them their whole earnings, and
had collected large sums from their brethren in England, which were
applied to the benefit of these slaves. It is not now for the first
time that charges have been made against the Church of God--that Judah
is like all the heathen. But all who embark in such courses--have met
with the common fate of the revilers of God's people; and they, with
such as select to stand in their lot--may find in the word of life a
worse end apportioned for them, than even for those they denounce, in
case every word they utter had been true. We bless God that no weapon
formed against Zion can prosper. There was one other instance which he
had noted under this head as requiring some comment, which could not
bear omission, regarding the private members of the Christian churches
in the United States, of whom a casual hearer or reader of Mr.
Thompson's speeches would believe that the far greater part actually
owned slaves; that very few, and they almost exclusively
abolitionists, considered slavery at all wrong; that with one accord
they deprived the slaves of all religious privileges, and used them,
not only as a chattel, but as nothing else than a chattel. According
to our last census, there were about 11,000,000 of whites, 2,000,000
of slaves, and 400,000 free blacks in America, making a total of
nearly thirteen and a half millions. All the slaves were gathered into
the 12 most southerly states, free blacks were not far from half in
the free and half in the slave states, and of the whites over
7,000,000 were in the free, and less than 3,000,000 in the slave
states. The best information I possess on this subject, authorizes me
to say--about 1 person in 9, throughout the nation, black and white,
is a member of a Christian church, the proportion being somewhat
larger to the north, and comparatively smaller at the south. There
are, therefore, above 1,100,000 white Christians in the United States,
of which about 800,000 live in the 12 free States, and neither own
slaves nor think slavery right; leaving rather over 330,000 for the 12
slave States. Now, if these white Christians in the slave States own
all the slaves, and the other 8-9ths of the whites owned none at all,
there will be only about 6 slaves to each Christian there, a number
far below the average of the slave holders; and all the North, and all
the South, except Christians, free of charge and guilt, in the
specific thing. But if we divide these Christians