V

of his sorrow, and the poor fellow answered that he was thinking of his parents, and brothers and sisters, whom he should never see again. In an instant, the whole truth flashed upon the master's mind, and he saw the evil he had done. He could not return the boy to Africa, but he made every reparation in his power. He provided for him every means of improvement, was the means of his conversion, and treated him ever afterwards not as a servant, but as a brother beloved. Newport, for that was his name, survived Dr. Stiles several years, and was, to the end of his life, supported by a legacy which his former master had left him.

Such cases as these may exist now in the Southern states. On the other hand, it is no violation of charity to suppose that there are others who, utterly regardless of justice, knowing what they do to be wrong, and intentionally steeled against every monition of conscience, deliberately sacrifice every right of their slaves to their own pecuniary advantage, or the gratification of their love of power; who decide the question in how many years they shall work their fellow-men to death, by a calculation of profit and loss, and who exult in the power of subjecting to their uncontrolled will—a will avaricious, lustful, tyrannical and cruel -as many human beings as by purchase they can appropriate to themselves.

Let us now take these two extremes. These men are both slaveholders. They both do a wrong act in holding a fellow-man in bondage. But would any one confound the moral character of the one with that of the other? The one may be a brother beloved, desirous from his heart of doing

the will of God, so far as it shall be revealed to him. The other is a monster in iniquity-since the slave-trade exists I will not say without a parallel-but surely without many superiors in wickedness. And who does not see that the interval between these extremes may be filled up with every gradation of guiltiness?

And hence it is that I perceive, in reflecting on this subject, wide ground for the exercise of Christian charity. With a deep conviction of the universal wrong of the act, I have very dissimilar views of the guilt of the actors. Some of them, with pain, I believe to be unjust, tyrannical, and cruel in the face of knowledge, acting in utter disregard of the dearest rights of their fellow-men. Others, I rejoice to believe, uphold this institution, in the belief that it is innocent, and exercise the power which they suppose themselves rightfully to possess with exemplary kindness, with paternal tenderness, and with a religious care for the souls that are, as they believe, committed to their charge. I cannot include these two classes in the same sweeping sentence of condemnation. In the one, though I see and lament their errors, I perceive the lineaments of the Christian character, in many cases strongly and beautifully expressed. Such men, while I testify against what seem to me their errors, I must receive as brethren, and I delight to co-operate with them in every good work, provided I so do it as not to imply any participation with what I believe to be wrong. Towards the others, I entertain the same sentiments which I entertain towards any other wicked and injurious

men.

I believe them to be not only doing wrong,

but to be also exceedingly guilty-excluded by their guilt from all hope of salvation, unless they repent of this sin.

Hence I can never approve of those appeals which treat all men at the South as though they were, in respect to slavery, under the same condemnation; and which apply to all indiscriminately epithets which certainly belong to no more than a part. Hence I consider much of the action of churches and associations at the North, to be false in principle and unchristian in practice. It affirms

guilt of the action, instead of affirming it of the mind of the actor; hence it makes the act, at all times and under all circumstances, of the same guiltiness; and it uniformly attaches to an action the worst motives, instead of ascribing to it as good motives as the circumstances attending upon it will allow.

I should also add, that the degree of guilt attendant upon a wrong action, must be continually changing with the progress of light and knowledge. Every one sees that Dr. Stiles, in the case above alluded to, could not, at the present time, send a barrel of rum to Africa in exchange for a human being, without being a very wicked man. Sixty or seventy years since he did it, and he was a very good man. It is much more difficult for a man at the present time to hold his fellow-men in bondage, and be guiltless, through ignorance, than it was twenty years since. The whole civilized world has been agitated upon this question. Great Britain, from a conviction of moral obligation, has liberated her slaves at an expenditure of a hundred millions of dollars. The subject is producing

fearful excitement throughout our whole country, and threatens us with evils which I dare scarcely contemplate, and to which, in your letter, you have so eloquently alluded. Under these circumstances, it surely becomes every man who holds men in bondage, to inquire whether he can be innocent in the sight of "the Judge of the whole earth." If Jefferson "trembled for his country when he remembered that God is just," and declared that "in case of insurrection the Almighty has no attribute that can take part with us in such a contest," surely it becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ to pause and reflect. And besides, although this subject has been pressed offensively, and has naturally produced irritation, it should be borne in mind that anger in the bosom of a wise man is always shortlived. It is time for us to abstract the truth from the circumstances that surround it, and endeavor to ascertain our duty, each one for himself.

actor.

I will refer to one other condition, by which the personal guilt of holding men in bondage may be modified; it is the law of the community in which we live. I have already shown that such laws can never affect the right or wrong of an action. They may, however, affect the guilt or innocence of the For instance, the law of the state may forbid me to manumit a slave without giving to the public, securities for his maintenance through life, and I may be unable to give such securities. It may forbid me to manumit my slaves without removing them out of the State, and they may themselves be unwilling to be removed, and may be unable, young and old together, to support themselves by labor in another climate. Or, the laws

may be of such a nature that I can only manumit them under circumstances which would render their return to relentless bondage almost inevitable. I do not pretend to specify all the cases that may arise of this nature. In such circumstances as these, I can easily conceive of a course of action which might be innocent, even though the relation of master and slave existed. The master might become convinced of the wrong of slavery, and feel that he had no right over these human beings. The law, however, will not allow him to liberate them on any conditions with which it is in his power to comply. What then can he do? I answer, he may, from the moment that he is thus convinced, hold them not for his benefit but for theirs. If they, in their present condition, are unable to support themselves in other States, he may change that condition by teaching them habits of self-reliance and profitable industry. He may

cultivate their intellects and improve their morals; and having done this, he may emancipate them just as rapidly as divine Providence shall present the opportunity. He who acts thus, or in any other way, in the fear of God, acts upon the principle that he holds this relation for the good of the slave, honestly and earnestly laboring, at any personal sacrifice, to terminate it as soon as he is able, seems to me innocent of the guilt of slavery.

Now I doubt not that there are many just such men among our brethren at the South. I have known Christian slaveholders who have devoted themselves through life to the welfare, temporal and spiritual, of their slaves, with the spirit of the most self-denying missionaries; and who, I confidently