Channels, Fall 2019

Page 46 Guidone • Liberty Further Extended helped to reach was Timothy Dwight, the President of Yale College. 53 Dwight, the grandson of the famous New Light minister Jonathan Edwards, stood as one of the foremost public commentators on issues of all kinds, and opposed slavery in writing in 1814. This occurred shortly after Haynes spoke to the student body from Isaiah 5:4, a passage which reads, “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” 54 Lemuel Haynes pursued the promise of equality in his vineyard of Vermont while upholding Federalism for the sake of national unity, thus he reaped a place in the Nation’s Founding. 55 53 Dwight, Timothy. President Dwight's decisions of questions discussed by the senior class in Yale College, in 1813 and 1814. From stenographic notes, by Theodore Dwight. New York: J Leavitt, 1833. Dwight weighed in on all topics, ranging from “is public education preferable to private? Is party spirit beneficial? Is resistance to government every justifiable?” One question Dwight posed in 1814, the year Haynes spoke out against Madison, states “Subjects are bound to obey their rulers. St. Paul says, “let every soul be subject to the higher powers.” the only question, therefore, for us to determine is, how far does this duty go? 54 Dwight’s decisions of questions discussed 1814, Two quotes suggest Dwight aligned with Haynes on the issues of slavery and politics. Despite never receiving training at the collegiate level, Haynes displayed an ability to form rational arguments against slavery based on morality, natural rights, and Scripture. Haynes did receive an honorary Master of Arts degree from Middlebury College, the first ever awarded to an African American. Dwight wrote the following remarks close to the time he invited Haynes to speak to the student body at Yale College. “Mr. Jefferson formed the party in this country which is now called republican. He is a man of sagacity, but I could tell you facts concerning him which would startle you. Before the Republican party was formed, there was no party in the United States: but now we have nothing to anchor us. The question is not now what is the country’s good: but what shall be done for our party?” President Dwight’s decisions, p 138. “When the slave trade was established it was believed to have a humane object, and to be calculated to confer great benefits on those transported from Africa. The question was never seriously discussed for a long time, and first began to be examined when I was about twenty years of age. But when we consider it now, how many evils do we see of its production! How many wars may have been produced among the African tribes by the encouragement offered by the slave trade! It is very difficult to form an estimate of the number of slaves made: it is sufficient for our present purpose, that it was perfectly enormous. Besides, it is agreed that bout one half of those who were shipped for transportation to America, died on the passage. Here then is a vast and wanton waste of human life, unauthorized by reason and religion. But, beside this, it is to be considered that the worst passions of men are bolstered up by holding slaves; and the amount of this part of the evil effects of the slave trade it is also impossible to ascertain with precision. Some little allowance is indeed to be made, for cases in which Africans brought to America might have been in bondage at home, or have been made more comfortable here than they would have been in their own country, as well as for those in which individuals have become Christians: but these are of trifling importance to the question.” pp 160-161.