10. It condemns no man because he is a slaveholder! Certainly, then, it allows that slaveholders are upright men--not guilty of fraud--not oppressors--not extortioners! and that the slaves are truly and justly their property--not entitled to freedom--not better than cattle--not conscious of evil treatment--not worthy of remuneration for their toil--not rational and accountable beings! FOOTNOTES: [H] The term evil is used here in a criminal sense. I know that colonizationists regard slavery as an evil; but an evil which has been _entailed_ upon this land, for the existence of which we are no more to blame than for the prevalence of plague or famine. [I] 'If the most guilty and daring transgressor be sought, he is a Gospel Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, or the Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding himself is a Negro Pedler, who steals, buys, sells, and keeps his brethren in slavery, or supports by his taciturnity, or his smooth prophesying, or his direct defence, the Christian professor who unites in the kidnapping trade. Truth forces the declaration, that every church officer, or member, who is a slaveholder, records himself, by his own creed, a hypocrite!' * * 'To pray and kidnap! to commune and rob men's all! to preach justice, and steal the laborer with his recompense! to recommend mercy to others, and exhibit cruelty in our own conduct! to explain religious duties, and ever impede the performance of them! to propound the example of Christ and his Apostles, and declare that a slaveholder imitates them! to enjoin an observance of the Lord's day, and drive the slaves from the temple of God! to inculcate every social affection, and instantly exterminate them! to expatiate upon bliss eternal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! to unfold the woes of Tophet, and not drag men from its fire! are the most preposterous delusion, and the most consummate mockery.' * * * 'The Church of God groans. It is the utmost Satanic delusion to talk of religion and slavery. Be not deceived: to affirm that a slaveholder is a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, is most intelligible contradiction. A brother of Him who went about doing good, and steal, enslave, torment, starve and scourge a man because his skin is of a different tinge! Such Christianity is the Devil's manufacture to delude souls to the regions of wo.'--REV. GEORGE BOURNE. [J] 'We are told not to meddle with vested rights: I have a sacred feeling about vested rights; but when vested rights become vested wrongs, I am less scrupulous about them.'--_Speech of Rev. Mr. Burnett, of England._ SECTION II. THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY APOLOGISES FOR SLAVERY AND SLAVEHOLDERS.