The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-29

sbity resting upon us, in company with Other
christians, so long as American slavery is upheld
by laws framed and executed by professedly
christian people And is there not wide door
open for us to demonstrate with the general gov
eminent against the continued infraction of the
constitution
On referring to the history of the legal aboli.
ton of the African slave-trade, we find among
those who were the most zealously engaged in
that great work of philanthropy, many of our
most esteemed and valued brethren. There was
not wanting those who could for the cause of
outraged humanity, stand forward as the bold, un-
compromising advocates of justice and bcnevo-
lence, regardless of the sneers and frowns of a
unoffending, seduced progeny of African negroes,
were denounced as criminals of the first magni-
ude, without the essay Of a soft apology from the
abolitionists of that day. To know that the slave
trade was sinful, was deemed a sufficient authori-
Ity for vigorous exerton of the means used in
its suppression. And why should it be otherwise
at this time Can the standard of right and
wrong be subject to variation p? Can iniquity be
less inquous? Can oppression be less oppress-
i've! Or can the duty of christians be less in
cumbent now than formerly?
We apprehend that the prejudice against color
which entwines itself so closely around the inst-
tutions of the South, warpng justice from its le-
climate course, and fattering the votaries of sa-
very with the hope that God seeth not their trans
gressions, does not stop at the Potomac nor scru-
pie to pass the frontier of the free states. We
strongly suspect that it is round about and in the
very midst Of many of the citizens of the North,
among those even who admit in the abstract that
slavery is wrong and concur with us in the wish
that it had no existence within our borders; for
we cannot behold the distinction made between
the white and the nominally free colored but as
evidence in support of that suspicion. We can
assembled professedly to worship an all-wise be-
ing, who has declared himself no respecter of per-
sons, otherwise than proof of the desolating ef
feet of that prejudice; and under deep convic-
ton of the incompatibility of that prejudice with
the benign, generous principles of christianity we
are concerned to invite Friends to more close
and scrupulous examination of their own hearts,
to see if there is not remnant of that unchrstian
the majority of the American people are opposed
to the evidence, which is the legitimate fruit of
examination on this momentous question, so long
will the institution be fostered by gain-loving,
though prolessedly christian community, until
God in his mercy or in judgment sweeps it away.
There are PROFESSIONALLY difficulties of no Or
binary character in the way Of emancipation; but
Notwithstanding those difficulties are great, yet we
feel consoling assurance that when the public
mind being faithfully operated upon by those who
are alive to the enormity of the sinfulness of sla-
very becomes thoroughly enlightened on this sub
ject, and after honestly trying the system by the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, comes to the unreserved
conclusion that it is as we view it, exceedingly
sinful and in direct opposition to the principles of
the christian religion and as that conviction be-
gets prayerul disposition of the heart, and a
looking unto Him for help who alone can turn the
wilderness into fruitful field, and make crooked
paths slraight,-those difficulties will dwindle in
to insignifcance.
We are strangers to any case in which the be-
nevolent principles of christianity have been faith
fully carried out, without meeting with difficulties
of greater or less magnitude. We are reminded
of the difficulties which opposed the liberation of
The Hebrews from Egyptian bondage; of those
which opposed the spread of the gospel in aposto-
ic days; Of the difficulties attending those who
protested against the assumed power of the Ro-
mish Church in the days when vital christianity
began again to dawn on the benighed sons and
daughters of men and of those which our early
predecessors encountered in the discharge of their
duties as faithful servants of Christ when the per-
secuted had become the prosecutors of those who
dssented from their creeds and on reviewing
those times we are induced TO inquire, where
would have been the Hebrews, the Apostles the
Reformers, and where would have been our own
society, If the ancient advocates of civil and reli-
oious libertv had been deferred bv the presence |