Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-01-31
se, ai For the Chronicle.
'sTHE sTATR or THR CONN
TMK.U 49,. I...-


your paper you will oblige many readers.
many Union friends, and many patriots by
giving place to the following, from the pen
Of Dr. Hodge in the January number Of the
Princeton Review. He examines the alleged
grievances Of the South, and then discusses
the subject Of disunion. Some Of tho rea-
sons why we think this article should be pub
lished and carefully read arc the Following
l. To countoract, in this community, the
evil tendency Of the policy and course of
your neighbor Of the Gazette. No paper,
perhaps, from Maine to . Q as has as ptrsis-
teptly denounced political preaching and
clerical demegogues, and yet no paper in the
land has published so many purely political
sermons and other pro-slavery articles, with
50 many high eulogis and recommendations
to read and study in order to arrive Ut truth.
The Editor hugs Slavery to his BOSOM with
so furious grasp that he is in danger Of
hugging it to death, and of damaging him
self in the over-strain.
2. The Princeton Summaries, like Paris
to France, are the centre Of power in one of
the most learned & powerful churches in this
land. The Theology of Princeton, and the
commanding influence of its oracles there,
sway the three thousand clergy and the hun
drcds of thousands Of the members of that
church, found mostly in the middle States.
8. That church in the South, being ex-
tensively slaveholding-holding some eighty
houeoad ,SIdres-its ministers are, with
some exceptions, either pro slavery or con-
neutrality-suspicious. we should say silent
the utterance from Princeton New Jersy at
this time is significant; and speaks in en-
phatic tones against such political Doctors
as Van Dyke, Palmer, Thornwell & Co.. and
tn cir polital sermons.
As this Review comes from neither the
Abolition nor Republican party, its views,
from the pen of Rev. Doctor, second in
erudition and influence to no man in that
large body, should command the considera-
ton Of all sober men under the influence of
;larmists, and disunionists and treasen-
makes, as the gentleman Of the Gazette,
who seems to take pleasure in publishing
Montgomery humLugs. 4 poltical secession
tory sermons, hundred and one times re-
iuted. The times demand that sober men
should turn away from the low slander-slang
of little tory political partizan papers, charge
able with the confusion into which the South
is now thrown to its certain ruin, and to some
extent involving the temporary injury of the
North. Ponder the Review. We give q
few extracts:
As to the grievances that of tho greatest
weight. DR.. Hodge says, is ''the spirit, con
duct, aud language of the abolitionists Of
the North. 1t is a grievance to be hated
and denounced, to be held up as cxecrably
wicked. 1t a grievance to have slavehold
ing represented as the greatest of crimes
to have immediate emancipation insisted up
ON as an imperative duty. Mere moral dis
appreciation of the system of slavery woult
be 10 just ground of complaint 1t must b,
admitted that this lisa grievance under which
the South has laborcd and is still laboring
The great mistake however, of our South
crn brethren, is that they charge this offens
ON the people of the North; whereas, tn,
truth is there is not one in hundred o
the people of the North who entcrtains thes
opinions, and joins in these denunciations
. We appeal in support of shis statement I
every accessible index Of public opinion. O
: the hundreds of religious newspapers pub
lished at the North, the number is very sma
that breathe spirit of abolitionism. The prc
: portion Of the secular press controlled by tbs
e spirit is::not greater. We do not know {
4 one clergyman among tho Roman Catholic
: or the Episcopalians, or the Dutch Reform
lied, belonging to the class of abolitionists.
e. IOf the three thousand Old School Presb.
,dl tcrian clergymen in the country, we do N
vel believe there are twelve to be SO designate'
i, Of the Northern Baptists we have no kno,
e. ledge Of the prevalence Of abolitionism
It's any great extent in their ranks. Among Il
MS Methodists there is perhaps more Of tn
IN spirit, but counteracted by a strong const
he Iyative element. The clergy may be taken
at Ia fair index of public sentiment on all mo
h-Iland religious subjects, and their inAueu
e. lin determining that sentiment can not
u, denied. l."
ia "Another grievance justly complained
ID l|is the interference of Northern aboGtioni
with the slaves of the South. We adj
the fact we admit that it is crime and
or Ioflcnse; we admit that it calls for redre
.VBut is disunion the effectual remedy? /
-, right to break with the whole North beca
s,s Nef the conduct of small band Of fana
- hover which the people have no control, |
y. Ilfor which they are not responsible? Of
NJ eighteen millions of Northern white m
sS|thcre is probably not one thousand who h
- Eany agency in these attempts to excite
u. II Southern slaves, ;or who approve Of il
idsIlWould it be fair for the North to hold
NM. South responsible for the deeds Of yiole
tolIreported in almost every paper, Of which
-, Innocent Northern citixons In Southern st
lie. ne the victims? II is not only upjus'
IT,: IT, old the North responsible for the diss
,ction excited among the slaves at the Sc