The eastern clarion. [volume] (Paulding, Miss.) 1837-1863, 1860-05-23
PLAIN TALK IN THH NEW YORK
CONFERENCE.


During the late session of this Northern
Conference Of the Methodist Church, the
invariable resolutions on slavery being
up, Rev. Mr.. KETTEL delivered a speech
which the correspondent of Zson's Esrala
says produced q great sensation. We
should suppose 80, from this specimen,
He said
Was slavery a sin to such an extent
that a man should be accommodated
for holding slaves? Now. If n was a sin
to hold slaves, there was no alternative
they must cut 1t of, root and bIanch.
ct brethren who said it was a sin object
"a TO the instant abolition of slavery.
Now the whole question was, us savery
/ in OF not There was a great deal OF
| piouS rhetoric and sentimentalism spent
on TINS theme. Slavery was called sinful.
because evils grew out Of it. He denied
1t was necessarily a sin. There were ma
/ ny evils growing out Of the marriage rela-
! ton IN the present imperfect state Of So
ciety' but marriage was not sinful p~ Sc.
| The sabbath. also, was made the occa-
SION OF riot and debaucherv mi who
would dare to say the Sabbath was q sin
iul institution; The old adaaa that the
world owed every man living. wss non
| sense; every man owed the world his Ia
Dor, and II a race would not work. men
were right to exact labor by force This
! principle was understood and carried out
/ at the North, in our yagrant and work
house systems. The question with us was
not whether we would adopt such a sys-
| tom, but whether its adoption wa, a sin
/ worthy Of cxcomAunication All the
/ rhetoric expended about people owning
! the bodies and souls OF slaves WIS non
sense. The SOutherners only owned the
/ right to make their slaves work and to
/ convey them from one place to another TO
| make them do 80. At Athens and Rome,
/ the bodies and souls were owned. but in
our day slaves were treated with kind
ness. and cruelty to them was punished
| severely. Slavery, as it now existed, was
I not a sin. 'The question was, whether
they should let loose 100000 of paupers
upon the world He depicted thenatural
degradation of the negro race, aPd insist
ed that they were best off Is. resent.
The negro in the West Indies wa hcapa-
bic Of taking care of himself. Emancipa-
ton had blighted one-half of the6nest Of
the Antilles. This was proved inontest.
ably. Toussaint rOuverture dscerned
the evils of freedom to the blacks. and es
tabllshed the famous Rural Code" with
the intent finally to enslaye all In race
Go where YOU would in our own North
and the negroes were an idle Sc. i
slavery had degraded the negro. WHY
didn't freedom elevate him? He affirm
ed most emphatically that, under cod.
providence, slavery in America had beer
the only thing which had elevated the ne
gro race, and he was bold man who
would dare deny it. In morals, health
and civilization. the slaves were far ,bov,
the free negroes. Many statistics wer,
given to show this. Mr.. Wesley wasofter
quoted Is having said that sAmg.icar
slavery was the vilest system undG tn,
sun" Mr. W. must have been blinded
by prejudice. or he would never hav,
made such q remark. Folks said We wcr,
"cottonized." 1t was a blessed thing fo
Us that we were. The wealth flowing [,
Us from the Southern cotton-crop alon,
kept alive our institutions and so-alleC
elevation. The speaker here went On I,
contrast the products of the South and o
the North, finding an enormous ratio il
favor Of the latter. and ending witt tn
Z conclusion tnat we were the ones VIII
were actually deriving the most benefi
from the institution of slavery. Didl'
| his brethren love coffee and sugar, and
he was sorry to say. tobacco? Did thu
ever think Of abolishing slavery by givil
up slave products? Ii was somethil
very curious to see a brother get up an,
: make an anti-slavery speech, with a cot
ton shirt on his back and tobacco in Ii
mouth. If slavery was a relic of barba
ism, it was because the negroes were ba
barians; all this talk about their beir
b equal with Us. he didn't believe a word O
= I was all nonsense and sophistry. A
e tempts TO alter Southern institutions ;
] such talk made him think of the r.
ropean rival villages, Great Barre" an
= Little Barre" The people in the latte
: place built lofty steeple with a wonde
ful clock in it, looking toward the rivi
village. from which the semblance of a HI
, man countenance doomed forth and mad
b faces at Great Barre. whenever the cloc
struck the hour Of the day This W,
= what we were engaged in doing-makin
= faces at the Southland he didn't thin
il was very dignifed, Or that il would r
+ suit in much in the end.