The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-04-16
NEW S:
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1875.
RIOGRAPEEY OF REV. JOHN
Hga NEGEN.
'a'ie Formation o. What 1.
Now IIIe SVesIern Tract
society aG Cincinnati.

The Shareholders, TO great extent, |
governed both church and state on |
the slave question. Mr.. Rankin, at |
an anti-slavery convention held at |
Chicago, consulted his anti-slaVery |
friends on the subject of forming a /!
religious tract so :iety that would |!
publish tracts aud books against
siaveholding as readily as against
other prevailing sins. All seemed |
TO feel that such a society ought to
be formed, but no one moved in |
that direction. Mr.. Rankin issued |
call for a convention to meet at |
Cincinnati on a certain day to form
religious tract society that |
would publish against all forms of
wrong doing. The weather being
excessively cold, but few attended !
the meeting. 1t was held in Mr.. |
Boyington's church. The society, |
which is now the Western Tract So |
ciety, was organized by the ajop-
ton of a suitable constitution and |
the election of officers. Mr.. Ran
kin was chosen president and Mr.. |
Boyington corresponding secretary.
After Mr.. Rankin returned home |
he received a note from AR. Boyin-
ton, stating that unless Mr.. Rankin
3 would act as collecting agent the
society could not operate. Mr..
Rankin consented to act as agent |
during one year. He commenced, |
aud In the course of two months, in |
the surrounding section of the coun- |
try in which he resided, be took up |
a subscription of two thousand dol |
lars, and thus he put the society in
to operation. He then spent five
months in some of the eastern
states, and collected thousand dol
lars. There were but few churches
in which he was permitted to pre-
sent the Abolition canse. He made !
His collections by going from house
TO house. Every other agent for
collecting failed to accomplish any
thing for the society, and in some
cases did not collect enough TO pay
their salary. Mr.. Rankin served
the society year, and that, with
some donations sent to it by beneV-
olent individuals, enabled it to pro-
gress in its work. He continued
occasionally to collect for 1t until he
left the state, and he was annually
elected president while he lived in
the state.
lie wrote number of the tracts
of the society for which he neither
asked nor received any compensa-
uon, one of which is here inserted
cATECHIsM FOR FREE WORKING MEN.
[By the Son OF u Blacksmith
AS 1 have taken upon myself to
write a Catechism for my fellow
working men, / deem it proper to
give some account of myself.
was born in Jefferson county,
East Tennessee, within six miles OF
cambridge. My father was black
smith, and by industry he procured
good farm. He had ten sons and
no slaves. had taste for almost
all kinds of business. During q
number of years / farmed diligent-
ly, raised cotton, wheat and corn.
When not farming, employed my
self at some other useful business.
L would make q gate when one was
needed, stock q plow, or make har-
Messing for horses. l also made
shoes for the family, and often help
ed my father in his shop. Thus l
was "Jack -of-all-trades," and my
fathers family predicted that l
would be q poor man because l
could do SO many things; aud that
prediction came well nigh being
true. / am now sixty eight years
old, and cannot now call much of
this world my own. have had
long life and much hard labor, and
labor still. i have always felt
deep sympathy for the lAboring
classes OF society; and now, when l
must soon leave tho world, desire
to do them the greatest good in my
power.
CATECuISM.
Question 1.-What has broken up
the peace of our nation and tram
pied our glorious flag in the dust
Answor.-The slaveholding pow
er.
Q. 2.-Of what does the slave
holding power consist
Alt consists of three hundred
and fifty thousand slave holders.
q. 3-What evidence-is there that
the slaveholding power has broken
up the peace of the nation, and
trampled our GLORIOUS FLAG in the
dust?
A.-All the free States are loyal
to the General Government, and in
the slave States where slaves are
few, as in Western Virginia and
East Tennessee, there is but little
rebelling; and where slaves are
very numerous, there is the highest
state of rebellion. These facts show
clearly that the slaveholding power
has produced the instruction
against the national GOVERNMENT.
=. What has enabled these
three hundred and fifty thousand
SHAREHOLDERS to break up the peace
of q nation of thirty-oue millions of
people!
A.-The holding of four millions
of slaves, with lands on which to
work them, has enabled them TO
break the peace of. the nation, large
as it Is. This is a combination large
tuOuRu " CiuduScI tue pcdCc aux
welfare of any nation, however
large that natiOa may be.
=. by what means does the
slayeholding power so control the
non-slaveholders OF the South as
TO get up so large a rebellion?
A.-By working millions of men
and women without wages, they de-
priye the poor white people OF the
means of profitable employment
and of the means of schooling theiI
children; consequently, the mass Of
the non-slaveholders are held in
such state of poverty, ignorance
and consequent dependence, as ena'
bles the shareholders to control
them as certainly as they do theiI
slaves.
Q. 6.-Will not the continuance Of
the slaveholding power reduce the
slaveholding States to utter bsrbar-
ism?
Alt has already to great ex.
tent extinguished the sources Of
light, and, by Its vices and crimes
4. II, 81 e 4 :