Slavery Ordained of God | Page 3

to give dollar for dollar in equalizing the loss
of the South by emancipation.
8. The number of Northern church-members, ministers especially, who
have advocated murder in resistance to the laws of the land.
9. The number of Northern church-members who own stock in
under-ground railroads, running off fugitive slaves, and in
Sabbath-breaking railroads and canals.
10. That a special commission be sent up Red River, to ascertain
whether Legree, who whipped Uncle Tom to death, (and who was a
Northern _gentleman_,) be not still in connection with some Northern
church in good and regular standing.
11. The number of Northern church-members who attend meetings of
Spiritual Rappers,--or Bloomers,--or Women's-Rights Conventions.
12. The number of Northern church-members who are cruel husbands.
13. The number of Northern church-members who are hen-pecked
husbands.
[As it is always difficult to know the temper of speaker and audience
from a printed report, it is due alike to Dr. R., to the whole Assembly,
and the galleries, to say, that he, in reading these resolutions, and
throughout his speech, evinced great good-humour and kindness of
feeling, which was equally manifested by the Assembly and spectators,
repeatedly, while he was on the floor.]
Dr. Ross then proceeded:--Mr. Moderator, I move this amendment in
the best spirit. I desire to imitate the committee in their refinement and
delicacy of distinction. I disavow all intention to be impertinently
inquisitorial. I intend to be inquisitorial, as the committee say they
are,--but not impertinently so. No, sir; not at all; not at all. (Laughter.)
Well, sir, we of the South, who desire the removal of the evil of slavery,
and believe it will pass away in the developments of Providence, are
grieved when we read your graphic, shuddering pictures of the "middle
passage,"--the slave-ship, piling up her canvas, as the shot pours after
her from English or American guns,--see her again and again hurrying
hogshead after hogshead, filled with living slaves, into the deep, and,
thus lightened, escape. Sir, what horror to believe that clipper-ship was
built by the hands of Northern, noisy Abolition church-members! ["Yes,

I know some in New York and Boston," said one in the crowd.] Again,
sir, when we walk along your _Broadways_, and see, as we do, the soft
hands of your church-members sending off to the South, not only
clothing for the slave, but manacles and whips, manufactured expressly
for him,--what must we think of your consistency of character? [True,
true.] And what must we think of your self-righteousness, when we
know your church-members order the sale of slaves,--yes, slaves such
as St. Clair's,--and under circumstances involving all the separations
and all the loathsome things you so mournfully deplore? Your Mrs.
Stowe says so, and it is so, without her testimony. I have read that
splendid, bad book. Splendid in its genius, over which I have wept, and
laughed, and got mad, (here some one said, "All at the same time?")
yes--all at the same time. Bad in its theology, bad in its morality, bad in
its temporary evil influence here in the North, in England, and on the
continent of Europe; bad, because her isolated cruelties will be taken
(whether so meant by her or not) as the general condition of Southern
life,--while her Shelbys, and St. Clairs, and Evas, will be looked upon
as angel-visitors, lingering for a moment in that earthly hell. The
impression made by the book is a falsehood.
Sir, why do your Northern church-members and philanthropists buy
Southern products at all? You know you are purchasing cotton, rice,
sugar, sprinkled with blood, literally, you say, from the lash of the
driver! Why do you buy? What's the difference between my filching
this blood-stained cotton from the outraged negro, and your standing by,
taking it from me? What's the difference? You, yourselves, say, in your
abstractions, there is no difference; and yet you daily stain your hands
in this horrid traffic. You hate the traitor, but you love the treason.
Your ladies, too,--oh, how they shun the slave-owner _at a distance_, in
_the abstract_! But alas, when they see him in the _concrete_,--when
they see the slave-owner _himself_, standing before them,--not the
brutal driver, but the splendid gentleman, with his unmistakable grace
of carriage and ease of manners,--why, lo, behold the lady says, "Oh,
fie on your slavery!--what a wretch you are! But, indeed, sir, I love
your sugar,--and truly, truly, sir, wretch as you are, I love you too."
Your gentlemen talk just the same way when they behold our matchless
women. And well for us all it is, that your good taste, and hearts, can
thus appreciate our genius, and accomplishments, and fascinations, and

loveliness, and sugar, and cotton. Why, sir, I heard this morning, from
one pastor only, of two or three of his members thus intermarried in