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REPROOE 
 
 (f' 
 
 AMERICAN CHURCH. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 EXTRACTED FROM A 
 
 " j^istorn of tl)c |)rotcstant (J^tJicrcipal Qlljurcl) in America," 
 
 BY SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, A.M. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY AN AMERICAN CHURCHMAN 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 WILLIAM HARNED, 5 SPRUCE STREET 
 
 1846. 
 

 S. W. BENEDICT, 
 
 Ster. and Print., IG Spruce Street. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is not probable that the reader has ever seen the History men- 
 tioned in our title. That a History of the American Church, from 
 its earliest date down to the death of Bishop White, written by a 
 dignitary of the mother Church, distinguished alike by his honored 
 name and elevated rank, should be almost unknown in this country, is 
 a singular and very peculiar fact. No people are more sensitive than 
 ourselves to the opinions of foreigners ; and American Episcopalians 
 naturally feel much interest in the views entertained of them by 
 their English brethren. Indeed, the interest is not confined to such 
 views, but extends to whatever affects the English Church. The 
 parties which agitate the Establishment are reflected in our contro- 
 versies ; and the tracts and volumes issued by the theological com- 
 batants on the other side of the water, are republished and eagerly 
 perused on this. Yet here is a history of ourselves, in no small 
 degree eulogistic, and on various accounts claiming our attention, 
 which has been virtually suppressed. 
 
 It is indeed true, that as soon as the book reached our shores, 
 one or two of our " enterprising publishers " announced their inten- 
 tion of reprinting it, and one of the proposed editions was to have 
 been introduced to the notice of the Church under the auspices of 
 a Right Reverend Editor. But these announcements have been 
 followed by " expressive silence." More than twelve months have 
 elapsed, and the Church is still without an American copy of the 
 History. This concealment of Dr. Wilberforce's work is obviously 
 intentional, and not accidental. The very title of the book and the 
 name of the author would have secured a rapid sale for the reprint. 
 Some weighty motive must have induced our publishers to aban- 
 don their original intention, at the sacrifice of pecuniary interest. 
 The motive is obvious, and probably one or more Southern 
 
Bishops have exerted their influence. The author of the His- 
 tory, in the course of his work, advances certain doctrines on the 
 subject of Slavery, and of Caste in the Church, which it is 
 thought inconvenient to discuss, and which cannot be admitted in 
 this Republic without sealing the condemnation of almost every 
 Christian sect among us, and overwhelming our own Church with 
 shame and confusion. There are, it is to be feared, but few among 
 our twelve hundred clergymen, who, on reading the History, would 
 not find their consciences whispering, " Thou art the man," and 
 who would not be anxious to conceal the volume from their pa- 
 rishioners. Hence its suppression. 
 
 It is common to personify the Church, and to speak of her as of 
 some spotless celestial being ; and yet she, in fact, consists of her 
 clerical and lay members, each one of whom must personally an- 
 swer at the bar of Christ for his participation in every sin commit- 
 ted by the Church. Surely, it would be more becoming Christian 
 men to inquire how far they are individually guilty of the offences 
 charged upon them by Bishop Wilberforce, than to endeavor to stifle 
 investigation, by burying in oblivion the faithful and Christian re- 
 buke of their English brother. 
 
 Religious establishments tend to render the clergy obsequious to 
 the civil ruler, and our voluntary system tempts them to do homage 
 to the most capricious and irresponsible of all tyrants, the will of 
 the multitude. Let us see what true and faithful allegiance our 
 "Primitive and Apostolic Church" has borne to this American 
 despot. 
 
 On the 21st August, 1831, occurred the negro insurrection and 
 massacre at Southampton, Virginia. This disastrous event neces- 
 sarily directed public attention, both at the North and the South, to 
 the subject of Slavery. In one portion of the Union, stronger fet- 
 ters were forged for the bondman, and greater efforts made to banish 
 to Africa the free colored man, whose presence it was supposed 
 quickened the aspirations of the slave for freedom. In the other 
 portion, this insurrection impressed on a few pious and reflecting 
 minds a conviction both of the moral and political evils of slavery, 
 and of the duty of combined action for its total abolition. In 1832 
 the New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed, and the suc- 
 ceeding year witnessed the organization of the American Anti- 
 Slavery Society. Auxiliary associations sprang rapidly into being, 
 funds were liberally bestowed, presses were established, and publi- 
 
cations portraying the abominations of the system were abundantly 
 scattered throughout the land. 
 
 This agitation both alarmed and irritated the slaveholders ; and 
 while on the one hand they endeavored to intimidate the Abolition- 
 ists by their murderous violence, they appealed to the selfish pas- 
 sions of the Northern community, by promising their votes and 
 their trade to such only as would aid in suppressing the discussion 
 of slavery. Immediately, our contending factions and our commer- 
 cial cities rivalled each other in demonstrations of sympathy for 
 their " Southern brethren," and of abhorrence for Abolitionists. 
 The clergy, yielding to the blast, generally observed a prudent si- 
 lence, while a few, to prove their freedom from fanaticism, assailed 
 the Abolitionists for their violence and rashness, protesting, how- 
 ever, against being considered the advocates of slavery " in the ab- 
 stract." 
 
 On the clergy of the South, however, a more onerous task was 
 imposed. The Northern movement was a religious one, impelled 
 by a belief of the sinfulness of slavery. Hence it became import- 
 ant that Southern consciences should be encased in mail, impenetra- 
 ble to anti-slavery missiles. The fabrication of such a panoply was 
 consigned to the ministers of Christ, and significant hints were given 
 them that they must not shrink from the work. A meeting of 
 slaveholders in Mississippi, after resolving that any individual who 
 should circulate anti-slavery papers in the State " is justly worthy, 
 in the sight of God and man, of immediate death," voted " that the 
 Clergy of the State of Mississippi be hereby recommended at 
 once to take a stand upon this subject, and that their further silence 
 in relation to this subject (slavery) will, in our opinion, be subject 
 to serious censure,'''' 
 
 This pastoral admonition from the Lynchers was received with 
 due reverence by those to whom it was directed. Presently two 
 Mississippi Presbyteries passed resolutions in favor of the Christian 
 character of slavery. A Mississippi divine published an elaborate 
 vindication of the system, and a Methodist periodical in the State an- 
 nounced that it would " recognize the right of man to hold property 
 in man." 
 
 In other slave Slates the clergy were suddenly aroused to a new 
 energy in vindicating the divine institution of human bondage. 
 Presbyteries, Methodist conferences, Baptist associations, individual 
 ministers, were busily at work descanting on the sin of Ham, and 
 
6 
 
 the curse pronounced on Canaan, discussing Hebrew servitude, and 
 proving that negro slavery was not forbidden in the New Testa- 
 ment. As a specimen of the fulminations launched by some of 
 these servants of the Most High against Abolitionists, we may cite 
 the peroration of an address to a meeting of slaveholders in South 
 Carolina by the Rev. Mr. Postell, of the Methodist Church. " Shun 
 abolition as you would the Devil. Do your duty as citizens and 
 Christians, and in heaven you will be rewarded, and delivered from 
 abolitionism." 
 
 In this mighty rivalry in preaching smooth things to the slave- 
 holders, " the sects " were not permitted to gain a triumph. On 
 the 27th November, 1836, the Rev. George W. Freeman, after 
 morning service, ascended the pulpit of Christ Church, Raleigh, 
 North Carolina, and announced to his delighted hearers the good 
 news that the slavery of white men and of black men, of the wise 
 and of the simple, of the learned and of the ignorant, was sanc- 
 tioned by God, and approved by Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles. 
 This commissioned ambassador of the Redeemer proclaimed, " that 
 
 NO MAN NOR SET OF MEN IN OUR DAY, UNLESS THEY CAN PRODUCE A 
 NEW REVELATION FROM HeAVEN, ARE ENTITLED TO PRONOUNCE 
 
 Slavery wrong ; and that Slavery as it exists at the present 
 
 DAY is agreeable TO THE ORDER OF DiVINE PROVIDENCE." 
 
 The fact that any institution involves duties^ proves its lawful- 
 ness, since no duty can attach to a sinful practice. Hence our 
 preacher, after employing the morning of the Lord's day in ex- 
 pounding the divine rights of the slaveholders, devoted the afternoon 
 of the same holy time in proclaiming their duties. The slaveholder 
 was reminded that he was under a moral obligation to punish his 
 slaves when they deserved punishment ; but he must not be too se- 
 vere, nor chastise when in a passion ; nor ought he to overwork them. 
 He is bound, moreover, to have the slave children baptized, and 
 orally taught to say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Com- 
 mandments. " It is not necessary," said the man of God, " that 
 they should be taught to read ;" but, nevertheless, the master was 
 declared to be as responsible for the souls of his slaves as for those 
 of his own children ! Such are the duties which spring from this 
 Scriptural Institution ; duties which, fortunately for the master's 
 convenience, involve no regard for the marriage of his slaves, no 
 respect for their conjugal or parental rights, and impose no restric- 
 tions on the sale of men, women, and children in the market ; at 
 least, no obligations of this sort were adverted to by the preacher. 
 
These two sermons certainly formed the most acceptable offering 
 which any clergyman had yet laid on the altar of slavery. The 
 hints about the bondage of white men, the necessity of a 7iew revela- 
 tion, before slavery could be pronounced wrong, and the connection 
 of religious duties with the institution, could not fail of convincing 
 the slaveholder, that in the Episcopal Church he would find an 
 asylum from the taunts and reproaches of the civilized world ; that 
 from her altars he could gather balm for his wounded conscience, 
 and that in her courts, he could, without distraction, form his schemes 
 of traffic in human beings and forge the chains by Avhich they 
 were to be held in subjection. It was, of course, important that 
 slaveholders generally should participate in the joyful intelligence 
 imparted to the congregation of Christ Church. The news might 
 be spread by the press, but what assurance could be given that the 
 gratifying declarations made by Mr. Freeman, a private and obscure 
 Presbyter, were authorized by competent ecclesiastical authority ? 
 The sermons were published under the imposing title of " The 
 Rights and Duties of Slaveholders," and bore the following 
 imprimatur from the Bishop of the Diocese : 
 
 " Raleigh, Nov. 30, 1S36. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Brother — I listened with most unfeigned pleasure 
 to the discourses delivered last Sunday, on the character of slavery 
 and the duties of masters. And as I learn a publication of them is 
 solicited, 1 beg from a conviction of their being urgently called for 
 at the present time, that you will not withhold your consent. 
 With high regard, your affectionate friend, 
 
 and Brother in the Lord, 
 
 L. S. IVES. 
 
 To the Rev. George W. Freebian." 
 
 This letter was obviously written, not for its professed purpose 
 of overcoming Mr. Freeman's reluctance to appear in print, but to 
 let the slaveholders of North Carolina know, that although their 
 Bishop was a Northern man, his conscience was thoroughly acclimat- 
 ed ; and that bold and startling as were the doctrines of the Raleigh 
 preacher, they would be maintained in all their length and breadth 
 by Episcopal authority. The Church in North Carolina, by this 
 authoritative publication, far exceeded all the " sects," in the slave 
 region, in her fearless championship of slavery in the "abstract," 
 and " as it exists at the present day." But the diocese was not 
 permitted long to enjoy this proud pre-eminence. Her sister of 
 South Carolina quickly shared it with her. The society for " the 
 
8 
 
 advancement of Christianity," (!) consisting of clergymen and lay- 
 men, with the Bishop at their head, seized upon Freeman's pam- 
 phlet, and reprinted it, imprimatur and all, as a religious trad for 
 gratuitous distribution. 
 
 But there was still one circumstance, which, in times of alarm 
 and despondency, was calculated to weaken the confidence of the 
 slaveholder in the sirength and permanency of the fortress which 
 had thus kindly opened its gates to receive him. Most of the reli- 
 gious denominations of the South were connected with their north- 
 ern brethren by general ecclesiastical judicatories. Already had 
 alarming discussions occurred in the Presbyterian Assembly, and 
 the Methodist Conference, and the Baptist Mission Board, and it 
 was painfully apparent that in these bodies " the rights and duties 
 of slaveholders " were viewed in very different colors from the 
 glowing tints in which Freeman had painted them. The Episcopal 
 Church at the South was subject to the jurisdiction of the General 
 Convention, and what security could be given that a body embrac- 
 ing Northern as well as Southern delegates, would not repudiate the 
 doctrines of the Raleigh Sermons '( Lynch law could indeed con- 
 trol the Southern pulpit as well as the Southern press ; but the con- 
 sciences and the characters of the slaveholders were assailed from 
 the North. There the Dissenters were gradually abandoning the 
 cause of human bondage. Under the strong pressure of public 
 opinion, and in utter contempt of the well-known sentiments of the 
 Church of England, and indeed of the moral sense of Christendom, 
 could it be hoped that the Northern section of the Episcopal Church 
 would, in General Convention, tolerate, much less approve of the 
 extreme, ultra pro-slavery views of the Rev. George W. Freeman 1 
 
 All questions of this sort were most explicitly answered by the 
 last Convention, as appears by an extract from the minutes of the 
 House of Clerical and Lay Delegates : 
 
 " The following message was received : ' House of Bishops, 
 Oct. 22, 1844. The House of Bishops inform the House of Clerical 
 and Lay Deputies, that they have nominated the Rev. Geohge VV. 
 Freeman, D.D., rector of Immanuel Church, Delaware, a mis- 
 sionary Bishop, to exercise Episcopal functions in the State of Ar- 
 kansas, and in the Indian Territory, south of 36 1-2 degrees of 
 parallel of latitude, and to exercise Episcopal supervision over the 
 Missions of the Church in the Republic of Texas. Attest, Jona- 
 than M. Wainwright, Sec'y.' 
 
 " On motion of Rev. Dr. Tyng, the noinination of the Bishop of 
 Arkansas and Texas (as above) was unanimously assented to." 
 
It was not enough thus to elevate the reckless defender of 
 slavery to the high and holy office of a Bishop in the Church of 
 God, but he must be selected as an apostle to Texas ! There was, 
 indeed, a peculiar significance in this selection. The odium in 
 which the people of Texas were held by the Christian community 
 at large, arose not merely from their general profligacy, but also, 
 and chiefly, from their conduct in relation to slavery. Taking pos- 
 session of lands belonging to Mexico, they re-established slavery 
 upon the very soil from which it had been recently banished by 
 that Roman Catholic government. To secure to themselves the 
 unmolested enjoyment of their human chattels, they raised the 
 standard of rebellion, and with the aid of Southern slaveholders 
 erected themselves into an independent Republic. Having thus, 
 as they professed, achieved their own liberty, they adopted a con- 
 stitution rendering the bondage of others hopeless and perpetual ; 
 and outraging alike the dictates of nature and of justice, ordained 
 that no free mulatto should ever live in Texas, thus dooming their 
 own colored ofTspring, for all time to come, to slavery or to exile ! 
 
 The Southern slaveholders were exceedingly anxious that Texas 
 should be admitted into the Union, for the double purpose of 
 strengthening the slave interest, and opening a new market for the 
 benefit of the breeding States. For the same reasons, in addition 
 to the odious character of the Texans, the proposed annexation 
 was resisted by the almost united moral feeling of the whole North. 
 The question of annexation was agitating the nation when the Con- 
 vention assembled, and the selection of Freeman as Bishop of Texas 
 was virtually, whether so intended or not, a repudiation by the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church in General Convention assembled, of the 
 moral objections urged against the admission of that Republic into 
 our confederacy. The Church sent to the Texans a man who, 
 she knew, would confirm and strengthen them by apostolic instruc- 
 tion and benediction in those great principles of their constitution, 
 which had excited the execration of the Christian world. 
 
 Let us now take a view of that institution, which, the Texan 
 Bishop assures us, enjoys the approval of Christ and his Apostles. 
 He tells us, " There was in general no distinction of color^ no pre- 
 vailing difference in the conformation of the features and limbs, no 
 striking dissimilarity in the intellectual powers, to mark the line of 
 separation between the masters and their bondmen, and stamp them 
 as different races of men. No peculiarity of this kind existed which 
 
10 
 
 would have prevented those who were slaves, had they been placed 
 in other circumstances, from taking rank in society, and looking 
 forward to the highest distinctions in the community. Had they not 
 been slaves, they would have become magistrates, nobles, or rulers ; 
 respected by multitudes as equals, or venerated as superiors." 
 
 Here, it will be observed, we have none of the usual nonsense 
 about the curse of Canaan, nor of the usual blasphemy about negroes 
 being created by God for slaves. Jesus Christ and his Apostles 
 approved of the bondage of white men as intelligent as their masters j 
 and of course the whole of our present bench of Bishops, including 
 Bishop Freeman himself, might, under certain circumstances, be 
 lawfully reduced to slavery, and righteously held as chattels by 
 Christian men. 
 
 We are expressly referred in the Sermons, to Roman Slavery, as 
 that which enjoyed the sanction of the great Head of the Church. 
 And what was Roman Slavery ? Our answer to this question is 
 taken from a very learned work, whose statements are all verified 
 by references to Roman authorities.* 
 
 "The'slave had no protection against the avarice, rage, or lust 
 of the master, whose authority was founded in absolute property; 
 and the bondman was viewed less as a human being subject to 
 arbitrary dominion, than as an inferior animal, dependent wholly on 
 the will of his owner. At first, the master possessed the uncon- 
 trolled power of life and death. He might kill, mutilate or torture 
 his slaves, for any or no offence; he might force them to become 
 gladiators or prostitutes. The temporary unions of male with female 
 slaves were formed and dissolved at his command ; families and 
 friends were separated when he pleased. The laws recognized no 
 obligation upon the owners of slaves, to furnish them with food and 
 clothing, or to take care of them in sickness. Slaves could have no 
 property but by the sufferance of their master, for whom they 
 acquired everything, and with whom they could form no engage- 
 ments which would be binding on him. The master might transfer 
 his rights by either sale or gift, or might bequeath them by will. A 
 master selling, giving or bequeathing a slave, sometimes made it a 
 provision that he should never be carried abroad, or that he should 
 be manumitted on a fixed day ; or that, on the other hand, he should 
 never be emancipated, or that he should be kept in chains for life. 
 
 * Blair's " Inquiry into the State of Slavery among the Romans, from the 
 earliest period, to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy." 
 
11 
 
 While slaves turned the handmill, they were generally chained, 
 and had a broad wooden collar, to prevent them from eating the 
 grain. The furca, which in later language means a gibbet, was, in 
 older dialect, used to denote a wooden fork or collar, which was 
 made to bear upon their shoulders or around their necks, as a mark 
 of disgrace as much as an uneasy burden. Fetters and chains were 
 much used for punishment or restraint, and were, in some instances, 
 worn by slaves during life, through the sole authority of the master. 
 Porters at the gates of the rich were generally chained. Field 
 laborers worked for the most part in irons posterior to the first ages 
 of the Republic. Some persons made it their business to catch 
 runaway slaves.* The runaway, when taken, was severely punished 
 by authority of the master, or by the Judge at his desire ; some- 
 times with crucifixion, amputation of a foot, or by being sent to fight 
 as a gladiator, with wild beasts ; h\tt most frequently by being 
 branded on the brow with letters indicative of his crime. Cruel 
 masters sometimes hired torturers by profession, or had such per- 
 sons in their establishments, to assist them in punishing their slaves. 
 The noses, and ears, and teeth of slaves were often in danger from an 
 enraged owner ; and sometimes the eyes of a great offender were 
 put out. Crucifixion was very frequently made the fate of a 
 wretched slave for trifling misconduct, or from mere caprice. By a 
 decree passed by the Senate, if a master was murdered, when his 
 slaves might possibly have aided him, all his household within reach 
 were held as implicated and deserving of death ; and Tacitus relates 
 an instance in which a family of four hundred were all executed." 
 
 Such was the slavery which the Bishop of Texas tells us was 
 found " extensively established in the Roman Empire, embracing 
 nearly all the civilized world, by our Saviour, when he appeared on 
 earth ; and that neither He, nor his inspired Apostles after him, ever 
 expressed any disapprobation of it, or left on record a single precept 
 directing its discontinuance ; and what then is the conclusion ? Why, 
 surely this much, if nothing farther, that no man nor set of men in 
 
 • This profession is not unknovv^n among ourselves, as appears from the 
 following notice in the Sumner County (Alabama) Whig. 
 "NEGRO *DOGS. 
 
 "The imdersigned having bought the entire pack of Negro Dogs (of the 
 Hay and Allen stock) he now proposes to catch runaway negroes. His 
 charges will be Three Dollars per day for hunting, and Fifteen Dollars for 
 catching a runaway. He resides three and one-half miles north of Livingston, 
 near the lower Jones' Bluff road. WILLIAM GAMBEL. 
 
 "Nov. 6,1845— 6m." 
 
12 
 
 our day, unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, 
 
 ARE entitled TO PRONOUNCE IT WRONG " ! ! 
 
 Let us next endeavor to acquire some idea of the number of the 
 bondmen, whose prison-house, if we believe the Right Rev. Texan 
 Father in God, was barred and bolted by Him who gave his life a 
 ransom for many. Gibbon estimates the whole slave population 
 of the Roman Empire in the reign of the Emperor Claudius at sixty 
 MILLIONS (I. 53), and Blair regards this estimate as much too small. 
 
 It is important to ascertain how this prodigious multitude were 
 reduced to bondage ; because, as our spiritual champions of slavery in- 
 variably omit to explain the Scriptural process of converting free men 
 into slaves, we are left to seek instruction in this branch of our duty 
 from the Romans ; since, as in no one instance were they rebuked 
 by Christ and his Apostles, for any of their various contrivances for 
 manufacturing slaves, the conclusion is, surely, " this much, if nothing 
 further, that no man nor set of men in our day, unless they can pro- 
 duce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled'' to pronounce 
 any of the Roman methods of making slaves, " wrong." 
 
 The most prolific source of slavery was war. Livy informs us 
 that after the fall of the Samnites at Aquilone, about 36,000 prison- 
 ers were sold ; and Plutarch, that 150,000 of the people of Epirus 
 were sold for the benefit of the army under Paulus ^milius ; and we 
 learn from Cicero, that when Pindenissus was taken, the inhabitants 
 were made slaves. Hence, should a Mexican force hereafter make 
 an incursion into Texas, and carry off" the Bishop, his wife and 
 children, and sell them to different masters, under whom they should 
 be compelled to spend their days in unceasing toil — condemned to 
 all the misery and degradation of Roman bondmen, — the Bishop 
 would have the consolation of knowing that the treatment he experi- 
 enced was in perfect consistency with that Gospel which he had 
 himself preached. 
 
 Commerce was another mode of acquiring slaves. A prodigious 
 slave-trade was carried on in the countries bordering on the Euxine, 
 with various Provinces in Asia, with Thrace, and even with Spain 
 and Britain. Here we learn how presumptuous it is, to denounce 
 the African slave-trade as sinful. 
 
 The Profession of Christianity was occasionally visited by the 
 Romans -with slavery. At the present day, it affords no security 
 against American slavery, nor deliverance from it. 
 
 There were still four other modes of acquiring slaves, which are 
 
13 
 
 particularly interesting to us ; because, having been copied by U3 
 from the Roman law, we can have no scruples about their lawful- 
 ness : for had they been wrong, Christ and his Apostles, according 
 to Bishop Freeman, would have condemned them. 
 
 1. The sale of children by their fathers — with us the privilege is 
 confined to the sale of children by a slave-mother. In the Bishop's 
 Diocese, this privilege was nearly converted into a necessity, by the 
 constitutional provision which required the bondage or expulsion 
 of every mulatto child. 
 
 2. Selling persons convicted of crimes. Among the Romans, 
 persons convicted of certain offences were sold as slaves, and their 
 posterity after them were doomed to bondage. Similar laws for 
 convertins: free ne^croes and mulattoes into slaves are in force in 
 several of our States. Thus, in South Carolina, if a free negro 
 " entertains a runaway slave," he forfeits ten pounds ; and if, as 
 must generally be the case, he cannot pay the fine, he is sold. In 
 1827, a free woman and her two children were converted into 
 slaves under this law, for sheltering two fugitive slave children ! 
 
 3. Debtors sold by their creditors. By a law of the late territory 
 of Florida, approved by Congress (!), when a judgment obtained 
 against a free colored person, shall remain unsatisfied for /we days, 
 such person shall be sold to raise money to pay the judgment. The 
 sale was nominally for a term of years, but practically for life. 
 
 4. Suspected fugitives were sold as slaves. This Roman device 
 for procuring slaves is now in operation in the District of Columbia, 
 under the immediate sanction of Congress, and in almost every slave 
 State. The process is simple : A man who it is deemed ought 
 to be a slave, is arrested on suspicion of being a runaway, and thrown 
 into prison ; notice is then given in a newspaper to his supposed 
 master, to come and claim him. If claimed, well — if not, the prison- 
 er is sold as a slave for life, to raise money to pay the expense of 
 his imprisonment. 
 
 Having obtained some insight into Roman slavery, as it existed 
 in the time of Christ and his Apostles, and with their acquiescence, 
 let us next look at " Slavery as it exists at the present day," and 
 which the Bishop of Texas, with the concurrence of the Bishops of 
 North and South Carolina, assures us " is agreeable to the order 
 OF Divine Providence." 
 
 What is American Slavery 1 Its advocates are fond of hiding its 
 vileness under false definitions. It is not servitude — it is not com- 
 
14 
 
 pulsory labor — it is not arbitrary authority — it is not cruelty — it is 
 not injustice — it is not oppression. These are, indeed, the usual 
 accidents of slavery ; but they do not constitute it, and are daily, 
 one and all, found in total separation from it. Slavery is the con- 
 version of a rational, accountable, immortal being, made in the 
 imao-e of God and a little lower than the Angels, and for whom 
 Christ died, into a chattel, an article of property, a vendible com- 
 modity.* It is not the violation of certain rights, but the annihila- 
 tion of ALL.f It is the degradation of a man to the level of a brute.J 
 Slavery involves the denial of all domestic relations, and conse- 
 quently the refusal to afford them legal protection. § The infant 
 slave may be sold or given away long before he sees the light, so 
 that, at the instant of his birth, he belongs to one master and his 
 mother to another, j] A slave can possess no property ;ir nor is any 
 
 * " Slaves shall be deemed 'sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be 
 chattels personal in the hands of their owners, and possessors, and their execu- 
 tors and administrators, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatever." — 
 Law of South Carolina. 
 
 t " A slave is one who is in the power of his master to whom he belongs. 
 The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor. 
 He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but what belongs to 
 his master." — Civil Code of Louisiana. 
 
 \ " In case the personal property of a ward shall consist of specific articles, 
 such as slaves, working beasts, animals of any kind — the court, if it deem it 
 advantageous for the ward, may at any time pass an order for the sale there- 
 of." — Law of Maryland. 
 
 § " With the consent of their masters, slaves may marry, and their moral 
 power to agree to such a contract or connection as that of marriage, cannot be 
 doubted; but whilst in a state of slavery it cannot produce any civil effect, 
 because slaves are deprived of all civil rights." — Judge Matthews of Louisiana; 
 Martin's Rep. VI., 550. 
 
 ''A slave is never prosecuted for bigamy, or petty treason for killing a 
 husband being a slave, any more than admitted to an appeal for murder." — 
 D. Dulamy , Attorney General of Mai-yland : 1 Md. Rep. 561. 
 
 li '' The testator left his negro wench. Pen, to one daughter, and her future 
 increase to another. The court decided the bequest to be good, and that all 
 the children born of Pen, after the death of the testator, belonged to the sister 
 of her mistress. Per Cur. He who is the absolute owner of a thing, owns 
 all its faculties for profits or increase, as well as the thing itself This is every 
 day's practice ; and it is held that a man may grant the wool of a flock of 
 sheep for years." — Little's Rep. III., 275. Kentucky, 1823. 
 
 \ A master made a devise to trustees, for the benefit of his slave Betsey 
 and her children. Devise held to be void. Per Cur. " The condition of slaves 
 in this country is analogous to that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and 
 not that of the feudal times. They are generally considered not as persons,but 
 
15 
 
 promise to him, or agreements with him binding in law.* Being 
 under the control of his master, he can have no legal right to at- 
 tend the worship of his Maker. f Like other chattels, he can 
 obtain no legal redress for any injury, however grievous.^ The 
 master may indeed recover compensation from any one who damages 
 or kills either his horse or his slave ;§ but the law refuses to notice 
 any insult or outrage offered to male or female slaves, which does 
 not lessen their price in the market|l The whole life of a slave is 
 
 as THINGS. They can be sold or transferred as goods or personal estate ; they 
 are held to he pro nullis, pro mortuis. By the civil law, slaves could not take 
 property by descent or purchase ; and I apprehend this to be the law of this 
 country." — Bess. Rep. IV., 266. South Carolina. 
 
 * Application to enforce a contract between master and slave " Per Cur. la 
 the case of Sawney vs. Carter, the court refused, on great consideration, to 
 enforce a promise by a master to emancipate his slave, where the conditions of 
 {he promise had been partly complied with by the slave. The court proceeded 
 on the principle, that it is not competent to a Court of Chancery to enforce a 
 contract between master and slave, even although the contract should be fully 
 complied with on the part of the slave." — Leigh's Rep. I., 72. Vig. 1829. 
 
 •f "150 free negroes and slaves, belonging to the African Church, were taken 
 up on Sunday afternoon by the city guard, and lodged in the guard-house. 
 The City Council yesterday morning sentenced five of them, consisting of a 
 Bishop and four ministers, to one month's imprisonment, or to give security to 
 leave the State. Eight other ministers were also sentenced separately to 
 receive ten lashes, or pay a tine each of five dollars." — Charleston Patriot, 1818. 
 
 Those whose punishment is here recorded were/rce negroes ; and from their 
 fate, we may judge of the religious privileges of the slaves. 
 
 J " It would be an idle form and ceremony to make a slave a party to a suit, 
 by the instrumentality of which he could recover nothing; or if a recovery 
 could be had, the instant it was recovered, would belong to the master. The 
 slave can possess nothing, he can hold nothing. He is, therefore, not a compe- 
 tent party to a suit." — Wheeler's Treatise on the Law of Slavery, p. 197. 
 
 § " Trespass for killing Plaintiff's slave. It appeared the slave was stealing 
 potatoes from a bank near Defendant's House. The Defendant fired upon him 
 with a gun loaded with buck-shot, and killed him. The jury found a verdict 
 for Plaintiff for One Dollar. Motion for new trial. The court hold there must 
 be a new trial ; that the jury ought to have given the Plaintiff the value of the 
 slave. That if the jury were of opinion the slave was of bad character, some 
 deduction from the usual price ought to be made ; but the Plaintiff was cer- 
 tainly entitled to his actual damage for killing his slave. Where pt'operty is 
 in question, the value of the article, as nearly as can be ascertained, furnishes a 
 rule from which they are not at liberty to depart." — M' Cord's Rep. IV., 156. 
 South Carolina, 1827. 
 
 II " There must be a loss of service, or at least a diminution of the faculty 
 of the slave for bodily labor, to warrant an action by the master." — Harris ^ 
 Johnson''s Rep. L, 4; Maryland. 
 
16 
 
 appropriated by the master, and no portion of it belongs to himself, 
 to be occupied in promoting his own happiness, or that of his 
 oflFspring.* 
 
 * " The Defendant was indicted for an assault and battery upon Lydia, the 
 slave of one Elizabeth Jones. On the trial, it appeared that the Defendant 
 had hired the slave for a year ; that during the term, the slave had committed 
 some smaW offence, for u'hich the Defendant undertook to chastise her; that 
 while in the act of so doing, the slave ran off, whereupon the Defendant called 
 upon her to stop, which being refused, he shot at and wounded her. The 
 Defendant was found guilty, and appealed. Per Cur. Ruffin,J. The inquiry 
 here is, whether a cruel and unreasonable battery on a slave by the hirer is 
 indictable? ... In criminal proceedings, and indeed in reference to all 
 other persons but the general owner, the hirer and possessor of a slave, in 
 relation to both rights and duties, is, for the time being, the owner. . . . , 
 Upon the general question whether the owner is answerable criminaliter for a 
 battery upon his own slave, or other exercise of authority or force not forbidden 
 by statute, the court entertains but little doubt. That he is so liable has never 
 been decided, nor, as far as is known, been hitherto contended. The established 
 habits and uniform practice of the country, in this respect, are the best evidence 
 of the portion of power deemed by the whole community requisite to the pre- 
 servation of the master's dominion. This has, indeed, been assimilated at the bar 
 to the other domestic relations, and arguments drawn from the well established 
 principles which confer and restrain the authority of the parent over the child, 
 the tutor over the pupil, the master over the apprentice, have been pressed on 
 us. The court does not recognize their application. There is no likeness 
 between the cases. They are in opposition to each other, and there is an im- 
 passable gulph between them. The difference is that which exists between 
 freedom and slavery ; and a greater cannot be imagined. In the one, the end 
 in view is the happiness of the youth, born to equal rights with the governor 
 on whom devolves the duty of training the young to usefulness, in a station 
 which he is hereafter to assume among freemen. To such an end, and with 
 such a subject, moral and intellectual instruction seem the natural means, 
 and for the most part, they are found to suffice ; moderate force is only super- 
 added to make the others effectual ? If that fail, it is better to leave the party 
 to his own headstrong passions and the ultimate correction of the law, than to 
 allow it to be immoderately inflicted by a private person. With slavery it is 
 far otherwise. The end is the profit of the mastery his security and the public 
 peace. The subject is one doomed in his own person and in his posterity, to live 
 without knowledge, and without capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that 
 others may ri.ap the fruits, 
 
 " What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a being to convince 
 him, what it is impossible but that the most stupid must feel and know can 
 never be true, that he is thus to labor upon a piinciple of natural duty, or for 
 the sake of his own personal happiness 1 Such services can only be expected 
 from one who has no will of his own, who surrenders his will in explicit 
 obedience to that of another. Such obedience is the consequence only of 
 uncontroled authority over the body. There is nothing else which can operate 
 
17 
 
 Such is American Slavery, not as abused by the cruel and the 
 lawless, but as established by legislative enactments and maintained 
 by judicial decisions. Such is the Slavery which George W. Free- 
 man, as minister of the Most High God, declares to be " agreeable to 
 the order of Divine Providence.'' 
 
 Such is the Slavery, to the defence of which in God's house, on 
 His holy day, the Right Rev. Father in God, Lev^i S. Ives, listened 
 with " most unfeigned pleasure." Such is the Slavery, whose vin- 
 dication the Churchmen of South Carolina spread on the wino^s of 
 the wind, for " the advancement of Christianity." And shall there 
 not be a woe now, as in ancient times, " unto them that call evil 
 good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for dark- 
 ness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter .'" The o-uilt 
 of such clerical champions of Slavery as Bishops Ives and Freeman, 
 is tremendously aggravated by their personal knowledge of its unut- 
 terable abominations. The decision of Judge Rutfin, quoted in the 
 notes, was delivered in Bishop Ives' Diocese, and in which Free- 
 man delivered his notorious sermons. Only^re days after the lat- 
 ter had declared from the pulpit of Raleigh, that " Slavery as it 
 exists at the present day is agreeable to the order of Divine Provi- 
 dence," the following comment appeared in the Newbern (N. C.) 
 Spectator : 
 
 " $200Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber about three years, 
 ago, a certain negro man named Ben, commonly known by the 
 name of Ben Fox. He had but one eye. Also, one other neo-ro 
 by the name of Rigdon, who ran away on the Sth of this month. I 
 will give the reward of one hundred dollars for each of the above 
 negroes, to be delivered to me, or confined in the Jail of Lenoir or 
 Jones County, or for the killing of them, so that I can see 
 THEM. W. D. COBB." 
 
 to produce the effect. The power of the master must be absolute, to render 
 the submission of the slave perfect. I most freely confess my sense of the 
 harshness of this proposition. I feel it as deeply as any man can. And as a 
 principle of moral right, every person in his retirement must repudiate it. But in the 
 actual condition of things, it must be so. There is no remedy. This disci- 
 pline BELONGS TO SLAVERY."— TA* State VS. Mann, Bev. Rep.; p, 263, 
 North Carolina, 1829. 
 
 And so it was decided, that a master or his bcum tenens may, with legal im- 
 punity, SHOOT A WOMAN if she will not stand still to be flogged ! It is pleas- 
 ing to see that this judge, while upholding the essential discipline of slaverj', 
 is too honest to wait for a new revelation from Heaven to pronounceit wrong ; 
 and they who profess to believe it right, insult the moral sense of mankind, 
 and lie to their own consciences. 
 2 
 
18 
 
 And now does 'the reader imagine Mr. Cobb some borrible 
 -wretch, who thus publicly offers money for the blood of the inno- 
 cent, for even Judge Ruffin admits that no principle of natural duty 
 requires the slave to toil for his master 1 Mr. Cobb may be a 
 very reputable churchwarden, vestryman, or communicant of the 
 Church in Newbern. He is a law-abiding citizen, and has acted in 
 strict accordance with "■ Slavery as it exists at the present day," 
 and of course " agreeably with the order of Divine Providence." 
 Before he thus compassed the death of two of his fellow-men, he 
 obtained, and published in the same paper with his advertisement, 
 the following proclamation, viz : 
 
 " We do hereby, by virtue of an Act of the Assembly of this 
 State, concerning Servants and Slaves, intimate and declare if the 
 said Slaves (Ben and Rigdon) do not surrender themselves, and re- 
 turn home immediately after the publication of these presents, that 
 any person may kill and destroy said Slaves, by such means as he 
 or they may think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any 
 crime for so doing, or without incurring any penalty or forfeiture 
 thereby. 
 
 " Given under our hands and seals, this 12 November, 1S36. 
 
 B. COLEMAN, J. P. 
 JAS. JONES, J. P." 
 
 It may, indeed, be said that this proclamation of the two Justices 
 of the Peace is an idle mockery, first, because the slaves are by 
 law incapacitated from reading it. and secondly, because it assigns no 
 time for their return, and of course, that they might legally be 
 flayed alive an hour after the proclamation was issued. But what 
 is all this to Mr. Cobb ? He has strictly pursued the course pointed 
 out by law for murdering slaves in Bishop Ives' Diocese. 
 
 Again, the Wilmington (same Diocese) Advertiser of 13th July, 
 1838, has the following: 
 
 " Run away, my negro man Richard. A reward of $25 will be 
 paid for his apprehension, dead or alive. Satisfactory proof will 
 only be required of his being killed. 
 
 ^ ^ DURANT H. RHODES." 
 
 Mr. Rhodes, it must be admitted, is more confiding in human na- 
 ture than Mr. Cobb. The latter would only pay his money, after 
 beholding with his own eyes the dead bodies of his slaves ; 
 whereas, Mr. Rhodes is contented with satisfactory proof that his 
 man Richard has been slaughtered. 
 
 We will give one more instance of the taste, feelings and moral- 
 ality, springing from Slavery in the Bishop'o Dioce.^e, extracted 
 
19 
 
 from the North Carolina Standard of July 18, 1838, published at 
 Raleigh, the residence of the Bishop, and very probably honored by 
 his constant perusal. 
 
 " Twenty Dollars Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, 
 a negro woman and two children. The woman is tall and black, 
 and a few days before she went off, / burnt her with a hot iron on 
 the left side of her face, I tried to make the letter M, and she kept a 
 cloth over head and face, and a fly bonnet on her head, so as to 
 cover the burn. Her children, &c. 
 
 MICAJAH RICKS." 
 
 It is utterly impossible that the Southern clergy, in pleading for 
 the continuance of Slavery, should not be conscious that they are 
 pleading for the continued ignorance, wretchedness and heathenisni 
 of millions of their fellow-men.* 
 
 Of the necessary heathenism of Slavery, little need be said. 
 There may indeed be slaves who are Christians, but they are ex- 
 traordinary exceptions from the system. Can Christianity take root 
 and flourish where every religious privilege depends on the will of 
 an arbitrary and often Godless master ; where the conjugal and pa- 
 rental relations are unacknowledged, and in practice unrespected ; 
 where the avenues to knowledge are closed, and ignorance en- 
 forced, and where the very ministers of Christ are justly regarded 
 by the slaves as in league with their oppressors 1 It is, moreover,, 
 utterly impossible that competent religious instruction can be afford- 
 ed to the slaves, without at the same time imparting to them suflB- 
 cient intelligence to endanger the whole system. Give to the 
 slaves the means of becoming Christians, and you render them both 
 useless and formidable to their masters. What ! shall a slave be 
 enabled to contemplate the mysteries of redemption, and yet not un- 
 derstand the iniquity of his own bondage ? Shall his heart glow 
 with love for his Saviour, and yet shall he be made to believe that 
 that Saviour approves the cruelty and injustice of which he is daily 
 the victim .' Shall he be taught, as Bishop Freeman advises, to 
 say the ten commandments, and not perceive that nearly the whole 
 decalogue is violated in his own person 1 The Bishop says he 
 
 * De Tocqueville describes the Slave code as " Legislation stained by un- 
 paralleled atrocities ; a despotism directed against the human mind. Legis- 
 lation which forbids the Slaves to be taught to read or write ; and which aims 
 to sink them as nearly as possible to the level of the brutes." But De Toe 
 queville is a French Philosophe. We are not aware that any minister of the 
 Church, in the Slave States, has declared this legislation to be sinful. 
 
20 
 
 must also learn his catechism. If he understands it, with what 
 bitter scorn will he repeat, that it is his duty " not to covet or desire 
 other men's goods, but to learn and labor truly to get his own 
 living," recollecting that he is himself robbed, and with the consent 
 and approbation of his spiritual teacher, of every product of his 
 own labor, and that the only possible means whereby he can get 
 his oion living, is by escaping from the house of bondage r* 
 
 One of the " duties of slaveholders " is to have slave children 
 baptized. It is to be hoped, for the sake of decency, that the ad- 
 dress to sponsors will on such occasions be omitted, as it would be 
 trifling with sacred things to tell the chattel parents or friends, that 
 they must call upon the child as he grows up to hear sermons, and 
 take care that he be brought to the Bishop for confirmation ; since 
 if either the sponsors or the child attempt to leave the plantation 
 without their master's permission, they may legally be shot, and will 
 certainly be scourged. It is, moreover, scarcely reverent to assure 
 these sponsors, to whom the Word of God is a sealed book, and 
 who have, and can have nothing of their own, that it is their chity 
 to provide that the little article of merchandise be taught " all 
 which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health." 
 
 Bishop Freeman is prudently silent on the subject of slave mar- 
 riages. Surely a minister of the Church must have a front of 
 bronze to use " the form of matrimony " in connecting two slaves. 
 To make persons who are vendible commodities, and who can never 
 ^spend an hour together without the permission of one, and often of 
 two masters, vow, in the presence of Almighty God, to cleave to each 
 other in riches and in poverty, in sickness and in health, till parted by 
 
 * For these or other reasons, Bishop Ives has himself constructed a cate- 
 chism, whose admirable qualities he thus describes : " The plainness of its 
 directions enables any person to apply it. If our planters, therefore, under a 
 sense of their solemn responsibility to God for the Christian instruction of 
 their slaves, would adopt it, and see to its faithful inculcation, the next genera- 
 tion o{ blacks in our State, at a very small expense, would sufficiently under- 
 stand the truth as it is in Jesus, without knowing a letter of the al- 
 phabet." — Spirit of Missions, Nov., 1842. 
 
 There are in the Bishop's diocese, as appears by the last census, 209,783 
 free white persons over 20 years of age. Of these, 56,C09, or nearly one-third, 
 cannot read or write. Hence, the ne.Kt generation of whites in North Carolina 
 may be equally indebted with the blacks, to this catechism, for their know- 
 ledge of the truth as ii is in Jesus. And yet there may be doubts of the 
 ■efficiency of this labor-saving machine, seeing it is to be applied by slave- 
 liolders, so many of whom do not themselves know a letter of the alphabet. 
 
21 
 
 death, is but solemn mockery. The priestly prohibition, " Those 
 whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," is, more- 
 over, not merely in utter contempt of the laws of the land, but at 
 war with the very existence of Slavery. If the husband and wife 
 may not be separated at the will of their owners, and according to 
 the state of the market, what becomes of property in man 1 
 
 As the House of Bishops, in their selection of Dr. Freeman, gave 
 their implied sanction to American slavery, it might be well for 
 them in their next pastoral letter to determine how far, and under 
 what circumstances, the Church allows a slave a plurality of 
 wives. This is the more necessary, as the " sects " are beginning 
 to legislate upon the subject, since the civil power in this particular 
 gives him unbounded liberty. A Reverend Professor of the Metho- 
 dist Church has decided that it is perfectly lawful for an owner to 
 separate husband and wife, and that if there be any sin in the case, it 
 rests upon the shoulders of the slaves, who ought not to have taken 
 vows which their condition disqualifies them from keeping. A 
 Baptist association in Virginia have granted permission to a slave 
 member to take a second wife, his first having been sold into an- 
 other part of the country ; and another association in Georgia is re- 
 ported to have voted, that a separation of man and wife, by sale or 
 hire, to such a distance as precludes personal intercourse, is con- 
 sidered by God as equivalent to death.* 
 
 One of the blessed objects for which God instituted marriage, was 
 the care and instruction of the young ; and hence the injunction, 
 " Parents, bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord." But slave children, as we have seen, may be sold or 
 given away before their birth, and are the subjects of traffic at an 
 early age. For this and other reasons, the religious education of 
 slaves is, with rare exceptions, wholly out of the question. On the 
 whole, Slavery and Heathenism are, in the general, indissolubly con- 
 nected ; and Jesus Christ, in approving of the one, consented that 
 millions for whom he died should become the victims of the 
 other ! 
 
 Of the rights of property, none are more obvious and indisputable 
 than that of buying and selling. Hence the advocates of the Afri- 
 
 * Professor E. A. Andrews, in his letter on " Slavery and the Domestic 
 Slave-trade," relates that a slave complaining to him that his wife's master 
 was about selling her, remarked, " This is my third wife, both the others were 
 sold to the speculators." 
 
22 
 
 can slave-trade in the British Parliament most consistently rested 
 the justification of the commerce on the righteousness of Slavery 
 itself. Not a clerical champion of " Slavery as it exists at present," 
 questions the moral right 
 
 *■ To gauge and span, 
 " And buy the muscles and the bones of man." 
 
 And now we call upon our Bishops, either to disabuse the public 
 mind as to the alleged iniquity of the African slave-trade, or else to 
 show from Scripture, that while it is very wicked to buy a savage 
 in Africa and sell him in Cuba, it is a lawful act to buy a fellow- 
 countryman, and possibly a fellow-chrlstian in North Carolina, and 
 sell him in New Orleans.* 
 
 * Bishop Ives' diocese is one of the great breeding districts in which human 
 cattle are raised for the Southern market. As a specimen of the style in 
 which the correspondence of gentlemen engaged in this commerce is con- 
 ducted, we give a letter from a North Carolina merchant to his consignee, a^ 
 New Orleans : 
 
 " Halifax, N. C, Nov. 16, 1839. 
 Dear Sir — I have shipped in the brig Addison — prices are below — 
 No. 1. Caroline Ennis, - - - $650. 
 " 2. Silvy Holland, ... - 625. 
 " 3. Silvy Booth, - - - - 487 50. 
 
 " 4. Maria Pollock, - - - - 475. 
 " 5. Emeline Pollock, - - - 475. 
 
 " 6. Delia Averit, ... - 475. 
 The two girls that cost S650 and $625, were bought before I shipped my 
 first. I have a great many negroes offered to me, but I will not pay the prices 
 they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no opposition in market. 
 I will wait until I hear from you before I buy, and then I can judge what I 
 must pay. Goodwin will send you the bill of lading for my negroes, as he 
 shipped them with his own. Write often, as the times are critical, and it de- 
 pends on the prices you get, to govern me in buying. Yours, &c. 
 
 Mr. Theophilus Freeman, ) G. W. Barnes." 
 
 New Orleans. ) 
 
 The above was a small but choice invoice of wives and mothers. Nine 
 days before, viz., 7th Nov., Mr. Barnes advised Mr. Freeman of having shipped 
 a lot of 43 men and women. Mr. Freeman, informing one of his correspon- 
 dents of the state of the market, writes ( Sunday, 21st Sept., 1839), " I bought a 
 boy yesterday J 6 years old, and likely, weighing 110 pounds, at $700. I sold a 
 likely girl, 12 years old, at $500. I bought a man yesterday, 20 years old, six 
 feet high, at $820 ; one to-day, 21 years old, at $850, black and sleek as a mole." 
 
 And are these brokers in human flesh, these butchers of human hearts, bad 
 men ? For aught that appears, they are as sound Churchmen, and as heaven- 
 ly-minded Christians, except in trading in negroes on Sunday, as Bishops Ives 
 and Freeman themselves ; they are but reducing to practice the doctrines 
 taught by these Right Rev. Fathers. If Slavery be right, we must indeed 
 wait for a new revelation before we pronounce the slave-trade wrong. No 
 
23 
 
 Ao-ain, as God approved of the bondage of white men, would it 
 not be a laudable enterprise to enlarge the assortments in our slave- 
 markets, by the importation of Russian serfs 1 If the reduction of 
 millions of the human race to the condition of mere chattels be con- 
 sistent vi'ith the will of God, then, inasmuch as the greater includes 
 the less, who shall say that every minor form of oppression is not 
 equally agreeable to the common Father of mankind 1 
 
 '* Slavery," says Wilberforce, is " a system of the grossest in- 
 justice, of the most heatheni^'h irreligion and immorality, of the 
 most unprecedented degradation and unrelenting cruelty." Yet of 
 this system the Episcopal Church is a mighty buttress, and certain 
 of her Bishops its reckless and unblushing champions. But could 
 the united logic and eloquence of the whole House of Bishops per- 
 suade the mother, as she bends with delight over the infant cherub 
 in the cradle, that the compassionate Redeemer, who took little 
 children into his arms and blessed them, has given his consent that 
 the child of her love, the object of her hopes and prayers, should 
 be torn from her embraces, and sold in the market to the highest 
 bidder, to put money in the pocket of another 1* Let the experi- 
 ment be made, and if that mother be a Christian, she will thank 
 God that she knows and loves her Saviour too well to believe such 
 a blasphemy. 
 
 And by what process do our masters in Israel justify American 
 Slavery % Do they show its accordance with the divine attributes — 
 with the spirit of the Gospel — with the cultivation of holiness — 
 
 doubt the trade occasions painful separations, but the rights of property are 
 paramount to the feelings of nature. The Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky, 
 sonae time since, published an address, in which they thus noticed the domes- 
 tic slave-trade : " The members of a slave family may (by law) be forcibly 
 separated, so that they shall nevermore meet again till the final judgment. 
 And cupidity often induces the masters to practise what the law allows. 
 Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are torn asun- 
 der, and permitted to see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in 
 the midst of us. There is not a neighborhood where these heart-rending 
 scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road that does not behold 
 the sad procession of manacled outcasts, where chains and mournful counte- 
 nances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold dear." 
 And the Synod speak of the iniquity of the system ! But why is it more ini- 
 quitous to fetter slaves than any other animals that we send to market ■? 
 Why more cruel to separate a child than a calf from its mother? 
 
 * Benjamin Davis, a slave-trader in Hamburg, S. C, advertised in the 
 Charleston papers, for sale, "small boys without their mothers." 
 
24 
 
 with the glory of God — with individual happiness and national 
 prosperity "? Oh, no — they appeal to Hebrew servitude, and to a 
 few insulated texts in the New Testament. 
 
 There is something appalling in the passionate eagerness with 
 which certain ministers of Christ rush forward to lay the blessed 
 Scriptures upon the altar of the southern Moloch. We wish to 
 do these men no injustice, and therefore frankly admit, that some 
 persons may honestly find themselves embarrassed in their endeavors 
 to reconcile certain texts with the obvious cruelty and injustice of 
 human bondage ; and we as frankly confess that we shudder at 
 the very idea of one who professes himself called by the Holy 
 Ghost as a preacher of righteousness, teaching his people that Ame- 
 rican Slavery, Slavery as it exists in North Carolina, is not "wrong." 
 
 The moral sense of every man, when not perverted by pecuniary 
 interest, education, or authority, is itself sufficient to convince him 
 of the iniquity of Slavery. The Christian student, therefore, who 
 commences the Scriptural examination of this subject with an un- 
 clouded judgment, will come to his work with a firm conviction, 
 that every attribute of Slavery is opposed to the spiril of the Gospel. 
 Hence, he would be restrained from promptly pronouncing Slavery 
 unscriptural only by a painful suspicion that certain passages in the 
 Bible lent it their sanction. He would, however, call to mind that 
 there were some things in Scripture confessedly " hard to be under- 
 stood," and he would cherish the hope that he did not rightly un- 
 derstand those which apparently contradicted the character of God 
 and the general'precepts of His Word. He would, therefore, search 
 the Scriptures, not to find a warrant for Slavery, but to reconcile 
 certain obscure texts with the love and holiness which beam from 
 every page. 
 
 If the Patriarchs did, indeed, as is said, hold slaves, he would 
 recollect that they also indulged in polygamy, and were, in several 
 instances, guilty of falsehood.* 
 
 * It is not our purpose to enter at large into the Bible argument, but merely 
 to suggest some reasons why they who think American Slavery "wrong," 
 are not necessarily impugners of " Revelation." It might be inferred from the 
 confidence and evident delight with which the example of Abraham is urged 
 in vindication of our " domestic institution," that the Father of the faithful 
 was also the Father of all who traffic in human flesh. If he was, indeed, a 
 slaveholder, he was still very far from being the type of a Southern planter. 
 While childless, he designated one of his slaves as his future heir. He was 
 afterwards prevented, only by Divine appointment, from making the son of the 
 
25 
 
 If the Jews were, indeed, allowed to buy slaves of the heathens 
 around them, we must recollect that they were also allowed, nay, 
 even commanded to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan, men, women 
 and children ; and Slavery was but a commutation of the punish- 
 ment of death to which God had sentenced them for their sins. 
 Such examples are not precedents for us under the Gospel dispen- 
 
 bondwoman heirtvith the son by promise, and was consoled by the assurance that 
 the former should become the father of princes, and the founder of a great na- 
 tion. He moreover entrusted to one of his slaves, the selection of a wife for 
 his favorite son. The 318 servants " born in his house," the Bishop of Texas 
 asserts were " slaves." Still they were men whom he armed and led to battle. 
 They, with their parents, brothers, sisters, wives and children, must have 
 formed a " gang " of about 2000 in number. Yet we find the master of this 
 multitude of slaves leaving his guests to catch a calf to provide dinner for 
 them, while the mistress of this goodly household occupied herself in knead- 
 ing and baking cakes for her company ! A pro-slavery theory can alone blind 
 us to the evidence afforded by these facts; that Abraham was the chief of a 
 clan or tribe, and that the expression, "born in his own house," only indicates 
 that the 318 were not strangers whom he employed on the occasion, but mem- 
 bers of the community acknowledging him as its head. 
 
 That there was a species of servitude in the East at an early period, as at 
 present, is true ; it is also true that it was of a very different character from 
 that which prevailed in the West. Our Slavery belongs to the Western sys- 
 tem. In a late work on Egypt by Clot Bey the distinction between the two 
 systems is thus noticed : " There is a prodigious difference between American 
 Slavery, and servitude among the Orientals. With them, the institution is 
 neither cruel or disgraceful. It does not regard the Slave as a thing, a material 
 object, as did the Roman law. It does not make him a mere article of import 
 or export, a matter of speculation, a simple machine, in fact, whose efficiency is 
 estimated as horse power. The West Indian regards in the negro only his cor- 
 poreal value, and forgets in him the intellectual man ; he robs him of his na- 
 ture. The Mussulman, on the contrary, always beholds a man in his Slave 
 and treats him in such a manner, that we may say of Oriental Slavery, that it 
 is often a real adoption, and always an admission into an extended family 
 circle. 
 
 " Oriental servitude honorably contrasts with our Slavery, and above all by 
 its respect for the dignity of human nature. The slave, in Turkey, is not 
 humiliated by his condition : he often proudly boasts that he is of the family 
 of such a Bey, or such a Pasha, and gives his master the title of father. He 
 knows, moreover, that he is not bound for ever to his station by a chain of 
 iron. He has before him examples sufficient to raise his ambition, and to 
 swell his soul with the hope of more brilliant destinies." The author then give 
 various instances of slaves who had risen to high dignities ; and mentions two 
 sons-in-law of the present Sultan, who had both been slaves, and adds, " In 
 Egypt, the superior officers are, for the most part, manumitted slaves." See 
 Aper^u general sur L'Egypte, par A. B. Clot Bey, 1840. Tom. i., p. 269. 
 
26 
 
 sation without a special warrant. But is it certain that the " bond- 
 men " (so called by our translators, but not distinguished in the 
 original from servants*) were Slaves '? If so, they were the property 
 of their masters. Now, how was their property acquired ? The 
 heathen around, even their very infants, might be slaughtered, but 
 " He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his 
 hand, he shall surely be put to death." Hence the Jewish slaves 
 were to be purchased, but of whom ? If the slave-trade constituted 
 a part of the Jewish commerce, strange it is that we hear nothing 
 of the slave market in Israel. We know that the Jews sold them- 
 selves. " If a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy 
 brother that dwellelh by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the 
 stranger or sojourner by thee," &c. Hence it is possible that as 
 poor Jews sold themselves to rich strangers, poor strangers might 
 sell themselves to rich Jews. There is no evidence that the hea- 
 then in Palestine had slaves to sell, but many among them might 
 find it convenient to enter into Jewish families as domestics. The 
 servitude of both Jewish and heathen servants seems to have been 
 limited to the year of Jubilee. That this servitude was not found- 
 ed on the idea of properly appears from the prohibition, " Thou 
 shall not deliver unto his master, the servant which is escaped from 
 his master to thee" (Deut. xxiii. 15). This law, whether the fugi- 
 give was a Jew or a heathen, is, utterly irreconcilable with common 
 honesty, supposing the servant to have been a mere chattel ; and 
 certainly belonged to a very different code of morals from that 
 which enjoins, " If thou meet thy enemy's ox or his ass going as- 
 tray, thou shall surely bring it back to him again." 
 
 On turning to the New Testament, our inquirer would recol- 
 lect, that it was written at a time, when, among the Romans, 
 Slavery and the exhibitions of the amphitheatre were systems of 
 extraordinary cruelty and of human butchery, and that although 
 both are alluded to neither is expressly condemned. True it is, that 
 
 * The word in the original, sometimes rendered bondman, and sometimes 
 servant, is Obed. It is applied to Christ, " Behold my servant whom I up- 
 hold," Isaiah xxiv. 1. It is applied to King Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii. 7. Ziba, 
 Saul's Obed, had himself twenty Obeds, 2 Samuel ix, 10. There is no word 
 in Hebrew for slave, as distinct from servant. We find, J Chron. ii. 34, that 
 Shcshan, the head of one of the families of the tribe of Judah, gave his daugh- 
 ter to wife, to his servant, an Egyptian ; and so far was any disgrace attached 
 in consequence to their children, tiiat the son of this very daughter was en- 
 rolled among " the valiant men " of David's army, 1 Chron. ii., 41. 
 
27 
 
 St. Paul induced a servant to return to his master. If the servant 
 was a freeman, the case proves nothing. If he was a slave, the 
 Apostle required his instant manumission, by commanding the mas- 
 ter to receive him, " Not now as a servant, but above a servant, 
 a brother beloved ; nceive him as myself.''''* 
 
 There are instances in which persons, who perhaps held slaves, 
 are spoken of with commendation, but not on that account. None 
 of the Churches or individuals commended in the Apostolic epistles 
 were faultless, and it would be most monstrous to infer from a gene- 
 ral commendation, an Apostolic sanction of every error or sin of 
 which they might be guilty. 
 
 Were it possible to imagine a kind of Slavery divested of all sin- 
 ful attributes, and consistent alike with the glory of God and the 
 good of man. Bishops Freeman and Ives well know that such is 
 not the character of American Slavery. If " Slavery as it exists at 
 present," in the Dioceses of these two Bishops, is indeed accepta- 
 ble to Him who proclaims himself, " The Lord, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, long sufTering and abundant in goodness and 
 truth," then, indeed, is the Bible a riddle, and its morality a para- 
 dox. Be it so ; a title to negro slaves must at all hazards be found 
 in the Bible . The very character of the Southern Priesthood for hon- 
 esty, depends on its production.! What is wanting in proof, must 
 he supplied by bold assertion, and all Christendom beyond the 
 slave region shall be accused of presumption, for not waiting for 
 a new revelation, before they dare to pronounce such slavery as ex- 
 ists in North Carolina urong ! 
 
 And shall we be any longer insulted with the assertion, that the 
 preached Gospel is the divinely appointed means of abolishing 
 Slavery ? Most certain it is, thai the spirit of the Gospel, carried 
 into universal practice, would relieve the human family from every 
 moral evil with which it is afflicted ; but it is utterly false that the 
 ministrations of our own, or any other Church, will correct a single 
 vice, independent of the character of its ministers, the examples 
 they set, and the doctrines they preach. Would the teachings of 
 
 * St. Paul wrote by Onesimus to the Church at Colosse, and in his Epistle 
 speaks of him as " a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you," Col 
 iv. 9. 
 
 t The clergy of the South, of all denomination, are generally slaveholders. 
 A member of the House of Bishops is said, in a late western newspaper, to 
 own 170 slaves. 
 
28 
 
 a thousand Dr. Freemans loosen the fetters of a single slave ? No 
 less than forty missionaries are supported by our Board of Missions 
 in the slave regions. Dare we hope they have induced one master 
 to let his bondmen go free ? While the Southern clergy vindicate 
 Slavery as a Christian institution, they are in danger of producing 
 a result vs'hich they as little expect as desire. " Should the priest- 
 hood," says a Southern writer, once himself a slaveholder, " should 
 the priesthood succeed in convincing the world that Slavery is the 
 doctrine of the New Testament, then will infidelity become the 
 true religion of mankind — and not till then." Says another South- 
 ern writer, and apparently a pious Christian, " I distinctly avow, 
 that when I can be brought to believe that American Slavery, taken 
 as a system, is sustained by the teachings of Holy Writ, I must 
 cease to be a believer in the Bible." 
 
 But, blessed be God ! his priesthood has, in all ages of the 
 Church, afforded the most glorious illustrations of fearless devotion 
 to duty, and of self-denying benevolence, that the world has ever 
 witnessed. While some have claimed to hold their slaves as mo- 
 narchs their crowns, " by the grace of God," many have witnessed 
 a good confession against human bondage. In the Church of Eng- 
 land at the present day, there is not probably a Bishop, Priest, or 
 Deacon, who would endorse the theology of our Texan Bishop. 
 But then we are told by the slaveholders, and their tools, the North- 
 ern demagogues, that England is anti-slavery through envy of our 
 prosperity ! Let us, then, hear the English Bishops, when such a 
 motive could have no existence. 
 
 Bishop Warburton, in a sermon preached in 1776 against 
 Slavery and the slave-trade, exclaims, " Gracious God ! to talk, as 
 in herds of cattle, of property in rational creatures — creatures en- 
 dowed with all our faculties, possessing all our qualities but that of 
 color — our brethren both by nature and grace, shocks all the feel- 
 ings of humanity and the dictates of common sense. JVaiure cre- 
 ated man free, and grace inviles him to assert his freedom.'''' 
 
 Bishop Burgess, in a pamphlet against the slave-trade, 1789, 
 says: "Such oppression (W. I. Slavery) and such traffic must be 
 swept away at one blow. Such horrid offences against God and 
 nature can admit of no medium. If no British subject is exempt 
 from the duty of doing everything in his place towards preventing 
 the continuance of so great a political as well as moral evil, more 
 especially are not those subjects, whose business it is to teach what 
 
29 
 
 is every man's concern to know, the interpreters of God's Word, 
 which is so frequently violated by West India Slavery and its con- 
 sequences." 
 
 Bishop Porteus declared in the House of Lords, 1806, in an- 
 swering certain Scriptural arguments in behalf of Slavery, " There 
 was no such thing as perpetual slavery under the Old or New Tes- 
 tament ;" and he showed that all Hebrew servants were set at 
 liberty every seventh year, -ind all others at the Jubilee. 
 
 The Bishop of St. Asaph, the same year, asserted in the House 
 of Lords, that " the principle of perpetual slavery is totally incon- 
 sistent with the Jewish law. When we come down to Chris- 
 tianity, we find dealers in slaves are held among the worst of the 
 human race. St. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, tells us what 
 the dealers in slaves are, and who are their coinpanions. The 
 slave-dealers are called ' stealers of men,' and their companions are 
 liars, perjurers, murderers, and parricides." 
 
 Bishop Horsely, in 1799, with Christian boldness, rebuked the 
 nobles of Britain for their wicked toleration of the slave-trade • 
 and vindicated the Gospel of Christ from the aspersions of those 
 who represented it as a shield for cruelty and injustice. After 
 showing that the " men-stealers " classed in the Bible with murderers 
 of fathers and of mothers, were in fact, according to the true mean- 
 ing of the Greek word, " slave-traders," he proceeded : " We have 
 reason to conclude, from the mention of 'slave-traders' by St. 
 Paul, that if any of them should ever find their way to Heaven, 
 they must go thither in company with murderers and parricides. 
 My Lords, I do certainly admit that there is no prohibition of 
 Slavery in the Bible in explicit terms, such a.s these words, ' thou 
 shalt not have a slave,' or ' thou shalt not hold any one in slavery.' 
 There is no explicit reprobation of Slavery by name. My Lords, 
 if I were to say there was no occasion for any such prohibition, be- 
 cause Slavery is condemned by something anterior to either the 
 Christian or the Mosaic dispensation, I could support the assertion 
 by grave authorities. Beware, my Lords, how you are persuaded 
 to bring under the opprobrious name o{ fanaticism the regard you 
 owe to the great duties of justice and mercy, for the neglect of 
 which, if you should neglect them, you will be answerable to that 
 tribunal, where no prevarication of witnesses can misinform the 
 Judge, where no subtilty of an advocate, miscalling the names of 
 
30 
 
 things, and putting evil for good, and good for evil, can mislead the 
 judgment." 
 
 " Slavery," said Lord Mansfield, " is so odious that nothing but 
 positive law can sustain it." His lordship little suspected that a 
 time was apprc aching when the Church would afford it more effi- 
 cient support than even positive law, and would herself look to it 
 for support in return. One of our church periodicals has announced 
 that " the Bishop of Georgia, in his Montpelier Institution, is test- 
 ing the sufficiency of slave labor to support it." It is not unusual 
 to see in the Southern papers, notices of slaves to be sold on ac- 
 count of ecclesiastical corporations. Bishop Wilberforce, in his 
 History, refers to a proposal by the Editor of the " Spirit of Mis- 
 sions " to establish a Mission School to be supported by slaves, 
 who shall be induced, by the promise of prospective emancipation, 
 to perform so much extra labor in the course of sixteen years as 
 to yield a profit of one hundred per cent, on the capital invested, 
 over and above the ordinary profits extorted by common taskmas- 
 ters. This revolting scheme, in which it was intended that the 
 slaves should work two hours before sunrise, and two hours after 
 sunset, in all sixteen hours out of the four and twenty, and this for 
 sixteen successive years, was pressed upon the Church in an official 
 magazine, published in New York under the supervision of the Mis- 
 sionary Committee, and by an Editor holding his appointment from 
 the Board of Missions, including the Bishops, and other representa- 
 tives of the Church elected by the General Convention. In about 
 three months after this publication, the Board assembled, and writ- 
 ten remonstrances were presented to them, beseeching them, for 
 the honor of the Church, and the cause of religion and humanity, 
 to disavow the conduct of their Editor. These remonstrances ex- 
 cited warm debates, not unmingled with Southern arrogance. It 
 was inipos.sible for the Board to express disapprobation of the plan 
 without indirectly censuring Bishops Ives and Elliott. If slaves be 
 indeed property, what objection can there be to converting their 
 bones and muscles into money for the Church ? To condemn the 
 Editor, would offend the pro-slavery Bishops and Clergy ; expressly 
 to approve his conduct, would raise a tempest at the North. So, 
 policy was substituted for godly sincerity, and cunning for wisdom. 
 The Board expunged from their minutes the proceedings had on 
 the mi-morials, and avoiding all intelligible allusion to the scheme 
 which had led to them, ordered the following words to be printed 
 
31 
 
 on the future numbers of their own mayazihC : " It is to be under- 
 stood b}^ the readers of this periodical, that the Board of Missions 
 are not responsible for the expression of editorial opinions, but sim- 
 ply for the accuracy of facts connected with their operations." 
 
 But lest even this extraordinary disclaimer should be supposed 
 to involve a concealed censure on the late " editorial opinions," the 
 resolution recommending it, and which was introduced by a Bishop 
 from a slave State, as chairman of a committee, was preceded by 
 another, declaring, " That, in the opinion of this Board, the Spirit of 
 Missions has been conducted, during the year past, with commenda- 
 ble diligence and ability ;" and the report of the committee accom- 
 panying these resolutions is careful to state that the periodical in 
 question is " gaining reputation and influence, and that if it con- 
 tinues to be conducted with the same ability which it has of late ex- 
 hibited, it will become a powerful auxiliary to the cause." 
 
 The subject of Slavery had been brought directly and promi- 
 nently before the Church, by her own appropriate officers. Money, 
 entrusted to the Board for Missionary purposes, had been employed 
 through the official magazine, to advocate the cause of human bon- 
 dage, to condemn emancipation as " ruinous, and forbidden by 
 common sense and Christian prudence," and to put in motion a 
 machinery by which money was to be extorted for the coffers of the 
 Church, from the cruel and extraordinary toil of miserable slaves. 
 The memorialists had virtually asked the Rev. and Right Rev. 
 Fathers of the Church, in council assembled, do, or do you not, 
 approve of this conduct of your agent 1 To this interrogatory, the 
 Rev. gentlemen thought it expedient to answer neither yes nor no ; 
 but in the notice they ordered to be in future printed on their maga- 
 zine, they did return a most disingenuous and unworthy reply. No 
 human being ever supposed that the members of the Board, scat- 
 tered throughout the Union, were responsible for the publication or 
 "expression" in New York, of opinions of which they could have 
 no previous knowledge, and of course no power to prevent. Did 
 the Board intend to enunciate so bald a truism as this 1 As well 
 might they have given notice that they were not responsible for any 
 heresy or immorality of which their officers might hereafter be 
 guilty. When examined with a critical microscope, the disclaimer 
 has reference to the " expression" — the prinlivgo^ opinions in New 
 York. But in the plain, obvious, popular import of the notice, the 
 disclaimer has reference to the opinions, ajier they are expressed and 
 
32 
 
 printed. In this sense alone, had the disclaimer any reference to 
 the subject which induced it. Nay, the Board intended it to be so 
 understood ; for they thought proper to order a resolution to be 
 sent to the memorialists, who had " complained of the tendency of 
 an editorial article in the March" number of the Spirit of Missions" 
 (carefully avoiding mentioning in the minutes, the subject of the 
 article), declaring that the Board had never " held itself responsible 
 for the opinions expressed by the Editors of the Spirit of Missions," 
 and had directed " this assertion of irresponsibility to be distinctly 
 placed upon the cover of the future numbers of this periodical." 
 
 On this assertion of " irresponsibility" we take issue, and affirm 
 that the Board is responsible to the community, to the Church and 
 to God, for the opinions of an Editor appointed by themselves, under 
 their control, paid out of funds entrusted to their care, published in 
 an official magazine, and printed at the expense of Missionary con- 
 tributions. What ! will the Board tell us that their Editor may 
 make their magazine a vehicle for the dissemination of obscenity and 
 infidelity, and that it is no concern of theirs .' That he may dis- 
 parage the Church, insult her Bishops, and deny her doctrines, and 
 that they are not responsible } But should he misdate a letter, or 
 omit half a dollar in the acknowledgment of a donation, then, then 
 indeed, they will not shrink from responsibility. 
 
 Surely the Bishops who concurred in this " assertion of irre- 
 sponsibility," forget for the moment their consecration vow, " to be 
 ready with all faithful vigilance to drive away from the Church all 
 strange and erroneous doctrines contrary to God's word." 
 
 This disclaimer, like most cunning measures, was a sacrifice of 
 duty to present expediency ; a sacrifice which, however common 
 with politicians, we had no right to expect from such a body of 
 men. The truth is, the Board were worried by the memorials. To 
 take no notice of them would probably increase " agitation" — to 
 approve the course of the Editor, would disgust many at the North 
 — to condemn it, would ofi'end all at the South. Instead of man- 
 fully breaking down this triple hedge, within which they found 
 themselves enclosed, they determined to crawl through it, and for 
 this purpose, disencumbered themselves of a responsibility which 
 God and the Church had commanded them to bear. 
 
 Let us now turn to another, but a kindred, subject. Whatever 
 may be the struggles of the slaveholder to wring from the Bible a 
 title to his slaves, no reader of the volume of inspiration, whether 
 
83 
 
 Christian or Infidel, has professed to discover in it a warrant for 
 the establishment of caste in the Church of God. However much 
 We may be inclined to appeal to the Scriptures for a license to 
 despise, insult and oppress our fellow-Christians, on account of their 
 race or natural features, we are effectually deterred by the declara- 
 tions that one God hath created us — that we have all one Father — 
 that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor 
 Barbarian, Bond nor Free ; and by the commands to do good unto 
 all men, and to honor all men. Hence the institution of caste in 
 the Church, and the obloquy, injustice and cruelty connected. with 
 it, are not rested, like slavery, on the alleged consent of Christ and 
 his Apostles ; but simply and frankly on pecuniary interest, per- 
 sonal antipathy, and popular prejudice. 
 
 So accustomed have we been from childhood to the distinction of 
 caste, arising from color — so universally is this distinction main- 
 tained not merely in the Church, but in all the departments of 
 society, that we have, for the most part, become callous to its ini- 
 quity ; and our understandings can with ditficulty be brought to 
 believe that the merciful precepts of Christ's Gospel were intended 
 to govern our intercourse with men of dark, as well as of white 
 complexions. But although we may be insensible to the cruelty of 
 caste, it is otherwise with its victims. 
 
 The Rev. T. S. Wright, a liberally educated colored clergyman, 
 thus briefly enumerates some of the consequences of that system, 
 which our Church has been so active and zealous in maintaining. 
 
 " No man can really understand this prejudice unless he feels it 
 crushing him to dust, because it is matter of feeling. It has bolts, 
 screws, and bars, wherever the colored man goes. It has bolts in 
 all the schools and colleges. The colored parent, with the same 
 soul as a white parent, sends his child to the seats of learning, and 
 he finds the door bolted, and sits down to weep beside his boy. 
 Prejudice stands at the door and bars him out. Does the child of 
 the colored man show a talent for mechanics ^ The heart of the 
 parent beats with hope. He sees the children of the white man 
 engaged in employment, and he trusts there is a door open for his 
 boy to get an honest living, and become a useful member of society. 
 But when he comes to the workshop with his child, he finds a bolt 
 there. But Qven suppose he can get this first bolt removed, he 
 finds other ba|-s. Let him be ever so skilled as a mechanic, up 
 starts prejudi<ie and says, 'I wont work in the shop, if you do.' 
 3 
 
84 
 
 Here he is scourged by prejudice, and has to go back and sink down 
 to some of the employments which white men leave for the most 
 degraded. He hears of the death of a child from home, and he goes 
 in a stage or steamboat. His money is received, but he is scourged 
 by prejudice. If he is sick, he can have no bed ; he is driven on 
 deck. Money will not buy for him the comforts it gets for all who 
 have not his complexion. He turns to some white friend, and he 
 says, ' submit, it is an ordinance of God, you must be humble.' I 
 have felt this. As a minister, I have been called to pass often up 
 and down the North River in steamboats. Many a night have I 
 walked the deck, and not been able to lie down in a bed.* Preju- 
 dice would, indeed, turn money to dross, where it was offered for 
 these comforts by a colored man. Thus prejudice scourges us from 
 the table, it scourges us from the cabin, from the stage-coach, and 
 from the bed. Wherever we go, it has for us bolts, bars and rods. 
 Even at the communion table, the colored man can only partake of 
 the crumbs after the others have been served. This prejudice 
 drives the colored man from religion. I have often heard my breth- 
 ren say, they would have nothing to do with such a religion. They 
 are driven away and go to infidelity ; for even the Infidels at Tam- 
 many Hall make no distinction on account of color." 
 
 That this prejudice may drive some of the sufferers into infidelity 
 is probable ; since it has been a common mistake in all ages, to 
 judge of Christianity, not by its own inspired records, but by the 
 conduct of a portion of its fallible ministers. And he who is led to 
 believe that American Slavery, and its detestable offspring, Ameri- 
 can Caste, is approved of by Jesus Christ, may well be excused 
 for questioning the divinity of his mission. 
 
 Although caste had long existed among us in practice, the exclu- 
 sion of Mr. Crummell from the General Theological Seminary was 
 the first instance of its recognition, as a part of the ecclesiastical polity 
 of the American Church. Mr. Degrass, the young man whose af- 
 fecting journal is given by Bishop Wilberforce, was kept out of the 
 Seminary by the personal influence and authority of Bishop Benjamin 
 Onderdonk. But in Mr. Crummell, the Bishop found a more imprac- 
 ticable subject, and a petition for admission was presented to the assem- 
 bled Trustees. The statutes of the institution rendered it imperative 
 
 * The writer has been informed, that the wife of Mr. Wright lost her life in 
 consequence of exposure on the deck of a steamboat, being denied a berth in 
 the cabin, on account of her complexion. 
 
35 
 
 on the Trustees to admit all applicants possessing certain qualifica- 
 tions, and these qualifications the Bishop honestly informed the 
 board, were possessed by the present applicant. The Board, under 
 these circumstances, found themselves in a dilemma. To reject the 
 young man on account of his complexion would not only be illegal, 
 but would excite remark, invite ridicule, and encourage " agita- 
 tion ;" and on the other hand, to admit him, would irritate a preju- 
 dice which Bishop Onderdonk had admitted to Degrass was "un- 
 righteous ;" and might also hazard the loss of Southern contributions 
 to the Seminary. A committee, with Bishop Henry Onderdonk, of 
 Pennsylvania, as chairman, was appointed to considerthe application ; 
 and their report was more distinguished for brevity than for wis- 
 dom. Without assigning a single reason, and without an allusion 
 to the complexion of the applicant, they merely recommended 
 " that the prayer of the Petitioner be not granted." The report was 
 adopted, whereupon. Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, asked permis- 
 sion, which was refused, to enter his objections on the minutes. 
 Hence the minutes merely record the fact, that a Mr. Crummell had 
 applied for admission into the Seminary and was denied. They 
 afforded no intimation that the Trustees had violated the statutes, 
 no hint that the rejected candidate was not colored like themselves. 
 Should any one wonder why the application was rejected, the natu- 
 ral presumption would be, that the young man was deficient in his 
 literary attainments or moral character, and that the Committee who 
 reported against him had benevolently refrained from putting his 
 delinquencies upon record. But Mr. Crummell was a poor obscure 
 colored man ; there was no probability that his case would excite 
 inquiry, or ever be known. Certainly the management of the 
 Trustees was exceedingly adroit. Alas ! for the wisdom of the 
 wise, and the understanding of the prudent. In a short time the 
 proceedings of the Board were exposed and condemned in the news- 
 papers, not only of New York, but of London, and now form a con- 
 spicuous and indelible portion of the " History of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in America." The Bishop of New York thought 
 it expedient to vindicate himself in a newspaper publication, in 
 which he condescends to propitiate the " unrighteous prejudice" 
 by a gratuitous sneer at ainalgainalion.(!). 
 
 Mr. Crummell sought and obtained ordination in another Diocese, 
 and then resolved to embrace an opportunity that offered, of organ- 
 izing a colored Church in Philadelphia. He accordingly repaired 
 
36 
 
 to that city, with the usual letter dismissory from his late Dio- 
 cese, and in compliance with the Canon, presented it to the Bishop. 
 We can readily believe that this last gentleman was not gratified 
 at finding that the young man, M'ho on his recommendation had been 
 excluded from the Seminary, now claimed a canonical residence in 
 his own Diocese, as a Brother Minister of the Church. The Can- 
 ons allowed the Bishop no discretion. Mr. Crummell's letter was 
 unexceptionable, and by the laws of the Church, he became en- 
 titled, on its delivery, to all the rights and privileges of a Clergyman 
 of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. But the Bishop was as indepen- 
 dent of legal restraints in Philadelphia, as he had been in New 
 York. He informed Mr. Crummell that he would receive his let- 
 ter, only on the condition that he would pledge himself, in his own 
 behalf, and in behalf of his Church, should he succeed in raising 
 one, never to apply for a seat in Convention; and immediately pro- 
 posed to write the pledge. He was told it was unnecessary, as the 
 pledge could not be given. He then positively declared he would 
 not receive him, on which the young minister intimated his inten- 
 tion to return to the Diocese he had just left. Here again was an 
 embarrassing dilemma. To disregard a dismissory letter from an- 
 other Diocese, and to send back the bearer, without the slightest 
 objection being made to his character or conduct, might lead to very 
 inconvenient results, and would unquestionably cause much " agi- 
 tation ;" and, on the other hand, to admit a negro to a canonical 
 residence, was to open the door of the Convention to him, the con- 
 sequence of which would be that a Minister of Christ, with a dark 
 complexion, might sit in the Council of the Church ! The Bishop, 
 to escape from this dilemma, proposed that he should inform the 
 Convention in his address at its next meeting, that he had been ad- 
 mitted with the understanding that he was to have no seat in it- 
 Mr. Crummell, with the same high moral courage which had hither- 
 to marked his course, replied that he could have no agency in the mat- 
 ter. Thwarted in his attempts to make Mr. Crummell surrender 
 hi.s rights as a clergyman, the Bishop determined that others should 
 wrest them from him ; and consented to receive the dismissory let- 
 ter, telling him that he would get the Convention to take some order 
 on the subject. 
 
 About three weeks after this strange conference, the Convention 
 of the Diocese assembled, and the Bishop's address contained the 
 following passage : " In the Convention of 1795, it was declared 
 
37 
 
 that the African Church of St. Thomas, in this city, was ' not en- 
 titled to send a Clergyman or deputies to the Convention, or to in- 
 terfere with the general government of the Church.' This law is 
 still retained in our 8th Revised Regulations. The peculiar cir- 
 cumstances which required this restriction may occur, and probably 
 will, in other cases ; and I submit for your consideration whether it 
 will not be proper to enact a similar restriction applicable to all 
 clergymen and congregations in this Diocese under like circum- 
 stances." 
 
 It does really seem as if a consciousness of shame and guilt drives 
 our ecclesiastical rulers, when perpetrating oppression and injustice 
 upon colored Christians, to hide their meaning in unintelligible and 
 deceptive phraseology. 
 
 We here learn that in 1795, the Convention made a certain decla- 
 ration^ which to all appearance was judicial and not legislative, that 
 a particular Church was not entitled to a representation in the Con- 
 vention. The reasons for such a judgment are not given — they may 
 have been good or bad, but the judgment itself was within the juris- 
 diction of the Convention, since every Legislative body must judge 
 of the qualifications of its members, although it cannot prescribe 
 them. It does not appear that the Convention invaded any right, or 
 did more than refuse to acknowledge an unlawful claim. 
 
 And yet from the fact that the Church thus excluded was an Afri- 
 can one, and from the omission of the reasons on which the judg- 
 ment was founded, we have no question that the pretended declara- 
 tion was a high-handed unconstitutional enactment, disfranchising a 
 Rector and his congregation, solely on account of the tijncture of 
 their skins ; and that the Convention were ashamed to place upon 
 their minutes the unchristian motives by which they were tempted 
 to trample under foot the constitutional rights of a minister of 
 Christ, and the people under his charge. 
 
 Bishop Onderdonk, we have seen, called on the Convention to 
 enact a similar restriction, " applicable to all clergymen and con- 
 gregations," which should hereafter be in " ZiAre circumstances.'''' 
 What circumstances .' A state of schism, insubordination, or irre- 
 gular or illegal incorporation % Oh no, he meant having black skins, 
 but was ashamed to say so. 
 
 It will be observed that the legislation recommended is to be pros- 
 pective, not ex joo5</ac?o. No clergyman or congregation, now in 
 the Diocese, is to be affected by it. No case now calls for this re- 
 
38 
 
 striction, but cases " may occur, and probably will,^^ and it is best 
 to be prepared for contingencies. All this is painful. The Bishop, 
 while uttering the words we have quoted, had in his possession the 
 letter dismissory of the very clergyman against whom the proposed 
 restriction was aimed ; and who, by his advice, had been shut out 
 of the Theological Seminary, and from whom he had vainly endea- 
 voured to obtain a disgraceful surrender of his rights as a Minister 
 of the Church. Again, in his address, he tells the Convention, 
 " Letters dismissory have been received and accepted by me as fol- 
 lows," and then gives a list of clergymen received from other Dio- 
 ceses ; but Mr. Crummell's name is not among them ! 
 
 The powers of our Conventions, like those of our State Legisla- 
 tures, are limited by written constitutions. The Fourth Article of 
 the Constitution of the Pennsylvania Diocese declares that " every 
 clergyman of the Church, of whatever order, being a settled minis- 
 ter of some parish in this State, shall be entitled to a seat and vote in 
 the Convention^'' provided he has had a canonical residence of a cer- 
 tain time, &c. The Tenth Article prescribes the mode of altering the 
 Constitution, by the joint action of two successive Conventions, and 
 thus takes away the power of doing it by a simple resolution. 
 
 Ruffian mobs had on several occasions, within the past few years, 
 assailed the unoffending blacks in Philadelphia, sacked their dwell- 
 ings, and torn down their houses of worship, and all on account of 
 the complexion their Maker had given them. And liow was this 
 wicked, cruel prejudice against color, rebuked by the Episcopal 
 Church in Pennsylvania } Why, the Convention, at the instigation 
 of the Bishop, " Resolved, That the following clause be added to 
 the Sth revised Regulation adopted in 1829, and hereafter to be 
 taken as part thereof: ' No Church in this Diocese, in like peculiar 
 circumstances with the African Church of St. Thomas, shall be en- 
 titled to send a clergyman or deputies to the Convention, or to in- 
 terfere with the general government of the Church.' " Thus were 
 colored clergymen and colored Christians driven, in contempt and 
 utter violation of canonical law, from the enclosure of the Church, 
 as they had been, by abandoned wretches, from the sanctuary of 
 their own homes. The Bishop, Clergy, and Lay Deputies of the 
 Pennsylvania Church, make common cause Avith the rioters in the 
 streets, in a general crusade against negroes and mulattocs ! This 
 act of the Convention brands for all future time every minister of 
 Christ, and every member of his mystical body, who may trace his 
 
39 
 
 descent from the land of Cyprian and Tertullian, as belonging to a 
 distinct and degraded caste, and debars them from all participa- 
 tion in the government of the Redeemer's Church. This act forci- 
 bly thrusts a portion of the Church into schism, and repudiates 
 one of the fundamental conditions on which the Diocese of Penn- 
 sylvania consented, in 1784, to acknowledge a general ecclesias- 
 tical government in the United States, viz., "That to make ca- 
 nons and laws, there be no other authority than that of a repre- 
 sentative body of the clergy and laity conjointly." The great 
 
 truth, "HE HATH MADE US, AND NOT WE OURSELVES," is SCt 
 
 at naught by the Pennsylvania Convention ; and in the indul- 
 gence of an " unrighteous prejudice," or in a cowardly submis- 
 sion to it, they have sacrificed both the independence and the unity 
 of the Church, the dignity of the ministerial office, and that love 
 which Christ made the badge and test of discipleship. And this 
 lawless and profane excision of their brethren, these men at- 
 tempted to veil under the strange and indefinite phraseology of" all in 
 like peculiar circumstances with the African Church of St. Thomas !" 
 If anything can possibly add to the shame of this transaction, it is 
 that the vote was taken without discussion : not one single member 
 of that large body. Clergyman or Layman, having the independence 
 to rise in his place and protest against an act, at variance alike with 
 the principles of the Church, and the precepts of its Divine Head. 
 And what is the apology, the only apology which the Churchmen 
 of Pennsylvania can offer for this wanton insult and oppression of 
 their colored brethren ? an apology that aggravates, instead of ex- 
 cusing their conduct. Popular prejudice required that colored 
 Clergymen and delegates should be excluded from the Convention ! It 
 is disheartening to the patriot, to see our public men, those to whom 
 high and important trusts are confided, so often governing them- 
 selves, not by the immutable principles of justice and rectitude, but 
 by the ever varying opinions of the multitude. But, oh ! it is sick- 
 ening to the soul, to witness the Church of Christ sacrificing to 
 popular clamor, her own holy and glorious attribute of being alight 
 and a guide to a benighted and asinful world. 
 
 Bishop Onderdonk of New York, in his charge of 1843, to the 
 Convention, remarked : " Taking the Gospel for our guide, we must 
 see in the Church and the world, essentially antagonistic bodies. 
 The Church was formed not to co-operate with the world, but to 
 oppose it — to attack the wicked principles and practices to which it 
 
40 
 
 is in bondage, and to come to no terms with it on any other princi- 
 ples than its entire surrender of its opposition to the pure and holy 
 spirit of the Gospel, and its entire submission to the rule which 
 Christ, through his Church, would establish over it for good .... 
 Let us ever, by the grace of God, be careful that in our intercourse 
 with it, we adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things ; 
 and then go forward in our Master's work, indifferent save for its 
 own sake, whether the world he pleased or offended ; and, indeed, 
 looking for the ill will and opposition from it, which that Master 
 and his divine Word have prepared us to expect." 
 
 Glorious truths ! godly counsels ! worthy of an age of martyrs 
 and confessors. Alas, that they should have been in the lips of him 
 who uttered them. Vox ct preterea nihil! Let the diary of the 
 young candidate for orders, given in the " History," tell how this 
 bold spoken Bishop crouched before a prejudice which his own 
 tongue confessed to be "unrighteous ;" and sacrificed duty and in- 
 dependence, lest the Seminary should lose the support of " the 
 South!" 
 
 Rank and caste are essentially different ; and while the former is 
 sanctioned by the Bible, which requires us to render honor to those 
 to whom honor is due, the latter is heathenish in its origin and 
 character. Rank is founded on condition, and is usually connected 
 with personal distinctions and acquirements. It unavoidably springs 
 from the organization of society ; and while it may confer privileges, 
 is not necessarily inconsistent with the claims of justice and 
 humanity. Caste, on the contrary, regards races, irrespective of the 
 individuals composing them. In Hindostan, it both elevates and 
 depresses — with us, its only effects are degradation, cruelty and 
 wretchedness. In the former country, the two extremes of caste 
 are the Brahmins and the Soodras,* and the gulf between them is 
 
 * " Soodras may be frequently seen carrying water in a cup, and entreating 
 the first Brahmin they meet, to put his toe into it ; after which they drink the 
 water, and bow or prostrate themselves before the Brahmin, who bestows his 
 blessing upon them. Others preserve some of this holy water in their houses. 
 Not only is the body of a Soodra laid prostrate before the Brahmin, to lick the 
 dust of his feet, but his soul is also sacrificed to his honor. If a Soodra dare to 
 listen to the Salvation-giving Vedu, he is to be punished for his sacrilege. If 
 a Brahmin happen to be repeating any part of the Vedu aloud, a Soodra, if 
 near, shuts his ears, and runs away. If a Soodra enter the cook-room of a 
 Brahmin, the latter throws away all his earthen vessels as defiled ; nay, the 
 very touch of a Soodra makes a Brahmin unclean, and compels him to bath^ 
 in order to wash away the stain." — Ward^s View of the Hindoos, pp. 79, 107. 
 
41 
 
 wider and more impassable than that which in our own separates 
 the whites and the blacks. And yet the American Church may- 
 learn an edifying lesson from the temporary cessation of caste in the 
 presence of a Hindoo idol. " I was surprised," says Dr. Claudius 
 Buchanan, in the journal of his tour to the Temple of Juggernaut, 
 in Orissa, in 1806, " to see the Brahmins with their heads uncovered, 
 in the open plain, and falling down in the midst of the Soodras, be- 
 fore the horrid shape, and mingling so complacently with that 
 ' polluted caste ;' but this proved what I had before heard, that so 
 great a God is this, that the dignity of high caste disappears before 
 him. This great king recognizes no distinction of rank among his 
 subjects. All men are equal in his presence.'^ 
 
 We have long gloried in the conviction, not only that we are a 
 true Church, but that, besides ourselves, there is none other. Too 
 many among us are disposed to look down upon Christians of other 
 names, with much the same feeling with which the Pharisee beheld 
 the Publican who came to the Temple to pray. It seems to be not 
 unfrequently forgotten, that the glory of the Church consists, not in 
 her organization, nor in her rites and ceremonies, but in her holi- 
 ness, which, like the Shechinah of the ancient temple, proclaims 
 the presence of the Divine Lord. 
 
 The Church is, unquestionably, spiritually diseased, so far as she 
 ceases to be, in the language of Bishop Onderdonk, " antagonistic to 
 the world, and to attack its wicked principles and practices." Tried 
 by this test, what is the comparative health and vitality of the Penn- 
 sylvania Episcopal Convention, and the Pennsylvania Presbyterian 
 Synod } The latter body, like the first, is composed of Clerical and 
 Lay Deputies ; and although named from the State in which most 
 of its members reside, embraces various churches in Maryland. On 
 the 30th Sept., 1839, the Synod held its session at Elkton, in the 
 latter State ; and of course in the midst of slaveholders. Two 
 colored members took their seats, and assisted in organizing the 
 body. Their presence excited the indignation of some of the rabble 
 in Elkton ; and a letter was addressed to a member, recommending the 
 retirement of the two delegates. The letter was shown to them, and 
 they immediately left the town. The Synod was uninformed of what 
 had occurred, until after their departure, whereupon the following 
 resolution was adopted : " Whereas, this Synod have learned that two 
 of their number, the Rev. Jacob Rhodes, and Mr. Stephen H. Glou- 
 cester, colored Brethren, have withdrawn, and returned to their 
 
42 
 
 homes, in consequence of representations that their presence occa- 
 sioned some unusual excitement in a portion of the community; 
 therefore, Resolved, that the Synod regret the existence of a preju- 
 dice so unreasonable ; and, especially, regret that t-heir Brethren, 
 whose right to a seat in this body stands on the same basis as that 
 of any of its m.embers, should have felt themselves called upon to 
 relinquish privileges to which they were justly entitled, and in the 
 enjoyment of which they should have been sacredly protected." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Kip, in his recent work,* describing a visit he 
 made to the Propaganda College in Rome, says : " The students, 
 about eighty in number, were ranged on the two sides of the chapeL 
 and presented a strange mixture of all nations and colors. I count- 
 ed among them five Chinese, and two Africans. Yet here they all 
 sat side by side, without any distinction, singing together the 
 praises of their common Lord. Surely it must be acknowledged that, 
 in this respect, Rome carries out her own Catholic principles, and 
 declares not only in words but by her actions, that ' God hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on the face of the earth.' 
 She recognizes no distinctions of climate or country in the house of 
 God. We had just before, as we entered the door of the chapel, 
 witnessed a similar evidence of this Catholic spirit. An old man^ 
 black as possible, in an ecclesiastical dress, was just getting into a 
 carriage. He was assisted by two priests, who, with many bows 
 and demonstrations of respect, were taking leave of him." 
 
 We trust Mr. Kip remembered with pain the exclusion of colored 
 candidates for orders from the " Propaganda " of his own Church, 
 and the obloquy heaped on his colored brethren in the ministry, 
 by the Pennsyh^ania Convention, and that he will joyfully aid in 
 infusing into the Episcopal Church " the Catholic principles " so 
 honorably manifested by Papists at Rome, and Presbyterians at 
 Elkton. 
 
 In the course of these remarks we have expressed ourselves 
 strongly, because we felt deeply ; and on reviewing our language 
 we see no cause to modify it. But while we cannot doubt that the 
 acts we have censured were morally wrong, we are too painfully 
 sensible of the frailty of our common nature, to intimate that a 
 Christian profession, to be sincere, must be without offence. Nor 
 are we forgetful of the power of pecuniary interest, parochial de- 
 pendence, and habitual prejudice, in warping the judgment, beguiling 
 
 * Christmas Holidays in Rome. 1846. 
 
43 
 
 the conscience, and hardening the heart, in relation to slavery and 
 caste. Much, also, of what has been wrong in our ecclesiastical 
 proceedings, has unquestionably arisen, not from reflection, but the 
 want of it. Nevertheless, the responsibilities of the Church are of 
 awful magnitude, extending to the life that now is, and to that which 
 is to come ; and they are shared by all her members, however 
 humble. 
 
 The Church militant will find her strength and safety only in un- 
 ceasing conflict with the world, however dire may be the strife. 
 The blood of martyrs has ever proved the seed of the Church. But 
 when she grows faint-hearted, and distrusting the "armor of 
 righteousness " provided by the Captain of her salvation, seeks for 
 weapons of earthly mould, and calls to her aid the selfish passions and 
 sinful prejudices of society, she is treacherous to her Lord, and forms 
 a truce with his enemies fatal to herself. Henceforth her energies, 
 no longer directed against the strongholds of sin, are wasted in 
 " doubtful disputations," and on unprofitable rites and ceremonies. 
 The world is satisfied, and applauds her discretion and moderation, 
 because, although she may retain the form of Godliness, she has 
 parted with its power. 
 
 Had the AmericaR Church from the first fought a good fight 
 against Slavery and Caste, these abominations, which now so much 
 impair her usefulness, and so widely extend the dominion of the 
 great enemy of souls, would have been swept from our land ; a new 
 proof would have been given of the divine character of our holy 
 religion, and the Christian priesthood would have acquired new 
 claims to the gratitude and reverence of mankind. Our Church has 
 hitherto erred in no small measure from ignorance and inadvertence. 
 Such a plea can no longer avail her. A voice from abroad — a 
 voice she can neither stifle nor deride — calls her to repentance and 
 reformation. The reproof of Bishop Wilberforce must and will be 
 heard. The sensibilities of Christians in our land are awakening to 
 the momentous questions to which we have referred. The various 
 denominations around us are daily breaking the ties which have 
 hitherto bound them to the cause of the oppressor. Numerous 
 Churchmen among ourselves are complaining of the league which 
 their clergy and representative bodies have formed with human bon- 
 dage ; and the Church of England is marking and lamenting the de- 
 linquencies of her daughter. If the Church values the approbation 
 of her Divine Master ; if she appreciates the character and objects of 
 
44 
 
 her own holy mission ; if she desires to avoid agitation in her coun- 
 cils; she must be more than the promulgator and advocate of an ab- 
 stract theology, however pure and truthful in itself. She must ^rac- 
 tically exhibit the blessed Gospel as at once the antagonist and 
 corrective of every form of wickedness that mars the happiness of 
 man in this world, as well as the next ; she must, in short, manifest 
 
 FAITH WHICH WORKETH BY LOVE, PURIFIETH THE HEART, AND OVER- 
 COMETH THE WORLD. 
 
A REPROOF OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH, 
 
 BY THE BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 EXTRACTED FROM HIS "HISTORY OF THE PROTESTAKT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA." 
 
 In forming an estimate of the moral influence of the Epis- 
 copalian body, we cannot fail to notice its bearing on the 
 treatment of the colored race. This is, in America, the great 
 question of the present generation : socially, politically, mo- 
 rally, religiously, there is none which can compare with it. 
 Never in the history of any people was the righteous retribu- 
 tion of the holy and living God more distinctly marked than 
 in the manifold evils which now trouble America for her 
 treatment of the African race. Like all other sinful courses, 
 it has brought in, day by day, confusion and entanglement 
 into all the relations of those contaminated by it. It is the 
 cause which threatens to disorganize the Union ; it is the 
 cause which upholds the power of mobs and " Lynching ;" 
 it is the occasion of bloodshed and violated law ; it is, through- 
 out the South, the destroyer of family purity, the hindrance 
 to the growth of civilisation and refinement ; it is the one 
 weak point of America as a nation, exposing her to the 
 deadliest internal strife, that of an internecine war, whenever 
 a foreign enemy should find it suit his purpose to arm the 
 blacks against their masters. Further, like all other great 
 and established evils, it is most difficult to devise any escape 
 out of the coils which it has already wound around every 
 civil and social institution ; whilst every day of its permitted 
 continuance both aggravates the evil and increases the diffi- 
 culty of its ultimate removal. This, then, is exactly one of 
 those sore evils of which the Church of Christ is the appointed 
 healer. She must, in His name, rebuke this unclean spirit ; 
 she who has been at all times the best adjuster of the balance 
 between the rich and poor, between those who have and 
 those who want ; she who has redressed the wrongs of those 
 who have no helper ; she who, wherever she has settled, has 
 
46 
 
 changed slaves or serfs, by whatever title they are known, 
 into freemen and peasants ;— she must do this in the west, 
 or the salt of the earth hath lost its savour, and is given over, 
 with all things around, to the wasting of that utter and ex- 
 treme corruption which she should have arrested. 
 
 Now, to see how far the Church has fulfilled this her voca- 
 tion, we must have distinctly before us the real posture of 
 this question in America, Of the twenty-six states, thirteen 
 are slave states ; admitting, that is, within their own borders, 
 the institution of Slavery as a part of their institutions ; and 
 of these, five — Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and, 
 in part, Tennessee — are slave-selling, whilst those south of 
 them are slave-buying states. 
 
 It will, therefore, be seen at once, that in the various dis- 
 tricts of the Union widely different parts of the system are at 
 work. But its curse is upon all. Chiefly does it rest upon 
 the South. There, to his own, and little less to his master's 
 degradation, the slave is held in direct personal bondage, 
 and accounted merely as a chattel. Hence, at the caprice of 
 his owner, he is treated not unfrequently with fearful cruelty : 
 though these, it may be granted, are not the ordinary cases ; 
 since, except under the impulses of passion, no rational owner 
 will misuse his own chattels. It is not, therefore, for these 
 instances of cruelty, fearful as they occasionally are, that the 
 system will be chiefly odious in the Christian's eyes.* Nor 
 
 ♦ Not to quote any of those occasional barbarities which may be turned in 
 some measure aside as extreme cases, it is impossible to deny the ordinary 
 cruelty of the system, when every Southern newspaper abounds in such adver- 
 tisements as these : " Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, very much 
 scarred about the neck and ears by whipping." Mobile Commercial Advertiser. — 
 " Committed to jail, a negro slave ; his back is very badly scarred." Planter^s 
 Intelligencer, Sept. 26, 1838. — " Run away, negress Caroline ; had on a collar 
 with one prong turned down." Bee, Oct. 27, 1837.—" Detained at the police- 
 jail the negro wench Myra; has several marks of lashing, and has irons on her 
 feet." Bee, June 9, 1838. — " Run away, a negro woman and two children ; a few 
 days before she went off, I burnt her with a hot iron on the left side of her 
 face : I tried to make the letter M." Standard, My 18, 1838.—" Brought to 
 
 jail, John , left ear cropt." Macon Telegraph, Dee. 25, 1837.—" Run away, a 
 
 negro named Humbledon ; limps on his left foot, where he was shot a few 
 weeks ago while a runaway." Vicksburg Register, Sept. 5, 1838. — " Run away, a 
 black woman, has a scar on her back and right arm, caused by a rifle-ball." 
 Natchez Courier, June 15, 1832. 
 
47 
 
 will it be from any notions of the abstract and inalienable 
 rights of man. On these, in their common signification ot 
 the possession of political power, we do not touch ; it is with 
 the want of personal freedom we are concerned, nor is it 
 needful to assert, that slavery is, under all circumstances, 
 directly forbidden by the law of God. It is enough for our 
 purpose, that, as administered in America, it is a violation of 
 the Christian precept, " Honor all men ;" that by its denial 
 of all family life, its necessary irreligion, and its enlorced 
 ignorance, it deprives the slave of the privileges of redeemed 
 humanity, and is directly opposed to the idea of the Chris- 
 tian revelation. To maintain this ground it is not necessary 
 to assert that no slaves are happy in their servitude. For the 
 happiest slave in American servitude is the greatest prooi ot 
 the evil of the system. He is most utterly debased by it who 
 can be happy in such a state. What that state is, is plain 
 enough. The common language of the slave states, which 
 has given to all those who labor the title of " mean whites,' 
 is abundant proof of their own estimate of Slavery. But, 
 further, as a general rale, the slave is not happy. The advo- 
 cates of the system confess this in a thousand ways. Their 
 columns of advertisements for runaways, their severe laws 
 a-ainst those who aid or harbor fugitives, their occasional 
 gifts of liberty to slaves who have wrought some great act ot 
 public good, their fierce jealousy of all speech or action which 
 threatens ever so remotely their property in man, all bespeak 
 the same secret conviction :-they do know the misery of 
 Slavery. The tesfimony of the Canadian ferryman,^ who 
 described the leap of the escaped slave, when the boat reaches 
 the British shore, as unlike any other, is not more directly to 
 
 the point. ..11 
 
 Accordingly, the master-evil of the South is, that the slaves 
 are not treated as having souls; they are often petted, often 
 treated Hke spoiled children, never as men. On this point 
 there is no dispute. « Generally speaking they are a nation 
 of heathen in the midst of the land. They are without hope 
 * Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i., p. 114. 
 
48 
 
 and without God in the world."* " They have no Bible to 
 read by their own firesides ; Ihey have no family ahars ; and 
 when in affliction, sickness, or death, they have no minister 
 to address to them the consolations of the gospel"f " They 
 are destitute of the privileges of the gospel, and ever will be, 
 under the present state of things. They may justly be con- 
 sidered the heathen of this country, and will bear a compari- 
 son with heathen in any country in the world."| •' Through- 
 out the bounds of the Charleston synod there are at least one 
 hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same language as the 
 whites, who have never heard of the plan of salvation by a 
 E,edeemer."§ And this is the fruit of no accident, — it is in- 
 herent in the system. The black must be depressed below 
 the level of humanity to be kept down to his condition. On 
 this system his master dare not treat him as a man. To 
 teach slaves to read is forbidden under the severest penalties 
 in almost every slave state. In North Carolina, to teach a 
 slave to read or write, or give him any book (the Bible not 
 excepted), is punished with thirty-nine lashes or imprison- 
 ment, if the offender be a free negro ; with a fine of 200 dol- 
 lars if he be a white. In Georgia this fine is 500 dollars ; 
 and the father is not suffered to teach his half-caste child to 
 read the Scriptures ?|| 
 
 The moral state of such a population need not be depicted. 
 The habit of despising the true redeemed humanity in those 
 around them grows always upon the licnetious and the 
 covetous, as they allow themselves to use their fellows as the 
 mere instruments of their gain or pleasure : and in the slave 
 states this evil habit reigns supreme. The quadroonll girls 
 are educated in the South to live in bonds of shame with 
 
 * Sermon by Rev. C. C. Jones, preached in Georgia before two associations 
 of planters, 1831. 
 
 t Report in Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, 1833. 
 
 t Report of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was refer- 
 red the subject of the religious instruction of the colored population, 1834. 
 
 § Charleston S. C. Observer. 
 
 II Caste and Slavery in the American Church, p. 27 ; a noble and heart- 
 stirring protest. 
 
 IT The mixed breed of the third generation- 
 
49 
 
 their white masters. "With the slave-population itself the 
 licentiousness of the whites is utterly unbridled : and by this^ 
 all the ties of nature are dissolved. Family-life amongst the 
 slaves cannot exist; its fountains are always liable to be 
 poisoned by arbitrary power. White fathers view their own 
 slave-born children as chattels. They work, they sell them. 
 By law they cannot teach them, or set them free ; for the 
 jealousy of slave-state legislation lays it down as a first prin- 
 ciple, that every slave must have a master " to see to him," 
 
 Here, then, in brief, is the curse of the southernmost 
 or slave-buying states;— the holding of property in man, 
 keeping men in servile bondage, using persons as things, re- 
 deemed men as soul-less chattels ; — this is its essence. Here 
 the testimony of the Church must be against this first vicious 
 principle. This has been the example set to God's witnesses 
 in this generation by their fathers in the faith. They pro- 
 tested against such dominant iniquities, and they delivered 
 their own souls, and saved us their children from the eating 
 canker of a blood-stained inheritance. " Let no man from 
 henceforth," said the Christian Council of London, in 1102,* 
 " presume to carry on that wicked traffic, by which men in 
 England have been hitherto sold like brute animals." This 
 must be the Church's rule on the banks of the Mississippi, 
 as it was on those of the Thames. So much for the extreme 
 south. 
 
 As we come one degree northward, other features meet 
 us. In the slave-selling states there is added to the evils of 
 the South the execrable trade of breeding slaves for sale. By 
 it " the ' Ancient Dominion' is converted into one grand me- 
 nagerie, where men are reared for the market like oxen for 
 the shambles."t This is no figure of speech. The number 
 of slaves exported, from Virginia alone, for sale in the South- 
 
 * " Concilium Londinense, a.d. 1102, reg. Angliae Hen. I. 3, statutum est : 
 xxviii. Nequis illud nefarium negotium, quo hactenus homines in Anglia 
 solebant velutbruta animalia venundari, deinceps ullatenus facere prxsumat." 
 — Wilkins, Concilia, vol. i., p. 383. 
 
 t Speech of Thomas Jefferson Randolph in the Legislature of Virginia in 
 1832, 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 ern slates, in one year, 1835-36, amounted to forty thou- 
 sand;* whilst those imported from all quarters into the 
 states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, 
 were reckoned in the year 1836 as not less than 25,000.t 
 " Dealing in slaves," says a Baltimore newspaper^ of 1829, 
 " has become a large business ; establishments are made in 
 several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are 
 sold like cattle : these places of deposit are strongly built, 
 and well supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags." 
 
 The abominations of this trade must not pollute these 
 pages. They may be readily conceived. But as a neces- 
 sary part of such a traffic, an internal slave-trade, with its well- 
 known horrors, recommences. Here are slave-auctions, with 
 all their instant degradation, and all their consequent destruc- 
 tion of family and social life.§ Here are droves of chained 
 
 * Virginia Times. t Natchez Courier. 
 
 j The Baltimore (Maryland) Register. 
 
 § One incident will tell this whole tale. " A gentleman of Virginia sold a 
 female slave. The party professing to buy not being prepared to make the 
 necessary payment, the slave was to be re-sold. A concealed agent of the 
 trade bought her and her two children, as for his own service ; where her hus- 
 band, also a slave in the town, might visit her and them. Both the husband 
 and wife suspected that she would be privately sent away. The husband, in 
 their common agony, offered to be sold, that he might go with her. This was 
 declined. He resolved on the last effort of assisting her to escape. That he 
 might lay suspicion asleep, he went to take leave of her and his children, and 
 appeared to resign himself to the event. This movement had its desired 
 effect ; suspicion was withdrawn both from him and his wife, and he succeeded 
 in emancipating them. Still, what was to be done with his treasure, now he 
 had obtained itY Flight was impossible, and nothing remained but conceal- 
 ment ; and concealment seemed hopeless, for no place would be left unsearched, 
 and punishment would fall on the party who should give them shelter. How- 
 ever, they were missing ; and they were sought for diligently, but not found. 
 Some months afterwards, it was casually observed that the floor under a 
 slave's bed (the sister of the man) looked dirty and greasy. A board was 
 taken up, and there lay the mother and her children on the clay, and in an ex- 
 cavation of three feet by five ! It is averred that they had been there, in a cold 
 and enclosed space, hardly large enough for their coffin (buried alive there), 
 for six months ! 
 
 " This is not all. The agent was only provoked by this circumstance ! He 
 demanded the woman ; and though every one was clamorous to redeem her 
 and return her to her husband, he would not sell ! She was taken to his slave- 
 pen, and has disappeaied! The man — most miserable man! — still exists ia 
 the town." — Drs. Reed and Matheson, ut supra, vol. ii., p. 188, 
 
51 
 
 negroes marched under the whip, two and two, from the 
 breeding district of Virginia to the labor-markets of Georgia 
 and Alabama. 
 
 Here, then, as in the farther South, the testimony of the 
 Church must be uncompromising and explicit. No motives 
 of supposed expediency, no possible amount of danger, can 
 justify her silence. She is set to bear a witness ; a witness 
 against the evils round her ; a witness at all hazards ; a wit- 
 ness to be at any time attested, if so it needs must be, by 
 bearing any amount of persecution. She and she only can 
 do this. The exceeding jealousy of the several states makes 
 them resent with peculiar warmth any interference from with- 
 out. The regulation of its internal concerns, and so the 
 whole continuance and system of Southern Slavery, is solely 
 under the jurisdiction of the several states. Congress can- 
 not mitigate, much less abolish it. It can come before Con- 
 gress only incidentally, — as, for instance, on the question of 
 admitting a new slave state into the Union. Even moral 
 influence from without is bitterly resented by the South. 
 This is its ground of quarrel with the abolition societies ; 
 with which the general government has so far sympathized 
 as to leave unredressed |the violation of the Southern post- 
 office, whereby abolition-papers are uniformly excluded from 
 the South. Thus, at this moment, improvement can only 
 arise from a higher standard of internal principle on this 
 great question. This, it is the business of the Church to 
 create. She must assert her Catholic character on behalf of 
 these unhappy cast-aways. In other respects, there is no 
 country upon earth so fitted by predisposing elements for 
 uniting in one visible body all the company of Christ's re- 
 deemed. Gathered, as they are, from all countries, Ameri- 
 cans are made partakers, even from natural causes, of a 
 common political and social life. The strong lethargic com- 
 mon sense of the Dutch and the gay vivacity of the French, 
 the phlegm of the German and the buoyant thoughtlessness 
 of the Irish, the shrewd money-getting temper of the Yankee 
 and the hospitable elegance of the Southern gentleman, — are 
 
52 
 
 all here fused into one common mass. From this universal 
 brotherhood the African alone is shut altogether out. Him 
 the Church must take by the hand, and owning him as one 
 of Christ's body, must lead him into the family of man. 
 Not that she is bound to preach insurrection and rebellion* 
 Far from it. It is quite easy to enforce upon the slave his 
 duties, under a system, the unrighteousness of which is, at 
 the same time, clearly stated. His bonds are illegal ; but it 
 is God's arm, and not his own violence, which must break 
 them. Let the clergy of the South preach submission to the 
 slave, if at the same time they declare to his master ihatthese^ 
 for whom Christ died, are now no longer slaves, but brethren 
 beloved ;* and that a system which withholds from them 
 their Christian birthright is utterly unlawful ; that it is one 
 which the master, not the slave, is bound to set himself hon- 
 estly to sweep away. Above all should they, at any cost 
 and by any sacrifice, protest in life and by act against this 
 grievous wrong. The greater the cost, and the more painful 
 the sacrifice, the clearer will be their testimony, and the more 
 it will avail : to them it is given not only to believe in Christ, 
 but also to suffer for His sake. 
 
 What witness, then, has as yet been borne by the Church 
 in these slave states against this almost universal sin ? How 
 has she fulfilled her vocation ? She raises no voice against the 
 predominant evil ; she palliates it in theory ; and in practice she 
 shares in it. The mildest and most conscientious of the Bishops 
 of the South are slaveholders themselves. Bishop Moore of 
 Virginia writes to Bishop Ravenscroft :f " The good and 
 excellent girl presented to my daughter by Mrs. Ravenscroft 
 paid the debt of nature on the 4th." She was treated, it is 
 true, with all the indulgence which she could receive, but 
 still, favorite as she was, she was a slave ; and, after her 
 death, was laid " in the colored burial-ground, which is not 
 enclosed, and therefore much exposed, and where the grave 
 
 * " Not now as a servant (lit. a slave, 6ov\oi), but above a servant, a brother 
 beloved." — Philennon 16. 
 t Life of Bishop Moore, p. 282. 
 
53 
 
 was liable to be disturbed.*' This is no rare instance. 
 The Bishop of Georgia has openly proposed to maintain 
 " The Montpelier Institute" by the produce of slave-labor ; 
 and " The Spirit of Missions," edited with the sanction of 
 the Church, and under the eye of the Bishop (Onderdonk) 
 of New York, proposes to endow a mission-school in Loui- 
 siana, with a plantation to be worked by slaves, who should 
 be encouraged to redeem themselves by extra hours of labor, 
 before day in the morning and after night in the evening ; 
 and should, when thus redeemed, be transported to Liberia, 
 and the price received for them laid out in " purchasing in 
 Virginia or Carolina a gang of people who may be nearly 
 double the number of those sent away."* 
 
 Nor are these merely evil practices into which, unawares 
 and against their principles, these men have fallen. In a 
 sermon preached before the Bishop of North Carolina in 
 1834, and published with his special commendation, it is 
 openly asserted, that " no man or set of men are entitled to 
 pronounce Slavery wrong ; and we may add, that as it exists 
 in the present day it is agreeable to the order of Divine Pro- 
 vidence ;" whilst the Bishop of South Carolina,! in an ad- 
 dress to the Convention of his diocese, denounced " the ma- 
 lignant philanthropy of abolition." 
 
 Such are the fearful features of the life of Churchmen in 
 the South. Nor is it any real lessening of this guilt to say 
 that it is shared by all the Christian sects. The charge is, 
 indeed, far too nearly true. There is no doubt that the evils 
 of the system may be found still ranker and more gross amidst 
 the prevailing sects of Baptists, Independents, Methodists, 
 and Presbyterians.^ But this is no excuse. It is the first 
 duty of the Church to reprove the sins of others, not to adopt 
 them into her own practice ; to set, and not to take the tone. 
 The cruelty of their tender mercies should lead her to speak 
 out more plainly ; it should force her zealously to cleanse 
 
 * Caste and Slavery, p. 34. t Bishop Bowen. 
 
 I Vide Slavery and the Internal Slave-trade in America, pp. 133-145, for 
 horrors with which these pages shall not be polluted. 
 4* 
 
54 
 
 herself from their stain, and then fearlessly leave the issue to 
 her God. But she is silent here ; and to her greater shame 
 it must be added, that there are sects* which do maintain 
 the witness she has feared to bear. 
 
 But further, as has been already said, this clinging curse 
 reaches even to the free states of the North, though it assumes 
 in them another form. In them it leads to the treatment of 
 the colored race with deep and continual indignity. They 
 cannot be held in personal bondage, but they are of the ser- 
 vile class ; they may be claimed as runaways, and thus drag- 
 ged, if not kidnapped, to Southern slavery. 
 
 A mingled scorn and hatred of the colored man pervades 
 every usage of society. In the courts of law his testimony 
 is not equally received with the white man's evidence ; repub- 
 lican jealousy forgets its usual vigilance, in order to deny 
 him his equal vote ; he may be expelled with insult from the 
 public vehicle ; he must sit apart in the public assembly; 
 and though no tinge of remaining shade may darken his 
 cheek, yet a traditional descent from colored blood will make 
 it impossible for him to wed with any of the European race. 
 Even in the fierce heat of the " revivals" this supreme law of 
 separation is never for a moment overlooked. There are 
 difterent "pens" for the white and colored subjects of this com- 
 mon enthusiasm. On all these points feeling runs higher in 
 the free North than in the slave states of the South. There the 
 dominion of the master is supreme, and he can venture when 
 it pleases him to treat his slave with any degree of intimacy ; 
 for the beast of the field might, with as high a probability as 
 he, claim equal rights with man. But in the North, where 
 the colored race are free and often rich, the galling insults of 
 
 * The Quakers, and four small sects, the Reformed Presbyterians, United 
 Brethren, Primitive Methodists, and Emancipation Baptists. — Slavery and tlie 
 Internal Slave-trade in America, p. 132. 
 
 The annual conference of the United Brethren of Maryland and Virginia 
 passed, in 1839, the following resolution. " It appeared in evidence that Moses 
 Michael was the owner of a female slave, which is contrary to the discipline 
 of our Church. Conference therefore resolved, that unless brother Michael 
 manumit or set free such slave in six months, he no longer be considered a 
 member of our Church." — Amencan Churches the Bulwark of Slavery, p. 3. 
 
55 
 
 caste are needful to keep up the separation between blood 
 and blood ; and here therefore, more than anywhere, its con- 
 ventional injustice is supreme; here, too, by an enforced 
 silence as to the crimes of Southern slavery, a guilty fellow- 
 ship in its enormities is too commonly established. 
 
 Against these evils, then, the Church must here testify ; 
 she must proclaim that God hath made of one blood all 
 nations of the earth ; she must protest against this unchristian 
 system of caste; her lips must be unsealed to denounce 
 God's wrath against the guilty customs of the South. And 
 what has been her conduct ? If we seek to test her. real 
 power over men's hearts by asking what her influence has 
 been, we shall rate it low indeed. No voice has come 
 forth from her. The Bishops of the North sit in open con- 
 vention with their slaveholding brethren, and no canon pro- 
 claims it contrary to the discipline of their Church to hold 
 property in man and treat him as a chattel. Nay, further, the 
 worst evils of the world have found their way into the Church. 
 The colored race must worship apart ; they must not enter 
 the white man's church ; or if they do, they must be fenced 
 off into a separate corner. In some cases their dust may not 
 moulder in the same cemetery. Whilst " all classes of white 
 children voluntarily attend the Sunday-schools on terms of 
 perfect equality,"* any mixture of African blood will exclude 
 the children of the wealthiest citizen. Recent events have 
 shown that all this is not the evil fruit of an old custom 
 slowly wearing itself out ; but that it springs from a living 
 principle which is daily finding for itself fresh and wider 
 developments. 
 
 The General Theological Seminary, founded, as we have 
 seen, at New York under the superintendence of the whole 
 Church, was designed to secure a general training for all its 
 presbyters. " Every person producing to the faculty," so ran 
 its statutes, " satisfactory evidence of his having been admit- 
 ted a candidate for holy orders, with full qualifications, ac- 
 cording to the canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 
 * Caswall, p. 297. 
 
5Q 
 
 the United States, shall be received as a student of the semi- 
 nary."* Curiosity once prompted the question to Bishop 
 Hobart, the founder of the seminary, " whether this wide rule 
 embraced colored candidates ?" " They would be admitted," 
 was his answer, " as a matter of course and without doubt." 
 Such, alas ! is not the rule of his successor in the Bishop's 
 seat. In June, 1839, Alexander Crummell applied for ad- 
 mission ; he came from three years' study at the Oneida 
 Institute, from sharing equal rights with one hundred white 
 students ; he brought with him a character which, it was 
 conceded, would warrant his admission if it could be right 
 to admit a colored man at all: he was rejected for this single 
 fault ; one Bishop (Doane) alone being found to protest 
 against the step. Three years before, a similar injustice had 
 been wrought.f Both remain to this day unredressed. The 
 
 * Statutes of the General Theological Seminary, chap, vii., sec. 1. See Act 
 of Incorporation, 1S36, p. IG. 
 
 t The diary of the young man then rejected tells so simply all the tale, that 
 it is printed here from " Caste and Slavery," pp. 14, 15: — 
 
 "Oct. 10. — On Wednesday last I passed my examination before the faculty 
 of the seminary, and was thereupon admitted a member of the school of the 
 prophets. 
 
 " Oct 11. — I called upon the Bishop, and he was dissatisfied with the step I 
 had taken in entering the seminary. Seems to apprehend difficulty from my 
 joining the commons ; and thinks that the South, from which they receive much 
 support, will object to my entering. 
 
 " Thus far I have met with no difficulty from the students, but have been 
 kindly treated. T have thought it judicious, however, to leave the commons 
 for the present. 
 
 " As far as in me lies I will, in my trouble, let all my actions be consistent 
 with my Christian profession ; and instead of giving loose to mortified feel- 
 ings, will acquiesce in all things ; but this acquiescence shall not in the least 
 degree partake of dogged submissiveness, wliich is the characteristic of an 
 inferior. 
 
 " My course shall be independent, and then, if a cruel prejudice will drive 
 (me) from the holy threshold of the school of piety, I, the weaker, must sub- 
 mit and yield to the superior power. Into thy hands ever, O God, I commit 
 my cause. 
 
 " Oct. 12.— At 9 A. M. I called on our spiritual father again, and sought 
 advice in relation to my present embarrassing circumstances. He gave me 
 plainly to understand that it would be advisable, in his opinion, for me not to 
 apply for a regular admission into the seminary, and, although I had taken a 
 room, and even become settled, yet to vacate the room, and silently withdraw 
 
57 
 
 Church fears to lose the contributions of the South ; she fears 
 lo raise the mobs of Philadelphia ; she dare not stand be- 
 tween the dead and living : she cannot therefore stay the 
 plague. Even when admitted to the sacred functions of the 
 priesthood, the colored man is not the equal of his brethren. 
 The Rev. Peter Williams, for years a New York presbyter, 
 of blameless reputation, was, for this one cause, allowed no 
 seat in the Convention of his Church. Thus, again, a special 
 
 myself from the seminary. He further said that I might recite with the 
 classes, and avail myself of the privileges of the institution, but not consider 
 myself in the light of a regular member. Never, never will I do so ! 
 
 •' The reasons of the Bishop for this course are as follows : 
 
 " ' That the seminary receives much support and many students from the 
 South, and consequently if they admit colored men to equal privileges with 
 the whites in the institution, the South will refuse to aid (it), and (will) use 
 their influence to keep all from the seminary south of the Potomac. As head 
 of the seminary, and knowing the feelings and prejudices of the South, he could 
 not hazard my fuller admission at such an expense. 
 
 " ' From the extreme excitability of public feeling on this delicate subject, 
 and from my known and intimate connection with the people of color, there 
 would be a high probability not only of bringing the institution into disrepute, 
 but of exciting opposing sentiment among the students, and thus causing many 
 to abandon the school of the prophets.' 
 
 " I think these two form the reasons'of the Bishop against my being admit- 
 ted. The course, however, he advises, viz. the being a ' hanger-on' in the 
 seminary, is something so utterly repugnant to my feelings as a man, that I 
 cannot consent to adopt it. If I cannot be admitted regularly, I will leave the 
 place ; but in leaving I will ever hold the utmost good feeling towards the 
 faculty and my friends. It is a cruel prejudice which drives me so reluctantly 
 from the door, and makes even those who make high pretensions to piety and 
 purity say to me, ' Stand thou there, for I am holier than thou.' 
 
 " In this matter, however, I shall acquiesce as a Christian, but shall preserve 
 the independent feelings of a man. My most devoted thanks are due to my 
 dear friends, the Rev. Drs. Berrian and Lyell, for the earnest solicitude which 
 they manifest for my welfare. They seem heartily to regret that any difficulty 
 has arisen on the present subject. 
 
 " Upon reflection, it is my present opinion that Bishop Onderdonk is wrong 
 in yielding to the ' unrighteous prejudice' (his words) of the community. If 
 the prejudice be wrong, I think he ought to oppose it without regard to conse- 
 quences. If such men as he countenance it, they become partakers with the 
 transgressoEB. He says, by and by Providence will open the way ; but will 
 Providence effect the change miraculously 1 We cannot expect it. He will, 
 however, effect by appointed means, and these means ought to be resorted to 
 ly His instruments— men. And what men more suitable than men high in 
 office.'Wgh in public favor, high 'm talents 1 Particularly should^ men com- 
 
58 
 
 canon of the diocese of Pennsylvania forbids the representa- 
 tion of the African Church at Philadelphia, and excludes the 
 rector from a seat.* 
 
 Tried, then, by this test, what can we esteem the present 
 influence of this body ? It plainly has not been conscious 
 of possessing power to stand up in God's name and to rebuke 
 the evil one; it has not healed this sore wound, which is 
 wasting the true social life of America. It is a time for mar- 
 tyrdom ; and the mother of the saints has scarcely brought 
 forth even one confessor. 
 
 It is not enough that the distinctive features which mark 
 this communion should be kept clear and plain. There 
 must also be a high tone on those great moral and social 
 questions which are rising daily, and on which mere politi- 
 cians have no utterance of principle. There must be no 
 timid silence as to great enormities. In those mighty issues 
 which indeed try the spirits of men, her voice must be clear. 
 Thus, for example, the treatment of the negro population 
 must be her care : the equal worth of the colored race must 
 be unequivocally held and asserted by her. It must no 
 
 missioned to preach the Gospel, which teaches mercy, righteousness, and 
 truth, enter upon the work. What makes my case more aggravating and 
 dreadful is, that the Bishop says, that even admitting I have no African blood 
 in me, yet my identity with the people of color will bar the door of the semi- 
 nary against me. Horrid inconsistency ! 
 
 Oct. 13. — Called on the Bishop yesterday, and had a final interview with 
 him on this mortifying subject. His determination was settled and fixed, that, 
 from a sober consideration of all things, the interest of the seminary, the com- 
 fort of myself, and the ultimate good of my people, I had better silently with- 
 draw, and, agreeably to my plan, study privately with a clergyman. He again, 
 at this interview, suggested the plan of my embracing the privileges of the 
 seminary without being regularly admitted ; to which I would not consent, as 
 it would be both a sacrifice of the feelings of a man, which I felt not disposed 
 to offer, and, further, a sacrifice of principle, to which, I am confident, the 
 noble-minded among my people would not allow me to submit. 
 
 " I cannot but conceive my case to be a very peculiar one, involving much 
 difficulty, and one which will ultimately cause the guardians and controllers 
 of this sacred institution to hang their heads for shame. This day 1 am driven, 
 in the presence of all the students of the seminary, and the sight of high Hea- 
 ven, from the school of the prophets." 
 
 * Caste and Slavery, p. 17. 
 
59 
 
 longer be the reproach of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 that it is only in the Romish cathedral at New Orleans that 
 whites and blacks are seen to kneel together,* as those who 
 were made of one blood by one Father, and redeemed from 
 common death through the cross of one only Saviour. Timid, 
 compromising conduct on these great subjects, safe as it may 
 seem at present, will, more than anything besides, weaken 
 through the whole nation the moral weight of any religious 
 body. ^ By an universal law of God's providence, it is in doing 
 battle for His truth that men exercise and train their own 
 spirits, and subdue the herd of weaker minds to their rule and 
 government. By its courage or unfaithfulness on this one 
 question, the Church, as far as we can see, is fixing now for 
 good or ill its true weight and standing in the coming gene- 
 ration. 
 
 * Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i., p. 128. 
 
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