Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1840-05-27
A D R E s S
% sou H9ERN BApr1srs

| "PsS'G A"tt'StdCerV Coz
re"t'on. h0ldiag its first session in :,
cay OF Neac York, on the 28th, 2eth M
son Of April, 1910, to The Bn1 t,'
Shareholders Of The Southern Stotes.-
Fathers and Brethren
We have assembled, to the number
one hundred and len persons, at the write
call OF seven hundred Baptists from thu,
teen Of the United States. Ofthis pumbe,
about four hundred are accredited mini.
ters of Jesus Christ.
"A conviction of duty, which, we hum
bly, conceive. is based upon the fear .
God' and the love of our fellow men :
whether bond or free, oppressors or on
pressed,-constrains US to submit fav
'noughts :or your special and candid con
slderatIon. In doing SO, we appeal. with
'he hrmest confidence, to the Omnjscien
God, for the recilude of our intentions
we soiemnly profess prayerful and sub.
mlsslve reverence for the principles of his
recorded VIII. We feelingly avow ten.
'er sympathy, not onl y for the slove, but
also Tor you, upon many of whom slavery
IS entalled by heritage, and enforced bv
law; while memorable habits. formed in
the passive state of infancy, as we'll as uni
versal usage, impose bonds upon YOUR
selves scarcely less strong, or less opores.
lVe' than the letters ofthe slave. q Fl
Here us,then, with patience & kindness
II is our firm conviction that the whole
system of American Slavery, inatheorv
and practice, is violation of the instincts
OF nature,-a perversion ofthe first princi-
plies oiJustice,-and positive transgress-
Ion OF the revealed will of God. For.
man lnsllnctively seeks happiness and re-
pels outrage; while slavery compels him
to torego the former and endure the latter
Tor hlmselfand his posterity until the end
OF time-Justice, in lis very nature as
sumes the existence of free moral agents
mutually bound by established princ1ples
and acting towards each other with perfect
reciprocity. We do not speak of Justice
towards a chauel personal" horse, or
swine. But the statutes of the South
pronounce slave "a chattel personal to
all intents and purposes whatsoever; - and
thus set him beyond the pale of Justice, as
utterly disqualified 10 assert a right and
TO redress wrong.
Divine revelation, as committed to Mo.
ses and expounded by our Lord, teaches
that plous self-love is the only proper
measure of our love towards others. Does
slavery, pecially its laws which quench
or smother in the slave the light of the
mind, which tear from his agonized bos-
ON the dearest objects of his natural affec-
ton, conform to that rule Of Holy Writ?
We believe that God only has the right
to take away the health, the wife, the
children, or the life of men guilty of no
social crime. When man, single or asso-
ciated, uses his power for such ends, be
appears to US TO arrogate to himself the
prerogatives Of the Almighty, and to as
sumo responsibility under which an
archangel would stagger.
God, it is true, made use of the Jews to
exterminate certain heather tribes, and to
inflict upon others mild servitude, care
fully defined and restricted. To employ
this mode of punishment, or any other
that he chose, was his unqgestonable
right. But where is the Scripture war;
rant to apply this special license of Jeho-
yah for the extirpation of the human race
at large, or the enslavement of any ma
ton in particular This specific direc-
ton to His oracular people is but an e1-
tiOn that confirms the general rule of His
| Son, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
myself
The heart Of the blessed Jesus was, in
deed, an overlooking fountain of the tender
est sympathy for human woe. Food, health
and lie We're his boon. never withheld.
when solicited; and the gospel preached to
the poor was the peculiar and characteristic
proof of his being the Son of God and the
Savior Of the world. No evidence exists
( that he ever witnessed scene of slavery
It is non shown that Hebrews Of that day
trafRcked In human flesh. The chained
c0me,-she naked gang Of shs cotton fell, J