Faculty Report on Student Anti-Slavery Society 1835

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has been cheerfully relinquished. The students are united in the conviction that it is insufficient for them at present to organise any society in relation to this subject-

The subjoin to the above statement the following resolutions, adopted at a general meeting of the members of the Institution.

Resolved, that while connected with this Seminary, our duties as Theological Students have the first claim upon our attention & fearing that the agitation of the subject of slavery might interfere with the vigorous prosecution of our studies, & with that harmony which ought to prevail among us, - We therefore disappprove for the present of all associated action on the subject, in this Institution.

In behalf of the Students

[written and underlined on left hand side] Committee

P. E. Edwards A. R. Baker James L. Thompson W. S. Tyler Samuel Wolcott

The Faculty being fully acquainted of with what the students had done sent the following communication to be published in connection the same recorder in connection with the above.

Dear Sir - Permit me in behalf of the Faculty, to say a few words, expressive of the [deleted] ^^cordial satisfaction for full in the conduct pursued of late by the members

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of this Institution, and in the position which they have deliberately taken, relative to the subject of Slavery. They have felt, & we trust, we will feel, a lively interest in this subject, & a readiness to do what they can for the present & eternal welfare of the enslaved & oppressed. But when, at the suggestion of the Faculty, they took the matter into serious consideration, they soon came with entire unanimity, to the conclusion, that they could not form associations, and agitated the common questions, in relation to slavery, without endangering the spirit of piety & brotherly long among them, & esentially interfacting with that intellectual & moral improvement, which it is the grand object of the Institution to promote. We are gratified at the frank statement above made of what they have done

because they ^ ^we think it highly commendable creditable to their character, & because we hope that such an example of sober consideration, Christian harmony, & sacred regard to the order & prosperity of the Seminary, exhibited by the whole body of its members, will not be without some salutary effect.

After these remarks of the harmonious & brotherly conduct of the students, it may not be improper to add, that on the subject of slavery, this ^^the faculty are of one mind.

We take the liberty to say further, ^^that while we hartly wish success to every wise & Christian effort "for the relief & improvement of the coloured race,' & for diminishing & removing the evils of slavery, it is a serious question with us, whether we who are called to the accluous work of training up others for the

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sacred office, can consistently take an active part, at present, in any existing association formed with reference to slavery, or in any wa intermeddle with it, except so far as Christian benelovence may require us to seek the highest good of those in bodnage after the example of the Apostle Paul, & other primitive minsters of the gospel.

We have with deep regreat, noticed events which have been occured in some Semenaries of learning & religion, when slavery has been made a subject of special discussion, & associated capacity action; & ^ ^we must say, we have been unable to avoid the conversation, that this abosorbing subject, on which the community is so divided, cannot be introduced into our public institutions, as a subject of special discussion at the present time, without interferring more or less with