his fellow members." In a letter written soon after the 1834 annniversary of the New Hampshire Congregational Association of Ministers and Churches, he wrote:
The meetings at Meredith are reported as highly interesting. I hope the remarks of Dr. Matheson on the subject of Slavery will not be lost on the numerous clergymen who were present. It is a subject which must more engage the attention of the messengers of glad tidings than it has ever yet done. Ministers must not be afraid to speak and to preach on the subject. Slavery is one of the greatest national sins, and cannot much longer remain unpunished. Even Jefferson, a slaveholder, said he trembled for his country, when he reflected that God was just. I have sometimes queried if our Saviour were again to appear on earth, and should make our country the scene of his mission, what portion he would first visit; and who the first people to whom he would proclaim peace and good will toward men. Would he not first visit the captive? Would he not command that every yoke should be broken? that the poor, ignorant slave should be set free and enlightened? Would he not reprove some of his heralds for their apathy—nay, for their wickedness, in saying, "Touch not the subject of Slavery—they have slaves at the South: let the South take care of their slaves." Now this has been actually said by professed christians and ministers of the gospel. Let this course be adopted, and how long would it be before the sin of Slavery should cease?
Sure enough, dear, glorious Mr. Farmer! how long? To terrible extent "that course as adopted," and Slavery did not "cease" for more than a quarter of a century. And then went down in cataclysms of blood and fire, by the voice of that God before whom Jefferson "trembled remembering that His righteous judgments could not forever sleep."
No wonder Mr. Farmer never joined the American Church, though openly acknowledging his full belief in all the fundamental doctrines of the most evangelical denominations. In one of his letters to a friend he wrote: "Such is my indwelling depravity, that strange as it may appear, my days pass along with a constant accumulation of sin and guilt which can only be pardoned through the merits of an Almighty Saviour." After his death, his business partner, Dr. and Deacon Samuel Morrill, after years of intimate business as well as personal acquaintance, testified: "He was a good man, and he trusted in the merits of the atonement of Christ."
When he died, all classes of persons, without distinction of political party or religious sect, made haste to bring their tokens and tributes of respect and regard for his great moral and religious worth, as well as his exalted merits as a scholar, an antiquarian and historian. Though an abolitionist, and friend and admirer of Garrison, Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, Whittier, and Wendell Phillips, Democratic as well as Whig party editors and leaders were loud in his praise as a philanthropist, a man, and a citizen. Though member of no sect in religion, all sects seemed delighted to do honor to his memory and sublime christian worth. Though worshipper of the Family relation in all its purity and sacredness, he never married, for reasons to him all-sufficient, though perhaps hardly yet appreciable by the common world of man.
Just about one year before Mr. Farmer died, Mr. Rogers, of the Herald of Freedom, was lying very dangerously ill. In a letter written 3d of July, 1837, Mr. Farmer wrote: "I lament to inform you that the talented editor of the Herald (Mr. Rogers), is now languishing on a bed of sickness, and it is not at all probable that he will be at present, if ever, able to resume his useful labors. He is one of a thousand, if not ten thousand. I know not any one who can fill his place."
Mr. Rogers was at that time a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church. Mr. Farmer could respect and even admire him as such, because he was endeavoring to wash his hands and cleanse his garments clean from
