, or soon after the petition just read--to
the sermon of Jonathan Edwards, the younger, in the year 1791--and to
a most excellent sermon by Alexander M'Leod, through whose zeal and
labors chiefly, the Reformed Presbyterians were brought to the
determination to rid their church of slavery, an object they
accomplished in the year 1802. It was a painful fact that the American
community had retrograded in feeling and sentiment upon the subject of
slavery. The anti-slavery feeling of 1820 was neither so pure nor so
strong as in 1800, or 1790; and in 1830 the feeling had become still
weaker, and the views of the community still more corrupted. This was
owing to the formation of the colonization society, which, like a
great sponge, gathered up and absorbed the anti-slavery feeling of the
country, and by proposing the removal of the colored population, and
constantly preaching such doctrines as were calculated to advance that
object, drew public attention away from the duty of immediate
emancipation on the soil, and caused the Christian community to rest
in a scheme based upon expediency, and fully in unison with their
prejudice against color. To those who compared the various sentiments
contained in the writings and speeches of the colonizationists, with
the pure and uncompromising principles advocated towards the close of
the last, and the beginning of the present century, nothing was more
obvious than the fact he had just stated, namely, that there had been
a gradual giving up of sound views and principles, for others
accommodated to the prejudices and interests and fears of the
different portions of the community. For instance, nothing was more
common in the records of the Colonization Society than the recognition
of a right of property in man; to find the advocates of the Society,
when speaking of the slaveholder and his slaves, saying, "we hold
their _slaves_, as we hold their other _property_, _sacred_." Mr.
Breckinridge might say "these are not my opinions;"--but he must know
they were the published opinions of the managers and chief advocates
of the Society, and it was for him to explain how he could lend a
Society his countenance and aid, which promulgated and upheld so
impious a doctrine as the right of property in God's rational,
accountable, and immortal creatures. He (Mr. T.) knew, however, that
the Society could assume all colors, and preach all kinds of
doctrines. At one time it was promoting emancipation, and at