UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
a
were designedfor the Orleans market. And to
this theyare doomed for no other crime than that
of a hlack skin and curled locks. Shall I not
visitfor these things ? saith the Lord. Shall not
my soul be avengedon such a nation as this1
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
It cannot be possible that these Christian
men realized these things, or, at most, they
realizedthem justas we realizethe most tremendous
statement
that the existence of the ecclesiastical
organization is of more importance than all
the moral and socialconsiderationswhich are
American slavery.
The next
year a largenumber of petitions
truths of religion, dimly and and remonstrances were
feebly.
presented, recasting
the
Two years afterțhe General Assembly,
Assemblyto utter additional testimony
by a sudden and very unexpected
against slavery.
movement,
In
passed a vote exscinding, without trial, from reply to the petitions, the General Assembly
reaffirmedalltheirformer
the communion of the
testimonies
church,four synods,
on the
comprising the most active and decided antislaveryportions
of the church. The back,and also affirmed that the
subject of slavery for sixtyyears
reasons
previous
alleged were, doctrinaldifferencesand ecclesiastical
year's declarationmust not be understood as
practices
a
Presby-
theyexpressed it as their opinion,
words of 1818, that slavery is "
wholly
inconsistentwith
terianisra. By this act about fivehundred
ministers and sixtythousand members were
cut off from the Presbyterian Church.
That portionof the Presbyterian Church
called New
thisact unjust,
School,considering
refusedto assent to it,joinedthe exscinded
synods, and formed themselves into
upon the conceded principle that
the existence of
the New School General Assembly.In this
it,under the circumstances
in which it is found in
communion
the Southern States
onlythree slave-holding presbyteries
of the
remained. In the old there Union, is no bar to Christian communion."
were
between thirty and forty.
Some members
The course of the Old School Assembly,
protested against this action.
after the separation, in relationto the subject
(Minutes, 1846. Overture No. 17.)
of slavery, may be best Great hopes
expressedby
were at firstentertainedof the
quoting one of their resolutions, passed in New School body. As a body,it was composed
1845. Having some decided
mostlyof
anti-slavery
anti-slavery men. It had
members in its body, and in it those synodswhose anti-slavery opinions
being,moreover,
addressed on the subject of and actions had
slaveryby been,to say the least,
associated
bodies,theypresented, on
the following deliberate statement
policy.(Minutes for 1845, p. 18.)
one
this very year,
of their
Resolved,1st.That the General Assemblyof the time to cut this loathsome incumbrance
Presbyterian Church in the United States was
whollyadrift, and stand
originally organized, and has since continued the
up, in this age of "
bond of
concession and
union in the church, upon the conceded
conformity to the world,a
principle that the existenceof domestic slavery ,
under purelyprotesting church, free from all complicity'
the circumstances in which it is found in the Southern
with this most dreadful national immorality.
portionof the country, is no bar to Christian
communion.
'
2. That the petitions that ask the Assembly to
make the holding of slaves in itself a matter of
discipline do virtually requirethis judicatory
urged,by many petitions and
dissolveitself, and abandon the organization under These memorials
which,by the divine were referred to a committee
blessing, it has so long prospered.
The tendency is evidently to separate the
It isscarcely
to this very explicit
plainest possible
necessary to add a comment
declaration. It is the
disclaimer of any
against slavery ; the plainest possible
211
Northern from the Southern portionof the church,
result which every good Christian must deplore,
was now come to take decided measures
as tendingto the dissolution of the Union of
our beloved country, and which to cut
every enlightened and avow their
Christian will oppose, as bringingabout a ruinous
principles with
and unuecessary schism between brethren who
even though it should repel allsuch
maintain a common faith.
churches from their communion as were not
Yeas,Ministers and Elders,168.
prepared for immediate emancipation.
" " "
Nays, 13.
of the
involved in a full defence and practice of
retractionof that testimony; in other words,
in the
OPPOSED TO THE LAW OF GOD," and " TO-.
TALLY IRRECONCILABLE. WITH THE PRE- CEPTS
OP THE GOSPEL OF Christ; '" and
yet that they " had formed their church organization
efficientcause for their excision
from the church. It had onlythree slaveholdingpresbyteries.
The power
was allin
its own hands. Now, if ever, was their
On the first session of the General
Assembly țhis course was most vehemently
memorials.
of decided anti-slavery men. The argument
on one side was, that the time
free wholly from all pro-slavery complicity,
decision,
On the other hand țhe majority
committee were urgedby opposing considerations.
The brethren from slave states
protestmade to them representations somewhat like