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An unusual press of other matter has prevented us for some weeks from inserting the Appeal which we give below. We sym pathize most deeply with the spirit and the efforts of Mr. Clay. His soul seems on fire to redeem the nation from the sin and curse of Slavery. God speed the enterprise and the man ! OF the wisdom of the plan he suggests for a Board of Missions we do not feel qualified under our circumstances to speak with confidence. It manifestly contemplates reaching and enlighten ing the non-slave-holding white population of the Slave States The desired change those state governments is doubtless to be ex pected from that quarter. With all our soul we say—Do some thing—do the Wisestand best thing possible. By. From the True American. AN APPEAL TO ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST IN THE AMERICAN UNION. To all the adherents of the Christian religion, Cath olic and Protestant, in the American Union, the writer of this article would respectfully represent, that he is but a single individual of humble pretensions, struggling with honest zeal for the liberties of his country and the common rights of all mankind. He sets up no claims to purity of life, but whilst he is himself subject to all the infirmities of our common nature, he believes in an omnipotent and benevolent God, overruling the universe by fixed and eternal laws. He believes that man’s greatest happiness consists in a wise understanding and a strict observance of all the laws of his being, moral, mental and physical, which are best set forth in the Christian code of ethics. He believes that the Chris tian religion is the truest basis of justice, mercy, truth and happiness known among men. As a politician, especially, does he regard Christian morality as the sole basis of national and constitutional liberty. He believes that liberty of conscience was the antecedent of civ il liberty, and that to Christianity did our fathers owe the emigration from the Old World, and our national independence in the New. He believes that there is now a crisis in the affairs of our nation, which calls for the united efforts of all good men to save us from dis honor and ruin. Slavery is our great national sin, and must be de stroyed, or we are lost. From a small cloud, not lar ger than a man’s hand, it has overspread the whole heaven. Three millions of our fellow-men, (if our re ligion be not a fable) children of the same Father, are held in absolute servitude, and the most unqualified des potism. By a strange oversight or self-avenging crimi nality of our fathers, an anti-republican, unequal, shorn representation has given the slaveocracy a concentrated power, which subjects the additional fifteen millions of whites of this nation to the caprice and rule of some three hundred and fifty thousand slave-holders. They monopolize the principal offices of honor and profit, control our foreign relations and internal policy.— They have forced us into unjust wars—national bad faith—and large and unnecessary expenditures of money. They have violated time after time the Na tional and State Constitutions. They have trampled under foot all the cardinal principles of our inher ited liberty—freedom of the press—liberty of speech —trial by jury—the habeas corpus, and that clause of the Constitution which gives to the citizens of the several States the rights and privileges of citizens of each State. They have murdered our citizens--impris oned our seamen—and denied us all redress in the courts of national judicature by forcibly and illegally expell ing our ambassadors—thus failing in the comity obser ved sacred by all nations, civilized and savage till now! All this have we borne, in magnanimous forbearance, or tame subserviency, till remonstrance is regarded as criminal, and it has become the common law of the land, in all the slave States, to murder in cold blood, and in a calm and “dignified manner,” any American (ree. man who has the spirit to exercise the constitutional, and natural, and inalienable rights of free thought and manly utterance! Now in the name of that religion which teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself—to do unto others as we would have others do unto us—to break every yoke and let the oppressed go free—we pray every follower of Christ to bear testimony against this crime against man and God , which fills our souls with cruelty and crime— stains our hands with blood—and overthrows every prin. [pipte of national and constitutional liberty for which the good and great-souled patriots of all ages laid down their lives, and for which our fathers suffered, bled and died. We pray you to set your faces against all those pro fessed followers of Christ, who betray him in the house
Newspaper Details
Oberlin Evangelist
Oberlin, Ohio, US
Wed, Feb 18, 1846
Page 4
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 04 Feb 2026
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