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492      DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.      JULY, 1861
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ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
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The Annual Meeting of the Church Anti-Slavery Society, at the Tremont Temple, Boston, on Tuesday, May 28, opened with prayer from the honored apostle of liberty from Kentucky, Rev. JOHN G. FEE.  A forcible address followed by the President and Report by the Secretary, reviewing in a succinct and truthful manner the complicity and blood-guiltiness of the American Church with slavery the last year.

The Secretary (Rev. HENRY T. CHEEVER) submitted the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

1.  Resolved, That, in view of the grave aspect of our national affairs, and the state of open rebellion against the Federal Government, on the part of ten of the States of our Confederacy, for no other cause than slavery, the chief anxiety felt by us, as a Society of Christian Patriots, has not been--as lately intimated by an eloquent voice from over the sea--for the dissolution of the National body, but for the death of the Nation's soul--not lest there should be a rending of States, and civil war, but lest there should be reconciliation and peace at the expense of a deadly compromise of principle.

2.  Resolved, That we believe the same clear-headed and earnest writer, (Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning,) looking on, from abroad, upon the astonishing events now transpiring in this country that 'nothing can destroy the Republic but what corrupts its conscience; that if the North stand fast on the moral ground, no glory will be like our glory; that our foes may be of our own household, but our friends must be among all just and righteous men, whether in body or out of the body.'  Compassed about, therefore, with so great a cloud of witnesses, we can afford to risk anything except conscience.

3.  Resolved, That we fully concur in the position taken by the late annual meeting of the Society in New York, viz: that the true policy for the National Administration, in its present tremendous struggle with domestic treason and conspiracy, plainly is, inasmuch as the unnatural war into which it is forced is a pro-slavery war on the part of the rebels, to make it an anti-slavery war on the part of the Government, and so to commend itself to the friends of impartial liberty everywhere, to the consciences of the good to the sympathy of universal Christendom, and the favor of Almighty God.

4.  Resolved, That from the conviction which is forced upon us, that God is new exercising judgement with the nation for the long-cherished sin of slaveholding; and from a deep sense of dependence upon God only, for a safe issue in freedom of our country, and to the enslaved portion of it especially, out of the present struggle, we earnestly recommend to the churches, and to all praying people, that they observe a concert of prayer for the enslaved, and for our country, on the third Sabbath evening or third Monday evening of each month of the year.

Rev. Dr. BLANCHARD, President of Wheaton College, Ill., preached from Psalm xciv., 29: Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by a law?  The subject of the discourse was, God is the author of law.

The speaker said, this Society regards slaveholding as a throne of iniquity.  This Society is to oppose slavery till it is destroyed.  This is done by associating the churches of this country in a contest with slavery.--This is necessary, for the press and the pulpit of the South are unanimous in the defence of slavery, and many apologists are found at the North.  Prominent among these is Dr. Rice of New York, who received some attention from the speaker, as a representative of a class of erring Christians.  Dr. Leonard Bacon was also referred to as a representative of another class of mistaken men.  Dr. Bacon would retain the slaveholder in Christian fellowship, which is plainly wrong.

The preacher then explained the system of Hebrew servitude, and claimed that it could not be quoted in defence of the system of iniquity which our country upholds.  The Hebrew bondman was not a slave in the dire significance of the word at the present day.  He gained by circumcision all the rights of the Hebrew citizen.  There was also provision for the extinction of the system, and Dr.
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Barnes rationally supposes that our Savior might not have met a slave in Palestine during all his life.  The speaker argued further that the New Testament churches were not slaveholding churches.

The sermon was followed by the reading of a letter from Rev. WM. GOODELL, of the [[italics]] Principia, [[/italics]] New York, who recommended that 'the Church of the Puritans, and its absent pastor, Rev. Dr. Cheever, receive at this time the warm sympathies and prayers of the Church Anti-Slavery Society.  Not that any new or strange thing has happened to them, more than to scores, if not hundreds of others, within the last twenty-five years.  But that this, the latest instance, and considering the circumstances, and the central position of the persecuted, one of the most remarkable and most audacious, deserves, at this time, particular attention, and should be remembered, and have a place in the history of these wonderful times.'

The letter was submitted to a committee consisting of Rev. Dr. BLANCHARD, Hon. I. WASHBURN, and Rev. GEORGE TRASK, with instructions to report at the business meeting in the afternoon, what action, if any, should be taken by the Society upon it.  Said Committee, in the afternoon session, at the Meionaon, reported as follows:

EX-PARTE COUNCIL ON THE CHURCH OF THE PURITANS.

Whereas, an Ex-Parte Council of Congregational Churches met by pastors and delegates on May 21, 1891, and after hearing certain disaffected and suspended members of the Church of the Puritans, came to a 'result,' in which they recommend that the fellowship of the Congregational Churches in this country be withdrawn from said Church; and,
 
Whereas, the present difficulties in the Church of the Puritans have followed, and, in our judgement, FLOWED from the testimony of the pastor of said Church against the Slave Power in this country; and,

Whereas, said Council have submitted their result' to the world at large, through the secular papers, and to the household of faith in particular, through the religious papers--

We, therefore, as a Church Anti-Slavery Society, and constituting, in a qualified sense, a Standing Council of the Churches with reference to Slavery, submit to the Churches the following as some of our objections to said Ex-Parte Council and its 'result:'

I.  We object that it was called in the absence of the Pastor, the natural defender and representative of the Church, whose return from Europe was confidently expected within some eight weeks from the time when the Council was held.

II.  We object that said Council should attempt, so far as within them lay, to excommunicate a Church of Jesus Christ from the fellowship of His saints, for no alleged heresy or apostacy, but on the sole ground of alleged irregular and violent action, which action was taken when the Church was in trouble.  The Pastor was in Europe.  The Church naturally declined the jurisdiction of a Council which they had no hand in calling, and after they had previously denied the request for a Mutual Council by a vote of 7 to 12, as not needing its advice in their affairs.

No Committee from the Church appeared before the Council, nor was any one heard on the part of the majority; and neither the Records of the Church nor copies from the Records were produced before the Council.  Yet does this Council try and condemn, and, so far as it can, would annihilate that Church under such circumstances.

III.  We, therefore, for these and other reasons, which in our brief report there is not room to set forth, do recommend to all Congregational Pastors and Churches totally to disregard the advice of said Council--still to regard the Church of the Puritans as a sister Church in affliction, and to regard the action of said Council as erroneous, dangerous, and unscriptural.

This Report, after full and free discussion, was unanimously adopted, together with the following resolution, submitted by LEWIS TAPPAN of New York:

Resolved, That we highly approve of the manly and Christian efforts made by the Rev. Dr. Cheever during his present sojourn in Great Britain, in advocating there the cause of the Christian Anti-Slavery movement in this country, and urging upon the British public the
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duty and wisdom of not recognizing the Southern Confederacy; and we rejoice that God has raised up and sustained that eminent and beloved brother in vindicating the cause of righteousness, both in his own country and in other nations.

The officers of the Society were re elected, together with a long list of honorary Vice Presidents.

A resolution was afterward adopted, pursuant to a suggestion from WILLIAM GOODELL, which elicited a warm discussion:

Resolved, That it be recommended to the Ministry and Churches to circulate and sign a memorial to the President of the United States that, as the Chief Magistrate of the Nation--'the minister of God for good, not bearing the sword in vain'--and having the undoubted constitutional right, by the war power with which he is intrusted, to 'proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all inhabitants thereof'--that he call, by proclamation, upon all the inhabitants of the United States, of all conditions, bond and free, to aid in supporting the Government, assuring them of its impartial protection under the common flag of our National Union and Freedom.

A Petition was forthwith drawn up, and signed by upwards of twenty-five representative clergymen of different denominations, from all parts of the country.
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After a recess, the session opened with prayer by the Rev. J. S. GREEN of the Sandwich Islands.

Rev. SAMUEL HUNT of Franklin, Mass., introduced a resolution to the effect that the Executive Committee be instructed to prepare an appeal to the Christian public, urging them to use every legitimate means to prevent any peace with the South, which does not involve the removal of slavery, the guilty cause of all our troubles.

Rev. H. T. CHEEVER, I. T. HUTCHINS of Danielsville, Ct., Rev. C. B. SMITH of Gloucester, and Rev. ELNATHAN DAVIS of Fitchburg, supported the resolution.

Mr. CHEEVER, the Secretary, said that it was their duty to give a correct tone to the public mind, so that the war would not be permitted to end while there is a shackle upon a single slave.  He believed the politicians at Washington desired to be pushed to an advanced stand on this subject.  Some of them have been hard to say, 'Only tell us what to do, and we will do it.  Let the people who give us the money and the men, demand that we abolish slavery, and we will do it.  Let the Northern ministers make and declare public sentiment, and we at Washington will execute that sentiment, even to the wiping out of slavery by this war.  But we will do it so that nobody shall have a right to complain.' 

Mr. HUTCHINS said, though he had belonged to the Peace Society, its meetings had now become war meetings, and he had found himself praying that the sword not be sheathed while there is a slave in the land.

Rev. Mr. SMITH, of Gloucester, said that the people were hurrahing for the Union, but they cared little for the slaves.  He was never so disheartened as now, in consequence of the hostility of the press and the pulpit to genuine abolitionism.  If the slaves are freed in the present war, it will be in spite of the present intent of the Government and the Churches.

Rev. E. DAVIS, of Fitchburg, on the other hand, saw much of encouragement in the present aspect of the country.  If the South-side pulpit had yielded to the public pressure, and to the requisitions of a visiting committee, and had pronounced strongly for the war, so the South-side pulpit would yet yield to the pressure of the people, and when pushed would pronounce as strongly for abolitionism, and we should yet see the miracle made good of South-side Adams and the Senior Pastor of the Old South marching shoulder to shoulder with Wm. Lloyd Garrison.

LEWIS TAPPAN said that there was a constant progress in the anti-slavery cause.  This cause stands better today than ever before.  The speaker was afraid there would be peace before the war had done its work.  The insults which the South heap upon the North
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