Did the Arab Shemite conquerors of Egypt exterminate the ancient
inhabitants (Hamites,) who still exist, and are known by the name of
Copts or Cophti?
Did not the Tartars, now Turks, a (Japhethite tribe,) when they
conquered the Caliphs, embrace the religion of the conquered, who were
Mohamedans and Shemites?
Did not the Shemite Mohamedans conquer the Persians, (Japhethites,) a
part of whom, who would not embrace the Mohamedan religion, and could
not be tolerated by the Mohamedans in theirs, (viz. fire worship,)
flee to India, where they still exist, known by the name of Guebers,
while the rest of the people, embracing Mohamedanism, amalgamated with
their conquerors; and is not the modern Persian language a proof of
this, in which all the terms of religion and science are Arabic,
(Shemite,) the rest of the language being a colluvies of the Deri,
Zend, and Pehlavi dialects, which the most eminent phylologists
consider as all resolvable into Sanscrit, the most ancient Japhethite
speech existing?
The cases of the Romans and Jews, and of the Arab conquerors of Egypt
and the Copts, are instances of conquest _without extermination_; the
parties remaining dissevered by religious differences. The cases of
the Tartar-Turks, and the Arabs, and of the Arabs and the Persians,
are cases of conquest without extermination, and _with amalgamation_;
the conquerors in the first case having adopted the religion of the
conquered, and the conquered in the second case, that of the
conquerors.
Instead of the Americans proceeding in their conduct towards the
colored people with any reference either to the divine laws or the
divine decrees, they act solely under the influence of their pride and
prejudice. How their prejudice was in the first place produced, it is
not necessary at this time to inquire. I may just remark that color
has long been the badge of slavery. Long have the negroes been an
enslaved and degraded class. The child is tutored to look upon a
colored man as an inferior, and this feeling of superiority, implanted
early in the mind of the child, growing with his growth, and
strengthening with his strength, becomes at last a confirmed and
almost invincible principle, disposing him with eagerness to adopt any
views of revelation which will permit him to cherish and gratify his
pride and hatred towards the colored man. Hence has arisen the
aristocracy of the skin. Hence the many lamentable departures from the
spirit and precepts of the gospel, every day witnessed in the United
Slates. Two illustrations of the force of prejudice are now before me.
The first is a short article from the New York Evangelist, copied into
the Scottish Guardian of this city. I will read it entire. It is as
follows:
A HARD CASE. A native born American applied to our
authorities this morning for a license to drive a cart. He
has been for years employed as a porter in Pearl Street,
principally among the booksellers, who were his petitioners
to the number of forty firms. He is an honest, temperate, and
in every respect a worthy man; of an amiable disposition,
muscular frame, and of good address, and every way calculated
for the situation he seeks; besides being a member of the
Society of Friends, a sufficient recommendation of itself;
for the office is now filled in part by swearing, drunken,
quarrelling foreigners, who are daily disturbing the quiet of
our streets by their broils; and endangering the lives of our
citizens by their infuriate conduct.
Wm. S. Hewlett was refused by our Mayor, on the ground of
public opinion! because
"----guilty of a skin
Not colored like his own."
Hewlett owns property in William Street, to the amount of
20,000 dollars; but prefers, unlike many of no more income, a
life of industry and economy, to seeking "otium cum
dignitate."
"What man seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head to own himself a man."
The next is found in a letter written by a Professor Smith, of the
Wesleyan University, Connecticut, who, while vindicating the
University from the charge of having expelled a young man "for the
crime of color," makes the following admission:
"That it would be difficult, in the present state of public
feeling, to preserve a colored individual from inquietude in
any of our collegiate schools, and to render his connection
with them tolerable, is not denied."
I come now, (continued Mr. T.) to the state of the American Churches,
in regard to Slavery; and to attempt a justification of the heavy
charges I have brought against them. If at the close of this address
it shall appear that I have misrepresented the Christians of America;
that I have stated as facts, things which are untrue, I solemnly call
upon those who have hitherto vindicated my reputation, and sustained
me as the truthful advocate of the cause of human rights, to discard
me as utterly disqualified to be their representative in so sacred a
work, because, capable of pleading for JUSTICE at the expense of
TRUTH.
Of slaveholding ministers in America, Mr. Breckinridge has asserted,
that they are as ONE IN A THOUSAND, or at most, as ONE IN FIVE
HUNDRED. The first document I shall quote to disprove this assertion,
will be a letter in the "Southern Religious Telegraph," of October 31,
1835, addressed to the Presbyterian Clergy of Virginia; written to
warn those ministers against pursuits calculated to injure their
spirituality, destroy their usefulness, and prevent those revivals of
religion with which other portions of the Church of Christ had been
favored; also to account for an apparent declension in piety in the
State generally. It is proper to remark, that the letter from which I
make the present extract, was not written to promote the cause of
abolition; that the writer never imagined it would be used on such an
occasion; and that the newspaper in which it appears is _pro_-slavery
to the very core.
"In one region of country, where I am acquainted, of rather
more than THIRTY Presbyterian ministers, including
missionaries, TWENTY are farmers, viz. (planters and
SLAVEHOLDERS,) ON A PRETTY EXTENSIVE SCALE; three are school
teachers; one is a farmer and a teacher; one, a farmer and a
merchant, and joint proprietor of iron works, which must be
in operation on the Sabbath; and one is a farmer and editor
of a political newspaper. These farmers generally superintend
their own business. THEY OVERSEE THEIR NEGROES, attend to
their stock, make purchases, and visit the markets to make
sale of their crops. They necessarily have much intercourse
with their neighbors on worldly business, and not
unfrequently come into unpleasant collision with the
merchants."
O, Sir, what a revelation of things is here! These are not the
calumnies of George Thompson, but the confessions of one, striving
earnestly to awaken the attention of the Virginia clergy to a sense of
the degradation and barrenness of the church, and to direct their
attention to the main causes of such lamentable effects.
Next, permit me to request your attention to an extract from "An
Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, proposing a plan for the
instruction and emancipation of their slaves; by a Committee of the
SYNOD OF KENTUCKY. Cincinnati: published by Eli Taylor, 1835." We
shall, in this document, get at the opinion of men, sensitively
jealous for the honor, purity, and usefulness of the Presbyterian
churches, from which Mr. Breckinridge is A DELEGATE. What say they of
slavery in general, and the practice of THEIR CHURCH in particular:
"Brutal stripes, and all the various kinds of personal
indignities, are not the only species of cruelty, which
slavery licenses. The law does not recognize the family
relations of a slave; and extends to him no protection in the
enjoyment of domestic endearments. The members of a slave
family may be forcibly separated, so that they shall never
more meet until the final judgment. And cupidity often
induces the masters to practise what the law allows. Brothers
and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are
torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. These
acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and
the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim with a
trumpet-tongue, the iniquity and cruelty of our system. The
cry of these sufferers goes up to the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth. There is not a neighborhood, where these
heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a
village or road that does not behold the sad procession of
manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances
tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts
held dear. Our church, years ago, raised its voice by solemn
warning against this flagrant violation of every principle of
mercy, justice, and humanity. Yet WE BLUSH TO ANNOUNCE TO YOU
AND TO THE WORLD, THAT, THIS WARNING HAS BEEN OFTEN
DISREGARDED, EVEN BY THOSE WHO HOLD TO OUR COMMUNION. CASES
HAVE OCCURRED, IN OUR OWN DENOMINATION, WHERE PROFESSORS OF
THE RELIGION OF MERCY HAVE TORN THE MOTHER FROM HER CHILDREN,
AND SENT HER INTO A MERCILESS AND RETURNLESS EXILE. YET ACTS
OF DISCIPLINE HAVE RARELY FOLLOWED SUCH CONDUCT."
Follow me now into the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Presbyterian Church of
the United States, convened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May, 1835,
and let the individual who addresses you be forgotten, while you
listen to the things uttered in the midst of that solemn convocation.
At the time when the passages I am about to read, were spoken, there
were sitting in that Assembly, men from all parts of the country. The
Southern Churches fully represented by row upon row of ministers and
elders from every region of the slaveholding States. In that Assembly,
one year from this time, did the Rev. J. H. Dickey, of the Chilicothe
Presbytery, Ohio, (a clergyman who had passed thirty years of his life
in a slave State.) and Mr. Stewart, a ruling elder from the Presbytery
of Schuyler, Illinois, make the following statements, which have
remained, I believe, uncontradicted to this hour:
"He (Mr. Dickey,) believed there were many, and great evils
in the Presbyterian Church; but the doctrine of slaveholding,
he was fully persuaded, was the worst heresy now found in the
Church."
"MR. STEWART--I hope this Assembly are prepared to come out
fully, and declare their sentiments, that slaveholding is a
most flagrant and heinous SIN. Let us not pass it by in this
indirect way, while so many thousands and thousands of our
fellow-creatures are writhing under the lash, often inflicted
too by MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH."
* * * * *
"IN THIS CHURCH, a man may take a free born child, force it
away from its parents, to whom God gave it in charge, saying,
'Bring it up for me,' and sell it as a beast, or hold it in
perpetual bondage, and not only escape corporal punishment,
but really be esteemed an excellent Christian. NAY, EVEN
MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, may engage
in this unholy traffic, and yet sustain their high and holy
calling."
* * * * *
"ELDERS, MINISTERS, AND DOCTORS OF DIVINITY, ARE WITH BOTH
HANDS ENGAGED IN THE PRACTICE. * * * * * * A Slave-holder who
is making gains by the trade, may have as good a character
for honesty as any other man."
* * * * *
"No language can paint the injustice and abominations of
slavery, But in these United States, this vast amount of
moral turpitude is (as I believe) justly chargeable to the
Church. I do not mean to say those church members who
actually engage in this diabolical practice, but I mean to
say THE CHURCH. Yes, Sir, all the infidelity that is the
result of this unjust conduct of the professed followers of
CHRIST; all the unholy amalgamation; all the tears and
groans; all the eyes that have been literally plucked from
their sockets; all the pains and violent deaths from the
lash, and the various engines of torture, and all the souls
that are, or will be eternally damned, as a consequence of
slavery in these United States, ARE ALL JUSTLY CHARGEABLE TO
THE CHURCH; AND HOW MUCH FALLS TO THE SHARE OF THIS
PARTICULAR CHURCH YOU CAN ESTIMATE AS WELL AS I."
* * * * *
"The judgments of God are staring this Church full in the
face, and threatening her dissolution. She is all life and
nerve in matters of doctrine, and on some points where men
may honestly differ; while sins of a crimson dye are
committed in open day, BY MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH WITH PERFECT
IMPUNITY."
I appeal to you, Sir, and this audience; did George Thompson ever
utter charges against the American churches more awful than those
contained in the extracts I have read--extracts from speeches made in
the General Assembly of the body from which Mr. Breckinridge is a
delegate? I leave for the present the Presbyterians, and proceed to
notice the state of the