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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/9595.txt b/9595.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a98394f --- /dev/null +++ b/9595.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5187 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, The Confict With Slavery, Part 1, From Vol. VII. +The Works of Whittier: The Conflict With Slavery, Politics and Reform +#40 in our series by John Greenleaf Whittier + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: The Conflict With Slavery, Part 1, From Vol. VII, + The Works of Whittier: The Conflict With Slavery, Politics + and Reform, The Inner Life and Criticism + + +Author: John Greenleaf Whittier + +Release Date: December 2005 [EBook #9595] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 25, 2003] + + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY + + POLITICS AND REFORM + + THE INNER LIFE + + CRITICISM + + + BY + + JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + + + + +CONTENTS: + +THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY + JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY + THE ABOLITIONISTS; THEIR SENTIMENTS AND OBJECTS + LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY + WHAT IS SLAVERY + DEMOCRAT AND SLAVERY + THE TWO PROCESSIONS + A CHAPTER OF HISTORY + THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE QUESTION + FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY + THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY + CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT + THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872 + THE CENSURE OF SUMNER + THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833 + KANSAS + WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON + ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY + RESPONSE TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY + +REFORM AND POLITICS. + UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS + PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS + LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES + WOMAN SUFFRAGE + ITALIAN UNITY + INDIAN CIVILIZATION + READING FOR THE BLIND + THE INDIAN QUESTION + THE REPUBLICAN PARTY + OUR DUMB RELATIONS + INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION + SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN + +THE INNER LIFE. + THE AGENCY OF EVIL + HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES + SWEDENBORG + THE BETTER LAND + DORA GREENWELL + THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS + JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL + THE OLD WAY + HAVERFORD COLLEGE + +CRITICISM. + EVANGELINE + MIRTH AND MEDICINE + FAME AND GLORY + FANATICISM + THE POETRY OF THE NORTH + + + + + THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY + + + + JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY + +OR, SLAVERY CONSIDERED WITH A VIEW TO ITS RIGHTFUL AND EFFECTUAL REMEDY, +ABOLITION. + + [1833.] + + "There is a law above all the enactments of human codes, the same + throughout the world, the same in all time,--such as it was before + the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened + to one world the sources of wealth and power and knowledge, to + another all unutterable woes; such as it is at this day: it is the + law written by the finger of God upon the heart of man; and by that + law, unchangeable and eternal while men despise fraud, and loathe + rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild + and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man." + --LORD BROUGHAM. + +IT may be inquired of me why I seek to agitate the subject of Slavery in +New England, where we all acknowledge it to be an evil. Because such an +acknowledgment is not enough on our part. It is doing no more than the +slave-master and the slave-trader. "We have found," says James Monroe, +in his speech on the subject before the Virginia Convention, "that this +evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union; and has been +prejudicial to all the states in which it has existed." All the states +in their several Constitutions and declarations of rights have made a +similar statement. And what has been the consequence of this general +belief in the evil of human servitude? Has it sapped the foundations of +the infamous system? No. Has it decreased the number of its victims? +Quite the contrary. Unaccompanied by philanthropic action, it has been +in a moral point of view worthless, a thing without vitality, sightless, +soulless, dead. + +But it may be said that the miserable victims of the system have our +sympathies. Sympathy the sympathy of the Priest and the Levite, looking +on, and acknowledging, but holding itself aloof from mortal suffering. +Can such hollow sympathy reach the broken of heart, and does the blessing +of those who are ready to perish answer it? Does it hold back the lash +from the slave, or sweeten his bitter bread? One's heart and soul are +becoming weary of this sympathy, this heartless mockery of feeling; sick +of the common cant of hypocrisy, wreathing the artificial flowers of +sentiment over unutterable pollution and unimaginable wrong. It is +white-washing the sepulchre to make us forget its horrible deposit. It +is scattering flowers around the charnel-house and over the yet festering +grave to turn away our thoughts "from the dead men's bones and all +uncleanness," the pollution and loathsomeness below. + +No! let the truth on this subject, undisguised, naked, terrible as it is, +stand out before us. Let us no longer seek to cover it; let us no longer +strive to forget it; let us no more dare to palliate it. It is better to +meet it here with repentance than at the bar of God. The cry of the +oppressed, of the millions who have perished among us as the brute +perisheth, shut out from the glad tidings of salvation, has gone there +before us, to Him who as a father pitieth all His children. Their blood +is upon us as a nation; woe unto us, if we repent not, as a nation, in +dust and ashes. Woe unto us if we say in our hearts, "The Lord shall not +see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. He that planted the ear, +shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?" + +But it may be urged that New England has no participation in slavery, and +is not responsible for its wickedness. + +Why are we thus willing to believe a lie? New England not responsible! +Bound by the United States constitution to protect the slave-holder in +his sins, and yet not responsible! Joining hands with crime, covenanting +with oppression, leaguing with pollution, and yet not responsible! +Palliating the evil, hiding the evil, voting for the evil, do we not +participate in it? + + [Messrs. Harvey of New Hampshire, Mallary of Vermont, and Ripley of + Maine, voted in the Congress of 1829 against the consideration of a + Resolution for inquiring into the expediency of abolishing slavery + in the District of Columbia.] + +Members of one confederacy, children of one family, the curse and the +shame, the sin against our brother, and the sin against our God, all the +iniquity of slavery which is revealed to man, and all which crieth in the +ear, or is manifested to the eye of Jehovah, will assuredly be visited +upon all our people. Why, then, should we stretch out our hands towards +our Southern brethren, and like the Pharisee thank God we are not like +them? For so long as we practically recognize the infernal principle +that "man can hold property in man," God will not hold us guiltless. So +long as we take counsel of the world's policy instead of the justice of +heaven, so long as we follow a mistaken political expediency in +opposition to the express commands of God, so long will the wrongs of the +slaves rise like a cloud of witnesses against us at the inevitable bar. + +Slavery is protected by the constitutional compact, by the standing army, +by the militia of the free states. + + [J. Q. Adams is the only member of Congress who has ventured to + speak plainly of this protection. See also his very able Report + from the minority of the Committee on Manufactures. In his speech + during the last session, upon the bill of the Committee of Ways and + Means, after discussing the constitutional protection of slavery, he + says: "But that same interest is further protected by the Laws of + the United States. It was protected by the existence of a standing + army. If the States of this Union were all free republican States, + and none of them possessed any of the machinery of which he had + spoken, and if another portion of the Union were not exposed to + another danger, from their vicinity to the tribes of Indian savages, + he believed it would be difficult to prove to the House any such + thing as the necessity of a standing army. What in fact was the + occupation of the army? It had been protecting this very same + interest. It had been doing so ever since the army existed. Of + what use to the district of Plymouth (which he there represented) + was the standing army of the United States? Of not one dollar's + use, and never had been."] + +Let us not forget that should the slaves, goaded by wrongs unendurable, +rise in desperation, and pour the torrent of their brutal revenge over +the beautiful Carolinas, or the consecrated soil of Virginia, New England +would be called upon to arrest the progress of rebellion,--to tread out +with the armed heel of her soldiery that spirit of freedom, which knows +no distinction of cast or color; which has been kindled in the heart of +the black as well as in that of the white. + +And what is this system which we are thus protecting and upholding? A +system which holds two millions of God's creatures in bondage, which +leaves one million females without any protection save their own feeble +strength, and which makes even the exercise of that strength in +resistance to outrage punishable with death! which considers rational, +immortal beings as articles of traffic, vendible commodities, +merchantable property,--which recognizes no social obligations, no +natural relations,--which tears without scruple the infant from the +mother, the wife from the husband, the parent from the child. In the +strong but just language of another: "It is the full measure of pure, +unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and scorning all competition or +comparison, it stands without a rival in the secure, undisputed +possession of its detestable preeminence." + +So fearful an evil should have its remedies. The following are among the +many which have been from time to time proposed:-- + +1. Placing the slaves in the condition of the serfs of Poland and +Russia, fixed to the soil, and without the right on the part of the +master to sell or remove them. This was intended as a preliminary to +complete emancipation at some remote period, but it is impossible to +perceive either its justice or expediency. + +2. Gradual abolition, an indefinite term, but which is understood to +imply the draining away drop by drop, of the great ocean of wrong; +plucking off at long intervals some, straggling branches of the moral +Upas; holding out to unborn generations the shadow of a hope which the +present may never feel gradually ceasing to do evil; gradually refraining +from robbery, lust, and murder: in brief, obeying a short-sighted and +criminal policy rather than the commands of God. + +3. Abstinence on the part of the people of the free states from the use +of the known products of slave labor, in order to render that labor +profitless. Beyond a doubt the example of conscientious individuals may +have a salutary effect upon the minds of some of the slave-holders; I but +so long as our confederacy exists, a commercial intercourse with slave +states and a consumption of their products cannot be avoided. + + [The following is a recorded statement of the venerated Sir William + Jones: "Let sugar be as cheap as it may, it is better to eat none, + better to eat aloes and colloquintida, than violate a primary law + impressed on every heart not imbruted with avarice; than rob one + human creature of those eternal rights of which no law on earth can + justly deprive him."] + +4. Colonization. +The exclusive object of the American Colonization Society, according to +the second article of its constitution, is to colonize the free people of +color residing among us, in Africa or such other place as Congress may +direct. Steadily adhering to this object it has nothing to do with +slavery; and I allude to it as a remedy only because some of its friends +have in view an eventual abolition or an amelioration of the evil. + +Let facts speak. The Colonization Society was organized in 1817. It has +two hundred and eighteen auxiliary societies. The legislatures of +fourteen states have recommended it. Contributions have poured into its +treasury from every quarter of the United States. Addresses in its favor +have been heard from all our pulpits. It has been in operation sixteen +years. During this period nearly one million human beings have died in +slavery: and the number of slaves has increased more than half a million, +or in round numbers, 550,000 + +The Colonization Society has been busily engaged all this while in +conveying the slaves to Africa; in other words, abolishing slavery. In +this very charitable occupation it has carried away of manumitted slaves +613 + +Balance against the society . . . . 549,387! + +But enough of its abolition tendency. What has it done for amelioration? +Witness the newly enacted laws of some of the slave states, laws bloody +as the code of Draco, violating the laws of Cod and the unalienable +rights of His children?--[It will be seen that the society approves of +these laws.]--But why talk of amelioration? Amelioration of what? of +sin, of crime unutterable, of a system of wrong and outrage horrible in +the eye of God Why seek to mark the line of a selfish policy, a carnal +expediency between the criminality of hell and that repentance and its +fruits enjoined of heaven? + +For the principles and views of the society we must look to its own +statements and admissions; to its Annual Reports; to those of its +auxiliaries; to the speeches and writings of its advocates; and to its +organ, the African Repository. + +1. It excuses slavery and apologizes for slaveholders. + +Proof. "Slavery is an evil entailed upon the present generation of +slave-holders, which they must suffer, whether they will or not!" "The +existence of slavery among us, though not at all to be objected to our +Southern brethren as a fault," etc? "It (the society) condemns no man +because he is a slave-holder." "Recognizing the constitutional and +legitimate existence of slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either +directly or indirectly, with the rights it creates. Acknowledging the +necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous provisions +for its maintenance are justified," etc. "They (the Abolitionists) +confound the misfortunes of one generation with the crimes of another, +and would sacrifice both individual and public good to an unsubstantial +theory of the rights of man." + +2. It pledges itself not to oppose the system of slavery. + +Proof. "Our society and the friends of colonization wish to be +distinctly understood upon this point. From the beginning they have +disavowed, and they do yet disavow, that their object is the emancipation +of slaves."--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq., First Annual Report of the +New Jersey Colonization Society.] + +"This institution proposes to do good by a single specific course of +measures. Its direct and specific purpose is not the abolition of +slavery, or the relief of pauperism, or the extension of commerce and +civilization, or the enlargement of science, or the conversion of the +heathen. The single object which its constitution prescribes, and to +which all its efforts are necessarily directed, is African colonization +from America. It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary +emigration of free people of color from this country to the country of +their fathers." + +"It is no abolition society; it addresses as yet arguments to no master, +and disavows with horror the idea of offering temptations to any slave. +It denies the design of attempting emancipation, either partial or +general." + +"The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the name and +the characteristics of abolitionists. On this point they have been +unjustly and injuriously slandered. Into their accounts the subject of +emancipation does not enter at all." + +"From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its existence, it +has constantly disclaimed all intention of interfering, in the smallest +degree, with the rights of property, or the object of emancipation, +gradual or immediate." . . . "The society presents to the American +public no project of emancipation."--[ Mr. Clay's Speech, Idem, vol. vi. +pp. 13, 17.] + +"The emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition, with +the moral, intellectual, and political improvement of people of color +within the United States, are subjects foreign to the powers of this +society." + +"The society, as a society, recognizes no principles in reference to the +slave system. It says nothing, and proposes to do nothing, respecting +it." . . . "So far as we can ascertain, the supporters of the +colonization policy generally believe that slavery is in this country a +constitptional and legitimate system, which they have no inclination, +interest, nor ability to disturb." + +3. It regards God's rational creatures as property. + +Proof. "We hold their slaves, as we hold their other property, sacred." + +"It is equally plain and undeniable that the society, in the prosecution +of this work, has never interfered or evinced even a disposition to +interfere in any way with the rights of proprietors of slaves." + +"To the slave-holder, who has charged upon them the wicked design of +interfering with the rights of property under the specious pretext of +removing a vicious and dangerous free population, they address themselves +in a tone of conciliation and sympathy. We know your rights, say they, +and we respect them." + +4. It boasts that its measures are calculated to perpetuate the detested +system of slavery, to remove the fears of the slave-holder, and increase +the value of his stock of human beings. + +Proof. "They (the Southern slave-holders) will contribute more +effectually to the continuance and strength of this system (slavery) by +removing those now free than by any or all other methods which can +possibly be devised." + +"So far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, the measure +proposed would be one of the greatest securities to enable the master to +keep in possession his own property."--[Speech of John Randolph at the +first meeting of the Colonization Society.] + +"The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to secure slave- +holders, and the whole Southern country, against certain evil +consequences growing out of the present threefold mixture of our +population." + +"There was but one way (to avert danger), but that might be made +effectual, fortunately. It was to provide and keep open a drain for the +excess beyond the occasions of profitable employment. Mr. Archer had +been stating the case in the supposition, that after the present class of +free blacks had been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was +recommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the proportion +of the excess of colored population it would be necessary to throw off, +by the process of voluntary manumission or sale. This effect must result +inevitably from the depreciating value of the slaves, ensuing their +disproportionate multiplication. The depreciation would be relieved and +retarded at the same time by the process. The two operations would aid +reciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest degree +beneficial. It was on the ground of interest, therefore, the most +indisputable pecuniary interest, that he addressed himself to the people +and legislatures of the slave-holding states." + +"The slave-holder, who is in danger of having his slaves contaminated by +their free friends of color, will not only be relieved from this danger, +but the value of his slave will be enhanced." + +5. It denies the power of Christian love to overcome an unholy prejudice +against a portion of our fellow-creatures. + +Proof. "The managers consider it clear that causes exist and are +operating to prevent their (the blacks) improvement and elevation to any +considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are fixed, not +only beyond the control of the friends of humanity, but of any human +power. Christianity will not do for them here what it will do for them +in Africa. This is not the fault of the colored man, nor Christianity; +but an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the laws +of Nature!"--[Last Annual Report of the American Colonization Society.] + +"The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices +which neither refinement, nor argument, nor education, nor religion +itself, can subdue--mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as +the subjects of a degradation inevitable and incurable. The African in +this country belongs by birth to the very lowest station in society, and +from that station he can never rise, be his talents, his enterprise, his +virtues what they may. . . . They constitute a class by themselves, a +class out of which no individual can be elevated, and below which none +can be depressed." + +"Is it not wise, then, for the free people of color and their friends to +admit, what cannot reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must, +in this country, remain for ages, probably forever, a separate and +inferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal, inevitable; +which neither legislation nor Christianity can remove?" + +6. It opposes strenuously the education of the blacks in this country as +useless as well as dangerous. + +Proof. "If the free colored people were generally taught to read it +might be an inducement to them to remain in this country (that is, in +their native country). We would offer then no such inducement."-- +[Southern Religious Telegraph, February 19, 1831.] + +"The public safety of our brethren at the South requires them (the +slaves) to be kept ignorant and uninstructed." + +"It is the business of the free (their safety requires it) to keep the +slaves in ignorance. But a few days ago a proposition was made in the +legislature of Georgia to allow them so much instruction as to enable +them to read the Bible; which was promptly rejected by a large +majority."--[Proceedings of New York State Colonization Society at its +second anniversary.] + +E. B. Caldwell, the first Secretary of the American Colonization Society, +in his speech at its formation, recommended them to be kept "in the +lowest state of ignorance and degradation, for (says he) the nearer you +bring them to the condition of brutes, the better chance do you give them +of possessing their apathy." + +My limits will not admit of a more extended examination. To the +documents from whence the above extracts have been made I would call the +attention of every real friend of humanity. I seek to do the +Colonization Society no injustice, but I wish the public generally to +understand its character. + +The tendency of the society to abolish the slave-trade by means of its +African colony has been strenuously urged by its friends. But the +fallacy of this is now admitted by all: witness the following from the +reports of the society itself:-- + +"Some appalling facts in regard to the slave-trade have come to the +knowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year. With +undiminished atrocity and activity is this odious traffic now carried on +all along the African coast. Slave factories are established in the +immediate vicinity of the colony; and at the Gallinas (between Liberia +and Sierra Leone) not less than nine hundred slaves were shipped during +the last summer, in the space of three weeks." + +April 6, 1832, the House of Commons of England ordered the printing of a +document entitled "Slave-Trade, Sierra Leone," containing official +evidence of the fact that the pirates engaged in the African slave-trade +are supplied from the stores of Sierra Leone and Liberia with such +articles as the infernal traffic demands! An able English writer on the +subject of Colonization thus notices this astounding fact:-- + +"And here it may be well to observe, that as long as negro slavery lasts, +all colonies on the African coast, of whatever description, must tend to +support it, because, in all commerce, the supply is more or less +proportioned to the demand. The demand exists in negro slavery; the +supply arises from the African slave-trade. And what greater convenience +could the African slave-traders desire than shops well stored along the +coast with the very articles which their trade demands. That the African +slave-traders do get thus supplied at Sierra Leone and Liberia is matter +of official evidence; and we know, from the nature of human things, that +they will get so supplied, in defiance of all law or precaution, as long +as the demand calls for the supply, and there are free shops stored with +all they want at hand. The shopkeeper, however honest, would find it +impossible always to distinguish between the African slave-trader or his +agents and other dealers. And how many shopkeepers are there anywhere +that would be over scrupulous in questioning a customer with a full +purse?" + +But we are told that the Colonization Society is to civilize and +evangelize Africa. + +"Each emigrant," says Henry Clay, the ablest advocate which the society +has yet found, "is a missionary, carrying with him credentials in the +holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions." + +Beautiful and heart-cheering idea! But stay who are these emigrants, +these missionaries? + +The free people of color. "They, and they only," says the African +Repository, the society's organ, "are qualified for colonizing Africa." + +What are their qualifications? Let the society answer in its own words:-- +Free blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves themselves."-- +[African Repository, vol. ii. p. 328.] + +"A horde of miserable people--the objects of universal suspicion-- +subsisting by plunder." + +"An anomalous race of beings the most debased upon earth."--[African +Repository, vol. vii. p. 230.] + +"Of all classes of our population the most vicious is that of the free +colored."--[Tenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society.] + +I might go on to quote still further from the "credentials" which the +free people of color are to carry with them to Liberia. But I forbear. + +I come now to the only practicable, the only just scheme of emancipation: +Immediate abolition of slavery; an immediate acknowledgment of the great +truth, that man cannot hold property in man; an immediate surrender of +baneful prejudice to Christian love; an immediate practical obedience to +the command of Jesus Christ: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto +you, do ye even so to them." + +A correct understanding of what is meant by immediate abolition must +convince every candid mind that it is neither visionary nor dangerous; +that it involves no disastrous consequences of bloodshed and desolation; +but, on the, contrary, that it is a safe, practicable, efficient remedy +for the evils of the slave system. + +The term immediate is used in contrast with that of gradual. Earnestly +as I wish it, I do not expect, no one expects, that the tremendous system +of oppression can be instantaneously overthrown. The terrible and +unrebukable indignation of a free people has not yet been sufficiently +concentrated against it. The friends of abolition have not forgotten the +peculiar organization of our confederacy, the delicate division of power +between the states and the general government. They see the many +obstacles in their pathway; but they know that public opinion can +overcome them all. They ask no aid of physical coercion. They seek to +obtain their object not with the weapons of violence and blood, but with +those of reason and truth, prayer to God, and entreaty to man. + +They seek to impress indelibly upon every human heart the true doctrines +of the rights of man; to establish now and forever this great and +fundamental truth of human liberty, that man cannot hold property in his +brother; for they believe that the general admission of this truth will +utterly destroy the system of slavery, based as that system is upon a +denial or disregard of it. To make use of the clear exposition of an +eminent advocate of immediate abolition, our plan of emancipation is +simply this: "To promulgate the true doctrine of human rights in high +places and low places, and all places where there are human beings; to +whisper it in chimney corners, and to proclaim it from the house-tops, +yea, from the mountain-tops; to pour it out like water from the pulpit +and the press; to raise it up with all the food of the inner man, from +infancy to gray hairs; to give 'line upon line, and precept upon +precept,' till it forms one of the foundation principles and parts +indestructible of the public soul. Let those who contemn this plan +renounce, if they have not done it already, the gospel plan of converting +the world; let them renounce every plan of moral reformation, and every +plan whatsoever, which does not terminate in the gratification of their +own animal natures." + +The friends of emancipation would urge in the first instance an immediate +abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories +of Florida and Arkansas. + +The number of slaves in these portions of the country, coming under the +direct jurisdiction of the general government, is as follows:-- + +District of Columbia ..... 6,119 +Territory of Arkansas .... 4,576 +Territory of Florida .... 15,501 + + Total 26,196 + +Here, then, are twenty-six thousand human beings, fashioned in the image +of God, the fitted temples of His Holy Spirit, held by the government in +the abhorrent chains of slavery. The power to emancipate them is clear. +It is indisputable. It does not depend upon the twenty-five slave votes +in Congress. It lies with the free states. Their duty is before them: +in the fear of God, and not of man let them perform it. + +Let them at once strike off the grievous fetters. Let them declare that +man shall no longer hold his fellow-man in bondage, a beast of burden, an +article of traffic, within the governmental domain. God and truth and +eternal justice demand this. The very reputation of our fathers, the +honor of our land, every principle of liberty, humanity, expediency, +demand it. A sacred regard to free principles originated our +independence, not the paltry amount of practical evil complained of. And +although our fathers left their great work unfinished, it is our duty to +follow out their principles. Short of liberty and equality we cannot +stop without doing injustice to their memories. If our fathers intended +that slavery should be perpetual, that our practice should forever give +the lie to our professions, why is the great constitutional compact so +guardedly silent on the subject of human servitude? If state necessity +demanded this perpetual violation of the laws of God and the rights of +man, this continual solecism in a government of freedom, why is it not +met as a necessity, incurable and inevitable, and formally and distinctly +recognized as a settled part of our social system? State necessity, that +imperial tyrant, seeks no disguise. In the language of Sheridan, "What +he does, he dares avow, and avowing, scorns any other justification than +the great motives which placed the iron sceptre in his grasp." + +Can it be possible that our fathers felt this state necessity strong upon +them? No; for they left open the door for emancipation, they left us the +light of their pure principles of liberty, they framed the great charter +of American rights, without employing a term in its structure to which in +aftertimes of universal freedom the enemies of our country could point +with accusation or reproach. + +What, then, is our duty? + +To give effect to the spirit of our Constitution; to plant ourselves upon +the great declaration and declare in the face of all the world that +political, religious, and legal hypocrisy shall no longer cover as with +loathsome leprosy the features of American freedom; to loose at once the +bands of wickedness; to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go +free. + +We have indeed been authoritatively told in Congress and elsewhere that +our brethren of the South and West will brook no further agitation of the +subject of slavery. What then! shall we heed the unrighteous +prohibition? No; by our duty as Christians, as politicians, by our duty +to ourselves, to our neighbor, and to God, we are called upon to agitate +this subject; to give slavery no resting-place under the hallowed aegis +of a government of freedom; to tear it root and branch, with all its +fruits of abomination, at least from the soil of the national domain. +The slave-holder may mock us; the representatives of property, +merchandise, vendible commodities, may threaten us; still our duty is +imperative; the spirit of the Constitution should be maintained within +the exclusive jurisdiction of the government. If we cannot "provide for +the general welfare," if we cannot "guarantee to each of the states a +republican form of government," let us at least no longer legislate for a +free nation within view of the falling whip, and within hearing of the +execrations of the task-master and the prayer of his slave! + +I deny the right of the slave-holder to impose silence on his brother of +the North in reference to slavery. What! compelled to maintain the +system, to keep up the standing army which protects it, and yet be denied +the poor privilege of remonstrance! Ready, at the summons of the master +to put down the insurrections of his slaves, the outbreaking of that +revenge which is now, and has been, in all nations, and all times, the +inevitable consequence of oppression and wrong, and yet like automata to +act but not speak! Are we to be denied even the right of a slave, the +right to murmur? + +I am not unaware that my remarks may be regarded by many as dangerous and +exceptionable; that I may be regarded as a fanatic for quoting the +language of eternal truth, and denounced as an incendiary for +maintaining, in the spirit as well as the letter, the doctrines of +American Independence. But if such are the consequences of a simple +performance of duty, I shall not regard them. If my feeble appeal but +reaches the hearts of any who are now slumbering in iniquity; if it shall +have power given it to shake down one stone from that foul temple where +the blood of human victims is offered to the Moloch of slavery; if under +Providence it can break one fetter from off the image of God, and enable +one suffering African + +"To feel +The weight of human misery less, and glide +Ungroaning to the tomb," + +I shall not have written in vain; my conscience will be satisfied. + +Far be it from me to cast new bitterness into the gall and wormwood +waters of sectional prejudice. No; I desire peace, the peace of +universal love, of catholic sympathy, the peace of a common interest, a +common feeling, a common humanity. But so long as slavery is tolerated, +no such peace can exist. Liberty and slavery cannot dwell in harmony +together. There will be a perpetual "war in the members" of the +political Mezentius between the living and the dead. God and man have +placed between them an everlasting barrier, an eternal separation. No +matter under what name or law or compact their union is attempted, the +ordination of Providence has forbidden it, and it cannot stand. Peace! +there can be no peace between justice and oppression, between robbery and +righteousness, truth and falsehood, freedom and slavery. + +The slave-holding states are not free. The name of liberty is there, but +the spirit is wanting. They do not partake of its invaluable blessings. +Wherever slavery exists to any considerable extent, with the exception of +some recently settled portions of the country, and which have not yet +felt in a great degree the baneful and deteriorating influences of slave +labor, we hear at this moment the cry of suffering. We are told of +grass-grown streets, of crumbling mansions, of beggared planters and +barren plantations, of fear from without, of terror within. The once +fertile fields are wasted and tenantless, for the curse of slavery, the +improvidence of that labor whose hire has been kept back by fraud, has +been there, poisoning the very earth beyond the reviving influence of the +early and the latter rain. A moral mildew mingles with and blasts the +economy of nature. It is as if the finger of the everlasting God had +written upon the soil of the slave-holder the language of His +displeasure. + +Let, then, the slave-holding states consult their present interest by +beginning without delay the work of emancipation. If they fear not, and +mock at the fiery indignation of Him, to whom vengeance belongeth, let +temporal interest persuade them. They know, they must know, that the +present state of things cannot long continue. Mind is the same +everywhere, no matter what may be the complexion of the frame which it +animates: there is a love of liberty which the scourge cannot eradicate, +a hatred of oppression which centuries of degradation cannot extinguish. +The slave will become conscious sooner or later of his brute strength, +his physical superiority, and will exert it. His torch will be at the +threshold and his knife at the throat of the planter. Horrible and +indiscriminate will be his vengeance. Where, then, will be the pride, +the beauty, and the chivalry of the South? The smoke of her torment will +rise upward like a thick cloud visible over the whole earth. + + "Belie the negro's powers: in headlong will, + Christian, thy brother thou shalt find him still. + Belie his virtues: since his wrongs began, + His follies and his crimes have stamped him man." + +Let the cause of insurrection be removed, then, as speedily as possible. +Cease to oppress. "Let him that stole steal no more." Let the laborer +have his hire. Bind him no longer by the cords of slavery, but with +those of kindness and brotherly love. Watch over him for his good. Pray +for him; instruct him; pour light into the darkness of his mind. + +Let this be done, and the horrible fears which now haunt the slumbers of +the slave-holder will depart. Conscience will take down its racks and +gibbets, and his soul will be at peace. His lands will no longer +disappoint his hopes. Free labor will renovate them. + +Historical facts; the nature of the human mind; the demonstrated truths +of political economy; the analysis of cause and effect, all concur in +establishing: + +1. That immediate abolition is a safe and just and peaceful remedy for +the evils of the slave system. + +2. That free labor, its necessary consequence, is more productive, and +more advantageous to the planter than slave labor. + +In proof of the first proposition it is only necessary to state the +undeniable fact that immediate emancipation, whether by an individual or +a community, has in no instance been attended with violence and disorder +on the part of the emancipated; but that on the contrary it has promoted +cheerfulness, industry, and laudable ambition in the place of sullen +discontent, indolence, and despair. + +The case of St. Domingo is in point. Blood was indeed shed on that +island like water, but it was not in consequence of emancipation. It was +shed in the civil war which preceded it, and in the iniquitous attempt to +restore the slave system in 1801. It flowed on the sanguine altar of +slavery, not on the pure and peaceful one of emancipation. No; there, as +in all the world and in all time, the violence of oppression engendered +violence on the part of the oppressed, and vengeance followed only upon +the iron footsteps of wrong. When, where, did justice to the injured +waken their hate and vengeance? When, where, did love and kindness and +sympathy irritate and madden the persecuted, the broken-hearted, the +foully wronged? + +In September, 1793, the Commissioner of the French National Convention +issued his proclamation giving immediate freedom to all the slaves of St. +Domingo. Did the slaves baptize their freedom in blood? Did they fight +like unchained desperadoes because they had been made free? Did they +murder their emancipators? No; they acted, as human beings must act, +under similar circumstances, by a law as irresistible as those of the +universe: kindness disarmed them, justice conciliated them, freedom +ennobled them. No tumult followed this wide and instantaneous +emancipation. It cost not one drop of blood; it abated not one tittle of +the wealth or the industry of the island. Colonel Malenfant, a slave +proprietor residing at the time on the island, states that after the +public act of abolition, the negroes remained perfectly quiet; they had +obtained all they asked for, liberty, and they continued to work upon all +the plantations.--[Malenfant in Memoirs for a History of St. Domingo by +General Lecroix, 1819.] + +"There were estates," he says, "which had neither owners nor managers +resident upon them, yet upon these estates, though abandoned, the negroes +continued their labors where there were any, even inferior, agents to +guide them; and on those estates where no white men were left to direct +them, they betook themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon all +the plantations where the whites resided the blacks continued to labor as +quietly as before." Colonel Malenfant says that when many of his +neighbors, proprietors or managers, were in prison, the negroes of their +plantations came to him to beg him to direct them in their work. "If you +will take care not to talk to them of the restoration of slavery, but +talk to them of freedom, you may with this word chain them down to their +labor. How did Toussaint succeed? How did I succeed before his time in +the plain of the Cul-de-Sac on the plantation of Gouraud, during more +than eight months after liberty had been granted to the slaves? Let +those who knew me at that time, let the blacks themselves be asked. They +will all reply that not a single negro upon that plantation, consisting +of more than four hundred and fifty laborers, refused to work; and yet +this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the +slaves the most idle of any in the plain. I inspired the same activity +into three other plantations of which I had the management. If all the +negroes had come from Africa within six months, if they had the love of +independence that the Indians have, I should own that force must be +employed; but ninety-nine out of a hundred of the blacks are aware that +without labor they cannot procure the things that are necessary for them; +that there is no other method of satisfying their wants and their tastes. +They know that they must work, they wish to do so, and they will do so." + +This is strong testimony. In 1796, three years after the act of +emancipation, we are told that the colony was flourishing under +Toussaint, that the whites lived happily and peaceably on their estates, +and the blacks continued to work for them. Up to 1801 the same happy +state of things continued. The colony went on as by enchantment; +cultivation made day by day a perceptible progress, under the +recuperative energies of free labor. + +In 1801 General Vincent, a proprietor of estates in the island, was sent +by Toussaint to Paris for the purpose of laying before the Directory the +new Constitution which had been adopted at St. Domingo. He reached +France just after the peace of Amiens, when Napoleon was fitting out his +ill-starred armament for the insane purpose of restoring slavery in the +island. General Vincent remonstrated solemnly and earnestly against an +expedition so preposterous, so cruel and unnecessary; undertaken at a +moment when all was peace and quietness in the colony, when the +proprietors were in peaceful possession of their estates, when +cultivation was making a rapid progress, and the blacks were industrious +and happy beyond example. He begged that this beautiful state of things +might not be reversed. The remonstrance was not regarded, and the +expedition proceeded. Its issue is well known. Threatened once more +with the horrors of slavery, the peaceful and quiet laborer became +transformed into a demon of ferocity. The plough-share and the pruning- +hook gave way to the pike and the dagger. The white invaders were driven +back by the sword and the pestilence; and then, and not till then, was +the property of the planters seized upon by the excited and infuriated +blacks. + +In 1804 Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor of Hayti. The black troops +were in a great measure disbanded, and they immediately returned to the +cultivation of the plantations. From that period up to the present there +has been no want of industry among the inhabitants. + +Mr. Harvey, who during the reign of Christophe resided at Cape Francois, +in describing the character and condition of the inhabitants, says "It +was an interesting sight to behold this class of the Haytiens, now in +possession of their freedom, coming in groups to the market nearest which +they resided, bringing the produce of their industry there for sale; and +afterwards returning, carrying back the necessary articles of living +which the disposal of their commodities had enabled them to purchase; all +evidently cheerful and happy. Nor could it fail to occur to the mind +that their present condition furnished the most satisfactory answer to +that objection to the general emancipation of slaves founded on their +alleged unfitness to value and improve the benefits of liberty. . . . +As they would not suffer, so they do not require, the attendance of one +acting in the capacity of a driver with the instrument of punishment in +his hand. As far as I had an opportunity of ascertaining from what fell +under my own observation, and from what I gathered from other European +residents, I am persuaded of one general fact, which on account of its +importance I shall state in the most explicit terms, namely, that the +Haytiens employed in cultivating the plantations, as well as the rest of +the population, perform as much work in a given time as they were +accustomed to do during their subjection to the French. And if we may +judge of their future improvement by the change which has been already +effected, it may be reasonably anticipated that Hayti will erelong +contain a population not inferior in their industry to that of any +civilized nation in the world. . . . Every man had some calling to +occupy his attention; instances of idleness or intemperance were of rare +occurrence; the most perfect subordination prevailed, and all appeared +contented and happy. A foreigner would have found it difficult to +persuade himself, on his first entering the place, that the people he now +beheld so submissive, industrious, and contented, were the same people +who a few years before had escaped from the shackles of slavery." + +The present condition of Hayti may be judged of from the following well- +authenticated facts its population is more than 700,000, its resources +ample, its prosperity and happiness general, its crimes few, its labor +crowned with abundance, with no paupers save the decrepit and aged, its +people hospitable, respectful, orderly, and contented. + +The manumitted slaves, who to the number of two thousand were settled in +Nova Scotia by the British Government at the close of the Revolutionary +War, "led a harmless life, and gained the character of an honest, +industrious people from their white neighbors." Of the free laborers of +Trinidad we have the same report. At the Cape of Good Hope, three +thousand negroes received their freedom, and with scarce a single +exception betook themselves to laborious employments. + +But we have yet stronger evidence. The total abolishment of slavery in +the southern republics has proved beyond dispute the safety and utility +of immediate abolition. The departed Bolivar indeed deserves his +glorious title of Liberator, for he began his career of freedom by +striking off the fetters of his own slaves, seven hundred in number. + +In an official letter from the Mexican Envoy of the British Government, +dated Mexico, March, 1826, and addressed 'to the Right Hon. George +Canning, the superiority of free over slave labor is clearly demonstrated +by the following facts:-- + +2. It is now carried on exclusively by the labor of free blacks. + +3. It was formerly wholly sustained by the forced labor of slaves, +purchased at Vera Cruz at $300 to $400 each. + +4. Abolition in this section was effected not by governmental +interference, not even from motives of humanity, but from an irresistible +conviction on the part of the planters that their pecuniary interest +demanded it. + +5. The result has proved the entire correctness of this conviction; and +the planters would now be as unwilling as the blacks themselves to return +to the old system. + +Let our Southern brethren imitate this example. It is in vain, in the +face of facts like these, to talk of the necessity of maintaining the +abominable system, operating as it does like a double curse upon planters +and slaves. Heaven and earth deny its necessity. It is as necessary as +other robberies, and no more. + +Yes, putting aside altogether the righteous law of the living God--the +same yesterday, to-day, and forever--and shutting out the clearest +political truths ever taught by man, still, in human policy selfish +expediency would demand of the planter the immediate emancipation of his +slaves. + +Because slave labor is the labor of mere machines; a mechanical impulse +of body and limb, with which the mind of the laborer has no sympathy, and +from which it constantly and loathingly revolts. + +Because slave labor deprives the master altogether of the incalculable +benefit of the negro's will. That does not cooperate with the forced +toil of the body. This is but the necessary consequence of all labor +which does not benefit the laborer. It is a just remark of that profound +political economist, Adam Smith, that "a slave can have no other interest +than to eat and waste as much, and work as little, as he can." + +To my mind, in the wasteful and blighting influences of slave labor there +is a solemn and warning moral. + +They seem the evidence of the displeasure of Him who created man after +His own image, at the unnatural attempt to govern the bones and sinews, +the bodies and souls, of one portion of His children by the caprice, the +avarice, the lusts of another; at that utter violation of the design of +His merciful Providence, whereby the entire dependence of millions of His +rational creatures is made to centre upon the will, the existence, the +ability, of their fellow-mortals, instead of resting under the shadow of +His own Infinite Power and exceeding love. + +I shall offer a few more facts and observations on this point. + +1. A distinguished scientific gentleman, Mr. Coulomb, the superintendent +of several military works in the French West Indies, gives it as his +opinion, that the slaves do not perform more than one third of the labor +which they would do, provided they were urged by their own interests and +inclinations instead of brute force. + +2. A plantation in Barbadoes in 1780 was cultivated by two hundred and +eighty-eight slaves ninety men, eighty-two women, fifty-six boys, and +sixty girls. In three years and three months there were on this +plantation fifty-seven deaths, and only fifteen births. A change was +then made in the government of the slaves. The use of the whip was +denied; all severe and arbitrary punishments were abolished; the laborers +received wages, and their offences were all tried by a sort of negro +court established among themselves: in short, they were practically free. +Under this system, in four years and three months there were forty-four +births, and but forty-one deaths; and the annual net produce of the +plantation was more than three times what it had been before.--[English +Quarterly Magazine and Review, April, 1832.] + +3. The following evidence was adduced by Pitt in the British Parliament, +April, 1792. The assembly of Grenada had themselves stated, "that though +the negroes were allowed only the afternoon of one day in a week, they +would do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for their own +benefit, as in the whole day when employed in their master's service." +"Now after this confession," said Mr. Pitt, "the house might burn all its +calculations relative to the negro population. A negro, if he worked for +himself, could no doubt do double work. By an improvement, then, in the +mode of labor, the work in the islands could be doubled." + +4. "In coffee districts it is usual for the master to hire his people +after they have done the regular task for the day, at a rate varying from +10d. to 15.8d. for every extra bushel which they pluck from the trees; +and many, almost all, are found eager to earn their wages." + +5. In a report made by the commandant of Castries for the government of +St. Lucia, in 1822, it is stated, in proof of the intimacy between the +slaves and the free blacks, that "many small plantations of the latter, +and occupied by only one man and his wife, are better cultivated and have +more land in cultivation than those of the proprietors of many slaves, +and that the labor on them is performed by runaway slaves;" thus clearly +proving that even runaway slaves, under the all-depressing fears of +discovery and oppression, labor well, because the fruits of their labor +are immediately their own. + +Let us look at this subject from another point of view. The large sum of +money necessary for stocking a plantation with slaves has an inevitable +tendency to place the agriculture of a slave-holding community +exclusively in the hands of the wealthy, a tendency at war with practical +republicanism and conflicting with the best maxims of political economy. + +Two hundred slaves at $200 per head would cost in the outset $40,000. +Compare this enormous outlay for the labor of a single plantation with +the beautiful system of free labor as exhibited in New England, where +every young laborer, with health and ordinary prudence, may acquire by +his labor on the farms of others, in a few years, a farm of his own, and +the stock necessary for its proper cultivation; where on a hard and +unthankful soil independence and competence may be attained by all. + +Free labor is perfectly in accordance with the spirit of our +institutions; slave labor is a relic of a barbarous, despotic age. The +one, like the firmament of heaven, is the equal diffusion of similar +lights, manifest, harmonious, regular; the other is the fiery +predominance of some disastrous star, hiding all lesser luminaries around +it in one consuming glare. + +Emancipation would reform this evil. The planter would no longer be +under the necessity of a heavy expenditure for slaves. He would only pay +a very moderate price for his labor; a price, indeed, far less than the +cost of the maintenance of a promiscuous gang of slaves, which the +present system requires. + +In an old plantation of three hundred slaves, not more than one hundred +effective laborers will be found. Children, the old and superannuated, +the sick and decrepit, the idle and incorrigibly vicious, will be found +to constitute two thirds of the whole number. The remaining third +perform only about one third as much work as the same number of free +laborers. + +Now disburden the master of this heavy load of maintenance; let him +employ free able, industrious laborers only, those who feel conscious of +a personal interest in the fruits of their labor, and who does not see +that such a system would be vastly more safe and economical than the +present? + +The slave states are learning this truth by fatal experience. Most of +them are silently writhing under the great curse. Virginia has uttered +her complaints aloud. As yet, however, nothing has been done even there, +save a small annual appropriation for the purpose of colonizing the free +colored inhabitants of the state. Is this a remedy? + +But it may be said that Virginia will ultimately liberate her slaves on +condition of their colonization in Africa, peacefully if possible, +forcibly if necessary. + +Well, admitting that Virginia may be able and willing at some remote +period to rid herself of the evil by commuting the punishment of her +unoffending colored people from slavery to exile, will her fearful remedy +apply to some of the other slaveholding states? + +It is a fact, strongly insisted upon by our Southern brethren as a reason +for the perpetuation of slavery, that their climate and peculiar +agriculture will not admit of hard labor on the part of the whites; that +amidst the fatal malaria of the rice plantations the white man is almost +annually visited by the country fever; that few of the white overseers of +these plantations reach the middle period of ordinary life; that the +owners are compelled to fly from their estates as the hot season +approaches, without being able to return until the first frosts have +fallen. But we are told that the slaves remain there, at their work, +mid-leg in putrid water, breathing the noisome atmosphere, loaded with +contagion, and underneath the scorching fervor of a terrible sun; that +they indeed suffer; but, that their habits, constitutions, and their long +practice enable them to labor, surrounded by such destructive influences, +with comparative safety. + +The conclusive answer, therefore, to those who in reality cherish the +visionary hope of colonizing all the colored people of the United States +in Africa or elsewhere, is this single, all-important fact: The labor of +the blacks will not and cannot be dispensed with by the planter of the +South. + +To what remedy, then, can the friends of humanity betake themselves but +to that of emancipation? + +And nothing but a strong, unequivocal expression of public sentiment is +needed to carry into effect this remedy, so far as the general government +is concerned. + +And when the voice of all the non-slave-holding states shall be heard on +this question, a voice of expostulation, rebuke, entreaty--when the full +light of truth shall break through the night of prejudice, and reveal all +the foul abominations of slavery, will Delaware still cling to the curse +which is wasting her moral strength, and still rivet the fetters upon her +three or four thousand slaves? Let Delaware begin the work, and Maryland +and Virginia must follow; the example will be contagious; and the great +object of universal emancipation will be attained. Freemen, Christians, +lovers of truth and justice Why stand ye idle? Ours is a government of +opinion, and slavery is interwoven with it. Change the current of +opinion, and slavery will be swept away. Let the awful sovereignty of +the people, a power which is limited only by the sovereignty of Heaven, +arise and pronounce judgment against the crying iniquity. Let each +individual remember that upon himself rests a portion of that +sovereignty; a part of the tremendous responsibility of its exercise. +The burning, withering concentration of public opinion upon the slave +system is alone needed for its total annihilation. God has given us the +power to overthrow it; a power peaceful, yet mighty, benevolent, yet +effectual, "awful without severity," a moral strength equal to the +emergency. + +"How does it happen," inquires an able writer, "that whenever duty is named +we begin to hear of the weakness of human nature? That same nature which +outruns the whirlwind in the chase of gain, which rages like a maniac at +the trumpet call of glory, which laughs danger and death to scorn when +its least passion is awakened, becomes weak as childhood when reminded of +the claims of duty." But let no one hope to find an excuse in hypocrisy. +The humblest individual of the community in one way or another possesses +influence; and upon him as well as upon the proudest rests the +responsibility of its rightful exercise and proper direction. The +overthrow of a great national evil like that of slavery can only be +effected by the united energies of the great body of the people. +Shoulder must be put to shoulder and hand linked with hand, the whole +mass must be put in motion and its entire strength applied, until the +fabric of oppression is shaken to its dark foundations and not one stone +is left upon another. + +Let the Christian remember that the God of his worship hateth oppression; +that the mystery of faith can only be held by a pure conscience; and that +in vain is the tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, if the weihtier +matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth, are forgotten. Let him +remember that all along the clouded region of slavery the truths of the +everlasting gospel are not spoken, that the ear of iniquity is lulled, +that those who minister between the "porch and the altar" dare not speak +out the language of eternal justice: "Is not this the fast which I have +chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and +to let the oppressed go free?" (Isa. viii. 6.) "He that stealeth a man +and selleth him; or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to +death." (Exod. xxi. 16.1) Yet a little while and the voice of impartial +prayer for humanity will be heard no more in the abiding place of +slavery. The truths of the gospel, its voice of warning and exhortation, +will be denounced as incendiary? The night of that infidelity, which +denies God in the abuse and degradation of man, will settle over the +land, to be broken only by the upheaving earthquake of eternal +retribution. + +To the members of the religious Society of Friends, I would earnestly +appeal. They have already done much to put away the evil of slavery in +this country and Great Britain. The blessings of many who were ready to +perish have rested upon them. But their faithful testimony must be still +steadily upborne, for the great work is but begun. Let them not relax +their exertions, nor be contented with a lifeless testimony, a formal +protestation against the evil. Active, prayerful, unwearied exertion is +needed for its overthrow. But above all, let them not aid in excusing +and palliating it. Slavery has no redeeming qualities, no feature of +benevolence, nothing pure, nothing peaceful, nothing just. Let them +carefully keep themselves aloof from all societies and all schemes which +have a tendency to excuse or overlook its crying iniquity. True to a +doctrine founded on love and mercy, "peace on earth and good will to +men," they should regard the suffering slave as their brother, and +endeavor to "put their souls in his soul's stead." They may earnestly +desire the civilization of Africa, but they cannot aid in building up the +colony of Liberia so long as that colony leans for support upon the arm +of military power; so long as it proselytes to Christianity under the +muzzles of its cannon; and preaches the doctrines of Christ while +practising those of Mahomet. When the Sierra Leone Company was formed in +England, not a member of the Society of Friends could be prevailed upon +to engage in it, because the colony was to be supplied with cannon and +other military stores. Yet the Foreign Agent of the Liberia Colony +Society, to which the same insurmountable objection exists, is a member +of the Society of Friends, and I understand has been recently employed in +providing gunpowder, etc., for the use of the colony. There must be an +awakening on this subject; other Woolmans and other Benezets must arise +and speak the truth with the meek love of James and the fervent sincerity +of Paul. + +To the women of America, whose sympathies know no distinction of cline, +or sect, or color, the suffering slave is making a strong appeal. Oh, +let it not be unheeded! for of those to whom much is given much will be +required at the last dread tribunal; and never in the strongest terms of +human eulogy was woman's influence overrated. Sisters, daughters, wives, +and mothers, your influence is felt everywhere, at the fireside, and in +the halls of legislation, surrounding, like the all-encircling +atmosphere, brother and father, husband and son! And by your love of +them, by every holy sympathy of your bosoms, by every mournful appeal +which comes up to you from hearts whose sanctuary of affections has been +made waste and desolate, you are called upon to exert it in the cause of +redemption from wrong and outrage. + +Let the patriot, the friend of liberty and the Union of the States, no +longer shut his eyes to the great danger, the master-evil before which +all others dwindle into insignificance. Our Union is tottering to its +foundation, and slavery is the cause. Remove the evil. Dry up at their +source the bitter waters. In vain you enact and abrogate your tariffs; +in vain is individual sacrifice, or sectional concession. The accursed +thing is with us, the stone of stumbling and the rock of offence remains. +Drag, then, the Achan into light; and let national repentance atone for +national sin. + +The conflicting interests of free and slave labor furnish the only ground +for fear in relation to the permanency of the Union. The line of +separation between them is day by day growing broader and deeper; +geographically and politically united, we are already, in a moral point +of view, a divided people. But a few months ago we were on the very +verge of civil war, a war of brothers, a war between the North and the +South, between the slave-holder and the free laborer. The danger has +been delayed for a time; this bolt has fallen without mortal injury to +the Union, but the cloud from whence it came still hangs above us, +reddening with the elements of destruction. + +Recent events have furnished ample proof that the slave-holding interest +is prepared to resist any legislation on the part of the general +government which is supposed to have a tendency, directly or indirectly, +to encourage and invigorate free labor; and that it is determined to +charge upon its opposite interest the infliction of all those evils which +necessarily attend its own operation, "the primeval curse of Omnipotence +upon slavery." + +We have already felt in too many instances the extreme difficulty of +cherishing in one common course of national legislation the opposite +interests of republican equality and feudal aristocracy and servitude. +The truth is, we have undertaken a moral impossibility. These interests +are from their nature irreconcilable. The one is based upon the pure +principles of rational liberty; the other, under the name of freedom, +revives the ancient European system of barons and villains, nobles and +serfs. Indeed, the state of society which existed among our Anglo-Saxon +ancestors was far more tolerable than that of many portions of our +republican confederacy. For the Anglo-Saxon slaves had it in their power +to purchase their freedom; and the laws of the realm recognized their +liberation and placed them under legal protection. + + [The diffusion of Christianity in Great Britain was moreover + followed by a general manumission; for it would seem that the + priests and missionaries of religion in that early and benighted age + were more faithful in the performance of their duties than those of + the present. "The holy fathers, monks, and friars," says Sir T. + Smith, "had in their confessions, and specially in their extreme and + deadly sickness, convinced the laity how dangerous a thing it was + for one Christian to hold another in bondage; so that temporal men, + by reason of the terror in their consciences, were glad to manumit + all their villains."--Hilt. Commonwealth, Blackstone, p. 52.] + +To counteract the dangers resulting from a state of society so utterly at +variance with the great Declaration of American freedom should be the +earnest endeavor of every patriotic statesman. Nothing unconstitutional, +nothing violent, should be attempted; but the true doctrine of the rights +of man should be steadily kept in view; and the opposition to slavery +should be inflexible and constantly maintained. The almost daily +violations of the Constitution in consequence of the laws of some of the +slave states, subjecting free colored citizens of New England and +elsewhere, who may happen to be on board of our coasting vessels, to +imprisonment immediately on their arrival in a Southern port should be +provided against. Nor should the imprisonment of the free colored +citizens of the Northern and Middle states, on suspicion of being +runaways, subjecting them, even after being pronounced free, to the costs +of their confinement and trial, be longer tolerated; for if we continue +to yield to innovations like these upon the Constitution of our fathers, +we shall erelong have the name only of a free government left us. + +Dissemble as we may, it is impossible for us to believe, after fully +considering the nature of slavery, that it can much longer maintain a +peaceable existence among us. A day of revolution must come, and it is +our duty to prepare for it. Its threatened evil may be changed into a +national blessing. The establishment of schools for the instruction of +the slave children, a general diffusion of the lights of Christianity, +and the introduction of a sacred respect for the social obligations of +marriage and for the relations between parents and children, among our +black population, would render emancipation not only perfectly safe, but +also of the highest advantage to the country. Two millions of freemen +would be added to our population, upon whom in the hour of danger we +could safely depend; "the domestic foe" would be changed into a firm +friend, faithful, generous, and ready to encounter all dangers in our +defence. It is well known that during the last war with Great Britain, +wherever the enemy touched upon our Southern coast, the slaves in +multitudes hastened to join them. On the other hand, the free blacks +were highly serviceable in repelling them. So warm was the zeal of the +latter, so manifest their courage in the defence of Louisiana, that the +present Chief Magistrate of the United States publicly bestowed upon them +one of the highest eulogiums ever offered by a commander to his soldiers. + +Let no one seek an apology for silence on the subject of slavery because +the laws of the land tolerate and sanction it. But a short time ago the +slave-trade was protected by laws and treaties, and sanctioned by the +example of men eminent for the reputation of piety and integrity. Yet +public opinion broke over these barriers; it lifted the curtain and +revealed the horrors of that most abominable traffic; and unrighteous law +and ancient custom and avarice and luxury gave way before its +irresistible authority. It should never be forgotten that human law +cannot change the nature of human action in the pure eye of infinite +justice; and that the ordinances of man cannot annul those of God. The +slave system, as existing in this country, can be considered in no other +light than as the cause of which the foul traffic in human flesh is the +legitimate consequence. It is the parent, the fosterer, the sole +supporter of the slave-trade. It creates the demand for slaves, and the +foreign supply will always be equal to the demand of consumption. It +keeps the market open. It offers inducements to the slave-trader which +no severity of law against his traffic can overcome. By our laws his +trade is piracy; while slavery, to which alone it owes its existence, is +protected and cherished, and those engaged in it are rewarded by an +increase of political power proportioned to the increase of their stock +of human beings! To steal the natives of Africa is a crime worthy of an +ignominious death; but to steal and enslave annually nearly one hundred +thousand of the descendants of these stolen natives, born in this +country, is considered altogether excusable and proper! For my own part, +I know no difference between robbery in Africa and robbery at home. I +could with as quiet a conscience engage in the one as the other. + +"There is not one general principle," justly remarks Lord Nugent, "on +which the slave-trade is to be stigmatized which does not impeach slavery +itself." Kindred in iniquity, both must fall speedily, fall together, +and be consigned to the same dishonorable grave. The spirit which is +thrilling through every nerve of England is awakening America from her +sleep of death. Who, among our statesmen, would not shrink from the +baneful reputation of having supported by his legislative influence the +slave-trade, the traffic in human flesh? Let them then beware; for the +time is near at hand when the present defenders of slavery will sink +under the same fatal reputation, and leave to posterity a memory which +will blacken through all future time, a legacy of infamy. + +"Let us not betake us to the common arts and stratagems of nations, but +fear God, and put away the evil which provokes Him; and trust not in man, +but in the living God; and it shall go well for England!" This counsel, +given by the purehearted William Penn, in a former age, is about to be +followed in the present. An intense and powerful feeling is working in +the mighty heart of England; it is speaking through the lips of Brougham +and Buxton and O'Connell, and demanding justice in the name of humanity +and according to the righteous law of God. The immediate emancipation of +eight hundred thousand slaves is demanded with an authority which cannot +much longer be disputed or trifled with. That demand will be obeyed; +justice will be done; the heavy burdens will be unloosed; the oppressed +set free. It shall go well for England. + +And when the stain on our own escutcheon shall be seen no more; when the +Declaration of our Independence and the practice of our people shall +agree; when truth shall be exalted among us; when love shall take the +place of wrong; when all the baneful pride and prejudice of caste and +color shall fall forever; when under one common sun of political liberty +the slave-holding portions of our republic shall no longer sit, like the +Egyptians of old, themselves mantled in thick darkness, while all around +them is glowing with the blessed light of freedom and equality, then, and +not till then, shall it go well for America! + + + + + + + THE ABOLITIONISTS. + + THEIR SENTIMENTS AND OBJECTS. + +Two letters to the 'Jeffersonian and Times', Richmond, Va. + + + I. + +A FRIEND has banded me a late number of your paper, containing a brief +notice of a pamphlet, which I have recently published on the subject of +slavery. + +From an occasional perusal of your paper, I have formed a favorable +opinion of your talent and independence. Compelled to dissent from some +of your political sentiments, I still give you full credit for the lofty +tone of sincerity and manliness with which these sentiments are avowed +and defended. + +I perceive that since the adjustment of the tariff question a new subject +of discontent and agitation seems to engross your attention. + +The "accursed tariff" has no sooner ceased to be the stone of stumbling +and the rock of offence, than the "abolition doctrines of the Northern +enthusiasts," as you are pleased to term the doctrines of your own +Jefferson, furnish, in your opinion, a sufficient reason for poising the +"Ancient Dominion" on its sovereignty, and rousing every slaveowner to +military preparations, until the entire South, from the Potomac to the +Gulf, shall bristle with bayonets, "like quills upon the fretful +porcupine." + +In proof of a conspiracy against your "vested rights," you have commenced +publishing copious extracts from the pamphlets and periodicals of the +abolitionists of New England and New York. An extract from my own +pamphlet you have headed "The Fanatics," and in introducing it to your +readers you inform them that "it exhibits, in strong colors, the morbid +spirit of that false and fanatical philanthropy, which is at work in the +Northern states, and, to some extent, in the South." + +Gentlemen, so far as I am personally concerned in the matter, I feel no +disposition to take exceptions to any epithets which you may see fit to +apply to me or my writings. A humble son of New England--a tiller of her +rugged soil, and a companion of her unostentatious yeomanry--it matters +little, in any personal consideration of the subject, whether the voice +of praise or opprobrium reaches me from beyond the narrow limits of my +immediate neighborhood. + +But when I find my opinions quoted as the sentiment of New England, and +then denounced as dangerous, "false and fanatical;" and especially when I +see them made the occasion of earnest appeals to the prejudices and +sectional jealousies of the South, it becomes me to endeavor to establish +their truths, and defend them from illegitimate influences and unjust +suspicions. + +In the first place, then, let me say, that if it be criminal to publicly +express a belief that it is in the power of the slave states to +emancipate their slaves, with profit and safety to themselves, and that +such is their immediate duty, a majority of the people of New England are +wholly guiltless. Of course, all are nominally opposed to slavery; but +upon the little band of abolitionists should the anathemas of the slave- +holder be directed, for they are the agitators of whom you complain, men +who are acting under a solemn conviction of duty, and who are bending +every energy of their minds to the accomplishment of their object. + +And that object is the overthrow of slavery in the United States, by such +means only as are sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion. + +I shall endeavor, gentlemen, as briefly as may be, to give you some of +our reasons for opposing slavery and seeking its abolition; and, +secondly, to explain our mode of operation; to disclose our plan of +emancipation, fully and entirely. We wish to do nothing darkly; frank +republicans, we acknowledge no double-dealing. At this busy season of +the year, I cannot but regret that I have not leisure for such a +deliberate examination of the subject as even my poor ability might +warrant. My remarks, penned in the intervals of labor, must necessarily +be brief, and wanting in coherence. + +We seek the abolishment of slavery + +1. Because it is contrary to the law of God. + +In your paper of the 2d of 7th mo., the same in which you denounce the +"false and fanatical philanthropy" of abolitionists, you avow yourselves +members of the Bible Society, and bestow warm and deserved encomiums on +the "truly pious undertaking of sending the truth among all nations." + +You, therefore, gentlemen, whatever others may do, will not accuse me of +"fanaticism," if I endeavor to sustain my first great reason for opposing +slavery by a reference to the volume of inspiration: + +"Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do +ye even so to them." + +"Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it; +for there is no iniquity with the Lord, nor respect of persons." + +"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of +wickedness; to undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and +that ye break every yoke?" + +"If a man be found stealing any of his brethren, and maketh merchandise +of him, or selling him, that thief shall die." + +"Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." + +"And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his +hands, he shall surely be put to death." + +2. Because it is an open violation of all human equality, of the laws of +Nature and of nations. + +The fundamental principle of all equal and just law is contained in the +following extract from Blackstone's Commentaries, Introduction, sec. 2. + +"The rights which God and Nature have established, and which are +therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the +aid of human laws to be more effectually vested in every man than they +are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by +municipal laws to be inviolable: on the contrary, no human legislation +has power to abridge or destroy there, unless the owner shall himself +commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." + +Has the negro committed such offence? Above all, has his infant child +forfeited its unalienable right? + +Surely it can be no act of the innocent child. + +Yet you must prove the forfeiture, or no human legislation can deprive +that child of its freedom. + +Its black skin constitutes the forfeiture! + +What! throw the responsibility upon God! Charge the common Father of the +white and the black, He, who is no respecter of persons, with plundering +His unoffending children of all which makes the boon of existence +desirable; their personal liberty! + +"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; +that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; +that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."-- +[Declaration of Independence, from the pen of Thomas Jefferson.] + +In this general and unqualified declaration, on the 4th of July, 1776, +all the people of the United States, without distinction of color, were +proclaimed free, by the delegates of the people of those states assembled +in their highest sovereign capacity. + +For more than half a century we have openly violated that solemn +declaration. + +3. Because it renders nugatory the otherwise beneficial example of our +free institutions, and exposes us to the scorn and reproach of the +liberal and enlightened of other nations. + +"Chains clank and groans echo around the walls of their spotless +Congress."--[Francis Jeffrey.] + +"Man to be possessed by man! Man to be made property of! The image of +the Deity to be put under the yoke! Let these usurpers show us their +title-deeds!"--[Simon Boliver.] + +"When I am indulging in my views of American prospects and American +liberty, it is mortifying to be told that in that very country a large +portion of the people are slaves! It is a dark spot on the face of the +nation. Such a state of things cannot always exist."--[Lafayette.] + +"I deem it right to raise my humble voice to convince the citizens of +America that the slaveholding states are held in abomination by all those +whose opinion ought to be valuable. Man is the property of man in about +one half of the American States: let them not therefore dare to prate of +their institutions or of their national freedom, while they hold their +fellow-men in bondage! Of all men living, the American citizen who is +the owner of slaves is the most despicable. He is a political hypocrite +of the very worst description. The friends of humanity and liberty in +Europe should join in one universal cry of shame on the American slave- +holders! 'Base wretches!' should we shout in chorus; 'base wretches! +how dare you profane the temple of national freedom, the sacred fane of +republican rites, with the presence and the sufferings of human beings in +chains and slavery!'"--[Daniel O'Connell.] + +4. Because it subjects one portion of our American brethren to the +unrestrained violence and unholy passions of another. + +Here, gentlemen, I might summon to my support a cloud of witnesses, a +host of incontrovertible, damning facts, the legitimate results of a +system whose tendency is to harden and deprave the heart. But I will not +descend to particulars. I am willing to believe that the majority of the +masters of your section of the country are disposed to treat their +unfortunate slaves with kindness. But where the dreadful privilege of +slave-holding is extended to all, in every neighborhood, there must be +individuals whose cupidity is unrestrained by any principle of humanity, +whose lusts are fiercely indulged, whose fearful power over the bodies, +nay, may I not say the souls, of their victims is daily and hourly +abused. + +Will the evidence of your own Jefferson, on this point, be admissible? + +"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise, of +the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one +part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see this, and +learn to imitate it. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the +lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller +slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, +and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot fail to be stamped by it with +odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his +morals and manners undepraved by such circumstances."--[Notes on +Virginia, p. 241.] + +"Il n'existe a la verite aucune loi qui protege l'esclave le mauvais +traitement du maitre," says Achille Murat, himself a Floridian slave- +holder, in his late work on the United States. + +Gentlemen, is not this true? Does there exist even in Virginia any law +limiting the punishment of a slave? Are there any bounds prescribed, +beyond which the brutal, the revengeful, the intoxicated slave-master, +acting in the double capacity of judge and executioner, cannot pass? + +You will, perhaps, tell me that the general law against murder applies +alike to master and slave. True; but will you point out instances of +masters suffering the penalty of that law for the murder of their slaves? +If you examine your judicial reports you will find the wilful murder of a +slave decided to be only a trespass!--[Virginia Reports, vol. v. p. 481, +Harris versus Nichols.] + +It indeed argues well for Virginian pride of character, that latterly, +the law, which expressly sanctioned the murder of a slave, who in the +language of Georgia and North Carolina, "died of moderate correction," +has been repealed. But, although the letter of the law is changed, its +practice remains the same. In proof of this, I would refer to +Brockenborough and Holmes' Virginia Cases, p. 258. + +In Georgia and North Carolina the murder of a slave is tolerated and +justified by law, provided that in the opinion of the court he died "of +moderate correction!" + +In South Carolina the following clause of a law enacted in 1740 is still +in force:-- + +"If any slave shall suffer in his life, limbs, or members, when no white +person shall be present, or being present shall neglect or refuse to give +evidence concerning the same, in every such case the owner or other +person who shall have the care and government of the slave shall be +deemed and taken to be guilty of such offence; unless such owner or other +person can make the contrary appear by good and sufficient evidence, or +shall by his own oath clear and exculpate himself, which oath every court +where such offence shall be tried is hereby empowered to administer and +to acquit the offender accordingly, if clear proof of the offence be not +made by two witnesses at least, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary +notwithstanding." + +Is not this offering a reward for perjury? And what shall we think of +that misnamed court of justice, where it is optional with the witnesses, +in a case of life and death, to give or withhold their testimony. + +5. Because it induces dangerous sectional jealousies, creates of +necessity a struggle between the opposing interests of free and slave +labor, and threatens the integrity of the Union. + +That sectional jealousies do exist, the tone of your paper, gentlemen, is +of itself an evidence, if indeed any were needed. The moral sentiment of +the free states is against slavery. The freeman has declared his +unwillingness that his labor should be reduced to a level with that of +slaves. Harsh epithets and harsh threats have been freely exchanged, +until the beautiful Potomac, wherever it winds its way to the ocean, has +become the dividing line, not of territory only, but of feeling, +interest, national pride, a moral division. + +What shook the pillars of the Union when the Missouri question was +agitated? What but a few months ago arrayed in arms a state against the +Union, and the Union against a state? + +From Maine to Florida, gentlemen, the answer must be the same, slavery. + +6. Because of its pernicious influence upon national wealth and +prosperity. + +Political economy has been the peculiar study of Virginia. But there are +some important truths connected with this science which she has hitherto +overlooked or wantonly disregarded. + +Population increasing with the means of subsistence is a fair test of +national wealth. + +By reference to the several censuses of the United States, it will be +seen that the white population increases nearly twice as fast in states +where there are few or no slaves as in the slave states. + +Again, in the latter states the slave population has increased twice as +fast as the white. Let us take, for example, the period of twenty years, +from 1790 to 1810, and compare the increase of the two classes in three +of the Southern states. + +Per cent. of whites. Per cent. of blacks. + +Maryland 13 31 +Virginia 24 38 +North Carolina 30 70 + +The causes of this disproportionate increase, so inimical to the true +interests of the country, are very manifest. + +A large proportion of the free inhabitants of the United States are +dependent upon their labor for subsistence. The forced, unnatural system +of slavery in some of the states renders the demand for free laborers +less urgent; they are not so readily and abundantly supplied with the +means of subsistence as those of their own class in the free states, and +as the necessaries of life diminish population also diminishes. + +There is yet another cause for the decline of the white population. In +the free states labor is reputable. The statesman, whose eloquence has +electrified a nation, does not disdain in the intervals of the public +service to handle the axe and the hoe. And the woman whose beauty, +talents, and accomplishments have won the admiration of all deems it no +degradation to "look well to her household." + +But the slave stamps with indelible ignominy the character of occupation. +It is a disgrace for a highborn Virginian or chivalrous Carolinian to +labor, side by side, with the low, despised, miserable black man. +Wretched must be the condition of the poorer classes of whites in a +slave-holding community! Compelled to perform the despised offices of +the slave, they can hardly rise above his level. They become the pariahs +of society. No wonder, then, that the tide of emigration flows from the +slave-cursed shores of the Atlantic to the free valleys of the West. + +In New England the labor of a farmer or mechanic is worth from $150 to +$200 per annum. That of a female from $50 to $100. Our entire +population, with the exception of those engaged in mercantile affairs, +the professional classes, and a very few moneyed idlers, are working men +and women. If that of the South were equally employed (and slavery +apart, there is no reason why they should not be), how large an addition +would be annually made to the wealth of the country? The truth is, a +very considerable portion of the national wealth produced by Northern +labor is taxed to defray the expenses of twenty-five representatives of +Southern property in Congress, and to maintain an army mainly for the +protection of the slave-master against the dangerous tendencies of that +property. + +In the early and better days of the Roman Republic, the ancient warriors +and statesmen cultivated their fields with their own hands; but so soon +as their agriculture was left to the slaves, it visibly declined, the +once fertile fields became pastures, and the inhabitants of that garden +of the world were dependent upon foreign nations for the necessaries of +life. The beautiful villages, once peopled by free contented laborers, +became tenantless, and, over the waste of solitude, we see, here and +there, at weary distances, the palaces of the master, contrasting +painfully with the wretched cottages and subterranean cells of the slave. +In speaking of the extraordinary fertility of the soil in the early times +of the Republic, Pliny inquires, "What was the cause of these abundant +harvests? It was this, that men of rank employed themselves in the +culture of the fields; whereas now it is left to wretches loaded with +fetters, who carry in their countenances the shameful evidence of their +slavery." + +And what was true in the days of the Roman is now written legibly upon +the soil of your own Virginia. A traveller in your state, in +contemplating the decline of its agriculture, has justly remarked that, +"if the miserable condition of the negro had left his mind for +reflection, he would laugh in his chains to see how slavery has stricken +the land with ugliness." + +Is the rapid increase of a population of slaves in itself no evil? In +all the slave states the increase of the slaves is vastly more rapid than +that of the whites or free blacks. When we recollect that they are under +no natural or moral restraint, careless of providing food or clothing for +themselves or their children; when, too, we consider that they are raised +as an article of profitable traffic, like the cattle of New England and +the hogs of Kentucky; that it is a matter of interest, of dollars and +cents, to the master that they should multiply as fast as possible, there +is surely nothing at all surprising in the increase of their numbers. +Would to heaven there were also nothing alarming! + +7. Because, by the terms of the national compact, the free and the slave +states are alike involved in the guilt of maintaining slavery, and the +citizens of the former are liable, at any moment, to be called upon to +aid the latter in suppressing, at the point of the bayonet, the +insurrection of the slaves. + +Slavery is, at the best, an unnatural state. And Nature, when her +eternal principles are violated, is perpetually struggling to restore +them to their first estate. + +All history, ancient and modern, is full of warning on this point. Need +I refer to the many revolts of the Roman and Grecian slaves, the bloody +insurrection of Etruria, the horrible servile wars of Sicily and Capua? +Or, to come down to later times, to France in the fourteenth century, +Germany in the sixteenth, to Malta in the last? Need I call to mind the +untold horrors of St. Domingo, when that island, under the curse of its +servile war, glowed redly in the view of earth and heaven,--an open hell? +Have our own peculiar warnings gone by unheeded,--the frequent slave +insurrections of the South? One horrible tragedy, gentlemen, must still +be fresh in your recollection,--Southampton, with its fired dwellings and +ghastly dead! Southampton, with its dreadful associations, of the death +struggle with the insurgents, the groans of the tortured negroes, the +lamentations of the surviving whites over woman in her innocence and +beauty, and childhood, and hoary age! + +"The hour of emancipation," said Thomas Jefferson, "is advancing in the +march of time. It will come. If not brought on by the generous energy +of our own minds, it will come by the bloody process of St. Domingo!" + +To the just and prophetic language of your own great statesman I have but +a few words to add. They shall be those of truth and soberness. + +We regard the slave system in your section of the country as a great +evil, moral and political,--an evil which, if left to itself for even a +few years longer, will give the entire South into the hands of the +blacks. + +The terms of the national compact compel us to consider more than two +millions of our fellow-beings as your property; not, indeed, morally, +really, de facto, but still legally your property! We acknowledge that +you have a power derived from the United States Constitution to hold this +"property," but we deny that you have any moral right to take advantage +of that power. For truth will not allow us to admit that any human law +or compact can make void or put aside the ordinance of the living God and +the eternal laws of Nature. + +We therefore hold it to be the duty of the people of the slave-holding +states to begin the work of emancipation now; that any delay must be +dangerous to themselves in time and eternity, and full of injustice to +their slaves and to their brethren of the free states. + +Because the slave has never forfeited his right to freedom, and the +continuance of his servitude is a continuance of robbery; and because, in +the event of a servile war, the people of the free states would be called +upon to take a part in its unutterable horrors. + +New England would obey that call, for she will abide unto death by the +Constitution of the land. Yet what must be the feelings of her citizens, +while engaged in hunting down like wild beasts their fellow-men--brutal +and black it may be, but still oppressed, suffering human beings, +struggling madly and desperately for their liberty, if they feel and know +that the necessity of so doing has resulted from a blind fatality on the +part of the oppressor, a reckless disregard of the warnings of earth and +heaven, an obstinate perseverance in a system founded and sustained by +robbery and wrong? + +All wars are horrible, wicked, inexcusable, and truly and solemnly has +Jefferson himself said that, in a contest of this kind, between the slave +and the master, "the Almighty has no attribute which could take side with +us." + +Understand us, gentlemen. We only ask to have the fearful necessity +taken away from us of sustaining the wretched policy of slavery by moral +influence or physical force. We ask alone to be allowed to wash our +hands of the blood of millions of your fellow-beings, the cry of whom is +rising up as a swift witness unto God against us. + +8. Because all the facts connected with the subject warrant us in a most +confident belief that a speedy and general emancipation might be made +with entire safety, and that the consequences of such an emancipation +would be highly beneficial to the planters of the South. + +Awful as may be their estimate in time and eternity, I will not, +gentlemen, dwell upon the priceless benefits of a conscience at rest, a +soul redeemed from the all-polluting influences of slavery, and against +which the cry of the laborer whose hire has been kept back by fraud does +not ascend. Nor will I rest the defence of my position upon the fact +that it can never be unsafe to obey the commands of God. These are the +old and common arguments of "fanatics" and "enthusiasts," melting away +like frost-work in the glorious sunshine of expediency and utility. In +the light of these modern luminaries, then, let us reason together. + +A long and careful examination of the subject will I think fully justify +me in advancing this general proposition. + +Wherever, whether in Europe, the East and West Indies, South America, or +in our own country, a fair experiment has been made of the comparative +expense of free and slave labor, the result has uniformly been favorable +to the former. + + [See Brougham's Colonial Policy. Hodgdon's Letter to Jean Baptiste + Say. Waleh's Brazil. Official Letter of Hon. Mr. Ward, from + Mexico. Dr. Dickson's Mitigation of Slavery. Franklin on The + Peopling of Countries. Ramsay's Essay. Botham's Sugar Cultivation + in Batavia. Marsden's History of Sumatra. Coxe's Travels. Dr. + Anderson's Observations on Slavery. Storch's Political Economy. + Adam Smith. J. Jeremies' Essays. Humboldt's Travels, etc., etc.] + +Here, gentlemen, the issue is tendered. Standing on your own ground of +expediency, I am ready to defend my position. + +I pass from the utility to the safety of emancipation. And here, +gentlemen, I shall probably be met at the outset with your supposed +consequences, bloodshed, rapine, promiscuous massacre! + +The facts, gentlemen! In God's name, bring out your facts! If slavery +is to cast over the prosperity of our country the thick shadow of an +everlasting curse, because emancipation is dreaded as a remedy worse than +the disease itself, let us know the real grounds of your fear. + +Do you find them in the emancipation of the South American Republics? In +Hayti? In the partial experiments of some of the West India Islands? +Does history, ancient or modern, justify your fears? Can you find any +excuse for them in the nature of the human mind, everywhere maddened by +injury and conciliated by kindness? No, gentlemen; the dangers of +slavery are manifest and real, all history lies open for your warning. +But the dangers of emancipation, of "doing justly and loving mercy," +exist only in your imaginations. You cannot produce one fact in +corroboration of your fears. You cannot point to the stain of a single +drop of any master's blood shed by the slave he has emancipated. + +I have now given some of our reasons for opposing slavery. In my next +letter I shall explain our method of opposition, and I trust I shall be +able to show that there is nothing "fanatical," nothing +"unconstitutional," and nothing unchristian in that method. + +In the mean time, gentlemen, I am your friend and well-wisher. + +HAVERHILL, MASS., 22d 7th Mo., 1833. + + + + + II. + +The abolitionists of the North have been grossly misrepresented. In +attacking the system of slavery, they have never recommended any measure +or measures conflicting with the Constitution of the United States. + +They have never sought to excite or encourage a spirit of rebellion among +the slaves: on the contrary, they would hold any such attempt, by +whomsoever made, in utter and stern abhorrence. + +All the leading abolitionists of my acquaintance are, from principle, +opposed to war of all kinds, believing that the benefits of no war +whatever can compensate for the sacrifice of one human life by violence. + +Consequently, they would be the first to deprecate any physical +interference with your slave system on the part of the general +government. + +They are, without exception, opposed to any political interposition of +the government, in regard to slavery as it exists in the states. For, +although they feel and see that the canker of the moral disease is +affecting all parts of the confederacy, they believe that the remedy lies +with yourselves alone. Any such interference they would consider +unlawful and unconstitutional; and the exercise of unconstitutional +power, although sanctioned by the majority of a republican government, +they believe to be a tyranny as monstrous and as odious as the despotism +of a Turkish Sultan. + +Having made this disclaimer on the part of myself and my friends, let me +inquire from whence this charge of advocating the interference of the +general government with the sovereign jurisdiction of the states has +arisen? Will you, gentlemen, will the able editors of the United States +Telegraph and the Columbian Telescope, explain? For myself, I have +sought in vain among the writings of our "Northern Enthusiasts," and +among the speeches of the Northern statesmen and politicians, for some +grounds for the accusation. + +The doctrine, such as it is, does not belong to us. I think it may be +traced home to the South, to Virginia, to her Convention of 1829, to the +speech of Ex-President Monroe, on the white basis question. + +"As to emancipation," said that distinguished son of your state, "if ever +that should take place, it cannot be done by the state; it must be done +by the Union." + +Again, "If emancipation can ever be effected, it can only be done with +the aid of the general government." + +Gentlemen, you are welcome to your doctrine. It has no advocates among +the abolitionists of New England. + +We aim to overthrow slavery by the moral influence of an enlightened +public sentiment; + +By a clear and fearless exposition of the guilt of holding property in +man; + +By analyzing the true nature of slavery, and boldly rebuking sin; + +By a general dissemination of the truths of political economy, in regard +to free and slave labor; + +By appeals from the pulpit to the consciences of men; + +By the powerful influence of the public press; + +By the formation of societies whose object shall be to oppose the +principle of slavery by such means as are consistent with our obligations +to law, religion, and humanity; + +By elevating, by means of education and sympathy, the character of the +free people of color among us. + +Our testimony against slavery is the same which has uniformly, and with +so much success, been applied to prevailing iniquity in all ages of the +world, the truths of divine revelation. + +Believing that there can be nothing in the Providence of God to which His +holy and eternal law is not strictly applicable, we maintain that no +circumstances can justify the slave-holder in a continuance of his +system. + +That the fact that this system did not originate with the present +generation is no apology for retaining it, inasmuch as crime cannot be +entailed; and no one is under a necessity of sinning because others have +done so before him; + +That the domestic slave-trade is as repugnant to the laws of God, and +should be as odious in the eyes of a Christian community, as the foreign; + +That the black child born in a slave plantation is not "an entailed +article of property;" and that the white man who makes of that child a +slave is a thief and a robber, stealing the child as the sea pirate stole +his father! + +We do not talk of gradual abolition, because, as Christians, we find no +authority for advocating a gradual relinquishment of sin. We say to +slaveholders, "Repent now, to-day, immediately;" just as we say to the +intemperate, "Break off from your vice at once; touch not, taste not, +handle not, from henceforth forever." + +Besides, the plan of gradual abolition has been tried in this country and +the West Indies, and found wanting. It has been in operation in our +slave states ever since the Declaration of Independence, and its results +are before the nation. Let us see. + +THE ABOLITIONISTS 79 + +In 1790 there were in the slave states south of the Potomac and the Ohio +20,415 free blacks. Their increase for the ten years following was at +the rate of sixty per cent., their number in 1800 being 32,604. In 1810 +there were 58,046, an increase of seventy-five per cent. This +comparatively large increase was, in a great measure, owing to the free +discussions going on in England and in this country on the subject of the +slave-trade and the rights of man. The benevolent impulse extended to +the slave-masters, and manumissions were frequent. But the salutary +impression died away; the hand of oppression closed again upon its +victims; and the increase for the period of twenty years, 1810 to 1830, +was only seventy-seven per cent., about one half of what it was in the +ten years from 1800 to 1810. And this is the practical result of the +much-lauded plan of gradual abolition. + +In 1790, in the states above mentioned, there were only 550,604 slaves, +but in 1830 there were 1,874,098! And this, too, is gradual abolition. + +"What, then!" perhaps you will ask, "do you expect to overthrow our whole +slave system at once? to turn loose to-day two millions of negroes?" + +No, gentlemen; we expect no such thing. Enough for us if in the spirit +of fraternal duty we point to your notice the commands of God; if we urge +you by every cherished remembrance of common sacrifices upon a common +altar, by every consideration of humanity, justice, and expediency, to +begin now, without a moment's delay, to break away from your miserable +system,--to begin the work of moral reformation, as God commands you to +begin, not as selfishness, or worldly policy, or short-sighted political +expediency, may chance to dictate. + +Such is our doctrine of immediate emancipation. A doctrine founded on +God's eternal truth, plain, simple, and perfect,--the doctrine of +immediate, unprocrastinated repentance applied to the sin of slavery. + +Of this doctrine, and of our plan for crrrying it into effect, I have +given an exposition, with the most earnest regard to the truth. Does +either embrace anything false, fanatical, or unconstitutional? Do they +afford a reasonable protext for your fierce denunciations of your +Northern brethren? Do they furnish occasion for your newspaper chivalry, +your stereotyped demonstrations of Southern magnanimity and Yankee +meanness?--things, let me say, unworthy of Virginians, degrading to +yourselves, insulting to us. + +Gentlemen, it is too late for Virginia, with all her lofty intellect and +nobility of feeling, to defend and advocate the principle of slavery. +The death-like silence which for nearly two centuries brooded over her +execrable system has been broken; light is pouring in upon the minds of +her citizens; truth is abroad, "searching out and overturning the lies of +the age." A moral reformation has been already awakened, and it cannot +now be drugged to sleep by the sophistries of detected sin. A thousand +intelligences are at work in her land; a thousand of her noblest hearts +are glowing with the redeeming spirit of that true philanthropy, which is +moving all the world. No, gentlemen; light is spreading from the hills +of Western Virginia to the extremest East. You cannot arrest its +progress. It is searching the consciences; it is exercising the reason; +it is appealing to the noblest characteristics of intelligent Virginians. +It is no foreign influence. From every abandoned plantation where the +profitless fern and thistle have sprung up under the heel of slavery; +from every falling mansion of the master, through whose windows the fox +may look out securely, and over whose hearth-stone the thin grass is +creeping, a warning voice is sinking deeply into all hearts not imbruted +by avarice, indolence, and the lust of power. + +Abolitionist as I am, the intellectual character of Virginia has no +warmer admirer than myself. Her great names, her moral trophies, the +glories of her early day, the still proud and living testimonials of her +mental power, I freely acknowledge and strongly appreciate. And, believe +me, it is with no other feelings than those of regret and heartfelt +sorrow that I speak plainly of her great error, her giant crime, a crime +which is visibly calling down upon her the curse of an offended Deity. +But I cannot forget that upon some of the most influential and highly +favored of her sons rests the responsibility at the present time of +sustaining this fearful iniquity. Blind to the signs of the times, +careless of the wishes of thousands of their white fellow-citizens and of +the manifold wrongs of the black man, they have dared to excuse, defend, +nay, eulogize, the black abominations of slavery. + +Against the tottering ark of the idol these strong men have placed their +shoulders. That ark must fall; that idol must be cast down; what, then, +will be the fate of their supporters? + +When the Convention of 1829 had gathered in its splendid galaxy of +talents the great names of Virginia, the friends of civil liberty turned +their eyes towards it in the earnest hope and confidence that it would +adopt some measures in regard to slavery worthy of the high character of +its members and of the age in which they lived. I need not say how deep +and bitter was our disappointment. Western Virginia indeed spoke on that +occasion, through some of her delegates, the words of truth and humanity. +But their counsels and warnings were unavailing; the majority turned away +to listen to the bewildering eloquence of Leigh and Upshur and Randolph, +as they desecrated their great intellects to the defence of that system +of oppression under which the whole land is groaning. The memorial of +the citizens of Augusta County, bearing the signatures of many slave- +holders, placed the evils of slavery in a strong light before the +convention. Its facts and arguments could only be arbitrarily thrust +aside and wantonly disregarded; they could not be disproved. + +"In a political point of view," says the memorial, "we esteem slavery an +evil greater than the aggregate of all the other evils which beset us, +and we are perfectly willing to bear our proportion of the burden of +removing it. We ask, further, What is the evil of any such alarm as our +proposition may excite in minds unnecessarily jealous compared with that +of the fatal catastrophe which ultimately awaits our country, and the +general depravation of manners which slavery has already produced and is +producing?" + +I cannot forbear giving one more extract from this paper. The +memorialists state their belief + +"That the labor of slaves is vastly less productive than that of freemen; +that it therefore requires a larger space to furnish subsistence for a +given number of the former than of the latter; that the employment of the +former necessarily excludes that of the latter; that hence our +population, white and black, averages seventeen, when it ought, and would +under other circumstances, average, as in New England, at least sixty to +a square mile; that the possession and management of slaves form a source +of endless vexation and misery in the house, and of waste and ruin on the +farm; that the youth of the country are growing up with a contempt of +steady industry as a low and servile thing, which contempt induces +idleness and all its attendant effeminacy, vice, and worthlessness; that +the waste of the products of the land, nay, of the land itself, is +bringing poverty on all its inhabitants; that this poverty and the +sparseness of population either prevent the institution of schools +throughout the country, or keep them in a most languid and inefficient +condition; and that the same causes most obviously paralyze all our +schemes and efforts for the useful improvement of the country." + +Gentlemen, you have only to look around you to know that this picture has +been drawn with the pencil of truth. What has made desolate and sterile +one of the loveliest regions of the whole earth? What mean the signs of +wasteful neglect, of long improvidence around you: the half-finished +mansion already falling into decay, the broken-down enclosures, the weed- +grown garden the slave hut open to the elements, the hillsides galled and +naked, the fields below them run over with brier and fern? Is all this +in the ordinary course of nature? Has man husbanded well the good gifts +of God, and are they nevertheless passing from him, by a process of +deterioration over which he has no control? No, gentlemen. For more +than two centuries the cold and rocky soil of New England has yielded its +annual tribute, and it still lies green and luxuriant beneath the sun of +our brief summer. The nerved and ever-exercised arm of free labor has +changed a landscape wild and savage as the night scenery of Salvator Rosa +into one of pastoral beauty,--the abode of independence and happiness. +Under a similar system of economy and industry, how would Virginia, rich +with Nature's prodigal blessings, have worn at this time over all her +territory the smiles of plenty, the charms of rewarded industry! What a +change would have been manifest in your whole character! Freemen in the +place of slaves, industry, reputable economy, a virtue, dissipation +despised, emigration unnecessary! + + [A late Virginia member of Congress described the Virginia slave- + holder as follows: "He is an Eastern Virginian whose good fortune it + has been to have been born wealthy, and to have become a profound + politician at twenty-one without study or labor. This individual, + from birth and habit, is above all labor and exertion. He never + moves a finger for any useful purpose; he lives on the labor of his + slaves, and even this labor he is too proud and indolent to direct + in person. While he is at his ease, a mercenary with a whip in his + hand drives his slaves in the field. Their dinner, consisting of a + few scraps and lean bones, is eaten in the burning sun. They have + no time to go to a shade and be refreshed such easement is reserved + for the horses"!--Speech of Hon. P. P. Doddridge in House of + Delegates, 1829.] + +All this, you will say, comes too late; the curse is upon you, the evil +in the vitals of your state, the desolation widening day by day. No, it +is not too late. There are elements in the Virginian character capable +of meeting the danger, extreme as it is, and turning it aside. Could you +but forget for a time partisan contest and unprofitable political +speculations, you might successfully meet the dangerous exigencies of +your state with those efficient remedies which the spirit of the age +suggests; you might, and that too without pecuniary loss, relinquish your +claims to human beings as slaves, and employ them as free laborers, under +such restraint and supervision as their present degraded condition may +render necessary. In the language of one of your own citizens, "it is +useless for you to attempt to linger on the skirts of the age which is +departed. The action of existing causes and principles is steady and +progressive. It cannot be retarded, unless you would blow out all the +moral lights around you; and if you refuse to keep up with it, you will +be towed in the wake, whether you will or not."--[Speech in Virginia +legislature, 1832.] + +The late noble example of the eloquent statesman of Roanoke, the +manumission of his slaves, speaks volumes to his political friends. In +the last hour of existence, when his soul was struggling from his broken +tenement, his latest effort was the confirmation of this generous act of +a former period. Light rest the turf upon him beneath his own +patrimonial oaks! The prayers of many hearts made happy by his +benevolence shall linger over his grave and bless it. + +Gentlemen, in concluding these letters, let me once more assure you that +I entertain towards you and your political friends none other than kindly +feelings. If I have spoken at all with apparent harshness, it has been +of principles rather than of men. But I deprecate no censure. Conscious +of the honest and patriotic motives which have prompted their avowal, I +cheerfully leave my sentiments to their fate. Despised and contemned as +they may be, I believe they cannot be gainsaid. Sustained by the truth +as it exists in Nature and Revelation, sanctioned by the prevailing +spirit of the age, they are yet destined to work out the political and +moral regeneration of our country. The opposition which they meet with +does not dishearten me. In the lofty confidence of John Milton, I +believe that "though all the winds of doctrine be let loose upon the +earth, so Truth be among them, we need not fear. Let her and Falsehood +grapple; whoever knew her to be put to the worst in a free and open +encounter?" + +HAVERHILL, MASS., 29th of 7th Mo., 1833. + + + + + + + + LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL. + + HAVERHILL, 10th of 1st Mo., 1834. + +SAMUEL E. SEWALL, ESQ., +Secretary New England A. S. Society + +DEAR FRIEND,--I regret that circumstances beyond my control will not +allow of my attendance at the annual meeting of the New England Anti- +Slavery Society. + +I need not say to the members of that society that I am with them, heart +and soul, in the cause of abolition; the abolition not of physical +slavery alone, abhorrent and monstrous as it is, but of that intellectual +slavery, the bondage of corrupt and mistaken opinion, which has fettered +as with iron the moral energies and intellectual strength of New England. + +For what is slavery, after all, but fear,--fear, forcing mind and body +into unnatural action? And it matters little whether it be the terror of +the slave-whip on the body, or of the scourge of popular opinion upon the +inner man. + +We all know how often the representatives of the Southern division of the +country have amused themselves in Congress by applying the opprobrious +name of "slave" to the free Northern laborer. And how familiar have the +significant epithets of "white slave" and "dough-face" become! + +I fear these epithets have not been wholly misapplied. Have we not been +told here, gravely and authoritatively, by some of our learned judges, +divines, and politicians, that we, the free people of New England, have +no right to discuss the subject of slavery? Freemen, and no right to +suggest the duty or the policy of a practical adherence to the doctrines +of that immortal declaration upon which our liberties are founded! +Christians, enjoying perfect liberty of conscience, yet possessing no +right to breathe one whisper against a system of adultery and blood, +which is filling the whole land with abomination and blasphemy! And this +craven sentiment is echoed by the very men whose industry is taxed to +defray the expenses of twenty-five representatives of property, vested in +beings fashioned in the awful image of their Maker; by men whose hard +earnings aid in supporting a standing army mainly for the protection of +slaveholding indolence; by men who are liable at any moment to be called +from the field and workshop to put down by force the ever upward +tendencies of oppressed humanity, to aid the negro-breeder and the negro- +trader in the prosecution of a traffic most horrible in the eye of God, +to wall round with their bayonets two millions of colored Americans, +children of a common Father and heirs of a common eternity, while the +broken chain is riveted anew and the thrown-off fetter replaced. + +I am for the abolition of this kind of slavery. It must be accomplished +before we can hope to abolish the negro slavery of the country. The +people of the free states, with a perfect understanding of their own +rights and a sacred respect for the rights of others, must put their +strong shoulders to the work of moral reform, and our statesmen, orators, +and politicians will follow, floating as they must with the tendency of +the current, the mere indices of popular sentiment. They cannot be +expected to lead in this matter. They are but instruments in the hands +of the people for good or evil:-- + + "A breath can make them, as a breath has made." + +Be it our task to give tone and direction to these instruments; to turn +the tide of popular feeling into the pure channels of justice; to break +up the sinful silence of the nation; to bring the vaunted Christianity of +our age and country to the test of truth; to try the strength and purity +of our republicanism. If the Christianity we profess has not power to +pull down the strongholds of prejudice, and overcome hate, and melt the +heart of oppression, it is not of God. If our republicanism is based on +other foundation than justice and humanity, let it fall forever. + +No better evidence is needed of the suicidal policy of this nation than +the death-like silence on the subject of slavery which pervades its +public documents. Who that peruses the annual messages of the national +executive would, from their perusal alone, conjecture that such an evil +as slavery had existence among us? Have the people reflected upon the +cause of this silence? The evil has grown to be too monstrous to be +questioned. Its very magnitude has sealed the lips of the rulers. +Uneasily, and troubled with its dream of guilt, the nation sleeps on. +The volcano is beneath. God is above us. + +At every step of our peaceful and legal agitation of this subject we are +met with one grave objection. We are told that the system which we are +conscientiously opposing is recognized and protected by the Constitution. +For all the benefits of our fathers' patriotism--and they are neither few +nor trifling--let us be grateful to God and to their memories. But it +should not be forgotten that the same constitutional compact which now +sanctions slavery guaranteed protection for twenty years to the foreign +slave-trade. It threw the shield of its "sanctity" around the now +universally branded pirate. It legalized the most abhorrent system of +robbery which ever cursed the family of man. + +During those years of sinful compromise the crime of man-robbery less +atrocious than at present? Because the Constitution permitted, in that +single crime, the violation of all the commandments of God, was that +violation less terrible to earth or offensive to heaven? + +No one now defends that "constitutional" slavetrade. Loaded with the +curse of God and man, it stands amidst minor iniquities, like Satan in +Pandemonium, preeminent and monstrous in crime. + +And if the slave-trade has become thus odious, what must be the fate, +erelong, of its parent, slavery? If the mere consequence be thus +blackening under the execration of all the world, who shall measure the +dreadful amount of infamy which must finally settle on the cause itself? +The titled ecclesiastic and the ambitious statesman should have their +warning on this point. They should know that public opinion is steadily +turning to the light of truth. The fountains are breaking up around us, +and the great deep will soon be in motion. A stern, uncompromising, and +solemn spirit of inquiry is abroad. It cannot be arrested, and its +result may be easily foreseen. It will not long be popular to talk of +the legality of soul-murder, the constitutionality of man-robbery. + +One word in relation to our duty to our Southern brethren. If we detest +their system of slavery in our hearts, let us not play the hypocrite with +our lips. Let us not pay so poor a compliment to their understandings as +to suppose that we can deceive them into a compliance with our views of +justice by ambiguous sophistry, and overcome their sinful practices and +established prejudices by miserable stratagem. Let us not first do +violence to our consciences by admitting their moral right to property in +man, and then go to work like so many vagabond pedlers to cheat them out +of it. They have a right to complain of such treatment. It is mean, and +wicked, and dishonorable. Let us rather treat our Southern friends as +intelligent and high-minded men, who, whatever may be their faults, +despise unmanly artifice, and loathe cant, and abhor hypocrisy. +Connected with them, not by political ties alone, but by common +sacrifices and mutual benefits, let us seek to expostulate with them +earnestly and openly, to gain at least their confidence in our sincerity, +to appeal to their consciences, reason, and interests; and, using no +other weapons than those of moral truth, contend fearlessly with the evil +system they are cherishing. And if, in an immediate compliance with the +strict demands of justice, they should need our aid and sympathy, let us +open to them our hearts and our purses. But in the name of sincerity, +and for the love of peace and the harmony of the Union, let there be no +more mining and countermining, no more blending of apology with +denunciation, no more Janus-like systems of reform, with one face for the +South and another for the North. + +If we steadily adhere to the principles upon which we have heretofore +acted, if we present our naked hearts to the view of all, if we meet the +threats and violence of our misguided enemies with the bare bosom and +weaponless hand of innocence, may we not trust that the arm of our +Heavenly Father will be under us, to strengthen and support us? And +although we may not be able to save our country from the awful judgment +she is provoking, though the pillars of the Union fall and all the +elements of her greatness perish, still let it be our part to rally +around the standard of truth and justice, to wash our hands of evil, to +keep our own souls unspotted, and, bearing our testimony and lifting our +warning voices to the last, leave the event in the hands of a righteous +God. + + + + + + + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. + + In 1837 Isaac Knapp printed Letters from John Quincy Adams to his + Constituents of the Twelfth Congressional District in Massachusetts, + to which is added his Speech in Congress, delivered February 9, + 1837, and the following stood as an introduction to the pamphlet. + +THE following letters have been published, within a few weeks, in the +Quincy (Mass.) 'Patriot'. Notwithstanding the great importance of the +subjects which they discuss, the intense interest which they are +calculated to awaken throughout this commonwealth and the whole country, +and the exalted reputation of their author as a profound statesman and +powerful writer, they are as yet hardly known beyond the limits of the +constituency to whom they are particularly addressed. The reason of this +is sufficiently obvious. John Quincy Adams belongs to neither of the +prominent political parties, fights no partisan battles, and cannot be +prevailed upon to sacrifice truth and principle upon the altar of party +expediency and interest. Hence neither party is interested in defending +his course, or in giving him an opportunity to defend himself. But +however systematic may be the efforts of mere partisan presses to +suppress and hold back from the public eye the powerful and triumphant +vindication of the Right of Petition, the graphic delineation of the +slavery spirit in Congress, and the humbling disclosure of Northern +cowardice and treachery, contained in these letters, they are destined to +exert a powerful influence upon the public mind. They will constitute +one of the most striking pages in the history of our times. They will be +read with avidity in the North and in the South, and throughout Europe. +Apart from the interest excited by the subjects under discussion, and +viewed only as literary productions, they may be ranked among the highest +intellectual efforts of their author. Their sarcasm is Junius-like,-- +cold, keen, unsparing. In boldness, directness, and eloquent appeal, +they will bear comparison with O'Connell's celebrated 'Letters to the +Reformers of Great Britain'. They are the offspring of an intellect +unshorn of its primal strength, and combining the ardor of youth with the +experience of age. + +The disclosure made in these letters of the slavery influence exerted in +Congress over the representatives of the free states, of the manner in +which the rights of freemen have been bartered for Southern votes, or +basely yielded to the threats of men educated in despotism, and stamped +by the free indulgence of unrestrained tyranny with the "odious +peculiarities" of slavery, is painful and humiliating in the extreme. It +will be seen that, in the great struggle for and against the Right of +Petition, an account of which is given in the following pages, their +author stood, in a great measure, alone and unsupported by his Northern +colleagues. On his "gray, discrowned head" the entire fury of slave- +holding arrogance and wrath was expended. He stood alone, beating back, +with his aged and single arm, the tide which would have borne down and +overwhelmed a less sturdy and determined spirit. + +We need not solicit for these letters, and the speech which accompanies +them, a thorough perusal. They deserve, and we trust will receive, a +circulation throughout the entire country. They will meet a cordial +welcome from every lover of human liberty, from every friend of justice +and the rights of man, irrespective of color or condition. The +principles which they defend, the sentiments which they express, are +those of Massachusetts, as recently asserted, almost unanimously, by her +legislature. In both branches of that body, during the discussion of the +subject of slavery and the right of petition, the course of the ex- +President was warmly and eloquently commended. Massachusetts will +sustain her tried and faithful representative; and the time is not far +distant when the best and worthiest citizens of the entire North will +proffer him their thanks for his noble defence of their rights as +freemen, and of the rights of the slave as a man. + + + + + + +THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. + + From a review of a pro-slavery pamphlet by "Evangelicus" in the + Boston Emancipator in 1843. + +THE second part of the essay is occupied in proving that the slavery in +the Roman world, at the time of our Saviour, was similar in all essential +features to American slavery at the present day; and the third and +concluding part is devoted to an examination of the apostolical +directions to slaves and masters, as applicable to the same classes in +the United States. He thinks the command to give to servants that which +is just and equal means simply that the masters should treat their slaves +with equity, and that while the servant is to be profitable to the +master, the latter is bound in "a fair and equitable manner to provide +for the slave's subsistence and happiness." Although he professes to +believe that a faithful adherence to Scriptural injunctions on this point +would eventually terminate in the emancipation of the slaves, he thinks +it not necessary to inquire whether the New Testament does or does not +"tolerate slavery as a permanent institution"! + +From the foregoing synopsis it will be seen at once that whatever may +have been the motives of the writer, the effect of his publication, so +far as it is at all felt, will be to strengthen the oppressor in his +guilt, and hold him back from the performance of his immediate duty in +respect to his slaves, and to shield his conscience from the reproofs of +that class who, according to "Evangelicus," have "no personal +acquaintance with the actual domestic state or the social and political +connections of their Southern fellow-citizens." We look upon it only as +another vain attempt to strike a balance between Christian duty and +criminal policy, to reconcile Christ and Belial, the holy philanthropy of +Him who went about doing good with the most abhorrent manifestation of +human selfishness, lust, and hatred which ever provoked the divine +displeasure. There is a grave-stone coldness about it. The author +manifests as little feeling as if he were solving a question in algebra. +No sigh of sympathy breathes through its frozen pages for the dumb, +chained millions, no evidence of a feeling akin to that of Him who at the +grave of Lazarus + + "Wept, and forgot His power to save;" + +no outburst of that indignant reproof with which the Divine Master +rebuked the devourers of widows' houses and the oppressors of the poor is +called forth by the writer's stoical contemplation of the tyranny of his +"Christian brethren" at the South. + +"It is not necessary," says Evangelicus, "to inquire whether the New +Testament does not tolerate slavery as a permanent institution." And +this is said when the entire slave-holding church has sheltered its +abominations under the pretended sanction of the gospel; when slavery, +including within itself a violation of every command uttered amidst the +thunders of Sinai, a system which has filled the whole South with the +oppression of Egypt and the pollutions of Sodom, is declared to be an +institution of the Most High. With all due deference to the author, we +tell him, and we tell the church, North and South, that this question +must be met. Once more we repeat the solemn inquiry which has been +already made in our columns, "Is the Bible to enslave the world?" Has it +been but a vain dream of ours that the mission of the Author of the +gospel was to undo the heavy burdens, to open the prison doors, and to +break the yoke of the captive? Let Andover and Princeton answer. If the +gospel does sanction the vilest wrong which man can inflict upon his +fellow-man, if it does rivet the chains which humanity, left to itself, +would otherwise cast off, then, in humanity's name, let it perish forever +from the face of the earth. Let the Bible societies dissolve; let not +another sheet issue from their presses. Scatter not its leaves abroad +over the dark places of the earth; they are not for the healing of the +nations. Leave rather to the Persian his Zendavesta, to the Mussulman +his Koran. We repeat it, this question must be met. Already we have +heard infidelity exulting over the astute discoveries of bespectacled +theological professors, that the great Head of the Christian Church +tolerated the horrible atrocities of Roman slavery, and that His most +favored apostle combined slave-catching with his missionary labors. And +why should it not exult? Fouler blasphemy than this was never uttered. +A more monstrous libel upon the Divine Author of Christianity was never +propagated by Paine or Voltaire, Kneeland or Owen; and we are constrained +to regard the professor of theology or the doctor of divinity who tasks +his sophistry and learning in an attempt to show that the Divine Mind +looks with complacency upon chattel slavery as the most dangerous enemy +with which Christianity has to contend. The friends of pure and +undefiled religion must awake to this danger. The Northern church must +shake itself clean from its present connection with blasphemers and +slave-holders, or perish with them. + + + + + + +WHAT IS SLAVERY + + + Addressed to the Liberty Party Convention at New Bedford in + September, 1843. + +I HAVE just received your kind invitation to attend the meeting of the +Liberty Party in New Bedford on the 2d of next month. Believe me, it is +with no ordinary feelings of regret that I find myself under the +necessity of foregoing the pleasure of meeting with you on that occasion. +But I need not say to you, and through you to the convention, that you +have my hearty sympathy. + +I am with the Liberty Party because it is the only party in the country +which is striving openly and honestly to reduce to practice the great +truths which lie at the foundation of our republic: all men created +equal, endowed with rights inalienable; the security of these rights the +only just object of government; the right of the people to alter or +modify government until this great object is attained. Precious and +glorious truths! Sacred in the sight of their Divine Author, grateful +and beneficent to suffering humanity, essential elements of that ultimate +and universal government of which God is laying the strong and wide +foundations, turning and overturning, until He whose right it is shall +rule. The voice which calls upon us to sustain them is the voice of God. +In the eloquent language of the lamented Myron Holley, the man who first +lifted up the standard of the Liberty Party: "He calls upon us to sustain +these truths in the recorded voice of the holy of ancient times. He +calls us to sustain them in the sound as of many waters and mighty +thunderings rising from the fields of Europe, converted into one vast +Aceldama by the exertions of despots to suppress them; in the persuasive +history of the best thoughts and boldest deeds of all our brave, self- +sacrificing ancestors; in the tender, heart-reaching whispers of our +children, preparing to suffer or enjoy the future, as we leave it for +them; in the broken and disordered but moving accents of half our race +yet groping in darkness and galled by the chains of bondage. He calls +upon us to sustain them by the solemn and considerate use of all the +powers with which He has invested us." In a time of almost universal +political scepticism, in the midst of a pervading and growing unbelief in +the great principles enunciated in the revolutionary declaration, the +Liberty Party has dared to avow its belief in these truths, and to carry +them into action as far as it has the power. It is a protest against the +political infidelity of the day, a recurrence to first principles, a +summons once more to that deserted altar upon which our fathers laid +their offerings. + +It may be asked why it is that a party resting upon such broad principles +is directing its exclusive exertions against slavery. "Are there not +other great interests?" ask all manner of Whig and Democrat editors and +politicians. "Consider, for instance," say the Democrats, "the mighty +question which is agitating us, whether a 'Northern man with Southern +principles' or a Southern man with the principles of a Nero or Caligula +shall be President." "Or look at us," say the Whigs, "deprived of our +inalienable right to office by this Tyler-Calhoun administration. And +bethink you, gentlemen, how could your Liberty Party do better than to +vote with us for a man who, if he does hold some threescore of slaves, +and maintain that 'two hundred years of legislation has sanctioned and +sanctified negro slavery,' is, at the same time, the champion of Greek +liberty, and Polish liberty, and South American liberty, and, in short, +of all sorts of liberties, save liberty at home." + +Yes, friends, we have considered all this, and more, namely, that one +sixth part of our entire population are slaves, and that you, with your +subtreasuries and national banks, propose no relief for them. Nay, +farther, it is because both of you, when in power, have used your +authority to rivet closer the chains of unhappy millions, that we have +been compelled to abandon you, and form a liberty party having for its +first object the breaking of these chains. + +What is slavery? For upon the answer to this question must the Liberty +Party depend for its justification. + +The slave laws of the South tell us that it is the conversion of men into +articles of property; the transformation of sentient immortal beings into +"chattels personal." The principle of a reciprocity of benefits, which +to some extent characterizes all other relations, does not exist in that +of master and slave. The master holds the plough which turns the soil of +his plantation, the horse which draws it, and the slave who guides it by +one and the same tenure. The profit of the master is the great end of +the slave's existence. For this end he is fed, clothed, and prescribed +for in sickness. He learns nothing, acquires nothing, for himself. He +cannot use his own body for his own benefit. His very personality is +destroyed. He is a mere instrument, a means in the hands of another for +the accomplishment of an end in which his own interests are not regarded, +a machine moved not by his own will, but by another's. In him the awful +distinction between a person and a thing is annihilated: he is thrust +down from the place which God and Nature assigned him, from the equal +companionship of rational intelligence's,--a man herded with beasts, an +immortal nature classed with the wares of the merchant! + +The relations of parent and child, master and apprentice, government and +subject, are based upon the principle of benevolence, reciprocal +benefits, and the wants of human society; relations which sacredly +respect the rights and legacies which God has given to all His rational +creatures. But slavery exists only by annihilating or monopolizing these +rights and legacies. In every other modification of society, man's +personal ownership remains secure. He may be oppressed, deprived of +privileges, loaded with burdens, hemmed about with legal disabilities, +his liberties restrained. But, through all, the right to his own body +and soul remains inviolate. He retains his inherent, original possession +of himself. Even crime cannot forfeit it, for that law which destroys +his personality makes void its own claims upon him as a moral agent; and +the power to punish ceases with the accountability of the criminal. He +may suffer and die under the penalties of the law, but he suffers as a +man, he perishes as a man, and not as a thing. To the last moments of +his existence the rights of a moral agent are his; they go with him to +the grave; they constitute the ground of his accountability at the bar of +infinite justice,--rights fixed, eternal, inseparable; attributes of all +rational intelligence in time and eternity; the same in essence, and +differing in degree only, with those of the highest moral being, of God +himself. + +Slavery alone lays its grasp upon the right of personal ownership, that +foundation right, the removal of which uncreates the man; a right which +God himself could not take away without absolving the being thus deprived +of all moral accountability; and so far as that being is concerned, +making sin and holiness, crime and virtue, words without significance, +and the promises and sanctions of revelation, dreams. Hence, the +crowning horror of slavery, that which lifts it above all other +iniquities, is not that it usurps the prerogatives of Deity, but that it +attempts that which even He who has said, "All souls are mine," cannot +do, without breaking up the foundations of His moral government. Slavery +is, in fact, a struggle with the Almighty for dominion over His rational +creatures. It is leagued with the powers of darkness, in wresting man +from his Maker. It is blasphemy lifting brazen brow and violent hand to +heaven, attempting a reversal of God's laws. Man claiming the right to +uncreate his brother; to undo that last and most glorious work, which God +himself pronounced good, amidst the rejoicing hosts of heaven! Man +arrogating to himself the right to change, for his own selfish purposes, +the beautiful order of created existences; to pluck the crown of an +immortal nature, scarce lower than that of angels, from the brow of his +brother; to erase the God-like image and superscription stamped upon him +by the hand of his Creator, and to write on the despoiled and desecrated +tablet, "A chattel personal!" + +This, then, is slavery. Nature, with her thousand voices, cries out +against it. Against it, divine revelation launches its thunders. The +voice of God condemns it in the deep places of the human heart. The woes +and wrongs unutterable which attend this dreadful violation of natural +justice, the stripes, the tortures, the sunderings of kindred, the +desolation of human affections, the unchastity and lust, the toil +uncompensated, the abrogated marriage, the legalized heathenism, the +burial of the mind, are but the mere incidentals of the first grand +outrage, that seizure of the entire man, nerve, sinew, and spirit, which +robs him of his body, and God of his soul. These are but the natural +results and outward demonstrations of slavery, the crystallizations from +the chattel principle. + +It is against this system, in its active operation upon three millions of +our countrymen, that the Liberty Party is, for the present, directing all +its efforts. With such an object well may we be "men of one idea." Nor +do we neglect "other great interests," for all are colored and controlled +by slavery, and the removal of this disastrous influence would most +effectually benefit them. + +Political action is the result and immediate object of moral suasion on +this subject. Action, action, is the spirit's means of progress, its +sole test of rectitude, its only source of happiness. And should not +decided action follow our deep convictions of the wrong of slavery? +Shall we denounce the slave-holders of the states, while we retain our +slavery in the District of Columbia? Shall we pray that the God of the +oppressed will turn the hearts of "the rulers" in South Carolina, while +we, the rulers of the District, refuse to open the prisons and break up +the slave-markets on its ten miles square? God keep us from such +hypocrisy! Everybody now professes to be opposed to slavery. The +leaders of the two great political parties are grievously concerned lest +the purity of the antislavery enterprise will suffer in its connection +with politics. In the midst of grossest pro-slavery action, they are +full of anti-slavery sentiment. They love the cause, but, on the whole, +think it too good for this world. They would keep it sublimated, aloft, +out of vulgar reach or use altogether, intangible as Magellan's clouds. +Everybody will join us in denouncing slavery, in the abstract; not a +faithless priest nor politician will oppose us; abandon action, and +forsooth we can have an abolition millennium; the wolf shall lie down +with the lamb, while slavery in practice clanks, in derision, its three +millions of unbroken chains. Our opponents have no fear of the harmless +spectre of an abstract idea. They dread it only when it puts on the +flesh and sinews of a practical reality, and lifts its right arm in the +strength which God giveth to do as well as theorize. + +As honest men, then, we must needs act; let us do so as becomes men +engaged in a great and solemn cause. Not by processions and idle parades +and spasmodic enthusiasms, by shallow tricks and shows and artifices, can +a cause like ours be carried onward. Leave these to parties contending +for office, as the "spoils of victory." We need no disguises, nor false +pretences, nor subterfuges; enough for us to present before our fellow- +countrymen the holy truths of freedom, in their unadorned and native +beauty. Dark as the present may seem, let us remember with hearty +confidence that truth and right are destined to triumph. Let us blot out +the word "discouragement" from the anti-slavery vocabulary. Let the +enemies of freedom be discouraged; let the advocates of oppression +despair; but let those who grapple with wrong and falsehood, in the name +of God and in the power of His truth, take courage. Slavery must die. +The Lord hath spoken it. The vials of His hot displeasure, like those +which chastised the nations in the Apocalyptic vision, are smoking even +now, above its "habitations of cruelty." It can no longer be borne with +by Heaven. Universal humanity cries out against it. Let us work, then, +to hasten its downfall, doing whatsoever our hands find to do, "with all +our might." + +October, 1843. + + + + + + + + DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY. + + [1843.] + +THE great leader of American Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, was an ultra- +abolitionist in theory, while from youth to age a slave-holder in +practice. With a zeal which never abated, with a warmth which the frost +of years could not chill, he urged the great truths, that each man should +be the guardian of his own weal; that one man should never have absolute +control over another. He maintained the entire equality of the race, the +inherent right of self-ownership, the equal claim of all to a fair +participation in the enactment of the laws by which they are governed. + +He saw clearly that slavery, as it existed in the South and on his own +plantation, was inconsistent with this doctrine. His early efforts for +emancipation in Virginia failed of success; but he next turned his +attention to the vast northwestern territory, and laid the foundation of +that ordinance of 1787, which, like the flaming sword of the angel at the +gates of Paradise, has effectually guarded that territory against the +entrance of slavery. Nor did he stop here. He was the friend and +admirer of the ultra-abolitionists of revolutionary France; he warmly +urged his British friend, Dr. Price, to send his anti-slavery pamphlets +into Virginia; he omitted no opportunity to protest against slavery as +anti-democratic, unjust, and dangerous to the common welfare; and in his +letter to the territorial governor of Illinois, written in old age, he +bequeathed, in earnest and affecting language, the cause of negro +emancipation to the rising generation. "This enterprise," said he, "is +for the young, for those who can carry it forward to its consummation. +It shall have all my prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old +man." + +Such was Thomas Jefferson, the great founder of American Democracy, the +advocate of the equality of human rights, irrespective of any conditions +of birth, or climate, or color. His political doctrines, it is strange +to say, found their earliest recipients and most zealous admirers in the +slave states of the Union. The privileged class of slaveholders, whose +rank and station "supersede the necessity of an order of nobility," +became earnest advocates of equality among themselves--the democracy of +aristocracy. With the misery and degradation of servitude always before +them, in the condition of their own slaves, an intense love of personal +independence, and a haughty impatience of any control over their actions, +prepared them to adopt the democratic idea, so far as it might be applied +to their own order. Of that enlarged and generous democracy, the love, +not of individual freedom alone, but of the rights and liberties of all +men, the unselfish desire to give to others the privileges which all men +value for themselves, we are constrained to believe the great body of +Thomas Jefferson's slave-holding admirers had no adequate conception. +They were just such democrats as the patricians of Rome and the +aristocracy of Venice; lords over their own plantations, a sort of "holy +alliance" of planters, admitting and defending each other's divine right +of mastership. + +Still, in Virginia, Maryland, and in other sections of the slave states, +truer exponents and exemplifiers of the idea of democracy, as it existed +in the mind of Jefferson, were not wanting. In the debate on the +memorials presented to the first Congress of the United States, praying +for the abolition of slavery, the voice of the Virginia delegation in +that body was unanimous in deprecation of slavery as an evil, social, +moral, and political. In the Virginia constitutional convention--of 1829 +there were men who had the wisdom to perceive and the firmness to declare +that slavery was not only incompatible with the honor and prosperity of +the state, but wholly indefensible on any grounds which could be +consistently taken by a republican people. In the debate on the same +subject in the legislature in 1832, universal and impartial democracy +found utterance from eloquent lips. We might say as much of Kentucky, +the child of Virginia. But it remains true that these were exceptions to +the general rule. With the language of universal liberty on their lips, +and moved by the most zealous spirit of democratic propagandism, the +greater number of the slave-holders of the Union seem never to have +understood the true meaning, or to have measured the length and breadth +of that doctrine which they were the first to adopt, and of which they +have claimed all along to be the peculiar and chosen advocates. + +The Northern States were slow to adopt the Democratic creed. The +oligarchy of New England, and the rich proprietors and landholders of the +Middle States, turned with alarm and horror from the levelling doctrines +urged upon them by the "liberty and equality" propagandists of the South. +The doctrines of Virginia were quite as unpalatable to Massachusetts at +the beginning of the present century as those of Massachusetts now are to +the Old Dominion. Democracy interfered with old usages and time-honored +institutions, and threatened to plough up the very foundations of the +social fabric. It was zealously opposed by the representatives of New +England in Congress and in the home legislatures; and in many pulpits +hands were lifted to God in humble entreaty that the curse and bane of +democracy, an offshoot of the rabid Jacobinism of revolutionary France, +might not be permitted to take root and overshadow the goodly heritage of +Puritanism. The alarmists of the South, in their most fervid pictures of +the evils to be apprehended from the prevalence of anti-slavery doctrines +in their midst, have drawn nothing more fearful than the visions of such + + "Prophets of war and harbingers of ill" + +as Fisher Ames in the forum and Parish in the desk, when contemplating +the inroads of Jeffersonian democracy upon the politics, religion, and +property of the North. + +But great numbers of the free laborers of the Northern States, the +mechanics and small farmers, took a very different view of the matter. +The doctrines of Jefferson were received as their political gospel. It +was in vain that federalism denounced with indignation the impertinent +inconsistency of slave-holding interference in behalf of liberty in the +free states. Come the doctrine from whom it might, the people felt it to +be true. State after state revolted from the ranks of federalism, and +enrolled itself on the side of democracy. The old order of things was +broken up; equality before the law was established, religious tests and +restrictions of the right of suffrage were abrogated. Take +Massachusetts, for example. There the resistance to democratic +principles was the most strenuous and longest continued. Yet, at this +time, there is no state in the Union more thorough in its practical +adoption of them. No property qualifications or religious tests prevail; +all distinctions of sect, birth, or color, are repudiated, and suffrage +is universal. The democracy, which in the South has only been held in a +state of gaseous abstraction, hardened into concrete reality in the cold +air of the North. The ideal became practical, for it had found lodgment +among men who were accustomed to act out their convictions and test all +their theories by actual experience. + +While thus making a practical application of the new doctrine, the people +of the free states could not but perceive the incongruity of democracy +and slavery. + +Selleck Osborn, who narrowly escaped the honor of a Democratic martyr in +Connecticut, denounced slave-holding, in common with other forms of +oppression. Barlow, fresh from communion with Gregoire, Brissot, and +Robespierre, devoted to negro slavery some of the most vigorous and +truthful lines of his great poem. Eaton, returning from his romantic +achievements in Tunis for the deliverance of white slaves, improved the +occasion to read a lecture to his countrymen on the inconsistency and +guilt of holding blacks in servitude. In the Missouri struggle of 1819- +20, the people of the free states, with a few ignoble exceptions, took +issue with the South against the extension of slavery. Some ten years +later, the present antislavery agitation commenced. It originated, +beyond a question, in the democratic element. With the words of +Jefferson on their lips, young, earnest, and enthusiastic men called the +attention of the community to the moral wrong and political reproach of +slavery. In the name and spirit of democracy, the moral and political +powers of the people were invoked to limit, discountenance, and put an +end to a system so manifestly subversive of its foundation principles. +It was a revival of the language of Jefferson and Page and Randolph, an +echo of the voice of him who penned the Declaration of Independence and +originated the ordinance of 1787. + +Meanwhile the South had wellnigh forgotten the actual significance of the +teachings of its early political prophets, and their renewal in the shape +of abolitionism was, as might have been expected, strange and unwelcome. +Pleasant enough it had been to hold up occasionally these democratic +abstractions for the purpose of challenging the world's admiration and +cheaply acquiring the character of lovers of liberty and equality. +Frederick of Prussia, apostrophizing the shades of Cato and Brutus, + + "Vous de la liberte heros que je revere," + +while in the full exercise of his despotic power, was quite as consistent +as these democratic slaveowners, whose admiration of liberty increased in +exact ratio with its distance from their own plantations. They had not +calculated upon seeing their doctrine clothed with life and power, a +practical reality, pressing for application to their slaves as well as to +themselves. They had not taken into account the beautiful ordination of +Providence, that no man can vindicate his own rights, without directly or +impliedly including in that vindication the rights of all other men. The +haughty and oppressive barons who wrung from their reluctant monarch the +Great Charter at Runnymede, acting only for themselves and their class, +little dreamed of the universal application which has since been made of +their guaranty of rights and liberties. As little did the nobles of the +parliament of Paris, when strengthening themselves by limiting the kingly +prerogative, dream of the emancipation of their own serfs, by a +revolution to which they were blindly giving the first impulse. God's +truth is universal; it cannot be monopolized by selfishness. + + + + + + THE TWO PROCESSIONS. + + [1844.] + + "Look upon this picture, and on this." HAMLET. + +CONSIDERING that we have a slave population of nearly three millions, and +that in one half of the states of the Republic it is more hazardous to +act upon the presumption that "all men are created free and equal" than +it would be in Austria or Russia, the lavish expression of sympathy and +extravagant jubilation with which, as a people, we are accustomed to +greet movements in favor of freedom abroad are not a little remarkable. +We almost went into ecstasies over the first French revolution; we filled +our papers with the speeches of orator Hunt and the English radicals; we +fraternized with the United Irishmen; we hailed as brothers in the cause +of freedom the very Mexicans whom we have since wasted with fire and +sword; our orators, North and South, grew eloquent and classic over the +Greek and Polish revolutions. In short, long ere this, if the walls of +kingcraft and despotism had been, like those of Jericho, destined to be +overthrown by sound, our Fourth of July cannon-shootings and bell- +ringings, together with our fierce, grandiloquent speech-makings in and +out of Congress, on the occasions referred to, would have left no stone +upon another. + +It is true that an exception must be made in the case of Hayti. We fired +no guns, drank no toasts, made no speeches in favor of the establishment +of that new republic in our neighborhood. The very mention of the +possibility that Haytien delegates might ask admittance to the congress +of the free republics of the New World at Panama "frightened from their +propriety" the eager propagandists of republicanism in the Senate, and +gave a death-blow to their philanthropic projects. But as Hayti is a +republic of blacks who, having revolted from their masters as well as +from the mother country, have placed themselves entirely without the pale +of Anglo-Saxon sympathy by their impertinent interference with the +monopoly of white liberty, this exception by no means disproves the +general fact, that in the matter of powder-burning, bell-jangling, +speech-making, toast-drinking admiration of freedom afar off and in the +abstract we have no rivals. The caricature of our "general sympathizers" +in Martin Chuzzlewit is by no means a fancy sketch. + +The news of the revolution of the three days in Paris, and the triumph of +the French people over Charles X. and his ministers, as a matter of +course acted with great effect upon our national susceptibility. We all +threw up our hats in excessive joy at the spectacle of a king dashed down +headlong from his throne and chased out of his kingdom by his long- +suffering and oppressed subjects. We took half the credit of the +performance to ourselves, inasmuch as Lafayette was a principal actor in +it. Our editors, from Passamaquoddy to the Sabine, indited paragraphs +for a thousand and one newspapers, congratulating the Parisian patriots, +and prophesying all manner of evil to holy alliances, kings, and +aristocracies. The National Intelligencer for September 27, 1830, +contains a full account of the public rejoicings of the good people of +Washington on the occasion. Bells were rung in all the steeples, guns +were fired, and a grand procession was formed, including the President of +the United States, the heads of departments, and other public +functionaries. Decorated with tricolored ribbons, and with tricolored +flags mingling with the stripes and stars over their heads, and gazed +down upon by bright eyes from window and balcony, the "general +sympathizers" moved slowly and majestically through the broad avenue +towards the Capitol to celebrate the revival of French liberty in a +manner becoming the chosen rulers of a free people. + +What a spectacle was this for the representatives of European kingcraft +at our seat of government! How the titled agents of Metternich and +Nicholas must have trembled, in view of this imposing demonstration, for +the safety of their "peculiar institutions!" + +Unluckily, however, the moral effect of this grand spectacle was marred +somewhat by the appearance of another procession, moving in a contrary +direction. It was a gang of slaves! Handcuffed in pairs, with the +sullen sadness of despair in their faces, they marched wearily onward to +the music of the driver's whip and the clanking iron on their limbs. +Think of it! Shouts of triumph, rejoicing bells, gay banners, and +glittering cavalcades, in honor of Liberty, in immediate contrast with +men and women chained and driven like cattle to market! The editor of +the American Spectator, a paper published at Washington at that time, +speaking of this black procession of slavery, describes it as "driven +along by what had the appearance of a man on horseback." The miserable +wretches who composed it were doubtless consigned to a slave-jail to +await their purchase and transportation to the South or Southwest; and +perhaps formed a part of that drove of human beings which the same editor +states that he saw on the Saturday following, "males and females chained +in couples, starting from Robey's tavern, on foot, for Alexandria, to +embark on board a slave-ship." + +At a Virginia camp-meeting, many years ago, one of the brethren, +attempting an exhortation, stammered, faltered, and finally came to a +dead stand. "Sit down, brother," said old Father Kyle, the one-eyed +abolition preacher; "it's no use to try; you can't preach with twenty +negroes sticking in your throat!" It strikes us that our country is very +much in the condition of the poor confused preacher at the camp-meeting. +Slavery sticks in its throat, and spoils its finest performances, +political and ecclesiastical; confuses the tongues of its evangelical +alliances; makes a farce of its Fourth of July celebrations; and, as in +the case of the grand Washington procession of 1830, sadly mars the +effect of its rejoicings in view of the progress of liberty abroad. +There is a stammer in all our exhortations; our moral and political +homilies are sure to run into confusions and contradictions; and the +response which comes to us from the nations is not unlike that of Father +Kyle to the planter's attempt at sermonizing: "It's no use, brother +Jonathan; you can't preach liberty with three millions of slaves in your +throat!" + + + + + + + A CHAPTER OF HISTORY. + + [1844.] + +THE theory which a grave and learned Northern senator has recently +announced in Congress, that slavery, like the cotton-plant, is confined +by natural laws to certain parallels of latitude, beyond which it can by +no possibility exist, however it may have satisfied its author and its +auditors, has unfortunately no verification in the facts of the case. +Slavery is singularly cosmopolitan in its habits. The offspring of +pride, and lust, and avarice, it is indigenous to the world. Rooted in +the human heart, it defies the rigors of winter in the steppes of Tartary +and the fierce sun of the tropics. It has the universal acclimation of +sin. + +The first account we have of negro slaves in New England is from the pen +of John Josselyn. Nineteen years after the landing at Plymouth, this +interesting traveller was for some time the guest of Samuel Maverick, who +then dwelt, like a feudal baron, in his fortalice on Noddle's Island, +surrounded by retainers and servants, bidding defiance to his Indian +neighbors behind his strong walls, with "four great guns" mounted +thereon, and "giving entertainment to all new-comers gratis." + +"On the 2d of October, 1639, about nine o'clock in the morning, Mr. +Maverick's negro woman," says Josselyn, "came to my chamber, and in her +own country language and tune sang very loud and shrill. Going out to +her, she used a great deal of respect towards me, and would willingly +have expressed her grief in English had she been able to speak the +language; but I apprehended it by her countenance and deportment. +Whereupon I repaired to my host to learn of him the cause, and resolved +to entreat him in her behalf; for I had understood that she was a queen +in her own country, and observed a very dutiful and humble garb used +towards her by another negro, who was her maid. Mr. Maverick was +desirous to have a breed of negroes; and therefore, seeing she would not +yield by persuasions to company with a negro young man he had in his +house, he commanded him, willed she, nilled she, to go to her bed, which +was no sooner done than she thrust him out again. This she took in high +disdain beyond her slavery; and this was the cause of her grief." + +That the peculiar domestic arrangements and unfastidious economy of this +slave-breeding settler were not countenanced by the Puritans of that +early time we have sufficient evidence. It is but fair to suppose, from +the silence of all other writers of the time with respect to negroes and +slaves, that this case was a marked exception to the general habits and +usage of the Colonists. At an early period a traffic was commenced +between the New England Colonies and that of Barbadoes; and it is not +improbable that slaves were brought to Boston from that island. The +laws, however, discouraged their introduction and purchase, giving +freedom to all held to service at the close of seven years. + +In 1641, two years after Josselyn's adventure on Noddle's Island, the +code of laws known by the name of the Body of Liberties was adopted by +the Colony. It was drawn up by Nathaniel Ward, the learned and ingenious +author of the 'Simple Cobbler of Agawarn', the earliest poetical satire +of New England. One of its provisions was as follows:-- + +"There shall be never any bond slaverie, villainage, or captivitie +amongst us, unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres and such +strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us. And these +shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of God +established in Israel doth morally require." + +In 1646, Captain Smith, a Boston church-member, in connection with one +Keeser, brought home two negroes whom he obtained by the surprise and +burning of a negro village in Africa and the massacre of many of its +inhabitants. Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the assistants, presented a +petition to the General Court, stating the outrage thereby committed as +threefold in its nature, namely murder, man-stealing, and Sabbath- +breaking; inasmuch as the offence of "chasing the negers, as aforesayde, +upon the Sabbath day (being a servile work, and such as cannot be +considered under any other head) is expressly capital by the law of God;" +for which reason he prays that the offenders may be brought to justice, +"soe that the sin they have committed may be upon their own heads and not +upon ourselves." + +Upon this petition the General Court passed the following order, +eminently worthy of men professing to rule in the fear and according to +the law of God,--a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do +well:-- + +"The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity +to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as +also to prescribe such timely redress for what has passed, and such a law +for the future as may sufficiently deter all others belonging to us to +have to do in such vile and odious courses, justly abhorred of all good +and just men, do order that the negro interpreter, and others unlawfully +taken, be by the first opportunity, at the charge of the country for the +present, sent to his native country, Guinea, and a letter with him of the +indignation of the Court thereabout, and justice thereof, desiring our +honored Governor would please put this order in execution." + +There is, so far as we know, no historical record of the actual return of +these stolen men to their home. A letter is extant, however, addressed +in behalf of the General Court to a Mr. Williams on the Piscataqua, by +whom one of the negroes had been purchased, requesting him to send the +man forthwith to Boston, that he may be sent home, "which this Court do +resolve to send back without delay." + +Three years after, in 1649, the following law was placed upon the +statute-book of the Massachusetts Colony:-- + +"If any man stealeth a man, or mankind, he shall surely be put to death." + +It will thus be seen that these early attempts to introduce slavery into +New England were opposed by severe laws and by that strong popular +sentiment in favor of human liberty which characterized the Christian +radicals who laid the foundations of the Colonies. It was not the rigor +of her Northern winter, nor the unkindly soil of Massachusetts, which +discouraged the introduction of slavery in the first half-century of her +existence as a colony. It was the Puritan's recognition of the +brotherhood of man in sin, suffering, and redemption, his estimate of the +awful responsibilities and eternal destinies of humanity, his hatred of +wrong and tyranny, and his stern sense of justice, which led him to +impose upon the African slave-trader the terrible penalty of the Mosaic +code. + +But that brave old generation passed away. The civil contentions in the +mother country drove across the seas multitudes of restless adventurers +and speculators. The Indian wars unsettled and demoralized the people. +Habits of luxury and the greed of gain took the place of the severe self- +denial and rigid virtues of the fathers. Hence we are not surprised to +find that Josselyn, in his second visit to New England, some twenty-five +years after his first, speaks of the great increase of servants and +negroes. In 1680 Governor Bradstreet, in answer to the inquiries of his +Majesty's Privy Council, states that two years before a vessel from +Madagasca "brought into the Colony betwixt forty and fifty negroes, +mostly women and children, who were sold at a loss to the owner of the +vessel." "Now and then," he continues, "two or three negroes are brought +from Barbadoes and other of his Majesty's plantations and sold for twenty +pounds apiece; so that there may be within the government about one +hundred or one hundred and twenty, and it may be as many Scots, brought +hither and sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland, and +about half as many Irish." + +The owning of a black or white slave, or servant, at this period was +regarded as an evidence of dignity and respectability; and hence +magistrates and clergymen winked at the violation of the law by the +mercenary traders, and supplied themselves without scruple. Indian +slaves were common, and are named in old wills, deeds, and inventories, +with horses, cows, and household furniture. As early as the year 1649 we +find William Hilton, of Newbury, sells to George Carr, "for one quarter +part of a vessel, James, my Indian, with all the interest I have in him, +to be his servant forever." Some were taken in the Narragansett war and +other Indian wars; others were brought from South Carolina and the +Spanish Main. It is an instructive fact, as illustrating the retributive +dealings of Providence, that the direst affliction of the Massachusetts +Colony--the witchcraft terror of 1692--originated with the Indian Tituba, +a slave in the family of the minister of Danvers. + +In the year 1690 the inhabitants of Newbury were greatly excited by the +arrest of a Jerseyman who had been engaged in enticing Indians and +negroes to leave their masters. He was charged before the court with +saying that "the English should be cut off and the negroes set free." +James, a negro slave, and Joseph, an Indian, were arrested with him. +Their design was reported to be, to seize a vessel in the port and escape +to Canada and join the French, and return and lay waste and plunder their +masters. They were to come back with five hundred Indians and three +hundred Canadians; and the place of crossing the Merrimac River, and of +the first encampment on the other side, were even said to be fixed upon. +When we consider that there could not have been more than a score of +slaves in the settlement, the excitement into which the inhabitants were +thrown by this absurd rumor of conspiracy seems not very unlike that of a +convocation of small planters in a backwoods settlement in South Carolina +on finding an anti-slavery newspaper in their weekly mail bag. + +In 1709 Colonel Saltonstall, of Haverhill, had several negroes, and among +them a high-spirited girl, who, for some alleged misdemeanor, was +severely chastised. The slave resolved upon revenge for her injury, and +soon found the means of obtaining it. The Colonel had on hand, for +service in the Indian war then raging, a considerable store of gunpowder. +This she placed under the room in which her master and mistress slept, +laid a long train, and dropped a coal on it. She had barely time to +escape to the farm-house before the explosion took place, shattering the +stately mansion into fragments. Saltonstall and his wife were carried on +their bed a considerable distance, happily escaping serious injury. Some +soldiers stationed in the house were scattered in all directions; but no +lives were lost. The Colonel, on recovering from the effects of his +sudden overturn, hastened to the farm-house and found his servants all up +save the author of the mischief, who was snug in bed and apparently in a +quiet sleep. + +In 1701 an attempt was made in the General Court of Massachusetts to +prevent the increase of slaves. Judge Sewall soon after published a +pamphlet against slavery, but it seems with little effect. Boston +merchants and ship-owners became, to a considerable extent, involved in +the slave-trade. Distilleries, established in that place and in Rhode +Island, furnished rum for the African market. The slaves were usually +taken to the West Indies, although occasionally part of a cargo found its +way to New England, where the wholesome old laws against man-stealing had +become a dead letter on the statute-book. + +In 1767 a bill was brought before the Legislature of Massachusetts to +prevent "the unwarrantable and unnatural custom of enslaving mankind." +The Council of Governor Bernard sent it back to the House greatly changed +and curtailed, and it was lost by the disagreement of the two branches. +Governor Bernard threw his influence on the side of slavery. In 1774 a +bill prohibiting the traffic in slaves passed both Houses; but Governor +Hutchinson withheld his assent and dismissed the Legislature. The +colored men sent a deputation of their own to the Governor to solicit his +consent to the bill; but he told them his instructions forbade him. A +similar committee waiting upon General Gage received the same answer. + +In the year 1770 a servant of Richard Lechmere, of Cambridge, stimulated +by the general discussion of the slavery question and by the advice of +some of the zealous advocates of emancipation, brought an action against +his master for detaining him in bondage. The suit was decided in his +favor two years before the similar decision in the case of Somerset in +England. The funds necessary for carrying on this suit were raised among +the blacks themselves. Other suits followed in various parts of the +Province; and the result was, in every instance, the freedom of the +plaintiff. In 1773 Caesar Hendrick sued his master, one Greenleaf, of +Newburyport, for damages, laid at fifty pounds, for holding him as a +slave. The jury awarded him his freedom and eighteen pounds. + +According to Dr. Belknap, whose answers to the queries on the subject, +propounded by Judge Tucker, of Virginia, have furnished us with many of +the facts above stated, the principal grounds upon which the counsel of +the masters depended were, that the negroes were purchased in open +market, and included in the bills of sale like other property; that +slavery was sanctioned by usage; and, finally, that the laws of the +Province recognized its existence by making masters liable for the +maintenance of their slaves, or servants. + +On the part of the blacks, the law and usage of the mother country, +confirmed by the Great Charter, that no man can be deprived of his +liberty but by the judgment of his peers, were effectually pleaded. The +early laws of the Province prohibited slavery, and no subsequent +legislation had sanctioned it; for, although the laws did recognize its +existence, they did so only to mitigate and modify an admitted evil. + +The present state constitution was established in 1780. The first +article of the Bill of Rights prohibited slavery by affirming the +foundation truth of our republic, that "all men are born free and equal." +The Supreme Court decided in 1783 that no man could hold another as +property without a direct violation of that article. + +In 1788 three free black citizens of Boston were kidnapped and sold into +slavery in one of the French islands. An intense excitement followed. +Governor Hancock took efficient measures for reclaiming the unfortunate +men. The clergy of Boston petitioned the Legislature for a total +prohibition of the foreign slave-trade. The Society of Friends, and the +blacks generally, presented similar petitions; and the same year an act +was passed prohibiting the slave-trade and granting relief to persons +kidnapped or decoyed out of the Commonwealth. The fear of a burden to +the state from the influx of negroes from abroad led the Legislature, in +connection with this law, to prevent those who were not citizens of the +state or of other states from gaining a residence. + +The first case of the arrest of a fugitive slave in Massachusetts under +the law of 1793 took place in Boston soon after the passage of the law. +It is the case to which President Quincy alludes in his late letter +against the fugitive slave law. The populace at the trial aided the +slave to escape, and nothing further was done about it. + +The arrest of George Latimer as a slave, in Boston, and his illegal +confinement in jail, in 1842, led to the passage of the law of 1843 for +the "protection of personal liberty," prohibiting state officers from +arresting or detaining persons claimed as slaves, and the use of the +jails of the Commonwealth for their confinement. This law was strictly +in accordance with the decision of the supreme judiciary, in the case of +Prigg vs. The State of Pennsylvania, that the reclaiming of fugitives was +a matter exclusively belonging to the general government; yet that the +state officials might, if they saw fit, carry into effect the law of +Congress on the subject, "unless prohibited by state legislation." + +It will be seen by the facts we have adduced that slavery in +Massachusetts never had a legal existence. The ermine of the judiciary +of the Puritan state has never been sullied by the admission of its +detestable claims. It crept into the Commonwealth like other evils and +vices, but never succeeded in clothing itself with the sanction and +authority of law. It stood only upon its own execrable foundation of +robbery and wrong. + +With a history like this to look back upon, is it strange that the people +of Massachusetts at the present day are unwilling to see their time- +honored defences of personal freedom, the good old safeguards of Saxon +liberty, overridden and swept away after the summary fashion of "the +Fugitive Slave Bill;" that they should loathe and scorn the task which +that bill imposes upon them of aiding professional slave-hunters in +seizing, fettering, and consigning to bondage men and women accused only +of that which commends them to esteem and sympathy, love of liberty and +hatred of slavery; that they cannot at once adjust themselves to +"constitutional duties" which in South Carolina and Georgia are reserved +for trained bloodhounds? Surely, in view of what Massachusetts has been, +and her strong bias in favor of human freedom, derived from her great- +hearted founders, it is to be hoped that the Executive and Cabinet at +Washington will grant her some little respite, some space for turning, +some opportunity for conquering her prejudices, before letting loose the +dogs of war upon her. Let them give her time, and treat with forbearance +her hesitation, qualms of conscience, and wounded pride. Her people, +indeed, are awkward in the work of slave-catching, and, it would seem, +rendered but indifferent service in a late hunt in Boston. Whether they +would do better under the surveillance of the army and navy of the United +States is a question which we leave with the President and his Secretary +of State. General Putnam once undertook to drill a company of Quakers, +and instruct them, by force of arms, in the art and mystery of fighting; +but not a single pair of drab-colored breeches moved at his "forward +march;" not a broad beaver wheeled at his word of command; no hand +unclosed to receive a proffered musket. Patriotic appeal, hard swearing, +and prick of bayonet had no effect upon these impracticable raw recruits; +and the stout general gave them up in despair. We are inclined to +believe that any attempt on the part of the Commander-in-chief of our +army and navy to convert the good people of Massachusetts into expert +slave-catchers, under the discipline of West Point and Norfolk, would +prove as idle an experiment as that of General Putnam upon the Quakers. + + + + + + + THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE-QUESTION. + + [1846.] + +A LATE number of Fraser's Magazine contains an article bearing the +unmistakable impress of the Anglo-German peculiarities of Thomas Carlyle, +entitled, 'An Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question', which would be +interesting as a literary curiosity were it not in spirit and tendency so +unspeakably wicked as to excite in every rightminded reader a feeling of +amazement and disgust. With a hard, brutal audacity, a blasphemous +irreverence, and a sneering mockery which would do honor to the devil of +Faust, it takes issue with the moral sense of mankind and the precepts of +Christianity. Having ascertained that the exports of sugar and spices +from the West Indies have diminished since emancipation,--and that the +negroes, having worked, as they believed, quite long enough without +wages, now refuse to work for the planters without higher pay than the +latter, with the thriftless and evil habits of slavery still clinging to +them, can afford to give,--the author considers himself justified in +denouncing negro emancipation as one of the "shams" which he was +specially sent into this world to belabor. Had he confned himself to +simple abuse and caricature of the self-denying and Christian +abolitionists of England--"the broad-brimmed philanthropists of Exeter +Hall"--there would have been small occasion for noticing his splenetic +and discreditable production. Doubtless there is a cant of philanthropy +--the alloy of human frailty and folly--in the most righteous reforms, +which is a fair subject for the indignant sarcasm of a professed hater of +shows and falsities. Whatever is hollow and hypocritical in politics, +morals, or religion, comes very properly within the scope of his mockery, +and we bid him Godspeed in plying his satirical lash upon it. Impostures +and frauds of all kinds deserve nothing better than detection and +exposure. Let him blow them up to his heart's content, as Daniel did the +image of Bell and the Dragon. + +But our author, in this matter of negro slavery, has undertaken to apply +his explosive pitch and rosin, not to the affectation of humanity, but to +humanity itself. He mocks at pity, scoffs at all who seek to lessen the +amount of pain and suffering, sneers at and denies the most sacred +rights, and mercilessly consigns an entire class of the children of his +Heavenly Father to the doom of compulsory servitude. He vituperates the +poor black man with a coarse brutality which would do credit to a +Mississippi slave-driver, or a renegade Yankee dealer in human cattle on +the banks of the Potomac. His rhetoric has a flavor of the slave-pen and +auction-block, vulgar, unmanly, indecent, a scandalous outrage upon good +taste and refined feeling, which at once degrades the author and insults +his readers. + +He assumes (for he is one of those sublimated philosophers who reject the +Baconian system of induction and depend upon intuition without recourse +to facts and figures) that the emancipated class in the West India +Islands are universally idle, improvident, and unfit for freedom; that +God created them to be the servants and slaves of their "born lords," the +white men, and designed them to grow sugar, coffee, and spices for their +masters, instead of raising pumpkins and yams for themselves; and that, +if they will not do this, "the beneficent whip" should be again employed +to compel them. He adopts, in speaking of the black class, the lowest +slang of vulgar prejudice. "Black Quashee," sneers the gentlemanly +philosopher,--"black Quashee, if he will not help in bringing out the +spices, will get himself made a slave again (which state will be a little +less ugly than his present one), and with beneficent whip, since other +methods avail not, will be compelled to work." + +It is difficult to treat sentiments so atrocious and couched in such +offensive language with anything like respect. Common sense and +unperverted conscience revolt instinctively against them. The doctrine +they inculcate is that which underlies all tyranny and wrong of man +towards man. It is that under which "the creation groaneth and +travaileth unto this day." It is as old as sin; the perpetual argument +of strength against weakness, of power against right; that of the Greek +philosopher, that the barbarians, being of an inferior race, were born to +be slaves to the Greeks; and of the infidel Hobbes, that every man, being +by nature at war with every other man, has a perpetual right to reduce +him to servitude if he has the power. It is the cardinal doctrine of +what John Quincy Adams has very properly styled the Satanic school of +philosophy,--the ethics of an old Norse sea robber or an Arab plunderer +of caravans. It is as widely removed from the sweet humanities and +unselfish benevolence of Christianity as the faith and practice of the +East India Thug or the New Zealand cannibal. + +Our author does not, however, take us altogether by surprise. He has +before given no uncertain intimations of the point towards which his +philosophy was tending. In his brilliant essay upon 'Francia of +Paraguay', for instance, we find him entering with manifest satisfaction +and admiration into the details of his hero's tyranny. In his 'Letters +and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell'--in half a dozen pages of savage and +almost diabolical sarcasm directed against the growing humanity of the +age, the "rose-pink sentimentalisms," and squeamishness which shudders at +the sight of blood and infliction of pain--he prepares the way for a +justification of the massacre of Drogheda. More recently he has +intimated that the extermination of the Celtic race is the best way of +settling the Irish question; and that the enslavement and forcible +transportation of her poor, to labor under armed taskmasters in the +colonies, is the only rightful and proper remedy for the political and +social evils of England. In the 'Discourse on Negro Slavery' we see this +devilish philosophy in full bloom. The gods, he tells us, are with the +strong. Might has a divine right to rule,--blessed are the crafty of +brain and strong of hand! Weakness is crime. "Vae victis!" as Brennus +said when he threw his sword into the scale,--Woe to the conquered! The +negro is weaker in intellect than his "born lord," the white man, and has +no right to choose his own vocation. Let the latter do it for him, and, +if need be, return to the "beneficent whip." "On the side of the +oppressor there is power;" let him use it without mercy, and hold flesh +and blood to the grindstone with unrelenting rigor. Humanity is +squeamishness; pity for the suffering mere "rose-pink sentimentalism," +maudlin and unmanly. The gods (the old Norse gods doubtless) laugh to +scorn alike the complaints of the miserable and the weak compassions and +"philanthropisms" of those who would relieve them. This is the substance +of Thomas Carlyle's advice; this is the matured fruit of his philosophic +husbandry,--the grand result for which he has been all his life sounding +unfathomable abysses or beating about in the thin air of +Transcendentalism. Such is the substitute which he offers us for the +Sermon on the Mount. + +He tells us that the blacks have no right to use the islands of the West +Indies for growing pumpkins and garden stuffs for their own use and +behoof, because, but for the wisdom and skill of the whites, these +islands would have been productive only of "jungle, savagery, and swamp +malaria." The negro alone could never have improved the islands or +civilized himself; and therefore their and his "born lord," the white +man, has a right to the benefits of his own betterments of land and "two- +legged cattle!" "Black Quashee" has no right to dispose of himself and +his labor because he owes his partial civilization to others! And pray +how has it been with the white race, for whom our philosopher claims the +divine prerogative of enslaving? Some twenty and odd centuries ago, a +pair of half-naked savages, daubed with paint, might have been seen +roaming among the hills and woods of the northern part of the British +island, subsisting on acorns and the flesh of wild animals, with an +occasional relish of the smoked hams and pickled fingers of some +unfortunate stranger caught on the wrong side of the Tweed. This +interesting couple reared, as they best could, a family of children, who, +in turn, became the heads of families; and some time about the beginning +of the present century one of their descendants in the borough of +Ecclefechan rejoiced over the birth of a man child now somewhat famous as +"Thomas Carlyle, a maker of books." Does it become such a one to rave +against the West India negro's incapacity for self-civilization? Unaided +by the arts, sciences, and refinements of the Romans, he might have been, +at this very day, squatted on his naked haunches in the woods of +Ecclefechan, painting his weather-hardened epidermis in the sun like his +Piet ancestors. Where, in fact, can we look for unaided self-improvement +and spontaneous internal development, to any considerable extent, on the +part of any nation or people? From people to people the original God- +given impulse towards civilization and perfection has been transmitted, +as from Egypt to Greece, and thence to the Roman world. + +But the blacks, we are told, are indolent and insensible to the duty of +raising sugar and coffee and spice for the whites, being mainly careful +to provide for their own household and till their own gardens for +domestic comforts and necessaries. The exports have fallen off somewhat. +And what does this prove? Only that the negro is now a consumer of +products, of which, under the rule of the whip, he was a producer merely. +As to indolence, under the proper stimulus of fair wages we have reason +to believe that the charge is not sustained. If unthrifty habits and +lack of prudence on the part of the owners of estates, combined with the +repeal of duties on foreign sugars by the British government, have placed +it out of their power to pay just and reasonable wages for labor, who can +blame the blacks if they prefer to cultivate their own garden plots +rather than raise sugar and spice for their late masters upon terms +little better than those of their old condition, the "beneficent whip" +always excepted? The despatches of the colonial governors agree in +admitting that the blacks have had great cause for complaint and +dissatisfaction, owing to the delay or non-payment of their wages. Sir +C. E. Gray, writing from Jamaica, says, that "in a good many instances +the payment of the wages they have earned has been either very +irregularly made, or not at all, probably on account of the inability of +the employers." He says, moreover:-- + +"The negroes appear to me to be generally as free from rebellious +tendencies or turbulent feelings and malicious thoughts as any race of +laborers I ever saw or heard of. My impression is, indeed, that under a +system of perfectly fair dealing and of real justice they will come to be +an admirable peasantry and yeomanry; able-bodied, industrious, and hard- +working, frank, and well-disposed." + +It must, indeed, be admitted that, judging by their diminished exports +and the growing complaints of the owners of estates, the condition of the +islands, in a financial point of view, is by no means favorable. An +immediate cause of this, however, must be found in the unfortunate Sugar +Act of 1846. The more remote, but for the most part powerful, cause of +the present depression is to be traced to the vicious and unnatural +system of slavery, which has been gradually but surely preparing the way +for ruin, bankruptcy, and demoralization. Never yet, by a community or +an individual, have the righteous laws of God been violated with +impunity. Sooner or later comes the penalty which the infinite justice +has affixed to sin. Partial and temporary evils and inconveniences have +undoubtedly resulted from the emancipation of the laborers; and many +years must elapse before the relations of the two heretofore antagonistic +classes can be perfectly adjusted and their interests brought into entire +harmony. But that freedom is not to be held mainly accountable for the +depression of the British colonies is obvious from the fact that Dutch +Surinam, where the old system of slavery remains in its original rigor, +is in an equally depressed condition. The 'Paramaribo Neuws en +Advertentie Blad', quoted in the Jamaica Gazette, says, under date of +January 2, 1850: "Around us we hear nothing but complaints. People seek +and find matter in everything to picture to themselves the lot of the +place in which they live as bitterer than that of any other country. Of +a large number of flourishing plantations, few remain that can now be +called such. So deteriorated has property become within the last few +years, that many of these estates have not been able to defray their +weekly expenses. The colony stands on the brink of a yawning abyss, into +which it must inevitably plunge unless some new and better system is +speedily adopted. It is impossible that our agriculture can any longer +proceed on its old footing; our laboring force is dying away, and the +social position they held must undergo a revolution." + +The paper from which we have quoted, the official journal of the colony, +thinks the condition of the emancipated British colonies decidedly +preferable to that of Surinam, where the old slave system has continued +in force, and insists that the Dutch government must follow the example +of Great Britain. The actual condition of the British colonies since +emancipation is perfectly well known in Surinam: three of them, +Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice, being its immediate neighbors, whatever +evils and inconveniences have resuited from emancipation must be well +understood by the Dutch slave-holders; yet we find them looking towards +emancipation as the only prospect of remedy for the greater evils of +their own system. + +This fact is of itself a sufficient answer to the assumption of Carlyle +and others, that what they call "the ruin of the colonies" has been +produced by the emancipation acts of 1833 and 1838. + +We have no fears whatever of the efect of this literary monstrosity, +which we have been considering upon the British colonies. Quashee, black +and ignorant as he may be, will not "get himself made a slave again." +The mission of the "beneficent whip" is there pretty well over; and it +may now find its place in museums and cabinets of ghastly curiosities, +with the racks, pillories, thumbscrews, and branding-irons of old days. +What we have feared, however, is, that the advocates and defenders of +slave-holding in this country might find in this discourse matter of +encouragement, and that our anti-christian prejudices against the colored +man might be strengthened and confirmed by its malignant vituperation and +sarcasm. On this point we have sympathized with the forebodings of an +eloquent writer in the London Enquirer:-- + +"We cannot imagine a more deadly moral poison for the American people +than his [Carlyle's] last composition. Every cruel practice of social +exclusion will derive from it new sharpness and venom. The slave-holder, +of course, will exult to find himself, not apologized for, but +enthusiastically cheered, upheld, and glorified, by a writer of European +celebrity. But it is not merely the slave who will feel Mr. Carlyle's +hand in the torture of his flesh, the riveting of his fetters, and the +denial of light to his mind. The free black will feel him, too, in the +more contemptuous and abhorrent scowl of his brother man, who will easily +derive from this unfortunate essay the belief that his inhuman feelings +are of divine ordination. It is a true work of the Devil, the fostering +of a tyrannical prejudice. Far and wide over space, and long into the +future, the winged words of evil counsel will go. In the market-place, +in the house, in the theatre, and in the church,--by land and by sea, in +all the haunts of men,--their influence will be felt in a perennial +growth of hate and scorn, and suffering and resentment. Amongst the +sufferers will be many to whom education has given every refined +susceptibility that makes contempt and exclusion bitter. Men and women, +faithful and diligent, loving and worthy to be loved, and bearing, it may +be, no more than an almost imperceptible trace of African descent, will +continue yet longer to be banished from the social meal of the white man, +and to be spurned from his presence in the house of God, because a writer +of genius has lent the weight of his authority and his fame, if not of +his power, to the perpetuation of a prejudice which Christianity was +undermining." + +A more recent production, 'Latter Day Pamphlets', in which man's +capability of self-government is more than doubted, democracy somewhat +contemptuously sneered at, and the "model republic" itself stigmatized as +a "nation of bores," may have a salutary effect in restraining our +admiration and in lessening our respect for the defender and eulogist of +slavery. The sweeping impartiality with which in this latter production +he applies the principle of our "peculiar institution" to the laboring +poor man, irrespective of color, recognizing as his only inalienable +right "the right of being set to labor" for his "born lords," will, we +imagine, go far to neutralize the mischief of his Discourse upon Negro +Slavery. It is a sad thing to find so much intellectual power as Carlyle +really possesses so little under the control of the moral sentiments. In +some of his earlier writings--as, for instance, his beautiful tribute to +the Corn Law Rhymer--we thought we saw evidence of a warm and generous +sympathy with the poor and the wronged, a desire to ameliorate human +suffering, which would have done credit to the "philanthropisms of Exeter +Hall" and the "Abolition of Pain Society." Latterly, however, like +Moliere's quack, he has "changed all that;" his heart has got upon the +wrong side; or rather, he seems to us very much in the condition of the +coal-burner in the German tale, who had swapped his heart of flesh for a +cobblestone. + + + + + + + FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY. + + A letter to William Lloyd Garrison, President of the Society. + + AMESBURY, 24th 11th mo., 1863. + +MY DEAR FRIEND,--I have received thy kind letter, with the accompanying +circular, inviting me to attend the commemoration of the thirtieth +anniversary of the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, at +Philadelphia. It is with the deepest regret that I am compelled, by the +feeble state of my health, to give up all hope of meeting thee and my +other old and dear friends on an occasion of so much interest. How much +it costs me to acquiesce in the hard necessity thy own feelings will tell +thee better than any words of mine. + +I look back over thirty years, and call to mind all the circumstances of +my journey to Philadelphia, in company with thyself and the excellent Dr. +Thurston of Maine, even then, as we thought, an old man, but still +living, and true as ever to the good cause. I recall the early gray +morning when, with Samuel J. May, our colleague on the committee to +prepare a Declaration of Sentiments for the convention, I climbed to the +small "upper chamber" of a colored friend to hear thee read the first +draft of a paper which will live as long as our national history. I see +the members of the convention, solemnized by the responsibility, rise one +by one, and solemnly affix their names to that stern pledge of fidelity +to freedom. Of the signers, many have passed away from earth, a few have +faltered and turned back, but I believe the majority still live to +rejoice over the great triumph of truth and justice, and to devote what +remains of time and strength to the cause to which they consecrated their +youth and manhood thirty years ago. + +For while we may well thank God and congratulate one another on the +prospect of the speedy emancipation of the slaves of the United States, +we must not for a moment forget that, from this hour, new and mighty +responsibilities devolve upon us to aid, direct, and educate these +millions, left free, indeed, but bewildered, ignorant, naked, and +foodless in the wild chaos of civil war. We have to undo the accumulated +wrongs of two centuries; to remake the manhood which slavery has well- +nigh unmade; to see to it that the long-oppressed colored man has a fair +field for development and improvement; and to tread under our feet the +last vestige of that hateful prejudice which has been the strongest +external support of Southern slavery. We must lift ourselves at once to +the true Christian altitude where all distinctions of black and white are +overlooked in the heartfelt recognition of the brotherhood of man. + +I must not close this letter without confessing that I cannot be +sufficiently thankful to the Divine Providence which, in a great measure +through thy instrumentality, turned me away so early from what Roger +Williams calls "the world's great trinity, pleasure, profit, and honor," +to take side with the poor and oppressed. I am not insensible to +literary reputation. I love, perhaps too well, the praise and good-will +of my fellow-men; but I set a higher value on my name as appended to the +Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833 than on the title-page of any book. +Looking over a life marked by many errors and shortcomings, I rejoice +that I have been able to maintain the pledge of that signature, and that, +in the long intervening years, + + "My voice, though not the loudest, has been heard Wherever Freedom + raised her cry of pain." + +Let me, through thee, extend a warm greeting to the friends, whether of +our own or the new generation, who may assemble on the occasion of +commemoration. There is work yet to be done which will task the best +efforts of us all. For thyself, I need not say that the love and esteem +of early boyhood have lost nothing by the test of time; and + + I am, very cordially, thy friend, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER + + + + + + + THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY. + + From the Amesbury Villager. + + [1865.] + + +IN the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the unspeakably brutal +assault upon Secretary Seward slavery has made another revelation of +itself. Perhaps it was needed. In the magnanimity of assured victory we +were perhaps disposed to overlook, not so much the guilty leaders and +misguided masses of the great rebellion as the unutterable horror and sin +of slavery which prompted it. + +How slowly we of the North have learned the true character of this mighty +mischief! How our politicians bowed their strong shoulders under its +burthens! How our churches reverenced it! How our clergy contrasted the +heresy-tolerating North with the purely orthodox and Scriptural type of +slave-holding Christianity! How all classes hunted down, not merely the +fugitive slave, but the few who ventured to give him food and shelter and +a Godspeed in his flight from bondage! How utterly ignored was the +negro's claim of common humanity! How readily was the decision of the +slave-holding chief justice acquiesced in, that "the black man had no +rights which the white man is bound to respect"! + +We saw a senator of the United States, world-known and honored for his +learning, talents, and stainless integrity, beaten down and all but +murdered at his official desk by a South Carolina slave-holder, for the +crime of speaking against the extension of slavery; and we heard the +dastardly deed applauded throughout the South, while its brutal +perpetrator was rewarded with orations and gifts and smiles of beauty as +a chivalrous gentleman. We saw slavery enter Kansas, with bowieknife in +hand and curses on its lips; we saw the life of the Union struck at by +secession and rebellion; we heard of the bones of sons and brothers, +fallen in defence of freedom and law, dug up and wrought into ornaments +for the wrists and bosoms of slave-holding women; we looked into the open +hell of Andersonville, upon the deliberate, systematic starvation of +helpless prisoners; we heard of Libby Prison underlaid with gunpowder, +for the purpose of destroying thousands of Union prisoners in case of the +occupation of Richmond by our army; we saw hundreds of prisoners +massacred in cold blood at Fort Pillow, and the midnight sack of Lawrence +and the murder of its principal citizens. The flames of our merchant +vessels, seized by pirates, lighted every sea; we heard of officers of +the rebel army and navy stealing into our cities, firing hotels filled +with sleeping occupants, and laying obstructions on the track of rail +cars, for the purpose of killing and mangling their passengers. Yet in +spite of these revelations of the utterly barbarous character of slavery +and its direful effect upon all connected with it, we were on the very +point of trusting to its most criminal defenders the task of +reestablishing the state governments of the South, leaving the real Union +men, white as well as black, at the mercy of those who have made hatred a +religion and murder a sacrament. The nation needed one more terrible +lesson. It has it in the murder of its beloved chief magistrate and the +attempted assassination of its honored prime minister, the two men of all +others prepared to go farthest to smooth the way of defeated rebellion +back to allegiance. + +Even now the lesson of these terrible events seems but half learned. In +the public utterances I hear much of punishing and hanging leading +traitors, fierce demands for vengeance, and threats of the summary +chastisement of domestic sympathizers with treason, but comparatively +little is said of the accursed cause, the prolific mother of +abominations, slavery. The government is exhorted to remember that it +does not bear the sword in vain, the Old Testament is ransacked for texts +of Oriental hatred and examples of the revenges of a semi-barbarous +nation; but, as respects the four millions of unmistakably loyal people +of the South, the patient, the long-suffering, kind-hearted victims of +oppressions, only here and there a voice pleads for their endowment with +the same rights of citizenship which are to be accorded to the rank and +file of disbanded rebels. The golden rule of the Sermon on the Mount is +not applied to them. Much is said of executing justice upon rebels; +little of justice to loyal black men. Hanging a few ringleaders of +treason, it seems to be supposed, is all that is needed to restore and +reestablish the revolted states. The negro is to be left powerless in +the hands of the "white trash," who hate him with a bitter hatred, +exceeding that of the large slave-holders. In short, four years of +terrible chastisement, of God's unmistakable judgments, have not taught +us, as a people, their lesson, which could scarcely be plainer if it had +been written in letters of fire on the sky. Why is it that we are so +slow to learn, so unwilling to confess that slavery is the accursed thing +which whets the knife of murder, and transforms men, with the exterior of +gentlemen and Christians, into fiends? How pitiful is our exultation +over the capture of the wretched Booth and his associates! The great +criminal, of whom he and they were but paltry instruments, still stalks +abroad in the pine woods of Jersey, where the state has thrown around him +her legislative sanction and protection. He is in Pennsylvania, +thrusting the black man from public conveyances. Wherever God's children +are despised, insulted, and abused on account of their color, there is +the real assassin of the President still at large. I do not wonder at +the indignation which has been awakened by the late outrage, for I have +painfully shared it. But let us see to it that it is rightly directed. +The hanging of a score of Southern traitors will not restore Abraham +Lincoln nor atone for the mighty loss. In wreaking revenge upon these +miserable men, we must see to it that we do not degrade ourselves and do +dishonor to the sacred memory of the dead. We do well to be angry; and, +if need be, let our wrath wax seven times hotter, until that which "was a +murderer from the beginning" is consumed from the face of the earth. As +the people stand by the grave of Lincoln, let them lift their right hands +to heaven and take a solemn vow upon their souls to give no sleep to +their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids until slavery is hunted from its +last shelter, and every man, black and white, stands equal before the +law. + +In dealing with the guilty leaders and instigators of the rebellion we +should beware how we take counsel of passion. Hatred has no place beside +the calm and awful dignity of justice. Human life is still a very sacred +thing; Christian forbearance and patience are still virtues. For my own +part, I should be satisfied to see the chiefs of the great treason go out +from among us homeless, exiled, with the mark of Cain on their foreheads, +carrying with them, wherever they go, the avenging Nemesis of conscience. +We cannot take lessons, at this late day, in their school of barbarism; +we cannot starve and torture them as they have starved and tortured our +soldiers. Let them live. Perhaps that is, after all, the most terrible +penalty. For wherever they hide themselves the story of their acts will +pursue them; they can have no rest nor peace save in that deep repentance +which, through the mercy of God, is possible for all. + +I have no disposition to stand between these men and justice. If +arrested, they can have no claim to exemption from the liabilities of +criminals. But it is not simply a question of deserts that is to be +considered; we are to take into account our own reputation as a Christian +people, the wishes of our best friends abroad, and the humane instincts +of the age, which forbid all unnecessary severity. Happily we are not +called upon to take counsel of our fears. Rabbinical writers tell us +that evil spirits who are once baffled in a contest with human beings +lose from thenceforth all power of further mischief. The defeated rebels +are in the precise condition of these Jewish demons. Deprived of +slavery, they are like wasps that have lost their stings. + +As respects the misguided masses of the South, the shattered and crippled +remnants of the armies of treason, the desolate wives, mothers, and +children mourning for dear ones who have fallen in a vain and hopeless +struggle, it seems to me our duty is very plain. We must forgive their +past treason, and welcome and encourage their returning loyalty. None +but cowards will insult and taunt the defeated and defenceless. We must +feed and clothe the destitute, instruct the ignorant, and, bearing +patiently with the bitterness and prejudice which will doubtless for a +time thwart our efforts and misinterpret our motives, aid them in +rebuilding their states on the foundation of freedom. Our sole enemy was +slavery, and slavery is dead. We have now no quarrel with the people of +the South, who have really more reason than we have to rejoice over the +downfall of a system which impeded their material progress, perverted +their religion, shut them out from the sympathies of the world, and +ridged their land with the graves of its victims. + +We are victors, the cause of all this evil and suffering is removed +forever, and we can well afford to be magnanimous. How better can we +evince our gratitude to God for His great mercy than in doing good to +those who hated us, and in having compassion on those who have +despitefully used us? The hour is hastening for us all when our sole +ground of dependence will be the mercy and forgiveness of God. Let us +endeavor so to feel and act in our relations to the people of the South +that we can repeat in sincerity the prayer of our Lord: "Forgive us our +trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," reverently +acknowledging that He has indeed "led captivity captive and received +gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might +dwell among them." + + + + + + + CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE-DEPARTMENT. + + [1868.] + + + +THE wise reticence of the President elect in the matter of his cabinet +has left free course to speculation and conjecture as to its composition. +That he fully comprehends the importance of the subject, and that he will +carefully weigh the claims of the possible candidates on the score of +patriotic services, ability, and fitness for specific duties, no one who +has studied his character, and witnessed his discretion, clear insight, +and wise adaptation of means to ends, under the mighty responsibilities +of his past career, can reasonably doubt. + +It is not probable that the distinguished statesman now at the head of +the State Department will, under the circumstances, look for a +continuance in office. History will do justice to his eminent services +in the Senate and in the cabinet during the first years of the rebellion, +but the fact that he has to some extent shared the unpopularity of the +present chief magistrate seems to preclude the idea of his retention in +the new cabinet. In looking over the list of our public men in search of +a successor, General Grant is not likely to be embarrassed by the number +of individuals fitted by nature, culture, and experience for such an +important post. The newspaper press, in its wide license of conjecture +and suggestion, has, as far as I have seen, mentioned but three or four +names in this connection. Allusions have been made to Senator Fessenden +of Maine, ex-Minister Motley, General Dix, ex-Secretary Stanton, and +Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. + +Without disparaging in any degree his assumed competitors, the last-named +gentleman is unquestionably preeminently fitted for the place. He has +had a lifelong education for it. The entire cast of his mind, the bent +of his studies, the habit and experience of his public life, his profound +knowledge of international law and the diplomatic history of his own and +other countries, his well-earned reputation as a statesman and +constitutional lawyer, not only at home, but wherever our country has +relations of amity and commerce, the honorable distinction which he +enjoys of having held a foremost place in the great conflict between +freedom and slavery, union and rebellion, all mark him as the man for the +occasion. There seems, indeed, a certain propriety in assigning to the +man who struck the heaviest blows at secession and slavery in the +national Senate the first place under him who, in the field, made them +henceforth impossible. The great captain and the great senator united in +war should not be dissevered in peace. + +I am not unaware that there are some, even in the Republican party, who +have failed to recognize in Senator Sumner the really wise and practical +statesmanship which a careful review of his public labors cannot but make +manifest. It is only necessary to point such to the open record of his +senatorial career. Few men have had the honor of introducing and +defending with exhaustive ability and thoroughness so many measures of +acknowledged practical importance to his imrnedicte constituents, the +country at large, and the wider interests of humanity and civilization. +In what exigency has he been found wanting? What legislative act of +public utility for the last eighteen years has lacked his encouragement? +At the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, his clearness of vision, +firmness, moderation, and ready comprehension of the duties of his time +and place must be admitted by all parties. It was shrewdly said by Burke +that "men are wise with little reflection and good with little self- +denial, in business of all times except their own." But Charles Sumner, +the scholar, loving the "still air of delightful studies," has shown +himself as capable of thoroughly comprehending and digesting the events +transpiring before his eyes as of pronouncing judgment upon those +recorded in history. Far in advance of most of his contemporaries, he +saw and enunciated the true doctrine of reconstruction, the early +adoption of which would have been of incalculable service to the country. +One of the ablest statesmen and jurists of the Democratic party has had +the rare magnanimity to acknowledge that in this matter the Republican +senator was right, and himself and his party wrong. + +The Republicans of Massachusetts will make no fractious or importunate +demand upon the new President. They are content to leave to his unbiased +and impartial judgment the selection of his cabinet. But if, looking to +the best interests of the country, he shall see fit to give their +distinguished fellow-citizen the first place in it, they will feel no +solicitude as to the manner in which the duties of the office will be +discharged. They will feel that "the tools are with him who can use +them." Nothing more directly affects the reputation of a country than +the character of its diplomatic correspondence and its foreign +representatives. We have suffered in times past from sad mismanagement +abroad, and intelligent Americans have too often been compelled to hang +their heads with shame to see the flag of their country floating over the +consular offices of worthless, incompetent agents. There can be no +question that so far as they are entrusted to Senator Sumner's hands, the +interest, honor, and dignity of the nation will be safe. + +In a few weeks Charles Summer will be returned for his fourth term in the +United States Senate by the well-nigh unanimous vote of both branches of +the legislature of Massachusetts. Not a syllable of opposition to his +reelection is heard from any quarter. There is not a Republican in the +legislature who could have been elected unless he had been virtually +pledged to his support. No stronger evidence of the popular estimate of +his ability and integrity than this could be offered. As a matter of +course, the marked individuality of his intense convictions, earnestness, +persistence, and confident reliance upon the justice of his conclusions, +naturally growing out of the consciousness of having brought to his +honest search after truth all the lights of his learning and experience, +may, at times, have brought him into unpleasant relations with some of +his colleagues; but no one, friend or foe, has questioned his ability and +patriotism, or doubted his fidelity to principle. He has lent himself to +no schemes of greed. While so many others have taken advantage of the +facilities of their official stations to fill, directly or indirectly, +their own pockets or those of their relatives and retainers, it is to the +honor of Massachusetts that her representatives in the Senate have not +only "shaken their hands from the holding of bribes," but have so borne +themselves that no shadow of suspicion has ever rested on them. + +In this connection it may be proper to state that, in the event of a +change in the War Department, the claims of General Wilson, to whose +services in the committee on military affairs the country is deeply +indebted, may be brought under consideration. In that case Massachusetts +would not, if it were in her power, discriminate between her senators. +Both have deserved well of her and of the country. In expressing thus +briefly my opinion, I do not forget that after all the choice and +responsibility rest with General Grant alone. There I am content to +leave them. I am very far from urging any sectional claim. Let the +country but have peace after its long discord, let its good faith and +financial credit be sustained, and all classes of its citizens everywhere +protected in person and estate, and it matters very little to me whether +Massachusetts is represented at the Executive Council board, or not. +Personally, Charles Sumner would gain nothing by a transfer from the +Senate Chamber to the State Department. He does not need a place in the +American cabinet any more than John Bright does in the British. The +highest ambition might well be satisfied with his present position, from +which, looking back upon an honorable record, he might be justified in +using Milton's language of lofty confidence in the reply to Salmasius: "I +am not one who has disgraced beauty of sentiment by deformity of conduct, +or the maxims of a freeman by the actions of a slave, but, by the grace +of God, I have kept my life unsullied." + + + + + + + THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872. + + The following letter was written on receiving a request from a + committee of colored voters for advice as to their action at the + presidential election of 1872. + + AMESBURY, 9th mo. 3d, 1872. + +DEAR FRIENDS,--I have just received your letter of the 29th ult. asking +my opinion of your present duty as colored voters in the choice between +General Grant and Horace Greeley for the presidency. You state that you +have been confused by the contradictory advice given you by such friends +of your people as Charles Sumner on one hand, and William L. Garrison and +Wendell Phillips on the other; and you ask me, as one whom you are +pleased to think "free from all bias," to add my counsel to theirs. + +I thank you for the very kind expression of your confidence and your +generous reference to my endeavors to serve the cause of freedom; but I +must own that I would fain have been spared the necessity of adding to +the already too long list of political epistles. I have felt it my duty +in times past to take an active part--often very distasteful to me--in +political matters, having for my first object the deliverance of my +country from the crime and curse of slavery. That great question being +now settled forever, I have been more than willing to leave to younger +and stronger hands the toils and the honors of partisan service. Pained +and saddened by the bitter and unchristian personalities of the canvass +now in progress, I have hitherto held myself aloof from it as far as +possible, unwilling to sanction in the slightest degree the criminations +and recriminations of personal friends whom I have every reason to love +and respect, and in whose integrity I have unshaken confidence. In the +present condition of affairs I have not been able to see that any special +action as an abolitionist was required at my hands. Both of the great +parties, heretofore widely separated, have put themselves on +substantially the same platform. The Republican party, originally +pledged only to the non-extension of slavery, and whose most illustrious +representative, President Lincoln, avowed his willingness to save the +Union without abolishing slavery, has been, under Providence, mainly +instrumental in the total overthrow of the detestable system; while the +Democratic party, composed largely of slave-holders, and, even at the +North, scarcely willing to save the Union at the expense of the slave +interest upon which its success depended, shattered and crippled by the +civil war and its results, has at last yielded to the inexorable logic of +events, abandoned a position no longer tenable, and taken its "new +departure" with an abolitionist as its candidate. As a friend of the +long-oppressed colored man, and for the sake of the peace and prosperity +of the country, I rejoice at this action of the Democratic party. The +underlying motives of this radical change are doubtless somewhat mixed +and contradictory, honest conviction on the part of some, and party +expediency and desire of office on the part of others; but the change +itself is real and irrevocable; the penalty of receding would be swift +and irretrievable ruin. In any point of view the new order of things is +desirable; and nothing more fully illustrates "the ways that are dark and +the tricks that are vain" of party politics than the attempt of professed +friends of the Union and equal rights for all to counteract it by giving +aid and comfort to a revival of the worst characteristics of the old +party in the shape of a straight-out Democratic convention. + +As respects the candidates now before us, I can see no good reason why +colored voters as such should oppose General Grant, who, though not an +abolitionist and not even a member of the Republican party previous to +his nomination, has faithfully carried out the laws of Congress in their +behalf. Nor, on the other hand, can I see any just grounds for distrust +of such a man as Horace Greeley, who has so nobly distinguished himself +as the advocate of human rights irrespective of race or color, and who by +the instrumentality of his press has been for thirty years the educator +of the people in the principles of justice, temperance, and freedom. +Both of these men have, in different ways, deserved too well of the +country to be unnecessarily subjected to the brutalities of a +presidential canvass; and, so far as they are personally concerned, it +would doubtless have been better if the one had declined a second term of +uncongenial duties, and the other continued to indite words of wisdom in +the shades of Chappaqua. But they have chosen otherwise; and I am +willing, for one, to leave my colored fellow-citizens to the unbiased +exercise of their own judgment and instincts in deciding between them. +The Democratic party labors under the disadvantage of antecedents not +calculated to promote a rapid growth of confidence; and it is no matter +of surprise that the vote of the emancipated class is likely to be +largely against it. But if, as will doubtless be the case, that vote +shall be to some extent divided between the two candidates, it will have +the effect of inducing politicians of the rival parties to treat with +respect and consideration this new element of political power, from self- +interest if from no higher motive. The fact that at this time both +parties are welcoming colored orators to their platforms, and that, in +the South, old slave-masters and their former slaves fraternize at caucus +and barbecue, and vote for each other at the polls, is full of +significance. If, in New England, the very men who thrust Frederick +Douglass from car and stage-coach, and mobbed and hunted him like a wild +beast, now crowd to shake his hand and cheer him, let us not despair of +seeing even the Ku-Klux tarried into decency, and sitting "clothed in +their right minds" as listeners to their former victims. The colored man +is to-day the master of his own destiny. No power on earth can deprive +him of his rights as an American citizen. And it is in the light of +American citizenship that I choose to regard my colored friends, as men +having a common stake in the welfare of the country; mingled with, and +not separate from, their white fellow-citizens; not herded together as a +distinct class to be wielded by others, without self-dependence and +incapable of self-determination. Thanks to such men as Sumner and Wilson +and their compeers, nearly all that legislation can do for them has +already been done. We can now only help them to help themselves. +Industry, economy, temperance, self-culture, education for their +children,--these things, indispensable to their elevation and progress, +are in a great measure in their own hands. + +You will, therefore, my friends and fellow-citizens, pardon me if I +decline to undertake to decide for you the question of your political +duty as respects the candidates for the presidency,--a question which you +have probably already settled in your own minds. If it had been apparent +to me that your rights and liberties were really in danger from the +success of either candidate, your letter would not have been needed to +call forth my opinion. In the long struggle of well-nigh forty years, I +can honestly say that no consideration of private interest, nor my +natural love of peace and retirement and the good-will of others, have +kept me silent when a word could be fitly spoken for human rights. I +have not so long acted with the class to which you belong without +acquiring respect for your intelligence and capacity for judging wisely +for yourselves. I shall abide your decision with confidence, and +cheerfully acquiesce in it. + +If, on the whole, you prefer to vote for the reelection of General Grant, +let me hope you will do so without joining with eleventh-hour friends in +denouncing and reviling such an old and tried friend as Charles Sumner, +who has done and suffered so much in your behalf. If, on the other hand, +some of you decide to vote for Horace Greeley, you need not in so doing +forget your great obligations to such friends as William Lloyd Garrison, +Wendell Phillips, and Lydia Maria Child. Agree or disagree with them, +take their advice or reject it, but stand by them still, and teach the +parties with which you are connected to respect your feelings towards +your benefactors. + + + + + + + THE CENSURE OF SUMNER. + + + A letter to the Boston Daily Advertiser in reference to the petition + for the rescinding of the resolutions censuring Senator Sumner for + his motion to erase from the United States flags the record of the + battles of the civil war. + + +I BEG leave to occupy a small space in the columns of the Advertiser for +the purpose of noticing a charge which has been brought against the +petitioners for rescinding the resolutions of the late extra session +virtually censuring the Hon. Charles Sumner. It is intimated that the +action of these petitioners evinces a lack of appreciation of the +services of the soldiers of the Union, and that not to censure Charles +Sumner is to censure the volunteers of Massachusetts. + +As a matter of fact, the petitioners express no opinion as to the policy +or expediency of the senator's proposition. Some may believe it not only +right in itself, but expedient and well-timed; others that it was +inexpedient or premature. None doubt that, sooner or later, the thing +which it contemplates must be done, if we are to continue a united +people. What they feel and insist upon is that the proposition is one +which implies no disparagement of the soldiers of Massachusetts and the +Union; that it neither receives nor merits the "unqualified condemnation +of the people" of the state; and that it furnishes no ground whatever for +legislative interference or censure. A single glance at the names of the +petitioners is a sufficient answer to the insinuation that they are +unmindful of that self-sacrifice and devotion, the marble and granite +memorials of which, dotting the state from the Merrimac to the +Connecticut, testify the gratitude of the loyal heart of Massachusetts. + +I have seen no soldier yet who considered himself wronged or "insulted" +by the proposition. In point of fact the soldiers have never asked for +such censure of the brave and loyal statesman who was the bosom friend +and confidant of Secretary Stanton (the great war-minister, second, if at +all, only to Carnot) and of John A. Andrew, dear to the heart of every +Massachusetts soldier, and whose tender care and sympathy reached them +wherever they struggled or died for country and freedom. The proposal of +Senator Sumner, instead of being an "insult," was, in fact, the highest +compliment which could be paid to brave men; for it implied that they +cherished no vindictive hatred of fallen foes; that they were too proudly +secure of the love and gratitude of their countrymen to need above their +heads the flaunting blazon of their achievements; that they were as +magnanimous in peace and victory as they were heroic and patient through +the dark and doubtful arbitrament of war. As such they understand it. I +should be sorry to think there existed a single son of Massachusetts weak +enough to believe that his reputation and honor as a soldier needed this +censure of Charles Sumner. I have before me letters from men, ranking +from orderly sergeant to general, who have looked at death full in the +face on every battlefield where the flag of Massachusetts floated, and +they all thank me for my efforts to rescind this uncalled-for censure, +and pledge me their hearty support. They cordially indorse the noble +letter of Vice-President Wilson offering his signature to the petition +for rescinding the obnoxious resolutions; and if these resolutions are +not annulled, it will not be the fault of Massachusetts volunteers, but +rather of the mistaken zeal of men more familiar with the drill of the +caucus than with that of the camp. + +I am no blind partisan of Charles Sumner. I have often differed from him +in opinion. I regretted deeply the position which he thought it his duty +to take during the late presidential campaign. He felt the atmosphere +about him thick and foul with corruption and bribery and greed; he saw +the treasury ringed about like Saturn with unscrupulous combinations and +corporations; and it is to be regretted more than wondered at if he +struck out wildly in his indignation, and that his blows fell sometimes +upon the wrong object. But I did not intend to act the part of his +apologist. The twenty years of his senatorial life are crowded with +memorials of his loyalty to truth and free dom and humanity, which will +be enduring as our history. He is no party to this movement, in which my +name has been more prominent than I could have wished, and no word of his +prompted or suggested it. From its inception to the present time he has +remained silent in his chamber of pain, waiting to bequeath, like the +testator of the dramatist, + + "A fame by scandal untouched + To Memory and Time's old daughter Truth." + +He can well afford to wait, and the issue of the present question before +our legislature is of far less consequence to him than to us. To use the +words of one who stood by him in the dark days of the Fugitive Slave Law, +the Chief Justice of the United States,--"Time and the wiser thought will +vindicate the illustrious statesman to whom Massachusetts, the country, +and humanity owe so much, but the state can ill afford the damage to its +own reputation which such a censure of such a man will inflict." + +AMESBURY, 3d month, 8, 1873. + + + + + + + THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833. + + [1874.] + +In the gray twilight of a chill day of late November, forty years ago, a +dear friend of mine, residing in Boston, made his appearance at the old +farm-house in East Haverhill. He had been deputed by the abolitionists +of the city, William L. Garrison, Samuel E. Sewall, and others, to +inform me of my appointment as a delegate to the Convention about to be +held in Philadelphia for the formation of an American Anti-Slavery +Society, and to urge upon me the necessity of my attendance. + +Few words of persuasion, however, were needed. I was unused to +travelling; my life had been spent on a secluded farm; and the journey, +mostly by stage-coach, at that time was really a formidable one. +Moreover, the few abolitionists were everywhere spoken against, their +persons threatened, and in some instances a price set on their heads by +Southern legislators. Pennsylvania was on the borders of slavery, and it +needed small effort of imagination to picture to one's self the breaking +up of the Convention and maltreatment of its members. This latter +consideration I do not think weighed much with me, although I was better +prepared for serious danger than for anything like personal indignity. I +had read Governor Trumbull's description of the tarring and feathering of +his hero MacFingal, when, after the application of the melted tar, the +feather-bed was ripped open and shaken over him, until + + "Not Maia's son, with wings for ears, + Such plumes about his visage wears, + Nor Milton's six-winged angel gathers + Such superfluity of feathers," + +and I confess I was quite unwilling to undergo a martyrdom which my best +friends could scarcely refrain from laughing at. But a summons like that +of Garrison's bugle-blast could scarcely be unheeded by one who, from +birth and education, held fast the traditions of that earlier +abolitionism which, under the lead of Benezet and Woolman, had effaced +from the Society of Friends every vestige of slave-holding. I had thrown +myself, with a young man's fervid enthusiasm, into a movement which +commended itself to my reason and conscience, to my love of country, and +my sense of duty to God and my fellow-men. My first venture in +authorship was the publication, at my own expense, in the spring of 1833, +of a pamphlet entitled Justice and Expediency, on the moral and political +evils of slavery, and the duty of emancipation. Under such circumstances +I could not hesitate, but prepared at once for my journey. It was +necessary that I should start on the morrow, and the intervening time, +with a small allowance for sleep, was spent in providing for the care of +the farm and homestead during my absence. + +So the next morning I took the stage for Boston, stopping at the ancient +hostelry known as the Eastern Stage Tavern; and on the day following, in +company with William Lloyd Garrison, I left for New York. At that city +we were joined by other delegates, among them David Thurston, a +Congregational minister from Maine. On our way to Philadelphia, we took, +as a matter of necessary economy, a second-class conveyance, and found +ourselves, in consequence, among rough and hilarious companions, whose +language was more noteworthy for strength than refinement. Our worthy +friend the clergyman bore it awhile in painful silence, but at last felt +it his duty to utter words of remonstrance and admonition. The leader of +the young roisterers listened with a ludicrous mock gravity, thanked him +for his exhortation, and, expressing fears that the extraordinary effort +had exhausted his strength, invited him to take a drink with him. Father +Thurston buried his grieved face in his cloak-collar, and wisely left the +young reprobates to their own devices. + +On reaching Philadelphia, we at once betook, ourselves to the humble +dwelling on Fifth Street occupied by Evan Lewis, a plain, earnest man and +lifelong abolitionist, who had been largely interested in preparing the +way for the Convention. In one respect the time of our assembling seemed +unfavorable. The Society of Friends, upon whose cooperation we had +counted, had but recently been rent asunder by one of those unhappy +controversies which so often mark the decline of practical righteousness. +The martyr-age of the society had passed, wealth and luxury had taken the +place of the old simplicity, there was a growing conformity to the maxims +of the world in trade and fashion, and with it a corresponding +unwillingness to hazard respectability by the advocacy of unpopular +reforms. Unprofitable speculation and disputation on one hand, and a +vain attempt on the other to enforce uniformity of opinion, had +measurably lost sight of the fact that the end of the gospel is love, and +that charity is its crowning virtue. After a long and painful struggle +the disruption had taken place; the shattered fragments, under the name +of Orthodox and Hicksite, so like and yet so separate in feeling, +confronted each other as hostile sects, and + + "Never either found another + To free the hollow heart from paining; + They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs that have been torn asunder + A dreary sea now flows between; + But neither rain, nor frost, nor thunder, + Can wholly do away, I ween, + The marks of that which once has been." + +We found about forty members assembled in the parlors of our friend +Lewis, and, after some general conversation, Lewis Tappan was asked to +preside over an informal meeting, preparatory to the opening of the +Convention. A handsome, intellectual-looking man, in the prime of life, +responded to the invitation, and in a clear, well-modulated voice, the +firm tones of which inspired hope and confidence, stated the objects of +our preliminary council, and the purpose which had called us together, in +earnest and well-chosen words. In making arrangements for the +Convention, it was thought expedient to secure, if possible, the services +of some citizen of Philadelphia, of distinction and high social standing, +to preside over its deliberations. Looking round among ourselves in vain +for some titled civilian or doctor of divinity, we were fain to confess +that to outward seeming we were but "a feeble folk," sorely needing the +shield of a popular name. A committee, of which I was a member, was +appointed to go in search of a president of this description. We visited +two prominent gentlemen, known as friendly to emancipation and of high +social standing. They received us with the dignified courtesy of the old +school, declined our proposition in civil terms, and bowed us out with a +cool politeness equalled only by that of the senior Winkle towards the +unlucky deputation of Pickwick and his unprepossessing companions. As we +left their doors we could not refrain from smiling in each other's faces +at the thought of the small inducement our proffer of the presidency held +out to men of their class. Evidently our company was not one for +respectability to march through Coventry with. + +On the following morning we repaired to the Adelphi Building, on Fifth +Street, below Walnut, which had been secured for our use. Sixty-two +delegates were found to be in attendance. Beriah Green, of the Oneida +(New York) Institute, was chosen president, a fresh-faced, sandy-haired, +rather common-looking man, but who had the reputation of an able and +eloquent speaker. He had already made himself known to us as a resolute +and self-sacrificing abolitionist. Lewis Tappan and myself took our +places at his side as secretaries, on the elevation at the west end of +the hall. + +Looking over the assembly, I noticed that it was mainly composed of +comparatively young men, some in middle age, and a few beyond that +period. They were nearly all plainly dressed, with a view to comfort +rather than elegance. Many of the faces turned towards me wore a look of +expectancy and suppressed enthusiasm; all had the earnestness which might +be expected of men engaged in an enterprise beset with difficulty and +perhaps with peril. The fine, intellectual head of Garrison, prematurely +bald, was conspicuous; the sunny-faced young man at his side, in whom all +the beatitudes seemed to find expression, was Samuel J. May, mingling in +his veins the best blood of the Sewalls and Quincys,--a man so +exceptionally pure and large-hearted, so genial, tender, and loving, that +he could be faithful to truth and duty without making an enemy. + + "The de'il wad look into his face, + And swear he couldna wrang him." + +That tall, gaunt, swarthy man, erect, eagle-faced, upon whose somewhat +martial figure the Quaker coat seemed a little out of place, was Lindley +Coates, known in all eastern Pennsylvania as a stern enemy of slavery; +that slight, eager man, intensely alive in every feature and gesture, was +Thomas Shipley, who for thirty years had been the protector of the free +colored people of Philadelphia, and whose name was whispered reverently +in the slave cabins of Maryland as the friend of the black man, one of a +class peculiar to old Quakerism, who in doing what they felt to be duty, +and walking as the Light within guided them, knew no fear and shrank from +no sacrifice. Braver men the world has not known. Beside him, differing +in creed, but united with him in works of love and charity, sat Thomas +Whitson, of the Hicksite school of Friends, fresh from his farm in +Lancaster County, dressed in plainest homespun, his tall form surmounted +by a shock of unkempt hair, the odd obliquity of his vision contrasting +strongly with he clearness and directness of his spiritual insight. +Elizur Wright, the young professor of a Western college, who had lost his +place by his bold advocacy of freedom, with a look of sharp concentration +in keeping with an intellect keen as a Damascus blade, closely watched +the proceedings through his spectacles, opening his mouth only to speak +directly to the purpose. The portly form of Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, the +beloved physician, from that beautiful land of plenty and peace which +Bayard Taylor has described in his Story of Kennett, was not to be +overlooked. Abolitionist in heart and soul, his house was known as the +shelter of runaway slaves, and no sportsman ever entered into the chase +with such zest as he did into the arduous and sometimes dangerous work of +aiding their escape and baffling their pursuers. The youngest man +present was, I believe, James Miller McKim, a Presbyterian minister from +Columbia, afterwards one of our most efficient workers. James Mott, E. +L. Capron, Arnold Buffum, and Nathan Winslow, men well known in the anti- +slavery agitation, were conspicuous members. Vermont sent down from her +mountains Orson S. Murray, a man terribly in earnest, with a zeal that +bordered on fanaticism, and who was none the more genial for the mob- +violence to which he had been subjected. In front of me, awakening +pleasant associations of the old homestead in Merrimac valley, sat my +first school-teacher, Joshua Coffin, the learned and worthy antiquarian +and historian of Newbury. A few spectators, mostly of the Hicksite +division of Friends, were present, in broad brims and plain bonnets, +among them Esther Moore and Lucretia Mott. + +Committees were chosen to draft a constitution for a national Anti- +Slavery Society, nominate a list of officers, and prepare a declaration +of principles to be signed by the members. Dr. A. L. Cox of New York, +while these committees were absent, read something from my pen eulogistic +of William Lloyd Garrison; and Lewis Tappan and Amos A. Phelps, a +Congregational clergyman of Boston, afterwards one of the most devoted +laborers in the cause, followed in generous commendation of the zeal, +courage, and devotion of the young pioneer. The president, after calling +James McCrummell, one of the two or three colored members of the +Convention, to the chair, made some eloquent remarks upon those editors +who had ventured to advocate emancipation. At the close of his speech a +young man rose to speak, whose appearance at once arrested my attention. +I think I have never seen a finer face and figure, and his manner, words, +and bearing were in keeping. "Who is he?" I asked of one of the +Pennsylvania delegates. "Robert Purvis, of this city, a colored man," +was the answer. He began by uttering his heart-felt thanks to the +delegates who had convened for the deliverance of his people. He spoke +of Garrison in terms of warmest eulogy, as one who had stirred the heart +of the nation, broken the tomblike slumber of the church, and compelled +it to listen to the story of the slave's wrongs. He closed by declaring +that the friends of colored Americans would not be forgotten. "Their +memories," he said, "will be cherished when pyramids and monuments shall +have crumbled in dust. The flood of time which is sweeping away the +refuge of lies is bearing on the advocates of our cause to a glorious +immortality." + +The committee on the constitution made their report, which after +discussion was adopted. It disclaimed any right or intention of +interfering, otherwise than by persuasion and Christian expostulation, +with slavery as it existed in the states, but affirming the duty of +Congress to abolish it in the District of Columbia and territories, and +to put an end to the domestic slave-trade. A list of officers of the new +society was then chosen: Arthur Tappan of New York, president, and Elizur +Wright, Jr., William Lloyd Garrison, and A. L. Cox, secretaries. Among +the vice-presidents was Dr. Lord of Dartmouth College, then professedly +in favor of emancipation, but who afterwards turned a moral somersault, a +self-inversion which left him ever after on his head instead of his feet. + +He became a querulous advocate of slavery as a divine institution, and +denounced woe upon the abolitionists for interfering with the will and +purpose of the Creator. As the cause of freedom gained ground, the poor +man's heart failed him, and his hope for church and state grew fainter +and fainter. A sad prophet of the evangel of slavery, he testified in +the unwilling ears of an unbelieving generation, and died at last +despairing of a world which seemed determined that Canaan should no +longer be cursed, nor Onesimus sent back to Philemon. + +The committee on the declaration of principles, of which I was a member, +held a long session, discussing the proper scope and tenor of the +document. But little progress being made, it was finally decided to +entrust the matter to a sub-committee, consisting of William L. +Garrison, S. J. May, and myself; and after a brief consultation and +comparison of each other's views, the drafting of the important paper was +assigned to the former gentleman. We agreed to meet him at his lodgings +in the house of a colored friend early the next morning. It was still +dark when we climbed up to his room, and the lamp was still burning by +the light of which he was writing the last sentence of the declaration. +We read it carefully, made a few verbal changes, and submitted it to the +large committee, who unanimously agreed to report it to the Convention. + +The paper was read to the Convention by Dr. Atlee, chairman of the +committee, and listened to with the profoundest interest. + +Commencing with a reference to the time, fifty-seven years before, when, +in the same city of Philadelphia, our fathers announced to the world +their Declaration of Independence,--based on the self-evident truths of +human equality and rights,--and appealed to arms for its defence, it +spoke of the new enterprise as one "without which that of our fathers is +incomplete," and as transcending theirs in magnitude, solemnity, and +probable results as much "as moral truth does physical force." It spoke +of the difference of the two in the means and ends proposed, and of the +trifling grievances of our fathers compared with the wrongs and +sufferings of the slaves, which it forcibly characterized as unequalled +by any others on the face of the earth. It claimed that the nation was +bound to repent at once, to let the oppressed go free, and to admit them +to all the rights and privileges of others; because, it asserted, no man +has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother; because liberty is +inalienable; because there is no difference, in principle, between slave- +holding and man-stealing, which the law brands as piracy; and because no +length of bondage can invalidate man's claim to himself, or render slave +laws anything but "an audacious usurpation." + +It maintained that no compensation should be given to planters +emancipating slaves, because that would be a surrender of fundamental +principles; "slavery is a crime, and is, therefore, not an article to be +sold;" because slave-holders are not just proprietors of what they claim; +because emancipation would destroy only nominal, not real property; and +because compensation, if given at all, should be given to the slaves. + +It declared any "scheme of expatriation" to be "delusive, cruel, and +dangerous." It fully recognized the right of each state to legislate +exclusively on the subject of slavery within its limits, and conceded +that Congress, under the present national compact, had no right to +interfere; though still contending that it had the power, and should +exercise it, "to suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several +states," and "to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in +those portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under +its exclusive jurisdiction." + +After clearly and emphatically avowing the principles underlying the +enterprise, and guarding with scrupulous care the rights of persons and +states under the Constitution, in prosecuting it, the declaration closed +with these eloquent words:-- + +We also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest +obligations resting upon the people of the free states to remove slavery +by moral and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the +United States. They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous +physical force to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of +millions in the Southern states; they are liable to be called at any +moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves; they authorize +the slave-owner to vote on three fifths of his slaves as property, and +thus enable him to perpetuate his oppression; they support a standing +army at the South for its protection; and they seize the slave who has +escaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an +enraged master or a brutal driver. This relation to slavery is criminal +and full of danger. It must be broken up. + +"These are our views and principles,--these our designs and measures. +With entire confidence in the overruling justice of God, we plant +ourselves upon the Declaration of Independence and the truths of divine +revelation as upon the everlasting rock. + +"We shall organize anti-slavery societies, if possible, in every city, +town, and village in our land. + +"We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of +warning, of entreaty and rebuke. + +"We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively anti-slavery tracts and +periodicals. + +"We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering +and the dumb. + +"We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in +the guilt of slavery. + +"We shall encourage the labor of freemen over that of the slaves, by +giving a preference to their productions; and + +"We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to +speedy repentance. + +"Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, +but our principles never. Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and +will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the +Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of +encouragement. + +"Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of the people of +this country, and of the friends of liberty all over the world, we hereby +affix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, under the guidance +and by the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, +consistently with this declaration of our principles, to overthrow the +most execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth, +to deliver our land from its deadliest curse, to wipe out the foulest +stain which rests upon our national escutcheon, and to secure to the +colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges +which belong to them as men and as Americans, come what may to our +persons, our interests, or our reputations, whether we live to witness +the triumph of justice, liberty, and humanity, or perish untimely as +martyrs in this great, benevolent, and holy cause." + +The reading of the paper was followed by a discussion which lasted +several hours. A member of the Society of Friends moved its immediate +adoption. "We have," he said, "all given it our assent: every heart here +responds to it. It is a doctrine of Friends that these strong and deep +impressions should be heeded." The Convention, nevertheless, deemed it +important to go over the declaration carefully, paragraph by paragraph. +During the discussion, one of the spectators asked leave to say a few +words. A beautiful and graceful woman, in the prime of life, with a face +beneath her plain cap as finely intellectual as that of Madame Roland, +offered some wise and valuable suggestions, in a clear, sweet voice, the +charm of which I have never forgotten. It was Lucretia Mott of +Philadelphia. The president courteously thanked her, and encouraged her +to take a part in the discussion. On the morning of the last day of our +session, the declaration, with its few verbal amendments, carefully +engrossed on parchment, was brought before the Convention. Samuel J. May +rose to read it for the last time. His sweet, persuasive voice faltered +with the intensity of his emotions as he repeated the solemn pledges of +the concluding paragraphs. After a season of silence, David Thurston of +Maine rose as his name was called by one of the secretaries, and affixed +his name to the document. One after another passed up to the platform, +signed, and retired in silence. All felt the deep responsibility of the +occasion the shadow and forecast of a life-long struggle rested upon +every countenance. + +Our work as a Convention was now done. President Green arose to make the +concluding address. The circumstances under which it was uttered may +have lent it an impressiveness not its own; but as I now recall it, it +seems to me the most powerful and eloquent speech to which I have ever +listened. He passed in review the work that had been done, the +constitution of the new society, the declaration of sentiments, and the +union and earnestness which had marked the proceedings. His closing +words will never be forgotten by those who heard them:-- + +"Brethren, it has been good to be here. In this hallowed atmosphere I +have been revived and refreshed. This brief interview has more than +repaid me for all that I have ever suffered. I have here met congenial +minds; I have rejoiced in sympathies delightful to the soul. Heart has +beat responsive to heart, and the holy work of seeking to benefit the +outraged and despised has proved the most blessed employment. + +"But now we must retire from these balmy influences and breathe another +atmosphere. The chill hoar-frost will be upon us. The storm and tempest +will rise, and the waves of persecution will dash against our souls. Let +us be prepared for the worst. Let us fasten ourselves to the throne of +God as with hooks of steel. If we cling not to Him, our names to that +document will be but as dust. + +"Let us court no applause, indulge in no spirit of vain boasting. Let us +be assured that our only hope in grappling with the bony monster is in an +Arm that is stronger than ours. Let us fix our gaze on God, and walk in +the light of His countenance. If our cause be just--and we know it is-- +His omnipotence is pledged to its triumph. Let this cause be entwined +around the very fibres of our hearts. Let our hearts grow to it, so that +nothing but death can sunder the bond." + +He ceased, and then, amidst a silence broken only by the deep-drawn +breath of emotion in the assembly, lifted up his voice in a prayer to +Almighty God, full of fervor and feeling, imploring His blessing and +sanctification upon the Convention and its labors. And with the +solemnity of this supplication in our hearts we clasped hands in +farewell, and went forth each man to his place of duty, not knowing the +things that should befall us as individuals, but with a confidence, never +shaken by abuse and persecution, in the certain triumph of our cause. + + + + + + + + KANSAS + +Read at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the state of +Kansas. + + BEAR CAMP HOUSE, WEST OSSIPEE, N. H., + Eighth month, 29th, 1879. + +To J. S. EMERY, R. MORROW, AND C. W. SMITH, COMMITTEE: + +I HAVE received your invitation to the twenty-fifth anniversary +celebration of the first settlement of Kansas. It would give me great +pleasure to visit your state on an occasion of such peculiar interest, +and to make the acquaintance of its brave and self-denying pioneers, but +I have not health and strength for the journey. It is very fitting that +this anniversary should be duly recognized. No one of your sister states +has such a record as yours,--so full of peril and adventure, fortitude, +self-sacrifice, and heroic devotion to freedom. Its baptism of martyr +blood not only saved the state to liberty, but made the abolition of +slavery everywhere possible. Barber and Stillwell and Colpetzer and +their associates did not die in vain. All through your long, hard +struggle I watched the course of events in Kansas with absorbing +interest. I rejoiced, while I marvelled at the steady courage which no +danger could shake, at the firm endurance which outwearied the +brutalities of your slaveholding invaders, and at that fidelity to right +and duty which the seduction of immediate self-interest could not swerve, +nor the military force of a proslavery government overawe. All my +sympathies were with you in that stern trial of your loyalty to God and +humanity. And when, in the end, you had conquered peace, and the last of +the baffled border ruffians had left your territory, I felt that the doom +of the accursed institution was sealed, and that its abolition was but a +question of time. A state with such a record will, I am sure, be true to +its noble traditions, and will do all in its power to aid the victims of +prejudice and oppression who may be compelled to seek shelter within its +borders. I will not for a moment distrust the fidelity of Kansas to her +foundation principle. God bless and prosper her! Thanking you for the +kind terms of your invitation, I am, gentlemen, very truly your friend. + + + + + + WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. + +An Introduction to Oliver Johnson's "William Lloyd Garrison and his +Times." + + [1879.] + +I no not know that any word of mine can give additional interest to this +memorial of William Lloyd Garrison from the pen of one of his earliest +and most devoted friends, whose privilege it has been to share his +confidence and his labors for nearly half a century; but I cannot well +forego the opportunity afforded me to add briefly my testimony to the +tribute to the memory of the great Reformer, whose friendship I have +shared, and with whom I have been associated in a common cause from youth +to age. + +My acquaintance with him commenced in boyhood. My father was a +subscriber to his first paper, the Free Press, and the humanitarian tone +of his editorials awakened a deep interest in our little household, which +was increased by a visit which he made us. When he afterwards edited the +Journal of the Times, at Bennington, Vt., I ventured to write him a +letter of encouragement and sympathy, urging him to continue his labors +against slavery, and assuring him that he could "do great things," an +unconscious prophecy which has been fulfilled beyond the dream of my +boyish enthusiasm. The friendship thus commenced has remained unbroken +through half a century, confirming my early confidence in his zeal and +devotion, and in the great intellectual and moral strength which he +brought to the cause with which his name is identified. + +During the long and hard struggle in which the abolitionists were +engaged, and amidst the new and difficult questions and side-issues which +presented themselves, it could scarcely be otherwise than that +differences of opinion and action should arise among them. The leader +and his disciples could not always see alike. My friend, the author of +this book, I think, generally found himself in full accord with him, +while I often decidedly dissented. I felt it my duty to use my right of +citizenship at the ballot-box in the cause of liberty, while Garrison, +with equal sincerity, judged and counselled otherwise. Each acted under +a sense of individual duty and responsibility, and our personal relations +were undisturbed. If, at times, the great anti-slavery leader failed to +do justice to the motives of those who, while in hearty sympathy with his +hatred of slavery, did not agree with some of his opinions and methods, +it was but the pardonable and not unnatural result of his intensity of +purpose, and his self-identification with the cause he advocated; and, +while compelled to dissent, in some particulars, from his judgment of men +and measures, the great mass of the antislavcry people recognized his +moral leadership. The controversies of old and new organization, +nonresistance and political action, may now be looked upon by the parties +to them, who still survive, with the philosophic calmness which follows +the subsidence of prejudice and passion. We were but fallible men, and +doubtless often erred in feeling, speech, and action. Ours was but the +common experience of reformers in all ages. + + "Never in Custom's oiled grooves + The world to a higher level moves, + But grates and grinds with friction hard + On granite bowlder and flinty shard. + Ever the Virtues blush to find + The Vices wearing their badge behind, + And Graces and Charities feel the fire + Wherein the sins of the age expire." + +It is too late now to dwell on these differences. I choose rather, with +a feeling of gratitude to God, to recall the great happiness of laboring +with the noble company of whom Garrison was the central figure. I love +to think of him as he seemed to me, when in the fresh dawn of manhood he +sat with me in the old Haverhill farmhouse, revolving even then schemes +of benevolence; or, with cheery smile, welcoming me to his frugal meal of +bread and milk in the dingy Boston printing-room; or, as I found him in +the gray December morning in the small attic of a colored man, in +Philadelphia, finishing his night-long task of drafting his immortal +Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society; or, as I +saw him in the jail of Leverett Street, after his almost miraculous +escape from the mob, playfully inviting me to share the safe lodgings +which the state had provided for him; and in all the varied scenes and +situations where we acted together our parts in the great endeavor and +success of Freedom. + +The verdict of posterity in his case may be safely anticipated. With the +true reformers and benefactors of his race he occupies a place inferior +to none other. The private lives of many who fought well the battles of +humanity have not been without spot or blemish. But his private +character, like his public, knew no dishonor. No shadow of suspicion +rests upon the white statue of a life, the fitting garland of which +should be the Alpine flower that symbolizes noble purity. + + + + + + + ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY. + +Read at the semi-centennial celebration of the American Anti-Slavery +Society at Philadelphia, on the 3d December, 1883. + + OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., + 11th mo., 30, 1883. + +I NEED not say how gladly I would be with you at the semi-centennial of +the American Anti-Slavery Society. I am, I regret to say, quite unable +to gratify this wish, and can only represent myself by a letter. + +Looking back over the long years of half a century, I can scarcely +realize the conditions under which the convention of 1833 assembled. +Slavery was predominant. Like Apollyon in Pilgrim's Progress, it +"straddled over the whole breadth of the way." Church and state, press +and pulpit, business interests, literature, and fashion were prostrate at +its feet. Our convention, with few exceptions, was composed of men +without influence or position, poor and little known, strong only in +their convictions and faith in the justice of their cause. To onlookers +our endeavor to undo the evil work of two centuries and convert a nation +to the "great renunciation" involved in emancipation must have seemed +absurd in the last degree. Our voices in such an atmosphere found no +echo. We could look for no response but laughs of derision or the +missiles of a mob. + +But we felt that we had the strength of truth on our side; we were right, +and all the world about us was wrong. We had faith, hope, and +enthusiasm, and did our work, nothing doubting, amidst a generation who +first despised and then feared and hated us. For myself I have never +ceased to be grateful to the Divine Providence for the privilege of +taking a part in that work. + +And now for more than twenty years we have had a free country. No slave +treads its soil. The anticipated dangerous consequences of complete +emancipation have not been felt. The emancipated class, as a whole, have +done wisely, and well under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. The +masters have learned that cotton can be raised better by free than by +slave labor, and nobody now wishes a return to slave-holding. Sectional +prejudices are subsiding, the bitterness of the civil war is slowly +passing away. We are beginning to feel that we are one people, with no +really clashing interests, and none more truly rejoice in the growing +prosperity of the South than the old abolitionists, who hated slavery as +a curse to the master as well as to the slave. + +In view of this commemorative semi-centennial occasion, many thoughts +crowd upon me; memory recalls vanished faces and voices long hushed. Of +those who acted with me in the convention fifty years ago nearly all have +passed into another state of being. We who remain must soon follow; we +have seen the fulfilment of our desire; we have outlived scorn and +persecution; the lengthening shadows invite us to rest. If, in looking +back, we feel that we sometimes erred through impatient zeal in our +contest with a great wrong, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we +were influenced by no merely selfish considerations. The low light of +our setting sun shines over a free, united people, and our last prayer +shall be for their peace, prosperity, and happiness. + + + + + + + RESPONSE + +TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY BY THE COLORED CITIZENS OF +WASHINGTON D. C. + +To R. H. TERRELL AND GEORGE W. WILLIAMS, ESQUIRES. + +GENTLEMEN,--Among the great number of tokens of interest and good-will +which reached me on my birthday, none have touched me more deeply than +the proceedings of the great meeting of the colored citizens of the +nation's capital, of which you are the representatives. The resolutions +of that meeting came to me as the voice of millions of my fellow- +countrymen. That voice was dumb in slavery when, more than half a +century ago, I put forth my plea for the freedom of the slave. + +It could not answer me from the rice swamp and cotton field, but now, God +be praised, it speaks from your great meeting in Washington and from all +the colleges and schools where the youth of your race are taught. I +scarcely expected then that the people for whom I pleaded would ever know +of my efforts in their behalf. I cannot be too thankful to the Divine +Providence that I have lived to hear their grateful response. + +I stand amazed at the rapid strides which your people have made since +emancipation, at your industry, your acquisition of property and land, +your zeal for education, your self-respecting but unresentful attitude +toward those who formerly claimed to be your masters, your pathetic but +manly appeal for just treatment and recognition. I see in all this the +promise that the time is not far distant when, in common with the white +race, you will have the free, undisputed rights of American citizenship +in all parts of the Union, and your rightful share in the honors as well +as the protection of the government. + +Your letter would have been answered sooner if it had been possible. I +have been literally overwbelmed with letters and telegrams, which, owing +to illness, I have been in a great measure unable to answer or even read. + +I tender to you, gentlemen, and to the people you represent my heartfelt +thanks, and the assurance that while life lasts you will find me, as I +have been heretofore, under more difficult circumstances, your faithful +friend. + +OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., +first mo., 9, 1888. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY *** +By John Greenleaf Whittier + +****** This file should be named 9595.txt or 9595.zip ****** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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