minds, is it too much to believe, that the diffusion of kindly and
scriptural sentiments, with the blessing of heaven producing general
agreement in principles and measures, must be the means of our country's
salvation from the guilt and perils of slavery? If it is not extended,
misguided, infatuated men may, indeed, threaten to dissolve the Union.
Still we fear that extension most; for religion teaches us to fear God
more than man. It allows us but this alternative, to keep his
commandments, and trust that he will make the wrath of man to praise
him. We hold that national righteousness in his sight, "first pure,
then peaceable," is better and safer than union and slavery with his
frown. Let justice be done, and the heavens will not fall.
Whatever purposes God may conceal in the cloudy future, present duties
are ours. He seals them in his word. Notwithstanding all the heats and
perversions of parties and interests, we trust there will yet be a
single voice of our nation's good men. Citizens will speak the truth,
legislators will enact the truth, churches will hallow the truth, vital
to civilization and Christianity, that, by Jehovah's will, man is not
the property of man. Then, under the benediction of our Father in
heaven, all his children in mutual protection and benevolence will enjoy
their property, their homes, and their Sabbath; and he will more richly
bless the land of the free and the just.
FRIENDLY LETTERS
TO
A CHRISTIAN SLAVEHOLDER.
BY
REV. A. C. BALDWIN.
LETTER I.
INTRODUCTION.--SOUTHERN COURTESY AND HOSPITALITY.--CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE SOUTH AND NORTH.--NO ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE AT HEART.--THEY
SHOULD UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER.--A FREE INTERCHANGE OF
SENTIMENT DESIRABLE.--SINCERE PATRIOTISM AND PIETY COMMON TO
BOTH.--THESE AN EFFECTUAL SAFEGUARD TO OUR UNION AND
GOOD-FELLOWSHIP.
MY DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER,--I embrace the first moment at my command
since leaving your pleasant home, to express the gratification afforded
me by my recent visit to the "Sunny South." The kind hospitality and
polite attentions shown me by yourself and other Christian friends,
during my recent interesting sojourn with you, will ever be gratefully
remembered. I had previously heard "by the hearing of the ear" of the
open, frank warm-heartedness and generous impulses of southern people,
but now I can fully appreciate them. The lessons taught us by
experience, whether they be pleasant or painful, are the most
profitable, and are most deeply engraven upon the memory. If there are
any persons who think or speak lightly of the reputed complaisance and
Christian courtesy of those who live south of "Mason and Dixon's line,"
I have only to say to them,--go and make the acquaintance of those
families which give the tone and character to society there, and enjoy
the hospitalities which they almost force upon you with so much
politeness and delicacy as to make you feel that by sharing them you are
conferring rather than receiving a favor, and your skepticism on this
point will be happily and effectually removed.
You will not understand me, my dear sir, as implying that our southern
brethren have really more heart than we at the North, although there
seems to be "_primâ facie_" evidence in your favor; at least, so far as
polite and generous attention to strangers is concerned. In this last
particular, you are constantly teaching us important lessons. Still, I
contend that the Northerner has as large and generous a soul, when you
get at it, as anybody. We have hearts which beat warm and true, but our
cautious habits and constitutional temperament (phlegmatic sometimes)
conceal them from view; whereas you carry yours throbbing with generous
emotions in your hands, exposed to the gaze of everybody. The Southron
is artless and impulsive, as well as noble; the Northerner is no less
noble, but having been taught more frequently the doctrine of
"expediency" than his southern brother, he stops and "calculates" when,
and in what circumstances, it is best to exhibit his whole character. In
both cases, the pure gold is there; but in the former it lies upon the
surface or in the alluvial, while in the latter it is often imbedded
deep in the quartz-rock;--it requires some labor to get it out, but the
ultimate yield is most rich and abundant.
It is very desirable that a greater degree of social intercourse be kept
up between the North and South. We are brethren of one great family, and
there is no good reason why this family should not be a united and happy
one. To a considerable extent it is so. It is true we do not all think
alike on every subject, and some of these subjects are of vast
importance, and intimately connected with our prosperity and happiness.
We need to understand each other better, and to this end there should be
more intimacy, and a frequent and free interchange of views;--not for
strife and debate, but for mutual edification and enlightenment. There
was probably never a family of brothers, however strong their love for
each other, whose views of domestic policy were exactly alike; but
there need be no lack of fraternal confidence and harmony for all that.
There are certain great fundamental principles which underlie every
thing else, and form the basis of the family compact. These principles
are filial reverence, fraternal affection, love for home, and a watchful
jealousy of aught that can in the least interfere with the happiness or
reputation of their beloved family circle. Falling back upon these
principles to preserve good-will and harmony, they are not in the least
afraid to discuss those topics on which there is an honest difference of
opinion; on the contrary, they take pleasure in doing so, for the result
is a strengthening of the ties which bind them to each other, and a
modification and partial blending of opinions that seemed antagonistic.
Thus it should be in our great political and religious brotherhood. The
North and South have each their peculiar views of what pertains to their
own interests, and the interests of the great family of the Republic.
But do not let us stand at a distance and look at each other with an eye
of jealousy because of these differences. Surely we can meet as
fellow-citizens, and discuss matters of common interest, and the
interests of common humanity, without losing our temper or engendering
any ill feeling or family discord.
It is affirmed by some, that there are certain subjects, at least one,
of so peculiar and delicate a nature as to forbid discussion, lest the
result should be heart-burnings, alienation, and perhaps disunion in our
happy fraternity. I cannot for a moment admit the sentiment. It is an
ungenerous reflection upon the courtesy, Christian candor, piety, and
good-sense, both of the North and South. I hold that good citizens and
good Christians can, if they will, discuss any subject without giving
the least occasion for offence, or endangering that compact which so
happily binds us together. As it is in the family circle, there are
certain great principles most dear to us all, on which we can fall back,
and which, if we are true to ourselves and to them, will prove efficient
safeguards to our temper and good-fellowship. The first of these is
Patriotism. We have a common country, and we love it, and we love each
other for our country's sake. We are children of a common mother, whose
kind arms have encircled us, and whose bosom has nourished us
bounteously and with impartiality, and God forbid, that, as wayward,
ungrateful children, we should wring her maternal heart with anguish by
our unfraternal conduct toward each other. We shall not do it,--either
at the North or at the South. We are true patriots, and in our very
differences, love of country comes in as an important element to shape
and modify our opinions; and while we may be adopting different
theories, we are conscientiously seeking the same end, namely, the
greatest good of our beloved country.
The second is piety. We love our country well, but we love our Saviour
more, and for his sake we will love and treat each other as brethren,
and not fall out by the way because we may not see through the same
optic-glasses. We will cheerfully hear what each has to say on whatever
pertains to Christian morals and practice. There are thousands of
sincere, warm-hearted Christians, whose love to Christ raises them
immeasurably above sectionalism and prejudice, and who daily inquire,
"what is truth?" and "what is duty?" and they entertain that "charity"
which "suffereth long and is kind; is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things;"
and "never faileth." When this love is in exercise, Christian brethren
may open their hearts freely to each other on any subject, whether it
be "for doctrine, or reproof, or for instruction in righteousness."
Whatever may be true of others, I hope that you and I will be able to
demonstrate to the world, that, although one of us lives at the North
and the other at the South, yet we can communicate with each other
unreservedly on an almost interdicted topic, with mutual kind feelings,
if not to edification.
Respectfully and fraternally,
Yours, &c.
LETTER II.
A DIFFICULT AND DELICATE SUBJECT PROPOSED.--AGITATION OF IT
UNAVOIDABLE.--CHRISTIANS NORTH AND SOUTH SHOULD GIVE THE DISCUSSION
OF IT A RIGHT DIRECTION.--WE ARE ALL INTERESTED IN THE
ISSUE.--NORTHERN DISCLAIMERS.
MY DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER,--In my last I intimated that I hoped you and
I, by our correspondence, would be able to furnish the world a practical
illustration of good-nature and kind feeling in the discussion of a
subject that has been a fruitful source of trouble and unchristian
invective. You have already anticipated my theme--it is DOMESTIC
SLAVERY. It must be confessed that this is the most difficult and
delicate of all topics to be agitated by a Northerner and a Southerner,
and yet I have the fullest confidence that neither of us will give or
take offence. I need offer you no apology for calling your attention to
this subject at the present time. Not only is it a theme of vast
importance in itself, involving, either directly or indirectly,
interests most dear to you and to me, and to every one who has at heart
the welfare of his country and his race, but it is a subject that must
be discussed,--there is no avoiding it, however much you or I or other
individuals may desire it. It has come before the public mind in such a
manner as peremptorily to demand the attention of every Christian and
every patriot. Whether we approve or deprecate the peculiar causes that
have made this topic so prominent in our country, both North and South,
we have to take things as they are, and turn them to the best possible
account. Politicians and demagogues are all discussing American slavery,
and will continue to do so for the purpose of forwarding their own
favorite schemes; and any attempt to silence them would be as futile as
an effort to arrest the gulf-stream in its course. It remains only for
brethren, both at the South and North, to take up the subject as we find
it brought to our hands in the inscrutable providence of God, and, under
the guidance of his Spirit, given in answer to our prayers, take a truly
Christian view of some of its leading features, and then inquire, What
is duty? I think you will not claim, with some of your southern friends,
that slavery is a subject with which we at the North "have nothing to
do." As patriots, we have something to do with every thing that affects
the interests of our common country; and as Christians, we sustain
responsibilities which we cannot shake off toward all our brethren of
the human family, whether it be at the North or South--whether they be
bound or free. "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created
us?" "We are many members, but one body, and whether one member suffer
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the
members rejoice with it."
Your candor will not impute to me any unkind or improper motive in
entering upon this discussion; and you will permit me, in the outset, to
enter a few disclaimers, in order that you may be the better able to
appreciate what I have to say.
In the first place, it is not my design to throw down the glove for the
purpose of enlisting you, or any of your friends, in a controversy; this
would be an unpleasant and profitless undertaking.
Nor is it to advocate the doctrine, that sustaining the legal relation
of master to a slave for a longer or shorter time is in all possible
cases sin. I will admit that there may be circumstances in which the
relation may subsist without any moral delinquency whatever; as, for
instance, persons may become slaveholders in the eye of the law without
their own consent, as by heirship; they sometimes become so voluntarily
to befriend a fellow-creature in distress, to prevent his being sold
away from his wife and family; persons sometimes purchase slaves for the
sole purpose of emancipating them. In these, and other circumstances
which might be mentioned, no reasonable man either North or South would
ever think of pronouncing the relation a sinful one.
Nor is it my design to question the conscientiousness or piety of all
slaveholders at the South, both among the laity and clergy. Whoever
makes the sweeping assertion, that "no slaveholder can be a child of
God," gives fearful evidence that he himself is deficient in that
"charity" which "hopeth all things." There is an obvious distinction
between those who hold slaves for merely selfish purposes and regard
them as chattels, and those who repudiate this system, and regard them
as men having in common with themselves human rights, and would gladly
emancipate them were there not legal obstacles, and could they do it
consistently with their welfare, temporal and eternal.
Nor is it my purpose to advocate immediate, universal, unconditional
emancipation without regard to circumstances. This doctrine is not held
by the great mass of northern Christians. There are, no doubt, some
cases where immediate emancipation would inflict sad calamities, both
upon the slaves themselves and the community. The opinions of northern
men have often been misunderstood and misrepresented on this subject.
The ground that calm, reflecting opponents of slavery take, is, that
slaveholders should at once cease in their own minds to regard their
slaves as chattels to be bought and sold and worked for mere profit, and
that they should take immediate measures for the full emancipation of
every one, as soon as may be consistent with his greatest good, and that
of the community in which he lives.
This, it is true, is virtually immediate emancipation; for it is at once
giving up the chattel principle, and no longer regarding servants as
property to be bought and sold. It is to act on the Christian principle
of impartial love, doing to them and with them, as, in a change of
circumstances, we would have them do to and with us. This does
immediately abolish, as it should do, the main thing in slavery, and
brings those who are now bondmen into the common brotherhood of human
beings, to be treated, not as chattels and brutes, but on Christian
principles, according to the exigencies of their condition as ignorant,
degraded, and dependent human beings, "endowed, however, by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness," which rights should be acknowledged, and
with the least possible delay be granted.
Nor is it my design to reproach my southern brethren as being to blame
for the origin of slavery in these United States. Slavery was introduced
into this country by our fathers, who have long been sleeping in their
graves, and the North, if they did not as extensively, yet did as truly,
and in many cases did as heartily, participate in it, as the South; so
that, in respect to the origin of American slavery, we have not a word
to say, nor a stone to cast. And besides, our mother country must come
in and share with our fathers to no small extent in the wrong of
introducing domestic slavery to these colonies. Happily, as we think,
slavery was virtually abolished at the North by our ancestors of a
preceding generation; but for their act we are entitled to no credit.
Your ancestors omitted to do this; but for their omission you are
deserving of no blame. We would never forget, that slavery was entailed
upon our southern brethren, and for this entailment they are no more
responsible than for the blood that circulates in their veins.
If you will be so kind as to keep these disclaimers in mind, I think you
will better understand and appreciate what I shall hereafter say on the
subject. With the kindest wishes for you and yours, I remain, in the
best of bonds,
YOUR CHRISTIAN BROTHER.
LETTER III.
THE REAL SUBJECT.--NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH ANCIENT
SERVITUDE.--NOR TO BE JUDGED OF BY ISOLATED CASES.--NORTHERN MEN
COMPETENT AS OTHERS TO DETERMINE ITS TRUE CHARACTER.--SLAVERY
IGNORES OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.--IS INCONSISTENT WITH OUR
CONSTITUTION.
MY DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER,--I propose in this and subsequent letters to
take a brief, candid view of some of the prominent characteristics of
American slavery. I speak of servitude, not as it existed in patriarchal
times, for that is essentially a distinct matter. While it had some
things in common with American slavery, there was so much that was
dissimilar in the relation of master and servant, that analogy is in a
great measure destroyed.
Neither do I speak of slavery as I saw it developed on your plantation,
and on those of your immediate neighbors. When I went to the South, I
confess I went with strong prepossessions, (prejudices if you choose so
to call them,) against the "peculiar institution." I regarded it an
evil, and only an evil. But while my general views of the legitimate
workings of the system remain unchanged, candor compels me to admit,
that, if all slaves were as well cared for, as kindly treated, as well
instructed, and were they all as contented and happy as yours; and,
especially, were there no evils incident to the system greater than I
saw with you, I would simply divest slavery of its odious name, and it
would virtually be slavery no longer. The plantations at the South would
then, perhaps, with some propriety he denominated communities of
intelligent, happy, Christian peasants. And yet it is slavery, as it
really takes away inalienable rights. Would to God that slavery as it
exists with you were a fair illustration of the system. But alas! it is
not. Perhaps you may say that "it is impossible for a northern man to
speak of slavery so as to do the subject justice." You may indeed know
more and better than we do about the state and condition of the slaves.
But in some respects, where great principles are involved, we at the
North are more competent than you, for our judgment is less liable to be
biased by self-interest; and in my remarks I shall confine myself
chiefly to those points on which a northern man is at least as well
qualified to speak as a slaveholder.
What, then, are some of the prominent characteristics of American
slavery as a system?
FIRST, Slavery ignores and repudiates the foundation-stone on which
rests our renowned Declaration of Independence. That document, for more
than three fourths of a century, has been the boast and glory of
America. It is the platform on which our noble ancestors planted their
feet, with a consciousness that they stood on the eternal principles of
truth and justice. To maintain these principles, relying on God for aid,
they pledged to each other "their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor." Our fathers knew that they were right, and, to carry out
the principles embodied in this Declaration, many of them cheerfully
poured out their heart's blood to defend the "unalienable rights" of
humanity.
Now let us turn our attention to the foundation paragraph of this
memorable Declaration;--I do not mean in that general way in which it is
often read, but minutely and particularly;--let us calmly look at it in
its full import, and not shrink back and avert our eyes on account of a
foreboding that we shall be led to conclusions which we would be glad to
avoid.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident;--that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
These significant words are inscribed upon the scroll of our nation's
history, and there they will remain till time shall be no longer. They
need no glossary or explanation. He who runs may read them, and he who
reads can understand them. The sentiment they embody it is impossible to
mistake; it stands out in bold relief, like the sun in the heavens. It
is, that every man has received, from a higher than earthly power, a
charter, which secures to him the unalienable right of life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. It is impossible for the most ultra
advocate of "human rights" to paraphrase these words, or give them a
rendering so as to make them support his dogmas more strongly than they
now do. On the contrary, he would only weaken their force by the
attempt.
Now, my dear brother, I would candidly, seriously ask you--I would ask
all your southern friends--I would ask everybody, Can the sentiment of
that Declaration be consistent with American slavery? Are not slaves
men? Do color and degradation change a creature of God from a human
being to a soulless brute? No; our southern brethren would as
indignantly repudiate this infidel view as we at the North. Now if a
slave is a man, he has received from his Creator an unalienable right to
liberty if he chooses to avail himself of it, or else the first
principle laid down in our revered Declaration of Independence, so far
from being "self evident," is in fact untrue, and ought at once to be
taken from its honored position in the archives of these United States,
and consigned to the heaps of rubbish of the dark ages.
But does the slave enjoy this liberty? or is it within his reach? It
will not be pretended. The very name by which his class is designated
forbids it. The term free slave is a solecism. His liberty consists in
the freedom to do as he is told to do, or suffer punishment for his
disobedience, and he can pursue happiness only in accordance with the
will of his master.
There is the same incongruity between slavery and that clause in our
constitution which stipulates that "no person shall be deprived of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law." Now, my brother, does
it not require considerable ingenuity and special pleading to avoid
conclusions to which unbiased common sense would arrive in an instant,
in the application of these declared rights to persons held as slaves? I
am not going to inflict upon you a dissertation, or a series of
syllogisms on this hackneyed subject, but I beg that you and your
friends will calmly look again at what, I doubt not, you have seen
before,--the palpable incongruity between the system of holding persons
perpetually in slavery without their consent, and those declared,
self-evident, heaven bestowed, unalienable rights professedly secured to
all men in these United States by our glorious constitution. Said that
great statesman and patriot, Henry Clay: "We present to the world the
sorry spectacle of a nation that worships Slavery as a household
goddess, after having constituted Liberty the presiding divinity over
church and state."
Surely something must be out of joint here. I have looked again and
again at this matter, I think with perfect candor, and I have tried to
the utmost of my ability to reconcile these apparent inconsistencies,
but I cannot do it. Can you?
Believe me, as ever, your sincere friend and
CHRISTIAN BROTHER.
LETTER IV.
SLAVERY TRANSFORMS MEN TO CHATTELS.--SOUTHERN
LAWS.--SLAVE-AUCTIONS.--MEN PLACED ON A LEVEL WITH BRUTES.--NO
REDRESS FOR WRONGS.--IGNORANCE PERPETUATED BY LAW.