A meeting of a peculiarly solemn and interesting character
was held on Thursday evening, April 2, in the Hall, corner of Broomfield and
Tremont streets, in Boston. It was composed exclusively of members of various
Christian churches, and convened for the purpose of considering the propriety
of forming a Union among professing Christians, with a view to the action of
churches as such upon the question of slavery.
The Hall was crowded to overflowing. Among those resent, we
noticed the Rev. Messrs. Hague, Stow, Wells, Himes, Thrasher, S. J. May, Amasa
Walker, Esq. S. E. Sewall, Esq. and Mr. Geo. Thompson. At a quarter before
eight, the meeting was called to order by deacon Sullivan; and the Rev. Baron
Stow was unanimously elected Moderator; Mr. Hayward was appointed Clerk of the
meeting. After a few introductory remarks, the moderator called upon Mr. George
Thompson to open the meeting with prayer.
After remarks from the Rev. Messrs. Himes, Thrasher and
Wells, Mr. THOMPSON observed, that when it was his privilege to meet with
christian minded men, who were devotedly attached to the work of abolition, he
felt, even when their number was comparatively insignificant, that his
heart was more elated, and his hopes of a speedy, peaceful, and righteous
triumph were higher and brighter, than when he stood in the midst of thousands
whose minds were not moved and sustained by the principles derived from a
recognition of God, and a zeal for His glory. He regarded, with feelings of
indescribable delight, the assembly before him. It showed the deep and hallowed
interest which the cause of abolition had excited. The question was, — Ought
the members of christian churches to organize a union upon the subject of
Slavery His reply to that question was, —Yes! The union is desirable. It
is proper — it is important — it is indispensable — it is
is overwhelmingly imperative. The inquiry had been started, what has the
church to do with slavery The answer was — Every thing. The honor, the
purity, the usefulness, the glory, nay, the very existence
of the church was concerned. The churches at the south had to do with
slavery. Slavery was upheld by the churches. Essentially wicked, it had no
self-sustaining energy. Were the sanction and participation of otherwise good
men withdrawn, it would be condemned and annihilated with the common consent of
mankind. The Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and some
other minor denominations of Christians were at the present time the pillars of
the hateful fabric. Hundreds of ministers were slaveholders. Thousands of
professing christians were slaveholders. The minister of Christ was paid out of
the hire of the laborer, kept back by fraud. Church property frequently
consisted of slaves. There were many human beings, who, when asked by whom they
were owned, replied — By the congregation? The followers of Christ
buying, branding, bartering, toiling, and debasing God's image, and God's poor
daily robbed to support the ordinances of a just and equal God, who hath made
of one blood all nations of men In view of these things would it be said, the
churches had nothing to do with slavery ? Had northern Christians no regard for
the honor of their religion—the purity of the body to which they belonged? Must
every sin be boldly denounced but the sin of slaveholding ? Must the
harlot, the swindler, the gamester, the Sabbath-breaker, the drunkard, be
thrust out of the church, and the slaveholder kept in, and soothed, and
excused, and long and labored apologies framed for him and the abomination with
which he stood connected? Was such a course a just or impartial one? If a man
was known to sit down and spend an occasional hour in shuffling and exchanging
pieces of painted paper, he became the subject of church discipline, and if he
persisted, was ejected from the visible church of Christ. But thousands of
slaveholders were permitted to gamble with immortal souls — speculate in human
blood redeemed beings — and were all the time recognized as worthy members of
the church of Christ, and were comforted, first by the direct countenance,
co-partnership and participation of their own ministers, and next, by the
silence and fellowship of northern professors of the same denomination. The
southern churches were thoroughly corrupt, and would remain so as long as the
churches of the north refrained from bearing a testimony for God against their
crimes. One fact would show the state of feeling amongst Christians at the
south. The editor of a religious newspaper, the Charleston Southern Baptist, had
recently stated in behalf of his brethren around him, the following views: “We do
not contemplate Slavery with hatred and horror, and our southern people do
deny in the abstract, the injustice of slavery. We think that we can
prove that slavery is not necessarily founded on injustice!” Mr. Thompson
proceeded to support the motion for an organization, at considerable length,
and advanced a variety of arguments and illustrations, which, as we cannot
correctly report, we must pass over. He concluded by saying — My hope is in the
churches. I earnestly desire that the abolition feeling of the North may flow
onwards towards the South, through the sanctifying channels of the Christian
churches. There are millions in this and every land, whose help I should deplore,
unless checked and controlled by the wisdom and authority of those who fear
God. The humble, prayerful and believing follower of Christ is the man to whom
we must look. The man who seeks and enjoys the royal privilege of audience with
the Deity. The man that grasps the promises, that in Christ are yea and amen to
those that believe. The man who looks to rescue, not the slave alone, but the
slave's master—to this man we must look. I love the cause in which we are
engaged too well, to wish to see it under the conduct of irreligious, and
therefore irresponsible men. I feel little anxiety to enlist the
unsanctified eloquence of the demagouge. I would not make a speech to win a
rabble multitude that would cover the spacious common that adorns your city;
but I would weep and plead till midnight, or the blushing of the morn, to gain
the righteous man whose faith, when exerted, grasps omnipotence, and whose
effectual fervent prayer would avail to the speedy overthrow of the unhallowed
institution.
SOURCES: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and
Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the
United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 48-51; A very
similar but much longer & more detailed article, “Important Meeting,” was
published The Liberator, Boston,
Massachusetts, April 11, 1835, p. 3
