FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

VOL. IV.	B E T H A N Y, DECEMBER, 1847.	NO. XII.

      My dear Clarinda--IN my last letter from Belfast, I promised to say something more on the subject of my sufferings in Scotland, at the hands of the Scotch Anti-Slavery Society, indicating them to be sufferings inflicted upon me in the true spirit of persecution for doctrinal views of the Bible on the subject of the moral relations of master and slave, or of master and bond-servant, in the scripture style. Since that time, I have written a few thoughts for the close of my correspondence on that particular subject as published in the last Harbinger, and also for the cover of an Extra sent abroad to persons not regular readers of our periodicals. From these I will sum up the views and reasons alleged in illustration and proof of the fact that whatsoever my sufferings may have been in person or in reputation, they have been inflicted upon me gratuitously and without any moral impropriety whatsoever on my part.

      1. In the first place, my persecutors being judges, I am not guilty of that which they denounce, either in theory or in practice. I neither practise, nor defend, nor apologize for any system of slavery, whether called African, Anglican, or American.

      2. In the second place, I did not in any public address, in any city, town, or hamlet in Europe, so much as allude to the subject on any occasion whatsoever.

      3. In the third place, a disguised committee of the Anti-Slavery Society of the city of Edinburgh, was commissioned to steal from me my opinions on the subject, in my own room, in that city, under the pledge and protection of the inviolability of the rites of Christian hospitality.

      4. In the opinions then frankly expressed by me, there was not anything to justify the placard that appeared next day in Edinburgh. That placard was false, calumnious, and libellous, so far as any opinion expressed by me in said conversation was alluded to in it. I never, in thought, word, or deed, defended, apologized for, or in any way justified the crime of man-stealing. I had as good reason, on his logic, to have placarded Mr. Robertson as a murderer, as he had to placard me as "the defender and ally of man-stealers." John the Apostle says, "He that hateth his brother is a murderer." Now it requires neither imagination, nor genius, nor learning, to prove that Mr. Robertson did not love me--nay, that he hated me; and if so, I inquire at all sane persons whether I had not better evidence to affirm that he was a murderer than he to say that I was the ally or defender of man-stealers. If I am a constructive [683] man-stealer, certainly much more is he, according to the Apostle John, a constructive murderer. But I did not, and I will not so accuse him, even in self-defence, but I thus illustrate his behaviour by an apostolic oracle and by his own logic, that every one of common sense may see how vulnerable, how truthless, and how defenceless he is in this instance, and how little self-respect any society can have that retains and defends him as its Secretary.

      The history of the whole affair is briefly this:--The Anti-Slavery Society, in all its branches, whether that at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, or Dundee, maintains that the simple holding of property in man, or man as property, is in all cases a sin equal to man-stealing--nay, it is, indeed, the very sin of man-stealing itself. On this point I differed from them. I could not think that the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Institutions would have allowed, much less ordained by sundry precepts and enactments, that which is always and in every case a sin; and, therefore, I dissented from its standard of orthodoxy.

      5. On this account the Scotch Anti-Slavery Society set on foot and carried on a most infuriate war against me during my tour in Scotland, and even attempted it in Ireland. I say the Scotch Anti-Slavery Society, because it was not only the Rev. James Robertson, of Edinburgh, Secretary of that Institution, but Mr. Patton, Secretary of the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society, and Rev. Mr. Nelson of Belfast, together with the other officials in Paisley, Falkirk, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, &c. &c., who in one systematic effort either anticipated me or followed me up in every place, alleging that I was "a man-stealer," and "an ally and defender of man-stealers," and all this because I had once in a private interview dissented from the faith of the Society, as the enclosed documents and letters will amply develope. By letters, votes of thanks, and public notices in approbation of the proceedings of some of its officers, the whole fraternity as such, with a few dissidents, assumed the begun war and prosecuted it with a zeal and diligence worthy of a better cause.

      6. That I am not singular nor alone in regarding this as a case of persecution, or charging this matter upon the whole society, till they renounce or reprobate their Secretaries, Presidents, and officers, I will give an extract, a short editorial from the editor of the "Christian Record," published in the Island of Jersey, subject to Great Britain. It is the more valuable because the person who writes it is an anti-slavery man, a gentleman, and a Christian. It needs no comment. We shall therefore close our present communication with it:-- [684]

      "We regret exceedingly the issue of this matter. Whatever be Mr. Campbell's opinions on the subject of slavery--and if he entertain the views attributed to him, we hold them in abhorrence--we cannot but regard him as a persecuted man. We know not what is the nature of the libel with which he is charged; but this we know,--that his opponents have been unscrupulous in their language, and most unrelenting in their persecution. Following Mr. Campbell from city to city, and from town to town, they have hunted him more like a wild beast than a human being, much less a gentleman of education, and a minister of the gospel. While we yield to no man in the intensity of our hatred to slavery in all its forms, we question very much if the procedure of the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society of Edinburgh will raise his public character in the estimation of the thinking portion of mankind, or at all promote the object of the excellent Society with which he is identified. We would strongly recommend him to withdraw his action, and throw himself upon the moral sense of the community. It is possible by our imprudence, or the exhibition of a persecuting or vindictive spirit to "build again the things we are endeavoring to destroy." Let us not fail to remember that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnes of God."--[Editor 'Christian Record.']

      7. In reconsidering all these premises, I must say, that if, in the present century, there have occurred a more remarkable case of intolerance, or of persecution for a mere difference of opinion on any Bible question touching Christian ethics, I can only say that I have not heard of it. But of this every one must judge for himself.

      In my last letter I also intimated to you that I was far behind in the details of my tour in Great Britain, my attention and that of the public being much engrossed with the materials of this episode touching my very warm reception in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

      Meantime and henceforward, I shall pursue the even, or rather. the crooked tenor of my way, through England, Scotland, and Ireland, and consign all these matters to the things that were; only adding, that since my return to England from Ireland, I have learned that Mr. Robertson, after an unavailing attempt to obtain a new process against me from the Sheriffs Bell and Alison of Glasgow, has appealed from the decision of Lord Murray to all the Lords that constitute the Queen's Bench in the kingdom of Scotland at their November sessions--of which we expect to hear something in December. Truly, as Solomon has said, the way of transgressors is hard!

[The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, 4 (December 1847): 682-685.]