Religion being, at present, the subject of comparison, it may be appropriate to remark further, that the Christian religion is propagated by God's blessing upon the observance of his laws.
The fundamental law of God, for its propagation requires the gospel to be preached to every creature; because, in the divine plan, faith in the gospel was to make men Christians. The gospel was to be made the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth. This faith was to be originated by hearing the gospel, for "faith comes by hearing." All those efforts, therefore, in a community, which manifests the greatest solicitude on the part of the people, that the gospel should be heard, is credible evidence that the people who make these efforts, are the friends of Christ, and well-wishers to his cause. Now, all those means which are most likely to secure the ear of the people, are left by Christ to the discretion of his friends. They may use the market-place—the highways—the forests—or any other place, which in their judgment is most likely to get the ear of the people when the gospel is proclaimed. By common consent, however, within the limits of Christian civilization, they have agreed that suitable houses, in which the people can meet to hear the gospel, are the most suitable and proper means for securing the audience of the people, and as a consequence, the transforming power of the gospel upon the hearts and lives of those who hear.
With these views to guide us in estimating the value of the facts to be examined, we proceed to disclosures made by the census of 1850. We there learn that the free population of New England is two million seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand and sixteen; and that the free population of these five slave States is two million seven hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and fourteen; an excess of only two thousand one hundred and ninety-eight. This fraction we will drop out, and speak of them as equals. New England, then, with an equal population, has erected four thousand six hundred and seven churches; these five slave States have erected eight thousand and eighty-one churches. These New England churches will accommodate one million eight hundred and ninety-three thousand four hundred and fifty hearers; the churches of the five slave States will accommodate two million eight hundred and ninety-six thousand four hundred and seventy-two hearers. Thus we see that these slave States, with an equal free population, have erected nearly double the number of churches, and furnished accommodation for upwards of a million more persons, to hear the gospel, than can be accommodated in New England. In New England, nine hundred and thirty-four thousand, five hundred and sixty-six of its population (which is nearly one-third) are excluded from a seat in houses built for the purpose of enabling people to hear the gospel; while in these five Southern States, there is room enough for every hearer that could be crowded into the churches of New England, and then enough left to accommodate more than a million of slaves.
Including slaves, these five Southern States have a population of seven hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and ten more than New England; yet while there are seven hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and ten persons less in New England to provide for, there are two hundred thousand more persons in New England who can't find a seat in the house of God to hear the gospel, than there are in these five slave States.
The next fact set forth in the census, which I will examine, is equally suggestive. These four thousand six hundred and seven churches in New England are valued at nineteen million three hundred and sixty-two thousand six hundred and thirty-four dollars. These eight thousand and eighty-one churches in the five slave States are valued at eleven million one hundred and forty-nine thousand one hundred and eighteen dollars. Here is an immense expenditure in New England to erect churches; yet we see that those New England churches, when erected, will seat one million three thousand and twenty-two persons less than those erected by the slave States, at a cost of eight million one hundred and thirteen thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars less money. What prompted to such an expenditure as this? Was it worldly pride? or was it godly humility? Does it exhibit the evidence of humility, and a desire to glorify God, by a provision that shall enable all the people to hear the gospel? or does it exhibit the evidence of pride, that seeks to glorify the wealthy contributors, who occupy these costly temples to the exclusion of the humble poor? We must all draw our own conclusions. A mite, given to God from a right spirit, was declared by the Saviour to be more than all the costly gifts of wealthy pride, which were cast into the offerings of God. The Saviour informed the messenger of John the Baptist, that one of the signs by which to decide the presence of the Messiah, was to be found in the fact that the poor had the gospel preached to them. When we exclude the poor, we may safely conclude we exclude Christ.
It is legitimate to conclude, therefore, that all the arrangements found among a people, which palpably defeat the preaching of the gospel to the poor, are arrangements which throw a shade of deep suspicion upon the character of those who make them. Costly palaces were never built for the poor; they are neither suitable nor proper to secure the preaching of the gospel to every creature.
There is still another fact revealed in the census, that furnishes material for reflection when the effects of slavery upon religion are being tried. The six New England States were originally settled by orthodox Christians—by men who manifested a very high regard for the interests of pure religion; the five slave States, by men who scoffed at religion, and who were subjected, also, to the so-called curse of slavery; yet, at the end of over two hundred years, we have to deduct from the four thousand six hundred and seven churches built up by New England orthodoxy and freedom, the astonishing number of two hundred and two Unitarian, and two hundred and eighty-five Universalist churches—while from the five slave States, we have to deduct from the eight thousand and eighty-one churches which they have built, only one Unitarian, and seven Universalist churches. New England regards these four hundred and eighty-seven churches, which she has built, to be the product of blind guides, that are leaders of the blind. Is it not strange (she herself being judge) that New England orthodoxy and personal freedom should beget this vast amount of infidelity; while slaveholders and slavery have begotten so little of it in the same length of time? Is there nothing in all this to render the correctness of Northern views questionable, as to the deleterious tendency of slavery? The facts, however, are given to the world in the census of 1850. All are left to draw from these facts their own conclusions. One of these conclusions must be, that there is something else in the world to corrupt religion and morals, besides slaveholders and slavery.
It is not improper to refer to some historical facts in this connection, which are not in the census, but which, nevertheless, we all know to exist. There are isms at the North whose name is Legion. According to the universal standard of orthodoxy, we are compelled to exclude the subjects of these isms from the pale of Christianity. What the relative proportion is, North and South, of such of these isms as have been nurtured into organized existence, we have no certain means of knowing—and I do not wish to do injustice, or to be offensive, in statements which are not susceptible of proof by facts and figures—yet, I suppose that in the five slave States, a man might wear himself out in travel, and never find one of these isms with an organized existence. To find a single individual, would be doing more than most men have done, with whom I am acquainted. But how is it in New England? The soil seems to suit them—they grow up like Jonah's gourd. Some are warring with great zeal against the social, and some against the religious institutions of society. Why is this? The institution of slavery has not produced, at the North, the moral obliquity, out of which they grow—a reverence for the Bible has not produced it. How is their existence, then, to be accounted for at the North, under institutions, whose tendency is supposed to be so favorable to moral and religious prosperity? And how is their utter absence to be accounted for at the South, where the institution of slavery is supposed to be so fatal to morality, religion and virtue? I will leave it for others to explain this fact. It is a mysterious fact, according to the modes of reasoning at the North. It is assumed by the North, that slavery tends to produce social, moral, and religious evils. This assumption is flatly contradicted by the facts of the census. These facts can never be explained by the New England theory. There was an ancient theory, held by men who were righteous in their own eyes, that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. By that theory Christ himself was condemned. It is not wonderful, therefore, that his friends should share the same fate.
The next disclosure of the census, which we will compare, are those which relate to the social prosperity of a people. Are they wealthy? are they healthy? are they in conditions to raise families, etc.?
These questions indicate the elements which belong to the item now to be examined. States are made up of families. Wealth is a blessing in those States which have it so distributed, as to give the greatest number of homes to the families which compose them. Wealth, so distributed in States, as to diminish the number of homes, is a curse to the families which compose them. Home is the nursery and shield of virtue. No right-minded man or woman, who had the means, could ever consent to have a family without a home; and no State should make wealth her boast, whose families are extensively without homes.
