The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-06-09
THE SECOND HARTFORD CONVEN
TION

The quiet city of Hartford has been mace
quite notorious by the Convention OF 1919. IL
is not likely 10 lose any of its notorIety from
the convention which lately assembled there.
Nav. we rather think the last convention the
most notorious OF the two. The members oil
the frs, convention only met TO plot treason
against their country. The members OF the
last met avowedly TO plot treason against their
God. The first only designed to overthrow
the constitution the last were bent on over
throwing the bible. The last convention has
the advantage Of the other in another respect.
The members of the first were all men of tai.
ent, and, previous to that event, of character,
too. They damned themselves by their trea-
sonabe proceedings so efiectually, that their
best friends were ashamed TO greet them in the
streets. The members of the last have no
character to lose, and their friends are of such
description that they could not be disgrsced
by acknowledging them.
Every imaginable ism was represented in
the last convention. ANY man was entitled to
a seat who was willing to deny the existence
ofa God, and did not believe in the inspiration
of the bible. He might believe in what else he
pleased in mesmerism, rapperism, socialism,
abolitionism, or anything else but he must
not believe in the Supreme Being or in the
bible. The blatant, roaring, raging blasphemy,
perpetrated by such a menagerie of unquali-
fed and unalloyed beasts, may we'll be ina.
gined. A fellow named Wright, who had
said short time before, in Boston, "if God
sanctions slavery, will put my heel on him,
will refuse TO obey him, and put such God
on the auction block and sell him, l will
spend my money TO overthrow such God"
was the principal spokesman. The chairman,
Green, spoke as follows:
Truth is indestructble, error alone can be
DESTROYED. | am an atheist. II rum selling is
wrong, if slavery is wrong, if war is wreng,
and if YOU believe in q God that sanctions such
things. do not. He is not my God. If the
government can be overturned by reason and
argument, let il be overturned. If the gentle
man wishes to prove am a monkey or a ii,
ger, let him do SO. | am content. If he will
prove me devil, very well. am content to
20 to hell for | want to 60 where belong
Let US be plain spoken. | intend hereafter to
speak ofJesu3 and other personages in the bi.
Bile, and | mean TO do SO as man, and if you
won't permit me, | will-that's all. | believe
some things in the bible to be historicab and
metaphysical, and moral. They will stand +,
but shall attack those things which believe
10 be immoral. | have no respect for it as a
book, and shall reject what conceive to be
untrue and uphold what think true. shall
sit in Judgment upon Jesus Of Nazareth as u
man accountable to the same laws that am,
liable to be mistaken as am, and TO be tried in
the Judgment day with me; therefore, in re.
viewing what he said and did, shall judge of
him as think fit. don't Cure thai, (snap-
ping his fngers) for am a man.
The bible contains the strangest, the widest,
the most childish and the most blasphemous
representations of God that ever entered into
the mind of man. God is represented as eat
ing, drinking and depending upon reports
from his servants as TO what is going on in the
world for instance, in the case OF Seldom and
GomOrrah, he is made to say that he will go
down and see for himself.
We insist that this book gives us SANDER.
| Gus and blasphemOus representation of the
character and being of God, and there is moth
ing wicked, base and cruel in man, that God
| is not represented as doing. The bible sane
| lions polygamy, concubinage, theft, coDjugal
| infidelity, bloodshed and murder. Theolo-
gians condemn Il e Mormon bible, but it is far
| less vicious than the Christian.
IL will be edifying, no doubt, to our readers
for we are too poor in the South even to lay
claim to an ism, to see the resolutions of the
Second Hartford Convention. Here they are
| They were offered by William Lloyd Garrison;
RESOLVED, That the doctrine oflhe American
| Church and priesthood, that the bible is the
| work of God, that whatever il contains was
| given by divine inspiration, and that it is the
only rule of faith and practice, is itself evident
| ly absurd, exceedingly injurious both to the
intellect and soul; highly pernicious in its ap.
| plication, and stumbling block in the way oil
| human redemption.
| Resotred, That this doctrine has too long
| been held as potent weapon in the hands OF
| time serving priests, to beat down the rising
spirit of religious liberty, and 10 discourage
| scientific Development, to subserve the interest
| of blind guides and false teachers, and fill all
| chrlstendom with contention and strife, and
| therefore the time has come TO declare its un-
| truIhfulness, and TO unmask those who are
| guilty of its imposture.
! Resolred, That the word of God is not
| bound either within the lids of any book, or by
ecclesiastical edict, but like its divine author
| was before all books, and is every where pre-
sent, and from everlasting TO everlasting, ever
enunciating the same law, and requiring the
same obedience, being quick and powerful, aud
sharper than any two edged sword-the bible
itself being witness.
RESOLVED, That it is secondary question
as TO when, where, or by whom the books OIL
the Old and New Testament were written; bu
the primary and all important question is, wha
do they teach and command? And in order tt
ascertain this, they are TO be freely examined
and as readily accepted orrejected as any othe
books, according as they are found worthless
or valuable.
Resolved, Thatit is the climax of audacity
and impiety for this nation to receive the Bible
as the inspired word of God, and then to make
il penal offence TO give it to any of the million:
who are held as chattel slaves on its soil, thus
conspiring TO make them miserable here and
| hereafter.
Resolred, Thatjudging them by their course
OF action towards all the reforms of the age
and their position in society, the clergy o
/ this country, as body, would as readily burr
the Bible tomorrow, il public sentiment de
mand it, and persecution and loss OF characte
should be the result of disobedienee, as to-da,
they are found earnest in their endeavors as !
{ the plenary inspiration OF that book IN accofa
) ance with public sentiment.
3 Wright offered the following resolution:
q Resoped,t That the Bible in some parts OF tn
!, Old and New Testament, sanctions inJustlct
:. eoncubinage, prostitution, oppression, wal
e nlundar ana svkataaata murder. and fheff