gathered its power for its last and desperate conflict with the rights of man. It may not, therefore, be deemed strange, that, upon the part of the right, the preparations for the grandest and most appalling battle of all time should be long, profound, and finally irresistible.

In 1786, Washington said, "I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase; it being among the first wishes of my heart to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law."

Jefferson, writing from Paris in 1788, said, "We must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their tears shall involve heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberty among their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of this world, and show that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality."

John Jay, in 1780, said, "An excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America comes into this measure, her prayers to Heaven will be impious. This is a strong expression; but it is just. I believe God governs the world; and I believe it to be a maxim in his as in our court, that those who ask for equity should grant it."

Monroe, before the Virginia Convention, said, "We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed."

Henry Laurens of South Carolina wrote to his son, Aug. 14, 1776, "You know, my son, I abhor slavery. I was born in a country where slavery had been established by British kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of that country, ages before my existence. I found the Christian reli

gion and slavery growing together under the same authority and cultivation. I, nevertheless, disliked it. In former days, there was no combating the prejudices of men, supported by interest. The day, I hope, is approaching, when, from principles of gratitude, as well as justice, every man will strive to be foremost in showing his readiness to comply with the golden rule."

Patrick Henry said, "Slavery is detested; we feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. It would rejoice my very soul to know that every one of my fellow-beings was emancipated. I believe the time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil."

These are only specimens of the honest and prophetic announcements of our great men, from the foundations of our government; and they show conclusively that the institution of slavery was as anti-American as it was antiChristian.

Against these high inspirations of wisdom, and all the warnings of history in this Republic, for near a century, slavery advanced until it had reached the climax of insolence and oppression, which, in the preceding chapter, we traced up to our own period. Surely it was time for "the uprising of a great people."

CHRISTIANITY REVOLTS.

One thing was indestructible. The law of Jesus Christ, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," was not made to be annihilated by human power, however proud and defiant it might become. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" was the law of Christian life, written, not upon tables of stone, but upon the hearts of the regenerate of all time and all lands, and would ultimately gain the mastery over proud, oppres sive selfishness. Accordingly, a very bold and formidable demonstration against slavery came from religious justice,

and love for the race. We do not claim that it was at first pure, unmixed Christianity. In its bursts of indignation, it not unfrequently revealed an unchristian temper, and a disposition to prompt and summary justice not in harmony with the laws and plans of God; and when it was, without due consideration, claimed that the Holy Bible justified slavery, and the solid conservatism of the churches rose up in the way of radical reformers, a few denounced the Bible and the churches. But this rashness was gradually counteracted. Sound exegesis soon rescued the Bible from the undeserved reproach of sanctioning slavery; and members of the churches, in numbers constantly increasing, showed that their love of justice was superior to all prescriptive usages. The great principles of righteousness, utterly denying the right of property in man, were found to have their very strongest security and expression in divine revelation and in the fundamental doctrines of the Church.

Agitation was fearful to the timid, and most honestly discouraged by a very strong conservatism in the Church and Nation. It seemed likely to sweep away the very foundations of public order, and result in the wildest anarchy. No doubt, denunciation sometimes assumed a bitterness, and measures of reform a recklessness, which few right-minded men would now attempt to justify; but, on the other hand, the cool complacency, the endless delays, of conservatism, the apologies for slavery, and, finally, the studied attempts to vindicate it in the face of its vile corruptions and atrocities, were very provoking.

In the mean time, it began to appear that God was in the midst of the storm; that he suffered, if he did not actually order, this terrific agitation to break up the reign of stupidity and death. It was, in fact, the trump of resurrection to the slumbering justice of the Church and the Nation. There was really no danger.

Of course, as suppression began to appear hopeless, the principles of the conflict began to release themselves; and a

potent Providence compelled men to take sides in the great battle, the moral grandeur of which few men could distinctly see, none could comprehend. Conservative Christians and churches in the North began to reveal a strength of antislavery principle which had been hardly suspected.

In the South, members of the churches, and the ministry, seemed shut up to a fatal blindness. For many years, they generally conceded the wrong of the system; but they felt the power of that terrorism which was everywhere, and shrank from the mission of "liberty to the captives," upon which they were sent by their great Master. They excused the wrong, and at length placed themselves at the head of its violent defenders. Thus it must be mournfully confessed that Southern churches committed a crime for which the atonement required has been bloody, protracted, and terrible. When will the hour of forgiveness come? Let us mingle our tears of penitence with theirs. We have been too deeply involved in their guilt to avoid a frightful participation in the demand for retribution; and it may be feared that we have not yet exhausted the cup of our merited sorrow.

But, all this time, true Christianity never wavered. Its great historic truth of the brotherhood of the race came out more and more distinctly; and, even from the lips of "unreasonable men," it was a grand gospel, the very evangel of God to the oppressed American mind.

Ardent and perhaps not very well regulated men in the Church took it up, and rang it through the land, until conservatism was startled, said it was perverted, and made to mean "another gospel;" then affirmed that it was an old truth, and that, in obedience to its behest, the Church had always cared most wisely for both master and slave. But at length great and grave conservative men began to speak with authority to the men who held human bodies and souls in thraldom, and say, "Let the oppressed go free," so irresistibly did the right work its way to the surface, and, amid the roar of battle, compel the people to listen to its procla mation.

True, schism rent church organizations here and there; secession spurned what it thought an ecclesiastical monster, and fled away, to be alone, or form new combinations, which would give voice to justice in the name of God.

Then slavery reached out its arm to grasp more power, and dominate over more millions; and the Church came suddenly up to the question, Would she submit to these new aggressions, or risk her threatened losses? This was the first great public test which indicated that the age of compromises was worn out and must soon be laid aside. And the Church endured the trial. Challenged to show her submission and her shame, by accepting the advance of the slavepower Northward, or be torn asunder and go out of the way, she dug down after her old principles, and found them sound and bright as ever. She threw herself upon the arm of God, and dared to do right. The crash came; and one after another of the great denominations received the blows of the tyrant, looked mournfully upon their severed members, and, bowing reverently before God, found that their strength was in justice.

In the land of the slave there were found souls strong enough to endure the trial, and, in the face of the vilest persecution, deny the right of property in man. Faith in God, and the ultimate triumph of the right, brought up from the South to the throne of grace many fervent prayers, and into the ranks of God's liberating army many strong, brave men. Loyalty, first to the truth, and then to the government, cost something there; and its day of recognition and honor before earth and heaven was sure to come.

HUMANITY PLEADS.

The first great mission of truth in this grand upheaval was to show the wrong of the slave-system by the sufferings of its victims. The fair exterior of this pagan temple was always to be seen. The worshippers at its shrine were proud of it.