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is a part of his gracious plan for the salvation of the whole human family; and that he will accomplish it, in his own merciful way and time, by the influences of his gracious Spirit, who, we trust, will christianize the whites and blacks togeth er, as appears now to be doing, and thereby make us all willing in the day of the almighty power of his grace."

The documents mentioned in the preceding letter are as follows:

"But the most encouraging occurrence within our limits during the past year. is the uncommon attention to religion among the slaves and the free people of color attached to the several congregations, and the unexampled efforts which have been made for their instruction. Nothing can afford a more pleasing evidence of the actual increase of vital godliness, and of the approach of millennia! light, than a general Christian attention to the immortal interests of these long neglected people. We record with the highest pleasure, that new and continually increasing exertions are made in their favor, and extraordinary advantages for religious improvement bestowed upon them.

"Within the last year several Sunday schools have been instituted for them exclusively, where great numbers of them have been, and still are taught to read the Bible and instructed in the principles of the Gospel. These and other means of grace are eminently successful with these people. Great numbers of them make a profession of religion, and generally give good evidence of vital piety. Several churches have three and four hundred black communicants, who attend upon the ministry of the pastors, and have besides pious and intelligent black men who conduct their religious exercises on the Sabbath, and several times through the week; who teach them the catechism and prepare them for examination previously to their admission as members of the church; and generally they give as good evidence of a work of grace upon their hearts, and as much adorn their Christian profession, as professing Christians usually. Much indeed yet remains to be done. Deplorable are the darkness and desolation in which multitudes of slaves within our bounds still continue; nevertheless it is a subject of the most heart felt thankfulness, that the Christian community is in some measure awake to the importance of the subject, and that so auspicious a beginning is made in attempting to evangelize the heathen within our border."

"Art. 6. Persons of color shall be encouraged by the society to partake of the benefits of the Sunday school institutions; but in all cases where they are slaves, they shall be required to produce to the attending Managers a certificate from their owners, that it is their pleasure they should attend and be instructed."

Before we proceed to remark upon these extracts, we must intreat the patient attention of our southern brethern to what we are about to say. Unless they will consent to read coolly, it is in vain that they read at all; and they had better throw away our pages at once, than unfit themselves, not only to weigh our attempts at reasoning, but to receive hereafter any proposals for the melioration of the condition of the blacks, whether made by their own people, or their northern friends. We consider it, indeed one of the darkest signs, as to the future prospects of the slave-holding country, that a vast mjaority of slave-holders, as we fully believe, and of the most respectable slaveholder's too, are unwilling that the subject of slavery should be publicly discussed in any manner, or in any place, by northern or by southern people. We ask the most candid of our southern friends, if this is not the case? And this being the case, how are any general measures to be adopted for the melioration of the condition of the blacks?

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The time must come, when this subject shall be boldly discussed, no matter how wisely and temperately, but still boldly, even in the southern states, or the time of deliverance to the slave-holding country will never come. It would be better undoubtedly, that the southern people should take the lead in this discussion; but if they persevere in silence, is all the rest of the world bound to be silent also? There is, we admit, a time to be silent, as well as a time to speak; but are not all moral agents, who have the faculty of speaking or writing, to judge on their own responsibility, when this faculty is to be used? We believe that the southern people generally mistake their true interests in this momentous concern. The sooner they enter publicly and avowedly upon the work of reformation, the more easily will it be accomplished. At present, with the various precautions which are used, there is little danger of a servile insurrection; but, if nothing is done to improve the condition of the slaves, the case will be far different forty years hence; and at last the gathering clouds will burst. There are many causes, which operate to produce a greater increase of the black population, than of the whites, in all the low country. These causes will continue to operate. And the disparity will at last be so great, that the whites will not be able to hold the blacks in subjection. Many southern gentlemen are fully convinced of this. Mr. Jefferson has recently given it as his opinion, as we are informed from a most respectable source, that the blacks will ultimately be the sole possessors of the low country, and the whites will be obliged to migrate to other regions. Another southern gentleman, whose character is well known throughout the United States, has expressed the same opinion. They add, to be sure, that all this will be done peaceably. Credat Judæus Appella. It is an easy thing, for the sake of obtaining present repose, and avoiding present responsibility, to say, that one of the most surprising revolutions, which can take place in the human condition, will be accomplished peaceably. What rational ground is there to hope, that the whole wealth of a country can drop from the bands of its owners into the hands of those, who have been absolutely destitute of property; and that all political power can be transferred from the gov ernors of an extensive and populous region to those, who have had no political rights, but have been from time immemorial in a state of absolute political nihility;-what ground is there to hope, that all this can be done peaceably? It may be questioned whether, according to the ordinary process of God's government, such an event is possible. It certainly is not possible, consistently with all past experience of human affairs, unless a gradual preparation is made; unless a thousand hands are employed in laying the foundation of the future structure; unless all that is wise, and public-spirited, and patriotic, and self-denying; all that is high and holy in purpose; all that is generous and efficient in action, be impressed into the service. The character of the whites, to a great extent, must be altered; the character of the blacks almost universally must be elevated. This cannot be done in a day. It is a work of considerable time, and of incalculable labor. But it must be done within a moderate number of years, or it will be too late to avoid the impending danger. Not a day should be lost. With every returning year some prominent advance should be made; some new prin

ciple, in the general plan of melioration, should be brought to the test: some new accession to the cause of benevolence should be gained. It is, therefore, in our judgment, an imperious duty to discuss the subject, and to hold it continually before the eyes of the American people. If quietly going to sleep would cure the evil, this would doubtless be the easiest way; but a sluggish acquiescence in any abuse never yet removed it; especially in such an abuse as domestic slavery, and one so closely entwined with all the passions and interests of a populous community.

But in what manner should the discussion be conducted? This is indeed a grave question, and demands serious consideration. We answer generally, that the object of the discussion should be to do good. The writers and speakers should feel the subject to be one, which involves the interests of this vast continent, through all future times. They should utterly discard all sectional prejudices; at least this should be their constant endeavor, though it is not reasonable to require of them entire exemption from one of the most common infirmities of men. They should feel the most unmingled kindness for those, who are afflicted with slavery, if themselves are so happy as to be exempt from it. Especially should we at the north avoid, both in feeling and expression, every thing like exultation in comparing our condition with that of our southern brethren, as though our own wisdom or goodness had made us to differ. We should avoid, also, the injustice of condemning a whole community for the faults of a part; or im- 1 plying that the actual slave-holders are more unfavorably affected by their condition, than other persons would be, if placed in the same circumstances. We should rejoice in every indication of good, be it ever so small; and should hope for success in every incipient work of benevolence, so far as a regard to the teachings of experience will warrant. We should not, however, from a wish to think and speak kindly of the existing state of things, or from a spurious benevolence, confound the eternal principles of right and wrong. We should not be so silly as to think, that calling slavery a small evil, or a blessing. would make it so; or that all the injustice, and all the cruelty, and all the mental and moral degradation, which have invariably attended slavery in a large community, are at once to be cancelled, so that none of the guilt will remain, by simply alleging, that slavery was entailed upon the present generation by their ancestors. The cause of truth should never be betrayed by seeming to admit, for a moment, that black men have no rights; or that, because they cannot be trusted with the possession of all their rights at once, they and their posterity shall be doomed to interminable servitude.

It is sometimes retorted upon the people of the north, that they should say nothing upon the question of slavery, for they make the most rigid and cruel masters themselves, whenever they remove to the south, and become possessed of slaves. Without pretending to know how accurate this statement is, we are perfectly willing to admit its entire accuracy, for the purposes of this argument, or any other ar gument, which we would hold with the southern people. Every cruel and tyrannical master, however, whether from the south, or the north, must bear the guilt of tyranny and cruelty; and no small guilt it is,

however sanctioned by fashion, custom, or numbers, or disguised by the inoffensive names of correction and discipline.

It is also said, that northern people should be silent on this subject, because vessels have been fitted out from their ports for the slave. trade; even since that trade has been denounced by the whole civilized world. The disgraceful fact must be admitted; and, to all who are responsible for it, the allegation that they should be silent is valid. They would have no right to complain, indeed, if they were chained to the oar for life, and made to exhaust the bitter cup of slavery to its dregs. Though they may roll in wealth, they are now considered, wherever known, as the basest of thieves, and the most criminal of murderers; and, we may safely add, if legal proof of their guilt could be obtained, there is no crime for which they would more certainly suffer death, at the hands of New-England judges and juries.

After these admissions, it is our duty to say, that the northern people generally, and the best informed, most intelligent and most religious part of the community in particular, are accustomed to entertain none but kind feelings toward their southern brethren. Every indication of good is here received with unaffected pleasure; and, as all well grounded hopes of the permanent improvement of the black population must rest upon the progress of religion, no accounts are listened to with greater eagerness than those, which exhibit the power of religion upon the minds of this depressed portion of our race. We do not forget, however, in our joy on account of every token for good, that the silent establishment of a few Sabbath schools, in the most favored spots of the slave-holding country, is almost nothing, compared with the wants of a million and a half of immortal beings, very few of whom can read the Bible, and by far the greater part of whom are utterly ignorant of religion, and utterly destitute of religious instruction.

There is another point, with reference to the feelings of our northern people, to which we think it right to bear a decided testimony; especially as the inhabitants of the south are altogether in a mistake on the subject. It is this. In the discussion of the Missouri Question, here at the north, and so far as we could learn, throughout the whole nonslave-holding country, there was less of what could justly be called party spirit, or local jealousy, or sectional prejudice, than we ever knew in any great national question. There was less of selfishness, and of a narrow regard to the present interests of a few, than is often found in reference to political measures. What passed in retired circles of active politicians we pretend not to know; but even there we would not impute sinister motives without evidence. It is a sad comment on the doctrine of human depravity, that public men must of course be deemed to act from base principles, not only without any assignable inducements of a selfish nature, but when the cause which they espouse is, apparently at least, the cause of equal political rights, amieng the members of a great confederacy, and of personal freedom, so far as it can be safely enjoyed. And when the Missouri Question was decided, instead of secing proofs of political disappointment, mortification, or revenge, we observed unequivocal evidence of deep, pub. lic, and general grief, not from considerations of a local or transient nature, but because the principle of interminable slavery was, in effect,

sanctioned; because our professions of attachment to freedom wert held up to the reproach of the civilized world; because, as it was ap prehended, the southern people themselves had misjudged as to their future interests, and, for a little, partial, imaginary relief, had greatly increased the danger to themselves, and to the whole western country; and because all hopes of limiting slavery, either as to extent or duration, were utterly blasted, and a vast impenetrable cloud settled upon the future, excluding every ray of light, and covering with indescribable gloom the fairest regions of this continent. The mind was fixed principally upon the condition of unborn millions, and upon the revo lutions to be apprehended after the present generation shall be laid in the dust. For the truth of this representation we confidently appeal to every intelligent man, who is extensively acquainted with the state of feeling in the northern states.

With respect to the constitutional right of Congress to restrain slavery in Missouri, we are happy to say, that gentlemen in the southern states, who would be pronounced by all parties worthy to be consid ered as authorities in such a case, are fully agreed with the people of the north.

We now proceed to consider some of the topics, which are introduced in the letters, from which we have taken extracts. In doing so, we desire it to be understood, that we do not regard the writers as opponents, but as friendly to the improvement of the black population, and anxious for the ultimate abolition of slavery.

With respect to the ferment," which the article in our June number produced, we can only say, that to excite passion, or provoke opposition, was far from our object. If any thing was there said, which had a tendency to produce these effects on a truly candid mind, we are sorry for it. But our southern friends must be aware, that the simple fact of the existence of irritation is by no means conclusive evidence, that there is just occasion for it. We could easily illustrate this position by a reference to scriptural history. It is, indeed, an indisputable truth, that no great abuse can be removed without producing a great deal of irritation. Look at the monstrous abuses practised by the Romish church, and at the exposure of them in Germany, Eng Jand and Scotland. These abuses were acknowledged by the advo cates of that church, and it was only contended, that they should be attacked mildly and gently, that they might be gradually and silently corrected. But if the reformers had yielded to these representations; if Luther had written against Popery, in such a manner as not to of fend the most bigoted and interested of the Popish clergy; what would have become of the reformation?

The southern people are now unanimous in condemning the slavetrade; but when this trade was first attacked, the intrepid assailants were vilified, as a set of miserable drivellers, who, under the cant of religion and humanity, were willing to put daggers into the hands of all the negroes in the West Indies; who, instead of benefitting the blacks, either in Africa or the islands, would injure them all; and who would, in fact, produce by their measures, if Parliament should adopt them, nothing but revolt and insurrection, burning and massacre, in all the sugar colonies. Never was there more irritation, on any subject, than

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