In 1837, the General Association adopted the following: "Whereas, Slavery, as it exists in our country, is a great moral and social evil; and whereas, no man should feel indifferent respecting that which the God of heaven disapproves, therefore,

"1. Resolved, That the assumed right of holding our fellow-men in bondage, working them without wages, and buying and selling them as property, is obviously contrary to the principles of natural justice and the spirit of the gospel, offensive to God, and ought to cease with the least possible delay.

"2. Resolved, That we approve of free and candid discussion on the subject of slavery, and also of all other proper methods of diffusing light and promoting correct moral sentiment, which may have an influence to do away the evil."-Eman., Aug. 10, 1837.

How well these resolutions, especially the second, correspond with the action of the General Association at the same session, and the year previous, in respect to the labors of antislavery lecturers among their churches, the reader will judge when he shall have seen the record, in another chapter, of the opposition raised against abolitionists. For the present, we let it stand disconnected with those matters, and by the side of other Congregational testimonies concerning slavery.

In 1849, the General Association adopted the following: "Resolved, That, in maintaining correspondence and connection with the two General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church, we look with deep solicitude upon the position of those bodies with respect to the sin of slavery; that our own strong sympathies are with those brethren in these Assemblies who are laboring in an earnest and Christian spirit to put an end to this evil; and that we desire our delegates to those Assemblies, in a decided but courteous manner, to express our deep conviction, that the right of the enslaved, the cause of true religion, and the honor of the Great Head of the Church, require those ecclesiastical bodies to use all their legitimate power and influence for the speedy removal of slavery from the churches under their supervision."

The fact of a religious connection and fraternal intercourse between the Congregationalists of Massachusetts and the slaveholding Presbyterians of the South, is here distinctly recognized, an item of some importance, as we sometimes hear it confidently denied. The manner in which the Old School General Assembly, as already mentioned, repulsed this remon

strance, affords some evidence that they regarded it as having been uttered in earnest. It affords, at the same time, an occasion and an opportunity for the General Association of Massachusetts to show, by their future course and position, whether they are prepared to carry out the principles involved in this testimony. The alternative is now fairly presented to them, of forbearing a repetition of that testimony, or of ceasing to "maintain correspondence and connection" with the Old School Presbyterian Church.

THE CONVENTION OF CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS of Massachusetts, in 1848, appointed a committee to prepare a report on slavery. The committee made an elaborate report in 1849. The Convention approving of "the general principles and results of the same," authorized its publication.* The annual report of the Am. & For. A. S. Society says, that it contains some things which they (the anti-slavery committee) cannot approve, but that, on the whole, it bears "a faithful testimony against the wrongfulness of slavery." From some extracts it appears that this document denies that "slavery, as it exists in the United States, and as it has been legalized,' is sanctioned by the Bible. It affirms that the Mosaic institutions are "utterly repugnant, and destructive to, all slaveholding and slavery;" and finally, that "it well becomes the Convention of Congregational Ministers of this ancient Commonwealth solemnly to declare to the world their deep conviction of the injustice and inhumanity of the system of slavery, and of its absolute repugnance to all the principles of the word of God."

GENERAL CONFERENCE OF MAINE.

This body is composed of Congregational ministers and lay delegates. In 1836, the Conference

'Resolved, That slaveholding, as it exists in a portion of these United States, is a great sin against God and man, for which the nation ought to

* Published by T. R. Marvin, Boston: 92 pages. This Convention consists of both "Orthodox" and Unitarian Congregational ministers, associated for some special objects.

humble itself, and for the speedy and entire removal of which, every Christian ought to pray, and use all suitable means within his reach."-Eman.

The Congregational ministers and churches of Maine, as a body, have appeared to be more earnest in their condemnation of slavery, than those of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

66

In 1846, the General Conference adopted a paper expressing their 66 surprise and grief" at the then recent action of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which, say they, appears to be directly at variance with the former report made by the General Assembly in 1818, and to be intended as a justification of the system of slavery now existing in the Southern States."-Chr. Inv., Feb. 1846.

CONGREGATIONAL PUBLICATIONS.

The Christian Spectator, the organ of the New Haven or New School Theology of New England, was earlier in its defence of slavery than the Old School Doctors at Princeton, or the Professor at Andover.

"The Bible contains no explicit prohibition of slavery. It recognizes, both in the Old and New Testaments, such a constitution of society, and it lends its authority to enforce the mutual obligations resulting from that constitution. Its language is, 'Slaves, obey your masters, and, masters, give unto your slaves that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven.' There is neither chapter nor verse of holy writ which lends any countenance to the fulminating spirit of universal emancipation, of which some specimens may be seen in some of the newspapers.”—New Haven Chr. Spectator, Sept., 1832, Vol. II., No. 5, p. 473; Gen. Temp., April 17, 1833.

"Domestic slavery, in the light of the Scriptures, and in the light of common sense, is justifiable to the same extent, and on exactly the same principles with despotism on a larger scale. The right and the wrong of both is, materially, perhaps we should say precisely, the same." "What is the duty of the Emperor of Russia towards his fifty millions of slaves? Is it his crime that they are his slaves ?" &c., &c.—Ib.

*

The innocency of "despotism" in general is strange doc trine in America, and among the sons of the Puritans, admitting, for the sake of the argument, that chattel slavery is no worse-which is not true.

On the vitally important subject of oral instruction for slaves, as a substitute for the reading of the scriptures, the Congre

gational press, in New England, to some extent, took substantially, the ground of the following extracts. The Portland Christian Mirror, if we mistake not, contained some suggestions in that direction.

The Editor of the Vermont Chronicle, (Rev. Joseph Tracy,) afterwards Editor of the Boston Recorder, and more recently assistant Editor of the N. Y. Observer, wrote of the slaves as follows:

"They have a right to such religious and other instruction as they are capable of receiving. When they have profited by that, they will be capable of receiving more, and so on, till they become capable of performing the duties of freemen and THEN they will have a right to be FREE. That they have a right to be taught to read, immediately, we do not say, but their right to be taught that which it will be immensely difficult, all but impossible, to teach them without reading, is as evident as the sun at noon-day."-Vermont Chronicle, vide Emancipator, March 11, 1834.

"The art of reading, we know, wonderfully increases the facility with which we may fit ourselves for the performance of duty, but it is possible to become safe citizens without it. We, therefore, PASS NO SENTENCE, either OF CONDEMNATION OR APPROVAL, ON THOSE WHO WITHHOLD THIS ART FROM

THEIR SLAVES. We only say they must be educated. You must educate them. Take your own way to do it. If you find it SAFE to put books into their hands, it will diminish your labor immensely. If not, you must do it, nevertheless. The labor of educating them without books will be immense, but, books or no books, it must be done, and if books are UNSAFE instruments, you must work the harder."-Sermon of Rev. Joseph Tracy, before the Vermont Col. Soc.

"Capable of receiving!" How long before they will be 'capable" of learning to read? What right have one class of men to sit in judgment, and decide upon the capabilities of another class to receive and study the scriptures? If we may "pass no sentence of condemnation" on this assumption in America, then we must cease our condemnation of it in Spain and Italy.

CHAPTER XV.

POSITION OF THE AMERICAN CHURCHES, ETC. CONTINUED.

IV.-BAPTISTS.

Charleston (S. C.) Association-Savannah River (Geo.) ditto-Goslein (Va.) dittoRev. Dr. Furman-Sale of his negroes-Dr. Bolles-"Pleasing union" among Am. Baptists-"Southern brethren, generally Slaveholders"-North Carolina Association-Baptist Triennial Convention-Board of Foreign Missions-Acting Board at Boston-Baptist Home Mission Society-Am. and For. Bible SocietyAm. Bap. Publication Society.

UNLIKE Presbyterians and Methodists, the Baptists are subject to no great ecclesiastical body, holding supervision over all the Churches and members of the denomination, Northern and Southern. The non-slaveholding portion, therefore, of the Baptist sect, at the North, can plead no organic difficulties, of an ecclesiastical character, in the way of their entire separation from the sin of slaveholding, and their untrammeled religious testimony against it. If they receive the sin into their pulpits, and seat it at their communion tables, it is not because the canons of their church require. them to submit to such arrangements, nor because any Bishops, Conferences, or General Assemblies, have imposed the burthen upon them. The bond of affinity and sympathy between Baptist slaveholders and Baptist Anti-Slavery men, if it exists at all, exists voluntarily, and not by compulsion-exists as a veritable reality and not as a mere matter of appearance and form.

That Southern Baptists, like Southern Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, are commonly slaveholders (except those of them who are slaves,) we need not spend time to