Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-10
From the Atlantic Monthly for July.
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIElY.

There was no apologize more popular in the
Middle Ages than that of the hermit, who, mas
ing on the wickedncss and tyranny of those whom
the nscrutable wisdom Of Providence had intrust
with the government of the world. fell asleep and
awoke to find himself the very monarch whose
ah]ect life and capric!ous violence had furnished
the sub ect of his moralizng. Endowed with ir
responsible power, tempted by passions whose ex
istonce in himself he had never suspected, and
Betrayed by the political necessities of his posi-
tion, he became gradually guilty of all the crimes
and the luxury which had seemed so hideous to
him in his hermitage over dish of watercresses.
The American Tract Society from small begin.
nings has risen to be the dispenser Of yearly
revenue of nearly half a million. 1t has become
a great establishment, with traditional policy,
with the distrusts Of change and the dislike of
disturbing questions Especially of such as would
lessen its revenues) natural to great establish.
ments. 1t had been poor aud weak; it has be,
come rich and powerful. The hermit has become
king.
~ the pous men who founded the American
Nl5t Society had been told that within forty years
they would be watchful of their publications. lest
by inadvertence, anything dsrespectfu might be
spoken of the African Slave Trade that they
would consider it an AMPLE equivalent for compul-
sorry dumbness on the vices of slavery, that their
cOlporteurs could awaken the minds of Southern
brethren to the horrors of St. Bartholomew,-that
bEey "oulu HOIu lHe!r peace ABOUT the OOCy oil
Cuffee dancing to the music of the car.-whip pro.
vided only they could save the soul of Sambo
alive By presenting him n pamphlet, which he
could not read on the depravity of the double
shuttle, that they would consent to be fellow
members in the Tract Society with him who sold
their fellow-members in Christ on the auction
block, if he agreed with them 10 condemning
Transubstanation, land it would not be difficult
for gentleman who ignored the real presence of
of God in his brother man to deny it in the sac.
ramental wafer, )-if those excellent men had been
told this they would have shrunk in horror, and
exclaimed, Are thy servants dogs, that they
should do these things p
Yet this is precisely the present position of the
Society.
There are two ways of evading the responsible.
ity Of such inconsistency. The first is by an ap.
peal to the Society's Constitution, and 10y claim
ing TO interpret it strictly in accordance with the
rules Of law as applied TO to contracts, whether
between individuals Or states. The second is bv
denying that Slavery is opposed to the genius of
Christianity, and that any moral wrongs arc the
results OF it. We will not be so unjust
to the Society as to suppose that any of its mem
bers would rely on this latter plea, and shall there
fore confne ourselves 20 a brief consideration of
the other.
In order thai the same rules of Interpretation
sSould be considered applicable to the Constitution
Df the Society and TO that of the United States
we must attribute to the former a sOlemnty and
importance which involve g palpable abtsurdity.
TO claim for it the verbal accuracy and he legal
warness Of a mere contract is equally at war
with common sense and the facts of the case and
even were it not so, the party to a bond who
should attempt to escape its ethical obligation by
egal bubble Of construction would De put in COW
entry BY all honest men. In point Of fact the
Constitution was simply the minutes of an agree.
nent among certain gentemen; to define the lin
IL, a. L.
md the objects for which they should expend
hem.
But if we accept the alternative offered by the
advocates of strict construction, we shall not find
hat their case is strengthened. Claiming that
where the meaning of an instrument is doubtful,
t should be interpreted according to the contem-
,orary understanding Of its trainers, they argue
hat it would be absurd to suppose that gentlemen
rom the Southern States would have united to
orm q Society that iucluded in its objects any
discussion of tho moral duties arising from the
institution Of Slavery. Admitting the first part
& their proposition, we deny the conclusion the y |
eek to draw from it. They are guilty Of a glar'
ng anachronism in assuming the same opinions
nd prejudices to have existed in 1925, which are
undoubtedly influential in 1858. The AntSiave'
y agitation did not begin until 1881, and the de. |
ates in the Virginia Convention prove conclusive
that six years after the foundation of the Tract
ociety, the leading men in that State men whose |
linds had been trained and whose characters had |
cen tempered in that school of action and expe-
lence which was open to all during the heroic
eriod of our history, had not yet suffered such
istortion of the intellect through passion, and
nch deadening of the conscience through interest,
S would have prevented their discussing either
ne moral or the political aspects of Slavery, and
recluded them from uniting in any effort to make
ne relation between master and slave less 6emor-
lizng to the one, and less imbrutng to the other.
Again, it is claimed that the words Of tho Con-
.tution are conclusive, and that tho declaration
iat the publications Of the Society shall be such \
8 are satisfactory to all Evangelical Christians
'rbids by implication the issuing Of any tract