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JUNE, 1861.   DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.   471
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and every body else never to hold a slave until willing to become slaves themselves, thus laying down general principles of conduct which have every where swept slavery out of existence in proportion as they have been carried out.  Christ did not, in express words, condemn the Roman gladiatorial combats, or Pagan worship, or piratical wars.  Were all these, therefore, innocent?  He did lay down general principles which condemned all these, and left his followers to see that these principles were carried out.

He says that Paul exhorted servants to be obedient to their masters.  This is true, right and fitting; but when he assumes that Paul meant slaves, he sets up his authority as a translator above King James' Commissioners, and all the authority above quoted, again begging the whole question.  He seems to forget that the same Paul said to servants, 'if thou mayest be free, use it rather,' thus exhorting all servants to be obedient while their condition was inevitable, but to gain their freedom the first opportunity.  The same Paul exhorted masters to give unto their servants what was 'just and equal,' and to 'forbear threatening,' even to say nothing of actual whipping, and tells them that in heaven all such distinctions shall be abolished, thus showing that they are wrong on earth.

The only remaining quotation is the case of Onesimus and Philemon.  Turn now to the passage and read it, you will see that

1.  Onesimus is nowhere called a servant, much less a slave.

2.  He is called brother to Philemon, both in the FLESH and in the Lord.

3.  That he owed Philemon, and was probably working out the debt when he ran away, and Paul assumed the debt.  How can a slave owe anything?

4.  That he (Philemon) was to receive him just as he would Paul, who was a free man and an apostle.

Thus showing him to have been a younger brother, under the guardianship of Philemon, at work to pay a debt, probably for his education, who had run away, and Paul sent him back, telling Philemon to forgive him the debt, and receive him as a brother, and not as a servant.  This is absolutely all there is of the case of Onesimus!  Read it carefully and see.  (Philemon, 2d chapter.)  Even if he had been a slave, Paul's letter commanded him to set him free, and 'receive him,' not as a servant, but as a brother beloved.  This letter to Philemon, on the assumption that Onesimus was a slave, was simply an apostolic command to Philemon to make out his free papers immediately,  and no longer treat him as a servant.

There are some general observations in the Bishop's letter to which I must reply very briefly.  He says: 'No blasphemy can be more unpardonable than that which imputes sin, or moral evil, to the eternal Judge who is alone perfect in wisdom, in knowledge, and in love.'

This is true, and I add, that the form of blasphemy which overtowers all others in its enormity, is an attempt to twist God's word so as to prove him the most gigantic slave-trader and man-stealer of the universe, commending a crime at which humanity shudders with horror, and sanctioning the plundering of the weak by the strong, and the plunging of millions of innocent victims into the bloody
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maw of American slavery?  In light of this terrible fact, what could I say to the member of my own congregation, who has just called to return the paper containing this letter of Bishop HOPKINS, when he said to me, 'if I believed the doctrine of that letter to be sanctioned by the Bible, I should be compelled to be an infidel!'  I dare not put this letter in the hands of my boy, without showing up its fallacies, for fear it should make him hate God and the Bible.  God inscribed a hatred of slavery and a love of liberty on the tablet of his young heart, and I dare not subject his mind to the inexpressible shock of being convinced that God is the most terrible oppressor in the universe!

The Bishop tells us that if it were a matter to be determined by 'personal sympathies,' tastes or feelings, he should be as ready as any man to condemn slavery.  Here, then, is a wrong so monstrous that his feelings, tastes and sympathies are all against it; but he strains all his learning, and breaks all common rules of logic, and overdraws many a dim and far-fetched inference to prove that God sanctioned this crime at which He shudders!  Is this reverence for God?  Is it complimentary to the Bible to attempt to prove that it sustains a system so cruel that it outrages our sympathies and strikes our feelings with abhorrence?  Just in proportion as the Bishop succeeds in such an argument, he arrays all kindly sympathies and all humane feelings against the divine inspiration of the Bible.-—When Shakspeare asks—-

  -—'In religion,
  What damned error, but some sober brow
  Will bless it, and approve it with a text?'—-

he reveals a process by which the Bible has been brought into disrepute far more rapidly than by all the assaults of infidels upon its truth.  He who vindicates the Bible against the charge of supporting 'the sum of all villainies,' does not 'trample on the doctrine of the Bible,' but does rescue it from under the feet of slaveholders.

I lack space to reply to the Bishop's general charge of unfaithfulness to their vows and calling, which he makes against all ministers who do not preach up the divine character of American slavery, and so will quote, as the best condensed answer, a New England poet, who exclaims:

'Just God! and these are they
Who minister at their altar, God of Right!
Men who their hands with prayer and blessing
On Israel's ark of light.              [lay

'What! preach and kidnap men?
Give thanks and rob thine own afflicted poor?
Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then
Bolt hard the captive's door.'

The want of space for this letter must be my apology for its plain, blunt style.  The subject is one which calls for a volume, rather than a single letter for a daily paper, and I could but give the skeleton of my argument in a form so condensed as to forbid any other than a cramped style of rhetoric.

ABRAM PRYNE.
Williamson, N.Y., May, 1861.
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--That great and good man, Gerrit Smith, has donated $10,000 to aid in providing for the families of volunteers while in service of their country.  He also recently gave $200 for the benefit of those fugitives who were forced to leave Chicago for fear of being sent back to slavery.

-—There are nearly two hundred runaway slaves in Fort Monroe, held by Gen. Butler.
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RULE SLAVEOWNIA.
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THE NATIONAL HYMN OF THE CONFEDERATED STATES.
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(Music Copyright in America.)

When first the South, to fury fanned,
Arose and broke the Union's chain,
There was the Charter, the Charter of the land,
And Mr. DAVIS sang the strain:
Rule Slaveownia, Slaveownia rules, and raves
'Christians ever, ever, ever have had slaves.'

The Northerns, not so blest as thee,
At ABY LINCOLN'S foot may fall.
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish fierce and free
The whip that makes the Nigger bawl.
Rule Slaveownia, Slaveownia rules, and raves
'Christians ever, ever, ever should have slaves.'

Thou, dully savage, shalt despise
Each freeman's argument, or joke:
Each law that Congress, that Congress tho't so wise,
Serves but to light thy pipes for smoke.
Rule Slaveownia, Slaveownia rules, and raves
'Christians ever, ever, ever must have slaves.'

And Trade, that knows no God but gold,
Shall to thy pirate ports repair:
Blest land, where flesh-—where human flesh is sold,
And manly arms may flog that AIR.
Rule Slaveownia, Slaveownia rules, and raves
'Christians ever, ever, ever shall have slaves.'
                         -[London Punch.
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IMPORTANT TO THOSE WHO PURPOSE EMIGRATING.
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EDGERTON, Williams County, Ohio, }
April 1, 1861.                   }

MR. EDITOR:-—Kansas has her drouths.—-Missouri may secede; but here is a new country in Ohio.

Previous to building the Air Line Railroad, Williams Co., Ohio., has been almost an inaccessible island to the stream of emigration pouring westward.  But this road recently completed from Toledo to Chicago, is working wonders in transforming our population.—-Look at this county five years ago.  But few buildings were to be seen save the rude structures of logs.  Now good houses and barns are taking their places very rapidly.  Then it cost almost the price of grain to transport it to market.  Now eastern men buy our grain at home.  Then our population was largely composed of that class of society who fill up most new countries, and are always ready for a change when they can improve their temporal circumstances.  Some of these are here yet, and waiting for an opportunity to emigrate.  Eastern people are coming in large numbers, but yet there is abundant room.—-Land of good quality near the railroad rates from $10 to $20 per acre.  During the last five years it doubled in price, and will, no doubt, double in price every five years for some time to come.  The soil is excellent for wheat and corn, fifty bushels an acre being the average.  It is well watered for stock; by boring thirty to sixty-three feet we secure fountain wells of excellent water; owing to the great number of these wells in Bryan, our county seat, it is called the 'Fountain City.'  We have good schools, and our church privileges are abundant.  The writer preaches at two points thirteen miles apart, and on his route passes six houses of worship.  In point of health, we think we have the advantage of the older parts of Ohio.

Now, farmers and mechanics, if you are religious men, or good and true men, interested in building up society, come along! for there is room enough, and you will receive a welcome by a generous people.  But if neither good men or religious, we shall hardly need you.

J. M. McLAIN,
Pastor of Congregational Church.
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