, and even authorize, the forcible rending asunder of the
marriage tie? Are not husbands, not seldom, but often, sold from their
wives, and wives from their husbands, and new matrimonial alliances
formed by them, with consent and encouragement of their masters? Thus
is flagrant adultery sanctioned in nearly one half of the States of this
Christian Republic, and in some cases the crime is almost, if not quite,
forced upon the wretched perpetrators of it. When God's law is
disregarded, and an ordinance on which depends all we hold dear in
social and Christian life is trampled in the dust by an institution
existing in the midst of us, what shall we say? If slavery were a
question merely of expediency, political economy, or even personal wrong
and suffering, it would be easier to keep silence; but when God is
dishonored, and gross sin sanctioned by law, is it not the duty of his
children, North and South, to enter their solemn, earnest, decided
protestations? You will agree with me, that no Christian can or ought to
acquiesce in what, either directly or indirectly, violates a positive
divine precept; and against what shall he remonstrate, if not against a
system that encourages polygamy and legalizes adultery?[G]

There is another view in which the operation of the system of slavery;
in breaking up families, has affected my mind powerfully and painfully.
Parents sustain most important relations to their children, as well as
to each other. Who can be so much interested in the temporal and eternal
well-being of the child as those by whose instrumentality he had his
existence? Who has so much influence over him, or who could direct his
feet in the way he should go, so well? God has imposed upon all parents
most important duties, which they may not neglect. These duties are as
truly incumbent on the slave-parent as on the master who sustains the
same relation. It may be, indeed, extensively true that he does not
understand them, and is in a great measure incompetent to discharge
them; and that often the child suffers nothing morally or intellectually
by being removed from his influence. But this results in a great measure
from the hopeless ignorance in which the parent is involved. There are,
however, as you can bear witness, multitudes of exceptions. In how many
cases are slave-parents truly pious and intelligent, and feel as much
solicitude for the eternal interests of their children, as you do for
yours, and pray with them as