The Editors of the South-Western Baptist seem determined to make out the Editor of the Tennessee Baptist an Abolitionist - an enemy to Southern Institutions. In their issue of April 29th they promise to prove what they have stated. They say that J. R. G. spoke in such a manner of Slavery, in the presence of an eminent minister, now deceased, that that minister advised him to leave Kentucky and go back to the North, etc. The Editors promise to establish their charge within two or three weeks. They say, "We shall devote but a single issue of our paper to it - After which, we shall bid a perpetual adieu to the unhappy controversy we have been conducting."This, according to my understanding, means that however triumphantly J. R. G. scatters the charge to the four winds of Heaven, the readers of the South-Western Baptist shall not it. "Perpetual adieu!" Yes, certainly. It was not worth while to tell it. Because every body ought to know that when a certain clan of Southern men say everything else they can to injure an opponent, they fall back on their "reserved right" and cry, abolition! I have known for some years [four dark words - illegible] powers on those whose [blurred] I will not now expiate. Say the Editors, "We intend to show our brethren that they had better trust their own Southern Editors than strangers."
I know now what I have believed heretofore. What is the import of the language just quoted. It means that brethren in the South ought to take newspapers edited by men born in the South, and patronize the T___________ Baptist, edited by a man guilty of the imprudence of being born in the North. When it is intimated that a man is to be discredited on account of his birth-place, (unless it can be shown that he selected it,) I feel as much pity for those who make the intimation as is consistent with a cordial contempt for the sentiment.
What are we to look for? Two letters, I understand, purporting to have been written by J. L. Waller, of Kentucky, charging abolition sentiments on J. R. G. Very well. I have heard it said that Bro. Howell has written to Bro. Henderson requesting him not to publish those letters. Bro. Howell, probably, is able to anticipate the result. I suppose Bro. Henderson is determined to do as he pleases. Things being as they are, I want the letters published on J. r. G's account. I regret it on J. L. W.'s account, if indeed he ever wrote such letters. Suppose when these letters are published, certificates which have been in existence for sometime are published, in which brethren state that they heard Waller say, at a period subsequent to the date of these letters, that they only objection he ever heard Graves make to slavery was the amalgamation of the white and the black race as seen in the mulattoes of the country. I hope the Editors of the South-Western Baptist will allow opposition to slavery to this extent.
J. R. G., it seems, was advised to return to the North from Kentucky, and came further South! Some things are remarkably destitute of plausibility.
I will here say what, in other circumstances. I would not say. I do not say I am "the" man, but one of the men to whom J. R. G., for the last half dozen years would have been likely to tell all his heart. And I now state that the greatest objection I have had to him during that period - and that I now have to him - is, that he is more in favor of slavery than I think he ought to be. We are both decided in our opposition to abolition. I, imbibing at an early period the sentiments of Henry Clay, am in favor of gradual Emancipation according to State Constitution and State law, whenever the majority of the people of a State choose to ordain such a Constitution and establish such a law. This gradual Emancipation, should it ever take place, ought, I think, to be invariably coupled with colonization in Africa. Emancipation without Colonization would be very bad policy. Now J. R. G. does not look on Colonization as I do. He thinks it better for the colored people of the country to remain slaves than to be set free and colonized in Africa. I look on the Colony of Liberia as the hope in Africa. He doubts as to the utility of the enterprise. More than this, J. R. G. is a slave-holder. - This is the man whom the Editors of the S. W. Baptist wish to prove an enemy of Southern Institutions. What next? Nothing. - "Perpetual adieu!" The Editors will feel like bidding adieu to controversy with the Tennessee Baptist when they get through with this. No doubt of it. We shall soon "conquer a peace."
James M. Pendleton=========== [From the Tennessee Baptist, May 8, 1858, via the CD microfilm. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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