New-York daily tribune., 1858-04-16
csuse' wss subserved no. more By the co1raseo"
fidelity ef Stephen than BY the trescbefJ OF Judas

The Executive Committee Of the American Tract
Society. not content with the pamphlet in the'r
behalf put forth BY their Secretary. the Rev. Seth
Bliss nor With tie volunteer efforts in their deien'e
which appear from time to time in The Journal ct
Commerce and other newspapers, hsye taken the
field in person. They have published under their
own names minute, as they call it, in explanation
AID ,iLdication Of the advice which they gave TO
the Publishing Committee-sdvice which resulted
in the sUpprestiOn Of the tract on the ScnPsursi
Duties Of Masters. This minute contains some
curious disclosures as TO the secret history oil the
proceedings at the general meeting of the Society
in May last. II was supposed q! the time BY the
uninitisted that the resolution then unanimously
adopted had been adopted in good faith, and that
the tract on the SchpturL Duties Of Masters
which lay then in the Society's rooms, printed,
stitched and ready for binding, had been prepared
and that the expenditures upon it in paper' Prnt'
ing, &c, had been incurred, with view to It's
issue and circulation. 1t WA only in this eIpecta-
tion that a large part Of the members present
joined in the prayer Of Thanksgiving over
the harmonious result arrived at, propose1
by the Chairman of the Executive Committee.
& would appear, however, from the grourd now
taken BY the Executive Committee, that this unan-
imOus resolution, go harmoniously adopted and 80
harmoniOu.ly prayed over was after all mere
artful ttratsgem on the part Of the Conservatives,
as they call Themselves, to gain time and recruit
their strength; that the resolution upon which the
issue Of the tract in qIcstion was to be based, waa
adopted with tie secret Intention on the part of
some members Of the Committee of Fifteen, from
whom il proceeded that it should not be carried
into effect shd that the tract had been prepared
and printed merely temporary tub to the whale,
but without any real intent to issue it,
TIE resolution, we are told, recommending its
publication, did not stand alone. "AS eonserra
" tire counhrpoiSe TO any rash action there had been.
" in ard by the Committee Of Fifteen, added other
" revolutions equally binding, one of which, the
ninth, expressing confidence in the wisdom Of the
Executive Committee, anticipated o! them ac-
"tion tending 'to promote the widest and best
@" usefulness Of this Society throughout our whole
Z" country" "This," Gays the minute from which
we quote, vas the final resolution, the closing
" Fifteen-to borrow Scriptural phrase, the con-
clusion Of the whole matter" Are We to under
stand that it was Inserted at the time with the very
vitw Of nuDifyipg the preceding resolution, and in
fpite of TIE decidedly expressed opinion Of the So
ciety as to its province and duty of remtting
the whole question to the Executive Committee
Wbtte,er n ight have been the inteat Of those who
~ inf fnf ba Gn,p
mitee of Fifteen of this ninth resolution, the larger
part of those who voted for it understood it doubt
less as a mere compliment, without the slightest
idea that it would be or could be used to prevent
the doing Of that which the Society in the very
some set OF resolutions had resolved could aud ought
TO be done. But if we cOncede to the Executive
Committee all the authority claimed by them under
this conservative counterpoise to rash action"
tie point still remains TO be established, that the
suppression of the tract in question did and does
tend "to promote the widest and best usefulness Of
" this Society throughout our whole country"
The tract in question, it is to be recollectsd con-
fines itself to the Scriptural Duties of Masters. 1t
is based on passages of Scripture which are per-
petually cited at the South as recognizing the pos
sbllty that Christians may be shareholders. 1t
addresses Itself chiefly to the duty of masters to
give their slaves religious Instruction The only
ether duties which it enjoins do not go beyond the
maxim that mercful man is merciful
to his beast
The evils anticipated by the Executive Commit
tee from the publication of this tract and not mere
ly anticipated but assumed as certain, are the dis
memberment of the Society BY the withdrawal
from it Of ga large conservative Interest in the
"Northern churches, deyout, liberal and labo-
rious," and the utterly clcgging ard choking
of any channel at the South and South
West for the further circulation of any Of the
works bearing the Society's imprint. Before
yielding absolutely to the terrors of this anticipated
exclusion from the South, We should like to be
little more particularly informed as to the agency
BY which it is expected to be accomplished. Will
the evangelical Christians at the South consPre to-
gether to put stop to the circulation of the Soce
tvs publicatons-not merely the tract on the
Scriptural Duties of Masters but slltheir publica
tions-or will the business be taken in hand by
mcbs or by legislation
Besides there is another peint to be considered.
1t is not only the widest but the best use.
fulness Of the Society that is to be cOnsulted-i!s
usefulness throughout /" our Whole country" The
Executive Committee have been so long in the
habit of looking South that they hardly
seem to recollsct that there is also North
What is likely to be the effect at the North of the
exhibition of itself which it is proposed that the
Society should make-that of trucker to the sins
\ c,1 AZ l.