THE

Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine.

NO. VI.-For January, 1837.

THE ballot-box is not an abolition argument. Hence the political parties wasted breath last year in charging abolitionism upon each other as a crime; and they will equally waste breath next year in claiming it is a virtue. Abolitionism knows nothing of parties. It attacks all men as men, without inquiring for whom they vote. It opens its batteries upon the mind and conscience of our common nature, and will play away till the man who goes into office, of whatever party, will, on this subject, have as little desire as he has courage to do otherwise than right.

Abolitionists have but one work, it is not to put any body into office or out of it, but to set right those who make officers. It is not an action upon state or church, but upon the materials of both. Success will certainly develope itself both through those who make human laws and those who interpret the divine. But it would seem the natural order that it should show itself first through the latter. The interpreters of divine law are, in fact, the chief sinners. They have given license ad libitum to manstealing, and it cannot be expected that the statutes of a state should be better than its religion.

Hence, abolitionists will enter carefully upon the inquiry whether or not the christian Scriptures countenance the doctrine that human beings are or may be fit subjects for the right of property. Taking it for granted that these Scriptures, as contained in the Bible of the old and new testaments, are a harmonious whole, they either do or they do not countenance that doctrine. If they do, the believers in a certain "self-evident" truth must fall in with the infidels. If they do not, the visible church, to a great extent,

SLAVERY AND THE BIBLICAL REPERTORY, By Rev. Samuel Crothers,.

ABOLITION, A RELIGIOUS ENTERPRISE, BY REV. Henry Cowles,.

THE CONSTITUTION, By N. P. Rogers, Esq....

ON THE USE OF SLAVE PRODUCE, By Charles Stuart,.

CASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: A REVIEW, By the Editor,

THE DIVERSITIES OF MEN, Anonymous,

ILLUSTRATIONS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE,.

OPINIONS AND TESTIMONY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON,.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE,

page.

115

133

145

153

175

190

208

210

213

CASTE.

In connection with what we have said on this subject in reference to our own country, the following extraordinary facts from the New Haven Religious Intelligencer, in reference to caste in India, may be interesting.

DISTINCTION OF CASTE ABOLISHED IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN INDIA.

It may not perhaps be generally known that the strange anomaly, so long and so universally prevalent in Hindostan, termed caste, has been allowed till lately to remain in force among the natives, even after their admission to the Episcopal church. The singular spectacle was thus presented, of a church of Christ, consisting of different classes, each of which deemed it absolute pollution to mingle with the others. How extensively and inveterately their heathen notions were retained, will be best seen from some of the modes in which they were manifested.

At divine service, the different castes sat on separate mats, on different sides of the church, which they entered by different doors. At the Lord's supper, they advanced to the altar at different times, and had different cups, or the chatechists contrived to change them, before the lower castes partook; even the Missionaries were pursuaded to wait till all had partaken. They had separate places of burial in the grave-yard, and in funerals the heathen observances were in many respects observed.

In the domestic circle, the wife was not permitted to sit and eat with her husband, but was treated as his slave, or rather as a part of his goods or chattels; in church also she never sat with him. Marriage between different castes was not allowed, though immoral connections and indecent festivals, were connived at; and a native Christian would marry his daughter to a heathen of his own caste in preference to a Christian of a lower caste. The Christian would put away a Christian wife when she no longer pleased him, and take another-a heathen.The bad effects of going to church in mourning were prevented by resorting to magic, and by the employment of tomtoms and heathenish ceremonies, immediately after leaving the church. Their children had heathen as well as Christian names; and these names were often those of the idols.

As respects their social relations; they regard themselves as beings of a higher race; and the inferior class they looked upon as their born and predestined slaves. They would neither drink from the same well, nor live in the same street, nor eat food from the same vessel: but broke every earthen vessel which a Pari had touched, as defiled. They would not receive the holy water of the Ganges from the hands of a Pari, even to save their lives, since the slighest contact with him rendered them unclean. The native Christians who retained caste, attended the most abominable heathen festivals, paid honors to idols, and had their sick exercised by the Brahmins.

The foundation of these laws of caste was laid in the Shasters, or sacred bocks of the Hindoos. These books decided all points; the courts for the trial of matters connected with caste, were directed by the Shasters; these courts were sometimes held in Christian churches; and, by their decisions, the condemned Christian was excluded from the Lord's Supper.

THE

Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine.

NO. VI.-For January, 1837.

THE ballot-box is not an abolition argument. Hence the political parties wasted breath last year in charging abolitionism upon each other as a crime; and they will equally waste breath next year in claiming it is a virtue. Abolitionism knows nothing of parties. It attacks all men as men, without inquiring for whom they vote. It opens its batteries upon the mind and conscience of our common nature, and will play away till the man who goes into office, of whatever party, will, on this subject, have as little desire as he has courage to do otherwise than right.

Abolitionists have but one work,-it is not to put any body into office or out of it, but to set right those who make officers. It is not an action upon state or church, but upon the materials of both. Success will certainly develope itself both through those who make human laws and those who interpret the divine. But it would seem the natural order that it should show itself first through the latter. The interpreters of divine law are, in fact, the chief sinners. They have given license ad libitum to manstealing, and it cannot be expected that the statutes of a state should be better than its religion.

Hence, abolitionists will enter carefully upon the inquiry whether or not the christian Scriptures countenance the doctrine that human beings are or may be fit subjects for the right of property. Taking it for granted that these Scriptures, as contained in the Bible of the old and new testaments, are a harmonious whole, they either do or they do not countenance that doctrine. If they do, the believers in a certain "self-evident" truth must fall in with the infidels. If they do not, the visible church, to a great extent,

SLAVERY AND THE BIBLICAL REPERTORY, By Rev. Samuel Crothers,..

ABOLITION, A RELIGIOUS ENTERPRISE, BY REV. Henry Cowles,..

THE CONSTITUTION, By N. P. Rogers, Esq...

ON THE USE OF SLAVE PRODUCE, By Charles Stuart,.

CASTE IN THE UNITED STATES: A REVIEW, By the Editor,

THE DIVERSITIES OF MEN, Anonymous,.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE,.

OPINIONS AND TESTIMONY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON,
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE, •

page.

115

133

145

153

175

190

208

210

213

CASTE.

In connection with what we have said on this subject in reference to our own country, the following extraordinary facts from the New Haven Religious Intelligencer, in reference to caste in India, may be interesting.

DISTINCTION OF CASTE ABOLISHED IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN INDIA.

It may not perhaps be generally known that the strange anomaly, so long and so universally prevalent in Hindostan, termed caste, has been allowed till lately to remain in force among the natives, even after their admission to the Episcopal church. The singular spectacle was thus presented, of a church of Christ, consisting of different classes, each of which deemed it absolute pollution to mingle with the others. How extensively and inveterately their heathen notions were retained, will be best seen from some of the modes in which they were manifested.

At divine service, the different castes sat on separate mats, on different sides of the church, which they entered by different doors. At the Lord's supper, they advanced to the altar at different times, and had different cups, or the chatechists contrived to change them, before the lower castes partook; even the Missionaries were pursuaded to wait till all had partaken. They had separate places of burial in the grave yard, and in funerals the heathen observances were in many respects observed.

In the domestic circle, the wife was not permitted to sit and eat with her husband, but was treated as his slave, or rather as a part of his goods or chattels; in church also she never sat with him. Marriage between different castes was not allowed, though immoral connections and indecent festivals, were connived at; and a native Christian would marry his daughter to a heathen of his own caste in preference to a Christian of a lower caste. The Christian would put away a Christian wife when she no longer pleased him, and take another-a heathen.The bad effects of going to church in mourning were prevented by resorting to magic, and by the employment of tomtoms and heathenish ceremonies, immediately after leaving the church. Their children had heathen as well as Christian names; and these names were often those of the idols.

As respects their social relations; they regard themselves as beings of a higher race; and the inferior class they looked upon as their born and predestined slaves. They would neither drink from the same well, nor live in the same street, nor eat food from the same vessel: but broke every earthen vessel which a Pari had touched, as defiled. They would not receive the holy water of the Ganges from the hands of a Pari, even to save their lives, since the slighest contact with him rendered them unclean. The native Christians who retained caste, attended the most abominable heathen festivals, paid honors to idols, and had their sick exercised by the Brahmins.

The foundation of these laws of caste was laid in the Shasters, or sacred bocks of the Hindoos. These books decided all points; the courts for the trial of matters connected with caste, were directed by the Shasters; these courts were sometimes held in Christian churches; and, by their decisions, the condemned Christian was excluded from the Lord's Supper.

THE

Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine.

NO. VI.-For January, 1837.

THE ballot-box is not an abolition argument. Hence the political parties wasted breath last year in charging abolitionism upon each other as a crime; and they will equally waste breath next year in claiming it is a virtue. Abolitionism knows nothing of parties. It attacks all men as men, without inquiring for whom they vote. It opens its batteries upon the mind and conscience of our common nature, and will play away till the man who goes into office, of whatever party, will, on this subject, have as little desire as he has courage to do otherwise than right.

Abolitionists have but one work, it is not to put any body into office or out of it, but to set right those who make officers. It is not an action upon state or church, but upon the materials of both. Success will certainly develope itself both through those who make human laws and those who interpret the divine. But it would seem the natural order that it should show itself first through the latter. The interpreters of divine law are, in fact, the chief sinners. They have given license ad libitum to manstealing, and it cannot be expected that the statutes of a state should be better than its religion.

Hence, abolitionists will enter carefully upon the inquiry whether or not the christian Scriptures countenance the doctrine that human beings are or may be fit subjects for the right of property. Taking it for granted that these Scriptures, as contained in the Bible of the old and new testaments, are a harmonious whole, they either do or they do not countenance that doctrine. If they do, the believers in a certain "self-evident" truth must fall in with the infidels. If they do not, the visible church, to a great extent,