eat pains be taken
to teach them the Holy Scriptures; and that, to effect this the
instrumentality of Sabbath Schools, wherever they can be enjoyed, be
united with that of domestic instruction."[405]

This appeal was not to the officials of the State but to the members
of a particular religious body by its governing organization. The
success or failure of the plan depended entirely upon the individual
slaveholder's attitude in the matter. The committee added this
sentence by way of explanation: "These are measures which all ought to
adopt; and we know of no peculiarity of circumstances in the case of
any individual which can free him from culpability if he neglects
them."[406]

The sentiments embodied in this appeal were not, however, any
indication of the feeling among the slaveholding Presbyterians of the
State nor were they expressive of the Synod itself, for that body
never took any action upon the address, it being the work of the
committee of ten entirely.[407] Davidson, writing in 1847, made the
following comment on the sentiment of the church people in Kentucky at
that time. "In the morbid and feverish state of the public mind, it is
not to be concealed, that by some they (the Committee) were considered
as going to an unwarrantable and imprudent length. The northern
abolitionists were waging a hot crusade against slavery, sending out
itinerant lecturers, and loading the mails with inflammatory
publications. Their measures were marked with a fanatical virulence
rarely exhibited, and the people were exasperated beyond forbearance
... the effects were truly disastrous. The prospect of emancipation
was retarded for years. The laws bearing on the slave population were
made more stringent than ever, and their privileges were curtailed.
In Kentucky, the religious meetings of the blacks were broken up or
interrupted and their Sabbath schools dispersed."[408]

When the subject of emancipation was under discussion in the Kentucky
Synod one of the elders arose and stated that he owned one hundred
slaves, nearly all of whom he had inherited. Many of them were so old
that they could not provide for themselves, others were women and
children whom no one was willing to feed and clothe for their labor.
He stated emphatically that he had no desire to hold them in bondage,
but that he was willing to do whatever was best for the slaves
themselves. If he should free them, what would become of the aged and
the women and children