Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-05-19
How the AIahOmetans view Slavery In this
Country. .-

We commend the following which we copy
from the N. Y. Tribune, to the PrO-Slavery
Churches of our country.
The following story was not told from the
platform at any recent meeting of the Ameri-
can Tract Society; nor yet of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Il would, nevertheless, be wholesome for
sundry doctors of divinity to take heed to it
especially if they be members of the societies
named, to which societies it is respectfully
dedicated.
There are missionaries in Syria, many Of
them. Not few are Americans, and the sue
cess of these latter has been "most encougag7
rn9 Tn6 Ronaa-s oIELlssassss.zs mol grained
with this rapid advance toward Professionalism,
and desire to check it. Knowing that Syrian
eop u;o4s ha-s- conscience which is apt to
strike Tractarian as ludicrously tender upon
certain points, the Roman Catholic goes to them
and says: Preachers from America come
q here to convert you, as they pretend, to the
g true faith of Jesus Christ, and tell you Of the
g freedom in that free and liberal country
q We will tell you to what Protestantism and
q freedom lead, and then tell US whether even
" the Moslems in Turkey would enact such
"iniquitous laws" Then he translates to his
attentive hearers certain passages from Ameri-
can and English journals, wherein the fact is
made painfully clear that such thing as hu-
man bondage does exist in America. On one
occasion, four or Eve respectable natives called
upon an American, and desired him to trans
late into their language E paragraph which
some one had marked for them in The Lon
don Times. It was bit narrating how the
free colored people of several Southern and
South Western States were driven by the
laws from their homes, on pain Of being re-
dnced to Slavery if they remained. To the
rather callous moral cuticle of an American,
this gave no sharp blow; it was to him, we
may suppose, rather mild case of the sys-
tenn and its incidents. But these Syrians
thought otherwise AS they listened, they
held their breath then whispered, each to
the other; sit is as the priest told Us, and
for amoment kept silence. Then, as if think
ing that some deception might be attempted,
one of them prepared-to administer most
solemn oath-one, too, that may have had
sarcasm in il; 'Now, on the oath Of an
Eaglishmdn, do you believe these things TO be
true" Being assured that they were even so,
they at once took a voluntary pledge of total
oDobAuGl4IC AAOAn klC &AAANaAN-AA l@AaA
books, even from all things American, lest
they be sullied with American Slavery
The unfortunate man who had acted as trans
lator tried to explain, that America had a
North as well South, and that there was q
deep and indignant sorrow even in that land
for these things But the attempt dismally
failed: "Let those of the North, said they,
:! 20 home and convert those of the South
q before they come to preach to the Arabs
mEven the Turks never did such things as
these"
II was the remark Of an Italian friar,
remark gleefnlly uttered, that all the priests
sent forth BY the Propsganda al Rome could
not have struck so heavy blow at Protestant
ism IN Syria, as the American news touching
Slavery.
The facts that the United States is the only
Protestant country in the world where slave
" exists; that moro slaves are held by Cath
olics two to one than by Protestantsi and
that the African Slave Trade was established
by Spanish Catholic Bishop in the 18th GEN.
tury, were not sufficient to prevent these sim
ple-minded Matchmaking from believing
that Protestants are worse than the Catholics,
merely because Slavery exists in the Southern
part Of the United States. This is q serious
matter for the American Tract and Mission
airy Societies to consider. The time iSnOt far
distant when these Societies win have to speak
out with voice of thunder against that In
stitution which violates the Ten Command
msntsi and which is 80 aptly styled by John
Wesley ''the sum Of all human villainies."