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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39568-8.txt b/39568-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b97088d --- /dev/null +++ b/39568-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6132 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of William Jay and the Constitutional Movement +for the Abolition of Slavery, by Bayard Tuckerman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery + +Author: Bayard Tuckerman + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + WILLIAM JAY + AND + THE CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENT FOR + THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY + + BY + BAYARD TUCKERMAN + + WITH A PREFACE BY + JOHN JAY + + NEW-YORK + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + 1893 + + + Copyright by + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, + 1893. + + University Press: + JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. + + + + +PREFACE + +BY JOHN JAY. + + +A prolonged illness, added to other causes, has disappointed my hope of +completing an elaborate biography of my father. + +This memoir by Mr. Tuckerman is devoted chiefly to the part borne by +Judge Jay in the antislavery work, to which his time and thoughts were +so long given. In this connection the memoir develops his personal +characteristics, with the constitutional principles and national policy +advocated by him in that historic contest; while of necessity it touches +but lightly on his home life, his varied correspondence, and his +judicial charges, one of which assisted to avert the passage of a +pro-slavery legislative act infringing the liberty of speech and of the +press; and the scope of the volume forbids its dwelling on his writings +on other topics, some of which are still subjects of discussion. + +Judge Jay's memoir on the formation of a National Bible Society, which +in 1816 so warmly encouraged the hopes of the venerable Boudinot, was +followed by spirited controversial pamphlets with an antagonist as able +and eminent as Bishop Hobart. The correspondence after Jay's first +letter was marked by an unusual sharpness, which happily did not prevent +my cherished and lamented friend, the son and namesake of the Bishop, +from becoming in later years sincerely attached to his father's +antagonist. It was a contest in which Jay vindicated the right of +Churchmen to assist in the distribution of the Bible, and anticipated in +this his similar efforts for a lifetime to secure the united action of +all good citizens, without regard to creed or politics, in practicable +schemes for the elevation and happiness of mankind. Among his earlier +essays were two on "Sunday: Its Value as a Civil Institution, and Its +Sacred Character"; while a third, upon "Duelling as a Relic of +Barbarism," was honoured, when the authorship was still unknown, by a +medal from an anti-duelling association at Savannah. + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN JAY. + +Judge Jay, in the life of his father, which was welcomed as an important +addition to our American biography of the Revolution, vindicated, by a +careful presentation of the historical evidence then available, the +soundness of the judgment of Jay and Adams, as peace commissioners at +Paris in 1782-83, regarding the policy of the French court as unfriendly +to the American claims to the boundaries, the fisheries, and the +Mississippi. That judgment, afterwards acquiesced in by Dr. Franklin in +the joint violation by the commissioners of the instructions of +Congress--a violation that enabled them to obtain from England +boundaries and concessions far greater than either Congress or France +expected--had been roughly criticised and denied, even in volumes of +diplomatic correspondence claiming an official sanction. Its vindication +by Judge Jay has recently been more than confirmed by the ample proofs +published by M. de Circourt in the secret correspondence of the Count de +Vergennes with his able corps of diplomatic agents, as well as by the +interesting revelations in Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's "Life of Lord +Shelburne"; and these volumes have dissipated a cloud of error which for +half a century travestied the facts and dimmed the glory of the closing +act of the American Revolution.[A] + + +JAY'S "WAR AND PEACE," AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + +Judge Jay's little book on "War and Peace," with a plan of stipulation +by treaty for international arbitration which subsequently led to his +becoming the president of the American Peace Society, and which before +its publication attracted the attention of that sturdy advocate for +peace, Joseph Sturge, during his visit at Bedford, seems entitled to +special notice as one whose scheme is still agitated in the governmental +and national councils of Europe. The plan promptly received the approval +of the Peace Society of London, and of English statesmen like Richard +Cobden and the indefatigable Henry Richard. It exercised a European +influence in the highest quarters when its spirit, under the leadership +of Lord Clarendon, received the sanction of the great powers of Europe +who signed the Treaty at Paris in 1856. Its endorsement, while +cautiously expressed, was recognized as having a new and profound +significance. The Protocol No. 23 declared the wish of the signatory +governments that states between which any serious misunderstanding might +arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as +circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power; it +being understood that the wish expressed by Congress should not in any +case oppose limits to that liberty of appreciation which no power could +alienate in questions that touched its dignity. With that limitation the +recommendation, in advance of a resort to war to have recourse to a +friendly power, was introduced by the Congress to the International Code +of Europe; and among those great diplomatists were the Count Walewski +and Baron Bourgueny, on the part of France; Count de Buol-Schauenstein +and Baron de Hubner, on the part of Austria; Lord Clarendon and Lord +Cowley, on the part of Great Britain; Count Orloff and Baron de Bruno, +on the part of Russia; and Count Cavour and the Marquis de Villamarina, +on the part of Sardinia. The action of the Congress was subsequently +confirmed by that of the lesser states of Europe. Mr. Gladstone +pronounced the protocol "a very great triumph, a powerful engine in +behalf of civilized humanity." The late Earl of Derby referred to it as +"the principle which to its immortal honour was embodied in the +protocols of the Conference at Paris"; and the Earl of Malmesbury +pronounced the act "one important to civilization and to the security of +the peace of Europe." The idea that this scheme is more and more +regarded as widely applicable to international disputes, as easily +practicable and profoundly important to the peace of nations, would seem +probable from the extent to which, as the century approaches its +completion, the scheme has occupied more and more the attention of both +the statesmen and of the masses who are the most interested in +discovering a substitute for war. + +For a time after the Geneva award, the moral weight and value of +international arbitration seemed to be more doubted than ever. It was +said that while the scheme had in that case avoided war, it had +suggested the probability of claims so extravagant and inadmissible as +almost to force the opposing party to break the treaty under the cover +of which they were advanced, even at the risk of increased hostility and +a resort to war; and that the escape of both nations from such a +catastrophe by the action of the Genevan Court in dismissing without +argument the American claims for indirect damages was but a happy +accident. But this idea seems to have been succeeded by the happier +thought that an appeal to international arbitration is an appeal to the +fairness of the world, and that the question for the parties, judges, +and spectators is so clearly one of honour, that no nation can afford to +ask what the justice of the world candidly disapproves. In the case of +the Geneva Congress, while the rejected claims were presented in the +name of the President, General Grant himself subsequently denied their +justice and approved their rejection. Sir Lyon (now Lord) Playfair, who +perhaps appreciates the entire subject of arbitration as thoroughly as +any living statesman, gave an interesting sketch of its recent progress, +both in Europe and America, in a paper entitled, "A Topic for +Christmas," in the _North American Review_ for December, 1890. Three +years before, Sir Lyon had headed a deputation of members of the English +Parliament who came to present to the President of the United States a +memorial from 234 members of the House of Commons, with delegates from +English Trades Unions representing 700,000 workingmen. Congress in +response concurrently resolved to invite from time to time, as fit +occasion might arise, negotiations with any government with which the +United States has or may have diplomatic relations, to the end that any +differences or disputes arising between the two governments which cannot +be settled by diplomatic agency may be referred to arbitration and be +peacefully adjusted by such means. Although Europe is supposed by many +to be awaiting a war of gigantic magnitude, Sir Lyon, referring to the +approval of arbitration by the Pan-American Congress by continental +parliaments and international assemblies at Paris and London, said that +the legislatures which had already passed resolutions in favor of +arbitration represented 150,000,000 of people, and remarked that the +extension of that feeling would be a better force than an international +police to secure the observance of treaties. The excess of war +preparation already endangering national credit and threatening national +bankruptcy is quoted as proving that the arbitration idea will be +insisted upon, and in the anticipated movement the United States is +described as fitted to be the leading champion of arbitration. Sheridan +is quoted among others as saying: "I mean what I say when I express the +belief that arbitration will rule the world." The scheme is now +represented as likely to be accepted by thinkers who reject the thought +of Kant, Bentham, and Mills for an international Congress; and Sir Lyon +Playfair, in connection with the idea of arbitration, quotes the remark +of Mazzini that "thought is the action of men and action the thought of +the people." + + +"THE WAR WITH MEXICO," AND ANTISLAVERY PAPERS. + +The "Review of the War with Mexico" stands among Judge Jay's volumes +unexcelled by exactness of congressional, diplomatic, and, to some +extent, military research; and by plainness of speech in regard to +national outrages and perfidy without a name, perpetrated in the cause +of slavery; and his writings generally on this subject show the same +accurate inquiry and outspoken frankness. It was on the varied phases +of our treatment of the coloured people, free and slave, at our own +doors, the cruel wrong so full of injustice to the blacks, of scandal to +Christendom, and of menace to the republic, that Jay wrote with deepest +earnestness, the most exacting research, and a fearless pen. His inquiry +into "The American Colonization and the Antislavery Societies" and "The +Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery," developed facts +which implicated prominent politicians of both parties, and aroused at +once their surprise and indignation, while the disclosure directly +appealed to the pride and conscience of the American people. The same +judicial, dauntless, and defiant spirit marked the appeals which he +prepared for the Antislavery Society against the calumnies of the press, +and the dignified protest against the libellous charges so unworthily +made by President Jackson in his message to Congress. The same spirit +animated his address on "The Condition of the People of Colour in the +United States"; the "Appeal to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on +the Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of Petition"; +his supplement to "The Reproof of the American Church," by Bishop +Wilberforce of Oxford; the exposure in the letter to Bishop Ives of the +clerical efforts to sanctify slavery and caste; and his earnest demand +for the equal admission of the coloured churches to the Diocesan Council +of New York. So, too, with the critical analysis of Mr. Clay's +"Compromise Bill," including the Fugitive Law and Mr. Webster's "Theory +of Physical Geography"; his address to the inhabitants of New Mexico and +California, so timely distributed in English and Spanish, and so happily +followed in California by a free constitution, urging them to resist the +domination of slavery with its ignorance and degradation, and to secure, +by their own manly independence and just statesmanship, a glorious +future of power and happiness; his address to the antislavery +Christians; and his plain reminders to the Protestant Episcopal Church, +and to the Tract and other societies, of the inconsistency and evil +influence of their compromising pro-slavery policy. + + +CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES--AN HISTORIC PARALLEL. + +The part of Jay's life pictured by Mr. Tuckerman not only exhibits these +characteristics, but shows the Antislavery Society to have been founded +by his care, in 1833, on constitutional principles so just and so +clearly defined, that in 1839 sixteen hundred and fifty auxiliary +societies had been established on the same basis, educating the rising +generation, on whom was to rest the destiny of the country in the near +future. It was an education of the quiet and effective influence of +which the pro-slavery leaders seemed unconscious, although to some it +may recall the thought of Dr. Storrs, when he said:--"When I think of a +millennium in our time, in our civilization, my thought rests and +fastens on the promise, 'a little child shall lead them.'" The charge +had already been made against the opponents of slavery of a disregard +of constitutional obligations--of a desire to dissolve the Union and to +encourage slave insurrection. The society declared the exclusive right +of each slave State to legislate in regard to slavery; the +constitutional right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of +Columbia, to prohibit it in the Territories and new States, and to +control the domestic as well as the foreign slave trade; and it +disclaimed the idea of countenancing the slaves in vindicating their +rights by resorting to physical force. And here is suggested, by the +action and the anticipation of the Slave Power, an interesting historic +parallel. The formation of the Antislavery Society in December, 1833, +followed closely upon Mr. Calhoun's Nullification in South Carolina in +1832, when, as Mr. Pollard tell us, a medal was struck inscribed, "John +C. Calhoun, First President of the C. S. A." A counterpart of this medal +in gold is said to exist at Richmond, with the name of Jefferson Davis +as the first president of the Southern Confederacy, and "1861" on the +reverse side. + +These incidents seem to emphasize the fact that the constitutional +principles adopted by the Antislavery Society in 1833, and so widely +circulated by the press and its auxiliaries before the war, although +often assailed, were, in 1854, made the basis of the Republican party, +which, as Americans of all sections may now with mutual regard and +affection thank God, maintained the Union and abolished slavery. Such a +revolution in public opinion is a forcible reminder of the truth that +every principle contains within itself the germ of a prophecy, and it is +a thought fraught with hope and confidence to reformers even when they +seem to be threatened with disaster and defeat. + + +THE EARLY SCHEME FOR A SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. + +The determination to found a confederacy with slavery as its cornerstone +appears as a fundamental feature in the policy of the Slave Power for +some thirty years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Mr. Calhoun's +idea of secession, apparently suggested by the tariff, General Jackson +predicted would be renewed on the question of slavery. The novel of +Prof. Beverly Tucker in 1835, entitled, "The Partisan Leader; or, Twenty +Years After," foreshadowed the steps at home and abroad which were taken +in forming the new confederacy; and in the South Carolina Convention in +1860, Southern politicians like Rhett, Parker, Keith, and Inglis said +that the matter had nothing to do with Mr. Lincoln or the Fugitive Law, +but had been culminating for a long series of years. The thought of a +Southern Confederacy may have stimulated the policy of using the power +of the Republic, while it lasted, in the interest of the Confederacy +that was to succeed it; supplying a motive for the Texan Rebellion, the +War with Mexico, the effort to secure Cuba, the filibustering +expeditions to Central America, the determination to reopen the African +slave-trade, and the pro-slavery action of the Buchanan administration. + + +NORTHERN AND EUROPEAN SYMPATHY WITH SLAVERY. + +It would be hardly fair to the Southern leaders to assume that they +found no reason for their hope of effecting the dissolution of the Union +in the sympathy and aid promised from the North and from Europe. The +secret conferences with Lord Lyons of Northern sympathizers with slavery +were disclosed by the despatches of that eminent diplomatist. Mayor +Fernando Wood's proposition that New York should become a free city, +independent both of the States and the nation, showed in no slight +degree the temper of the citizens whom he represented; while the later +appeal of so eminent and popular a leader as Governor Horatio Seymour to +the citizens of the State was equally significant when he said, "In the +downfall of the nation, and amid its crumbling ruins, we will cling to +the fortunes of New York." Such utterances enforced by leaders of the +prominence of Franklin Pierce and Vallandingham; the political action of +sympathizers with slavery and the anti-draft riots in New York, +supplemented by the unfriendliness of European governments; and the +escape of the "Alabama"--all these circumstances tended to encourage the +hopes that were doomed to disappointment. Nor in considering the +antislavery movement should we overlook the effect of the antislavery +opinion of our country in ending the danger of European intervention, +which had been unwittingly encouraged by Mr. Seward's too hasty +assurance to our minister in France (April 22, 1861), that "the +revolution was without a cause, without a pretext, and without an +object; and that the condition of slavery in the several States would +remain just the same, whether it should succeed or fail." The +antislavery policy, first of enlistment and then of emancipation, so +earnestly urged upon Mr. Lincoln and adopted by him with conscientious +caution, enlightened Europe as to the true meaning of the contest in our +recognition of the equal right to freedom and the equal dignity of +labour, and forbade its rulers to assist in the establishment of a slave +confederacy; and the historian Lessing, when alluding to the cordial +reception by his holiness the Sovereign Pontiff of the diplomatic agents +of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and the Papal letter recognizing and commending +"the illustrious President of the Southern Confederacy," remarks that +this was "the only official recognition of the chief conspirator by the +head of any government." Nor should the right appreciation by the +abolitionists of the prospect of freedom for the slaves be forgotten. +The fidelity of the negroes during the war, both to the families with +whom they lived, to which Vice-President Stephens bore distinct +testimony, and to the Northern army, from which they expected +emancipation, was no less honourable and conspicuous than the devotion +and gallantry they constantly exhibited in the war, as at Fort Hudson +and Fort Wagner, at Milliken's Bend and Lake Providence, at Newbern and +at Olustee, where their rear-guard saved the army. Their conduct, +whether at home or in the field, justified the conviction of their +steadfast friends in the safety of immediate emancipation, and added +untold force to the sacredness of the pledges so often given during the +war, and still, to the national discredit, unfulfilled--of national aid +to State education, so as to secure to every child of our coloured +citizens the ability to read his Bible and the Constitution, to fulfill +his duties and protect his rights. + +As time and reflection impress upon the American mind a clear +comprehension of the changes, national, social, and political, that a +triumph of the Slave Power would have brought to America and its effect +as a set-back to the civilization of the world, an increased interest +will be felt in the beginnings of the contest, and in the men and causes +that shaped its end. + + +THE LESSON FOR TO-DAY. + +I cordially recommend Mr. Tuckerman's memoir to the students of the +antislavery contest, as throwing light on that interesting and but +partially written chapter of American history, in which my father bore a +part; and on the character and policy of the sturdy band with whom he +was associated, including Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, James +G. Birney, Gerrit Smith, and their true-hearted compatriots; while a +wider view would include a group of noble women, who, if differing as to +means, were united in devotion, headed by the honoured names of Maria +Weston Chapman and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria +Child, and the sisters Grimké. + +Among our citizens who will be long remembered as early and fearless +opponents of slavery, leading and acting with energy and independence, +according to their personal convictions and occasionally in differing +ways, were the venerable Isaac T. Hopper, William Lloyd Garrison, whose +life has been so faithfully recorded by his sons, John Greenleaf +Whittier, whose old Huguenot spirit lives in his verse as in his name, +Ellis Gray Loring, Lovejoy, the martyr of the west, Wendell Phillips, +with his matchless eloquence, Theodore D. Weld, with his trenchant pen, +Elizur Wright, Jr., Samuel R. Ward, William Goodell, S. S. Jocelyn, +Gamaliel Bailey, Jr., Edmund Quincey, S. H. Gay, Oliver Johnston, James +S. Gibbons, and others, who opened the way--sometimes by devious and +diverging paths--for the party of the Union and Emancipation. + +As the contest advanced from the field of politics to that of war, came +Union men from different points whose names will live in our history +with those of John A. Andrew, John C. Fremont, John P. Hale, Chase, +Sumner, Seward, Preston and John A. King, Wilmot, Giddings, Wade, Holt, +and Edwin D. Stanton. In New York, where mob law had prevailed, the +Union League Club upheld the loyalty of the city, the credit of the +nation, and the sanitary commission; raised troops for Hancock in +addition to its own coloured regiments; stimulated the ardour of our +soldiers and the patriotism of the country; welcomed, of the army, Grant +and Sherman, Mead and Sheridan, Hancock and Hooker, Warren and Burnside, +and of the navy, Farragut, Dupont and Rogers, Winslow and the youthful +Cushing; verifying in its spirit and action the remark of Vice-President +Colfax that on the Union League Club Lincoln had leaned in the darkest +hours. + +The Club did not forget, neither will the truthful historian forget, +that amid the European plots and intrigues in the interest of slavery, +we had friends high and low, from Alexander of Russia, the emancipator +of twenty millions of serfs--who, like Lincoln, fell by +assassination--to the humble peasants, who instinctively recognised the +hostility to the rights of labor inherent in the slavery system, whose +vicious features had been exposed by John Bright with such masterly +effect. + +Goldwin Smith, the historic scholar of Oxford, who at home had denounced +those who would have made England an accomplice in "the creation of a +great slave empire, and in its future extension from the grave of +Washington to the Halls of Montezuma," in his reply to the greetings of +the eminent citizens who had asked him to the club and who assembled to +meet him,[B] said, "Your cause is ours; it is the cause of the whole +human race." The same idea, in almost the same words, was expressed by +the Count de Cavour a few days before his death, in a despatch to the +Italian Minister at Washington, when he said "that ours was the cause +not only of constitutional liberty, but of all humanity." + +The antislavery story from the Calhoun medal, struck to commemorate the +supposed birth of a slave empire to the constitutional abolition of +slavery, concerned humanity, and has lessons of warning and +encouragement for the men and women of to-day, on whom rest the hopes of +the country, and who, against odds that seem as formidable as those +presented by the Slave Power at its culmination, are bravely striving +for the advance of humanity, the purification of our politics, and the +preservation of American institutions. They may well adopt the +inspiriting legend of Geneva to which the antislavery contest of America +has given a new radiance, "Post tenebras lux." Our institutions, no +longer endangered by slavery, are assailed with skilful intrigue in +their own strongholds, the public school and the polls, especially of +our great cities, where a corrupt, irresponsible, secret rule recalls +the Council of Ten and the Lion of Saint Mark, and now it is charged +that our very legislation at times is not simply partisan but +fraudulent. The incompatibility of such proceedings with American +principles and American rights recalls with emphatic force the warning +so distinctly and repeatedly given us by Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, that +eminent and philosophic representative of our citizens of the Roman +Catholic faith who stand squarely by the American constitution and +American institutions, of the danger of allowing foreigners to meddle +with our public schools when he said that American civilization was "the +farthest point in advance yet reached by any age or nation, and that +foreigners who come to educate according to their civilization +necessarily educate for a civilization behind the times and below that +of this country." + +The enlightening effect of an impartial study of the antislavery contest +on an independent and philosophic critic can be read in the interesting +and instructive pages of Von Holst; and a review of that contest, from +the first presentment of the principles of the Antislavery Society to +the parting scene of Grant and Lee at Appomatox, and the adoption of the +constitutional amendment of emancipation, affords, step by step, amid +whatever mistakes and blunders, evidence which becomes the more striking +and conclusive, as time passes, of what was accomplished in the +antislavery struggle for humanity and the world in shaping the future of +the Republic, by calm resolve, a faithful adhesion to truth and +principle, patient perseverance, unflinching courage, faith in the +triumph of right, American manliness, and far-sighted Christian +statesmanship. + + BEDFORD HOUSE, Katonah, + New York, May, 1893. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE +Birth and Education of William Jay.--His Early Philanthropic + Interests.--Appointed Judge of Westchester County. 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +Early Opposition to Slavery.--Growth of the Slave Power.--The + Missouri Compromise.--Jay begins Political Agitation for the + Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. 18 + +CHAPTER III. + +Development of the Antislavery Movement.--Organization of + Antislavery Societies.--Anti-Abolition Riots.--Jay publishes his + "Inquiry." 39 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Continued Efforts to suppress the Antislavery Movement by Force and + Intimidation.--Favourable Effect upon the Public Mind produced by + Jay's Writings. 63 + +CHAPTER V. + +Gradual Decline of Riotous Demonstrations against the + Abolitionists.--Changes occur in the Doctrines and Methods of the + American Antislavery Society.--Judge Jay resigns his Membership, + while continuing his Efforts on Behalf of Emancipation. 82 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Judge Jay continues to support the Antislavery Cause by his Advice + and Writings.--In Consequence of his Opinions he is deprived of his + Seat on the Bench.--His Visit to Europe.--His Views on the Liberty + Party.--On the Annexation of Texas.--His "Review of the Mexican + War."--His Advocacy of International Arbitration as a Remedy for + War.--His Work in the Episcopal Church. 112 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Unpopularity of the Abolitionists.--The Compromises of 1850 and the + Fugitive-Slave Law.--Jay's Reply to Webster's 7th of March + Speech.--The Attitude of the Episcopal Church.--The Abrogation of + the Missouri Compromise.--Disunion. 135 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Death of Judge Jay.--His Position among Antislavery Men.--His other + Public and Philanthropic Interests.--His Private Life.--His + Character. 156 + +Bibliography 171 + +Index 175 + +Appendix 184 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +William Jay, from a crayon by Martin _Frontispiece._ + +View of Bedford House, the home of Judge Jay 9 + +Chief-Justice Jay, from a painting by Gilbert Stuart 39 + +William Jay, from a painting by Vanderlyn 81 + +William Jay, from a painting by Wenzler 135 + +Mrs. William Jay, from a painting by W. E. West 164 + + + + +WILLIAM JAY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF WILLIAM JAY.--HIS EARLY PHILANTHROPIC + INTERESTS.--APPOINTED JUDGE OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY. + + +William Jay, the second son of John Jay, the first Chief-Justice of the +United States, and his wife, Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, was born in the +city of New York the 16th of June, 1789. New York was then the seat of +the Federal Government, and the year is memorable as that in which the +National Constitution superseded the Articles of Confederation, while +the inauguration of Washington marked a new era in American history. + +During the absence of John Jay in England, while negotiating the "Jay +treaty," he was elected Governor of New York, and returned home to +assume that office in 1795. + +William, then eight years old, was placed at school with the Rev. Thomas +Ellison, the rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany. There he received an +old-fashioned training. In 1801 he wrote to his father: "Mr. Ellison +put me in Virgil, and I can now say the first two eclogues by heart, and +construe and parse and scan them." And later on: "I learn nothing but +Latin." Among his schoolmates was J. Fenimore Cooper, who afterwards +drew a portrait of their old instructor in one of his "Sketches of +England," addressed to Jay: + +"Thirty-six years ago you and I were schoolfellows and classmates in the +house of a clergyman of the true English school. This man was an epitome +of the national prejudices and in some respects of the national +character. He was the son of a beneficed clergyman in England, had been +regularly graduated at Oxford and admitted to orders; entertained a most +profound reverence for the King and the nobility; was not backward in +expressing his contempt for all classes of dissenters and all +ungentlemanly sects; was particularly severe on the immoralities of the +French Revolution, and though eating our bread, was not especially +lenient to our own; compelled you and me to begin Virgil with the +eclogues, and Cicero with the knotty phrase that opens the oration in +favour of the poet Archias, 'because these writers would not have placed +them first in the books if they did not intend people to read them +first'; spent his money freely and sometimes that of other people; was +particularly tenacious of the ritual and of all the decencies of the +Church; detested a democrat as he did the devil; cracked his jokes daily +about Mr. Jefferson, never failing to place his libertinism in strong +relief against the approved morals of George III., of several passages +in whose history it is charitable to suppose he was ignorant; prayed +fervently on Sunday, and decried all morals, institutions, churches, +manners, and laws but those of England from Monday to Saturday." + +Still, Jay and Cooper were indebted to Ellison's thoroughness in the +classics for much of the mental training, the correct taste, and the +pure English which marked their subsequent intellectual efforts. + +Jay was prepared for college by Henry Davis, afterwards president of +Hamilton College. The boy as he appeared at this time was thus described +by his cousin, Susan Sedgwick: "As I look back to that fresh spring-time +of life, there rises clearly before me a vigorous, sturdy boy, full of +health and animation, with laughing eyes, cheeks glowing and dimpled, +and exhibiting already marked traits: with a strong will, yet easily +reduced by rightful authority; in temper quick, even to passion, but +never vindictive; the storm easily raised as soon appeased, thus +foreshadowing him at that later period, when, however capable of +self-control, his fearless resistance to wrong and uncompromising +advocacy of right partook of the same vehement character, happily +expressed by his friend, Mr. Fenimore Cooper, who, in reference to his +then recently published denunciation of the evils of war, addressed him +playfully, 'Thou most pugnacious man of peace.'" + +William entered Yale College in January, 1804, in his fifteenth year. +Upon the college roll during his four years were names afterwards well +known in our history. There were trained side by side boys who were soon +to be arrayed against each other in religion, politics, and in the +momentous conflict of slavery with freedom, which, passing from the +senate to the field, their sons and grandsons were to terminate by the +sword. From the State of South Carolina came John C. Calhoun, who +significantly chose for the subject of his graduating oration, "The +Qualifications Necessary for a Perfect Statesman;" Christopher Edward +Gadsden, afterwards bishop of his native State; and Thomas Smith Grimké, +eminent at the bar, in scholarship and philanthropy. Among the Northern +students was the Rev. John Pierpont, known as the reformer and poet, who +at the age of seventy-six went to the front during the Civil War as +chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment; Hon. Henry Randolph Storrs, of New +York, the jurist; Rev. Dr. Nathaniel William Taylor, of the Calvinistic +school of Edwards and Dwight; Dr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Huguenot +descent, who devoted himself to the education of deaf-mutes; Dr. +Alexander H. Stevens, of New York; Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, the +learned professor of oriental literature; Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, of +New York, the famous Presbyterian divine; the Hon. William Huntington, +of Connecticut; Jacob Sutherland, of New York; and James A. Hillhouse, +of New Haven, one of the most scholarly of our poets, whose generous +hospitality at his beautiful home, Sachem's Wood, with its avenue of +stately elms planted by his father and himself, was for many years the +delight of his friends. At Yale Jay met Cooper again, and strengthened a +friendship which lasted through life. It was during a visit at Bedford, +about 1825, while sitting on the piazza with Chief-Justice Jay, smoking +and talking of the incidents of the Revolution, that Fenimore Cooper +learned the adventures of a patriotic American, who was apparently +attached to the royal cause, but who constantly warned of danger the +Continental Army in Westchester and was especially useful during the +sitting of the State convention at White Plains. The services and +escapes of this man were reproduced in "Harvey Birch, the Spy of the +Neutral Ground," which achieved so great a success at home and in +Europe, where it still holds its place, having been honoured by more +translations, including the Persian and Arabic, than any similar work +written in English until the appearance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +In a letter to his grandson, William Jay, in 1852, Judge Jay gave some +particulars of his college course, which show the simplicity of life in +those days and the still lingering influence of English habits: "Through +the influence of a professor with whom I had previously lived, I was +placed in the room of a resident graduate. The resident graduates were +denominated 'Sirs'; they had a pew in the chapel called the Sirs' pew; +and when spoken of in college always had Sir prefixed to their names. +My room-mate was Sir Holly (Dr. Horace Holly). As a mere freshman I +looked up to my room-mate with great respect and treated him +accordingly. We had no servants to wait on us, except that a man came +every morning to make our beds and sweep the room, and once a week to +scatter clean white sand on the floor. I rose early--generally before +six in winter--made the fire, and then went, pitcher in hand, often +wading through snow, for water for Sir Holly and myself. At that time +the freshmen occupied in part the place of sizers in the English +universities, and they were required to run errands for the seniors. Our +meals were taken in a large hall with a kitchen opening into it. The +students were arranged at tables according to their classes. All sat on +wooden benches, not excepting the tutors; the latter had a table to +themselves on an elevated platform whence they had a view of the whole +company. But it was rather difficult for them to attend to their plates +and to watch two hundred boys at the same time. Salt beef once a day and +dry cod were perhaps the most usual dishes. On Sunday mornings during +the winter our breakfast-tables were graced with large tin milk-cans +filled with stewed oysters; at the proper season we were occasionally +treated at dinner with green peas. As you may suppose, a goodly number +of waiters were needed in the hall. These were all students, and many of +them among the best and most esteemed scholars. About half-past five in +winter the bell summoned us from our beds, and at six it called us to +prayers in the chapel. We next repaired to the recitation-rooms and +recited by candle-light the lessons we had studied the preceding +evening. At eight we had breakfast, and at nine the bell warned us to +our rooms. At twelve it called us to a recitation or a lecture. After +dinner we recommenced our studies and recited for the third time at four +o'clock. During study hours the tutors would frequently go the rounds, +looking into our rooms to see that we were not playing truant. Before +supper, we all attended evening prayers in the chapel." + +The presidency of the college was then occupied by Dr. Timothy Dwight, +who also gave instruction in _belles-lettres_, oratory, and theology. To +him Jay wrote in 1818: "I retain a grateful recollection of your kind +attention to me, and I have, and trust will ever have, reason to +acknowledge the goodness of Providence in placing me under your care, +when many of my opinions were to be formed and my principles +established." Still later, he wrote to a college friend: "Your remarks +on Dr. Dwight are grateful to my heart. I cherish his memory as one of +the best friends I ever had." + +In his senior year Jay took part in debates among the students, presided +over by Dr. Dwight. Some of the subjects discussed were: "Ought infidels +to be excluded from office?" "Ought religion to be supported by law?" +"Would a division of the Union be politic?" "Would it be politic to +encourage manufactures in the United States?" On the last question Dr. +Dwight remarked: "We shall always buy things where we can get them the +cheapest; we will never make our commodities so long as we can buy them +better and cheaper elsewhere." Jay displayed his natural inclination for +the law by contributing a series of articles on legal subjects, over the +signature of "Coke," to the _Literary Cabinet_, the students' paper. He +took his degree in September, 1807, having injured his eyesight in his +efforts to attain a high standing in his class. "During the winter of my +junior year," he wrote in warning to his grandson William, "I was +struggling hard for honours, and trying to make up for lost time; I used +to rise about four o'clock, light my fire, and sit down to the study of +conic sections. I brought on a weakness in my eyes which lasted several +years. Be sure you never rise before the sun and study your Latin and +Greek by candle-light or gas-light." + +After graduation Jay went to Albany and began the study of the law in +the office of John B. Henry. On the 3d of September, 1812, he married +Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a merchant of New York, and +vestryman of Trinity Church. The difficulty with his eyesight, which had +seriously interfered with his legal studies, became so pronounced as to +compel him to abandon his profession for some years. During this period +he retired with his wife to his father's country seat, "Bedford," in +Westchester County, and there devoted himself with energy to +agricultural pursuits. The farm included about eight hundred acres, part +of a tract purchased by Jacobus van Cortlandt from Katonah Sagamore and +other Indian chieftains in 1700, and confirmed by patent of Queen Anne +in 1704. It had come to Chief-Justice Jay partly through his mother, +Mary van Cortlandt, the wife of Peter Jay, and partly through her +sister, Eve van Cortlandt, the wife of Judge John Chambers. + +[Illustration: The Jay House at Bedford.] + +Of the forty fields into which the farm was divided, Jay kept a separate +account: showing the tillage and produce, the drainage and fencing, the +dates of planting and reaping. A volume of this kind, begun in 1816, +contained entries as late as 1857, the year before his death. He +perfected himself in grafting and budding, and was particularly +successful with peaches, with cherries, pears and plums, some of them +with Huguenot names and memories, and with muskmelons from Persian seed, +brought to him from the East by a friend. He raised horses from imported +stock, Merino sheep, and superintended the curing of hams from a +Westphalian recipe, furnished by an old Hessian farm hand--one of the +hirelings who had come to conquer and remained to cultivate the country. +In 1818 Jay and Fenimore Cooper drafted the constitution for an +agricultural society of which Governor Jay was the first president and +General Pierre van Cortlandt the second--an institution of great use in +the development of Westchester County. + +In 1815, when twenty-six years of age, Jay entered upon that course of +active philanthropy which for the next forty years employed his thoughts +and pen. His first effort was directed to the improvement of his native +town of Bedford in the organization of the Society for the Suppression +of Vice. By means of this society, of which he was the secretary, he did +much to restrain the liquor traffic and to diminish intemperance. Later +on, as a judge, he used all the power of the law to the same end; and it +was he who suggested the law, still in force, which forbids a +tavern-keeper to supply drink on credit. + +An interesting incident in this early period of his life was the part +which he bore in founding the American Bible Society, in organizing its +machinery for the immense work it had to perform, and in vindicating the +principles of the society against the attacks of the opposing party in +his own church. In this struggle Jay proved the independence of +character and courage of conviction which afterwards distinguished him +through the seemingly hopeless years of antislavery effort. The general +distribution of Bibles in our day makes it difficult to appreciate the +limited supply, the high cost, and the consequent rarity of the Bible +when this society began its work. The High-Church party in New York were +opposed to the association of Episcopalians with other Christians to +circulate the Bible, and opposed even to the distribution of the Bible, +unless accompanied by the Prayer-book as an interpreter. In these views +they were vigorously supported by their distinguished leader, Bishop +John Henry Hobart. Jay, who had inherited with his Huguenot blood a +faith in the Bible not to be restrained by ecclesiastical assumption, +was an officer of the Westchester Bible Society and deeply interested in +the work. On the appearance of a pastoral letter from Bishop Hobart in +which the High-Church views were expressed, he published a pamphlet +showing that it was "the interest and duty of Episcopalians to unite +with their fellow-Christians of all denominations in spreading the +knowledge of the Word of God." This pamphlet brought him into an active +conflict with the eminent bishop which lasted for several years, and +taught him that a philanthropic cause, even so plainly meritorious, was +not to be carried on without the opposition of powerful conservative +interests. + +Convinced that a national society could accomplish more than the local +and scattered State Bible societies, Jay published a pamphlet in 1816 +which showed the imperative importance of the work, and urged united +action. At the same time the venerable Elias Boudinot of New Jersey was +exerting himself to the same end. When he received a letter from Jay +enclosing the pamphlet, he thus welcomed his youthful ally: "These +precious moments I have devoted to a full consideration of one of the +greatest and most interesting subjects that has ever concerned the +children of men. Weak and feeble and scarcely able to think or write, +my efforts promised but little in the cause, when your welcome and +unexpected letter was brought in. My drooping spirits were raised and my +mind greatly revived. I could not help giving glory to God for the great +encouragement afforded me to press on in this glorious cause, when I +thus beheld His special mercy in raising up so powerful a support in +this joyous work and labour of love." In the same year the American +Bible Society was formed with the assistance of the best names in the +country. Elias Boudinot was chosen president, with John Jay and Matthew +Clarkson, a gallant officer of the Revolution, as vice-presidents. +Others on the roll were: John Langdon, the statesman of New Hampshire; +William Gray, the eminent merchant of Boston; the scholarly John Cotton +Smith, of Connecticut, with the blood of the Cottons and the Mathers of +colonial history; William Tighlman, the jurist of Pennsylvania; William +Wirt and Bushrod Washington, of Virginia; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, +of South Carolina; Governor Worthington, of Ohio; John Bolton, of +Georgia; Felix Grundy, of Tennessee; and of New York: Dr. John B. +Romeyne; Colonel Richard Varick, Washington's aide; Daniel D. Tompkins, +the Governor who obtained the abolition of slavery in the State; John +Pintard, John Aspinwall, Jeremiah Evarts, Frederic de Peyster, George +Griffin, De Witt Clinton, the Patroon Stephen van Rensselaer, and +Colonel Henry Rutgers. + +Notwithstanding the honourable support given to the society, it had to +resist a carefully organized assault on the part of Bishop Hobart and an +influential portion of his clergy aimed at the vital principle on which +the success of the movement depended--the cordial union of all +Christians. Jay's previous training in the same field of controversy, +his staunch devotion at once to his cause and to his church, designated +him as the proper person to carry on, in behalf of the society, the war +of letters and pamphlets which ensued. Although pitted against an +adversary to whom age, experience, and station gave great advantages, he +acquitted himself with credit, displaying literary and reasoning powers +which were soon to exert a potent effect upon the great moral issue of +our time. + +Other questions of a philanthropic character occupied his pen. The Synod +of Albany having offered a prize for the best essay on the observance of +the Sabbath, Jay competed for it with success. A more notable incident +of the same sort occurred in 1828. The Savannah Anti-duelling +Association offered a medal for the best argument against duelling. The +committee appointed to judge the essays were: John Cummings; James M. +Wayne, subsequently appointed by President Jackson a justice of the +Supreme Court; R. W. Habersham, afterwards Governor of Georgia; William +Law; and Matthew Hall McAllister, mayor of Savannah and an opponent of +Nullification in 1832. That in 1828 these Southern men were seeking to +root out the habit of duelling, and that the prize should have been +awarded by them to William Jay, is a curious commentary on the +connection between slavery and duelling. At this time both practices had +their opponents at the South who were allowed to express their opinions. +As the grip of slavery increased in strength and closed the mouth of +every objector, anti-duelling sentiment was simultaneously extinguished. +Both barbarous practices were to increase and to perish together. Jay's +essay could then find praise among men who a few years later would not +tolerate in their homes any product of his pen. + +In May, 1818, Jay was appointed one of the judges of Westchester County. +The mention of the fact in his diary closed with the words, "May I have +grace to discharge with fidelity the duties of the station." Two years +later a commission from Governor Clinton made him the first judge of the +county, an office which he held until 1823, when the adoption of the new +constitution terminated all offices under the old one. Fenimore Cooper +then wrote to him, "I see that you are unhorsed with other clever +fellows." But in response to a general demand, Governor Clinton +reappointed him under the new constitution, and he continued to hold +office under successive governors of different parties until 1843, when +he was displaced by Governor Bouck at the demand of the pro-slavery wing +of the democracy. A decision of Jay's, rejecting a witness who declared +his un-belief in God, occurred when De Tocqueville was in the United +States, and was commented upon by the distinguished Frenchman as having +been accepted by the press without comment, and as showing that the +American people combined the notions of Christianity and of liberty so +intimately that it was impossible to make them conceive of the one +without the other, and that they held religion to be indispensable to +the maintenance of republican institutions. In 1862, soon after Jay's +death, when an attempt was made by a pro-slavery faction in the county +to remove his portrait from the court-house at White Plains, it was +defeated by a protest of the members of the bar. "Many of us," they +said, "were well acquainted with Judge Jay, and can speak from personal +knowledge of those high qualities which have given him an historic +celebrity. Whilst he entertained and vigorously vindicated decided +opinions on certain questions which have much divided society and +produced much acrimony of feeling--in which many of us did not +sympathize with him--yet we can all bear testimony to the noble +frankness and sincerity of his nature, to his deep interest in all +questions tending to advance the interest of the race, and to the +extraordinary intellectual strength displayed by him on all occasions in +giving expression to his convictions." + +In the early years of Jay's life, it appears that his mind turned +naturally toward philanthropic subjects. His moral sense was largely +developed, his conscience active, his humanity aggressive. His own +comfortable circumstances did not close his heart to the sufferings of +others. His generous nature longed to replace evil by good. And in the +cause which his conscience approved, no obloquy nor social unpopularity +could impede his progress. At the same time, there was about him nothing +of the intemperate agitator. He was a judge and brought to his +philanthropic labours a judicial habit of mind. Indeed, it was this +habit of mind which distinguished him among his fellow-workers in the +antislavery cause. It was his mission to urge emancipation with the +Constitution in his hand; to meet in conflict that portion of society +which silenced its uneasy conscience by a repetition of constitutional +provisions, and at the same time to combat those who were inclined to +seek emancipation by unconstitutional means. + +His quiet country life, in which healthful out-of-door pursuits were +mingled with the study and reflection of his library, particularly +fitted him to look at this all-important question with calmness, with +consideration for both sides, and yet with the vigour of a mind free to +work exhaustively on a subject involving many conflicting theories and +duties. He brought to his task real talents, literary and polemic; a +style ready and concise; a reasoning enlivened by an effective vein of +irony. He had a refined and benevolent countenance, a pleasing manner, +a temper even, but easily roused to indignation at the sight of +injustice. Before considering his first connection with the antislavery +movement, we may glance at its situation in the early manhood of William +Jay. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY.--GROWTH OF THE SLAVE POWER.--THE + MISSOURI COMPROMISE.--JAY BEGINS POLITICAL AGITATION FOR THE + ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. + + +The movement which culminated in the Civil War and the total abolition +of slavery in the United States was first humanitarian, and subsequently +political. Philanthropists prepared the way for the statesman and the +soldier. + +The humanitarian movement had begun before the time of William Jay and +his fellow-workers. To find its beginnings, we must look back into the +colonial days of the eighteenth century. There, among the first, was +George Keith, of Pennsylvania, denouncing the system on grounds of both +Christianity and public policy. And Samuel Sewall, Chief-Justice of +Massachusetts, who, in his pamphlet, "The Selling of Joseph," quaintly +testified to the truth. "These Ethiopians," he said, "as black as they +are, seeing they are the sons and daughters of the first Adam and the +offspring of God, they ought to be treated with respect agreeable." +Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin Lay, William Burling, Anthony Benezet, the +Huguenot, were men who spoke as sincerely as later abolitionists and +whose words were heard. There was John Woolman, of New Jersey, who +pointed out "the dark gloominess overhanging the land, the spirit of +fierceness and love of dominion," resulting from this iniquity; and Dr. +Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., whose eloquent exhortations banished +the slave trade from a congregation growing rich on its spoils; and Dr. +Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, who foretold that "future ages will be +at a loss which to condemn most, our folly or our guilt in abetting this +direct violation of nature and religion." The legislatures of Virginia, +South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts in turn attempted to +restrict the slave-trade; but their efforts were annulled in England, +where the slave interest, through its champion, Lord Sandwich, forbade +any interference with "a traffic so beneficial to the nation." + +The colonies had no sooner achieved their independence than they found +themselves face to face with the great question, and on the threshold of +their national life a great change was perceptible in the attitude of +the people towards slavery. The old seventeenth century idea, that to +drag a negro from his heathen wilds to labour unrequited in a Christian +community tended to the benefit of his soul, had passed away. The +slave-trade was generally recognized as indefensible. There were men who +denounced slavery itself as an abominable evil. Even those most +determined to maintain the institution took the ground that it was an +unfortunate necessity, but that it must be preserved to avoid greater +evils. In 1787, through the noble efforts of Thomas Jefferson, Timothy +Pickering, Rufus King, Nathan Dane, William Grayson, and Richard Henry +Lee, Congress passed the great ordinance which forbade slavery to cross +the Ohio River into the Northwest Territory. + +The struggle between right and wrong had begun, but the opposing forces +were very unequal. On one side was humane sentiment; on the other was +deeply rooted habit, pecuniary interest, the pressure of political +questions of seemingly overriding importance. Among the great leaders of +the time there are two whose opinions and practice give an excellent +illustration of the prevailing antislavery feeling: John Jay of New +York, Patrick Henry of Virginia. There is no disagreement as to the +moral elevation of John Jay's character. Abroad and at home, officially +and unofficially, he was always the opponent of slavery. Yet Jay +purchased and held men as slaves. To obtain domestic servants otherwise +was extremely difficult. After his slaves had served him sufficiently +long and faithfully to return to him what he considered the value of his +outlay, he gave them their freedom. He believed that slavery in +principle was wrong, but he yielded so far to convenience and custom. +Patrick Henry was an antislavery man and placed his position on record +in the following words: "Is it not amazing that, at a time when the +rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a +country above all others fond of liberty, in such an age, we find men +professing a religion the most humane, mild, meek, gentle, and generous +adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with +the Bible and destructive of liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects +it in speculation, but how few in practice, from conscientious motives! +Would any one believe that I am a master of slaves of my own purchase? I +am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I +will not, I cannot, justify it; however culpable my conduct, I will so +far pay my _devoirs_ to duty as to own the excellence and rectitude of +her precepts and lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time +will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable +evil; everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our own +day; if not, let us transmit to our own descendants, together with our +slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery." + +Such being the character of antislavery sentiment, its chances of +success seem hopeless enough when we hear the other side. When Congress +was considering the Articles of Confederation, Wilson, of Pennsylvania, +said: "Dismiss your slaves, freemen will take their places." The reply +of Lynch, of South Carolina, showed the existence of men willing to +sacrifice everything to the preservation of slavery. "Our slaves are our +property," said he; "if that is debated, there is an end to +confederation." + +Thus, at this crisis in the national history, there first distinctively +appeared that aggressive, uncompromising party, afterwards to be known +as the Slave Power--an association of men then forming a minority even +in the South, but determined to carry its point at all hazards; men who +were willing to sacrifice every consideration of the public good to the +permanence of a system profitable to themselves, but which reduced human +beings to the level of beasts. Against a party so resolute, antislavery +opinion of the Patrick Henry variety could not prevail. Moreover, the +distracted state of the country, the imperative necessity for union, +made every other question seem secondary to the majority of patriotic +statesmen. In the Constitutional Convention, the Slave Power, then +chiefly represented by South Carolina and Georgia, by threatening to +defeat the establishment of a stable government and by making the +preservation of slavery a _sine qua non_ to the Union, obtained the +concessions so big with future disaster. + +The struggle over this subject in the days of the formation of the +government was the beginning of the "irrepressible conflict." The Slave +Power had come into being as a distinct force, aiming to dominate the +rest of the community in the interest of property in man. On the other +hand, the opposition began to organize. Several abolition and +manumission societies were formed. The oldest of these was that of +Pennsylvania, which in 1787 chose Franklin for its president. A society +was formed in New York in 1785 with John Jay as president and Alexander +Hamilton as secretary; in Rhode Island in 1789, under the lead of Dr. +Hopkins. In 1791, before the Connecticut society, Jonathan Edwards the +younger maintained the doctrine of _immediate emancipation_. Similar +associations were at work in New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. +Antislavery men were thus uniting in their cause, but unfortunately they +were, with rare exceptions, devoid of the earnestness which +characterized their opponents. Their hostility to the system was a +sentiment rather than a principle. It could hasten somewhat emancipation +at the North; but it had no force to contend against the pecuniary +interests which were daily binding tighter the bonds of the negro in the +South. There, in the early years of the present century, the cotton-gin, +which had been invented in 1793, gave an impetus to the production of +cotton which nearly doubled the value of slaves. At the North the +profits of the African trade which supplied this increased demand for +negroes gave to the Slave Power allies almost as determined as +themselves. + +The year 1808, fixed by the Constitution as the limit of the duration of +the slave-trade, witnessed the next contest. The result was a definite +prohibition of the trade by law. But it was a barren victory for the +cause of humanity. The interests involved in both Northern and Southern +States had grown so large and influential as to make the law a dead +letter. The trade continued with unabated vigour, and marked by even +greater cruelties to the wretched cargoes. The Slave Power was growing +in strength and determination, bent on controlling the national +government, influencing our foreign relations, reaching out already to +grasp new slave territory. + +From 1818 to 1821 continued the great contest over the admission of +Missouri as a slave State, in which was involved the question whether +the extension and encouragement of slavery was to be the permanent +policy of the United States government. Men and words were not wanting +to expose and condemn the contemplated evil. But the Slave Power had +grown to too great proportions. Henry Clay, who had believed "slavery to +be a wrong, a grievous wrong, which no contingency can make right," now, +at the behest of slaveholders, threw his great influence against the +cause of humanity. As in the days of the Constitutional Convention the +Slave Power had secured the perpetuation of its system by threats of +preventing a union of the States, so in 1821 it obtained the principle +of the extension of slavery by threats of dissolving the Union. Thomas +Jefferson, so faithful an advocate of freedom, was now appalled by the +sound of a strife which, "like the fire-bell at midnight," announced +disaster, and he counselled concession. Even John Quincy Adams was on +the same side, "from extreme unwillingness to put the Union in hazard." +So passed the so-called Compromise, which allowed slavery to break its +bounds and to spread over Arkansas and Missouri. The Slave Power had won +a great victory and had shown immense growth. The old apologetic +position that the system, although wrong, could not be abolished without +entailing greater evils, was now exchanged for the bold doctrine that +slavery was a good thing, to be extended and strengthened. + +The struggle was growing fiercer and was becoming more clearly an issue +between North and South, but the bone of contention was yet the +extension, not the abolition, of slavery. The Slave Power, warned by the +opposition it had met with in Congress, that a new spirit was arising in +the North, instinctively felt that its position could be maintained only +by further aggression. None but slaveholders were allowed to represent +the South in Congress, where every public measure was considered first +in the light of its effect upon the institution of slavery. At home, +such humane laws regarding the blacks as still existed were repealed, +new and more cruel enactments were passed, the manumission of slaves by +grateful or repentant masters was prohibited. + +While at the South opinion tended towards united and vigorous action, +the sentiments of the people at the North were divided. The majority, +although disliking slavery "in the abstract," were so fearful of the +outcome of the contention, were so anxious to see some settlement which +would put an end to agitation, that they were disposed to accept the +line drawn by the Missouri Compromise as the best solution possible, and +to resent any further antislavery expression as an element of profitless +disturbance. In this class there grew up a dislike of the negroes, a +hatred of the questions involved in their existence among us, a general +prejudice against colour, which tended greatly to the support of the +Slave Power. Many persons who preserved abolition views were lulled into +repose of conscience by support of the Colonization Society, an +organization formed in the South to get rid of free coloured persons by +shipping them to Africa, but skilfully made to appear as a philanthropic +scheme to solve the slavery problem. Men of the highest character and +with the best intentions had joined this society in the belief that +therein might be found the means of uprooting slavery. The ten years +following the Missouri Compromise were unpromising for the cause of the +slave. The Southern States were ceaselessly strengthening themselves. +Race prejudice, the fear of business disturbance, apathy, made the North +acquiescent. Cotton was king, and to that authority conscience +submitted. + +Still there were signs of light and materials for improvement. In 1822 +the exciting struggle for the establishment of slavery in Illinois +resulted in favour of freedom. There existed in the country one hundred +and forty antislavery societies, of which one hundred and six were in +the South. In 1826 was held in Baltimore a convention at which +eighty-one of these societies were represented. There was not enough +"fight" among these antislavery men to make much impression. Their views +were directed towards preventing the extension of slavery, towards its +abolition in the District of Columbia (where its existence involved +recognition by the United States government) and its "gradual" cessation +elsewhere. The fact of their holding the convention in Baltimore +indicates the still lingering sympathy of a considerable party in the +South, and it shows also that the Slave Power did not look upon them +with much concern. It is not until antislavery stands upon the platform +of abolition as an _immediate duty_ that it is swept from the face of +the Southern States. + +There were earnest men already engaged in a new and more vigorous +crusade: Elias Hicks, the Quaker, who proclaimed boldly the sin of +owning men or condoning the practice in others; Rev. John Rankin, of +Tennessee, who removed with his congregation across the Ohio River, +rather than acquiesce in slavery; William Goodell, of Providence, +beginning a career of forty years; above all, Benjamin Lundy, who +sacrificed to the cause all that men hold dear. Between 1815 and 1818 +four abolition papers were being published, _The Emancipator_ in +Tennessee, _The Abolition Intelligencer_ in Kentucky, _The Liberalist_ +in Louisiana, and, most important, Lundy's _Genius of Universal +Emancipation_ in Maryland. All of these papers were published in the +South, and the majority of the manumission societies were there. Thus, +in 1826, when William Jay began his labours, the line between freedom +and slavery was not yet drawn. A few slaves were still held in New York. +Many antislavery people were to be found at the South and many +pro-slavery people at the North. The United States was a slaveholding +nation. + +Jay was a deeply interested observer of the contest in Congress which +resulted in the Missouri Compromise. In 1819, when he was thirty years +of age, his attitude towards the extension of slavery was stated in a +letter to Elias Boudinot: + +"I have no doubt that the laws of God, and, as a necessary and +inevitable consequence, the true interests of our country, forbid the +extension of slavery. If our country is ever to be redeemed from the +curse of slavery the present Congress must stand between the living and +the dead and stay the plague. Now is the accepted time, now is the day +of salvation. If slavery once takes root on the other side of the +Mississippi, it can never afterwards be extiminated, but will extend +with the future Western Empire, poisoning the feelings of humanity, +checking the growth of those principles of virtue and religion which +constitute alike the security and happiness of civil society." + +In the year 1826 occurred an incident which marks the beginning of a new +phase in the antislavery struggle--the movement which demanded abolition +in the District of Columbia. There, on territory exclusively under the +jurisdiction of the National Congress, it could be claimed justly that +the question of States rights was not involved and that the +constitutional provisions did not apply. In this movement, which +continued until its object was accomplished in April, 1862, William Jay +was a pioneer. + +In August of the year 1826 John Owen, the proprietor of a paper-mill at +Croton Falls, near the Jay farm at Bedford, received a parcel from New +York which happened to have been wrapped in a Washington newspaper, _The +National Intelligencer_, of the 1st of August. On looking it over his +eye was caught by the following advertisement: + + "Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District of + Columbia, on the 22d of July last, a runaway negro man by the name + of Gilbert Horton. He is five feet high, stout made, large full + eyes, and a scar on his left arm near the elbow; had on when + committed a tarpaulin hat, linen shirt, blue cloth jacket and + trousers; says that he was born free in the State of New York near + Peekskill. The owner or owners of the above-described negro man, if + any, are requested to come and take him away, or he will be sold for + his jail fees and other expenses, as the law directs." + +There is a sort of grim humour about this advertisement, appearing, as +it did, according to law, in the capital of the great free republic of +the world, under a flag supposed to typify human liberty. It declared +that a man who claimed to be and actually was a citizen of the State of +New York was held in jail without any charge and would be sold into +lifelong slavery unless claimed as a slave by an owner who did not +exist. It declared, in short, that a free citizen of the United States +who had any negro blood in his veins would be reduced to slavery by the +act of setting foot in the capital of his country. Here was an issue +which involved the rights of the State of New York, but could not be +said to be an attack on those of Virginia or South Carolina. + +Mr. Owen recognized in the Gilbert Horton thus described a free man who +had worked in his neighbourhood. He lost no time in mounting his horse +and riding over to Bedford to submit the matter to Judge Jay. By the +latter's advice a letter was despatched at once to the marshal of the +District of Columbia, giving proofs of Horton's freedom, and a meeting +was called of the citizens of Westchester County to take action on the +subject. This meeting, held on the 30th of August, with Oliver Green in +the chair and William Jay as secretary, passed the following +resolutions: + + "I. That this meeting view this procedure with the indignation + becoming men who have a just sense of the value of personal + liberty, and a proper abhorrence of cruelty and oppression. + + "II. That the evidence affords unequivocal proof of the freedom of + Horton. + + "III. That the secretary is hereby desired to transmit to his + Excellency the Governor the evidence above referred to, and, in the + name of this meeting, to request his Excellency to demand from the + proper authorities the instant liberation of the said Horton as a + free citizen of the State of New York. + + "IV. That by the fourth article of the Constitution of the United + States the citizens of each State are entitled to all the privileges + and immunities of the several States, and that it is the duty of the + State of New York to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of these + rights without regard to their complexion. + + "V. That the law under which Horton has been imprisoned, and by + which a free citizen without evidence of crime and without trial by + jury may be condemned to servitude for life, is repugnant to our + republican institutions, and revolting to justice and humanity; and + that the representatives of this State in Congress are hereby + requested to use their endeavours to procure its repeal. + + "VI. That the secretary, with John Owen, Esq., be a committee to + prepare and to present to the citizens of this county, for their + signatures, a petition to Congress for the immediate abolition of + slavery in the District of Columbia. + + "VII. That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman + and secretary, and published." + +On receiving from Judge Jay the Westchester resolutions, Governor +Clinton submitted them immediately to President John Quincy Adams, who +was paying a summer visit to his home at Quincy, Mass., with a +respectful demand for the liberation of Gilbert Horton as a free man and +a citizen. The President sent the papers with a letter from himself to +Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. Henry Clay was absent at the time, +and the Chief Clerk of the department wrote to Governor Clinton that the +instructions of the President had been anticipated by the discharge of +Horton by the marshal of the District. The committal had taken place +under an old law of Maryland, "which was adopted by Congress with the +other general laws then in force in that State for the county of +Washington upon its assuming exclusive jurisdiction over the territory." + +This disposal of the case left the principle at issue untouched, and Jay +could not be satisfied with such a result. His views are expressed in a +letter written in September to Hon. Charles Miner, a member of Congress: +"Since I read a resolution introduced by you in relation to slavery in +the District of Columbia, the subject has been scarcely absent from my +mind, and the late imprisonment in Washington of a citizen of this +county afforded an opportunity which I gladly embraced of obtaining an +expression of public opinion. I do not entertain the slightest hope that +our petition will be favourably received, nor the slightest apprehension +that the cause we espouse will not finally triumph. The history of the +abolition of the slave-trade teaches us the necessity of patient +perseverance, and affords a pledge that perseverance will be ultimately +crowned with success. We have nothing to fear, but much to hope, from +the violence and threats of our opponents. Apathy is the only obstacle +we have reason to dread, and to remove this obstacle it is necessary +that the attention of the public should be constantly directed to the +subject. Every discussion in Congress in relation to slavery, no matter +how great may be the majority against us, advances our cause. We shall +rise more powerful from every defeat." + +Jay's next step was to draft the memorial to Congress ordered by the +Westchester resolutions. It declared: + + "The outrage offered to a citizen of this county, and a violation of + the constitutional rights involved in that outrage, affords to the + meeting new and strong evidences of the impropriety of the + continuance of slavery in the District of Columbia. As citizens of + the republic, professing to acknowledge that all men are created + equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain + inalienable rights, and that among them are life, liberty, and the + pursuit of happiness, your petitioners cannot but regard it as + derogatory to the government of the country that its laws should + violate any of these rights in a territory under its exclusive + jurisdiction. To your honourable body was given by the Constitution + the exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatever over that District, + and your right and ability to grant the prayer of these petitioners + cannot be called in question, and the confined limit of the District + and the comparatively small number of slaves it contains obviates + the objections sometimes urged against sudden emancipation. + + "Your petitioners therefore earnestly entreat your honourable body + that the government of this great republic, glorying as it does in + acknowledging and protecting the rights of mankind, diffusing the + blessings of freedom, may no longer by law withhold these rights and + blessings from any portion of the inhabitants of its own immediate + territory, but in the exercise of your prerogative you will + immediately provide for the abolition of slavery in the District of + Columbia in such manner as in your wisdom may seem best." + +The publication of the Westchester resolutions elicited no unfavourable +comments at the North, but it gave no little disquietude to Southern +editors, two of whom declared that black persons travelling in the South +should carry proofs of their freedom, as whites in Europe were compelled +to carry passports. The introduction of the subject into Congress, even +at that day, when there was no excitement at the North on the subject of +slavery, brought out the susceptibility and dictatorial tone of the +slaveholding interest which marked all subsequent debates up to the +election of Lincoln. + +Soon after the assembling of Congress in 1827, Mr. Aaron Ward, +representing Westchester County, introduced the resolution: "That the +committee on the District of Columbia be directed to enquire whether +there be in force in the said District any law which authorizes the +imprisonment of any man of colour and his sale as an unclaimed slave for +gaol fees, and if so to enquire into the expediency of repealing the +same." Mr. Ward accompanied his resolution with remarks of a moderate +character, referring to the circumstances of Horton's arrest, the fact +of his being a citizen of New York, and the danger in which he stood of +being sold as a slave; he contrasted the law under which such +proceedings could be had with the provisions of the national +Constitution; and he concluded by saying: "The jurisdiction of the +District, sir, ought to be exhibited to the country and to the world +without a stain. Its object should be not to oppress but to vindicate +the rights of freemen, and if there is a spot on earth where these +rights are to be held sacred that place is the District of Columbia." + +For a Northern man merely to touch upon the rights of coloured persons +was enough to arouse the leading Southern members of the House to angry +opposition. John Forsythe, who as minister to Spain had arranged the +session of Florida, James Hamilton, already an extreme advocate of +States rights and afterwards Governor of South Carolina, Charles A. +Wickliffe, afterwards Postmaster-General under President Tyler, and +George McDuffie, of Georgia, all took pains to throw ridicule upon the +resolution, or to oppose its consideration. They considered, no doubt +correctly, that to have any negroes spoken of in Congress otherwise than +as property was an indirect blow at slavery. W. L. Brent, of Maryland, +said that the resolution as it stood was calculated to excite only angry +debate and irritated feelings. If the mover would omit the words "being +a citizen of any State," the most objectionable part would be removed. +Mr. Ward consented to this emasculation and his resolution was then +carried. The committee reported on the 16th July, that in the District +of Columbia, "if a free man of colour should be apprehended as a +runaway, he is subjected to the payment of all fees and rewards given by +law for apprehending runaways; and upon failure to make such payment, is +liable to be sold as a slave." "That is," said Judge Jay, "a man +acknowledged to be free and unaccused of any offence is to be sold as a +slave to pay fees and rewards given by law for apprehending runaways. If +Turkish despotism is disgraced by an enactment of equal atrocity, we are +ignorant of the fact." The committee thought the law rather hard, and +recommended such an alteration of it as would make such charges payable +by the corporation of Washington. But even this alteration was never +made. "The code of Washington," Jay said some years later, "is yet +polluted by unquestionably the most iniquitous statute in Christendom." +And the fact continued that a coloured citizen of a free State could be +sold into slavery if found in Washington. Convinced that no reform could +be expected except by the total abolition of slavery on United States +territory, convinced, too, that this was the first necessary step in a +campaign against slavery itself, Jay set on foot a movement for popular +petitions to Congress and for legislative expression in behalf of their +consideration. The Pennsylvania Legislature passed such resolutions in +January, 1829; the New York Assembly followed soon afterwards, when Jay +wrote to his friend Charles Miner: "The mail this evening brings the +news that resolutions instructing our representatives in Congress to +vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia have +passed our Assembly by a vote of 57 to 39. In the fulness of my heart I +thank God and take courage." Among his co-workers at this time was Henry +D. Sedgwick, to whom he wrote in 1831: "I have read your pamphlet with +much interest; your ideas on the abolition of slavery correspond with +those I have long entertained and expressed. Duty is the only safe rule +of expediency. No nation ever has suffered, and none ever will, for +doing justice and loving mercy. But moral considerations apart, I have +no doubt it would be wise policy in the Southern States immediately to +emancipate their slaves. The period must arrive when slavery must cease +on this continent. The progress of knowledge and religion, the example +of St. Domingo, the abolition of slavery in Mexico and South America, +the decreasing value of slave labour, and the rapidly augmenting +coloured population in the South, all combine in rendering this event +inevitable. But the slaves will either receive their freedom as a boon, +or they will wrest it by force from their masters; and the evils +attending these two modes of emancipation certainly bear no proportion +to each other. You remark, 'Our country fought for justice and should +be ready to render the justice which it demanded.' I observe a similar +sentiment in a letter written by my father from Spain to Judge Benson +during the contest to which you allude. Speaking of the abolition of +slavery, he says, 'Till America comes into this measure her prayers to +Heaven for liberty will be impious.' This is a strong expression, but it +is just. Were I in your Legislature I would prepare a bill for the +purpose with great care, and would never cease moving it till it became +a law or I ceased to be a member. I believe that God governs the world, +and I believe it to be a maxim in His Court, as in ours, that those who +ask for equity ought to do it. I do not think the free States guiltless +of upholding slavery while, through their representatives, they tolerate +it in the District of Columbia. Were the free States to will it, slavery +would cease at the capital of the republic, and an example would be set +that could not fail of having a salutary influence." + +[Illustration: After Gilbert Stuart. A. W. Elson & Co., Boston +John Jay] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT.--ORGANIZATION OF + ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES.--ANTI-ABOLITION RIOTS.--JAY PUBLISHES HIS + "INQUIRY." + + +Chief-Justice Jay died at Bedford in 1828, and his son William occupied +his leisure during the following five years in preparing "The Life and +Letters of John Jay." This work was published in two octavo volumes in +1833, and was highly praised for both thoroughness and impartiality. + +Meanwhile events were occurring which raised antislavery sentiment from +the torpor in which it had fallen after the excitement of the Missouri +Compromise, and which brought the whole question before the people as a +live issue which compelled attention. Between the years 1829 and 1832 +took place a remarkable series of debates in Virginia on the subject of +slavery, brought about by dissatisfaction with the State constitution +and by the Nat Turner massacre, in which a number of slaves had risen +against their masters. In these debates the evils of slavery were +exposed as clearly as they were afterwards by the Abolitionists, and +with an outspoken freedom which, when indulged in by Northern men, was +soon to be denounced as treasonable and incendiary. These Southern +speakers were silenced by the Slave Power. But there were men in the +North who thought the same and who would not be silenced. Chief among +these was William Lloyd Garrison. He had begun his memorable career by +circulating petitions in Vermont in 1828 in favor of emancipation in the +District of Columbia. Having joined Lundy in Baltimore in editing the +_Genius of Universal Emancipation_, he had suffered ignominy in the +cause in a Southern jail; drawing from persecution and hardship only new +inspiration, he began the publication of the _Liberator_ at Boston in +January, 1831. In the following year, under his leadership, was formed +the New England Anti-Slavery Society, which placed itself on the new +ground that _immediate, unconditional emancipation, without +expatriation, was the right of every slave and could not be withheld by +his master an hour without sin_. In March, 1833, the _Weekly +Emancipator_ was established in New York, with the assistance of Arthur +and Lewis Tappan, and under the editorship of William Goodell. In the +same year appeared at Haverhill, Mass., a vigorous pamphlet by John G. +Whittier, entitled "Justice and Expediency, or Slavery considered with a +View to its Rightful and Effectual Remedy, Abolition." Nearly +simultaneously were published Mrs. Lydia Maria Child's "Appeal in Behalf +of that Class of Americans called Africans," and a pamphlet by Elizur +Wright, Jr., a professor in the Western Reserve College, on "The Sin of +Slavery and its Remedy." + +These publications and the doctrines of the _Liberator_ produced great +excitement throughout the country. The South had been able to hear the +words "gradual emancipation" with a confident equanimity, and only a few +years before had tolerated a convention in Baltimore gathered to forward +that object. But the word "immediate" now prefixed to emancipation acted +as a firebrand to gunpowder. Southern newspapers and politicians could +not find epithets strong enough to denounce the fanatical incendiaries +who said that slavery, being wrong in itself, should cease at once. A +reward was offered by a Southern Legislature for the person of Garrison, +dead or alive. For lending Whittier's pamphlet to a white man Dr. Reuben +Crandall was tried for his life at Washington on the charge of +"circulating Tappan, Garrison & Co.'s papers encouraging the negroes to +insurrection." + +The lives of the abolitionists were safer at the North, but their +principles were condemned there in terms quite as decided. To say that +slavery ought to be immediately abolished was sufficient cause for the +clergyman to lose his pulpit and the merchant his credit. The new +doctrine was too sound to be ignored, and its agitation was +disorganizing, vexatious, injurious to business, destructive of private +and political peace. The North agreed with the South that slavery was +not a subject to which the right of free speech applied. The +abolitionists were accused of injuring the cause of the blacks by their +proceedings. And indeed, at the South the treatment of the slave became +harsher, and at the North the prejudice against the free negro was +intensified. In 1833 Miss Crandall, a Quaker lady, endeavoured to +establish a boarding-school for the education of coloured girls in +Canterbury, Conn. A committee of the inhabitants waited upon her, who +represented "that by putting her design into execution she would bring +ruin and disgrace upon them all." Three town meetings were held in one +week to discuss ways and means to suppress a scheme which would render +"insecure the persons, property, and reputation of our citizens." The +State of Connecticut passed a special law to forbid the establishment of +such a school. Under it, Miss Crandall was tried and convicted. The +constitutionality of the law was called in question and the case was +appealed. But the inhabitants of Canterbury thought the crisis too +serious to depend on legal technicalities. Miss Crandall was driven from +the town by persecution. The shops would sell her no food; her well was +filled with manure, and water from other sources refused; her house was +smeared with filth and finally set on fire. The trustees of the Noyes +Academy in Plymouth, N. H., having consented to the admission of +coloured pupils, the respectable people of the town avoided the +contemplated disgrace by moving the school building from its +foundations and depositing it in a swamp. In 1835 a wealthy coloured +man bought a pew on the floor of Park Street Church in Boston. His +neighbours nailed up the door of the pew, and so many "aggrieved +brethren" threatened to leave that the trustees were obliged to prevent +the threatened contamination of the sanctuary by excluding the coloured +pew-holder. A hundred similar cases might be cited to show that before +the emancipation of the slaves could gain even a hearing, the North had +to be educated to consider the negro race as human beings capable of +improvement and deserving of humane encouragement. + +In May, 1833, Judge Jay contributed to the first number of the +_Emancipator_ a letter which sets forth his own views of the problem of +American slavery at that time and also some of the difficulties in the +path of the emancipationists: + + "The duty and policy of immediate emancipation, although clear to + us, are not so to multitudes of good people who abhor slavery and + sincerely wish its removal. They take it for granted, no matter why + or wherefore, that if the slaves were now liberated they would + instantly cut the throats and fire the dwellings of their + benefactors. Hence these good people look upon the advocates of + emancipation as a set of dangerous fanatics, who are jeopardizing + the peace of the Southern States and riveting the fetters of the + slaves by the very attempt to break them. In their opinion the + slaves are not fit for freedom, and therefore it is necessary to + wait patiently till they are. Now, unless these patient waiters can + be brought over to our side, emancipation is hopeless; for, first, + they are an immense majority of all among us who are hostile to + slavery; and, secondly, they are as conscientious in their opinions + as we are in ours, and unless converted will oppose and defeat all + our efforts. But how are they to be converted? Only by the + exhibition of Truth. The moral, social, and political evils of + slavery are but imperfectly known and considered. These should be + portrayed in strong but true colours, and it would not be difficult + to prove that, however inconvenient and dangerous emancipation may + be, the continuance of slavery must be infinitely more inconvenient + and dangerous. + + "Constitutional restrictions, independent of other considerations, + forbid all other than moral interference with slavery in the + Southern States. But we have as good and perfect a right to exhort + slaveholders to liberate their slaves as we have to exhort them to + practice any virtue or avoid any vice. Nay, we have not only the + right, but under certain circumstances it may be our duty to give + such advice; and while we confine ourselves within the boundaries of + right and duty, we may and ought to disregard the threats and + denunciations by which we may be assailed. + + "The question of slavery in the District of Columbia is totally + distinct, as far as we are concerned, from that of slavery in the + Southern States. + + "As a member of Congress, I should think myself no more authorized + to legislate for the slaves of Virginia than for the serfs of + Russia. But Congress has full authority to abolish slavery in the + District, and I think it to be its duty to do so. The public need + information respecting the abominations committed at Washington with + the sanction of their representatives--abominations which will cease + whenever those representatives please. If this subject is fully and + ably pressed upon the attention of our electors, they may perhaps + be induced to require pledges from candidates for Congress for their + votes for the removal of this foul stain from our National + Government. As to the Colonization Society, it is neither a wicked + conspiracy on the one hand nor a panacea for slavery on the other. + Many good and wise men belong to it and believe in its efficacy." + +In the summer of 1833 the abolitionists of Great Britain succeeded in +obtaining the act of emancipation for the 800,000 slaves in the West +Indies. In June Arthur Tappan wrote to Judge Jay asking for his "opinion +as to the expediency of forming an American Antislavery Society and of +doing it now. The impulse given to the cause by the movement in England +would, it appears to me, aid us greatly here." Jay replied very +cautiously. A New York society, he thought, might be desirable +immediately. The constitutions and proceedings of such societies +demanded great caution and prudence; they must blend the wisdom of the +serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. The Southern people affected +to apprehend an unconstitutional interference with their property, as +they called it, by the Northern abolitionists, and no ground for such +pretended fear should be given. With this view, he suggested the +incorporation into the constitution of antislavery societies a distinct +declaration, such as the following: "We concede that Congress, under the +present National Compact, has no right to interfere with any of the +slave States in relation to this momentous subject. But we maintain +that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to suppress the domestic +slave-trade between the several States and to abolish slavery in those +portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its +exclusive jurisdiction." He further suggested that the two subjects, the +Colonization Society and the political condition of the free blacks, +should be avoided. "Duty and policy," he said, "in my opinion demand the +emancipation of our slaves, but they do not demand that immediately on +their emancipation they shall be invested with the right of suffrage." + +On the 2d of October the New York City Antislavery Society was +successfully organized, despite an active and organized effort to +prevent it. A call had been issued for a meeting of the friends of +immediate emancipation at Clinton Hall. A counter-notice was published, +signed "Many Southerners," inviting a meeting at the same time and +place. The proprietors of Clinton Hall, alarmed at the situation, +refused to let it to the abolitionists, who then applied to the Clinton +Hotel, where they were also refused. The Southerners and their Northern +sympathizers, finding Clinton Hotel closed, held a meeting at Tammany +Hall, with General Bogardus, the United States Marshal, in the chair, +with speeches and resolutions against the abolitionists, when a report +that the abolitionists were in session at Chatham Street Hall sent them +there in haste, only to find the Hall closed and dark. An eye-witness +described the crowd assembled by the Southern call as "a genuine +drunken, infuriated mob of blackguards of every species, some with good +clothes, and the major part the very sweepings of the city." The public +was amused the next morning by a leading editorial in the _Courier and +Enquirer_, congratulating the country on the failure of the +"disorganizing fanatics to organize a society fraught with danger to the +Union and based upon an open violation of the United States +Constitution;" while the advertising column of the same sheet contained +the official proceedings of the abolitionists at the Chatham Street +Chapel, where with promptness, energy, and order they had received the +report of a committee, adopted a constitution, elected officers, +adjourned and closed the building before the arrival of the rioters from +Tammany. The successful management of the affair was due chiefly to the +coolness and skill of Lewis Tappan, to whose devotion and energy the +antislavery cause was from this time constantly indebted. The peaceful +and lawful aims of the society, its frank acknowledgment of the rights +of the Southern States were set forth in its constitution: + + "While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has, by the + Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate + in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince + all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their + understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime + in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interest + of all concerned require its immediate abandonment, without + expatriation. The society will also endeavour in a constitutional + way to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade + and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country + which come under its control, especially in the District of + Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State + that may hereafter be admitted to the Union. + + "The society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the + people of colour, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and + religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus + they may _according to their intellectual and moral worth_ share an + equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but this + society will never in any way countenance the oppressed in + vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force." + +Notwithstanding the distinct and moderate language in which the society +set forth its lawful objects, pro-slavery prejudice was aroused to +violent opposition. A week later a meeting was called to protest against +the "reckless agitations of the abolitionists." Theodore Frelinghuysen, +United States Senator from New Jersey, declared that "nine tenths of the +horrors of slavery were imaginary," that "the crusade of abolition" was +"the poetry of philanthropy," that emancipationists were "seeking to +dissolve the Union." Chancellor Walworth came down from Albany to say +that they were "reckless incendiaries" and their efforts +unconstitutional. David B. Ogden declared the doctrine of immediate +emancipation to be "a palpable and direct nullification of the +Constitution." + +On the 29th of October, 1833, a circular invitation was addressed to +Judge Jay and others to attend a convention at Philadelphia on the 4th +December to form a National Antislavery Society. This step was taken in +concurrence with the views of the friends of immediate emancipation in +Boston, Providence, New York, and Philadelphia. Among the motives for +organizing such a society without delay it was argued that union is +strength; that the advocates of the immediate abolition of slavery, +though comparatively few and much scattered, were many in the aggregate, +and could act, when combined, with irresistible power; that the cause +was urgent, public expectation excited, its friends to some extent +committed to such a movement during the present year; that they had the +example of similar organizations, which, though feeble and condemned by +public opinion in the outset, had speedily risen to great influence, and +had been the means under God of immense benefit to the human race, +especially in the case of the National Antislavery Society of Great +Britain, and of the American Temperance Society. The invitation was +signed by a committee consisting of Arthur Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, and +Elizur Wright, Jr., all officers of the New York Antislavery Society. + +At the same time Judge Jay received a letter from Rev. Samuel J. May +urging him to be present. "This is a cause," wrote May, "in which our +wisest and best and most prudent men ought to engage. There never has +been in our country so great a demand for the exertions of true patriots +and real Christians.... Let me beg of you to be there, at the +convention. I have heard the hope that you will be there expressed most +fervently by many." + +Jay replied to the committee that he could not be present. "It would +perhaps be uncandid to conceal from you," he said, "that the expediency +of the proposed attempt to form a National Society at the present time +seems to me to be at least questionable. May it not increase the +irritation and hostility extensively felt towards abolitionists without +promoting their objects more effectually than local societies? If, +however, a National Society is to be formed, it is to be hoped its +proceedings will be marked with great prudence and moderation. The great +objection made to antislavery associations is that they aim at an +unconstitutional interference with slavery. This objection, false as I +am persuaded it is, has nevertheless an extensive and injurious +influence, and unless it be removed success will be hopeless. It seems +to me, therefore, of the utmost importance that correct constitutional +principles on this subject should not only be entertained, but +explicitly and unequivocally avowed by every antislavery society. This +avowal might be made in the preamble of their constitution in some form +like the following: + + "'The object of this society is to promote the abolition of slavery + in the United States. As all legislation relative to slavery in the + several States in which it exists can be constitutionally exercised + only by their respective Legislatures, this society will endeavour + to effect its object, so far as relates to these States, by argument + addressed to the understanding and conscience of their citizens. But + inasmuch as the Federal Constitution confers on Congress the + exclusive right to legislate for the District of Columbia, this + society will use all such lawful and constitutional means as may be + deemed advisable to induce Congress to abolish slavery in that + District without delay.' + +"I am very sensible that the friends of emancipation hold these +principles, but not having given them sufficient prominence in their +writings they have subjected themselves to much injurious suspicion." + +Judge Jay's letter was read on the first day of the Antislavery +Convention held in Philadelphia in December, 1833; and in the +declaration of principles, reported by William Lloyd Garrison, John G. +Whittier, and Samuel J. May, and unanimously adopted by the convention, +appeared the following clauses, by which the abolitionists were enabled +to repel the charge, so persistently made, that they sought to +accomplish their ends by unconstitutional means, by asking Congress to +exceed its power by meddling with slavery in the States: + + "We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State to + legislate exclusively on the subject of slavery which is tolerated + within its limits; we concede that Congress under the present + National Compact has no right to interfere with any of the slave + States in relation to this momentous subject. + + "But we maintain that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to + suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several States, and to + abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the + Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction." + +In 1838 an energetic attempt was made by Alvan Stewart, of Utica, to +strike out the clause in the constitution of the American Antislavery +Society which recognized the rights of the Southern States under the +United States Constitution. Jay perceived the injury that such a course +would inflict on the position of the abolitionists. It would, indeed, +have committed the society to the doctrine that Congress could continue +slavery in the States. He opposed the change with vigour during a debate +of two days and succeeded in maintaining the all-important clause. + +Looked at by the light of subsequent events, the importance of placing +the antislavery movement on a strictly constitutional basis cannot be +overrated. Upon the principles thus distinctly avowed rested the moral +and political strength of the movement during a struggle of nearly +thirty years. And these principles became, in 1854, under the guidance +of the founders of the Republican party, the chief plank in the platform +of that great organization, under whose sturdy lead, aided by citizens +of all parties, the supremacy of the national Constitution was +maintained, the integrity of the national territory was preserved, +slavery was ended, and the republic saved. + +Judge Jay was not yet officially connected with the antislavery +societies, but his sympathy was close with them and their officers. At +the request of the Executive Committee of the New York society, he +drafted a petition for abolition in the District of Columbia for +circulation in New York, in which he again distinctly drew the line +between the power of Congress over the District and its want of power as +regarded the States. This careful discrimination had no weight with the +many who were unwilling to admit that anything said or done by the +abolitionists was right. But it succeeded with more liberal men, among +them the good Chancellor Kent. The Chancellor, whose reputation as a +jurist was second to none, signed the petition, which he declared to +contain "no unconstitutional doctrine." + +The first anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Chatham Street Chapel in the beginning of May, 1834. Arthur Tappan +presided, and addresses were made by Elizur Wright, Jr., Rev. Amos A. +Phelps of Boston, James A. Stone of Kentucky, a delegate from the Lane +Seminary, Robert Purvis of Philadelphia, Rev. Henry G. Ludlow, Wm. Lloyd +Garrison, and Charles Stewart. The meeting met with disorderly +interruptions; the newspapers contained abusive attacks upon the +abolitionists and appealed against them to the passions of the lowest +and most ignorant class in the community. "All this violence and +obloquy," remarked Judge Jay, "are not without an object, and that +object is intimidation." The truth of this observation was soon +disgracefully verified. When the Fourth of July was celebrated at the +Chatham Street Chapel by an antislavery oration from David Paul Brown of +Philadelphia, the disorderly elements evoked by the press against the +blacks and abolitionists responded in large force and with increased +lawlessness. On the 9th of July a mob assembled at the Chapel, broke +open the doors, passed resolutions in favor of the Colonization Society +and by a suggestive vote adjourned until the next meeting of the +Antislavery Society. The mob then proceeded to the Bowery Theatre to +avenge some expressions attributed to an English actor, and next to the +house of Mr. Lewis Tappan, which was attacked with bricks and stones, +the furniture broken up and burned in the street. The riots continued +for several days with little hindrance from the city authorities. Six +churches were attacked and a large number of houses occupied by +abolitionists or by coloured people. Against the latter the fury of the +mob was especially directed. The same scenes of riot and cruelty toward +the helpless blacks occurred in Philadelphia, where forty-five houses +were destroyed. It was evident that the arguments of the abolitionists +could not be met except with violence. The mobs, as usual, were +cowardly. In some cases the determined action of the abolitionists +afforded them the protection refused by the police. It was announced +that among the houses to be attacked was that of Dr. Abraham L. Cox, in +Broome Street, a few doors east of Broadway. John Jay, then a student at +Columbia College, was living in the house. Some members of the New York +Young Men's Antislavery Society, with guns and pistols, were gathered +within and notice was given publicly that an attack would be repelled by +force. Late that night the mob in its lawless career passed close to Dr. +Cox's house, but did not dare to molest it. Similar preparations for +defence saved the store of Arthur Tappan. + +While the New York mob, as the _Commercial Advertiser_ said, were "now +nightly engaged in deeds of violence," the same paper distinctly took +the ground that the abolitionists should not enjoy "the protection of +the law and the aid of the military," except "on condition that the +causers of these mischiefs shall be abated and the outrages upon public +feelings from the forum, the pulpit, and the press shall no more be +repeated by these reckless incendiaries." The _Courier and Inquirer_ of +the same day said: "Now we tell them [the abolitionists] that when they +openly and publicly promulgate doctrines which outrage public feelings, +they have no right to demand protection of the people they insult," and +they must understand "that they prosecute their treasonable and beastly +plans at their own peril." Such was the view taken of American freedom +of speech by the pro-slavery party. The manly traits of American +character seemed to be lost in the prevailing atmosphere of race +prejudice, cowardice, and injustice. Politicians of both parties, +representatives of the commercial and professional classes of the North, +acquiesced in a policy which they thought would advance their views, but +which was destructive of the fundamental principles of American liberty. +The highest and the lowest had joined hands to assail the coloured +people and their friends. Names honoured in the Church and the State, +which should have helped to elevate public opinion and to guide it in +the path of justice, obeyed the mandates and echoed the denunciations of +the Slave Power. For a time was presented an alliance in behalf of +slavery of the highest classes with the scum of politicians and +criminals. The intrepid William Leggett was one of the few who dared to +publish the truth. "The fury of demons," he wrote in the _Evening Post_, +"seems to have entered into the breasts of our misguided populace. The +rights of public and private property, the obligations of law, the +authority of its ministers and even the power of the military are all +equally spurned by these audacious sons of riot and disorder." Candid +and cautious thinkers began to take alarm at the disregard for law which +seemed to be spreading through the country. "These mobs," wrote Dr. +Channing, "are indeed most dishonourable to us as a people, because they +have been too much the expression of public sentiment, ... because +there was a willingness that the antislavery movement should be put down +by force." + +The conduct of the mobs, and the encouragement given to them by the +press, aroused the spirit and stimulated the energy of the +abolitionists. "These crimes," said Judge Jay, "abundantly prove the +extreme cruelty and sinfulness of that prejudice against colour which we +are impiously told is an ordination of Providence. Colonizationists, +assuming the prejudice to be natural and invincible, propose to remove +its victims beyond its influence. Abolitionists, on the contrary, +remembering with the Psalmist 'that it is He that hath made us, and not +we ourselves,' believe that the benevolent Father of us all requires us +to treat with justice and kindness every portion of the human family." + +Although he had been an earnest emancipationist for ten years, Judge Jay +had had doubts of the wisdom of forming antislavery societies at so +early a period in the movement. He had feared that unmeasured and +unconstitutional doctrines might be adopted which would set the cause in +a false light before the country. His advice had been sought and +followed, as we have seen, and there was no longer any reason why he +should not become an active member. In 1834, immediately after the riots +and when the outlook seemed darkest, he took a place on the Executive +Committee of the National Society. + +"In that season of feverish excitement," wrote Hon. Henry Wilson, +"Judge William Jay, inheriting not only the honoured name, but the +principles and purity of the illustrious Chief-Justice, at first +declined an office in the new society, deeming its organization +premature," but now "sought to take his share of its labours and +responsibilities. His name gave prestige; his talents, learning, and +integrity afforded strength, while his cautious and ready pen laid +precious gifts upon its altar." + +In February, 1835, was published Jay's "Inquiry into the Character and +Tendency of the American Colonization and American Antislavery +Societies." The book bore upon its title-page the words of Milton, "Give +me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my +conscience, above all liberties"--a sentiment considered treasonable in +America by the Slave Power. This work had a powerful effect upon public +opinion, not only on account of the arguments it contained, but largely +on account of the character and position of its author. It was the +policy of the pro-slavery party to represent the abolitionists as +ignorant and reckless agitators, with nothing to lose. But here was a +man of family and fortune, a judge on the bench, high in the counsels of +the Episcopal Church, who set forth the detested doctrines with judicial +moderation and unanswerable logic. + +Jay began by an exposure of the Colonization Society. He showed that it +was merely a scheme to get rid of the free blacks at the South, where +they were regarded as a nuisance; that its officers represented it at +the North as a solution of the slavery question to quiet +emancipationists and to obtain their subscriptions. He set forth the +constitutional and merciful objects of the American Antislavery Society. +He showed that abolitionists were neither acting in opposition to law, +nor were in any manner exciting the slaves to insurrection; that the +opinions they professed were such as had been freely uttered by +Jefferson, Franklin, and numerous Southern statesmen within fifty years. +He exposed the cruel character of American slavery, the beastly +degradation, physical, moral, and mental, to which it condemned the +blacks; the horrors of the interstate slave-trade, tearing husband from +wife and children from their mothers to be sold into distant places; he +pointed out the national disgrace involved in the fact that in the city +of Washington, under the stars and stripes, slave-dealers were licensed +to ply their trade in human flesh, leading the chained "coffles" of +black wretches about the streets. The concluding chapters were devoted +to showing that emancipation could be accomplished with safety, and that +the real danger to the country lay in the continuation of slavery. + +The welcome extended to this book by the avowed abolitionists is +illustrated by the following extract from the annual report of the +Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1836: "We know it will not be +thought invidious towards others who have greatly contributed by their +excellent writings to help on our glorious enterprise, if we make +especial mention of the volume from the pen of the Hon. William Jay of +New York. His 'Inquiry' was published in the early part of last year. +Coming from him, a man extensively known, and highly respected and +beloved by all who know him, it could not fail to command the public +attention. The very rapid sale of the first and second editions evinced +the eagerness of thousands to know the results of his inquiry into the +sentiments and plans of the two societies which had stood from the birth +of the latter in the attitude of opposition. It is a book so full of +pertinent facts and carefully drawn conclusions that it could not fail +to impart the convictions of its author to other minds. No book on the +subject has probably been read by more persons, nor has any one been +instrumental to the conversion of more." + +The importance of the "Inquiry" to the antislavery cause is illustrated +by the diverse character of the men whose attention was attracted by +it--men whose conservative habits of mind, whose business and +professional interests caused them to ignore if not to condemn the +abolitionists. "Your book," wrote Rev. Beriah Green, who presided at the +organization of the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, "will +command a large circle of readers who could not be persuaded to examine +a paragraph written by any of us who have so long been known and hated +and execrated as abolitionists. To many of these, your arguments, so +skilfully arranged, so powerfully described, so happily conducted to so +triumphant a conclusion, must prove convincing. They must abandon their +'miry clay,' and, aided by your hand, take a position 'on the rock.'" +Among leading men influenced by Jay's "Inquiry" may be mentioned Dr. +Alonzo Potter, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania, and Peter G. +Stuyvesant, a representative of the solid Knickerbockers of New York. +Edward Delavan, of Albany, wrote: "You have done the cause of humanity +an incalculable amount of good by the work." Mrs. Theodore Sedgwick +wrote from Stockbridge: "We are reading your book on American slavery +with great interest. You have rendered an invaluable service to the +country and to the cause of humanity." The approbation most welcome to +Jay was probably that of the eminent Chancellor Kent. "I have read the +volume," he said, "with equal interest and astonishment. You have +accumulated a mass of facts of which a great part were to me unknown, +and they are of a surprising kind. I do not well see how your argument +on any material point can be gainsaid. You have amply vindicated the +character and intentions of the American Antislavery Society from all +injurious imputations. The details of the slave-trade and its +accompanying atrocities, as carried on at Washington, are horrible, and +your work must go far towards opening the eyes and disabusing the minds +of the public. I have, from the very beginning, had doubts and +misgivings as to the efficacy and results of the American Colonization +Society, and for some years past I have become satisfied that the scheme +was in reality but an Utopian vision, though I had supposed until now +that its fruits were better. Permit me to add that I have been much +pleased, not only with the clearness, force, simplicity, and precision +of the style, but with your fearless, frank, and manly, but courteous +vindication of the cause of Truth and Justice, and with your striking +appeals to the conscience and responsibilities of the Christian +reader." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CONTINUED EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT BY FORCE AND + INTIMIDATION.--FAVOURABLE EFFECT UPON THE PUBLIC MIND PRODUCED BY + JAY'S WRITINGS. + + +The second anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Presbyterian Church at Houston and Thompson Streets in New York on +the 12th of May, 1835. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, George Thompson, of +England, and William Lloyd Garrison made addresses. Judge Jay was +appointed foreign corresponding secretary, and instructed to convey to +the Duc de Broglie, president of the French Society for the Abolition of +Slavery, the sympathy of American abolitionists. + +The increasing activity and strength of the antislavery movement were +not unnoticed by the partisans of the Slave Power, both North and South, +and an incident occurred at Charleston, S. C., on the night of July +29th, which illustrated the temper and methods of the party. The +American Antislavery Society had directed their publishers to forward a +number of their periodical papers presenting facts and arguments on the +subject of slavery to various Southern gentlemen of distinction in the +hope of inspiring a spirit of inquiry among persons of influence and +character. "But it was precisely this spirit of inquiry," said Judge +Jay, "that the advocates of perpetual bondage feared might be fatal to +their favourite institution. Hence they affected to believe that the +papers sent to the masters were intended to incite the slaves to +insurrection." The fact that a considerable number of antislavery +publications had arrived at Charleston became known, and a mob broke +into the post-office and burned the mail in the streets. Arthur Tappan, +William L. Garrison, and Rev. Samuel H. Cox were burned in effigy. Mass +meetings were held at Charleston and Richmond to approve the action of +the mob, and aroused great excitement throughout the country. A +committee was appointed at Charleston to take charge of the Northern +mail on its arrival and to see that no antislavery papers should reach +their destinations. The postmaster advised the postmaster-general that +under existing circumstances he had determined to suppress all +antislavery publications, and asked for instructions. Amos Kendall, +Jackson's postmaster-general, whose sworn duty it was to preserve the +sanctity of the mails, was only too willing to act as the tool of the +Slave Power. "We owe," he replied, "an obligation to the laws, but a +higher one to the communities in which we live, and if the former be +perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them. +Entertaining these views, I _cannot sanction and will not condemn the +step you have taken_." These novel and dangerous doctrines, by which the +laws of the republic were to be set aside by public officers for +political purposes, received the sanction of President Jackson. + +The postmaster at New York, Samuel L. Gouverneur, proposed to the +American Antislavery Society that it voluntarily desist from sending its +publications by mail, but the Executive Committee properly refused to +yield the legal rights which they possessed in common with their +fellow-citizens. The postmaster announced that antislavery papers would +not be forwarded until further notice, and wrote to Washington for +instructions. Kendall replied that he was "deterred from giving an order +to exclude the whole series of antislavery publications from the +Southern mail only by a want of legal power." Such a power, he admitted, +vested in the head of the post-office department, would be fearfully +dangerous and had been withheld properly; but he added, with more regard +to the public opinion of the moment than to the principles of the +Constitution, "If I were situated as you are, I would do as you have +done." Some members of the Executive Committee wished to test the action +of the New York postmaster in the United States courts, but Judge Jay +opposed the plan for reasons which he gave in a letter to Elizur Wright, +Jr.: "The action must be brought and tried in the city of New York--in +that city in which this same gentleman, after his offence had been +publicly proclaimed by himself in the newspapers, addressed thousands of +the citizens in the Park and was received by their applause. Nor is this +all. His conduct is commended by his superior, who is a member of the +President's cabinet and probably acts with the approbation of General +Jackson. Under such circumstances, I think it improbable that a +prosecution would be attended with any result beneficial to our cause. +We have not surrendered our rights, but they have been violently wrested +from us.... _Festina lente_ is sometimes a safe maxim. Fidelity to our +principles and prudence in our conduct will, in time, through the +blessing of God, crown our labours with success. You think it is hardly +to be supposed that the people of the North are willing to give up the +right of the post-office. Certainly they are not willing to give up +their own, but they are willing _at present_ to give up _our_ right to +it." + +The South, recognizing the growing strength of antislavery opinion, +began its appeals to the North to save the Union by suppressing the +abolitionists. A public meeting in Virginia requested that this might be +done "by strong yet lawful, by mild yet constitutional means"--terms +which recalled the inquisitor of the Holy Office handing over condemned +heretics to the executioner with the ironical request that he would +deal with them tenderly and without blood-letting. In deference to the +Slave Power the post-office had been made to nullify the freedom of the +press, and freedom of speech was now to be suppressed, if possible, by +mob violence. The situation of abolitionists in this year may be +inferred from letters written from Brooklyn during the summer by Mrs. +Lydia Maria Child: "I have not ventured into the city, nor does one of +us dare to go to church to-day, so great is the excitement here. You can +form no conception of it. 'Tis like the times of the French Revolution, +when no man dared trust his neighbour. Private assassins from New +Orleans are lurking at the corners of the streets to stab Arthur Tappan; +and very large sums are offered for any one who will get Mr. George +Thompson into the slave States. I tremble for him. He is almost a close +prisoner in his chamber, his friends deeming him in eminent peril the +moment it is ascertained where he is.... Five thousand dollars were +offered on the Exchange in New York for the head of Arthur Tappan on +Friday last. Elizur Wright is barricading his house with shutters, bars, +and bolts. Judge Jay has been with us two or three days. He is as firm +as the everlasting hills." + +The popular feeling against the abolitionists was growing daily, and +from every quarter they were charged with "unconstitutional, +insurrectionary, and diabolical designs." To attempt to disabuse the +community of the false impressions received from pro-slavery speakers +and newspapers seemed the most important duty at this time. The +following anonymous letter, signed "A Returning Southerner," was +received by Arthur Tappan, and placed the necessity for such action in a +strong light: + + "Though we are unknown to each other, yet the friendship I feel for + you induces me to address you. I have been where you have not, and + have heard what you have not, and believe that great prudence is + requisite on your part. I do not ask you to remit your philanthropic + efforts. Heaven and future ages, if not the present, will appreciate + them. + + "I do not pretend to advise, but have often thought that you and + your friends do not take sufficient means to disabuse the public of + the ceaseless charges of a multitude of papers. + + "A vast majority in this city have never seen one of your papers, + and countless multitudes, not only here but through our vast + republic, believe without a doubt, for they have seen it unceasingly + asserted and never contradicted, that you ardently wish your + incendiary publications to excite the slaves to rebellion and + bloodshed, massacre and rapine in their worst forms. While this + impression is so common, or rather so universal, I was glad to see + in circulation, as tending in some measure to your safety and the + safety of this association, that you address not the slave but his + master--a fact well enough known by your vengeance-seeking foes, but + not known by those whom they intend to use as instruments of + violence. I only presume further to suggest a card, to be inserted + at least a week in the _Courier and Inquirer_, stating in brief + terms that you do not advocate the violence imputed to you; that you + address the reason of white men, not the passions of slaves." + +The Executive Committee of the American Antislavery Society resolved to +ask Judge Jay to prepare such a statement as the crisis called for. Jay +was on a tour through the White Mountains at the time, but immediately +on his return he prepared the following address, which was published in +September, 1835, and was widely circulated in America and Europe: + + "_To the Public._ + + "In behalf of the American Antislavery Society we solicit the candid + attention of the public to the following declaration of our + principles and objects. Were the charges which are brought against + us made only by persons who are interested in the continuance of + slavery, and by such as are influenced solely by unworthy motives, + this address would be unnecessary; but there are those who merit and + possess our esteem, who would not voluntarily do us injustice, and + who have been led by gross misrepresentations to believe that we are + pursuing measures at variance not only with the constitutional + rights of the South but with the precepts of humanity and religion. + To such we offer the following explanations and assurances: + + "1st. We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in + the Southern States than in the French West India Islands. Of course + we desire no national legislation on the subject. + + "2d. We hold that slavery cannot be lawfully abolished except by the + Legislatures of the several States in which it prevails, and that + the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such + abolition is unconstitutional. + + "3d. We believe that Congress has the same right to abolish slavery + in the District of Columbia that the State governments have within + their respective jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface + so foul a spot from the national escutcheon. + + "4th. We believe the American citizens have the right to express and + publish their opinions of the constitutions, laws, and institutions + of any and every State and nation under heaven; and we mean + never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the press, or of + conscience--blessings we have inherited from our fathers, and which + we intend, so far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to our + children. + + "5th. We have uniformly deprecated all forcible attempts on the part + of the slaves to recover their liberty; and were it in our power to + address them we would exhort them to observe a quiet and peaceful + demeanour, and would assure them that no insurrectionary movement on + their part would receive from us the slightest aid or countenance. + + "6th. We would deplore any servile insurrection, both on account of + the calamities which would attend it and on account of the occasion + which it would furnish of increased severity and oppression. + + "7th. We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the + South. If by the term 'incendiary' is meant publications containing + arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political + evil, and that duty and policy require its immediate abolition, the + charge is true. But if this term is used to imply publications + encouraging insurrection and designed to excite the slaves to break + their fetters, the charge is utterly and unequivocally false. We beg + our fellow-citizens to notice that this charge is made without + proof, and by many who confess that they have never read our + publications, and that those who make it offer to the public no + evidence from our writings in support of it. + + "8th. We are accused of sending our publications to the slaves, and + it is asserted that their tendency is to excite insurrections. Both + the charges are false. These publications are not intended for the + slaves, and were they able to read them, they would find in them no + encouragement to insurrection. + + "9th. We are accused of employing agents in the slave States to + distribute our publications. We have never had one such agent. We + have sent no packages of our papers to any person in those States + for distribution, except to five respectable resident citizens at + their own request. But we have sent by mail single papers addressed + to public officers, editors of newspapers, and clergymen. If, + therefore, our object is to excite the slaves to insurrection, the + masters are our agents! + + "10th. We believe slavery to be sinful, injurious to this and to + every other country in which it prevails; we believe immediate + emancipation to be the duty of every slaveholder, and that the + immediate abolition of slavery, by those who have the right to + abolish it, would be safe and wise. These opinions we have freely + expressed, and we certainly have no intention to refrain from + expressing them in future, and urging them upon the consciences and + hearts of our fellow-citizens who hold slaves or apologize for + slavery. + + "11th. We believe that the education of the poor is required by + duty, and by a regard for the permanency of our republican + institutions. There are thousands and tens of thousands of our + fellow-citizens, even in the free States, sunk in abject poverty, + and who, on account of their complexion, are virtually kept in + ignorance, and whose instruction in certain cases is actually + prohibited by law. We are anxious to protect the rights and to + promote the virtue and happiness of the coloured portion of our + population, and on this account we have been charged with a design + to encourage intermarriage between the whites and the blacks. This + charge has been repeatedly and is now again denied; while we repeat + that the tendency of our sentiments is to put an end to the criminal + amalgamation that prevails wherever slavery exists. + + "12th. We are accused of acts that tend to a dissolution of the + Union, and even of wishing to dissolve it. We have never 'calculated + the value of the Union,' because we believe it to be inestimable, + and that the abolition of slavery will remove the chief danger of + its dissolution; and one of the many reasons why we endeavour to + preserve the Constitution is that it restrains Congress from making + any law 'abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.' + + "Such, fellow-citizens, are our principles. Are they unworthy of + Christians and of republicans? Or are they in truth so atrocious + that in order to prevent their diffusion you are yourselves willing + to surrender at the dictation of others the invaluable privilege of + free discussion, the very birthright of Americans? Will you, in + order that the abominations of slavery may be concealed from public + view, and that the capital of your republic may continue to be as it + now is, under the sanction of Congress, the great slave-mart of the + American continent, consent that the general government, in + acknowledged defiance of the Constitution and laws, shall appoint + throughout the length and breadth of your land ten thousand censors + of the press, each of whom shall have the right to inspect every + document you may commit to the post-office, and to suppress every + pamphlet and newspaper, whether religious or political, which in his + sovereign pleasure he may adjudge to contain an incendiary article? + Surely we need not remind you that if you submit to such an + encroachment on your liberties the days of our republic are + numbered, and that although abolitionists may be the first, they + will not be the last victims offered at the shrine of arbitrary + power. + + "(Signed) + + "ARTHUR TAPPAN, + "JOHN RANKIN, + "WILLIAM JAY, + "ELIZUR WRIGHT, JR., + "ABRAHAM L. COX, + "LEWIS TAPPAN, + "JOSHUA LEAVITT, + "SAMUEL E. CORNISH, + "SIMEON S. JOCELIN, + "THEODORE S. WRIGHT. + + "NEW YORK, September 3d, 1835." + +The effect of Jay's address to the public was thus described by Elizur +Wright, Jr.: "The Southern papers are copying it extensively, and most +of them charge us with having disclaimed in it our real motives--a proof +that our real sentiments were before misunderstood. In a large number of +Northern papers it is copied with more or less approbation. Indeed, none +but the determined pro-slavery presses fail to speak of it as a candid, +firm, and honourable if not convincing document." "It has had a most +beneficial effect," wrote Lewis Tappan. "What a contrast to the +ebullition of public meetings!" + +A movement was begun in the year 1835, on the part of the Southern press +and Southern Legislatures to induce penal legislation in the North +against the expression of antislavery sentiments. The _Richmond Whig_ +revealed its opinion of its Northern allies when it said: "Depend upon +it, the Northern people will never sacrifice their lucrative trade with +the South so long as the hanging of a few thousands will prevent it." In +obedience to these demands, pro-slavery men in the North were actually +to be found proposing legislation intended to destroy the freedom of the +press and to make antislavery expression a criminal offence. Judge Jay +took occasion to meet this movement in a charge which he delivered to +the Westchester Grand Jury, in which he said: "Any law which might be +passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or of +the press, or to shield any one subject from discussion, would be +utterly null and void; and it would be the duty of every genuine +republican to resist with energy and decision so palpable an outrage on +the declared will of the people." These remarks were widely published +and did much to discourage the pro-slavery agitators. + +But other illegitimate and violent schemes to reduce to silence +antislavery men were soon brought into play. South Carolina having +inaugurated the assault upon the constitutional rights of the North +through the post-office, Alabama followed in a yet bolder step against +the personal security of abolitionists. Governor Gayle, of that State, +demanded of the Governor of New York that Ransom G. Williams, the +publishing agent of the Antislavery Society, should be surrendered to +him to be tried under the laws of Alabama on an indictment found +against him by the Grand Jury for publishing in the _Emancipator_, in +the city of New York, the following sentiment: "God commands and all +nature cries out that man should not be held as property. The system of +making men property has plunged two and a quarter millions of our +fellow-countrymen into the deepest physical and moral degradation, and +they are every moment sinking deeper." This expression was the most +offensive which the Alabama Grand Jury could discover in the documents +of the society on which to base the indictment and demand, and as the +one which came nearest to anything resembling an attempt to incite the +slaves to insurrection. Williams had never been in the State of Alabama, +was never subject to its laws, had never fled from its jurisdiction, and +these facts were admitted by the Governor when he made requisition for +Williams as a "fugitive from justice." While the American Antislavery +Society was considering what action it should take for the protection of +its agent, Lewis Tappan wrote to Judge Jay (8th September) suggesting +that he should get the opinion of two or three eminent lawyers on the +subject to be circulated by the society. Jay replied: "The Southern +papers have intimated that Northern abolitionists may be indicted in the +courts and then demanded of the State executives, and you request my +opinion whether it would be advisable to obtain and publish the legal +opinion of eminent counsel on this novel doctrine. The doctrine is so +monstrous, so utterly at variance with all our ideas of constitutional +and State rights, that it shocks the understanding and moral sense of +the community, and I verily believe that there is not one Northern +governor who would dare to arrest a citizen on such a demand. But if we +manifest alarm at this doctrine and get lawyers to controvert it, there +will be found rival presses, venal lawyers, and corrupt politicians to +support the other side of the question; the community will begin to +discuss the subject, passion and interest and prejudice will believe +whatever they want to believe. My opinion, therefore, is that the less +we say on this subject the better, and that we should not give a +factitious importance to the doctrine." Jay's advice was followed and +proved to be wise. Governor Marcy could do nothing but refuse the +request of Governor Gayle, although he softened his refusal by abuse of +the abolitionists. + +Under the leadership of Alvan Stewart a convention was called to meet at +Utica on October 21, 1835, to form a New York State Antislavery Society. +About six hundred delegates were present. The spirit of mob violence, +which was being encouraged by pro-slavery orators and presses throughout +the country to suppress the abolitionists by force, was relied upon to +prevent the meeting of the convention. The mob having occupied in +advance the room in the court-house prepared for the meeting, the +delegates repaired to a Presbyterian Church, where they had barely +enough time to organize and elect officers before the riotous +supporters of slavery broke into the church and violently dispersed the +convention. The lawless tyranny to which the delegates were subjected +and their courageous conduct attracted to their cause many persons who +had held aloof hitherto. Chief among these was Gerrit Smith, who from +this time gave to the antislavery movement unstinted contributions of +money and intelligent labour. Judge Jay, notwithstanding his unavoidable +absence from the convention, was elected president of the society then +formed. + +At about the same time as the Utica riots occurred the mobbing of +William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston, by "gentlemen of property and +standing." And all over the North were enacted scenes of violence, +encouraged by a large portion of the press, which were intended to +gratify the Southern demand that abolitionism should be put down at all +hazards. The sanctity of the mails, the constitutional right of free +speech and of lawful assemblage, were forgotten by a large portion of +the people. And they were forgotten by the President of the United +States himself. In December, 1835, Andrew Jackson, in his message to +Congress, gave a tacit approval to mob rule, to the suppression of the +freedom of the press, and to the oft-exposed falsehood that the +abolitionists distributed documents among the slaves intended to incite +them to insurrection; and he recommended the closing of the mails to +antislavery people. + +The position taken by President Jackson was so unjust, so +unconstitutional, and so calculated to aggravate the situation, that the +American Antislavery Society determined to make an official reply to it. +Judge Jay was chosen to answer the President on behalf of the society, +and he prepared an address which was signed by all the officers. This +document was a complete exposure of the falsity of the charges made and +of the unlawfulness of the restrictive measures which Jackson proposed +to Congress. + + "You have accused," said Jay, "an indefinite number of your + fellow-citizens, without designation of name or residence, of making + unconstitutional and wicked efforts, and of harbouring intentions + which could be entertained only by the most depraved and abandoned + of mankind; and yet you carefully abstain from averring _which_ + article of the Constitution they have transgressed; you omit stating + when, where, and by whom these wicked attempts were made; you give + no specification of the inflammatory appeals which you assert have + been addressed to the passions of the slaves. You well know that + the 'moral influence' of your charges will affect thousands and + tens of thousands of your countrymen, many of them your + political friends--some of them heretofore honoured with your + confidence--most, if not all of them, of irreproachable character; + and yet, by the very vagueness of your charges, you incapacitate + each one of this multitude from proving his innocence.... It is + deserving of notice that the _attempt_ to circulate our papers is + alone charged upon us. It is not pretended that we have put our + appeals into the hands of a single slave, or that in any instance + our endeavours to excite a servile war have been crowned with + success. And in what way was our most execrable attempt made? By + secret agents, traversing the slave country in disguise, stealing by + night into the hut of the slave, and reading to him our inflammatory + appeals? You, sir, answer this question by declaring that we + attempted the mighty mischief by circulating our appeals _through + the mails_! And are the Southern slaves, sir, accustomed to receive + periodicals by mail? Of the thousands of publications mailed from + the antislavery office for the South, did you ever hear, sir, of one + solitary paper being addressed to a slave? Would you know to whom + they were directed, consult the Southern newspapers, and you will + find them complaining that they were sent to public officers, + clergymen, and other influential citizens. Thus, it seems, we are + incendiaries who place the torch in the hands of him whose dwelling + we would fire! We are conspiring to incite a servile war, and + announce our design to the masters and commit to their care and + disposal the very instruments by which we expect to effect our + purpose!... To repel your charges and to disabuse the public was a + duty we owed to ourselves, to our children, and, above all, to the + great and holy cause in which we are engaged. That cause we believe + is approved by our Maker; and while we retain this belief, it is our + intention, trusting to His direction and protection, to persevere in + our endeavours to impress upon the minds and hearts of our + countrymen the sinfulness of claiming property in human beings, and + the duty and wisdom of immediately relinquishing it. When convinced + that our endeavours are wrong, we shall abandon them, but such + conviction must be produced by other arguments than vituperation, + popular violence, or penal enactments." + +In 1836 Judge Jay resigned the presidency of the New York State +Antislavery Society. The distance of his home from the headquarters of +the society made the office nearly nominal, and he thought that it +should be filled by a person more favourably situated for usefulness. +"We commenced the present struggle," he wrote in his letter of +resignation, "to obtain the freedom of the slave; we are compelled to +continue it to preserve our own. We are now contending, not so much with +the slaveholders of the South about human rights, as with the political +and commercial aristocracy of the North, for the liberty of speech, of +the press, and of conscience. Our politicians are selling our +constitutions and laws for Southern votes. Our great capitalists are +speculating, not merely in land and banks, but in the liberties of the +people. We are called to contemplate a spectacle never, I believe, +before witnessed--the wealthy portion of the community striving to +introduce anarchy and violence on a calculation of profit; making +merchandise of peace and good order! In Boston we have seen the editor +of a newspaper led through the streets with a halter by gentlemen 'of +property and standing.' The New York mobs were excited, not by the +humble penny press, but by the malignant falsehood and insurrectionary +appeals of certain commercial journals. Rich and honourable men in +Cincinnati have recently at a public meeting proclaimed lynch law, and +through their influence a printing-press devoted to freedom has been +destroyed, and the whole affair, we are coolly and most truly told, +was a _business transaction_. + +[Illustration: William Jay] + +"... It cannot be, it is not in human nature that judges and lawyers and +rich merchants will long enjoy the exclusive privileges of trampling on +the laws. These men are sowing the wind and they will reap the +whirlwind. They may see the buddings of their harvest in the recent +assaults upon the Holland Land Company. When the tempest of anarchy they +are now raising shall sweep over the land it will not be the humble +abolitionist, but the lofty possessor of power and fortune, who will +first be levelled by the blast.... The obligations of religion and of +patriotism; the duties we owe to ourselves, to our children, the cause +of freedom, and the cause of humanity--all require us to be faithful to +our principles, to persevere in our exertions, and to surrender our +rights only with our breath. Duties are ours and consequences are God's, +and while we discharge the first we may be confident that the latter +will be entirely consistent with our true welfare." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GRADUAL DECLINE OF RIOTOUS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE + ABOLITIONISTS.--CHANGES OCCUR IN THE DOCTRINES AND METHODS OF THE + AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY.--JUDGE JAY RESIGNS HIS MEMBERSHIP, + WHILE CONTINUING HIS EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF EMANCIPATION. + + +The effort to suppress the antislavery movement by force, which was +carried on by Northern people at the instigation of the South, continued +through the years 1837 and 1838. The incidents which attracted the most +attention were the murder of Lovejoy at Alton and the burning of +Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia by a mob. By assassination and arson a +considerable portion of the American people sought to destroy the right +to free speech and free assemblage guaranteed by the American +Constitution and cherished hitherto as a birthright. The right of free +discussion, wrote Alexander H. Everett at the time, "is not only +endangered, but for the present, at least, is actually lost." "The +newspapers of every day," he continued, "bring to our view the account +of some new case in which a printing-press has been seized and thrown +into the river; a public meeting broken up; a citizen tarred and +feathered, scourged--too often, I add with horror, put to a violent +death by a lawless mob for no other cause or crime than the free +discussion of the subject of slavery." The impunity with which these +crimes were committed, the connivance or leniency of the authorities +whose sworn duty it was to uphold the laws, made this time a critical +one for the security of American liberties. In pursuing their lawful +course undaunted through this "reign of terror," when so large a portion +of their fellow-countrymen seemed to have forgotten the obligations of +citizens to established law, the abolitionists not only maintained the +existence of their cause, but they preserved those rights which +Americans value above all others. That free speech continued to exist in +the United States was duo to their indomitable courage. Such a state of +affairs could not endure long. Lawless feeling exhausted itself in +fruitless violence. Antislavery societies increased in numbers and +membership. Comparative order and toleration gradually displaced the +disgraceful passions which had placed the liberties of the country in +hazard. + +As opposition diminished and their path became easier, abolitionists +began to differ among themselves as to the best means to attain their +ends and as to the fundamental principles of their cause. In New York +State a tendency was developed, under the leadership of Gerrit Smith, to +adopt political methods. In Boston moral agitation remained the accepted +means. But here novel theories on other subjects were being adopted by +leading antislavery people and thus associated in the public mind with +antislavery itself. Garrison adopted and recommended in the _Liberator_ +his no-government and non-resistance doctrines. He put forth new and not +generally accepted views regarding the observance of Sunday. He took +pains to declare that he adopted these theories in his private capacity, +and not as an abolitionist. But he had many followers who did not +discriminate so carefully. The public mind became confused and began to +associate abolitionism with a variety of novel and unpopular opinions. +The cause was thus obstructed and divisions occurred among those who +laboured for the emancipation of the negro. Up to this time women had +not taken part in public meetings, and to many persons the idea of their +doing so was repugnant. The admission of women to membership and office +in the same societies as men was determined in Boston in 1838, after a +struggle and amidst much objection. + +"I have observed," wrote Jay in a private letter in 1838, "frequent +attempts to use abolition as a pack-horse to carry forth into the world +some favourite notion having no legitimate connection with the +antislavery cause; and have witnessed the dissensions caused in our +ranks by such inconsiderate and dishonest assumptions. Thus I have known +an official document, under the signature of a secretary of a State +society, pass a high eulogium on a particular form of Church government; +and I have seen an editorial article in an official antislavery +periodical recommending a decoction of dried currants as a substitute +for the fermented juice of the grape in the observance of the Lord's +Supper! All such perversions of antislavery influence appear to me to be +dishonest in their character, and dangerous in their consequences to the +continuance and efficiency of our organization. No one is more strenuous +than myself for the right of opinion and discussion; but common justice +and fairness require that we should not make others responsible for our +peculiar opinions, nor seek to propagate them by means entrusted to us +for very different purposes. + +"The practice of passing numerous resolutions at our antislavery +meetings strikes me as a growing and pernicious evil. Too many seem to +think that all our objects are to be effected by resolutions; and amid +the vast multitude that are proposed and adopted with little reflection, +it is not surprising, yet deeply to be deplored, that some are false _in +fact_, more false in sentiment, and very many coarse and vulgar in +expression. Falsehood is not the less immoral for being employed in a +good cause, and it is very unwise to impair the charms of Truth by +arraying her in vulgar attire. It is to be wished that our meetings may +in future be less prodigal of their resolutions, and more circumspect as +to the matter and language." + +Judge Jay looked with dismay upon the novel doctrines on other subjects +which were becoming associated with antislavery in the public mind. He +deplored the loss of strength which must result from a departure from +the singleness of purpose announced in the declaration of principles at +the founding of the American Antislavery Society. And there were +differences of opinion arising on the fundamental principles of the +cause which troubled him still more. As has been shown in these pages, +he had joined the American Antislavery Society only after a deliberate +examination of its constitution and the conviction that its principles +were in strict accordance with the Constitution of the United States. He +was as strong an advocate of emancipation as lived, but to him the +Constitution was the supreme law under which all benefits could be and +must be obtained. Efforts to seek the abolition of slavery by arguments +or conduct in violation of the Constitution seemed to him wicked in +themselves and fatal to the cause. Such efforts he had now to combat. + +At the sixth anniversary of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, held +in January, 1838, the business committee, composed of Messrs. Garrison, +Phelps, May, and Fairbanks, reported the following resolution: + + "_Resolved_, That in order to bring our coloured friends within the + brotherhood of this nation, we will encourage them in petitioning to + Congress, in their own names, for the redress of their grievances, + and, if not successful, then we will lend them our aid in bringing + their cause before the court of the United States to ascertain if a + man can be held in bondage agreeably to the principles contained in + the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of our country." + +Judge Jay wrote a letter to Mr. Ellis Gray Loring, March 5th, asking for +more definite information as to the true intent of the society in +passing the resolution. + + "Who are the _coloured friends_ alluded to?" he asked. "Obviously + _slaves_, because if Congress does not redress their grievances, + then the society is to lead them into the court of the United States + to ascertain whether a man can be held in _bondage_. + + "What grievances are the slaves, under the encouragement of the + society, to petition Congress to redress? Obviously those they + suffer as slaves, because if Congress does not redress them, redress + is to be sought in the court, by demanding if a man can be held in + _bondage_, that is, as a slave. + + "What slaves are intended by the resolution? No qualification or + limitation whatever is expressed or implied. The Society, no doubt, + recognizes the slaves of Georgia as its coloured friends as well as + the slaves of the District of Columbia. The resolution is the tenth + of a series of resolutions reported by the committee, and in none of + them is any mention made of the District of Columbia, and, moreover, + the question to be decided by the court is not whether an inhabitant + of the District can be held as a slave, but whether a man can be + held in bondage agreeably to the principles of the Declaration of + Independence and the Constitution of our country, and the tribunal + to decide this question is not the court of the District but the + court of the United States. + + "Members of Congress take an oath to support the Constitution of + the United States. If, therefore, the society believe the + Constitution does not authorize Congress to redress the grievances + of its coloured friends, it has pledged itself to encourage those + friends to petition Congress to commit perjury. Hence it appears to + me that the true meaning of this resolution, expressed in plain + language, is, '_Resolved_, That in our opinion Congress possesses + the constitutional power to abolish slavery throughout the United + States, and that we will encourage the slaves to petition Congress + for an act of emancipation, and should no such an act be passed we + will aid them in suing for their freedom in the Supreme Court of the + United States.' + + "It is to be regretted that the society did not announce the means + they intend to employ to encourage the slaves to send petitions to + Congress. The pledge has been solemnly given. Is it to be redeemed + by sending among them secret or avowed agents? It is singular also + that if the society believes the 'court of the United States' can + give liberty to the slaves, it should not make an _immediate_ + application for its beneficent interposition, but should resolve to + postpone such application not only until it has succeeded in + prompting them to petition Congress for a redress of their + grievances, but also until a sufficient time has elapsed to learn + the result of this moral experiment. Permit me now, sir, to call + your attention to the past professions of some of the gentlemen who + reported this resolution, and of the society which adopted it. + + "On the 4th December, 1833, Messrs. Phelps, Garrison, and May, as + members of the Philadelphia Convention, signed the following + declaration: 'We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of + _each State to legislate exclusively_ on the subject of slavery + which is tolerated within its limits. We concede that Congress has + no _right to interfere_ with any slave State in relation to the + momentous subject.' + + "Mr. Garrison afterwards, in an editorial article in the + _Liberator_, thus expresses himself: 'Abolitionists as clearly + understand and as sacredly regard the constitutional powers of + Congress as do their traducers, and they know, and have again and + again asserted, that Congress has _no more rightful authority to sit + in judgment upon Southern slavery than it has to legislate for the + abolition of slavery in the French colonies_.' + + "On the 17th of August, 1835, at a meeting of the Massachusetts + Antislavery Society, duly held in Boston, an address to the public + was adopted, professing to set forth the _true principles and + objects_ of the society; and to give this statement a stronger claim + to the confidence of the community it was authenticated by the + signatures of _thirty-one_ of the principal officers and members of + the society, including _your own_ and those of three of the + committee who reported the late resolution, viz., Messrs. Garrison, + May, and Fairbanks. The opinion of the society at that time on the + power of Congress was in that document thus explicitly stated: 'We + fully acknowledge that no change in the slave laws of the Southern + States can be made unless by the Southern Legislatures. Neither + Congress nor the Legislatures of the free States have authority _to + change the condition_ of a single slave in the slave States.' Yet + the society now stands prepared to encourage the slaves to petition + Congress for a redress of their grievances! And now, sir, the object + of this letter is to ascertain whether the resolution I have quoted + does in truth represent the present opinion held by your society on + the power of Congress, or whether the resolution was intended to be + confined to slaves in the District of Columbia and the territory of + Florida. + + "It cannot be necessary to dwell on the vast importance of an + explicit declaration by your board on this subject. Independent of + the deep concern I feel in the harmony, integrity, and consistency + of the abolition party, I have a personal interest in the inquiry I + now make of you. An _enlarged_ edition of my book is ready for the + press, but the late resolution of your society compels me to suspend + its publication. I had treated the charge that abolitionists desired + Congress to interfere with slavery in the States as calumnious, and + in refutation of it had appealed to their solemn disclaimers. I need + not say, sir, that until the late resolution is satisfactorily + explained, or its doctrine disavowed by your society, I cannot in my + new edition deny the charge, but must as an honest man substitute + for my confident assertions and triumphant appeals most painful and + humiliating confessions. Permit me to suggest that it is highly + desirable that your board should act explicitly on this subject + before the meeting of the American Antislavery Society, that, if + possible, no inquiries or investigation may then arise to mar the + harmony of the meeting and retard the progress of abolition. + + "I flatter myself, sir, that your sentiments on the constitutional + question remain the same as when you signed the address of 1835, and + that you comprehend and appreciate the motives which have prompted + this letter. I shall await your answer with extreme anxiety." + +On receipt of this letter Mr. Loring communicated with a number of the +members of the board of managers and endeavoured to hold a meeting of +the board for the purpose of rescinding or repudiating the resolution; +but it was not until the 14th that he succeeded in getting a quorum +together. After Mr. Loring had read Judge Jay's letter to the board, +they promptly passed the following resolution: + + "_Resolved_, That as said resolution was submitted to the meeting + just at its close, when but few delegates were present, and was + adopted without deliberation or discussion, this board recommend its + reconsideration at the next quarterly meeting of the society. + + _"Resolved_, As the sense of this board, that Congress has no power + to abolish slavery in the several States of this Union." + +In a letter dated the 15th of March, enclosing a copy of the above +resolution, Mr. Loring said: "I can hear of but one or two persons here +who believe in the power of Congress over slavery in the States, viz., +the Misses Grimké, Mr. Alanson St. Clair, and perhaps Mr. May and Mrs. +Chapman. Several, however, and those influential persons (Mr. Garrison +among them), think slavery unconstitutional, and believe it would be so +pronounced by the Supreme Court of the United States if the point should +ever be made. In this opinion I can by no means agree." + +The "unfortunate resolution," he continued, was offered by a "silly +officious person" at a moment of much haste and confusion just as the +meeting was breaking up, and had been approved without proper +consideration by the committee whose duty it was to revise all +resolutions. "It seems, however, to have been understood by those who +voted for it as applying only to free coloured persons whose rights +might be infringed by Southern laws or to slaves in the District of +Columbia; and the pledge given to try the question of slavery in the +United States Courts seems to have arisen from the notion that the +question of the accordance of slavery with the Constitution might be +incidentally raised and determined even in a case in which the party +whose rights are to be vindicated is free." + +In conclusion Mr. Loring said that this question would assume an +important aspect at the future meetings of the Antislavery Society, and +earnestly hoped wise and honest counsel would prevail. He thought it +would be sufficient ground for dissolving the Union were the United +States Supreme Court to assume power over slavery in the several States. +"The honesty and common sense of the nation," he wrote, "would revolt +against such a doctrine and against those who should maintain it." + +In his reply, dated the 29th of March, Judge Jay congratulated Mr. +Loring on the service he had rendered the cause of abolition by +procuring the passage of the resolutions from the board of managers. "In +the fulness of our zeal," he wrote, "we are all liable occasionally to +stray beyond the line of propriety, and it evinces more devotion to duty +to acknowledge and correct errors than to avoid committing them." + +At the fifth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held at +the Broadway Tabernacle on the 2d of May, 1838, Alvan Stewart of Utica, +N. Y., offered a resolution, vigorously supported by himself and others, +to the following effect: + + "That the clause of the second article of the constitution of this + society be struck out which admits 'that each State in which slavery + exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive + right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State.'" + +This motion was equivalent to a declaration on the part of the society +that Congress had the right, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery. +Judge Jay had previously declared that Stewart's doctrine was false, +untenable, and hurtful to the cause. The arguments by which it was +supported he considered absurd. For two days of continued debate he +exposed its fallacy and danger and was rewarded by the defeat of the +resolution. But such attempts to change the original articles of belief +upon which the society was founded gave him great uneasiness for the +future. His feelings upon this subject were shown in a letter to the +secretary of the Young Men's Antislavery Society who had invited him to +preside at its convention: + + "On uniting with the American Antislavery Society some years since I + remarked, with the letter requesting that my name might be enrolled + among its members, that I had attentively considered its + constitution, and expressed my conviction that in joining the + society I was acting consistently with my obligations as a Christian + and a citizen. The great moral principles advanced in the + constitution perfectly accorded, in my opinion, with the precepts of + the Gospel, and the measures proposed, by which those principles + were to be carried into practice, equally accorded with the + obligations of the oath I had taken to support the Constitution of + the United States. I embarked in the antislavery cause with a firm + determination to support the principles and measures avowed by the + society at the hazard of obloquy, persecution, and, if necessary, + even life itself; and never in advocating the cause to sacrifice + truth and principle to expediency. How far I have acted up to this + determination others must judge. I am not myself conscious of having + departed from it. + + "The constitution of the society contains an express admission that + 'each State in which slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the + United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its + abolition;' and the object of the society in regard to slavery + in the States is declared to be to effect its abolition by + 'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of our + fellow-citizens.' Notwithstanding these explicit declarations we + were accused of aiming to effect our object by inducing Congress to + invade the rights of the States by abolishing slavery within their + limits; and it was justly argued that such an attempt was + unconstitutional, and would, if successful, lead to civil war and a + severance of the Union. So gross and unfounded were the calumnies + circulated against us, that it was deemed expedient by the executive + committee of the society, of which I was one, to publish an address + to the public, pledging our individual characters and responsibility + as to the real objects and principles entertained by our + association. This address bore my signature among others, and + contained, as nearly as I can recollect, the following passage: 'We + hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the + States in which it exists than it has to abolish slavery in the + French West India Islands; consequently we desire no national + legislation on the subject.' We were justified in giving this pledge + by the declaration of the convention which formed the society, by + the constitution of the society itself, by the constitutions of the + several State societies, and by the uniform language of antislavery + publications. Few persons have been more conversant with the + writings of abolitionists than myself; yet I can truly aver that + until the appearance of Mr. Stewart's extraordinary argument I was + not aware that there was a man or woman belonging to an antislavery + society who entertained a different opinion. This gentleman, holding + the responsible station of chairman of the executive committee of + the State society, avowing in its constitution the inability of + Congress to abolish slavery in the States, published an article in + the official paper of the society, asserting the constitutional + power of Congress immediately to emancipate every slave in the + United States, declaring that abolitionists had 'but one thing to + do'--which was to petition Congress to exercise this power; thus + repudiating the moral means they had prescribed for themselves, + viz., 'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of + our fellow-citizens'; and virtually recommending the employment of + _force_, the power of the general government as the sole agent in + effecting the abolition of slavery. + + "I had supposed that sentiments so utterly at variance with the + solemn asseverations of abolitionists, so repugnant to the + constitutional pledges of their societies, would have excited + universal indignation; but I was mistaken. After the publication of + these sentiments, Mr. Stewart was selected as one of the orators of + the American Society at their ensuing anniversary. At the annual + meeting in May last he moved to purge from the constitution the + concession I have quoted, thus giving the society the constitutional + right of discharging what he had proclaimed the sole duty of + abolitionists, that of petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in + the States; and in supporting his motion he ridiculed the idea of + effecting our object by addresses to the understanding and + consciences of slaveholders. On taking the question a majority of + the society was in favour of expunging; and the admission respecting + the power of Congress still stands in the constitution only because + it required a vote of two thirds to cancel it. Mr. Stewart was + afterwards elected a manager of the society. A State society since + organized has by a formal vote refused to insert the usual admission + into its constitution, and another previously organized has since + stricken it from its constitution. + + "From this state of facts it is apparent that the pledges given to + the public in our constitution, and in the address of the executive + committee to which I have referred, that abolitionists admitted that + Congress had no right to interfere with slavery in the States, that + hence arguments were the only means they intended to use for its + abolition, have been flagrantly falsified. So far as I was + concerned, and unquestionably many more, the pledge was given in + good faith, and however others may belie it, I mean honestly to + abide by it. In my opinion, Congress has no more right to pass a + general emancipation law than to direct how Broadway shall be paved; + and without intending to impeach the motives of others, I must take + the liberty to say that I would regard such a law as a most wicked + and detestable act of usurpation--an act that would inevitably and + properly sever the Union and necessarily result in bloodshed and + national calamity. + + "It seems to me, moreover, inconsistent with Christian sincerity and + plain dealing for our societies to profess in their constitution a + belief in great and important principles, and to promise to regulate + their measures in accordance with those principles, and at the same + time to retain in communion with them and elevate to office men who + openly repudiate and ridicule those principles and avow a wish to + introduce a course of action utterly repugnant. + + "On discovering from the proceedings of last May that the American + Society and its auxiliaries no longer considered their avowed + principles binding on their members, but that they might be treated + with insult and ridicule without incurring a loss of either + confidence or office, and that in the bosom of the society opinions + were entertained utterly at variance with public and solemn + professions, and in their practical consequences hostile to the + welfare of the country and inconsistent with the oath I had taken to + support the Constitution of the United States, I deemed it my duty + no longer to share in the responsibilities of their measures. I have + not since taken part in the meeting of any antislavery society, and + the recklessness with which the pledge given by myself and other + officers of the society has been falsified, warns me to be cautious + how I again become identified with the promises and declarations of + these associations. These considerations induce me very respectfully + to decline your kind invitation. + + "My attachment to the cause of abolition, and to the principles + avowed in the constitution of the American Society, was never + stronger than at this moment; and I shall ever regard it a duty and + a privilege to labour for the abolition of slavery in every manner + consistent with propriety and my moral and political obligations. + + "Although my confidence in the integrity and singleness of purpose + of antislavery societies is weakened, I have not the most distant + wish to interrupt their harmony or impede their usefulness. I have + thus, sir, frankly but with much pain stated my sentiments. These + sentiments I have no desire to conceal or to obtrude upon others; + and you are at liberty to suppress this letter or make any use of it + you may think proper." + +The annual meeting of the Connecticut Antislavery Society was held at +New Haven in May, 1840, commencing on the 20th. The society considered +this meeting to be of vital importance to the prosperity of the cause in +that State on account of the Legislature being in session there at that +time, many of the members of which were expected to attend. + +In April Judge Jay received an invitation from the Committee of +Arrangements to deliver an address on the "Action of the Federal +Government in Behalf of Slavery," on which subject the Committee felt +convinced that Judge Jay could "give the society as well as our +legislators some valuable information." + +Other engagements compelled Judge Jay to decline the invitation. In his +letter to the Committee of Arrangements informing them of his inability +to comply with their request, Judge Jay assured them that the interest +he had theretofore professed to feel in the antislavery cause had +suffered no diminution; and his conviction of the truth of the great +principles set forth in the constitution of the American Society had, if +possible, grown stronger from continued reflection and observation; but +as to the singleness of purpose and the efficiency and integrity of the +present antislavery organization his opinion had undergone a change. + + "In joining the organization," he wrote, "I had good cause to + believe that I would not be called upon to co-operate with men who + condemned any of its avowed principles, or with men who would seek + to render it an instrument for promoting other objects than the + abolition of slavery. + + "One of the principles laid down in the constitution of the + American Society, and a most important one as limiting its + operations, is that by the Constitution of the United States + Congress has no right to legislate for the abolition of slavery in + the several States in which it exists. Yet a gentleman was in 1838 + chosen by the society one of its officers after having both in print + and in the presence of the society denied this doctrine and + contended that it was the duty of abolitionists to petition Congress + to pass a law for the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in + the United States. The expulsion of this gentleman from the society + was in my opinion required by the respect it owed itself, and by the + good faith it owed both to the public and to its members. The course + pursued was an emphatic declaration on the part of the society that + its professed principles, however useful they might be in + conciliating public confidence and in acquiring funds, were by no + means binding on its members. Having sworn to support the + Constitution of the United States, and regarding the proposed mode + of emancipation a most palpable violation of it, and seeing that the + avowed principles of the society were in fact no security for its + conformity to them in its conduct, I then determined never again to + take a part in its meetings or in those of its auxiliaries. + Subsequent events have given me no cause to regret this + determination. + + "One of the great objects for which the American Society was + avowedly formed was to effect the abolition of slavery in the + District of Columbia and of the American slave-trade by + Congressional legislation. Yet men belonging to the society, and + even some of its officers, are now publicly maintaining that all + compulsory laws are sinful, and of course that it would be a + usurpation of the divine prerogative for Congress to suppress by + penal law the abomination of slavery in the capital of the republic, + and the nefarious traffic in human flesh of which the capital is + the great depot. I cannot as an abolitionist act with those who + reprobate all enactments, not merely for the abolition of slavery + where it exists, but even for preventing its re-establishment on + soil from which it has been extirpated; and also for protecting the + poor coloured man, his wife, and children from the merciless + kidnapper. + + "Certainly the founders of the society did not intend to effect by + it any alteration in the social relations of the sexes; and not the + most distant hint of such a design can be found in the Constitution; + yet it is in vain to deny that an attempt is now making to render + antislavery societies instrumental in advancing certain theories + respecting the rights of women. + + "The American Society was intended as a central organization by + which the contributions and efforts of abolitionists were to be + concentrated and directed; and for some years it discharged its + functions with wonderful zeal, energy, and success. But at last the + managers of certain local societies imagined that the vitality of + the extremities of the system would be quickened by arresting the + pulsations of the heart; and accordingly measures were adopted, and + with perfect success, to paralyze the parent institution. + + "For a while abolitionists exhibited a pattern of Christian and + disinterested benevolence in behalf of the oppressed which commanded + the secret admiration even of their enemies, and conciliated the + favour of the good. Latterly a strong desire has been evinced to + change the antislavery enterprise from a religious into a political + one, and a scramble for the loaves and fishes has already commenced. + + "Unwilling to take a part in the bitter feuds which now divide + abolitionists, and not choosing to assume any responsibility for + principles and measures I cannot approve, I deem it most consistent + with my obligations as a Christian and a citizen to absent myself + from an arena in which I can do no good and in which I can no + longer appear without being engaged in unprofitable conflict. But + most cheerfully will I again enlist in a new antislavery + organization (if any such can be devised) that will offer a fair + promise of avoiding the errors which have destroyed the efficiency + and moral character of the present. + + "I beg you to be assured that in the preceding remarks I have had no + particular reference to the Connecticut Society, not being aware + that it is open to censure. + + "I have no desire either to conceal or to obtrude my opinions + respecting the existing state of the antislavery enterprise, but I + deemed it due to myself to state frankly and without reserve the + considerations which induce me to pursue a course apparently at + variance with my former public vindication of the American + Antislavery Society." + +Among abolitionists there was a great diversity of opinion as to whether +women should be admitted to membership in antislavery societies and +permitted to hold office and generally to enjoy the same privileges as +men. This question was the cause of much feeling and was destined to +create an unfortunate division in the antislavery ranks. + +The subject was first voted upon in the New England Society, where, in +1838, it was resolved to permit all persons, whether men or women, who +agreed with them on the subject of slavery to participate in the +meetings as members. An attempt having been made in vain to rescind this +vote, a protest was drawn up by Amos R. Phelps, Charles T. Torrey, and +five others, disclaiming all responsibility for it, and denouncing the +action of the society as injurious to the cause of the slave by +connecting with it an entirely foreign subject and by establishing a +dangerous precedent. + +At the sixth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held in +New York, May 7, 1839, it was voted, 180 ayes to 140 nays, "that the +roll of the convention be made up by placing upon it the names of all +persons, male or female, who are delegated from any auxiliary society, +or members of this society." + +The seventh annual meeting of the American Society was fixed for the +12th of May, 1840. It was generally realized that on this occasion a +definitive settlement of the woman question would be made. The board of +managers of the Massachusetts Society made strenuous efforts to insure a +large attendance of members sharing their views. A large steamboat was +chartered which conveyed Garrison and his party to New York, and it was +soon manifest that they had mustered a majority sufficient to carry +their point. + +Arthur Tappan, the president of the society, anticipating "a recurrence +of the scenes witnessed last year, and resolved not to be found +contending with his abolition brethren," did not attend the meeting, and +Francis Jackson presided in his place. Among the persons nominated by +the chairman as a business committee was Miss Abby Kelley. After a long +and exciting debate Miss Kelley was elected by a vote of 557 to 451. +Immediately after the result was announced, Lewis Tappan, Charles W. +Denison, and Amos Phelps, members of the business committee, asked to be +excused from serving upon it. + +After the meeting had adjourned those members who had voted against the +admission of women met and organized a new society under the name of the +"American and Foreign Antislavery Society." Arthur Tappan was chosen +president, James G. Birney and Henry B. Stanton, secretaries, and Lewis +Tappan, treasurer. The Executive Committee was composed of Gerrit Smith, +Judge Jay, John G. Whittier, Joshua Leavitt, and other leading +abolitionists. + +On June 1st Judge Jay wrote a note to Mr. J. C. Jackson, the recording +secretary of the American Antislavery Society, asking that his name be +stricken from the roll as a member. In stating his reasons for +resigning, he said that the proceedings at the late meeting of the +society had convinced him that the institution was being used, by those +who had recently acquired control of it, as an instrument for advancing +the doctrine of the equality of the sexes in all the relations of life. +"Married women without their husbands," he said, "were associated with +men in the Executive Committee--a committee to which is confided the +management of the society, and whose meetings have hitherto been, and +will probably continue to be, both frequent and private." + +The principle thus officially avowed by the society Judge Jay declared +had not the remotest connection with the true objects for which the +society was formed, nor was it sanctioned by the constitution. "However +grievous some women may find the yoke imposed upon them by the opinions +usually entertained on the subject," he continued, "that is not the yoke +which abolitionists associated to break." The claims now set up by the +society in regard to "the rights of women" appeared to him necessarily +to involve their participation in the sacred ministry, their exercise of +the elective franchise, and their entire independence in the conjugal +relation. Irrespective of the soundness of these claims, it did not +appear by what right the society called upon its members to support +them. Judge Jay contended that "any association for the professed +purpose of abolishing negro slavery may with as much propriety prescribe +the form of baptism and the Lord's Supper as it may insist that women +are authorized to administer these ordinances." Fully convinced that the +society as thus managed was exerting an influence not only very +injurious to the antislavery cause, but contrary to domestic order and +happiness and inconsistent with the precepts of the Gospel, Judge Jay +deemed it his duty to sever his connection with it. + +In our time, when the admission of women to participation in nearly +every form of activity is universally accepted, it may seem +extraordinary that the American Antislavery Society should have divided +upon such an issue. But what is now a familiar custom was then a +strange doctrine, the consequences of which were unknown and were +dreaded by conservative people. The abolitionists whose votes admitted +women to equal rights with men contended that women were among the most +useful and influential workers for the cause and that they should have a +corresponding position in the councils of the party. It was denied that +active participation in the meetings of the societies was inappropriate +to their sex. On the other hand, it was believed by many persons +earnestly and usefully engaged in the cause of emancipation that the +antislavery society should pursue its end unimpeded and undisturbed by +outside issues. The emancipation of woman might be a highly desirable +reform, but it should be sought separately from the emancipation of the +negro. An individual should be allowed to labour for the slave without +being forced to support untried theories regarding woman's rights and +the sinfulness of human government. + +At this period Judge Jay was especially active with his pen. In 1839 was +published his "View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of +Slavery." This work was the first effective exposure of the manner in +which the United States Government had been used for many years by +pro-slavery statesmen to carry out their own ends. Judge Jay showed the +shameful position in which the National Government had been placed +before the nations of the world when the President and his diplomatic +representatives were forced by the Slave Power to demand the return of +fugitive slaves and compensation for their loss when shipwreck had +allowed them to attain liberty on a foreign shore; when the armies of +the United States were sent to Florida at enormous expense to capture +alleged runaway private property; when the power of the Government was +strained to prevent abolition in Cuba and to introduce slavery into +Texas. The efforts to suppress the right of petition and freedom of +debate in Congress were thoroughly described. An account, humiliating to +every American, was given of the condition of the national capital +itself, converted by the fostering protection of the United States +Government into the chief slave-market of the Union. + +Judge Jay's next publication was entitled, "On the Condition of Free +People of Colour in the United States." He showed that they were denied +the right to the franchise, to liberty of locomotion, to the lowest +employment in the public service; that their education was impeded +almost to prohibition and that even their industry was hampered by cruel +restrictions. Worst of all, they might at any time be seized and sold +into slavery without recourse to law. In 1840 appeared his pamphlet on +"The Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of +Petition." These writings had a wide circulation among persons not +reached by the ordinary antislavery literature, and their influence was +highly beneficial. + +Although the woman question was the ostensible cause of the schism of +1840, there were several other differences which tended quite as much to +divide the abolition camp. While the Garrison party continued to depend +solely upon moral agitation and opposed all political effort, a numerous +and powerful body in the antislavery ranks began to look to the +ballot-box as the instrument of reform. In 1840, under the leadership of +Gerrit Smith, Alvan Stewart, Myron Holley, Elizur Wright, Joshua +Leavitt, and William Goodell, a convention at Albany organized the +Liberty party by the nomination of James G. Birney, of Kentucky, for +President, and of Thomas Earle, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. Out +of a total of about two and a half million votes cast at this election, +the candidates of the Liberty party received a little over seven +thousand. W. H. Harrison, the whig candidate, defeated his democratic +opponent, Martin Van Buren. Although the abolition vote was not large, +it gave the party great encouragement, and an address was issued +congratulating the friends of the slave that a new power to overthrow +slavery had been found in "the terse literature of the ballot-box." + +Judge Jay's attitude towards the formation of the Liberty party appears +in a correspondence which took place between him and Gerrit Smith in +July, 1840. "I suppose you have come, as well as myself," wrote Smith, +"to the conclusion that whilst American slavery exists our national +political parties will be essentially and irrevocably pro-slavery +parties, and that abolitionists cannot, therefore, vote consistently +for the candidates of such parties. If you have come to this conclusion, +you of course admit that we are under the necessity of designating our +own candidates for law-makers and that the object of the Freeman's State +Convention to be held in Syracuse the first Wednesday in August is +proper. Now, when we come together in that convention there is one thing +which, next to the blessing of Heaven, we shall need far more than any +other. I mean your consent that we shall put you in nomination for +governor. Will you enable me to insure the convention of that consent? +If you will, you will in so doing render a very great service to our +holy cause--a service which I see not how we can well dispense with. If +there be anything selfish in your heart, we have, of course, nothing to +address to it. We do not expect to elect you, and we are well aware that +your nomination would expose you to pro-slavery ridicule and hatred. If +you give your consent to the nomination, we know that such consent must +proceed from your disinterested and self-sacrificing love for the +antislavery cause. Do, my dear sir, give us your name; we can rally +about it those who will be dead to the power of any other name." + +To this strong appeal Jay gave the following reply: + + "I was last evening favoured with your letter of the 20th inst. + asking me to consent to be the abolition candidate for governor at + the ensuing election. The request implies a confidence in the + strength and sincerity of my attachment for the abolition cause that + demands my acknowledgments. I cannot now embrace the opportunity + afforded by your letter of entering at large into the question of a + distinct abolition party; but justice to myself and respect for you + induce me to mention some general principles which I think + applicable to the present case. + + "An abolition political party supposes a union for the election of + rulers without regard to the sentiments of the associates or their + candidates on any other subject than that of slavery. Of course the + party and the rulers elected by them may have the most opposite and + irreconcilable opinions on every topic but one of local and national + interest; yet it is supposed such discordant materials will form one + homogeneous mass. Abolitionists give but little promise of such + wonderful unity in the future. I doubt the practicability of forming + such a party; and I moreover question whether such a party would be + consistent with our obligations as citizens. It is evident that this + party could effect its professed object, the abolition of slavery, + only in a course of years, and in the meantime it is _to neglect and + disregard every other interest_. The party as such can have no + opinion and exert no influence either in elections or elsewhere in + relation to the trade, the finances, internal improvements, foreign + affairs, or the military power of the nation, and no inquiry is to + be allowed into the opinions of candidates on these most important + topics. + + "I fear the very attempt to form such a party will prove injurious + to the antislavery cause. It excites dissensions among ourselves. On + this point I will not enlarge. It will present in its results a + false and disheartening estimate of the number of abolitionists; + because as many antislavery men will refuse to support the abolition + candidates, the canvass will represent us as far less numerous than + we really are. Moreover, the abolitionists who are thus called out + of the political parties can of course exercise no more influence in + them. We are depriving the parties of the little salt that keeps + them from utter putrefaction. Had the whig abolitionists in the last + Legislature been nominated by an abolitionist party they would not + have been elected and we should not now have the glorious and + blessed jury law. + + "I have never approved under present circumstances of any further + organized interference by abolitionists with elections than the + official questioning of candidates. Under that system every + abolitionist might exert a powerful influence merely by withholding + his vote, without giving his suffrage for one to whom he was + politically opposed. The experiment failed, but by whose fault? + Seward and Bradish, Marcy and Tracy, dealt frankly with us. Yet + abolitionists made but little difference between the friends and + foes. Had Bradish had 20,000 votes more than Seward the conversion + of our politicians to abolition would have been general and + instantaneous, and slavery would have received an irremediable + wound. And can we believe that if abolitionists would not then + refrain from voting for the party, they will now consent to vote + against it? + + "I am very far from thinking that it can never be right and proper + to set up abolition candidates without regard to party preferences. + Had the question of emancipation been almost equally poised in the + British Parliament it would have been patriotic to turn the scale by + a temporary abandonment of the contested objects and the election of + antislavery members. And so also I can readily conceive of + circumstances in which it may be the duty of the abolitionists of a + particular State or district to suspend for a time their labours for + the slave in order to unite with the friends of temperance to carry + some great point. But taking into consideration the existing + circumstances of the antislavery cause, I am not clear that the + formation of an abolition political party, disregarding all the + other interests of the country, is consistent with either duty or + policy, and of course it becomes me to decline the request with + which you have honoured me. May God enlighten and direct us, and + when we cannot think alike may He give us the graces of meekness and + charity." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JUDGE JAY CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THE ANTISLAVERY CAUSE BY HIS ADVICE + AND WRITINGS.--IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS OPINIONS HE IS DEPRIVED OF HIS + SEAT ON THE BENCH.--HIS VISIT TO EUROPE.--HIS VIEWS ON THE LIBERTY + PARTY.--ON THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.--HIS "REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN + WAR."--HIS ADVOCACY OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION AS A REMEDY FOR + WAR.--HIS WORK IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. + + +After the division in the ranks of the antislavery societies in 1840, +Judge Jay ceased to take an active part in their proceedings, preferring +to support the cause independently by his writings. But he was +continually applied to by the societies to assist them by his advice, to +give legal opinions on the positions which they wished to take, and to +prepare documents which required special judgment and ability. + +In April, 1842, Jay prepared an address to the British Antislavery +Society, at the request of Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, who wrote on behalf +of the American Antislavery Society. A little later, again by request of +Mrs. Child, he gave a legal opinion on the advisability of carrying to +the Supreme Court the cases of three men who had been condemned in +Missouri to twelve years' imprisonment for aiding slaves to escape. + +He continued his membership in the American and Foreign Antislavery +Society in New York. Here he laboured unceasingly to keep the society +fast to its declared purpose, and to prevent it from adding new +doctrines and objects which he believed must result in further divisions +injurious to the cause. + +In April, 1841, he wrote on this subject to Lewis Tappan: + + "I am glad the society will not be concerned in establishing a + missionary station in Africa. The great vice of our antislavery + societies has been, and is, meddling with things they have no right + to meddle with, and this they have done on a most vicious principle, + that the end sanctifies the means. In general, abolitionists mean + well; but they grievously mistake when they think themselves + authorized to pursue, in their associated capacity, whatever + benevolent or religious plan they individually approve. They unite + for certain specified purposes, and receive money expressly to + forward those purposes; and to employ their associated influence or + their common funds for other distinct purposes is not, in my + opinion, consistent with strict morality." + +In August, 1841, Judge Jay was requested by the Executive Committee of +the American and Foreign Antislavery Society to allow his name to be +announced as a regular contributor to the society's organ, the +_Reporter_. He took this opportunity to repeat his warnings against the +departure of the abolitionists from the line of action which they had +marked out for themselves in the early days of the agitation. + + "As an abolitionist I have deeply deplored the dissensions which + have marred our harmony and almost annihilated our moral influence; + and I have constantly and resolutely abstained, as far as my sense + of duty would permit me, from aggravating those dissensions by + partaking in them. The obvious tendency of the _announcement_ + contemplated by your resolution is to impress the public with the + belief that the gentlemen who are held forth as the future + contributors to the _Reporter_ maintain the principles and approve + the course of that paper. Such an impression, so far as regards + myself, would be most strictly accurate were the principles and + course of the paper to continue such as they have hitherto been. To + the American and Foreign Antislavery Society I did fondly look as a + refuge for such abolitionists as had been expelled from the old + society by the faithlessness of those who converted it into an + instrument for spreading other than antislavery doctrines. I did, + notwithstanding past experience, regard the constitution of the new + society as affording a guarantee that its members would not be + required to support any other principles and measures than such as + were indicated in that instrument. In consequence of this belief I + did not decline office in the society, and I aided in defraying the + expenses and in filling the columns of the _Reporter_. The paper was + conducted with ability and honesty, promised to exert a happy + influence in restoring peace and harmony to our ranks. The society + was pledged by its constitution 'carefully to abstain from all the + machinery of party political arrangements in effecting the objects,' + and the _Reporter_ faithfully conformed itself to this pledge. But + in the very last number we are informed that at the last meeting a + vote of the society, '_nearly unanimous_,' was taken in favour of + striking this pledge from the constitution, but that inasmuch as the + notice required by Article X. had not been given, the amendment was + not _constitutionally_ adopted. The pledge is therefore virtually, + although not formally, withdrawn; and we have every reason to + believe that at the next meeting it will be expunged from the + constitution. It is therefore obvious that the society, instead of + being a rallying point for abolitionists, is henceforth to be a mere + partisan organization, excluding from its fellowship multitudes of + honest, zealous, and consistent abolitionists because they cannot + adopt the maxim now promulgated in certain quarters, that the + friends of immediate emancipation should labour to secure for + themselves all the loaves and fishes in the gift of the + republic--the power and emoluments of _every office_, from that of + President of the United States to that of Path Master of a ward + district. The vote of the society just mentioned is tantamount to a + declaration that it will as soon as possible employ all the + machinery of party political arrangement for the exclusive elevation + of abolitionists to political power. This is not an object for which + I have associated with abolitionists, nor is it one in which I + intend to co-operate with them. But the _Reporter_, I am bound to + believe, will be used as an instrument to effect this object, + because I am bound to believe that the official organ of the society + will not fail to advocate and pursue its avowed policy. Hence I + cannot and ought not to give it in advance my confidence and + countenance by complying with the request with which you have + honoured me. + + "I have thus frankly stated my sentiments without intending to + impeach the motives of others, and without meaning to assume a + hostile attitude towards the friends and supporters of what + is denominated the Third party. With that party I cannot + conscientiously and consistently unite, but I have purposely + abstained from publicly mingling in the controversies to which it + has given rise, and I have now expressed my dissent from it only + because I could not otherwise explain my refusal of your polite + invitation. + + "In justice to myself, permit me to remark that my opinions on + slavery and abolition have undergone no change, and that every + principle I have ever avowed as an abolitionist is still cherished + by me with no other difference than possibly a stronger conviction + than formerly of its truth and importance. + + "That we may all be guided by wisdom from above and be enabled not + merely to break the bonds of the slaves, but in our conduct to adorn + our Christian profession, is my fervent wish." + +The antislavery societies, by the admission into their proceedings of +projected reforms having no connection with their ostensible object, had +gradually become divided and weakened. Jay had protested unceasingly +against this course, but the tendency had been irresistible. "Our +antislavery societies," he wrote in 1846, "are, for the most part, +virtually defunct. Antislavery conventions are whatever the leaders +present happen to be; sometimes disgustingly irreligious, and very often +Jacobinical and disorganizing; and frequently proscriptive of such of +their brethren who will not consent to render abolition a mere +instrument for effecting certain political changes having no relation +whatever to slavery." + +The antislavery societies had accomplished the noble and seemingly +hopeless task of arousing the national conscience from its lethargy. +Their labours had started and given irresistible impulse to a movement +on behalf of the slave which was not to rest until emancipation was +attained. But the active conduct of this movement was now passing from +their hands into the domain of politics. The contest had become a +national issue, to be fought out in legislative halls and to be +determined at the polls. + +In August, 1843, the national convention of the Liberty party was held +at Buffalo. This convention was more largely attended than the first, +every free State excepting New Hampshire having sent delegates. James G. +Birney was again nominated for President, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, +for Vice-President. The canvass was carried on with great vigour and +spirit. The Birney vote in 1843 showed a large increase, amounting to +60,000. It caused the election of Polk and gave to the abolitionists the +balance of power in New York and Michigan. + +Judge Jay had never considered himself as belonging to either the Whig +or the Democratic party. He believed that his judicial position should +debar him from active partisanship. Above all, his disapproval of the +policy adopted by both political parties towards the slavery question +disinclined him to be a member of either. His attitude towards the +Liberty party, on its formation in 1840, was set forth in the letter +written to Gerrit Smith declining the nomination for governor, which was +quoted at length in the last chapter. Judge Jay then doubted the +expediency of a separate political party making abolition its article +of faith and test of membership. But as events proceeded, as both the +great parties seemed irrevocably pledged to the support of slavery, +above all, as both favoured the annexation of Texas, Jay became a +pronounced and active member of the Liberty party. + +He viewed the annexation proceedings with horror, as the death-knell of +emancipation and as a scheme of wicked injustice which must react +injuriously upon the whole nation. In March, 1843, he wrote to Dr. H. J. +Bowditch, of Boston: "The full and entire triumph of the antislavery +cause is near and certain, provided that Texas is kept out of the Union. +On this point are centred all my fears. I am not disheartened by the +corruption of politicians, nor the deathlike apathy of the community, so +long as we remain independent of the renegade republic. Give us time and +we can arouse the community from its stupor, we can change public +opinion, and politicians will bellow aloud for abolition the moment they +find it popular. The danger is that before this change is effected the +slaveholders will demand the annexation of Texas as the price of the +presidency and that one or more of the candidates will consent to pay +it." + +When Birney was nominated in 1843, Jay wrote to Gerrit Smith: "I +congratulate you upon this result. Birney is a man for whom Christians +and patriots can consistently vote. He shall have my cordial support. In +my opinion, the selection is creditable to the Liberty party, and if it +continues to give us candidates of this character, it will be a blessing +to our country.... To that party I shall be true so far, and so far +only, as it shall be true to itself. May God direct its measures for the +protection of our own rights and for the ultimate liberation of the +slave." + +Judge Jay was as anxious that the Liberty party should keep faithfully +to its antislavery purpose as he had been in the case of the antislavery +societies. He believed that the party must end in failure if it allowed +extraneous and dividing policies to be admitted to its platform. On this +subject he wrote in September, 1845, to Henry B. Stanton, who had +invited him to a convention in Boston: + + "Notwithstanding the annexation of Texas, great good may result from + the Liberty party, provided it be faithful to itself, and be wisely + conducted. Hence I am distressed by whatever threatens to impair its + integrity and usefulness. You are not ignorant, I presume, of the + strenuous efforts now making to change its character and to convert + it from an antislavery party into one for matters and things in + general. + + "It is proposed by men of talents, energy, and influence that the + party shall in future maintain: + + "That the Federal Government has the Constitutional power to abolish + slavery in the _States_. + + "That the clergy shall be subject to all the burdens and enjoy all + the privileges of other citizens. This is aimed at the clergy of New + York who are not eligible to office, but exempted, to a great + extent, from taxation. No man is hereafter to be acknowledged to + belong to the Liberty party unless he objects to the State showing + any indulgence to the ministers of religion. They must be enrolled + in the militia, and, like others, called out to work on the highway. + + "That custom-houses be abolished, and with them all protective + duties. + + "That the salaries of the President and Congressmen be reduced. + + "That the legal profession is a privileged caste and should be + abolished. + + "That the public lands be given away. + + "That all monopolies, by which I understand incorporated companies, + banks, railroads, etc., be abolished. + + "That women should exercise the right of suffrage and be eligible to + office, etc., etc., etc. + + "It is needless to say that if these tests of membership of the + Liberty party be adopted, we shall drive from us all whose judgment + or whose consciences revolt at them, while those who remain in the + party will regard the removal of slavery as a very subordinate + object of their labours. My purpose of troubling you with this + letter is to suggest to you the expediency of the convention + adopting a resolution in which, without alluding to the efforts + making to change the character of the party, it shall declare that + the sole objects of the party are the abolition of slavery, the + deliverance of the Federal Government from its influence, and the + elevation of the coloured race to equal rights with the whites; and + inviting all who approve of those objects to co-operate with us, + whatever may be their opinion on questions of State or national + policy." + +At the Liberty party convention held at Newburg in October, 1845, Judge +Jay was unanimously nominated as a candidate for Senator. In his letter +accepting the nomination, he took occasion again to urge the exclusion +of irrelevant subjects from the platform of the party. + + "Recent circumstances induce me to accompany my acceptance of this + nomination with some remarks. Attempts are making to render the + Liberty party subservient to other objects than the overthrow of + slavery and the elevation of the coloured people. To these attempts + I can lend no aid. While I most explicitly accord to every + abolitionist the right of expressing his own opinions on every + political and religious subject, I as explicitly deny the right, and + shall strenuously resist the attempt, to make me and other members + responsible for opinions not necessarily involved in the great + objects for the attainment of which the party was formed. In the + pursuit of those objects I will cordially and honestly co-operate + with others from whose sentiments I dissent; but I cannot co-operate + with them in promoting religious and political changes which I + believe to be wrong, in order to increase the influence and hasten + the triumph of the Liberty party. To do so would be to act upon the + principle, as wicked and detestable as slavery itself, that the end + justifies the means. The fact that many good men who unite in + abhorrence of slavery entertain conflicting views of the expediency + and morality of various proposed reforms seems to me a sufficient + reason why the Liberty party should not permit itself to be + distracted by the other questions which agitate the community, and + which in truth are of but little moment compared with the great evil + with which we are struggling." + +In 1846 Jay wrote again on this subject: "I shall leave the Liberty +party whenever it makes abolition a pack-horse to carry favourite +measures unconnected with slavery, whether those measures are of whig or +democratic origin." + +Early in the year 1843 the antislavery opinions and labours of Judge Jay +caused the loss of his seat on the bench of Westchester County, which he +had occupied for more than twenty-five years with such general approval +as to cause his steady reappointment term after term by governors of the +State who were his political opponents. The circumstances of his removal +are described in a letter which he wrote to Mr. Minot Mitchell, in May, +1843: + + "I thank you for your friendly letter in relation to my removal from + the bench. The loss of an office which I had held for about a + quarter of a century (and which I had contemplated resigning in the + course of the present year) is not a matter of personal regret. My + motive in holding for so long a time a situation which subjected me + to no little inconvenience and yielded no emolument was a desire to + be useful, and a belief that I could exert on the bench a wholesome + moral influence. How far that belief was well founded is for others + to decide. To myself, it is grateful to know that my official + conduct, whatever mistakes I may have made, has been pure, unbiased + by personal partialities, and uninfluenced by any fear except that + of my Maker. + + "To the gentlemen of the Westchester bar generally, as well as to + yourself in particular, I am deeply indebted for the uniform + kindness and courtesy with which I have been treated; and had I + known at the December term that we were not to meet again, I would + have embraced the opportunity of publicly acknowledging my + obligations to them, and of bidding them an affectionate farewell. + + "Under the circumstances of the case, it would be an affectation of + humility to ascribe my loss of office to any dissatisfaction with my + official conduct on the part of the bar or the public. The _New York + Plebeian_, amid all its vituperative clamour for my dismissal, does + not even hint a charge against me as a judge, and the editor of the + _Westchester Herald_, notwithstanding his blind devotion to his + party, bears a flattering testimony to my ability as a 'jurist,' and + admits that my 'moral worth' is not questioned, as he believes, 'by + any man in the country.' + + "Nor have I been proscribed on account of my political opinions. + Those opinions belong to the old Washington school--I have never + concealed them; and they are the same now as they were when I + received office from Governors Tompkins, Clinton, Throop, and Marcy, + and when President Jackson tendered to me an important and lucrative + appointment. + + "For twenty years or more I have had no connection with party + politics, and have attended no party meeting. It appeared to me + unbecoming a judge to be a political partisan; and I, moreover, + observed so much profligacy, venality, and hypocritical profession + in both parties, that I could not conscientiously identify myself + with either. I have for years voted for those I believed to be the + most honest of the candidates offered for my suffrage, without + regard to the party dogmas they professed. + + "That the people of Westchester had lost their confidence in me and + wished me to descend from the bench is not pretended. On the + contrary, I have the most abundant and gratifying proofs of the + correctness of your remark, that my removal has occasioned in the + county, with all political parties, unusual dissatisfaction and + complaint. + + "If, then, my removal has been effected contrary to the wishes of + the county, and not because I lacked in ability or integrity, nor + even on account of my politics, it becomes a matter of public + interest to inquire with what motives and with what views the chief + magistrate of New York dispenses the patronage intrusted to him by + the constitution for the good of the State. + + "Governor Bouck has, in this instance, as in another far more + important, only acted as the instrument of a faction which, while + prating about _equal rights_, is ever ready and eager to barter the + welfare, honour, and freedom of the North for Southern votes. + + "You may recollect that previous to my last appointment I was + permitted to hold over for a year after my term of office had + expired. This extraordinary delay in filling a vacancy on the bench + was not the result of accident or inadvertency. It arose from doubts + entertained by the leaders at Albany whether the party would gain + more at the South than it would lose in Westchester by my removal. + Mr. Van Buren was then a candidate for the presidency, and I was + shown a confidential letter from one of his particular friends at + Albany to an influential democrat of this county, discussing the + expediency of my removal. The letter was put into my hands by the + gentleman to whom it was addressed. It was admitted by the writer + that my conduct as a judge was irreproachable, and that there were + no other objections to my reappointment than my antislavery + sentiments. My only fault in the eyes of this champion of equal + rights was that I was opposed to converting men and women into + beasts of burden. Still, he was apprehensive that my removal for + _such_ a cause might savour of persecution for _abstract opinions_; + in other words, might be unpopular; and he wished to know what the + party in Westchester deemed most expedient. After a year's + deliberation and hesitation, I was reappointed. Mr. Van Buren is + again a candidate, but _now_ he has a Southern democrat for a + competitor; and his party in the State being so strong that he can + well afford to risk a little dissatisfaction in Westchester, it is + deemed prudent to propitiate the demon of slavery by offering a + victim, however humble, on his altar. The _Plebeian_, devoted to Mr. + Van Buren's election, avowed with unblushing frankness that my + reappointment would be calculated to prejudice the Democratic party + 'in the eyes of our Southern brethren.' + + "Thus, it seems that in order to elevate Mr. Van Buren to the + presidency the magistrates of the free, sovereign, and independent + State of New York are to be selected with reference to the good + pleasure of Southern slaveholders. + + "Pardon, my dear sir, the egotism of this letter. I have been + compelled to speak of myself in order to expose the canting + profligacy of our demagogues, and to illustrate one of the + numberless accursed influences of slavery. This abhorred system, + which in the South makes merchandise of the souls and bodies of men, + is at the same time trafficking in the politics, the religion, and + the liberties of the North, and putrefying whatever it touches. + Against this system I have contended, as did my father before me, + and the leisure Governor Bouck has given me shall be faithfully + devoted to a continuance of the warfare." + +The "leisure" given to him by Governor Bouck had first to be used by Jay +in an attempt to restore his health, which for several years had been +failing. In the autumn of 1843 he determined upon a visit to Egypt, and +on the 1st of November he sailed from New York in the "Victoria," of +1100 tons, accompanied by his wife and his daughters Maria and Augusta. +After a short visit to London, the party sailed from Southampton for +Malta in the "Great Liverpool" of the Oriental Line, with passengers and +mail bound to India. At Malta Jay was interested in meeting the famous +wit, scholar, and diplomatist, John Hookham Frere, who entertained him +at his house outside the walls of the city. + +While in England, Jay had been requested by John Beaumont, on behalf of +the British and Foreign Antislavery Society, to take charge of a +quantity of antislavery tracts printed in the Arabic language, and to +insure their distribution. After his arrival in Cairo, Jay gave packages +of the tracts to several persons whose facilities for distributing them +in Egypt were greater than his own. Others he disposed of himself. +"During the short time I was in Egypt," he said in a letter, "I +distributed tracts in the slave market, in the bazaars, in a public +coffee-house, in the hotels, and to persons in the streets." And he was +much struck with the fact that what he could do peacefully in Egypt, in +a portion of his own country would have endangered his life. + +On his return home, Jay visited Paris, and while there communicated to +the Duc de Broglie the motives of the Southern statesmen in seeking the +annexation of Texas, and made no secret of his hope that France would +oppose the proceedings.[C] + +The events leading up to the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War +were followed by Jay with the closest attention. The injustice and +cruelty with which Mexico was treated throughout these proceedings by +the United States Government excited his warmest indignation. He was +deeply grieved at events which seemed to postpone indefinitely the +emancipation of the slaves; his fears were aroused for the security of +free institutions in the North by the great impetus given to the +Southern spirit of domination. But above all he felt the disgrace +incurred by his own country in forcing upon a weak and friendly power a +desolating war for the sole object of wresting from it a territory to be +peopled by slaves. The result of Jay's minute knowledge of this dark +page in American history was embodied in a volume entitled "A Review of +the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War," which was published in +1849. In this searching "Review" Jay exposed the parentage of the +movement for the acquisition of Texas in the desire of the South to +extend the territory devoted to slavery, with the twofold object of +creating a new market for slave-breeders and of giving to the slave +States an overwhelming control of Congress. He traced the devious paths +of intrigue by which a rebellion was fomented in Texas by Americans +settled there for that express purpose; the encouragement and aid given +secretly to the rebels by the United States; the recognition of their +independence; and finally the subterfuges adopted to achieve the +annexation in violation of international rights and the Constitution +itself. Jay set forth plainly the fact that hostilities were begun by +the United States troops; he described the military operations by which +a weak and defenceless people were reduced to consent to a dismemberment +of their country; he showed the enormous cost in life and money involved +in this war undertaken to furnish a new market for slaves and new power +to slaveholders. Jay's "Review of the Mexican War" is a contribution to +the history of the country which students cannot afford to pass unread. +The views expressed in it are painful to patriotism for the reason that +they are dictated by the pure patriotism which would make known the +whole truth as a warning to posterity. + +The book on the Mexican War was written originally for the American +Peace Society, which had offered a prize for the best work on the +subject. The committee appointed to pass judgment on the dissertations +presented in competition awarded the prize to Jay's book on condition +that he should expunge from it all "general censures on the Whig party." +Jay refused to comply with this condition and the prize went to another. +But the Peace Society recognized that the value of Jay's book lay in its +impartial character and caused it to be published as the exposition of +the society's views. + +As nearly all the newspapers of both parties had supported the war, they +were loth to notice a book which placed the object of their encomiums in +so unpleasant a light. But many private letters were received by Jay +which showed him that he had the approval of the best minds. Joshua R. +Giddings wrote: "Thanks be to Him who rules the destiny of nations that +we have among us competent and faithful men who possess the moral +courage to stand forth and chronicle, in the language of truth, the +barbarities of which the nation is guilty. The history of this age will +speak to those who come after facts which will cause our descendants to +blush. Your 'Review of the Mexican War' is faithful and just.... In +writing it you have performed a service to your country and to mankind +infinitely greater than was ever performed by any military officer." + +"Every portion of it," wrote Charles Francis Adams, "commands my +unqualified assent. That in the course of God's providence good may be +ultimately educed out of evil is the only compensating reflection which +we can draw from the observation of so much wrong. It may be that out of +the very measures so wickedly devised to sustain a system of crime may +come the means by which it will be overthrown. That your book will do +great service in combining and perpetuating the evidence bearing upon +this portion of American history, I do not for a moment doubt. It is my +profound conviction that there never was a more wicked and unjustifiable +war, promoted by one party and connived at by the other, than the late +war with Mexico." + +The prevention of war was a subject which had occupied the mind of Judge +Jay for a number of years. The result of his reflections was that system +of international arbitration which has become since his death so +efficacious a method of settling international disputes. A pamphlet +entitled "War and Peace: the Evils of the First and a Plan for +Preserving the Last" was still in manuscript in his desk when, in 1841, +Joseph Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist, visited Bedford. +Jay read the pamphlet to Sturge, who was so much struck by the work that +he embodied a portion of it in a book which he published on his return +to England. The views of Jay attracted the attention of the English +Peace Society, who published the whole pamphlet in London in 1842. Jay's +plan for the prevention of war was exceedingly simple. It provided that +a stipulation should be made in every treaty that future international +differences should be referred first to arbitration, to attempt a +peaceful settlement. The idea was heartily approved by Cobden, who wrote +to Judge Jay: "If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration +clause in the pending treaties I am persuaded that it will be accepted +by our government." The scheme of arbitration thus proposed by Jay, and +supported by Joseph Sturge and his friends of the English Peace Society, +was approved by peace congresses held in Brussels in 1848, in Paris in +1849, and in London in 1851. Having thus attracted general attention, it +was recommended by protocol No. 23 of the Congress of Paris held in 1856 +after the Crimean War, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the +plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, +Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the +States between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, +before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might +allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honour of the +introduction of this measure in the first Congress belongs to Lord +Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry +Richard. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of +immortal honour. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act "important to +civilization and to the security of the peace of Europe." The protocol +was afterwards approved by all the other powers to which it was +referred, more than forty in number. The plan thus suggested by Judge +Jay for the prevention of war bore fruit during his life, and was +destined in after-years to become established in the mind of the +civilized world as the true remedy for the greatest scourge of +nations.[D] + +Judge Jay was an earnest and active member of the Episcopal Church, but +he was never blind to its imperfections. He deplored as much as any man +the countenance given by the church to slavery, but he believed that +reformation must and would come from within. He had no sympathy with the +"come-outers." Concerning them he wrote in 1846: "Infidelity is now +vigorously availing itself of the conduct of the clergy in relation to +this subject to assail the blessed religion of which they are the +ministers. A sect is forming who profess to believe that the church is +so corrupted by slavery that good men are required to separate from her. +These people call themselves 'come-outers.' Lecturers are enlisted in +their service, and the clergy, as identified with the cause of human +bondage, are daily held up to public detestation as heartless +hypocrites." Jay would not deny the justice with which the attacks on +the clergy were made, and he laboured to place the church where it +belonged, in the front rank of the great humanitarian movement. To his +efforts were largely due the admission of coloured clergy to the +conventions of the church, and the gradual abolition of that spirit of +caste which prevented a white clergyman from recognizing a black one as +fit to deliberate with him on matters relating to their common +religion. To destroy this race hatred, so contrary to the spirit of +Christianity, and to arouse the church to its duty of active opposition +to slavery, were Jay's constant endeavours in the conventions of the +church. His pen also was frequently occupied with the same subject. His +"Letter to Bishop Ives" of North Carolina was a severe yet just +arraignment of clergymen who justified slavery from the Scriptures, and +it exposed the wickedness of their course in language and with arguments +to which they and their sympathizers were unable to reply. + +When a "History of the American Church," by Samuel Wilberforce, was +published in England, there was naturally in America much curiosity to +see the work. Two American publishers announced their intention of +reprinting it. But time passed and no reprint appeared. The explanation +is given in the words of Jay: "The author of the 'History' in the course +of his work advances certain doctrines on the subject of 'slavery' and +of 'caste in the church' which it is thought inconvenient to discuss, +and which cannot be admitted in this republic without sealing the +condemnation of almost every Christian sect among us and overwhelming +our own church with shame and confusion. There are, it is to be feared, +but few among our twelve hundred clergymen who, on reading the +'History,' would not find their consciences whispering, 'Thou art the +man,' and who would not be anxious to conceal the volume from their +parishioners. Hence its suppression." Jay was determined that the +truths regarding the Episcopal Church in America set forth by the +celebrated Dr. Wilberforce should not be quite unattainable by the +clergy and laity especially concerned. In 1846 he caused those passages +of the "History" relating to slavery to be printed, and introduced them +with forcible remarks of his own in the pamphlet entitled "A Reproof of +the American Church by the Bishop of Oxford." + +[Illustration: William Jay] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +UNPOPULARITY OF THE ABOLITIONISTS.--THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 AND THE + FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAW.--JAY'S REPLY TO WEBSTER'S 7th OF MARCH + SPEECH.--THE ATTITUDE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.--THE ABROGATION OF + THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.--DISUNION. + + +The prospect was dark for the antislavery cause in 1850. Its friends had +increased steadily in numbers and in earnestness. But the Slave Power +had mustered all its forces in an aggressive campaign which aimed to +make slavery a national instead of a local institution, to introduce it +into territory hitherto free, and to browbeat the North into submission +to every demand of the slaveholder. The compromise measures adopted this +year in Congress--above all, the Fugitive-Slave Law--marked the +successful advance of arrogant Southern dictation. In the North, the +dislike of antislavery men and the willingness to satisfy the South at +the expense of conscience was expressed in such scenes as the attack of +the Rynders mob on the meeting of the American Antislavery Society in +New York and the passive attitude towards it adopted by the authorities. +Although the plan of putting down the abolitionists by force had proved +impracticable, no efforts were spared to make their lives uncomfortable +by the attacks of the press and by the pressure of social disapproval. +"Our politicians," wrote Jay to Charles Sumner, "may pride themselves on +their adroitness in pandering to popular prejudices, and in acquiring +power and influence by seasonable changes of opinion and conduct. But a +day is coming when their motives and actions will be judged by a very +different tribunal than public opinion, and when a single act of +benevolence, a single sacrifice of personal consideration to the cause +of truth, will outweigh a whole life of obsequiousness and political +trickery. + +"The truths we advocate are unpalatable to the two extremes of society. +We shock the coarse, vulgar prejudices of the rabble, while the +disinterested benevolence we profess is to them an enigma to be solved +only by the imputation of fanaticism. At the same time we disturb the +tranquil consciences of the rich, thwart the calculations of politicans, +and interrupt the harmony subsisting between our merchants and their +Southern customers. Hence the upper classes look upon us as impertinent +and exceedingly ungenteel, and unfit to move in the higher circles. I +cannot tell how far your personal experience coincides with mine, but +_I_ know whereof I affirm. I have advanced no ultra-fanatical doctrines +in politics or religion. On the subject of slavery I have but reiterated +the opinions of many of the best and greatest men in England and in our +own country. I have advocated no congressional action except such as +Mr. Webster, in his better days, pronounced constitutional, and I have +condemned all forcible resistance to the Fugitive-Slave Law. Yet solely +on account of my antislavery efforts, I find myself nearly insulated in +society." + +The Compromise measures of 1850 were repulsive and disheartening to the +antislavery men in the North. And no circumstance connected with them +was more discouraging than the change of front made by Daniel +Webster--his abandonment of the Wilmot Proviso and his concession to the +Southern demand for the extension of slavery into the new territory +acquired by the Mexican War. Webster's speech of the 7th of March was +answered by Judge Jay in a letter to the _Evening Post_ of March 20th, +and was afterwards published as a pamphlet and widely circulated. In +this letter Jay recalled the eloquent and positive declaration of +Webster made in the Senate on August 10, 1848, after New Mexico and +California had been acquired: + + "My opposition to the increase of slavery in this country, or to the + increase of slave representation, is general and universal. It has + no reference to the lines of latitude or points of the compass. I + shall oppose all such extension at all times and under all + circumstances, even against all inducements, against all supposed + limitation of great interests, against all combinations, against all + compromises." + +These words were contrasted by Jay with Webster's present excuse for +abandoning opposition to the extension of slavery on the ground that the +laws of "physical geography" made slavery impossible in the new +territory and to forbid its existence there was merely "to re-enact the +will of God." + + "To what," asked Jay, "did this solemn, emphatic, unqualified + asservation refer? Did he then know that there was a foot of + territory in the United States over which it was morally and + physically impossible to extend slavery? Was he promising in these + impressive terms to oppose what he was conscious would never be + attempted? Did he make this pledge before his country with a mental + reservation to unite hereafter with General Cass and the + slaveholders in denouncing and scorning the Proviso? Did he mean to + deceive his own party? Did he desire to keep up an angry agitation + throughout the nation for electioneering purposes, and did he thus + intimate his belief in the danger of the extension of slavery and + slave representation, when he well knew that the fiat of the + Almighty had rendered such extension impossible? Was he then + acquainted with the law of physical geography which would render the + Proviso 'a re-enactment of the will of God?' And did he purposely + conceal the secret of this law in his own breast, when by revealing + it he might have stilled the raging billows of popular passion which + threatened to ingulf the Union? To suppose all this would be to + impute to Mr. Webster a degree of trickery and turpitude rarely + paralleled even among politicians. Hence we are bound to assume that + the law of nature on which he _now_ relies is a recent discovery, + subsequent at least to the 10th August, 1848. It is, however, + extraordinary that a gentleman of his acquirements did not sooner + become acquainted with '_this law of physical geography--the law of + the formation of the earth, that settles forever, beyond all terms + of human enactment, that slavery cannot exist in California or New + Mexico_.' It is to be regretted that Mr. Webster did not condescend + to demonstrate the existence of this law and to explain the mode of + its operation. He indeed tells us that our new territories are + 'Asiatic in their formation and scenery'; but this fact does not + prove his law, since slavery has existed for ages amid the scenery + of Asia; it exists in the deserts of Africa, has existed in every + country of Europe, and now exists in the frozen regions of Russia. + This law, moreover, must have been enacted by the Creator since + 1824, or its operation must have been suspended in deference to the + Spanish government; for under that government negro slavery did + exist in California and New Mexico, and it ceased in 1824, not by + the 'law of physical geography,' but by a Mexican edict. Thousands + of slaves are employed in the mines of Brazil, and Mr. Webster does + not explain how his law forbids their employment in the mines of + California.... + + "He pays a sorry compliment to the common sense of the people in + offering to them at the eleventh hour a new and unheard-of law of + 'physical geography,' together with the 'Asiatic scenery and + formation' of the conquered territories, as an _excuse_ for + violating the faith he had plighted in behalf of the Proviso. He has + shocked the moral sense of a large portion of the community by + giving in advance his sanction to the Fugitive-Slave Law, which + makes the liberty or bondage of a citizen depend on the affidavit of + a slaveholder and the judgment of a post-master--a law which + converts sympathy for guiltless misery into crime, and threatens to + tenant our jails with our most estimable men and women. But Mr. + Webster underrates the intelligence and sensibilities of the masses. + Relying on the Southern affinities of our commercial cities, on the + subserviency of politicians, on the discipline of party, and on his + own great influence, Mr. Webster looks _down_ upon the people; but + the time is probably not far distant when the people will cease to + look up to him. Parties will accept of any leaders who can acquire + for them the spoils of the day, but in the political history of our + country the people have never placed their affections upon any man + in whose stability and consistency they did not confide." + +To give such assistance as he could to a fugitive slave had always been +regarded by Judge Jay as a duty. "The slaveholders," he had written, +"with their accustomed impudence and mendacity, apply the term _theft_ +to the humane and Christian efforts to assist a slave in escaping from +his home of bondage. In their sense of the expression, I glory in being +a slave-stealer, and I inculcate upon my children the duty, the +Christian duty, of this kind of theft." He had sheltered and aided many +runaways at his home at Bedford, and his will contained a bequest of a +thousand dollars to be used for this purpose. His son John gave his +services as a lawyer constantly and successfully to prevent the return +of fugitive slaves. + +When the Fugitive-Slave Bill became a law Judge Jay was applied to by +many individuals, societies, and periodicals to give his views +concerning it. "The law," he said in a private letter, "is an outrage +upon the Constitution of our country and the precepts of our religion. +It is a burlesque on justice and on all the acknowledged rules of +evidence in the trial of issues. The demand it makes upon individual +citizens to aid in hunting and enslaving their fellow-men is diabolical. +I have made up my mind to suffer imprisonment and the spoiling of my +goods rather than hazard my soul by rendering any active obedience to +this sinful law. It is horrible that so many of our fashionable cotton +divines are now preaching up the supremacy of human law and virtually +dethroning Him whose ambassadors they profess to be." + +"In my opinion, every Northern slave-catcher is a base man, and every +lawyer who takes reward against the innocent is a disgrace to a noble +profession. I myself shall offer no forcible resistance against the +execution of this most wicked law, but I trust that, through the grace +of God, I would go to the scaffold sooner than obey it." + +Concerning the constitutionality of the law, Judge Jay wrote to Josiah +Quincy: "The fugitive-slave clause in the Constitution is of course +obligatory, but there is a wide distinction between the fugitive-slave +_clause_ and the fugitive-slave _law_. The Constitution gives no power +to Congress to legislate on the subject, but imposes on the States the +obligation of rendition. Chief-Justice Hornblower, of New York, and +Chancellor Walworth, of New York, long since pronounced the fugitive law +of '93 unconstitutional on this very ground." + +The demoralization caused by the execution of the law was described by +Jay in a letter to Gerrit Smith: "It is scoundrelizing our people. +Cruelty and injustice are cultivated as virtues, Christian love and +sympathy with human suffering are treated as prejudices to be conquered, +and zeal in hunting slaves is made the test of patriotism and of fitness +for office. But the most diabolical effect of the law is the competition +it has excited among our politicians to offer the blood of their +fellow-citizens in exchange for Southern votes." + +To a committee of free coloured men who asked Judge Jay's advice +regarding the propriety of arming themselves to prevent being kidnapped +under the law, he said: "Most deeply do I sympathize with you in your +unhappy state. With your wives and children, you are now placed at the +disposal of any villain who is ready to perjure himself for the price +you will bring in the human shambles of the South. With less ceremony +and trouble than a man can impound his neighbour's ox, you may be +metamorphosed from a citizen of the State of New York into a beast of +burden on a Southern plantation. On leaving your house in the morning +you may be enticed into another, where one of the newly appointed +commissioners, after reading one affidavit, made a thousand miles off, +and another that you are the person named in the first, or on the bare +oath of the kidnapper himself, may inform you, to your amazement and +horror, that you are a _slave_. The fetters previously prepared are +placed on your limbs, and in a few minutes you are travelling with +railroad velocity to a Southern market. Never again will you behold your +wife and children, nor will any tidings from them ever reach your ear. +The remainder of your life is to be one of toil and stripes.... Yet," he +continued, "leave, I beseech you, the pistol and the bowie-knife to +Southern ruffians and their Northern mercenaries. That this law will +lead to bloodshed I take for granted, but let it be the blood of the +innocent, not of the guilty. If anything can arouse the torpid +conscience of the North, it will be our streets stained with human blood +shed by the slave-catchers." + +The Fugitive-Slave Law, in Jay's opinion, was the natural sequence to +the attempt to put down the antislavery movement by force: "For years, +most strenuous efforts, prompted by commercial and political views, were +made to deprive the opponents of slavery of their constitutional +privileges by lawless violence. The right of petition was suspended, the +freedom of debate interrupted, the sanctity of the post-office violated, +public meetings dispersed, printing-presses destroyed, furious mobs +excited, churches sacked, private houses gutted, and even murder +perpetrated. All this violation of rights was regarded with complacency +by many who had much at stake, so long as abolitionists alone were the +victims. But the spirit of aggression thus raised and fostered is +seeking new subjects on which to exercise its power. 'Gentlemen of +property and standing' are now beginning to feel alarmed about +socialism, anti-rentism, agrarianism, etc. Hence, of late we hear much +of the importance of conservatism, as it is called. The political +movements of the last few months seem to indicate that our landlords and +cotton lords and merchant princes regard an alliance with the +aristocracy of the South as at least in some degree a security against +the violation of vested rights, sequestration of rents, oppressive +taxation, unequal laws, etc. To the influence of gentlemen of this class +the late slave law owes its passage. + +"And is it indeed believed that the rights of the rich will be protected +by familiarizing the populace with the practice of injustice and cruelty +towards the poor? Will the sight of innocent men seized in our streets +and sent in fetters to till the broad fields of great landowners +increase the reverence felt for land titles? Is it wise to give the +people practical lessons in the demolition of all the barriers raised by +the common law for the protection of the weak against the strong? Is it +true conservatism to obliterate in the masses the sense of justice, the +feelings of humanity, the distinction between right and wrong?" + +The tacit support given to slavery by the Episcopal Church at large and +the active support given to it by many individual clergymen was a source +of constant grief to Judge Jay and a frequent subject of his thoughts. +"You well know," he wrote to Joseph Sturge, "what a mighty effort has +been made by our Northern traders in Southern votes and merchandise, +under the leadership of Daniel Webster, to roll back the antislavery +tide. To a certain extent they have succeeded. The commercial interest +in the great towns, through a rivalry for the Southern trade, has +professed great alacrity in slave-catching, and political aspirants for +office under the Federal Government find it expedient to make +slave-hunting the test of patriotism. But the religious feeling of the +commonalty--that is, of those who are not pre-eminently gentlemen of +property and standing--is shocked by the enormous cruelty and injustice +of the fugitive law. To overcome this feeling, which in its +demonstrations is exceedingly inconvenient to our merchants and +office-seekers, the clergy have been urged by the press and other +agencies to come out in support of the law--in other words, to give the +sanction of the gospel of Christ to the enslavement of innocent men. +Some pastors who preach in fine churches to rich and fashionable city +congregations have complied. You must understand that many of our +brokers, merchants, lawyers, and editors were exceedingly scandalized by +the opposition of religious people to this vile law, and they have +trembled for the honour of our holy religion when some of its professors +contended that an impious law was not binding on the conscience." + +The position of the church was strongly stated by Jay in a letter to +Rev. Hiram Jelliff: "It is one of the most melancholy circumstances of +the condition of the coloured people that so many of the ministers of +the Lord Jesus Christ are among their most influential enemies. The +church of the living God is the great buttress of slavery and caste in +the United States. If any plea can be urged in behalf of infidelity, it +is that Christianity as represented by multitudes of its official +teachers authorizes the abrogation of all its precepts of humility, +justice, and benevolence in the treatment of persons to whom God has +given a coloured skin. Look at the conventions of New York and +Pennsylvania excluding ministers and disciples of the crucified Redeemer +merely because they are poor and despised! I confess, my dear sir, that +were I a young man, with no early religious impressions and about to +decide on the truth or falsehood of revelation, I fear I should be +strongly tempted to believe that a religion such as it is practically +exhibited by your cotton-parsons could not and did not proceed from a +just and benevolent being. I have had great opportunities of knowing the +effect produced by the countenance given to slavery and caste by the +church on the faith of many kind-hearted and conscientious people, and +in all sincerity I declare that our pro-slavery clergy, our negro-hating +clergy, our slave-catching clergy, are the most successful apostles of +infidelity in the country. I write thus freely to you because your +course is in direct opposition to those I condemn. The Saviour eat, +drank, and lodged with the Samaritans, who were the negroes of Judea, a +despised, degraded caste, from whom a Jew disdained to receive even a +cup of water.... May God bless and reward your labours." + +Occupying, as Judge Jay did, a position of leadership in both the +Episcopal Church and the antislavery movement, it was to him that men +most frequently turned for advice on subjects relating to the connection +between the church and slavery. From mature minds, such as that of +Senator Salmon P. Chase, from divinity students and young men +contemplating connection with a religious body, came inquiries +regarding the duty of joining the church or of remaining a member. To a +young man Jay wrote in 1854: "I shall say nothing of the claims of the +Episcopal Church as arising from her doctrines, forms, and government, +except that I know of no church which, judged _by its authorized +standards_, is more scriptural and more conducive to holiness in this +life and to salvation in the next. You desire to enter this church but +have not been able to overcome the objection arising from its connection +with slavery, and would like to know, for your information, how I +reconcile my continuance in this church with my antislavery opinions. +Assuredly I could not belong to a church which exacted of its members an +admission of the lawfulness of human bondage. Of such a sin and folly +the Episcopal Church is guiltless. No sanction of slavery can be found +in any of her standards, and hence I can very consistently hold the +doctrines of the church and join in its prayers and rites and at the +same time regard American slavery as the sum of all villainies. There +are in the church slaveholding bishops, clergymen, and communicants, +_plenty of them_. But I am not responsible for their presence.... There +never has been, and I suppose there never will be, a widely extended +church without unworthy pastors and members. A _pure_ church composed of +fallible and sinful men is a figment of the imagination.... Many popish +doctrines and practices are occasionally advocated by our Puseyites. But +I, as a private member of the church, am in no degree responsible for +the heresies of Puseyism nor the more disgusting heresies of +cotton-divinity.... In my opinion, in nine cases out of ten an +antislavery Christian can do more good to his own soul, to the cause of +Christ, and to the interests of the slave by remaining in his church and +there battling for truth and justice, than by going in search of a pure +church. It often happens when an abolitionist abandons an alleged +pro-slavery church he finds no other that suits him. Hence the public +worship of God and the Sacraments are neglected. Gradually he and his +family learn to live without God in the world, and finally enter upon +that broad road which leads to destruction." + +The position assumed by the Episcopal Church towards the rights and +elevation of the blacks was indicated by the refusal of the Diocesan +Council of New York to admit the coloured church of St. Philip, although +the parish was constitutionally entitled to be represented and her +minister and delegates were entitled to seats and votes. Judge Jay +opposed earnestly a majority report from a committee on the question of +their admission, which contended that the applicants belonged to a race +"socially degraded, and improper associates for the class of persons who +attend our conventions." Such an apology for the violation of the +constitutional rights ordained by the State, and such a presentation of +the theological views entertained by the committee on the unity of the +church and the catholic brotherhood of its members, was not calculated +to strengthen the opposition to St. Philip's; and the Christian world +breathed more freely when, after a nine years' struggle to obtain a vote +on the question maintained by Judge Jay and his son, the coloured parish +was admitted by a large majority of both orders. + +In 1854 Southern aggression had nearly reached its culminating point. +The Missouri Compromise was abrogated; the Kansas-Nebraska Bill threw +open to slavery an immense territory hitherto free, under the subterfuge +invented by General Cass and Senator Douglas of "popular sovereignty." +Slavery was thus to extend over the vast regions in the centre of the +continent. An indefinite number of new slave States were to be admitted +into the Union, which would give the control of the Senate, and +consequently of all legislation, forever to the Slave Power. + +In February, 1854, Judge Jay received an invitation to address the +Anti-Nebraska Convention of the Free Democracy of Massachusetts. His age +and health prevented a journey to Boston, but he wrote to the committee +of invitation as follows: + + "It is meet and right that the stupendous iniquity now about to be + perpetrated should be resisted by the true-hearted citizens of that + State which, more than any other in the confederacy, has debauched + the moral sentiment of the nation and prepared the community for + submission to the most insolent usurpation yet attempted by the + Slave Power. The present effort to extend the dominion of the whip + to the northern limits of the United States is the legitimate + consequence of the disastrous and disgraceful concessions of 1850. + Those concessions were effected more through the ability and + labours of the late distinguished senator from Massachusetts + than of any of his coadjutors. Mr. Webster, avowing the entire + constitutionality of the Wilmot Proviso and having voted for it in + relation to Oregon, objected to its application to the newly + conquered territories on the ground that their _Asiatic scenery_ and + _geographical conformation_ rendered it _physically impossible_ for + negro slavery ever to exist in them. Unhappily for his novel and + extraordinary theory, numerous slaves were at the time he spoke held + in California.... Slaves are at this day held in New Mexico. + + "Mr. Webster, in giving his earnest and cordial support to the + atrocious Fugitive-Slave Act, candidly acknowledged on the floor of + the Senate that in 'his judgment' Congress had no constitutional + power to legislate on the subject, the obligation of surrendering + fugitives resting on the States. Yet he scrupled not in his + subsequent addresses to speak in terms of unmeasured obloquy of + every lawyer who presumed to deny the constitutionality of that + horrible law. He admitted the right of Congress to grant the + fugitive a trial by jury, yet was unwearied in his advocacy of a law + denying to the most helpless of mortals that important safeguard of + personal liberty.... + + "The course of this gentleman at a moment when the dearest + principles of liberty, justice, and humanity were vehemently + assailed was rapturously applauded by the monied, the literary, and + the ecclesiastical aristocracy of Massachusetts, and the New England + Church has to a great extent canonized his memory. + + "The ardour evinced by the city of Boston in the surrender of Simms, + and the intense servility and degradation accompanying that + surrender, together with the emphatic endorsement of Mr. Webster's + conduct, have exerted an influence in behalf of human bondage and + in derogation of Christian obligation far beyond the bounds of + Massachusetts. The moral bulwark raised at the North against slavery + in times past by the religious sentiment and the respect for the + rights of man is nearly demolished. + + "The Slave Power, taking advantage of the present paralysis of the + Northern conscience and the frantic cupidity of our demagogues and + merchants for Southern votes and Southern trade, is about placing + its yoke on willing and bending necks. + + "Think not that Nebraska is to be the terminus of slaveholding + encroachments. New slave States are from time to time to be carved + out of Mexico. Cuba is to be wrested from Spain and St. Domingo + re-enslaved and annexed. As the field for slave labour widens and + widens, the supply will be found inadequate to the demand. The + discovery will then be made that both religion and policy require + the repeal of the prohibition of the African slave-trade. We shall + be told of the Christian duty of bringing the pagans of Africa to + our own civilized shores and of preparing them for heaven by the + discipline of the whip and the teachings of slave-drivers, while + politicans and political economists will insist on the removal of + the restriction as essential to the development of our national + wealth and enterprise. In vain will Virginia and the other breeding + States strive to retain their present lucrative monopoly of the + human shambles. The cotton and sugar States, together with the newly + acquired slave States, aided by Northern politicians, will establish + free trade in the bodies and souls of men. + + "The Southern Church is almost without exception the unblushing + champion of slavery, while the Northern Church, adopting a + time-serving, heartless, and often hypocritical neutrality, and + holding in its fraternal embrace slave-breeders and slave-traders, + has virtually taught that the vilest outrages on both the civil and + religious rights of the black man are perfectly compatible with the + highest sanctity in his white oppressor. Some of our religious + journals are sadly grieved and scandalized by the alleged discovery + that certain opponents of slavery are infidels. For my own part, I + know of no form of infidelity so hideous as that which impiously + claims the authority of Almighty God for abrogating all His laws in + behalf of justice and mercy in reference to our conduct towards + millions of our countrymen not of the same colour as ourselves. This + cutaneous Christianity, so insulting to the Deity, so disastrous to + man, is fast becoming the national religion. + + "The present crisis is indeed an awful one. While various causes + have aided in producing it, its immediate origin is to be traced to + the lamentable defection, in 1850, of so many of the rich and + influential from truth and justice, liberty and humanity, under the + fallacious plea of saving the Union. Well may the Free Democracy of + Massachusetts, with their hands and consciences undefiled by + oblations on the altar of the American Moloch, now strive to avert + the calamity impending over the country. May a long-suffering God + bless their efforts and rescue a guilty nation from the punishment + it seems anxious to inflict upon itself." + +"As to the wickedness of the whole Kansas business," Jay wrote to +Charles Sumner, in March, 1856, "I most fully agree with you, and I do +not wonder that amid such abounding iniquity you are at a loss what +atrocity to assail first. I am very much inclined to look upon every +Northern member of Congress who voted for the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise as a rascal. This may seem harsh--it is certainly not +polite--and yet I am utterly unable to assign a good, honest, religious +motive for the vote, or to reconcile it with the fear of God or with +love to man.... Let us fight on, with all our heart and mind and soul. +God is with us, approves our efforts, and whether He shall crown them +with success or not, He will not forget our work of faith and labour of +love. I have full faith in an ultimate triumph, although you and I may +not live to enjoy it. My belief is, that as soon as the North ceases to +tremble before the slave-drivers, the non-slaveholders of the South will +proclaim their independence and insist upon free speech and a free +press, and as soon as these are obtained the doom of slavery is sealed." + +The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the beginning of the end, the +fatal step of the South on its road to destruction. Throughout the North +the conviction grew that Union and slavery could not exist much longer +together. On the 4th of July, 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of +the Constitution of the United States with the words, "The Union must be +dissolved!" He represented only an extreme sentiment. But the people at +large began to calculate the value of this Union for which so many +sacrifices had been made. Slavery became odious to many persons hitherto +indifferent to the subject, on the ground that it persistently and +selfishly placed the Union in peril. + +In the summer of 1857 Judge Jay received a circular calling for a +National Disunion Convention, to be held at Worcester, signed by T. W. +Higginson, Wendell Phillips, Daniel Mann, and W. L. Garrison. To this +circular he replied at length, giving his views on the question of +separation as it then appeared to him. + + "The subject you propose for consideration," he said, "has long been + to me one of deep and painful interest. Although fully conscious of + the many social, commercial, and political advantages derived from + the Federal Union, I am nevertheless convinced that it is at present + a most grievous moral curse to the American people. To the people of + the South it is a curse by fostering and strengthening and + perpetuating an iniquitous, corrupting institution. To the millions + of African descent among us it is a curse by riveting the chains of + the bondman and deepening the degradation of the free man. To the + people of the free States it is a curse by tempting them to trample + under foot the obligations of truth, justice, and humanity for the + wages of iniquity with which the Federal Government has so + abundantly rewarded apostates from liberty and righteousness. + + "In my opinion, while the Union continues to be thus a curse it will + be indissoluble; if it ever ceases to be a curse, it will be + converted into a blessing. + + * * * * * + + "What possible reason have you to expect that those in church and + state who have surrendered their consciences to the seductions of + the Union will listen to your call and aid you in breaking a power + which they glory in saving? While I believe you are doomed to + disappointment, I nevertheless rejoice in every exposure of the + demoralizing influence of the Union. I rejoice in such exposure, not + as tending to bring about dissolution, but to render it unnecessary. + When the people of the North cease to idolize the Union, they will + cease to offer on its altar their rights and their duties. When + released from their thraldom to the Slave Power, they will cease to + place its minions in office. When no longer covetous of the votes + and the trade of the South, they will no longer be bullied into all + manner of wretchedness and all manner of insult by the idea and + ever-repeated threats of dissolution. But when this happy time + arrives, the Union will be converted from a curse into a blessing. + Our divines, instead of vindicating cruelty and oppression, and + denouncing as fanatics those who consider the will of God a higher + law than an accursed act of Congress, will become preachers of + righteousness. Democrats, seeing the Federal patronage wielded by + the opponents of slavery, will, in the rapidity and extent of their + conversion to truth and justice, eclipse all the marvels of New + England revivals; and men who for years have been bowed to the earth + by spinal weakness will as by miracle stand erect. When all this + happens, the North will continue its Union with the South; and you + yourselves will have no wish to see that Union severed. + + "At the close of the war, Washington, solicitous that the divine + favour might rest on the new-born nation, publicly offered the + prayer that God would dispose us all to do justice and love mercy. + May the Union, when exerting an influence in accordance with this + prayer, be indissoluble; but may God forbid that it may ever be + saved by promoting, extending, and perpetuating injustice and + cruelty, by invoking the wrath of Heaven, and becoming a proverb and + a reproach among the nations of the earth." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DEATH OF JUDGE JAY.--HIS POSITION AMONG ANTISLAVERY MEN.--HIS OTHER + PUBLIC AND PHILANTHROPIC INTERESTS.--HIS PRIVATE LIFE.--HIS + CHARACTER. + + +Judge Jay was not destined to live to see the triumph of the antislavery +cause and of the constitutional principles to which he had devoted his +life. Several years of failing health preceded his death, which took +place at Bedford, October the 14th, 1858. + +His career in the antislavery cause, dating from the Missouri Compromise +in 1821, was in several respects unique, and among the leaders of the +movement his position continued to be distinctive. + +His first active efforts in favour of the slave, the presentation to +Congress in 1826 of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the +District of Columbia, were marked by a careful regard to the provisions +of the United States Constitution. At the first formation of antislavery +societies he feared that philanthropic enthusiasm might place the +movement in a wrong position by a failure to recognize those provisions. +His advice was asked by the men who organized the American Society in +Philadelphia, and it was carried into effect by the insertion into the +constitution of the society of a complete recognition of the supreme +national law, in strict accordance with which, only, the objects of the +society should be sought. To maintain the abolitionists in the +impregnable position thus adopted was the constant and characteristic +labour of Jay's life. This position, consistently held by him against +unconstitutional doctrines advanced by both abolitionists and +slaveholders, was the position adopted by the Republican party in 1854, +and maintained until real union and real liberty were won together. + +The antislavery movement was begun and supported by those whom Lincoln +called "the plain people." Men of "property and standing" were generally +passively if not actively hostile. It received little help from the +churches, from the learned professions or the wealthy mercantile +classes. It was a very unpopular cause, denounced by politicians, +merchants, and lawyers, despised by many of the clergy, certain to bring +social and business injury, if not active persecution, to whomsoever +adopted it. Hence the championship of William Jay derived a special +importance. His judicial and social position, his independent means, his +active membership in the most aristocratic of churches, made him a +leader of peculiar value. His advocacy of the cause could be attributed +neither to ignorant fanaticism nor to disorganizing tendencies. He set +an example to the class most able and least willing to oppose the curse +of slavery. + +A third peculiarity of Jay's position among antislavery men was the +nature of the work which he performed. Without health sufficient to make +long journeys at a time when travelling was difficult, seldom leaving +his country home, he was rarely seen at the meetings and conventions of +the abolitionists. He was a voice, speaking words of reason, moderation +and authority in times of blind excitement; a voice which spoke at the +right moment and was always heard with respect. Jay's activity lay in +his pen. In a crisis when the judicious course of action or the accurate +view of events was obscured by doubt and passion, a pamphlet or a public +letter from Judge Jay cast a clear and steady light. His writings were +consulted by the most eminent men when considering subjects connected +with slavery. Of this a notable instance was the use made of Jay's +argument on the "Amistad" case by John Quincy Adams when addressing the +House of Representatives in that celebrated cause. These writings form a +continuous and lucid commentary on the history of the long and varied +struggle between the forces of slavery and of freedom. + +The published works of Judge Jay present but a part of the fruits and +the influence of his pen. His correspondence was voluminous and extended +to the rank and file as well as to the leaders of the antislavery +movement. Constant resort was made to him for information and advice, +which was always given with frankness and care.[E] + +We may close appropriately our review of Jay's antislavery work with +remarks made after his death to the coloured people of New York by +Frederick Douglass, who escaped from the slave-driver to urge with +native eloquence the emancipation of his race: "In common with you, my +friends, I wear the hated complexion which William Jay never hated. I +have worn the galling chain which William Jay earnestly endeavoured to +break. I have felt the heavy lash, and have experienced in my own person +the cruel wrongs which caused his manly heart to melt in pity for the +slave.... In view of the mighty struggle for freedom in which we are now +engaged, and the tremendous odds arrayed against us, every coloured man +and every friend of the coloured man in this country must deeply feel +the great loss we have sustained in this death, and look around with +anxious solicitude for the man who shall rise to fill the place now made +vacant. With emphasis it may be said of him, he was our wise counsellor, +our firm friend, and our liberal benefactor. Against the fierce onsets +of popular abuse he was our shield; against governmental intrigue and +oppression he was our learned, able, and faithful defender; against +the crafty counsels of wickedness in high places, where mischief is +framed by law and sin is sanctioned and supported by religion, he was a +perpetual and burning rebuke." + +Besides his work for the negro race, William Jay had various public and +philanthropic interests. Prominent among these were the duties of judge +of Westchester County, which he exercised for more than twenty-five +years. Jay revised the rules of the court, which had been handed down +almost unchanged since 1728; and he introduced a strict observance of +forms, which, combined with his prompt and explicit decisions, made the +Westchester court one of the most dignified in the country. The sittings +were held alternately at White Plains and at Bedford, the half-shire +towns of the county. Jay also attended to chamber business in other +towns. At that period the Westchester bar embraced many lawyers of +marked ability, such as R. R. Voorhis, Aaron Ward, William Nelson, Peter +Jay Munro, J. W. Strong, Minot Mitchell, and James Smith; and from New +York, Alexander McDonald, William M. Price, and Peter Augustus Jay +frequently appeared among them. It has been said of Judge Jay's charges +to grand juries that "they commanded attention, from their clear +exposition of the law without the slightest concession to the popular +currents of the day and with careful regard to constitutional rights, +morality, and justice." These charges were frequently requested for +publication as timely reminders of legal and moral truths, the relation +of which to current events was being overlooked. Judge Jay's conduct on +the bench caused his reappointment term after term by governors of +opposing political parties; and after his death, when a pro-slavery +faction endeavoured to remove his portrait from the court-house at White +Plains, members of the bar who disagreed with Jay's abolition opinions +were foremost in preventing any act of disrespect to his memory. + +Jay's philanthropy was religious in its motive and practical in its +activity. A life-long worker in the cause of temperance, his efforts +produced substantial results, as in the legislation proposed by him +which forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors on credit. + +For many years a member and president of the Peace Society, he was not +satisfied with exposing the evils of war. His mind sought and found a +remedy for it in the system of international arbitration, of which the +practicability was immediately acknowledged, and towards which the +civilized world has since turned with constantly growing confidence. + +The organization of the American Bible Society in the face of the +opposition of the authorities in his own church displayed in Jay's early +life the self-reliance and independence of character which gave so much +strength to his later career. Always true to his church, he never +compromised his convictions to fit a position in which that church was +untrue to itself. During the antislavery movement the churches were +hostile. Fearful of alienating their Southern members and the Northern +men whose business interests demanded subserviency to the Slave Power, +hardly any ecclesiastical organization was guiltless of lending a +passive support to slavery. Theological students, on leaving their +seminary, were cautioned by their instructors to avoid the troublesome +topic if they would be successful ministers of Christ. Clergymen who +preached that property in man was sinful were disciplined by +ecclesiastical superiors or cast off by outraged Christian +congregations. An orthodox religious newspaper was the safest printed +matter for a Northern man to have in his possession when travelling in +the South. The Episcopal Church had its slaveholding bishops and +ministers, not a few of whom justified slavery from the Scriptures. It +had in the North its "cotton divines," who enjoined from the pulpit +obedience to the odious law which sought to make slave-catchers of +Christian men and women. It went so far as persistently to infringe its +own laws by shutting the doors of its conventions upon legally chosen +delegates of congregations composed of free coloured men. The church of +Christ was turned into a social club which did not hesitate to exclude a +black man as an "unfit associate." Shocked at this attitude, many +conscientious men withdrew from the communion. But such a course was +inconsistent with Jay's character. False and repulsive as was to him +such a conception of the Christian religion, he refused, as a churchman, +to accept it. He remained in the ranks, striving by his own conduct to +show that a man could be a good churchman and hate slavery at the same +time. Fearless in his expression of Christian truth, he was for twenty +years a thorn in the side of pro-slavery churchmen, and a rallying-point +for those who understood better the spirit of Christianity and +recognized the brotherhood of man before God. + +Jay's private life was happy and peaceful. The library at Bedford, with +its book-shelves crowded to the ceiling and its windows looking out over +the hills of Westchester to the blue outlines of the Catskills, claimed +a considerable portion of every day. The hours there passed in +reflection and in literary labour were hours of pleasure, enhanced by +the desire and the hope of usefulness. + +Out-of-doors were the avocations of a country life, which Jay was well +constituted to enjoy: the farm, with its interesting record of crops and +growing livestock; the garden, where a great variety of flowers and +vegetables flourished within hedges of old box; the lawn, with its trees +planted by his father and himself--all these gave occupation in pleasing +contrast to that of the library. The public roads in the neighbourhood +of the Jay farm are now adorned and shaded by noble trees planted by the +Judge. Along these roads and over the Westchester hills he loved to ride +on horseback, an exercise and pleasure which he enjoyed until the last +year of his life. Judge Jay preferred to consider Bedford as a farm +rather than as a country seat, and he observed to Bishop Coxe in this +regard that a farm without a gate or a fence out of repair was more to +his taste than an ornamental estate. The weak eyesight and somewhat +delicate health which in his youth seemed a misfortune as debarring him +from a career of activity in the city turned in the end to his +advantage. A happier life than that at Bedford could hardly have been +devised for him; and it is probable that the studious retirement of his +country library gave to his views on public questions a thoroughness and +moderation greater than could have been attained amidst the hurry and +distraction of a great city. + +In his family relations, Jay was still more fortunate. His wife lived to +be his sympathetic companion until 1856, when he himself was near his +end. Her accomplishments, especially in reading and drawing, her grace, +gentleness, and goodness, her natural charity, added immeasurably to the +happiness of Jay's life. "I have always regarded her," said the late +Rev. J. W. Alexander, "as one of the happiest specimens of a Christian +lady that it has been my lot to meet. Intelligent, graceful, pious, +gentle, sportive in the right place, generous and catholic, she awakened +a sincere respect and attachment, and our memory of her is blessed." The +late Bishop Horatio Potter of New York, speaking of her later life, +said: "The serene composure, the sweet simplicity and dignity, bespoke a +peaceful and elevated spirit, and made an impression on the most +transient visitor never to be effaced." Dr. John Henry Hobart, son of +the Bishop, wrote to John Jay: "Your mother, always gentle, placid, and +cheerful, with an unfailing smile and pleasant words for her young +guests, sympathizing with their boyish enthusiasm for poetry and +romance, and tempering their ardour with counsel and caution, which her +own sensitive spirit conveyed in the most delicate forms--of her I must +speak thus feelingly; it only indicates the debt of gratitude I owe to +her memory." + +[Illustration: Augusta Jay] + +Judge Jay had one brother, Peter Augustus Jay, who was thirteen years +his senior. Between the brothers there continued through life an +uninterrupted affection and confidence. Peter Augustus led an active +professional and social life in New York City, holding office as judge, +as recorder, and as a member of the State Assembly. On his death, in +1843, high tributes to his ability as a jurist and to his character as a +public-spirited citizen were paid by Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice +Samuel Jones, and David B. Ogden. As a member of the Assembly, he was +conspicuous in the advocacy of various important measures, among which +may be mentioned his efforts to extend the right of suffrage to black +citizens of the State. Peter Augustus Jay was not himself prominent in +the antislavery cause, but he was generally in sympathy with his +brother's work. + +The Right Reverend A. Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of Western New York, was a +frequent visitor in his youth at Bedford. Some extracts from a letter +written by him to John Jay afford an interesting view of the domestic +life of the Judge's home: + +"William Jay was one of those true sons of the Republic who inherited +sound views of its constitutional system from your illustrious +grandfather, and from personal acquaintance with some other fathers of +the nation who were high in the confidence of Washington and shared his +just and lofty ideas of national policy. Your father was one of those +born statesmen who breathed under the inspiration of such ideas, and was +animated by them to efforts for the preservation of the Constitution +itself in degenerate days. Those were the days when the 'spoils-system' +had begun to act with corrosive effect on public affairs and public men. +The science of true statesmanship seemed ready to perish. The country +fell into the hands of mere politicians, with whom legislation was a +trade and a struggle for personal aggrandizement. The epoch had little +use for men of pure patriotism, but your father, incapable of ambition +or the pursuit of personal ends, stood aside and devoted himself with +intrepidity to unpopular principles, of which he foresaw the utility, +while he was hardly less prophetic of the cruel war which must be the +consequence of popular indifference and blindness to the national +perils. He was little seen, but greatly felt, and has left a mark on the +diplomacy of his time which is a gain to humanity and to civilization. + +"I cannot forget the charms of that domestic life which he made so +attractive to his children and to the large circle of kindred and +friends who were admitted to its enjoyments. It was in 1836 that, with +our beloved friend Hobart, I was invited to spend the Christmas +holidays at Bedford. We were boys together at that time, and I remember +to what hours we prolonged our recreations, with no other restriction +than your father's cheerful injunction, as he bade us good-night: 'Young +gentlemen, please remember not to laugh too loudly; it might deprive +some of us of the sleep which you seem not to require for yourselves.' +How merrily we 'saw the old year out and the new year in,' that +Christmas-tide! I often thought of Irving's 'Bracebridge Hall' as +realized in America, in the home of your happy boyhood. Year after year, +winter and summer, through college life, you led me to renew my holidays +in Bedford. How much I learned from your father's condescension to +boyhood in conversing with his boy-visitors as if they were men! He drew +out our opinions and encouraged us to state them frankly when he +suspected that we had the boldness to prefer our crude ideas to his own +judicial and grave conceptions of fact and principle. He played chess +with his youthful guests, but never permitted them to beat him, as that +would have been no compliment to lads who worked hard and wished to win +in a fair game. + +"I have rarely seen a household in which family life was ordered more +particularly with reference to religion. There was much of the Huguenot +in the piety of the Judge, but nothing of the Puritan. Family prayers +were observed twice a day, the servants attending and sharing in the +responses. After-evening prayers in those early days, we enjoyed a few +cotillons and contra-dances, Mrs. Jay presiding at the piano. And when +the ladies had withdrawn, chess-playing and other games occupied us, not +infrequently until after midnight. Sundays in the old homestead, after +church-going, were like other days, save in the chastened cheerfulness +of conversation and employment. A feature of Sunday evenings was the +custom for every member of the family to recite something in prose or +poetry, and the Judge often closed such recitals by reading selections +from Bishop Heber, Mr. Milman, and other favourites of those times. In +the third decade of this century, the daughters of 'the governor,' Mrs. +Banyer and Miss Jay, were often the guests of their brother. They would +have been interesting figures in any society, and were eminent in New +York for their Christian virtues and devotion to every good work. The +elder sister, born in Spain, seemed to preserve in her face and carriage +something borrowed from her native climate, while Mrs. Banyer, born in +France, was not less conspicuously marked by characteristics of her +French ancestry. While the only son of Judge Jay is a recognized type of +his father's principles and character, his daughters not less resembled +their mother--a lady whose memory I hold in very great respect, with an +affectionate estimate of her worth as a beautiful example of her +gracious sex, in all characteristics 'wherein there is virtue and +wherein there is praise.' + +"I feel, at this distance of time, that I owe much to the friendship of +Judge Jay, apart from the pleasures it conferred upon me. How much he +taught me! How often his maxims led me to correct my faults, though he +never seemed to instruct, much less to rebuke! Even in his decline, and +when he was nearing the end, he favoured me with an occasional letter. +Need I say that, while entirely free from cant and pharisaic +professions, such letters were models of Christian submission, and not +less of 'faith, hope, and charity'? I have frequently reflected upon +them as I find myself approaching the end. His lofty example leads me to +say with the inspired moralist: 'Mark the perfect man and behold the +upright, for the end of that man is peace.'" + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN JAY. With Selections from his Correspondence and + Miscellaneous Papers. In two volumes, 1833. + +WAR AND PEACE. The Evils of the First and a Plan for Preserving the + Last. London, 1842. + +A REVIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE MEXICAN WAR, 1849. + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS ON SLAVERY, 1853. In which are collected: + + Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American + Colonization, and American Antislavery Societies. + + A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery. + + On the Condition of the Free People of Colour in the United States. + + Address to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on the Violation + by the United States House of Representatives of the Right of + Petition. + + Introductory Remarks to the Reproof of the American Church contained + in the recent "History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in + America" by the Bishop of Oxford. + + A Letter to the Right Reverend L. Silliman Ives, Bishop of the + Protestant Church in the State of North Carolina. + + Address to the Inhabitants of New Mexico and California, on the + Omission by Congress to provide them with Territorial Governments, + and on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery. + + Letter to Hon. William Nelson, M. C., on Mr. Clay's Compromise. + + A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress + from the City of Boston, in Reply to his Apology for voting for the + Fugitive-Slave Bill. + + An Address to the Antislavery Christians of the United States. + Signed by a number of clergymen and others. + + Letter to Rev. R. S. Cook, Corresponding Secretary of the American + Tract Society. + + Letter to Lewis Tappan, Esq., Treasurer of the American Missionary + Society. + + +PAMPHLETS. + + Report of the Bedford Society for the Suppression of Vice, 1815. + + Letter to Venders of Ardent Spirits, 1815. + + Answer to Bishop Hobart's Pastoral Letter on the Subject of Bible + Societies, by an Episcopalian, 1815. + + Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society, by a Citizen of + New York, 1816. + + Appeal in Behalf of the American Bible Society, by a Lay Member of + the Convention, 1816. + + Dialogue between a Clergyman and a Layman on the Subject of Bible + Societies, by a Churchman, 1817. + + Remarks on a Petition to the Legislature praying for the Repeal of + the Acts for Improving the Agriculture of this State, by a + Westchester Farmer, 1821. + + Letter to Bishop Hobart occasioned by the Strictures on Bible + Societies contained in his late Charge to the Convention of New + York, by a Churchman, 1823. + + Letter to Bishop Hobart in Reply to the Pamphlet addressed by him to + the Author under the Signature of "Corrector," by William Jay, 1823. + + Reply to a Second Letter to the Author from Bishop Hobart, with + Remarks on his Hostility to Bible Societies, by William Jay, 1823. + + Essay on the Importance of the Sabbath considered merely as a Civil + Institution, 1826. + + Essay on the Perpetuity and Divine Authority of the Sabbath. + Published by the Synod of Albany, 1827. + + Remarks on the Proposed Changes in the Liturgy and Confirmation + Service, 1827. + + The Office of Assistant Bishop inconsistent with the Constitution of + the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1829. + + Essay on Duelling, 1830. + + Address to the Inhabitants of Westchester County on Temperance, + 1834. + + Addresses to the Westchester County Auxiliary Bible Society, 1836, + 1839, 1841, 1845, and other years. + + Address before the New York Female Bible Society, 1840. + + Letter of Hon. William Jay to Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen on + Slavery, 1844. + + Address before the American Peace Society, 1845. + + Trial by Jury in New York, 1846. + + Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and + Political Evils of Slavery, 1849. + + The Calvary Pastoral, with Comments, a Tract for the Times, 1849. + + Reply to Mr. Webster's 7th of March Speech, 1850. + + Reply to Remarks of the Rev. Moses Stuart in his pamphlet entitled + "Conscience and the Constitution." J. A. Gray, New York, 1850. + + The Kossuth Excitement, 1852. + + The Bible against Slavery. J. K. Wellman, Adrian, Michigan, 1852. + + Petition of the American Peace Society to the United States Senate + in behalf of Stipulated Arbitration, 1853. + + An Examination of the Mosaic Law of Servitude, "The Statutes of the + Lord are right--Psalm xix. 8." M. W. Dodd, New York, 1854. + + "The Eastern War," an Argument for the Cause of Peace. Address + before the American Peace Society, 1855. + + A Letter to the Rev. Wm. Berrian, D.D., on the Resources, Present + Position, and Duties, of Trinity Church, occasioned by his late + Pamphlet, "Facts against Fancy." A. D. Randolph & Co., New York. + + Judge Jay left in Manuscript an elaborate Commentary, the work of + many years, on the Old and New Testaments. + + + + +INDEX. + + + _Abolition Intelligencer_, the, 28. + + Abolition movement, its early history, 18 _et seq._ + + Abolition societies, early, 23, 27. + + Abolitionists, hatred of, 41, 42, 56, 67, 135, 136. + + ----, differences among, 83, 103. + + Adams, Charles Francis, 129. + + ----, John Quincy, 25, 31, 158, 159. + + Alexander, George W., 159. + + ----, J. W., 164. + + American and Foreign Antislavery Society, formation of, 103. + + American Antislavery Society, formation of, 49, 50; + division in, 103. + + Anderson, W. W., 159. + + Anti-Annexation Meeting, in New York, 126. + + Antislavery movement, development of, 39 _et seq._ + + Antislavery societies, formation of, 45. + + Antislavery Society of New York City, 46, 47. + + Aspinwall, John, 12. + + + Bailey, G., Jr., xvii, 159. + + Banyer, Mrs., 125, 167. + + Bedford, 8, 9, 163. + + Benezet, Anthony, 19. + + Benson, Judge, 38. + + Bible Society, iii, 10, 11, 12. + + Birney, James G., xvi, 63, 103, 107, 117, 118, 159. + + Bogardus, General, 46. + + Bolton, John, 12. + + Bouck, Gov., 14, 124, 125. + + Boudinot, Elias, iii, 11, 12, 28. + + Bourgueny, Baron, vi. + + Bradish, Luther, 110. + + Brent, W. L., 35. + + Broglie, Duc de, 63, 126. + + Brown, David P., 54. + + Brownson, Dr. Orestes A., xix. + + Brune, Baron, vi. + + Buol-Schauenstein, Count, vi. + + Buren, Van, Martin, 107, 124. + + Burling, William, 18. + + + Calhoun, John C., xii, 4. + + Canterbury, persecution at, 42. + + Cass, Lewis, 149. + + Cavour, Count, vi, xviii. + + Chambers, John, 9. + + Channing, W. E., 56. + + Chapman, Mrs., xvi, 91. + + Chase, Salmon P., 146, 159. + + Chatham Street Chapel, 47, 53. + + Child, Mrs. Lydia Maria, xvii, 40, 67, 112, 159. + + Circourt, M. de, v. + + Clarendon, Lord, vi, 131. + + Clarkson, Matthew, 12. + + Clarkson, Thomas, 159. + + Clay, Henry, 24, 32. + + Cleveland, C. D., 159. + + Clinton, De Witt, 12, 14, 31, 32. + + Clinton Hall, 46. + + Cobden, R., vi. + + Colebrook, Sir W., 159. + + Colonization Society, 26. + + _Commercial Advertiser_, 55. + + Compromise of 1850, 137. + + Constitutional questions, xi, 86, 87, 89, 91, 99. + + Cooper, J. Fenimore, 2, 3, 5, 9, 14. + + Cornish, Samuel E., 73. + + Cortlandt, Van, Eve, 9. + + ----, Jacobus, 9. + + ----, Mary, 9. + + ----, Pierre, 9. + + Cotton-gin, the, 23. + + _Courier and Inquirer_, 47, 55. + + Cowley, Lord, vi. + + Cox, Abraham L., 55, 73. + + Cox, Samuel H., 64. + + Coxe, A. Cleveland, 165. + + Crandall, Miss, 42. + + ----, Reuben, 41, 159. + + Cummings, John, 13. + + + Dane, Nathan, 20. + + Davis, Henry, 3. + + ----, Jefferson, xii. + + Delavan, Edward, 61. + + Denison, Charles W., 103. + + Derby, Lord, vii. + + Disunion, 153, 154, 155. + + Douglas, Senator, 149. + + Douglass, Frederick, 159. + + Duelling, essay on, 13. + + Dwight, Timothy, 7. + + + Earle, Thomas, 107. + + Edwards, Jonathan, 23. + + Ellison, Thomas, 1. + + Emancipation, gradual, 41. + + ----, immediate, 23, 40, 41, 43. + + ----, in West Indies, 45. + + _Emancipator_, the, 28, 75. + + Episcopal Church, its attitude towards slavery, 132, 133, 144, 145, + 147. + + Evarts, Jeremiah, 12. + + Everett, Alexander H., 82. + + + Fitzmaurice, Lord Edmond, v. + + Forsythe, John, 35. + + Franklin, Benjamin, iv, 23. + + Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 48. + + Frere, John Hookham, 126. + + Fugitive-Slave Law, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144. + + + Gadsden, Christopher Edward, 4. + + Gallatin, Albert, 127. + + Gallaudet, Thomas H., 4. + + Garrison, William L., xvii, 40, 51, 53, 63, 64, 77, 84, 86, 89, 102, + 153, 154. + + Gay, S. H., xvii. + + Gayle, Gov., 74. + + _Genius of Universal Emancipation_, 28. + + Gibbons, James S., xvii. + + Giddings, Joshua R., 129. + + Gladstone, W. E., vi. + + Goodell, William, xvii, 27, 40, 107, 159. + + Gouverneur, Samuel L., 65. + + Gray, William, 12. + + Grayson, William, 20. + + Green, Rev. Beriah, 60, 159. + + Green, Oliver, 30. + + Griffin, George, 12. + + Grimké, Misses, xvii, 91, 159. + + ----, Thomas Smith, 4. + + Grundy, Felix, 12. + + + Habersham, R. W., 13, 159. + + Hale, John P., 159. + + Hamilton, Alexander, 23. + + ----, James, 35. + + Hammond, J. D., 159. + + Harrison, W. H., 107. + + Henry, John B., 8. + + ----, Patrick, 20, 21. + + Hicks, Elias, 27. + + Higginson, T. W., 154. + + Hillhouse, James A., 4. + + Hobart, Bishop, iv, 11, 13. + + ----, John Henry, 164. + + Holley, Myron, 107. + + Holly, Horace, 6. + + Hopkins, Samuel, 19, 23. + + Hopper, Isaac T., xvii. + + Hornblower, Chief-Justice, 159. + + Horton, Gilbert, case of, 29, 30, 31. + + Hubner, Baron, vi. + + Huntington, William, 4. + + + Immediate Emancipation, first proclaimed as a duty, 23. + + International arbitration, v, 130, 131. + + Ives, Bishop, x. + + + Jackson, Andrew, 77. + + ----, Francis, 102. + + ----, J. C., 103. + + Jarvis, Samuel F., 4. + + Jay, John, iv, 1, 5, 9, 12, 20, 23, 38, 39, 127. + + ----, John, 2d, 55. + + ----, Miss, 125, 167. + + ----, Peter Augustus, 160, 165. + + ---- Treaty, iv. + + ----, William, his birth, 1; + education, 2; + at Yale College, 4, 6; + studies law, 8; + marriage, 8; + begins life at Bedford, 8, 9; + begins philanthropic work, 10; + advocates Bible Societies, 10; + conflict with Bishop Hobart and High-Church party, 10, 11, 13; + organizes American Bible Society, 11, 12; + takes prize for essay on the Sabbath, 13; + for essay on duelling, 13; + appointed judge, 14; + early adoption of antislavery cause, 28; + espouses cause of Gilbert Horton, 29; + begins movement for abolition of slavery in District of Columbia, + 29, 32, 34, 36, 37; + writes "Life of John Jay," 39; + his view of slavery problem in 1833, 43, 44; + consulted regarding formation of American Antislavery Society, 45; + advises acknowledgment of constitutional provisions, 45, 46; + invited to join in organizing the American Antislavery Society, 49; + his views on such an organization, 50; + suggests a definite avowal of constitutional principles, 50, 51; + becomes a member of Executive Committee of American Antislavery + Society, 57; + publishes his "Inquiry," 58; + its influence, 60, 61; + appointed foreign corresponding secretary, 63; + gives advice on right to use the mails, 65; + his "Address to the Public," 69; + elected president of New York State Antislavery Society, 77; + his reply to President Jackson's message, 78; + protests against the introduction of irrelevant doctrines into + antislavery societies, 84, 86, 100; + protests against unconstitutional doctrines, 87, 90; + defeats Alvan Stewart's resolution, 93; + his opinion of the danger of unconstitutional doctrines, 90, 94; + his opinion of Stewart's position, 95; + his loss of faith in the usefulness of antislavery societies, 97, + 100; + placed on Executive Committee of American and Foreign Antislavery + Society, 103; + resigns membership in American Antislavery Society, 103; + views on the woman question, 103, 104; + his "View of the Action of the Federal Government," 105; + his "Condition of the Free People of Colour," 106; + his "Violation of the Right of Petition," 106; + his attitude towards Liberty party in 1840, 107, 108, 109; + his attitude towards antislavery societies after the schism, 112, + 113, 114, 115, 116; + his attitude towards Liberty party in 1843, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121; + his views on the annexation of Texas, 118, 127, 128; + nominated for Senator by the Liberty party, 120; + deprived of his seat on the bench, 122; + his visit to Europe, 125; + his "Review of the Mexican War," 127, 128; + his "War and Peace," and plan for International arbitration, 130, + 131; + his attitude towards the "come-outers," 132; + his work in the Episcopal Church in favour of the slave, 132, 133, + 144, 145, 147, 162; + "Letter to Bishop Ives," 133; + reply to Webster, 137, 138; + attitude towards the Fugitive-Slave Law, 140, 141, 142, 143; + views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 149, 150, 152; + views on disunion, 153, 154, 155; + his death, 156; + his distinctive position among antislavery men, 156, 157, 158; + his writings, 158; + his conduct as judge, 160; + other philanthropic work, 161; + his position as a churchman, 161, 162; + his life at Bedford, 163, 164; + his family life, 164, 165, 166. + + ----, William, 2d, 5, 8. + + ----, Mrs. William, 8, 164. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 20, 24. + + Jelliff, Hiram, 145. + + Jocelyn, Simeon S., xvii, 73, 158. + + Johnston, Oliver, xvii. + + Jones, Samuel, 165. + + + Katonah, 9. + + Keith, George, 18. + + Kelley, Miss Abby, 102. + + Kendall, Amos, 64, 65. + + Kent, James, 53, 61, 127, 165. + + King, Rufus, 20. + + + Langdon, John, 12. + + Law, William, 13. + + Lay, Benjamin, 18. + + Leavitt, Joshua, xvi, 49, 73, 103, 107, 159. + + Lee, Richard H., 20. + + Leggett, William, 56. + + _Liberalist_, the, 28. + + _Liberator_, the, 40. + + Liberty party, 107, 117, 118, 119. + + Lincoln, Abraham, xiii, xviii, 157. + + Loring, Ellis Gray, xvii, 87, 90, 91. + + Lovejoy, Elijah P., 82. + + Ludlow, Henry G., 53. + + Lundy, Benjamin, 27, 40. + + Lyons, Lord, xiv. + + + McAllister, Matthew H., 13. + + McDonald, Alexander, 160. + + McDuffie, George, 35. + + McVickar, John, 8. + + Mails, destruction of, 64. + + Malmsbury, Lord, vii, 131. + + Mann, Daniel, 154. + + Marcy, Governor, 76, 110. + + May, Samuel J., 50, 51, 86, 91, 159. + + Miner, Charles, 32, 37. + + Missouri Compromise, 24. + + Mitchell, Minot, 122, 160. + + Mobs, 56, 82, 135. + + Morris, Thomas, 117. + + Morrison, Dr., 159. + + Mott, Lucretia, xvii. + + Munro, Peter Jay, 160. + + + Nelson, William, 160. + + Noyes Academy, 42. + + + Ogden, David B., 48, 165. + + Orloff Count, vi. + + Owen, John, 29. + + + Palfrey, J. G., 159. + + Peyster, de, Frederic, 12. + + Phelps, Amos A., 53, 86, 103, 159. + + Phillips, Wendell, xvii, 154. + + Pickering, Thomas, 20. + + Pierpont, John, 4. + + Pinckney, Charles C., 12. + + Pintard, John, 12. + + Playfair, Sir Lyon, viii, 132. + + Potter, Alonzo, 61. + + ----, Horatio, 164. + + Purvis, Robert, 53. + + + Quincy, Edmund, xvii. + + Quincy, Josiah, 141. + + + Rankin, John, 27, 73. + + Rensselaer, Van, Stephen, 12. + + _Reporter_, the, 113. + + Republican party, 52. + + "Review of the Mexican War," ix. + + Richard, Henry, vi, 131. + + Riots, pro-slavery, 46, 54. + + Romeyne, John B., 12. + + Rush, Benjamin, 19. + + Rutgers, Henry, 12. + + + St. Clair, Alanson, 91. + + St. Philip's Church, 148. + + Sandiford, Ralph, 18. + + Sandwich, Lord, 19. + + Scoble, John, 159. + + Sedgwick, Henry D., 37. + + ----, Susan, 3. + + ----, Theodore, 127, 159. + + ----, Mrs. Theodore, 61. + + Sewall, Samuel, 18. + + Seward, W. H., xiv, 110, 159. + + Simms, 150. + + Slade, William, 159. + + Slave Power, growth of, 135. + + Smith, Gerrit, xvi, 77, 83, 103, 107, 118, 141, 159. + + ----, Goldwin, xviii. + + ----, James, 160. + + ----, John Cotton, 12. + + Spring, Gardiner, 4. + + Stanton, Henry B., 103, 119. + + Stephens, A. H., xv. + + Stevens, Alexander H., 4. + + Stewart, Alvan, 52, 76, 92, 95, 96, 99, 107. + + ----, Charles, 53. + + Stone, James A., 53. + + Storrs, Henry R., 4. + + Stowe, Harriet B., xvii. + + Strong, J. W., 160. + + Sturge, Joseph, v, 130, 131, 144, 159. + + Stuyvesant, Peter G., 61. + + Sumner, Charles, 136, 152, 159. + + + Tabernacle, the Broadway, 92. + + Tappan, Arthur, xvi, 40, 45, 49, 53, 55, 64, 67, 68, 73, 102, 103, + 158. + + ----, Lewis, xvi, 40, 47, 54, 73, 75, 103, 113, 158. + + Taylor, Nathaniel W., 4. + + Thompson, George, 63, 67. + + Tighlman, William, 12. + + Tocqueville, de, A., 15. + + Tompkins, Daniel D., 12. + + Torrey, Charles T., 101. + + Tucker, Beverly, xiii. + + + Utica Convention, 76. + + + Varick, Richard, 12. + + Vaux, Robert, 159. + + Vergennes, Count de, v. + + Villamarina, Marquis de, vi. + + Voorhis, R. R., 160. + + + Walewski, Count, vi. + + Walworth, Chancellor, 48. + + "War and Peace," v, 130, 131. + + Ward, Aaron, 34, 160. + + ----, Samuel R., xvii. + + Washington, Bushrod, 12. + + ----, George, 155. + + Wayne, James M., 13. + + Webster, Daniel, 137, 139, 144, 150. + + _Weekly Emancipator_, 40. + + Weld, Theodore D., xvii. + + Whittier, John G., xvii, 40, 51, 103. + + Wickliffe, Charles A., 35. + + Wilberforce, Samuel, 133, 134. + + Williams, Ransom G., 74, 75. + + Wilson, Henry, 58. + + Wirt, William, 12. + + Woman question, the, 103, 104, 105. + + Woolman, John, 19. + + Worthington, Governor, 12. + + Wright, Elizur, Jr,, xvii, 40, 49, 53, 65, 67, 73, 107, 159. + + ----, Theodore S., 73. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +REPRESENTATIVES OF ANTISLAVERY OPINION IN NEW YORK IN 1864. + +A complimentary breakfast was given to Professor Goldwin Smith at +the rooms of the Union League Club, on Union Square, New York, on +Saturday morning, the 12th November, 1864. + +The following gentlemen joined in the invitation: + +Jonathan Sturges, _President of Union League Club_, _New York_; +Charles Butler; John C. Hamilton; Wm. Curtis Noyes, LL.D.; Hon. +Horace Greeley, _Editor of the New York Tribune_; Hon. H. J. +Raymond, Editor of the New York Times; Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., +_President of United States Sanitary Commission_; Francis Lieber, +LL.D., _Professor of History in Columbia College_; Vincenzo Botta, +Ph.D.; Elliot C. Cowdin; Col. James McKaye; Wm. H. Webb; Geo. C. +Ward; Isaac Ferris, D.D., _Chancellor of the University_; Wm. Allen +Butler; Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, LL.D.; Hon. Wm. E. Dodge; Wm. H. +Osborn; A. Gracie King; C. A. Bristed; Cyrus W. Field; T. B. +Coddington; Wm. J. Hoppin; Charles H. Marshall; Alfred Pell; Horace +Webster, LL.D., _Principal of the Free Academy_; John Jay; Wm. +Cullen Bryant; Wm. M. Evarts; Parke Godwin, _Editor of the Evening +Post_; F. A. P. Barnard, LL.D., _President of Columbia College_; W. +T. Blodgett; Geo. Griswold; Hon. Chas. P. Kirkland; James Brown; +John E. Williams; A. A. Low, _President of the Chamber of Commerce_; +John Austin Stevens, Jr., _Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce_; +Geo. T. Strong; John C. Green; Richard M. Hunt; Geo. W. Blunt; John +A. Weeks; Otis D. Swan; Col. L. G. B. Cannon; Theodore Roosevelt; C. +E. Detmold. + +Among the distinguished guests invited to meet Professor Goldwin +Smith, the following gentlemen were present: + +Rev. Dr. Thompson; John A. Stevens; Prof. John W. Draper; Maj.-Gen. +B. F. Butler, U. S. A; M. Auguste Laugel, of France; Hon. Geo. +Bancroft; Geo. P. Putnam; Dr. Willard Parker; Rev. S. Osgood, D.D.; +Hon. E. D. Morgan; Rev. H. Ward Beecher; Rev. A. P. Putnam; Rev. A. +Cleveland Coxe, D.D., _Assistant Bishop-elect of the Western Diocese +of New York_; Prof. H. B. Smith, D.D., _Professor of Systematic +Theology in Union Theological Seminary, New York_; Chas. King, +LL.D.; Peter Cooper, _Founder of the Cooper Union_; G. W. Curtis; +Geo. L. Schuyler; Prof. Theo. W. Dwight, LL.D., _Law Professor in +Columbia College_; Rev. G. L. Prentiss, D.D. + +Among the letters of regret were notes from Lincoln, Fessenden, +Major-General Halleck, and Attorney-General Bates. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] The title of M. de Circourt's work is:--"_Histoire de l'action +commune de la France et de l'Amerique pour l'Indépendence des États +Unis._" Paris, 1876. + +[B] In view of their historic significance, their names are given in +the Appendix. + +[C] During Judge Jay's absence in Europe a striking anti-annexation +Texas meeting was held at the Tabernacle in New York, on the 24th of +April, 1844. It had been called by members of the King, Duer, +Townsend, Goodhue, Sedgwick, Field, Griswold, and Hyslop families +and many leading merchants of New York. The call was subsequently +presented by John Jay to the New York Historical Society, for +preservation in its records. A letter was read from Chancellor Kent +denouncing the annexation of Texas without the consent of Mexico as +a breach of national faith which would be universally condemned. +Speeches were made by Theodore Sedgwick and D. D. Field. But the +most imposing feature of the manifestation was the presence in the +chair of Albert Gallatin, the last survivor of Jefferson's cabinet, +who, despite his age and infirmities, had been carried to the +meeting to protest in his own name and in that of his historic chief +against so flagrant a violation of national honour and public faith. +The appeal of Gallatin for a time promised to be successful. Van +Buren, whose views had been doubtful, wrote, under its influence, +his letter to Hammett objecting to annexation. But an annexation +meeting was held in Richmond to counteract that at New York, and +when the Democratic Convention met at Baltimore an adroit change of +policy in regard to nominations displaced Van Buren and nominated +Polk. + +[D] The later history of international arbitration is set forth by +Sir Lyon Playfair in the _North American Review_ for December, 1890. + +[E] Among those with whom Judge Jay was most often in communication +may be mentioned: Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Rev. +A. A. Phelps, Robert Vaux, E. Wright, Jr., Joshua Leavitt, Samuel J. +May, Reuben Crandall, James G. Birney, Theodore Sedgwick, Beriah +Green, Gerrit Smith, John Scoble of England, Mrs. L. M. Child, Miss +Grimké, Wm. Goodell, G. Bailey, Jr., Rev. Dr. Morrison of England, +Gov. R. W. Habersham, W. W. Anderson of Jamaica, W. I., Joseph +Sturge of England, Jabez D. Hammond, Geo. W. Alexander of England, +William Slade, John Quincy Adams, Wm. H. Seward, S. P. Chase, Prof. +C. D. Cleveland, Thomas Clarkson of England, Sir W. Colebrook, +governor of New Brunswick, Charles Sumner, Chief-Justice Hornblower, +J. G. Palfrey, and John P. Hale. + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from + the original. + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of William Jay and the Constitutional +Movement for the Abolition of Slavery, by Bayard Tuckerman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + +***** This file should be named 39568-8.txt or 39568-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39568/ + +Produced by David E. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery + +Author: Bayard Tuckerman + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_0" id="Page_0"></a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontispiece.png" alt="" /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">WILLIAM JAY</span></p> + +<p class="center">AND</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENT FOR<br/> +THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">BAYARD TUCKERMAN</span></p> + +<p class="center">WITH A PREFACE BY</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">JOHN JAY</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/tpage_deco.png" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">NEW-YORK<br/> +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br/> +1893</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">Copyright by<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dodd, Mead & Company</span>,<br /> +1893.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">University Press:<br /> +<span class="smcap">John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A.</span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">PREFACE</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY JOHN JAY.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A prolonged</span> illness, added to other causes, has disappointed my hope of +completing an elaborate biography of my father.</p> + +<p>This memoir by Mr. Tuckerman is devoted chiefly to the part borne by +Judge Jay in the antislavery work, to which his time and thoughts were +so long given. In this connection the memoir develops his personal +characteristics, with the constitutional principles and national policy +advocated by him in that historic contest; while of necessity it touches +but lightly on his home life, his varied correspondence, and his +judicial charges, one of which assisted to avert the passage of a +pro-slavery legislative act infringing the liberty of speech and of the +press; and the scope of the volume forbids its dwelling on his writings +on other topics, some of which are still subjects of discussion.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay's memoir on the formation of a National Bible Society, which +in 1816 so warmly encouraged the hopes of the venerable Boudinot, was +followed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> spirited controversial pamphlets with an antagonist as able +and eminent as Bishop Hobart. The correspondence after Jay's first +letter was marked by an unusual sharpness, which happily did not prevent +my cherished and lamented friend, the son and namesake of the Bishop, +from becoming in later years sincerely attached to his father's +antagonist. It was a contest in which Jay vindicated the right of +Churchmen to assist in the distribution of the Bible, and anticipated in +this his similar efforts for a lifetime to secure the united action of +all good citizens, without regard to creed or politics, in practicable +schemes for the elevation and happiness of mankind. Among his earlier +essays were two on "Sunday: Its Value as a Civil Institution, and Its +Sacred Character"; while a third, upon "Duelling as a Relic of +Barbarism," was honoured, when the authorship was still unknown, by a +medal from an anti-duelling association at Savannah.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">THE LIFE OF JOHN JAY.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay, in the life of his father, which was welcomed as an important +addition to our American biography of the Revolution, vindicated, by a +careful presentation of the historical evidence then available, the +soundness of the judgment of Jay and Adams, as peace commissioners at +Paris in 1782-83, regarding the policy of the French court as unfriendly +to the American claims to the boundaries, the fisheries, and the +Mississippi. That judgment, afterwards acquiesced in by Dr. Franklin in +the joint violation by the commissioners<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> of the instructions of +Congress—a violation that enabled them to obtain from England +boundaries and concessions far greater than either Congress or France +expected—had been roughly criticised and denied, even in volumes of +diplomatic correspondence claiming an official sanction. Its vindication +by Judge Jay has recently been more than confirmed by the ample proofs +published by M. de Circourt in the secret correspondence of the Count de +Vergennes with his able corps of diplomatic agents, as well as by the +interesting revelations in Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's "Life of Lord +Shelburne"; and these volumes have dissipated a cloud of error which for +half a century travestied the facts and dimmed the glory of the closing +act of the American Revolution.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">JAY'S "WAR AND PEACE," AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay's little book on "War and Peace," with a plan of stipulation +by treaty for international arbitration which subsequently led to his +becoming the president of the American Peace Society, and which before +its publication attracted the attention of that sturdy advocate for +peace, Joseph Sturge, during his visit at Bedford, seems entitled to +special notice as one whose scheme is still agitated in the governmental +and national councils of Europe. The plan promptly received the approval +of the Peace Society of London,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> and of English statesmen like Richard +Cobden and the indefatigable Henry Richard. It exercised a European +influence in the highest quarters when its spirit, under the leadership +of Lord Clarendon, received the sanction of the great powers of Europe +who signed the Treaty at Paris in 1856. Its endorsement, while +cautiously expressed, was recognized as having a new and profound +significance. The Protocol No. 23 declared the wish of the signatory +governments that states between which any serious misunderstanding might +arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as +circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power; it +being understood that the wish expressed by Congress should not in any +case oppose limits to that liberty of appreciation which no power could +alienate in questions that touched its dignity. With that limitation the +recommendation, in advance of a resort to war to have recourse to a +friendly power, was introduced by the Congress to the International Code +of Europe; and among those great diplomatists were the Count Walewski +and Baron Bourgueny, on the part of France; Count de Buol-Schauenstein +and Baron de Hubner, on the part of Austria; Lord Clarendon and Lord +Cowley, on the part of Great Britain; Count Orloff and Baron de Bruno, +on the part of Russia; and Count Cavour and the Marquis de Villamarina, +on the part of Sardinia. The action of the Congress was subsequently +confirmed by that of the lesser states of Europe. Mr. Gladstone +pronounced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> the protocol "a very great triumph, a powerful engine in +behalf of civilized humanity." The late Earl of Derby referred to it as +"the principle which to its immortal honour was embodied in the +protocols of the Conference at Paris"; and the Earl of Malmesbury +pronounced the act "one important to civilization and to the security of +the peace of Europe." The idea that this scheme is more and more +regarded as widely applicable to international disputes, as easily +practicable and profoundly important to the peace of nations, would seem +probable from the extent to which, as the century approaches its +completion, the scheme has occupied more and more the attention of both +the statesmen and of the masses who are the most interested in +discovering a substitute for war.</p> + +<p>For a time after the Geneva award, the moral weight and value of +international arbitration seemed to be more doubted than ever. It was +said that while the scheme had in that case avoided war, it had +suggested the probability of claims so extravagant and inadmissible as +almost to force the opposing party to break the treaty under the cover +of which they were advanced, even at the risk of increased hostility and +a resort to war; and that the escape of both nations from such a +catastrophe by the action of the Genevan Court in dismissing without +argument the American claims for indirect damages was but a happy +accident. But this idea seems to have been succeeded by the happier +thought that an appeal to international arbitration is an appeal to the +fairness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> of the world, and that the question for the parties, judges, +and spectators is so clearly one of honour, that no nation can afford to +ask what the justice of the world candidly disapproves. In the case of +the Geneva Congress, while the rejected claims were presented in the +name of the President, General Grant himself subsequently denied their +justice and approved their rejection. Sir Lyon (now Lord) Playfair, who +perhaps appreciates the entire subject of arbitration as thoroughly as +any living statesman, gave an interesting sketch of its recent progress, +both in Europe and America, in a paper entitled, "A Topic for +Christmas," in the <i>North American Review</i> for December, 1890. Three +years before, Sir Lyon had headed a deputation of members of the English +Parliament who came to present to the President of the United States a +memorial from 234 members of the House of Commons, with delegates from +English Trades Unions representing 700,000 workingmen. Congress in +response concurrently resolved to invite from time to time, as fit +occasion might arise, negotiations with any government with which the +United States has or may have diplomatic relations, to the end that any +differences or disputes arising between the two governments which cannot +be settled by diplomatic agency may be referred to arbitration and be +peacefully adjusted by such means. Although Europe is supposed by many +to be awaiting a war of gigantic magnitude, Sir Lyon, referring to the +approval of arbitration by the Pan-American Congress by continental +parliaments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> and international assemblies at Paris and London, said that +the legislatures which had already passed resolutions in favor of +arbitration represented 150,000,000 of people, and remarked that the +extension of that feeling would be a better force than an international +police to secure the observance of treaties. The excess of war +preparation already endangering national credit and threatening national +bankruptcy is quoted as proving that the arbitration idea will be +insisted upon, and in the anticipated movement the United States is +described as fitted to be the leading champion of arbitration. Sheridan +is quoted among others as saying: "I mean what I say when I express the +belief that arbitration will rule the world." The scheme is now +represented as likely to be accepted by thinkers who reject the thought +of Kant, Bentham, and Mills for an international Congress; and Sir Lyon +Playfair, in connection with the idea of arbitration, quotes the remark +of Mazzini that "thought is the action of men and action the thought of +the people."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">"THE WAR WITH MEXICO," AND ANTISLAVERY PAPERS.</p> + +<p>The "Review of the War with Mexico" stands among Judge Jay's volumes +unexcelled by exactness of congressional, diplomatic, and, to some +extent, military research; and by plainness of speech in regard to +national outrages and perfidy without a name, perpetrated in the cause +of slavery; and his writings generally on this subject show the same +accurate inquiry and outspoken frankness. It was on the varied phases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +of our treatment of the coloured people, free and slave, at our own +doors, the cruel wrong so full of injustice to the blacks, of scandal to +Christendom, and of menace to the republic, that Jay wrote with deepest +earnestness, the most exacting research, and a fearless pen. His inquiry +into "The American Colonization and the Antislavery Societies" and "The +Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery," developed facts +which implicated prominent politicians of both parties, and aroused at +once their surprise and indignation, while the disclosure directly +appealed to the pride and conscience of the American people. The same +judicial, dauntless, and defiant spirit marked the appeals which he +prepared for the Antislavery Society against the calumnies of the press, +and the dignified protest against the libellous charges so unworthily +made by President Jackson in his message to Congress. The same spirit +animated his address on "The Condition of the People of Colour in the +United States"; the "Appeal to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on +the Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of Petition"; +his supplement to "The Reproof of the American Church," by Bishop +Wilberforce of Oxford; the exposure in the letter to Bishop Ives of the +clerical efforts to sanctify slavery and caste; and his earnest demand +for the equal admission of the coloured churches to the Diocesan Council +of New York. So, too, with the critical analysis of Mr. Clay's +"Compromise Bill," including the Fugitive Law and Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> Webster's "Theory +of Physical Geography"; his address to the inhabitants of New Mexico and +California, so timely distributed in English and Spanish, and so happily +followed in California by a free constitution, urging them to resist the +domination of slavery with its ignorance and degradation, and to secure, +by their own manly independence and just statesmanship, a glorious +future of power and happiness; his address to the antislavery +Christians; and his plain reminders to the Protestant Episcopal Church, +and to the Tract and other societies, of the inconsistency and evil +influence of their compromising pro-slavery policy.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES—AN HISTORIC PARALLEL.</p> + +<p>The part of Jay's life pictured by Mr. Tuckerman not only exhibits these +characteristics, but shows the Antislavery Society to have been founded +by his care, in 1833, on constitutional principles so just and so +clearly defined, that in 1839 sixteen hundred and fifty auxiliary +societies had been established on the same basis, educating the rising +generation, on whom was to rest the destiny of the country in the near +future. It was an education of the quiet and effective influence of +which the pro-slavery leaders seemed unconscious, although to some it +may recall the thought of Dr. Storrs, when he said:—"When I think of a +millennium in our time, in our civilization, my thought rests and +fastens on the promise, 'a little child shall lead them.'" The charge +had already been made against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> the opponents of slavery of a disregard +of constitutional obligations—of a desire to dissolve the Union and to +encourage slave insurrection. The society declared the exclusive right +of each slave State to legislate in regard to slavery; the +constitutional right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of +Columbia, to prohibit it in the Territories and new States, and to +control the domestic as well as the foreign slave trade; and it +disclaimed the idea of countenancing the slaves in vindicating their +rights by resorting to physical force. And here is suggested, by the +action and the anticipation of the Slave Power, an interesting historic +parallel. The formation of the Antislavery Society in December, 1833, +followed closely upon Mr. Calhoun's Nullification in South Carolina in +1832, when, as Mr. Pollard tell us, a medal was struck inscribed, "John +C. Calhoun, First President of the C. S. A." A counterpart of this medal +in gold is said to exist at Richmond, with the name of Jefferson Davis +as the first president of the Southern Confederacy, and "1861" on the +reverse side.</p> + +<p>These incidents seem to emphasize the fact that the constitutional +principles adopted by the Antislavery Society in 1833, and so widely +circulated by the press and its auxiliaries before the war, although +often assailed, were, in 1854, made the basis of the Republican party, +which, as Americans of all sections may now with mutual regard and +affection thank God, maintained the Union and abolished slavery. Such a +revolution in public opinion is a forcible reminder of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> the truth that +every principle contains within itself the germ of a prophecy, and it is +a thought fraught with hope and confidence to reformers even when they +seem to be threatened with disaster and defeat.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">THE EARLY SCHEME FOR A SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.</p> + +<p>The determination to found a confederacy with slavery as its cornerstone +appears as a fundamental feature in the policy of the Slave Power for +some thirty years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Mr. Calhoun's +idea of secession, apparently suggested by the tariff, General Jackson +predicted would be renewed on the question of slavery. The novel of +Prof. Beverly Tucker in 1835, entitled, "The Partisan Leader; or, Twenty +Years After," foreshadowed the steps at home and abroad which were taken +in forming the new confederacy; and in the South Carolina Convention in +1860, Southern politicians like Rhett, Parker, Keith, and Inglis said +that the matter had nothing to do with Mr. Lincoln or the Fugitive Law, +but had been culminating for a long series of years. The thought of a +Southern Confederacy may have stimulated the policy of using the power +of the Republic, while it lasted, in the interest of the Confederacy +that was to succeed it; supplying a motive for the Texan Rebellion, the +War with Mexico, the effort to secure Cuba, the filibustering +expeditions to Central America, the determination to reopen the African +slave-trade, and the pro-slavery action of the Buchanan administration.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span></p> +<p class="center">NORTHERN AND EUROPEAN SYMPATHY WITH SLAVERY.</p> + +<p>It would be hardly fair to the Southern leaders to assume that they +found no reason for their hope of effecting the dissolution of the Union +in the sympathy and aid promised from the North and from Europe. The +secret conferences with Lord Lyons of Northern sympathizers with slavery +were disclosed by the despatches of that eminent diplomatist. Mayor +Fernando Wood's proposition that New York should become a free city, +independent both of the States and the nation, showed in no slight +degree the temper of the citizens whom he represented; while the later +appeal of so eminent and popular a leader as Governor Horatio Seymour to +the citizens of the State was equally significant when he said, "In the +downfall of the nation, and amid its crumbling ruins, we will cling to +the fortunes of New York." Such utterances enforced by leaders of the +prominence of Franklin Pierce and Vallandingham; the political action of +sympathizers with slavery and the anti-draft riots in New York, +supplemented by the unfriendliness of European governments; and the +escape of the "Alabama"—all these circumstances tended to encourage the +hopes that were doomed to disappointment. Nor in considering the +antislavery movement should we overlook the effect of the antislavery +opinion of our country in ending the danger of European intervention, +which had been unwittingly encouraged by Mr. Seward's too hasty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +assurance to our minister in France (April 22, 1861), that "the +revolution was without a cause, without a pretext, and without an +object; and that the condition of slavery in the several States would +remain just the same, whether it should succeed or fail." The +antislavery policy, first of enlistment and then of emancipation, so +earnestly urged upon Mr. Lincoln and adopted by him with conscientious +caution, enlightened Europe as to the true meaning of the contest in our +recognition of the equal right to freedom and the equal dignity of +labour, and forbade its rulers to assist in the establishment of a slave +confederacy; and the historian Lessing, when alluding to the cordial +reception by his holiness the Sovereign Pontiff of the diplomatic agents +of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and the Papal letter recognizing and commending +"the illustrious President of the Southern Confederacy," remarks that +this was "the only official recognition of the chief conspirator by the +head of any government." Nor should the right appreciation by the +abolitionists of the prospect of freedom for the slaves be forgotten. +The fidelity of the negroes during the war, both to the families with +whom they lived, to which Vice-President Stephens bore distinct +testimony, and to the Northern army, from which they expected +emancipation, was no less honourable and conspicuous than the devotion +and gallantry they constantly exhibited in the war, as at Fort Hudson +and Fort Wagner, at Milliken's Bend and Lake Providence, at Newbern and +at Olustee, where their rear-guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> saved the army. Their conduct, +whether at home or in the field, justified the conviction of their +steadfast friends in the safety of immediate emancipation, and added +untold force to the sacredness of the pledges so often given during the +war, and still, to the national discredit, unfulfilled—of national aid +to State education, so as to secure to every child of our coloured +citizens the ability to read his Bible and the Constitution, to fulfill +his duties and protect his rights.</p> + +<p>As time and reflection impress upon the American mind a clear +comprehension of the changes, national, social, and political, that a +triumph of the Slave Power would have brought to America and its effect +as a set-back to the civilization of the world, an increased interest +will be felt in the beginnings of the contest, and in the men and causes +that shaped its end.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">THE LESSON FOR TO-DAY.</p> + +<p>I cordially recommend Mr. Tuckerman's memoir to the students of the +antislavery contest, as throwing light on that interesting and but +partially written chapter of American history, in which my father bore a +part; and on the character and policy of the sturdy band with whom he +was associated, including Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, James +G. Birney, Gerrit Smith, and their true-hearted compatriots; while a +wider view would include a group of noble women, who, if differing as to +means, were united in devotion, headed by the honoured names of Maria +Weston Chapman and Harriet Beecher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> Stowe, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria +Child, and the sisters Grimké.</p> + +<p>Among our citizens who will be long remembered as early and fearless +opponents of slavery, leading and acting with energy and independence, +according to their personal convictions and occasionally in differing +ways, were the venerable Isaac T. Hopper, William Lloyd Garrison, whose +life has been so faithfully recorded by his sons, John Greenleaf +Whittier, whose old Huguenot spirit lives in his verse as in his name, +Ellis Gray Loring, Lovejoy, the martyr of the west, Wendell Phillips, +with his matchless eloquence, Theodore D. Weld, with his trenchant pen, +Elizur Wright, Jr., Samuel R. Ward, William Goodell, S. S. Jocelyn, +Gamaliel Bailey, Jr., Edmund Quincey, S. H. Gay, Oliver Johnston, James +S. Gibbons, and others, who opened the way—sometimes by devious and +diverging paths—for the party of the Union and Emancipation.</p> + +<p>As the contest advanced from the field of politics to that of war, came +Union men from different points whose names will live in our history +with those of John A. Andrew, John C. Fremont, John P. Hale, Chase, +Sumner, Seward, Preston and John A. King, Wilmot, Giddings, Wade, Holt, +and Edwin D. Stanton. In New York, where mob law had prevailed, the +Union League Club upheld the loyalty of the city, the credit of the +nation, and the sanitary commission; raised troops for Hancock in +addition to its own coloured regiments; stimulated the ardour of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> +soldiers and the patriotism of the country; welcomed, of the army, Grant +and Sherman, Mead and Sheridan, Hancock and Hooker, Warren and Burnside, +and of the navy, Farragut, Dupont and Rogers, Winslow and the youthful +Cushing; verifying in its spirit and action the remark of Vice-President +Colfax that on the Union League Club Lincoln had leaned in the darkest +hours.</p> + +<p>The Club did not forget, neither will the truthful historian forget, +that amid the European plots and intrigues in the interest of slavery, +we had friends high and low, from Alexander of Russia, the emancipator +of twenty millions of serfs—who, like Lincoln, fell by +assassination—to the humble peasants, who instinctively recognised the +hostility to the rights of labor inherent in the slavery system, whose +vicious features had been exposed by John Bright with such masterly +effect.</p> + +<p>Goldwin Smith, the historic scholar of Oxford, who at home had denounced +those who would have made England an accomplice in "the creation of a +great slave empire, and in its future extension from the grave of +Washington to the Halls of Montezuma," in his reply to the greetings of +the eminent citizens who had asked him to the club and who assembled to +meet him,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> said, "Your cause is ours; it is the cause of the whole +human race." The same idea, in almost the same words, was expressed by +the Count de Cavour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> a few days before his death, in a despatch to the +Italian Minister at Washington, when he said "that ours was the cause +not only of constitutional liberty, but of all humanity."</p> + +<p>The antislavery story from the Calhoun medal, struck to commemorate the +supposed birth of a slave empire to the constitutional abolition of +slavery, concerned humanity, and has lessons of warning and +encouragement for the men and women of to-day, on whom rest the hopes of +the country, and who, against odds that seem as formidable as those +presented by the Slave Power at its culmination, are bravely striving +for the advance of humanity, the purification of our politics, and the +preservation of American institutions. They may well adopt the +inspiriting legend of Geneva to which the antislavery contest of America +has given a new radiance, "Post tenebras lux." Our institutions, no +longer endangered by slavery, are assailed with skilful intrigue in +their own strongholds, the public school and the polls, especially of +our great cities, where a corrupt, irresponsible, secret rule recalls +the Council of Ten and the Lion of Saint Mark, and now it is charged +that our very legislation at times is not simply partisan but +fraudulent. The incompatibility of such proceedings with American +principles and American rights recalls with emphatic force the warning +so distinctly and repeatedly given us by Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, that +eminent and philosophic representative of our citizens of the Roman +Catholic faith who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span> stand squarely by the American constitution and +American institutions, of the danger of allowing foreigners to meddle +with our public schools when he said that American civilization was "the +farthest point in advance yet reached by any age or nation, and that +foreigners who come to educate according to their civilization +necessarily educate for a civilization behind the times and below that +of this country."</p> + +<p>The enlightening effect of an impartial study of the antislavery contest +on an independent and philosophic critic can be read in the interesting +and instructive pages of Von Holst; and a review of that contest, from +the first presentment of the principles of the Antislavery Society to +the parting scene of Grant and Lee at Appomatox, and the adoption of the +constitutional amendment of emancipation, affords, step by step, amid +whatever mistakes and blunders, evidence which becomes the more striking +and conclusive, as time passes, of what was accomplished in the +antislavery struggle for humanity and the world in shaping the future of +the Republic, by calm resolve, a faithful adhesion to truth and +principle, patient perseverance, unflinching courage, faith in the +triumph of right, American manliness, and far-sighted Christian +statesmanship.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"> +<span class="smcap">Bedford House</span>, Katonah,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">New York, May, 1893.</span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CONTENTS.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" summary="table"> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Birth and Education of William Jay.—His Early Philanthropic +Interests.—Appointed Judge of Westchester County.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1"> 1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Early Opposition to Slavery.—Growth of the Slave Power.—The +Missouri Compromise.—Jay begins Political Agitation for the +Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_18"> 18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Development of the Antislavery Movement.—Organization of +Antislavery Societies.—Anti-Abolition Riots.—Jay publishes his +"Inquiry."</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_39"> 39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Continued Efforts to suppress the Antislavery Movement by Force and +Intimidation.—Favourable Effect upon the Public Mind produced by +Jay's Writings.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_63"> 63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Gradual Decline of Riotous Demonstrations against the +Abolitionists.—Changes occur in the Doctrines and Methods of the +American Antislavery Society.—Judge Jay resigns his Membership, +while continuing his Efforts on Behalf of Emancipation.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_82"> 82</a></td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Judge Jay continues to support the Antislavery Cause by his Advice +and Writings.—In Consequence of his Opinions he is deprived of his +Seat on the Bench.—His Visit to Europe.—His Views on the Liberty +Party.—On the Annexation of Texas.—His "Review of the Mexican +War."—His Advocacy of International Arbitration as a Remedy for +War.—His Work in the Episcopal Church.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_112"> 112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Unpopularity of the Abolitionists.—The Compromises of 1850 and the +Fugitive-Slave Law.—Jay's Reply to Webster's 7th of March +Speech.—The Attitude of the Episcopal Church.—The Abrogation of +the Missouri Compromise.—Disunion.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_135"> 135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Death of Judge Jay.—His Position among Antislavery Men.—His other +Public and Philanthropic Interests.—His Private Life.—His +Character.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_156"> 156</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Bibliography</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Index</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_175"> 175</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Appendix</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_184"> 184</a></td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">ILLUSTRATIONS.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" summary="table"> +<tr><td>William Jay, from a crayon by Martin</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_0"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>View of Bedford House, the home of Judge Jay</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9"> 9</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Chief-Justice Jay, from a painting by Gilbert Stuart</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38a"> 39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>William Jay, from a painting by Vanderlyn</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_81"> 81</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>William Jay, from a painting by Wenzler</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_134a"> 135</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Mrs. William Jay, from a painting by W. E. West</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_164"> 164</a></td></tr></table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">WILLIAM JAY.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER I.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF WILLIAM JAY.—HIS EARLY PHILANTHROPIC +INTERESTS.—APPOINTED JUDGE OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">William Jay</span>, the second son of John Jay, the first Chief-Justice of the +United States, and his wife, Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, was born in the +city of New York the 16th of June, 1789. New York was then the seat of +the Federal Government, and the year is memorable as that in which the +National Constitution superseded the Articles of Confederation, while +the inauguration of Washington marked a new era in American history.</p> + +<p>During the absence of John Jay in England, while negotiating the "Jay +treaty," he was elected Governor of New York, and returned home to +assume that office in 1795.</p> + +<p>William, then eight years old, was placed at school with the Rev. Thomas +Ellison, the rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany. There he received an +old-fashioned training. In 1801 he wrote to his father: "Mr. Ellison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +put me in Virgil, and I can now say the first two eclogues by heart, and +construe and parse and scan them." And later on: "I learn nothing but +Latin." Among his schoolmates was J. Fenimore Cooper, who afterwards +drew a portrait of their old instructor in one of his "Sketches of +England," addressed to Jay:</p> + +<p>"Thirty-six years ago you and I were schoolfellows and classmates in the +house of a clergyman of the true English school. This man was an epitome +of the national prejudices and in some respects of the national +character. He was the son of a beneficed clergyman in England, had been +regularly graduated at Oxford and admitted to orders; entertained a most +profound reverence for the King and the nobility; was not backward in +expressing his contempt for all classes of dissenters and all +ungentlemanly sects; was particularly severe on the immoralities of the +French Revolution, and though eating our bread, was not especially +lenient to our own; compelled you and me to begin Virgil with the +eclogues, and Cicero with the knotty phrase that opens the oration in +favour of the poet Archias, 'because these writers would not have placed +them first in the books if they did not intend people to read them +first'; spent his money freely and sometimes that of other people; was +particularly tenacious of the ritual and of all the decencies of the +Church; detested a democrat as he did the devil; cracked his jokes daily +about Mr. Jefferson, never failing to place his libertinism in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> strong +relief against the approved morals of George III., of several passages +in whose history it is charitable to suppose he was ignorant; prayed +fervently on Sunday, and decried all morals, institutions, churches, +manners, and laws but those of England from Monday to Saturday."</p> + +<p>Still, Jay and Cooper were indebted to Ellison's thoroughness in the +classics for much of the mental training, the correct taste, and the +pure English which marked their subsequent intellectual efforts.</p> + +<p>Jay was prepared for college by Henry Davis, afterwards president of +Hamilton College. The boy as he appeared at this time was thus described +by his cousin, Susan Sedgwick: "As I look back to that fresh spring-time +of life, there rises clearly before me a vigorous, sturdy boy, full of +health and animation, with laughing eyes, cheeks glowing and dimpled, +and exhibiting already marked traits: with a strong will, yet easily +reduced by rightful authority; in temper quick, even to passion, but +never vindictive; the storm easily raised as soon appeased, thus +foreshadowing him at that later period, when, however capable of +self-control, his fearless resistance to wrong and uncompromising +advocacy of right partook of the same vehement character, happily +expressed by his friend, Mr. Fenimore Cooper, who, in reference to his +then recently published denunciation of the evils of war, addressed him +playfully, 'Thou most pugnacious man of peace.'"</p> + +<p>William entered Yale College in January, 1804, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> his fifteenth year. +Upon the college roll during his four years were names afterwards well +known in our history. There were trained side by side boys who were soon +to be arrayed against each other in religion, politics, and in the +momentous conflict of slavery with freedom, which, passing from the +senate to the field, their sons and grandsons were to terminate by the +sword. From the State of South Carolina came John C. Calhoun, who +significantly chose for the subject of his graduating oration, "The +Qualifications Necessary for a Perfect Statesman;" Christopher Edward +Gadsden, afterwards bishop of his native State; and Thomas Smith Grimké, +eminent at the bar, in scholarship and philanthropy. Among the Northern +students was the Rev. John Pierpont, known as the reformer and poet, who +at the age of seventy-six went to the front during the Civil War as +chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment; Hon. Henry Randolph Storrs, of New +York, the jurist; Rev. Dr. Nathaniel William Taylor, of the Calvinistic +school of Edwards and Dwight; Dr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Huguenot +descent, who devoted himself to the education of deaf-mutes; Dr. +Alexander H. Stevens, of New York; Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, the +learned professor of oriental literature; Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, of +New York, the famous Presbyterian divine; the Hon. William Huntington, +of Connecticut; Jacob Sutherland, of New York; and James A. Hillhouse, +of New Haven, one of the most scholarly of our poets, whose generous +hospitality at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> his beautiful home, Sachem's Wood, with its avenue of +stately elms planted by his father and himself, was for many years the +delight of his friends. At Yale Jay met Cooper again, and strengthened a +friendship which lasted through life. It was during a visit at Bedford, +about 1825, while sitting on the piazza with Chief-Justice Jay, smoking +and talking of the incidents of the Revolution, that Fenimore Cooper +learned the adventures of a patriotic American, who was apparently +attached to the royal cause, but who constantly warned of danger the +Continental Army in Westchester and was especially useful during the +sitting of the State convention at White Plains. The services and +escapes of this man were reproduced in "Harvey Birch, the Spy of the +Neutral Ground," which achieved so great a success at home and in +Europe, where it still holds its place, having been honoured by more +translations, including the Persian and Arabic, than any similar work +written in English until the appearance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."</p> + +<p>In a letter to his grandson, William Jay, in 1852, Judge Jay gave some +particulars of his college course, which show the simplicity of life in +those days and the still lingering influence of English habits: "Through +the influence of a professor with whom I had previously lived, I was +placed in the room of a resident graduate. The resident graduates were +denominated 'Sirs'; they had a pew in the chapel called the Sirs' pew; +and when spoken of in college always had Sir prefixed to their names. +My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> room-mate was Sir Holly (Dr. Horace Holly). As a mere freshman I +looked up to my room-mate with great respect and treated him +accordingly. We had no servants to wait on us, except that a man came +every morning to make our beds and sweep the room, and once a week to +scatter clean white sand on the floor. I rose early—generally before +six in winter—made the fire, and then went, pitcher in hand, often +wading through snow, for water for Sir Holly and myself. At that time +the freshmen occupied in part the place of sizers in the English +universities, and they were required to run errands for the seniors. Our +meals were taken in a large hall with a kitchen opening into it. The +students were arranged at tables according to their classes. All sat on +wooden benches, not excepting the tutors; the latter had a table to +themselves on an elevated platform whence they had a view of the whole +company. But it was rather difficult for them to attend to their plates +and to watch two hundred boys at the same time. Salt beef once a day and +dry cod were perhaps the most usual dishes. On Sunday mornings during +the winter our breakfast-tables were graced with large tin milk-cans +filled with stewed oysters; at the proper season we were occasionally +treated at dinner with green peas. As you may suppose, a goodly number +of waiters were needed in the hall. These were all students, and many of +them among the best and most esteemed scholars. About half-past five in +winter the bell summoned us from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> our beds, and at six it called us to +prayers in the chapel. We next repaired to the recitation-rooms and +recited by candle-light the lessons we had studied the preceding +evening. At eight we had breakfast, and at nine the bell warned us to +our rooms. At twelve it called us to a recitation or a lecture. After +dinner we recommenced our studies and recited for the third time at four +o'clock. During study hours the tutors would frequently go the rounds, +looking into our rooms to see that we were not playing truant. Before +supper, we all attended evening prayers in the chapel."</p> + +<p>The presidency of the college was then occupied by Dr. Timothy Dwight, +who also gave instruction in <i>belles-lettres</i>, oratory, and theology. To +him Jay wrote in 1818: "I retain a grateful recollection of your kind +attention to me, and I have, and trust will ever have, reason to +acknowledge the goodness of Providence in placing me under your care, +when many of my opinions were to be formed and my principles +established." Still later, he wrote to a college friend: "Your remarks +on Dr. Dwight are grateful to my heart. I cherish his memory as one of +the best friends I ever had."</p> + +<p>In his senior year Jay took part in debates among the students, presided +over by Dr. Dwight. Some of the subjects discussed were: "Ought infidels +to be excluded from office?" "Ought religion to be supported by law?" +"Would a division of the Union be politic?" "Would it be politic to +encourage manufactures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> in the United States?" On the last question Dr. +Dwight remarked: "We shall always buy things where we can get them the +cheapest; we will never make our commodities so long as we can buy them +better and cheaper elsewhere." Jay displayed his natural inclination for +the law by contributing a series of articles on legal subjects, over the +signature of "Coke," to the <i>Literary Cabinet</i>, the students' paper. He +took his degree in September, 1807, having injured his eyesight in his +efforts to attain a high standing in his class. "During the winter of my +junior year," he wrote in warning to his grandson William, "I was +struggling hard for honours, and trying to make up for lost time; I used +to rise about four o'clock, light my fire, and sit down to the study of +conic sections. I brought on a weakness in my eyes which lasted several +years. Be sure you never rise before the sun and study your Latin and +Greek by candle-light or gas-light."</p> + +<p>After graduation Jay went to Albany and began the study of the law in +the office of John B. Henry. On the 3d of September, 1812, he married +Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a merchant of New York, and +vestryman of Trinity Church. The difficulty with his eyesight, which had +seriously interfered with his legal studies, became so pronounced as to +compel him to abandon his profession for some years. During this period +he retired with his wife to his father's country seat, "Bedford," in +Westchester County, and there devoted himself with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> energy to +agricultural pursuits. The farm included about eight hundred acres, part +of a tract purchased by Jacobus van Cortlandt from Katonah Sagamore and +other Indian chieftains in 1700, and confirmed by patent of Queen Anne +in 1704. It had come to Chief-Justice Jay partly through his mother, +Mary van Cortlandt, the wife of Peter Jay, and partly through her +sister, Eve van Cortlandt, the wife of Judge John Chambers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fig_fp008.png" alt="The Jay House at Bedford" /></div> +<p class="caption">The Jay House at Bedford.</p> + +<p>Of the forty fields into which the farm was divided, Jay kept a separate +account: showing the tillage and produce, the drainage and fencing, the +dates of planting and reaping. A volume of this kind, begun in 1816, +contained entries as late as 1857, the year before his death. He +perfected himself in grafting and budding, and was particularly +successful with peaches, with cherries, pears and plums, some of them +with Huguenot names and memories, and with muskmelons from Persian seed, +brought to him from the East by a friend. He raised horses from imported +stock, Merino sheep, and superintended the curing of hams from a +Westphalian recipe, furnished by an old Hessian farm hand—one of the +hirelings who had come to conquer and remained to cultivate the country. +In 1818 Jay and Fenimore Cooper drafted the constitution for an +agricultural society of which Governor Jay was the first president and +General Pierre van Cortlandt the second—an institution of great use in +the development of Westchester County.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>In 1815, when twenty-six years of age, Jay entered upon that course of +active philanthropy which for the next forty years employed his thoughts +and pen. His first effort was directed to the improvement of his native +town of Bedford in the organization of the Society for the Suppression +of Vice. By means of this society, of which he was the secretary, he did +much to restrain the liquor traffic and to diminish intemperance. Later +on, as a judge, he used all the power of the law to the same end; and it +was he who suggested the law, still in force, which forbids a +tavern-keeper to supply drink on credit.</p> + +<p>An interesting incident in this early period of his life was the part +which he bore in founding the American Bible Society, in organizing its +machinery for the immense work it had to perform, and in vindicating the +principles of the society against the attacks of the opposing party in +his own church. In this struggle Jay proved the independence of +character and courage of conviction which afterwards distinguished him +through the seemingly hopeless years of antislavery effort. The general +distribution of Bibles in our day makes it difficult to appreciate the +limited supply, the high cost, and the consequent rarity of the Bible +when this society began its work. The High-Church party in New York were +opposed to the association of Episcopalians with other Christians to +circulate the Bible, and opposed even to the distribution of the Bible, +unless accompanied by the Prayer-book as an interpreter. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> these views +they were vigorously supported by their distinguished leader, Bishop +John Henry Hobart. Jay, who had inherited with his Huguenot blood a +faith in the Bible not to be restrained by ecclesiastical assumption, +was an officer of the Westchester Bible Society and deeply interested in +the work. On the appearance of a pastoral letter from Bishop Hobart in +which the High-Church views were expressed, he published a pamphlet +showing that it was "the interest and duty of Episcopalians to unite +with their fellow-Christians of all denominations in spreading the +knowledge of the Word of God." This pamphlet brought him into an active +conflict with the eminent bishop which lasted for several years, and +taught him that a philanthropic cause, even so plainly meritorious, was +not to be carried on without the opposition of powerful conservative +interests.</p> + +<p>Convinced that a national society could accomplish more than the local +and scattered State Bible societies, Jay published a pamphlet in 1816 +which showed the imperative importance of the work, and urged united +action. At the same time the venerable Elias Boudinot of New Jersey was +exerting himself to the same end. When he received a letter from Jay +enclosing the pamphlet, he thus welcomed his youthful ally: "These +precious moments I have devoted to a full consideration of one of the +greatest and most interesting subjects that has ever concerned the +children of men. Weak and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> feeble and scarcely able to think or write, +my efforts promised but little in the cause, when your welcome and +unexpected letter was brought in. My drooping spirits were raised and my +mind greatly revived. I could not help giving glory to God for the great +encouragement afforded me to press on in this glorious cause, when I +thus beheld His special mercy in raising up so powerful a support in +this joyous work and labour of love." In the same year the American +Bible Society was formed with the assistance of the best names in the +country. Elias Boudinot was chosen president, with John Jay and Matthew +Clarkson, a gallant officer of the Revolution, as vice-presidents. +Others on the roll were: John Langdon, the statesman of New Hampshire; +William Gray, the eminent merchant of Boston; the scholarly John Cotton +Smith, of Connecticut, with the blood of the Cottons and the Mathers of +colonial history; William Tighlman, the jurist of Pennsylvania; William +Wirt and Bushrod Washington, of Virginia; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, +of South Carolina; Governor Worthington, of Ohio; John Bolton, of +Georgia; Felix Grundy, of Tennessee; and of New York: Dr. John B. +Romeyne; Colonel Richard Varick, Washington's aide; Daniel D. Tompkins, +the Governor who obtained the abolition of slavery in the State; John +Pintard, John Aspinwall, Jeremiah Evarts, Frederic de Peyster, George +Griffin, De Witt Clinton, the Patroon Stephen van Rensselaer, and +Colonel Henry Rutgers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>Notwithstanding the honourable support given to the society, it had to +resist a carefully organized assault on the part of Bishop Hobart and an +influential portion of his clergy aimed at the vital principle on which +the success of the movement depended—the cordial union of all +Christians. Jay's previous training in the same field of controversy, +his staunch devotion at once to his cause and to his church, designated +him as the proper person to carry on, in behalf of the society, the war +of letters and pamphlets which ensued. Although pitted against an +adversary to whom age, experience, and station gave great advantages, he +acquitted himself with credit, displaying literary and reasoning powers +which were soon to exert a potent effect upon the great moral issue of +our time.</p> + +<p>Other questions of a philanthropic character occupied his pen. The Synod +of Albany having offered a prize for the best essay on the observance of +the Sabbath, Jay competed for it with success. A more notable incident +of the same sort occurred in 1828. The Savannah Anti-duelling +Association offered a medal for the best argument against duelling. The +committee appointed to judge the essays were: John Cummings; James M. +Wayne, subsequently appointed by President Jackson a justice of the +Supreme Court; R. W. Habersham, afterwards Governor of Georgia; William +Law; and Matthew Hall McAllister, mayor of Savannah and an opponent of +Nullification in 1832. That in 1828 these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> Southern men were seeking to +root out the habit of duelling, and that the prize should have been +awarded by them to William Jay, is a curious commentary on the +connection between slavery and duelling. At this time both practices had +their opponents at the South who were allowed to express their opinions. +As the grip of slavery increased in strength and closed the mouth of +every objector, anti-duelling sentiment was simultaneously extinguished. +Both barbarous practices were to increase and to perish together. Jay's +essay could then find praise among men who a few years later would not +tolerate in their homes any product of his pen.</p> + +<p>In May, 1818, Jay was appointed one of the judges of Westchester County. +The mention of the fact in his diary closed with the words, "May I have +grace to discharge with fidelity the duties of the station." Two years +later a commission from Governor Clinton made him the first judge of the +county, an office which he held until 1823, when the adoption of the new +constitution terminated all offices under the old one. Fenimore Cooper +then wrote to him, "I see that you are unhorsed with other clever +fellows." But in response to a general demand, Governor Clinton +reappointed him under the new constitution, and he continued to hold +office under successive governors of different parties until 1843, when +he was displaced by Governor Bouck at the demand of the pro-slavery wing +of the democracy. A decision of Jay's, rejecting a witness who declared +his un-belief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> in God, occurred when De Tocqueville was in the United +States, and was commented upon by the distinguished Frenchman as having +been accepted by the press without comment, and as showing that the +American people combined the notions of Christianity and of liberty so +intimately that it was impossible to make them conceive of the one +without the other, and that they held religion to be indispensable to +the maintenance of republican institutions. In 1862, soon after Jay's +death, when an attempt was made by a pro-slavery faction in the county +to remove his portrait from the court-house at White Plains, it was +defeated by a protest of the members of the bar. "Many of us," they +said, "were well acquainted with Judge Jay, and can speak from personal +knowledge of those high qualities which have given him an historic +celebrity. Whilst he entertained and vigorously vindicated decided +opinions on certain questions which have much divided society and +produced much acrimony of feeling—in which many of us did not +sympathize with him—yet we can all bear testimony to the noble +frankness and sincerity of his nature, to his deep interest in all +questions tending to advance the interest of the race, and to the +extraordinary intellectual strength displayed by him on all occasions in +giving expression to his convictions."</p> + +<p>In the early years of Jay's life, it appears that his mind turned +naturally toward philanthropic subjects. His moral sense was largely +developed, his conscience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> active, his humanity aggressive. His own +comfortable circumstances did not close his heart to the sufferings of +others. His generous nature longed to replace evil by good. And in the +cause which his conscience approved, no obloquy nor social unpopularity +could impede his progress. At the same time, there was about him nothing +of the intemperate agitator. He was a judge and brought to his +philanthropic labours a judicial habit of mind. Indeed, it was this +habit of mind which distinguished him among his fellow-workers in the +antislavery cause. It was his mission to urge emancipation with the +Constitution in his hand; to meet in conflict that portion of society +which silenced its uneasy conscience by a repetition of constitutional +provisions, and at the same time to combat those who were inclined to +seek emancipation by unconstitutional means.</p> + +<p>His quiet country life, in which healthful out-of-door pursuits were +mingled with the study and reflection of his library, particularly +fitted him to look at this all-important question with calmness, with +consideration for both sides, and yet with the vigour of a mind free to +work exhaustively on a subject involving many conflicting theories and +duties. He brought to his task real talents, literary and polemic; a +style ready and concise; a reasoning enlivened by an effective vein of +irony. He had a refined and benevolent countenance, a pleasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> manner, +a temper even, but easily roused to indignation at the sight of +injustice. Before considering his first connection with the antislavery +movement, we may glance at its situation in the early manhood of William +Jay.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER II.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY.—GROWTH OF THE SLAVE POWER.—THE +MISSOURI COMPROMISE.—JAY BEGINS POLITICAL AGITATION FOR THE +ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> movement which culminated in the Civil War and the total abolition +of slavery in the United States was first humanitarian, and subsequently +political. Philanthropists prepared the way for the statesman and the +soldier.</p> + +<p>The humanitarian movement had begun before the time of William Jay and +his fellow-workers. To find its beginnings, we must look back into the +colonial days of the eighteenth century. There, among the first, was +George Keith, of Pennsylvania, denouncing the system on grounds of both +Christianity and public policy. And Samuel Sewall, Chief-Justice of +Massachusetts, who, in his pamphlet, "The Selling of Joseph," quaintly +testified to the truth. "These Ethiopians," he said, "as black as they +are, seeing they are the sons and daughters of the first Adam and the +offspring of God, they ought to be treated with respect agreeable." +Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin Lay, William Burling, Anthony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> Benezet, the +Huguenot, were men who spoke as sincerely as later abolitionists and +whose words were heard. There was John Woolman, of New Jersey, who +pointed out "the dark gloominess overhanging the land, the spirit of +fierceness and love of dominion," resulting from this iniquity; and Dr. +Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., whose eloquent exhortations banished +the slave trade from a congregation growing rich on its spoils; and Dr. +Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, who foretold that "future ages will be +at a loss which to condemn most, our folly or our guilt in abetting this +direct violation of nature and religion." The legislatures of Virginia, +South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts in turn attempted to +restrict the slave-trade; but their efforts were annulled in England, +where the slave interest, through its champion, Lord Sandwich, forbade +any interference with "a traffic so beneficial to the nation."</p> + +<p>The colonies had no sooner achieved their independence than they found +themselves face to face with the great question, and on the threshold of +their national life a great change was perceptible in the attitude of +the people towards slavery. The old seventeenth century idea, that to +drag a negro from his heathen wilds to labour unrequited in a Christian +community tended to the benefit of his soul, had passed away. The +slave-trade was generally recognized as indefensible. There were men who +denounced slavery itself as an abominable evil. Even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> those most +determined to maintain the institution took the ground that it was an +unfortunate necessity, but that it must be preserved to avoid greater +evils. In 1787, through the noble efforts of Thomas Jefferson, Timothy +Pickering, Rufus King, Nathan Dane, William Grayson, and Richard Henry +Lee, Congress passed the great ordinance which forbade slavery to cross +the Ohio River into the Northwest Territory.</p> + +<p>The struggle between right and wrong had begun, but the opposing forces +were very unequal. On one side was humane sentiment; on the other was +deeply rooted habit, pecuniary interest, the pressure of political +questions of seemingly overriding importance. Among the great leaders of +the time there are two whose opinions and practice give an excellent +illustration of the prevailing antislavery feeling: John Jay of New +York, Patrick Henry of Virginia. There is no disagreement as to the +moral elevation of John Jay's character. Abroad and at home, officially +and unofficially, he was always the opponent of slavery. Yet Jay +purchased and held men as slaves. To obtain domestic servants otherwise +was extremely difficult. After his slaves had served him sufficiently +long and faithfully to return to him what he considered the value of his +outlay, he gave them their freedom. He believed that slavery in +principle was wrong, but he yielded so far to convenience and custom. +Patrick Henry was an antislavery man and placed his position on record +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> the following words: "Is it not amazing that, at a time when the +rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a +country above all others fond of liberty, in such an age, we find men +professing a religion the most humane, mild, meek, gentle, and generous +adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with +the Bible and destructive of liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects +it in speculation, but how few in practice, from conscientious motives! +Would any one believe that I am a master of slaves of my own purchase? I +am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I +will not, I cannot, justify it; however culpable my conduct, I will so +far pay my <i>devoirs</i> to duty as to own the excellence and rectitude of +her precepts and lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time +will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable +evil; everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our own +day; if not, let us transmit to our own descendants, together with our +slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery."</p> + +<p>Such being the character of antislavery sentiment, its chances of +success seem hopeless enough when we hear the other side. When Congress +was considering the Articles of Confederation, Wilson, of Pennsylvania, +said: "Dismiss your slaves, freemen will take their places." The reply +of Lynch, of South Carolina, showed the existence of men willing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +sacrifice everything to the preservation of slavery. "Our slaves are our +property," said he; "if that is debated, there is an end to +confederation."</p> + +<p>Thus, at this crisis in the national history, there first distinctively +appeared that aggressive, uncompromising party, afterwards to be known +as the Slave Power—an association of men then forming a minority even +in the South, but determined to carry its point at all hazards; men who +were willing to sacrifice every consideration of the public good to the +permanence of a system profitable to themselves, but which reduced human +beings to the level of beasts. Against a party so resolute, antislavery +opinion of the Patrick Henry variety could not prevail. Moreover, the +distracted state of the country, the imperative necessity for union, +made every other question seem secondary to the majority of patriotic +statesmen. In the Constitutional Convention, the Slave Power, then +chiefly represented by South Carolina and Georgia, by threatening to +defeat the establishment of a stable government and by making the +preservation of slavery a <i>sine qua non</i> to the Union, obtained the +concessions so big with future disaster.</p> + +<p>The struggle over this subject in the days of the formation of the +government was the beginning of the "irrepressible conflict." The Slave +Power had come into being as a distinct force, aiming to dominate the +rest of the community in the interest of property in man. On the other +hand, the opposition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> began to organize. Several abolition and +manumission societies were formed. The oldest of these was that of +Pennsylvania, which in 1787 chose Franklin for its president. A society +was formed in New York in 1785 with John Jay as president and Alexander +Hamilton as secretary; in Rhode Island in 1789, under the lead of Dr. +Hopkins. In 1791, before the Connecticut society, Jonathan Edwards the +younger maintained the doctrine of <i>immediate emancipation</i>. Similar +associations were at work in New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. +Antislavery men were thus uniting in their cause, but unfortunately they +were, with rare exceptions, devoid of the earnestness which +characterized their opponents. Their hostility to the system was a +sentiment rather than a principle. It could hasten somewhat emancipation +at the North; but it had no force to contend against the pecuniary +interests which were daily binding tighter the bonds of the negro in the +South. There, in the early years of the present century, the cotton-gin, +which had been invented in 1793, gave an impetus to the production of +cotton which nearly doubled the value of slaves. At the North the +profits of the African trade which supplied this increased demand for +negroes gave to the Slave Power allies almost as determined as +themselves.</p> + +<p>The year 1808, fixed by the Constitution as the limit of the duration of +the slave-trade, witnessed the next contest. The result was a definite +prohibition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> of the trade by law. But it was a barren victory for the +cause of humanity. The interests involved in both Northern and Southern +States had grown so large and influential as to make the law a dead +letter. The trade continued with unabated vigour, and marked by even +greater cruelties to the wretched cargoes. The Slave Power was growing +in strength and determination, bent on controlling the national +government, influencing our foreign relations, reaching out already to +grasp new slave territory.</p> + +<p>From 1818 to 1821 continued the great contest over the admission of +Missouri as a slave State, in which was involved the question whether +the extension and encouragement of slavery was to be the permanent +policy of the United States government. Men and words were not wanting +to expose and condemn the contemplated evil. But the Slave Power had +grown to too great proportions. Henry Clay, who had believed "slavery to +be a wrong, a grievous wrong, which no contingency can make right," now, +at the behest of slaveholders, threw his great influence against the +cause of humanity. As in the days of the Constitutional Convention the +Slave Power had secured the perpetuation of its system by threats of +preventing a union of the States, so in 1821 it obtained the principle +of the extension of slavery by threats of dissolving the Union. Thomas +Jefferson, so faithful an advocate of freedom, was now appalled by the +sound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> of a strife which, "like the fire-bell at midnight," announced +disaster, and he counselled concession. Even John Quincy Adams was on +the same side, "from extreme unwillingness to put the Union in hazard." +So passed the so-called Compromise, which allowed slavery to break its +bounds and to spread over Arkansas and Missouri. The Slave Power had won +a great victory and had shown immense growth. The old apologetic +position that the system, although wrong, could not be abolished without +entailing greater evils, was now exchanged for the bold doctrine that +slavery was a good thing, to be extended and strengthened.</p> + +<p>The struggle was growing fiercer and was becoming more clearly an issue +between North and South, but the bone of contention was yet the +extension, not the abolition, of slavery. The Slave Power, warned by the +opposition it had met with in Congress, that a new spirit was arising in +the North, instinctively felt that its position could be maintained only +by further aggression. None but slaveholders were allowed to represent +the South in Congress, where every public measure was considered first +in the light of its effect upon the institution of slavery. At home, +such humane laws regarding the blacks as still existed were repealed, +new and more cruel enactments were passed, the manumission of slaves by +grateful or repentant masters was prohibited.</p> + +<p>While at the South opinion tended towards united<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> and vigorous action, +the sentiments of the people at the North were divided. The majority, +although disliking slavery "in the abstract," were so fearful of the +outcome of the contention, were so anxious to see some settlement which +would put an end to agitation, that they were disposed to accept the +line drawn by the Missouri Compromise as the best solution possible, and +to resent any further antislavery expression as an element of profitless +disturbance. In this class there grew up a dislike of the negroes, a +hatred of the questions involved in their existence among us, a general +prejudice against colour, which tended greatly to the support of the +Slave Power. Many persons who preserved abolition views were lulled into +repose of conscience by support of the Colonization Society, an +organization formed in the South to get rid of free coloured persons by +shipping them to Africa, but skilfully made to appear as a philanthropic +scheme to solve the slavery problem. Men of the highest character and +with the best intentions had joined this society in the belief that +therein might be found the means of uprooting slavery. The ten years +following the Missouri Compromise were unpromising for the cause of the +slave. The Southern States were ceaselessly strengthening themselves. +Race prejudice, the fear of business disturbance, apathy, made the North +acquiescent. Cotton was king, and to that authority conscience +submitted.</p> + +<p>Still there were signs of light and materials for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> improvement. In 1822 +the exciting struggle for the establishment of slavery in Illinois +resulted in favour of freedom. There existed in the country one hundred +and forty antislavery societies, of which one hundred and six were in +the South. In 1826 was held in Baltimore a convention at which +eighty-one of these societies were represented. There was not enough +"fight" among these antislavery men to make much impression. Their views +were directed towards preventing the extension of slavery, towards its +abolition in the District of Columbia (where its existence involved +recognition by the United States government) and its "gradual" cessation +elsewhere. The fact of their holding the convention in Baltimore +indicates the still lingering sympathy of a considerable party in the +South, and it shows also that the Slave Power did not look upon them +with much concern. It is not until antislavery stands upon the platform +of abolition as an <i>immediate duty</i> that it is swept from the face of +the Southern States.</p> + +<p>There were earnest men already engaged in a new and more vigorous +crusade: Elias Hicks, the Quaker, who proclaimed boldly the sin of +owning men or condoning the practice in others; Rev. John Rankin, of +Tennessee, who removed with his congregation across the Ohio River, +rather than acquiesce in slavery; William Goodell, of Providence, +beginning a career of forty years; above all, Benjamin Lundy, who +sacrificed to the cause all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> men hold dear. Between 1815 and 1818 +four abolition papers were being published, <i>The Emancipator</i> in +Tennessee, <i>The Abolition Intelligencer</i> in Kentucky, <i>The Liberalist</i> +in Louisiana, and, most important, Lundy's <i>Genius of Universal +Emancipation</i> in Maryland. All of these papers were published in the +South, and the majority of the manumission societies were there. Thus, +in 1826, when William Jay began his labours, the line between freedom +and slavery was not yet drawn. A few slaves were still held in New York. +Many antislavery people were to be found at the South and many +pro-slavery people at the North. The United States was a slaveholding +nation.</p> + +<p>Jay was a deeply interested observer of the contest in Congress which +resulted in the Missouri Compromise. In 1819, when he was thirty years +of age, his attitude towards the extension of slavery was stated in a +letter to Elias Boudinot:</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt that the laws of God, and, as a necessary and +inevitable consequence, the true interests of our country, forbid the +extension of slavery. If our country is ever to be redeemed from the +curse of slavery the present Congress must stand between the living and +the dead and stay the plague. Now is the accepted time, now is the day +of salvation. If slavery once takes root on the other side of the +Mississippi, it can never afterwards be extiminated, but will extend +with the future Western Empire, poisoning the feelings of humanity, +checking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> the growth of those principles of virtue and religion which +constitute alike the security and happiness of civil society."</p> + +<p>In the year 1826 occurred an incident which marks the beginning of a new +phase in the antislavery struggle—the movement which demanded abolition +in the District of Columbia. There, on territory exclusively under the +jurisdiction of the National Congress, it could be claimed justly that +the question of States rights was not involved and that the +constitutional provisions did not apply. In this movement, which +continued until its object was accomplished in April, 1862, William Jay +was a pioneer.</p> + +<p>In August of the year 1826 John Owen, the proprietor of a paper-mill at +Croton Falls, near the Jay farm at Bedford, received a parcel from New +York which happened to have been wrapped in a Washington newspaper, <i>The +National Intelligencer</i>, of the 1st of August. On looking it over his +eye was caught by the following advertisement:</p> + +<p class="bq">"Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District of +Columbia, on the 22d of July last, a runaway negro man by the name +of Gilbert Horton. He is five feet high, stout made, large full +eyes, and a scar on his left arm near the elbow; had on when +committed a tarpaulin hat, linen shirt, blue cloth jacket and +trousers; says that he was born free in the State of New York near +Peekskill. The owner or owners of the above-described negro man, if +any, are requested to come and take him away, or he will be sold for +his jail fees and other expenses, as the law directs."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>There is a sort of grim humour about this advertisement, appearing, as +it did, according to law, in the capital of the great free republic of +the world, under a flag supposed to typify human liberty. It declared +that a man who claimed to be and actually was a citizen of the State of +New York was held in jail without any charge and would be sold into +lifelong slavery unless claimed as a slave by an owner who did not +exist. It declared, in short, that a free citizen of the United States +who had any negro blood in his veins would be reduced to slavery by the +act of setting foot in the capital of his country. Here was an issue +which involved the rights of the State of New York, but could not be +said to be an attack on those of Virginia or South Carolina.</p> + +<p>Mr. Owen recognized in the Gilbert Horton thus described a free man who +had worked in his neighbourhood. He lost no time in mounting his horse +and riding over to Bedford to submit the matter to Judge Jay. By the +latter's advice a letter was despatched at once to the marshal of the +District of Columbia, giving proofs of Horton's freedom, and a meeting +was called of the citizens of Westchester County to take action on the +subject. This meeting, held on the 30th of August, with Oliver Green in +the chair and William Jay as secretary, passed the following +resolutions:</p> + +<p class="bq">"I. That this meeting view this procedure with the indignation +becoming men who have a just sense of the value of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> personal +liberty, and a proper abhorrence of cruelty and oppression.</p> + +<p class="bq">"II. That the evidence affords unequivocal proof of the freedom of +Horton.</p> + +<p class="bq">"III. That the secretary is hereby desired to transmit to his +Excellency the Governor the evidence above referred to, and, in the +name of this meeting, to request his Excellency to demand from the +proper authorities the instant liberation of the said Horton as a +free citizen of the State of New York.</p> + +<p class="bq">"IV. That by the fourth article of the Constitution of the United +States the citizens of each State are entitled to all the privileges +and immunities of the several States, and that it is the duty of the +State of New York to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of these +rights without regard to their complexion.</p> + +<p class="bq">"V. That the law under which Horton has been imprisoned, and by +which a free citizen without evidence of crime and without trial by +jury may be condemned to servitude for life, is repugnant to our +republican institutions, and revolting to justice and humanity; and +that the representatives of this State in Congress are hereby +requested to use their endeavours to procure its repeal.</p> + +<p class="bq">"VI. That the secretary, with John Owen, Esq., be a committee to +prepare and to present to the citizens of this county, for their +signatures, a petition to Congress for the immediate abolition of +slavery in the District of Columbia.</p> + +<p class="bq">"VII. That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman +and secretary, and published."</p> + +<p>On receiving from Judge Jay the Westchester resolutions, Governor +Clinton submitted them immediately to President John Quincy Adams, who +was paying a summer visit to his home at Quincy, Mass.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> with a +respectful demand for the liberation of Gilbert Horton as a free man and +a citizen. The President sent the papers with a letter from himself to +Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. Henry Clay was absent at the time, +and the Chief Clerk of the department wrote to Governor Clinton that the +instructions of the President had been anticipated by the discharge of +Horton by the marshal of the District. The committal had taken place +under an old law of Maryland, "which was adopted by Congress with the +other general laws then in force in that State for the county of +Washington upon its assuming exclusive jurisdiction over the territory."</p> + +<p>This disposal of the case left the principle at issue untouched, and Jay +could not be satisfied with such a result. His views are expressed in a +letter written in September to Hon. Charles Miner, a member of Congress: +"Since I read a resolution introduced by you in relation to slavery in +the District of Columbia, the subject has been scarcely absent from my +mind, and the late imprisonment in Washington of a citizen of this +county afforded an opportunity which I gladly embraced of obtaining an +expression of public opinion. I do not entertain the slightest hope that +our petition will be favourably received, nor the slightest apprehension +that the cause we espouse will not finally triumph. The history of the +abolition of the slave-trade teaches us the necessity of patient +perseverance, and affords a pledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> that perseverance will be ultimately +crowned with success. We have nothing to fear, but much to hope, from +the violence and threats of our opponents. Apathy is the only obstacle +we have reason to dread, and to remove this obstacle it is necessary +that the attention of the public should be constantly directed to the +subject. Every discussion in Congress in relation to slavery, no matter +how great may be the majority against us, advances our cause. We shall +rise more powerful from every defeat."</p> + +<p>Jay's next step was to draft the memorial to Congress ordered by the +Westchester resolutions. It declared:</p> + +<p class="bq">"The outrage offered to a citizen of this county, and a violation of +the constitutional rights involved in that outrage, affords to the +meeting new and strong evidences of the impropriety of the +continuance of slavery in the District of Columbia. As citizens of +the republic, professing to acknowledge that all men are created +equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain +inalienable rights, and that among them are life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness, your petitioners cannot but regard it as +derogatory to the government of the country that its laws should +violate any of these rights in a territory under its exclusive +jurisdiction. To your honourable body was given by the Constitution +the exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatever over that District, +and your right and ability to grant the prayer of these petitioners +cannot be called in question, and the confined limit of the District +and the comparatively small number of slaves it contains obviates +the objections sometimes urged against sudden emancipation.</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>"Your petitioners therefore earnestly entreat your honourable body +that the government of this great republic, glorying as it does in +acknowledging and protecting the rights of mankind, diffusing the +blessings of freedom, may no longer by law withhold these rights and +blessings from any portion of the inhabitants of its own immediate +territory, but in the exercise of your prerogative you will +immediately provide for the abolition of slavery in the District of +Columbia in such manner as in your wisdom may seem best."</p> + +<p>The publication of the Westchester resolutions elicited no unfavourable +comments at the North, but it gave no little disquietude to Southern +editors, two of whom declared that black persons travelling in the South +should carry proofs of their freedom, as whites in Europe were compelled +to carry passports. The introduction of the subject into Congress, even +at that day, when there was no excitement at the North on the subject of +slavery, brought out the susceptibility and dictatorial tone of the +slaveholding interest which marked all subsequent debates up to the +election of Lincoln.</p> + +<p>Soon after the assembling of Congress in 1827, Mr. Aaron Ward, +representing Westchester County, introduced the resolution: "That the +committee on the District of Columbia be directed to enquire whether +there be in force in the said District any law which authorizes the +imprisonment of any man of colour and his sale as an unclaimed slave for +gaol fees, and if so to enquire into the expediency of repealing the +same." Mr. Ward accompanied his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> resolution with remarks of a moderate +character, referring to the circumstances of Horton's arrest, the fact +of his being a citizen of New York, and the danger in which he stood of +being sold as a slave; he contrasted the law under which such +proceedings could be had with the provisions of the national +Constitution; and he concluded by saying: "The jurisdiction of the +District, sir, ought to be exhibited to the country and to the world +without a stain. Its object should be not to oppress but to vindicate +the rights of freemen, and if there is a spot on earth where these +rights are to be held sacred that place is the District of Columbia."</p> + +<p>For a Northern man merely to touch upon the rights of coloured persons +was enough to arouse the leading Southern members of the House to angry +opposition. John Forsythe, who as minister to Spain had arranged the +session of Florida, James Hamilton, already an extreme advocate of +States rights and afterwards Governor of South Carolina, Charles A. +Wickliffe, afterwards Postmaster-General under President Tyler, and +George McDuffie, of Georgia, all took pains to throw ridicule upon the +resolution, or to oppose its consideration. They considered, no doubt +correctly, that to have any negroes spoken of in Congress otherwise than +as property was an indirect blow at slavery. W. L. Brent, of Maryland, +said that the resolution as it stood was calculated to excite only angry +debate and irritated feelings. If the mover would omit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> the words "being +a citizen of any State," the most objectionable part would be removed. +Mr. Ward consented to this emasculation and his resolution was then +carried. The committee reported on the 16th July, that in the District +of Columbia, "if a free man of colour should be apprehended as a +runaway, he is subjected to the payment of all fees and rewards given by +law for apprehending runaways; and upon failure to make such payment, is +liable to be sold as a slave." "That is," said Judge Jay, "a man +acknowledged to be free and unaccused of any offence is to be sold as a +slave to pay fees and rewards given by law for apprehending runaways. If +Turkish despotism is disgraced by an enactment of equal atrocity, we are +ignorant of the fact." The committee thought the law rather hard, and +recommended such an alteration of it as would make such charges payable +by the corporation of Washington. But even this alteration was never +made. "The code of Washington," Jay said some years later, "is yet +polluted by unquestionably the most iniquitous statute in Christendom." +And the fact continued that a coloured citizen of a free State could be +sold into slavery if found in Washington. Convinced that no reform could +be expected except by the total abolition of slavery on United States +territory, convinced, too, that this was the first necessary step in a +campaign against slavery itself, Jay set on foot a movement for popular +petitions to Congress and for legislative expression in behalf of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> their +consideration. The Pennsylvania Legislature passed such resolutions in +January, 1829; the New York Assembly followed soon afterwards, when Jay +wrote to his friend Charles Miner: "The mail this evening brings the +news that resolutions instructing our representatives in Congress to +vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia have +passed our Assembly by a vote of 57 to 39. In the fulness of my heart I +thank God and take courage." Among his co-workers at this time was Henry +D. Sedgwick, to whom he wrote in 1831: "I have read your pamphlet with +much interest; your ideas on the abolition of slavery correspond with +those I have long entertained and expressed. Duty is the only safe rule +of expediency. No nation ever has suffered, and none ever will, for +doing justice and loving mercy. But moral considerations apart, I have +no doubt it would be wise policy in the Southern States immediately to +emancipate their slaves. The period must arrive when slavery must cease +on this continent. The progress of knowledge and religion, the example +of St. Domingo, the abolition of slavery in Mexico and South America, +the decreasing value of slave labour, and the rapidly augmenting +coloured population in the South, all combine in rendering this event +inevitable. But the slaves will either receive their freedom as a boon, +or they will wrest it by force from their masters; and the evils +attending these two modes of emancipation certainly bear no proportion +to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> each other. You remark, 'Our country fought for justice and should +be ready to render the justice which it demanded.' I observe a similar +sentiment in a letter written by my father from Spain to Judge Benson +during the contest to which you allude. Speaking of the abolition of +slavery, he says, 'Till America comes into this measure her prayers to +Heaven for liberty will be impious.' This is a strong expression, but it +is just. Were I in your Legislature I would prepare a bill for the +purpose with great care, and would never cease moving it till it became +a law or I ceased to be a member. I believe that God governs the world, +and I believe it to be a maxim in His Court, as in ours, that those who +ask for equity ought to do it. I do not think the free States guiltless +of upholding slavery while, through their representatives, they tolerate +it in the District of Columbia. Were the free States to will it, slavery +would cease at the capital of the republic, and an example would be set +that could not fail of having a salutary influence."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38a" id="Page_38a"></a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fig_fp038.png" alt="John Jay" /></div> +<p class="caption">John Jay</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER III.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT.—ORGANIZATION OF +ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES.—ANTI-ABOLITION RIOTS.—JAY PUBLISHES HIS +"INQUIRY."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">Chief-Justice Jay</span> died at Bedford in 1828, and his son William occupied +his leisure during the following five years in preparing "The Life and +Letters of John Jay." This work was published in two octavo volumes in +1833, and was highly praised for both thoroughness and impartiality.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile events were occurring which raised antislavery sentiment from +the torpor in which it had fallen after the excitement of the Missouri +Compromise, and which brought the whole question before the people as a +live issue which compelled attention. Between the years 1829 and 1832 +took place a remarkable series of debates in Virginia on the subject of +slavery, brought about by dissatisfaction with the State constitution +and by the Nat Turner massacre, in which a number of slaves had risen +against their masters. In these debates the evils of slavery were +exposed as clearly as they were afterwards by the Abolitionists, and +with an outspoken freedom which, when indulged in by Northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> men, was +soon to be denounced as treasonable and incendiary. These Southern +speakers were silenced by the Slave Power. But there were men in the +North who thought the same and who would not be silenced. Chief among +these was William Lloyd Garrison. He had begun his memorable career by +circulating petitions in Vermont in 1828 in favor of emancipation in the +District of Columbia. Having joined Lundy in Baltimore in editing the +<i>Genius of Universal Emancipation</i>, he had suffered ignominy in the +cause in a Southern jail; drawing from persecution and hardship only new +inspiration, he began the publication of the <i>Liberator</i> at Boston in +January, 1831. In the following year, under his leadership, was formed +the New England Anti-Slavery Society, which placed itself on the new +ground that <i>immediate, unconditional emancipation, without +expatriation, was the right of every slave and could not be withheld by +his master an hour without sin</i>. In March, 1833, the <i>Weekly +Emancipator</i> was established in New York, with the assistance of Arthur +and Lewis Tappan, and under the editorship of William Goodell. In the +same year appeared at Haverhill, Mass., a vigorous pamphlet by John G. +Whittier, entitled "Justice and Expediency, or Slavery considered with a +View to its Rightful and Effectual Remedy, Abolition." Nearly +simultaneously were published Mrs. Lydia Maria Child's "Appeal in Behalf +of that Class of Americans called Africans," and a pamphlet by Elizur +Wright, Jr., a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> professor in the Western Reserve College, on "The Sin of +Slavery and its Remedy."</p> + +<p>These publications and the doctrines of the <i>Liberator</i> produced great +excitement throughout the country. The South had been able to hear the +words "gradual emancipation" with a confident equanimity, and only a few +years before had tolerated a convention in Baltimore gathered to forward +that object. But the word "immediate" now prefixed to emancipation acted +as a firebrand to gunpowder. Southern newspapers and politicians could +not find epithets strong enough to denounce the fanatical incendiaries +who said that slavery, being wrong in itself, should cease at once. A +reward was offered by a Southern Legislature for the person of Garrison, +dead or alive. For lending Whittier's pamphlet to a white man Dr. Reuben +Crandall was tried for his life at Washington on the charge of +"circulating Tappan, Garrison & Co.'s papers encouraging the negroes to +insurrection."</p> + +<p>The lives of the abolitionists were safer at the North, but their +principles were condemned there in terms quite as decided. To say that +slavery ought to be immediately abolished was sufficient cause for the +clergyman to lose his pulpit and the merchant his credit. The new +doctrine was too sound to be ignored, and its agitation was +disorganizing, vexatious, injurious to business, destructive of private +and political peace. The North agreed with the South that slavery was +not a subject to which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> right of free speech applied. The +abolitionists were accused of injuring the cause of the blacks by their +proceedings. And indeed, at the South the treatment of the slave became +harsher, and at the North the prejudice against the free negro was +intensified. In 1833 Miss Crandall, a Quaker lady, endeavoured to +establish a boarding-school for the education of coloured girls in +Canterbury, Conn. A committee of the inhabitants waited upon her, who +represented "that by putting her design into execution she would bring +ruin and disgrace upon them all." Three town meetings were held in one +week to discuss ways and means to suppress a scheme which would render +"insecure the persons, property, and reputation of our citizens." The +State of Connecticut passed a special law to forbid the establishment of +such a school. Under it, Miss Crandall was tried and convicted. The +constitutionality of the law was called in question and the case was +appealed. But the inhabitants of Canterbury thought the crisis too +serious to depend on legal technicalities. Miss Crandall was driven from +the town by persecution. The shops would sell her no food; her well was +filled with manure, and water from other sources refused; her house was +smeared with filth and finally set on fire. The trustees of the Noyes +Academy in Plymouth, N. H., having consented to the admission of +coloured pupils, the respectable people of the town avoided the +contemplated disgrace by moving the school building from its +foundations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> and depositing it in a swamp. In 1835 a wealthy coloured +man bought a pew on the floor of Park Street Church in Boston. His +neighbours nailed up the door of the pew, and so many "aggrieved +brethren" threatened to leave that the trustees were obliged to prevent +the threatened contamination of the sanctuary by excluding the coloured +pew-holder. A hundred similar cases might be cited to show that before +the emancipation of the slaves could gain even a hearing, the North had +to be educated to consider the negro race as human beings capable of +improvement and deserving of humane encouragement.</p> + +<p>In May, 1833, Judge Jay contributed to the first number of the +<i>Emancipator</i> a letter which sets forth his own views of the problem of +American slavery at that time and also some of the difficulties in the +path of the emancipationists:</p> + +<p class="bq">"The duty and policy of immediate emancipation, although clear to +us, are not so to multitudes of good people who abhor slavery and +sincerely wish its removal. They take it for granted, no matter why +or wherefore, that if the slaves were now liberated they would +instantly cut the throats and fire the dwellings of their +benefactors. Hence these good people look upon the advocates of +emancipation as a set of dangerous fanatics, who are jeopardizing +the peace of the Southern States and riveting the fetters of the +slaves by the very attempt to break them. In their opinion the +slaves are not fit for freedom, and therefore it is necessary to +wait patiently till they are. Now, unless these patient waiters can +be brought over to our side, emancipation is hopeless; for, first,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +they are an immense majority of all among us who are hostile to +slavery; and, secondly, they are as conscientious in their opinions +as we are in ours, and unless converted will oppose and defeat all +our efforts. But how are they to be converted? Only by the +exhibition of Truth. The moral, social, and political evils of +slavery are but imperfectly known and considered. These should be +portrayed in strong but true colours, and it would not be difficult +to prove that, however inconvenient and dangerous emancipation may +be, the continuance of slavery must be infinitely more inconvenient +and dangerous.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Constitutional restrictions, independent of other considerations, +forbid all other than moral interference with slavery in the +Southern States. But we have as good and perfect a right to exhort +slaveholders to liberate their slaves as we have to exhort them to +practice any virtue or avoid any vice. Nay, we have not only the +right, but under certain circumstances it may be our duty to give +such advice; and while we confine ourselves within the boundaries of +right and duty, we may and ought to disregard the threats and +denunciations by which we may be assailed.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The question of slavery in the District of Columbia is totally +distinct, as far as we are concerned, from that of slavery in the +Southern States.</p> + +<p class="bq">"As a member of Congress, I should think myself no more authorized +to legislate for the slaves of Virginia than for the serfs of +Russia. But Congress has full authority to abolish slavery in the +District, and I think it to be its duty to do so. The public need +information respecting the abominations committed at Washington with +the sanction of their representatives—abominations which will cease +whenever those representatives please. If this subject is fully and +ably pressed upon the attention of our electors, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> may perhaps +be induced to require pledges from candidates for Congress for their +votes for the removal of this foul stain from our National +Government. As to the Colonization Society, it is neither a wicked +conspiracy on the one hand nor a panacea for slavery on the other. +Many good and wise men belong to it and believe in its efficacy."</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1833 the abolitionists of Great Britain succeeded in +obtaining the act of emancipation for the 800,000 slaves in the West +Indies. In June Arthur Tappan wrote to Judge Jay asking for his "opinion +as to the expediency of forming an American Antislavery Society and of +doing it now. The impulse given to the cause by the movement in England +would, it appears to me, aid us greatly here." Jay replied very +cautiously. A New York society, he thought, might be desirable +immediately. The constitutions and proceedings of such societies +demanded great caution and prudence; they must blend the wisdom of the +serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. The Southern people affected +to apprehend an unconstitutional interference with their property, as +they called it, by the Northern abolitionists, and no ground for such +pretended fear should be given. With this view, he suggested the +incorporation into the constitution of antislavery societies a distinct +declaration, such as the following: "We concede that Congress, under the +present National Compact, has no right to interfere with any of the +slave States in relation to this momentous subject. But we maintain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to suppress the domestic +slave-trade between the several States and to abolish slavery in those +portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its +exclusive jurisdiction." He further suggested that the two subjects, the +Colonization Society and the political condition of the free blacks, +should be avoided. "Duty and policy," he said, "in my opinion demand the +emancipation of our slaves, but they do not demand that immediately on +their emancipation they shall be invested with the right of suffrage."</p> + +<p>On the 2d of October the New York City Antislavery Society was +successfully organized, despite an active and organized effort to +prevent it. A call had been issued for a meeting of the friends of +immediate emancipation at Clinton Hall. A counter-notice was published, +signed "Many Southerners," inviting a meeting at the same time and +place. The proprietors of Clinton Hall, alarmed at the situation, +refused to let it to the abolitionists, who then applied to the Clinton +Hotel, where they were also refused. The Southerners and their Northern +sympathizers, finding Clinton Hotel closed, held a meeting at Tammany +Hall, with General Bogardus, the United States Marshal, in the chair, +with speeches and resolutions against the abolitionists, when a report +that the abolitionists were in session at Chatham Street Hall sent them +there in haste, only to find the Hall closed and dark. An eye-witness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +described the crowd assembled by the Southern call as "a genuine +drunken, infuriated mob of blackguards of every species, some with good +clothes, and the major part the very sweepings of the city." The public +was amused the next morning by a leading editorial in the <i>Courier and +Enquirer</i>, congratulating the country on the failure of the +"disorganizing fanatics to organize a society fraught with danger to the +Union and based upon an open violation of the United States +Constitution;" while the advertising column of the same sheet contained +the official proceedings of the abolitionists at the Chatham Street +Chapel, where with promptness, energy, and order they had received the +report of a committee, adopted a constitution, elected officers, +adjourned and closed the building before the arrival of the rioters from +Tammany. The successful management of the affair was due chiefly to the +coolness and skill of Lewis Tappan, to whose devotion and energy the +antislavery cause was from this time constantly indebted. The peaceful +and lawful aims of the society, its frank acknowledgment of the rights +of the Southern States were set forth in its constitution:</p> + +<p class="bq">"While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has, by the +Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate +in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince +all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their +understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime +in the sight of God, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> the duty, safety, and best interest +of all concerned require its immediate abandonment, without +expatriation. The society will also endeavour in a constitutional +way to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade +and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country +which come under its control, especially in the District of +Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State +that may hereafter be admitted to the Union.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the +people of colour, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and +religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus +they may <i>according to their intellectual and moral worth</i> share an +equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but this +society will never in any way countenance the oppressed in +vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the distinct and moderate language in which the society +set forth its lawful objects, pro-slavery prejudice was aroused to +violent opposition. A week later a meeting was called to protest against +the "reckless agitations of the abolitionists." Theodore Frelinghuysen, +United States Senator from New Jersey, declared that "nine tenths of the +horrors of slavery were imaginary," that "the crusade of abolition" was +"the poetry of philanthropy," that emancipationists were "seeking to +dissolve the Union." Chancellor Walworth came down from Albany to say +that they were "reckless incendiaries" and their efforts +unconstitutional. David B. Ogden declared the doctrine of immediate +emancipation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> to be "a palpable and direct nullification of the +Constitution."</p> + +<p>On the 29th of October, 1833, a circular invitation was addressed to +Judge Jay and others to attend a convention at Philadelphia on the 4th +December to form a National Antislavery Society. This step was taken in +concurrence with the views of the friends of immediate emancipation in +Boston, Providence, New York, and Philadelphia. Among the motives for +organizing such a society without delay it was argued that union is +strength; that the advocates of the immediate abolition of slavery, +though comparatively few and much scattered, were many in the aggregate, +and could act, when combined, with irresistible power; that the cause +was urgent, public expectation excited, its friends to some extent +committed to such a movement during the present year; that they had the +example of similar organizations, which, though feeble and condemned by +public opinion in the outset, had speedily risen to great influence, and +had been the means under God of immense benefit to the human race, +especially in the case of the National Antislavery Society of Great +Britain, and of the American Temperance Society. The invitation was +signed by a committee consisting of Arthur Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, and +Elizur Wright, Jr., all officers of the New York Antislavery Society.</p> + +<p>At the same time Judge Jay received a letter from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> Rev. Samuel J. May +urging him to be present. "This is a cause," wrote May, "in which our +wisest and best and most prudent men ought to engage. There never has +been in our country so great a demand for the exertions of true patriots +and real Christians.... Let me beg of you to be there, at the +convention. I have heard the hope that you will be there expressed most +fervently by many."</p> + +<p>Jay replied to the committee that he could not be present. "It would +perhaps be uncandid to conceal from you," he said, "that the expediency +of the proposed attempt to form a National Society at the present time +seems to me to be at least questionable. May it not increase the +irritation and hostility extensively felt towards abolitionists without +promoting their objects more effectually than local societies? If, +however, a National Society is to be formed, it is to be hoped its +proceedings will be marked with great prudence and moderation. The great +objection made to antislavery associations is that they aim at an +unconstitutional interference with slavery. This objection, false as I +am persuaded it is, has nevertheless an extensive and injurious +influence, and unless it be removed success will be hopeless. It seems +to me, therefore, of the utmost importance that correct constitutional +principles on this subject should not only be entertained, but +explicitly and unequivocally avowed by every antislavery society. This +avowal might be made in the preamble of their constitution in some form +like the following:</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>"'The object of this society is to promote the abolition of slavery +in the United States. As all legislation relative to slavery in the +several States in which it exists can be constitutionally exercised +only by their respective Legislatures, this society will endeavour +to effect its object, so far as relates to these States, by argument +addressed to the understanding and conscience of their citizens. But +inasmuch as the Federal Constitution confers on Congress the +exclusive right to legislate for the District of Columbia, this +society will use all such lawful and constitutional means as may be +deemed advisable to induce Congress to abolish slavery in that +District without delay.'</p> + +<p>"I am very sensible that the friends of emancipation hold these +principles, but not having given them sufficient prominence in their +writings they have subjected themselves to much injurious suspicion."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay's letter was read on the first day of the Antislavery +Convention held in Philadelphia in December, 1833; and in the +declaration of principles, reported by William Lloyd Garrison, John G. +Whittier, and Samuel J. May, and unanimously adopted by the convention, +appeared the following clauses, by which the abolitionists were enabled +to repel the charge, so persistently made, that they sought to +accomplish their ends by unconstitutional means, by asking Congress to +exceed its power by meddling with slavery in the States:</p> + +<p class="bq">"We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State to +legislate exclusively on the subject of slavery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> which is tolerated +within its limits; we concede that Congress under the present +National Compact has no right to interfere with any of the slave +States in relation to this momentous subject.</p> + +<p class="bq">"But we maintain that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to +suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several States, and to +abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the +Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction."</p> + +<p>In 1838 an energetic attempt was made by Alvan Stewart, of Utica, to +strike out the clause in the constitution of the American Antislavery +Society which recognized the rights of the Southern States under the +United States Constitution. Jay perceived the injury that such a course +would inflict on the position of the abolitionists. It would, indeed, +have committed the society to the doctrine that Congress could continue +slavery in the States. He opposed the change with vigour during a debate +of two days and succeeded in maintaining the all-important clause.</p> + +<p>Looked at by the light of subsequent events, the importance of placing +the antislavery movement on a strictly constitutional basis cannot be +overrated. Upon the principles thus distinctly avowed rested the moral +and political strength of the movement during a struggle of nearly +thirty years. And these principles became, in 1854, under the guidance +of the founders of the Republican party, the chief plank in the platform +of that great organization, under whose sturdy lead, aided by citizens +of all parties, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> supremacy of the national Constitution was +maintained, the integrity of the national territory was preserved, +slavery was ended, and the republic saved.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay was not yet officially connected with the antislavery +societies, but his sympathy was close with them and their officers. At +the request of the Executive Committee of the New York society, he +drafted a petition for abolition in the District of Columbia for +circulation in New York, in which he again distinctly drew the line +between the power of Congress over the District and its want of power as +regarded the States. This careful discrimination had no weight with the +many who were unwilling to admit that anything said or done by the +abolitionists was right. But it succeeded with more liberal men, among +them the good Chancellor Kent. The Chancellor, whose reputation as a +jurist was second to none, signed the petition, which he declared to +contain "no unconstitutional doctrine."</p> + +<p>The first anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Chatham Street Chapel in the beginning of May, 1834. Arthur Tappan +presided, and addresses were made by Elizur Wright, Jr., Rev. Amos A. +Phelps of Boston, James A. Stone of Kentucky, a delegate from the Lane +Seminary, Robert Purvis of Philadelphia, Rev. Henry G. Ludlow, Wm. Lloyd +Garrison, and Charles Stewart. The meeting met with disorderly +interruptions; the newspapers contained abusive attacks upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +abolitionists and appealed against them to the passions of the lowest +and most ignorant class in the community. "All this violence and +obloquy," remarked Judge Jay, "are not without an object, and that +object is intimidation." The truth of this observation was soon +disgracefully verified. When the Fourth of July was celebrated at the +Chatham Street Chapel by an antislavery oration from David Paul Brown of +Philadelphia, the disorderly elements evoked by the press against the +blacks and abolitionists responded in large force and with increased +lawlessness. On the 9th of July a mob assembled at the Chapel, broke +open the doors, passed resolutions in favor of the Colonization Society +and by a suggestive vote adjourned until the next meeting of the +Antislavery Society. The mob then proceeded to the Bowery Theatre to +avenge some expressions attributed to an English actor, and next to the +house of Mr. Lewis Tappan, which was attacked with bricks and stones, +the furniture broken up and burned in the street. The riots continued +for several days with little hindrance from the city authorities. Six +churches were attacked and a large number of houses occupied by +abolitionists or by coloured people. Against the latter the fury of the +mob was especially directed. The same scenes of riot and cruelty toward +the helpless blacks occurred in Philadelphia, where forty-five houses +were destroyed. It was evident that the arguments of the abolitionists +could not be met except with violence. The mobs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> as usual, were +cowardly. In some cases the determined action of the abolitionists +afforded them the protection refused by the police. It was announced +that among the houses to be attacked was that of Dr. Abraham L. Cox, in +Broome Street, a few doors east of Broadway. John Jay, then a student at +Columbia College, was living in the house. Some members of the New York +Young Men's Antislavery Society, with guns and pistols, were gathered +within and notice was given publicly that an attack would be repelled by +force. Late that night the mob in its lawless career passed close to Dr. +Cox's house, but did not dare to molest it. Similar preparations for +defence saved the store of Arthur Tappan.</p> + +<p>While the New York mob, as the <i>Commercial Advertiser</i> said, were "now +nightly engaged in deeds of violence," the same paper distinctly took +the ground that the abolitionists should not enjoy "the protection of +the law and the aid of the military," except "on condition that the +causers of these mischiefs shall be abated and the outrages upon public +feelings from the forum, the pulpit, and the press shall no more be +repeated by these reckless incendiaries." The <i>Courier and Inquirer</i> of +the same day said: "Now we tell them [the abolitionists] that when they +openly and publicly promulgate doctrines which outrage public feelings, +they have no right to demand protection of the people they insult," and +they must understand "that they prosecute their treasonable and beastly +plans at their own peril."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> Such was the view taken of American freedom +of speech by the pro-slavery party. The manly traits of American +character seemed to be lost in the prevailing atmosphere of race +prejudice, cowardice, and injustice. Politicians of both parties, +representatives of the commercial and professional classes of the North, +acquiesced in a policy which they thought would advance their views, but +which was destructive of the fundamental principles of American liberty. +The highest and the lowest had joined hands to assail the coloured +people and their friends. Names honoured in the Church and the State, +which should have helped to elevate public opinion and to guide it in +the path of justice, obeyed the mandates and echoed the denunciations of +the Slave Power. For a time was presented an alliance in behalf of +slavery of the highest classes with the scum of politicians and +criminals. The intrepid William Leggett was one of the few who dared to +publish the truth. "The fury of demons," he wrote in the <i>Evening Post</i>, +"seems to have entered into the breasts of our misguided populace. The +rights of public and private property, the obligations of law, the +authority of its ministers and even the power of the military are all +equally spurned by these audacious sons of riot and disorder." Candid +and cautious thinkers began to take alarm at the disregard for law which +seemed to be spreading through the country. "These mobs," wrote Dr. +Channing, "are indeed most dishonourable to us as a people, because they +have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> been too much the expression of public sentiment, ... because +there was a willingness that the antislavery movement should be put down +by force."</p> + +<p>The conduct of the mobs, and the encouragement given to them by the +press, aroused the spirit and stimulated the energy of the +abolitionists. "These crimes," said Judge Jay, "abundantly prove the +extreme cruelty and sinfulness of that prejudice against colour which we +are impiously told is an ordination of Providence. Colonizationists, +assuming the prejudice to be natural and invincible, propose to remove +its victims beyond its influence. Abolitionists, on the contrary, +remembering with the Psalmist 'that it is He that hath made us, and not +we ourselves,' believe that the benevolent Father of us all requires us +to treat with justice and kindness every portion of the human family."</p> + +<p>Although he had been an earnest emancipationist for ten years, Judge Jay +had had doubts of the wisdom of forming antislavery societies at so +early a period in the movement. He had feared that unmeasured and +unconstitutional doctrines might be adopted which would set the cause in +a false light before the country. His advice had been sought and +followed, as we have seen, and there was no longer any reason why he +should not become an active member. In 1834, immediately after the riots +and when the outlook seemed darkest, he took a place on the Executive +Committee of the National Society.</p> + +<p>"In that season of feverish excitement," wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> Hon. Henry Wilson, +"Judge William Jay, inheriting not only the honoured name, but the +principles and purity of the illustrious Chief-Justice, at first +declined an office in the new society, deeming its organization +premature," but now "sought to take his share of its labours and +responsibilities. His name gave prestige; his talents, learning, and +integrity afforded strength, while his cautious and ready pen laid +precious gifts upon its altar."</p> + +<p>In February, 1835, was published Jay's "Inquiry into the Character and +Tendency of the American Colonization and American Antislavery +Societies." The book bore upon its title-page the words of Milton, "Give +me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my +conscience, above all liberties"—a sentiment considered treasonable in +America by the Slave Power. This work had a powerful effect upon public +opinion, not only on account of the arguments it contained, but largely +on account of the character and position of its author. It was the +policy of the pro-slavery party to represent the abolitionists as +ignorant and reckless agitators, with nothing to lose. But here was a +man of family and fortune, a judge on the bench, high in the counsels of +the Episcopal Church, who set forth the detested doctrines with judicial +moderation and unanswerable logic.</p> + +<p>Jay began by an exposure of the Colonization Society. He showed that it +was merely a scheme to get rid of the free blacks at the South, where +they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> were regarded as a nuisance; that its officers represented it at +the North as a solution of the slavery question to quiet +emancipationists and to obtain their subscriptions. He set forth the +constitutional and merciful objects of the American Antislavery Society. +He showed that abolitionists were neither acting in opposition to law, +nor were in any manner exciting the slaves to insurrection; that the +opinions they professed were such as had been freely uttered by +Jefferson, Franklin, and numerous Southern statesmen within fifty years. +He exposed the cruel character of American slavery, the beastly +degradation, physical, moral, and mental, to which it condemned the +blacks; the horrors of the interstate slave-trade, tearing husband from +wife and children from their mothers to be sold into distant places; he +pointed out the national disgrace involved in the fact that in the city +of Washington, under the stars and stripes, slave-dealers were licensed +to ply their trade in human flesh, leading the chained "coffles" of +black wretches about the streets. The concluding chapters were devoted +to showing that emancipation could be accomplished with safety, and that +the real danger to the country lay in the continuation of slavery.</p> + +<p>The welcome extended to this book by the avowed abolitionists is +illustrated by the following extract from the annual report of the +Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1836: "We know it will not be +thought invidious towards others who have greatly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> contributed by their +excellent writings to help on our glorious enterprise, if we make +especial mention of the volume from the pen of the Hon. William Jay of +New York. His 'Inquiry' was published in the early part of last year. +Coming from him, a man extensively known, and highly respected and +beloved by all who know him, it could not fail to command the public +attention. The very rapid sale of the first and second editions evinced +the eagerness of thousands to know the results of his inquiry into the +sentiments and plans of the two societies which had stood from the birth +of the latter in the attitude of opposition. It is a book so full of +pertinent facts and carefully drawn conclusions that it could not fail +to impart the convictions of its author to other minds. No book on the +subject has probably been read by more persons, nor has any one been +instrumental to the conversion of more."</p> + +<p>The importance of the "Inquiry" to the antislavery cause is illustrated +by the diverse character of the men whose attention was attracted by +it—men whose conservative habits of mind, whose business and +professional interests caused them to ignore if not to condemn the +abolitionists. "Your book," wrote Rev. Beriah Green, who presided at the +organization of the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, "will +command a large circle of readers who could not be persuaded to examine +a paragraph written by any of us who have so long been known and hated +and execrated as abolitionists.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> To many of these, your arguments, so +skilfully arranged, so powerfully described, so happily conducted to so +triumphant a conclusion, must prove convincing. They must abandon their +'miry clay,' and, aided by your hand, take a position 'on the rock.'" +Among leading men influenced by Jay's "Inquiry" may be mentioned Dr. +Alonzo Potter, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania, and Peter G. +Stuyvesant, a representative of the solid Knickerbockers of New York. +Edward Delavan, of Albany, wrote: "You have done the cause of humanity +an incalculable amount of good by the work." Mrs. Theodore Sedgwick +wrote from Stockbridge: "We are reading your book on American slavery +with great interest. You have rendered an invaluable service to the +country and to the cause of humanity." The approbation most welcome to +Jay was probably that of the eminent Chancellor Kent. "I have read the +volume," he said, "with equal interest and astonishment. You have +accumulated a mass of facts of which a great part were to me unknown, +and they are of a surprising kind. I do not well see how your argument +on any material point can be gainsaid. You have amply vindicated the +character and intentions of the American Antislavery Society from all +injurious imputations. The details of the slave-trade and its +accompanying atrocities, as carried on at Washington, are horrible, and +your work must go far towards opening the eyes and disabusing the minds +of the public. I have, from the very beginning, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> doubts and +misgivings as to the efficacy and results of the American Colonization +Society, and for some years past I have become satisfied that the scheme +was in reality but an Utopian vision, though I had supposed until now +that its fruits were better. Permit me to add that I have been much +pleased, not only with the clearness, force, simplicity, and precision +of the style, but with your fearless, frank, and manly, but courteous +vindication of the cause of Truth and Justice, and with your striking +appeals to the conscience and responsibilities of the Christian +reader."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER IV.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">CONTINUED EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT BY FORCE AND +INTIMIDATION.—FAVOURABLE EFFECT UPON THE PUBLIC MIND PRODUCED BY +JAY'S WRITINGS.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> second anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Presbyterian Church at Houston and Thompson Streets in New York on +the 12th of May, 1835. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, George Thompson, of +England, and William Lloyd Garrison made addresses. Judge Jay was +appointed foreign corresponding secretary, and instructed to convey to +the Duc de Broglie, president of the French Society for the Abolition of +Slavery, the sympathy of American abolitionists.</p> + +<p>The increasing activity and strength of the antislavery movement were +not unnoticed by the partisans of the Slave Power, both North and South, +and an incident occurred at Charleston, S. C., on the night of July +29th, which illustrated the temper and methods of the party. The +American Antislavery Society had directed their publishers to forward a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +number of their periodical papers presenting facts and arguments on the +subject of slavery to various Southern gentlemen of distinction in the +hope of inspiring a spirit of inquiry among persons of influence and +character. "But it was precisely this spirit of inquiry," said Judge +Jay, "that the advocates of perpetual bondage feared might be fatal to +their favourite institution. Hence they affected to believe that the +papers sent to the masters were intended to incite the slaves to +insurrection." The fact that a considerable number of antislavery +publications had arrived at Charleston became known, and a mob broke +into the post-office and burned the mail in the streets. Arthur Tappan, +William L. Garrison, and Rev. Samuel H. Cox were burned in effigy. Mass +meetings were held at Charleston and Richmond to approve the action of +the mob, and aroused great excitement throughout the country. A +committee was appointed at Charleston to take charge of the Northern +mail on its arrival and to see that no antislavery papers should reach +their destinations. The postmaster advised the postmaster-general that +under existing circumstances he had determined to suppress all +antislavery publications, and asked for instructions. Amos Kendall, +Jackson's postmaster-general, whose sworn duty it was to preserve the +sanctity of the mails, was only too willing to act as the tool of the +Slave Power. "We owe," he replied, "an obligation to the laws, but a +higher one to the communities in which we live, and if the former be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them. +Entertaining these views, I <i>cannot sanction and will not condemn the +step you have taken</i>." These novel and dangerous doctrines, by which the +laws of the republic were to be set aside by public officers for +political purposes, received the sanction of President Jackson.</p> + +<p>The postmaster at New York, Samuel L. Gouverneur, proposed to the +American Antislavery Society that it voluntarily desist from sending its +publications by mail, but the Executive Committee properly refused to +yield the legal rights which they possessed in common with their +fellow-citizens. The postmaster announced that antislavery papers would +not be forwarded until further notice, and wrote to Washington for +instructions. Kendall replied that he was "deterred from giving an order +to exclude the whole series of antislavery publications from the +Southern mail only by a want of legal power." Such a power, he admitted, +vested in the head of the post-office department, would be fearfully +dangerous and had been withheld properly; but he added, with more regard +to the public opinion of the moment than to the principles of the +Constitution, "If I were situated as you are, I would do as you have +done." Some members of the Executive Committee wished to test the action +of the New York postmaster in the United States courts, but Judge Jay +opposed the plan for reasons which he gave in a letter to Elizur Wright, +Jr.: "The action must be brought and tried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> in the city of New York—in +that city in which this same gentleman, after his offence had been +publicly proclaimed by himself in the newspapers, addressed thousands of +the citizens in the Park and was received by their applause. Nor is this +all. His conduct is commended by his superior, who is a member of the +President's cabinet and probably acts with the approbation of General +Jackson. Under such circumstances, I think it improbable that a +prosecution would be attended with any result beneficial to our cause. +We have not surrendered our rights, but they have been violently wrested +from us.... <i>Festina lente</i> is sometimes a safe maxim. Fidelity to our +principles and prudence in our conduct will, in time, through the +blessing of God, crown our labours with success. You think it is hardly +to be supposed that the people of the North are willing to give up the +right of the post-office. Certainly they are not willing to give up +their own, but they are willing <i>at present</i> to give up <i>our</i> right to +it."</p> + +<p>The South, recognizing the growing strength of antislavery opinion, +began its appeals to the North to save the Union by suppressing the +abolitionists. A public meeting in Virginia requested that this might be +done "by strong yet lawful, by mild yet constitutional means"—terms +which recalled the inquisitor of the Holy Office handing over condemned +heretics to the executioner with the ironical request<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> that he would +deal with them tenderly and without blood-letting. In deference to the +Slave Power the post-office had been made to nullify the freedom of the +press, and freedom of speech was now to be suppressed, if possible, by +mob violence. The situation of abolitionists in this year may be +inferred from letters written from Brooklyn during the summer by Mrs. +Lydia Maria Child: "I have not ventured into the city, nor does one of +us dare to go to church to-day, so great is the excitement here. You can +form no conception of it. 'Tis like the times of the French Revolution, +when no man dared trust his neighbour. Private assassins from New +Orleans are lurking at the corners of the streets to stab Arthur Tappan; +and very large sums are offered for any one who will get Mr. George +Thompson into the slave States. I tremble for him. He is almost a close +prisoner in his chamber, his friends deeming him in eminent peril the +moment it is ascertained where he is.... Five thousand dollars were +offered on the Exchange in New York for the head of Arthur Tappan on +Friday last. Elizur Wright is barricading his house with shutters, bars, +and bolts. Judge Jay has been with us two or three days. He is as firm +as the everlasting hills."</p> + +<p>The popular feeling against the abolitionists was growing daily, and +from every quarter they were charged with "unconstitutional, +insurrectionary, and diabolical designs." To attempt to disabuse the +community<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> of the false impressions received from pro-slavery speakers +and newspapers seemed the most important duty at this time. The +following anonymous letter, signed "A Returning Southerner," was +received by Arthur Tappan, and placed the necessity for such action in a +strong light:</p> + +<p class="bq">"Though we are unknown to each other, yet the friendship I feel for +you induces me to address you. I have been where you have not, and +have heard what you have not, and believe that great prudence is +requisite on your part. I do not ask you to remit your philanthropic +efforts. Heaven and future ages, if not the present, will appreciate +them.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I do not pretend to advise, but have often thought that you and +your friends do not take sufficient means to disabuse the public of +the ceaseless charges of a multitude of papers.</p> + +<p class="bq">"A vast majority in this city have never seen one of your papers, +and countless multitudes, not only here but through our vast +republic, believe without a doubt, for they have seen it unceasingly +asserted and never contradicted, that you ardently wish your +incendiary publications to excite the slaves to rebellion and +bloodshed, massacre and rapine in their worst forms. While this +impression is so common, or rather so universal, I was glad to see +in circulation, as tending in some measure to your safety and the +safety of this association, that you address not the slave but his +master—a fact well enough known by your vengeance-seeking foes, but +not known by those whom they intend to use as instruments of +violence. I only presume further to suggest a card, to be inserted +at least a week in the <i>Courier and Inquirer</i>, stating in brief +terms that you do not advocate the violence imputed to you; that you +address the reason of white men, not the passions of slaves."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>The Executive Committee of the American Antislavery Society resolved to +ask Judge Jay to prepare such a statement as the crisis called for. Jay +was on a tour through the White Mountains at the time, but immediately +on his return he prepared the following address, which was published in +September, 1835, and was widely circulated in America and Europe:</p> + +<p class="center">"<i>To the Public.</i></p> + +<p class="bq">"In behalf of the American Antislavery Society we solicit the candid +attention of the public to the following declaration of our +principles and objects. Were the charges which are brought against +us made only by persons who are interested in the continuance of +slavery, and by such as are influenced solely by unworthy motives, +this address would be unnecessary; but there are those who merit and +possess our esteem, who would not voluntarily do us injustice, and +who have been led by gross misrepresentations to believe that we are +pursuing measures at variance not only with the constitutional +rights of the South but with the precepts of humanity and religion. +To such we offer the following explanations and assurances:</p> + +<p class="bq">"1st. We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in +the Southern States than in the French West India Islands. Of course +we desire no national legislation on the subject.</p> + +<p class="bq">"2d. We hold that slavery cannot be lawfully abolished except by the +Legislatures of the several States in which it prevails, and that +the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such +abolition is unconstitutional.</p> + +<p class="bq">"3d. We believe that Congress has the same right to abolish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> slavery +in the District of Columbia that the State governments have within +their respective jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface +so foul a spot from the national escutcheon.</p> + +<p class="bq">"4th. We believe the American citizens have the right to express and +publish their opinions of the constitutions, laws, and institutions +of any and every State and nation under heaven; and we mean +never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the press, or of +conscience—blessings we have inherited from our fathers, and which +we intend, so far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to our +children.</p> + +<p class="bq">"5th. We have uniformly deprecated all forcible attempts on the part +of the slaves to recover their liberty; and were it in our power to +address them we would exhort them to observe a quiet and peaceful +demeanour, and would assure them that no insurrectionary movement on +their part would receive from us the slightest aid or countenance.</p> + +<p class="bq">"6th. We would deplore any servile insurrection, both on account of +the calamities which would attend it and on account of the occasion +which it would furnish of increased severity and oppression.</p> + +<p class="bq">"7th. We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the +South. If by the term 'incendiary' is meant publications containing +arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political +evil, and that duty and policy require its immediate abolition, the +charge is true. But if this term is used to imply publications +encouraging insurrection and designed to excite the slaves to break +their fetters, the charge is utterly and unequivocally false. We beg +our fellow-citizens to notice that this charge is made without +proof, and by many who confess that they have never read our +publications, and that those who make it offer to the public no +evidence from our writings in support of it.</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>"8th. We are accused of sending our publications to the slaves, and +it is asserted that their tendency is to excite insurrections. Both +the charges are false. These publications are not intended for the +slaves, and were they able to read them, they would find in them no +encouragement to insurrection.</p> + +<p class="bq">"9th. We are accused of employing agents in the slave States to +distribute our publications. We have never had one such agent. We +have sent no packages of our papers to any person in those States +for distribution, except to five respectable resident citizens at +their own request. But we have sent by mail single papers addressed +to public officers, editors of newspapers, and clergymen. If, +therefore, our object is to excite the slaves to insurrection, the +masters are our agents!</p> + +<p class="bq">"10th. We believe slavery to be sinful, injurious to this and to +every other country in which it prevails; we believe immediate +emancipation to be the duty of every slaveholder, and that the +immediate abolition of slavery, by those who have the right to +abolish it, would be safe and wise. These opinions we have freely +expressed, and we certainly have no intention to refrain from +expressing them in future, and urging them upon the consciences and +hearts of our fellow-citizens who hold slaves or apologize for +slavery.</p> + +<p class="bq">"11th. We believe that the education of the poor is required by +duty, and by a regard for the permanency of our republican +institutions. There are thousands and tens of thousands of our +fellow-citizens, even in the free States, sunk in abject poverty, +and who, on account of their complexion, are virtually kept in +ignorance, and whose instruction in certain cases is actually +prohibited by law. We are anxious to protect the rights and to +promote the virtue and happiness of the coloured portion of our +population, and on this account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> we have been charged with a design +to encourage intermarriage between the whites and the blacks. This +charge has been repeatedly and is now again denied; while we repeat +that the tendency of our sentiments is to put an end to the criminal +amalgamation that prevails wherever slavery exists.</p> + +<p class="bq">"12th. We are accused of acts that tend to a dissolution of the +Union, and even of wishing to dissolve it. We have never 'calculated +the value of the Union,' because we believe it to be inestimable, +and that the abolition of slavery will remove the chief danger of +its dissolution; and one of the many reasons why we endeavour to +preserve the Constitution is that it restrains Congress from making +any law 'abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.'</p> + +<p class="bq">"Such, fellow-citizens, are our principles. Are they unworthy of +Christians and of republicans? Or are they in truth so atrocious +that in order to prevent their diffusion you are yourselves willing +to surrender at the dictation of others the invaluable privilege of +free discussion, the very birthright of Americans? Will you, in +order that the abominations of slavery may be concealed from public +view, and that the capital of your republic may continue to be as it +now is, under the sanction of Congress, the great slave-mart of the +American continent, consent that the general government, in +acknowledged defiance of the Constitution and laws, shall appoint +throughout the length and breadth of your land ten thousand censors +of the press, each of whom shall have the right to inspect every +document you may commit to the post-office, and to suppress every +pamphlet and newspaper, whether religious or political, which in his +sovereign pleasure he may adjudge to contain an incendiary article? +Surely we need not remind you that if you submit to such an +encroachment on your liberties the days of our republic are +numbered, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> that although abolitionists may be the first, they +will not be the last victims offered at the shrine of arbitrary +power.</p> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> + +<tr><td>"(Signed)</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>"<span class="smcap">Arthur Tappan</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">John Rankin</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">William Jay</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Elizur Wright, Jr.</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Abraham L. Cox</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Lewis Tappan</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Joshua Leavitt</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Samuel E. Cornish</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Simeon S. Jocelin</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Theodore S. Wright</span>.</td></tr></table> + +<p class="bq">"<span class="smcap">New York</span>, September 3d, 1835."</p> + +<p>The effect of Jay's address to the public was thus described by Elizur +Wright, Jr.: "The Southern papers are copying it extensively, and most +of them charge us with having disclaimed in it our real motives—a proof +that our real sentiments were before misunderstood. In a large number of +Northern papers it is copied with more or less approbation. Indeed, none +but the determined pro-slavery presses fail to speak of it as a candid, +firm, and honourable if not convincing document." "It has had a most +beneficial effect," wrote Lewis Tappan. "What a contrast to the +ebullition of public meetings!"</p> + +<p>A movement was begun in the year 1835, on the part of the Southern press +and Southern Legislatures to induce penal legislation in the North +against the expression of antislavery sentiments. The <i>Richmond Whig</i> +revealed its opinion of its Northern allies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> when it said: "Depend upon +it, the Northern people will never sacrifice their lucrative trade with +the South so long as the hanging of a few thousands will prevent it." In +obedience to these demands, pro-slavery men in the North were actually +to be found proposing legislation intended to destroy the freedom of the +press and to make antislavery expression a criminal offence. Judge Jay +took occasion to meet this movement in a charge which he delivered to +the Westchester Grand Jury, in which he said: "Any law which might be +passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or of +the press, or to shield any one subject from discussion, would be +utterly null and void; and it would be the duty of every genuine +republican to resist with energy and decision so palpable an outrage on +the declared will of the people." These remarks were widely published +and did much to discourage the pro-slavery agitators.</p> + +<p>But other illegitimate and violent schemes to reduce to silence +antislavery men were soon brought into play. South Carolina having +inaugurated the assault upon the constitutional rights of the North +through the post-office, Alabama followed in a yet bolder step against +the personal security of abolitionists. Governor Gayle, of that State, +demanded of the Governor of New York that Ransom G. Williams, the +publishing agent of the Antislavery Society, should be surrendered to +him to be tried under the laws of Alabama on an indictment found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +against him by the Grand Jury for publishing in the <i>Emancipator</i>, in +the city of New York, the following sentiment: "God commands and all +nature cries out that man should not be held as property. The system of +making men property has plunged two and a quarter millions of our +fellow-countrymen into the deepest physical and moral degradation, and +they are every moment sinking deeper." This expression was the most +offensive which the Alabama Grand Jury could discover in the documents +of the society on which to base the indictment and demand, and as the +one which came nearest to anything resembling an attempt to incite the +slaves to insurrection. Williams had never been in the State of Alabama, +was never subject to its laws, had never fled from its jurisdiction, and +these facts were admitted by the Governor when he made requisition for +Williams as a "fugitive from justice." While the American Antislavery +Society was considering what action it should take for the protection of +its agent, Lewis Tappan wrote to Judge Jay (8th September) suggesting +that he should get the opinion of two or three eminent lawyers on the +subject to be circulated by the society. Jay replied: "The Southern +papers have intimated that Northern abolitionists may be indicted in the +courts and then demanded of the State executives, and you request my +opinion whether it would be advisable to obtain and publish the legal +opinion of eminent counsel on this novel doctrine. The doctrine is so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +monstrous, so utterly at variance with all our ideas of constitutional +and State rights, that it shocks the understanding and moral sense of +the community, and I verily believe that there is not one Northern +governor who would dare to arrest a citizen on such a demand. But if we +manifest alarm at this doctrine and get lawyers to controvert it, there +will be found rival presses, venal lawyers, and corrupt politicians to +support the other side of the question; the community will begin to +discuss the subject, passion and interest and prejudice will believe +whatever they want to believe. My opinion, therefore, is that the less +we say on this subject the better, and that we should not give a +factitious importance to the doctrine." Jay's advice was followed and +proved to be wise. Governor Marcy could do nothing but refuse the +request of Governor Gayle, although he softened his refusal by abuse of +the abolitionists.</p> + +<p>Under the leadership of Alvan Stewart a convention was called to meet at +Utica on October 21, 1835, to form a New York State Antislavery Society. +About six hundred delegates were present. The spirit of mob violence, +which was being encouraged by pro-slavery orators and presses throughout +the country to suppress the abolitionists by force, was relied upon to +prevent the meeting of the convention. The mob having occupied in +advance the room in the court-house prepared for the meeting, the +delegates repaired to a Presbyterian Church, where they had barely +enough time to organize and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> elect officers before the riotous +supporters of slavery broke into the church and violently dispersed the +convention. The lawless tyranny to which the delegates were subjected +and their courageous conduct attracted to their cause many persons who +had held aloof hitherto. Chief among these was Gerrit Smith, who from +this time gave to the antislavery movement unstinted contributions of +money and intelligent labour. Judge Jay, notwithstanding his unavoidable +absence from the convention, was elected president of the society then +formed.</p> + +<p>At about the same time as the Utica riots occurred the mobbing of +William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston, by "gentlemen of property and +standing." And all over the North were enacted scenes of violence, +encouraged by a large portion of the press, which were intended to +gratify the Southern demand that abolitionism should be put down at all +hazards. The sanctity of the mails, the constitutional right of free +speech and of lawful assemblage, were forgotten by a large portion of +the people. And they were forgotten by the President of the United +States himself. In December, 1835, Andrew Jackson, in his message to +Congress, gave a tacit approval to mob rule, to the suppression of the +freedom of the press, and to the oft-exposed falsehood that the +abolitionists distributed documents among the slaves intended to incite +them to insurrection; and he recommended the closing of the mails to +antislavery people.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>The position taken by President Jackson was so unjust, so +unconstitutional, and so calculated to aggravate the situation, that the +American Antislavery Society determined to make an official reply to it. +Judge Jay was chosen to answer the President on behalf of the society, +and he prepared an address which was signed by all the officers. This +document was a complete exposure of the falsity of the charges made and +of the unlawfulness of the restrictive measures which Jackson proposed +to Congress.</p> + +<p class="bq">"You have accused," said Jay, "an indefinite number of your +fellow-citizens, without designation of name or residence, of making +unconstitutional and wicked efforts, and of harbouring intentions +which could be entertained only by the most depraved and abandoned +of mankind; and yet you carefully abstain from averring <i>which</i> +article of the Constitution they have transgressed; you omit stating +when, where, and by whom these wicked attempts were made; you give +no specification of the inflammatory appeals which you assert have +been addressed to the passions of the slaves. You well know that +the 'moral influence' of your charges will affect thousands and +tens of thousands of your countrymen, many of them your +political friends—some of them heretofore honoured with your +confidence—most, if not all of them, of irreproachable character; +and yet, by the very vagueness of your charges, you incapacitate +each one of this multitude from proving his innocence.... It is +deserving of notice that the <i>attempt</i> to circulate our papers is +alone charged upon us. It is not pretended that we have put our +appeals into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> the hands of a single slave, or that in any instance +our endeavours to excite a servile war have been crowned with +success. And in what way was our most execrable attempt made? By +secret agents, traversing the slave country in disguise, stealing by +night into the hut of the slave, and reading to him our inflammatory +appeals? You, sir, answer this question by declaring that we +attempted the mighty mischief by circulating our appeals <i>through +the mails</i>! And are the Southern slaves, sir, accustomed to receive +periodicals by mail? Of the thousands of publications mailed from +the antislavery office for the South, did you ever hear, sir, of one +solitary paper being addressed to a slave? Would you know to whom +they were directed, consult the Southern newspapers, and you will +find them complaining that they were sent to public officers, +clergymen, and other influential citizens. Thus, it seems, we are +incendiaries who place the torch in the hands of him whose dwelling +we would fire! We are conspiring to incite a servile war, and +announce our design to the masters and commit to their care and +disposal the very instruments by which we expect to effect our +purpose!... To repel your charges and to disabuse the public was a +duty we owed to ourselves, to our children, and, above all, to the +great and holy cause in which we are engaged. That cause we believe +is approved by our Maker; and while we retain this belief, it is our +intention, trusting to His direction and protection, to persevere in +our endeavours to impress upon the minds and hearts of our +countrymen the sinfulness of claiming property in human beings, and +the duty and wisdom of immediately relinquishing it. When convinced +that our endeavours are wrong, we shall abandon them, but such +conviction must be produced by other arguments than vituperation, +popular violence, or penal enactments."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>In 1836 Judge Jay resigned the presidency of the New York State +Antislavery Society. The distance of his home from the headquarters of +the society made the office nearly nominal, and he thought that it +should be filled by a person more favourably situated for usefulness. +"We commenced the present struggle," he wrote in his letter of +resignation, "to obtain the freedom of the slave; we are compelled to +continue it to preserve our own. We are now contending, not so much with +the slaveholders of the South about human rights, as with the political +and commercial aristocracy of the North, for the liberty of speech, of +the press, and of conscience. Our politicians are selling our +constitutions and laws for Southern votes. Our great capitalists are +speculating, not merely in land and banks, but in the liberties of the +people. We are called to contemplate a spectacle never, I believe, +before witnessed—the wealthy portion of the community striving to +introduce anarchy and violence on a calculation of profit; making +merchandise of peace and good order! In Boston we have seen the editor +of a newspaper led through the streets with a halter by gentlemen 'of +property and standing.' The New York mobs were excited, not by the +humble penny press, but by the malignant falsehood and insurrectionary +appeals of certain commercial journals. Rich and honourable men in +Cincinnati have recently at a public meeting proclaimed lynch law, and +through their influence a printing-press devoted to freedom has been +destroyed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> and the whole affair, we are coolly and most truly told, +was a <i>business transaction</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fig_fp080.png" alt="William Jay" /></div> +<p class="caption">William Jay</p> + +<p>"... It cannot be, it is not in human nature that judges and lawyers and +rich merchants will long enjoy the exclusive privileges of trampling on +the laws. These men are sowing the wind and they will reap the +whirlwind. They may see the buddings of their harvest in the recent +assaults upon the Holland Land Company. When the tempest of anarchy they +are now raising shall sweep over the land it will not be the humble +abolitionist, but the lofty possessor of power and fortune, who will +first be levelled by the blast.... The obligations of religion and of +patriotism; the duties we owe to ourselves, to our children, the cause +of freedom, and the cause of humanity—all require us to be faithful to +our principles, to persevere in our exertions, and to surrender our +rights only with our breath. Duties are ours and consequences are God's, +and while we discharge the first we may be confident that the latter +will be entirely consistent with our true welfare."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER V.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">GRADUAL DECLINE OF RIOTOUS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE +ABOLITIONISTS.—CHANGES OCCUR IN THE DOCTRINES AND METHODS OF THE +AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY.—JUDGE JAY RESIGNS HIS MEMBERSHIP, +WHILE CONTINUING HIS EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF EMANCIPATION.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> effort to suppress the antislavery movement by force, which was +carried on by Northern people at the instigation of the South, continued +through the years 1837 and 1838. The incidents which attracted the most +attention were the murder of Lovejoy at Alton and the burning of +Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia by a mob. By assassination and arson a +considerable portion of the American people sought to destroy the right +to free speech and free assemblage guaranteed by the American +Constitution and cherished hitherto as a birthright. The right of free +discussion, wrote Alexander H. Everett at the time, "is not only +endangered, but for the present, at least, is actually lost." "The +newspapers of every day," he continued, "bring to our view the account +of some new case in which a printing-press has been seized and thrown +into the river; a public meeting broken up; a citizen tarred and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +feathered, scourged—too often, I add with horror, put to a violent +death by a lawless mob for no other cause or crime than the free +discussion of the subject of slavery." The impunity with which these +crimes were committed, the connivance or leniency of the authorities +whose sworn duty it was to uphold the laws, made this time a critical +one for the security of American liberties. In pursuing their lawful +course undaunted through this "reign of terror," when so large a portion +of their fellow-countrymen seemed to have forgotten the obligations of +citizens to established law, the abolitionists not only maintained the +existence of their cause, but they preserved those rights which +Americans value above all others. That free speech continued to exist in +the United States was duo to their indomitable courage. Such a state of +affairs could not endure long. Lawless feeling exhausted itself in +fruitless violence. Antislavery societies increased in numbers and +membership. Comparative order and toleration gradually displaced the +disgraceful passions which had placed the liberties of the country in +hazard.</p> + +<p>As opposition diminished and their path became easier, abolitionists +began to differ among themselves as to the best means to attain their +ends and as to the fundamental principles of their cause. In New York +State a tendency was developed, under the leadership of Gerrit Smith, to +adopt political methods. In Boston moral agitation remained the accepted +means. But here novel theories on other subjects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> were being adopted by +leading antislavery people and thus associated in the public mind with +antislavery itself. Garrison adopted and recommended in the <i>Liberator</i> +his no-government and non-resistance doctrines. He put forth new and not +generally accepted views regarding the observance of Sunday. He took +pains to declare that he adopted these theories in his private capacity, +and not as an abolitionist. But he had many followers who did not +discriminate so carefully. The public mind became confused and began to +associate abolitionism with a variety of novel and unpopular opinions. +The cause was thus obstructed and divisions occurred among those who +laboured for the emancipation of the negro. Up to this time women had +not taken part in public meetings, and to many persons the idea of their +doing so was repugnant. The admission of women to membership and office +in the same societies as men was determined in Boston in 1838, after a +struggle and amidst much objection.</p> + +<p>"I have observed," wrote Jay in a private letter in 1838, "frequent +attempts to use abolition as a pack-horse to carry forth into the world +some favourite notion having no legitimate connection with the +antislavery cause; and have witnessed the dissensions caused in our +ranks by such inconsiderate and dishonest assumptions. Thus I have known +an official document, under the signature of a secretary of a State +society, pass a high eulogium on a particular form of Church government; +and I have seen an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> editorial article in an official antislavery +periodical recommending a decoction of dried currants as a substitute +for the fermented juice of the grape in the observance of the Lord's +Supper! All such perversions of antislavery influence appear to me to be +dishonest in their character, and dangerous in their consequences to the +continuance and efficiency of our organization. No one is more strenuous +than myself for the right of opinion and discussion; but common justice +and fairness require that we should not make others responsible for our +peculiar opinions, nor seek to propagate them by means entrusted to us +for very different purposes.</p> + +<p>"The practice of passing numerous resolutions at our antislavery +meetings strikes me as a growing and pernicious evil. Too many seem to +think that all our objects are to be effected by resolutions; and amid +the vast multitude that are proposed and adopted with little reflection, +it is not surprising, yet deeply to be deplored, that some are false <i>in +fact</i>, more false in sentiment, and very many coarse and vulgar in +expression. Falsehood is not the less immoral for being employed in a +good cause, and it is very unwise to impair the charms of Truth by +arraying her in vulgar attire. It is to be wished that our meetings may +in future be less prodigal of their resolutions, and more circumspect as +to the matter and language."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay looked with dismay upon the novel doctrines on other subjects +which were becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> associated with antislavery in the public mind. He +deplored the loss of strength which must result from a departure from +the singleness of purpose announced in the declaration of principles at +the founding of the American Antislavery Society. And there were +differences of opinion arising on the fundamental principles of the +cause which troubled him still more. As has been shown in these pages, +he had joined the American Antislavery Society only after a deliberate +examination of its constitution and the conviction that its principles +were in strict accordance with the Constitution of the United States. He +was as strong an advocate of emancipation as lived, but to him the +Constitution was the supreme law under which all benefits could be and +must be obtained. Efforts to seek the abolition of slavery by arguments +or conduct in violation of the Constitution seemed to him wicked in +themselves and fatal to the cause. Such efforts he had now to combat.</p> + +<p>At the sixth anniversary of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, held +in January, 1838, the business committee, composed of Messrs. Garrison, +Phelps, May, and Fairbanks, reported the following resolution:</p> + +<p class="bq">"<i>Resolved</i>, That in order to bring our coloured friends within the +brotherhood of this nation, we will encourage them in petitioning to +Congress, in their own names, for the redress of their grievances, +and, if not successful, then we will lend them our aid in bringing +their cause before the court of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> the United States to ascertain if a +man can be held in bondage agreeably to the principles contained in +the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of our country."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay wrote a letter to Mr. Ellis Gray Loring, March 5th, asking for +more definite information as to the true intent of the society in +passing the resolution.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Who are the <i>coloured friends</i> alluded to?" he asked. "Obviously +<i>slaves</i>, because if Congress does not redress their grievances, +then the society is to lead them into the court of the United States +to ascertain whether a man can be held in <i>bondage</i>.</p> + +<p class="bq">"What grievances are the slaves, under the encouragement of the +society, to petition Congress to redress? Obviously those they +suffer as slaves, because if Congress does not redress them, redress +is to be sought in the court, by demanding if a man can be held in +<i>bondage</i>, that is, as a slave.</p> + +<p class="bq">"What slaves are intended by the resolution? No qualification or +limitation whatever is expressed or implied. The Society, no doubt, +recognizes the slaves of Georgia as its coloured friends as well as +the slaves of the District of Columbia. The resolution is the tenth +of a series of resolutions reported by the committee, and in none of +them is any mention made of the District of Columbia, and, moreover, +the question to be decided by the court is not whether an inhabitant +of the District can be held as a slave, but whether a man can be +held in bondage agreeably to the principles of the Declaration of +Independence and the Constitution of our country, and the tribunal +to decide this question is not the court of the District but the +court of the United States.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Members of Congress take an oath to support the Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> of +the United States. If, therefore, the society believe the +Constitution does not authorize Congress to redress the grievances +of its coloured friends, it has pledged itself to encourage those +friends to petition Congress to commit perjury. Hence it appears to +me that the true meaning of this resolution, expressed in plain +language, is, '<i>Resolved</i>, That in our opinion Congress possesses +the constitutional power to abolish slavery throughout the United +States, and that we will encourage the slaves to petition Congress +for an act of emancipation, and should no such an act be passed we +will aid them in suing for their freedom in the Supreme Court of the +United States.'</p> + +<p class="bq">"It is to be regretted that the society did not announce the means +they intend to employ to encourage the slaves to send petitions to +Congress. The pledge has been solemnly given. Is it to be redeemed +by sending among them secret or avowed agents? It is singular also +that if the society believes the 'court of the United States' can +give liberty to the slaves, it should not make an <i>immediate</i> +application for its beneficent interposition, but should resolve to +postpone such application not only until it has succeeded in +prompting them to petition Congress for a redress of their +grievances, but also until a sufficient time has elapsed to learn +the result of this moral experiment. Permit me now, sir, to call +your attention to the past professions of some of the gentlemen who +reported this resolution, and of the society which adopted it.</p> + +<p class="bq">"On the 4th December, 1833, Messrs. Phelps, Garrison, and May, as +members of the Philadelphia Convention, signed the following +declaration: 'We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of +<i>each State to legislate exclusively</i> on the subject of slavery +which is tolerated within its limits. We concede that Congress has +no <i>right to interfere</i> with any slave State in relation to the +momentous subject.'</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>"Mr. Garrison afterwards, in an editorial article in the +<i>Liberator</i>, thus expresses himself: 'Abolitionists as clearly +understand and as sacredly regard the constitutional powers of +Congress as do their traducers, and they know, and have again and +again asserted, that Congress has <i>no more rightful authority to sit +in judgment upon Southern slavery than it has to legislate for the +abolition of slavery in the French colonies</i>.'</p> + +<p class="bq">"On the 17th of August, 1835, at a meeting of the Massachusetts +Antislavery Society, duly held in Boston, an address to the public +was adopted, professing to set forth the <i>true principles and +objects</i> of the society; and to give this statement a stronger claim +to the confidence of the community it was authenticated by the +signatures of <i>thirty-one</i> of the principal officers and members of +the society, including <i>your own</i> and those of three of the +committee who reported the late resolution, viz., Messrs. Garrison, +May, and Fairbanks. The opinion of the society at that time on the +power of Congress was in that document thus explicitly stated: 'We +fully acknowledge that no change in the slave laws of the Southern +States can be made unless by the Southern Legislatures. Neither +Congress nor the Legislatures of the free States have authority <i>to +change the condition</i> of a single slave in the slave States.' Yet +the society now stands prepared to encourage the slaves to petition +Congress for a redress of their grievances! And now, sir, the object +of this letter is to ascertain whether the resolution I have quoted +does in truth represent the present opinion held by your society on +the power of Congress, or whether the resolution was intended to be +confined to slaves in the District of Columbia and the territory of +Florida.</p> + +<p class="bq">"It cannot be necessary to dwell on the vast importance of an +explicit declaration by your board on this subject. Independent of +the deep concern I feel in the harmony, integrity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> and consistency +of the abolition party, I have a personal interest in the inquiry I +now make of you. An <i>enlarged</i> edition of my book is ready for the +press, but the late resolution of your society compels me to suspend +its publication. I had treated the charge that abolitionists desired +Congress to interfere with slavery in the States as calumnious, and +in refutation of it had appealed to their solemn disclaimers. I need +not say, sir, that until the late resolution is satisfactorily +explained, or its doctrine disavowed by your society, I cannot in my +new edition deny the charge, but must as an honest man substitute +for my confident assertions and triumphant appeals most painful and +humiliating confessions. Permit me to suggest that it is highly +desirable that your board should act explicitly on this subject +before the meeting of the American Antislavery Society, that, if +possible, no inquiries or investigation may then arise to mar the +harmony of the meeting and retard the progress of abolition.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I flatter myself, sir, that your sentiments on the constitutional +question remain the same as when you signed the address of 1835, and +that you comprehend and appreciate the motives which have prompted +this letter. I shall await your answer with extreme anxiety."</p> + +<p>On receipt of this letter Mr. Loring communicated with a number of the +members of the board of managers and endeavoured to hold a meeting of +the board for the purpose of rescinding or repudiating the resolution; +but it was not until the 14th that he succeeded in getting a quorum +together. After Mr. Loring had read Judge Jay's letter to the board, +they promptly passed the following resolution:</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>"<i>Resolved</i>, That as said resolution was submitted to the meeting +just at its close, when but few delegates were present, and was +adopted without deliberation or discussion, this board recommend its +reconsideration at the next quarterly meeting of the society.</p> + +<p class="bq"><i>"Resolved</i>, As the sense of this board, that Congress has no power +to abolish slavery in the several States of this Union."</p> + +<p>In a letter dated the 15th of March, enclosing a copy of the above +resolution, Mr. Loring said: "I can hear of but one or two persons here +who believe in the power of Congress over slavery in the States, viz., +the Misses Grimké, Mr. Alanson St. Clair, and perhaps Mr. May and Mrs. +Chapman. Several, however, and those influential persons (Mr. Garrison +among them), think slavery unconstitutional, and believe it would be so +pronounced by the Supreme Court of the United States if the point should +ever be made. In this opinion I can by no means agree."</p> + +<p>The "unfortunate resolution," he continued, was offered by a "silly +officious person" at a moment of much haste and confusion just as the +meeting was breaking up, and had been approved without proper +consideration by the committee whose duty it was to revise all +resolutions. "It seems, however, to have been understood by those who +voted for it as applying only to free coloured persons whose rights +might be infringed by Southern laws or to slaves in the District of +Columbia; and the pledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> given to try the question of slavery in the +United States Courts seems to have arisen from the notion that the +question of the accordance of slavery with the Constitution might be +incidentally raised and determined even in a case in which the party +whose rights are to be vindicated is free."</p> + +<p>In conclusion Mr. Loring said that this question would assume an +important aspect at the future meetings of the Antislavery Society, and +earnestly hoped wise and honest counsel would prevail. He thought it +would be sufficient ground for dissolving the Union were the United +States Supreme Court to assume power over slavery in the several States. +"The honesty and common sense of the nation," he wrote, "would revolt +against such a doctrine and against those who should maintain it."</p> + +<p>In his reply, dated the 29th of March, Judge Jay congratulated Mr. +Loring on the service he had rendered the cause of abolition by +procuring the passage of the resolutions from the board of managers. "In +the fulness of our zeal," he wrote, "we are all liable occasionally to +stray beyond the line of propriety, and it evinces more devotion to duty +to acknowledge and correct errors than to avoid committing them."</p> + +<p>At the fifth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held at +the Broadway Tabernacle on the 2d of May, 1838, Alvan Stewart of Utica, +N. Y., offered a resolution, vigorously supported by himself and others, +to the following effect:</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>"That the clause of the second article of the constitution of this +society be struck out which admits 'that each State in which slavery +exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive +right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State.'"</p> + +<p>This motion was equivalent to a declaration on the part of the society +that Congress had the right, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery. +Judge Jay had previously declared that Stewart's doctrine was false, +untenable, and hurtful to the cause. The arguments by which it was +supported he considered absurd. For two days of continued debate he +exposed its fallacy and danger and was rewarded by the defeat of the +resolution. But such attempts to change the original articles of belief +upon which the society was founded gave him great uneasiness for the +future. His feelings upon this subject were shown in a letter to the +secretary of the Young Men's Antislavery Society who had invited him to +preside at its convention:</p> + +<p class="bq">"On uniting with the American Antislavery Society some years since I +remarked, with the letter requesting that my name might be enrolled +among its members, that I had attentively considered its +constitution, and expressed my conviction that in joining the +society I was acting consistently with my obligations as a Christian +and a citizen. The great moral principles advanced in the +constitution perfectly accorded, in my opinion, with the precepts of +the Gospel, and the measures proposed, by which those principles +were to be carried into practice, equally accorded with the +obligations of the oath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> I had taken to support the Constitution of +the United States. I embarked in the antislavery cause with a firm +determination to support the principles and measures avowed by the +society at the hazard of obloquy, persecution, and, if necessary, +even life itself; and never in advocating the cause to sacrifice +truth and principle to expediency. How far I have acted up to this +determination others must judge. I am not myself conscious of having +departed from it.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The constitution of the society contains an express admission that +'each State in which slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the +United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its +abolition;' and the object of the society in regard to slavery +in the States is declared to be to effect its abolition by +'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of our +fellow-citizens.' Notwithstanding these explicit declarations we +were accused of aiming to effect our object by inducing Congress to +invade the rights of the States by abolishing slavery within their +limits; and it was justly argued that such an attempt was +unconstitutional, and would, if successful, lead to civil war and a +severance of the Union. So gross and unfounded were the calumnies +circulated against us, that it was deemed expedient by the executive +committee of the society, of which I was one, to publish an address +to the public, pledging our individual characters and responsibility +as to the real objects and principles entertained by our +association. This address bore my signature among others, and +contained, as nearly as I can recollect, the following passage: 'We +hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the +States in which it exists than it has to abolish slavery in the +French West India Islands; consequently we desire no national +legislation on the subject.' We were justified in giving this pledge +by the declaration of the convention which formed the society, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +the constitution of the society itself, by the constitutions of the +several State societies, and by the uniform language of antislavery +publications. Few persons have been more conversant with the +writings of abolitionists than myself; yet I can truly aver that +until the appearance of Mr. Stewart's extraordinary argument I was +not aware that there was a man or woman belonging to an antislavery +society who entertained a different opinion. This gentleman, holding +the responsible station of chairman of the executive committee of +the State society, avowing in its constitution the inability of +Congress to abolish slavery in the States, published an article in +the official paper of the society, asserting the constitutional +power of Congress immediately to emancipate every slave in the +United States, declaring that abolitionists had 'but one thing to +do'—which was to petition Congress to exercise this power; thus +repudiating the moral means they had prescribed for themselves, +viz., 'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of +our fellow-citizens'; and virtually recommending the employment of +<i>force</i>, the power of the general government as the sole agent in +effecting the abolition of slavery.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I had supposed that sentiments so utterly at variance with the +solemn asseverations of abolitionists, so repugnant to the +constitutional pledges of their societies, would have excited +universal indignation; but I was mistaken. After the publication of +these sentiments, Mr. Stewart was selected as one of the orators of +the American Society at their ensuing anniversary. At the annual +meeting in May last he moved to purge from the constitution the +concession I have quoted, thus giving the society the constitutional +right of discharging what he had proclaimed the sole duty of +abolitionists, that of petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in +the States; and in supporting his motion he ridiculed the idea of +effecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> our object by addresses to the understanding and +consciences of slaveholders. On taking the question a majority of +the society was in favour of expunging; and the admission respecting +the power of Congress still stands in the constitution only because +it required a vote of two thirds to cancel it. Mr. Stewart was +afterwards elected a manager of the society. A State society since +organized has by a formal vote refused to insert the usual admission +into its constitution, and another previously organized has since +stricken it from its constitution.</p> + +<p class="bq">"From this state of facts it is apparent that the pledges given to +the public in our constitution, and in the address of the executive +committee to which I have referred, that abolitionists admitted that +Congress had no right to interfere with slavery in the States, that +hence arguments were the only means they intended to use for its +abolition, have been flagrantly falsified. So far as I was +concerned, and unquestionably many more, the pledge was given in +good faith, and however others may belie it, I mean honestly to +abide by it. In my opinion, Congress has no more right to pass a +general emancipation law than to direct how Broadway shall be paved; +and without intending to impeach the motives of others, I must take +the liberty to say that I would regard such a law as a most wicked +and detestable act of usurpation—an act that would inevitably and +properly sever the Union and necessarily result in bloodshed and +national calamity.</p> + +<p class="bq">"It seems to me, moreover, inconsistent with Christian sincerity and +plain dealing for our societies to profess in their constitution a +belief in great and important principles, and to promise to regulate +their measures in accordance with those principles, and at the same +time to retain in communion with them and elevate to office men who +openly repudiate and ridicule those principles and avow a wish to +introduce a course of action utterly repugnant.</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>"On discovering from the proceedings of last May that the American +Society and its auxiliaries no longer considered their avowed +principles binding on their members, but that they might be treated +with insult and ridicule without incurring a loss of either +confidence or office, and that in the bosom of the society opinions +were entertained utterly at variance with public and solemn +professions, and in their practical consequences hostile to the +welfare of the country and inconsistent with the oath I had taken to +support the Constitution of the United States, I deemed it my duty +no longer to share in the responsibilities of their measures. I have +not since taken part in the meeting of any antislavery society, and +the recklessness with which the pledge given by myself and other +officers of the society has been falsified, warns me to be cautious +how I again become identified with the promises and declarations of +these associations. These considerations induce me very respectfully +to decline your kind invitation.</p> + +<p class="bq">"My attachment to the cause of abolition, and to the principles +avowed in the constitution of the American Society, was never +stronger than at this moment; and I shall ever regard it a duty and +a privilege to labour for the abolition of slavery in every manner +consistent with propriety and my moral and political obligations.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Although my confidence in the integrity and singleness of purpose +of antislavery societies is weakened, I have not the most distant +wish to interrupt their harmony or impede their usefulness. I have +thus, sir, frankly but with much pain stated my sentiments. These +sentiments I have no desire to conceal or to obtrude upon others; +and you are at liberty to suppress this letter or make any use of it +you may think proper."</p> + +<p>The annual meeting of the Connecticut Antislavery Society was held at +New Haven in May, 1840, commencing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> on the 20th. The society considered +this meeting to be of vital importance to the prosperity of the cause in +that State on account of the Legislature being in session there at that +time, many of the members of which were expected to attend.</p> + +<p>In April Judge Jay received an invitation from the Committee of +Arrangements to deliver an address on the "Action of the Federal +Government in Behalf of Slavery," on which subject the Committee felt +convinced that Judge Jay could "give the society as well as our +legislators some valuable information."</p> + +<p>Other engagements compelled Judge Jay to decline the invitation. In his +letter to the Committee of Arrangements informing them of his inability +to comply with their request, Judge Jay assured them that the interest +he had theretofore professed to feel in the antislavery cause had +suffered no diminution; and his conviction of the truth of the great +principles set forth in the constitution of the American Society had, if +possible, grown stronger from continued reflection and observation; but +as to the singleness of purpose and the efficiency and integrity of the +present antislavery organization his opinion had undergone a change.</p> + +<p class="bq">"In joining the organization," he wrote, "I had good cause to +believe that I would not be called upon to co-operate with men who +condemned any of its avowed principles, or with men who would seek +to render it an instrument for promoting other objects than the +abolition of slavery.</p> + +<p class="bq">"One of the principles laid down in the constitution of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> the +American Society, and a most important one as limiting its +operations, is that by the Constitution of the United States +Congress has no right to legislate for the abolition of slavery in +the several States in which it exists. Yet a gentleman was in 1838 +chosen by the society one of its officers after having both in print +and in the presence of the society denied this doctrine and +contended that it was the duty of abolitionists to petition Congress +to pass a law for the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in +the United States. The expulsion of this gentleman from the society +was in my opinion required by the respect it owed itself, and by the +good faith it owed both to the public and to its members. The course +pursued was an emphatic declaration on the part of the society that +its professed principles, however useful they might be in +conciliating public confidence and in acquiring funds, were by no +means binding on its members. Having sworn to support the +Constitution of the United States, and regarding the proposed mode +of emancipation a most palpable violation of it, and seeing that the +avowed principles of the society were in fact no security for its +conformity to them in its conduct, I then determined never again to +take a part in its meetings or in those of its auxiliaries. +Subsequent events have given me no cause to regret this +determination.</p> + +<p class="bq">"One of the great objects for which the American Society was +avowedly formed was to effect the abolition of slavery in the +District of Columbia and of the American slave-trade by +Congressional legislation. Yet men belonging to the society, and +even some of its officers, are now publicly maintaining that all +compulsory laws are sinful, and of course that it would be a +usurpation of the divine prerogative for Congress to suppress by +penal law the abomination of slavery in the capital of the republic, +and the nefarious traffic in human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> flesh of which the capital is +the great depot. I cannot as an abolitionist act with those who +reprobate all enactments, not merely for the abolition of slavery +where it exists, but even for preventing its re-establishment on +soil from which it has been extirpated; and also for protecting the +poor coloured man, his wife, and children from the merciless +kidnapper.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Certainly the founders of the society did not intend to effect by +it any alteration in the social relations of the sexes; and not the +most distant hint of such a design can be found in the Constitution; +yet it is in vain to deny that an attempt is now making to render +antislavery societies instrumental in advancing certain theories +respecting the rights of women.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The American Society was intended as a central organization by +which the contributions and efforts of abolitionists were to be +concentrated and directed; and for some years it discharged its +functions with wonderful zeal, energy, and success. But at last the +managers of certain local societies imagined that the vitality of +the extremities of the system would be quickened by arresting the +pulsations of the heart; and accordingly measures were adopted, and +with perfect success, to paralyze the parent institution.</p> + +<p class="bq">"For a while abolitionists exhibited a pattern of Christian and +disinterested benevolence in behalf of the oppressed which commanded +the secret admiration even of their enemies, and conciliated the +favour of the good. Latterly a strong desire has been evinced to +change the antislavery enterprise from a religious into a political +one, and a scramble for the loaves and fishes has already commenced.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Unwilling to take a part in the bitter feuds which now divide +abolitionists, and not choosing to assume any responsibility for +principles and measures I cannot approve, I deem it most consistent +with my obligations as a Christian and a citizen to absent myself +from an arena in which I can do no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> good and in which I can no +longer appear without being engaged in unprofitable conflict. But +most cheerfully will I again enlist in a new antislavery +organization (if any such can be devised) that will offer a fair +promise of avoiding the errors which have destroyed the efficiency +and moral character of the present.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I beg you to be assured that in the preceding remarks I have had no +particular reference to the Connecticut Society, not being aware +that it is open to censure.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I have no desire either to conceal or to obtrude my opinions +respecting the existing state of the antislavery enterprise, but I +deemed it due to myself to state frankly and without reserve the +considerations which induce me to pursue a course apparently at +variance with my former public vindication of the American +Antislavery Society."</p> + +<p>Among abolitionists there was a great diversity of opinion as to whether +women should be admitted to membership in antislavery societies and +permitted to hold office and generally to enjoy the same privileges as +men. This question was the cause of much feeling and was destined to +create an unfortunate division in the antislavery ranks.</p> + +<p>The subject was first voted upon in the New England Society, where, in +1838, it was resolved to permit all persons, whether men or women, who +agreed with them on the subject of slavery to participate in the +meetings as members. An attempt having been made in vain to rescind this +vote, a protest was drawn up by Amos R. Phelps, Charles T. Torrey, and +five others, disclaiming all responsibility for it, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> denouncing the +action of the society as injurious to the cause of the slave by +connecting with it an entirely foreign subject and by establishing a +dangerous precedent.</p> + +<p>At the sixth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held in +New York, May 7, 1839, it was voted, 180 ayes to 140 nays, "that the +roll of the convention be made up by placing upon it the names of all +persons, male or female, who are delegated from any auxiliary society, +or members of this society."</p> + +<p>The seventh annual meeting of the American Society was fixed for the +12th of May, 1840. It was generally realized that on this occasion a +definitive settlement of the woman question would be made. The board of +managers of the Massachusetts Society made strenuous efforts to insure a +large attendance of members sharing their views. A large steamboat was +chartered which conveyed Garrison and his party to New York, and it was +soon manifest that they had mustered a majority sufficient to carry +their point.</p> + +<p>Arthur Tappan, the president of the society, anticipating "a recurrence +of the scenes witnessed last year, and resolved not to be found +contending with his abolition brethren," did not attend the meeting, and +Francis Jackson presided in his place. Among the persons nominated by +the chairman as a business committee was Miss Abby Kelley. After a long +and exciting debate Miss Kelley was elected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> by a vote of 557 to 451. +Immediately after the result was announced, Lewis Tappan, Charles W. +Denison, and Amos Phelps, members of the business committee, asked to be +excused from serving upon it.</p> + +<p>After the meeting had adjourned those members who had voted against the +admission of women met and organized a new society under the name of the +"American and Foreign Antislavery Society." Arthur Tappan was chosen +president, James G. Birney and Henry B. Stanton, secretaries, and Lewis +Tappan, treasurer. The Executive Committee was composed of Gerrit Smith, +Judge Jay, John G. Whittier, Joshua Leavitt, and other leading +abolitionists.</p> + +<p>On June 1st Judge Jay wrote a note to Mr. J. C. Jackson, the recording +secretary of the American Antislavery Society, asking that his name be +stricken from the roll as a member. In stating his reasons for +resigning, he said that the proceedings at the late meeting of the +society had convinced him that the institution was being used, by those +who had recently acquired control of it, as an instrument for advancing +the doctrine of the equality of the sexes in all the relations of life. +"Married women without their husbands," he said, "were associated with +men in the Executive Committee—a committee to which is confided the +management of the society, and whose meetings have hitherto been, and +will probably continue to be, both frequent and private."</p> + +<p>The principle thus officially avowed by the society Judge Jay declared +had not the remotest connection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> with the true objects for which the +society was formed, nor was it sanctioned by the constitution. "However +grievous some women may find the yoke imposed upon them by the opinions +usually entertained on the subject," he continued, "that is not the yoke +which abolitionists associated to break." The claims now set up by the +society in regard to "the rights of women" appeared to him necessarily +to involve their participation in the sacred ministry, their exercise of +the elective franchise, and their entire independence in the conjugal +relation. Irrespective of the soundness of these claims, it did not +appear by what right the society called upon its members to support +them. Judge Jay contended that "any association for the professed +purpose of abolishing negro slavery may with as much propriety prescribe +the form of baptism and the Lord's Supper as it may insist that women +are authorized to administer these ordinances." Fully convinced that the +society as thus managed was exerting an influence not only very +injurious to the antislavery cause, but contrary to domestic order and +happiness and inconsistent with the precepts of the Gospel, Judge Jay +deemed it his duty to sever his connection with it.</p> + +<p>In our time, when the admission of women to participation in nearly +every form of activity is universally accepted, it may seem +extraordinary that the American Antislavery Society should have divided +upon such an issue. But what is now a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> familiar custom was then a +strange doctrine, the consequences of which were unknown and were +dreaded by conservative people. The abolitionists whose votes admitted +women to equal rights with men contended that women were among the most +useful and influential workers for the cause and that they should have a +corresponding position in the councils of the party. It was denied that +active participation in the meetings of the societies was inappropriate +to their sex. On the other hand, it was believed by many persons +earnestly and usefully engaged in the cause of emancipation that the +antislavery society should pursue its end unimpeded and undisturbed by +outside issues. The emancipation of woman might be a highly desirable +reform, but it should be sought separately from the emancipation of the +negro. An individual should be allowed to labour for the slave without +being forced to support untried theories regarding woman's rights and +the sinfulness of human government.</p> + +<p>At this period Judge Jay was especially active with his pen. In 1839 was +published his "View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of +Slavery." This work was the first effective exposure of the manner in +which the United States Government had been used for many years by +pro-slavery statesmen to carry out their own ends. Judge Jay showed the +shameful position in which the National Government had been placed +before the nations of the world when the President and his diplomatic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +representatives were forced by the Slave Power to demand the return of +fugitive slaves and compensation for their loss when shipwreck had +allowed them to attain liberty on a foreign shore; when the armies of +the United States were sent to Florida at enormous expense to capture +alleged runaway private property; when the power of the Government was +strained to prevent abolition in Cuba and to introduce slavery into +Texas. The efforts to suppress the right of petition and freedom of +debate in Congress were thoroughly described. An account, humiliating to +every American, was given of the condition of the national capital +itself, converted by the fostering protection of the United States +Government into the chief slave-market of the Union.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay's next publication was entitled, "On the Condition of Free +People of Colour in the United States." He showed that they were denied +the right to the franchise, to liberty of locomotion, to the lowest +employment in the public service; that their education was impeded +almost to prohibition and that even their industry was hampered by cruel +restrictions. Worst of all, they might at any time be seized and sold +into slavery without recourse to law. In 1840 appeared his pamphlet on +"The Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of +Petition." These writings had a wide circulation among persons not +reached by the ordinary antislavery literature, and their influence was +highly beneficial.</p> + +<p>Although the woman question was the ostensible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> cause of the schism of +1840, there were several other differences which tended quite as much to +divide the abolition camp. While the Garrison party continued to depend +solely upon moral agitation and opposed all political effort, a numerous +and powerful body in the antislavery ranks began to look to the +ballot-box as the instrument of reform. In 1840, under the leadership of +Gerrit Smith, Alvan Stewart, Myron Holley, Elizur Wright, Joshua +Leavitt, and William Goodell, a convention at Albany organized the +Liberty party by the nomination of James G. Birney, of Kentucky, for +President, and of Thomas Earle, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. Out +of a total of about two and a half million votes cast at this election, +the candidates of the Liberty party received a little over seven +thousand. W. H. Harrison, the whig candidate, defeated his democratic +opponent, Martin Van Buren. Although the abolition vote was not large, +it gave the party great encouragement, and an address was issued +congratulating the friends of the slave that a new power to overthrow +slavery had been found in "the terse literature of the ballot-box."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay's attitude towards the formation of the Liberty party appears +in a correspondence which took place between him and Gerrit Smith in +July, 1840. "I suppose you have come, as well as myself," wrote Smith, +"to the conclusion that whilst American slavery exists our national +political parties will be essentially and irrevocably pro-slavery +parties, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> that abolitionists cannot, therefore, vote consistently +for the candidates of such parties. If you have come to this conclusion, +you of course admit that we are under the necessity of designating our +own candidates for law-makers and that the object of the Freeman's State +Convention to be held in Syracuse the first Wednesday in August is +proper. Now, when we come together in that convention there is one thing +which, next to the blessing of Heaven, we shall need far more than any +other. I mean your consent that we shall put you in nomination for +governor. Will you enable me to insure the convention of that consent? +If you will, you will in so doing render a very great service to our +holy cause—a service which I see not how we can well dispense with. If +there be anything selfish in your heart, we have, of course, nothing to +address to it. We do not expect to elect you, and we are well aware that +your nomination would expose you to pro-slavery ridicule and hatred. If +you give your consent to the nomination, we know that such consent must +proceed from your disinterested and self-sacrificing love for the +antislavery cause. Do, my dear sir, give us your name; we can rally +about it those who will be dead to the power of any other name."</p> + +<p>To this strong appeal Jay gave the following reply:</p> + +<p class="bq">"I was last evening favoured with your letter of the 20th inst. +asking me to consent to be the abolition candidate for governor at +the ensuing election. The request implies a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> confidence in the +strength and sincerity of my attachment for the abolition cause that +demands my acknowledgments. I cannot now embrace the opportunity +afforded by your letter of entering at large into the question of a +distinct abolition party; but justice to myself and respect for you +induce me to mention some general principles which I think +applicable to the present case.</p> + +<p class="bq">"An abolition political party supposes a union for the election of +rulers without regard to the sentiments of the associates or their +candidates on any other subject than that of slavery. Of course the +party and the rulers elected by them may have the most opposite and +irreconcilable opinions on every topic but one of local and national +interest; yet it is supposed such discordant materials will form one +homogeneous mass. Abolitionists give but little promise of such +wonderful unity in the future. I doubt the practicability of forming +such a party; and I moreover question whether such a party would be +consistent with our obligations as citizens. It is evident that this +party could effect its professed object, the abolition of slavery, +only in a course of years, and in the meantime it is <i>to neglect and +disregard every other interest</i>. The party as such can have no +opinion and exert no influence either in elections or elsewhere in +relation to the trade, the finances, internal improvements, foreign +affairs, or the military power of the nation, and no inquiry is to +be allowed into the opinions of candidates on these most important +topics.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I fear the very attempt to form such a party will prove injurious +to the antislavery cause. It excites dissensions among ourselves. On +this point I will not enlarge. It will present in its results a +false and disheartening estimate of the number of abolitionists; +because as many antislavery men will refuse to support the abolition +candidates, the canvass will represent us as far less numerous than +we really are.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> Moreover, the abolitionists who are thus called out +of the political parties can of course exercise no more influence in +them. We are depriving the parties of the little salt that keeps +them from utter putrefaction. Had the whig abolitionists in the last +Legislature been nominated by an abolitionist party they would not +have been elected and we should not now have the glorious and +blessed jury law.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I have never approved under present circumstances of any further +organized interference by abolitionists with elections than the +official questioning of candidates. Under that system every +abolitionist might exert a powerful influence merely by withholding +his vote, without giving his suffrage for one to whom he was +politically opposed. The experiment failed, but by whose fault? +Seward and Bradish, Marcy and Tracy, dealt frankly with us. Yet +abolitionists made but little difference between the friends and +foes. Had Bradish had 20,000 votes more than Seward the conversion +of our politicians to abolition would have been general and +instantaneous, and slavery would have received an irremediable +wound. And can we believe that if abolitionists would not then +refrain from voting for the party, they will now consent to vote +against it?</p> + +<p class="bq">"I am very far from thinking that it can never be right and proper +to set up abolition candidates without regard to party preferences. +Had the question of emancipation been almost equally poised in the +British Parliament it would have been patriotic to turn the scale by +a temporary abandonment of the contested objects and the election of +antislavery members. And so also I can readily conceive of +circumstances in which it may be the duty of the abolitionists of a +particular State or district to suspend for a time their labours for +the slave in order to unite with the friends of temperance to carry +some great point. But taking into consideration the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> existing +circumstances of the antislavery cause, I am not clear that the +formation of an abolition political party, disregarding all the +other interests of the country, is consistent with either duty or +policy, and of course it becomes me to decline the request with +which you have honoured me. May God enlighten and direct us, and +when we cannot think alike may He give us the graces of meekness and +charity."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VI.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">JUDGE JAY CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THE ANTISLAVERY CAUSE BY HIS ADVICE +AND WRITINGS.—IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS OPINIONS HE IS DEPRIVED OF HIS +SEAT ON THE BENCH.—HIS VISIT TO EUROPE.—HIS VIEWS ON THE LIBERTY +PARTY.—ON THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.—HIS "REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN +WAR."—HIS ADVOCACY OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION AS A REMEDY FOR +WAR.—HIS WORK IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the division in the ranks of the antislavery societies in 1840, +Judge Jay ceased to take an active part in their proceedings, preferring +to support the cause independently by his writings. But he was +continually applied to by the societies to assist them by his advice, to +give legal opinions on the positions which they wished to take, and to +prepare documents which required special judgment and ability.</p> + +<p>In April, 1842, Jay prepared an address to the British Antislavery +Society, at the request of Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, who wrote on behalf +of the American Antislavery Society. A little later, again by request of +Mrs. Child, he gave a legal opinion on the advisability of carrying to +the Supreme Court the cases of three men who had been condemned in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +Missouri to twelve years' imprisonment for aiding slaves to escape.</p> + +<p>He continued his membership in the American and Foreign Antislavery +Society in New York. Here he laboured unceasingly to keep the society +fast to its declared purpose, and to prevent it from adding new +doctrines and objects which he believed must result in further divisions +injurious to the cause.</p> + +<p>In April, 1841, he wrote on this subject to Lewis Tappan:</p> + +<p class="bq">"I am glad the society will not be concerned in establishing a +missionary station in Africa. The great vice of our antislavery +societies has been, and is, meddling with things they have no right +to meddle with, and this they have done on a most vicious principle, +that the end sanctifies the means. In general, abolitionists mean +well; but they grievously mistake when they think themselves +authorized to pursue, in their associated capacity, whatever +benevolent or religious plan they individually approve. They unite +for certain specified purposes, and receive money expressly to +forward those purposes; and to employ their associated influence or +their common funds for other distinct purposes is not, in my +opinion, consistent with strict morality."</p> + +<p>In August, 1841, Judge Jay was requested by the Executive Committee of +the American and Foreign Antislavery Society to allow his name to be +announced as a regular contributor to the society's organ, the +<i>Reporter</i>. He took this opportunity to repeat his warnings against the +departure of the abolitionists from the line of action which they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +marked out for themselves in the early days of the agitation.</p> + +<p class="bq">"As an abolitionist I have deeply deplored the dissensions which +have marred our harmony and almost annihilated our moral influence; +and I have constantly and resolutely abstained, as far as my sense +of duty would permit me, from aggravating those dissensions by +partaking in them. The obvious tendency of the <i>announcement</i> +contemplated by your resolution is to impress the public with the +belief that the gentlemen who are held forth as the future +contributors to the <i>Reporter</i> maintain the principles and approve +the course of that paper. Such an impression, so far as regards +myself, would be most strictly accurate were the principles and +course of the paper to continue such as they have hitherto been. To +the American and Foreign Antislavery Society I did fondly look as a +refuge for such abolitionists as had been expelled from the old +society by the faithlessness of those who converted it into an +instrument for spreading other than antislavery doctrines. I did, +notwithstanding past experience, regard the constitution of the new +society as affording a guarantee that its members would not be +required to support any other principles and measures than such as +were indicated in that instrument. In consequence of this belief I +did not decline office in the society, and I aided in defraying the +expenses and in filling the columns of the <i>Reporter</i>. The paper was +conducted with ability and honesty, promised to exert a happy +influence in restoring peace and harmony to our ranks. The society +was pledged by its constitution 'carefully to abstain from all the +machinery of party political arrangements in effecting the objects,' +and the <i>Reporter</i> faithfully conformed itself to this pledge. But +in the very last number we are informed that at the last meeting a +vote of the society,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> '<i>nearly unanimous</i>,' was taken in favour of +striking this pledge from the constitution, but that inasmuch as the +notice required by Article X. had not been given, the amendment was +not <i>constitutionally</i> adopted. The pledge is therefore virtually, +although not formally, withdrawn; and we have every reason to +believe that at the next meeting it will be expunged from the +constitution. It is therefore obvious that the society, instead of +being a rallying point for abolitionists, is henceforth to be a mere +partisan organization, excluding from its fellowship multitudes of +honest, zealous, and consistent abolitionists because they cannot +adopt the maxim now promulgated in certain quarters, that the +friends of immediate emancipation should labour to secure for +themselves all the loaves and fishes in the gift of the +republic—the power and emoluments of <i>every office</i>, from that of +President of the United States to that of Path Master of a ward +district. The vote of the society just mentioned is tantamount to a +declaration that it will as soon as possible employ all the +machinery of party political arrangement for the exclusive elevation +of abolitionists to political power. This is not an object for which +I have associated with abolitionists, nor is it one in which I +intend to co-operate with them. But the <i>Reporter</i>, I am bound to +believe, will be used as an instrument to effect this object, +because I am bound to believe that the official organ of the society +will not fail to advocate and pursue its avowed policy. Hence I +cannot and ought not to give it in advance my confidence and +countenance by complying with the request with which you have +honoured me.</p> + +<p class="bq">"I have thus frankly stated my sentiments without intending to +impeach the motives of others, and without meaning to assume a +hostile attitude towards the friends and supporters of what +is denominated the Third party. With that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> party I cannot +conscientiously and consistently unite, but I have purposely +abstained from publicly mingling in the controversies to which it +has given rise, and I have now expressed my dissent from it only +because I could not otherwise explain my refusal of your polite +invitation.</p> + +<p class="bq">"In justice to myself, permit me to remark that my opinions on +slavery and abolition have undergone no change, and that every +principle I have ever avowed as an abolitionist is still cherished +by me with no other difference than possibly a stronger conviction +than formerly of its truth and importance.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That we may all be guided by wisdom from above and be enabled not +merely to break the bonds of the slaves, but in our conduct to adorn +our Christian profession, is my fervent wish."</p> + +<p>The antislavery societies, by the admission into their proceedings of +projected reforms having no connection with their ostensible object, had +gradually become divided and weakened. Jay had protested unceasingly +against this course, but the tendency had been irresistible. "Our +antislavery societies," he wrote in 1846, "are, for the most part, +virtually defunct. Antislavery conventions are whatever the leaders +present happen to be; sometimes disgustingly irreligious, and very often +Jacobinical and disorganizing; and frequently proscriptive of such of +their brethren who will not consent to render abolition a mere +instrument for effecting certain political changes having no relation +whatever to slavery."</p> + +<p>The antislavery societies had accomplished the noble and seemingly +hopeless task of arousing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> national conscience from its lethargy. +Their labours had started and given irresistible impulse to a movement +on behalf of the slave which was not to rest until emancipation was +attained. But the active conduct of this movement was now passing from +their hands into the domain of politics. The contest had become a +national issue, to be fought out in legislative halls and to be +determined at the polls.</p> + +<p>In August, 1843, the national convention of the Liberty party was held +at Buffalo. This convention was more largely attended than the first, +every free State excepting New Hampshire having sent delegates. James G. +Birney was again nominated for President, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, +for Vice-President. The canvass was carried on with great vigour and +spirit. The Birney vote in 1843 showed a large increase, amounting to +60,000. It caused the election of Polk and gave to the abolitionists the +balance of power in New York and Michigan.</p> + +<p>Judge Jay had never considered himself as belonging to either the Whig +or the Democratic party. He believed that his judicial position should +debar him from active partisanship. Above all, his disapproval of the +policy adopted by both political parties towards the slavery question +disinclined him to be a member of either. His attitude towards the +Liberty party, on its formation in 1840, was set forth in the letter +written to Gerrit Smith declining the nomination for governor, which was +quoted at length in the last chapter. Judge Jay then doubted the +expediency of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> a separate political party making abolition its article +of faith and test of membership. But as events proceeded, as both the +great parties seemed irrevocably pledged to the support of slavery, +above all, as both favoured the annexation of Texas, Jay became a +pronounced and active member of the Liberty party.</p> + +<p>He viewed the annexation proceedings with horror, as the death-knell of +emancipation and as a scheme of wicked injustice which must react +injuriously upon the whole nation. In March, 1843, he wrote to Dr. H. J. +Bowditch, of Boston: "The full and entire triumph of the antislavery +cause is near and certain, provided that Texas is kept out of the Union. +On this point are centred all my fears. I am not disheartened by the +corruption of politicians, nor the deathlike apathy of the community, so +long as we remain independent of the renegade republic. Give us time and +we can arouse the community from its stupor, we can change public +opinion, and politicians will bellow aloud for abolition the moment they +find it popular. The danger is that before this change is effected the +slaveholders will demand the annexation of Texas as the price of the +presidency and that one or more of the candidates will consent to pay +it."</p> + +<p>When Birney was nominated in 1843, Jay wrote to Gerrit Smith: "I +congratulate you upon this result. Birney is a man for whom Christians +and patriots can consistently vote. He shall have my cordial support. In +my opinion, the selection is creditable to the Liberty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> party, and if it +continues to give us candidates of this character, it will be a blessing +to our country.... To that party I shall be true so far, and so far +only, as it shall be true to itself. May God direct its measures for the +protection of our own rights and for the ultimate liberation of the +slave."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay was as anxious that the Liberty party should keep faithfully +to its antislavery purpose as he had been in the case of the antislavery +societies. He believed that the party must end in failure if it allowed +extraneous and dividing policies to be admitted to its platform. On this +subject he wrote in September, 1845, to Henry B. Stanton, who had +invited him to a convention in Boston:</p> + +<p class="bq">"Notwithstanding the annexation of Texas, great good may result from +the Liberty party, provided it be faithful to itself, and be wisely +conducted. Hence I am distressed by whatever threatens to impair its +integrity and usefulness. You are not ignorant, I presume, of the +strenuous efforts now making to change its character and to convert +it from an antislavery party into one for matters and things in +general.</p> + +<p class="bq">"It is proposed by men of talents, energy, and influence that the +party shall in future maintain:</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the Federal Government has the Constitutional power to abolish +slavery in the <i>States</i>.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the clergy shall be subject to all the burdens and enjoy all +the privileges of other citizens. This is aimed at the clergy of New +York who are not eligible to office, but exempted, to a great +extent, from taxation. No man is hereafter to be acknowledged to +belong to the Liberty party unless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> he objects to the State showing +any indulgence to the ministers of religion. They must be enrolled +in the militia, and, like others, called out to work on the highway.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That custom-houses be abolished, and with them all protective +duties.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the salaries of the President and Congressmen be reduced.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the legal profession is a privileged caste and should be +abolished.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the public lands be given away.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That all monopolies, by which I understand incorporated companies, +banks, railroads, etc., be abolished.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That women should exercise the right of suffrage and be eligible to +office, etc., etc., etc.</p> + +<p class="bq">"It is needless to say that if these tests of membership of the +Liberty party be adopted, we shall drive from us all whose judgment +or whose consciences revolt at them, while those who remain in the +party will regard the removal of slavery as a very subordinate +object of their labours. My purpose of troubling you with this +letter is to suggest to you the expediency of the convention +adopting a resolution in which, without alluding to the efforts +making to change the character of the party, it shall declare that +the sole objects of the party are the abolition of slavery, the +deliverance of the Federal Government from its influence, and the +elevation of the coloured race to equal rights with the whites; and +inviting all who approve of those objects to co-operate with us, +whatever may be their opinion on questions of State or national +policy."</p> + +<p>At the Liberty party convention held at Newburg in October, 1845, Judge +Jay was unanimously nominated as a candidate for Senator. In his letter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +accepting the nomination, he took occasion again to urge the exclusion +of irrelevant subjects from the platform of the party.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Recent circumstances induce me to accompany my acceptance of this +nomination with some remarks. Attempts are making to render the +Liberty party subservient to other objects than the overthrow of +slavery and the elevation of the coloured people. To these attempts +I can lend no aid. While I most explicitly accord to every +abolitionist the right of expressing his own opinions on every +political and religious subject, I as explicitly deny the right, and +shall strenuously resist the attempt, to make me and other members +responsible for opinions not necessarily involved in the great +objects for the attainment of which the party was formed. In the +pursuit of those objects I will cordially and honestly co-operate +with others from whose sentiments I dissent; but I cannot co-operate +with them in promoting religious and political changes which I +believe to be wrong, in order to increase the influence and hasten +the triumph of the Liberty party. To do so would be to act upon the +principle, as wicked and detestable as slavery itself, that the end +justifies the means. The fact that many good men who unite in +abhorrence of slavery entertain conflicting views of the expediency +and morality of various proposed reforms seems to me a sufficient +reason why the Liberty party should not permit itself to be +distracted by the other questions which agitate the community, and +which in truth are of but little moment compared with the great evil +with which we are struggling."</p> + +<p>In 1846 Jay wrote again on this subject: "I shall leave the Liberty +party whenever it makes abolition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> a pack-horse to carry favourite +measures unconnected with slavery, whether those measures are of whig or +democratic origin."</p> + +<p>Early in the year 1843 the antislavery opinions and labours of Judge Jay +caused the loss of his seat on the bench of Westchester County, which he +had occupied for more than twenty-five years with such general approval +as to cause his steady reappointment term after term by governors of the +State who were his political opponents. The circumstances of his removal +are described in a letter which he wrote to Mr. Minot Mitchell, in May, +1843:</p> + +<p class="bq">"I thank you for your friendly letter in relation to my removal from +the bench. The loss of an office which I had held for about a +quarter of a century (and which I had contemplated resigning in the +course of the present year) is not a matter of personal regret. My +motive in holding for so long a time a situation which subjected me +to no little inconvenience and yielded no emolument was a desire to +be useful, and a belief that I could exert on the bench a wholesome +moral influence. How far that belief was well founded is for others +to decide. To myself, it is grateful to know that my official +conduct, whatever mistakes I may have made, has been pure, unbiased +by personal partialities, and uninfluenced by any fear except that +of my Maker.</p> + +<p class="bq">"To the gentlemen of the Westchester bar generally, as well as to +yourself in particular, I am deeply indebted for the uniform +kindness and courtesy with which I have been treated; and had I +known at the December term that we were not to meet again, I would +have embraced the opportunity of publicly acknowledging my +obligations to them, and of bidding them an affectionate farewell.</p> + +<p class="bq"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>"Under the circumstances of the case, it would be an affectation of +humility to ascribe my loss of office to any dissatisfaction with my +official conduct on the part of the bar or the public. The <i>New York +Plebeian</i>, amid all its vituperative clamour for my dismissal, does +not even hint a charge against me as a judge, and the editor of the +<i>Westchester Herald</i>, notwithstanding his blind devotion to his +party, bears a flattering testimony to my ability as a 'jurist,' and +admits that my 'moral worth' is not questioned, as he believes, 'by +any man in the country.'</p> + +<p class="bq">"Nor have I been proscribed on account of my political opinions. +Those opinions belong to the old Washington school—I have never +concealed them; and they are the same now as they were when I +received office from Governors Tompkins, Clinton, Throop, and Marcy, +and when President Jackson tendered to me an important and lucrative +appointment.</p> + +<p class="bq">"For twenty years or more I have had no connection with party +politics, and have attended no party meeting. It appeared to me +unbecoming a judge to be a political partisan; and I, moreover, +observed so much profligacy, venality, and hypocritical profession +in both parties, that I could not conscientiously identify myself +with either. I have for years voted for those I believed to be the +most honest of the candidates offered for my suffrage, without +regard to the party dogmas they professed.</p> + +<p class="bq">"That the people of Westchester had lost their confidence in me and +wished me to descend from the bench is not pretended. On the +contrary, I have the most abundant and gratifying proofs of the +correctness of your remark, that my removal has occasioned in the +county, with all political parties, unusual dissatisfaction and +complaint.</p> + +<p class="bq">"If, then, my removal has been effected contrary to the wishes of +the county, and not because I lacked in ability or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> integrity, nor +even on account of my politics, it becomes a matter of public +interest to inquire with what motives and with what views the chief +magistrate of New York dispenses the patronage intrusted to him by +the constitution for the good of the State.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Governor Bouck has, in this instance, as in another far more +important, only acted as the instrument of a faction which, while +prating about <i>equal rights</i>, is ever ready and eager to barter the +welfare, honour, and freedom of the North for Southern votes.</p> + +<p class="bq">"You may recollect that previous to my last appointment I was +permitted to hold over for a year after my term of office had +expired. This extraordinary delay in filling a vacancy on the bench +was not the result of accident or inadvertency. It arose from doubts +entertained by the leaders at Albany whether the party would gain +more at the South than it would lose in Westchester by my removal. +Mr. Van Buren was then a candidate for the presidency, and I was +shown a confidential letter from one of his particular friends at +Albany to an influential democrat of this county, discussing the +expediency of my removal. The letter was put into my hands by the +gentleman to whom it was addressed. It was admitted by the writer +that my conduct as a judge was irreproachable, and that there were +no other objections to my reappointment than my antislavery +sentiments. My only fault in the eyes of this champion of equal +rights was that I was opposed to converting men and women into +beasts of burden. Still, he was apprehensive that my removal for +<i>such</i> a cause might savour of persecution for <i>abstract opinions</i>; +in other words, might be unpopular; and he wished to know what the +party in Westchester deemed most expedient. After a year's +deliberation and hesitation, I was reappointed. Mr. Van Buren is +again a candidate, but <i>now</i> he has a Southern democrat for a +competitor;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> and his party in the State being so strong that he can +well afford to risk a little dissatisfaction in Westchester, it is +deemed prudent to propitiate the demon of slavery by offering a +victim, however humble, on his altar. The <i>Plebeian</i>, devoted to Mr. +Van Buren's election, avowed with unblushing frankness that my +reappointment would be calculated to prejudice the Democratic party +'in the eyes of our Southern brethren.'</p> + +<p class="bq">"Thus, it seems that in order to elevate Mr. Van Buren to the +presidency the magistrates of the free, sovereign, and independent +State of New York are to be selected with reference to the good +pleasure of Southern slaveholders.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Pardon, my dear sir, the egotism of this letter. I have been +compelled to speak of myself in order to expose the canting +profligacy of our demagogues, and to illustrate one of the +numberless accursed influences of slavery. This abhorred system, +which in the South makes merchandise of the souls and bodies of men, +is at the same time trafficking in the politics, the religion, and +the liberties of the North, and putrefying whatever it touches. +Against this system I have contended, as did my father before me, +and the leisure Governor Bouck has given me shall be faithfully +devoted to a continuance of the warfare."</p> + +<p>The "leisure" given to him by Governor Bouck had first to be used by Jay +in an attempt to restore his health, which for several years had been +failing. In the autumn of 1843 he determined upon a visit to Egypt, and +on the 1st of November he sailed from New York in the "Victoria," of +1100 tons, accompanied by his wife and his daughters Maria and Augusta. +After a short visit to London, the party sailed from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> Southampton for +Malta in the "Great Liverpool" of the Oriental Line, with passengers and +mail bound to India. At Malta Jay was interested in meeting the famous +wit, scholar, and diplomatist, John Hookham Frere, who entertained him +at his house outside the walls of the city.</p> + +<p>While in England, Jay had been requested by John Beaumont, on behalf of +the British and Foreign Antislavery Society, to take charge of a +quantity of antislavery tracts printed in the Arabic language, and to +insure their distribution. After his arrival in Cairo, Jay gave packages +of the tracts to several persons whose facilities for distributing them +in Egypt were greater than his own. Others he disposed of himself. +"During the short time I was in Egypt," he said in a letter, "I +distributed tracts in the slave market, in the bazaars, in a public +coffee-house, in the hotels, and to persons in the streets." And he was +much struck with the fact that what he could do peacefully in Egypt, in +a portion of his own country would have endangered his life.</p> + +<p>On his return home, Jay visited Paris, and while there communicated to +the Duc de Broglie the motives of the Southern statesmen in seeking the +annexation of Texas, and made no secret of his hope that France would +oppose the proceedings.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>The events leading up to the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War +were followed by Jay with the closest attention. The injustice and +cruelty with which Mexico was treated throughout these proceedings by +the United States Government excited his warmest indignation. He was +deeply grieved at events which seemed to postpone indefinitely the +emancipation of the slaves; his fears were aroused for the security of +free institutions in the North by the great impetus given to the +Southern spirit of domination. But above all he felt the disgrace +incurred by his own country in forcing upon a weak and friendly power a +desolating war for the sole object of wresting from it a territory to be +peopled by slaves. The result of Jay's minute knowledge of this dark +page in American history was embodied in a volume entitled "A Review of +the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War," which was published<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> in +1849. In this searching "Review" Jay exposed the parentage of the +movement for the acquisition of Texas in the desire of the South to +extend the territory devoted to slavery, with the twofold object of +creating a new market for slave-breeders and of giving to the slave +States an overwhelming control of Congress. He traced the devious paths +of intrigue by which a rebellion was fomented in Texas by Americans +settled there for that express purpose; the encouragement and aid given +secretly to the rebels by the United States; the recognition of their +independence; and finally the subterfuges adopted to achieve the +annexation in violation of international rights and the Constitution +itself. Jay set forth plainly the fact that hostilities were begun by +the United States troops; he described the military operations by which +a weak and defenceless people were reduced to consent to a dismemberment +of their country; he showed the enormous cost in life and money involved +in this war undertaken to furnish a new market for slaves and new power +to slaveholders. Jay's "Review of the Mexican War" is a contribution to +the history of the country which students cannot afford to pass unread. +The views expressed in it are painful to patriotism for the reason that +they are dictated by the pure patriotism which would make known the +whole truth as a warning to posterity.</p> + +<p>The book on the Mexican War was written originally for the American +Peace Society, which had offered a prize for the best work on the +subject. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> committee appointed to pass judgment on the dissertations +presented in competition awarded the prize to Jay's book on condition +that he should expunge from it all "general censures on the Whig party." +Jay refused to comply with this condition and the prize went to another. +But the Peace Society recognized that the value of Jay's book lay in its +impartial character and caused it to be published as the exposition of +the society's views.</p> + +<p>As nearly all the newspapers of both parties had supported the war, they +were loth to notice a book which placed the object of their encomiums in +so unpleasant a light. But many private letters were received by Jay +which showed him that he had the approval of the best minds. Joshua R. +Giddings wrote: "Thanks be to Him who rules the destiny of nations that +we have among us competent and faithful men who possess the moral +courage to stand forth and chronicle, in the language of truth, the +barbarities of which the nation is guilty. The history of this age will +speak to those who come after facts which will cause our descendants to +blush. Your 'Review of the Mexican War' is faithful and just.... In +writing it you have performed a service to your country and to mankind +infinitely greater than was ever performed by any military officer."</p> + +<p>"Every portion of it," wrote Charles Francis Adams, "commands my +unqualified assent. That in the course of God's providence good may be +ultimately educed out of evil is the only compensating reflection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> which +we can draw from the observation of so much wrong. It may be that out of +the very measures so wickedly devised to sustain a system of crime may +come the means by which it will be overthrown. That your book will do +great service in combining and perpetuating the evidence bearing upon +this portion of American history, I do not for a moment doubt. It is my +profound conviction that there never was a more wicked and unjustifiable +war, promoted by one party and connived at by the other, than the late +war with Mexico."</p> + +<p>The prevention of war was a subject which had occupied the mind of Judge +Jay for a number of years. The result of his reflections was that system +of international arbitration which has become since his death so +efficacious a method of settling international disputes. A pamphlet +entitled "War and Peace: the Evils of the First and a Plan for +Preserving the Last" was still in manuscript in his desk when, in 1841, +Joseph Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist, visited Bedford. +Jay read the pamphlet to Sturge, who was so much struck by the work that +he embodied a portion of it in a book which he published on his return +to England. The views of Jay attracted the attention of the English +Peace Society, who published the whole pamphlet in London in 1842. Jay's +plan for the prevention of war was exceedingly simple. It provided that +a stipulation should be made in every treaty that future international +differences should be referred first to arbitration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> to attempt a +peaceful settlement. The idea was heartily approved by Cobden, who wrote +to Judge Jay: "If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration +clause in the pending treaties I am persuaded that it will be accepted +by our government." The scheme of arbitration thus proposed by Jay, and +supported by Joseph Sturge and his friends of the English Peace Society, +was approved by peace congresses held in Brussels in 1848, in Paris in +1849, and in London in 1851. Having thus attracted general attention, it +was recommended by protocol No. 23 of the Congress of Paris held in 1856 +after the Crimean War, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the +plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, +Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the +States between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, +before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might +allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honour of the +introduction of this measure in the first Congress belongs to Lord +Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry +Richard. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of +immortal honour. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act "important to +civilization and to the security of the peace of Europe." The protocol +was afterwards approved by all the other powers to which it was +referred, more than forty in number. The plan thus suggested by Judge +Jay for the prevention of war bore fruit during<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> his life, and was +destined in after-years to become established in the mind of the +civilized world as the true remedy for the greatest scourge of +nations.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>Judge Jay was an earnest and active member of the Episcopal Church, but +he was never blind to its imperfections. He deplored as much as any man +the countenance given by the church to slavery, but he believed that +reformation must and would come from within. He had no sympathy with the +"come-outers." Concerning them he wrote in 1846: "Infidelity is now +vigorously availing itself of the conduct of the clergy in relation to +this subject to assail the blessed religion of which they are the +ministers. A sect is forming who profess to believe that the church is +so corrupted by slavery that good men are required to separate from her. +These people call themselves 'come-outers.' Lecturers are enlisted in +their service, and the clergy, as identified with the cause of human +bondage, are daily held up to public detestation as heartless +hypocrites." Jay would not deny the justice with which the attacks on +the clergy were made, and he laboured to place the church where it +belonged, in the front rank of the great humanitarian movement. To his +efforts were largely due the admission of coloured clergy to the +conventions of the church, and the gradual abolition of that spirit of +caste which prevented a white clergyman from recognizing a black one as +fit to deliberate with him on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> matters relating to their common +religion. To destroy this race hatred, so contrary to the spirit of +Christianity, and to arouse the church to its duty of active opposition +to slavery, were Jay's constant endeavours in the conventions of the +church. His pen also was frequently occupied with the same subject. His +"Letter to Bishop Ives" of North Carolina was a severe yet just +arraignment of clergymen who justified slavery from the Scriptures, and +it exposed the wickedness of their course in language and with arguments +to which they and their sympathizers were unable to reply.</p> + +<p>When a "History of the American Church," by Samuel Wilberforce, was +published in England, there was naturally in America much curiosity to +see the work. Two American publishers announced their intention of +reprinting it. But time passed and no reprint appeared. The explanation +is given in the words of Jay: "The author of the 'History' in the course +of his work advances certain doctrines on the subject of 'slavery' and +of 'caste in the church' which it is thought inconvenient to discuss, +and which cannot be admitted in this republic without sealing the +condemnation of almost every Christian sect among us and overwhelming +our own church with shame and confusion. There are, it is to be feared, +but few among our twelve hundred clergymen who, on reading the +'History,' would not find their consciences whispering, 'Thou art the +man,' and who would not be anxious to conceal the volume from their +parishioners. Hence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> its suppression." Jay was determined that the +truths regarding the Episcopal Church in America set forth by the +celebrated Dr. Wilberforce should not be quite unattainable by the +clergy and laity especially concerned. In 1846 he caused those passages +of the "History" relating to slavery to be printed, and introduced them +with forcible remarks of his own in the pamphlet entitled "A Reproof of +the American Church by the Bishop of Oxford."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134a" id="Page_134a"></a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fig_fp134.png" alt="William Jay" /></div> +<p class="caption">William Jay</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VII.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">UNPOPULARITY OF THE ABOLITIONISTS.—THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 AND THE +FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAW.—JAY'S REPLY TO WEBSTER'S 7th OF MARCH +SPEECH.—THE ATTITUDE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.—THE ABROGATION OF +THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.—DISUNION.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> prospect was dark for the antislavery cause in 1850. Its friends had +increased steadily in numbers and in earnestness. But the Slave Power +had mustered all its forces in an aggressive campaign which aimed to +make slavery a national instead of a local institution, to introduce it +into territory hitherto free, and to browbeat the North into submission +to every demand of the slaveholder. The compromise measures adopted this +year in Congress—above all, the Fugitive-Slave Law—marked the +successful advance of arrogant Southern dictation. In the North, the +dislike of antislavery men and the willingness to satisfy the South at +the expense of conscience was expressed in such scenes as the attack of +the Rynders mob on the meeting of the American Antislavery Society in +New York and the passive attitude towards it adopted by the authorities. +Although the plan of putting down the abolitionists by force had proved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +impracticable, no efforts were spared to make their lives uncomfortable +by the attacks of the press and by the pressure of social disapproval. +"Our politicians," wrote Jay to Charles Sumner, "may pride themselves on +their adroitness in pandering to popular prejudices, and in acquiring +power and influence by seasonable changes of opinion and conduct. But a +day is coming when their motives and actions will be judged by a very +different tribunal than public opinion, and when a single act of +benevolence, a single sacrifice of personal consideration to the cause +of truth, will outweigh a whole life of obsequiousness and political +trickery.</p> + +<p>"The truths we advocate are unpalatable to the two extremes of society. +We shock the coarse, vulgar prejudices of the rabble, while the +disinterested benevolence we profess is to them an enigma to be solved +only by the imputation of fanaticism. At the same time we disturb the +tranquil consciences of the rich, thwart the calculations of politicans, +and interrupt the harmony subsisting between our merchants and their +Southern customers. Hence the upper classes look upon us as impertinent +and exceedingly ungenteel, and unfit to move in the higher circles. I +cannot tell how far your personal experience coincides with mine, but +<i>I</i> know whereof I affirm. I have advanced no ultra-fanatical doctrines +in politics or religion. On the subject of slavery I have but reiterated +the opinions of many of the best and greatest men in England and in our +own country. I have advocated no congressional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> action except such as +Mr. Webster, in his better days, pronounced constitutional, and I have +condemned all forcible resistance to the Fugitive-Slave Law. Yet solely +on account of my antislavery efforts, I find myself nearly insulated in +society."</p> + +<p>The Compromise measures of 1850 were repulsive and disheartening to the +antislavery men in the North. And no circumstance connected with them +was more discouraging than the change of front made by Daniel +Webster—his abandonment of the Wilmot Proviso and his concession to the +Southern demand for the extension of slavery into the new territory +acquired by the Mexican War. Webster's speech of the 7th of March was +answered by Judge Jay in a letter to the <i>Evening Post</i> of March 20th, +and was afterwards published as a pamphlet and widely circulated. In +this letter Jay recalled the eloquent and positive declaration of +Webster made in the Senate on August 10, 1848, after New Mexico and +California had been acquired:</p> + +<p class="bq">"My opposition to the increase of slavery in this country, or to the +increase of slave representation, is general and universal. It has +no reference to the lines of latitude or points of the compass. I +shall oppose all such extension at all times and under all +circumstances, even against all inducements, against all supposed +limitation of great interests, against all combinations, against all +compromises."</p> + +<p>These words were contrasted by Jay with Webster's present excuse for +abandoning opposition to the extension of slavery on the ground that the +laws of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> "physical geography" made slavery impossible in the new +territory and to forbid its existence there was merely "to re-enact the +will of God."</p> + +<p class="bq">"To what," asked Jay, "did this solemn, emphatic, unqualified +asservation refer? Did he then know that there was a foot of +territory in the United States over which it was morally and +physically impossible to extend slavery? Was he promising in these +impressive terms to oppose what he was conscious would never be +attempted? Did he make this pledge before his country with a mental +reservation to unite hereafter with General Cass and the +slaveholders in denouncing and scorning the Proviso? Did he mean to +deceive his own party? Did he desire to keep up an angry agitation +throughout the nation for electioneering purposes, and did he thus +intimate his belief in the danger of the extension of slavery and +slave representation, when he well knew that the fiat of the +Almighty had rendered such extension impossible? Was he then +acquainted with the law of physical geography which would render the +Proviso 'a re-enactment of the will of God?' And did he purposely +conceal the secret of this law in his own breast, when by revealing +it he might have stilled the raging billows of popular passion which +threatened to ingulf the Union? To suppose all this would be to +impute to Mr. Webster a degree of trickery and turpitude rarely +paralleled even among politicians. Hence we are bound to assume that +the law of nature on which he <i>now</i> relies is a recent discovery, +subsequent at least to the 10th August, 1848. It is, however, +extraordinary that a gentleman of his acquirements did not sooner +become acquainted with '<i>this law of physical geography—the law of +the formation of the earth, that settles forever, beyond all terms +of human enactment, that slavery cannot exist in California or New +Mexico</i>.' It is to be regretted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> that Mr. Webster did not condescend +to demonstrate the existence of this law and to explain the mode of +its operation. He indeed tells us that our new territories are +'Asiatic in their formation and scenery'; but this fact does not +prove his law, since slavery has existed for ages amid the scenery +of Asia; it exists in the deserts of Africa, has existed in every +country of Europe, and now exists in the frozen regions of Russia. +This law, moreover, must have been enacted by the Creator since +1824, or its operation must have been suspended in deference to the +Spanish government; for under that government negro slavery did +exist in California and New Mexico, and it ceased in 1824, not by +the 'law of physical geography,' but by a Mexican edict. Thousands +of slaves are employed in the mines of Brazil, and Mr. Webster does +not explain how his law forbids their employment in the mines of +California....</p> + +<p class="bq">"He pays a sorry compliment to the common sense of the people in +offering to them at the eleventh hour a new and unheard-of law of +'physical geography,' together with the 'Asiatic scenery and +formation' of the conquered territories, as an <i>excuse</i> for +violating the faith he had plighted in behalf of the Proviso. He has +shocked the moral sense of a large portion of the community by +giving in advance his sanction to the Fugitive-Slave Law, which +makes the liberty or bondage of a citizen depend on the affidavit of +a slaveholder and the judgment of a post-master—a law which +converts sympathy for guiltless misery into crime, and threatens to +tenant our jails with our most estimable men and women. But Mr. +Webster underrates the intelligence and sensibilities of the masses. +Relying on the Southern affinities of our commercial cities, on the +subserviency of politicians, on the discipline of party, and on his +own great influence, Mr. Webster looks <i>down</i> upon the people; but +the time is probably not far distant when the people will cease to +look up to him. Parties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> will accept of any leaders who can acquire +for them the spoils of the day, but in the political history of our +country the people have never placed their affections upon any man +in whose stability and consistency they did not confide."</p> + +<p>To give such assistance as he could to a fugitive slave had always been +regarded by Judge Jay as a duty. "The slaveholders," he had written, +"with their accustomed impudence and mendacity, apply the term <i>theft</i> +to the humane and Christian efforts to assist a slave in escaping from +his home of bondage. In their sense of the expression, I glory in being +a slave-stealer, and I inculcate upon my children the duty, the +Christian duty, of this kind of theft." He had sheltered and aided many +runaways at his home at Bedford, and his will contained a bequest of a +thousand dollars to be used for this purpose. His son John gave his +services as a lawyer constantly and successfully to prevent the return +of fugitive slaves.</p> + +<p>When the Fugitive-Slave Bill became a law Judge Jay was applied to by +many individuals, societies, and periodicals to give his views +concerning it. "The law," he said in a private letter, "is an outrage +upon the Constitution of our country and the precepts of our religion. +It is a burlesque on justice and on all the acknowledged rules of +evidence in the trial of issues. The demand it makes upon individual +citizens to aid in hunting and enslaving their fellow-men is diabolical. +I have made up my mind to suffer imprisonment and the spoiling of my +goods rather than hazard my soul by rendering any active obedience to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +this sinful law. It is horrible that so many of our fashionable cotton +divines are now preaching up the supremacy of human law and virtually +dethroning Him whose ambassadors they profess to be."</p> + +<p>"In my opinion, every Northern slave-catcher is a base man, and every +lawyer who takes reward against the innocent is a disgrace to a noble +profession. I myself shall offer no forcible resistance against the +execution of this most wicked law, but I trust that, through the grace +of God, I would go to the scaffold sooner than obey it."</p> + +<p>Concerning the constitutionality of the law, Judge Jay wrote to Josiah +Quincy: "The fugitive-slave clause in the Constitution is of course +obligatory, but there is a wide distinction between the fugitive-slave +<i>clause</i> and the fugitive-slave <i>law</i>. The Constitution gives no power +to Congress to legislate on the subject, but imposes on the States the +obligation of rendition. Chief-Justice Hornblower, of New York, and +Chancellor Walworth, of New York, long since pronounced the fugitive law +of '93 unconstitutional on this very ground."</p> + +<p>The demoralization caused by the execution of the law was described by +Jay in a letter to Gerrit Smith: "It is scoundrelizing our people. +Cruelty and injustice are cultivated as virtues, Christian love and +sympathy with human suffering are treated as prejudices to be conquered, +and zeal in hunting slaves is made the test of patriotism and of fitness +for office. But the most diabolical effect of the law is the competition +it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> has excited among our politicians to offer the blood of their +fellow-citizens in exchange for Southern votes."</p> + +<p>To a committee of free coloured men who asked Judge Jay's advice +regarding the propriety of arming themselves to prevent being kidnapped +under the law, he said: "Most deeply do I sympathize with you in your +unhappy state. With your wives and children, you are now placed at the +disposal of any villain who is ready to perjure himself for the price +you will bring in the human shambles of the South. With less ceremony +and trouble than a man can impound his neighbour's ox, you may be +metamorphosed from a citizen of the State of New York into a beast of +burden on a Southern plantation. On leaving your house in the morning +you may be enticed into another, where one of the newly appointed +commissioners, after reading one affidavit, made a thousand miles off, +and another that you are the person named in the first, or on the bare +oath of the kidnapper himself, may inform you, to your amazement and +horror, that you are a <i>slave</i>. The fetters previously prepared are +placed on your limbs, and in a few minutes you are travelling with +railroad velocity to a Southern market. Never again will you behold your +wife and children, nor will any tidings from them ever reach your ear. +The remainder of your life is to be one of toil and stripes.... Yet," he +continued, "leave, I beseech you, the pistol and the bowie-knife to +Southern ruffians and their Northern mercenaries. That<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> this law will +lead to bloodshed I take for granted, but let it be the blood of the +innocent, not of the guilty. If anything can arouse the torpid +conscience of the North, it will be our streets stained with human blood +shed by the slave-catchers."</p> + +<p>The Fugitive-Slave Law, in Jay's opinion, was the natural sequence to +the attempt to put down the antislavery movement by force: "For years, +most strenuous efforts, prompted by commercial and political views, were +made to deprive the opponents of slavery of their constitutional +privileges by lawless violence. The right of petition was suspended, the +freedom of debate interrupted, the sanctity of the post-office violated, +public meetings dispersed, printing-presses destroyed, furious mobs +excited, churches sacked, private houses gutted, and even murder +perpetrated. All this violation of rights was regarded with complacency +by many who had much at stake, so long as abolitionists alone were the +victims. But the spirit of aggression thus raised and fostered is +seeking new subjects on which to exercise its power. 'Gentlemen of +property and standing' are now beginning to feel alarmed about +socialism, anti-rentism, agrarianism, etc. Hence, of late we hear much +of the importance of conservatism, as it is called. The political +movements of the last few months seem to indicate that our landlords and +cotton lords and merchant princes regard an alliance with the +aristocracy of the South as at least in some degree a security against +the violation of vested rights, sequestration of rents, oppressive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +taxation, unequal laws, etc. To the influence of gentlemen of this class +the late slave law owes its passage.</p> + +<p>"And is it indeed believed that the rights of the rich will be protected +by familiarizing the populace with the practice of injustice and cruelty +towards the poor? Will the sight of innocent men seized in our streets +and sent in fetters to till the broad fields of great landowners +increase the reverence felt for land titles? Is it wise to give the +people practical lessons in the demolition of all the barriers raised by +the common law for the protection of the weak against the strong? Is it +true conservatism to obliterate in the masses the sense of justice, the +feelings of humanity, the distinction between right and wrong?"</p> + +<p>The tacit support given to slavery by the Episcopal Church at large and +the active support given to it by many individual clergymen was a source +of constant grief to Judge Jay and a frequent subject of his thoughts. +"You well know," he wrote to Joseph Sturge, "what a mighty effort has +been made by our Northern traders in Southern votes and merchandise, +under the leadership of Daniel Webster, to roll back the antislavery +tide. To a certain extent they have succeeded. The commercial interest +in the great towns, through a rivalry for the Southern trade, has +professed great alacrity in slave-catching, and political aspirants for +office under the Federal Government find it expedient to make +slave-hunting the test of patriotism. But the religious feeling of the +commonalty—that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> is, of those who are not pre-eminently gentlemen of +property and standing—is shocked by the enormous cruelty and injustice +of the fugitive law. To overcome this feeling, which in its +demonstrations is exceedingly inconvenient to our merchants and +office-seekers, the clergy have been urged by the press and other +agencies to come out in support of the law—in other words, to give the +sanction of the gospel of Christ to the enslavement of innocent men. +Some pastors who preach in fine churches to rich and fashionable city +congregations have complied. You must understand that many of our +brokers, merchants, lawyers, and editors were exceedingly scandalized by +the opposition of religious people to this vile law, and they have +trembled for the honour of our holy religion when some of its professors +contended that an impious law was not binding on the conscience."</p> + +<p>The position of the church was strongly stated by Jay in a letter to +Rev. Hiram Jelliff: "It is one of the most melancholy circumstances of +the condition of the coloured people that so many of the ministers of +the Lord Jesus Christ are among their most influential enemies. The +church of the living God is the great buttress of slavery and caste in +the United States. If any plea can be urged in behalf of infidelity, it +is that Christianity as represented by multitudes of its official +teachers authorizes the abrogation of all its precepts of humility, +justice, and benevolence in the treatment of persons to whom God has +given a coloured skin. Look at the conventions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> New York and +Pennsylvania excluding ministers and disciples of the crucified Redeemer +merely because they are poor and despised! I confess, my dear sir, that +were I a young man, with no early religious impressions and about to +decide on the truth or falsehood of revelation, I fear I should be +strongly tempted to believe that a religion such as it is practically +exhibited by your cotton-parsons could not and did not proceed from a +just and benevolent being. I have had great opportunities of knowing the +effect produced by the countenance given to slavery and caste by the +church on the faith of many kind-hearted and conscientious people, and +in all sincerity I declare that our pro-slavery clergy, our negro-hating +clergy, our slave-catching clergy, are the most successful apostles of +infidelity in the country. I write thus freely to you because your +course is in direct opposition to those I condemn. The Saviour eat, +drank, and lodged with the Samaritans, who were the negroes of Judea, a +despised, degraded caste, from whom a Jew disdained to receive even a +cup of water.... May God bless and reward your labours."</p> + +<p>Occupying, as Judge Jay did, a position of leadership in both the +Episcopal Church and the antislavery movement, it was to him that men +most frequently turned for advice on subjects relating to the connection +between the church and slavery. From mature minds, such as that of +Senator Salmon P. Chase, from divinity students and young men +contemplating connection with a religious body, came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> inquiries +regarding the duty of joining the church or of remaining a member. To a +young man Jay wrote in 1854: "I shall say nothing of the claims of the +Episcopal Church as arising from her doctrines, forms, and government, +except that I know of no church which, judged <i>by its authorized +standards</i>, is more scriptural and more conducive to holiness in this +life and to salvation in the next. You desire to enter this church but +have not been able to overcome the objection arising from its connection +with slavery, and would like to know, for your information, how I +reconcile my continuance in this church with my antislavery opinions. +Assuredly I could not belong to a church which exacted of its members an +admission of the lawfulness of human bondage. Of such a sin and folly +the Episcopal Church is guiltless. No sanction of slavery can be found +in any of her standards, and hence I can very consistently hold the +doctrines of the church and join in its prayers and rites and at the +same time regard American slavery as the sum of all villainies. There +are in the church slaveholding bishops, clergymen, and communicants, +<i>plenty of them</i>. But I am not responsible for their presence.... There +never has been, and I suppose there never will be, a widely extended +church without unworthy pastors and members. A <i>pure</i> church composed of +fallible and sinful men is a figment of the imagination.... Many popish +doctrines and practices are occasionally advocated by our Puseyites. But +I, as a private member of the church, am in no degree responsible for +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> heresies of Puseyism nor the more disgusting heresies of +cotton-divinity.... In my opinion, in nine cases out of ten an +antislavery Christian can do more good to his own soul, to the cause of +Christ, and to the interests of the slave by remaining in his church and +there battling for truth and justice, than by going in search of a pure +church. It often happens when an abolitionist abandons an alleged +pro-slavery church he finds no other that suits him. Hence the public +worship of God and the Sacraments are neglected. Gradually he and his +family learn to live without God in the world, and finally enter upon +that broad road which leads to destruction."</p> + +<p>The position assumed by the Episcopal Church towards the rights and +elevation of the blacks was indicated by the refusal of the Diocesan +Council of New York to admit the coloured church of St. Philip, although +the parish was constitutionally entitled to be represented and her +minister and delegates were entitled to seats and votes. Judge Jay +opposed earnestly a majority report from a committee on the question of +their admission, which contended that the applicants belonged to a race +"socially degraded, and improper associates for the class of persons who +attend our conventions." Such an apology for the violation of the +constitutional rights ordained by the State, and such a presentation of +the theological views entertained by the committee on the unity of the +church and the catholic brotherhood of its members, was not calculated +to strengthen the opposition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> to St. Philip's; and the Christian world +breathed more freely when, after a nine years' struggle to obtain a vote +on the question maintained by Judge Jay and his son, the coloured parish +was admitted by a large majority of both orders.</p> + +<p>In 1854 Southern aggression had nearly reached its culminating point. +The Missouri Compromise was abrogated; the Kansas-Nebraska Bill threw +open to slavery an immense territory hitherto free, under the subterfuge +invented by General Cass and Senator Douglas of "popular sovereignty." +Slavery was thus to extend over the vast regions in the centre of the +continent. An indefinite number of new slave States were to be admitted +into the Union, which would give the control of the Senate, and +consequently of all legislation, forever to the Slave Power.</p> + +<p>In February, 1854, Judge Jay received an invitation to address the +Anti-Nebraska Convention of the Free Democracy of Massachusetts. His age +and health prevented a journey to Boston, but he wrote to the committee +of invitation as follows:</p> + +<p class="bq">"It is meet and right that the stupendous iniquity now about to be +perpetrated should be resisted by the true-hearted citizens of that +State which, more than any other in the confederacy, has debauched +the moral sentiment of the nation and prepared the community for +submission to the most insolent usurpation yet attempted by the +Slave Power. The present effort to extend the dominion of the whip +to the northern limits of the United States is the legitimate +consequence of the disastrous and disgraceful concessions of 1850. +Those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> concessions were effected more through the ability and +labours of the late distinguished senator from Massachusetts +than of any of his coadjutors. Mr. Webster, avowing the entire +constitutionality of the Wilmot Proviso and having voted for it in +relation to Oregon, objected to its application to the newly +conquered territories on the ground that their <i>Asiatic scenery</i> and +<i>geographical conformation</i> rendered it <i>physically impossible</i> for +negro slavery ever to exist in them. Unhappily for his novel and +extraordinary theory, numerous slaves were at the time he spoke held +in California.... Slaves are at this day held in New Mexico.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Mr. Webster, in giving his earnest and cordial support to the +atrocious Fugitive-Slave Act, candidly acknowledged on the floor of +the Senate that in 'his judgment' Congress had no constitutional +power to legislate on the subject, the obligation of surrendering +fugitives resting on the States. Yet he scrupled not in his +subsequent addresses to speak in terms of unmeasured obloquy of +every lawyer who presumed to deny the constitutionality of that +horrible law. He admitted the right of Congress to grant the +fugitive a trial by jury, yet was unwearied in his advocacy of a law +denying to the most helpless of mortals that important safeguard of +personal liberty....</p> + +<p class="bq">"The course of this gentleman at a moment when the dearest +principles of liberty, justice, and humanity were vehemently +assailed was rapturously applauded by the monied, the literary, and +the ecclesiastical aristocracy of Massachusetts, and the New England +Church has to a great extent canonized his memory.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The ardour evinced by the city of Boston in the surrender of Simms, +and the intense servility and degradation accompanying that +surrender, together with the emphatic endorsement of Mr. Webster's +conduct, have exerted an influence in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> behalf of human bondage and +in derogation of Christian obligation far beyond the bounds of +Massachusetts. The moral bulwark raised at the North against slavery +in times past by the religious sentiment and the respect for the +rights of man is nearly demolished.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The Slave Power, taking advantage of the present paralysis of the +Northern conscience and the frantic cupidity of our demagogues and +merchants for Southern votes and Southern trade, is about placing +its yoke on willing and bending necks.</p> + +<p class="bq">"Think not that Nebraska is to be the terminus of slaveholding +encroachments. New slave States are from time to time to be carved +out of Mexico. Cuba is to be wrested from Spain and St. Domingo +re-enslaved and annexed. As the field for slave labour widens and +widens, the supply will be found inadequate to the demand. The +discovery will then be made that both religion and policy require +the repeal of the prohibition of the African slave-trade. We shall +be told of the Christian duty of bringing the pagans of Africa to +our own civilized shores and of preparing them for heaven by the +discipline of the whip and the teachings of slave-drivers, while +politicans and political economists will insist on the removal of +the restriction as essential to the development of our national +wealth and enterprise. In vain will Virginia and the other breeding +States strive to retain their present lucrative monopoly of the +human shambles. The cotton and sugar States, together with the newly +acquired slave States, aided by Northern politicians, will establish +free trade in the bodies and souls of men.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The Southern Church is almost without exception the unblushing +champion of slavery, while the Northern Church, adopting a +time-serving, heartless, and often hypocritical neutrality, and +holding in its fraternal embrace slave-breeders and slave-traders, +has virtually taught that the vilest outrages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> on both the civil and +religious rights of the black man are perfectly compatible with the +highest sanctity in his white oppressor. Some of our religious +journals are sadly grieved and scandalized by the alleged discovery +that certain opponents of slavery are infidels. For my own part, I +know of no form of infidelity so hideous as that which impiously +claims the authority of Almighty God for abrogating all His laws in +behalf of justice and mercy in reference to our conduct towards +millions of our countrymen not of the same colour as ourselves. This +cutaneous Christianity, so insulting to the Deity, so disastrous to +man, is fast becoming the national religion.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The present crisis is indeed an awful one. While various causes +have aided in producing it, its immediate origin is to be traced to +the lamentable defection, in 1850, of so many of the rich and +influential from truth and justice, liberty and humanity, under the +fallacious plea of saving the Union. Well may the Free Democracy of +Massachusetts, with their hands and consciences undefiled by +oblations on the altar of the American Moloch, now strive to avert +the calamity impending over the country. May a long-suffering God +bless their efforts and rescue a guilty nation from the punishment +it seems anxious to inflict upon itself."</p> + +<p>"As to the wickedness of the whole Kansas business," Jay wrote to +Charles Sumner, in March, 1856, "I most fully agree with you, and I do +not wonder that amid such abounding iniquity you are at a loss what +atrocity to assail first. I am very much inclined to look upon every +Northern member of Congress who voted for the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise as a rascal. This may seem harsh—it is certainly not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +polite—and yet I am utterly unable to assign a good, honest, religious +motive for the vote, or to reconcile it with the fear of God or with +love to man.... Let us fight on, with all our heart and mind and soul. +God is with us, approves our efforts, and whether He shall crown them +with success or not, He will not forget our work of faith and labour of +love. I have full faith in an ultimate triumph, although you and I may +not live to enjoy it. My belief is, that as soon as the North ceases to +tremble before the slave-drivers, the non-slaveholders of the South will +proclaim their independence and insist upon free speech and a free +press, and as soon as these are obtained the doom of slavery is sealed."</p> + +<p>The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the beginning of the end, the +fatal step of the South on its road to destruction. Throughout the North +the conviction grew that Union and slavery could not exist much longer +together. On the 4th of July, 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of +the Constitution of the United States with the words, "The Union must be +dissolved!" He represented only an extreme sentiment. But the people at +large began to calculate the value of this Union for which so many +sacrifices had been made. Slavery became odious to many persons hitherto +indifferent to the subject, on the ground that it persistently and +selfishly placed the Union in peril.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1857 Judge Jay received a circular calling for a +National Disunion Convention, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> be held at Worcester, signed by T. W. +Higginson, Wendell Phillips, Daniel Mann, and W. L. Garrison. To this +circular he replied at length, giving his views on the question of +separation as it then appeared to him.</p> + +<p class="bq">"The subject you propose for consideration," he said, "has long been +to me one of deep and painful interest. Although fully conscious of +the many social, commercial, and political advantages derived from +the Federal Union, I am nevertheless convinced that it is at present +a most grievous moral curse to the American people. To the people of +the South it is a curse by fostering and strengthening and +perpetuating an iniquitous, corrupting institution. To the millions +of African descent among us it is a curse by riveting the chains of +the bondman and deepening the degradation of the free man. To the +people of the free States it is a curse by tempting them to trample +under foot the obligations of truth, justice, and humanity for the +wages of iniquity with which the Federal Government has so +abundantly rewarded apostates from liberty and righteousness.</p> + +<p class="bq">"In my opinion, while the Union continues to be thus a curse it will +be indissoluble; if it ever ceases to be a curse, it will be +converted into a blessing.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">· · · · ·</span></p> + +<p class="bq">"What possible reason have you to expect that those in church and +state who have surrendered their consciences to the seductions of +the Union will listen to your call and aid you in breaking a power +which they glory in saving? While I believe you are doomed to +disappointment, I nevertheless rejoice in every exposure of the +demoralizing influence of the Union. I rejoice in such exposure, not +as tending to bring about dissolution, but to render it unnecessary. +When the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> people of the North cease to idolize the Union, they will +cease to offer on its altar their rights and their duties. When +released from their thraldom to the Slave Power, they will cease to +place its minions in office. When no longer covetous of the votes +and the trade of the South, they will no longer be bullied into all +manner of wretchedness and all manner of insult by the idea and +ever-repeated threats of dissolution. But when this happy time +arrives, the Union will be converted from a curse into a blessing. +Our divines, instead of vindicating cruelty and oppression, and +denouncing as fanatics those who consider the will of God a higher +law than an accursed act of Congress, will become preachers of +righteousness. Democrats, seeing the Federal patronage wielded by +the opponents of slavery, will, in the rapidity and extent of their +conversion to truth and justice, eclipse all the marvels of New +England revivals; and men who for years have been bowed to the earth +by spinal weakness will as by miracle stand erect. When all this +happens, the North will continue its Union with the South; and you +yourselves will have no wish to see that Union severed.</p> + +<p class="bq">"At the close of the war, Washington, solicitous that the divine +favour might rest on the new-born nation, publicly offered the +prayer that God would dispose us all to do justice and love mercy. +May the Union, when exerting an influence in accordance with this +prayer, be indissoluble; but may God forbid that it may ever be +saved by promoting, extending, and perpetuating injustice and +cruelty, by invoking the wrath of Heaven, and becoming a proverb and +a reproach among the nations of the earth."</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VIII.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">DEATH OF JUDGE JAY.—HIS POSITION AMONG ANTISLAVERY MEN.—HIS OTHER +PUBLIC AND PHILANTHROPIC INTERESTS.—HIS PRIVATE LIFE.—HIS +CHARACTER.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="smcap">Judge Jay</span> was not destined to live to see the triumph of the antislavery +cause and of the constitutional principles to which he had devoted his +life. Several years of failing health preceded his death, which took +place at Bedford, October the 14th, 1858.</p> + +<p>His career in the antislavery cause, dating from the Missouri Compromise +in 1821, was in several respects unique, and among the leaders of the +movement his position continued to be distinctive.</p> + +<p>His first active efforts in favour of the slave, the presentation to +Congress in 1826 of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the +District of Columbia, were marked by a careful regard to the provisions +of the United States Constitution. At the first formation of antislavery +societies he feared that philanthropic enthusiasm might place the +movement in a wrong position by a failure to recognize those provisions. +His advice was asked by the men who organized the American Society in +Philadelphia, and it was carried into effect by the insertion into the +constitution of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> the society of a complete recognition of the supreme +national law, in strict accordance with which, only, the objects of the +society should be sought. To maintain the abolitionists in the +impregnable position thus adopted was the constant and characteristic +labour of Jay's life. This position, consistently held by him against +unconstitutional doctrines advanced by both abolitionists and +slaveholders, was the position adopted by the Republican party in 1854, +and maintained until real union and real liberty were won together.</p> + +<p>The antislavery movement was begun and supported by those whom Lincoln +called "the plain people." Men of "property and standing" were generally +passively if not actively hostile. It received little help from the +churches, from the learned professions or the wealthy mercantile +classes. It was a very unpopular cause, denounced by politicians, +merchants, and lawyers, despised by many of the clergy, certain to bring +social and business injury, if not active persecution, to whomsoever +adopted it. Hence the championship of William Jay derived a special +importance. His judicial and social position, his independent means, his +active membership in the most aristocratic of churches, made him a +leader of peculiar value. His advocacy of the cause could be attributed +neither to ignorant fanaticism nor to disorganizing tendencies. He set +an example to the class most able and least willing to oppose the curse +of slavery.</p> + +<p>A third peculiarity of Jay's position among antislavery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> men was the +nature of the work which he performed. Without health sufficient to make +long journeys at a time when travelling was difficult, seldom leaving +his country home, he was rarely seen at the meetings and conventions of +the abolitionists. He was a voice, speaking words of reason, moderation +and authority in times of blind excitement; a voice which spoke at the +right moment and was always heard with respect. Jay's activity lay in +his pen. In a crisis when the judicious course of action or the accurate +view of events was obscured by doubt and passion, a pamphlet or a public +letter from Judge Jay cast a clear and steady light. His writings were +consulted by the most eminent men when considering subjects connected +with slavery. Of this a notable instance was the use made of Jay's +argument on the "Amistad" case by John Quincy Adams when addressing the +House of Representatives in that celebrated cause. These writings form a +continuous and lucid commentary on the history of the long and varied +struggle between the forces of slavery and of freedom.</p> + +<p>The published works of Judge Jay present but a part of the fruits and +the influence of his pen. His correspondence was voluminous and extended +to the rank and file as well as to the leaders of the antislavery +movement. Constant resort was made to him for information and advice, +which was always given with frankness and care.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>We may close appropriately our review of Jay's antislavery work with +remarks made after his death to the coloured people of New York by +Frederick Douglass, who escaped from the slave-driver to urge with +native eloquence the emancipation of his race: "In common with you, my +friends, I wear the hated complexion which William Jay never hated. I +have worn the galling chain which William Jay earnestly endeavoured to +break. I have felt the heavy lash, and have experienced in my own person +the cruel wrongs which caused his manly heart to melt in pity for the +slave.... In view of the mighty struggle for freedom in which we are now +engaged, and the tremendous odds arrayed against us, every coloured man +and every friend of the coloured man in this country must deeply feel +the great loss we have sustained in this death, and look around with +anxious solicitude for the man who shall rise to fill the place now made +vacant. With emphasis it may be said of him, he was our wise counsellor, +our firm friend, and our liberal benefactor. Against the fierce onsets +of popular abuse he was our shield; against governmental intrigue and +oppression he was our learned, able,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> and faithful defender; against +the crafty counsels of wickedness in high places, where mischief is +framed by law and sin is sanctioned and supported by religion, he was a +perpetual and burning rebuke."</p> + +<p>Besides his work for the negro race, William Jay had various public and +philanthropic interests. Prominent among these were the duties of judge +of Westchester County, which he exercised for more than twenty-five +years. Jay revised the rules of the court, which had been handed down +almost unchanged since 1728; and he introduced a strict observance of +forms, which, combined with his prompt and explicit decisions, made the +Westchester court one of the most dignified in the country. The sittings +were held alternately at White Plains and at Bedford, the half-shire +towns of the county. Jay also attended to chamber business in other +towns. At that period the Westchester bar embraced many lawyers of +marked ability, such as R. R. Voorhis, Aaron Ward, William Nelson, Peter +Jay Munro, J. W. Strong, Minot Mitchell, and James Smith; and from New +York, Alexander McDonald, William M. Price, and Peter Augustus Jay +frequently appeared among them. It has been said of Judge Jay's charges +to grand juries that "they commanded attention, from their clear +exposition of the law without the slightest concession to the popular +currents of the day and with careful regard to constitutional rights, +morality, and justice." These charges were frequently requested for +publication as timely reminders of legal and moral truths, the relation +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> which to current events was being overlooked. Judge Jay's conduct on +the bench caused his reappointment term after term by governors of +opposing political parties; and after his death, when a pro-slavery +faction endeavoured to remove his portrait from the court-house at White +Plains, members of the bar who disagreed with Jay's abolition opinions +were foremost in preventing any act of disrespect to his memory.</p> + +<p>Jay's philanthropy was religious in its motive and practical in its +activity. A life-long worker in the cause of temperance, his efforts +produced substantial results, as in the legislation proposed by him +which forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors on credit.</p> + +<p>For many years a member and president of the Peace Society, he was not +satisfied with exposing the evils of war. His mind sought and found a +remedy for it in the system of international arbitration, of which the +practicability was immediately acknowledged, and towards which the +civilized world has since turned with constantly growing confidence.</p> + +<p>The organization of the American Bible Society in the face of the +opposition of the authorities in his own church displayed in Jay's early +life the self-reliance and independence of character which gave so much +strength to his later career. Always true to his church, he never +compromised his convictions to fit a position in which that church was +untrue to itself. During the antislavery movement the churches were +hostile. Fearful of alienating their Southern members and the Northern +men whose business interests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> demanded subserviency to the Slave Power, +hardly any ecclesiastical organization was guiltless of lending a +passive support to slavery. Theological students, on leaving their +seminary, were cautioned by their instructors to avoid the troublesome +topic if they would be successful ministers of Christ. Clergymen who +preached that property in man was sinful were disciplined by +ecclesiastical superiors or cast off by outraged Christian +congregations. An orthodox religious newspaper was the safest printed +matter for a Northern man to have in his possession when travelling in +the South. The Episcopal Church had its slaveholding bishops and +ministers, not a few of whom justified slavery from the Scriptures. It +had in the North its "cotton divines," who enjoined from the pulpit +obedience to the odious law which sought to make slave-catchers of +Christian men and women. It went so far as persistently to infringe its +own laws by shutting the doors of its conventions upon legally chosen +delegates of congregations composed of free coloured men. The church of +Christ was turned into a social club which did not hesitate to exclude a +black man as an "unfit associate." Shocked at this attitude, many +conscientious men withdrew from the communion. But such a course was +inconsistent with Jay's character. False and repulsive as was to him +such a conception of the Christian religion, he refused, as a churchman, +to accept it. He remained in the ranks, striving by his own conduct to +show that a man could be a good churchman and hate slavery at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> same +time. Fearless in his expression of Christian truth, he was for twenty +years a thorn in the side of pro-slavery churchmen, and a rallying-point +for those who understood better the spirit of Christianity and +recognized the brotherhood of man before God.</p> + +<p>Jay's private life was happy and peaceful. The library at Bedford, with +its book-shelves crowded to the ceiling and its windows looking out over +the hills of Westchester to the blue outlines of the Catskills, claimed +a considerable portion of every day. The hours there passed in +reflection and in literary labour were hours of pleasure, enhanced by +the desire and the hope of usefulness.</p> + +<p>Out-of-doors were the avocations of a country life, which Jay was well +constituted to enjoy: the farm, with its interesting record of crops and +growing livestock; the garden, where a great variety of flowers and +vegetables flourished within hedges of old box; the lawn, with its trees +planted by his father and himself—all these gave occupation in pleasing +contrast to that of the library. The public roads in the neighbourhood +of the Jay farm are now adorned and shaded by noble trees planted by the +Judge. Along these roads and over the Westchester hills he loved to ride +on horseback, an exercise and pleasure which he enjoyed until the last +year of his life. Judge Jay preferred to consider Bedford as a farm +rather than as a country seat, and he observed to Bishop Coxe in this +regard that a farm without a gate or a fence out of repair was more to +his taste than an ornamental estate. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> weak eyesight and somewhat +delicate health which in his youth seemed a misfortune as debarring him +from a career of activity in the city turned in the end to his +advantage. A happier life than that at Bedford could hardly have been +devised for him; and it is probable that the studious retirement of his +country library gave to his views on public questions a thoroughness and +moderation greater than could have been attained amidst the hurry and +distraction of a great city.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fig_fp164.png" alt="Augusta Jay" /></div> +<p class="caption">Augusta Jay</p> + +<p>In his family relations, Jay was still more fortunate. His wife lived to +be his sympathetic companion until 1856, when he himself was near his +end. Her accomplishments, especially in reading and drawing, her grace, +gentleness, and goodness, her natural charity, added immeasurably to the +happiness of Jay's life. "I have always regarded her," said the late +Rev. J. W. Alexander, "as one of the happiest specimens of a Christian +lady that it has been my lot to meet. Intelligent, graceful, pious, +gentle, sportive in the right place, generous and catholic, she awakened +a sincere respect and attachment, and our memory of her is blessed." The +late Bishop Horatio Potter of New York, speaking of her later life, +said: "The serene composure, the sweet simplicity and dignity, bespoke a +peaceful and elevated spirit, and made an impression on the most +transient visitor never to be effaced." Dr. John Henry Hobart, son of +the Bishop, wrote to John Jay: "Your mother, always gentle, placid, and +cheerful, with an unfailing smile and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> pleasant words for her young +guests, sympathizing with their boyish enthusiasm for poetry and +romance, and tempering their ardour with counsel and caution, which her +own sensitive spirit conveyed in the most delicate forms—of her I must +speak thus feelingly; it only indicates the debt of gratitude I owe to +her memory."</p> + +<p>Judge Jay had one brother, Peter Augustus Jay, who was thirteen years +his senior. Between the brothers there continued through life an +uninterrupted affection and confidence. Peter Augustus led an active +professional and social life in New York City, holding office as judge, +as recorder, and as a member of the State Assembly. On his death, in +1843, high tributes to his ability as a jurist and to his character as a +public-spirited citizen were paid by Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice +Samuel Jones, and David B. Ogden. As a member of the Assembly, he was +conspicuous in the advocacy of various important measures, among which +may be mentioned his efforts to extend the right of suffrage to black +citizens of the State. Peter Augustus Jay was not himself prominent in +the antislavery cause, but he was generally in sympathy with his +brother's work.</p> + +<p>The Right Reverend A. Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of Western New York, was a +frequent visitor in his youth at Bedford. Some extracts from a letter +written by him to John Jay afford an interesting view of the domestic +life of the Judge's home:</p> + +<p>"William Jay was one of those true sons of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> Republic who inherited +sound views of its constitutional system from your illustrious +grandfather, and from personal acquaintance with some other fathers of +the nation who were high in the confidence of Washington and shared his +just and lofty ideas of national policy. Your father was one of those +born statesmen who breathed under the inspiration of such ideas, and was +animated by them to efforts for the preservation of the Constitution +itself in degenerate days. Those were the days when the 'spoils-system' +had begun to act with corrosive effect on public affairs and public men. +The science of true statesmanship seemed ready to perish. The country +fell into the hands of mere politicians, with whom legislation was a +trade and a struggle for personal aggrandizement. The epoch had little +use for men of pure patriotism, but your father, incapable of ambition +or the pursuit of personal ends, stood aside and devoted himself with +intrepidity to unpopular principles, of which he foresaw the utility, +while he was hardly less prophetic of the cruel war which must be the +consequence of popular indifference and blindness to the national +perils. He was little seen, but greatly felt, and has left a mark on the +diplomacy of his time which is a gain to humanity and to civilization.</p> + +<p>"I cannot forget the charms of that domestic life which he made so +attractive to his children and to the large circle of kindred and +friends who were admitted to its enjoyments. It was in 1836 that, with +our beloved friend Hobart, I was invited to spend the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> Christmas +holidays at Bedford. We were boys together at that time, and I remember +to what hours we prolonged our recreations, with no other restriction +than your father's cheerful injunction, as he bade us good-night: 'Young +gentlemen, please remember not to laugh too loudly; it might deprive +some of us of the sleep which you seem not to require for yourselves.' +How merrily we 'saw the old year out and the new year in,' that +Christmas-tide! I often thought of Irving's 'Bracebridge Hall' as +realized in America, in the home of your happy boyhood. Year after year, +winter and summer, through college life, you led me to renew my holidays +in Bedford. How much I learned from your father's condescension to +boyhood in conversing with his boy-visitors as if they were men! He drew +out our opinions and encouraged us to state them frankly when he +suspected that we had the boldness to prefer our crude ideas to his own +judicial and grave conceptions of fact and principle. He played chess +with his youthful guests, but never permitted them to beat him, as that +would have been no compliment to lads who worked hard and wished to win +in a fair game.</p> + +<p>"I have rarely seen a household in which family life was ordered more +particularly with reference to religion. There was much of the Huguenot +in the piety of the Judge, but nothing of the Puritan. Family prayers +were observed twice a day, the servants attending and sharing in the +responses. After-evening prayers in those early days, we enjoyed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> few +cotillons and contra-dances, Mrs. Jay presiding at the piano. And when +the ladies had withdrawn, chess-playing and other games occupied us, not +infrequently until after midnight. Sundays in the old homestead, after +church-going, were like other days, save in the chastened cheerfulness +of conversation and employment. A feature of Sunday evenings was the +custom for every member of the family to recite something in prose or +poetry, and the Judge often closed such recitals by reading selections +from Bishop Heber, Mr. Milman, and other favourites of those times. In +the third decade of this century, the daughters of 'the governor,' Mrs. +Banyer and Miss Jay, were often the guests of their brother. They would +have been interesting figures in any society, and were eminent in New +York for their Christian virtues and devotion to every good work. The +elder sister, born in Spain, seemed to preserve in her face and carriage +something borrowed from her native climate, while Mrs. Banyer, born in +France, was not less conspicuously marked by characteristics of her +French ancestry. While the only son of Judge Jay is a recognized type of +his father's principles and character, his daughters not less resembled +their mother—a lady whose memory I hold in very great respect, with an +affectionate estimate of her worth as a beautiful example of her +gracious sex, in all characteristics 'wherein there is virtue and +wherein there is praise.'</p> + +<p>"I feel, at this distance of time, that I owe much to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> the friendship of +Judge Jay, apart from the pleasures it conferred upon me. How much he +taught me! How often his maxims led me to correct my faults, though he +never seemed to instruct, much less to rebuke! Even in his decline, and +when he was nearing the end, he favoured me with an occasional letter. +Need I say that, while entirely free from cant and pharisaic +professions, such letters were models of Christian submission, and not +less of 'faith, hope, and charity'? I have frequently reflected upon +them as I find myself approaching the end. His lofty example leads me to +say with the inspired moralist: 'Mark the perfect man and behold the +upright, for the end of that man is peace.'"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">BIBLIOGRAPHY.</span></p> + + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">The Life of John Jay.</span> With Selections from his Correspondence and +Miscellaneous Papers. In two volumes, 1833.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">War and Peace.</span> The Evils of the First and a Plan for Preserving the +Last. London, 1842.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">A Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War</span>, 1849.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Miscellaneous Writings on Slavery</span>, 1853. In which are collected:</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American +Colonization, and American Antislavery Societies.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">On the Condition of the Free People of Colour in the United States.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Address to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on the Violation +by the United States House of Representatives of the Right of +Petition.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Introductory Remarks to the Reproof of the American Church contained +in the recent "History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in +America" by the Bishop of Oxford.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">A Letter to the Right Reverend L. Silliman Ives, Bishop of the +Protestant Church in the State of North Carolina.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Address to the Inhabitants of New Mexico and California, on the +Omission by Congress to provide them with Territorial Governments, +and on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter to Hon. William Nelson, M. C., on Mr. Clay's Compromise.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress +from the City of Boston, in Reply to his Apology for voting for the +Fugitive-Slave Bill.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">An Address to the Antislavery Christians of the United States. +Signed by a number of clergymen and others.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>Letter to Rev. R. S. Cook, Corresponding Secretary of the American +Tract Society.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter to Lewis Tappan, Esq., Treasurer of the American Missionary +Society.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">PAMPHLETS.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Report of the Bedford Society for the Suppression of Vice, 1815.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter to Venders of Ardent Spirits, 1815.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Answer to Bishop Hobart's Pastoral Letter on the Subject of Bible +Societies, by an Episcopalian, 1815.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society, by a Citizen of +New York, 1816.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Appeal in Behalf of the American Bible Society, by a Lay Member of +the Convention, 1816.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Dialogue between a Clergyman and a Layman on the Subject of Bible +Societies, by a Churchman, 1817.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Remarks on a Petition to the Legislature praying for the Repeal of +the Acts for Improving the Agriculture of this State, by a +Westchester Farmer, 1821.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter to Bishop Hobart occasioned by the Strictures on Bible +Societies contained in his late Charge to the Convention of New +York, by a Churchman, 1823.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter to Bishop Hobart in Reply to the Pamphlet addressed by him to +the Author under the Signature of "Corrector," by William Jay, 1823.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Reply to a Second Letter to the Author from Bishop Hobart, with +Remarks on his Hostility to Bible Societies, by William Jay, 1823.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Essay on the Importance of the Sabbath considered merely as a Civil +Institution, 1826.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Essay on the Perpetuity and Divine Authority of the Sabbath. +Published by the Synod of Albany, 1827.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Remarks on the Proposed Changes in the Liturgy and Confirmation +Service, 1827.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">The Office of Assistant Bishop inconsistent with the Constitution of +the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1829.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Essay on Duelling, 1830.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>Address to the Inhabitants of Westchester County on Temperance, +1834.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Addresses to the Westchester County Auxiliary Bible Society, 1836, +1839, 1841, 1845, and other years.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Address before the New York Female Bible Society, 1840.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Letter of Hon. William Jay to Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen on +Slavery, 1844.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Address before the American Peace Society, 1845.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Trial by Jury in New York, 1846.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and +Political Evils of Slavery, 1849.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">The Calvary Pastoral, with Comments, a Tract for the Times, 1849.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Reply to Mr. Webster's 7th of March Speech, 1850.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Reply to Remarks of the Rev. Moses Stuart in his pamphlet entitled +"Conscience and the Constitution." J. A. Gray, New York, 1850.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">The Kossuth Excitement, 1852.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">The Bible against Slavery. J. K. Wellman, Adrian, Michigan, 1852.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Petition of the American Peace Society to the United States Senate +in behalf of Stipulated Arbitration, 1853.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">An Examination of the Mosaic Law of Servitude, "The Statutes of the +Lord are right—Psalm xix. 8." M. W. Dodd, New York, 1854.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">"The Eastern War," an Argument for the Cause of Peace. Address +before the American Peace Society, 1855.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">A Letter to the Rev. Wm. Berrian, D.D., on the Resources, Present +Position, and Duties, of Trinity Church, occasioned by his late +Pamphlet, "Facts against Fancy." A. D. Randolph & Co., New York.</p> + +<p class="blockquot2">Judge Jay left in Manuscript an elaborate Commentary, the work of +many years, on the Old and New Testaments.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">INDEX.</span></p> + + +<p> +<i>Abolition Intelligencer</i>, the, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abolition movement, its early history, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Abolition societies, early, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abolitionists, hatred of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, differences among, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Adams, Charles Francis, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, John Quincy, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alexander, George W., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, J. W., <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +American and Foreign Antislavery Society, formation of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +American Antislavery Society, formation of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">division in, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anderson, W. W., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anti-Annexation Meeting, in New York, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Antislavery movement, development of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Antislavery societies, formation of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Antislavery Society of New York City, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aspinwall, John, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Bailey, G., Jr., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Banyer, Mrs., <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bedford, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benezet, Anthony, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benson, Judge, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bible Society, <a href="#Page_iii">iii</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Birney, James G., <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bogardus, General, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bolton, John, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bouck, Gov., <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boudinot, Elias, <a href="#Page_iii">iii</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bourgueny, Baron, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bradish, Luther, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brent, W. L., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Broglie, Duc de, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, David P., <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brownson, Dr. Orestes A., <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Brune, Baron, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buol-Schauenstein, Count, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buren, Van, Martin, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burling, William, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Calhoun, John C., <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Canterbury, persecution at, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cass, Lewis, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cavour, Count, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chambers, John, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Channing, W. E., <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chapman, Mrs., <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chase, Salmon P., <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chatham Street Chapel, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Child, Mrs. Lydia Maria, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Circourt, M. de, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clarendon, Lord, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clarkson, Matthew, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clarkson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clay, Henry, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cleveland, C. D., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clinton, De Witt, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clinton Hall, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cobden, R., <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colebrook, Sir W., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colonization Society, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Commercial Advertiser</i>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Constitutional questions, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cooper, J. Fenimore, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cornish, Samuel E., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cortlandt, Van, Eve, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Jacobus, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Mary, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Pierre, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton-gin, the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Courier and Inquirer</i>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cowley, Lord, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cox, Abraham L., <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cox, Samuel H., <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coxe, A. Cleveland, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crandall, Miss, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Reuben, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cummings, John, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Dane, Nathan, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Davis, Henry, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Jefferson, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Delavan, Edward, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Denison, Charles W., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Derby, Lord, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Disunion, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglas, Senator, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglass, Frederick, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Duelling, essay on, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dwight, Timothy, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Earle, Thomas, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Edwards, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ellison, Thomas, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Emancipation, gradual, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, immediate, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, in West Indies, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Emancipator</i>, the, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Episcopal Church, its attitude towards slavery, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Evarts, Jeremiah, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Everett, Alexander H., <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fitzmaurice, Lord Edmond, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Forsythe, John, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_iv">iv</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frelinghuysen, Theodore, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frere, John Hookham, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fugitive-Slave Law, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gadsden, Christopher Edward, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gallatin, Albert, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gallaudet, Thomas H., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Garrison, William L., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gay, S. H., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gayle, Gov., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Genius of Universal Emancipation</i>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gibbons, James S., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, W. E., <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goodell, William, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gouverneur, Samuel L., <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gray, William, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grayson, William, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, Rev. Beriah, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, Oliver, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Griffin, George, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grimké, Misses, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Thomas Smith, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grundy, Felix, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Habersham, R. W., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hale, John P., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hamilton, Alexander, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, James, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hammond, J. D., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harrison, W. H., <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henry, John B., <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Patrick, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hicks, Elias, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Higginson, T. W., <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hillhouse, James A., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hobart, Bishop, <a href="#Page_iv">iv</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, John Henry, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Holley, Myron, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Holly, Horace, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hopkins, Samuel, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hopper, Isaac T., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hornblower, Chief-Justice, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Horton, Gilbert, case of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hubner, Baron, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Huntington, William, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Immediate Emancipation, first proclaimed as a duty, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +International arbitration, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ives, Bishop, <a href="#Page_x">x</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Andrew, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Francis, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, J. C., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jarvis, Samuel F., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jay, John, <a href="#Page_iv">iv</a>, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, John, 2d, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Miss, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Peter Augustus, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +—— Treaty, <a href="#Page_iv">iv</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, William, his birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">education, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Yale College, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">studies law, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins life at Bedford, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins philanthropic work, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advocates Bible Societies, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conflict with Bishop Hobart and High-Church party, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">organizes American Bible Society, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes prize for essay on the Sabbath, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for essay on duelling, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed judge, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early adoption of antislavery cause, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">espouses cause of Gilbert Horton, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begins movement for abolition of slavery in District of Columbia, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes "Life of John Jay," <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his view of slavery problem in 1833, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">consulted regarding formation of American Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advises acknowledgment of constitutional provisions, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">invited to join in organizing the American Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his views on such an organization, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suggests a definite avowal of constitutional principles, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes a member of Executive Committee of American Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">publishes his "Inquiry," <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its influence, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed foreign corresponding secretary, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives advice on right to use the mails, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Address to the Public," <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elected president of New York State Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his reply to President Jackson's message, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protests against the introduction of irrelevant doctrines into antislavery societies, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protests against unconstitutional doctrines, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeats Alvan Stewart's resolution, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of the danger of unconstitutional doctrines, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinion of Stewart's position, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his loss of faith in the usefulness of antislavery societies, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">placed on Executive Committee of American and Foreign Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resigns membership in American Antislavery Society, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views on the woman question, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "View of the Action of the Federal Government," <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Condition of the Free People of Colour," <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Violation of the Right of Petition," <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude towards Liberty party in 1840, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude towards antislavery societies after the schism, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude towards Liberty party in 1843, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his views on the annexation of Texas, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated for Senator by the Liberty party, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deprived of his seat on the bench, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his visit to Europe, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Review of the Mexican War," <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "War and Peace," and plan for International arbitration, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude towards the "come-outers," <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his work in the Episcopal Church in favour of the slave, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Letter to Bishop Ives," <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reply to Webster, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude towards the Fugitive-Slave Law, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views on disunion, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his distinctive position among antislavery men, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his writings, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conduct as judge, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">other philanthropic work, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his position as a churchman, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his life at Bedford, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br/> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his family life, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br/> +<br /> +——, William, 2d, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Mrs. William, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Jelliff, Hiram, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jocelyn, Simeon S., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnston, Oliver, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jones, Samuel, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Katonah, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Keith, George, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kelley, Miss Abby, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kendall, Amos, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kent, James, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +King, Rufus, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Langdon, John, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Law, William, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lay, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leavitt, Joshua, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lee, Richard H., <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leggett, William, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liberalist</i>, the, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liberator</i>, the, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Liberty party, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Loring, Ellis Gray, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lovejoy, Elijah P., <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ludlow, Henry G., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lundy, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lyons, Lord, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +McAllister, Matthew H., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McDonald, Alexander, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McDuffie, George, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McVickar, John, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mails, destruction of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malmsbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mann, Daniel, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marcy, Governor, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.<br /> +<br /> +May, Samuel J., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Miner, Charles, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mitchell, Minot, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mobs, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morris, Thomas, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morrison, Dr., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mott, Lucretia, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Munro, Peter Jay, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Nelson, William, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Noyes Academy, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ogden, David B., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Orloff Count, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Owen, John, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Palfrey, J. G., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Peyster, de, Frederic, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phelps, Amos A., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pickering, Thomas, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pierpont, John, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pinckney, Charles C., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pintard, John, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Playfair, Sir Lyon, <a href="#Page_viii">viii</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Potter, Alonzo, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Horatio, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Purvis, Robert, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Quincy, Edmund, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Quincy, Josiah, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rankin, John, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rensselaer, Van, Stephen, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Reporter</i>, the, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Republican party, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Review of the Mexican War," <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Richard, Henry, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Riots, pro-slavery, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Romeyne, John B., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rush, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rutgers, Henry, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +St. Clair, Alanson, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Philip's Church, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sandiford, Ralph, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sandwich, Lord, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scoble, John, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sedgwick, Henry D., <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Susan, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Theodore, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Mrs. Theodore, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sewall, Samuel, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seward, W. H., <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Simms, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Slade, William, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slave Power, growth of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Smith, Gerrit, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Goldwin, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, James, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, John Cotton, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spring, Gardiner, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stanton, Henry B., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stephens, A. H., <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stevens, Alexander H., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stewart, Alvan, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Charles, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stone, James A., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Storrs, Henry R., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stowe, Harriet B., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Strong, J. W., <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sturge, Joseph, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stuyvesant, Peter G., <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tabernacle, the Broadway, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tappan, Arthur, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Lewis, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taylor, Nathaniel W., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thompson, George, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tighlman, William, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tocqueville, de, A., <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tompkins, Daniel D., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Torrey, Charles T., <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tucker, Beverly, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Utica Convention, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Varick, Richard, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vaux, Robert, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vergennes, Count de, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Villamarina, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Voorhis, R. R., <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Walewski, Count, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Walworth, Chancellor, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"War and Peace," v, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ward, Aaron, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Samuel R., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Washington, Bushrod, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +——, George, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wayne, James M., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Webster, Daniel, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Weekly Emancipator</i>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weld, Theodore D., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whittier, John G., <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wickliffe, Charles A., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilberforce, Samuel, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Williams, Ransom G., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilson, Henry, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wirt, William, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Woman question, the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Woolman, John, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Worthington, Governor, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Elizur, Jr,, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +——, Theodore S., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">APPENDIX.</span></p> + + +<p class="center">REPRESENTATIVES OF ANTISLAVERY OPINION IN NEW YORK IN 1864.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A complimentary</span> breakfast was given to Professor Goldwin Smith at +the rooms of the Union League Club, on Union Square, New York, on +Saturday morning, the 12th November, 1864.</p> + +<p>The following gentlemen joined in the invitation:</p> + +<p>Jonathan Sturges, <i>President of Union League Club</i>, <i>New York</i>; +Charles Butler; John C. Hamilton; Wm. Curtis Noyes, LL.D.; Hon. +Horace Greeley, <i>Editor of the New York Tribune</i>; Hon. H. J. +Raymond, Editor of the New York Times; Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., +<i>President of United States Sanitary Commission</i>; Francis Lieber, +LL.D., <i>Professor of History in Columbia College</i>; Vincenzo Botta, +Ph.D.; Elliot C. Cowdin; Col. James McKaye; Wm. H. Webb; Geo. C. +Ward; Isaac Ferris, D.D., <i>Chancellor of the University</i>; Wm. Allen +Butler; Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, LL.D.; Hon. Wm. E. Dodge; Wm. H. +Osborn; A. Gracie King; C. A. Bristed; Cyrus W. Field; T. B. +Coddington; Wm. J. Hoppin; Charles H. Marshall; Alfred Pell; Horace +Webster, LL.D., <i>Principal of the Free Academy</i>; John Jay; Wm. +Cullen Bryant; Wm. M. Evarts; Parke Godwin, <i>Editor of the Evening +Post</i>; F. A. P. Barnard, LL.D., <i>President of Columbia College</i>; W. +T. Blodgett; Geo. Griswold; Hon. Chas. P. Kirkland; James Brown; +John E. Williams; A. A. Low, <i>President of the Chamber of Commerce</i>; +John Austin Stevens, Jr., <i>Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce</i>; +Geo. T. Strong; John C. Green; Richard M. Hunt; Geo. W. Blunt; John +A. Weeks; Otis D. Swan; Col. L. G. B. Cannon; Theodore Roosevelt; C. +E. Detmold.</p> + +<p>Among the distinguished guests invited to meet Professor Goldwin +Smith, the following gentlemen were present:</p> + +<p>Rev. Dr. Thompson; John A. Stevens; Prof. John W. Draper; Maj.-Gen. +B. F. Butler, U. S. A; M. Auguste Laugel, of France; Hon. Geo. +Bancroft; Geo. P. Putnam; Dr. Willard Parker; Rev. S. Osgood, D.D.; +Hon. E. D. Morgan; Rev. H. Ward Beecher; Rev. A. P. Putnam; Rev. A. +Cleveland Coxe, D.D., <i>Assistant Bishop-elect of the Western Diocese +of</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> <i>New York</i>; Prof. H. B. Smith, D.D., <i>Professor of Systematic +Theology in Union Theological Seminary, New York</i>; Chas. King, +LL.D.; Peter Cooper, <i>Founder of the Cooper Union</i>; G. W. Curtis; +Geo. L. Schuyler; Prof. Theo. W. Dwight, LL.D., <i>Law Professor in +Columbia College</i>; Rev. G. L. Prentiss, D.D.</p> + +<p>Among the letters of regret were notes from Lincoln, Fessenden, +Major-General Halleck, and Attorney-General Bates.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">FOOTNOTES:</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The title of M. de Circourt's work is:—"<i>Histoire de +l'action commune de la France et de l'Amerique pour l'Indépendence +des États Unis.</i>" Paris, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> In view of their historic significance, their names are +given in the Appendix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> During Judge Jay's absence in Europe a striking +anti-annexation Texas meeting was held at the Tabernacle in New +York, on the 24th of April, 1844. It had been called by members of +the King, Duer, Townsend, Goodhue, Sedgwick, Field, Griswold, and +Hyslop families and many leading merchants of New York. The call was +subsequently presented by John Jay to the New York Historical +Society, for preservation in its records. A letter was read from +Chancellor Kent denouncing the annexation of Texas without the +consent of Mexico as a breach of national faith which would be +universally condemned. Speeches were made by Theodore Sedgwick and +D. D. Field. But the most imposing feature of the manifestation was +the presence in the chair of Albert Gallatin, the last survivor of +Jefferson's cabinet, who, despite his age and infirmities, had been +carried to the meeting to protest in his own name and in that of his +historic chief against so flagrant a violation of national honour +and public faith. The appeal of Gallatin for a time promised to be +successful. Van Buren, whose views had been doubtful, wrote, under +its influence, his letter to Hammett objecting to annexation. But an +annexation meeting was held in Richmond to counteract that at New +York, and when the Democratic Convention met at Baltimore an adroit +change of policy in regard to nominations displaced Van Buren and +nominated Polk.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> The later history of international arbitration is set +forth by Sir Lyon Playfair in the <i>North American Review</i> for +December, 1890.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Among those with whom Judge Jay was most often in +communication may be mentioned: Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Rev. S. S. +Jocelyn, Rev. A. A. Phelps, Robert Vaux, E. Wright, Jr., Joshua +Leavitt, Samuel J. May, Reuben Crandall, James G. Birney, Theodore +Sedgwick, Beriah Green, Gerrit Smith, John Scoble of England, Mrs. +L. M. Child, Miss Grimké, Wm. Goodell, G. Bailey, Jr., Rev. Dr. +Morrison of England, Gov. R. W. Habersham, W. W. Anderson of +Jamaica, W. I., Joseph Sturge of England, Jabez D. Hammond, Geo. W. +Alexander of England, William Slade, John Quincy Adams, Wm. H. +Seward, S. P. Chase, Prof. C. D. Cleveland, Thomas Clarkson of +England, Sir W. Colebrook, governor of New Brunswick, Charles +Sumner, Chief-Justice Hornblower, J. G. Palfrey, and John P. Hale.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</span></p> + + +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> + +<p>Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p> + +<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of William Jay and the Constitutional +Movement for the Abolition of Slavery, by Bayard Tuckerman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + +***** This file should be named 39568-h.htm or 39568-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39568/ + +Produced by David E. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery + +Author: Bayard Tuckerman + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + WILLIAM JAY + AND + THE CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENT FOR + THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY + + BY + BAYARD TUCKERMAN + + WITH A PREFACE BY + JOHN JAY + + NEW-YORK + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + 1893 + + + Copyright by + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, + 1893. + + University Press: + JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. + + + + +PREFACE + +BY JOHN JAY. + + +A prolonged illness, added to other causes, has disappointed my hope of +completing an elaborate biography of my father. + +This memoir by Mr. Tuckerman is devoted chiefly to the part borne by +Judge Jay in the antislavery work, to which his time and thoughts were +so long given. In this connection the memoir develops his personal +characteristics, with the constitutional principles and national policy +advocated by him in that historic contest; while of necessity it touches +but lightly on his home life, his varied correspondence, and his +judicial charges, one of which assisted to avert the passage of a +pro-slavery legislative act infringing the liberty of speech and of the +press; and the scope of the volume forbids its dwelling on his writings +on other topics, some of which are still subjects of discussion. + +Judge Jay's memoir on the formation of a National Bible Society, which +in 1816 so warmly encouraged the hopes of the venerable Boudinot, was +followed by spirited controversial pamphlets with an antagonist as able +and eminent as Bishop Hobart. The correspondence after Jay's first +letter was marked by an unusual sharpness, which happily did not prevent +my cherished and lamented friend, the son and namesake of the Bishop, +from becoming in later years sincerely attached to his father's +antagonist. It was a contest in which Jay vindicated the right of +Churchmen to assist in the distribution of the Bible, and anticipated in +this his similar efforts for a lifetime to secure the united action of +all good citizens, without regard to creed or politics, in practicable +schemes for the elevation and happiness of mankind. Among his earlier +essays were two on "Sunday: Its Value as a Civil Institution, and Its +Sacred Character"; while a third, upon "Duelling as a Relic of +Barbarism," was honoured, when the authorship was still unknown, by a +medal from an anti-duelling association at Savannah. + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN JAY. + +Judge Jay, in the life of his father, which was welcomed as an important +addition to our American biography of the Revolution, vindicated, by a +careful presentation of the historical evidence then available, the +soundness of the judgment of Jay and Adams, as peace commissioners at +Paris in 1782-83, regarding the policy of the French court as unfriendly +to the American claims to the boundaries, the fisheries, and the +Mississippi. That judgment, afterwards acquiesced in by Dr. Franklin in +the joint violation by the commissioners of the instructions of +Congress--a violation that enabled them to obtain from England +boundaries and concessions far greater than either Congress or France +expected--had been roughly criticised and denied, even in volumes of +diplomatic correspondence claiming an official sanction. Its vindication +by Judge Jay has recently been more than confirmed by the ample proofs +published by M. de Circourt in the secret correspondence of the Count de +Vergennes with his able corps of diplomatic agents, as well as by the +interesting revelations in Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's "Life of Lord +Shelburne"; and these volumes have dissipated a cloud of error which for +half a century travestied the facts and dimmed the glory of the closing +act of the American Revolution.[A] + + +JAY'S "WAR AND PEACE," AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + +Judge Jay's little book on "War and Peace," with a plan of stipulation +by treaty for international arbitration which subsequently led to his +becoming the president of the American Peace Society, and which before +its publication attracted the attention of that sturdy advocate for +peace, Joseph Sturge, during his visit at Bedford, seems entitled to +special notice as one whose scheme is still agitated in the governmental +and national councils of Europe. The plan promptly received the approval +of the Peace Society of London, and of English statesmen like Richard +Cobden and the indefatigable Henry Richard. It exercised a European +influence in the highest quarters when its spirit, under the leadership +of Lord Clarendon, received the sanction of the great powers of Europe +who signed the Treaty at Paris in 1856. Its endorsement, while +cautiously expressed, was recognized as having a new and profound +significance. The Protocol No. 23 declared the wish of the signatory +governments that states between which any serious misunderstanding might +arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as +circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power; it +being understood that the wish expressed by Congress should not in any +case oppose limits to that liberty of appreciation which no power could +alienate in questions that touched its dignity. With that limitation the +recommendation, in advance of a resort to war to have recourse to a +friendly power, was introduced by the Congress to the International Code +of Europe; and among those great diplomatists were the Count Walewski +and Baron Bourgueny, on the part of France; Count de Buol-Schauenstein +and Baron de Hubner, on the part of Austria; Lord Clarendon and Lord +Cowley, on the part of Great Britain; Count Orloff and Baron de Bruno, +on the part of Russia; and Count Cavour and the Marquis de Villamarina, +on the part of Sardinia. The action of the Congress was subsequently +confirmed by that of the lesser states of Europe. Mr. Gladstone +pronounced the protocol "a very great triumph, a powerful engine in +behalf of civilized humanity." The late Earl of Derby referred to it as +"the principle which to its immortal honour was embodied in the +protocols of the Conference at Paris"; and the Earl of Malmesbury +pronounced the act "one important to civilization and to the security of +the peace of Europe." The idea that this scheme is more and more +regarded as widely applicable to international disputes, as easily +practicable and profoundly important to the peace of nations, would seem +probable from the extent to which, as the century approaches its +completion, the scheme has occupied more and more the attention of both +the statesmen and of the masses who are the most interested in +discovering a substitute for war. + +For a time after the Geneva award, the moral weight and value of +international arbitration seemed to be more doubted than ever. It was +said that while the scheme had in that case avoided war, it had +suggested the probability of claims so extravagant and inadmissible as +almost to force the opposing party to break the treaty under the cover +of which they were advanced, even at the risk of increased hostility and +a resort to war; and that the escape of both nations from such a +catastrophe by the action of the Genevan Court in dismissing without +argument the American claims for indirect damages was but a happy +accident. But this idea seems to have been succeeded by the happier +thought that an appeal to international arbitration is an appeal to the +fairness of the world, and that the question for the parties, judges, +and spectators is so clearly one of honour, that no nation can afford to +ask what the justice of the world candidly disapproves. In the case of +the Geneva Congress, while the rejected claims were presented in the +name of the President, General Grant himself subsequently denied their +justice and approved their rejection. Sir Lyon (now Lord) Playfair, who +perhaps appreciates the entire subject of arbitration as thoroughly as +any living statesman, gave an interesting sketch of its recent progress, +both in Europe and America, in a paper entitled, "A Topic for +Christmas," in the _North American Review_ for December, 1890. Three +years before, Sir Lyon had headed a deputation of members of the English +Parliament who came to present to the President of the United States a +memorial from 234 members of the House of Commons, with delegates from +English Trades Unions representing 700,000 workingmen. Congress in +response concurrently resolved to invite from time to time, as fit +occasion might arise, negotiations with any government with which the +United States has or may have diplomatic relations, to the end that any +differences or disputes arising between the two governments which cannot +be settled by diplomatic agency may be referred to arbitration and be +peacefully adjusted by such means. Although Europe is supposed by many +to be awaiting a war of gigantic magnitude, Sir Lyon, referring to the +approval of arbitration by the Pan-American Congress by continental +parliaments and international assemblies at Paris and London, said that +the legislatures which had already passed resolutions in favor of +arbitration represented 150,000,000 of people, and remarked that the +extension of that feeling would be a better force than an international +police to secure the observance of treaties. The excess of war +preparation already endangering national credit and threatening national +bankruptcy is quoted as proving that the arbitration idea will be +insisted upon, and in the anticipated movement the United States is +described as fitted to be the leading champion of arbitration. Sheridan +is quoted among others as saying: "I mean what I say when I express the +belief that arbitration will rule the world." The scheme is now +represented as likely to be accepted by thinkers who reject the thought +of Kant, Bentham, and Mills for an international Congress; and Sir Lyon +Playfair, in connection with the idea of arbitration, quotes the remark +of Mazzini that "thought is the action of men and action the thought of +the people." + + +"THE WAR WITH MEXICO," AND ANTISLAVERY PAPERS. + +The "Review of the War with Mexico" stands among Judge Jay's volumes +unexcelled by exactness of congressional, diplomatic, and, to some +extent, military research; and by plainness of speech in regard to +national outrages and perfidy without a name, perpetrated in the cause +of slavery; and his writings generally on this subject show the same +accurate inquiry and outspoken frankness. It was on the varied phases +of our treatment of the coloured people, free and slave, at our own +doors, the cruel wrong so full of injustice to the blacks, of scandal to +Christendom, and of menace to the republic, that Jay wrote with deepest +earnestness, the most exacting research, and a fearless pen. His inquiry +into "The American Colonization and the Antislavery Societies" and "The +Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery," developed facts +which implicated prominent politicians of both parties, and aroused at +once their surprise and indignation, while the disclosure directly +appealed to the pride and conscience of the American people. The same +judicial, dauntless, and defiant spirit marked the appeals which he +prepared for the Antislavery Society against the calumnies of the press, +and the dignified protest against the libellous charges so unworthily +made by President Jackson in his message to Congress. The same spirit +animated his address on "The Condition of the People of Colour in the +United States"; the "Appeal to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on +the Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of Petition"; +his supplement to "The Reproof of the American Church," by Bishop +Wilberforce of Oxford; the exposure in the letter to Bishop Ives of the +clerical efforts to sanctify slavery and caste; and his earnest demand +for the equal admission of the coloured churches to the Diocesan Council +of New York. So, too, with the critical analysis of Mr. Clay's +"Compromise Bill," including the Fugitive Law and Mr. Webster's "Theory +of Physical Geography"; his address to the inhabitants of New Mexico and +California, so timely distributed in English and Spanish, and so happily +followed in California by a free constitution, urging them to resist the +domination of slavery with its ignorance and degradation, and to secure, +by their own manly independence and just statesmanship, a glorious +future of power and happiness; his address to the antislavery +Christians; and his plain reminders to the Protestant Episcopal Church, +and to the Tract and other societies, of the inconsistency and evil +influence of their compromising pro-slavery policy. + + +CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES--AN HISTORIC PARALLEL. + +The part of Jay's life pictured by Mr. Tuckerman not only exhibits these +characteristics, but shows the Antislavery Society to have been founded +by his care, in 1833, on constitutional principles so just and so +clearly defined, that in 1839 sixteen hundred and fifty auxiliary +societies had been established on the same basis, educating the rising +generation, on whom was to rest the destiny of the country in the near +future. It was an education of the quiet and effective influence of +which the pro-slavery leaders seemed unconscious, although to some it +may recall the thought of Dr. Storrs, when he said:--"When I think of a +millennium in our time, in our civilization, my thought rests and +fastens on the promise, 'a little child shall lead them.'" The charge +had already been made against the opponents of slavery of a disregard +of constitutional obligations--of a desire to dissolve the Union and to +encourage slave insurrection. The society declared the exclusive right +of each slave State to legislate in regard to slavery; the +constitutional right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of +Columbia, to prohibit it in the Territories and new States, and to +control the domestic as well as the foreign slave trade; and it +disclaimed the idea of countenancing the slaves in vindicating their +rights by resorting to physical force. And here is suggested, by the +action and the anticipation of the Slave Power, an interesting historic +parallel. The formation of the Antislavery Society in December, 1833, +followed closely upon Mr. Calhoun's Nullification in South Carolina in +1832, when, as Mr. Pollard tell us, a medal was struck inscribed, "John +C. Calhoun, First President of the C. S. A." A counterpart of this medal +in gold is said to exist at Richmond, with the name of Jefferson Davis +as the first president of the Southern Confederacy, and "1861" on the +reverse side. + +These incidents seem to emphasize the fact that the constitutional +principles adopted by the Antislavery Society in 1833, and so widely +circulated by the press and its auxiliaries before the war, although +often assailed, were, in 1854, made the basis of the Republican party, +which, as Americans of all sections may now with mutual regard and +affection thank God, maintained the Union and abolished slavery. Such a +revolution in public opinion is a forcible reminder of the truth that +every principle contains within itself the germ of a prophecy, and it is +a thought fraught with hope and confidence to reformers even when they +seem to be threatened with disaster and defeat. + + +THE EARLY SCHEME FOR A SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. + +The determination to found a confederacy with slavery as its cornerstone +appears as a fundamental feature in the policy of the Slave Power for +some thirty years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Mr. Calhoun's +idea of secession, apparently suggested by the tariff, General Jackson +predicted would be renewed on the question of slavery. The novel of +Prof. Beverly Tucker in 1835, entitled, "The Partisan Leader; or, Twenty +Years After," foreshadowed the steps at home and abroad which were taken +in forming the new confederacy; and in the South Carolina Convention in +1860, Southern politicians like Rhett, Parker, Keith, and Inglis said +that the matter had nothing to do with Mr. Lincoln or the Fugitive Law, +but had been culminating for a long series of years. The thought of a +Southern Confederacy may have stimulated the policy of using the power +of the Republic, while it lasted, in the interest of the Confederacy +that was to succeed it; supplying a motive for the Texan Rebellion, the +War with Mexico, the effort to secure Cuba, the filibustering +expeditions to Central America, the determination to reopen the African +slave-trade, and the pro-slavery action of the Buchanan administration. + + +NORTHERN AND EUROPEAN SYMPATHY WITH SLAVERY. + +It would be hardly fair to the Southern leaders to assume that they +found no reason for their hope of effecting the dissolution of the Union +in the sympathy and aid promised from the North and from Europe. The +secret conferences with Lord Lyons of Northern sympathizers with slavery +were disclosed by the despatches of that eminent diplomatist. Mayor +Fernando Wood's proposition that New York should become a free city, +independent both of the States and the nation, showed in no slight +degree the temper of the citizens whom he represented; while the later +appeal of so eminent and popular a leader as Governor Horatio Seymour to +the citizens of the State was equally significant when he said, "In the +downfall of the nation, and amid its crumbling ruins, we will cling to +the fortunes of New York." Such utterances enforced by leaders of the +prominence of Franklin Pierce and Vallandingham; the political action of +sympathizers with slavery and the anti-draft riots in New York, +supplemented by the unfriendliness of European governments; and the +escape of the "Alabama"--all these circumstances tended to encourage the +hopes that were doomed to disappointment. Nor in considering the +antislavery movement should we overlook the effect of the antislavery +opinion of our country in ending the danger of European intervention, +which had been unwittingly encouraged by Mr. Seward's too hasty +assurance to our minister in France (April 22, 1861), that "the +revolution was without a cause, without a pretext, and without an +object; and that the condition of slavery in the several States would +remain just the same, whether it should succeed or fail." The +antislavery policy, first of enlistment and then of emancipation, so +earnestly urged upon Mr. Lincoln and adopted by him with conscientious +caution, enlightened Europe as to the true meaning of the contest in our +recognition of the equal right to freedom and the equal dignity of +labour, and forbade its rulers to assist in the establishment of a slave +confederacy; and the historian Lessing, when alluding to the cordial +reception by his holiness the Sovereign Pontiff of the diplomatic agents +of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and the Papal letter recognizing and commending +"the illustrious President of the Southern Confederacy," remarks that +this was "the only official recognition of the chief conspirator by the +head of any government." Nor should the right appreciation by the +abolitionists of the prospect of freedom for the slaves be forgotten. +The fidelity of the negroes during the war, both to the families with +whom they lived, to which Vice-President Stephens bore distinct +testimony, and to the Northern army, from which they expected +emancipation, was no less honourable and conspicuous than the devotion +and gallantry they constantly exhibited in the war, as at Fort Hudson +and Fort Wagner, at Milliken's Bend and Lake Providence, at Newbern and +at Olustee, where their rear-guard saved the army. Their conduct, +whether at home or in the field, justified the conviction of their +steadfast friends in the safety of immediate emancipation, and added +untold force to the sacredness of the pledges so often given during the +war, and still, to the national discredit, unfulfilled--of national aid +to State education, so as to secure to every child of our coloured +citizens the ability to read his Bible and the Constitution, to fulfill +his duties and protect his rights. + +As time and reflection impress upon the American mind a clear +comprehension of the changes, national, social, and political, that a +triumph of the Slave Power would have brought to America and its effect +as a set-back to the civilization of the world, an increased interest +will be felt in the beginnings of the contest, and in the men and causes +that shaped its end. + + +THE LESSON FOR TO-DAY. + +I cordially recommend Mr. Tuckerman's memoir to the students of the +antislavery contest, as throwing light on that interesting and but +partially written chapter of American history, in which my father bore a +part; and on the character and policy of the sturdy band with whom he +was associated, including Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, James +G. Birney, Gerrit Smith, and their true-hearted compatriots; while a +wider view would include a group of noble women, who, if differing as to +means, were united in devotion, headed by the honoured names of Maria +Weston Chapman and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria +Child, and the sisters Grimke. + +Among our citizens who will be long remembered as early and fearless +opponents of slavery, leading and acting with energy and independence, +according to their personal convictions and occasionally in differing +ways, were the venerable Isaac T. Hopper, William Lloyd Garrison, whose +life has been so faithfully recorded by his sons, John Greenleaf +Whittier, whose old Huguenot spirit lives in his verse as in his name, +Ellis Gray Loring, Lovejoy, the martyr of the west, Wendell Phillips, +with his matchless eloquence, Theodore D. Weld, with his trenchant pen, +Elizur Wright, Jr., Samuel R. Ward, William Goodell, S. S. Jocelyn, +Gamaliel Bailey, Jr., Edmund Quincey, S. H. Gay, Oliver Johnston, James +S. Gibbons, and others, who opened the way--sometimes by devious and +diverging paths--for the party of the Union and Emancipation. + +As the contest advanced from the field of politics to that of war, came +Union men from different points whose names will live in our history +with those of John A. Andrew, John C. Fremont, John P. Hale, Chase, +Sumner, Seward, Preston and John A. King, Wilmot, Giddings, Wade, Holt, +and Edwin D. Stanton. In New York, where mob law had prevailed, the +Union League Club upheld the loyalty of the city, the credit of the +nation, and the sanitary commission; raised troops for Hancock in +addition to its own coloured regiments; stimulated the ardour of our +soldiers and the patriotism of the country; welcomed, of the army, Grant +and Sherman, Mead and Sheridan, Hancock and Hooker, Warren and Burnside, +and of the navy, Farragut, Dupont and Rogers, Winslow and the youthful +Cushing; verifying in its spirit and action the remark of Vice-President +Colfax that on the Union League Club Lincoln had leaned in the darkest +hours. + +The Club did not forget, neither will the truthful historian forget, +that amid the European plots and intrigues in the interest of slavery, +we had friends high and low, from Alexander of Russia, the emancipator +of twenty millions of serfs--who, like Lincoln, fell by +assassination--to the humble peasants, who instinctively recognised the +hostility to the rights of labor inherent in the slavery system, whose +vicious features had been exposed by John Bright with such masterly +effect. + +Goldwin Smith, the historic scholar of Oxford, who at home had denounced +those who would have made England an accomplice in "the creation of a +great slave empire, and in its future extension from the grave of +Washington to the Halls of Montezuma," in his reply to the greetings of +the eminent citizens who had asked him to the club and who assembled to +meet him,[B] said, "Your cause is ours; it is the cause of the whole +human race." The same idea, in almost the same words, was expressed by +the Count de Cavour a few days before his death, in a despatch to the +Italian Minister at Washington, when he said "that ours was the cause +not only of constitutional liberty, but of all humanity." + +The antislavery story from the Calhoun medal, struck to commemorate the +supposed birth of a slave empire to the constitutional abolition of +slavery, concerned humanity, and has lessons of warning and +encouragement for the men and women of to-day, on whom rest the hopes of +the country, and who, against odds that seem as formidable as those +presented by the Slave Power at its culmination, are bravely striving +for the advance of humanity, the purification of our politics, and the +preservation of American institutions. They may well adopt the +inspiriting legend of Geneva to which the antislavery contest of America +has given a new radiance, "Post tenebras lux." Our institutions, no +longer endangered by slavery, are assailed with skilful intrigue in +their own strongholds, the public school and the polls, especially of +our great cities, where a corrupt, irresponsible, secret rule recalls +the Council of Ten and the Lion of Saint Mark, and now it is charged +that our very legislation at times is not simply partisan but +fraudulent. The incompatibility of such proceedings with American +principles and American rights recalls with emphatic force the warning +so distinctly and repeatedly given us by Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, that +eminent and philosophic representative of our citizens of the Roman +Catholic faith who stand squarely by the American constitution and +American institutions, of the danger of allowing foreigners to meddle +with our public schools when he said that American civilization was "the +farthest point in advance yet reached by any age or nation, and that +foreigners who come to educate according to their civilization +necessarily educate for a civilization behind the times and below that +of this country." + +The enlightening effect of an impartial study of the antislavery contest +on an independent and philosophic critic can be read in the interesting +and instructive pages of Von Holst; and a review of that contest, from +the first presentment of the principles of the Antislavery Society to +the parting scene of Grant and Lee at Appomatox, and the adoption of the +constitutional amendment of emancipation, affords, step by step, amid +whatever mistakes and blunders, evidence which becomes the more striking +and conclusive, as time passes, of what was accomplished in the +antislavery struggle for humanity and the world in shaping the future of +the Republic, by calm resolve, a faithful adhesion to truth and +principle, patient perseverance, unflinching courage, faith in the +triumph of right, American manliness, and far-sighted Christian +statesmanship. + + BEDFORD HOUSE, Katonah, + New York, May, 1893. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE +Birth and Education of William Jay.--His Early Philanthropic + Interests.--Appointed Judge of Westchester County. 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +Early Opposition to Slavery.--Growth of the Slave Power.--The + Missouri Compromise.--Jay begins Political Agitation for the + Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. 18 + +CHAPTER III. + +Development of the Antislavery Movement.--Organization of + Antislavery Societies.--Anti-Abolition Riots.--Jay publishes his + "Inquiry." 39 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Continued Efforts to suppress the Antislavery Movement by Force and + Intimidation.--Favourable Effect upon the Public Mind produced by + Jay's Writings. 63 + +CHAPTER V. + +Gradual Decline of Riotous Demonstrations against the + Abolitionists.--Changes occur in the Doctrines and Methods of the + American Antislavery Society.--Judge Jay resigns his Membership, + while continuing his Efforts on Behalf of Emancipation. 82 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Judge Jay continues to support the Antislavery Cause by his Advice + and Writings.--In Consequence of his Opinions he is deprived of his + Seat on the Bench.--His Visit to Europe.--His Views on the Liberty + Party.--On the Annexation of Texas.--His "Review of the Mexican + War."--His Advocacy of International Arbitration as a Remedy for + War.--His Work in the Episcopal Church. 112 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Unpopularity of the Abolitionists.--The Compromises of 1850 and the + Fugitive-Slave Law.--Jay's Reply to Webster's 7th of March + Speech.--The Attitude of the Episcopal Church.--The Abrogation of + the Missouri Compromise.--Disunion. 135 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Death of Judge Jay.--His Position among Antislavery Men.--His other + Public and Philanthropic Interests.--His Private Life.--His + Character. 156 + +Bibliography 171 + +Index 175 + +Appendix 184 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +William Jay, from a crayon by Martin _Frontispiece._ + +View of Bedford House, the home of Judge Jay 9 + +Chief-Justice Jay, from a painting by Gilbert Stuart 39 + +William Jay, from a painting by Vanderlyn 81 + +William Jay, from a painting by Wenzler 135 + +Mrs. William Jay, from a painting by W. E. West 164 + + + + +WILLIAM JAY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF WILLIAM JAY.--HIS EARLY PHILANTHROPIC + INTERESTS.--APPOINTED JUDGE OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY. + + +William Jay, the second son of John Jay, the first Chief-Justice of the +United States, and his wife, Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, was born in the +city of New York the 16th of June, 1789. New York was then the seat of +the Federal Government, and the year is memorable as that in which the +National Constitution superseded the Articles of Confederation, while +the inauguration of Washington marked a new era in American history. + +During the absence of John Jay in England, while negotiating the "Jay +treaty," he was elected Governor of New York, and returned home to +assume that office in 1795. + +William, then eight years old, was placed at school with the Rev. Thomas +Ellison, the rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany. There he received an +old-fashioned training. In 1801 he wrote to his father: "Mr. Ellison +put me in Virgil, and I can now say the first two eclogues by heart, and +construe and parse and scan them." And later on: "I learn nothing but +Latin." Among his schoolmates was J. Fenimore Cooper, who afterwards +drew a portrait of their old instructor in one of his "Sketches of +England," addressed to Jay: + +"Thirty-six years ago you and I were schoolfellows and classmates in the +house of a clergyman of the true English school. This man was an epitome +of the national prejudices and in some respects of the national +character. He was the son of a beneficed clergyman in England, had been +regularly graduated at Oxford and admitted to orders; entertained a most +profound reverence for the King and the nobility; was not backward in +expressing his contempt for all classes of dissenters and all +ungentlemanly sects; was particularly severe on the immoralities of the +French Revolution, and though eating our bread, was not especially +lenient to our own; compelled you and me to begin Virgil with the +eclogues, and Cicero with the knotty phrase that opens the oration in +favour of the poet Archias, 'because these writers would not have placed +them first in the books if they did not intend people to read them +first'; spent his money freely and sometimes that of other people; was +particularly tenacious of the ritual and of all the decencies of the +Church; detested a democrat as he did the devil; cracked his jokes daily +about Mr. Jefferson, never failing to place his libertinism in strong +relief against the approved morals of George III., of several passages +in whose history it is charitable to suppose he was ignorant; prayed +fervently on Sunday, and decried all morals, institutions, churches, +manners, and laws but those of England from Monday to Saturday." + +Still, Jay and Cooper were indebted to Ellison's thoroughness in the +classics for much of the mental training, the correct taste, and the +pure English which marked their subsequent intellectual efforts. + +Jay was prepared for college by Henry Davis, afterwards president of +Hamilton College. The boy as he appeared at this time was thus described +by his cousin, Susan Sedgwick: "As I look back to that fresh spring-time +of life, there rises clearly before me a vigorous, sturdy boy, full of +health and animation, with laughing eyes, cheeks glowing and dimpled, +and exhibiting already marked traits: with a strong will, yet easily +reduced by rightful authority; in temper quick, even to passion, but +never vindictive; the storm easily raised as soon appeased, thus +foreshadowing him at that later period, when, however capable of +self-control, his fearless resistance to wrong and uncompromising +advocacy of right partook of the same vehement character, happily +expressed by his friend, Mr. Fenimore Cooper, who, in reference to his +then recently published denunciation of the evils of war, addressed him +playfully, 'Thou most pugnacious man of peace.'" + +William entered Yale College in January, 1804, in his fifteenth year. +Upon the college roll during his four years were names afterwards well +known in our history. There were trained side by side boys who were soon +to be arrayed against each other in religion, politics, and in the +momentous conflict of slavery with freedom, which, passing from the +senate to the field, their sons and grandsons were to terminate by the +sword. From the State of South Carolina came John C. Calhoun, who +significantly chose for the subject of his graduating oration, "The +Qualifications Necessary for a Perfect Statesman;" Christopher Edward +Gadsden, afterwards bishop of his native State; and Thomas Smith Grimke, +eminent at the bar, in scholarship and philanthropy. Among the Northern +students was the Rev. John Pierpont, known as the reformer and poet, who +at the age of seventy-six went to the front during the Civil War as +chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment; Hon. Henry Randolph Storrs, of New +York, the jurist; Rev. Dr. Nathaniel William Taylor, of the Calvinistic +school of Edwards and Dwight; Dr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Huguenot +descent, who devoted himself to the education of deaf-mutes; Dr. +Alexander H. Stevens, of New York; Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, the +learned professor of oriental literature; Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, of +New York, the famous Presbyterian divine; the Hon. William Huntington, +of Connecticut; Jacob Sutherland, of New York; and James A. Hillhouse, +of New Haven, one of the most scholarly of our poets, whose generous +hospitality at his beautiful home, Sachem's Wood, with its avenue of +stately elms planted by his father and himself, was for many years the +delight of his friends. At Yale Jay met Cooper again, and strengthened a +friendship which lasted through life. It was during a visit at Bedford, +about 1825, while sitting on the piazza with Chief-Justice Jay, smoking +and talking of the incidents of the Revolution, that Fenimore Cooper +learned the adventures of a patriotic American, who was apparently +attached to the royal cause, but who constantly warned of danger the +Continental Army in Westchester and was especially useful during the +sitting of the State convention at White Plains. The services and +escapes of this man were reproduced in "Harvey Birch, the Spy of the +Neutral Ground," which achieved so great a success at home and in +Europe, where it still holds its place, having been honoured by more +translations, including the Persian and Arabic, than any similar work +written in English until the appearance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +In a letter to his grandson, William Jay, in 1852, Judge Jay gave some +particulars of his college course, which show the simplicity of life in +those days and the still lingering influence of English habits: "Through +the influence of a professor with whom I had previously lived, I was +placed in the room of a resident graduate. The resident graduates were +denominated 'Sirs'; they had a pew in the chapel called the Sirs' pew; +and when spoken of in college always had Sir prefixed to their names. +My room-mate was Sir Holly (Dr. Horace Holly). As a mere freshman I +looked up to my room-mate with great respect and treated him +accordingly. We had no servants to wait on us, except that a man came +every morning to make our beds and sweep the room, and once a week to +scatter clean white sand on the floor. I rose early--generally before +six in winter--made the fire, and then went, pitcher in hand, often +wading through snow, for water for Sir Holly and myself. At that time +the freshmen occupied in part the place of sizers in the English +universities, and they were required to run errands for the seniors. Our +meals were taken in a large hall with a kitchen opening into it. The +students were arranged at tables according to their classes. All sat on +wooden benches, not excepting the tutors; the latter had a table to +themselves on an elevated platform whence they had a view of the whole +company. But it was rather difficult for them to attend to their plates +and to watch two hundred boys at the same time. Salt beef once a day and +dry cod were perhaps the most usual dishes. On Sunday mornings during +the winter our breakfast-tables were graced with large tin milk-cans +filled with stewed oysters; at the proper season we were occasionally +treated at dinner with green peas. As you may suppose, a goodly number +of waiters were needed in the hall. These were all students, and many of +them among the best and most esteemed scholars. About half-past five in +winter the bell summoned us from our beds, and at six it called us to +prayers in the chapel. We next repaired to the recitation-rooms and +recited by candle-light the lessons we had studied the preceding +evening. At eight we had breakfast, and at nine the bell warned us to +our rooms. At twelve it called us to a recitation or a lecture. After +dinner we recommenced our studies and recited for the third time at four +o'clock. During study hours the tutors would frequently go the rounds, +looking into our rooms to see that we were not playing truant. Before +supper, we all attended evening prayers in the chapel." + +The presidency of the college was then occupied by Dr. Timothy Dwight, +who also gave instruction in _belles-lettres_, oratory, and theology. To +him Jay wrote in 1818: "I retain a grateful recollection of your kind +attention to me, and I have, and trust will ever have, reason to +acknowledge the goodness of Providence in placing me under your care, +when many of my opinions were to be formed and my principles +established." Still later, he wrote to a college friend: "Your remarks +on Dr. Dwight are grateful to my heart. I cherish his memory as one of +the best friends I ever had." + +In his senior year Jay took part in debates among the students, presided +over by Dr. Dwight. Some of the subjects discussed were: "Ought infidels +to be excluded from office?" "Ought religion to be supported by law?" +"Would a division of the Union be politic?" "Would it be politic to +encourage manufactures in the United States?" On the last question Dr. +Dwight remarked: "We shall always buy things where we can get them the +cheapest; we will never make our commodities so long as we can buy them +better and cheaper elsewhere." Jay displayed his natural inclination for +the law by contributing a series of articles on legal subjects, over the +signature of "Coke," to the _Literary Cabinet_, the students' paper. He +took his degree in September, 1807, having injured his eyesight in his +efforts to attain a high standing in his class. "During the winter of my +junior year," he wrote in warning to his grandson William, "I was +struggling hard for honours, and trying to make up for lost time; I used +to rise about four o'clock, light my fire, and sit down to the study of +conic sections. I brought on a weakness in my eyes which lasted several +years. Be sure you never rise before the sun and study your Latin and +Greek by candle-light or gas-light." + +After graduation Jay went to Albany and began the study of the law in +the office of John B. Henry. On the 3d of September, 1812, he married +Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a merchant of New York, and +vestryman of Trinity Church. The difficulty with his eyesight, which had +seriously interfered with his legal studies, became so pronounced as to +compel him to abandon his profession for some years. During this period +he retired with his wife to his father's country seat, "Bedford," in +Westchester County, and there devoted himself with energy to +agricultural pursuits. The farm included about eight hundred acres, part +of a tract purchased by Jacobus van Cortlandt from Katonah Sagamore and +other Indian chieftains in 1700, and confirmed by patent of Queen Anne +in 1704. It had come to Chief-Justice Jay partly through his mother, +Mary van Cortlandt, the wife of Peter Jay, and partly through her +sister, Eve van Cortlandt, the wife of Judge John Chambers. + +[Illustration: The Jay House at Bedford.] + +Of the forty fields into which the farm was divided, Jay kept a separate +account: showing the tillage and produce, the drainage and fencing, the +dates of planting and reaping. A volume of this kind, begun in 1816, +contained entries as late as 1857, the year before his death. He +perfected himself in grafting and budding, and was particularly +successful with peaches, with cherries, pears and plums, some of them +with Huguenot names and memories, and with muskmelons from Persian seed, +brought to him from the East by a friend. He raised horses from imported +stock, Merino sheep, and superintended the curing of hams from a +Westphalian recipe, furnished by an old Hessian farm hand--one of the +hirelings who had come to conquer and remained to cultivate the country. +In 1818 Jay and Fenimore Cooper drafted the constitution for an +agricultural society of which Governor Jay was the first president and +General Pierre van Cortlandt the second--an institution of great use in +the development of Westchester County. + +In 1815, when twenty-six years of age, Jay entered upon that course of +active philanthropy which for the next forty years employed his thoughts +and pen. His first effort was directed to the improvement of his native +town of Bedford in the organization of the Society for the Suppression +of Vice. By means of this society, of which he was the secretary, he did +much to restrain the liquor traffic and to diminish intemperance. Later +on, as a judge, he used all the power of the law to the same end; and it +was he who suggested the law, still in force, which forbids a +tavern-keeper to supply drink on credit. + +An interesting incident in this early period of his life was the part +which he bore in founding the American Bible Society, in organizing its +machinery for the immense work it had to perform, and in vindicating the +principles of the society against the attacks of the opposing party in +his own church. In this struggle Jay proved the independence of +character and courage of conviction which afterwards distinguished him +through the seemingly hopeless years of antislavery effort. The general +distribution of Bibles in our day makes it difficult to appreciate the +limited supply, the high cost, and the consequent rarity of the Bible +when this society began its work. The High-Church party in New York were +opposed to the association of Episcopalians with other Christians to +circulate the Bible, and opposed even to the distribution of the Bible, +unless accompanied by the Prayer-book as an interpreter. In these views +they were vigorously supported by their distinguished leader, Bishop +John Henry Hobart. Jay, who had inherited with his Huguenot blood a +faith in the Bible not to be restrained by ecclesiastical assumption, +was an officer of the Westchester Bible Society and deeply interested in +the work. On the appearance of a pastoral letter from Bishop Hobart in +which the High-Church views were expressed, he published a pamphlet +showing that it was "the interest and duty of Episcopalians to unite +with their fellow-Christians of all denominations in spreading the +knowledge of the Word of God." This pamphlet brought him into an active +conflict with the eminent bishop which lasted for several years, and +taught him that a philanthropic cause, even so plainly meritorious, was +not to be carried on without the opposition of powerful conservative +interests. + +Convinced that a national society could accomplish more than the local +and scattered State Bible societies, Jay published a pamphlet in 1816 +which showed the imperative importance of the work, and urged united +action. At the same time the venerable Elias Boudinot of New Jersey was +exerting himself to the same end. When he received a letter from Jay +enclosing the pamphlet, he thus welcomed his youthful ally: "These +precious moments I have devoted to a full consideration of one of the +greatest and most interesting subjects that has ever concerned the +children of men. Weak and feeble and scarcely able to think or write, +my efforts promised but little in the cause, when your welcome and +unexpected letter was brought in. My drooping spirits were raised and my +mind greatly revived. I could not help giving glory to God for the great +encouragement afforded me to press on in this glorious cause, when I +thus beheld His special mercy in raising up so powerful a support in +this joyous work and labour of love." In the same year the American +Bible Society was formed with the assistance of the best names in the +country. Elias Boudinot was chosen president, with John Jay and Matthew +Clarkson, a gallant officer of the Revolution, as vice-presidents. +Others on the roll were: John Langdon, the statesman of New Hampshire; +William Gray, the eminent merchant of Boston; the scholarly John Cotton +Smith, of Connecticut, with the blood of the Cottons and the Mathers of +colonial history; William Tighlman, the jurist of Pennsylvania; William +Wirt and Bushrod Washington, of Virginia; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, +of South Carolina; Governor Worthington, of Ohio; John Bolton, of +Georgia; Felix Grundy, of Tennessee; and of New York: Dr. John B. +Romeyne; Colonel Richard Varick, Washington's aide; Daniel D. Tompkins, +the Governor who obtained the abolition of slavery in the State; John +Pintard, John Aspinwall, Jeremiah Evarts, Frederic de Peyster, George +Griffin, De Witt Clinton, the Patroon Stephen van Rensselaer, and +Colonel Henry Rutgers. + +Notwithstanding the honourable support given to the society, it had to +resist a carefully organized assault on the part of Bishop Hobart and an +influential portion of his clergy aimed at the vital principle on which +the success of the movement depended--the cordial union of all +Christians. Jay's previous training in the same field of controversy, +his staunch devotion at once to his cause and to his church, designated +him as the proper person to carry on, in behalf of the society, the war +of letters and pamphlets which ensued. Although pitted against an +adversary to whom age, experience, and station gave great advantages, he +acquitted himself with credit, displaying literary and reasoning powers +which were soon to exert a potent effect upon the great moral issue of +our time. + +Other questions of a philanthropic character occupied his pen. The Synod +of Albany having offered a prize for the best essay on the observance of +the Sabbath, Jay competed for it with success. A more notable incident +of the same sort occurred in 1828. The Savannah Anti-duelling +Association offered a medal for the best argument against duelling. The +committee appointed to judge the essays were: John Cummings; James M. +Wayne, subsequently appointed by President Jackson a justice of the +Supreme Court; R. W. Habersham, afterwards Governor of Georgia; William +Law; and Matthew Hall McAllister, mayor of Savannah and an opponent of +Nullification in 1832. That in 1828 these Southern men were seeking to +root out the habit of duelling, and that the prize should have been +awarded by them to William Jay, is a curious commentary on the +connection between slavery and duelling. At this time both practices had +their opponents at the South who were allowed to express their opinions. +As the grip of slavery increased in strength and closed the mouth of +every objector, anti-duelling sentiment was simultaneously extinguished. +Both barbarous practices were to increase and to perish together. Jay's +essay could then find praise among men who a few years later would not +tolerate in their homes any product of his pen. + +In May, 1818, Jay was appointed one of the judges of Westchester County. +The mention of the fact in his diary closed with the words, "May I have +grace to discharge with fidelity the duties of the station." Two years +later a commission from Governor Clinton made him the first judge of the +county, an office which he held until 1823, when the adoption of the new +constitution terminated all offices under the old one. Fenimore Cooper +then wrote to him, "I see that you are unhorsed with other clever +fellows." But in response to a general demand, Governor Clinton +reappointed him under the new constitution, and he continued to hold +office under successive governors of different parties until 1843, when +he was displaced by Governor Bouck at the demand of the pro-slavery wing +of the democracy. A decision of Jay's, rejecting a witness who declared +his un-belief in God, occurred when De Tocqueville was in the United +States, and was commented upon by the distinguished Frenchman as having +been accepted by the press without comment, and as showing that the +American people combined the notions of Christianity and of liberty so +intimately that it was impossible to make them conceive of the one +without the other, and that they held religion to be indispensable to +the maintenance of republican institutions. In 1862, soon after Jay's +death, when an attempt was made by a pro-slavery faction in the county +to remove his portrait from the court-house at White Plains, it was +defeated by a protest of the members of the bar. "Many of us," they +said, "were well acquainted with Judge Jay, and can speak from personal +knowledge of those high qualities which have given him an historic +celebrity. Whilst he entertained and vigorously vindicated decided +opinions on certain questions which have much divided society and +produced much acrimony of feeling--in which many of us did not +sympathize with him--yet we can all bear testimony to the noble +frankness and sincerity of his nature, to his deep interest in all +questions tending to advance the interest of the race, and to the +extraordinary intellectual strength displayed by him on all occasions in +giving expression to his convictions." + +In the early years of Jay's life, it appears that his mind turned +naturally toward philanthropic subjects. His moral sense was largely +developed, his conscience active, his humanity aggressive. His own +comfortable circumstances did not close his heart to the sufferings of +others. His generous nature longed to replace evil by good. And in the +cause which his conscience approved, no obloquy nor social unpopularity +could impede his progress. At the same time, there was about him nothing +of the intemperate agitator. He was a judge and brought to his +philanthropic labours a judicial habit of mind. Indeed, it was this +habit of mind which distinguished him among his fellow-workers in the +antislavery cause. It was his mission to urge emancipation with the +Constitution in his hand; to meet in conflict that portion of society +which silenced its uneasy conscience by a repetition of constitutional +provisions, and at the same time to combat those who were inclined to +seek emancipation by unconstitutional means. + +His quiet country life, in which healthful out-of-door pursuits were +mingled with the study and reflection of his library, particularly +fitted him to look at this all-important question with calmness, with +consideration for both sides, and yet with the vigour of a mind free to +work exhaustively on a subject involving many conflicting theories and +duties. He brought to his task real talents, literary and polemic; a +style ready and concise; a reasoning enlivened by an effective vein of +irony. He had a refined and benevolent countenance, a pleasing manner, +a temper even, but easily roused to indignation at the sight of +injustice. Before considering his first connection with the antislavery +movement, we may glance at its situation in the early manhood of William +Jay. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY.--GROWTH OF THE SLAVE POWER.--THE + MISSOURI COMPROMISE.--JAY BEGINS POLITICAL AGITATION FOR THE + ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. + + +The movement which culminated in the Civil War and the total abolition +of slavery in the United States was first humanitarian, and subsequently +political. Philanthropists prepared the way for the statesman and the +soldier. + +The humanitarian movement had begun before the time of William Jay and +his fellow-workers. To find its beginnings, we must look back into the +colonial days of the eighteenth century. There, among the first, was +George Keith, of Pennsylvania, denouncing the system on grounds of both +Christianity and public policy. And Samuel Sewall, Chief-Justice of +Massachusetts, who, in his pamphlet, "The Selling of Joseph," quaintly +testified to the truth. "These Ethiopians," he said, "as black as they +are, seeing they are the sons and daughters of the first Adam and the +offspring of God, they ought to be treated with respect agreeable." +Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin Lay, William Burling, Anthony Benezet, the +Huguenot, were men who spoke as sincerely as later abolitionists and +whose words were heard. There was John Woolman, of New Jersey, who +pointed out "the dark gloominess overhanging the land, the spirit of +fierceness and love of dominion," resulting from this iniquity; and Dr. +Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., whose eloquent exhortations banished +the slave trade from a congregation growing rich on its spoils; and Dr. +Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, who foretold that "future ages will be +at a loss which to condemn most, our folly or our guilt in abetting this +direct violation of nature and religion." The legislatures of Virginia, +South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts in turn attempted to +restrict the slave-trade; but their efforts were annulled in England, +where the slave interest, through its champion, Lord Sandwich, forbade +any interference with "a traffic so beneficial to the nation." + +The colonies had no sooner achieved their independence than they found +themselves face to face with the great question, and on the threshold of +their national life a great change was perceptible in the attitude of +the people towards slavery. The old seventeenth century idea, that to +drag a negro from his heathen wilds to labour unrequited in a Christian +community tended to the benefit of his soul, had passed away. The +slave-trade was generally recognized as indefensible. There were men who +denounced slavery itself as an abominable evil. Even those most +determined to maintain the institution took the ground that it was an +unfortunate necessity, but that it must be preserved to avoid greater +evils. In 1787, through the noble efforts of Thomas Jefferson, Timothy +Pickering, Rufus King, Nathan Dane, William Grayson, and Richard Henry +Lee, Congress passed the great ordinance which forbade slavery to cross +the Ohio River into the Northwest Territory. + +The struggle between right and wrong had begun, but the opposing forces +were very unequal. On one side was humane sentiment; on the other was +deeply rooted habit, pecuniary interest, the pressure of political +questions of seemingly overriding importance. Among the great leaders of +the time there are two whose opinions and practice give an excellent +illustration of the prevailing antislavery feeling: John Jay of New +York, Patrick Henry of Virginia. There is no disagreement as to the +moral elevation of John Jay's character. Abroad and at home, officially +and unofficially, he was always the opponent of slavery. Yet Jay +purchased and held men as slaves. To obtain domestic servants otherwise +was extremely difficult. After his slaves had served him sufficiently +long and faithfully to return to him what he considered the value of his +outlay, he gave them their freedom. He believed that slavery in +principle was wrong, but he yielded so far to convenience and custom. +Patrick Henry was an antislavery man and placed his position on record +in the following words: "Is it not amazing that, at a time when the +rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a +country above all others fond of liberty, in such an age, we find men +professing a religion the most humane, mild, meek, gentle, and generous +adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with +the Bible and destructive of liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects +it in speculation, but how few in practice, from conscientious motives! +Would any one believe that I am a master of slaves of my own purchase? I +am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I +will not, I cannot, justify it; however culpable my conduct, I will so +far pay my _devoirs_ to duty as to own the excellence and rectitude of +her precepts and lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time +will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable +evil; everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our own +day; if not, let us transmit to our own descendants, together with our +slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery." + +Such being the character of antislavery sentiment, its chances of +success seem hopeless enough when we hear the other side. When Congress +was considering the Articles of Confederation, Wilson, of Pennsylvania, +said: "Dismiss your slaves, freemen will take their places." The reply +of Lynch, of South Carolina, showed the existence of men willing to +sacrifice everything to the preservation of slavery. "Our slaves are our +property," said he; "if that is debated, there is an end to +confederation." + +Thus, at this crisis in the national history, there first distinctively +appeared that aggressive, uncompromising party, afterwards to be known +as the Slave Power--an association of men then forming a minority even +in the South, but determined to carry its point at all hazards; men who +were willing to sacrifice every consideration of the public good to the +permanence of a system profitable to themselves, but which reduced human +beings to the level of beasts. Against a party so resolute, antislavery +opinion of the Patrick Henry variety could not prevail. Moreover, the +distracted state of the country, the imperative necessity for union, +made every other question seem secondary to the majority of patriotic +statesmen. In the Constitutional Convention, the Slave Power, then +chiefly represented by South Carolina and Georgia, by threatening to +defeat the establishment of a stable government and by making the +preservation of slavery a _sine qua non_ to the Union, obtained the +concessions so big with future disaster. + +The struggle over this subject in the days of the formation of the +government was the beginning of the "irrepressible conflict." The Slave +Power had come into being as a distinct force, aiming to dominate the +rest of the community in the interest of property in man. On the other +hand, the opposition began to organize. Several abolition and +manumission societies were formed. The oldest of these was that of +Pennsylvania, which in 1787 chose Franklin for its president. A society +was formed in New York in 1785 with John Jay as president and Alexander +Hamilton as secretary; in Rhode Island in 1789, under the lead of Dr. +Hopkins. In 1791, before the Connecticut society, Jonathan Edwards the +younger maintained the doctrine of _immediate emancipation_. Similar +associations were at work in New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. +Antislavery men were thus uniting in their cause, but unfortunately they +were, with rare exceptions, devoid of the earnestness which +characterized their opponents. Their hostility to the system was a +sentiment rather than a principle. It could hasten somewhat emancipation +at the North; but it had no force to contend against the pecuniary +interests which were daily binding tighter the bonds of the negro in the +South. There, in the early years of the present century, the cotton-gin, +which had been invented in 1793, gave an impetus to the production of +cotton which nearly doubled the value of slaves. At the North the +profits of the African trade which supplied this increased demand for +negroes gave to the Slave Power allies almost as determined as +themselves. + +The year 1808, fixed by the Constitution as the limit of the duration of +the slave-trade, witnessed the next contest. The result was a definite +prohibition of the trade by law. But it was a barren victory for the +cause of humanity. The interests involved in both Northern and Southern +States had grown so large and influential as to make the law a dead +letter. The trade continued with unabated vigour, and marked by even +greater cruelties to the wretched cargoes. The Slave Power was growing +in strength and determination, bent on controlling the national +government, influencing our foreign relations, reaching out already to +grasp new slave territory. + +From 1818 to 1821 continued the great contest over the admission of +Missouri as a slave State, in which was involved the question whether +the extension and encouragement of slavery was to be the permanent +policy of the United States government. Men and words were not wanting +to expose and condemn the contemplated evil. But the Slave Power had +grown to too great proportions. Henry Clay, who had believed "slavery to +be a wrong, a grievous wrong, which no contingency can make right," now, +at the behest of slaveholders, threw his great influence against the +cause of humanity. As in the days of the Constitutional Convention the +Slave Power had secured the perpetuation of its system by threats of +preventing a union of the States, so in 1821 it obtained the principle +of the extension of slavery by threats of dissolving the Union. Thomas +Jefferson, so faithful an advocate of freedom, was now appalled by the +sound of a strife which, "like the fire-bell at midnight," announced +disaster, and he counselled concession. Even John Quincy Adams was on +the same side, "from extreme unwillingness to put the Union in hazard." +So passed the so-called Compromise, which allowed slavery to break its +bounds and to spread over Arkansas and Missouri. The Slave Power had won +a great victory and had shown immense growth. The old apologetic +position that the system, although wrong, could not be abolished without +entailing greater evils, was now exchanged for the bold doctrine that +slavery was a good thing, to be extended and strengthened. + +The struggle was growing fiercer and was becoming more clearly an issue +between North and South, but the bone of contention was yet the +extension, not the abolition, of slavery. The Slave Power, warned by the +opposition it had met with in Congress, that a new spirit was arising in +the North, instinctively felt that its position could be maintained only +by further aggression. None but slaveholders were allowed to represent +the South in Congress, where every public measure was considered first +in the light of its effect upon the institution of slavery. At home, +such humane laws regarding the blacks as still existed were repealed, +new and more cruel enactments were passed, the manumission of slaves by +grateful or repentant masters was prohibited. + +While at the South opinion tended towards united and vigorous action, +the sentiments of the people at the North were divided. The majority, +although disliking slavery "in the abstract," were so fearful of the +outcome of the contention, were so anxious to see some settlement which +would put an end to agitation, that they were disposed to accept the +line drawn by the Missouri Compromise as the best solution possible, and +to resent any further antislavery expression as an element of profitless +disturbance. In this class there grew up a dislike of the negroes, a +hatred of the questions involved in their existence among us, a general +prejudice against colour, which tended greatly to the support of the +Slave Power. Many persons who preserved abolition views were lulled into +repose of conscience by support of the Colonization Society, an +organization formed in the South to get rid of free coloured persons by +shipping them to Africa, but skilfully made to appear as a philanthropic +scheme to solve the slavery problem. Men of the highest character and +with the best intentions had joined this society in the belief that +therein might be found the means of uprooting slavery. The ten years +following the Missouri Compromise were unpromising for the cause of the +slave. The Southern States were ceaselessly strengthening themselves. +Race prejudice, the fear of business disturbance, apathy, made the North +acquiescent. Cotton was king, and to that authority conscience +submitted. + +Still there were signs of light and materials for improvement. In 1822 +the exciting struggle for the establishment of slavery in Illinois +resulted in favour of freedom. There existed in the country one hundred +and forty antislavery societies, of which one hundred and six were in +the South. In 1826 was held in Baltimore a convention at which +eighty-one of these societies were represented. There was not enough +"fight" among these antislavery men to make much impression. Their views +were directed towards preventing the extension of slavery, towards its +abolition in the District of Columbia (where its existence involved +recognition by the United States government) and its "gradual" cessation +elsewhere. The fact of their holding the convention in Baltimore +indicates the still lingering sympathy of a considerable party in the +South, and it shows also that the Slave Power did not look upon them +with much concern. It is not until antislavery stands upon the platform +of abolition as an _immediate duty_ that it is swept from the face of +the Southern States. + +There were earnest men already engaged in a new and more vigorous +crusade: Elias Hicks, the Quaker, who proclaimed boldly the sin of +owning men or condoning the practice in others; Rev. John Rankin, of +Tennessee, who removed with his congregation across the Ohio River, +rather than acquiesce in slavery; William Goodell, of Providence, +beginning a career of forty years; above all, Benjamin Lundy, who +sacrificed to the cause all that men hold dear. Between 1815 and 1818 +four abolition papers were being published, _The Emancipator_ in +Tennessee, _The Abolition Intelligencer_ in Kentucky, _The Liberalist_ +in Louisiana, and, most important, Lundy's _Genius of Universal +Emancipation_ in Maryland. All of these papers were published in the +South, and the majority of the manumission societies were there. Thus, +in 1826, when William Jay began his labours, the line between freedom +and slavery was not yet drawn. A few slaves were still held in New York. +Many antislavery people were to be found at the South and many +pro-slavery people at the North. The United States was a slaveholding +nation. + +Jay was a deeply interested observer of the contest in Congress which +resulted in the Missouri Compromise. In 1819, when he was thirty years +of age, his attitude towards the extension of slavery was stated in a +letter to Elias Boudinot: + +"I have no doubt that the laws of God, and, as a necessary and +inevitable consequence, the true interests of our country, forbid the +extension of slavery. If our country is ever to be redeemed from the +curse of slavery the present Congress must stand between the living and +the dead and stay the plague. Now is the accepted time, now is the day +of salvation. If slavery once takes root on the other side of the +Mississippi, it can never afterwards be extiminated, but will extend +with the future Western Empire, poisoning the feelings of humanity, +checking the growth of those principles of virtue and religion which +constitute alike the security and happiness of civil society." + +In the year 1826 occurred an incident which marks the beginning of a new +phase in the antislavery struggle--the movement which demanded abolition +in the District of Columbia. There, on territory exclusively under the +jurisdiction of the National Congress, it could be claimed justly that +the question of States rights was not involved and that the +constitutional provisions did not apply. In this movement, which +continued until its object was accomplished in April, 1862, William Jay +was a pioneer. + +In August of the year 1826 John Owen, the proprietor of a paper-mill at +Croton Falls, near the Jay farm at Bedford, received a parcel from New +York which happened to have been wrapped in a Washington newspaper, _The +National Intelligencer_, of the 1st of August. On looking it over his +eye was caught by the following advertisement: + + "Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District of + Columbia, on the 22d of July last, a runaway negro man by the name + of Gilbert Horton. He is five feet high, stout made, large full + eyes, and a scar on his left arm near the elbow; had on when + committed a tarpaulin hat, linen shirt, blue cloth jacket and + trousers; says that he was born free in the State of New York near + Peekskill. The owner or owners of the above-described negro man, if + any, are requested to come and take him away, or he will be sold for + his jail fees and other expenses, as the law directs." + +There is a sort of grim humour about this advertisement, appearing, as +it did, according to law, in the capital of the great free republic of +the world, under a flag supposed to typify human liberty. It declared +that a man who claimed to be and actually was a citizen of the State of +New York was held in jail without any charge and would be sold into +lifelong slavery unless claimed as a slave by an owner who did not +exist. It declared, in short, that a free citizen of the United States +who had any negro blood in his veins would be reduced to slavery by the +act of setting foot in the capital of his country. Here was an issue +which involved the rights of the State of New York, but could not be +said to be an attack on those of Virginia or South Carolina. + +Mr. Owen recognized in the Gilbert Horton thus described a free man who +had worked in his neighbourhood. He lost no time in mounting his horse +and riding over to Bedford to submit the matter to Judge Jay. By the +latter's advice a letter was despatched at once to the marshal of the +District of Columbia, giving proofs of Horton's freedom, and a meeting +was called of the citizens of Westchester County to take action on the +subject. This meeting, held on the 30th of August, with Oliver Green in +the chair and William Jay as secretary, passed the following +resolutions: + + "I. That this meeting view this procedure with the indignation + becoming men who have a just sense of the value of personal + liberty, and a proper abhorrence of cruelty and oppression. + + "II. That the evidence affords unequivocal proof of the freedom of + Horton. + + "III. That the secretary is hereby desired to transmit to his + Excellency the Governor the evidence above referred to, and, in the + name of this meeting, to request his Excellency to demand from the + proper authorities the instant liberation of the said Horton as a + free citizen of the State of New York. + + "IV. That by the fourth article of the Constitution of the United + States the citizens of each State are entitled to all the privileges + and immunities of the several States, and that it is the duty of the + State of New York to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of these + rights without regard to their complexion. + + "V. That the law under which Horton has been imprisoned, and by + which a free citizen without evidence of crime and without trial by + jury may be condemned to servitude for life, is repugnant to our + republican institutions, and revolting to justice and humanity; and + that the representatives of this State in Congress are hereby + requested to use their endeavours to procure its repeal. + + "VI. That the secretary, with John Owen, Esq., be a committee to + prepare and to present to the citizens of this county, for their + signatures, a petition to Congress for the immediate abolition of + slavery in the District of Columbia. + + "VII. That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman + and secretary, and published." + +On receiving from Judge Jay the Westchester resolutions, Governor +Clinton submitted them immediately to President John Quincy Adams, who +was paying a summer visit to his home at Quincy, Mass., with a +respectful demand for the liberation of Gilbert Horton as a free man and +a citizen. The President sent the papers with a letter from himself to +Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. Henry Clay was absent at the time, +and the Chief Clerk of the department wrote to Governor Clinton that the +instructions of the President had been anticipated by the discharge of +Horton by the marshal of the District. The committal had taken place +under an old law of Maryland, "which was adopted by Congress with the +other general laws then in force in that State for the county of +Washington upon its assuming exclusive jurisdiction over the territory." + +This disposal of the case left the principle at issue untouched, and Jay +could not be satisfied with such a result. His views are expressed in a +letter written in September to Hon. Charles Miner, a member of Congress: +"Since I read a resolution introduced by you in relation to slavery in +the District of Columbia, the subject has been scarcely absent from my +mind, and the late imprisonment in Washington of a citizen of this +county afforded an opportunity which I gladly embraced of obtaining an +expression of public opinion. I do not entertain the slightest hope that +our petition will be favourably received, nor the slightest apprehension +that the cause we espouse will not finally triumph. The history of the +abolition of the slave-trade teaches us the necessity of patient +perseverance, and affords a pledge that perseverance will be ultimately +crowned with success. We have nothing to fear, but much to hope, from +the violence and threats of our opponents. Apathy is the only obstacle +we have reason to dread, and to remove this obstacle it is necessary +that the attention of the public should be constantly directed to the +subject. Every discussion in Congress in relation to slavery, no matter +how great may be the majority against us, advances our cause. We shall +rise more powerful from every defeat." + +Jay's next step was to draft the memorial to Congress ordered by the +Westchester resolutions. It declared: + + "The outrage offered to a citizen of this county, and a violation of + the constitutional rights involved in that outrage, affords to the + meeting new and strong evidences of the impropriety of the + continuance of slavery in the District of Columbia. As citizens of + the republic, professing to acknowledge that all men are created + equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain + inalienable rights, and that among them are life, liberty, and the + pursuit of happiness, your petitioners cannot but regard it as + derogatory to the government of the country that its laws should + violate any of these rights in a territory under its exclusive + jurisdiction. To your honourable body was given by the Constitution + the exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatever over that District, + and your right and ability to grant the prayer of these petitioners + cannot be called in question, and the confined limit of the District + and the comparatively small number of slaves it contains obviates + the objections sometimes urged against sudden emancipation. + + "Your petitioners therefore earnestly entreat your honourable body + that the government of this great republic, glorying as it does in + acknowledging and protecting the rights of mankind, diffusing the + blessings of freedom, may no longer by law withhold these rights and + blessings from any portion of the inhabitants of its own immediate + territory, but in the exercise of your prerogative you will + immediately provide for the abolition of slavery in the District of + Columbia in such manner as in your wisdom may seem best." + +The publication of the Westchester resolutions elicited no unfavourable +comments at the North, but it gave no little disquietude to Southern +editors, two of whom declared that black persons travelling in the South +should carry proofs of their freedom, as whites in Europe were compelled +to carry passports. The introduction of the subject into Congress, even +at that day, when there was no excitement at the North on the subject of +slavery, brought out the susceptibility and dictatorial tone of the +slaveholding interest which marked all subsequent debates up to the +election of Lincoln. + +Soon after the assembling of Congress in 1827, Mr. Aaron Ward, +representing Westchester County, introduced the resolution: "That the +committee on the District of Columbia be directed to enquire whether +there be in force in the said District any law which authorizes the +imprisonment of any man of colour and his sale as an unclaimed slave for +gaol fees, and if so to enquire into the expediency of repealing the +same." Mr. Ward accompanied his resolution with remarks of a moderate +character, referring to the circumstances of Horton's arrest, the fact +of his being a citizen of New York, and the danger in which he stood of +being sold as a slave; he contrasted the law under which such +proceedings could be had with the provisions of the national +Constitution; and he concluded by saying: "The jurisdiction of the +District, sir, ought to be exhibited to the country and to the world +without a stain. Its object should be not to oppress but to vindicate +the rights of freemen, and if there is a spot on earth where these +rights are to be held sacred that place is the District of Columbia." + +For a Northern man merely to touch upon the rights of coloured persons +was enough to arouse the leading Southern members of the House to angry +opposition. John Forsythe, who as minister to Spain had arranged the +session of Florida, James Hamilton, already an extreme advocate of +States rights and afterwards Governor of South Carolina, Charles A. +Wickliffe, afterwards Postmaster-General under President Tyler, and +George McDuffie, of Georgia, all took pains to throw ridicule upon the +resolution, or to oppose its consideration. They considered, no doubt +correctly, that to have any negroes spoken of in Congress otherwise than +as property was an indirect blow at slavery. W. L. Brent, of Maryland, +said that the resolution as it stood was calculated to excite only angry +debate and irritated feelings. If the mover would omit the words "being +a citizen of any State," the most objectionable part would be removed. +Mr. Ward consented to this emasculation and his resolution was then +carried. The committee reported on the 16th July, that in the District +of Columbia, "if a free man of colour should be apprehended as a +runaway, he is subjected to the payment of all fees and rewards given by +law for apprehending runaways; and upon failure to make such payment, is +liable to be sold as a slave." "That is," said Judge Jay, "a man +acknowledged to be free and unaccused of any offence is to be sold as a +slave to pay fees and rewards given by law for apprehending runaways. If +Turkish despotism is disgraced by an enactment of equal atrocity, we are +ignorant of the fact." The committee thought the law rather hard, and +recommended such an alteration of it as would make such charges payable +by the corporation of Washington. But even this alteration was never +made. "The code of Washington," Jay said some years later, "is yet +polluted by unquestionably the most iniquitous statute in Christendom." +And the fact continued that a coloured citizen of a free State could be +sold into slavery if found in Washington. Convinced that no reform could +be expected except by the total abolition of slavery on United States +territory, convinced, too, that this was the first necessary step in a +campaign against slavery itself, Jay set on foot a movement for popular +petitions to Congress and for legislative expression in behalf of their +consideration. The Pennsylvania Legislature passed such resolutions in +January, 1829; the New York Assembly followed soon afterwards, when Jay +wrote to his friend Charles Miner: "The mail this evening brings the +news that resolutions instructing our representatives in Congress to +vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia have +passed our Assembly by a vote of 57 to 39. In the fulness of my heart I +thank God and take courage." Among his co-workers at this time was Henry +D. Sedgwick, to whom he wrote in 1831: "I have read your pamphlet with +much interest; your ideas on the abolition of slavery correspond with +those I have long entertained and expressed. Duty is the only safe rule +of expediency. No nation ever has suffered, and none ever will, for +doing justice and loving mercy. But moral considerations apart, I have +no doubt it would be wise policy in the Southern States immediately to +emancipate their slaves. The period must arrive when slavery must cease +on this continent. The progress of knowledge and religion, the example +of St. Domingo, the abolition of slavery in Mexico and South America, +the decreasing value of slave labour, and the rapidly augmenting +coloured population in the South, all combine in rendering this event +inevitable. But the slaves will either receive their freedom as a boon, +or they will wrest it by force from their masters; and the evils +attending these two modes of emancipation certainly bear no proportion +to each other. You remark, 'Our country fought for justice and should +be ready to render the justice which it demanded.' I observe a similar +sentiment in a letter written by my father from Spain to Judge Benson +during the contest to which you allude. Speaking of the abolition of +slavery, he says, 'Till America comes into this measure her prayers to +Heaven for liberty will be impious.' This is a strong expression, but it +is just. Were I in your Legislature I would prepare a bill for the +purpose with great care, and would never cease moving it till it became +a law or I ceased to be a member. I believe that God governs the world, +and I believe it to be a maxim in His Court, as in ours, that those who +ask for equity ought to do it. I do not think the free States guiltless +of upholding slavery while, through their representatives, they tolerate +it in the District of Columbia. Were the free States to will it, slavery +would cease at the capital of the republic, and an example would be set +that could not fail of having a salutary influence." + +[Illustration: After Gilbert Stuart. A. W. Elson & Co., Boston +John Jay] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT.--ORGANIZATION OF + ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES.--ANTI-ABOLITION RIOTS.--JAY PUBLISHES HIS + "INQUIRY." + + +Chief-Justice Jay died at Bedford in 1828, and his son William occupied +his leisure during the following five years in preparing "The Life and +Letters of John Jay." This work was published in two octavo volumes in +1833, and was highly praised for both thoroughness and impartiality. + +Meanwhile events were occurring which raised antislavery sentiment from +the torpor in which it had fallen after the excitement of the Missouri +Compromise, and which brought the whole question before the people as a +live issue which compelled attention. Between the years 1829 and 1832 +took place a remarkable series of debates in Virginia on the subject of +slavery, brought about by dissatisfaction with the State constitution +and by the Nat Turner massacre, in which a number of slaves had risen +against their masters. In these debates the evils of slavery were +exposed as clearly as they were afterwards by the Abolitionists, and +with an outspoken freedom which, when indulged in by Northern men, was +soon to be denounced as treasonable and incendiary. These Southern +speakers were silenced by the Slave Power. But there were men in the +North who thought the same and who would not be silenced. Chief among +these was William Lloyd Garrison. He had begun his memorable career by +circulating petitions in Vermont in 1828 in favor of emancipation in the +District of Columbia. Having joined Lundy in Baltimore in editing the +_Genius of Universal Emancipation_, he had suffered ignominy in the +cause in a Southern jail; drawing from persecution and hardship only new +inspiration, he began the publication of the _Liberator_ at Boston in +January, 1831. In the following year, under his leadership, was formed +the New England Anti-Slavery Society, which placed itself on the new +ground that _immediate, unconditional emancipation, without +expatriation, was the right of every slave and could not be withheld by +his master an hour without sin_. In March, 1833, the _Weekly +Emancipator_ was established in New York, with the assistance of Arthur +and Lewis Tappan, and under the editorship of William Goodell. In the +same year appeared at Haverhill, Mass., a vigorous pamphlet by John G. +Whittier, entitled "Justice and Expediency, or Slavery considered with a +View to its Rightful and Effectual Remedy, Abolition." Nearly +simultaneously were published Mrs. Lydia Maria Child's "Appeal in Behalf +of that Class of Americans called Africans," and a pamphlet by Elizur +Wright, Jr., a professor in the Western Reserve College, on "The Sin of +Slavery and its Remedy." + +These publications and the doctrines of the _Liberator_ produced great +excitement throughout the country. The South had been able to hear the +words "gradual emancipation" with a confident equanimity, and only a few +years before had tolerated a convention in Baltimore gathered to forward +that object. But the word "immediate" now prefixed to emancipation acted +as a firebrand to gunpowder. Southern newspapers and politicians could +not find epithets strong enough to denounce the fanatical incendiaries +who said that slavery, being wrong in itself, should cease at once. A +reward was offered by a Southern Legislature for the person of Garrison, +dead or alive. For lending Whittier's pamphlet to a white man Dr. Reuben +Crandall was tried for his life at Washington on the charge of +"circulating Tappan, Garrison & Co.'s papers encouraging the negroes to +insurrection." + +The lives of the abolitionists were safer at the North, but their +principles were condemned there in terms quite as decided. To say that +slavery ought to be immediately abolished was sufficient cause for the +clergyman to lose his pulpit and the merchant his credit. The new +doctrine was too sound to be ignored, and its agitation was +disorganizing, vexatious, injurious to business, destructive of private +and political peace. The North agreed with the South that slavery was +not a subject to which the right of free speech applied. The +abolitionists were accused of injuring the cause of the blacks by their +proceedings. And indeed, at the South the treatment of the slave became +harsher, and at the North the prejudice against the free negro was +intensified. In 1833 Miss Crandall, a Quaker lady, endeavoured to +establish a boarding-school for the education of coloured girls in +Canterbury, Conn. A committee of the inhabitants waited upon her, who +represented "that by putting her design into execution she would bring +ruin and disgrace upon them all." Three town meetings were held in one +week to discuss ways and means to suppress a scheme which would render +"insecure the persons, property, and reputation of our citizens." The +State of Connecticut passed a special law to forbid the establishment of +such a school. Under it, Miss Crandall was tried and convicted. The +constitutionality of the law was called in question and the case was +appealed. But the inhabitants of Canterbury thought the crisis too +serious to depend on legal technicalities. Miss Crandall was driven from +the town by persecution. The shops would sell her no food; her well was +filled with manure, and water from other sources refused; her house was +smeared with filth and finally set on fire. The trustees of the Noyes +Academy in Plymouth, N. H., having consented to the admission of +coloured pupils, the respectable people of the town avoided the +contemplated disgrace by moving the school building from its +foundations and depositing it in a swamp. In 1835 a wealthy coloured +man bought a pew on the floor of Park Street Church in Boston. His +neighbours nailed up the door of the pew, and so many "aggrieved +brethren" threatened to leave that the trustees were obliged to prevent +the threatened contamination of the sanctuary by excluding the coloured +pew-holder. A hundred similar cases might be cited to show that before +the emancipation of the slaves could gain even a hearing, the North had +to be educated to consider the negro race as human beings capable of +improvement and deserving of humane encouragement. + +In May, 1833, Judge Jay contributed to the first number of the +_Emancipator_ a letter which sets forth his own views of the problem of +American slavery at that time and also some of the difficulties in the +path of the emancipationists: + + "The duty and policy of immediate emancipation, although clear to + us, are not so to multitudes of good people who abhor slavery and + sincerely wish its removal. They take it for granted, no matter why + or wherefore, that if the slaves were now liberated they would + instantly cut the throats and fire the dwellings of their + benefactors. Hence these good people look upon the advocates of + emancipation as a set of dangerous fanatics, who are jeopardizing + the peace of the Southern States and riveting the fetters of the + slaves by the very attempt to break them. In their opinion the + slaves are not fit for freedom, and therefore it is necessary to + wait patiently till they are. Now, unless these patient waiters can + be brought over to our side, emancipation is hopeless; for, first, + they are an immense majority of all among us who are hostile to + slavery; and, secondly, they are as conscientious in their opinions + as we are in ours, and unless converted will oppose and defeat all + our efforts. But how are they to be converted? Only by the + exhibition of Truth. The moral, social, and political evils of + slavery are but imperfectly known and considered. These should be + portrayed in strong but true colours, and it would not be difficult + to prove that, however inconvenient and dangerous emancipation may + be, the continuance of slavery must be infinitely more inconvenient + and dangerous. + + "Constitutional restrictions, independent of other considerations, + forbid all other than moral interference with slavery in the + Southern States. But we have as good and perfect a right to exhort + slaveholders to liberate their slaves as we have to exhort them to + practice any virtue or avoid any vice. Nay, we have not only the + right, but under certain circumstances it may be our duty to give + such advice; and while we confine ourselves within the boundaries of + right and duty, we may and ought to disregard the threats and + denunciations by which we may be assailed. + + "The question of slavery in the District of Columbia is totally + distinct, as far as we are concerned, from that of slavery in the + Southern States. + + "As a member of Congress, I should think myself no more authorized + to legislate for the slaves of Virginia than for the serfs of + Russia. But Congress has full authority to abolish slavery in the + District, and I think it to be its duty to do so. The public need + information respecting the abominations committed at Washington with + the sanction of their representatives--abominations which will cease + whenever those representatives please. If this subject is fully and + ably pressed upon the attention of our electors, they may perhaps + be induced to require pledges from candidates for Congress for their + votes for the removal of this foul stain from our National + Government. As to the Colonization Society, it is neither a wicked + conspiracy on the one hand nor a panacea for slavery on the other. + Many good and wise men belong to it and believe in its efficacy." + +In the summer of 1833 the abolitionists of Great Britain succeeded in +obtaining the act of emancipation for the 800,000 slaves in the West +Indies. In June Arthur Tappan wrote to Judge Jay asking for his "opinion +as to the expediency of forming an American Antislavery Society and of +doing it now. The impulse given to the cause by the movement in England +would, it appears to me, aid us greatly here." Jay replied very +cautiously. A New York society, he thought, might be desirable +immediately. The constitutions and proceedings of such societies +demanded great caution and prudence; they must blend the wisdom of the +serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. The Southern people affected +to apprehend an unconstitutional interference with their property, as +they called it, by the Northern abolitionists, and no ground for such +pretended fear should be given. With this view, he suggested the +incorporation into the constitution of antislavery societies a distinct +declaration, such as the following: "We concede that Congress, under the +present National Compact, has no right to interfere with any of the +slave States in relation to this momentous subject. But we maintain +that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to suppress the domestic +slave-trade between the several States and to abolish slavery in those +portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its +exclusive jurisdiction." He further suggested that the two subjects, the +Colonization Society and the political condition of the free blacks, +should be avoided. "Duty and policy," he said, "in my opinion demand the +emancipation of our slaves, but they do not demand that immediately on +their emancipation they shall be invested with the right of suffrage." + +On the 2d of October the New York City Antislavery Society was +successfully organized, despite an active and organized effort to +prevent it. A call had been issued for a meeting of the friends of +immediate emancipation at Clinton Hall. A counter-notice was published, +signed "Many Southerners," inviting a meeting at the same time and +place. The proprietors of Clinton Hall, alarmed at the situation, +refused to let it to the abolitionists, who then applied to the Clinton +Hotel, where they were also refused. The Southerners and their Northern +sympathizers, finding Clinton Hotel closed, held a meeting at Tammany +Hall, with General Bogardus, the United States Marshal, in the chair, +with speeches and resolutions against the abolitionists, when a report +that the abolitionists were in session at Chatham Street Hall sent them +there in haste, only to find the Hall closed and dark. An eye-witness +described the crowd assembled by the Southern call as "a genuine +drunken, infuriated mob of blackguards of every species, some with good +clothes, and the major part the very sweepings of the city." The public +was amused the next morning by a leading editorial in the _Courier and +Enquirer_, congratulating the country on the failure of the +"disorganizing fanatics to organize a society fraught with danger to the +Union and based upon an open violation of the United States +Constitution;" while the advertising column of the same sheet contained +the official proceedings of the abolitionists at the Chatham Street +Chapel, where with promptness, energy, and order they had received the +report of a committee, adopted a constitution, elected officers, +adjourned and closed the building before the arrival of the rioters from +Tammany. The successful management of the affair was due chiefly to the +coolness and skill of Lewis Tappan, to whose devotion and energy the +antislavery cause was from this time constantly indebted. The peaceful +and lawful aims of the society, its frank acknowledgment of the rights +of the Southern States were set forth in its constitution: + + "While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has, by the + Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate + in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince + all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their + understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime + in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interest + of all concerned require its immediate abandonment, without + expatriation. The society will also endeavour in a constitutional + way to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade + and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country + which come under its control, especially in the District of + Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State + that may hereafter be admitted to the Union. + + "The society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the + people of colour, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and + religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus + they may _according to their intellectual and moral worth_ share an + equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but this + society will never in any way countenance the oppressed in + vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force." + +Notwithstanding the distinct and moderate language in which the society +set forth its lawful objects, pro-slavery prejudice was aroused to +violent opposition. A week later a meeting was called to protest against +the "reckless agitations of the abolitionists." Theodore Frelinghuysen, +United States Senator from New Jersey, declared that "nine tenths of the +horrors of slavery were imaginary," that "the crusade of abolition" was +"the poetry of philanthropy," that emancipationists were "seeking to +dissolve the Union." Chancellor Walworth came down from Albany to say +that they were "reckless incendiaries" and their efforts +unconstitutional. David B. Ogden declared the doctrine of immediate +emancipation to be "a palpable and direct nullification of the +Constitution." + +On the 29th of October, 1833, a circular invitation was addressed to +Judge Jay and others to attend a convention at Philadelphia on the 4th +December to form a National Antislavery Society. This step was taken in +concurrence with the views of the friends of immediate emancipation in +Boston, Providence, New York, and Philadelphia. Among the motives for +organizing such a society without delay it was argued that union is +strength; that the advocates of the immediate abolition of slavery, +though comparatively few and much scattered, were many in the aggregate, +and could act, when combined, with irresistible power; that the cause +was urgent, public expectation excited, its friends to some extent +committed to such a movement during the present year; that they had the +example of similar organizations, which, though feeble and condemned by +public opinion in the outset, had speedily risen to great influence, and +had been the means under God of immense benefit to the human race, +especially in the case of the National Antislavery Society of Great +Britain, and of the American Temperance Society. The invitation was +signed by a committee consisting of Arthur Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, and +Elizur Wright, Jr., all officers of the New York Antislavery Society. + +At the same time Judge Jay received a letter from Rev. Samuel J. May +urging him to be present. "This is a cause," wrote May, "in which our +wisest and best and most prudent men ought to engage. There never has +been in our country so great a demand for the exertions of true patriots +and real Christians.... Let me beg of you to be there, at the +convention. I have heard the hope that you will be there expressed most +fervently by many." + +Jay replied to the committee that he could not be present. "It would +perhaps be uncandid to conceal from you," he said, "that the expediency +of the proposed attempt to form a National Society at the present time +seems to me to be at least questionable. May it not increase the +irritation and hostility extensively felt towards abolitionists without +promoting their objects more effectually than local societies? If, +however, a National Society is to be formed, it is to be hoped its +proceedings will be marked with great prudence and moderation. The great +objection made to antislavery associations is that they aim at an +unconstitutional interference with slavery. This objection, false as I +am persuaded it is, has nevertheless an extensive and injurious +influence, and unless it be removed success will be hopeless. It seems +to me, therefore, of the utmost importance that correct constitutional +principles on this subject should not only be entertained, but +explicitly and unequivocally avowed by every antislavery society. This +avowal might be made in the preamble of their constitution in some form +like the following: + + "'The object of this society is to promote the abolition of slavery + in the United States. As all legislation relative to slavery in the + several States in which it exists can be constitutionally exercised + only by their respective Legislatures, this society will endeavour + to effect its object, so far as relates to these States, by argument + addressed to the understanding and conscience of their citizens. But + inasmuch as the Federal Constitution confers on Congress the + exclusive right to legislate for the District of Columbia, this + society will use all such lawful and constitutional means as may be + deemed advisable to induce Congress to abolish slavery in that + District without delay.' + +"I am very sensible that the friends of emancipation hold these +principles, but not having given them sufficient prominence in their +writings they have subjected themselves to much injurious suspicion." + +Judge Jay's letter was read on the first day of the Antislavery +Convention held in Philadelphia in December, 1833; and in the +declaration of principles, reported by William Lloyd Garrison, John G. +Whittier, and Samuel J. May, and unanimously adopted by the convention, +appeared the following clauses, by which the abolitionists were enabled +to repel the charge, so persistently made, that they sought to +accomplish their ends by unconstitutional means, by asking Congress to +exceed its power by meddling with slavery in the States: + + "We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State to + legislate exclusively on the subject of slavery which is tolerated + within its limits; we concede that Congress under the present + National Compact has no right to interfere with any of the slave + States in relation to this momentous subject. + + "But we maintain that Congress has a right and is solemnly bound to + suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several States, and to + abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the + Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction." + +In 1838 an energetic attempt was made by Alvan Stewart, of Utica, to +strike out the clause in the constitution of the American Antislavery +Society which recognized the rights of the Southern States under the +United States Constitution. Jay perceived the injury that such a course +would inflict on the position of the abolitionists. It would, indeed, +have committed the society to the doctrine that Congress could continue +slavery in the States. He opposed the change with vigour during a debate +of two days and succeeded in maintaining the all-important clause. + +Looked at by the light of subsequent events, the importance of placing +the antislavery movement on a strictly constitutional basis cannot be +overrated. Upon the principles thus distinctly avowed rested the moral +and political strength of the movement during a struggle of nearly +thirty years. And these principles became, in 1854, under the guidance +of the founders of the Republican party, the chief plank in the platform +of that great organization, under whose sturdy lead, aided by citizens +of all parties, the supremacy of the national Constitution was +maintained, the integrity of the national territory was preserved, +slavery was ended, and the republic saved. + +Judge Jay was not yet officially connected with the antislavery +societies, but his sympathy was close with them and their officers. At +the request of the Executive Committee of the New York society, he +drafted a petition for abolition in the District of Columbia for +circulation in New York, in which he again distinctly drew the line +between the power of Congress over the District and its want of power as +regarded the States. This careful discrimination had no weight with the +many who were unwilling to admit that anything said or done by the +abolitionists was right. But it succeeded with more liberal men, among +them the good Chancellor Kent. The Chancellor, whose reputation as a +jurist was second to none, signed the petition, which he declared to +contain "no unconstitutional doctrine." + +The first anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Chatham Street Chapel in the beginning of May, 1834. Arthur Tappan +presided, and addresses were made by Elizur Wright, Jr., Rev. Amos A. +Phelps of Boston, James A. Stone of Kentucky, a delegate from the Lane +Seminary, Robert Purvis of Philadelphia, Rev. Henry G. Ludlow, Wm. Lloyd +Garrison, and Charles Stewart. The meeting met with disorderly +interruptions; the newspapers contained abusive attacks upon the +abolitionists and appealed against them to the passions of the lowest +and most ignorant class in the community. "All this violence and +obloquy," remarked Judge Jay, "are not without an object, and that +object is intimidation." The truth of this observation was soon +disgracefully verified. When the Fourth of July was celebrated at the +Chatham Street Chapel by an antislavery oration from David Paul Brown of +Philadelphia, the disorderly elements evoked by the press against the +blacks and abolitionists responded in large force and with increased +lawlessness. On the 9th of July a mob assembled at the Chapel, broke +open the doors, passed resolutions in favor of the Colonization Society +and by a suggestive vote adjourned until the next meeting of the +Antislavery Society. The mob then proceeded to the Bowery Theatre to +avenge some expressions attributed to an English actor, and next to the +house of Mr. Lewis Tappan, which was attacked with bricks and stones, +the furniture broken up and burned in the street. The riots continued +for several days with little hindrance from the city authorities. Six +churches were attacked and a large number of houses occupied by +abolitionists or by coloured people. Against the latter the fury of the +mob was especially directed. The same scenes of riot and cruelty toward +the helpless blacks occurred in Philadelphia, where forty-five houses +were destroyed. It was evident that the arguments of the abolitionists +could not be met except with violence. The mobs, as usual, were +cowardly. In some cases the determined action of the abolitionists +afforded them the protection refused by the police. It was announced +that among the houses to be attacked was that of Dr. Abraham L. Cox, in +Broome Street, a few doors east of Broadway. John Jay, then a student at +Columbia College, was living in the house. Some members of the New York +Young Men's Antislavery Society, with guns and pistols, were gathered +within and notice was given publicly that an attack would be repelled by +force. Late that night the mob in its lawless career passed close to Dr. +Cox's house, but did not dare to molest it. Similar preparations for +defence saved the store of Arthur Tappan. + +While the New York mob, as the _Commercial Advertiser_ said, were "now +nightly engaged in deeds of violence," the same paper distinctly took +the ground that the abolitionists should not enjoy "the protection of +the law and the aid of the military," except "on condition that the +causers of these mischiefs shall be abated and the outrages upon public +feelings from the forum, the pulpit, and the press shall no more be +repeated by these reckless incendiaries." The _Courier and Inquirer_ of +the same day said: "Now we tell them [the abolitionists] that when they +openly and publicly promulgate doctrines which outrage public feelings, +they have no right to demand protection of the people they insult," and +they must understand "that they prosecute their treasonable and beastly +plans at their own peril." Such was the view taken of American freedom +of speech by the pro-slavery party. The manly traits of American +character seemed to be lost in the prevailing atmosphere of race +prejudice, cowardice, and injustice. Politicians of both parties, +representatives of the commercial and professional classes of the North, +acquiesced in a policy which they thought would advance their views, but +which was destructive of the fundamental principles of American liberty. +The highest and the lowest had joined hands to assail the coloured +people and their friends. Names honoured in the Church and the State, +which should have helped to elevate public opinion and to guide it in +the path of justice, obeyed the mandates and echoed the denunciations of +the Slave Power. For a time was presented an alliance in behalf of +slavery of the highest classes with the scum of politicians and +criminals. The intrepid William Leggett was one of the few who dared to +publish the truth. "The fury of demons," he wrote in the _Evening Post_, +"seems to have entered into the breasts of our misguided populace. The +rights of public and private property, the obligations of law, the +authority of its ministers and even the power of the military are all +equally spurned by these audacious sons of riot and disorder." Candid +and cautious thinkers began to take alarm at the disregard for law which +seemed to be spreading through the country. "These mobs," wrote Dr. +Channing, "are indeed most dishonourable to us as a people, because they +have been too much the expression of public sentiment, ... because +there was a willingness that the antislavery movement should be put down +by force." + +The conduct of the mobs, and the encouragement given to them by the +press, aroused the spirit and stimulated the energy of the +abolitionists. "These crimes," said Judge Jay, "abundantly prove the +extreme cruelty and sinfulness of that prejudice against colour which we +are impiously told is an ordination of Providence. Colonizationists, +assuming the prejudice to be natural and invincible, propose to remove +its victims beyond its influence. Abolitionists, on the contrary, +remembering with the Psalmist 'that it is He that hath made us, and not +we ourselves,' believe that the benevolent Father of us all requires us +to treat with justice and kindness every portion of the human family." + +Although he had been an earnest emancipationist for ten years, Judge Jay +had had doubts of the wisdom of forming antislavery societies at so +early a period in the movement. He had feared that unmeasured and +unconstitutional doctrines might be adopted which would set the cause in +a false light before the country. His advice had been sought and +followed, as we have seen, and there was no longer any reason why he +should not become an active member. In 1834, immediately after the riots +and when the outlook seemed darkest, he took a place on the Executive +Committee of the National Society. + +"In that season of feverish excitement," wrote Hon. Henry Wilson, +"Judge William Jay, inheriting not only the honoured name, but the +principles and purity of the illustrious Chief-Justice, at first +declined an office in the new society, deeming its organization +premature," but now "sought to take his share of its labours and +responsibilities. His name gave prestige; his talents, learning, and +integrity afforded strength, while his cautious and ready pen laid +precious gifts upon its altar." + +In February, 1835, was published Jay's "Inquiry into the Character and +Tendency of the American Colonization and American Antislavery +Societies." The book bore upon its title-page the words of Milton, "Give +me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my +conscience, above all liberties"--a sentiment considered treasonable in +America by the Slave Power. This work had a powerful effect upon public +opinion, not only on account of the arguments it contained, but largely +on account of the character and position of its author. It was the +policy of the pro-slavery party to represent the abolitionists as +ignorant and reckless agitators, with nothing to lose. But here was a +man of family and fortune, a judge on the bench, high in the counsels of +the Episcopal Church, who set forth the detested doctrines with judicial +moderation and unanswerable logic. + +Jay began by an exposure of the Colonization Society. He showed that it +was merely a scheme to get rid of the free blacks at the South, where +they were regarded as a nuisance; that its officers represented it at +the North as a solution of the slavery question to quiet +emancipationists and to obtain their subscriptions. He set forth the +constitutional and merciful objects of the American Antislavery Society. +He showed that abolitionists were neither acting in opposition to law, +nor were in any manner exciting the slaves to insurrection; that the +opinions they professed were such as had been freely uttered by +Jefferson, Franklin, and numerous Southern statesmen within fifty years. +He exposed the cruel character of American slavery, the beastly +degradation, physical, moral, and mental, to which it condemned the +blacks; the horrors of the interstate slave-trade, tearing husband from +wife and children from their mothers to be sold into distant places; he +pointed out the national disgrace involved in the fact that in the city +of Washington, under the stars and stripes, slave-dealers were licensed +to ply their trade in human flesh, leading the chained "coffles" of +black wretches about the streets. The concluding chapters were devoted +to showing that emancipation could be accomplished with safety, and that +the real danger to the country lay in the continuation of slavery. + +The welcome extended to this book by the avowed abolitionists is +illustrated by the following extract from the annual report of the +Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1836: "We know it will not be +thought invidious towards others who have greatly contributed by their +excellent writings to help on our glorious enterprise, if we make +especial mention of the volume from the pen of the Hon. William Jay of +New York. His 'Inquiry' was published in the early part of last year. +Coming from him, a man extensively known, and highly respected and +beloved by all who know him, it could not fail to command the public +attention. The very rapid sale of the first and second editions evinced +the eagerness of thousands to know the results of his inquiry into the +sentiments and plans of the two societies which had stood from the birth +of the latter in the attitude of opposition. It is a book so full of +pertinent facts and carefully drawn conclusions that it could not fail +to impart the convictions of its author to other minds. No book on the +subject has probably been read by more persons, nor has any one been +instrumental to the conversion of more." + +The importance of the "Inquiry" to the antislavery cause is illustrated +by the diverse character of the men whose attention was attracted by +it--men whose conservative habits of mind, whose business and +professional interests caused them to ignore if not to condemn the +abolitionists. "Your book," wrote Rev. Beriah Green, who presided at the +organization of the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, "will +command a large circle of readers who could not be persuaded to examine +a paragraph written by any of us who have so long been known and hated +and execrated as abolitionists. To many of these, your arguments, so +skilfully arranged, so powerfully described, so happily conducted to so +triumphant a conclusion, must prove convincing. They must abandon their +'miry clay,' and, aided by your hand, take a position 'on the rock.'" +Among leading men influenced by Jay's "Inquiry" may be mentioned Dr. +Alonzo Potter, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania, and Peter G. +Stuyvesant, a representative of the solid Knickerbockers of New York. +Edward Delavan, of Albany, wrote: "You have done the cause of humanity +an incalculable amount of good by the work." Mrs. Theodore Sedgwick +wrote from Stockbridge: "We are reading your book on American slavery +with great interest. You have rendered an invaluable service to the +country and to the cause of humanity." The approbation most welcome to +Jay was probably that of the eminent Chancellor Kent. "I have read the +volume," he said, "with equal interest and astonishment. You have +accumulated a mass of facts of which a great part were to me unknown, +and they are of a surprising kind. I do not well see how your argument +on any material point can be gainsaid. You have amply vindicated the +character and intentions of the American Antislavery Society from all +injurious imputations. The details of the slave-trade and its +accompanying atrocities, as carried on at Washington, are horrible, and +your work must go far towards opening the eyes and disabusing the minds +of the public. I have, from the very beginning, had doubts and +misgivings as to the efficacy and results of the American Colonization +Society, and for some years past I have become satisfied that the scheme +was in reality but an Utopian vision, though I had supposed until now +that its fruits were better. Permit me to add that I have been much +pleased, not only with the clearness, force, simplicity, and precision +of the style, but with your fearless, frank, and manly, but courteous +vindication of the cause of Truth and Justice, and with your striking +appeals to the conscience and responsibilities of the Christian +reader." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CONTINUED EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT BY FORCE AND + INTIMIDATION.--FAVOURABLE EFFECT UPON THE PUBLIC MIND PRODUCED BY + JAY'S WRITINGS. + + +The second anniversary of the American Antislavery Society was held at +the Presbyterian Church at Houston and Thompson Streets in New York on +the 12th of May, 1835. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, George Thompson, of +England, and William Lloyd Garrison made addresses. Judge Jay was +appointed foreign corresponding secretary, and instructed to convey to +the Duc de Broglie, president of the French Society for the Abolition of +Slavery, the sympathy of American abolitionists. + +The increasing activity and strength of the antislavery movement were +not unnoticed by the partisans of the Slave Power, both North and South, +and an incident occurred at Charleston, S. C., on the night of July +29th, which illustrated the temper and methods of the party. The +American Antislavery Society had directed their publishers to forward a +number of their periodical papers presenting facts and arguments on the +subject of slavery to various Southern gentlemen of distinction in the +hope of inspiring a spirit of inquiry among persons of influence and +character. "But it was precisely this spirit of inquiry," said Judge +Jay, "that the advocates of perpetual bondage feared might be fatal to +their favourite institution. Hence they affected to believe that the +papers sent to the masters were intended to incite the slaves to +insurrection." The fact that a considerable number of antislavery +publications had arrived at Charleston became known, and a mob broke +into the post-office and burned the mail in the streets. Arthur Tappan, +William L. Garrison, and Rev. Samuel H. Cox were burned in effigy. Mass +meetings were held at Charleston and Richmond to approve the action of +the mob, and aroused great excitement throughout the country. A +committee was appointed at Charleston to take charge of the Northern +mail on its arrival and to see that no antislavery papers should reach +their destinations. The postmaster advised the postmaster-general that +under existing circumstances he had determined to suppress all +antislavery publications, and asked for instructions. Amos Kendall, +Jackson's postmaster-general, whose sworn duty it was to preserve the +sanctity of the mails, was only too willing to act as the tool of the +Slave Power. "We owe," he replied, "an obligation to the laws, but a +higher one to the communities in which we live, and if the former be +perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them. +Entertaining these views, I _cannot sanction and will not condemn the +step you have taken_." These novel and dangerous doctrines, by which the +laws of the republic were to be set aside by public officers for +political purposes, received the sanction of President Jackson. + +The postmaster at New York, Samuel L. Gouverneur, proposed to the +American Antislavery Society that it voluntarily desist from sending its +publications by mail, but the Executive Committee properly refused to +yield the legal rights which they possessed in common with their +fellow-citizens. The postmaster announced that antislavery papers would +not be forwarded until further notice, and wrote to Washington for +instructions. Kendall replied that he was "deterred from giving an order +to exclude the whole series of antislavery publications from the +Southern mail only by a want of legal power." Such a power, he admitted, +vested in the head of the post-office department, would be fearfully +dangerous and had been withheld properly; but he added, with more regard +to the public opinion of the moment than to the principles of the +Constitution, "If I were situated as you are, I would do as you have +done." Some members of the Executive Committee wished to test the action +of the New York postmaster in the United States courts, but Judge Jay +opposed the plan for reasons which he gave in a letter to Elizur Wright, +Jr.: "The action must be brought and tried in the city of New York--in +that city in which this same gentleman, after his offence had been +publicly proclaimed by himself in the newspapers, addressed thousands of +the citizens in the Park and was received by their applause. Nor is this +all. His conduct is commended by his superior, who is a member of the +President's cabinet and probably acts with the approbation of General +Jackson. Under such circumstances, I think it improbable that a +prosecution would be attended with any result beneficial to our cause. +We have not surrendered our rights, but they have been violently wrested +from us.... _Festina lente_ is sometimes a safe maxim. Fidelity to our +principles and prudence in our conduct will, in time, through the +blessing of God, crown our labours with success. You think it is hardly +to be supposed that the people of the North are willing to give up the +right of the post-office. Certainly they are not willing to give up +their own, but they are willing _at present_ to give up _our_ right to +it." + +The South, recognizing the growing strength of antislavery opinion, +began its appeals to the North to save the Union by suppressing the +abolitionists. A public meeting in Virginia requested that this might be +done "by strong yet lawful, by mild yet constitutional means"--terms +which recalled the inquisitor of the Holy Office handing over condemned +heretics to the executioner with the ironical request that he would +deal with them tenderly and without blood-letting. In deference to the +Slave Power the post-office had been made to nullify the freedom of the +press, and freedom of speech was now to be suppressed, if possible, by +mob violence. The situation of abolitionists in this year may be +inferred from letters written from Brooklyn during the summer by Mrs. +Lydia Maria Child: "I have not ventured into the city, nor does one of +us dare to go to church to-day, so great is the excitement here. You can +form no conception of it. 'Tis like the times of the French Revolution, +when no man dared trust his neighbour. Private assassins from New +Orleans are lurking at the corners of the streets to stab Arthur Tappan; +and very large sums are offered for any one who will get Mr. George +Thompson into the slave States. I tremble for him. He is almost a close +prisoner in his chamber, his friends deeming him in eminent peril the +moment it is ascertained where he is.... Five thousand dollars were +offered on the Exchange in New York for the head of Arthur Tappan on +Friday last. Elizur Wright is barricading his house with shutters, bars, +and bolts. Judge Jay has been with us two or three days. He is as firm +as the everlasting hills." + +The popular feeling against the abolitionists was growing daily, and +from every quarter they were charged with "unconstitutional, +insurrectionary, and diabolical designs." To attempt to disabuse the +community of the false impressions received from pro-slavery speakers +and newspapers seemed the most important duty at this time. The +following anonymous letter, signed "A Returning Southerner," was +received by Arthur Tappan, and placed the necessity for such action in a +strong light: + + "Though we are unknown to each other, yet the friendship I feel for + you induces me to address you. I have been where you have not, and + have heard what you have not, and believe that great prudence is + requisite on your part. I do not ask you to remit your philanthropic + efforts. Heaven and future ages, if not the present, will appreciate + them. + + "I do not pretend to advise, but have often thought that you and + your friends do not take sufficient means to disabuse the public of + the ceaseless charges of a multitude of papers. + + "A vast majority in this city have never seen one of your papers, + and countless multitudes, not only here but through our vast + republic, believe without a doubt, for they have seen it unceasingly + asserted and never contradicted, that you ardently wish your + incendiary publications to excite the slaves to rebellion and + bloodshed, massacre and rapine in their worst forms. While this + impression is so common, or rather so universal, I was glad to see + in circulation, as tending in some measure to your safety and the + safety of this association, that you address not the slave but his + master--a fact well enough known by your vengeance-seeking foes, but + not known by those whom they intend to use as instruments of + violence. I only presume further to suggest a card, to be inserted + at least a week in the _Courier and Inquirer_, stating in brief + terms that you do not advocate the violence imputed to you; that you + address the reason of white men, not the passions of slaves." + +The Executive Committee of the American Antislavery Society resolved to +ask Judge Jay to prepare such a statement as the crisis called for. Jay +was on a tour through the White Mountains at the time, but immediately +on his return he prepared the following address, which was published in +September, 1835, and was widely circulated in America and Europe: + + "_To the Public._ + + "In behalf of the American Antislavery Society we solicit the candid + attention of the public to the following declaration of our + principles and objects. Were the charges which are brought against + us made only by persons who are interested in the continuance of + slavery, and by such as are influenced solely by unworthy motives, + this address would be unnecessary; but there are those who merit and + possess our esteem, who would not voluntarily do us injustice, and + who have been led by gross misrepresentations to believe that we are + pursuing measures at variance not only with the constitutional + rights of the South but with the precepts of humanity and religion. + To such we offer the following explanations and assurances: + + "1st. We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in + the Southern States than in the French West India Islands. Of course + we desire no national legislation on the subject. + + "2d. We hold that slavery cannot be lawfully abolished except by the + Legislatures of the several States in which it prevails, and that + the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such + abolition is unconstitutional. + + "3d. We believe that Congress has the same right to abolish slavery + in the District of Columbia that the State governments have within + their respective jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface + so foul a spot from the national escutcheon. + + "4th. We believe the American citizens have the right to express and + publish their opinions of the constitutions, laws, and institutions + of any and every State and nation under heaven; and we mean + never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the press, or of + conscience--blessings we have inherited from our fathers, and which + we intend, so far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to our + children. + + "5th. We have uniformly deprecated all forcible attempts on the part + of the slaves to recover their liberty; and were it in our power to + address them we would exhort them to observe a quiet and peaceful + demeanour, and would assure them that no insurrectionary movement on + their part would receive from us the slightest aid or countenance. + + "6th. We would deplore any servile insurrection, both on account of + the calamities which would attend it and on account of the occasion + which it would furnish of increased severity and oppression. + + "7th. We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the + South. If by the term 'incendiary' is meant publications containing + arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political + evil, and that duty and policy require its immediate abolition, the + charge is true. But if this term is used to imply publications + encouraging insurrection and designed to excite the slaves to break + their fetters, the charge is utterly and unequivocally false. We beg + our fellow-citizens to notice that this charge is made without + proof, and by many who confess that they have never read our + publications, and that those who make it offer to the public no + evidence from our writings in support of it. + + "8th. We are accused of sending our publications to the slaves, and + it is asserted that their tendency is to excite insurrections. Both + the charges are false. These publications are not intended for the + slaves, and were they able to read them, they would find in them no + encouragement to insurrection. + + "9th. We are accused of employing agents in the slave States to + distribute our publications. We have never had one such agent. We + have sent no packages of our papers to any person in those States + for distribution, except to five respectable resident citizens at + their own request. But we have sent by mail single papers addressed + to public officers, editors of newspapers, and clergymen. If, + therefore, our object is to excite the slaves to insurrection, the + masters are our agents! + + "10th. We believe slavery to be sinful, injurious to this and to + every other country in which it prevails; we believe immediate + emancipation to be the duty of every slaveholder, and that the + immediate abolition of slavery, by those who have the right to + abolish it, would be safe and wise. These opinions we have freely + expressed, and we certainly have no intention to refrain from + expressing them in future, and urging them upon the consciences and + hearts of our fellow-citizens who hold slaves or apologize for + slavery. + + "11th. We believe that the education of the poor is required by + duty, and by a regard for the permanency of our republican + institutions. There are thousands and tens of thousands of our + fellow-citizens, even in the free States, sunk in abject poverty, + and who, on account of their complexion, are virtually kept in + ignorance, and whose instruction in certain cases is actually + prohibited by law. We are anxious to protect the rights and to + promote the virtue and happiness of the coloured portion of our + population, and on this account we have been charged with a design + to encourage intermarriage between the whites and the blacks. This + charge has been repeatedly and is now again denied; while we repeat + that the tendency of our sentiments is to put an end to the criminal + amalgamation that prevails wherever slavery exists. + + "12th. We are accused of acts that tend to a dissolution of the + Union, and even of wishing to dissolve it. We have never 'calculated + the value of the Union,' because we believe it to be inestimable, + and that the abolition of slavery will remove the chief danger of + its dissolution; and one of the many reasons why we endeavour to + preserve the Constitution is that it restrains Congress from making + any law 'abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.' + + "Such, fellow-citizens, are our principles. Are they unworthy of + Christians and of republicans? Or are they in truth so atrocious + that in order to prevent their diffusion you are yourselves willing + to surrender at the dictation of others the invaluable privilege of + free discussion, the very birthright of Americans? Will you, in + order that the abominations of slavery may be concealed from public + view, and that the capital of your republic may continue to be as it + now is, under the sanction of Congress, the great slave-mart of the + American continent, consent that the general government, in + acknowledged defiance of the Constitution and laws, shall appoint + throughout the length and breadth of your land ten thousand censors + of the press, each of whom shall have the right to inspect every + document you may commit to the post-office, and to suppress every + pamphlet and newspaper, whether religious or political, which in his + sovereign pleasure he may adjudge to contain an incendiary article? + Surely we need not remind you that if you submit to such an + encroachment on your liberties the days of our republic are + numbered, and that although abolitionists may be the first, they + will not be the last victims offered at the shrine of arbitrary + power. + + "(Signed) + + "ARTHUR TAPPAN, + "JOHN RANKIN, + "WILLIAM JAY, + "ELIZUR WRIGHT, JR., + "ABRAHAM L. COX, + "LEWIS TAPPAN, + "JOSHUA LEAVITT, + "SAMUEL E. CORNISH, + "SIMEON S. JOCELIN, + "THEODORE S. WRIGHT. + + "NEW YORK, September 3d, 1835." + +The effect of Jay's address to the public was thus described by Elizur +Wright, Jr.: "The Southern papers are copying it extensively, and most +of them charge us with having disclaimed in it our real motives--a proof +that our real sentiments were before misunderstood. In a large number of +Northern papers it is copied with more or less approbation. Indeed, none +but the determined pro-slavery presses fail to speak of it as a candid, +firm, and honourable if not convincing document." "It has had a most +beneficial effect," wrote Lewis Tappan. "What a contrast to the +ebullition of public meetings!" + +A movement was begun in the year 1835, on the part of the Southern press +and Southern Legislatures to induce penal legislation in the North +against the expression of antislavery sentiments. The _Richmond Whig_ +revealed its opinion of its Northern allies when it said: "Depend upon +it, the Northern people will never sacrifice their lucrative trade with +the South so long as the hanging of a few thousands will prevent it." In +obedience to these demands, pro-slavery men in the North were actually +to be found proposing legislation intended to destroy the freedom of the +press and to make antislavery expression a criminal offence. Judge Jay +took occasion to meet this movement in a charge which he delivered to +the Westchester Grand Jury, in which he said: "Any law which might be +passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or of +the press, or to shield any one subject from discussion, would be +utterly null and void; and it would be the duty of every genuine +republican to resist with energy and decision so palpable an outrage on +the declared will of the people." These remarks were widely published +and did much to discourage the pro-slavery agitators. + +But other illegitimate and violent schemes to reduce to silence +antislavery men were soon brought into play. South Carolina having +inaugurated the assault upon the constitutional rights of the North +through the post-office, Alabama followed in a yet bolder step against +the personal security of abolitionists. Governor Gayle, of that State, +demanded of the Governor of New York that Ransom G. Williams, the +publishing agent of the Antislavery Society, should be surrendered to +him to be tried under the laws of Alabama on an indictment found +against him by the Grand Jury for publishing in the _Emancipator_, in +the city of New York, the following sentiment: "God commands and all +nature cries out that man should not be held as property. The system of +making men property has plunged two and a quarter millions of our +fellow-countrymen into the deepest physical and moral degradation, and +they are every moment sinking deeper." This expression was the most +offensive which the Alabama Grand Jury could discover in the documents +of the society on which to base the indictment and demand, and as the +one which came nearest to anything resembling an attempt to incite the +slaves to insurrection. Williams had never been in the State of Alabama, +was never subject to its laws, had never fled from its jurisdiction, and +these facts were admitted by the Governor when he made requisition for +Williams as a "fugitive from justice." While the American Antislavery +Society was considering what action it should take for the protection of +its agent, Lewis Tappan wrote to Judge Jay (8th September) suggesting +that he should get the opinion of two or three eminent lawyers on the +subject to be circulated by the society. Jay replied: "The Southern +papers have intimated that Northern abolitionists may be indicted in the +courts and then demanded of the State executives, and you request my +opinion whether it would be advisable to obtain and publish the legal +opinion of eminent counsel on this novel doctrine. The doctrine is so +monstrous, so utterly at variance with all our ideas of constitutional +and State rights, that it shocks the understanding and moral sense of +the community, and I verily believe that there is not one Northern +governor who would dare to arrest a citizen on such a demand. But if we +manifest alarm at this doctrine and get lawyers to controvert it, there +will be found rival presses, venal lawyers, and corrupt politicians to +support the other side of the question; the community will begin to +discuss the subject, passion and interest and prejudice will believe +whatever they want to believe. My opinion, therefore, is that the less +we say on this subject the better, and that we should not give a +factitious importance to the doctrine." Jay's advice was followed and +proved to be wise. Governor Marcy could do nothing but refuse the +request of Governor Gayle, although he softened his refusal by abuse of +the abolitionists. + +Under the leadership of Alvan Stewart a convention was called to meet at +Utica on October 21, 1835, to form a New York State Antislavery Society. +About six hundred delegates were present. The spirit of mob violence, +which was being encouraged by pro-slavery orators and presses throughout +the country to suppress the abolitionists by force, was relied upon to +prevent the meeting of the convention. The mob having occupied in +advance the room in the court-house prepared for the meeting, the +delegates repaired to a Presbyterian Church, where they had barely +enough time to organize and elect officers before the riotous +supporters of slavery broke into the church and violently dispersed the +convention. The lawless tyranny to which the delegates were subjected +and their courageous conduct attracted to their cause many persons who +had held aloof hitherto. Chief among these was Gerrit Smith, who from +this time gave to the antislavery movement unstinted contributions of +money and intelligent labour. Judge Jay, notwithstanding his unavoidable +absence from the convention, was elected president of the society then +formed. + +At about the same time as the Utica riots occurred the mobbing of +William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston, by "gentlemen of property and +standing." And all over the North were enacted scenes of violence, +encouraged by a large portion of the press, which were intended to +gratify the Southern demand that abolitionism should be put down at all +hazards. The sanctity of the mails, the constitutional right of free +speech and of lawful assemblage, were forgotten by a large portion of +the people. And they were forgotten by the President of the United +States himself. In December, 1835, Andrew Jackson, in his message to +Congress, gave a tacit approval to mob rule, to the suppression of the +freedom of the press, and to the oft-exposed falsehood that the +abolitionists distributed documents among the slaves intended to incite +them to insurrection; and he recommended the closing of the mails to +antislavery people. + +The position taken by President Jackson was so unjust, so +unconstitutional, and so calculated to aggravate the situation, that the +American Antislavery Society determined to make an official reply to it. +Judge Jay was chosen to answer the President on behalf of the society, +and he prepared an address which was signed by all the officers. This +document was a complete exposure of the falsity of the charges made and +of the unlawfulness of the restrictive measures which Jackson proposed +to Congress. + + "You have accused," said Jay, "an indefinite number of your + fellow-citizens, without designation of name or residence, of making + unconstitutional and wicked efforts, and of harbouring intentions + which could be entertained only by the most depraved and abandoned + of mankind; and yet you carefully abstain from averring _which_ + article of the Constitution they have transgressed; you omit stating + when, where, and by whom these wicked attempts were made; you give + no specification of the inflammatory appeals which you assert have + been addressed to the passions of the slaves. You well know that + the 'moral influence' of your charges will affect thousands and + tens of thousands of your countrymen, many of them your + political friends--some of them heretofore honoured with your + confidence--most, if not all of them, of irreproachable character; + and yet, by the very vagueness of your charges, you incapacitate + each one of this multitude from proving his innocence.... It is + deserving of notice that the _attempt_ to circulate our papers is + alone charged upon us. It is not pretended that we have put our + appeals into the hands of a single slave, or that in any instance + our endeavours to excite a servile war have been crowned with + success. And in what way was our most execrable attempt made? By + secret agents, traversing the slave country in disguise, stealing by + night into the hut of the slave, and reading to him our inflammatory + appeals? You, sir, answer this question by declaring that we + attempted the mighty mischief by circulating our appeals _through + the mails_! And are the Southern slaves, sir, accustomed to receive + periodicals by mail? Of the thousands of publications mailed from + the antislavery office for the South, did you ever hear, sir, of one + solitary paper being addressed to a slave? Would you know to whom + they were directed, consult the Southern newspapers, and you will + find them complaining that they were sent to public officers, + clergymen, and other influential citizens. Thus, it seems, we are + incendiaries who place the torch in the hands of him whose dwelling + we would fire! We are conspiring to incite a servile war, and + announce our design to the masters and commit to their care and + disposal the very instruments by which we expect to effect our + purpose!... To repel your charges and to disabuse the public was a + duty we owed to ourselves, to our children, and, above all, to the + great and holy cause in which we are engaged. That cause we believe + is approved by our Maker; and while we retain this belief, it is our + intention, trusting to His direction and protection, to persevere in + our endeavours to impress upon the minds and hearts of our + countrymen the sinfulness of claiming property in human beings, and + the duty and wisdom of immediately relinquishing it. When convinced + that our endeavours are wrong, we shall abandon them, but such + conviction must be produced by other arguments than vituperation, + popular violence, or penal enactments." + +In 1836 Judge Jay resigned the presidency of the New York State +Antislavery Society. The distance of his home from the headquarters of +the society made the office nearly nominal, and he thought that it +should be filled by a person more favourably situated for usefulness. +"We commenced the present struggle," he wrote in his letter of +resignation, "to obtain the freedom of the slave; we are compelled to +continue it to preserve our own. We are now contending, not so much with +the slaveholders of the South about human rights, as with the political +and commercial aristocracy of the North, for the liberty of speech, of +the press, and of conscience. Our politicians are selling our +constitutions and laws for Southern votes. Our great capitalists are +speculating, not merely in land and banks, but in the liberties of the +people. We are called to contemplate a spectacle never, I believe, +before witnessed--the wealthy portion of the community striving to +introduce anarchy and violence on a calculation of profit; making +merchandise of peace and good order! In Boston we have seen the editor +of a newspaper led through the streets with a halter by gentlemen 'of +property and standing.' The New York mobs were excited, not by the +humble penny press, but by the malignant falsehood and insurrectionary +appeals of certain commercial journals. Rich and honourable men in +Cincinnati have recently at a public meeting proclaimed lynch law, and +through their influence a printing-press devoted to freedom has been +destroyed, and the whole affair, we are coolly and most truly told, +was a _business transaction_. + +[Illustration: William Jay] + +"... It cannot be, it is not in human nature that judges and lawyers and +rich merchants will long enjoy the exclusive privileges of trampling on +the laws. These men are sowing the wind and they will reap the +whirlwind. They may see the buddings of their harvest in the recent +assaults upon the Holland Land Company. When the tempest of anarchy they +are now raising shall sweep over the land it will not be the humble +abolitionist, but the lofty possessor of power and fortune, who will +first be levelled by the blast.... The obligations of religion and of +patriotism; the duties we owe to ourselves, to our children, the cause +of freedom, and the cause of humanity--all require us to be faithful to +our principles, to persevere in our exertions, and to surrender our +rights only with our breath. Duties are ours and consequences are God's, +and while we discharge the first we may be confident that the latter +will be entirely consistent with our true welfare." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GRADUAL DECLINE OF RIOTOUS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE + ABOLITIONISTS.--CHANGES OCCUR IN THE DOCTRINES AND METHODS OF THE + AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY.--JUDGE JAY RESIGNS HIS MEMBERSHIP, + WHILE CONTINUING HIS EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF EMANCIPATION. + + +The effort to suppress the antislavery movement by force, which was +carried on by Northern people at the instigation of the South, continued +through the years 1837 and 1838. The incidents which attracted the most +attention were the murder of Lovejoy at Alton and the burning of +Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia by a mob. By assassination and arson a +considerable portion of the American people sought to destroy the right +to free speech and free assemblage guaranteed by the American +Constitution and cherished hitherto as a birthright. The right of free +discussion, wrote Alexander H. Everett at the time, "is not only +endangered, but for the present, at least, is actually lost." "The +newspapers of every day," he continued, "bring to our view the account +of some new case in which a printing-press has been seized and thrown +into the river; a public meeting broken up; a citizen tarred and +feathered, scourged--too often, I add with horror, put to a violent +death by a lawless mob for no other cause or crime than the free +discussion of the subject of slavery." The impunity with which these +crimes were committed, the connivance or leniency of the authorities +whose sworn duty it was to uphold the laws, made this time a critical +one for the security of American liberties. In pursuing their lawful +course undaunted through this "reign of terror," when so large a portion +of their fellow-countrymen seemed to have forgotten the obligations of +citizens to established law, the abolitionists not only maintained the +existence of their cause, but they preserved those rights which +Americans value above all others. That free speech continued to exist in +the United States was duo to their indomitable courage. Such a state of +affairs could not endure long. Lawless feeling exhausted itself in +fruitless violence. Antislavery societies increased in numbers and +membership. Comparative order and toleration gradually displaced the +disgraceful passions which had placed the liberties of the country in +hazard. + +As opposition diminished and their path became easier, abolitionists +began to differ among themselves as to the best means to attain their +ends and as to the fundamental principles of their cause. In New York +State a tendency was developed, under the leadership of Gerrit Smith, to +adopt political methods. In Boston moral agitation remained the accepted +means. But here novel theories on other subjects were being adopted by +leading antislavery people and thus associated in the public mind with +antislavery itself. Garrison adopted and recommended in the _Liberator_ +his no-government and non-resistance doctrines. He put forth new and not +generally accepted views regarding the observance of Sunday. He took +pains to declare that he adopted these theories in his private capacity, +and not as an abolitionist. But he had many followers who did not +discriminate so carefully. The public mind became confused and began to +associate abolitionism with a variety of novel and unpopular opinions. +The cause was thus obstructed and divisions occurred among those who +laboured for the emancipation of the negro. Up to this time women had +not taken part in public meetings, and to many persons the idea of their +doing so was repugnant. The admission of women to membership and office +in the same societies as men was determined in Boston in 1838, after a +struggle and amidst much objection. + +"I have observed," wrote Jay in a private letter in 1838, "frequent +attempts to use abolition as a pack-horse to carry forth into the world +some favourite notion having no legitimate connection with the +antislavery cause; and have witnessed the dissensions caused in our +ranks by such inconsiderate and dishonest assumptions. Thus I have known +an official document, under the signature of a secretary of a State +society, pass a high eulogium on a particular form of Church government; +and I have seen an editorial article in an official antislavery +periodical recommending a decoction of dried currants as a substitute +for the fermented juice of the grape in the observance of the Lord's +Supper! All such perversions of antislavery influence appear to me to be +dishonest in their character, and dangerous in their consequences to the +continuance and efficiency of our organization. No one is more strenuous +than myself for the right of opinion and discussion; but common justice +and fairness require that we should not make others responsible for our +peculiar opinions, nor seek to propagate them by means entrusted to us +for very different purposes. + +"The practice of passing numerous resolutions at our antislavery +meetings strikes me as a growing and pernicious evil. Too many seem to +think that all our objects are to be effected by resolutions; and amid +the vast multitude that are proposed and adopted with little reflection, +it is not surprising, yet deeply to be deplored, that some are false _in +fact_, more false in sentiment, and very many coarse and vulgar in +expression. Falsehood is not the less immoral for being employed in a +good cause, and it is very unwise to impair the charms of Truth by +arraying her in vulgar attire. It is to be wished that our meetings may +in future be less prodigal of their resolutions, and more circumspect as +to the matter and language." + +Judge Jay looked with dismay upon the novel doctrines on other subjects +which were becoming associated with antislavery in the public mind. He +deplored the loss of strength which must result from a departure from +the singleness of purpose announced in the declaration of principles at +the founding of the American Antislavery Society. And there were +differences of opinion arising on the fundamental principles of the +cause which troubled him still more. As has been shown in these pages, +he had joined the American Antislavery Society only after a deliberate +examination of its constitution and the conviction that its principles +were in strict accordance with the Constitution of the United States. He +was as strong an advocate of emancipation as lived, but to him the +Constitution was the supreme law under which all benefits could be and +must be obtained. Efforts to seek the abolition of slavery by arguments +or conduct in violation of the Constitution seemed to him wicked in +themselves and fatal to the cause. Such efforts he had now to combat. + +At the sixth anniversary of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, held +in January, 1838, the business committee, composed of Messrs. Garrison, +Phelps, May, and Fairbanks, reported the following resolution: + + "_Resolved_, That in order to bring our coloured friends within the + brotherhood of this nation, we will encourage them in petitioning to + Congress, in their own names, for the redress of their grievances, + and, if not successful, then we will lend them our aid in bringing + their cause before the court of the United States to ascertain if a + man can be held in bondage agreeably to the principles contained in + the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of our country." + +Judge Jay wrote a letter to Mr. Ellis Gray Loring, March 5th, asking for +more definite information as to the true intent of the society in +passing the resolution. + + "Who are the _coloured friends_ alluded to?" he asked. "Obviously + _slaves_, because if Congress does not redress their grievances, + then the society is to lead them into the court of the United States + to ascertain whether a man can be held in _bondage_. + + "What grievances are the slaves, under the encouragement of the + society, to petition Congress to redress? Obviously those they + suffer as slaves, because if Congress does not redress them, redress + is to be sought in the court, by demanding if a man can be held in + _bondage_, that is, as a slave. + + "What slaves are intended by the resolution? No qualification or + limitation whatever is expressed or implied. The Society, no doubt, + recognizes the slaves of Georgia as its coloured friends as well as + the slaves of the District of Columbia. The resolution is the tenth + of a series of resolutions reported by the committee, and in none of + them is any mention made of the District of Columbia, and, moreover, + the question to be decided by the court is not whether an inhabitant + of the District can be held as a slave, but whether a man can be + held in bondage agreeably to the principles of the Declaration of + Independence and the Constitution of our country, and the tribunal + to decide this question is not the court of the District but the + court of the United States. + + "Members of Congress take an oath to support the Constitution of + the United States. If, therefore, the society believe the + Constitution does not authorize Congress to redress the grievances + of its coloured friends, it has pledged itself to encourage those + friends to petition Congress to commit perjury. Hence it appears to + me that the true meaning of this resolution, expressed in plain + language, is, '_Resolved_, That in our opinion Congress possesses + the constitutional power to abolish slavery throughout the United + States, and that we will encourage the slaves to petition Congress + for an act of emancipation, and should no such an act be passed we + will aid them in suing for their freedom in the Supreme Court of the + United States.' + + "It is to be regretted that the society did not announce the means + they intend to employ to encourage the slaves to send petitions to + Congress. The pledge has been solemnly given. Is it to be redeemed + by sending among them secret or avowed agents? It is singular also + that if the society believes the 'court of the United States' can + give liberty to the slaves, it should not make an _immediate_ + application for its beneficent interposition, but should resolve to + postpone such application not only until it has succeeded in + prompting them to petition Congress for a redress of their + grievances, but also until a sufficient time has elapsed to learn + the result of this moral experiment. Permit me now, sir, to call + your attention to the past professions of some of the gentlemen who + reported this resolution, and of the society which adopted it. + + "On the 4th December, 1833, Messrs. Phelps, Garrison, and May, as + members of the Philadelphia Convention, signed the following + declaration: 'We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of + _each State to legislate exclusively_ on the subject of slavery + which is tolerated within its limits. We concede that Congress has + no _right to interfere_ with any slave State in relation to the + momentous subject.' + + "Mr. Garrison afterwards, in an editorial article in the + _Liberator_, thus expresses himself: 'Abolitionists as clearly + understand and as sacredly regard the constitutional powers of + Congress as do their traducers, and they know, and have again and + again asserted, that Congress has _no more rightful authority to sit + in judgment upon Southern slavery than it has to legislate for the + abolition of slavery in the French colonies_.' + + "On the 17th of August, 1835, at a meeting of the Massachusetts + Antislavery Society, duly held in Boston, an address to the public + was adopted, professing to set forth the _true principles and + objects_ of the society; and to give this statement a stronger claim + to the confidence of the community it was authenticated by the + signatures of _thirty-one_ of the principal officers and members of + the society, including _your own_ and those of three of the + committee who reported the late resolution, viz., Messrs. Garrison, + May, and Fairbanks. The opinion of the society at that time on the + power of Congress was in that document thus explicitly stated: 'We + fully acknowledge that no change in the slave laws of the Southern + States can be made unless by the Southern Legislatures. Neither + Congress nor the Legislatures of the free States have authority _to + change the condition_ of a single slave in the slave States.' Yet + the society now stands prepared to encourage the slaves to petition + Congress for a redress of their grievances! And now, sir, the object + of this letter is to ascertain whether the resolution I have quoted + does in truth represent the present opinion held by your society on + the power of Congress, or whether the resolution was intended to be + confined to slaves in the District of Columbia and the territory of + Florida. + + "It cannot be necessary to dwell on the vast importance of an + explicit declaration by your board on this subject. Independent of + the deep concern I feel in the harmony, integrity, and consistency + of the abolition party, I have a personal interest in the inquiry I + now make of you. An _enlarged_ edition of my book is ready for the + press, but the late resolution of your society compels me to suspend + its publication. I had treated the charge that abolitionists desired + Congress to interfere with slavery in the States as calumnious, and + in refutation of it had appealed to their solemn disclaimers. I need + not say, sir, that until the late resolution is satisfactorily + explained, or its doctrine disavowed by your society, I cannot in my + new edition deny the charge, but must as an honest man substitute + for my confident assertions and triumphant appeals most painful and + humiliating confessions. Permit me to suggest that it is highly + desirable that your board should act explicitly on this subject + before the meeting of the American Antislavery Society, that, if + possible, no inquiries or investigation may then arise to mar the + harmony of the meeting and retard the progress of abolition. + + "I flatter myself, sir, that your sentiments on the constitutional + question remain the same as when you signed the address of 1835, and + that you comprehend and appreciate the motives which have prompted + this letter. I shall await your answer with extreme anxiety." + +On receipt of this letter Mr. Loring communicated with a number of the +members of the board of managers and endeavoured to hold a meeting of +the board for the purpose of rescinding or repudiating the resolution; +but it was not until the 14th that he succeeded in getting a quorum +together. After Mr. Loring had read Judge Jay's letter to the board, +they promptly passed the following resolution: + + "_Resolved_, That as said resolution was submitted to the meeting + just at its close, when but few delegates were present, and was + adopted without deliberation or discussion, this board recommend its + reconsideration at the next quarterly meeting of the society. + + _"Resolved_, As the sense of this board, that Congress has no power + to abolish slavery in the several States of this Union." + +In a letter dated the 15th of March, enclosing a copy of the above +resolution, Mr. Loring said: "I can hear of but one or two persons here +who believe in the power of Congress over slavery in the States, viz., +the Misses Grimke, Mr. Alanson St. Clair, and perhaps Mr. May and Mrs. +Chapman. Several, however, and those influential persons (Mr. Garrison +among them), think slavery unconstitutional, and believe it would be so +pronounced by the Supreme Court of the United States if the point should +ever be made. In this opinion I can by no means agree." + +The "unfortunate resolution," he continued, was offered by a "silly +officious person" at a moment of much haste and confusion just as the +meeting was breaking up, and had been approved without proper +consideration by the committee whose duty it was to revise all +resolutions. "It seems, however, to have been understood by those who +voted for it as applying only to free coloured persons whose rights +might be infringed by Southern laws or to slaves in the District of +Columbia; and the pledge given to try the question of slavery in the +United States Courts seems to have arisen from the notion that the +question of the accordance of slavery with the Constitution might be +incidentally raised and determined even in a case in which the party +whose rights are to be vindicated is free." + +In conclusion Mr. Loring said that this question would assume an +important aspect at the future meetings of the Antislavery Society, and +earnestly hoped wise and honest counsel would prevail. He thought it +would be sufficient ground for dissolving the Union were the United +States Supreme Court to assume power over slavery in the several States. +"The honesty and common sense of the nation," he wrote, "would revolt +against such a doctrine and against those who should maintain it." + +In his reply, dated the 29th of March, Judge Jay congratulated Mr. +Loring on the service he had rendered the cause of abolition by +procuring the passage of the resolutions from the board of managers. "In +the fulness of our zeal," he wrote, "we are all liable occasionally to +stray beyond the line of propriety, and it evinces more devotion to duty +to acknowledge and correct errors than to avoid committing them." + +At the fifth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held at +the Broadway Tabernacle on the 2d of May, 1838, Alvan Stewart of Utica, +N. Y., offered a resolution, vigorously supported by himself and others, +to the following effect: + + "That the clause of the second article of the constitution of this + society be struck out which admits 'that each State in which slavery + exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive + right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State.'" + +This motion was equivalent to a declaration on the part of the society +that Congress had the right, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery. +Judge Jay had previously declared that Stewart's doctrine was false, +untenable, and hurtful to the cause. The arguments by which it was +supported he considered absurd. For two days of continued debate he +exposed its fallacy and danger and was rewarded by the defeat of the +resolution. But such attempts to change the original articles of belief +upon which the society was founded gave him great uneasiness for the +future. His feelings upon this subject were shown in a letter to the +secretary of the Young Men's Antislavery Society who had invited him to +preside at its convention: + + "On uniting with the American Antislavery Society some years since I + remarked, with the letter requesting that my name might be enrolled + among its members, that I had attentively considered its + constitution, and expressed my conviction that in joining the + society I was acting consistently with my obligations as a Christian + and a citizen. The great moral principles advanced in the + constitution perfectly accorded, in my opinion, with the precepts of + the Gospel, and the measures proposed, by which those principles + were to be carried into practice, equally accorded with the + obligations of the oath I had taken to support the Constitution of + the United States. I embarked in the antislavery cause with a firm + determination to support the principles and measures avowed by the + society at the hazard of obloquy, persecution, and, if necessary, + even life itself; and never in advocating the cause to sacrifice + truth and principle to expediency. How far I have acted up to this + determination others must judge. I am not myself conscious of having + departed from it. + + "The constitution of the society contains an express admission that + 'each State in which slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the + United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its + abolition;' and the object of the society in regard to slavery + in the States is declared to be to effect its abolition by + 'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of our + fellow-citizens.' Notwithstanding these explicit declarations we + were accused of aiming to effect our object by inducing Congress to + invade the rights of the States by abolishing slavery within their + limits; and it was justly argued that such an attempt was + unconstitutional, and would, if successful, lead to civil war and a + severance of the Union. So gross and unfounded were the calumnies + circulated against us, that it was deemed expedient by the executive + committee of the society, of which I was one, to publish an address + to the public, pledging our individual characters and responsibility + as to the real objects and principles entertained by our + association. This address bore my signature among others, and + contained, as nearly as I can recollect, the following passage: 'We + hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the + States in which it exists than it has to abolish slavery in the + French West India Islands; consequently we desire no national + legislation on the subject.' We were justified in giving this pledge + by the declaration of the convention which formed the society, by + the constitution of the society itself, by the constitutions of the + several State societies, and by the uniform language of antislavery + publications. Few persons have been more conversant with the + writings of abolitionists than myself; yet I can truly aver that + until the appearance of Mr. Stewart's extraordinary argument I was + not aware that there was a man or woman belonging to an antislavery + society who entertained a different opinion. This gentleman, holding + the responsible station of chairman of the executive committee of + the State society, avowing in its constitution the inability of + Congress to abolish slavery in the States, published an article in + the official paper of the society, asserting the constitutional + power of Congress immediately to emancipate every slave in the + United States, declaring that abolitionists had 'but one thing to + do'--which was to petition Congress to exercise this power; thus + repudiating the moral means they had prescribed for themselves, + viz., 'arguments addressed to the understandings and consciences of + our fellow-citizens'; and virtually recommending the employment of + _force_, the power of the general government as the sole agent in + effecting the abolition of slavery. + + "I had supposed that sentiments so utterly at variance with the + solemn asseverations of abolitionists, so repugnant to the + constitutional pledges of their societies, would have excited + universal indignation; but I was mistaken. After the publication of + these sentiments, Mr. Stewart was selected as one of the orators of + the American Society at their ensuing anniversary. At the annual + meeting in May last he moved to purge from the constitution the + concession I have quoted, thus giving the society the constitutional + right of discharging what he had proclaimed the sole duty of + abolitionists, that of petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in + the States; and in supporting his motion he ridiculed the idea of + effecting our object by addresses to the understanding and + consciences of slaveholders. On taking the question a majority of + the society was in favour of expunging; and the admission respecting + the power of Congress still stands in the constitution only because + it required a vote of two thirds to cancel it. Mr. Stewart was + afterwards elected a manager of the society. A State society since + organized has by a formal vote refused to insert the usual admission + into its constitution, and another previously organized has since + stricken it from its constitution. + + "From this state of facts it is apparent that the pledges given to + the public in our constitution, and in the address of the executive + committee to which I have referred, that abolitionists admitted that + Congress had no right to interfere with slavery in the States, that + hence arguments were the only means they intended to use for its + abolition, have been flagrantly falsified. So far as I was + concerned, and unquestionably many more, the pledge was given in + good faith, and however others may belie it, I mean honestly to + abide by it. In my opinion, Congress has no more right to pass a + general emancipation law than to direct how Broadway shall be paved; + and without intending to impeach the motives of others, I must take + the liberty to say that I would regard such a law as a most wicked + and detestable act of usurpation--an act that would inevitably and + properly sever the Union and necessarily result in bloodshed and + national calamity. + + "It seems to me, moreover, inconsistent with Christian sincerity and + plain dealing for our societies to profess in their constitution a + belief in great and important principles, and to promise to regulate + their measures in accordance with those principles, and at the same + time to retain in communion with them and elevate to office men who + openly repudiate and ridicule those principles and avow a wish to + introduce a course of action utterly repugnant. + + "On discovering from the proceedings of last May that the American + Society and its auxiliaries no longer considered their avowed + principles binding on their members, but that they might be treated + with insult and ridicule without incurring a loss of either + confidence or office, and that in the bosom of the society opinions + were entertained utterly at variance with public and solemn + professions, and in their practical consequences hostile to the + welfare of the country and inconsistent with the oath I had taken to + support the Constitution of the United States, I deemed it my duty + no longer to share in the responsibilities of their measures. I have + not since taken part in the meeting of any antislavery society, and + the recklessness with which the pledge given by myself and other + officers of the society has been falsified, warns me to be cautious + how I again become identified with the promises and declarations of + these associations. These considerations induce me very respectfully + to decline your kind invitation. + + "My attachment to the cause of abolition, and to the principles + avowed in the constitution of the American Society, was never + stronger than at this moment; and I shall ever regard it a duty and + a privilege to labour for the abolition of slavery in every manner + consistent with propriety and my moral and political obligations. + + "Although my confidence in the integrity and singleness of purpose + of antislavery societies is weakened, I have not the most distant + wish to interrupt their harmony or impede their usefulness. I have + thus, sir, frankly but with much pain stated my sentiments. These + sentiments I have no desire to conceal or to obtrude upon others; + and you are at liberty to suppress this letter or make any use of it + you may think proper." + +The annual meeting of the Connecticut Antislavery Society was held at +New Haven in May, 1840, commencing on the 20th. The society considered +this meeting to be of vital importance to the prosperity of the cause in +that State on account of the Legislature being in session there at that +time, many of the members of which were expected to attend. + +In April Judge Jay received an invitation from the Committee of +Arrangements to deliver an address on the "Action of the Federal +Government in Behalf of Slavery," on which subject the Committee felt +convinced that Judge Jay could "give the society as well as our +legislators some valuable information." + +Other engagements compelled Judge Jay to decline the invitation. In his +letter to the Committee of Arrangements informing them of his inability +to comply with their request, Judge Jay assured them that the interest +he had theretofore professed to feel in the antislavery cause had +suffered no diminution; and his conviction of the truth of the great +principles set forth in the constitution of the American Society had, if +possible, grown stronger from continued reflection and observation; but +as to the singleness of purpose and the efficiency and integrity of the +present antislavery organization his opinion had undergone a change. + + "In joining the organization," he wrote, "I had good cause to + believe that I would not be called upon to co-operate with men who + condemned any of its avowed principles, or with men who would seek + to render it an instrument for promoting other objects than the + abolition of slavery. + + "One of the principles laid down in the constitution of the + American Society, and a most important one as limiting its + operations, is that by the Constitution of the United States + Congress has no right to legislate for the abolition of slavery in + the several States in which it exists. Yet a gentleman was in 1838 + chosen by the society one of its officers after having both in print + and in the presence of the society denied this doctrine and + contended that it was the duty of abolitionists to petition Congress + to pass a law for the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in + the United States. The expulsion of this gentleman from the society + was in my opinion required by the respect it owed itself, and by the + good faith it owed both to the public and to its members. The course + pursued was an emphatic declaration on the part of the society that + its professed principles, however useful they might be in + conciliating public confidence and in acquiring funds, were by no + means binding on its members. Having sworn to support the + Constitution of the United States, and regarding the proposed mode + of emancipation a most palpable violation of it, and seeing that the + avowed principles of the society were in fact no security for its + conformity to them in its conduct, I then determined never again to + take a part in its meetings or in those of its auxiliaries. + Subsequent events have given me no cause to regret this + determination. + + "One of the great objects for which the American Society was + avowedly formed was to effect the abolition of slavery in the + District of Columbia and of the American slave-trade by + Congressional legislation. Yet men belonging to the society, and + even some of its officers, are now publicly maintaining that all + compulsory laws are sinful, and of course that it would be a + usurpation of the divine prerogative for Congress to suppress by + penal law the abomination of slavery in the capital of the republic, + and the nefarious traffic in human flesh of which the capital is + the great depot. I cannot as an abolitionist act with those who + reprobate all enactments, not merely for the abolition of slavery + where it exists, but even for preventing its re-establishment on + soil from which it has been extirpated; and also for protecting the + poor coloured man, his wife, and children from the merciless + kidnapper. + + "Certainly the founders of the society did not intend to effect by + it any alteration in the social relations of the sexes; and not the + most distant hint of such a design can be found in the Constitution; + yet it is in vain to deny that an attempt is now making to render + antislavery societies instrumental in advancing certain theories + respecting the rights of women. + + "The American Society was intended as a central organization by + which the contributions and efforts of abolitionists were to be + concentrated and directed; and for some years it discharged its + functions with wonderful zeal, energy, and success. But at last the + managers of certain local societies imagined that the vitality of + the extremities of the system would be quickened by arresting the + pulsations of the heart; and accordingly measures were adopted, and + with perfect success, to paralyze the parent institution. + + "For a while abolitionists exhibited a pattern of Christian and + disinterested benevolence in behalf of the oppressed which commanded + the secret admiration even of their enemies, and conciliated the + favour of the good. Latterly a strong desire has been evinced to + change the antislavery enterprise from a religious into a political + one, and a scramble for the loaves and fishes has already commenced. + + "Unwilling to take a part in the bitter feuds which now divide + abolitionists, and not choosing to assume any responsibility for + principles and measures I cannot approve, I deem it most consistent + with my obligations as a Christian and a citizen to absent myself + from an arena in which I can do no good and in which I can no + longer appear without being engaged in unprofitable conflict. But + most cheerfully will I again enlist in a new antislavery + organization (if any such can be devised) that will offer a fair + promise of avoiding the errors which have destroyed the efficiency + and moral character of the present. + + "I beg you to be assured that in the preceding remarks I have had no + particular reference to the Connecticut Society, not being aware + that it is open to censure. + + "I have no desire either to conceal or to obtrude my opinions + respecting the existing state of the antislavery enterprise, but I + deemed it due to myself to state frankly and without reserve the + considerations which induce me to pursue a course apparently at + variance with my former public vindication of the American + Antislavery Society." + +Among abolitionists there was a great diversity of opinion as to whether +women should be admitted to membership in antislavery societies and +permitted to hold office and generally to enjoy the same privileges as +men. This question was the cause of much feeling and was destined to +create an unfortunate division in the antislavery ranks. + +The subject was first voted upon in the New England Society, where, in +1838, it was resolved to permit all persons, whether men or women, who +agreed with them on the subject of slavery to participate in the +meetings as members. An attempt having been made in vain to rescind this +vote, a protest was drawn up by Amos R. Phelps, Charles T. Torrey, and +five others, disclaiming all responsibility for it, and denouncing the +action of the society as injurious to the cause of the slave by +connecting with it an entirely foreign subject and by establishing a +dangerous precedent. + +At the sixth annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society, held in +New York, May 7, 1839, it was voted, 180 ayes to 140 nays, "that the +roll of the convention be made up by placing upon it the names of all +persons, male or female, who are delegated from any auxiliary society, +or members of this society." + +The seventh annual meeting of the American Society was fixed for the +12th of May, 1840. It was generally realized that on this occasion a +definitive settlement of the woman question would be made. The board of +managers of the Massachusetts Society made strenuous efforts to insure a +large attendance of members sharing their views. A large steamboat was +chartered which conveyed Garrison and his party to New York, and it was +soon manifest that they had mustered a majority sufficient to carry +their point. + +Arthur Tappan, the president of the society, anticipating "a recurrence +of the scenes witnessed last year, and resolved not to be found +contending with his abolition brethren," did not attend the meeting, and +Francis Jackson presided in his place. Among the persons nominated by +the chairman as a business committee was Miss Abby Kelley. After a long +and exciting debate Miss Kelley was elected by a vote of 557 to 451. +Immediately after the result was announced, Lewis Tappan, Charles W. +Denison, and Amos Phelps, members of the business committee, asked to be +excused from serving upon it. + +After the meeting had adjourned those members who had voted against the +admission of women met and organized a new society under the name of the +"American and Foreign Antislavery Society." Arthur Tappan was chosen +president, James G. Birney and Henry B. Stanton, secretaries, and Lewis +Tappan, treasurer. The Executive Committee was composed of Gerrit Smith, +Judge Jay, John G. Whittier, Joshua Leavitt, and other leading +abolitionists. + +On June 1st Judge Jay wrote a note to Mr. J. C. Jackson, the recording +secretary of the American Antislavery Society, asking that his name be +stricken from the roll as a member. In stating his reasons for +resigning, he said that the proceedings at the late meeting of the +society had convinced him that the institution was being used, by those +who had recently acquired control of it, as an instrument for advancing +the doctrine of the equality of the sexes in all the relations of life. +"Married women without their husbands," he said, "were associated with +men in the Executive Committee--a committee to which is confided the +management of the society, and whose meetings have hitherto been, and +will probably continue to be, both frequent and private." + +The principle thus officially avowed by the society Judge Jay declared +had not the remotest connection with the true objects for which the +society was formed, nor was it sanctioned by the constitution. "However +grievous some women may find the yoke imposed upon them by the opinions +usually entertained on the subject," he continued, "that is not the yoke +which abolitionists associated to break." The claims now set up by the +society in regard to "the rights of women" appeared to him necessarily +to involve their participation in the sacred ministry, their exercise of +the elective franchise, and their entire independence in the conjugal +relation. Irrespective of the soundness of these claims, it did not +appear by what right the society called upon its members to support +them. Judge Jay contended that "any association for the professed +purpose of abolishing negro slavery may with as much propriety prescribe +the form of baptism and the Lord's Supper as it may insist that women +are authorized to administer these ordinances." Fully convinced that the +society as thus managed was exerting an influence not only very +injurious to the antislavery cause, but contrary to domestic order and +happiness and inconsistent with the precepts of the Gospel, Judge Jay +deemed it his duty to sever his connection with it. + +In our time, when the admission of women to participation in nearly +every form of activity is universally accepted, it may seem +extraordinary that the American Antislavery Society should have divided +upon such an issue. But what is now a familiar custom was then a +strange doctrine, the consequences of which were unknown and were +dreaded by conservative people. The abolitionists whose votes admitted +women to equal rights with men contended that women were among the most +useful and influential workers for the cause and that they should have a +corresponding position in the councils of the party. It was denied that +active participation in the meetings of the societies was inappropriate +to their sex. On the other hand, it was believed by many persons +earnestly and usefully engaged in the cause of emancipation that the +antislavery society should pursue its end unimpeded and undisturbed by +outside issues. The emancipation of woman might be a highly desirable +reform, but it should be sought separately from the emancipation of the +negro. An individual should be allowed to labour for the slave without +being forced to support untried theories regarding woman's rights and +the sinfulness of human government. + +At this period Judge Jay was especially active with his pen. In 1839 was +published his "View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of +Slavery." This work was the first effective exposure of the manner in +which the United States Government had been used for many years by +pro-slavery statesmen to carry out their own ends. Judge Jay showed the +shameful position in which the National Government had been placed +before the nations of the world when the President and his diplomatic +representatives were forced by the Slave Power to demand the return of +fugitive slaves and compensation for their loss when shipwreck had +allowed them to attain liberty on a foreign shore; when the armies of +the United States were sent to Florida at enormous expense to capture +alleged runaway private property; when the power of the Government was +strained to prevent abolition in Cuba and to introduce slavery into +Texas. The efforts to suppress the right of petition and freedom of +debate in Congress were thoroughly described. An account, humiliating to +every American, was given of the condition of the national capital +itself, converted by the fostering protection of the United States +Government into the chief slave-market of the Union. + +Judge Jay's next publication was entitled, "On the Condition of Free +People of Colour in the United States." He showed that they were denied +the right to the franchise, to liberty of locomotion, to the lowest +employment in the public service; that their education was impeded +almost to prohibition and that even their industry was hampered by cruel +restrictions. Worst of all, they might at any time be seized and sold +into slavery without recourse to law. In 1840 appeared his pamphlet on +"The Violation by the House of Representatives of the Right of +Petition." These writings had a wide circulation among persons not +reached by the ordinary antislavery literature, and their influence was +highly beneficial. + +Although the woman question was the ostensible cause of the schism of +1840, there were several other differences which tended quite as much to +divide the abolition camp. While the Garrison party continued to depend +solely upon moral agitation and opposed all political effort, a numerous +and powerful body in the antislavery ranks began to look to the +ballot-box as the instrument of reform. In 1840, under the leadership of +Gerrit Smith, Alvan Stewart, Myron Holley, Elizur Wright, Joshua +Leavitt, and William Goodell, a convention at Albany organized the +Liberty party by the nomination of James G. Birney, of Kentucky, for +President, and of Thomas Earle, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. Out +of a total of about two and a half million votes cast at this election, +the candidates of the Liberty party received a little over seven +thousand. W. H. Harrison, the whig candidate, defeated his democratic +opponent, Martin Van Buren. Although the abolition vote was not large, +it gave the party great encouragement, and an address was issued +congratulating the friends of the slave that a new power to overthrow +slavery had been found in "the terse literature of the ballot-box." + +Judge Jay's attitude towards the formation of the Liberty party appears +in a correspondence which took place between him and Gerrit Smith in +July, 1840. "I suppose you have come, as well as myself," wrote Smith, +"to the conclusion that whilst American slavery exists our national +political parties will be essentially and irrevocably pro-slavery +parties, and that abolitionists cannot, therefore, vote consistently +for the candidates of such parties. If you have come to this conclusion, +you of course admit that we are under the necessity of designating our +own candidates for law-makers and that the object of the Freeman's State +Convention to be held in Syracuse the first Wednesday in August is +proper. Now, when we come together in that convention there is one thing +which, next to the blessing of Heaven, we shall need far more than any +other. I mean your consent that we shall put you in nomination for +governor. Will you enable me to insure the convention of that consent? +If you will, you will in so doing render a very great service to our +holy cause--a service which I see not how we can well dispense with. If +there be anything selfish in your heart, we have, of course, nothing to +address to it. We do not expect to elect you, and we are well aware that +your nomination would expose you to pro-slavery ridicule and hatred. If +you give your consent to the nomination, we know that such consent must +proceed from your disinterested and self-sacrificing love for the +antislavery cause. Do, my dear sir, give us your name; we can rally +about it those who will be dead to the power of any other name." + +To this strong appeal Jay gave the following reply: + + "I was last evening favoured with your letter of the 20th inst. + asking me to consent to be the abolition candidate for governor at + the ensuing election. The request implies a confidence in the + strength and sincerity of my attachment for the abolition cause that + demands my acknowledgments. I cannot now embrace the opportunity + afforded by your letter of entering at large into the question of a + distinct abolition party; but justice to myself and respect for you + induce me to mention some general principles which I think + applicable to the present case. + + "An abolition political party supposes a union for the election of + rulers without regard to the sentiments of the associates or their + candidates on any other subject than that of slavery. Of course the + party and the rulers elected by them may have the most opposite and + irreconcilable opinions on every topic but one of local and national + interest; yet it is supposed such discordant materials will form one + homogeneous mass. Abolitionists give but little promise of such + wonderful unity in the future. I doubt the practicability of forming + such a party; and I moreover question whether such a party would be + consistent with our obligations as citizens. It is evident that this + party could effect its professed object, the abolition of slavery, + only in a course of years, and in the meantime it is _to neglect and + disregard every other interest_. The party as such can have no + opinion and exert no influence either in elections or elsewhere in + relation to the trade, the finances, internal improvements, foreign + affairs, or the military power of the nation, and no inquiry is to + be allowed into the opinions of candidates on these most important + topics. + + "I fear the very attempt to form such a party will prove injurious + to the antislavery cause. It excites dissensions among ourselves. On + this point I will not enlarge. It will present in its results a + false and disheartening estimate of the number of abolitionists; + because as many antislavery men will refuse to support the abolition + candidates, the canvass will represent us as far less numerous than + we really are. Moreover, the abolitionists who are thus called out + of the political parties can of course exercise no more influence in + them. We are depriving the parties of the little salt that keeps + them from utter putrefaction. Had the whig abolitionists in the last + Legislature been nominated by an abolitionist party they would not + have been elected and we should not now have the glorious and + blessed jury law. + + "I have never approved under present circumstances of any further + organized interference by abolitionists with elections than the + official questioning of candidates. Under that system every + abolitionist might exert a powerful influence merely by withholding + his vote, without giving his suffrage for one to whom he was + politically opposed. The experiment failed, but by whose fault? + Seward and Bradish, Marcy and Tracy, dealt frankly with us. Yet + abolitionists made but little difference between the friends and + foes. Had Bradish had 20,000 votes more than Seward the conversion + of our politicians to abolition would have been general and + instantaneous, and slavery would have received an irremediable + wound. And can we believe that if abolitionists would not then + refrain from voting for the party, they will now consent to vote + against it? + + "I am very far from thinking that it can never be right and proper + to set up abolition candidates without regard to party preferences. + Had the question of emancipation been almost equally poised in the + British Parliament it would have been patriotic to turn the scale by + a temporary abandonment of the contested objects and the election of + antislavery members. And so also I can readily conceive of + circumstances in which it may be the duty of the abolitionists of a + particular State or district to suspend for a time their labours for + the slave in order to unite with the friends of temperance to carry + some great point. But taking into consideration the existing + circumstances of the antislavery cause, I am not clear that the + formation of an abolition political party, disregarding all the + other interests of the country, is consistent with either duty or + policy, and of course it becomes me to decline the request with + which you have honoured me. May God enlighten and direct us, and + when we cannot think alike may He give us the graces of meekness and + charity." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JUDGE JAY CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THE ANTISLAVERY CAUSE BY HIS ADVICE + AND WRITINGS.--IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS OPINIONS HE IS DEPRIVED OF HIS + SEAT ON THE BENCH.--HIS VISIT TO EUROPE.--HIS VIEWS ON THE LIBERTY + PARTY.--ON THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.--HIS "REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN + WAR."--HIS ADVOCACY OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION AS A REMEDY FOR + WAR.--HIS WORK IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. + + +After the division in the ranks of the antislavery societies in 1840, +Judge Jay ceased to take an active part in their proceedings, preferring +to support the cause independently by his writings. But he was +continually applied to by the societies to assist them by his advice, to +give legal opinions on the positions which they wished to take, and to +prepare documents which required special judgment and ability. + +In April, 1842, Jay prepared an address to the British Antislavery +Society, at the request of Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, who wrote on behalf +of the American Antislavery Society. A little later, again by request of +Mrs. Child, he gave a legal opinion on the advisability of carrying to +the Supreme Court the cases of three men who had been condemned in +Missouri to twelve years' imprisonment for aiding slaves to escape. + +He continued his membership in the American and Foreign Antislavery +Society in New York. Here he laboured unceasingly to keep the society +fast to its declared purpose, and to prevent it from adding new +doctrines and objects which he believed must result in further divisions +injurious to the cause. + +In April, 1841, he wrote on this subject to Lewis Tappan: + + "I am glad the society will not be concerned in establishing a + missionary station in Africa. The great vice of our antislavery + societies has been, and is, meddling with things they have no right + to meddle with, and this they have done on a most vicious principle, + that the end sanctifies the means. In general, abolitionists mean + well; but they grievously mistake when they think themselves + authorized to pursue, in their associated capacity, whatever + benevolent or religious plan they individually approve. They unite + for certain specified purposes, and receive money expressly to + forward those purposes; and to employ their associated influence or + their common funds for other distinct purposes is not, in my + opinion, consistent with strict morality." + +In August, 1841, Judge Jay was requested by the Executive Committee of +the American and Foreign Antislavery Society to allow his name to be +announced as a regular contributor to the society's organ, the +_Reporter_. He took this opportunity to repeat his warnings against the +departure of the abolitionists from the line of action which they had +marked out for themselves in the early days of the agitation. + + "As an abolitionist I have deeply deplored the dissensions which + have marred our harmony and almost annihilated our moral influence; + and I have constantly and resolutely abstained, as far as my sense + of duty would permit me, from aggravating those dissensions by + partaking in them. The obvious tendency of the _announcement_ + contemplated by your resolution is to impress the public with the + belief that the gentlemen who are held forth as the future + contributors to the _Reporter_ maintain the principles and approve + the course of that paper. Such an impression, so far as regards + myself, would be most strictly accurate were the principles and + course of the paper to continue such as they have hitherto been. To + the American and Foreign Antislavery Society I did fondly look as a + refuge for such abolitionists as had been expelled from the old + society by the faithlessness of those who converted it into an + instrument for spreading other than antislavery doctrines. I did, + notwithstanding past experience, regard the constitution of the new + society as affording a guarantee that its members would not be + required to support any other principles and measures than such as + were indicated in that instrument. In consequence of this belief I + did not decline office in the society, and I aided in defraying the + expenses and in filling the columns of the _Reporter_. The paper was + conducted with ability and honesty, promised to exert a happy + influence in restoring peace and harmony to our ranks. The society + was pledged by its constitution 'carefully to abstain from all the + machinery of party political arrangements in effecting the objects,' + and the _Reporter_ faithfully conformed itself to this pledge. But + in the very last number we are informed that at the last meeting a + vote of the society, '_nearly unanimous_,' was taken in favour of + striking this pledge from the constitution, but that inasmuch as the + notice required by Article X. had not been given, the amendment was + not _constitutionally_ adopted. The pledge is therefore virtually, + although not formally, withdrawn; and we have every reason to + believe that at the next meeting it will be expunged from the + constitution. It is therefore obvious that the society, instead of + being a rallying point for abolitionists, is henceforth to be a mere + partisan organization, excluding from its fellowship multitudes of + honest, zealous, and consistent abolitionists because they cannot + adopt the maxim now promulgated in certain quarters, that the + friends of immediate emancipation should labour to secure for + themselves all the loaves and fishes in the gift of the + republic--the power and emoluments of _every office_, from that of + President of the United States to that of Path Master of a ward + district. The vote of the society just mentioned is tantamount to a + declaration that it will as soon as possible employ all the + machinery of party political arrangement for the exclusive elevation + of abolitionists to political power. This is not an object for which + I have associated with abolitionists, nor is it one in which I + intend to co-operate with them. But the _Reporter_, I am bound to + believe, will be used as an instrument to effect this object, + because I am bound to believe that the official organ of the society + will not fail to advocate and pursue its avowed policy. Hence I + cannot and ought not to give it in advance my confidence and + countenance by complying with the request with which you have + honoured me. + + "I have thus frankly stated my sentiments without intending to + impeach the motives of others, and without meaning to assume a + hostile attitude towards the friends and supporters of what + is denominated the Third party. With that party I cannot + conscientiously and consistently unite, but I have purposely + abstained from publicly mingling in the controversies to which it + has given rise, and I have now expressed my dissent from it only + because I could not otherwise explain my refusal of your polite + invitation. + + "In justice to myself, permit me to remark that my opinions on + slavery and abolition have undergone no change, and that every + principle I have ever avowed as an abolitionist is still cherished + by me with no other difference than possibly a stronger conviction + than formerly of its truth and importance. + + "That we may all be guided by wisdom from above and be enabled not + merely to break the bonds of the slaves, but in our conduct to adorn + our Christian profession, is my fervent wish." + +The antislavery societies, by the admission into their proceedings of +projected reforms having no connection with their ostensible object, had +gradually become divided and weakened. Jay had protested unceasingly +against this course, but the tendency had been irresistible. "Our +antislavery societies," he wrote in 1846, "are, for the most part, +virtually defunct. Antislavery conventions are whatever the leaders +present happen to be; sometimes disgustingly irreligious, and very often +Jacobinical and disorganizing; and frequently proscriptive of such of +their brethren who will not consent to render abolition a mere +instrument for effecting certain political changes having no relation +whatever to slavery." + +The antislavery societies had accomplished the noble and seemingly +hopeless task of arousing the national conscience from its lethargy. +Their labours had started and given irresistible impulse to a movement +on behalf of the slave which was not to rest until emancipation was +attained. But the active conduct of this movement was now passing from +their hands into the domain of politics. The contest had become a +national issue, to be fought out in legislative halls and to be +determined at the polls. + +In August, 1843, the national convention of the Liberty party was held +at Buffalo. This convention was more largely attended than the first, +every free State excepting New Hampshire having sent delegates. James G. +Birney was again nominated for President, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, +for Vice-President. The canvass was carried on with great vigour and +spirit. The Birney vote in 1843 showed a large increase, amounting to +60,000. It caused the election of Polk and gave to the abolitionists the +balance of power in New York and Michigan. + +Judge Jay had never considered himself as belonging to either the Whig +or the Democratic party. He believed that his judicial position should +debar him from active partisanship. Above all, his disapproval of the +policy adopted by both political parties towards the slavery question +disinclined him to be a member of either. His attitude towards the +Liberty party, on its formation in 1840, was set forth in the letter +written to Gerrit Smith declining the nomination for governor, which was +quoted at length in the last chapter. Judge Jay then doubted the +expediency of a separate political party making abolition its article +of faith and test of membership. But as events proceeded, as both the +great parties seemed irrevocably pledged to the support of slavery, +above all, as both favoured the annexation of Texas, Jay became a +pronounced and active member of the Liberty party. + +He viewed the annexation proceedings with horror, as the death-knell of +emancipation and as a scheme of wicked injustice which must react +injuriously upon the whole nation. In March, 1843, he wrote to Dr. H. J. +Bowditch, of Boston: "The full and entire triumph of the antislavery +cause is near and certain, provided that Texas is kept out of the Union. +On this point are centred all my fears. I am not disheartened by the +corruption of politicians, nor the deathlike apathy of the community, so +long as we remain independent of the renegade republic. Give us time and +we can arouse the community from its stupor, we can change public +opinion, and politicians will bellow aloud for abolition the moment they +find it popular. The danger is that before this change is effected the +slaveholders will demand the annexation of Texas as the price of the +presidency and that one or more of the candidates will consent to pay +it." + +When Birney was nominated in 1843, Jay wrote to Gerrit Smith: "I +congratulate you upon this result. Birney is a man for whom Christians +and patriots can consistently vote. He shall have my cordial support. In +my opinion, the selection is creditable to the Liberty party, and if it +continues to give us candidates of this character, it will be a blessing +to our country.... To that party I shall be true so far, and so far +only, as it shall be true to itself. May God direct its measures for the +protection of our own rights and for the ultimate liberation of the +slave." + +Judge Jay was as anxious that the Liberty party should keep faithfully +to its antislavery purpose as he had been in the case of the antislavery +societies. He believed that the party must end in failure if it allowed +extraneous and dividing policies to be admitted to its platform. On this +subject he wrote in September, 1845, to Henry B. Stanton, who had +invited him to a convention in Boston: + + "Notwithstanding the annexation of Texas, great good may result from + the Liberty party, provided it be faithful to itself, and be wisely + conducted. Hence I am distressed by whatever threatens to impair its + integrity and usefulness. You are not ignorant, I presume, of the + strenuous efforts now making to change its character and to convert + it from an antislavery party into one for matters and things in + general. + + "It is proposed by men of talents, energy, and influence that the + party shall in future maintain: + + "That the Federal Government has the Constitutional power to abolish + slavery in the _States_. + + "That the clergy shall be subject to all the burdens and enjoy all + the privileges of other citizens. This is aimed at the clergy of New + York who are not eligible to office, but exempted, to a great + extent, from taxation. No man is hereafter to be acknowledged to + belong to the Liberty party unless he objects to the State showing + any indulgence to the ministers of religion. They must be enrolled + in the militia, and, like others, called out to work on the highway. + + "That custom-houses be abolished, and with them all protective + duties. + + "That the salaries of the President and Congressmen be reduced. + + "That the legal profession is a privileged caste and should be + abolished. + + "That the public lands be given away. + + "That all monopolies, by which I understand incorporated companies, + banks, railroads, etc., be abolished. + + "That women should exercise the right of suffrage and be eligible to + office, etc., etc., etc. + + "It is needless to say that if these tests of membership of the + Liberty party be adopted, we shall drive from us all whose judgment + or whose consciences revolt at them, while those who remain in the + party will regard the removal of slavery as a very subordinate + object of their labours. My purpose of troubling you with this + letter is to suggest to you the expediency of the convention + adopting a resolution in which, without alluding to the efforts + making to change the character of the party, it shall declare that + the sole objects of the party are the abolition of slavery, the + deliverance of the Federal Government from its influence, and the + elevation of the coloured race to equal rights with the whites; and + inviting all who approve of those objects to co-operate with us, + whatever may be their opinion on questions of State or national + policy." + +At the Liberty party convention held at Newburg in October, 1845, Judge +Jay was unanimously nominated as a candidate for Senator. In his letter +accepting the nomination, he took occasion again to urge the exclusion +of irrelevant subjects from the platform of the party. + + "Recent circumstances induce me to accompany my acceptance of this + nomination with some remarks. Attempts are making to render the + Liberty party subservient to other objects than the overthrow of + slavery and the elevation of the coloured people. To these attempts + I can lend no aid. While I most explicitly accord to every + abolitionist the right of expressing his own opinions on every + political and religious subject, I as explicitly deny the right, and + shall strenuously resist the attempt, to make me and other members + responsible for opinions not necessarily involved in the great + objects for the attainment of which the party was formed. In the + pursuit of those objects I will cordially and honestly co-operate + with others from whose sentiments I dissent; but I cannot co-operate + with them in promoting religious and political changes which I + believe to be wrong, in order to increase the influence and hasten + the triumph of the Liberty party. To do so would be to act upon the + principle, as wicked and detestable as slavery itself, that the end + justifies the means. The fact that many good men who unite in + abhorrence of slavery entertain conflicting views of the expediency + and morality of various proposed reforms seems to me a sufficient + reason why the Liberty party should not permit itself to be + distracted by the other questions which agitate the community, and + which in truth are of but little moment compared with the great evil + with which we are struggling." + +In 1846 Jay wrote again on this subject: "I shall leave the Liberty +party whenever it makes abolition a pack-horse to carry favourite +measures unconnected with slavery, whether those measures are of whig or +democratic origin." + +Early in the year 1843 the antislavery opinions and labours of Judge Jay +caused the loss of his seat on the bench of Westchester County, which he +had occupied for more than twenty-five years with such general approval +as to cause his steady reappointment term after term by governors of the +State who were his political opponents. The circumstances of his removal +are described in a letter which he wrote to Mr. Minot Mitchell, in May, +1843: + + "I thank you for your friendly letter in relation to my removal from + the bench. The loss of an office which I had held for about a + quarter of a century (and which I had contemplated resigning in the + course of the present year) is not a matter of personal regret. My + motive in holding for so long a time a situation which subjected me + to no little inconvenience and yielded no emolument was a desire to + be useful, and a belief that I could exert on the bench a wholesome + moral influence. How far that belief was well founded is for others + to decide. To myself, it is grateful to know that my official + conduct, whatever mistakes I may have made, has been pure, unbiased + by personal partialities, and uninfluenced by any fear except that + of my Maker. + + "To the gentlemen of the Westchester bar generally, as well as to + yourself in particular, I am deeply indebted for the uniform + kindness and courtesy with which I have been treated; and had I + known at the December term that we were not to meet again, I would + have embraced the opportunity of publicly acknowledging my + obligations to them, and of bidding them an affectionate farewell. + + "Under the circumstances of the case, it would be an affectation of + humility to ascribe my loss of office to any dissatisfaction with my + official conduct on the part of the bar or the public. The _New York + Plebeian_, amid all its vituperative clamour for my dismissal, does + not even hint a charge against me as a judge, and the editor of the + _Westchester Herald_, notwithstanding his blind devotion to his + party, bears a flattering testimony to my ability as a 'jurist,' and + admits that my 'moral worth' is not questioned, as he believes, 'by + any man in the country.' + + "Nor have I been proscribed on account of my political opinions. + Those opinions belong to the old Washington school--I have never + concealed them; and they are the same now as they were when I + received office from Governors Tompkins, Clinton, Throop, and Marcy, + and when President Jackson tendered to me an important and lucrative + appointment. + + "For twenty years or more I have had no connection with party + politics, and have attended no party meeting. It appeared to me + unbecoming a judge to be a political partisan; and I, moreover, + observed so much profligacy, venality, and hypocritical profession + in both parties, that I could not conscientiously identify myself + with either. I have for years voted for those I believed to be the + most honest of the candidates offered for my suffrage, without + regard to the party dogmas they professed. + + "That the people of Westchester had lost their confidence in me and + wished me to descend from the bench is not pretended. On the + contrary, I have the most abundant and gratifying proofs of the + correctness of your remark, that my removal has occasioned in the + county, with all political parties, unusual dissatisfaction and + complaint. + + "If, then, my removal has been effected contrary to the wishes of + the county, and not because I lacked in ability or integrity, nor + even on account of my politics, it becomes a matter of public + interest to inquire with what motives and with what views the chief + magistrate of New York dispenses the patronage intrusted to him by + the constitution for the good of the State. + + "Governor Bouck has, in this instance, as in another far more + important, only acted as the instrument of a faction which, while + prating about _equal rights_, is ever ready and eager to barter the + welfare, honour, and freedom of the North for Southern votes. + + "You may recollect that previous to my last appointment I was + permitted to hold over for a year after my term of office had + expired. This extraordinary delay in filling a vacancy on the bench + was not the result of accident or inadvertency. It arose from doubts + entertained by the leaders at Albany whether the party would gain + more at the South than it would lose in Westchester by my removal. + Mr. Van Buren was then a candidate for the presidency, and I was + shown a confidential letter from one of his particular friends at + Albany to an influential democrat of this county, discussing the + expediency of my removal. The letter was put into my hands by the + gentleman to whom it was addressed. It was admitted by the writer + that my conduct as a judge was irreproachable, and that there were + no other objections to my reappointment than my antislavery + sentiments. My only fault in the eyes of this champion of equal + rights was that I was opposed to converting men and women into + beasts of burden. Still, he was apprehensive that my removal for + _such_ a cause might savour of persecution for _abstract opinions_; + in other words, might be unpopular; and he wished to know what the + party in Westchester deemed most expedient. After a year's + deliberation and hesitation, I was reappointed. Mr. Van Buren is + again a candidate, but _now_ he has a Southern democrat for a + competitor; and his party in the State being so strong that he can + well afford to risk a little dissatisfaction in Westchester, it is + deemed prudent to propitiate the demon of slavery by offering a + victim, however humble, on his altar. The _Plebeian_, devoted to Mr. + Van Buren's election, avowed with unblushing frankness that my + reappointment would be calculated to prejudice the Democratic party + 'in the eyes of our Southern brethren.' + + "Thus, it seems that in order to elevate Mr. Van Buren to the + presidency the magistrates of the free, sovereign, and independent + State of New York are to be selected with reference to the good + pleasure of Southern slaveholders. + + "Pardon, my dear sir, the egotism of this letter. I have been + compelled to speak of myself in order to expose the canting + profligacy of our demagogues, and to illustrate one of the + numberless accursed influences of slavery. This abhorred system, + which in the South makes merchandise of the souls and bodies of men, + is at the same time trafficking in the politics, the religion, and + the liberties of the North, and putrefying whatever it touches. + Against this system I have contended, as did my father before me, + and the leisure Governor Bouck has given me shall be faithfully + devoted to a continuance of the warfare." + +The "leisure" given to him by Governor Bouck had first to be used by Jay +in an attempt to restore his health, which for several years had been +failing. In the autumn of 1843 he determined upon a visit to Egypt, and +on the 1st of November he sailed from New York in the "Victoria," of +1100 tons, accompanied by his wife and his daughters Maria and Augusta. +After a short visit to London, the party sailed from Southampton for +Malta in the "Great Liverpool" of the Oriental Line, with passengers and +mail bound to India. At Malta Jay was interested in meeting the famous +wit, scholar, and diplomatist, John Hookham Frere, who entertained him +at his house outside the walls of the city. + +While in England, Jay had been requested by John Beaumont, on behalf of +the British and Foreign Antislavery Society, to take charge of a +quantity of antislavery tracts printed in the Arabic language, and to +insure their distribution. After his arrival in Cairo, Jay gave packages +of the tracts to several persons whose facilities for distributing them +in Egypt were greater than his own. Others he disposed of himself. +"During the short time I was in Egypt," he said in a letter, "I +distributed tracts in the slave market, in the bazaars, in a public +coffee-house, in the hotels, and to persons in the streets." And he was +much struck with the fact that what he could do peacefully in Egypt, in +a portion of his own country would have endangered his life. + +On his return home, Jay visited Paris, and while there communicated to +the Duc de Broglie the motives of the Southern statesmen in seeking the +annexation of Texas, and made no secret of his hope that France would +oppose the proceedings.[C] + +The events leading up to the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War +were followed by Jay with the closest attention. The injustice and +cruelty with which Mexico was treated throughout these proceedings by +the United States Government excited his warmest indignation. He was +deeply grieved at events which seemed to postpone indefinitely the +emancipation of the slaves; his fears were aroused for the security of +free institutions in the North by the great impetus given to the +Southern spirit of domination. But above all he felt the disgrace +incurred by his own country in forcing upon a weak and friendly power a +desolating war for the sole object of wresting from it a territory to be +peopled by slaves. The result of Jay's minute knowledge of this dark +page in American history was embodied in a volume entitled "A Review of +the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War," which was published in +1849. In this searching "Review" Jay exposed the parentage of the +movement for the acquisition of Texas in the desire of the South to +extend the territory devoted to slavery, with the twofold object of +creating a new market for slave-breeders and of giving to the slave +States an overwhelming control of Congress. He traced the devious paths +of intrigue by which a rebellion was fomented in Texas by Americans +settled there for that express purpose; the encouragement and aid given +secretly to the rebels by the United States; the recognition of their +independence; and finally the subterfuges adopted to achieve the +annexation in violation of international rights and the Constitution +itself. Jay set forth plainly the fact that hostilities were begun by +the United States troops; he described the military operations by which +a weak and defenceless people were reduced to consent to a dismemberment +of their country; he showed the enormous cost in life and money involved +in this war undertaken to furnish a new market for slaves and new power +to slaveholders. Jay's "Review of the Mexican War" is a contribution to +the history of the country which students cannot afford to pass unread. +The views expressed in it are painful to patriotism for the reason that +they are dictated by the pure patriotism which would make known the +whole truth as a warning to posterity. + +The book on the Mexican War was written originally for the American +Peace Society, which had offered a prize for the best work on the +subject. The committee appointed to pass judgment on the dissertations +presented in competition awarded the prize to Jay's book on condition +that he should expunge from it all "general censures on the Whig party." +Jay refused to comply with this condition and the prize went to another. +But the Peace Society recognized that the value of Jay's book lay in its +impartial character and caused it to be published as the exposition of +the society's views. + +As nearly all the newspapers of both parties had supported the war, they +were loth to notice a book which placed the object of their encomiums in +so unpleasant a light. But many private letters were received by Jay +which showed him that he had the approval of the best minds. Joshua R. +Giddings wrote: "Thanks be to Him who rules the destiny of nations that +we have among us competent and faithful men who possess the moral +courage to stand forth and chronicle, in the language of truth, the +barbarities of which the nation is guilty. The history of this age will +speak to those who come after facts which will cause our descendants to +blush. Your 'Review of the Mexican War' is faithful and just.... In +writing it you have performed a service to your country and to mankind +infinitely greater than was ever performed by any military officer." + +"Every portion of it," wrote Charles Francis Adams, "commands my +unqualified assent. That in the course of God's providence good may be +ultimately educed out of evil is the only compensating reflection which +we can draw from the observation of so much wrong. It may be that out of +the very measures so wickedly devised to sustain a system of crime may +come the means by which it will be overthrown. That your book will do +great service in combining and perpetuating the evidence bearing upon +this portion of American history, I do not for a moment doubt. It is my +profound conviction that there never was a more wicked and unjustifiable +war, promoted by one party and connived at by the other, than the late +war with Mexico." + +The prevention of war was a subject which had occupied the mind of Judge +Jay for a number of years. The result of his reflections was that system +of international arbitration which has become since his death so +efficacious a method of settling international disputes. A pamphlet +entitled "War and Peace: the Evils of the First and a Plan for +Preserving the Last" was still in manuscript in his desk when, in 1841, +Joseph Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist, visited Bedford. +Jay read the pamphlet to Sturge, who was so much struck by the work that +he embodied a portion of it in a book which he published on his return +to England. The views of Jay attracted the attention of the English +Peace Society, who published the whole pamphlet in London in 1842. Jay's +plan for the prevention of war was exceedingly simple. It provided that +a stipulation should be made in every treaty that future international +differences should be referred first to arbitration, to attempt a +peaceful settlement. The idea was heartily approved by Cobden, who wrote +to Judge Jay: "If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration +clause in the pending treaties I am persuaded that it will be accepted +by our government." The scheme of arbitration thus proposed by Jay, and +supported by Joseph Sturge and his friends of the English Peace Society, +was approved by peace congresses held in Brussels in 1848, in Paris in +1849, and in London in 1851. Having thus attracted general attention, it +was recommended by protocol No. 23 of the Congress of Paris held in 1856 +after the Crimean War, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the +plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, +Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the +States between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, +before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might +allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honour of the +introduction of this measure in the first Congress belongs to Lord +Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry +Richard. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of +immortal honour. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act "important to +civilization and to the security of the peace of Europe." The protocol +was afterwards approved by all the other powers to which it was +referred, more than forty in number. The plan thus suggested by Judge +Jay for the prevention of war bore fruit during his life, and was +destined in after-years to become established in the mind of the +civilized world as the true remedy for the greatest scourge of +nations.[D] + +Judge Jay was an earnest and active member of the Episcopal Church, but +he was never blind to its imperfections. He deplored as much as any man +the countenance given by the church to slavery, but he believed that +reformation must and would come from within. He had no sympathy with the +"come-outers." Concerning them he wrote in 1846: "Infidelity is now +vigorously availing itself of the conduct of the clergy in relation to +this subject to assail the blessed religion of which they are the +ministers. A sect is forming who profess to believe that the church is +so corrupted by slavery that good men are required to separate from her. +These people call themselves 'come-outers.' Lecturers are enlisted in +their service, and the clergy, as identified with the cause of human +bondage, are daily held up to public detestation as heartless +hypocrites." Jay would not deny the justice with which the attacks on +the clergy were made, and he laboured to place the church where it +belonged, in the front rank of the great humanitarian movement. To his +efforts were largely due the admission of coloured clergy to the +conventions of the church, and the gradual abolition of that spirit of +caste which prevented a white clergyman from recognizing a black one as +fit to deliberate with him on matters relating to their common +religion. To destroy this race hatred, so contrary to the spirit of +Christianity, and to arouse the church to its duty of active opposition +to slavery, were Jay's constant endeavours in the conventions of the +church. His pen also was frequently occupied with the same subject. His +"Letter to Bishop Ives" of North Carolina was a severe yet just +arraignment of clergymen who justified slavery from the Scriptures, and +it exposed the wickedness of their course in language and with arguments +to which they and their sympathizers were unable to reply. + +When a "History of the American Church," by Samuel Wilberforce, was +published in England, there was naturally in America much curiosity to +see the work. Two American publishers announced their intention of +reprinting it. But time passed and no reprint appeared. The explanation +is given in the words of Jay: "The author of the 'History' in the course +of his work advances certain doctrines on the subject of 'slavery' and +of 'caste in the church' which it is thought inconvenient to discuss, +and which cannot be admitted in this republic without sealing the +condemnation of almost every Christian sect among us and overwhelming +our own church with shame and confusion. There are, it is to be feared, +but few among our twelve hundred clergymen who, on reading the +'History,' would not find their consciences whispering, 'Thou art the +man,' and who would not be anxious to conceal the volume from their +parishioners. Hence its suppression." Jay was determined that the +truths regarding the Episcopal Church in America set forth by the +celebrated Dr. Wilberforce should not be quite unattainable by the +clergy and laity especially concerned. In 1846 he caused those passages +of the "History" relating to slavery to be printed, and introduced them +with forcible remarks of his own in the pamphlet entitled "A Reproof of +the American Church by the Bishop of Oxford." + +[Illustration: William Jay] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +UNPOPULARITY OF THE ABOLITIONISTS.--THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 AND THE + FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAW.--JAY'S REPLY TO WEBSTER'S 7th OF MARCH + SPEECH.--THE ATTITUDE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.--THE ABROGATION OF + THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.--DISUNION. + + +The prospect was dark for the antislavery cause in 1850. Its friends had +increased steadily in numbers and in earnestness. But the Slave Power +had mustered all its forces in an aggressive campaign which aimed to +make slavery a national instead of a local institution, to introduce it +into territory hitherto free, and to browbeat the North into submission +to every demand of the slaveholder. The compromise measures adopted this +year in Congress--above all, the Fugitive-Slave Law--marked the +successful advance of arrogant Southern dictation. In the North, the +dislike of antislavery men and the willingness to satisfy the South at +the expense of conscience was expressed in such scenes as the attack of +the Rynders mob on the meeting of the American Antislavery Society in +New York and the passive attitude towards it adopted by the authorities. +Although the plan of putting down the abolitionists by force had proved +impracticable, no efforts were spared to make their lives uncomfortable +by the attacks of the press and by the pressure of social disapproval. +"Our politicians," wrote Jay to Charles Sumner, "may pride themselves on +their adroitness in pandering to popular prejudices, and in acquiring +power and influence by seasonable changes of opinion and conduct. But a +day is coming when their motives and actions will be judged by a very +different tribunal than public opinion, and when a single act of +benevolence, a single sacrifice of personal consideration to the cause +of truth, will outweigh a whole life of obsequiousness and political +trickery. + +"The truths we advocate are unpalatable to the two extremes of society. +We shock the coarse, vulgar prejudices of the rabble, while the +disinterested benevolence we profess is to them an enigma to be solved +only by the imputation of fanaticism. At the same time we disturb the +tranquil consciences of the rich, thwart the calculations of politicans, +and interrupt the harmony subsisting between our merchants and their +Southern customers. Hence the upper classes look upon us as impertinent +and exceedingly ungenteel, and unfit to move in the higher circles. I +cannot tell how far your personal experience coincides with mine, but +_I_ know whereof I affirm. I have advanced no ultra-fanatical doctrines +in politics or religion. On the subject of slavery I have but reiterated +the opinions of many of the best and greatest men in England and in our +own country. I have advocated no congressional action except such as +Mr. Webster, in his better days, pronounced constitutional, and I have +condemned all forcible resistance to the Fugitive-Slave Law. Yet solely +on account of my antislavery efforts, I find myself nearly insulated in +society." + +The Compromise measures of 1850 were repulsive and disheartening to the +antislavery men in the North. And no circumstance connected with them +was more discouraging than the change of front made by Daniel +Webster--his abandonment of the Wilmot Proviso and his concession to the +Southern demand for the extension of slavery into the new territory +acquired by the Mexican War. Webster's speech of the 7th of March was +answered by Judge Jay in a letter to the _Evening Post_ of March 20th, +and was afterwards published as a pamphlet and widely circulated. In +this letter Jay recalled the eloquent and positive declaration of +Webster made in the Senate on August 10, 1848, after New Mexico and +California had been acquired: + + "My opposition to the increase of slavery in this country, or to the + increase of slave representation, is general and universal. It has + no reference to the lines of latitude or points of the compass. I + shall oppose all such extension at all times and under all + circumstances, even against all inducements, against all supposed + limitation of great interests, against all combinations, against all + compromises." + +These words were contrasted by Jay with Webster's present excuse for +abandoning opposition to the extension of slavery on the ground that the +laws of "physical geography" made slavery impossible in the new +territory and to forbid its existence there was merely "to re-enact the +will of God." + + "To what," asked Jay, "did this solemn, emphatic, unqualified + asservation refer? Did he then know that there was a foot of + territory in the United States over which it was morally and + physically impossible to extend slavery? Was he promising in these + impressive terms to oppose what he was conscious would never be + attempted? Did he make this pledge before his country with a mental + reservation to unite hereafter with General Cass and the + slaveholders in denouncing and scorning the Proviso? Did he mean to + deceive his own party? Did he desire to keep up an angry agitation + throughout the nation for electioneering purposes, and did he thus + intimate his belief in the danger of the extension of slavery and + slave representation, when he well knew that the fiat of the + Almighty had rendered such extension impossible? Was he then + acquainted with the law of physical geography which would render the + Proviso 'a re-enactment of the will of God?' And did he purposely + conceal the secret of this law in his own breast, when by revealing + it he might have stilled the raging billows of popular passion which + threatened to ingulf the Union? To suppose all this would be to + impute to Mr. Webster a degree of trickery and turpitude rarely + paralleled even among politicians. Hence we are bound to assume that + the law of nature on which he _now_ relies is a recent discovery, + subsequent at least to the 10th August, 1848. It is, however, + extraordinary that a gentleman of his acquirements did not sooner + become acquainted with '_this law of physical geography--the law of + the formation of the earth, that settles forever, beyond all terms + of human enactment, that slavery cannot exist in California or New + Mexico_.' It is to be regretted that Mr. Webster did not condescend + to demonstrate the existence of this law and to explain the mode of + its operation. He indeed tells us that our new territories are + 'Asiatic in their formation and scenery'; but this fact does not + prove his law, since slavery has existed for ages amid the scenery + of Asia; it exists in the deserts of Africa, has existed in every + country of Europe, and now exists in the frozen regions of Russia. + This law, moreover, must have been enacted by the Creator since + 1824, or its operation must have been suspended in deference to the + Spanish government; for under that government negro slavery did + exist in California and New Mexico, and it ceased in 1824, not by + the 'law of physical geography,' but by a Mexican edict. Thousands + of slaves are employed in the mines of Brazil, and Mr. Webster does + not explain how his law forbids their employment in the mines of + California.... + + "He pays a sorry compliment to the common sense of the people in + offering to them at the eleventh hour a new and unheard-of law of + 'physical geography,' together with the 'Asiatic scenery and + formation' of the conquered territories, as an _excuse_ for + violating the faith he had plighted in behalf of the Proviso. He has + shocked the moral sense of a large portion of the community by + giving in advance his sanction to the Fugitive-Slave Law, which + makes the liberty or bondage of a citizen depend on the affidavit of + a slaveholder and the judgment of a post-master--a law which + converts sympathy for guiltless misery into crime, and threatens to + tenant our jails with our most estimable men and women. But Mr. + Webster underrates the intelligence and sensibilities of the masses. + Relying on the Southern affinities of our commercial cities, on the + subserviency of politicians, on the discipline of party, and on his + own great influence, Mr. Webster looks _down_ upon the people; but + the time is probably not far distant when the people will cease to + look up to him. Parties will accept of any leaders who can acquire + for them the spoils of the day, but in the political history of our + country the people have never placed their affections upon any man + in whose stability and consistency they did not confide." + +To give such assistance as he could to a fugitive slave had always been +regarded by Judge Jay as a duty. "The slaveholders," he had written, +"with their accustomed impudence and mendacity, apply the term _theft_ +to the humane and Christian efforts to assist a slave in escaping from +his home of bondage. In their sense of the expression, I glory in being +a slave-stealer, and I inculcate upon my children the duty, the +Christian duty, of this kind of theft." He had sheltered and aided many +runaways at his home at Bedford, and his will contained a bequest of a +thousand dollars to be used for this purpose. His son John gave his +services as a lawyer constantly and successfully to prevent the return +of fugitive slaves. + +When the Fugitive-Slave Bill became a law Judge Jay was applied to by +many individuals, societies, and periodicals to give his views +concerning it. "The law," he said in a private letter, "is an outrage +upon the Constitution of our country and the precepts of our religion. +It is a burlesque on justice and on all the acknowledged rules of +evidence in the trial of issues. The demand it makes upon individual +citizens to aid in hunting and enslaving their fellow-men is diabolical. +I have made up my mind to suffer imprisonment and the spoiling of my +goods rather than hazard my soul by rendering any active obedience to +this sinful law. It is horrible that so many of our fashionable cotton +divines are now preaching up the supremacy of human law and virtually +dethroning Him whose ambassadors they profess to be." + +"In my opinion, every Northern slave-catcher is a base man, and every +lawyer who takes reward against the innocent is a disgrace to a noble +profession. I myself shall offer no forcible resistance against the +execution of this most wicked law, but I trust that, through the grace +of God, I would go to the scaffold sooner than obey it." + +Concerning the constitutionality of the law, Judge Jay wrote to Josiah +Quincy: "The fugitive-slave clause in the Constitution is of course +obligatory, but there is a wide distinction between the fugitive-slave +_clause_ and the fugitive-slave _law_. The Constitution gives no power +to Congress to legislate on the subject, but imposes on the States the +obligation of rendition. Chief-Justice Hornblower, of New York, and +Chancellor Walworth, of New York, long since pronounced the fugitive law +of '93 unconstitutional on this very ground." + +The demoralization caused by the execution of the law was described by +Jay in a letter to Gerrit Smith: "It is scoundrelizing our people. +Cruelty and injustice are cultivated as virtues, Christian love and +sympathy with human suffering are treated as prejudices to be conquered, +and zeal in hunting slaves is made the test of patriotism and of fitness +for office. But the most diabolical effect of the law is the competition +it has excited among our politicians to offer the blood of their +fellow-citizens in exchange for Southern votes." + +To a committee of free coloured men who asked Judge Jay's advice +regarding the propriety of arming themselves to prevent being kidnapped +under the law, he said: "Most deeply do I sympathize with you in your +unhappy state. With your wives and children, you are now placed at the +disposal of any villain who is ready to perjure himself for the price +you will bring in the human shambles of the South. With less ceremony +and trouble than a man can impound his neighbour's ox, you may be +metamorphosed from a citizen of the State of New York into a beast of +burden on a Southern plantation. On leaving your house in the morning +you may be enticed into another, where one of the newly appointed +commissioners, after reading one affidavit, made a thousand miles off, +and another that you are the person named in the first, or on the bare +oath of the kidnapper himself, may inform you, to your amazement and +horror, that you are a _slave_. The fetters previously prepared are +placed on your limbs, and in a few minutes you are travelling with +railroad velocity to a Southern market. Never again will you behold your +wife and children, nor will any tidings from them ever reach your ear. +The remainder of your life is to be one of toil and stripes.... Yet," he +continued, "leave, I beseech you, the pistol and the bowie-knife to +Southern ruffians and their Northern mercenaries. That this law will +lead to bloodshed I take for granted, but let it be the blood of the +innocent, not of the guilty. If anything can arouse the torpid +conscience of the North, it will be our streets stained with human blood +shed by the slave-catchers." + +The Fugitive-Slave Law, in Jay's opinion, was the natural sequence to +the attempt to put down the antislavery movement by force: "For years, +most strenuous efforts, prompted by commercial and political views, were +made to deprive the opponents of slavery of their constitutional +privileges by lawless violence. The right of petition was suspended, the +freedom of debate interrupted, the sanctity of the post-office violated, +public meetings dispersed, printing-presses destroyed, furious mobs +excited, churches sacked, private houses gutted, and even murder +perpetrated. All this violation of rights was regarded with complacency +by many who had much at stake, so long as abolitionists alone were the +victims. But the spirit of aggression thus raised and fostered is +seeking new subjects on which to exercise its power. 'Gentlemen of +property and standing' are now beginning to feel alarmed about +socialism, anti-rentism, agrarianism, etc. Hence, of late we hear much +of the importance of conservatism, as it is called. The political +movements of the last few months seem to indicate that our landlords and +cotton lords and merchant princes regard an alliance with the +aristocracy of the South as at least in some degree a security against +the violation of vested rights, sequestration of rents, oppressive +taxation, unequal laws, etc. To the influence of gentlemen of this class +the late slave law owes its passage. + +"And is it indeed believed that the rights of the rich will be protected +by familiarizing the populace with the practice of injustice and cruelty +towards the poor? Will the sight of innocent men seized in our streets +and sent in fetters to till the broad fields of great landowners +increase the reverence felt for land titles? Is it wise to give the +people practical lessons in the demolition of all the barriers raised by +the common law for the protection of the weak against the strong? Is it +true conservatism to obliterate in the masses the sense of justice, the +feelings of humanity, the distinction between right and wrong?" + +The tacit support given to slavery by the Episcopal Church at large and +the active support given to it by many individual clergymen was a source +of constant grief to Judge Jay and a frequent subject of his thoughts. +"You well know," he wrote to Joseph Sturge, "what a mighty effort has +been made by our Northern traders in Southern votes and merchandise, +under the leadership of Daniel Webster, to roll back the antislavery +tide. To a certain extent they have succeeded. The commercial interest +in the great towns, through a rivalry for the Southern trade, has +professed great alacrity in slave-catching, and political aspirants for +office under the Federal Government find it expedient to make +slave-hunting the test of patriotism. But the religious feeling of the +commonalty--that is, of those who are not pre-eminently gentlemen of +property and standing--is shocked by the enormous cruelty and injustice +of the fugitive law. To overcome this feeling, which in its +demonstrations is exceedingly inconvenient to our merchants and +office-seekers, the clergy have been urged by the press and other +agencies to come out in support of the law--in other words, to give the +sanction of the gospel of Christ to the enslavement of innocent men. +Some pastors who preach in fine churches to rich and fashionable city +congregations have complied. You must understand that many of our +brokers, merchants, lawyers, and editors were exceedingly scandalized by +the opposition of religious people to this vile law, and they have +trembled for the honour of our holy religion when some of its professors +contended that an impious law was not binding on the conscience." + +The position of the church was strongly stated by Jay in a letter to +Rev. Hiram Jelliff: "It is one of the most melancholy circumstances of +the condition of the coloured people that so many of the ministers of +the Lord Jesus Christ are among their most influential enemies. The +church of the living God is the great buttress of slavery and caste in +the United States. If any plea can be urged in behalf of infidelity, it +is that Christianity as represented by multitudes of its official +teachers authorizes the abrogation of all its precepts of humility, +justice, and benevolence in the treatment of persons to whom God has +given a coloured skin. Look at the conventions of New York and +Pennsylvania excluding ministers and disciples of the crucified Redeemer +merely because they are poor and despised! I confess, my dear sir, that +were I a young man, with no early religious impressions and about to +decide on the truth or falsehood of revelation, I fear I should be +strongly tempted to believe that a religion such as it is practically +exhibited by your cotton-parsons could not and did not proceed from a +just and benevolent being. I have had great opportunities of knowing the +effect produced by the countenance given to slavery and caste by the +church on the faith of many kind-hearted and conscientious people, and +in all sincerity I declare that our pro-slavery clergy, our negro-hating +clergy, our slave-catching clergy, are the most successful apostles of +infidelity in the country. I write thus freely to you because your +course is in direct opposition to those I condemn. The Saviour eat, +drank, and lodged with the Samaritans, who were the negroes of Judea, a +despised, degraded caste, from whom a Jew disdained to receive even a +cup of water.... May God bless and reward your labours." + +Occupying, as Judge Jay did, a position of leadership in both the +Episcopal Church and the antislavery movement, it was to him that men +most frequently turned for advice on subjects relating to the connection +between the church and slavery. From mature minds, such as that of +Senator Salmon P. Chase, from divinity students and young men +contemplating connection with a religious body, came inquiries +regarding the duty of joining the church or of remaining a member. To a +young man Jay wrote in 1854: "I shall say nothing of the claims of the +Episcopal Church as arising from her doctrines, forms, and government, +except that I know of no church which, judged _by its authorized +standards_, is more scriptural and more conducive to holiness in this +life and to salvation in the next. You desire to enter this church but +have not been able to overcome the objection arising from its connection +with slavery, and would like to know, for your information, how I +reconcile my continuance in this church with my antislavery opinions. +Assuredly I could not belong to a church which exacted of its members an +admission of the lawfulness of human bondage. Of such a sin and folly +the Episcopal Church is guiltless. No sanction of slavery can be found +in any of her standards, and hence I can very consistently hold the +doctrines of the church and join in its prayers and rites and at the +same time regard American slavery as the sum of all villainies. There +are in the church slaveholding bishops, clergymen, and communicants, +_plenty of them_. But I am not responsible for their presence.... There +never has been, and I suppose there never will be, a widely extended +church without unworthy pastors and members. A _pure_ church composed of +fallible and sinful men is a figment of the imagination.... Many popish +doctrines and practices are occasionally advocated by our Puseyites. But +I, as a private member of the church, am in no degree responsible for +the heresies of Puseyism nor the more disgusting heresies of +cotton-divinity.... In my opinion, in nine cases out of ten an +antislavery Christian can do more good to his own soul, to the cause of +Christ, and to the interests of the slave by remaining in his church and +there battling for truth and justice, than by going in search of a pure +church. It often happens when an abolitionist abandons an alleged +pro-slavery church he finds no other that suits him. Hence the public +worship of God and the Sacraments are neglected. Gradually he and his +family learn to live without God in the world, and finally enter upon +that broad road which leads to destruction." + +The position assumed by the Episcopal Church towards the rights and +elevation of the blacks was indicated by the refusal of the Diocesan +Council of New York to admit the coloured church of St. Philip, although +the parish was constitutionally entitled to be represented and her +minister and delegates were entitled to seats and votes. Judge Jay +opposed earnestly a majority report from a committee on the question of +their admission, which contended that the applicants belonged to a race +"socially degraded, and improper associates for the class of persons who +attend our conventions." Such an apology for the violation of the +constitutional rights ordained by the State, and such a presentation of +the theological views entertained by the committee on the unity of the +church and the catholic brotherhood of its members, was not calculated +to strengthen the opposition to St. Philip's; and the Christian world +breathed more freely when, after a nine years' struggle to obtain a vote +on the question maintained by Judge Jay and his son, the coloured parish +was admitted by a large majority of both orders. + +In 1854 Southern aggression had nearly reached its culminating point. +The Missouri Compromise was abrogated; the Kansas-Nebraska Bill threw +open to slavery an immense territory hitherto free, under the subterfuge +invented by General Cass and Senator Douglas of "popular sovereignty." +Slavery was thus to extend over the vast regions in the centre of the +continent. An indefinite number of new slave States were to be admitted +into the Union, which would give the control of the Senate, and +consequently of all legislation, forever to the Slave Power. + +In February, 1854, Judge Jay received an invitation to address the +Anti-Nebraska Convention of the Free Democracy of Massachusetts. His age +and health prevented a journey to Boston, but he wrote to the committee +of invitation as follows: + + "It is meet and right that the stupendous iniquity now about to be + perpetrated should be resisted by the true-hearted citizens of that + State which, more than any other in the confederacy, has debauched + the moral sentiment of the nation and prepared the community for + submission to the most insolent usurpation yet attempted by the + Slave Power. The present effort to extend the dominion of the whip + to the northern limits of the United States is the legitimate + consequence of the disastrous and disgraceful concessions of 1850. + Those concessions were effected more through the ability and + labours of the late distinguished senator from Massachusetts + than of any of his coadjutors. Mr. Webster, avowing the entire + constitutionality of the Wilmot Proviso and having voted for it in + relation to Oregon, objected to its application to the newly + conquered territories on the ground that their _Asiatic scenery_ and + _geographical conformation_ rendered it _physically impossible_ for + negro slavery ever to exist in them. Unhappily for his novel and + extraordinary theory, numerous slaves were at the time he spoke held + in California.... Slaves are at this day held in New Mexico. + + "Mr. Webster, in giving his earnest and cordial support to the + atrocious Fugitive-Slave Act, candidly acknowledged on the floor of + the Senate that in 'his judgment' Congress had no constitutional + power to legislate on the subject, the obligation of surrendering + fugitives resting on the States. Yet he scrupled not in his + subsequent addresses to speak in terms of unmeasured obloquy of + every lawyer who presumed to deny the constitutionality of that + horrible law. He admitted the right of Congress to grant the + fugitive a trial by jury, yet was unwearied in his advocacy of a law + denying to the most helpless of mortals that important safeguard of + personal liberty.... + + "The course of this gentleman at a moment when the dearest + principles of liberty, justice, and humanity were vehemently + assailed was rapturously applauded by the monied, the literary, and + the ecclesiastical aristocracy of Massachusetts, and the New England + Church has to a great extent canonized his memory. + + "The ardour evinced by the city of Boston in the surrender of Simms, + and the intense servility and degradation accompanying that + surrender, together with the emphatic endorsement of Mr. Webster's + conduct, have exerted an influence in behalf of human bondage and + in derogation of Christian obligation far beyond the bounds of + Massachusetts. The moral bulwark raised at the North against slavery + in times past by the religious sentiment and the respect for the + rights of man is nearly demolished. + + "The Slave Power, taking advantage of the present paralysis of the + Northern conscience and the frantic cupidity of our demagogues and + merchants for Southern votes and Southern trade, is about placing + its yoke on willing and bending necks. + + "Think not that Nebraska is to be the terminus of slaveholding + encroachments. New slave States are from time to time to be carved + out of Mexico. Cuba is to be wrested from Spain and St. Domingo + re-enslaved and annexed. As the field for slave labour widens and + widens, the supply will be found inadequate to the demand. The + discovery will then be made that both religion and policy require + the repeal of the prohibition of the African slave-trade. We shall + be told of the Christian duty of bringing the pagans of Africa to + our own civilized shores and of preparing them for heaven by the + discipline of the whip and the teachings of slave-drivers, while + politicans and political economists will insist on the removal of + the restriction as essential to the development of our national + wealth and enterprise. In vain will Virginia and the other breeding + States strive to retain their present lucrative monopoly of the + human shambles. The cotton and sugar States, together with the newly + acquired slave States, aided by Northern politicians, will establish + free trade in the bodies and souls of men. + + "The Southern Church is almost without exception the unblushing + champion of slavery, while the Northern Church, adopting a + time-serving, heartless, and often hypocritical neutrality, and + holding in its fraternal embrace slave-breeders and slave-traders, + has virtually taught that the vilest outrages on both the civil and + religious rights of the black man are perfectly compatible with the + highest sanctity in his white oppressor. Some of our religious + journals are sadly grieved and scandalized by the alleged discovery + that certain opponents of slavery are infidels. For my own part, I + know of no form of infidelity so hideous as that which impiously + claims the authority of Almighty God for abrogating all His laws in + behalf of justice and mercy in reference to our conduct towards + millions of our countrymen not of the same colour as ourselves. This + cutaneous Christianity, so insulting to the Deity, so disastrous to + man, is fast becoming the national religion. + + "The present crisis is indeed an awful one. While various causes + have aided in producing it, its immediate origin is to be traced to + the lamentable defection, in 1850, of so many of the rich and + influential from truth and justice, liberty and humanity, under the + fallacious plea of saving the Union. Well may the Free Democracy of + Massachusetts, with their hands and consciences undefiled by + oblations on the altar of the American Moloch, now strive to avert + the calamity impending over the country. May a long-suffering God + bless their efforts and rescue a guilty nation from the punishment + it seems anxious to inflict upon itself." + +"As to the wickedness of the whole Kansas business," Jay wrote to +Charles Sumner, in March, 1856, "I most fully agree with you, and I do +not wonder that amid such abounding iniquity you are at a loss what +atrocity to assail first. I am very much inclined to look upon every +Northern member of Congress who voted for the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise as a rascal. This may seem harsh--it is certainly not +polite--and yet I am utterly unable to assign a good, honest, religious +motive for the vote, or to reconcile it with the fear of God or with +love to man.... Let us fight on, with all our heart and mind and soul. +God is with us, approves our efforts, and whether He shall crown them +with success or not, He will not forget our work of faith and labour of +love. I have full faith in an ultimate triumph, although you and I may +not live to enjoy it. My belief is, that as soon as the North ceases to +tremble before the slave-drivers, the non-slaveholders of the South will +proclaim their independence and insist upon free speech and a free +press, and as soon as these are obtained the doom of slavery is sealed." + +The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the beginning of the end, the +fatal step of the South on its road to destruction. Throughout the North +the conviction grew that Union and slavery could not exist much longer +together. On the 4th of July, 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of +the Constitution of the United States with the words, "The Union must be +dissolved!" He represented only an extreme sentiment. But the people at +large began to calculate the value of this Union for which so many +sacrifices had been made. Slavery became odious to many persons hitherto +indifferent to the subject, on the ground that it persistently and +selfishly placed the Union in peril. + +In the summer of 1857 Judge Jay received a circular calling for a +National Disunion Convention, to be held at Worcester, signed by T. W. +Higginson, Wendell Phillips, Daniel Mann, and W. L. Garrison. To this +circular he replied at length, giving his views on the question of +separation as it then appeared to him. + + "The subject you propose for consideration," he said, "has long been + to me one of deep and painful interest. Although fully conscious of + the many social, commercial, and political advantages derived from + the Federal Union, I am nevertheless convinced that it is at present + a most grievous moral curse to the American people. To the people of + the South it is a curse by fostering and strengthening and + perpetuating an iniquitous, corrupting institution. To the millions + of African descent among us it is a curse by riveting the chains of + the bondman and deepening the degradation of the free man. To the + people of the free States it is a curse by tempting them to trample + under foot the obligations of truth, justice, and humanity for the + wages of iniquity with which the Federal Government has so + abundantly rewarded apostates from liberty and righteousness. + + "In my opinion, while the Union continues to be thus a curse it will + be indissoluble; if it ever ceases to be a curse, it will be + converted into a blessing. + + * * * * * + + "What possible reason have you to expect that those in church and + state who have surrendered their consciences to the seductions of + the Union will listen to your call and aid you in breaking a power + which they glory in saving? While I believe you are doomed to + disappointment, I nevertheless rejoice in every exposure of the + demoralizing influence of the Union. I rejoice in such exposure, not + as tending to bring about dissolution, but to render it unnecessary. + When the people of the North cease to idolize the Union, they will + cease to offer on its altar their rights and their duties. When + released from their thraldom to the Slave Power, they will cease to + place its minions in office. When no longer covetous of the votes + and the trade of the South, they will no longer be bullied into all + manner of wretchedness and all manner of insult by the idea and + ever-repeated threats of dissolution. But when this happy time + arrives, the Union will be converted from a curse into a blessing. + Our divines, instead of vindicating cruelty and oppression, and + denouncing as fanatics those who consider the will of God a higher + law than an accursed act of Congress, will become preachers of + righteousness. Democrats, seeing the Federal patronage wielded by + the opponents of slavery, will, in the rapidity and extent of their + conversion to truth and justice, eclipse all the marvels of New + England revivals; and men who for years have been bowed to the earth + by spinal weakness will as by miracle stand erect. When all this + happens, the North will continue its Union with the South; and you + yourselves will have no wish to see that Union severed. + + "At the close of the war, Washington, solicitous that the divine + favour might rest on the new-born nation, publicly offered the + prayer that God would dispose us all to do justice and love mercy. + May the Union, when exerting an influence in accordance with this + prayer, be indissoluble; but may God forbid that it may ever be + saved by promoting, extending, and perpetuating injustice and + cruelty, by invoking the wrath of Heaven, and becoming a proverb and + a reproach among the nations of the earth." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DEATH OF JUDGE JAY.--HIS POSITION AMONG ANTISLAVERY MEN.--HIS OTHER + PUBLIC AND PHILANTHROPIC INTERESTS.--HIS PRIVATE LIFE.--HIS + CHARACTER. + + +Judge Jay was not destined to live to see the triumph of the antislavery +cause and of the constitutional principles to which he had devoted his +life. Several years of failing health preceded his death, which took +place at Bedford, October the 14th, 1858. + +His career in the antislavery cause, dating from the Missouri Compromise +in 1821, was in several respects unique, and among the leaders of the +movement his position continued to be distinctive. + +His first active efforts in favour of the slave, the presentation to +Congress in 1826 of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the +District of Columbia, were marked by a careful regard to the provisions +of the United States Constitution. At the first formation of antislavery +societies he feared that philanthropic enthusiasm might place the +movement in a wrong position by a failure to recognize those provisions. +His advice was asked by the men who organized the American Society in +Philadelphia, and it was carried into effect by the insertion into the +constitution of the society of a complete recognition of the supreme +national law, in strict accordance with which, only, the objects of the +society should be sought. To maintain the abolitionists in the +impregnable position thus adopted was the constant and characteristic +labour of Jay's life. This position, consistently held by him against +unconstitutional doctrines advanced by both abolitionists and +slaveholders, was the position adopted by the Republican party in 1854, +and maintained until real union and real liberty were won together. + +The antislavery movement was begun and supported by those whom Lincoln +called "the plain people." Men of "property and standing" were generally +passively if not actively hostile. It received little help from the +churches, from the learned professions or the wealthy mercantile +classes. It was a very unpopular cause, denounced by politicians, +merchants, and lawyers, despised by many of the clergy, certain to bring +social and business injury, if not active persecution, to whomsoever +adopted it. Hence the championship of William Jay derived a special +importance. His judicial and social position, his independent means, his +active membership in the most aristocratic of churches, made him a +leader of peculiar value. His advocacy of the cause could be attributed +neither to ignorant fanaticism nor to disorganizing tendencies. He set +an example to the class most able and least willing to oppose the curse +of slavery. + +A third peculiarity of Jay's position among antislavery men was the +nature of the work which he performed. Without health sufficient to make +long journeys at a time when travelling was difficult, seldom leaving +his country home, he was rarely seen at the meetings and conventions of +the abolitionists. He was a voice, speaking words of reason, moderation +and authority in times of blind excitement; a voice which spoke at the +right moment and was always heard with respect. Jay's activity lay in +his pen. In a crisis when the judicious course of action or the accurate +view of events was obscured by doubt and passion, a pamphlet or a public +letter from Judge Jay cast a clear and steady light. His writings were +consulted by the most eminent men when considering subjects connected +with slavery. Of this a notable instance was the use made of Jay's +argument on the "Amistad" case by John Quincy Adams when addressing the +House of Representatives in that celebrated cause. These writings form a +continuous and lucid commentary on the history of the long and varied +struggle between the forces of slavery and of freedom. + +The published works of Judge Jay present but a part of the fruits and +the influence of his pen. His correspondence was voluminous and extended +to the rank and file as well as to the leaders of the antislavery +movement. Constant resort was made to him for information and advice, +which was always given with frankness and care.[E] + +We may close appropriately our review of Jay's antislavery work with +remarks made after his death to the coloured people of New York by +Frederick Douglass, who escaped from the slave-driver to urge with +native eloquence the emancipation of his race: "In common with you, my +friends, I wear the hated complexion which William Jay never hated. I +have worn the galling chain which William Jay earnestly endeavoured to +break. I have felt the heavy lash, and have experienced in my own person +the cruel wrongs which caused his manly heart to melt in pity for the +slave.... In view of the mighty struggle for freedom in which we are now +engaged, and the tremendous odds arrayed against us, every coloured man +and every friend of the coloured man in this country must deeply feel +the great loss we have sustained in this death, and look around with +anxious solicitude for the man who shall rise to fill the place now made +vacant. With emphasis it may be said of him, he was our wise counsellor, +our firm friend, and our liberal benefactor. Against the fierce onsets +of popular abuse he was our shield; against governmental intrigue and +oppression he was our learned, able, and faithful defender; against +the crafty counsels of wickedness in high places, where mischief is +framed by law and sin is sanctioned and supported by religion, he was a +perpetual and burning rebuke." + +Besides his work for the negro race, William Jay had various public and +philanthropic interests. Prominent among these were the duties of judge +of Westchester County, which he exercised for more than twenty-five +years. Jay revised the rules of the court, which had been handed down +almost unchanged since 1728; and he introduced a strict observance of +forms, which, combined with his prompt and explicit decisions, made the +Westchester court one of the most dignified in the country. The sittings +were held alternately at White Plains and at Bedford, the half-shire +towns of the county. Jay also attended to chamber business in other +towns. At that period the Westchester bar embraced many lawyers of +marked ability, such as R. R. Voorhis, Aaron Ward, William Nelson, Peter +Jay Munro, J. W. Strong, Minot Mitchell, and James Smith; and from New +York, Alexander McDonald, William M. Price, and Peter Augustus Jay +frequently appeared among them. It has been said of Judge Jay's charges +to grand juries that "they commanded attention, from their clear +exposition of the law without the slightest concession to the popular +currents of the day and with careful regard to constitutional rights, +morality, and justice." These charges were frequently requested for +publication as timely reminders of legal and moral truths, the relation +of which to current events was being overlooked. Judge Jay's conduct on +the bench caused his reappointment term after term by governors of +opposing political parties; and after his death, when a pro-slavery +faction endeavoured to remove his portrait from the court-house at White +Plains, members of the bar who disagreed with Jay's abolition opinions +were foremost in preventing any act of disrespect to his memory. + +Jay's philanthropy was religious in its motive and practical in its +activity. A life-long worker in the cause of temperance, his efforts +produced substantial results, as in the legislation proposed by him +which forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors on credit. + +For many years a member and president of the Peace Society, he was not +satisfied with exposing the evils of war. His mind sought and found a +remedy for it in the system of international arbitration, of which the +practicability was immediately acknowledged, and towards which the +civilized world has since turned with constantly growing confidence. + +The organization of the American Bible Society in the face of the +opposition of the authorities in his own church displayed in Jay's early +life the self-reliance and independence of character which gave so much +strength to his later career. Always true to his church, he never +compromised his convictions to fit a position in which that church was +untrue to itself. During the antislavery movement the churches were +hostile. Fearful of alienating their Southern members and the Northern +men whose business interests demanded subserviency to the Slave Power, +hardly any ecclesiastical organization was guiltless of lending a +passive support to slavery. Theological students, on leaving their +seminary, were cautioned by their instructors to avoid the troublesome +topic if they would be successful ministers of Christ. Clergymen who +preached that property in man was sinful were disciplined by +ecclesiastical superiors or cast off by outraged Christian +congregations. An orthodox religious newspaper was the safest printed +matter for a Northern man to have in his possession when travelling in +the South. The Episcopal Church had its slaveholding bishops and +ministers, not a few of whom justified slavery from the Scriptures. It +had in the North its "cotton divines," who enjoined from the pulpit +obedience to the odious law which sought to make slave-catchers of +Christian men and women. It went so far as persistently to infringe its +own laws by shutting the doors of its conventions upon legally chosen +delegates of congregations composed of free coloured men. The church of +Christ was turned into a social club which did not hesitate to exclude a +black man as an "unfit associate." Shocked at this attitude, many +conscientious men withdrew from the communion. But such a course was +inconsistent with Jay's character. False and repulsive as was to him +such a conception of the Christian religion, he refused, as a churchman, +to accept it. He remained in the ranks, striving by his own conduct to +show that a man could be a good churchman and hate slavery at the same +time. Fearless in his expression of Christian truth, he was for twenty +years a thorn in the side of pro-slavery churchmen, and a rallying-point +for those who understood better the spirit of Christianity and +recognized the brotherhood of man before God. + +Jay's private life was happy and peaceful. The library at Bedford, with +its book-shelves crowded to the ceiling and its windows looking out over +the hills of Westchester to the blue outlines of the Catskills, claimed +a considerable portion of every day. The hours there passed in +reflection and in literary labour were hours of pleasure, enhanced by +the desire and the hope of usefulness. + +Out-of-doors were the avocations of a country life, which Jay was well +constituted to enjoy: the farm, with its interesting record of crops and +growing livestock; the garden, where a great variety of flowers and +vegetables flourished within hedges of old box; the lawn, with its trees +planted by his father and himself--all these gave occupation in pleasing +contrast to that of the library. The public roads in the neighbourhood +of the Jay farm are now adorned and shaded by noble trees planted by the +Judge. Along these roads and over the Westchester hills he loved to ride +on horseback, an exercise and pleasure which he enjoyed until the last +year of his life. Judge Jay preferred to consider Bedford as a farm +rather than as a country seat, and he observed to Bishop Coxe in this +regard that a farm without a gate or a fence out of repair was more to +his taste than an ornamental estate. The weak eyesight and somewhat +delicate health which in his youth seemed a misfortune as debarring him +from a career of activity in the city turned in the end to his +advantage. A happier life than that at Bedford could hardly have been +devised for him; and it is probable that the studious retirement of his +country library gave to his views on public questions a thoroughness and +moderation greater than could have been attained amidst the hurry and +distraction of a great city. + +In his family relations, Jay was still more fortunate. His wife lived to +be his sympathetic companion until 1856, when he himself was near his +end. Her accomplishments, especially in reading and drawing, her grace, +gentleness, and goodness, her natural charity, added immeasurably to the +happiness of Jay's life. "I have always regarded her," said the late +Rev. J. W. Alexander, "as one of the happiest specimens of a Christian +lady that it has been my lot to meet. Intelligent, graceful, pious, +gentle, sportive in the right place, generous and catholic, she awakened +a sincere respect and attachment, and our memory of her is blessed." The +late Bishop Horatio Potter of New York, speaking of her later life, +said: "The serene composure, the sweet simplicity and dignity, bespoke a +peaceful and elevated spirit, and made an impression on the most +transient visitor never to be effaced." Dr. John Henry Hobart, son of +the Bishop, wrote to John Jay: "Your mother, always gentle, placid, and +cheerful, with an unfailing smile and pleasant words for her young +guests, sympathizing with their boyish enthusiasm for poetry and +romance, and tempering their ardour with counsel and caution, which her +own sensitive spirit conveyed in the most delicate forms--of her I must +speak thus feelingly; it only indicates the debt of gratitude I owe to +her memory." + +[Illustration: Augusta Jay] + +Judge Jay had one brother, Peter Augustus Jay, who was thirteen years +his senior. Between the brothers there continued through life an +uninterrupted affection and confidence. Peter Augustus led an active +professional and social life in New York City, holding office as judge, +as recorder, and as a member of the State Assembly. On his death, in +1843, high tributes to his ability as a jurist and to his character as a +public-spirited citizen were paid by Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice +Samuel Jones, and David B. Ogden. As a member of the Assembly, he was +conspicuous in the advocacy of various important measures, among which +may be mentioned his efforts to extend the right of suffrage to black +citizens of the State. Peter Augustus Jay was not himself prominent in +the antislavery cause, but he was generally in sympathy with his +brother's work. + +The Right Reverend A. Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of Western New York, was a +frequent visitor in his youth at Bedford. Some extracts from a letter +written by him to John Jay afford an interesting view of the domestic +life of the Judge's home: + +"William Jay was one of those true sons of the Republic who inherited +sound views of its constitutional system from your illustrious +grandfather, and from personal acquaintance with some other fathers of +the nation who were high in the confidence of Washington and shared his +just and lofty ideas of national policy. Your father was one of those +born statesmen who breathed under the inspiration of such ideas, and was +animated by them to efforts for the preservation of the Constitution +itself in degenerate days. Those were the days when the 'spoils-system' +had begun to act with corrosive effect on public affairs and public men. +The science of true statesmanship seemed ready to perish. The country +fell into the hands of mere politicians, with whom legislation was a +trade and a struggle for personal aggrandizement. The epoch had little +use for men of pure patriotism, but your father, incapable of ambition +or the pursuit of personal ends, stood aside and devoted himself with +intrepidity to unpopular principles, of which he foresaw the utility, +while he was hardly less prophetic of the cruel war which must be the +consequence of popular indifference and blindness to the national +perils. He was little seen, but greatly felt, and has left a mark on the +diplomacy of his time which is a gain to humanity and to civilization. + +"I cannot forget the charms of that domestic life which he made so +attractive to his children and to the large circle of kindred and +friends who were admitted to its enjoyments. It was in 1836 that, with +our beloved friend Hobart, I was invited to spend the Christmas +holidays at Bedford. We were boys together at that time, and I remember +to what hours we prolonged our recreations, with no other restriction +than your father's cheerful injunction, as he bade us good-night: 'Young +gentlemen, please remember not to laugh too loudly; it might deprive +some of us of the sleep which you seem not to require for yourselves.' +How merrily we 'saw the old year out and the new year in,' that +Christmas-tide! I often thought of Irving's 'Bracebridge Hall' as +realized in America, in the home of your happy boyhood. Year after year, +winter and summer, through college life, you led me to renew my holidays +in Bedford. How much I learned from your father's condescension to +boyhood in conversing with his boy-visitors as if they were men! He drew +out our opinions and encouraged us to state them frankly when he +suspected that we had the boldness to prefer our crude ideas to his own +judicial and grave conceptions of fact and principle. He played chess +with his youthful guests, but never permitted them to beat him, as that +would have been no compliment to lads who worked hard and wished to win +in a fair game. + +"I have rarely seen a household in which family life was ordered more +particularly with reference to religion. There was much of the Huguenot +in the piety of the Judge, but nothing of the Puritan. Family prayers +were observed twice a day, the servants attending and sharing in the +responses. After-evening prayers in those early days, we enjoyed a few +cotillons and contra-dances, Mrs. Jay presiding at the piano. And when +the ladies had withdrawn, chess-playing and other games occupied us, not +infrequently until after midnight. Sundays in the old homestead, after +church-going, were like other days, save in the chastened cheerfulness +of conversation and employment. A feature of Sunday evenings was the +custom for every member of the family to recite something in prose or +poetry, and the Judge often closed such recitals by reading selections +from Bishop Heber, Mr. Milman, and other favourites of those times. In +the third decade of this century, the daughters of 'the governor,' Mrs. +Banyer and Miss Jay, were often the guests of their brother. They would +have been interesting figures in any society, and were eminent in New +York for their Christian virtues and devotion to every good work. The +elder sister, born in Spain, seemed to preserve in her face and carriage +something borrowed from her native climate, while Mrs. Banyer, born in +France, was not less conspicuously marked by characteristics of her +French ancestry. While the only son of Judge Jay is a recognized type of +his father's principles and character, his daughters not less resembled +their mother--a lady whose memory I hold in very great respect, with an +affectionate estimate of her worth as a beautiful example of her +gracious sex, in all characteristics 'wherein there is virtue and +wherein there is praise.' + +"I feel, at this distance of time, that I owe much to the friendship of +Judge Jay, apart from the pleasures it conferred upon me. How much he +taught me! How often his maxims led me to correct my faults, though he +never seemed to instruct, much less to rebuke! Even in his decline, and +when he was nearing the end, he favoured me with an occasional letter. +Need I say that, while entirely free from cant and pharisaic +professions, such letters were models of Christian submission, and not +less of 'faith, hope, and charity'? I have frequently reflected upon +them as I find myself approaching the end. His lofty example leads me to +say with the inspired moralist: 'Mark the perfect man and behold the +upright, for the end of that man is peace.'" + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN JAY. With Selections from his Correspondence and + Miscellaneous Papers. In two volumes, 1833. + +WAR AND PEACE. The Evils of the First and a Plan for Preserving the + Last. London, 1842. + +A REVIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE MEXICAN WAR, 1849. + +MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS ON SLAVERY, 1853. In which are collected: + + Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American + Colonization, and American Antislavery Societies. + + A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery. + + On the Condition of the Free People of Colour in the United States. + + Address to the Friends of Constitutional Liberty, on the Violation + by the United States House of Representatives of the Right of + Petition. + + Introductory Remarks to the Reproof of the American Church contained + in the recent "History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in + America" by the Bishop of Oxford. + + A Letter to the Right Reverend L. Silliman Ives, Bishop of the + Protestant Church in the State of North Carolina. + + Address to the Inhabitants of New Mexico and California, on the + Omission by Congress to provide them with Territorial Governments, + and on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery. + + Letter to Hon. William Nelson, M. C., on Mr. Clay's Compromise. + + A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress + from the City of Boston, in Reply to his Apology for voting for the + Fugitive-Slave Bill. + + An Address to the Antislavery Christians of the United States. + Signed by a number of clergymen and others. + + Letter to Rev. R. S. Cook, Corresponding Secretary of the American + Tract Society. + + Letter to Lewis Tappan, Esq., Treasurer of the American Missionary + Society. + + +PAMPHLETS. + + Report of the Bedford Society for the Suppression of Vice, 1815. + + Letter to Venders of Ardent Spirits, 1815. + + Answer to Bishop Hobart's Pastoral Letter on the Subject of Bible + Societies, by an Episcopalian, 1815. + + Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society, by a Citizen of + New York, 1816. + + Appeal in Behalf of the American Bible Society, by a Lay Member of + the Convention, 1816. + + Dialogue between a Clergyman and a Layman on the Subject of Bible + Societies, by a Churchman, 1817. + + Remarks on a Petition to the Legislature praying for the Repeal of + the Acts for Improving the Agriculture of this State, by a + Westchester Farmer, 1821. + + Letter to Bishop Hobart occasioned by the Strictures on Bible + Societies contained in his late Charge to the Convention of New + York, by a Churchman, 1823. + + Letter to Bishop Hobart in Reply to the Pamphlet addressed by him to + the Author under the Signature of "Corrector," by William Jay, 1823. + + Reply to a Second Letter to the Author from Bishop Hobart, with + Remarks on his Hostility to Bible Societies, by William Jay, 1823. + + Essay on the Importance of the Sabbath considered merely as a Civil + Institution, 1826. + + Essay on the Perpetuity and Divine Authority of the Sabbath. + Published by the Synod of Albany, 1827. + + Remarks on the Proposed Changes in the Liturgy and Confirmation + Service, 1827. + + The Office of Assistant Bishop inconsistent with the Constitution of + the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1829. + + Essay on Duelling, 1830. + + Address to the Inhabitants of Westchester County on Temperance, + 1834. + + Addresses to the Westchester County Auxiliary Bible Society, 1836, + 1839, 1841, 1845, and other years. + + Address before the New York Female Bible Society, 1840. + + Letter of Hon. William Jay to Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen on + Slavery, 1844. + + Address before the American Peace Society, 1845. + + Trial by Jury in New York, 1846. + + Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and + Political Evils of Slavery, 1849. + + The Calvary Pastoral, with Comments, a Tract for the Times, 1849. + + Reply to Mr. Webster's 7th of March Speech, 1850. + + Reply to Remarks of the Rev. Moses Stuart in his pamphlet entitled + "Conscience and the Constitution." J. A. Gray, New York, 1850. + + The Kossuth Excitement, 1852. + + The Bible against Slavery. J. K. Wellman, Adrian, Michigan, 1852. + + Petition of the American Peace Society to the United States Senate + in behalf of Stipulated Arbitration, 1853. + + An Examination of the Mosaic Law of Servitude, "The Statutes of the + Lord are right--Psalm xix. 8." M. W. Dodd, New York, 1854. + + "The Eastern War," an Argument for the Cause of Peace. Address + before the American Peace Society, 1855. + + A Letter to the Rev. Wm. Berrian, D.D., on the Resources, Present + Position, and Duties, of Trinity Church, occasioned by his late + Pamphlet, "Facts against Fancy." A. D. Randolph & Co., New York. + + Judge Jay left in Manuscript an elaborate Commentary, the work of + many years, on the Old and New Testaments. + + + + +INDEX. + + + _Abolition Intelligencer_, the, 28. + + Abolition movement, its early history, 18 _et seq._ + + Abolition societies, early, 23, 27. + + Abolitionists, hatred of, 41, 42, 56, 67, 135, 136. + + ----, differences among, 83, 103. + + Adams, Charles Francis, 129. + + ----, John Quincy, 25, 31, 158, 159. + + Alexander, George W., 159. + + ----, J. W., 164. + + American and Foreign Antislavery Society, formation of, 103. + + American Antislavery Society, formation of, 49, 50; + division in, 103. + + Anderson, W. W., 159. + + Anti-Annexation Meeting, in New York, 126. + + Antislavery movement, development of, 39 _et seq._ + + Antislavery societies, formation of, 45. + + Antislavery Society of New York City, 46, 47. + + Aspinwall, John, 12. + + + Bailey, G., Jr., xvii, 159. + + Banyer, Mrs., 125, 167. + + Bedford, 8, 9, 163. + + Benezet, Anthony, 19. + + Benson, Judge, 38. + + Bible Society, iii, 10, 11, 12. + + Birney, James G., xvi, 63, 103, 107, 117, 118, 159. + + Bogardus, General, 46. + + Bolton, John, 12. + + Bouck, Gov., 14, 124, 125. + + Boudinot, Elias, iii, 11, 12, 28. + + Bourgueny, Baron, vi. + + Bradish, Luther, 110. + + Brent, W. L., 35. + + Broglie, Duc de, 63, 126. + + Brown, David P., 54. + + Brownson, Dr. Orestes A., xix. + + Brune, Baron, vi. + + Buol-Schauenstein, Count, vi. + + Buren, Van, Martin, 107, 124. + + Burling, William, 18. + + + Calhoun, John C., xii, 4. + + Canterbury, persecution at, 42. + + Cass, Lewis, 149. + + Cavour, Count, vi, xviii. + + Chambers, John, 9. + + Channing, W. E., 56. + + Chapman, Mrs., xvi, 91. + + Chase, Salmon P., 146, 159. + + Chatham Street Chapel, 47, 53. + + Child, Mrs. Lydia Maria, xvii, 40, 67, 112, 159. + + Circourt, M. de, v. + + Clarendon, Lord, vi, 131. + + Clarkson, Matthew, 12. + + Clarkson, Thomas, 159. + + Clay, Henry, 24, 32. + + Cleveland, C. D., 159. + + Clinton, De Witt, 12, 14, 31, 32. + + Clinton Hall, 46. + + Cobden, R., vi. + + Colebrook, Sir W., 159. + + Colonization Society, 26. + + _Commercial Advertiser_, 55. + + Compromise of 1850, 137. + + Constitutional questions, xi, 86, 87, 89, 91, 99. + + Cooper, J. Fenimore, 2, 3, 5, 9, 14. + + Cornish, Samuel E., 73. + + Cortlandt, Van, Eve, 9. + + ----, Jacobus, 9. + + ----, Mary, 9. + + ----, Pierre, 9. + + Cotton-gin, the, 23. + + _Courier and Inquirer_, 47, 55. + + Cowley, Lord, vi. + + Cox, Abraham L., 55, 73. + + Cox, Samuel H., 64. + + Coxe, A. Cleveland, 165. + + Crandall, Miss, 42. + + ----, Reuben, 41, 159. + + Cummings, John, 13. + + + Dane, Nathan, 20. + + Davis, Henry, 3. + + ----, Jefferson, xii. + + Delavan, Edward, 61. + + Denison, Charles W., 103. + + Derby, Lord, vii. + + Disunion, 153, 154, 155. + + Douglas, Senator, 149. + + Douglass, Frederick, 159. + + Duelling, essay on, 13. + + Dwight, Timothy, 7. + + + Earle, Thomas, 107. + + Edwards, Jonathan, 23. + + Ellison, Thomas, 1. + + Emancipation, gradual, 41. + + ----, immediate, 23, 40, 41, 43. + + ----, in West Indies, 45. + + _Emancipator_, the, 28, 75. + + Episcopal Church, its attitude towards slavery, 132, 133, 144, 145, + 147. + + Evarts, Jeremiah, 12. + + Everett, Alexander H., 82. + + + Fitzmaurice, Lord Edmond, v. + + Forsythe, John, 35. + + Franklin, Benjamin, iv, 23. + + Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 48. + + Frere, John Hookham, 126. + + Fugitive-Slave Law, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144. + + + Gadsden, Christopher Edward, 4. + + Gallatin, Albert, 127. + + Gallaudet, Thomas H., 4. + + Garrison, William L., xvii, 40, 51, 53, 63, 64, 77, 84, 86, 89, 102, + 153, 154. + + Gay, S. H., xvii. + + Gayle, Gov., 74. + + _Genius of Universal Emancipation_, 28. + + Gibbons, James S., xvii. + + Giddings, Joshua R., 129. + + Gladstone, W. E., vi. + + Goodell, William, xvii, 27, 40, 107, 159. + + Gouverneur, Samuel L., 65. + + Gray, William, 12. + + Grayson, William, 20. + + Green, Rev. Beriah, 60, 159. + + Green, Oliver, 30. + + Griffin, George, 12. + + Grimke, Misses, xvii, 91, 159. + + ----, Thomas Smith, 4. + + Grundy, Felix, 12. + + + Habersham, R. W., 13, 159. + + Hale, John P., 159. + + Hamilton, Alexander, 23. + + ----, James, 35. + + Hammond, J. D., 159. + + Harrison, W. H., 107. + + Henry, John B., 8. + + ----, Patrick, 20, 21. + + Hicks, Elias, 27. + + Higginson, T. W., 154. + + Hillhouse, James A., 4. + + Hobart, Bishop, iv, 11, 13. + + ----, John Henry, 164. + + Holley, Myron, 107. + + Holly, Horace, 6. + + Hopkins, Samuel, 19, 23. + + Hopper, Isaac T., xvii. + + Hornblower, Chief-Justice, 159. + + Horton, Gilbert, case of, 29, 30, 31. + + Hubner, Baron, vi. + + Huntington, William, 4. + + + Immediate Emancipation, first proclaimed as a duty, 23. + + International arbitration, v, 130, 131. + + Ives, Bishop, x. + + + Jackson, Andrew, 77. + + ----, Francis, 102. + + ----, J. C., 103. + + Jarvis, Samuel F., 4. + + Jay, John, iv, 1, 5, 9, 12, 20, 23, 38, 39, 127. + + ----, John, 2d, 55. + + ----, Miss, 125, 167. + + ----, Peter Augustus, 160, 165. + + ---- Treaty, iv. + + ----, William, his birth, 1; + education, 2; + at Yale College, 4, 6; + studies law, 8; + marriage, 8; + begins life at Bedford, 8, 9; + begins philanthropic work, 10; + advocates Bible Societies, 10; + conflict with Bishop Hobart and High-Church party, 10, 11, 13; + organizes American Bible Society, 11, 12; + takes prize for essay on the Sabbath, 13; + for essay on duelling, 13; + appointed judge, 14; + early adoption of antislavery cause, 28; + espouses cause of Gilbert Horton, 29; + begins movement for abolition of slavery in District of Columbia, + 29, 32, 34, 36, 37; + writes "Life of John Jay," 39; + his view of slavery problem in 1833, 43, 44; + consulted regarding formation of American Antislavery Society, 45; + advises acknowledgment of constitutional provisions, 45, 46; + invited to join in organizing the American Antislavery Society, 49; + his views on such an organization, 50; + suggests a definite avowal of constitutional principles, 50, 51; + becomes a member of Executive Committee of American Antislavery + Society, 57; + publishes his "Inquiry," 58; + its influence, 60, 61; + appointed foreign corresponding secretary, 63; + gives advice on right to use the mails, 65; + his "Address to the Public," 69; + elected president of New York State Antislavery Society, 77; + his reply to President Jackson's message, 78; + protests against the introduction of irrelevant doctrines into + antislavery societies, 84, 86, 100; + protests against unconstitutional doctrines, 87, 90; + defeats Alvan Stewart's resolution, 93; + his opinion of the danger of unconstitutional doctrines, 90, 94; + his opinion of Stewart's position, 95; + his loss of faith in the usefulness of antislavery societies, 97, + 100; + placed on Executive Committee of American and Foreign Antislavery + Society, 103; + resigns membership in American Antislavery Society, 103; + views on the woman question, 103, 104; + his "View of the Action of the Federal Government," 105; + his "Condition of the Free People of Colour," 106; + his "Violation of the Right of Petition," 106; + his attitude towards Liberty party in 1840, 107, 108, 109; + his attitude towards antislavery societies after the schism, 112, + 113, 114, 115, 116; + his attitude towards Liberty party in 1843, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121; + his views on the annexation of Texas, 118, 127, 128; + nominated for Senator by the Liberty party, 120; + deprived of his seat on the bench, 122; + his visit to Europe, 125; + his "Review of the Mexican War," 127, 128; + his "War and Peace," and plan for International arbitration, 130, + 131; + his attitude towards the "come-outers," 132; + his work in the Episcopal Church in favour of the slave, 132, 133, + 144, 145, 147, 162; + "Letter to Bishop Ives," 133; + reply to Webster, 137, 138; + attitude towards the Fugitive-Slave Law, 140, 141, 142, 143; + views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 149, 150, 152; + views on disunion, 153, 154, 155; + his death, 156; + his distinctive position among antislavery men, 156, 157, 158; + his writings, 158; + his conduct as judge, 160; + other philanthropic work, 161; + his position as a churchman, 161, 162; + his life at Bedford, 163, 164; + his family life, 164, 165, 166. + + ----, William, 2d, 5, 8. + + ----, Mrs. William, 8, 164. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 20, 24. + + Jelliff, Hiram, 145. + + Jocelyn, Simeon S., xvii, 73, 158. + + Johnston, Oliver, xvii. + + Jones, Samuel, 165. + + + Katonah, 9. + + Keith, George, 18. + + Kelley, Miss Abby, 102. + + Kendall, Amos, 64, 65. + + Kent, James, 53, 61, 127, 165. + + King, Rufus, 20. + + + Langdon, John, 12. + + Law, William, 13. + + Lay, Benjamin, 18. + + Leavitt, Joshua, xvi, 49, 73, 103, 107, 159. + + Lee, Richard H., 20. + + Leggett, William, 56. + + _Liberalist_, the, 28. + + _Liberator_, the, 40. + + Liberty party, 107, 117, 118, 119. + + Lincoln, Abraham, xiii, xviii, 157. + + Loring, Ellis Gray, xvii, 87, 90, 91. + + Lovejoy, Elijah P., 82. + + Ludlow, Henry G., 53. + + Lundy, Benjamin, 27, 40. + + Lyons, Lord, xiv. + + + McAllister, Matthew H., 13. + + McDonald, Alexander, 160. + + McDuffie, George, 35. + + McVickar, John, 8. + + Mails, destruction of, 64. + + Malmsbury, Lord, vii, 131. + + Mann, Daniel, 154. + + Marcy, Governor, 76, 110. + + May, Samuel J., 50, 51, 86, 91, 159. + + Miner, Charles, 32, 37. + + Missouri Compromise, 24. + + Mitchell, Minot, 122, 160. + + Mobs, 56, 82, 135. + + Morris, Thomas, 117. + + Morrison, Dr., 159. + + Mott, Lucretia, xvii. + + Munro, Peter Jay, 160. + + + Nelson, William, 160. + + Noyes Academy, 42. + + + Ogden, David B., 48, 165. + + Orloff Count, vi. + + Owen, John, 29. + + + Palfrey, J. G., 159. + + Peyster, de, Frederic, 12. + + Phelps, Amos A., 53, 86, 103, 159. + + Phillips, Wendell, xvii, 154. + + Pickering, Thomas, 20. + + Pierpont, John, 4. + + Pinckney, Charles C., 12. + + Pintard, John, 12. + + Playfair, Sir Lyon, viii, 132. + + Potter, Alonzo, 61. + + ----, Horatio, 164. + + Purvis, Robert, 53. + + + Quincy, Edmund, xvii. + + Quincy, Josiah, 141. + + + Rankin, John, 27, 73. + + Rensselaer, Van, Stephen, 12. + + _Reporter_, the, 113. + + Republican party, 52. + + "Review of the Mexican War," ix. + + Richard, Henry, vi, 131. + + Riots, pro-slavery, 46, 54. + + Romeyne, John B., 12. + + Rush, Benjamin, 19. + + Rutgers, Henry, 12. + + + St. Clair, Alanson, 91. + + St. Philip's Church, 148. + + Sandiford, Ralph, 18. + + Sandwich, Lord, 19. + + Scoble, John, 159. + + Sedgwick, Henry D., 37. + + ----, Susan, 3. + + ----, Theodore, 127, 159. + + ----, Mrs. Theodore, 61. + + Sewall, Samuel, 18. + + Seward, W. H., xiv, 110, 159. + + Simms, 150. + + Slade, William, 159. + + Slave Power, growth of, 135. + + Smith, Gerrit, xvi, 77, 83, 103, 107, 118, 141, 159. + + ----, Goldwin, xviii. + + ----, James, 160. + + ----, John Cotton, 12. + + Spring, Gardiner, 4. + + Stanton, Henry B., 103, 119. + + Stephens, A. H., xv. + + Stevens, Alexander H., 4. + + Stewart, Alvan, 52, 76, 92, 95, 96, 99, 107. + + ----, Charles, 53. + + Stone, James A., 53. + + Storrs, Henry R., 4. + + Stowe, Harriet B., xvii. + + Strong, J. W., 160. + + Sturge, Joseph, v, 130, 131, 144, 159. + + Stuyvesant, Peter G., 61. + + Sumner, Charles, 136, 152, 159. + + + Tabernacle, the Broadway, 92. + + Tappan, Arthur, xvi, 40, 45, 49, 53, 55, 64, 67, 68, 73, 102, 103, + 158. + + ----, Lewis, xvi, 40, 47, 54, 73, 75, 103, 113, 158. + + Taylor, Nathaniel W., 4. + + Thompson, George, 63, 67. + + Tighlman, William, 12. + + Tocqueville, de, A., 15. + + Tompkins, Daniel D., 12. + + Torrey, Charles T., 101. + + Tucker, Beverly, xiii. + + + Utica Convention, 76. + + + Varick, Richard, 12. + + Vaux, Robert, 159. + + Vergennes, Count de, v. + + Villamarina, Marquis de, vi. + + Voorhis, R. R., 160. + + + Walewski, Count, vi. + + Walworth, Chancellor, 48. + + "War and Peace," v, 130, 131. + + Ward, Aaron, 34, 160. + + ----, Samuel R., xvii. + + Washington, Bushrod, 12. + + ----, George, 155. + + Wayne, James M., 13. + + Webster, Daniel, 137, 139, 144, 150. + + _Weekly Emancipator_, 40. + + Weld, Theodore D., xvii. + + Whittier, John G., xvii, 40, 51, 103. + + Wickliffe, Charles A., 35. + + Wilberforce, Samuel, 133, 134. + + Williams, Ransom G., 74, 75. + + Wilson, Henry, 58. + + Wirt, William, 12. + + Woman question, the, 103, 104, 105. + + Woolman, John, 19. + + Worthington, Governor, 12. + + Wright, Elizur, Jr,, xvii, 40, 49, 53, 65, 67, 73, 107, 159. + + ----, Theodore S., 73. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +REPRESENTATIVES OF ANTISLAVERY OPINION IN NEW YORK IN 1864. + +A complimentary breakfast was given to Professor Goldwin Smith at +the rooms of the Union League Club, on Union Square, New York, on +Saturday morning, the 12th November, 1864. + +The following gentlemen joined in the invitation: + +Jonathan Sturges, _President of Union League Club_, _New York_; +Charles Butler; John C. Hamilton; Wm. Curtis Noyes, LL.D.; Hon. +Horace Greeley, _Editor of the New York Tribune_; Hon. H. J. +Raymond, Editor of the New York Times; Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., +_President of United States Sanitary Commission_; Francis Lieber, +LL.D., _Professor of History in Columbia College_; Vincenzo Botta, +Ph.D.; Elliot C. Cowdin; Col. James McKaye; Wm. H. Webb; Geo. C. +Ward; Isaac Ferris, D.D., _Chancellor of the University_; Wm. Allen +Butler; Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, LL.D.; Hon. Wm. E. Dodge; Wm. H. +Osborn; A. Gracie King; C. A. Bristed; Cyrus W. Field; T. B. +Coddington; Wm. J. Hoppin; Charles H. Marshall; Alfred Pell; Horace +Webster, LL.D., _Principal of the Free Academy_; John Jay; Wm. +Cullen Bryant; Wm. M. Evarts; Parke Godwin, _Editor of the Evening +Post_; F. A. P. Barnard, LL.D., _President of Columbia College_; W. +T. Blodgett; Geo. Griswold; Hon. Chas. P. Kirkland; James Brown; +John E. Williams; A. A. Low, _President of the Chamber of Commerce_; +John Austin Stevens, Jr., _Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce_; +Geo. T. Strong; John C. Green; Richard M. Hunt; Geo. W. Blunt; John +A. Weeks; Otis D. Swan; Col. L. G. B. Cannon; Theodore Roosevelt; C. +E. Detmold. + +Among the distinguished guests invited to meet Professor Goldwin +Smith, the following gentlemen were present: + +Rev. Dr. Thompson; John A. Stevens; Prof. John W. Draper; Maj.-Gen. +B. F. Butler, U. S. A; M. Auguste Laugel, of France; Hon. Geo. +Bancroft; Geo. P. Putnam; Dr. Willard Parker; Rev. S. Osgood, D.D.; +Hon. E. D. Morgan; Rev. H. Ward Beecher; Rev. A. P. Putnam; Rev. A. +Cleveland Coxe, D.D., _Assistant Bishop-elect of the Western Diocese +of New York_; Prof. H. B. Smith, D.D., _Professor of Systematic +Theology in Union Theological Seminary, New York_; Chas. King, +LL.D.; Peter Cooper, _Founder of the Cooper Union_; G. W. Curtis; +Geo. L. Schuyler; Prof. Theo. W. Dwight, LL.D., _Law Professor in +Columbia College_; Rev. G. L. Prentiss, D.D. + +Among the letters of regret were notes from Lincoln, Fessenden, +Major-General Halleck, and Attorney-General Bates. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] The title of M. de Circourt's work is:--"_Histoire de l'action +commune de la France et de l'Amerique pour l'Independence des Etats +Unis._" Paris, 1876. + +[B] In view of their historic significance, their names are given in +the Appendix. + +[C] During Judge Jay's absence in Europe a striking anti-annexation +Texas meeting was held at the Tabernacle in New York, on the 24th of +April, 1844. It had been called by members of the King, Duer, +Townsend, Goodhue, Sedgwick, Field, Griswold, and Hyslop families +and many leading merchants of New York. The call was subsequently +presented by John Jay to the New York Historical Society, for +preservation in its records. A letter was read from Chancellor Kent +denouncing the annexation of Texas without the consent of Mexico as +a breach of national faith which would be universally condemned. +Speeches were made by Theodore Sedgwick and D. D. Field. But the +most imposing feature of the manifestation was the presence in the +chair of Albert Gallatin, the last survivor of Jefferson's cabinet, +who, despite his age and infirmities, had been carried to the +meeting to protest in his own name and in that of his historic chief +against so flagrant a violation of national honour and public faith. +The appeal of Gallatin for a time promised to be successful. Van +Buren, whose views had been doubtful, wrote, under its influence, +his letter to Hammett objecting to annexation. But an annexation +meeting was held in Richmond to counteract that at New York, and +when the Democratic Convention met at Baltimore an adroit change of +policy in regard to nominations displaced Van Buren and nominated +Polk. + +[D] The later history of international arbitration is set forth by +Sir Lyon Playfair in the _North American Review_ for December, 1890. + +[E] Among those with whom Judge Jay was most often in communication +may be mentioned: Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Rev. +A. A. Phelps, Robert Vaux, E. Wright, Jr., Joshua Leavitt, Samuel J. +May, Reuben Crandall, James G. Birney, Theodore Sedgwick, Beriah +Green, Gerrit Smith, John Scoble of England, Mrs. L. M. Child, Miss +Grimke, Wm. Goodell, G. Bailey, Jr., Rev. Dr. Morrison of England, +Gov. R. W. Habersham, W. W. Anderson of Jamaica, W. I., Joseph +Sturge of England, Jabez D. Hammond, Geo. W. Alexander of England, +William Slade, John Quincy Adams, Wm. H. Seward, S. P. Chase, Prof. +C. D. Cleveland, Thomas Clarkson of England, Sir W. Colebrook, +governor of New Brunswick, Charles Sumner, Chief-Justice Hornblower, +J. G. Palfrey, and John P. Hale. + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from + the original. + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of William Jay and the Constitutional +Movement for the Abolition of Slavery, by Bayard Tuckerman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABOLITION OF SLAVERY *** + +***** This file should be named 39568.txt or 39568.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39568/ + +Produced by David E. 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