Slavery Ordained of God Part 1

Slavery Ordained of G.o.d.

by Rev. Fred. A. Ross, D.D.

Preface.

The book I give to the public, is not made up of isolated articles. It is one harmonious demonstration--that slavery is part of the government ordained in certain conditions of fallen mankind. I present the subject in the form of speeches, actually delivered, and letters written just as published. I adopt this method to make a readable book.

I give it to the North and South--to maintain harmony among Christians, and to secure the integrity of the union of this great people.

This harmony and union can be preserved only by the view presented in this volume,--_i.e._ that _slavery is of G.o.d_, and to continue for the good of the slave, the good of the master, the good of the whole American family, until another and better destiny may be unfolded.

The _one great idea_, which I submit to North and South, is expressed in the speech, first in order, delivered in the General a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, May 27, 1853. I therein say:--

"Let us then, North and South, bring our minds to comprehend _two ideas_, and submit to their irresistible power. Let the Northern philanthropist learn from the Bible that the relation of master and slave is not sin _per se_. Let him learn that G.o.d says nowhere it is sin. Let him learn that sin is the transgression of the law; and where there is no law there is no sin, and that _the Golden Rule_ may exist in the relations of slavery. Let him learn that slavery is simply an evil _in certain circ.u.mstances_. Let him learn that _equality_ is only the highest form of social life; that _subjection_ to authority, even _slavery_, may, in _given conditions_, be _for a time_ better than freedom to the slave of any complexion. Let him learn that _slavery_, like _all evils_, has its _corresponding_ and _greater good_; that the Southern slave, though degraded _compared with his master, is elevated and enn.o.bled compared with his brethren in Africa_. Let the Northern man learn these things, and be wise to cultivate the spirit that will harmonize with his brethren of the South, who are lovers of liberty as truly as himself: And let the Southern Christian--nay, the Southern man of every grade--comprehend that _G.o.d never intended the relation of master and slave to be perpetual_.

Let him give up the theory of Voltaire, that the negro is of a different species. Let him yield the semi-infidelity of Aga.s.siz, that G.o.d created different races of the same species--in swarms, like bees--for Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and the islands of the sea. Let him believe that slavery, although not a sin, is a degraded condition,--the evil, the curse on the South,--yet having blessings in its time to the South and to the Union. Let him know that slavery is to pa.s.s away in the fulness of Providence. Let the South believe this, and prepare to obey the hand that moves their destiny."

All which comes after, in the speech delivered in New York, 1856, and in the letters, is just the expansion of this one controlling thought, which must be understood, believed, and acted out North and South.

The Author.

Written in Cleveland, Ohio, May 28, 1857.

Speech Delivered at Buffalo, Before the General a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly, 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 a.s.sembly 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 subst.i.tuting 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 a.s.sembly,--

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 to give dollar for dollar in equalizing the loss of the South by emanc.i.p.ation.

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 ca.n.a.ls.

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 a.s.sembly, 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 a.s.sembly 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 pa.s.s away in the developments of Providence, are grieved when we read your graphic, shuddering pictures of the "middle pa.s.sage,"--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 circ.u.mstances 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 h.e.l.l. 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 the South. May I thus give the mildest rebuke to your inconsistency of conduct? (Much good-natured excitement.)

Sir, may we know who are the descendants of the New England kidnappers?

What is their wealth? Why, here you are, all around me. You, gentlemen, made the best of that bargain. And you have kept every dollar of your money from the charity of emanc.i.p.ating the slave. You have left us, unaided, to give millions. Will you now come to our help? Will you give dollar for dollar to equalize our loss? [Here many voices cried out, "Yes, yes, we will."]

Yes, yes? Then pour out your millions. Good. I may thank you personally.

My own emanc.i.p.ated slaves would to-day be worth greatly more than $20,000. Will you give me back $10,000? Good. I need it now.

I recommend to you, sirs, to find out your advocates of _murder_,--your owners of stock in under-ground railroads,--your Sabbath-breakers for money. I particularly urge you to find Legree, who whipped Uncle Tom to death. He is a Northern _gentleman_, although having a somewhat Southern name. Now, sir, you know the a.s.sembly was embarra.s.sed all yesterday by the inquiry how the Northern churches may find their absent members, and what to do with them. Here then, sir, is a chance for you. Send a committee up Red River. You may find Legree to be a Garrison, Phillips, Smith, or runaway husband from some Abby Kelly. [Here Rev. Mr. Smith protested against Legree being proved to be a Smith. Great laughter.

[Footnote: This gentleman was soon after made a D.D., and I think in part for that witticism.]] I move that you bring him back to lecture on the _cuteness_ there is in leaving a Northern church, going South, changing his name, buying slaves, and calculating, without _guessing_, what the profit is of killing a negro with inhuman labor above the gain of treating him with kindness.

I have little to say of spirit-rappers, women's-rights conventionists, Bloomers, cruel husbands, or hen-pecked. But, if we may believe your own serious as well as caricature writers, you have things up here of which we down South know very little indeed. Sir, we have no young Bloomers, with hat to one side, cigar in mouth, and cane tapping the boot, striding up to a mincing young gentleman with long curls, attenuated waist, and soft velvet face,--the boy-lady to say, "May I see you home, sir?" and the lady-boy to reply, "I thank ye--no; pa will send the carriage." Sir, we of the South don't understand your women's-rights conventions. Women have their wrongs. "The Song of the Shirt,"--Charlotte Elizabeth,--many, many laws,--tell her wrongs. But your convention ladies despise the Bible. Yes, sir; and we of the South are afraid _of them_, and _for you_. When women despise the Bible, what next? _Paris,--then the City of the Great Salt Lake,--then Sodom, before_ and _after the Dead Sea_. Oh, sir, if slavery tends in any way to give the _honour of chivalry_ to Southern young gentlemen towards ladies, and the exquisite delicacy and heavenly integrity and love to Southern maid and matron, it has then a glorious blessing with its curse.

Sir, your inquisitorial committee, and the North so far as represented by them, (a small fraction, I know,) have, I take it, caught a Tartar this time. Boys say with us, and everywhere, I _reckon_, "You worry my dog, and I'll worry your cat." Sir, it is just simply a _fixed fact: the South will not submit to these questions_. No, not for an instant. We will not permit you to approach us at all. If we are morbidly sensitive, you have made us so. But you are directly and grossly violating the Const.i.tution of the Presbyterian Church. The book forbids you to put such questions; the book forbids _you to begin discipline_; the book forbids your sending this committee to help common fame bear testimony against us; the book guards the honour of our humblest member, minister, church, presbytery, against all this impertinently-inquisitorial action. Have you a _prosecutor_, with his definite charge and witnesses? Have you _Common Fame_, with her specified charges and witnesses? Have you a request from the South that you send a committee to inquire into slanders? No. Then hands off. As gentlemen you may ask us these questions,--we will answer you. But, ecclesiastically, you cannot speak in this matter. You have no power to move as you propose.

I beg leave to say, just here, that Tennessee [Footnote: At that time I resided in Tennessee.] will be more calm under this movement than any other slave-region. Tennessee has been ever high above the storm, North and South,--especially we of the mountains. Tennessee!--"there she is,--look at her,"--binding this Union together like a great, long, broad, deep stone,--more splendid than all in the temple of Baalbec or Solomon. Tennessee!--there she is, in her calm valour. I will not lower her by calling her unconquerable, for she has never been a.s.sailed; but I call her ever-victorious. King's Mountain,--her pioneer battles:--Talladega, Emucfau, Horse-shoe, New Orleans, San Jacinto, Monterey, the Valley of Mexico. Jackson represented her well in his chivalry from South Carolina,--his fiery courage from Virginia and Kentucky,--all tempered by Scotch-Irish Presbyterian prudence from Tennessee. We, in his spirit, have looked on this storm for years untroubled. Yes, Jackson's old bones rattled in their grave when that infamous disunion convention met in Nashville, and its members turned pale and fled aghast. Yes, Tennessee, in her mighty million, feels secure; and, in her perfect preparation to discuss this question, politically, ecclesiastically, morally, metaphysically, or physically, with the extreme North or South, she is willing and able _to persuade others to be calm_. In this connection, I wish to say, for the South to the North, and to the world, that we have no fears from our slave-population. There might be a momentary insurrection and bloodshed; but destruction to the black man would be inevitable. The Greeks and Romans controlled immense ma.s.ses of white slaves,--many of them as intelligent as their lords. Schoolmasters, fabulists, and poets were slaves. Athens, with her thirty thousand freemen, governed half a million of bondmen. Single Roman patricians owned thirty thousand. If, then, the phalanx and the legion mastered such slaves for ages, when battle was physical force of man to man, how certain it is that infantry, cavalry, and artillery could hold in bondage millions of Africans for a thousand years!

But, dear brethren, our Southern philanthropists do not seek to have this unending bondage; Oh, no, no. And I earnestly entreat you to "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." a.s.sume a masterly inactivity, and you will behold all you desire and pray for,--you will see _America liberated from the curse of slavery_.

The great question of the world is, WHAT IS TO BE THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN SLAVE?--WHAT IS TO BE THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN MASTER? The following _extract from the "Charleston Mercury"_ gives my view of the subject with great and condensed particularity:--

"Married, Thursday, 26th inst., the Hon. Cushing Kew.a.n.g, Secretary of State of the United States, to Laura, daughter of Paul Coligny, Vice-President of the United States, and one of our n.o.blest Huguenot families. We learn that this distinguished gentleman, with his bride, will visit his father, the Emperor of China, at his summer palace, in Tartary, north of Pekin, and return to the Vice-President's Tea Pavilion, on Cooper River, ere the meeting of Congress." The editor of the "Mercury" goes on to say: "This marriage in high life is only one of many which have signalized that immense emigration from Christianized China during the last seventy-five years, whereby Charleston has a population of 1,250,000, and the State of South Carolina over 5,000,000,--an emigration which has wonderfully harmonized with the great exodus of the negro race to Africa." [Some gentleman here requested to know of Dr. Ross the date of the "Charleston Mercury" recording this marriage. The doctor replied, "The date is 27th May, 1953, exactly one hundred years from this day." Great laughter.]