As habits of virtue and vice are formed, and character shaped, at a very early age, I shall begin with—

The Negro in his Childhood.—The formation of good character depends upon family government and training; upon religious instruction, private and public; access to the Scriptures and other sources of intellectual and moral improvement; the character of associates; modesty of clothing, and general mode of living.

If we take the mass of the slave population, properly speaking, we shall find but little family government, and for the reason that parents are not qualified, neither are they so circumstanced as to be able to fulfil perfectly the duties devolving upon them as such. In the more intelligent and pious families, the children are taught to say their prayers, to go to church on the Sabbath, to attend evening prayers on the plantation, and a few simple rules of good conduct and manners. The majority of church members, come short of this. The moral training of their children forms but a small part of their effort in the family. There is not one family in a thousand in which family prayer is observed morning and evening. Prayers are held in some families morning and evening on the Sabbath day; in others in the evening of every day. But a general meeting of all the members of the church as well as of worldly persons, for prayer in the evening on plantations, conducted by some prominent person among them, takes the place of family worship—the plantation is considered one large family. To this meeting children are required to come or not, as the case may be. The hour is usually so late that most of the children have retired for the night. If such is the state of religious families what must be the state of those which are irreligious? In multitudes of families, both by precept and example, the children are trained up in iniquity; taught by their parents to steal, to lie, to deceive; nor can the rod of correction induce a confession or revelation of their clearly ascertained transgressions. Virtue is not cherished nor protected in them. Parents put their children to use as early as it is possible, and their discipline mainly respects omissions of duty in the household; moral delinquencies are passed by; and that discipline owes its chief efficiency to excited passion, and consequently exists in the extreme of laxity or severity. They ofttimes when under no restraint, beat their children unmercifully.

As to direct religious instruction, we have seen that the amount communicated in families is small. The Negroes on plantations, sometimes appoint one of their number, commonly the old woman who minds the children during the day, to teach them to say their prayers, repeat a little catechism and a few hymns, every evening. The instances are however not frequent, and it is the only approximation I have ever known to systematic instruction for their children, adopted by the Negroes themselves.

But how much religious instruction do the young Negroes receive from their Masters, who sustain very much the relation of parents to them? What is the number of planters who have established plantation schools? In other words, who have commenced a system of regular instruction for their Negro children; conducting themselves that instruction daily or weekly, or engaging the services of members of their own families, or even going to the expense of employing missionaries for the purpose?

Push the inquiry still further. How many ministers assemble, at stated seasons, the colored children of their congregations for catechetical instruction, exhortation, and prayer? How many churches have established Sabbath schools at convenient stations in the country, or in towns and villages, for colored children and youth, and do maintain them from year to year? To all these questions it must in candor be replied that the numbers are small compared with the whole.

Shall we speak of public instruction such as is communicated by a preached Gospel? Negro children do not enjoy the advantages of a preached Gospel; for the custom is, where no effort is made to alter it, for the children to remain at home on the Sabbath. Multitudes never having been taught to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” consider it in the light, purely, of a holyday;—a day of rest, of sports, and plays. The distance to the house of worship is frequently considerable, too considerable for the attendance of small children; parents do not like the trouble of children; and, in short, should their children accompany them, the services being conducted for the most part for the special benefit of masters, do them no good, being above not only their comprehension, but even that of their parents.

Shall we speak of access to the Scriptures? The statutes of our respective slave States forbid all knowledge of letters to the Negroes; and where the statutes do not custom does. It is impossible to form an estimate of the number of Negroes that read. My belief is that the proportion would be expressed by an almost inconceivable fraction. The greatest number of readers is found in and about towns and cities, and among the free Negro population, some two or three generations removed from servitude. There are perhaps in all the larger cities in the South, schools for the education of colored children, supported chiefly by the free Negroes, and kept generally in the shade. On the one hand, therefore, the Negro children cannot be “hearers of the law,” for oral instruction is but sparingly afforded to the mass of them; and on the other, they cannot “search the Scriptures,” for a knowledge of letters they have not, and legally, they cannot obtain.

With whom is the young Negro associated? With children no better instructed and disciplined than himself, and the whole subjected to the pernicious examples of the adults. They are favored with no association calculated to elevate and refine.

Negroes, especially the children, are exceedingly inattentive to the preservation of their clothing. The habits, in the particular of dress, of their forefathers from Africa still cleave to them, especially in the warmer seasons of the year, when they are left to themselves. This very improvidence on the part of the Negroes presents an increase of expenditure on the part of owners for clothing. The waste is great. And indeed, once for all, I will here say, that the wastes of the system are so great, as well as the fluctuations in prices of staple articles for market, that it is difficult, nay, impossible, to indulge in large expenditures on plantations and make them savingly profitable.

Their general mode of living is coarse and vulgar. Many Negro houses are small, low to the ground, blackened with smoke, often with dirt floors, and the furniture of the plainest kind. On some estates the houses are framed, weather-boarded, neatly white-washed, and made sufficiently large and comfortable in every respect. The improvement in the size, material, and finish of Negro houses is extending. Occasionally they may be found constructed of tabby or brick.

A room is partitioned off for a sleeping apartment and store-room, though houses are found destitute of this convenience. In such dwellings privacy is impossible; and we may in a manner say that families live, sleep, and grow up together; their habits and manners being coarse and rude. Some owners make additions to the houses according to the number and age of the children of families.

Having now considered the circumstances of the Negro during his childhood, we may proceed and consider the circumstances of—

The Negro at Adult age.—He lives in a house similar to the one in which he passed his childhood and youth. He has the necessary and annual provision made for his wants; associates with fellow-servants of like character to his own. The seeds of virtue or vice sown in his youth, now blossom and bear fruit. He marries and settles in life, his children grow up around him and tread in his footsteps, as he did in the footsteps of his father before him.

The remarks on the religious instruction of children apply with equal correctness to adults. Stated religious instruction of adults on plantations, communicated by masters, ministers, or missionaries employed for the purpose, taking the slave States together, is not of frequent occurrence. The chief privilege enjoyed by thousands on plantations is evening prayers, conducted by themselves. If the individuals upon whom the conduct of the evening meeting devolves are able to read, a chapter in the Bible is read; a hymn is read and given out and sung; followed with prayer. If they cannot read, then a brief exhortation in place of the Scriptures founded, it may be, on some remembered passage, then a hymn from memory and prayer. There are thousands also, who, although freely allowed the privilege, do not embrace it, either from want of inclination, or of suitable persons to conduct the meetings. It is matter of thankfulness that the owners are few in number, indeed, who forbid religious meetings on their plantations, held either by their servants themselves, or by competent and approved white instructors or ministers. “All men have not faith.” I have never known servants forbidden to attend the worship of God on the Sabbath day, except as a restraint temporarily laid, for some flagrant misconduct.

On special occasions, such as fast days, communion seasons, and protracted meetings, a day or more is allowed servants by many masters. Throughout the slave-holding States the rest of the Sabbath is secured to the Negroes, and on this day they have extensive opportunities of attending divine worship, in town and country. But it is well known to those who have attentively observed the habits of this people, that large numbers of adults remain at home or spend the day in visiting or in ways still more exceptionable. Various causes conspire to produce the effect. For instance; it is their day of rest; the distance which they must walk to church is considerable; the accommodations for seats, in certain cases, are limited; the services of the sanctuary are too elevated for them; they are not required or encouraged to go; they have no exalted ideas of the importance of religion, and in common with all men, are naturally disinclined to it, and are easily satisfied with excuses for the neglect of it; and other causes which might be mentioned. Many, in settlements that are and that are not supplied with Gospel ministrations, live and die without an adequate knowledge of the way of salvation.

Nor can the adult Negro acquaint himself with duty and the way of salvation through the reading of the Scriptures, any more than can the child. Of those that do read, but few read well enough for the edification of the hearers. Not all the colored preachers read.

Two other circumstances which have considerable bearing on the moral and religious character of the Negroes deserve attention. The first is that the marriage state is not protected by law. Whatever of protection it enjoys is to be attributed to custom, to the conscientious efforts of owners, and the discipline and doctrines of the churches; and also the correct principle and virtue of the contracting parties. But the relation is liable to disruption in a variety of forms, for some of which there is no remedy. The second is that the government to which they are subjected is too much physical in its nature. To discard an appeal to the principle of fear—the fear of punishment of the person of the transgressor in some form or other, would be running contrary to all governments in existence, both human and divine. While the necessity is admitted, yet the appeal should be made as seldom as possible and in the mildest form consistent with the due support of authority and the reformation of the transgressor. Man has a spiritual as well as an animal nature, and corrective influences, should be brought to bear upon that directly and in the first instance, as soon as he is able to discern between good and evil.

Such then are the circumstances of the slave population, which have an unfavorable influence upon their moral and religious condition. Those circumstances only have been referred to which prominently assist us in our inquiry. In conclusion it may be added that servants have neither intellectual nor moral intercourse with their masters generally, sufficient to redeem them from the adverse influence of the circumstances alluded to; for the two classes are distinct in their association, and it cannot well be otherwise. Nor have servants any redeeming intercourse with any other persons. On the contrary in certain situations there is intercourse had with them, and many temptations laid before them against which they have little or no defence, and the effect is deplorable.

They are emphatically, lovers of pleasure and of show.

All kinds of amusements, except those which involve labor or reflection, possess great attractions for them, and their indulgence is limited only by their means of access to them.

With a passion for dress, they frequently spend all they make, in fine clothes; their appearance on the Sabbath and on public days, is any thing else but an index of their fortunes and comfort at home. They hire clothing for set occasions if they have none sufficiently good.

Proverbially idle, the majority work not except from necessity, and as soon as they collect a little money they must enjoy themselves upon it. They have been known to refuse employment, because not exactly out of money. Their love of ease overcomes that of gain. This propensity to idleness exposes them to manifold temptations, plunges them into numerous vices and subjects them to great privation and suffering.

They are amazingly improvident. One melting ray from a summer's sun, dissipates every remembrance of a long and dreary winter of suffering. The golden season of labor is passed in lounging along the streets and basking in the sun, or in lazy, bungling, and fitful attempts at work. Those that have regular trades and employments do better. Profane swearing, quarreling, fighting and Sabbath-breaking, are such common vices that they require no special notice.

Drunkenness, with its attendant woes, hurries large numbers of them to sudden and untimely ends. Low, dark, secluded, and filthy dram shops, are favorite resorts; often the depositories of stolen goods. I have seen them living upon a few crackers a day and as much whiskey as they could procure; their life spent in idleness, nightly revels, drunkenness, and debauchery.

Theft is still with them, in a state of freedom, a characteristic vice. Their petty larcenies are without number, and they advance to burglaries and give constant employment to police officers. Let any one attend the city courts in our chief towns in the free States or read the reports of cases in the newspapers, and he will be surprised at the number of colored persons. Stabbing and murder have of late years not become infrequent.

Lewdness is without bounds. Great numbers, both in the slave and free States, not only pursue the vice, but are trained up to it, as a means of living. Infanticide, and the crimes and wretchedness connected with the vice, are found among them: the crime of infanticide is far more common among the free Negroes in the free, than in the slave States. Indeed it is by no means common among the free Negroes in the slave States. Their marriage relations too, are subject to dissolutions from infidelity and various other causes. It is a remarkable fact that a large proportion of those of a marriageable age, remain single, especially in the free States, where the support of a family is difficult. This fact has a considerable bearing on their state of morals.

With a few extracts from different publications, this branch of our inquiry shall be dismissed.

“The experience of the States north and east of the Susquehanna, with regard to this class of persons, is not on the whole much more encouraging.” (i.e. than that of the Southern States, where it is bad.) “The number of respectable individuals is considerably greater indeed, but the character of the mass nearly the same. Nor can it be urged that they are here debarred access to the ordinary means of moral and intellectual regeneration. On the contrary, schools are established for them; they are aided in procuring the conveniences of religious instruction and divine worship; they are united in societies adapted to produce self-respect and mental activity; exemplary attention is paid in numerous instances to the regulation of their habits and principles. They have every facility which is enjoyed by the laboring classes among the whites, of acquiring a plain education and a comfortable subsistence and or making provision for their children. They have the same legal security in person and property and generally, the same political rights as the rest of the community.”—Walsh's Appeal

“Taken as a whole the free blacks must be considered the most worthless and indolent (of the citizens of the United States. It is well known that throughout the whole extent of our Union, they are looked upon as the very drones and pests of society. Nor does this character arise from their disabilities and disfranchisement, by which the law attempts to guard against them. In the non-slaveholding states, where they have been more elevated by law, this kind of population is in a worse condition and much more troublesome to society than in the slave-holding and especially in the planting States. Ohio, some years ago, formed a sort of land of promise for this deluded class, to which many have repaired from the slave-holding States; and what has been the consequence? They have been most harshly expelled from that State and forced to take refuge in a foreign land. Look through all the Northern States and mark the class upon whom the eye of the police is most steadily and constantly kept; see with what vigilance and care they are hunted down from place to place; and you cannot fail to see that idleness and improvidence are at the root of all their misfortunes. Not only does the experience of our own country illustrate this great fact, but others furnish abundant testimony.”—President Dow.

Governor Giles, upon a calculation based on the average number of convictions in the State of Virginia from the penetentiary reports, up to 1829, shows that “crimes among the free blacks are more than three times as numerous as among the whites, and four and a half times more numerous than among the slaves,” and that the proportion of crime is still not as great among the free blacks in Virginia, as in Massachusetts. Hence is it inferred that they are not so degraded and vicious in Virginia, a slave State, as in Massachusetts, a free State.”— Ibid.

“We are not to wonder that this class of citizens should be so depraved and immoral.” “Idleness, and consequent want, are of themselves sufficient to generate a catalogue of vices of the most mischievous and destructive character. Look to the penal prosecution of every country and mark the situation of those who fall victims to the laws; and what a frightful proportion do we find among the indigent and idle classes of society! Idleness generates want, want gives rise to temptation, and strong temptation makes the villain. Mr. Archer of Virginia well observed in his speech before the Colonization Society, that the free blacks were destined by an insuperable barrier, to the want of occupation, thence to the want of food, thence to the distresses which ensue that want, thence to the settled depravation which grows out of those distresses and is nursed at their bosoms.”—Ib.

A colony of free blacks was expelled from Ohio, in 1832, on account of their dissoluteness and dishonesty and misery; being considered in the light of vagabonds and nuisances. A college for free Negroes was projected in New Haven about the same time, and the respectable citizens opposed and suppressed it, because the increase of that class of population was considered an evil. “Few of them, (the free Negro population,) are engaged in trade or commerce or have any hopes of elevating themselves to that situation. Nine-tenths of them are in subordinate and menial situations and likely thus to remain, at low wages. That they labor under the most oppressive disadvantages which their freedom can by no means counterbalance is too obvious to admit of doubt.”

“I waive all inquiry whether this be right or wrong. I speak of things as they are; not as they might or ought to be. They are cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you will, that are ineradicable. The situation of the majority of them is more unfavorable than that of many of the slaves. ‘With all the burdens, cares, and responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its substantial benefits. Their associations are and must be chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little if any political influence and they are practically if not theoretically excluded from representation in our public councils.’ No merit, no services, no talents, can ever elevate the great mass of them to a level with the whites; occasionally an exception may arise, a colored individual of great talents, merits, and wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the last degree rare. The colored people are subjected to legal disabilities more or less galling and severe in almost every State in the Union. And there is no reason to expect that the lapse of centuries will make any change in this respect, (i. e. ‘the jealousy with which they are regarded.’) They will always, unhappily, be regarded as an inferior race.”—Carey's Letters, Let. 12.

“Mr. Everett, in a speech before the Colonization Society, 1833, says, “the free blacks form in Massachusetts about one seventy-fifth part of the population; one sixth of the convicts in our prisons are of this class.”

A memorial presented to the Legislature of Connecticut, in 1834, states “that not a week, hardly a day passes, that they (the free colored people,) are not implicated in the violation of some law. Assaults and batteries, insolence to the whites, compelling a breach of the peace, riots in the streets, petty thefts, and continual trespasses on property are such common occurrences resulting from the license they enjoy, that they have ceased to become subjects of remark. It is but recently that a band of Negroes paraded the streets of New Haven, armed with clubs and pistols and dirks, with the avowed purpose of preventing the law of the land from being enforced against one of the species. Upon being accosted by an officer of justice and commanded to retire peacably to their homes, their only reply consisted of abuse and threats of personal violence. The law was overshadowed and the officer consulted his own safety in a timely retreat.” The memorial then proceeds to show that the evil complained of has so rapidly progressed that the whites have become the subjects of insult and abuse whenever they have refused to descend to familiarity with them: that themselves, their wives, and children, have been driven from the pavements, where they have not submitted to personal conflict; that from the licentiousness of their general habits, they have invariably depreciated the value of property by their location in its neighborhood: and that from their notorious uncleanliness and filth, they have become common nuisances to the community.”—Memorial.

From the report of the warden of the Connecticut state prison, 1838, it appears “that the number of blacks in confinement compared with the whites is ten or twelve times greater than is the proportion of the black to the white population in the State.”—Journal of Commerce, May 16, 1838.

“The records of crime in the free States show a frightful disproportion in the numbers of white and black offenders, and most especially in those States where there are no disabilities or restrictions by law imposed upon the blacks.”

“In Massachusetts they are one seventy-fourth part of the population, yet they are in the proportion of one sixth of the convicts in the state prison. In Connecticut one thirty-fourth part of the whole, one third of the number in the penetentiary. New York one thirty-fifth and one fourth of the convicts. New Jersey one thirteenth, and one third. Pennsylvania one thirty-fifth, and one third. In Ohio the black population is one to one hundred and fifteen white; convicts seven to one hundred. Vermont, by census of 1830, contained 277,000 souls; 918 were Negroes. In 1831 there were seventy-four convicts in the prison, and of these twenty-four were Negroes! When compared with what is reported of the prisons of the slave-holding States, it is shown that the proportion of Negroes in the penetentiaries of the free States is in the ratio of more than ten to one in favor of the slave-holding States. The free Negroes in Ohio, in the aggregate, are in no better condition, therefore, than the slaves in Kentucky. They are excluded from social intercourse with the whites, and whatever of education you may give them will not tend to elevate their standing to any considerable extent.” —Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, relative to the repeal of laws reposing restrictions and disabilities on blacks and mulattoes, by Mr. Cushing, Feb. 21, 1835. Agreed to unanimously. Legislature of Ohio.

The view which has now been taken of the Moral and Religious Condition of the Negroes of the United States, will, we believe, justify us in the following general conclusions.

1. They are intellectually and morally a degraded people; the most so of any in the United States;—and while from their universal profession of the Christian system, and their attendance upon its ordinances of worship, and the absence of all fixed forms of idolatry, they cannot, strictly speaking be termed heathen; yet may they with propriety be termed the heathen of our land.

2. The majority of them have access to some kind of means of grace, either among themselves or in connection with the whites; but they are not as efficient means as their necessities require; while multitudes of them are almost wholy destitute. Nor has the colored population, bond and free, either ability or will to supply themselves with the Gospel of the grace of God; but are left in next to absolute dependence upon the permission, the countenance and assistance of the whites.

3. They are living in manifold and gross sins; their iniquities are aggravated and great before the Lord, and not the least of them is their neglect and contempt of spiritual mercies and privileges within their reach. Thousands are annually descending to the grave and eternal misery, and they demand and ought to excite the benevolent feelings and efforts, for their salvation, of the churches of Christ throughout the Union.

They are the most dependent of all people upon us for the word of life.

A glance at the civil condition and connection of this people with us, will demonstrate the point. They are, in the eye of the law, property; over which there is an absolute control as such, excepting in so far as they are human beings, and by law are protected in life and limb. The law, however, makes no provision for their religious training, and all the privileges of religion are regulated by the customs of society and the will of owners; nor is it in the power of any one to interfere between the master and the servant, and dictate what privileges his servant ought and must enjoy, any more than he may interfere between parent and child.

Throw these facts together. By law or custom, they are excluded from the advantages of education; and by consequence, from the reading of the word of God: and this immense mass of immortal beings is thrown for religious instruction upon oral communications entirely. And upon whom? Upon their owners. And their owners, especially of late years, claim to be the exclusive guardians of their religious instruction, and the almoners of divine mercy towards them, thus assuming the responsibility of their entire christianization!

All approaches to them from abroad are rigidly guarded against, and no ministers are allowed to break to them the bread of life, except such as have commended themselves to the affection and confidence of owners. I do not condemn this course of self-preservation on the part of our citizens. I mention it only to show more fully the point in hand; the entire dependence of the Negroes upon ourselves for the Gospel.

While this step is taken, another has already been taken, and that of a long time; namely, Negro preachers are discouraged, if not suppressed, on the ground of incompetency and liability to abuse their office and influence to the injury of the morals of the people and the infringement of the laws and peace of the country. I would not go all the lengths of many on this point, for from my own observation, Negro preachers may be employed and confided in, and so regulated as to do their own color great good, and community no harm: nor do I see, if we take the word of God for our guide, how we can consistently exclude an entire people from access to the Gospel ministry, as it may please Almighty God from time to time, as he unquestionably does, to call some of them to it “as Aaron was.” The discouragement of this class of preachers, throws the body of the people still more in their dependence upon ourselves, who indeed cannot secure ministers in sufficient numbers to supply our own wants.

Nor have the Negroes any church organizations different from or independent of our own. Such independent organizations are, indeed, not on the whole advisable. But the fact binds them to us with still stronger dependence And, to add no more, we may, according to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings, and religious instruction on our own plantations; we may forbid our servants going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and suffer not them that are entering to go in!

It is not too much, therefore to say that the Negroes are in a state of almost absolute dependence upon their owners for the words of eternal life.

They are the most needy of any people in our country. This is very evident, from the exposition which we have given of their dependence; as well as of their moral and religious character. They have no education, no immediate access to the word of God, no competent teachers of their own color, no competent number of white teachers, and are in a state of great ignorance and moral degradation.

And lastly, they are the most accessible. They speak the same language with ourselves; dwell in the same land, at our own doors; and are members of our households. No law forbids the religious instruction of the Negroes, orally, by proper instructers, either during the week or on the Sabbath day; and any minister of the Gospel, or any owner, may undertake the good work, and prosecute it as largely and as long as he pleases.

We are prepared now to take up the obligation of the church of Christ in the slave-holding States to impart the Gospel of Salvation to the Negroes within those States.

And our remarks on the duty of affording them the Gospel, need not be protracted after what has been said.

It is the duty of the white churches in the free States to afford the Gospel to the Negroes, for the following plain reasons among others.

They have access to the churches on the Sabbath, and hear the same preaching that their masters do; they are favored frequently with services from the ministers, expressly for their instruction; they are received into, and are under the watch and discipline of the white churches; there are some Sabbath schools for them; they have plantation prayers, and numerous preachers and exhorters of their own color, and some of them are able to read; nor do they know any other religion but the Christian religion.

It is true they have access to the house of God on the Sabbath; but it is also true that even where the privilege is within their reach, a minority only, (and frequently a very small one) embrace it. There are multitudes of districts in the South and Southwest, in which the churches cannot contain one-tenth of the Negro population; besides others in which there are no churches at all. It must be remembered also that in many of those churches there is preaching only once a fortnight, or once a month, and then perhaps only one sermon. To say that they fare as well as their masters does not settle the point; for great numbers of masters have very few or no religious privileges at all.

The direct preaching of ministers to the Negroes is well, and is a great benefit. But the number who do this is far smaller than it should be. The ordinary preaching to the whites makes little impression upon the blacks, being above their comprehension and not made applicable to them. Hence their stupid looks, their indifferent staring, their profound sleeps, and their thin attendance. What is there to light up the countenance with intelligence; to rivet attention; to banish drowsiness, so common to laboring men and men unaccustomed to think when sitting still; what is there to attract them to the house of God? Nothing but sound and show. Solid instruction, pungent appeals to the conscience, will bring men to the house of God and retain them in attendance there, and nothing else will. But divine truth is not thus adapted to the Negroes, by ministers, in their sermons to the whites; and those Negroes who enjoy such a dispensation of the Gospel as this, upon careful examination, are found to be sadly deficient in a knowledge of religion, and we are surprised to find Christianity in absolute conjunction with a people and yet conferring upon them so few benefits.

From the manner in which their religious instruction is neglected, it would appear that their incapacity is taken for granted. Appealing to our own experience in their instruction, we should judge the objection to be a mistake. They are capable, even under oral instruction, and that not enjoyed in any high degree of perfection, of making very considerable advances in religious knowledge.

But if they are capable of receiving instruction sufficient to make plain to them the way of salvation, then their capacities should be filled to overflowing, to that extent. In all reason and conscience deny it not to them, for it is their everlasting life. The mind of man is created so as to admit of eternal expansion and progression in knowledge and holiness. The good work which is done for them in time will be carried forward unto perfection in eternity.

But to pursue the excuse a step further. It is customary with many to entertain low opinions of the intellectual capacity of the Negroes. Whether this be right or wrong we leave every man to judge for himself after a due investigation of the subject; and to judge, likewise, whether their mental weakness is to be attributed to the circumstances of their condition, or to any difference as made by the Author of their existence between them and other men. If God has made such a difference, it cannot be proved to be any impeachment either of his wisdom, goodness, or justice. Such a difference exists between individuals without any such impeachment, and may exist in like manner between the races of mankind. But to suppose the Negroes too stupid to comprehend the essential doctrines of Christianity is certainly to disregard the testimony of God's word, the witness of his Spirit, the evidence of facts.

What saith the Scripture? “He hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth;” and again, “God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.”—Acts 10: 34, 35. What then can be plainer than that all men have one common origin, and that all are capable of exercising proper affections towards God; and this necessarily implies a capability of understanding the divine law. If it be allowed that the Negroes are men, then these things are true in regard to them, and thus by the word of God does it appear that they are capable of understanding the Gospel. And does not the Spirit of God bear witness to their capacity? Are there not great numbers who have been enlightened, regenerated, and sanctified by him? Their ignorance of divine subjects is owing to their want of proper instruction, and not at all to any defect of mental constitution.

Grant the fact to be so; from the view which has been taken of the limited instruction of the Negroes and their extremely ignorant and vicious condition, and the feeble encouragement which many receive in their efforts to lead a religious life, our wonder more naturally might be, not that the Gospel meets with little success among them but that it meets with any success at all.

The whites themselves are destitute; we cannot obtain ministers in sufficient numbers to supply our own destitutions; and when ministers may be obtained, we are not at all times able to support them. Servants cannot expect to fare better than their masters. Great numbers must necessarily continue destitute of the Gospel.

Such for example as the ignorance, indifference, and in some instances, the opposition of masters; and the want of funds—of missionaries—of ministers willing to labor for the Negroes—of systems of instruction; the stupidity, and viciousness, and hypocrisy of the people themselves; confinement to oral instruction; the unhealthiness of the climate, and so forth We ask, will these and other difficulties that might be mentioned be removed by being let alone? Are there means now in operation for their removal? Will they ever be fewer in number than they are at the present time?

There are difficulties in every enterprise of benevolence; and if we wait in our efforts to do good until men cease to multiply excuses and objections, and until all difficulties are removed, we shall never commence. Times have suddenly and strangely altered in the world if Christians can do good and perform their duty, without encountering much, that will try the purity and firmness of their purposes. Shall we cower and retire before difficulties? By no means. We are to encounter them patiently, kindly, perseveringly; casting our care upon God. He calls us to the duty. The work is his. In his strength we labor. Do difficulties present themselves? Remember God is great. Difficulties appear large in the distance, but the nearer and more resolute our advance the smaller they become, until when in the strength of the Lord we encounter them they vanish out of sight. But of whose creation are these difficulties? In themselves, we meet with no difficulties but such as arise from the natural enmity of the heart to the truth. The difficulties lie mainly at our own door, and it is unjust that they should be made the innocent sufferers.

Before this head of excuses is closed there are it few sometimes urged by owners and ministers, which may better be disposed of in this place than in any other.

The system of non-residence, whether from necessity on account of health; or from choice, to be free from care, or to be in the midst of society for the advantages of education and religion, is one of the greatest obstacles with which we have to contend in both the physical and religious improvement of the Negroes. And the system prevails to a great extent. It is easier to see the evils, than to remedy them. To meet the excuse it need only be said, when you are with your people take some interest in their religious state; speak to them, on the subject; notice the members of the church; meet with them at evening prayers. When you are away at your ease, full of health and pleasure and privileges, do not forget those who by their daily labor enable you to enjoy all these blessings, and be at trouble and expense to procure for them the services of some settled minister in their vicinity or some missionary. Let them have that which will not empoverish you, but enrich them for ever!

How do you reconcile such an assertion, in excuse for neglect of duty, with the holy Scriptures? The management and the religious instruction of servants are united in the master by them.—Gen. 18: 19. The relations of master and servant are recognized, and the duties of them enjoined; and the duties must be performed, otherwise the scriptures are not fulfilled. How do you reconcile your assertion, with the experience of some masters? There are masters who have succeded in uniting the two and with advantage every way.

This may all be true; and true for very good reasons. Your own practice may contradict your precepts. When you call upon them to fulfil their duties they will expect you to set the example by a fulfilment of your own. They can discern consistency of conduct as well as other men, and particularly in cases which involve their own interest and happiness. If you do not labor and be at some sacrifice of time and means to improve their physical condition by providing more liberally and to the extent of your means for their comfort in good houses, good clothing and good food; if you do not regulate your discipline so as to maintain authority without injustice, and secure to every family and every individual just rights and privileges; in short, if you fail to impress your people with the belief that you are really their friend, and desire their best good for this world as well as for the next, and that you honestly intend to promote it, as far as lies in your power, they cannot, they will not value your instructions. They will view your efforts as hollow-hearted, purely selfish, intended for effect. You desire them to be Christians that you may have less trouble in their management, your work more honestly done, and your pecuniary interest more prospered. “Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye.”

Or, your manner of instruction may be improper. You may look at them and speak to them, and pray for them in your meetings, with harshness and haughtiness. God resisteth the proud in religion, and so doth man. You may make them feel at an infinite remove from you and that there is no common ground in Christianity, upon which master and servant may happily meet. Or, falling into the other extreme, you may come to them with undue familiarity and affectation of regard—in simpering, canting tones and expressions—elevating them to an equality with yourself, not as a Christian, but as a master. As a consequence the dignity of your relation towards them perishes, and with it your respect and influence. Christianity is neither to be professed, nor taught, so as to break down the orders in society established in the providence of God, and distinctly recognized by it.

You may lack regularity, and perseverance in your instructions.

Instruction to do much good, should be regular in its occurrence, and persevered in. Learn to be patient, and to moderate your expectations.

Admitting the objection to be true, as it often unquestionably is, yet it presents no bar, but a difficulty, in the way of the discharge of duty; a difficulty which must be encountered and overcome in the best manner possible. You have to contend with the bad temper of children after correction sometimes, and so will you with that of servants.

See to it, first of all, that your plantation or family discipline be just, then carry it into effect, in all necessary cases, with all authority, without fear or partiality, and ere long you will be borne out by the consciences of your people. They know, as well as you do, that a servant who knows his master's duty and will not do it must be made to do it; and that this is the doctrine both of religion and reason. A steady, just, and efficient discipline conduces to the happiness of both master and servant. Some of your people in the beginning of your efforts, through ignorance and viciousness, may presume upon your instructions; but persevere in them, and in ordinary and necessary discipline, annexing rewards to good conduct, and the result will be satisfactory. There are owners whose experience accords with what we have now advanced.

A sad confession, and an excuse never to be admitted. Your Divine Master, “preached the Gospel to the poor.”— Matt. 11: 5. He was not above noticing poor servants, and visiting them in their sickness, and even performing miracles for their healing.—Matt. 8: 5-13. His spirit was poured out upon them as well as upon others, and they were called into the glorious liberty of the Gospel and made “the Lord's freemen.”—1 Cor. 7: 22. His Apostles were “forward to remember the poor;” spiritually and temporally. They preached the Gospel to servants, and many were born into the kingdom of God through their instrumentality. They baptized and received them into the churches along with their masters, and addressed commands to them in their letters to the churches.—Eph. 6: 5, Col. 3: 22. Yea, the great Apostle to the Genthes, receives as a son the runaway, Onesimus, “begotten in his bonds,” and kindly writes his master Philemon, a letter of intercession, and sends him back with it.—Epistle to Philemon.

The Apostles make it the duty of their successors in the ministry to give religious instruction to servants, and to inculcate upon them the duties of their station.—1 Tim. 6: 1-5, “let as many servants as are under the yoke count their masters worthy of all honor,”—“These things teach and exhort.” And again in Titus 2: 9-10. Surely with these examples and precepts before him, that “workman” “needeth to be ashamed,” who surrounded with servants in perishing need of the Gospel, cannot “rightly divide to them the word of truth.” He should “study to show himself approved unto God,” in this department of his labor. Woe to him, if he fails to do so through sloth, or indifference to the worth of the soul, or through pride, feeling that one of his cultivation and improvement would injure his style of composition and manner of delivery, and would lower his respectability in his own eyes and in the eyes of the world, by condescending to labor among Negro servants, and by adapting his preaching to their capacities!

To pass by the sin, it is an absolute disgrace to a man “called of God as was Aaron,” not to be able to make the Gospel intelligible to all that hear him. To all those who make this excuse, we apply the ancient adage, “where there is a will there is a way.”

In the first place, have you requested time to do so, after presenting to your church the obligation of affording particular religious instruction to the Negroes connected with it? Yea, when met by lukewarmness, or it may be, by objections, have you upon your conscience, as a minister of the Gospel, insisted upon it? There is scarcely a church in the South which would not, upon a proper consideration of the duty, yield to the wishes of its minister in this respect.

And again: when you accepted the call to the pastoral office, why did you not give the church to understand, distinctly, that you would devote a just proportion of your labors to the servants attached to the families of the congregation; that you would consider yourself the pastor of the servants as well as of the masters, parents and children?

Not much has been published in our country on the relation and duties of master and servant. And it seems strange that it should be so, and since that relation has existed so long and become so extensive; since so much involving private and public happiness, depends upon the faithful discharge of the duties of it. Not much inquiry and discussion, in the way of conversation has been indulged in, on the general subject; and not much preaching upon it from the pulpit.

There are many of our owners who have never given themselves the trouble, with the Scriptures in their hands for a guide, solemnly and prayerfully to inquire into the number and nature of those duties which they owe to their servants and are in reason and conscience bound to perform. Nor do we think that there are many servants who have been instructed and understand their duties towards their masters and from what motives they should discharge them. What is the consequence? Why, ignorance and indifference exist both on the one part and on the other. Too much is left to custom, to chance, to interest and convenience, to impulses. The principle which regulates the relation and its duties, I have heard defined thus: on the part of the master, “get all, and give back as little as you can;” and on the part of the servant, “give as little, and get back all you can.” And what is the principle thus defined? Pure selfishness! Considering what human nature is and observing the conduct of masters and servants, we have ground to fear that there is too much truth in the existence and influence of this principle. But we constantly see the severity of it mitigated, even by itself, lest it should over-shoot its own ends, and especially by feelings of attachment and benevolence that spring up between superiors and inferiors.

There is something, however, above all this, that is needed, and that something is the introduction of religion. Religion will tell the master that he is a master “according to the flesh,” only; that his servants are fellow-creatures, and he has a master in heaven to whom he shall finally account for his treatment of them. Religion will tell the servant “to be obedient to masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto Christ; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free.” The master will be led to inquiries of this sort. In what kind of houses do I permit them to live; what clothes do I give them to wear; what food to eat; what privileges to enjoy? In what temper and manner, and in what proportion to their crimes do I allow them to be punished? What care do I take of their family relations? What am I doing for their souls' salvation? In fine, what does God require me to do to, and for them and their children, in view of their happiness here and hereafter? Light will insensibly break into his mind. Conscience will be quickened, and before he is aware perhaps, his servants will be greatly elevated in his regards, and he will feel himself bound and willing to do more and more for them. The government of his plantation will not be so purely selfish as formerly. His interest will not be the sole object of pursuit, nor offences against that visited with sorer punishment than offences against God himself. He will have an eye to the comfort, the interest of his people, and endeavor to identify their interest with his, and also to make them see and feel it to be so. It will be a delight to him to see them enjoy the blessings of the providence and the grace of God.

Such an attempt at a discharge of duty on religious grounds, will produce favorable influences, upon the feelings and conduct of servants. Religion will cause them to understand their duties better, and to perform them more perfectly and cheerfully.

I do not mean that the introduction of the Gospel upon a plantation in and of itself puts new life and vigor into the laborers and the soil which they cultivate, and necessarily makes them more profitable to owners, than plantations where the Gospel is not introduced at all. By no means. Such a statement would be unfounded in fact. For there are owners who take no pains whatever to have their Negroes instructed; but who feed and clothe and lodge them well, and are humane and take the best care of them, and by careful, skilful and pushing management, go far beyond their religious neighbors in their incomes. But I mean, that religious instruction is no detriment, but rather a benefit: that, other things being equal, the plantation which enjoys religious instruction will do better for the interests of its owner, than it did before it enjoyed such instruction. Virtue is more profitable than vice; while this is allowed to be no discovery, no man will question its truth.

Increased attention to the temporal comfort of servants would improve their health; and the expense of lost labor by sickness, and of physicians' bills would be saved. Their wants being more liberally supplied and sharing more largely in the fruit of their labors, many temptations to theft, to which they are exposed, would be removed; and they would become more industrious and saving. Crime would be diminished. For teachers in order to reformation, would charge upon the Negroes the sins to which they are most addicted and expose their enormity and consequent punishment in the world to come. They are sometimes found guilty of notorious sins and scarcely know that they are sins at all. Religious instruction would lead them to respect each other more, to pay greater regard to mutual character and rights; the strong would not so much oppress the weak; family relations would be less liable to rupture; in short, all the social virtues would be more honored and cultivated. Their work would be more faithfully done; their obedience more universal and more cheerfully rendered. The genuine effects of religion upon them would be, “with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not unto men.”

“The thing that hath been it is that which may be;” and although, as a slave-holding country, we are so situated, that, so far as man can see, the hope of success on the part of our laboring class, in any attempt at revolution is forlorn, yet no enemy (if there be an enemy) should be despised, however weak, and no danger unprovided for, however apparently remote. Success may not indeed crown any attempt, but much suffering may be the consequence both on the one part and on the other. It is then but a prudent foresight, a dictate of benevolence and of wisdom, to originate and set in operation means that may act as a check upon, if not a perfect preventive of evil.

I am a firm believer in the efficacy of sound religious instruction, as a means to the end desired. And reasons may be given for that belief. They are to be discovered in the very nature and tendency of the Gospel. Its nature is peace, in the broadest and fullest extent of the word. Its tendency, even when its transforming influence upon character is not realized, is to soften down and curb the passions of man; to make him more respectful of another's interests, and more solicitous of his favor; more obedient under authority, and patient under injuries; and to enhance infinitely in his estimation the value of human life. His conscience is enlightened and his soul is awed. He knows God reigns to execute judgment, and it will require greater effort to excite him to unhallowed deeds. But when character is transformed by the Gospel, its nature and tendency are perfected. The servant recognizes a superintending Providence, who disposes of men and things according to his pleasure; that his Gospel comes not with reckless efforts to wrench apart society and break governments into pieces, but to define clearly the relations and duties of men, and to lay down and render authoritative, those general principles of moral conduct which will result in the happiness of the whole, and in the peaceable removal of every kind of evil and injustice.—To God, therefore, he commits the ordering of his lot, and in his station renders to all their dues, obedience to whom obedience, and honor to whom honor. He dares not wrest from the hand of God his own care and protection. While he sees a preference in the various conditions of men he remembers the words of the Apostle:—“Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise, also, he that is called being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.”

That the Negroes are intellectually and morally, in a degraded state, I trust will not be denied; and of course no man acquainted with human nature, will deny that constant connection and intercourse with a degraded people, will exert a deleterious influence upon persons of more elevated character, if there be not some peculiar causes in existence, or some special effort made, to counteract it. I do not hesitate to say that the influence of the Negroes on the general intelligence and morality of the whites is not good. There are those who deny it. I differ with them, and am happy in believing that the majority of my fellow citizens are with me. We are so accustomed to sin in the Negroes (which in them appears a matter of course,) that our sensibilities are blunted.

When we cease to “abhor that which is evil,” we shall not long “cleave to that which is good.” “First endure— then embrace; ”is as true in sober prose as in flippant poetry. Planters will generally confess that the management of Negroes is not only attended with trouble and vexation from time to time, but with provocations to sin. Masters and mistresses of families have their trials. And the kind of influence which Negroes exert over our children and youth, when permitted to associate with them, is well known to all careful and observing parents.

The offences of colored communicants against Christian character and church order are numerous, and frequently heinous; the discipline of delinquents is wearisome, difficult, and unpleasant. Excommunications are of frequent occurence: and are usually followed, a short time after, by applications for re-admission. There will never be a better state of things, until the Negroes are better instructed in religion, both before and after their reception into the church.

This is the crowning benefit; the grand and final aim of religious instruction. Where is the church in our land that would refuse to have its number of elect ones increased by the addition of these souls ready to perish? Where is the minister who would refuse to have them for the crown of his rejoicing “in that day?” Where is the master who would keep the cup of salvation from the lips of his own servants?

From the success which has attended the preaching of the Gospel in its purity to the Negroes, we infer that the “set time” to favor them has come; and that the Lord will succeed our faithful endeavors with the converting and sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit. And when we remember their multitudes—the hundreds and thousands of immortal souls that are passing into an eternity for which they are unprepared; and when we remember their condition and circumstances in this world, and how much they stand in need of the supports and consolations of religion, who that has a heart to feel can hesitate to forward the work of their religious instruction? “All souls are mine,” saith the Lord, and his glory is promoted as well in the salvation of the soul of an African as in that of any other man of any other country.

Without proceeding further, such are the benefits which we should realize in the slave-holding States by the faithful and general religious instruction of the Negroes.

As preaching depends upon the preacher, it will not be amiss to inquire what kind of preachers are needed for the Negroes?

Certainly not ignorant preachers. It is the opinion of some, that any body will do to preach to the Negroes, which is an erroneous opinion—the child of ignorance itself. No inconsiderable a part of that misery into which the fall brought mankind, is a darkened understanding. It is not more true that “the world lieth in wickedness,” than that they have “the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.” There is the blindness of the mind and the hardness of the heart; and they act and re-act the one upon the other. Our Lord has taught us also, that men “love darkness rather than light;”— this very state of blindness and hardness. They do not like to “retain God in their knowledge.” Hence the more ignorant they are of God the more wicked they are. And the more ignorant and wicked, the greater the difficulty of enlightening and elevating them. It will be seen that the difficulty is increased a thousand fold, when the only access which the people have to the light, is through the living teacher.

The primary work of a minister is to dissipate this natural blindness of men's minds in respect to God, by pouring in upon them in the most suitable manner, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” and in this way quickening the conscience and moving the heart. To put men to this work who are not only unlearned but ignorant, is to put the blind to lead the blind; and as a result, “both shall fall into the ditch.” Shallow vessels are soon emptied. When the watchmen are blind—are all ignorant; they quickly become dumb dogs, that cannot bark. They become weary with their own noise, and ashamed of the little impression they make upon men;—their intellects are stagnant. They are mere dreamers in knowledge, and a spirit of indifference and inefficiency creeps over them, and they are “lying down, loving to slumber.”— Isa. 56: 10, 11. Our Divine Lord is the great teacher that has come from God, and ever has been and ever will be the “light of the world.” His ministers after him he calls and requires to be “the light of the world.” “To be instructed unto the kingdom of heaven;” and he sends them unto their fellow men, “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God.”—John 1: 4. 3: 2-19. 8: 12. Matt. 5: 14. 13: 52. Acts 26: 17, 18.

Notice of the formation of the Sabbath school for colored children and youth should be carefully and generally given, together with the time and place of meeting, and the manner in which, and the persons by whom, the school is to be conducted.

No plantation meeting should be held except with the knowledge and consent of the manager or owner, The owner should have timely notice of the meeting, so that he may make whatever arrangements may be necessary for it. The pastor or missionary will find it proper to send a little note, at times, to this effect:

The invariable reply will be like the following:

As every work of benevolence has to encounter some degree of opposition, so has that of the religious instruction of the Negroes. It is impossible in all cases to discern the cause whence the opposition proceeds. The causes are as various as are the interests, passions, and prejudices of depraved men, and as hidden as are the thoughts of the heart.

There being opposition it is to be met according to its nature and weight, and much must be left to the christian judgment and prudence of the minister of God. Our Lord has promised to assist his ministers in a special manner when exposed to opposition from men. The following general rules I would suggest for consideration.

Let opposition be met silently.

As long as access is had to the field of labor, and there are good friends, notice nothing said or done— especially if said or done behind one's back. Go on as though there were no opposition.

Let it be met forbearinly.

Be rather driven to extremities than led to them. Forbearance gives one's own mind time to settle down and act discreetly, while it gives time to the understanding and conscience of the enemy to work, and both probably will work right, and the enemy will thus vanquish himself and you be saved the trouble of encountering him. Forbearance; on the whole, conquers more than open resistance and defiance.

Let it be met prudently.

Speak and act so that they will have no evil thing to say of you. “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

Let it be met kindly.

If you know a man is opposed to you and to your work, do not treat him so as to make him see that you know and feel it; on the contrary treat him openly, candidly, and kindly. Have no quarrels with men because they choose not to agree with you in your favorite plans and principles.

Should the opposition be open and direct, and there is no possibility of avoiding contact with it, then let it be met openly, decidedly, and with Christian temper. Let your object be not to overcome men, but their errors; not to exalt yourself, but the principles of the truth of God. But to conclude: settle it in your mind that where there are one hundred cases which upon first sight appear to demand notice, after refection will prompt you to pass over ninety-nine in silence. “The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.”—Prov. 17: 14.

5. The manner of speaking and acting in relation to the Civil Condition of the Negroes.

As ministers or missionaries to the Negroes, in the discharge of our official duty, and in our intercourse with the Negroes, we should have nothing to do with their civil condition. We are appointed of God to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ” to our perishing fellow-men. We are to meditate upon the duties and responsibilities of our office; and to give ourselves “wholly” to it. We shall, by so doing, in the most effectual manner subserve the interests of masters and servants, for time and eternity. It is too much the fashion of late years, for ministers (I speak not of all) to consider themselves, ex-officio, the supervisors of human affairs; the conservators of the theological, the civil and the political interests of society, and of course, as possessing wisdom, experience, and observation sufficient “to entitle them to be heard.” Any subject, any object of pursuit, however, remotely touching upon the religion or morals of the people, is considered as legitimate “work” to which they may conscienciously devote all the powers which God has given them. The evil is increased by many who depart out of country places and villages, to sojourn where they may find a place, (in large cities if possible.) Some society or newspaper, the organ of some reform party, offers the Levite “ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel and his victuals,” and he is content to dwell there, and be a priest unto them.

The common reply is that it is an age of free inquiry and of discussion and of onward movement, and ministers above all others are bound to speak and “to give direction to the public sentiment;” nor can they do their duty unless they “come out and give support to right principles, and decidedly condemn institutions and practices in society which they know to be wrong,” and much of the same import. Thus societies and parties have already decided what is right and wrong, and what it is the duty of ministers to do and not to do, and so their right of private judgment and of independent action is taken quite away, and they become mere footballs to be struck in any direction at the will of those who have the privilege of playing upon them. The people have a great horror of being priest-ridden; I think the priests ought to have an equal horror of being people-ridden.

It is much easier for men to become public lecturers, or newspaper editors, and society agents, and pulpit declaimers against the sins of their neighbors, and against great evils, as they call them, in society, and be overwhelmed at their own responsibility for their existence, than to traverse obscure lanes and enter wretched and abandoned houses, or expose themselves to midnight airs and summer suns in unhealthy climates, to relieve the very people for whom they have so great a love, and for whom they feel so deep a sympathy, of some of their temporal sufferings, and to convey to them in their ignorance and spiritual ruin the glad tidings of salvation. To their own master they stand or fall.

On the civil condition of the Negroes, I here take occasion to say, that the Southern people are a far more reflecting and discerning people than is imagined by some. They are great lovers of their country and of the Union. No people understand their political rights better or have a more sacred regard to the happy constitution under which we live; and no people are more independent, decided and fearless in maintaining both the one and the other. The degree of general intelligence among the middling and higher classes of society is not surpassed by the same classes of society in any part of the Union; and they are disposed to live on terms of perfect amity with their fellow citizens from every section of our great country. They expect to find the citizens of the free States, at home and when they come South, entertaining views different from their own. They would not take away the right of private judgment and opinion. They accord to others what they demand for themselves. But having had the institution of slavery entailed upon them, and its existence recognized, and its perfect control and management secured to them under the Constitution, they claim exemption from the dictation and interference of people no way responsible for, nor affected by, the institution; and the right to regulate it in such a manner as in their best judgment shall promote the best good of all concerned therein—the very right which has already been exercised by eight of the original “thirteen States,” without any interference at all on the part of the remaining States. Hence, occupying this ground, they make no objection to merchants, lawyers, physicians, divines, teachers or mechanics, coming and settling among them from any part of the world. They are entitled to their own opinions, but they are neither to be expressed nor propagated so as to produce disturbance in society.

In the free States it is judged most advisable both by whites and blacks, that the latter should have their own houses of public worship and church organizations independent of the former.