Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 42

5. K. Arvine, Our Duty to the Fugitive Slave: A Discourse Delivered on Sunday, Oct. 6, in West Boylston, Ms. [Massachusetts], and in Worchester, Dec. 15 (Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1850). (31 p.)

Sermon urging the congregation to ignore the federal Fugitive Slave Bill, which had just passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. The pastor uses Deuteronomy 23:15 as his text. “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee.” He summarizes his position as follows. “And now do you ask, ‘What shall we do?’ Whether you will obey Congress, or obey Jehovah, whether you shall truckle to the avarice and lust of Southern tyrants, or act the part of justice and mercy to the oppressed, you must decide for yourselves, and stand or fall with your decision. For my own part, I am already decided what course to take: and I stand prepared to meet the consequences in the judgment. I abjure this bill altogether,--now and forever!”