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THINGS 
 
 NORTHERN MEN TO DO 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED LORD'S DAY EVENDCG, JULY 17, 1836, LN THE 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. WHITESBORO', N. Y. 
 
 / 
 
 "V 
 
 BY BERIAH (^REKN, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE ONEIDA INSTITUTE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 1836. 
 
TTf 
 
 To MY Fellow Citizens in Whitesboro' : 
 
 Who are ready to exert themselves for the aboHtion of American 
 Slavery, whenever they can see any thing for J^orthern men to do in 
 this great cause ; this discourse is dedicated by their affectionate 
 devoted friend, and servant, 
 
 BERIAH GREEN. 
 
01 
 
 \5 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel ; Amend your ways and your doings, and 
 '' I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of 
 "the Lord, the temple of the Lord; the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly 
 '■' amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and 
 " his neighbor ; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not 
 " innocent blood in tliis place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt ; then will I cause 
 "you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever." 
 Jeremiah vii, 3 — 7. 
 
 The general sentiment among the Hebrews, with which Jeremiah 
 had almost alone to contend, is clearly indicated by a shocking asser- 
 tion, which they were wont to throw into the face of Jehovah. Crimes 
 of all sorts and sizes they were in the habit of committing ; and then, 
 reeking with corruption and red with blood, of coming and standing 
 before God in his temple, to insult Him with the declaration, that they 
 " ivere delivered to do all suck abominations.''^ Things had taken such 
 a shape and posture, that they could do no better than to violate the 
 most sacred relations, and break the strongest ties which bound them 
 to heaven and earth. They were connected with a system of abomi- 
 nations which they could not dissolve, and from which they could not 
 break away. With the diflerent parts of this system, the fibres of 
 society had been intertwisted. It was supported by confirmed usages 
 and venerated institutions. What hazards must they not encounter, 
 what risl-is must they not run, in opposing the sentiment which gen- 
 erally prevailed around them ? They thought it better to go with 
 the multitude to do evil, than incur popular odium in resisting it. 
 They could not keep their character and retain their influence, with- 
 out taking a share in popular iniquity. Their wickedness was a 
 matter of necessity. Still they could not refuse to see that it was 
 driving their country to fearful extremities. Ruin stared them in the 
 face. What could they do 1 On the one hand, driven by such strong 
 necessities to sin ; and on the other, exposed to such exterminating 
 judgments for their iniquities ! 
 
Just here the prophet met them. The difficuUies in which they were 
 involved, and the dangers to which they were exposed, they owed to 
 themselves. And if they stoutly persevered in the crooked ways 
 they had so rashly trodden, they were undone. Nothing would 
 then save them from the dishonored graves, which their own hands 
 had been so long employed in digging. Yet they need not perish. 
 If they would avoid presumption, they might escape despair. They 
 might not charge the blame of their iniquities on God. They might 
 not allege, that " they were delivered to do the abominations" they 
 were guilty of. So long as they did so, their repentance and sal- 
 vation were impossible. The work, which demanded their atten- 
 tion, lay directly before them. This done, and all their perplexities, 
 and difficulties, and embarrassments would instantly vanish. This 
 done, destruction, with its open jaws now ready to devour them, would 
 at once flee away. This done, and benignant heaven would pour 
 upon them the choicest, most enduring benefits. 
 
 How often, when the sin of slavery has been urged on the con- 
 sciences of our fellow-citizens, have our ears been pained with inqui- 
 ries such as these ; — Why trouble us with your impertinence t what 
 is American slavery to us 1 we will do nothing to give it counte- 
 nance — we can do nothing to hasten its abolition. In all its bearings, 
 it is a matter belonging wholly to the South. Let southern wisdom 
 and benevolence dispose of it. Why should we interfere? Have 
 we not enough of business, appropriately our own, to engross our 
 thoughts and occupy our powers ? And if we should attempt some- 
 thing, what could we do to relieve our country of this heavy burden 1 
 It has so incorporated itself with all our institutions, that its removal 
 must break up the very foundations of our republic. Things have 
 grown into such a state, that slavery, whatever it may be, and what- 
 ever it may do, must, so far as our exertions are concerned, be let 
 alone. 
 
 But is it so 1 Has the North nothing to do with a system of op- 
 pression, under which more than two millions of our countrymen are 
 crushed 1 What! has the North done nothing for the establishment; — 
 is the North now doing nothing for the protection and support of this 
 horrid system ? Nothing, in the civil compact she was so active in 
 forming — which she is so anxious to maintain 1 Nothing, in lending 
 her assistance to protect the traffic in human souls and bodies in the 
 District of Columbia] Nothing, in those arrangements, by which 
 she throws back the fugitive to the whip of his tormentor ? Nothing, 
 in consenting to the multiplied wrongs which are heaped upon colored 
 
freemen? Nothing, in cherishing against them a most hisane and 
 maHgnant prejudice ? Nothing, in so closing her eyes, and ears, and 
 lips to the claims of her helpless, outraged brethren ? Nothing, in 
 trying in such various ways to discourage the friends of human nature 
 among us from opening their lips for the dumb ? In silently permitting 
 or loudly encouraging the rabble, made up of ignorant, thoughtless^, 
 wretched creatures, who know not, and care not, what they do, to 
 wage open war upon them ? Nothing, in giving up her own children 
 to the mad-dog violence of southern tyranny, to be insulted, scourged, 
 murdered ? Has the North nothing to do with a system of oppres- 
 sion, which is corrupting the morals, and wasting the strength, and 
 blasting the character, of the nation 1 Nothing to do with a system 
 which is poisoning the heart of the church, and eating up the vitals 
 of the republic t Yes, verily. The North has much to do with 
 American slavery. It has deeply involved her in guilt. It is ex- 
 posing her, every day, and at a thousand points, to the most morti- 
 fying insults, and to the deadliest injuries. In what dreams do we 
 indulge? Can the South be rent with earthquakes, scathed with 
 thunderbolts for crimes, clearly national,* while the North looks on 
 with the airs of an unconcerned spectator 1 No, no. If the ship, to 
 change the figure, strikes on the rocks, which " dead ahead" lift up 
 their horrid forms, must we not go down together — swallowed up by 
 the same waves ? 
 
 * 1. The prejudice against the complexion of the Africo-American, while it is 
 with the people of this country a national sentiment, had its origin in slaveholding, 
 and powerfully supports it. 
 
 2. The nation, as such, is responsible for the existence and continuance of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia. There, on ground belonging to the nation, a market 
 for the sale of human beings is kept open ; there, in the prison belonging to the 
 nation, human beings are confined on suspicion of being goods and chattels ; there, 
 into the treasury belonging to the nation, the " price of blood" is admitted. 
 
 3. It is the general sentiment, that the nation is bound by the terms of " the 
 union" to aid in restoring the fugitive to his oppressor ; and, under the protection 
 of tliis sentiment, the most savage usages and horrid outrages are prevalent even in 
 the city of New York. Unoffending men, women, and children are seized in open 
 day, and in the public streets, with tiger-hke. ferocity, and thrust into tlie narrow 
 cells of a most abominable jail, to be legally given over by the legalized man-trapper 
 to the legalized man-holder ! 
 
 4. An extensive conspiracy has been formed, embracing a great number of the 
 appointed guardians of the public welfare, both civil and ecclesiastical, to support 
 American slavery by the sacrifice of American freedom ! To subser\'e the foul and 
 execrable ends of this conspiracy, nothing in church or state has been found too 
 sacred to be prostituted. Witness the attacks upon the United States' mail ; upon 
 the freedom ofthf press and of speech; and upon the rights of private property. 
 
But what can ne do 1 exclaim a thousand northern voices. I 
 answer, you can, 
 
 I. Thoroughly examine and freely discuss the whole subject of 
 ^American slavery. That the subject is one of the first importance, 
 every one is ready to admit. Its bearings on the interests of both 
 bond and free are direct and vital. It deeply affects the charac- 
 ter, condition, and prospects of the master.* It exposes him to 
 reproach and infamy. It frets away the ties of domestic life. It 
 subjects his children to temptations, greatly hazardous to their virtue, 
 usefulness, and peace. It is a moth, silently eating up his worldly 
 substance. It involves him in guilt. It opens the way to his inmost 
 spirit for keen remorse and killing fears. It feeds his lusts and in- 
 flames his passions. It nourishes within him a spiteful opposition to 
 inquiry, admonition, faithful warning. Tt works him into a fiery, petty 
 despot. It arms his will against his reason. It exposes him to the 
 withering displeasure of righteous heaven. To the slave, it is the 
 scythe of death ; to his head, heart, estate, it is destruction. It sternly 
 and stoutly refuses to let him be a man.'\ No other race of beings in 
 heaven, or on earth, can be found with which he may be classed. Of 
 
 * American slavery is a system o^ fraud, adultery, and murdei: Let this state- 
 ment be examined in the light which the codes of laws, under which tlie slaves are 
 crushed, shed upon it. Every slave is a stolen creature. He was born free, ac- 
 cording to the law of nature and of G od, as expounded in the fundamental maxim, 
 on which our republican institutions are based. The laws, under wliich they live, 
 afford no protection to the chastity or life of the slaves. A woman may not raise 
 her hand against any pale-faced violator, drunk or sober, without exposing herself 
 to the lash of the law ! In some states, the law admits, that slaves may be put to 
 death by " moderate correction !" And as the courts of justice are required to 
 exclude the testimony of any colored witness, where the case of a white defendant 
 is to be disposed of, any wliite man may at any time and in any place, murder as 
 many black men as his malignity or interest may prompt liim to make away with, 
 provided he keeps out of sight of witnesses of his own complexion. No wonder 
 that the land sliould stink, as it does, with a horrible and suffocating stench, with 
 the uncovered filth of fornication, and the unavenged blood of innocence! How 
 thoroughly such a sv'stem of legalized iniquity has debauched the morals of the 
 whole land of leprosy, a great cloud of witnesses have already borne frightful testi- 
 mony. Let "every man who has ears to hear," hear the testimony of such wit- 
 nesses as Thomas Jefferson ; the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
 in 1S16 ; and of the Rev. Da%id Nelson, in his address to the Presbyterians of Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee. 
 
 t The condition to which they are reduced, is described in the language of the 
 laws of South Carolina, in the following language : " Slaves sliall be decreed, sold, 
 taken, and reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the hands ot their 
 owners, to nil intents, constntctions, and ■purposes whatsoever.'''' Stroud's Sketch, 
 pp. 23, 24. 
 
course, it virtually drives him headlong from the universe. Without 
 an inch of" ground where he may place his feet, he finds himself 
 friendless and desolate — an outcast amidst his father's family. What 
 dreadful thoughts, then, may not slavery be expected to nourish in 
 his bosom ! What desperate deeds may it not nerve his hands to 
 work ! This is slavery in its influence upon the growing population 
 of this republic. This is the malignant fiend, which is continually 
 stalking through our land, " breathing out threatenings and slaughter," 
 and " scattering" everywhere and every day " firebrands, arrows, and 
 death." If it is not driven back to hell, it will at no distant day turn 
 this garden of the world into a " place of skulls !" 
 
 Can any thing, then, exceed the importance of the subject of slavery ? 
 It is important, vitally so, to every man, woman, and child in our 
 republic. No matter what may be his color, character, or standing, 
 to him it is important. As it has a powerful bearing on every depart- 
 ment of life, to every department of life it is important. 
 
 American slavery is, moreover, admitted to be a subject difficult to 
 dispose of. This is the testimony of grave divines and profound 
 statesmen ; of shrewd politicians and acute philosophers. It is the 
 complaint of the inexperienced and unlettered. Go where you will, 
 and urge on whom you may the evils of slavery, and how generally 
 will you not be reminded, that you have touched upon a delicate and 
 difficult subject ! Slavery is almost universally admitted to be wrong 
 and hurtful ; but the wisest heads and the best hearts among us, we 
 are told, are sadly puzzled with the problem, how can we get rid of 
 what has well nigh identified itself with our very existence. Will 
 not the nation bleed " to death," if the cancer is extracted ? 
 
 Here, then, we have a matter to dispose of as difficult as it is im- 
 portant. The monster, fattening on the blood of our countrymen, 
 has already acquired the size and strength of a giant. Eveiy hour 
 adds something to its ferocity and greediness. If let alone, it will 
 swallow up the nation. Something must be done. But what 1 That 
 is the question. How shall we obtain the right answer ? By shutting 
 up our eyes 1 and closing our ears ? and holding our tongues 1 By 
 refusing to read? to reflect? to inquire ? to discuss? Is this the way 
 to escape from such perplexities and embarrassments ? No. If we 
 sit still, we must die. Where great difficulties are to be encountered, 
 and formidable obstacles to be removed, it is our wisdom and our 
 duty to summon and employ the collected powers of the nation. 
 Every body should be encouraged to read, and think, and inquire, 
 and discuss ; and all in good earnest. The whole mass of mind 
 
among us should be aroused. Let all who will, present their expe- 
 dients, propose their plans, bring forward their methods. Every 
 thing should be thoroughly scrutinized, with the fixed determination 
 of making " full proof" of the best methods. Thus, in any other 
 case where we had so much at stake, we should be sure to conduct. 
 Is this the course, my brethren, which you have recommended and 
 pursued ? Have you opened your eyes on the various bearings and 
 tendencies of American slavery? Have you diligently collected 
 facts, and thoroughly examined them, and done your best, with skill 
 and judgment, to arrange them, and made them the occasion of laying 
 hold on great elemental principles, in the light of which you might 
 shape your plans and expend your powers 1 Have you studied the 
 recorded experience of philanthropists abroad, especially in Great 
 Britain 1 And have you made yourselves familiar with the history 
 of emancipation, wherever the enslaved have been enfranchised 1 And 
 have you done all this in good faith and sober earnest ? resolved to 
 turn every thing to the highest practical account 1 If not, is it well 
 for you to ask, what can the North attempt for the abolition of 
 American slavery 1 And so to put this question, as if nothing could 
 be done 1 
 
 II. You can regard the enslaved as the children of our common 
 Father, Saviour, and Sanctifier. Thus regarding them, you cannot 
 help presentuig them at the throne of His grace. With what unwea- 
 ried importunity w ill you not pour out prayers, that the Former of their 
 bodies and the Father of their spirits would graciously look upon the 
 wrongs, which they can neither endure nor escape. As their wise 
 and merciful Creator, you will entreat Him to open His eyes upon 
 His own image, on His handiwork, now marred, broken, trampled in 
 the dust. As their Redeemer, you will beseech Him to behold the 
 purchase of His blood, thrown away as mere refuse amidst worthless 
 rubbish. As their Sanctifier, you will entreat Him to pity those, who 
 are entitled to His heavenly gifts, who are driven as if they were 
 cattle from His gracious presence. To the God of truth and right- 
 eousness, you will humbly carry these, His outraged and insulted 
 children, for protection and redress. You will seek for them every 
 blessing which His mercy has bestowed on you. Kneeling at His 
 feet, you will long, as His almoner, to dispense among them the gifts 
 of His heavenly grace. You will earnestly inquire how, as His ser- 
 vant, you may best subserve their welfare. In selecting the modes 
 m which you may try to do them good, you will seek the guidance of 
 His hand. God of wisdom and of merc^, I hear you exclaim, fill 
 
me with an affectionate regard for thine own children, who lie crushed 
 and bleeding at my feet. May I see in them the accredited repre- 
 sentatives of my Saviour. May I give them such sympathy and offer 
 them such aid, as He, in their condition, would be entitled to expect 
 from a disciple. Divest me of every prejudice, imfriendJy to the 
 bond of brotherhood, which ties man to man. From every local or 
 clanish feeling, graciously deliver me. Save me from being crippled 
 by the ^ord of caste. May Thine enslaved children be as dear to 
 me as I am sure they are to Thee. In ray efforts to deliver them, 
 enable me to act " upon the principles," which Thy Holy Word 
 reveals. May I welcome on their account such labors, self-denials, 
 and sacrifices, as their peculiar necessities require, — such as are 
 worthy of my relations to Him, who for their sake welcomed the death 
 of the cross ! Such prayers you may offer by night and by day ; at 
 home and abroad ; in the closet, at the family altar, and especially at 
 the monthly concert, where the friends of human nature meet to 
 mingle their hearts in fervent supplication for their deliverance.* 
 Have you done all this ? Is it your habit thus to promote the welfare 
 of the enslaved I If not, how can you inquire, as if nothing could 
 be attempted, what you can do in the cause of universal emancipation l 
 We are able to act worthij of the bonds ivhich tie us to the slave, aiid 
 identify our interests unlh his. He is our brother by nature. " God 
 hath made of one blood" the bond and the free. We may own, and 
 cherish, and honor, the dear and strong links which bind us indisso- 
 lubly together. If we will open our eyes, we cannot help seeing, 
 that as citizens of this republic, our interests are identified with the 
 interests of the enslaved. We may refuse to study their condition 
 and relations. The laws, " written in blood," which protect, not 
 their persons and interests, but their heartless tyrants in insulting and 
 destroying them, we may refuse to read. We may close our eyes to 
 the history of their wrongs, of their unrequited labors, and unavenged 
 injuries. From a pretended regard to the union, which binds us to 
 their oppressors, we may thus stand aloof from our bleeding brothers ; 
 may give them up without remonstrance or inquiry to the " tender 
 mercies of the cruel." But we ought to know what we may easily 
 and certainly perceive, that the interests of the slave are identified 
 with ours. To leave him to perish is to cut our own throats ! Ameri- 
 
 * A distinguishod Southerner, wbile travelling at the North last summer, was 
 heard to say, that the South feared nothing which the abohtionists could pubhsh, 
 half so much as their estabhshment of a concert of prayer on the last Monday even- 
 ing of each month. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 can slavery makes the creatures who support it, more and more 
 eager, insolent, and outrageous in their claims on all around them for 
 homage and subserviency. These petty tyrants are by no means 
 satisfied with domineering over the helpless slave. Their despotic 
 spirit overleaps the limits of their plantations. It lifts its head among 
 the freemen of the North, threatening to strangle in its snaky folds 
 every one who may dare to resist its claims or oppose its progress. 
 Can we stand by in safety and see it crush and swallow our'cnslaved 
 brethren 1 Surely not. The fangs which are now dripping in their 
 blood, must ere long be fastened in our shrinking flesh. Have not 
 slaveholders at the South clearly betrayed a disposition to invade the 
 rights and trample on the interests of the freemen of the North "? 
 Have they not insulted us and threatened usl Have they not swung 
 their fists in our faces, and brandished their daggers above our heads? 
 Have they not goaded on their miserable creatures among us to acts 
 of lawless violence ; — acts, in which our persons have been rudely 
 attacked, our reputation spitefully assailed — all our privileges as 
 American citizens vilely set at nought? Have they not treated us 
 as outlaws in our own countiy ? And with more than savage fierce- 
 ness — with the open-mouthed eagerness of insatiate blood-hounds — 
 sought to imbrue their hands in the blood of " law-abiding," unof- 
 fending freemen I And can we mistake their spirit and designs 1 
 Why, they already treat us, as if we had sold our birth-right ; as if 
 we had been reduced to brute beasts ; as if hke goods and chattels 
 we were good for nothing but to gratify the passions and subserve the 
 interests of a bjoated aristocracy ! If we permit the spirit of tyranny 
 among us to feed and fatten — to grow and thrive upon the blood of 
 the slave, we are undone ! I repeat it ; nothing but the most wilful 
 blindness can prevent every man of you from seeing that his interests 
 are identified with those of the enslaved. 
 
 You can, then, promptly and generously mingle in the great con- 
 flict for human freedom, in which your own highest interests are 
 vitally involved. You can act as if you felt that you were bound with 
 those who are in bonds ; as if their cause was all your own ; as if 
 every blow that cuts their flesh, lacerated yours. You can plead their 
 cause with the earnestness, and zeal, and decision, which self-defence 
 demands. You can hazard all for holy freedom ; and maintain with 
 steadfast perseverance the noble resolution to sink or rise with the 
 victims of oppression. All this you can do. All this have you done 1 
 If not, how can you inquire, what, living at the North, you can attempt 
 in the cause of the oppressed ? 
 
11 
 
 III. The people of the North can avail themselves of the light, which 
 the history of emancipation sheds upon the claims of the enslaved. How 
 many among us speak as if the subject of abolition had never been 
 discussed and disposed of! They tremble at the thought of making 
 what they regard as an untried experiment. As an abstract matter, 
 they find no difficulty in seeing and saying, that the slave is robbed 
 of inalienable rights ; and that he is fairly entitled to the immediate 
 enjoyment of those privileges, which have been wrested from him by 
 remorseless tyranny. But they are afraid to act on abstract princi- 
 ples, though legibly written on the very foundations of their nature ! 
 Those first truths which are wrought into the very texture of their 
 hearts ; which they cannot deny without stifling the voice of reason, 
 they dare not reduce to practice ! Convictions inherent in the sim- 
 plest elements of humanity, they hesitate to embody in their conduct ! 
 They loudly call for facts ; as if it were possible, that these, when- 
 ever and wherever found, could be at variance with the principles of 
 their own nature ! And these, they imagine, have not yet occurred ! 
 
 If such facts have occurred, why have they not been urged on the 
 attention of the American community 1 Why have we, to so wide an 
 extent, been left in ignorance of some of the most interesting and 
 important events in the history of man 1 Let the conductors of oui 
 periodical presses give an answer. What defence can they set up ot 
 the mean and treacherous silence they have selfishly maintained, 
 when they ought to have spoken in tones of thunder ? Why have 
 they not kept their readers familiar with the history of emancipation ; 
 especially as given in the records of the British Legislature 1 Were 
 they afraid to let the light of truth shine upon us? Afraid of what? 
 To see us give up our foofish prejudices and groundless fears? 
 Afraid to assist us in escaping from the scorn and abhorrence of the 
 civilized world, by ceasing to utter in defence of slavery, such silly 
 words as would disgrace the lips of an idiot? No. These mer- 
 cenary creatures were afraid that their subscription list would be 
 reduced, if they should give offence to the chivalry of the South ! 
 Let them take home to their hearts the solemn warning, that the 
 chivalry of the South will fail to protect them from the frown of in- 
 sulted humanity! The hour of retribution is coming on apace. 
 They have no time to lose. Let them make haste and repent. 
 
 But apologies for ignorance of the history of emancipation, we can 
 no longer make. Light now shines around us. The stale and ma- 
 lignant slanders, by which the reputation of the enfranchised slaves 
 of St. Domingo was long ago so eagerly assailed, we can no longer 
 
13 
 
 repeat with impunity. Nothing but stupid negligence or wilful blind- 
 ness can now prevent our seeing that the sudden arid universal aboli- 
 tion of slavery in that island involved in all its bearings the most sub- 
 stantial benefits. When the rubbish of ages had been removed, 
 crushed humanity by its own inherent elasticity, assumed at once 
 under God the erect posture and dignified port, which are every- 
 where its natural guise. Here are facts enough to encourage the 
 most timid friend of man, to maintain in behalf of the enslaved the 
 claims of naked rectitude.* And these facts lie within your reach. 
 Have you laid your hands upon them, and turned them to the highest 
 practical account ? 
 
 With the hi'story of the exertions, which have opened the way for 
 the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies,| we ought to make 
 ourselves familiar. And here, we cannot fail to see, ihat the motives 
 to philanthropic effort in England xc ere far less powerful than among 
 ourselves. The evils to be removed and the dangers to be encoun- 
 tered were far less formidable. The existence of Great Britain was 
 not identified with the existence of the West Indies. The latter 
 might have sunk under the weight of crime to the bottom of the ocean, 
 without touching the vitals of the former. The dreadful tendencies 
 of slavery were, moreover, developed at a great distance from the 
 eyes of the British public. The ocean lay between them and the 
 monuments of oppression. Their ears were not wounded by the 
 clanking of chains. Their eyes were not pained by the sight of 
 firesh wounds. The groans, and tears, and blood, which servitude 
 wrung from its victims, they were not constrained to witness. All, 
 all its naked abominations, so well adapted to rouse and fire the soul 
 of the philanthropist, lay beyond the proper Umits of their country. 
 The influence of the West India party in England was powerful. J A 
 
 * See (Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magaziae, Vol. I, No. 3, Art. " Horrors of St. 
 Domingo." 
 
 t See the same, Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2. 
 
 \ For a full exposure of the means resorted to, to deceive the British public in 
 regard to the tnie nature of West Indian slavery, the reader is referred to the able 
 works of James Stephen, Esq. Vol. II. In the most masterly manner, does that 
 mighty champion of the oppressed, show from the testimony of slaveholders them- 
 selves, that they were always " casting back upon past times, all that was most 
 reproachful in the system, and taking credit thereby for alleged reformations. Mr. 
 Stephen wrote in 1830. At that time, tlie planters were pretending that most 
 happy amehorations had taken place in their system, in consequence of the aboli- 
 tion of the slave-trade. The hoUowness of these pretensions, Mr. Stephen effect- 
 ually shows from their abuse of Mr. Wilbertbrce. the advocate and grand instru- 
 
13 
 
 vast amount of capital was enlisted in support of slavery. Whatever 
 intrigue, sophistry, and bribery could effect, vi^as attempted. For- 
 midable obstacles were thrown in the way of the friends of emanci- 
 pation at every step of their progress.* Great expenses, moreover, 
 were to be incurred by the nation in carrying out their designs. The 
 slave could not be enfranchised unless millions of dollars were thrown 
 away upon his oppressor. And this money was to be drawn from a 
 treasury already laden with debt ! 
 
 And to whom, in such circumstances, was the cause of the enslaved 
 committed ? To the rich, the great, the powerful ? To those who 
 stood at the head of the nation, whose names, and places, and con- 
 nexions would give to their opinions the power of argument and the 
 authority of law 1 Nay, to whom was committed the law-making 
 power ; whose will could wither, and blast, and destroy for ever the 
 demon of oppression 1 Far otherwise. Granville Skarpe, a private 
 gentleman, without patronage and power, had the honor of correcting 
 and instructing the English courts where the claims of the slave were 
 to be disposed of. It was for Thomas Clarkson to inform the minds 
 of the first statesmen 'of his country respecting the deadly tendencies 
 of the slave-trade, and with " his excellent confederates, the Quakers," 
 to rouse the spirit of the nation to its enormities. It was for unpatron- 
 ized citizens, and unbeneficed clergymen to plead the cause of bleed- 
 ing humanity ; to bring every feeling heart to sympathize with the 
 " suffering and the dumb," and every generous arm to exert itself for 
 the outraged and down-trodden. Under the impulse of disinterested 
 compassion and unwearied love, thousands, men, women, and child- 
 
 ment of the very abolition and amelioration in which they professed to rejoice ! 
 " The stores of vituperative language," he says, page 40, " are ransacked by every 
 colonial press on both sides of the Atlantic, in the vain attempt to blast his well 
 earned laurels ; and in the attempt, not vain, to gratify the malignant feelings of 
 slave masters towards him ;— even a superior, but young and inexperienced mind ; 
 one who, I hope, has a moral as well as intellectual superiority to common men, 
 and, therefore, will not be ashamed to avow involuntary errors, was so seduced by 
 the contagious sympathies, which in a very short and rapid tour through the islands, 
 he imbibed at every table of his hospitable entertainers, as not only to become, on 
 his return, a volunteer apologist of their system, but to call the now confessed 
 author of all that he thought defensible in it, " the once glorious Mr. Wilberforce." 
 
 * Mr. Stephen, in the work already referred to, page 410, thus expresses himself: 
 " The truth must be told. West Indian influence has always been irresistibly pre- 
 dommant, not only in parliament, but in the councils of the crown, and in all the 
 departments of state, and has governed, with some exceptions, the appointment to 
 all offices, ecclesiastical or civil, in the sugar colonies, whether the patronage of tliem 
 is delegated to the governors, or retained in the offices at home." 
 
14 
 
 ren, standing midway between the top and the bottom of society, 
 strove in innumerable ways to break the yoke of servitude. They 
 tried every method, which approved wisdom and fervent benevolence 
 could devise. They made " full proof" of the power of moral sua- 
 sion. They exhibited pictures, stated facts, urged arguments. They 
 entreated, warned, rebuked. They summoned poetry, eloquence, 
 philosophy ; and these powerful allies came to their assistance. 
 Petition after petition — earnest, decisive, pointed — they poured upon 
 the ears and pressed upon the hearts of their rulers. They " held 
 on their way," till a public sentiment was formed, which swept away 
 the monuments of slavery. 
 
 The history of emancipation teaches us to ply the South with strong 
 argumentation, earnest entreaty, pointed rebuke. The pretended friends 
 and apologists of the South, have at different times and on various 
 occasions, tried to dissuade us from attempting any thing to convince 
 the slave-holder of his guilt and danger, on the ground,* that his 
 known character must render all such attempts for ever fruitless. He 
 has been hkened to a " mad bull," who, if you should attempt to 
 reason with him, would be sure to bellow and toss his horns ! If we 
 would escape being gored to death, we have been warned to keep 
 our distance and hold our tongues ! Before we had time to dispose 
 of such owl-like warnings, we have been required to admire the re- 
 publican spirit and generous chivalry of these citizen " mad bulls." 
 Now it cannot be denied, that the South has given too much occasion 
 for a description of character, so repulsive, disgusting, execrable. 
 The facts, and arguments, and entreaties of the friends of human 
 nature, her citizens have met with furious threatenings, bloody whips,' 
 and murderous halters ! If they had been able to defend their pecu- 
 liar institutions in a more manly way, doubtless they would have done 
 so. But this frantic violence, which has turned the whole South in a 
 
 * Rev. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, in his "Review of Pamphlets on Slavery 
 and Colonization," published in the Christian Spectator for March, 1333, tauntingly 
 recommends to Captain Stuart to go and preach immediatism to the South and adds, 
 "if he does not find the undertaking more forlorn than it would be to lead a forlorn 
 hope at the storming of Gibraltar; if he does not find that he might as safely have 
 undertaken to preach the accountabihty of monarchs, and the sovereignty of the 
 people, in the public squares of Vienna, or have gone as wisely to Constantinople 
 with Mary Fisher, to persuade the Grand Seignor to turn Cluaker; if he does not 
 find, ere the first week of his mission is accomplished, that he is casting his pearls 
 before swine; if he does not find them turning again to rend him, fiercer, stronger, 
 .ess to be reasoned with than the very bulls of Bashan, — we will acknowledge that 
 he has the best of the argument." 
 
15 
 
 stupendous bedlam, cannot last long. After a few spasmodic efforts 
 to break the force of truth, milder moods will be assumed. She 
 could do no less than second the kind efforts of her apologists at the 
 North, who, with unparalleled meanness and savage atrocity under- 
 took, as a " business transaction," or an electioneering trick, to put 
 down the abolitionists. She has, therefore, lashed herself into fury, 
 which must soon "burn out" by its own violence. 
 
 The slaveholder, while he retains a particle of human nature, must 
 be accessible to moral suasion. If the system of oppression which 
 he is so anxious to sustain, has placed him beyond the reach of this, 
 it is murderous beyond the strongest charges of its most determined 
 foes. But we have abundant evidence that he retains enough of the 
 elements of humanity to feel the force of truth. He is not entirely 
 dead to the light of reason, or the impulses of compassion, or the 
 dictates of self-love. He cannot refuse to be wrought upon by the 
 power of moral suasion. So far from this, that a glimpse of his own 
 features, even when obscurely reflected on his eye, tortures him. 
 Listen to the confession of a distinguished Southern divine,* recently 
 made in the presence of a multitude of hearers ; the confession, that 
 a piece of handkerchiefs, found in a box of goods from New York, 
 threw a whole community in the land of chivalry and of slaves, into 
 rage and trepidation ! What ailed the handkerchiefs 1 Were they 
 charged with the infection of some deadly distemper? No such 
 thing. They were marked by pictures of Southern life ! — pictures 
 faintly exhibiting the condition of the slaves ! That was all ! And 
 yet our grave divine declared with apparent sympathy in the spirit he 
 described, that if the man who had thus dared to expose the South to 
 the South, could have been caught by the South, he would doubtless 
 have been put to death ! Can a people be regarded as dead to moral 
 suasion, who can thus be reached, and wrung, and convulsed by the 
 pictures printed on a sixpenny handkerchief! What might thus be 
 inferred from this and kindred facts, has been once and again acknowl- 
 edged by supporters of American slavery, of high standing and great 
 authority. I These men assure us that they have no fears of our excit- 
 ing among them a servile insurrection. Such a fear, they cannot but 
 
 * Rev. Mr. Plummer. 
 
 t The Hon. John C. Calhoun, in speaking of his Southern opponents last winter 
 in the Senate of the United States, said, " Do they expect the abolitionists will resort 
 to arms, and commence a crusade to Uberate our slaves by force? Is this what 
 they mean when they speak of the attempt to abolish slavery ? If so, let me tell 
 our friends of the South, who differ from us, that the war which the abolitionists 
 
16 
 
 see and ovoi, must be absurd and ridiculous. They have other fears. 
 If the friends of Human Freedom should find access to the ears and 
 hearts of those who live amidst the monuments of slavery, they might 
 even there raise up friends and coadjutors. Even there the standard of 
 immediate and universal emancipation might be erected, and thousands 
 eagerly flock around it. Thus Southern tyranny would be exposed 
 and denounced by Southern philanthropy ! The oppressor cannot 
 bear the thought of having his own neighbors — his intimate acquaint- 
 ance point at him, as feasting on the unrequited labor of the helpless 
 poor. 
 
 From how many statesmen at the South has not the confession 
 been extorted — extorted by the remorse and fear which they could 
 neither dissipate nor conceal — that the infamy with which they were 
 already branded by all the philanthropists of Christendom, was fast 
 becoming insupportable ! The plunder of our goods we do not 
 dread, they exclaim ; but what is more to be deprecated, the loss of 
 character. What can our goods be worth, while we are constrained 
 to bear the scorn and execration of the civilized world, as a nest of 
 pirates ? So sensitive, and irritable, and apprehensive has the South 
 become, that she fears to admit a newspaper, pamphlet,* nay, a page 
 of fiction into her presence, till assured they contain no exposure or 
 
 wage against us is of a very different character and far more effective — it is waged 
 not against our lives but our character.'''' 
 
 Gen. Duff Green, the editor of the United States Telegi'aph, and the great cham- 
 pion of " Southern rights," says, " We are of those who believe the South has 
 nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, 
 nor could they if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this 
 is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from the organized action upon 
 the consciences and fears of the slaveholders themselves ; from tlie insinuation of their 
 dangerous heresies into our schools, our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is 
 only by alarming the consciences of the weak and feeble, and diffusing among our 
 own people a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery, that the abolitionists can 
 accomplish their object. Preparatory to this, they are now laboring to saturate the 
 non-slaveholding states with the belief that slavery is a ' sin against God ;' that the 
 'national compact' involves the non-slaveholders in that sin ; and that it is theii 
 duty to toil and suffer, that our country may be delivered from what they term 'its 
 blackest stain, its foulest reproach, its deadliest curse.^'" 
 
 * Among the works put under the ban of the South may be mentioned War/' 
 land''s Elements of Moral Science, Peter Pa7-ley^s Tales, The Monikins, by Cooper, 
 The Limcoods by Miss Sedgwick, Tales of the Woods and Fields, and the Token for 
 1S36. Ilinton's Plistory of the United States, a large and costly work, written by 
 an Englishman, has actually been altered by its American publisher at the dictation 
 of slaveholders in Charleston. The crime of the Token was merely wishing, in a 
 single line, that "the foul blot of slavery may be removed from our national escutch- 
 
17 
 
 reproof of her favorite sin ! She is trying to establish a censorship 
 of the press so rigid and extensive, as to exclude every ray of light 
 from the knot of snakes she is nestling in her bosom ! Is this the 
 people whom you say we cannot reach by moral suasion 1 Who can- 
 not be wrought upon by warning, expostulations, and appeals ? Who 
 cannot be moved by admonition, or rebuke, or entreaty 1 How shal- 
 low and superficial must that thinker be, who, for a moment can admit 
 such a supposition! And so we must not expect to awaken in the 
 slaveholder a sense of his guilt and danger, because a single word of 
 expostulation so annoys* and distresses him ! And because his in- 
 ward pains make him rave and foam, we are to run away, disheartened 
 and affrighted ! How silly and how wicked that would be ! Let him 
 
 eon." Miss Sedgwick's novel was found guilty of containing the following incen- 
 diary paragraph : — 
 
 " On one memorable New- Year's day, when Isabella was a child of e;*;ht years, 
 she presented Rose a changeable silk dress. It was a fine affair, ana Rose waa 
 pleased and grateful. 
 
 " ' Now,' said Isabella, 'you are as grand and as happy as any lady in the land 
 — are you not, Rose ?' 
 
 " ' Happy !' echoed Rose, her countenance changing ; ' I may seem so — but since 
 I came to a thinking age, I never had one happy hour, or minute, Miss Belle?' 
 
 " ' Oh, Rose, Rose ! Why not ; for pity's sake ?* 
 
 " ' I am a slave ." 
 
 " ' Pshaw, Rosy dear ! is that all ? I thought you was in earnest' She perceived 
 that Rose was indeed in earnest ; and she added in an expostulatory tone, ' Are 
 not papa and mamma ever so kind to you ? and do not Herbert and I love you 
 next best to them ?' 
 
 " ' Yes, and that lightens the yoke ; but still it is a yoke, and it galls. I can be 
 bought and sold like cattle. I would die to-morrow to be free to-day. Oh, free 
 breatii is good — free breath is good !' She uttered this with closed teeth, and tears 
 rolling down her cheeks," 
 
 The Charleston Patriot of June 25th, 1836, gives the following notice to whom 
 it may concern : — 
 
 " Messrs. S. Babcock & Co. have pointed out to us an extremely offensive para- 
 graph, of the true aboUtion stamp, in a work entitled, "Tales of the Woods and 
 Fields," which they advertised for sale in this paper, not being aware at the time, of 
 its e.xistence. Publishers at the J^orth should exercise a more careful supervision over 
 the contents of all iDorks which they send for sale at the South. This offence has been 
 too often repeated of late. Messrs. S. Babcock & Co. request us to say that the 
 whole edition will be forthwith sent back. 
 
 " We have received a note from Mr. J. P. Beile, also stating, that having dis- 
 covered offensive matter in the above work, he has refused to sell it, requesting us 
 to withdraw his advertisement from our paper, and that he intends returning the 
 copies in his possession by the steamboat which leaves this afternoon for New 
 York." 
 
 After this, does the reader doubt whether reproof is felt at the South? 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 writhe and rave. Let him flout and foam ; kick, and strike, and bite. 
 He cannot escape from the fires which surround him. The sooner 
 he spits out his venom and exhausts his fury the better. He must not 
 be permitted to escape. He must not have a moment's respite. 
 Wherever he may turn, truth's searching rays must be kept upon him. 
 After rending and tearing him a Uttle longer, the demon, which has 
 so long had possession of him will retire, and leave him in his right 
 mind to appropriate wholesome instruction. Every one of you, my 
 hearers, might contribute something to hasten this result. What have 
 you done 1 
 
 Your hold, as an .American citizen, upon the District of Columbia, 
 you may turn to high account in the cause of human freedom. — Along 
 with myriads of the friends of man, you can put your name to a peti- 
 tion to the national legislature for the abolition of slavery at the centre 
 of the republic. Less than this you cannot do, without involving 
 yourself, personally, in the guilt of slavery. Harbor not the thought 
 for a moment, that such efforts must be useless. Useless they can- 
 not be. Their various bearings cannot but be powerful and happy. 
 It will do you good, good unspeakable, thus to " remember those who 
 are in bonds." It will keep you alive to their condition, claims, and 
 prospects. It will give you a deeper interest and greater power, at 
 the throne of mercy. Never fear, moreover, that you will pour 
 your petitions on deaf ears and palsied arms. Tyrants there may 
 have " bound themselves by a great curse," that your voice shall not 
 be heard. But these poor creatures are as weak as they are insolent. 
 They cannot dispose of your petitions without attending directly or 
 indirectly to your claims. Your petitions must be read. The facts 
 you state ; the arguments you employ ; your earnest remonstrances, 
 your strong appeals, your loud warnings, your fervent entreaties, will 
 force their way into ears, which a thousand artifices may have been 
 employed in vain to stop. And those ears will tingle. Tongues, 
 which a thousand artifices had been employed in vain to tie, will be 
 set in motion. Tyrants may roar, and stamp, and curse. But what 
 then 1 Surely, the noise and tumult in which they may give vent to 
 their windy rage, will but ill promote the cause of silence. By the 
 very act of swearing that a word shall not be spoken, their own oath 
 they will violate ! Their hot blood and rash tongues will drive them 
 headlong into fiery debate. The discussion of the matter may be 
 furious; but discussion will arise. The agitation of the subject may 
 be fierce ; but agitation cannot be avoided. Come it will, whoever 
 may object. J^ay, nothing can more certainly and effectually introduce 
 
19 
 
 it than objections ! Urge your petitions, then. Let them fly by 
 thousands on the wings of every breeze. Laden with the names of 
 all who love their country, let them speak " the words of truth and 
 soberness" to every trembling Felix, who has a place in the national 
 legislature. 
 
 And let me remind you, that every ray of light which is emitted 
 from the centre of the nation, will reach every point of the circumference. 
 Whatever facts are there presented, whatever discussions are there 
 had, whatever doctrines are there maintained, will arrest the attention 
 of the whole republic. Influences there exerted, cannot fail to affect 
 the public sentiment on the broadest scale. Impulses there given, 
 will move every limb of the " body politic." The hand, that grapples 
 with the monster, slavery, there has access to his very vitals. It was 
 long ago maintained by the advocates of immediate emancipation ; 
 it is, I believe, now generally admitted, that the abolition of slavery in 
 the District of Columbia must open the way for universal freedom. 
 The efforts there made in behalf of the oppressed cannot be confined 
 there. Who could hope to keep the chain of servitude strong and 
 bright in Maryland, in Virginia — any where in the republic, after the 
 fetter-links had there been dissolved \ On that elevated spot, the 
 battles of universal freedom may be fought and her most splendid 
 victories achieved. And it is the birth-right of every American to 
 mingle in this conflict. How, then, can you say, whoever you may be, 
 that you can do nothing to hasten the redemption of the captive ? 
 Up, and gird on your armor. The foe is directly before you ; rav- 
 aging the inheritance left you by your fathers ! Up, and give him 
 battle! Never let your sword find its sheath, till he spreads his dragon 
 wmgs, and hides himself among less malignant fiends in hell. Let 
 those, whom you employ to promote the public welfare, know that 
 you are bent on the abolition of slavery ; that you will never cease to 
 shout in their ears the demands of truth and freedom. Let them see 
 that you are in earnest ; and they will not venture to disregard your 
 will. When you say they must, they will make haste to break 
 every yoke, and give deliverance to the victims of oppression. In 
 the name of God, then, and for the sake of bleeding humanity, speak 
 the word ! 
 
 Our ecclesiastical connexions tcith churches which tolerate in their 
 members the sin of slaveholding, we ought at once to dissolve. Till we 
 do this, we can never reach the vitals of the evil, with which we are 
 bound to contend. Could- either of the principal religious denomina- 
 tions at the SoufTi be brought in the spirit of true Repentance to re- 
 
20 
 
 nounce the crime of oppressing the poor, the monster, which is now 
 fattening on the blood of innocence, must fall beneath the fatal blow. 
 The enormous guilt of stealing men could not fail to attract universal 
 attention. Every man's mind and .mouth would be full of the matter. 
 A new channel would at once be opened for public sentiment. 
 Myriads would rush to the work of demohshing the old Bastile. 
 The rusty key of this dreadful prison is even now in the hands of the 
 church. But instead of using it to " open the doors" to those who 
 are pining in its damp, dark dungeons, she is lending her influence 
 to multiply the victims of despair. She is not only the unblushing, 
 heartless, flippant advocate of slavery ; but she is not afraid or 
 ashamed to be seen riveting the chain, swinging the whip, wielding 
 the branding iron ! She even blesses herself for her pious liberality 
 in putting " the price of blood" into the " treasury of the Lord !" 
 She sells the Saviour's poor to build up the Saviour's kingdom ! To 
 obtain the means of sending the Gospel to the heathen, she drives 
 her own children to the market ! And worse than all, she blasphem- 
 ously pretends, that she doth all this in the name and by the authority 
 of the God of truth and mercy ! She tortures the sacred volume, to 
 force it to justify the crime of robbing the poor even to the stealing 
 of their babes ! Thus, slavery has come to be the pet-sin of a large 
 portion of the American church ! 
 
 The church must be aroused to her guilt in this matter, or she is 
 undone. The blighting curse of God will waste and wither her. 
 Nothing but repentance can hold her back from the grave of infamy, 
 which is even now yawning, impatient to swallow its prey ! Nor can 
 she perish alone. The republic must rot with her in the same dis- 
 honored tomb ! 
 
 Let all professed Christians, who enslave their brethren, know that 
 no honest man can " give them the hand of fellowship," as the 
 disciples of the Saviour. . Let them be debarred from the table 
 of the Lord. Let them, if religious teachers they can claim to 
 be, be excluded from the pulpit. Let them see that their sin is no 
 longer to be " winked at ;" that if they continue deaf to the voice of 
 Christian reproof, they must be to the whole company of their dis- 
 graced and offended brethren, as a "heathen man and publican." 
 They will doubtless be greatly vexed and shocked. They will doubt- 
 less remonstrate and complain. They will affirm, and denv, and 
 threaten. But no shift, no turn, no expedient can save them from 
 torturing convictions and stinging remors§. They will find " burning 
 coals" in their bosoms. And the **accur&9d thing" they will put away. 
 
21 
 
 Look at the present attitude of our brethren in Great Britain.* So 
 ill have they been requited, so shamefully have they been abused, for 
 their efforts to reclaim and save us, that they begin to feel the neces- 
 sity of renouncing all fellowship with the slaveholding churches of 
 America. And can these churches endure the thought of being thus 
 held up to the abhorrence and execiation of mankind, as plunderers 
 and pirates 1 So disgraced and abhorred, can they help loosening 
 their hands from their brother's throat "? This problem, each of you, 
 my brethren, can assist in solving. Stand aloof, then, from what 
 may wear the face of Christian intercourse with the oppressors of the 
 poor. 
 
 But your regard for the " peace of the church," you allege, forbids 
 your assuming such an attitude ! What ; so supeiuor to your Saviour 
 in your love of peace ! What ; sacrifice truth, and righteousness, 
 and humanity to peace ! Thus did not your Lord. Instead of whis- 
 pering peace in the ears of hypocrites and infidels. He presented a 
 sword to their naked breasts. Upon the heads of those, who " de- 
 voured widows' houses and for a pretence made long prayers," He 
 scattered coals of fire. What ; do you expect peace as the fruit of 
 a compromise with wickedness ! What so?-! of peace can you procure 
 on such conditions? I will take the liberty to tell you. That false 
 peace, which, like the dead calm at sea, foretokens a storm ! A peace, 
 which cannot but open the way for war ! Peace on such terms, all 
 the righteous on earth and in heaven must pronounce accursed ! 
 Alas, alas ! We have had enough of that kind of peace ! Cursed be 
 the hour, when cunning and malignant fiends persuaded us to " sell 
 our brother into Egypt ;" " when he besought us and we would not 
 hear !" Sold our brother for rice and cotton ; for sugar and tobacco! 
 Parted with our birth-right for a mess of pottage ! Gave him up into 
 the hands of robbers and assassins ! And by a most bloody bar- 
 gain, agreed to help them, if need be, to bind him and lay him upon 
 the altar, a sacrifice to devils ! And pocketed the money! And 
 blessed the contract! And praised the enterprise and cunning which 
 filled our greedy mouths with the " wages of iniquity !" And set us 
 to defend our plunder with tiger-like ferocity ! Yes, cursed be that 
 hour ; the darkest in our country's annals ! Then did a pitiful, short- 
 sighted policy triumph over us ! Stifling every dictate of justice ; 
 every impulse of compassion ; every sentiment of humanity ! In- 
 
 * See the late resolutions of various ecclesiastical bodies, especially the resoIU' 
 tiona of the Baptists at their great nsissionary meeting in Birmingbam. 
 
22 
 
 fecting us with guilt ! Luring us on to ruin ! Cursed be that hour ! 
 And yet a little while, " all the people," amidst tears of repentance or 
 the pangs of retribution, will shout, " Amen !" 
 
 " The whoredoms of our mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are 
 too many" to admit the hope of peace ! " Who ever hardened hmi- 
 self against the Lord and prospered?" Have we not made merchan- 
 dise of the souls of men — souls purchased by the pure and precious 
 blood of the Christ of God ! And this to gratify lust, and pride, and 
 selfishness, too gross and monstrous to be endured by the rudest 
 savages ! And do we not insist upon maintaining the habit of robbing 
 the poor — of wresting away his hard-earned wages — nay, of stealing 
 his babes, with a stoutness of heart, a stiffness of neck, an impudence 
 of face, which are seldom found in any, who have not " sold them- 
 selves to work iniquity ?" And yet talk of peace ! So much in love 
 with peace, as " to suffer sin upon our broCher I" And leave the 
 wicked without warning ! With his prey in his teeth I And the avenger 
 at his heels ! Out upon such peace ! We have had too much of it 
 already ! Such peace a little longer, and we are u'. dead men ! 
 
 If we would have peace, let us hsten to the voice which calls us to 
 duty and to glory. Let us, with sackcloth upon our loins and dust 
 upon our heads, kneeling with broken hearts at the foot of the Cross, 
 call the nation to repentance. With many tears — -/or ive have all 
 sinned — let us lift up a great and lamentable cry. Arid let us "spare 
 not," till " every yoke is broken !" 
 
 Peace on cheaper terms we cannot have. If we let our iniquities 
 alone, they will not let us alone ! If we sleep, our damnation will 
 not slumber! Our compromise with slavery is full of ruin. Our 
 " covenant with death shall be disannulled, and our agreement with 
 hell shall not stand." " The overflowing scourge shall pass through, 
 and shall we not be trodden down by it ]" Awake, then, awake, my 
 brethren ! " Consider the poor ;" and ye shall be " blessed !" Cease 
 " to accept the persons of the wicked ; do justice to the afflicted and 
 needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked." "Then thou shalt 
 raise up the foundation of many generations ; and thou shalt be called 
 the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." 
 
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