Slavery Ordained of God | Page 2

Speech Before the General Assembly at Buffalo Speech Before the
General Assembly at New York Letter to Rev. A. Blackburn What Is
the Foundation of Moral Obligation?
Letters to Rev. A. Barnes:--
I.--Results of the slavery agitation--Declaration of Independence-- The
way men are made infidels--Testimonies of General Assemblies

II.--Government over man a divine institute III.--Man-stealing IV.--The
Golden Rule

Speech Delivered at Buffalo, Before the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church.

To understand the following speech, the reader will be pleased to
learn--if he don't know already--that the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church, before its division in 1838, and since,--both Old
School and New School,--has been, for forty years and more, bearing
testimony, after a fashion, against the system of slavery; that is to say,
affirming, in one breath, that slave-holding is a "blot on our holy
religion," &c. &c.; and then, in the next utterance, making all sorts of
apologies and justifications for the slave-holder. Thus: this august body
has been in the habit of telling the Southern master (especially in the
Detroit resolutions of 1850) that he is a _sinner_, hardly meet to be
called a _Christian_; but, nevertheless, if he will only sin "from
unavoidable necessity, imposed by the laws of the States,"--if he will
only sin under the "obligations of guardianship,"--if he will only sin
"from the demands of humanity,"--why, then, forsooth, he may be a
slave-holder as long as he has a mind to. Yea, he may hold one slave,
one hundred or one thousand slaves, and till the day of judgment.
Happening to be in attendance, as a member of the body, in Buffalo,
May, 1853, when, as usual, the system of slavery was touched, in a
series of questions sent down to the church courts below, I made the
following remarks, in good-natured ridicule of such preposterous and
stultifying testimony; and, as an argument, opening the views I have
since reproduced in the second speech of this volume, delivered in the
General Assembly which convened in New York, May, 1856, and also
in the letters following:--
BUFFALO, FRIDAY, May 27, 1853.
The order of the day was reached at a quarter before eleven, and the
report read again,--viz.:
"1. That this body shall reaffirm the doctrine of the second resolution
adopted by the General Assembly, convened in Detroit, in 1850, and,
"2. That with an express disavowal of any intention to be impertinently
inquisitorial, and for the sole purpose of arriving at the truth, so as to

correct misapprehensions and allay all causeless irritation, a committee
be appointed of one from each of the synods of Kentucky, Tennessee,
Missouri, and Virginia, who shall be requested to report to the next
General Assembly on the following points:--1. The number of
slave-holders in connection with the churches, and the number of slaves
held by them. 2. The extent to which slaves are held from an
unavoidable necessity imposed by the laws of the States, the
obligations of guardianship, and the demands of humanity. 3. Whether
the Southern churches regard the sacredness of the marriage relation as
it exists among the slaves; whether baptism is duly administered to the
children of the slaves professing Christianity, and in general, to what
extent and in what manner provision is made for the religious
well-being of the slave," &c. &c.
Dr. Ross moved to amend the report by substituting the
following,--with an express disavowal of being impertinently
inquisitorial:--that a committee of one from each of the Northern
synods of ---- be appointed, who shall be requested to report to the next
General Assembly,--
1. The number of Northern church-members concerned, directly or
indirectly, in building and fitting out ships for the African slave-trade,
and the slave-trade between the States.
2. The number of Northern church-members who traffic with
slave-holders, and are seeking to make money by selling them
negro-clothing, handcuffs, and cowhides.
3. The number of Northern church-members who have sent orders to
New Orleans, and other Southern cities, to have slaves sold, to pay
debts owing them from the South. [See Uncle Tom's Cabin.]
4. The number of Northern church-members who buy the cotton, sugar,
rice, tobacco, oranges, pine-apples, figs, ginger, cocoa, melons, and a
thousand other things, raised by slave-labor.
5. The number of Northern church-members who have intermarried
with slave-holders, and have thus become slave-owners themselves, or
enjoy the wealth made by the blood of the slave,--especially if there be
any Northern ministers of the gospel in such a predicament.
6. The number of Northern church-members who are the descendants
of the men who kidnapped negroes in Africa and brought them to
Virginia and New England in former years.

7. The aggregate and individual wealth of members thus descended,
and what action is best to compel them to disgorge this blood-stained
gold, or to compel them