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complishment. Sooner or later, I believe that some measure of that character must be adopted. But it belongs to the Slave States themselves to take the lead in such a movement. And meanwhile their legal rights and their natural feelings must be respected, if we would hope for unity and peace.

In conclusion, I would only say, that I am perfectly aware how distasteful my sentiments must be, on this very serious question, to the great majority of my respected fellow-citizens, in the region where divine Providence has cast my lot. It would assuredly be far more agreeable if I could conscientiously conform to the opinions of my friends, to whose ability, sincerity, and zeal, I am ready to give all just commendation. But it would be mere moral cowardice in me to suppress what I believe to be the truth, for the sake of popularity. It can not be long before I shall stand at the tribunal of that Almighty and unerring Judge, who has given us the inspired Scriptures to be our supreme. directory in every moral and religious duty. My gray hairs admonish me that I may soon be called to give an account of my stewardship. And I have no fear of the sentence which He will pronounce upon an honest though humble effort to sustain the authority of HIS WORD, in just alliance with the Constitution, the peace, and the public welfare of my country.

With the fervent prayer that the Spirit of wisdom, unity, and fraternal kindness may guide our National Congress, the Legislatures of the several States, and the sovereign will of our whole people, to a happy accommodation of every existing difficulty,

I remain, with great regard,

Your faithful servant in Christ,

JOHN H. HOPKINS,

Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont.

I had anticipated the probability that the republication of the foregoing pamphlet would bring down upon me a liberal share of abuse and contumely from the abolition Press, and I was prepared to submit to it with quiet resignation. But I was not prepared for the extraordinary sentence of "indignant reprobation" which the Bishop of Pennsylvania, and a majority of his clergy, thought fit to fulminate against my course, in the following form, viz. :

PROTEST

OF THE BISHOP AND CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA, ETC.

"The subscribers deeply regret that the fact of the extensive circulation through this Diocese of a letter by John Henry Hopkins, Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, in defense of Southern Slavery, compels them to make this public protest. It is not their province to mix in any political canvas. But as ministers of Christ, in the Protestant Episcopal Church, it becomes them to deny any complicity or sympathy with such a defense."

"This attempt not only to apologize for slavery in the abstract, but to advocate it as it exists in the cotton States, and in States which sell men and women in the open market as their staple product, is, in their judgment, unworthy of any servant of Jesus Christ. As an effort to sustain, on Bible principles, the States in rebellion against the government, in the wicked attempt to establish by force of arms a tyranny under the name of a Republic, whose corner-stone' shall be the perpetual bondage of the African, it challenges their indignant reprobation."

PHILADELPHIA, September, 1863.

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W. H. D. Hatton,
Thomas W. Martin,
Alfred Elwin,

James W. Robins,

H. W. Ducachet, John S. Stone, George Leeds, Richard D. Hall, Joseph D. Newlin, B. Wistar Morris, Daniel S. Miller, Kingston Goddard, Phillips Brooks, Addison B. Atkins, Herman Hooker, Benjamin Watson, Edward L. Lycett, Lewis W. Gibson, R. W. Oliver, Henry Brown, W. R. Stockton, Edward A. Foggo, J. Isador Mombert, Joel Rudderow, Archibald Beatty, C. A. L. Richards, George A. Strong, Gustavus M. Murray, George W. Shinn, Samuel Hall, George G. Field, Reese C. Evans, Robert G. Chase, Samuel Hazlehurst, Edwin N. Lightner, David C. Page, John Cromlish, William Preston, George Slattery, Francis J. Clerc, Robert J. Parvin, Thomas S. Yocom, Benjamin Dorr, Jehu C. Clay, William Suddards,

George D. Miles, B. B. Killikelly, Alexander McLeod, Leighton Coleman, Richard Smith, Thomas H. Cullen, J. McAlpin Harding, William Ely, Marison Byllesby, J. Livingston Reese, Augustus A. Marple, B. T. Noakes, D. Otis Kellogg, Daniel Washburn, Samuel E. Smith, Treadwell Walden, Herman L. Duhring, Charles M. Dupuy, John H. Babcock, Anson B. Hard, George A. Latimer, R. Heber Newton, John G. Furey, Charles A. Maison, R. H. Brown, Richard Newton, G. Emlen Hare, W. W. Spear, H. J. Morton, Jacob M. Douglass, R. A. Carden, R. C. Matlack, L. Ward Smith, Samuel E. Appleton, William J. Alston, John Adams Jerome, Joseph A. Stone, Albra Wadleigh, W. S. Perkins, Francis E. Arnold, George H. Jenks,

George Bringhurst,
Charles W. Duane,
George B. Allinson,
Joseph N. Mulford,
James DeW. Perry,
Thomas G. Clemson,
Francis D. Hoskins,
William P. Lewis,
J. L. Heysinger,
John Long,
Ormes B. Keith,
William N. Diehl,
Charles W. Quick,
H. T. Wells,
D. C. Millett,
J. W. Leadenham,
Frederick W. Beasley,
John P. Lundy,
George A. Crooke,
Richardson Graham,
E. S. Watson,
Samuel Edwards,
George A. Durborow,
Joseph R Moore,
Thomas B. Barker,
S. Tweedale,
Marcus A. Tolman,
John H. Drumm,
J. Newton Spear,
Louis C. Newman,
Edward C. Jones,
E. W. Hening,
Samuel Durburow,
C. C. Parker,
Henry Purdon,
Benjamin H. Abbott,
John H. Marsden,
Samuel B. Dalrymple,
William V. Feltwell,
John Leithead,
George C: Drake,

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The answer to this strange assault was the following: To the Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, of the Diocese of Pennsyl vania:

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I have seen, with great amazement, a protest against my letter on the "Bible View of Slavery," signed by you and a long list of your clergy, in which you condemn it as unworthy of any servant of Jesus Christ," as an effort to sustain, on Bible principles, the States in rebellion against the government in the wicked attempt to establish, by force of arms, a tyranny in the name of a Republic, whose cornerstone shall be the perpetual bondage of the African,” and as such you say that it challenges your "indignant reprobation."

Now, my Right Reverend brother, I am sorry to be obliged to charge you, not only with a gross insult against your senior, but with the more serious offense of a false accusation. My letter was first published in January, 1861, more than three months before the war began, at a time when no one could anticipate the form of Government which the Southern States should adopt, or the course which Congress might take in reference to their secession. And when I consented to its publication, I did not suppose that it would be used in the service of any political party, although I had no right to complain if it were so used, because the letter, once published, became public property. But in its present form there is nothing whatever in it which bears on the question

of "rebellion," or of "the perpetual bondage of the African," or of "tyranny under the name of a Republic," of which slavery should be the "corner-stone." On the contrary, I referred, on the last page, to my lecture published in Buffalo in 1850, and to my book called The American Citizen, published in New York in 1857, where "I set forth the same views on the subject of slavery, adding, however, a plan for its gradual abolition, whenever the South should consent, and the whole strength of the Government could aid in its accomplishment." "Sooner or later," I added, "I believe that some measure of that character must be adopted. But it belongs to the Slave States themselves to take the lead in such a movement. And meanwhile their legal rights and their natural feelings must be respected, if we would hope for unity and peace."

With these facts before your eyes, I am totally at a loss to imagine how even the extravagance of party zeal could frame against me so bitter a denunciation. The whole object of my letter was to prove, from the Bible, that in the relation of master and

ever.

slave there was necessarily no sin what

The sin, if there were any, lay in the treatment of the slave, and not in the relation itself. Of course, it was liable to abuse, as all human relations must be. But while it was certain that thousands of our Christian brethren who held slaves were treating them with kindness and justice, according to the Apostle's rule, and earnestly laboring to improve the comforts and ameliorate the hardships of the institution, I held it to be a cruel and absurd charge to accuse them as sinners against the Divine law, when they were only doing what the Word of God allowed, under the Constitution and established code of their country.

I do not know whether your band of indignant reprobationists ever saw my book published in 1857, but you read it, because I sent you a copy, and have your letter of acknowledgment, in which, while you dissented from some of

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