^v.^*^ 
 
 
 . • -sSJnwiW*^ o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i*^i^^\. <'^^•^5i^"- .A:i^^\ o^.-^ti 
 
 
 
 .' **' ** 
 
 .•jfS^j^.^k*- o ,ij^ 4' 
 
 
 
 
 \.^^ 
 
 .♦' /^W/k-o >. c4^" •*^aiBi\''ej. A^ 
 
 
 S'* ^ ♦* •J " 
 
 
 • '^^ A^ »th 
 
 
 
 * ^ 
 
 
 O » * - 4 V ■*^. 
 
 ■0 **.,,.• ^0 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 •. **..** :Mk' \/ '^Stefc- *- -^^ '^^'- * 
 
 v*;' 
 
 V .*"% 
 
 /.i^i^LL'A >^\*^:^/v o^^.iiJ;:l^>o -^'- 
 
 
 W* ..: 
 
 
 i*..iil.'. 
 
 VV 
 
 i-^ %'-^?%o' **^'r^\/ 'V'^f^-Vo' 
 
 0* :<^ 
 
 
 
 O M • 
 
 
 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 .... ,o«- V'^^^^v %''f>^*\<f %.*^^^*\0 
 
 Vo^ 
 
 ^°^ 
 
 
 .• .^^°^ V 
 
 
From the American Missionary. 
 
 THE AMERICAN BOARD AND THE INDIANS. 
 
 We are continually inquired of respecting the action of the A. B. C. F. M, on the 
 subject of American Slavery. Our earliest friend?, who know the principles upon 
 ■which the Association was established, and who have regularly perused our columns 
 and kindred papers, are well aware of the necessity that existed for statements show- 
 ing the reasons of our dissent from the policy of the Board. They are aware also 
 that, owing to the present position of the Board on the great question that 
 agitates this country, there is greater necessity now than ever before of an anti- 
 elavery missionary organization. But numbers, who have more recently contributed 
 to our funds, and expressed their cordial approval of our general views, do not so 
 fully understand the relative position of the two Boards. It is m compliance with 
 such intimations, and requests founded upon them, that we have felt it our duty to 
 give such a presentation of the subject, embracing facts already stated from time 
 to time in our columns, and other information, as will enable our readers to take a 
 comprehensive view of the whole matter. We shall aim to perform this task with 
 fidelity and kindness, and presume that no sincere and candid inquirer after truth 
 will refuse to give a prayerful and dispassionate consideration to what we shall 
 present. 
 
 Correspondents of some of the Western religious newspapers, who were present at 
 the late meeting of the Board at Troy, K Y., have expressed their great disappoint- 
 ment and grief that nothing was said against slavery and mission churches contami- 
 nated with slavery, but much to exlol 'slaveholding' churches sustained by tiie Board- 
 It seemed to them, as it did to numerous other friends of missions in attendance, that 
 unusual pains were taken to make such churches, and the missionaries present who 
 are connected with them, special objects of attention and commendation, and to 
 encturage the idea that the meetings of the Board were spiritual just in proportion 
 to the partial or absolute exclusion of the slavery question. One of the correspond- 
 ents referred to says : 
 
 "A corporate member, residing at the West, was asked if it would be possible to 
 get the sin of slaveholding, as practised in the mission clmrches, before tlie Board ? 
 His reply was, that the thing would be utterly impossible. He said that it was his 
 opinion that even a corporate member, who should attempt to introduce the ex- 
 cluded subject, would be 'discountenanced' — klndh/, but Jirndu'-p'at down.' So 
 every man must feel who attends a single session of this Board. . . . While in 
 the American Congress the subject of slavery can be discussed, the American Board 
 has succeeded in absolutely excluding the consideration of this same evil with which 
 their churches are immediately connected. ... No Christian can give a good 
 reason for giving his means to propjigate the gospel connected with slavery, when 
 he can send a free gospel to the heathen. Let us labor then to disseminate truth. 
 Christ and tlie Christians conscience are on our side ; and although we sloll not live 
 in this world to see the issue, yet we shall see it. All wlio labor in faith for free 
 missions will unite in the hallelujah which will ring through the arches of the spirit's 
 home, when the last vestiges of slavery shall be expelled from the Church of Christ.' 
 
Inasmuch as a large number of Christian people think and reason thus, and believe 
 that the Board has been and still is grievously in error with respect to sustaining 
 missions connected with slaveholding, the prominence given at Troy to the Choctaw 
 and Cherokee missions, and the missionaries who were there to represent them, may 
 have arisen from a desire to refute the objections made by anti-slavery Christians. 
 It may have been thought that statements, showing the outward prosperity of those 
 missions under the auspices of the Board, and the Divine blessing said to be mani- 
 fested towards them, notwitlistanding their implication with slaveholding, wouKl 
 prove that the policy pursued by the Board and the missionaries accords with the 
 will of the Great Head of the Church. If this were the object, we think, from what 
 we have seen and read since the annual meeting, that the Christian public, particu- 
 larly the influential ministers and laymen of the West, have not received such an 
 impression. It seems impossible that special marks of approbation are bestowed 
 upon missions that connive at enslaving men, buying and selling human beings, and 
 admitting, as a matter of course, slaveholders and slave-sellers, or, as the Bible 
 d<;scribes them, " men-stealers," who "give evidences of piety," to the Lord's table. 
 
 In the paper emanating from the Prudential Committee, that was read at the 
 Annual meeting, it was said: 
 
 " A large number of the Choctaws are the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 , . . One eighth of the whole tribe belong to the visible Church. . . . No 
 111 her cluster of churches in the world, it is believed, ran show such a table of 
 st.itistics (additions) for the last twelve years. ... In some things, moreover, 
 thi!se churches are ensamples to us. . . . Choctaw Christians pray much for the 
 h<^athen. . . . Intemperance among the Choctaws has been greatly curtailed. 
 . . . Through the efforts of the missionaries a law was passed in 1823, em- 
 bracing the principles of what is now known as the 'Maine Law,' but which, with 
 greater propriety, may be called the ' Choctaw Law.' . . . The Choctaws are 
 an agricultural people. . . . Education is highly prized by the Choctaws. . . . 
 Mr. Hotchkin (tlie missionary) thinks that the Choctaw Christians, according to their 
 abdity, are more benevolent than their white brethren. . . . And Mr. Stark 
 says: ' If all Christiiins would give as liberally as the Good Water church, the gos 
 pel would soon be sent to the whole heathen world.' . . . The Choctaws have 
 a good government. They have a written constitution, with a ' declaration of rights' 
 wliich embodies the liberty of the press, trial by jury, the rights of conscience, proper 
 safeguards of person and property, the equality of all Christian denominations, and 
 ahnost every great principle of civil and religious freedom. . . . The statutt-s 
 o!' the Choctaws are simple, sometimes defective in phraseology, but for the most 
 part commendable in their aims and spirit." 
 
 Of the Cherokees it was said: 
 
 " I know not how many cases of triumph in the hour of death might be produced 
 to show that Cherokees and negroes have had the same happy exit from the world 
 a-i the more highly favored whites. . . . 'Those whom we received into our 
 churches,' Mr. Ranuey thinks, 'on the whole give as much evidence of being bom 
 again as did church members in Vermont, when I lived there.' . . . The Che- 
 rokees, like other Indians, are hospitable to a proverb; and it would seem that they 
 only need to be taught the ' more excellent way,' to open their hearts to all tlie 
 world. . . . The Cherokees are struggling manfully against the evils of intem- 
 perance. . . . The Cherokees have made great improvements in agriculture. 
 . . . The Cherokees are advancing in knowledge. . . . The Cherokees have 
 au excellent government. In form it closely resembles that of Massachusetts. 
 . . . AU free male citizens, eighteen years of age, are entitled to vote, the 
 vote being viva voce. . . . The usual safeguards for person and property, the 
 rights of conscience, Ac, are provided. . . . The second Chief, the three mem- 
 bers of the Executive Council, and three judges (out of five) of the Supreme Court, 
 are professors of religion." 
 
4 
 3 
 
 Similar statements were made with regard to other Indian missions. Who, after 
 reading such high-wrought encomiums, would expect to see, prefixed to them, the 
 following extraordinary sentences ? — "The Board is now fully committed, wisely or 
 unwisely, to the work of evangelizing the aborigines of this country. Two centu- 
 ries have elapsed since the purpose of giving ' the unsearchable riches of Christ ' to 
 the red man was first conceived. It has enjoyed the prestige of royal charters. It 
 has had the cordial support of some of the noblest men that ever lived. It has been 
 hallowed by the prayers and the tears of a great company of ' the faithful.' But 
 
 WHERE ARE THE PRESENT FRUITS ? AlAS ! THEY ARE VERY FEW." We shall be able 
 
 to throw some light upon this subject in the sequel, and probably solve the paradox. 
 Far be it from us to undervalue the labors of the missionaries among the Choctaws 
 and Cherokees, or to deny that good has been done at the missions Wherever 
 and by whomsoever souls are converted, we " therein do rejoice, yea, and wil 1 
 rejoice." But if, as we can show, the gospel has not been preached to these Indians 
 in its fulnees ; if it has been partially misrepresented ; if thereby obstructions have 
 been placed in the way of the genuine conversion of large numbers, while dishonor 
 has been cast upon Christianity, we cannot refrain from uttering the truth on the 
 subject, while we earnestly call upon the friends of God and man candidly to examine 
 tlie facts, and do all in their power to correct the evil. 
 
 In the paper already alluded to it is said : '• Of the laws which relate to slavery 
 the Committee have no occasion to speak, as they were laid before the Board four 
 years ago. It is supposed, however, that the Choctaw people entertain more enlight- 
 ened views on this whole subject than the adjacent States." However this may be, 
 we shall lay before our readers some of those laws, taken from Mr. Treat's Report of 
 1848, and they will be able to judge how far the law-makers, who were influential 
 members of the mission churches, are entitled to the praise bestowed upon them by 
 the Committee. 
 
 Mr. Treat reported in 1848 that there was a statute of the Cherokee Nation which 
 debars alike the free negro and the slave from all direct access to " the lively ora- 
 cles." It is as follows : " Be it enacted by the National Council, That from and after 
 the passage of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatever to 
 teach any free negro or negroes not of Cherokee blood, or any slave belonging to any 
 citizen or citizens of the Nation, to read or write." The penalty annexed to a violation 
 (if this enactment is a fine of $100 to |500, at the discretion of the Court trying the 
 offense. Mr. Treat remarks : " This law is the more to be regretted, as it must needs 
 embarrass the mission in its efforts to benefit this injured and neglected portion ol 
 the community." 
 
 No free negro or mulatto, not of Cherokee blood, may hold or own any improve- 
 ment in the Nation. Slaves are prohibited froin owning horses, cattle, hogs or fire- 
 arms. " Patrol companies may take up and bring to punishment any negro not having 
 a legal pass that [who] may be strolling about away from the premises of his master ; 
 and any negro not entitled to Cherokee privileges, who may be found carrying guns, 
 butcher knives &c., is liable to the summary infliction, by the patrol companies, of 
 forty stripes save one." 
 
 The legislation of the Choctaws, says Mr. Treat, has been less enlightened and 
 humane than that of the Cherokees. So long ago as October, 1836, the following 
 law was passed by this tribe : 
 
 " Be it enacted, (kc. That from and after the passage of this Act, if any citizen of 
 the United States, acting as a missionary, or a preacher, or whatever his occupation 
 may be, is found to take an active part in favoring the principles and notions of 
 
t'i9 mo?t fatal and destructive doctrines of Abolitionism, he Bhall be compelled to 
 leave the nation and for ever stay out of it. 
 
 " Be it further enacted, d:c., Thit teacliing slaves how to read, to write, or to sing 
 in meetinghouses or schools, or in any open place, without the consent of the owner, 
 or allowing them to sit at table with him, shall ba sufficient ground to convict per- 
 sons of favoring the principles and notions of Abolitionism." 
 
 "Less enlightened and humane," truly I 
 
 It was provided also that no slave should " be in possession of any property or 
 arras ;" that if any slave infringed any Choctaw rights, he should " be driven out of 
 company, to behave himself ;" and in case of his return and further intrusion " he 
 should receive ten la?hes." Four years later it was enacted thai all free negroes in 
 the Nation, unconnected with the Choctaw or Chickasaw blood, "should leave the 
 Nation by the first of March, 1841," and " for ever keep out of it." In case of their 
 infringing this law, " they were to be seized and sold to the highest bidder for life." 
 It waa also enacted that if any citizen of the Nation hired, concealed, or in any way 
 protected any free negro, to evade the foregoing provision, (did our Congressional 
 legislators copy from these Indians in framing the Fugitive Slave Act?) he should 
 forfeit from $250 to $500, or if unable to pay this fine, " receive fifty lashes on his 
 bare back." 
 
 In 1846 a law was passed, which prohibited all negroes, whether they had 
 " papers" or not, from entering and remaining in the Choctaw Nation. The oflfenders 
 were to receive "not less than one-hundred lashes on the bare back," beside a for- 
 feiture of all property found in their possession, one third " to go to the light horse- 
 men," who apprehended them, and two thirds " to be applied to some beneficial 
 purpose." 
 
 Tlje moet objectionable enactment, says Mr. Treat, which he found, having any 
 bearing upon slavery, was approved October 15th, 1846. It is as follows : 
 
 "Be it enacted, d'c, That no negro slave can be emancipated in this Nation, except 
 by application or petition of the owner to the General Council; and provided also, 
 that it shall be m ide to appear to the Council the owner or owners, at the time of 
 application, shall have no aebt or debts outstanding against him or her, either in or 
 out of this Nation. Then, and in that ca^e, the General Council shall have the power 
 ti piss an act for the owner to emancipate his or her slave, which negro, after being 
 freed, shall leave this Nation within thirty days after the passage of the act. And 
 in case said free negro or negroes shall return into this Nation afterwards, he, she, or 
 they shall ba subject to be taken by the light horsemen and exposed to public sale 
 for the term of five years ; and the funds arising from such sale shall be used as 
 national funds." 
 
 These extracts will suffice. Our readers will have now in their possession facts 
 sufficient to enable them to form a satisfactory opinion how far the missionaries arc 
 correct in stating that " the Choctaws, according to their ability, are more benevolent 
 than the whites ;" that those received into the Cherokee churches, " on the whole 
 give as much evidence of being born again as did church members in Vermont." 
 They will be prepared to judge also whether the Committee erred, or not, in an- 
 nouncing that " the Choctaws have a good government"; ... a written Constitu- 
 tion, with a 'declaration of rights' which embodies the liberty of the press, trial by 
 jury, the rights of conscience, proper safeguards of personal property, the equality 
 of all Christian denominations, and almost every great principle of civil and reli- 
 gious freedom. . . . The statutes of the Choctaws are simple, sometimes defective 
 in phraseology, but, for the most part, commendable in their aims and spirit." And, 
 likewise, whether the Cherokees deserve to have it said of them, " The Cberokeee 
 
6 
 
 have an excellent government. . . . The usual safeguards for perEon and property, 
 the rights of conscience, <fec., are provided." 
 
 The Christian world -will be astonished, we think, when they come to know that 
 ' Christian ' men, capable of enacting such atrocious laws, are represented by the 
 most influential Missionary Board in this country as being " followers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ," and as ensamples to the white Christians of the United States. They 
 will also marvel that elaveholding converts, men who brutalize and keep in heathen- 
 ish ignorance their fellow-men, are represented as praying " much for the heathen." 
 And what will the citizens of the Old Bay «tate say of the declaration of the Com- 
 mittee, who themselves are inhabitants of that Commonwealth, that the Cherokeea 
 have an excellent government — in form resembling that of Massachusetts — all the 
 free male citizeos, eighteen years of age, being entitled to vote, the vote being viva 
 voce ? 
 
 Well might Mr. Treat say, notwithstanding the high standard assigned to the 
 Indians, after enumerating these atrocious enactments, "It is very clear, raoicover, 
 that the influence of the mission is neutralized, to some extent, by the existence of 
 slavery." And although he believes that "the influence of Chiistianity has been 
 highly salutary . . . il seems fair to presume that a few persons have been led by 
 Christian principle to abstain from the purchase of slaves, and such I was told was the 
 case," he feels constrained to say that " we may not shut our eyes to the fact that a 
 process has been silently going forward which has tended to a different result" 
 And the evil is daily increasing, for he also admits that slavery increases as the 
 Indians become more enlightened like the people around them, and " it does not 
 seem to have been the aim of the brethren to exert any direct influence, either by 
 their public or their private teachings, upon the system of slavery." 
 
 " The predominant influence in boih nations," says Mr. Treat, " is in the hands of 
 slaveholders." It is so, he might have adJed, in the mission churches. But he goes 
 on to say, " The mass of the people have no direct interest in slavery." "What 
 encouragement then to the missionaries to be faithful, explicit, uncompromising in 
 their teachings ! To cooperate with the churches in strict discipline ! What obligation 
 resting upon the Board to influence their missionaries to such fidelity I And what 
 error, not to say guilt, in adopting a different "policy"! That it is practicable, in 
 imitation of the fidelity of the first sermon of the Apostle Peter to the murderers 
 of the Saviour, to preach an anti-slavery gospel to kings as well as subjects, has 
 been proved by the missionaries of the American Missionary Association in Africa, 
 who have from the beginning done it with the happiest success. Is not such preach- 
 ing the obvious duty and best "policy" of all missionaries? It is strange that mis- 
 sionaries and missionary boards every where do not understand it. 
 
 In some cases, says Mr. Treat, " the attention of the convert (slaveholding) has 
 been called to the instructions if the New Testament, and he has been told what he 
 should do. as a Ciuistian master, for his slaves ; but seldom has the mi^isionary gone 
 further than this." He adds, when alluding to some of the earliest "converts," 
 " They (the missionaries) did not consider the niere fact of his sustaining this relation 
 (that of a slaveholder) a barrier to his admission to the Lord's table. And it in 
 their practice at the present time." Indeed ! Mr. Treat goes on to say, " The relation 
 of the Christian master to his slaves, either as to its lawfulness or its continuance, 
 they (the missionaries) have not disturbed ; and little has been said to him, calling 
 in question the fundamental principles of the sy-tem." And then, singularly enough 
 we think, adds, " But they have acknowledged their obligation to secure, as far as in 
 them lies, his compliance with all the injunctions of the New Testament, which are 
 
6 
 
 specifically addressed to those sustaining this relation ;" as if it were clear that tbe 
 apostles, when alluding to " servants," meant of course slaves. 
 
 Considering the remarkable success of the missionaries at these missions, in many 
 respects, in inducing the Indians to be patterns of temperance, to enact a law in 
 1823, that has been imitated by the State of Maine; to be liberal in bestowments 
 of money for education and charitable purposes ; in persuading a few persons to 
 abstain from buying slaves, it is right to suppose that if they had preached fully and 
 perseveringly on the sin and criminality of slaveholding and slave-trading ; if they had 
 expounded (he Scriptures as hostile to the iniquity; if they had instituted a whole- 
 some discipline with reference to such offenders, they would have long since pre- 
 vented slaveholding, or banished it from the tribes, at least from the churches- 
 Instead of doing this, the Indians have been permitted to believe that the gospel 
 allowed slaveholding and slave-trading — allowed one church member to buy or sell 
 a brother or sister in the church — allowed atrocious enactments to be framed by 
 'Christian' legislators, and administered by 'Christian' judges! Shall such things 
 be, and no one be suffered, without censure, to lift up his voice in condemnation of 
 the " policy," and exhort brethren in Christ to adopt a better course ? 
 
 In view of the hallucination of the missionaries on this subject, it appears singu- 
 lar that Mr. Treat says of them, without accompanying the fact stated with deserved 
 censure: "I ought to say, in this place, however, that both missions appear to be 
 satisfied that there has been little or nothing in the conduct of this class of persons, 
 (xlaveholding church members,) as it affects their slaves, which ought to subject 
 them to church censure." Will it be credited a few years hence, that such mission- 
 aries, however excellent men in other respects, were sustained by the American 
 Board to bring the poor Indians to the knowledge of the truth 1 
 
 It appears that since the anti-slavery agitation commenced, the Board at first 
 instructed the missionaries among the south-western Indians to enter into no more 
 contracts for buying slaves, as had been previously done, " with the funds of the 
 Board," with their own consent, with the understanding and agreement that they 
 should be allowed to work out the purchase money, and then be free, and to 
 " relinquish all claim to the services of any one with whom there had been a pre- 
 vious agreement of the kind ;" and afterwards instructed them not to hire slaves, 
 but "to dispense altogether with slave labor" — although this wns afterwards 
 reconsidered. " The matter was left," says Mr. Treat, " to their Christian discre- 
 tion." We see herein the influence that was exerted on the Board, for a time, by 
 anti-slavery discussion, and the unfortunate retracing of steps, at the urgent remon- 
 strance of the missionaries, and when public opinion seemed to require it. The 
 ])ractice of buying slaves, as above described, or hiring them of their masters, is a 
 guasi-slavery, and gives an implied sanction to the system, called by Wilbekforck 
 the " accursed system of slavery." Total abstinence from all approval, or seem- 
 ing approval, of it, one would think was the obvious duty of every Christian, espe- 
 cially of a society of Christians associated for the conversion of the heathen world. 
 
 Facts show that a number of the members of the Choctaw and Cherokee 
 Churches, founded and sustained by the Board, are slaveholders, claiming the right 
 to buy and sell slaves who are members of the same churches with themselves ; 
 that both masters and slaves are received into the mission churches, the Board inti- 
 mating, in their Brooklyn Report, that this is the way to prepare the master to 
 consent to emancipation; that the Board, while admitting that slavery is an evil in 
 the mission churches, denies that it is responsible for its removal ; that slaves have 
 been hired of their ' owners ' to do the work of the mission schools, and the wages 
 
paid by tbem to the masters ; that the missionaries assert their intention to hire 
 slaves if necessary, that they vindicate the practice of receiving persistent slave- 
 holders to their churches as scriptural ; that the Board has constituted these mis- 
 sionaries and their churches sole judges on the subject ; and that contributors to the 
 Board's funds must pepelually, so far as any thing contrary appears, contribute to 
 the propagation of a slaveholding Christianity. 
 
 The facts presented to the Christian public by anti-slavery writers, and the reso- 
 lutions adopted by anti-slavery Christian conventions, and the remonstrances 
 addressed to the Board by anti slavery members, in view of the facts above enu 
 merated, in conjunction with the strong anti slavery feeling aroused in the commu- 
 nity, did, for a time, so influerce the Secretaries and Prudential Committee of the 
 Board, that the Secretaries said, at the meeting of the Board at Buffalo, 1847, that 
 "they had every possible disposition to remove slavery, and every other evil and 
 sin, as speedily as possible from the mission churches." Mr. Treat was accordingly 
 appointed to visit them. While there, he ascertained the facts in relation to the 
 strong hold slavery had taken in the Indian missions, which he embodied in an able 
 report. It was understood that, finding the missionaries inflexible with regard to 
 the course pursued by them, he endeavoured to rid the Board of the odium fast 
 gathering in the religious community by laboring to bring the missionaries to aid 
 in accomplishing a transfer of the Choctaw mission to the Assembly's Board of 
 Foreign Missions, so that the mission wonld pass under the immediate control of the 
 Old School Presbyterians of the Southwest, whose sympathies on the question of 
 slavery were more in harmony with those of the slaveholders in the mission 
 churches than were those of many of the supporters of the American Board. Ic 
 is said that the missionaries resisted this attempt. We rejoice that they did ; 
 for its success would have been an evasion of the subject unworthy of a Christian 
 society. 
 
 Mr. Treat returned to Boston, and addressed a faithful letter to the Choctaw mis- 
 sion, that did him and the mission cause great hooor. In this letter, the Prudential 
 Committee declare explicitly that, to them, it seemed " very clear, that slavery is 
 opposed to the principles of the gospel . . . that the Board could never have intended 
 that slaveholders should be received to church membership, without inquiring as 
 to their views and feelings in regard to slavery" And for admitting one who 
 " holds and treats those for whom Christ died with a selfish spirit and for selfish 
 purposes," to the privileges of the people of God, "especially in the advanced 
 stage at which the mission has arrived," they " know of no warrant whatever ;" 
 that " it is an anti-Christian system, and hence you have a right to deal with it 
 accordingly. . . . We are grieved to hear that the Choctaws have a law which 
 practically debars the slave from all direct access to the Word of God, without the 
 consent of the owner." It was supposed to indicate the course resolved upon by 
 the " Prudential Committee," in relation to slavery in the mission churches, and 
 was hailed with delight by anti-slavery Christians, and by a large portion of the 
 friends of the Board. The 'pro-slavery' missionaries, however, ami the pro-slav- 
 ery newspapers, secular and religious, uttered their dissatisfaction so loudly and 
 perseveringly, that the Secretaries appeared to be alarmed, and published an apo- 
 logetic and deprecatory circular, in which they sr.id that Mr. Treat's letter merely 
 expressed "opinions," but not " decisions or instructions." While the anti slavery 
 friends of the Board generally lamented this " bowing down to the spirit of slavery,' 
 the ' pro-slavery ' adherents of the Board greatly exulted. 
 
 One devoted and efficient missionary found it impossible to continue in the Choc- 
 
taw mission, as an anti-slavery minister, without compromising his usefulness or his 
 conscience; and left to labor among the Indians of Minnesota Territory. 
 
 Auotlier, writing to Mr. Treat from the Choctaw Nation, in the fall of 1848, 
 says : " I am fully convinced this tuission must be supported by those who are 
 willing and disposed to give their influence in the support and in the propagation 
 of slavery in the Christian CL'urch. For years past, the gospel, as brought to bear 
 upon this people, has had an indirect influence to propagate and build up this sys- 
 tem of wrong and oppression. I am sorry, in justice to truth, to say, in some re- 
 spects it has had a direct tendency to it." 
 
 In anotlier letter of February 24:th, 1849, this same missionary writes: "I could 
 labor here with cheerfulness and contenteduess, could I but see the gospel exerting 
 an influence tending indirectly to the gradual extinction of this system, (slavery ;) 
 but when I see the sy^tein gaining strength and consolidating itself in proportion to 
 the advancement of the people in Christianized life, and no influence whatever exerted 
 by the mission to retard the accelerated increase of it, I think the time has fully 
 come for Congregational Christians (this missionary is a Congregational ist) to raise 
 the inquiry — What nmst be done ? And if it is decided, as doubless it will be de- 
 cided by the mission, that nothing ouglit 'o be done, the Lord whom I serve calls me 
 to leave the mission. The call appeal's to me as clearly from heaven as my call to 
 the work of the sacred ministry." 
 
 Two members of the American Board's mission among the Sioux wrote a 
 letter, published in the Central Watchman, Cincinnati, expressive of their views. 
 After alluding to the difficulty of correcting the error, "when slavery is once intro- 
 duced into a mission church — baptized and brought to the communion table," they 
 continue : 
 
 "The time for retraction and correction in this case, it would seem, has gone by 
 They appear now to be committed to the system of slavery, just as the Southern 
 churches are. Not only are they unable to free their churches of the slaveholders 
 who at present have a standing in them, but they must continue to receive such to 
 the communion table. And further, the missionaries there cannot do without em- 
 ploying slave labor. "We are told that at one of the stations, flour has to be hauled 
 forty miles; and therefore, slave help is necessary, would seem to be the inference. 
 By that reasoning it would be much more necessary for us at Lacquiparle to hire 
 slaves, as we have a land carriage of one hundred and twenty-five mUes. But with 
 them there is a more substantial reason than this. They must employ slave labor as 
 an evidence of loyalty to this ' peculiar institution.' If they are unwilling to hire 
 slaves, it is prima facie evidence that they are abolitionists. For this reason, if for 
 no other, they must hire slaves. In their succumbing to these humiliating requisitions 
 of slavery, we can have no sympathy with them . . . 
 
 " If the Choctaw boarding schools cannot be sustained without the assistance of 
 slaves, then let the missionaries withdraw from them. And if the missionaries can- 
 not continue to reside there without employing slave labor, and if they may not, by 
 example and precept, bear testimony against the sin of holding men as property, 
 then let them return." 
 
 We have reason to know that many of the missionaries of the Board, on this con- 
 tinent and in foreign lands, felt deeply grieved at this retrograde step of the Com- 
 mittee, and if they had felt free to proclaim their sentiments, would have used similar 
 language, justly considering that every missionary was interested m the decision of 
 the Board on such a momentous question, while they knew that a right decision 
 would have inspired them all with more intrepidity and zeal, and would have 
 aided them iu doing more good among the heathen, with whom slavery, in some 
 form or other, always prevails. One missionary of another Board, (the A. H. M. 
 Society,) laboring in r slave State, untrammelled by associates, and unawed by a 
 vicious public sentimei.t wrote as follows : 
 
9 
 
 "Another thing that I should, perhaps, mention as encouraging, is the growing' 
 opposition to slavery. The pulpit can now speak out on this subject, and men ■will 
 hear. Some are taking an active part in the organization of the emancipation party 
 at our election for members of the Convention next year. We are determined to 
 remove this great difficulty in our way, or die in the attempt. As Christiabs, and 
 as freemen, we will suffer tWi^ libel on our religion and institutions to exist nolonger. 
 
 " I feel that we owe it to God and to the oppressed race in the midst of us, to 
 exhibit the whole truth in regard to this matter. I shall, however, be careful not to 
 permit my influence or my ministerial character to suffer. As far as possible, I will 
 carry out the Saviour's precept to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove." 
 
 Another, not so apostolic in his views of duty, and more ignorant of the Christian 
 philosophy that leads an ambassador of Christ fearlessly and uncompromisingly to 
 preach the truth, in certain belief that thus the great ends of preaching the true 
 gospel will be better answered than by preaching an emasculated gospel, [because, 
 to one lacking faith, it may appear more expedient,] while acknowledging the obsta- 
 cle slavery places in the missionary's path, writes in a different strain, as follows : 
 
 " There is only one thing that hinders our entire happiness, and that is the curse 
 of SLAVERY. But of this I may not now speak. God grant that our conduct, while 
 here, may not go to sanction this evil. But to come out openly, and avow hostility 
 to the 'sacred' institution, would be to thwart all hopes of doing good, and insure 
 us a speedy passport from the country." 
 
 This fearful missionary seemed to have forgotten the words of his Divine Master, 
 when he said, " And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, when ye 
 depart out of that house, or city, shake off the dust of your feet." He however 
 added his testimony to the true character of slavery. It is a system that not only 
 hinders the happiness of missionaries, but, if acquiesced in, renders it impossible to 
 build up churches of intelligent and consistent Christians. 
 
 r^, While the act of the Secretaries, in retracing their steps, was under discussion 
 before the Christian public, the Boston Cong regationalist said, with equal shrewd- 
 ness and independence: "We believe the American Board has vast interests de- 
 pending on its action in reference to the slavery question. We are ccmfident that a 
 decided support of the principles of Mr. Treat's letter will be necessary to save to 
 the Board a large amount of confidence and patronage which has been continued to 
 it during the past year, only in the hope of such action." The New- York Independent 
 also, notwithstanding it had counselled the Board to get rid of the 'vexed question' 
 by transferring the Choctaw mission to the Old School Assembly's Board, now 
 uttered its voice of expostulation and counsel, as follows : 
 
 "The progress of opinion, and the developments of experience, have raised ques- 
 tions and obstacles which the Board must meet, and which will affect them seriously, 
 whatever course they may take. Thus, for instance, the slavery question, in its 
 present form, was unknown thirty years ago. But the Board seems to forget this, 
 and appears to think it can treat the matter just as it was treated then. Evasion, 
 silence and procrastination have all been tried, and in the process each year some 
 friends of the Board have been alienated. Still the question knocks louder and more 
 imperatively than ever for a hearing and a decision. It cannot now be stifled or 
 evaded. But delay has now brought the Board into that state in which any decision 
 will make trouble. If true ant i slavery ground be taken, great numbers of Presby- 
 terians and anti-abolition Congregationalists will be cooled or alienated. If they 
 continue the present pro-slavery pt)licy, whole churches and Presbyteries at the West 
 will secede from them ; not abandoning the heathen because the Board acts wrong, 
 but reaching the heathen through other agencies. If some evasive course, which 
 commits the Board to no principles, be attempted, the result will be the same. 
 
 "Again : It is not an unusual argument, used with some who object to the course 
 pursued by the Board, ' Will you let the heathen perish because the Board are 
 
10 
 
 wrong or mistaken?" as if the only alternative was the support of the Board or the 
 abandonment of the heathen. The Board should remember, in their plans, that 
 there are now numerous other channels by which the heathen maybe readied ; that 
 for tlie reasons already mentioned they cannot depend on any considerable increase 
 to their rei^ular income, and much less on any indefinite enlargement ; that the 
 cliurches will not frequently arouse themselves to pay off a debt; and that new 
 questions must be met with a wise and earnest spirit, or the Board will lose ground 
 which it can never regain." 
 
 At the meeting of the Board the ensuing September, (1849,) a special Report was 
 presented on the Indian Missions. The Secretaries say, "They deemed a vote' 
 adopting their letter to the Choctaw mission, of doubtful expediency." The result 
 to which the Committee came in their Report, and which was approved by the 
 Board, is seen in the conclusion of the Report, which every friend of freedom must 
 refer to with grief and mortification, which appears to have been regarded as a 
 " finality" on the vexed subject, as follows: 
 
 " They do not deem it expedient, at present, that the correspondence with the 
 Cherokee mission should be laid before the Board ; but if the Board should call for 
 St, they will feel obligated to present it. In not presenting this correspondence 
 they but follow ordinary usage, seeing no reason to depart from it. As the Choctaw 
 letter falls in with previous published correspondence, they make an exception 
 from usage in regard to it, and present it. 
 
 " Upon one other point it may be well for the Committee to say a few words. The 
 members of the Choctaw mission have directed their attention very particularly, 
 (hiring the past year, to the substitution of free labor for that of slaves. They are anx- 
 ious to make a change as soon as practicable, not only to gratify a large portion of their 
 friends and patrons, but that they may increase the economy, comfort and efficiency 
 of their own labors. The Committee have been cordially cooperating with the mission 
 in this matter, but they are sorry to say that they have not succeeded, as yet, in 
 rolieving these brethren according to their earnest request. The subject will continue 
 to receive attention, however, and it is hoped and believed that, in some way, free 
 labor will be successfully introduced at an early day. Indeed, a reduction has already 
 been made in the number of slaves hired from year to year at the different stations; 
 and tlie Committee say in conclusion that, as it seems to them, the mission are will- 
 ing to do all that can properly be required in existing circumstances to place this 
 question on the desired basis." 
 
 Thus the Board, from whom better things were expected, fell back to the ground 
 they had occupied years previous ; and there remain, although it would be said by them 
 now as it was in 1841, "The Board can sustain no relation to slavery which implies 
 approbation of the system, and as a Board can have no connection or sympathy with 
 it." At that time, however, slaves were employed in the service of the mission 
 schools, the 'owners' being paid for the labor, and their masters received without 
 objection to the mission churches ; both which practices have continued ever since, 
 to the grief of thousands who reluctantly contribute to the treasury of the Board 
 and to the deep regret of the increasing multitude who, for conscience' sake, contri- 
 bute to the treasury of this Association. 
 
 In the IRsHionary Herald for December, 1852, under the head of "Wants of 
 the Cherokee and Choctaw Missions," complaint is made of the difficulty of obtaining 
 missionaries for those missions. The reason is quite apparent. The dissatisfaction 
 at the conduct of the Board, and the odium that has ensued, deter them. While 
 pious and devoted men and women offer themselves to the American Missionary 
 Asso'intion for Africa, the Ojibue mission, and other parts of the world, the old Board 
 finds it difficult to obtain missionaries for the Indians. How greatly should we 
 rejoice if this fact should lead the influential members of the Board to such serious 
 
11 
 
 reflection that it -would result in a resumption of the noble ground tnken in 1848 1 
 But we refer our readers to an excellent article, respecting the important disclosure 
 above mentioned, on another page. 
 
 In our paper we have, from the beginning, endeavored to be faithful in our 
 expostulations and warnings. "We have stated that the labors of the missionaries 
 for the Indians are at the expense of the slave; that the outraged rights of tlie 
 slave are not brought into consideration by either the missionaries or the Board ; 
 that only a partial gospel is preached to the Indians, while discipline of church 
 members for liolding their fellow church members in slavery, and buying or selling 
 them, is wholly neglected ; that the poor Indians are virtually taught to believe 
 that slaveholding is allowed and approved of God ; that it would be more in 
 accordance with the Scripture and the example of the apostles for the Board to send 
 to the mission ministers who will carry out the views of anti slavery Christians, 
 tfvenif it should be at the expense of some division there, and cause the withdrawal 
 of a few of the missionaries; that the steady refusal of the Board to terminate 
 slaveholding and slave-hiring, in the mission churches and mission schools, has 
 exerted a most disastrous influence by sheltering and shielding slaveholding in this 
 country, and by discouraging and depressing effectual opposition to it, and efforts for 
 its removal ; and that, in the language of the Indepcndeyit, such a people as compose 
 the churches in the free States, "cannot long consent to aid in propagating 
 Christianity by the ministry of missionaries whose views of Christianity compel 
 them to be 'neutral' in regard to the bearings of Christianity on the institution of 
 slavery. . . . They have no heart for the permanent support of missionaries that 
 cannot, or dare not, show to converts in a slaveholding country the injustice and 
 the entire anti-christian character of the institution of slavery." 
 
 The power of the Board to terminate slaveiy in the mission churches, is evident 
 enough. The Secretaries say, in their Report of September, 1848: "While it (the 
 Board) cannot depose a missionary from the ministry, nor silence him as a preacher, 
 nor cut him off from the Church, it can dissolve what it formed, namely, his connec- 
 tion with itself and with the mission." If the connection is dissolved, the church is 
 no longer a mission church. The Board has also a right to require the missionaries 
 to teach the Indians the sinfulness of slaveholding — to use direct influences to 
 abolish slaveholding in the churches; and it is the duty of missionaries to obey. 
 In the same Report, it is said : " But when evils exist in the mission churches, the 
 Prudential Committee may and must inquire whether the missionaries are per- 
 forming their duty. . . . The Board is responsible directly, in the manner which has 
 heendescxih^AJoY the teaching of the missio7taries. . . They (the missionaries) should 
 use a direct influence, at their discretion, to eradicate the evil of slavery, as well as 
 all other evils, from the churches under their care." And when it is considered how 
 few slaveholders there are in the mission churches, the feasibility of purging these 
 churches of "men-stealers" is sufficiently clear. In Mr. Treat's Report he stated, 
 that in the Cherokee churches, consisting of 23Y members, there were only 24 slave- 
 holders; and in the Choctaw churches, consisting of 872 members, there were only 
 88 slaveholders. The principles of the gospel, faithfully taught and applied, with 
 wholesome gospel discipline, it is believed, would soon bring the slaveholding 
 members to see their guilt, and liberate their slaves, or deliver the churches from 
 the disgrace and guilt of countenancing such offenders within their sacred inclosures. 
 
 Are we then to be denounced as enemies of the American Board, because we tell 
 them the truth? Will any judicious person say we are wrong in pointing out the 
 delinquencies of another missionary society, in compliance with urgent requests from 
 
 l.of^ 
 
12 
 
 inquirers, and in reply to assertions that the Board is ■wholly free from all connivaocs 
 at elaveholding? Will any enlightened person repeat what has been said by some 
 well-meaning but partial persons, that notwithstanding our Association sustains io 
 many foreign missionaries, we are the enemies of foreign missions ? We trust not. 
 Opposing error is not opposing missions. As an anti slavery Missionary Association, 
 founded to supply the deficiences of other missionary societies, and to sustain missions 
 on more correct principles, we are bound to state on suitable occasions the necessity ot 
 separate action. That necessity, which existed at the formation of this Association, still 
 exists; for although, in consequence of an improved public sentiment, brought about 
 by the instrumentality of anti-slavery discussion and remonstrance, the Boird had 
 adopted better principles and measures in some respects, it fell back, under the 
 pressure of a pro-slavery sentiment, from the high ground it was at one time taking, 
 and adopted such a course of policy, in other respects, that an association like ours 
 continues to be necessary to meet the demands of the Christian public. We regret 
 to say, tliat we have no expectation that it will cease to be necessary, even when a 
 more enlightened and Christian public sentiment shall have effected a total change 
 in the policy of the Board with regard to slavery, because the principles of our 
 Association, in other respects, differ so materially from those of the Board. While 
 the Board, venerable for years, and endeared to so many Christians for the in- 
 valuable services it has performt^-d, in spite of the evil alluded to, and others 
 suggested, attracts the admiration and liberal offerings of the mass of Christian 
 professors, be it our humble aim to conduct the missionary enterprise intrusted to 
 us by the Great Head of the Church, without unnecessarily or injuriously interfering 
 with other missionary associations, on Christian democratic principles, not tolerating 
 for a moment a spirit of caste, the practice of polygamy, or adopting, in lieu of a 
 bold and direct denunciation of sin, a " mining and sapping" policy, but sending forth 
 missionaries who will fearlessly and faithfully preach a gospel of Freedom, Equal- 
 ity, Peace, Temperance and Purity, according to the wisdom vouchsafed, in a 
 way to insure the confidence and liberal aid of all who prize our distinctive prin- 
 ciples, and recognize in our proceedings the spirit of Christ. * 
 
 From the yew- England JieligioiiS Herald. 
 
 A SIGNIFICANT FACT. 
 
 We find in the Mlsuonnry Herald for December, under the head of " Wants of 
 the Cherokee and Clioctaw Missions," the following statement: 
 
 "It gives tlie Pra lential Cjmmittee much p:iin to say, that the ordained laborers, 
 fio urgently needed for these two missions, have not been obtained. Five or six 
 preachers of tlie gospel should be sent f»rth to join the brethren in the Imlian terri- 
 tory with)al". delay; but tlie C )!n!nittee know not where ti find them. Tliey would 
 ask once more, if some one will n')t volunteer for this service?" 
 
 A word of explanition will explain to the reader why we term this a significant 
 fact. Prirhaps it will intimite to some a low state of piety in the churches or 
 among the cm lilite-f lor tlii ministry, and we liea-d a missionary from the Choctaw 
 mission su^gast tliis ide.i in this very connection at a recent missionary meeting. But 
 we are p-^rsm le 1 tiiat this is a mistake, and tl;at the deficiency alluded to maj be 
 explaine i on a very different supposition, and one which miy well startle the bigoted 
 conservatives who would perpetuate an evil policy in those missions. 
 
13 
 
 "We premise tbat the Cherokee and Choctaw missions are more farorahly circum- 
 stanced for obtaining missionaries than almost any others under the care of the Board. 
 They are old missions, tlie preparatory work is all done, the people are measurably 
 civilized and Christianized, common schools exist, churches are gatliered, chuich 
 members are numerous, the Bible is translated into the language, books are printed 
 in it, there has been encouraging success, and tlie location is in tlie United States. 
 Besides, these have been rather pet missions for several years ; at least it has 
 seemed to us that unusual prominence has been given through the press and at 
 missionary meetings to the tidings and men from that quarter, as though the Board 
 "were determined that the Christian public should believe that God especially 
 endorsed and blessed those missions, and thus sanctioned the policy pursued in them 
 
 Why then is such difficulty experienced in obtaining missionaries ? Why do young 
 men offer themselves to go to the enfls of the world, to far more distant, incon- 
 venient, trying and perilous missions, while none volunteer for that quarter ? Why 
 do returned missionaries from the Cherokees and Choctaws traverse the land, visit 
 the churches, theological seminaries, and ecclesiastical bodies, make moving appeals, 
 and then go back to their field without having found a single l)elper ? It will not 
 answer to denounce the churches and ministry as worldly, and therefore unwilling to 
 encounter self-denial ; for men offer themselves to go on missions in far more distant 
 and barbarous lands. Some other stumbling-block is in the way. Some objection 
 exists which prevents the otherwise most attractive missions from finding favor with 
 candidates for the missionary life. What is it ? 
 
 We answer, it is the pro-slavery policy pursued in the Cherokee and Choctaw 
 missions. These are the missions of which anti-slavery men have complained, 
 because slaveholders were freely admitted to the churches, so that ow^ERS and 
 OWNED eat together in God's house and at Christ's table ! We have protested 
 against this enormity, this virtual and practical sanction of the slave system. We 
 have urged that the missionaries should be directed to assume a bold and decided 
 anti-slavery position, prudently but firmly insisting that slaveholding is sinful and 
 must be renounced before admission to tlie church. But the Board have refused to 
 hear us, and the missionaries have declared their determination to adhere to their 
 old policy. It seemed as though power was on the side of the oppressor even in 
 the proclamation of the gospel. But now a fact appears which proves that votes of 
 the Board and decrees of missionaries cannot slay a living Christian principle, and 
 that ere long, if money does not cease to flow into the treasury, men will be found 
 lacking to carry out the views of the Board. Those who go on missions are young 
 men, and need we tell the Board and the churches that the young men are anti- 
 slavery in their sympathies, and increasingly so? As certainly as the world con- 
 tinues to revolve, will the policy of the Board be reversed as soon as a ie\f of the 
 old men have died off, and a new generation succeeds to place and power. We are 
 not prophesying so much as pointing to causes which already exist, and the opera- 
 tion of which any one may observe. The Prudential Committee may issne appeals, 
 and the returned missionaries from among the Cherokees and Choctaws may wonder 
 at the apathy of the churches and the worldliness of the ministry, but it will be 
 more and more difficult to obtain men to go to those missions. The students in our 
 theological seminaries have too much religion to go and preach an emasculated 
 gospel ; to offer in effect justification without sanctification ; to proclaim the atonement 
 and omit the decalogue; to say, "Believe," but neglect to say, "Bejust and honest;" 
 to present Christ as a Priest, but not as a King. They will not consent to join a 
 mission where the understood policy is to be nearly or quite silent respecting one of 
 the most glaring sins of the community; and if the vote or practice of the mission 
 or the laws of the Indian nation require such silence as a condition of residence and 
 labor, they will be conscientious and prudent enough to stay away. Ministers are 
 not bound to go where their message will not be heard. Christ said, " Into what- 
 soever city ye enter and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of 
 the same and say. Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us we do wipe 
 off against you." When the Jews resisted Paul, he turned to the Gentiles. The 
 world is wide and laborers are needed in every land, so that young men may prop- 
 erly choose to go elsewhere, if the Cherokees and Choctaws are unwilling to hear 
 an anti slavery gospel. Instead of reproaching the young ministers, we honor their 
 piety for refusing to go in tbat direction, and hope that tliey will persevere unani- 
 
14 
 
 mously in tbat decision, till the policy of tlie Board is radically clianged. God's 
 cause will not suffer in the end. The effect will be to open the eyes of the Board 
 »nd of the old missionaries, and in the mean time there are numerous other jnissioiis 
 of the Board and of the Am. Missionary A«9ociation, which need to be strengthened 
 by accessions of all the young men who will offer. Blessed be God, that the young 
 men of the cliurch and ministry are so generally right on the great question of 
 reform. We do not think tliat they are personally better men than their fathers, 
 on that account, but we count them more fortunate men, as being U3ed by God to 
 advance the churches to higher moral and Christian ground. 
 
 Prom the Annual Discourse preached before the American Missionary Association, by Rev, 
 James B. Walker. 
 
 The text was 1 John iv. 20 : " If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, 
 he is a liar : for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love 
 God whom he hath not seen ?" 
 
 The preacher said, "After brief preliminary remarks, I shall endeavor to develop anri 
 illustrate the principles contained in this passage, and then apply them, as tests of 
 character and duty in the missionary worli." He said, "Assent to the character of 
 God and the obligation of the Divine law. in the abstract, is a different thing from 
 faith in God and in his law revealed in their relations to us." And further, "ZTe that 
 does not love mmi does not love God. John says to professed believers, in the text, 
 ' If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.' " After setting 
 forth the principles declared in the text, the preacher proceeded to show "what fruits 
 true love to Christ will develop in the lives of believers." 
 
 "The motive power in all true gospel effort is love to Jesus;" and the following 
 are some of its scriptural and unfailing characteristics: 1. "Love to Ciirisl produces 
 labor to make others like Christ." 2. " It leads those who possess it to oppose every 
 thing which injures man." 3. "Love to man, as exhibited in Christ, leads Christians 
 to labor FiasT and most for those who most rreed sympathy and effort." 
 
 The preacher proceeded to apply the specific truth of the passage to missionary 
 organizations, and to the duty of promoting free missions in particular, as follows: 
 
 It may be said truly that these principles apply equally to all Christian effort, and 
 to all benevolent enterprises ; and in this connection we are asked, why then do we 
 not expend our efforts through the older missionary organizations, instead of forming 
 new ones to labor for the accomplishment of the same ends? The question is appo- 
 site, and I shall endeavor to answer. 
 
 It is incumbent upon us to give reasons for our efforts to some who inquire. 
 Many feel, as we think all should, that it is not only the privilege but the duty of 
 all Christian people to send their money through any organization they may choose ; 
 and that they should examine and send their aid through that society which is 
 established upon principles most in accordance with the gospel. The older societies 
 being in existence, the formation of others does imply that many Christian people 
 think their principles are in some respects defective, or new ones would not be 
 established. With me this is true ; and it is due to every one who has any interest 
 in the missionary work, that an answer should be given why we deem it the duty 
 of Cliristians, while they hear and respect other missionary organizations, to contri- 
 bute their funds tlirough free missionary societies. 
 
 The reasons for the free missionary organization lie in the principle and action of 
 older Boards. 
 
 The American Board receives slaveholders into mission churches. They propagate 
 a Christianity which, in the eyes of all men who know their principles, recognizes 
 slaveholding as consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tliey send missionaries 
 to the Indians. They find there two classes of heathen, the red man and the black ; 
 often about the same in color, and always of about equal intelligence. Now what do 
 the missionaries of the Board do in such circumstances? They recognize those as 
 Christians who enslave others, contrary to all the principles of justice and mercy. 
 
15 
 
 The Christianity <hey establish among the Indians leads them to believe that slavery 
 is in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Christ. The missionaries make 
 the standard by which tiie Indian who accepts it must Judge of the character of 
 Christ, and of th<Mr duties to men. The light of nature would teach the Indian that 
 slavery was wrong, while the missionaries by taking it into the church teach them 
 that it is right. This reception of slavery into the mission churches not only corrupts 
 the conscience of the Indians, but it corrupts the conscience of Christians at home. 
 Those who continue to support the old Boards must apologize for or defend tlie 
 connection of slavery with their missions. If Christians will apologize for slavery in 
 connection with the Church, they will learn to do so in connection with the State. 
 Their conscience will be defiled in regard to the corrupting influences of slavery 
 every where. 
 
 Thus it seems tome there can be no doubt about the fact that the missions of the 
 American Board are dishonoring the gospel, and propagating, by the money of the 
 benevolent, a slaveholding Christianity among the Indians. At the same time, they 
 are corrupting the Church at home. 
 
 It is due to this influential Society to say that they will not propagate slavery 
 with the gospel in other nations except our own country. In Africa they will not 
 receive a black slaveholder until he emancipates his slaves. This very fact shows 
 that they recognize their principles as wrong, and that the slave power in this coun- 
 try has either intimidated or corrupted them. All further action on the subject, and 
 even all further discussion, is discountenanced and resisted. They publish their 
 approval of the Indian missions as they are, and have rigidly enforced a finality of 
 discussion and action in all meetings of the Board, and spenk of their meetings as 
 peaceful and spiritual when this enormous evil in which they are involved is not 
 referred to. 
 
 It is sometimes said, by good people who have not attended to the history of this 
 evil as it has strengthened and confirmed itself in the American Board, that the Board 
 will in the end cease to propagate a slaveholding gospel. Such persons do not 
 remember that both the Board and their missionaries have reached a finality upon 
 this subject, Sin does not exhaust itself, but strengthens itself wherever it is toler- 
 ated. If the gospel which missionary boards proclaim tolerates it, what can con" 
 demn or remove it? 
 
 The missionaries where slavery is sanctified by baptizing it into the churches say, 
 "Nor can we ever make it a test of piety or a condition of admission to the privi- 
 leges of the church, that a candidate should express a determination not to live and 
 die a slaveholder." 
 
 In relation to buying and selling their fellow-beings, and even in relation to the 
 crime of selling children from their parents, the missionaries of the Board do not 
 consider such crimes, if they should occur, as disciplinable offenses. They say, " in 
 relation to the separation of parents and children, we must first remark that it ia 
 one of those things which are not forbidden by express injunction of the Scriptures. 
 It is impossible in our circumstances to make it a general rule, that the separation 
 of parents and children by sale and purchase shall be regarded as a disciplinable 
 offense." 
 
 First they say it is one of those things which are not forbidden by express injunc- 
 tion of the Scriptures. How dreadful this is ! It is one of tlie ten commandments : 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor thy neighbor's wife, nor his man- 
 servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neigh- 
 bor's." Yet these missionaries teach that a man may not only covet, but take and 
 sell his neighbor's wife and child, and they know no injunction of the Bible against 
 it. Merciful God! what evil sin, cherished, will work in churches and missinn 
 boards, and even in the minds of missionaries themselves ! Letters have been sub- 
 sequently drawn from them that mitigate the enormity of this abuse, but nothing that 
 changes their position. 
 
 The missionaries say likewise that their doctrine and practice have reached a 
 finality with them as well as with the Board. They write, " We earnestly hope 
 that what we have written may be taken as a final exposition of our sentiments — a 
 defining of our position." They say again, " It may be deemed our duty by some 
 to adopt a train of measures that shall aim in their object directly to countervail 
 the whole system, and in the end undermine the entire fabric which human legisla- 
 
1« 
 
 tion has framed in regard to slavery. We do not feel that we are required to adopt 
 any such conrse, nor do we regard /his as our work" 
 
 Such are the principles upon wliich the missionary work is conducted by the Ame- 
 rican Board among the Indians, and by the Home Missionary Board in slave States. 
 We do not hesitate to say that such principles, instead of bemg the principles of the 
 gospel of Christ, are in direct conflict both with the nature and design of the gospel. 
 We say this here to vindicate ourselves, and to remonstrate witli our brethren. 
 
 A free missionary society, both for home and foreign missions, is now formed upon 
 what we believe to be gospel principles. That it is right to propagate the gospel 
 without slavery we think none can doubt. Tliat it is right to propagate it with 
 slavery some believe. Each Ciiristian has the opportunity to maintain whichever 
 of tile two principles his heart and conscience approve. We state tiie case as we 
 believe Christ would have us do, and leave the results with God, and the responsi- 
 bilities wi'.h each iudividual Christian, 
 
 ALBANY CONGKEGATIONAL CONVENTIOK 
 
 The following resolution was finally unanimously adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, it is the tendency of the gospel, 
 wherever it is preached in its purity, to correct all social evils and to destroy SIN 
 in all its forms ; and that it is the duty of Missionary Societies to grant aid to churches 
 in slaveholding States, in the support of such ministers ONLY as shall sry preach the 
 ffospel, and inridcate thr principles and application of gospel principles, that, with the 
 blessing of God, it shall have its FULL EFFECT in awakening and enlightening 
 the moral sense in regard to slavery, and in bringing to pass the SPEEDY ABOLI- 
 TION of that STUPENDOUS WRONG; and that wherever a minister is not per- 
 mitted 80 to preach, he should, in accordance with the directions of Christ in such 
 cases, 'depart out of that city.' " 
 
 Rev. Mr. Holbrook, of Iowa, the next day, said : " There is a deep feeling in the 
 Western cliurches on the subject of slavery; and I rejoice to say that tlie position 
 taken last evening is precisely the position which I have advocated in our General 
 Association, and in the newspapi-rs; and I believe it is a decision which will com- 
 mend itself heartity to all our churches in the West, and tliat the influence of it will 
 be to strengtlien the influence of the H. M. Society beyond all calculation." 
 
 Rev. J. B Walker said he desired, for himself an! others, to suggest a single 
 modification or amendment in one passage of the remarks which had just been made. 
 He supposed it was implied in tlie remarks, but he wished it to be distinctly stated. 
 He agreed to all things that had been said concerning the valuable results which 
 would follow the doings of this Convention. But in regard to the statement that the 
 action of this Convention would have the effect to prevent many churches from witli- 
 drawing from the American Home Missionary Society, it shouhi be added — provid-^d 
 that Society shall think proper to act upon the principles set forth in the report of 
 this Convention. This Convention is not the A. H. M. Society, and our report does 
 not speak for it. If that Society shall continue to send out missionaries who receive 
 and retain members in their communion, who hold and treat men as property ; if 
 they sustain men in slaveholding States, who preach the gospel so tii;it it will not 
 have an effect to bring to pass the "speedy abolition of the tremendous wrong of 
 slavery ;" if these principles of the rep-^rt are not carried out by the old Boards, 
 many churches already disaffected, both at tlie West and the East, will give their 
 contributions to other Societies, and many not now disaffected will become so. 
 
 Rev. J. Blauchiird, of Illinois, said he wi'-hed likewise to acquiesce in tiie things 
 spoken by Mr. Holbrook in behalf of the West, with the addition or suggestion just 
 stated by Mr. Walker. 
 
 jjl^" The Americax Home Missionary Society sustains 51 ministers in slave- 
 holding States, over churches many of which are composed, in part, of .slave-hold- 
 ers; and has not, since the passage of the resolution, given any indication of the 
 course it intends hereafter to pursue on the subject. 
 

 
 
 • ao 
 
 
 ^^-^K 
 
 
 V^'.^i^i'./c 
 
 .^^ 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 o" 
 
 
 L^O^ 
 
 iP-n^. 
 
 
 
 
 o *{/ 
 
 
 
 '^vrv^^' 
 
 
 .<i^^ 
 
 
 
 .^o^ 
 
 
 
 f» * * 'it. 
 
 V %^^*/ V^^?^V V^^*/ 
 
 <* *<'^7r« .,G^ ^. 'o,T* A <^ -...•i 
 
 s 
 
 
 
*<.-^\o* %'^''v^ %-5^'&** \''i 
 
 
 
 . o " • . %A 
 
 
 .4>\o 
 
 •.- <p.