y^ 
 
Class E y-if-^ 
 Book Hj-f^ 
 
, i / SLAVERY AND THE CHURCH. 
 
 s' 
 
 /■ 
 
 k-^" 
 
 TWO LETTERS 
 
 ADDRESSED TO REV. N. L RICE, D. D, 
 
 IN REPLY TO HIS LETTERS TO THE CONGREGATIONAL DEPUTA- 
 TION, ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. 
 
 LETTER TO REY. WEHEMIAH ADAMS, D. D, 
 
 IN ANSWER TO THE " SOUTH SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY." 
 
 SMECTYMNUUS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CROCKER AND BREWSTER. 
 1856. 
 
^^^v 
 
 'o 
 
 'i"ifi ''\t/: 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At the last meeting of the General Assembly of the Pres- 
 byterian Church, (Old School,) several Congregational Asso- 
 ciations were represented by their delegates. Under instruc- 
 tions from these bodies, they introduced the subject of Slavery, 
 and expressed their fears that this branch of the church was 
 remiss in her duty in this matter; and in the way of friendly 
 remonstrance, they presented the views of the Congregational 
 churches, as opposed to the silence and inaction of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly. Rev. Dr. Rice, of St. Louis, was Moderator 
 of the Assembly. The delegates were kindly received, but 
 this part of their mission found little favor with the Southern 
 churches. Dr. Rice subsequently addressed ten Letters to the 
 deputation on the subject of slavery, in which there is an odd 
 mixture of argument, scolding and sarcasm, with many marks 
 of kindness, which, together with his own perplexities and 
 inconsistencies, give us a true picture of the extremities to 
 which Southern ministers are driven in regard to this subject. 
 When they have made up their minds that slavery is wrong-, 
 they will learn how to deal with it, but till then they must 
 continue to be like "waves of the sea, driven of the winds 
 and tossed." 
 
 Dr. Rice's letters indicate a vigorous and gifted mind, and 
 he endeavors to treat the subject with candor and kindness. 
 
yet some parts of his letters, even in these points, are really 
 objectionable. He has not quite so much meekness in receiv- 
 ing rebuke, as he has power and energy in administering it, 
 but on the whole, we have seen nothing from a Southern 
 pen, on this subject, which has so little that is offensive in 
 language to Northern minds. 
 
 The letter to Dr. Adams is in reply to his " South side 
 view of Slavery," a book which ought never to have been 
 written. It is enough for Southern ministers to apologise for 
 and defend the system of slavery, but it is an intense grief to 
 the Christian heart, when an able and respected minister en- 
 ters the field in defence of a cause, so utterly repugnant, not 
 only to the feelings of most who bear the christian name, 
 but to the great majority of the non-professing world. Dr. 
 Adams has outstripped Dr. Rice, in his zeal to help the slave- 
 holder, and both these gentlemen are laboritig under the 
 strange illusion, that the relation of master and slave is not 
 sinful — an illusion which would quickly be dispelled, if they 
 and their families were delivered over to the absolute author- 
 ity and disposa' of others, who might or might not abuse 
 their power. \ brief experience of the blessings of slavery 
 in a cotton-field, would prove a most instructive and con- 
 vincing argument, on this point. 
 
 The ,day of free and full discussion of this subject has now 
 come. "We must approach each other with kindness, but yet 
 with firmness and decision. If the position that slavery is 
 not sinful should be established in the world, we think there 
 are none who would mourn over it more than these justly 
 esteemed ministers — let this sentiment pervade the public 
 mind and work out its necessary results, and these gentlemen 
 would be among the first to condemn that relation, which, 
 strangely enough, they now sanction and defend. 
 
LETTERS TO REV. N. L. RICE, D. D. 
 
 FIRST LETTER. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — 
 
 It has happened to you, as to other writers for the public, 
 that your " Letters on Slavery" have fallen under the eye of 
 critics, who, it may be, are not remarkable for candor, and 
 perhaps are more anxious to expose its defects, than to imi- 
 tate the kind and christian spirit, which, in the main, you 
 have manifested. But if you have done anything to benefit 
 the slave, or to correct the notions of anti-slavery .men, a close 
 analysis of your arguments will not lessen their value, or im- 
 pair their usefulness. If, on the other hand, 't shall appear 
 that you have made important mistakes and omissions, and 
 especially, if I am able to shew that your positions are not 
 only at variance with the gospel of Christ, but opposed to 
 those innate notions of equity which are common to all men, 
 I hope you will not impute these views to any unreasonable 
 prejudice, or any desire to do injustice to slave-holders. 
 
 I have not avowed my name, but I have assumed one,* 
 whose mystic letters are remembered with deep interest by 
 every reader of Puritan history, not that I would compare 
 anything 1 can do, to those noble monuments of Puritan 
 talent, and the sorely tasked ingenuity, which conveyed its 
 
 * The word " Smectymnuus" was composed of llie inilials of the names of fis-e Puritan 
 Divines, who wrote a celebrated treatise in favor of tlieir principle*, under this title, in a period 
 of persecution, and the authors were unknown for many years. Subsequently it appeared that 
 their names were as follows: Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew 
 Newcomen, and William Spurstow. 
 
lessons of wisdom and its demands for civil and religious 
 freedom, under this politic enigma ; but haply I may wish to 
 visit the South, as I have formerly done, and if my work and 
 my name precede me, I shall not be likely to share so largely 
 in Southern hospitality as my friend Dr. Adams did, whose 
 " South side view " was so happily attempered to Southern 
 optics, for your " peculiar institution " has left little room for 
 the outflow of charity towards an abolitionist. Yet I hope 
 again to visit the South, and would to God I might see it 
 overspread, like my own New England, with churches, vil- 
 lages and schools, instead of the negro cabin, the forced labor, 
 and the dull monotony of a land under the curse of slavery. 
 
 I have avowed myself an Abolitionist. Yes, Sir, however 
 unpopular the name, I am not only willing to bear it, but to 
 count it all honor to be thus designated. It is a name which 
 in the Southern States is connected with all that is fanatical 
 and hateful ; in England and Scotland, yea in the Presbyte- 
 rian Church of Scotland, it is associated with all that is hon- 
 orable and praise worthy, and the friend of slavery is deemed 
 false to his innate convictions, false to humanity and to God. 
 I am, moreover, a Presbyterian of the Old School. From 
 my childhood, I have been instructed in the doctrines of this 
 branch of the church. I love her faith, her polity, her institu- 
 tions, and her worship. I have sat under her shadow with 
 great delight, and have drank from her living fountains the 
 waters of life and salvation. God grant that every cloud 
 which eclipses her glory may pass away, and that she may 
 defend the liberties of others, as nobly, as faithfully and suc- 
 cessfully, as she has battled for her own. 
 
 You, dear Sir, are a minister of Christ ; you have been 
 " anointed to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim lib- 
 erty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them 
 who are bound," and to you, in common with others, belongs 
 that solemn and awful admonition, " Son of man, I have set 
 thee a watchman to the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt 
 hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. 
 If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that 
 wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I re- 
 
quire at thine hand." It is in the light of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, that I now invite you to contemplate a widely different 
 view of christian obligation, from the one you have presented 
 to the world. It is not limited to the narrow line of selfish 
 or sectional observation, but its broad and comprehensive 
 outline is sketched by the pen of inspiration in those heaven- 
 breathing words, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 You are unwilling to discuss the right or wrong of slavery 
 in the abstract, but you may not thus dismiss this all impor- 
 tant point. Much of what you say has no value until this 
 previous question is settled. The mode of treating a subject 
 depends greatly upon its moral character, and much of 
 your reasoning, which is very well as applied to a physical 
 evil, is totally out of place, when applied to a moral ivrong: 
 Calamity and crime are widely different things. You have no 
 hesitation in giving to fraud and injustice their proper names 
 and their just application, as they exist in society at large, 
 but it seems these moral features must vanish, when slavery 
 is discussed, — so that while single exercises of injustice may 
 be condemned, a system of injustice may be vindicated ; that 
 which is wrong upon a limited scale, becomes right, when it 
 stands forth in a menacing aspect and gigantic proportions. 
 This is the false and hateful logic of slavery ; it takes advan- 
 tage of its own wrong, and claims immunity, because its 
 usurpations have risen to such degrees of influence, that they 
 cannot safely be attacked. You tell us we have treated the 
 subject unwisely, because we call it a sin and the slaveholder 
 a sinner, but we have not so learned the Scriptures. Fraud 
 and injustice are always sins, modified by no climate or color, 
 and are subjects of just rebuke, whether found in the stealing 
 of money or the robbery of human rights. If expediency may 
 sometimes restrain the utterance of deserved rebuke, it will 
 not permit us to call " evil good and good evil." Was Na- 
 than harsh or unwise, when he said to David, " Thou art the 
 man ?" Not so, nor did David so understand it. The royal 
 penitent was deeply humbled, and confessed his sin in the 
 deepest contrition and self-abhorrence. Was Elijah unwise 
 when he uttered the maledictions of heaven upon the spoiler 
 
8 
 
 and murderer of Naboth ? In your ministry of warning and 
 mercy to man, you have learned to distinguish between the 
 sin and the sinner, unsparingly denouncing the one, and pity- 
 ing, with divine compassion the other. So would we deal 
 with slaveholders, and if the language of rebuke is incon- 
 sistent with christian love, then the stern demands of religion 
 must cease to be urged, and the thunders of Sinai may slum- 
 ber in the cloud that covered the mount. 
 
 But you will ask me, is slavery a sin per se, and under 
 this subterfuge you would veil the enormity of its transgres- 
 sions. I answer fearlessly, it is a sin, as murder is sin, as 
 theft is sin, as injustice is sin. Cases there may be where 
 slaveholders are only nominal/?/ guilty. The same is true of 
 many acts, which in view of human law are called murder 
 and theft. But we do not ask the question whether murder 
 or theft are sins per se. A man may be a nominal slaveholder 
 from necessity, and yet be a pious and benevolent man. 
 A murderer in the judgment of man, may be acquitted at the 
 bar of God. In both these cases, a false judgment exists. 
 There is neither slave-holding nor murder in either case. 
 But when a man kills another from malice, it is murder ; 
 when a man holds slaves for gain, it is injustice and fraud. 
 Here is the true distinction. Any man who holds slaves for 
 a benevolent end, who remunerates their labor, and is only 
 prevented from manumitting them by circumstances which 
 he cannot control, is involved in misfortune, but not in guilt; 
 but he who holds slaves for his otvn gain, to increase his 
 wealth, or to promote his own selfish ends, is as truly guilty 
 of injustice and fraud, as if he were a common thief, and he 
 is all the more guilty, because he robs the slave of rights far 
 more precious than gold. A single act of robbery dooms a 
 thief to the State-prison ; a sj/stem of robbery is justified and 
 defended and is no bar to honor and respectability in the 
 world. Do you. Sir, believe these to be the ethics of the 
 Bible— that blessed book which assures us that without love 
 and justice to man, there can be no evidence of favor with 
 God ? If you will not call slavery a sin, to be consistent, 
 you must cease to warn men of their sins, and adopt the 
 
Antinomian theory, that the promises of the gospel are the 
 only themes becoming a gospel minister. 
 
 When, therefore, you rebuke us because we treat slavery 
 as a crime, and not merely a calamitij ; because we cannot 
 view it in the same category of evils as famine, or earth- 
 quake, or pestilence, but as a series of moral acts, for which 
 man is justly accountable, we may well complain of unfair- 
 ness. Your reasoning proceeds mainly on the assumption 
 that slavery is an unavoidable evil, and you ask of us to treat 
 the matter very much as you would expect us to behave, if 
 one of your cities was desolated by pestilence or fire. 
 
 But no, dear Sir, in the vital language of Lord Brougham, 
 "we must dispel from your minds the wild and guilty fan- 
 tasy, that man can hold property in his fellow-man." We 
 must bring the system of slavery to a law, written on the 
 consciences of men not less distinctly than in the word of 
 God, even that law of uprightness and integrity which ren- 
 ders to all men their due. We must not deal with the volun- 
 tary slaveholder, as if he were a helpless cripple, but as a 
 ivilful criminal. If he pretends that he has been educated in 
 diflerent views of slavery and does not see its injustice as we 
 do, we must tell him that ignorance is a crime, where the 
 means of knowledge are at hand, and that this plea proves 
 far too much ; it would equally justify the Hindoo suttee, 
 the Catholic auto de fe, and all the atrocities which bigotry 
 and menial blindness can inflict. If when we denounce the 
 sin of slavery, Ihe slaveholder is roused to madness because 
 his craft is in danger, shall we therefore cease our crusade 
 against his sin ? As well might you blame the Apostles for 
 preaching the gospel at Ephesus, because the whole city was 
 thrown into commotion by it. I suppose Demetrius and his 
 fellow craftsmen had as good an opinion of their business, as 
 slave owners can by any possibility entertain of theirs. 
 
 If you could dispel from the minds of your readers the con- 
 viction that slavery is sinful ; if you could satisfy them that 
 it is merely an evil, and not a crime, then your reasoning 
 would be in point, and the anti-slavery men of the north 
 would think they had greatly erred ; but you are dealing with 
 
10 
 
 men who cannot thus be deluded, and your rebukes which 
 otherwise woflld be reasonable and just, are as powerless as 
 the arrow of Priam on the shield of Achilles. To the minds 
 of those who believe slavery to be sinful you confound all 
 moral distinctions. The strength of your mental delusion 
 astonishes us. We are amazed that you do not recoil from 
 the dreadful results to which you are forced. We wonder 
 that you can preach a gospel of righteousness, and yet de- 
 fend a system which is fruitful of all unrighteousness; I say 
 defend it, for it will yet be seen that notwithstanding you re- 
 fuse to pronounce it right or wrong, you actually attempt to 
 justify it from the Scriptures. 
 
 But you ask us to view the question of slavery in its Provi- 
 dential aspect. Your request is reasonable, but I apprehend 
 it will add nothing to your cause. All the dealings of Provi- 
 dence are fit subjects of notice to the Christian, but the re- 
 vealed iinll of God, and not his providential dealings, is the 
 rule of our duty. Was not the bondage of Israel, an appoint- 
 ment of God? But the duties required from Pharaoh and 
 enjoined upon Moses-, recognized the sinful agencies by 
 which this bondage was perpetuated. God intended to over- 
 rule it all for the display of his own glory, but was not every 
 step, in this process of deliverance, conducted by responsible 
 agents? God did not the less punish Pharoah for the sin of 
 slavery, or excuse Moses from the dangerous duty of con- 
 fronting the Egyptian king. The truth is, the providences of 
 God must be interpreted by his word. If they seem to inti- 
 mate a rule of duty opposed to his word, all such intimations 
 are to be rejected. The pretensions of Faith and Providence 
 must be tried by an infallible standard, or they will prove 
 blind and treacherous guides. The fact that God has per- 
 mitted slavery, is no excuse for the slaveholder, and may not 
 silence the rebukes he deserves. If God designs good to the 
 African race by means of slavery, he will accomplish it by 
 his overruling, but not by his approving providence. He may 
 design a glorious deliverance for Africa by means of slavery, 
 and yet its agents and friends will not fail to find their pun- 
 ishment, even as Pharaoh did, though it be in the depths of 
 
11 
 
 the Eed Sea. " The blood of the martyrs was the seed of 
 the church," but they who kindled the tires of persecution have 
 gone to a just and awful retribution. 
 
 But, in my apprehension, the Providence of God has far 
 different teachings on this momentous subject. I am no in- 
 terpreter of the divine mysteries, and many who have sought 
 to unravel them, have fallen into fanaticism and delusion ; 
 but it is no fanaticism to say, we are a nation of sinners — 
 and it is only within a limited circle, that slavery is not pro- 
 nounced a sin of the most atrocious and heaven-daring char- 
 acter. We may therefore expect that for our national sins, 
 the deserved judgments of heaven will not long be delayed. 
 I cannot but fear that this sin of slavery, approved and justi- 
 fied by so many national acts, is to prove such a punishment 
 of our public offences, as shall be a wonder to the world. 
 Why may not America, for this and its other gigantic iniqui- 
 ties, aggravated by its profession of the gospel, find the grave 
 of its institutions and the ruin of its liberties, both civil and 
 religious, in the fiery gulf, which slavery is opening before us. 
 I tremble for my country, said Jefferson, and he was only a 
 believer in natural religion — " I tremble for my country when 
 I remember that God is just." 
 
 But there is still another view of the Providence of God 
 touching this matter. It is the deep conviction of numbers 
 among us, that the American Church has not fulfilled its 
 mission in the matter of slavery. We firmly believe that 
 the Christian Church has had a work to do, which she has 
 shamefully neglected. In great mercy and with manifest ap- 
 probation, her labors have been employed in many depart- 
 ments of religion, but she has refused to enter this field of 
 labor. God does not need her services ; in his awful sover- 
 eignty he may and does employ the wrath of man to praise 
 him. If his church, redeemed by atoning blood, will not hear 
 the cry of the oppressed, he will raise up and employ other 
 agencies. Political events are in his hands; he may deso- 
 late our land with blood ; or peace may reign among us, and 
 he may employ the infidelity of Parker, the violence of Gar- 
 rison, and the fury of fanatical reformers, to do that work 
 
12 
 
 which his own people refuse to perform — nay, he may crush 
 the church under the weight of its own sins, and from its 
 ruins, he may build another and more beautiful temple, in 
 which the sons of departed prophets shall " preach righteous- 
 ness in the great congregation." 
 
 Have you not, dear Sir, gazed in wonder and awe at the 
 forces which God employs in his moral kingdom? When 
 Israel rebelled, he sent prophets among them ; when their 
 message was rejected, he ravaged their cities with pestilence 
 and famine ; and when they still refused to obey, he sent the 
 Assyrian host and the bands of the Chaldeans, to accom- 
 plish the very ends for which his people refused to labor; and 
 when Israel was ruined by her persistent rebellion, he pun- 
 ished the nations who had humbled her, and poured out his 
 fury upon the heathen, who in their own wickedness had ac- 
 complished his will. " Clouds and darkness are round about 
 him, but justice and judgment are the habitation of his 
 throne." 
 
 It has been to me, a most aflfecting illustration of his Provi- 
 dence, that God has employed the talents of infidel writers, 
 from the deistical Jefferson, to the bold infidelij;y of Theo- 
 dore Parker, in the work of emancipation, and that too with 
 signal success. Jehu executed God's judgments upon the 
 house of Ahab, and he had his temporal reward, but he took 
 no heed to walk in the ways of God. Garrison and his asso- 
 ciates are sending a cry through the land, which ought to 
 have swelled from the hill tops of our Zion, and they are ful- 
 filling the divine purposes, by doing the work of the church, 
 while, at the same time, they scourge and deride that church, 
 whose members go up to her Sabbaths, her solemn feasts 
 and her holy places of communion, with garments defiled 
 with blood. I say it with unspeakable grief, but with the 
 most solemn conviction of its truth, that the attitude of the 
 American church, in regard to slavery, has thrown a stumb- 
 ling-block in the way, over which numbers have plunged 
 into hopeless infidelity. " It must be that oflences come, but 
 woe, woe to him, by whom the offence cometh." 
 
13 
 
 But you tell us that multitudes of slaves have been con- 
 verted, and that abolitionists have no share in this good work. 
 We admit the fact, and we rejoice that the bitter cup of 
 slavery has been, in some degree, neutralized by the healing 
 waters of the gospel. But God deals with men as he pleases. 
 Thousands have been converted by instrumentalities, which 
 God has overruled for this benevolent end. The gospel may 
 be a savor of life unto life to the poor, oppressed hearer, 
 while it is a savor of death unto death to the preacher. It 
 has ever been the purpose of God to honor his gospel. Be- 
 cause the labors of Mr. Finney have been the means of con- 
 version to many, you would not justify the extravagances 
 and fanaticism of this remarkable man. No more, because 
 the gospel has been preached to slaves by slave-holding min- 
 isters, would you expect that its truths would have no effect 
 on the conscience. The fact that God blesses the preaching, 
 is no proof that he approves the character of the preacher. 
 But waiving this, I have no wish to deny that much good 
 has been effected by the preaching of the gospel amono- 
 slaves; it is matter of thankfulness and rejoicing, and every 
 true Christian will bless God for it. Nor have I the least 
 doubt, that many who have not yet discovered the sin of 
 slavery are sincerely good men, and preach among the slaves 
 with earnest desires for their salvation, and God approves 
 and blesses their labors ; but it is true, that anti-slavery min- 
 isters have no direct agency in this work. They are not per- 
 mitted to stand on Southern ground and proclaim the gospel 
 of liberty to the captive ; human statutes are too slow for this 
 mortal offence ; they are driven by mob law from these scenes 
 of christian labor, if haply they escape with their lives. 
 Methodism may go among you, in its wildest fanaticism, if 
 it will tolerate slavery ; but the solemn demands of the gos- 
 pel, its direct enforcements of justice and equity, cannot for a 
 moment be endured. 
 
 It is a fact beyond dispute, that slavery has given an Anli- 
 nomian character to the Southern church. I appeal to you, 
 Sir, and ask, are not the purposes of God, in regard to the 
 children of Ham, used as a plea for the defence of slavery ? 
 
14 
 
 Is not the judicial curse pronounced upon Canaan, often ap- 
 pealed to in justification of the system ? Does not the divine 
 jmrpose tiius become a rule of duty ? This perversion, if car- 
 ried out in other views of God's designs as they respect the 
 salvation of men, would paralyse christian effort, and fill the 
 land with antinomian fatalism and delusion. 
 
 Your next point relates to the Colonization Society. I con- 
 sider this Society as standing out of the line of argument in 
 this discussion. It was never instituted for the removal of 
 slavery; I believe it never made any such pretensions. Jt is 
 my firm belief that its design was benevolent and praise- 
 worthy. I have willingly contributed to its funds, and in 
 common with the great majority of Northern Christians have 
 rejoiced in its success. But as a measure looking to the abo- 
 lition of slavery, it has never been esteemed of much value, 
 for the moment this was understood to be its design, it would 
 be abandoned and denounced by the South — and it is well 
 known that many planters at the South, who are professing 
 Christians, are opposed to it; but still it has accomplished 
 much good, more probably than many of its original friends 
 desired. It has demonstrated the capacity of the African for 
 self-government ; it has founded a prosperous and peaceful 
 colony, and given to it Christian institutions ; it has exerted 
 a kind and beneficent influence, and we have no sympathy 
 with those who denounce it. But it cannot demolish the 
 strong entrenchments of slavery. The moment it encroaches 
 upon your " peculiar institution," the South will hang out 
 the sif^nal for its utter extinction. But there is no such fear. 
 Colonization is too weak to grapple with such a monster ; 
 but she displays the prosperity of free Liberia, in striking con- 
 trast with the blighted prospects and withering industry of 
 the slave-ridden South. 
 
 We come now to consider your view of slavery, as apart 
 from its providential aspects it involves great moral questions. 
 Among these you enumerate the questions : — Is it the duty 
 of masters at once to manumit their slaves ? If so, w^hat is 
 to be done with them, if the laws forbid manumission? 
 A^^ain, what is to be done w^ith those who have intermarried 
 
15 
 
 with slaves belonging to other men ? And out of these 
 " other difficult and complicated questions arise, which re- 
 quire patient and thorough examination." You do not state 
 these questions with any view to answer them, but as a rea- 
 son why the subject should be kindly met and carefully con- 
 sidered. And the remainder of your second letter is mostly 
 occupied in stating the inconsistencies of the North, in plead- 
 ing the bad example of some of her best men in the darker 
 ages of slavery, and in rebukes not altogether kind and con- 
 ciliatory, of the Northern way of presenting this subject. 
 
 It is readily admitted that the questions you propose are 
 exceedingly difficult of solution, and they demand of us all 
 that you. claim in the way of patience and kindness; but I 
 have yet to learn that our Southern friends are willing to ask 
 these questions, or consider them at all, with any view to 
 emancipation. Individuals, indeed, have in many cases man- 
 umitted their slaves, and have thus given a practical reply to 
 these interrogatories. They have found out a way to liberate 
 the captive, and have seen the solution of these questions to 
 be far less difficult than was apprehended. When the South 
 gets so far as to be willing to consider the subject, and take 
 up its complex and difficult character, they will be entitled to 
 the largest charity and sympathy of the North ; but till they 
 manifest some desire to know their duty, it is useless to argue 
 the point. One thing is certain, when Southern Christians 
 feel that slavery is wrong, and when their consciences are 
 deeply disquieted about it, they will ask in humble sincerity, 
 Lord what wilt thou have me to do ? And they need not 
 doubt that the path of duty will be made plain. But so long 
 as they maintain that slavery is right, and attempt to justify 
 it from the Bible, I think they are not entitled to argue from 
 the difficulty of their position. It is absolutely certain that 
 slaveholders can cease to be holders of slaves for g-ain; when- 
 ever they choose, they can abandon the wages of unrighteous- 
 ness ; they can be nominal slaveholders, paying their servants 
 and doing that which is just and equal. Shew me such a 
 slave-owner as this, and I honor him, more than I honor an 
 abolitionist who never held slaves. He hath done what he 
 
16 
 
 could, and will be accepted of God. But alas ! such exam- 
 ples are rare indeed, and you, Sir, may ask these questions 
 with a much better grace, when you can shew me that pro- 
 fessedly Christian slaveholders hold their slaves for these 
 benevolent ends, and not for tlicir own gain. Shew us that 
 they repudiate, for their own benefit, these wages of sin, and 
 the crimson garments of slavery become whiter than snow. 
 
 You complain much of the bitter language of abolitionists 
 towards slaveholders, and I freely admit you have reason to 
 complain. But you do not consider how hard it is to use 
 soft words, when dealing with giant sins. Kindness and love 
 may kindle language into a most vehement flame, when di- 
 rected against sin, and your own eloquent and impressive 
 sermons are not wanting in the language of terror, which is 
 yet, I doubt not, the language of love. 
 
 You bring up President Edwards as a slaveholder, and you 
 might have added the name of the honored and excellent 
 Samuel Davies, than whom a brighter star never shone in 
 this western sky. But what does all this prove ? Only that 
 good men in dark ages are apt to imitate the sins of the 
 times. Calvin's views of religious toleration would be crim- 
 inal in these days — they were so then, but in less degree. 
 And all these matters may be answered in this one Scripture 
 passage : — 
 
 " The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now 
 commandeth all men every where to repent." 
 
 And this, in truth, is the only ground on which slavery can 
 be palliated. It is certain that good men, as they enter upon 
 the active duties of life, find many evils, which they would 
 gladly remove, as evils.) but they do not suddenly reach the 
 conviction that these evils are moral obliquities, actual sins, 
 and that they are bound to oppose them as such. This well 
 known fact, apologises for, while it does not justify the perse- 
 cution of the Quakers in New England, the execution of 
 supposed witches, and other sins, which our Puritan fathers 
 were too slow to discover and abandon. Yet it must be ad- 
 mitted, that the plea of neglect or ignorance, where the means 
 of knowledge are possessed, is not satisfactory, and a truly 
 
17 
 
 pious man will not be likely to satisfy himself in this way — 
 under a consciousness of newly discovered sin, he will hum- 
 ble himself before God, and fly to the blood of cleansing, as 
 his only hope of forgiveness. Such was the conduct of Paul ; 
 he verily thought he did God service when he persecuted the 
 church ; but when the law of God entered his conscience, he 
 acknowledged himself the chief of sinners. 
 
 In your third letter, you dwell much upon the unfairness of 
 abolitionists, in their representations of the treatment of 
 slaves. Doubtless many cases of cruelty have been over- 
 stated, it is equally certain that many more have never been 
 told ; circumstances are not favorable for the developement of 
 these cases. I think you are mistaken in the assertion, that 
 if one murders a single slave, the fact is published through- 
 out the country. I have reason to believe that the awful 
 secrets of many a plantation are not revealed to the public 
 eye. The sands of Carolina and the soil of Missouri have 
 alike been wet with innocent blood, which once nerved the 
 arm of the helpless sufferer to toil night and day for a thank- 
 less and inhuman master. The testimony of the slaves them- 
 selves cannot be had ; they dare not complain ; and the plan- 
 tations of the South are seldom trodden by the feet of North- 
 ern freemen, save only those who travel for pleasure or gain, 
 and their brief stay in the pleasant home of the master, is 
 but too apt to give them a " South side view of slavery." 
 Yet in spite of all these hindrances, the cry of the oppressed, 
 the groans of murdered innocence, are sometimes heard, and 
 often enough too to assure us, that in very many cases, noth- 
 ing but the cupidity of the master stands between him and 
 the death of his slave, and that passion and cruelty will oft 
 times triumph even over avarice, and the voice of his brother's 
 blood will cry unto God from the ground. Masters and over- 
 seers will not report the death of their slaves, when occasioned 
 by cruelty or neglect — the survivors dare not, and other wit- 
 nesses there are none. 
 
 I must tell you, dear Sir, that the cause of the irritation of 
 the Southern mind, is not the violent language of the abo- 
 litionists, which I admit has often been unwise and unkind, 
 
18 
 
 for conscious innocence is not so easily irritated. It lies 
 deeper, far deeper, even in that solemn sanctuary, where 
 awful thoughts hurry to and fro in the midnight hour, where 
 the unwelcome light penetrates into regions where darkness 
 is loved, because the sinner's deeds are evil. Yes, Sir, the 
 conscience of the slaveholder is not at rest. Your own is 7iot 
 at rest, while you defend an institution, which you seem to 
 think is sustained by a just God. All along your pages its 
 sad apprehensions are visible. Its struggles with the truth 
 are painfully evident, and the distressing warfare agitates 
 your own soul, as you contemplate the duty of the "watch- 
 man," and the solemn reckonings of the Judgment day. 
 With all your mistakes and errors, I believe you will stand 
 among the justified at last, by a Redeemer's righteousness, 
 but if there could be grief in heaven, the memory of what 
 you have done for slavery, would make you weep in the pre- 
 sence of angels and the spirits of the just made perfect. 
 
 But will the Southern churches hear us, if we come in 
 the language of Christian love and with the meekness of the 
 gospel, to point out the sin of slavery. Fidelity is equally 
 important as love, iiay it is a branch of that tree of life. 
 May we come then with all sincerity and kindness to re- 
 monstrate with you on this momentous subject ? Will you 
 exercise the virtues of patience and forbearance while we 
 attempt to reason with you in the spirit of love ? On this 
 point we confess we have no hope. You will not hear us ; 
 the language of denunciation from' the South is louder and 
 fiercer than the remonstrances of the North. You may come 
 and defend your institutions in our cities and villages with 
 no opposition ; but the moment ive stand on Southern 
 ground, to proclaim the sin of slavery, we are driven with 
 violence from your midst, or confined in your prisons to die. 
 Slavery is the law of violence ; it will not listen to the voice 
 of love; it hides itself from the light; it cannot bear the 
 voice of reproof Its hospitality to ministers who apologize 
 for it is ample' and large— to its faithful reprover, it offers^ 
 imprisonment, or exile. 
 
19 
 
 You quote the case of Rev. Dr. Adams, as proof that 
 abolitionists are not willing to hear the truth as to the 
 treatment of slaves. The reason is simply this. Dr. Adams 
 believes slavery to be right; he justifies it from the Bible; 
 his testimony therefore is not satisfactory ; he is not an im- 
 partial witness. Moreover, he could not, in his brief sojourn 
 at the South, become acquainted w^ith the general treatment 
 of slaves on the plantations ; he saw them in the cities and 
 families of the South, where its form is milder and its as- 
 pects far less forbidding. But enough is known of Dr. 
 Adams' prejudices and pro-slavery feelings, to weaken his 
 testimony and diminish its influence on Northern minds. 
 Besides this, many masters, naturally kind and humane, do 
 not themselves know how their slaves are treated ; the busi- 
 ness is in the hands of overseers, and the bloody discipline of 
 slavery is kept out of sight. The hospitality of the master's 
 mansion and the cold comforts of the negro's cabin are not 
 often seen in contrast. The one is an experience which 
 too often blinds the eye — the other an object not likely to 
 afford pleasure. I suppose if any one should write as able 
 a defence of the abolitionists at the South, he would have 
 found worse treatment from Southern meekness and love, 
 than Dr. Adams did from Northern fanaticism and infidelity. 
 He would probably have been driven with violence from the 
 regions of slavery. 
 
 Do you believe, dear Sir, that the spirit of the South to- 
 wards abolitionists is any kinder or better than theirs towards 
 the South ? Have you no words of severity for them ? 
 Must all the reproach fall on one side ? Are not the bitter 
 epithets employed by the South, coupled with the violence 
 inflicted on the persons of abolitionists, a match for the op- 
 probrious language, but unrevenging opposition of the North. 
 Southern men may travel freely and fearlessly all over the 
 North, and say what. they please. The graves of martyred 
 abolitionists, the lynch law inflicted on the peaceful preacher, 
 who spoke kind words for the slave, are fatal demonstra- 
 tions, that "Justice has fallen in your streets and equity can- 
 not enter." 
 
20 
 
 And even your own pages, written mainly in a Christian 
 spirit, are at times deformed by the bitter language which 
 you denounce in abolitionists. You speak of Mr. Garrison 
 as a "blaspheming infidel." I have no sympathy with the 
 religious views of this gentleman; I dissent entirely from 
 most of his doctrines ; and he has betrayed and injured the 
 sacred cause he pleads, by his wild notions of church organi- 
 zations, civil polity and woman's rights ; but Mr. Garrison is 
 not an infidel, unless you will involve in the charo-e, the re- 
 spectable sect of Quakers, whose religious views he adopts. 
 Mr. Garrison was never, to my knowledge, known to blas- 
 pheme. If there is aught of infidelity in his character, which 
 I do not believe, it is the pro-slavery tendencies of the church 
 which has produced it. Nevertheless such words from you 
 are unseemly, and I rejoice that they are rare exceptions to 
 your usually cautious and dignified style. 
 
 But I must pause. Gladly would I leave the subject for- 
 ever. But it may not be. The church I love has retrograded 
 on this all-important subject ;* her position is unworthy of 
 her holy profession and her christian aims. She must free 
 herself from these shackles; she must not be enslaved to 
 slavery ; her holy doctrines, her enlightened polity, her blessed 
 influences, must be divorced from this accursed institution. 
 We cry to God for her deliverance ; we firmly believe it will 
 come. In the spirit of christian love, we will do all in our 
 power to hasten it. 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 SMECTYMNUUS. 
 
 * The following is ihe language of Dr. R. I. Breckenridge, in 1S34 :— 
 
 " I do believe and have long and repeatedly maintained, that slavery is a «n to him who in 
 any way supports t. In 1&33 I did refuse to sit as a corresponding member of the Synod of 
 Kentucky, after that body refused to say that God's law condemned slavery-. To put an end to 
 slavery, we are all bound to use legal means where ihey exist, and n^oral mean, ahcays " 
 
 Dr. Breckenridge is high authority among Presbyterians, and though foiled in his benevolent 
 
 aZrr' ''"'T'^'t ''' k""' "^ '"""^' P^-byterian ministers, who at thai time were not 
 afraid to speak out on this subject. 
 
LETTERS TO REV. N. L. RICE, D. D. 
 
 SECOND LETTER. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — 
 
 It was my complaint that you would not pronounce of 
 slavery that it was a sin against God ; but in your fourth 
 letter you take up the so called Bible argument in such form, 
 as leaves us no doubt, that in your view, the system is law- 
 ful, and that its abuses only are sinful. You tell us that the 
 Bible "condemns all robbery, oppression and cruelty, and tol- 
 erates slavery." I shall leave you to unriddle this paradox, 
 when you can prove that compulsory servitude is neither 
 robbery, oppression or cruelty— in other words, that to rob a 
 man of his liberty, without crime, is not robbery; to compel 
 him to labor for your benefit, is not oppression; to selUiis 
 icife and children, is not cruelty. You may construct a better 
 argument for polygamy from the Bible, than you have found 
 for slavery, for polygamy was tolerated without the checks 
 imposed upon slavery. If you should be so unhappy as to 
 convince any who read your pages that the Bible really does 
 make it a righteous thing, and allows its practice among 
 Christians, and therefore they infer that it cannot be from 
 God, your nice distinctions between slavery and injustice, 
 will have led that soul to a ruin, for which you are justly and 
 awfully responsible. 
 
 It is true that God permitted servitude among his people, 
 but it was a widely different thing from Southern slavery. 
 It is true that God permitted and commanded his people to 
 
22 
 
 destroy the heathen ; but this is no rule for us, but had its 
 special purpose in the orderings of his providence. It is true 
 that Onesimus was sent back to Philemon, but as a brother 
 beloved and not as a servant. It was a kind, yet pungent 
 rebuke to Philemon, who in the first dawnings of grace, had 
 not discovered the injustice of Roman slavery, and who was 
 now under apostolic injunction to treat Onesimus, no longer 
 as a servant, but as a christian brother. We have reason to 
 believe that Philemon was convinced of the injustice of 
 slavery, and that he liberated Onesimus, who was employed 
 with Tychicus in conveying the letter of Paul to the Colos- 
 sians. 
 
 But you will not feel the force of the Bible commands, to 
 wrong no man, to love our brother and even our enemies, to 
 relieve the hungry, to deliver the oppressed and release the 
 captive, until you believe it wrong for man to enslave his 
 fellow man. Alas, the sad delusion, "the wild and guilty 
 fancy, that man may hold property in his fellow man." It is 
 this which closes and bars the soul against the light of truth. 
 Your own virtuous and intelligent mind is inaccessible on 
 this subject to the most convincing arguments. But this shall 
 not hinder my charity, for I remember with shame how slowly 
 those bars were removed from my own mind. I remember, 
 we are sanctified but in part, and unholy prejudices may 
 blind us for a time to the clearest light, and close our hearts 
 to the pulsations of christian love. 
 
 You tell us, in the close of your fourth letter, that the 
 " Presbyterian Church has refused to pervert God's word, to 
 make it either denounce or sanction slavery." You are aware, 
 however, that numbers within her pale, both ministers and 
 laymen, feel that she is in a false position. Her robes are 
 soiled and her march is heavy and dreary over this accursed 
 and enchanted ground, but like her elder sister of Scotland, 
 she will be disenthralled — she will yet triumph over this in- 
 veterate foe to her prosperity and peace. She will proclaim 
 an allegiance to God, which stretches beyond and walks over 
 the sinful statutes of men. She will confess her sins, and 
 return to the Lord, and her mission of love and salvation, 
 
23 
 
 shall break the bonds of the oppressor and let the oppressed 
 go free. 
 
 I am unwilling to answer your fifth letter. If it had more 
 truth and less sophistry — more grief and less sarcasm — more 
 solicitude for the slave and less for the master ; if it sounded 
 the gospel trumpet more, and the Southern trumpet less, I 
 should meet your argument with better feeling and with 
 stronger hope of its kindness and sincerity. The amount of 
 your letter is, that you invite us to come and preach among 
 you the gospel, as we understand it in its bearings on 
 slavery ; but you have not given us the friendly warning, 
 " Beware of spring-guns, man-traps are set here." I know of 
 no command to covet or pursue the crown of martyrdom. 
 " If they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another," was the 
 direction of our Lord. It may be our duty to face the con- 
 sequences of preaching the truth, or it may not be. Perhaps 
 it might be well for you to set us the example, for it cannot 
 be doubted, that many Southern ministers would be glad to 
 preach against slavery, if they dared. I am not sure that 
 you would not be glad to utter some bitter things against 
 it, if the risk was not too great. For myself, I should have 
 deemed myself safer in preaching the gospel, as we under- 
 stand it, in Pagan Rome, in the days of the Antonines, than 
 in Charleston or Savannah. When the South is willing to 
 hear that branch of the gospel which proclaims liberty to the 
 captive, it will be time enough for you to invite us to this 
 field of labor. 
 
 In your sixth letter, you have another brief commentary on 
 the difficulty of emancipating slaves, founded on the ques- 
 tion, Where shall we place them ? In this connection you 
 bring up again the blessings of colonization, and tell us that 
 abolitionists have attempted to shut the door upon this 
 method of emancipation ; and so they have, for the door is 
 so small, that the long and ever multiplying procession of 
 slaves would never get through it. Colonization is excellent 
 for certain ends it proposes, but as a means of extinction to 
 slavery, it has no value at all. You must first destroy the 
 market for slaves, if you would drive slavery out of the world. 
 
24 
 
 You must " hew down the tree, cut off its branches, shake off 
 its leaves and scatter its fruit," if you would withdraw its 
 deadly night-shade from your civil, religious and social in- 
 stitutions. But this letter is mainly a repetition of what 
 you have said before, and it needs no farther remark. 
 
 Your next letter refers to the efforts which may be made 
 to secure freedom to the slave. You mention three, viz : 
 Moral suasion. Stratagem, and Political action. The first 
 you approve as consistent with the gospel — the two latter 
 you condemn, INIoral suasion we cannot use, for you will 
 not let us come, or send tracts or books on the subject. 
 Stratagem is the necessity of the slave, and if you were en- 
 slaved or in prison wrongfully, you would probably think it 
 lawful to escape even as Paul did, by being let down by a 
 basket over the wall. The Christians of Damascus, finding 
 moral suasion of no use, against rigorous penal statutes, had 
 no scruple in employing strategy, and the apostle himself 
 was, no doubt, very glad to escape in this way. He did not 
 expect a miracle to be performed, and made use of such 
 means as he knew belonged to his natural rights ; and in 
 justifying this mode of proceeding, as you probably would, 
 you justify the slave who attempts to secure his own rights 
 in the same way. Political action you deprecate as arraying 
 the North against the South, and tending to disunion. Let 
 us suppose, for a moment, that the long threatened measures 
 of the South were adopted, and the Union was peaceably 
 dissolved. In such case, the free States would not consent 
 to retain a single slave State, as it would completely mar 
 their confederacy — nor would the South consent to retain 
 any but slave States. Let us now look at the probable con- 
 sequences. Maryland and Virginia, on the east, would be 
 border territory. Tennessee and Kentucky would make the 
 south-western border. It would of course be impossible for 
 these States to keep their slaves securely in the vicinity of 
 free States, over which no Fugitive Slave Law could in that 
 case operate. Consequently the value of slaves would de- 
 cline, and the ultimate effect would be emancipation. It 
 would be a political necessity. This would push slavery 
 
25 
 
 farther South, — where again the border States would feel the 
 insecurity of their slaves, and the same causes would weaken 
 or overthrow it there — and thus, from very necessity, slavery 
 would find its grave at home. The South have desired dis- 
 solution — the North has always opposed it ; but a change is 
 coming over us. If the South persists in her claim for the 
 Fugitive Slave Law, and for the addition of other slave 
 States, — the North will grant her desire, and give her a 
 peaceable dismission from the confederacy ; but the moment 
 this is done, she must get ready for the exit of slavery — it 
 will follow as certainly as morning succeeds to night. It 
 shall be overruled for good. Her lands will advance in value 
 and be covered with a new population ; her wealth and her 
 glory will increase — for the institution of slavery, abhorred 
 by God and man, shall no longer darken her sun-light or 
 paralyze her energies. 
 
 It is pleasant to read what you say of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law. It is the outburst of an honest and generous feeling. 
 I am a friend to law and order, and I would quietly take 
 the penalty of performing a christian duty in violation of this 
 unholy statute, for obedience to it is out of the question — 
 it is a monstrous deformity, which cannot stand, and must 
 be crushed under the weight of its own sins. 
 
 I am sorry to find you opposed to the doctrine of the non- 
 extension of slavery. You are willing it should be extended, 
 in the strange belief, that the difficulty of removing it, will 
 be lessened. All experience is against you here. The more 
 it extends, the larger will be its demands. It has always 
 been aggressive. But in one view you are right — its last 
 aggressions — i. e. the Fugitive Slave Law — and the repeal 
 of the Missouri compromise will be its death. It is an old 
 maxim, " Whom the gods mean to destroy, they first in- 
 fatuate." 
 
 In your eighth letter, we abolitionists come in for a signal 
 share of reproach. We " have hindered the cause of emanci- 
 pation, done injury to religion and to our country." These 
 are grave charges, and ought to be sustained by irrefragable 
 proof. It is fit here, that I should remind you, that Mr. Gar- 
 
26 
 
 rison's party is too small* — its principles are too repellant to 
 exert any considerable influence. Its platform is so broad, 
 that it takes in every discontented, unhappy ranter, who may 
 be opposed to human enactments, or who may go for radical 
 measures in any or every department of society. Its force is 
 greatly weakened by its appendages of woman's rights, the 
 overthrow of the church, and the destruction of civil govern- 
 ment. But behind all this fanaticism, there is a calm and 
 steady anti-slavery sentiment, unshackled by Mr. Garrison's 
 appendages, which is finding its way into every man's con- 
 science. It disregards the false cry of disunion; it heeds 
 not the murmur of politicians, the alarm of statesmen, nor 
 the terrors of the slaveholder. It is pressing into the high 
 places of power ; it is arming the North and West, with an 
 energy, before which nothing of slavery can stand, and be- 
 hind which, when it has passed over the land, nothing will 
 remain. It has enlisted the public conscience ; it enters the 
 public prayer ; it pervades the church. Its march is onward, 
 and whoever will stop its advancing wheels will be crushed 
 to powder. The South has pulled down the vengeance upon 
 her own head. She challenged the North to a contest, — 
 and from her lakes and rivers, from the far West to the far- 
 thest East, her marshalled hosts are pressing on for conflict. 
 The grand arena is the halls of Congress. Compromise and 
 policy and craft have done their work. The issue is now on 
 its own merits. The question is Freedom or Slavery, and its 
 momentous results, the future alone can reveal. 
 
 In your ninth letter you propose to defend the Presbyte- 
 rian Church against the charges of abolitionists. I have not 
 the least doubt, that she has done much to alleviate the con- 
 dition of slaves, by infusing the softening influences of the 
 gospel into the bitter cup of slavery. Ler her have credit for 
 
 * I have elsewhere alluded to Mr. Garrison's influence as being very considerable, but this 
 influence must rather be spoken of in relation to his pioneer position and before he connected 
 his no-govemment theories with the cause of Emancipation. He has done much to arouse the 
 public mind, but he has had no skill in directing public sentiment, and by his gross mistakes 
 has retarded and injured the cause of the slave. In bis private character, he is unexceptiona- 
 ble ; in his intercourse M-ith men, his temper is mild and amiable, and no reasonable person will 
 refuse him credit for ability and energy in defending his positions. 
 
27 
 
 all. I rejoice in whatever elevates her position and sanctifies 
 her influence in the world. But she, in common with the 
 other branches of the church, has stopped far short of her 
 duty. She has left undone what she ought to have done. 
 It is in vain to lop ofl' excrescences here and there, so long 
 as the accursed tree is left in its full vigor and strength. 
 You say truly that freedom is no great blessing to the igno- 
 rant and vicious ; but that they should be kept ignorant, is 
 the dreadful necessity of the system. Slavery must shut up 
 tlie book of knowledge ; it must degrade its victims, in order 
 to fit them for the condition of slaves. They must not learn 
 their own rights. It is one of the atrocities of slavery, that 
 it must darken the mind, blunt the sensibilities, and pervert 
 the conscience of the slave. It does indeed permit the gos- 
 pel to be preached with certain limitations; but it avails it- 
 self of the gospel's hold on the conscience, to inculcate the 
 duty of submission — the obligations of the slaves, and the 
 wickedness of disobeying masters. The other side of the 
 picture never comes into view, only as it is seen by the light 
 of the cross and the love of the Redeemer; and many a 
 trembling fugitive has been guided by this light, not only to 
 the consolations of religion, but to the peaceful enjoyment of 
 his rights in a land of freedom. We may not boast of what 
 our church has done for slaves, when we consider what she 
 has refused to do. 
 
 You speak of the share which other denominations have 
 had in the work of converting the slaves. In Georgia alone, 
 we are told there are 14,000 colored members in the Baptist 
 churches. I would not depreciate the good of this, but I 
 find that in 1851 there were 422 churches of the Hard Shell 
 Baptists in Georgia, comprising about one fourth of all in 
 the country. If they are members of these Antinomian 
 churches, whose lax morality is proverbial, it will not be con- 
 tended that they have gained much by this kind of religion. 
 Nor does my observation of the influence of Methodism, in 
 its Arminian doctrines, its violent impulses of animal feeling, 
 its tempests of passion, its wild and unaccountable and unin- 
 telligent extasies, inspire much confidence in the real conver- 
 
28 
 
 sion of the great mass of its professors ; nor do I believe 
 that you place much reliance upon the fruits of its revivals. 
 Methodism does not discriminate; it fills many minds with 
 its raptures ; but the revival dies. Temptation comes with 
 its blasts, and the forest which was lovely in its green, and 
 beautiful in its promise, has fallen like grass under the 
 scythe of the mower. Some indeed survive, and many a 
 blessed influence has gone forth from this denomination; 
 but my estimate of the value of Methodist instruction has 
 been greatly modified by what I have seen of its fruits, and 
 I am grieved to say, that many a poor slave who is wild 
 with delight, in their revivals, gives most painful evidence, 
 that his religion is unfruitful in his daily life. It is the stony 
 ground seed, which has no root in itself, and speedily withers 
 away. Let me not be understood to lessen the value of re- 
 ligious instruction as imparted to the slaves. Many, very 
 many among them embrace the gospel in sincerity and truth 
 and under the ministry of all evangelical denominations; but 
 how much greater would be this influence, were it not for the 
 vast subtractions, which the compulsory ignorance and de- 
 basing influences and bad examples of slavery, will of neces- 
 sity make, both in the number and character of these sup- 
 posed conversions. 
 
 And in fidelity, I must here add, that many Presbyterian 
 families, professedly pious, take little or no pains for the re- 
 ligious instruction of their slaves. Instances are known, on 
 large plantations, where Presbyterian masters, in full com- 
 munion with the church, are cruel and remorseless in their 
 treatment of their slaves. Dr. Adams might go to the man- 
 sion of the master, and tell us of their piety ; but facts have 
 broken through the awful ramparts of slavery, nay through 
 the hedges of pro-slavery Presbyterian churches, which ought 
 to have consigned the guilty oppressor to his grave, while yet 
 that oppressor walks before men in the garb of sanctity, and 
 finds no reproof or complaint from his pro-slavery minister or 
 brethren. 
 
 I am aware that our church has enjoined it upon church 
 sessions, to discountenance and prevent all cruelty in the 
 
29 
 
 treatment of slaves; but I am ignorant of any action in this 
 matter, which has to any extent met the requirements or sug- 
 gestions of the General Assembly. Here and there, a case 
 so flagrant has occurred, that it would be intolerable to pass 
 it over, and censures have been pronounced ; but the organic 
 evil protects itself against remedy, by its inherent strength. 
 The mass of the community at the South being infected 
 with it, will overlook its abuses, and they who might wish to 
 prevent cruelty, are themselves prevented by their fear of 
 others, as well as by their own interests. 
 
 And now, my dear Sir, are you willing to look your Con- 
 gregational brethren in the face ; will you tell them, in one 
 breath, that you will not pronounce of slavery whether it is 
 right or wrong ? In your next, will you defend it from the 
 Bible? In the next, will you speak of it as a great evil, and 
 boast that you have done much to remove it ? And now 
 what will you do next ? With the conflicting and ever vary- 
 ing views of slavery, which mark your pages, how will you 
 conduct the argument? With no stand-point, but the shift- 
 ing, and I may add shiftless positions to which you are alter- 
 nately driven, in what direction will you apply your reason- 
 ings ? To a mind like yours, accustomed to direct and sys- 
 tematic argument, the struggle is great indeed. Among the 
 shallows and quicksands of slavery you are tossed about, 
 like a ship without compass or rudder. The defect is not in 
 your mind, but in your subject. Your Congregational breth- 
 ren look upon your struggles in the net of slavery, as of one 
 whose strength, great as it is, is overtasked by the green 
 withs and the new cords, which are thrown around you, as 
 you grapple in the unequal conflict. Struggle on a little 
 longer, and when the strife of intellect is over, the warm love 
 of that gospel, which burns in your heart, will teach you the 
 wrong of the slave, and enlist your talents in a cause worthy 
 their noblest exercise. 
 
 In your closing letter, you refer to the number of free col- 
 ored people in the slaveholding States, and you account for 
 the large proportion of such, by voluntary emancipation in 
 the Southern States. If your conclusion is correct, it is in- 
 
30 
 
 deed a most encouraging sign of progress in the Southern 
 conscience. It proves that truth is rapidly penetrating the 
 minds of our brethren, and is an evidence that conscience is 
 often stronger than mere pecuniary interest. I confess my- 
 self highly gratified with the statement, and though I account 
 for a part of it, by the natural increase of the free population, 
 yet your conclusion is not in the main unwarrantable. And 
 in this connection, I would hope that our own church has 
 been instrumental in this great result. I believe her noble 
 principles of religious liberty will force their way over civil 
 restraints which are not warranted by the Bible. 
 
 But in the midst of this cheering view, we are met by the 
 startling fact, that slaves have multiplied in far greater pro- 
 portion. This is a statement not to be disputed, and it calls 
 U|)on us now, both in Church and State, to arrest the tre- 
 mendous evil. It is your opinion, that abolitionists have 
 done little towards hastening the freedom of the slave ; but 
 the flood of light they have poured upon the Southern mind, 
 is beginning to shew itself in most encouraging forms. 
 Republican meetings are held in Virginia; nay these j)rinci- 
 ples are seconded by warm applause, and the Virginians now 
 see the mighty tide of immigrants, which but for slavery 
 would fill the Old Dominion with beauty and riches and 
 honor, passing far to the West, without casting one " long- 
 ing, lingering look behind." In Kentucky the voice of free- 
 dom is heralding the progress of nobler principles, and the 
 glad hope of the extinction of slavery, is animating thousands 
 of hearts, and finds utterance in many voices. Yes Sir, these 
 principles of abolition, hated and despised as they may be, 
 are yet honored and cherished in many a Southern heart, 
 which as yet dares not give them expression. All the mighty 
 interests of the nation are dwindling into insignificance by 
 the side of this great Question, which is now divested of all 
 compromise and trick and art, and stands naked before the 
 nation, demanding its tremendous solution. Slavery has 
 overreached herself. She silenced the Southern press and 
 the Southern church. She appealed to the cupidity of the 
 North, and obtained the hated Fugitive Slave Law. And 
 
31 
 
 here her conquests end. She has reached the zenith of her 
 power, and to-day the shades are lengthening on the circle of 
 her dial. God and man are united for her overthrow. Her 
 monstrous assumptions, her unmitigated absurdities, her ly- 
 ing pretensions, are seen in a sunlight which knows no set- 
 ting. The church is cutting loose from the fangs of this 
 deadly serpent. Every minister of Christ, who loves his 
 God, his Bible, his race, or his own character, will cast off 
 from its fatal embrace. God grant, my dear Sir, that your 
 next endeavor may be in behalf of the oppressed, and when 
 your setting- sun shall be darkened in the shades of death 
 may your dying eye be illumined by visions of that free' 
 happy land, « Where the wicked cease from troubling and 
 the weary are at rest." 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 SMECTYMNUUS. 
 
LETTER TO REV. JNEHEMIAH ADAMS, D. D. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — 
 
 I have seen many books and pamphlets which may justly 
 be termed Pleas for the Slave, but never, till I read your 
 book entitled « A South Side View of Slavery," did I see 
 one that so well deserved the title, " A Plea for Slavery:' 
 I have read Dr. Thornwell, Dr. Rice, and other Southern 
 ministers, who have softened the aspect of this evil, as much 
 as possible, but I have never seen or heard of a writer be- 
 fore, who discovered so much of the utility and so many of 
 the blessings of slavery, as have been displayed in your 
 book. Indeed, you have presented us with scenes so pleas- 
 ant and attractive, that we would fain linger on this en- 
 chanted ground, and feel its refreshing breezes, and cull its 
 beautiful amaranths, that we may be strengthened to encoun- 
 ter the sad realities of slavery, when the lovely, but illusive 
 visions are dispelled. Indeed you have done what you 
 could, unconsciously I would hope, to rivet the fetters of the 
 slave— to hush the misplaced philanthropy which would re- 
 store to him his rights, and invest him with the ornaments 
 and dignities of a moral and immortal being. You would 
 leave his destiny in the hands of his absolute master. No 
 idea that he is wronged must enter his mind ; he must have 
 no knowledge of his rights, no permission, or ability to study 
 the word of God ; no interest but his master's ; no desire, or 
 endeavor to escape from bondage. He must be contented 
 and submissive, though deprived of those blessings which to 
 
34 
 
 you are dearer than life, and to which, his right is as ^ood as 
 
 yours. Even the cruelties of slavery are imaginary a sale 
 
 at the auction-block, so terrible to sensitive nerves, is a bles- 
 sing in disguise. Indeed the compensations of slavery are 
 such, that all abstract notions of right and wrong must be 
 exploded. " You cannot but look at the South as the ap- 
 pointe-d protector of this feeble member of the human fam- 
 ily," and "such have been the marvellous acts of divine grace 
 to the Africans, that it requires neither strong faith, nor 
 fancy, to suppose that this work might still go on, in the form 
 of interchang-e of the blacks between Africa and the Southern 
 States," and « as sure as Christ is to reign through the earth, 
 the Christians at the South will vindicate themselves as the 
 benefactors of the colored race." « While we are sure to 
 hear of distressing cruelties, ten thousand acts of kindness 
 are not mentioned." " Religion in the masters destroys every 
 thing in slavery, which makes it obnoxious, and converts 
 the relation of the slave into an effectual means of happi- 
 ness." 
 
 And the Bible, too, is the friend of slavery. That holy 
 Book, which declares " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self," "teaches clearly that the relation is not sinful," and 
 "slavery itself is no where assailed," in its sacred pages. 
 Paul did not act with the maxim, that "the apostles girdled 
 slavery and left it to die," " he did not quietly pass his axe 
 round the sins of his day," and yet " slavery is no where as- 
 sailed." "Was he therefore a pro-slavery man. Not he. 
 Would he have spoken against the system of American 
 slavery had he lived in our day ? Surely he would against 
 its evils and abuses and sins, but ?iot against the relation of 
 master and slaved* 
 
 Is this sketch of your book, dear Sir, in any-wise untrue ? 
 Have you not made discoveries of righteousness and good- 
 ness in slavery, till now unattained, by the keenest optics of 
 Northern or Southern men ? You have celebrated these 
 blessings in a book whose second and third editions testify 
 
 * These quotations are from the " South Side View." 
 
35 
 
 the value of your contributions to the cause of slavery. 
 You have ascended to heights in the stupendous illusions of 
 slavery, which the eagle wings of Thornwell and Rice have 
 never explored. Its blessings are immortal— its evils and 
 abuses almost too insignificant to be named. 
 
 It would seem impossible that any one could expect that 
 such a book should be refuted by sober argument. A de- 
 formity so monstrous, issuing from a pen, whose delightful 
 utterances on the divine themes of christian faith and hope, 
 have cheered many a desponding heart, is a contrast so sad, 
 that we would gladly treat it as the dream of the maniac ; 
 but your character and your position, require us to deal with 
 you as a man, sober and intelligent, miserably deluded it 
 may be, yet still responsible and sincere. 
 
 I therefore take from your book the following positions, by 
 which you seek to justify slavery ; and the whole drift of 
 your statements, your arguments and your personal observa- 
 tion go to sustain them. 
 
 1st. American slavery, as a whole, is a system of blessings 
 to the African race. 
 
 2d. The relation of master and slave, as it exists in this 
 country or elsewhere, is in no wise sinful, though abuses and 
 sins and those of an aggravated character may grow out 
 
 of it. 
 
 3d. The Bible sustains the system of slavery, and the 
 doctrine of the right of property in man, is distinctly re- 
 vealed. 
 
 4th. American slavery is practically the mildest form of 
 involuntary servitude, though it has as rigid a code as any ; 
 and this is owing to the kind influences of the gospel, which 
 in religious men destroys every thing in slavery which is ob- 
 noxious. 
 
 I have placed these points nearly in the order in which 
 they appear in your book. 
 
 First. Slavery, on the whole, is a system of blessings to 
 the African race. 
 
 And what if it be so ? Does this justif)^ the accursed sys- 
 tem ? Does it vindicate the slaveholder,, that some inci- 
 
36 
 
 dental blessings are mingled in the bitter cup of the slave. 
 The fires of Smithfield were of eminent service to the cause 
 of Christ, but does this obliterate one line of that damning 
 guilt which rests upon the memory of Bishops Gardiner and 
 Bonner and their bigoted mistress, Queen Mary? Not at all. 
 No more do the blessings of the gospel, which'are found by 
 the slave, redeem his master from the villany of robbing that 
 slave of his civil and social rights, and appropriating his 
 labor to his own benefit. Your position has nothing to do 
 with the moral character of slavery. Let it be proved, and 
 It is nothing to the purpose. Your business is with the sys- 
 tem, not as compared with Africa in heathenism, but in re- 
 lation to the known obligations of justice and equity— and 
 it is to the same standard of obligation to which you hold 
 your fellow men, that I bring the slaveholder for trial and 
 conviction. It is manifest to the most careless observer, that 
 no credit is due to the slaveholder, because God has ordained 
 that good may be realized by the slave in the overrulings of 
 his Providence. 
 
 But your position in itself is, after all, more than doubtful. 
 Christianity would of course penetrate Africa, more or less, 
 through missionary operations, and it would go unfettered 
 by the shameful clogs which slavery has thrown around it. 
 It would gain a striking advantage by this freedom, and be a 
 blessing indeed to that hapless race, who are now the victims 
 of oppression. Neither have you estimated the loss which 
 slavery inflicts on Christianity— the hindrances to missions, 
 the infidelity, the paralysis of effbrt, which have grown out 
 of It, and which retards the conversion of Africa. How much 
 does the slave-holding South do for African missions? The 
 Southern churches well know, that if the light of the gospel, 
 unfettered by slavery, should penetrate Africa, it would strike 
 a fatal blow at the institution, and put its nameless curses 
 out of the catalogue of blessings. 
 
 But there is another view of these peculiar blessings of 
 slavery. One fourth of the slaves embarked for America 
 have perished in the horrors of the middle passage— the re- 
 mainder have been consigned to bondage, and are now per- 
 
37 
 
 petuating and multiplying a race of slaves. Had they re- 
 mained in Africa in a savage state, it is manifest that the 
 population would have been restricted nearly to the limits it 
 has had for ages — so that slavery has consigned millions to 
 bondage and wretchedness, who but for this, would never 
 have cursed the day of their birth. What though it be Prov- 
 idential, as every thing is in this world, even to our smallest 
 affairs ? This is not the light in which we are to read our duty. 
 The hieroglyphics of Providence are to be decyphered only by 
 faith and God's word. The mighty overrulings of God stand 
 infinitely above the obligations anddulies of men. To all hu- 
 man appearance, the advocacy of slavery dooms the African 
 race to everlasting bondage ; it invites and encourages the 
 slave traffic ; and yet God may order it otherwise, and the 
 richest blessings may come from the most abominable crimes. 
 But man shall be judged by his own acts, and not by the 
 good or ill results which may spring from them. 
 
 But your second position declares that the relation of mas- 
 ter and slave is in no wise sinful, though abuses and sins, and 
 those of an aggravated character, may grow out of it. 
 
 Here you separate the tree and its fruit. The tree is good, 
 but the fruit may or may not be good. Men may gather 
 grapes or thorns from the same tree ; it needs no engrafting 
 of piety, ^->r it is good in itself; yet it may be improved by 
 this process, for " Religion," you tell us, " destroys every thing 
 in slavery which is obnoxious." Your position is simply ab- 
 surd, and it needs no argument to make this fact obvious to 
 your readers. 
 
 But I will not detain you, or my readers, on this point. 
 I come at once to the sins and abuses, which you say may 
 grow out of the system. I ask you, then, what these abuses 
 are ? Is it an abuse of slavery, to rob a man of his liberty, 
 his time, his labor, his opportunities of improvement, his so- 
 cial and domestic rights, the privilege of reading the Bible, 
 and other blessings, which he loses by his condition of bon- 
 dage ? These surely are no abuses — they are the very thing; 
 slavery itself. Take them away, and bondage ceases. You 
 will not contend that the mass of the best slaveholders con- 
 
38 
 
 sider these things as abuses. They are the necessary inci- 
 dents of slavery ; and if these are right, the system is right — 
 if these are wrong, slavery is wrong. Now, dear Sir, are you 
 deluded by the miserable fallacy, that slavery is rig-Jit, and its 
 necessary accompaniments are ivrong 1 It has no existence 
 without these appendages. What distinctions will the sharp- 
 est discrimination make here ? What microscopic enchant- 
 ment has presented to you, in sensible lines, that which is in- 
 divisible? If you assert of these deprivations, that they are 
 just, then slavery is just, for it cannot exist a moment without 
 them ; if you admit they are wrong, then slavery is wrong, for 
 these are the things that make the system of bondage — with- 
 out them, it is but a shadow, nay an absolute nonentity. 
 
 But let us examine its abuses. 1st. The use of the lash. 
 I suppose you would limit this abuse — possibly you may think 
 it a necessary and healthful discipline ; it is only an abuse 
 ])erhaps, when it becomes violent and cruel, and then you will 
 say it is sinful. But let me tell you that every stroke of the 
 whip upon the hapless slave, is cruelty and injustice, for his 
 is a compulsory service — he has a right to decline it, but he 
 dares not. That which is wrong in the outset, becomes doubly 
 wrong, when enforced by violence. Do I need to tell you, 
 that in families reputed pious, large benefactors to religious 
 societies and high in religious profession, the lash is not only 
 essential to the field slave, but is freely used in these families, 
 and is deemed a necessary article of kitchen furniture ? Such 
 is the literal fact. Yes, in these households of prayer, house- 
 holds to question whose piety, would be, in your view, the 
 extreme of bigotry, this fact is not only seen, but when the 
 slaves are sullen or supposed to be so, they are often forced 
 into a position, which may yield some pretence for severe 
 punishment, that the evil spirit may be expelled, and the 
 other slaves preserved from the contagion. But I forget my- 
 self. " Religion in the masters destroys every thing in slavery 
 which is obnoxious, and not only so, it converts the relation 
 of the slave into an effectual means of happiness." 
 
 But let us look at its harsher abuses. We will take, second- 
 ly, the auction-block. When I reached this point in your 
 
39 
 
 " South Side View," I began to expect some fairness in your 
 statements — some condemnation proportioned to the outrage 
 committed upon human rights ; but I was out of measure as- 
 tonished to find what a rich blessing was contained in this 
 seeming cruelty. What an unspeakable relief must it give to 
 a generous heart, to think that the 183 slaves belonging to the 
 estate of a deceased slaveholder, who were recently sold at 
 auction for more than $100,000, were probably receiving a 
 rich blessing. Away with that false philanthropy which 
 imagines any evil in the moderate use of the whip, or the 
 necessary and useful separations of the slaves. No matter 
 what cries and tears and woes cluster round the desolate ne- 
 gro, he will soon find the rich blessings of his new condition; 
 his sufferings are a delusion, nay a positive blessing. 
 
 A few years ago, a Northern gentleman ascended James 
 River on his way to Richmond. On board the steamer was 
 a company of slaves, bound for the Richmond market. Among 
 the rest was a mother and her eight children. You will not 
 sell this family separately, said he to the overseer. Oh no, 
 was the reply, we shall provide against that. The conversa- 
 tion here dropped. A few days after, this same gentleman 
 stepped into the slave-market at Richmond, from motives of 
 curiosity. An auction had just been held, and the purchasers 
 were removing their slaves. On a lowly bench sat the broken- 
 hearted and despairing mother ; her eight children had been 
 sold, and the awful and eternal separation had been made — 
 helpless and disconsolate, moveless as a statue, the picture of 
 despair — she presented an image of unutterable woe, which 
 left its indelible features on the mind of the beholder. But I 
 forget myself again. These are blessings in disguise — hapj:)y 
 mother 1 1 blessed orphans!! you are rich sharers in the gifts 
 and blessings of slavery. 
 
 I have said little or nothing of the slave-dealer. In your 
 view, I see not how he can be guilty of crime, for buying and 
 selling, so far as your observation went, was a blessing. If 
 slavery is fruitful of good, he is the agent (not criminal surely) 
 of its diffusion. He may take rich comfort from your view of 
 the auction-block — it is a precious opiate to his conscience — 
 
40 
 
 you have guided him to sources of consolation in his infamous 
 traffic, of which perhaps he never dreamed. But I must pause. 
 My heart sici\ens, as my eye goes over those pages, which 
 were penned by the hand of one, whose sacred office is to bind 
 up the broken hearted, to be a refuge for the oppressed and a 
 shield for the defenceless. Surely, dear Sir, you have not 
 threaded the labyrinths and mysteries of slavery — into its 
 dark depths, hidden from human observation, your eye has 
 not penetrated — had it been so, your book would have never 
 seen the light. 
 
 Your third position is that the Bible sustains the system of 
 slavery, and in it the doctrine of the right of property in man 
 is distinctly revealed. In this statement all the declarations 
 of God against injustice, fraud, oppression, and robbery of the 
 poor, are in your view of no force against slavery. You hold 
 that its permission, under certain circumstances, make it war- 
 rantable and justfiable now. You believe, with Dr. Rice, that 
 the Bible condemns all these iniquities, but tolerates slavery. 
 You imagine that because Paul did not condemn slavery it- 
 self, while he condemned every thing that belongs to it, he 
 was tolerant of the system. As well might you plead, that 
 because he did not condemn the barbarous sports of the Ro- 
 man theatre, it was lawful for Christians to amuse themselves 
 in this way. Paul was not ignorant that the gospel was 
 pointed against all iniquity, and there were multitudes of sins 
 which were not specially condemned by him, which were so 
 obviously wrong, that no precept was necessary respecting 
 them. So of slavery — every one of its accompaniments he 
 condemned in most positive terms, and the thing itself disap- 
 pears when these are gone. Did he then justify or tolerate 
 slavery ? As well might you say it was lawful for the Chris- 
 tian to worship in the temples of Venus and Apollo, because 
 there was no express prohibition of these divinities. The 
 idolatry forbidden by the Bible, was not more truly inherent 
 in the worship of these false gods, than the injustice and fraud 
 forbidden in the Scriptures are inherent in slavery. 
 
 I might here ask you a question, which is not only perti- 
 nent, but may be used as a test for the trial of your position. 
 
41 
 
 Has the slave a right to leave his master ? Will he commit 
 a sin, if, believing his master has no righteous claim for unre- 
 warded services, he escapes from bondage to aland of freedom? 
 Will you condemn his flight ? He comes to your door and 
 asks shelter from the officers of the law ; will you give it to 
 him ? — or will you restore him to the blessings of slavery, and 
 tell him he has no right to escape ; that he is in better condi- 
 tion at home, and that the Bible tells him to obey his master 
 and not escape from him. Perhaps the suppliant at your door 
 is a feeble member of the body of Christ. What will you do 
 with her ? I can answer for you. The " South Side View" 
 will vanish ; the truth will shine upon you ; human laws will 
 not bar your door; the higher law will step in, and assert its 
 claims, and you will give shelter and comfort to the outcast. 
 But if true to the principles you have laid down, you will de- 
 liver the fugitive to the officer, and the officer will send her 
 back to bondage, if indeed, she does not choose death, rather 
 than life. 
 
 But I have already in my letters to Dr. Rice dwelt suffi- 
 ciently on this argument. You may wrest the Scriptures and 
 pervert them to the most unhallowed purposes — but the eter- 
 nal finger of inspiration is fixedly pointed at every form of 
 slavery. He who finds the approval of slavery in the Bible, 
 found it first in his own heart, and was thus blinded by the 
 deceitfulness of sin. 
 
 But, in the last place, you tell us that American slavery is 
 practically the mildest form of involuntary servitude, and this 
 is owing to the kind infusions of the gospel, which in " religious 
 men destroys every thing in slavery which is obnoxious." 
 
 It is probably true that the religious element in America 
 has to some extent softened the aspects of slavery. But the 
 wonder is that the Protestant religion of America, should 
 have gained so slight a victory over the atrocities of papal 
 nations. England and France have wiped the stain from 
 their garments. Protestant England and Papal France. Yet 
 it is a fact, that France, in the darkness of the Papacy, has 
 discovered and performed her duty, while Protestant America 
 in this point is involved in more than Papal darkness. The 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 signs of the times indicate that it will soon disappear from 
 Catholic countries, while Protestant ministers and a Protes- 
 tant Church, will be its only advocates in the civilized world. 
 
 But you add a sentence, I have often quoted, and it is this, 
 "Religion in men destroys everything in slavery which is 
 obnoxious." Charity might hope that this was a careless 
 and unconsidered expression, for surely its truth is impossible. 
 Religion is slow in its victories over human prejudice and 
 passion — it exists in hearts very imperfectly sanctified, and 
 you claim for it a triumph which it has never achieved. In 
 man's imperfect condition, this complete victory is impossi- 
 ble. Religion, in individual cases, has abolished slavery, 
 confessed its enormity, and repaired its evils, as far as possi- 
 ble. But this degree of light has reached but few minds. 
 Such is the force of habit, the love of property, the desire for 
 influence and authority, that the views of numbers, who it 
 might be hoped are in the main Christians, are too much 
 clouded to perceive the injustice and wrong of slavery. It is 
 our aim to diffuse the light of truth— to dispel these clouds, 
 to enlighten the conscience, and vindicate the great princi- 
 ples of the Bible from unholy perversion. Religion will 
 eventually destroy slavery, but it will not destroy all its evils 
 while it exists — to do this, is to destroy the system itself. In 
 this passage you have virtually declared that the slave-owner 
 cannot be a Christian, for if religion in the master destroys 
 all that is obnoxious in slavery, I know of no master who can 
 by any possibililij be a Christian. 
 
 And now, Sir, I turn from the positions you have taken to 
 yourself. Is it too much to say you have strengthened the 
 hands of the oppressor ; you have gladdened the hearts of 
 slaveholders; you have consoled the slave-dealer in his 
 dreadful traffic; you have discouraged the efforts of anti- 
 slavery men ; you have saddened the heart of many a disci- 
 ple of Christ; you have burdened their charity with a load, 
 which is scarcely to be borne. We have seen in your devo- 
 tional works, the most delightful illustrations of gospel truth, 
 and we have lingered long over those sacred themes, which 
 you have addressed with inimitable power to the heart ; but 
 
43 
 
 in the book we are considering, the beauty has faded and the 
 glory has departed — the broken harmony of faith and prac- 
 tice, has come upon our ears with discordant and melancholy 
 sound. The chilling winds have withered the flowers of 
 paradise — you liave tainted its celestial air, and we turn from 
 the wasted and saddened scene, with weary minds and sick- 
 ened hearts. Could you but know the strong revulsion which 
 the antagonism of your books has created, you would wonder 
 at your own delusions, as you now wonder at the supposed 
 delusions of others. You have, in the matter before us, a 
 high standard of christian doctrine, and a very low view of 
 christian obligation. 
 
 I gladly subscribe to your views of religious truth — they 
 are, in my view, the glory of the gospel. On a Saviour's 
 atoning blood and perfect righteousness, we together rest our 
 hopes for Time and Eternity. But widely divergent are our 
 views of christian duty. Love to man is one of the best evi- 
 dences of love to God. The christian system is divinely be- 
 nevolent; it cannot veil in organic forms, the " exceeding sin- 
 fulness of sin." Did I not suppose, that the views of slavery 
 you avow, are the effect of a stupendous delusion, my char- 
 ity and my hope for you would sink together. But I remem- 
 ber the persecutions of Calvin, the mistakes of Luther, the 
 errors of Fenelon, the contentions of Baxter and Owen, and 
 I am satisfied that religion will no more conquer all the cor- 
 ruptions of the heart, than it will " destroy all that is obnox- 
 ious in slavery." 
 
 But a brighter day is dawning. The christian heart beats 
 with new love to the down-trodden slave. The power of 
 conscience is deeply felt in the public mind. The sin of 
 slavery is forcing itself on the public eye. The church may 
 lag behind, but the work will go on. Your book may stand 
 in the way, but it will be like chaff before the wind. The 
 brazen front of slavery is quailing before the mighty onset of 
 trnth. The millennial morning of Africa, comes on with the 
 advancing glories of the Cross. For wise reasons, unknown 
 to us, God has permitted this darkness, in regard to slavery, 
 to settle down for ages upon the nations ; but its sophistries 
 
44 
 
 and delusions are fast passing away. He will use even your 
 book to assist in the mighty work. It has done much to re- 
 veal the fallacies of slavery ; it has stepped over the lines of 
 policy, and its distorted and startling defence of injustice and 
 violence, has led many to ask the character of that system, 
 which requires such auxiliaries. But these blessings of your 
 " South Side View," will no more vindicate you for writing 
 it, than the incidental blessings of slavery will justify the 
 slave-dealer in his dreadful trallic. 
 
 It was the misfortune of the late Mr. Webster, that he was 
 not accessible to the truth. The sycophants who surrounded 
 him, assured him of success in his ambitious views. It was 
 his gross mistake, to view them as the representatives of pub- 
 lic sentiment. Their voice to him was the voice of the na- 
 tion. Southern influence was invoked in his behalf. The 
 
 9 
 
 Constitution was interpreted for the Slave interest. The 
 South was assured that its interests would be protected. 
 Mr. Webster believed the South would be grateful — the 
 North he imagined was already his own. The dream was 
 suddenly broken, and with it the heart of the great statesman. 
 The mortal eclipse of death passed over him, and his last 
 public acts have stained forever the glory of his life. I say 
 to you. Sir, be not deceived. The flatteries of the South arc 
 more fatal than the bite of a serpent ; the approbation of par- 
 tial friends and the silence of those who are aggrieved, do 
 not represent the public estimate of your book. It has weak- 
 eiied your influence to an extent of which you have little 
 conception. Many a heart has mourned for you and for the 
 church which till now has been blessed by your labors. It is 
 not too late to redeem yourself and your many virtues from 
 the withering blight, which must otherwise attend you through 
 life. The shadows of the evening will soon gather around you. 
 Oh let not a life of eminent usefulness go down under this sad 
 eclipse. Solemnly review what you have done, and may the 
 grace of God help you to undo it, before it is too late. 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 SMECTYMNUUS. 
 
,'"',?:'!.!'!I°^<=ONGREsi" 
 
 l|lf/lllll|IIIIIIIJ||, 
 
 ai' 
 
 i ■ '/?^ 
 
 
 
 "-^ V »-^ 
 
 >>a>^