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Phelps, Charl-io
Lecture , July 4 , 1-326
brattleboro, 1826

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY ASSOCL\TES

Gift of
MRS. ALEXANDER G. CUMMINS

^^(p^w^m

DELIVERED

MARLBOROUGH, VT.

5T5LY 4t\i, 18^6.

BRATTLEBORO':
FRINTED FOR THB AUTHOR.
1826.

Hon. Charles Phelps,
Sir, — As a Committee, appointed by tbe Windham County Bible
Society, we express their unanimous vote of thanks for your Lecture, this day
delivered before said Society, and request a copy for the press.
Respectfully yours,
CHANDLER BATES, }
SAMUEL CLARK, {committee
THOMAS H. WOOD,r'^''"""""*-
E. H. NEWTON, 3
MARLBOROUCtl, JlflbY 4, 162^.

Gentlemen, In complying with your request, permit me to assure you, that my labours
must be publislied at my own expense. If there shall be found any thing use-'
ful to the public, like all otiuSr cdmm'Odlties id market, it will sell for what it is '
worth. And after defraying the printer's charges, the proceeds of sales, if any
thingshall remciin, is hereby given to your Society.
Be pleased to accept my best regards ; and believe me
your most obedient servant,
CHARLES PHELPS.
Messrs. CHANDLER BATES, 1
SAMUEL CLARK, f „
THOMAS H. wOOD.r'^'""'"'"'*-
E. H. NEWTON, )

Ck>le>.39(i3Ti

LSOTURE.

My Brethren and Friends,
As travellers whose way lies through a wilderness
are delighted when thej have come to opening and cul
tivated fields, — so we, who have been busied and bur
dened with the cares of life, when we have to-day arri
ved at the common inn of our country's hospitality, re
joice together. We are assembled to commemorate a
day iraportant in the records of our nation. We style
it the birth-day of Freedom. In relation to its value to
us, what has been hitherto doubtful is now reality. We
have reduced to possession what by many has been con
sidered theoretical delusion : A nation of freemen en
joying, without licentiousness, civil and religious liber
ty. On what occasion more solemn & interesting could
we meet to utter our congratulations .'' What can im
pose greater claims on the gratitude of man than the
undisturbed enjoyment of his temporal and spiritual
blessings ?
That we may duly estimate our privileges — that we
may appreciate our civil and religious advantages — and
that we may pass in review the duties which we owe to
ourselves and others, let us for consideration briefly no
tice some past transactions, which, having occurred at
different periods of time, may serve to set in contrast,
and to illustrate the character of man. In our specula
tions, we will, for a few moments, leave this continent,
this treasury of natural production, of whose annals no
thing is said except of recent date, and turn to those of
that portion of our earth more favourable to aid our re
flections. The eleven first chapters of Genesis contain the only
knowledge we have of the creation : and they contain
all that we are permitted to know concerning mankind
for the term of two thousand years. As history, it is an
inestimable gift. But it is most important to us when
viewed as a system of ethics ; or, as a standard of prin
ciples upon which rests the moral government of man;
and as forming the foundation of all our absolute rights
and relative duties.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And God said, let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. So God created man in his own image : male
and female created he them, and said, replenish the
earth, and subdue it : and have dominion over all the
earth, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth. — An epitome of rights and duties infinite. Beings
created in the likeness of God, with dominion over the
earth ! Elevated destiny ! Enviable condition !  But
alas, who can describe the reverse ? What limit can be
assigned to the consequences of transgression .'' Sad
and awful change ! — Thou shalt surely die. Dying thou
shall die. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multi
ply thy sorrow. And unto Adam he said, In sorrow
shalt thou eat of the ground all the days of thy life —
out of it wast thou taken — dust thou art and unto dust
shalt thou return.
After man's moral change and expulsion from Eden —
after he had lost the favour of his Maker and the joys
of Paradise — sixteen and a half centuries passed away,
and the scenes of the generations of men were closed
by the deluge. How fyr the antediluvians had progres
sed in civilization; what were their numbers; or how
wide they had spread over the world, are subjects on
which but little has been revealed. And to us, it is more
material to know the fatal cause of that catastrophe :
For we are informed that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the
Lord said, 1 will destroy man, whomlhave created, from
the face ofthe earth; for it repenteth me that I have
made him.
That such, as is delineated in the brief history to which
we allude, is the nature of man ; and that the earth was
swept of its inhabitants because all flesh had corrupted
his way, and the earth was filled with violence, we have
ample testimony. We have the sacred written word. —
And, concurring with this, we have the references of pro
fane writers, to a destruction by the overflowing of wa
ters— the deluge of Ogyges ; and of Deucalion. We
have the rites and mysteries of the gentiles in religious
ceremonies, particularly, in Egypt and Greece, where,
in the first ages, the history was preserved. These, past
debate, refer to the same event.

At no very distant period from the destruction by the
flood, mankind, after giving themselves over to idol wor
ship, were again rebuked by their Maker, in the confu
sion of their language. A judgment and calamity which
reduced them even below the condition of those barba
rous tribes of men, who are still continued in the earth,
and seem destined to be a memorial of what man is, when
destitute of the light of God's countenance. Dispersion
of the people necessarily followed the confusion of
tongues. The social state was destroyed. Civilization
and the arts that meliorate the condition of human life,
whatever they had been, were merged and lost to the
world. Mental darkness ensued — andsavagism prevail
ed. Terrified at his own weakness, man sought protec
tion and safety, in caves and caverns. When compelled
by hunger to seek sustenance, he roamed the thicket, and
was satisfied from a scanty and precarious supply. —
"Like the other animals, he has no fixed residence ; he
has erected no habitation to shelter him from the inclem
ency ofthe weather; he has taken no measures for se
curing certain subsistence ; he neither sows nor reaps ;
but roams about as led in search ofthe plants and fruits
which the earth brings forth in succession ; and in quest
ofthe game which he kills in the forests, or of the fish
which he catches in the rivers." — This was the condition
to which mortals were sentenced four thousand years ago :
It is the condition, with but little alleviation, in which a
portion of the earth still continues : — Many of the Isl
ands — the greatest part of Africa — and sections of A-
merica, Asia, and Europe, give too conclusive evidence
of this truth : And we hazard little in affirming, that it
is the feondition in which mankind ever have been, and
always will be, when shut out from the knowledge of
God, and of that fear which is the beginning of wisdom.
In the progress of mankind from the savage state to
the establishment of government and the introduction of
the arts that attend civilization, we should look to Asia
and to Egypt, for the first essays of a progressive im
provement. The early associations of men were evi
dently limited in extent, and the first communities were
composed of small bodies of people. We have a striking
illustration of this fact, in the circumstances attending the
battle ofthe four kings against five, in the vale of Siddim.

This battle is remarkable not only as being the first on
record ; but also as having been between a confederacy
of kings : five against four, one of whom had an iraposing
title, and was styled King of Nations. Frora occurrences
after this battle, we are led into the nature and charac
ter ofthe wars of that period. We learn that Abram,
with his trained servants, born in his house, to the num
ber of three hundred and eighteen, arose and pursued
the victors, retook the spoil, and, atthe valley of Shaveh,
slaughtered Chederlaomer and the kings that were with
him. The concentration of power by the multiplication
of numbers, while men were unaccustomed to restraint
and the rules of order, was attended with insuperable
difiiculties. Jealousies, discord and division. Were, as
unerringly, the fruit of confederacies, in the primitive
ages, as since. Ambition was as dangerous to tribes, as,
it has since been, to nations.
If we carryback our minds to a period anterior to the
knowledge of an alphabet, and when the art of writing
was unknown, it is evident, historical detail of cotem
poraneous transactions, must be extremely imperfect. —
Without the use of writinghistory is silent. The discov
ery of an alphabet, must have been previous to the keep
ing of faithful records. And although it be not ascer
tained, precisely, at what period letters came first into
use; it has generally been supposed that they were un
known in Greece, the place where the sciences and arts
were cultivated with the happiest effect, until about six
teen hundred years before Christ ; or about eight hun
dred years after the flood. The bible, then, contains the
whole history, and the only information, of the origin,
nature, and character of man, for a space of two thou
sand five hundred years.
With the aid of writing and after the discovery and
introduction of that art intoEurope, some accounts, aside
from sacred history, ofthe nations known, have reached
us ; filled, however, with fanciful reveries of poets and
orators. And we have to form estimates of the progress
of society, civilization and the arts, and the then state of
the world, from descriptions there fancifully drawn.—
The Celtas, or first inhabitants of Europe, it is admitted,
were a people rude and uncultivated. This great divi
sion ofthe earth was overspread, ifinhabited at all, with

a barbarian population. Assyria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia,
and Phrygia, with Egypt, constituted the known world.
Idolatry with its horrid rites was in every city : And the
land was polluted with their abominations. And even so
late as the time of Solomon, when the Hebrew nation was
at the zenith of her glory, religious worship, and the es
tablished rules of subordination to government and laws,
were, although under his penetrating discernment, and
extensive power, grossly lax, and criminally deficient. —
We are informed, that Solomon, the wisest of men, and
king of a people divinely instructed, and favoured of
Heaven beyond all others, went after Ashtoreth the god
dess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination
ofthe Ammonites ; that he built a high place forChemosh
the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomina
tion of the children of Ammon; and that he did likewise,
for all his strange wives, to the number of seven hundred,
and three hundred concubines, which burnt incense and
sacrificed unto their gods.
The introduction ofletters, and tbe planting of colonies
produced a change in the intercourse of kingdoms and
nations. Migrations from Phcenicia and Egypt laid the
foundations for improvement in the states of Greece. —
These governments assumed a popular turn; and the
public games of Corinth, Elis, Delphi, and Delos, brought
together, within the same circle, strangers, and people
ofdifierent tongues and kind red ; where the achievements
of heroes were rehearsed at their fiestivals, and their ex
ploits commemorated in measured cadence. Actors and
players travelled from city lo city, exhibiting in panto
mimes and in songs ; and, by these mute and musical al-
ohymists, the Grecian warriors of the heroic age, first,
became demigods, and afterwards, had seats assigned
them with the celestials. Thus, the arts introduced a
new tbeogony, multiplied idols, and increased objects of
superstitious worship. Butthe mythology of theGreeks,
their inconsistent fables of mortal deities; their fantasti
cal stories of gods and goddesses, with their amours and
villanies, could not fail, after the light of science began
to shine, to alienate and wean the mind from idolatry and
heathen worship. The bloody rites of religious super
stition, devoted to monsters and canibals, could only fit
andsubserve the life of warriors : such as peopled Greece

8
in the primitive ages. They, who delight in blood, will
serve a kindred deity. A barbarous people will have
barbarous ceremonies under the solemn sanctions of reli
gious duty. Nations, who destroy or sell their captives,
have never failed to worship adeitj, whose anger can be
appeased only, by generous offerings and sacrifices, in
human victims. Thus, in the early history of the Greeks,
the time of the Trojan war may be aflixed, with tolerable
precision, by attending to their policy, their military art,
their rural exercises, and their sepulchral and religious
rites. At a more advanced stage of Grecian taste, idol
atry, in objects of sense, was discarded. For when He
rodotus recited his history at the Olympic games, he was
rendered more famous than even those who had obtain
ed the prizes, and not a single person in Greece who had
not seen him at the games ; yet Herodotus has not had
divine honours with their Hercules. The reason is evi^
dent. The schools of Pythagoras and Plato, corrected
the abuses of superstition. But we should bear in mind,
that the utmost reach of human intellect; even the mind
of him who was called the divine Plato, never approach^
ed the purity of gospel philosophy. All his reasoning
terminated in uncertainty and despair. The confused
notions, and idle fancies of raen, ever changing and delu
sive, formed his basis ofpioral duty, and his only anchor
of hope to the soul. Plato taught, that at death,,the hu
man soul is reunited to the soul ofthe world, as the source
frora which it originally came.
War and the destruction of mankind has been the
theme of all historians. The bold unconquerable spirit of
heroes and warriors, embellished with poetic f^ncy, or
adorned with; the graces of oratory, has never failed to
gain the meed of popular applause. Accounts of sieges
and battles, sorties and ambuscades, will be listened to,
while the useful labours of the philanthropist are forgotten.
Yet, were we tohear, definitively, the ravages of war up
on the human race, and of the destruction learn the sum
total ; it would be matter of astonishment that men had
not long since ceased to exist in the earth. On the
forming of compacts among men, no common standard of
right, or public law, has been a protqction to the weaker
community, against the violence and usurpation of an
ambitious neighbour. Conquests have been the results

of combined power ; and, like falling bodies, they ac
quire increasing strength. The effects and consequen
ces of perpetual and desolating wars have been realized
to the immediate sufferers, and they are also felt to the
present time in the bereavements they have produced. —
Century after century rolled away and iraproveraent has
scarcely been perceptible. It may be questionable,
whether, from the time of Solomon, to the fifteenth cen
tury after Chirst, any considerable advances had been
made in progressive 'improvement. Whether, in point
of fact, either agriculture, manufactures, comraerce, na
vigation, or the sciences, had acquired so much as were
lost. Whether, during a period of two thousand four
hundred years, the eruptions and ravages of Saracens,
Tartars, Cimbri, and Teutones, had not destroyed, on
the one hand, as much, as civilization had produced, on
the other. The art of building and navigating ships was
stationary. Voyages were mostly performed within
sight of land. Destitute of a mariner's compass, an open
sea filled the heart of the boldest sailor with dread. —
From the perils necessarily incident to ships on the Red
sea, and afterwards passing the straits of Babelmandel,
those straits were called the gate of mourning. The ivory,
the precious stones, the costly fabrics, and the spices of
India, were obtained in voyages of great hazard, long
duration, and intense fatigue. Agriculture had been in
the highest estimation among the Egyptians, Chaldeans
and Phoenicians. — Afterwards, Hesiod, Zenophon, Varro
and Virgil,wrote on the precepts and rules of husbandry.
And we hear nothing further on this subject, till Crescen-
zio published his treatise, at Florence, in the year 1478.
The sciences, by the destruction of books, and the ab
sence of taste in the rude nations that overrun the Ro
man empire, received a blow from which they have
probably hot yet recovered. In the time of Solomon,
science must have been highly Cultivated. For over and
above the government of his kingdom, he wrote treatises
of Ith thy ology, Botany, Ornithology and Zoology, all of
which are lost. He wrote a thousand and five songs, and
three thousand proverbs ; and these are mostly lost also.
The style of writing in the book of Job, the Psalms, and
the profane writings of Homer, as well as the subjects of
those productions, afford conclusive evidence, that the

10
age which produced them, h^d attained great refinement
of human intellect. The light of revelation emitted but
feint rays, and was confined comparatively to few indi
viduals amidst general gloom. It is true idolatry and its
abominations were held in check. But Mohamedan de
lusion and Popish superstition followed and took their
place. And at the commencement of the reformation,
their absurd and conflicting principles had deluged their
votaries in blood ; and spread Egyptian darkness over
the land. At the time Luther and other reformers be
gan to prepare men to burst the thraldom of imposture,
the followers of the False Prophet had overrun Egypt,
and all that part of Asia ; first known as the civilized
worW. In this region, once the fairest portion of the
earth — where the first pair went forth to till the ground
— where with mankind their Creator first established his
covenant — where the law was delivered by Moses —
where the children of Israel chanted the songs of Zion —
where the Saviour was born — and where the Apostles
proclaimed peace on earth and good will to men : — All
this favored region swept as with the besom of destruc
tion ! This memorable land had been given over to
Moslems crimsoned in blood by the sword ofthe Arab
and the Turk. FroiO this place, in a war upon science and
the arts, was issued the desolating order of a fanatic
Khalif condemning to be burnt every book; because, if
those books contained the sarae doctrine with the Koran,
they could be of no use, and, if they contained any thing
contrary to that book, they ought not to be suffered ;
therefore, whatever their contents were he ordered them
to be destroyed. In the West, the admitted and estab
lished doctrines of supremacy and infallibility in the
Pope of Rome, produced scarcely less evils than those
felt in the East. Here, the minds of men were chained
in spiritual bond'agei The Pope had declared himself
Sovereign of the whole world. To whom he pleased he
gave kingdoms— and when he pleased he took them a-
way. Kings were his vassals and Princes his slaves. — r
The fires of the inquisition had burnt till they had no
thing on which to feed. All was quiet ; every heretic
exterminated ; and the whole Christian world supinely
acquiesced in pilgrimages, fasts, corporal discipline, in"
dulgences, masses for the dead, and the pains of purga-

11
tory. Some idea of the Pope's assumed supremacy may
be had from an oath, taken before all the people, by one
of the kings of England, kneeling, and with his hands
held up between those of the legate. "I John, by the
grace of God, king of England and lord of Ireland, in or
der to expiate my sins, from my own free will, and the
advice of my barons, give to the church of Rome, to Pope
Innocent and his successors, the kingdora ol England,
and all other prerogatives of my crown. I will hereafter
hold them as the Pope's vassal. I will be faithful to God,
to the church of Rome, to the Pope my master, and his
successors legitimately elected."
If we look at the map of the world, drawn in the fif
teenth century, and consider the people who lived under
the light of revealed truth, we shall find them few in
numbers, and confined to a small part of the earth. The
whole of Asia with her numberless islands, may be set
aside entirely: For the light that shone through the in
comprehensible Vishnou, or the dragons ofFohi, or, that
of the False Prophet, was but darkness visible. We
discover net a christian in all Asia. In passing over
Africa we find neither a christian nor a man civilized.
And America is undiscovered. Europe is the only part
ofthe earth inhabited by christians ; and, of this divi
sion, they have less than one half. Spain and Portugal,
France and Italy, the British isles, Germany, and the
kingdoms bordering on the Baltic, are all the places
known to have been pervious to bible truth. And, here,
this truth, too, obscured by creeds and articles ojf Ro
manist councils^ and ecclesiastical synods ! The Ro
man Catholic faith did not encourage the spread of bi
bles araong the laity and comraon people. Printed bi
bles we know they had none. And, at best, it can be
only conjectural, should we attempt to estimate in what
degree those gentile christians were enlightened : —
Since we recently learn, that in a late Catholic province,
adjoining our own territory, a population of seven mil
lions of people, at this day of bible light, enjoy only the
privilege of two thousand copies. Besides, the state of
society, the governments, and the progress of letters,
should be taken into the account, in estimating the ad
vantages to be derived from spreading the gospel. Now,
we are unacquainted with a single nation in Europe,

12
even so late as the fifteenth century, where the equita
ble spirit of the laws, the mildness of the government,
or the justice of rulers, would render it favourable to
the mild doctrines of gospel peace. On the destruction
of the Roman empire, a barbarous people from the
north, issuing in swarms, overran the cultivated and fer
tile districts of the south ; and swept away in one gen
eral ruin the monuments of Roman greatness. Her
laws, compiled from the collected wisdom of her emi
nent jurists, forming her Institutes, her Pandects, and
the Novel Constitutions, were as ill adapted to the go
vernment of her fierce invaders, as yveee her specimens
in the fine arts, adapted lo their taste. Before the re
vival of letters in Europe, the policy of those northern
nations was a war policy excl-usively. The lands were
parcelled out and held on condition of feudal service.
So universally was this tenure received, that it was cal
led the law of nations in the western world. The con
querors allotted, to the principal oflicers, tracts of land
proportioned to grade and service ; these were again
divided to others ; and all were holden on condition of
fidelity in military operations. Bound together in mu
tual obligation a war system arose of peculiar strength
and energy. But it was a system adapted to the cir
cumstances of their case. A military system in which
was interwoven the principles of a general despotism.
A system of lords and vassals. A feudal system. A
system by which the former just proprietors of the soil
were driven from their possessions ; and armies of rob
bers, adjusting with themselves their- own factitious
rights to the property ravished, were confirmed in their
titles, by the law of nations in the western world ! 
When we turn, and, at a period immediately preceding
the reformation of religion, trace but a few pages ofthe
history of western or christian Europe, we shall be con
vinced, that the state of society, the governments, and
the progress of letters, gave but feeble aid to the spread
of that evangelical rule, which declares, "thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself." For after coming near
er our own tirae, at a period, when coraraerce and inter
national intercourse had become extensive ; it is recor
ded, on a single page, that in France, within two short
months of St. Bartholomew's eve, 1571, thirty thousand

13
protestant christians were massacred and butchered, in
ali the rage of ruffian fury, by monsters professing to be
men : nay, by men professing to be catholic christians !
And in England, in the reign of Mary, consort of the
bloody and tyrannical Philip II. of Spain, two hundred
and seventy-seven protestant ministers and teachers, of
exemplary life and morals, were, in a little time, com
mitted to the stake and faggot, suffering, by fire, slow
and lingering torments in death, which would ill suit
with the feelings of our auditory to hear described.
It was at this period, that mankind were put to the
farthest verge of human suffering. And, our forefathers,
under the oppressive weight of despotic power, under
the cruel scourge of intolerance and religious persecu
tion, arrayed themselves in defence of their rights ; and,
in defiance of their enemies, planted the standard of a
good conscience, and the ensign of liberty, in the New-
World. They left their country, and the tombs of their
ancestors ; they parted with relatives and friends, and
broke the ties of nature, and the tenderest sympathies
of the human bosom, to sacrifice on the altar of free
dom. But they felt the power of duty, and the obliga
tion of conscience. They saw the fires lit to consume
the remnant of virtue. They saw the old world one
vast funeral pile, and piety, and patriotism, and peace,
enveloped in the flame.
The new world,. with the promise of liberty, and the
assurance of freedom, opened before them ; and they
saw, through the vista of descending years, the renova
tion of man's character. They saw, that the violence
which had filled the earth, would cease — that the bounds
q£ public and private rights would be established, and
not broken with impunity. They saw, "that all men by
nature were equally free and independent — that they
had certain unalienable rights. — that among these were
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — and that, to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers frora the consent of flie
governed." And they knew, whentbese principles were
maintained, when they were kept inviolate, that all the
children of men would become one family of nations,
one people.

14
But the cup of human woes was not yet full. Our fa
thers, in tlxe land, which their own hands had planted,
the land, endeared to them by perils and sufferings, by
privations and hardships, and, raore than all, by the ci
vil and religious liberty which they enjoyed, in this land,
they were reduced, by oppressive acts of a British par
liament, to the condition of African slaves. In the man
ly fortitude of souls ready to resist aggression, and re
lying on the Justice of Heaven for the issue ofthe com
bat ; they tried the strength of steel with their foes : —
And on the 4th day of July, 1776, published their dec
laration of independence, setting forth the causes, which
impelled thera to a separation. This declaration opens
a new era in the science of government. It sheds im
mortal lustre upon those who achieved it. And it dif
fuses unfading glory on the renovated nature of social
man. To the special favour of Heaven, and the uner
ring designs of Providence, are we indebted, for this
raeed of gracious munificence. It was not the momen
tary production of accident. But it was the result of a
protracted continuation of cause and effect, flowing from
the unchangeable counsels of the Most-wise, labouring
for the restoration of mankind.- Who, for ages, remained
fixed to a small part of the world ; and, destitute of the
knowledge necessary to account for ordinary appearan
ces produced by physical causes ; which not only cease
to astonish, but are the certain evidences of infinite and
superintending power. The ocean was to them the
boundary of an extended plane, and the limit of the
earth. Those watprs, which prove so convenient and
favourable for the intercourse of men, were an impassa
ble barrier, until the fourteenth century ; when the use
of the mariner's compass was first known in Europe.
By the help of this, the gallant Vasco de Gama sailed
round the continent of Africa, and introduced, to the
human family, the nations of India. Commerce took a
new channel, and the wealth that invariably followed
the trade with the Indies, flowed into other hands. The
minds of men expanded with their pursuits ; and the ar
dour of enterprise soon laid open to the astonished view
ofthe old world, the immense regions in America. And
as though this had been the peculiar period of unexam
pled favour, the art of printing, that heaven-born gift.

15
sent to enlighten the mind, to reform the hearts and to
correct the errors of mankind, is also discovered.
It was by the new aids derived from multiplying cop
ies of the scriptures, that the reformers were enabled to
encounter, aud successfully oppose, the power of the
See of Rome. If the bible, and all other lessons of mo
ral instruction were confined to the slow progress of
manuscript copies, it is probable, in lieu of their sprea
ding through the earth araong all nations, and to every
tongue and kindred under heaven, that mankind would
again relapse into their former condition of savagism.
Such an effect is obvious from what passeis in our own
view. We live at the epoch of an astonishing revolu
tion in the minds of men ; and which is produced by the
force of a new moral power, actuating alike the public
and private life of individuals. This takes its rise in
the general instruction of youth, and in the influence of
morality, early taught, and fastened in the mind, leading
it to virtuous deeds and actions. And that this is true,
one needs no other evidence, than observation in the or
dinary walks of life. Have an acquaintance with that
portion of the population which is at once the ornament,
the strength, and the support of government. Go thro'
the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it.
Enter those abodes of domestic comforts, coming up in
every place like spires of grass in number, and erected
for the enjoyment of beings made in the likeness of God.
Visit the apartments. You are amidst a circle of intel
lectual refinement. The revealed counsel of Heaven
is the private guide, and the life of every soul. Her
treasures are direct from the fountain and lead to the
heart. The irapress is deep and solemn. The mind is
enlightened. The moral and social affections are culti
vated. The relative duties in the various relations and
conditions in life are observed i and the house is a little
paradise on earth. Here is the source of that moral in
fluence and moral power that has been considered irre
sistible even by despots and tyrants. In what part of
the world, where the bible is not sent, is there integrily
of character, or purity of life .-* In what part of the
world, where the bible is not sent, do you find man civ
ilized i* Look at the Islands, wherever they have been
discovered. Look at the immense regions of Asia.

16
Look at the uncivilized parts of Europe and America.
Do you find the bible in any of those places ? Is it not
exclusively confined to those parts of the earth, where
man is found exhibiting the highest elevation of human
character ? where virtue and moral worth are held in
the highest estimation. It is true, christians have not
unfrequently been rebuked for having committed public
acts of great atrocity — for having been the cause of de
solating wars in the earth. And Great Britain, a chris
tian nation, is reproached with desolating India. But
we need not wander from home. On this subject we
have a case in point. This is, or should be, a christian
nation. This is, or should be, a nation of freemen. And
when ten millions, on this day, are joining, with one
heart, to celebrate the auspicious event, by which lib
erty was proclairaed in these States ; when, if we are
sincere, we rejoice to see the captive go free when the
bonds in which he is holden are unjust, does it not
check the ardour of our joy, to reflect, that nearly two
millions of human beings are, at this moraent, and with
in our own free government, held in the basest bon
dage ? And that they, and their descendants, are to be
perpetually bound in service, that debases the soul to a
level with the beasts ? Do we believe, that all men are
created equally free and independent ? Was it true, in
the case between the British government and these
colonies ? Is it not just as true, in the case of the Afri
can and his American master ? It was the principle
that was contended for, by those that burst the bonds
of British thraldom over these colonies ; and where is
the difference ? The declaration of independence pro
nounces the rights of the African unalienable — that go
vernment is instituted to preserve those unalienable
rights, and when it becomes destructive of those ends,
he has a right, it is a duty, to alter or abolish it. It was
a step approved by Heaven in favour of the Hebrew
slaves in Egypt. It was approved of Heaven in favour
ofthe colonies when reduced to the condition of slaves
by the parliament. But the American slaves can have
no such redress, here, in this land of liberty ; because
the constitution does not, in terms, prohibit holding a
a property in human flesh. And in proportion as the
government is strong and free, the hopes of this misera-

17
ble class of men become forlorn. But let it not be said,
that in a christian land of freemen, slavery, among their
own people, is, and raust be, unlimited. — Forbid it,
Heaven. Although the law protecting the property
thus unlawfully held cannot be broken or violated rash
ly ; still, the case is not remediless. And it is tirae for
a christian and free people, to awake frora the dream
of sloth, and arise, in the strength of moral influence,
and moral power, and lay the axe at the root of the
tree. Since our liberty is a gift, and holden in trust,
we have no good reason to believe that it will be con
tinued to us, unless our duty, our sacred trust-duty, is
performed. How long are we assured that unanimity
of sentiment between these independent states will con
tinue ; and, that intestine and civil broils, will not dis
turb the quiet, in which we are now so secure ? If no
remedy can be applied to the growing evil, and myriads
are to be held in a state of despair, where hope never,
never comes, that a storm will burst forth at some fu
ture time, and in its fury overwhelm the fairest hopes
of our liberty's perpetuity, there is a moral certainty.
And who can limit the period of our peace, when we
are adding, daily, to a mischief that breaks ihe most
solemn obligations of duty."* Those slaves are held by
a rigorous discipline, and, by acute, and severe penal
ties, are restrained from even inoffensive and innocent
indulgence; because example is necessary. And when
the awful day of retribution shall arrive, and they, in
their turn, be masters : what horrors of retaliation ! —
The sable current will roll back upon the free popula
tion, and the vengeance of justice, long smothered and
delayed, will be visited upon the innocent with the
guilty. This is no idle fancy. In the first moment of
hostility between the several states, those slaves will be
in arms ; and when, and where, their bloody hands will
be stayed, Heaven only knows. Interest and safety,
then, call for the attention of considerate men, by taking
timely measures, to remedy this alarming evil. But it
is more especially at this time pressed to a considera
tion, on the intrinsic merits of the subject ; as demand
ing every attention with those who make a principle of
performing their duties, as freemen, and as christians.
Shall it be said, because Arabs and pirates have, in all

18
ages ofthe world, plundered Africa of her sons, that th^
practice is still to be continued ; and, that even the
Ijind, to liberty most dear, is to be made the humiliating
bye-word, to bands of robbers ! What duplicity ! what
felsity ! what high offence against insulted Heaven !-r-
True it is, that it may be said the evil is one over which
we have no iraraediate control. But it is not incurable.
A christian land of freemen can do much by their exer
tions. They have done much. They have planted the
standard of liberty, and they design to protect it. The
principles, by which it is supported, are the immutable
principles of bible truth. They are principles, which
the refinement, of moral duty, and justice, and equity,
and all the finer sympathies, affection, tenderness, and
charity, strengthen and support. Tell us, ye scoffers at
piety! are these the principles, or the want of themt
that, for ages, has despoiled Africa of one hundred thou
sand souls annually .'' Are these the principles, or the
want of them, that has desolated the earth by incessant
wars, waged for the gratification of pride and ambition,
avarice and revenge ? And, is it for these principles,
or the want of them, that now holds, , profanely holds^
under the banner of freedom, eighteen hundred thoii-
sand souls in unrelenting servitude.'*
And how does it. alter the case, should it be admit
ted, that this abominable traffic, first set on foot to save
the lives of captives taken in war, has been allowed, by
holy and pious men f^om the time of Abraham, sanction
ed by the laws of Moses, and continued through the
whole period of sacred history, to the time of St. Paul,
who sent his epi^tlie to the beloved Philemon by the
slave Onesimus ? Would this coramon scourge to man
kind, and admitted as such, from the days of Nimrod, to
the 4th day of July 1826, the national jubilee of free-.
men, be less enormous in character, or less revolting t<9
christian benevolence and love ? No, it would excite
the higher feeling in christian duty. And especially soi,
since the time has come far tbe active use of means
with promise of success. Fpr, strange and unaccour|te^<#
ble as it raay seem, such are the wonders of Providence
that, at this time, even the violent men, the slave hoK
ders of themselves, work together with benevolent;
means, in accomplishing the great worlj^ of geq^ral e-

19
mancipation. Free people of colour, living with slaves,
are, of all the things, to the owners, the greatest pest
With this connecting link, the distinguishing line be
tween the raaster and slave is broken. And, besides,
the free coloured man tells his brother he would be
justified, in the use of any and every means in his pow
er, to break the bonds in which he is holden. He tells
him, it is his right, it is his duty, to alter or abolish the
government, that takes away his liberty. And he pro
bably goes further, and tells him, that christians are alt
on his side, and that they will second any measures he
may take to redeem his freedom. Oh ye masters in de
fining human wickedness, and in painting depravity in
Its just colours ! can you find, in the circle of refine-
inents in guilt, a scene which can be compared with
this ? Cold and premeditated concert of treason, mur
der, and indiscriminate butchery! There has been e-
noogh of violence in the earth. It is time that its hor
rors should abate. And, as the last of all huraan cala-
inities, should christians dread insurrection in the slave
holding states. Ttie consequences of that struggle can
not be foreseen. And there is a better hope. There
is a cheering prospect, that at no very distant day, this
scourge of righteousness and peace, will be extirpated.
In two hundred years, it is estimated, that a hundred
thousand Africans have been annually brought out frplh
the interior of that continent, and sold into other o'jar-
ters of the world. And in this trade America hir.s had
her full share. This is the fountain from whence slave
ry flows. This is the spring of that awful current of
iniquity, which threatens to overwhelm the land. And
it is grateful intelligence, to learn that this evil will
soon cease. Many governments treat this traffic as pi
racy ; and it will raost likely soon becorae the law of
nations. But there is also another more efficient cause
operating in favour of restoring Africa to the civilized
family ofthe earth. Her coasts, to no inconsiderable
extent, already present, by the steady efforts of chris
tian benevolence, a frontier of colonies, which not only
prevent this inhuman merchandise in the adjacent ter
ritory, but they are carrying back into the interior, the
exaraples, manners, improvements, and arts, of informed
dnd social life.

20
The American colony at Liberia has laboured under
many and great discouragements ; but it is now in a
proraising state. Situated in a region, where the per
nicious effects of slave-trade have been extensive, it
had to surmount all the opposition from those whose in
terests were against reform. It has proved, that the
fears of its success, and jealousies frora apprehended ill
consequences, are groundless. Additional territory has
been acquired ; and the intentions, and views, of the
colonists, begin to be favoured by the natives. There
is araple proof, that they are a people whose rainds are
susceptible of cultivation ; and, with an opportunity,
will adopt the arts, manners, and customs, of civilized
life. They have a printing press at which a public pa
per is issued. And, considering the spontaneous pro
ductions of the soil and cliraate, the richest and most
abundant that is known in the earth, its favourable po
sition for commerce, and the iraportant changes and im
provements, which industry, economy, and a well regu
lated police, must, most certainly, produce; there is
the best reason to believe, that those servants of ser
vants, will, ere long, be restored to the society of the
civilized family of mankind.
The blessings flowing to this nation, in the just admi
nistration of a wise and well balanced governraent, are
the best encoraiums that can be given, on its form and
strijcture. Speculative theories, on the complexity and
counteraction of independent sovereignties, bound by a
constitution in one general government, give no further
alarms. The experiment has been tried, whether a
free, and an informed people, would have virtue enough
to support a free government. The result, both in
peace, and in a war of defence, has far exceeded the
most sanguine expectations. -
The colonies, after the declaration of independence,
supported their national character, during two years of
war, by deputies in Congress specially authorised. For
the ten following years, their government was maintain
ed under the articles of confederation. The constitu
tion was then adopted, and we have seen its effects for
thirty-eight years. The former thirteen colonies have
extended their limits, yet, not one inch, by war, or un
just encroachment, frora the Atlantic to the Pacific

21
ocean. The government embosoms twenty-fdur states,
and other territories that will soon become states^ and
has a population .of about twelve millions. In this vast
extent of territory, and numerous people, not a person,
(excepting the black character of slavery,) not an indi
vidual human being, high or low, rich or poor, wise or
ignorant, but has the just measure of all his rights. His
life, his liberty, his character, his conscience, his prop
erty ; all protected, with sacred tenderness. Not an
offence against either private right, or public peace,
but, with vigilance, receives redress. This is the true
test and criterion of virtuous government. And this
constitution, to these United States, "forms a perfect
union, establishes justice, ensures domestic tranquillity,
provides for the coraraon defence, promotes the general
welfare, and secures the blessings of liberty."
And, when under the auspices of a free government,
we consider the elevated rank and nature of mankind,
restored to their dominion over ihe earth, enjoying, we may
almost say, in perfect profusion, the productions ofthe
world, in its variety of season, climate, and soil — its tee
ming fertility in the animal, the vegetable, and mineral
kingdoms, with the arts acquired for commanding, con-
troling, and rendering the iraraense whole subservient
to their desires and to their happiness : when we consi
der that mankind are social beings, formed for society
and all its endearing connections : and, that they are
religious beings, who, with the soul turned towards
Heaven, can consider the immensity of the Power which
fills the utmost regions of space — where systems of
worlds revolve in infinite extent — where our solar sys
tem is but a point — this earth an atom — and that be
tween mankind and this Universal, Life-giving Power,
there are infinite relations, and infinite duties, we ought
solemnly to feel the fearful increase of obligation, when
we call to mind our multiplied privileges, and the sa
cred nature of our civil and religious advantages.
Who can reflect on the rapid growth of this nation,
and not be lost in admiration, when contemplating the
immense scenes, which are disclosing, and, to the asto
nished beholder, carrying it in advance of all others ?
We have seen, that for two thousand four hundred
years, next before the discovery of this continent, man-

2&
kind hiade jfirw ap]f>arent progress in the inipt'dvement df
Intellect, or the arts attending the social relations of
Hfe. That a great part of the eat-th was overspread
with heathen darkness, when the social state continued
ki (he grossest ignorance and stupidity ; and that the
highest devotional exercises consisted in offering the
greatest number of human sacrifices : That one other
j^ortion df the earth, which had once been known as the
civilized world, had become o'ershadowed with the im-
^ostui'eS of Mohamed : And that the remaining incon
siderable part, which was alone called civilized, was
under the delusion of popery; and, that superstition, in
the name of the cross, was as intolerant and destruc
tive, as idolatry in its worst forms. Compare this, or,
even what they were fifty years ago, with the present
condition of the United States — with America — with the
world. This day, fifty years ago, where you see cities
lising out of the wilderness, filled with "tbe busy hum
df men," and ware-houses and stores, groaning unde^
their itassy contents, collected from every part of the
Union, and throughout the world, was then the lone-
Some abode of the shrieking night-bird, and the rapa
cious beast of prey. This day, fifty years ago, where
ydii see the canal boat, the steamboat, and the beauti
ful ship laying her spread canvass to the gale ; all trans-
J&orting the rich, and ponderous productions of agricul
ture, manufactures, and commerce ; you, possibly, might
have Seen, here and there, a sturdy new settler drag
ging along, with his utmost strength, by the side of an
indented shore, on the margin of some river, or lake^
the unwieldy scow or batteau, laden, with articles of
scanty subsistence, in the coarsest necessaries of Hfe :
Or, perhaps, you might have seen, a solitary Indian,
with his paddle and bark canoe, laden with his gun,
tdmahawk and scalping knife. This day, fifty years
ago, the place where this spacious and convenient house
is erected, and which marks the taste, enterprise, easy
circumstances, and devotional character of the people,
like the whole Country around us, had not been redee
med from the forest. This day, fifty years ago, this na
tion was an assemblage of disjoined, distracted, war
worn, insurgent colonies-^treated as slaves and rebels,
without arms for defence, or means to supply them.

23
This day, fifty years ago, the free governments ta the
south of us, and which have twenty millions of people,
^is moment organizing governments in the republicain
form, were, then, three vice-royalties, dependant on ab»
solute monarchy, and the inquisition. This day, fifty
years ago, not a free government on earth, if we except
Great Britain — and her treatment to her colonies was
marked by every act, that could define the character of
a tyrant. This day, fifty years ago, the bible was lock
ed up in a few limited languages, and unknown to all
the rest of the world— not a bible in Africa or Asia —
but a few copies in Europe or America — and fewer,
still, that were used — and, we apprehend, none, with
out creeds and confessions. And now, the single bible
institution, the British and Foreign Bible Society, orga
nized twenty-two years, has translated the scriptures
into more than twenty-different languages of Asia ; and
in the whole, more than one hundred and forty different
languages and dialects ; — is now, by its agents, distrib
uting the bible in Mexico, South America, the Islands
of the great deep, Africa, Europe, North America, and
in every place desired by readers. The amount of its
distributions is over four millions of copies. The Ame
rican Bible Society has been organized ten years : its
labours have been similar with those ofthe British and
Foreign, and it has distributed over four hundred thou
sand copies.
My Friends, mark the contrast — and if your hearts
do not overflow with gratitude for the abundant mercies
with which you are crowned — if you do not feel warm
ed with love — and if you do not feel your souls rise in
fervent devotion to God for all his wonderful works to
the children of men ; then, you are strangers to the
finest sensibilities of immortal tenderness and compas
sion' — to all the kindred ties of affection; faith, hope,
charity — the ties which bind Heaven to earth and earth
to Heaven.
Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good : for his
mercy endureth for ever. , O come, let us worship and
bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Let the Heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let

24
the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be
joyful and all that is therein. — O come, let us sing unto
the Lord : let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of
our salvation.

#i

I»AMPHLET BINDER
PAT. NO.
877188
Manufaciuted by
GAYLORD BROS. Inc.
Syracuse, N. Y.
.Stoclcton, Calif.

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