New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-16
THE FALL OF SLAVERY.
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ABOLITIONIST.
By OLIVER JOHNSON.
HINpRANCEs AND HELPS.

It's work with brave heat in the full belief that
success would ere long crown its exertiOns In
social Influence. well as in pecuniary resources
10 was indeed almost ludicrOusly weak but in the
strength Of ts principles and in the rmness Of its
laith IN God, II was not only mighty. but iuyinci-
Die. They remembered those inidels! the truth
| afterward 50 vigorously expressed by Theodore
Parker: Truth is part Of the celestial machinery
OF God, and whose puts that machinery in gear for
mankind hath the Almighty to turn his wheel"
They remembered, too. that their chosen weapons
were mighty through God to the putting down
OF strongholds" and that the worlds greatest poet
had said:
Thrice is he armed
Whohafh mis- quarrel inst and ne but naked.
Though locked up 10 steel whose conscience
With Injustice Is corrupt.
| While on the one hand they were fully sensible
that they bad undertaken no holiday task. they
were upon the other but feebly conscious of the
power which slavery had acquired over the Amerl-
can Government aud the American churches, and
little aware of the amount of persecution and self
denial they would be called TO endure. If they had
known the worst, would their courage have been
/ adequate to the work. or would they have shrunk
| back in utter despair God only knows. Their
weakness whatever it NAV have been, was not un-
known 70 Him. and 1t may have been His design TO
enlist them in the work, and then to develope their
courage aud devotion by such experiences as they
were prepared 70 endure. until they should become
capable az 'ength Of bearing all that would come
upon tb0m IN their long and bitter struggle. In all
| the great movements for the overthrow Of giant
evils IN our world this seems TO be the way of Di-
vine Providence II the leaders OF the Protestant
Reformation had foreseen all the suffering they
! WouId be called to endure would their courage
| have been equal TO their day. And if the
! fathers o. our Republic had known from the start
that they could establish their rights only by long
| and bloody war with the mightie.t nation on the
globe, and by complete severance Of the political
ties shat bound them to the mother country, might
they not have shrunk appalled, from so mighty
and doubtful a task In these, and in a hun
dred other similar instances no doubt, men rushed
| with impetuous but honest impulse into righteous
| contest gaming the required courage and devotion
the fight went on, untilat lasthey became lnvin-
chile. In all such contests how many run well
| for season, anu then, unable TO bear the cross,
become -lgglers and deserters! The antI-slavery
movement. in this respect, was no exception 10 the
general rule. Many a man who fought well so long
as be felt sure that the victory would be speedily
won, fell out Of the ranks when he found that the
battle would be fierce and long.
| II seems ludicrous now, out I remember that the
least enthusa- site OF our number thought il would
not take more than ten years at the utmost to
abolish slavery! With the Declaration Of Inde
peudeuce and the Bible and God Himself, on our
side. how could the contest be any longer pro-
tracted' Our simplicity VIII seem all the more
wonderful when il Is remembered that we looked
for emancipation through moral forces alone, and
through the conversion IF the shareholders them
/ selves 70 0ur doctrines Our expectation, in spite
of first untoward appearances, was, that the Ameri
can Church and pulpit would be speedily enlisted
on orr side that the free discussion Of the subject
would be at length tolerated in the South, and that
| the moral Influences thus set in play would soon
prevail over all opposition. How could the slave
/ holders long resist the evidence that slavery was
not only wrong but positively injurious to their
best interestsi With free press pouring tho
LIGHT of truth into every dark place in the land,
with the pulpit summoning the Nation to repent
ance for It's sin, with the churches overlooking
| with sympathy for the slave and bearing a faith
| full testimony against his wrongs and with the
voices of enlightened statesmen pleading for the
right. how was it possible that the victory could
be long delayedi Alas alas! how little we then
dreamed that slavery was to find in the puipits
and churches-then on fire with zeal for the CONVEX
sion of the world to Christ-its chief bulwarks (;
that the authorz ID expounders of the Bible would
torture its hallowed pages " to show that slave
holding. instead Of being sinful perfectly COM
natible with a Christian profession; that from An
dover and Princeton and the other high places Of
the Church would go forth voices to cheer and
comfort the holders of slaves; that even the Golden
Rule of the blessed Christ would be perverted by
distinguished professor of theology to the service
of slavery; that hundreds of pulpts would venture
to mix the Bibles "bitter texts" against oDpres-
sion with relish suited TO the sinners taste y; that
prssbvteries synods, associations, conventions and
other ecclesiastical assemblies, and even the mis-
slonary bodies Of the Church, instead Of pleading
for the oppressed wond "daub with untemDered
MORTAR in the service OF the Oppressor; that slave
holding preachers would find ready and approved
access to Northern pulplts, while ministers adj
vocating emancipation would be prescribed as
fanatics; that the holders of slaves would be adj
mifted without objection to Northern communion
tables, which the negro Christian could approach
only a. a pariah and that the religious press, with
few EXCEPTIONS woui lend itself to the service Of
slavery How blind we Were to the fact that the
| Government, in every vein and artery. and even
| in its very heart was poisoned by the insdiOus
virus of slavery; that the Constitution itself was
fatally infected; that Legislative, Executive,
Judicial and d. Domatlc proceedings were largely
under the sway OF the slave power, ever watehtul
| TO advance its own interests; that the political
parties were bound band aud foot to the ponderous
wheels of the modern iuggcrnaut; and that our
! statesmen. while at perfect liberty 20
| Send. with lavish BREATH
| Their sympathies across the wave,
| Where manhood on the field Of DEATH
| struck FOR his freedom or a grave
TO plead warmly and eloquently,
| For Greece. the Mosem letter spurning,
|
And Poland, gasping on her lance
would vet stand dumb before American slavery
! and its Nominations or open their mouths only
TO equivocate and palter and stultify themselvesl
The first thing that the new society did was to
commission its Quaker president, Arnold Butium,
as a lecturing agent, with the understanding that
he shonld collect his own small salary, and as much