£W1 
 
 .T(7 
 
LETTEES 
 
 RESPECTING A BOOK 
 
 "DROPPED FROM THE CATALOGUE" 
 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION 
 
 IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE 
 
 DICTATION OF THE SLAVE POWER. 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 AMERICAN AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETV. 
 
 WM. IIARNED, PUBLISHING AGENT, 61 JOHN STREET. 
 
 1848. 
 
ts 
 
 ^ 
 4 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 
 
 The following pages will develop a remarkable occurrence in the 
 history of American slavery, and afford new evidence of the control this 
 '' institution" exercises over the literature and religion of the Northern 
 States. In 183-2, the American Sunday School Union published a series 
 of little books, containing an account of some of the most interesting 
 persons and principal events mentioned in the Old Testament. They 
 were written in a style adapted to the comprehension of children, and 
 were well calculated to give them a general knowledge of the history 
 of the Israelites, from Abraham to the birth of the Savior. The first 
 volume was entitled " The Story of Isaac, or the First Part of a Con- 
 versation between Mary and her Mother." Commencing with the 
 call of Abraham, it contained a sketch of his life and that of Isaac, 
 until the marriage of the latter v/ith Rebekah. " Jacob and his Sons, 
 or the Second Part of a Conversation between Mary and her Mother," 
 began with the birth of Esau and Jacob, and contained a narrative of 
 Esau's sale of his birth-right to Jacob— of the manner in which Rebekah 
 obtained Isaac's blessing for Jacob — of the hatred with which Jacob's 
 sons regarded their brother Joseph — of their selling Joseph into slavery 
 —of his imprisonment and subsequent elevation to great power — and 
 of the removal of Jacob and his family to Egypt. " Simple Scripture 
 Biographies, or the Third Part of a Conversation between Mary and 
 her Mother," contained an account of Moses and Pharaoh — of the 
 Israelites in the Wilderness — of Ruth— of Samuel — of David and Go- 
 liah— of King Solomon— of Elijah — of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abednego — of Daniel in the Lion's Den— of the Birth of Christ, &c. 
 
 From the above outline, the reader will see that the design of the 
 books was excellent, and that the extraordinary interest with which all 
 children would peruse these stories, afforded the author a good oppor- 
 
4 StJPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 tunity for impressing important moral truths upon their minds — an 
 opportunity wliich appears to have been wisely improved. The mana- 
 gers of the Sunday School Union seem to have placed a high value 
 upon these works. They were "prepared," from an English edition, 
 •• for the American Sunday School Union, by Rev. Thomas H. Gal- 
 laudet," of Connecticut, and were " revised by the Committee of Pub- 
 lication." It was stated in the note " to the purchaser," that " con- 
 siderable care and expense" had been incurred in fitting them " to the 
 use of children in this country ;" and that, " while all the peculiar 
 excellences of the original English work" were " preserved, some 
 very useful corrections and emendations" had been made. The books 
 were stereotyped, and have since been for sale at the various Deposi- 
 tories of the S. S. U., and are still, with the exception of " Jacob and 
 his Sons," the second of the series, lohich has lately been suppressed.' 
 For what reason .' Why is a useful Sunday School book, prepared 
 ■with so great care, by such a popular and able writer, and published 
 at so great an expense, suddenly dropped from the catalogue of the 
 Sunday School Union ? Why are the stereotype plates, lately so 
 valuable, thrown aside, and the .sale of the book discontinued ? No 
 one who is unacquainted with the influence which slaveholders exert 
 over many of the religious organizations of the country — the imperi- 
 ousness with which they demand that no word of disapproval shall be 
 gpoken, no act of hostility committed against slavery, and the servility 
 with which their requirements are met — would be able to understand 
 why "Jacob and his Sons" was so readily "dropped" by the Sunday 
 School Union. No one who is aware of this state of things, and who 
 is informed that in the narration of the sale of Joseph into slavery, a 
 few lines in depreciation of the justice of that condition are inserted, 
 will be surprised by the action of the Union, however much it may 
 grieve him. 
 
 After being circulated over the country for sixteen years, it was 
 discovered, a .short time ago, by a slaveholder, capable of " scenting 
 danger afar off," that a certain passage in " Jacob and his Sons" was 
 discourteous towards the peculiar institution ! The South was instantly 
 aroused. Newspaper editors, and leading men in church and state, 
 were vociferous in their denunciations of the Sunday School Union, 
 and demanded the instant suppression of the obnoxious book. A 
 Southern Vice Trcsident of the Union points out tlie objectionable 
 passage to the Committee of Publication, who, after an examination 
 of the odious sentences, acknowledge the impropriety of their main- 
 taining a place in one of the books of the Union. The Committee 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 5 
 
 then discover that " Jacob and his Sons" has other defects, and vote 
 to have it discontinued on the catalogue of the hooks of the Union ! 
 The following printed " minute" explanatory of their action, is adopt- 
 ed by the Committee, and sent South. 
 • 
 MINUTE OF THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 As some of the friends of the Society have expressed a desire to 
 know what were the proceedings, respecting the discontinuance, from 
 the catalogue, of a volume entitled, " Jacob and his Sons, or the 
 Second Part of a Conversation between Mary and her Mother," it is 
 thought proper to make the following brief statement. 
 
 A few weeks ago, an old and highly respectable member of the 
 Society, residing in Charleston, S. C., brought to the notice of the 
 Committee of Publication, a passage in one of our early books, to 
 which he thought exce])tion might be justly taken. It purports to be a 
 description of the condition of slaves, and though just and true, when 
 applied to some countries, was regarded as neither just nor true, when 
 applied ♦.0 ours. This was the only exception taken to the passage, 
 viz. : — that it was not true in fact, if taken (as it naturally virould be) 
 to describe the condition of slaves in the United States, and must of 
 course make a wrong impression on the mind of the reader. 
 
 The Committee gave such consideration to the case as they are ac- 
 customed to give to all suggestions of error or misjudgment in their 
 proceedings, let such suggestions come from whatever quarter they 
 may. 
 
 It appears that the book in question was reprinted from an English 
 copy, nearly twenty years since, -when the state of public feeling on 
 this subject was very different from what it is at present, and when 
 such a passage (though as indefensible then as it is now) might have 
 easily escaped observation. 
 
 The Committee could not hesitate as to the course to be pursued. 
 The only question was, whether the passage should be so modified as 
 to express the truth (which might be readily done to the satisfaction 
 of all parties concerned), or whether the publication of the book 
 should be discontinued. As it had defects on other and general grounds, 
 and had, moreover, nearly ceased to circulate, the latter course was 
 adopted, and the book was dropped from the catalogue. Had an error 
 been pointed out in any of the Society's publications, similar in its 
 character, but in relation to some other subject (as popular ignorance, 
 intemperance, or religious destitution), the Committee would have felt 
 bound to pursue the same course; and a book of like character and 
 pretensions would doubtless have shared the same fate. 
 
 The Committee do not consider the exciting subject of slavery as at 
 all involved in these proceedings. With that subject it is not the 
 province of the Society to intermeddle ; nor can we do so, without a 
 palpable violation of the original an I fundamental principles on which 
 the Society was organized, and has uniformly acted. 
 
6 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 The effect of this " minute" is instantaneous. The South is ap- 
 peased, and again takes the Union' into favor. The South Carolina 
 Auxiliary loses no time in issuing a paper in which they state that 
 " the Parent Society has given the most substantial evidence of its 
 disposition to circulate and publish no v.'ork that is exceptionable in 
 its character and spirit to the American pithlic." Here we have the 
 whole story of the complaint and suppression, and grieved are we 
 that a sense of duty requires that the history of this extraordinary 
 proceeding be submitted to the public. 
 
 The reader will doubtless have a curiosity to see the remarkable 
 passage which was so seriously objected to by ihe Southern friends of 
 the Union. Here it is : 
 
 " What is a slave, mother 7 asked Mary ; is it a ser- 
 vant ? 
 
 " Yes, replied her mother, slaves are servants, for they 
 work for their masters, and wait on thfera ; but they are 
 not hired servants, but are bought and sold like beasts, 
 and have nothing, but what their master chooses to give 
 them. They are obliged to work very hard, and some- 
 times their masters use them cruelly, beat them, and starve 
 them, and kill them ; for they have nobody to help them. 
 Sometimes they are chained together and driven about 
 like beasts. 
 
 " Poor things ! said Mary ; but why do they not leave 
 their masters when they use them ill 1 The other day- 
 Margaret left you, mother, because she w^as tired of living 
 here, though you never treated her unkindly ; I wonder 
 that the slaves stay with their masters, who are not kind 
 to them. 
 
 " They do not like to be slaves, answered her mother ; 
 but they are not permitted to leave their masters whenever 
 they wish. Servants are paid for working for their mas- 
 ters and mistresses, and, if they do not like to stay, they 
 may go and live somewhere else. But the poor unhappy 
 slaves are obliged to stay with their masters as long as 
 he chooses to keep them. And if the master is tired of his 
 slaves, then he may sell them to another if he wishes to." 
 
 This is the passage, in full, which gave so much otfence to the slave- 
 holders, and to please whom the American Sunday School Union has 
 suppressed one of its interesting and popular publications — prepared 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 7 
 
 by a New England gentleman who is remarkably free from all " fanali- 
 cism"on the subject of emancipation, and whose writings have hitherto 
 escaped the ire of the Southern censors of the press. We repeat it, 
 lest the reader should imagine some mistake, the above is a faithful 
 extract of everything in the book touching slavery. 
 
 But it appears that however gratifying the action of the Sunday 
 School Union, in suppressing " Jacob and his Sons," may have been 
 to one portion of the " American public," another portion were not 
 satisfied with it. When it was proposed, at a meeting of the Congre- 
 gational Church of Farmington, Conn., held early in January last, that 
 a portion of the annual contributions of the church be forwarded to 
 the American Sunday School Union, one of the members objected to 
 such a disposition of their money, as he had understood that a book 
 had been suppressed by that Society, at the bidding or request of 
 Southern slaveholders. The subject was postponed until correspond- 
 ence could beheld with the Secretary of the Union, and the objection- 
 able hook could be examined. It was finally resolved to appoint a 
 committee to request a restoration of " Jacob and his Sons" to the cata- 
 logue of the Union. The following is the letter of this committee : 
 
 ACTION OF THE FARMINGTON CHURCH. 
 
 Letter from a Committee of the Farmington Churchy to the Committee 
 of the American Sunday School Union. 
 
 Farmington, Cokn., Feb. 3d, 1848. 
 
 Frederick A. Packard, Esq., 
 
 and other Members of the Committee of the Am. S. S. Uuion : 
 Gentlejiex : — The undersigned have been appointed by the 
 Congregational Church in this Village, a Committee, to com- 
 municate with you upon the subject of your late action, in 
 suppressing one of your publications called " Jacob and his 
 Sons." Our contributions to the support of your Society have 
 been too limited to give us any " visitorial power" in the matter, 
 and it is in the spirit of no such assumption that we now ad- 
 dress you ; but rather because, while we feel it in a measure a 
 duty, and regard it as for our common interest, that our confi- 
 dence in you should not be impaired, you assure us in your 
 Circular that you "are accustomed to give consideration to 
 all suggestions of error or misjudgment in your proceedings, 
 let such suggestions come from what quarter they may." 
 
 At the annual meeting of our church, early in the last month, 
 upon the proposal of the usual vote, designating your Society and 
 
8 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BV THE 
 
 certain otters, as objects of beneficence to be presented to the con- 
 gregation during the year, a member of the church, not avowedly 
 an abolitionist, moved (for the purpose of bringing up the 
 matter for inquiry), that the name of the Am. S. S. Union 
 should be stricken from the list, giving as his reason the facts 
 that he had learned with regard to the suppression by your 
 Committee of the book named above, and making a few re- 
 marks on the subject as he viewed it, from the partial informa- 
 tion he had obtained from the National Era and New York 
 Tribune, to which he referred as the sources of his information. 
 By common consent the vote was laid on the table for future 
 action, and our Pastor was requested to communicate with your 
 Society on the subject, and lay the result of his inquiries before 
 the next meeting. 
 
 At the adjourned meeting of the week following, the com- 
 munication of Mr. Packard (having been received during tho 
 week, in reply to our Pastor's letter of inquiry) was read, 
 together with the printed circular of the Committee, and the 
 subject again brought before the church for discussion. The 
 gentleman who had made the motion above referred to, ex- 
 pressed himself as satisfied with the explanations given, as did 
 some others who had been in favor of the inquiry. Others, 
 however, felt that the matter should be further investigated ; 
 and the subject was again laid over for future action, and the 
 Pastor was requested to procure a copy of the suppressed book. 
 At the next meeting, a week later, the book was produced 
 and the offensive passage read, also a second letter from Mr. 
 Packard, — and the whole matter again discussed. The result 
 was : a vote, with very little apparent dissent, appointing a 
 committee, to correspond with the Committee of the Union, and 
 request them to restore the proscribed book to their catalogue 
 of publications. The undersigned were b}' a subsequent vote 
 appointed that committee. 
 
 Wc have thought this preliminary statement necessary to a 
 full understanding of the position and wishes of our church 
 on the subject upon which wc arc to address you. 
 
 It becomes now our duty respectfully to request of you a 
 restoration of the suppressed work to your catalogue — and of 
 course to present to you the reasons which have led us to de- 
 sire, and we hope may lead you to adopt such a course. And 
 here we will say again, what we have already less fully expressed, 
 that we make this request in no captious and greedy spirit of 
 fault-finding — and in no disposition to find pleasure in the 
 embarrassment in which any such reversal of your own de- 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 9 
 
 cisions may involve you, — nor have we any satisfaction in 
 proving to you or in showing to the world, that you and other 
 good men, in positions of responsibility and difficulty, may 
 sometimes err. Exhibitions before the world of the errors and 
 failings of the good, are as painful to us, as they can be to the 
 special objects of such unhappy notice ; for when one of Christ's 
 members suiFers, we all have a common suffering with him. 
 
 The date of your action on the subject of the book in ques- 
 tion docs not appear, either in the minute of your proceed- 
 ings, or in the letter of Mr. Packard ; but it must have been 
 sometime previous to the 21st of last October — as the resolu- 
 tions of the So. Car. S. S. Union, based upon such action, are 
 published and commented on in the National Era of that date. 
 
 It seems that sometime before this, the objectionable passage 
 in the book iii question had attracted the notice, and brought 
 upon the Society the denunciations of some Southern papers. 
 The Charleston Mercury (a paper of large circulation and in- 
 fluence at the South), the Cheraw Gazette, and Carolina 
 Baptist, are all the papers referred to, of which we have any 
 certain knowledge. The latter in an article of great asperity 
 and violence, calls on all Southern Christians to withhold their 
 funds from your Society, and the two former " recommend to 
 all Southern men, who by specious pretences, have been in- 
 duced to sustain this Society, to withdraw from it at once all 
 further countenance and support." 
 
 Whether these violent assaults on the Society ever came to 
 the knowledge of your Committee, or of any member of it, we 
 have no certain knowledge. All that appears on the subject 
 is, that their publication preceded your action (we suppose 
 there can be no doubt on this point), and was the first ap- 
 peal to the public on the subject. We are bound to believe, 
 from the statement of your Secretary, that if they reached the 
 Committee they had no acknowledged influence upon their ac- 
 tion, as he denies that there was any yielding to the demands of 
 slavery in the matter. Wc think, however, that they must at 
 least have impelled the " Vice President in South Carolina" to 
 make his application to you for the suppression of the offensive 
 hook — as a mere coincidence is hardly possible in the circum- 
 stances. How far the Vice President referred to the state of 
 feeling in the Southern mind as expressed in their papers, 
 when communicating with you, and urged the public sentiment 
 as a reason for the suppression of the book, we cannot know 
 until further informed by you ; and until such information is 
 1* 
 
10 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 given, or tinreasonaljly witlilield, we sliall make no unkind pre- 
 sumptions in tlie matter. 
 
 But the question here involved is one of great importance, 
 and upon it depends in great measure the cliaracter of the 
 action of the Committee. What was the demand, and by whom 
 made, for the suppression or expurgation of the book ? What 
 was the influence, what the power, that has required and ef- 
 fected its condemnation.' 
 
 In asking this question we do not forget the denial of your 
 Secretary, nor the declaration of your circular, that you did not 
 " consider the exciting subject of slavery as at all involved in 
 your proceedings." Our confidence in your sincerity requires 
 us to believe, that you did not regard the application as in a 
 strict sense, " a demand of the slave power"— nor your action 
 as a submission to such a demand. 
 
 But may you not have deceived yom'selves ? may not the real 
 character of the demand and your concession to it, be far worse 
 than you were really aware ? Slavery has ruled so long in 
 Church and State ; we have been accustomed so meekly to do 
 its biddings, that many things which a future age may regard 
 with astonishment, now " overcome us like a summer cloud." 
 When our captivity is turned, we shall be like them that 
 dream. 
 
 What then was the real character of the demand made on 
 you for the suppression of this book } 
 
 1. In the first place, it seems that the suggestion came from 
 one of your Vice Presidents in South Carolina — who, doubtless, 
 had in a special manner your confidence and ear. Did not this 
 gentleman, though doubtless of the worthiest private character, 
 sympathize with, and in a manner represent the slave power.' 
 Was it not in obedience to the dictates of this power, that, 
 after slumbering over the book for fifteen years, he now, upon the 
 threatening animadversions of the public journals, addressed 
 you on the subject .' And if the slave power has demanded 
 the suppression of the book through him, is it any less a de- 
 mand of slavei'y .' 
 
 2. If your action was not a concession to a demand of the slave 
 power, how does it happen that the Board of Managers of the 
 South Carolina S. S. Union, your own auxiliary, came to un- 
 derstand it so — especially as this same Vice President is proba- 
 bly a member of that Board — and, if he is not, would, almost 
 of course, from his position in the S. S. cause, be in constant 
 communication with them. Indeed, he seems by their resolu- 
 tions, to have given them the information with regard to the 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 11 
 
 action of the Parent Society. As soon as your action was re- 
 ported to these Managers they passed a preamble and resolu- 
 tions on the subject. In the former they say, that the circum- 
 stances in which the book was originally issued, "would if all 
 the facts of the case were detailed, vindicate the Society from 
 any disposition to agitate or meddle with a topic altogether 
 foreign to the design of the Am. S. S. Union," — also that, by 
 suppressing the book in question, " the Parent Society has given 
 the most substantial evidence of its disposition to circulate 
 and publish no work that is exceptionable in its character and 
 spirit to the American public.'''' They therefore resolve, " that 
 the confidence of this 13oard in the Am. S. S. Union is undi- 
 minished, and that the recent action of their Committee of Publi- 
 cation, is a, sufficient pledge that nothing will at any time hereaf- 
 ter be issued from the press under their control, calculated to 
 awaken sectarian feeling, or sectional jealousy. ''^ 
 
 These resolutions are published in the Charleston Mercury, 
 and the Carolina Baptist, Choraw Gazette, and other papers 
 which had noticed the work referred to (it seems then that the 
 clamor was probably pretty extensive), are requested to copy. 
 These resolutions, therefore, cspress not merely the understand- 
 ing of the So. Car. S. S. Union, as to the character of your 
 act, but that of the whole South, so far as the subject had 
 been agitated. The journals that had been clamorous against 
 the Society, received this action as an answer to their demand, 
 and these Managers published it as such. 
 
 3. If the committee were not aware of any demand of the 
 slave power, nor of any connexion of the exciting subject of 
 slavery with their action, and were all, as the letter of your 
 Secretary informs us, " anti-slavery men in the sense in which 
 that term is understood by the mass of New England Christians" 
 — they must have been greatly pained at the false construction 
 put upon their acts by one of their own auxiliaries, and by the 
 great body of Southern men — a construction that, if true, would 
 imply great moral delinquency on their part, — and they would 
 naturally, almost necessarily, take immediate measures to 
 disabuse the Southern mind of its erroneous impressions. 
 Permit us then to inquire, whether the So. Car. S. S. Union 
 have been re-advised on the subject, — and their misapprehen- 
 sions corrected. We might almost ask, whether the Managers 
 have been rebuked for imputing so base motives and so un- 
 worthy conduct to your Committee — and if this has been done, 
 have pains been taken to inform the Southern public also, 
 through their newspapers, or by direct comimtnication with 
 
13 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 their editors and leading men, that they have grossly misun- 
 derstood your action ? Have you sent your printed circulars to 
 the Southern States in any great number ? 
 
 So much for the demand made on you. If the slave power 
 has made no such demand, it yet, most unfortunately for truth 
 and right, claims your action ss a submission to its demand ; and 
 while the whole South so regards it, and for this reason rejoices 
 over it, is it strange that we should have our fears excited lest 
 such is its real character, and be deeply moved with sorrow on 
 account of it ? 
 
 But whatever was the demand, and however made, the book was 
 suppressed — and you have given us in your printed circular the 
 reasons of your action. If those reasons are weighty — if truth 
 demands the suppression, then let the book be condemned — 
 however unreasonably the enemies of freedom may rejoice over 
 the act. In a peculiarly appropriate sense, " Justitia fiat, 
 coelumque ruat." Let us look, then, at the reasons as given in 
 the printed circular. If they are sufficient, we must be silent. 
 
 You say, " It appears that the book in question, was re- 
 printed from an English copy nearly twenty years since — when 
 the state of public feeling was very difterent from what it is at 
 present — and when such a passage (though as indefensible then 
 as it is now), might have easily escaped observation." 
 
 Now, on examining the book it appears to have been printed 
 in 1832 — i. e., fifteen years before the action of the Committee, 
 and its title page reads as follows, — 
 
 "Jacob and his Sons, or the second part of a Conversation 
 between Mary and her Mother, — prepared for the Am. S. S. 
 Union, by Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, late principal of the 
 Am. Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, Hartford, Connecticut.— 
 Revised by the Committee of Pub lie at ion.'''' 
 
 Now, whether the book was merely reprinted from an Eng- 
 lish copy, or was rewritten and adapted to this country, we 
 cannot know with certainty — but must presume from your 
 statement that it is essentially a reprint — though from a pre 
 fatory note it seems to have been prepared by Kir. Gallaudet, 
 with much care, and " some very useful corrections and emenda- 
 tions" to have been made. — And who is Mr. Gallaudet ? He 
 is known through our country as one of the most judicious, 
 skilful, and interesting writers of Sabbath School books. His 
 name upon a title page, is like the imprimatur of the severest 
 board of censors, a pledge that there is nothing exceptionable in 
 the book — and how docs he stand in relation to the question of 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL ITNION. 13 
 
 slavery ?^ la he an abolitionist, using severe language to ex- 
 press unpalatable truths ? — No, he is well known as a strong 
 and leading colonizationist — long, and we believe still, an 
 officer of a colonization society; and while we believe he ab- 
 hors slavery, he is the last man, either intentionally or care- 
 lessly to use unjustifiable language in describing it — and 
 besides all this, the book was afterwards revised by your 
 Committee. 
 
 You say the book was published at a time when the state of 
 public feeling was different, &c. It is true, it was different 
 then, for anti-slavery truths have made wonderful progress 
 since ; but it was three years after William Lloyd Garrison had 
 commenced the publication of an anti-slavery newspaper — 
 two years after he had been imprisoned in Baltimore for his 
 anti-slavery agitations — and one year after the New-England 
 Anti-slavery Society was formed. 
 
 You further say in your circular, that the description of 
 slavery in the book in question, " though just and true when 
 applied to some countries, was regarded as neither just nor 
 true when applied to ours." Here we must pause and ask — 
 Where, in the name of all that is true, will such a description 
 ' PP^y^ ^^ ^^ ^'^^^ ^'^^ here ? If we send it abroad over the whole 
 earth, like the patriarch's dove upon the waters, will it not 
 return " wing weary" to our own land as its resting-place and 
 home? What slavery on the face of the earth, in any age of 
 the world, can be found, to which a severity of language can be 
 justly applied, that would yet be undeserved here ? We regard 
 American slavery as being as it has often been termed, " the 
 vilest under the sun." 
 
 But, without expending any feeling upon the subject, let us 
 look at the prefatory note referred to, in the book in question, 
 where the compiler says, " considerable care and expense have 
 been incurred, in fitting the work to the use of children in this 
 country ; and while all the peculiar excellences of the original 
 English work are preserved, some very useful corrections and 
 emendations have been made." 
 
 It seems, then, that so far from being unadapted to this 
 country, pains were taken to make it specially adapted to the 
 condition of things here ; and if such pains were taken, where 
 would they be applied more carefully, than at a point where 
 the revisor comes in contact with one of our '■'■peculiar institu- 
 tions.^^ 
 
 As to the defects of the book " on other and general grounds," 
 to which you refer thus generally in your circular, we can say 
 
14 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 nothing — as the defects are not pointed out, and we have net 
 been able to discover them on a careful examination of th3 
 book ; but will merely refer to what we have already said of 
 the compiler and his prefatory note, and the revision of your 
 Committee — an uncommon security against the publication of 
 anything exceptionable. 
 
 But all this is but preliminary to the main question, and 
 comparatively of little importance. According to your circular 
 the book contained one indefensible passage — you say as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " It (the passage in question) purported to be a description 
 of the condition of slaves, and, though just and true when ap- 
 plied to some countries, was regarded as neither just nor true 
 when applied to ours. This was the only exception taken to 
 the passage — viz., that it was not true in fact, if taken as it 
 naturally would be, to describe the condition of slaves in the 
 United States, and must of course make a wrong impression 
 on the mind of the reader." 
 
 Here is the offensive passage — 
 
 " What is a slave. Mother ? (asked Mary.) Is it a servant ?" 
 " Yes (replied her Mother), slaves are servants, for they 
 work for their masters and wait on them ; but they are not 
 hired servants, but are bought and sold like beasts, and have 
 nothing but what their masters choose to give them. They 
 are obliged to work very hard, and sometimes their masters 
 use them cruelly, beat them, and starve them, and kill them — 
 for they have nobody to help them. Sometimes they are 
 chained together and driven about like beasts." 
 
 The whole question is then reduced to this simple one — does 
 the passage contain an untruth ? does it contain a misrepre- 
 sentation of facts? And here observe, the inquiry is not at all 
 whether the master, by law, has the power of life and death over 
 his slaves, — but simply whether it be true as a matter of fact ^ 
 that " sometimes their masters use them cruelly, beat them, 
 and starve them, and kill them," — and that " they have no- 
 body to help them." 
 
 If we were to go into a discussion of this question with your 
 Committee, our pages would swell to volumes, and our corre- 
 spondence would impose on ourselves a labor of compilation, 
 and on you of perusal, that would make the restoration of the 
 book by you, or the withdrawal of the request by us, were not 
 principle involved, a cheap compromise of the matter. But 
 such a burden we need not assume or impose. Facts, too well 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 15 
 
 known to need citation, bear us out in our assertion, which 
 we make with no hesitation and no reserve, that the passage 
 in question states the absolute truth, and only the truth. 
 Hypercriticism cannot point out its error. False reasoning 
 cannot prove its untruth. No construction but one of absolute 
 violence, can give it an exceptionable import. If this is doubt- 
 ed, we pledge ourselves in proper time and place, to prove ^ that 
 " sometimes the masters use their slaves cruelly, beat them, 
 and starve them, and kill them" — and that " they have no- 
 body to help them." 
 
 We will only say with regard to their having no one to help 
 them, that we are well aware that by law it is an offence in 
 many cases for a master to take the life of a slave, and it is in 
 the face of this fact, that we repeat our assertion that they have 
 no one to help them. We will merely remark here, 
 
 1st. That by well settled law a master may beat his slave 
 cruelly, even shoot and mangle him (if done to keep the slave 
 in proper subjection), and there is no redress for the slave or 
 punishment for the master (See 2 Devcreux, North Car. Re- 
 ports, p. 263, Case of State v. Mann). Now, if the poor slave 
 is actually killed and not till then, the law (not in reality, but 
 by one of those " legal fictions that work no one any injury") 
 arrests and punishes the murderer — but does this help the poor 
 slave } He is dead, and by law cannot be helped until he is 
 so. But you will perhaps say, that the terror of the law con- 
 duces to the security of the life of the slave, and thus helps 
 him. We say then — 
 
 2nd. That these laws, inadequate ' as they generally are, 
 from the inadmissibility of black testimony and the rioht of 
 expurgation on the part of the master, are almost never put in 
 force. 
 
 We have heard it repeatedly said by men who have lived at 
 the South, that probably in not one in a hundred instances is the 
 murderer of a slave visited by the penalty of the law. Suppose 
 a child hag a drunken father — its only parent — a debased, 
 miserable, embruted wretch, who cares nothing for the child 
 and does nothing for his protection, comfort, or support. He 
 is yet a parent, and by the laws of God and man the rightful 
 protector of that child. Would you hesitate to say, that that 
 child has no protector — nobody to help him .' How is he better 
 off than an orphan.^ In both cases humane friends may inter- 
 pose their offices of kindness — but this collateral aid must be 
 left out of the question to make the cases parallel ; for if the 
 law does not redress the wrongs of the slave, we need not hope 
 
16 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 that Southern chivalry will ever stain its weapons in his hchalf. 
 Now, just as such a child is essentially an orphan — so is the 
 slave essentially, really, to every purpose of protection and re- 
 dress, without anybody to help him. We might go further 
 and say, that as such a child is in a worse condition than an 
 orphan, so is the slave in worse condition, than if this mockery 
 of justice were withheld, and his real condition»laid bare before 
 the eyes of the world. 
 
 3rd. The very laws which are claimed as protecting the life 
 of the slave, are intended rather to avenge the insulted dignity 
 of the state, than to afford protection or give redress to the 
 slave. This is evident from these considerations. The free- 
 man, whenever his rights of person or property are invaded, 
 Las his remedy in a civil action for the recovery of adequate 
 damages for the injury. The law helps him to this redress. 
 If the case falls within the penal laws of the state, the perpe- 
 trator is liable to a public prosecution, as the redress which 
 the state is to get for the violation of its laws. How is it with 
 the slave ? The law may sometimes, for the same reasons as 
 before, punish the miscreant that maims or murders him — but 
 he has no redress in any circumstances — the law offers him none, 
 intends none for him. If he is cruelly maimed by his master, 
 he cannot sue him and recover damages — though made a miser- 
 able cripple for life. If a stranger maims him, an action 
 lies — but in whose favor .'' in that of the injured man .^ No, 
 but in favor of his master, who may recover damages for the 
 loss of value in the slave. If his wife is debauched, or his 
 daughter violated, or his house burned over his head, he has 
 no redress. There is no court open for his suit. Justice is 
 brought to every man's door but his. Now, it is just here 
 where the slave needs help. But the law interferes only to 
 defend the public peace — and the protection which the slave 
 derives from this is only incidental, and even where the law is 
 enforced, is extremely imperfect. The slave is regarded as 
 having no personal rights. For no injury, however atrocious, 
 docs the law give him ani/ redress. What more is needed to 
 make him helpless f Would your Committee, and would the 
 Southern censors, be satisfied to substitute for the expression, 
 *' they have nobody to help them" — the following strictly un- 
 exceptionable sentence, viz. — " for thoy are regarded by the 
 law as having no peisoual rights, and for any injury that the 
 master may inflict on them, however atrocious, they have by 
 law, no redress." 
 
 4th. The very law that it is claimed protects the slave, by 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 
 
 17 
 
 its direct enactments, takes away tbosc natural rights wliich 
 are essential to personal security, and which are rcserred to 
 every freeman. So that the slave in our Christian land is 
 more helpless than he would be in the most barbarous age and 
 country of the world, for there his natural rights would be less 
 restrained. A freeman may defend himself if assaulted. He 
 may shed blood, he may take life, to defend his own life, and 
 the law holds him guiltless. How is it with the slave ? By 
 law he maybe shot, if he attempts to escape from the descend- 
 ing lash. He may be killed, if he lifts his hand to resist the 
 merciless and wanton scourging of a brutal overseer, or if he 
 attempts to resist the violator (the lawful violator) of the 
 honor of his wife or child. It is an incontrovertible principle 
 of law, and has been so pronounced by high judicial authority, 
 that the slave has a perfect right to escape — the relation be- 
 tween him and his master being wholly one of force and not 
 of obligation, so that he violates no duty and simply exercises 
 his indefeasible right when he runs away ; and yet in most of 
 the slave states the runaway slave is pronounced an outlaw, and 
 anybody who finds him may kill him. So much for the help 
 that the slave gets from the law. 
 
 Feeling, then, as we do, that the book contains nothing ex- 
 ceptionable, that the very passage on which alone issue is taken, 
 contains only the strictest truth, a feeling in which we are con- 
 firmed by the opinions of the most judicious men with whom we 
 have conversed on the subject — how can we regard the action 
 of your Committee, but with deep pain — how can we help 
 feeling that a great principle was involved in the question of 
 the suppression of this book, and that that principle was sacri- 
 ficed to limited views of expediency .'' 
 
 It seems to us that the question whether the ofi"ensive book 
 should be retained, was a very different one from what it would 
 have been, had it arisen at the original publication of the book, 
 as a question whether it should be issued, or whether if issued, 
 the passage in question should be modified. We cannot see 
 how the same important idea could have been better expressed, 
 but should probably have expended little thought or feeling on 
 the matter if the book had then been condemned or expur- 
 gated. But now, the question arises, (blink it as we will), as 
 a question between slavery and truth — the former demanding 
 silence from God's ambassadors on the subject of their great 
 sin, — an expurgated Bible and an amended Christianity, the 
 latter pleading for the great, pure, and everlasting principles 
 of right. Is it not enough that the Am. S. S. Union issues 
 (among its thousand publications against sin) no word of con- 
 
18 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 demnation against slavery ? Must they suppress a book that 
 merely and incidentally, in a single passage, with no comment 
 and no note of abhorrence, defines it — and defines it too in lan- 
 guage no plainer, no more harsh than many a Southern states- 
 man has used in defining it — we might even say, than that in 
 which the laws of the slave States themselves define it ? 
 
 We do not know that more need be added to what we have 
 said. We regard the Committee as good men in error, deeply, 
 mournfully in error — and since our suggestions have been in- 
 vited by you, and the letter of your excellent Secretary assures 
 us, that " if convinced of your error, you will as far as possible 
 repair it," may we riot earnestly request you, in the hope that 
 you will accede to the request, to reconsider your action in the 
 premises and restore the suppressed book to your catalogue .■' 
 That book has now a value that it never had before. Its re- 
 storation can alone repair the breach that has been made. 
 Like the key-stone of an arch, of little intrinsic value, its re- 
 moval endangers the whole structure. 
 
 While it must necessarily be unpleasant to you to reverse 
 your own deliberate decision, is it not reason enough, to your 
 own minds and before the world, that while the restoration of 
 the book can do little harm at the worst, the whole South have 
 utterly misconceived your motives; and while you regarded 
 your action as no concession to the slave power, they have at 
 once received and rejoiced over it as such, even your own Aux- 
 iliary pronouncing it a pledge that you will issue nothing cal- 
 culated to awaken sectional jealousy, or exceptionable to the 
 " American public^ 
 
 Should you, upon a reconsideration of your action, come to 
 the conclusion as to your duty at which we have arrived, we 
 need not assure you of our hearty sympathy with you in the 
 noble stand that you will thereby be taking — nor of the new 
 interest which we shall feel in an institution which we have 
 long loved, and which will then have new claims on our affec- 
 tion and confidence. 
 
 Should you decide that in the circumstances you cannot re- 
 store the book to your list, will you permit us in the spirit of 
 scrutinizing, though courteous and friendly inquiry, (and such 
 inquiry we feel it our duty to make), to ask of you an answer 
 to the following questions : — 
 
 1. Will you, if you have no objections, give us copies of your 
 correspondence on this subject with the So. Car. Vice President, 
 especially his first letter — and any others that may have passed 
 between you since ? 
 
 2. Were any of the comnicnts of the Southern press known 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNIO.Y. t9 
 
 to you either as a Committee or as individuals, at the time of 
 your action in suppressing the book — and were they spoken 
 of among you at the time of, or with reference to such action ? 
 
 3. Have you ever informed the So. Car. Vice President 
 that your action was not considered or intended by you " at 
 all to involve the exciting subject of slavery," and have you 
 ever communicated with the So. Car. Auxiliary, for the pur- 
 pose of correcting their wrong impression with regard to your 
 action .'' Have you given like information in any way to tho 
 Southern public generally — and if so, how recently .' 
 
 4. Have you sent your printed cuxular to the South in any 
 number .' 
 
 5. Has there been so general a dissent from your proceed- 
 ings expressed at the North, as to require the printing of this 
 circular in your defence — or what was the occasion of its being 
 printed .'' 
 
 6. We have ascertained that the condemned book is still 
 for sale at the depositories at Philadelphia, New York, and 
 Boston — and perhaps elsewhere, these being the only places 
 where we have inquired — and this four months after your ac- 
 tion. Why is the book, if intrinsically objectionable, sup- 
 pressed at the South and still circulated at the North ? 
 
 7. Should your decision have been aifected by the con- 
 sideration of those " other defects," will you point them out 
 to us .'' We have the book, will you refer to them by the page ? 
 
 These inquiries are made in that spirit of investigation, which 
 ought ever to be encouraged, among thinking men, and in a 
 country like ours, and which is in no way inconsistent with 
 confidence and love. We cannot close without saying thatthe 
 necessity of condensing our argument, has given to it a rigor, 
 we fear in some places a harshness, that were almost unavoid- 
 able — and that, if it should make this impression on your minds, 
 we assure you we have intended nothing uncourteous, unkind, 
 or unchristian. 
 
 With much respect, 
 
 Yours in the bonds of Christian affection, 
 CALVIN HATCH, 
 JOHN HOOKER. 
 
 Without deigning to make any definite reply to the above earnest 
 and respectful request, made by order of the Congregational Church at 
 Farmington, the Committee of the Sunday School Union peremptorily 
 declined having any farther correspondence with them, preferring, as 
 they said, to correspond with their Pastor on the subject. 
 
20 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 At a subsequent meeting of the church, the following resolution 
 was adopted. 
 
 VOTE OF THE CHURCH.* 
 
 " Wbercas, the American S. S. Union in their recent pro- 
 ceedings in suppressing one of their books, called ' Jacob and 
 his Sons,' on account of an expression in said book on the sub- 
 ject of slavery, which was regarded by their Southern friends 
 as offensive, have done what we cannot but regard as an act of 
 subserviency to the slave power : and whereas, upon our cor- 
 responding with them on the subject, they have failed to give 
 us any satisfactory explanation of their, course, and having re- 
 fused to restore the book, upon our request, to their cata- 
 logue of publications ; therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That the American S. S. Union be stricken from 
 the list of the beneficiaries of this Church, and that we will 
 Beck some other channel for our beneficence to this cause." 
 
 The action of the Sunday School Union had attracted the attention 
 of Christians in various parts of tlie country, and had occasioned 
 deep regret in the hearts of many devoted friends of the Sunday School 
 cause. t At the request of a person desirous of knowing the facts 
 
 * The Committee reported to the Church, February 24th, and, " after a 
 long di.?cassion the vote was passed by a majority, so far as I could judge, 
 of about two to one," says a member of the Church. 
 
 t The following letter we find in the National Era : 
 
 RocHESTKU, Fcbntary 10, 1818. 
 
 At a meeting of the Wisconsin Svmday School Union, held in Milwaukie, 
 commencing on the 2d of February, Mr. Hopkins, a Presbyterian minis- 
 ter from Racine, rose, and requested leave to present a subject relative to 
 the Parent Society. Leave being granted, he proceeded to read from the 
 National Era, dated October 13, 1847, a statement, showing that a volume 
 had been stricken from the list of publications, because a lew lines which 
 it contained, descriptive of slavery, had given umbrage to the slaveholders. 
 
 Messrs. Hopkins, Holton, and Kennedy, were apjiointed a Committee to 
 prepare and report, for the action of the meeting, a protest and remon- 
 strance, to be forwarded to the Executive Committee in Philadelphia, rela- 
 tive to its action on the matter. 
 
 The Committee reported a remonstrance, which, with some amendments, 
 was finally unanimously adopted. 
 
 The remonstrance takes high ground, asserting that, in suppressing the 
 above volume, the Committee had departed from Christian principle, and 
 from the primary object of the organizatioji of the Society ; and it requests 
 the Committee to restore the volume to its place on the list of publications. 
 
 Vours, E. M. 
 
 The Boitmi Rccm-der, in publishing the account of the suppression of 
 " Jacob and his Sons," appends the following remarks : 
 
 " We regret that we are obliged to spread upon our pages the history of 
 a transaction which we regard with mingled feelings of contempt and in- 
 
 1 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 21 
 
 in the case, Mr. Lewis Tappan adressed a brief letter to the Secre- 
 tary of the Societj', the following extract being the larger part of it: 
 
 "I will not, dear sir, keep from you my intentions. The professed 
 suppression of the little book, • Jacob and his Sons,' and the reasons 
 assigned, first struck me with astonishment, and I have been gathering 
 the facts with the view to publish a pamphlet or newspaper article on 
 the subject. A knowledge of the facts throughout the country, will, 
 I am sure, cause great alarm and grief to all friends of liberty and true 
 Christianity, and lead perhaps to a correction of the evil. Recently I 
 have had a considerable number of copies purchased at the Depository 
 in this city, and also in Boston, and this after the alleged suppression 
 or withdrawal of the book ! I hear of great dissatisfaction with the 
 proceedings of the Board in other parts of the country, and when the 
 facts are fully known, this dissatisfaction will greatly increase and. 
 extend. Why should there be such a bowing down to the ' dark 
 spirit of slavery ■" 1 will candidly hsten to any suggestions you may 
 make, for I would not intentionally injure the cause in which you 
 have been so ably and industriously engaged, although it appears a 
 duty to attempt to rescue the blessed Sunday School cause from be- 
 ing used to uphold the accursed system of American slavery." 
 
 Mr. Tappan's note elicited the following letter from Mr. Packard, 
 Secretary of the Union, to which Mr. Tappan's reply is subjoned. From 
 these letters, and from what has been previously said, the reader will find 
 no difficulty in forming a pretty accurate opinion of the matter, without 
 any conjecture as to the motives which influenced the Committee of 
 the Union to suppress "Jacob and his Sons." 
 
 dignation. Oh! Shame where is thy blush ? That Christian men of the 
 North should thus bow and cringe at the despotic mandates of Slavery. 
 We regret that the American Sunday School Union has to bear the blame 
 of this unworthy deed : we have thought much of this institution, and our 
 columns have been freely used to promote its interests, as we trust they will 
 contiijjje to be. Because we love tliis Society we rebuke it. We trust its 
 members will investigate the doings of their Committee of Publication, and, 
 if need be, remove them from their places. A repetition of this South Caro- 
 lina afiair will darken the prospects of the American Sunday School Union 
 among the lovers of Freedom." 
 
22 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BV THE 
 
 MR. PACKARD TO MR. TAPPAN. 
 
 Philadelphia, February 11, 1848. 
 Mr. Tappan : 
 
 My Dear Sir — When 1 lived at Nortliarapton, Mass., in 
 1814-17, and indeed for some years after, I was accustomed, 
 once in a while (and always with great pleasure and profit) to 
 spend a few minutes in the little back room of Tappan and 
 Whitney's store, to chat with your aged and venerable father. 
 There was a hallowed atmosphere about that little room ; and 
 though it lacked many of the luxuries of a city counting-room, 
 it was the theatre of deeds, and the store-house of thoughts 
 and influences for the good of others, the issues of which will 
 be seen as long as the SDul endures. Your father was a 
 'shrewd, humble, thoughtfvil man. I always noticed his habit 
 of expressing his opinions in the form of questions. Instead of 
 condemning a person, or act, at onee, he would ask some ques- 
 tion about it, as if to give himself time to think. " Do you 
 think it was so.?'' " Are you sure you know all the facts.'" 
 " What does the good book say of it ?" &c., &c. I suppose 
 he thought it was sometimes safer to ask questions than to 
 make assertions. 
 
 Mr. Whitney was ardent, overflowing with conscientiousness, 
 fearless of man, positive, but full of kindness, and love, and 
 Christian meekness. I would give more to be filled with the 
 spirit of Tappan and Whitney, than for the value in money, 
 of all the goods they ever bought and sold. They are both in 
 the presence of the Lamb, and 1 doubt not, have fullness of 
 joy. 
 
 But what has all this to do with the subject of my present 
 letter .'' you may ask. Nothing, except that it is just the 
 train of thought which was excited in my mind by your note of 
 yesterday, received just now, and for which 1 thank you. 
 
 As you invite me to express my thoughts to you, and pro- 
 mise to listen candidly to whatever I have to say, I will no* con- 
 ceal my regret that you have decided to publish " a pamphlet or 
 newspaper article" in relation to the subject of the dropping of 
 " Jacob and his Sons," from our catalogue; but far be it from 
 me to oppose it or to attempt to dissuade you from it, if an 
 enlightened conscience, and a sober judgment, plainly declare 
 that God requires it of you. I have endeavored to refrain 
 from those sweeping denunciations, in which some have been 
 willing to indulge, of those who think and act with you in re- 
 Bpect to slavery ; though my views of Christian duty and of civil 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 23 
 
 rights and obligations respecting that subject, are, I presume, 
 utterly at variance with yours. 
 
 There are few things in the review of my life which I more 
 unfeignedly regret than the severe and harsh judgments I have 
 formed and expressed, concerning the motives and conduct of 
 those whose opinions and proceedings I could not approve. I 
 know of no reason why I should give less credit to your motives, 
 or to your professions of sincerity and upright intent, than I 
 expect you will give to mine. Until I know others, at least as 
 well as I know myself, my judgment of them needs to b.e very 
 lenient. 
 
 But as to the book — I wish you to be set right in relation 
 to the facts. 
 
 We dropped " Jacob and his Sons" from our catalogue be- 
 cause it contained a statement which our Committee consider- 
 ed liable to serious misconstruction — to wit : that the life of 
 the slave is placed at the will of the master. This (so far as 
 our Southern slavery is concerned) was thought to be an in- 
 defensible statement. We may have misjudged. I do not re- 
 member any previous instance in which any publication of ours 
 has been brought into question in relation to the matter of sla- 
 very — ice have intended to avoid it as a subject foreign from the 
 purposes of the Society. In our individual relations we hold 
 whatever views, and adopt whatever line of conduct we choose ; 
 but it has been our uniform endeavor to avoid plunging the 
 Society into a controversy, which would necessarily divert its 
 influence and its energies from the one, great, simple object of 
 its organization : viz., " To establish and sicstaiji Sunday 
 Schools, and circulate moral and religious publications. ''' 
 
 Perhaps we have misjudged in this ; but we think not ; and 
 the thoroughness with which we have carried it out, is obvious 
 from the fact I have just stated: viz., that this, of " Jacob and 
 his Sons," is the first instance (so far as I recollect), in which 
 any question, on this subject, has been raised in relation to any 
 of our books. 
 
 When we were apprised of the objection to " Jacob and his 
 Sons,''^ our Committee were satisfied of its reasonableness, so 
 that the only question before us was whether to alter or expunge 
 the passage, or to drop the book. There was nothing in its 
 character to make its continuance on the catalogue particular- 
 ly desirable ; its race, as we supposed, was nearly or quite 
 run — and though the like might be said of a score or two of 
 others on the catalogue, yet this being brought specially into 
 notice in this way, and being considered as out of date, the 
 Committee thought it better to cut short all questions of 
 
24 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 amendment by dropping the book. This was accordingly done 
 as the minute informs you. Had we attached any particular 
 value to the book, or had there been any reason for taking 
 pains to save it, it is quite probable that a correction of the 
 error would have been preferred to a discontinuance of the pub- 
 lication. 
 
 As to its being still fur sale, I have only to say, that it is 
 purely a matter of accident. A copy of the minute was for- 
 warded to our agents at the New York and Boston Depository, 
 but there was nothing in it, (as you may see), which embraced 
 or could aifect the stock on hand. It has been our custom (as 
 I could easily show you, were you here), when we have discon- 
 tinued the publication of a book, to dispose of the stock on 
 hand in the best way we could. We have no reason to believe 
 that those who objected to the single passage in the book, had 
 any desire or expectation of its being dropped. The vxtmost 
 scope of their rei^uest was, that if the representation of the re- 
 lation of master and slave, to which they objected as untrue, 
 were not corrected, the book might not be sent for circulation 
 in the Southern States. The discontinuance of the publication 
 was decided upon by the Committee as the least objectionable 
 course tinder the circumstances., and most consistent with the 
 true position of the Society, and with the principles which 
 have governed it from the commencement of its labors respect- 
 ing the subject of slavery. 
 
 There was no stringent prohibition in the case, such as you 
 seem to suppose had been violated at the Society^s Deposito- 
 ries in New York and Boston. The force and effect of our 
 minute was fully expressed in the phrase, " to drop the book 
 from the catalogue" — and neither the force nor effect is im- 
 paired by any disposition which might be made of the copies 
 that should chance to be on hand. I beg you would be assur- 
 ed, therefore, that there has been no playing fast and loose in 
 the case, and that what seems to you an inconsistency was 
 purely a matter of accident, or the effect of the custom which 
 has heretofore prevailed in relation to discontinued books. 
 
 Since the occurrence respecting " Jacob and his Sons," a 
 passage has been brought to our notice by a Northern friend, 
 which occurs in another of the Society's publications, and which, 
 it was thought, might be construed to give countenance to the 
 vindicators of slavery. The passage seemed to the Committee 
 to be susceptible of such an interpretation, and was at once so 
 modified as to do away with any objection on this score. In 
 this case the book was a valuable one, and comparatively new, 
 and in these respects differs from " Jacob and his Sons." 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 25 
 
 And now, my dear Sir, let me ask you, with Yankee frank- 
 ness, what good can be attained by any pamphlet or newspa- 
 per article, which you, or anybody else, can write on this sub- 
 ject? Suppose you should succeed in satisfying all our fellow- 
 citizens, that the Committee of Publication of the American 
 Sunday School Union have greatly erred in judgment ; we will 
 admit (without a pamphlet), that it may be so. Or suppose 
 you can convince all the readers of your proposed pamphlet that 
 our Committee have been influenced by improper motives : even 
 this we will admit to be possible, for though we are unconsci- 
 ous of such an influence, still the heart is very deceitful : 
 what will be the effect of such an achievement ? VVhy, per- 
 haps, many persons will be confirmed in their pre-existing and 
 injurious prejudices against our Society and its great objects ; 
 but this you cannot think desirable. Perhaps many thousands 
 of dollars will be withheld from us which (but for such a pam- 
 phlet) we might receive — and after all it might fall into no 
 better hands than ours — and perhaps thousands of children 
 and youth, in our Western borders, will feel (without knowing 
 it) the power of your pen in sealing their bondage to igno- 
 rance and sin ; but this you do not seek. What, 1 would ask 
 again, will be the influence of your pamphlet ? Will it restore 
 " Jacob and his Sons" to circulate again in the Southern 
 Stqites, and under our imprint ? We know not that there is 
 now a book on our catalogue, that contains a single sentiment 
 which would be less acceptable to an evangelical Christian in 
 Charleston, than to one in Rochester — to one in Cincinnati, 
 than to one in Boston. We should have said the same a year 
 ago, for we were not then aware of the passages which have been 
 brought to our notice (as above stated) v/ithin that time. 
 
 Do not suppose that we would conceal or give difierent 
 shades^o our principles on this subject — we openly declare; 
 (and ever have done so), as you well know, our desire and design 
 wholly to avoid the subject of slavery, regarding it as one 
 with which our Society cannot meddle, without a palpable neg- 
 • lect of the obvious end for which it was organized, and a vast 
 sacrifice of the highest and most important interests that arc' 
 intrusted to us. We expect this, and all other principles and 
 measures we adopt, will be freely investigated and canvassed. 
 We have no desire that it should be otherwise — but I cannot 
 persuade myself that you would volunteer as an accuser in this 
 instance, if you are fully aware of the true position we occupy. 
 
 You will bear in mind that our action on the subject of 
 " Jacob and his Sons " has been quiet and uncontroversial. 
 We have made no publication of it in any form, neither hav>' 
 
 2 
 
26 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 ■we sought to conceal it. It lias been of a piece with our ordi- 
 nary business transactions, and has, in itself, no unfriendly 
 aspect towards any human being. If our proceeding is made 
 a matter of exultation at the South, it is without reason. If at 
 the North, it is considered as " a bowing down to the dark 
 spirit of slavery," it is equally without reason — nor can we in 
 either case be held responsible for the false views and esti- 
 mates which are formed of it. 
 
 I hope you will believe me when I say that I have no perso- 
 na! feeling on this subject — I am but the servant of the Com- 
 mittee of Publication, among whom are as staunch anti-slavery 
 men as stand on American soil. They are not men to truckle 
 to civil or ecclesiastical domination, nor to the erroneous views 
 and selfish policy of any party or section. But neither are 
 they men to persist in error through pride of opinion or stub- 
 bornness of spirit. They seek the glory of God in making 
 known the saving truths of His blessed gospel to the coming 
 generation, ivhile it is yet vpon the threshold of life — in the in- 
 fancy and childhood of its present beintj. They do not deny 
 nor doubt that there are many other ways of promoting 
 His glory, as wise and effectual, and perhaps as successful, but 
 certainly not more pleasing to Him than this. These ways 
 are all open, and the means and instruments of accomplishing 
 the good desired, are at the service of those who choose to 
 employ them. You have set your heart on the utter extinction 
 of slavery in every form and degree. It absorbs your mind and 
 energies. The means of accomplishing your end are at your 
 own selection. You have a free press, and a free ballot box. You 
 can scatter copies of "Jacob and his Sons" broad-cast over the 
 land, if you think this would hasten the consummation you seek. 
 But I see no necessity for calling us to your aid in any other 
 form than by letting us inculcate, without hindrance, every 
 where (as we do and ever have done), the teachings of our 
 blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, upon the minds and 
 hearts of our children and youth. You have access to the same 
 minds, in other forms, which you can employ, without putting 
 at hazard other and equally important interests. 
 
 1 cannot but hope, thcrelbre, that you will, after all, conclude 
 that no advantage will arise from such a publication as you 
 propose, that will at all compensate for the injury which 
 you may possibly inflict on what you justly call " the bless- 
 ed Sunday School cause." -? 
 
 With the kindest feelings towards you, and towards those 
 who sympathize with you in your views of our course, 
 I am your friend, &c., 
 
 FRED. A. PACKARD. 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 27 
 
 REPLY TO MR. PACKARD. 
 
 New York, February 22, 1848. 
 Fred. A. Packard, Esq., Sec, &c., &c. 
 
 My Dear Sir: — Your letter of the lltli has remained un- 
 answered thus long for want of leisure on my part to make a 
 suitable reply. 
 
 After all the allowance that should be made, with reference 
 to your responsible and difficult position, I confess I cannot 
 but lament that, educated as you Vere in New England, with 
 all the hallowed associations of the Pilgrim State around you, 
 and in full recollection of the influences under which you once 
 lived, and to some of which you allude, you should have yield- 
 ed to the dictation of the slave-holding interest, and delibe- 
 rately defend the act. For, whatever apologies may be made, 
 or whatever arguments may be employed, in justification, I 
 think there was a virtual subserviency to the wicked spirit of 
 slavery in strikingthe book, called " Jacob and his Sons,'' from 
 the catalogue of the American Sunday School Union. For 
 one, I had rather a son of New England should not have done 
 it. Many descendants of New England worthies will lament 
 the act, and grieve that it must appear on the page of history, 
 as it surely will. Remonstrances will go up to the Board, dis- 
 affection will be felt, confidence will be shaken, and the use- 
 fulness of the Board affected. And when inquiry is made, 
 " Do you think it was so ? are you sure you know all the facts ? 
 what does the good book say of it ?" the response will be, I 
 doubt not, " It is even so — the facts ai-e well known — the act 
 is condemned by the Bible — and another bolt is riveted that 
 binds to the earth the poor slave ; for those who should ' help 
 him' restrain not the hand of the oppressor." I make these 
 assertions, dear Sir, with entire confidence in their correctness, 
 but with sadness rather than unkindness towards you and those 
 associated with you in your arduous labors. Doubtless you 
 all think you are acting a wise, prudent, and useful part — that 
 you are not inflicting a blow upon the sacred cause of human 
 rights — that you are promoting the Sunday School cause, and 
 honoring the Savior. I write to you, therefore, as to one who 
 appears to be laboring under a great mistake, and doing much 
 mischief, while you think you are effecting essential good. 
 Bear with me, then, while I attempt, in a friendly way, to 
 show that this is the case. 
 
 You express a desire to set me right in regard to the facts., 
 yet it does not appear that I entertained any misapprehension 
 in reference to them. One of the publications of your Society, 
 
28 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 in describing the condition of slaves, says, among other 
 things, "they are obliged to work very hard; and sometimes 
 their masters use them cruelly, beat them, and starve them, 
 and kill them ; for they have nobody to help them." The 
 Committee of the American Sunday School Union dropped the 
 book from its catalogue, you say, because the above statement 
 was considered by them to be an " indefensible statement." 
 In what respect " indefensible ?" Because " liable to a seri- 
 ous misconstruction !" Statements having this liability are not 
 always untrue or iudefensfble. You do not, it seems, deny 
 that the slaves are worked very hard, that sometimes their 
 masters use them cruelly, beat them, starve them, and that 
 they have nobody to help them ; for these are common things, 
 notoriously true, as has been proved by " a thousand witness- 
 es." The only "statement," that is "liable to a seri- 
 ous misconstruction,'' is, therefore, embodied in the assertion 
 that the master sometimes kills the slave, a phrase somewhat dif- 
 ferent fi'om the " misconstruction" of it, that " the life of the 
 slave is placed at the icill of the master.'''' Because, then, it is 
 said in Mr. Gallaudet's little Sunday ScLool book, that the 
 master sometimes kills the slave, the Com'.;'ittee of the Ame- 
 rican Sunday School Union have, at the instance of an " o]J 
 and highly respectable member of the Society, residing in 
 Charleston, S. C," understood to be one of the Vice Presidents, 
 discontinued it from their catalogue ! And you, one of the 
 Secretaries of the Society, gravely undertake to defend the act 
 of the Committee, by arguing that the statement objected to 
 by the Southern Vice President, himself a slave-holder pro- 
 bably, is an " indefensible statement !" 
 
 Is it not true that slave-holders sometimes kill their 
 slaves .'' Is not this as well known as the fact that they treat 
 them cruelly, beat them, starve them, and make them work 
 very hard .'' Do you not know that the slave is regarded as 
 one who has no personal rights .? that he is a mere " chattel per- 
 sonal .'" that if a slave strikes a white person, even in self-de- 
 fence, the penalty of the law is death .-' that he has no remedy 
 at law for injury done him, as he is considered the " property" 
 of the master, who in such case is alone regarded as the injur- 
 ed party, and by whom only damages can be recovered } that 
 the testimony of a black person is inadmissible .'' that a run- 
 away slave may be killed with impunity 1 that not unfrequent- 
 ly there are advertisements in Southern newspapers offering re- 
 wards for the recovery of fugitive slaves, or their heads ? that 
 masters somelimes kill their slaves without any serious attempt 
 being made to punish them for it .' that such a crime makes 
 but little impression on the public mind at the South, and that 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION-. 29 
 
 punishment is rarely, if ever, inflicted on the guilty person ? 
 Then, is not the statement of Mr. Gallaudet, in the hook which 
 has been suppressed, literally true, that the masters, sometimes 
 kill their slaves, who have nobody to help them ; for although 
 the fact may be notorious, the criminal goes unwhipt of jus- 
 tice ? How then can you pronounce it an " indefensible state- 
 ment ?" But you may, and doubtless will, on consideration, 
 abandon the assertion, and say that although it is true that 
 masters sometimes kill their slaves, as the book avers, the 
 phrase may possibly be understood to mean that the life of the 
 slave is placed, by law, at the will of the master. This would 
 be better, I think, than to say the statement is really incorrect. 
 But the statement, even in this form, I believe cannot be justly 
 pronounced " indefensible." You know well that if a master 
 should, on his plantation, surrounded by hundreds of blacks, 
 kill a slave or a dozen slaves, outright, in the face of the sun, 
 and these witnesses, he could not, if there were no white spec- 
 tators of the deed, be convicted or punished ! The law shields 
 him from conviction by refusing to entertain any complaint 
 from colored witnesses, or to admit their testimony. And in 
 how many ways is the slave, without redress, as substantially 
 killed as if shot by a bullet ! He may be excoriated and 
 maimed to any extent short of what will produce immediate 
 death ; he may be overworked, supplied with insufficient food or 
 clothing, be unattended when ill, and kicked aside to die of 
 nc'-'lecl, exposure, and starvation when old ! Where is his 
 legal remedy for all these cruelties ? Who is there to " help 
 him" when subjected to these calamities ? Who ? You are a 
 lawyer, I believe, and though your attention has, for many 
 years, been almost exclusively directed to the " one idea" of 
 preparing Sunday School books, you cannot be ignorant that 
 such is the American slave-code. At least you ought not to 
 be ignorant of it in deciding upon the accuracy of the descrip- 
 tion of the slave's condition in "Jacob and his Sons." Do 
 you not see, then, that the life of the slave is placed, by law, 
 essentially at the will of the master } and that it is equally 
 true as that the master works the slaves very hard, uses them 
 cruelly, beats them, and starves them — expressions to which 
 you take no exceptions? Those who objected to the statement 
 in the book as untrue, did so in the face of notorious facts — 
 in defiance of their statute books, courts of record, advertise- 
 ments, usages ; and the American Sunday School Union, in 
 " dropping" from their catalogue a book containing a passage 
 on American slavery, altogether true, and palpably so, at tlie 
 bidding or request of a Southern officer of the Society, have 
 acted, I think, iu subserviency to the slave-holding power, 
 and against the cause of truth, freedom, and Christianity. 
 
30 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 You say, thai so far as our Southern slavery is concerned, the 
 assertion that the life of the slave is placed at the will of the 
 master was thought to he " indefensihle ;" hut that you. " may 
 have misjudged." Evidently you have ; and in representing 
 slavery in other countries as heing more cruel than that in our 
 Southern States, you have treated the latter with a leniency 
 which it does not merit. It is an incontrovertihle fact that 
 American slavery, at the present day, is the most merciless of 
 any existing on the face of the glohe. This is ahundantly 
 shown hy the slave-code, and the usages of slave-holders. 
 This is not true merely of portions of our country, hut is true 
 of slavery wherever it exists in our Union. Having shown you 
 that the statement in the hook is correct, and applies with 
 more force to American slavery than to any other slave-system 
 cm earth, have I not a right to call upon you, and the Com- 
 mittee with which you are connected, to repent of the wrong 
 you have done the slave in apologizing for the master.^ Am 
 I not justifiahle in strongly appealing to you, as American 
 Christians, to give evidence of such repentance by acknowledg- 
 ing your error, and restoring the book to the catalogue of your 
 Society ? 
 
 The Society, you say, " has openly declared that it is their 
 desire and design wholly to avoid the subject of slavery." 
 Had they originally omitted the definition of slavery, in 
 " Jacob and his Sons," they would have acted, so far as that 
 book is concerned, in accordance with that determination. 
 But when, at the bidding or solicitation of Southern newspa- 
 pers, slaveholders, or officers of the American Sunday School 
 Union, the Committee discontinued a book, in which a legal 
 and true definition of American slavery is found, wrongfully ac- 
 quiescing in the untrue averment that the passage is false, the 
 Board virtually acts contrary to its avowed determination, and 
 purposely touches the subject of slavery. Nay, they forget 
 entirely their impartiality, and become apologists, if not de- 
 fenders, of the atrocious system. I do not say that the Society 
 is justifiable, in its publications, in avoiding all mention of the 
 fact that one-sixth of the inhabitants of this country are slaves, 
 and omitting all condemnation of the cruel and disgraceful 
 system ; but 1 think it certainly cannot be right for the Society 
 to expunge a passage, or drop from its catalogue a book con- 
 taining a passage — a book stereotyped, and for many years for 
 sale at all their Depositories — because persons implicated false- 
 ly allege that it contains an untruth. Much less is it right to 
 become the defender of the Southerner, who desired the sup- 
 pression of the book, and to re-echo his false assertion that 
 the definition of slavery in the book is an " indefensible state- 
 
AIvIERICAn SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 31 
 
 monk," tliougli the contrary is known by almost every man, 
 woman, and child, throughout the whole country. 
 
 As New England men, and professing Christians, you cannot 
 but know the evils of slavery in this country, and that it is 
 your duty to do all that you legitimately can for their extinc- 
 tion, in the same manner that you endeavor to restrain the 
 commission of other sins. Is it not your duty to deal with the 
 subject as you do with Sabbath desecration, intemjDcrance, rob- 
 bery, &c. ? Unless you do this, honestly and fearlessly, must 
 you not plead guilty to the charge of bowing down to the 
 slave power ? and confess that instead of deploring the exist- 
 ence of slavery in this country, you are in fact strengthening 
 it ? You are required, I think, while inculcating Christian 
 sentiments, to d^al with slavery with as much earnestness and 
 truthfulness as you do with other sins. 
 
 The Committee voted to drop the book from their catalogue, 
 because it contained an " untruth,^'' and yet allowed it thereaf- 
 ter to be sold at their depositories ! You inform me that it has 
 been the custom, when a book was discontinued, to dispose of the 
 copies that should chance to be on hand, by regular sale at the 
 Depositories. But has this been the case when a book was sup- 
 pressed because it contained an "indefensible statement ?" an 
 " untruth ?" According to sound ethics, would it be right to con- 
 tinue the sale of a book under these circumstances ? And yet 
 it appears that after the Committee had adopted a minute on 
 their records to this effect, they permitted their agents to sell 
 the books on hand ! I notice that you say, " as to its being 
 still for sale," it is "purely a matter of accident," while, at 
 the same time, you avow that no directions were given to dis- 
 continue the sale, because it is usual, when a book is dropped, 
 to dispose of the copies on hand. How then was the con- 
 tinued sale of " Jacob and his Sons," after the adoption of the 
 minute, " purely a matter of accident ?" 
 
 I perceive m your letter the following remarkable sentences: 
 " We have no reason to believe that those who objected to the 
 single passage in the book had any desire or expectation of its 
 being dropped. The utmost scope of their request was that if 
 the representations of the relation of master and slave, to which 
 they objected as untrue, were not corrected, the book ^v ight not 
 be sent for circulation in the Southern States." Is it to bo 
 supposed that a Vice President of the American Sunday School 
 Union, who really believed that one of its books contained an 
 "untruth," had not" any desire or expectation of its being drop- 
 ped," but was willing it should circulate anywhere except at 
 the South, where, it would seem, its incorrectness would be 
 most apparent and consequently least injurious ? 
 
 What will the friends and supporters of the American Sun- 
 
33 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 day School Union, North and South, think of the Southern 
 Vice President who objected to a book because it contained a 
 falsehood, and who was yet willing that it should continue to 
 be circulated at the North, but not at the South ? and what will 
 they think of the conduct of a Committee who have endorsed 
 the allegation that it contains an " indefensible statement" — 
 an " untruth," therefore suppressing it when there was actually 
 no syllable of vintruth in it, and when the friends of tlie Sun- 
 day School Union at the South were willing it should circulate 
 at the North ? Will thoy not say that this was done through 
 subserviency to slavery — that it is an acknowledgment of the 
 right of the Southeim slaveholders to be the censors of the 
 Northern press, and expurgatars of our literary and religious 
 publications ? Will they not say that such truckling to South- 
 ern arrogance is unworthy of a benevolent and religious^so- 
 ciety, dangerous to the morals of the rising generation, and 
 disgraceful to the nation and Christianity ? that the men who 
 will thus act are unfit for the responsible task of preparing pub- 
 lications f)r the Sunday Schools of the country r and that they 
 should not continue to be the beneficiaries of Christian churches? 
 
 " When we were apprised of the objection to Jacob and his 
 So7is, our Committee were satisfied of its reasonableness." 
 Indeed ! they appear to have been satisfied without due ex- 
 amination of the facts. Had they been anti-slavery men, in 
 any proper sense of the term, would they have been so easily 
 satisfied ? Would they not rather have demonstrated to the 
 objectors that the statement in the book was true, and then 
 shown that truth and duty required the Committee to retain it .' 
 Instead of this, it appeared to your Committee reasonable, that 
 because Mr. Gallaudet asserted in that little book that a mas- 
 ter sometimes kills a slave, it would not hereafter be proper to 
 circulate it ! The morality of the Committee is certainly to 
 be commended above that of the Southern Vice President, and 
 those who concurred with him, because they declined circulat- 
 ing one of their publications any longer at th5 North, after 
 determining to discontinue its sale at the South. Still, the 
 whole affair will be looked upon as a demand of the slavchold- 
 in"" power and an aci^uiescence on the part of the Committee 
 to suppress a valuable publication, because it defined Ameri- 
 can slavery, according to the slave code and the practice of 
 slaveholders. The truth, forsooth, must not be published to 
 American children and youth, lest they imbibe a detestation 
 of a system that is upheld by the religion of this country .? 
 And the American Sunday School Union, conducted chiefly 
 by Northern men, is willing to lend its aid in this vile scheme ! 
 
 Will not every one who may have knowledge of this trans- 
 action on the part of the Committee of the Sunday School 
 
' AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 33 
 
 Union, believe tliat its Vice President in Charleston, witli the 
 editors and other individuals at the South who have shown so 
 much sensitiveness in relation to this matter, objected to the 
 book for touching slavery at all, not merely for falsely describ- 
 ing it ? Such has not been the course of the South towards 
 religious organizations or Northern publishers. Make no men- 
 tion of slavery — take no action on the subject — is the invari- 
 able and peremptory demand, and though (as in the case un- 
 der consideration) the requirement, in order to render it more 
 palatable to the Northern people, may assume the form of 
 some specious hypercriticism, the force and extent of the re- 
 quirement is well understood, and, I grieve to say, too frequently 
 meets with an obsequious acquiescence. Had the writer of 
 " Jacob and his Sons" more fully described what a slave 
 really is, and to what he is subject — had he said that slavery 
 is a disregard of everything but the interest or passion of the 
 master — that the sacred tie of marriage among slaves, and the 
 holiest affections of their hearts, are mocked and outraged by 
 being made subordinate to these — had Mr. Gallaudet detailed 
 more fully the manifold wrongs of slavery, sketching a more 
 complete outline of the horrors of the slave system as ex- 
 isting in this country ; and although no word might have been 
 " indefensible," no phrase liable to serious or trifling " miscon- 
 struction," who will believe that the book would have escaped 
 the vigorous assaults characteristic of " Southern gentlemen 
 and Christians" under similar circumstances ? Although the 
 printed minute of the Society states that the passage to which 
 exception was taken might have been "readily" modified 50 
 " as to express the truth," the fact is, so much difficulty was 
 found in the endeavor to do this to " the satisfaction of all 
 parties concerned,'' that the matter was finally disposed of by 
 dropping the book ! The language of the Managers of the 
 South Carolina Sunday School Union shows plainly that " to 
 express the truth" in regard to the condition of the slaves, is 
 exactly what they do not want, and what they are determined 
 shall not be done. They justify a continuance of Southern 
 patronage to the parent Society, on the sole ground that they 
 consider it pledged not to " meddle" with the subject of 
 slavery, and that it has " evinced a disposition to circulate 
 and publish no work that is exceptionable in its character and 
 spirit to the American public. ^^ To avoid the imputation 
 that your action has been controlled by the South, you say : 
 " If our proceeding is made a matter of exultation at the South, 
 it is without reason. If at the North it is considered as ' bow- 
 ing down to the dark spirit of slavery,' it is equally without 
 reason. Nor can we in either case be held responsible for the 
 false views and estimates which are formed of it." It is a la- 
 
34 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK BY THE 
 
 mentable fact in the history of religious and benevolent organi- 
 zations in this country, which receive any support from the 
 slaveholding States, that there have been so frequent mistakes 
 on the part of the South and North regarding their action 
 upon slavery — the South always exulting, with or without rea- 
 son, that its claims have been acceded to; whil^ those who view 
 slavery with horror have as invariably felt that these religious 
 bodies had yielded their necks to the yoke imposed by slavery. 
 
 With the subject of slavery, you say, your Society cannot 
 " intermeddle" " without a palpable violation of the original 
 and fundamental principles on which the Society was organized 
 and has uniformly acted." Towards what other sins, of which 
 fallen man is guilty, has your Society determined to " main- 
 tain a neutral position .'"' How many other sins besides that 
 of slavery, must you refrain from meddling with, in order to 
 avoid " a vast sacrifice of the highest and most important in- 
 terests that are entrusted to" you ? With the friends and per- 
 petrators of what other wickedness must you be associated that 
 you may successfully promote " the glory of God in making 
 known the saving truths of his blessed Gospel to the coming 
 generation .''" 
 
 You seem to deprecate any publication of the facts^ lest 
 many persons should be confirmed in their pre-existing preju- 
 dices against your Society — because many thousands of dollars 
 maybe withheld from you which you would otherwise get — and 
 because thousands of children and youth in the Western bor- 
 ders may have their bondage sealed to ignorance and sin. I 
 am not surprised that you think a publication of the facts 
 would prove injurious to the American Sunday School Union, 
 and also to the Committee who conduat its affairs. What 
 then ? Shall such facts be suppressed } Ought they to be 
 concealed } Should not the donors, and other friends of the 
 Society, be acquainted with such proceedings .? Yours is a 
 Society which looks to the whole country for contributions to 
 promote your object — and ought not those from whom you 
 expect assistance, to know your actions and principles, that 
 they may give or withhold if they approve or disapprove of 
 them ? Your proceedings should go before the public from 
 whom you solicit aid. If your conduct is wrong, it should be 
 exposed. It is not necessary to the welfare of the Sunday 
 School cause, or the maintenance of its place in the hearts of 
 Christians, that your action should be concealed. If the course 
 you have pursued has been correct and judicious, why shrink 
 from an open justification ? Why ask for silence when you 
 aver that you expect all the principles and measures you adopt 
 will be fully investigated and canvassed .' These things are 
 of as much interest to the entire body of Christians in this 
 
AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. 35 
 
 country as to me, and they should know them and think of 
 them. Will God be honored, or the Sunday School cause ad- 
 vanced, by allowing your conduct to pass without expostula- 
 tion or rebuke ? Should not the proceedings of the Commit- 
 tee be published, for the vindication of the truth, for the bene- 
 fit of the slave, and for the honor of Christianity ? 
 
 You tell me those opposed to slavery may use the press and 
 the ballot-box to overthrow that institution — that they may, 
 if they think it would promote that object, " scatter copiSs of 
 Jacob and his Sons broad-cast over the land." The question 
 is not what we maij do, but what your Society ought to do — 
 not whether we may publish "Jacob and bis Sons,'' but whe- 
 ther you ought to have suppressed it. The question is not 
 whether the book is a needed anti-slavery instrument, but whe- 
 ther the discontinuance of it from your catalogue was not an 
 act of unworthy subserviency to the influence of slave-holders. 
 Perhaps after the caution you have given me, that it may be 
 more becoming in me to ask questions than to make assertions, 
 you may think my letter unnecessarily severe. I have not 
 meant that it should be, and yet it is difficult to suppress in- 
 dignation at the knowledge of such proceedings-, and such a 
 vindication of them. 
 
 You expect, you say, that the principles and measures you 
 adopt will be freely investigated and canvassed, and declare that 
 you have no desire it should be otherwise. I have endeavored 
 to comment on the action of your Committee in the matter of 
 " Jacob and his Sous," with freedom and truthfulness, but I 
 hope not in a bad spirit. The American Sunday School Union 
 is a great engine for good or evil, and the friends of a pure 
 Christianity, and of free institutions, cannot bear to see it 
 wielded by the slaveocracy of the country, or by Northern men 
 who are mere instruments of Southern despots. " We do not 
 ask that the American Sunday School Union, or any other 
 Society, instituted for a specific, benevolent purpose, should 
 become a propagandist of anti-slavery opinions, but when the 
 subject comes fairly in its way, when it must either keep back 
 a great truth or utter words unpalatable to slavery, but in ac- 
 cordance with the general sentiments of mankind, there can be 
 no question as to its duty. If in its publications, illustrative 
 of the duties springing out of the various relations of society, 
 it avoids all allusion to the relation of servitude, or service, 
 lest it might seem necessary to mention slavery, or treat of the 
 two relations as if they were equally in harmony with Humanity 
 and Divinity, it proves itself at once a coward and a traitor to 
 duty. It may win golden opinions from the advocates of eter- 
 nal slavery, but it will forfeit the confidence and support of all 
 
36 SUPPRESSION OF A BOOK, kc. 
 
 independent, tigli minded friends of human freedom, both in 
 the South and North."* 
 
 I sincerely hope that the Committee 'will review their pro- 
 ceedings in this case, and restore " Jacob and his Sons" to the 
 catalogue. I am encouraged to hope this from your remark 
 that they are not men " to persist in error through pride of 
 opinion or stubbornness of spirit." May they feel their re- 
 sponsibility to the present generation, " while it is yet upon 
 the threshold of life, in the infancy and childhood of its pre- 
 sent being," and act in a way that will subserve the true in- 
 terests of the country, promote the real welfare of American 
 youth, and please the Savior of the world. 
 
 With friendly salutations, and best wishes for yourself and 
 those with whom you act, 
 
 I remain respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 LEWIS TAPPAN. 
 
 Note. — Mr. Packard, in a letter dated February 29th, ob- 
 jected to the publication of his letter, as it was, he says, 
 " strictly private." He was reminded that in the first note 
 addressed to him, he \vas informed of the writer's intention to 
 publish " a pamphlet or newspaper article" in relation to the 
 subject, and that the cofrpspondence could not, therefore, be 
 deemed private, nor any restriction be laid by one party upon 
 the other as to the disposition to be made of it. The corre- 
 spondence itself shows that it was begun, not for private but 
 public considerations ; either party being at liberty to make 
 use of it according to his -views of the requirements of dirty. 
 It is, therefore, published as it was written, with only the omis- 
 sion of a few unimportant words near the commencement of 
 Mr. Packard's letter. 
 
 It was desired by many of the church at Farmiugton, that 
 the whole correspondence between the Rev. Dr. Porter, pastor, 
 on behalf of the church, and the committee of the church, and 
 Mr. Packard, should be published by the church ; but Mr. 
 Hooker, in a letter of February 25th, says, " Dr. Porter con- 
 sidered tlie letters of Mr. Packard to him a private correspond- 
 ence, and thought it would be extremely uncourteous to publish 
 them against the joint wishes of INIr. Packard and himself. 
 There is no objection to any individual publishing the result 
 of our proceedings, and the committee can authorize the pub- 
 lication of their correspondence. Should you wish to publish 
 the correspondence of tlic committee, and the vote of the church, 
 no objection will be made." 
 
 ♦ National Era. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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