280 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



followed by those I know most loud in denunciation of 

 all men who dare to hold their fellow-men in subjection. 



And these few cases mentioned, are by no means iso- 

 lated ones. I believe that it is susceptible of proof, that 

 there are more Christian communicants, counting black 

 and white, in the slave-holding States, than in any other 

 portion of Protestant Christendom, containing the same 

 number of souls. But I am sorry to say, that there are 

 such numbers of professing Christians in the free States 

 who deny that man can own a slave and still be a Chris- 

 tian. 



And I am still more sorry to say, that the action of 

 English arrogance and ignorance, which, under the name 

 of abolition of slavery, seeks to throw a fire-brand into 

 the explosive magazine of southern excitability, for the 

 hidden purpose of blowing up the Union, aided as it is 

 in this country by political demagoguism, ignorant fanat- 

 acism, and honest belief that slavery is the accursed 

 thing of God, has done more to retard the progress of 

 Christianity, civilization, comfort and happiness, among 

 the slaves, than all other causes put together. 



Do we not forget the command, "judge not lest ye be 

 judged," when we sit in judgment upon the slaveholder 

 and denounce him as destitute of all the attributes of the 

 Christian religion, and refuse to associate and commune 

 with him as a brother, because he happened to be born 

 in a southern clime to the inheritance of slavery. 



And here let me inquire, tvhat is slavery — as you un- 

 derstand it? Is it to be better fed, better clothed, better 

 housed, better lodged, better provided and cared for in 

 infancy, sickness and old age, better loved and respected 

 by master, mistress, children and fellow laborers, better 

 instructed in the principles of morality and religion, and, 

 finally, at the close of a long life of light labor, comfort 

 and happiness, to be better and more decently buried, 

 than are millions of the laboring population of freemen 

 in Europe, and thousands of the same class in this 

 boasted land of liberty? For this is most truly the con- 

 dition of slaves in the South. 



