The Slaveholders' Maneuverings at the Evangelical Alliance: An Address Delivered in Edinburgh, Scotland September 24, 1846
THE SLAVEHOLDERS' MANEUVERINGS AT THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, ON 24 SEPTEMBER 1846
Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle and Scottish Pilot, 26 September 1846. Other texts in Edinburgh Scotsman, 26 September 1846; Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury, 28 September 1846.
In late September the crusade against the Evangelical Alliance and the Free Church of Scotland took Douglass and Garrison to Edinburgh where they held two public meetings to consider the question of Christian fellowship with slaveholders. Both meetings took place at the Brighton Street Chapel and Garrison described attendance at the first gathering on 24 September 1846 as "numerous, but not crowded." William Dick, Professor of Veterinary Medicine and chairman of the meeting, reminded the assembly of the fervor of the appeals for immediate British emancipation a decade earlier and praised the antislavery endeavors of their American guests. The Reverend James Robertson, a theological scholar and secretary of the Scottish Anti-Slavery Society, read a testimonial from the free Negro population of Boston that supported Garrison's labours in England and condemned the ministers of the Free Church. When the anti-Free Church sentiment brought hisses from the crowd, John Wigham, a prominent Quaker philanthropist, reminded the audience that free Negroes "view the conduct of the Free Church in connection with slavery in a strong light" and assured the audience that those present could "discriminate between the conduct of a few men and that of the great and influential body which they represent." Garrison then took the podium and, despite the influenza which made him feel "more like being on the sick list," spoke for three hours. In his history of the American abolitionist movement he rebutted the charges of extremism and infidelity which greeted antislavery activists and accused Free Church leaders of being unfaithful to Christian ethics. Douglass's brief speech focused on the Evangelical Alliance and brought the long meeting to a close. "The applause was frequent and hearty," Garrison later remembered, "though there were a few serpents in the assembly who hissed." Garrison to Richard D. Webb, 25 September 1846, Garrison to Henry C. Wright, 23 September 1846, Garrison to Lib., 3 October 1846, in Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3 : 426, 428, 435n.; Douglass to Isabel Jennings, 22 September 1846, reel 1, frames 631-33, FD Papers, DLC.
Mr. Douglass then came forward amidst much applause, and spoke nearly as follows:—I feel right glad to be once more in Edinburgh. If it was not so late, and if you had not heard as much as you could well
remember, I would have said something in reference to the Evangelical Alliance. We have heard the Free Church disposed of to-night.
The question of slavery in this country has now assumed another phase, differing a little from what it did a few months ago, by the doings of the Evangelical Alliance. With the history of that Alliance you are probably well acquainted. You remember that, about six or eight months ago, a preliminary meeting was held at Birmingham, and at that meeting the subject of slavery, and the propriety of admitting slaveholders, was considered, and that Dr. Candlish brought forward a resolution, that slaveholders ought not to be invited to the Evangelical Alliance, which was adopted. That report reached the United States, and the slaveholders became acquainted with the manner in which they would be received if they came to this country to attend the meetings of the Alliance. However, a strong delegation arrived, amongst whom was the Rev. Dr. Smythe of South Carolina, who is a slaveholder, although he pretends that he is not. He some time ago married a wife, and thus became possessed of slaves, although he always says that it is his wife that holds them. (Laughter.)1Thomas Smyth possibly acquired slaves when he married Margaret M. Adger of Charleston, although the record is not clear. Smyth took special pains to inform abolitionists that he was "not a Slave-holder or haver personally" and that he had "no direct pecuniary interest in the system." Louisa Cheves Stoney, ed., Autobiographical Notes, Letters, and Reflections by Thomas Smyth, D.D. (Charleston, S.C., 1914), 366, 369. Along with him came also Dr. Owen,2This is probably a garbled reference to Stephen Olin (1797-1851), American Methodist minister and educator. Olin graduated from Middlebury College in 1820 and received Doctor of Divinity degrees from Middlebury College (1832), the University of Alabama (1834), and Wesleyan University (1834) and the Doctor of Laws degree from Yale College (1845). In the 1820's Olin moved to South Carolina, where he taught at the Tabernacle Academy for three years, entered the Methodist ministry, and was ordained an elder in 1828. For six years Olin taught at Franklin College, now the University of Georgia, and from 1834-37 he was president of Virginia's Randolph-Macon College. He served as president of Wesleyan University from 1842 until his death. At the 1844 Methodist General Conference, Olin, a former slaveowner, defended James Andrew's right to own slaves and hold office in the Methodist Conference, asserting that "holding slaves [is] . . . no disqualification for the ministerial office." He defended a similar principle before the Evangelical Alliance in 1846 and predicted that the resolution to bar from membership those who were slaveholders "by their own fault" would impede the growth of the Alliance in the United States. West, "Debates in the General Conference, 1844," 102; Evangelical Alliance, Proceedings, 1846, 371, 393; "Death of President Olin," Methodist Quarterly Review, 33 : 652-55 (October 1851); J. M. McClintock, "Stephen Olin," Methodist Quarterly Review, 36 : 9 - 33 (January 1854); The Works of Stephen Olin, D.D., LL.D., 2 vols. (New York, 1852), 2 : 466 - 75 ; Richard Irby, History of Randolph-Macon College, Virginia (Richmond, n.d.), 35 - 40 ; James M. Buckley, A History of Methodism in the United States, 2 vols. (New York, 1897), 2 : 119 - 20 , 126; Purifoy, "Methodist Episcopal Church, South," 32 - 33, 39, 64; NASS, 21 August 1851; New York Evangelist, 21 August 1851; ACAB, 4 : 571; NCAB, 9 : 429; DAB, 14 : 13-14. Dr.
Cox,3Francis Augustus Cox3 Dr. Paton,4Douglass actually refers to American temperance advocate and religious educator William Patton (1798-1879), who graduated from Middlebury College in 1818, attended Princeton Theological Seminary, and later received the Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of the City of New York. Licensed to preach in 1819 and ordained in 1820 by the Addison Congregational Association of Vermont, he moved to New York City and organized the Central Presbyterian Church. From 1833 to 1837 Patton directed the Presbyterian Educational Society, an auxiliary of the financial arm of Presbyterian and Congregational colleges, and was a member of the executive board of the American Home Missionary Society. By the late 1840s, Patton had left the Presbyterian Church to become a Congregationalist. His greatest educational achievement was the founding of Union Theological Seminary, where he was an instructor and a member of the board of directors. Patton did not join the American Anti-Slavery Society "lest he should seem to identify himself with the objectionable sentiments and measures of some of its leading advocates." He preferred to attack slavery from his pulpit, through regular prayer for abolition, and by voting "in the way which he judged to be most antagonistic to the system." In several published writings, including The American Crisis; or, The True Issue, Slavery or Liberty (New York, 1861), he emphasized the role abolitionists played in the outbreak of the Civil War. An early proponent of an alliance of evangelical churches, Patton argued against John H. Hinton's motion to exclude slaveholders at the 27 August session of the Evangelical Alliance. He warned that the introduction of what was essentially "a political question . . . will give birth to a series of national agitations, which will prove exceedingly painful, and adverse to the cause of Christian Union." Evangelical Alliance, Proceedings, 1846, 311-17; New Haven Evening Register, 10 September 1879; William Weston Patton, A Filial Tribute to the Memory of Rev. William Patton, D.D. (Washington, D . C . , 1880), 1 0 - 4 0 ; Prentiss, Union Theological Seminary, 9, 12, 121-30; "Correspondence between Rev. William Patton, D . D . and the Secretaries of the Evangelical Alliance on the American War," New Englander, 22 : 2 8 8 - 3 1 5 (April 1863); Robert H. Nichols and James H. Nichols, eds.,Presbyterianism in New York State . . . (Philadelphia, 1963), 106; Howard, "Anti-Slavery Movement in the Presbyterian Church," 70 - 78 ; London Patriot, 31 August 1846; ACAB, 4 : 677; DAB, 14 : 317-184 Dr. Beecher,5American Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) graduated from Yale College in 1797 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Middlebury College in 1818. Famous for his tempestuous crusades against Unitarianism and his enthusiastic support of the temperance movement, the rabidly anti-Catholic Beecher was one of the preeminent evangelistic reformers of his day. In 1832 Beecher was selected as the first president of Lane Theological Seminary, where he remained until 1850. During Beecher's tenure, Theodore Dwight Weld led the 1834 "Lane Debates" on slavery against Beecher's protests. Beecher pleaded lack of time when Garrison sought his help in the antislavery crusade in the 1830s. In 1833 he lukewarmly endorsed the abolitionists but strongly supported African colonization because it offered those slaveowners shaken by Garrisonian agitation "an easy, practicable way of doing their duty." During the summer of 1846 Beecher traveled to London to attend both the World's Temperance Convention and the Evangelical Alliance. He addressed the temperance delegates on 7 August and was praised as "one of the fathers, if not the father, of this movement in the United States, and the world at large." Beecher was equally prominent in the Evangelical Alliance convention which he described on 1 September as "the most glorious measure which the Providence of God, under the administration of Jesus Christ, has produced." Lyman Beecher and Charles Beecher, eds., Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D., 2 vols. (New York, 1865), 2 : 320 - 32 , 345, 426, 519 - 23, 541; Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 1 : 215; Constance M. Rourke, Trumpets of Jubliee (New York, 1927), 3-86; Leonard Bacon, Sermon at the Funeral of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D. (New York, 1863); Bernard A. Weisberger, They Gathered at the River . . . (Boston, 1966), 69-86; Ahlstrom, Religious History of the American People, 421-22, 458 - 59; Dorchester, Liquor Problem, 330; Charles C. Cole, Jr., The Social Ideas of the Northern Evangelists, 1826-1860 (New York, 1954), 2 4 - 3 0 , 117-19, 197-200; John Ross Dix, Pulpit Portraits; or, Pen-Pictures of Distinguished American Divines (Boston, 1854), 150-69; Stuart Clark Henry, Unvanquished Puritan: A Portrait of Lyman Beecher (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1973); Evangelical Alliance, Proceedings, 1846, 4 5 0 - 5 1 ; ACAB, 1 : 216-17; NCAB, 3 : 126-28; DAB, 2 : 135-36.5 and Mr. Kirk,6As Douglass suggests, American Presbyterian minister Edward Norris Kirk (1802-74) did not receive a Doctor of Divinity degree from Amherst College until 1855. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Kirk was licensed to preach in 1826 and then worked for two years in the South and in the mid-Atlantic states as an agent of the American Board of Foreign Missions. Ordained in 1828, he served as pastor of the Second and Fourth Presbyterian Churches in Albany, New York, until 1837. For the next two years, he traveled and preached in Europe. In 1842 he assumed the pastorship of Boston's Mount Vernon Congregational Church, where he remained until 1871. A temperance advocate and an active member of the American and Foreign Christian Union, Kirk joined Nathaniel S. Beman in 1833 to organize the short-lived Troy and Albany Theological School. An early proponent of African colonization, Kirk insisted in 1837 that colonization offered "a peaceable change of the laws which give slavery its existence." Garrison accused Kirk of voicing proslavery opinions at the World's Temperance Convention in 1846. At a later session, Kirk contradicted Douglass's assessment of the racial attitudes of American temperance advocates. Before the Evangelical Alliance Kirk defended the American delegates' right to oppose a formal denunciation of American slavery by the Alliance and feared that the issue of the admitting of slaveowners threatened to break up the Alliance. Years later he explained the reason for his stance: "I could not embrace the doctrine of 'sin per se' in slave-holding. . . . No eye could tell where the line should be drawn between sinful and benevolent slave-holding." Kirk toured the South in the summer of 1860, hoping to persuade slaveholders to abolish slavery. In the winter of 1866, while president of the American Missionary Association, Kirk again toured the South and saw a need to guarantee that "the black man shall be a citizen, fully and everywhere protected . . . by the whole military power of the country." David O. Mears, Life of Edward Norris Kirk, D.D. (Boston, 1877), 255, 271, 315; Nevin, Presbyterian Church in the United States, 402; Dix, Pulpit Portraits, 237-45; Justin Winsor, ed., The Memorial History of Boston . . . , 4 vols. (Boston, 1881), 3 : 412; Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 3 : 157, 160, 165; Quarles, FD, 4 6 - 4 7 ; Frank Grenville Beardsley, A History of American Revivals, 3d ed. (New York, 1912), 152-56, 256; PaF, 25 June 1840; London Patriot, 31 August 1846; London Teetotal Times, 15 August 1846 (Supplement); London National Temperance Chronicle and Recorder, September 1846; ACAB, 3 : 553-54; NCAB, 6 : 194; DAB, 10 : 427-28. who, I think, on this side of the water claims to be called Dr. Kirk. These gentlemen attended with the full knowledge of what had been done at Birmingham. They said that the resolution would not be binding until it came before the Evangelical Alliance.
I was in London part of the time the Alliance was sitting; but its meetings were held secretly, one of its first acts being to shut out the press.7Shortly after convening on 19 August 1846, the Evangelical Alliance resolved to ban press coverage of its debates: "[I]n the judgement of this Conference, it is extremely undesirable for any report of their proceedings to be given to the public, except under their own direction; and they express their confidence that none of their own members will furnish materials for such a purpose to any newspaper whatever." Some delegates apparently disregarded this admonition, and the London Patriot and several other newspapers offered daily accounts of Alliance meetings. In 1847 the Alliance released an official account that contained stenographic reports of the full proceedings. Evangelical Alliance, Abstract of Proceedings, 6. (Hear.) But there were men inside who had friends outside. By them we knew what was going on. The question of slavery came before them, I thank God; and so it will come up wherever there are honest
men met together. (Great applause.) The Alliance brought up a basis of union, by which men might become members of the various branches. This had no reference to slavery, but had reference to faith. That is, they agreed to believe so and so. When this basis was proposed, Dr. Hinton of London brought in a motion, that all believing agreeable to the form should be admitted to the Alliance except slaveholders. (Great applause.) The simple intimation of the motion put the whole of the Alliance into the utmost excitement. Previous to this they were going on delightfully, quite a heaven of peace in the midst of them. They were encircled with the cords of love and affection, they were enjoying a double measure of the Spirit, that is to say, if we are to trust to their professions.
But the day that slavery was introduced they were all thrown into the utmost confusion. All their love passed away; the smooth and tranquil ties were broken; the agreeable spirit dissipated. The American deputies resolved that the question should not be discussed. Although they were ready to do anything to establish the Alliance in every other respect, they were determined to withdraw if the resolution was persevered in. They loved the Alliance, but they loved slavery far better. (Applause.)
Well, in the midst of the confusion there arose some peace-makers, who besought the Alliance to be calm, that they should not persevere in this excited state of feeling. "Let us see," said they, "if we cannot come to a right decision in the matter; we are indeed in difficulty, but be calm, brethren." And after these sorts of displays, the subject was committeed.
The committee sat six days, and part of six nights, considering how they might set aside the troublesome question. Dr. Smythe proposed "that the committee take time to consider the sensitive matter, that prayer might be offered up, that the brethren might come to a prudent decision."8Thomas Smyth actually seconded Rev. James Carlile's amendment, which directed that "a message be sent to the Committee, requesting them to take ample time for the mature consideration of the question now before them." Evangelical Alliance, Proceedings, 1846, 347; Lib., 25 September 1846. Well, prayers were offered up, and to all human appear-
ance they seemed to be in earnest. They indeed prayed for the committee, but did they pray for the slave? No. They prayed for some loophole for the slaveholder to be admitted into the Evangelical Alliance.
The committee, after a very arduous sitting, brought up an amendment "that the branches admit none who are slaveholders by their own fault, and through their own interest." Now this was supposed to be an excellent resolution. Some clapped their hands with joy at it. But the American delegates were determined that they should not in any respect be censured, and demanded that the resolution be rescinded. The Alliance were terrified into obedience, and they acceded to the demands of the American deputies. (Shame!) They sat six days upon the question as to whether they would admit a man-stealer to that Alliance. What does this imply? That the Evangelical Alliance has a keener sense of sheep-stealing than of man-stealing. (Applause.) They thus show, as George Thompson and Mr. Lloyd Garrison appropriately said, that their prayers were blasphemy before God.9Douglass refers to Garrison's and Thompson's remarks before a public meeting called by the Anti-Slavery League on 14 September 1846. Reports of their speeches appear in London Patriot, 17 September 1846; London Universe, 18 September 1846; London Inquirer, 19 September 1846. (Hear.)
What were they praying for? Would any man pray for light on a matter that was so self-evident as slavery? The fact is this, the men composing that Alliance did not believe in the Bible; more especially did they deny the all-important statement, "Remember those who are in bonds as bound with you, and those who suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body."10Douglass paraphrases Heb. 13 : 3.
I charge, then, the Evangelical Alliance with infidelity. (Immense applause.) They were not merely an infidel body, but as ministers they claim it to be their duty to unite for the purpose of opposing Popery because it forbids the laity to read the Bible, when at the same time they passed by three millions of human beings who are denied the bare privilege of learning to read, and shook hands with the men that would perpetrate these bloody deeds. (Applause.) The slaveholder will now go on in his usual career, endorsed by the Evangelical Alliance (Applause.) I stand here as the representative of three millions of human beings in slavery. I was not in the Alliance; but the money, the blood-stained
dollars, were in their pockets.
I feel that the Englishmen have taken part with the slaveholder,
because they have taken part with the Alliance, who have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked in the matter. Dr. Wardlaw, the man who spoke a few years ago so decidedly against slavery, was driven off his ground by going against the motion of Dr. Hinton, and even Dr. Hinton himself quailed and fell before the powerful influence of the man-stealers. The Free Church would make their own [use] of the decision by pointing out to the abolitionists that in the question of slavery that large and influential body had decided against them. (Hear.) He (Mr. D.) had little doubt but that Dr. Candlish had more to do with this matter than appeared on paper. (A Voice, "He had not; you are imputing bad motives.") (Murmurs and applause.)
No one should find fault with him saying so, for all this was exactly Dr. Candlish's view of the question. He (Mr. Douglass) had little doubt but that the leaders of the Free Church had represented to the Alliance that this question was one of reputational life and death. They have said, if you decide against the slaveholder, you throw your influence into the scales of a few troublesome abolitionists amongst us in the North, who want us "to send back the money." (Applause, and much confusion.) (A young man rose in the body of the church, who seemed as if he had something to say in opposition. He was called upon by the Chairman to come to the platform and speak; but when he mounted the rostrum, he forgot both text and sermon—spoke something very confused and incoherent, and then resumed his place amidst the hisses of the audience.) Mr. Douglass resumed by expressing his regret that the Evangelical Alliance had thrown their influence on the side of the slaveholder. He did not think that there could have been a set of infidels so unfaithful. It will go forth throughout the world that they are infidels. And what was infidelity? what but unfaithfulness and disobedience. God commanded them, as his ministers, to speak out against slavery, but they did not do so; and, by having stood in that position, they proved themselves to be false to God, to Christ, and to his people, but friend to slavery and the slaveholder.—(Mr. Douglass sat down amidst great applause.)