Discussion on American Slavery

by George Thompson; Robert J. Breckinridge

FIFTH NIGHT—FRIDAY, JUNE 17.

Mr. BRECKINRIDGE said that the order of the exercises of this evening had, without the fault of any one, placed him in a position which was not the most natural. Considering that it was his duty to support the negative of the point for this evening's discussion, it would have been most natural had the affirmation been first brought out. He said this arrangement was not the fault of any one, because it was not known that the point would fall to be discussed on this particular evening; for had it fallen on last night or to-morrow night, the order would have been as it ought to be. His position was, however, made somewhat better by the fact, that nothing that Mr. Thompson could say this evening, in an hour or two, could alter the assertions which he had already repeatedly made and published in Britain. Since the notice of this discussion had been published, he had, through the providence of God, been put in possession of six or seven papers and pamphlets containing the substance of what had been said by Mr. Thompson throughout the country, and reiterated by associated bodies of his friends under his eye. After reading these carefully, he found himself pretty fully possessed of that individual's charges and testimony against the ministers, private Christians, and churches of America; he would, therefore, take them as he found them in those publications, while Mr. Thompson's presence would enable him to explain, correct, or deny anything that might be erroneously stated. The first thing he should attempt to do, was to impeach the competency of Mr. Thompson as a witness in this or any similar case. Mr. Thompson had shown that he was utterly incompetent, wisely to gather and faithfully to report testimony on any subject involving great and complicated principles. He did not wish to say anything personally offensive to Mr. Thompson; but he must be plain, and he would first produce proof of what he said, which was as it regarded this whole nation perfectly ad hominem. He would show the audience what Mr. Thompson had said of them, and then they would better judge what was his competency to be a witness against the Americans. At a meeting in the Hopeton Rooms at Edinburgh, since his return from the United States, Mr. Thompson said:

We were really under a worse bondage than the slaves of the United States. We kissed our chains and hugged our fetters. We were governed by our drunken appetite.

The lecturer, in the concluding portion of his address, depicted in a tone of high moral feeling, the degraded condition of Great Britain as a nation, in consequence of her extreme drunkenness. He shewed that habits of intemperance, or feelings and prejudices generated by intemperance, pervaded every class, from the highest to the lowest, the richest to the poorest. Statesmen bowed upon the altar of expediency; and, above all, the sanctuary was not clean. As a Christian nation, we were paralized in our efforts to evangelize the world—partly by the millions upon millions actually expended upon ardent spirits—partly by the selfish and demoralizing feelings which this sensual indulgence in particular was known to produce. How could we, as a nation, upbraid America with her system of slavery when we ourselves were but glorying in a voluntary slavery of a thousand times more defiling and abominable description? In our own country, it might be said that there was, as it were, a conspiracy against the bodies and souls of her people.

Now in any Court of Justice, he would take his stand upon the fact that the man who made that speech must be a monomaniac, and he believed no competent tribunal, after hearing it, would receive his testimony as to the character or conduct of any nation on the face of the earth. Or if there lingered a doubt on the subject, he should show from the burden of his charges against America, that he spoke in the same general spirit, and nearly in the very same terms of her as of Britain, although the fault found with each country was totally different. He spoke of each as the very worst nation on the earth, because of the special crime charged. Any man who could allow himself to say that the two most enlightened nations on earth were in substance the two most degraded nations on earth; who could permit himself to bring such railing accusations successively against two great people, on account of the sins of a small portion of each, which he had looked at till he could see nothing else, and with the perseverance of a goldleaf-beater, exercised his ingenuity in stretching out to the utmost limits over each community; a man who not only can see little to love anywhere that does not derive its complexion from himself, and who, the moment he finds a blot on his brethren, or his country, instead of walking backwards and hiding it with the filial piety of the elder sons of Noah, mocks over it with the rude and unfeeling bitterness of Canaan; such a man is worthily impeached, as incompetent to testify. Nay, I put the issue where Mr. Thompson has put it. If this nation be such as he has described it to be, I demand, with unanswerable emphasis, how can it dare to call us, or any other people, to account on any subject whatever? If, on the other hand, what he has said of this nation be false, I equally demand how can he be credited in what he says of us—of any other nation under the sun? After this caveat against all that such a witness could say, he would in the first place observe, that all the accusations brought by Mr. Thompson against Americans, were imbued with such bitterness and intemperance as ought to awaken suspicion in the minds of all who hear them. There was visible not only a violent national antipathy against that whole country, but also a strong prejudice in favor of the one side and against the other in the local parties there, which, before any impartial tribunal, ought greatly to weaken any credit that might otherwise be attached to his testimony. Besides an open hostility to the nation as such, and a most envomed hatred to certain men, parties, and principles in America, the witness has exhibited such a wounded feeling of vanity from his want of success in America; such a glorying of his friends, and that just in proportion to their subserviency to him, and such a contemptuous and unmerited depreciation of his opponents, as should put every man who reads or hears his proofs at once on his guard. As to the opinions and conclusions of such a person, even from admitted facts, they are of course worthless; and his inferences from hearsay and idle reports, worse than trash. But what I mean to say is, that such a witness, considered strictly as testifying to what he asserts of his own knowledge, is to be heard by a just man with very great caution. For my own part, at the risk of being called again a pettifogger, by this informer, I am bound to say that his conduct impeaches his credibility fully as much as it has before been shown to affect his competency; and while I have peculiar knowledge of the facts, sufficient to assert that his main accusations are false, I fully believe that the case he had himself made, did of itself justify all good men to draw the same conclusion, merely from general principles. I will venture to go a step farther, and express the opinion that they who are acquainted with Mr. Thompson, as he exhibits himself in the public eye, and who have knowledge of the past success, which really did, or which he allows himself to believe did attend his efforts in West-India emancipation, (a success, however, which I do not comprehend, as the case was settled against him and his party, on the two chief points on which they staked themselves, namely, immediate abolition and no compensation,) they who can call to mind the preparation and pretension with which he set out for America, the gigantic work he had carved for himself there, the signal defeat he met with, and the terror in which he fled the country; may find enough to justify the fear that the fate of George Thompson has fully as large a share in his recollections of America as the fate of the poor slave. In the second place, I charge upon Mr. Thompson that those parts of his statements which might possibly be in part true, are so put as to create false impressions, and have nearly the same effect as if they were wholly false on the minds of those who read or hear them. This results from the constant manner of stating what might possibly be true; and it is not only calculated to produce a false impression, and make the casual reader believe in a result different from what would be presented if Mr. Thompson were on oath and forced to tell the whole truth, but the uniformity and dexterity with which this is done, leaves us astonished how it could be accidental. He (Mr. B.) assumed that all of them had read or would read Mr. Thompson's charges. After doing so they would the better apprehend what was now meant; but, in the mean time, he would illustrate it by a case or two. Thus, when Mr. T. spoke of the ministers in the United States being slave-holders, he did it in such a way as to lead the reader to believe that this was a general thing; that the most of them, if not the whole of them, were slave-owners. He did not tell them that none of the ministers in twelve whole States were or could easily be slave-holders, seeing they were not inhabitants of a slave State; he did not tell them that the cases of ministers owning slaves were rare even in some of the slave States; and a fair sample of the majority in not a single State of the Union; he left the charge indefinite, and did not condescend to tell whether the number of ministers so accused was one half, or one third, or one fourth, or one hundredth part of the whole number in the United States. He left it wholly indefinite, on the broad charge that American ministers were slave-holding ministers; knowing, perhaps intending, that the impression taken up should be of the aggregate mass of American ministers; when he knew himself all the while that the overwhelming mass of American ministers had never owned a slave; and that those who had, were exceptions from the general rule rather than samples of the whole. It may well be asked how much less sinful it was to rob men of their good name, than of their freedom? Not content with even this injustice, Mr. Thompson had gone so far as to charge the ministers of America with dealing in slaves; slave-driving ministers and slave-dealing ministers, were amongst his common accusations. Now, said Mr. B., he would lay a strong constraint upon himself, and reply to these statements as if they were not at once atrocious and insupportable. The terms used by Mr. Thompson were universally understood in the United States, to mean the carrying on of a regular traffic in slaves as a business. The meaning was the same here, and every one who had heard or read one of his printed speeches, was ex vi termini obliged to understand this charge like the preceding, as expressing his testimony as to the conduct of American ministers generally, if not universally.

Now I will admit that there may be in America, one minister in one thousand, or perhaps five hundred, who may at some period of his ministry, when he had no sufficient light on the subject, have bought or sold slaves a single time, or perhaps twice, or possibly thrice. But I solemnly declare I never knew, nor heard of, nor do I believe there exists in all America, one such minister, as is above described; nor any sect that would hold fellowship with him. He would throw under the third general head charges of a different kind from the preceding. Mr. Thompson, when generalities fail, takes up some extreme case, which might probably be founded on truth, and gives it as a specimen of the general practice; thereby creating by false instances, as well as by indefinite accusations, an impression which he knows to be entirely foreign from the truth. If he, (Mr. B.) were to tell in America that on his way to this meeting to-night, he saw two blind men begging in the streets, with their arms locked to support their tottering steps, while the crowd passed them idly by; and if he gave this as a specimen of the manner in which the unfortunate poor were treated in Scotland, he would not give a worse impression, nor make a more unfair statement of the fact, than Mr. Thompson had done, nearly without exception, in his statements of America. Such a spirit and practice as this, pervaded the whole of Mr. Thompson's speeches. He would select a few instances to enforce his meaning. There was a single Presbyterian Church at Nashville, Tennessee. Now he, (Mr. B.) happened, in the providence of God, to be somewhat acquainted with the past history of that church; and was happy to call its present benevolent minister his friend. He could consequently speak of it from his own knowledge. Mr. Thompson said that a young man went to Nashville, who, either through his own imprudence, or the violence of the disjointed times, was arrested, tried by a popular committee, found guilty of spreading seditious papers, and sentenced to be whipped; that he had received twenty lashes, and was then discharged. This he believed to be substantially true, and well remembered hearing of the occurrence; and taking the young man's account of it as true, he had been greatly shocked at it, and had now no idea of defending it. But in Mr. Thompson's statement of the case, there was a minute misrepresentation, which showed singular indifference to facts. Mr. T. said the young man went to Tennessee to sell cottage bibles, in which business he succeeded well, for the reason, adds the narrator, that Bibles were scarce in the South; although he could not fail to know, that before the period in question, every family in all those States that would receive a Bible, had been furnished with one by the various Bible Societies. This, however, was not the main reason for a reference to this case; but was mentioned incidentally, to show the nature of the feelings and accusations indulged in by this gentleman. His account went on to say, sometimes that there were seven, sometimes eleven elders of this Presbyterian Church. It was not intended to lay any stress on the discrepancy; as the fault might be the reporter's. But seven, or eleven; it was again and again charged, that all of them, every one, was present, trying, and consenting to the punishment of the unhappy young man, "plowing up his back," and mingling, perhaps in the mob who cursed him, even for his prayers. To make the case inexpressibly horrible, it is added, that these seven or eleven elders, had as to part of them, distributed the sacramental elements, to the abolitionist, the very Sabbath before, the day on which the seven elders participated in this outrage. Now I say first, that if this story were literally true, no man knows better than Mr. Thompson, that no falsehood could be more glaring than to say or insinuate, that the case would be a fair average specimen of what the leading men in the American churches generally might be expected to do, in like circumstances. Yet for this purpose, he has repeatedly used it! No man could know better than he, that if the case were true in all its parts, it would every where be accounted a violent and unprecedented thing, which could happen at all only in most extraordinary circumstances. Yet he has so stated it, over and over, as to force the impression that it is a fair sample of American Christianity. But, said Mr. B. I call in question all parts of the story, that implicate any Christian. I do not believe the statements. Let me have proof. I do not believe there were either seven or eleven elders in the church in question. Record their names. If there were so many, it is next to impossible, that every one of them, was on the comparatively small committee that tried the abolitionist. Produce the proofs; and I believe it will turn out, that if either of them was present, it was to mitigate popular violence; and that his influence perhaps, saved the life of him he is traduced for having oppressed. He did not mean to stake his assertion against proof; but from his experience and general knowledge of the parties, he had no hesitation in giving it as his opinion, that the facts, when known, would not justify the assertions of Mr. Thompson, even as to the particular case; and believing this, I again challenge the production of his authority. But, if it be true in all its parts, I repeat, it is every thing but truth, to say that it affords a just specimen of the elders of the Presbyterian Churches of America. Another case resembling the preceding in its principle, is found in what Mr. Thompson has said of the Baptists of the Southern States. There are, says he, above 157,000 members in upwards of 3000 Baptist Churches, in those States, "almost all both ministers and members being slave holders." Allowing this statement to be true, and that each slave holder has ten slaves on an average, which is too small for the truth, there would be an amount of slaves equal to 1,570,000 owned by the Baptist of the Southern States. If this be true, and the census of 1830 true also, there were only left about 500,000 slaves to divide among all the other churches; leaving for the remainder of the people, none at all! So that after all this, though churches be bad, the nation is clean enough.

Let us now make some allowance for this gentleman's extravagance, especially as he did think he was speaking under correction, and divide his 157,000 Baptists into 52,000 families, of three professors of religion in each. This is more than the average for each family; especially in a church admitting only adults; and the true number of families, for that number of professors, would be nearer one hundred than fifty thousand. Twenty slaves to the family is below the average of the slave owning families of the South; so that at the lowest rate, the Baptists in a few States, according to this person, own 1,040,000 slaves at the least, or above half the number that our last census gives to the whole union. The extraordinary folly of such statements, would appear more clearly to the audience when they understood, that as large a proportion of all the blacks, as of all the whites in America are professors of religion; that above half of all slaves who profess religion, are Baptists; and that, therefore, if there are 157,000 Baptists in the Southern States, instead of being "almost all slave holders," at least a third of them are themselves slaves. He gave these instances to show that Mr. Thompson had taken extreme cases containing some show of truth as specimens of the whole of America, and had thereby produced totally false impressions. What truth there was in them, was so terrifically exaggerated, that no dependence whatever could be placed upon any of his testimony. And this would be still more manifest after examining the charge brought by Mr. Thompson, that the very churches in America own slaves; and several of his speeches contain a pretty little dialogue with some slaves in the fields, the whole interest of which turns on their calling themselves "the Church's Slaves." This was spoken of as it were in accordance with the usual course of things in the United States. Indeed, Mr. Thompson had not only spoken with his usual violence and generality of the "slave holding churches of America," and declared his conviction that "all the guilt of the system" should be laid "on the church of America;" but at the very latest joint exhibition of himself and his friend Moses Roper, in London, it was stated by the latter in one of his usual interludes to Mr. Thompson, perhaps in his presence, certainly uncontradicted, that, slave holding was universally practised by "all Christian societies" in America; the societies of Friends only excepted. It may excite a blush in America, to know that the poor negro's silly falsehood was received with cheers by the London audience.

What then should the similar declarations of Mr. Thompson, made deliberately and repeatedly, and with infinite pretence of candour and affection, what feelings can they excite; and how will that insulted people regard the easy credulity which has led the Christians of Britain to believe and reiterate charges in which it is not easy to tell whether there is less truth or more malignity? For how stood the facts? What church owns slaves? What Christian corporation is a proprietor of men? Out of our ten thousand churches perhaps half are involved in this sin? Perhaps a tenth part? Surely one Presbytery at least? No,—this mountain of fiction has but a grain of truth to support its vast and hateful proportions. If there be above five congregations in all America that own slaves, I never heard of them. The actual number, of whose existence I ever heard, is, I believe, precisely three! They are all Presbyterian congregations, and churches situated in the southern part of Virginia, and got into their unhappy condition in the following manner:—Many years ago, during those times of ignorance at which God winked—when such a man as John Newton could go a slaving voyage to Africa, and write back that he never had enjoyed sweeter communion with God than on that voyage; during such a period as that, a few well meaning individuals had bequeathed a small number of slaves for the support of the gospel in three or four churches. These unfortunate legacies had increased and multiplied themselves to a great extent, and under present circumstances to a most inconvenient degree. A fact which puts the clearest contradiction on that assertion of this "accuser of the brethren"—representing their condition as being one of unusual privation and suffering. Of late years these cases had attracted attention, and given great uneasiness to some of the persons connected with these churches. I have on this platform, kindly furnished me, like most of the other documents I have, since this debate was publicly known—a volume of letters written to one of these churches on the whole case, by the Rev. Mr. Paxton, at that time its pastor. That gentleman is now on this side of the Atlantic, and may perhaps explain what Mr. Thompson has so sedulously concealed; how he was a colonizationist; how he manumitted and sent his own servants to Liberia; how he labored in this particular matter with his church, long before the existence of abolitionism; and how, finding the difficulties insuperable, he had written this kind and modest volume, worth all the abolition froth ever spued forth,—and left the charge in which he found it so difficult to preserve at once an honest conscience and a healthful influence. It will not, however, be understood that even these few churches are worthy of the indiscriminate abuse lavished on us, all for their sakes; nor that their present path of duty is either an easy or a plain one. Whether it is that there are express stipulations in the original instruments conveying the slaves in trust for certain purposes; or whether the general principle of law, which would transfer to the State, or to the heir of the first owner, the slaves with their increase,—upon a failure of the intention of the donor, either by act of God, or of the parties themselves, embarrass the subject; it is very certain that wiser and better men than either Mr. Thompson or myself, are convinced that these vilified churches have no power whatever to set their slaves free. If the churches were to give up the slaves, it could only have the effect, it is believed, to send them into everlasting bondage to the heirs of the original proprietors. They have therefore justly considered it better for the slaves themselves that they should remain as they were in a state of nominal servitude, rather than be remitted into real slavery. Such is the real state of the few cases which have first been exhibited as the sin, if not the actual condition of the American churches; and then exaggerated into the utmost turpitude by hiding every mitigating circumstance, adding some purely new, and distorting all things. Whether right or wrong, the same state of things exists amongst the Society of Friends in North Carolina, to a partial extent, and in another form. They did not consider themselves liable to just censure, although they held title in and authority over slaves, as individuals, while they gave them their whole earnings, and had collected large sums from their brethren in England, which were applied to the benefit of these slaves. It is not now for the first time that charges have been made against the Church of God—that Judah is like all the heathen. But all who embark in such courses—have met with the common fate of the revilers of God's people; and they, with such as select to stand in their lot—may find in the word of life a worse end apportioned for them, than even for those they denounce, in case every word they utter had been true. We bless God that no weapon formed against Zion can prosper. There was one other instance which he had noted under this head as requiring some comment, which could not bear omission, regarding the private members of the Christian churches in the United States, of whom a casual hearer or reader of Mr. Thompson's speeches would believe that the far greater part actually owned slaves; that very few, and they almost exclusively abolitionists, considered slavery at all wrong; that with one accord they deprived the slaves of all religious privileges, and used them, not only as a chattel, but as nothing else than a chattel. According to our last census, there were about 11,000,000 of whites, 2,000,000 of slaves, and 400,000 free blacks in America, making a total of nearly thirteen and a half millions. All the slaves were gathered into the 12 most southerly states, free blacks were not far from half in the free and half in the slave states, and of the whites over 7,000,000 were in the free, and less than 3,000,000 in the slave states. The best information I possess on this subject, authorizes me to say—about 1 person in 9, throughout the nation, black and white, is a member of a Christian church, the proportion being somewhat larger to the north, and comparatively smaller at the south. There are, therefore, above 1,100,000 white Christians in the United States, of which about 800,000 live in the 12 free States, and neither own slaves nor think slavery right; leaving rather over 330,000 for the 12 slave States. Now, if these white Christians in the slave States own all the slaves, and the other 8-9ths of the whites owned none at all, there will be only about 6 slaves to each Christian there, a number far below the average of the slave holders; and all the North, and all the South, except Christians, free of charge and guilt, in the specific thing. But if we divide these Christians into families, and suppose there may be as many, as one in three or four of them, who is a head of a family, say 100,000; and that they own all the slaves: in that case, there would be an average of twenty slaves to every white head of a Christian family in the slave States. But here again all the slaves would be absorbed: all the North innocent, above two-thirds of the Christians at the South proved to be not slave holders at all; and all the followers of the devil wholly innocent of that crime. These calculations demonstrate that these accusations are as groundless and absurd as any of the preceding. And while it is painfully true that in the slaveholding States far too many Christians do still own slaves; it is equally true, that they bear a small proportion to those who own none, even in those States. If we suppose the Christians in America to be about on an equal footing as to wealth with other people; and to have no more conscience about slavery, than those around them in the slave States; and that twenty slaves may be taken as the average, to each master; and a ninth of the people pious, as stated before, it follows that only about 11,000 professors of religion can be slaveholders; or about one in every hundred of the whole number in the nation. Yet every one of the above suppositions is against the churches, and yet upon this basis rests the charges of a candid, affectionate Christian brother against them all! The only remaining illustration of Mr. Thompson's proneness to represent a little truth, in such a way as to have all the effects of an immense misrepresentation, regards his own posture, doings and sufferings in America. "Fourteen months of toil, of peril, and persecution, almost unparalleled;" "there were paid myrmidons seeking my blood;" "there were thousands waiting to rejoice over my destruction;" "when any individual tells George Thompson who has put his life into his hands, and gone where slavery is rife; when I, George Thompson, am told I am to be spared," &c. Similar statements, ad infinitum, fill up all his speeches; and are noticed now, not for the purpose of commenting on, or even contradicting them, but of affording my countrymen, who may chance to see the report of this discussion, specimens, as our certificates often run "of the modesty, probity, and good demeanor," of the individual.

He would pass next to a fourth general objection against Mr. Thompson's testimony, as regards America, which was, that much of it was in the strictest sense, positively untrue. For instance, Mr. Thompson had twice put a runaway slave forward upon the platform at London; or at least connived at the doing of it; who stated of his own knowledge, that a Mr. Garrison, of South Carolina, had paid 500 dollars for a slave, that he might burn him, and that he had done so without hindrance or challenge, afterwards. This statement Mr. T. has never yet contradicted in any one of his numerous speeches, although he must have known it to be untrue. I have myself several times directed his attention to the subject, and yet the only answer is, "expressive silence." Then I distinctly challenge his notice of the case; and while I solemnly declare, that according to my belief, whoever should do such an act in any part of America, would be hung: I as distinctly charge Mr. Thompson, with giving countenance to, and deriving countenance from this wilful misstatement.

As an other instance of the same kind, you are told that a free man was sold from the jail at Washington city, as a slave, without even the form of a trial; which is farther aggravated by the assertion that this is vouched as a fact, on the testimony of 1000 signatures. This matter, when Mr. Thompson's own proof is produced, resolves itself into this: that Mr. Thompson said, there had been a thousand signatures to a certain paper, which said, that a certain man taken up as a runaway slave, said he was free! If he was a slave, the whole case falls; whether he was a slave or not, was a fact that could have been judicially investigated and decided, if the person most interested, or any other, had chosen to demand it. So that in point of fact, Mr. Thompson's whole statements, touching this oft repeated case, are all purely gratuitous. And with what horror, must every good man hear that Mr. Thompson, within the last two or three weeks, told a crowd of people in Mr. Price's Chapel, Devonshire Square, London, in allusion to this very case, that the poor black had "DEMONSTRATED HIS FREEDOM," and afterwards been "sold into everlasting bondage!" And yet upon this fiction he bases one of his most effective "illustrations of American slavery," and some of his fiercest denunciations of the American people. Oh! shame, where is thy blush! He could if time permitted exhibit other cases,—in principle perhaps worse than these; in which neither the false assertions of Moses Roper—nor the pretended evidence of misrepresented petitions existed to make a show of evidence; and which nothing but the most extraordinary ignorance, or recklessness could explain. Such are the assertions made by himself or his coadjutors in his presence, that slaves are brought to the district of Columbia from all the slave states for sale; that five years is the average number, that slaves carried to the Southern States live; that slaves without trial, or even examination, were often executed, by tens, twenties, and even thirties; that the banner of the United States, which floated over a slave dealing congress, in the midst of the slave market of the entire nation, had the word "Liberty" upon it (which single sentence contained three misstatements;) that religious men weighed children in scales, and sold them by the pound like meat;—that there were 2,000,000 of slaves in America who never heard the name of Christ; that no white man would ever be respected after he had been seen to shake hands with a man of colour; all which unnameable assertions are contained, along with double as many others like them, in one single newspaper (the London Patriot of June 1, 1835;) and in a portion of the report of only two of Mr. Thompson's meetings! Alas! for poor human nature! Having now gone through all that his time permitted him to say, of the proof against America, he would lay before them some counter testimony upon several parts of this great subject. He had at one time greatly feared that he might be obliged to ask them to believe his mere word, perhaps in the face of other proof; but through the providence of God, he had been put in possession of a very limited file of American newspapers, from the contents of which he thought he should be able to make out as strong a case for the truth, as he had proved the case against it to be weak and rotten. There were so many denominations of Christians in America, that he would only tire the meeting by enumerating them. They were of every variety of name and opinion. As to many of them he knew but little, and the present audience perhaps less. The Societies of Friends generally did not tolerate slaveholding among their members; neither did the Covenanters. The Congregationalists, or Independents, had not, he believed, a dozen churches in all the Slave States, and, of course, they should be considered as exempt from the charge. It was, however, the less necessary to occupy ourselves in general remarks, inasmuch as Mr. Thompson had laid the stress of his accusations on the three great denominations of America. "He took all the guilt of this system, and he laid it where? On the Church of America. When he said the Church, he did not allude to any particular denomination. He spoke of Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, the three great props—the all-sustaining pillars of that blood-cemented fabric." Such were the words of Mr. T., and it would therefore be needless to trouble ourselves about the minor, if we could settle the major to our satisfaction. As to two of these denominations, he should say but little; his chief and natural business being to defend that one of which he knew most. In regard to the Baptists, he was sorry to be obliged to say, that he believed they were the least defensible of the three denominations, now principally implicated; indeed that some of their Associations had taken ground on the whole case, from which he entirely dissented,—and which, he was sure, had given great pain to the majority of their own brethren. He begged leave to refer them to the work of Drs. Cox and Hoby, just through the press, in which he presumed, for he had not seen it, they would find an authentic and ample information on this and every other point relating to that denomination in America. In relation to the Methodists, his knowledge was both more full and more accurate. Their discipline denounced Slavery, and prohibited their Members from owning slaves, and though their discipline itself was not carried into effect with rigid exactness, he did not believe that there was a Methodist Church in the United States, or upon the Earth, which owned slaves, as a Church. He believed that very few Methodist preachers—indeed, almost none, owned any slaves, and nothing but the most direct proof could for a moment make him believe, that one of them was a slave-dealer. The whole sect, or at least the great majority of it, might be considered as fairly represented, in the following Resolutions passed in the Conference, held at Baltimore; and which could be a set off to those read by Mr. Thompson, from one of the northern Conferences.

METHODIST'S RESOLUTIONS ON ABOLITION.

At a late meeting of the Baltimore Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held at Baltimore, the following preamble and Resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the names of all the members and probationers present, in number, one hundred and fifty-seven, were subscribed, and ordered to be published. The secretary was also directed to furnish Rev. John A. Collins, with a copy for insertion in the Globe and Intelligencer, of Washington City.

Whereas great excitement has pervaded this country for some time past on the subject of abolition; and whereas such excitement is believed to be destructive to the best interests of the country and of religion; therefore

1. Resolved, That "we are as much as ever convinced of the great evil of slavery."

2. That we are opposed in every part and particular to the proceedings of the abolitionists, which look to the immediate indiscriminate, and general emancipation of slaves.

3. That we have no connexion with any press, by whomsoever conducted, in the interest of the abolition cause.

As to his own Connection, the Presbyterian, he would go as fully as his materials permitted, into the proof of their past principles, and present posture. And in the first place he was most happy to be able to present them with an abstract of the decisions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. He found it printed in the New York Observer, of May 23, 1835, embodied in the proceedings of the Presbytery of Montrose, and transcribed by it no doubt from the Assembly's digest.

As early as A. D. 1787, the Synod of N. York and Philadelphia issued an opinion adverse to slavery, and recommended measures for its final extinction; and in the year 1796 the General Assembly assured "all the churches under their care, that they viewed with the deepest concern any vestiges of slavery which then existed in our country;" and in the year 1815 the same judicatory decided, "that the buying and selling of slaves by way of traffic, (meaning, doubtless, the domestic traffic,) is inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel." But in the year 1818, a more full and explicit avowal of the sentiments of the church was unanimously agreed on in the General Assembly. "We consider, (say the Assembly,) the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoin, that "whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." They add, "It is manifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the present day, when the inconsistency of slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use their honest, earnest and unwearied endeavors to correct the errors of former times, and as speedily as possible, to efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom and if possible, throughout the world."

If, said Mr. B., he had expressed sentiments different from these, or if he had inculcated as the principles of his brethren any thing different from these just and noble sentiments, let the blame be heaped upon his bare head. These sentiments they had held from a period to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Here tonight, 3000 miles off, God enabled him to produce a record proving an antiquity of half a century, in full maturity! How grand, how far sighted, how illustrious is truth—compared with the wretched and new born, and blear eyed fanaticism that carps at her! These are the principles of the Presbyterian church of the United States. She has risen with them, she will stand, or, if it be God's will, she will fall with them. But she will not change them less or more. The General Assembly is but now adjourned. They have had this question before them—perhaps have been deeply agitated by its discussion. But so tranquilly does my heart rest on the truth of these principles, and on the fixed adherence to them, by my brethren, that nothing but a feeling that it would be impertinent, in one like me, to vouch for a body like that, could deter me from any lawful gage, that all its decisions will stand with its ancient and unaltered principles. In accordance with these principles the great body of the members of that church had been all along acting.—There were about 24 synods under the care of the General Assembly, of which about one third were in the slave country. The number was constantly increasing, on which account, and in the absence of all records, he could not be more exact. The synods in the free states stood, he believed, without exception, just where the Assembly stood, on this subject. In the slave states, much had been done—much was still doing—and in proof of this as regarded this particular denomination—in addition to what he had all along declared, with reference to the great emancipation party, in all of those states, he asked attention to the several documents he was about to lay before them. The first was a series of resolutions appended to a lucid and extended report, drawn up by a large committee of Ministers and Elders of the synod of Kentucky—in obedience to its orders after the subject had been several years before that body. That Synod embraces the whole state of Kentucky, which is one of the largest slave states in the Union. The resolutions are quoted from the New York Observer, of April 23, 1836.

1. We would recommend that all slaves now under 20 years of age, and all those yet to be born in our possession be emancipated, as they severally reach their 25th year.

2. We recommend that deeds of emancipation be now drawn up, and recorded in our respective County Courts, specifying the slaves we are about to emancipate, and the age at which each is to become free.

This measure is highly necessary, as it will furnish to our own minds, to the world, and to our slaves, satisfactory proof of our sincerity in this work; and it will also secure the liberty of the slaves against contingencies.

3. We recommend that our slaves be instructed in the common elementary branches of education.

4. We recommend that strenuous and persevering efforts be made, to induce them to attend regularly upon the ordinary services of religion, both domestic and public.

5. We recommend that great pains be token to teach them the Holy Scriptures; and that to effect this, the instrumentality of Sabbath Schools, wherever they can be enjoyed, be united with that of domestic instruction.

The plan revealed in these resolution, was the one of all others, which most commended itself to his (Mr. B.'s) judgment. And he most particularly asked their attention to it, on an account somewhat personal. He had several times been publicly referred to in this country, as having shown the sincerity of his principles in the manumission of his own slaves. He was most anxious that no error should exist on this subject, which he had not at any time, had any part in bringing before the public, and which, as often only as he was forced to do so, had he explained. The introductory remarks of the Chairman, had laid him under the necessity of such an explanation, which had not so naturally occurred, as in this connexion. He took leave, therefore, to say, that this Kentucky plan, was in substance the one he had been acting on for some years before its existence; and which he should probably be among the earliest, if his life was spared, fully to complete. He considered it substantially the same as their system for West India Emancipation; only more rapid as to adults, more tardy, cautious, and beneficent as to minors; and more generous, as being wholly without compensation. In plans that affect whole nations, and successive generations, questions of time are of all others, least important; of all others the most proper to make bend to the necessities of the case. He went only to say further, that his brother, the Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of whom Mr. Thompson speaks with such affectation of scorn, had entered this good field before him, and taken one course with his manumitted slaves. That a younger brother, whose name, along with nine other beloved and revered names, is attached to this Kentucky report, had also entered it before him; and taken a second course, a different course still, in liberating his. When he came, last of all, he had taken still a third, different from each; while other friends had pursued others still. What wisdom their combined, and yet varied experience could have afforded, was of course useless; now that all the deepest questions of abstract truth, and the most difficult of personal practice, were solved by instinct, and carried by storm.

The next extract related to the great slave holding State of North Carolina, and revealed a plan for the religious instruction and care of the souls of the slaves, intended to cover the States of Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina, all slave States of the first class, as well as the one in which it originated. Its origin is due to the Presbyterian Synod, covering the whole of that State. The extract is from the New York Observer of June 20, 1835.

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

"The Southern Evangelical Society," is the title of a proposed association among the Presbyterians at the South, for the propagation of the gospel among the people of color. The constitution originated in the Synod of North Carolina, and is to go into effect as soon as adopted by the Synod of Virginia, or that of South Carolina and Georgia. The voting members of the Society are to be elected by the Synods. Honorary members are created by the payment of thirty dollars. All members of Synods united with the Society, are corresponding members; other corresponding members maybe chosen by the voting members. Article 4th of the Constitution, provides that "there shall not exist between this Society and any other Society, any connexion whatever, except with a similar Society in the slave holding States." Several resolutions follow the Constitution; one of these provides that a presbytery in a slave holding district of the country, not united with a Synod in connexion with the Society, may become a member by its own act. The fifth and sixth resolutions are as follows:

Resolved, 5, That it be very respectfully and earnestly recommended to all the heads of families in connexion with our congregations, to take up and vigorously prosecute the business of seeking the salvation of the slaves in the way of maintaining and promoting family religion.

Resolved, 6, That it be enjoined upon all the presbyteries composing this Synod, to take order at their earliest meeting, to obtain full and correct statistical information as to the number of people of color, in the bounds of our several congregations, the number in actual attendance at our several places of worship, and the number of colored members in our several churches, and make a full report to the Synod at its next meeting, and for this purpose, that the Clerk of this Synod furnish a copy of this resolution to the stated Clerk of each Presbytery.

The next document carried them one State farther South, and related to South Carolina, in which that horrible Governor M'Duffie, who seems to haunt Mr. Thompson's imagination with his threats of "death without benefit of clergy," lives, and perhaps still rules. It is taken from the same paper as the next preceding extract;

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

We cheerfully insert the following letter from an intelligent New Englander at the South.

To the Editor of the New York Observer.

I am apprehensive that many of your readers, who feel a lively interest in the welfare of the slaves, are not correctly and fully informed as to their amount of religious instruction. From the speeches of Mr. Thompson and others, they might be led to believe that slaves in our Southern States never read a Bible, hear a gospel sermon, or partake of a gospel ordinance. It is to be hoped, however, that little credit will be given to such misrepresentations, notwithstanding the zeal and industry with which they are disseminated.

What has been done on a single plantation.

I will now inform your readers what has been done, and is now doing, for the moral and religious improvement of the slaves on a single plantation, with which I am well acquainted, and these few facts may serve as a commentary on the unsupported assertions of Mr. Thompson and others. And here I could wish that all who are so ready to denounce every man that is so unfortunate as to be born to a heritage of slaves, could go to that plantation, and see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, the things which I despair of adequately describing. Truly, I think they would be more inclined, and better qualified to use those weapons of light and love which have been so ably and justly commended to their hands.

On this plantation there are from 150 to 200 slaves, the finest looking body that I have seen on any estate. Their master and mistress have felt for years how solemn are the responsibilities connected with such a charge; and they have not shrunk from meeting them. The means used for their spiritual good, are abundant. They enjoy the constant preaching of the gospel. A young minister of the Presbyterian church, who has received a regular collegiate and theological education, is laboring among them, and derives his entire support from the master, with the exception of a trifling sum which he receives for preaching one Sabbath in each month for a neighboring church. On the Sabbath, and during the week, you may see them filling the place of worship, from the man of grey hairs to the small child, all neatly and comfortably clothed, listening with respectful, and in many cases, eager attention to the truth as it is in Jesus, delivered in terms adapted to their capacities, and in a manner suited to their peculiar habits, feelings and circumstances; engaging with solemnity and propriety in the solemn exercise of prayer, and mingling their melodious voices in the hymn of praise. Sitting among them are the white members of the family encouraging them by their attendance, manifesting their interest in the exercises, and their anxiety for the eternal well-being of their people. Of the whole number, forty-five or fifty have made a profession of religion, and others are evidently deeply concerned.

Let me now conduct you to a Bible class of ten or twelve adults who can read, met with their Bibles to study and have explained to them the word of God. They give unequivocal demonstrations of much interest in their employment, and of an earnest desire to understand and remember what they read. From hence we will go to another room, where are assembled eighteen to twenty lads, attending upon catechetical instruction, conducted by their young master. Here you will notice many intelligent countenances, and will be struck with the promptitude and correctness of their answers.

But the most interesting spectacle is yet before you. It is to be witnessed in the Infant School Room, nicely fitted up and supplied with the customary cards and other appurtenances. Here every day in the week, you may find twenty-five or thirty children, neatly clad and wearing bright and happy faces. And as you notice their correct deportment, hear their unhesitating replies to the questions proposed, and above all when they unite their sweet voices in their touching songs, if your heart is not affected and your eyes do not fill, you are the hardest-hearted and driest-eyed visitor that has ever been there. But who is their teacher? Their mistress, a lady whose amiable Christian character and most gifted and accomplished mind and manners are surpassed by none. From day to day, month to month, and year to year, she has cheerfully left her splendid halls and circle of friends, to visit her school room, where, standing up before those young immortals, she trains them in the way in which they should go, and leads them to Him who said, "suffer little children to come unto me."

From the Infant School room, we will walk through a beautiful lawn half a mile, to a pleasant grove commanding a view of miles in extent. Here is a brick chapel, rising for the accommodation of this interesting family; sufficiently large to receive two or three hundred hearers. When completed, in beauty and convenience it will be surpassed by few churches in the Southern country.

On the plantation you might also see other things of great interest. Here a negro is the overseer. Marriages are regularly contracted. No negro is sold, except as a punishment for bad behavior, and a dreaded one it is. None is bought, save for the purpose of uniting families. Here you will near no clanking of chains, no cracking of whips; (I have never seen a blow struck on the estate,) and here last, but not least, you will find a flourishing Temperance Society, embracing almost every individual on the premises. And yet the "Christianity of the South is a chain-forging, a whip-plaiting, marriage discouraging, Bible-withholding Christianity!"

I have confined myself to a single plantation. But I might add many most interesting facts in regard to others, and the state of feeling in general, but I forbear.

Yours, &c

A NEW ENGLAND MAN.

He would now connect the peculiar and local facts of the preceding statement, with the whole community of slave holders, in the same State, and show by competent and disinterested testimony, the real and common state of things. The following extracts were from a letter printed in the New York Observer, of July 25, 1835:

I have resided eight years in South Carolina, and have an extensive acquaintance with the planters of the middle and low country. I have seen much of slavery, and feel competent to speak in regard to many facts connected with it.

What your correspondent has stated of the condition of one plantation, is in its essential points a common case throughout the whole circle of my acquaintance.

The negroes generally, in this State, are well fed, well clothed, and have the means of religious instruction. According to my best judgment, the work which a slave here is required to do, amounts to about one third the ordinary labor commonly performed by a New England farmer. A similar comparison would hold true in regard to the labor of domestics. In the family where I reside, consisting of nine white persons, seven slaves are employed to do the work. This is a common case.

In the village where I live, there are about four hundred slaves, and they generally attend church. More than one hundred of them are members of the church. Perhaps two hundred are assembled every Sabbath in the Sunday Schools. In my own Sunday School are about sixty, and most of them professors of religion. They are perfectly accessible and teachable. In the town of my former residence, in New England, there were three hundred free blacks. No more than eight or ten of these were professors of religion, and not more than twice that number could generally be induced to attend church. They could not be induced to send their children to the district schools, which were always open to them, nor could they generally be hired to work. They are thievish, wretched and troublesome. I have no hesitation in saying, and I say it deliberately, it would be a great blessing to them to exchange conditions with the slaves of the village in which I now live. Their intellectual and moral characters, and real means of improvement, would be promoted by the exchange.

There are doubtless some masters who treat their slaves cruelly in this State, but they are exceptions to the general fact. Public opinion is in a wholesome state and the man who does not treat his slaves kindly, is disgraced.

Great and increasing efforts are made to instruct the slaves in religion, and elevate their characters. Missionaries are employed solely for their benefit. It is very common for ministers to preach in the forenoon to the whites, and in the afternoon of every Sabbath to the blacks. The slaves of my acquaintance are generally contented and happy. The master is reprobated who will divide families. Many thousands of slaves of this State give evidence of piety. In many churches they form the majority. Thousands of them give daily thanks to God that they or their fathers were brought to this land of slavery.

And now, perhaps, I ought to add, that I am not a slave-holder, and do not intend to continue in a slave country; but wherever I may be, I intend to speak the TRUTH.

The next document related particularly to Virginia,—the largest and most powerful of the Slave States; but had also a general reference to the whole south, and the whole question at issue. The sentiments it contained were entitled to extraordinary consideration, on account of the source of them. Mr. Van Renselear, was the son of one of the most wealthy and distinguished citizens of the great free state of New York. He had gone to Virginia, to preach to the slaves. He had every where succeeded; was every where beloved by the slaves, and honored by their masters. He had access to perhaps forty plantations,—on which he from time to time preached,—and which might have been doubled, had his strength been equal to the work. In the midst of his usefulness—the storm of abolition arose. Mr. Thompson, like some baleful star landed on our shores; organized a reckless agitation, made many at the north frantic with folly—and as many at the south furious with passion. Mr. Van Renselear, like many others, saw a storm raging which they had no power to control; and like them withdrew from his benevolent labors. The following brief statements made by him at a great meeting of the colonization society of New York, exhibit his own view of the conduct and duty of the parties.

The Rev. Cortlandt Van Renselear, formerly of Albany, but who has lately resided in Virginia, addressed the meeting, and after alluding to the difference of opinion which prevailed among the friends of Colonization, touching the present condition and treatment of the colored population in this country, proceeded to offer reasons why the people of the North should approach their brethren in the South, who held the control of the colored population, with defference, and in a spirit of kindness and conciliation.

These reasons were briefly as follows: 1. Because the people of the South had not consented to the original introduction of slaves into the country, but had solemnly, earnestly, and repeatedly remonstrated against it. 2. Because having been born in the presence of slavery, and accustomed to it from their infancy, they could not be expected to view it in the same light as we view it at the North. 3. Slavery being there established by law, it was not in the power of individuals to act in regard to it as their personal feelings might dictate. The evil had not been eradicated from the state of New York all at once: It had been a gradual process, commencing with the law 1799 and not consumated until 1827. Ought we to denounce our Southern neighbors if they refuse to do the work at a blow? 4. The constitution of the United States tolerated slavery, in its articles apportioning representation with reference to the slave population, and requiring the surrender of runaway slaves. 5. Slavery had been much mitigated of late years, and the condition of the slave population much ameliorated. Its former rigor was almost unknown, at least in Virginia, and it was lessening continually. It was not consistent with truth to represent the slaves as groaning day and night under the lash of tyranical task-masters. And as to being kept in perfect ignorance, Mr. V. had seldom seen a plantation where some of the slaves could not read, and where they were not encouraged to learn. In South Carolina, where it was said the gospel was systematically denied to the slaves, there were twenty thousand of them church members in the Methodist denomination alone. He knew a small church where out of 70 communicants, 50 were in slavery. 6. There were very great difficulties connected with the work of Abolition. The relations of slavery had ramified themselves through all the relations of society. The slaves were comparatively very ignorant; their character degraded; and they were unqualified for immediate freedom. A blunder in such a concern as universal abolition, would be no light matter. Mr. V. here referred to the result of experience and personal observation on the mind of the well-known Mr. Parker, late a minister of this city, but now of New-Orleans. He had left this city for the South with the feeling of an immediate abolitionist; but he had returned with his views wholly changed. After seeing slavery and slave-holders, and that at the far South, he now declared the idea of immediate and universal abolition to be a gross absurdity. To liberate the two and a half millions of slaves in the midst of us, would be just as wise and as humane, as it would be for the father of a numerous family of young children to take them to the front door, and there bidding them good bye, tell them they were free, and send them out into the world to provide for and govern themselves. 7. Foreign interference was, of necessity, a delicate thing, and ought ever to be attempted with the utmost caution. 8. There was a large amount of unfeigned Christian anxiety at the South to obey God and do good to man. There were many tears and prayers continually poured out over the condition of their colored people, and the most earnest desire to mitigate their sorrows. Were such persons to be approached with vituperation and anathemas? 9. There was no reason why all our sympathies should be confined to the colored race and utterly withheld from our white southern brethren. The apostle Paul exhibited no such spirit. 10. A regard to the interest of the slaves themselves dictated a cautious and prudent and forbearing course. It called for conciliation: for the fate of the slaves depended on the will of their masters, nor could the north prevent it. The late laws against teaching the slaves to read had not been passed until the Southern people found inflamatory publications circulating among the colored people. 11. The spirit of the gospel forbade all violence, abuse and threatening. The apostles had wished to call fire from heaven on those they considered as Christ's enemies; but the Saviour, instead of approving this fiery zeal, had rebuked it. 12. These Southern people, who were represented as so grossly violating all Christian duty, had been the subjects of gracious blessings from God in the outpourings of his Spirit. 13. When God convinced men of error, he did it in the spirit of mercy; we ought to endeavor to do the same thing in the same spirit.

The only remaining testimony relates to the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, in the south west. The letter from which it is taken is written by a son of that Mr. Finley, who perhaps more than any one else, set on foot the original scheme of African colonization; and whose name, as a man of pure and enlarged benevolence and wisdom, the enemies of his plans quote with respect. The son well deserves to have had such a father.

New-Orleans, March 12, 1835.

In my former letter I gave you some account of the leading characters amongst the free people of color who recently sailed from this port in the Brig "Rover." for Liberia. I then promised you in my next to give you some account of the emancipated slaves who sailed in the same expedition. This promise I will now endeavor to fulfil, and I will begin with the case of an individual emancipation, and then state the case of an emancipated family, and conclude with an account of the emancipation of several families by the same individual.

The first case alluded to is that of a young woman emancipated by the last will and testament of the late Judge James Workman, of this city, the same who left a legacy of ten thousand dollars to the American Colonization Society. Judge Workman's will contains the following clause in relation to her, viz:—"I request my statu liber, Kitty, a quarteroon girl, to be set free as soon as convenient. And I request my executors may send her, as she shall prefer, and they think best, either to the Colonization Society at Norfolk, to be sent to Liberia or to Hayti; and if she prefer remaining in Louisiana, that they may endeavor to have an act passed for her emancipation; if the same cannot be attained otherwise; and it is my will that the sum of three hundred dollars be paid to her after she shall be capable of receiving the same. I request my executors to hold in their hands money for this purpose. I particularly request my friend John G. Greene to take charge of this girl, and do the best for her that he can." Mr. Greene provided her with a handsome outfit, carefully attended to her embarkation, and the shipment of her freight, and placed her under the care of the Rev. Gloster Simpson.

The next case, alluded to above, is that of a family of eleven slaves emancipated for faithful and meritorious services, by the will of of the late Mrs. Bullock, of Claiborne county, Miss. Mrs. Moore, the sister and executrix of Mrs. Bullock's estate, gave them 700 dollars to furnish an outfit and give them a start in the colony.

The third and last case alluded to above, consisted of several families, amounting in the whole to 26 individual slaves belonging to the estate of the late James Green, of Adams county, Mississipi. The following interesting circumstances concerning their liberation, were communicated to me by James Railey, Esq., the brother-in-law and acting executor of Mr. Green's Estate. Mr. Green died on the 15th of May, 1832, the proprietor of about 130 slaves, and left Mr. Railey, his brother-in-law, and his sisters, Mrs. Railey and Mrs. Wood, executors of his last will and testament. Mr. Green's will provides for the unconditional emancipation of but one of his slaves—a faithful and intelligent man named Granger, whom Mr. Green had raised and taught to read, write, and keep accounts. He acted as foreman for his master for about five years previous to his death. Mr. Green, by his will, left him 3000 dollars, on condition that he went to Liberia, otherwise, 2000 dollars. Provision was also made in the will for securing to him his wife. Granger has been employed since the death of Mr. Green, until recently, as overseer for Mr. Railey, at a salary of 600 dollars per annum. Granger declines going to Liberia at present on account of the unwillingness of his mother to go there. She is very aged and infirm, and he is very much attached to her. She was a favorite slave of Mr. Green's mother, who emancipated her and left her a legacy of 1000 dollars. Granger came to this city with Mr. Railey to see his friends and former fellow-servants embark: and when he bade them farewell, he said, with a very emphatic tone and manner, "I will follow you in about 18 months."

The executors of Mr. Green's estate were by no means slack in meeting the testator's wishes concerning these people. Mr. Railey accompanied them to New-Orleans, and both he and Mrs. Wood, who also was in New-Orleans while they were preparing to embark, took a lively and active interest in providing them with everything necessary for their comfort on the voyage, and their welfare after their arrival in the Colony, and placed in my hand 7000 dollars for their benefit, one thousand dollars of which were appropriated towards the charter of a vessel to convey them to the Colony, with the privilege of 140 barrels freight—sixteen hundred dollars towards the purchase of an outfit, consisting of mechanics' tools, implements of agriculture, household furniture, medicines, clothing, &c., and the remaining four thousand four hundred dollars, partly invested in trade, goods, and partly in specia, were shipped and consigned to the Governor of Liberia, for their benefit, with an accompanying memorandum made out by Mr. Railey, showing how much was each one's portion.

I will close this communication by relating one additional circumstance communicated to me by Mr. Railey, to show the interest felt by Mr. Green in the success of the scheme of African Colonization. The day previous to his death, he requested Mr. Railey to write a memorandum of several things which he wished done after his death, which memorandum contains the following clause, viz:—"After executing all my wishes as expressed by Will, by this memorandum, and by verbal communications, I sincerely hope there will be a handsome sum left for benefitting the emancipated negroes emigrating from this State to Liberia; and to that end I have more concern than you are aware of."

I am authorized by the Executors to state that there will be a residuum to Mr. Green's estate of twenty or thirty-five thousand dollars, which they intend to appropriate in conformity with the views of Mr. Green expressed above. Yours, &c.,

ROBERT S. FINLEY.

And now I rest the case, and commit the result to an enlightened public. Here are my proofs and arguments showing as I believe conclusively, that the slanderous accusations against my country and my brethren which I have come to this city to repel,—are not only false, but incredible. Here are my testimonials, few and casually gathered up, but yet, as it seems to me, irresistibly convincing, that the people and churches of America—in the very thing charged,—have been and are acting, a wise, self-denying and humane part. That they should move onward in it as rapidly as the happiness of all the parties will allow, must be the wish of all good men. That obstacles should be interposed through the error, the imprudence, or the violence of well meaning but ill-judging persons, is truly deplorable. But that we should be traduced before the whole world, when we are innocent; that we should first be forced into most difficult circumstances, and then forced to manage those circumstances in such a way as to cause our certain ruin, by the very same people; or in default of submitting to both requirments, be forced first into war, and afterwards into a state of bitter mutual contention, only less dreadful than war itself, is outrageous and intolerable. While we justly complain of these things, we discharge ourselves of the guilt attributed to us, and acquit ourselves to God and our consciences, of all the fatal consequences likely to follow such conduct.

---

Mr. THOMPSON rose, and spoke in nearly the following words:

Mr. Chairman,

If I were to say that I rose on the present occasion without a feeling of anxiety regarding the issue of the discussion now drawing to a close, I should say what is not the truth. I cannot remember that I ever stood before an auditory in a more interesting or responsible position. The question before us is one of momentous magnitude; and that branch of it which to-night claims our special attention, is of all others, the most solemn and delicate. I am, therefore, anxious, deeply anxious, respecting the impression which shall rest upon the minds of this assembly, when I have occupied the attention of yourself and of it, for a portion of time equal to that which has been expended by my opponent. If, however, I were to say that I rose with any feeling of alarm in the contemplation of the result of that ordeal through which I am about to pass, I should speak that which would be equally at variance with the truth. So far from indulging any fear, or wishing to propitiate this audience, I pray that for the sake of truth, humanity, and the country represented by my opponent; for the sake of our character in the sight of God at the audit of the great day; there may be a severe, jealous and impartial judgment formed, according to the evidence which shall be submitted. Or, if it be impossible to hold the balance strictly even, I ask that the bias for the present, may be in favor of my opponent. It is true, I am not an American. It is true, I was in the United States but fourteen months. It is true, I never crossed the Potomac; never saw a slave, unless that slave had been brought to the North by some temporary resident. Receive, therefore, with caution and suspicion my statements. Let there be every discount upon my assertions which my youth and rashness, my want of observation and experience demand. At the same time I ask that every proper degree of respect shall be paid to the witnesses I shall bring before you; and that however my testimony may be doubted, theirs at least may have the weight which their character, and station, and opportunities shall appear to entitle them to.

I am accused of monstrous injustice towards America, when I say that in that country slavery wears its most horrid forms. In saying this, I must not be understood as speaking according to the actual physical condition of the slave, or even of his legal and political condition, apart from the religion and institutions of the land in which he lives. I judge not by the number of links in his chain; the number of lashes inflicted on his back; the nature of his toil, or the quality or quantity of his food. It is, when irrespective of the treatment of the body, I find two millions of human beings regarded as merchandise; ranked with the beasts of the field, and reduced by the neglect of their immortal minds to the condition of heathens; it is when I find this awful system in full operation, surrounded by the barriers and safeguards of the Law and the Constitution, in the United States of North America; the land of Republicanism, and Christianity, and Revivals, that I say, Slavery in America wears a form more horrid than in any other part of the world. Yes, Sir; when I am told that in that land, liberty is enjoyed to a greater extent than in any other country; that the principles on which this liberty and independence rest are these: "God created all men free and equal." "Resistance to Tyrants is obedience to God;" and see also two millions of captives; their dungeon barred and watched by proud Republicans, and boasting Christians; I turn with horror and indignation away, exclaiming as I quit the sickening scene, Slavery wears its most loathsome form in the United States of America!

Before I come to that portion of my Address which I shall present as a reply to Mr. Breckinridge, I beg to say one word in vindication of the character and temper of American Abolitionists; and I am glad on this occasion to be able to cite the testimony of a gentleman, whom Mr. Breckinridge has not declined to call his friend; I mean James G. Birney, Esq., formerly residing in the same State with Mr. B., and now in Cincinnati. Mr. Birney made a visit to the North last year, for the purpose of ascertaining for himself, by actual observation and intercourse, the real character of the Abolitionists, and the manner in which they prosecuted their work. Having done this, he thus writes:

Last spring I attended the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention; was present at the several meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York, and at the Anti-Slavery Convention held in Boston. On these several occasions, I became acquainted, and deliberated with, it may be, not less than one thousand persons, who may be fairly set down as among the most intelligent of the abolitionists. Subjects on which the most diverse opinions were entertained, and which to ambitious and untrained minds would be agitating and dissensious in the extreme, were discussed with the most calm and unruffled composure. And while some of the leading journals were teeming with the foulest and the falsest charges of moral and political turpitude; while there were produced in their assemblies placards, calling on the mob for appropriate deeds, and designating the time and place of holding their meetings, that its violence might know at what point it might most effectually spend itself; yet, never elsewhere have I seen so much of sedate deliberation of sober conclusion, of dignified moderation, sanctified by earnest prayer to God, not only for the oppressed, but for the oppressor of his fellow; not only for such as they loved, but for their slanderers, and persecutors, and enemies.

The above is a fair account, so far as my knowledge enables me to speak, of the character of those whom you are pleased to describe "a band of fanatical abolitionists." Light and rash minds, unaccustomed to penetrate to the real causes of great revolutions in public sentiment, will, of course, think and speak contemptuously of them, while the philosophic observer clearly sees, that such antagonists of error, armed with so powerful a weapon as the Truth, must, at all times, be invincible; and that in the end they will be triumphant.

A word, too, before I come to the state of the churches, with regard to Mr. Breckinridge's concluding topic last evening; to which I had not, of course, any opportunity to reply; and, as the time allotted for this discussion is now determined, I shall be permitted to dwell a few moments on the subject. Mr. Breckinridge did, I am ready to acknowledge, with tolerable fairness, state the views of the abolitionists with regard to prejudice against color; that it was sinful, that it ought to be abandoned, and that the colored man should be raised to the enjoyment of equal civil and religious privileges with the whites. But after he had laid down, generally speaking correctly, the views of the abolitionists, he proceeded to put the most unfair interpretation upon those views, and strangely contended that they were directly aiming to accomplish the amalgamation of the races in the fullest sense of that word. Once again, I deny this. Once again I appeal to all that the abolitionists have ever written or spoken: to their published, official, solemn, authoritative disclaimers; and I say on my behalf and on theirs, that with the intermixture of "the races," as they are called, (a phrase I do not like,) the abolitionists have nothing to do. What they have ever contended for is this, that the colored man should now be delivered from the condition of a beast; that he should cease to be regarded as the property of his fellow man; and that according to the laws of the state regulating the qualifications of citizens, he should be admitted to a participation of the privileges that are enjoyed by other classes of the community. We have never asked for more. We have left the doctrine of amalgamation to be settled by our opponents. The slave holders are the amalgamationists whose licentiousness has gone far to put an end to the existence of a black race in the South, and who are still carrying on, to use their own expression, "a bleaching system," whitening the population of the South, so that you may now discover all shades of colored persons; from those who are so fair that they are scarcely distinguishable from the whites, to the pure black of the unmixed negro. But my opponent defeated himself. While attempting to expose the folly and wickedness of amalgamation, he at the same time contended that the thing was physically impossible; that even a partial amalgamation could only be brought about by polygamy or prostitution, but that general amalgamation was hopeless, because physically impossible. If the thing be utterly beyond the reach of the abolitionists, why dread it as an evil? Why not let the abolitionists pursue their foolish and impracticable schemes? Why so much wrath against them for aiming at that which nature has rendered unattainable. I leave Mr. Breckinridge to find his way out of this difficulty in the best manner he is able.

Again, we are told, that in attempting to bring about amalgamation, and in preventing Colonization, we are interfering with the purposes of God; fighting against His ordinances, and exposing Africa to the horrors of extermination, should the descendants of Shem or Japhet colonize her shores, and not the black man who has sprung from her tribes. I confess I am somewhat surprised, when told by a Presbyterian clergyman of Calvinistic sentiments, that I am to regulate my conduct towards my fellow-men by the purposes of God, rather than by the law of God. This is surely a new doctrine! What, I ask, have I to do with the decrees of the Almighty? Has he not given me a law by which to walk? Has he not told me to love my neighbor as myself? to "honor all men?" Am I not told that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth? Where is the prohibition to marry with Shem or Ham. I know of no directions in the Old Testament respecting marriages, save such as were founded on religious differences, and I have yet to learn that there are any in the New Testament. That blessed Book declares, that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but all are one. The only injunction I am aware of is this, "be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."

Mr. Breckinridge made a considerable parade of his knowledge of Universal History, and pretended to build his theory upon the most correct historical data. While upon this subject of amalgamation and extermination, I will take the liberty of submitting one or two inquiries to Mr. Breckinridge.

Is there any law in America forbidding ministers to celebrate marriages between Japhethite American Christians and Jewesses, (by birth, even if Christians by faith,) and Jews, (even if Christians.) to marry Japhethite, American females? If there be not, then, why may Shem and Japhet intermarry, but Ham with neither? Again: If there be no such law, then the doctrine about Noah's three sons, is not a principle on which the American people act, but Mr. B.'s individual dogma, got up to defend a line of conduct really proceeding without reference to any such principle. If it be said that Jewish and Japhethite Americans are very nearly, if not altogether, of the same color; and that there are no political evils to be dreaded from the intermixture of Jews with Japhethites; I reply, that, admitting the truth of both these representations, is not the sin of mixing Noah's sons, and counter-working the designs of God, the same in the case of Shem and Japhet as it would be in the case of Japhet or Shem with the tribes of Ham? Again,

Did the Romans, (Japhethites,) exterminate the Jews, (Shemites?)

Did the Arab Shemite conquerors of Egypt exterminate the ancient inhabitants (Hamites,) who still exist, and are known by the name of Copts or Cophti?

Did not the Tartars, now Turks, a (Japhethite tribe,) when they conquered the Caliphs, embrace the religion of the conquered, who were Mohamedans and Shemites?

Did not the Shemite Mohamedans conquer the Persians, (Japhethites,) a part of whom, who would not embrace the Mohamedan religion, and could not be tolerated by the Mohamedans in theirs, (viz. fire worship,) flee to India, where they still exist, known by the name of Guebers, while the rest of the people, embracing Mohamedanism, amalgamated with their conquerors; and is not the modern Persian language a proof of this, in which all the terms of religion and science are Arabic, (Shemite,) the rest of the language being a colluvies of the Deri, Zend, and Pehlavi dialects, which the most eminent phylologists consider as all resolvable into Sanscrit, the most ancient Japhethite speech existing?

The cases of the Romans and Jews, and of the Arab conquerors of Egypt and the Copts, are instances of conquest without extermination; the parties remaining dissevered by religious differences. The cases of the Tartar-Turks, and the Arabs, and of the Arabs and the Persians, are cases of conquest without extermination, and with amalgamation; the conquerors in the first case having adopted the religion of the conquered, and the conquered in the second case, that of the conquerors.

Instead of the Americans proceeding in their conduct towards the colored people with any reference either to the divine laws or the divine decrees, they act solely under the influence of their pride and prejudice. How their prejudice was in the first place produced, it is not necessary at this time to inquire. I may just remark that color has long been the badge of slavery. Long have the negroes been an enslaved and degraded class. The child is tutored to look upon a colored man as an inferior, and this feeling of superiority, implanted early in the mind of the child, growing with his growth, and strengthening with his strength, becomes at last a confirmed and almost invincible principle, disposing him with eagerness to adopt any views of revelation which will permit him to cherish and gratify his pride and hatred towards the colored man. Hence has arisen the aristocracy of the skin. Hence the many lamentable departures from the spirit and precepts of the gospel, every day witnessed in the United Slates. Two illustrations of the force of prejudice are now before me. The first is a short article from the New York Evangelist, copied into the Scottish Guardian of this city. I will read it entire. It is as follows:

A Hard Case. A native born American applied to our authorities this morning for a license to drive a cart. He has been for years employed as a porter in Pearl Street, principally among the booksellers, who were his petitioners to the number of forty firms. He is an honest, temperate, and in every respect a worthy man; of an amiable disposition, muscular frame, and of good address, and every way calculated for the situation he seeks; besides being a member of the Society of Friends, a sufficient recommendation of itself; for the office is now filled in part by swearing, drunken, quarrelling foreigners, who are daily disturbing the quiet of our streets by their broils; and endangering the lives of our citizens by their infuriate conduct.

Wm. S. Hewlett was refused by our Mayor, on the ground of public opinion! because

"——guilty of a skin
Not colored like his own."

Hewlett owns property in William Street, to the amount of 20,000 dollars; but prefers, unlike many of no more income, a life of industry and economy, to seeking "otium cum dignitate."

"What man seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head to own himself a man."

The next is found in a letter written by a Professor Smith, of the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, who, while vindicating the University from the charge of having expelled a young man "for the crime of color," makes the following admission:

"That it would be difficult, in the present state of public feeling, to preserve a colored individual from inquietude in any of our collegiate schools, and to render his connection with them tolerable, is not denied."

I come now, (continued Mr. T.) to the state of the American Churches, in regard to Slavery; and to attempt a justification of the heavy charges I have brought against them. If at the close of this address it shall appear that I have misrepresented the Christians of America; that I have stated as facts, things which are untrue, I solemnly call upon those who have hitherto vindicated my reputation, and sustained me as the truthful advocate of the cause of human rights, to discard me as utterly disqualified to be their representative in so sacred a work, because, capable of pleading for JUSTICE at the expense of TRUTH.

Of slaveholding ministers in America, Mr. Breckinridge has asserted, that they are as ONE IN A THOUSAND, or at most, as ONE IN FIVE HUNDRED. The first document I shall quote to disprove this assertion, will be a letter in the "Southern Religious Telegraph," of October 31, 1835, addressed to the Presbyterian Clergy of Virginia; written to warn those ministers against pursuits calculated to injure their spirituality, destroy their usefulness, and prevent those revivals of religion with which other portions of the Church of Christ had been favored; also to account for an apparent declension in piety in the State generally. It is proper to remark, that the letter from which I make the present extract, was not written to promote the cause of abolition; that the writer never imagined it would be used on such an occasion; and that the newspaper in which it appears is pro-slavery to the very core.

"In one region of country, where I am acquainted, of rather more than THIRTY Presbyterian ministers, including missionaries, TWENTY are farmers, viz. (planters and SLAVEHOLDERS,) ON A PRETTY EXTENSIVE SCALE; three are school teachers; one is a farmer and a teacher; one, a farmer and a merchant, and joint proprietor of iron works, which must be in operation on the Sabbath; and one is a farmer and editor of a political newspaper. These farmers generally superintend their own business. THEY OVERSEE THEIR NEGROES, attend to their stock, make purchases, and visit the markets to make sale of their crops. They necessarily have much intercourse with their neighbors on worldly business, and not unfrequently come into unpleasant collision with the merchants."

O, Sir, what a revelation of things is here! These are not the calumnies of George Thompson, but the confessions of one, striving earnestly to awaken the attention of the Virginia clergy to a sense of the degradation and barrenness of the church, and to direct their attention to the main causes of such lamentable effects.

Next, permit me to request your attention to an extract from "An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, proposing a plan for the instruction and emancipation of their slaves; by a Committee of the SYNOD OF KENTUCKY. Cincinnati: published by Eli Taylor, 1835." We shall, in this document, get at the opinion of men, sensitively jealous for the honor, purity, and usefulness of the Presbyterian churches, from which Mr. Breckinridge is A DELEGATE. What say they of slavery in general, and the practice of THEIR CHURCH in particular:

"Brutal stripes, and all the various kinds of personal indignities, are not the only species of cruelty, which slavery licenses. The law does not recognize the family relations of a slave; and extends to him no protection in the enjoyment of domestic endearments. The members of a slave family may be forcibly separated, so that they shall never more meet until the final judgment. And cupidity often induces the masters to practise what the law allows. Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim with a trumpet-tongue, the iniquity and cruelty of our system. The cry of these sufferers goes up to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. There is not a neighborhood, where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts held dear. Our church, years ago, raised its voice by solemn warning against this flagrant violation of every principle of mercy, justice, and humanity. Yet WE BLUSH TO ANNOUNCE TO YOU AND TO THE WORLD, THAT, THIS WARNING HAS BEEN OFTEN DISREGARDED, EVEN BY THOSE WHO HOLD TO OUR COMMUNION. CASES HAVE OCCURRED, IN OUR OWN DENOMINATION, WHERE PROFESSORS OF THE RELIGION OF MERCY HAVE TORN THE MOTHER FROM HER CHILDREN, AND SENT HER INTO A MERCILESS AND RETURNLESS EXILE. YET ACTS OF DISCIPLINE HAVE RARELY FOLLOWED SUCH CONDUCT."

Follow me now into the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, convened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May, 1835, and let the individual who addresses you be forgotten, while you listen to the things uttered in the midst of that solemn convocation. At the time when the passages I am about to read, were spoken, there were sitting in that Assembly, men from all parts of the country. The Southern Churches fully represented by row upon row of ministers and elders from every region of the slaveholding States. In that Assembly, one year from this time, did the Rev. J. H. Dickey, of the Chilicothe Presbytery, Ohio, (a clergyman who had passed thirty years of his life in a slave State.) and Mr. Stewart, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of Schuyler, Illinois, make the following statements, which have remained, I believe, uncontradicted to this hour:

"He (Mr. Dickey,) believed there were many, and great evils in the Presbyterian Church; but the doctrine of slaveholding, he was fully persuaded, was the worst heresy now found in the Church."

"Mr. STEWART—I hope this Assembly are prepared to come out fully, and declare their sentiments, that slaveholding is a most flagrant and heinous SIN. Let us not pass it by in this indirect way, while so many thousands and thousands of our fellow-creatures are writhing under the lash, often inflicted too by MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH."

---

"IN THIS CHURCH, a man may take a free born child, force it away from its parents, to whom God gave it in charge, saying, 'Bring it up for me,' and sell it as a beast, or hold it in perpetual bondage, and not only escape corporal punishment, but really be esteemed an excellent Christian. NAY, EVEN MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, may engage in this unholy traffic, and yet sustain their high and holy calling."

---

"ELDERS, MINISTERS, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, ARE WITH BOTH HANDS ENGAGED IN THE PRACTICE. * * * * * * A Slave-holder who is making gains by the trade, may have as good a character for honesty as any other man."

---

"No language can paint the injustice and abominations of slavery, But in these United States, this vast amount of moral turpitude is (as I believe) justly chargeable to the Church. I do not mean to say those church members who actually engage in this diabolical practice, but I mean to say THE CHURCH. Yes, Sir, all the infidelity that is the result of this unjust conduct of the professed followers of CHRIST; all the unholy amalgamation; all the tears and groans; all the eyes that have been literally plucked from their sockets; all the pains and violent deaths from the lash, and the various engines of torture, and all the souls that are, or will be eternally damned, as a consequence of slavery in these United States, ARE ALL JUSTLY CHARGEABLE TO THE CHURCH; AND HOW MUCH FALLS TO THE SHARE OF THIS PARTICULAR CHURCH YOU CAN ESTIMATE AS WELL AS I."

---

"The judgments of God are staring this Church full in the face, and threatening her dissolution. She is all life and nerve in matters of doctrine, and on some points where men may honestly differ; while sins of a crimson dye are committed in open day, BY MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH WITH PERFECT IMPUNITY."

I appeal to you, Sir, and this audience; did George Thompson ever utter charges against the American churches more awful than those contained in the extracts I have read—extracts from speeches made in the General Assembly of the body from which Mr. Breckinridge is a delegate? I leave for the present the Presbyterians, and proceed to notice the state of the

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.

Mr. Breckinridge displayed great regard for the reputation of this body. He believed they were almost free from the sin of slaveholding—their discipline was most emphatic in its condemnation of it, and he defied me to show that any Methodist was engaged in the infernal practice of slave trading. First, as to the probable extent of slavery in the church. On this point I shall quote from a solemn and authenticated document issued by a number of ministers in the Methodist Episcopal body in New England, entitled:—

"An appeal on the subject of Slavery, addressed to the members of the New England and New Hampshire conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church;" and signed by

SHIPLEY W. WILSON.
ABRAM D. MERRILL.
LA ROY SUNDERLAND.
GEORGE STORRS.
JARED PERKINS.

Boston, Dec. 19th, 1834.

In answer to the question—

"When will slavery cease from our church, if we continue to alter our rules against it as we have done for some years past?" they observe—

"But we will not dwell on this part of our subject; it is painful enough to think of; and as members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and as Methodist preachers, we readily confess we are exceedingly afflicted with a view of it, and still more with a knowledge of the fact, that the "great evil" of slavery has been increasing, both among the membership and ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at a fearful rate, for thirty or forty years past. The general minutes of our Annual Conferences, announce about 80,000 colored members in our church; and it is highly probable, from various reasons which might be named, that as many as sixty thousand, or upwards of these, are slaves; but what proportion of these and others, are enslaved by the Methodist members and Methodist preachers, we have no means of determining precisely; but the alterations which have been made in the discipline, show at once that the number is neither few nor small; and if this evil was a "great" one fifty years ago, what must it be now? What will it be fifty or a hundred years hence, should the discipline be ALTERED as it has been during half a century past? Who can tell where this "great" and growing "evil," will end? We frequently hear Christians and Christian ministers expressing the greatest fears for the safety of the "political" union of these United States, whenever the subject of slavery is mentioned; but no fears as to the prosperity and peace of the Christian church, though this "evil" be ever so "great," and though it be increased every day a thousand fold. But can it be supposed that any branch of the Christian church is in a healthy and prosperous state, while it slumbers and nurses in its bosom so great an evil."

In reply to the challenge to produce one instance of a slave trading Methodist, I give the following from "Zion's Watchman," a Methodist newspaper, published in New York. It is from a letter of a correspondent of that paper:

"A man came among us where I was preaching, a class-leader, from Georgia, having a regular certificate, who appeared to be very zealous, exhorting and praying in our meetings, &c. I thought I had got an excellent helper; but, on inquiring his business, I found he was a SLAVE TRADER: come on purpose to buy up men, women, and children, to drive to the South!!! I expostulated with him; but he said it was not thought wrong where he came from. I told him we could not countenance such a thing here, and that we could hold no fellowship with him." He farther told me that on inquiring of a slave he had with him, what sort of a master he was, he replied, "I have had four masters, but this is the most cruel of them all;" and told him, as a proof of it, to look at his back, which, said the minister, "was cut with a whip, from his head to his heels!!" The Rev. S. W. Wilson, of Andover, United States, gives also an extract of a letter he had seen from a gentleman of high standing, who was at the South at the time of writing, which says, "The South is too much interested in the continuance of slavery, to hear any thing upon the subject. The preachers of the gospel are in the same condemnation, and METHODIST PREACHERS ESPECIALLY. The principal reason why the Methodists in these regions are more numerous and popular than other denominations is, THEY STICK SO CLOSELY TO SLAVERY!! THEY DENOUNCE BOTH THE ABOLITIONISTS AND THE COLONIZATIONISTS."

To show the extent to which THE BAPTIST CHURCHES SHARE THE GUILT OF THE SYSTEM OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA, it will be sufficient to read an extract from a letter addressed to the Board of Baptist ministers in and near London, by the Rev. Lucius Bolles, D. D., the Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. The testimony is the stronger, because the whole letter is a carefully written apology for Southern religious slaveholders, and an attempt to silence the remonstrances of the English churches.

"There is a pleasing degree of union among the multiplying thousands of Baptists throughout the land. Brethren from all parts of the country meet in one General Convention and co-operate in sending the gospel to the heathen. Our Southern brethren are liberal and zealous in the promotion of every holy enterprize for the extension of the gospel. THEY ARE, GENERALLY, BOTH MINISTERS AND PEOPLE, SLAVE-HOLDERS."

In this connection, I may notice the recommendation of the work of Drs. Cox and Hoby. We are assured by Mr. Breckinridge, (though he confesses he has not read the book,) that every representation it contains relative to slavery among "the Baptists in America," may be relied on. That book, thus endorsed by Mr. B., informs us that the deputation were permitted to sit in the convention at Richmond, Virginia, only on condition of profound silence, touching the wrongs of more than two millions of heathenized slaves. We are gravely told that the introduction of abolition would have been "an INTRUSION, as RUDE as it would have been UNWELCOME." It would, says the Delegates, have "FRUSTRATED every object of our mission;" "awakened HOSTILITY, and kindled DISLIKE;" "roused into EMBITTERED ACTIVITY feelings between Christian brethren, which must have SEVERED the Baptist churches." It would have occasioned the "UTTER CONFUSION OF ALL ORDER, the RUIN of all Christian feeling," and "THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP;" and the Convention would either have been "DISSOLVED" by "MAGISTERIAL INFLUENCE," or "THE DELEGATES WOULD HAVE DISSOLVED THEMSELVES." Yet this was "a sacred and heavenly meeting," in which "the kindliest emotions, the warmest affections, the loveliest spirit towards ourselves, (the Baptist Delegates,) towards England and mankind" existed! Oh, Sir, is it possible to draw a more affecting picture of the withering and corrupting influences of slavery, than is here presented to our view in this description of the triennial convention of Baptist ministers, assembled in the city of Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1835.

AMOS DRESSER'S CASE.

I proceed to notice the case of Amos Dresser; the young man who was so inhumanly tortured by the citizens and professing Christians of the city of Nashville, Tennessee. I can assure my opponent, that the discrepancy in my statements which he has noticed, is an error in reporting. I am not aware of having ever stated the number of elders in the committee to be eleven. My statement of the case has always been simply this—that Mr. Dresser, a pious and respectable young man, was apprehended in Nashville, on suspicion of being an abolitionist; brought before a Vigilance Committee, and, according to "Lynch Law," was sentenced to receive twenty lashes with a cowskin, on his bare back. That he was so punished; and that upon the Committee were seven elders of the Presbyterian church, and one Campbellite minister. The whole case as narrated by Mr. Dresser, and published in the Cincinnati Gazette, is now before me. The Committee, by which Mr. Dresser was tried and sentenced, is called a "Committee of Vigilance and Safety."

The following are the names of the seven elders in the Presbyterian Church:

JOHN NICHOL,
ALPHA KINGSLEY,
A. A. CASSEDAY,
WM. ARMSTRONG,
SAMUEL SEAY,
S. V. D. STOUT.
S. C. ROBINSON.
The name of the Campbellite Minister, THOMAS CLAIBORNE.

The Committee, after examining his books, papers, and private memoranda, and hearing his defence, found him guilty—1st. "Of being a member of an Anti-Slavery Society in Ohio." 2d. "Of having in his possession periodicals published by the American Anti-Slavery Society." And 3d. "They BELIEVED he had circulated these periodicals, and advocated in the community the principles they inculcated." The Chairman, (says Mr. Dresser,) then pronounced that I was condemned to receive twenty lashes on my bare back, and ordered to leave the place in twenty-four hours. This was not an hour previous to the commencement of the Sabbath. Mr. Dresser gives the following account of the infliction of the sentence:

"I knelt to receive the punishment, which was inflicted by Mr. Braughton, the city officer, with a HEAVY COWSKIN. When the infliction ceased, an involuntary feeling of thanksgiving to God, for the fortitude with which I had been enabled to endure it, arose in my soul, to which I began aloud to give utterance. The death-like silence that prevailed for a moment, was suddenly broken, with loud exclamations, "G—d d—m him, stop his praying." I was raised to my feet by Mr. Braughton, and conducted by him to my lodging, where it was thought safe for me to remain but for a few moments.

"Among my triers, there was a great portion of the respectability of Nashville. Nearly half the whole number, professors of Christianity, the reputed stay of the church, supporters of the cause of benevolence in the form of tract and missionary societies and Sabbath schools, several members and most of the elders of the Presbyterian church, from whose hands, but a few days before, I had received the emblems of the broken body, and shed blood of our blessed Saviour." (!!!!)

Mr. Breckinridge has twice referred to the appearance of a runaway slave at my lectures in London, and has accused me of carrying him about with me, to enact interludes during my meeting. I can assure Mr. Breckinridge that I never had any thing to do with the attendance of Moses Roper at my meetings, or with the speeches he delivered. On neither of the occasions mentioned had I any knowledge of his being in the chapel until I found him among the rest of my auditors. As for denying the facts stated by him, knowing as I do the brutalizing effects of slavery, and the state of society in the slave States of America, it is out of the question. I see nothing in the facts stated by Moses Roper at all improbable. Since I last came to this city, I have read in an American newspaper, an account of an affair in Tennessee, at which the blood runs cold. A black man having committed some crime, was lodged in prison by the authorities, but being demanded by the citizens, was given up to them, tied to a tree, and BURNT ALIVE! During my residence in the United States, a negro was burnt alive, according to a sentence given by one of the constituted tribunals of the State! It was called an exemplary punishment, and many of the papers throughout the country were filled with long and learned articles, justifying the horrid outrage. Mr. Breckinridge may point to the laws and the constitution of the country, but I tell him they and the authorities appointed to enforce them are alike powerless. I point him to the atrocities of Lynch law all over the land; to the brutal massacre of the gamblers in Mississippi, where men in the broad daylight were dragged forth, and tied by the neck to branches of trees, their eyes starting from their sockets, and their wives driven across the river, in open boats; their lives threatened, for daring to ask for the dead bodies of their husbands. I ask if any law reached the fiends in human shape, who perpetrated these deeds. I ask Mr. Breckinridge if any law punished the felons of Charleston, who, seizing the public conveyances, violated the constitution, and the law of the State, by robbing the mail bags of their contents, and burning them? Did not the Post Master General encouragingly say, "I cannot sanction, but I will not condemn what you have done. In your circumstances I would have acted in a similar manner." Need I remind Mr. Breckinridge of the mobs at the North; the riots of New York; the sacking of Mr. Tappan's house, and the demolition of colored schools? Laws there may be, but while slavery exists, and is defended by public sentiment, and while the ferocious prejudice against color remains, they will want the "executory principle," without which they are but cruel mockery.

A glance at the moral and religious state of the slave population will show the amount of care and attention exercised by the Christian churches at the South.

What says the Rev. C. C. Jones, in a sermon preached before two associations of planters in Georgia, in 1831?

"Generally speaking, they (the slaves,) appear to us to be without God, and without hope in the world, a NATION OF HEATHEN in our very midst. We cannot cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life, for we WITHHOLD the Bible from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, while we will not use the means to have it read and explained to them. The cry of our perishing servants comes up to us from the sultry plains as they bend at their toil; it comes up from their humble cottages when they return at evening to rest their weary limbs; it comes up to us from the midst of their ignorance, and superstition, and adultery, and lewdness. We have manifested no emotions of horror at abandoning the souls of our servants to the adversary, the roaring lion that walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

Again: what said the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in a report on the state of the colored population, in respect of religious instruction?

"Who would credit it, that in these years of revivals and benevolent effort, in this Christian Republic, there are over TWO MILLIONS of human beings in the condition of HEATHEN, and in some respects in a worse condition. From long continued and close observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition is such, that they may justly be considered the HEATHEN of this Christian country, and will bear comparison with heathen in any country of the world. The negroes are destitute of the gospel, and EVER WILL BE UNDER THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS. In the vast field extending from an entire State beyond the Potomac, to the Sabine River, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are to the best of our knowledge, not TWELVE men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the negroes. In the present state of feeling in the South, a ministry of their own color could neither be obtained NOR TOLERATED."

Again: what says a writer in a recent number of the Charleston, South Carolina, Observer?

"Let us establish missionaries among our negroes, who, in view of religious knowledge, are as debasingly ignorant as any one on the coast of Africa; for I hazard the assertion, that throughout the bounds of our Synod, there are at least one hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same language as ourselves, who never HEARD of the plan of salvation by a Redeemer."

A writer in the Western Luminary, a respectable religious paper in Lexington, Kentucky, says,

"I proclaim it abroad to the Christian world, that heathenism is as real in the slave States as it is in the South Sea Islands, and that our negroes are as justly objects of attention to the American and other Boards of Foreign Missions, as the Indians of the Western wilds. What is it constitutes heathenism? Is it to be destitute of a knowledge of God; of his holy word; never to have heard scarcely a sentence of it read through life; to know little or nothing of the history, character, instruction and mission of Jesus Christ; to be almost totally devoid of moral knowledge and feeling, of sentiments of probity, truth and chastity? If this constitutes heathenism, then are there thousands, millions, of heathen in our beloved land. There is one topic to which I will allude, which will serve to establish the heathenism of this population. I allude to the universal licentiousness which prevails. It may be said emphatically, that chastity is no virtue among them; that its violation neither injures female character in their own estimation, or that of their master or mistress. No instruction is ever given; no censure pronounced. I speak not of the world; I speak of Christian families generally."

Again: I give the words of the son of a Kentucky slaveholder, who became an abolitionist at Lane Seminary, and has since induced his father to emancipate his slaves. Hear James A. Thome.

"Licentiousness. I shall not speak of the far South, whose sons are fast melting away under the UNBLUSHING PROFLIGACY which prevails. I allude to the slaveholding West. It is well known that the slave lodgings, I refer now to village slaves, are exposed to the entrance of strangers every hour of the night, and that the SLEEPING APARTMENTS OF BOTH SEXES ARE COMMON.

"It is also a fact, that there is no allowed intercourse between the families and servants, after the work of the day is over. The family, assembled for the evening, enjoy a conversation elevating and instructive. But the poor slaves are thrust out. No ties of sacred home thrown around them; no moral instruction to compensate for the toils of the day; no intercourse as of man with man; and should one of the younger members of the family, led by curiosity, steal out into the filthy kitchen, the child is speedily called back, thinking itself happy if it escape an angry rebuke. Why is this? The dread of moral contamination. Most excellent reason; but it reveals a horrid picture. THE SLAVE CUT OFF FROM ALL COMMUNITY OF FEELING WITH THEIR MASTER, ROAM OVER THE VILLAGE STREETS, SHOCKING THE EAR WITH THEIR VULGAR JESTINGS, AND VOLUPTUOUS SONGS, OR OPENING THEIR KITCHENS TO THE RECEPTION OF THE NEIGHBORING BLACKS, THEY PASS THE EVENING IN GAMBLING, DANCING, DRINKING, AND THE MOST OBSCENE CONVERSATION, KEPT UP UNTIL THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT, THEN CROWN THE SCENE WITH INDISCRIMINATE DEBAUCHERY. WHERE DO THESE THINGS OCCUR? IN THE KITCHENS OF CHURCH MEMBERS AND ELDERS!

I shall now take the liberty of reading two letters from highly respectable gentlemen in the South, to friends in New England. The first is from a clergyman in North Carolina, to one of the Professors in Bowdoin College, Maine.

"You remember that when I was with you last summer, I was much opposed to the Anti-Slavery Society, and contended that the colonization scheme was a full, and the only remedy, for the evils of slavery, and that I made a sort of talk before the students on the subject of slavery. It was a poor talk, for it was a miserable theme. I do not think what I said had any effect against the Anti-Slavery people, or at all strengthened the cause of the Colonization Society. Be this as it may, I feel it a duty I owe both to myself and to the friends I have with you, to say, that my views and feelings, which were then wavering, have since, after mature deliberation and much prayer, been entirely changed, and that I am now a strong Anti-Slavery man. Yes, after mature reflection, I am the sworn enemy of slavery in all its forms, with all its evils. Henceforth it is a part of my religion to oppose slavery. I am greatly surprised, that I should in any form have been the apologist of a system, so full of deadly poison to all holiness and benevolence as slavery, the concocted essence of fraud, selfishness, and cold-hearted tyranny, and the fruitful parent of unnumbered evils, both to the oppressor and the oppressed, the one thousandth part of which has never been brought to light.

"Do you ask, why this change, after residing in a slave country for twenty years. You recollect the lines of Pope, beginning,

'Vice is a monster of such frightful mein,
That to be hated, needs but to be seen.'

I had become so familiar with the loathsome features of slavery, that they ceased to offend; besides, I had become a Southern man in all my feelings, and it is a part of our creed to defend slavery. I had also considered it was impossible to free the slaves in this country. But it is unnecessary to investigate the ground of my former opinions. As to the Colonization Society, I have this among many objections that it has two faces, one for the North, and a very different one for the South. If the agents of the Colonization Society will come here and say what I heard them say in New York, I will insure them a good coat of tar and feathers for their labor. That Society has few friends here, a few large slaveholders who by it hope to send off the free people in their neighborhood, and a few others, whose consciences are not quite easy, get a salvo by advocating the Colonization Society. These last are many of them ministers. The mass of the people regard it as a Yankee plan, and hate it of course. I remember, among other things, I told the students in my address, that the only way to do away slavery was to give us more religion. This argument then seemed to be good. Send us preachers said I, and as religion spreads, slavery will melt away, it cannot stand the gospel. I did not reflect that the religion we have here, justifies and upholds slavery. Our religion does not permit the preacher to touch the subject. It is not the whole gospel. I have not yet seen the man who would venture to take for his text, 'Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal.' If every man in the country was a professor of religion, the religion we have, it would not much help the cause. I think that I can safely say that as a general thing, the Presbyterians are by far the best masters, and give more attention to the religious instruction of their slaves than others, but I know one of these, an elder, who contends that slavery is no violation of the law, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' and whose slaves are driven in the field with the long whip! But it is just to add, that they are not over-worked, and they are well fed and clothed. You are at liberty to inform the students, and others who heard me on that occasion, that I am now an anti-slavery man; but I do not wish the letter published with my name to it, as it would be copied by other papers, and find its way back, and do me injury, for no man is free, fully to express his thoughts in this country."

The next is from a merchant in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Clergyman in New Hampshire.

Saint Louis, Jan. 18, 1835.

Very Dear Brother.

I want to say a good deal to you, Brother, on the subject, which seems to interest you much at this time. I am now, and was before I left Hartford, an abolitionist; and that too, from deep and thorough conviction that the eternal rule of right requires the immediate freedom of every bond-man in this and every other country. Since my residence in this slaveholding State, I have seen nothing which should tend to alter my previous sentiments on this subject, on the contrary much to confirm me in them. You, who reside in happy New England, can have but very faint conceptions of the blighting and corrupting influence of Slavery on a community. Although in Missouri we witness Slavery in its mildest form, yet it is enough to sicken the heart of benevolence to witness its effects on society generally, and its awfully demoralizing influence on the slaves themselves: being counted as property among the cattle and flocks of their possessors, (forgive the word,) their standard of morality and virtue is on a level (generally) with the beasts with which they are classed: and I am credibly informed that many emigrants from the slave states, who own plantations on the Missouri River, finding themselves disqualified by their former habits of indolence to compete with emigrants of another character in enterprize, turn their attention to the raising of slaves as they would cattle, to be sold to the Negro dealers to go down the river. What sort of standard of virtue, think you, will have place on such a plantation; and at what period in the history of our country will these degraded sons of Africa be christianized under existing circumstances.

The ungodly man who is a slaveholder, is well enough pleased with the efforts and views of the Colonization Society, because he can manage to throw off responsibility, and date far a-head the time when he shall be called upon to do right; but state to him the sentiments and principles of the abolitionists, and he at once begins to froth and rage—all the malignity of his nature is called into action—and why? He feels the pressure of responsibility, he acts very like an impenitent sinner, pricked with the truth, and like him, too, he either comes on the side of right, or is hardened into a stern opposer. It is gratifying to notice the gradual influence the abolition principles are obtaining over the hearts and consciences of every slaveholding community, especially over the hearts of Christian slaveholders. Many of them who have allowed the subject to have a place in their thoughts, are greatly agitated, and dare not sell or buy again for their peace-sake. But more of this another time."

I shall now lay before the meeting the sentiments of General George M'Duffie, Governor of the State of South Carolina; as contained in a message delivered by him to the two branches of the Legislature, towards the close of the last year. I charge these sentiments upon the State, 1st, because the representatives of its citizens, in a series of resolutions presented to the Governor, unanimously expressed their special approbation of them; and 2dly, because I am not aware that any protest has been entered against them by any part of the Christian community. Sentiments more atrocious were, perhaps, never penned.

The first extract, recommending legislation, has reference to the diffusion of Anti-Slavery publications.

"IT IS MY DELIBERATE OPINION THAT THE LAWS OF EVERY COMMUNITY SHOULD PUNISH THIS SPECIES OF INTERFERENCE BY DEATH WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY, REGARDING THE AUTHORS OF IT AS ENEMIES TO THE HUMAN RACE. Nothing could be more appropriate than for South Carolina to set the example in the present crisis, and I trust the Legislature will not adjourn till it discharges this high duty of patriotism."

Let us look at the theological views of this profound Statesman on the subject of Slavery.

NO HUMAN INSTITUTION, IN MY OPINION, IS MORE MANIFESTLY CONSISTENT WITH THE WILL OF GOD, THAN DOMESTIC SLAVERY, and no one of his ordinances is written in more legible characters than that which consigns the African Race to this condition AS MORE CONDUCIVE TO THEIR OWN HAPPINESS, THAN ANY OTHER OF WHICH THEY ARE SUSCEPTIBLE. Whether we consult the sacred Scriptures or the lights of nature and reason, we shall find these truths as abundantly apparent as if written with a sun-beam in the heavens. Under both the Jewish and Christian dispensations of our religion, DOMESTIC SLAVERY existed with the unequivocal sanction of its prophets, its apostles, and finally its great Author. The patriarchs themselves, those chosen instruments of God, were slaveholders. In fact the divine sanction of this institution is so plainly written that "he who runs may read" it, and those over-righteous pretenders and pharisees, who affect to be scandalized by its existence among us, would do well to inquire how much more nearly they walk in the way of godliness, than did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That the African negro is DESTINED BY PROVIDENCE TO OCCUPY THIS CONDITION OF SERVILE DEPENDENCE, is not less manifest. It is marked on the face, stamped on the skin, and evinced by the intellectual inferiority, and natural improvidence of his race. THEY HAVE ALL THE QUALITIES THAT FIT THEM FOR SLAVES, AND NOT ONE OF THOSE THAT WOULD FIT THEM TO BE FREEMEN, they are utterly unqualified not only for rational freedom, but for self-government of any kind. They are in all respects physical, moral and political, inferior to millions of the human race, who have for consecutive ages dragged out a wretched existence under a grinding political despotism, and who are doomed to this hopeless condition by the very qualities which unfit them for a better. It is utterly astonishing that any enlighted American, after contemplating all the manifold forms in which even the white race of mankind are doomed to slavery and oppression, should suppose it possible to reclaim the Africans from their destiny. THE CAPACITY TO ENJOY FREEDOM IS AN ATTRIBUTE NOT TO BE COMMUNICATED BY HUMAN POWER. IT IS AN ENDOWMENT OF GOD, AND ONE OF THE RAREST WHICH IT HAS PLEASED HIS INSCRUTABLE WISDOM TO BESTOW UPON THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH. IT IS CONFERRED AS THE REWARD OF MERIT, and only upon those who are qualified to enjoy it. Until the "Ethiopian can change his skin," it will he vain to attempt, by any human power, to make freemen of those whom God has doomed to be slaves, by all their attributes.

Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing intermeddlers who seek to destroy our peace, imagining that they are serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the decrees of his Providence. Indeed it would scarcely excite surprise, if with the impious audacity of those who projected the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the battlements of Heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom for having put THE MARK OF CAIN AND THE CURSE OF HAM upon the African race instead of the European.

The Governor then proceeds to give his views on the political bearings of the question, and thus sums them up:—

"DOMESTIC SLAVERY, THEREFORE, INSTEAD OF BEING A POLITICAL EVIL, IS THE CORNER STONE OF OUR REPUBLICAN EDIFICE. No patriot who justly estimates our privileges, will tolerate the idea of emancipation, at any period however remote, or on any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable. I would as soon think of opening a negotiation for selling the liberty of the State at once, as for making any stipulations for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep is my conviction on this subject, that if I were doomed to die immediately after recording these sentiments, I could say in all sincerity, and under all the sanctions of Christianity and patriotism, God forbid that my descendants, in the remotest generations, should live in any other than a community having the institution of DOMESTIC SLAVERY."

The conduct of the clergy of South Carolina, may be inferred from the following account of a great pro-slavery meeting, held in the city of Charleston, to denounce in the most malignant spirit, the abolitionists of the North:

(From the Charleston Courier.)
GREAT AND IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETING.

One of the most imposing assemblages of citizens in respect of numbers, intelligence and respectability that we have ever witnessed, met yesterday morning at the City Hall, to receive the report of the Committee of twenty-one, appointed by the meeting on the 4th inst. on the incendiary machinations now in progress against the peace and welfare of the Southern States. THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS ATTENDED IN A BODY, LENDING THEIR SANCTION TO THE PROCEEDINGS, AND AIDING BY THEIR PRESENCE, TO THE IMPRESSIVE CHARACTER OF THE SCENE!

After thundering forth the most violent threats against the discussion of the subject of slavery, the meeting closed with the following resolution:

On the motion of Captain Lynch,

"Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting are due to the Reverend gentlemen of the Clergy in this city, who have so promptly, and so effectually, responded to public sentiment, by suspending their SCHOOLS in which the free colored population were taught; and that this meeting deem it a patriotic action worthy of all praise, and proper to be imitated by other teachers of similar schools throughout the State."

The following document will speak for itself. I commend it to the consideration of ministers of Christ throughout the world.

CHARLESTON PRESBYTERY ON SLAVERY.

Extract from the minutes of Charleston Union Presbytery, at their meeting on the 7th of April, 1836.

With reference to the relation which the church sustains to the institution of slavery, and the possibility of attempts to agitate the question in the next General Assembly, this presbytery deem it expedient to state explicitly the principles which they maintain, and the course which will be pursued by their commissioners in the Assembly. It is a principle which meets the views of this body, that slavery as it exists among us, is a political institution, with which ecclesiastical judicatories have not the smallest right to interfere; and in relation to which any such interference, especially at the present momentous crisis, would be morally wrong and fraught with the most dangerous and pernicious consequences. Should any attempt be made to discuss this subject, our Commissioners are expected to meet it at the very threshold, and of any report, memorial or document, which may be the occasion of agitating this question in any form. And it is further expected, that our Commissioners, should the case require it, will distinctly avow our full conviction of the truth of the principles which we hold in relation to this subject, and our resolute determination to abide by them, whatever may be the issue; that it may appear that the sentiments which we maintain, in common with Christians at the South, of every denomination, are sentiments which so fully approve themselves to our consciences, are so identified with our solemn convictions of duty, that we should maintain them under any circumstances; and at the same time, the peculiar circumstances in which we are placed, constitute an imperious necessity that we should act in accordance with these principles, and make it impossible for us to yield any thing in a matter which concerns not merely our personal interests, but the cause of Christ, and the peace, if not the very existence of the Southern community.

Should our Commissioners fail of accomplishing this object, it is expected that they will withdraw from the Assembly, with becoming dignity; not willing to be associated with a body of men who denounce the ministers and members of Southern churches as pirates and men-stealers, or who co-operate with those who thus denounce them.

In conclusion, this Presbytery would suggest to their Commissioners the expediency of conferring with the Commissioners from other Southern presbyteries, that there may be a common understanding between them as to the course most suitable to be pursued at this crisis, and on this absorbing question. And may that wisdom which is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, be their guide in managing the important trust committed to their hands.

Resolved, That this expression of our views be signed by the Moderator and Clerk; that a copy be given to each of our Commissioners to the General Assembly, and that it be published in the Charleston Observer.

E. T. BUIST, Moderator.

B. Gildersleeve, Temporary Clerk.

Resolutions of the Presbyterian Synods of South Carolina and Georgia, December, 1834.

"Resolved unanimously, That in the opinion of this Synod, Abolition Societies, and the principles on which they are founded, in the United States, are inconsistent with the best interests of the slaves, the rights of the holders, and the great principles of our political institutions."

The following declaration of sentiments has been published in Charleston, South Carolina, by the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society, of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church:

"We denounce the principles and opinions of the abolitionists in toto; and do solemnly declare our conviction and belief, that, whether they were originated, as some business men have thought, as a money speculation, or, as some politicians think, for party electioneering purposes, or, as we are inclined to believe, in a false philosophy, over-reaching or setting aside the Scriptures through a vain conceit of higher moral refinement, they are utterly erroneous, and altogether hurtful. We consider and believe that the Holy Scriptures, so far from giving any countenance to this delusion, do unequivocally authorize the relation of master and slave. We hold that a Christian slave must be submissive, faithful and obedient, for reasons of the same authority with those which oblige husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sisters, to fulfil the duties of these relations. We would employ no one in the work who might hesitate to teach thus; nor can such an one be found in the whole number of the preachers in this Conference."

One other document in reference to South Carolina, viz., the resolutions recently passed by the "Hopewell Presbytery." On the subject of domestic slavery, this Presbytery believe the following facts have been most incontrovertibly established, viz:

I. Slavery has existed in the church of God from the time of Abraham to this day. Members of the church of God have held slaves bought with their money, and born in their houses; and this relation is not only recognized, but its duties are defined clearly, both in the Old and New Testaments.

II. Emancipation is not mentioned among the duties of the master to his slave. While obedience "even to the froward" master is enjoined upon the slave.

III. No instance can be produced of an otherwise orderly Christian, being REPROVED, much less EXCOMMUNICATED from the church, for the single act of holding domestic slaves, from the days of Abraham down to the date of the modern Abolitionists.

IV. Slavery existed in the United States before our ecclesiastical body was organized. It is not condemned in our Confession of Faith, and has always existed in our Church without reproof or condemnation.

V. Slavery is a political institution, with which the Church has nothing to do, except to inculcate the duties of master and slave, and to use lawful spiritual means to have all, both bond and free, to become one in Christ by faith.

Regarding these positions as undoubtedly true, our views of duty constrain us to adopt the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the political institution of domestic slavery, as it exists in the South, is not a lawful or constitutional subject of discussion, much less, of action by the General Assembly.

Resolved, That so soon as the General Assembly passes any ecclesiastical laws, or recommends any action, which shall interfere with this institution, this Presbytery will regard such laws and acts as tyranical and odious; and from that moment will regard itself independent of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

Resolved, That our delegates to the approaching Assembly are hereby enjoined to use all Christian means to prevent the discussion of domestic slavery in the Assembly; to protest in our name, against all acts that involve or approve abolition; and to withdraw from the Assembly and return home, if, in spite of their efforts, acts of this character shall be passed."

From the official account of the proceedings of the Synod of Virginia, I take the following

REPORT ON ABOLITION.

"The Committee to whom were referred the resolutions, &c., have, according to order, had the same under consideration: and respectfully report that in their judgment, the following resolutions are necessary and proper to be adopted by the Synod at the present time.

"Whereas, The publications and proceedings of certain organized associations commonly called Anti-slavery, or Abolition Societies, which have arisen in some parts of our land, have greatly disturbed, and are still greatly disturbing the peace of the church, and of the country; and the Synod of Virginia deem it a solemn duty which they owe to themselves and to the community, to declare their sentiments upon the subject; therefore,

"Resolved unanimously, That we consider the dogma fiercely promulgated by said associations; that slavery as it actually exists in our slaveholding States, is necessarily sinful, and ought to be immediately abolished, and the conclusions which naturally follow from that dogma, as directly and palpably contrary to the plainest principles of common sense and common humanity, and to the clearest authority of the word of God.

"2. Resolved unanimously, That in the deliberate judgment of the Synod, it is the duty of all ministers of the gospel to follow the example of our Lord and Saviour, and of his apostles in similar circumstances, in abstaining from all interference with the state of slavery, as established among us by the Commonwealth, and confining themselves strictly to their proper province of inculcating upon masters and slaves the duties enjoined upon them respectively in the sacred Scriptures, which must tend immediately to promote the welfare of both, and ultimately to restore the whole world to that state of holy happiness which is the earnest desire of every Christian heart.

"The above preamble and resolutions having been severally read, and adopted by paragraphs, the Moderator asked and obtained leave to vote with the Synod, on the adoption of the entire report. The question being put, it was unanimously adopted, every member it is believed, giving it a hearty response."

The last document I shall quote on this part of the subject, is one which will fill this meeting with horror; but it is right that it should be placed on record, to show the opinion entertained by a minister of the Presbyterian church of his brethren and fellow Christians, and to show also, what kind of communications pass current among the professed disciples of Christ in a slaveholding community.

"To the Sessions of the Presbyterian Congregations within the bounds of West Hanover Presbytery:

"At the approaching stated meeting of our Presbytery, I design to offer a preamble and string of resolutions on the subject of the use of wine in the Lord's Supper; and also a preamble and a string of resolutions on the subject of the treasonable and abominably wicked interference of the Northern and Eastern fanatics, with our political and civil rights, our property and our domestic concerns. You are aware that our clergy, whether with or without reason, are more suspected by the public than are the clergy of other denominations. Now, dear Christian brethren, I humbly express it as my earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men. If there be any stray goat of a minister among us, tainted with the blood-hound principles of abolitionism, let him be ferreted out, silenced, excommunicated, and left to the public to dispose of him in other respects.

"Your affectionate brother in the Lord,

"ROBERT N. ANDERSON."!!!

I trust I have adduced sufficient evidence upon this heart-rending topic, and abundantly proved the allegations I have deemed it my duty to bring against the American churches. No one can accuse me of wishing that any thing should be believed upon my bare assertion. I have furnished documentary proof of the truth of all my statements. Presbyterians, and Conferences, and Ministers, and Elders, and Synods, and Assemblies have spoken for themselves through their solemn and accredited Speeches, and Letters, and Reports, and Resolutions. Judge, therefore, whether I have libelled America; whether I am the foul traducer that some would have you believe, but for believing which they supply you no ground, save their own ill-natured vituperations. Let the facts I have brought before you be deliberately considered, and let such a verdict be given as will approve itself to the world and to God. Before sitting down, however, I must observe, that it has always given me the sincerest pleasure to notice any Anti-slavery movements among the clergy of America. With delight I have stated the fact, that in the General Assembly of 1835, there were FORTY EIGHT immediate Abolitionists. I refer again, on the present occasion, with unfeigned satisfaction, to the indications of a better state of things in many portions of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Breckinridge has quoted the Assembly's views on the subject of Slavery; so have I. In the recent meeting of the United Secession Synod, held a short time since in Edinburgh, I stated fully the sentiments of the Presbyterian body in America. At the same time, I could not omit naming one striking fact, viz. that in 1816, the Assembly struck out of the Confession of the Church, the following note, adopted in 1794, and which contained the doctrine of the church at that period on the subject of slaveholding. The note was appended to the one hundred and forty-second question of the larger catechism.

"1 Tim. 1:10. The law is made for MAN STEALERS. This crime among the Jews exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment; Exodus 21:16; and the apostle here classes them with sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race into slavery, OR IN RETAINING THEM IN IT. Hominum fures, qui servos vel liberos abducunt, retinent vendunt, vel emunt. Stealers of men are all those who bring off slaves or freemen AND KEEP, SELL, OR BUY THEM. To steal a free man, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other instances, we only steal human property, but when we steal or retain men in slavery, we seize those who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the original grant, lords of the earth. Genesis 1:28, Vide Poli synopsin in loc."

Why this note has been cancelled, I shall not attempt to say. Neither Mr. Breckinridge nor this Assembly need be at any loss to imagine for what reasons so strong and unequivocal a passage was omitted by a body in which so large a proportion were slaveholders. I have recently read, and publicly commended, an address put forth by the Synod of Kentucky, containing a very faithful, though appalling disclosure of the state of Slavery in Kentucky; and expressing an earnest hope that the members of the Presbyterian body will, without delay, take steps to promote the education and emancipation of the slaves. Let me also state, that the following ecclesiastical meetings have passed resolutions, and many of them adopted rules of church membership, in accordance with the views of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Some of them have specially approved the principles and measures of that body. I beg, while I read this list, to remind Mr. Breckinridge that these form a part of that ragged regiment, respecting which he was so merry in one of his by-gone speeches,

SYNODS of Utica and Cincinnati.
Eastern Sub-Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
PRESBYTERIES of Delaware, Champlain, Erie, Chillicothe, Detroit, and Genesee.
General Association of New York.
Central Evangelical Association.
Cumberland Baptist Association.—Equally divided.
One Hundred and Eighty-Five Baptist Clergymen.
The vast majority of the New England and New Hampshire Conferences of Episcopal Methodists, and a large number of individual Churches.

Thus is the cause advancing! The purifying leaven is extending through all the country. The elements which are ordained to redeem America from the pollution and infamy of slavery, are working mightily. When I went to the United Slates, I took the principles I found lying comparatively forgotten, and proclaimed them abroad. I planted myself upon the American Bible, and the American Declaration of Independence, and preached from these that the varied tribes of men are of one blood, and that all men should be "free and equal." I have not labored in vain. There is now a mighty and indomitable host of pure and ardent friends to the freedom and elevation of the long degraded colored man. Let us thank God and take courage, and expect with confidence the speedy arrival of the happy day, when the soil of America shall be untrodden by the foot of a slave.

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Mr. BRECKINRIDGE said he regretted to be obliged to say anything more on this subject, which he had wished to consider concluded, so far as he was concerned, at the close of his preceding speech. He felt obliged, however, by the importance of the whole case, to consume a portion of this, his last address—and which he had desired to occupy in a different way—in making a few explanations which seemed indispensable. It would be observed, first, that the great bulk of the testimonies produced throughout, and especially in his last speech, by Mr. Thompson, were individual opinions and assertions, often of obscure persons, and therefore, for ought the world could tell, fictitious persons; or if known persons they were often men of the world, and avowedly acting on worldly principles, and therefore, no more affording a criterion of the state of the American churches, than the immoralities of any public functionary here, could be justly made a rule of judgment of the faith and morals of British Christians. A considerable portion also were taken from the transient and heated declamations of violent party newspapers, which wrested from their original purpose and connection, might mean what never was meant, or even, if fairly collated, expressed what their authors, perhaps, would now gladly recall. How far would it be proof of the assertions of Mr. T. of America—if in some other land, some bigot should quote as indisputable, Mr. Thompson's story of the colored man in Washington City, whose assertion, at third hand, that he was free, authorised the declaration that "he had demonstrated his freedom," and yet after all had been sold into everlasting slavery without a trial! And yet many of his proofs are of no more value to him, than his assertions ought to be to any who come after him. It is next most worthy of note, that so far as all his proofs establish any thing against either any portion of the American nation or the American church, they all run upon the assumed truth of all my explanations of their real state and operations. It is the slaveholding portion, it is the comparatively small body of slaveholding professors of religion, it is the minority of the nation, the very small minority of the Christians of it, implicated continually; and therefore, if every word produced were true, the sweeping conclusions from them would be gross fraud on the prevailing ignorance of all American affairs. But what is most important to observe, and what must be palpable to the capacity of every child who has attended to this discussion, the weightiest of Mr. Thompson's proofs ceased to be proofs at all, the moment the facts, cant words and circumstances connected are explained. He used words in one sense which he knows you will understand in another—sporting at once with your good feelings and your want of minute information while all the result is false as to us, and unhappy as to every thing concerned, except "Othello's occupation" which meanwhile is not gone. When decided and perhaps violent terms are used against "abolition" or "abolitionists" or "anti-slavery" or "the anti-slavery society," they are adduced to convince you that those who use them are pro-slavery men: that they understand the terms as you do; and that it is an expression of rank hostility to all emancipation on the part of the American tyrants, in whose nostrils according to this gentleman the slave and freedom equally stink! A metaphor nearly as full of truth as decency. The fact however is, that although many would decline the use of the harsh and vindictive language which, caught from abolitionists, has been turned against them; yet the bulk of the real sentiments, as brought forward by Mr. Thompson as proofs of American slavery, on account of American hatred to his peculiar plans, principles and spirit in attempting its removal, are true, just and defensible.—And I am ready to advocate and to defend much that he by a disingenuous citation has made at first odious, and then characteristic of America. They prove only that he and his coadjutors are most odious to the country, which is a fact never denied except by himself or them. And to what has the whole current of his testimony tended if not to show that they might reasonably have expected and did a great deal to deserve such a conclusion.—But it is now impossible to enter again upon these matters and upon the case as presented, he was willing for the world to pass its verdict. While he would therefore take no farther notice of any new matter contained in the last speech, there were several remarks necessary to be made, to elucidate subjects that had already been several times before them. The first case was that of Amos Dresser the abolitionist whipped at Nashville. He would pass over what Mr. T. had said relating to his (Mr. B.'s) notice of the discrepancy in the number of Elders in the Nashville Church. He had treated that gentleman with great candor in the matter, which he had returned with incivility and injustice, and there he was content to let it rest. But how stood the facts of the case itself? Amos Dresser is reported to have said that there were seven elders of the church; that all of them were on the committee of vigilance of Nashville; that most of them were among his triers, and that some of them had administered the communion to him the preceding sabbath. Now let us admit that this is literally true—(which I believe however is not the case, in at least three particulars)—how does it justify Mr. Thompson in asserting as he did at London and elsewhere "that on that Lynch Committee there sat seven Elders and one Minister, some of whom had sat with the young man at the table of the Lord on the preceding Sunday"? Mr. Thompson positively contradicts his own and only witness when he says that all the seven elders sat as triers;—he enlarges his testimony when he insinuates that they not only concurred in his punishment, but were present and active in its infliction; and he infers without the least authority, and adds it to the words of the witness, that those very elders who administered the Lord's Supper to Dresser, on Sunday "ploughed up his back"—as Lynch Committee men on a subsequent day of the same week. How in the name of common honesty is such deceitful handling of the truth to be tolerated in a Christian community? Oh! what a spectacle would we behold—if I had but the privilege before some competent tribunal—to take the published accusations of this man in my hands and force him to reveal on oath the whole grounds on which he makes them!—Mr. B. then stated that after he entered the house to-night two packages had been put into his hands, which he could not examine then, as he was just about to open the discussion. He had snatched a moment during the interval to glance his eyes over their contents, and considered it his duty to say a few words in reference to each. One of them was a little volume from the pen of Dr. Channing, of Boston, on the subject of slavery, just passing through the press of an enterprising bookseller of Glasgow, who had done him the favor of presenting to him, in very kind terms, the first copy of the edition. They who would take the trouble of looking over the printed report of Mr. Thompson's second address to the Glasgow Emancipation Society, would find that in speaking of the Unitarians of America, he had used the following language:—"One of their greatest men, a giant in intellect, had already taken the right view of the subject, and there could not exist a doubt that ere long, he would bring over the body to the good cause." In this sentence, as it stands in the speech, at the end of the words "giant in intellect,"—stands a star,—at the bottom of the page another, before the words "Dr. Channing." Now it so happens that in this little book, there is a chapter headed "Abolitionism." I have looked through it casually, within the last hour; and I beseech you all to read it carefully, and judge for yourselves, of the utter recklessness with which Mr. Thompson makes assertions. The other parcel, contained a letter from an American gentleman residing in Britain, and one half of the New York Spectator, of October 1, 1835. Under the head of editorial correspondence, is an article above a column and a half in length devoted in great part to Mr. Thompson. Amongst other passages, it adverts to his doings at Andover, and the charges made against him there, on such weighty authority; and in that connexion has the following explicit paragraph:

Mr. Thompson in conversation with some of the students repeatedly averred that every slaveholder in the United States OUGHT TO HAVE HIS THROAT CUT; or DESERVED TO HAVE HIS THROAT CUT; although he afterwards publicly denied that he had said so. But the proof is direct and positive. In conversation with one of the theological students in regard to the moral instruction which ought to be enjoyed by the slaves, he distinctly declared THAT EVERY SLAVE SHOULD BE TAUGHT TO CUT HIS MASTER'S THROAT! I state the fact—knowing the responsibility I am assuming, and challenge a legal investigation.

On this tremendous document, I make but two remarks—The first is that Francis Hall & Co. the publishers of the Spectator, were in character and fortune, perfectly responsible to Mr. Thompson. The second is, that if Mr. Thompson's rule of judgment was just, in that branch of this same case—in the exercise of which he declared that another paper in New York could never be got to publish his exculpatory certificates in regard to this very transaction, because the publisher knew them to be true; then we are irresistibly bound on his own showing to conjecture, that for the same reason he declined taking up the challenge of the Spectator. There was only one more topic on which he seemed called on to remark; and that he had several times passed over, out of consideration of delicacy. It had all along been his aim to use as little freedom as possible with the names of individuals—and he could declare, that he had implicated by name, no one except out of absolute necessity—that he had forborne to say true but severe things of several who had been most unjustly commended during this discussion—and had omitted of the very few he had censured by name, decidedly worse things, than those he had uttered of them—and which he might have uttered both truly and pertinently. Amongst the cases of rather peculiar forebearance, was the oft cited one, of a misguided young man, by the name of Thome, who went from Kentucky to New York to repeat a most audacious speech which was no doubt prepared for him, before an assembly literally the most mixed that was ever convened in that city: having delivered which, he departed with the pity or contempt of 9 10ths of all the decent people in it, and went I know not whither, and dwells I know not where. The victory as there trumpeted, and now celebrated, of which he was part gainer, consisted of two portions—the destruction of the colonization cause—and the degradation of Kentucky, his native state. The death of the Society was signalised by a subscription of six thousand dollars on the part of its friends; and the infamy of Kentucky was illustrated by the ready stepping forward of four of her sons to confront and confound the ingrate who commenced his career of manhood by smiting his parent in the face. Who made the defence, may be surmised from Mr. Thompson's bitterness—I will not trust myself to repeat his name. But this thousands can testify—that never was a great cause more signally successful—never were folly and wickedness more thoroughly beaten into the dust—never did any community heap more cordial and unanimous applause upon an effort of great and successful eloquence.

And now, Sir, (said Mr. B., addressing Dr. Wardlaw, the Chairman of the meeting)—I repeat the expressions of my regret, that these last moments allowed to me should have been required for any other purpose than that which so sacredly belonged to them. Exhausted by a series of most exciting, and to me perfectly new contentions, I am altogether unequal to the task, which I should yet esteem myself degraded if I did not attempt in some way to perform.

To this large committee which has so kindly taken up this subject—so considerately provided for every contingency—so delicately considered all my wishes, and even all my weaknesses—to these respected gentlemen surrounding us upon this platform, whose conduct amid very peculiar circumstances has been towards me, full of candor, honor, courtesy and Christian kindness, it would have been most gross ingratitude, to have forborne this public expression of my regard and cordial thanks.

For yourself, Sir, what can I say more, or how could I say less, than that in that distant country, which I love but too fondly, there are scores, there are hundreds, who would esteem all the trials through which this strife has led me, and all the weight of responsibility which my posture has forced me to assume, more than counter-balanced by the privilege of looking upon your venerated face. It is good to live for the whole world; and it is but just to receive in recompense the world's thanks.

And you, my respected auditors, whose patience I must needs have so severely taxed, and who have borne with much that possibly has tried you deeply, you who have given me so many reasons to thank you, and not one to regret the errand that brought me here; if in the course of providence, you or yours, should be thrown on whatever spot my resting place may be, you need but say, "I come from Glasgow, and I need a friend," and it shall go hard with me, but I will find a way to prove, that kindness is never thrown away.

But even as we part, let us not forget that cause which has chained us here so long. We are free. Alas! how few can utter these words with truth! We are Christian men. Alas! what multitudes have never heard our Master's name. Oh! how horrible must slavery be, when God himself illustrates the power of sin by calling it bondage! Oh! how sweet should union with Christ be thought, when he proclaims it glorious liberty! Freedom and redemption are in our hands; the heritage in trust for a lost world. It is not then our own souls only, but our divine Lord, and our dying brethren, that we sin against and rob, when we mismanage or pervert this great inheritance. We needs must labor; but let us do it wisely. And though we may differ in many things, in this at least we can agree, to importune our heavenly Father to prosper by his constant blessing what we do aright, and overrule by his continued care all that we do amiss. (Cheers.)

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Mr. THOMPSON then rose amidst much cheering, and said, Sir, after the valedictory address to which we have just listened, it would ill become me to touch upon any topic calculated to disturb feelings which I trust and believe that address has awakened in the breasts of this assembly. Sir, it is my conviction, that I and those with whom it is my joy and honor to act, in the advancement of the cause of Universal Emancipation, are much misunderstood. We are represented as the violent, acrimonious, ferocious and sanguinary foes of the slaveholder; when, if he could look into our inmost hearts, he would discover no enmity to him abiding there, but on the contrary, an earnest desire to promote his safety, his honor, and his happiness. If we act as we do, it is not that we love him less, but that we love truth and freedom more. It is not with us a matter of choice that we pursue our present course, but one of stern imperative duty; because we believe that God will vouchsafe his blessing only to those who preach the doctrine of an immediate, entire, and uncompromising discharge of duty, leaving to Him the consequences flowing from obedience to His law. To discover truth wherever it is hidden, should be the aim and effort of every rational mind. It has been my desire to arrive at truth upon the great question of Slavery; and after much investigation, and many conflicts, I have reached the conclusion, that slaveholding is sinful; that man cannot hold property in man; that to do right, and to do it now, fearless of results, is the doctrine of the Bible; and that a simple and strict compliance with the Divine Law, is man's noblest and safest course. These being my settled views, I say to the slaveholder, give immediate freedom to your slaves. To the non-slaveholder, I say, preach a pure doctrine; grapple with the prejudices and fears of the community around you; strive to raise the tone of public morals, and create a public sentiment unfavorable to the continuance of slavery. To the private Christian, I say, betake yourself to prayer, and the study of the Scriptures; and invoke a blessing upon every righteous instrumentality for the overthrow of the abomination. To the minister of the gospel, I say, be bold for God; cry aloud, and spare not, till the merchants of the earth cease to make merchandise of slaves, and the souls of men.

Much fault is found with our measures. What, Sir, are our measures, but the simplest means of making known our principles? Having deliberately and prayerfully adopted certain views, we take the ordinary, common sense, every day methods of making those views known, and of recommending them to the adoption of others. Believing slavery to be sin, is it strange that we hate it, and speak strongly respecting it? Believing immediate emancipation a duty, is it strange that we pray, and preach, and print about it? That we take all peaceful means of making known the great truth; of warning men against the danger of delay; and exhorting them to repentance? The abolitionists have done no more. To have done less, would have been to prove themselves unfaithful to the high and heaven-born principles they profess. They court investigation. They scatter their publications on the winds to be read by all. They have not an office nor a book that is not open to the inspection of all. Their language to all who suspect their motives or their designs is, "search us, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in us." If in the ardor of their zeal, and inherited infirmities, and surrounded by influences, from which none of us are exempt; they sometimes apply epithets and bring charges with too little discrimination, "something should be pardoned to the spirit of liberty;" something granted to the advocates of outraged humanity; to those, who, remembering them that are in bonds as bound with them, plead as for mothers, children, sisters, and brothers; at present lost to all the joys and purposes of life. Sir, I think it hard that on all occasions like these, the heaviest artillery should be levelled against the abolitionists, and the small arms only directed against the slaveholder. I call upon those who act with such gentleness towards the latter individual; who are so fearful of doing him injustice and so readily to discover in him any thing that is amiable in character, or extenuating in conduct, to exercise some small portion of the same candor and kindness, and consideration towards the former. Let not that man be most hateful in their eyes, who of all others is most earnestly engaged for the deliverance of the slave.

A word before we part, for my honored co-adjutors on the other side of the Atlantic. Should this be the last address of mine ever delivered and recorded for perusal when I am gone to give account of my sayings upon earth, I can with every feeling of sincerity aver, that to the best of my knowledge and belief, there is not to be found on the face of the earth at the present time, engaged in any religious or benevolent enterprise, a body of men more pure in their motives, more simple and elevated in their aim, more dependent upon divine aid in their efforts, or, generally speaking, more unexceptionable in their measures, than the immediate abolitionists of the United States of America. It has been my high privilege to mingle much with devoted Christians of all denominations in my native land, and to enjoy the friendship of some of the noblest and most laborious of living philanthropists; but I have not yet seen the wisdom, the ardor, the humanity or the faith of the abolitionists of America exceeded.

Another word and I have done. It is for one whom I love as a brother, and to whom my soul is united by a bond which death cannot dissolve; of one, who, though still young, has for ten years toiled with unremitting ardor, and unimpeached disinterestedness in the cause of the bleeding slave; of one, who, though accused of scattering around him fire-brands, arrows and death; though branded as a madman, an incendiary, and a fanatic; though denounced by the State, and reviled by a portion of the church, possesses a soul as peaceful and as pure as ever tenanted our fallen nature. I speak not to exalt him or gratify his love of praise. I know he seeks not the honor that cometh from man, nor the riches that perish in the using. He looks not for his reward on earth. With the approbation of his conscience, he is content; with the blessing of the perishing, he is rich; with the favor of God, he is blessed forever. He seeks no monumental marble, no funeral oration, no proud escutcheon, no partial page of history to perpetuate his name. He knows that when resting from his labors, the tears of an enfranchised race

Shall sprinkle the cold dust in which he sleeps,
Pompless, and from a scornful world withdrawn:
The laurel, which its malice rent, shall shoot,
So watered, into life, and mantling throw
Its verdant honors o'er his grassy tomb.

That man is William Lloyd Garrison. Sir, I thank God for having given him to the age and country in which he lives. He is a man pre-eminently qualified for the mighty work in which he has engaged. May the God of the oppressed bless him, and keep him humble, and cheer him onwards in his rugged path! May his lion heart never be subdued! May his eloquent pen never cease to move while a slave breathes to require its advocacy! Heaven grant, and I can ask no more, that the wish of his heart may be fulfilled; and that the time may soon come, when, looking abroad over his beloved country with the soul of a Patriot, and the eye of a Philanthropist and a Christian, he shall not be able to discover in State, or city, or town, or hamlet, a lingering trace of a tyrant or a Slave!

I shall not, Sir, attempt (turning to the Chairman,) to express the feelings of my heart towards you, or my opinion of the manner in which you have discharged the duties of the Chair, through four of the evenings of this discussion. I cordially unite with the gentleman opposite, in thanking you for the dignity and strict impartiality with which you have borne yourself. I know you look for the reward of your labors of love in another and a better world. In that world may we all meet! There our jars and discords will be at an end. There we shall see, eye to eye; and know, even as we are known. There, in the presence of one Saviour, our joys, our voices, our occupations will be one; and there I trust that we, who have been antagonists on earth, will together meet and celebrate the glories of a common redemption from the sorrows and the sins of earth. (Mr. Thompson resumed his seat amidst loud and long continued cheers.)

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Mr. THOMPSON moved that the cordial thanks of the meeting be given to the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, for his able, dignified, and impartial conduct in the chair, and also to Dr. Kidston, who presided on Thursday evening, which was carried with acclamation.

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