At an editorial convention held last season at Columbus, Ohio, the following resolutions were passed:
Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, there is one plain standard of editorial propriety from which no man ought to depart, i. e. nothing should be esteemed justifiable in editorial intercourse, which would be clearly condemned in the intercourse of private gentlemen. And, therefore
Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, in all editorial discussions concerning politics and other subjects of public disputation, all opprobrious epithets, offensive personal allusions, and harsh attacks on private reputation, ought to be carefully avoided.
These testimonies are surely amply sufficient to show the impropriety of the course which I have disapproved, in the estimation of respectable, and wise, and good men. But I will add one more.
Said an eminent missionary among the heathen, “Until a minister feels as our Saviour did on his last return to Jerusalem, when he wept as he said, ‘O that thou hadst known,’ &c., he is not in a fit state of mind to repeat a single denunciation from his master’s lips.”
Is not this the spirit which we all need? And were this spirit generally possessed by professing Christians, and Christian ministers, how much of that “wrath of man which worketh not the righteousness of God,” and contention and unchristian feeling, and attacks on each others’ reputation would be prevented; and how rapidly would the cause of truth, of righteousness, and of benevolence advance. The weapons of truth and love would then be wielded with mighty power, and with astonishing success.
Even slaveholders would hardly be able to resist such powerful weapons. Mr. Chester, editor of the Christian Journal at New York, speaking of Rev. John Rankin, a distinguished abolitionist, says, “He was born, educated, and brought into the ministry in Tennessee, and has been an abolitionist, I might perhaps say, from his birth. Twenty, or twenty-five years ago he was a member of an Abolition Society in that State. His abolition principles and feelings never lead him to indulge in bitterness towards slaveholders, or opponents of any kind. And such is his kindness, such the deep tone of his feeling, that few slaveholders—though often pressed with the most earnest appeals—have ever parted with him but with increased respect.”
Last year there was published an account of the visit of a minister of the Quaker denomination to a slave trader in Virginia, given by the visiter himself, which strikingly illustrates the influence of faithful, but kind remonstrance. Being accompanied to his house by a friend, he says, “I found he was considered, independent of his employment, of a ferocious disposition. His countenance looked fierce. I offered him my hand, feeling nothing in my heart but love towards him as a man. I endeavored in a tender, feeling, but decided manner to open the subject that brought me to his house, telling him I came in behalf of the poor colored people. I requested him to pause for a moment, and endeavor as much as possible to place his own parents and nearest relatives in the very situation of those poor slaves he had at times purchased and sold again, thereby separating the nearest connections far from each other. He appeared to hear me patiently, and tried to justify his conduct, but with coolness and deliberation. But in time he cast away all his weapons of defence. He gave it as his opinion that before twenty years were passed away, slavery would be brought to a final close, if the work was rightly gone about. He assured us of his determination to quit his business, and acknowledged the gratitude he felt for the visit; and took his leave of us in an affectionate manner.” I have given only a very brief sketch of this interesting visit, as published in the ‘Herald of Freedom.’
If this were the spirit generally displayed, and this the course pursued even by professors of religion among abolitionists, how long would it be before they would be joined by the great mass of the people in the free States, and by many in the slave States? But so much of a contrary spirit has been manifested, and such a different course pursued, that it has produced irritation, and excited prejudice in the minds of very many who would otherwise have cordially united in efforts for the removal of slavery.
It was stated in the ‘Herald of Freedom,’ that emancipation was universally popular in New York in 1827. And the same feeling, I presume, then pervaded New England generally.