“That the suspicions which have prevailed to a considerable extent against ministers of the Gospel and professors of religion in the State of Virginia, as identified with Abolitionists, are wholly unmerited; believing as we do, from extensive acquaintance with our churches and brethren, that they are unanimous in opposing the pernicious schemes of Abolitionists.”

After this, are men to be branded as “infidels,” because they say the American churches are the “bulwarks of slavery?”

But what has all this to do with our fine-looking and dignified “Doctor?” I will tell you.  When these resolutions were passed, he was from home; but on his return, he lost no time in communicating to the “Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence” his entire concurrence with what had been done,—­and here are extracts from his letter:—­

“I have carefully watched this matter from its earliest existence; and everything I have seen or heard of its character, both from its patrons and its enemies, has confirmed me beyond repentance in the belief, that, let the character of the Abolitionists be what it may in the sight of the Judge of all the earth, this is the most meddlesome, impudent, reckless, fierce, and wicked excitement I ever saw.

“If Abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but right that they should receive the first warming at the fire.

“Let it be proclaimed throughout the nation, that every movement made by the fanatics (so far as it has any effect in the South) does but rivet every fetter of the bondman, and diminish the probability of anything being successfully undertaken for making him either fit for freedom or likely to obtain it.  We have the authority of Montesquieu, Burke, and Coleridge, three eminent masters of the science of human nature, that, of all men, slave-holders are the most jealous of their liberties.  One of Pennsylvania’s most gifted sons has lately pronounced the South the cradle of liberty.

“Lastly.  Abolitionists are like infidels, wholly unaddicted to martyrdom for opinion’s sake.  Let them understand that they will be caught [lynched] if they come among us, and they will take good heed to keep out of our way.  There is not one man among them who has any more idea of shedding his blood in the cause, than he has of making war on the Grand Turk.”

So much for my splendid D.D., on whose lips I hung with such intense interest.  I did not know all this at the time, or I should have felt very differently.  As he had but recently left Richmond when I saw him, it is not at all unlikely that those fine clothes he had on were the fruit of the slave’s unrequited toil.  He has always, I believe, stood high among his brethren, and one or two excellent tracts of his are published by the American Tract Society.

All denominations are here alike guilty in reference to their coloured brethren.  In this very city the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1840 passed the following resolution:—­