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 THOUGHTS 
 
 
 ON THE DUTY 01 
 
 
 EPISCOPAL nii: Urn. 
 
 IN RKI.ir: 
 
 SLAVERY 
 
 B*1N', \ be. ;. II Ul 
 
 It bruary 19, 1839. 
 
 
 W\ IDJI.N IA\ 
 
 K 
 i"*f '.Printers, 9 Spruce-street 
 
 39. 
 
 1 
 
 •^@©6©©0@©©@@6^@@@@e©@@©^ 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON THE DCTY OF THE 
 
 EPISCOPAL CIIURril 
 
 
 SLAVERY: 
 
 IN thi w. T. i 
 man 12, 1839. 
 
 BY JOHN JAY. 
 
 Piert 4 R Z, Print, 
 
■ -'-IS 
 
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 At a sitting of the Convention Feb. 12th, 1839, "The Duty 
 of the Church in relation to Slavery" being under discus- 
 sion, Mr. J. Jay said, 
 
 I rise, sir, to make a few remarks with regard to 
 that church, to which I thank God, I belong, in con- 
 nection with this important subject — a church 
 which has neither been named nor alluded to in tho 
 report upon this question, nor by any of the subse- 
 quent speakers — although I understand it is repre- 
 sented in this Convention by members of Trinity, 
 St. Bartholomews', the City Mission, and the Church 
 of the Ascension, and I had hoped that the duty of 
 explaining the peculiar obligations which rest upon 
 her, to aid us in this holy cause, would have been 
 assumed by some gentleman, better fitted than my- 
 self to do it justice. 
 
 The established Church of England, of which 
 ours is a branch, transplanted to this country at an 
 parly period of our colonial history, we regard with 
 
4 THOUGHTS, &C. 
 
 reverence, as our true mother, who has for centu- 
 ries commended herself to the love and veneration 
 of all who have met around the altar of her com- 
 munion, or have listened to her heavenly teachings, 
 or mingled their voices in the responses of her no- 
 ble liturgy. 
 
 By our separation from Great Britain in the war 
 of Revolution, the political tie that connected 
 the church in America with the establishment of 
 England, was necessarily broken, and she became 
 in a political point of view, like the land which she 
 blessed with her presence, free and independent ; 
 but spiritually the connection remained unbroken ; 
 and her bishops in making such alterations in the 
 liturgy, as were rendered proper by the change in 
 our form of government, solemnly avowed their 
 intention to adhere to the "doctrine, discipline 
 and worship" of the English church. We were 
 to continue one in heart and soul ; and enjoying 
 the same purity of faith, and the same forms 
 of worship, we claimed the privilege of glory- 
 ing with our transatlantic brethren, in the con- 
 stancy of her martyrs, and the piety of her di- 
 vines. 
 
 Now I would ask if we have retained the spirit 
 and the practice of the members of that church ; 
 
ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. O 
 
 or rather if we have not virtually renounced their 
 rit, and departed from their practice, in a mutter 
 leeply concerns the interests or' the church, 
 the extension of Christianity, and the welfare of 
 our country ? [land, the question 
 
 tated, not of slav< ting within the 
 
 borders of their * a-girt isle, but of slavery in a 
 nit colony — what conduct of the es- 
 
 tablished churc I • dis- 
 
 played I Let h- r dirin ' tence of 
 
 r holy office to the cause of Abolition, answer 
 the i. Ji' t her bishops in the House of 
 
 Lords, and her laymen in the I! 8 of Commons, 
 laun :iie thunder linst 
 
 I the church magazines 
 nns to thi frit nds of freedom, 
 ling the religion which they professed, and the 
 Bible which the) the God whom 
 
 th' y adored, from the foul 
 
 slavi —that the Scriptures sanction slavery, 
 
 and displaying in \\ ■ of mercy and truth, 
 
 the piety of Christians and almost the zeal of en- 
 — let them answer the question. And let 
 the English Anti-Slavery Societies in which church- 
 man ami er met upon one platform and utter- 
 ed one voice, confirm the answer. 
 
O THOUGHTS, &C. 
 
 But enough — ihe Churchmen of England, al- 
 though not as a body as zealous in this cause, as 
 their brethren the dissenters, exerted an influence 
 of which the clergy in this country, have never an 
 idea. Thanks to the great body of Christians, who 
 dwell in that glorious land, and to the God who in- 
 spired their hearts with sympathy for the slave — 
 the batth there has been fought and the victory 
 has been won ; and the whole nation are now 
 proving the truth of the promise that in keeping of 
 God's commandments, there is great reward. 
 
 A similar contest has begun in our own country 
 — one of far greater magnitude, of infinitely more 
 inportance. It is waged against a system yet more 
 atrocious, and polluting not a small and distant 
 colony, but half the territory of our own land. 
 And what has been the conduct of the church 
 here ? Alas ! for the expectation that she would 
 conform to the spirit of her ancient mother, she has 
 not merely remained a mute and careless spectator 
 of this great conflict of truth and justice with hypo- 
 crisy and cruelty, but her very priests and deacons 
 may be seen ministering at the altar of slavery, 
 offering their talents and influence at its unholy 
 shrine, and openly repeating the awful blasphemy 
 
ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 1 
 
 that the precepts of our Saviour sanction the - 
 tem of American servitude. 
 
 Her northern clergy with rare exceptions, what- 
 
 .ay feci upon this subject, rebuke it 
 
 neither in public nor in private — and I iodi- 
 
 if Abolil 
 at times oppose our 
 
 slav . ith Christianity, and 
 
 occ .1 
 
 m. 
 In |. sorrowful cry of the down-trod- 
 
 ithy, though 
 born bile with us the 
 
 appeal is i. 
 
 lips of our (! I countrymen in I , itol 
 
 our republic. 1 of our 
 
 calls of justice and righteous- 
 ful than the fear of .A 
 
 which, as a churchman I blush to remeral 
 
 this apathy. i >n the days set 
 apart for Thanksgiving in this state, in different 
 yeara, leveral 1 ! recount- 
 
 ing in their .sermons our national blewmga, pro- 
 DUmerateour national sins. They spoke 
 of our law! . our disregard of the Sabbath — 
 
 our wicked treatment of the poor Indians — the de- 
 
8 THOUGHTS, &C. 
 
 graded character of our newspaper press, and vari- 
 ous others, and they named not, they alluded not 
 to Slavery — the vilest, darkest system of iniquity 
 that ever exposed a nation to the just vengeance of 
 an offended God. Though Sunday after Sunday, 
 they had put up that beautiful petition, in the Holy 
 Liturgy, "for all who are destitute and oppressed" 
 — and their people had ever responded "we beseech 
 thee to hear us, good Lord" — those, who of all the 
 inhabitants of this wide land, are the most truly 
 described in that petition, were unrcmembered 
 then. A stranger would scarcely have imagined, 
 when those clergymen dwelt upon the favors God 
 had heaped upon this people, when they spoke of 
 our schools, and colleges, and churches, the exten- 
 sion of knowledge, the diffusion of Christianity, and 
 all the numberless blessings we enjoy — that there 
 existed in this nation nearly three millions of 
 people, oppressed in body and degraded in mind — 
 who have never entered the walls of a school, nor 
 learnt the coming of Christ, and know not the sound 
 of the church-going bell, and whom in some states 
 it is death to teach that Bible which is our hope and 
 stay. 
 
 I would not be understood, sir, for a moment as 
 resting the duty of the church in this matter, upon 
 
ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 9 
 
 what has been the practice of the establishment of 
 England. Though every member ofthat church from 
 the highest grade to the lowest, singly and collec- 
 tively, in public and in private, had upheld sla\ 
 with all :'':i, it would still be the duty of 
 
 American Episcopalians to lend their aid to aboli- 
 tion. Our priii' , 1 nut upon hui 
 
 .- from hui 
 . .. . . 
 
 tent Of ity, 
 
 in r 
 
 tri\ . 
 
 they • ! 'ing 
 
 .1 upon I 
 
 • 
 
 to rise in 
 
 B 
 
 . i 
 
 ,i of holy men, 
 
10 THOUGHTS, &C. 
 
 ed by the sweet memory of the martyrs who have 
 sealed their testimony with their blood, by their 
 veneration for the church, as "the great safe-guard 
 of unadulterated Christianity — the defender by her 
 articles of what is sound in doctrine, and bv her 
 constitution of what is apostolic in government, 
 the represser by the simple majesty of her ritual, of 
 all extravagance — the encourager by its fervor, of 
 ardent piety"*-^by these and all the otherties which 
 bind them to her courts, would I appeal to Episco- 
 palians to save her from reproach ; and especially 
 to her clergy to use their influence to this end, with 
 the people committed to their charge, whether it be 
 done in the free converse of social intercourse, 
 or in the form of pastoral letters, or whether the 
 words of truth be preached directly from the pul- 
 pit. While the best modes and opportunities are to 
 be considered, the duty is imperative and admits not 
 of delay. 
 
 Mighty efforts are now making in the southern 
 states, to extend the curse of slavery over new 
 territories, and to perpetuate the infernal system to 
 the end of time. If these ends are accomplished, 
 we may well fear that the sun of our country's 
 
 * Melville. 
 
ON THE EPISCOPAL CHTRCH. 11 
 
 greatness will soon set forever, for we learn from 
 Holy Writ that God's blessing only resteth upon 
 the people that keep his laws. 
 
 I feel, sir, that no words of mine can express 
 the deep, the solemn obligation resting upon li The 
 Church' 1 in America, to protest loudly against slave- 
 ry. Although some of trie measures adopted by 
 the various denominations of Christians represented 
 in this Convention, may not be suitable for our 
 church, I trust that her slumber on this all-impor- 
 tant subject will soon be broken, and that while her 
 missionaries are spreading heavenly light through 
 foreign c in will awake in Jjer strength to a 
 
 remembranee of the degraded heathen in her own 
 land, and will exert all her influence in this behalf, 
 until they arc not only blessed with personal free- 
 dom, hut enjoy also that "better liberty" wherewith 
 the Gospel can make them I 
 
54 W 
 

 
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