Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-06-03
SPEECH OF REV. DIR. CHEEVER,
American Abolition Societys Anniversary,
In Ne,p York. Mav ID. 1853


Mr. President We are driven this day to
God. Apart from His Word and His grace to
make His Word efectual, and to keep it even
in the hearts of His children from perversion,
there is no hope III the heart of any political
party, nor any Christian party, for the poor
slave We have seen that men Of professed
piety, men of age and eloquence, can plead the
very authority of the Word of God for con-
cealing and denying that Word Gun call upon
Christ to bear witness that their first Christian
duty is to take down His light from the candle
stick and to put it under bushel can DELHI
erately, in the name of God, so pervert the salt
of Christian truth as to make it nothing but
an additional corrupting element on the dung
hill of the world corruptions We have seen
an eloquent Bishop with silver locks pleading
for silence on the sin of Slavery, and justfying
the executive committee of the Tract Society,
as possessing on indestructabe negative against
! the instructions of their constituents, and in
opposition to the will and Word of God, by
virtue of being the managers of great circum-
locution Office, the perfection of whose sagacty
and strength is in the art, Ho,o not to do it,
We cannot but remember the answer of God ::
$40 him that knoweth to do good, and doeth
it not, to him it is sin " and the Judgment of
the Lord jesus Inasmuch as We did it not to
one of the least of these my brethren, We did it
not to me-"
We have also seen venerable and Christian
men not shrinking to denounce the declaration
that American Slavery is sin, as ultra and mex
pedient, and exposing the cause of righteous
ness to defeat and ruin. Paul rejoiced in his
day, that he had not Stunned to declare the
whole counsel of God. The protested follow
ers of Paul in our day do not shun to rebuke
such declaration. as rash and fanatical. Before
such developments, were it not that Our trust
is in Cod and not man, we should have no more
any strength of life, or courage left in us
There is no hope apart from Gods Word and
from the full and faithful application of it.
There is wanting the element of conscientious,
heartfelt, stubborn, eternal hostility against
Slavery as sin, as reprobated and forbidden of
God in the same catalogue with lying, perjury
murder, whoremongeriug, piracy, man-stealmg
and guilt, that by the law, not of God only
but man, is worthy of death. Where shall
such an element be found? How shall it be
created quickened, trained? Not in the schoo
of political scli-seeking and expediency; moi
under obedience to fugitive slave laws, not un
der proclamatonS, and assertions of allegiance
to bred Scott decisions not in the school o
unrighteous and oppressive statutes; not under
the law of silence on the word of God-silenc(
in the pulpit-silence in the Tract House; but
under the law of fire and in the manifestation
of the truth to every mans conscience in thu
sight of God-by revealing the wrath of Goo
from Heaven against all unrighteousness AM
ungodliness of men, and against this stupen
dous iniquity, as foremost and terminating il
enormity and malignity, most sweeping and &C
cumulating in the habits and materials of sill
and misery, the elements and securities of ma
tional ruin Our only home is in the revived
living, faithful religion of free, out-spoken
consistent church, and fearless, unmuzzled
faithful ministry. Our only hope is in a con
science fastened on the Word of God, and
heart flaming with its sacred fire; a popula
church and ministry, holding forth the word {
life, and giving themselves up to its supremacy
in such an unrestricted abandonment of a
things to its sovereignty, (not the popular SOY
ereignty, but Gods sovereignty, that it ma
have free course and be glorifed.
The intensity of the plague with us, the exas
peration and strength of the iniquity and evi
are i'll the provisions for its perpetuity, and tt
assurances of its increase, Not content wit
enduring it for ourselves for one generation, "
have by law entailed it upon others; and tt
generations to come, as God distributes the col
sequences, must inevitably rise up and call eac
preceding generation accursed. Ii this sin ha
possible DEATH like that of intemperance
the grave of the present drunkard, and were NJ
propagated by IL legal fatalsm and missional
= zeal united, providing future victims for 1t
the fastest ratio of increase in human popul;
ton-then would the evil be comparative
trihing, and the sin would speedily come to a
end, Bnt there is no such limit, no such co
, sumption or wearing out, no such release
death the evil and the sin are carefully secure
against death, and injected, as the hearts bloc
into the veins of the next generation, and al
attempt to stop the process throws the who
system into convulsions.
. We practice the iniquity upon children, inn
cent Children the natives of our own land, III
bought, unsold, unpaid for, without consult
ton OF consent of father or mother, or t
= shadow of permission from the Almight.
and they, the newborn babes of this systei
are the compound interest, year by year, add
to the sin and its capital, which thus doubl
5 upon us in the next generation, and thus tret
n in another We make use of the most sacr
e domestic affections, of maternal, fllial, and
y was going to say, connubal love-but the sy
k TEN lorbids, and have to say contubernal-f
S such rapid and accumulating production of t
= niquity, as shall be in some measure adequa
I to the demand. The whole family relation, t
e whole domestic state, is prostituted, poisone
: turned into sery-making machine for t
a agent of all evil. What God meant should
Il the source and inspiration of happiness,
s. comes the fountain of sin and woe. The E
a cred names of husband, wife, father, mothe
IT son, daughter, babe, become the opponents
c various forces and values in the slave-brecdi
T. institute. And the whole perfection, compile
( ness, and concentration of this creative pow
h in this manufacturing interest," descends, like
trip hammer on the children, beating the
from the birth, into marketable articles. q
IF stamping and sealing them as chattels, fol
"a doomed and fatalized to run till they wear o,
/ as living spindles, wheels, activities of lax
l. and productiveness, in the same horrible syste
~ And each generation of immortal markctaI
w stuff is exactly fashioned in these grooves, mol
q channels, wefted melted, drawn through,
~ come out the invariablen product, as the val
M of carpcting are cut from the loom to be trC
a den upon, or as theAcoins drop from the die
~ the circulation of society. This is the
r culiarity of the sin of Slavery in the forem
20 Christian country on the face of the earth.
In this branch of native industry and manufact,
~ we are self-reliant. Discovering a protect
ce policy in everything else, we are proudly pat
ht otto for the securely, superiority and abundar
of this most sacred native product, of domes
manufacture, and for neither raw matersal !
the bleaching of it will we depend on any oil
us country in the world
" This is the manner, these are the principl
b"a on which we obey the precepts and fulfill
hc glories of the 72d Psalm. Instead of obeyi
1o God in delivering Che children of the nee
y from deceit and violence, we foredoom them
IA all the oppression endured BY their fathers;
ns stead of judging the poor With righteousn'
nu and the children of@the oppressed with equi
we deliberately and sclenniy give them over
Ill, hroth