son, Goodell,
Gerrit Smith, Pillsbury, and Foster. They have never attempted to judge
the American Church by any standard except that which she has herself
laid down,--never claimed that she should be perfect, but have contented
themselves by demanding that she should be consistent. They have never
judged her except out of her own mouth, and on facts asserted by her
own presses and leaders. The sundering of the Methodist and Baptist
denominations, and the universal agitation of the religious world,
are the best proof of the sagacity with which their measures have been
chosen, the cogent arguments they have used, and the indisputable
facts on which their criticisms have been founded. In nothing have the
Abolitionists shown more sagacity or more thorough knowledge of their
countrymen than in the course they have pursued in relation to the
Church. None but a New-Englander can appreciate the power which church
organizations wield over all who share the blood of the Puritans. The
influence of each sect over its own members is overwhelming, often
shutting out, or controlling, all other influences. We have Popes here,
all the more dangerous because no triple crown puts you on your guard.
* * * In such a land, the Abolitionists early saw, that, for a moral
question like theirs, only two paths lay open: to work through the
Church; that failing, to join battle with it. Some tried long, like
Luther, to be Protestants, and yet not come out of Catholicism; but
their eyes were soon opened. Since then we have been convinced that, to
come out from the Church, to hold her up as the bulwark of slavery, and
to make her shortcomings the main burden of our appeals to the religious
sentiment of the community, was our first duty and best policy. This
course alienated many friends, and was a subject of frequent rebuke from
such men as Dr. Channing. But nothing has ever more strengthened the
cause, or won it more influence; and it has had the healthiest effect on
the Church itself. * * *

Unable to command a wide circulation for our books and journals, we have
been obliged to bring ourselves into close contact with the people, and
to rely mainly on public addresses. These have been our most efficient
instrumentality. For proof that these addresses have been full of
pertinent facts, sound sense, and able arguments, we must necessarily
point to results, and demand to be tried by our fruits. Within these
last twenty years it has been very rare tha