" Towards slavery
and slaveholders he manifests a tenderness of feeling at which we are
surprised and pained. The proposed exclusion of slaveholders from the
Alliance he characterizes as "absurd and fanatical," speaking of the
subject as having been "so unhandsomely forced upon" the American
brethren in London. Again, "There is too much good sense among the
Christians of this country (America) to think of constituting an
Alliance on the basis which denies Christian character to all
slaveholders. At a future time, when slavery has been discussed long
enough, we shall do so. We cannot do it now,--least of all can we do it
at the dictation of brethren beyond the sea, who do not understand the
question," &c.
And yet in the same article the Doctor proposes that the Christians of
England and America should unite their efforts for the promotion of
religious liberty in Italy, and says, "If we lift our testimony against
all church dungeons and tortures, and against all suppression of
argument by penalties, as cruel, absurd, anti-christian, and impious,
there is no prince or priesthood in Italy or anywhere else that can
long venture to perpetrate such enormities.
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