Autographs for Freedom, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Thirty-five Other Eminent Writers
History
Autographs for Freedom, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Thirty-five Other Eminent Writers
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
At the last anniversary of the American Home Missionary Society, Rev.
John P. Gulliver made an eloquent address on the duty of bringing the
American people under the full influence of Christian principle, in an
argument drawn from the bearings of our national example on the people
of other lands. _Christianity_, he said, _alone can make the nations
free_. We fully believe in this sentiment. In answer to the question,
_How is Christianity to effect this result?_—Mr. Gulliver’s answer was:
AMERICA IS TO BE THE AGENT.
Other nations, he thought, might do much in working out this great
result; but the chief hopes of the friends of freedom, he suggested, are
centered upon this country. The world needs _an example_; and he pointed
to what the example of this nation has already done, imperfect as it is.
“It is doing, at this moment, more to change the political condition of
man than all the armies and navies,—than all the diplomacy and kingcraft
of the world.” If it be so, if as the speaker declared, “the battle of
the world’s freedom is to be fought on our own soil,” it would be
interesting to look at the obstacles in the way. The United States must
present a very different example from that exhibited the last
twenty-five years, and now exhibited, before this country will be the
agent of Christianity in evangelising the world. Think of three millions
of our countrymen in chains! Think of the large numbers held by
ministers of the Gospel and members of churches! Think of the
countenance given to slave-holders by our ecclesiastical assemblies, by
Northern preachers, by Christian lawyers, merchants, and mechanics!
Think of the platforms, adopted by the two leading political parties of
the country, composed partly of religious men! Think of the dumbness of
those that minister at the altar, in view of the great national
iniquity, and then consider the effects of _such an example_ upon other
nations, Christian and Heathen!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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