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A Difficult Case

A Difficult Case image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
May
Year
1848
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

" Tho Qunkcrs in Yirgina seem to be placed in a peculiar relatioc to tho laws of Virginia. Tho Vearly Meeting of Baltimore, to which they belong, has chnrged n!l its members to educate the free colored peoplo. The Inwa of Virginia forbid it ; and the Friends have nddressed n memorial to the General Assemlily f the State of Virginia, nsking liberty to purstie the advice of their Yearly Meeting. If fiberty is nol given, we do not know what course the Flienda will mke. Thero will bo little (1 i fifí c u I ty in deciding what to do in tliis case, it' tho Quakers of Virginia are ready to obey God rather tliim man. and abido the conseqcence. We suspect tbat Fox and Baiclay, Burroughs and Woohnan, and the hero-hearts of early Quakerdom, would hiive had no liesitntion in marking out thcir course, Truc it requires courage and firmness and faith, to brave llie torce of the state or the nioli, in the performance of duty. These qualitíes were once elementa in Qüakerism. We hope that in tho linie of' trial. these childreu of brave sires, these nheritors of a noble naino will not dishonor their name and parentnge, aod doubly dishonor their own hearts, 'oy cringing to sluveholding despots. Let thom once lake n open, caltn nul firnj stand ngaiust those wicked laws, and sufT'er the penalty for iheir violation. and in a few yenrs they would be repealed. NötbJng would Ijring that result morespeedily than an attempt to executo them upon réspectable nnd respected men. [Penn. Freeraan.] We think with the Freeman that those Friends who are actuated by tile principies they profess, will havo little doubt relativo to the course they are to pursue with regard to this luw. Buthow inconsistent with our "frec institutions," to say nothing of its inhumanity, is such a luw. Those who are remóte froni the scène of such enactments eau scarcely realize that they do actunlly exist - thntin any part of our Liberty loving Republic any jiortion of humnn beings ave prohibited by law the meana ofeducation. While we are seudiug inissionariea to "heathen lands," would it not be well for us to consider the poor, degraded, ignorant and onslaved of our own ? Retributiva justico will not aluays sleep, and sooner or later, we, as a nation, shall reap the roward of such hypocrisy.