Committee of the South Middlesex Conference. The Political Duties of Christians: A Report, adopted at the Spring Meeting of the South Middlesex Conference of Churches, April 18, 1848. Boston: Printed by Andrews & Prentiss, 1848. First Edition. [10717]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, 40 clean pp., faint vertical fold at center. Good. Pamphlet.
"In view of the political subserviency of Christians to party and mere political demagogues, as especially evinced in the history of the Mexican War" this Conference of Congregational Churches appointed a committee to study and report on any measures "that seem to be advisable, to enable Christians to regain their appropriate influence as citizens."
The committee reports that the government of the United States is practically Infidel, that slavery is the great wrong, that citizens of the country are losing their rights, including trial by jury in the case of the suspected runaway, "be he black or white." It reports the the Louisiana Purchase was not sanctioned by Congress, that slave states will be carved from it, that the "Missouri Compromise" will result in the same, and that the Florida War was fought to find escaped slaves. They condemn the annexation of Texas as unconstitutional, that it was done to uphold the friends of slavery and has led to the war with Mexico. They condemn the "inexpressibly mean and cruel crime of forcibly despoiling a weak and defenceless people of their lands..." referring to the removal of the Cherokee nation.
The topic of slavery is considered from the view of the many crimes committed, the influence of Southern States over the adoption of the US Constitution and the Slave Power in the Federal government. The Appendix also treats with slavery quotations from John Quincy Adams that conclude with "a knot of slaveholders give the law and prescribe the policy of the country," in all caps.
Solutions include the independence of the pulpit and that Christian men take their voting responsibilities seriously as before the face of God.
