Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-05-10
The Church nd slavery.

It seems that the war on the Federal con-
stitution is not to be fought alone in Congress.
The higher law, first announced on the forum
of the Senate, is getting to be the rallying
cry of the churchmen-tbat is to say the
churchmen of the North. The churches South
have preserved most commendable silence
upon the subject. AS citizens their members
have asserted the rights of property guaran-
teed by the constitution and laws Of the coun-
try; as christians they have adhered to the
manifest teachings of the bible; and as men,
whenever their rights either Of property or
conscience have been attacked, they have
calmly but firmly asserted and maintained
them. This is as far as they have gone, and
as they need go. They teach and practice
obedience to the laws of their country; they
worship God, with meekness and devotion
according to the suggestion, of an enlightened
conscience and have sedulously avoided the
corrupting contact with politics and political
parties. In the North they have, not without
honorable exceptions however, cast themselves
bodily into the whirlpool of political fanati-
cism forgotten the teachings of the bible !;
forsaken the Exemplar, the great Master
whom they profess to follow, and the chief
Cornerstone on whom they profess to build !,
and seek to establish new church, which
shall have for its principal end and aim, the
abolition of slavery and the virtual nullifca-
ton of the constitution of the government
under which they live and enjoy their free
dom of thought. They have dissolved their
christian unity and fraternity with their
brethren of the South in obedience to the
Higher law, which they preach; and have
established in their churches and in their
family temples the image of the Ethiop, the
descendant of the accursed HAM. as the object
of their especial idolatry. They have con-
vOked pious assemblies and passed resOlu-
tions, pledging themselves and all those who
have the pupilage of the rising generation,
to direct morning, noon, and evening, the
young heart to this new divinity, and to pray
eternally for its emancipation and rescue
The negro is to them another part and parcel
of the GOdhead; he is another Holy Sepul-
chre, worthy of any number of crusades; he
is another Golden Fleece, which shall Justify
and renown a thousand heroes in expeditions
to a new Colchis; he is another Promised
land, to be snatched from the thraldOm of the
heather. To this the Church of the South is
silent, as it ought to be. Under the smiles
and grace of omnipOtence, the true Church
may stand.
But having put on the political helmand
thrown down the guantlet to those of the
South, who are charged with the defence of
the State, how shall they he metz They
come with religious heresy in one hand and
false politics in the other. 1t is not for the
Church, South. to meet them. That task is
more appropriate to the patriotic statesmen
of all sections whose first care is the defence
of the State against attacks upon the State.
The lovers of the constitution and laws should
plant themselves against these Mortimer who
threaten to pour in upon our beloved Rome,
in foods not less merciless than those that
flowed under the footsteps of Alarice, the
bloody. They should create counter cur
rent of political sentiment, which streaming
from the Capitol, should turn them back at the
borders, and save the children of the Republic
from the moral slaughter.