SLAVEHOLDING
WEIGHED IN THE
BALANCE OF TRUTH,
AND ITS COMPARATIVE GUILT ILLUSTRATED.
BY CHARLES FITCH.
Pastor of First Free Congregational Church, Boston.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP,
No. 25, Cornhill.
——
1837.
SLAVEHOLDING, & c.
——
In order that we may understand the duties, which we owe to God and ourfellow men, relative to the subject of slavery, it is necessary that weexamine the institution, in all its bearings upon the temporal andeternal interests of the enslaved; and ascertain, as far as we are ableto do so, the extent of the injuries which it inflicts. To aid myreaders in doing this is now my object.
I do not propose however, to gauge this mammoth evil, and show you itsexact dimensions; I fully confess to you in the outset, that I am notable so to do. That it is greater, in some of its bearings at least,than any other evil that ever existed among men, and involves more guiltthan any other crime ever committed by men, I fully believe, and shallendeavor to show; still the evil has a magnitude which my powers cannotdescribe; and the guilt a blackness which can never be painted, exceptby a pencil dipped in the midnight of the bottomless pit.
I am aware, that great complaint has often been made, of those, whohave endeavored to rouse the indignation of their fellow men against thewrongs inflicted on the poor slave, that they deal in unjust severity oflanguage. That they have at any time spoken more than the truth, I donot believe—nor can I admit that they have dealt out severity andpainted rebuke, in more unmeasured terms, than they have received themfrom their opponents.
When I remember, too, the long and profound slumberings, even ofChristians on this subject, while their brethren were groaning under allthe injuries, and cruelties, of iron-handed and steel-heartedoppression; I cannot suppress the feeling, that it was necessary, thatthat those who would arouse them, should break forth as in thundertones, and gird up all their energies, to shake off the sloth in whichtheir fellow men were bound. They had themselves but just awoke as froma dream, and found that they had long been sleeping, as on theoverhanging brink of a burning crater; and when they saw the wholemultitude of their fellow countrymen, still asleep in the same situationof fearful peril; who can wonder that they should cry out at the top oftheir voice, and resort to every possible expedient, to awaken thosearound them before it was too late? They heard the suppressed andterrific mutterings of the incipient earthquake below, and felt theground beneath them already giving way, what less could they do, than tolay about them with all their strength, in the use of the firstexpedient, that seemed calculated to awaken and save? They had no timeto devise a multitude of measures, and then choose from[Pg 5] among them,such as would be most likely to satisfy those who were unwilling to beawaked. They must do something, and do it then. Previous measures,though entered upon ostensibly for the purpose of arousing men fromsleep, had only served as a lull-a-by. The oppressors of their fellowmen, were but becoming more secure in their claims of property in God'si