Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-01-20
MICHIGAN CORRESPONDENCE.
ANN ARBoR, Michigan, Jan. 5, 1855.

- VIVA w Wv ~ UNIV w wv
the Fairfield Convention, according to appoint
ment.
A report Of the meeting has already reached
you,by which you will see atth the meeting;was. held
under most favorable auspices, Notwithstanding
the church, true to her idea of Saving souls" and
%'edifying herself" strenuously oppo sed our efforts
with a determination aud zeal equaled only by
those who felt that the securing of mans rights
was antccedent to the saving of his soul, and that
exposure, rather thln the cdifying of the church.
was the highest duty Of the lovers of right.
a Deacon! of the Close Communion. "cast iron"
Baptist denomination, oficiated in closing, by
bolts and bars, the doors and windows Of the
church against the entertainment of opinions hos
tile toa pro-slavery religion. and favorable to the
institutions OF a true church, whose motto and
practice shall be universal benevolence to all, upon
the ground unquestionably that those are not re-
rognized as test questions in that church of Zion
to which he belongs, nor even in the American
church at all. 4
However, as in days of old, when tyrants barred
their prison doors upon the noble martyrs of the
truth, to silence the deep utterance of the soul,
good angels opened the doors, and songs of rapture
echoed front the gloomy walls of dungeons, in the
ears of all The people.
So in these last days-some angoli3 guest found
it easy to unbar the doors and windows of the
church and so, from Friday morning till the close
of our Convention, defiant curls Of shioke, both
night and day, descended to the skies, in token of
the watchful care of Him who hath said he would
open, and no man should shut.
The discussion Of the resolutions upon the char
acter Of the Constitution and Government, which
were mainly by our friend and co-laborer, Mr..
Foss, on Friday evening and Saturday, before we
arrived, produced great sensation among those who
had fattered themselves that under the Constitu-
ton they could work for the overthrow of slavery,
and who were unwilling to accept the necessary
condition of recognizing the pro-slavery gueran-
tees of the Constitution and as a fortunate after
thought, these Fusionists undertook to find shelter
under the protecting banner of Gerrit Smith. until
Mr.. Foss, who has no ordinary amount of creative
genius, when favored with right materials, daguer-
r~eotyped the little Republicans in Gerrit Smith, the
Giants clothes, which made so bad a picture that
language would fail one in expressions OF con-
tempt for such ~unftness or for such an act.
The resolutions of the party called Republican,
in Michigan, are in skill and purpose q perfect
failure, or q fatal weapon in the hands of deter
mined abolitionists, needing no second edge. In
every instance Of our experience through the state
the application of their own words to the men of
the party has superseded the necessity of any ar
gument to show the alliance of the prrtv, as such,
to Shareholders and their Union. As a constitu-
tional party, they can do no less. The South asks
no more. The resolution in point reads thus:
Resolved, That after this gross breach of faith
and wanton affront to us Northern mon, we hold
ourselves absolved from all COMPROMISES except
those expressed in the Constitution for the protec-
ton of slavery and slave owners.
On Sunday, the resolutions showing the Ameri-
can church the greatest obstacle to abolition, were
discussed by James Barnaby, Mr.. Foss, Charles
and myself, on our side, and Mr.. Thomas, the
Chairman of the meeting, a Free Will Baptist
minister of candor, intelligence and marked good
feeling, and II prospective "Close Communion"
Baptist Liccntiate, who protested to have been
converted from Atheism 10 Calyinism, who could
one year ago fill an appointment for James W.
Walker, and plead in his stead for the overthrow
of slavery, at .Ihateycr cost, out now, in his gra-
cious regeneration, with his brother ministers and
laymeu, oppose as becometh his profession, the
passage of a resolution declaring the church and
government pro-slavcry, and pledging ourselves to
labor openly and ever for their overthrow, and FOR
the reinstatement of a free church and a just gov
eminent.
Although this resolution had been thoroughly
discussed during the day and evening, and the
most stubborn facts had been alduccd in relation
to actual slaveholding in the church, and support
of slavery ia those branches which claim to be
antisaavery, by their political alliances and their
support of the Sunday School Union, Missionary,
Pihla and Tr,ot Co,;ntioS tbis 1afan1nr nf tho
church with his friends contendcd earnestly and
eloquently for Il more thorough investigation of
their duty and relation to the church, exhorting
the people to stay till morning for the discussion,
rather than vote for the passage of a resolution
which openly compromised every man and woman
in the audience. 1t being the last evening of the
Convention, it seemed necessary to pass the reso-
luton and against the most strenuous and deter
mined efforts of the few who opposed, at near
midnight the resolution passed by a large major
ity.
On Monday evening, Messrs. Barnaby and Foss
held another meeting, and the resolution was
again up, and again successfully supported.
The regular pastor of the church in that place
did not attend the meetings. He probably thought
it more consistent with one of a series of sermons
he had just preached from the text, AID let not
your prayers be hindcred, in which he showed how
Shareholders prayers were not hindered by their
slaves, for all together were recipients of the grace
of God, and all knelt and prayed together, around
the family altar.
Our Convention adjourned on Sunday at eleven
O'Clock, for the regular prayer meeting u the
church, but no one came to pray, and at a proper
time we resumed the meeting. Whether they took
our view of the matter, and thought best to leave
their gift before the altar and go and seek first a
reconciliation with their brother, or whether we
shall receive the sacerdotal threatening of this