Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1858-06-03
For the Journal.
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY
IN 1857 and 1875

IN 1851 and 1855.
The American Tract Society at its
Anniversary in 1857. adopted unani-
mously the following resolution:
Resolued;; THAT in the judgment Of
your committee, the political aspects
of Slavery lie entirely without the
proper sphere of this society, and can
not be discussed in its publications;
but that those moral duties which
grow out of the existence of Slavery,
as well as those moral evils and vices
which it is known to promote and
which are condemned in Scripture.
and so much deplored by evangelical
Christians undoubtedly do fall within
the province of this Society, and can
and ought to be discussed in frater-
nal and Christian spirit"
The members of the Tract Society.
who style themselves Evangelical
Christians. acknowledge, by this reso-
luton, that Slavery is productive of
moral evils and vices" among which
may be named total disregard of the
marriage relation and as the legitimate
result of this enormity, adultry forni-
cation and all the concomitant vices of
promiscuous licentiousness that follow
Il
in its train. There is further conces-
sion-that these immoralities and vi
ces are condemned in the Scriptures
and much deplored by evangelical
Christians. This is the first time this
society has asserted that Slavery is
a sin and its existence deplored by
christians, although it has been in ex-
istence for nearly half century; cer-
tainly long time was required to ar
rive at a conclusion so eyidem and Just
The friends of the slave and univer-
sal freedom received the announcement
of this resolution with joyful hearts,
eyulting in the hope that the conserva-
tive day of the Society had, i'll some
degree passed, and that hcnceforth
slavery which has SO long corrupted
our moral, religious and social condi-
ton, would be rebuked 10y the Tract
Society whose influence spreads far
and wide.
y Tract had been published and sold
by the Society entitled "Sambo and
Toney," in which the rightfulness of
Slavery is tacitly acknowledged, and
the Slave is taught from this Tract his
duty to his master. Believing that the
Society was in earnest in the passage
of the foregoing resolution and as an
offset to the Tract, "Sambo and To-
ney" a Tract was presented for publ
cation entitled "Scriptural duties of
Masters to Servants" This Tract was
made up of discourses preached by
Southern Clergvmen to shareholders,
and as a matter of course was thought
to contain nothing obnoxious to the
South. Fifty copies of it were printed
and stitched, and few copies found
their way ont of the Tract Horse. By
/ this time the whole South was on fire at
even this milk and water Anti Slavery
action of the Tract Society. \ branch
of the Society at Charleston, South
Carolina, had issued its manifesto, and
every newspaper of any notoriety in
that section of the Union was tecming
with terrible denunciations of such
conduct, and the whole support of the
South was to be hcnceforth withheld
uuless the action contemplated in the
above resolution should be forever ST.
fenced. The Secretaries of the Socie-
ty Immediately issued a circular suited
to the Southern climate, and sent it
forth and told the minded evan
gelical Brethren not to be alarmed OF
excited, but to preserve the even tenor
of their way. and Slavery with all its
known atrocities which we have
lures and deplored by evangelical
Christians" and which Horace Mann
saws, "is the concentrated essence OF
everything that is vile,' shall not be
disturbed by our publications. We
will disregard the instructions of the
Society; so let us have your money and
peace, and harmony shall reign and
we shall thus be enabled to send forth
our Religious Tracts"
The publishing Committee have
faithfully kept their word. The Tract
on the duty of Masters to Servants
was suppressed and prize Tracts upon
the moral beings of Slavery, have been
rejected at this dictation of the South
For this unwarrantable conduct, tho
officers of the Tract Society have been
from time TO time, pretty severely dealt
with by the Northern Anti-Slavery
press. It's action or rather inactior
has been closely criticised and fairly
condemned by a respectable and infu-
entail body of Northern Clergymen
among whom may be found DIR
Cheever, Beecher. Francis Wayland
and the venerable Joel Hawcs. About