The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-31

the fifteenth amendment, not as miracle
nor due to any special interposition of Divine
Providence but as resulting from the certain
operation of natural causes inherent in the
very constitution of human nature. As
slavery was created by human sel6shness, so
slavery was abolished by human justice,
wisdom, and benevolence. Such was my
view, and such is the dangerous senti-
ment' to which l gave utterauce.
Had / come out with some Grams horn
story" some dream or vision,
or presumptuous assertion as to the
ways of Divine Providence, about which men
speculate forever and settle nothing, 1 might
have escaped the censures of my Bethel
brothers and perhaps passed along for a very
pious man. If l had said that God had
abolished slavery in answer to the prayers of
the American Church and pulpit, a body
which has done more to protect slavery and
give it Responsibility than all other influences
combined; if l had said that foremost among
the instrumentalities which gave liberty to
the American bondman were the sermons and
prayers of ''Big Bethel" q church which
closed its doors against abolition in the hour
of it's EXTREMIST need, L should have
spoken against fact, but should have re-
ceived a cheering amen from Bishop Camp
bell. l, however, professed no know
ledge of the agency of prayer in the great
revolution which has taken place, but spoke
simply of the natural moral forces of human
society, and their tendency to the noble, the
true, and the good. L spoke only as a re-
former, understanding the wisdom of adapt
ing means to ends, and believing if this sin
cursed earth is ever to be made better, it is
to be made so by faithful exertion and wise
application of human energies Moral, not
less than physical evils, are under the control
of man. When anything is to be done in
this world, some denizen of this world has
got to doit, or it will go undone. We are
under inexerable law, Interchangeable and eter-
nal and whatever a man soweth that shall
he reap" The American people vitiated the
laws of justice, love, and liberty, and in due
time that law, written in the human soul,
vindicated itself through war, blood, and
pestience.
But why could I not join in the loud hal
lelujahs and thanksgiving on the 26th of
April, and thus have escaped the dreadful
censures which have since been heaped upon
me? will tell you. Because 1 would not
stultify myself. During the forty years of
moral effort to overthrow slavery in this
country, that system, with all its hell-black
horrors and crimes, found no more secure
shelter anywhere than amid the popular re-
lious cant of the day. One honest Abolition
list was greater terror to shareholders than
whole acres of camp-meeting preachers shout
ing glory to God.
Years ago, when denounclng the pro-
slavery attitude of the Church (and Bethel
among the rest, for it too was in the South,
preaching Servants, obey your masters'D it
was predicted that the day would come when
the churches of this country would claim the
honor of abolishing slavery. They already
do SO. Knowing their time-serving and
cowardly subserviencp to slavery, and know
ing Bethel to be like unto the rest, could
give no countenance to its pretensions.
Hence / declared what believe the literal
truth, that the abolition of slavery is due to
natural causes
Again, if we may venture upon such ques-
ton; admit, if we must, that God abolished
slavery-and we must concede that He did
that work only as He does all things else
one act of His must be esteemed to be as
wise and as beneficial as another. A finite
creature has no right to discriminate between
the acts Of an infinite God. Do not all His
acts accord with an infinite purpose? And is
not this purpose eternally right? Who shall
therefore sit in Judgment upon the works of
God? Unless we are prepared for this, have
we not the same duty to thank God for
slavery as for the abolition of slavery? Our
divines, North and South, few years ago
told us that slavery was of Divine appoint
ment. Did "Big Bethel" then thank God for
slavery? Did she call upon the slave in his
chains to praise the Lord for the bloody lash
tnaI tote LIS quuVerlHS heSu! why nOI II
God established slavery? If we assume to
thank God for one of His acts we must thank
Him for all.
Very evidently, Mr.. Editor, my Bethel
brethren have opened up large subject, far
too large, fear, for the limits of your paper,
if not for the limits of Bethel intellect and
theological learning. Being no theologian
myself, 1 conine my public utterances to
things more comprehensive. When wrong
thing has been done 1 know that men have
done it, and that somebody is to blame for it.
I know, too, that when right thing has been
done somebody has done it-somebody to
whom praise and blame are of some conse-
quence, and that awarding or Withholding it
may in some degree affect the conduct of
other responsible beings for good. The way
is clear to do this, since it is natural, and in
wolves no doubt, darkness, nor contradiction.
| If am wrong in all this, shall be very glad
/ TO be set right, and will even return thanks
| to my Bethel brethren for enlightenment.
| But warn them that hard names, threats.
and denuneiations even though they should
drive me outside their ranks, and take from
me the title of leader of the colored people,
a title l never assumed, and do not claim,
will only leave me just where am.
The second offense for which I am held
guilty and condemned is that in the speech
delivered at Horticultural Hall, held that it
was unwise to insist upon the reading of the
Bible in the common schools of this coun-
try, and contended for the most complete
separation of Church and State as the true
course of safety, both for the Church and for
the State.
My third offense, as stated by my friend
Mr.. Wear, is that contended for the right of
colored citizens to ''vote as they please" that
each citizen must decide for himself what