‘Very Dear Sir:—I knew you in the days of your prosperity at the South, though you will not recognize me. Ever since you first took your stand in defence of natural rights, I have been looking upon you with intense interest. I was violently opposed to Abolitionists, and verily thought I was doing service to both church and State, in decrying them as incendiaries and fanatics. What blindness and infatuation! Yet I was sincere. Ah! my dear sir, God in mercy has taught me that something more than sincerity, in the common acceptation of the term, is necessary to preserve our understandings from idiocy, and our hearts from utter ruin. How could I have been such a madman, as coolly and composedly to place my foot upon the necks of immortal beings, and from that horrid point of elevation, hurl the deep curses of church and State at the heads of——whom? Fanatics? No, sir!—but of the only persons on the face of the earth, who had HEART enough to FEEL, and SOUL enough to ACT, in behalf of the RIGHTS OF MAN! Yet I was just such a madman! Yes, sir, I was a fanatic, and an incendiary too—setting on fire the worst passions of our fallen nature. But I have repented. I have become a convert to political, and I trust, also, to Christian Freedom. The spectacle exhibited by yourself, and your compatriots and fellow-christians, has completely overcome me. Your reasonings convince my judgment, and your ACTIONS win my heart. God speed you in your work of love! The hopes of the world depend, under God, upon the success of your cause.
Very respectfully and with undying affection,
Your friend and brother,
A Southerner.’
Another of J. G. Birney’s southern correspondents says, in 1836,
‘That portion of the Church with which I am connected, seem to have no sympathy with the indignation against the abolitionists, which prevails so extensively North and South; but, on the other hand, consider the South as infatuated to the highest degree.
There is more credit for philanthropy given those who manumit their slaves, without expatriation, than formerly.
The thirst for information is increasing, while the ‘non liquetism’ [voting on neither side] of brethren in church courts is becoming less and less satisfactory; and such of them as advocate the perpetuity of the system, are looked upon with surprise and regret.
Those who view with horror the traffic in slaves by ministers of the gospel, express more freely their pain at its indulgence, than I have ever known. I am acquainted with several such cases. In no instances have they left the brother’s standing where it was, before it took place. Of such cases—even those, too, where the usual allowances might be called for—I have heard professors of religion remark, ‘Mr. A. could not get an audience to hear him preach’—‘Mr. B. has more assurance than I could have, to preach, after selling my slaves as he has done’—‘He can never make me believe he has any religion’—‘This is the first time you have done so, but repeat it, and I think I shall never hear you preach again.’
These remarks were made by slaveholding professors of religion themselves, and under circumstances neither calculated nor intended to deceive.