Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-06-09
THE NEW SCHOOL pREsBYTERY DIVIDED BY

THE NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTERY DIVIDED By
SLAVERY DISCUSSION.
The Presbyterian General Assembly, which has
been in session more than week at Cleveland, Ohio,
is completely by the ears on the slavery question:
On the seventh day of the session, May 25th, the
mort on slavery being up, Rev. Mr.. Psynter, of the
SYNOD Of Tennessee, citizen of Virginia. offered as
A substitute for the report of the committee resolu
tion that the Presbyterian Church will not permit
sny of her ministers to preach the Gospel in the
.laveholdinc States, withon. subj"cting them TO the
annual aduonitions and rfpr0ofs Of The General As
sembly The venerable Southern patriarch address
ed the assembly, stating the difficulties under which
Southern ministers labor, but motion to indefinitely
postpone the resolution carried by large vote
WIN. p. Cutler, OF Ohio then introduced substi.
tute proposing censure in the case Of the savehold
ing Pre.bytery of Lexington, South, which was not
acted upon. ,
On the following day, Rev. Thomas III. Clelland, of
Kentucky, read the following manifesto OF the South
ern Delegates:
poaITIoN or THE SOUTHERN CHURCHES UPON THE
SUBJECT or SLAVERY.
We do not believe that the system Of American
slavery "a an appointment Of God, stands precisely,
in all respects upon the footing with the family
relation-wtn that OF husband and wife-parent and
child.
family relation both with respect TO the date Of its
ORIGIN the nearness and sacreduess of its relations.
the nature of its peculiar obligations the design and
length of its continuation.
Tie relation OF master and slave did not exist from
the beginning did that OF the iaIr relation nor 10
we believe il will continue to the end.
But slavery does exist by Divine ordination ana re-
corni,ion for ise purposes to be overruled for His
Glory in the elevation civiliz zston and final redemp
t,on of the Afrcan race. Sin cannot he predlcated
of the relation ITSELF but Of the abuse of that relation
IL stands in the category with ihe family rela
tion in the fact that il is ordained OF God, in IN. eense
above explained, and the fact TINT like the family re.
lation It is subject of divine legislation When we
say that the slaveholdng relation sis right, we do
NOT mean 10 say that every system OF slavery 10 rght
as it may have rxs,ed in other ages and in other coun
tries hut onv as it nov exists with ns and under all
the circumstances in which are now placed
When We say '.t is right" for our churches to hold
slaves under the present circumstances, we mean to
say that they are acting consistently with the spirit
and letter OF the Gospel in SO doing. And were we
10 assert the contrary the resolutions under CON
siderson would have assert, to wit:-that we mold
siaveholdug to be wrong, il would place US before the
world az destitute only Of the spirit OF christianity
but IA being bereft of every principle oil moral no.
nesty.
We believe that the slave is not prepared tor tree
dom: that to give il 10 him under all the circum-
stapces would not be the best either Tor master or
slave.
We believe that freedom i, better han slavery
where men are able TO appreciate it-that slavery Is
b.tter than freedom under certain circumstances
inst Az il is with respect TO human governments
Our American repubiicanIsm may ne tbe oes' torn
of government for u.s. but under present crcum-
stances il might DC great curse to Russia or Me1l-