The editor of “The Liberator” published the following declaration:
“Christianity indignantly rejects the sanctimonious pretensions of the great mass of the clergy in this land. It is becoming more and more apparent, that they are nothing better than hirelings, in the bad sense of the term, that they are blind leaders of the blind, spiritual popes, dumb dogs that cannot bark, that they love the fleece better than the flock. Their overthrow is registered in the scroll of destiny.”
At the meeting of the Grafton County Anti-Slavery Society, holden at Littleton, N. H. January 29th and 30th, 1840, the following resolutions were passed, though not without opposition:
“Resolved, That the slave system of this country derives its chief and essential support from the nominally free States; and that the citizens of New Hampshire are as deeply implicated in the guilt of slaveholding as those of any other State in the Union.
“Resolved, That the only way in which the citizens of New Hampshire can exculpate themselves from the guilt of slaveholding, is to countenance and support the Anti-slavery enterprise.”
Here it is asserted, that the citizens of New Hampshire are as deeply implicated in the guilt of slaveholding as those of any of the slave States; and that the only way in which they can exculpate themselves from this guilt, “is to countenance and support the Anti-slavery enterprise.” As the guilt of all sin must be removed in the same way—and this is said to be the only way to remove this guilt—it would seem, that all who “countenance and support the Anti-slavery enterprise” are exculpated from the guilt of all their sins, as they cannot be exculpated from the guilt of one sin, and not of all sin.
I presume that those who adopted this resolution did not reflect, that it would lead to such a conclusion. They probably thought, that the citizens of New Hampshire could not give evidence of sincere repentance, unless they should “countenance and support the Anti-slavery enterprise.” But if this is their only way to afford such evidence, and to be exculpated from this guilt, do not all who “countenance and support the Anti-slavery enterprise” afford such evidence, and thus show that they are exculpated from the guilt of this sin, and consequently, from the guilt of all sin?
At the annual meeting of the Merrimack County Anti-Slavery Society, January 14th, 1840, the following resolutions were adopted:
“Resolved, That the abolition enterprise is the cause of God, and that those professed ministers of the gospel who treat it with opposition or indifference, are recreant to their high trust as ambassadors of Christ—hypocritical in their professions of love to man, and are unworthy the confidence and support of a Christian community.
“Resolved, That all those who support professed ministers of the gospel who refuse to wield their pulpit influence against the diabolical system of American slavery, are guilty of supporting that system.”