Charles Stearns

“ Thus is Slavery legalized by our laws; and if we cannot expect a higher standard of morality than what the church upholds, certainly we cannot expect practices to cease, which the government pronounces lawful. People are not generally so much in advance of their laws and religion, as to refuse to perpetrate what those laws and that religion justify, and pronounce honorable. Thus the whole influence of jurisprudence, and church action, is thrown around Slavery. Is it any wonder, that it exists in so much power, and now seeks to extend its sway over new territory? ”

“ Man is arousing himself to noble deeds. Slavery, that giant of despair, so long planted in the road pursued by the pilgrims of truth, like Bunyan's gloomy giant of Doubting Castle, is retreating from all its former strongholds. There is scarcely a country within the bounds of this green earth, upon which the warm sun of heaven sheds its benignant rays, but what is delivering itself from this foul blot, America only excepted! ”

“ Instead of frowning upon the slave-holder, as you would upon the horse-thief, you elevate him to the highest office in your gift; thus doing all in your power to render slave-holding honorable. It is just as great a crime to aid in elevating a slave-holder to the presidency, as it is to hold Slaves. It does more to uphold Slavery; for it says we will heap the highest honors of society upon slave-holders. ”

“ What must be the humanity of these persons who cannot feel for the poor Slave in such conditions as these? No one denies that these things continually happen at the South; and yet but little sympathy is excited in consequence. The hearts of the people have become as hard as adamant. Their sensibilities are totally blunted. They are destitute of all feeling.
What a picture has just been presented before this nation! A new territory, free from Slavery, demands protection from its awful curse. ”

“ The music of silver dollars rattling in their vaults, as drawer after drawer is deposited by their cashiers, is sufficiently beautiful to them, to operate as an offset against the shrieks and wailings of the Slaves. What though the Lord of Sabbaoth lends a listening ear to the sobs of the bondmen, it matters not to them, as long as the gold clinks in their chests. All heaven may cease its songs of joy, to listen to the shrieks of the Slave ”

“ If such a mighty change took place as the result of this, the morning light of freedom, what will be the howlings of the wicked, and the rejoicings of the good, when the sun of emancipation, shall shine in all the brightness of its meridian splendor, upon the dark and gloomy caverns of Slavery, as will be the case when a similar convention shall nominate a man for the presidency of the Northern Union? ”

“ It is "known and read of all men, a living epistle," and can be no more mistaken for pro-slavery, than the shining of the sun, for total darkness. The difference between the two is so great, that they can never be mistaken, the one for the other; or at least genuine Anti-Slavery can never be regarded as pro-slavery to the full satisfaction of slave-holders. We cast our eyes over the history of our country, and from the commencement of its political existence until the present time, we see Slavery justified by the Constitution. ”

“ Shall we trust to the dubious and contradictory readings of a bit of parchment, composed by men like ourselves; or shall we cut loose from all connexion with the dangerous islands of human oppression lying southward, surrendering our profitable trade with worse than cannibals; and launch our vessel upon the high sea of freedom and liberty, away from the rocky shores of these islands of death, steering with an undeviating course for some northern harbor, where we may moor our vessel, and safely land our passengers? ”

“ They gain nothing by the existence of Slavery, but on the contrary suffer much; for the labor of Slaves is so cheap, that their services are not demanded; and they are not respected as a general thing, except in those sections of country where but a few slave-holders reside. What motive have they to put down a Slave insurrection? There is not a man of them but would be more independent than the present slave-holders, if Slavery was abolished; for there is so much land lying idle at the South, that the Slaves after emancipation would be under no necessity of working for their former masters. ”

“ For our own part, the very fact that the Constitution is valued so highly by the South, casts a shadow of suspicion over it, and induces us to reject it as an Anti-Slavery instrument. The South excludes even Sunday school books, tainted with Anti-Slavery, and poems alluding to freedom, are hardly allowed a circulation there; how strange then, that this great magna charta of human liberty should be so eulogised by them. The fact is, it suits them well. ”

“ No, let us rather flood them all, Slavery, pro-slavery, churches and constitutions, with such a deluge of celestial waters, as shall as effectually sweep from the land all these supporters of Slavery, as Noah's flood, removed from the earth the sinners of his day. If we would abolish Slavery, we must be destructionists. ”

“ But thanks to a few in her borders, even her proud heart begins to grow faint; her limbs tremble slightly, and like the mariners in a storm, who rush to the bottle to drink their fill for the last time, she is growing desperate, and drinking more deeply than ever of the cup of Slavery, as the last draught she can obtain from its noisome fountain. ”

“ Taylor's election; that the South might be pleased, and northern industry protected! Perish the word industry from the vocabulary of man, if this is the basis upon which it rests. What! northern industry only protected by electing the greatest of idlers to the presidential chair? Who feels less sympathy for northern workingmen than the man who drives three hundred laborers to their daily toil, with the crack of the whip sounding in their ears, and who robs them of nearly all their earnings, and forces them to live in a state of prostitution? ”

“ O, shame on a church having in its folds a single member who cast a vote for that most wicked of men—Gen. Zachary Taylor! But declamation will avail nothing without action. We propose a remedy for all this wickedness. We call upon all true friends of the Slave to leave those churches where ministers or members voted for Taylor or Cass. Further, we invite you all to make a critical examination of your relations to Southern slave-holding churches, and see if your associations, your conferences, or your conventions, are not in league with slave-holders, or with those who are allied with them. ”

“ A universal howl of despair went up from the hell of Slavery; but the faces of the sons of freedom every where grew bright, as the countenance of the mother is lit up with joy when she beholds her first-born child lying in her arms. ”

“ What church has passed resolutions in opposition to the recognition of such men as Christian ministers? Why, a highway robber has as good a claim to the character of a Christian minister, as one has who voted for Gen. Taylor.
We have yet to learn of the first church ejecting a member for this flagitious transaction; and yet voting for Taylor is as much worse than common stealing, as a man is of more value than a beast or a dollar. By voting for a slave-holding warrior, you say that Slavery is right, reputable, and worthy of praise. ”

“ Spooner asserts it to be, how happens it that such egregious mistakes have been made concerning it? Can a real Anti-Slavery document be so misconstrued, as to satisfy slave-holders, who dread the least appearance of Anti-Slavery, as Satan does the truth of God? We will grant for the sake of argument, that it does not directly sanction Slavery; still we assert that it is a pro-slavery document for the following reason. Anti-Slavery is a bold, outspoken, and unmistakable thing. ”

“ She is so engaged in saving souls, she has no time to attend to the bodies of the people. But seriously, is it not a terrible state of things when the churches of our land are asleep over such a dreadful evil? When the voice of the watchman is but faintly heard, if at all, in rebuke of the most heaven daring of crimes? We appeal to all who are in the habit of attending church. ”

“ Nathan to David applies, "thou art the man." It is the prominent men in all parties who are to blame for the existence of Slavery.
A word now respecting the abolition of the laws which uphold Slavery; or in other words in regard to the amendment of the Constitution. If this can be carried out without dissolving the Union, we should like to know it; but how can it? What is it to alter the Constitution, but in fact to dissolve the Union? The Constitution is the bond of Union; the instrument which binds the North and South together. ”

“ But it is these pretended friends of home industry, which means any thing but their own industry, who stand pledged to support the South. It is they who are so anxious to see Slavery extended, because they can sell as, they think, a few more goods for the use of the newly imported Slaves! Yes, they are ready, as one friend of the Slave has remarked, "to annex themselves to perdition, if by so doing, they could sell cotton cloth to its inhabitants for six cents a yard." ”

“ Britons and French, Danes and Norwegians, Russians and Turks, Seminole Indians and Mexicans, Algerines and Tunisites, themselves, are all casting the execrable system from them, as a reproach to their fair names; but young America, loudest in her boasts of purity, freedom and piety, is lagging behind. She only, of all the nations of the earth, seems unwilling to let the captive go free. She who fought for her own liberty, the greatest of tyrants, almost the only Pharoah of the earth! ”

“ The result of the last election has fully shown the willingness of the people to adopt the watch-word of their party, whatever it may be, and it would be arguing a great amount of villany on their part to suppose, that they would refuse to follow them in the paths of righteousness, when they clung so closely to them, as they took the most conspicuous part of the broad road. Certainly the great body of the Whigs and Democrats, would not refuse to travel towards heaven, if their leaders should say so, when they have sprung with such alacrity to join them in the road to hell. ”

“ And the very idea of a church, is a company of people professing more purity than others; of course whatever sin is practised in accordance with the will of the church, will be by the rest of the community. If adultery was considered no disqualification for church membership, how long would it be before the land would be full of adulterers? It is plain that whatever sin takes refuge in the bosom of the church, will be practised by the world; therefore all attempts to correct any great evil are useless, as long as the church upholds them, and at the same time possesses any power. ”

“ Truth, too long hidden in the fastnesses of the forests, almost afraid to exhibit its face, although thickly veiled, is removing her garb of concealment; is stepping from her wilderness retreat, and is boldly disputing the reign of the earth, with the monsters who have so long ruled it, but to curse it, and reign over it, but to mar its life. ”

“ Remember that "the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift only, but that stronger is the armor of the Almighty, than all the weapons of your enemies." Gird on, not the clumsy armor of King Saul, but the "breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit," the weapons which are not "carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down the strong holds of Satan." ”

“ How remarkably keen-sighted must these wily southerners be, not to detect the Anti-Slavery spirit of the Constitution; and be hugging an abolition monster, when they fancy they are pressing to their bosoms their own bill of rights to hold Slaves. ”

“ All that a slave-hunter has to do, is merely to bring an attested copy of the laws of the State, in which he lives, and prove that in such a State he held the person claimed as his Slave, and there is no redress for the panting fugitive. ”

“ The question is obtruded upon the whole country, and becomes the pivot upon which the presidential election is made to turn. Shall these cries of three millions of Slaves be made louder and more acute, or shall a barrier be interposed between them, and all increase of their sufferings? Shall Mexico be the slough of despondency, into whose terrible mire shall be cast the gasping Slave, and a new mart be opened for the gratification of men who examine the bodies of their victims, as a man does a horse he is about to purchase, and women as well as men ”

“ Robbers are only lightening the pockets of their victims; thieves only picking up the crumbs of the rich; and slave-holders are only masters; Slaves, "persons held to service," or "other persons," or something else, to hide the shame of the guilty ones. Go to the South, and you will never hear the word Slave spoken ”

“ The great and appalling fact stands out before the world, that there is scarcely a church throughout the whole of the free North, but what is in some way in fellowship with Slavery. If they do not fellowship southern churches, they do northern churches, which give the right hand of fellowship to southern ones. And where is the church at the North, the members of which are all out-spoken Abolitionists? ”

“ If the Constitution, as we sail across the waters of political life, affords us no sure and certain guide, but is like a chart, which has always misled the mariner, and instead of pointing the way to a city of civilization and virtue, has directed him to the rocky shores of some cannibal island, of what earthly use is it to us? ”

“ The advancing spirit of the age in which we live, has decreed its overthrow; its fate is even now registered on the scroll of destiny, which contains the end of all oppression, and we cannot thwart this inevitable tendency. Reform has commenced to ride triumphantly across our earth. ”