Year: 1861

| The time seems to have come, when the iust-


tu;ion Of slavery is TO constitute the great and


only bond Of American Union. All our move
ments and doings, in general, whether cceesias-


teal or political, have been evidently drifting in
this direction for more than half a century and


things have already eliminated 10 point where


the question Of our union OF dissolution must de-
pend upon the disposition we make Of slavery. The


time wGs, when slavery might have been abolished


in our country, both by Church and State, With
: out endangering the union Of either bot that


time has gone by. We have now become So de-


moralized by the corrupting influence Of the hoary


abomnaton, that there is scarcsly left us either


the power or the. disposition to resist it's growing
exactions Like the miserable inebriate, who
has long pursued his cups, we must die, il We


continue our suicidal practice, and we must diO il


we leave it of. Or like the sick man, who has


become SO reduced BY disease that he can neither


bear it any longer, nor suivive its removal. The
only question now is, whether we shall put away
our cups, and die sober, or tppe for brief
space longer, and sink into drunkard's grave
The slave oligaschy are determined to involve US


in the latter alternative and their doughfaced


compromising allies Of the North-a mean and


Miserable set ARE engaged in extending to them


all the aid and comfort in their power. s


1t is now universally felt, that from some Jausci


we are in bad case and the great enquiry ev.


erywhere is, hat is to be done ?--while no ora


cular response, or satisfactory answer lie heard


from any source. Some will have it, that Lin.
coin is going to the country and Others not
a few, that nothing under heaven will do it but
a separation Of the slave and free States into dis
tinct and independent governments. But tho hum
bug of the hour is, that our salvation depends
upon the Union or that, if we can by any means,
save the UEion, the Union will save US. Hence.
the multiplication Of UniOn-savers, all over the
land.


But how are We to be saved by saving tho
Union, when the Union can only be saved at
the sacrifice Of honor conscience liberty, self
respect, and all that renders life q. all desirable
|: is high time we understood that to cling to the
Union is to hug the chains which bind US; aud il


we saw, as we ought to see, that to save the


Union by compromising with slavery, the only


way now proposed to save it, is to surrender all


our rights-the liberty Of speech, Of the press, Of


conscencs. of life itself-into the hands of rath.


less banditti, who have long lived upon tie guilty
sooils of man-stealing. and various other species
of rapine and plunder. Why, then, hold on to
the Union, polluted aud rotten to the very core;
as remedy for "the irrspressble conflict which
is raging between the two great sections of our
country, as if the extreme antagonisms Of right
and wrong, Of holiness and sin, Of freedom and
slavery, could be brought into state of harmony
and concord with each other Surely it we're
happy task. As soon might the helpless lamb
find safety in the companionship of the wolf, Of
the child of God in that of the devil


Very likely our political Union might be saved
by means of a national convention, who should
uationalize slavery, and provide constitutional
guarantees for its protection. Nor is it certain
that our ecclesiastical union might not be saved
by assembling extra session Of the General
Conference, and adopting "the sum of al! villain
ies," as an institution of the Church. Nothing
short of the one, it would seem, will suffice to keep
the slave States in the Union, politically, while
the other is demanded as the price of our contin-
ne connection with the Border Conferences id
Church fellowship As the voice of the Border,
on this subject, convention lately held at Eass
ton, Maryland, declared, among other similar res
olutions, that harmony and unity can only be Sc.
cured and maintained by blOttiug from our Dis
cipline every word relating to slavery-that
the Bishops be solicited to convene the
General Conference, in extra session, for this
purpose-and that their refusal or neglect SO 10
act, will be Sufficient cause for separation and will
certainly lead TO it."


The alternative of union or dissolution, held
out to us by the South, is suspended upon our ae.
ceptance or rejection Of their terms of recon
ciation. The hope is, that We shall be cajoled or
frightened into submission to any terms they may
choose to dictate. If they fail in this, they will
all go of-ecc enthusiastically, and politicay--the Sc
ceding States stealing all the government property
that either violence intrigue or treaehery shall
place within their reach; aud the seeding Con.
ferences, still more unscrupulous, and JesuitoGI,
doing the same thing with respect TO the property
of the Church. The truth is, they are morally,
as we'll as enthusiastically and politically welded
to slavery having no affinity for free institutions
or free people; and carnot, therefore, remain
with us, except We become assimilatej 10 their
own institutions and character To get rid Of the
South, whether Church or State, We have no mead
to 60 into secession ourselves; have only TO re.
main 6rm in our opposition to slavery, and they
will dissolve the Union. Like the SHINING .anRels.
who kept not their first estate, but forsook thsiy
bright abode"--i e., voluntarily, and of their own
accord, for the reason that they could no longer
endure the society Of the good-they must, in the
nature Of the case, Fly from US as those fallsD
spirits fed from THAR uuweoome company 10
heaven. Whether, in their eagerness to escape
the associations Of the free and the vrtucus thsy
will "fall nine days" Milton ahrms OF the fAl,
len angels. we know not; but nothing is more GER
tain, than that they will ssek depth of barbar-
lam and crime from which the tormenting ray Of
the light Of civilization aud religion. will bs fOrsy-
or excluded. "Hsaven." 20 them. would be the
seyerest part OF bell;" and all connection. on
earth, with the vir,oOus and free. soares Of ip.
anite torment. They mus. either oorrupt us. OF
leave us. The light We are coulinually pouring
upon their sonscencss in our antslayery ehsrso.