Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1852-12-09

PRESBYTERIAN Seminary fpr the Ohio an
Mississippi valley, they didso with ever,
nruuDect Of succers. Never did literary
Institution start under 6ner auspices. TIKI
number and reputation OF the professor
had drawn together several hundred stu
dents from al PARTS If the United States
not sIckiy cellar plHuis OF boys sent by
wealthy pntents, but hardy and intelli-
gent Young men, most Of whom, fired BY
flIe ambition Of converting the world to
Christ were winning their way. through
PrivaliOns and toll. 10 education and minis
ieriaI orders. They were the. stuff out OF
which foreign missionaries and revival
preachers are made. Some of them were
known tothe public MS lecturers Theo-
dore ID Weld was an OratOrical celebrity.
For year all went we'll. Lane Semina-
~ was the pride and hope of the church.
Alas for the hopes of Messrs Beecher and
Stowe this prosperity was Of short dura-
ton.
The French Revolution Of 1880. the
agitation in England for reform, and
against colonial slavery, the fine and i'm.
pris0nment by American courts Of justice,
of ci,izsns who had dared 70 attack the
slave trade carried on uurier the federal
flag, had begun to direct the attention Of
few American phianttropists to the evils
OF slavery. Sumo ver.rs before society
had been formed for the purpose of colo>
MIXING free blac'&s on the coast Of Africa.
II mad been Patronized By intelligent slave
holders who feaAed the contact Of free
blacks with their human cha'tels, and by
feeble or ignorant persons ia the north,
whose .:0asciences impelled them to act on
slave.fX in some way. and whose prudence
n. ignorance Of the question lad them TO
accept the plan favored ny Shareholders
However useful to Africa the emigration
a. its shores of int slligent, moral and en-
terprising blacks may be, il is now univer>
sally admitted that colonization, rs a means
of extinguishing slavery, is dwelling abb
surdity. These were the views Of the
Abolition Convention which met at Phila-
deiphia in 1888 and set on foot the agitation
which has SINCE coRvulsed the Union.
The President of that Convention, Mr.
Arthur Tappan, was one Of the most liberal
donors Of Lane SEMINARY. He forwarded
it's aalressto the students, and few weeks
afterwards the whole subject was up for
discussion amongst them. At first there
was little inlexest. But soon the fire began
W burn. Many Of the students had trav-
eled or taught school in the slave States
goolly number were sons Of shareholders,
and some were owners of slaves. They
hai ssea,e slavery and had facts to relate.
MANY of which made the blood run chill
with horror. Those spread out on the pa
qes of sUnele E6Ifs Cabin reader. and
which your swelling teagtand overfowing
eyes would nOt let you 4sRi aloud, are cold
ID eompaEisea. The discussion was soon
ended, for all were OF 'one accord, but the
meetings for the relation OF facts was con-
tinued night after night and week after
week. What was at first sensibilty grew
into enthusasm-ih feeble hame had be-
come a confagralion. The slave owners
among the students gave liberty to their
slayes-the idea Of going on foreign miss
sioas was secuted ut because there were
heather at home--some left their studies
and collected the coloEed population Of
Cincinnati into churches and preached to
them-others gathere the young men into
evening schools and the children into day
achoOls-A nd rlannh Nd 4ha.-~-~I-~,-e 60 vurnruS
them-others organized benevolent socie.
fes for aiding them, and orphan asylum
for the destitute and abandoned children
and others, again, left all to aid fugitiv,
slaves on their way TO Canada. or to lecture
on the evils of slavery. The fanaticisn
was sublime; every student felt himself
aTPeter the Hermit and. acted as if the
abolitlon of shvery depended on his ipdi>
xidual exertions.
At Erst the discussion had been encour-
sged by the President and Professors
but when they saw it swallowing up every.
thing like regular study they thought il
high time 10 STOP. 1t was too la,e-the
current was too, strong 10 be arrested. The
commercial interests of Cincinnati took
the alarm manufacturers feared the loss
Of their Southern trade. Public sentiment
sxacted the suppression of the discussion
and excitement. Shareholders came over
fro@ Kentucky and urged the mob on 10
violence. For several weeks tl,sra. was
/, imminent danger that Lace Seminary and
the houses of DIR. Beecher and Professor
Stowe would be burnt or pulled DOM hy a
drunken rabble. These must have been
weeks of mort aLanxiety for tiarrie, Beech.
or. The board OF Trustees nov intBneret
and aIlayed the excitement Of the mob b,
iorDidding oil further discussion Of SLAVERY
in the Seminary. To this. the student
sespondaA by Withdrawing en- masse.-
whese hundreds had been there was left
mere handful. Lane Seminary was de-
serted. For seventeen ears after this Dr.
ReeeheR and Pro: essor Stove remaine,
there, entleavoring in vain TO- revive it
prosperity. Ia 1850 they returned to th
Eastern States, the great project of ,hei
Rfe defeated. After short stay a, Bow
dom College. Maine, Professor Stowe ac
eePied an appointment tothe Chair of Bib,
6cal Literature in til Theological Seminar,
at Andover. Massachusetts, an institution
which stands, To say the. least, as high as
any in the United States.
These events caused painful reac,i ion
in tho feelings Of the Beechers. Repulsed
alike by the fanaticism they had witnessed
among the foes. and the brutal violenc,
amOAg the friends Of slavery, they though
theG time for action had not come, an(
give no public expression Of their abhor
renee of slavery. They waited for tn,
p:or.n to subside ami the angel of trutl
70 mirror his tranquil waters. For Ion,
time thew resisted all attemnts 70 ook.