body so much desires can be done advantageously and profitably for all concerned." This puts the whole atfair to rest again. All becomes calm and tranquil. The ? resent generation of slaves go to their audit, the masters die and are buried, 'he next generation that was to exhibit full preparation for liberty, comes on the scene with a new generation of masters. When the latter are reminded of the promises of their progenitors, they vociferate the cry they have inherited with their slaves, "Not yet ! not yet ! by no means this generation; they will ruin themselves ; the next we knew will be prepared fully," d'c. &c. So it will go on to the last syllable of recorded time, or till " not yet 1 be drowned in the craslring thunders of heaven's judgments. 12 JAMES G. BIRNEY's and it has been made so long and so loud, as to be thought fairly conclusive of the whole matter. It is very much of the same nature with the objection that was made to Catholic emancipation in Ireland, by the ecclesiastical and civil aris- tocracy of Great Britain. What answer would such objectors have made to the corps of opponents to one of the most mag- nanimous acts of tlie British government, when it was alleged that all the institutions of the country would be broken up, and even religion itself could not be maintained under the malignant influence of Catholic emancipation ; tluit the vice and ignorance of the Catholics (continued at least, if not in some measure produced, by Protestant persecutors,) would break down every salutary barrier ; and that they were only qualified for living under the restraints in which they had been reared ? Or to the Autocrat of the Russias who should plead in justification of his recent carnage of the Poles, that this portion of his subjects are totally unqualified for any other government than the one which is crushing them into the dust ; that the tyranny which he exercises over them is not of his own enactment, but that it has been entailed upon him ; and that although desiring all good to this portion of his unfortu- nate subjects, he is still under the necessit}^ of keeping up the old system of oppression to which they have become accus- tomed ; but tVat in having it imposed upon him by his ancestors, and being thus as it were compelled to maintain it, he is the most unfortunate of men, deserving commiseration instead of blame 1 Would such reasons as these be received with any portion of tolerance T Would they not be considered as founded in the most profound ignorance of the constitution of the human mind, or to be the shallow excuses of the rankest hypocrisy ] God has formed all men for freedom, just as surely as he has fitted them, in their physical conformation, for the pure air of the ambient heavens. Freedom is man's appropriate element ; that in which he acts best, and in which he shows most of mental and moral life. All others are unjiat\n*al, un- healthy, and tend to produce death, the death of the whole being; and they are the devices of " man's inhumanity to man." That the first part of this proposition is true we may easily satisfy ourselves ; for which we are deprived ot liberty, nature is ever trying to regain it ; she finds nothing that can be received in exchange for it ; and just as unerringly desires to escape from chains as she does to withdraw from the foul and pestilential atmosphere of a charnel-house. Do we not then say to God, when in his word and through his judgments he thunders in our ears, "Let this people go that they may serve me," " They can serve thee better as slaves than in the condition for which thou didst form them." Again, what SECOND LETTER. 13 has disqualified the slave for freedom — his natural state 1 The chains that we have cast upon him. Is it a reasonable course then to prolong a condition, all whose results, down to the present moment, have been disqualification for freedom, with the expectation that it will yet, after the failure of our experi- ment for two hundred years, bring forth fruits that consist "with freedom ] Shall we be careful daily to make the chains more secure, and hypocritically tempt God with our prayers that he may remove them ] If this excuse be a good one nowy and slavery be continued, producing no other fruits than such as it has already yielded ; it will be good next year, next lus- trum, next century ; and slavery with all its horrors is made perpetual. Are you willing to say Amen ? But it is said in avoidance, that although the present adults are, and must continue through the remainder of their lives, unqualified for freedom, and therefore shoul i remain in slavery ; v»"e can qualify their children for freedom by bestowing upon them a suitable education, and rearing them under the influence of the hopes and expectations of freemen. This enticing humanity was proclaimed by the slaveholders of Kentucky thirty years ago, to my knowledge ; how long before I know not. How care- fully this pledge has feen redeemed, is proved by the fact that the generation which was then commencing and that was to be qualified for freedom, have grown up, and are the very persons upon whose vice, and ignorance, and disqualification at this time, the excuse for continuing slavery is founded. But we will pass this by, and examiiie with what fidelity we are redeeming our pledge of preparing their successors, the present youthful generation, for frc' dom. A few of our people buy primers, spelling-books, and Testaments, for them ; and on Sunday morning or afternoon they are instructed for an hour or two, by the children or the junior members of the white family, in the elements of reading. In a few of the towns and villages. Sabbath Schools for the blacks are estab- lished, in which they receive instruction for an hour, or an hour and a half. This comprises all or nearly all the means that are in operation to prepare the rising generation of blacks for freedom. There are day schools for the free colored people, one at Louisville and another at Lexington ; if any slaves are sent to them for education, I am uninformed of the fact. Now> I ask you, if you believe that there are out of the whole num- ber of colored people in this state, (amounting to probably, 200,000,) 5,000 who are receiving elementary instruction in reading (rom private efforts and the Sabbath Schools together! Are there in your opinion half that number v*'ho can read the Bible understandiigly and with ease ? Are there ojie thousand who, in addition to facility in reading English, can write a hand sufficiently legible for the transaction of the plainest 2 14 JAMES G. BIRNEY S business? Are there one hundred who add to reading and writing, as above, a competent knowledge of arithmetic, as far as the rule of three ] I suppose these questions must all be answered in the negative. I know not one, either person- ally or from information, who can read, write, and cypher. I do not pretend to precision of knowledge on this point ; and if I am in error I shall gladly receive correction from those who have more accurate information. The conclusion to which my mind has been brought on the subject of preparation, is corroborated by this fact, that there is not, so far as my knowledge extends after careful inquiry, even among its most strenuous advocates, any regular deduction made from the time of field-labor or domestic service of their slaves, to be- stow upon thejn this preparation. Now, brethren, judging from the experience of the past, and our knowledge of the present, of what weight is the excuse for continuing slavery, based upon " preparation 1" Is it saying more than the naked facts will warrant, that its advocates, whatever they may intend, act for the perpetuation of slavery 1 If so, are you willing to unite in such action, or to continue it for another day ? 2. But we are wiUing to give up our slaves, if every body else will ; or if they all can be removed from the country. Whoever says this, subjects his sincerity to violent suspicion. The condition in each case, though not physically, is morally impossible ; and it would not be more unreasonable to say, that you would give up your slaves if the sun would cease to shine. You are a preacher — pressing upon an impenitent friend the necessity of personal holiness ; he replies to all your earnestness, that he will submit to God in doing his will if all his neighbors will go with him. What now would you think of his head or his heart, or his manners ? As to remov- ing the slaves from Kentucky, sit down and make the calcu- lation of their present numbers, probably 200,000; their yearly increase, say 5,000 : consider what has been done towards removing them for the last six or seven years, during which period the Meory of colonization has been favorably cherished by our countrymen ; that there have been removed only about 150 — nearly, if not quite half of whom died on the passage to x\frica, and in the seasoning of her deadly climate ; calculate the cost of removal and of six or twelve months' maintenance of 5,000 annually, after their arrival on the shores of that con- tinent ; calmly contemplate the nature of the public mind which it is indispensable should be brought up to a full ap- proval of the scheme ; and after doing all this, if you still think the plan of removal is the most practicable one for the extin- guishment of slavery, or that it is practicable at all for this purpose, I have not another word to address to you on the subject. The mind that could be led to such a conviction, SECOND LETTER. 15 after duly considering the facts, is too far gone in lave with a darling schem* to be reasoned with. 3. But 10 e fear amalgamation — or in other words, that there will be intermarriages between the whites and the colored people. Although I look upon this objection as unsuitable altogether to a manly mind, that has been careful to enlighten itself on this subject, and impartially to reach its conclusions upon all — and upon amalgamation as having no natural con- nexion whatever with the concession to our slaves of their rights as men, yet, believing that it weighs somev/hat with honest minds which have not taken enlarged views of the consequences of emancipation ; and that it is frequently used with no despicable effect by the opponents of all efforts in favor of freedom ; I shall not, as T had at first intended, pass it by entirely unnoticed. I have said that amalgamation has no natural connexion with emancipation : neither has it, any more than the assumption by the emancipated of any other of the powers belonging to our civil or social relations. Who fears the blacks will, if emancipated, become our school- masters, our college professors, our preachers, our lawyers, or our physicians 1 — No one. AVhy I Simply because they would, on account of their ignorance and total want of lite- rary or scientific qualification, be totally incompetent { there- fore, there would be on their part, no aspiration to the offices, and on ours there would very justly and very certainly be exclusion from them, if they should aspire while deficient in merit. Now, from the superior tenderness and delicacy of the marriage relation, and from the greater care we exercise lest our friends and connexions enter into it miworthily, I entertain the opinion that alliances of this kind would be far less successfully sought by the colored people, than the public stations awhile ago men4;ioned. Many of us would be well contented with persons as schoolmasters, preachers, lawyers, or physicians, with whom we would have insurmountable objections, (leaving out of view personal likings or dislikings,) to contract the marriage relation. Now, when to ignorance, degradation of caste, and a great deficiency of those qualifi- cations, intellectual, moral and pecuniary, which secure social equality, is added that physical repugnance on the part of the whites, so earnestly alleged, it seems to me that a stronger barrier of defence in the premises could not be erected. If you and every one else fear and repel amalgamation, you and they will be safe from its danger. For we may rest very secure in the belief, at least so long as there is an equality of sexes among the colored people, that Sabine violence at- tempted against us by a concerted movement of the black ladies and gentlemen, will not be the world's gossip during the present century. It is very certain, that so strong would 16 be the prejudice against amalg-amation by the present gene- ration of adults, and probably for several to come, that even the valor of a Sesostris, or the charms of a Cleopatra, could not overcome it. And it does appear to my poor judgment scarcely a sufficient reason for continuing a great trespass against our fellow-men, because some hundred years hence, a prince-royal of Jamaica, or the duke of Barbadoes, the countess of Porto Rico, or one of the royal maids of Cuba, dressed " in the livery of the burnished sun," may overcome it in the person of one of our great-great-great-grand-children. It is difficult to treat such an objection with the seriousness becoming the subject. Being nothing of a match-maker my- self, and knowing no one in all the circle of my acquaintance who is in the least peril on this ground, I have not considered it as possessing the least solidity, 4. But if we set our slaves free among us, they will turn round and cut our throats. This would be bad enough, truly. But do you entertain any serious apprehension of such a re- sult 1 For if you do, I shall be compelled to attribute it either to conscious guilt for bad treatment of your slaves, or to a total want of mai'.hood. We have succeeded thus far in keeping in subjection these people, whilst committing against them the greatest trespass that man can commit against his fellow, whilst withholding from them rights for which men in all ages have hazarded life, fortune and honor ; and yet, when we restore those rights peaceably and kindly, it •= most stoutly maintained that they to whom they are restur*. '. will turn and rend us. This is surely unsound philosophy-— alto- gether at variance with the laws of mind, as well as with his- torical facts. For I am very sure that those who insist upon the objection may safely be challenged to produce a single well-authenticated instance to show, that dangerous or even inconvenient consequences have followed the sudden eman- cipation of large bodies of slaves. Now I am by no means so sanguine as to indulge the belief, that in emancipation will be found a 'panacea for all the ills that fle«h is heir to ; but that they will ultimately be immeasurably diminished by it, I cannot for one moment doubt. And I wish it always borne in mind whilst we are discussing that part of the subject which relates to the expedienc}^ of emancipation, that it is not the introduction of a new and untried evil, where none of kindred character existed previously; but that it is the substitution of an evil, in the opinion of its advocates, light and transient when compared with the evil of slavery, whose ultimate tendency, in the judgment of all considerate men, who have weighed it, is to crush us. Now, to every one of you who is a slaveholder, and in whose mind exists an apprehension of the danger predicted SECOND LETTERo w 17 in lh(3 objection, I am bold to offer some means of defence from all harm. Say, you have become convinced that slavery, as it exists among us, is a sin before God ; that you have re- pented of your own guilt in this matter, and are now anxious to show fruits that consist with repentance ; you summon before you your servants — the fathers and mothers, and such others of them as may be old enough to understand an expla- nation of the principles upon which you are about to act ; you say to them, j-ou have become convinced that the bonds in which you have held them are inconsistent with the law of love to our neighbor, enjoined by God upon every man ; and that moved by the sacred authority of the religion you profess, you have determined to continue the sin no longer. With this you read and then deliver to them, accurately au- thenticated deeds of manumission for themselves and their children. You further say to them, " As I have already given to you the most convincing proof I can furnish of my friend- ship, it is not my intention to push j^ou out of my doors, de- siring never to see you again — exposed to the impositions of a world with whose business you are in a great measure un- acquainted, or to the prejudice and scorn of such as cherish for you no kind sympathy ; no, if you choose to remain in my employment, I will pay you what is just and equal, a fair equivalent for your services. I will continue to feel for you the love, and extend to you the conduct of a Christian ; I will assist you in providing the means of educating your chil- dren for usefulness in hfe, and should you so choose, in bind- ing them out to profitable trades and employments ; and I will be your sure and steadfast friend, and your protector so long as your conduct shall not render it improper for me to be so." I ask you, now, if after doing this, and kneeling down with them at the footstool of God's throne to thank him for the Christian courage he he has bestowed upon you, and to implore his blessing upon the down-trodden and the poor, in their new estate, you would fear the flames of the incendiary, or the knife of the assassin? Hateful as is to many the very name of abolition, here it is in its essence — and its safety is sure, because it is the offspring and the ex- hibition of benevolence. Well, after all this you say, " What can we do 1" I answer, you can rise up to-morrow and liberate all whom you hold in bondage. " But," you reply, " what effect would this have upon the great body of slaveholders in the state T' I will undertake to affirm, that by such a course, small as is your number, you will have crucified the giant sin of our land ; his dying struggles may be fierce and long protracted, but his dis- s»^jlution will be certain, because the death-blow will have I Ven given. The ministers and rulers of any of the larger 18 JAMES G. BIRNEy's SECOND LETTER. denominations of Christians have it iii their power to-morrow to give the fatal wound to slavery in Kentucky — and if in Kentucky, throughout the slaveholding region of the Union — for how would the congregations over which God has placed them, and upon whom they would then be authorized to press this subject with all its overpowering weight, upon sound con- sciences and Christian hearts, stand in the blaze of such vir- tuous action and not be consumed or won by it 1 If it were to prevail among Presbyterians alone, how long could the other denominations hold their fellow-men in bondage ^ Not twelve months, as I honestly believe. If then you will come up to the next Synod, after having " loosed the bands of wick- edness, undone the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and broken every yoke," so far as you are concerned you have the promise of the Lord that " your light shall break forth as the morning, and thy health spring forth speedily ; that thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord be thy reward." You may, it is true, be called madmen ; but Paul was so called before you. You may be called fanatics, fools, and knaves ; but Sharp, Clarkson, and Wilberforce, were so baptised by the enemies of humanity; you may at first obtain but little honor from men ; but you will win an eternal weight of glory from God. That you may be influenced by Him so to act, is the earnest desire of your friend and brother^ Jx\MES G. BIRNEY. Mercer County, Ky. Sept. 2d, 1834. PUBLISHED BY S. W. BENEDICT & CO. Evangelist OflSce, 162 Nassau street, New- York. PEICE, TWO CENTSo 54 W , ^<=u. 0* »-'^%'^« -0/ >°-n#. : -^oi^ I -P^n* " «* ^*• -i.» '^' r ." > -^^ '^y!m.\^^'^% Mi^/ .^^^x ^-^OT ^^ '^^.^^ ^••- %,♦* ,» ^'i'^^. i5°^ .' ^' *:i5teL*.'% 4q :..♦* /^^\ %„..** .»^»^% u.y/sm ' \<^^ .^ 4.0*, .v.-/^;^ i>c,'i .HO, ■^<,