Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1838-07-04
VOL. x. NO. IL.

or pictures on paper, samples of which
were put up in the packages you ordered q
few days ago. such as the SlaVe-Msrke.
in the District of Columbia, with members
of Congress attending it-Views of Slave
~ in the South-A Lynch Coart IN the
Slave-states-The Scourging of Mr. Dres-
ser by a Vigilance Committee in the Pub
lie Square of Nashville-the Plundering
of the Post Office in. Charleston, S. G.,
and the confagration of par Of its con-
tents, &C. &C., I am apprised Of no other
means of propagating our doctrines than
by oral and written discussions.
"l3. Are yo~r hopes and expectations Of ssceess
increased lesseHed by tie ereatS ofthe last year
and especially by the Gctio" Of this COngressf And
a'H y0ur ereTtto~s be relGred or increGsed"
ANswER.-The events ofthe last year,
including the action of the present Con-
gress, are of the same character with the
events Of the eighteen months which i'm
mediately preceded it. In the question
before US, they may be regardeded as one
series. l would say-answering your in-
terrogatory generally--that, none ofthem,
however unpropitious 10 the cause of the
abolitionists they may appear. TO those
who look at the subject from an opposite
point to the one they occupy. seem, thus
far, in any degree, to have lessened their
hopes and expectations. The events allu-
ded to have not come altogether unexpect- !
ed They are regarded as the Legitimate
manifestations of slavery, necessary, par
haps, in the presen: dull and unapprehen-
sive state of mind as to human rights, to be
brought out and spread before the people.
before they will suficietly revolt against
slavery itself,
I. They are seen in the CHURCH and
in the practice of its individual members.
The Southern portion of the American
Church may now be regarded, as having
admitted the dogma, that, NaUery is d.
cine institution. She has been forced by
the Anti-SlaHery discussion into this posi-
tion-either Ito cease from slave-holding,
or formally TO adopt the only alternative,
that slave.holding is right. She has cho-
sen the lternative-reluctantly, to be sure,
but substantially, and, within the last year,
almost unequivocally. In defending what
was dear to her, she has been forced to
cast away her garments-and thus to re-
veal deformity of which she herself, be-
fore, was scarcely conscious, and the ex-
istence of which others did not credit. So
much for the action ofthe Southern Church
as body. On the part of her MEMBERS,
the revelation of time-serving spirit that
not only yielded TO the ferocity of the null
titude, but fell in with 1t, may be reckoned
among the events of the last three years.
Instances Of this may be found in the at
tendance ofthe "CIergy of all denomina-
tons" at tumultuous meeting Of the ci,i-
zens of Charleston, S. c., held in August,
1885, for the purpose of reducing to system
their unlawful surveillance and control of
the post-office and mail and in the aacri.
ty with which they obeyed the popular
, call to dissolve the Sunday-schools for the
: instruction ofthe colored people. Also, in
the fact, that, throughout the whole South,
church members are not only found in the
= Vigilance Committees tribunals organic
: ed in opposition to the laws of the states
where they exis) but uniting with the mer-
S CHESS and the profigate in passing SEN
r tence consigning to Infamous and excruci-
? ating, if not extreme, punishment, persons,
: by their own acknowed cement, Innocent
= of any unlawful act. Out Of sixty persons
; that composed the vigilance committee
0 which condemned Mr. Dresser, to be
r scourged in the public square of N ashville,
e TwENTY-sEvENw were members of church
b es, and ane of them professed teacher Of
r Christianity. A member of the commit
!, tee stated afterward, in a newspaper of
e which he was the editor, that Mr.. Dresser
e had not laid himself liable to any puni,b-
Y ment kno1rm to the laos. Another instance
: is TO be found in the conduct of the Rev.
O VIM. S. Plummer, Of Virginia. Having
been absent from Richmond, when the
e ministers Of the gospel assembled togeth-
h er, formally TO testify their adherence Of
y the abolitonis,s, he addressed the Chair
e man of the Committee of Correspondence
e a note, in which he uses this Ian guage:-
e "If abolitionists will set the country in n
o blaze, it is but fair that they should have
1t the first warming at the fire." Let them
e understand, that they will be caught, if
v they come among US, and they will take
n good heed to keep out of our way" Mr..
= P. has no doubtful standing in the Presby-
= terrain Church to which he is attached
J. he has been regarded as one of its bright
s est ornaments" To drive the slave. hold
e ing church & its members from the equiv
;, ocal the natural position. from which they
d had so long successfully defended slavery :;
o to compel them to elevate their practice TO
l. an even height with their avowed priuci-
n plies, or to degrade their principles down
), to the level of their known practice, was
s preliminary, necessary in the view of alb.
IF olitionists, either for bringing that part of
IS the church into the common action against
l. slavery, or as ground for treating it as
5 confederate with oppressors. So far, then.