Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-04-21
THE NEW YORK CITY ABOLITION
SOCIETY.

We have seldom seen more sound sense,
solid argument, and genteel ridicule in any
article, than are compressed into the following
editorial extracted from the New York Express
of Thursday.
"The New York City Abolition Society, we
see, has consistently established itself upon con-
sisteni principles--in which we approve It's in,
dependence, bat we were about to say its i'm
pudence,' when we struck that word out
"'Slavery Isl by them, pronounced sinful,
illegal, and unconstitutional, with no right to
be in the Church or State--to be excluded
from the former as scandal, and pro-
hibited by the latter as crime not sanctioned
by the Bible or the Constitution, but con.
demned by both
(Which toes the MARYLAND we like anything
that shuffles not, and lodges not, but marches
straight up, and toes the mark. And if, as we
understand 1t, the BIBLE we have-and that
the world has, they disown, and the CoNsTITU-
TIoN that we have, and the American people
have too-so much the better-for we like a
man to say-be he infidel or traitor, lust what
thinks-and without shutting, or evasion, either.
. In oar Bible-but it may not be the Bible
our City Abolitionists possess-there are pas
sages full of bondsmen and bondswomen-an
the people of the Lord, in the Old Testament,
were constantly subjecting their enemies to
| slavery. The Patriarchs all were shareholders.
ccen Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Bible.
as we read it-as much shareholders as was
the Father of our country, George Washington;
but doubtless, our Bible is not the Bible that
our Abolitionists have-and hence, they disown
the one we possess and that comes down to
US in the translation of the DAYS of King
James. When Christ, too, was on earth. the
whole Roman Empire was an empire of slavery,
and though our Saviour rebuked all sorts of sin
around him, it cannot be denied that he did
constantly preach to servants, that they must
obey their masters and that in one instance.
the Apostle Paul caused to be returned Onesi-
mus, the fugitive slave
"The Constitution, too, that we have, with the
name of George Washington written upon it,
stipulates:
. lst That fugitive slaves shall be delivered
up.
I'D. That for every five slaves, three votes
shall be counted in Federal representation.
:" Sd. That such slave representation, in case
Of direct tax, shall be taxed.
18th. That this composite basis of slaves and
white men, shall be counted in making Presi
dent Of the United States; and,
18Th. That in case of q slave insurrectiop. we
of the free States should aid in putting it down.
"All this, doubtless, may be very, very wicked
and sinful, but George Washington put his
name to it, as President and Deputy from Vir-
ginia,' and for and in behalf of our Alexander
Hamilton, Morrises, Adamses, &c.
Perhaps our city Abolition friends NAV have
got hold Of the Mormon Bible or the Talmud
of Mahomet, and have mistaken them for the
"Holy Bible" so called, or may it be-we ask
with reverence-that they are right and our
Bible wrong? Or may it be that the constitu-
ton of some anti-slavery society has been mis-.
taken for the Constitution of the United States?
We pause for a reply.
Then there are some other consistent points
IN our City Abolition Society that we like, for
We are told that it is the duty of the Federal
Government, To extend the right of suffrage
and eligibility to Office to all their citizens ire
spective of race or complexion
" Chinese this means, as we'll as Automatic
women and the children, too, perhaps, as soon
as they are big enough to toddle to the ballot
boxes-for it is not to be presumed that the
black and ecopper-colored are to be preferred
to our own race and blood:
- 1t is the duty of Christians, (then, we are
told,) to hold no church relations that involve
religious fellowship or ecclesiastical connection
with shareholders. 1t is also their duty 10 sus
tain no Missionary Society having completely
with slaveholding nor any Tract Society. or
other religious publishing society that does not
expose and rebuke the heinous sin Of slavehold-
ing in common with other sins
1.-THE Patriarchs and some of the APOSTLES.
then, would be turned out Of such a church as
that, which is certainly consistent action. even
If it may not be right
AS our Abolition friends have broken down
the missions among the poor Choctaw Indians.
It is but right that hostility should be consist.
emily extended to all missionary stations. Even
Africa, thus, where one negro kidnaps another.
may be shut off by this accommodation. But
it seems to u.s. mere lockers on, that if any peo.
pie did need tracts and missionaries it is
our heather southern countrymen, who. il
seems, do not read the Bible our City Abolition |
friends possess-and that, instead of thus shut |
ting them out from all religious publications.
we should rather flood them with torrents Of
light Holders, as they are, Of their fellow
creatures in bondage, how can we convert |
them, if we shut off missionaries Gtracts" |
and all religious (Horthern) light. Let there |
be light was the first great command-and |
there is nothing like northern light Even the |
aurora borealis is northern light. The polar
star, too, is in the north. The south thus must |
ever be blind, unless we lend it our light"