Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-04-17
THE AMERICAN BOARD.

At the late Missionary Convention at Sy-
racuse, n. Y, while the address from which
we gave some extracts week before last, was
under discussion
"Alvan Stewart said he felt as though a
moral bomb-shell had been thrown into the
midst of the American Board of Missions, to-
day, at about 4 o'clock this afternoon! What
will be the consequence of this explosion in
the moral world, time, the great annotator and
commentator could alone disclose. The Board
and its supporters supposed they had laid up
a stock of good works for eternity; but those
who in their wills had laid by a good amount
TO propagate the unsearchable riches of Christ:
those who had laid upon the altar son after
son, and daughter after daughter, for this
work, had now at last to learn the sum total
Of the whole to be, that the great man of sin
has still contrived to rule and to reign upon
the throne Of the Savior of the world. They
nov find that this Board is but a ioint-stock
concern of the errors of the old world, COM
bined with the faults of the new. This ex-
posure made this a day of sorrow. We see,
alas! that this work of heroic devotion and
enlarged philanthropy, had become ~entangled
Nth moneyed alliances-w with the revolving
corruptions Of the times. We had heard it
maintained that the hws were the sinners,
while the men who lived under the laws, and
carried them out, were guihiess. You might,
in this way, enact a law to repeal the ten
commandments, and all there is in the Bible,
and out of 1t that is good for anything, and
nll would be well the law alone is 10 blame |!
The sum of the proposition is, that the whole
injunctions of the Bible can be subverted with
complete impunity, by a South Carolina Leg
IL ' Tho anctpaF 4 Ill shtc a.. 800
uistry, is this the law is as passive as your
cane. To make il simpler: was it ever known
that a law book had stepped down from the
shelf of a magistrate, and given chase to a
thief, or other offender, arrested him, and
brought him to justice! Some twelve per-
sons had been hunted up, who, it is alleged,
kept men as slaves, for the reason that greater
evils would result to them from omancipa-
ton; and this was attempted to be used as a
mantle under which the accursed system of
slavery might find shelter, and as an ample
shield for the course of the Board in %toIe!at-
ing Shareholders in churches established to
propagate the pure gospel Of Christ among
heather minds. But was there one of this
class who had not said TO a man, or woman,
or child THOU ART MY SLAVE Here it is,
then, that this law, from the shelf of the Judge,
Is called In, and through the masters mouth,
deprives the slave of all his manhood. 1t is
the act OF the master which gives vitality 10
the law. And yet, with this Board, it was
the iaC, and not the master, that was the sin
ner! This reasoning, if he might call it such,
was made use Of TO cheat men out of immor-
tality. If this doctrine be true, this is an H.
Illustration: a man has stolen a pair of horses
-indict the grand larceny, and let the robber
go free! A man has committed arson, hang
ARSON, and shake hands with the man who
applied the torch! Mr.. S. related the case
of slave recently murdered in New-O rleans,
by a drunken master, of which no notice was
taken by the newspapers-no coroner's in
quest was held. The argument was, that the
master had only destroyed his property. lie
spoke deliberately, when he said that he deem,
ed it quite probable, that in less than 20 years
1t would be questionable whether the Chris.
tian religion would not be found to have suc
fered more from the heathenism permitted t.
be engrafted upon it in the mission churches
than heathenism would have received bereG
from the little christianity we had carried t,
heather lands. Look at u church member
slaves; part Of them mulattses; half Of then
living in promiscuoRs concubinage. The doe
trine of tho Board was, say nothing OF this
until you get him into the church, then pu
Iiiy him. The first aEli-slavery sermon, alle
25 years, is yet TO be preached to the Chero
kee Shareholders. IL any one ought to hav,
had religion, simple, pure, unadulterated
taught 10 him, it is the lndian, whether Eas
or West. But they have all along been al
lowed 10 hold their slaves; have been admit
ted 10. communion, without reprocf, in ia
churches Of the Board. When now %reproael
ed with sin, they ask. 'why did not you to
us of this before !! The only honest answC