Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1857-04-29
PREsBYTERY OF TRUMBULL.

corning Win tnelr sentiments on the Suo-
ject of American Slavery, expressed
and adopted at IFS meeting in Cleveland,
Sept. 22d, 1856, 6,memoralise the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian church.
to convene at Cleveland, Thursday, May
2lst, 1857, hereby respectfully and
humbly showing:
We regard the statute laws under
which slaves are held in the United
States of America, as unrightoous, op-
pressive, and cruel; Withholding from
men personal liberty without charge of
crime, leaving them unprotected in their
family relations, except by the individu
al will of their professed owners. liable
through the operation of law, in case
Of the death or Indebtedness of such
owners, to be sold indiscriminately as
property, into the hands of any person
who may purchase them, without respect
to character; keeping them in ignorance,
and thus perpetuating this state of deg
radiation. These features of slavery your
memorialists consider as inconsistent with
the fundamental Priciples of our civil
government, and especially with the
charity of the gospel; As ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even SO TO
them. While We DO not charge upon
our brethren at the South, the practice
of all which the civil law allows, it must
be manifest that these are the circum-
stances in which slavery exists IN our
country. We think. therefore, that the
voluntary maintenance Of this relation
is inconsistent with the spirit of the Cos
pei.
We regard the legalized American
Slavery as essentially different from that
domestic servitude which was authorized
and regulated among the patriarchs and
Jews. While the relation brought fam
lily servants into a near relation TO God S
covenant people. it secured to them the
means of religious instruction, and gave
the master no liberty to sell them again
into such state of bondage as to sepa-
rate them from the worship Of the true
God. 1t gave no authority for an unwill
ing separation of husbands and wives,
or parents and children. The whole ten.
dency was rather to do away the distinc-
tion between the master and servants,
and 10 bring all on the common level of
members of the church Of God. The
system was rather a system of prosely
tism than of oppression. When the
masters made it an instrument of cruel
ty rather than of improvement to the
servants, God rebuked them, and brought
his judgments upon them for their Op-
preston. We regard therefore, the at
tempt to confound the tolerated domes
tic serviiude of the Old Testament, with
the legalized sytem of slavery Of our
country, and thus 10 attempt to make
the Bible uphold. or even apologize for
American Slavery, as gross perversio
of Scripture. as a sophism. calculated
alike TO lull the conscience of oppressors,
and to blind the eyes of the unthinking
and thus TO perpetuate the system of op-
preston in the church and in the world.
We regard the christian dispensation,
as revealed in the New Tetament, as by
no means sanctioning the Roman Slavery
which it found existing, while it tOlera
ted and regulated it, giving instruction
TO masters and servants. The principles
of the gospel, carried out, would rather
abolish it. The injunction Masters
give unto your servants that which is just
and equal" would certainly lead ulti-
mately TO personal freedom; and the
counsel TO servants, TO choose freedom,
if they might have it, emplies the cor
relative duty in Christian masters, TO
grant it to them if they can. The pro
phetic design of the gospel points 10 the
same result. "The spirit of the Lord is
upon me-he hath sent me to bind up
the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captive, and the opening of the
prison 10 them that are bound"
Entertaining such views on the subject
of Slavery, we are led. from a sense of
duty 10 the church of Christ, and with
all paternal affection and fidelity, to ad-
dress the General Assembly, respectful.
ly but earnestly asking attention to the
condition of the church in relation to
Slavery as it exists in our ecclesiastical
connection. We are not unwilling TO
live, and labor, and commune with our
bretheren, so far as we can do It in char
ity towards those with v lirm We are i'm
mediately surrounded, aDj faithfulness
to our master. II Te may have the evil
dence that our brethren are employing
the legitimate means for purifying the
church from the system of oppression;
or even if We may see them suffering
the gospel 10 have its full effect in work
ing the cure, we can exercise longer
forbearance. But our feelings have Of
ten been wounded, and we think the
cause of Christ dishonored before the
world. by the attempts in the General