Discussion on American Slavery

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 skinNot 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.