demnation of the evil. And at one of her
late assemblies this very forcible language
was used;
" In view, therefore, of its former testamonies
upon the subject, the General Assembly
does hereby devoutly express its gratitude to
Almighty God for the great deliverance he
has prepared for our country from the evil
and guilt of slavery; its cordial approbation
of the measures taken by the National and
State authorities for its extirpation as the root
of bitterness from which has sprung rebellion,
war and bloodshed, and the long list of hor-
rors that follow in their train; this prolific
source of evil and harm will be speedily fol-
lowed by the blessings of our Heavenly
Father, the return of peace, union and frater-
nity and abounding prosperity to the whole
land; and recommend to all in our commu-
nion to labor honestly, earnestly and unwea-
riedly in their respective spheres for this glo-
rious consummation, to which human justice,
Christian love, national peace and prosperity,
every earthly and every religious interest
combine to pledge them,"
Similar views have been and are entertained
by the Baptists, Lutherans, New School Pres-
byterians, and almost every other Christian
denomination, as I now recollect. The Cath-
olic church from a remote period has borne
its unqualified testimony against; whilst the
Quakers, or Friends, have been more consis-
tent than they all, in having first rid them-
selves of the evil, and then in their bold, out-
spoken and continued hostility thereto, even
from the time of Fox. It is true that the
Episcopal church, »as a church, has held rather
aloof from the subject until within a few years
past. But now she too has come up boldly
and taken her stand side by side with her
sister churches. I hold in my band the in-
dignant protest of a large number of the clergy
of Pennsylvania to the defence of slavery as a
divine institution by Bishop Hopkins.
Mr. CHAMBERS. Only seventy.
Mr. DANIEL. That is a very fair number
for one State.
It is in these words ;
" The subscribers deeply regretting the fact
of the extensive circulation through this dio-
cese of a letter by John Henry Hopkins, of
the Diocese of Vermont, in defence of South-
ern slavery, compels them to make this public
protest. It is not their province to mix in
any political canvass. But as ministers of
Christ, in the Protestant Episcopal Church, it
becomes them to deny complicity or sympathy
with such defence.
"This attempt, not only to apologize for
slavery in the abstract, but to advocate it as
it exists in the cotton States, and in the States
which sell men and women in the open market
as their staple product, is, ill their judgment,
unworthy of any servant of Jesus Christ. As
an effort to sustain, on Bible principles, the
States in rebellion against the government,
41 |
in the wicked attempt to establish by force of
arms a tyranny under the name of republic,
whose ' corner-stone ' shall be the perpetual
bondage of the African, it, challenges their
indignant reprobation."
This document is headed by Alonzo Potter,
D. D., LL. D., the Bishop of that State.
I know the Southern clergy have appealed
to Europe in behalf of this institution as a
divine one, and to enlist their sympathies,
but so far from finding any real sympathy on
that side of the water, a communication there-
from couched in the strongest language of
rebrobation, and signed by 4,000 English and
French clergymen, was sent to this country
by representatives of their own body, ex-
pressing their entire sympathy with the gov-
ernment in this struggle. What else could we
expect from the land of John Wesley, of
Clarkson and Wilberforce?
There is, however, one system of slavery
we read of in the Bible having many fea-
tures in common with American slavery. I
mean the enslavement of the Hebrews by
Pharoah. It was similar in its origin, having
been commenced by the surreptitious taking
of Joseph by his brethren and selling him into
a foreign land. The labor was also alike
oppressive and unrequited. There is also a
strong resemblance in the wonderful increase
of slaves in the slave States, above their
brethren in the free States, and the wonderful
increase of these Israelites under their Egyp-
tian bondage. So great was it in the latter
case, that Pharoah became so much alarmed
that he ordered all the males among them to
be slain. There are also other points of simi-
larity. And as God beard their cries and
groans and prayers, and in due time brought
them out, in his wrath, with "a high hand
and an outstretched arm," so I believe He is
about to deliver this people of the African
race, who for these long many years have
been crying to Him by day and by night, and
to purify this nation, even though it may re-
quire years more of this frightful sacrifice of
blood and treasure.
The opinions of the founders of the Re-
public were alike averse to the institution of
slavery. Jefferson says in reference to the
slave-trade—
"The abolition of domestic slavery is the
great object of desire in those colonies, where
it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant
state. But previous to the enfranchisement
of the slaves we have, it is necessary to ex-
clude all further importations from Africa.
Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by-
prohibitions, by imposing duties which might
amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto
defeated by his Majesty's negative; thus pre-
ferring the immediate advantage of a few
British corsairs to the lasting interest of the
American States, and to the rights of human
nature, deeply wounded by this infamous
practice."—Jefferson's Works, vol. 1, p. 135. |
