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Show 88 SEC0:'\0 DA\"-J~\'.ENI~O SJ~!'ISIOS. perfectly right for :lily other society, sect, or party, ~o e~J?Ioy these measu_rcs to promote any end which they approve, and whu~l~ ~~IS proper _to altam? Is it really unchristi:m in t~1e hated Anti~Slavery soctct1e8 to app01~t agents or ministers oi' tnllh, to tra\'el through, and wake up a slumbenng community t:noring over the condition of twenty-five hundred thot~sand human beings, who are groaning under the vilest system of oppression that ever saw the sun? Sir: every religious denomination, benevolent combination, political party. money-making corporation, scientific or literary ~lub, -~ay freely establish its press and send out its agent, to arrest public op1~10n; n~y, even deists and atheists may write and scatter falsehood and 1mmoraluy broad-cast over the United States; and all is quiet; no one iFi alarmf'd. They ha\'C a perfect right, says public sentiment, to speak and publish their opinions. 'Vhy, then, shon~d 1/~al, _which is not merely ha:mless, but mer~toriou~. in every other combwat10n 111 the country, be s.o w1cked_ and ab_o!mnable in us? Infhlels mny ride rough-shod over every thmg holy m our cltte~. and no one molests. llut if abolitionists raise the long-hushed cry" that all men are created equal," and bid the oppressor" break every yoke,"-not hornets, but brick-bats, are flying about his ears. H these mca:iures be unchristian. our opponents arc all involved with us in the guilt, for they all adopt them. Let them change their course and we will award them the meed of consistency. But where is the man to be found, who will not be obliged to plead guilty, if these two measures are unchristian? one of them was adopted by the Saviour of the world, and the other would have been, had. the art of printing been known at his advent. Did he not appoint his agents and send them through all the nations of the ~ast, agitating who~e communities like an ocean lash ell into madness by a v1olent tempest? D1d he not command them to agitate the whole world in the same manner. Though the Jews and heathen ranted, raved, mobbed, and murdered them for these measures, did they ever change or abandon them, or, for a moment, 1oose sight of their great purpose r . . Sir: to reject these two measures were to abandon the very pnnc1ples which the objector professes to approve. How could we _get a knowledge of onr principles to the public, except through the pubhc ear and eye? And what modes have we of reaching these, but the press and pulpit? None at all; ami to relinquish them is to give up onr principles. What, then, is the meaning-the plain English-of this cry against our measures? And why are nearly all the pulpits in the ~~~d ~hut against the advocat~s ~f God's poor? The clergy claim to be aboltt!Omsts,-to approve our pnnclciples. Then why not permit our agents to go into their _churches and preach their owu sentin:tents? They hold no. ~ther opimons on great subjects of humanity, wh1ch they would be un~vt~hng to ha~e avowed and defended in their churches, unless they were opli110n8 of whiCh they would be ashamed. They hold anti-slavery sentiments! "\Vhy, then, are t!1ey so mortaJ\y offended, when I publish their own sentiments on slaveholdmg, and send them through the country in books, papers, and pamphlets.! Every body in the free states, they tell us, is opposed to slavery. Butts it not unaccountable, on this supposition, that men should break up our printing presses, shut their ch~rch doors in ou~ faces, dash in our windows with brickbats, break our furmturc, and burn tl before our eyes, apply the torch to our houses, and then shoot us down with their rines? Is this pro· slavery compensation for preaching and publishing principles, _whi~h they believe as much as we do? Can that man really hate slavery m h1s heart, wl1o is ready to die in convulsions of negrophobia, the moment you say a SPEECH Of" ALAN!:iON ST. CLAIR. 89 word against it? If the tree is to be known by its fruits, and if" actions speak louder than words," it is very certain he hates abolitionism quite as bad as slaveholding. Our fourth me<~sure,-the holding of meetings to learn and communicate a knowledge of the condition of our cause, and of our past success,-to encourage each other, and to pray God for assistance,-is of a nature to need no explanation or discussion. It is adopted by every society of believers in a God, and commends itself at once to the understanding ami the heart. They all_ have their stated meetings annually, q~arterly, monthly, or weekly, as they JUdge proper, and I conclude no one WJIL pronounce this measure to be unchristian, rash, or imprudent. I shall, therefore, pass it over, and take up the two remaining ones. Previous to discussing these, however, I beg leave to offer a few desultory remarks upoll the four on which 1 have been speaking. Voluntary associations, with the liberty of meeting freely anll frequently together, of discussing the rights of man, the wronus he suffers, and their own lluties in relation to tho oppressed, consciou~ that they are gathered in the name, and acting under the approbation, of God, with the thousand wings of the press, and conscientious, pious. talented lecturers to preach their sentiments, are an engine the most formidable and fearful to tyrants of any thing to be imagined. Why have they always been suppressed by despotic sovereigns? Why has the Pope feared them worse than ten thousand devils? Why has the Autocrat of Russia interdicted them under such severe pains and penalties? Why, in order to crush them, did the tyrant of France establish his hundred-eyed police? Because they all well knew that, if voluntary associations, with any of these facilities, wr.re tolerated, their subjects would soon understand their own rights and deny the divine right of kings, and that their crowns would then sit lightly upon their heads, if, indeed, they were not trodden in the dust. But the tyrants of the" old world" are not the only men who understand, and tremble at, the results of voluntary associations, organized for intellectual, political, or moral purposes, and swayed by conscience and the commands of God. Our tyrants fear them no less than they. Look for a moment to the history of the last four years. \Vhat has rocked the high and low places of this nation with the violence of Egypt, when God set (lown the foot of his Almighty power to tread out the tyranny of Pharaoh? The opponent will probably reply, the abolitionists. But what have they done? Have they menaced the nation with an invading army, threatening slaughter and destruction? Have they inval~ed any man's rights, or set at defianc;e, or even disobeyed, any of the Jaws of the land? Had they done this they had been stopped at once, for there are not wanting men disposed to put the penal Jaws in execution against them. No, sir; they have simply held meetings, preached, prayed, and published their sentiments. Instead of invading rights, they have discussed and asserted them; instead o_f disobeying laws, they have shown how slaveholders are living daily in viOlation of the laws of God and man. This has been our olfence, and it is the fear of the results which this will produce, that has called forth the "sea of fire, mingled with blood," in which they have been compelled to swim. A few years ago, when there was not an anti-sl~very soC~ety in the country, and when all was a dead calm of indifference in relation to the condition of the slave, when slaveholding was rather considered as an evil than _a sin, ~nd the master as deserving _more sympathy than the poor victim of his avance and cruelty, any man m•ght write, publish, and preach what he pleased on the subject; not a pulpit was shut against it, no( a "mob threatened disturbance. Any minislcr might write and publish a sermon, 12 |