We ask our readers to turn back, and read again the paragraph on page
97, ending '_to_ COERCE _such emigration, might be a_ MOST SACRED
DUTY,' This has frankness at least, if it has no other good quality to
recommend it. But it is the frankness of the tyrant, who, confident of
his power to effect his purposes, fears not to avow them, however
iniquitous or abominable. And if there be frankness in letting out the
design, there is most unblushing impudence in calling its execution
'_a sacred duty_.' What utter heartlessness too, and what obliquity of
moral vision does it exhibit. And this man dares to rank himself with
the friends of the colored people! Such a friend as the Holy
Inquisitors of Spain, to the heretical Protestants, whom they deem it
their 'sacred duty to coerce' with rack and fire, to a renunciation of
their heresies. Such a friend as Louis XIV., to the Huguenots,--James
I., to the Puritans, and Charles II., to the Scottish Covenanters.
On page 98, Mr. B. introduces what he calls a speech of Mr. T. at
Andover, as reported by a student in the Theological Seminary. Mr. T.
has met this anonymous report with counter testimony, not anonymous,
but we will add that of the editor of the Emancipator, who says, 'Mr.
B. although so often pretending that he had no documents, &c., here
read the false and distorted account of Mr. Thompson's speech on this
occasion, published at the time in the Boston Courier, and signed C.
Having been there at the time, we here record our testimony to the
fact of its being false and distorted in its representations.'
Mr. B. on page 109, alludes to what Mr. Thompson has said 'about Dr.
Sprague having part of his church curtained round for persons of
color,' and says he notices it 'only because it was told as a
_specimen_ story.' In the same connection he evidently endeavors to
create the impression that the religious privileges of the free
colored people are equal to those of the whites. On this, the
Emancipator remarks, 'We can testify to the truth of the story in
regard to Dr. Sprague's church; and although every church does not
separate the blacks from the whites with so much care, or in precisely
the same way, yet it is strictly true, that almost, without exception,
the separation is made and carefully kept up, and this not only in the
ordinary worship of the Sabbath, but even when the church gather about
the table of their crucified and common Lord, to partake of the
emblems of his dying love.' And after admitting that colored men have,
in a few instances, been admitted to theological seminaries, and to a
seat in ecclesiastical bodies, the editor adds, and truly, as all
familiar with the facts can testify, 'Such instances, however, are few
and far between, and whenever they do occur, the individuals concerned
are, in many ways, made to feel their inferiority and to _know their
place_. The impression made by Mr. B's representation would be, as a
whole, incorrect.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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