Lv South Carolina. 481 



What slave, now a slave, would it make more a bondman? Or who 

 that is not now a slave-holder might be made a slave-holder? Not 

 one more slave, nor one more slave-holder, can be made by the failure 

 of the measure ; and yet brethren are bound to carry it, not that they 

 may oppress the South, but merely that they may prevent an exten- 

 sion of slavery over the North. It is, they say, a mere matter of 

 self-preservation. As if for the cause that Bishop Andrew was made 

 a slave-holder without his consent, by the will of the old lady who 

 died in Augusta some years ago, all these brethren, and all they rep- 

 resent, were about to be involved, or were already involved, in the 

 same predicament with the bishop, whether they will or no. The 

 phrase "connected with slavery" has been complained of as extremely 

 indefinite; but I could not have thought that it was so indefinite as 

 this hypothesis proceeds to make it. Bishop Andrew's "connection 

 with slavery," brethren assure us, will carry the defilement to hun- 

 dreds of thousands who are now clean, unless they prevent it by the 

 passage of that resolution! I cannot trace this line of connection; 

 I cannot fix its figure ; I cannot conceive of it as an actual verity. 

 Mesmerism itself should not be more impalpable. But I am free to 

 declare, sir, that I have no desire for the extension of slavery. I 

 could wish no freeman to be made a slave. I could rather wish that 

 slaves were freemen. I certainly could not wish my brethren who 

 are served by freemen to be taxed with such incumbrances as some 

 of us are who have slaves to serve us. 



Sir, I consider our circumstances in this debate quite too serious 

 for extreme speculations on either side; but if brethren will indulge 

 that way, they will allow me the benefit of inferences fairly deduci- 

 ble from their own mode of reasoning. And I claim the inferences 

 as fair from their argument on this point, that if they are involved, 

 or likely to be involved, in the evil of slavery by their relation to 

 Bishop Andrew, they are already involved, inextricably involved, 

 unless they break up the Church, by the fact that they are akin to 

 me. Yes, sir, they and I are brethren, whether they will or no. 

 The same holy hands have been laid upon their heads and upon my 

 head. The same vows which they have taken I ha\e taken. At 

 the same altar where they minister do I minister; and with the 

 same words mutually on our tongues. We are the same ministry, 

 of the same Church. Not like, but identical. Are they elders? So 

 am I. Spell the word. There is not a letter in it which they dare 

 deny me. Take their measure. I am just as high as they are, and 

 they as low as I am. We are not one ministry for the North, anil 

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