are outnumbered, and overborne, and forced into comparative silence, by the war men among them. It is obvious enough, that the spirit, not of Christ and his apostles, but of our revolutionary heroes, is now their predominant spirit.

We beg leave, as friends not only of peace, but of universal enfranchisement by moral means, to put a few questions to the leaders of this great enterprise. 1. Must not the pacific character and tendencies of your cause be changed in public estimation? We know it has been denounced at the South as tending to bloodshed; but candid men, we believe, have supposed it to proceed in good faith on its avowed principle of declining a resort to the sword under any circumstances. No man, at the South or the North, can so regard it now.-2. Will not multitudes of our best men for this reason stand aloof from the cause? The sympathy excited would of course make large accessions for a time; but, when men come to reason, and the South shall quote from recent anti-slavery documents to prove the violent, bloody character of the whole movement, will there not be a fearful reaction?—3. Will not this adoption of worldly principles and measures bring into the ranks such men as may ruin the cause? We all know how it was with anti-masonry; and, from present appearances, we should not be surprised to see politicians, roused by these ceaseless, spirit-stirring appeals to our Revolution, jumping upon anti-slavery as a political hobby, and soon driving away its best friends in disgust.-4. Does not the present course of abolitionists in this matter tend to a civil and servile war? God forbid it should ever come; but, should it, would they not be, to a fearful extent, responsible for its atrocities and horrors?

REMONSTRANCES OF PEACE MEN AMONG ABOLITIONISTS.

We rejoice to find such prompt and noble remonstrances from the New England Spectator, the Liberator, the Vt. Telegraph, and, we believe, the Friend of Man, against the course of Lovejoy and his friends, in resorting to violence. We subjoin a few specimens. "The lamented Lovejoy," says Lewis Tappan, in a letter to the Liberator, "called himself a peace man; and yet, when he apprehended that the destruction of his press a fourth time would be followed by the triumph of mob law over the State of Illinois, and ultimately lead to the loss of thousands of lives, he considered that it would save life to make a stout defence, although it might result in the death of a few individuals. In this I think he made a great mistake, and the result appears to show it. The brethren acted on neither the peace nor war principle. The former would have restrained them from any use of bloody weapons, and the latter would have led them to kill, as they might have done, scores of the assailants. In my judgment, God permitted such a failure of the war principle, to show abolitionists the folly of their using carnal weapons."

Sarah M. Grimke says, "No abolition society, as far as I have seen the resolutions issued by them, has come out nobly and openly in condemnation of the position, that self-defence is right; and just in proportion as abolitionists have defended the course of our fellowcoadjutor in taking up arms, just in that proportion they are identified with the crime which he committed, and are holding out to their fellow-laborers in the cause of liberty, an incentive to bring to the support of our holy principles the aid of the dagger and the rifle.

"Let us examine how far the appellation of Christian_martyr can be applied to one, who died in the act of violating one of our Lord's broadest and most important commands. Jesus Christ, when he delivered his sermon on the mount to the multitude-mark that! not to apostles, or ministers, but to the multitude), embodied in this discourse all that was essential to form the Christian. In this sermon, among other precepts, Jesus lays down the doctrine of nonresistance: 'Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.' Our great lawgiver knew that if a man did not resist an injury, it was impossible he could inflict one in the spirit of aggression, and therefore he forbids us to resist evil, because that strikes at the root of the sin. His own life was one series of meek endurance of the contradiction of sinners against himself. The dissimilarity between the precepts and practice of Jesus of Nazareth, and the doctrine and conduct of our lamented brother, is too glaring to need any comment.

"Much has been said in extenuation of brother Lovejoy's conduct, about 'defending his life and his property in a manner justified by the laws of this and all other civilized countries.' If this be any justification of crime, then the whole system of abominations, comprehended in that word, slavery, may be justified on the same ground. The South has converted one-third of its inhabitants into chattels personal. She has legalized murder, man-stealing, cruelty; yet we are waging war against her beloved domestic institution, because we believe that her laws contravene the laws of God, and therefore that they are null and void, and cannot palliate the guilt of slavery. If, then, human laws cannot invest me with a title to hold property in my fellow-man, how can they give me a right to take his life? If I cannot, without criminality, reduce man to property, countenanced and protected by the laws of my country, surely it is a self-evident truth, that I cannot innocently reduce the image of God to a mangled and lifeless corpse, without at least equal guilt, however I may be sustained by the laws of man.

"The principles of truth should be inflexibly maintained, let who will suffer. We carry this out, when we say of all slaveholders, they are thieves and robbers. Our business is with principles, not with persons. We must sacrifice our affections and our sympathies to our principles, and not permit the tender sensibilities of our nature to warp our judgment. Besides, it seems to me, that although it is said our brother took up arms to defend great and fundamental principles, a little reflection will show, that this was not the case. Principles can never be defended by violence, persons may; and he who takes up arms professedly to defend principles, takes them in reality to defend his person, which has become obnoxious, in con

sequence of his having embraced those principles. I wish this fallacy was clearly understood. Every man who professedly takes up arms to defend his principles, shows, in my apprehension, that he is not willing to sacrifice his life for those principles. No man is prepared to come out as the public advocate of truth, until he is prepared to die a martyr to the truth; and unless he is willing, unresistingly, to lay down his life for his principles, he has not learned their intrinsic value, which is the first lesson every reformer ought to understand."

Rev. S. J. May, the well-tried friend, alike of abolition and of peace, says, "The first time I heard of the catastrophe at Alton, I expressed my apprehension that it would have a disastrous effect upon the anti-slavery cause. Every movement of the abolitionists since has increased my alarm; no one so much so as the procedure of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in which you the President of the Convention at Philadelphia that formed that Society-have acted so conspicuous a part. You have given the influence of your high personal and official name to sentiments and measures that will be fatal, I fear, to the evangelical character of that great enterprise which aims to effect the peaceful emancipation of millions in our land, from a bondage as abject as has ever been enforced upon any of the human family.

"Very painful to me, indeed, it is to say a word that may wound the feelings of some whose broken hearts I would gladly bind up; but sure am I, that I ought not to see such a wound inflicted upon my Saviour as has been inflicted at Alton, in the house of his friends, and keep silent. What is there distinctive in the religion of Jesus, if it be not that it teaches us to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us? What is there peculiar in the example he and his apostles have left us, if it be not that they never repelled injury by violence, but sought to overcome the evil dispositions of their enemies by forbearance and kindness! The object of Christ was, and, if we are truly his followers, our object will be, not to intimidate wicked men, so that they will not dare to show their hatred of tru.h; but to change their hearts, so that they will no longer feel hatred, but love and obey it. How very different, in our view, would have been the character of Jesus and of his religion, if he had died fighting in defence of his person, or of his doctrines! We recoil from the thought. And yet I would fain inquire, who may be justified, on Christian principles, in making violent defence, if our Master himself might not! He knew that his was just, and that its success would be promotive of the happiness of mankind. He might easily have overthrown his persecutors. He might have smitten them to the ground with a word of his mouth, or he might have summoned twelve legions of angels to his rescue. But he offered no physical resistance; thus, as it seems to me, settling the question for ever, that no cause, however just and important, and no life, however valuable, may (on Christian principles) be defended by force and arms. Be assured I write under an overpowering conviction of truth and duty, when I add, that brother Lovejoy, in the hour of his death, fearfully violated a distinctive principle of Christ's righteousness-a principle that needs to be assiduously inculcated upon all the in

VOL. II.-NO. VII.

6

jured and outraged slaves, and by which all who plead their cause should scrupulously govern themselves. If, while laboring in his office, or walking in the street, or sitting in his house, he had been attacked, and, under the sudden impulse of that dread of death or injury which is instinctive in man, he had seized the first thing he could lay his hand upon, and had inflicted a deadly blow upon his assailants, Christianity might have justified us in classing his offence among the sins of infirmity. But when we hear of the preparations he had made to defeud his press, we must, I think, pronounce it a deliberate offence against the laws of that Master he professed to serve. You have called him a martyr, and likened him to Stephen. But did Stephen throw stones at the mob that pelted him to death? You have called him a martyr; then were those men inartyrs who were killed in the war of our Revolution.

"It was especially incumbent upon the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society to reprobate distinctly and strongly the course pursued by our ill-advised brother Lovejoy and his associates. In the third article of the constitution of the Society, whose plan they are appointed to execute, it is declared that we will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.' Now, in what other way can we so fully countenance and encourage them in resorting to force, as by resorting to it ourselves? And have not the Executive Committee, by their solemn commemoration of his death, and the style in which they have spoken of it in the Emancipator, virtually sanctioned brother Lovejoy's procedure, and thus made themselves responsible for it? "But that you, dear brother, the President of the Convention at Philadelphia, should have come forward as the eulogist of our misguided fellow-laborer, and not have uttered one word of censure upon his resort to physical force, this is the most alarming inconsistency of which we have any of us been guilty. Your name, and mine, and many others, some of them members of the Execu tive Committee, are appended to that Declaration of Sentiments, which commences with a contrast between the principles and measures of the American Revolution and of that enterprise in which we had embarked; and closes with a solemn pledge of ourselves to prosecute the peaceful abolition of slavery, 'come what may to our persons, our interests, our reputations-whether we live to witness the triumph of liberty, justice and humanity, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent, and holy cause.' When we signed that Declaration, did we mean by perishing as martyrs, perishing as brother Lovejoy has done, with carnal weap' in our hands? You know we did not. Are we willing that henceforth our countrymen should understand that we intend to make violent defence of the liberty of speech, and the freedom of the press? to fight in the cause of the oppressed? Such is the construction, which it seems to me may be put, with too much propriety, upon the manner in which you and others have treated the Alton battle. Pause, dear brother, and consider what you have been doing! Beseech the Executive Committee to recall some of their words, before it be too late, and avert the disastrous effects of their seemingly unqualified commendation of the procedure of the murdered Lovejoy! If they do not approve and mean to sanction his course, let them say so, speedily, emphatically, that the guilt of a civil war may not in any wise be laid to their charge.

ons

"Hitherto, while our numbers were comparatively few, we have acted in accordance with our professions. Some of us have endured hard treatment, destruction of our property, rough usage of our persons, and even the imminent peril of our lives. But it has been seen and known by all men, that we have not injured any in return, or shown a wish to injure them. It has been the manifestation of this spirit, I am persuaded, that has carried forward our cause with a rapidity unexampled since the progress of Christianity during the first two centuries. And who have been our converts hitherto ? They have been principally from among the most sober minded, benevolent, and pious of every denomination. This has been the testimony given respecting us by some of our opposers.

"Now, that we have become a numerous body, and of great consequence, by reason of our numbers, in the estimation of the political parties, now let us be especially careful in our adherence to our principles. Else shall we find men rushing into our ranks who have not put on Christ-men who have not considered, or do not understand, the reasons by which he purposes to overthrow the empire of sin; and such fellow-laborers will soon involve our country in a servile and civil war."

These are noble testimonies, and we might add another from Angelina E. Grimke, now Mrs. Weld, who says she was shocked at the intelligence of Lovejoy's death, "not because an abolitionist had fallen the victim of popular fury, but because he did not fall the unresisting victim of that fury. Look at this event, under the supposition that resistance to evil is right. Why then did the abolitionists at Alton abandon the press and the warehouse at all? One of them assured the mob, that 'the press would not be delivered up, but that he and his associates would defend it at the risk and sacrifice of their lives. Why was not this pledge faithfully redeemed? If it was right to fire on the mob at all, it would have been right to resist them with persevering violence; if it was right to wound or to kill one man in defending the press, it would have been right to wound or to kill one hundred. I do not believe that these men lacked courage; but I do believe there was not one of them, who did not, in the secret of his heart, feel misgivings as to the course he had commenced when he saw the bloody consequences of that coursenot one of them, who did not shudder at the thought of taking the life of a brother. If not, then they ought to have fought as did the Bunker-hill soldiers, who, when their ammunition was exhausted turned the butt end of their muskets, and beat down the British soldiers whom they could no longer shoot down.

"In reading the account of the mob at St. Charles, I could not but regret, that instead of repelling them there with violence, our brother had not delivered himself up to them, just as our Master did when a mob came to take him. He went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he,' and then quietly surrendered himself into their hands, though he knew that an ignominous and cruel death would be the consequence. But mark the influence of moral power upon the mob, when he first said unto them, I am he-'they went backward, and fell to the ground.' Amazed at such true magnanimity and courage, they went backward, their physical strength was paralyzed, they fell to the ground powerless, unable to touch him.