Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-01-07
COMMUNICATIONS.
For the Telegraph.
THE BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT
SOCIETY,"


Having been recently favored with an
opportunity Of giving my unworthy name to
an instrument now in circulation in Addison
County for the signatures Of Baptist Minis
tiers, residing here, containing a remon-
STRANGE against the course pursued by the
Board Of the Baptist General Tract Society,
in passing certain offensive resolutions touch
ing the subject OF slavery, permit me, through
the Telegraph, to call the attention of my
brethren IN the ministry, IN other parts Of the
state, to this momentous subject.
The great question now pending, is not so
much whether t1CO millions and a half of
poor, miserable, down-trodden vassals in this
land of boosted liberty, shall be free, as it is
the death-strugole of freedom and dcspotism
mselves.-Whether southern slave-hold-
ers shall crush beneath their iron tread the
bodies aad spirits Of northern freemen,-
whether, al the stern mandate of southern
task-masters. free-born white men shall
cringe, like the beaten spaniel, at their feet
whether, at their menacing alarm, every
! freeman shall be gagged, every book contain
ing word against slavery be committed to
the flames, every printing-press muzzlcd,
and every minister Of the gospel stand trem-
bling, waiting the beck Of southern despots,
to direct him where to step, and when, and
on what subjects to speak.
In all this, the native loathsomcness CT
American slavery is daily discovering itself
! Feature after feature, limb after limb, and
member after member Of this atrociOu5 syo-
! stem. have been uncovered; till. we had
! thought that the monster now stood before
US, in all its offensive proportions. in its own
native, bloody, frlghtful portraiture. But
alas we were deceived. We are now call
ed upon to contemplate another feature Of
the monster This unholy system has not
only controlled the American Colonization
Society, to considerable extent the bar, hall,
the press, the mob and the pulpit, but it has
now struck for controlling the benevolent
operations Of the church-ave, the church
itself. Now. dear brethren, look at the fol-
lowing facts.
If am not entirely misinformed, the sub
ject under consideration stands thus A GER
| tain gentleman, while laboring at the south
as an agent Of the Baptist General Tract So
ciety, became acquainted with certain gen.
tiemen who were thought not to be unfriend-
ly to the cause of abolition. The address of
these gentlemen, 1t appears, the agent gave
to the obnoxious American Antl-Slavery So
cletg, SO that the Society might not misdi-
rect their efforts. For this enormous offence.
certain southern Baptists arose in their wrath
and declared that, unless the Tract Society
would prohibit their agents from 'intcrmed-
ding with that question, the question of
slavery-they would withdraw their support.
: No fault is found with the agent for neglect
ing the business or interests of the Society,"
no accusation brought against him for turn
ing aside from the duties of his agency, to
agitate the subject Of slavery. They de-
mand that the Board chain the consciences
and gag the mouths ofall of its agents, against
one of the most fagitious and Remembering
sins that ever polluted the church and the
E world.
Immediately upon this angry threat, the
Society quails before the might of southern
despotism and forthwith the Executive
Board issues a censorship in the form of res
olutions, forbidding their agents to interfere
with the agitating question Of slavery" &
requiring of them "a pledge that they will,
in no way, intermeddle with that question
while in the commission of that Society"
Now | ask, beloved brethren, if, in this
connexioD, and under these circumstances,
it is not your sense, that the Baptist General
Tract Society has identified herself with the
: unholy system Of American slavery-dishon-
ored herself, and polluted her garments with
blood? What should we think of the Society
if it had passed such resolutions respecting
Sabbath-breaking, intemperanee, profanity,
theft, piracy and murder? And can we aid
in sustaining an institution which turns the
whole power which it gains from our sup