Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-07-15
Mr., LeaYilt'S Remarks.

We have, at last, through the Vermont Chronicle,
a correct version of Rev. H. F. Lcavt's remarks on
the subject of Slavery in the late Gen. Assembly at
Richmond Va. furnished by himself 1t is as fol-
lows:
"There IS one other subject upon which our General
Convention have spoken out and that the subject of
Slavery And refef to it now, merely to dsabuse
the Southern mind in relation to the North on that one
point () As ministers and chulches we are generally
an-savery in our sentiments, and have always been,
and cannot be otherwise Why, sir the very air from
our mountain tops breathes freedom 10 all. Slavery
could not live there. ~ But then sir, while say this,
say also, that our ministers and churches, and II
do not very much msjudge, the great portion of the
North repudate and condemn much as you, sir, or
any Southern gentleman the denunciatory spirit, which
has sometimes been manifested. (3) We are no Ultra
iss-we do not wish, much less claim, to interfere
with your state Institutions (4) That is matter pecu
liarly your own. All we ask is that in our social and
ecclesiastical intercourse, mutually speak on this
subject in kind and faithful and Christian manner,
for our mutual profting. And wherein are wrong,
or say do any thing wrong, on this or any other
subject ask you in the same spirit to remind us OF
it, and pledge ourselves promptly to set the matter
right We are brethren of a common faith disciples
Of a common Lord-gong to the same judgment and
heaven and we must not suffer sin upon each other,
nor fall out by the way. God forbid" (5)
Ona careful comparison of the foregoing with the
report of the N. Y. Tribune, heretofore published, we
can discover no material difference either in the
timent or expression. The reports almost ldonti
cal Painful as it is to u.s. and must be to the anti
slavery religious public of Vermont whom Mr.. Leav-
lit represented this occasion, and whose confidence
he so largely enjoyed, the conclusion longer be
resisted that he has in this instance furnished addition
al and amentabe evidence of the power of Slavery
to bring Northern men, high in the church, and whose
unti-savey professions tower to heaven to bend the
plant hinges of the knee and pronounce its shbbocth!
We append few notes.
() The subject alluded to, it appears, only to
"disabuse the Southern mind on one point" Was
this the extent of Mr. Leavitts duty the subject of
slavery If we understand the matter rightly, many of
the congregational churches which he represented, in
their church capacity, have passed strong anslavery
resolutions, and all of them have done in their high
er ecclesiastical associations These churches, in
view of the utter snfulness and abomnation of slave
ny, and the inconsistency of continuing fellowship with
those who practice such things, looking forward to
the time when slavehoding churches shall be disfe-
lowshipped, unless in obedience to faithful christian
labor and remonsrance, they shall put away this glar
ing iniquty. The last years State General Conven-
ton, which elected Mr. Leavt as delegate, took this
view of the NATTER if we mistake not They declared
slavery "contrary to the spirit and gospel of Christ
and utterly sinful before God" that 'these evils are
not incidental but inherent in the system, making it
utterly ncurabe, and before heaven and earth abomi-
nable;" and closed with the following resolution;
"Resolued, fnally, That the voice of remonsrance,
which we now in the fear of God and we hope in the
spirit of the gospel lift up against sIaveholding with
all its manifold evils, is addressed not only to our
churches, but to all those ecclesiastical bodies who
hold christian correspondence with us; especially such
of them as tolerate slaveholdng among themselves,
and that we beseech them to do what in them lies for
the speedy and entire removal of thus evil from among
them that the down-trodden may rejoice with us and
them in the enjoyment Of civil and religious freedom,
and the power of religion be revived and made glorious
in the EARTH"
Mr.. Leavitt was elected, we supposed to faithfully
carry out the views of the body whose delegate he
was; and could he do this by incidentally auding to
the subject of slavery and that only to turn its apollo
gst, and villify his co-aborers in the anti-savery
cause at homer How many such faithful "remonstran-
ces in the fear of God and in the spirit of the gos
pei" think ye he would be required to 'it up against
saveholding" in order to bring the guilty offenders to
hearty conviction and repentance of the sin Of OPP
preston?
| ~ The excuse, then, which the "minsters and
churches of Vermont" have to offer for being generally
"and slavery in their sentiments" is, that the very
air from nur mountain tors breathes freedom to
all. Slavery cannot live here" Ii American slavery
be "contrary to the spirit and gospel Of Christ and