what does it show us? Does it show us that emancipation is more likely to
follow from the success of the Southern society which assumes to be at the
helm of all schemes of religion and philanthropy, not only has no desire
to put an end to slavery, but regards it in such a light that it will be
its duty _to extend it as much as possible_. The Southern clergy say that
the relation of master and slave is "not incompatible with our holy
Christianity;" why, therefore, should they seek to get rid of it? From a
thousand pulpits this language will be sent forth week after week, and it
is clear that the religion of the Confederate States will be employed only
to convince the slaveowner that he is doing perfectly right in
perpetuating a system which enables him to buy men and women as chattels,
and to obtain command of human bodies and minds at the prices current of
the market. Then, the Southern clergy think it a cause for gratitude to
God on behalf of the negroes "that He has brought them where missionaries
of the Cross might freely proclaim to them the word of salvation." Will it
not, therefore, be the duty of the Southern clergy to extend those
blessings to new millions of Africans, and thus carry out the "plans of
Divine Providence?" Is the whole tendency of this argument not to elevate
the horrible trade of the slave-catcher to the same high level with the
noble office of the missionary? Proclaiming as they do that the capture of
Africans and their removal into slavery in the Southern States is God's
own missionary plan, the Confederate clergy and people will consider it as
much their duty to equip slave-ships with cargoes of manacles and send
them forth accompanied by the prayers of the churches, as it is now our
duty to send forth missionary-ships laden with Bibles and preachers of the
gospel. Then the heathen world will know what missionary Christianity
really is. Thousand of Africans, caught on the west coast, will be torn
from their families and taken chained on board ship; should they survive
the horrors of the passage, they will be set to hard work under laws which
permit of almost any degree of corporeal punishment and which deprive them