for its toleration, do unquestionably require to be put aside more thoroughly than you have succeeded in doing, before the terrible necessity of adopting your principles and following your counsel can be said to be obligatory on the conscience of the North. I will venture to suggest somewhat on both topics, which seems to have escaped your notice.

For my part, sir, I wish well to every country in the world, and to every race on the face of the earth. But I frankly admit, that I love my own country out of all comparison with every other; that I cherish my own race, with a fervor far beyond that with which I regard all others. Some people call this bigotry,-some call it fanaticism,-some call it narrow-mindedness, and the like. I call it, an exalted duty, both of natural morality and of revealed religion,-whose neglect is incompatible with a pure heart or a right spirit in man. It has pleased God to create and to establish great diversities of race amongst men; diversities, which, if we could obliterate them completely, would, there can be no doubt, be re-established under the course of Divine Providence, whose grand designs in that, as in all things else, we neither fully comprehend, nor are able to defeat. This diversity of race, extending apparently to the utmost limit compatible with its generic unity, has been one of the most conspicuous elements in the destiny of mankind-and is so still. I beg you to consider that in all recorded time, but two methods have been found, whereby it was possible to solve that great problem of the general mixture of races in one community, on equal terms. It can be done-where all have a common master; that is, under a form, which indiscriminately enslaves all. Or it can be done, by means of the toleration of Polygamy; that is, under a form where the civil equality is preceded and co-erced by one of blood and household. Except by one or other of these means, or by both of them combined, the fundamental demand of your abolition hypothesis, after innumerable attempts, and upon every race of men, under every form of civilization,-has encountered only universal shipwreck. Your Anti-slavery Enterprise, therefore, as soon as it encounters the question of mixed races dwelling together, must demand that equality which is produced by the indiscriminate servitude of all; or it must demand the toleration of Polygamy; or it must succumb before the irresistible course of Providence and the invincible laws of human nature, as both are attested by the universal experience of mankind. That is, we must renounce our freedom and our actual civilization, to reach one solution of this problem; or we must renounce our christianity, to reach the other solution of it; or we must resist your Antislavery Enterprise, with its fundamental clause of equality of races, as tantamount to the utter disorganization of society. Sir, I have not one word to say about Shem, or Ham, or Japhet, or Canaan. But whether as a Statesman, as a Philosopher, or as a Christian, and with a sovereign contempt for all infidel theories of man, of society, and of virtue,-I calmly and sorrowfully tell you, there lies one of the grand and insuperable obstacles to that universal freedom and equality of man, for which man has panted from the origin of the race, but could never attain; and never will, upon such theories as yours. The pretext that the thing is attainable by civil war, or is attainable at all except on the terms stated, or is either possible or desirable for us, is neither true nor real.

On the other point, your plea for the dissolution of society and the ruin of our country is still less satisfactory. As for me, Mr. Sumner, it has been the great business of my life to preach the Gospel of God: the great plea

sure of my life, to do what I could to ameliorate the condition of my fellow men. And I need not hesitate to add, that while I have won neither Senatorial rank nor national notoriety thereby, I have endured more and risked more for the sake of the black race, by far, than either you or I have done for the sake of the white. Your fierce sarcasm, therefore, has no terror for me; nor can your pathos mislead a heart which has felt too deeply all the real evils of this pitiable case, to be susceptible to the influence of the most eloquent exaggerations; nor have I any sympathy with that state of mind, in which one can imagine that he is pleading the cause of Christ, while he is counselling the deliberate violation of the most sacred obligations. The life and the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, afford the only perfect illustration of every truth and every duty; and amongst the rest, of that glorious truth of the universal brotherhood of man, and that immortal duty of quenchless, mutual love, founded on it. But how utterly do we misconceive the life and the doctrine of the Son of God, when we advocate universal treason in order to redress partial oppression; or teach doctrines which lead only to universal rapine in order to rectify partial injustice! I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that every people were fit to enjoy, and did actually possess, public liberty and free institutions: but should I, therefore, urge an indiscriminate assault upon all nations which desire, but are denied these inestimable blessings? All duty is founded upon truths and laws, both of which are immutable; but every duty, is modified by circumstances which vary ceaselessly: and it is only as we comprehend both of these great principles, that we can ever attain any rational assurance that we perform a single duty aright. As a member of the human race, enlightened by the Gospel, I may have a particular view, of the general question of human servitude. Considered as a citizen of the United States, with the institution of slavery occupying the precise posture it does in this nation, my view of my own duty must necessarily be modified. Considered as a citizen of Kentucky, where much might be done towards the amelioration of slavery, my duty is modified again. And considered as a citizen of South Carolina, where probably it is hardly possible to conjecture how slavery could terminate peacefully and safely, my duty necessarily undergoes another and very serious modification. The religion of Jesus Christ is compatible with every condition in which God's providence constrains our fallen race to exist: and it is as absurd in reason, and as unfounded in fact, to assert that Christ and his Apostles required the indiscriminate abolition of human servitude, as to assert that they required the indiscriminate overthrow of any other form of despotic authority amongst men. For myself, my natural heart would doubtless have loved the teachings of the Lord all the more, if he had preached a crusade for liberty, instead of a sacrifice for sin. But with his Gospel in our hands, we can no more keep an honest and enlightened conscience, and deny that his teachings tolerated human servitude as a condition compatible with salvation-than we can make ourselves acquainted with the history of human affairs, and deny that his providence has tolerated human servitude as a condition compatible with the 'existence of society. What are we, that we cannot have a little patience with that, with which God has had patience since sin entered into the World? And how striking is it to behold the certainty with which men repudiate the power of the Gospel, as soon as they have fastened on it a power of ther own; how surely they become heretics, apostates or infidels, when they begin to teach Christ, instead of setting down at his feet to learn.

of him! What else can we say, but that all such pretexts, whether for public wrong or for private iniquity, are neither true nor real?

It was my purpose, sir, to have said something on the remaining topics of your discourse-the Practicability and Dignity of the Anti-Slavery Enterprise, together with your view of the special duty of the North with regard to it. In your first topic, however, the Necessity of that Enterprise, the foundation of all lies; and having discussed, in some degree, your fundamental principles, I pass by what, when I was a younger man, I should have been more prompt to utter, touching some other portions of your discourse. For the rest, I will venture to add a few words, which, if you cared to do so, it would be your right to demand of me, in explanation of my own views, after having spoken so freely of yours.

Slavery, Mr. Sumner, is not a modern institution; it is as ancient as human society. And yet it is not a permanent institution, in the sense of being perpetuated in one particular race or country. We have the sad advantage of being able to contemplate it, in every age of the world, in every condition of severity, and in contact with every form of civilization. We ought, by this time, to be able to comprehend it. From this point of view I have two statements to make, both of which I fear may appear to you inaccurate. The first is, that nothing concerning the structure of human society is more clearly established by the entire career of man on this earth, than that, in some form or other, the social subjugation of one part of every highly developed community to another part of it,-that is, servitude in some form or other, is absolutely inevitable; just as much so, as the existence of crime, or want, or sorrow. Let us bewail this as a badge of our fallen condition; let us seek its constant amelioration, as one of our clearest duties: but let us respect truth, and justice, and honor, and good faith, in all our attempts. The second statement I have to make is, that the general condition of negro slavery in America, so far from being particularly direful and loathsome, as you represent it to be, is really, and indeed, of necessity, in all respects mitigated and regulated after the pervading spirit of our protestant civilization, and is gradually acquiring a more endurable position, as the power of the Gospel gradually extends its influence, and as the slave states gradually settle into the conviction, that their duty obliges them to accept this institution as a permanent part of their social system. I do not myself believe that servitude in this particular form, is, as an original question, either necessary or desirable; and I am well convinced, that in many of our slave States, it might be gradually abolished, with great advantage; while in all of them it might be still further ameliorated without regard to the question of its ultimate solution. Nor is it my opinion, that the permanent continuance of this servitude, in its present form, is possible, though its endurance may be protracted, and the methods of its termination extremely diversified, over the immense area covered by it. Your duty and mine, sir, as American philanthropists, each in his own sphere, is to accept this great problem as we find it, and by all the means in our power, assist its final outworking, in a manner most compatible with the interests of humanity, with the true progress and glory of our country, and with those internal principles of nature and of providence which our puny efforts may in some degree assist, but are wholly impotent to control. There is an aspect of this whole question of negro slavery in America, extremely broad, and which you do not seem to have examined. It is not merely a question of slavery and the negro population on this continent;

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[July,

nor yet, merely a question of bloodshed and our South. It is a question affecting all of the Black Race throughout the conquest of earth-and all those vast interests of the whole earth, which the final desyour North against tiny of that immense race involves. As yet, the Black Race has never had a nationality. As yet, there has never been a civilized state within the tropics. A hundred millions of the human race, and nearly a fourth part of the earth's habitable surface, around its very centre, await the issue of this question of negro slavery in America, and must be influenced greatly, if not controlingly by it. Rest assured, Mr. Sumner, whatever dignity you may persuade yourself to ascribe to your Anti-slavery Enterprise, and to your stirring speech at Niblo's Theatre,-nay, even to your Faneuil Hall eloquence, and -there is an eternal logic in events, and there is an awful majesty in the your Massachusetts agitations over some poor fugitive slave, sublime course of Providence, in the face of which, posterity will men endowed like you, ought to have been ashamed to participate in such insane, fantastic, and ignoble revels! say, that

However difficult the question of human servitude may be to solve, after slavery has been once fully established in the bosom of a commonwealth ; or however men may differ as to the moral aspect of the actual questions now agitating the minds of our countrymen so deeply; it seems to me, that as a mere topic of National politics and National legislation, the whole question of American Slavery is one environed by no other difficulties, but such as have been created by our own evil passions. So far as the powers of the National Government are concerned-has not Massachusetts the unquestionable right to create slavery in her bosom-if she sees fit to do so,

and Louisiana to abolish it in hers, if she thinks proper? And is not this true of every State? What need then is there, in all soberness, for frantic contentions about Territorial settlements, which, in their own nature, can be only temporary? Suppose Missouri should abolish slavery? Suppose Illinois should create it? Suppose Kansas should decide the question, first one way, and then the other? Moreover, what essential difference does it make, whether it is upon a basis of fifteen slave States, or sixteen slave States, that the great problem of our National destiny is to be worked out? And as to its true bearing on the infinite mission of our country, what consequence can a rational mind attach to the temporary result of a fierce conflict for supremacy between madmen in one of our territories West of the Missouri River? What odds does it make, any way, as a National question, whether there are three millions of slaves, or three millions and a fraction over; whether six, or ten, or a hundred slaves, more or less, escape or are reclaimed? The power of the General Government over the whole subject is so extremely limited, and transient, and incidental, as compared with the absolute power of the States themselves; the good that can be done by the exercise of the powers actually possessed by Congress, is comparatively so slight and uncertain, and the danger which is obviously incurred is so real and deplorable; the condition in which the Nation stands with reference to the whole subject is so distinct and so peculiar ; that, I must confess, it has always appeared to me unspeakably surprising, that any National party, and especially any one at the North,-should be found capable of permanent organization in connection with such topics. Any honest, moderate, patriotic, consistent exercise of the powers of the General Government over the question of slavery, could hardly have failed to satisfy the nation to the end,-as it satisfied it during its early and most

glorious period. Whatever may have been the sins or follies of Southern Statesmen, or the Southern people, it would be hard to produce an example at once more flagrant, insulting, and unjust, than the discourse which suggested these remarks.

After all, I cannot persuade myself that God will allow us to degrade ourselves so utterly, as to break up this glorious confederacy on such a question as this. I do not allow myself to believe that the mass of the American people, are so utterly destitute of the sublime instinct of their country's mission among the Nations. Civil war is not a remedy; it is the most direful of all discases. National strength, in a day like ours, and to freemen, is not so much a glory, as it is a necessity-the grand necessity of their liberty and independence. As to slavery, it is a question about which men may differ, according to the necessities of their condition and the point of view from which they consider it. But the cordial, and indissoluble Union of these States, is a matter concerning which no American who has a true heart in his bosom, can possibly have but one opinion-one purpose. If their be one political duty common to us all, and transcendently clear and binding, it is that we should visit with immediate and condign punishment, every party and every public man, who is not loyal to the Union and the Constitution.

Your fellow citizen and obedient servant,

Brodalbane, Ky., June 11th, 1855.

R. J. BRECKINRIDGE.

CHURCH ELECTIONS.-WHO MAY VOTE FOR PASTOR?

HOWEVER unsatisfactory may have been the discussion in the late Assembly as to the right of suffrage in our congregations, we are gratified, and grateful to the Head of the Church, that the venality which prevails in elections in some parts of the Church, is beginning to excite attention and alarm. We are duly deliberate in using the term venality; for, as shall be shown, it is the very term which describes the thing. The debate in the Assembly was interesting, but by no means exhaustive of the subject. In our opinion the wisest speech made on the occasion was by Dr. Plumer. The report of it, we give in full:

"It is clear we are not agreed. First, because the Book is a little ambiguous secondly, our practice is widely different thirdly, few have studied the subject much. I therefore move that the overture and other papers now before the body on this subject, be referred to a committee of three, to report to the Assembly of 1856."

It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Plumer's motion did not prevail. The subject was laid on the table; but it will not be allowed to slumber there forever. It is enough for the Church to know that there are persons who advocate the extension of the elective franchise to all men, of every creed and character, who are willing to purchase it with money. We pause to notice particularly but one argument urged in the Assembly, against confining the priv