[Memorial to] the A.B.C.F Missions [manuscript]

Memorial from

The undersi,!jiied Jiave long been the friends and patrons of
your Board. The cause of missions among the heathen lies near
our hearts. In the promotion of this cause, we have rejoiced in
the general confidence reposed in your Board, and in the extensive
and ardent zeal with which its efforts have been sustained by the
prayers and benefactions of the churches. At the same time we
have some griefs in respect to the course of your body on the sub-
ject of slavery, which we deem it our duty and our privilege re-
spectfully to submit to your consideration.

That American slavery is a system of enormous wickedness,
and pregnant with immense evils to master and slave, to the na-
tion, the church, and mankind ; that it is hence the solemn duty
of American Christians to reprobate both the system and the prac-
tice in plain terms, decidedly, and in all suitable ways, and to have
no fellowship with it; and that, consequently, when the churches,
or their great official organs, give this system either their silent, or
their implied, or avowed sanction, they wrong humanity, dishonor
the gospel, paralyze its saving power, and sin against its great
Head ; — these we hold to be established and solemn, if not self-
evident truths.

What the exact position and action of your body in respect to
this subject has been and now is, we find it somewhat difficult to
ascertain. It has been said, that some years since, when a certain
widow at the South left the Board a legacy of a " fourth part of
certain negro slaves," the Board took no steps as legatee in regard
to the matter — thus practically declining the legacy. We learn
also from a published correspondence of one of your secretaries,
that a few years since, when some of the missionaries among the
southwestern Indians had entered into contracts respecting cer-
tain slaves, which were regarded by some of your patrons as a
sanction of slavery, your Prudential Committee, on a representa-
tion of the case being made to them, directed said missionaries to
enter into no more contracts of the kind, and to immediately can-
cel such of those already made as had not then expired — which
action has since received your sanction. We farther learn, from
the action of your body at its last annual meeting, "that the Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions can sustain no relation
to slavery which implies approbation ; and as a board, can have
no connection or sympathy with it." With this declaration of
your body, we have been greatly gratified. In connection with it,
we would respectfully ask whether the facts stated above were as
stated; and whether the action of your committee in the case was
the result, among other reasons, of a wish to avoid all real and
even seeming sanction of the slave system ?

The undersigned receive the declaration just quoted as a dis-
tinct and specific pledge, that the Board do not intend and will not
knowingly consent to lend, in any way, any sympathy or sanction
to the practice of slavery. As such, we rejoice in" it, and com-
mend the Board for it. At the same time we feel constrained to
call your attention to what is now a well known fact, viz: that
Ihv. J. S. Wilson, me of your missionaries, is an aclmowled^ed slave-
holder ; and, if his statement is correct, that you have some other mis-
sionaries who are also slaveholders. This is not the place to aroue
this case at length. We cannot forbear, however, a distinct ex-
pression of our opinion in respect to it. We are willing to believe
that in commissioning and sustaining Mr. Wilson as a missionary,
you have not intended to lend your sympathy or sanction to tlie
slave system; but that you have done so, and are still doing so in
fact, we are perfectly certain. We know it is said that Mr. Wil-
son's is a peculiar case — an exception to the general rule. We
differ entirely. We do not believe that the circumstances of the
case constitute any justification of the relationship whatever, or
any valid reason for its continuance. But waiving this, you will
not deny that the relationship of master and slave in his case is at
least of doubtful propriety. The simple fact that the Christian
mmd of the country is so divided in respect to it is proof of its
doubtfulness. On this ground, then, if on no liigher, we think
that he should manumit his slaves, or you should cease to employ
hnn as your missionary. It is, we believe, clearly, a case to which
the inspn-ed injunctions and maxims, "Let not your good be evil
spoken of," "Avoid the appearance of evil," "I will eat no meat
while the world stands, if it cause my brother to offend," and "He
that doubteth is damned if he eat," apply in their full force. And
accordingly, we are decided in the opinion that your Prudential
Committee, under your sanction and direction, ought to represent
the case to Mr. Wilson, and earnestly entreat him, for the sake of
eavmg himself and the cause of missions from reproach, or the
appearance of evil, or the guilt of wounding the hearts of Chris-
tian brethren, or the condemnation of a doubtful ma^-, to pro-
ceed at once to the manumission of his slaves. And if he refuse
or from any circumstances is unable so to do, then we are equally
clear that, for the same reasons, you should cease to retain him as
your missionary. Should he be strictly and truly unable to ter-
minate the relationship in question, (which we do not for a mo-
ment believe,) then, it is true, the continuance of it would be his
misfortune not his fault. Nevertheless, for the reasons just stated,
the relation would still be a disqualification for the missionary
work. Fault or no fault, such is the doubtfulness of the case, that
Mr. Wilson cannot retain his slatgs and yet prosecute his labors
as your missionary in Africa else where without involving
himself and you, and, through you, the cause of missions, in re-
proach, 01- the appearance of evil, or the guilt of wounding the
hearts of Christian brethren, or the condemnation of a doubtfiil

to the A. B. C. F. Missions :

matter. In any event, then, the relationship is a disqualification
for the inissi^*-y work; and, in the most favorable view of it,
like any othef^alification which is the misfortune and not the
fault of its subject, ought not to be taken up and made or contin-
ued as the misfortune of the missionary work itself!

We therefore respectfully ask whether any such representation
of the case has been or is intended to be made to Mr. Wilson ;
and whether, in the event of his continuing his present relation to
his slaves after a reasonable time for effecting their emancipation,
the Board will deem it advisable to continue his services as their
missionary? We would also respectfully inquire whether the
Board are aware that any other of their missionaries are, as Mr.
Wilson supposes, slaveholders ; and if so, how many, and who are
they ?

The undersigned would add a word in respect to the subject of
the solicitation and reception of funds from slaveholders. We do
not ask the Board to turn aside at all from its appropriate and
constitutional object— the giving of the gospel to the heathen.
We only ask, first, that it seek that object truly ; that it therefore,
in the teachings and the lives of its missionaries, give the heathen
the real gospel— a gospel sound in the faith and blameless in the
life, and therefore not a slaveholding or a slavery-justifying one.
We ask, second, that it seek its object by Christian and only
Christian methods ; and therefore that it do not solicit or know-
ingly receive the gains of oppression or of any iniquity at home,
as a means of sending the gospel abroad.

In wishing you to seek your object by such methods, we do not
desire or ask you to "pass resolutions or adopt measures against
the system of slavery, any more than against other specific forms
of evil existing in the community." We only ask that your posi-
tion and action should be the same in one case as in the other.
Let there be, whenever and wherever the prosecution of your
great ol^ject brings you in contact with slavery, the same practical
antagonism and condemnation of it which you have maintained
and manifested in respect to Sabbath breaking, intemperance, In-
dian oppression, and the like, and we ask no more. Let your jjo-
sition and principles of action be as clearly defined in respect to
slavery as in respect to intemperance ; let them be the position
and the principles of as practical a condemnation and opposition
of the one as of the other ; let the readiness of your exposure be as
prompt, and the tone of your rebuke as firm and unambiguous, in
respect to the one as the other, wherever they come in your way,
and not only will your general position be all that any friend of
the enslaved can rightfully desire, but the great difficulty in re-
spect to the solicitation and reception of funds will have been
met. You will then stand in the same relation to slaveholders
that you now do to spirit makers and spirit venders. You will
not need to inquire into the motives of individual donors or their
mode of obtaining their funds. This we have always known to
be impossible, and have therefore never asked. But your charac-
ter and position once as well defined and as positively opposed to
this iniquity as to that of intemperance or Sabbath breaking, you
and your agents may go forward soliciting and receiving funds of
the whole community indiscriminately, " asking no question for
conscience' sake," but presuming, in view of your known character
and position in the case, as well as your general object, "that the
funds contributed are obtained in a proper manner and given from
proper motives," and are not the gains of the iniquity you repro-
bate and condemn— your known general character, position, and
object, being an advertisement and a pledge beforehand, that you
do not solicit and will not receive the gains of said iniquity into
the treasury of the Lord, knowing them to be such : so that, while,
as your general rule, you receive" whatever is contributed, " asking
no question for conscience' sake," at the same time, " if any man
say unto you," or it be otherwise made plain to you, that this is
the gain of oppression or the price of blood, you will not touch it,
" for his sake that shewed it and for conscierice' sake."

We would then respectfidly ask whether it has be;^ or is the
purpose of the Board to maintain the same practica^fesition and
condemnation of slavery, wherever it comes in it/way in the
prosecution of its great object, as of intemperance. Sabbath break-
ing, Indian oppression, and "other specific forms of evil existing
in the comimmity ?" Also, whether it has been the practice or is
the purpose of the Board to decline the solicitation and reception
of funds known to be the gains of oppression or the price of men ?

The Board will perceive that the undersigned have been as ex-
plicit as possible in this communication. It is in no captious spirit,
nor with any desire to involve the Board in embarrassment that
we have been so, but the reverse. In former communications
with the Board, by the friends of the enslaved, we have thought
that great evil has resulted from the want of such explicitness.
We have wished to avoid such evil. That we might do it, and
that there might be no room for misconception or misunderstand-
ing in respect to the views and position of the Board on this im-
portant and momentous subject, we have placed the points, on
vyhich we desire specific information, in the form of distinct ques>
tions. These, we doubt not, will receive the candid and cai-eful
consideration of the Board.

With sincere desire and fervent prayer for the prosperity of our
common cause and of the Board, we are

Yours, in the fellowship and faith

Of the gospel of our common Lord.

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Memorial from

Tlie undersigned have long been the friends and patrons of
your Board. The cause of missions among the Iieathen lies near
our hearts. In the proiriotion of this cause, we liave rejoiced in
the general confidence reposed in your Board, and in the extensive
and ardent zeal with which its efforts have been sustained by the
prayers and benefactions of the churches. At the same time we
have some griefs in respect to the course of your body on the sub-
ject of slavery, which we deem it our duty and our privilege re-
spectfully to submit to your consideration.

That American slavery is a system of enormous wickedness,
and pregnant with immense evils to master and slave, to the na-
tion, the church, and mankind ; that it is hence the solemn duty
of American Christians to reprobate both the system and the prac-
tice in plain terms, decidedly, and in all suitable ways, and to have
no fellowship with it ; and that, consequently, when the churches,
or their, great official organs, give this system either their silent, or
their implied, or avowed sanction, they wrong humanity, dishonor
the gospel, paralyze its saving power, and sin against its great
Head ; — these we hold to be established and solemn, if not self-
evident truths.

What the exact position and action of your body in respect to
this subject has been and now is, we find it somewhat difficult to
ascertain. It has been said, that some years since, when a certain
widow at the South left the Board a legacy of a "fourth part of
certain negro slaves," the Board took no steps as legatee in regard
to the matter— thus practically declining the legacy. We learn
also from a published correspondence of one of your secretaries,
that a few years since, when some of the missionaries among the
southwestern Indians had entered into contracts respecting cer-
tain slaves, which were regarded by some of your patrons as a
sanction of slavery, your Prudential Committee, on a representa-
tion of the case being made to them, directed said missionaries to
enter into no more contracts of the kind, and to immediately can-
cel such of those already made as had not then expired — which
action has since received your sanction. We farther learn, from
the action of your body at its last annual meeting, " that the Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions can sustain no relation
to slavery which implies approbation ; and as a board, can have
no connection or sympathy with it." With this declaration of
your body, we have been greatly gratified. In connection with it,
we would respectfully ask whether the facts stated above were as
stated ; and whether the action of your committee in the case was
the result, among other reasons, of a wish to avoid all real and
even seeming sanction of the slave system ?

The undersigned receive the declaration just quoted as a dis-
tinct and specific pledge, that the Board do not intend and will not
knowingly consent to lend, in any way, any sym|)athy or sanction
to the practice of slavery. As such, we rejoice in it, and com-
mend the Board for it. At the same time we feel constrained to
call your attention to what is nowawell known fact, viz: that
jRej;. J. S. Wilson, one of your missionaries, is an acknowledged slave-
holder ; and, if his statement is correct, that you have some other mis-
sionaries who are also slaveholders. This is not the place to ai-gue
this case at length. We cannot forbear, however, a distinct ex-
pression of our opinion in respect to it. We are willing to believe
that in commissioning and sustaining Mr. Wilson as a missionary,
you have not intended to lend your sympathy or sanction to tlie
slave system; but that you have done so, and are still doing so in
fact, we are perfectly certain. We know it is said that Mi: Wil-
son's is a peculiar case — an exception to the genei-al rule. We
differ entirely. We do not believe that the circumstances of the
case constitute any justification of the relationship whatever, or
any valid reason for its continuance. But waiving this, you will
not deny that the relationship of master and slave in his case is at
least of doubtful propriety. The simple fact that the Christian
mind of the country is so divided in respect to it is proof of its
doubtfulness. On this ground, then, if on no higher, we think
that he should manumit his slaves, or you should cease to employ
him as your missionary. It is, we believe, clearly, a case to which
the inspired injunctions and maxims, "Let not your good be evil
spoken of," "Avoid the appearance of evil," "I will eat no meat
while the world stands, if it cause my brother to offend," and "He
that doubteth is damned if he eat," apply in their full force. And
accordingly, wo are decided in the ojiinion that your Prudential
Committee, under your sanction and direction, ought to represent
the case to Mr. Wilson, and earnestly entreat him, for the sake of
saving himself and the cause of missions from reproach, or the
appearance of evil, or the guilt of wounding the hearts of Chris-
tian brethren, or the condemnation of a doubtfid ma^-, to pro-
ceed at once to the manumission of his slaves. And if he refuse,
or from any circumstances is unable so to do, then we are equally
clear that, for the same reasons, you should cease to retain him as
your missionary. Should he be strictly and truly unable to ter-
minate the relationship in question, (which we do not for a mo-
ment believe,) then, it is true, the continuance of it would be his
misfortune not \i\s fault. Nevertheless, for the reasons just stated,
the relation would still be a disqualification for the missionary
work. Fault or no fault, such is the doubtfulness of the case, that
Mr. Wilson cannot retain his slaves and yet prosecute his labors
as your missionary in Africa elsewhere without involving
himself and you, and, through you, the cause of missions, in re-
proach, or the appearance of evil, or the guilt of wounding the
hearts of Christian brethren, or the condemnation of a doubtful

to the A. B. C. F. Missions :

matter. In any event, then, the relationship is a disqualification
for the missio^y work ; and, in the most favorable view of it,
like any othei^ftlalification which is the misfortune and not the
faidt of its subject, ought not to be taken up and made or contin-
ued as the misfortune of the missionai-y work itself

We therefore respectfully ask whether any such representation
of the case has been or is intended to be made to Mr. Wilson ;
and whether, in the event of his continuing his present relation to
his slaves after a reasonable time for effecting their emancipation,
the Board will deem it advisable to continue his services as their
missionary We would also respectfully inquire whether the
Board are aware that any other of their missionaries are, as Mr.
Wilson supposes, slaveholders ; and if so, how many, and who ai'e
they ?

The undersigned would add a word in respect to the subject of
the solicitation and reception of funds from slaveholders. We do
not ask the Board to turn aside at all from its appropriate and
constitutional object — the giving of the gospel to the heathen.
We only ask, first, that it seek that object truly ; that it therefore,
in the teachings and the lives of its missionaries, give the heathen
the real gospel — a gospel sound in the faith and blameless in the
life, and therefore not a slaveholding or a slavery-justifying one.
We ask, second, that it seek its object by Christian and only
Christian methods; and therefore that it do not solicit or know-
ingly receive the gains of oppression or of any iniquity at home,
as a means of sending the gospel abroad.

In wishing you to seek your object by such methods, we do not
desire or ask you to "pass resolutions or adopt measures against
the system of slavery, any more than against other specific forms
of evil existing in the community." We only ask that your posi-
tion and action should be the same in one case as in the other.
Let there be, whenever and wherever the prosecution of your
great object brings you in contact with slavery, the same practical
antagonism and condemnation of it which you have maintained
and manifested in respect to Sabbath breaking, intemperance, In-
dian oppression, and the like, and we ask no more. Let your po-
sition and j5rinciples of action be as clearly defined in respect to
slavery as in respect to intemperance ; let them be the position
and the principles of as practical a condemnation and opposition
of the one as of the other ; let the readiness of your exposure be as
prom)jt, and the tone of your rebuke as firm and unambiguous, in
respect to the one as the other, wherever they come in your way,
and not only will your general position be all that any friend of
the enslaved can rightfully desire, but the great difficulty in re-
spect to the solicitation and reception of funds will have been
met. You will then stand in the same relation to slaveholders
that you now do to spirit makers and spirit venders. You will
not need to inquire into the motives of individual donors or their
mode of obtaining their funds. This we have always known to
be impossible, and have therefore never asked. But your charac-
ter and position once as well defined and as positively opposed to
tliis iniquity as to that of intemperance or Sabbath breaking, you
and your agents may go forward soliciting and receiving funds of
the whole community indiscriminately, " asking no question for
conscience' sake," but presuming, in view of your known character
and position in the case, as well as your general object, " that the
funds contributed are obtained in a propei'manner and given from
proper motives," and are not the gains of the iniquity you repro-
bate and condemn — your known general character, position, and
object, being an advertisement and a pledge beforehand, that you
do not solicit and will not receive the gains of said iniquity into
the treasury of the Lord, knowing them to be siu:h : so that, while,
as your general rule, you receive whatever is contributed, " asking
no question for conscience' sake," at the same time, "if any man
say unto you," or it be otherwise made plain to you, that this is
the gain of oppression or the price of blood, you will not touch it,
" for his sake that shewed it and for conscience' sake."

We would then respectfully ask whether it has be^ or is the
purpose of the Board to maintain the same practical^sition and
condemnation of slavery, wherever it comes in its way in the
prosecution of its great object, as of intemperance. Sabbath break-
ing, Indian oppression, and " other specific forms of evil existing
in tlie community ?" Also, whether it has been the practice or is
the purpose of the Board to decline the solicitation and reception
of funds known to be the gains of oppression or the price of men

The Board will perceive that the undersigned have been as ex-
plicit as possible in this communication. It is in no captious spirit,
nor with any desire to involve the Board in embarrassment that
we have been so, but the i-everse. In former communications
with the Board, by the fi-iends of the enslaved, we have thought
that great evil has resulted from the want of such explicitness.
We have wished to avoid such evil. That we might do it, and
that there might be no room for misconception or misunderstand-
ing in respect to the views and position of the Board on this im-
portant and momentoiis subject, we have placed the points, on
which we desire specific information, in the form of distinct ques-
tions. These, we doubt not, will receive the candid and cai-eful
consideration of the Board.

With sincere desire and fervent prayer for the prosperity of our
common cause and of the Board, we are

Yours, in the fellowship and faith

Of the gospel of our common Lord.

The person receiving this Memorial, is requested to see that it is immediately circulated among such as have
been or are " the friends and patrons of the Board; " and that it be returned bij the 7th of September next, with such
signatures as may be obtained, and, as far as possible, free of expense, to J. W. Alden, 32 Washington Street,
Boston, Mass.; or Rev. Alanson St. Clair, Concord, N. H. ; or Rev. J. Brewer, Hartford, Ct. Should the
memorialists prefer sending direct to the Board, it will be the better way, provided the memorial be sent free of expense,
la this case, direct to one of the Secretaries of the Board — Rev. R. Anderson or Rev. David Greene, Boston,

^4-/7t^yi.C~''-^ ^^^^