The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-24


the South. We are yet TO work for them, as
the silent spring works for us. They are
lawful prey to love. do not hesitate to tell
the South what mean by loving union with
tbem.i l mean Liberty. l mean the decay OF
Slavery, and its extinction. If | might speak
| for the North, I would say to the South, We
love you, and hate your Slavery. We shall
leave no fraternal effort untried to deliver you,
and ourselves with you, from the degradation,
danger, and wickedness, of this system" And
for this we cling to the Union. There is health
| in it.
4. We are to leave no pains untaken, through
the Christian conscience of the South, to give
to the slave himself higher moral status. l
| lay 1T down as an axiom, that whatever gives
more manhood to the slave slackens the bonds
that bind him, and that whatever lowers him in
the scale of manhood tightens those bonds. Ii
you wish to work for the enfranchisement of the
| African, seek to make him better man. Teach
him to be an obedient servant, and an honest,
true, Christian man. These virtues are Gods
step stones to Liberty. That man whom Christ
first makes free has better chance to be civilly
| free than any other. To make slave morose,
fractious disobedient, and unwilling to work,
is the way to defer his emancipation. We do
not ask the slave to be satisfied with Slavery.
But, feeling its grievous burden, we ask him to
endure it while he must, as unto God and not
unto man." not because he does not love Lib
erty, but because he does love Christ enough to
show forth his spirit under grievous wrong.
Poor slaves will never breed respect, sympathy,
and emancipation. Truth, honor, fidelity, man
| hood--these things in the slave will prepare
him for Freedom. 1t is the low animal condition
of the African that enslaves him. 1t is moral
Acknowledgement that will break his bonds.
The Pauline treatment is the most direct
| Md 10 Il shar NJ 0( H. r.cI0 &c
New Testament seems to be more divnely wise
than Paul's directions to those in Slavery. They
are the food that servants need now at the
South, everywhere, the world overi If lived
in the South, / should preach these things to
slaves, while preaching on masters duties to
those who hold them. / should do it with a
firm conviction that so / should advance the
day of their liberty
| In order to labor the most effectually for the
| emancipation of the slaves, / would not need
to say one word, except to preach Christ and
purity and manhood, and to enjoin upon them
faithfulness in every duty belonging to their
state. l should be conscious that in doing
this was lifting them up higher, l should feel
that | was carrying them further and further
toward their emancipation. There is no dis
agreement between the true spirit of emancipa-
ton and the enforcement of every single one of
the precepts of the New Testament respecting
servants.
| 5. The things which shall lead to emancipation
are not so complicated or many as many people
bhndly think. A few virtues established, few
usages maintained, few rights guaranteed to
the slaves, and the system is vitality wounded.
| The right of chastity in the women, the un-
blemished household love, the right of parents
in their children ON these three elements
stands the whole weight of society. Corrupt or
fhQca ho
cumbent strength. Withhold these rights from
savage people, and they can never be carried
up They are the integral elements of associ-
ated human life. We demand and have right
to demand, of the Christian men of the South,
that they shall revolutionize the moral condition
of the slaves in this regard.
l stand up in behalf of two million women
who are without voice to declare that there
ought to be found in Chritianity, somewhere, an
influence that shall protect their right to their
own persons; and that their purity shall stand
on some other ground than the caprice of their
masters. demand that the Christian Church,
both North and South, shall bear testimony
in behalf of marriage among the slaves, which
shall make it as inviolable as marriage among
the whites. 1t is not to be denied that another
code of morals prevails upon the plantation
than that which prevails in the plantation house.
So long as husband and wife are marriageable
commodities, and to be sold apart, to form new
connections, there can be no such thing as
sanctity in wedlock.
Let it be known in New York that a man
has two wives, and there is no church so feeble
of conscience that they will not instantly eject
him; and the civil law will instantly visit him
with penalty. But the communicates of slave
churches not only live with a second, while
their first companion is yet alive, but with
third and fourth; nor is it any disqualification
for church membership. The Church and the
State wink at it. 1t is part Of the commercial
necessity of the system. If you aoiU sell men,
you must not be too nice about their moral
virtues.
A aoedding among this unhappy people is but
name-a mere form, to content their con-
science or their love of initiating their superiors.
And every auctioneer in their community has
the power to put asunder whom God has Joined
And marriage is as movable as misfortune ITSELF
The bankruptcy of their owner is the bankrupt
cy of the marriage relation, in half the slaves
on his plantation.
Neither is there any Gospel that has been
permitted to rebuke these things. There is no
| church that have ever known in the South
that bears testimony against them. Neither
will the churches In the North, as a body, take
upon themselves the responsibility of bearing
witness against them.
| go further: declare that there must be a
! Christian public sentiment which shall make
the family inviolate. Men sometimes say. at
is rarely the case that families are separated"
1t is false 1t is false There is not slave
mart that does net bear testimony, ten thou
sand times over, against such an assertion.
| Children are bred like colts and calves and are
dispersed like them.
1t is in vain to preach Gospel to slaves
that leaves out personal chastity in man and
woman, or that leaves this purity subject to
another's control! that leaves out the sanctity
of the marriage state, and the unity and in
volatility of the family. And yet no Gospel
has borne such testimony in favor of them
as to arouse the conscience of the South If
ministers will not preach liberty to the captive,
they ought at least to preach the indispensable
necessity of household virtue If they will not
| call upon the masters to set their slaves free
they should at least proclaim a Christianity
that protects woman, childhood, and house
| hold
The moment woman stands selfpoised in
her own purity, the moment man and woman
are united together by bonds which cannot be
sundered during their earthly life, the moment
! the right of parents to their children is recog-
Missed, that moment there will be a certain
sanctity and protection of the eternal and D-
| vine government resting upon father and
mother and children and Slavery will have
| had its death blow struck You cannot make
| Slavery profitable after these three conditions
are secured The moment you make slaves
| serfs, they become difficult legal tender, and
are uncurrent in the market and families are
1 .hrnTa 40 n 20