those who at first suffer themselves to be dazzled by the cadence of periods, and the outbreaks of voice, at length grow weary, and are less pleased with the artificial preacher, than with him whose very tones make them feel that he thinks all that he says. And what shall I say of the real and useful effect produced by these two preachers? How much more directly, nay, exclusively, will the latter find his way to the heart and conscience! How will his vehement parts be relieved by the calm and simple tone of his habitual manner! How much more truly will he be what he ought, in the sight both of God and of man, by continuing to be himself, and not stepping aside from truth in announcing truth! Yes, Gentlemen, if you would have a pulpit delivery which shall be dignified and Christian, and which shall make great impression, speak always with simplicity. Say things as you feel them. Put no more warmth into your manner than you have in your heart. This honesty in speaking, - allow me the expression, will constrain you to introduce a more sincere, and a profounder warmth, which you would never have attained in any other way. It will, besides, have a salutary reaction on your writing, and even on your soul. For, displaying things as they are, it will bring your faults to light, and admonish you to correct them. I have spoken of the pulpit. If it had been proper here to speak of the stage, many similar observations might be made. Great actors no longer declaim; they speak. Talma, whom I have so often named, began by declaiming, as do others. An interesting circumstance made him feel the necessity of adopting a new manner, more conformed to nature; and from that day he became another man, in regard to his art, and produced extraordinary effects. Those who have heard him will tell you that the extreme simplicity of his playing astonished them at first, and that they were tempted to take him for a very ordinary man, whose only advantage over others consisted in a magnificent voice but they were soon subdued by the power of nature, and the vivid impressions by which they were seized made them understand, that the very simplicity of his acting constituted its force as well as its originality."- pp. 206-208.

The other articles are the State of the Country, Psychology, Alison's Europe, Presbyterian Board of Education.

The Christian Review (Baptist) for March offers nine articles with notices of books, viz. The Life and Times of Baxter, Emmons's Works, Translation from Neander on the Life of the Early Christians, Immorality of Thought, Alison's Europe, Anglo-Saxon History and Literature, Historical Sketch of Chiliasm, Perkins's residence in Persia.

The Pathfinder, a weekly New York Journal, edited by Parke Godwin, Esq. It is formed on the model of the London Examiner, and Spectator, as to its outward form, and interior arrangement. In politics, it represents the extreme left of Democracy. Whether one likes all its doctrine, or not, he cannot fail to be struck with the talent shown in its articles, and in the general management of the paper.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

JULY, 1843.

S. P. Pealcov,

POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE NORTH WITH
REGARD TO SLAVERY.

It has been common, both at the South and the North, to deny not only the duty, but the right of Northern men to discuss the subject of slavery. The attempt has been made to draw around the Africans in bondage a line of circumvallation, which philanthropy, sympathy, nay, not even calm, dispassionate investigation can cross with impunity. This line, however, we cannot hold sacred. For the Africans are within the pale of human brotherhood, which Christianity has marked for us; and the fact, that they are part and parcel of our own body politic, certainly cannot render them less our brethren. Nor, on the other hand, can the fact, that they belong to States which wield some of the attributes of independent sovereignty, rightfully exclude them from our sympathy, unless we have been wrong in sympathizing with the Greeks and Poles, and with the Asiatic tributaries of Great Britain, with whose oppressors we surely have as little political connection as with the Southern States of our own Confederacy. Is it said that the Constitution and laws of the Union preclude our action in the premises, and therefore should suppress our sympathy, or at least the free utterance of it? We deny that the Constitution or fundamental laws of the Union put this subject beyond the reach of our political action; and, if they did, and it should still appear that God had placed us under religious obligations to the enslaved, we cannot for a moment admit that human compacts VOL. XXXIV. -3D S. VOL. XVI. NO. III.

34

or enactments are valid against the divine law. Is it peremptorily asserted, that we at the North have no responsibilities or duties with reference to slavery? We still will contend for the right of trying this question ourselves, inasmuch as the question of responsibility or of duty can never be answered by others in our stead. We say not at the outset that it is our right or duty to act upon this subject; but merely maintain the right, nay, the duty of inquiry, of determining, by the free exercise of our own judgment, whether and how far we at the North are accountable for the wrongs and evils of slavery, whether and how far Providence has entrusted to us the power, and given to us the means of decisive influence and action in the cause of emancipation. To put and answer these inquiries is the object of the present article.

We will first define the position of the people of the North with reference to slavery, and our position will determine our duties.

In the first place, we stand in undoubted relations of brotherhood to the entire slave population; and, however much or little we may be able to do for them, they are legitimate subjects of our interest, sympathy, and intercession; nor can it be questioned that we should hold ourselves in readiness to perform in their behalf any brotherly office, which implies no trespass upon the rights or well-being of others.

In the next place, we have with us at the North not a few of the African race, with whom we have immediate social relations, and our treatment of whom will be determined mainly by our feelings towards their race as a whole. These negroes are among us, as the outcast Parias are in Hindoostan. They are generally excluded from our common schools, and in some places are left without any provision for their education. From some churches they are shut out, and in others seated in a solitary loft above the organ, forbidden so much as to stand on the same floor with their white brethren in the house of Him, who hath made of one blood all nations of men," nay, not permitted to kneel at the sacramental altar, till the last white communicant has retired to his seat. There are very many, who seem to look upon the whole race with loathing and detestation. Now if there be anything wrong in this state of things, compassion for and sympathy with the slave are more likely than aught else to set it right. But, if the great body of the African race in our country be viewed with a resolute

hardness of heart, the few, with whom we come occasionally in contact, will be sure to suffer neglect and contumely from

us.

Yet again, there are at the North many ardent, devoted friends of the slave, to whom, unless they have forfeited them by misconduct, we owe all the duties of good neighborhood, friendship, and Christian fellowship; and our views of the subject of slavery must determine, whether we shall treat them as deluded, erring, and guilty men, or whether we shall regard them as endowed with the true spirit of charity and philanthropy. They are, many of them, persons of the most exemplary lives in every other point of view, - persons, of whom it is often said, that their anti-slavery principles are their only fault. Is this to be regarded as a heinous fault, worthy of vehement reproof, censure, denunciation, excommunication; or as in itself amiable and commendable? If we are right in considering slavery as a forbidden subject, and the slave as shut out by the will and law of God from our sympathy, prayers, and efforts, then is the anti-slavery man, as such, a disorganizer, a man full of treason, a dangerous member of society, to be treated with suspicion and distrust. But if, on the other hand, we have duties incumbent on us with reference to slavery, then he, who has the courage to meet these duties with a bold front, is worthy of high esteem and honor, so far as he preserves the meek and gentle spirit of his Master. To be sure, if he be a fanatic, his fanaticism on this, as on any other subject, is proof of a weak head. If he be denunciatory, his bitterness of spirit on this, as on any other subject, betrays a bad temper. But, simply as an anti-slavery man, he is to be regarded with the same esteem, with which we regard any other consistent and devoted laborer in any philanthropic work. But, we repeat it, our duties towards this portion of our fellow-citizens depend upon our views of the evil and the remedy of slavery.

Then again, there is a great deal of emigration from the Northern to the Southern States, and a heavy responsibility * rests on us as to the tone of feeling and principle, with which

* We know not how to write on a moral subject without using this same word responsibility, which, we are as well aware, as any hypercritical reader can be, is not a legitimate English word. Why not take from the word its bar sinister, and affiliate it at once? The idea which it represents had slumbered in Christendom for fifteen centuries or more; its resuscitation in these latter days is well worth the coining of a name.

those shall be imbued, who go from our midst to communities, where their immediate influence must be given either for or against this form of oppression. New England men, wherever they go, occupy prominent places, and exert a commanding influence. They are more apt to give than to receive law, to control the current of opinion than to yield to it. In some of the Southern towns and cities, the chief men in every department of business and enterprise are natives of New England. At present, these adopted citizens of the South are, for the most part, among the strongest and least tolerant advocates of slavery. The Editor of the Southern Review, a work established chiefly for the maintenance of distinctively Southern principles, is a Northern man. Many of our readers have seen the recent correspondence of a Church in Savannah with the American Unitarian Association, in connection with their sending home unheard a clergyman, who had been selected for them on the express ground of his standing uncommitted with reference to Northern abolitionism. From their unwillingness to listen for a single Sabbath, or to give the slightest countenance to one, who could be suspected of hostility to Southern institutions, it might be inferred that this parish was composed of people, in whose veins pure Southern blood had flowed for many generations. But, in point of fact, this parish is composed almost entirely of Northern men. A clergyman, who recently officiated there, can recall the names of but three natives of the South among the male parishioners. Of the three members of the Committee of correspondence with the Unitarian Association, two are Northern men by birth; and still another member of the parish, who bore a prominent part in the transactions relating to Rev. Mr. Motte, and indeed is an acknowledged leader in all ecclesiastical matters, is a Northern man, and holds an auction every Thursday for the sale of human flesh. These facts we have specified as illustrating the state of principle and feeling which prevails, with hardly an exception, among Northern men, who have become citizens of the South. Now there must be something grossly wrong in the state of public feeling at the North, while such men and few others are sent Southward. There must be bitterness at the fountain, whence such streams flow. And we have no doubt that, if the New England people, who are now at the South, had carried with them what ought to be New England principles, and simply lived them out by tacitly declining all connection with slavery and all action in its