PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND 1899. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834; By GARRISON & KNAPP; In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Mass. GARRISON AND KNAPP, PRINTERS. DECLARATION F SENTIMENT, Page 5 LECTURE I. The sin of slavery-question stated; slavery de- fined; definition explained and illustrated; the question not one of mere abstraction; slavery in all cases, either is or is not sin; it is in all cases, falsehood in theory; tyranny in prac- tice; a violation of God's law; and a parent of abominations -originating and perpetuating the foreign slave-trade, with all its connected síns and woes; also the domestic; and being the fruitful source of licentiousness, LECTURE II. Objections Answered-and slavery shown to be, 1, not peculiar in the United States in respect to its innocence and the difficulties of its removal; 2, not sanctioned by the bible; 3, that the slave is not unqualified for freedom; 4, that slavery is not entailed, so as to cancel or diminish guilt, LECTURE III. The Remedy of Slavery.-The subject undergo- ing a new and thorough investigation; the people of the North better qualified to judge on the question of remedy than are the people of the South; the remedy, whatever it be, is to be determined on general principles, and not on the supposition of excepted cases; it must respect the rights and interests of the injured, in preference to those of the injurers; it is, com- plete and universal emancipation. This is to be effected, not by any schemes of amelioration; not by any schemes of grad- ual emancipation; but by that of immediate emancipation. The scheme explained; the mode and plan for carrying it into LECTURE IV. Objections Answered.-The scheme of Imme- diate Emancipation shown, 1, not to be fraught with danger to the nation; nor 2, with danger to the master's life; nor 3, with danger to his interest; nor 4, with ruin to the slave; nor 5, ERRATA. Page 81, 17th line from bottom, for 'double meaning,' read double dealing. Page 112, 3d line from bottom, for 'pungents,' read unguents. Page 156, top line, for 'teach,' read touch. Page 162, 11th line from top, for physical moral,' read phys-~ ico-moral. Page 165, 9th line from top, for trampled under foot,' read trampled them under foot.. Page 181, top line, for 'ah ?' read eh? THE OPINION OF ONE HUNDRED AND TO THE PUBLIC. The following, as will be seen, is an expression of opinion from quite a number of clergymen, on the much agitated subject of slavery and its remedy. It is due to those, who have thus consented to come before the public as the advocates of immediate emancipation, to say, that they have done it at my solicitation as an individual, in my individual capacity, and not as associated with any particular society. They are not, therefore, to be considered as committed by this act to any society, or to any sentiments not expressed in the document to which they have annexed their names. The object, and the only object aimed at in this measure, is to secure a decided expression of opinion on these two cardinal points, 1. That Colonization is not an adequate remedy for slavery, and must therefore be abandoned for something that is; and 2. That the scheme of Immediate Emancipation is such a remedy, and is therefore to be adopted and urged. Such, as will be seen, is the substance of the following DECLARATION OF SENTIMENT. "The undersigned, after mature deliberation, feel themselves constrained by a sense of duty to God and man, to make the following expression of opinion. We believe, 1. That Slavery in our land is a great and threatening evil. 2. That it is a great and crying national sin. 3. That every man whether he live at the North, South, East or West, is personally responsible, and has personal duties to discharge in respect to it. 4. That every man, who adopts opinions or pursues practices, which adopted and pursued by all others, would go to perpetuate this sin, does thereby become personally guilty in respect to it. 5. We believe that slavery, like other sins, ought to be remedied as soon as the nature of the case admits; and further, that the nature of the case admits the possibility and therefore imposes the obligation of Immediate Emancipation.* 6. That such emancipation is both the duty and the interest of the master. 7. That although the people of the non-slaveholding States, have not the right of physical or legal interposition in the case, they have the right, and that it is their solemn duty to do what they can by 'light and love' to enlighten the public mind, arouse the public conscience, and change and elevate the tone of public sentiment on the subject, in every section of the land. And finally, we believe that the grand obstacle, to the abolition of this sin, lies in the will of the slaveholder that this will being changed, there would of necessity be a change in the various laws and other obstacles which have grown out of it; and that this will is to be changed, (I), by the power of public sentiment among non-slaveholders, and (2), by means of kind, candid, and thorough discussion with slaveholders themselves. In respect to the scheme of Colonization, which at the North professes to be a scheme of gradual and ultimate, through ‘incidental' emancipation, we feel constrained to say 1. That whatever its merits are, it can never be an adequate remedy for slavery; and 2. That the time has now come when the friends of God and man ought to take a higher stand, and adopt and act on principles which lay the axe directly at the root of the tree. *For the explanation of this phrase see Lecture 3, pp. 177179. I suppose all who have signed this document understand mediate Emancipation, substantially, as it is there explained. |