1858.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.           445

we do ask for, and expect, entire and complete protection from
their assaults upon our property.

These Abolitionists, aided by the funds yearly remitted
from Great Britain, (which for the year 1856, amounted to
the sum of $150,750,*) and augmented by contributions in
the Free States, (which for the same year 1856, amounted
to $38,162,†) and the whole dispensed through their societies
and secret agencies, now traverse our State in all directions
under cover of some legitimate occupation, such as pedlars,
lecturers, venders of patent medicines, singing masters, book
agents, and other ostensible pursuits. They explore our State,
partake of our hospitality, and form alliances with the Free
Negroes, who carry out their instructions by aiding the es-
cape of Slaves. These Free Negroes now number 90,000,
and are rapidly increasing.† Our State has done much for
them, and they repay our kindness by the grossest acts of
treachery and ingratitude, by acting the part of allies with,
and spies to these Abolitionists.

In our midst are also found those who desecrate the high
and holy offices of Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord and
Saviour, by "teaching for doctrine the traditions of men of
corrupt minds and destitute of the truth:''—Tim. ch. vi.
These men, under cover of ministerial functions, aim at eccle-
siastical supremacy on the one hand and are reckless of the
rapid decline of vital piety in our country, on the other.
They will not teach the whole council of God; they will eith-
er distort the plain truths of Revelation, or they will with-
hold essential portions of it. They never inculcate the du-
ties and obligations set forth in the following Scriptures, viz:
Ephesians, ch. vi., 5 to 10; Titus, ch. ii., 9, 10; the Book of
Philemon, wherein Onesimus, a runaway slave was returned
by St. Paul to his owner; Peter I., ch. ii., 18, Leviticus, ch. xxv.,
44 to 47; and hundreds of other parallel passages, which ev-
ery man who reads the Bible can easily produce.

The word slave, and the terms home-born slave and bond
servant, so frequently occurring in the Bible, from Genesis to
Revelations, they contend are misnomers, synonymous with
hired servants, and no where convey the idea of property in
the person of the slave. And when driven from this sophis-
try by the plain interpretation of the Bible—by the best theo-
logical commentaries, and by the lights of profane history,
all conspiring to prove beyond a doubt the existence of Slave-

* See the London Times newspaper.

† See Twenty-fourth Anniversary of New England Abolition Society, held
at the City Assembly Rooms, in New York city, in May last; reported by
Francis Jackson, of Boston, as Treasurer.

‡ Gov. Hicks, in his Inaugural Address, says over 86,000, He calls the
earnest attention of the Legislature to this subject,