The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-09-13
THE SLAVERY QUESTION In TENNESSEE

THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN TENNESSEE.
The following article, from a Tennessee
Presbyterian paper, indicates the growth of
liberal opinions in the South, in ssmost re-
markable degree. We think that iSe writer
exaggerates the amount of Anti-Slave y feeling
among his Southern brethren; but the fact that
he can publish such an article in Tel hessee is
a gratifying and most hopeful sign of progress.
From the Knoxville (Tenn) Presbyterian Witness.
Another error into which our corr ipondent
has fallen, and it is too common on, is, that
the public position of the Christian end moral
| people of Tennessee is that of def .nders of
| Slavery" who do not merely tolerat.. it as a
great political and social evil, to be Gradually
removed, but who aim to "propagata it as a
good" Is there Christian in the whole State
of Tennessee who occupies this position? Is
there one, except from political consi} erations,
| in all the South, who would not rejoice in the
triumph of freedom in Kansas, and in the dis
covery of some feasible and just methbd of get
ting rid of Slavery altogether? D2 not the
| Christians of Tennessee stand upon vhe Slave
~ action of the General Assembly of 1873 and
is not this our public position? HIS it ever
been publicly abandoned by US? Hase we not
said over and over again, and "audi ly," too,
| thousand times, that we regarded Sli sery as a
moral, social and political evil? Ha we not
said it in our papers, in our public d. euments,
in Presbytery, and Synod, and Convex ion, and
through our delegates on the floor of the Gen.
eral Assembly; and if we have, ar not our
traducers and calumniators guilty ofg oss false
hood and SANDER, if they make an opposite
charge against us? Have we not "done +"
something that might have been Wis BILE even
1 T. A. l,1-o Ill
posed to do us justice, to prove that e do not
look upon Slavery as an unmixed gtod, to be
fostered and propagated as such by Il Gener-
| al Government ? What was the mean lg of the
| Manumission Societies of Tennessee !. which
aimed to prepare slaves for freedom, o I'd to col
onize them in Africa 1t has been as ed, have
| not the Christians of Tennessee IN. de more
sacrifices to this end than all the Abs litionists
and fanatical disturbers of the Nortl? The
| last President of the Manumission )ciety of
Jefferson county, himself Shareholder Though
| he is preparing his slaves for hom', in their
| own land, said to US, a few day since, he was
willing to challenge comparison on this score.
He was prepared to show, and to show triumph
antly, that more had been done by the Chris
| tians of the South to emancipate slaves, than by
| all the North. Did not Rev. F. A. Ross, D. d.,
| now of Huntsville, Ala state at Buffalo, in the
| General Assembly, in that celebrated speech
which was reported for the Journal Of Com
| naerce, and copied with appreciation by almost
every paper in the South, that the religious
body he represented did not occupy the public
| position our correspondent assigns us? Did he
| not say that we did not and would not stand
| upon the ground that Slavery was to be per-
petual, and to be propagated as good, but that
| we believed that it an inferior condition of
| society, which was to be eventually lost in a
better and higher? And do we not cooperate
with the American Board and tie Home Mis-
| sionary SOciety-and has this, we would ask, no
bearing with candid men, whether we are Pro.
Slavery men committed to defence and prop
agation of the system, with all its admitted
evils?
| Do we not, then, as Christians of Tennessee,
occupy essentially the same ground in the South
that our correspondent wishes US to understand
| that he and his colaborers occupy in the North
He says that the ultra views Of abolitionists and
| fanatical men have been dissented from by con-
| servative and national men there, and these
conservative and national men profess that they
would be satisfied if we would dissent from the
| extreme "Slaveocracy," in their attempt to
make Slavery national, and to spread it through
Kansas to the Pacific. That dissent has been
uttered-uttered a thousand times-we utter it
once more-we put it in the columns Of our
paper, and send it through the Union, and wait
to if this will satisfy them. If Southern
politicians have allowed mo compacts to stand
| in their way" and if they have sanctioned
evidence that thay deemed necessary to their
ends" the church is not responsible and cannot
| be held accountable for their conduct We
are not the law-making power. We are not
| represented in the Legislature or in Congress,
and this disregard of compacts and deeds of
violence do not lie at our door. We are in no
sense their accompces.
Another mistake our contributor makes is
contained in the expressed belief that " the
| South as a unit (church and alO is moving
steadily and unscrupulously forward to the
| thronement of Slavery here perpetually." We
are not ignorant of the fact that some of our
demagogues and politicians have been and still
| are aiming to secure this result And the tone
of the partisan press has sometimes been in.
solent and dictatorial towards all classes who
might not go to their extreme length to compel
uniformity of sentiment and concert Of action.
But the Church has not yielded her honest con-
victons. OF the sundering of the Baptist and
Methodist Churches, North and South, ON the
Slavery question, political leaders have known
how to take advantage, and, as a consequence,
| there has been many a ref1uent wave; but many
believe the tide will soon rise again to its food
and that, too, without disaster. Let our political
| selves against the pulpit as some of them have
and prescribe it unless it throw its influence on
the side of the unlimited extension of Slavery
and then the issue will be complete. The
| ministers of Christ, and Christians of every
name in the South, while they repel the ultra
ism of the Abolitionists on the one hand, will
throw all their influence against the ultraism of
| Slavery propagandsts on the other. They do
| not say amen to all the evils of the peculiar
institution, as is sometimes charged upon them.
| They are not silent as the grave, but often, by
| protest and remonstrance and memorial, they
speak forth their moral convictions and true
feeling. They have hitherto been protected in
their liberty to worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences but let the
propagandists of Slavery become pfoscriptive
and prosecuting in their extension policy, and
the day of protest and remonstrance and memo
rial will be more fully inaugurated. Then, but
not we think, till then, need our Northern
brethren expect us to take the lead in the Anti
Slavery movement.
Our correspondent inquiries, in conclusion,
"Why cannot the Christians of Tennessee say
what they think?-that Slavery is an evil--that
it can and ought to be mitigated now~-that
they believe it need not, will not, that it shall
not, be perpetual-and that they will prayerfully
inquire for ways and means to promote and
hasten its disappearance. You think this" he
adds. Say it, and the country will thank you"
Yes, we think it and, at the suggestion of
our contributor, we say it. We have said it be-
fore, but we say it again. We say it publicly,
say it in print, and hope that we will be &C.
cused no more of basely and ANONYMOUSLY
and wickedly trucking to Slavery propa-
pandism.