Hope for the Bondmen by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 28, 1865

Hope for the Bondmen.

By Editor

THE work in favor of the poor bondmen seems to be progressing encouragingly. Let it go on at the rate it seems now to be moving, and it will not be long before the door of the truth will be fully open to them. From an article in the N. Y. Independent of March 16, we extract the following paragraph:

"When the Scottish judges decided that slaves could not exist in Scotland, the united colonies of America had just thrown off the British yoke and justified themselves by declaring that all men were created free and equal, while they kept half a million of their fellow-countrymen in hopeless bondage. But the ghastly inconsistency of this declaration with its practical application, will no longer be a reproach to America. The whole system of Slavery, with the evils it has engendered, is disappearing with a startling rapidity that can only be likened to the crumbling to pieces of one of those mighty icebergs which drift out of the polar seas on to our coast, seemingly impervious to heat and the action of the waves, until in a moment they burst asunder and are seen no more for ever. Four years ago, Slavery seemed to be as firmly planted on this continent as the Rocky Mountains, and soon not a vestige of it remains. The President could abolish Slavery by proclamation, as a military necessity, but he could not abolish the prejudices of caste. They had to abolish themselves. Illinois and Indiana have generously obliterated the infamous black laws which disgraced their statute books; Maryland and Missouri have voluntarily purged themselves of the foul institution which had brought them to the verge of rebellion and ruin, and social changes are quietly taking place which are scarcely less important than those which cause public rejoicing. The admission of a black lawyer to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, without a word of remonstrance from any member of the bench or the bar, is really one of the most significant events of the past four years. Others of a similar character will continue to astonish the public mind."