2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
Autograph Letter Signed, “R.G. Wilson” 1p. folio, Chillicothe, Ohio, October 20, 1845, with integral address to Reverened John Pitkin, Delaware, Ohio, and reads in part: “...Our Presbytery is much disatisfied with the doings of the Assemby in regard to Slavery. I mean the abolitionists, who are a majority. They have publicly arsigned Mr. Burton for his vote, and assert that the assembly is pro slavery. The slaves are a curse to the States which hold, & the quesstion concerning them is like to be a curse to those States which are without them. This a proof of their weakness & depravity. The slave laws in States which hold them, are unjust, inhman, and unchristian. They are detested & condemned by every good man. Our government has abolished the slave trade & is labouring to prevent it. The Americans who are not opposed to this traffic must be few indeed. But there are millions of slaves among us uncivilized savages, and the question is what should be done with them. They are not capable of enjoying freedom with safety to themselves or the whites. This I know is denied by some who point us to the British West India islands. Let such afford us the laws provided for their protection & than ask for Emancipation. Therefore where Masters treat their slaves with Christian humanity, teach them the way of the salvation & put them for freedom, & then great it to them. They do what is in their power. The church in the days of the Apostles had as members some masters & some servants - though the Roman slave laws were as bad as the American, may we not then suppose that a master here may be a member of our church. But on this subject I forbear...” also mentions providing housing for a woman named Fanny, possibly a freed or runaway slave. Fine. Presbyterian synods in New York and Philadelphia as early as 1787 called for members to gradually end slavery. By 1792, the Presbyterian General Assembly voiced concern over the institution and most Presbyterians agreed slavery should end. At the same time, Presbyterians felt gradual emancipation would work best. By 1815, Presbyterians declared the buying and selling of slaves "inconsistent with the Gospel." In 1818, George Bourne, a fiery anti-slavery preacher, insisted on slavery's cessation. Bourne's Presbytery felt his attitudes degraded the minister's office and they removed him. Bourne appealed to the General Assembly. Pro-slavery men loaded the Assembly and saw Bourne expelled but that same Assembly resolved that slavery was "inconsistent with God's law."
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