The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-04-08
FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
HrLo. HAWAII, December 3, Is,

MY DEAR DIR. WIN tnls you VIII RECEIVE
draft on H. Hill, Esq, Treasurer of the A. B
c. F. NJ, for one hundred dollars, in favor OF
the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Soci-
ETY., which draft you will please put into the
hands of your Treasurer, Mr.. Whiting.
At the same time the Treasurer received
another hundred dollars from the Rev. iona.
S. Green's church, at Mani.
The mite thus sent you from this distant
realm is a free-will offering from the Native
Church at Hilo. The sum is small, but we beg
you TO accept it, not much for its fiscal value,
but more especially as testimony of our SYM
patty in the great and good work in which you
and all true Christian freemcn are engaged.
From the moment when the notes of freedom
first fell on my ear, they thrilled responsive
chord in my soul have never been an indif-
ferent or "A captious spectator of the mighty
struggle between the selfish and naughty power
of tyranny and Of crushed and bleeding hu.
mainly
To me, there is no question in the whole
Christian code of ethics, whose moral aspect il
more clearly determined by the Divine law
than that of slavery, as il exists in our own ex
allied nation The most effulgent rays of til,
sun may be modified or Obscured by an inter
posing medium; and so may the holy radiance
of the Gospel be perverted and darkened by
the sefshness and sophistry of man We all
know how the heart may be influenced, and
our views of truth modified. through prejudice
pride, and the insinuatng favor of commercial,
social and political relations; and we all know
how hard it is to reason with pride, power,
dogmatism, jealousy, hereditary maxms, and
confirmed habits SelfishnesS and impatience
OF rebuke have led many a seli-cOnfdent trav-
eller to the confines and to the contamination
of ruin.
! have ever looked upon slavery as a sin
subject of course; in its practical operations. to
many and great notifications. from that mild
est shade, which often takes the name of mer-
cy or love, to those outrages on mans physical
and spiritual being which approach the infer
nal, and which shock every Benevolent heart.
The very system is wicked, and no thanks to
Its advocates if its darkest and most ghasty
features are not always developed. We speak
of the eU'is of slavery, and talk of their reno
val. | would as soon talk of the erilS of roo
6ery-such as unnecessary malice and cruelty
IN beating, manning killing, &c Do we rec.
ommend a cool urbane, honorable. legal, and
Christian robbery Why then. advocate the
mild exercise of system which imbOdies in
itself all the essential elements of robbery
No! Let us not think so much of the eUiis
OF slavery as of THE EyIL-sLAvERY. Let us
not toll so much in destroying the fruit, and
leaves and twigs of the Upas as in uprooting
the Upas itself
Do we talk of the eriis of any institution of
Heaven! Is there any evil in keeping the Sab
bath! Is its perpetuity attended with danger
to our children or our country! Sabbath
breaking brings with and after it a train of
evils. Not so with this peculiar institution
Df man-siarery. Break all its laws abolish
t, annihilate it, and you bless the world Keep
i, foster it, and you foster curse And the
more strictly you keep its laws, the more you
,urse the world
1t is to be regretted that every subject of
cannot be decided on its own
merits Slavery should be looked at as al as.
is character should be analysed, and it's. true
elements examined irrespective of the mere
opinions or assertions of friends or foes. Hasty,
heated, and undsciplined minds, have greatly
injured the cause of freedom, by rash and. I'M
bounded assertions Some have mistaken. mis-
stated or exaggerated, facts. Some have been
sweeping and discriminating in their re-
marks on the character of masters and the
condition of slaves. Some have displayed more
zeal than wisdom in urging hasty, pell-mell
abolition of slavery, without those preliminary
and necessary arrangements which shall secure
the real objects of freedom Others have m
roired the subject, by Juggling in elements en-
tlrely distinct from it or by weaving net work
of imaginary or real relations so complex that
many minds have been confused, and have lost
sight of the main point at issue. Consequent
ly some OF the real friends of freedom are like
the bewildered soldier, who, blinded by the
smoke and half frantic with the roar of battle.
loses sight of his standard his General. and his
regiment, running wildly at every stragger,
and shooting Unfortunately at friend and
Toe. others again, in their wild rage for free
dom, are running their mines under all the
OF civil, social, and religious order,
and laborng by one mad explosion to demolish
all the bulwarks of defence in the land Some
are as furious AS old Jehu, logging and de-
nounclng all who do not come up to their
Misunderstanding the slumbering with thun.
derboits, breaking the heads of their foes with
or transfixing their bodies
with iron crowbar>. But what of all this
The cause Is good one, though it NAV have
some bad advocates The purest cause ON
earth, that OF our blessed Redeemer. often suf.
fers through the rashness, and folly. and sins of
its prOfessed friends But what wise and GOOD
man will fOrsake or less esteem the eauSe ON
this account! We know that God can and
Will override the mistakes and the false zeal of
men, to the turtherance of His own wise pur
poses. But II the gigantic system of slavery
tails 1t Will tall before the planted and the
well-dlrected batteries Of reason and truth. and
under the cleaning blade of the Sword of the
SPIRIT. And 1t whH fall. Time. reason. and
reflection Will sap It's foundations: truth and
love will overthrow 1T Christ will put down
all unrlghteous authority. God has decreed il.
The defendants of this citadel Of sin must
abandon it, or be buried in its ruins.
1t is matter of JOY that Multitndes. both in
Church and State look at slavery ~ il is
violating all the sacred rights Of man and an
outrage on the authority and the mercy Of
God There are many ten thousands. whose
prayers whose treasures, whose faith, and
whose efforts are under God, undermining the
Colossus Tyranny, and preparing our country
and the world for a gioriois jubilee
But it is also cause Of heayiness and keen
grief, that so many who profess to love others
as themselves. and to bear the meek image of
Jesus should still advocate and foster system
so utterly at variance with the example the
spirit and the teachings. of our Divine Lord
Did Christ come to break every yoke-and
shall His disciples lay them again on the
necks of men. Did He come to open the
prison.doors and loose the captives chain-and
shall His friends again shut these priSon-doors
and re.rvet these chains! Can the child of
God thus oppose the mission of his gracious
Redeemer, and perpetuate in hopeless bondage
the wretched captives for whom He died Ny
soul saddcns and sickens Mt the thought that
protested Christians and even ministers of the
God of mercy, should sbct and defend a system
so repugnant to the great law of love, and
system which, before they were committed, they
almost unanimously condemned as violation
Of the whole spirit Of the Gospel, and an out.
rage on all the dearest rights of man How
many minister's and ecclesiastical bodies, who