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aggravated hostility and refined effrontery. But the sin we have just exhibited, with its concomitants, is only one of thousands, which are current and accumulate strength daily, in what are called Christian countries. We see in other nations the most dreadfully formidable despotism, that ever degraded or tormented the human race, prevail; and we may see in our own, if we will but open our intellectual eyes for a moment, intestine divisions, party acrimony, hatred, and violence prevail, which seems to bid fair for the introduction of anarchy and civil war. For if rebellion or club law begins to appear, and its auxiliary, party-rancour, in the infancy of our nation, what may we expect will be the event of our impolicy, imbecility, duplicity, and oppression in following years, when we may have to grapple with adversaries rendered invincible by our impolicy; I mean the infuriated sons of Africa? Who can help seeing even now, that the sacred basis on which our holy religion is built, is virulently attacked by its enemies, and undermined by its professed friends? for it is a lamentable fact, that though there is a great amount of nominal religion in the world, and pharisaical professors in superabundance, yet, on an average, the number of true philanthropic and evangelical Christians, is comparatively very few. Who can help seeing that the measures of our brethren of the south, have a direct tendency to metamorphose their slaves to the most formidable foes, and that they virtually cry to them, "Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," though they little think that this is the case, and the very anticipation fills them with horror. But surely, if we may judge the future by the present, and the present by the past, we may easily ascertain the magnitude of the effects, from the virulence of the cause. The case of the blacks of Hispaniola and Jamaica, is irrefragable proof of the cogency of our remarks; and I might add a circumstance, related by Dr. Percival, in his Moral Tales. "A pack of hounds," says he, "were kept long without sufficient food, to render them more eager for the chase, and were frequently lashed by their keeper, who one day entering the kennel without his whip, they all flew upon him and tore him to pieces!" Thus will the slaveholders of the south, some unguarded moment, be repaid for all their barbarities, and perhaps be butchered by their infuriated slaves, with as much vengeance as the negroes

of Hayti and Jamaica manifested in their dreadful massacre of all the whites (amounting to several thousands) that came within their reach, a few artificers for local purposes only excepted.

The long forbearing mercy of God is manifesting to angels, men, and devils, in time and eternity, his infinite goodness in giving his deluded incorrigible mortals, from time to time, and through different channels, timely warning, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. And while this and similar performances will be living testimonials of the long-suffering compassion of a munificent Creator, they will also be living witnesses of the wickedness, perverseness, and impenitence of the tyrannic and impenitent sons of men, when the hour of retribution approaches, in which the just vengeance of an indignant, a slighted, and insulted deity descends with impetuosity upon the guilty heads of his rebellious, his imperious, his barbarous, his unrelenting creatures. Though this work may be rejected by a great majority of the people, still I feel with tenfold solicitude the importance of the subject, the language of which I endeavour to simplify, so as to suit the capacities of the most illiterate; and let them think what they please and say what they think, relative to the futility of these strictures, I am determined, with the assistance of the grace of God, to give a faithful warning, and perhaps before many years have rolled their anxious cares away, it will be evinced, that I have sounded neither an undue nor an unseasonable alarm. As I feel it conscientiously my duty to admonish my fellow citizens, to forego the product of villany and vices, and pursue the path of honour and virtue; my admonitions in this respect are good, though my fears and anticipated dangers should prove to be only chimerical and romantic illusions. I feel however with peculiar force, the solemnity of the subsequent passage of scripture, and hence that it is better for me to hearken to and obey the voice of conscience, (when under the influence of scripture and reason,) than the requisitions or prohibitions of men:

Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turns not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. This passage I apprehend is as applicable to me, when admonishing my

fellow creatures from the press, as it is when addressing them from the pulpit. Many persons, no doubt, will agree with me, when I assert, that our political situation as a nation is both critical and perilous; though their opinions greatly vary as to the magnitude of the danger, and the sources from whence it proceeds. Many often, too often, deplore the effect of moral evil, without paying any attention to the cause; so likewise they feel the punishment of natural evil, without investigating its source.

"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.

"And he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

"Wo unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!"

But the great misfortune is, that those who feel themselves the lords of creation or the rulers of the people, are the most careless and indifferent to the evils I deprecate, like the inattentive captain who runs his ship upon the rocks and is the first to leave her, and if possible his crew, to the mercy of the waves. They are above regarding the alarmist, and listen with a contemptuous sneer, if they listen at all, to his admonitions. Yet when the dangers he exhibits intellectually are realized corporeally, they will, no doubt, be the most clamorous in exculpating themselves from personal censure, and precipitate in saving themselves from personal danger. But why mention the rulers of the people, or expect to be heard by them? It is to those who will be the greatest sufferers, in the event of a realization of the evils I warn them against, to wit, the agricultural and mechanical part of society, I must address my discourse. For, admitting our liberties should be annihilated, those who now hold their heads high, would be perhaps the royal or imperial dependants, or I should rather have said, the parasites and sycophants of imperial or royal demagogues.

The shipwreck of the republicanism of France, by a solitary wandering adventurer, while it justifies my fears in this respect, should impress the minds of my fellow citizens with a prudential fear also. Let them remember such a

man as Bonaparte would find more powerful auxiliaries in America, than appeared to favour his designs in France. The people there were first torn to pieces by intestine broils, and in this fatigued, disorganized state, quietly suffered themselves to be refettered with the manacles of hereditary, military, and ecclesiastical despotism. Judging, therefore, the present by the past, I will contend, that party rancour, and domestic factions, when carried to a certain extent, will end in the total subversion of our liberties, i. e. if men continue as depraved and ambitious as they are at present.

But some will be ready to say, our resources and militia forces are too great, to justify the anticipation or adoption of your premature fears: I answer, what were the resources of the ancient Romans? They were raised to the very pinnacle of national grandeur and refinement, a little before their degradation: I might have said, annihilation. Be assured, it is not riches, but virtue alone, that can guaranty the respectability and liberty of a nation. But by whom were the invincible conquerors of the world subjugated and enslaved? By a race (I had almost said a handful) of barbarians, who were used in the hand of the governor of the universe, as a rod to chastise the effeminate, the supercilious, the tyrannical Romans, who were previously the oppressors and tyrants of mankind, as the nations of Christendom now are.

A superficial glance at Africa and the East Indies, will suffice to demonstrate this authentic assertion and I might add the West Indies, where thousands and millions are assassinated, by the whips of the merciless planters, if not, (as in the East Indies,) by the poniards and bayonets of the unrelenting soldiers, and avaricious factors. One are despatched by the weapons of war at once, the other by the horrid apparatus of slavery, and by a slow poison; a dreadful process indeed. Mortal eloquence may attempt to depicture the horrors of slavery, but never will be able to succeed. They beggar description. But even the West India Islands have participated in sanguinary warfare also, till their original inhabitants were extirpated by the whites in those islands.

It

is a stubborn fact, that the original inhabitants of all the West India Islands are extirpated, except a few in St. Vincent's, who inhabit the mountains, some of whom I have seen in that island.

Out of thousands of instances which might be adduced to prove the authenticity and validity of our opinions, we will only appeal to the fate of the Islands of Hispaniola and Cuba. After the departure of Columbus, the governors of these islands and their ruthless soldiers, in a few years depopulated them, though the inhabitants were an innocent and inoffensive people, very hospitable to strangers. Hispaniola contained no less than three millions, and Cuba six hundred thousand inhabitants. Bartholomew De Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, who was eye and ear witness to their horrid massacres, re. lates that "they were hunted down by dogs;" fierce bloodhounds, no doubt imported for the express purpose; "these innocent people, almost naked, and without defensive arms, were pursued like wild beasts of the forest, and devoured alive by these dogs; some were shot," like the hunted partridge, "or burned alive in their habitations." He also asserts, from his own personal knowledge, "that the Spaniards frequently caused a number of these miserable wretches to be summoned by a priest to come in and submit to the Christian religion, and to the king of Spain; and that after this ceremony, they put them to death without the least remorse." We should not doubt the truth of the bishop's account; we cannot suppose he exaggerated, seeing he was, himself, in some measure, privy to the catastrophe he relates, as well as four monks of the order of St. Jerome, who were sent out by cardinal Ximenes.

Our population and finances, our commerce and improvements are increasing with a rapidity unknown to our ancestors; but what is accumulated population at home, to a respected character abroad? What are increasing finances and improvements, when put in competition with equitable government, a consistency of principle, and uniformity of practice? We certainly have increased in luxury, avarice, and systematical cruelty, since the epoch of our independence, more than any other nation ever did in the same number of years; for what Rome was in her decline, America is in her infancy. We look with a supercilious glance upon personal virtue and national honour, while we are enamoured with riches, and with the vile and vulgar fashions imported from Europe; and pursue, with avidity, the interdicted pleasures which have proved the overthrow of other republics, and

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