u POSITION A^'D DUTIES OF THE NORTH WITH REGARD TO SLAVERY. BY ANDREW P. PEABODY. j|0-pruited from the Christian Examiner of July, 1843. NEWBURYPOBT: CHARLES WHIPPLE. ABEL WHITTON, PRINTER. 1848. POSITIOi\ A>'D DUTIES OF THE NORTH "WITH EEGARD TO SLAVERY. BY ANDREW P. PEABODY. Keprinted from the Christian Examiner of July, 1843. NEWBURYPORT : CHARLES WHIPPLE. 1847. -/ ABEL "VVHITTOX. PEINTEE. COEJfEE OF STATZ AJTD 3CIDDLZ STEEET5, yZWBUETPOET. POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE NORTH WITH REGAED TO SLAVERY. It has been common, both at the South and the North, to deny not only the duty, but the right of Northern men to discuss the subject of slavery. The attempt has been made to draw around the Afiicans in bondage a line of circumvallation, which philan- thropy, sympathy, nay, not even calm, dispassionate investigation can cross with iinpunity. This line, however, we cannot hold sacred. For the Africans are within the pale of human brother- hood, which Chiistianity has marked for us ; and the fact, that they are part and parcel of our own body politic, certainly cannot render them less our brethren. Nor, on the other hand, can the fact, that they belong to States which wield some of the attributes of independent sovereignty, rightfully exclude them from our sympathy, unless we have been wi'ong in sympathizing with the Greeks and Poles, and with the Asiatic tributaries of Great Britain, with whose oppressors we surely have as little political connection as with the Southern States of oui* own Confederacy. Is it said that the Constitution and laws of the Union preclude our action in the premises, and therefore should suppress our sympathy, or at least the free utterance of it ? We deny that the Constitution or fundamental laws of the Union put this subject beyond the reach of ouf political action ; and, if they did, and it should still appear that God had placed us under religious obhgations to the enslaved, we cannot for a moment admit that human compacts or enactments are valid against the divine law. Is it peremptorily asserted, that we at the North have no responsiljilities or duties with reference to slavery ? We still will contend for the right of trying this ques^- tion ourselves, inasmuch as the question of responsibility or of duty can never be answered by others in our stead. We say not at the outset that it is our right or duty to act upon this subject ; but merely maintain the right, nay, the duty of inquiiy, — of deter- mining, by the free exercise of our own judgment, whether and how far we at the North are accountable for the wrongs and evils of slavery, — whether and how far Providence has entmsted to us the power, and given to us the means of decisive influence and 6 and indeed was an acknowledged leader in all ecclesiastical niair ters, was a Northern man, and then held an auction every Thiirs-' day for the sale of human flesh. These facts we ha\ e specified as'^ illustrating the state of principle and feelmg wliich prevails with hardly an exception, among Northern men, who have become cit- izens of the South. Now there must be something grossly wrong in the state of public feeling at the North, while sucli men and few others are sent Southward. There must be bitterness at the fountain, whence such streams flow. And we have no doubt that, if the New England people, who are now at the South, had car- ried with them what ought to be New England principles, and simply lived them out by tacitly declining all connection with slavery and all action in its favor, without any insurrectionary language or movement, they would have done a vast deal towards mollifying the tone of public sentiment at the South, and prepar- ing the way for the gradual emancipation of the enslaved. A healthy and active state of general sentuuent at the North is then, in this point of view, if in no other, of prime importance, and would be of extensive and controllino- influence. We have as yet named prominent indeed, yet only secondary- features of our position with reference to slavery. We are still more intimately connected with the system. We, the people of the North, are slave-holders and slave-dealers. The Constitution and history of our Federal (rovernment cover a vast amount of pro-slavery recognition, sanction, legislation, and executive action ^ and for all this the non-slaveholding States are accountable ; for they have always had the majority in the national comisels, and, had they been true to the principles, for which they professedly contended in the war of the Revolution, the Federal Government would have been clear of this unholy compact. Now what the non-slaveholding states have done, they may undo. What they have established they may abolish. What they have sanctioned they may disavow. Let us then take a cursory view of what they have done, established, and sanctioned ; fOr this is requisite in or- der to define their position. Our Constitution embraced at the outset a most unfortunate compromise, guaranteeing the continuance of the slave-trade for twenty years, without providing for its abolition even then ; and against this many earnest and fervent voices were raised by not a few of the first and best men in the nation; among whom we would make honorable mention of Joshua Atherton, of New Hampshire, (grandfather of Hon. Charles G. Atherton,^ who opposed the adoption of the Constitution on this ground alone ; for, said he, "If we ratify the Constitution, we become consenters to and par- takers in the sin and guilt of this abominable traffic." By the Ooiistitutlon, also, a larger than its due share of representation and influence was secured to the Southern States, by reckonino- tb*ee- fifths of the slaves in the numbers, on which the apportionment of representatives in Congi-ess is made, — an aiTangement, by which the Southern minority of the free citizens of the countiy have been fast approaching a majority in the representation, and will, if the process go on unchecked, soon attain that majority by the increase of slaves in the extreme South, and the creation of new slaveholdino- states, as in the case of Texas and Florida. There is also an a? tide in the Constitution, which permits the reclaiming of fuoitive slaves in the free States, and thus declares oiu- territoiy, what it has often been made, a himting ground for slave-diivers. Under tliis article, according to the construction of oui' Supreme Judiciary, any citizen of the North, (he need not be black ; men as white as most of our readers, have been claimed and seized as slaves at the North,) may be seized and carried into slavery without the form of trial, on the mere affidavit of the claimant before a justice of the peace. The redeeming trait in this article is, that it does not make it incumbent on the State authorities to act in such cases, and its force may be evaded, (as it has been, to the honor of several of the New England States,) by prohibiting, under severe penalties, any of the State functionaries from aidmg in the arrest or verifica- tion of persons clauned as slaves, and forbidding the use of the jails of the State for the detention of such persons. But still the article is a foul blot upon our Constitution, and a memorial of a sycophancy and subserviency to the South on the part of the North, which has been as the life-blood of Southern slavery. By the Constitution, Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over the territories belongmg to the Union ; and, south of thirty-eight and a half degrees of north latitude, Congress has sanctioned slave- ry in all those territories. Several new slaveholding States have been admitted to the Union; and particularly, in 1820, Missouri, the question of whose admission was made to turn solely on the point of slavery, was admitted with liberty to hold slaves, by means of the infamous defection of Northern members of Congress from the trae principles of freedom. Under the authority of Congress, also, and by the votes and the acquiescence of Northern legislators, slavery and the domestic slave-trade, in its most revolting features, are sustained in the Dis- trict of Columbia, of which the entire, unrestricted jmisdiction is vested in Congress. There are nowhere in the Union more severe slave-laws than are sanctioned in that District by act of Congress. The barbarity of the slave-laws in force there may be judged of from one single item. A slave, competed of setting fire to any building, is to have his head cut off, his body divided into quar- 8 ters, and tlie parts set up in tlie most public places. In the very seat of government, any colored person may be apprehended as a fugitive slave ; and, if he proves himself free, he is charged with all the fees and rewards given by law for the apprehension of run- aways, and, upon foilure to make paj^nent, he is liable to be sold as a slave. Thus, under the veiy eye of Congress, a free man of color, on his lawful business, may be arrested, thrown into jail, and, if too poor to pay charges, which range from forty-five to ninety dol- lars, sold into irredeemable slavery. There have been, however, cases in which blacks thus arrested have been discharged. There was reported to the House of Kepresentatives a case, m which a black man was taken up on suspicion of being a runaway slave, and kept confined four hundred and Jive days, in which time vermin, disease, and misery had deprived him of the use of his limbs, and made him a cripnle for life, and he was then discharg- ed ])ecause no one would Iniy him. Yet, while these things are well known in Congress, and are brought before that body by committees of their own, they have repeatedly voted to make no alterations in the slave-laws of the District, and to such votes scores of Northern legislators have recorded their names in the affirmative. IMcanwhile the neighboring State of Maryland, from which many of these slave-laws were derived, yielding to the spirit of the age, has expunged the most obnoxious of them from her statute book ; and onlier soil, tlie man, who confesses himself a slave, is released, if his master does not answer an advertisement, and appear to claim him, within a limited time. _ Under the eye, and with the sanction of Congi-ess, the District of Columbia is also made the great slave-market of the Union. There have been single numbers of the National Intelhgencer, that have contained advertisements relatuig to the purchase or sale of not only hundreds, but even thousands of slaves. In the city of Washington, so lucrative is this trade, that licenses to cany it on, still under the authority of Congress, are given and regu- larly paid for at a rate prescribed by the city corporation which has been and probably is now no less than four hundred dol- lars. Northern members of Congress are often compelled to meet droves of slaves on their way to a market or to the river, handcuffed and chained together. This traffic is disgusting to the best people of the District, has been petitiimed agamst by large numbers of them, has been presented as a nuisance by gi-and juries, has been commented upon with righteous severity in Charges from the Bench, and yet legislators from the non-slave- holding States have not principle, energy, and independence enough to do it away. . By the Constitution, the regvilation of commerce between the several States is vested in Congress, and Congress has enacted laws peniiitting the slave-trade between the States coastwise in vessels of over forty tons burthen, and prescribing minutely the manifests, forais of entry at the custom-house, and specifications to be made by the masters of such vessels. By the same author- ity a vast inland slave-trade is carried on, and unmense numbers are driven in herds from the Northern to the Southern and South- western extremities of the slave-holding district, often thirty or forty attached to the same long chain, each by a short chain affix- ed to his iron handcuff. In Maryland and Virginia, this is a business of prime importance ; and large, jail-like places of depos- it, well supplied with thumb-screws, gags, and cowhides, are scattered at not infrecjuent intervals over the territory of those vStates. In 1836, no less than forty thousand slaves had been sold out of Virginia within a year, for a sum of not less than twenty-four millions of dollars,* and, not long before that date, a distuignished statesman of Virginia publicly declared, that his native State had been converted into "one grand menagerie, where men were reared for the market, like oxen for the sham- bles."! And all this under the authority of Congress, and with the consent of Northern legislators. But our Federal Government has not confined its action on this subject within its own jurisdiction. By express votes of Con- gress, and of course, of Northern members to constitute a majori- ty, the Government has repeatedly negotiated with Great Britain, (though happil}'- 'with no success, except a paltry pecuniary re- muneration in one or two instances,) for the restoration of fugitive slaves from Canada, and of slaves that have been cast by ship- wreck upon British soil. And, to cap the climax of degradation, our republic, when the pennanence of slavery in the island of Cuba was supposed to be threatened, made to the courts of Mad- rid and of St. Petersbui-g, and to the Congress of Panama, the most dolorous representations of the effect, which emancipation in Cuba must needs have upon her own domestic institutions, and intimated in the most explicit terms, that the United States would without hesitation embark in any war, which might be necessary to perpetuate slavery m that island, — yes, pledged the entii-e streno^th and resources of this nation, which styles itself free, to keep hundreds of thousands of human beings out of its own pre- cincts in hopeless degradation and bondage. Now, while such has been the spirit of a large portion of the delegation to Congress from the non-slaveholding States, we can- « Niles' Register, Oct. S, 1836. t Speech of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, in the Virginia Legislature, in 1S32. 10 not regard tlie long rejection of petitions bearing upon slaveTy a^. a matter of surprise, or as furnishing additional ground for moral indignation to an honest and philanthropic heart. Before the right of petition was formally denied, the majority of Northern raeonbers had sufficiently shown that there was no right too sacred to be yielded up to Southern dictation ; and, as they would at any rate have treated the subject-matter of these petitions with necl lect and indignity, it may have been as well for them to do the work m brief, and to save the time and money of the nation bv one sweeping vote of rejection. "^ Such is the amount of action, permission, and sanction for which we at the North are accountable. To this deoTee are wc slave-liolders and slave-dealers. We are not indeed "directly re- sponsible tor slavery within the borders of the several States Ihat is their concern. But for every act or recognition on the part ot the l^ederal Government we are accountul)le.— that is w& the people not our representatives or rulers, who are our amits. but we individually, whenever we have voted for a man, who was. ikelyo cast a pro-slavery vote in Congress, whenever we have learned with mdiifeience, that our agent had cast such a vote whenever we have voted a second time for a man, who had once cast such a vote The acts of our representatives, which we let go by unrebid^ed, are our acts. When Northern men have thus voted. It has been because- their constituents were either indiffer- ent to the whole matter, or strongly tinged with Southern princi- ples. A late member of Congress,* who never failed, when the opportunity offered, to vote in behalf of slavery, not long am> made the followmg expose of his political creed : " While in pub- lic life. It has ever been, and will ever continue to be, my effort lu-st to learn, and then to do the will of my constituents '' Thi^' man had for several years represented a State where the general tone of public feeling then was either absolute indifference or a leamng towards the pro-slavery side of all these questions.' The use ot the representative's own conscience seems to have orown obsolete and instructions and pledges have so far supplied its place, that on all matters of importance, the alternative is obe- dience or the resignation of one's office. Thus the bui-then rest& upon the consciences of the citizens at large. Such is the position of the people of th? North, with regard to slavery. What are the duties growing out of this position '? In the first place, it is undoubtedly the duty of every citizen to take cognizance of the subject, to know what slavery is,, and to have a just, and, so far as may be, an adequate idea of its evils and enormities. In judging of Southern slavery, we have no need * Hon. Heniy Hubbard, of New Hampshire 11 to discuss tlie question, wliether slavery is intrinsically and under all circumstances an evil and a wi'ong. It is certainly within the range of abstract possibiHty, that a state of things might exist, in which something con-esponding to the relation of master and slave should be mutually beneficial. Such a st-ate of tilings did proba- l)ly exist in the patriarchal families in very early times ; and, from all the hints that we can glean of those times, the servants or slaves were generally the privileged party. But this has nothing to do with our negro slavery. The bondage of the African race is the fruit of man-stealing, a crime denounced in the severest terms by revelation, and utterly abhorrent to the very fii'st prin- ciples of humanity. Then again, our system of negi'O slavery sets aside that law of God, by which the marriage covenant is pro- nounced inviolate and permanent. There ai'e among the slaves no husbands and wives joined till death shall part them. Their union is not marriage, nor is it usually sanctioned by the sacrilegious mockery of a marriage ceremony. Those united for a season may l)e, without their consent, separated scores or hundreds of miles from each other, a-nd then each is permitted, expected, nay, com- pelled to enter into a new miion, and, perhaps a few months after, into yet another. The leading ecclesiastical bodies at the South liave even issued proclamations, declaring that the gospel laws of matrunony are not to be considered as binding upon the slaves, or "with reference to them, and that the slave may lawfully chang-e liis or her wife or husband with every change of residence. Thhi one feature is sufficient to make the whole system unspeakably degrading and demoralizing, inasmuch as it entirely breaks up the institution of families, which is the choicest instriunent of civiliza- tion and refinement, the sm-est bond of vii'tue, and an essential means of religious culture and discipline. Then too, in most of the Southern States, deep and hopeless degradation is entailed upon the slaves, by their being wholly cut off from the means of education; stripes, fines, and imprisonment unpending over him or her, who would teach a slave to read, or give him a Bible. Of course, this system precludes all just and accurate knowledge of truth and duty, and all opportunity to rise in the scale of mtellec- tual and moral being- Under the present state of things, the female slaves are necessarily, and almost universally, made vic- tims of the licentiousness of the whites. The most decisive and unanimous testimony is borne on this point by every honest wit- fiess- With regard to the moral condition of the slaves, oui- fairest esti- mate must of course be that founded on Southeni testimony. In a report adopted and published by the Presbyterian Synod of Soutli 12 Carolina and Georgia, made but a few years since, it is said, " that the negi'oes are destitute of the privileges of the gospel, and ever will be, under tlie present state of things," — that they "will bear comparison with heathen in any country in the world," — ^that "not a twentieth part" of the slaves attend public wor- ship. A writer in the Western Luminary, a respectable religious newspaper in Kentucky, says : "I proclaim it abroad to the Christian world, that heathenism is as real in the slave States as it is in the South Sea Islands, and that our negroes are as justly objects of attention to the American and other boards of foreign missions, as the Indians of the western wilds. AVliat is it constitutes heathenism ? Is it to be destitute of a knowledge of God, — of his holy word, — ncA^er to have heard scarcely a sentence of it read through life, — to know little or nothing of the history, character, instructions, and mission of Jesus Christ, — to be almost totally devoid of moral knowledge and feel- ing, of sentiments of probity, truth, and chastity ? If this consti- tutes heathenism, then are these thousands, millions of heathens in our beloved land. There is one topic to which I will allude, which will serve to establish the heatheriism of this population. I allude to the universal licentiousness which prevails. It may be said emphatically, that chastity is no virtue among them, — that its vio- lation neither injures female character in their own estimation, nor in that of their master or mistress. No instruction is ever given, no censui-e dispensed. I speak not of the world, I speak of Christ- ians generally." Compared with this mental and moral degradation, (we might almost say annihilation, for the system does all that it can to sink the man into the brute,) the mere physical sufferings con- nected with it, severe as they are, dwindle into insignificance. These may perhaps be often oven-ated ; the moral evils no imagi- nation can overrate. As to the fare, as to the clothing of the slaves, it is indeed scanty and poor, bearing no comparison, at least on the plantations, with that of free laborers at the North, yet much better, no doubt, than the English manufacturers and many classes of free laborers in Europe can procure. With re- o-ard to cruel treatment, there are doubtless many humane mas- ters, and there is a degree to which the slaves are protected by law, that is, they cannot be killed in mere sport or wantonness. But the slave-laws of all the Southern States are written in blood, and are a burning shame for a nation that boasts of its freedom, and a foul outrage upon humanity. In Virginia, there are seventy- one offences, which, subjecting a white man only to imprisonment, are in a negro punished with death. In Georgia, any person may inflict twenty lashes on the bare back of a slave found off tho 13 plantation where he belongs without a written license; and there are very many Southern laws, by which, not for crime, but for merely nominal offences, any irresponsible person whatsoever, without the intervention of a magistrate, may inflict from twenty to forty lashes. By the laws of Maryland, a slave may, for rid- ing a horse without leave, and for other Hke insignificant offences, be whipt, have his ears cropt, or be branded on the cheek with the letter R. But we will not go on with the loathsome and harrowing, recital ; we might fill many pages with it ; nor do we believe that there stands written, whether in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, anything so horrible, so shocking to every senti- ment of humanity, as the statute-books of the Southern States. In addition to the legal cruelty to which the slave is liable, he is left in a great degree unprotected against private violence and wrong. To force applied for however unlawful or brutal purposes, the slave can make no resistance. Passive submission, not only to one's own master, but to the whole white population, is enjoin- ed by the severest penalties. There are some cases, in which a slave, for merely striking a white man, may be lawfully killed on the spot ; and death, in Georgia for the second offence,, and for the third in South Carolina, is the legal penalty for a slave's striking any white person, under circumstances of whatever provocation, or in resistance of any treatment, however unlawful, brutal, or malicious. The slave is cut off from the benefit of trial by jury, except in capital cases ; and in South Cai'olina, Virginia, and Louisiana, life may be legally taken without the verdict of a jury. In Louisiana, if the court is equally divided as to the guilt of a slave, judgment is rendered against him. In 1832, thirty-Jive slaves were executed at one time in Charleston, S.C., without the intervention of a jury. The degree of protection which the slave enjoys against over-working, and the security in which he holds any little property of his own,, may be judged of from the fact, that the lowest prescribed limk- of a slave's daily labor isjifteen hours, that in several of the States a slave is not permitted to raise cotton or to keep domestic animals for his own benefit,, and that in several of the States masters are forbidden, under heavy penalties, to let their slaves work for wages for their own benefit. The extent to which the slave's life is protected may be inferred from the law of South Carolina, which provides that, if a slave be murdered by a white person in a sudden passion, or by excessive punishment, the man who kills him shall pay a moderate fine, and be imprisoned six months. Now these laws are not merely indications of what may in ex- treme cases be done to, or suffered by the slaves. Laws are the surest index of the itate of public sentiment in a community, and 21 14 these laws show in what light the rights, the comfort, and the life of the slave are regarded at the South. These laws are the true criterion of judgment. Individual cases of hardship and gross cruelty may exist under the most humane laws, wherever man has power over his fellow-beings. We have ourselves known, in our own neighborhood, cases of the cruel treatment of children bound out at service, which, had they occurred at the South, would have figured largely in anti-slavery reports ; but they would here have been the subjects of the severest legal animadversion, and would have roused the indignation of the whole community, while at the South they would have been far within the liberty granted by law, and would have excited no surprise or censure. We doubt not that there are very many humane and conscientious masters at the South, — many, who bear the burden of slavery un- willingly, and who cherish a Christian sense of duty towards this species of property, from which they know not how to escape. But we want no other proof than the advertisements in Southern newspapers, to convince us that cases of gross inhumanity are ap- pallingly frequent ; and even in the cities, where the slaves are supposed to enjoy a condition of greater comfort than on the plan- tations, the severe whipping of adult slaves, both male and female, either by the master or by the public functionary appointed for that purpose, is a common and habitual thing. Such is slavery, — the institution for which our kind construc- tion, our tolerance, our sympathy, our tacit approval, is often claimed. Such is the slavery, which we Northern men help sus- tain in the District of Columbia, and in the territories under the national jurisdiction, and which, in the portions of the country where it has the deepest dye, is replenished by a traffic conducted under our sanction and authority. Such is the burden, which, as it exists in the Southern States of the Union, claims not indeed our interference until it is solicited, but our prayers and our sym- pathy both for the enslaved and for their masters. And can it be Heaven's will, that we should close our hearts against the knowl- edge of such wrong and misery ? Shall constitutions and enact- ments restrain prayer, and make void the law of God and of Jesus, which says, *' AH ye are brethren?" But what shall we, what can we lawfully do for the benefit of the slaves taken collectively ? In the first placfe, we can and should pray for the slave and his master, in public and in private, not in mere form, but heartily, fervently. And this we say, not professionally, but because we believe in the efficacy of prayer. The evil is one of appalling magnitude. The stone is very great. We cannot roll it away unless God strengthen us and teach us how. But if all Christian people at the North would unite in earnest supplication to God for 15 their unhappy brethren, he would open their eyes to modes of in- fluence and effort now hidden. And on a subject so excitino- the cahn and gentle spii^it of prayer is especiaUy needed to pur^rphi- lantln-opy from all base admixture of earthly passion, to temper it with justice and candor, and to prevent sympathy with the op- pressed from degenerating into hatred and vindictive feeWs to- wards the oppressor. We fear that on this subject there has been too much preaching compared with the praying. But we ought to preach as well as pray, and to write as well as preach. _ The subject is an open one, and demands discussion • nor by its discussion can wi'ong be done to any, so long as the laws of tmth and of brotherly love are kept inviolate, and all bit-, terness and wi-ath are put away. It is often said, that slavery is not a subject for the pulpit. But why not? A just moral per- spective wHl not indeed ensui^e it the broad and engTossing place in pulpit services, which some assign to it. But we°regard it as a fit subject for discussion in the stated services of the°sanctuary, because slavery is a moral rather than a physical evil, and pre- jsents its most alarming and revolting aspects in a Chiistian iDoint of view ; because the evil is so desperate, that no power short of the omnipotence of Christian truth and love can reach it ; because the slaves and the slave-holders are oui- bretlu-en, children of our Father, boimd to us by rehgious ties, and it is therefore fitting that we should bear them on our minds and hearts in oiu: Father's house ; because, if we have any duties towards them, they are re- ligious duties, and therefore within the legitimate scope of the pul- pit ; and, finally, because the subject is encompassed with so many difficulties, and needs for the solution of them so much of the wisdom that is from above, and for its discussion without offence so much of that eahnness and meekness, which should character- ize the pulpit more universally than it does, that we may well ap- ply to it the language and imitate the example of the "Psalmist, mth. regard to perplexities of a different class; *'If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend agamst the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God." Let then a firm and strong disapproval of the whole system breathe from the pul- pit and the press, throughout the non-slaveholding States. Let no man be ashamed, or afraid to utter or to write what he believes and feels. Let this state of public sentiment be cherished at the North, without any aggi-essive movement towards the South • and it cannot but make itself felt there. It has there even now many hearts ready, yearning to respond to it. And those at the South who chug to slavery, depend for their support to a very gi-eat de- gree upon popular feeling at the North, and feel fortified by the 16 strong pro-slavery ground taken by the Northern press and pulpit, more than by any or all things else. While slavery has its friends at the North, its hold upon the South cannot be relaxed. But right feeling here will work its way there. Our literature tinged with it will be read and felt there. Our great political orators once imbued with it will send the truth home to Southern hearts in breathing thoughts and burning words. Our ecclesiastical bodies are more or less intimately connected with the Southern church, and their unanimous, decided, and strong sentiment will soon find a response from every devout and intelligent Christian at the South, and will awaken to sincere penitence and a better mind those portions of the Southern church, which have entered into willing compact with this iniquity. Let the whole North be set right or this subject, and there would be no call for active in- terference or expostulation. Slaveiy would expue without a blow. It could not live a day without sympathy and support from beyond its own borders. Public sentiment is not the lame and slow agent which it once was ; but it moves on wings of fire, and is like light- ning which glances through the whole firmament with a flash. In addition to this general expression and full establishment of right feeling upon this subject, it is most manifestly our duty to undo our own work, — to abolish slavery and all operations con- nected with it, so far as the field of our jurisdiction extends. This is the most momentous subject of national legislation ; nor can we hope for the smile of Providence upon any of our counsels, while this is overlooked. We are prone to deem it of the utmost im- portance, (aiad it certainly is important,) that our legislators should be -sound in the faith on such subjects as the tariff and the currency, on which men yet may honestly differ, — is it not of incomparably greater importance that they should be men, who will not by their continued subserviency to a system, which no Northern man in his heart approves, call down the judgments of long-suffering Heaven upon our land ? The domestic slave-trade should be stopped ; and that movement would insure speedy emancipation in the sJave-broeding -states, where slaves are con- fessedly not worth keeping for their labor, and confine the evil to the extreme South and Southwest. The portion of the country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government should be purged of this contamination. Let it be done by pui'chase, — it would not cost a third of what the Florida war cost, and it would l3e far better to pay men for what is not their property, than to let the most shadowy suspicion of injustice rest upon a philanthro- pic movement. Let the whole North too, as one man, resist the admission into the confederation of any new slaveholding mem- her. Let all the non-slaveholding States also follow the noble 17 o^xample already set, and forl3id the agency of tlieir magistrates and the use of their jails for the detention and restoration of fugi- tive slaves. Let the entire streno-th of the non-slaveholdins; States also be put foith in behalf of such amendments to the Con- stitution, as shall blot out all recognition of slaver}^, and appoilion representation to the actual number of free citizens hi the several States. But, on all these subjects, the present is the time for prompt and enero-etic counsel and action. Let new slaveholdino- States be admitted into the Union, or created from conquered territory, (and this may take place during the vciy next session of Con- gress, and scores of Northern votes be cast in favor of it,) and not improbably the majority of representatives at the end of an- other ten years will l^elong to tlie slaveholding States, and the •chains of slavery will then be riveted, till the iniquity of the na- tion is full, and our name and place shall be blotted out from timono- the nations of the earth. Is it said, that a decided stand Jigainst slavery on the part of the non-slaveholding States would destroy the Union? Let it then be destroyed. If the Union can- not be preserved, and the lavvs of God l)e at the same time kept, better that human compacts yield, and God be obeyed at all haz- ^irds. In saying this, let lis not be understood as speaking trea- sonably of our national Union. We prize and love the Union, and ^sincerely pray that God may keep it. But we expect safety for it «)nly by its conforn*.ity to tlie divine will and law. We do not be- lieve that it is threatened ]jy any pliilanthropic principle or move- inent. On the other hand, were slavery removed from a place so near its foundations, it would be built up at once in the streng-th and beauty of liberty and virtue, and would be the desire of all nations, Vae glory of the whole eartli. But, if the Union is tln-eat- ened, it is by the reciprocal encroachments of the South and syco- pliancy of the North, and by tlie reckless, mipiincipled tone and spirit thus given to the whole legislation and action of the Federal cen the cause of many liardships and disabilities to the slaves at the South, particularly of the restrictions upon their movements and social ^-atherino-s, and of the laws ao-ainst their beinof tauo-ht to read. But we find on examination, that most of these effects preceded their alleged cause. The American Anti-Slavery So- ciety was formed in December, 188B ; the New England Society, which accomplished but little, a year or two sooner. It was not till 1834, or 1835, that the recent anti-slavery movement became of sufiicient magniitude to attract attention at the South, or to be generally regarded at the North as anything more than an ephem- eral effort of a few visionary and fanatical pliilanthropists. But the severest of the slave-laws are as old as the constitutions of the respective States ; and most of the additional restrictions and dis- abilities, as well those affecting the free jjlacks as the slaves, may be traced back to at least ten or twelve years before the forma- tion of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The prohibition of Sunday and other schools for the education of slaves, we can trace back in South Carolina to 18'24; and, on looking over Niles's Register for the five or six years next preceding and following that date, we find numerous enactments of the same kind in that and other Southern States, and very many indications of an anx- ious and disturbed state of feeling with reference to the negro pop- ulation, which we do not find within tlie last few years. f Possibly laws of this character may have Ijccn more rigorously executed *In 1829, the vsduo of Slave? exported from Virp;inia, was computed at a •laillion and a half of dollars; in 183G, at ticentn-fvin' millions. See Debates in the Virginia Convention forlS29, p. 99. Niles' Register, Oct. 8, 1S36. t Niles' Register, April 21, 1S21 ; ^^lardi 15, 1823; Dec, 26, 1S29 ; Jan. 16, 1830 ; April 24, 1830, S:c. &c. 21 since the fonnation of tlie American Anti-Skvery Society; but very few such laws have been enacted since that time. The state of things, which Northern abolitionists have been so freely charg- ed with bringing about, existed in full during the interv^al when the North h^dly lifted a voice against slavery. With regard to the present condition of the slaves, we have unimpeachable testi- mony that they are better treated than formerly ; and this is doubt- less to be attributed to the influence of public opinion at the North, even in the partial and distorted foims in which it has reached the people of the South. It is said in an article m de- fence of slavery in the Southern Review, "The fact is notonous, that slaves are better treated now than fonnerly, and that their condition is still improving." Gen. Scott, in a letter, m which he expresses strong disapprobation of the anti-slavery movement, makes the same assertion. So much for the alleged mjury to the slave from his Northern friends. _ , It is also said, that the efforts of Northern abohtionists have faimed an insurrectionary spnit at the South. Against this charge there is abundant prima facie evidence, without our looking in- to the history of slave insun-ections. It is well known that living anti-slavery agents are not suffered to go at large in the Southern "States. The only effort that can be made, therefore, at the houth, is by sendmg anti-slavery books, pamphlets, and newspapers. These are indeed sent and circulated in large numbers, not among the slaves, (for the slaves cannot read,) but among the masters; and, if the slaves are made acquainted with their contents, it must ]ie through the gratuitous agency of their masters. In point of fact all the oreat slave rebellions on record took place before the fonnation of °the American Anti-Slaverj Society. The writer ni the Southern Review, already refeiTcd to, says, Jhat "under no circumstances can a semle war ever take place ; that " in vain has the United i^tates mail been infested and burdened with in- cendiary documents-;" and that " no temptations or artifices can seduce the slaves from their allegiance." ™s I^Y^V%P^^- lished at Charleston, which was the seat m 1823 and l^^i- ot ex- tensive negro insm-rectiona, .discovered just on the eve ot execu- tion It is well known to many of our readers, that the whole .>K)pulation of Charleston was, for a long series of years, m a state ■of perpetual alarm and apprehension from the slaves, and that South CaroUna took the lead in those legislative^ lestrictionss ■^vhich imply a state of dread and consternation. It is truly grat- ifvin.^, while anti-slaveiy principles are so rapidly extendwg them- s^lvelat the North, to find descriptions of a state of entire and fearless security emanating from the highest hterary author- itj in that very oity and State, ha ^which, prwr to -the anti- 22 slavery movement, the most fearful elements of combustion were Ijelieved to exist. Is it farther said, that the anti-slavery movement at the North is entirely devoid of influence upon the iSouth V Not thus do South- ern people say. We might fill half a score of pages with unim- peachable Southern testimony to the effect of this movement upon the Southern muid and heart. Judge Upshur said, in his pros- pectus for the establishment of the Southern Review: " The de- fence of the peculiar institutions of the slave-holding States is the great and leading object of the work. That they are in danger, it would be folly to disguise. A party has arisen in the other States, whose object is the overthrow of the relation between mas- ter and slave ; and from present appearances it will continue to increase till the object it has in view is consummated, unless effi- cient measures be taken to arrest further progress." The editor of the South Carolina Messenger, in earnestly soliciting subscript tions for this same work, says : " If your institutions are ever to be defended, no time is to be lost. Delay, in all cases dangerous, would be fatal in this." The North Carolina Watchman says: " We are inclined to believe there is more abolitionism at the South, than prudence will pennit to be openly avowed." A let- ter from the Marj^ille Theological Seminary to the editor of the Emancipator says : "At least one half of the students of this the- ological institution are decided abolitionists, and are very much etrengtliened by perusmg the publications sent by you." A gen- tleman of Frederick County, Md., wiites : "The anti-slavery cause is rapidly gaining ground in this section of the country. Three years ago, abolitionist and insurrectionist were interchange- able terms, and an abolition paper a prodigy ; now anti-slavery papers are read regularly by our most respectable and intelligent citizens." Gen. Duff Green writes : " AVe believe that the South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend to excite the slaves to insurrection. We believe that we have most to fear from the organized action upon the consciences and fears of the slave-holders themselves from the insinuation of tlieir dangerous heresies mto our schools, our pul- pits, and our domestic circles." We have, we trust, been successful in defending the anti-slavery organization from some of the grave charges, which have ])een made against it. But it is not by societies alone that the work can be accomplished. They can only sow the seed ; and this they have done faithfully, diligently, even if not always in good temper. It remains for us, citizens, Christians, to supersede them, (as every true friend of the cause wiU be grateful to have them superseded,) by adopting, all as one, the great principle?, which they have cherished, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 899 565 A THE SPIRITXTAL MIRROR, OR, LOOKINGf-GLASS: Exhibiting the Human Heart as being either the Temple of God, or the habitation of Devils. Exemplified in a series of ten copper- plate Engrayings. Intended to ^id in a better understanding of Man^s Fallen Nature. Anciently printed in the French language, in which five editions were printed in 1732. Translated into the German language, from which it is now translated. By Peter Bander. *^By this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the Devil."— iJohn, 3:10. Sixth American Edition. Fifty cents single, four dollars per dozen. Newburjp^rt ; Published by CHARLES WHIPPLE.