The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-03-10

The following letter from Ex. Governor
Slade to the recent Anti-Slavery Conven-
tion, at Bradford, we insert because we
think it profitable in these temporiz-
ing times to present the subject from a
high point Of observation.
MIDDLEBURy, Jan. 20, 1858.
N. R. JOHNSTON, ESQ. - Dear Sir
have received your favor inviting me to
attend and address an Anti-Slavery Con-
vention to be held at Bradford on the 26th
and 9th Of the present month. l am
sorry to be obliged to say, that my health
is such as to forbid an acceptance of your
invitation.
The leading purpose OF the proposed
Convention, as expressed in your letter,
is, to initiate moral movement in re-.
gard to Slavery, on higher platform
than that occupied by the leading politi-
cal parties. In this purpose heartily
sympathize. Efforts are certainly needed
to give greater depth. and breadth, and
strength, to the existing Anti-Slavery
feeling.-It needs new impulse
higher tone. 1t wants more heart-more
of the vitalizing influence Of Christian
principle Opposition to Slavery is nee.
essarily connected with political parties,
and political contests The tendency of
this is, to corrupt its morality-to substi.
tute flexible rule Of political expodien.
cy, for the unbending rule of right. There
are drawn within the Anti-Slavery cur.
rent, great numbers, who, either from want
of reflection or want Of principle. fail to
get to the bottom of the question, and
act from motives, which slight changes
of circumstances may render powerless
for any earnest effort in the right direc.
ton.
The public heart should be fast anchor.
ed to the great fundamental truth, that all
men are equal before God. and, Of right
equal before human iaW and that, to
set up an o,cne' ship in human being is
direct invasion Of the prerogative Of
of Him who has said, "All souls are
mine," and said it in sense altogether
different from His claim of ownership in
the cattle upon thousand hills" mas.
much as rational, responsible being is
different from the brute that perishes, and
that is expressly given to the ownership
of man by the great Proprietor, To
claim property in man, and to treat him
as property, is, therefore Aagrant wrong
"a high crime.--It stands quite above
all questions ofpolitical economy-ofpecu-
mary loss and gain--of the competition of
Slave with Free labor and even above the
demoralizing influence of Slavery itself.
The great, broad, deep, everlasting dis
tinction between right and wrong must
take possession Of the public heart and
conscience. Gods authority must be
held supreme. There must be felt the
force of law higher than human,-a law
before which human laws and constitutions
must bow-a law whose sanctions reach
into the great future, when human laws
and constitutions shall have passed away,
and masters and slaves shall stand togeth-
er, upon a common level, before "The
judgement sest of Christ" How insig-
ni6cant and unavailing will there appear
all the pleas and pretenses here resorted
to, to justify human Slavery; and yet that
ordeal is but step before the men of this
generation!
With sentiments such as these great
truths are fitted to inspire. must this ma
tion be penetrated-minister of religion
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
partizans-all All must feel that there
is God who abhors oppression, and who
will not hold guiltless the unrepenting op-
pressor, or the unrepenting nation that
countenanees and sustains the oppression
No attempted Anti-slavery reform viii
prove effectual. into which conviction
of the inherent wrong of Slavery, and o
responsibility to the God of the opPresseC
does not enter as fundamental element
Much, it is true, may be aocomplishs'
through the agency of other causes. Mo
tives of interest may operate and polil
ical parties may be organized; but moth
er can be counted on for the steady an
enduring influence that is needed. l.
the ever-shifting phases Of party contests
fundamental principles may be lost Sigh
, of.-The public morality may become de
based and corrupted, insomush that eve
the efforts Of party, organised for Free
|, dom, may degenerate into struggle f'