ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 423 Green, Thomas P. Smith, J. R. Alexander, and Charles Cunningham, laymen; and Revs. Wm. L. Breckinridge, James K. Burch, Robert Stuart, Nathan H. Hall, and John C. Young, ministers." Some of these persons yet survive. Dr. Young, whose name appears last on the list, was at that time President of Centre College, the post which Dr. William L. Breckinridge, the first on the list of ministers, now fills. This eloquent and pungent address was from the pen of Dr. Young, than whom no man ever stood higher in the esteem of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky. Though long, we bespeak for it a careful perusal. If there is to be found in the English language a more decided condemnation of slavery as a system, we have not met with it. We have only to suggest to the reader that he constantly bear in mind that he is not reading a paper which emanated from Boston, and was designed for the latitude of New England, but rather an address written in Kentucky, and, under the authority of the Synod, made to the Presbyterians of the State. The chief portions of this Address are as follows: DEAR BRETHREN-The will of Synod has made it our duty to lay before you "a plan for the moral and religious instruction," as well as for "the future emancipation," of the slaves under your care. We feel the responsibility and difficulty of the duty to which the Church has called us, yet the character of those whom we address strongly encourages us to hope that our labor will not be in vain. You profess to be governed by the principles and precepts of a holy religion; you recognize the fact that you have yourselves "been made free" by the blood of the Son of God, and you believe that you have been imbued with a portion of the same spirit which was in "Him who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor." When we point out to such persons their duty, and call upon them to fulfil it, our appeal cannot be altogether fruitless. But we have a still stronger ground of encouragement in our firm conviction that the cause which we advocate is the cause of God, and that His assistance will make it finally prevail, May He who "hears the cry of the poor and needy," and who has commanded to let the "oppressed go free," give to each one of us wisdom to know our duty and strength to fulfil it. We earnestly entreat you, brethren, to receive our communication in the same spirit of kindness in which it is made, and permit neither prejudice nor interest to close your minds against the reception of truth, or steel your hearts against the convictions of conscience. Very soon it will be a matter of no moment whether we have had large or small possessions on the earth; but it will be of infinite importance whether or not we have conscientiously sought out the will of God and done it. We all admit that the system of slavery which exists among us is not right. Why then do we assist in perpetuating it? Why do we make no serious efforts to terminate it? Is it not because our perception of its sinfulness is very feeble and indistinct, while our percep tion of the difficulties of instructing and emancipating our slaves is strong and clear? As long as we believe that slavery, as it exists among us, is a light evil in the sight of God, so long will we feel inclined to pronounce every plan that can be devised for its termination inexpedient or impracticable. Before then we unfold our plan, we wish to examine the system and try it by the principles which religion teaches. If it shall not be thus proved to be an abomination in the sight of a just and holy God, we shall not solicit your concurrence in any plan for its abolition. But if, when fairly examined, it shall be seen to be a thing which God abhors, we may surely expect that no trifling amount of trouble or loss will deter you from lending your efforts to its extermination. Slavery is not the same all the world over. And to ascertain its character in any particular State or country, we must examine the constituents and effects of the kind of slavery which there exists. The system, as it exists among us and is constituted by our laws, consists of three distinct parts: a deprivation of the right of property, a deprivation of personal liberty, and a deprivation of personal security. In all its parts it is manifestly a violation of the laws of God, as revealed by the light of nature as well as by the light of revelation. 1. A part of our system of slavery consists in depriving human beings of the right to acquire and hold property. Does it need any proof to show that God has given to all human beings a right to the proceeds of their own labor? The heathen acknowledge it; every man feels it. The Bible is full of denunciations against those who withhold from others the fruits of their exertions. "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrigh ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 425 teousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work." Jer. xxii. 13. See also James v. 4; Lev. xix. 13; Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. Does an act which is wrong when done once and towards one individual, become right because it is practised daily and hourly and towards thousands? Does the Just and holy One frown the less upon injustice because it is systematically prac tised, and is sanctioned by the laws of the land? If the chicanery of law should enable us to escape the payment of our debts, or if a human legislature should discharge us from our obligations to our creditors, could we, without deep guilt, withhold from our neighbors that which is their due? No; we all recognize the principle that the laws of the God of nature can never be repealed by any legislature under heaven. These laws will endure when the statutes of earth shall have crumbled with the parchments on which they are enrolled; and by these laws we know that we must be judged in the day in which the destinies of our souls shall be determined. 2. The deprivation of personal liberty forms another part of our system of slavery. Not only has the slave no right to his wife and children, he has no right even to himself. His very body, his muscles, his bones, his flesh, are all the property of another. The movements of his limbs are regulated by the will of a master. He may be sold like a beast of the field; he may be transported in chains like a felon. Was the blood of our Revolution shed to establish a false principle, when it was poured out in defence of the assertion that "all men are created equal;" that "they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?" If it be a violation of the rights of nature to deprive men of their political freedom, the injustice is surely much more flagrant when we rob them of personal liberty. The condition of a subject is enviable compared with the condition of a slave. We are shocked at the despotism exercised over the Poles. But theirs is a political yoke, and is light compared with the heavy personal yoke that bows down the two millions of our colored countrymen. Does European injustice lose its foul character when practised with aggravations in America? Still further, the deprivation of personal liberty is so complete, that it destroys the rights of conscience. Our system, as established by law, arms the master with power to prevent his slave even from worshipping God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The owner of human beings among us may legally restrain them from assembling to hear the instructions of divine truth, or even from ever uniting their hearts and voices in social prayer and praise to Him who created them. God alone is Lord over the conscience. Yet our system, defrauding alike our Creator and our slaves, confers upon men this prerogative of Deity. Argument is unnecesary to show the guilt and madness of such a system. And do we not participate in its criminality if we uphold it ? 3. The deprivation of personal security is the remaining constituent of our system of slavery. The time was, in our own as well as in other countries, when even the life of the slave was absolutely in the hands of the master. It is not so now among us. The life of a bondman cannot be taken with impunity. But the law extends its protection no further. Cruelty may be carried to any extent, provided life be spared. Mangling, imprisonment, starvation, every species of torture may be inflicted upon him, and he has no redress. But not content with thus laying the body of the slave defenceless at the foot of the master, our system proceeds still further, and strips him in a great measure of all protection against the inhumanity of any other white man who may choose to maltreat him. The laws prohibit the evidence of a slave against a white man from being received in a court of justice. So that wantonness and cruelty may be exercised by any man with impunity upon these unfortunate people, provided none witness it but those of their own color. In describing such a condition, we may well adopt the language of sacred writ: "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment." Without any SUCH IS THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF OUR SLAVERY. crime on the part of its unfortunate subjects, they are deprived for life, and their posterity after them, of the right to property, of the right to liberty, and of the right to personal security. These odious features are not the excrescences upon the system, they are the system itself; they are its essential constituent parts. And can any man believe that such a thing as this is not sinful; that it is not hated by God, and ought not to be abhorred and abolished by man? But there are certain EFFECTS, springing naturally and necessarily out of such a system, which must also be considered in forming a proper estimate of its character. 1. Its most striking effect is to deprave and degrade its subjects, by removing from them the strongest natural checks to human corruption. As there are certain laws impressed upon the elements, by which God works to preserve the beauty and order of the material creation, so there ment. ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 427 are certain principles of human nature by which he works to save the moral world from ruin. These principles operate on every man in his natural condition of freedom-restraining his vicious propensities and regulating his deportment. The fires of innate depravity, which, if permitted to burst forth, would destroy the individual and desolate society, are thus measurably repressed, and the decencies and enjoyments of life are preserved. The wisdom and goodness of God are thus seen in implanting in man a sense of character, a desire for property, a love for distinction, a thirst for power, and a zeal for family advanceAll these feelings working in the minds of individuals, though not unmixed with evil, combine to promote their own happiness and the welfare of communities; and they are inferior, in the good which they produce, only to those high religious principles which constitute the image of God in the soul of man. The presence of these principles only can compensate for the absence of those natural feelings. Whenever, then, these natural feelings are crushed or eradicated in any human being, he is stripped of the nobler attributes of humanity, and is degraded into a creature of mere appetite and passion. His sensuality is the only cord by which you can draw him. His hopes and fears all concentrate upon the objects of his appetites. He sinks far down towards a level with the beast of the field, and can be moved to action only by such appeals as influence the lunatic and the brute. This is the condition to which slavery reduces the great mass of those who wear its brutalizing yoke. Its effects upon their souls are far worse than its effects upon their bodies. Character, property, distinction, power, and family respectability, are all withdrawn from the reach of the slave. No object is presented to excite and cultivate those higher feelings whose exercise would repress his passions and regulate his appetites. Thus slavery deranges and ruins the moral machinery of man; it cuts the sinews of the soul; it extracts from human nature the salt that purifies and preserves it, and leaves it a corrupting mass of appetite and passion. 2. It dooms thousands of human beings to hopeless ignorance. The acquisition of knowledge requires exertion; and the man who is to continue through life in bondage has no strong motive of interest to induce such exertion; for knowledge is not valuable to him, as to one who eats the fruits of his own labors. The acquisition of knowledge requires also facilities of books, teachers, and time, which can be only adequately furnished by masters: and those who desire to perpetuate slavery will never furnish these facilities. If slaves are educated, it must involve |