December 1, 1843

Under Refuge of Oppression is an article from the Perfectionist, which complains about the fact that some abolitionists belong to no church.  “As seceding reformers generally profess to be Chrisitans, though they belong to no church, so we claim the name abolitionist though we belong to no abolition society…… We are Protestant abolitionists; that is abolitionists who protest against certain errors and corruptions which in the progress of the anti-slavery cause have made their way in the mother Society.”  The article then goes on stipulate objections which include that the abolitionists have too often made abolition the center of all reforms, and that abolitionism has been treated as no longer subordinate to the Bible and to religious principle.