Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-06-23
THE ANTI-SLAvERY BUGLE.

whose liberty sentiments have been admired and
felt wherever the English language prevails.
During our Revolutionary struggle as q nation.
when our fathers were contesting even unto death
the principles Of the declaration, Presbyterians
were foremost in every sacrifice. While one de
nomination turned tory, and fought against liberty,
and another returned to England to keep out Of
harms way till the storm of war should be over,
the Presbyterians in Congress, in the army, and
in the pulpit, were the untiring advocates OF the
cause of freedom. Bancroft, in his estimate OF
Calvin, the reputed father Of Presbyterianism,
says; calvin was the father of popular education
the inventor of the system of free schools" The
Pilgrims Of Plymouth were Calvinists; the best
influence in South Carolina came from the Calvin
lists of France; William Penn was the disciple of
the Huguenots the ships from Holland that first
brought colonists to Manhattan were filed with
Calvinists lie that will not honor the memory,
and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little
of the origin of American Liberty" When you
remember, my dear sir, that at the time of this
writing Bancroft was a Unitarian, the testimony
he gives is the more valuable. lie had a bigger
soul in him than to soy, rs he stood before the
great Genoese Reformer, and contemplated the
vast influence he exerted on the cause OF human
liberty-"Yes, but Calvin burnt Seryetus !"
There is a philosophy in these facts have emu
merated, my dear sir, which / think l understand.
1t is the natural and legitimate working of this
system of religion upon the Intellect, the head,
and the hands of those who receive it. 1t has al
ways been the terror and the hatred of the tyrants
of Europe, and always the hope of their oppressed
people.
But you point with triumph, in justification of
the charge you make, to the position on the subject
of human liberty occupied by the National Calvin
istic organization of this country. You curl your
lip in scorn at the Presbyterianism of the United
States, thrown into paroxysms Of holy horror at
the sin of dancing, but riveting the chains Of Sla-
very upon its own people. You call my attention
to the "Calvinistic" Judge of the Supreme Court
of the United States, who laid down the odious
doctrine of Constructive treason" and thirsted
for the blood of the Christiana "~rioters," when
brought before him for trial. You throw into my
teeth the humiliating fact that the politics of the
nation are purer than the religion Of the nation,
and that while the whole land is surging with ex-
citement ct the scoundrelism of the slave power in
revoking solemn compacts, and trampling down
the rights of the people of Kansas, the two Gene
raj Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church, the one
at St. Louis and the other at Nashville, stuff their
ears with cotton so that they cannot hear the
shrieks Of outraged humanity. To gravel me still
more, you point to q distinguished American
Presbyterian born in Pennsylvania and nurtured
among her free hills, who published a pamphlet in
which he alleges that God CELEBRATES American
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mind me of the fact that the same man has passed
through his ~chrysalis state of liberation, and come
out at last a Virginia stakeholder. You cite the
case of old DR.. Beecher, another Presbyterian
when at the head Of Lane Seminary he had it il
his power to make that institution the prosperous
home and nurse of the Anti Slavery sentiment
and refused to do so out of sheer cowardice and in
difference to the cause Of liberty. You bid me re
collect that another distinguished Presbyterian
declared to the world that if one prayer breathed
to heaven would liberate all the slaves of the
United States, he would not utter it! You remind
me too, of the iooer lao sermons, written preached
and printed by advocates of +" Presbyterianism,'
and containing the damnable heresy that the Flu
gitive Slave Law enacted by the r~eprobate Con
gross of 1850 is paramount in authority to the law
of God. With an aching heart and a face %suffuset
with shame, | admit the facts here charged, bu
deny the inference you draw from the facts. Thi
is not genuine Presbyterianism, my dear sir, tina
has produced this detection to the cause of liberty
} 1t is a spurious, conservative bastard, born of FOR
nication between american Slarery and Americai
Christianity.
In the name of God, and truth, and by the mem
nriaS IF tba ,oet opJ .bo ,o,,;,;oa. &c A. 800,
ent, call not such a hermaphroditical monster n:
this, 'Presbyterianism" or Christianity. Ameri
can Calvinism is in bondage with the American
Slave. 1t is grinding in the same prison house
Its eyes are put out, its hands are manacled, it
! lips are padlocked, its heart is benumbed, its foe
. arc in the stocks. 1t groans to be delivered. MOI
only do the Philistines make sport of it, but other!
y who should know better, lift loud the laugh 0
, scorn.
= But l am not dishcartened. Our own Poet he,
a hopefully sung
# "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers"
b While l believe that, Presbyterianism is in chain
d with the American Slave, they both shall be eman
IS cipated. Although the large Presbyterian organ
cations, as such, are on the side of the oppressor
and press with their mountain weight on the necl
is of the bondman, there are thousands upon thou
u sands of the People in those organizations that ar
sound on the great test question of the age. Their
are men in the ministry and membership of thos
churches who are infinitely better than the religion
le dictated to them by their denominations action
ia Their great sin and shame is that they allow pre-
le slavery reprobates, as many of their leading mel
are. to put such deadly heresies in their creed AM
Sc place them in a false position before the world
or But Notwithstanding the general apcstacy owe
which we all mourn, there isl remnant according
1T to the election of grace" The Smaller branche
ID of the Presbyterian family have not bowed tn
N knee to the American Moloch. The Seceders, tn
Coyenanters, one branch of the Associate 'RefoI
med, and the Free Presbyterians, like our Trans
atlantic brethren of the same faith, are allied to tn
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