Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1862-05-15

CtdoC w octh w utsblutlIOu w Wloo tuh
prudent means" and that political action
was deemed ''tcise and prudent Annual
Conferences were required to draw up 'ad-
dresses, to Legislatures of States for eman-
! cipation--that is, to petition for the aboli-
= ton of ~slavery-and Committees of the
''most respectable men 10 be appointed ITO
, coaduct tie business"
, Did they think Abolition %disreputablc?
j Were they 'ong .facci hypocrites'-"r
$ pers'-''demons'i Rather, would they
e not have been ashamed Of such things as
. you, my brother, found among them, as
, professors? Or, dol't you feel ashamed of
them-or of yourself--which?
Don't let the holding up ofthis glass agitate
b you: 1t is not u 1.-THE Of what can be
/. quoted Of the same strong, bold and manly
Abolitionism.
> Bat perhaps you feel, eHiioripHy, that you
are writing for tho "Banner County !" and
}, while in the chair you must--for the sake
A of pdrty-ignore the fathers and founders
oil your Church, and her Discipline too.
d Let me remind you that this political agi-
%tation Of slavery, ny the NJ. Il. Church, was
y at a time when Quakers, aud almost all
Christians and humane men, were petition
=, ing Legislatures, discussing, and agitating
. and urging emanclpution-that those were
the days Of Washington, Jefferson, Frank.
Inland the days of the ".AjoLtioa So
cieiies " and embraced the period bctwixt
1890 and 1900, your figures to the con
y trary notwithstanding.
About this time the PRESBYTERIAN Church
recommended the abolition Of slayery-the
Pennsylvania Abolition Society, of which
Franklin was President and DR.. Rush Sec.
retary, petitioned Congress about thistime
" Vermont, and other Northern States were
it engaged in abolishing slavery. 1t was a
r. time OF deep agitation of slavery, though
you--l hope ignorantly--as assert the contrary,
and give ',,f1nres'i Then was the sino
nc when almost every good man spoke out
against slavery. Few dared defend it.
.ct Your '.fgurcs'Eby the way. The null
to tirlication table would have been as german
=" to the subject. Indeed? The free colored
population not so prolific under the infu.
AS ence of political agitation of slavery |! A.
he ~ per cent. to lol! Verify, this should
., suit the ncgro-haters-it will decrease from
on our midst, by u ma ;ic spell, the black popu
ie- lation, and be wonderfully anti amalgama
in ton in its tendencies. Let us have the
le- figures.
:. We here merely notice the fact that th,
"a standing record Of the NJ. II. Church is tina
~. she is 'as much as ever convinced of thl
,m great eri of slavery
.o Were the fathers of our country and tn,
mha founders Of the Government political Abo
wo lltionists? High time The country shoul,
wi know what they said and did in relation t.
eu slavery.
oh George Washington said, in a letter o
,w September 8, l7S6~-'It being among m.
wa .frst 'rishes to SEQ some plan adopted b,
oat which slavery, in this country, may be abol
.oah ished by law" In a letter of April ~
ILm 1886, to Robt. Morris, he said: II can onl
,oo say, that there is not a man living, VIII,
.nJ wishes more sincerely than | do, to see
plan adopted for the abolition of it slavery
but there ~ only one proper and ~effectua
Ia, mode by which it can be accomplished, an
, ,em that is by legislative authority and this, a
on far as my suffrage will go, shall never b
:" wanting"
~ Washington favored political agitation G
nj, slavery; and as a practical AbolitionisI
H. made provision in his will for the elnancipa
~ ton Of all his slaves.
Il" Jefferson, the author Of tie Declaratio
nj of independence, and the father of IT.,
o "" democracy, was a most thorough polite,
agitator Of slavery. And the only difficult
is to know where to begin to select from h
o Abolition sayings. In his Notes on VII
'y GINA his loathing Of slavery, as an abom
nation, abounds. Pity every citizen va
tnS not familiar with that work. In INA, b,
M, fore a Virginia Convention, he said:
'The abolition If domestic slavery is III
'9 greatest object of desire in these Colonic,
where it was unhappily Introduced in thei
,,o infant State" And he denounces slav,
dealing MS an %"niJantons proctce."
i'll How indicate such expression! o, m
brother, your fps wouldn't mouth such I'm
H., prudent" Abolitionism How rude mu.
have been primitive democracy! In rcpl
,,y to a letter OF an anti slavery friend, in 1914
he says: ''The sentiments do honor to ii
heat. and heart of the writer. Mine on I'll
subject Of tho slavery Of the Negroes ha,
49,. long since been in the possession Of the puI
aoo lie, and time has only served to give the
stronger root. The love of justice and Il
,ru Hre Of couatry plead equally the cause
these people, and it is a reproach to us tn.
= 40 they should have pleaded it so long in vain.
In5 In 1885, writing an answer to an AboI
~ ton correspondent in London. he says
"Northward Of the Chesapeake you m,
find, hero and there, an opponent of 70,
81 doctrine, as you may find, here and Their
,bUa a robber and murderer"
"hf0bJers and muTr3crers'! This O
prince of patriots, and father of democrac
,tho ranking opposers Of Abolitionists with "yo
~; INV bGs and mmtierers'! Shade of Thorn,
the Jefferson How changed the timcs-ar
'ae politics!
fiji. Ahhh iui''oi SllOuhiHg VI uDlltiCul uCtll
oh no says, in tho same letter-"Emancipati,
Irbn is put into such a trails, that in a few yea
~ there will DO no slaves Northward of Mar
W lnnd."
y 10 such contamination no bent all L
,aoe oncrgics-and that too by political actio
""oa Though n Virginian he interfered to secu
i;s =, emancipation in the Northern States.
Speaking, in his Notes on Virginia."
' aI;a the danger of Divine judgments on accou
' ho of the sin of slavery, he says:
'wm And can the liberties of n nation
our thought secure, when we have remov
aannII their only firm basis--a conviction in 4
anu minds Of the people that these liberties a
Amy the gift Of God ?-that they IRE not to
'ssos violated but by biz wrath? Indeed,
"rM tremble for my country whenI reflect tn
T u God is just; that his justice cannot sic
~. forever" " &c.
III In word, for | must close this article
t w. Brother e.. were all these fathers aud foun
lucy ers of Churches, and the institutions of Q
,or country, and their cotemporaries-most
as. whom were Abolitionists--"ripers'
at 'sdoubLe. fIced hnno.rjbes''- St,Icn,n,.', =