P. 215. “The slaves were brought here without their own consent; they
have been continued in their present state of degradation without their
own consent, and they are not responsible for the consequences. If a man
have done injustice to his neighbour, and have also placed impediments
in the way of remedying that injustice, he is as much under obligations
to remove the impediments in the way of justice as he is to do justice.”
The ancestors of our slaves were brought from beyond sea by the people
of Old England, and by the people of New England, and particularly by
the people of Rhode Island, among the descendants of whom the reverend
doctor resides. The ancestors of these slaves were sold to our ancestors
for money, and guaranteed, by them, to be slaves for life, and their
descendants after them, as they said, both by the laws of God and man.
Whether this was false, whether they were stolen and cruelly torn from
their homes, the reverend doctor has better means of determining than
we. We may sell, we will not free them.
Under this statement of facts, let the reverend doctor apply the golden
rule and his own argument to himself. Let him then buy, and set them
free in Rhode Island; or send them to Africa, if their ancestors “were
unlawfully torn from thence.”
“Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the
tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and
say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, ye be
witness unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them that killed
the prophets.” _Matt._ xxiii. 29, 30, 31.
“For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on
men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers.” _Idem._ 4.
Within the last year, our sympathies have been excited by an account now
published to the world, of an African chieftain and slaveholder, who,
during the year previous, finding himself cut off from a market on the
Western coast, in consequence of the abolition of the slave-trade with
Europe and America,—the trade with Arabia, Egypt, and the Barbary States
not being sufficient to drain off the surplus number,—put to death three
thousand!
The blood of these massacred negroes now cries from the ground unto Dr.
Wayland and his disciples—
“Apply, oh, apply to bleeding Africa the doctrine of the golden rule,
and relieve us, poor African slaves, from starvation, massacre, and
death. Come, oh, come; buy us, that we may be your slaves, and have some
chance to learn that religion under which you prosper. Then ‘we shall
build up the old wastes’—‘raise up the former desolations,’ and ‘repair
the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.’ ‘And strangers
shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be
your ploughmen, and your vine-dressers.’ ‘Then ye shall be named the
priests of the Lord; men shall call you the ministers of our God.'”
_Isa._ lxi. 4, 5, 6.
We shall here close our remarks on the Rev. Dr. Wayland’s book; and
however feeble they may be, yet we can conscientiously say, we have no
“_doubt_” about the truth of our doctrine.
“Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is
unto all generations; thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They continue, this day, according to thine ordinances; for all are thy
servants,” (עֲבָדֶֽיךָ _ebedeka_, _slaves_.) cxix. 89, 90, 91.
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