The most serious obstacle to the progress of the antislavery cause was
the conduct of the clergy and churches in our country. Perhaps it would
be more proper to say the churches and the clergy, for it was only too
obvious that, in the wrong course which they took, the shepherds were
driven by the sheep. The influential members of the churches,--“the
gentlemen of property and standing,”--still more the politicians, who
“of course understood better than ministers the Constitution of the
United States, and the guaranties that were given to slaveholders
by the framers of our Union,”--these gentlemen, too important to be
alienated, were permitted to direct the action of the churches, and
the preaching of their pastors on this “delicate question,” “this
exciting topic.” Consequently the histories of the several religious
denominations in our country (with very small exceptions) evince, from
the time of our Revolution, a continual decline of respect for the
rights of colored persons, and of disapproval of their enslavement.
In the early days of our Republic--until after 1808--all the
religious sects in the land, I believe, gave more or less emphatic
testimonies against enslaving fellow-men, especially against the
African slave-trade. But after that accursed traffic was nominally
abolished, the zeal of its opponents subsided (not very slowly) to
acquiescence in the condition of those who had long been enslaved and
their descendants. “They are used to it”; “they seem happy enough”;
“unconscious of their degradation”; it was said. Then “the labor of
slaves is indispensable to their owners, especially on the rich, virgin
soils of the Southern States.” “It is sad,” said the semi-apologists,
“but so it is. The condition of laboring people everywhere is hard,
and we are by no means sure that the condition of the slaves is worse,
if so bad as, that of many laborers elsewhere who are nominally free.”
“Many masters,” it was added, “are very kind to their slaves; feed them
and clothe them well, and never overwork them, unless it is absolutely
necessary.” But the consciences of the doubting were quieted more than
all by the plea that “in one respect certainly the condition of the
enslaved Africans has been immensely improved by their transportation
to our country. Here they are introduced to the knowledge of ‘the way
of salvation’; here many of them become Christians. As Joseph through
his bondage in Egypt was led to the highest position in that empire,
next only to the king, so these poor, benighted heathen, by being
brought in slavery to our land, may be led to become children of the
King of kings, so wonderful are the ways of Divine Providence.” By
these and similar palliations and apologies, the people of almost
every religious sect at the South, and their Methodist or Baptist
or Presbyterian or Episcopalian brethren at the North, were led to
overlook the _essential_ evil, the tremendous wrong of slavery, and to
hope and trust that God would, in due time, by his inscrutable method,
bring some inestimable good out of this great evil.
Accordingly, we find, on turning to the doings of the great
ecclesiastical bodies of our country, that they have descended from
their very distinct protests against the enslavement of men, in 1780,
1789, 1794, &c., to palliations of the “sum of all villanies,” as
Wesley called it,--and apologies for it, and justifications of it, and
explicit, biblical defences of it, until at length--after Mr. Garrison
and his co-laborers arose, demanding for the slaves their inalienable
right to liberty--the churches and ministers of all denominations
(excepting the Freewill Baptists and Scotch Covenanters) gathered
about the “Peculiar Institution” for its _protection_; and vehemently
denounced as incendiaries, disunionists, infidels, all those who
insisted upon its abolition.[Q]
This, I repeat, was the most serious obstacle to the progress of our
antislavery reform. In 1830, and for several years afterwards, the
influence of the clergy and the churches was paramount in our Northern,
if not in the Southern communities; certainly it was second only to
the love of money. The people generally, then, were wont to take for
granted that what the ministers and church-members approved must be
morally right, and what they so vehemently denounced must be morally
wrong. Accordingly, the most violent conflicts we had, and the most
outrageous mobs we encountered, were led on or instigated by persons
professing to be religious.
If the clergy and churches have less influence over the people now than
they had forty years ago, it must be in a great measure because the
people find that they were wofully deceived by them as to the character
of slavery, and misled to oppose its abolition, until the slaveholders,
encouraged by their Northern abettors, dared to attempt the dissolution
of our Union, and so brought on our late civil war, in which hundreds
of thousands of the people were killed, and an immense debt imposed
upon this and succeeding generations.
In justice, however, to the professing Christians of our country,
it should be recorded that very much the larger portions of our
antislavery host were recruited from the churches of all denominations,
though some persons who made no pretensions to a religious character
rendered us signal services. It ought also to be stated that more of
the antislavery lecturers, agents, and devoted laborers had been of the
_ministerial_ profession than of any other of the callings of men, in
proportion to the numbers of each. Still, it cannot be denied that the
most formidable opposition we had to contend against was that which was
made by the ministers and churches and ecclesiastical authorities. When
the true history of the antislavery conflict shall be fully written,
and the sayings and doings of preachers, theological professors,
editors of religious periodicals, and of Presbyteries, Associations,
Conferences, and General Assemblies, shall be spread before the people
in the light of our enlarged liberty, no one will fail to see that,
practically, the worst enemies of truth, righteousness, and humanity
were of those who professed to be the friends and followers of Christ.
Had _they_ been generally faithful and fearless in behalf of the
oppressed, no other opponents would have dared to withstand the just
demand for their immediate emancipation.
Mr. Garrison, who was and is by nature and education an unfeignedly
religious man, felt that he ought to look first to the clergy and the
professing Christians for sympathy, and should confidently expect their
co-operation. Indeed, he knew that if they would heartily espouse the
cause of our enslaved countrymen, he might, without unfaithfulness
to them, retire to some printing-office, and get his living as he
had been trained to do. His disappointment and astonishment were
unspeakable when he found how blind and deaf and dumb the preachers of
the Gospel were in view of the unparalleled iniquity of our nation,
and the inestimable wrongs that were allowed to be inflicted upon
millions of the people. It was as painful to him and his associates
as it was necessary, to expose to the people the infidelity of their
religious teachers and guides; to show them that, not only had the
statesmen and politicians of our country become fearfully corrupted by
consenting with slaveholders, but also the bishops, priests, ministers
of religion. All, with few exceptions, had lost faith in the true and
the right, and in the God of truth and righteousness. They were afraid
to obey the Divine Law, and bowed rather to the commandments of men.
They respected a compromise more than a principle, and trusted to what
seemed politic rather than to that which was self-evidently right. “The
whole _head_ of our nation was sick, and the whole _heart_ was faint.
From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there seemed to be no
soundness in it.” “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very
small remnant, we should have been as Sodom; we should have been like
unto Gomorrah.”