Article-1854, June 8

For the National Era.

SLAVERY NOW EXISTING IN NEBRASKA.

   In any ordinary case, I should be very loth to expose a brother missionary; but the case now before us is one of so monstrous a character as to forbid longer silence.

   It may be generally known, that there is in this Territory an extensive missionary establishment, under the direction and control of the Methodist Church South, at which slaves have long been kept to do the menial service of the mission. These slaves have been kept here in utter disregard of the Missouri Compromise, by which Slavery was forever prohibited here.

   It would seem, to a candid thinker, a difficult matter to conceive a grosser inconsistency than to go forth to preach Christianity to the heathen, and to carry slaves along to assist in the glorious work. Thus, while they would hold up the gospel to the heathen with one hand, with the other they bind fast the yoke of bondage on the neck of the poor slave. How can they show any consistency in such a monstrous absurdity? On what grounds should one portion of the human family be degraded and heathenized, to elevate and enlighten another?

   But, to come nearer to the point—Thomas Johnson, the superintendent of the slaveholding mission, by adroit management, was elected, last fall, a Delegate to Congress from this Territory, or, rather, was sent to Washington to attend to matters pertaining to the various tribes of Indians here, preparatory to selling their lands and organizing a Territorial Government. He has been at Washington during the present session of Congress, where he has been using all his influence to secure the passage of Douglas’s Nebraska bill; and he has not scrupled to make unfair statements, to promote his ends. He is using his utmost endeavors to induce those Indians to sell out their lands entire—a thing which they are very unwilling to do, and which would be very disastrous to their best interest.

   They have Emigrated, to make room for the white man, until they can go no further. There are no lands suitable for them. Most of the vast region between this and the Rocky Mountains is a barren desert, and wholly unfit for civilization. These Indians are disposed to sell all the land they do not need; but they wish to be allowed to remain here in peace and quiet, for they know not where to go. But this Christian missionary would send them away, does he care whither? It is believed that he intends to secure to himself a fat portion of these poor Indians’ lands. And he would plant Slavery here; yes, has introduced it here, in violation of the laws of the land. And yet we are to believe that he is a minister of the Gospel of Christ.

   Friends of Freedom! Help! If ye ever intend to fight for Liberty, buckle on your armor, for the time is at hand.

RICHARD MENDENHALL,
Mission Teacher
Friends Shawnee Mission
Kansas territory, 5th mo. [May] 14, 1854.

[National Era, June 8, 1854, p. 3]

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SLAVERY, NOW EXISTING IN NEBRASKA.

   A communication in another column, from Richard Mendenhall, a mission teacher residing in Kansas, shows that Slavery already exists in that Territory, carried there and fostered there by missionaries of the Methodist Church South, among whom is Mr. Johnson, who has made himself quite busy in Washington this season. The statements of Mr. Mendenhall are worthy of the most serious attention.

   This Methodist Church South may be regarded as a mission association for the spread of Slavery. During the struggle in California, a year or two since, for the introduction of Slavery, its newspaper organ in the State took ground against the Anti-Slavery opposition to that movement. And, as it seems by the following paragraph in the National Intelligencer, the Church has at last expunged from its discipline its old article about Slavery, thus renouncing the creed of the fathers of the Church.

   “The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in session at Columbus, Georgia, on the 25th ult. expunged from the Book of Discipline all those parts which condemn the institution of Slavery. The vote on expunging is said to have been unanimous, with a single exception. The general rule, forbidding ‘the purchasing of men, women, and children, with the intention to enslave them,’ and which has reference to the African slave trade, was retained, through the vote upon the expurgation, even of this rule, was 47 to 54.”

   That the missionaries of such a Church should propagate and foster Slavery in Kansas or anywhere else, is precisely what might be expected.

[National Era, June 8, 1854, p. 3]

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   The National Era has a communication from Richard Mendenhall, a Mission teacher of the Friends Shawnee Mission in Kansas—wherein it is stated that at an extensive Missionary establishment formed and controlled in that Territory by the Southern Methodist church. Slaves have been long kept (in direct violation of the Missouri compromise which prohibited slavery in the Territory) to do the menial offices of the Mission. Mr. Mendenhall further avers, that Thomas Johnson, the superintendent of the Mission, was elected last fall a delegate to Congress, and has used all his influence fairly and unfairly, to secure the passage of the Nebraska Bill. Besides this he is now endeavoring to persuade the Indians to sell out entirely and remove. This is the incarnation of the Southern Methodist church: An apostle of the glorious liberty of christianity, he seeks to be the propagandist of slavery! The evangelist of Nebraska becomes its enslaver! With the delivering words of the gospel upon his lying lips, he clasps fetters upon the limbs of the slaves!”

Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 9, 1854.