Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-01-09

against the course of his moral providence;
against the precepts and example of inspired men.
We seem to ourselves now to have been too much
swayed by tinsel theory of"' the rights of men,"
which has no warrant from the scripture, but is
relerabe historically to speculative sOphistry and
unbelief, theory about which the philosophers
1 themselves, and the politicians who have thriven
/ by their subtleties, have perpetually disagreed
TO the disOrganizitiOn of society, ever since God
| gave to the virtuOus sons of Noah social and pO-
litical pre- eminence above their obscene brother
as he has distinguished ever since between men
and nations ON similar accounts. Such fctions
may obtain in revolutionary France, or cosmOpol
/ tan Germany, but belong not to Puritan America
Our Fathers were not so taken. They better
derstood Moses, and Christ and Paul. The" new
lights" mised US. We resolve to return to the
old paths, and set up again the ancient land
marks.
Thirdly; Some of us have found a greater jus
titication of these irregularities, in more settled
and outspoken conviction of the sinfulness of
slavery itself While we have kept alOof from
| the philosophers, we have vet adopted their Ian
guage, and almost justified their spirit. We have
proieSsed that not to contend against the prnci-
| pie of slavery, or TO cOncede anything, in this
! spect would be "rO make league with death"
/ In this we have been extreme and inconsiderate,
though sincere AMI conscientious, as Paul in
his blind attachment to speculative traditions. We
have lost now none of our hatred of all injustice,
oppression and cruelty. Our souls still revolt at
the iniquities which have been attendant on the
slave trade at the horrors of the middle passage
and the numerous public and private wrongs and
evils resulting from the practice of slavery, as it
has been so often used, to crafty the cupidity
lust of ambitious, greedy or licentious men. We
would as soon as any other men insist that the
slave should have the enjoyment of all the rights
and privileges pertinent to his calling. We would
defend him, at the cost of property or lfe against
| unlawful injuries. We would teach, Christianize
and, if that belonged to us, convert him. We
love, pity and would save him. We would give
him liberty whenever that should be better for
himself or for the world. But we would now do
this in subsection, not to the sOphsts or the dem
agogues, but to Christ and his Apostles. Our in
stincts sentiments, reasonings and policy should
be governed by the same guidance of the scrip
! lures.
We are now convinced that the Constitution, in
admitting slavery did, and from the nature of the
case could do no more essential wrong than did
the code of Moses, or of other governments to
which Christ and his Apostles enjOned submission
upon all the Christians. We perceive that God,
in ordinary things, in this respect, as he has done
in Scripture, must have had reasons which are
above our criticism or, however, that his will is
decisive of all practical questions of right and
wrong. Moreover reasons for slavery are appa-
rent-Tedsons retIibutive and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
of justice and of mercy, reasons corresponding to
those which we observe for the course of PrOvi-
dence in general in preserving the balance of the
present diSordered system OF the world, securing
guardianship discipline and restraint for licentous,
degraded incapable persons who would other
wise prey upon more cultivated and virtuOus so
ciety, to its general Reorganization or their own
ultimate extinction, as long experience has
! proved. 1t seems now more than probable that
this nation, the Africans included, as things are
/
have stood without slavery than the Israelites
could have stood in the land of Canaan, if they
had been infected with our modern romantic wis
dom, and had disobeyed God in giving liberty,
equality and fraternity to its wild inhabitants.
The strait antl-siavery principles we have here
tofore advocated or encouraged, seem not to per-
tain to the natural or constituted regulation OF
the world in the present disturbed state of earth,
but to have had their origin in that extreme SCI
fish reaction which has taken place, i'm specula-
tive periods, from tyrannical abuses of Gods
wholesome ordinances of rule and government to
worse abuses of anarchy and RIGHTEOUSNESS of
which the Gospel teaches all Christians to bewsr re,
and in W ich it seems to foreshow the wreck of
nations. We turn from such gilded conce;ts to
our Bibles, which have too much neglected,
or imprudently interpreted by humanitarian fic
tons or the cor poDuh which was echoed and APP
| pauded by them That slavery is deadly sin
we can not now find in scripture else, not only
the world, in distinction from the Church. but
the Church itself has never been alive, and Christ
is dead in vain ; else, our Lord himself knew not
what was i'm man, when he commended the slave
holding centurion as having greater faith than he
had found in Israel else Paul was an ignorant or
a double minded man when he admonished the
slaves to be subject to their own masters, and to
be content with their calling, and pronounced en-
phatically that eff any man teach otherwise he is
proud knowing nothing, doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy strife,
ratings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of truth"
We find no retraction of these authoritative
words, no hint given us to depart from them, or
that the reasons of them will cease till the whole
groaning and Travelling creation shall be set at
liberty, at the manifestation of the sons of God.
We fear that attempt to forestall that grand
jubilee of the nations, except so far as We may fW
able to diffuse Christian spirit among the differ
ent classes of mankind would be more disastrous
than the Crusades, other attempts which have
been prematurely made to restore Jerusalem. We
would not, therefore, be righteous over much and
die before time We would not on account
of mere theories which all experience has hitherto
confuted, subject our memories to the reproaches
of our children or expose our country to the hor
rors of a civil and servilc
Ii concerns us not to Justify our Southern
| brethren. They may have deserved, on various
accounts, the judgments which some have pro-
fanely imprecated upon them on this account
alone, and which others, more foolishly, have felt
themselves commissioned of Heaven TO denounce.
But their spots, whatever they may be, prove not
our purity and excuse not our delinquencies. We
have done with throwing stones While there is
strife between us it becomes US not to be their
judges. They could, perhaps, become ours with
equal reason, and mutual ordinations could only
result in common ruin. The times demand of
both better wisdom That, possibly may vet
restore us, through mutual concessions and i'm
partial compromise; and new era of public viz
tue, prosperity and happiness may succeed. Other
wise we must fall together. Our exultant nation
will die in its youth. The eagle will drop from
our mid-heaven, and screaming vultures will
hasten to prey upon the dishonored dead.
CONSISTENCY.