A few months ago extraordinary efforts were made to circulate in this
country a pamphlet entitled An address to Christians throughout the
world, by the clergy of the Confederate States of America. I found it
stitched in among the advertisements usually appended to the numbers of
the Edinburgh Quarterly, and other leading reviews and magazines. In
this position I infer that the Insertion must have been obtained at no
inconsiderable cost of money. It may reasonably be doubted whether it
was a very judicious or profitable expenditure to the parties
undertaking it. In Scotland it has stirred up the leading clergy to make
a reply, a copy of which I send herewith.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant.
[From the
London Daily News, November 3, 1863.]
Reply to the address of the Confederate clergy on slavery.
The following is a reply by ministers of the churches in Scotland to
the “Address to Christians throughout the world, by the clergy of
the Confederate States of America:”
We, the undersigned ministers of the churches in Scotland, in reply
to the appeal made to us in the “Address to Christians throughout
the world,” recently put forth “by the clergy of the Confederate
States of America,” feel bound to give public expression to our
views, lest our continued silence should be misconstrued, as
implying either acquiescence in the principles of the document, or
indifference to the crime which it seeks to defend.
We refer, of course, to a single topic—that of slavery—as it is
handled in the address. We desire to say nothing inconsistent with
our country’s attitude of strict neutrality as regards the war
raging across the Atlantic. We do not discuss any of the political
questions connected with its origin, progress, and probable issues.
We offer no opinion on the measures adopted on either side. Nor are
we to be regarded as shutting our eyes to the past and present sins
and shortcomings of the north in relation to the African races. The
one object we have in view is to express the deep grief, alarm, and
indignation with which we have perused the pleading on behalf of
slavery in general, and American slavery in particular, to which so
many servants of the Lord Jesus Christ have not scrupled to append
their names. With the feeblest possible incidental admission of
“abuses,” which they “may deplore in this as in other relations of
mankind,” we find these men broadly maintaining, in the most
unqualified manner, that “the relation of master and slave”—“among
us,” they add, to make their meaning more explicit”—is not
incompatible with our holy Christianity.”
[Page XXXVIII]
They thank God for it, as for
a missionary institution—the best, as it would seem, and the most
successful in the world. They hold it to be their peculiar function
to defend and perpetuate it. And they evidently contemplate the
formation of the southern confederacy upon the basis of slavery as
one of its fundamental and permanent principles or elements, not
only without regret, but with entire satisfaction and approval.
Against all this—in the name of that holy faith and that thrice holy
name which they venture to invoke on the side of a system which
treats immortal and redeemed men as goods and chattels, denies them
the rights of marriage and of home, consigns them to ignorance of
the first rudiments of education, and exposes them to the outrages
of lust and passion—we most earnestly and emphatically protest. We
do not think it needful to argue. The time for argument has for many
a year been regarded by the whole of enlightened Christendom as past
and gone. Apologists for slavery, attempting to shelter themselves
and it under the authority of God’s word and the gospel of Jesus
Christ, are to be denounced as really, whatever may be their
intention, the worst enemies of both.
All reasonable allowance, no doubt, should be made for the
circumstances of Christian ministers called in Providence to labor
where slavery exists. Some soreness, even, on their part, under what
they regard as unjustifiable and dangerous movements on the other
side, might be excused as not unnatural. And if we saw them manfully
lifting their voice on behalf of universal liberty, and setting
themselves to aim at the instant redress of the more flagrant of the
wrongs incident to a state of bondage, we should be prepared calmly
to listen to their representations as to the best and likeliest
practical methods of promoting the present amelioration of the
condition of the slaves, and securing, within the shortest period
consistent with safety, their complete and final emancipation.
We are reluctant to abandon the hope that, upon reconsideration, and
in the view of the sentiments now unanimously held and expressed on
this subject everywhere else, all over Christendom, our American
brethren may yet be induced to take up a position more worthy of our
common faith than that which they at present occupy. But at all
events, the obligation lying upon us, as things now stand, towards
them, towards ourselves, towards the church and the world, towards
the Bible and the Gospel, is to record in the strongest possible
terms our abhorrence of the doctrine on the subject of slavery which
the southern clergy teach, and upon which they act; and to testify
before all nations that any state, empire or republic, constituted
or reconstructed, in these days of Christian light and liberty, upon
the basis of that doctrine, practically applied, must, in the sight
of God, be regarded as founded on wrong and crime, and as deserving
not His blessing, but His righteous wrath.
Rob. S. Candish, D. D., Edinburgh; Thomas Guthrie, D. D., Edinburgh;
John R. Macduff, D. D., Glasgow; W. H. Goold, D. D., Edinburgh; A.
K. H. Boyd, B. A., Edinburgh; Charles J. Brown, D.D., Edinburgh;
Andrew Thomson, D. D., Edinburgh; H. Wellwood Moncreiff, Bart., D.
D., Edinburgh; W. Lindsay Alexander, D.D., Edinburgh; James Begg, D.
D., Edinburgh; William Arnot, Edinburgh; J. Oswald Dykes, Edinburg;
William Pulsford, Edinburgh; A. Moody, Stuart, Edinburgh, Duncan
Ogilvie, M. A., Edinburgh; J. H. Wilson, Edinburgh; R. Macpherson,
Edinburgh; George Brown, Edinburgh; James Robertson, Edinburgh;
Robert Gordon, Edinburgh; Alexander Black, D. D., Edinburgh; John
Braid wood, Edinburgh; Robert Hunter, A.M., Edinburgh; A.L. Simpson,
Edinburgh; Robert Nisbet, D. D., Edinburgh; Andrew Crichton,
Edinburgh; David Croom, Edinburgh; N. Davidson, D.D., Edinburgh;
George Johnstone, D.D., Edinburgh; William Anderson, Loanhead,
Edinburgh; Thomas Main, Edinburgh; William Tasker, Edinburgh; James
Gall, Edinburgh; R. D. Duncan, Edinburgh; Edward A. Thomson,
Edinburgh; Thomas Cochrane, Edinburgh; William Balfour, Edinburgh;
James Kirkwood, Edinburgh; William
[Page XXXIX]
Gillespie, Edinburgh; John R. Macduff, D.
D., Glasgow; Rob. Buchanan, D. D., Glasgow; R. Jamieson, D.D.,
Glasgow; John Eadie, D. D., L.L. D., Glasgow; Patrick Fairbairn, D.
D., Glasgow; James Henderson, D. D., Glasgow; John G. Lorimer, D.
D., Glasgow; John Forbes, D. D., L.L. D., Glasgow; John Roxburgh, D.
D., Glasgow; Alexander S. Patterson, D. D., Glasgow; Andrew A.
Bonar, Glasgow; Walter Smith, Glasgow; A. B. Parker, D. D., Glasgow;
John B. Johnstone, D. D., Glasgow; George Jeffrey, D. D., Glasgow;
J. Logan Aikman, Glasgow; William Symington, Glasgow; John McDermid,
Glasgow; John Ker, Glasgow; George C. M. Douglas, Glasgow; William
Lindsay, D. D., Glasgow; John Robson, D. D. Glasgow; Hamilton M.
Macgill, Glasgow; D. McTaggart, D. D. Glasgow; W. D. Henderson,
Glasgow; Robert Bremner, M. A., Glasgow; George Philip, A. M.,
Glasgow; James Freer, Glasgow; James Macnaught, Glasgow; David
Menzies, A. M., Glasgow; Robert Howie, M. A., Glasgow; Dugald
MacColl, Glasgow; Alexander Wilson, Glasgow; Jos. Logan, Glasgow;
Hugh McDougall, Glasgow; John Edwards, Glasgow; James Knox, M. A.,
Glasgow; Matthew Murray, Glasgow; Robert S. Drummond, M. A.,
Glasgow; James Johnston, Glasgow; G. Marshall, Middleton, Glasgow;
R. 0. Smith, Glasgow; David Mitchell, Glasgow; John Torrance,
Glasgow; James Fraser, Glasgow; Thomas M. Lawrie, Patrick, Glasgow;
Robert Niven, Maryhill, Glasgow; Henry Oalderwood, Glasgow; John W.
Borland, Glasgow; David Pirret, Glasgow; John Cairns, D. D.,
Berwick-on-Tweed; David Brown, D. D., Aberdeen; Alexander Beith, D.
D., Stirling; W. Binnie, M. A., Stirling; N. McMichael, D. D.
Dunfermline; William Nixon, Montrose; John Ainslie, D. D., St.
Andrews; Alexander L. R. Foote, Brechin; Richard Waterston, Forfar;
Horatius Bonar, D. D., Kelso; James Julius Wood, D. D., Dumfries;
William Grant, Ayr; John Fordyce, Dunse; John Duns, D. D.,
Torphichen; William Wilson, Dundee; J. W. Wright, A. M., Haddington;
John Purves, Jedburg; William Laughton, Greenock; George Lewis,
Ormiston; John Macfarlane, D. D., Dalkeith; A. W. Milne, Canobie;
David 0. A. Agnew, Wigtown; Robert Macdonald, Leith; Joseph Brown,
D. D., Dalkeith: W. Bruce Cunningham, Prestonpans; Charles Nairn,
Dundee; John Blakely, I). D., Kirkintilloch; J. A. Wallace, Hawick;
Lewis H. Irving, Falkirk; George Macaulay, Invertiel; James
Grierson, D. D., Errol; Angus M. McGillivray, Dairsie; John Tait,
Dumbarton; Robert Taylor, Blairgowrie; John Nelson, Greenock; Andrew
Cameron, Stirling; J. W. Taylor, Flisk; Islay Burns, Dundee;
Alexander Sorley, Arbroath; Charles Watson, Langholm; Alexander
Hislop, Arbroath; John Laidlaw, Perth; William Mackenzie, North
Leith; Peter McDowall, A. M., Alloa; Thomas Neilson, M. A.,
Rothesay; George Burns, D. D., Corstorphine; Robert Reid, Firth,
Orkney; David Cairns, Stitchel, Kelso; John Bruce, D. D., Newmilns;
Henry Renton, M. A., Kelso; James McGill, Lochmaben; James R.
McGavin, D. D., Dundee; Robert Paterson, D. D., Kirkwall; Walter
Morison, B. A., Ayr; W. D. Robb, A. M., Orkney; James Roy, M. A.,
Firth, Orkney; William Sinclair, M. A., Kirkwall; William Pringle,
D. D., Auchterarder; Norman Macleod, North Uist; Graham Mitchell, M.
A., L.L. D., Whitburn; Robert Machray, A. M., Dumfries; James
Mackenzies, Dunfermline; D. McVean, Iona; J. McKerrow, D. D., Bridge
of Teith; J. G. McVicar, D. D., Moffat; P. Grant, Dundee.
October, 1863.
Note.—Nearly one thousand signatures, of
which a few are given above, have already been received. Ministers
in Scotland who wish their names appended to the document are
requested to send their address at once to Messrs. Nelson &
Sons, publishers, Edinburgh, before the list is completed.
