Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-05-17

was not doubtful 1t will be remembered
that last year the,society instructed the pub
fishing committee 10 publish tracts upon the
subject of slavery, and thatthey persistently
refused to obey their instructions. The course
was utterly dishonorable on their part. They
had no legitimate alternative but to obey or
resign At the present anniversary, there
gathered, of course, great deal of interest
about the decision of the question, and it has
been decided. The publishing committee
have been sustained by the society whose will
they had contemned, whose confidence they
had betrayed, whose Judgment they had in.
suited. This reversal of the position of the
society is momentons event, and full of sig
ni6eance. 1t involves very grave decisions,
and its effects will be seen in the future, not,
we fear and most honestly believe, in the al
vancement of Christian morals. The office of
the society is the dissemination of Christian
truth, and the denuneiation, which shall lead
to the renunciation, of all wrong that initiates
against. the progress of that truth and its in.
corporation into life, The decision of the So
ciety now is, that there is one thing in this
land, generally held to be wrong, which is
not to be spoken against.
The holding of human beings in bondage is
a sin, or it is not Slavery is Christian in
sttution or an institution of the devil. The
Tract Society, in its decision, says either that
slavery is Christian institution, involving
neither sin nor wrong, or that, being an off
spring of Satan, and necessarily full OF sin
and wrong, it is to be ignored for truths
sake, for Christs sake. for nan s sake, for the
Tract Society's sake, We doubt whether the
men who favor the Tract Society unless they
be those who come from the South, viii adj
NIT that slavery is Christian institution.
DbaxT I'll IL.
defend it as such. No, they consider it
wrong, which, for certain reasons, very pow
erful in their minds, they may not denonnce
Now let US look at this matter of slavery a
moment, and see what it is. In our Southern
States there are more than three millions of
men, women, and ehildren-equal to three
times the population of the State Of Massa
chusetts7- who are bought and sold and
worked like cattle, They are denied the priv
ileges of education. They are whipped and
abused at pleasure. Their family relations
are no more sacred in the eye of the law than
the family relations of the hogs that litter in
the pens and run in the streets Christian
marriage has no sacredness, and parental love
no claims, under this system. The bodies
the virtue--of the women are not in their
own keeping, but are subject to the Wills of
owners and overseers 1t, through the grace
of God, a slave become real ChristianI it
enhances his price in the market, and love
and charity and Heavenly dispositions are set
off against so much silver. The labor of
these millions is taken without reward
They are watched and disciplined like con-
yiets. They are in the hands of an irrespon-
sible power. Light is shut out from them.
There is no free Bible among them, What
ever good they may receive is by grace Of
their masters, for they have not a SINGLE right
The system which enslaves them reacts upon
their NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and debauches
them. 1t curses the very soil they tread upon
Il polsons the fountains of political power, so
that its black influences flow through all the
streams of national legislation. II threatens
virgin Territories with its foul blight 1t
comes up annually, and thunders madly
against the chains that bind the union Of
these States. 1t makes our free republic a
byword and kissing among the natiors. Ii
perverts the national conscience 1t is SO
much broader in its sweep Of sin than any
other form Of evil, that it embraces in itself
unbridled RIGHTEOUSNESS, polygamy, theft,
swindling. oppression, and SO on, through the
catalogue. In short, it is the sum of ali
villainies. Atag taelasdua
1t is this great system of iniquity, this ter
rible blotch of sin, this con glomeralion of all
possible evil and wrong, which the American
Tract Society, in this latter half Of the nine
teenth century, refuses to denounce. On the
subject OF slavery, il consents TO be SILENT. 1t
proposes to sit like cowardly dog at the gate
of the temple of truth, and bark Justify at all
the little sins that go by with their tails be-
tween their legs, but when great sin comes
along, owned by dangerous master, with a
cane in his hand, they shut their ewes, close
their mouths, and become dumb 1t is not
good policy 70 touch such sin as this. 1t is
too important The man who owns it will
abide no interference, and IL the society would
do him any good it must let his pet sin alone.
Now, we are outsiders in the thing, and
only speak as those who ore iE the habit Of
looking at such matters in a common sense.
business way. We declare, therefore, that in
view like this, the Tract Society has taken
a long step towards the absolute emasculation
Of American Christianity. Slavery is let
alone by this society, simply and only because
1t is great sin, a prevalent sin. 1t is let
alonH because it will not tolerate the truth,
1t is let alone because it will not receive the
whole Gospel. We declare that no Christian.
society can take q position like this, without
shame and dishonor, Bishop McIlYaines and
| Rev. JohnLords to. the contrary, notwith.
standing. 1t is a cowardly and unchristan
thing The society absolutely refuses TO re-.
| peat the words by which Christ denou need a
woe upon those who lay gtieyous burdens
upon mems shoulders, The precedent is
terrible one. Polygamy has only TO become a
prevalent, powerful, aud respectable ain. 10
be let alone in the same way The slave
trade must be let alone when the South shAll
accomplish its wishes TO re-establish il. And
1t there were no religious agencies and inAu !
/ ences III the world but the Tract Societv ina Il