The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-06

Her population and her wealth are yearly in
-creasing. Her enterprising people emigrate,
but others from Europe are glad to take their
places, and fill the void. But in South Carroll
ma the constant increase of class of laborers
who are compelled to work without wages de-
tiers immigrants from abroad, and compels the
poor whites who were born on the soil, and who
have hitherto managed to exc out existence by
occasional Jobs, to abandon their native land
and seek employment in States whose institu-
tons foster free labor.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CONVEN-
! TON OF NEW YORK-THE SLAVE
TRADE.
The Protestant Episcopal Convention of East
ern Net York was in session in that city last
week. The most important business transacted
was the adoption of a recommendation to the
House of Bishops, in favor of restoring Bishop
OnderdoRk, of that Diocese, who was suspended
fourteen years ago for immortality. The Con-
vention at the same time received with laugh
ter and kissing a proposition by John jay,
Esq, to pass the censure of the body upon the
effort to revive the African slave trade. We quote
as follows from the proceedings of the Conven-
ton, as we find them reported in the New York
Tribune:
"Mr, John Jay presented the following pc
titon to the Convention, which he wished re-
ferred to committee of six, who should report
at the next Convention.
i" To the Diocesan Convention of the Protestant
TI,,so IL II
York:
"The undersigned, members of the said
Church in the said Diocese, respectfully show
to your honorable and reverend body, that it
hath recently been made matter of public no
toriety by the proceedings in our courts of law,
the avowals of prominent statesmen, and the
developments of the American press, that, in
defiance of the laws of God, and Of the ancient
statutes of this Republic, the African slave
trade hath been reopened, and is now being
prosecuted from the port of New York, within
the limits and jurisdiction of this Diocese.
| The undersigned further show, that so
powerful is the influence exerted in favor of
the said trade, and so vitiated is the moral
sense Of part of the community in regard to
the same that the the 4TssI sad traits
the same as piracy are Knocked at and trampled
upon with impunity.
90 therefore respectfully
and earnestly pray your honorable and rever-
end body to take such steps as, on due DELHI
Grafton, to your wisdom shall seem meet, to en-
courage a sound Christian sentiment on this
subject, and to stay this growing evil, to the
intent that, by the voice and influence of our
Church, truth and justice may be more firmly
established in our Diocese; and especially that
the city of New York, where the Church of
England was so early planted and so literally
endowed, and where our Diocesan Convention
holds its sittings, may be purged of its present
partic patton to this stupendous crime.
Mr.. Jay said he simply asked the Conven-
ton to take such measures as they saw fit He
trusted the Convention would be unanimous in
their opinion; but one or two gentlemen had
told him he was too sanguine, and the resolu-
ton would be treated with contempt. But he
hoped his advisers were mistaken The surest
way, he said, to make agitation, was to gag de-
bate, and trample on petitions. He reminded
the Convention that if agitation Sprang from
this, it was from the Convention, and not from
the petitioners, who came simply and quietly
to ask that this subject be considered. He then
offered a resolution that the petition be referred
to a committee, to report at the next Con-
ventiOn.
This petition Of Mr.. Jays created quite a
sensation in the Convention, and was received
with a sound of suppressed laughter and
slight attempt at Kissing When the question
came to vote, the resolution was rejected by
a very decided ma ority, and only the sacred
ness of the place kept the applause from break
ing forth at this result"
By this action, the Episcopal Church of East
ern New York declares to the world, that if not
in favor of the slave trade, it is utterly indifer
ent to its enormties. 1t has no word OF censure
for the infamous pirates who make merchandise
of the very heather whom it is endeavoring, by
its missionaries, to bring within the pale of
Christianity. The members of the Convention
are no strangers to what the slave trade is
They know that its victims are supplied by
rapine and war, that the savages are stimula-
ted to make war upon each other, in order that
the prisoners may be sold to the traders they
have heard of the horrors attending the trans.
portation of the poor creatures across the At
iantic and yet the Episcopal Church has no
word of reprobation for the monstrous wicked
ness, and proposition to censure it is met with
laughter and scorn, and voted down by an over
whelming majority Is it surprising that inf
deity and heresy are becoming every day more
anu that SOLuc vi Tue DSSL Lue1 III the
land have declared war upon the churches,
when the churches are thus recresnt to human
ityP Il is impossible for honest and earnest men
to respect religious teachers who menace with
all the terrors of the law those who participate
in the amusements of dancing and the theatre,
while the foulest crimes against human nature
go unrebuked.
1t is difficult to account for the moral obtuse-
ness which this Episcopal Convention has dis.
played when all political parties in the free
States have been constrained by public opinion
to reprobate the slave trade. The Republican
Convection at Syracuse, in language worthy of
Wilbeforce and Clarksen, denounces the traf-
6c; and even the (" Democratic party of the
State, though staeped in Slavery, had the grace
to condemn it. Is it not passing strange that
there should have been more of reverence for
right and humanity in these political bodies,
and especially the last named, than in the Epis
copal Convention Like the meeting of the
Tract Society, the Convention seems to have
been controlled, when on this subject, by
reckless rabble, without conscience or sense
of decency.
The good men of the church viii hang their