USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 27
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For a number of years anti-slavery sentiment found expression in pledging co-operation with the American Colonization Society, which was supported by the best men in Virginia and Kentucky as well as in the North. Its aim was gradual emancipation and the nationalization of the colored people on the coast of Africa as a Chris- tianized republic. In South Carolina and other Southern States, however, opposition to these aims was developed
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as antagonistic to the permanence of slavery in the United States. The agents of the Society were arrested and imprisoned. This not only intensified the feeling at the North against slavery, but made advocates for immediate emancipation. Garrison characterized the whole scheme of colonization as a conspiracy against the rights of the colored people, and through his paper, the Liberator, denounced slaveholding as a sin against God and human- ity. The American Colonization Journal, in its issue for October, 1830, had "An Appeal to South Carolina," which told the story of the situation at that time and is histor- ically significant.
So far as is known, the first anti-slavery society in Maine was organized in Hallowell, Nov. 18, 1833, in the house of Dea. Eben Dole. Prayer was offered by Dea. James Gow. The constitution adopted by this society asserted the rights of man, the atrocious wickedness of slavery, and "the duty to obey God and let the oppressed go free." Moral means were to be used in promoting the objects of the society. What was sought was "the thor- ough instruction of the people of the whole country, the improvement of the free colored people, and abandonment of prejudice on account of color."1 Other similar societies were organized in various places.
Baptists were prominent in this agitation. At the Ken- - nebec Association, held in Sidney Sept. 3 and 4, 1834, a committee on slavery was appointed, of which Prof. Cal- vin Newton was chairman. This committee made the following report which was accepted : "That slavery is a fearful violation of the will of him who has created all men free and equal; that in our own land it imposes a mighty barrier to the coming of our Lord's kingdom ; nay, that at this moment it is causing the wrath of Almighty God to be impended over us as a nation ; and that, unless speedy and suitable measures are taken for the removal of this evil, we have reason soon to expect the most calam- itous and tremendous results from divine interposition."
1 Anti-Slavery History, Willey, p. 44.
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Interest in the slavery question in the State increased so rapidly that a call for a convention to form a Maine Anti- Slavery Society was issued Aug. 16, 1834. All anti- slavery societies and friends of immediate emancipation were invited to meet in Augusta on the third Wednesday in October, and "unite in fervent prayer to Almighty God to direct and bless our efforts to abolish slavery through- out the land." The convention met October 15th. Repre- sentatives of the several denominations in the State were present. Rev. David Thurston of Winthrop was chairman of the convention. Prof. Calvin Newton of Waterville College was a member of the executive committee. The fundamental principles of the Society, as announced in the constitution, were "that slaveholding is a heinous sin against God, and, therefore, that immediate emancipation, without the condition of expatriation, is the duty of the master and the right of the slave." It was the aim of the Society to do what it could "by moral and religious means, and by no other, to secure the immediate and entire emancipation of our enslaved brethren and sisters." "This Society," it was stated, "will encourage and pro- mote the intellectual, moral and religious improvement of the free people of color, and, by correcting prevailing and wicked prejudices, endeavor to obtain for them, as well as the enslaved, an equality with the whites in civil, intel- lectual and religious privileges, but will never counte- nance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by physical force." Among the Baptists who participated in this meeting and signed the constitution, besides Prof. Calvin Newton, were Rev. Arthur Drinkwater and Rev. T. B. Robinson. George Thompson, the English anti-slavery advocate, was present and addressed the convention. He also visited Waterville and made one of his thrillingly eloquent addresses there.
The meeting of the Bowdoinham Association in 1834 was held in Fayette September 24th and 25th. Mr. Phelps, an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society, was present and delivered an address. The following action was taken :
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"Believing that God has made of one blood all nations of men, and has endowed all with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness, and consequently to hold property in man, as in any merchandise or article of traffic, is utterly repugnant to the laws of God and common justice ; and whereas, two millions of our fellow men are held in abject slavery by this nation, and considered by their masters in the light of property, therefore, Resolved, That we consider slavery, as understood in this nation, a great moral evil; that we deprecate the judgments of a righteous God, to which the sin of slavery exposes our beloved country ; that it is the duty of every Christian and philanthropist to enlighten the public, by all prudent means, on the evils of slavery and endeavor to effect an immediate emancipation of all the slaves in this nation."
The Eastern Maine Association at Cherryfield, Sept. 3 and 4, 1834, adopted the following: "Resolved, That the slavery of upwards of two millions of American citizens in the United States is a sin of fearful magnitude, and demands for its overthrow the united and vigorous exer- tions of all who love their country and the religion of Christ."
Clear, strong convictions were held by those who passed these resolutions. The sin of slavery they saw, and there was a vision of the terrible judgments of a righteous God on account of slavery. It was as if they foresaw the mighty scourge of war, and as if already the thought was in their minds to which Lincoln in his second inaugural gave expression : "Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Certainly the thought of divine judgment was in their minds, and they
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stood aghast at the prospect of impending national dis- aster because of the sin of slavery.
As the anti-slavery movement gained in strength, oppo- sition to it was manifested, and this was so strong in many places that anti-slavery meetings were broken up and the advocates of anti-slavery were severely denounced. At the first anniversary of the Maine Anti-Slavery Society, held in Brunswick Oct. 28 and 29, 1835, resolutions were presented denying the charge of vituperative language on the part of the advocates of anti-slavery, and declaring that the right of free speech "shall never be surrendered while there remains a drop of Pilgrim blood in our veins." At this meeting Prof. Calvin Newton of Waterville Col- lege was elected a vice president of the Society, and Rev. John Butler was made a member of the executive commit- tee.
At the meeting of the Penobscot Association, held in Etna Sept. 9 and 10, 1835, Dea. Royal Clark of Bangor was elected chairman of the committee on slavery. The report of the committee, which was adopted, was as fol- lows : "Believing slavery to be a great evil, and so con- sidered by our brethren at the South, as well as by the churches at the North, and an impediment to the recep- tion of the gospel among our colored brethren, therefore, Resolved, That we will make the unpleasant situation of the master and the unhappy and degraded state of the slave a subject of special prayer at our monthly concerts and other meetings, that he who made of one blood all the nations of the earth would in infinite mercy speedily open a way in his kind providence by which the bonds of the slave may be broken, and all men learn the great command of the Saviour, to love their neighbors as themselves." The conciliatory spirit of the anti-slavery advocates in our churches is easily discoverable in this resolution. The same spirit is discoverable at the Bowdoinham Association, which met at Wayne Sept. 23 and 24, 1835. Rev. Arthur Drinkwater presented the report of the committee on slav-
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ery, which was adopted : "Resolved, That the system of American slavery, or the assumed right of holding prop- erty in man, is inconsistent with the principles and pre- cepts of the gospel of Christ, which teaches us that 'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.' Resolved, that it is the duty of the churches composing this body to remember, in prayer, those who are in bonds as bound with them; and in the spirit of love and faithfulness to use such moral means as are in accordance with the constitution of our country, and the laws of God, to remove this sin from the Christian church. Resolved, That we are sensible that a large por- tion of the Christian community in the slaveholding States are our brethren of the Baptist denomination, that among these are many masters who feel that it is their duty to do all in their power to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of their slaves, and we deeply sympathize with them that they are not able to do more."
When the Maine Baptist Convention met in Portland, Oct. 7 and 8, 1835, Rev. Hervey Hawes, pastor of the First Hampden church, presented the following preamble and resolution for consideration and action : "Whereas God hath shown himself in all ages the friend of the oppressed, and the uniform tendency of the Christian religion has been to destroy all unrighteousness and oppression ; and whereas the existence of personal slavery in the South- ern States of this country is a great moral evil, evidently contrary to the first principles of the moral law of God and the gospel, therefore, Resolved, That it is the duty of the ministers of the gospel composing this Convention, without in any way interfering with or pronouncing upon particular measures for the extinction of this evil, to rec- ommend to their churches special prayer to God for wis- dom, to all concerned in its continuance, so that a speedy, legal and peaceable termination of slavery may by the divine blessing be brought about." This resolution was adopted. But evidently there were those present who did not wish to be regarded as in sympathy with the extreme
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views which found expression in the anti-slavery societies of the day, and Rev. J. S. Maginnis, pastor of the First Baptist church, Portland, offered the following added res- olution, which was also adopted : "Resolved, That in the resolution which we have just passed on the subject of slavery, we do not design to identify the members of this body with any particular society." Doubtless it was thought that such a disclaimer was necessary, and it was accordingly made.
At the second meeting of the Maine Anti-Slavery Soci- ety, held in Portland Oct. 27, 1836, a resolution was pre- sented condemning President Wayland's recently published work on The Limitations of Human Responsibilities, which it was said had "been extensively circulated and adopted as a text-book at the South by slaveholders, and their sup- porters at the North," but so far as it related to anti- slavery action was "inaccurate in statement, sophistical and deceptive in reasoning, absurd in conclusions and totally unworthy of its distinguished author." The refer- ence was to a small volume published by Dr. Wayland in which he called attention to what he regarded as a strong tendency in persons engaged in philanthropic and reli- gious enterprises to assume and to urge upon others exag- gerated views of the extent of man's responsibilities for the ills that afflict his fellows. In this work the posi- tion was taken1 that there is a limit to man's responsi- bility ; that he is responsible for results only up to the extent of his power over them; that no man is responsi- ble for evils which he cannot prevent without transcend- ing the means with which Providence has endowed him, and without violating the relations which he holds to his fellows, and the duties which grow out of these relations. The bearing of this upon the anti-slavery agitation was exhibited in the closing chapter of the work, in which Dr. Wayland considered one's responsibilities and duties in regard to slavery. It is evident that Dr. Wayland, in his protest against a disposition to crowd men beyond the
1 Life of Francis Wayland, Vol. 1, p. 390.
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limit of their duties, had failed to bring them up to that limit, and his biographers say that in his effort to be per- fectly just it is possible that unconsciously he conceded too much. Certainly Dr. Wayland's opposition to slavery increased. "When called on, in his Moral Science, to test slavery by the absolute standard of rectitude, he pronounced it at variance with the revealed will of God, disastrous in its effects upon the morals, both of master and slave, and condemned by the principles of a sound political economy. And as time advanced, and as the true character of slavery became more manifest, as the demand was made on its behalf, first for an equality of power in the government, then for predominance, and then for unquestioned and universal supremacy, still more when the slaveholding States, by their own act, freed the United States from all constitutional obligation in the mat- ter, he felt that his practical duty was largely changed."1
More and more the slavery question became the absorb- ing theme. Then, as now, Baptists were numerous in the South, and those at the South who were slaveholders, and those at the North who sought to find an excuse for slav- ery, appealed to the Scriptures as a justification of the system. At the meeting of the Maine Baptist Convention at Bath, Oct. 4 and 5, 1837, Rev. John Butler offered the following resolutions : "Resolved, That a being made in the image of God, possessing an intelligent, immortal spirit, cannot be reduced to the condition of mere prop- erty without doing great violence to the authority and laws of God and committing the most degrading outrage
1 Life of Francis Wayland, Vol. 1, p. 391. Sept. 4, 1861, at the first commencement at Brown University after the opening of the Civil War, ex-President Wayland was one of the after-dinner speakers. In his address, having said, "It is a time for a man to act." and having referred to the men of the college already in the service of the country as "its first fruits," Dr. Wayland said: "If these strong hands can sustain the stars and stripes, if these breasts can form a rampart to put far away the wickedness of slavery (slavery! slavery! what man was born to be a slave!), let us form an impregnable bar- rier against the waves of rebellion, of sedition, of the most infamous conspiracy ever known, and let us say, 'thus far shalt thou go and no further.'" Few who listened that day to the venerable ex-president can ever forget the scene, as, raising those "strong hands," and crossing his arms upon his massive breast, he poured forth these burning words.
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upon the light of nature. Resolved, That those ministers and religious bodies who have published to the world that the Bible justifies the system of American slavery have greatly erred, and inflicted a grievous reproach upon the honor of God and his word. Resolved, That it is with deep humiliation and sorrow that this body is obliged to admit the fact that the sin of slavery extensively prevails in the Christian church, and that many of the professed ministers of the gospel are slaveholders, that some of them and other church members do actually buy and sell their brethren and sisters in Christ. Resolved, That whereas the Bible is virtually withheld from nearly one- sixth part of the population of this country, we recom- mend to all our brethren that when their hearts are moved with compassion in view of the perishing condition of the heathen world that they pray also for the perishing slaves of our own country, and that they observe the fourth Monday evening in each month as a season of prayer for the immediate and peaceful removal of this evil from the church and from the world."
The Minutes make known the fact that there was a difference of opinion as to the propriety of introducing these resolutions. This was manifest in the discussion that followed. It would be interesting to reproduce the main features of this discussion if the materials for such a reproduction existed. When the discussion ended, the vote was taken by yeas and nays, and the result is recorded in the Minutes as follows : "Yeas-Ballard, Bar- ron, Sibley, Bradford, Norton, Lawrence, Nutter, Butler, Stevens, Day, Newton, J. Wilson, Fogg, T. B. Robin- son, M'Master, S. Harris, Stearns. Nays-Haynes, D. T. Allen, Coy, A. Wilson, Miller, Felch, Sargent. Declined voting-Starr, Houghton, Kalloch, Millet, Lincoln. Not present at the time-Case, Kendall, I. S. Smith, Chism, Pilsbury, Trull, Drinkwater and A. Harvey." The reso- lutions, therefore, were adopted by a vote of seventeen to seven. Rev. Adam Wilson, one of those who voted against the resolutions, was the editor of Zion's Advocate.
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Doubtless he deprecated the division in the churches which the slavery question was effecting, and on this account, while not pro-slavery in his views, placed himself with the opposition. To the editor of the Christian Mirror, the Congregational paper in Maine, Elijah P. Lovejoy, a short time before his martyrdom, wrote: "It has been and still is a source of great grief to witness the course which you, Brother Cummings, have pursued on the subject of slav-
ery. I tell you plainly that you seem to me not at all to have understood your responsibilities in relation to the subject of slavery, or else to have trifled with them in a manner truly awful. I have seen the Mirror once and again give the subject the go-by with a dry joke or a half concealed sarcasm." No such words could have been used by Mr. Lovejoy with reference to the treatment of this great question in the columns of the Advocate. Adam Wilson was sound to the core on all great moral questions, but he occupied a responsible position, and he would allay rather than provoke irritation.
There is no reference to the subject of slavery in the Convention Minutes for 1838 and 1839. It was doubtless felt that the brethren had placed themselves on record, and that to return to a discussion of the sin of slavery and the relation of the churches to it would be unprofitable and tend to division. But there were those who were not satisfied with keeping silence upon an issue of such great importance, and which had already become a grow- ing political issue. The American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention held its first meeting1 in New York April 28, 29 and 30, 1840. Rev. E. R. Warren of Topsham and Rev. J. Gilpatrick of Bluehill were elected members of the executive committee. June 17, 1840, the Maine Bap- tist Anti-Slavery Convention was organized at Belfast. Eleven resolutions were passed, and these were printed in Zion's Advocate of June 24th. The Convention asked for an "anti-slavery department in Zion's Advocate, to be con-
1 Willey's Anti-Slavery History, p. 136.
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ducted by some Baptist abolitionist." Prominent among those who participated in the deliberations of the Conven- tion were the following ministers: L. C. Stevens, E. R. Warren, E. W. Cressy, C. Newton, D. Nutter, T. B. Rob- inson and J. Gilpatrick.
When the Bowdoinham Association met at Litchfield, Sept. 22, 23 and 24, 1840, the association in a resolution approved "of the doings of the late National Convention of Baptists held in New York, and also of the late Anti- Slavery Convention of Baptists held at Belfast in this State," and recommended that the brethren attend when any such Convention shall be called, "that we may give our united and firm testimony against this unrighteous and cruel system."
The Maine Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Topsham Jan. 19 and 20, 1841. Rev. J. Gilpatrick was elected president, Rev. S. Fogg, vice president ; Rev. S. Adlam, secretary ; W. R. Prescott, treasurer, and S. Adlam, T. O. Lincoln, W. R. Prescott, D. Scribner, T. B. Robinson, N. M. Williams, E. R. Warren, L. C. Stevens and L. B. Allen, standing committee. An address to the Baptists of Maine was adopted; also an address to the Baptist churches in the South. Of the two hundred and fourteen Baptist ministers in the State, one hundred and eighty, it was claimed, were decided abolitionists. Reso- lutions were adopted, and delegates to the Maine Anti- Slavery Society and to the Baptist National Anti-Slavery Convention were appointed. The secretary, in his report of the Convention, said "this was the most important and best anti-slavery meeting ever held by the denomination in the State."
In the membership of the churches the proportion of abolitionists was not as large as in the ministry; but it was large and the feeling on both sides was strong. Rev. Joseph Ricker, D. D., who was familiar with the state of things in our Maine Baptist churches at that time, states the case thus : "In most of the individual churches, of
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whatever denomination, the two parties were represented.1 The consequence can easily be guessed. Unseemly words were spoken, harsh epithets bandied and chief friends separated. In place of harmony was discord, in place of love, alienation if not hatred. Churches not a few were rent in twain, and if by some favoring providence other churches were not thus torn and distracted, the sweet fellowship of former years was sadly marred."2
Dr. Ricker doubtless had especially in mind the Baptist church in Augusta, of which he was afterward pastor. In the membership of that church were those who held very decided convictions with reference to slavery. Dec. 2, 1842, the following resolution was unanimously adopted by the church : "Resolved, That this church believes that domestic slavery is a sin against God, that it is at war with the dearest rights of man, and that it is the duty of Christians to express their disapprobation of the system as it exists in this country, believing it contrary to principles of the Christian religion and of our republican form of government." But the passage of this resolution evi- dently did not meet in full the views of some of the mem- bers of the church with reference to slavery, and other resolutions were introduced, discussed and laid upon the table. At a special meeting of the church, held Dec. 18, 1843, a member of the church presented the following pre- amble and resolution : "Whereas several members of this church having signified their sense of grief with minis- ters and members of slaveholding churches on account of their continuance of slavery, the buying and selling of human beings as goods and chattels, which is a sin against
1 Rev. A. K. P. Small, D. D., was a student in the Yarmouth Academy when, in 1844, Rev. Z. Bradford, greatly beloved by his people, closed his pastorate with the Yarmouth Baptist church. Dr. Small says that, on that last Sunday, Mr. Bradford, having read the notices, paused, and then said, "Here is a notice, which if I were pastor of the church I should throw under the table, but as I am not your pastor now, I will read it." It was a notice of an anti-slavery prayer meeting. As the people were leaving the house at the close of the sermon, Dr. Small heard one of the members of the church say to another, "Well, Mr. Bradford is an excellent man, but I guess it is about time for him to go.'
2 Personal Recollections, p. 59.
FIRST CHURCH, AUGUSTA.
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God and humanity; and whereas these members cannot without being greatly burdened with a sense of wrong commune with such at the Lord's table, or listen to such ministers as public teachers ; and whereas we do not wish to burden our own members with their griefs, however different some of us may feel in reference to the subject, therefore Resolved, That as a church we will not invite , slaveholding ministers to our pulpit or slaveholders to the communion table of the Lord."
After a prolonged discussion, when the vote was taken it was found that thirteen had voted in the affirmative and fourteen in the negative. The membership of the church, as reported at the association in the preceding Septem- ber, was one hundred and ninty-three. On account of the failure of the church to adopt the above preamble and resolution, eight brethren (including the pastor, Rev. E. R. Warren,) and twenty-four sisters left the church and organized the Second Baptist church in Augusta. This division was the occasion of serious trouble in the Augusta church, but a new pastor, Rev. N. W. Williams, was secured, who stated to the church his position with ref- erence to slavery as follows: "1. I hold slavery to be a great political evil, and repugnant to the spirit of the constitution of our country. 2. I believe it to be con- trary to the spirit of the gospel as a palpable violation of the great rule of doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us and therefore highly sinful. 3. I hold it to be the duty of Christians to pray for the extinction of slavery in every part of the world. 4. I consider the church bound to regard the system of slavery as they do other sins, and in case any brother of the church should become a slaveholder (excepting such cases as do not from the peculiarity of circumstances indicate any approbation of the system), should desire admission to the church and profess to believe that slavery is a right- eous institution, and according to the word of God, we could not fellowship such person as worthy of church priv- ileges."
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