Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) Liberty or Slavery; the Great National Question. THREE PRIZE ESSAYS ON AMERICAN SLAVERY. "THE TRUTH IN LOVE." BOSTON: CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by SEWALL HARDING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. PREMIUM OFFERED. A benevolent individual, who has numerous friends and acquaintances both North and South, and who has had peculiar opportunities for learning the state and condition of all sections of the nation, perceiving the danger of our national Institutions, and deeply impressed with a sense of the importance, in this time of peril, of harmonizing Christian men through the country, by kind yet faithful exhibitions of truth on the subject now agitating the whole community, offered a premium of $100 for the best Essay on the subject of Slavery, fitted to influence the great body of Christians through the land. The call was soon responded to by nearly fifty writers, whose manuscripts were examined by the distinguished committee appointed by the Donor, whose award has been made, as their certificate, here annexed, will show. PREMIUM AWARDED. The undersigned, appointed a Committee to award a premium of one hundred dollars, offered by a benevolent individual, for the best Essay on the subject of Slavery, "adapted to receive the approbation of Evangelical Christians generally," have had under examination more than forty competing manuscripts, a large number of them written with much ability. They have decided to award the prize to the author of the Essay entitled, "_The Error and the Duty in regard to Slavery_," whom they find, on opening the accompanying envelope, to be the Rev. R. B. THURSTON, of Chicopee Falls, Mass. They would also commend to the attention of the public, two of the remaining tracts, selected by the individual who offered the prize, and for which he and others interested have given a prize of one hundred dollars each. One of these is entitled, "_Friendly Letters to a Christian Slave-holder_," by Rev. A. C. BALDWIN, of Durham, Conn.; the other, "_Is American Slavery an Institution which Christianity sanctions and will perpetuate?_" by Rev. TIMOTHY WILLISTON, of Strongsville, Ohio. ASA D. SMITH, MARK HOPKINS, THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. _May, 1857._ CONTENTS. PAGE I. THE ERROR AND THE DUTY IN REGARD TO SLAVERY, 1 II. FRIENDLY LETTERS TO A CHRISTIAN SLAVE-HOLDER, 39 III. IS AMERICAN SLAVERY AN INSTITUTION WHICH CHRISTIANITY SANCTIONS AND WILL PERPETUATE, 99 FOOTNOTES THE ERROR AND THE DUTY IN REGARD TO SLAVERY.