Reply To Rev. Mr. Ketchum's Lecture On Slavery, By C. Gurney...

[We bnve before memioned the circumstances respecting Mr. Kotchum's two lecturcs onAbohlion. A large portion of thern were occupied with a defence of slavery as a Bible institution. Cb ester Gurney, Esq. gave a lecture ín answer to them, whfch has been put into our hands. The argument from Scrip. ture is lucid and unanswerable. Bat as our slavery readers are familiar with that subject, we o.nit that portion, and make some cxtracts on other topics.] I will now notice, very briefly, one or two of the the concluding remarks of the first lecture of our Centreville divine. He said, among othcr thmgs, "Men attheNorth had tetter mind their own business than to medCle with the slavery of the South." Fellowcüizens, is it indeed, none of our business, thot some 350,000 planters of the South, wield, through the means of Slavery, ah influence in Congress, more than equal to two millions offreemen attheNorth? Is it none of our business thaf the 13 slave states Have a property representation iii Congress of 25 members,representlng 1200 millions of immortal chattels- while we at the north have not one cent? Is it none of our business that in the distribution of the Surplus Revenue, or the I proceeds of the Land Sales, the South received, in pioportion not only to the number of her recognized citizens, but also in proportion to her human ■property, wiiile the north receive only in proportion to their freemen?- . Is it none of our business that through this unjust source of power, 4-5ths or more of all the high officers of the Federal Government and foreign ministers, and eveu the officers down to midshipmen in the navy, are taken from the slavehold ing states, and alarge majority slaveholders? Is it none of our business that when the south determine to carry or defeat nny measure, they can nullify law and constitution with perfect impunity; but if a measure or mere petition be presented to Congress by a northern man, even toine eviis ana curses oí slavery, he is at once put down by censures and expulsions? Is it none of our business that the constitution is most wantonly trampled upon, in the denial of the right of petition to a large portion of the citizens of the United States? Is it none of our business that che pressis put under the the most tyrannical ccnsorsbip,at!d the U. S. mails (yes, fellow-citizens, your aud my mails,) deliberately desecrated by authority !! at the bidding of southcrn slaveholders? Is it none of our business that we stand connected with a system vvhose every tendency is to demoralize our countrymen- whose very nature is to train up a race of despots and aristocrats in our midst? Yes, felfow citizens, it is our business- our soleran business and duty, to use every legal and constitutional effort to remove these monstrous evils and dangers, from our otherwise happy and favored land.Do you ask how we would effect this great and important object? I ansvver, by discus . sion- by voting- by conressional and local leg-islation : and by every other constitutulional method in our power. I am not unaware that many accuse us of throwing firebrands into the South. This is utterly untrue asasweeping accusation. VVho hae originated the riots- the mobs- and murders, not only at tbe South, but at the North? Invarably the opposers of abolition- the pro-slavery mcn, and actuatsd too undoubtedly, by the same principies and spirit vvhich moved the goldsmiths of Ephesus, when they cned 'Great is Diana of theEphesians;" not a desiroforright and righteousness- but a fear that their craft would be in dantrer.But our lecturer, in conclusión ofhisfirst lecture, says "he is anxious to benefit the blacks - and therefore he is in favor of continuing them in eervitude"- "for he sa ys, from having travellcd among (hem he is satisfied they are the happiest iace of men he ever sa w. If, indeed, the lecturer's travel and means of knowledge have been sach ns he has stated, such as to enable him to form a just estímate of the general feeling of the slaves respecting their condition, it is utterly unaccountable that during all the agitation there has been for years past on the subject of slavery pro and con, we have neveryeUecuinCongresa or elsewhere, a pctition from tho sla ves lo be let alone! That in al), or nearly all the slavo states, a systcm of constant, unceasing- untiring vigilance by spies, mtrols, and guards, night and day, is and has )ecn deemed indispensable for them to keep down the spirit of freedom of ináubordination nd insurrection among the elaves: that inj many of the elave states, the instruction of Elaves, even in the nlphabef, is visited withpenuenuary and state pnson punishmenis: or that the subject of slavery cannot even be hinted at in Congross without raising a tempost of southern rage, fury, desperation and donunciations, characteris'ic of any thing butj quictness, safety and peace, or of any iiuJications of happiness and contentment among the slaveholders- much less among the slaves. I Some of you, fellovv citizens, will very naturally inquire, what we as politica!ists would do? We would not like Soulb Carolina and Georgia and other Southern States, to carry a measure of compara tivcly small moment, nullify the laws of (Jongress, trample upon the Conslitution dnd the Supreme Judicial tribunal ofthonation, and raise armies avowedly to resist and overthrow the Government. But we would elect euch men to Congress and other offices of the state and nation, as would be n favor (and on all proper occasions act accordingly) of abolishing slavery ia the District Columbia, and ofabolishing slavery also in all the territones of the United States. We would elect such men as would faithfully cxecute that law of the United States, which has hitherto been but a dead letter upon our Statute books, which justly denounces manstealing, in other words, the African slave trade,as piracy. We would prohibif, by suitable lawsjand penalties, the in terntil slave trade between the different States -we would protect the right of petition- we would secure to all, every where, the right freely to disc uss any and all subjects of great and pervading interest respecting our country and its government and institutions, without feir of mobs, riots and bloodshed - we would have the free States particípate m the affairs and influence of the federal Government, in proportion to their nurabers and the burdens they bear in its support . We would see equal justice done all foreign nations in our intercourse with them - and not refuse to recognize the independence ofHayti, which has withstood the power of France and England, and maintained her eelf as an independent republic foMOyeajs, and with a population now of more than a mili ion of freemen - her soil having been unstained with the invader's footsteps for more than a quarter of a century - while at fie same time we recognize Texas, with less than a year after she was the theatre o Mexican invasión. These, and many other tlnngs equally lega and necessaxy, we would accomplish tbrough and only through the legal, peaceful and constitutional appliances of the ballot box. And these objects attained, it is easy to see the days of the existence of slavery, in our midst, will have been numbered. Having consumed so much time in examining the first pro-slavefy lectnre, I must necessarily be very brief in my remarks upon the second. And fortunately, this brevily will not be inconsistent with suitable attention to the merits of the production to be examined. For, so large a portion of it abounds in the choicest dialect of billingsgate, such as "the abolitionists are wild fanatics - the humbuggery of abolitiouism - the mischief making abolitionists - the second class of abolitionists just come up out of the pit of Heil- who but the prince of Heil would commandsuch a legión?" and the like- and so large a portion of his gall is spewed out,in broad assertion, without proofor profaability, neither of which require, or deserve comaient, tJiat my work is mucli diminished. But tbere are a few things which may deserve a passing remark. The lecturer said "our slaves are better offthan the poorof England." This may be so - and suppose for the sake of the argument we admit what we have the naked assertion of the lecturer for, which at best is very problematical authority. I am yet to learn, ihat because England vilely oppresses a portion of her population, we are therefore justified in oppressing any portion of ours. The contrary should be the case - with herny anü wickedness beiore us, and our own pretentions to universal and ultra freedom, so fur from attempling lo shield ourüelves under her example, every principie of virtue, patriotism, national pride, and consistency, should constrain us to put lo shaine our insolent ! step mother for setting her children such an example. Again, he says, f-it appears that the God of nature so formed the blacks, tliat tliey aspire no higher than eervitude." To refute this utterly uiifounded assertion, it would be sufficient to refer to the ignorance,debasement and degradation in which they are kept hy their kind, bencvolent and lovingmastcrs, and lo thef act that their Iiistory !as ahvays, in this country, been writtcn by those who suppose thoir interest to traduce, viiity, and trarnpl them in the dust. And the oppressions,hard ships and privations they suffer, entirely pre vent their mental cultivation and improvement But the history of anciont as well as modern times, in other countries, provcs cleariy, the fallacy oflhia position. Who vvere the auI thors of those stupendous works of art incient igypt and hthiopia- tlie Py ram inda and the stutues of the Sphynx? The wooly headed thick lipped, flat nosed, ebony colored Ethopion. But in modern duys, who successfully reaisted al! power of a proud Napoleon, and prouder Britain? The despiscd Pelions, Christophers and Touissants of more despised I Hayti. W'hat rcpublic of the same ntimbers and means in ancient or modern days has ever successfully resisted oppression and carried out the principies ct' independent Government? Yet these are our lecturer's blacks who aspire no highèr than servitude. Almost rnunberlessexamplesof talent, erudition and eloqacnce, which would throw our lecturer far into the shade, might aJso be found among thedespi&ed blacks of our Jand. But time will not permit us to enumérate. Our Jecturer next undertakec to show by the Penitenüary conviclions in different States, tliat there is a largor proportion of blacks than whitea in them. Thid is no doubt true - and it would be a sufflcieut answer to this position that it is not to be wondered at that the blacks should comuiit crime, particularly theft, for we are constantly setting theru the example; slealing not only them, thcir friends and relatives, but robbing them of their labor, their talent and their very life blood. But if he will purstic lus own train of invesligation, he will find those same penitent iaries as much largor a proportion of foreigners than Arnericans - as blacks more than whites - and tbr the sarne reason, at least in part, which he suggests in his opening, viz: That foreigners ai e oppressed, kept in ignorance, and a prey to want, in their own countries- . and these causes with them, as with the black?, will always produce t e same effects- vicc and crime and the consequence- punishment. Besides, who does not know that, in ncarly all, even of the free States, the blacks are uttcrly or partially disfranchised, oppresed and trodden down by just such bein our lecturer. And can you expect good :itizens in those you treat as outlaws? Can yoii expect those who have suffercd all thcir early life, the most cruel unrequited bondage, and ofien been compelled upon the penalty of their lives, to submit to the brutal lust of their brutal masters, at once to emerge into quier, peaceable,respectable and eiilightened citizens? But hearken,my friende, to what our lecturer next says, "The free blacks would be better off, if they were slaves on a southern plantation, whcre they might cultívate the virtues, under their kind and benevolent masters." "Cultívate the virtues"!! what think you my friends of the opportunity they have to cultívate their virtues, who are compelled under the lash of a task master tu work half fed, half clothed, in a broiling sun, 18 hours out of 24, and in many States entirely prohibited the means of knowledge even of the alphabet, and in all, compelled to spend the Sabbath,the only time allowed, if any, for stu dyand improvement, in family preparations for the toil of the coming week?