member of the presbytery of New York; and within the last six months he
has been chosen moderator of that presbytery. [Loud cheers.] He has
presided in that capacity at the ordination of a minister to one of the
most respectable churches of that city. So far so good--we rejoice in
it, and we hope that the same sense of justice which has brought about
that change, so that a colored man can be moderator of a Presbytery in
the city of New York, will go on, till full justice is done to these
people, and until the grievous wrongs to which they have been subjected
will be entirely done away. [Cheers.] But still, what is the aspect
which the great American nation now presents to the Christian world?
Most sorry am I to say it; but it is just this--a Christian republic
upholding slavery--the only great nation on earth that does uphold it--a
great Christian republic, which, so far as the white people are
concerned, is the fairest and most prosperous nation on earth--that
great Christian republic using all the power of its government to secure
and to shield this horrible institution of negro slavery from
aggression; and there is no subject on which the government is so
sensitive--there is no institution which it manifests such a
determination to uphold. [Hear, hear!] And then the most melancholy fact
of all is, that the entire Christian church in that republic, with few
exceptions, are silent, or are apologists for this great wrong. [Hear,
hear!] It makes my heart bleed to think of it; and there are many
praying and weeping in secret places over this curse, whose voices are
not heard. There is such a pressure on the subject, it is so mixed up
with other things, that many sigh over it who know not what to say or
what to do in reference to it. And what kind of slavery is it? Is it
like the servitude under the Mosaic law, which is brought forward to
defend it? Nothing like it. Let me read you a little extract from a
correspondent of a New York paper, writing from Paris. I will read it,
because it is so graphic, and because I wish to show from what sources