The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-29
ia
What villainy il

white goes fer nothing. What villainy is
thisl"
Little Gil tbe father Of Methodism think,
when writing this sentence, that this same vii
lainy would he freely aud greluitously perpetra-
ted bv body of Methodist ministers, protesting
great respect for him, and pretending to hold
his sentiments on the subject of Slavery
TIE General Conference of 1910 resolved,
g That it Is inexpedient and unjusti6able for
ANY PREACHER to permit colored persons to give
testimony against white persons, in any State
where they are denied that privilege by law"
In no State did the law recognise these
Church courts, held by Methodist preachers, nor
attempt TO define what persons might be ad-
Initlsd as witnesses; nor did the jurisdiction of
these courts extend beyond controversies about
Methodist doctrine and discipline. Every minis
Ter had full legal authority to admit what wit
nesses he pleased Yet, to give the villainy ofthe
slave code the sanction OF ecclesiastical exam
pie, these Methodist ministers, deliberately, and
of their own free will, determined that, In the
slave States, no man, bond or free, clergyman
or lsyman, whom God Almighty had given a
dark complexion, should be permitted to testify
in their Church courts, where aOhite man was
a party. The testimony of their own converts,
of their own communicates, was to be set aside
as unworthy of credit, on account of the tincture
of their skinI By this rule, moreover, the South
ern preachers gave themselves the privilege of
committing, with IMMUNITY from all Church GEN.
sure, any immortality, provided there we're none
but colored" people to witness their misdeeds.
Surely, it is a cause of thankfulness, that those
who seduced and bullied our Northern Method
lists into all this wickedness, have since with
drawn from the Conference, and formed
Church by themselves in which, without rebuke,
they can enjoy the luxury of dsspotic authority
over the poor and helpless.
have referred to this melancholy and humil.
iating history to show the demoralizing inAu-
ence, even over Christian ministers. of ecclesias.
teal union with Shareholders. But, alas the
political union still existing is nearly as disas-
trous to our churches. 1t is to this union that
we must attribute the unhappy position of the
American Tract Society, and the false state
ments and jesuitical arguments by which those
who control 1t either deceive themselves or try
10 deceive the public. Driven from the absurd
pretence, that they were constitutionally re-
strained from rebuking the sins of evangelical
slave breeders and traders, while at full liberty
10 censure evangelical smokers and dancers and
novel readers, they now discover that to offend
the Shareholders will lessen the circulation Of
their tracts and curtsi their receipts, and there
fore they must do evil and tacitly countenance
sin, for the g,cry Of God and the salvation of
=
as we may infer, this same Society, year after
year. submits all it's publicationsto the absolute
and irresponsible censorship of champion and
eulogist of American Slavery, and an unbush-
ing apologist of its multiplied denominations.
Again, then, ask you, gentlemen, what pos
sible reason have you TO expect that those in
Church and State who have surrendered their
conciences to the seduciions of the Union will
listen to your Call, and aid you in breaking a
power which they glory in saving2 While /
believe you are doomed to disappointment, i
nevertheless rejoice in every exposure of the
immoral influence exerted by the Union. /
rejoice in such exposure, az tending, not to
bring about dissolution, but to render it un-
necessary. When the people Of the North shall
cease 10 idolize the Union, they viii cease to
offer on It's altar their rights and their duties
when released from their selfimposed thraldom
to the Slave Power, they will cease to place It's
minions IN Office; when no longer covetous of
the trade aud the votes of the South, they will
no Logger be bulied into all manner of wicked
ness, apd into submission TO all manner of in
suit, by The idle and ever-repeated threats of
dissolution. But when this day arrives, the
Union will be converted from a curse into
blessing. Our loWerlaw divines, instead of
viudicating cruelty ard oppression, and de
nouncing as fanatics all who esteem the will of
gress, will become preachers of righteousness.
Democrats, seeing the Federal patronage WELD
ed by the friends Of Liberty and the rights Of
man, will, in the extent AMI rapidity of their
conversion to truth and justice, eclipse all the
marvels of New England revivals and men
who have fer long years been bowed to the
earth BY spinal weakness will, as by miracle,
stand erect. Till all these things come TO pass,
the Ncrth, am persuaded, wall continue its
union with the South and when they do cone
TO pass, you, gentlemen, will have no wish TO
see that Union severed.
At the close of the war, Washington, solicit
GUS that the divine favor might rest with the
new born Republic, publicly offered the prayer
that God wonld dispose us all TO do Justice
and to love mercy" May the Union, when
exertng an influence in accordance with this
prayer, be indissoluble; but God forbid that
it may ever be saved by promoting, extending
and perpetueting Injustice and cruelty, by in
voking the wrath OF Heaven, and becoming a
proverb and a reproach among the nations of
the earth
1 Am, very respectfully, your obedient SER
want, WILLIAM JAY.
Aessrs. HiggiasoR, Phillips;
Mann, and Garrison.