is in the course of events, and when men throw themselves in the current of events to hasten, or to retard, they are but straws. Let all straws be kept out of that section of this resistless current which flows through Kentucky, and let it roll on in its undisturbed power.

We have said that those who took bold and decided ground for emancipation then, made up an enduring and honorable record. This is especially true of the Presbyterian clergy. Their posterity will not be ashamed of them.

A GLORIOUS RECORD TARNISHED.

But where do we find some of them now? On which side are they battling about slavery now,-not as the institution was then, reposing in peace, but-when it has risen up in its treasonable rage and is filling the land with earnage and wailing; when it is carrying fire and sword to the homes of Kentucky; and when all this is undertaken and prosecuted for the sole purpose of perpetuating for ever the system which in 1849 the Presbyterians of Kentucky wished, unanimously, to remove from among them?

The "Rev. Mr. Robinson, of Frankfort," so " conspicuous for his zeal in behalf of emancipation" in 1849, is Dr. Stuart Robinson, of Toronto, Canada, now editor of The True Presbyterian, issued in Louisville, Kentucky. That paper, as we have proved in a previous chapter, is filled with treason against the Government, and is aiding the rebellion as far as it dare go in that direction. It of course advocates the system of slavery out of which the rebellion has arisen. Number after number of that paper has been mainly devoted to a vindication of slavery from the extremest proslavery position taken by the leaders of the rebellion in the South. In 1819, his "zeal" was "conspicuous" in maintaining the principles of the Emancipation State Convention of Kentucky, which declared slavery

A GLORIOUS RECORD TARNISHED.

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to be "contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and injurious to a pure state of morals." In 1862, 63, 64, when the nation is struggling for its life, against the foulest rebellion the earth ever saw,—a rebellion begun in the name of slavery, urged on for the sake of slavery, fighting for slavery, living for slavery, worshipping slavery, dooming a whole generation of its young men to a cruel death for slavery, and aiming to supplant universal liberty for slavery, Dr. Robinson's "zeal" is made "conspicuous" in using all his power, through his paper, to convince the "Presbyterians" of Kentucky, hitherto opposed to slavery, that the system among them which they formerly denounced is "divine," an "ordinance of God," justified by law and by Gospel, the best condition for the negro race, in accordance with the law of nature, and all the other fine things which Southern rebels say of it; while, to dissent from this, to speak of slavery as did the Emancipation Convention of Kentucky in whose behalf his "zeal" was once "conspicuous," is "infidelity" in any man, and for the Church to do this is incurable "apostasy."

This is his former record; and this is his present one. We wish it could be said with truth that other Presbyterian ministers and members stand where they were all reported as standing fifteen years ago. But it is unquestionably true that many of them, judging from the editorials, correspondents, and support given to The True Presbyterian, have repudiated their former record, and now stand for the twin-powers, slavery and rebellion.

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CHAPTER XII.

MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY.

We have shown at some length, in previous chapters, the opinions entertained of slavery as an institution, both at the North and in the South, by the Church, by statesmen, and by the people, from before the establishment of the National Government down to a period within some thirty years; and they exhibit, with rare exceptions, a concurrent testimony against the system, on grounds both of principle and policy. Divines and statesmen, during the earlier period, as well in those States where it was established as elsewhere, regarded it as an evil to be tolerated rather than justified, and many of them hoped for its ultimate removal from the country, and aided schemes of emancipation with that end in view.

During the later period, a total revolution in opinion has obtained in the States in rebellion, embracing the Church and the world together, which has been for many years practically universal. It now approves what it once condemned, applauds what it once lamented, justifies what it once tolerated, blesses what it once denounced, and places under the divine sanction what it formerly consigned to God's withering curse.

As this change in Southern opinion is the fruitful germ which has brought forth this monstrous rebellion, we propose in this chapter to give some examples of the present status of this opinion, confining ourselves as before chiefly to the Church, as seen in the views of leading divines and ecclesiastical bodies. There is nothing in this aspect of

DEFENDED BY NORTHERN MEN.

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the subject which requires that we should present this testimony in the chronological order of its utterance. It rather seems appropriate that we should exhibit some of the later expressions of opinion first, that we may see to what they have grown, and the baldness and boldness with which they are announced. We shall show, also, at the conclusion of this chapter, the development and progress of this modern opinion in the South in the order of time, and thus show how far the Church is responsible for leading and misleading the men of the world. Our chief object, however, is to set forth the sharp contrast between present and former opinions in the same section of country.

DEFENDED BY NORTHERN MEN.

We have entitled this chapter, "Modern Southern Views of Slavery," because the opinions here presented are mostly entertained in the South. But it will be seen, that among their stanchest advocates are found divines in the free and in the Border slave States. And what is a most significant fact in this connection is, that at no time since the existence of our Government have prominent Northern men been so bold in advocating and defending slavery, many of them going to the extreme length of modern Southern opinion, and justifying it on every ground, human and divine,-as since the beginning of the rebellion caused by slavery, and during a short time previous, when the determination openly to resist the Government for the sake of slavery was in process of maturing. Volumes and pamphlets, of various ponderosity in size and argument, have been written by Bishop Hopkins, Presi dent Lord, Dr. Seabury, Professor Morse, and other men of equal and some of less distinction. Besides these, sermons have been issued, and portions of the periodical

press have come to the rescue; while at least one professedly religious newspaper in Kentucky, conducted and supported by Presbyterians, is battling lustily and constantly as no religious journal within the State has ever been known to do before, going the full length of the most ultra Southern extremists in vindication of the system, and commending with special earnestness the works and writers to which we refer. There is a certain significance in these things which may be very puzzling to philosophers or very easy of solution to plain men.

POSITIONS TAKEN.

We state the positions which the modern defenders of slavery take, and give from their writings quotations which illustrate them, classifying both under two general heads the sanction given to slavery by the Law of Nature; and the sanction claimed for it in the Word of God.

It must be borne in mind, as vital in the issue, that these positions, and the authorities and reasons for them, are presented by those who assert them not only to cover slavery in former times and in other nations, but are designed to exhibit the grounds on which the present system of Negro Slavery in the South is vindicated and sanctioned.

The views taken of the system by Southern extremists and their Northern "allies," though differing somewhat among their defenders, may be substantially reduced to the following form:

I. That slavery is in no sense the creature of local law, or indeed of any law of man, but is based upon the Law of Nature; that it is normally universal, found among all states of society and in every nation where it has not been positively prohibited, and has existed from the origin of