CXFORD

LIBRARY

AMERICAN SLAVERY.

ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY TO THE MODERATOR, OFFICE BEARERS, AND MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

GENTLEMEN,—It is not in the spirit of hostility, or even of controversy, that the Committee of the British and Foreign Antislavery Society venture to address you on the subject of American Slavery in relation to the American Churches; but feeling, as they do, that it involves the liberty and happiness of nearly three millions of human beings, they are anxious to submit to you certain points which, in their judgment, are of great weight, and which they respectfully and earnestly commend to your grave consider

ation.

The origin of slavery in the United States is not lost in the obscurity of by-gone ages. It is a plain historical fact, that it owes its birth to the African slave-trade, now pronounced by every civilized community the greatest crime ever perpetrated against humanity. By the laws of Great Britain and the United States, that traffic is declared to be felony and piracy, and in the latter country, pronounced to be worthy of death. Such was the origin of American slavery. And how is it perpetuated? By laws which yield not in their atrocity and wickedness to the original act which tore the Africans from their native homes, and doomed them to perpetual slavery on a foreign shore. By these laws slaves are not ranked among sentient beings, but among things; they are declared to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners to all intents, purposes, and constructions whatsoever. Such is the cardinal principle of slavery. Its legal incidents as set forth by Judge Stroud, in his sketch of the slave laws of the United States, are as follows:

"The master may determine the kind, and degree, and time of labour, to which the slave shall be subjected. The master may supply the slave with such food and clothing only, both as to quality and quantity, as he may think proper or find convenient. The master may, at his discretion, inflict any punishment upon the person of his slave. All the power of the master over his slave may be exercised not by himself only in person, but by any one whom he may depute as his agent. Slaves have no legal rights of property in things real or personal; but whatever they may acquire belongs, in point of law, to their masters. The slave being a personal chattel is at all times liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged, or leased at the will of his master. He may also be sold by process of law for the satisfaction of the debts of a living, or the debts and bequests of a deceased master at the suit of creditors or legatees. A slave cannot be a party before a judicial tribunal, in any species of action, against his master, no matter how atrocious may have been the injury received from him. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, nor obtain a change of masters, though cruel treatment may have made such change necessary for their personal safety. Slaves being objects of property, if injured by third persons, their owners may bring suit, and recover damages, for the injury. Slaves can make no contract." And to crown the whole, slavery is declared to be "hereditary and perpetual." It is not deemed sufficient to hold the innocent parents in bondage, but these laws, which violate every principle of justice, humanity, and religion, remorselessly consign their innocent offspring to the same state of degradation and sorrow.

"Such," to use the language of Judge Jay, "is American slavery—a system which classes with the beasts of the field-over whom dominion has been given to man—an intelligent and account

able being, the instant his Creator has breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Over this infant heir to immortality no mother has a right to watch-no father may guide his feeble steps, check his wayward appetites, and train him for future usefulness, happiness, and glory. Torn from his parents and sold in the market, he soon finds himself labouring among strangers, under the whip of a driver, and his task augmenting with his ripening strength. Day after day, and year after year, he is driven to the cotton or sugar field, as the ox to the furrow. No hope of reward lightens his toil-the subject of insult, the victim of brutality, the laws of his country afford him no redress; his wife, such only in name, may at any moment be dragged from his side; his children heirs only of his misery and degradation, are but articles of merchandize; his mind, stupified by his oppressor, is wrapped in darkness; his soul, no man careth for it; his body, worn with stripes and toil, is at length committed to the earth like the brute that perisheth."

In practice, the system of American slavery presents the most revolting features. To detail them would require a volume. The Committee would direct attention to a few of them only, by way of example.

Connected with American slavery as you are probabably aware, there is a vast internal slave traffic carried on between what are technically called the slave-breeding and the slave-consuming states. The victims of this odious trade are variously estimated at from 30,000 to 90,000 per annum. Taking the lowest estimate, the Committee would ask who can sum up the amount of guilt contracted by the traders on the one hand, and of suffering endured by the victims on the other? Neither can be computed. But, gentlemen, this inter-state slave-trade derives it chief supplies from the abhorred practice of rearing slaves, as cattle are reared, for the market. In some of the older states it is carried on professionally, and all means are employed to render it productive. The basest passions are elevated to the character of a pursuit. Compulsory unions are made by the proprietors of slaves; and if they prove unproductive, they are broken up without regard for decency or feeling. It is impossible, however, to refer with minuteness to the practices which prevail; it is sufficient to state, that the whole system is an outrage on religion and morals.

Another feature of American slavery is, that it practically dooms the great mass of the slave population to ignorance and vice. The severity of the laws against the instruction of slaves finds its commentary in the measures adopted by slave-holders to prevent the light of knowledge from penetrating their minds. Hence we find a heathen population in the midst of a country which boasts of its religious institutions. From them the Bible is systematically withheld. The great mass of them are destitute of the gospel, and ever will be under the present state of things. These are not mere assertions; they are admitted facts by all who have any knowledge of the slave states, their laws, and their practices. In 1833, a Committee of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was referred the subject of the religious instruction of the coloured population, made a report which has been published, and in which this language is used :—

"Who would credit it, that in these days of revival and benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there are two millions of human beings in the condition of HEATHEN, and, in some respects, in a worse condition. From long-continued and close observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition is such that they may justly be considered the HEATHEN of this Christian country, and will bear comparison with heathen in any country in the world. The negroes are destitute of the Gospel, and ever will be under the present state of things. In the vast field extending

from an entire state beyond the Potomac to the Sabine river, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are, to the best of our knowledge, not twelve men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the negroes. In the present state of feelings in the South a ministry of their own colour could neither be obtained NOR

TOLERATED.

"But do not the negroes have access to the gospel through the stated ministry of the whites? We answer, No; the negroes have no regular and efficient ministry; as a matter of course no churches; neither is there sufficient room in white churches for their accommodation. We know of but five churches in the slave-holding states built expressly for their use; these are all in the state of Georgia. We may now inquire if they enjoy the privileges of the gospel in their own houses, and on our plantations? Again we return a negative answer. They have no Bibles to read by their own fire-sides-they have no family altars; and when in affliction, sickness, or death, they have no minister to address to them the consolations of the gospel, nor to bury them with solemn and appropriate services.”

The marriage tie is not permitted to slaves. Hence the unions which they form are liable to be constantly broken up. The slaves feel this most acutely. But what avails it?, Their feelings and their affections are utterly disregarded. The agonies of a slave mother, bereaved of her children, are no more respected than the lowing of cattle after their young. But the Committee beseech you, gentlemen, to remember that this state of things involves a direct violation of God's ordinance of marriage, and leads to a system of immortality too gross to be pourtrayed, and too hateful to be endured, in any community where slavery does not exist. In the case of religious slaves, separated from each other by sale or otherwise, the Baptist Church decided in 1835, that they were to be regarded as civilly dead, and might, therefore, form new connexions.

In the sale of slaves, it occasionally happens that some of this unhappy class are Christians. Favoured by some providential circumstances, they have learned to value the gospel and embrace the Saviour. In these cases, to enhance their value in the market, the fact of their Christianity is dwelt upon with more than ordinary eloquence. But what, gentlemen, is this, but putting up the image of the Redeemer for sale, and vending in the public market-places the graces of the Holy Spirit? Thus we perceive that in the practice of American slavery, the most daring profanity is linked with so great an amount of atrocious cruelty and moral turpitude as to fill every rightly constituted mind with feelings of horror and dismay.

adduced to prove it—namely, the increase in the slave-population. The Committee admit that increase; but, gentlemen, a slight glance at the statistics of the subject will convince you that that increase is dreadfully disproportionate to that of the free people of their own colour, notwithstanding all the means resorted to in the slave-breeding states to produce a different result.

The slave population of the United States in 1820, amounted to 1,538,064; in 1830, to 2,009,031; and in 1840, to 2,487,355. The increase in the first decennial period was 470,967, or nearly 31 per cent.; during the second decennial period it was only 477,398, or but little more than 23 per cent.; representing a loss of life between the two periods, on the slave population, of about 150,000! a palpable proof of the murderous severity of the American slave system. But when we come to compare the relative longevity between slaves and the free men of colour, the case assumes a more fearful aspect still. According to Porter, who has examined the tables of population with scientific care, it appears that the number of free people of colour between the ages of ten and fifty-five, in every ten thousand of that class is 6,243, whereas among the slaves, it is but 5,195, showing a loss of life between these ages of 1,018. Between 55 and 100 the disparity is still greater: free people of colour, 736; slaves, 406. From these facts the general severity of the slave system may be gathered. Now it must not be supposed that the slaves are less prolific than the free people of colour. The reverse of this is the fact. The case stands thus: Free people of colour under ten years of age, 2,884, slaves, 3,394. It is necessary to refer to the practices resorted to in the slavebreeding states to account for this fact, for there production outweighs every other consideration. Another word is not, the Committee presume, required to prove the murderous cruelty and disgusting immorality of this atrocious system.

But it may be asked, what have these statements to do with the American Churches; are they not the guardians of truth, the exemplars of purity, the enemies of slavery, the friends of the oppressed? You do not mean to bring an accusation against them? Yes, gentlemen, speaking generally, the Committee are compelled to say that they are the bulwarks of American slavery. Take any branch of the Churches in the slaves-states, you please, with two or three honourable exceptions, and you will find them not only the apologists, but the abettors of slavery, and the most determined opponents of abolition.

The Committee have before them the proceedings of many of these Churches, or branches thereof, to some of which they will briefly refer. The Charlestown and Carolina Baptist Association, in a Memorial to the Legislature says, "The undersigned would represent that the said association does not consider the Holy Scriptures have made the fact of slavery a question of morals at all." And adds, "The right of masters to dispose of the time of their slaves has been distinctly recognised by the Creator of all things." The Union Presbytery of the same city avow their opinions as follows:-"Resolved, that in the opinion of this Presbytery the holding of slaves, so far from being a SIN in the

The Committee do not make these remarks by way of apology for any who may have been betrayed into the use of language unworthy the dignity of the great subject they have advocated, or which may be supposed to violate the courtesies and charities of life; but they do feel it to be necessary to request you to turn your thoughts away from the advocates of the slave, whose measures you may condemn, to the consideration of the wrongs of the slave himself, and in his person to vindicate the claims of humanity, justice, and religion.

On the character of the recent exciting meetings which have been held in Scotland, the Committee pronounce no judgment, inasmuch as they are neither responsible for their origin, the mode in which they have been conducted, nor for their results. They feel it, however, to be a duty to entreat you to deal with the question to which public attention has been directed, on its own merits, with that calm and unbiassed judgment which is necessary for its proper decision.

By some the heavy charges brought against the American slave system are said to be grossly exaggerated, and one fact is usually

it is in accordance with the example, or consistent with the precepts of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, &c. The Synod of Virginia has declared its opinion in the following terms:"Resolved unanimously, that we consider the dogma fiercely promulgated by the said anti-slavery associations-that slavery, as it actually exists in our slave-holding states, is necessarily sinful, and ought to be immediately abolished, and the conclusions tha naturally follow from that dogma, as directly and palpably contrary to the plainest principles of common sense and common humanity, and to the clearest authority of the Word of God." It cannot be wondered at that the men who could be parties to such declarations as these should pronounce the Abolitionists to be actuated by "a misguided and fiendish fanaticism;" or that a clergyman of Virginia should close a letter, "To Sessions of the Presbyterian Congregations, within the bounds of the West Hanover Presbytery," in the following words ::-"If there be any stray goat of a minister among us, tainted with the blood-bound principles of abolitionism, let him be ferretted out, silenced, excommunicated, and left to the public to be disposed of in other respects. - Your affectionate brother in the Lord, Robert N. Anderson." From an address circulated in South Carolina, written by a clergyman of the M. E. Church, the Committee make the following extract:-" From what has been premised, the following conclusions result:-1. That slavery is a judicial visitation. 2. That it is not a moral evil. 3. That it is supported by the Bible,

4. It has existed in all ages. It is not a moral evil. The fact that slavery is of Divine appointment would be proof enough with the Christian that it cannot be a moral evil. So far from being a moral evil, it is a merciful visitation-'IT IS THE LORD's DOING AND MARVELLOUS IN OUR EYES.' And had it not been for the best, God alone, who is able, long since would have overruled it. IT IS BY DIVINE APPOINTMENT." A clergyman of North Carolina, in his sermons on the rights and duties of slave-holders, maintained the following propositions. "That no man nor set of men in our day, unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled to pronounce slavery wrong; and that slavery, as it exists at the present day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Providence." The Divine rights of slave-holders he set forth in all their fulness; their duties he held to be the moral obligation to punish slaves when they deserved it, not however to chastise them when in a passion, nor to overwork them; and to be careful to have the slave-children baptized, and orally taught to say the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments."

These sermons received the approbation of the bishop of the diocese, were published, and extensively distributed in vindication of the claims of the Episcopal Chuch to be considered the champion of slavery. Nor was this all. In South Carolina "The Society for the Advancement of Christianity," consisting of clergymen and laymen, with the bishop at their head, reprinted them as a religious tract for gratuitous distribution. In 1844, the writer, Dr. Freeman, was elevated to the bench as Bishop of Arkansas and Texas, a fitting reward for so important a service. To multiply quotations is unneccessary. The Committee feel persuaded that you, gentlemen, must have been revolted by the references already made. How different in their spirit and truthfulness are they to the noble decision of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States in 1793, when it adopted the "judgment" of the New York and Pennsylvania Synods in favour of "universal liberty ;" and appended in 1794 the following as a note to the eighth commandment as expressing the doctrine of the Church on slave-holding

"1 Tim. i. 10, The law is made for man-stealers. This crime among the Jews exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment; Exodus xxi. 15; and the apostle here classes them with sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race into slavery, or in retaining them in it. Hominum fures, qui servos vel liberos abducunt, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt.Stealers of men are all those who bring off slaves or freemen, and KEEP, SELL, OR BUY THEM. To steal a freeman, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other instances, we only steal human property, but when we steal, or retain men in slavery, we seize those, who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the original grant lords of the earth.”

But alas! for its consistency. In 1816, the General Assembly, while it called slavery a "mournful evil," directed the ERASURE of the note from the eighth commandment. Two years afterwards it adopted an "expression of views," in which slavery is called "a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature," but it only called on the violators of those rights to exert themselves to get rid of slavery "with no greater delay than a regard to the public welfare demands." But since that time nothing has been done to promote the abolition of slavery.

To how great an extent the Church has become tainted with this crime may be gathered from a declaration of the Rev. J. Smylie, of the Amite Presbytery, Mississippi, in a pamphlet published four or five years since. He says-" If slavery be a sin, and advertising and apprehending slaves, with a view to restore them to their masters, is a direct violation of the Divine law, and if the buying, selling, or holding a slave, FOR THE SAKE OF GAIN, is a heinous sin and scandal, then verily, THREE-FOURTHS OF ALL THE EPISCOPALIANS, METHODISTS, BAPTISTS, and PRESBYTERIANS, in ELEVEN STATES OF THE UNION, are of the devil, They hold,' if they do not buy and sell slaves, and with few exceptions, they hesitate not to apprehend and restore' runaway slaves, when in their power." Such being the case the Church has become powerless for testimony against the sin of slavery.

Last year the Free Church pronounced a heavy condemnation upon American slavery as its exists in practice. You declared that there could be "no question as to the HEINOUS SIN involved in the institution of American slavery." But you did not condemn slavery per se. You observed, however, that "whatever rights

the civil law of the land may give a master over his slaves as chattels personal, it cannot but be a sin of the deepest die in him to regard or treat them as such; and whosoever commits that sin in any sense, or deals otherwise with his slaves than a Christian man ought to deal with his fellow-man, whatever power the law may give him over them, ought to be held disqualified for Christian communion." Your condemnation is here levelled against the oppressive slave-master, not against the system which he upholds. You treat the relation between master and slave as innocent: you launch your thunders only against its abuse. At least such is the conclusion to which the Committee have arrived in reviewing your decision. Now, if the enslavement of innocent human beings, and their posterity after them, no matter under what plea, or circumstance, be not malum in se, there is an end of the argument; and the principle of judgment must thenceforth be applied, not to the institution, but to the conduct of the individual who abuses it to the injury of his slave. But, in the judgment of the Committee, the institution is itself the greatest abuse. Look at its origin, its tendencies, its results. They bespeak its nature and its opposition to God and goodness. It is absurd, the Committee venture to think, to say that a man may be held as a slave, but not be treated as such; that he may be regarded as chattel personal, but not used as such; that the legal relation may be maintained, but that the rights belonging to it may not be claimed. Slavery they hold to be evil, only evil, and that continually. And in maintaining this view they but assert an old doctrine under which most of the ancient forms of slavery disappeared.

In the Jus Municipale Magdeburgense, ascribed to the Emperor Otho the Second, the author, after attempting to show that neither Cain, nor Ham, nor Esau, nor Nimrod, introduced slavery, proceeds thus :-"How could Noah or Isaac bring any one else into slavery when no one can give even himself into slavery? But, in truth, we find slavery to have its origin in war, captivity, oppression; and ancient princes, by custom of long time, have usurped it, as though it were of right, whereas it is against equity.—.

"For the most High God is believed to have formed man in his own image, and redeemed one as much as another by his passion, and made him free by his glorious blood. How then can so noble and magnificent a liberty be reduced to slavery?" The Jus Provinciale Suevicum, in a spirit which would do honour to the most enlightened times, asserts that there is nothing in Scripture to sanction slavery; and prays God to pardon the man who first imposed it on mankind. The Speculum Juris Saxonici, one of the later compilations of German law, observes:-" As far as we can perceive, there is no example of slavery, according to the truth of Holy Scripture and the divine law." "The Lord Jesus also, in the temptation of the coin, indicated that no man was the property of another, saying, 'Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's. From these words it is collected that man belongs to God; and he who keeps him in bondage sins against the power of the Almighty." These laws were the embodiment of the public sentiment of the times in which they were compiled, and clearly show that sentiment had its origin in the oppugnancy of revealed religion to slavery.

In 1102 a council was held in London by royal authority, at which were present the bishops and abbots of the whole kingdom. They agreed, among others, on the following important canon :"Let no one henceforward on any account presume to carry on that wicked traffic (nefarium negotium) whereby men hitherto used to be sold in England like brute beasts." In Ireland, "the whole clergy being assembled at Ardagh” (A.D. 1171) went a step further, and decreed "That in all places of the island the English should be released from the chain of servitude and restored to liberty." The traffic in men they had previously condemned as enormous wickedness," In the times of Wycliffe, "It became a prevailing opinion," says Dr. Henry, "among the people of all ranks that slavery was inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, and the rights of humanity, offensive to God, and injurious to man. Wycliffe and his followers," he adds, "inculcated this doctrine with great warmth, and their declamations had a great effect. "And let it be remembered that the recognition and application of the doctrine, that slavery is a sin against God, and ought, therefore, to be abolished, has led to the most triumphant results. It has led to the legal extinction of slavery in every part of the British empire ; and is destined, the Committee believe, to overthrow that giant iniquity in the United States. But in order to effect this, there must be no compromise with slave-holders, no recognition of that

spurious Christianity which, while it professes to honour its Divine Founder, wrings from the coerced toil of slaves the means of its support; which affects to feel for the miseries of the heathen abroad, but has no bowels of compassion for those who perish at

home.

The Commissioners of the Free Church went to the United States on what was regarded by many as a noble errand; they were welcomed with affectionate respect; and had they confined their mission to the free states they would have been welcomed home again with joy. But they did not do this. They travelled into the slave states; they fellow-shipped with slave-holders; they received their hospitalities, and took their gold to cast it into your treasury. By this act they struck a blow at the very heart of abolition, which has been felt and deplored on both sides the Atlantic. And, not content with this, they have libelled the character of the faithful band of Abolitionists in the United States, and by that means attempted to bring them into disrepute. Had they used as much diligence in making their acquaintance as they did in securing the contributions of slave-holders, the result would have been different; at least they would have been more discriminating, if not more temperate, in their censures. They were warned. The Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-slavery. Society addressed them a faithful remonstrance, on the 2nd April, 1844, in which they set before them in vivid colours the true character of the slave system in its religious aspects; and affectionately exhorted them to refuse all connexion with it. One paragraph from the address will show its spirit. "The Christian Abolitionists of this land need your aid, dear brethren, in pulling down the strongholds of oppression; and they feel that you will not be sustained by your consciences, or by that numerous and venerated body which you represent, if you directly or indirectly oppose them, by strengthening the hands of their opponents. You will hear the Abolitionists of this country denounced by ministers, elders, and private professors of the Presbyterian Church, as well at the North as the South; but in order to judge how far the denunciations are correct, you will naturally compare their doctrines and measures with the doctrines and measures of the Abolitionists in Great Britain, and not take up an evil report on hearsay, and without due investigation." "For twelve years the Abolitionists of this country have been contending with great earnestness, amidst reproach and contumely, not only from the slave-holding states, but from interested politicians, and professing Christians of every denomination, for the poor slaves, our brethren and fellow-countrymen, and for their own rights and privileges, as intended to be secured to them by their constitution and government. Believing that the American Church is the bulwark of American slavery, they have laboured to arouse it to a due sense of its sin, to repentance, and works meet for repentance. Some progress has been made. Our Christian brethren in England, Ireland, and Scotland have aided in the good work by their prayers to God, and their remonstrances with the American Church. With this aid we have sought to sever the unholy alliance subsisting between the slave power and the professed followers of Christ." In concluding their appeal, they say "But should you, despite of our friendly warning and urgent Christian remonstrance, solicit money acquired by the sale of American Christians, and men made heathen by the cruel system of slavery, we can only express our firm confidence that your constituents, the Free Church of Scotland, will refuse to receive the polluted silver and gold, and return it to those who gave it."

*

To the Committee it is a deeply affecting circumstance to find that some men of reputation and standing in the Free Church of Scotland are engaged in defending the slave-holding churches of the United States, by an attempt to prove that slave-holders were admitted to communion in the apostolic churches, and that what they did, the churches of Christ, in these days, may do, aud, in point of fact, ought to do.

It has hitherto been one of the chief glories, as well as one of the brightest evidences of the truth of Christianity, that by the force of its principles it has overcome some of the most revolting and bloody practices of ancient times, slavery among the rest; and that were its just and beniga precepts universally applied, the crimes which now so deeply afflict and degrade humanity, would speedily disappear. To make this divine system the patron of slavery, because some of its professors practice or wink at the iniquity, is, in the judgment of the Committee, a wickedness scarcely to be paralleled by the sin which it is intended to uphold. Happily the moral sense of the Christian people of this country will not admit of so

revolting a plea; and, it may be added, the consciences even of slave-holders themselves will not allow of its validity. But what was the nature of that slavery which, it is affirmed, was sanctioned by the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles? According to the strict principles of the Roman law," says Mr. Long, "it was a consequence of the relation of master and slave that the master could treat the slave as he pleased; he could sell him, punish him, or put him to death." Slaves were held pro nullis, pro mortuis, pro quadrupedibus, and for worse than even this as A. Faber has shown. As to their practice, "time would fail us," says Potgiesser, "should we recount the various kinds of tortures which the Romans reserved for their slaves alone." Did the Divine Founder of Christianity, or his immediate disciples, sanction this system of guilt and misery? As well might it be said that they sanctioned the bloody gladiatorial shows then prevalent, or the fierce despotism of Nero, under which some of them suffered, because they did not in express words condemn them.

The Committee have been led further than they intended in this communication; but they feel it to be their solemn duty to protest against the proposition that slave-holders, whatever their professions or pretensions, are fit and proper persons to be admitted to the sacred fellowship of the Christian church; and they would earnestly implore you, gentlemen, as the representatives of an influential and important branch of that church, to give forth your testimony to that effect; and by way of giving emphasis to that testimony, to restore the money which in an evil hour your Commissioners were induced to receive from the hands of slave-holders. Gentlemen, had these slave-holders presented to your representatives slaves instead of money, they would have indignantly refused the gift. Yet the money which they received, may have represented, in some instances, the value of men, women, and children, who had been cruelly deprived of their liberty; or, at all events, the value of their uncompensated toil, a toil wrung from them by the fear or the torture of the whip. Such money comes not with a blessing, but a curse. They would therefore hope that not one farthing of it will ever be allowed to be appropriated to the purposes of the Free Church.

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Committee,
Yours respectfully,

JOHN SCOBLE, Secretary.

NOTE. Since writing the above, the Committee have received extracts from a sermon preached at Philadelphia, a short time since, by the Rev. Albert Barnes, of the New School Presbyterians, a name deservedly honoured on both sides of the Atlantic, from which they make the following selections:-"Let all evangelical denominations but follow the simple example of the Quakers in this country, and slavery would soon come to an end. There is not vital energy enough-there is not power of influence and numbers enough out of the church, to sustain it. Let every religious denomination in the land detach itself from all connexion with slavery, without saying a word against others; let the time come when in all the mighty denominations of Christians, it can be announced that the evil has ceased with them for ever; and let the voice of each denomination be lifted up in kind but firm and solemn testimony against the system-with no mealy' words; with no attempt at apology; with no effort to throw the sacred shield of religion over so great an evil, and the work is done. There is no public sentiment in this land—there could be none created that would resist such a testimony; there is no power out of the Church that could sustain-slavery an hour if it were not sustained IN it."

THE SUGAR DUTIES.

6

The alteration in the sugar duties proposed by Sir Robert Peel, and the amendment intended to be moved thereon by Lord John Russell, have engaged the attention of the Anti-Slavery Committee; and, in conformity with one of the fundamental principles of the Society, they have again laid before the Legislature and the Country their views on the important question.

There are now three propositions before the country in relation to those duties: First, Sir Robert Peel's. The honourable baronet intends to propose to Parliament that the present duty on sugars not equal to white clayed (Muscovados), the produce of British possessions in America, of Mauritius, and of the East Indies, shall be 14s. per cwt.;.and on sugars equal to white clayed—that is, the finer class of unrefined sugars-shall be 16s. 4d. per cwt. Instead,

however, of the present differential duty on foreign sugars, the produce of free labour, of 9s. 4d. per cwt. in the case of Muscovados, and 12s 8d. per cwt. in that of clayed, over and above the duties charged on sugar of equal qualities from the British possessions abroad, Sir Robert intends to reduce them to 5s. 10d. and 8s. 2d. per cwt. respectively; so that, if he carries his measure, the duties will be, on British Muscovados, 14s. per cwt., foreign Muscovados 19s. 10d. per cwt.; on British clayed sugars 16s. 4d. per cwt., on foreign clayed sugars 24s. 6d. The duty on foreign slave-grown sugar to continue as at present, 63s. per cwt. Secondly, Lord John Russell's. The noble lord proposes that the duties on British sugars shall continue as at present; but that the differential duties on foreign sugars, without distinction of origin, whether raised by free men or by slaves, shall be the same as those intended to be applied by the Government to sugars free from the taint of slavery. Thirdly, that of the Anti-Slavery Society. The Committee propose that the duties levied on sugar, the produce of free labour, whether raised in the British possessions or in foreign countries, shall be equalized. In other words, that the differential duties on this class of sugars shall be wholly done away. In conformity with these views the Committee proposed, at a special meeting, held on the 2nd June, 1846, the following resolutions-viz.,

"1st. That every fiscal regulation which would extend or consolidate the system of slavery in foreign states, or stimulate and increase the African slave-trade, ought to be firmly resisted by the friends of the anti-slavery cause throughout the United Kingdom. "2nd. That the amendment of which the Right Hon. Lord John Russell has given notice that he will move, when the proposition of the Government relating to the sugar duties shall be brought under the consideration of Parliament-namely, that foreign sugars, whether the produce of free or slave-labour, shall be allowed

to be imported into Great Britain and Ireland on equal termswould undoubtedly have that effect, and ought to be earnestly and energetically opposed.

"3rd. That the proposition of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, to levy a differential duty on foreign free-labour sugars of 5s. 10d. per cwt. on Muscovados, and 8s. 2d. per cwt. on the

which it has been carried by the Legislature of this country, has undoubtedly operated as a severe check to the slave system, restricted its operations, and diminished the amount of its criminal profits.

finer clayed sugars, as compared with sugars of similar qualities produced in the British possessions abroad, will, in their judgment, operate injuriously to the interests of the consumers of sugar in this country, retard the progress of improvement in tropical agriculture, both in the East and West Indies, and, above all, as there are just grounds for believing, prevent immediate measures from being taken for the abolition of slavery in the sugar colonies of one or more European powers.

"That your petitioners would, therefore, rejoice if your honourable House would take the necessary steps for giving practical effect to the principle of exclusion of slave-labour produce; and at the same time, equalize the duties on all produce raised by free labour, whether imported from foreign countries or from the British plantations and possessions abroad.

"4th. That this Committee would, therefore, respectfully, yet earnestly recommend to the Hon. the Members of the House of Commons, the importance of equalizing the duties on sugar, the bona fide produce of free labour, whether imported from foreign states or from the British possessions, in order that they may come into full and immediate competition in the British markets, and would call on the friends of the anti-slavery cause generally to sustain this proposition."

These resolutions have been extensively advertised. The Committee also adopted the following petitions to the house of Commons, as a further embodiment of their views, viz:—

"SHOWETH, That your petitioners are fully convinced, from long and painful experience, that whilst slavery exists there is no reasonable prospect of the extinction of the slave-trade.

"Your petitioners would, therefore, earnestly and respectfully entreat your honourable House that when the proposed measure relating to the sugar duties shall come under its consideration, to refuse assent to any proposition that would strengthen the slave system on the one hand, or continue a system of differential duties on the other, between foreign free-labour sugar and that raised in British possessions abroad, and that your honourable House would be pleased to equalize the same, and thereby both discourage slave-holding and the slave-trade, and promote the abolition of slavery in those countries where, at present, it unhappily prevails."

the debate on the 12th ultimo, but has not yet been presented to This petition which was intended to be presented' previously to the House of Commons by Lord Morpeth, in consequence of the debate on the sugar duties having been postponed.

"That the coercive measures hitherto used for the suppression of the slave-trade, however much the members of this Society may differ in judgment on the lawfulness of employing such a mode for that purpose, must be pronounced to have signally failed of accomplishing their object.

"That slavery and the slave-trade having been happily abolished and declared unlawful throughout the whole extent of the British empire, it is in strict harmony with the principles and policy avowed by your honourable House to limit, as far as possible, the extension of slavery and the slave-trade in foreign states, and that this is due to the general freedom, civilization, and happiness

of mankind.

The Committee further addressed a circular to the friends of the

Anti-Slavery cause throughout Great Britain and Ireland, suggesting the propriety of their calling on their representatives in Parliament, to affirm the proposition of the Society, for the equalization of the duties on all free-labour sugar.

Members of the House of Commons, the Committee called their In transmitting copies of the resolutions and petition to the

attention to the fact that the increase of commerce in cotton-wool

"That it is an indisputable fact that the commerce which already exists in articles produced by slave-labour has greatly extended the system of slavery, and stimulated the slave-trade; and that should it be wholly unrestricted in future it will aggravate the sufferings of the slave, and still further multiply the victims of the slavetrade; whereas the exclusion of such articles, to the extent to

with the United States had extended and strengthened the system of slavery in that country. They say :-

"About fifty years ago, slavery, in that country, appeared likely to become extinct. There was then but little demand for cotton-wool beyond the limits of the Union; but certain discoveries having been subsequently made in cleaning the article, the demand for it rapidly increased, and the result has been a vast extension of human slavery, with all its degradation and suerings. The following table will prove that the extension of commerce has no tendency to destroy slavery, but on the contrary to strengthen it:

"Now as similar causes produce similar effects, there can be no doubt that were the British markets open to the reception of the sugars of Brazil and Cuba the most frightful consequences would ensue. In those countries the importations of African slaves, under present circumstances, have gone on from year to year to an almost incredible extent, notwithstanding the presence and activity of fleets of British cruizers on the African coast. The resources of diplomacy have been exhausted in vain to prevail on the authorities to aid in the suppression of this dreadful traffic. The demands of commerce have broken through all restraints. The faith of treaties, national honour, the claims of humanity, the awful sanctions of religion have been trampled under foot for the love of gain. To remove the present fiscal restrictions on slave-grown sugars would open the flood-gates to the inhuman trade, and augment to a degree, which it is frightful to contemplate, the miseries, the degradation, and the enslavement of mankind.”

And that they are not singular in this opinion, they quote in its support the deliberate judgment of men well versed in commercial transactions. For instance, that of "the highly respectable and wealthy house of Drake, Brothers & Co.," of the Havannah, who said, in a memorial to the Captain-General of Cuba, against the continuance of the slave-trade, "that they had no expectation of the price of sugar being improved, except by having the English