Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-07-06
New Religious Organization.

New Religious organization.
The Anti-Slavery Agitation, which has
shattered so many other s~ectarian organize.
tons in our land, has also shaken the founda-
lions Of the Quaker Church, putting the in.
g%enuily and art Of its leaders 10 a severe test,
and drawing a line between the true friends
Of humanity and the devotees OF a cold and
heartless Journalism. The past history of the
Society Of Friends, the peculiar principles it
had long been understood to represent, and
the self-sacriicing spirit of its founders, led
the Abolitionists to look 10 it for the sympa-
thy and aid which were elsewhere withheld.
1t was taken for granted, that a Society,
whose fathers had banished Slavery from their
midst as an unholy thing, would be foremost
to extend all possible aid TO those who sought
to Danish it also from the country and the
world. How previously the hopes of The
pbilanthropist have in this respect been disap
pointed we scarcely need say. Perhaps a
larger proportion Of Quakers than Of other
sects have entered heartily into the an,i.slave-
J. NhhSNN SAAAAAIS ~ hiNNf IA
ing its perils; but the sect, as such, has not
been less hostile to the movement than the
other s~o-called religious organizations of the
country. When we speak of the sect, we
include Of course both branches, Hicksite as
we'll as Olhodox, for the difference between
them, though marked in some localities, is
not, taking lhe whole country together, worth
mentioning. The conduct of both, as repre-
scented by their leaders, has been characteri-
zed by heartless Indifference, cowardly oppo-
sition, and Pharisaical hypocrisy. With rare
exceptions both have closed their meeting
houses against anli-slavery lectures, and, by
official advice and the power of social and
s~ectarian influence, sought 10 prevent their
members from either uniting with the Adolf.
~tionisls, or attempting to form organizations
among themselves for efficient action in be-
half Of the slave.
This state of things has sorely tried and
perplexed a large number of intelligent and
conscientious members of the Society, who
have employed all honorable means TO pro-
cure d ItiOIll. Uul hltlOuk SucCeSSs heluC-
tant to abandon the religious associations and
privileges in which they were reared, they
have held on TO the organization, year after
year, in the hope thatit might yet be baptized
into a new life and become a powerful agency
in the cause Of freedom and human progress.
DespaiTing at length, however, of r~escuing
the Society from the destruction which, soon
er or later, overtaies all those religious bodies
which disregard the claims of suffering hu.
manity, and finding their own power 10 do
good more and more circumscribed by secta-
rian bigotry and intolerance, they have been
induced TO re-eXamine the whole subject of
religious association, with an earnest desire
to find a platform on which they could enjoy
every Christian privilege and labor efficient
ly for the worlds redemption. The way
having been prepared by mutual consultation
and comparison Of views, a Convention, or
Yearly Meeting, was appointed 10 be held in
Waterloo, N. y, commencing on the 4lh
ult., 10 which were invited all those, of what
ever denomination, who desired to form a Reli-
gious Society free from the bigolry ofcreed and
the domination of priestcraft, and which
should be an efficient instrumentality for the
promotion Of every work Of reform. The
call was issued by a Conference of members
of the Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends.
It proposed, as a substitute for the old Qua
ker organization, whereby the Yearly Meet
ing is endowed with ecclesiastica power
over the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings,
that each local congregation should manage
its w internal and disciplinary affairs on
such a plan as may be best adapted to its
own peculiar circumstances; while the Gem
eral or Yearly Meeting, being free from the
necessity of intermeddling with merely local
affairs, and from the difficult, not to say un-
worthy, effort to enforce a rigid uniformity
in respect to theological opinions and shib-
boleihs, should be devoted TO the c%ullnre of
q. wider charity, a more enlightened and ear
nest sympaIi y with the Reforms Of the Age,
a u.ore generous hospitality for new IDEAS,