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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/9599-h.zip b/9599-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6278eb --- /dev/null +++ b/9599-h.zip diff --git a/9599-h/9599-h.htm b/9599-h/9599-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62cff0f --- /dev/null +++ b/9599-h/9599-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11483 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII. (of VII), by John + Greenleaf Whittier + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII), by +John Greenleaf Whittier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII) + The Conflict With Slavery, Politics and Reform, The Inner + Life and Criticism + +Author: John Greenleaf Whittier + +Release Date: July 10, 2009 [EBook #9599] +Last Updated: November 10, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF WHITTIER *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE WORKS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, Volume VII. (of VII) + </h1> + <h2> + THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY, POLITICS AND REFORM, THE INNER LIFE and + CRITICISM + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By John Greenleaf Whittier + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE ABOLITIONISTS. THEIR SENTIMENTS AND + OBJECTS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> WHAT IS SLAVERY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY. (1843.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> THE TWO PROCESSIONS. (1844.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> A CHAPTER OF HISTORY. (1844.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE-QUESTION. (1846.) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE-DEPARTMENT. + (1868.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> THE CENSURE OF SUMNER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833. (1874.) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> KANSAS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> RESPONSE TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH + BIRTHDAY </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> <b>REFORM AND POLITICS. UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND + POLITICAL THEORISTS.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. + (1851.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> WOMAN SUFFRAGE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> ITALIAN UNITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> INDIAN CIVILIZATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> READING FOR THE BLIND. (1880.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> THE INDIAN QUESTION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> OUR DUMB RELATIONS. (1886.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> <b>THE INNER LIFE</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES. (1844.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> SWEDENBORG (1844.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> THE BETTER LAND. (1844.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> DORA GREEN WELL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> HAVERFORD COLLEGE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> <b>CRITICISM</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> EVANGELINE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> MIRTH AND MEDICINE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> FAME AND GLORY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> FANATICISM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> THE POETRY OF THE NORTH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> THE NORSEMAN'S RIDE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY + </h2> + <p> + OR, SLAVERY CONSIDERED WITH A VIEW TO ITS RIGHTFUL AND EFFECTUAL REMEDY, + ABOLITION. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?" + </p> + <p> + But it may be urged that New England has no participation in slavery, and + is not responsible for its wickedness. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.) +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Slavery is protected by the constitutional compact, by the standing army, + by the militia of the free states. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.") +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + So fearful an evil should have its remedies. The following are among the + many which have been from time to time proposed:— + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.") +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> + <p> + Balance against the society . . . . 549,387! + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 1. It excuses slavery and apologizes for slaveholders. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 2. It pledges itself not to oppose the system of slavery. + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 3. It regards God's rational creatures as property. + </p> + <p> + Proof. "We hold their slaves, as we hold their other property, sacred." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 5. It denies the power of Christian love to overcome an unholy prejudice + against a portion of our fellow-creatures. + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + 6. It opposes strenuously the education of the blacks in this country as + useless as well as dangerous. + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + "The public safety of our brethren at the South requires them (the slaves) + to be kept ignorant and uninstructed." + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + But we are told that the Colonization Society is to civilize and + evangelize Africa. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + Beautiful and heart-cheering idea! But stay who are these emigrants, these + missionaries? + </p> + <p> + The free people of color. "They, and they only," says the African + Repository, the society's organ, "are qualified for colonizing Africa." + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + "A horde of miserable people—the objects of universal suspicion— + subsisting by plunder." + </p> + <p> + "An anomalous race of beings the most debased upon earth."—(African + Repository, vol. vii. p. 230.) + </p> + <p> + "Of all classes of our population the most vicious is that of the free + colored."—(Tenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The number of slaves in these portions of the country, coming under the + direct jurisdiction of the general government, is as follows:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + District of Columbia ..... 6,119 + Territory of Arkansas .... 4,576 + Territory of Florida .... 15,501 + + Total 26,196 +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + What, then, is our duty? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> + <p> + "To feel The weight of human misery less, and glide Ungroaning to the + tomb," + </p> + <p> + I shall not have written in vain; my conscience will be satisfied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Historical facts; the nature of the human mind; the demonstrated truths of + political economy; the analysis of cause and effect, all concur in + establishing: + </p> + <p> + 1. That immediate abolition is a safe and just and peaceful remedy for the + evils of the slave system. + </p> + <p> + 2. That free labor, its necessary consequence, is more productive, and + more advantageous to the planter than slave labor. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + 2. It is now carried on exclusively by the labor of free blacks. + </p> + <p> + 3. It was formerly wholly sustained by the forced labor of slaves, + purchased at Vera Cruz at $300 to $400 each. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + To my mind, in the wasteful and blighting influences of slave labor there + is a solemn and warning moral. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I shall offer a few more facts and observations on this point. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + To what remedy, then, can the friends of humanity betake themselves but to + that of emancipation? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.) +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE ABOLITIONISTS. THEIR SENTIMENTS AND OBJECTS. + </h2> + <h3> + Two letters to the 'Jeffersonian and Times', Richmond, Va. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I perceive that since the adjustment of the tariff question a new subject + of discontent and agitation seems to engross your attention. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + And that object is the overthrow of slavery in the United States, by such + means only as are sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + We seek the abolishment of slavery + </p> + <p> + 1. Because it is contrary to the law of God. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye + even so to them." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren, and maketh merchandise of + him, or selling him, that thief shall die." + </p> + <p> + "Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." + </p> + <p> + "And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his + hands, he shall surely be put to death." + </p> + <p> + 2. Because it is an open violation of all human equality, of the laws of + Nature and of nations. + </p> + <p> + The fundamental principle of all equal and just law is contained in the + following extract from Blackstone's Commentaries, Introduction, sec. 2. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + Has the negro committed such offence? Above all, has his infant child + forfeited its unalienable right? + </p> + <p> + Surely it can be no act of the innocent child. + </p> + <p> + Yet you must prove the forfeiture, or no human legislation can deprive + that child of its freedom. + </p> + <p> + Its black skin constitutes the forfeiture! + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + For more than half a century we have openly violated that solemn + declaration. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "Chains clank and groans echo around the walls of their spotless + Congress."—(Francis Jeffrey.) + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + 4. Because it subjects one portion of our American brethren to the + unrestrained violence and unholy passions of another. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Will the evidence of your own Jefferson, on this point, be admissible? + </p> + <p> + "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.) + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + In South Carolina the following clause of a law enacted in 1740 is still + in force:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + From Maine to Florida, gentlemen, the answer must be the same, slavery. + </p> + <p> + 6. Because of its pernicious influence upon national wealth and + prosperity. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Population increasing with the means of subsistence is a fair test of + national wealth. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Per cent. of whites. Per cent. of blacks. + + Maryland 13 31 + Virginia 24 38 + North Carolina 30 70 +</pre> + <p> + The causes of this disproportionate increase, so inimical to the true + interests of the country, are very manifest. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + "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!" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + A long and careful examination of the subject will I think fully justify + me in advancing this general proposition. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.) +</pre> + <p> + Here, gentlemen, the issue is tendered. Standing on your own ground of + expediency, I am ready to defend my position. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + In the mean time, gentlemen, I am your friend and well-wisher. + </p> + <p> + HAVERHILL, MASS., 22d 7th Mo., 1833. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + II. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Consequently, they would be the first to deprecate any physical + interference with your slave system on the part of the general government. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + Again, "If emancipation can ever be effected, it can only be done with the + aid of the general government." + </p> + <p> + Gentlemen, you are welcome to your doctrine. It has no advocates among the + abolitionists of New England. + </p> + <p> + We aim to overthrow slavery by the moral influence of an enlightened + public sentiment; + </p> + <p> + By a clear and fearless exposition of the guilt of holding property in + man; + </p> + <p> + By analyzing the true nature of slavery, and boldly rebuking sin; + </p> + <p> + By a general dissemination of the truths of political economy, in regard + to free and slave labor; + </p> + <p> + By appeals from the pulpit to the consciences of men; + </p> + <p> + By the powerful influence of the public press; + </p> + <p> + 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; + </p> + <p> + By elevating, by means of education and sympathy, the character of the + free people of color among us. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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; + </p> + <p> + 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; + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + THE ABOLITIONISTS 79 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + I cannot forbear giving one more extract from this paper. The memorialists + state their belief + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (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.) +</pre> + <p> + 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.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?" + </p> + <p> + HAVERHILL, MASS., 29th of 7th Mo., 1833. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL. + </h2> + <h3> + HAVERHILL, 10th of 1st Mo., 1834. + </h3> + <p> + SAMUEL E. SEWALL, ESQ., Secretary New England A. S. Society + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A breath can make them, as a breath has made." +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From a review of a pro-slavery pamphlet by "Evangelicus" in the + Boston Emancipator in 1843. +</pre> + <p> + 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"! + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Wept, and forgot His power to save;" +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WHAT IS SLAVERY + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Addressed to the Liberty Party Convention at New Bedford in + September, 1843. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + What is slavery? For upon the answer to this question must the Liberty + Party depend for its justification. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + October, 1843. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY. (1843.) + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Prophets of war and harbingers of ill" +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Vous de la liberte heros que je revere," +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE TWO PROCESSIONS. (1844.) + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Look upon this picture, and on this." HAMLET. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A CHAPTER OF HISTORY. (1844.) + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + Three years after, in 1649, the following law was placed upon the + statute-book of the Massachusetts Colony:— + </p> + <p> + "If any man stealeth a man, or mankind, he shall surely be put to death." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE-QUESTION. (1846.) + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + We have no fears whatever of the effect 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A letter to William Lloyd Garrison, President of the Society. + + AMESBURY, 24th 11th mo., 1863. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "My voice, though not the loudest, has been heard Wherever Freedom + raised her cry of pain." +</pre> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I am, very cordially, thy friend, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From the Amesbury Villager. + + (1865.) +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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"! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE-DEPARTMENT. (1868.) + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 immediate 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE CENSURE OF SUMNER. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A fame by scandal untouched + To Memory and Time's old daughter Truth." +</pre> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 3d month, 8, 1873. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833. (1874.) + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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," +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The de'il wad look into his face, + And swear he couldna wrang him." +</pre> + <p> + 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 Russell, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The paper was read to the Convention by Dr. Atlee, chairman of the + committee, and listened to with the profoundest interest. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "We shall organize anti-slavery societies, if possible, in every city, + town, and village in our land. + </p> + <p> + "We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of + warning, of entreaty and rebuke. + </p> + <p> + "We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively anti-slavery tracts and + periodicals. + </p> + <p> + "We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering + and the dumb. + </p> + <p> + "We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in + the guilt of slavery. + </p> + <p> + "We shall encourage the labor of freemen over that of the slaves, by + giving a preference to their productions; and + </p> + <p> + "We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy + repentance. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + KANSAS + </h2> + <p> + Read at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the state of + Kansas. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + BEAR CAMP HOUSE, WEST OSSIPEE, N. H., + Eighth month, 29th, 1879. +</pre> + <p> + To J. S. EMERY, R. MORROW, AND C. W. SMITH, COMMITTEE: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. + </h2> + <p> + An Introduction to Oliver Johnson's "William Lloyd Garrison and his + Times." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1879.) +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY. + </h2> + <p> + Read at the semi-centennial celebration of the American Anti-Slavery + Society at Philadelphia, on the 3d December, 1883. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., + 11th mo., 30, 1883. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE COLORED CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON D. C. + </h3> + <p> + To R. H. TERRELL AND GEORGE W. WILLIAMS, ESQUIRES. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your letter would have been answered sooner if it had been possible. I + have been literally overwhelmed with letters and telegrams, which, owing + to illness, I have been in a great measure unable to answer or even read. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., first mo., 9, 1888. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REFORM AND POLITICS. UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS. + </h2> + <p> + THERE is a large class of men, not in Europe alone, but in this country + also, whose constitutional conservatism inclines them to regard any + organic change in the government of a state or the social condition of its + people with suspicion and distrust. They admit, perhaps, the evils of the + old state of things; but they hold them to be inevitable, the alloy + necessarily mingled with all which pertains to fallible humanity. + Themselves generally enjoying whatever of good belongs to the political or + social system in which their lot is cast, they are disposed to look with + philosophic indifference upon the evil which only afflicts their + neighbors. They wonder why people are not contented with their allotments; + they see no reason for change; they ask for quiet and peace in their day; + being quite well satisfied with that social condition which an old poet + has quaintly described:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The citizens like pounded pikes; + The lesser feed the great; + The rich for food seek stomachs, + And the poor for stomachs meat." +</pre> + <p> + This class of our fellow-citizens have an especial dislike of theorists, + reformers, uneasy spirits, speculators upon the possibilities of the + world's future, constitution builders, and believers in progress. They are + satisfied; the world at least goes well enough with them; they sit as + comfortable in it as Lafontaine's rat in the cheese; and why should those + who would turn it upside down come hither also? Why not let well enough + alone? Why tinker creeds, constitutions, and laws, and disturb the good + old-fashioned order of things in church and state? The idea of making the + world better and happier is to them an absurdity. He who entertains it is + a dreamer and a visionary, destitute of common sense and practical wisdom. + His project, whatever it may be, is at once pronounced to be impracticable + folly, or, as they are pleased to term it, <i>Utopian.</i> + </p> + <p> + The romance of Sir Thomas More, which has long afforded to the + conservatives of church and state a term of contempt applicable to all + reformatory schemes and innovations, is one of a series of fabulous + writings, in which the authors, living in evil times and unable to + actualize their plans for the well-being of society, have resorted to + fiction as a safe means of conveying forbidden truths to the popular mind. + Plato's "Timaeus," the first of the series, was written after the death of + Socrates and the enslavement of the author's country. In this are + described the institutions of the Island of Atlantis,—the writer's + ideal of a perfect commonwealth. Xenophon, in his "Cyropaedia," has also + depicted an imaginary political society by overlaying with fiction + historical traditions. At a later period we have the "New Atlantis" of + Lord Bacon, and that dream of the "City of the Sun" with which Campanella + solaced himself in his long imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + The "Utopia" of More is perhaps the best of its class. It is the work of a + profound thinker, the suggestive speculations and theories of one who + could + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Forerun his age and race, and let + His feet millenniums hence be set + In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet." +</pre> + <p> + Much of what he wrote as fiction is now fact, a part of the frame-work of + European governments, and the political truths of his imaginary state are + now practically recognized in our own democratic system. As might be + expected, in view of the times in which the author wrote, and the + exceedingly limited amount of materials which he found ready to his hands + for the construction of his social and political edifice, there is a want + of proportion and symmetry in the structure. Many of his theories are no + doubt impracticable and unsound. But, as a whole, the work is an admirable + one, striding in advance of the author's age, and prefiguring a government + of religious toleration and political freedom. The following extract from + it was doubtless regarded in his day as something worse than folly or the + dream of a visionary enthusiast:— + </p> + <p> + "He judged it wrong to lay down anything rashly, and seemed to doubt + whether these different forms of religion might not all come from God, who + might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with the variety. + He therefore thought it to be indecent and foolish for any man to threaten + and terrify another, to make him believe what did not strike him as true." + </p> + <p> + Passing by the "Telemachus" of Fenelon, we come to the political romance + of Harrington, written in the time of Cromwell. "Oceana" is the name by + which the author represents England; and the republican plan of government + which he describes with much minuteness is such as he would have + recommended for adoption in case a free commonwealth had been established. + It deals somewhat severely with Cromwell's usurpation; yet the author did + not hesitate to dedicate it to that remarkable man, who, after carefully + reading it, gave it back to his daughter, Lady Claypole, with the remark, + full of characteristic bluntness, that "the gentleman need not think to + cheat him of his power and authority; for what he had won with the sword + he would never suffer himself to be scribbled out of." + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding the liberality and freedom of his speculations upon + government and religion in his Utopia, it must be confessed that Sir + Thomas More, in after life, fell into the very practices of intolerance + and bigotry which he condemned. When in the possession of the great seal + under that scandal of kingship, Henry VIII., he gave his countenance to + the persecution of heretics. Bishop Burnet says of him, that he caused a + gentleman of the Temple to be whipped and put to the rack in his presence, + in order to compel him to discover those who favored heretical opinions. + In his Utopia he assailed the profession of the law with merciless satire; + yet the satirist himself finally sat upon the chancellor's woolsack; and, + as has been well remarked by Horace Smith, "if, from this elevated seat, + he ever cast his eyes back upon his past life, he must have smiled at the + fond conceit which could imagine a permanent Utopia, when he himself, + certainly more learned, honest, and conscientious than the mass of men has + ever been, could in the course of one short life fall into such glaring + and frightful rebellion against his own doctrines." + </p> + <p> + Harrington, on the other hand, as became the friend of Milton and Marvel, + held fast, through good and evil report, his republican faith. He + published his work after the Restoration, and defended it boldly and ably + from the numerous attacks made upon it. Regarded as too dangerous an + enthusiast to be left at liberty, he was imprisoned at the instance of + Lord Chancellor Hyde, first in the Tower, and afterwards on the Island of + St. Nicholas, where disease and imprudent remedies brought on a partial + derangement, from which he never recovered. + </p> + <p> + Bernardin St. Pierre, whose pathetic tale of "Paul and Virginia" has found + admirers in every language of the civilized world, in a fragment, entitled + "Arcadia," attempted to depict an ideal republic, without priest, noble, + or slave, where all are so religious that each man is the pontiff of his + family, where each man is prepared to defend his country, and where all + are in such a state of equality that there are no such persons as + servants. The plan of it was suggested by his friend Rousseau during their + pleasant walking excursions about the environs of Paris, in which the two + enthusiastic philosophers, baffled by the evil passions and intractable + materials of human nature as manifested in existing society, comforted + themselves by appealing from the actual to the possible, from the real to + the imaginary. Under the chestnut-trees of the Bois de Boulogne, through + long summer days, the two friends, sick of the noisy world about them, yet + yearning to become its benefactors,—gladly escaping from it, yet + busy with schemes for its regeneration and happiness,—at once + misanthropes and philanthropists,—amused and solaced themselves by + imagining a perfect and simple state of society, in which the lessons of + emulation and selfish ambition were never to be taught; where, on the + contrary, the young were to obey their parents, and to prefer father, + mother, brother, sister, wife, and friend to themselves. They drew + beautiful pictures of a country blessed with peace, indus try, and love, + covered with no disgusting monuments of violence and pride and luxury, + without columns, triumphal arches, hospitals, prisons, or gibbets; but + presenting to view bridges over torrents, wells on the arid plain, groves + of fruit-trees, and houses of shelter for the traveller in desert places, + attesting everywhere the sentiment of humanity. Religion was to speak to + all hearts in the eternal language of Nature. Death was no longer to be + feared; perspectives of holy consolation were to open through the cypress + shadows of the tomb; to live or to die was to be equally an object of + desire. + </p> + <p> + The plan of the "Arcadia" of St. Pierre is simply this: A learned young + Egyptian, educated at Thebes by the priests of Osiris, desirous of + benefiting humanity, undertakes a voyage to Gaul for the purpose of + carrying thither the arts and religion of Egypt. He is shipwrecked on his + return in the Gulf of Messina, and lands upon the coast, where he is + entertained by an Arcadian, to whom he relates his adventures, and from + whom he receives in turn an account of the simple happiness and peace of + Arcadia, the virtues and felicity of whose inhabitants are beautifully + exemplified in the lives and conversation of the shepherd and his + daughter. This pleasant little prose poem closes somewhat abruptly. + Although inferior in artistic skill to "Paul and Virginia" or the "Indian + Cottage", there is not a little to admire in the simple beauty of its + pastoral descriptions. The closing paragraph reminds one of Bunyan's upper + chamber, where the weary pilgrim's windows opened to the sunrising and the + singing of birds:— + </p> + <p> + "Tyrteus conducted his guests to an adjoining chamber. It had a window + shut by a curtain of rushes, through the crevices of which the islands of + the Alpheus might be seen in the light of the moon. There were in this + chamber two excellent beds, with coverlets of warm and light wool. + </p> + <p> + "Now, as soon as Amasis was left alone with Cephas, he spoke with joy of + the delight and tranquillity of the valley, of the goodness of the + shepherd, and the grace of his young daughter, to whom he had seen none + worthy to be compared, and of the pleasure which he promised himself the + next day, at the festival on Mount Lyceum, of beholding a whole people as + happy as this sequestered family. Converse so delightful might have + charmed away the night without the aid of sleep, had they not been invited + to repose by the mild light of the moon shining through the window, the + murmuring wind in the leaves of the poplars, and the distant noise of the + Achelous, which falls roaring from the summit of Mount Lyceum." + </p> + <p> + The young patrician wits of Athens doubtless laughed over Plato's ideal + republic. Campanella's "City of the Sun" was looked upon, no doubt, as the + distempered vision of a crazy state prisoner. Bacon's college, in his "New + Atlantis," moved the risibles of fat-witted Oxford. More's "Utopia," as we + know, gave to our language a new word, expressive of the vagaries and + dreams of fanatics and lunatics. The merciless wits, clerical and profane, + of the court of Charles II. regarded Harrington's romance as a perfect + godsend to their vocation of ridicule. The gay dames and carpet knights of + Versailles made themselves merry with the prose pastoral of St. Pierre; + and the poor old enthusiast went down to his grave without finding an + auditory for his lectures upon natural society. + </p> + <p> + The world had its laugh over these romances. When unable to refute their + theories, it could sneer at the authors, and answer them to the + satisfaction of the generation in which they lived, at least by a general + charge of lunacy. Some of their notions were no doubt as absurd as those + of the astronomer in "Rasselas", who tells Imlac that he has for five + years possessed the regulation of the weather, and has got the secret of + making to the different nations an equal and impartial dividend of rain + and sunshine. But truth, even when ushered into the world through the + medium of a dull romance and in connection with a vast progeny of errors, + however ridiculed and despised at first, never fails in the end of finding + a lodging-place in the popular mind. The speculations of the political + theorists whom we have noticed have not all proved to be of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Rounded with sleep." +</pre> + <p> + They have entered into and become parts of the social and political + fabrics of Europe and America. The prophecies of imagination have been + fulfilled; the dreams of romance have become familiar realities. + </p> + <p> + What is the moral suggested by this record? Is it not that we should look + with charity and tolerance upon the schemes and speculations of the + political and social theorists of our day; that, if unprepared to venture + upon new experiments and radical changes, we should at least consider that + what was folly to our ancestors is our wisdom, and that another generation + may successfully put in practice the very theories which now seem to us + absurd and impossible? Many of the evils of society have been measurably + removed or ameliorated; yet now, as in the days of the Apostle, "the + creation groaneth and travaileth in pain;" and although quackery and + empiricism abound, is it not possible that a proper application of some of + the remedies proposed might ameliorate the general suffering? Rejecting, + as we must, whatever is inconsistent with or hostile to the doctrines of + Christianity, on which alone rests our hope for humanity, it becomes us to + look kindly upon all attempts to apply those doctrines to the details of + human life, to the social, political, and industrial relations of the + race. If it is not permitted us to believe all things, we can at least + hope them. Despair is infidelity and death. Temporally and spiritually, + the declaration of inspiration holds good, "We are saved by hope." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. (1851.) + </h2> + <p> + BERNARDIN ST. PIERRE, in his Wishes of a Solitary, asks for his country + neither wealth, nor military glory, nor magnificent palaces and monuments, + nor splendor of court nobility, nor clerical pomp. "Rather," he says, "O + France, may no beggar tread thy plains, no sick or suffering man ask in + vain for relief; in all thy hamlets may every young woman find a lover and + every lover a true wife; may the young be trained arightly and guarded + from evil; may the old close their days in the tranquil hope of those who + love God and their fellow-men." + </p> + <p> + We are reminded of the amiable wish of the French essayist—a wish + even yet very far from realization, we fear, in the empire of Napoleon + III.— by the perusal of two documents recently submitted to the + legislature of the State of Massachusetts. They indicate, in our view, the + real glory of a state, and foreshadow the coming of that time when + Milton's definition of a true commonwealth shall be no longer a prophecy, + but the description of an existing fact,—"a huge Christian + personage, a mighty growth and stature of an honest man, moved by the + purpose of a love of God and of mankind." + </p> + <p> + Some years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the suggestion of + several benevolent gentlemen whose attention had been turned to the + subject, appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of the + idiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their numbers, and whether + anything could be done in their behalf. + </p> + <p> + The commissioners were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, so well and honorably known for + his long and arduous labors in behalf of the blind, Judge Byington, and + Dr. Gilman Kimball. The burden of the labor fell upon the chairman, who + entered upon it with the enthusiasm, perseverance, and practical + adaptation of means to ends which have made him so efficient in his varied + schemes of benevolence. On the 26th of the second month, 1848, a full + report of the results of this labor was made to the Governor, accompanied + by statistical tables and minute details. One hundred towns had been + visited by the chairman or his reliable agent, in which five hundred and + seventy-five persons in a state of idiocy were discovered. These were + examined carefully in respect to their physical as well as mental + condition, no inquiry being omitted which was calculated to throw light + upon the remote or immediate causes of this mournful imperfection in the + creation of God. The proximate causes Dr. Howe mentions are to be found in + the state of the bodily organization, deranged and disproportioned by some + violation of natural law on the part of the parents or remoter ancestors + of the sufferers. Out of 420 cases of idiocy, he had obtained information + respecting the condition of the progenitors of 359; and in all but four of + these eases he found that one or the other, or both, of their immediate + progenitors had in some way departed widely from the condition of health; + they were scrofulous, or predisposed to affections of the brain, and + insanity, or had intermarried with blood-relations, or had been + intemperate, or guilty of sensual excesses. + </p> + <p> + Of the 575 cases, 420 were those of idiocy from birth, and 155 of idiocy + afterwards. Of the born idiots, 187 were under twenty-five years of age, + and all but 13 seemed capable of improvement. Of those above twenty-five + years of age, 73 appeared incapable of improvement in their mental + condition, being helpless as children at seven years of age; 43 out of the + 420 seemed as helpless as children at two years of age; 33 were in the + condition of mere infants; and 220 were supported at the public charge in + almshouses. A large proportion of them were found to be given over to + filthy and loathsome habits, gluttony, and lust, and constantly sinking + lower towards the condition of absolute brutishness. + </p> + <p> + Those in private houses were found, if possible, in a still more + deplorable state. Their parents were generally poor, feeble in mind and + body, and often of very intemperate habits. Many of them seemed scarcely + able to take care of themselves, and totally unfit for the training of + ordinary children. It was the blind leading the blind, imbecility teaching + imbecility. Some instances of the experiments of parental ignorance upon + idiotic offspring, which fell under the observation of Dr. Howe, are + related in his report Idiotic children were found with their heads covered + over with cold poultices of oak-bark, which the foolish parents supposed + would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his ox-hides, and so + make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering lessons. In other + cases, finding that the child could not be made to comprehend anything, + the sagacious heads of the household, on the supposition that its brain + was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices of bread and milk to soften + it. Others plastered over their children's heads with tar. Some + administered strong doses of mercury, to "solder up the openings" in the + head and make it tight and strong. Others encouraged the savage gluttony + of their children, stimulating their unnatural and bestial appetites, on + the ground that "the poor creatures had nothing else to enjoy but their + food, and they should have enough of that!" + </p> + <p> + In consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848, + made an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three + years, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be + selected by the Governor and Council. The trustees of the Asylum for the + Blind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving these + pupils. The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first annual + report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the Senate, is + now before us. + </p> + <p> + Of the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of + muscular motion,—the languid body obeyed not the service of the + imbecile will. Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple + motions; others could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two + were without any power of locomotion. + </p> + <p> + One of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the + day of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could scarcely + see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of touch. He + could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would lie on the + floor in whatever position he was placed. He could not feed himself nor + chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an infant. His + intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no affections. A + more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have been selected. + </p> + <p> + A year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in + the condition of this miserable being. Cold bathing, rubbing of the limbs, + exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances have + enabled him to stand upright, to sit at table and feed himself, and chew + his food, and to walk about with slight assistance. His habits are no + longer those of a brute; he observes decency; his eye is brighter; his + cheeks glow with health; his countenance, is more expressive of thought. + He has learned many words and constructs simple sentences; his affections + begin to develop; and there is every prospect that he will be so far + renovated as to be able to provide for himself in manhood. + </p> + <p> + In the case of another boy, aged twelve years, the improvement has been + equally remarkable. The gentleman who first called attention to him, in a + recent note to Dr. Howe, published in the report, thus speaks of his + present condition: "When I remember his former wild and almost frantic + demeanor when approached by any one, and the apparent impossibility of + communicating with him, and now see him standing in his class, playing + with his fellows, and willingly and familiarly approaching me, examining + what I gave him,—and when I see him already selecting articles named + by his teacher, and even correctly pronouncing words printed on cards,— + improvement does not convey the idea presented to my mind; it is creation; + it is making him anew." + </p> + <p> + All the pupils have more or less advanced. Their health and habits have + improved; and there is no reason to doubt that the experiment, at the + close of its three years, will be found to have been quite as successful + as its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated. Dr. Howe has been + ably seconded by an accomplished teacher, James B. Richards, who has + devoted his whole time to the pupils. Of the nature and magnitude of their + task, an idea may be formed only by considering the utter listlessness of + idiocy, the incapability of the poor pupil to fix his attention upon + anything, and his general want of susceptibility to impressions. All his + senses are dulled and perverted. Touch, hearing, sight, smell, are all + more or less defective. His gluttony is unaccompanied with the + gratification of taste,—the most savory viands and the offal which + he shares with the pigs equally satisfy him. His mental state is still + worse than his physical. Thought is painful and irksome to him. + </p> + <p> + His teacher can only engage his attention by strenuous efforts, loud, + earnest tones, gesticulations and signs, and a constant presentation of + some visible object of bright color and striking form. The eye wanders, + and the spark of consciousness and intelligence which has been fanned into + momentary brightness darkens at the slightest relaxation of the teacher's + exertions. The names of objects presented to him must sometimes be + repeated hundreds of times before he can learn them. Yet the patience and + enthusiasm of the teacher are rewarded by a progress, slow and unequal, + but still marked and manifest. Step by step, often compelled to turn back + and go over the inch of ground he had gained, the idiot is still creeping + forward; and by almost imperceptible degrees his sick, cramped, and + prisoned spirit casts off the burden of its body of death, breath as from + the Almighty—is breathed into him, and he becomes a living soul. + </p> + <p> + After the senses of the idiot are trained to take note of their + appropriate objects, the various perceptive faculties are next to be + exercised. The greatest possible number of facts are to be gathered up + through the medium of these faculties into the storehouse of memory, from + whence eventually the higher faculties of mind may draw the material of + general ideas. It has been found difficult, if not impossible, to teach + the idiot to read by the letters first, as in the ordinary method; but + while the varied powers of the three letters, h, a, t, could not be + understood by him, he could be made to comprehend the complex sign of the + word hat, made by uniting the three. + </p> + <p> + The moral nature of the idiot needs training and development as well as + his physical and mental. All that can be said of him is, that he has the + latent capacity for moral development and culture. Uninstructed and left + to himself, he has no ideas of regulated appetites and propensities, of + decency and delicacy of affection and social relations. The germs of these + ideas, which constitute the glory and beauty of humanity, undoubtedly + exist in him; but there can be no growth without patient and persevering + culture. Where this is afforded, to use the language of the report, "the + idiot may learn what love is, though he may not know the word which + expresses it; he may feel kindly affections while unable to understand the + simplest virtuous principle; and he may begin to live acceptably to God + before he has learned the name by which men call him." + </p> + <p> + In the facts and statistics presented in the report, light is shed upon + some of the dark pages of God's providence, and it is seen that the + suffering and shame of idiocy are the result of sin, of a violation of the + merciful laws of God and of the harmonies of His benign order. The + penalties which are ordained for the violators of natural laws are + inexorable and certain. For the transgressor of the laws of life there is, + as in the case of Esau, "no place for repentance, though he seek it + earnestly and with tears." The curse cleaves to him and his children. In + this view, how important becomes the subject of the hereditary + transmission of moral and physical disease and debility! and how necessary + it is that there should be a clearer understanding of, and a willing + obedience, at any cost, to the eternal law which makes the parent the + blessing or the curse of the child, giving strength and beauty, and the + capacity to know and do the will of God, or bequeathing loathsomeness, + deformity, and animal appetite, incapable of the restraints of the moral + faculties! Even if the labors of Dr. Howe and his benevolent associates do + not materially lessen the amount of present actual evil and suffering in + this respect, they will not be put forth in vain if they have the effect + of calling public attention to the great laws of our being, the violation + of which has made this goodly earth a vast lazarhouse of pain and sorrow. + </p> + <p> + The late annual message of the Governor of Massachusetts invites our + attention to a kindred institution of charity. The chief magistrate + congratulates the legislature, in language creditable to his mind and + heart, on the opening of the Reform School for Juvenile Criminals, + established by an act of a previous legislature. The act provides that, + when any boy under sixteen years of age shall be convicted of crime + punishable by imprisonment other than such an offence as is punished by + imprisonment for life, he may be, at the discretion of the court or + justice, sent to the State Reform School, or sentenced to such + imprisonment as the law now provides for his offence. The school is placed + under the care of trustees, who may either refuse to receive a boy thus + sent there, or, after he has been received, for reasons set forth in the + act, may order him to be committed to prison under the previous penal law + of the state. They are also authorized to apprentice the boys, at their + discretion, to inhabitants of the Commonwealth. And whenever any boy shall + be discharged, either as reformed or as having reached the age of + twenty-one years, his discharge is a full release from his sentence. + </p> + <p> + It is made the duty of the trustees to cause the boys to be instructed in + piety and morality, and in branches of useful knowledge, in some regular + course of labor, mechanical, agricultural, or horticultural, and such + other trades and arts as may be best adapted to secure the amendment, + reformation, and future benefit of the boys. The class of offenders for + whom this act provides are generally the offspring of parents depraved by + crime or suffering from poverty and want,—the victims often of + circumstances of evil which almost constitute a necessity,—issuing + from homes polluted and miserable, from the sight and hearing of loathsome + impurities and hideous discords, to avenge upon society the ignorance, and + destitution, and neglect with which it is too often justly chargeable. In + 1846 three hundred of these youthful violators of law were sentenced to + jails and other places of punishment in Massachusetts, where they incurred + the fearful liability of being still more thoroughly corrupted by contact + with older criminals, familiar with atrocity, and rolling their loathsome + vices "as a sweet morsel under the tongue." In view of this state of + things the Reform School has been established, twenty-two thousand dollars + having been contributed to the state for that purpose by an unknown + benefactor of his race. The school is located in Westboro', on a fine farm + of two hundred acres. The buildings are in the form of a square, with a + court in the centre, three stories in front, with wings. They are + constructed with a degree of architectural taste, and their site is + happily chosen,—a gentle eminence, overlooking one of the loveliest + of the small lakes which form a pleasing feature in New England scenery. + From this place the atmosphere and associations of the prison are + excluded. The discipline is strict, as a matter of course; but it is that + of a well-regulated home or school-room,—order, neatness, and + harmony within doors; and without, the beautiful 'sights and sounds and + healthful influences of Nature. One would almost suppose that the poetical + dream of Coleridge, in his tragedy of Remorse, had found its realization + in the Westboro' School, and that, weary of the hopelessness and cruelty + of the old penal system, our legislators had embodied in their statutes + the idea of the poet:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "With other ministrations thou, O Nature, + Healest thy wandering and distempered child + Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, + Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets, + Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters, + Till he relent, and can no more endure + To be a jarring and a dissonant thing + Amidst this general dance and minstrelsy." +</pre> + <p> + Thus it is that the Christian idea of reformation, rather than revenge, is + slowly but surely incorporating itself in our statute books. We have only + to look back but a single century to be able to appreciate the immense + gain for humanity in the treatment of criminals which has been secured in + that space of time. Then the use of torture was common throughout Europe. + Inability to comprehend and believe certain religious dogmas was a crime + to be expiated by death, or confiscation of estate, or lingering + imprisonment. Petty offences against property furnished subjects for the + hangman. The stocks and the whipping-post stood by the side of the + meeting-house. Tongues were bored with redhot irons and ears shorn off. + The jails were loathsome dungeons, swarming with vermin, unventilated, + unwarmed. A century and a half ago the populace of Massachusetts were + convulsed with grim merriment at the writhings of a miserable woman + scourged at the cart-tail or strangling in the ducking- stool; crowds + hastened to enjoy the spectacle of an old man enduring the unutterable + torment of the 'peine forte et dare,'—pressed slowly to death under + planks,—for refusing to plead to an indictment for witchcraft. What + a change from all this to the opening of the State Reform School, to the + humane regulations of prisons and penitentiaries, to keen-eyed benevolence + watching over the administration of justice, which, in securing society + from lawless aggression, is not suffered to overlook the true interest and + reformation of the criminal, nor to forget that the magistrate, in the + words of the Apostle, is to be indeed "the minister of God to man for + good!" + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES. + </h2> + <p> + "THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," was the + significant answer of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees who took + offence at his companions,—the poor, the degraded, the weak, and the + sinful. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not + sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to + repentance." + </p> + <p> + The great lesson of duty inculcated by this answer of the Divine Teacher + has been too long overlooked by individuals and communities professedly + governed by His maxims. The phylacteries of our modern Pharisees are as + broad as those of the old Jewish saints. The respectable Christian detests + his vicious and ill-conditioned neighbors as heartily as the Israelite did + the publicans and sinners of his day. He folds his robe of + self-righteousness closely about him, and denounces as little better than + sinful weakness all commiseration for the guilty; and all attempts to + restore and reclaim the erring violators of human law otherwise than by + pains and penalties as wicked collusion with crime, dangerous to the + stability and safety of society, and offensive in the sight of God. And + yet nothing is more certain than that, just in proportion as the example + of our Lord has been followed in respect to the outcast and criminal, the + effect has been to reform and elevate,—to snatch as brands from the + burning souls not yet wholly given over to the service of evil. The + wonderful influence for good exerted over the most degraded and reckless + criminals of London by the excellent and self-denying Elizabeth Fry, the + happy results of the establishment of houses of refuge, and reformation, + and Magdalen asylums, all illustrate the wisdom of Him who went about + doing good, in pointing out the morally diseased as the appropriate + subjects of the benevolent labors of His disciples. No one is to be + despaired of. We have no warrant to pass by any of our fellow-creatures as + beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy; for, beneath the most repulsive + and hateful outward manifestation, there is always a consciousness of the + beauty of goodness and purity, and of the loathsomeness of sin,—one + chamber of the heart as yet not wholly profaned, whence at times arises + the prayer of a burdened and miserable spirit for deliverance. Deep down + under the squalid exterior, unparticipative in the hideous merriment and + recklessness of the criminal, there is another self,—a chained and + suffering inner man,— crying out, in the intervals of intoxication + and brutal excesses, like Jonah from the bosom of hell. To this lingering + consciousness the sympathy and kindness of benevolent and humane spirits + seldom appeal in vain; for, whatever may be outward appearances, it + remains true that the way of the transgressor is hard, and that sin and + suffering are inseparable. Crime is seldom loved or persevered in for its + own sake; but, when once the evil path is entered upon, a return is in + reality extremely difficult to the unhappy wanderer, and often seems as + well nigh impossible. The laws of social life rise up like insurmountable + barriers between him and escape. As he turns towards the society whose + rights he has outraged, its frown settles upon him; the penalties of the + laws he has violated await him; and he falls back despairing, and suffers + the fetters of the evil habit to whose power he has yielded himself to be + fastened closer and heavier upon him. O for some good angel, in the form + of a brother-man and touched with a feeling of his sins and infirmities, + to reassure his better nature and to point out a way of escape from its + body of death! + </p> + <p> + We have been led into these remarks by an account, given in the London + Weekly Chronicle, of a most remarkable interview between the professional + thieves of London and Lord Ashley,—a gentleman whose best patent of + nobility is to be found in his generous and untiring devotion to the + interests of his fellow-men. It appears that a philanthropic gentleman in + London had been applied to by two young thieves, who had relinquished + their evil practices and were obtaining a precarious but honest livelihood + by picking up bones and rags in the streets, their loss of character + closing against them all other employments. He had just been reading an + address of Lord Ashley's in favor of colonial emigration, and he was led + to ask one of the young men how he would like to emigrate. + </p> + <p> + "I should jump at the chance!" was the reply. Not long after the gentleman + was sent for to visit one of those obscure and ruinous courts of the great + metropolis where crime and poverty lie down together,— localities + which Dickens has pictured with such painful distinctness. Here, to his + surprise, he met a number of thieves and outlaws, who declared themselves + extremely anxious to know whether any hope could be held out to them of + obtaining an honest living, however humble, in the colonies, as their only + reason for continuing in their criminal course was the impossibility of + extricating themselves. He gave them such advice and encouragement as he + was able, and invited them to assemble again, with such of their + companions as they could persuade to do so, at the room of the Irish Free + School, for the purpose of meeting Lord Ashley. On the 27th of the seventh + month last the meeting took place. At the hour appointed, Lord Ashley and + five or six other benevolent gentlemen, interested in emigration as a + means of relief and reformation to the criminal poor, entered the room, + which was already well-nigh filled. Two hundred and seven professed + thieves were present. "Several of the most experienced thieves were + stationed at the door to prevent the admission of any but thieves. Some + four or five individuals, who were not at first known, were subjected to + examination, and only allowed to remain on stating that they were, and + being recognized as, members of the dishonest fraternity; and before the + proceedings of the evening commenced the question was very carefully put, + and repeated several times, whether any one was in the room of whom others + entertained doubts as to who he was. The object of this care was, as so + many of them were in danger of 'getting into trouble,' or, in other words, + of being taken up for their crimes, to ascertain if any who might betray + them were present; and another intention of this scrutiny was, to give + those assembled, who naturally would feel considerable fear, a fuller + confidence in opening their minds." + </p> + <p> + What a novel conference between the extremes of modern society! All that + is beautiful in refinement and education, moral symmetry and Christian + grace, contrasting with the squalor, the ignorance, the lifelong depravity + of men living "without God in the world,"—the pariahs of + civilization,—the moral lepers, at the sight of whom decency covers + its face, and cries out, "Unclean!" After a prayer had been offered, Lord + Ashley spoke at considerable length, making a profound impression on his + strange auditory as they listened to his plans of emigration, which + offered them an opportunity to escape from their miserable condition and + enter upon a respectable course of life. The hard heart melted and the + cold and cruel eye moistened. With one accord the wretched felons + responded to the language of Christian love and good-will, and declared + their readiness to follow the advice of their true friend. They looked up + to him as to an angel of mercy, and felt the malignant spirits which had + so long tormented them disarmed of all power of evil in the presence of + simple goodness. He stood in that felon audience like Spenser's Una amidst + the satyrs; unassailable and secure in the "unresistible might of + meekness," and panoplied in that "noble grace which dashed brute violence + with sudden adoration and mute awe." + </p> + <p> + Twenty years ago, when Elizabeth Fry ventured to visit those "spirits in + prison,"—the female tenants of Newgate,—her temerity was + regarded with astonishment, and her hope of effecting a reformation in the + miserable objects of her sympathy was held to be wholly visionary. Her + personal safety and the blessed fruits of her labors, nevertheless, + confirmed the language of her Divine Master to His disciples when He sent + them forth as lambs among wolves: "Behold, I give unto you power over all + the power of the enemy." The still more unpromising experiment of Lord + Ashley, thus far, has been equally successful; and we hail it as the + introduction of a new and more humane method of dealing with the victims + of sin and ignorance, and the temptations growing out of the inequalities + and vices of civilization. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Letter to the Newport Convention. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 12th, 8th Month, 1869. +</pre> + <p> + I HAVE received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf + of Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R. I., on the 25th inst. I do not see how + it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so, the + state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the meeting + as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to sanction + anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of duty or + policy. Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not embrace this + occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement. I have seen no + good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not have the same + right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers, husbands, and + brothers have. + </p> + <p> + The sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women of + my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like + equality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with + noble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their + household duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of + unpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and + strengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human + nature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than + acquiescence on the efforts you are making. I frankly confess that I am + not able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political + change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to do + right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand, + without sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote + drops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment, the + bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it. But in this matter it + seems to me that we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes or + conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves and + honors in woman. Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed + Chevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain. + I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when they + meet on terms of equality before the law. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman + will prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains. It is + her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something less + than manhood to withhold it. But, unsupported by a more practical + education, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of life + and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more than + in man's. + </p> + <p> + With great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ITALIAN UNITY + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + AMESBURY, MASS., 1st Mo., 4th, 1871. + + Read at the great meeting in New York, January, 1871, in celebration + of the freedom of Rome and complete unity of Italy. +</pre> + <p> + IT would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to attend the meeting on + the 12th instant for the celebration of Italian Unity, the emancipation of + Rome, and its occupation as the permanent capital of the nation. + </p> + <p> + For many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular + movement on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the + deliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age by centuries. I + looked at these struggles of the people with little reference to their + ecclesiastical or sectarian bearings. Had I been a Catholic instead of a + Protestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from + Papal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical, + desirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the civil liberty which + I prized so highly for myself. + </p> + <p> + I lost all confidence in the French republic of 1849, when it forfeited + its own right to exist by crushing out the newly formed Roman republic + under Mazzini and Garibaldi. From that hour it was doomed, and the + expiation of its monstrous crime is still going on. My sympathies are with + Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and sustain a + republic in France, but I confess that the investment of Paris by King + William seems to me the logical sequence of the bombardment of Rome by + Oudinot. And is it not a significant fact that the terrible chassepot, + which made its first bloody experiment upon the halfarmed Italian patriots + without the walls of Rome, has failed in the hands of French republicans + against the inferior needle-gun of Prussia? It was said of a fierce actor + in the old French Revolution that he demoralized the guillotine. The + massacre at Mentana demoralized the chassepot. + </p> + <p> + It is a matter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has been + effected so easily and bloodlessly. The despotism of a thousand years fell + at a touch in noiseless rottenness. The people of Rome, fifty to one, cast + their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of earth upon its + grave. Outside of Rome there seems to be a very general acquiescence in + its downfall. No Peter the Hermit preaches a crusade in its behalf. No one + of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a finger for it. Whatever may + be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the fugitive son of King Bomba, + they are in no condition to come to its rescue. It is reserved for + American ecclesiastics, loud-mouthed in professions of democracy, to make + solemn protest against what they call an "outrage," which gives the people + of Rome the right of choosing their own government, and denies the divine + right of kings in the person of Pio Nono. + </p> + <p> + The withdrawal of the temporal power of the Pope will prove a blessing to + the Catholic Church, as well as to the world. Many of its most learned and + devout priests and laymen have long seen the necessity of such a change, + which takes from it a reproach and scandal that could no longer be excused + or tolerated. A century hence it will have as few apologists as the + Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew. + </p> + <p> + In this hour of congratulation let us not forget those whose suffering and + self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the way + for the triumph which we celebrate. As we call the long, illustrious roll + of Italian patriotism—the young, the brave, and beautiful; the + gray-haired, saintly confessors; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut + out from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the slow, + dumb agony of prison martyrdom—let us hope that they also rejoice + with us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving: + "Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! He hath avenged the blood + of his servants!" + </p> + <p> + In the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule will + strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized' world, I am very + truly thy friend. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDIAN CIVILIZATION. + </h2> + <p> + THE present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the + aboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of + indifference to any class of the people of the United States. Apart from + all considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our own + well-being would compel attention to the subject. The irreversible laws of + God's moral government, and the well-attested maxims of political and + social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and + wrong of one part of the community must affect all others. A common + responsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten + ignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect + no nation has ever escaped. + </p> + <p> + It is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian + Civilization could be appropriately used in this country. Very little real + progress bad been made in this direction, up to the time when Commissioner + Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced. So little had been + done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the assumption that the + Indians were not susceptible of civilization and progress. The few + experiments had not been calculated to assure a superficial observer. + </p> + <p> + The unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the + imprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his "praying Indians," + by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes. The + salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was + greatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless + converts of Gnadenhutten. But since the first visit of Commissioner Lang, + thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization, and + conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature, and if + Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been practically + solved. + </p> + <p> + The nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are + indeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their + elevation. The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those + Northern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and who + were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had + conquered. The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed + from the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the + Scandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons of + rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where + ghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell + was a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by + diligence in robbery and courage in murder. The descendants of these human + butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing influence of + the gospel of Christ. The report of the Superintendent of the remnants of + the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable and prosperous in + Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the Norse ancestors of + the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of improvement. + </p> + <p> + It is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the + wars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every + instance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic + disregard of their rights of person, property, and life. The letter of + Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month, + 1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman, + Harney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching investigation + of the subject: "That the Indian goes to war is not astonishing: he is + often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in silence, which never + fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. The best possible way to + avoid war is to do no injustice." + </p> + <p> + It is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer + settlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind + vengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the + real wrong-doers. They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as proof + that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can prevent + their repetition. But a moment's consideration compels us to admit that + atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man. "All wars are cruel," + said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom has been a + great battle-field. What Indian raid has been more dreadful than the sack + of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless atrocities of the Duke + of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St. Bartholomew's day, the + unspeakable agonies of the South of France under the demoniac rule of + revolution! All history, black with crime and red with blood, is but an + awful commentary upon "man's inhumanity to man," and it teaches us that + there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's ferocity and vindictiveness, + and that the alleged reasons for his extermination would, at one time or + another, have applied with equal force to the whole family of man. + </p> + <p> + A late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable + information and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have + found in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it my + hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general + circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in + the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind + to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a + people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future + relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly and love + mercy." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + READING FOR THE BLIND. (1880.) + </h2> + <h3> + To Mary C. Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR FRIEND,—It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in + thy class at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded + them to read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold + what I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me. Very glad I shall be + if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I have + tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot discern + them by natural vision. I shall count it a great privilege to see for + them, or rather to let them see through my eyes. It is the mind after all + that really sees, shapes, and colors all things. What visions of beauty + and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of blind Milton + and Beethoven! + </p> + <p> + I have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and + blind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high + degree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of + scenes which have been witnessed only by the "light within." + </p> + <p> + I thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that I + am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer is + that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can + well dispense with the outward and material ones. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE INDIAN QUESTION. + </h2> + <p> + Read at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the + condition of the Indians in the United States. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883. + </p> + <p> + I REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to + the pressing question of the day, the present condition and future + prospects of the Indian race in the United States. The old policy, however + well intended, of the government is no longer available. The westward + setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the lines of the + reservations. There would seem to be no power in the government to prevent + the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and the crowding out of + the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds. Outbreaks of Indian + ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on the part of the + whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of indiscriminate massacres. + The entire question will soon resolve itself into the single alternative + of education and civilization or extermination. + </p> + <p> + The school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon + have proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can be + enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and delight in + the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in his + workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the laws of + the republic. What is needed is that not only these schools should be more + liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened without delay. The + matter does not admit of procrastination. The work of education and + civilization must be done. The money needed must be contributed with no + sparing hand. The laudable example set by the Friends and the American + Missionary Association should be followed by other sects and philanthropic + societies. Christianity, patriotism, and enlightened self interest have a + common stake in the matter. Great and difficult as the work may be the + country is strong enough, rich enough, wise enough, and, I believe, humane + and Christian enough to do it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. + </h2> + <p> + Read at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston, November, 1885. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885. + </p> + <p> + I AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of + the Essex Club on the 14th inst. I should be glad to meet my old + Republican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election in + Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex. + </p> + <p> + Some of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last + year saw fit to vote with the opposite party. I would be the last to deny + their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I think + they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and evils + which they complained of. President Cleveland has proved himself better + than his party, and has done and said some good things which I give him + full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him, and must + eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his carrying the + party, it will be likely to carry him. It has already compelled him to put + his hands in his pockets for electioneering purposes, and travel all the + way from Washington to Buffalo to give his vote for a spoilsman and + anti-civil service machine politician. I would not like to call it a case + of "offensive partisanship," but it looks a good deal like it. + </p> + <p> + As a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the + party, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the + Democratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization + no longer necessary. But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has + still its mission and its future. When labor shall everywhere have its + just reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when + education shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have the + free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective of + color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community + shall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it + fostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions + of office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to + well-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will + the work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political + rivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other + aim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty, + and union. Then may the language which Milton addressed to his countrymen + two centuries ago be applied to the United States, "Go on, hand in hand, O + peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic song of all + posterity. Join your invincible might to do worthy and godlike deeds; and + then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving curse be his + inheritance." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OUR DUMB RELATIONS. (1886.) + </h2> + <p> + IT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the + fervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His + creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league + with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace + with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the + golden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to + warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute + creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest + and meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world + there are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and + nature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven, and + who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents. + </p> + <p> + It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that + stories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men and + animals are always listened to with interest and approval. How pleasant to + think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been celebrated in + song and romance. Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his bequest to the + birds. Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went, by flocks of + birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed hat and his + drab coat-sleeves. Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind and infirm, + groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of Walter Scott and + John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs. Of our own Thoreau, + instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend. Emerson says of + him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller records of + Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees things, or the + bees had told him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the fishes swam into his + hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his tail, and took foxes + under his protection from the hunters." + </p> + <p> + In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems—the sacred book of the + Mahabharata—there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness, + which records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise. A + pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces, + and, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all + fallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed. He + was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city. But the king thinks + of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in without + them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him. Joyful, he is + about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who, weary and + wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter the gate. + Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon his + faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful! + Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog. + The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to + save him; + Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word." +</pre> + <p> + In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and + straightway descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and + faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself + surrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus + honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + </h2> + <p> + Read at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing + more than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor + international arbitration. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887. + </p> + <p> + IT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at + the welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than + two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international + arbitration. Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the + presentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United + States. It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best + interests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must + respond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his + colleagues who represented the workingmen of England. We do not need to be + told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by + professed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and + boomerang. We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the + demoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the + spectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in preparing + to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like Count + Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that the + gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred. + </p> + <p> + The overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a + cheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of peace + among English speaking peoples. I cannot doubt that whatever stump orators + and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America will + respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water. No two + nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the United + States for making the "holy experiment of arbitration." + </p> + <p> + In our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common claims + in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are + essentially one people. Whatever other nations may do, we at least should + be friends. God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall not be in + vain! May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us shall be the + peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of good. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "When closer strand shall lean to strand, + Till meet beneath saluting flags, + The eagle of our mountain crags, + The lion of our mother land!" +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN. + </h2> + <h3> + Read at the Woman's Convention at Washington. + </h3> + <p> + OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888. + </p> + <p> + I THANK thee for thy kind letter. It would be a great satisfaction to be + able to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage + Association. But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my hearty + sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart and + assurance in view of all that has been accomplished. There is no easy + royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been slow + there has been no step backward. The barriers which at first seemed + impregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and + their fall is certain. A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is in + the air; your opponents feel it and believe it. They know that yours is a + gaining and theirs a losing cause. The work still before you demands on + your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm, dignified, and + self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you have so much + reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not discouraged by + temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor provoked to use + any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall back on the heads + of those who use them. You can afford in your consciousness of right to be + as calm and courteous as the archangel Michael, who, we are told in + Scripture in his controversy with Satan himself, did not bring a railing + accusation against him. A wise adaptation of means to ends is no yielding + of principle, but care should be taken to avoid all such methods as have + disgraced political and religious parties of the masculine sex. Continue + to make it manifest that all which is pure and lovely and of good repute + in womanhood is entirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of + citizenship, and the performance of the duties which we all owe to our + homes and our country. Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt + or misgiving as to your success, I bid you Godspeed. I find I have written + to the association rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal + originators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I + should identify thee with it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE INNER LIFE + </h2> + <h3> + THE AGENCY OF EVIL. + </h3> + <p> + From the Supernaturalism of New England, in the Democratic Review for + 1843. + </p> + <p> + IN this life of ours, so full of mystery, so hung about with wonders, so + written over with dark riddles, where even the lights held by prophets and + inspired ones only serve to disclose the solemn portals of a future state + of being, leaving all beyond in shadow, perhaps the darkest and most + difficult problem which presents itself is that of the origin of evil,—the + source whence flow the black and bitter waters of sin and suffering and + discord,—the wrong which all men see in others and feel in + themselves,—the unmistakable facts of human depravity and misery. A + superficial philosophy may attempt to refer all these dark phenomena of + man's existence to his own passions, circumstances, and will; but the + thoughtful observer cannot rest satisfied with secondary causes. The + grossest materialism, at times, reveals something of that latent dread of + an invisible and spiritual influence which is inseparable from our nature. + Like Eliphaz the Temanite, it is conscious of a spirit passing before its + face, the form whereof is not discerned. + </p> + <p> + It is indeed true that our modern divines and theologians, as if to atone + for the too easy credulity of their order formerly, have unceremoniously + consigned the old beliefs of Satanic agency, demoniacal possession, and + witchcraft, to Milton's receptacle of exploded follies and detected + impostures, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Over the backside of the world far off, + Into a limbo broad and large, and called + The paradise of fools,"— +</pre> + <p> + that indeed, out of their peculiar province, and apart from the routine of + their vocation, they have become the most thorough sceptics and + unbelievers among us. Yet it must be owned that, if they have not the + marvellous themselves, they are the cause of it in others. In certain + states of mind, the very sight of a clergyman in his sombre professional + garb is sufficient to awaken all the wonderful within us. Imagination goes + wandering back to the subtle priesthood of mysterious Egypt. We think of + Jannes and Jambres; of the Persian magi; dim oak groves, with Druid + altars, and priests, and victims, rise before us. For what is the priest + even of our New England but a living testimony to the truth of the + supernatural and the reality of the unseen,—a man of mystery, + walking in the shadow of the ideal world,—by profession an expounder + of spiritual wonders? Laugh he may at the old tales of astrology and + witchcraft and demoniacal possession; but does he not believe and bear + testimony to his faith in the reality of that dark essence which Scripture + more than hints at, which has modified more or less all the religious + systems and speculations of the heathen world,—the Ahriman of the + Parsee, the Typhon of the Egyptian, the Pluto of the Roman mythology, the + Devil of Jew, Christian, and Mussulman, the Machinito of the Indian,—evil + in the universe of goodness, darkness in the light of divine intelligence,—in + itself the great and crowning mystery from which by no unnatural process + of imagination may be deduced everything which our forefathers believed of + the spiritual world and supernatural agency? That fearful being with his + tributaries and agents,—"the Devil and his angels,"—how + awfully he rises before us in the brief outline limning of the sacred + writers! How he glooms, "in shape and gesture proudly eminent," on the + immortal canvas of Milton and Dante! What a note of horror does his name + throw into the sweet Sabbath psalmody of our churches. What strange, dark + fancies are connected with the very language of common-law indictments, + when grand juries find under oath that the offence complained of has been + committed "at the instigation of the Devil"! + </p> + <p> + How hardly effaced are the impressions of childhood! Even at this day, at + the mention of the evil angel, an image rises before me like that with + which I used especially to horrify myself in an old copy of Pilgrim's + Progress. Horned, hoofed, scaly, and fire-breathing, his caudal extremity + twisted tight with rage, I remember him, illustrating the tremendous + encounter of Christian in the valley where "Apollyon straddled over the + whole breadth of the way." There was another print of the enemy which made + no slight impression upon me. It was the frontispiece of an old, smoked, + snuff-stained pamphlet, the property of an elderly lady, (who had a fine + collection of similar wonders, wherewith she was kind enough to edify her + young visitors,) containing a solemn account of the fate of a wicked + dancing-party in New Jersey, whose irreverent declaration, that they would + have a fiddler if they had to send to the lower regions after him, called + up the fiend himself, who forthwith commenced playing, while the company + danced to the music incessantly, without the power to suspend their + exercise, until their feet and legs were worn off to the knees! The rude + wood-cut represented the demon fiddler and his agonized companions + literally stumping it up and down in "cotillons, jigs, strathspeys, and + reels." He would have answered very well to the description of the + infernal piper in Tam O'Shanter. + </p> + <p> + To this popular notion of the impersonation of the principle of evil we + are doubtless indebted for the whole dark legacy of witchcraft and + possession. Failing in our efforts to solve the problem of the origin of + evil, we fall back upon the idea of a malignant being,—the + antagonism of good. Of this mysterious and dreadful personification we + find ourselves constrained to speak with a degree of that awe and + reverence which are always associated with undefined power and the ability + to harm. "The Devil," says an old writer, "is a dignity, though his glory + be somewhat faded and wan, and is to be spoken of accordingly." + </p> + <p> + The evil principle of Zoroaster was from eternity self-created and + existent, and some of the early Christian sects held the same opinion. The + gospel, however, affords no countenance to this notion of a divided + sovereignty of the universe. The Divine Teacher, it is true, in + discoursing of evil, made use of the language prevalent in His time, and + which was adapted to the gross conceptions of His Jewish bearers; but He + nowhere presents the embodiment of sin as an antagonism to the absolute + power and perfect goodness of God, of whom, and through whom, and to whom + are all things. Pure himself, He can create nothing impure. Evil, + therefore, has no eternity in the past. The fact of its present actual + existence is indeed strongly stated; and it is not given us to understand + the secret of that divine alchemy whereby pain, and sin, and discord + become the means to beneficent ends worthy of the revealed attributes of + the Infinite Parent. Unsolved by human reason or philosophy, the dark + mystery remains to baffle the generations of men; and only to the eye of + humble and childlike faith can it ever be reconciled to the purity, + justice, and mercy of Him who is "light, and in whom is no darkness at + all." + </p> + <p> + "Do you not believe in the Devil?" some one once asked the Non-conformist + Robinson. "I believe in God," was the reply; "don't you?" + </p> + <p> + Henry of Nettesheim says "that it is unanimously maintained that devils do + wander up and down in the earth; but what they are, or how they are, + ecclesiasticals have not clearly expounded." Origen, in his Platonic + speculations on this subject, supposed them to be spirits who, by + repentance, might be restored, that in the end all knees might be bowed to + the Father of spirits, and He become all in all. Justin Martyr was of the + opinion that many of them still hoped for their salvation; and the + Cabalists held that this hope of theirs was well founded. One is + irresistibly reminded here of the closing verse of the <i>Address to the + Deil</i>, by Burns:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "But fare ye weel, Auld Nickie ben! + Gin ye wad take a thought and mend, + Ye aiblins might—I dinna ken— + Still has a stake + I'm was to think upon yon den + Fen for your sake." +</pre> + <p> + The old schoolmen and fathers seem to agree that the Devil and his + ministers have bodies in some sort material, subject to passions and + liable to injury and pain. Origen has a curious notion that any evil + spirit who, in a contest with a human being, is defeated, loses from + thenceforth all his power of mischief, and may be compared to a wasp who + has lost his sting. + </p> + <p> + "The Devil," said Samson Occum, the famous Indian preacher, in a discourse + on temperance, "is a gentleman, and never drinks." Nevertheless it is a + remarkable fact, and worthy of the serious consideration of all who "tarry + long at the wine," that, in that state of the drunkard's malady known as + delirium tremens, the adversary, in some shape or other, is generally + visible to the sufferers, or at least, as Winslow says of the Powahs, "he + appeareth more familiarly to them than to others." I recollect a statement + made to me by a gentleman who has had bitter experience of the evils of + intemperance, and who is at this time devoting his fine talents to the + cause of philanthropy and mercy, as the editor of one of our best + temperance journals, which left a most vivid impression on my mind. He had + just returned from a sea-voyage; and, for the sake of enjoying a debauch, + unmolested by his friends, took up his abode in a rum-selling tavern in a + somewhat lonely location on the seaboard. Here he drank for many days + without stint, keeping himself the whole time in a state of + semi-intoxication. One night he stood leaning against a tree, looking + listlessly and vacantly out upon the ocean; the waves breaking on the + beach, and the white sails of passing vessels vaguely impressing him like + the pictures of a dream. He was startled by a voice whispering hoarsely in + his ear, <i>"You have murdered a man; the officers of justice are after + you; you must fly for your life!"</i> Every syllable was pronounced slowly + and separately; and there was something in the hoarse, gasping sound of + the whisper which was indescribably dreadful. He looked around him, and + seeing nothing but the clear moonlight on the grass, became partially + sensible that he was the victim of illusion, and a sudden fear of insanity + thrilled him with a momentary horror. Rallying himself, he returned to the + tavern, drank another glass of brandy, and retired to his chamber. He had + scarcely lain his head on the pillow when he heard that hoarse, low, but + terribly distinct whisper, repeating the same words. He describes his + sensations at this time as inconceivably fearful. Reason was struggling + with insanity; but amidst the confusion and mad disorder one terrible + thought evolved itself. Had he not, in a moment of mad frenzy of which his + memory made no record, actually murdered some one? And was not this a + warning from Heaven? Leaving his bed and opening his door, he heard the + words again repeated, with the addition, in a tone of intense earnestness, + "Follow me!" He walked forward in the direction of the sound, through a + long entry, to the head of the staircase, where he paused for a moment, + when again he heard the whisper, half-way down the stairs, "Follow me!" + </p> + <p> + Trembling with terror, he passed down two flights of stairs, and found + himself treading on the cold brick floor of a large room in the basement, + or cellar, where he had never been before. The voice still beckoned him + onward; and, groping after it, his hand touched an upright post, against + which he leaned for a moment. He heard it again, apparently only two or + three yards in front of him "You have murdered a man; the officers are + close behind you; follow me!" Putting one foot forward while his hand + still grasped the post, it fell upon empty air, and he with difficulty + recovered himself. Stooping down and feeling with his hands, he found + himself on the very edge of a large uncovered cistern, or tank, filled + nearly to the top with water. The sudden shock of this discovery broke the + horrible enchantment. The whisperer was silent. He believed, at the time, + that he had been the subject, and well-nigh the victim, of a diabolical + delusion; and he states that, even now, with the recollection of that + strange whisper is always associated a thought of the universal tempter. + </p> + <p> + Our worthy ancestors were, in their own view of the matter, the advance + guard and forlorn hope of Christendom in its contest with the bad angel. + The New World, into which they had so valiantly pushed the outposts of the + Church militant, was to them, not God's world, but the Devil's. They stood + there on their little patch of sanctified territory like the gamekeeper of + Der Freischutz in the charmed circle; within were prayer and fasting, + unmelodious psalmody and solemn hewing of heretics, "before the Lord in + Gilgal;" without were "dogs and sorcerers, red children of perdition, + Powah wizards," and "the foul fiend." In their grand old wilderness, + broken by fair, broad rivers and dotted with loveliest lakes, hanging with + festoons of leaf, and vine, and flower, the steep sides of mountains whose + naked tops rose over the surrounding verdure like altars of a giant world,—with + its early summer greenness and the many-colored wonder of its autumn, all + glowing as if the rainbows of a summer shower had fallen upon it, under + the clear, rich light of a sun to which the misty day of their cold island + was as moonlight,—they saw no beauty, they recognized no holy + revelation. It was to them terrible as the forest which Dante traversed on + his way to the world of pain. Every advance step they made was upon the + enemy's territory. And one has only to read the writings of the two + Mathers to perceive that that enemy was to them no metaphysical + abstraction, no scholastic definition, no figment of a poetical fancy, but + a living, active reality, alternating between the sublimest possibilities + of evil and the lowest details of mean mischief; now a "tricksy spirit," + disturbing the good-wife's platters or soiling her newwashed linen, and + anon riding the storm-cloud and pointing its thunder-bolts; for, as the + elder Mather pertinently inquires, "how else is it that our meeting-houses + are burned by the lightning?" What was it, for instance, but his subtlety + which, speaking through the lips of Madame Hutchinson, confuted the + "judges of Israel" and put to their wits' end the godly ministers of the + Puritan Zion? Was not his evil finger manifested in the contumacious + heresy of Roger Williams? Who else gave the Jesuit missionaries—locusts + from the pit as they were—such a hold on the affections of those + very savages who would not have scrupled to hang the scalp of pious Father + Wilson himself from their girdles? To the vigilant eye of Puritanism was + he not alike discernible in the light wantonness of the May-pole + revellers, beating time with the cloven foot to the vain music of obscene + dances, and in the silent, hat-canopied gatherings of the Quakers, "the + most melancholy of the sects," as Dr. Moore calls them? Perilous and + glorious was it, under these circumstances, for such men as Mather and + Stoughton to gird up their stout loins and do battle with the unmeasured, + all-surrounding terror. Let no man lightly estimate their spiritual + knight-errantry. The heroes of old romance, who went about smiting + dragons, lopping giants' heads, and otherwise pleasantly diverting + themselves, scarcely deserve mention in comparison with our New England + champions, who, trusting not to carnal sword and lance, in a contest with + principalities and powers, "spirits that live throughout, Vital in every + part, not as frail man,"— encountered their enemies with weapons + forged by the stern spiritual armorer of Geneva. The life of Cotton Mather + is as full of romance as the legends of Ariosto or the tales of + Beltenebros and Florisando in Amadis de Gaul. All about him was enchanted + ground; devils glared on him in his "closet wrestlings;" portents blazed + in the heavens above him; while he, commissioned and set apart as the + watcher, and warder, and spiritual champion of "the chosen people," stood + ever ready for battle, with open eye and quick ear for the detection of + the subtle approaches of the enemy. No wonder is it that the spirits of + evil combined against him; that they beset him as they did of old St. + Anthony; that they shut up the bowels of the General Court against his + long-cherished hope of the presidency of Old Harvard; that they even had + the audacity to lay hands on his anti-diabolical manuscripts, or that "ye + divil that was in ye girl flewe at and tore" his grand sermon against + witches. How edifying is his account of the young bewitched maiden whom he + kept in his house for the purpose of making experiments which should + satisfy all "obstinate Sadducees"! How satisfactory to orthodoxy and + confounding to heresy is the nice discrimination of "ye divil in ye girl," + who was choked in attempting to read the Catechism, yet found no trouble + with a pestilent Quaker pamphlet; who was quiet and good-humored when the + worthy Doctor was idle, but went into paroxysms of rage when he sat down + to indite his diatribes against witches and familiar spirits! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (The Quakers appear to have, at a comparatively early period, + emancipated themselves in a great degree from the grosser + superstitions of their times. William Penn, indeed, had a law in + his colony against witchcraft; but the first trial of a person + suspected of this offence seems to have opened his eyes to its + absurdity. George Fox, judging from one or two passages in his + journal, appears to have held the common opinions of the day on the + subject; yet when confined in Doomsdale dungeon, on being told that + the place was haunted and that the spirits of those who had died + there still walked at night in his room, he replied, "that if all + the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was over them in the + power of God, and feared no such thing." + + The enemies of the Quakers, in order to account for the power and + influence of their first preachers, accused them of magic and + sorcery. "The Priest of Wakefield," says George Fox (one trusts he + does not allude to our old friend the Vicar), "raised many wicked + slanders upon me, as that I carried bottles with me and made people + drink, and that made them follow me; that I rode upon a great black + horse, and was seen in one county upon my black horse in one hour, + and in the same hour in another county fourscore miles off." In his + account of the mob which beset him at Walney Island, he says: "When + I came to myself I saw James Lancaster's wife throwing stones at my + face, and her husband lying over me to keep off the blows and + stones; for the people had persuaded her that I had bewitched her + husband." + + Cotton Mather attributes the plague of witchcraft in New England in + about an equal degree to the Quakers and Indians. The first of the + sect who visited Boston, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher,—the latter a + young girl,—were seized upon by Deputy-Governor Bellingham, in the + absence of Governor Endicott, and shamefully stripped naked for the + purpose of ascertaining whether they were witches with the Devil's + mark on them. In 1662 Elizabeth Horton and Joan Broksop, two + venerable preachers of the sect, were arrested in Boston, charged by + Governor Endicott with being witches, and carried two days' journey + into the woods, and left to the tender mercies of Indians and + wolves.) +</pre> + <p> + All this is pleasant enough now; we can laugh at the Doctor and his + demons; but little matter of laughter was it to the victims on Salem Hill; + to the prisoners in the jails; to poor Giles Corey, tortured with planks + upon his breast, which forced the tongue from his mouth and his life from + his old, palsied body; to bereaved and quaking families; to a whole + community, priest-ridden and spectresmitten, gasping in the sick dream of + a spiritual nightmare and given over to believe a lie. We may laugh, for + the grotesque is blended with the horrible; but we must also pity and + shudder. The clear-sighted men who confronted that delusion in its own + age, disenchanting, with strong good sense and sharp ridicule, their + spell-bound generation,—the German Wierus, the Italian D'Apone, the + English Scot, and the New England Calef,—deserve high honors as the + benefactors of their race. It is true they were branded through life as + infidels and "damnable Sadducees;" but the truth which they uttered lived + after them, and wrought out its appointed work, for it had a Divine + commission and Godspeed. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The oracles are dumb; + No voice nor hideous hum +</pre> + <p> + Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Apollo from his shrine + Can now no more divine, +</pre> + <p> + With hollow shriek the steep of Delphus leaving." + </p> + <p> + Dimmer and dimmer, as the generations pass away, this tremendous terror, + this all-pervading espionage of evil, this active incarnation of + motiveless malignity, presents itself to the imagination. The once + imposing and solemn rite of exorcism has become obsolete in the Church. + Men are no longer, in any quarter of the world, racked or pressed under + planks to extort a confession of diabolical alliance. The heretic now + laughs to scorn the solemn farce of the Church which, in the name of the + All-Merciful, formally delivers him over to Satan. And for the sake of + abused and long-cheated humanity let us rejoice that it is so, when we + consider how for long, weary centuries the millions of professed + Christendom stooped, awestricken, under the yoke of spiritual and temporal + despotism, grinding on from generation to generation in a despair which + had passed complaining, because superstition, in alliance with tyranny, + had filled their upward pathway to freedom with shapes of terror,—the + spectres of God's wrath to the uttermost, the fiend, and that torment the + smoke of which rises forever. Through fear of a Satan of the future,—a + sort of ban-dog of priestcraft, held in its leash and ready to be let + loose upon the disputers of its authority,—our toiling brothers of + past ages have permitted their human taskmasters to convert God's + beautiful world, so adorned and fitted for the peace and happiness of all, + into a great prison-house of suffering, filled with the actual terrors + which the imagination of the old poets gave to the realm of Rhadamanthus. + And hence, while I would not weaken in the slightest degree the influence + of that doctrine of future retribution,—the accountability of the + spirit for the deeds done in the body,—the truth of which reason, + revelation, and conscience unite in attesting as the necessary result of + the preservation in another state of existence of the soul's individuality + and identity, I must, nevertheless, rejoice that the many are no longer + willing to permit the few, for their especial benefit, to convert our + common Father's heritage into a present hell, where, in return for + undeserved suffering and toil uncompensated, they can have gracious and + comfortable assurance of release from a future one. Better is the fear of + the Lord than the fear of the Devil; holier and more acceptable the + obedience of love and reverence than the submission of slavish terror. The + heart which has felt the "beauty of holiness," which has been in some + measure attuned to the divine harmony which now, as of old in the + angel-hymn of the Advent, breathes of "glory to God, peace on earth, and + good-will to men," in the serene atmosphere of that "perfect love which + casteth out fear," smiles at the terrors which throng the sick dreams of + the sensual, which draw aside the nightcurtains of guilt, and startle with + whispers of revenge the oppressor of the poor. + </p> + <p> + There is a beautiful moral in one of Fouque's miniature romances,—<i>Die + Kohlerfamilie</i>. The fierce spectre, which rose giant-like, in its + bloodred mantle, before the selfish and mercenary merchant, ever + increasing in size and, terror with the growth of evil and impure thought + in the mind of the latter, subdued by prayer, and penitence, and patient + watchfulness over the heart's purity, became a loving and gentle + visitation of soft light and meekest melody; "a beautiful radiance, at + times hovering and flowing on before the traveller, illuminating the + bushes and foliage of the mountain-forest; a lustre strange and lovely, + such as the soul may conceive, but no words express. He felt its power in + the depths of his being,—felt it like the mystic breathing of the + Spirit of God." + </p> + <p> + The excellent Baxter and other pious men of his day deprecated in all + sincerity and earnestness the growing disbelief in witchcraft and + diabolical agency, fearing that mankind, losing faith in a visible Satan + and in the supernatural powers of certain paralytic old women, would + diverge into universal skepticism. It is one of the saddest of sights to + see these good men standing sentry at the horn gate of dreams; attempting + against the most discouraging odds to defend their poor fallacies from + profane and irreverent investigation; painfully pleading doubtful + Scripture and still more doubtful tradition in behalf of detected and + convicted superstitions tossed on the sharp horns of ridicule, stretched + on the rack of philosophy, or perishing under the exhausted receiver of + science. A clearer knowledge of the aspirations, capacities, and + necessities of the human soul, and of the revelations which the infinite + Spirit makes to it, not only through the senses by the phenomena of + outward nature, but by that inward and direct communion which, under + different names, has been recognized by the devout and thoughtful of every + religious sect and school of philosophy, would have saved them much + anxious labor and a good deal of reproach withal in their hopeless + championship of error. The witches of Baxter and "the black man" of Mather + have vanished; belief in them is no longer possible on the part of sane + men. But this mysterious universe, through which, half veiled in its own + shadow, our dim little planet is wheeling, with its star worlds and + thought-wearying spaces, remains. Nature's mighty miracle is still over + and around us; and hence awe, wonder, and reverence remain to be the + inheritance of humanity; still are there beautiful repentances and holy + deathbeds; and still over the soul's darkness and confusion rises, + starlike, the great idea of duty. By higher and better influences than the + poor spectres of superstition, man must henceforth be taught to reverence + the Invisible, and, in the consciousness of his own weakness, and sin, and + sorrow, to lean with childlike trust on the wisdom and mercy of an + overruling Providence,—walking by faith through the shadow and + mystery, and cheered by the remembrance that, whatever may be his apparent + allotment,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "God's greatness flows around our incompleteness; + Round our restlessness His rest." +</pre> + <p> + It is a sad spectacle to find the glad tidings of the Christian faith and + its "reasonable service" of devotion transformed by fanaticism and + credulity into superstitious terror and wild extravagance; but, if + possible, there is one still sadder. It is that of men in our own time + regarding with satisfaction such evidences of human weakness, and + professing to find in them new proofs of their miserable theory of a + godless universe, and new occasion for sneering at sincere devotion as + cant, and humble reverence as fanaticism. Alas! in comparison with such, + the religious enthusiast, who in the midst of his delusion still feels + that he is indeed a living soul and an heir of immortality, to whom God + speaks from the immensities of His universe, is a sane man. Better is it, + in a life like ours, to be even a howling dervis or a dancing Shaker, + confronting imaginary demons with Thalaba's talisman of faith, than to + lose the consciousness of our own spiritual nature, and look upon + ourselves as mere brute masses of animal organization,—barnacles on + a dead universe; looking into the dull grave with no hope beyond it; earth + gazing into earth, and saying to corruption, "Thou art my father," and to + the worm, "Thou art my sister." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES. (1844.) + </h2> + <p> + AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul + and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures + of Tombs,—a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the + meek- spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and + eloquent language, its vindication. "There is," says he, "a voluptuous + melancholy arising from the contemplation of tombs; the result, like every + other attractive sensation, of the harmony of two opposite principles,—from + the sentiment of our fleeting life and that of our immortality, which + unite in view of the last habitation of mankind. A tomb is a monument + erected on the confines of two worlds. It first presents to us the end of + the vain disquietudes of life and the image of everlasting repose; it + afterwards awakens in us the confused sentiment of a blessed immortality, + the probabilities of which grow stronger and stronger in proportion as the + person whose memory is recalled was a virtuous character. + </p> + <p> + "It is from this intellectual instinct, therefore, in favor of virtue, + that the tombs of great men inspire us with a veneration so affecting. + From the same sentiment, too, it is that those which contain objects that + have been lovely excite so much pleasing regret; for the attractions of + love arise entirely out of the appearances of virtue. Hence it is that we + are moved at the sight of the small hillock which covers the ashes of an + infant, from the recollection of its innocence; hence it is that we are + melted into tenderness on contemplating the tomb in which is laid to + repose a young female, the delight and the hope of her family by reason of + her virtues. In order to give interest to such monuments, there is no need + of bronzes, marbles, and gildings. The more simple they are, the more + energy they communicate to the sentiment of melancholy. They produce a + more powerful effect when poor rather than rich, antique rather than + modern, with details of misfortune rather than titles of honor, with the + attributes of virtue rather than with those of power. It is in the country + principally that their impression makes itself felt in a very lively + manner. A simple, unornamented grave there causes more tears to flow than + the gaudy splendor of a cathedral interment. There it is that grief + assumes sublimity; it ascends with the aged yews in the churchyard; it + extends with the surrounding hills and plains; it allies itself with all + the effects of Nature,—with the dawning of the morning, with the + murmuring of wind, with the setting of the sun, and with the darkness of + the night." + </p> + <p> + Not long since I took occasion to visit the cemetery near this city. It is + a beautiful location for a "city of the dead,"—a tract of some forty + or fifty acres on the eastern bank of the Concord, gently undulating, and + covered with a heavy growth of forest-trees, among which the white oak is + conspicuous. The ground beneath has been cleared of undergrowth, and is + marked here and there with monuments and railings enclosing "family lots." + It is a quiet, peaceful spot; the city, with its crowded mills, its busy + streets and teeming life, is hidden from view; not even a solitary + farm-house attracts the eye. All is still and solemn, as befits the place + where man and nature lie down together; where leaves of the great + lifetree, shaken down by death, mingle and moulder with the frosted + foliage of the autumnal forest. + </p> + <p> + Yet the contrast of busy life is not wanting. The Lowell and Boston + Railroad crosses the river within view of the cemetery; and, standing + there in the silence and shadow, one can see the long trains rushing along + their iron pathway, thronged with living, breathing humanity,—the + young, the beautiful, the gay,—busy, wealth-seeking manhood of + middle years, the child at its mother's knee, the old man with whitened + hairs, hurrying on, on,—car after car,—like the generations of + man sweeping over the track of time to their last 'still resting-place. + </p> + <p> + It is not the aged and the sad of heart who make this a place of favorite + resort. The young, the buoyant, the light-hearted, come and linger among + these flower-sown graves, watching the sunshine falling in broken light + upon these cold, white marbles, and listening to the song of birds in + these leafy recesses. Beautiful and sweet to the young heart is the gentle + shadow of melancholy which here falls upon it, soothing, yet sad, —a + sentiment midway between joy and sorrow. How true is it, that, in the + language of Wordsworth,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "In youth we love the darkling lawn, + Brushed by the owlet's wing; + Then evening is preferred to dawn, + And autumn to the spring. + Sad fancies do we then affect, + In luxury of disrespect + To our own prodigal excess + Of too familiar happiness." +</pre> + <p> + The Chinese, from the remotest antiquity, have adorned and decorated their + grave-grounds with shrubs and sweet flowers, as places of popular resort. + The Turks have their graveyards planted with trees, through which the sun + looks in upon the turban stones of the faithful, and beneath which the + relatives of the dead sit in cheerful converse through the long days of + summer, in all the luxurious quiet and happy indifference of the indolent + East. Most of the visitors whom I met at the Lowell cemetery wore cheerful + faces; some sauntered laughingly along, apparently unaffected by the + associations of the place; too full, perhaps, of life, and energy, and + high hope to apply to themselves the stern and solemn lesson which is + taught even by these flower-garlanded mounds. But, for myself, I confess + that I am always awed by the presence of the dead. I cannot jest above the + gravestone. My spirit is silenced and rebuked before the tremendous + mystery of which the grave reminds me, and involuntarily pays: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The deep reverence taught of old, + The homage of man's heart to death." +</pre> + <p> + Even Nature's cheerful air, and sun, and birdvoices only serve to remind + me that there are those beneath who have looked on the same green leaves + and sunshine, felt the same soft breeze upon their cheeks, and listened to + the same wild music of the woods for the last time. Then, too, comes the + saddening reflection, to which so many have given expression, that these + trees will put forth their leaves, the slant sunshine still fall upon + green meadows and banks of flowers, and the song of the birds and the + ripple of waters still be heard after our eyes and ears have closed + forever. It is hard for us to realize this. We are so accustomed to look + upon these things as a part of our life environment that it seems strange + that they should survive us. Tennyson, in his exquisite metaphysical poem + of the Two Voices, has given utterance to this sentiment:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Alas! though I should die, I know + That all about the thorn will blow + In tufts of rosy-tinted snow. + + "Not less the bee will range her cells, + The furzy prickle fire the dells, + The foxglove cluster dappled bells." +</pre> + <p> + "The pleasures of the tombs!" Undoubtedly, in the language of the Idumean, + seer, there are many who "rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can + find the grave;" who long for it "as the servant earnestly desireth the + shadow." Rest, rest to the sick heart and the weary brain, to the long + afflicted and the hopeless,—rest on the calm bosom of our common + mother. Welcome to the tired ear, stunned and confused with life's jarring + discords, the everlasting silence; grateful to the weary eyes which "have + seen evil, and not good," the everlasting shadow. + </p> + <p> + Yet over all hangs the curtain of a deep mystery,—a curtain lifted + only on one side by the hands of those who are passing under its solemn + shadow. No voice speaks to us from beyond it, telling of the unknown + state; no hand from within puts aside the dark drapery to reveal the + mysteries towards which we are all moving. "Man giveth up the ghost; and + where is he?" + </p> + <p> + Thanks to our Heavenly Father, He has not left us altogether without an + answer to this momentous question. Over the blackness of darkness a light + is shining. The valley of the shadow of death is no longer "a land of + darkness and where the light is as darkness." The presence of a serene and + holy life pervades it. Above its pale tombs and crowded burial-places, + above the wail of despairing humanity, the voice of Him who awakened life + and beauty beneath the grave-clothes of the tomb at Bethany is heard + proclaiming, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." We know not, it is + true, the conditions of our future life; we know not what it is to pass + fromm this state of being to another; but before us in that dark passage + has gone the Man of Nazareth, and the light of His footsteps lingers in + the path. Where He, our Brother in His humanity, our Redeemer in His + divine nature, has gone, let us not fear to follow. He who ordereth all + aright will uphold with His own great arm the frail spirit when its + incarnation is ended; and it may be, that, in language which I have + elsewhere used, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + —when Time's veil shall fall asunder, + The soul may know + No fearful change nor sudden wonder, + Nor sink the weight of mystery under, + But with the upward rise and with the vastness grow. + + And all we shrink from now may seem + No new revealing; + Familiar as our childhood's stream, + Or pleasant memory of a dream, + The loved and cherished past upon the new life stealing. + + Serene and mild the untried light + May have its dawning; + As meet in summer's northern night + The evening gray and dawning white, + The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul's new morning. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SWEDENBORG (1844.) + </h2> + <p> + THERE are times when, looking only on the surface of things, one is almost + ready to regard Lowell as a sort of sacred city of Mammon,—the + Benares of gain: its huge mills, temples; its crowded dwellings, lodging- + places of disciples and "proselytes within the gate;" its warehouses, + stalls for the sale of relics. A very mean idol-worship, too, unrelieved + by awe and reverence,—a selfish, earthward-looking devotion to the + "least-erected spirit that fell from paradise." I grow weary of seeing man + and mechanism reduced to a common level, moved by the same impulse, + answering to the same bell-call. A nightmare of materialism broods over + all. I long at times to hear a voice crying through the streets like that + of one of the old prophets proclaiming the great first truth,—that + the Lord alone is God. + </p> + <p> + Yet is there not another side to the picture? High over sounding workshops + spires glisten in the sun,—silent fingers pointing heavenward. The + workshops themselves are instinct with other and subtler processes than + cotton-spinning or carpet-weaving. Each human being who watches beside + jack or power loom feels more or less intensely that it is a solemn thing + to live. Here are sin and sorrow, yearnings for lost peace, outgushing + gratitude of forgiven spirits, hopes and fears, which stretch beyond the + horizon of time into eternity. Death is here. The graveyard utters its + warning. Over all bends the eternal heaven in its silence and mystery. + Nature, even here, is mightier than Art, and God is above all. Underneath + the din of labor and the sounds of traffic, a voice, felt rather than + beard, reaches the heart, prompting the same fearful questions which + stirred the soul of the world's oldest poet,—"If a man die, shall he + live again?" "Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" Out of the depths + of burdened and weary hearts comes up the agonizing inquiry, "What shall I + do to be saved?" "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" + </p> + <p> + As a matter of course, in a city like this, composed of all classes of our + many-sided population, a great variety of religious sects have their + representatives in Lowell. The young city is dotted over with "steeple + houses," most of them of the Yankee order of architecture. The + Episcopalians have a house of worship on Merrimac Street,—a pile of + dark stone, with low Gothic doors and arched windows. A plat of grass lies + between it and the dusty street; and near it stands the dwelling-house + intended for the minister, built of the same material as the church and + surrounded by trees and shrubbery. The attention of the stranger is also + attracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of Belvidere,—one + of Irving's a "shingle palaces," painted in imitation of stone,—a + great wooden sham, "whelked and horned" with pine spires and turrets, a + sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of the + Apocalypse. + </p> + <p> + In addition to the established sects which have reared their visible + altars in the City of Spindles, there are many who have not yet marked the + boundaries or set up the pillars and stretched out the curtains of their + sectarian tabernacles; who, in halls and "upper chambers" and in the + solitude of their own homes, keep alive the spirit of devotion, and, + wrapping closely around them the mantles of their order, maintain the + integrity of its peculiarities in the midst of an unbelieving generation. + </p> + <p> + Not long since, in company with a friend who is a regular attendant, I + visited the little meeting of the disciples of Emanuel Swedenborg. Passing + over Chapel Hill and leaving the city behind us, we reached the stream + which winds through the beautiful woodlands at the Powder Mills and + mingles its waters with the Concord. The hall in which the followers of + the Gothland seer meet is small and plain, with unpainted seats, like + those of "the people called Quakers," and looks out upon the still woods + and that "willowy stream which turns a mill." An organ of small size, yet, + as it seemed to me, vastly out of proportion with the room, filled the + place usually occupied by the pulpit, which was here only a plain desk, + placed modestly by the side of it. The congregation have no regular + preacher, but the exercises of reading the Scriptures, prayers, and + selections from the Book of Worship were conducted by one of the lay + members. A manuscript sermon, by a clergyman of the order in Boston, was + read, and apparently listened to with much interest. It was well written + and deeply imbued with the doctrines of the church. I was impressed by the + gravity and serious earnestness of the little audience. There were here no + circumstances calculated to excite enthusiasm, nothing of the pomp of + religious rites and ceremonies; only a settled conviction of the truth of + the doctrines of their faith could have thus brought them together. I + could scarcely make the fact a reality, as I sat among them, that here, in + the midst of our bare and hard utilities, in the very centre and heart of + our mechanical civilization, were devoted and undoubting believers in the + mysterious and wonderful revelations of the Swedish prophet,—revelations + which look through all external and outward manifestations to inward + realities; which regard all objects in the world of sense only as the + types and symbols of the world of spirit; literally unmasking the universe + and laying bare the profoundest mysteries of life. + </p> + <p> + The character and writings of Emanuel Swedenborg constitute one of the + puzzles and marvels of metaphysics and psychology. A man remarkable for + his practical activities, an ardent scholar of the exact sciences, versed + in all the arcana of physics, a skilful and inventive mechanician, he has + evolved from the hard and gross materialism of his studies a system of + transcendent spiritualism. From his aggregation of cold and apparently + lifeless practical facts beautiful and wonderful abstractions start forth + like blossoms on the rod of the Levite. A politician and a courtier, a man + of the world, a mathematician engaged in the soberest details of the + science, he has given to the world, in the simplest and most natural + language, a series of speculations upon the great mystery of being: + detailed, matter-of-fact narratives of revelations from the spiritual + world, which at once appall us by their boldness, and excite our wonder at + their extraordinary method, logical accuracy, and perfect consistency. + These remarkable speculations—the workings of a mind in which a + powerful imagination allied itself with superior reasoning faculties, the + marvellous current of whose thought ran only in the diked and guarded + channels of mathematical demonstration—he uniformly speaks of as + "facts." His perceptions of abstractions were so intense that they seem to + have reached that point where thought became sensible to sight as well as + feeling. What he thought, that he saw. + </p> + <p> + He relates his visions of the spiritual world as he would the incidents of + a walk round his own city of Stockholm. One can almost see him in his + "brown coat and velvet breeches," lifting his "cocked hat" to an angel, or + keeping an unsavory spirit at arm's length with that "gold-headed cane" + which his London host describes as his inseparable companion in walking. + His graphic descriptions have always an air of naturalness and + probability; yet there is a minuteness of detail at times almost bordering + on the ludicrous. In his Memorable Relations he manifests nothing of the + imagination of Milton, overlooking the closed gates of paradise, or + following the "pained fiend" in his flight through chaos; nothing of + Dante's terrible imagery appalls us; we are led on from heaven to heaven + very much as Defoe leads us after his shipwrecked Crusoe. We can scarcely + credit the fact that we are not traversing our lower planet; and the + angels seem vastly like our common acquaintances. We seem to recognize the + "John Smiths," and "Mr. Browns," and "the old familiar faces" of our + mundane habitation. The evil principle in Swedenborg's picture is, not the + colossal and massive horror of the Inferno, nor that stern wrestler with + fate who darkens the canvas of Paradise Lost, but an aggregation of poor, + confused spirits, seeking rest and finding none save in the unsavory + atmosphere of the "falses." These small fry of devils remind us only of + certain unfortunate fellows whom we have known, who seem incapable of + living in good and wholesome society, and who are manifestly given over to + believe a lie. Thus it is that the very "heavens" and "hells" of the + Swedish mystic seem to be "of the earth, earthy." He brings the spiritual + world into close analogy with the material one. + </p> + <p> + In this hurried paper I have neither space nor leisure to attempt an + analysis of the great doctrines which underlie the "revelations" of + Swedenborg. His remarkably suggestive books are becoming familiar to the + reading and reflecting portion of the community. They are not unworthy of + study; but, in the language of another, I would say, "Emulate Swedenborg + in his exemplary life, his learning, his virtues, his independent thought, + his desire for wisdom, his love of the good and true; aim to be his equal, + his superior, in these things; but call no man your master." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE BETTER LAND. (1844.) + </h2> + <p> + "THE shapings of our heavens are the modifications of our constitution," + said Charles Lamb, in his reply to Southey's attack upon him in the + Quarterly Review. + </p> + <p> + He who is infinite in love as well as wisdom has revealed to us the fact + of a future life, and the fearfully important relation in which the + present stands to it. The actual nature and conditions of that life He has + hidden from us,—no chart of the ocean of eternity is given us,—no + celestial guidebook or geography defines, localizes, and prepares us for + the wonders of the spiritual world. Hence imagination has a wide field for + its speculations, which, so long as they do not positively contradict the + revelation of the Scriptures, cannot be disproved. + </p> + <p> + We naturally enough transfer to our idea of heaven whatever we love and + reverence on earth. Thither the Catholic carries in his fancy the imposing + rites and time-honored solemnities of his worship. There the Methodist + sees his love-feasts and camp-meetings in the groves and by the still + waters and green pastures of the blessed abodes. The Quaker, in the + stillness of his self-communing, remembers that there was "silence in + heaven." + </p> + <p> + The Churchman, listening to the solemn chant of weal music or the deep + tones of the organ, thinks of the song of the elders and the golden harps + of the New Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + The heaven of the northern nations of Europe was a gross and sensual + reflection of the earthly life of a barbarous and brutal people. + </p> + <p> + The Indians of North America had a vague notion of a sunset land, a + beautiful paradise far in the west, mountains and forests filled with deer + and buffalo, lakes and streams swarming with fishes,—the happy + hunting-ground of souls. In a late letter from a devoted missionary among + the Western Indians (Paul Blohm, a converted Jew) we have noticed a + beautiful illustration of this belief. Near the Omaha mission-house, on a + high luff, was a solitary Indian grave. "One evening," says the + missionary, "having come home with some cattle which I had been seeking, I + heard some one wailing; and, looking in the direction from whence I + proceeded, I found it to be from the grave near our house. In a moment + after a mourner rose up from a kneeling or lying posture, and, turning to + the setting sun, stretched forth his arms in prayer and supplication with + an intensity and earnestness as though he would detain the splendid + luminary from running his course. With his body leaning forward and his + arms stretched towards the sun, he presented a most striking figure of + sorrow and petition. It was solemnly awful. He seemed to me to be one of + the ancients come forth to teach me how to pray." + </p> + <p> + A venerable and worthy New England clergyman, on his death-bed, just + before the close of his life, declared that he was only conscious of an + awfully solemn and intense curiosity to know the great secret of death and + eternity. + </p> + <p> + The excellent Dr. Nelson, of Missouri, was one who, while on earth, seemed + to live another and higher life in the contemplation of infinite purity + and happiness. A friend once related an incident concerning him which made + a deep impression upon my mind. They had been travelling through a + summer's forenoon in the prairie, and had lain down to rest beneath a + solitary tree. The Doctor lay for a long time, silently looking upwards + through the openings of the boughs into the still heavens, when he + repeated the following lines, in a low tone, as if communing with himself + in view of the wonders he described:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "O the joys that are there mortal eye bath not seen! + O the songs they sing there, with hosannas between! + O the thrice-blessed song of the Lamb and of Moses! + O brightness on brightness! the pearl gate uncloses! + O white wings of angels! O fields white with roses! + O white tents of peace, where the rapt soul reposes + O the waters so still, and the pastures so green!" +</pre> + <p> + The brief hints afforded us by the sacred writings concerning the better + land are inspiring and beautiful. Eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, + neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of the good in + store for the righteous. Heaven is described as a quiet habitation,—a + rest remaining for the people of God. Tears shall be wiped away from all + eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither + shall there be any more pain. To how many death-beds have these words + spoken peace! How many failing hearts have gathered strength from them to + pass through the dark valley of shadows! + </p> + <p> + Yet we should not forget that "the kingdom of heaven is within;" that it + is the state and affections of the soul, the answer of a good conscience, + the sense of harmony with God, a condition of time as well as of eternity. + What is really momentous and all-important with us is the present, by + which the future is shaped and colored. A mere change of locality cannot + alter the actual and intrinsic qualities of the soul. Guilt and remorse + would make the golden streets of Paradise intolerable as the burning marl + of the infernal abodes; while purity and innocence would transform hell + itself into heaven. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DORA GREEN WELL. + </h2> + <p> + First published as an introduction to an American edition of that author's + <i>The Patience of Hope</i>. + </p> + <p> + THERE are men who, irrespective of the names by which they are called in + the Babel confusion of sects, are endeared to the common heart of + Christendom. Our doors open of their own accord to receive them. For in + them we feel that in some faint degree, and with many limitations, the + Divine is again manifested: something of the Infinite Love shines out of + them; their very garments have healing and fragrance borrowed from the + bloom of Paradise. So of books. There are volumes which perhaps contain + many things, in the matter of doctrine and illustration, to which our + reason does not assent, but which nevertheless seem permeated with a + certain sweetness and savor of life. They have the Divine seal and + imprimatur; they are fragrant with heart's-ease and asphodel; tonic with + the leaves which are for the healing of the nations. The meditations of + the devout monk of Kempen are the common heritage of Catholic and + Protestant; our hearts burn within us as we walk with Augustine under + Numidian fig-trees in the gardens of Verecundus; Feuelon from his bishop's + palace and John Woolman from his tailor's shop speak to us in the same + language. The unknown author of that book which Luther loved next to his + Bible, the Theologia Germanica, is just as truly at home in this present + age, and in the ultra Protestantism of New England, as in the heart of + Catholic Europe, and in the fourteenth century. For such books know no + limitations of time or place; they have the perpetual freshness and + fitness of truth; they speak out of profound experience heart answers to + heart as we read them; the spirit that is in man, and the inspiration that + giveth understanding, bear witness to them. The bent and stress of their + testimony are the same, whether written in this or a past century, by + Catholic or Quaker: self-renunciation,— reconcilement to the Divine + will through simple faith in the Divine goodness, and the love of it which + must needs follow its recognition, the life of Christ made our own by + self-denial and sacrifice, and the fellowship of His suffering for the + good of others, the indwelling Spirit, leading into all truth, the Divine + Word nigh us, even in our hearts. They have little to do with creeds, or + schemes of doctrine, or the partial and inadequate plans of salvation + invented by human speculation and ascribed to Him who, it is sufficient to + know, is able to save unto the uttermost all who trust in Him. They insist + upon simple faith and holiness of life, rather than rituals or modes of + worship; they leave the merely formal, ceremonial, and temporal part of + religion to take care of itself, and earnestly seek for the substantial, + the necessary, and the permanent. + </p> + <p> + With these legacies of devout souls, it seems to me, the little volume + herewith presented is not wholly unworthy of a place. It assumes the life + and power of the gospel as a matter of actual experience; it bears + unmistakable evidence of a realization, on the part of its author, of the + truth, that Christianity is not simply historical and traditional, but + present and permanent, with its roots in the infinite past and its + branches in the infinite future, the eternal spring and growth of Divine + love; not the dying echo of words uttered centuries ago, never to be + repeated, but God's good tidings spoken afresh in every soul,—the + perennial fountain and unstinted outflow of wisdom and goodness, forever + old and forever new. It is a lofty plea for patience, trust, hope, and + holy confidence, under the shadow, as well as in the light, of Christian + experience, whether the cloud seems to rest on the tabernacle, or moves + guidingly forward. It is perhaps too exclusively addressed to those who + minister in the inner sanctuary, to be entirely intelligible to the vaster + number who wait in the outer courts; it overlooks, perhaps, too much the + solidarity and oneness of humanity;' but all who read it will feel its + earnestness, and confess to the singular beauty of its style, the strong, + steady march of its argument, and the wide and varied learning which + illustrates it. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ("The good are not so good as I once thought, nor the bad so evil, + and in all there is more for grace to make advantage of, and more to + testify for God and holiness, than I once believed."—Baxter.) +</pre> + <p> + To use the language of one of its reviewers in the Scottish press:— + </p> + <p> + "Beauty there is in the book; exquisite glimpses into the loveliness of + nature here and there shine out from its lines,—a charm wanting + which meditative writing always seems to have a defect; beautiful gleams, + too, there are of the choicest things of art, and frequent allusions by + the way to legend or picture of the religious past; so that, while you + read, you wander by a clear brook of thought, coining far from the + beautiful hills, and winding away from beneath the sunshine of gladness + and beauty into the dense, mysterious forest of human existence, that + loves to sing, amid the shadow of human darkness and anguish, its music of + heavenborn consolation; bringing, too, its pure waters of cleansing and + healing, yet evermore making its praise of holy affection and gladness; + while it is still haunted by the spirits of prophet, saint, and poet, + repeating snatches of their strains, and is led on, as by a spirit from + above, to join the great river of God's truth. . . . + </p> + <p> + "This is a book for Christian men, for the quiet hour of holy solitude, + when the heart longs and waits for access to the presence of the Master. + The weary heart that thirsts amidst its conflicts and its toils for + refreshing water will drink eagerly of these sweet and refreshing words. + To thoughtful men and women, especially such as have learnt any of the + patience of hope in the experiences of sorrow and trial, we commend this + little volume most heartily and earnestly." + </p> + <p> + <i>The Patience of Hope</i> fell into my hands soon after its publication + in Edinburgh, some two years ago. I was at once impressed by its + extraordinary richness of language and imagery,—its deep and solemn + tone of meditation in rare combination with an eminently practical + tendency,— philosophy warm and glowing with love. It will, perhaps, + be less the fault of the writer than of her readers, if they are not + always able to eliminate from her highly poetical and imaginative language + the subtle metaphysical verity or phase of religious experience which she + seeks to express, or that they are compelled to pass over, without + appropriation, many things which are nevertheless profoundly suggestive as + vague possibilities of the highest life. All may not be able to find in + some of her Scriptural citations the exact weight and significance so + apparent to her own mind. She startles us, at times, by her novel + applications of familiar texts, by meanings reflected upon them from her + own spiritual intuitions, making the barren Baca of the letter a well. If + the rendering be questionable, the beauty and quaint felicity of + illustration and comparison are unmistakable; and we call to mind + Augustine's saying, that two or more widely varying interpretations of + Scripture may be alike true in themselves considered. "When one saith, + Moses meant as I do,' and another saith, 'Nay, but as I do,' I ask, more + reverently, 'Why not rather as both, if both be true?" + </p> + <p> + Some minds, for instance, will hesitate to assent to the use of certain + Scriptural passages as evidence that He who is the Light of men, the Way + and the Truth, in the mystery of His economy, designedly "delays, + withdraws, and even hides Himself from those who love and follow Him." + They will prefer to impute spiritual dearth and darkness to human + weakness, to the selfishness which seeks a sign for itself, to evil + imaginations indulged, to the taint and burden of some secret sin, or to + some disease and exaggeration of the conscience, growing out of bodily + infirmity, rather than to any purpose on the part of our Heavenly Father + to perplex and mislead His children. The sun does not shine the less + because one side of our planet is in darkness. To borrow the words of + Augustine "Thou, Lord, forsakest nothing thou hast made. Thou alone art + near to those even who remove far from thee. Let them turn and seek thee, + for not as they have forsaken their Creator hast thou forsaken thy + creation." It is only by holding fast the thought of Infinite Goodness, + and interpreting doubtful Scripture and inward spiritual experience by the + light of that central idea, that we can altogether escape the dreadful + conclusion of Pascal, that revelation has been given us in dubious cipher, + contradictory and mystical, in order that some, through miraculous aid, + may understand it to their salvation, and others be mystified by it to + their eternal loss. + </p> + <p> + I might mention other points of probable divergence between reader and + writer, and indicate more particularly my own doubtful parse and hesitancy + over some of these pages. But it is impossible for me to make one to whom + I am so deeply indebted an offender for a word or a Scriptural rendering. + On the grave and awful themes which she discusses, I have little to say in + the way of controversy. I would listen, rather than criticise. The + utterances of pious souls, in all ages, are to me often like fountains in + a thirsty land, strengthening and refreshing, yet not without an + after-taste of human frailty and inadequateness, a slight bitterness of + disappointment and unsatisfied quest. Who has not felt at times that the + letter killeth, that prophecies fail, and tongues cease to edify, and been + ready to say, with the author of the Imitation of Christ: "Speak, Lord, + for thy servant heareth. Let not Moses nor the prophets speak to me, but + speak thou rather, who art the Inspirer and Enlightener of all. I am weary + with reading and hearing many things; let all teachers hold their peace; + let all creatures keep silence: speak thou alone to me." + </p> + <p> + The writer of The Patience of Hope had, previous to its publication, + announced herself to a fit, if small, audience of earnest and thoughtful + Christians, in a little volume entitled, A Present Heaven. She has + recently published a collection of poems, of which so competent a judge as + Dr. Brown, the author of <i>Horae Subsecivae</i> and <i>Rab and his + Friends</i>, thus speaks, in the <i>North British Review</i>:— + </p> + <p> + "Such of our readers—a fast increasing number—as have read and + enjoyed <i>The Patience of Hope</i>, listening to the gifted nature which, + through such deep and subtile thought, and through affection and godliness + still deeper and more quick, has charmed and soothed them, will not be + surprised to learn that she is not only poetical, but, what is more, a + poet, and one as true as George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, or our own + Cowper; for, with all our admiration of the searching, fearless + speculation, the wonderful power of speaking clearly upon dark and all but + unspeakable subjects, the rich outcome of 'thoughts that wander through + eternity,' which increases every time we take up that wonderful little + book, we confess we were surprised at the kind and the amount of true + poetic <i>vis</i> in these poems, from the same fine and strong hand. + There is a personality and immediateness, a sort of sacredness and + privacy, as if they were overheard rather than read, which gives to these + remarkable productions a charm and a flavor all their own. With no effort, + no consciousness of any end but that of uttering the inmost thoughts and + desires of the heart, they flow out as clear, as living, as gladdening as + the wayside well, coming from out the darkness of the central depths, + filtered into purity by time and travel. The waters are copious, sometimes + to overflowing; but they are always limpid and unforced, singing their own + quiet tune, not saddening, though sometimes sad, and their darkness not + that of obscurity, but of depth, like that of the deep sea. + </p> + <p> + "This is not a book to criticise or speak about, and we give no extracts + from the longer, and in this case, we think, the better poems. In reading + this Cardiphonia set to music, we have been often reminded, not only of + Herbert and Vaughan, but of Keble,—a likeness of the spirit, not of + the letter; for if there is any one poet who has given a bent to her mind, + it is Wordsworth,—the greatest of all our century's poets, both in + himself and in his power of making poets." + </p> + <p> + In the belief that whoever peruses the following pages will be + sufficiently interested in their author to be induced to turn back and + read over again, with renewed pleasure, extracts from her metrical + writings, I copy from the volume so warmly commended a few brief pieces + and extracts from the longer poems. + </p> + <p> + Here are three sonnets, each a sermon in itself:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ASCENDING. + + They who from mountain-peaks have gazed upon + The wide, illimitable heavens have said, + That, still receding as they climbed, outspread, + The blue vault deepens over them, and, one + By one drawn further back, each starry sun + Shoots down a feebler splendor overhead + So, Saviour, as our mounting spirits, led + Along Faith's living way to Thee, have won + A nearer access, up the difficult track + Still pressing, on that rarer atmosphere, + When low beneath us flits the cloudy rack, + We see Thee drawn within a widening sphere + Of glory, from us further, further back,— + Yet is it then because we are more near. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + LIFE TAPESTRY. + + Top long have I, methought, with tearful eye + Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused + Above each stitch awry and thread confused; + Now will I think on what in years gone by + I heard of them that weave rare tapestry + At royal looms, and hew they constant use + To work on the rough side, and still peruse + The pictured pattern set above them high; + So will I set my copy high above, + And gaze and gaze till on my spirit grows + Its gracious impress; till some line of love, + Transferred upon my canvas, faintly glows; + Nor look too much on warp or woof, provide + He whom I work for sees their fairer side! +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + HOPE. + + When I do think on thee, sweet Hope, and how + Thou followest on our steps, a coaxing child + Oft chidden hence, yet quickly reconciled, + Still turning on us a glad, beaming brow, + And red, ripe lips for kisses: even now + Thou mindest me of him, the Ruler mild, + Who led God's chosen people through the wild, + And bore with wayward murmurers, meek as thou + That bringest waters from the Rock, with bread + Of angels strewing Earth for us! like him + Thy force abates not, nor thine eye grows dim; + But still with milk and honey-droppings fed, + Thou leadest to the Promised Country fair, + Though thou, like Moses, may'st not enter there +</pre> + <p> + There is something very weird and striking in the following lines:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + GONE. + + Alone, at midnight as he knelt, his spirit was aware + Of Somewhat falling in between the silence and the prayer; + + A bell's dull clangor that hath sped so far, it faints and dies + So soon as it hath reached the ear whereto its errand lies; + + And as he rose up from his knees, his spirit was aware + Of Somewhat, forceful and unseen, that sought to hold him there; + + As of a Form that stood behind, and on his shoulders prest + Both hands to stay his rising up, and Somewhat in his breast, + + In accents clearer far than words, spake, "Pray yet longer, pray, + For one that ever prayed for thee this night hath passed away; + + "A soul, that climbing hour by hour the silver-shining stair + That leads to God's great treasure-house, grew covetous; and there + + "Was stored no blessing and no boon, for thee she did not claim, + (So lowly, yet importunate!) and ever with thy name + + "She link'd—that none in earth or heaven might hinder it or stay— + One Other Name, so strong, that thine hath never missed its way. + + "This very night within my arms this gracious soul I bore Within the + Gate, where many a prayer of hers had gone before; + + "And where she resteth, evermore one constant song they raise Of 'Holy, + holy,' so that now I know not if she prays; + + "But for the voice of praise in Heaven, a voice of Prayer hath gone + From Earth; thy name upriseth now no more; pray on, pray on!" +</pre> + <p> + The following may serve as a specimen of the writer's lighter, half- + playful strain of moralizing:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + SEEKING. + + "And where, and among what pleasant places, + Have ye been, that ye come again + With your laps so full of flowers, and your faces + Like buds blown fresh after rain?" + + "We have been," said the children, speaking + In their gladness, as the birds chime, + All together,—"we have been seeking + For the Fairies of olden time; + For we thought, they are only hidden,— + They would never surely go + From this green earth all unbidden, + And the children that love them so. + Though they come not around us leaping, + As they did when they and the world + Were young, we shall find them sleeping + Within some broad leaf curled; + For the lily its white doors closes + But only over the bee, + And we looked through the summer roses, + Leaf by leaf, so carefully. + + But we thought, rolled up we shall find them + Among mosses old and dry; + From gossamer threads that bind them, + They will start like the butterfly, + All winged: so we went forth seeking, + Yet still they have kept unseen; + Though we think our feet have been keeping + The track where they have been, + For we saw where their dance went flying + O'er the pastures,—snowy white." + + Their seats and their tables lying, + O'erthrown in their sudden flight. + And they, too, have had their losses, + For we found the goblets white + And red in the old spiked mosses, + That they drank from over-night; + And in the pale horn of the woodbine + Was some wine left, clear and bright; + "But we found," said the children, speaking + More quickly, "so many things, + That we soon forgot we were seeking,— + Forgot all the Fairy rings, + Forgot all the stories olden + That we hear round the fire at night, + Of their gifts and their favors golden,— + The sunshine was so bright; + And the flowers,—we found so many + That it almost made us grieve + To think there were some, sweet as any, + That we were forced to leave; + As we left, by the brook-side lying, + The balls of drifted foam, + And brought (after all our trying) + These Guelder-roses home." + + "Then, oh!" I heard one speaking + Beside me soft and low, + "I have been, like the blessed children, seeking, + Still seeking, to and fro; + Yet not, like them, for the Fairies,— + They might pass unmourned away + For me, that had looked on angels,— + On angels that would not stay; + No! not though in haste before them + I spread all my heart's best cheer, + And made love my banner o'er them, + If it might but keep them here; + They stayed but a while to rest them; + Long, long before its close, + From my feast, though I mourned and prest them + The radiant guests arose; + And their flitting wings struck sadness + And silence; never more + Hath my soul won back the gladness, + That was its own before. + No; I mourned not for the Fairies + When I had seen hopes decay, + That were sweet unto my spirit + So long; I said, 'If they, + That through shade and sunny weather + Have twined about my heart, + Should fade, we must go together, + For we can never part!' + But my care was not availing; + I found their sweetness gone; + I saw their bright tints paling;— + They died; yet I lived on. + + "Yet seeking, ever seeking, + Like the children, I have won + A guerdon all undreamt of + + When first my quest begun, + And my thoughts come back like wanderers, + Out-wearied, to my breast; + What they sought for long they found not, + Yet was the Unsought best. + For I sought not out for crosses, + I did not seek for pain; + Yet I find the heart's sore losses + Were the spirit's surest gain." +</pre> + <p> + In <i>A Meditation</i>, the writer ventures, not without awe and + reverence, upon that dim, unsounded ocean of mystery, the life beyond:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "But is there prayer + Within your quiet homes, and is there care + For those ye leave behind? I would address + My spirit to this theme in humbleness + No tongue nor pen hath uttered or made known + This mystery, and thus I do but guess + At clearer types through lowlier patterns shown; + Yet when did Love on earth forsake its own? + Ye may not quit your sweetness; in the Vine + More firmly rooted than of old, your wine + Hath freer flow! ye have not changed, but grown + To fuller stature; though the shock was keen + That severed you from us, how oft below + Hath sorest parting smitten but to show + True hearts their hidden wealth that quickly grow + The closer for that anguish,—friend to friend + Revealed more clear,—and what is Death to rend + The ties of life and love, when He must fade + In light of very Life, when He must bend + To love, that, loving, loveth to the end? + + "I do not deem ye look + Upon us now, for be it that your eyes + Are sealed or clear, a burden on them lies + Too deep and blissful for their gaze to brook + Our troubled strife; enough that once ye dwelt + Where now we dwell, enough that once ye felt + As now we feel, to bid you recognize + Our claim of kindred cherished though unseen; + And Love that is to you for eye and ear + Hath ways unknown to us to bring you near,— + To keep you near for all that comes between; + As pious souls that move in sleep to prayer, + As distant friends, that see not, and yet share + (I speak of what I know) each other's care, + So may your spirits blend with ours! + Above Ye know not haply of our state, yet + Love Acquaints you with our need, and through a way + More sure than that of knowledge—so ye pray! + + "And even thus we meet, + And even thus we commune! spirits freed + And spirits fettered mingle, nor have need + To seek a common atmosphere, the air + Is meet for either in this olden, sweet, + Primeval breathing of Man's spirit,—Prayer!" +</pre> + <p> + I give, in conclusion, a portion of one of her most characteristic poems, + <i>The Reconciler</i>:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Our dreams are reconciled, + Since Thou didst come to turn them all to Truth; + The World, the Heart, are dreamers in their youth + Of visions beautiful, and strange and wild; + And Thou, our Life's Interpreter, dost still + At once make clear these visions and fulfil; + + Each dim sweet Orphic rhyme, + Each mythic tale sublime + Of strength to save, of sweetness to subdue, + Each morning dream the few, + Wisdom's first lovers told, if read in Thee comes true. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + "Thou, O Friend + From heaven, that madest this our heart Thine own, + Dost pierce the broken language of its moan— + Thou dost not scorn our needs, but satisfy! + Each yearning deep and wide, + Each claim, is justified; + Our young illusions fail not, though they die + Within the brightness of Thy Rising, kissed + To happy death, like early clouds that lie + About the gates of Dawn,—a golden mist + Paling to blissful white, through rose and amethyst. + + "The World that puts Thee by, + That opens not to greet Thee with Thy train, + That sendeth after Thee the sullen cry, + 'We will not have Thee over us to reign,' + Itself Both testify through searchings vain + Of Thee and of its need, and for the good + It will not, of some base similitude + Takes up a taunting witness, till its mood, + Grown fierce o'er failing hopes, doth rend and tear + Its own illusions grown too thin and bare + To wrap it longer; for within the gate + Where all must pass, a veiled and hooded Fate, + A dark Chimera, coiled and tangled lies, + And he who answers not its questions dies,— + Still changing form and speech, but with the same + Vexed riddles, Gordian-twisted, bringing shame + Upon the nations that with eager cry + Hail each new solver of the mystery; + Yet he, of these the best, + Bold guesser, hath but prest + Most nigh to Thee, our noisy plaudits wrong; + True Champion, that hast wrought + Our help of old, and brought + Meat from this eater, sweetness from this strong. + + "O Bearer of the key + That shuts and opens with a sound so sweet + Its turning in the wards is melody, + All things we move among are incomplete + And vain until we fashion them in Thee! + We labor in the fire, + Thick smoke is round about us; through the din + Of words that darken counsel clamors dire + Ring from thought's beaten anvil, where within + Two Giants toil, that even from their birth + With travail-pangs have torn their mother Earth, + And wearied out her children with their keen + Upbraidings of the other, till between + Thou tamest, saying, 'Wherefore do ye wrong + Each other?—ye are Brethren.' Then these twain + Will own their kindred, and in Thee retain + Their claims in peace, because Thy land is wide + As it is goodly! here they pasture free, + This lion and this leopard, side by side, + A little child doth lead them with a song; + Now, Ephraim's envy ceaseth, and no more + Doth Judah anger Ephraim chiding sore, + For one did ask a Brother, one a King, + So dost Thou gather them in one, and bring— + Thou, King forevermore, forever Priest, + Thou, Brother of our own from bonds released + A Law of Liberty, + A Service making free, + A Commonweal where each has all in Thee. + + "And not alone these wide, + Deep-planted yearnings, seeking with a cry + Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied; + But all our instincts waking suddenly + Within the soul, like infants from their sleep + That stretch their arms into the dark and weep, + Thy voice can still. The stricken heart bereft + Of all its brood of singing hopes, and left + 'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest + With snow-flakes in it, folded in Thy breast + Doth lose its deadly chill; and grief that creeps + Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there + The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan, and weeps + Calm, quiet tears, and on Thy forehead Care + Hath looked until its thorns, no longer bare, + Put forth pale roses. Pain on Thee doth press + Its quivering cheek, and all the weariness, + The want that keep their silence, till from Thee + They hear the gracious summons, none beside + Hath spoken to the world-worn, 'Come to me,' + Tell forth their heavy secrets. + + "Thou dost hide + These in Thy bosom, and not these alone, + But all our heart's fond treasure that had grown + A burden else: O Saviour, tears were weighed + To Thee in plenteous measure! none hath shown + That Thou didst smile! yet hast Thou surely made + All joy of ours Thine own. + + "Thou madest us for Thine; + We seek amiss, we wander to and fro; + Yet are we ever on the track Divine; + The soul confesseth Thee, but sense is slow + To lean on aught but that which it may see; + So hath it crowded up these Courts below + With dark and broken images of Thee; + Lead Thou us forth upon Thy Mount, and show + Thy goodly patterns, whence these things of old + By Thee were fashioned; One though manifold. + Glass Thou Thy perfect likeness in the soul, + Show us Thy countenance, and we are whole!" +</pre> + <p> + No one, I am quite certain, will regret that I have made these liberal + quotations. Apart from their literary merit, they have a special interest + for the readers of The Patience of Hope, as more fully illustrating the + writer's personal experience and aspirations. + </p> + <p> + It has been suggested by a friend that it is barely possible that an + objection may be urged against the following treatise, as against all + books of a like character, that its tendency is to isolate the individual + from his race, and to nourish an exclusive and purely selfish personal + solicitude; that its piety is self-absorbent, and that it does not take + sufficiently into account active duties and charities, and the love of the + neighbor so strikingly illustrated by the Divine Master in His life and + teachings. This objection, if valid, would be a fatal one. For, of a + truth, there can be no meaner type of human selfishness than that afforded + by him who, unmindful of the world of sin and suffering about him, + occupies himself in the pitiful business of saving his own soul, in the + very spirit of the miser, watching over his private hoard while his + neighbors starve for lack of bread. But surely the benevolent unrest, the + far-reaching sympathies and keen sensitiveness to the suffering of others, + which so nobly distinguish our present age, can have nothing to fear from + a plea for personal holiness, patience, hope, and resignation to the + Divine will. "The more piety, the more compassion," says Isaac Taylor; and + this is true, if we understand by piety, not self-concentred asceticism, + but the pure religion and undefiled which visits the widow and the + fatherless, and yet keeps itself unspotted from the world,—which + deals justly, loves mercy, and yet walks humbly before God. Self- scrutiny + in the light of truth can do no harm to any one, least of all to the + reformer and philanthropist. The spiritual warrior, like the young + candidate for knighthood, may be none the worse for his preparatory ordeal + of watching all night by his armor. + </p> + <p> + Tauler in mediaeval times and Woolman in the last century are among the + most earnest teachers of the inward life and spiritual nature of + Christianity, yet both were distinguished for practical benevolence. They + did not separate the two great commandments. Tauler strove with equal + intensity of zeal to promote the temporal and the spiritual welfare of + men. In the dark and evil time in which he lived, amidst the untold + horrors of the "Black Plague," he illustrated by deeds of charity and + mercy his doctrine of disinterested benevolence. Woolman's whole life was + a nobler Imitation of Christ than that fervid rhapsody of monastic piety + which bears the name. + </p> + <p> + How faithful, yet, withal, how full of kindness, were his rebukes of those + who refused labor its just reward, and ground the faces of the poor? How + deep and entire was his sympathy with overtasked and ill-paid laborers; + with wet and illprovided sailors; with poor wretches blaspheming in the + mines, because oppression had made them mad; with the dyers plying their + unhealthful trade to minister to luxury and pride; with the tenant wearing + out his life in the service of a hard landlord; and with the slave sighing + over his unrequited toil! What a significance there was in his vision of + the "dull, gloomy mass" which appeared before him, darkening half the + heavens, and which he was told was "human beings in as great misery as + they could be and live; and he was mixed with them, and henceforth he + might not consider himself a distinct and separate being"! His saintliness + was wholly unconscious; he seems never to have thought himself any nearer + to the tender heart of God than the most miserable sinner to whom his + compassion extended. As he did not live, so neither did he die to himself. + His prayer upon his death-bed was for others rather than himself; its + beautiful humility and simple trust were marred by no sensual imagery of + crowns and harps and golden streets, and personal beatific exaltations; + but tender and touching concern for suffering humanity, relieved only by + the thought of the paternity of God, and of His love and omnipotence, + alone found utterance in ever-memorable words. + </p> + <p> + In view of the troubled state of the country and the intense preoccupation + of the public mind, I have had some hesitation in offering this volume to + its publishers. But, on further reflection, it has seemed to me that it + might supply a want felt by many among us; that, in the chaos of civil + strife and the shadow of mourning which rests over the land, the + contemplation of "things unseen which are eternal" might not be unwelcome; + that, when the foundations of human confidence are shaken, and the trust + in man proves vain, there might be glad listeners to a voice calling from + the outward and the temporal to the inward and the spiritual; from the + troubles and perplexities of time, to the eternal quietness which God + giveth. I cannot but believe that, in the heat and glare through which we + are passing, this book will not invite in vain to the calm, sweet shadows + of holy meditation, grateful as the green wings of the bird to Thalaba in + the desert; and thus afford something of consolation to the bereaved, and + of strength to the weary. For surely never was the Patience of Hope more + needed; never was the inner sanctuary of prayer more desirable; never was + a steadfast faith in the Divine goodness more indispensable, nor lessons + of self-sacrifice and renunciation, and that cheerful acceptance of known + duty which shifts not its proper responsibility upon others, nor asks for + "peace in its day" at the expense of purity and justice, more timely than + now, when the solemn words of ancient prophecy are as applicable to our + own country as to that of the degenerate Jew,—"Thine own wickedness + shall correct thee, and thy backsliding reprove thee; know, therefore, it + is an evil thing, and bitter, that thou bast forsaken the Lord, and that + my fear is not in thee,"—when "His way is in the deep, in clouds, + and in thick darkness," and the hand heavy upon us which shall "turn and + overturn until he whose right it is shall reign,"—until, not without + rending agony, the evil plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted, + whose roots have wound themselves about altar and hearth-stone, and whose + branches, like the tree Al-Accoub in Moslem fable, bear the accursed fruit + of oppression, rebellion, and all imaginable crime, shall be torn up and + destroyed forever. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 1st 6th mo., 1862. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. + </h2> + <p> + The following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends' Review + in Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and practice + in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have since more + than justified the writer's fears and solicitude. + </p> + <p> + I. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + AMESBURY, 2d mo., 1870. +</pre> + <p> + TO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW. + </p> + <p> + ESTEEMED FRIEND,—If I have been hitherto a silent, I have not been + an indifferent, spectator of the movements now going on in our religious + Society. Perhaps from lack of faith, I have been quite too solicitous + concerning them, and too much afraid that in grasping after new things we + may let go of old things too precious to be lost. Hence I have been + pleased to see from time to time in thy paper very timely and fitting + articles upon a <i>Hired Ministry</i> and <i>Silent Worship</i>. + </p> + <p> + The present age is one of sensation and excitement, of extreme measures + and opinions, of impatience of all slow results. The world about us moves + with accelerated impulse, and we move with it: the rest we have enjoyed, + whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our opinions, the + reason of our practices, are demanded. Our very right to exist as a + distinct society is questioned. Our old literature—the precious + journals and biographies of early and later Friends—is comparatively + neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications. We bear complaints of + a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent meetings is denied, + and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will and option. There is + a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas and expedients and + practices of other sects. I speak only of admitted facts, and not for the + purpose of censure or complaint. No one has less right than myself to + indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor differences of opinion. + If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not find it a hard task to + bear with them. + </p> + <p> + But for myself I prefer the old ways. With the broadest possible tolerance + for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of Friends. My life + has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other sects in behalf of + the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like quarrelling with + Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with me, side by side, at + the rope of Reform. A very large proportion of my dearest personal friends + are outside of our communion; and I have learned with John Woolman to find + "no narrowness respecting sects and opinions." But after a kindly and + candid survey of them all, I turn to my own Society, thankful to the + Divine Providence which placed me where I am; and with an unshaken faith + in the one distinctive doctrine of Quakerism— the Light within—the + immanence of the Divine Spirit in Christianity. I cheerfully recognize and + bear testimony to the good works and lives of those who widely differ in + faith and practice; but I have seen no truer types of Christianity, no + better men and women, than I have known and still know among those who not + blindly, but intelligently, hold the doctrines and maintain the + testimonies of our early Friends. I am not blind to the shortcomings of + Friends. I know how much we have lost by narrowness and coldness and + inactivity, the overestimate of external observances, the neglect of our + own proper work while acting as conscience-keepers for others. We have + not, as a society, been active enough in those simple duties which we owe + to our suffering fellow- creatures, in that abundant labor of love and + self-denial which is never out of place. Perhaps our divisions and + dissensions might have been spared us if we had been less "at ease in + Zion." It is in the decline of practical righteousness that men are most + likely to contend with each other for dogma and ritual, for shadow and + letter, instead of substance and spirit. Hence I rejoice in every sign of + increased activity in doing good among us, in the precious opportunities + afforded of working with the Divine Providence for the Freedmen and + Indians; since the more we do, in the true spirit of the gospel, for + others, the more we shall really do for ourselves. There is no danger of + lack of work for those who, with an eye single to the guidance of Truth, + look for a place in God's vineyard; the great work which the founders of + our Society began is not yet done; the mission of Friends is not + accomplished, and will not be until this world of ours, now full of sin + and suffering, shall take up, in jubilant thanksgiving, the song of the + Advent: "Glory to God in the highest! Peace on earth and good-will to + men!" + </p> + <p> + It is charged that our Society lacks freedom and adaptation to the age in + which we live, that there is a repression of individuality and manliness + among us. I am not prepared to deny it in certain respects. But, if we + look at the matter closely, we shall see that the cause is not in the + central truth of Quakerism, but in a failure to rightly comprehend it; in + an attempt to fetter with forms and hedge about with dogmas that great law + of Christian liberty, which I believe affords ample scope for the highest + spiritual aspirations and the broadest philanthropy. If we did but realize + it, we are "set in a large place." + </p> + <p> + "We may do all we will save wickedness." + </p> + <p> + "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." + </p> + <p> + Quakerism, in the light of its great original truth, is "exceeding broad." + As interpreted by Penn and Barclay it is the most liberal and catholic of + faiths. If we are not free, generous, tolerant, if we are not up to or + above the level of the age in good works, in culture and love of beauty, + order and fitness, if we are not the ready recipients of the truths of + science and philosophy,—in a word, if we are not full- grown men and + Christians, the fault is not in Quakerism, but in ourselves. We shall gain + nothing by aping the customs and trying to adjust ourselves to the creeds + of other sects. By so doing we make at the best a very awkward + combination, and just as far as it is successful, it is at the expense of + much that is vital in our old faith. If, for instance, I could bring + myself to believe a hired ministry and a written creed essential to my + moral and spiritual well-being, I think I should prefer to sit down at + once under such teachers as Bushnell and Beecher, the like of whom in + Biblical knowledge, ecclesiastical learning, and intellectual power, we + are not likely to manufacture by half a century of theological + manipulation in a Quaker "school of the prophets." If I must go into the + market and buy my preaching, I should naturally seek the best article on + sale, without regard to the label attached to it. + </p> + <p> + I am not insensible of the need of spiritual renovation in our Society. I + feel and confess my own deficiencies as an individual member. And I bear a + willing testimony to the zeal and devotion of some dear friends, who, + lamenting the low condition and worldliness too apparent among us, seek to + awaken a stronger religious life by the partial adoption of the practices, + forms, and creeds of more demonstrative sects. The great apparent activity + of these sects seems to them to contrast very strongly with our quietness + and reticence; and they do not always pause to inquire whether the result + of this activity is a truer type of practical Christianity than is found + in our select gatherings. I think I understand these brethren; to some + extent I have sympathized with them. But it seems clear to me, that a + remedy for the alleged evil lies not in going back to the "beggarly + elements" from which our worthy ancestors called the people of their + generation; not in will-worship; not in setting the letter above the + spirit; not in substituting type and symbol, and oriental figure and + hyperbole for the simple truths they were intended to represent; not in + schools of theology; not in much speaking and noise and vehemence, nor in + vain attempts to make the "plain language" of Quakerism utter the + Shibboleth of man-made creeds: but in heeding more closely the Inward + Guide and Teacher; in faith in Christ not merely in His historical + manifestation of the Divine Love to humanity, but in His living presence + in the hearts open to receive Him; in love for Him manifested in denial of + self, in charity and love to our neighbor; and in a deeper realization of + the truth of the apostle's declaration: "Pure religion and undefiled + before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in + their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." + </p> + <p> + In conclusion, let me say that I have given this expression of my opinions + with some degree of hesitation, being very sensible that I have neither + the right nor the qualification to speak for a society whose doctrines and + testimonies commend themselves to my heart and head, whose history is rich + with the precious legacy of holy lives, and of whose usefulness as a moral + and spiritual Force in the world I am fully assured. + </p> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + Having received several letters from dear friends in various sections + suggested by a recent communication in thy paper, and not having time or + health to answer them in detail, will thou permit me in this way to + acknowledge them, and to say to the writers that I am deeply sensible of + the Christian love and personal good-will to myself, which, whether in + commendation or dissent, they manifest? I think I may say in truth that my + letter was written in no sectarian or party spirit, but simply to express + a solicitude, which, whether groundless or not, was nevertheless real. I + am, from principle, disinclined to doctrinal disputations and so-called + religious controversies, which only tend to separate and disunite. We have + had too many divisions already. I intended no censure of dear brethren + whose zeal and devotion command my sympathy, notwithstanding I may not be + able to see with them in all respects. The domain of individual conscience + is to me very sacred; and it seems the part of Christian charity to make a + large allowance for varying experiences; mental characteristics, and + temperaments, as well as for that youthful enthusiasm which, if sometimes + misdirected, has often been instrumental in infusing a fresher life into + the body of religious profession. It is too much to expect that we can + maintain an entire uniformity in the expression of truths in which we + substantially agree; and we should be careful that a rightful concern for + "the form of sound words" does not become what William Penn calls "verbal + orthodoxy." We must consider that the same accepted truth looks somewhat + differently from different points of vision. Knowing our own weaknesses + and limitations, we must bear in mind that human creeds, speculations, + expositions, and interpretations of the Divine plan are but the faint and + feeble glimpses of finite creatures into the infinite mysteries of God. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." +</pre> + <p> + Differing, as we do, more or less as to means and methods, if we indeed + have the "mind of Christ," we shall rejoice in whatever of good is really + accomplished, although by somewhat different instrumentalities than those + which we feel ourselves free to make use of, remembering that our Lord + rebuked the narrowness and partisanship of His disciples by assuring them + that they that were not against Him were for Him. + </p> + <p> + It would, nevertheless, give me great satisfaction to know, as thy kindly + expressed editorial comments seem to intimate, that I have somewhat + overestimated the tendencies of things in our Society. I have no pride of + opinion which would prevent me from confessing with thankfulness my error + of judgment. In any event, it can, I think, do no harm to repeat my deep + conviction that we may all labor, in the ability given us, for our own + moral and spiritual well-being, and that of our fellow-creatures, without + laying aside the principles and practice of our religious Society. I + believe so much of liberty is our right as well as our privilege, and that + we need not really overstep our bounds for the performance of any duty + which may be required of us. When truly called to contemplate broader + fields of labor, we shall find the walls about us, like the horizon seen + from higher levels, expanding indeed, but nowhere broken. + </p> + <p> + I believe that the world needs the Society of Friends as a testimony and a + standard. I know that this is the opinion of some of the best and most + thoughtful members of other Christian sects. I know that any serious + departure from the original foundation of our Society would give pain to + many who, outside of our communion, deeply realize the importance of our + testimonies. They fail to read clearly the signs of the times who do not + see that the hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy + and the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence + will not altogether avail us; when the surest dependence must be upon the + Light of Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own + souls, and confirming the truth of outward Scripture by inward experience; + when smooth stones from the brook of present revelation shall' prove + mightier than the weapons of Saul; when the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, + as proclaimed by George Fox and lived by John Woolman, shall be recognized + as the only efficient solvent of doubts raised by an age of restless + inquiry. In this belief my letter was written. I am sorry it did not fall + to the lot of a more fitting hand; and can only hope that no consideration + of lack of qualification on the part of its writer may lessen the value of + whatever testimony to truth shall be found in it. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 3d mo., 1870. + </p> + <p> + P. S. I may mention that I have been somewhat encouraged by a perusal of + the Proceedings of the late First-day School Conference in Philadelphia, + where, with some things which I am compelled to pause over, and regret, I + find much with which I cordially unite, and which seems to indicate a + providential opening for good. I confess to a lively and tender sympathy + with my younger brethren and sisters who, in the name of Him who "went + about doing good," go forth into the highways and byways to gather up the + lost, feed the hungry, instruct the ignorant, and point the sinsick and + suffering to the hopes and consolations of Christian faith, even if, at + times, their zeal goes beyond "reasonable service," and although the + importance of a particular instrumentality may be exaggerated, and love + lose sight of its needful companion humility, and he that putteth on his + armor boast like him who layeth it off. Any movement, however irregular, + which indicates life, is better than the quiet of death. In the overruling + providence of God, the troubling may prepare the way for healing. Some of + us may have erred on one hand and some on the other, and this shaking of + the balance may adjust it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. + </h2> + <h3> + Originally published as an introduction to a reissue of the work. + </h3> + <p> + To those who judge by the outward appearance, nothing is more difficult of + explanation than the strength of moral influence often exerted by obscure + and uneventful lives. Some great reform which lifts the world to a higher + level, some mighty change for which the ages have waited in anxious + expectancy, takes place before our eyes, and, in seeking to trace it back + to its origin, we are often surprised to find the initial link in the + chain of causes to be some comparatively obscure individual, the divine + commission and significance of whose life were scarcely understood by his + contemporaries, and perhaps not even by himself. The little one has become + a thousand; the handful of corn shakes like Lebanon. "The kingdom of God + cometh not by observation;" and the only solution of the mystery is in the + reflection that through the humble instrumentality Divine power was + manifested, and that the Everlasting Arm was beneath the human one. + </p> + <p> + The abolition of human slavery now in process of consummation throughout + the world furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of this truth. + A far-reaching moral, social, and political revolution, undoing the evil + work of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to the + life and labors of a poor, unlearned workingman of New Jersey, whose very + existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his religious + society. + </p> + <p> + It is only within a comparatively recent period that the journal and + ethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to + which they are manifestly entitled. In one of my last interviews with + William Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they + were so little known. He had himself just read the book for the first + time, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up as he + pronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in + the language. He wished to see it placed within the reach of all classes + of readers; it was not a light to be hidden under the bushel of a sect. + Charles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard + Barton, became acquainted with it, and on more than one occasion, in his + letters and Essays of Elia, refers to it with warm commendation. Edward + Irving pronounced it a godsend. Some idea of the lively interest which the + fine literary circle gathered around the hearth of Lamb felt in the + beautiful simplicity of Woolman's pages may be had from the Diary of Henry + Crabb Robinson, one of their number, himself a man of wide and varied + culture, the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. In his + notes for First Month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a sermon of his + friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than promote belief: + </p> + <p> + "How different this from John Woolman's Journal I have been reading at the + same time! A perfect gem! His is a <i>schone Seele</i>, a beautiful soul. + An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite purity + and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. Had he not + been so very humble, he would have written a still better book; for, + fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which he was a + great actor. His religion was love. His whole existence and all his + passions were love. If one could venture to impute to his creed, and not + to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he exhibited, one + could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity is most inviting, it + is fascinating! One of the leading British reviews a few years ago, + referring to this Journal, pronounced its author the man who, in all the + centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to the Divine pattern. + The author of The Patience of Hope, whose authority in devotional + literature is unquestioned, says of him: 'John Woolman's gift was love, a + charity of which it does not enter into the natural heart of man to + conceive, and of which the more ordinary experiences, even of renewed + nature, give but a faint shadow. Every now and then, in the world's + history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of Humanity, on + whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth that it has + run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over the whole of + the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of Assisi, into + the secret of that deep amity with God and with His creatures which makes + man to be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the + field to be at peace with him. In this pure, universal charity there is + nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that comes and goes in showers and + gleams and sunbursts. Its springs are deep and constant, its rising is + like that of a mighty river, its very overflow calm and steady, leaving + life and fertility behind it.'" + </p> + <p> + After all, anything like personal eulogy seems out of place in speaking of + one who in the humblest self-abasement sought no place in the world's + estimation, content to be only a passive instrument in the hands of his + Master; and who, as has been remarked, through modesty concealed the + events in which he was an actor. A desire to supply in some sort this + deficiency in his Journal is my especial excuse for this introductory + paper. + </p> + <p> + It is instructive to study the history of the moral progress of + individuals or communities; to mark the gradual development of truth; to + watch the slow germination of its seed sown in simple obedience to the + command of the Great Husbandman, while yet its green promise, as well as + its golden fruition, was hidden from the eyes of the sower; to go back to + the well-springs and fountain-heads, tracing the small streamlet from its + hidden source, and noting the tributaries which swell its waters, as it + moves onward, until it becomes a broad river, fertilizing and gladdening + our present humanity. To this end it is my purpose, as briefly as + possible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of + slave-holding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of that + act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout the + world. + </p> + <p> + At an early period after the organization of the Society, members of it + emigrated to the Maryland, Carolina, Virginia, and New England colonies. + The act of banishment enforced against dissenters under Charles II. + consigned others of the sect to the West Indies, where their frugality, + temperance, and thrift transmuted their intended punishment into a + blessing. Andrew Marvell, the inflexible republican statesman, in some of + the sweetest and tenderest lines in the English tongue, has happily + described their condition:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + What shall we do but sing His praise + Who led us through the watery maze, + Unto an isle so long unknown, + And yet far kinder than our own? + He lands us on a grassy stage, + Safe from the storms and prelates' rage; + He gives us this eternal spring, + Which here enamels everything, + And sends the fowls to us in care, + On daily visits through the air. + He hangs in shades the orange bright, + Like golden lamps, in a green night, + And doth in the pomegranate close + Jewels more rich than Ormus shows. + + . . . . . . . . . + + And in these rocks for us did frame + A temple where to sound His name. + Oh! let our voice His praise exalt, + Till it arrive at heaven's vault, + Which then, perhaps rebounding, may + Echo beyond the Mexic bay.' + + "So sang they in the English boat, + A holy and a cheerful note; + And all the way, to guide their chime, + With falling oars they kept the time." +</pre> + <p> + Unhappily, they very early became owners of slaves, in imitation of the + colonists around them. No positive condemnation of the evil system had + then been heard in the British islands. Neither English prelates nor + expounders at dissenting conventicles had aught to say against it. Few + colonists doubted its entire compatibility with Christian profession and + conduct. Saint and sinner, ascetic and worldling, united in its practice. + Even the extreme Dutch saints of Bohemia Manor community, the pietists of + John de Labadie, sitting at meat with hats on, and pausing ever and anon + with suspended mouthfuls to bear a brother's or sister's exhortation, and + sandwiching prayers between the courses, were waited upon by negro slaves. + Everywhere men were contending with each other upon matters of faith, + while, so far as their slaves were concerned, denying the ethics of + Christianity itself. + </p> + <p> + Such was the state of things when, in 1671, George Fox visited Barbadoes. + He was one of those men to whom it is given to discern through the mists + of custom and prejudice something of the lineaments of absolute truth, and + who, like the Hebrew lawgiver, bear with them, from a higher and purer + atmosphere, the shining evidence of communion with the Divine Wisdom. He + saw slavery in its mildest form among his friends, but his intuitive sense + of right condemned it. He solemnly admonished those who held slaves to + bear in mind that they were brethren, and to train them up in the fear of + God. "I desired, also," he says, "that they would cause their overseers to + deal gently and mildly with their negroes, and not use cruelty towards + them as the manner of some hath been and is; and that, after certain years + of servitude, they should make them free." + </p> + <p> + In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson, revisited + Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of + slaves. He was accused of endeavoring to excite an insurrection among the + blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was probably + during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to friends in + Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of the + first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro slavery as + incompatible with Christianity, if we except the Papal bulls of Urban and + Leo the Tenth. + </p> + <p> + Thirteen years after, in 1688, a meeting of German Quakers, who had + emigrated from Kriesbeim, and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania, + addressed a memorial against "the buying and keeping of negroes" to the + Yearly Meeting for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey colonies. That meeting + took the subject into consideration, but declined giving judgment in the + case. In 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised against "bringing in any more + negroes." In 1714, in its Epistle to London Friends, it expresses a wish + that Friends would be "less concerned in buying or selling slaves." The + Chester Quarterly Meeting, which had taken a higher and clearer view of + the matter, continued to press the Yearly Meeting to adopt some decided + measure against any traffic in human beings. + </p> + <p> + The Society gave these memorials a cold reception. The love of gain and + power was too strong, on the part of the wealthy and influential planters + and merchants who had become slaveholders, to allow the scruples of the + Chester meeting to take the shape of discipline. The utmost that could be + obtained of the Yearly Meeting was an expression of opinion adverse to the + importation of negroes, and a desire that "Friends generally do, as much + as may be, avoid buying such negroes as shall hereafter be brought in, + rather than offend any Friends who are against it; yet this is only + caution, and not censure." + </p> + <p> + In the mean time the New England Yearly Meeting was agitated by the same + question. Slaves were imported into Boston and Newport, and Friends became + purchasers, and in some instances were deeply implicated in the foreign + traffic. In 1716, the monthly meetings of Dartmouth and Nantucket + suggested that it was "not agreeable to truth to purchase slaves and keep + them during their term of life." Nothing was done in the Yearly Meeting, + however, until 1727, when the practice of importing negroes was censured. + That the practice was continued notwithstanding, for many years + afterwards, is certain. In 1758, a rule was adopted prohibiting Friends + within the limits of New England Yearly Meeting from engaging in or + countenancing the foreign slave-trade. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1742 an event, simple and inconsiderable in itself, was made + the instrumentality of exerting a mighty influence upon slavery in the + Society of Friends. A small storekeeper at Mount Holly, in New Jersey, a + member of the Society, sold a negro woman, and requested the young man in + his employ to make a bill of sale of her. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (Mount Holly is a village lying in the western part of the long, + narrow township of Northampton, on Rancocas Creek, a tributary of + the Delaware. In John Woolman's day it was almost entirely a + settlement of Friends. A very few of the old houses with their + quaint stoops or porches are left. That occupied by John Woolman + was a small, plain, two-story structure, with two windows in each + story in front, a four-barred fence inclosing the grounds, with the + trees he planted and loved to cultivate. The house was not painted, + but whitewashed. The name of the place is derived from the highest + hill in the county, rising two hundred feet above the sea, and + commanding a view of a rich and level country, of cleared farms and + woodlands. Here, no doubt, John Woolman often walked under the + shadow of its holly-trees, communing with nature and musing on the + great themes of life and duty. + + When the excellent Joseph Sturge was in this country, some thirty + years ago, on his errand of humanity, he visited Mount Holly, and + the house of Woolman, then standing. He describes it as a very + "humble abode." But one person was then living in the town who had + ever seen its venerated owner. This aged man stated that he was at + Woolman's little farm in the season of harvest when it was customary + among farmers to kill a calf or sheep for the laborers. John + Woolman, unwilling that the animal should be slowly bled to death, + as the custom had been, and to spare it unnecessary suffering, had a + smooth block of wood prepared to receive the neck of the creature, + when a single blow terminated its existence. Nothing was more + remarkable in the character of Woolman than his concern for the + well-being and comfort of the brute creation. "What is religion?" + asks the old Hindoo writer of the Vishnu Sarman. "Tenderness toward + all creatures." Or, as Woolman expresses it, "Where the love of God + is verily perfected, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject + to our will is experienced, and a care felt that we do not lessen + that sweetness of life in the animal creation which the Creator + intends for them under our government.") +</pre> + <p> + On taking up his pen, the young clerk felt a sudden and strong scruple in + his mind. The thought of writing an instrument of slavery for one of his + fellow-creatures oppressed him. God's voice against the desecration of His + image spoke in the soul. He yielded to the will of his employer, but, + while writing the instrument, he was constrained to declare, both to the + buyer and the seller, that he believed slave-keeping inconsistent with the + Christian religion. This young man was John Woolman. The circumstance + above named was the starting-point of a life-long testimony against + slavery. In the year 1746 he visited Maryland, Virginia, and North + Carolina. He was afflicted by the prevalence of slavery. It appeared to + him, in his own words, "as a dark gloominess overhanging the land." On his + return, he wrote an essay on the subject, which was published in 1754. + Three years after, he made a second visit to the Southern meetings of + Friends. Travelling as a minister of the gospel, he was compelled to sit + down at the tables of slaveholding planters, who were accustomed to + entertain their friends free of cost, and who could not comprehend the + scruples of their guest against receiving as a gift food and lodging which + he regarded as the gain of oppression. He was a poor man, but he loved + truth more than money. He therefore either placed the pay for his + entertainment in the hands of some member of the family, for the benefit + of the slaves, or gave it directly to them, as he had opportunity. + Wherever he went, he found his fellow-professors entangled in the mischief + of slavery. Elders and ministers, as well as the younger and less high in + profession, had their house servants and field hands. He found grave + drab-coated apologists for the slave-trade, who quoted the same + Scriptures, in support of oppression and avarice, which have since been + cited by Presbyterian doctors of divinity, Methodist bishops; and Baptist + preachers for the same purpose. He found the meetings generally in a low + and evil state. The gold of original Quakerism had become dim, and the + fine gold changed. The spirit of the world prevailed among them, and had + wrought an inward desolation. Instead of meekness, gentleness, and + heavenly wisdom, he found "a spirit of fierceness and love of dominion." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (The tradition is that he travelled mostly on foot during his + journeys among slaveholders. Brissot, in his New Travels in + America, published in 1788, says: "John Woolman, one of the most + distinguished of men in the cause of humanity, travelled much as a + minister of his sect, but always on foot, and without money, in + imitation of the Apostles, and in order to be in a situation to be + more useful to poor people and the blacks. He hated slavery so much + that he could not taste food provided by the labor of slaves." That + this writer was on one point misinformed is manifest from the + following passage from the Journal: "When I expected soon to leave a + friend's house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I + should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving + money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and + desired them to accept of pieces of silver, and give them to such of + their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and + at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked + clearest to me. Before I came out, I had provided a large number of + small pieces for this purpose, and thus offering them to some who + appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them. But + the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made + easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment + at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of + them.") +</pre> + <p> + In love, but at the same time with great faithfulness, he endeavored to + convince the masters of their error, and to awaken a degree of sympathy + for the enslaved. + </p> + <p> + At this period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, a remarkable personage took + up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was by birthright a member of the + Society of Friends, but having been disowned in England for some + extravagances of conduct and language, he spent several years in the West + Indies, where he became deeply interested in the condition of the slaves. + His violent denunciations of the practice of slaveholding excited the + anger of the planters, and he was compelled to leave the island. He came + to Philadelphia, but, contrary to his expectations, he found the same evil + existing there. He shook off the dust of the city, and took up his abode + in the country, a few miles distant. His dwelling was a natural cave, with + some slight addition of his own making. His drink was the spring-water + flowing by his door; his food, vegetables alone. He persistently refused + to wear any garment or eat any food purchased at the expense of animal + life, or which was in any degree the product of slave labor. Issuing from + his cave, on his mission of preaching "deliverance to the captive," he was + in the habit of visiting the various meetings for worship and bearing his + testimony against slaveholders, greatly to their disgust and indignation. + On one occasion he entered the Market Street Meeting, and a leading Friend + requested some one to take him out. A burly blacksmith volunteered to do + it, leading him to the gate and thrusting him out with such force that he + fell into the gutter of the street. There he lay until the meeting closed, + telling the bystanders that he did not feel free to rise himself. "Let + those who cast me here raise me up. It is their business, not mine." + </p> + <p> + His personal appearance was in remarkable keeping with his eccentric life. + A figure only four and a half feet high, hunchbacked, with projecting + chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer than his legs; a huge head, + showing only beneath the enormous white hat large, solemn eyes and a + prominent nose; the rest of his face covered with a snowy semicircle of + beard falling low on his breast,—a figure to recall the old legends + of troll, brownie, and kobold. Such was the irrepressible prophet who + troubled the Israel of slave-holding Quakerism, clinging like a rough + chestnut-bur to the skirts of its respectability, and settling like a + pertinacious gad-fly on the sore places of its conscience. + </p> + <p> + On one occasion, while the annual meeting was in session at Burlington, N. + J., in the midst of the solemn silence of the great assembly, the + unwelcome figure of Benjamin Lay, wrapped in his long white overcoat, was + seen passing up the aisle. Stopping midway, he exclaimed, "You + slaveholders! Why don't you throw off your Quaker coats as I do mine, and + show yourselves as you are?" Casting off as he spoke his outer garment, he + disclosed to the astonished assembly a military coat underneath and a + sword dangling at his heels. Holding in one hand a large book, he drew his + sword with the other. "In the sight of God," he cried, "you are as guilty + as if you stabbed your slaves to the heart, as I do this book!" suiting + the action to the word, and piercing a small bladder filled with the juice + of poke-weed (playtolacca decandra), which he had concealed between the + covers, and sprinkling as with fresh blood those who sat near him. John + Woolman makes no mention of this circumstance in his Journal, although he + was probably present, and it must have made a deep impression on his + sensitive spirit. The violence and harshness of Lay's testimony, however, + had nothing in common with the tender and sorrowful remonstrances and + appeals of the former, except the sympathy which they both felt for the + slave himself. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (Lay was well acquainted with Dr. Franklin, who sometimes visited him. + Among other schemes of reform he entertained the idea of converting + all mankind to Christianity. This was to be done by three + witnesses,—himself, Michael Lovell, and Abel Noble, assisted by Dr. + Franklin. But on their first meeting at the Doctor's house, the + three "chosen vessels" got into a violent controversy on points of + doctrine, and separated in ill-humor. The philosopher, who had been + an amused listener, advised the three sages to give up the project + of converting the world until they had learned to tolerate each + other.) +</pre> + <p> + Still later, a descendant of the persecuted French Protestants, Anthony + Benezet, a man of uncommon tenderness of feeling, began to write and speak + against slavery. How far, if at all, he was moved thereto by the example + of Woolman is not known, but it is certain that the latter found in him a + steady friend and coadjutor in his efforts to awaken the slumbering moral + sense of his religious brethren. The Marquis de Chastellux, author of <i>De + la Felicite Publique</i>, describes him as a small, eager-faced man, full + of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in works of benevolence, which + were by no means confined to the blacks. Like Woolman and Lay, he + advocated abstinence from intoxicating spirits. The poor French neutrals + who were brought to Philadelphia from Nova Scotia, and landed penniless + and despairing among strangers in tongue and religion, found in him a warm + and untiring friend, through whose aid and sympathy their condition was + rendered more comfortable than that of their fellow-exiles in other + colonies. + </p> + <p> + The annual assemblage of the Yearly Meeting in 1758 at Philadelphia must + ever be regarded as one of the most important religious convocations in + the history of the Christian church. The labors of Woolman and his few but + earnest associates had not been in vain. A deep and tender interest had + been awakened; and this meeting was looked forward to with varied feelings + of solicitude by all parties. All felt that the time had come for some + definite action; conservative and reformer stood face to face in the + Valley of Decision. John Woolman, of course, was present,—a man + humble and poor in outward appearance, his simple dress of undyed homespun + cloth contrasting strongly with the plain but rich apparel of the + representatives of the commerce of the city and of the large slave- + stocked plantations of the country. Bowed down by the weight of his + concern for the poor slaves and for the well-being and purity of the + Society, he sat silent during the whole meeting, while other matters were + under discussion. "My mind," he says, "was frequently clothed with inward + prayer; and I could say with David that 'tears were my meat and drink, day + and night.' The case of slave-keeping lay heavy upon me; nor did I find + any engagement, to speak directly to any other matter before the meeting." + When the important subject came up for consideration, many faithful + Friends spoke with weight and earnestness. No one openly justified slavery + as a system, although some expressed a concern lest the meeting should go + into measures calculated to cause uneasiness to many members of the + Society. It was also urged that Friends should wait patiently until the + Lord in His own time should open a way for the deliverance of the slave. + This was replied to by John Woolman. "My mind," he said, "is led to + consider the purity of the Divine Being, and the justice of His judgments; + and herein my soul is covered with awfulness. I cannot forbear to hint of + some cases where people have not been treated with the purity of justice, + and the event has been most lamentable. Many slaves on this continent are + oppressed, and their cries have entered into the ears of the Most High. + Such are the purity and certainty of His judgments that He cannot be + partial in our favor. In infinite love and goodness He hath opened our + understandings from one time to another, concerning our duty towards this + people; and it is not a time for delay. Should we now be sensible of what + He requires of us, and through a respect to the private interest of some + persons, or through a regard to some friendships which do not stand upon + an immutable foundation, neglect to do our duty in firmness and constancy, + still waiting for some extraordinary means to bring about their + deliverance, God may by terrible things in righteousness answer us in this + matter." + </p> + <p> + This solemn and weighty appeal was responded to by many in the assembly, + in a spirit of sympathy and unity. Some of the slave-holding members + expressed their willingness that a strict rule of discipline should be + adopted against dealing in slaves for the future. To this it was answered + that the root of the evil would never be reached effectually until a + searching inquiry was made into the circumstances and motives of such as + held slaves. At length the truth in a great measure triumphed over all + opposition; and, without any public dissent, the meeting agreed that the + injunction of our Lord and Saviour to do to others as we would that others + should do to us should induce Friends who held slaves "to set them at + liberty, making a Christian provision for them," and four Friends—John + Woolman, John Scarborough, Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes— were + approved of as suitable persons to visit and treat with such as kept + slaves, within the limits of the meeting. + </p> + <p> + This painful and difficult duty was faithfully performed. In that meekness + and humility of spirit which has nothing in common with the "fear of man, + which bringeth a snare," the self-denying followers of their Divine Lord + and Master "went about doing good." In the city of Philadelphia, and among + the wealthy planters of the country, they found occasion often to exercise + a great degree of patience, and to keep a watchful guard over their + feelings. In his Journal for this important period of his life John + Woolman says but little of his own services. How arduous and delicate they + were may be readily understood. The number of slaves held by members of + the Society was very large. Isaac Jackson, in his report of his labors + among slave-holders in a single Quarterly Meeting, states that he visited + the owners of more than eleven hundred slaves. From the same report may be + gleaned some hints of the difficulties which presented themselves. One + elderly man says he has well brought up his eleven slaves, and "now they + must work to maintain him." Another owns it is all wrong, but "cannot + release his slaves; his tender wife under great concern of mind" on + account of his refusal. A third has fifty slaves; knows it to be wrong, + but can't see his way clear out of it. "Perhaps," the report says, + "interest dims his vision." A fourth is full of "excuses and reasonings." + "Old Jos. Richison has forty, and is determined to keep them." Another man + has fifty, and "means to keep them." Robert Ward "wants to release his + slaves, but his wife and daughters hold back." Another "owns it is wrong, + but says he will not part with his negroes,—no, not while he lives." + The far greater number, however, confess the wrong of slavery, and agree + to take measures for freeing their slaves. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (An incident occurred during this visit of Isaac Jackson which + impressed him deeply. On the last evening, just as he was about to + turn homeward, he was told that a member of the Society whom he had + not seen owned a very old slave who was happy and well cared for. + It was a case which it was thought might well be left to take care + of itself. Isaac Jackson, sitting in silence, did not feel his mind + quite satisfied; and as the evening wore away, feeling more and more + exercised, he expressed his uneasiness, when a young son of his host + eagerly offered to go with him and show him the road to the place. + The proposal was gladly accepted. On introducing the object of + their visit, the Friend expressed much surprise that any uneasiness + should be felt in the case, but at length consented to sign the form + of emancipation, saying, at the same time, it would make no + difference in their relations, as the old man was perfectly happy. + At Isaac Jackson's request the slave was called in and seated before + them. His form was nearly double, his thin hands were propped on + his knees, his white head was thrust forward, and his keen, + restless, inquiring eyes gleamed alternately on the stranger and on + his master. At length he was informed of what had been done; that + he was no longer a slave, and that his master acknowledged his past + services entitled him to a maintenance so long as he lived. The old + man listened in almost breathless wonder, his head slowly sinking on + his breast. After a short pause, he clasped his hands; then + spreading them high over his hoary head, slowly and reverently + exclaimed, "Oh, goody Gody, oh!"—bringing his hands again down on + his knees. Then raising them as before, he twice repeated the + solemn exclamation, and with streaming eyes and a voice almost too + much choked for utterance, he continued, "I thought I should die a + slave, and now I shall die a free man!" + + It is a striking evidence of the divine compensations which are + sometimes graciously vouchsafed to those who have been faithful to + duty, that on his death-bed this affecting scene was vividly revived + in the mind of Isaac Jackson. At that supreme moment, when all + other pictures of time were fading out, that old face, full of + solemn joy and devout thanksgiving, rose before him, and comforted + him as with the blessing of God.) +</pre> + <p> + An extract or two from the Journal at this period will serve to show both + the nature of the service in which he was engaged and the frame of mind in + which he accomplished it:— + </p> + <p> + "In the beginning of the 12th month I joined in company with my friends, + John Sykes and Daniel Stanton, in visiting such as had slaves. Some, whose + hearts were rightly exercised about them, appeared to be glad of our + visit, but in some places our way was more difficult. I often saw the + necessity of keeping down to that root from whence our concern proceeded, + and have cause in reverent thankfulness humbly to bow down before the Lord + who was near to me, and preserved my mind in calmness under some sharp + conflicts, and begat a spirit of sympathy and tenderness in me towards + some who were grievously entangled by the spirit of this world." + </p> + <p> + "1st month, 1759.—Having found my mind drawn to visit some of the + more active members of society at Philadelphia who had slaves, I met my + friend John Churchman there by agreement, and we continued about a week in + the city. We visited some that were sick, and some widows and their + families; and the other part of the time was mostly employed in visiting + such as had slaves. It was a time of deep exercise; but looking often to + the Lord for assistance, He in unspeakable kindness favored us with the + influence of that spirit which crucifies to the greatness and splendor of + this world, and enabled us to go through some heavy labors, in which we + found peace." + </p> + <p> + These labors were attended with the blessing of the God of the poor and + oppressed. Dealing in slaves was almost entirely abandoned, and many who + held slaves set them at liberty. But many members still continuing the + practice, a more emphatic testimony against it was issued by the Yearly + Meeting in 1774; and two years after the subordinate meetings were + directed to deny the right of membership to such as persisted in holding + their fellow-men as property. + </p> + <p> + A concern was now felt for the temporal and religious welfare of the + emancipated slaves, and in 1779 the Yearly Meeting came to the conclusion + that some reparation was due from the masters to their former slaves for + services rendered while in the condition of slavery. The following is an + extract from an epistle on this subject: + </p> + <p> + "We are united in judgment that the state of the oppressed people who have + been held by any of us, or our predecessors, in captivity and slavery, + calls for a deep inquiry and close examination how far we are clear of + withholding from them what under such an exercise may open to view as + their just right; and therefore we earnestly and affectionately entreat + our brethren in religious profession to bring this matter home, and that + all who have let the oppressed go free may attend to the further openings + of duty. + </p> + <p> + "A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of many + who are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously considered + the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people have long + labored; and whether a pious care extended to their offspring is not + justly due from us to them is a consideration worthy our serious and deep + attention." + </p> + <p> + Committees to aid and advise the colored people were accordingly appointed + in the various Monthly Meetings. Many former owners of slaves faithfully + paid the latter for their services, submitting to the award and judgment + of arbitrators as to what justice required at their hands. So deeply had + the sense of the wrong of slavery sunk into the hearts of Friends! + </p> + <p> + John Woolman, in his Journal for 1769, states, that having some years + before, as one of the executors of a will, disposed of the services of a + negro boy belonging to the estate until he should reach the age of thirty + years, he became uneasy in respect to the transaction, and, although he + had himself derived no pecuniary benefit from it, and had simply acted as + the agent of the heirs of the estate to which the boy belonged, he + executed a bond, binding himself to pay the master of the young man for + four years and a half of his unexpired term of service. + </p> + <p> + The appalling magnitude of the evil against which he felt himself + especially called to contend was painfully manifest to John Woolman. At + the outset, all about him, in every department of life and human activity, + in the state and the church, he saw evidences of its strength, and of the + depth and extent to which its roots had wound their way among the + foundations of society. Yet he seems never to have doubted for a moment + the power of simple truth to eradicate it, nor to have hesitated as to his + own duty in regard to it. There was no groping like Samson in the gloom; + no feeling in blind wrath and impatience for the pillars of the temple of + Dagon. "The candle of the Lord shone about him," and his path lay clear + and unmistakable before him. He believed in the goodness of God that + leadeth to repentance; and that love could reach the witness for itself in + the hearts of all men, through all entanglements of custom and every + barrier of pride and selfishness. No one could have a more humble estimate + of himself; but as he went forth on his errand of mercy he felt the + Infinite Power behind him, and the consciousness that he had known a + preparation from that Power "to stand as a trumpet through which the Lord + speaks." The event justified his confidence; wherever he went hard hearts + were softened, avarice and love of power and pride of opinion gave way + before his testimony of love. + </p> + <p> + The New England Yearly Meeting then, as now, was held in Newport, on Rhode + Island. In the year 1760 John Woolman, in the course of a religious visit + to New England, attended that meeting. He saw the horrible traffic in + human beings,—the slave-ships lying at the wharves of the town, the + sellers and buyers of men and women and children thronging the + market-place. The same abhorrent scenes which a few years after stirred + the spirit of the excellent Hopkins to denounce the slave- trade and + slavery as hateful in the sight of God to his congregation at Newport were + enacted in the full view and hearing of the annual convocation of Friends, + many of whom were themselves partakers in the shame and wickedness. + "Understanding," he says, "that a large number of slaves had been imported + from Africa into the town, and were then on sale by a member of our + Society, my appetite failed; I grew outwardly weak, and had a feeling of + the condition of Habakkuk: 'When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips + quivered; I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble.' + I had many cogitations, and was sorely distressed." He prepared a memorial + to the Legislature, then in session, for the signatures of Friends, urging + that body to take measures to put an end to the importation of slaves. His + labors in the Yearly Meeting appear to have been owned and blessed by the + Divine Head of the church. The London Epistle for 1758, condemning the + unrighteous traffic in men, was read, and the substance of it embodied in + the discipline of the meeting; and the following query was adopted, to be + answered by the subordinate meetings:— + </p> + <p> + "Are Friends clear of importing negroes, or buying them when imported; and + do they use those well, where they are possessed by inheritance or + otherwise, endeavoring to train them up in principles of religion?" + </p> + <p> + At the close of the Yearly Meeting, John Woolman requested those members + of the Society who held slaves to meet with him in the chamber of the + house for worship, where he expressed his concern for the well-being of + the slaves, and his sense of the iniquity of the practice of dealing in or + holding them as property. His tender exhortations were not lost upon his + auditors; his remarks were kindly received, and the gentle and loving + spirit in which they were offered reached many hearts. + </p> + <p> + In 1769, at the suggestion of the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, the + Yearly Meeting expressed its sense of the wrongfulness of holding slaves, + and appointed a large committee to visit those members who were implicated + in the practice. The next year this committee reported that they had + completed their service, "and that their visits mostly seemed to be kindly + accepted. Some Friends manifested a disposition to set such at liberty as + were suitable; some others, not having so clear a sight of such an + unreasonable servitude as could be desired, were unwilling to comply with + the advice given them at present, yet seemed willing to take it into + consideration; a few others manifested a disposition to keep them in + continued bondage." + </p> + <p> + It was stated in the Epistle to London Yearly Meeting of the year 1772, + that a few Friends had freed their slaves from bondage, but that others + "have been so reluctant thereto that they have been disowned for not + complying with the advice of this meeting." + </p> + <p> + In 1773 the following minute was made: "It is our sense and judgment that + truth not only requires the young of capacity and ability, but likewise + the aged and impotent, and also all in a state of infancy and nonage, + among Friends, to be discharged and set free from a state of slavery, that + we do no more claim property in the human race, as we do in the brutes + that perish." + </p> + <p> + In 1782 no slaves were known to be held in the New England Yearly Meeting. + The next year it was recommended to the subordinate meetings to appoint + committees to effect a proper and just settlement between the manumitted + slaves and their former masters, for their past services. In 1784 it was + concluded by the Yearly Meeting that any former slave-holder who refused + to comply with the award of these committees should, after due care and + labor with him, be disowned from the Society. This was effectual; + settlements without disownment were made to the satisfaction of all + parties, and every case was disposed of previous to the year 1787. + </p> + <p> + In the New York Yearly Meeting, slave-trading was prohibited about the + middle of the last century. In 1771, in consequence of an Epistle from the + Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a committee was appointed to visit those who + held slaves, and to advise with them in relation to emancipation. In 1776 + it was made a disciplinary offence to buy, sell, or hold slaves upon any + condition. In 1784 but one slave was to be found in the limits of the + meeting. In the same year, by answers from the several subordinate + meetings, it was ascertained that an equitable settlement for past + services had been effected between the emancipated negroes and their + masters in all save three cases. + </p> + <p> + In the Virginia Yearly Meeting slavery had its strongest hold. Its + members, living in the midst of slave-holding communities, were + necessarily exposed to influences adverse to emancipation. I have already + alluded to the epistle addressed to them by William Edmondson, and to the + labors of John Woolman while travelling among them. In 1757 the Virginia + Yearly Meeting condemned the foreign slave-trade. In 1764 it enjoined upon + its members the duty of kindness towards their servants, of educating + them, and carefully providing for their food and clothing. Four years + after, its members were strictly prohibited from purchasing any more + slaves. In 1773 it earnestly recommended the immediate manumission of all + slaves held in bondage, after the females had reached eighteen and the + males twenty-one years of age. At the same time it was advised that + committees should be appointed for the purpose of instructing the + emancipated persons in the principles of morality and religion, and for + advising and aiding them in their temporal concerns. + </p> + <p> + I quote a single paragraph from the advice sent down to the subordinate + meetings, as a beautiful manifestation of the fruits of true repentance:— + </p> + <p> + "It is the solid sense of this meeting, that we of the present generation + are under strong obligations to express our love and concern for the + offspring of those people who by their labors have greatly contributed + towards the cultivation of these colonies under the afflictive + disadvantage of enduring a hard bondage, and the benefit of whose toil + many among us are enjoying." + </p> + <p> + In 1784, the different Quarterly Meetings having reported that many still + held slaves, notwithstanding the advice and entreaties of their friends, + the Yearly Meeting directed that where endeavors to convince those + offenders of their error proved ineffectual, the Monthly Meetings should + proceed to disown them. We have no means of ascertaining the precise + number of those actually disowned for slave-holding in the Virginia Yearly + Meeting, but it is well known to have been very small. In almost all cases + the care and assiduous labors of those who had the welfare of the Society + and of humanity at heart were successful in inducing offenders to manumit + their slaves, and confess their error in resisting the wishes of their + friends and bringing reproach upon the cause of truth. + </p> + <p> + So ended slavery in the Society of Friends. For three quarters of a + century the advice put forth in the meetings of the Society at stated + intervals, that Friends should be "careful to maintain their testimony + against slavery," has been adhered to so far as owning, or even hiring, a + slave is concerned. Apart from its first-fruits of emancipation, there is + a perennial value in the example exhibited of the power of truth, urged + patiently and in earnest love, to overcome the difficulties in the way of + the eradication of an evil system, strengthened by long habit, entangled + with all the complex relations of society, and closely allied with the + love of power, the pride of family, and the lust of gain. + </p> + <p> + The influence of the life and labors of John Woolman has by no means been + confined to the religious society of which he was a member. It may be + traced wherever a step in the direction of emancipation has been taken in + this country or in Europe. During the war of the Revolution many of the + noblemen and officers connected with the French army became, as their + journals abundantly testify, deeply interested in the Society of Friends, + and took back to France with them something of its growing anti-slavery + sentiment. Especially was this the case with Jean Pierre Brissot, the + thinker and statesman of the Girondists, whose intimacy with Warner + Mifflin, a friend and disciple of Woolman, so profoundly affected his + whole after life. He became the leader of the "Friends of the Blacks," and + carried with him to the scaffold a profound hatred, of slavery. To his + efforts may be traced the proclamation of emancipation in Hayti by the + commissioners of the French convention, and indirectly the subsequent + uprising of the blacks and their successful establishment of a free + government. The same influence reached Thomas Clarkson and stimulated his + early efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade; and in after life the + volume of the New Jersey Quaker was the cherished companion of himself and + his amiable helpmate. It was in a degree, at least, the influence of + Stephen Grellet and William Allen, men deeply imbued with the spirit of + Woolman, and upon whom it might almost be said his mantle had fallen, that + drew the attention of Alexander I. of Russia to the importance of taking + measures for the abolition of serfdom, an object the accomplishment of + which the wars during his reign prevented, but which, left as a legacy of + duty, has been peaceably effected by his namesake, Alexander II. In the + history of emancipation in our own country evidences of the same original + impulse of humanity are not wanting. In 1790 memorials against slavery + from the Society of Friends were laid before the first Congress of the + United States. Not content with clearing their own skirts of the evil, the + Friends of that day took an active part in the formation of the abolition + societies of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. + Jacob Lindley, Elisha Tyson, Warner Mifflin, James Pemberton, and other + leading Friends were known throughout the country as unflinching champions + of freedom. One of the earliest of the class known as modern abolitionists + was Benjamin Lundy, a pupil in the school of Woolman, through whom William + Lloyd Garrison became interested in the great work to which his life has + been so faithfully and nobly devoted. Looking back to the humble workshop + at Mount Holly from the stand-point of the Proclamation of President + Lincoln, how has the seed sown in weakness been raised up in power! + </p> + <p> + The larger portion of Woolman's writings is devoted to the subjects of + slavery, uncompensated labor, and the excessive toil and suffering of the + many to support the luxury of the few. The argument running through them + is searching, and in its conclusions uncompromising, but a tender love for + the wrong-doer as well as the sufferer underlies all. They aim to convince + the judgment and reach the heart without awakening prejudice and passion. + To the slave-holders of his time they must have seemed like the voice of + conscience speaking to them in the cool of the day. One feels, in reading + them, the tenderness and humility of a nature redeemed from all pride of + opinion and self-righteousness, sinking itself out of sight, and intent + only upon rendering smaller the sum of human sorrow and sin by drawing men + nearer to God, and to each other. The style is that of a man unlettered, + but with natural refinement and delicate sense of fitness, the purity of + whose heart enters into his language. There is no attempt at fine writing, + not a word or phrase for effect; it is the simple unadorned diction of one + to whom the temptations of the pen seem to have been wholly unknown. He + wrote, as he believed, from an inward spiritual prompting; and with all + his unaffected humility he evidently felt that his work was done in the + clear radiance of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The light which never was on land or sea." +</pre> + <p> + It was not for him to outrun his Guide, or, as Sir Thomas Browne expresses + it, to "order the finger of the Almighty to His will and pleasure, but to + sit still under the soft showers of Providence." Very wise are these + essays, but their wisdom is not altogether that of this world. They lead + one away from all the jealousies, strifes, and competitions of luxury, + fashion, and gain, out of the close air of parties and sects, into a + region of calmness,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The haunt + Of every gentle wind whose breath can teach + The wild to love tranquillity,"— +</pre> + <p> + a quiet habitation where all things are ordered in what he calls "the pure + reason;" a rest from all self-seeking, and where no man's interest or + activity conflicts with that of another. Beauty they certainly have, but + it is not that which the rules of art recognize; a certain indefinable + purity pervades them, making one sensible, as he reads, of a sweetness as + of violets. "The secret of Woolman's purity of style," said Dr. Channing, + "is that his eye was single, and that conscience dictated his words." + </p> + <p> + Of course we are not to look to the writings of such a man for tricks of + rhetoric, the free play of imagination, or the unscrupulousness of epigram + and antithesis. He wrote as he lived, conscious of "the great + Task-master's eye." With the wise heathen Marcus Aurelius Antoninus he had + learned to "wipe out imaginations, to check desire, and let the spirit + that is the gift of God to every man, as his guardian and guide, bear + rule." + </p> + <p> + I have thought it inexpedient to swell the bulk of this volume with the + entire writings appended to the old edition of the Journal, inasmuch as + they mainly refer to a system which happily on this continent is no longer + a question at issue. I content myself with throwing together a few + passages from them which touch subjects of present interest. + </p> + <p> + "Selfish men may possess the earth: it is the meek alone who inherit it + from the Heavenly Father free from all defilements and perplexities of + unrighteousness." + </p> + <p> + "Whoever rightly advocates the cause of some thereby promotes the good of + the whole." + </p> + <p> + "If one suffer by the unfaithfulness of another, the mind, the most noble + part of him that occasions the discord, is thereby alienated from its true + happiness." + </p> + <p> + "There is harmony in the several parts of the Divine work in the hearts of + men. He who leads them to cease from those gainful employments which are + carried on in the wisdom which is from beneath delivers also from the + desire of worldly greatness, and reconciles to a life so plain that a + little suffices." + </p> + <p> + "After days and nights of drought, when the sky hath grown dark, and + clouds like lakes of water have hung over our heads, I have at times + beheld with awfulness the vehement lightning accompanying the blessings of + the rain, a messenger from Him to remind us of our duty in a right use of + His benefits." + </p> + <p> + "The marks of famine in a land appear as humbling admonitions from God, + instructing us by gentle chastisements, that we may remember that the + outward supply of life is a gift from our Heavenly Father, and that we + should not venture to use or apply that gift in a way contrary to pure + reason." + </p> + <p> + "Oppression in the extreme appears terrible; but oppression in more + refined appearances remains to be oppression. To labor for a perfect + redemption from the spirit of it is the great business of the whole family + of Jesus Christ in this world." + </p> + <p> + "In the obedience of faith we die to self-love, and, our life being 'hid + with Christ in God,' our hearts are enlarged towards mankind universally; + but many in striving to get treasures have departed from this true light + of life and stumbled on the dark mountains. That purity of life which + proceeds from faithfulness in following the pure spirit of truth, that + state in which our minds are devoted to serve God and all our wants are + bounded by His wisdom, has often been opened to me as a place of + retirement for the children of the light, in which we may be separated + from that which disordereth and confuseth the affairs of society, and may + have a testimony for our innocence in the hearts of those who behold us." + </p> + <p> + "There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in + different places and ages bath had different names; it is, however, pure, + and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of + religion nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect + sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become brethren." + </p> + <p> + "The necessity of an inward stillness hath appeared clear to my mind. In + true silence strength is renewed, and the mind is weaned from all things, + save as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will; and a lowliness in outward + living, opposite to worldly honor, becomes truly acceptable to us. In the + desire after outward gain the mind is prevented from a perfect attention + to the voice of Christ; yet being weaned from all things, except as they + may be enjoyed in the Divine will, the pure light shines into the soul. + Where the fruits of the spirit which is of this world are brought forth by + many who profess to be led by the Spirit of truth, and cloudiness is felt + to be gathering over the visible church, the sincere in heart, who abide + in true stillness, and are exercised therein before the Lord for His + name's sake, have knowledge of Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings; + and inward thankfulness is felt at times, that through Divine love our own + wisdom is cast out, and that forward, active part in us is subjected, + which would rise and do something without the pure leadings of the spirit + of Christ. + </p> + <p> + "While aught remains in us contrary to a perfect resignation of our wills, + it is like a seal to the book wherein is written 'that good and acceptable + and perfect will of God' concerning us. But when our minds entirely yield + to Christ, that silence is known which followeth the opening of the last + of the seals. In this silence we learn to abide in the Divine will, and + there feel that we have no cause to promote except that alone in which the + light of life directs us." + </p> + <p> + Occasionally, in Considerations on the Keeping of? Negroes, the intense + interest of his subject gives his language something of passionate + elevation, as in the following extract:— + </p> + <p> + "When trade is carried on productive of much misery, and they who suffer + by it are many thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not laying + their sufferings to heart. In procuring slaves on the coast of Africa, + many children are stolen privately; wars are encouraged among the negroes, + but all is at a great distance. Many groans arise from dying men which we + hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children which + reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with tears, and faces sad with + unutterable grief, which we see not. Cruel tyranny is encouraged. The + hands of robbers are strengthened. + </p> + <p> + "Were we, for the term of one year only, to be eye-witnesses of what + passeth in getting these slaves; were the blood that is there shed to be + sprinkled on our garments; were the poor captives, bound with thongs, and + heavily laden with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes on their way + to the sea; were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to ring in our + ears, and their mournful cries in the night to hinder us from sleeping,— + were we to behold and hear these things, what pious heart would not be + deeply affected with sorrow!" + </p> + <p> + "It is good for those who live in fulness to cultivate tenderness of + heart, and to improve every opportunity of being acquainted with the + hardships and fatigues of those who labor for their living, and thus to + think seriously with themselves: Am I influenced by true charity in fixing + all my demands? Have I no desire to support myself in expensive customs, + because my acquaintances live in such customs? + </p> + <p> + "If a wealthy man, on serious reflection, finds a witness in his own + conscience that he indulges himself in some expensive habits, which might + be omitted, consistently with the true design of living, and which, were + he to change places with those who occupy his estate, he would desire to + be discontinued by them,—whoever is thus awakened will necessarily + find the injunction binding, 'Do ye even so to them.' Divine Love imposeth + no rigorous or unreasonable commands, but graciously points out the spirit + of brotherhood and the way to happiness, in attaining which it is + necessary that we relinquish all that is selfish. + </p> + <p> + "Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all His creatures; His tender + mercies are over all His works, and so far as true love influences our + minds, so far we become interested in His workmanship, and feel a desire + to make use of every opportunity to lessen the distresses of the + afflicted, and to increase the happiness of the creation. Here we have a + prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, so that + to turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the + business of our lives." + </p> + <p> + His liberality and freedom from "all narrowness as to sects and opinions" + are manifest in the following passages:— + </p> + <p> + "Men who sincerely apply their minds to true virtue, and find an inward + support from above, by which all vicious inclinations are made subject; + who love God sincerely, and prefer the real good of mankind universally to + their own private interest,—though these, through the strength of + education and tradition, may remain under some great speculative errors, + it would be uncharitable to say that therefore God rejects them. The + knowledge and goodness of Him who creates, supports, and gives + understanding to all men are superior to the various states and + circumstances of His creatures, which to us appear the most difficult. + Idolatry indeed is wickedness; but it is the thing, not the name, which is + so. Real idolatry is to pay that adoration to a creature which is known to + be due only to the true God. + </p> + <p> + "He who professeth to believe in one Almighty Creator, and in His Son + Jesus Christ, and is yet more intent on the honors, profits, and + friendships of the world than he is, in singleness of heart, to stand + faithful to the Christian religion, is in the channel of idolatry; while + the Gentile, who, notwithstanding some mistaken opinions, is established + in the true principle of virtue, and humbly adores an Almighty Power, may + be of the number that fear God and work righteousness." + </p> + <p> + Nowhere has what is called the "Labor Question," which is now agitating + the world, been discussed more wisely and with a broader humanity than in + these essays. His sympathies were with the poor man, yet the rich too are + his brethren, and he warns them in love and pity of the consequences of + luxury and oppression:— + </p> + <p> + "Every degree of luxury, every demand for money inconsistent with the + Divine order, hath connection with unnecessary labors." + </p> + <p> + "To treasure up wealth for another generation, by means of the immoderate + labor of those who in some measure depend upon us, is doing evil at + present, without knowing that wealth thus gathered may not be applied to + evil purposes when we are gone. To labor hard, or cause others to do so, + that we may live conformably to customs which our Redeemer discountenanced + by His example, and which are contrary to Divine order, is to manure a + soil for propagating an evil seed in the earth." + </p> + <p> + "When house is joined to house, and field laid to field, until there is no + place, and the poor are thereby straitened, though this is done by bargain + and purchase, yet so far as it stands distinguished from universal love, + so far that woe predicted by the prophet will accompany their proceedings. + As He who first founded the earth was then the true proprietor of it, so + He still remains, and though He hath given it to the children of men, so + that multitudes of people have had their sustenance from it while they + continued here, yet He bath never alienated it, but His right is as good + as at first; nor can any apply the increase of their possessions contrary + to universal love, nor dispose of lands in a way which they know tends to + exalt some by oppressing others, without being justly chargeable with + usurpation." + </p> + <p> + It will not lessen the value of the foregoing extracts in the minds of the + true-disciples of our Divine Lord, that they are manifestly not written to + subserve the interests of a narrow sectarianism. They might have been + penned by Fenelon in his time, or Robertson in ours, dealing as they do + with Christian practice,—the life of Christ manifesting itself in + purity and goodness,—rather than with the dogmas of theology. The + underlying thought of all is simple obedience to the Divine word in the + soul. "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the + kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven." In + the preface to an English edition, published some years ago, it is + intimated that objections had been raised to the Journal on the ground + that it had so little to say of doctrines and so much of duties. One may + easily understand that this objection might have been forcibly felt by the + slave-holding religious professors of Woolman's day, and that it may still + be entertained by a class of persons who, like the Cabalists, attach a + certain mystical significance to words, names, and titles, and who in + consequence question the piety which hesitates to flatter the Divine ear + by "vain repetitions" and formal enumeration of sacred attributes, + dignities, and offices. Every instinct of his tenderly sensitive nature + shrank from the wordy irreverence of noisy profession. His very silence is + significant: the husks of emptiness rustle in every wind; the full corn in + the ear holds up its golden fruit noiselessly to the Lord of the harvest. + John Woolman's faith, like the Apostle's, is manifested by his labors, + standing not in words but in the demonstration of the spirit,—a + faith that works by love to the purifying of the heart. The entire outcome + of this faith was love manifested in reverent waiting upon God, and in + that untiring benevolence, that quiet but deep enthusiasm of humanity, + which made his daily service to his fellow- creatures a hymn of praise to + the common Father. + </p> + <p> + However the intellect may criticise such a life, whatever defects it may + present to the trained eyes of theological adepts, the heart has no + questions to ask, but at once owns and reveres it. Shall we regret that he + who had so entered into fellowship of suffering with the Divine One, + walking with Him under the cross, and dying daily to self, gave to the + faith and hope that were in him this testimony of a life, rather than any + form of words, however sound? A true life is at once interpreter and proof + of the gospel, and does more to establish its truth in the hearts of men + than all the "Evidences" and "Bodies of Divinity" which have perplexed the + world with more doubts than they solved. Shall we venture to account it a + defect in his Christian character, that, under an abiding sense of the + goodness and long-suffering of God, he wrought his work in gentleness and + compassion, with the delicate tenderness which comes of a deep sympathy + with the trials and weaknesses of our nature, never allowing himself to + indulge in heat or violence, persuading rather than threatening? Did he + overestimate that immeasurable Love, the manifestation of which in his own + heart so reached the hearts of others, revealing everywhere unsuspected + fountains of feeling and secret longings after purity, as the rod of the + diviner detects sweet, cool water-springs under the parched surfaces of a + thirsty land? And, looking at the purity, wisdom, and sweetness of his + life, who shall say that his faith in the teaching of the Holy Spirit—the + interior guide and light—was a mistaken one? Surely it was no + illusion by which his feet were so guided that all who saw him felt that, + like Enoch, he walked with God. "Without the actual inspiration of the + Spirit of Grace, the inward teacher and soul of our souls," says Fenelon, + "we could neither do, will, nor believe good. We must silence every + creature, we must silence ourselves also, to hear in a profound stillness + of the soul this inexpressible voice of Christ. The outward word of the + gospel itself without this living efficacious word within would be but an + empty sound." "Thou Lord," says Augustine in his Meditations, + "communicatest thyself to all: thou teachest the heart without words; thou + speakest to it without articulate sounds." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "However, I am sure that there is a common spirit that plays within + us, and that is the Spirit of God. Whoever feels not the warm gale + and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, I dare not say he lives; for + truly without this to me there is no heat under the tropic, nor any + light though I dwelt in the body of the sun."—Sir Thomas Browne's + Religio Medici. +</pre> + <p> + Never was this divine principle more fully tested than by John Wool man; + and the result is seen in a life of such rare excellence that the world is + still better and richer for its sake, and the fragrance of it comes down + to us through a century, still sweet and precious. + </p> + <p> + It will be noted throughout the Journal and essays that in his lifelong + testimony against wrong he never lost sight of the oneness of humanity, + its common responsibility, its fellowship of suffering and communion of + sin. Few have ever had so profound a conviction of the truth of the + Apostle's declaration that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself. Sin + was not to him an isolated fact, the responsibility of which began and + ended with the individual transgressor; he saw it as a part of a vast + network and entanglement, and traced the lines of influence converging + upon it in the underworld of causation. Hence the wrong and discord which + pained him called out pity, rather than indignation. The first inquiry + which they awakened was addressed to his own conscience. How far am I in + thought, word, custom, responsible for this? Have none of my + fellow-creatures an equitable right to any part which is called mine? Have + the gifts and possessions received by me from others been conveyed in a + way free from all unrighteousness? "Through abiding in the law of Christ," + he says, "we feel a tenderness towards our fellow-creatures, and a concern + so to walk that our conduct may not be the means of strengthening them in + error." He constantly recurs to the importance of a right example in those + who profess to be led by the spirit of Christ, and who attempt to labor in + His name for the benefit of their fellow-men. If such neglect or refuse + themselves to act rightly, they can but "entangle the minds of others and + draw a veil over the face of righteousness." His eyes were anointed to see + the common point of departure from the Divine harmony, and that all the + varied growths of evil had their underlying root in human selfishness. He + saw that every sin of the individual was shared in greater or less degree + by all whose lives were opposed to the Divine order, and that pride, + luxury, and avarice in one class gave motive and temptation to the grosser + forms of evil in another. How gentle, and yet how searching, are his + rebukes of self-complacent respectability, holding it responsible, in + spite of all its decent seemings, for much of the depravity which it + condemned with Pharisaical harshness! In his Considerations on the True + Harmony of Mankind be dwells with great earnestness upon the importance of + possessing "the mind of Christ," which removes from the heart the desire + of superiority and worldly honors, incites attention to the Divine + Counsellor, and awakens an ardent engagement to promote the happiness of + all. "This state," he says, "in which every motion from the selfish spirit + yieldeth to pure love, I may acknowledge with gratitude to the Father of + Mercies, is often opened before me as a pearl to seek after." + </p> + <p> + At times when I have felt true love open my heart towards my fellow- + creatures, and have been engaged in weighty conversation in the cause of + righteousness, the instructions I have received under these exercises in + regard to the true use of the outward gifts of God have made deep and + lasting impressions on my mind. I have beheld how the desire to provide + wealth and to uphold a delicate life has greviously entangled many, and + has been like a snare to their offspring; and though some have been + affected with a sense of their difficulties, and have appeared desirous at + times to be helped out of them, yet for want of abiding under the humbling + power of truth they have continued in these entanglements; expensive + living in parents and children hath called for a large supply, and in + answering this call the 'faces of the poor' have been ground away, and + made thin through hard dealing. + </p> + <p> + "There is balm; there is a physician! and oh what longings do I feel that + we may embrace the means appointed for our healing; may know that removed + which now ministers cause for the cries of many to ascend to Heaven + against their oppressors; and that thus we may see the true harmony + restored!—a restoration of that which was lost at Babel, and which + will be, as the prophet expresses it, 'the returning of a pure language!'" + </p> + <p> + It is easy to conceive how unwelcome this clear spiritual insight must + have been to the superficial professors of his time busy in tithing mint, + anise, and cummin. There must have been something awful in the presence of + one endowed with the gift of looking through all the forms, shows, and + pretensions of society, and detecting with certainty the germs of evil + hidden beneath them; a man gentle and full of compassion, clothed in "the + irresistible might of meekness," and yet so wise in spiritual discernment, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Bearing a touchstone in his hand + And testing all things in the land + By his unerring spell. + + "Quick births of transmutation smote + The fair to foul, the foul to fair; + Purple nor ermine did he spare, + Nor scorn the dusty coat." +</pre> + <p> + In bringing to a close this paper, the preparation of which has been to me + a labor of love, I am not unmindful of the wide difference between the + appreciation of a pure and true life and the living of it, and am willing + to own that in delineating a character of such moral and spiritual + symmetry I have felt something like rebuke from my own words. I have been + awed and solemnized by the presence of a serene and beautiful spirit + redeemed of the Lord from all selfishness, and I have been made thankful + for the ability to recognize and the disposition to love him. I leave the + book with its readers. They may possibly make large deductions from my + estimate of the author; they may not see the importance of all his + self-denying testimonies; they may question some of his scruples, and + smile over passages of childlike simplicity; but I believe they will all + agree in thanking me for introducing them to the Journal of John Woolman. + </p> + <p> + AMESBURY, 20th 1st mo.,1871. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + HAVERFORD COLLEGE. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Letter to President Thomas Chase, LL. D. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 9th mo., 1884. +</pre> + <p> + THE Semi-Centennial of Haverford College is an event that no member of the + Society of Friends can regard without deep interest. It would give me + great pleasure to be with you on the 27th inst., but the years rest + heavily upon me, and I have scarcely health or strength for such a + journey. + </p> + <p> + It was my privilege to visit Haverford in 1838, in "the day of small + beginnings." The promise of usefulness which it then gave has been more + than fulfilled. It has grown to be a great and well-established + institution, and its influence in thorough education and moral training + has been widely felt. If the high educational standard presented in the + scholastic treatise of Barclay and the moral philosophy of Dymond has been + lowered or disowned by many who, still retaining the name of Quakerism, + have lost faith in the vital principle wherein precious testimonials of + practical righteousness have their root, and have gone back to a dead + literalness, and to those materialistic ceremonials for leaving which our + old confessors suffered bonds and death, Haverford, at least, has been in + a good degree faithful to the trust committed to it. + </p> + <p> + Under circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty, it has endeavored to + maintain the Great Testimony. The spirit of its culture has not been a + narrow one, nor could it be, if true to the broad and catholic principles + of the eminent worthies who founded the State of Pennsylvania, Penn, + Lloyd, Pastorius, Logan, and Story; men who were masters of the scientific + knowledge and culture of their age, hospitable to all truth, and open to + all light, and who in some instances anticipated the result of modern + research and critical inquiry. + </p> + <p> + It was Thomas Story, a minister of the Society of Friends, and member of + Penn's Council of State, who, while on a religious visit to England, wrote + to James Logan that he had read on the stratified rocks of Scarborough, as + from the finger of God, proofs of the immeasurable age of our planet, and + that the "days" of the letter of Scripture could only mean vast spaces of + time. + </p> + <p> + May Haverford emulate the example of these brave but reverent men, who, in + investigating nature, never lost sight of the Divine Ideal, and who, to + use the words of Fenelon, "Silenced themselves to hear in the stillness of + their souls the inexpressible voice of Christ." Holding fast the mighty + truth of the Divine Immanence, the Inward Light and Word, a Quaker college + can have no occasion to renew the disastrous quarrel of religion with + science. Against the sublime faith which shall yet dominate the world, + skepticism has no power. No possible investigation of natural facts; no + searching criticism of letter and tradition can disturb it, for it has its + witness in all human hearts. + </p> + <p> + That Haverford may fully realize and improve its great opportunities as an + approved seat of learning and the exponent of a Christian philosophy which + can never be superseded, which needs no change to fit it for universal + acceptance, and which, overpassing the narrow limits of sect, is giving + new life and hope to Christendom, and finding its witnesses in the Hindu + revivals of the Brahmo Somaj and the fervent utterances of Chunda Sen and + Mozoomdar, is the earnest desire of thy friend. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CRITICISM + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + EVANGELINE + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A review of Mr. Longfellow's poem. +</pre> + <p> + EUREKA! Here, then, we have it at last,—an American poem, with the + lack of which British reviewers have so long reproached us. Selecting the + subject of all others best calculated for his purpose,—the expulsion + of the French settlers of Acadie from their quiet and pleasant homes + around the Basin of Minas, one of the most sadly romantic passages in the + history of the Colonies of the North,—the author has succeeded in + presenting a series of exquisite pictures of the striking and peculiar + features of life and nature in the New World. The range of these + delineations extends from Nova Scotia on the northeast to the spurs of the + Rocky Mountains on the west and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. Nothing + can be added to his pictures of quiet farm-life in Acadie, the Indian + summer of our northern latitudes, the scenery of the Ohio and Mississippi + Rivers, the bayous and cypress forests of the South, the mocking-bird, the + prairie, the Ozark hills, the Catholic missions, and the wild Arabs of the + West, roaming with the buffalo along the banks of the Nebraska. The + hexameter measure he has chosen has the advantage of a prosaic freedom of + expression, exceedingly well adapted to a descriptive and narrative poem; + yet we are constrained to think that the story of Evangeline would have + been quite as acceptable to the public taste had it been told in the + poetic prose of the author's Hyperion. + </p> + <p> + In reading it and admiring its strange melody we were not without fears + that the success of Professor Longfellow in this novel experiment might + prove the occasion of calling out a host of awkward imitators, leading us + over weary wastes of hexameters, enlivened neither by dew, rain, nor + fields of offering. + </p> + <p> + Apart from its Americanism, the poem has merits of a higher and universal + character. It is not merely a work of art; the pulse of humanity throbs + warmly through it. The portraits of Basil the blacksmith, the old notary, + Benedict Bellefontaine, and good Father Felician, fairly glow with life. + The beautiful Evangeline, loving and faithful unto death, is a heroine + worthy of any poet of the present century. + </p> + <p> + The editor of the Boston Chronotype, in the course of an appreciative + review of this poem, urges with some force a single objection, which we + are induced to notice, as it is one not unlikely to present itself to the + minds of other readers:— + </p> + <p> + "We think Mr. Longfellow ought to have expressed a much deeper indignation + at the base, knavish, and heartless conduct of the English and Colonial + persecutors than he has done. He should have put far bolder and deeper + tints in the picture of suffering. One great, if not the greatest, end of + poetry is rhadamanthine justice. The poet should mete out their deserts to + all his heroes; honor to whom honor, and infamy to whom infamy, is due. + </p> + <p> + "It is true that the wrong in this case is in a great degree fathered upon + our own Massachusetts; and it maybe said that it is afoul bird that + pollutes its own nest. We deny the applicability of the rather musty + proverb. All the worse. Of not a more contemptible vice is what is called + American literature guilty than this of unmitigated self- laudation. If we + persevere in it, the stock will become altogether too small for the + business. It seems that no period of our history has been exempt from + materials for patriotic humiliation and national self- reproach; and + surely the present epoch is laying in a large store of that sort. Had our + poets always told us the truth of ourselves, perhaps it would now be + otherwise. National self-flattery and concealment of faults must of course + have their natural results." + </p> + <p> + We must confess that we read the first part of Evangeline with something + of the feeling so forcibly expressed by Professor Wright. The natural and + honest indignation with which, many years ago, we read for the first time + that dark page of our Colonial history—the expulsion of the French + neutrals—was reawakened by the simple pathos of the poem; and we + longed to find an adequate expression of it in the burning language of the + poet. We marvelled that he who could so touch the heart by his description + of the sad suffering of the Acadian peasants should have permitted the + authors of that suffering to escape without censure. The outburst of the + stout Basil, in the church of Grand Pre, was, we are fain to acknowledge, + a great relief to us. But, before reaching the close of the volume, we + were quite reconciled to the author's forbearance. The design of the poem + is manifestly incompatible with stern "rhadamanthine justice" and + indignant denunciation of wrong. It is a simple story of quiet pastoral + happiness, of great sorrow and painful bereavement, and of the endurance + of a love which, hoping and seeking always, wanders evermore up and down + the wilderness of the world, baffled at every turn, yet still retaining + faith in God and in the object of its lifelong quest. It was no part of + the writer's object to investigate the merits of the question at issue + between the poor Acadians and their Puritan neighbors. Looking at the + materials before him with the eye of an artist simply, he has arranged + them to suit his idea of the beautiful and pathetic, leaving to some + future historian the duty of sitting in judgment upon the actors in the + atrocious outrage which furnished them. With this we are content. The poem + now has unity and sweetness which might have been destroyed by attempting + to avenge the wrongs it so vividly depicts. It is a psalm of love and + forgiveness: the gentleness and peace of Christian meekness and + forbearance breathe through it. Not a word of censure is directly applied + to the marauding workers of the mighty sorrow which it describes just as + it would a calamity from the elements,—a visitation of God. The + reader, however, cannot fail to award justice to the wrong-doers. The + unresisting acquiescence of the Acadians only deepens his detestation of + the cupidity and religious bigotry of their spoilers. Even in the language + of the good Father Felician, beseeching his flock to submit to the strong + hand which had been laid upon them, we see and feel the magnitude of the + crime to be forgiven:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Lo, where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you! + See in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! + Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, O Father, forgive + them! + Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us; + Let us repeat it now, and say, O Father, forgive them!" +</pre> + <p> + How does this simple prayer of the Acadians contrast with the "deep + damnation of their taking off!" + </p> + <p> + The true history of the Puritans of New England is yet to be written. + Somewhere midway between the caricatures of the Church party and the + self-laudations of their own writers the point may doubtless be found from + whence an impartial estimate of their character may be formed. They had + noble qualities: the firmness and energy which they displayed in the + colonization of New England must always command admiration. We would not + rob them, were it in our power to do so, of one jot or tittle of their + rightful honor. But, with all the lights which we at present possess, we + cannot allow their claim of saintship without some degree of + qualification. How they seemed to their Dutch neighbors at New + Netherlands, and their French ones at Nova Scotia, and to the poor + Indians, hunted from their fisheries and game-grounds, we can very well + conjecture. It may be safely taken for granted that their gospel claim to + the inheritance of the earth was not a little questionable to the Catholic + fleeing for his life from their jurisdiction, to the banished Baptist + shaking off the dust of his feet against them, and to the martyred Quaker + denouncing woe and judgment upon them from the steps of the gallows. Most + of them were, beyond a doubt, pious and sincere; but we are constrained to + believe that among them were those who wore the livery of heaven from + purely selfish motives, in a community where church-membership was an + indispensable requisite, the only open sesame before which the doors of + honor and distinction swung wide to needy or ambitious aspirants. Mere + adventurers, men of desperate fortunes, bankrupts in character and purse, + contrived to make gain of godliness under the church and state government + of New England, put on the austere exterior of sanctity, quoted Scripture, + anathematized heretics, whipped Quakers, exterminated Indians, burned and + spoiled the villages of their Catholic neighbors, and hewed down their + graven images and "houses of Rimmon." It is curious to observe how a + fierce religious zeal against heathen and idolaters went hand in hand with + the old Anglo-Saxon love of land and plunder. Every crusade undertaken + against the Papists of the French colonies had its Puritan Peter the + Hermit to summon the saints to the wars of the Lord. At the siege of + Louisburg, ten years before the onslaught upon the Acadian settlers, one + minister marched with the Colonial troops, axe in hand, to hew down the + images in the French churches; while another officiated in the double + capacity of drummer and chaplain,—a "drum ecclesiastic," as Hudibras + has it. + </p> + <p> + At the late celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims in New York, the + orator of the day labored at great length to show that the charge of + intolerance, as urged against the colonists of New England, is unfounded + in fact. The banishment of the Catholics was very sagaciously passed over + in silence, inasmuch as the Catholic Bishop of New York was one of the + invited guests, and (hear it, shade of Cotton Mather!) one of the regular + toasts was a compliment to the Pope. The expulsion of Roger Williams was + excused and partially justified; while the whipping, ear- cropping, + tongue-boring, and hanging of the Quakers was defended, as the only + effectual method of dealing with such devil-driven heretics, as Mather + calls them. The orator, in the new-born zeal of his amateur Puritanism, + stigmatizes the persecuted class as "fanatics and ranters, foaming forth + their mad opinions;" compares them to the Mormons and the crazy followers + of Mathias; and cites an instance of a poor enthusiast, named Eccles, who, + far gone in the "tailor's melancholy," took it into his head that he must + enter into a steeple-house pulpit and stitch breeches "in singing time,"—a + circumstance, by the way, which took place in Old England,—as a + justification of the atrocious laws of the Massachusetts Colony. We have + not the slightest disposition to deny the fanaticism and folly of some few + professed Quakers in that day; and had the Puritans treated them as the + Pope did one of their number whom he found crazily holding forth in the + church of St. Peter, and consigned them to the care of physicians as + religious monomaniacs, no sane man could have blamed them. Every sect, in + its origin, and especially in its time of persecution, has had its + fanatics. The early Christians, if we may credit the admissions of their + own writers or attach the slightest credence to the statements of pagan + authors, were by no means exempt from reproach and scandal in this + respect. Were the Puritans themselves the men to cast stones at the + Quakers and Baptists? Had they not, in the view at least of the + Established Church, turned all England upside down with their fanaticisms + and extravagances of doctrine and conduct? How look they as depicted in + the sermons of Dr. South, in the sarcastic pages of Hudibras, and the + coarse caricatures of the clerical wits of the times of the second + Charles? With their own backs scored and their ears cropped for the crime + of denying the divine authority of church and state in England, were they + the men to whip Baptists and hang Quakers for doing the same thing in + Massachusetts? + </p> + <p> + Of all that is noble and true in the Puritan character we are sincere + admirers. The generous and self-denying apostleship of Eliot is, of + itself, a beautiful page in their history. The physical daring and + hardihood with which, amidst the times of savage warfare, they laid the + foundations of mighty states, and subdued the rugged soil, and made the + wilderness blossom; their steadfast adherence to their religious + principles, even when the Restoration had made apostasy easy and + profitable; and the vigilance and firmness with which, under all + circumstances, they held fast their chartered liberties and extorted new + rights and privileges from the reluctant home government,—justly + entitle them to the grateful remembrance of a generation now reaping the + fruits of their toils and sacrifices. But, in expressing our gratitude to + the founders of New England, we should not forget what is due to truth and + justice; nor, for the sake of vindicating them from the charge of that + religious intolerance which, at the time, they shared with nearly all + Christendom, undertake to defend, in the light of the nineteenth century, + opinions and practices hostile to the benignant spirit of the gospel and + subversive of the inherent rights of man. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MIRTH AND MEDICINE + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A review of Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes. +</pre> + <p> + IF any of our readers (and at times we fear it is the case with all) need + amusement and the wholesome alterative of a hearty laugh, we commend them, + not to Dr. Holmes the physician, but to Dr. Holmes the scholar, the wit, + and the humorist; not to the scientific medical professor's barbarous + Latin, but to his poetical prescriptions, given in choice old Saxon. We + have tried them, and are ready to give the Doctor certificates of their + efficacy. + </p> + <p> + Looking at the matter from the point of theory only, we should say that a + physician could not be otherwise than melancholy. A merry doctor! Why, one + might as well talk of a laughing death's-head,—the cachinnation of a + monk's <i>memento mori</i>. This life of ours is sorrowful enough at its + best estate; the brightest phase of it is "sicklied o'er with the pale + cast" of the future or the past. But it is the special vocation of the + doctor to look only upon the shadow; to turn away from the house of + feasting and go down to that of mourning; to breathe day after day the + atmosphere of wretchedness; to grow familiar with suffering; to look upon + humanity disrobed of its pride and glory, robbed of all its fictitious + ornaments, —weak, helpless, naked,—and undergoing the last + fearful metempsychosis from its erect and godlike image, the living temple + of an enshrined divinity, to the loathsome clod and the inanimate dust. Of + what ghastly secrets of moral and physical disease is he the depositary! + There is woe before him and behind him; he is hand and glove with misery + by prescription,—the ex officio gauger of the ills that flesh is + heir to. He has no home, unless it be at the bedside of the querulous, the + splenetic, the sick, and the dying. He sits down to carve his turkey, and + is summoned off to a post-mortem examination of another sort. All the + diseases which Milton's imagination embodied in the lazar-house dog his + footsteps and pluck at his doorbell. Hurrying from one place to another at + their beck, he knows nothing of the quiet comfort of the "sleek-headed men + who sleep o' nights." His wife, if he has one, has an undoubted right to + advertise him as a deserter of "bed and board." His ideas of beauty, the + imaginations of his brain, and the affections of his heart are regulated + and modified by the irrepressible associations of his luckless profession. + Woman as well as man is to him of the earth, earthy. He sees incipient + disease where the uninitiated see only delicacy. A smile reminds him of + his dental operations; a blushing cheek of his hectic patients; pensive + melancholy is dyspepsia; sentimentalism, nervousness. Tell him of lovelorn + hearts, of the "worm I' the bud," of the mental impalement upon Cupid's + arrow, like that of a giaour upon the spear of a janizary, and he can only + think of lack of exercise, of tightlacing, and slippers in winter. + Sheridan seems to have understood all this, if we may judge from the + lament of his Doctor, in St. Patrick's Day, over his deceased helpmate. + "Poor dear Dolly," says he. "I shall never see her like again; such an arm + for a bandage! veins that seemed to invite the lancet! Then her skin,—smooth + and white as a gallipot; her mouth as round and not larger than that of a + penny vial; and her teeth,—none of your sturdy fixtures,—ache + as they would, it was only a small pull, and out they came. I believe I + have drawn half a score of her dear pearls. (Weeps.) But what avails her + beauty? She has gone, and left no little babe to hang like a label on + papa's neck!" + </p> + <p> + So much for speculation and theory. In practice it is not so bad after + all. The grave-digger in Hamlet has his jokes and grim jests. We have + known many a jovial sexton; and we have heard clergymen laugh heartily at + small provocation close on the heel of a cool calculation that the great + majority of their fellow-creatures were certain of going straight to + perdition. Why, then, should not even the doctor have his fun? Nay, is it + not his duty to be merry, by main force if necessary? Solomon, who, from + his great knowledge of herbs, must have been no mean practitioner for his + day, tells us that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine;" and + universal experience has confirmed the truth of his maxim. Hence it is, + doubtless, that we have so many anecdotes of facetious doctors, + distributing their pills and jokes together, shaking at the same time the + contents of their vials and the sides of their patients. It is merely + professional, a trick of the practice, unquestionably, in most cases; but + sometimes it is a "natural gift," like that of the "bonesetters," and + "scrofula strokers," and "cancer curers," who carry on a sort of guerilla + war with human maladies. Such we know to be the case with Dr. Holmes. He + was born for the "laughter cure," as certainly as Priessnitz was for the + "water cure," and has been quite as successful in his way, while his + prescriptions are infinitely more agreeable. + </p> + <p> + The volume now before us gives, in addition to the poems and lyrics + contained in the two previous editions, some hundred or more pages of the + later productions of the author, in the sprightly vein, and marked by the + brilliant fancy and felicitous diction for which the former were + noteworthy. His longest and most elaborate poem, <i>Urania</i>, is perhaps + the best specimen of his powers. Its general tone is playful and humorous; + but there are passages of great tenderness and pathos. Witness the + following, from a description of the city churchgoers. The whole compass + of our literature has few passages to equal its melody and beauty. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Down the chill street, which winds in gloomiest shade, + What marks betray yon solitary maid? + The cheek's red rose, that speaks of balmier air, + The Celtic blackness of her braided hair; + The gilded missal in her kerchief tied; + Poor Nora, exile from Killarney's side! + Sister in toil, though born of colder skies, + That left their azure in her downcast eyes, + See pallid Margaret, Labor's patient child, + Scarce weaned from home, a nursling of the wild, + Where white Katahdin o'er the horizon shines, + And broad Penobscot dashes through the pines; + Still, as she hastes, her careful fingers hold + The unfailing hymn-book in its cambric fold: + Six days at Drudgery's heavy wheel she stands, + The seventh sweet morning folds her weary hands. + Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure + He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor." +</pre> + <p> + This is but one of many passages, showing that the author is capable of + moving the heart as well as of tickling the fancy. There is no straining + for effect; simple, natural thoughts are expressed in simple and perfectly + transparent language. + </p> + <p> + <i>Terpsichore</i>, read at an annual dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society + at Cambridge, sparkles throughout with keen wit, quaint conceits, and + satire so good-natured that the subjects of it can enjoy it as heartily as + their neighbors. Witness this thrust at our German-English writers:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Essays so dark, Champollion might despair + To guess what mummy of a thought was there, + Where our poor English, striped with foreign phrase, Looks like a + zebra in a parson's chaise." +</pre> + <p> + Or this at our transcendental friends:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Deluded infants! will they never know + Some doubts must darken o'er the world below + Though all the Platos of the nursery trail + Their clouds of glory at the go-cart's tail?" +</pre> + <p> + The lines <i>On Lending a Punch-Bowl</i> are highly characteristic. Nobody + but Holmes could have conjured up so many rare fancies in connection with + such a matter. Hear him:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times, + Of joyous days, and jolly nights, and merry Christmas chimes; + They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true, + That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new. + + "A Spanish galleon brought the bar; so runs the ancient tale; + 'T was hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail; + And now and then between the strokes, for fear his strength should fail, + He wiped his brow, and quaffed a cup of good old Flemish ale. + + "'T was purchased by an English squire to please his loving dame, + Who saw the cherubs, and conceived a longing for the same; + And oft as on the ancient stock another twig was found, + 'T was filled with candle spiced and hot and handed smoking round. + + "But, changing hands, it reached at length a Puritan divine, + Who used to follow Timothy, and take a little wine, + But hated punch and prelacy; and so it was, perhaps, + He went to Leyden, where he found conventicles and schnaps. + + "And then, of course, you know what's next,—it left the Dutchman's shore + With those that in the Mayflower came,—a hundred souls and more,— + Along with all the furniture, to fill their new abodes,— + To judge by what is still on hand, at least a hundred loads. + + "'T was on a dreary winter's eve, the night was closing dim, + When brave Miles Standish took the bowl, and filled it to the brim; + The little Captain stood and stirred the posset with his sword, + And all his sturdy men-at-arms were ranged about the board. + + "He poured the fiery Hollands in,—the man that never feared,— + He took a long and solemn draught, and wiped his yellow beard; + And one by one the musketeers—the men that fought and prayed— + All drank as 't were their mother's milk, and not a man afraid. + + "That night, affrighted from his nest, the screaming eagle flew, + He heard the Pequot's ringing whoop, the soldier's wild halloo; + And there the sachem learned the rule he taught to kith and kin, + 'Run from the white man when you find he smells of Hollands gin!'" +</pre> + <p> + In his <i>Nux Postcoenatica</i> he gives us his reflections on being + invited to a dinner-party, where he was expected to "set the table in a + roar" by reading funny verses. He submits it to the judgment and common + sense of the importunate bearer of the invitation, that this dinner-going, + ballad- making, mirth-provoking habit is not likely to benefit his + reputation as a medical professor. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Besides, my prospects. Don't you know that people won't employ + A man that wrongs his manliness by laughing like a boy, + And suspect the azure blossom that unfolds upon a shoot, + As if Wisdom's oldpotato could not flourish at its root? + + "It's a very fine reflection, when you're etching out a smile + On a copperplate of faces that would stretch into a mile. + That, what with sneers from enemies and cheapening shrugs from friends, + It will cost you all the earnings that a month of labor lends." +</pre> + <p> + There are, as might be expected, some commonplace pieces in the volume,— + a few failures in the line of humor. The <i>Spectre Pig</i>, the <i>Dorchester + Giant</i>, the <i>Height of the Ridiculous</i>, and one or two others + might be omitted in the next edition without detriment. They would do well + enough for an amateur humorist, but are scarcely worthy of one who stands + at the head of the profession. + </p> + <p> + It was said of James Smith, of the Rejected Addresses, that "if he had not + been a witty man, he would have been a great man." Hood's humor and + drollery kept in the background the pathos and beauty of his sober + productions; and Dr. Holmes, we suspect, might have ranked higher among a + large class of readers than he now does had he never written his <i>Ballad + of the Oysterman</i>, his <i>Comet</i>, and his <i>September Gale</i>. + Such lyrics as <i>La Grisette</i>, the <i>Puritan's Vision</i>, and that + unique compound of humor and pathos, <i>The Last Leaf</i>; show that he + possesses the power of touching the deeper chords of the heart and of + calling forth tears as well as smiles. Who does not feel the power of this + simple picture of the old man in the last-mentioned poem? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "But now he walks the streets, + And he looks at all he meets + Sad and wan, + And he shakes his feeble head, + That it seems as if he said, + 'They are gone.' + + "The mossy marbles rest + On the lips that he has prest + In their bloom, + And the names he loved to hear + Have been carved for many a year + On the tomb." +</pre> + <p> + Dr. Holmes has been likened to Thomas Hood; but there is little in common + between them save the power of combining fancy and sentiment with + grotesque drollery and humor. Hood, under all his whims and oddities, + conceals the vehement intensity of a reformer. The iron of the world's + wrongs had entered into his soul; there is an undertone of sorrow in his + lyrics; his sarcasm, directed against oppression and bigotry, at times + betrays the earnestness of one whose own withers have been wrung. Holmes + writes simply for the amusement of himself and his readers; he deals only + with the vanity, the foibles, and the minor faults of mankind, good + naturedly and almost sympathizingly suggesting excuses for the folly which + he tosses about on the horns of his ridicule. In this respect he differs + widely from his fellow-townsman, Russell Lowell, whose keen wit and + scathing sarcasm, in the famous Biglow Papers, and the notes of Parson + Wilbur, strike at the great evils of society and deal with the rank + offences of church and state. Hosea Biglow, in his way, is as earnest a + preacher as Habakkuk Mucklewrath or Obadiah Bind-their-kings- + in-chains-and-their-nobles-in-fetters-of-iron. His verse smacks of the old + Puritan flavor. Holmes has a gentler mission. His careless, genial humor + reminds us of James Smith in his <i>Rejected Addresses</i> and of Horace + in <i>London</i>. Long may he live to make broader the face of our care- + ridden generation, and to realize for himself the truth of the wise man's + declaration that a "merry heart is a continual feast." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FAME AND GLORY. + </h2> + <p> + Notice of an Address before the Literary Society of Amherst College, by + Charles Sumner. + </p> + <p> + THE learned and eloquent author of the pamphlet lying before us with the + above title belongs to a class, happily on the increase in our country, + who venture to do homage to unpopular truths in defiance of the social and + political tyranny of opinion which has made so many of our statesmen, + orators, and divines the mere playthings and shuttlecocks of popular + impulses for evil far oftener than for good. His first production, the <i>True + Grandeur of Nations</i>, written for the anniversary of American + Independence, was not more remarkable for its evidences of a highly + cultivated taste and wide historical research than for its inculcation of + a high morality,—the demand for practical Christianity in nations as + well as individuals. It burned no incense under the nostrils of an already + inflated and vain people. It gratified them by no rhetorical falsehoods + about "the land of the free and the home of the brave." It did not + apostrophize military heroes, nor strut "red wat shod" over the plains of + battle, nor call up, like another Ezekiel, from the valley of vision the + dry bones thereof. It uttered none of the precious scoundrel cant, so much + in vogue after the annexation of Texas was determined upon, about the + destiny of the United States to enter in and possess the lands of all + whose destiny it is to live next us, and to plant everywhere the "peculiar + institutions" of a peculiarly Christian and chosen people, the + landstealing propensity of whose progressive republicanism is declared to + be in accordance with the will and by the grace of God, and who, like the + Scotch freebooter,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Pattering an Ave Mary + When he rode on a border forray,"— +</pre> + <p> + while trampling on the rights of a sister republic, and re-creating + slavery where that republic had abolished it, talk piously of "the designs + of Providence" and the Anglo-Saxon instrumentalities thereof in "extending + the area of freedom." On the contrary, the author portrayed the evils of + war and proved its incompatibility with Christianity,— contrasting + with its ghastly triumphs the mild victories of peace and love. Our true + mission, he taught, was not to act over in the New World the barbarous + game which has desolated the Old; but to offer to the nations of the + earth, warring and discordant, oppressed and oppressing, the beautiful + example of a free and happy people studying the things which make for + peace,—Democracy and Christianity walking hand in hand, blessing and + being blessed. + </p> + <p> + His next public effort, an Address before the Literary Society of his Alma + Mater, was in the same vein. He improved the occasion of the recent death + of four distinguished members of that fraternity to delineate his + beautiful ideal of the jurist, the scholar, the artist, and the + philanthropist, aided by the models furnished by the lives of such men as + Pickering, Story, Allston, and Channing. Here, also, he makes greatness to + consist of goodness: war and slavery and all their offspring of evil are + surveyed in the light of the morality of the New Testament. He looks + hopefully forward to the coming of that day when the sword shall devour no + longer, when labor shall grind no longer in the prison-house, and the + peace and freedom of a realized and acted-out Christianity shall + overspread the earth, and the golden age predicted by the seers and poets + alike of Paganism and Christianity shall become a reality. + </p> + <p> + The Address now before us, with the same general object in view, is more + direct and practical. We can scarcely conceive of a discourse better + adapted to prepare the young American, just issuing from his collegiate + retirement, for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. It treats + the desire of fame and honor as one native to the human heart, felt to a + certain extent by all as a part of our common being,—a motive, + although by no means the most exalted, of human conduct; and the lesson it + would inculcate is, that no true and permanent fame can be founded except + in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. To use the language of + Dr. South, "God is the fountain of honor; the conduit by which He conveys + it to the sons of men are virtuous and generous practices." The author + presents the beautiful examples of St. Pierre, Milton, Howard, and + Clarkson,—men whose fame rests on the firm foundation of goodness,—for + the study and imitation of the young candidate for that true glory which + belongs to those who live, not for themselves, but for their race. + "Neither present fame, nor war, nor power, nor wealth, nor knowledge alone + shall secure an entrance to the true and noble Valhalla. There shall be + gathered only those who have toiled each in his vocation for the welfare + of others." "Justice and benevolence are higher than knowledge and power + It is by His goodness that God is most truly known; so also is the great + man. When Moses said to the Lord, Show me Thy glory, the Lord said, I will + make all my goodness pass before thee." + </p> + <p> + We copy the closing paragraph of the Address, the inspiring sentiment of + which will find a response in all generous and hopeful hearts:— + </p> + <p> + "Let us reverse the very poles of the worship of past ages. Men have thus + far bowed down before stocks, stones, insects, crocodiles, golden calves,—graven + images, often of cunning workmanship, wrought with Phidian skill, of + ivory, of ebony, of marble, but all false gods. Let them worship in future + the true God, our Father, as He is in heaven and in the beneficent labors + of His children on earth. Then farewell to the siren song of a worldly + ambition! Farewell to the vain desire of mere literary success or + oratorical display! Farewell to the distempered longings for office! + Farewell to the dismal, blood-red phantom of martial renown! Fame and + glory may then continue, as in times past, the reflection of public + opinion; but of an opinion sure and steadfast, without change or + fickleness, enlightened by those two sons of Christian truth,—love + to God and love to man. From the serene illumination of these duties all + the forms of selfishness shall retreat like evil spirits at the dawn of + day. Then shall the happiness of the poor and lowly and the education of + the ignorant have uncounted friends. The cause of those who are in prison + shall find fresh voices; the majesty of peace other vindicators; the + sufferings of the slave new and gushing floods of sympathy. Then, at last, + shall the brotherhood of man stand confessed; ever filling the souls of + all with a more generous life; ever prompting to deeds of beneficence; + conquering the heathen prejudices of country, color, and race; guiding the + judgment of the historian; animating the verse of the poet and the + eloquence of the orator; ennobling human thought and conduct; and + inspiring those good works by which alone we may attain to the heights of + true glory. Good works! Such even now is the heavenly ladder on which + angels are ascending and descending, while weary humanity, on pillows of + storfe, slumbers heavily at its feet." + </p> + <p> + We know how easy it is to sneer at such anticipations of a better future + as baseless and visionary. The shrewd but narrow-eyed man of the world + laughs at the suggestion that there car: be any stronger motive than + selfishness, any higher morality than that of the broker's board. The man + who relies for salvation from the consequences of an evil and selfish life + upon the verbal orthodoxy of a creed presents the depravity and weakness + of human nature as insuperable obstacles in the way of the general + amelioration of the condition of a world lying in wickedness. He counts it + heretical and dangerous to act upon the supposition that the same human + nature which, in his own case and that of his associates, can confront all + perils, overcome all obstacles, and outstrip the whirlwind in the pursuit + of gain,—which makes the strong elements its servants, taming and + subjugating the very lightnings of heaven to work out its own purposes of + self-aggrandizement,—must necessarily, and by an ordination of + Providence, become weak as water, when engaged in works of love and + goodwill, looking for the coming of a better day for humanity, with faith + in the promises of the Gospel, and relying upon Him, who, in calling man + to the great task-field of duty, has not mocked him with the mournful + necessity of laboring in vain. We have been pained more than words can + express to see young, generous hearts, yearning with strong desires to + consecrate themselves to the cause of their fellow-men, checked and + chilled by the ridicule of worldly-wise conservatism, and the solemn + rebukes of practical infidelity in the guise of a piety which professes to + love the unseen Father, while disregarding the claims of His visible + children. Visionary! Were not the good St. Pierre, and Fenelon, and + Howard, and Clarkson visionaries also? + </p> + <p> + What was John Woolman, to the wise and prudent of his day, but an amiable + enthusiast? What, to those of our own, is such an angel of mercy as + Dorothea Dix? Who will not, in view of the labors of such philanthropists, + adopt the language of Jonathan Edwards: "If these things be enthusiasms + and the fruits of a distempered brain, let my brain be evermore possessed + with this happy distemper"? + </p> + <p> + It must, however, be confessed that there is a cant of philanthropy too + general and abstract for any practical purpose,—a morbid + sentimentalism,—which contents itself with whining over real or + imaginary present evil, and predicting a better state somewhere in the + future, but really doing nothing to remove the one or hasten the coming of + the other. To its view the present condition of things is all wrong; no + green hillock or twig rises over the waste deluge; the heaven above is + utterly dark and starless: yet, somehow, out of this darkness which may be + felt, the light is to burst forth miraculously; wrong, sin, pain, and + sorrow are to be banished from the renovated world, and earth become a + vast epicurean garden or Mahometan heaven. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The land, unploughed, shall yield her crop; + Pure honey from the oak shall drop; + The fountain shall run milk; + The thistle shall the lily bear; + And every bramble roses wear, + And every worm make silk." + + (Ben Jenson's Golden Age Restored.) +</pre> + <p> + There are, in short, perfectionist reformers as well as religionists, who + wait to see the salvation which it is the task of humanity itself to work + out, and who look down from a region of ineffable self-complacence on + their dusty and toiling brethren who are resolutely doing whatsoever their + hands find to do for the removal of the evils around them. + </p> + <p> + The emblem of practical Christianity is the Samaritan stooping over the + wounded Jew. No fastidious hand can lift from the dust fallen humanity and + bind up its unsightly gashes. Sentimental lamentation over evil and + suffering may be indulged in until it becomes a sort of melancholy luxury, + like the "weeping for Thammuz" by the apostate daughters of Jerusalem. Our + faith in a better day for the race is strong; but we feel quite sure it + will come in spite of such abstract reformers, and not by reason of them. + The evils which possess humanity are of a kind which go not out by their + delicate appliances. + </p> + <p> + The author of the Address under consideration is not of this class. He has + boldly, and at no small cost, grappled with the great social and political + wrong of our country,—chattel slavery. Looking, as we have seen, + hopefully to the future, he is nevertheless one of those who can respond + to the words of a true poet and true man:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "He is a coward who would borrow + A charm against the present sorrow + From the vague future's promise of delight + As life's alarums nearer roll, + The ancestral buckler calls, + Self-clanging, from the walls + In the high temple of the soul!" + + (James Russell Lowell.) +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FANATICISM. + </h2> + <p> + THERE are occasionally deeds committed almost too horrible and revolting + for publication. The tongue falters in giving them utterance; the pen + trembles that records them. Such is the ghastly horror of a late tragedy + in Edgecomb, in the State of Maine. A respectable and thriving citizen and + his wife had been for some years very unprofitably engaged in brooding + over the mysteries of the Apocalypse, and in speculations upon the + personal coming of Christ and the temporal reign of the saints on earth,—a + sort of Mahometan paradise, which has as little warrant in Scripture as in + reason. Their minds of necessity became unsettled; they meditated + self-destruction; and, as it appears by a paper left behind in the + handwriting of both, came to an agreement that the husband should first + kill his wife and their four children, and then put an end to his own + existence. This was literally executed,—the miserable man striking + off the heads of his wife and children with his axe, and then cutting his + own throat. + </p> + <p> + Alas for man when he turns from the light of reason and from the simple + and clearly defined duties of the present life, and undertakes to pry into + the mysteries of the future, bewildering himself with uncertain and vague + prophecies, Oriental imagery, and obscure Hebrew texts! Simple, cheerful + faith in God as our great and good Father, and love of His children as our + brethren, acted out in all relations and duties, is certainly best for + this world, and we believe also the best preparation for that to come. + Once possessed by the falsity that God's design is that man should be + wretched and gloomy here in order to obtain rest and happiness hereafter; + that the mental agonies and bodily tortures of His creatures are pleasant + to Him; that, after bestowing upon us reason for our guidance, He makes it + of no avail by interposing contradictory revelations and arbitrary + commands,—there is nothing to prevent one of a melancholic and + excitable temperament from excesses so horrible as almost to justify the + old belief in demoniac obsession. + </p> + <p> + Charles Brockden Brown, a writer whose merits have not yet been + sufficiently acknowledged, has given a powerful and philosophical analysis + of this morbid state of mind—this diseased conscientiousness, + obeying the mad suggestions of a disordered brain as the injunctions of + Divinity—in his remarkable story of Wieland. The hero of this + strange and solemn romance, inheriting a melancholy and superstitious + mental constitution, becomes in middle age the victim of a deep, and + tranquil because deep, fanaticism. A demon in human form, perceiving his + state of mind, wantonly experiments upon it, deepening and intensifying it + by a fearful series of illusions of sight and sound. Tricks of jugglery + and ventriloquism seem to his feverish fancies miracles and omens—the + eye and the voice of the Almighty piercing the atmosphere of supernatural + mystery in which he has long dwelt. He believes that he is called upon to + sacrifice the beloved wife of his bosom as a testimony of the entire + subjugation of his carnal reason and earthly affections to the Divine + will. In the entire range of English literature there is no more thrilling + passage than that which describes the execution of this baleful + suggestion. The coloring of the picture is an intermingling of the lights + of heaven and hell,—soft shades of tenderest pity and warm tints of + unextinguishable love contrasting with the terrible outlines of an insane + and cruel purpose, traced with the blood of murder. The masters of the old + Greek tragedy have scarcely exceeded the sublime horror of this scene from + the American novelist. The murderer confronted with his gentle and loving + victim in her chamber; her anxious solicitude for his health and quiet; + her affectionate caress of welcome; his own relentings and natural + shrinking from his dreadful purpose; and the terrible strength which he + supposes is lent him of Heaven, by which he puts down the promptings and + yearnings of his human heart, and is enabled to execute the mandate of an + inexorable Being,—are described with an intensity which almost stops + the heart of the reader. When the deed is done a frightful conflict of + passions takes place, which can only be told in the words of the author:— + </p> + <p> + "I lifted the corpse in my arms and laid it on the bed. I gazed upon it + with delight. Such was my elation that I even broke out into laughter. I + clapped my hands, and exclaimed, 'It is done! My sacred duty is fulfilled! + To that I have sacrificed, O God, Thy last and best gift, my wife!' + </p> + <p> + "For a while I thus soared above frailty. I imagined I had set myself + forever beyond the reach of selfishness. But my imaginations were false. + This rapture quickly subsided. I looked again at my wife. My joyous + ebullitions vanished. I asked myself who it was whom I saw. Methought it + could not be my Catharine; it could not be the woman who had lodged for + years in my heart; who had slept nightly in my bosom; who had borne in her + womb and fostered at her breast the beings who called me father; whom I + had watched over with delight and cherished with a fondness ever new and + perpetually growing. It could not be the same! + </p> + <p> + "The breath of heaven that sustained me was withdrawn, and I sunk into + mere man. I leaped from the floor; I dashed my head against the wall; I + uttered screams of horror; I panted after torment and pain. Eternal fire + and the bickerings of hell, compared with what I felt, were music and a + bed of roses. + </p> + <p> + "I thank my God that this was transient; that He designed once more to + raise me aloft. I thought upon what I had done as a sacrifice to duty, and + was calm. My wife was dead; but I reflected that, although this source of + human consolation was closed, others were still open. If the transports of + the husband were no more, the feelings of the father had still scope for + exercise. When remembrance of their mother should excite too keen a pang, + I would look upon my children and be comforted. + </p> + <p> + "While I revolved these things new warmth flowed in upon my heart. I was + wrong. These feelings were the growth of selfishness. Of this I was not + aware; and, to dispel the mist that obscured my perceptions, a new light + and a new mandate were necessary. + </p> + <p> + "From these thoughts I was recalled by a ray which was shot into the room. + A voice spoke like that I had before heard: 'Thou hast done well; but all + is not done—the sacrifice is incomplete—thy children must be + offered—they must perish with their mother!'" + </p> + <p> + The misguided man obeys the voice; his children are destroyed in their + bloom and innocent beauty. He is arrested, tried for murder, and acquitted + as insane. The light breaks in upon him at last; he discovers the + imposture which has controlled him; and, made desperate by the full + consciousness of his folly and crime, ends the terrible drama by suicide. + </p> + <p> + Wieland is not a pleasant book. In one respect it resembles the modern + tale of Wuthering Heights: it has great strength and power, but no beauty. + Unlike that, however, it has an important and salutary moral. It is a + warning to all who tamper with the mind and rashly experiment upon its + religious element. As such, its perusal by the sectarian zealots of all + classes would perhaps be quite as profitable as much of their present + studies. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE POETRY OF THE NORTH. + </h2> + <p> + THE Democratic Review not long since contained a singularly wild and + spirited poem, entitled the Norseman's Ride, in which the writer appears + to have very happily blended the boldness and sublimity of the heathen + saga with the grace and artistic skill of the literature of civilization. + The poetry of the Northmen, like their lives, was bold, defiant, and full + of a rude, untamed energy. It was inspired by exhibitions of power rather + than of beauty. Its heroes were beastly revellers or cruel and ferocious + plunderers; its heroines unsexed hoidens, playing the ugliest tricks with + their lovers, and repaying slights with bloody revenge,—very + dangerous and unsatisfactory companions for any other than the fire- + eating Vikings and redhanded, unwashed Berserkers. Significant of a + religion which reverenced the strong rather than the good, and which + regarded as meritorious the unrestrained indulgence of the passions, it + delighted to sing the praises of some coarse debauch or pitiless + slaughter. The voice of its scalds was often but the scream of the + carrion-bird, or the howl of the wolf, scenting human blood:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Unlike to human sounds it came; + Unmixed, unmelodized with breath; + But grinding through some scrannel frame, + Creaked from the bony lungs of Death." +</pre> + <p> + Its gods were brutal giant forces, patrons of war, robbery, and drunken + revelry; its heaven a vast cloud-built ale-house, where ghostly warriors + drank from the skulls of their victims; its hell a frozen horror of + desolation and darkness,—all that the gloomy Northern imagination + could superadd to the repulsive and frightful features of arctic scenery: + volcanoes spouting fire through craters rimmed with perpetual frost, + boiling caldrons flinging their fierce jets high into the air, and huge + jokuls, or ice-mountains, loosened and upheaved by volcanic agencies, + crawling slowly seaward, like misshapen monsters endowed with life,—a + region of misery unutterable, to be avoided only by diligence in robbery + and courage in murder. + </p> + <p> + What a work had Christianity to perform upon such a people as the + Icelanders, for instance, of the tenth century!—to substitute in + rude, savage minds the idea of its benign and gentle Founder for that of + the Thor and Woden of Norse mythology; the forgiveness, charity, and + humility of the Gospel for the revenge, hatred, and pride inculcated by + the Eddas. And is it not one of the strongest proofs of the divine life + and power of that Gospel, that, under its influence, the hard and cruel + Norse heart has been so softened and humanized that at this moment one of + the best illustrations of the peaceful and gentle virtues which it + inculcates is afforded by the descendants of the sea-kings and robbers of + the middle centuries? No one can read the accounts which such travellers + as Sir George Mackenzie and Dr. Henderson have given us of the peaceful + disposition, social equality, hospitality, industry, intellectual + cultivation, morality, and habitual piety of the Icelanders, without a + grateful sense of the adaptation of Christianity to the wants of our race, + and of its ability to purify, elevate, and transform the worst elements of + human character. In Iceland Christianity has performed its work of + civilization, unobstructed by that commercial cupidity which has caused + nations more favored in respect to soil and climate to lapse into an + idolatry scarcely less debasing and cruel than that which preceded the + introduction of the Gospel. Trial by combat was abolished in 1001, and the + penalty of the imaginary crime of witchcraft was blotted from the statutes + of the island nearly half a century before it ceased to disgrace those of + Great Britain. So entire has been the change wrought in the sanguinary and + cruel Norse character that at the present day no Icelander can be found + who, for any reward, will undertake the office of executioner. The scalds, + who went forth to battle, cleaving the skulls of their enemies with the + same skilful hands which struck the harp at the feast, have given place to + Christian bards and teachers, who, like Thorlakson, whom Dr. Henderson + found toiling cheerfully with his beloved parishioners in the hay-harvest + of the brief arctic summer, combine with the vigorous diction and robust + thought of their predecessors the warm and genial humanity of a religion + of love and the graces and amenities of a high civilization. + </p> + <p> + But we have wandered somewhat aside from our purpose, which was simply to + introduce the following poem, which, in the boldness of its tone and vigor + of language, reminds us of the Sword Chant, the Wooing Song, and other + rhymed sagas of Motherwell. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE NORSEMAN'S RIDE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The frosty fires of northern starlight + Gleamed on the glittering snow, + And through the forest's frozen branches + The shrieking winds did blow; + A floor of blue and icy marble + Kept Ocean's pulses still, + When, in the depths of dreary midnight, + Opened the burial hill. + + Then, while the low and creeping shudder + + Thrilled upward through the ground, + The Norseman came, as armed for battle, + In silence from his mound,— + He who was mourned in solemn sorrow + By many a swordsman bold, + And harps that wailed along the ocean, + Struck by the scalds of old. + + Sudden a swift and silver shadow + Came up from out the gloom,— + A charger that, with hoof impatient, + Stamped noiseless by the tomb. + "Ha! Surtur,!* let me hear thy tramping, + My fiery Northern steed, + That, sounding through the stormy forest, + Bade the bold Viking heed!" + + He mounted; like a northlight streaking + The sky with flaming bars, + They, on the winds so wildly shrieking, + Shot up before the stars. + "Is this thy mane, my fearless Surtur, + That streams against my breast? + + (*The name of the Scandinavian god of fire.) + + Is this thy neck, that curve of moonlight + Which Helva's hand caressed? + "No misty breathing strains thy nostril; + Thine eye shines blue and cold; + Yet mounting up our airy pathway + I see thy hoofs of gold. + Not lighter o'er the springing rainbow + Walhalla's gods repair + Than we in sweeping journey over + The bending bridge of air. + + "Far, far around star-gleams are sparkling + Amid the twilight space; + And Earth, that lay so cold and darkling, + Has veiled her dusky face. + Are those the Normes that beckon onward + As if to Odin's board, + Where by the hands of warriors nightly + The sparkling mead is poured? + + "'T is Skuld:* I her star-eye speaks the glory + That wraps the mighty soul, + When on its hinge of music opens + The gateway of the pole; + When Odin's warder leads the hero + To banquets never o'er, + And Freya's** glances fill the bosom + With sweetness evermore. + + "On! on! the northern lights are streaming + In brightness like the morn, + And pealing far amid the vastness + I hear the gyallarhorn *** + The heart of starry space is throbbing + With songs of minstrels old; + And now on high Walhalla's portal + Gleam Surtur's hoofs of gold." +</pre> + <p> + * The Norne of the future. + </p> + <p> + ** Freya, the Northern goddess of love. + </p> + <p> + *** The horn blown by the watchers on the rainbow, the bridge over which + the gods pass in Northern mythology. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of +VII), by John Greenleaf Whittier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF WHITTIER *** + +***** This file should be named 9599-h.htm or 9599-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/5/9/9599/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII) + The Conflict With Slavery, Politics and Reform, The Inner + Life and Criticism + +Author: John Greenleaf Whittier + +Release Date: December 2005 [EBook #9599] +Posting Date: July 10, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF WHITTIER *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE WORKS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, Volume VII. (of VII) + +THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY, POLITICS AND REFORM, THE INNER LIFE and 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 effect 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 immediate 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 Russell, 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 overwhelmed 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. + + + + +REFORM AND POLITICS. UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS. + +THERE is a large class of men, not in Europe alone, but in this country +also, whose constitutional conservatism inclines them to regard any +organic change in the government of a state or the social condition of +its people with suspicion and distrust. They admit, perhaps, the evils +of the old state of things; but they hold them to be inevitable, the +alloy necessarily mingled with all which pertains to fallible humanity. +Themselves generally enjoying whatever of good belongs to the political +or social system in which their lot is cast, they are disposed to look +with philosophic indifference upon the evil which only afflicts their +neighbors. They wonder why people are not contented with their +allotments; they see no reason for change; they ask for quiet and peace +in their day; being quite well satisfied with that social condition which +an old poet has quaintly described:-- + + "The citizens like pounded pikes; + The lesser feed the great; + The rich for food seek stomachs, + And the poor for stomachs meat." + +This class of our fellow-citizens have an especial dislike of theorists, +reformers, uneasy spirits, speculators upon the possibilities of the +world's future, constitution builders, and believers in progress. They +are satisfied; the world at least goes well enough with them; they sit as +comfortable in it as Lafontaine's rat in the cheese; and why should those +who would turn it upside down come hither also? Why not let well enough +alone? Why tinker creeds, constitutions, and laws, and disturb the good +old-fashioned order of things in church and state? The idea of making +the world better and happier is to them an absurdity. He who entertains +it is a dreamer and a visionary, destitute of common sense and practical +wisdom. His project, whatever it may be, is at once pronounced to be +impracticable folly, or, as they are pleased to term it, _Utopian._ + +The romance of Sir Thomas More, which has long afforded to the +conservatives of church and state a term of contempt applicable to all +reformatory schemes and innovations, is one of a series of fabulous +writings, in which the authors, living in evil times and unable to +actualize their plans for the well-being of society, have resorted to +fiction as a safe means of conveying forbidden truths to the popular +mind. Plato's "Timaeus," the first of the series, was written after the +death of Socrates and the enslavement of the author's country. In this +are described the institutions of the Island of Atlantis,--the writer's +ideal of a perfect commonwealth. Xenophon, in his "Cyropaedia," has also +depicted an imaginary political society by overlaying with fiction +historical traditions. At a later period we have the "New Atlantis" of +Lord Bacon, and that dream of the "City of the Sun" with which Campanella +solaced himself in his long imprisonment. + +The "Utopia" of More is perhaps the best of its class. It is the work of +a profound thinker, the suggestive speculations and theories of one who +could + + "Forerun his age and race, and let + His feet millenniums hence be set + In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet." + +Much of what he wrote as fiction is now fact, a part of the frame-work of +European governments, and the political truths of his imaginary state are +now practically recognized in our own democratic system. As might be +expected, in view of the times in which the author wrote, and the +exceedingly limited amount of materials which he found ready to his hands +for the construction of his social and political edifice, there is a want +of proportion and symmetry in the structure. Many of his theories are no +doubt impracticable and unsound. But, as a whole, the work is an +admirable one, striding in advance of the author's age, and prefiguring a +government of religious toleration and political freedom. The following +extract from it was doubtless regarded in his day as something worse than +folly or the dream of a visionary enthusiast:-- + +"He judged it wrong to lay down anything rashly, and seemed to doubt +whether these different forms of religion might not all come from God, +who might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with the +variety. He therefore thought it to be indecent and foolish for any man +to threaten and terrify another, to make him believe what did not strike +him as true." + +Passing by the "Telemachus" of Fenelon, we come to the political romance +of Harrington, written in the time of Cromwell. "Oceana" is the name by +which the author represents England; and the republican plan of +government which he describes with much minuteness is such as he would +have recommended for adoption in case a free commonwealth had been +established. It deals somewhat severely with Cromwell's usurpation; yet +the author did not hesitate to dedicate it to that remarkable man, who, +after carefully reading it, gave it back to his daughter, Lady Claypole, +with the remark, full of characteristic bluntness, that "the gentleman +need not think to cheat him of his power and authority; for what he had +won with the sword he would never suffer himself to be scribbled out of." + +Notwithstanding the liberality and freedom of his speculations upon +government and religion in his Utopia, it must be confessed that Sir +Thomas More, in after life, fell into the very practices of intolerance +and bigotry which he condemned. When in the possession of the great seal +under that scandal of kingship, Henry VIII., he gave his countenance to +the persecution of heretics. Bishop Burnet says of him, that he caused a +gentleman of the Temple to be whipped and put to the rack in his +presence, in order to compel him to discover those who favored heretical +opinions. In his Utopia he assailed the profession of the law with +merciless satire; yet the satirist himself finally sat upon the +chancellor's woolsack; and, as has been well remarked by Horace Smith, +"if, from this elevated seat, he ever cast his eyes back upon his past +life, he must have smiled at the fond conceit which could imagine a +permanent Utopia, when he himself, certainly more learned, honest, and +conscientious than the mass of men has ever been, could in the course of +one short life fall into such glaring and frightful rebellion against his +own doctrines." + +Harrington, on the other hand, as became the friend of Milton and Marvel, +held fast, through good and evil report, his republican faith. He +published his work after the Restoration, and defended it boldly and ably +from the numerous attacks made upon it. Regarded as too dangerous an +enthusiast to be left at liberty, he was imprisoned at the instance of +Lord Chancellor Hyde, first in the Tower, and afterwards on the Island of +St. Nicholas, where disease and imprudent remedies brought on a partial +derangement, from which he never recovered. + +Bernardin St. Pierre, whose pathetic tale of "Paul and Virginia" has +found admirers in every language of the civilized world, in a fragment, +entitled "Arcadia," attempted to depict an ideal republic, without +priest, noble, or slave, where all are so religious that each man is the +pontiff of his family, where each man is prepared to defend his country, +and where all are in such a state of equality that there are no such +persons as servants. The plan of it was suggested by his friend Rousseau +during their pleasant walking excursions about the environs of Paris, in +which the two enthusiastic philosophers, baffled by the evil passions and +intractable materials of human nature as manifested in existing society, +comforted themselves by appealing from the actual to the possible, from +the real to the imaginary. Under the chestnut-trees of the Bois de +Boulogne, through long summer days, the two friends, sick of the noisy +world about them, yet yearning to become its benefactors,--gladly +escaping from it, yet busy with schemes for its regeneration and +happiness,--at once misanthropes and philanthropists,--amused and solaced +themselves by imagining a perfect and simple state of society, in which +the lessons of emulation and selfish ambition were never to be taught; +where, on the contrary, the young were to obey their parents, and to +prefer father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and friend to themselves. +They drew beautiful pictures of a country blessed with peace, indus try, +and love, covered with no disgusting monuments of violence and pride and +luxury, without columns, triumphal arches, hospitals, prisons, or +gibbets; but presenting to view bridges over torrents, wells on the arid +plain, groves of fruit-trees, and houses of shelter for the traveller in +desert places, attesting everywhere the sentiment of humanity. Religion +was to speak to all hearts in the eternal language of Nature. Death was +no longer to be feared; perspectives of holy consolation were to open +through the cypress shadows of the tomb; to live or to die was to be +equally an object of desire. + +The plan of the "Arcadia" of St. Pierre is simply this: A learned young +Egyptian, educated at Thebes by the priests of Osiris, desirous of +benefiting humanity, undertakes a voyage to Gaul for the purpose of +carrying thither the arts and religion of Egypt. He is shipwrecked on +his return in the Gulf of Messina, and lands upon the coast, where he is +entertained by an Arcadian, to whom he relates his adventures, and from +whom he receives in turn an account of the simple happiness and peace of +Arcadia, the virtues and felicity of whose inhabitants are beautifully +exemplified in the lives and conversation of the shepherd and his +daughter. This pleasant little prose poem closes somewhat abruptly. +Although inferior in artistic skill to "Paul and Virginia" or the "Indian +Cottage", there is not a little to admire in the simple beauty of its +pastoral descriptions. The closing paragraph reminds one of Bunyan's +upper chamber, where the weary pilgrim's windows opened to the sunrising +and the singing of birds:-- + +"Tyrteus conducted his guests to an adjoining chamber. It had a window +shut by a curtain of rushes, through the crevices of which the islands of +the Alpheus might be seen in the light of the moon. There were in this +chamber two excellent beds, with coverlets of warm and light wool. + +"Now, as soon as Amasis was left alone with Cephas, he spoke with joy of +the delight and tranquillity of the valley, of the goodness of the +shepherd, and the grace of his young daughter, to whom he had seen none +worthy to be compared, and of the pleasure which he promised himself the +next day, at the festival on Mount Lyceum, of beholding a whole people as +happy as this sequestered family. Converse so delightful might have +charmed away the night without the aid of sleep, had they not been +invited to repose by the mild light of the moon shining through the +window, the murmuring wind in the leaves of the poplars, and the distant +noise of the Achelous, which falls roaring from the summit of Mount +Lyceum." + +The young patrician wits of Athens doubtless laughed over Plato's ideal +republic. Campanella's "City of the Sun" was looked upon, no doubt, as +the distempered vision of a crazy state prisoner. Bacon's college, in +his "New Atlantis," moved the risibles of fat-witted Oxford. More's +"Utopia," as we know, gave to our language a new word, expressive of the +vagaries and dreams of fanatics and lunatics. The merciless wits, +clerical and profane, of the court of Charles II. regarded Harrington's +romance as a perfect godsend to their vocation of ridicule. The gay +dames and carpet knights of Versailles made themselves merry with the +prose pastoral of St. Pierre; and the poor old enthusiast went down to +his grave without finding an auditory for his lectures upon natural +society. + +The world had its laugh over these romances. When unable to refute their +theories, it could sneer at the authors, and answer them to the +satisfaction of the generation in which they lived, at least by a general +charge of lunacy. Some of their notions were no doubt as absurd as those +of the astronomer in "Rasselas", who tells Imlac that he has for five +years possessed the regulation of the weather, and has got the secret of +making to the different nations an equal and impartial dividend of rain +and sunshine. But truth, even when ushered into the world through the +medium of a dull romance and in connection with a vast progeny of errors, +however ridiculed and despised at first, never fails in the end of +finding a lodging-place in the popular mind. The speculations of the +political theorists whom we have noticed have not all proved to be of + + "such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Rounded with sleep." + +They have entered into and become parts of the social and political +fabrics of Europe and America. The prophecies of imagination have been +fulfilled; the dreams of romance have become familiar realities. + +What is the moral suggested by this record? Is it not that we should +look with charity and tolerance upon the schemes and speculations of the +political and social theorists of our day; that, if unprepared to venture +upon new experiments and radical changes, we should at least consider +that what was folly to our ancestors is our wisdom, and that another +generation may successfully put in practice the very theories which now +seem to us absurd and impossible? Many of the evils of society have been +measurably removed or ameliorated; yet now, as in the days of the +Apostle, "the creation groaneth and travaileth in pain;" and although +quackery and empiricism abound, is it not possible that a proper +application of some of the remedies proposed might ameliorate the general +suffering? Rejecting, as we must, whatever is inconsistent with or +hostile to the doctrines of Christianity, on which alone rests our hope +for humanity, it becomes us to look kindly upon all attempts to apply +those doctrines to the details of human life, to the social, political, +and industrial relations of the race. If it is not permitted us to +believe all things, we can at least hope them. Despair is infidelity and +death. Temporally and spiritually, the declaration of inspiration holds +good, "We are saved by hope." + + + + +PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. (1851.) + +BERNARDIN ST. PIERRE, in his Wishes of a Solitary, asks for his country +neither wealth, nor military glory, nor magnificent palaces and +monuments, nor splendor of court nobility, nor clerical pomp. "Rather," +he says, "O France, may no beggar tread thy plains, no sick or suffering +man ask in vain for relief; in all thy hamlets may every young woman find +a lover and every lover a true wife; may the young be trained arightly +and guarded from evil; may the old close their days in the tranquil hope +of those who love God and their fellow-men." + +We are reminded of the amiable wish of the French essayist--a wish even +yet very far from realization, we fear, in the empire of Napoleon III.-- +by the perusal of two documents recently submitted to the legislature of +the State of Massachusetts. They indicate, in our view, the real glory +of a state, and foreshadow the coming of that time when Milton's +definition of a true commonwealth shall be no longer a prophecy, but the +description of an existing fact,--"a huge Christian personage, a mighty +growth and stature of an honest man, moved by the purpose of a love of +God and of mankind." + +Some years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the suggestion of +several benevolent gentlemen whose attention had been turned to the +subject, appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of the +idiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their numbers, and whether +anything could be done in their behalf. + +The commissioners were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, so well and honorably known +for his long and arduous labors in behalf of the blind, Judge Byington, +and Dr. Gilman Kimball. The burden of the labor fell upon the chairman, +who entered upon it with the enthusiasm, perseverance, and practical +adaptation of means to ends which have made him so efficient in his +varied schemes of benevolence. On the 26th of the second month, 1848, a +full report of the results of this labor was made to the Governor, +accompanied by statistical tables and minute details. One hundred towns +had been visited by the chairman or his reliable agent, in which five +hundred and seventy-five persons in a state of idiocy were discovered. +These were examined carefully in respect to their physical as well as +mental condition, no inquiry being omitted which was calculated to throw +light upon the remote or immediate causes of this mournful imperfection +in the creation of God. The proximate causes Dr. Howe mentions are to be +found in the state of the bodily organization, deranged and +disproportioned by some violation of natural law on the part of the +parents or remoter ancestors of the sufferers. Out of 420 cases of +idiocy, he had obtained information respecting the condition of the +progenitors of 359; and in all but four of these eases he found that one +or the other, or both, of their immediate progenitors had in some way +departed widely from the condition of health; they were scrofulous, or +predisposed to affections of the brain, and insanity, or had intermarried +with blood-relations, or had been intemperate, or guilty of sensual +excesses. + +Of the 575 cases, 420 were those of idiocy from birth, and 155 of idiocy +afterwards. Of the born idiots, 187 were under twenty-five years of age, +and all but 13 seemed capable of improvement. Of those above twenty-five +years of age, 73 appeared incapable of improvement in their mental +condition, being helpless as children at seven years of age; 43 out of +the 420 seemed as helpless as children at two years of age; 33 were in +the condition of mere infants; and 220 were supported at the public +charge in almshouses. A large proportion of them were found to be given +over to filthy and loathsome habits, gluttony, and lust, and constantly +sinking lower towards the condition of absolute brutishness. + +Those in private houses were found, if possible, in a still more +deplorable state. Their parents were generally poor, feeble in mind and +body, and often of very intemperate habits. Many of them seemed scarcely +able to take care of themselves, and totally unfit for the training of +ordinary children. It was the blind leading the blind, imbecility +teaching imbecility. Some instances of the experiments of parental +ignorance upon idiotic offspring, which fell under the observation of Dr. +Howe, are related in his report Idiotic children were found with their +heads covered over with cold poultices of oak-bark, which the foolish +parents supposed would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his +ox-hides, and so make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering +lessons. In other cases, finding that the child could not be made to +comprehend anything, the sagacious heads of the household, on the +supposition that its brain was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices +of bread and milk to soften it. Others plastered over their children's +heads with tar. Some administered strong doses of mercury, to "solder up +the openings" in the head and make it tight and strong. Others +encouraged the savage gluttony of their children, stimulating their +unnatural and bestial appetites, on the ground that "the poor creatures +had nothing else to enjoy but their food, and they should have enough of +that!" + +In consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848, +made an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three +years, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be +selected by the Governor and Council. The trustees of the Asylum for the +Blind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving +these pupils. The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first +annual report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the +Senate, is now before us. + +Of the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of +muscular motion,--the languid body obeyed not the service of the imbecile +will. Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple motions; +others could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two were +without any power of locomotion. + +One of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the +day of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could +scarcely see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of +touch. He could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would +lie on the floor in whatever position he was placed. He could not feed +himself nor chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an +infant. His intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no +affections. A more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have +been selected. + +A year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in +the condition of this miserable being. Cold bathing, rubbing of the +limbs, exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances +have enabled him to stand upright, to sit at table and feed himself, and +chew his food, and to walk about with slight assistance. His habits are +no longer those of a brute; he observes decency; his eye is brighter; his +cheeks glow with health; his countenance, is more expressive of thought. +He has learned many words and constructs simple sentences; his affections +begin to develop; and there is every prospect that he will be so far +renovated as to be able to provide for himself in manhood. + +In the case of another boy, aged twelve years, the improvement has been +equally remarkable. The gentleman who first called attention to him, in +a recent note to Dr. Howe, published in the report, thus speaks of his +present condition: "When I remember his former wild and almost frantic +demeanor when approached by any one, and the apparent impossibility of +communicating with him, and now see him standing in his class, playing +with his fellows, and willingly and familiarly approaching me, examining +what I gave him,--and when I see him already selecting articles named by +his teacher, and even correctly pronouncing words printed on cards,-- +improvement does not convey the idea presented to my mind; it is +creation; it is making him anew." + +All the pupils have more or less advanced. Their health and habits have +improved; and there is no reason to doubt that the experiment, at the +close of its three years, will be found to have been quite as successful +as its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated. Dr. Howe has +been ably seconded by an accomplished teacher, James B. Richards, who has +devoted his whole time to the pupils. Of the nature and magnitude of +their task, an idea may be formed only by considering the utter +listlessness of idiocy, the incapability of the poor pupil to fix his +attention upon anything, and his general want of susceptibility to +impressions. All his senses are dulled and perverted. Touch, hearing, +sight, smell, are all more or less defective. His gluttony is +unaccompanied with the gratification of taste,--the most savory viands +and the offal which he shares with the pigs equally satisfy him. His +mental state is still worse than his physical. Thought is painful and +irksome to him. + +His teacher can only engage his attention by strenuous efforts, loud, +earnest tones, gesticulations and signs, and a constant presentation of +some visible object of bright color and striking form. The eye wanders, +and the spark of consciousness and intelligence which has been fanned +into momentary brightness darkens at the slightest relaxation of the +teacher's exertions. The names of objects presented to him must +sometimes be repeated hundreds of times before he can learn them. Yet +the patience and enthusiasm of the teacher are rewarded by a progress, +slow and unequal, but still marked and manifest. Step by step, often +compelled to turn back and go over the inch of ground he had gained, the +idiot is still creeping forward; and by almost imperceptible degrees his +sick, cramped, and prisoned spirit casts off the burden of its body of +death, breath as from the Almighty--is breathed into him, and he becomes +a living soul. + +After the senses of the idiot are trained to take note +of their appropriate objects, the various perceptive faculties are next +to be exercised. The greatest possible number of facts are to be +gathered up through the medium of these faculties into the storehouse of +memory, from whence eventually the higher faculties of mind may draw the +material of general ideas. It has been found difficult, if not +impossible, to teach the idiot to read by the letters first, as in the +ordinary method; but while the varied powers of the three letters, h, a, +t, could not be understood by him, he could be made to comprehend the +complex sign of the word hat, made by uniting the three. + +The moral nature of the idiot needs training and development as well as +his physical and mental. All that can be said of him is, that he has the +latent capacity for moral development and culture. Uninstructed and left +to himself, he has no ideas of regulated appetites and propensities, of +decency and delicacy of affection and social relations. The germs of +these ideas, which constitute the glory and beauty of humanity, +undoubtedly exist in him; but there can be no growth without patient and +persevering culture. Where this is afforded, to use the language of the +report, "the idiot may learn what love is, though he may not know the +word which expresses it; he may feel kindly affections while unable to +understand the simplest virtuous principle; and he may begin to live +acceptably to God before he has learned the name by which men call him." + +In the facts and statistics presented in the report, light is shed upon +some of the dark pages of God's providence, and it is seen that the +suffering and shame of idiocy are the result of sin, of a violation of +the merciful laws of God and of the harmonies of His benign order. The +penalties which are ordained for the violators of natural laws are +inexorable and certain. For the transgressor of the laws of life there +is, as in the case of Esau, "no place for repentance, though he seek it +earnestly and with tears." The curse cleaves to him and his children. +In this view, how important becomes the subject of the hereditary +transmission of moral and physical disease and debility! and how +necessary it is that there should be a clearer understanding of, and a +willing obedience, at any cost, to the eternal law which makes the parent +the blessing or the curse of the child, giving strength and beauty, and +the capacity to know and do the will of God, or bequeathing +loathsomeness, deformity, and animal appetite, incapable of the +restraints of the moral faculties! Even if the labors of Dr. Howe and +his benevolent associates do not materially lessen the amount of present +actual evil and suffering in this respect, they will not be put forth in +vain if they have the effect of calling public attention to the great +laws of our being, the violation of which has made this goodly earth a +vast lazarhouse of pain and sorrow. + +The late annual message of the Governor of Massachusetts invites our +attention to a kindred institution of charity. The chief magistrate +congratulates the legislature, in language creditable to his mind and +heart, on the opening of the Reform School for Juvenile Criminals, +established by an act of a previous legislature. The act provides that, +when any boy under sixteen years of age shall be convicted of crime +punishable by imprisonment other than such an offence as is punished by +imprisonment for life, he may be, at the discretion of the court or +justice, sent to the State Reform School, or sentenced to such +imprisonment as the law now provides for his offence. The school is +placed under the care of trustees, who may either refuse to receive a boy +thus sent there, or, after he has been received, for reasons set forth in +the act, may order him to be committed to prison under the previous penal +law of the state. They are also authorized to apprentice the boys, at +their discretion, to inhabitants of the Commonwealth. And whenever any +boy shall be discharged, either as reformed or as having reached the age +of twenty-one years, his discharge is a full release from his sentence. + +It is made the duty of the trustees to cause the boys to be instructed in +piety and morality, and in branches of useful knowledge, in some regular +course of labor, mechanical, agricultural, or horticultural, and such +other trades and arts as may be best adapted to secure the amendment, +reformation, and future benefit of the boys. The class of offenders for +whom this act provides are generally the offspring of parents depraved by +crime or suffering from poverty and want,--the victims often of +circumstances of evil which almost constitute a necessity,--issuing from +homes polluted and miserable, from the sight and hearing of loathsome +impurities and hideous discords, to avenge upon society the ignorance, +and destitution, and neglect with which it is too often justly +chargeable. In 1846 three hundred of these youthful violators of law +were sentenced to jails and other places of punishment in Massachusetts, +where they incurred the fearful liability of being still more thoroughly +corrupted by contact with older criminals, familiar with atrocity, and +rolling their loathsome vices "as a sweet morsel under the tongue." In +view of this state of things the Reform School has been established, +twenty-two thousand dollars having been contributed to the state for that +purpose by an unknown benefactor of his race. The school is located in +Westboro', on a fine farm of two hundred acres. The buildings are in the +form of a square, with a court in the centre, three stories in front, +with wings. They are constructed with a degree of architectural taste, +and their site is happily chosen,--a gentle eminence, overlooking one of +the loveliest of the small lakes which form a pleasing feature in New +England scenery. From this place the atmosphere and associations of the +prison are excluded. The discipline is strict, as a matter of course; +but it is that of a well-regulated home or school-room,--order, neatness, +and harmony within doors; and without, the beautiful 'sights and sounds +and healthful influences of Nature. One would almost suppose that the +poetical dream of Coleridge, in his tragedy of Remorse, had found its +realization in the Westboro' School, and that, weary of the hopelessness +and cruelty of the old penal system, our legislators had embodied in +their statutes the idea of the poet:-- + + "With other ministrations thou, O Nature, + Healest thy wandering and distempered child + Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, + Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets, + Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters, + Till he relent, and can no more endure + To be a jarring and a dissonant thing + Amidst this general dance and minstrelsy." + +Thus it is that the Christian idea of reformation, rather than revenge, +is slowly but surely incorporating itself in our statute books. We have +only to look back but a single century to be able to appreciate the +immense gain for humanity in the treatment of criminals which has been +secured in that space of time. Then the use of torture was common +throughout Europe. Inability to comprehend and believe certain religious +dogmas was a crime to be expiated by death, or confiscation of estate, or +lingering imprisonment. Petty offences against property furnished +subjects for the hangman. The stocks and the whipping-post stood by the +side of the meeting-house. Tongues were bored with redhot irons and ears +shorn off. The jails were loathsome dungeons, swarming with vermin, +unventilated, unwarmed. A century and a half ago the populace of +Massachusetts were convulsed with grim merriment at the writhings of a +miserable woman scourged at the cart-tail or strangling in the ducking- +stool; crowds hastened to enjoy the spectacle of an old man enduring the +unutterable torment of the 'peine forte et dare,'--pressed slowly to +death under planks,--for refusing to plead to an indictment for +witchcraft. What a change from all this to the opening of the State +Reform School, to the humane regulations of prisons and penitentiaries, +to keen-eyed benevolence watching over the administration of justice, +which, in securing society from lawless aggression, is not suffered to +overlook the true interest and reformation of the criminal, nor to forget +that the magistrate, in the words of the Apostle, is to be indeed "the +minister of God to man for good!" + + + + +LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES. + +"THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," was +the significant answer of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees who +took offence at his companions,--the poor, the degraded, the weak, and +the sinful. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and +not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to +repentance." + +The great lesson of duty inculcated by this answer of the Divine Teacher +has been too long overlooked by individuals and communities professedly +governed by His maxims. The phylacteries of our modern Pharisees are as +broad as those of the old Jewish saints. The respectable Christian +detests his vicious and ill-conditioned neighbors as heartily as the +Israelite did the publicans and sinners of his day. He folds his robe of +self-righteousness closely about him, and denounces as little better than +sinful weakness all commiseration for the guilty; and all attempts to +restore and reclaim the erring violators of human law otherwise than by +pains and penalties as wicked collusion with crime, dangerous to the +stability and safety of society, and offensive in the sight of God. And +yet nothing is more certain than that, just in proportion as the example +of our Lord has been followed in respect to the outcast and criminal, the +effect has been to reform and elevate,--to snatch as brands from the +burning souls not yet wholly given over to the service of evil. The +wonderful influence for good exerted over the most degraded and reckless +criminals of London by the excellent and self-denying Elizabeth Fry, the +happy results of the establishment of houses of refuge, and reformation, +and Magdalen asylums, all illustrate the wisdom of Him who went about +doing good, in pointing out the morally diseased as the appropriate +subjects of the benevolent labors of His disciples. No one is to be +despaired of. We have no warrant to pass by any of our fellow-creatures +as beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy; for, beneath the most +repulsive and hateful outward manifestation, there is always a +consciousness of the beauty of goodness and purity, and of the +loathsomeness of sin,--one chamber of the heart as yet not wholly +profaned, whence at times arises the prayer of a burdened and miserable +spirit for deliverance. Deep down under the squalid exterior, +unparticipative in the hideous merriment and recklessness of the +criminal, there is another self,--a chained and suffering inner man,-- +crying out, in the intervals of intoxication and brutal excesses, like +Jonah from the bosom of hell. To this lingering consciousness the +sympathy and kindness of benevolent and humane spirits seldom appeal in +vain; for, whatever may be outward appearances, it remains true that the +way of the transgressor is hard, and that sin and suffering are +inseparable. Crime is seldom loved or persevered in for its own sake; +but, when once the evil path is entered upon, a return is in reality +extremely difficult to the unhappy wanderer, and often seems as well nigh +impossible. The laws of social life rise up like insurmountable barriers +between him and escape. As he turns towards the society whose rights he +has outraged, its frown settles upon him; the penalties of the laws he +has violated await him; and he falls back despairing, and suffers the +fetters of the evil habit to whose power he has yielded himself to be +fastened closer and heavier upon him. O for some good angel, in the form +of a brother-man and touched with a feeling of his sins and infirmities, +to reassure his better nature and to point out a way of escape from its +body of death! + +We have been led into these remarks by an account, given in the London +Weekly Chronicle, of a most remarkable interview between the professional +thieves of London and Lord Ashley,--a gentleman whose best patent of +nobility is to be found in his generous and untiring devotion to the +interests of his fellow-men. It appears that a philanthropic gentleman +in London had been applied to by two young thieves, who had relinquished +their evil practices and were obtaining a precarious but honest +livelihood by picking up bones and rags in the streets, their loss of +character closing against them all other employments. He had just been +reading an address of Lord Ashley's in favor of colonial emigration, and +he was led to ask one of the young men how he would like to emigrate. + +"I should jump at the chance!" was the reply. Not long after the +gentleman was sent for to visit one of those obscure and ruinous courts +of the great metropolis where crime and poverty lie down together,-- +localities which Dickens has pictured with such painful distinctness. +Here, to his surprise, he met a number of thieves and outlaws, who +declared themselves extremely anxious to know whether any hope could be +held out to them of obtaining an honest living, however humble, in the +colonies, as their only reason for continuing in their criminal course +was the impossibility of extricating themselves. He gave them such +advice and encouragement as he was able, and invited them to assemble +again, with such of their companions as they could persuade to do so, at +the room of the Irish Free School, for the purpose of meeting Lord +Ashley. On the 27th of the seventh month last the meeting took place. +At the hour appointed, Lord Ashley and five or six other benevolent +gentlemen, interested in emigration as a means of relief and reformation +to the criminal poor, entered the room, which was already well-nigh +filled. Two hundred and seven professed thieves were present. "Several +of the most experienced thieves were stationed at the door to prevent the +admission of any but thieves. Some four or five individuals, who were +not at first known, were subjected to examination, and only allowed to +remain on stating that they were, and being recognized as, members of the +dishonest fraternity; and before the proceedings of the evening commenced +the question was very carefully put, and repeated several times, whether +any one was in the room of whom others entertained doubts as to who he +was. The object of this care was, as so many of them were in danger of +'getting into trouble,' or, in other words, of being taken up for their +crimes, to ascertain if any who might betray them were present; and +another intention of this scrutiny was, to give those assembled, who +naturally would feel considerable fear, a fuller confidence in opening +their minds." + +What a novel conference between the extremes of modern society! All that +is beautiful in refinement and education, moral symmetry and Christian +grace, contrasting with the squalor, the ignorance, the lifelong +depravity of men living "without God in the world,"--the pariahs of +civilization,--the moral lepers, at the sight of whom decency covers its +face, and cries out, "Unclean!" After a prayer had been offered, Lord +Ashley spoke at considerable length, making a profound impression on his +strange auditory as they listened to his plans of emigration, which +offered them an opportunity to escape from their miserable condition and +enter upon a respectable course of life. The hard heart melted and the +cold and cruel eye moistened. With one accord the wretched felons +responded to the language of Christian love and good-will, and declared +their readiness to follow the advice of their true friend. They looked +up to him as to an angel of mercy, and felt the malignant spirits which +had so long tormented them disarmed of all power of evil in the presence +of simple goodness. He stood in that felon audience like Spenser's Una +amidst the satyrs; unassailable and secure in the "unresistible might of +meekness," and panoplied in that "noble grace which dashed brute violence +with sudden adoration and mute awe." + +Twenty years ago, when Elizabeth Fry ventured to visit those "spirits in +prison,"--the female tenants of Newgate,--her temerity was regarded with +astonishment, and her hope of effecting a reformation in the miserable +objects of her sympathy was held to be wholly visionary. Her personal +safety and the blessed fruits of her labors, nevertheless, confirmed the +language of her Divine Master to His disciples when He sent them forth as +lambs among wolves: "Behold, I give unto you power over all the power of +the enemy." The still more unpromising experiment of Lord Ashley, thus +far, has been equally successful; and we hail it as the introduction of a +new and more humane method of dealing with the victims of sin and +ignorance, and the temptations growing out of the inequalities and vices +of civilization. + + + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + + Letter to the Newport Convention. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 12th, 8th Month, 1869. + +I HAVE received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf +of Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R. I., on the 25th inst. I do not see +how it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so, +the state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the +meeting as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to +sanction anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of +duty or policy. Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not +embrace this occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement. +I have seen no good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not +have the same right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers, +husbands, and brothers have. + +The sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women +of my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like +equality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with +noble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their +household duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of +unpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and +strengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human +nature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than +acquiescence on the efforts you are making. I frankly confess that I am +not able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political +change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to +do right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand, +without sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote +drops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment, +the bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it. But in this +matter it seems to me that we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes +or conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves +and honors in woman. Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed +Chevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain. +I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when +they meet on terms of equality before the law. + +On the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman +will prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains. It +is her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something +less than manhood to withhold it. But, unsupported by a more practical +education, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of +life and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more +than in man's. + +With great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend. + + + + +ITALIAN UNITY + + AMESBURY, MASS., 1st Mo., 4th, 1871. + + Read at the great meeting in New York, January, 1871, in celebration + of the freedom of Rome and complete unity of Italy. + +IT would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to attend the meeting on +the 12th instant for the celebration of Italian Unity, the emancipation +of Rome, and its occupation as the permanent capital of the nation. + +For many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular +movement on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the +deliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age by centuries. I +looked at these struggles of the people with little reference to their +ecclesiastical or sectarian bearings. Had I been a Catholic instead of a +Protestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from +Papal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical, +desirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the civil liberty +which I prized so highly for myself. + +I lost all confidence in the French republic of 1849, when it forfeited +its own right to exist by crushing out the newly formed Roman republic +under Mazzini and Garibaldi. From that hour it was doomed, and the +expiation of its monstrous crime is still going on. My sympathies are +with Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and +sustain a republic in France, but I confess that the investment of Paris +by King William seems to me the logical sequence of the bombardment of +Rome by Oudinot. And is it not a significant fact that the terrible +chassepot, which made its first bloody experiment upon the halfarmed +Italian patriots without the walls of Rome, has failed in the hands of +French republicans against the inferior needle-gun of Prussia? It was +said of a fierce actor in the old French Revolution that he demoralized +the guillotine. The massacre at Mentana demoralized the chassepot. + +It is a matter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has been +effected so easily and bloodlessly. The despotism of a thousand years +fell at a touch in noiseless rottenness. The people of Rome, fifty to +one, cast their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of earth +upon its grave. Outside of Rome there seems to be a very general +acquiescence in its downfall. No Peter the Hermit preaches a crusade in +its behalf. No one of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a finger +for it. Whatever may be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the +fugitive son of King Bomba, they are in no condition to come to its +rescue. It is reserved for American ecclesiastics, loud-mouthed in +professions of democracy, to make solemn protest against what they call +an "outrage," which gives the people of Rome the right of choosing their +own government, and denies the divine right of kings in the person of Pio +Nono. + +The withdrawal of the temporal power of the Pope will prove a blessing to +the Catholic Church, as well as to the world. Many of its most learned +and devout priests and laymen have long seen the necessity of such a +change, which takes from it a reproach and scandal that could no longer +be excused or tolerated. A century hence it will have as few apologists +as the Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew. + +In this hour of congratulation let us not forget those whose suffering +and self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the +way for the triumph which we celebrate. As we call the long, illustrious +roll of Italian patriotism--the young, the brave, and beautiful; the +gray-haired, saintly confessors; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut +out from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the +slow, dumb agony of prison martyrdom--let us hope that they also rejoice +with us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving: +"Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! He hath avenged the +blood of his servants!" + +In the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule +will strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized' world, I +am very truly thy friend. + + + + +INDIAN CIVILIZATION. + +THE present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the +aboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of +indifference to any class of the people of the United States. Apart from +all considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our +own well-being would compel attention to the subject. The irreversible +laws of God's moral government, and the well-attested maxims of political +and social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and +wrong of one part of the community must affect all others. A common +responsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten +ignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect +no nation has ever escaped. + +It is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian +Civilization could be appropriately used in this country. Very little +real progress bad been made in this direction, up to the time when +Commissioner Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced. So +little had been done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the +assumption that the Indians were not susceptible of civilization and +progress. The few experiments had not been calculated to assure a +superficial observer. + +The unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the +imprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his "praying +Indians," by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes. +The salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was +greatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless +converts of Gnadenhutten. But since the first visit of Commissioner +Lang, thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization, +and conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature, +and if Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been +practically solved. + +The nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are +indeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their +elevation. The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those +Northern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and +who were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had +conquered. The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed +from the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the +Scandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons +of rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where +ghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell +was a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by +diligence in robbery and courage in murder. The descendants of these +human butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing +influence of the gospel of Christ. The report of the Superintendent of +the remnants of the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable +and prosperous in Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the +Norse ancestors of the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of +improvement. + +It is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the +wars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every +instance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic +disregard of their rights of person, property, and life. The letter of +Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month, +1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman, +Harney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching +investigation of the subject: "That the Indian goes to war is not +astonishing: he is often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in +silence, which never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. +The best possible way to avoid war is to do no injustice." + +It is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer +settlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind +vengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the +real wrong-doers. They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as +proof that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can +prevent their repetition. But a moment's consideration compels us to +admit that atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man. "All wars +are cruel," said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom +has been a great battle-field. What Indian raid has been more dreadful +than the sack of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless +atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St. +Bartholomew's day, the unspeakable agonies of the South of France under +the demoniac rule of revolution! All history, black with crime and red +with blood, is but an awful commentary upon "man's inhumanity to man," +and it teaches us that there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's +ferocity and vindictiveness, and that the alleged reasons for his +extermination would, at one time or another, have applied with equal +force to the whole family of man. + +A late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable +information and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have +found in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it +my hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general +circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in +the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind +to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a +people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future +relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly and love +mercy." + + + + +READING FOR THE BLIND. (1880.) + +To Mary C. Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum. + +DEAR FRIEND,--It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in thy +class at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded them +to read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold +what I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me. Very glad I shall +be if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I +have tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot +discern them by natural vision. I shall count it a great privilege to +see for them, or rather to let them see through my eyes. It is the mind +after all that really sees, shapes, and colors all things. What visions +of beauty and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of +blind Milton and Beethoven! + +I have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and +blind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high +degree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of +scenes which have been witnessed only by the "light within." + +I thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that +I am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer +is that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can +well dispense with the outward and material ones. + + + + +THE INDIAN QUESTION. + +Read at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the +condition of the Indians in the United States. + +AMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883. + +I REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to +the pressing question of the day, the present condition and future +prospects of the Indian race in the United States. The old policy, +however well intended, of the government is no longer available. The +westward setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the +lines of the reservations. There would seem to be no power in the +government to prevent the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and +the crowding out of the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds. +Outbreaks of Indian ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on +the part of the whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of +indiscriminate massacres. The entire question will soon resolve itself +into the single alternative of education and civilization or +extermination. + +The school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon +have proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can +be enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and +delight in the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in +his workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the +laws of the republic. What is needed is that not only these schools +should be more liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened +without delay. The matter does not admit of procrastination. The work +of education and civilization must be done. The money needed must be +contributed with no sparing hand. The laudable example set by the +Friends and the American Missionary Association should be followed by +other sects and philanthropic societies. Christianity, patriotism, and +enlightened self interest have a common stake in the matter. Great and +difficult as the work may be the country is strong enough, rich enough, +wise enough, and, I believe, humane and Christian enough to do it. + + + + +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. + +Read at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston, +November, 1885. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885. + +I AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of +the Essex Club on the 14th inst. I should be glad to meet my old +Republican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election +in Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex. + +Some of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last +year saw fit to vote with the opposite party. I would be the last to +deny their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I +think they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and +evils which they complained of. President Cleveland has proved himself +better than his party, and has done and said some good things which I +give him full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him, +and must eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his +carrying the party, it will be likely to carry him. It has already +compelled him to put his hands in his pockets for electioneering +purposes, and travel all the way from Washington to Buffalo to give his +vote for a spoilsman and anti-civil service machine politician. I would +not like to call it a case of "offensive partisanship," but it looks a +good deal like it. + +As a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the +party, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the +Democratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization +no longer necessary. But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has +still its mission and its future. When labor shall everywhere have its +just reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when +education shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have +the free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective +of color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community +shall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it +fostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions +of office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to +well-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will +the work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political +rivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other +aim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty, +and union. Then may the language which Milton addressed to his +countrymen two centuries ago be applied to the United States, "Go on, +hand in hand, O peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic +song of all posterity. Join your invincible might to do worthy and +godlike deeds; and then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving +curse be his inheritance." + + + + +OUR DUMB RELATIONS. (1886.) + +IT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the +fervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His +creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league +with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace +with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the +golden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to +warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute +creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest +and meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world +there are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and +nature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven, +and who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents. + +It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that +stories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men +and animals are always listened to with interest and approval. How +pleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been +celebrated in song and romance. Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his +bequest to the birds. Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went, +by flocks of birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed +hat and his drab coat-sleeves. Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind +and infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of +Walter Scott and John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs. Of our own +Thoreau, instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend. Emerson +says of him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller +records of Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees +things, or the bees had told him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the +fishes swam into his hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his +tail, and took foxes under his protection from the hunters." + +In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems--the sacred book of the +Mahabharata--there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness, +which records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise. +A pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces, +and, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all +fallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed. +He was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city. But the king +thinks of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in +without them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him. +Joyful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who, +weary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter +the gate. Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon +his faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin. + + "Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful! + Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog. + The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to + save him; + Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word." + +In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and +straightway descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and +faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself +surrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus +honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love. + + + + +INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + +Read at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing +more than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor +international arbitration. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887. + +IT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at +the welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than +two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international +arbitration. Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the +presentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United +States. It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best +interests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must +respond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his +colleagues who represented the workingmen of England. We do not need to +be told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by +professed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and +boomerang. We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the +demoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the +spectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in +preparing to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like +Count Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that +the gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred. + +The overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a +cheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of +peace among English speaking peoples. I cannot doubt that whatever stump +orators and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America +will respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water. +No two nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the +United States for making the "holy experiment of arbitration." + +In our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common +claims in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are +essentially one people. Whatever other nations may do, we at least +should be friends. God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall +not be in vain! May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us +shall be the peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of +good. + + "When closer strand shall lean to strand, + Till meet beneath saluting flags, + The eagle of our mountain crags, + The lion of our mother land!" + + + + +SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN. + +Read at the Woman's Convention at Washington. + +OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888. + +I THANK thee for thy kind letter. It would be a great satisfaction to be +able to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage +Association. But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my +hearty sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart +and assurance in view of all that has been accomplished. There is no +easy royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been +slow there has been no step backward. The barriers which at first seemed +impregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and +their fall is certain. A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is +in the air; your opponents feel it and believe it. They know that yours +is a gaining and theirs a losing cause. The work still before you +demands on your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm, +dignified, and self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you +have so much reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not +discouraged by temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor +provoked to use any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall +back on the heads of those who use them. You can afford +in your consciousness of right to be as calm and courteous as the +archangel Michael, who, we are told in Scripture in his controversy with +Satan himself, did not bring a railing accusation against him. A wise +adaptation of means to ends is no yielding of principle, but care should +be taken to avoid all such methods as have disgraced political and +religious parties of the masculine sex. Continue to make it manifest +that all which is pure and lovely and of good repute in womanhood is +entirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of citizenship, and +the performance of the duties which we all owe to our homes and our +country. Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt or misgiving +as to your success, I bid you Godspeed. I find I have written to the +association rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal +originators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I +should identify thee with it. + + + + +THE INNER LIFE + +THE AGENCY OF EVIL. + +From the Supernaturalism of New England, in the Democratic Review for +1843. + +IN this life of ours, so full of mystery, so hung about with wonders, so +written over with dark riddles, where even the lights held by prophets +and inspired ones only serve to disclose the solemn portals of a future +state of being, leaving all beyond in shadow, perhaps the darkest and +most difficult problem which presents itself is that of the origin of +evil,--the source whence flow the black and bitter waters of sin and +suffering and discord,--the wrong which all men see in others and feel +in themselves,--the unmistakable facts of human depravity and misery. A +superficial philosophy may attempt to refer all these dark phenomena of +man's existence to his own passions, circumstances, and will; but the +thoughtful observer cannot rest satisfied with secondary causes. The +grossest materialism, at times, reveals something of that latent dread +of an invisible and spiritual influence which is inseparable from our +nature. Like Eliphaz the Temanite, it is conscious of a spirit passing +before its face, the form whereof is not discerned. + +It is indeed true that our modern divines and theologians, as if to atone +for the too easy credulity of their order formerly, have unceremoniously +consigned the old beliefs of Satanic agency, demoniacal possession, and +witchcraft, to Milton's receptacle of exploded follies and detected +impostures, + + "Over the backside of the world far off, + Into a limbo broad and large, and called + The paradise of fools,"-- + +that indeed, out of their peculiar province, and apart from the routine +of their vocation, they have become the most thorough sceptics and +unbelievers among us. Yet it must be owned that, if they have not the +marvellous themselves, they are the cause of it in others. In certain +states of mind, the very sight of a clergyman in his sombre professional +garb is sufficient to awaken all the wonderful within us. Imagination +goes wandering back to the subtle priesthood of mysterious Egypt. We +think of Jannes and Jambres; of the Persian magi; dim oak groves, with +Druid altars, and priests, and victims, rise before us. For what is the +priest even of our New England but a living testimony to the truth of the +supernatural and the reality of the unseen,--a man of mystery, walking in +the shadow of the ideal world,--by profession an expounder of spiritual +wonders? Laugh he may at the old tales of astrology and witchcraft and +demoniacal possession; but does he not believe and bear testimony to his +faith in the reality of that dark essence which Scripture more than hints +at, which has modified more or less all the religious systems and +speculations of the heathen world,--the Ahriman of the Parsee, the Typhon +of the Egyptian, the Pluto of the Roman mythology, the Devil of Jew, +Christian, and Mussulman, the Machinito of the Indian,--evil in the +universe of goodness, darkness in the light of divine intelligence,--in +itself the great and crowning mystery from which by no unnatural process +of imagination may be deduced everything which our forefathers believed +of the spiritual world and supernatural agency? That fearful being with +his tributaries and agents,--"the Devil and his angels,"--how awfully he +rises before us in the brief outline limning of the sacred writers! How +he glooms, "in shape and gesture proudly eminent," on the immortal canvas +of Milton and Dante! What a note of horror does his name throw into the +sweet Sabbath psalmody of our churches. What strange, dark fancies are +connected with the very language of common-law indictments, when grand +juries find under oath that the offence complained of has been committed +"at the instigation of the Devil"! + +How hardly effaced are the impressions of childhood! Even at this day, +at the mention of the evil angel, an image rises before me like that with +which I used especially to horrify myself in an old copy of Pilgrim's +Progress. Horned, hoofed, scaly, and fire-breathing, his caudal +extremity twisted tight with rage, I remember him, illustrating the +tremendous encounter of Christian in the valley where "Apollyon straddled +over the whole breadth of the way." There was another print of the enemy +which made no slight impression upon me. It was the frontispiece of an +old, smoked, snuff-stained pamphlet, the property of an elderly lady, +(who had a fine collection of similar wonders, wherewith she was kind +enough to edify her young visitors,) containing a solemn account of the +fate of a wicked dancing-party in New Jersey, whose irreverent +declaration, that they would have a fiddler if they had to send to the +lower regions after him, called up the fiend himself, who forthwith +commenced playing, while the company danced to the music incessantly, +without the power to suspend their exercise, until their feet and legs +were worn off to the knees! The rude wood-cut represented the demon +fiddler and his agonized companions literally stumping it up and down in +"cotillons, jigs, strathspeys, and reels." He would have answered very +well to the description of the infernal piper in Tam O'Shanter. + +To this popular notion of the impersonation of the principle of evil we +are doubtless indebted for the whole dark legacy of witchcraft and +possession. Failing in our efforts to solve the problem of the origin of +evil, we fall back upon the idea of a malignant being,--the antagonism of +good. Of this mysterious and dreadful personification we find ourselves +constrained to speak with a degree of that awe and reverence which are +always associated with undefined power and the ability to harm. "The +Devil," says an old writer, "is a dignity, though his glory be somewhat +faded and wan, and is to be spoken of accordingly." + +The evil principle of Zoroaster was from eternity self-created and +existent, and some of the early Christian sects held the same opinion. +The gospel, however, affords no countenance to this notion of a divided +sovereignty of the universe. The Divine Teacher, it is true, in +discoursing of evil, made use of the language prevalent in His time, and +which was adapted to the gross conceptions of His Jewish bearers; but He +nowhere presents the embodiment of sin as an antagonism to the absolute +power and perfect goodness of God, of whom, and through whom, and to whom +are all things. Pure himself, He can create nothing impure. Evil, +therefore, has no eternity in the past. The fact of its present actual +existence is indeed strongly stated; and it is not given us to understand +the secret of that divine alchemy whereby pain, and sin, and discord +become the means to beneficent ends worthy of the revealed attributes of +the Infinite Parent. Unsolved by human reason or philosophy, the dark +mystery remains to baffle the generations of men; and only to the eye of +humble and childlike faith can it ever be reconciled to the purity, +justice, and mercy of Him who is "light, and in whom is no darkness at +all." + +"Do you not believe in the Devil?" some one once asked the Non-conformist +Robinson. "I believe in God," was the reply; "don't you?" + +Henry of Nettesheim says "that it is unanimously maintained that devils +do wander up and down in the earth; but what they are, or how they are, +ecclesiasticals have not clearly expounded." Origen, in his Platonic +speculations on this subject, supposed them to be spirits who, by +repentance, might be restored, that in the end all knees might be bowed +to the Father of spirits, and He become all in all. Justin Martyr was of +the opinion that many of them still hoped for their salvation; and the +Cabalists held that this hope of theirs was well founded. One is +irresistibly reminded here of the closing verse of the _Address to the +Deil_, by Burns:-- + + "But fare ye weel, Auld Nickie ben! + Gin ye wad take a thought and mend, + Ye aiblins might--I dinna ken-- + Still has a stake + I'm was to think upon yon den + Fen for your sake." + +The old schoolmen and fathers seem to agree that the Devil and his +ministers have bodies in some sort material, subject to passions and +liable to injury and pain. Origen has a curious notion that any evil +spirit who, in a contest with a human being, is defeated, loses from +thenceforth all his power of mischief, and may be compared to a wasp who +has lost his sting. + +"The Devil," said Samson Occum, the famous Indian preacher, in a +discourse on temperance, "is a gentleman, and never drinks." +Nevertheless it is a remarkable fact, and worthy of the serious +consideration of all who "tarry long at the wine," that, in that state of +the drunkard's malady known as delirium tremens, the adversary, in some +shape or other, is generally visible to the sufferers, or at least, as +Winslow says of the Powahs, "he appeareth more familiarly to them than to +others." I recollect a statement made to me by a gentleman who has had +bitter experience of the evils of intemperance, and who is at this time +devoting his fine talents to the cause of philanthropy and mercy, as the +editor of one of our best temperance journals, which left a most vivid +impression on my mind. He had just returned from a sea-voyage; and, for +the sake of enjoying a debauch, unmolested by his friends, took up his +abode in a rum-selling tavern in a somewhat lonely location on the +seaboard. Here he drank for many days without stint, keeping himself the +whole time in a state of semi-intoxication. One night he stood leaning +against a tree, looking listlessly and vacantly out upon the ocean; the +waves breaking on the beach, and the white sails of passing vessels +vaguely impressing him like the pictures of a dream. He was startled by +a voice whispering hoarsely in his ear, _"You have murdered a man; the +officers of justice are after you; you must fly for your life!"_ Every +syllable was pronounced slowly and separately; and there was something in +the hoarse, gasping sound of the whisper which was indescribably +dreadful. He looked around him, and seeing nothing but the clear +moonlight on the grass, became partially sensible that he was the victim +of illusion, and a sudden fear of insanity thrilled him with a momentary +horror. Rallying himself, he returned to the tavern, drank another glass +of brandy, and retired to his chamber. He had scarcely lain his head on +the pillow when he heard that hoarse, low, but terribly distinct whisper, +repeating the same words. He describes his sensations at this time as +inconceivably fearful. Reason was struggling with insanity; but amidst +the confusion and mad disorder one terrible thought evolved itself. Had +he not, in a moment of mad frenzy of which his memory made no record, +actually murdered some one? And was not this a warning from Heaven? +Leaving his bed and opening his door, he heard the words again repeated, +with the addition, in a tone of intense earnestness, "Follow me!" He +walked forward in the direction of the sound, through a long entry, to +the head of the staircase, where he paused for a moment, when again he +heard the whisper, half-way down the stairs, "Follow me!" + +Trembling with terror, he passed down two flights of stairs, and found +himself treading on the cold brick floor of a large room in the basement, +or cellar, where he had never been before. The voice still beckoned him +onward; and, groping after it, his hand touched an upright post, against +which he leaned for a moment. He heard it again, apparently only two or +three yards in front of him "You have murdered a man; the officers are +close behind you; follow me!" Putting one foot forward while his hand +still grasped the post, it fell upon empty air, and he with difficulty +recovered himself. Stooping down and feeling with his hands, he found +himself on the very edge of a large uncovered cistern, or tank, filled +nearly to the top with water. The sudden shock of this discovery broke +the horrible enchantment. The whisperer was silent. He believed, at the +time, that he had been the subject, and well-nigh the victim, of a +diabolical delusion; and he states that, even now, with the recollection +of that strange whisper is always associated a thought of the universal +tempter. + +Our worthy ancestors were, in their own view of the matter, the advance +guard and forlorn hope of Christendom in its contest with the bad angel. +The New World, into which they had so valiantly pushed the outposts of +the Church militant, was to them, not God's world, but the Devil's. They +stood there on their little patch of sanctified territory like the +gamekeeper of Der Freischutz in the charmed circle; within were prayer +and fasting, unmelodious psalmody and solemn hewing of heretics, "before +the Lord in Gilgal;" without were "dogs and sorcerers, red children of +perdition, Powah wizards," and "the foul fiend." In their grand old +wilderness, broken by fair, broad rivers and dotted with loveliest lakes, +hanging with festoons of leaf, and vine, and flower, the steep sides of +mountains whose naked tops rose over the surrounding verdure like altars +of a giant world,--with its early summer greenness and the many-colored +wonder of its autumn, all glowing as if the rainbows of a summer shower +had fallen upon it, under the clear, rich light of a sun to which the +misty day of their cold island was as moonlight,--they saw no beauty, +they recognized no holy revelation. It was to them terrible as the +forest which Dante traversed on his way to the world of pain. Every +advance step they made was upon the enemy's territory. And one has only +to read the writings of the two Mathers to perceive that that enemy was +to them no metaphysical abstraction, no scholastic definition, no figment +of a poetical fancy, but a living, active reality, alternating between +the sublimest possibilities of evil and the lowest details of mean +mischief; now a "tricksy spirit," disturbing the good-wife's platters or +soiling her newwashed linen, and anon riding the storm-cloud and pointing +its thunder-bolts; for, as the elder Mather pertinently inquires, "how +else is it that our meeting-houses are burned by the lightning?" What +was it, for instance, but his subtlety which, speaking through the lips +of Madame Hutchinson, confuted the "judges of Israel" and put to their +wits' end the godly ministers of the Puritan Zion? Was not his evil +finger manifested in the contumacious heresy of Roger Williams? Who else +gave the Jesuit missionaries--locusts from the pit as they were--such a +hold on the affections of those very savages who would not have scrupled +to hang the scalp of pious Father Wilson himself from their girdles? To +the vigilant eye of Puritanism was he not alike discernible in the light +wantonness of the May-pole revellers, beating time with the cloven foot +to the vain music of obscene dances, and in the silent, hat-canopied +gatherings of the Quakers, "the most melancholy of the sects," as Dr. +Moore calls them? Perilous and glorious was it, under these +circumstances, for such men as Mather and Stoughton to gird up their +stout loins and do battle with the unmeasured, all-surrounding terror. +Let no man lightly estimate their spiritual knight-errantry. The heroes +of old romance, who went about smiting dragons, lopping giants' heads, +and otherwise pleasantly diverting themselves, scarcely deserve mention +in comparison with our New England champions, who, trusting not to carnal +sword and lance, in a contest with principalities and powers, "spirits +that live throughout, Vital in every part, not as frail man,"-- +encountered their enemies with weapons forged by the stern spiritual +armorer of Geneva. The life of Cotton Mather is as full of romance as +the legends of Ariosto or the tales of Beltenebros and Florisando in +Amadis de Gaul. All about him was enchanted ground; devils glared on him +in his "closet wrestlings;" portents blazed in the heavens above him; +while he, commissioned and set apart as the watcher, and warder, and +spiritual champion of "the chosen people," stood ever ready for battle, +with open eye and quick ear for the detection of the subtle approaches of +the enemy. No wonder is it that the spirits of evil combined against +him; that they beset him as they did of old St. Anthony; that they shut +up the bowels of the General Court against his long-cherished hope of the +presidency of Old Harvard; that they even had the audacity to lay hands +on his anti-diabolical manuscripts, or that "ye divil that was in ye girl +flewe at and tore" his grand sermon against witches. How edifying is his +account of the young bewitched maiden whom he kept in his house for the +purpose of making experiments which should satisfy all "obstinate +Sadducees"! How satisfactory to orthodoxy and confounding to heresy is +the nice discrimination of "ye divil in ye girl," who was choked in +attempting to read the Catechism, yet found no trouble with a pestilent +Quaker pamphlet; who was quiet and good-humored when the worthy Doctor +was idle, but went into paroxysms of rage when he sat down to indite his +diatribes against witches and familiar spirits! + + (The Quakers appear to have, at a comparatively early period, + emancipated themselves in a great degree from the grosser + superstitions of their times. William Penn, indeed, had a law in + his colony against witchcraft; but the first trial of a person + suspected of this offence seems to have opened his eyes to its + absurdity. George Fox, judging from one or two passages in his + journal, appears to have held the common opinions of the day on the + subject; yet when confined in Doomsdale dungeon, on being told that + the place was haunted and that the spirits of those who had died + there still walked at night in his room, he replied, "that if all + the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was over them in the + power of God, and feared no such thing." + + The enemies of the Quakers, in order to account for the power and + influence of their first preachers, accused them of magic and + sorcery. "The Priest of Wakefield," says George Fox (one trusts he + does not allude to our old friend the Vicar), "raised many wicked + slanders upon me, as that I carried bottles with me and made people + drink, and that made them follow me; that I rode upon a great black + horse, and was seen in one county upon my black horse in one hour, + and in the same hour in another county fourscore miles off." In his + account of the mob which beset him at Walney Island, he says: "When + I came to myself I saw James Lancaster's wife throwing stones at my + face, and her husband lying over me to keep off the blows and + stones; for the people had persuaded her that I had bewitched her + husband." + + Cotton Mather attributes the plague of witchcraft in New England in + about an equal degree to the Quakers and Indians. The first of the + sect who visited Boston, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher,--the latter a + young girl,--were seized upon by Deputy-Governor Bellingham, in the + absence of Governor Endicott, and shamefully stripped naked for the + purpose of ascertaining whether they were witches with the Devil's + mark on them. In 1662 Elizabeth Horton and Joan Broksop, two + venerable preachers of the sect, were arrested in Boston, charged by + Governor Endicott with being witches, and carried two days' journey + into the woods, and left to the tender mercies of Indians and + wolves.) + +All this is pleasant enough now; we can laugh at the Doctor and his +demons; but little matter of laughter was it to the victims on Salem +Hill; to the prisoners in the jails; to poor Giles Corey, tortured with +planks upon his breast, which forced the tongue from his mouth and his +life from his old, palsied body; to bereaved and quaking families; to a +whole community, priest-ridden and spectresmitten, gasping in the sick +dream of a spiritual nightmare and given over to believe a lie. We may +laugh, for the grotesque is blended with the horrible; but we must also +pity and shudder. The clear-sighted men who confronted that delusion in +its own age, disenchanting, with strong good sense and sharp ridicule, +their spell-bound generation,--the German Wierus, the Italian D'Apone, +the English Scot, and the New England Calef,--deserve high honors as the +benefactors of their race. It is true they were branded through life as +infidels and "damnable Sadducees;" but the truth which they uttered +lived after them, and wrought out its appointed work, for it had a Divine +commission and Godspeed. + + "The oracles are dumb; + No voice nor hideous hum + +Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; + + Apollo from his shrine + Can now no more divine, + +With hollow shriek the steep of Delphus leaving." + +Dimmer and dimmer, as the generations pass away, this tremendous terror, +this all-pervading espionage of evil, this active incarnation of +motiveless malignity, presents itself to the imagination. The once +imposing and solemn rite of exorcism has become obsolete in the Church. +Men are no longer, in any quarter of the world, racked or pressed under +planks to extort a confession of diabolical alliance. The heretic now +laughs to scorn the solemn farce of the Church which, in the name of the +All-Merciful, formally delivers him over to Satan. And for the sake of +abused and long-cheated humanity let us rejoice that it is so, when we +consider how for long, weary centuries the millions of professed +Christendom stooped, awestricken, under the yoke of spiritual and +temporal despotism, grinding on from generation to generation in a +despair which had passed complaining, because superstition, in alliance +with tyranny, had filled their upward pathway to freedom with shapes of +terror,--the spectres of God's wrath to the uttermost, the fiend, and +that torment the smoke of which rises forever. Through fear of a Satan +of the future,--a sort of ban-dog of priestcraft, held in its leash and +ready to be let loose upon the disputers of its authority,--our toiling +brothers of past ages have permitted their human taskmasters to convert +God's beautiful world, so adorned and fitted for the peace and happiness +of all, into a great prison-house of suffering, filled with the actual +terrors which the imagination of the old poets gave to the realm of +Rhadamanthus. And hence, while I would not weaken in the slightest +degree the influence of that doctrine of future retribution,--the +accountability of the spirit for the deeds done in the body,--the truth +of which reason, revelation, and conscience unite in attesting as the +necessary result of the preservation in another state of existence of the +soul's individuality and identity, I must, nevertheless, rejoice that the +many are no longer willing to permit the few, for their especial benefit, +to convert our common Father's heritage into a present hell, where, in +return for undeserved suffering and toil uncompensated, they can have +gracious and comfortable assurance of release from a future one. Better +is the fear of the Lord than the fear of the Devil; holier and more +acceptable the obedience of love and reverence than the submission of +slavish terror. The heart which has felt the "beauty of holiness," which +has been in some measure attuned to the divine harmony which now, as of +old in the angel-hymn of the Advent, breathes of "glory to God, peace on +earth, and good-will to men," in the serene atmosphere of that "perfect +love which casteth out fear," smiles at the terrors which throng the sick +dreams of the sensual, which draw aside the nightcurtains of guilt, and +startle with whispers of revenge the oppressor of the poor. + +There is a beautiful moral in one of Fouque's miniature romances,--_Die +Kohlerfamilie_. The fierce spectre, which rose giant-like, in its +bloodred mantle, before the selfish and mercenary merchant, ever +increasing in size and, terror with the growth of evil and impure thought +in the mind of the latter, subdued by prayer, and penitence, and patient +watchfulness over the heart's purity, became a loving and gentle +visitation of soft light and meekest melody; "a beautiful radiance, at +times hovering and flowing on before the traveller, illuminating the +bushes and foliage of the mountain-forest; a lustre strange and lovely, +such as the soul may conceive, but no words express. He felt its power +in the depths of his being,--felt it like the mystic breathing of the +Spirit of God." + +The excellent Baxter and other pious men of his day deprecated in all +sincerity and earnestness the growing disbelief in witchcraft and +diabolical agency, fearing that mankind, losing faith in a visible Satan +and in the supernatural powers of certain paralytic old women, would +diverge into universal skepticism. It is one of the saddest of sights to +see these good men standing sentry at the horn gate of dreams; attempting +against the most discouraging odds to defend their poor fallacies from +profane and irreverent investigation; painfully pleading doubtful +Scripture and still more doubtful tradition in behalf of detected and +convicted superstitions tossed on the sharp horns of ridicule, stretched +on the rack of philosophy, or perishing under the exhausted receiver of +science. A clearer knowledge of the aspirations, capacities, and +necessities of the human soul, and of the revelations which the infinite +Spirit makes to it, not only through the senses by the phenomena of +outward nature, but by that inward and direct communion which, under +different names, has been recognized by the devout and thoughtful of +every religious sect and school of philosophy, would have saved them much +anxious labor and a good deal of reproach withal in their hopeless +championship of error. The witches of Baxter and "the black man" of +Mather have vanished; belief in them is no longer possible on the part of +sane men. But this mysterious universe, through which, half veiled in +its own shadow, our dim little planet is wheeling, with its star worlds +and thought-wearying spaces, remains. Nature's mighty miracle is still +over and around us; and hence awe, wonder, and reverence remain to be the +inheritance of humanity; still are there beautiful repentances and holy +deathbeds; and still over the soul's darkness and confusion rises, +starlike, the great idea of duty. By higher and better influences than +the poor spectres of superstition, man must henceforth be taught to +reverence the Invisible, and, in the consciousness of his own weakness, +and sin, and sorrow, to lean with childlike trust on the wisdom and mercy +of an overruling Providence,--walking by faith through the shadow and +mystery, and cheered by the remembrance that, whatever may be his +apparent allotment,-- + + "God's greatness flows around our incompleteness; + Round our restlessness His rest." + +It is a sad spectacle to find the glad tidings of the Christian faith and +its "reasonable service" of devotion transformed by fanaticism and +credulity into superstitious terror and wild extravagance; but, if +possible, there is one still sadder. It is that of men in our own time +regarding with satisfaction such evidences of human weakness, and +professing to find in them new proofs of their miserable theory of a +godless universe, and new occasion for sneering at sincere devotion as +cant, and humble reverence as fanaticism. Alas! in comparison with +such, the religious enthusiast, who in the midst of his delusion still +feels that he is indeed a living soul and an heir of immortality, to whom +God speaks from the immensities of His universe, is a sane man. Better +is it, in a life like ours, to be even a howling dervis or a dancing +Shaker, confronting imaginary demons with Thalaba's talisman of faith, +than to lose the consciousness of our own spiritual nature, and look upon +ourselves as mere brute masses of animal organization,--barnacles on a +dead universe; looking into the dull grave with no hope beyond it; earth +gazing into earth, and saying to corruption, "Thou art my father," and to +the worm, "Thou art my sister." + + + + +HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES. (1844.) + +AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul +and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures +of Tombs,--a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek- +spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and +eloquent language, its vindication. "There is," says he, "a voluptuous +melancholy arising from the contemplation of tombs; the result, like +every other attractive sensation, of the harmony of two opposite +principles,--from the sentiment of our fleeting life and that of our +immortality, which unite in view of the last habitation of mankind. A +tomb is a monument erected on the confines of two worlds. It first +presents to us the end of the vain disquietudes of life and the image of +everlasting repose; it afterwards awakens in us the confused sentiment of +a blessed immortality, the probabilities of which grow stronger and +stronger in proportion as the person whose memory is recalled was a +virtuous character. + +"It is from this intellectual instinct, therefore, in favor of virtue, +that the tombs of great men inspire us with a veneration so affecting. +From the same sentiment, too, it is that those which contain objects that +have been lovely excite so much pleasing regret; for the attractions of +love arise entirely out of the appearances of virtue. Hence it is that +we are moved at the sight of the small hillock which covers the ashes of +an infant, from the recollection of its innocence; hence it is that we +are melted into tenderness on contemplating the tomb in which is laid to +repose a young female, the delight and the hope of her family by reason +of her virtues. In order to give interest to such monuments, there is no +need of bronzes, marbles, and gildings. The more simple they are, the +more energy they communicate to the sentiment of melancholy. They +produce a more powerful effect when poor rather than rich, antique rather +than modern, with details of misfortune rather than titles of honor, with +the attributes of virtue rather than with those of power. It is in the +country principally that their impression makes itself felt in a very +lively manner. A simple, unornamented grave there causes more tears to +flow than the gaudy splendor of a cathedral interment. There it is that +grief assumes sublimity; it ascends with the aged yews in the churchyard; +it extends with the surrounding hills and plains; it allies itself with +all the effects of Nature,--with the dawning of the morning, with the +murmuring of wind, with the setting of the sun, and with the darkness of +the night." + +Not long since I took occasion to visit the cemetery near this city. It +is a beautiful location for a "city of the dead,"--a tract of some forty +or fifty acres on the eastern bank of the Concord, gently undulating, and +covered with a heavy growth of forest-trees, among which the white oak is +conspicuous. The ground beneath has been cleared of undergrowth, and is +marked here and there with monuments and railings enclosing "family +lots." It is a quiet, peaceful spot; the city, with its crowded mills, +its busy streets and teeming life, is hidden from view; not even a +solitary farm-house attracts the eye. All is still and solemn, as befits +the place where man and nature lie down together; where leaves of the +great lifetree, shaken down by death, mingle and moulder with the frosted +foliage of the autumnal forest. + +Yet the contrast of busy life is not wanting. The Lowell and Boston +Railroad crosses the river within view of the cemetery; and, standing +there in the silence and shadow, one can see the long trains rushing +along their iron pathway, thronged with living, breathing humanity,--the +young, the beautiful, the gay,--busy, wealth-seeking manhood of middle +years, the child at its mother's knee, the old man with whitened hairs, +hurrying on, on,--car after car,--like the generations of man sweeping +over the track of time to their last 'still resting-place. + +It is not the aged and the sad of heart who make this a place of favorite +resort. The young, the buoyant, the light-hearted, come and linger among +these flower-sown graves, watching the sunshine falling in broken light +upon these cold, white marbles, and listening to the song of birds in +these leafy recesses. Beautiful and sweet to the young heart is the +gentle shadow of melancholy which here falls upon it, soothing, yet sad, +--a sentiment midway between joy and sorrow. How true is it, that, in the +language of Wordsworth,-- + + "In youth we love the darkling lawn, + Brushed by the owlet's wing; + Then evening is preferred to dawn, + And autumn to the spring. + Sad fancies do we then affect, + In luxury of disrespect + To our own prodigal excess + Of too familiar happiness." + +The Chinese, from the remotest antiquity, have adorned and decorated +their grave-grounds with shrubs and sweet flowers, as places of popular +resort. The Turks have their graveyards planted with trees, through +which the sun looks in upon the turban stones of the faithful, and +beneath which the relatives of the dead sit in cheerful converse through +the long days of summer, in all the luxurious quiet and happy +indifference of the indolent East. Most of the visitors whom I met at +the Lowell cemetery wore cheerful faces; some sauntered laughingly along, +apparently unaffected by the associations of the place; too full, +perhaps, of life, and energy, and high hope to apply to themselves the +stern and solemn lesson which is taught even by these flower-garlanded +mounds. But, for myself, I confess that I am always awed by the presence +of the dead. I cannot jest above the gravestone. My spirit is silenced +and rebuked before the tremendous mystery of which the grave reminds me, +and involuntarily pays: + + "The deep reverence taught of old, + The homage of man's heart to death." + +Even Nature's cheerful air, and sun, and birdvoices only serve to remind +me that there are those beneath who have looked on the same green leaves +and sunshine, felt the same soft breeze upon their cheeks, and listened +to the same wild music of the woods for the last time. Then, too, comes +the saddening reflection, to which so many have given expression, that +these trees will put forth their leaves, the slant sunshine still fall +upon green meadows and banks of flowers, and the song of the birds and +the ripple of waters still be heard after our eyes and ears have closed +forever. It is hard for us to realize this. We are so accustomed to +look upon these things as a part of our life environment that it seems +strange that they should survive us. Tennyson, in his exquisite +metaphysical poem of the Two Voices, has given utterance to this +sentiment:-- + + "Alas! though I should die, I know + That all about the thorn will blow + In tufts of rosy-tinted snow. + + "Not less the bee will range her cells, + The furzy prickle fire the dells, + The foxglove cluster dappled bells." + +"The pleasures of the tombs!" Undoubtedly, in the language of the +Idumean, seer, there are many who "rejoice exceedingly and are glad when +they can find the grave;" who long for it "as the servant earnestly +desireth the shadow." Rest, rest to the sick heart and the weary brain, +to the long afflicted and the hopeless,--rest on the calm bosom of our +common mother. Welcome to the tired ear, stunned and confused with +life's jarring discords, the everlasting silence; grateful to the weary +eyes which "have seen evil, and not good," the everlasting shadow. + +Yet over all hangs the curtain of a deep mystery,--a curtain lifted only +on one side by the hands of those who are passing under its solemn +shadow. No voice speaks to us from beyond it, telling of the unknown +state; no hand from within puts aside the dark drapery to reveal the +mysteries towards which we are all moving. "Man giveth up the ghost; and +where is he?" + +Thanks to our Heavenly Father, He has not left us altogether without an +answer to this momentous question. Over the blackness of darkness a +light is shining. The valley of the shadow of death is no longer "a land +of darkness and where the light is as darkness." The presence of a +serene and holy life pervades it. Above its pale tombs and crowded +burial-places, above the wail of despairing humanity, the voice of Him +who awakened life and beauty beneath the grave-clothes of the tomb at +Bethany is heard proclaiming, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." We +know not, it is true, the conditions of our future life; we know not what +it is to pass fromm this state of being to another; but before us in that +dark passage has gone the Man of Nazareth, and the light of His footsteps +lingers in the path. Where He, our Brother in His humanity, our Redeemer +in His divine nature, has gone, let us not fear to follow. He who +ordereth all aright will uphold with His own great arm the frail spirit +when its incarnation is ended; and it may be, that, in language which I +have elsewhere used, + + --when Time's veil shall fall asunder, + The soul may know + No fearful change nor sudden wonder, + Nor sink the weight of mystery under, + But with the upward rise and with the vastness grow. + + And all we shrink from now may seem + No new revealing; + Familiar as our childhood's stream, + Or pleasant memory of a dream, + The loved and cherished past upon the new life stealing. + + Serene and mild the untried light + May have its dawning; + As meet in summer's northern night + The evening gray and dawning white, + The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul's new morning. + + + + +SWEDENBORG (1844.) + +THERE are times when, looking only on the surface of things, one is +almost ready to regard Lowell as a sort of sacred city of Mammon,--the +Benares of gain: its huge mills, temples; its crowded dwellings, lodging- +places of disciples and "proselytes within the gate;" its warehouses, +stalls for the sale of relics. A very mean idol-worship, too, unrelieved +by awe and reverence,--a selfish, earthward-looking devotion to the +"least-erected spirit that fell from paradise." I grow weary of seeing +man and mechanism reduced to a common level, moved by the same impulse, +answering to the same bell-call. A nightmare of materialism broods over +all. I long at times to hear a voice crying through the streets like +that of one of the old prophets proclaiming the great first truth,--that +the Lord alone is God. + +Yet is there not another side to the picture? High over sounding +workshops spires glisten in the sun,--silent fingers pointing heavenward. +The workshops themselves are instinct with other and subtler processes +than cotton-spinning or carpet-weaving. Each human being who watches +beside jack or power loom feels more or less intensely that it is a +solemn thing to live. Here are sin and sorrow, yearnings for lost peace, +outgushing gratitude of forgiven spirits, hopes and fears, which stretch +beyond the horizon of time into eternity. Death is here. The graveyard +utters its warning. Over all bends the eternal heaven in its silence and +mystery. Nature, even here, is mightier than Art, and God is above all. +Underneath the din of labor and the sounds of traffic, a voice, felt +rather than beard, reaches the heart, prompting the same fearful +questions which stirred the soul of the world's oldest poet,--"If a man +die, shall he live again?" "Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" +Out of the depths of burdened and weary hearts comes up the agonizing +inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" "Who shall deliver me from the +body of this death?" + +As a matter of course, in a city like this, composed of all classes of +our many-sided population, a great variety of religious sects have their +representatives in Lowell. The young city is dotted over with "steeple +houses," most of them of the Yankee order of architecture. The +Episcopalians have a house of worship on Merrimac Street,--a pile of dark +stone, with low Gothic doors and arched windows. A plat of grass lies +between it and the dusty street; and near it stands the dwelling-house +intended for the minister, built of the same material as the church and +surrounded by trees and shrubbery. The attention of the stranger is also +attracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of +Belvidere,--one of Irving's a "shingle palaces," painted in imitation of +stone,--a great wooden sham, "whelked and horned" with pine spires and +turrets, a sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of +the Apocalypse. + +In addition to the established sects which have reared their visible +altars in the City of Spindles, there are many who have not yet marked +the boundaries or set up the pillars and stretched out the curtains of +their sectarian tabernacles; who, in halls and "upper chambers" and in +the solitude of their own homes, keep alive the spirit of devotion, and, +wrapping closely around them the mantles of their order, maintain the +integrity of its peculiarities in the midst of an unbelieving generation. + +Not long since, in company with a friend who is a regular attendant, I +visited the little meeting of the disciples of Emanuel Swedenborg. +Passing over Chapel Hill and leaving the city behind us, we reached the +stream which winds through the beautiful woodlands at the Powder Mills +and mingles its waters with the Concord. The hall in which the followers +of the Gothland seer meet is small and plain, with unpainted seats, like +those of "the people called Quakers," and looks out upon the still woods +and that "willowy stream which turns a mill." An organ of small size, +yet, as it seemed to me, vastly out of proportion with the room, filled +the place usually occupied by the pulpit, which was here only a plain +desk, placed modestly by the side of it. The congregation have no +regular preacher, but the exercises of reading the Scriptures, prayers, +and selections from the Book of Worship were conducted by one of the lay +members. A manuscript sermon, by a clergyman of the order in Boston, was +read, and apparently listened to with much interest. It was well written +and deeply imbued with the doctrines of the church. I was impressed by +the gravity and serious earnestness of the little audience. There were +here no circumstances calculated to excite enthusiasm, nothing of the +pomp of religious rites and ceremonies; only a settled conviction of the +truth of the doctrines of their faith could have thus brought them +together. I could scarcely make the fact a reality, as I sat among them, +that here, in the midst of our bare and hard utilities, in the very +centre and heart of our mechanical civilization, were devoted and +undoubting believers in the mysterious and wonderful revelations of the +Swedish prophet,--revelations which look through all external and outward +manifestations to inward realities; which regard all objects in the world +of sense only as the types and symbols of the world of spirit; literally +unmasking the universe and laying bare the profoundest mysteries of life. + +The character and writings of Emanuel Swedenborg constitute one of the +puzzles and marvels of metaphysics and psychology. A man remarkable for +his practical activities, an ardent scholar of the exact sciences, versed +in all the arcana of physics, a skilful and inventive mechanician, he has +evolved from the hard and gross materialism of his studies a system of +transcendent spiritualism. From his aggregation of cold and apparently +lifeless practical facts beautiful and wonderful abstractions start forth +like blossoms on the rod of the Levite. A politician and a courtier, a +man of the world, a mathematician engaged in the soberest details of the +science, he has given to the world, in the simplest and most natural +language, a series of speculations upon the great mystery of being: +detailed, matter-of-fact narratives of revelations from the spiritual +world, which at once appall us by their boldness, and excite our wonder +at their extraordinary method, logical accuracy, and perfect consistency. +These remarkable speculations--the workings of a mind in which a powerful +imagination allied itself with superior reasoning faculties, the +marvellous current of whose thought ran only in the diked and guarded +channels of mathematical demonstration--he uniformly speaks of as +"facts." His perceptions of abstractions were so intense that they seem +to have reached that point where thought became sensible to sight as well +as feeling. What he thought, that he saw. + +He relates his visions of the spiritual world as he would the incidents +of a walk round his own city of Stockholm. One can almost see him in his +"brown coat and velvet breeches," lifting his "cocked hat" to an angel, +or keeping an unsavory spirit at arm's length with that "gold-headed +cane" which his London host describes as his inseparable companion in +walking. His graphic descriptions have always an air of naturalness and +probability; yet there is a minuteness of detail at times almost +bordering on the ludicrous. In his Memorable Relations he manifests +nothing of the imagination of Milton, overlooking the closed gates of +paradise, or following the "pained fiend" in his flight through chaos; +nothing of Dante's terrible imagery appalls us; we are led on from heaven +to heaven very much as Defoe leads us after his shipwrecked Crusoe. We +can scarcely credit the fact that we are not traversing our lower planet; +and the angels seem vastly like our common acquaintances. We seem to +recognize the "John Smiths," and "Mr. Browns," and "the old familiar +faces" of our mundane habitation. The evil principle in Swedenborg's +picture is, not the colossal and massive horror of the Inferno, nor that +stern wrestler with fate who darkens the canvas of Paradise Lost, but an +aggregation of poor, confused spirits, seeking rest and finding none save +in the unsavory atmosphere of the "falses." These small fry of devils +remind us only of certain unfortunate fellows whom we have known, who +seem incapable of living in good and wholesome society, and who are +manifestly given over to believe a lie. Thus it is that the very +"heavens" and "hells" of the Swedish mystic seem to be "of the earth, +earthy." He brings the spiritual world into close analogy with the +material one. + +In this hurried paper I have neither space nor leisure to attempt an +analysis of the great doctrines which underlie the "revelations" of +Swedenborg. His remarkably suggestive books are becoming familiar to the +reading and reflecting portion of the community. They are not unworthy +of study; but, in the language of another, I would say, "Emulate +Swedenborg in his exemplary life, his learning, his virtues, his +independent thought, his desire for wisdom, his love of the good and +true; aim to be his equal, his superior, in these things; but call no man +your master." + + + + +THE BETTER LAND. (1844.) + +"THE shapings of our heavens are the modifications of our constitution," +said Charles Lamb, in his reply to Southey's attack upon him in the +Quarterly Review. + +He who is infinite in love as well as wisdom has revealed to us the fact +of a future life, and the fearfully important relation in which the +present stands to it. The actual nature and conditions of that life He +has hidden from us,--no chart of the ocean of eternity is given us,--no +celestial guidebook or geography defines, localizes, and prepares us for +the wonders of the spiritual world. Hence imagination has a wide field +for its speculations, which, so long as they do not positively contradict +the revelation of the Scriptures, cannot be disproved. + +We naturally enough transfer to our idea of heaven whatever we love and +reverence on earth. Thither the Catholic carries in his fancy the +imposing rites and time-honored solemnities of his worship. There the +Methodist sees his love-feasts and camp-meetings in the groves and by the +still waters and green pastures of the blessed abodes. The Quaker, in +the stillness of his self-communing, remembers that there was "silence in +heaven." + +The Churchman, listening to the solemn chant of weal music or the deep +tones of the organ, thinks of the song of the elders and the golden harps +of the New Jerusalem. + +The heaven of the northern nations of Europe was a gross and sensual +reflection of the earthly life of a barbarous and brutal people. + +The Indians of North America had a vague notion of a sunset land, a +beautiful paradise far in the west, mountains and forests filled with +deer and buffalo, lakes and streams swarming with fishes,--the happy +hunting-ground of souls. In a late letter from a devoted missionary +among the Western Indians (Paul Blohm, a converted Jew) we have noticed a +beautiful illustration of this belief. Near the Omaha mission-house, on +a high luff, was a solitary Indian grave. "One evening," +says the missionary, "having come home with some cattle which I had been +seeking, I heard some one wailing; and, looking in the direction from +whence I proceeded, I found it to be from the grave near our house. In a +moment after a mourner rose up from a kneeling or lying posture, and, +turning to the setting sun, stretched forth his arms in prayer and +supplication with an intensity and earnestness as though he would detain +the splendid luminary from running his course. With his body leaning +forward and his arms stretched towards the sun, he presented a most +striking figure of sorrow and petition. It was solemnly awful. He +seemed to me to be one of the ancients come forth to teach me how to +pray." + +A venerable and worthy New England clergyman, on his death-bed, just +before the close of his life, declared that he was only conscious of an +awfully solemn and intense curiosity to know the great secret of death +and eternity. + +The excellent Dr. Nelson, of Missouri, was one who, while on earth, +seemed to live another and higher life in the contemplation of infinite +purity and happiness. A friend once related an incident concerning him +which made a deep impression upon my mind. They had been travelling +through a summer's forenoon in the prairie, and had lain down to rest +beneath a solitary tree. The Doctor lay for a long time, silently +looking upwards through the openings of the boughs into the still +heavens, when he repeated the following lines, in a low tone, as if +communing with himself in view of the wonders he described:-- + + "O the joys that are there mortal eye bath not seen! + O the songs they sing there, with hosannas between! + O the thrice-blessed song of the Lamb and of Moses! + O brightness on brightness! the pearl gate uncloses! + O white wings of angels! O fields white with roses! + O white tents of peace, where the rapt soul reposes + O the waters so still, and the pastures so green!" + +The brief hints afforded us by the sacred writings concerning the better +land are inspiring and beautiful. Eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, +neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of the good in +store for the righteous. Heaven is described as a quiet habitation,--a +rest remaining for the people of God. Tears shall be wiped away from all +eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither +shall there be any more pain. To how many death-beds have these words +spoken peace! How many failing hearts have gathered strength from them +to pass through the dark valley of shadows! + +Yet we should not forget that "the kingdom of heaven is within;" that it +is the state and affections of the soul, the answer of a good conscience, +the sense of harmony with God, a condition of time as well as of +eternity. What is really momentous and all-important with us is the +present, by which the future is shaped and colored. A mere change of +locality cannot alter the actual and intrinsic qualities of the soul. +Guilt and remorse would make the golden streets of Paradise intolerable +as the burning marl of the infernal abodes; while purity and innocence +would transform hell itself into heaven. + + + + +DORA GREEN WELL. + +First published as an introduction to an American edition of that +author's _The Patience of Hope_. + +THERE are men who, irrespective of the names by which they are called in +the Babel confusion of sects, are endeared to the common heart of +Christendom. Our doors open of their own accord to receive them. For in +them we feel that in some faint degree, and with many limitations, the +Divine is again manifested: something of the Infinite Love shines out of +them; their very garments have healing and fragrance borrowed from the +bloom of Paradise. So of books. There are volumes which perhaps contain +many things, in the matter of doctrine and illustration, to which our +reason does not assent, but which nevertheless seem permeated with a +certain sweetness and savor of life. They have the Divine seal and +imprimatur; they are fragrant with heart's-ease and asphodel; tonic with +the leaves which are for the healing of the nations. The meditations of +the devout monk of Kempen are the common heritage of Catholic and +Protestant; our hearts burn within us as we walk with Augustine under +Numidian fig-trees in the gardens of Verecundus; Feuelon from his +bishop's palace and John Woolman from his tailor's shop speak to us in +the same language. The unknown author of that book which Luther loved +next to his Bible, the Theologia Germanica, is just as truly at home in +this present age, and in the ultra Protestantism of New England, as in +the heart of Catholic Europe, and in the fourteenth century. For such +books know no limitations of time or place; they have the perpetual +freshness and fitness of truth; they speak out of profound experience +heart answers to heart as we read them; the spirit that is in man, and +the inspiration that giveth understanding, bear witness to them. The +bent and stress of their testimony are the same, whether written in this +or a past century, by Catholic or Quaker: self-renunciation,-- +reconcilement to the Divine will through simple faith in the Divine +goodness, and the love of it which must needs follow its recognition, the +life of Christ made our own by self-denial and sacrifice, and the +fellowship of His suffering for the good of others, the indwelling +Spirit, leading into all truth, the Divine Word nigh us, even in our +hearts. They have little to do with creeds, or schemes of doctrine, or +the partial and inadequate plans of salvation invented by human +speculation and ascribed to Him who, it is sufficient to know, is able to +save unto the uttermost all who trust in Him. They insist upon simple +faith and holiness of life, rather than rituals or modes of worship; they +leave the merely formal, ceremonial, and temporal part of religion to +take care of itself, and earnestly seek for the substantial, the +necessary, and the permanent. + +With these legacies of devout souls, it seems to me, the little volume +herewith presented is not wholly unworthy of a place. It assumes the +life and power of the gospel as a matter of actual experience; it bears +unmistakable evidence of a realization, on the part of its author, of the +truth, that Christianity is not simply historical and traditional, but +present and permanent, with its roots in the infinite past and its +branches in the infinite future, the eternal spring and growth of Divine +love; not the dying echo of words uttered centuries ago, never to be +repeated, but God's good tidings spoken afresh in every soul,--the +perennial fountain and unstinted outflow of wisdom and goodness, forever +old and forever new. It is a lofty plea for patience, trust, hope, and +holy confidence, under the shadow, as well as in the light, of Christian +experience, whether the cloud seems to rest on the tabernacle, or moves +guidingly forward. It is perhaps too exclusively addressed to those who +minister in the inner sanctuary, to be entirely intelligible to the +vaster number who wait in the outer courts; it overlooks, perhaps, too +much the solidarity and oneness of humanity;' but all who read it will +feel its earnestness, and confess to the singular beauty of its style, +the strong, steady march of its argument, and the wide and varied +learning which illustrates it. + + ("The good are not so good as I once thought, nor the bad so evil, + and in all there is more for grace to make advantage of, and more to + testify for God and holiness, than I once believed."--Baxter.) + +To use the language of one of its reviewers in the Scottish press:-- + +"Beauty there is in the book; exquisite glimpses into the loveliness of +nature here and there shine out from its lines,--a charm wanting which +meditative writing always seems to have a defect; beautiful gleams, too, +there are of the choicest things of art, and frequent allusions by the +way to legend or picture of the religious past; so that, while you read, +you wander by a clear brook of thought, coining far from the beautiful +hills, and winding away from beneath the sunshine of gladness and beauty +into the dense, mysterious forest of human existence, that loves to sing, +amid the shadow of human darkness and anguish, its music of heavenborn +consolation; bringing, too, its pure waters of cleansing and healing, yet +evermore making its praise of holy affection and gladness; while it is +still haunted by the spirits of prophet, saint, and poet, repeating +snatches of their strains, and is led on, as by a spirit from above, to +join the great river of God's truth. . . . + +"This is a book for Christian men, for the quiet hour of holy solitude, +when the heart longs and waits for access to the presence of the Master. +The weary heart that thirsts amidst its conflicts and its toils for +refreshing water will drink eagerly of these sweet and refreshing words. +To thoughtful men and women, especially such as have learnt any of the +patience of hope in the experiences of sorrow and trial, we commend this +little volume most heartily and earnestly." + + +_The Patience of Hope_ fell into my hands soon after its publication in +Edinburgh, some two years ago. I was at once impressed by its +extraordinary richness of language and imagery,--its deep and solemn tone +of meditation in rare combination with an eminently practical tendency,-- +philosophy warm and glowing with love. It will, perhaps, be less the +fault of the writer than of her readers, if they are not always able to +eliminate from her highly poetical and imaginative language the subtle +metaphysical verity or phase of religious experience which she seeks to +express, or that they are compelled to pass over, without appropriation, +many things which are nevertheless profoundly suggestive as vague +possibilities of the highest life. All may not be able to find in some +of her Scriptural citations the exact weight and significance so apparent +to her own mind. She startles us, at times, by her novel applications of +familiar texts, by meanings reflected upon them from her own spiritual +intuitions, making the barren Baca of the letter a well. If the +rendering be questionable, the beauty and quaint felicity of illustration +and comparison are unmistakable; and we call to mind Augustine's saying, +that two or more widely varying interpretations of Scripture may be alike +true in themselves considered. "When one saith, Moses meant as I do,' +and another saith, 'Nay, but as I do,' I ask, more reverently, 'Why not +rather as both, if both be true?" + +Some minds, for instance, will hesitate to assent to the use of certain +Scriptural passages as evidence that He who is the Light of men, the Way +and the Truth, in the mystery of His economy, designedly "delays, +withdraws, and even hides Himself from those who love and follow Him." +They will prefer to impute spiritual dearth and darkness to human +weakness, to the selfishness which seeks a sign for itself, to evil +imaginations indulged, to the taint and burden of some secret sin, or to +some disease and exaggeration of the conscience, growing out of bodily +infirmity, rather than to any purpose on the part of our Heavenly Father +to perplex and mislead His children. The sun does not shine the less +because one side of our planet is in darkness. To borrow the words of +Augustine "Thou, Lord, forsakest nothing thou hast made. Thou alone art +near to those even who remove far from thee. Let them turn and seek +thee, for not as they have forsaken their Creator hast thou forsaken thy +creation." It is only by holding fast the thought of Infinite Goodness, +and interpreting doubtful Scripture and inward spiritual experience by +the light of that central idea, that we can altogether escape the +dreadful conclusion of Pascal, that revelation has been given us in +dubious cipher, contradictory and mystical, in order that some, through +miraculous aid, may understand it to their salvation, and others be +mystified by it to their eternal loss. + +I might mention other points of probable divergence between reader and +writer, and indicate more particularly my own doubtful parse and +hesitancy over some of these pages. But it is impossible for me to make +one to whom I am so deeply indebted an offender for a word or a +Scriptural rendering. On the grave and awful themes which she discusses, +I have little to say in the way of controversy. I would listen, rather +than criticise. The utterances of pious souls, in all ages, are to me +often like fountains in a thirsty land, strengthening and refreshing, yet +not without an after-taste of human frailty and inadequateness, a slight +bitterness of disappointment and unsatisfied quest. Who has not felt at +times that the letter killeth, that prophecies fail, and tongues cease to +edify, and been ready to say, with the author of the Imitation of Christ: +"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Let not Moses nor the prophets +speak to me, but speak thou rather, who art the Inspirer and Enlightener +of all. I am weary with reading and hearing many things; let all +teachers hold their peace; let all creatures keep silence: speak thou +alone to me." + +The writer of The Patience of Hope had, previous to its publication, +announced herself to a fit, if small, audience of earnest and thoughtful +Christians, in a little volume entitled, A Present Heaven. She has +recently published a collection of poems, of which so competent a judge +as Dr. Brown, the author of _Horae Subsecivae_ and _Rab and his Friends_, +thus speaks, in the _North British Review_:-- + +"Such of our readers--a fast increasing number--as have read and enjoyed +_The Patience of Hope_, listening to the gifted nature which, through +such deep and subtile thought, and through affection and godliness still +deeper and more quick, has charmed and soothed them, will not be +surprised to learn that she is not only poetical, but, what is more, a +poet, and one as true as George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, or our own +Cowper; for, with all our admiration of the searching, fearless +speculation, the wonderful power of speaking clearly upon dark and all +but unspeakable subjects, the rich outcome of 'thoughts that wander +through eternity,' which increases every time we take up that wonderful +little book, we confess we were surprised at the kind and the amount of +true poetic _vis_ in these poems, from the same fine and strong hand. +There is a personality and immediateness, a sort of sacredness and +privacy, as if they were overheard rather than read, which gives to these +remarkable productions a charm and a flavor all their own. With no +effort, no consciousness of any end but that of uttering the inmost +thoughts and desires of the heart, they flow out as clear, as living, as +gladdening as the wayside well, coming from out the darkness of the +central depths, filtered into purity by time and travel. The waters are +copious, sometimes to overflowing; but they are always limpid and +unforced, singing their own quiet tune, not saddening, though sometimes +sad, and their darkness not that of obscurity, but of depth, like that of +the deep sea. + +"This is not a book to criticise or speak about, and we give no extracts +from the longer, and in this case, we think, the better poems. In +reading this Cardiphonia set to music, we have been often reminded, not +only of Herbert and Vaughan, but of Keble,--a likeness of the spirit, not +of the letter; for if there is any one poet who has given a bent to her +mind, it is Wordsworth,--the greatest of all our century's poets, both in +himself and in his power of making poets." + +In the belief that whoever peruses the following pages will be +sufficiently interested in their author to be induced to turn back and +read over again, with renewed pleasure, extracts from her metrical +writings, I copy from the volume so warmly commended a few brief pieces +and extracts from the longer poems. + +Here are three sonnets, each a sermon in itself:-- + + + ASCENDING. + + They who from mountain-peaks have gazed upon + The wide, illimitable heavens have said, + That, still receding as they climbed, outspread, + The blue vault deepens over them, and, one + By one drawn further back, each starry sun + Shoots down a feebler splendor overhead + So, Saviour, as our mounting spirits, led + Along Faith's living way to Thee, have won + A nearer access, up the difficult track + Still pressing, on that rarer atmosphere, + When low beneath us flits the cloudy rack, + We see Thee drawn within a widening sphere + Of glory, from us further, further back,-- + Yet is it then because we are more near. + + + LIFE TAPESTRY. + + Top long have I, methought, with tearful eye + Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused + Above each stitch awry and thread confused; + Now will I think on what in years gone by + I heard of them that weave rare tapestry + At royal looms, and hew they constant use + To work on the rough side, and still peruse + The pictured pattern set above them high; + So will I set my copy high above, + And gaze and gaze till on my spirit grows + Its gracious impress; till some line of love, + Transferred upon my canvas, faintly glows; + Nor look too much on warp or woof, provide + He whom I work for sees their fairer side! + + + HOPE. + + When I do think on thee, sweet Hope, and how + Thou followest on our steps, a coaxing child + Oft chidden hence, yet quickly reconciled, + Still turning on us a glad, beaming brow, + And red, ripe lips for kisses: even now + Thou mindest me of him, the Ruler mild, + Who led God's chosen people through the wild, + And bore with wayward murmurers, meek as thou + That bringest waters from the Rock, with bread + Of angels strewing Earth for us! like him + Thy force abates not, nor thine eye grows dim; + But still with milk and honey-droppings fed, + Thou leadest to the Promised Country fair, + Though thou, like Moses, may'st not enter there + + +There is something very weird and striking in the following lines:-- + + + GONE. + + Alone, at midnight as he knelt, his spirit was aware + Of Somewhat falling in between the silence and the prayer; + + A bell's dull clangor that hath sped so far, it faints and dies + So soon as it hath reached the ear whereto its errand lies; + + And as he rose up from his knees, his spirit was aware + Of Somewhat, forceful and unseen, that sought to hold him there; + + As of a Form that stood behind, and on his shoulders prest + Both hands to stay his rising up, and Somewhat in his breast, + + In accents clearer far than words, spake, "Pray yet longer, pray, + For one that ever prayed for thee this night hath passed away; + + "A soul, that climbing hour by hour the silver-shining stair + That leads to God's great treasure-house, grew covetous; and there + + "Was stored no blessing and no boon, for thee she did not claim, + (So lowly, yet importunate!) and ever with thy name + + "She link'd--that none in earth or heaven might hinder it or stay-- + One Other Name, so strong, that thine hath never missed its way. + + "This very night within my arms this gracious soul I bore Within the + Gate, where many a prayer of hers had gone before; + + "And where she resteth, evermore one constant song they raise Of 'Holy, + holy,' so that now I know not if she prays; + + "But for the voice of praise in Heaven, a voice of Prayer hath gone + From Earth; thy name upriseth now no more; pray on, pray on!" + + +The following may serve as a specimen of the writer's lighter, half- +playful strain of moralizing:-- + + + SEEKING. + + "And where, and among what pleasant places, + Have ye been, that ye come again + With your laps so full of flowers, and your faces + Like buds blown fresh after rain?" + + "We have been," said the children, speaking + In their gladness, as the birds chime, + All together,--"we have been seeking + For the Fairies of olden time; + For we thought, they are only hidden,-- + They would never surely go + From this green earth all unbidden, + And the children that love them so. + Though they come not around us leaping, + As they did when they and the world + Were young, we shall find them sleeping + Within some broad leaf curled; + For the lily its white doors closes + But only over the bee, + And we looked through the summer roses, + Leaf by leaf, so carefully. + + But we thought, rolled up we shall find them + Among mosses old and dry; + From gossamer threads that bind them, + They will start like the butterfly, + All winged: so we went forth seeking, + Yet still they have kept unseen; + Though we think our feet have been keeping + The track where they have been, + For we saw where their dance went flying + O'er the pastures,--snowy white." + + Their seats and their tables lying, + O'erthrown in their sudden flight. + And they, too, have had their losses, + For we found the goblets white + And red in the old spiked mosses, + That they drank from over-night; + And in the pale horn of the woodbine + Was some wine left, clear and bright; + "But we found," said the children, speaking + More quickly, "so many things, + That we soon forgot we were seeking,-- + Forgot all the Fairy rings, + Forgot all the stories olden + That we hear round the fire at night, + Of their gifts and their favors golden,-- + The sunshine was so bright; + And the flowers,--we found so many + That it almost made us grieve + To think there were some, sweet as any, + That we were forced to leave; + As we left, by the brook-side lying, + The balls of drifted foam, + And brought (after all our trying) + These Guelder-roses home." + + "Then, oh!" I heard one speaking + Beside me soft and low, + "I have been, like the blessed children, seeking, + Still seeking, to and fro; + Yet not, like them, for the Fairies,-- + They might pass unmourned away + For me, that had looked on angels,-- + On angels that would not stay; + No! not though in haste before them + I spread all my heart's best cheer, + And made love my banner o'er them, + If it might but keep them here; + They stayed but a while to rest them; + Long, long before its close, + From my feast, though I mourned and prest them + The radiant guests arose; + And their flitting wings struck sadness + And silence; never more + Hath my soul won back the gladness, + That was its own before. + No; I mourned not for the Fairies + When I had seen hopes decay, + That were sweet unto my spirit + So long; I said, 'If they, + That through shade and sunny weather + Have twined about my heart, + Should fade, we must go together, + For we can never part!' + But my care was not availing; + I found their sweetness gone; + I saw their bright tints paling;-- + They died; yet I lived on. + + "Yet seeking, ever seeking, + Like the children, I have won + A guerdon all undreamt of + + When first my quest begun, + And my thoughts come back like wanderers, + Out-wearied, to my breast; + What they sought for long they found not, + Yet was the Unsought best. + For I sought not out for crosses, + I did not seek for pain; + Yet I find the heart's sore losses + Were the spirit's surest gain." + + +In _A Meditation_, the writer ventures, not without awe and reverence, +upon that dim, unsounded ocean of mystery, the life beyond:-- + + + "But is there prayer + Within your quiet homes, and is there care + For those ye leave behind? I would address + My spirit to this theme in humbleness + No tongue nor pen hath uttered or made known + This mystery, and thus I do but guess + At clearer types through lowlier patterns shown; + Yet when did Love on earth forsake its own? + Ye may not quit your sweetness; in the Vine + More firmly rooted than of old, your wine + Hath freer flow! ye have not changed, but grown + To fuller stature; though the shock was keen + That severed you from us, how oft below + Hath sorest parting smitten but to show + True hearts their hidden wealth that quickly grow + The closer for that anguish,--friend to friend + Revealed more clear,--and what is Death to rend + The ties of life and love, when He must fade + In light of very Life, when He must bend + To love, that, loving, loveth to the end? + + "I do not deem ye look + Upon us now, for be it that your eyes + Are sealed or clear, a burden on them lies + Too deep and blissful for their gaze to brook + Our troubled strife; enough that once ye dwelt + Where now we dwell, enough that once ye felt + As now we feel, to bid you recognize + Our claim of kindred cherished though unseen; + And Love that is to you for eye and ear + Hath ways unknown to us to bring you near,-- + To keep you near for all that comes between; + As pious souls that move in sleep to prayer, + As distant friends, that see not, and yet share + (I speak of what I know) each other's care, + So may your spirits blend with ours! + Above Ye know not haply of our state, yet + Love Acquaints you with our need, and through a way + More sure than that of knowledge--so ye pray! + + "And even thus we meet, + And even thus we commune! spirits freed + And spirits fettered mingle, nor have need + To seek a common atmosphere, the air + Is meet for either in this olden, sweet, + Primeval breathing of Man's spirit,--Prayer!" + + +I give, in conclusion, a portion of one of her most characteristic poems, +_The Reconciler_:-- + + + "Our dreams are reconciled, + Since Thou didst come to turn them all to Truth; + The World, the Heart, are dreamers in their youth + Of visions beautiful, and strange and wild; + And Thou, our Life's Interpreter, dost still + At once make clear these visions and fulfil; + + Each dim sweet Orphic rhyme, + Each mythic tale sublime + Of strength to save, of sweetness to subdue, + Each morning dream the few, + Wisdom's first lovers told, if read in Thee comes true. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + "Thou, O Friend + From heaven, that madest this our heart Thine own, + Dost pierce the broken language of its moan-- + Thou dost not scorn our needs, but satisfy! + Each yearning deep and wide, + Each claim, is justified; + Our young illusions fail not, though they die + Within the brightness of Thy Rising, kissed + To happy death, like early clouds that lie + About the gates of Dawn,--a golden mist + Paling to blissful white, through rose and amethyst. + + "The World that puts Thee by, + That opens not to greet Thee with Thy train, + That sendeth after Thee the sullen cry, + 'We will not have Thee over us to reign,' + Itself Both testify through searchings vain + Of Thee and of its need, and for the good + It will not, of some base similitude + Takes up a taunting witness, till its mood, + Grown fierce o'er failing hopes, doth rend and tear + Its own illusions grown too thin and bare + To wrap it longer; for within the gate + Where all must pass, a veiled and hooded Fate, + A dark Chimera, coiled and tangled lies, + And he who answers not its questions dies,-- + Still changing form and speech, but with the same + Vexed riddles, Gordian-twisted, bringing shame + Upon the nations that with eager cry + Hail each new solver of the mystery; + Yet he, of these the best, + Bold guesser, hath but prest + Most nigh to Thee, our noisy plaudits wrong; + True Champion, that hast wrought + Our help of old, and brought + Meat from this eater, sweetness from this strong. + + "O Bearer of the key + That shuts and opens with a sound so sweet + Its turning in the wards is melody, + All things we move among are incomplete + And vain until we fashion them in Thee! + We labor in the fire, + Thick smoke is round about us; through the din + Of words that darken counsel clamors dire + Ring from thought's beaten anvil, where within + Two Giants toil, that even from their birth + With travail-pangs have torn their mother Earth, + And wearied out her children with their keen + Upbraidings of the other, till between + Thou tamest, saying, 'Wherefore do ye wrong + Each other?--ye are Brethren.' Then these twain + Will own their kindred, and in Thee retain + Their claims in peace, because Thy land is wide + As it is goodly! here they pasture free, + This lion and this leopard, side by side, + A little child doth lead them with a song; + Now, Ephraim's envy ceaseth, and no more + Doth Judah anger Ephraim chiding sore, + For one did ask a Brother, one a King, + So dost Thou gather them in one, and bring-- + Thou, King forevermore, forever Priest, + Thou, Brother of our own from bonds released + A Law of Liberty, + A Service making free, + A Commonweal where each has all in Thee. + + "And not alone these wide, + Deep-planted yearnings, seeking with a cry + Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied; + But all our instincts waking suddenly + Within the soul, like infants from their sleep + That stretch their arms into the dark and weep, + Thy voice can still. The stricken heart bereft + Of all its brood of singing hopes, and left + 'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest + With snow-flakes in it, folded in Thy breast + Doth lose its deadly chill; and grief that creeps + Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there + The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan, and weeps + Calm, quiet tears, and on Thy forehead Care + Hath looked until its thorns, no longer bare, + Put forth pale roses. Pain on Thee doth press + Its quivering cheek, and all the weariness, + The want that keep their silence, till from Thee + They hear the gracious summons, none beside + Hath spoken to the world-worn, 'Come to me,' + Tell forth their heavy secrets. + + "Thou dost hide + These in Thy bosom, and not these alone, + But all our heart's fond treasure that had grown + A burden else: O Saviour, tears were weighed + To Thee in plenteous measure! none hath shown + That Thou didst smile! yet hast Thou surely made + All joy of ours Thine own. + + "Thou madest us for Thine; + We seek amiss, we wander to and fro; + Yet are we ever on the track Divine; + The soul confesseth Thee, but sense is slow + To lean on aught but that which it may see; + So hath it crowded up these Courts below + With dark and broken images of Thee; + Lead Thou us forth upon Thy Mount, and show + Thy goodly patterns, whence these things of old + By Thee were fashioned; One though manifold. + Glass Thou Thy perfect likeness in the soul, + Show us Thy countenance, and we are whole!" + + +No one, I am quite certain, will regret that I have made these liberal +quotations. Apart from their literary merit, they have a special +interest for the readers of The Patience of Hope, as more fully +illustrating the writer's personal experience and aspirations. + +It has been suggested by a friend that it is barely possible that an +objection may be urged against the following treatise, as against all +books of a like character, that its tendency is to isolate the individual +from his race, and to nourish an exclusive and purely selfish personal +solicitude; that its piety is self-absorbent, and that it does not take +sufficiently into account active duties and charities, and the love of +the neighbor so strikingly illustrated by the Divine Master in His life +and teachings. This objection, if valid, would be a fatal one. For, of +a truth, there can be no meaner type of human selfishness than that +afforded by him who, unmindful of the world of sin and suffering about +him, occupies himself in the pitiful business of saving his own soul, in +the very spirit of the miser, watching over his private hoard while his +neighbors starve for lack of bread. But surely the benevolent unrest, +the far-reaching sympathies and keen sensitiveness to the suffering of +others, which so nobly distinguish our present age, can have nothing to +fear from a plea for personal holiness, patience, hope, and resignation +to the Divine will. "The more piety, the more compassion," says Isaac +Taylor; and this is true, if we understand by piety, not self-concentred +asceticism, but the pure religion and undefiled which visits the widow +and the fatherless, and yet keeps itself unspotted from the world,--which +deals justly, loves mercy, and yet walks humbly before God. Self- +scrutiny in the light of truth can do no harm to any one, least of all to +the reformer and philanthropist. The spiritual warrior, like the young +candidate for knighthood, may be none the worse for his preparatory +ordeal of watching all night by his armor. + +Tauler in mediaeval times and Woolman in the last century are among the +most earnest teachers of the inward life and spiritual nature of +Christianity, yet both were distinguished for practical benevolence. +They did not separate the two great commandments. Tauler strove with +equal intensity of zeal to promote the temporal and the spiritual welfare +of men. In the dark and evil time in which he lived, amidst the untold +horrors of the "Black Plague," he illustrated by deeds of charity and +mercy his doctrine of disinterested benevolence. Woolman's whole life +was a nobler Imitation of Christ than that fervid rhapsody of monastic +piety which bears the name. + +How faithful, yet, withal, how full of kindness, were his rebukes of +those who refused labor its just reward, and ground the faces of the +poor? How deep and entire was his sympathy with overtasked and ill-paid +laborers; with wet and illprovided sailors; with poor wretches +blaspheming in the mines, because oppression had made them mad; with the +dyers plying their unhealthful trade to minister to luxury and pride; +with the tenant wearing out his life in the service of a hard landlord; +and with the slave sighing over his unrequited toil! What a significance +there was in his vision of the "dull, gloomy mass" which appeared before +him, darkening half the heavens, and which he was told was "human beings +in as great misery as they could be and live; and he was mixed with them, +and henceforth he might not consider himself a distinct and separate +being"! His saintliness was wholly unconscious; he seems never to have +thought himself any nearer to the tender heart of God than the most +miserable sinner to whom his compassion extended. As he did not +live, so neither did he die to himself. His prayer upon his death-bed +was for others rather than himself; its beautiful humility and simple +trust were marred by no sensual imagery of crowns and harps and golden +streets, and personal beatific exaltations; but tender and touching +concern for suffering humanity, relieved only by the thought of the +paternity of God, and of His love and omnipotence, alone found utterance +in ever-memorable words. + +In view of the troubled state of the country and the intense +preoccupation of the public mind, I have had some hesitation in offering +this volume to its publishers. But, on further reflection, it has seemed +to me that it might supply a want felt by many among us; that, in the +chaos of civil strife and the shadow of mourning which rests over the +land, the contemplation of "things unseen which are eternal" might not be +unwelcome; that, when the foundations of human confidence are shaken, and +the trust in man proves vain, there might be glad listeners to a voice +calling from the outward and the temporal to the inward and the +spiritual; from the troubles and perplexities of time, to the eternal +quietness which God giveth. I cannot but believe that, in the heat and +glare through which we are passing, this book will not invite in vain to +the calm, sweet shadows of holy meditation, grateful as the green wings +of the bird to Thalaba in the desert; and thus afford something of +consolation to the bereaved, and of strength to the weary. For surely +never was the Patience of Hope more needed; never was the inner sanctuary +of prayer more desirable; never was a steadfast faith in the Divine +goodness more indispensable, nor lessons of self-sacrifice and +renunciation, and that cheerful acceptance of known duty which shifts not +its proper responsibility upon others, nor asks for "peace in its day" at +the expense of purity and justice, more timely than now, when the solemn +words of ancient prophecy are as applicable to our own country as to that +of the degenerate Jew,--"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy +backsliding reprove thee; know, therefore, it is an evil thing, and +bitter, that thou bast forsaken the Lord, and that my fear is not in +thee,"--when "His way is in the deep, in clouds, and in thick darkness," +and the hand heavy upon us which shall "turn and overturn until he whose +right it is shall reign,"--until, not without rending agony, the evil +plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted, whose roots have wound +themselves about altar and hearth-stone, and whose branches, like the +tree Al-Accoub in Moslem fable, bear the accursed fruit of oppression, +rebellion, and all imaginable crime, shall be torn up and destroyed +forever. + +AMESBURY, 1st 6th mo., 1862. + + + + +THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. + +The following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends' Review +in Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and +practice in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have +since more than justified the writer's fears and solicitude. + + +I. + + AMESBURY, 2d mo., 1870. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW. + +ESTEEMED FRIEND,--If I have been hitherto a silent, I have not been an +indifferent, spectator of the movements now going on in our religious +Society. Perhaps from lack of faith, I have been quite too solicitous +concerning them, and too much afraid that in grasping after new things we +may let go of old things too precious to be lost. Hence I have been +pleased to see from time to time in thy paper very timely and fitting +articles upon a _Hired Ministry_ and _Silent Worship_. + +The present age is one of sensation and excitement, of extreme measures +and opinions, of impatience of all slow results. The world about us +moves with accelerated impulse, and we move with it: the rest we have +enjoyed, whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our +opinions, the reason of our practices, are demanded. Our very right to +exist as a distinct society is questioned. Our old literature--the +precious journals and biographies of early and later Friends--is +comparatively neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications. We +bear complaints of a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent +meetings is denied, and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will +and option. There is a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas +and expedients and practices of other sects. I speak only of admitted +facts, and not for the purpose of censure or complaint. No one has less +right than myself to indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor +differences of opinion. If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not +find it a hard task to bear with them. + +But for myself I prefer the old ways. With the broadest possible +tolerance for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of +Friends. My life has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other +sects in behalf of the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like +quarrelling with Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with +me, side by side, at the rope of Reform. A very large proportion of my +dearest personal friends are outside of our communion; and I have learned +with John Woolman to find "no narrowness respecting sects and opinions." +But after a kindly and candid survey of them all, I turn to my own +Society, thankful to the Divine Providence which placed me where I am; +and with an unshaken faith in the one distinctive doctrine of Quakerism-- +the Light within--the immanence of the Divine Spirit in Christianity. I +cheerfully recognize and bear testimony to the good works and lives of +those who widely differ in faith and practice; but I have seen no truer +types of Christianity, no better men and women, than I have known and +still know among those who not blindly, but intelligently, hold the +doctrines and maintain the testimonies of our early Friends. I am not +blind to the shortcomings of Friends. I know how much we have lost by +narrowness and coldness and inactivity, the overestimate of external +observances, the neglect of our own proper work while acting as +conscience-keepers for others. We have not, as a society, been active +enough in those simple duties which we owe to our suffering fellow- +creatures, in that abundant labor of love and self-denial which is never +out of place. Perhaps our divisions and dissensions might have been +spared us if we had been less "at ease in Zion." It is in the decline of +practical righteousness that men are most likely to contend with each +other for dogma and ritual, for shadow and letter, instead of substance +and spirit. Hence I rejoice in every sign of increased activity in doing +good among us, in the precious opportunities afforded of working with the +Divine Providence for the Freedmen and Indians; since the more we do, in +the true spirit of the gospel, for others, the more we shall really do +for ourselves. There is no danger of lack of work for those who, with an +eye single to the guidance of Truth, look for a place in God's vineyard; +the great work which the founders of our Society began is not yet done; +the mission of Friends is not accomplished, and will not be until this +world of ours, now full of sin and suffering, shall take up, in jubilant +thanksgiving, the song of the Advent: "Glory to God in the highest! +Peace on earth and good-will to men!" + +It is charged that our Society lacks freedom and adaptation to the age in +which we live, that there is a repression of individuality and manliness +among us. I am not prepared to deny it in certain respects. But, if we +look at the matter closely, we shall see that the cause is not in the +central truth of Quakerism, but in a failure to rightly comprehend it; in +an attempt to fetter with forms and hedge about with dogmas that great +law of Christian liberty, which I believe affords ample scope for the +highest spiritual aspirations and the broadest philanthropy. If we did +but realize it, we are "set in a large place." + +"We may do all we will save wickedness." + +"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." + +Quakerism, in the light of its great original truth, is "exceeding +broad." As interpreted by Penn and Barclay it is the most liberal and +catholic of faiths. If we are not free, generous, tolerant, if we are +not up to or above the level of the age in good works, in culture and +love of beauty, order and fitness, if we are not the ready recipients of +the truths of science and philosophy,--in a word, if we are not full- +grown men and Christians, the fault is not in Quakerism, but in +ourselves. We shall gain nothing by aping the customs and trying to +adjust ourselves to the creeds of other sects. By so doing we make at +the best a very awkward combination, and just as far as it is successful, +it is at the expense of much that is vital in our old faith. If, for +instance, I could bring myself to believe a hired ministry and a written +creed essential to my moral and spiritual well-being, I think I should +prefer to sit down at once under such teachers as Bushnell and Beecher, +the like of whom in Biblical knowledge, ecclesiastical learning, and +intellectual power, we are not likely to manufacture by half a century of +theological manipulation in a Quaker "school of the prophets." If I must +go into the market and buy my preaching, I should naturally seek the best +article on sale, without regard to the label attached to it. + +I am not insensible of the need of spiritual renovation in our Society. +I feel and confess my own deficiencies as an individual member. And I +bear a willing testimony to the zeal and devotion of some dear friends, +who, lamenting the low condition and worldliness too apparent among us, +seek to awaken a stronger religious life by the partial adoption of the +practices, forms, and creeds of more demonstrative sects. The great +apparent activity of these sects seems to them to contrast very strongly +with our quietness and reticence; and they do not always pause to inquire +whether the result of this activity is a truer type of practical +Christianity than is found in our select gatherings. I think I +understand these brethren; to some extent I have sympathized with them. +But it seems clear to me, that a remedy for the alleged evil lies not in +going back to the "beggarly elements" from which our worthy ancestors +called the people of their generation; not in will-worship; not in +setting the letter above the spirit; not in substituting type and symbol, +and oriental figure and hyperbole for the simple truths they were +intended to represent; not in schools of theology; not in much speaking +and noise and vehemence, nor in vain attempts to make the "plain +language" of Quakerism utter the Shibboleth of man-made creeds: but in +heeding more closely the Inward Guide and Teacher; in faith in Christ not +merely in His historical manifestation of the Divine Love to humanity, +but in His living presence in the hearts open to receive Him; in love for +Him manifested in denial of self, in charity and love to our neighbor; +and in a deeper realization of the truth of the apostle's declaration: +"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit +the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself +unspotted from the world." + +In conclusion, let me say that I have given this expression of my +opinions with some degree of hesitation, being very sensible that I have +neither the right nor the qualification to speak for a society whose +doctrines and testimonies commend themselves to my heart and head, whose +history is rich with the precious legacy of holy lives, and of whose +usefulness as a moral and spiritual Force in the world I am fully +assured. + + +II. + +Having received several letters from dear friends in various sections +suggested by a recent communication in thy paper, and not having time or +health to answer them in detail, will thou permit me in this way to +acknowledge them, and to say to the writers that I am deeply sensible of +the Christian love and personal good-will to myself, which, whether in +commendation or dissent, they manifest? I think I may say in truth that +my letter was written in no sectarian or party spirit, but simply to +express a solicitude, which, whether groundless or not, was nevertheless +real. I am, from principle, disinclined to doctrinal disputations and +so-called religious controversies, which only tend to separate and +disunite. We have had too many divisions already. I intended no censure +of dear brethren whose zeal and devotion command my sympathy, +notwithstanding I may not be able to see with them in all respects. The +domain of individual conscience is to me very sacred; and it seems the +part of Christian charity to make a large allowance for varying +experiences; mental characteristics, and temperaments, as well as for +that youthful enthusiasm which, if sometimes misdirected, has often been +instrumental in infusing a fresher life into the body of religious +profession. It is too much to expect that we can maintain an entire +uniformity in the expression of truths in which we substantially agree; +and we should be careful that a rightful concern for "the form of sound +words" does not become what William Penn calls "verbal orthodoxy." We +must consider that the same accepted truth looks somewhat differently +from different points of vision. Knowing our own weaknesses and +limitations, we must bear in mind that human creeds, speculations, +expositions, and interpretations of the Divine plan are but the faint and +feeble glimpses of finite creatures into the infinite mysteries of God. + + "They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." + +Differing, as we do, more or less as to means and methods, if we indeed +have the "mind of Christ," we shall rejoice in whatever of good is really +accomplished, although by somewhat different instrumentalities than those +which we feel ourselves free to make use of, remembering that our Lord +rebuked the narrowness and partisanship of His disciples by assuring them +that they that were not against Him were for Him. + +It would, nevertheless, give me great satisfaction to know, as thy kindly +expressed editorial comments seem to intimate, that I have somewhat +overestimated the tendencies of things in our Society. I have no pride +of opinion which would prevent me from confessing with thankfulness my +error of judgment. In any event, it can, I think, do no harm to repeat +my deep conviction that we may all labor, in the ability given us, for +our own moral and spiritual well-being, and that of our fellow-creatures, +without laying aside the principles and practice of our religious +Society. I believe so much of liberty is our right as well as our +privilege, and that we need not really overstep our bounds for the +performance of any duty which may be required of us. When truly called +to contemplate broader fields of labor, we shall find the walls about us, +like the horizon seen from higher levels, expanding indeed, but nowhere +broken. + +I believe that the world needs the Society of Friends as a testimony and +a standard. I know that this is the opinion of some of the best and most +thoughtful members of other Christian sects. I know that any serious +departure from the original foundation of our Society would give pain to +many who, outside of our communion, deeply realize the importance of our +testimonies. They fail to read clearly the signs of the times who do not +see that the hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy +and the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence +will not altogether avail us; when the surest dependence must be upon the +Light of Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own +souls, and confirming the truth of outward Scripture by inward +experience; when smooth stones from the brook of present revelation +shall' prove mightier than the weapons of Saul; when the doctrine of the +Holy Spirit, as proclaimed by George Fox and lived by John Woolman, shall +be recognized as the only efficient solvent of doubts raised by an age of +restless inquiry. In this belief my letter was written. I am sorry it +did not fall to the lot of a more fitting hand; and can only hope that no +consideration of lack of qualification on the part of its writer may +lessen the value of whatever testimony to truth shall be found in it. + +AMESBURY, 3d mo., 1870. + + +P. S. I may mention that I have been somewhat encouraged by a perusal of +the Proceedings of the late First-day School Conference in Philadelphia, +where, with some things which I am compelled to pause over, and regret, I +find much with which I cordially unite, and which seems to indicate a +providential opening for good. I confess to a lively and tender sympathy +with my younger brethren and sisters who, in the name of Him who "went +about doing good," go forth into the highways and byways to gather up the +lost, feed the hungry, instruct the ignorant, and point the sinsick and +suffering to the hopes and consolations of Christian faith, even if, at +times, their zeal goes beyond "reasonable service," and although the +importance of a particular instrumentality may be exaggerated, and love +lose sight of its needful companion humility, and he that putteth on his +armor boast like him who layeth it off. Any movement, however irregular, +which indicates life, is better than the quiet of death. In the +overruling providence of God, the troubling may prepare the way for +healing. Some of us may have erred on one hand and some on the other, +and this shaking of the balance may adjust it. + + + + +JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. + +Originally published as an introduction to a reissue of the work. + +To those who judge by the outward appearance, nothing is more difficult +of explanation than the strength of moral influence often exerted by +obscure and uneventful lives. Some great reform which lifts the world to +a higher level, some mighty change for which the ages have waited in +anxious expectancy, takes place before our eyes, and, in seeking to trace +it back to its origin, we are often surprised to find the initial link in +the chain of causes to be some comparatively obscure individual, the +divine commission and significance of whose life were scarcely understood +by his contemporaries, and perhaps not even by himself. The little one +has become a thousand; the handful of corn shakes like Lebanon. "The +kingdom of God cometh not by observation;" and the only solution of the +mystery is in the reflection that through the humble instrumentality +Divine power was manifested, and that the Everlasting Arm was beneath the +human one. + +The abolition of human slavery now in process of consummation throughout +the world furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of this truth. +A far-reaching moral, social, and political revolution, undoing the evil +work of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to +the life and labors of a poor, unlearned workingman of New Jersey, whose +very existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his +religious society. + +It is only within a comparatively recent period that the journal and +ethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to +which they are manifestly entitled. In one of my last interviews with +William Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they +were so little known. He had himself just read the book for the first +time, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up as he +pronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in +the language. He wished to see it placed within the reach of all classes +of readers; it was not a light to be hidden under the bushel of a sect. +Charles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard +Barton, became acquainted with it, and on more than one occasion, in his +letters and Essays of Elia, refers to it with warm commendation. Edward +Irving pronounced it a godsend. Some idea of the lively interest which +the fine literary circle gathered around the hearth of Lamb felt in the +beautiful simplicity of Woolman's pages may be had from the Diary of +Henry Crabb Robinson, one of their number, himself a man of wide and +varied culture, the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. +In his notes for First Month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a +sermon of his friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than +promote belief: + +"How different this from John Woolman's Journal I have been reading at +the same time! A perfect gem! His is a _schone Seele_, a beautiful +soul. An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite +purity and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. +Had he not been so very humble, he would have written a still better +book; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which +he was a great actor. His religion was love. His whole existence and +all his passions were love. If one could venture to impute to his creed, +and not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he +exhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity is +most inviting, it is fascinating! One of the leading British reviews a +few years ago, referring to this Journal, pronounced its author the man +who, in all the centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to +the Divine pattern. The author of The Patience of Hope, whose authority +in devotional literature is unquestioned, says of him: 'John Woolman's +gift was love, a charity of which it does not enter into the natural +heart of man to conceive, and of which the more ordinary experiences, +even of renewed nature, give but a faint shadow. Every now and then, in +the world's history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of +Humanity, on whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth +that it has run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over +the whole of the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of +Assisi, into the secret of that deep amity with God and with His +creatures which makes man to be in league with the stones of the field, +and the beasts of the field to be at peace with him. In this pure, +universal charity there is nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that +comes and goes in showers and gleams and sunbursts. Its springs are deep +and constant, its rising is like that of a mighty river, its very +overflow calm and steady, leaving life and fertility behind it.'" + +After all, anything like personal eulogy seems out of place in speaking +of one who in the humblest self-abasement sought no place in the world's +estimation, content to be only a passive instrument in the hands of his +Master; and who, as has been remarked, through modesty concealed the +events in which he was an actor. A desire to supply in some sort this +deficiency in his Journal is my especial excuse for this introductory +paper. + +It is instructive to study the history of the moral progress of +individuals or communities; to mark the gradual development of truth; to +watch the slow germination of its seed sown in simple obedience to the +command of the Great Husbandman, while yet its green promise, as well as +its golden fruition, was hidden from the eyes of the sower; to go back to +the well-springs and fountain-heads, tracing the small streamlet from its +hidden source, and noting the tributaries which swell its waters, as it +moves onward, until it becomes a broad river, fertilizing and gladdening +our present humanity. To this end it is my purpose, as briefly as +possible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of +slave-holding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of +that act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout +the world. + +At an early period after the organization of the Society, members of it +emigrated to the Maryland, Carolina, Virginia, and New England colonies. +The act of banishment enforced against dissenters under Charles II. +consigned others of the sect to the West Indies, where their frugality, +temperance, and thrift transmuted their intended punishment into a +blessing. Andrew Marvell, the inflexible republican statesman, in some +of the sweetest and tenderest lines in the English tongue, has happily +described their condition:-- + + What shall we do but sing His praise + Who led us through the watery maze, + Unto an isle so long unknown, + And yet far kinder than our own? + He lands us on a grassy stage, + Safe from the storms and prelates' rage; + He gives us this eternal spring, + Which here enamels everything, + And sends the fowls to us in care, + On daily visits through the air. + He hangs in shades the orange bright, + Like golden lamps, in a green night, + And doth in the pomegranate close + Jewels more rich than Ormus shows. + + . . . . . . . . . + + And in these rocks for us did frame + A temple where to sound His name. + Oh! let our voice His praise exalt, + Till it arrive at heaven's vault, + Which then, perhaps rebounding, may + Echo beyond the Mexic bay.' + + "So sang they in the English boat, + A holy and a cheerful note; + And all the way, to guide their chime, + With falling oars they kept the time." + +Unhappily, they very early became owners of slaves, in imitation of the +colonists around them. No positive condemnation of the evil system had +then been heard in the British islands. Neither English prelates nor +expounders at dissenting conventicles had aught to say against it. Few +colonists doubted its entire compatibility with Christian profession and +conduct. Saint and sinner, ascetic and worldling, united in its +practice. Even the extreme Dutch saints of Bohemia Manor community, the +pietists of John de Labadie, sitting at meat with hats on, and pausing +ever and anon with suspended mouthfuls to bear a brother's or sister's +exhortation, and sandwiching prayers between the courses, were waited +upon by negro slaves. Everywhere men were contending with each other +upon matters of faith, while, so far as their slaves were concerned, +denying the ethics of Christianity itself. + +Such was the state of things when, in 1671, George Fox visited Barbadoes. +He was one of those men to whom it is given to discern through the mists +of custom and prejudice something of the lineaments of absolute truth, +and who, like the Hebrew lawgiver, bear with them, from a higher and +purer atmosphere, the shining evidence of communion with the Divine +Wisdom. He saw slavery in its mildest form among his friends, but his +intuitive sense of right condemned it. He solemnly admonished those who +held slaves to bear in mind that they were brethren, and to train them up +in the fear of God. "I desired, also," he says, "that they would cause +their overseers to deal gently and mildly with their negroes, and not use +cruelty towards them as the manner of some hath been and is; and that, +after certain years of servitude, they should make them free." + +In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson, revisited +Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of +slaves. He was accused of endeavoring to excite an insurrection among +the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was +probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to friends +in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of +the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro +slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the Papal bulls +of Urban and Leo the Tenth. + +Thirteen years after, in 1688, a meeting of German Quakers, who had +emigrated from Kriesbeim, and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania, +addressed a memorial against "the buying and keeping of negroes" to the +Yearly Meeting for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey colonies. That +meeting took the subject into consideration, but declined giving judgment +in the case. In 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised against "bringing in +any more negroes." In 1714, in its Epistle to London Friends, it +expresses a wish that Friends would be "less concerned in buying or +selling slaves." The Chester Quarterly Meeting, which had taken a higher +and clearer view of the matter, continued to press the Yearly Meeting to +adopt some decided measure against any traffic in human beings. + +The Society gave these memorials a cold reception. The love of gain and +power was too strong, on the part of the wealthy and influential planters +and merchants who had become slaveholders, to allow the scruples of the +Chester meeting to take the shape of discipline. The utmost that could +be obtained of the Yearly Meeting was an expression of opinion adverse to +the importation of negroes, and a desire that "Friends generally do, as +much as may be, avoid buying such negroes as shall hereafter be brought +in, rather than offend any Friends who are against it; yet this is only +caution, and not censure." + +In the mean time the New England Yearly Meeting was agitated by the same +question. Slaves were imported into Boston and Newport, and Friends +became purchasers, and in some instances were deeply implicated in the +foreign traffic. In 1716, the monthly meetings of Dartmouth and +Nantucket suggested that it was "not agreeable to truth to purchase +slaves and keep them during their term of life." Nothing was done in the +Yearly Meeting, however, until 1727, when the practice of importing +negroes was censured. That the practice was continued notwithstanding, +for many years afterwards, is certain. In 1758, a rule was adopted +prohibiting Friends within the limits of New England Yearly Meeting from +engaging in or countenancing the foreign slave-trade. + +In the year 1742 an event, simple and inconsiderable in itself, was made +the instrumentality of exerting a mighty influence upon slavery in the +Society of Friends. A small storekeeper at Mount Holly, in New Jersey, a +member of the Society, sold a negro woman, and requested the young man in +his employ to make a bill of sale of her. + + (Mount Holly is a village lying in the western part of the long, + narrow township of Northampton, on Rancocas Creek, a tributary of + the Delaware. In John Woolman's day it was almost entirely a + settlement of Friends. A very few of the old houses with their + quaint stoops or porches are left. That occupied by John Woolman + was a small, plain, two-story structure, with two windows in each + story in front, a four-barred fence inclosing the grounds, with the + trees he planted and loved to cultivate. The house was not painted, + but whitewashed. The name of the place is derived from the highest + hill in the county, rising two hundred feet above the sea, and + commanding a view of a rich and level country, of cleared farms and + woodlands. Here, no doubt, John Woolman often walked under the + shadow of its holly-trees, communing with nature and musing on the + great themes of life and duty. + + When the excellent Joseph Sturge was in this country, some thirty + years ago, on his errand of humanity, he visited Mount Holly, and + the house of Woolman, then standing. He describes it as a very + "humble abode." But one person was then living in the town who had + ever seen its venerated owner. This aged man stated that he was at + Woolman's little farm in the season of harvest when it was customary + among farmers to kill a calf or sheep for the laborers. John + Woolman, unwilling that the animal should be slowly bled to death, + as the custom had been, and to spare it unnecessary suffering, had a + smooth block of wood prepared to receive the neck of the creature, + when a single blow terminated its existence. Nothing was more + remarkable in the character of Woolman than his concern for the + well-being and comfort of the brute creation. "What is religion?" + asks the old Hindoo writer of the Vishnu Sarman. "Tenderness toward + all creatures." Or, as Woolman expresses it, "Where the love of God + is verily perfected, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject + to our will is experienced, and a care felt that we do not lessen + that sweetness of life in the animal creation which the Creator + intends for them under our government.") + +On taking up his pen, the young clerk felt a sudden and strong scruple in +his mind. The thought of writing an instrument of slavery for one of his +fellow-creatures oppressed him. God's voice against the desecration of +His image spoke in the soul. He yielded to the will of his employer, +but, while writing the instrument, he was constrained to declare, both to +the buyer and the seller, that he believed slave-keeping inconsistent +with the Christian religion. This young man was John Woolman. The +circumstance above named was the starting-point of a life-long testimony +against slavery. In the year 1746 he visited Maryland, Virginia, and +North Carolina. He was afflicted by the prevalence of slavery. It +appeared to him, in his own words, "as a dark gloominess overhanging the +land." On his return, he wrote an essay on the subject, which was +published in 1754. Three years after, he made a second visit to the +Southern meetings of Friends. Travelling as a minister of the gospel, he +was compelled to sit down at the tables of slaveholding planters, who +were accustomed to entertain their friends free of cost, and who could +not comprehend the scruples of their guest against receiving as a gift +food and lodging which he regarded as the gain of oppression. He was a +poor man, but he loved truth more than money. He therefore either placed +the pay for his entertainment in the hands of some member of the family, +for the benefit of the slaves, or gave it directly to them, as he had +opportunity. Wherever he went, he found his fellow-professors entangled +in the mischief of slavery. Elders and ministers, as well as the younger +and less high in profession, had their house servants and field hands. +He found grave drab-coated apologists for the slave-trade, who quoted the +same Scriptures, in support of oppression and avarice, which have since +been cited by Presbyterian doctors of divinity, Methodist bishops; and +Baptist preachers for the same purpose. He found the meetings generally +in a low and evil state. The gold of original Quakerism had become dim, +and the fine gold changed. The spirit of the world prevailed among them, +and had wrought an inward desolation. Instead of meekness, gentleness, +and heavenly wisdom, he found "a spirit of fierceness and love of +dominion." + + (The tradition is that he travelled mostly on foot during his + journeys among slaveholders. Brissot, in his New Travels in + America, published in 1788, says: "John Woolman, one of the most + distinguished of men in the cause of humanity, travelled much as a + minister of his sect, but always on foot, and without money, in + imitation of the Apostles, and in order to be in a situation to be + more useful to poor people and the blacks. He hated slavery so much + that he could not taste food provided by the labor of slaves." That + this writer was on one point misinformed is manifest from the + following passage from the Journal: "When I expected soon to leave a + friend's house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I + should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving + money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and + desired them to accept of pieces of silver, and give them to such of + their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and + at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked + clearest to me. Before I came out, I had provided a large number of + small pieces for this purpose, and thus offering them to some who + appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them. But + the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made + easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment + at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of + them.") + +In love, but at the same time with great faithfulness, he endeavored to +convince the masters of their error, and to awaken a degree of sympathy +for the enslaved. + +At this period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, a remarkable personage took +up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was by birthright a member of the +Society of Friends, but having been disowned in England for some +extravagances of conduct and language, he spent several years in the West +Indies, where he became deeply interested in the condition of the slaves. +His violent denunciations of the practice of slaveholding excited the +anger of the planters, and he was compelled to leave the island. He came +to Philadelphia, but, contrary to his expectations, he found the same +evil existing there. He shook off the dust of the city, and took up his +abode in the country, a few miles distant. His dwelling was a natural +cave, with some slight addition of his own making. His drink was the +spring-water flowing by his door; his food, vegetables alone. He +persistently refused to wear any garment or eat any food purchased at the +expense of animal life, or which was in any degree the product of slave +labor. Issuing from his cave, on his mission of preaching "deliverance +to the captive," he was in the habit of visiting the various meetings for +worship and bearing his testimony against slaveholders, greatly to their +disgust and indignation. On one occasion he entered the Market Street +Meeting, and a leading Friend requested some one to take him out. A +burly blacksmith volunteered to do it, leading him to the gate and +thrusting him out with such force that he fell into the gutter of the +street. There he lay until the meeting closed, telling the bystanders +that he did not feel free to rise himself. "Let those who cast me here +raise me up. It is their business, not mine." + +His personal appearance was in remarkable keeping with his eccentric +life. A figure only four and a half feet high, hunchbacked, with +projecting chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer than his legs; a +huge head, showing only beneath the enormous white hat large, solemn eyes +and a prominent nose; the rest of his face covered with a snowy +semicircle of beard falling low on his breast,--a figure to recall the +old legends of troll, brownie, and kobold. Such was the irrepressible +prophet who troubled the Israel of slave-holding Quakerism, clinging like +a rough chestnut-bur to the skirts of its respectability, and settling +like a pertinacious gad-fly on the sore places of its conscience. + +On one occasion, while the annual meeting was in session at Burlington, +N. J., in the midst of the solemn silence of the great assembly, the +unwelcome figure of Benjamin Lay, wrapped in his long white overcoat, +was seen passing up the aisle. Stopping midway, he exclaimed, "You +slaveholders! Why don't you throw off your Quaker coats as I do mine, +and show yourselves as you are?" Casting off as he spoke his outer +garment, he disclosed to the astonished assembly a military coat +underneath and a sword dangling at his heels. Holding in one hand a +large book, he drew his sword with the other. "In the sight of God," he +cried, "you are as guilty as if you stabbed your slaves to the heart, as +I do this book!" suiting the action to the word, and piercing a small +bladder filled with the juice of poke-weed (playtolacca decandra), which +he had concealed between the covers, and sprinkling as with fresh blood +those who sat near him. John Woolman makes no mention of this +circumstance in his Journal, although he was probably present, and it +must have made a deep impression on his sensitive spirit. The violence +and harshness of Lay's testimony, however, had nothing in common with +the tender and sorrowful remonstrances and appeals of the former, except +the sympathy which they both felt for the slave himself. + + (Lay was well acquainted with Dr. Franklin, who sometimes visited him. + Among other schemes of reform he entertained the idea of converting + all mankind to Christianity. This was to be done by three + witnesses,--himself, Michael Lovell, and Abel Noble, assisted by Dr. + Franklin. But on their first meeting at the Doctor's house, the + three "chosen vessels" got into a violent controversy on points of + doctrine, and separated in ill-humor. The philosopher, who had been + an amused listener, advised the three sages to give up the project + of converting the world until they had learned to tolerate each + other.) + +Still later, a descendant of the persecuted French Protestants, Anthony +Benezet, a man of uncommon tenderness of feeling, began to write and +speak against slavery. How far, if at all, he was moved thereto by the +example of Woolman is not known, but it is certain that the latter found +in him a steady friend and coadjutor in his efforts to awaken the +slumbering moral sense of his religious brethren. The Marquis de +Chastellux, author of _De la Felicite Publique_, describes him as a +small, eager-faced man, full of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in +works of benevolence, which were by no means confined to the blacks. +Like Woolman and Lay, he advocated abstinence from intoxicating spirits. +The poor French neutrals who were brought to Philadelphia from Nova +Scotia, and landed penniless and despairing among strangers in tongue and +religion, found in him a warm and untiring friend, through whose aid and +sympathy their condition was rendered more comfortable than that of their +fellow-exiles in other colonies. + +The annual assemblage of the Yearly Meeting in 1758 at Philadelphia must +ever be regarded as one of the most important religious convocations in +the history of the Christian church. The labors of Woolman and his few +but earnest associates had not been in vain. A deep and tender interest +had been awakened; and this meeting was looked forward to with varied +feelings of solicitude by all parties. All felt that the time had come +for some definite action; conservative and reformer stood face to face in +the Valley of Decision. John Woolman, of course, was present,--a man +humble and poor in outward appearance, his simple dress of undyed +homespun cloth contrasting strongly with the plain but rich apparel of +the representatives of the commerce of the city and of the large slave- +stocked plantations of the country. Bowed down by the weight of his +concern for the poor slaves and for the well-being and purity of the +Society, he sat silent during the whole meeting, while other matters were +under discussion. "My mind," he says, "was frequently clothed with +inward prayer; and I could say with David that 'tears were my meat and +drink, day and night.' The case of slave-keeping lay heavy upon me; nor +did I find any engagement, to speak directly to any other matter before +the meeting." When the important subject came up for consideration, many +faithful Friends spoke with weight and earnestness. No one openly +justified slavery as a system, although some expressed a concern lest the +meeting should go into measures calculated to cause uneasiness to many +members of the Society. It was also urged that Friends should wait +patiently until the Lord in His own time should open a way for the +deliverance of the slave. This was replied to by John Woolman. "My +mind," he said, "is led to consider the purity of the Divine Being, and +the justice of His judgments; and herein my soul is covered with +awfulness. I cannot forbear to hint of some cases where people have not +been treated with the purity of justice, and the event has been most +lamentable. Many slaves on this continent are oppressed, and their cries +have entered into the ears of the Most High. Such are the purity and +certainty of His judgments that He cannot be partial in our favor. In +infinite love and goodness He hath opened our understandings from one +time to another, concerning our duty towards this people; and it is not a +time for delay. Should we now be sensible of what He requires of us, and +through a respect to the private interest of some persons, or through a +regard to some friendships which do not stand upon an immutable +foundation, neglect to do our duty in firmness and constancy, still +waiting for some extraordinary means to bring about their deliverance, +God may by terrible things in righteousness answer us in this matter." + +This solemn and weighty appeal was responded to by many in the assembly, +in a spirit of sympathy and unity. Some of the slave-holding members +expressed their willingness that a strict rule of discipline should be +adopted against dealing in slaves for the future. To this it was +answered that the root of the evil would never be reached effectually +until a searching inquiry was made into the circumstances and motives of +such as held slaves. At length the truth in a great measure triumphed +over all opposition; and, without any public dissent, the meeting agreed +that the injunction of our Lord and Saviour to do to others as we would +that others should do to us should induce Friends who held slaves "to set +them at liberty, making a Christian provision for them," and four +Friends--John Woolman, John Scarborough, Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes-- +were approved of as suitable persons to visit and treat with such as kept +slaves, within the limits of the meeting. + +This painful and difficult duty was faithfully performed. In that +meekness and humility of spirit which has nothing in common with the +"fear of man, which bringeth a snare," the self-denying followers of +their Divine Lord and Master "went about doing good." In the city of +Philadelphia, and among the wealthy planters of the country, they found +occasion often to exercise a great degree of patience, and to keep a +watchful guard over their feelings. In his Journal for this important +period of his life John Woolman says but little of his own services. How +arduous and delicate they were may be readily understood. The number of +slaves held by members of the Society was very large. Isaac Jackson, in +his report of his labors among slave-holders in a single Quarterly +Meeting, states that he visited the owners of more than eleven hundred +slaves. From the same report may be gleaned some hints of the +difficulties which presented themselves. One elderly man says he has +well brought up his eleven slaves, and "now they must work to maintain +him." Another owns it is all wrong, but "cannot release his slaves; his +tender wife under great concern of mind" on account of his refusal. A +third has fifty slaves; knows it to be wrong, but can't see his way clear +out of it. "Perhaps," the report says, "interest dims his vision." A +fourth is full of "excuses and reasonings." "Old Jos. Richison has +forty, and is determined to keep them." Another man has fifty, and +"means to keep them." Robert Ward "wants to release his slaves, but his +wife and daughters hold back." Another "owns it is wrong, but says he +will not part with his negroes,--no, not while he lives." The far +greater number, however, confess the wrong of slavery, and agree to take +measures for freeing their slaves. + + (An incident occurred during this visit of Isaac Jackson which + impressed him deeply. On the last evening, just as he was about to + turn homeward, he was told that a member of the Society whom he had + not seen owned a very old slave who was happy and well cared for. + It was a case which it was thought might well be left to take care + of itself. Isaac Jackson, sitting in silence, did not feel his mind + quite satisfied; and as the evening wore away, feeling more and more + exercised, he expressed his uneasiness, when a young son of his host + eagerly offered to go with him and show him the road to the place. + The proposal was gladly accepted. On introducing the object of + their visit, the Friend expressed much surprise that any uneasiness + should be felt in the case, but at length consented to sign the form + of emancipation, saying, at the same time, it would make no + difference in their relations, as the old man was perfectly happy. + At Isaac Jackson's request the slave was called in and seated before + them. His form was nearly double, his thin hands were propped on + his knees, his white head was thrust forward, and his keen, + restless, inquiring eyes gleamed alternately on the stranger and on + his master. At length he was informed of what had been done; that + he was no longer a slave, and that his master acknowledged his past + services entitled him to a maintenance so long as he lived. The old + man listened in almost breathless wonder, his head slowly sinking on + his breast. After a short pause, he clasped his hands; then + spreading them high over his hoary head, slowly and reverently + exclaimed, "Oh, goody Gody, oh!"--bringing his hands again down on + his knees. Then raising them as before, he twice repeated the + solemn exclamation, and with streaming eyes and a voice almost too + much choked for utterance, he continued, "I thought I should die a + slave, and now I shall die a free man!" + + It is a striking evidence of the divine compensations which are + sometimes graciously vouchsafed to those who have been faithful to + duty, that on his death-bed this affecting scene was vividly revived + in the mind of Isaac Jackson. At that supreme moment, when all + other pictures of time were fading out, that old face, full of + solemn joy and devout thanksgiving, rose before him, and comforted + him as with the blessing of God.) + +An extract or two from the Journal at this period will serve to show both +the nature of the service in which he was engaged and the frame of mind +in which he accomplished it:-- + +"In the beginning of the 12th month I joined in company with my friends, +John Sykes and Daniel Stanton, in visiting such as had slaves. Some, +whose hearts were rightly exercised about them, appeared to be glad of +our visit, but in some places our way was more difficult. I often saw +the necessity of keeping down to that root from whence our concern +proceeded, and have cause in reverent thankfulness humbly to bow down +before the Lord who was near to me, and preserved my mind in calmness +under some sharp conflicts, and begat a spirit of sympathy and tenderness +in me towards some who were grievously entangled by the spirit of this +world." + +"1st month, 1759.--Having found my mind drawn to visit some of the more +active members of society at Philadelphia who had slaves, I met my friend +John Churchman there by agreement, and we continued about a week in the +city. We visited some that were sick, and some widows and their +families; and the other part of the time was mostly employed in visiting +such as had slaves. It was a time of deep exercise; but looking often to +the Lord for assistance, He in unspeakable kindness favored us with the +influence of that spirit which crucifies to the greatness and splendor of +this world, and enabled us to go through some heavy labors, in which we +found peace." + +These labors were attended with the blessing of the God of the poor and +oppressed. Dealing in slaves was almost entirely abandoned, and many who +held slaves set them at liberty. But many members still continuing the +practice, a more emphatic testimony against it was issued by the Yearly +Meeting in 1774; and two years after the subordinate meetings were +directed to deny the right of membership to such as persisted in holding +their fellow-men as property. + +A concern was now felt for the temporal and religious welfare of the +emancipated slaves, and in 1779 the Yearly Meeting came to the conclusion +that some reparation was due from the masters to their former slaves for +services rendered while in the condition of slavery. The following is an +extract from an epistle on this subject: + +"We are united in judgment that the state of the oppressed people who +have been held by any of us, or our predecessors, in captivity and +slavery, calls for a deep inquiry and close examination how far we are +clear of withholding from them what under such an exercise may open to +view as their just right; and therefore we earnestly and affectionately +entreat our brethren in religious profession to bring this matter home, +and that all who have let the oppressed go free may attend to the further +openings of duty. + +"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of many +who are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously +considered the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people +have long labored; and whether a pious care extended to their offspring +is not justly due from us to them is a consideration worthy our serious +and deep attention." + +Committees to aid and advise the colored people were accordingly +appointed in the various Monthly Meetings. Many former owners of slaves +faithfully paid the latter for their services, submitting to the award +and judgment of arbitrators as to what justice required at their hands. +So deeply had the sense of the wrong of slavery sunk into the hearts of +Friends! + +John Woolman, in his Journal for 1769, states, that having some years +before, as one of the executors of a will, disposed of the services of a +negro boy belonging to the estate until he should reach the age of thirty +years, he became uneasy in respect to the transaction, and, although he +had himself derived no pecuniary benefit from it, and had simply acted as +the agent of the heirs of the estate to which the boy belonged, he +executed a bond, binding himself to pay the master of the young man for +four years and a half of his unexpired term of service. + +The appalling magnitude of the evil against which he felt himself +especially called to contend was painfully manifest to John Woolman. At +the outset, all about him, in every department of life and human +activity, in the state and the church, he saw evidences of its strength, +and of the depth and extent to which its roots had wound their way among +the foundations of society. Yet he seems never to have doubted for a +moment the power of simple truth to eradicate it, nor to have hesitated +as to his own duty in regard to it. There was no groping like Samson in +the gloom; no feeling in blind wrath and impatience for the pillars of +the temple of Dagon. "The candle of the Lord shone about him," and his +path lay clear and unmistakable before him. He believed in the goodness +of God that leadeth to repentance; and that love could reach the witness +for itself in the hearts of all men, through all entanglements of custom +and every barrier of pride and selfishness. No one could have a more +humble estimate of himself; but as he went forth on his errand of mercy +he felt the Infinite Power behind him, and the consciousness that he had +known a preparation from that Power "to stand as a trumpet through which +the Lord speaks." The event justified his confidence; wherever he went +hard hearts were softened, avarice and love of power and pride of opinion +gave way before his testimony of love. + +The New England Yearly Meeting then, as now, was held in Newport, on +Rhode Island. In the year 1760 John Woolman, in the course of a +religious visit to New England, attended that meeting. He saw the +horrible traffic in human beings,--the slave-ships lying at the wharves +of the town, the sellers and buyers of men and women and children +thronging the market-place. The same abhorrent scenes which a few years +after stirred the spirit of the excellent Hopkins to denounce the slave- +trade and slavery as hateful in the sight of God to his congregation at +Newport were enacted in the full view and hearing of the annual +convocation of Friends, many of whom were themselves partakers in the +shame and wickedness. "Understanding," he says, "that a large number of +slaves had been imported from Africa into the town, and were then on sale +by a member of our Society, my appetite failed; I grew outwardly weak, +and had a feeling of the condition of Habakkuk: 'When I heard, my belly +trembled, my lips quivered; I trembled in myself, that I might rest in +the day of trouble.' I had many cogitations, and was sorely distressed." +He prepared a memorial to the Legislature, then in session, for the +signatures of Friends, urging that body to take measures to put an end to +the importation of slaves. His labors in the Yearly Meeting appear to +have been owned and blessed by the Divine Head of the church. The London +Epistle for 1758, condemning the unrighteous traffic in men, was read, +and the substance of it embodied in the discipline of the meeting; and +the following query was adopted, to be answered by the subordinate +meetings:-- + +"Are Friends clear of importing negroes, or buying them when imported; +and do they use those well, where they are possessed by inheritance or +otherwise, endeavoring to train them up in principles of religion?" + +At the close of the Yearly Meeting, John Woolman requested those members +of the Society who held slaves to meet with him in the chamber of the +house for worship, where he expressed his concern for the well-being of +the slaves, and his sense of the iniquity of the practice of dealing in +or holding them as property. His tender exhortations were not lost upon +his auditors; his remarks were kindly received, and the gentle and loving +spirit in which they were offered reached many hearts. + +In 1769, at the suggestion of the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, the +Yearly Meeting expressed its sense of the wrongfulness of holding slaves, +and appointed a large committee to visit those members who were +implicated in the practice. The next year this committee reported that +they had completed their service, "and that their visits mostly seemed to +be kindly accepted. Some Friends manifested a disposition to set such at +liberty as were suitable; some others, not having so clear a sight of +such an unreasonable servitude as could be desired, were unwilling to +comply with the advice given them at present, yet seemed willing to take +it into consideration; a few others manifested a disposition to keep them +in continued bondage." + +It was stated in the Epistle to London Yearly Meeting of the year 1772, +that a few Friends had freed their slaves from bondage, but that others +"have been so reluctant thereto that they have been disowned for not +complying with the advice of this meeting." + +In 1773 the following minute was made: "It is our sense and judgment that +truth not only requires the young of capacity and ability, but likewise +the aged and impotent, and also all in a state of infancy and nonage, +among Friends, to be discharged and set free from a state of slavery, +that we do no more claim property in the human race, as we do in the +brutes that perish." + +In 1782 no slaves were known to be held in the New England Yearly +Meeting. The next year it was recommended to the subordinate meetings to +appoint committees to effect a proper and just settlement between the +manumitted slaves and their former masters, for their past services. In +1784 it was concluded by the Yearly Meeting that any former slave-holder +who refused to comply with the award of these committees should, after +due care and labor with him, be disowned from the Society. This was +effectual; settlements without disownment were made to the satisfaction +of all parties, and every case was disposed of previous to the year 1787. + +In the New York Yearly Meeting, slave-trading was prohibited about the +middle of the last century. In 1771, in consequence of an Epistle from +the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a committee was appointed to visit those +who held slaves, and to advise with them in relation to emancipation. In +1776 it was made a disciplinary offence to buy, sell, or hold slaves upon +any condition. In 1784 but one slave was to be found in the limits of +the meeting. In the same year, by answers from the several subordinate +meetings, it was ascertained that an equitable settlement for past +services had been effected between the emancipated negroes and their +masters in all save three cases. + +In the Virginia Yearly Meeting slavery had its strongest hold. Its +members, living in the midst of slave-holding communities, were +necessarily exposed to influences adverse to emancipation. I have +already alluded to the epistle addressed to them by William Edmondson, +and to the labors of John Woolman while travelling among them. In 1757 +the Virginia Yearly Meeting condemned the foreign slave-trade. In 1764 +it enjoined upon its members the duty of kindness towards their servants, +of educating them, and carefully providing for their food and clothing. +Four years after, its members were strictly prohibited from purchasing +any more slaves. In 1773 it earnestly recommended the immediate +manumission of all slaves held in bondage, after the females had reached +eighteen and the males twenty-one years of age. At the same time it was +advised that committees should be appointed for the purpose of +instructing the emancipated persons in the principles of morality and +religion, and for advising and aiding them in their temporal concerns. + +I quote a single paragraph from the advice sent down to the subordinate +meetings, as a beautiful manifestation of the fruits of true repentance:-- + +"It is the solid sense of this meeting, that we of the present generation +are under strong obligations to express our love and concern for the +offspring of those people who by their labors have greatly contributed +towards the cultivation of these colonies under the afflictive +disadvantage of enduring a hard bondage, and the benefit of whose toil +many among us are enjoying." + +In 1784, the different Quarterly Meetings having reported that many still +held slaves, notwithstanding the advice and entreaties of their friends, +the Yearly Meeting directed that where endeavors to convince those +offenders of their error proved ineffectual, the Monthly Meetings should +proceed to disown them. We have no means of ascertaining the precise +number of those actually disowned for slave-holding in the Virginia +Yearly Meeting, but it is well known to have been very small. In almost +all cases the care and assiduous labors of those who had the welfare of +the Society and of humanity at heart were successful in inducing +offenders to manumit their slaves, and confess their error in resisting +the wishes of their friends and bringing reproach upon the cause of +truth. + +So ended slavery in the Society of Friends. For three quarters of a +century the advice put forth in the meetings of the Society at stated +intervals, that Friends should be "careful to maintain their testimony +against slavery," has been adhered to so far as owning, or even hiring, a +slave is concerned. Apart from its first-fruits of emancipation, there +is a perennial value in the example exhibited of the power of truth, +urged patiently and in earnest love, to overcome the difficulties in the +way of the eradication of an evil system, strengthened by long habit, +entangled with all the complex relations of society, and closely allied +with the love of power, the pride of family, and the lust of gain. + +The influence of the life and labors of John Woolman has by no means been +confined to the religious society of which he was a member. It may be +traced wherever a step in the direction of emancipation has been taken in +this country or in Europe. During the war of the Revolution many of the +noblemen and officers connected with the French army became, as their +journals abundantly testify, deeply interested in the Society of Friends, +and took back to France with them something of its growing anti-slavery +sentiment. Especially was this the case with Jean Pierre Brissot, the +thinker and statesman of the Girondists, whose intimacy with Warner +Mifflin, a friend and disciple of Woolman, so profoundly affected his +whole after life. He became the leader of the "Friends of the Blacks," +and carried with him to the scaffold a profound hatred, of slavery. To +his efforts may be traced the proclamation of emancipation in Hayti by +the commissioners of the French convention, and indirectly the subsequent +uprising of the blacks and their successful establishment of a free +government. The same influence reached Thomas Clarkson and stimulated +his early efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade; and in after life +the volume of the New Jersey Quaker was the cherished companion of +himself and his amiable helpmate. It was in a degree, at least, the +influence of Stephen Grellet and William Allen, men deeply imbued with +the spirit of Woolman, and upon whom it might almost be said his mantle +had fallen, that drew the attention of Alexander I. of Russia to the +importance of taking measures for the abolition of serfdom, an object the +accomplishment of which the wars during his reign prevented, but which, +left as a legacy of duty, has been peaceably effected by his namesake, +Alexander II. In the history of emancipation in our own country +evidences of the same original impulse of humanity are not wanting. In +1790 memorials against slavery from the Society of Friends were laid +before the first Congress of the United States. Not content with +clearing their own skirts of the evil, the Friends of that day took an +active part in the formation of the abolition societies of New England, +New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Jacob Lindley, Elisha +Tyson, Warner Mifflin, James Pemberton, and other leading Friends were +known throughout the country as unflinching champions of freedom. One of +the earliest of the class known as modern abolitionists was Benjamin +Lundy, a pupil in the school of Woolman, through whom William Lloyd +Garrison became interested in the great work to which his life has been +so faithfully and nobly devoted. Looking back to the humble workshop at +Mount Holly from the stand-point of the Proclamation of President +Lincoln, how has the seed sown in weakness been raised up in power! + +The larger portion of Woolman's writings is devoted to the subjects of +slavery, uncompensated labor, and the excessive toil and suffering of the +many to support the luxury of the few. The argument running through them +is searching, and in its conclusions uncompromising, but a tender love +for the wrong-doer as well as the sufferer underlies all. They aim to +convince the judgment and reach the heart without awakening prejudice and +passion. To the slave-holders of his time they must have seemed like the +voice of conscience speaking to them in the cool of the day. One feels, +in reading them, the tenderness and humility of a nature redeemed from +all pride of opinion and self-righteousness, sinking itself out of sight, +and intent only upon rendering smaller the sum of human sorrow and sin by +drawing men nearer to God, and to each other. The style is that of a man +unlettered, but with natural refinement and delicate sense of fitness, +the purity of whose heart enters into his language. There is no attempt +at fine writing, not a word or phrase for effect; it is the simple +unadorned diction of one to whom the temptations of the pen seem to have +been wholly unknown. He wrote, as he believed, from an inward spiritual +prompting; and with all his unaffected humility he evidently felt that +his work was done in the clear radiance of + + "The light which never was on land or sea." + +It was not for him to outrun his Guide, or, as Sir Thomas Browne +expresses it, to "order the finger of the Almighty to His will and +pleasure, but to sit still under the soft showers of Providence." Very +wise are these essays, but their wisdom is not altogether that of this +world. They lead one away from all the jealousies, strifes, and +competitions of luxury, fashion, and gain, out of the close air of +parties and sects, into a region of calmness,-- + + "The haunt + Of every gentle wind whose breath can teach + The wild to love tranquillity,"-- + +a quiet habitation where all things are ordered in what he calls "the +pure reason;" a rest from all self-seeking, and where no man's interest +or activity conflicts with that of another. Beauty they certainly have, +but it is not that which the rules of art recognize; a certain +indefinable purity pervades them, making one sensible, as he reads, of a +sweetness as of violets. "The secret of Woolman's purity of style," said +Dr. Channing, "is that his eye was single, and that conscience dictated +his words." + +Of course we are not to look to the writings of such a man for tricks of +rhetoric, the free play of imagination, or the unscrupulousness of +epigram and antithesis. He wrote as he lived, conscious of "the great +Task-master's eye." With the wise heathen Marcus Aurelius Antoninus he +had learned to "wipe out imaginations, to check desire, and let the +spirit that is the gift of God to every man, as his guardian and guide, +bear rule." + +I have thought it inexpedient to swell the bulk of this volume with the +entire writings appended to the old edition of the Journal, inasmuch as +they mainly refer to a system which happily on this continent is no +longer a question at issue. I content myself with throwing together a +few passages from them which touch subjects of present interest. + +"Selfish men may possess the earth: it is the meek alone who inherit it +from the Heavenly Father free from all defilements and perplexities of +unrighteousness." + +"Whoever rightly advocates the cause of some thereby promotes the good of +the whole." + +"If one suffer by the unfaithfulness of another, the mind, the most noble +part of him that occasions the discord, is thereby alienated from its +true happiness." + +"There is harmony in the several parts of the Divine work in the hearts +of men. He who leads them to cease from those gainful employments which +are carried on in the wisdom which is from beneath delivers also from the +desire of worldly greatness, and reconciles to a life so plain that a +little suffices." + +"After days and nights of drought, when the sky hath grown dark, and +clouds like lakes of water have hung over our heads, I have at times +beheld with awfulness the vehement lightning accompanying the blessings +of the rain, a messenger from Him to remind us of our duty in a right use +of His benefits." + +"The marks of famine in a land appear as humbling admonitions from God, +instructing us by gentle chastisements, that we may remember that the +outward supply of life is a gift from our Heavenly Father, and that we +should not venture to use or apply that gift in a way contrary to pure +reason." + +"Oppression in the extreme appears terrible; but oppression in more +refined appearances remains to be oppression. To labor for a perfect +redemption from the spirit of it is the great business of the whole +family of Jesus Christ in this world." + +"In the obedience of faith we die to self-love, and, our life being 'hid +with Christ in God,' our hearts are enlarged towards mankind universally; +but many in striving to get treasures have departed from this true light +of life and stumbled on the dark mountains. That purity of life which +proceeds from faithfulness in following the pure spirit of truth, that +state in which our minds are devoted to serve God and all our wants are +bounded by His wisdom, has often been opened to me as a place of +retirement for the children of the light, in which we may be separated +from that which disordereth and confuseth the affairs of society, and may +have a testimony for our innocence in the hearts of those who behold us." + +"There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in +different places and ages bath had different names; it is, however, pure, +and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of +religion nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect +sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become +brethren." + +"The necessity of an inward stillness hath appeared clear to my mind. In +true silence strength is renewed, and the mind is weaned from all things, +save as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will; and a lowliness in +outward living, opposite to worldly honor, becomes truly acceptable to +us. In the desire after outward gain the mind is prevented from a +perfect attention to the voice of Christ; yet being weaned from all +things, except as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will, the pure light +shines into the soul. Where the fruits of the spirit which is of this +world are brought forth by many who profess to be led by the Spirit of +truth, and cloudiness is felt to be gathering over the visible church, +the sincere in heart, who abide in true stillness, and are exercised +therein before the Lord for His name's sake, have knowledge of Christ in +the fellowship of His sufferings; and inward thankfulness is felt at +times, that through Divine love our own wisdom is cast out, and that +forward, active part in us is subjected, which would rise and do +something without the pure leadings of the spirit of Christ. + +"While aught remains in us contrary to a perfect resignation of our +wills, it is like a seal to the book wherein is written 'that good and +acceptable and perfect will of God' concerning us. But when our minds +entirely yield to Christ, that silence is known which followeth the +opening of the last of the seals. In this silence we learn to abide in +the Divine will, and there feel that we have no cause to promote except +that alone in which the light of life directs us." + +Occasionally, in Considerations on the Keeping of? Negroes, the intense +interest of his subject gives his language something of passionate +elevation, as in the following extract:-- + +"When trade is carried on productive of much misery, and they who suffer +by it are many thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not +laying their sufferings to heart. In procuring slaves on the coast of +Africa, many children are stolen privately; wars are encouraged among the +negroes, but all is at a great distance. Many groans arise from dying +men which we hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless +children which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with tears, and +faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not. Cruel tyranny is +encouraged. The hands of robbers are strengthened. + +"Were we, for the term of one year only, to be eye-witnesses of what +passeth in getting these slaves; were the blood that is there shed to be +sprinkled on our garments; were the poor captives, bound with thongs, and +heavily laden with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes on their way +to the sea; were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to ring in our +ears, and their mournful cries in the night to hinder us from sleeping,-- +were we to behold and hear these things, what pious heart would not be +deeply affected with sorrow!" + +"It is good for those who live in fulness to cultivate tenderness of +heart, and to improve every opportunity of being acquainted with the +hardships and fatigues of those who labor for their living, and thus to +think seriously with themselves: Am I influenced by true charity in +fixing all my demands? Have I no desire to support myself in expensive +customs, because my acquaintances live in such customs? + +"If a wealthy man, on serious reflection, finds a witness in his own +conscience that he indulges himself in some expensive habits, which might +be omitted, consistently with the true design of living, and which, were +he to change places with those who occupy his estate, he would desire to +be discontinued by them,--whoever is thus awakened will necessarily find +the injunction binding, 'Do ye even so to them.' Divine Love imposeth no +rigorous or unreasonable commands, but graciously points out the spirit +of brotherhood and the way to happiness, in attaining which it is +necessary that we relinquish all that is selfish. + +"Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all His creatures; His +tender mercies are over all His works, and so far as true love influences +our minds, so far we become interested in His workmanship, and feel a +desire to make use of every opportunity to lessen the distresses of the +afflicted, and to increase the happiness of the creation. Here we have a +prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, so +that to turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes +the business of our lives." + +His liberality and freedom from "all narrowness as to sects and opinions" +are manifest in the following passages:-- + +"Men who sincerely apply their minds to true virtue, and find an inward +support from above, by which all vicious inclinations are made subject; +who love God sincerely, and prefer the real good of mankind universally +to their own private interest,--though these, through the strength of +education and tradition, may remain under some great speculative errors, +it would be uncharitable to say that therefore God rejects them. The +knowledge and goodness of Him who creates, supports, and gives +understanding to all men are superior to the various states and +circumstances of His creatures, which to us appear the most difficult. +Idolatry indeed is wickedness; but it is the thing, not the name, which +is so. Real idolatry is to pay that adoration to a creature which is +known to be due only to the true God. + +"He who professeth to believe in one Almighty Creator, and in His Son +Jesus Christ, and is yet more intent on the honors, profits, and +friendships of the world than he is, in singleness of heart, to stand +faithful to the Christian religion, is in the channel of idolatry; while +the Gentile, who, notwithstanding some mistaken opinions, is established +in the true principle of virtue, and humbly adores an Almighty Power, may +be of the number that fear God and work righteousness." + +Nowhere has what is called the "Labor Question," which is now agitating +the world, been discussed more wisely and with a broader humanity than in +these essays. His sympathies were with the poor man, yet the rich too +are his brethren, and he warns them in love and pity of the consequences +of luxury and oppression:-- + +"Every degree of luxury, every demand for money inconsistent with the +Divine order, hath connection with unnecessary labors." + +"To treasure up wealth for another generation, by means of the immoderate +labor of those who in some measure depend upon us, is doing evil at +present, without knowing that wealth thus gathered may not be applied to +evil purposes when we are gone. To labor hard, or cause others to do so, +that we may live conformably to customs which our Redeemer +discountenanced by His example, and which are contrary to Divine order, +is to manure a soil for propagating an evil seed in the earth." + +"When house is joined to house, and field laid to field, until there is +no place, and the poor are thereby straitened, though this is done by +bargain and purchase, yet so far as it stands distinguished from +universal love, so far that woe predicted by the prophet will accompany +their proceedings. As He who first founded the earth was then the true +proprietor of it, so He still remains, and though He hath given it to the +children of men, so that multitudes of people have had their sustenance +from it while they continued here, yet He bath never alienated it, but +His right is as good as at first; nor can any apply the increase of their +possessions contrary to universal love, nor dispose of lands in a way +which they know tends to exalt some by oppressing others, without being +justly chargeable with usurpation." + +It will not lessen the value of the foregoing extracts in the minds of +the true-disciples of our Divine Lord, that they are manifestly not +written to subserve the interests of a narrow sectarianism. They might +have been penned by Fenelon in his time, or Robertson in ours, dealing as +they do with Christian practice,--the life of Christ manifesting itself +in purity and goodness,--rather than with the dogmas of theology. The +underlying thought of all is simple obedience to the Divine word in the +soul. "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the +kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven." +In the preface to an English edition, published some years ago, it is +intimated that objections had been raised to the Journal on the ground +that it had so little to say of doctrines and so much of duties. One may +easily understand that this objection might have been forcibly felt by +the slave-holding religious professors of Woolman's day, and that it may +still be entertained by a class of persons who, like the Cabalists, +attach a certain mystical significance to words, names, and titles, and +who in consequence question the piety which hesitates to flatter the +Divine ear by "vain repetitions" and formal enumeration of sacred +attributes, dignities, and offices. Every instinct of his tenderly +sensitive nature shrank from the wordy irreverence of noisy profession. +His very silence is significant: the husks of emptiness rustle in every +wind; the full corn in the ear holds up its golden fruit noiselessly to +the Lord of the harvest. John Woolman's faith, like the Apostle's, is +manifested by his labors, standing not in words but in the demonstration +of the spirit,--a faith that works by love to the purifying of the heart. +The entire outcome of this faith was love manifested in reverent waiting +upon God, and in that untiring benevolence, that quiet but deep +enthusiasm of humanity, which made his daily service to his fellow- +creatures a hymn of praise to the common Father. + +However the intellect may criticise such a life, whatever defects it may +present to the trained eyes of theological adepts, the heart has no +questions to ask, but at once owns and reveres it. Shall we regret that +he who had so entered into fellowship of suffering with the Divine One, +walking with Him under the cross, and dying daily to self, gave to the +faith and hope that were in him this testimony of a life, rather than any +form of words, however sound? A true life is at once interpreter and +proof of the gospel, and does more to establish its truth in the hearts +of men than all the "Evidences" and "Bodies of Divinity" which have +perplexed the world with more doubts than they solved. Shall we venture +to account it a defect in his Christian character, that, under an abiding +sense of the goodness and long-suffering of God, he wrought his work in +gentleness and compassion, with the delicate tenderness which comes of a +deep sympathy with the trials and weaknesses of our nature, never +allowing himself to indulge in heat or violence, persuading rather than +threatening? Did he overestimate that immeasurable Love, the +manifestation of which in his own heart so reached the hearts of others, +revealing everywhere unsuspected fountains of feeling and secret longings +after purity, as the rod of the diviner detects sweet, cool water-springs +under the parched surfaces of a thirsty land? And, looking at the +purity, wisdom, and sweetness of his life, who shall say that his faith +in the teaching of the Holy Spirit--the interior guide and light--was a +mistaken one? Surely it was no illusion by which his feet were so guided +that all who saw him felt that, like Enoch, he walked with God. "Without +the actual inspiration of the Spirit of Grace, the inward teacher and +soul of our souls," says Fenelon, "we could neither do, will, nor believe +good. We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves also, to +hear in a profound stillness of the soul this inexpressible voice of +Christ. The outward word of the gospel itself without this living +efficacious word within would be but an empty sound." "Thou Lord," says +Augustine in his Meditations, "communicatest thyself to all: thou +teachest the heart without words; thou speakest to it without articulate +sounds." + + "However, I am sure that there is a common spirit that plays within + us, and that is the Spirit of God. Whoever feels not the warm gale + and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, I dare not say he lives; for + truly without this to me there is no heat under the tropic, nor any + light though I dwelt in the body of the sun."--Sir Thomas Browne's + Religio Medici. + +Never was this divine principle more fully tested than by John Wool man; +and the result is seen in a life of such rare excellence that the world +is still better and richer for its sake, and the fragrance of it comes +down to us through a century, still sweet and precious. + +It will be noted throughout the Journal and essays that in his lifelong +testimony against wrong he never lost sight of the oneness of humanity, +its common responsibility, its fellowship of suffering and communion of +sin. Few have ever had so profound a conviction of the truth of the +Apostle's declaration that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself. +Sin was not to him an isolated fact, the responsibility of which began +and ended with the individual transgressor; he saw it as a part of a vast +network and entanglement, and traced the lines of influence converging +upon it in the underworld of causation. Hence the wrong and discord +which pained him called out pity, rather than indignation. The first +inquiry which they awakened was addressed to his own conscience. How far +am I in thought, word, custom, responsible for this? Have none of my +fellow-creatures an equitable right to any part which is called mine? +Have the gifts and possessions received by me from others been conveyed +in a way free from all unrighteousness? "Through abiding in the law of +Christ," he says, "we feel a tenderness towards our fellow-creatures, and +a concern so to walk that our conduct may not be the means of +strengthening them in error." He constantly recurs to the importance of +a right example in those who profess to be led by the spirit of Christ, +and who attempt to labor in His name for the benefit of their fellow-men. +If such neglect or refuse themselves to act rightly, they can but +"entangle the minds of others and draw a veil over the face of +righteousness." His eyes were anointed to see the common point of +departure from the Divine harmony, and that all the varied growths of +evil had their underlying root in human selfishness. He saw that every +sin of the individual was shared in greater or less degree by all whose +lives were opposed to the Divine order, and that pride, luxury, and +avarice in one class gave motive and temptation to the grosser forms of +evil in another. How gentle, and yet how searching, are his rebukes of +self-complacent respectability, holding it responsible, in spite of all +its decent seemings, for much of the depravity which it condemned with +Pharisaical harshness! In his Considerations on the True Harmony of +Mankind be dwells with great earnestness upon the importance of +possessing "the mind of Christ," which removes from the heart the desire +of superiority and worldly honors, incites attention to the Divine +Counsellor, and awakens an ardent engagement to promote the happiness of +all. "This state," he says, "in which every motion from the selfish +spirit yieldeth to pure love, I may acknowledge with gratitude to the +Father of Mercies, is often opened before me as a pearl to seek after." + +At times when I have felt true love open my heart towards my fellow- +creatures, and have been engaged in weighty conversation in the cause of +righteousness, the instructions I have received under these exercises in +regard to the true use of the outward gifts of God have made deep and +lasting impressions on my mind. I have beheld how the desire to provide +wealth and to uphold a delicate life has greviously entangled many, and +has been like a snare to their offspring; and though some have been +affected with a sense of their difficulties, and have appeared desirous +at times to be helped out of them, yet for want of abiding under the +humbling power of truth they have continued in these entanglements; +expensive living in parents and children hath called for a large supply, +and in answering this call the 'faces of the poor' have been ground away, +and made thin through hard dealing. + +"There is balm; there is a physician! and oh what longings do I feel that +we may embrace the means appointed for our healing; may know that removed +which now ministers cause for the cries of many to ascend to Heaven +against their oppressors; and that thus we may see the true harmony +restored!--a restoration of that which was lost at Babel, and which will +be, as the prophet expresses it, 'the returning of a pure language!'" + +It is easy to conceive how unwelcome this clear spiritual insight must +have been to the superficial professors of his time busy in tithing mint, +anise, and cummin. There must have been something awful in the presence +of one endowed with the gift of looking through all the forms, shows, and +pretensions of society, and detecting with certainty the germs of evil +hidden beneath them; a man gentle and full of compassion, clothed in "the +irresistible might of meekness," and yet so wise in spiritual +discernment, + + "Bearing a touchstone in his hand + And testing all things in the land + By his unerring spell. + + "Quick births of transmutation smote + The fair to foul, the foul to fair; + Purple nor ermine did he spare, + Nor scorn the dusty coat." + +In bringing to a close this paper, the preparation of which has been to +me a labor of love, I am not unmindful of the wide difference between the +appreciation of a pure and true life and the living of it, and am willing +to own that in delineating a character of such moral and spiritual +symmetry I have felt something like rebuke from my own words. I have +been awed and solemnized by the presence of a serene and beautiful spirit +redeemed of the Lord from all selfishness, and I have been made thankful +for the ability to recognize and the disposition to love him. I leave +the book with its readers. They may possibly make large deductions from +my estimate of the author; they may not see the importance of all his +self-denying testimonies; they may question some of his scruples, and +smile over passages of childlike simplicity; but I believe they will all +agree in thanking me for introducing them to the Journal of John Woolman. + +AMESBURY, 20th 1st mo.,1871. + + + + +HAVERFORD COLLEGE. + + Letter to President Thomas Chase, LL. D. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 9th mo., 1884. + +THE Semi-Centennial of Haverford College is an event that no member of +the Society of Friends can regard without deep interest. It would give +me great pleasure to be with you on the 27th inst., but the years rest +heavily upon me, and I have scarcely health or strength for such a +journey. + +It was my privilege to visit Haverford in 1838, in "the day of small +beginnings." The promise of usefulness which it then gave has been more +than fulfilled. It has grown to be a great and well-established +institution, and its influence in thorough education and moral training +has been widely felt. If the high educational standard presented in the +scholastic treatise of Barclay and the moral philosophy of Dymond has +been lowered or disowned by many who, still retaining the name of +Quakerism, have lost faith in the vital principle wherein precious +testimonials of practical righteousness have their root, and have gone +back to a dead literalness, and to those materialistic ceremonials for +leaving which our old confessors suffered bonds and death, Haverford, at +least, has been in a good degree faithful to the trust committed to it. + +Under circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty, it has endeavored +to maintain the Great Testimony. The spirit of its culture has not been +a narrow one, nor could it be, if true to the broad and catholic +principles of the eminent worthies who founded the State of +Pennsylvania, Penn, Lloyd, Pastorius, Logan, and Story; men who were +masters of the scientific knowledge and culture of their age, hospitable +to all truth, and open to all light, and who in some instances +anticipated the result of modern research and critical inquiry. + +It was Thomas Story, a minister of the Society of Friends, and member of +Penn's Council of State, who, while on a religious visit to England, +wrote to James Logan that he had read on the stratified rocks of +Scarborough, as from the finger of God, proofs of the immeasurable age +of our planet, and that the "days" of the letter of Scripture could +only mean vast spaces of time. + +May Haverford emulate the example of these brave but reverent men, who, +in investigating nature, never lost sight of the Divine Ideal, and who, +to use the words of Fenelon, "Silenced themselves to hear in the +stillness of their souls the inexpressible voice of Christ." Holding +fast the mighty truth of the Divine Immanence, the Inward Light and +Word, a Quaker college can have no occasion to renew the disastrous +quarrel of religion with science. Against the sublime faith which shall +yet dominate the world, skepticism has no power. No possible +investigation of natural facts; no searching criticism of letter and +tradition can disturb it, for it has its witness in all human hearts. + +That Haverford may fully realize and improve its great opportunities as +an approved seat of learning and the exponent of a Christian philosophy +which can never be superseded, which needs no change to fit it for +universal acceptance, and which, overpassing the narrow limits of sect, +is giving new life and hope to Christendom, and finding its witnesses in +the Hindu revivals of the Brahmo Somaj and the fervent utterances of +Chunda Sen and Mozoomdar, is the earnest desire of thy friend. + + + + +CRITICISM: EVANGELINE + + A review of Mr. Longfellow's poem. + +EUREKA! Here, then, we have it at last,--an American poem, with the lack +of which British reviewers have so long reproached us. Selecting the +subject of all others best calculated for his purpose,--the expulsion of +the French settlers of Acadie from their quiet and pleasant homes around +the Basin of Minas, one of the most sadly romantic passages in the +history of the Colonies of the North,--the author has succeeded in +presenting a series of exquisite pictures of the striking and peculiar +features of life and nature in the New World. The range of these +delineations extends from Nova Scotia on the northeast to the spurs of +the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. +Nothing can be added to his pictures of quiet farm-life in Acadie, the +Indian summer of our northern latitudes, the scenery of the Ohio and +Mississippi Rivers, the bayous and cypress forests of the South, the +mocking-bird, the prairie, the Ozark hills, the Catholic missions, and +the wild Arabs of the West, roaming with the buffalo along the banks of +the Nebraska. The hexameter measure he has chosen has the advantage of a +prosaic freedom of expression, exceedingly well adapted to a descriptive +and narrative poem; yet we are constrained to think that the story of +Evangeline would have been quite as acceptable to the public taste had it +been told in the poetic prose of the author's Hyperion. + +In reading it and admiring its strange melody we were not without fears +that the success of Professor Longfellow in this novel experiment might +prove the occasion of calling out a host of awkward imitators, leading us +over weary wastes of hexameters, enlivened neither by dew, rain, nor +fields of offering. + +Apart from its Americanism, the poem has merits of a higher and universal +character. It is not merely a work of art; the pulse of humanity throbs +warmly through it. The portraits of Basil the blacksmith, the old +notary, Benedict Bellefontaine, and good Father Felician, fairly glow +with life. The beautiful Evangeline, loving and faithful unto death, is +a heroine worthy of any poet of the present century. + +The editor of the Boston Chronotype, in the course of an appreciative +review of this poem, urges with some force a single objection, which we +are induced to notice, as it is one not unlikely to present itself to the +minds of other readers:-- + +"We think Mr. Longfellow ought to have expressed a much deeper +indignation at the base, knavish, and heartless conduct of the English +and Colonial persecutors than he has done. He should have put far bolder +and deeper tints in the picture of suffering. One great, if not the +greatest, end of poetry is rhadamanthine justice. The poet should mete +out their deserts to all his heroes; honor to whom honor, and infamy to +whom infamy, is due. + +"It is true that the wrong in this case is in a great degree fathered +upon our own Massachusetts; and it maybe said that it is afoul bird that +pollutes its own nest. We deny the applicability of the rather musty +proverb. All the worse. Of not a more contemptible vice is what is +called American literature guilty than this of unmitigated self- +laudation. If we persevere in it, the stock will become altogether too +small for the business. It seems that no period of our history has been +exempt from materials for patriotic humiliation and national self- +reproach; and surely the present epoch is laying in a large store of that +sort. Had our poets always told us the truth of ourselves, perhaps it +would now be otherwise. National self-flattery and concealment of faults +must of course have their natural results." + +We must confess that we read the first part of Evangeline with something +of the feeling so forcibly expressed by Professor Wright. The natural +and honest indignation with which, many years ago, we read for the first +time that dark page of our Colonial history--the expulsion of the French +neutrals--was reawakened by the simple pathos of the poem; and we longed +to find an adequate expression of it in the burning language of the poet. +We marvelled that he who could so touch the heart by his description of +the sad suffering of the Acadian peasants should have permitted the +authors of that suffering to escape without censure. The outburst of the +stout Basil, in the church of Grand Pre, was, we are fain to acknowledge, +a great relief to us. But, before reaching the close of the volume, we +were quite reconciled to the author's forbearance. The design of the +poem is manifestly incompatible with stern "rhadamanthine justice" and +indignant denunciation of wrong. It is a simple story of quiet pastoral +happiness, of great sorrow and painful bereavement, and of the endurance +of a love which, hoping and seeking always, wanders evermore up and down +the wilderness of the world, baffled at every turn, yet still retaining +faith in God and in the object of its lifelong quest. It was no part of +the writer's object to investigate the merits of the question at issue +between the poor Acadians and their Puritan neighbors. Looking at the +materials before him with the eye of an artist simply, he has arranged +them to suit his idea of the beautiful and pathetic, leaving to some +future historian the duty of sitting in judgment upon the actors in the +atrocious outrage which furnished them. With this we are content. The +poem now has unity and sweetness which might have been destroyed by +attempting to avenge the wrongs it so vividly depicts. It is a psalm of +love and forgiveness: the gentleness and peace of Christian meekness and +forbearance breathe through it. Not a word of censure is directly +applied to the marauding workers of the mighty sorrow which it describes +just as it would a calamity from the elements,--a visitation of God. The +reader, however, cannot fail to award justice to the wrong-doers. The +unresisting acquiescence of the Acadians only deepens his detestation of +the cupidity and religious bigotry of their spoilers. Even in the +language of the good Father Felician, beseeching his flock to submit to +the strong hand which had been laid upon them, we see and feel the +magnitude of the crime to be forgiven:-- + + "Lo, where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you! + See in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! + Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, O Father, forgive + them! + Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us; + Let us repeat it now, and say, O Father, forgive them!" + +How does this simple prayer of the Acadians contrast with the "deep +damnation of their taking off!" + +The true history of the Puritans of New England is yet to be written. +Somewhere midway between the caricatures of the Church party and the +self-laudations of their own writers the point may doubtless be found +from whence an impartial estimate of their character may be formed. They +had noble qualities: the firmness and energy which they displayed in the +colonization of New England must always command admiration. We would not +rob them, were it in our power to do so, of one jot or tittle of their +rightful honor. But, with all the lights which we at present possess, we +cannot allow their claim of saintship without some degree of +qualification. How they seemed to their Dutch neighbors at New +Netherlands, and their French ones at Nova Scotia, and to the poor +Indians, hunted from their fisheries and game-grounds, we can very well +conjecture. It may be safely taken for granted that their gospel claim +to the inheritance of the earth was not a little questionable to the +Catholic fleeing for his life from their jurisdiction, to the banished +Baptist shaking off the dust of his feet against them, and to the +martyred Quaker denouncing woe and judgment upon them from the steps of +the gallows. Most of them were, beyond a doubt, pious and sincere; but +we are constrained to believe that among them were those who wore the +livery of heaven from purely selfish motives, in a community where +church-membership was an indispensable requisite, the only open sesame +before which the doors of honor and distinction swung wide to needy or +ambitious aspirants. Mere adventurers, men of desperate fortunes, +bankrupts in character and purse, contrived to make gain of godliness +under the church and state government of New England, put on the austere +exterior of sanctity, quoted Scripture, anathematized heretics, whipped +Quakers, exterminated Indians, burned and spoiled the villages of their +Catholic neighbors, and hewed down their graven images and "houses of +Rimmon." It is curious to observe how a fierce religious zeal against +heathen and idolaters went hand in hand with the old Anglo-Saxon love of +land and plunder. Every crusade undertaken against the Papists of the +French colonies had its Puritan Peter the Hermit to summon the saints to +the wars of the Lord. At the siege of Louisburg, ten years before the +onslaught upon the Acadian settlers, one minister marched with the +Colonial troops, axe in hand, to hew down the images in the French +churches; while another officiated in the double capacity of drummer and +chaplain,--a "drum ecclesiastic," as Hudibras has it. + +At the late celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims in New York, the +orator of the day labored at great length to show that the charge of +intolerance, as urged against the colonists of New England, is unfounded +in fact. The banishment of the Catholics was very sagaciously passed +over in silence, inasmuch as the Catholic Bishop of New York was one of +the invited guests, and (hear it, shade of Cotton Mather!) one of the +regular toasts was a compliment to the Pope. The expulsion of Roger +Williams was excused and partially justified; while the whipping, ear- +cropping, tongue-boring, and hanging of the Quakers was defended, as the +only effectual method of dealing with such devil-driven heretics, as +Mather calls them. The orator, in the new-born zeal of his amateur +Puritanism, stigmatizes the persecuted class as "fanatics and ranters, +foaming forth their mad opinions;" compares them to the Mormons and the +crazy followers of Mathias; and cites an instance of a poor enthusiast, +named Eccles, who, far gone in the "tailor's melancholy," took it into +his head that he must enter into a steeple-house pulpit and stitch +breeches "in singing time,"--a circumstance, by the way, which took place +in Old England,--as a justification of the atrocious laws of the +Massachusetts Colony. We have not the slightest disposition to deny the +fanaticism and folly of some few professed Quakers in that day; and had +the Puritans treated them as the Pope did one of their number whom he +found crazily holding forth in the church of St. Peter, and consigned +them to the care of physicians as religious monomaniacs, no sane man +could have blamed them. Every sect, in its origin, and especially in its +time of persecution, has had its fanatics. The early Christians, if we +may credit the admissions of their own writers or attach the slightest +credence to the statements of pagan authors, were by no means exempt from +reproach and scandal in this respect. Were the Puritans themselves the +men to cast stones at the Quakers and Baptists? Had they not, in the +view at least of the Established Church, turned all England upside down +with their fanaticisms and extravagances of doctrine and conduct? How +look they as depicted in the sermons of Dr. South, in the sarcastic pages +of Hudibras, and the coarse caricatures of the clerical wits of the times +of the second Charles? With their own backs scored and their ears +cropped for the crime of denying the divine authority of church and state +in England, were they the men to whip Baptists and hang Quakers for doing +the same thing in Massachusetts? + +Of all that is noble and true in the Puritan character we are sincere +admirers. The generous and self-denying apostleship of Eliot is, of +itself, a beautiful page in their history. The physical daring and +hardihood with which, amidst the times of savage warfare, they laid the +foundations of mighty states, and subdued the rugged soil, and made the +wilderness blossom; their steadfast adherence to their religious +principles, even when the Restoration had made apostasy easy and +profitable; and the vigilance and firmness with which, under all +circumstances, they held fast their chartered liberties and extorted new +rights and privileges from the reluctant home government,--justly entitle +them to the grateful remembrance of a generation now reaping the fruits +of their toils and sacrifices. But, in expressing our gratitude to the +founders of New England, we should not forget what is due to truth and +justice; nor, for the sake of vindicating them from the charge of that +religious intolerance which, at the time, they shared with nearly all +Christendom, undertake to defend, in the light of the nineteenth century, +opinions and practices hostile to the benignant spirit of the gospel and +subversive of the inherent rights of man. + + + + +MIRTH AND MEDICINE + + A review of Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes. + +IF any of our readers (and at times we fear it is the case with all) need +amusement and the wholesome alterative of a hearty laugh, we commend +them, not to Dr. Holmes the physician, but to Dr. Holmes the scholar, the +wit, and the humorist; not to the scientific medical professor's +barbarous Latin, but to his poetical prescriptions, given in choice old +Saxon. We have tried them, and are ready to give the Doctor certificates +of their efficacy. + +Looking at the matter from the point of theory only, we should say that a +physician could not be otherwise than melancholy. A merry doctor! Why, +one might as well talk of a laughing death's-head,--the cachinnation of a +monk's _memento mori_. This life of ours is sorrowful enough at its best +estate; the brightest phase of it is "sicklied o'er with the pale cast" +of the future or the past. But it is the special vocation of the doctor +to look only upon the shadow; to turn away from the house of feasting and +go down to that of mourning; to breathe day after day the atmosphere of +wretchedness; to grow familiar with suffering; to look upon humanity +disrobed of its pride and glory, robbed of all its fictitious ornaments, +--weak, helpless, naked,--and undergoing the last fearful metempsychosis +from its erect and godlike image, the living temple of an enshrined +divinity, to the loathsome clod and the inanimate dust. Of what ghastly +secrets of moral and physical disease is he the depositary! There is woe +before him and behind him; he is hand and glove with misery by +prescription,--the ex officio gauger of the ills that flesh is heir to. +He has no home, unless it be at the bedside of the querulous, the +splenetic, the sick, and the dying. He sits down to carve his turkey, +and is summoned off to a post-mortem examination of another sort. All +the diseases which Milton's imagination embodied in the lazar-house dog +his footsteps and pluck at his doorbell. Hurrying from one place to +another at their beck, he knows nothing of the quiet comfort of the +"sleek-headed men who sleep o' nights." His wife, if he has one, has an +undoubted right to advertise him as a deserter of "bed and board." His +ideas of beauty, the imaginations of his brain, and the affections of his +heart are regulated and modified by the irrepressible associations of his +luckless profession. Woman as well as man is to him of the earth, +earthy. He sees incipient disease where the uninitiated see only +delicacy. A smile reminds him of his dental operations; a blushing cheek +of his hectic patients; pensive melancholy is dyspepsia; sentimentalism, +nervousness. Tell him of lovelorn hearts, of the "worm I' the bud," of +the mental impalement upon Cupid's arrow, like that of a giaour upon the +spear of a janizary, and he can only think of lack of exercise, of +tightlacing, and slippers in winter. Sheridan seems to have understood +all this, if we may judge from the lament of his Doctor, in St. +Patrick's Day, over his deceased helpmate. "Poor dear Dolly," says he. +"I shall never see her like again; such an arm for a bandage! veins that +seemed to invite the lancet! Then her skin,--smooth and white as a +gallipot; her mouth as round and not larger than that of a penny vial; +and her teeth,--none of your sturdy fixtures,--ache as they would, it was +only a small pull, and out they came. I believe I have drawn half a +score of her dear pearls. (Weeps.) But what avails her beauty? She has +gone, and left no little babe to hang like a label on papa's neck!" + +So much for speculation and theory. In practice it is not so bad after +all. The grave-digger in Hamlet has his jokes and grim jests. We have +known many a jovial sexton; and we have heard clergymen laugh heartily at +small provocation close on the heel of a cool calculation that the great +majority of their fellow-creatures were certain of going straight to +perdition. Why, then, should not even the doctor have his fun? Nay, is +it not his duty to be merry, by main force if necessary? Solomon, who, +from his great knowledge of herbs, must have been no mean practitioner +for his day, tells us that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine;" +and universal experience has confirmed the truth of his maxim. Hence it +is, doubtless, that we have so many anecdotes of facetious doctors, +distributing their pills and jokes together, shaking at the same time the +contents of their vials and the sides of their patients. It is merely +professional, a trick of the practice, unquestionably, in most cases; but +sometimes it is a "natural gift," like that of the "bonesetters," and +"scrofula strokers," and "cancer curers," who carry on a sort of guerilla +war with human maladies. Such we know to be the case with Dr. Holmes. +He was born for the "laughter cure," as certainly as Priessnitz was for +the "water cure," and has been quite as successful in his way, while his +prescriptions are infinitely more agreeable. + +The volume now before us gives, in addition to the poems and lyrics +contained in the two previous editions, some hundred or more pages of the +later productions of the author, in the sprightly vein, and marked by the +brilliant fancy and felicitous diction for which the former were +noteworthy. His longest and most elaborate poem, _Urania_, is perhaps +the best specimen of his powers. Its general tone is playful and +humorous; but there are passages of great tenderness and pathos. Witness +the following, from a description of the city churchgoers. The whole +compass of our literature has few passages to equal its melody and +beauty. + + "Down the chill street, which winds in gloomiest shade, + What marks betray yon solitary maid? + The cheek's red rose, that speaks of balmier air, + The Celtic blackness of her braided hair; + The gilded missal in her kerchief tied; + Poor Nora, exile from Killarney's side! + Sister in toil, though born of colder skies, + That left their azure in her downcast eyes, + See pallid Margaret, Labor's patient child, + Scarce weaned from home, a nursling of the wild, + Where white Katahdin o'er the horizon shines, + And broad Penobscot dashes through the pines; + Still, as she hastes, her careful fingers hold + The unfailing hymn-book in its cambric fold: + Six days at Drudgery's heavy wheel she stands, + The seventh sweet morning folds her weary hands. + Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure + He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor." + +This is but one of many passages, showing that the author is capable of +moving the heart as well as of tickling the fancy. There is no straining +for effect; simple, natural thoughts are expressed in simple and +perfectly transparent language. + +_Terpsichore_, read at an annual dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at +Cambridge, sparkles throughout with keen wit, quaint conceits, and satire +so good-natured that the subjects of it can enjoy it as heartily as their +neighbors. Witness this thrust at our German-English writers:-- + + "Essays so dark, Champollion might despair + To guess what mummy of a thought was there, + Where our poor English, striped with foreign phrase, Looks like a + zebra in a parson's chaise." + +Or this at our transcendental friends:-- + + "Deluded infants! will they never know + Some doubts must darken o'er the world below + Though all the Platos of the nursery trail + Their clouds of glory at the go-cart's tail?" + +The lines _On Lending a Punch-Bowl_ are highly characteristic. Nobody +but Holmes could have conjured up so many rare fancies in connection with +such a matter. Hear him:-- + + "This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times, + Of joyous days, and jolly nights, and merry Christmas chimes; + They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true, + That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new. + + "A Spanish galleon brought the bar; so runs the ancient tale; + 'T was hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail; + And now and then between the strokes, for fear his strength should fail, + He wiped his brow, and quaffed a cup of good old Flemish ale. + + "'T was purchased by an English squire to please his loving dame, + Who saw the cherubs, and conceived a longing for the same; + And oft as on the ancient stock another twig was found, + 'T was filled with candle spiced and hot and handed smoking round. + + "But, changing hands, it reached at length a Puritan divine, + Who used to follow Timothy, and take a little wine, + But hated punch and prelacy; and so it was, perhaps, + He went to Leyden, where he found conventicles and schnaps. + + "And then, of course, you know what's next,--it left the Dutchman's shore + With those that in the Mayflower came,--a hundred souls and more,-- + Along with all the furniture, to fill their new abodes,-- + To judge by what is still on hand, at least a hundred loads. + + "'T was on a dreary winter's eve, the night was closing dim, + When brave Miles Standish took the bowl, and filled it to the brim; + The little Captain stood and stirred the posset with his sword, + And all his sturdy men-at-arms were ranged about the board. + + "He poured the fiery Hollands in,--the man that never feared,-- + He took a long and solemn draught, and wiped his yellow beard; + And one by one the musketeers--the men that fought and prayed-- + All drank as 't were their mother's milk, and not a man afraid. + + "That night, affrighted from his nest, the screaming eagle flew, + He heard the Pequot's ringing whoop, the soldier's wild halloo; + And there the sachem learned the rule he taught to kith and kin, + 'Run from the white man when you find he smells of Hollands gin!'" + + +In his _Nux Postcoenatica_ he gives us his reflections on being invited +to a dinner-party, where he was expected to "set the table in a roar" by +reading funny verses. He submits it to the judgment and common sense of +the importunate bearer of the invitation, that this dinner-going, ballad- +making, mirth-provoking habit is not likely to benefit his reputation as +a medical professor. + + "Besides, my prospects. Don't you know that people won't employ + A man that wrongs his manliness by laughing like a boy, + And suspect the azure blossom that unfolds upon a shoot, + As if Wisdom's oldpotato could not flourish at its root? + + "It's a very fine reflection, when you're etching out a smile + On a copperplate of faces that would stretch into a mile. + That, what with sneers from enemies and cheapening shrugs from friends, + It will cost you all the earnings that a month of labor lends." + + +There are, as might be expected, some commonplace pieces in the volume,-- +a few failures in the line of humor. The _Spectre Pig_, the _Dorchester +Giant_, the _Height of the Ridiculous_, and one or two others might be +omitted in the next edition without detriment. They would do well enough +for an amateur humorist, but are scarcely worthy of one who stands at the +head of the profession. + +It was said of James Smith, of the Rejected Addresses, that "if he had +not been a witty man, he would have been a great man." Hood's humor and +drollery kept in the background the pathos and beauty of his sober +productions; and Dr. Holmes, we suspect, might have ranked higher among a +large class of readers than he now does had he never written his _Ballad +of the Oysterman_, his _Comet_, and his _September Gale_. Such lyrics as +_La Grisette_, the _Puritan's Vision_, and that unique compound of humor +and pathos, _The Last Leaf_; show that he possesses the power of touching +the deeper chords of the heart and of calling forth tears as well as +smiles. Who does not feel the power of this simple picture of the old +man in the last-mentioned poem? + + "But now he walks the streets, + And he looks at all he meets + Sad and wan, + And he shakes his feeble head, + That it seems as if he said, + 'They are gone.' + + "The mossy marbles rest + On the lips that he has prest + In their bloom, + And the names he loved to hear + Have been carved for many a year + On the tomb." + +Dr. Holmes has been likened to Thomas Hood; but there is little in common +between them save the power of combining fancy and sentiment with +grotesque drollery and humor. Hood, under all his whims and oddities, +conceals the vehement intensity of a reformer. The iron of the world's +wrongs had entered into his soul; there is an undertone of sorrow in his +lyrics; his sarcasm, directed against oppression and bigotry, at times +betrays the earnestness of one whose own withers have been wrung. Holmes +writes simply for the amusement of himself and his readers; he deals only +with the vanity, the foibles, and the minor faults of mankind, good +naturedly and almost sympathizingly suggesting excuses for the folly +which he tosses about on the horns of his ridicule. In this respect he +differs widely from his fellow-townsman, Russell Lowell, whose keen wit +and scathing sarcasm, in the famous Biglow Papers, and the notes of +Parson Wilbur, strike at the great evils of society and deal with the +rank offences of church and state. Hosea Biglow, in his way, is as +earnest a preacher as Habakkuk Mucklewrath or Obadiah Bind-their-kings- +in-chains-and-their-nobles-in-fetters-of-iron. His verse smacks of the +old Puritan flavor. Holmes has a gentler mission. His careless, genial +humor reminds us of James Smith in his _Rejected Addresses_ and of Horace +in _London_. Long may he live to make broader the face of our care- +ridden generation, and to realize for himself the truth of the wise man's +declaration that a "merry heart is a continual feast." + + + + +FAME AND GLORY. + +Notice of an Address before the Literary Society of Amherst College, by +Charles Sumner. + +THE learned and eloquent author of the pamphlet lying before us with the +above title belongs to a class, happily on the increase in our country, +who venture to do homage to unpopular truths in defiance of the social +and political tyranny of opinion which has made so many of our statesmen, +orators, and divines the mere playthings and shuttlecocks of popular +impulses for evil far oftener than for good. His first production, the +_True Grandeur of Nations_, written for the anniversary of American +Independence, was not more remarkable for its evidences of a highly +cultivated taste and wide historical research than for its inculcation of +a high morality,--the demand for practical Christianity in nations as +well as individuals. It burned no incense under the nostrils of an +already inflated and vain people. It gratified them by no rhetorical +falsehoods about "the land of the free and the home of the brave." It +did not apostrophize military heroes, nor strut "red wat shod" over the +plains of battle, nor call up, like another Ezekiel, from the valley of +vision the dry bones thereof. It uttered none of the precious scoundrel +cant, so much in vogue after the annexation of Texas was determined upon, +about the destiny of the United States to enter in and possess the lands +of all whose destiny it is to live next us, and to plant everywhere the +"peculiar institutions" of a peculiarly Christian and chosen people, the +landstealing propensity of whose progressive republicanism is declared to +be in accordance with the will and by the grace of God, and who, like the +Scotch freebooter,-- + + "Pattering an Ave Mary + When he rode on a border forray,"-- + +while trampling on the rights of a sister republic, and re-creating +slavery where that republic had abolished it, talk piously of "the +designs of Providence" and the Anglo-Saxon instrumentalities thereof in +"extending the area of freedom." On the contrary, the author portrayed +the evils of war and proved its incompatibility with Christianity,-- +contrasting with its ghastly triumphs the mild victories of peace and +love. Our true mission, he taught, was not to act over in the New World +the barbarous game which has desolated the Old; but to offer to the +nations of the earth, warring and discordant, oppressed and oppressing, +the beautiful example of a free and happy people studying the things +which make for peace,--Democracy and Christianity walking hand in hand, +blessing and being blessed. + +His next public effort, an Address before the Literary Society of his +Alma Mater, was in the same vein. He improved the occasion of the recent +death of four distinguished members of that fraternity to delineate his +beautiful ideal of the jurist, the scholar, the artist, and the +philanthropist, aided by the models furnished by the lives of such men as +Pickering, Story, Allston, and Channing. Here, also, he makes greatness +to consist of goodness: war and slavery and all their offspring of evil +are surveyed in the light of the morality of the New Testament. He looks +hopefully forward to the coming of that day when the sword shall devour +no longer, when labor shall grind no longer in the prison-house, and the +peace and freedom of a realized and acted-out Christianity shall +overspread the earth, and the golden age predicted by the seers and poets +alike of Paganism and Christianity shall become a reality. + +The Address now before us, with the same general object in view, is more +direct and practical. We can scarcely conceive of a discourse better +adapted to prepare the young American, just issuing from his collegiate +retirement, for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. It +treats the desire of fame and honor as one native to the human heart, +felt to a certain extent by all as a part of our common being,--a motive, +although by no means the most exalted, of human conduct; and the lesson +it would inculcate is, that no true and permanent fame can be founded +except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. To use the +language of Dr. South, "God is the fountain of honor; the conduit by +which He conveys it to the sons of men are virtuous and generous +practices." The author presents the beautiful examples of St. Pierre, +Milton, Howard, and Clarkson,--men whose fame rests on the firm +foundation of goodness,--for the study and imitation of the young +candidate for that true glory which belongs to those who live, not for +themselves, but for their race. "Neither present fame, nor war, nor +power, nor wealth, nor knowledge alone shall secure an entrance to the +true and noble Valhalla. There shall be gathered only those who have +toiled each in his vocation for the welfare of others." "Justice and +benevolence are higher than knowledge and power It is by His goodness +that God is most truly known; so also is the great man. When Moses said +to the Lord, Show me Thy glory, the Lord said, I will make all my +goodness pass before thee." + +We copy the closing paragraph of the Address, the inspiring sentiment of +which will find a response in all generous and hopeful hearts:-- + +"Let us reverse the very poles of the worship of past ages. Men have +thus far bowed down before stocks, stones, insects, crocodiles, golden +calves,--graven images, often of cunning workmanship, wrought with +Phidian skill, of ivory, of ebony, of marble, but all false gods. Let +them worship in future the true God, our Father, as He is in heaven and +in the beneficent labors of His children on earth. Then farewell to the +siren song of a worldly ambition! Farewell to the vain desire of mere +literary success or oratorical display! Farewell to the distempered +longings for office! Farewell to the dismal, blood-red phantom of +martial renown! Fame and glory may then continue, as in times past, the +reflection of public opinion; but of an opinion sure and steadfast, +without change or fickleness, enlightened by those two sons of Christian +truth,--love to God and love to man. From the serene illumination of +these duties all the forms of selfishness shall retreat like evil spirits +at the dawn of day. Then shall the happiness of the poor and lowly and +the education of the ignorant have uncounted friends. The cause of those +who are in prison shall find fresh voices; the majesty of peace other +vindicators; the sufferings of the slave new and gushing floods of +sympathy. Then, at last, shall the brotherhood of man stand confessed; +ever filling the souls of all with a more generous life; ever prompting +to deeds of beneficence; conquering the heathen prejudices of country, +color, and race; guiding the judgment of the historian; animating the +verse of the poet and the eloquence of the orator; ennobling human +thought and conduct; and inspiring those good works by which alone we may +attain to the heights of true glory. Good works! Such even now is the +heavenly ladder on which angels are ascending and descending, while weary +humanity, on pillows of storfe, slumbers heavily at its feet." + +We know how easy it is to sneer at such anticipations of a better future +as baseless and visionary. The shrewd but narrow-eyed man of the world +laughs at the suggestion that there car: be any stronger motive than +selfishness, any higher morality than that of the broker's board. The +man who relies for salvation from the consequences of an evil and selfish +life upon the verbal orthodoxy of a creed presents the depravity and +weakness of human nature as insuperable obstacles in the way of the +general amelioration of the condition of a world lying in wickedness. He +counts it heretical and dangerous to act upon the supposition that the +same human nature which, in his own case and that of his associates, can +confront all perils, overcome all obstacles, and outstrip the whirlwind +in the pursuit of gain,--which makes the strong elements its servants, +taming and subjugating the very lightnings of heaven to work out its own +purposes of self-aggrandizement,--must necessarily, and by an ordination +of Providence, become weak as water, when engaged in works of love and +goodwill, looking for the coming of a better day for humanity, with faith +in the promises of the Gospel, and relying upon Him, who, in calling man +to the great task-field of duty, has not mocked him with the mournful +necessity of laboring in vain. We have been pained more than words can +express to see young, generous hearts, yearning with strong desires to +consecrate themselves to the cause of their fellow-men, checked and +chilled by the ridicule of worldly-wise conservatism, and the solemn +rebukes of practical infidelity in the guise of a piety which professes +to love the unseen Father, while disregarding the claims of His visible +children. Visionary! Were not the good St. Pierre, and Fenelon, and +Howard, and Clarkson visionaries also? + +What was John Woolman, to the wise and prudent of his day, but an amiable +enthusiast? What, to those of our own, is such an angel of mercy as +Dorothea Dix? Who will not, in view of the labors of such +philanthropists, adopt the language of Jonathan Edwards: "If these things +be enthusiasms and the fruits of a distempered brain, let my brain be +evermore possessed with this happy distemper"? + +It must, however, be confessed that there is a cant of philanthropy too +general and abstract for any practical purpose,--a morbid +sentimentalism,--which contents itself with whining over real or +imaginary present evil, and predicting a better state somewhere in the +future, but really doing nothing to remove the one or hasten the coming +of the other. To its view the present condition of things is all wrong; +no green hillock or twig rises over the waste deluge; the heaven above is +utterly dark and starless: yet, somehow, out of this darkness which may +be felt, the light is to burst forth miraculously; wrong, sin, pain, and +sorrow are to be banished from the renovated world, and earth become a +vast epicurean garden or Mahometan heaven. + + "The land, unploughed, shall yield her crop; + Pure honey from the oak shall drop; + The fountain shall run milk; + The thistle shall the lily bear; + And every bramble roses wear, + And every worm make silk." + + (Ben Jenson's Golden Age Restored.) + +There are, in short, perfectionist reformers as well as religionists, who +wait to see the salvation which it is the task of humanity itself to work +out, and who look down from a region of ineffable self-complacence on +their dusty and toiling brethren who are resolutely doing whatsoever +their hands find to do for the removal of the evils around them. + +The emblem of practical Christianity is the Samaritan stooping over the +wounded Jew. No fastidious hand can lift from the dust fallen humanity +and bind up its unsightly gashes. Sentimental lamentation over evil and +suffering may be indulged in until it becomes a sort of melancholy +luxury, like the "weeping for Thammuz" by the apostate daughters of +Jerusalem. Our faith in a better day for the race is strong; but we feel +quite sure it will come in spite of such abstract reformers, and not by +reason of them. The evils which possess humanity are of a kind which go +not out by their delicate appliances. + +The author of the Address under consideration is not of this class. He +has boldly, and at no small cost, grappled with the great social and +political wrong of our country,--chattel slavery. Looking, as we have +seen, hopefully to the future, he is nevertheless one of those who can +respond to the words of a true poet and true man:-- + + "He is a coward who would borrow + A charm against the present sorrow + From the vague future's promise of delight + As life's alarums nearer roll, + The ancestral buckler calls, + Self-clanging, from the walls + In the high temple of the soul!" + + (James Russell Lowell.) + + + + +FANATICISM. + +THERE are occasionally deeds committed almost too horrible and revolting +for publication. The tongue falters in giving them utterance; the pen +trembles that records them. Such is the ghastly horror of a late tragedy +in Edgecomb, in the State of Maine. A respectable and thriving citizen +and his wife had been for some years very unprofitably engaged in +brooding over the mysteries of the Apocalypse, and in speculations upon +the personal coming of Christ and the temporal reign of the saints on +earth,--a sort of Mahometan paradise, which has as little warrant in +Scripture as in reason. Their minds of necessity became unsettled; they +meditated self-destruction; and, as it appears by a paper left behind in +the handwriting of both, came to an agreement that the husband should +first kill his wife and their four children, and then put an end to his +own existence. This was literally executed,--the miserable man striking +off the heads of his wife and children with his axe, and then cutting his +own throat. + +Alas for man when he turns from the light of reason and from the simple +and clearly defined duties of the present life, and undertakes to pry +into the mysteries of the future, bewildering himself with uncertain and +vague prophecies, Oriental imagery, and obscure Hebrew texts! Simple, +cheerful faith in God as our great and good Father, and love of His +children as our brethren, acted out in all relations and duties, is +certainly best for this world, and we believe also the best preparation +for that to come. Once possessed by the falsity that God's design is +that man should be wretched and gloomy here in order to obtain rest and +happiness hereafter; that the mental agonies and bodily tortures of His +creatures are pleasant to Him; that, after bestowing upon us reason for +our guidance, He makes it of no avail by interposing contradictory +revelations and arbitrary commands,--there is nothing to prevent one of a +melancholic and excitable temperament from excesses so horrible as almost +to justify the old belief in demoniac obsession. + +Charles Brockden Brown, a writer whose merits have not yet been +sufficiently acknowledged, has given a powerful and philosophical +analysis of this morbid state of mind--this diseased conscientiousness, +obeying the mad suggestions of a disordered brain as the injunctions of +Divinity--in his remarkable story of Wieland. The hero of this strange +and solemn romance, inheriting a melancholy and superstitious mental +constitution, becomes in middle age the victim of a deep, and tranquil +because deep, fanaticism. A demon in human form, perceiving his state of +mind, wantonly experiments upon it, deepening and intensifying it by a +fearful series of illusions of sight and sound. Tricks of jugglery and +ventriloquism seem to his feverish fancies miracles and omens--the eye +and the voice of the Almighty piercing the atmosphere of supernatural +mystery in which he has long dwelt. He believes that he is called upon +to sacrifice the beloved wife of his bosom as a testimony of the entire +subjugation of his carnal reason and earthly affections to the Divine +will. In the entire range of English literature there is no more +thrilling passage than that which describes the execution of this baleful +suggestion. The coloring of the picture is an intermingling of the +lights of heaven and hell,--soft shades of tenderest pity and warm tints +of unextinguishable love contrasting with the terrible outlines of an +insane and cruel purpose, traced with the blood of murder. The masters +of the old Greek tragedy have scarcely exceeded the sublime horror of +this scene from the American novelist. The murderer confronted with his +gentle and loving victim in her chamber; her anxious solicitude for his +health and quiet; her affectionate caress of welcome; his own relentings +and natural shrinking from his dreadful purpose; and the terrible +strength which he supposes is lent him of Heaven, by which he puts down +the promptings and yearnings of his human heart, and is enabled to +execute the mandate of an inexorable Being,--are described with an +intensity which almost stops the heart of the reader. When the deed is +done a frightful conflict of passions takes place, which can only be told +in the words of the author:-- + +"I lifted the corpse in my arms and laid it on the bed. I gazed upon it +with delight. Such was my elation that I even broke out into laughter. +I clapped my hands, and exclaimed, 'It is done! My sacred duty is +fulfilled! To that I have sacrificed, O God, Thy last and best gift, my +wife!' + +"For a while I thus soared above frailty. I imagined I had set myself +forever beyond the reach of selfishness. But my imaginations were false. +This rapture quickly subsided. I looked again at my wife. My joyous +ebullitions vanished. I asked myself who it was whom I saw. Methought +it could not be my Catharine; it could not be the woman who had lodged +for years in my heart; who had slept nightly in my bosom; who had borne +in her womb and fostered at her breast the beings who called me father; +whom I had watched over with delight and cherished with a fondness ever +new and perpetually growing. It could not be the same! + +"The breath of heaven that sustained me was withdrawn, and I sunk into +mere man. I leaped from the floor; I dashed my head against the wall; I +uttered screams of horror; I panted after torment and pain. Eternal fire +and the bickerings of hell, compared with what I felt, were music and a +bed of roses. + +"I thank my God that this was transient; that He designed once more to +raise me aloft. I thought upon what I had done as a sacrifice to duty, +and was calm. My wife was dead; but I reflected that, although this +source of human consolation was closed, others were still open. If the +transports of the husband were no more, the feelings of +the father had still scope for exercise. When remembrance of their +mother should excite too keen a pang, I would look upon my children and +be comforted. + +"While I revolved these things new warmth flowed in upon my heart. I was +wrong. These feelings were the growth of selfishness. Of this I was not +aware; and, to dispel the mist that obscured my perceptions, a new light +and a new mandate were necessary. + +"From these thoughts I was recalled by a ray which was shot into the +room. A voice spoke like that I had before heard: 'Thou hast done well; +but all is not done--the sacrifice is incomplete--thy children must be +offered--they must perish with their mother!'" + +The misguided man obeys the voice; his children are destroyed in their +bloom and innocent beauty. He is arrested, tried for murder, and +acquitted as insane. The light breaks in upon him at last; he discovers +the imposture which has controlled him; and, made desperate by the full +consciousness of his folly and crime, ends the terrible drama by suicide. + +Wieland is not a pleasant book. In one respect it resembles the modern +tale of Wuthering Heights: it has great strength and power, but no +beauty. Unlike that, however, it has an important and salutary moral. It +is a warning to all who tamper with the mind and rashly experiment upon +its religious element. As such, its perusal by the sectarian zealots of +all classes would perhaps be quite as profitable as much of their present +studies. + + + + +THE POETRY OF THE NORTH. + +THE Democratic Review not long since contained a singularly wild and +spirited poem, entitled the Norseman's Ride, in which the writer appears +to have very happily blended the boldness and sublimity of the heathen +saga with the grace and artistic skill of the literature of civilization. +The poetry of the Northmen, like their lives, was bold, defiant, and full +of a rude, untamed energy. It was inspired by exhibitions of power +rather than of beauty. Its heroes were beastly revellers or cruel and +ferocious plunderers; its heroines unsexed hoidens, playing the ugliest +tricks with their lovers, and repaying slights with bloody revenge,--very +dangerous and unsatisfactory companions for any other than the fire- +eating Vikings and redhanded, unwashed Berserkers. Significant of a +religion which reverenced the strong rather than the good, and which +regarded as meritorious the unrestrained indulgence of the passions, it +delighted to sing the praises of some coarse debauch or pitiless +slaughter. The voice of its scalds was often but the scream of the +carrion-bird, or the howl of the wolf, scenting human blood:-- + + "Unlike to human sounds it came; + Unmixed, unmelodized with breath; + But grinding through some scrannel frame, + Creaked from the bony lungs of Death." + +Its gods were brutal giant forces, patrons of war, robbery, and drunken +revelry; its heaven a vast cloud-built ale-house, where ghostly warriors +drank from the skulls of their victims; its hell a frozen horror of +desolation and darkness,--all that the gloomy Northern imagination could +superadd to the repulsive and frightful features of arctic scenery: +volcanoes spouting fire through craters rimmed with perpetual frost, +boiling caldrons flinging their fierce jets high into the air, and huge +jokuls, or ice-mountains, loosened and upheaved by volcanic agencies, +crawling slowly seaward, like misshapen monsters endowed with life,--a +region of misery unutterable, to be avoided only by diligence in robbery +and courage in murder. + +What a work had Christianity to perform upon such a people as the +Icelanders, for instance, of the tenth century!--to substitute in rude, +savage minds the idea of its benign and gentle Founder for that of the +Thor and Woden of Norse mythology; the forgiveness, charity, and humility +of the Gospel for the revenge, hatred, and pride inculcated by the Eddas. +And is it not one of the strongest proofs of the divine life and power of +that Gospel, that, under its influence, the hard and cruel Norse heart +has been so softened and humanized that at this moment one of the best +illustrations of the peaceful and gentle virtues which it inculcates is +afforded by the descendants of the sea-kings and robbers of the middle +centuries? No one can read the accounts which such travellers as Sir +George Mackenzie and Dr. Henderson have given us of the peaceful +disposition, social equality, hospitality, industry, intellectual +cultivation, morality, and habitual piety of the Icelanders, without a +grateful sense of the adaptation of Christianity to the wants of our +race, and of its ability to purify, elevate, and transform the worst +elements of human character. In Iceland Christianity has performed its +work of civilization, unobstructed by that commercial cupidity which has +caused nations more favored in respect to soil and climate to lapse into +an idolatry scarcely less debasing and cruel than that which preceded the +introduction of the Gospel. Trial by combat was abolished in 1001, and +the penalty of the imaginary crime of witchcraft was blotted from the +statutes of the island nearly half a century before it ceased to disgrace +those of Great Britain. So entire has been the change wrought in the +sanguinary and cruel Norse character that at the present day no Icelander +can be found who, for any reward, will undertake the office of +executioner. The scalds, who went forth to battle, cleaving the skulls +of their enemies with the same skilful hands which struck the harp at the +feast, have given place to Christian bards and teachers, who, like +Thorlakson, whom Dr. Henderson found toiling cheerfully with his beloved +parishioners in the hay-harvest of the brief arctic summer, combine with +the vigorous diction and robust thought of their predecessors the warm +and genial humanity of a religion of love and the graces and amenities of +a high civilization. + +But we have wandered somewhat aside from our purpose, which was simply to +introduce the following poem, which, in the boldness of its tone and +vigor of language, reminds us of the Sword Chant, the Wooing Song, and +other rhymed sagas of Motherwell. + + + + +THE NORSEMAN'S RIDE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR. + + The frosty fires of northern starlight + Gleamed on the glittering snow, + And through the forest's frozen branches + The shrieking winds did blow; + A floor of blue and icy marble + Kept Ocean's pulses still, + When, in the depths of dreary midnight, + Opened the burial hill. + + Then, while the low and creeping shudder + + Thrilled upward through the ground, + The Norseman came, as armed for battle, + In silence from his mound,-- + He who was mourned in solemn sorrow + By many a swordsman bold, + And harps that wailed along the ocean, + Struck by the scalds of old. + + Sudden a swift and silver shadow + Came up from out the gloom,-- + A charger that, with hoof impatient, + Stamped noiseless by the tomb. + "Ha! Surtur,!* let me hear thy tramping, + My fiery Northern steed, + That, sounding through the stormy forest, + Bade the bold Viking heed!" + + He mounted; like a northlight streaking + The sky with flaming bars, + They, on the winds so wildly shrieking, + Shot up before the stars. + "Is this thy mane, my fearless Surtur, + That streams against my breast? + + (*The name of the Scandinavian god of fire.) + + Is this thy neck, that curve of moonlight + Which Helva's hand caressed? + "No misty breathing strains thy nostril; + Thine eye shines blue and cold; + Yet mounting up our airy pathway + I see thy hoofs of gold. + Not lighter o'er the springing rainbow + Walhalla's gods repair + Than we in sweeping journey over + The bending bridge of air. + + "Far, far around star-gleams are sparkling + Amid the twilight space; + And Earth, that lay so cold and darkling, + Has veiled her dusky face. + Are those the Normes that beckon onward + As if to Odin's board, + Where by the hands of warriors nightly + The sparkling mead is poured? + + "'T is Skuld:* I her star-eye speaks the glory + That wraps the mighty soul, + When on its hinge of music opens + The gateway of the pole; + When Odin's warder leads the hero + To banquets never o'er, + And Freya's** glances fill the bosom + With sweetness evermore. + + "On! on! the northern lights are streaming + In brightness like the morn, + And pealing far amid the vastness + I hear the gyallarhorn *** + The heart of starry space is throbbing + With songs of minstrels old; + And now on high Walhalla's portal + Gleam Surtur's hoofs of gold." + +* The Norne of the future. + +** Freya, the Northern goddess of love. + +*** The horn blown by the watchers on the rainbow, the bridge over which +the gods pass in Northern mythology. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of +VII), by John Greenleaf Whittier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF WHITTIER *** + +***** This file should be named 9599.txt or 9599.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/5/9/9599/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 and Others, Complete, 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 #9599] +[This file was first posted on October 25, 2003] +[Last updated on February 9, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, VOLUME VII., COMPLETE *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + + VOLUME VII. + + + 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 effect 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 immediate 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 Russell, 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 overwhelmed 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. + + + + + + REFORM AND POLITICS + + UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS. + +THERE is a large class of men, not in Europe alone, but in this country +also, whose constitutional conservatism inclines them to regard any +organic change in the government of a state or the social condition of +its people with suspicion and distrust. They admit, perhaps, the evils +of the old state of things; but they hold them to be inevitable, the +alloy necessarily mingled with all which pertains to fallible humanity. +Themselves generally enjoying whatever of good belongs to the political +or social system in which their lot is cast, they are disposed to look +with philosophic indifference upon the evil which only afflicts their +neighbors. They wonder why people are not contented with their +allotments; they see no reason for change; they ask for quiet and peace +in their day; being quite well satisfied with that social condition which +an old poet has quaintly described:-- + + "The citizens like pounded pikes; + The lesser feed the great; + The rich for food seek stomachs, + And the poor for stomachs meat." + +This class of our fellow-citizens have an especial dislike of theorists, +reformers, uneasy spirits, speculators upon the possibilities of the +world's future, constitution builders, and believers in progress. They +are satisfied; the world at least goes well enough with them; they sit as +comfortable in it as Lafontaine's rat in the cheese; and why should those +who would turn it upside down come hither also? Why not let well enough +alone? Why tinker creeds, constitutions, and laws, and disturb the good +old-fashioned order of things in church and state? The idea of making +the world better and happier is to them an absurdity. He who entertains +it is a dreamer and a visionary, destitute of common sense and practical +wisdom. His project, whatever it may be, is at once pronounced to be +impracticable folly, or, as they are pleased to term it, _Utopian._ + +The romance of Sir Thomas More, which has long afforded to the +conservatives of church and state a term of contempt applicable to all +reformatory schemes and innovations, is one of a series of fabulous +writings, in which the authors, living in evil times and unable to +actualize their plans for the well-being of society, have resorted to +fiction as a safe means of conveying forbidden truths to the popular +mind. Plato's "Timaeus," the first of the series, was written after the +death of Socrates and the enslavement of the author's country. In this +are described the institutions of the Island of Atlantis,--the writer's +ideal of a perfect commonwealth. Xenophon, in his "Cyropaedia," has also +depicted an imaginary political society by overlaying with fiction +historical traditions. At a later period we have the "New Atlantis" of +Lord Bacon, and that dream of the "City of the Sun" with which Campanella +solaced himself in his long imprisonment. + +The "Utopia" of More is perhaps the best of its class. It is the work of +a profound thinker, the suggestive speculations and theories of one who +could + + "Forerun his age and race, and let + His feet millenniums hence be set + In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet." + +Much of what he wrote as fiction is now fact, a part of the frame-work of +European governments, and the political truths of his imaginary state are +now practically recognized in our own democratic system. As might be +expected, in view of the times in which the author wrote, and the +exceedingly limited amount of materials which he found ready to his hands +for the construction of his social and political edifice, there is a want +of proportion and symmetry in the structure. Many of his theories are no +doubt impracticable and unsound. But, as a whole, the work is an +admirable one, striding in advance of the author's age, and prefiguring a +government of religious toleration and political freedom. The following +extract from it was doubtless regarded in his day as something worse than +folly or the dream of a visionary enthusiast:-- + +"He judged it wrong to lay down anything rashly, and seemed to doubt +whether these different forms of religion might not all come from God, +who might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with the +variety. He therefore thought it to be indecent and foolish for any man +to threaten and terrify another, to make him believe what did not strike +him as true." + +Passing by the "Telemachus" of Fenelon, we come to the political romance +of Harrington, written in the time of Cromwell. "Oceana" is the name by +which the author represents England; and the republican plan of +government which he describes with much minuteness is such as he would +have recommended for adoption in case a free commonwealth had been +established. It deals somewhat severely with Cromwell's usurpation; yet +the author did not hesitate to dedicate it to that remarkable man, who, +after carefully reading it, gave it back to his daughter, Lady Claypole, +with the remark, full of characteristic bluntness, that "the gentleman +need not think to cheat him of his power and authority; for what he had +won with the sword he would never suffer himself to be scribbled out of." + +Notwithstanding the liberality and freedom of his speculations upon +government and religion in his Utopia, it must be confessed that Sir +Thomas More, in after life, fell into the very practices of intolerance +and bigotry which he condemned. When in the possession of the great seal +under that scandal of kingship, Henry VIII., he gave his countenance to +the persecution of heretics. Bishop Burnet says of him, that he caused a +gentleman of the Temple to be whipped and put to the rack in his +presence, in order to compel him to discover those who favored heretical +opinions. In his Utopia he assailed the profession of the law with +merciless satire; yet the satirist himself finally sat upon the +chancellor's woolsack; and, as has been well remarked by Horace Smith, +"if, from this elevated seat, he ever cast his eyes back upon his past +life, he must have smiled at the fond conceit which could imagine a +permanent Utopia, when he himself, certainly more learned, honest, and +conscientious than the mass of men has ever been, could in the course of +one short life fall into such glaring and frightful rebellion against his +own doctrines." + +Harrington, on the other hand, as became the friend of Milton and Marvel, +held fast, through good and evil report, his republican faith. He +published his work after the Restoration, and defended it boldly and ably +from the numerous attacks made upon it. Regarded as too dangerous an +enthusiast to be left at liberty, he was imprisoned at the instance of +Lord Chancellor Hyde, first in the Tower, and afterwards on the Island of +St. Nicholas, where disease and imprudent remedies brought on a partial +derangement, from which he never recovered. + +Bernardin St. Pierre, whose pathetic tale of "Paul and Virginia" has +found admirers in every language of the civilized world, in a fragment, +entitled "Arcadia," attempted to depict an ideal republic, without +priest, noble, or slave, where all are so religious that each man is the +pontiff of his family, where each man is prepared to defend his country, +and where all are in such a state of equality that there are no such +persons as servants. The plan of it was suggested by his friend Rousseau +during their pleasant walking excursions about the environs of Paris, in +which the two enthusiastic philosophers, baffled by the evil passions and +intractable materials of human nature as manifested in existing society, +comforted themselves by appealing from the actual to the possible, from +the real to the imaginary. Under the chestnut-trees of the Bois de +Boulogne, through long summer days, the two friends, sick of the noisy +world about them, yet yearning to become its benefactors,--gladly +escaping from it, yet busy with schemes for its regeneration and +happiness,--at once misanthropes and philanthropists,--amused and solaced +themselves by imagining a perfect and simple state of society, in which +the lessons of emulation and selfish ambition were never to be taught; +where, on the contrary, the young were to obey their parents, and to +prefer father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and friend to themselves. +They drew beautiful pictures of a country blessed with peace, indus try, +and love, covered with no disgusting monuments of violence and pride and +luxury, without columns, triumphal arches, hospitals, prisons, or +gibbets; but presenting to view bridges over torrents, wells on the arid +plain, groves of fruit-trees, and houses of shelter for the traveller in +desert places, attesting everywhere the sentiment of humanity. Religion +was to speak to all hearts in the eternal language of Nature. Death was +no longer to be feared; perspectives of holy consolation were to open +through the cypress shadows of the tomb; to live or to die was to be +equally an object of desire. + +The plan of the "Arcadia" of St. Pierre is simply this: A learned young +Egyptian, educated at Thebes by the priests of Osiris, desirous of +benefiting humanity, undertakes a voyage to Gaul for the purpose of +carrying thither the arts and religion of Egypt. He is shipwrecked on +his return in the Gulf of Messina, and lands upon the coast, where he is +entertained by an Arcadian, to whom he relates his adventures, and from +whom he receives in turn an account of the simple happiness and peace of +Arcadia, the virtues and felicity of whose inhabitants are beautifully +exemplified in the lives and conversation of the shepherd and his +daughter. This pleasant little prose poem closes somewhat abruptly. +Although inferior in artistic skill to "Paul and Virginia" or the "Indian +Cottage", there is not a little to admire in the simple beauty of its +pastoral descriptions. The closing paragraph reminds one of Bunyan's +upper chamber, where the weary pilgrim's windows opened to the sunrising +and the singing of birds:-- + +"Tyrteus conducted his guests to an adjoining chamber. It had a window +shut by a curtain of rushes, through the crevices of which the islands of +the Alpheus might be seen in the light of the moon. There were in this +chamber two excellent beds, with coverlets of warm and light wool. + +"Now, as soon as Amasis was left alone with Cephas, he spoke with joy of +the delight and tranquillity of the valley, of the goodness of the +shepherd, and the grace of his young daughter, to whom he had seen none +worthy to be compared, and of the pleasure which he promised himself the +next day, at the festival on Mount Lyceum, of beholding a whole people as +happy as this sequestered family. Converse so delightful might have +charmed away the night without the aid of sleep, had they not been +invited to repose by the mild light of the moon shining through the +window, the murmuring wind in the leaves of the poplars, and the distant +noise of the Achelous, which falls roaring from the summit of Mount +Lyceum." + +The young patrician wits of Athens doubtless laughed over Plato's ideal +republic. Campanella's "City of the Sun" was looked upon, no doubt, as +the distempered vision of a crazy state prisoner. Bacon's college, in +his "New Atlantis," moved the risibles of fat-witted Oxford. More's +"Utopia," as we know, gave to our language a new word, expressive of the +vagaries and dreams of fanatics and lunatics. The merciless wits, +clerical and profane, of the court of Charles II. regarded Harrington's +romance as a perfect godsend to their vocation of ridicule. The gay +dames and carpet knights of Versailles made themselves merry with the +prose pastoral of St. Pierre; and the poor old enthusiast went down to +his grave without finding an auditory for his lectures upon natural +society. + +The world had its laugh over these romances. When unable to refute their +theories, it could sneer at the authors, and answer them to the +satisfaction of the generation in which they lived, at least by a general +charge of lunacy. Some of their notions were no doubt as absurd as those +of the astronomer in "Rasselas", who tells Imlac that he has for five +years possessed the regulation of the weather, and has got the secret of +making to the different nations an equal and impartial dividend of rain +and sunshine. But truth, even when ushered into the world through the +medium of a dull romance and in connection with a vast progeny of errors, +however ridiculed and despised at first, never fails in the end of +finding a lodging-place in the popular mind. The speculations of the +political theorists whom we have noticed have not all proved to be of + + "such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Rounded with sleep." + +They have entered into and become parts of the social and political +fabrics of Europe and America. The prophecies of imagination have been +fulfilled; the dreams of romance have become familiar realities. + +What is the moral suggested by this record? Is it not that we should +look with charity and tolerance upon the schemes and speculations of the +political and social theorists of our day; that, if unprepared to venture +upon new experiments and radical changes, we should at least consider +that what was folly to our ancestors is our wisdom, and that another +generation may successfully put in practice the very theories which now +seem to us absurd and impossible? Many of the evils of society have been +measurably removed or ameliorated; yet now, as in the days of the +Apostle, "the creation groaneth and travaileth in pain;" and although +quackery and empiricism abound, is it not possible that a proper +application of some of the remedies proposed might ameliorate the general +suffering? Rejecting, as we must, whatever is inconsistent with or +hostile to the doctrines of Christianity, on which alone rests our hope +for humanity, it becomes us to look kindly upon all attempts to apply +those doctrines to the details of human life, to the social, political, +and industrial relations of the race. If it is not permitted us to +believe all things, we can at least hope them. Despair is infidelity and +death. Temporally and spiritually, the declaration of inspiration holds +good, "We are saved by hope." + + + + + + + PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. + + [1851.] + +BERNARDIN ST. PIERRE, in his Wishes of a Solitary, asks for his country +neither wealth, nor military glory, nor magnificent palaces and +monuments, nor splendor of court nobility, nor clerical pomp. "Rather," +he says, "O France, may no beggar tread thy plains, no sick or suffering +man ask in vain for relief; in all thy hamlets may every young woman find +a lover and every lover a true wife; may the young be trained arightly +and guarded from evil; may the old close their days in the tranquil hope +of those who love God and their fellow-men." + +We are reminded of the amiable wish of the French essayist--a wish even +yet very far from realization, we fear, in the empire of Napoleon III.-- +by the perusal of two documents recently submitted to the legislature of +the State of Massachusetts. They indicate, in our view, the real glory +of a state, and foreshadow the coming of that time when Milton's +definition of a true commonwealth shall be no longer a prophecy, but the +description of an existing fact,--"a huge Christian personage, a mighty +growth and stature of an honest man, moved by the purpose of a love of +God and of mankind." + +Some years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the suggestion of +several benevolent gentlemen whose attention had been turned to the +subject, appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of the +idiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their numbers, and whether +anything could be done in their behalf. + +The commissioners were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, so well and honorably known +for his long and arduous labors in behalf of the blind, Judge Byington, +and Dr. Gilman Kimball. The burden of the labor fell upon the chairman, +who entered upon it with the enthusiasm, perseverance, and practical +adaptation of means to ends which have made him so efficient in his +varied schemes of benevolence. On the 26th of the second month, 1848, a +full report of the results of this labor was made to the Governor, +accompanied by statistical tables and minute details. One hundred towns +had been visited by the chairman or his reliable agent, in which five +hundred and seventy-five persons in a state of idiocy were discovered. +These were examined carefully in respect to their physical as well as +mental condition, no inquiry being omitted which was calculated to throw +light upon the remote or immediate causes of this mournful imperfection +in the creation of God. The proximate causes Dr. Howe mentions are to be +found in the state of the bodily organization, deranged and +disproportioned by some violation of natural law on the part of the +parents or remoter ancestors of the sufferers. Out of 420 cases of +idiocy, he had obtained information respecting the condition of the +progenitors of 359; and in all but four of these eases he found that one +or the other, or both, of their immediate progenitors had in some way +departed widely from the condition of health; they were scrofulous, or +predisposed to affections of the brain, and insanity, or had intermarried +with blood-relations, or had been intemperate, or guilty of sensual +excesses. + +Of the 575 cases, 420 were those of idiocy from birth, and 155 of idiocy +afterwards. Of the born idiots, 187 were under twenty-five years of age, +and all but 13 seemed capable of improvement. Of those above twenty-five +years of age, 73 appeared incapable of improvement in their mental +condition, being helpless as children at seven years of age; 43 out of +the 420 seemed as helpless as children at two years of age; 33 were in +the condition of mere infants; and 220 were supported at the public +charge in almshouses. A large proportion of them were found to be given +over to filthy and loathsome habits, gluttony, and lust, and constantly +sinking lower towards the condition of absolute brutishness. + +Those in private houses were found, if possible, in a still more +deplorable state. Their parents were generally poor, feeble in mind and +body, and often of very intemperate habits. Many of them seemed scarcely +able to take care of themselves, and totally unfit for the training of +ordinary children. It was the blind leading the blind, imbecility +teaching imbecility. Some instances of the experiments of parental +ignorance upon idiotic offspring, which fell under the observation of Dr. +Howe, are related in his report Idiotic children were found with their +heads covered over with cold poultices of oak-bark, which the foolish +parents supposed would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his +ox-hides, and so make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering +lessons. In other cases, finding that the child could not be made to +comprehend anything, the sagacious heads of the household, on the +supposition that its brain was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices +of bread and milk to soften it. Others plastered over their children's +heads with tar. Some administered strong doses of mercury, to "solder up +the openings" in the head and make it tight and strong. Others +encouraged the savage gluttony of their children, stimulating their +unnatural and bestial appetites, on the ground that "the poor creatures +had nothing else to enjoy but their food, and they should have enough of +that!" + +In consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848, +made an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three +years, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be +selected by the Governor and Council. The trustees of the Asylum for the +Blind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving +these pupils. The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first +annual report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the +Senate, is now before us. + +Of the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of +muscular motion,--the languid body obeyed not the service of the imbecile +will. Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple motions; +others could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two were +without any power of locomotion. + +One of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the +day of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could +scarcely see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of +touch. He could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would +lie on the floor in whatever position he was placed. He could not feed +himself nor chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an +infant. His intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no +affections. A more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have +been selected. + +A year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in +the condition of this miserable being. Cold bathing, rubbing of the +limbs, exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances +have enabled him to stand upright, to sit at table and feed himself, and +chew his food, and to walk about with slight assistance. His habits are +no longer those of a brute; he observes decency; his eye is brighter; his +cheeks glow with health; his countenance, is more expressive of thought. +He has learned many words and constructs simple sentences; his affections +begin to develop; and there is every prospect that he will be so far +renovated as to be able to provide for himself in manhood. + +In the case of another boy, aged twelve years, the improvement has been +equally remarkable. The gentleman who first called attention to him, in +a recent note to Dr. Howe, published in the report, thus speaks of his +present condition: "When I remember his former wild and almost frantic +demeanor when approached by any one, and the apparent impossibility of +communicating with him, and now see him standing in his class, playing +with his fellows, and willingly and familiarly approaching me, examining +what I gave him,--and when I see him already selecting articles named by +his teacher, and even correctly pronouncing words printed on cards,-- +improvement does not convey the idea presented to my mind; it is +creation; it is making him anew." + +All the pupils have more or less advanced. Their health and habits have +improved; and there is no reason to doubt that the experiment, at the +close of its three years, will be found to have been quite as successful +as its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated. Dr. Howe has +been ably seconded by an accomplished teacher, James B. Richards, who has +devoted his whole time to the pupils. Of the nature and magnitude of +their task, an idea may be formed only by considering the utter +listlessness of idiocy, the incapability of the poor pupil to fix his +attention upon anything, and his general want of susceptibility to +impressions. All his senses are dulled and perverted. Touch, hearing, +sight, smell, are all more or less defective. His gluttony is +unaccompanied with the gratification of taste,--the most savory viands +and the offal which he shares with the pigs equally satisfy him. His +mental state is still worse than his physical. Thought is painful and +irksome to him. + +His teacher can only engage his attention by strenuous efforts, loud, +earnest tones, gesticulations and signs, and a constant presentation of +some visible object of bright color and striking form. The eye wanders, +and the spark of consciousness and intelligence which has been fanned +into momentary brightness darkens at the slightest relaxation of the +teacher's exertions. The names of objects presented to him must +sometimes be repeated hundreds of times before he can learn them. Yet +the patience and enthusiasm of the teacher are rewarded by a progress, +slow and unequal, but still marked and manifest. Step by step, often +compelled to turn back and go over the inch of ground he had gained, the +idiot is still creeping forward; and by almost imperceptible degrees his +sick, cramped, and prisoned spirit casts off the burden of its body of +death, breath as from the Almighty--is breathed into him, and he becomes +a living soul. + +After the senses of the idiot are trained to take note +of their appropriate objects, the various perceptive faculties are next +to be exercised. The greatest possible number of facts are to be +gathered up through the medium of these faculties into the storehouse of +memory, from whence eventually the higher faculties of mind may draw the +material of general ideas. It has been found difficult, if not +impossible, to teach the idiot to read by the letters first, as in the +ordinary method; but while the varied powers of the three letters, h, a, +t, could not be understood by him, he could be made to comprehend the +complex sign of the word hat, made by uniting the three. + +The moral nature of the idiot needs training and development as well as +his physical and mental. All that can be said of him is, that he has the +latent capacity for moral development and culture. Uninstructed and left +to himself, he has no ideas of regulated appetites and propensities, of +decency and delicacy of affection and social relations. The germs of +these ideas, which constitute the glory and beauty of humanity, +undoubtedly exist in him; but there can be no growth without patient and +persevering culture. Where this is afforded, to use the language of the +report, "the idiot may learn what love is, though he may not know the +word which expresses it; he may feel kindly affections while unable to +understand the simplest virtuous principle; and he may begin to live +acceptably to God before he has learned the name by which men call him." + +In the facts and statistics presented in the report, light is shed upon +some of the dark pages of God's providence, and it is seen that the +suffering and shame of idiocy are the result of sin, of a violation of +the merciful laws of God and of the harmonies of His benign order. The +penalties which are ordained for the violators of natural laws are +inexorable and certain. For the transgressor of the laws of life there +is, as in the case of Esau, "no place for repentance, though he seek it +earnestly and with tears." The curse cleaves to him and his children. +In this view, how important becomes the subject of the hereditary +transmission of moral and physical disease and debility! and how +necessary it is that there should be a clearer understanding of, and a +willing obedience, at any cost, to the eternal law which makes the parent +the blessing or the curse of the child, giving strength and beauty, and +the capacity to know and do the will of God, or bequeathing +loathsomeness, deformity, and animal appetite, incapable of the +restraints of the moral faculties! Even if the labors of Dr. Howe and +his benevolent associates do not materially lessen the amount of present +actual evil and suffering in this respect, they will not be put forth in +vain if they have the effect of calling public attention to the great +laws of our being, the violation of which has made this goodly earth a +vast lazarhouse of pain and sorrow. + +The late annual message of the Governor of Massachusetts invites our +attention to a kindred institution of charity. The chief magistrate +congratulates the legislature, in language creditable to his mind and +heart, on the opening of the Reform School for Juvenile Criminals, +established by an act of a previous legislature. The act provides that, +when any boy under sixteen years of age shall be convicted of crime +punishable by imprisonment other than such an offence as is punished by +imprisonment for life, he may be, at the discretion of the court or +justice, sent to the State Reform School, or sentenced to such +imprisonment as the law now provides for his offence. The school is +placed under the care of trustees, who may either refuse to receive a boy +thus sent there, or, after he has been received, for reasons set forth in +the act, may order him to be committed to prison under the previous penal +law of the state. They are also authorized to apprentice the boys, at +their discretion, to inhabitants of the Commonwealth. And whenever any +boy shall be discharged, either as reformed or as having reached the age +of twenty-one years, his discharge is a full release from his sentence. + +It is made the duty of the trustees to cause the boys to be instructed in +piety and morality, and in branches of useful knowledge, in some regular +course of labor, mechanical, agricultural, or horticultural, and such +other trades and arts as may be best adapted to secure the amendment, +reformation, and future benefit of the boys. The class of offenders for +whom this act provides are generally the offspring of parents depraved by +crime or suffering from poverty and want,--the victims often of +circumstances of evil which almost constitute a necessity,--issuing from +homes polluted and miserable, from the sight and hearing of loathsome +impurities and hideous discords, to avenge upon society the ignorance, +and destitution, and neglect with which it is too often justly +chargeable. In 1846 three hundred of these youthful violators of law +were sentenced to jails and other places of punishment in Massachusetts, +where they incurred the fearful liability of being still more thoroughly +corrupted by contact with older criminals, familiar with atrocity, and +rolling their loathsome vices "as a sweet morsel under the tongue." In +view of this state of things the Reform School has been established, +twenty-two thousand dollars having been contributed to the state for that +purpose by an unknown benefactor of his race. The school is located in +Westboro', on a fine farm of two hundred acres. The buildings are in the +form of a square, with a court in the centre, three stories in front, +with wings. They are constructed with a degree of architectural taste, +and their site is happily chosen,--a gentle eminence, overlooking one of +the loveliest of the small lakes which form a pleasing feature in New +England scenery. From this place the atmosphere and associations of the +prison are excluded. The discipline is strict, as a matter of course; +but it is that of a well-regulated home or school-room,--order, neatness, +and harmony within doors; and without, the beautiful 'sights and sounds +and healthful influences of Nature. One would almost suppose that the +poetical dream of Coleridge, in his tragedy of Remorse, had found its +realization in the Westboro' School, and that, weary of the hopelessness +and cruelty of the old penal system, our legislators had embodied in +their statutes the idea of the poet:-- + +"With other ministrations thou, O Nature, +Healest thy wandering and distempered child +Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, +Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets, +Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters, +Till he relent, and can no more endure +To be a jarring and a dissonant thing +Amidst this general dance and minstrelsy." + +Thus it is that the Christian idea of reformation, rather than revenge, +is slowly but surely incorporating itself in our statute books. We have +only to look back but a single century to be able to appreciate the +immense gain for humanity in the treatment of criminals which has been +secured in that space of time. Then the use of torture was common +throughout Europe. Inability to comprehend and believe certain religious +dogmas was a crime to be expiated by death, or confiscation of estate, or +lingering imprisonment. Petty offences against property furnished +subjects for the hangman. The stocks and the whipping-post stood by the +side of the meeting-house. Tongues were bored with redhot irons and ears +shorn off. The jails were loathsome dungeons, swarming with vermin, +unventilated, unwarmed. A century and a half ago the populace of +Massachusetts were convulsed with grim merriment at the writhings of a +miserable woman scourged at the cart-tail or strangling in the ducking- +stool; crowds hastened to enjoy the spectacle of an old man enduring the +unutterable torment of the 'peine forte et dare,'--pressed slowly to +death under planks,--for refusing to plead to an indictment for +witchcraft. What a change from all this to the opening of the State +Reform School, to the humane regulations of prisons and penitentiaries, +to keen-eyed benevolence watching over the administration of justice, +which, in securing society from lawless aggression, is not suffered to +overlook the true interest and reformation of the criminal, nor to forget +that the magistrate, in the words of the Apostle, is to be indeed "the +minister of God to man for good!" + + + + + LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES. + +"THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," was +the significant answer of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees who +took offence at his companions,--the poor, the degraded, the weak, and +the sinful. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and +not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to +repentance." + +The great lesson of duty inculcated by this answer of the Divine Teacher +has been too long overlooked by individuals and communities professedly +governed by His maxims. The phylacteries of our modern Pharisees are as +broad as those of the old Jewish saints. The respectable Christian +detests his vicious and ill-conditioned neighbors as heartily as the +Israelite did the publicans and sinners of his day. He folds his robe of +self-righteousness closely about him, and denounces as little better than +sinful weakness all commiseration for the guilty; and all attempts to +restore and reclaim the erring violators of human law otherwise than by +pains and penalties as wicked collusion with crime, dangerous to the +stability and safety of society, and offensive in the sight of God. And +yet nothing is more certain than that, just in proportion as the example +of our Lord has been followed in respect to the outcast and criminal, the +effect has been to reform and elevate,--to snatch as brands from the +burning souls not yet wholly given over to the service of evil. The +wonderful influence for good exerted over the most degraded and reckless +criminals of London by the excellent and self-denying Elizabeth Fry, the +happy results of the establishment of houses of refuge, and reformation, +and Magdalen asylums, all illustrate the wisdom of Him who went about +doing good, in pointing out the morally diseased as the appropriate +subjects of the benevolent labors of His disciples. No one is to be +despaired of. We have no warrant to pass by any of our fellow-creatures +as beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy; for, beneath the most +repulsive and hateful outward manifestation, there is always a +consciousness of the beauty of goodness and purity, and of the +loathsomeness of sin,--one chamber of the heart as yet not wholly +profaned, whence at times arises the prayer of a burdened and miserable +spirit for deliverance. Deep down under the squalid exterior, +unparticipative in the hideous merriment and recklessness of the +criminal, there is another self,--a chained and suffering inner man,-- +crying out, in the intervals of intoxication and brutal excesses, like +Jonah from the bosom of hell. To this lingering consciousness the +sympathy and kindness of benevolent and humane spirits seldom appeal in +vain; for, whatever may be outward appearances, it remains true that the +way of the transgressor is hard, and that sin and suffering are +inseparable. Crime is seldom loved or persevered in for its own sake; +but, when once the evil path is entered upon, a return is in reality +extremely difficult to the unhappy wanderer, and often seems as well nigh +impossible. The laws of social life rise up like insurmountable barriers +between him and escape. As he turns towards the society whose rights he +has outraged, its frown settles upon him; the penalties of the laws he +has violated await him; and he falls back despairing, and suffers the +fetters of the evil habit to whose power he has yielded himself to be +fastened closer and heavier upon him. O for some good angel, in the form +of a brother-man and touched with a feeling of his sins and infirmities, +to reassure his better nature and to point out a way of escape from its +body of death! + +We have been led into these remarks by an account, given in the London +Weekly Chronicle, of a most remarkable interview between the professional +thieves of London and Lord Ashley,--a gentleman whose best patent of +nobility is to be found in his generous and untiring devotion to the +interests of his fellow-men. It appears that a philanthropic gentleman +in London had been applied to by two young thieves, who had relinquished +their evil practices and were obtaining a precarious but honest +livelihood by picking up bones and rags in the streets, their loss of +character closing against them all other employments. He had just been +reading an address of Lord Ashley's in favor of colonial emigration, and +he was led to ask one of the young men how he would like to emigrate. + +"I should jump at the chance!" was the reply. Not long after the +gentleman was sent for to visit one of those obscure and ruinous courts +of the great metropolis where crime and poverty lie down together,-- +localities which Dickens has pictured with such painful distinctness. +Here, to his surprise, he met a number of thieves and outlaws, who +declared themselves extremely anxious to know whether any hope could be +held out to them of obtaining an honest living, however humble, in the +colonies, as their only reason for continuing in their criminal course +was the impossibility of extricating themselves. He gave them such +advice and encouragement as he was able, and invited them to assemble +again, with such of their companions as they could persuade to do so, at +the room of the Irish Free School, for the purpose of meeting Lord +Ashley. On the 27th of the seventh month last the meeting took place. +At the hour appointed, Lord Ashley and five or six other benevolent +gentlemen, interested in emigration as a means of relief and reformation +to the criminal poor, entered the room, which was already well-nigh +filled. Two hundred and seven professed thieves were present. "Several +of the most experienced thieves were stationed at the door to prevent the +admission of any but thieves. Some four or five individuals, who were +not at first known, were subjected to examination, and only allowed to +remain on stating that they were, and being recognized as, members of the +dishonest fraternity; and before the proceedings of the evening commenced +the question was very carefully put, and repeated several times, whether +any one was in the room of whom others entertained doubts as to who he +was. The object of this care was, as so many of them were in danger of +'getting into trouble,' or, in other words, of being taken up for their +crimes, to ascertain if any who might betray them were present; and +another intention of this scrutiny was, to give those assembled, who +naturally would feel considerable fear, a fuller confidence in opening +their minds." + +What a novel conference between the extremes of modern society! All that +is beautiful in refinement and education, moral symmetry and Christian +grace, contrasting with the squalor, the ignorance, the lifelong +depravity of men living "without God in the world,"--the pariahs of +civilization,--the moral lepers, at the sight of whom decency covers its +face, and cries out, "Unclean!" After a prayer had been offered, Lord +Ashley spoke at considerable length, making a profound impression on his +strange auditory as they listened to his plans of emigration, which +offered them an opportunity to escape from their miserable condition and +enter upon a respectable course of life. The hard heart melted and the +cold and cruel eye moistened. With one accord the wretched felons +responded to the language of Christian love and good-will, and declared +their readiness to follow the advice of their true friend. They looked +up to him as to an angel of mercy, and felt the malignant spirits which +had so long tormented them disarmed of all power of evil in the presence +of simple goodness. He stood in that felon audience like Spenser's Una +amidst the satyrs; unassailable and secure in the "unresistible might of +meekness," and panoplied in that "noble grace which dashed brute violence +with sudden adoration and mute awe." + +Twenty years ago, when Elizabeth Fry ventured to visit those "spirits in +prison,"--the female tenants of Newgate,--her temerity was regarded with +astonishment, and her hope of effecting a reformation in the miserable +objects of her sympathy was held to be wholly visionary. Her personal +safety and the blessed fruits of her labors, nevertheless, confirmed the +language of her Divine Master to His disciples when He sent them forth as +lambs among wolves: "Behold, I give unto you power over all the power of +the enemy." The still more unpromising experiment of Lord Ashley, thus +far, has been equally successful; and we hail it as the introduction of a +new and more humane method of dealing with the victims of sin and +ignorance, and the temptations growing out of the inequalities and vices +of civilization. + + + + + + WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + + Letter to the Newport Convention. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 12th, 8th Month, 1869. + +I HAVE received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf +of Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R. I., on the 25th inst. I do not see +how it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so, +the state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the +meeting as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to +sanction anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of +duty or policy. Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not +embrace this occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement. +I have seen no good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not +have the same right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers, +husbands, and brothers have. + +The sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women +of my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like +equality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with +noble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their +household duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of +unpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and +strengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human +nature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than +acquiescence on the efforts you are making. I frankly confess that I am +not able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political +change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to +do right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand, +without sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote +drops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment, +the bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it. But in this +matter it seems to me that we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes +or conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves +and honors in woman. Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed +Chevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain. +I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when +they meet on terms of equality before the law. + +On the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman +will prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains. It +is her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something +less than manhood to withhold it. But, unsupported by a more practical +education, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of +life and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more +than in man's. + +With great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend. + + + + + + ITALIAN UNITY + + AMESBURY, MASS., 1st Mo., 4th, 1871. + + Read at the great meeting in New York, January, 1871, in celebration + of the freedom of Rome and complete unity of Italy. + +IT would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to attend the meeting on +the 12th instant for the celebration of Italian Unity, the emancipation +of Rome, and its occupation as the permanent capital of the nation. + +For many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular +movement on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the +deliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age by centuries. I +looked at these struggles of the people with little reference to their +ecclesiastical or sectarian bearings. Had I been a Catholic instead of a +Protestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from +Papal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical, +desirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the civil liberty +which I prized so highly for myself. + +I lost all confidence in the French republic of 1849, when it forfeited +its own right to exist by crushing out the newly formed Roman republic +under Mazzini and Garibaldi. From that hour it was doomed, and the +expiation of its monstrous crime is still going on. My sympathies are +with Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and +sustain a republic in France, but I confess that the investment of Paris +by King William seems to me the logical sequence of the bombardment of +Rome by Oudinot. And is it not a significant fact that the terrible +chassepot, which made its first bloody experiment upon the halfarmed +Italian patriots without the walls of Rome, has failed in the hands of +French republicans against the inferior needle-gun of Prussia? It was +said of a fierce actor in the old French Revolution that he demoralized +the guillotine. The massacre at Mentana demoralized the chassepot. + +It is a matter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has been +effected so easily and bloodlessly. The despotism of a thousand years +fell at a touch in noiseless rottenness. The people of Rome, fifty to +one, cast their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of earth +upon its grave. Outside of Rome there seems to be a very general +acquiescence in its downfall. No Peter the Hermit preaches a crusade in +its behalf. No one of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a finger +for it. Whatever may be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the +fugitive son of King Bomba, they are in no condition to come to its +rescue. It is reserved for American ecclesiastics, loud-mouthed in +professions of democracy, to make solemn protest against what they call +an "outrage," which gives the people of Rome the right of choosing their +own government, and denies the divine right of kings in the person of Pio +Nono. + +The withdrawal of the temporal power of the Pope will prove a blessing to +the Catholic Church, as well as to the world. Many of its most learned +and devout priests and laymen have long seen the necessity of such a +change, which takes from it a reproach and scandal that could no longer +be excused or tolerated. A century hence it will have as few apologists +as the Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew. + +In this hour of congratulation let us not forget those whose suffering +and self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the +way for the triumph which we celebrate. As we call the long, illustrious +roll of Italian patriotism--the young, the brave, and beautiful; the +gray-haired, saintly confessors; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut +out from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the +slow, dumb agony of prison martyrdom--let us hope that they also rejoice +with us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving: +"Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! He hath avenged the +blood of his servants!" + +In the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule +will strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized' world, I +am very truly thy friend. + + + + + + INDIAN CIVILIZATION. + +THE present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the +aboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of +indifference to any class of the people of the United States. Apart from +all considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our +own well-being would compel attention to the subject. The irreversible +laws of God's moral government, and the well-attested maxims of political +and social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and +wrong of one part of the community must affect all others. A common +responsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten +ignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect +no nation has ever escaped. + +It is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian +Civilization could be appropriately used in this country. Very little +real progress bad been made in this direction, up to the time when +Commissioner Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced. So +little had been done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the +assumption that the Indians were not susceptible of civilization and +progress. The few experiments had not been calculated to assure a +superficial observer. + +The unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the +imprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his "praying +Indians," by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes. +The salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was +greatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless +converts of Gnadenhutten. But since the first visit of Commissioner +Lang, thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization, +and conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature, +and if Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been +practically solved. + +The nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are +indeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their +elevation. The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those +Northern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and +who were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had +conquered. The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed +from the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the +Scandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons +of rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where +ghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell +was a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by +diligence in robbery and courage in murder. The descendants of these +human butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing +influence of the gospel of Christ. The report of the Superintendent of +the remnants of the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable +and prosperous in Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the +Norse ancestors of the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of +improvement. + +It is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the +wars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every +instance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic +disregard of their rights of person, property, and life. The letter of +Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month, +1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman, +Harney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching +investigation of the subject: "That the Indian goes to war is not +astonishing: he is often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in +silence, which never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. +The best possible way to avoid war is to do no injustice." + +It is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer +settlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind +vengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the +real wrong-doers. They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as +proof that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can +prevent their repetition. But a moment's consideration compels us to +admit that atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man. "All wars +are cruel," said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom +has been a great battle-field. What Indian raid has been more dreadful +than the sack of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless +atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St. +Bartholomew's day, the unspeakable agonies of the South of France under +the demoniac rule of revolution! All history, black with crime and red +with blood, is but an awful commentary upon "man's inhumanity to man," +and it teaches us that there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's +ferocity and vindictiveness, and that the alleged reasons for his +extermination would, at one time or another, have applied with equal +force to the whole family of man. + +A late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable +information and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have +found in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it +my hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general +circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in +the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind +to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a +people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future +relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly and love +mercy." + + + + + +READING FOR THE BLIND. + +[1880.] + +To Mary C. Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum. + +DEAR FRIEND,--It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in thy +class at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded them +to read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold +what I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me. Very glad I shall +be if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I +have tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot +discern them by natural vision. I shall count it a great privilege to +see for them, or rather to let them see through my eyes. It is the mind +after all that really sees, shapes, and colors all things. What visions +of beauty and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of +blind Milton and Beethoven! + +I have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and +blind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high +degree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of +scenes which have been witnessed only by the "light within." + +I thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that +I am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer +is that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can +well dispense with the outward and material ones. + + + + + +THE INDIAN QUESTION. + +Read at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the +condition of the Indians in the United States. + +AMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883. + +I REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to +the pressing question of the day, the present condition and future +prospects of the Indian race in the United States. The old policy, +however well intended, of the government is no longer available. The +westward setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the +lines of the reservations. There would seem to be no power in the +government to prevent the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and +the crowding out of the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds. +Outbreaks of Indian ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on +the part of the whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of +indiscriminate massacres. The entire question will soon resolve itself +into the single alternative of education and civilization or +extermination. + +The school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon +have proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can +be enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and +delight in the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in +his workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the +laws of the republic. What is needed is that not only these schools +should be more liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened +without delay. The matter does not admit of procrastination. The work +of education and civilization must be done. The money needed must be +contributed with no sparing hand. The laudable example set by the +Friends and the American Missionary Association should be followed by +other sects and philanthropic societies. Christianity, patriotism, and +enlightened self interest have a common stake in the matter. Great and +difficult as the work may be the country is strong enough, rich enough, +wise enough, and, I believe, humane and Christian enough to do it. + + + + + +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. + +Read at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston, +November, 1885. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885. + +I AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of +the Essex Club on the 14th inst. I should be glad to meet my old +Republican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election +in Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex. + +Some of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last +year saw fit to vote with the opposite party. I would be the last to +deny their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I +think they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and +evils which they complained of. President Cleveland has proved himself +better than his party, and has done and said some good things which I +give him full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him, +and must eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his +carrying the party, it will be likely to carry him. It has already +compelled him to put his hands in his pockets for electioneering +purposes, and travel all the way from Washington to Buffalo to give his +vote for a spoilsman and anti-civil service machine politician. I would +not like to call it a case of "offensive partisanship," but it looks a +good deal like it. + +As a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the +party, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the +Democratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization +no longer necessary. But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has +still its mission and its future. When labor shall everywhere have its +just reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when +education shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have +the free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective +of color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community +shall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it +fostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions +of office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to +well-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will +the work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political +rivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other +aim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty, +and union. Then may the language which Milton addressed to his +countrymen two centuries ago be applied to the United States, "Go on, +hand in hand, O peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic +song of all posterity. Join your invincible might to do worthy and +godlike deeds; and then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving +curse be his inheritance." + + + + + +OUR DUMB RELATIONS. + +[1886.] + +IT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the +fervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His +creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league +with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace +with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the +golden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to +warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute +creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest +and meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world +there are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and +nature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven, +and who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents. + +It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that +stories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men +and animals are always listened to with interest and approval. How +pleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been +celebrated in song and romance. Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his +bequest to the birds. Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went, +by flocks of birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed +hat and his drab coat-sleeves. Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind +and infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of +Walter Scott and John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs. Of our own +Thoreau, instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend. Emerson +says of him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller +records of Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees +things, or the bees had told him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the +fishes swam into his hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his +tail, and took foxes under his protection from the hunters." + +In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems--the sacred book of the +Mahabharata--there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness, +which records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise. +A pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces, +and, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all +fallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed. +He was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city. But the king +thinks of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in +without them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him. +Joyful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who, +weary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter +the gate. Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon +his faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin. + + "Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful! + Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog. + The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to + save him; + Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word." + +In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and +straightway descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and +faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself +surrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus +honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love. + + + + + +INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + +Read at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing +more than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor +international arbitration. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887. + +IT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at +the welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than +two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international +arbitration. Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the +presentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United +States. It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best +interests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must +respond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his +colleagues who represented the workingmen of England. We do not need to +be told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by +professed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and +boomerang. We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the +demoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the +spectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in +preparing to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like +Count Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that +the gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred. + +The overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a +cheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of +peace among English speaking peoples. I cannot doubt that whatever stump +orators and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America +will respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water. +No two nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the +United States for making the "holy experiment of arbitration." + +In our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common +claims in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are +essentially one people. Whatever other nations may do, we at least +should be friends. God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall +not be in vain! May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us +shall be the peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of +good. + + "When closer strand shall lean to strand, + Till meet beneath saluting flags, + The eagle of our mountain crags, + The lion of our mother land!" + + + + + +SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN. + +Read at the Woman's Convention at Washington. + +OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888. + +I THANK thee for thy kind letter. It would be a great satisfaction to be +able to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage +Association. But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my +hearty sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart +and assurance in view of all that has been accomplished. There is no +easy royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been +slow there has been no step backward. The barriers which at first seemed +impregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and +their fall is certain. A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is +in the air; your opponents feel it and believe it. They know that yours +is a gaining and theirs a losing cause. The work still before you +demands on your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm, +dignified, and self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you +have so much reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not +discouraged by temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor +provoked to use any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall +back on the heads of those who use them. You can afford +in your consciousness of right to be as calm and courteous as the +archangel Michael, who, we are told in Scripture in his controversy with +Satan himself, did not bring a railing accusation against him. A wise +adaptation of means to ends is no yielding of principle, but care should +be taken to avoid all such methods as have disgraced political and +religious parties of the masculine sex. Continue to make it manifest +that all which is pure and lovely and of good repute in womanhood is +entirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of citizenship, and +the performance of the duties which we all owe to our homes and our +country. Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt or misgiving +as to your success, I bid you Godspeed. I find I have written to the +association rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal +originators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I +should identify thee with it. + + + + + +THE INNER LIFE + +THE AGENCY OF EVIL. + +From the Supernaturalism of New England, in the Democratic Review for +1843. + +IN this life of ours, so full of mystery, so hung about with wonders, so +written over with dark riddles, where even the lights held by prophets +and inspired ones only serve to disclose the solemn portals of a future +state of being, leaving all beyond in shadow, perhaps the darkest and +most difficult problem which presents itself is that of the origin of +evil,--the source whence flow the black and bitter waters of sin and +suffering and discord,--the wrong which all men see in others and feel +in themselves,--the unmistakable facts of human depravity and misery. A +superficial philosophy may attempt to refer all these dark phenomena of +man's existence to his own passions, circumstances, and will; but the +thoughtful observer cannot rest satisfied with secondary causes. The +grossest materialism, at times, reveals something of that latent dread +of an invisible and spiritual influence which is inseparable from our +nature. Like Eliphaz the Temanite, it is conscious of a spirit passing +before its face, the form whereof is not discerned. + +It is indeed true that our modern divines and theologians, as if to atone +for the too easy credulity of their order formerly, have unceremoniously +consigned the old beliefs of Satanic agency, demoniacal possession, and +witchcraft, to Milton's receptacle of exploded follies and detected +impostures, + + "Over the backside of the world far off, + Into a limbo broad and large, and called + The paradise of fools,"-- + +that indeed, out of their peculiar province, and apart from the routine +of their vocation, they have become the most thorough sceptics and +unbelievers among us. Yet it must be owned that, if they have not the +marvellous themselves, they are the cause of it in others. In certain +states of mind, the very sight of a clergyman in his sombre professional +garb is sufficient to awaken all the wonderful within us. Imagination +goes wandering back to the subtle priesthood of mysterious Egypt. We +think of Jannes and Jambres; of the Persian magi; dim oak groves, with +Druid altars, and priests, and victims, rise before us. For what is the +priest even of our New England but a living testimony to the truth of the +supernatural and the reality of the unseen,--a man of mystery, walking in +the shadow of the ideal world,--by profession an expounder of spiritual +wonders? Laugh he may at the old tales of astrology and witchcraft and +demoniacal possession; but does he not believe and bear testimony to his +faith in the reality of that dark essence which Scripture more than hints +at, which has modified more or less all the religious systems and +speculations of the heathen world,--the Ahriman of the Parsee, the Typhon +of the Egyptian, the Pluto of the Roman mythology, the Devil of Jew, +Christian, and Mussulman, the Machinito of the Indian,--evil in the +universe of goodness, darkness in the light of divine intelligence,--in +itself the great and crowning mystery from which by no unnatural process +of imagination may be deduced everything which our forefathers believed +of the spiritual world and supernatural agency? That fearful being with +his tributaries and agents,--"the Devil and his angels,"--how awfully he +rises before us in the brief outline limning of the sacred writers! How +he glooms, "in shape and gesture proudly eminent," on the immortal canvas +of Milton and Dante! What a note of horror does his name throw into the +sweet Sabbath psalmody of our churches. What strange, dark fancies are +connected with the very language of common-law indictments, when grand +juries find under oath that the offence complained of has been committed +"at the instigation of the Devil"! + +How hardly effaced are the impressions of childhood! Even at this day, +at the mention of the evil angel, an image rises before me like that with +which I used especially to horrify myself in an old copy of Pilgrim's +Progress. Horned, hoofed, scaly, and fire-breathing, his caudal +extremity twisted tight with rage, I remember him, illustrating the +tremendous encounter of Christian in the valley where "Apollyon straddled +over the whole breadth of the way." There was another print of the enemy +which made no slight impression upon me. It was the frontispiece of an +old, smoked, snuff-stained pamphlet, the property of an elderly lady, +(who had a fine collection of similar wonders, wherewith she was kind +enough to edify her young visitors,) containing a solemn account of the +fate of a wicked dancing-party in New Jersey, whose irreverent +declaration, that they would have a fiddler if they had to send to the +lower regions after him, called up the fiend himself, who forthwith +commenced playing, while the company danced to the music incessantly, +without the power to suspend their exercise, until their feet and legs +were worn off to the knees! The rude wood-cut represented the demon +fiddler and his agonized companions literally stumping it up and down in +"cotillons, jigs, strathspeys, and reels." He would have answered very +well to the description of the infernal piper in Tam O'Shanter. + +To this popular notion of the impersonation of the principle of evil we +are doubtless indebted for the whole dark legacy of witchcraft and +possession. Failing in our efforts to solve the problem of the origin of +evil, we fall back upon the idea of a malignant being,--the antagonism of +good. Of this mysterious and dreadful personification we find ourselves +constrained to speak with a degree of that awe and reverence which are +always associated with undefined power and the ability to harm. "The +Devil," says an old writer, "is a dignity, though his glory be somewhat +faded and wan, and is to be spoken of accordingly." + +The evil principle of Zoroaster was from eternity self-created and +existent, and some of the early Christian sects held the same opinion. +The gospel, however, affords no countenance to this notion of a divided +sovereignty of the universe. The Divine Teacher, it is true, in +discoursing of evil, made use of the language prevalent in His time, and +which was adapted to the gross conceptions of His Jewish bearers; but He +nowhere presents the embodiment of sin as an antagonism to the absolute +power and perfect goodness of God, of whom, and through whom, and to whom +are all things. Pure himself, He can create nothing impure. Evil, +therefore, has no eternity in the past. The fact of its present actual +existence is indeed strongly stated; and it is not given us to understand +the secret of that divine alchemy whereby pain, and sin, and discord +become the means to beneficent ends worthy of the revealed attributes of +the Infinite Parent. Unsolved by human reason or philosophy, the dark +mystery remains to baffle the generations of men; and only to the eye of +humble and childlike faith can it ever be reconciled to the purity, +justice, and mercy of Him who is "light, and in whom is no darkness at +all." + +"Do you not believe in the Devil?" some one once asked the Non-conformist +Robinson. "I believe in God," was the reply; "don't you?" + +Henry of Nettesheim says "that it is unanimously maintained that devils +do wander up and down in the earth; but what they are, or how they are, +ecclesiasticals have not clearly expounded." Origen, in his Platonic +speculations on this subject, supposed them to be spirits who, by +repentance, might be restored, that in the end all knees might be bowed +to the Father of spirits, and He become all in all. Justin Martyr was of +the opinion that many of them still hoped for their salvation; and the +Cabalists held that this hope of theirs was well founded. One is +irresistibly reminded here of the closing verse of the _Address to the +Deil_, by Burns:-- + + "But fare ye weel, Auld Nickie ben! + Gin ye wad take a thought and mend, + Ye aiblins might--I dinna ken-- + Still has a stake + I'm was to think upon yon den + Fen for your sake." + +The old schoolmen and fathers seem to agree that the Devil and his +ministers have bodies in some sort material, subject to passions and +liable to injury and pain. Origen has a curious notion that any evil +spirit who, in a contest with a human being, is defeated, loses from +thenceforth all his power of mischief, and may be compared to a wasp who +has lost his sting. + +"The Devil," said Samson Occum, the famous Indian preacher, in a +discourse on temperance, "is a gentleman, and never drinks." +Nevertheless it is a remarkable fact, and worthy of the serious +consideration of all who "tarry long at the wine," that, in that state of +the drunkard's malady known as delirium tremens, the adversary, in some +shape or other, is generally visible to the sufferers, or at least, as +Winslow says of the Powahs, "he appeareth more familiarly to them than to +others." I recollect a statement made to me by a gentleman who has had +bitter experience of the evils of intemperance, and who is at this time +devoting his fine talents to the cause of philanthropy and mercy, as the +editor of one of our best temperance journals, which left a most vivid +impression on my mind. He had just returned from a sea-voyage; and, for +the sake of enjoying a debauch, unmolested by his friends, took up his +abode in a rum-selling tavern in a somewhat lonely location on the +seaboard. Here he drank for many days without stint, keeping himself the +whole time in a state of semi-intoxication. One night he stood leaning +against a tree, looking listlessly and vacantly out upon the ocean; the +waves breaking on the beach, and the white sails of passing vessels +vaguely impressing him like the pictures of a dream. He was startled by +a voice whispering hoarsely in his ear, _"You have murdered a man; the +officers of justice are after you; you must fly for your life!"_ Every +syllable was pronounced slowly and separately; and there was something in +the hoarse, gasping sound of the whisper which was indescribably +dreadful. He looked around him, and seeing nothing but the clear +moonlight on the grass, became partially sensible that he was the victim +of illusion, and a sudden fear of insanity thrilled him with a momentary +horror. Rallying himself, he returned to the tavern, drank another glass +of brandy, and retired to his chamber. He had scarcely lain his head on +the pillow when he heard that hoarse, low, but terribly distinct whisper, +repeating the same words. He describes his sensations at this time as +inconceivably fearful. Reason was struggling with insanity; but amidst +the confusion and mad disorder one terrible thought evolved itself. Had +he not, in a moment of mad frenzy of which his memory made no record, +actually murdered some one? And was not this a warning from Heaven? +Leaving his bed and opening his door, he heard the words again repeated, +with the addition, in a tone of intense earnestness, "Follow me!" He +walked forward in the direction of the sound, through a long entry, to +the head of the staircase, where he paused for a moment, when again he +heard the whisper, half-way down the stairs, "Follow me!" + +Trembling with terror, he passed down two flights of stairs, and found +himself treading on the cold brick floor of a large room in the basement, +or cellar, where he had never been before. The voice still beckoned him +onward; and, groping after it, his hand touched an upright post, against +which he leaned for a moment. He heard it again, apparently only two or +three yards in front of him "You have murdered a man; the officers are +close behind you; follow me!" Putting one foot forward while his hand +still grasped the post, it fell upon empty air, and he with difficulty +recovered himself. Stooping down and feeling with his hands, he found +himself on the very edge of a large uncovered cistern, or tank, filled +nearly to the top with water. The sudden shock of this discovery broke +the horrible enchantment. The whisperer was silent. He believed, at the +time, that he had been the subject, and well-nigh the victim, of a +diabolical delusion; and he states that, even now, with the recollection +of that strange whisper is always associated a thought of the universal +tempter. + +Our worthy ancestors were, in their own view of the matter, the advance +guard and forlorn hope of Christendom in its contest with the bad angel. +The New World, into which they had so valiantly pushed the outposts of +the Church militant, was to them, not God's world, but the Devil's. They +stood there on their little patch of sanctified territory like the +gamekeeper of Der Freischutz in the charmed circle; within were prayer +and fasting, unmelodious psalmody and solemn hewing of heretics, "before +the Lord in Gilgal;" without were "dogs and sorcerers, red children of +perdition, Powah wizards," and "the foul fiend." In their grand old +wilderness, broken by fair, broad rivers and dotted with loveliest lakes, +hanging with festoons of leaf, and vine, and flower, the steep sides of +mountains whose naked tops rose over the surrounding verdure like altars +of a giant world,--with its early summer greenness and the many-colored +wonder of its autumn, all glowing as if the rainbows of a summer shower +had fallen upon it, under the clear, rich light of a sun to which the +misty day of their cold island was as moonlight,--they saw no beauty, +they recognized no holy revelation. It was to them terrible as the +forest which Dante traversed on his way to the world of pain. Every +advance step they made was upon the enemy's territory. And one has only +to read the writings of the two Mathers to perceive that that enemy was +to them no metaphysical abstraction, no scholastic definition, no figment +of a poetical fancy, but a living, active reality, alternating between +the sublimest possibilities of evil and the lowest details of mean +mischief; now a "tricksy spirit," disturbing the good-wife's platters or +soiling her newwashed linen, and anon riding the storm-cloud and pointing +its thunder-bolts; for, as the elder Mather pertinently inquires, "how +else is it that our meeting-houses are burned by the lightning?" What +was it, for instance, but his subtlety which, speaking through the lips +of Madame Hutchinson, confuted the "judges of Israel" and put to their +wits' end the godly ministers of the Puritan Zion? Was not his evil +finger manifested in the contumacious heresy of Roger Williams? Who else +gave the Jesuit missionaries--locusts from the pit as they were--such a +hold on the affections of those very savages who would not have scrupled +to hang the scalp of pious Father Wilson himself from their girdles? To +the vigilant eye of Puritanism was he not alike discernible in the light +wantonness of the May-pole revellers, beating time with the cloven foot +to the vain music of obscene dances, and in the silent, hat-canopied +gatherings of the Quakers, "the most melancholy of the sects," as Dr. +Moore calls them? Perilous and glorious was it, under these +circumstances, for such men as Mather and Stoughton to gird up their +stout loins and do battle with the unmeasured, all-surrounding terror. +Let no man lightly estimate their spiritual knight-errantry. The heroes +of old romance, who went about smiting dragons, lopping giants' heads, +and otherwise pleasantly diverting themselves, scarcely deserve mention +in comparison with our New England champions, who, trusting not to carnal +sword and lance, in a contest with principalities and powers, "spirits +that live throughout, Vital in every part, not as frail man,"-- +encountered their enemies with weapons forged by the stern spiritual +armorer of Geneva. The life of Cotton Mather is as full of romance as +the legends of Ariosto or the tales of Beltenebros and Florisando in +Amadis de Gaul. All about him was enchanted ground; devils glared on him +in his "closet wrestlings;" portents blazed in the heavens above him; +while he, commissioned and set apart as the watcher, and warder, and +spiritual champion of "the chosen people," stood ever ready for battle, +with open eye and quick ear for the detection of the subtle approaches of +the enemy. No wonder is it that the spirits of evil combined against +him; that they beset him as they did of old St. Anthony; that they shut +up the bowels of the General Court against his long-cherished hope of the +presidency of Old Harvard; that they even had the audacity to lay hands +on his anti-diabolical manuscripts, or that "ye divil that was in ye girl +flewe at and tore" his grand sermon against witches. How edifying is his +account of the young bewitched maiden whom he kept in his house for the +purpose of making experiments which should satisfy all "obstinate +Sadducees"! How satisfactory to orthodoxy and confounding to heresy is +the nice discrimination of "ye divil in ye girl," who was choked in +attempting to read the Catechism, yet found no trouble with a pestilent +Quaker pamphlet; who was quiet and good-humored when the worthy Doctor +was idle, but went into paroxysms of rage when he sat down to indite his +diatribes against witches and familiar spirits! + + [The Quakers appear to have, at a comparatively early period, + emancipated themselves in a great degree from the grosser + superstitions of their times. William Penn, indeed, had a law in + his colony against witchcraft; but the first trial of a person + suspected of this offence seems to have opened his eyes to its + absurdity. George Fox, judging from one or two passages in his + journal, appears to have held the common opinions of the day on the + subject; yet when confined in Doomsdale dungeon, on being told that + the place was haunted and that the spirits of those who had died + there still walked at night in his room, he replied, "that if all + the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was over them in the + power of God, and feared no such thing." + + The enemies of the Quakers, in order to account for the power and + influence of their first preachers, accused them of magic and + sorcery. "The Priest of Wakefield," says George Fox (one trusts he + does not allude to our old friend the Vicar), "raised many wicked + slanders upon me, as that I carried bottles with me and made people + drink, and that made them follow me; that I rode upon a great black + horse, and was seen in one county upon my black horse in one hour, + and in the same hour in another county fourscore miles off." In his + account of the mob which beset him at Walney Island, he says: "When + I came to myself I saw James Lancaster's wife throwing stones at my + face, and her husband lying over me to keep off the blows and + stones; for the people had persuaded her that I had bewitched her + husband." + + Cotton Mather attributes the plague of witchcraft in New England in + about an equal degree to the Quakers and Indians. The first of the + sect who visited Boston, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher,--the latter a + young girl,--were seized upon by Deputy-Governor Bellingham, in the + absence of Governor Endicott, and shamefully stripped naked for the + purpose of ascertaining whether they were witches with the Devil's + mark on them. In 1662 Elizabeth Horton and Joan Broksop, two + venerable preachers of the sect, were arrested in Boston, charged by + Governor Endicott with being witches, and carried two days' journey + into the woods, and left to the tender mercies of Indians and + wolves.] + +All this is pleasant enough now; we can laugh at the Doctor and his +demons; but little matter of laughter was it to the victims on Salem +Hill; to the prisoners in the jails; to poor Giles Corey, tortured with +planks upon his breast, which forced the tongue from his mouth and his +life from his old, palsied body; to bereaved and quaking families; to a +whole community, priest-ridden and spectresmitten, gasping in the sick +dream of a spiritual nightmare and given over to believe a lie. We may +laugh, for the grotesque is blended with the horrible; but we must also +pity and shudder. The clear-sighted men who confronted that delusion in +its own age, disenchanting, with strong good sense and sharp ridicule, +their spell-bound generation,--the German Wierus, the Italian D'Apone, +the English Scot, and the New England Calef,--deserve high honors as the +benefactors of their race. It is true they were branded through life as +infidels and "damnable Sadducees;" but the truth which they uttered +lived after them, and wrought out its appointed work, for it had a Divine +commission and Godspeed. + + "The oracles are dumb; + No voice nor hideous hum +Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; + Apollo from his shrine + Can now no more divine, +With hollow shriek the steep of Delphns leaving." + +Dimmer and dimmer, as the generations pass away, this tremendous terror, +this all-pervading espionage of evil, this active incarnation of +motiveless malignity, presents itself to the imagination. The once +imposing and solemn rite of exorcism has become obsolete in the Church. +Men are no longer, in any quarter of the world, racked or pressed under +planks to extort a confession of diabolical alliance. The heretic now +laughs to scorn the solemn farce of the Church which, in the name of the +All-Merciful, formally delivers him over to Satan. And for the sake of +abused and long-cheated humanity let us rejoice that it is so, when we +consider how for long, weary centuries the millions of professed +Christendom stooped, awestricken, under the yoke of spiritual and +temporal despotism, grinding on from generation to generation in a +despair which had passed complaining, because superstition, in alliance +with tyranny, had filled their upward pathway to freedom with shapes of +terror,--the spectres of God's wrath to the uttermost, the fiend, and +that torment the smoke of which rises forever. Through fear of a Satan +of the future,--a sort of ban-dog of priestcraft, held in its leash and +ready to be let loose upon the disputers of its authority,--our toiling +brothers of past ages have permitted their human taskmasters to convert +God's beautiful world, so adorned and fitted for the peace and happiness +of all, into a great prison-house of suffering, filled with the actual +terrors which the imagination of the old poets gave to the realm of +Rhadamanthus. And hence, while I would not weaken in the slightest +degree the influence of that doctrine of future retribution,--the +accountability of the spirit for the deeds done in the body,--the truth +of which reason, revelation, and conscience unite in attesting as the +necessary result of the preservation in another state of existence of the +soul's individuality and identity, I must, nevertheless, rejoice that the +many are no longer willing to permit the few, for their especial benefit, +to convert our common Father's heritage into a present hell, where, in +return for undeserved suffering and toil uncompensated, they can have +gracious and comfortable assurance of release from a future one. Better +is the fear of the Lord than the fear of the Devil; holier and more +acceptable the obedience of love and reverence than the submission of +slavish terror. The heart which has felt the "beauty of holiness," which +has been in some measure attuned to the divine harmony which now, as of +old in the angel-hymn of the Advent, breathes of "glory to God, peace on +earth, and good-will to men," in the serene atmosphere of that "perfect +love which casteth out fear," smiles at the terrors which throng the sick +dreams of the sensual, which draw aside the nightcurtains of guilt, and +startle with whispers of revenge the oppressor of the poor. + +There is a beautiful moral in one of Fouque's miniature romances,--_Die +Kohlerfamilie_. The fierce spectre, which rose giant-like, in its +bloodred mantle, before the selfish and mercenary merchant, ever +increasing in size and, terror with the growth of evil and impure thought +in the mind of the latter, subdued by prayer, and penitence, and patient +watchfulness over the heart's purity, became a loving and gentle +visitation of soft light and meekest melody; "a beautiful radiance, at +times hovering and flowing on before the traveller, illuminating the +bushes and foliage of the mountain-forest; a lustre strange and lovely, +such as the soul may conceive, but no words express. He felt its power +in the depths of his being,--felt it like the mystic breathing of the +Spirit of God." + +The excellent Baxter and other pious men of his day deprecated in all +sincerity and earnestness the growing disbelief in witchcraft and +diabolical agency, fearing that mankind, losing faith in a visible Satan +and in the supernatural powers of certain paralytic old women, would +diverge into universal skepticism. It is one of the saddest of sights to +see these good men standing sentry at the horn gate of dreams; attempting +against the most discouraging odds to defend their poor fallacies from +profane and irreverent investigation; painfully pleading doubtful +Scripture and still more doubtful tradition in behalf of detected and +convicted superstitions tossed on the sharp horns of ridicule, stretched +on the rack of philosophy, or perishing under the exhausted receiver of +science. A clearer knowledge of the aspirations, capacities, and +necessities of the human soul, and of the revelations which the infinite +Spirit makes to it, not only through the senses by the phenomena of +outward nature, but by that inward and direct communion which, under +different names, has been recognized by the devout and thoughtful of +every religious sect and school of philosophy, would have saved them much +anxious labor and a good deal of reproach withal in their hopeless +championship of error. The witches of Baxter and "the black man" of +Mather have vanished; belief in them is no longer possible on the part of +sane men. But this mysterious universe, through which, half veiled in +its own shadow, our dim little planet is wheeling, with its star worlds +and thought-wearying spaces, remains. Nature's mighty miracle is still +over and around us; and hence awe, wonder, and reverence remain to be the +inheritance of humanity; still are there beautiful repentances and holy +deathbeds; and still over the soul's darkness and confusion rises, +starlike, the great idea of duty. By higher and better influences than +the poor spectres of superstition, man must henceforth be taught to +reverence the Invisible, and, in the consciousness of his own weakness, +and sin, and sorrow, to lean with childlike trust on the wisdom and mercy +of an overruling Providence,--walking by faith through the shadow and +mystery, and cheered by the remembrance that, whatever may be his +apparent allotment,-- + + "God's greatness flows around our incompleteness; + Round our restlessness His rest." + +It is a sad spectacle to find the glad tidings of the Christian faith and +its "reasonable service" of devotion transformed by fanaticism and +credulity into superstitious terror and wild extravagance; but, if +possible, there is one still sadder. It is that of men in our own time +regarding with satisfaction such evidences of human weakness, and +professing to find in them new proofs of their miserable theory of a +godless universe, and new occasion for sneering at sincere devotion as +cant, and humble reverence as fanaticism. Alas! in comparison with +such, the religious enthusiast, who in the midst of his delusion still +feels that he is indeed a living soul and an heir of immortality, to whom +God speaks from the immensities of His universe, is a sane man. Better +is it, in a life like ours, to be even a howling dervis or a dancing +Shaker, confronting imaginary demons with Thalaba's talisman of faith, +than to lose the consciousness of our own spiritual nature, and look upon +ourselves as mere brute masses of animal organization,--barnacles on a +dead universe; looking into the dull grave with no hope beyond it; earth +gazing into earth, and saying to corruption, "Thou art my father," and to +the worm, "Thou art my sister." + + + + + + HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES. + + [1844.] + +AN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul +and Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures +of Tombs,--a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek- +spirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and +eloquent language, its vindication. "There is," says he, "a voluptuous +melancholy arising from the contemplation of tombs; the result, like +every other attractive sensation, of the harmony of two opposite +principles,--from the sentiment of our fleeting life and that of our +immortality, which unite in view of the last habitation of mankind. A +tomb is a monument erected on the confines of two worlds. It first +presents to us the end of the vain disquietudes of life and the image of +everlasting repose; it afterwards awakens in us the confused sentiment of +a blessed immortality, the probabilities of which grow stronger and +stronger in proportion as the person whose memory is recalled was a +virtuous character. + +"It is from this intellectual instinct, therefore, in favor of virtue, +that the tombs of great men inspire us with a veneration so affecting. +From the same sentiment, too, it is that those which contain objects that +have been lovely excite so much pleasing regret; for the attractions of +love arise entirely out of the appearances of virtue. Hence it is that +we are moved at the sight of the small hillock which covers the ashes of +an infant, from the recollection of its innocence; hence it is that we +are melted into tenderness on contemplating the tomb in which is laid to +repose a young female, the delight and the hope of her family by reason +of her virtues. In order to give interest to such monuments, there is no +need of bronzes, marbles, and gildings. The more simple they are, the +more energy they communicate to the sentiment of melancholy. They +produce a more powerful effect when poor rather than rich, antique rather +than modern, with details of misfortune rather than titles of honor, with +the attributes of virtue rather than with those of power. It is in the +country principally that their impression makes itself felt in a very +lively manner. A simple, unornamented grave there causes more tears to +flow than the gaudy splendor of a cathedral interment. There it is that +grief assumes sublimity; it ascends with the aged yews in the churchyard; +it extends with the surrounding hills and plains; it allies itself with +all the effects of Nature,--with the dawning of the morning, with the +murmuring of wind, with the setting of the sun, and with the darkness of +the night." + +Not long since I took occasion to visit the cemetery near this city. It +is a beautiful location for a "city of the dead,"--a tract of some forty +or fifty acres on the eastern bank of the Concord, gently undulating, and +covered with a heavy growth of forest-trees, among which the white oak is +conspicuous. The ground beneath has been cleared of undergrowth, and is +marked here and there with monuments and railings enclosing "family +lots." It is a quiet, peaceful spot; the city, with its crowded mills, +its busy streets and teeming life, is hidden from view; not even a +solitary farm-house attracts the eye. All is still and solemn, as befits +the place where man and nature lie down together; where leaves of the +great lifetree, shaken down by death, mingle and moulder with the frosted +foliage of the autumnal forest. + +Yet the contrast of busy life is not wanting. The Lowell and Boston +Railroad crosses the river within view of the cemetery; and, standing +there in the silence and shadow, one can see the long trains rushing +along their iron pathway, thronged with living, breathing humanity,--the +young, the beautiful, the gay,--busy, wealth-seeking manhood of middle +years, the child at its mother's knee, the old man with whitened hairs, +hurrying on, on,--car after car,--like the generations of man sweeping +over the track of time to their last 'still resting-place. + +It is not the aged and the sad of heart who make this a place of favorite +resort. The young, the buoyant, the light-hearted, come and linger among +these flower-sown graves, watching the sunshine falling in broken light +upon these cold, white marbles, and listening to the song of birds in +these leafy recesses. Beautiful and sweet to the young heart is the +gentle shadow of melancholy which here falls upon it, soothing, yet sad, +--a sentiment midway between joy and sorrow. How true is it, that, in the +language of Wordsworth,-- + + "In youth we love the darkling lawn, + Brushed by the owlet's wing; + Then evening is preferred to dawn, + And autumn to the spring. + Sad fancies do we then affect, + In luxury of disrespect + To our own prodigal excess + Of too familiar happiness." + +The Chinese, from the remotest antiquity, have adorned and decorated +their grave-grounds with shrubs and sweet flowers, as places of popular +resort. The Turks have their graveyards planted with trees, through +which the sun looks in upon the turban stones of the faithful, and +beneath which the relatives of the dead sit in cheerful converse through +the long days of summer, in all the luxurious quiet and happy +indifference of the indolent East. Most of the visitors whom I met at +the Lowell cemetery wore cheerful faces; some sauntered laughingly along, +apparently unaffected by the associations of the place; too full, +perhaps, of life, and energy, and high hope to apply to themselves the +stern and solemn lesson which is taught even by these flower-garlanded +mounds. But, for myself, I confess that I am always awed by the presence +of the dead. I cannot jest above the gravestone. My spirit is silenced +and rebuked before the tremendous mystery of which the grave reminds me, +and involuntarily pays: + + "The deep reverence taught of old, + The homage of man's heart to death." + +Even Nature's cheerful air, and sun, and birdvoices only serve to remind +me that there are those beneath who have looked on the same green leaves +and sunshine, felt the same soft breeze upon their cheeks, and listened +to the same wild music of the woods for the last time. Then, too, comes +the saddening reflection, to which so many have given expression, that +these trees will put forth their leaves, the slant sunshine still fall +upon green meadows and banks of flowers, and the song of the birds and +the ripple of waters still be heard after our eyes and ears have closed +forever. It is hard for us to realize this. We are so accustomed to +look upon these things as a part of our life environment that it seems +strange that they should survive us. Tennyson, in his exquisite +metaphysical poem of the Two Voices, has given utterance to this +sentiment:-- + + "Alas! though I should die, I know + That all about the thorn will blow + In tufts of rosy-tinted snow. + + "Not less the bee will range her cells, + The furzy prickle fire the dells, + The foxglove cluster dappled bells." + +"The pleasures of the tombs!" Undoubtedly, in the language of the +Idumean, seer, there are many who "rejoice exceedingly and are glad when +they can find the grave;" who long for it "as the servant earnestly +desireth the shadow." Rest, rest to the sick heart and the weary brain, +to the long afflicted and the hopeless,--rest on the calm bosom of our +common mother. Welcome to the tired ear, stunned and confused with +life's jarring discords, the everlasting silence; grateful to the weary +eyes which "have seen evil, and not good," the everlasting shadow. + +Yet over all hangs the curtain of a deep mystery,--a curtain lifted only +on one side by the hands of those who are passing under its solemn +shadow. No voice speaks to us from beyond it, telling of the unknown +state; no hand from within puts aside the dark drapery to reveal the +mysteries towards which we are all moving. "Man giveth up the ghost; and +where is he?" + +Thanks to our Heavenly Father, He has not left us altogether without an +answer to this momentous question. Over the blackness of darkness a +light is shining. The valley of the shadow of death is no longer "a land +of darkness and where the light is as darkness." The presence of a +serene and holy life pervades it. Above its pale tombs and crowded +burial-places, above the wail of despairing humanity, the voice of Him +who awakened life and beauty beneath the grave-clothes of the tomb at +Bethany is heard proclaiming, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." We +know not, it is true, the conditions of our future life; we know not what +it is to pass fromm this state of being to another; but before us in that +dark passage has gone the Man of Nazareth, and the light of His footsteps +lingers in the path. Where He, our Brother in His humanity, our Redeemer +in His divine nature, has gone, let us not fear to follow. He who +ordereth all aright will uphold with His own great arm the frail spirit +when its incarnation is ended; and it may be, that, in language which I +have elsewhere used, + + --when Time's veil shall fall asunder, + The soul may know + No fearful change nor sudden wonder, + Nor sink the weight of mystery under, + But with the upward rise and with the vastness grow. + + And all we shrink from now may seem + No new revealing; + Familiar as our childhood's stream, + Or pleasant memory of a dream, + The loved and cherished past upon the new life stealing. + + Serene and mild the untried light + May have its dawning; + As meet in summer's northern night + The evening gray and dawning white, + The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul's new morning. + + + + + SWEDENBORG + + [1844.] + +THERE are times when, looking only on the surface of things, one is +almost ready to regard Lowell as a sort of sacred city of Mammon,--the +Benares of gain: its huge mills, temples; its crowded dwellings, lodging- +places of disciples and "proselytes within the gate;" its warehouses, +stalls for the sale of relics. A very mean idol-worship, too, unrelieved +by awe and reverence,--a selfish, earthward-looking devotion to the +"least-erected spirit that fell from paradise." I grow weary of seeing +man and mechanism reduced to a common level, moved by the same impulse, +answering to the same bell-call. A nightmare of materialism broods over +all. I long at times to hear a voice crying through the streets like +that of one of the old prophets proclaiming the great first truth,--that +the Lord alone is God. + +Yet is there not another side to the picture? High over sounding +workshops spires glisten in the sun,--silent fingers pointing heavenward. +The workshops themselves are instinct with other and subtler processes +than cotton-spinning or carpet-weaving. Each human being who watches +beside jack or power loom feels more or less intensely that it is a +solemn thing to live. Here are sin and sorrow, yearnings for lost peace, +outgushing gratitude of forgiven spirits, hopes and fears, which stretch +beyond the horizon of time into eternity. Death is here. The graveyard +utters its warning. Over all bends the eternal heaven in its silence and +mystery. Nature, even here, is mightier than Art, and God is above all. +Underneath the din of labor and the sounds of traffic, a voice, felt +rather than beard, reaches the heart, prompting the same fearful +questions which stirred the soul of the world's oldest poet,--"If a man +die, shall he live again?" "Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" +Out of the depths of burdened and weary hearts comes up the agonizing +inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" "Who shall deliver me from the +body of this death?" + +As a matter of course, in a city like this, composed of all classes of +our many-sided population, a great variety of religious sects have their +representatives in Lowell. The young city is dotted over with "steeple +houses," most of them of the Yankee order of architecture. The +Episcopalians have a house of worship on Merrimac Street,--a pile of dark +stone, with low Gothic doors and arched windows. A plat of grass lies +between it and the dusty street; and near it stands the dwelling-house +intended for the minister, built of the same material as the church and +surrounded by trees and shrubbery. The attention of the stranger is also +attracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of +Belvidere,--one of Irving's a "shingle palaces," painted in imitation of +stone,--a great wooden sham, "whelked and horned" with pine spires and +turrets, a sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of +the Apocalypse. + +In addition to the established sects which have reared their visible +altars in the City of Spindles, there are many who have not yet marked +the boundaries or set up the pillars and stretched out the curtains of +their sectarian tabernacles; who, in halls and "upper chambers" and in +the solitude of their own homes, keep alive the spirit of devotion, and, +wrapping closely around them the mantles of their order, maintain the +integrity of its peculiarities in the midst of an unbelieving generation. + +Not long since, in company with a friend who is a regular attendant, I +visited the little meeting of the disciples of Emanuel Swedenborg. +Passing over Chapel Hill and leaving the city behind us, we reached the +stream which winds through the beautiful woodlands at the Powder Mills +and mingles its waters with the Concord. The hall in which the followers +of the Gothland seer meet is small and plain, with unpainted seats, like +those of "the people called Quakers," and looks out upon the still woods +and that "willowy stream which turns a mill." An organ of small size, +yet, as it seemed to me, vastly out of proportion with the room, filled +the place usually occupied by the pulpit, which was here only a plain +desk, placed modestly by the side of it. The congregation have no +regular preacher, but the exercises of reading the Scriptures, prayers, +and selections from the Book of Worship were conducted by one of the lay +members. A manuscript sermon, by a clergyman of the order in Boston, was +read, and apparently listened to with much interest. It was well written +and deeply imbued with the doctrines of the church. I was impressed by +the gravity and serious earnestness of the little audience. There were +here no circumstances calculated to excite enthusiasm, nothing of the +pomp of religious rites and ceremonies; only a settled conviction of the +truth of the doctrines of their faith could have thus brought them +together. I could scarcely make the fact a reality, as I sat among them, +that here, in the midst of our bare and hard utilities, in the very +centre and heart of our mechanical civilization, were devoted and +undoubting believers in the mysterious and wonderful revelations of the +Swedish prophet,--revelations which look through all external and outward +manifestations to inward realities; which regard all objects in the world +of sense only as the types and symbols of the world of spirit; literally +unmasking the universe and laying bare the profoundest mysteries of life. + +The character and writings of Emanuel Swedenborg constitute one of the +puzzles and marvels of metaphysics and psychology. A man remarkable for +his practical activities, an ardent scholar of the exact sciences, versed +in all the arcana of physics, a skilful and inventive mechanician, he has +evolved from the hard and gross materialism of his studies a system of +transcendent spiritualism. From his aggregation of cold and apparently +lifeless practical facts beautiful and wonderful abstractions start forth +like blossoms on the rod of the Levite. A politician and a courtier, a +man of the world, a mathematician engaged in the soberest details of the +science, he has given to the world, in the simplest and most natural +language, a series of speculations upon the great mystery of being: +detailed, matter-of-fact narratives of revelations from the spiritual +world, which at once appall us by their boldness, and excite our wonder +at their extraordinary method, logical accuracy, and perfect consistency. +These remarkable speculations--the workings of a mind in which a powerful +imagination allied itself with superior reasoning faculties, the +marvellous current of whose thought ran only in the diked and guarded +channels of mathematical demonstration--he uniformly speaks of as +"facts." His perceptions of abstractions were so intense that they seem +to have reached that point where thought became sensible to sight as well +as feeling. What he thought, that he saw. + +He relates his visions of the spiritual world as he would the incidents +of a walk round his own city of Stockholm. One can almost see him in his +"brown coat and velvet breeches," lifting his "cocked hat" to an angel, +or keeping an unsavory spirit at arm's length with that "gold-headed +cane" which his London host describes as his inseparable companion in +walking. His graphic descriptions have always an air of naturalness and +probability; yet there is a minuteness of detail at times almost +bordering on the ludicrous. In his Memorable Relations he manifests +nothing of the imagination of Milton, overlooking the closed gates of +paradise, or following the "pained fiend" in his flight through chaos; +nothing of Dante's terrible imagery appalls us; we are led on from heaven +to heaven very much as Defoe leads us after his shipwrecked Crusoe. We +can scarcely credit the fact that we are not traversing our lower planet; +and the angels seem vastly like our common acquaintances. We seem to +recognize the "John Smiths," and "Mr. Browns," and "the old familiar +faces" of our mundane habitation. The evil principle in Swedenborg's +picture is, not the colossal and massive horror of the Inferno, nor that +stern wrestler with fate who darkens the canvas of Paradise Lost, but an +aggregation of poor, confused spirits, seeking rest and finding none save +in the unsavory atmosphere of the "falses." These small fry of devils +remind us only of certain unfortunate fellows whom we have known, who +seem incapable of living in good and wholesome society, and who are +manifestly given over to believe a lie. Thus it is that the very +"heavens" and "hells" of the Swedish mystic seem to be "of the earth, +earthy." He brings the spiritual world into close analogy with the +material one. + +In this hurried paper I have neither space nor leisure to attempt an +analysis of the great doctrines which underlie the "revelations" of +Swedenborg. His remarkably suggestive books are becoming familiar to the +reading and reflecting portion of the community. They are not unworthy +of study; but, in the language of another, I would say, "Emulate +Swedenborg in his exemplary life, his learning, his virtues, his +independent thought, his desire for wisdom, his love of the good and +true; aim to be his equal, his superior, in these things; but call no man +your master." + + + + + + THE BETTER LAND. + + [1844.] + +"THE shapings of our heavens are the modifications of our constitution," +said Charles Lamb, in his reply to Southey's attack upon him in the +Quarterly Review. + +He who is infinite in love as well as wisdom has revealed to us the fact +of a future life, and the fearfully important relation in which the +present stands to it. The actual nature and conditions of that life He +has hidden from us,--no chart of the ocean of eternity is given us,--no +celestial guidebook or geography defines, localizes, and prepares us for +the wonders of the spiritual world. Hence imagination has a wide field +for its speculations, which, so long as they do not positively contradict +the revelation of the Scriptures, cannot be disproved. + +We naturally enough transfer to our idea of heaven whatever we love and +reverence on earth. Thither the Catholic carries in his fancy the +imposing rites and time-honored solemnities of his worship. There the +Methodist sees his love-feasts and camp-meetings in the groves and by the +still waters and green pastures of the blessed abodes. The Quaker, in +the stillness of his self-communing, remembers that there was "silence in +heaven." + +The Churchman, listening to the solemn chant of weal music or the deep +tones of the organ, thinks of the song of the elders and the golden harps +of the New Jerusalem. + +The heaven of the northern nations of Europe was a gross and sensual +reflection of the earthly life of a barbarous and brutal people. + +The Indians of North America had a vague notion of a sunset land, a +beautiful paradise far in the west, mountains and forests filled with +deer and buffalo, lakes and streams swarming with fishes,--the happy +hunting-ground of souls. In a late letter from a devoted missionary +among the Western Indians (Paul Blohm, a converted Jew) we have noticed a +beautiful illustration of this belief. Near the Omaha mission-house, on +a high luff, was a solitary Indian grave. "One evening," +says the missionary, "having come home with some cattle which I had been +seeking, I heard some one wailing; and, looking in the direction from +whence I proceeded, I found it to be from the grave near our house. In a +moment after a mourner rose up from a kneeling or lying posture, and, +turning to the setting sun, stretched forth his arms in prayer and +supplication with an intensity and earnestness as though he would detain +the splendid luminary from running his course. With his body leaning +forward and his arms stretched towards the sun, he presented a most +striking figure of sorrow and petition. It was solemnly awful. He +seemed to me to be one of the ancients come forth to teach me how to +pray." + +A venerable and worthy New England clergyman, on his death-bed, just +before the close of his life, declared that he was only conscious of an +awfully solemn and intense curiosity to know the great secret of death +and eternity. + +The excellent Dr. Nelson, of Missouri, was one who, while on earth, +seemed to live another and higher life in the contemplation of infinite +purity and happiness. A friend once related an incident concerning him +which made a deep impression upon my mind. They had been travelling +through a summer's forenoon in the prairie, and had lain down to rest +beneath a solitary tree. The Doctor lay for a long time, silently +looking upwards through the openings of the boughs into the still +heavens, when he repeated the following lines, in a low tone, as if +communing with himself in view of the wonders he described:-- + + "O the joys that are there mortal eye bath not seen! + O the songs they sing there, with hosannas between! + O the thrice-blessed song of the Lamb and of Moses! + O brightness on brightness! the pearl gate uncloses! + O white wings of angels! O fields white with roses! + O white tents of peace, where the rapt soul reposes + O the waters so still, and the pastures so green!" + +The brief hints afforded us by the sacred writings concerning the better +land are inspiring and beautiful. Eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, +neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of the good in +store for the righteous. Heaven is described as a quiet habitation,--a +rest remaining for the people of God. Tears shall be wiped away from all +eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither +shall there be any more pain. To how many death-beds have these words +spoken peace! How many failing hearts have gathered strength from them +to pass through the dark valley of shadows! + +Yet we should not forget that "the kingdom of heaven is within;" that it +is the state and affections of the soul, the answer of a good conscience, +the sense of harmony with God, a condition of time as well as of +eternity. What is really momentous and all-important with us is the +present, by which the future is shaped and colored. A mere change of +locality cannot alter the actual and intrinsic qualities of the soul. +Guilt and remorse would make the golden streets of Paradise intolerable +as the burning marl of the infernal abodes; while purity and innocence +would transform hell itself into heaven. + + + + + +DORA GREEN WELL. + +First published as an introduction to an American edition of that +author's _The Patience of Hope_. + +THERE are men who, irrespective of the names by which they are called in +the Babel confusion of sects, are endeared to the common heart of +Christendom. Our doors open of their own accord to receive them. For in +them we feel that in some faint degree, and with many limitations, the +Divine is again manifested: something of the Infinite Love shines out of +them; their very garments have healing and fragrance borrowed from the +bloom of Paradise. So of books. There are volumes which perhaps contain +many things, in the matter of doctrine and illustration, to which our +reason does not assent, but which nevertheless seem permeated with a +certain sweetness and savor of life. They have the Divine seal and +imprimatur; they are fragrant with heart's-ease and asphodel; tonic with +the leaves which are for the healing of the nations. The meditations of +the devout monk of Kempen are the common heritage of Catholic and +Protestant; our hearts burn within us as we walk with Augustine under +Numidian fig-trees in the gardens of Verecundus; Feuelon from his +bishop's palace and John Woolman from his tailor's shop speak to us in +the same language. The unknown author of that book which Luther loved +next to his Bible, the Theologia Germanica, is just as truly at home in +this present age, and in the ultra Protestantism of New England, as in +the heart of Catholic Europe, and in the fourteenth century. For such +books know no limitations of time or place; they have the perpetual +freshness and fitness of truth; they speak out of profound experience +heart answers to heart as we read them; the spirit that is in man, and +the inspiration that giveth understanding, bear witness to them. The +bent and stress of their testimony are the same, whether written in this +or a past century, by Catholic or Quaker: self-renunciation,-- +reconcilement to the Divine will through simple faith in the Divine +goodness, and the love of it which must needs follow its recognition, the +life of Christ made our own by self-denial and sacrifice, and the +fellowship of His suffering for the good of others, the indwelling +Spirit, leading into all truth, the Divine Word nigh us, even in our +hearts. They have little to do with creeds, or schemes of doctrine, or +the partial and inadequate plans of salvation invented by human +speculation and ascribed to Him who, it is sufficient to know, is able to +save unto the uttermost all who trust in Him. They insist upon simple +faith and holiness of life, rather than rituals or modes of worship; they +leave the merely formal, ceremonial, and temporal part of religion to +take care of itself, and earnestly seek for the substantial, the +necessary, and the permanent. + +With these legacies of devout souls, it seems to me, the little volume +herewith presented is not wholly unworthy of a place. It assumes the +life and power of the gospel as a matter of actual experience; it bears +unmistakable evidence of a realization, on the part of its author, of the +truth, that Christianity is not simply historical and traditional, but +present and permanent, with its roots in the infinite past and its +branches in the infinite future, the eternal spring and growth of Divine +love; not the dying echo of words uttered centuries ago, never to be +repeated, but God's good tidings spoken afresh in every soul,--the +perennial fountain and unstinted outflow of wisdom and goodness, forever +old and forever new. It is a lofty plea for patience, trust, hope, and +holy confidence, under the shadow, as well as in the light, of Christian +experience, whether the cloud seems to rest on the tabernacle, or moves +guidingly forward. It is perhaps too exclusively addressed to those who +minister in the inner sanctuary, to be entirely intelligible to the +vaster number who wait in the outer courts; it overlooks, perhaps, too +much the solidarity and oneness of humanity;' but all who read it will +feel its earnestness, and confess to the singular beauty of its style, +the strong, steady march of its argument, and the wide and varied +learning which illustrates it. + + ["The good are not so good as I once thought, nor the bad so evil, + and in all there is more for grace to make advantage of, and more to + testify for God and holiness, than I once believed."--Baxter.] + +To use the language of one of its reviewers in the Scottish press:-- + +"Beauty there is in the book; exquisite glimpses into the loveliness of +nature here and there shine out from its lines,--a charm wanting which +meditative writing always seems to have a defect; beautiful gleams, too, +there are of the choicest things of art, and frequent allusions by the +way to legend or picture of the religious past; so that, while you read, +you wander by a clear brook of thought, coining far from the beautiful +hills, and winding away from beneath the sunshine of gladness and beauty +into the dense, mysterious forest of human existence, that loves to sing, +amid the shadow of human darkness and anguish, its music of heavenborn +consolation; bringing, too, its pure waters of cleansing and healing, yet +evermore making its praise of holy affection and gladness; while it is +still haunted by the spirits of prophet, saint, and poet, repeating +snatches of their strains, and is led on, as by a spirit from above, to +join the great river of God's truth. . . . + +"This is a book for Christian men, for the quiet hour of holy solitude, +when the heart longs and waits for access to the presence of the Master. +The weary heart that thirsts amidst its conflicts and its toils for +refreshing water will drink eagerly of these sweet and refreshing words. +To thoughtful men and women, especially such as have learnt any of the +patience of hope in the experiences of sorrow and trial, we commend this +little volume most heartily and earnestly." + + +_The Patience of Hope_ fell into my hands soon after its publication in +Edinburgh, some two years ago. I was at once impressed by its +extraordinary richness of language and imagery,--its deep and solemn tone +of meditation in rare combination with an eminently practical tendency,-- +philosophy warm and glowing with love. It will, perhaps, be less the +fault of the writer than of her readers, if they are not always able to +eliminate from her highly poetical and imaginative language the subtle +metaphysical verity or phase of religious experience which she seeks to +express, or that they are compelled to pass over, without appropriation, +many things which are nevertheless profoundly suggestive as vague +possibilities of the highest life. All may not be able to find in some +of her Scriptural citations the exact weight and significance so apparent +to her own mind. She startles us, at times, by her novel applications of +familiar texts, by meanings reflected upon them from her own spiritual +intuitions, making the barren Baca of the letter a well. If the +rendering be questionable, the beauty and quaint felicity of illustration +and comparison are unmistakable; and we call to mind Augustine's saying, +that two or more widely varying interpretations of Scripture may be alike +true in themselves considered. "When one saith, Moses meant as I do,' +and another saith, 'Nay, but as I do,' I ask, more reverently, 'Why not +rather as both, if both be true?" + +Some minds, for instance, will hesitate to assent to the use of certain +Scriptural passages as evidence that He who is the Light of men, the Way +and the Truth, in the mystery of His economy, designedly "delays, +withdraws, and even hides Himself from those who love and follow Him." +They will prefer to impute spiritual dearth and darkness to human +weakness, to the selfishness which seeks a sign for itself, to evil +imaginations indulged, to the taint and burden of some secret sin, or to +some disease and exaggeration of the conscience, growing out of bodily +infirmity, rather than to any purpose on the part of our Heavenly Father +to perplex and mislead His children. The sun does not shine the less +because one side of our planet is in darkness. To borrow the words of +Augustine "Thou, Lord, forsakest nothing thou hast made. Thou alone art +near to those even who remove far from thee. Let them turn and seek +thee, for not as they have forsaken their Creator hast thou forsaken thy +creation." It is only by holding fast the thought of Infinite Goodness, +and interpreting doubtful Scripture and inward spiritual experience by +the light of that central idea, that we can altogether escape the +dreadful conclusion of Pascal, that revelation has been given us in +dubious cipher, contradictory and mystical, in order that some, through +miraculous aid, may understand it to their salvation, and others be +mystified by it to their eternal loss. + +I might mention other points of probable divergence between reader and +writer, and indicate more particularly my own doubtful parse and +hesitancy over some of these pages. But it is impossible for me to make +one to whom I am so deeply indebted an offender for a word or a +Scriptural rendering. On the grave and awful themes which she discusses, +I have little to say in the way of controversy. I would listen, rather +than criticise. The utterances of pious souls, in all ages, are to me +often like fountains in a thirsty land, strengthening and refreshing, yet +not without an after-taste of human frailty and inadequateness, a slight +bitterness of disappointment and unsatisfied quest. Who has not felt at +times that the letter killeth, that prophecies fail, and tongues cease to +edify, and been ready to say, with the author of the Imitation of Christ: +"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Let not Moses nor the prophets +speak to me, but speak thou rather, who art the Inspirer and Enlightener +of all. I am weary with reading and hearing many things; let all +teachers hold their peace; let all creatures keep silence: speak thou +alone to me." + +The writer of The Patience of Hope had, previous to its publication, +announced herself to a fit, if small, audience of earnest and thoughtful +Christians, in a little volume entitled, A Present Heaven. She has +recently published a collection of poems, of which so competent a judge +as Dr. Brown, the author of _Horae Subsecivae_ and _Rab and his Friends_, +thus speaks, in the _North British Review_:-- + +"Such of our readers--a fast increasing number--as have read and enjoyed +_The Patience of Hope_, listening to the gifted nature which, through +such deep and subtile thought, and through affection and godliness still +deeper and more quick, has charmed and soothed them, will not be +surprised to learn that she is not only poetical, but, what is more, a +poet, and one as true as George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, or our own +Cowper; for, with all our admiration of the searching, fearless +speculation, the wonderful power of speaking clearly upon dark and all +but unspeakable subjects, the rich outcome of 'thoughts that wander +through eternity,' which increases every time we take up that wonderful +little book, we confess we were surprised at the kind and the amount of +true poetic _vis_ in these poems, from the same fine and strong hand. +There is a personality and immediateness, a sort of sacredness and +privacy, as if they were overheard rather than read, which gives to these +remarkable productions a charm and a flavor all their own. With no +effort, no consciousness of any end but that of uttering the inmost +thoughts and desires of the heart, they flow out as clear, as living, as +gladdening as the wayside well, coming from out the darkness of the +central depths, filtered into purity by time and travel. The waters are +copious, sometimes to overflowing; but they are always limpid and +unforced, singing their own quiet tune, not saddening, though sometimes +sad, and their darkness not that of obscurity, but of depth, like that of +the deep sea. + +"This is not a book to criticise or speak about, and we give no extracts +from the longer, and in this case, we think, the better poems. In +reading this Cardiphonia set to music, we have been often reminded, not +only of Herbert and Vaughan, but of Keble,--a likeness of the spirit, not +of the letter; for if there is any one poet who has given a bent to her +mind, it is Wordsworth,--the greatest of all our century's poets, both in +himself and in his power of making poets." + +In the belief that whoever peruses the following pages will be +sufficiently interested in their author to be induced to turn back and +read over again, with renewed pleasure, extracts from her metrical +writings, I copy from the volume so warmly commended a few brief pieces +and extracts from the longer poems. + +Here are three sonnets, each a sermon in itself:-- + + + ASCENDING. + +They who from mountain-peaks have gazed upon +The wide, illimitable heavens have said, +That, still receding as they climbed, outspread, +The blue vault deepens over them, and, one +By one drawn further back, each starry sun +Shoots down a feebler splendor overhead +So, Saviour, as our mounting spirits, led +Along Faith's living way to Thee, have won +A nearer access, up the difficult track +Still pressing, on that rarer atmosphere, +When low beneath us flits the cloudy rack, +We see Thee drawn within a widening sphere +Of glory, from us further, further back,-- +Yet is it then because we are more near. + + + LIFE TAPESTRY. + +Top long have I, methought, with tearful eye +Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused +Above each stitch awry and thread confused; +Now will I think on what in years gone by +I heard of them that weave rare tapestry +At royal looms, and hew they constant use +To work on the rough side, and still peruse +The pictured pattern set above them high; +So will I set my copy high above, +And gaze and gaze till on my spirit grows +Its gracious impress; till some line of love, +Transferred upon my canvas, faintly glows; +Nor look too much on warp or woof, provide +He whom I work for sees their fairer side! + + + HOPE. + +When I do think on thee, sweet Hope, and how +Thou followest on our steps, a coaxing child +Oft chidden hence, yet quickly reconciled, +Still turning on us a glad, beaming brow, +And red, ripe lips for kisses: even now +Thou mindest me of him, the Ruler mild, +Who led God's chosen people through the wild, +And bore with wayward murmurers, meek as thou +That bringest waters from the Rock, with bread +Of angels strewing Earth for us! like him +Thy force abates not, nor thine eye grows dim; +But still with milk and honey-droppings fed, +Thou leadest to the Promised Country fair, +Though thou, like Moses, may'st not enter there + + +There is something very weird and striking in the following lines:-- + + + GONE. + +Alone, at midnight as he knelt, his spirit was aware +Of Somewhat falling in between the silence and the prayer; + +A bell's dull clangor that hath sped so far, it faints and dies +So soon as it hath reached the ear whereto its errand lies; + +And as he rose up from his knees, his spirit was aware +Of Somewhat, forceful and unseen, that sought to hold him there; + +As of a Form that stood behind, and on his shoulders prest +Both hands to stay his rising up, and Somewhat in his breast, + +In accents clearer far than words, spake, "Pray yet longer, pray, +For one that ever prayed for thee this night hath passed away; + +"A soul, that climbing hour by hour the silver-shining stair +That leads to God's great treasure-house, grew covetous; and there + +"Was stored no blessing and no boon, for thee she did not claim, +(So lowly, yet importunate!) and ever with thy name + +"She link'd--that none in earth or heaven might hinder it or stay-- +One Other Name, so strong, that thine hath never missed its way. + +"This very night within my arms this gracious soul I bore Within the +Gate, where many a prayer of hers had gone before; + +"And where she resteth, evermore one constant song they raise Of 'Holy, +holy,' so that now I know not if she prays; + +"But for the voice of praise in Heaven, a voice of Prayer hath gone +From Earth; thy name upriseth now no more; pray on, pray on!" + + +The following may serve as a specimen of the writer's lighter, half- +playful strain of moralizing:-- + + + SEEKING. + +"And where, and among what pleasant places, +Have ye been, that ye come again +With your laps so full of flowers, and your faces +Like buds blown fresh after rain?" + +"We have been," said the children, speaking +In their gladness, as the birds chime, +All together,--"we have been seeking +For the Fairies of olden time; +For we thought, they are only hidden,-- +They would never surely go +From this green earth all unbidden, +And the children that love them so. +Though they come not around us leaping, +As they did when they and the world +Were young, we shall find them sleeping +Within some broad leaf curled; +For the lily its white doors closes +But only over the bee, +And we looked through the summer roses, +Leaf by leaf, so carefully. + +But we thought, rolled up we shall find them +Among mosses old and dry; +From gossamer threads that bind them, +They will start like the butterfly, +All winged: so we went forth seeking, +Yet still they have kept unseen; +Though we think our feet have been keeping +The track where they have been, +For we saw where their dance went flying +O'er the pastures,--snowy white." + +Their seats and their tables lying, +O'erthrown in their sudden flight. +And they, too, have had their losses, +For we found the goblets white +And red in the old spiked mosses, +That they drank from over-night; +And in the pale horn of the woodbine +Was some wine left, clear and bright; +"But we found," said the children, speaking +More quickly, "so many things, +That we soon forgot we were seeking,-- +Forgot all the Fairy rings, +Forgot all the stories olden +That we hear round the fire at night, +Of their gifts and their favors golden,-- +The sunshine was so bright; +And the flowers,--we found so many +That it almost made us grieve +To think there were some, sweet as any, +That we were forced to leave; +As we left, by the brook-side lying, +The balls of drifted foam, +And brought (after all our trying) +These Guelder-roses home." + +"Then, oh!" I heard one speaking +Beside me soft and low, +"I have been, like the blessed children, seeking, +Still seeking, to and fro; +Yet not, like them, for the Fairies,-- +They might pass unmourned away +For me, that had looked on angels,-- +On angels that would not stay; +No! not though in haste before them +I spread all my heart's best cheer, +And made love my banner o'er them, +If it might but keep them here; +They stayed but a while to rest them; +Long, long before its close, +From my feast, though I mourned and prest them +The radiant guests arose; +And their flitting wings struck sadness +And silence; never more +Hath my soul won back the gladness, +That was its own before. +No; I mourned not for the Fairies +When I had seen hopes decay, +That were sweet unto my spirit +So long; I said, 'If they, +That through shade and sunny weather +Have twined about my heart, +Should fade, we must go together, +For we can never part!' +But my care was not availing; +I found their sweetness gone; +I saw their bright tints paling;-- +They died; yet I lived on. + +"Yet seeking, ever seeking, +Like the children, I have won +A guerdon all undreamt of + +When first my quest begun, +And my thoughts come back like wanderers, +Out-wearied, to my breast; +What they sought for long they found not, +Yet was the Unsought best. +For I sought not out for crosses, +I did not seek for pain; +Yet I find the heart's sore losses +Were the spirit's surest gain." + + +In _A Meditation_, the writer ventures, not without awe and reverence, +upon that dim, unsounded ocean of mystery, the life beyond:-- + + "But is there prayer +Within your quiet homes, and is there care +For those ye leave behind? I would address +My spirit to this theme in humbleness +No tongue nor pen hath uttered or made known +This mystery, and thus I do but guess +At clearer types through lowlier patterns shown; +Yet when did Love on earth forsake its own? +Ye may not quit your sweetness; in the Vine +More firmly rooted than of old, your wine +Hath freer flow! ye have not changed, but grown +To fuller stature; though the shock was keen +That severed you from us, how oft below +Hath sorest parting smitten but to show +True hearts their hidden wealth that quickly grow +The closer for that anguish,--friend to friend +Revealed more clear,--and what is Death to rend +The ties of life and love, when He must fade +In light of very Life, when He must bend +To love, that, loving, loveth to the end? + + "I do not deem ye look +Upon us now, for be it that your eyes +Are sealed or clear, a burden on them lies +Too deep and blissful for their gaze to brook +Our troubled strife; enough that once ye dwelt +Where now we dwell, enough that once ye felt +As now we feel, to bid you recognize +Our claim of kindred cherished though unseen; +And Love that is to you for eye and ear +Hath ways unknown to us to bring you near,-- +To keep you near for all that comes between; +As pious souls that move in sleep to prayer, +As distant friends, that see not, and yet share +(I speak of what I know) each other's care, +So may your spirits blend with ours! +Above Ye know not haply of our state, yet +Love Acquaints you with our need, and through a way +More sure than that of knowledge--so ye pray! + + "And even thus we meet, +And even thus we commune! spirits freed +And spirits fettered mingle, nor have need +To seek a common atmosphere, the air +Is meet for either in this olden, sweet, +Primeval breathing of Man's spirit,--Prayer!" + + +I give, in conclusion, a portion of one of her most characteristic poems, +_The Reconciler_:-- + + "Our dreams are reconciled, +Since Thou didst come to turn them all to Truth; +The World, the Heart, are dreamers in their youth +Of visions beautiful, and strange and wild; +And Thou, our Life's Interpreter, dost still +At once make clear these visions and fulfil; + +Each dim sweet Orphic rhyme, +Each mythic tale sublime +Of strength to save, of sweetness to subdue, +Each morning dream the few, +Wisdom's first lovers told, if read in Thee comes true. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + "Thou, O Friend +From heaven, that madest this our heart Thine own, +Dost pierce the broken language of its moan-- +Thou dost not scorn our needs, but satisfy! +Each yearning deep and wide, +Each claim, is justified; +Our young illusions fail not, though they die +Within the brightness of Thy Rising, kissed +To happy death, like early clouds that lie +About the gates of Dawn,--a golden mist +Paling to blissful white, through rose and amethyst. + + "The World that puts Thee by, +That opens not to greet Thee with Thy train, +That sendeth after Thee the sullen cry, +'We will not have Thee over us to reign,' +Itself Both testify through searchings vain +Of Thee and of its need, and for the good +It will not, of some base similitude +Takes up a taunting witness, till its mood, +Grown fierce o'er failing hopes, doth rend and tear +Its own illusions grown too thin and bare +To wrap it longer; for within the gate +Where all must pass, a veiled and hooded Fate, +A dark Chimera, coiled and tangled lies, +And he who answers not its questions dies,-- +Still changing form and speech, but with the same +Vexed riddles, Gordian-twisted, bringing shame +Upon the nations that with eager cry +Hail each new solver of the mystery; +Yet he, of these the best, +Bold guesser, hath but prest +Most nigh to Thee, our noisy plaudits wrong; +True Champion, that hast wrought +Our help of old, and brought +Meat from this eater, sweetness from this strong. + + "O Bearer of the key +That shuts and opens with a sound so sweet +Its turning in the wards is melody, +All things we move among are incomplete +And vain until we fashion them in Thee! +We labor in the fire, +Thick smoke is round about us; through the din +Of words that darken counsel clamors dire +Ring from thought's beaten anvil, where within +Two Giants toil, that even from their birth +With travail-pangs have torn their mother Earth, +And wearied out her children with their keen +Upbraidings of the other, till between +Thou tamest, saying, 'Wherefore do ye wrong +Each other?--ye are Brethren.' Then these twain +Will own their kindred, and in Thee retain +Their claims in peace, because Thy land is wide +As it is goodly! here they pasture free, +This lion and this leopard, side by side, +A little child doth lead them with a song; +Now, Ephraim's envy ceaseth, and no more +Doth Judah anger Ephraim chiding sore, +For one did ask a Brother, one a King, +So dost Thou gather them in one, and bring-- +Thou, King forevermore, forever Priest, +Thou, Brother of our own from bonds released +A Law of Liberty, +A Service making free, +A Commonweal where each has all in Thee. + + "And not alone these wide, +Deep-planted yearnings, seeking with a cry +Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied; +But all our instincts waking suddenly +Within the soul, like infants from their sleep +That stretch their arms into the dark and weep, +Thy voice can still. The stricken heart bereft +Of all its brood of singing hopes, and left +'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest +With snow-flakes in it, folded in Thy breast +Doth lose its deadly chill; and grief that creeps +Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there +The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan, and weeps +Calm, quiet tears, and on Thy forehead Care +Hath looked until its thorns, no longer bare, +Put forth pale roses. Pain on Thee doth press +Its quivering cheek, and all the weariness, +The want that keep their silence, till from Thee +They hear the gracious summons, none beside +Hath spoken to the world-worn, 'Come to me,' +Tell forth their heavy secrets. + + "Thou dost hide +These in Thy bosom, and not these alone, +But all our heart's fond treasure that had grown +A burden else: O Saviour, tears were weighed +To Thee in plenteous measure! none hath shown +That Thou didst smile! yet hast Thou surely made +All joy of ours Thine own. + + "Thou madest us for Thine; +We seek amiss, we wander to and fro; +Yet are we ever on the track Divine; +The soul confesseth Thee, but sense is slow +To lean on aught but that which it may see; +So hath it crowded up these Courts below +With dark and broken images of Thee; +Lead Thou us forth upon Thy Mount, and show +Thy goodly patterns, whence these things of old +By Thee were fashioned; One though manifold. +Glass Thou Thy perfect likeness in the soul, +Show us Thy countenance, and we are whole!" + + +No one, I am quite certain, will regret that I have made these liberal +quotations. Apart from their literary merit, they have a special +interest for the readers of The Patience of Hope, as more fully +illustrating the writer's personal experience and aspirations. + +It has been suggested by a friend that it is barely possible that an +objection may be urged against the following treatise, as against all +books of a like character, that its tendency is to isolate the individual +from his race, and to nourish an exclusive and purely selfish personal +solicitude; that its piety is self-absorbent, and that it does not take +sufficiently into account active duties and charities, and the love of +the neighbor so strikingly illustrated by the Divine Master in His life +and teachings. This objection, if valid, would be a fatal one. For, of +a truth, there can be no meaner type of human selfishness than that +afforded by him who, unmindful of the world of sin and suffering about +him, occupies himself in the pitiful business of saving his own soul, in +the very spirit of the miser, watching over his private hoard while his +neighbors starve for lack of bread. But surely the benevolent unrest, +the far-reaching sympathies and keen sensitiveness to the suffering of +others, which so nobly distinguish our present age, can have nothing to +fear from a plea for personal holiness, patience, hope, and resignation +to the Divine will. "The more piety, the more compassion," says Isaac +Taylor; and this is true, if we understand by piety, not self-concentred +asceticism, but the pure religion and undefiled which visits the widow +and the fatherless, and yet keeps itself unspotted from the world,--which +deals justly, loves mercy, and yet walks humbly before God. Self- +scrutiny in the light of truth can do no harm to any one, least of all to +the reformer and philanthropist. The spiritual warrior, like the young +candidate for knighthood, may be none the worse for his preparatory +ordeal of watching all night by his armor. + +Tauler in mediaeval times and Woolman in the last century are among the +most earnest teachers of the inward life and spiritual nature of +Christianity, yet both were distinguished for practical benevolence. +They did not separate the two great commandments. Tauler strove with +equal intensity of zeal to promote the temporal and the spiritual welfare +of men. In the dark and evil time in which he lived, amidst the untold +horrors of the "Black Plague," he illustrated by deeds of charity and +mercy his doctrine of disinterested benevolence. Woolman's whole life +was a nobler Imitation of Christ than that fervid rhapsody of monastic +piety which bears the name. + +How faithful, yet, withal, how full of kindness, were his rebukes of +those who refused labor its just reward, and ground the faces of the +poor? How deep and entire was his sympathy with overtasked and ill-paid +laborers; with wet and illprovided sailors; with poor wretches +blaspheming in the mines, because oppression had made them mad; with the +dyers plying their unhealthful trade to minister to luxury and pride; +with the tenant wearing out his life in the service of a hard landlord; +and with the slave sighing over his unrequited toil! What a significance +there was in his vision of the "dull, gloomy mass" which appeared before +him, darkening half the heavens, and which he was told was "human beings +in as great misery as they could be and live; and he was mixed with them, +and henceforth he might not consider himself a distinct and separate +being"! His saintliness was wholly unconscious; he seems never to have +thought himself any nearer to the tender heart of God than the most +miserable sinner to whom his compassion extended. As he did not +live, so neither did he die to himself. His prayer upon his death-bed +was for others rather than himself; its beautiful humility and simple +trust were marred by no sensual imagery of crowns and harps and golden +streets, and personal beatific exaltations; but tender and touching +concern for suffering humanity, relieved only by the thought of the +paternity of God, and of His love and omnipotence, alone found utterance +in ever-memorable words. + +In view of the troubled state of the country and the intense +preoccupation of the public mind, I have had some hesitation in offering +this volume to its publishers. But, on further reflection, it has seemed +to me that it might supply a want felt by many among us; that, in the +chaos of civil strife and the shadow of mourning which rests over the +land, the contemplation of "things unseen which are eternal" might not be +unwelcome; that, when the foundations of human confidence are shaken, and +the trust in man proves vain, there might be glad listeners to a voice +calling from the outward and the temporal to the inward and the +spiritual; from the troubles and perplexities of time, to the eternal +quietness which God giveth. I cannot but believe that, in the heat and +glare through which we are passing, this book will not invite in vain to +the calm, sweet shadows of holy meditation, grateful as the green wings +of the bird to Thalaba in the desert; and thus afford something of +consolation to the bereaved, and of strength to the weary. For surely +never was the Patience of Hope more needed; never was the inner sanctuary +of prayer more desirable; never was a steadfast faith in the Divine +goodness more indispensable, nor lessons of self-sacrifice and +renunciation, and that cheerful acceptance of known duty which shifts not +its proper responsibility upon others, nor asks for "peace in its day" at +the expense of purity and justice, more timely than now, when the solemn +words of ancient prophecy are as applicable to our own country as to that +of the degenerate Jew,--"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy +backsliding reprove thee; know, therefore, it is an evil thing, and +bitter, that thou bast forsaken the Lord, and that my fear is not in +thee,"--when "His way is in the deep, in clouds, and in thick darkness," +and the hand heavy upon us which shall "turn and overturn until he whose +right it is shall reign,"--until, not without rending agony, the evil +plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted, whose roots have wound +themselves about altar and hearth-stone, and whose branches, like the +tree Al-Accoub in Moslem fable, bear the accursed fruit of oppression, +rebellion, and all imaginable crime, shall be torn up and destroyed +forever. + +AMESBURY, 1st 6th mo., 1862. + + + + + + THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. + +The following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends' Review +in Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and +practice in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have +since more than justified the writer's fears and solicitude. + + +I. + + AMESBURY, 2d mo., 1870. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW. + +ESTEEMED FRIEND,--If I have been hitherto a silent, I have not been an +indifferent, spectator of the movements now going on in our religious +Society. Perhaps from lack of faith, I have been quite too solicitous +concerning them, and too much afraid that in grasping after new things we +may let go of old things too precious to be lost. Hence I have been +pleased to see from time to time in thy paper very timely and fitting +articles upon a _Hired Ministry_ and _Silent Worship_. + +The present age is one of sensation and excitement, of extreme measures +and opinions, of impatience of all slow results. The world about us +moves with accelerated impulse, and we move with it: the rest we have +enjoyed, whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our +opinions, the reason of our practices, are demanded. Our very right to +exist as a distinct society is questioned. Our old literature--the +precious journals and biographies of early and later Friends--is +comparatively neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications. We +bear complaints of a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent +meetings is denied, and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will +and option. There is a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas +and expedients and practices of other sects. I speak only of admitted +facts, and not for the purpose of censure or complaint. No one has less +right than myself to indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor +differences of opinion. If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not +find it a hard task to bear with them. + +But for myself I prefer the old ways. With the broadest possible +tolerance for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of +Friends. My life has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other +sects in behalf of the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like +quarrelling with Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with +me, side by side, at the rope of Reform. A very large proportion of my +dearest personal friends are outside of our communion; and I have learned +with John Woolman to find "no narrowness respecting sects and opinions." +But after a kindly and candid survey of them all, I turn to my own +Society, thankful to the Divine Providence which placed me where I am; +and with an unshaken faith in the one distinctive doctrine of Quakerism-- +the Light within--the immanence of the Divine Spirit in Christianity. I +cheerfully recognize and bear testimony to the good works and lives of +those who widely differ in faith and practice; but I have seen no truer +types of Christianity, no better men and women, than I have known and +still know among those who not blindly, but intelligently, hold the +doctrines and maintain the testimonies of our early Friends. I am not +blind to the shortcomings of Friends. I know how much we have lost by +narrowness and coldness and inactivity, the overestimate of external +observances, the neglect of our own proper work while acting as +conscience-keepers for others. We have not, as a society, been active +enough in those simple duties which we owe to our suffering fellow- +creatures, in that abundant labor of love and self-denial which is never +out of place. Perhaps our divisions and dissensions might have been +spared us if we had been less "at ease in Zion." It is in the decline of +practical righteousness that men are most likely to contend with each +other for dogma and ritual, for shadow and letter, instead of substance +and spirit. Hence I rejoice in every sign of increased activity in doing +good among us, in the precious opportunities afforded of working with the +Divine Providence for the Freedmen and Indians; since the more we do, in +the true spirit of the gospel, for others, the more we shall really do +for ourselves. There is no danger of lack of work for those who, with an +eye single to the guidance of Truth, look for a place in God's vineyard; +the great work which the founders of our Society began is not yet done; +the mission of Friends is not accomplished, and will not be until this +world of ours, now full of sin and suffering, shall take up, in jubilant +thanksgiving, the song of the Advent: "Glory to God in the highest! +Peace on earth and good-will to men!" + +It is charged that our Society lacks freedom and adaptation to the age in +which we live, that there is a repression of individuality and manliness +among us. I am not prepared to deny it in certain respects. But, if we +look at the matter closely, we shall see that the cause is not in the +central truth of Quakerism, but in a failure to rightly comprehend it; in +an attempt to fetter with forms and hedge about with dogmas that great +law of Christian liberty, which I believe affords ample scope for the +highest spiritual aspirations and the broadest philanthropy. If we did +but realize it, we are "set in a large place." + +"We may do all we will save wickedness." + +"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." + +Quakerism, in the light of its great original truth, is "exceeding +broad." As interpreted by Penn and Barclay it is the most liberal and +catholic of faiths. If we are not free, generous, tolerant, if we are +not up to or above the level of the age in good works, in culture and +love of beauty, order and fitness, if we are not the ready recipients of +the truths of science and philosophy,--in a word, if we are not full- +grown men and Christians, the fault is not in Quakerism, but in +ourselves. We shall gain nothing by aping the customs and trying to +adjust ourselves to the creeds of other sects. By so doing we make at +the best a very awkward combination, and just as far as it is successful, +it is at the expense of much that is vital in our old faith. If, for +instance, I could bring myself to believe a hired ministry and a written +creed essential to my moral and spiritual well-being, I think I should +prefer to sit down at once under such teachers as Bushnell and Beecher, +the like of whom in Biblical knowledge, ecclesiastical learning, and +intellectual power, we are not likely to manufacture by half a century of +theological manipulation in a Quaker "school of the prophets." If I must +go into the market and buy my preaching, I should naturally seek the best +article on sale, without regard to the label attached to it. + +I am not insensible of the need of spiritual renovation in our Society. +I feel and confess my own deficiencies as an individual member. And I +bear a willing testimony to the zeal and devotion of some dear friends, +who, lamenting the low condition and worldliness too apparent among us, +seek to awaken a stronger religious life by the partial adoption of the +practices, forms, and creeds of more demonstrative sects. The great +apparent activity of these sects seems to them to contrast very strongly +with our quietness and reticence; and they do not always pause to inquire +whether the result of this activity is a truer type of practical +Christianity than is found in our select gatherings. I think I +understand these brethren; to some extent I have sympathized with them. +But it seems clear to me, that a remedy for the alleged evil lies not in +going back to the "beggarly elements" from which our worthy ancestors +called the people of their generation; not in will-worship; not in +setting the letter above the spirit; not in substituting type and symbol, +and oriental figure and hyperbole for the simple truths they were +intended to represent; not in schools of theology; not in much speaking +and noise and vehemence, nor in vain attempts to make the "plain +language" of Quakerism utter the Shibboleth of man-made creeds: but in +heeding more closely the Inward Guide and Teacher; in faith in Christ not +merely in His historical manifestation of the Divine Love to humanity, +but in His living presence in the hearts open to receive Him; in love for +Him manifested in denial of self, in charity and love to our neighbor; +and in a deeper realization of the truth of the apostle's declaration: +"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit +the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself +unspotted from the world." + +In conclusion, let me say that I have given this expression of my +opinions with some degree of hesitation, being very sensible that I have +neither the right nor the qualification to speak for a society whose +doctrines and testimonies commend themselves to my heart and head, whose +history is rich with the precious legacy of holy lives, and of whose +usefulness as a moral and spiritual Force in the world I am fully +assured. + + +II. + +Having received several letters from dear friends in various sections +suggested by a recent communication in thy paper, and not having time or +health to answer them in detail, will thou permit me in this way to +acknowledge them, and to say to the writers that I am deeply sensible of +the Christian love and personal good-will to myself, which, whether in +commendation or dissent, they manifest? I think I may say in truth that +my letter was written in no sectarian or party spirit, but simply to +express a solicitude, which, whether groundless or not, was nevertheless +real. I am, from principle, disinclined to doctrinal disputations and +so-called religious controversies, which only tend to separate and +disunite. We have had too many divisions already. I intended no censure +of dear brethren whose zeal and devotion command my sympathy, +notwithstanding I may not be able to see with them in all respects. The +domain of individual conscience is to me very sacred; and it seems the +part of Christian charity to make a large allowance for varying +experiences; mental characteristics, and temperaments, as well as for +that youthful enthusiasm which, if sometimes misdirected, has often been +instrumental in infusing a fresher life into the body of religious +profession. It is too much to expect that we can maintain an entire +uniformity in the expression of truths in which we substantially agree; +and we should be careful that a rightful concern for "the form of sound +words" does not become what William Penn calls "verbal orthodoxy." We +must consider that the same accepted truth looks somewhat differently +from different points of vision. Knowing our own weaknesses and +limitations, we must bear in mind that human creeds, speculations, +expositions, and interpretations of the Divine plan are but the faint and +feeble glimpses of finite creatures into the infinite mysteries of God. + + "They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." + +Differing, as we do, more or less as to means and methods, if we indeed +have the "mind of Christ," we shall rejoice in whatever of good is really +accomplished, although by somewhat different instrumentalities than those +which we feel ourselves free to make use of, remembering that our Lord +rebuked the narrowness and partisanship of His disciples by assuring them +that they that were not against Him were for Him. + +It would, nevertheless, give me great satisfaction to know, as thy kindly +expressed editorial comments seem to intimate, that I have somewhat +overestimated the tendencies of things in our Society. I have no pride +of opinion which would prevent me from confessing with thankfulness my +error of judgment. In any event, it can, I think, do no harm to repeat +my deep conviction that we may all labor, in the ability given us, for +our own moral and spiritual well-being, and that of our fellow-creatures, +without laying aside the principles and practice of our religious +Society. I believe so much of liberty is our right as well as our +privilege, and that we need not really overstep our bounds for the +performance of any duty which may be required of us. When truly called +to contemplate broader fields of labor, we shall find the walls about us, +like the horizon seen from higher levels, expanding indeed, but nowhere +broken. + +I believe that the world needs the Society of Friends as a testimony and +a standard. I know that this is the opinion of some of the best and most +thoughtful members of other Christian sects. I know that any serious +departure from the original foundation of our Society would give pain to +many who, outside of our communion, deeply realize the importance of our +testimonies. They fail to read clearly the signs of the times who do not +see that the hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy +and the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence +will not altogether avail us; when the surest dependence must be upon the +Light of Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own +souls, and confirming the truth of outward Scripture by inward +experience; when smooth stones from the brook of present revelation +shall' prove mightier than the weapons of Saul; when the doctrine of the +Holy Spirit, as proclaimed by George Fox and lived by John Woolman, shall +be recognized as the only efficient solvent of doubts raised by an age of +restless inquiry. In this belief my letter was written. I am sorry it +did not fall to the lot of a more fitting hand; and can only hope that no +consideration of lack of qualification on the part of its writer may +lessen the value of whatever testimony to truth shall be found in it. + +AMESBURY, 3d mo., 1870. + + +P. S. I may mention that I have been somewhat encouraged by a perusal of +the Proceedings of the late First-day School Conference in Philadelphia, +where, with some things which I am compelled to pause over, and regret, I +find much with which I cordially unite, and which seems to indicate a +providential opening for good. I confess to a lively and tender sympathy +with my younger brethren and sisters who, in the name of Him who "went +about doing good," go forth into the highways and byways to gather up the +lost, feed the hungry, instruct the ignorant, and point the sinsick and +suffering to the hopes and consolations of Christian faith, even if, at +times, their zeal goes beyond "reasonable service," and although the +importance of a particular instrumentality may be exaggerated, and love +lose sight of its needful companion humility, and he that putteth on his +armor boast like him who layeth it off. Any movement, however irregular, +which indicates life, is better than the quiet of death. In the +overruling providence of God, the troubling may prepare the way for +healing. Some of us may have erred on one hand and some on the other, +and this shaking of the balance may adjust it. + + + + + +JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. + +Originally published as an introduction to a reissue of the work. + +To those who judge by the outward appearance, nothing is more difficult +of explanation than the strength of moral influence often exerted by +obscure and uneventful lives. Some great reform which lifts the world to +a higher level, some mighty change for which the ages have waited in +anxious expectancy, takes place before our eyes, and, in seeking to trace +it back to its origin, we are often surprised to find the initial link in +the chain of causes to be some comparatively obscure individual, the +divine commission and significance of whose life were scarcely understood +by his contemporaries, and perhaps not even by himself. The little one +has become a thousand; the handful of corn shakes like Lebanon. "The +kingdom of God cometh not by observation;" and the only solution of the +mystery is in the reflection that through the humble instrumentality +Divine power was manifested, and that the Everlasting Arm was beneath the +human one. + +The abolition of human slavery now in process of consummation throughout +the world furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of this truth. +A far-reaching moral, social, and political revolution, undoing the evil +work of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to +the life and labors of a poor, unlearned workingman of New Jersey, whose +very existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his +religious society. + +It is only within a comparatively recent period that the journal and +ethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to +which they are manifestly entitled. In one of my last interviews with +William Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they +were so little known. He had himself just read the book for the first +time, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up as he +pronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in +the language. He wished to see it placed within the reach of all classes +of readers; it was not a light to be hidden under the bushel of a sect. +Charles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard +Barton, became acquainted with it, and on more than one occasion, in his +letters and Essays of Elia, refers to it with warm commendation. Edward +Irving pronounced it a godsend. Some idea of the lively interest which +the fine literary circle gathered around the hearth of Lamb felt in the +beautiful simplicity of Woolman's pages may be had from the Diary of +Henry Crabb Robinson, one of their number, himself a man of wide and +varied culture, the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. +In his notes for First Month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a +sermon of his friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than +promote belief: + +"How different this from John Woolman's Journal I have been reading at +the same time! A perfect gem! His is a _schone Seele_, a beautiful +soul. An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite +purity and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. +Had he not been so very humble, he would have written a still better +book; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which +he was a great actor. His religion was love. His whole existence and +all his passions were love. If one could venture to impute to his creed, +and not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he +exhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity is +most inviting, it is fascinating! One of the leading British reviews a +few years ago, referring to this Journal, pronounced its author the man +who, in all the centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to +the Divine pattern. The author of The Patience of Hope, whose authority +in devotional literature is unquestioned, says of him: 'John Woolman's +gift was love, a charity of which it does not enter into the natural +heart of man to conceive, and of which the more ordinary experiences, +even of renewed nature, give but a faint shadow. Every now and then, in +the world's history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of +Humanity, on whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth +that it has run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over +the whole of the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of +Assisi, into the secret of that deep amity with God and with His +creatures which makes man to be in league with the stones of the field, +and the beasts of the field to be at peace with him. In this pure, +universal charity there is nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that +comes and goes in showers and gleams and sunbursts. Its springs are deep +and constant, its rising is like that of a mighty river, its very +overflow calm and steady, leaving life and fertility behind it.'" + +After all, anything like personal eulogy seems out of place in speaking +of one who in the humblest self-abasement sought no place in the world's +estimation, content to be only a passive instrument in the hands of his +Master; and who, as has been remarked, through modesty concealed the +events in which he was an actor. A desire to supply in some sort this +deficiency in his Journal is my especial excuse for this introductory +paper. + +It is instructive to study the history of the moral progress of +individuals or communities; to mark the gradual development of truth; to +watch the slow germination of its seed sown in simple obedience to the +command of the Great Husbandman, while yet its green promise, as well as +its golden fruition, was hidden from the eyes of the sower; to go back to +the well-springs and fountain-heads, tracing the small streamlet from its +hidden source, and noting the tributaries which swell its waters, as it +moves onward, until it becomes a broad river, fertilizing and gladdening +our present humanity. To this end it is my purpose, as briefly as +possible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of +slave-holding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of +that act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout +the world. + +At an early period after the organization of the Society, members of it +emigrated to the Maryland, Carolina, Virginia, and New England colonies. +The act of banishment enforced against dissenters under Charles II. +consigned others of the sect to the West Indies, where their frugality, +temperance, and thrift transmuted their intended punishment into a +blessing. Andrew Marvell, the inflexible republican statesman, in some +of the sweetest and tenderest lines in the English tongue, has happily +described their condition:-- + +What shall we do but sing His praise +Who led us through the watery maze, +Unto an isle so long unknown, +And yet far kinder than our own? +He lands us on a grassy stage, +Safe from the storms and prelates' rage; +He gives us this eternal spring, +Which here enamels everything, +And sends the fowls to us in care, +On daily visits through the air. +He hangs in shades the orange bright, +Like golden lamps, in a green night, +And doth in the pomegranate close +Jewels more rich than Ormus shows. + + . . . . . . . . . + +And in these rocks for us did frame +A temple where to sound His name. +Oh! let our voice His praise exalt, +Till it arrive at heaven's vault, +Which then, perhaps rebounding, may +Echo beyond the Mexic bay.' + +"So sang they in the English boat, +A holy and a cheerful note; +And all the way, to guide their chime, +With falling oars they kept the time." + +Unhappily, they very early became owners of slaves, in imitation of the +colonists around them. No positive condemnation of the evil system had +then been heard in the British islands. Neither English prelates nor +expounders at dissenting conventicles had aught to say against it. Few +colonists doubted its entire compatibility with Christian profession and +conduct. Saint and sinner, ascetic and worldling, united in its +practice. Even the extreme Dutch saints of Bohemia Manor community, the +pietists of John de Labadie, sitting at meat with hats on, and pausing +ever and anon with suspended mouthfuls to bear a brother's or sister's +exhortation, and sandwiching prayers between the courses, were waited +upon by negro slaves. Everywhere men were contending with each other +upon matters of faith, while, so far as their slaves were concerned, +denying the ethics of Christianity itself. + +Such was the state of things when, in 1671, George Fox visited Barbadoes. +He was one of those men to whom it is given to discern through the mists +of custom and prejudice something of the lineaments of absolute truth, +and who, like the Hebrew lawgiver, bear with them, from a higher and +purer atmosphere, the shining evidence of communion with the Divine +Wisdom. He saw slavery in its mildest form among his friends, but his +intuitive sense of right condemned it. He solemnly admonished those who +held slaves to bear in mind that they were brethren, and to train them up +in the fear of God. "I desired, also," he says, "that they would cause +their overseers to deal gently and mildly with their negroes, and not use +cruelty towards them as the manner of some hath been and is; and that, +after certain years of servitude, they should make them free." + +In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson, revisited +Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of +slaves. He was accused of endeavoring to excite an insurrection among +the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was +probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to friends +in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of +the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro +slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the Papal bulls +of Urban and Leo the Tenth. + +Thirteen years after, in 1688, a meeting of German Quakers, who had +emigrated from Kriesbeim, and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania, +addressed a memorial against "the buying and keeping of negroes" to the +Yearly Meeting for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey colonies. That +meeting took the subject into consideration, but declined giving judgment +in the case. In 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised against "bringing in +any more negroes." In 1714, in its Epistle to London Friends, it +expresses a wish that Friends would be "less concerned in buying or +selling slaves." The Chester Quarterly Meeting, which had taken a higher +and clearer view of the matter, continued to press the Yearly Meeting to +adopt some decided measure against any traffic in human beings. + +The Society gave these memorials a cold reception. The love of gain and +power was too strong, on the part of the wealthy and influential planters +and merchants who had become slaveholders, to allow the scruples of the +Chester meeting to take the shape of discipline. The utmost that could +be obtained of the Yearly Meeting was an expression of opinion adverse to +the importation of negroes, and a desire that "Friends generally do, as +much as may be, avoid buying such negroes as shall hereafter be brought +in, rather than offend any Friends who are against it; yet this is only +caution, and not censure." + +In the mean time the New England Yearly Meeting was agitated by the same +question. Slaves were imported into Boston and Newport, and Friends +became purchasers, and in some instances were deeply implicated in the +foreign traffic. In 1716, the monthly meetings of Dartmouth and +Nantucket suggested that it was "not agreeable to truth to purchase +slaves and keep them during their term of life." Nothing was done in the +Yearly Meeting, however, until 1727, when the practice of importing +negroes was censured. That the practice was continued notwithstanding, +for many years afterwards, is certain. In 1758, a rule was adopted +prohibiting Friends within the limits of New England Yearly Meeting from +engaging in or countenancing the foreign slave-trade. + +In the year 1742 an event, simple and inconsiderable in itself, was made +the instrumentality of exerting a mighty influence upon slavery in the +Society of Friends. A small storekeeper at Mount Holly, in New Jersey, a +member of the Society, sold a negro woman, and requested the young man in +his employ to make a bill of sale of her. + + [Mount Holly is a village lying in the western part of the long, + narrow township of Northampton, on Rancocas Creek, a tributary of + the Delaware. In John Woolman's day it was almost entirely a + settlement of Friends. A very few of the old houses with their + quaint stoops or porches are left. That occupied by John Woolman + was a small, plain, two-story structure, with two windows in each + story in front, a four-barred fence inclosing the grounds, with the + trees he planted and loved to cultivate. The house was not painted, + but whitewashed. The name of the place is derived from the highest + hill in the county, rising two hundred feet above the sea, and + commanding a view of a rich and level country, of cleared farms and + woodlands. Here, no doubt, John Woolman often walked under the + shadow of its holly-trees, communing with nature and musing on the + great themes of life and duty. + + When the excellent Joseph Sturge was in this country, some thirty + years ago, on his errand of humanity, he visited Mount Holly, and + the house of Woolman, then standing. He describes it as a very + "humble abode." But one person was then living in the town who had + ever seen its venerated owner. This aged man stated that he was at + Woolman's little farm in the season of harvest when it was customary + among farmers to kill a calf or sheep for the laborers. John + Woolman, unwilling that the animal should be slowly bled to death, + as the custom had been, and to spare it unnecessary suffering, had a + smooth block of wood prepared to receive the neck of the creature, + when a single blow terminated its existence. Nothing was more + remarkable in the character of Woolman than his concern for the + well-being and comfort of the brute creation. "What is religion?" + asks the old Hindoo writer of the Vishnu Sarman. "Tenderness toward + all creatures." Or, as Woolman expresses it, "Where the love of God + is verily perfected, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject + to our will is experienced, and a care felt that we do not lessen + that sweetness of life in the animal creation which the Creator + intends for them under our government."] + +On taking up his pen, the young clerk felt a sudden and strong scruple in +his mind. The thought of writing an instrument of slavery for one of his +fellow-creatures oppressed him. God's voice against the desecration of +His image spoke in the soul. He yielded to the will of his employer, +but, while writing the instrument, he was constrained to declare, both to +the buyer and the seller, that he believed slave-keeping inconsistent +with the Christian religion. This young man was John Woolman. The +circumstance above named was the starting-point of a life-long testimony +against slavery. In the year 1746 he visited Maryland, Virginia, and +North Carolina. He was afflicted by the prevalence of slavery. It +appeared to him, in his own words, "as a dark gloominess overhanging the +land." On his return, he wrote an essay on the subject, which was +published in 1754. Three years after, he made a second visit to the +Southern meetings of Friends. Travelling as a minister of the gospel, he +was compelled to sit down at the tables of slaveholding planters, who +were accustomed to entertain their friends free of cost, and who could +not comprehend the scruples of their guest against receiving as a gift +food and lodging which he regarded as the gain of oppression. He was a +poor man, but he loved truth more than money. He therefore either placed +the pay for his entertainment in the hands of some member of the family, +for the benefit of the slaves, or gave it directly to them, as he had +opportunity. Wherever he went, he found his fellow-professors entangled +in the mischief of slavery. Elders and ministers, as well as the younger +and less high in profession, had their house servants and field hands. +He found grave drab-coated apologists for the slave-trade, who quoted the +same Scriptures, in support of oppression and avarice, which have since +been cited by Presbyterian doctors of divinity, Methodist bishops; and +Baptist preachers for the same purpose. He found the meetings generally +in a low and evil state. The gold of original Quakerism had become dim, +and the fine gold changed. The spirit of the world prevailed among them, +and had wrought an inward desolation. Instead of meekness, gentleness, +and heavenly wisdom, he found "a spirit of fierceness and love of +dominion." + + [The tradition is that he travelled mostly on foot during his + journeys among slaveholders. Brissot, in his New Travels in + America, published in 1788, says: "John Woolman, one of the most + distinguished of men in the cause of humanity, travelled much as a + minister of his sect, but always on foot, and without money, in + imitation of the Apostles, and in order to be in a situation to be + more useful to poor people and the blacks. He hated slavery so much + that he could not taste food provided by the labor of slaves." That + this writer was on one point misinformed is manifest from the + following passage from the Journal: "When I expected soon to leave a + friend's house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I + should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving + money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and + desired them to accept of pieces of silver, and give them to such of + their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and + at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked + clearest to me. Before I came out, I had provided a large number of + small pieces for this purpose, and thus offering them to some who + appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them. But + the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made + easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment + at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of + them."] + +In love, but at the same time with great faithfulness, he endeavored to +convince the masters of their error, and to awaken a degree of sympathy +for the enslaved. + +At this period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, a remarkable personage took +up his residence in Pennsylvania. He was by birthright a member of the +Society of Friends, but having been disowned in England for some +extravagances of conduct and language, he spent several years in the West +Indies, where he became deeply interested in the condition of the slaves. +His violent denunciations of the practice of slaveholding excited the +anger of the planters, and he was compelled to leave the island. He came +to Philadelphia, but, contrary to his expectations, he found the same +evil existing there. He shook off the dust of the city, and took up his +abode in the country, a few miles distant. His dwelling was a natural +cave, with some slight addition of his own making. His drink was the +spring-water flowing by his door; his food, vegetables alone. He +persistently refused to wear any garment or eat any food purchased at the +expense of animal life, or which was in any degree the product of slave +labor. Issuing from his cave, on his mission of preaching "deliverance +to the captive," he was in the habit of visiting the various meetings for +worship and bearing his testimony against slaveholders, greatly to their +disgust and indignation. On one occasion he entered the Market Street +Meeting, and a leading Friend requested some one to take him out. A +burly blacksmith volunteered to do it, leading him to the gate and +thrusting him out with such force that he fell into the gutter of the +street. There he lay until the meeting closed, telling the bystanders +that he did not feel free to rise himself. "Let those who cast me here +raise me up. It is their business, not mine." + +His personal appearance was in remarkable keeping with his eccentric +life. A figure only four and a half feet high, hunchbacked, with +projecting chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer than his legs; a +huge head, showing only beneath the enormous white hat large, solemn eyes +and a prominent nose; the rest of his face covered with a snowy +semicircle of beard falling low on his breast,--a figure to recall the +old legends of troll, brownie, and kobold. Such was the irrepressible +prophet who troubled the Israel of slave-holding Quakerism, clinging like +a rough chestnut-bur to the skirts of its respectability, and settling +like a pertinacious gad-fly on the sore places of its conscience. + +On one occasion, while the annual meeting was in session at Burlington, +N. J., in the midst of the solemn silence of the great assembly, the +unwelcome figure of Benjamin Lay, wrapped in his long white overcoat, +was seen passing up the aisle. Stopping midway, he exclaimed, "You +slaveholders! Why don't you throw off your Quaker coats as I do mine, +and show yourselves as you are?" Casting off as he spoke his outer +garment, he disclosed to the astonished assembly a military coat +underneath and a sword dangling at his heels. Holding in one hand a +large book, he drew his sword with the other. "In the sight of God," he +cried, "you are as guilty as if you stabbed your slaves to the heart, as +I do this book!" suiting the action to the word, and piercing a small +bladder filled with the juice of poke-weed (playtolacca decandra), which +he had concealed between the covers, and sprinkling as with fresh blood +those who sat near him. John Woolman makes no mention of this +circumstance in his Journal, although he was probably present, and it +must have made a deep impression on his sensitive spirit. The violence +and harshness of Lay's testimony, however, had nothing in common with +the tender and sorrowful remonstrances and appeals of the former, except +the sympathy which they both felt for the slave himself. + + [Lay was well acquainted with Dr. Franklin, who sometimes visited him. + Among other schemes of reform he entertained the idea of converting + all mankind to Christianity. This was to be done by three + witnesses,--himself, Michael Lovell, and Abel Noble, assisted by Dr. + Franklin. But on their first meeting at the Doctor's house, the + three "chosen vessels" got into a violent controversy on points of + doctrine, and separated in ill-humor. The philosopher, who had been + an amused listener, advised the three sages to give up the project + of converting the world until they had learned to tolerate each + other.] + +Still later, a descendant of the persecuted French Protestants, Anthony +Benezet, a man of uncommon tenderness of feeling, began to write and +speak against slavery. How far, if at all, he was moved thereto by the +example of Woolman is not known, but it is certain that the latter found +in him a steady friend and coadjutor in his efforts to awaken the +slumbering moral sense of his religious brethren. The Marquis de +Chastellux, author of _De la Felicite Publique_, describes him as a +small, eager-faced man, full of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in +works of benevolence, which were by no means confined to the blacks. +Like Woolman and Lay, he advocated abstinence from intoxicating spirits. +The poor French neutrals who were brought to Philadelphia from Nova +Scotia, and landed penniless and despairing among strangers in tongue and +religion, found in him a warm and untiring friend, through whose aid and +sympathy their condition was rendered more comfortable than that of their +fellow-exiles in other colonies. + +The annual assemblage of the Yearly Meeting in 1758 at Philadelphia must +ever be regarded as one of the most important religious convocations in +the history of the Christian church. The labors of Woolman and his few +but earnest associates had not been in vain. A deep and tender interest +had been awakened; and this meeting was looked forward to with varied +feelings of solicitude by all parties. All felt that the time had come +for some definite action; conservative and reformer stood face to face in +the Valley of Decision. John Woolman, of course, was present,--a man +humble and poor in outward appearance, his simple dress of undyed +homespun cloth contrasting strongly with the plain but rich apparel of +the representatives of the commerce of the city and of the large slave- +stocked plantations of the country. Bowed down by the weight of his +concern for the poor slaves and for the well-being and purity of the +Society, he sat silent during the whole meeting, while other matters were +under discussion. "My mind," he says, "was frequently clothed with +inward prayer; and I could say with David that 'tears were my meat and +drink, day and night.' The case of slave-keeping lay heavy upon me; nor +did I find any engagement, to speak directly to any other matter before +the meeting." When the important subject came up for consideration, many +faithful Friends spoke with weight and earnestness. No one openly +justified slavery as a system, although some expressed a concern lest the +meeting should go into measures calculated to cause uneasiness to many +members of the Society. It was also urged that Friends should wait +patiently until the Lord in His own time should open a way for the +deliverance of the slave. This was replied to by John Woolman. "My +mind," he said, "is led to consider the purity of the Divine Being, and +the justice of His judgments; and herein my soul is covered with +awfulness. I cannot forbear to hint of some cases where people have not +been treated with the purity of justice, and the event has been most +lamentable. Many slaves on this continent are oppressed, and their cries +have entered into the ears of the Most High. Such are the purity and +certainty of His judgments that He cannot be partial in our favor. In +infinite love and goodness He hath opened our understandings from one +time to another, concerning our duty towards this people; and it is not a +time for delay. Should we now be sensible of what He requires of us, and +through a respect to the private interest of some persons, or through a +regard to some friendships which do not stand upon an immutable +foundation, neglect to do our duty in firmness and constancy, still +waiting for some extraordinary means to bring about their deliverance, +God may by terrible things in righteousness answer us in this matter." + +This solemn and weighty appeal was responded to by many in the assembly, +in a spirit of sympathy and unity. Some of the slave-holding members +expressed their willingness that a strict rule of discipline should be +adopted against dealing in slaves for the future. To this it was +answered that the root of the evil would never be reached effectually +until a searching inquiry was made into the circumstances and motives of +such as held slaves. At length the truth in a great measure triumphed +over all opposition; and, without any public dissent, the meeting agreed +that the injunction of our Lord and Saviour to do to others as we would +that others should do to us should induce Friends who held slaves "to set +them at liberty, making a Christian provision for them," and four +Friends--John Woolman, John Scarborough, Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes-- +were approved of as suitable persons to visit and treat with such as kept +slaves, within the limits of the meeting. + +This painful and difficult duty was faithfully performed. In that +meekness and humility of spirit which has nothing in common with the +"fear of man, which bringeth a snare," the self-denying followers of +their Divine Lord and Master "went about doing good." In the city of +Philadelphia, and among the wealthy planters of the country, they found +occasion often to exercise a great degree of patience, and to keep a +watchful guard over their feelings. In his Journal for this important +period of his life John Woolman says but little of his own services. How +arduous and delicate they were may be readily understood. The number of +slaves held by members of the Society was very large. Isaac Jackson, in +his report of his labors among slave-holders in a single Quarterly +Meeting, states that he visited the owners of more than eleven hundred +slaves. From the same report may be gleaned some hints of the +difficulties which presented themselves. One elderly man says he has +well brought up his eleven slaves, and "now they must work to maintain +him." Another owns it is all wrong, but "cannot release his slaves; his +tender wife under great concern of mind" on account of his refusal. A +third has fifty slaves; knows it to be wrong, but can't see his way clear +out of it. "Perhaps," the report says, "interest dims his vision." A +fourth is full of "excuses and reasonings." "Old Jos. Richison has +forty, and is determined to keep them." Another man has fifty, and +"means to keep them." Robert Ward "wants to release his slaves, but his +wife and daughters hold back." Another "owns it is wrong, but says he +will not part with his negroes,--no, not while he lives." The far +greater number, however, confess the wrong of slavery, and agree to take +measures for freeing their slaves. + + [An incident occurred during this visit of Isaac Jackson which + impressed him deeply. On the last evening, just as he was about to + turn homeward, he was told that a member of the Society whom he had + not seen owned a very old slave who was happy and well cared for. + It was a case which it was thought might well be left to take care + of itself. Isaac Jackson, sitting in silence, did not feel his mind + quite satisfied; and as the evening wore away, feeling more and more + exercised, he expressed his uneasiness, when a young son of his host + eagerly offered to go with him and show him the road to the place. + The proposal was gladly accepted. On introducing the object of + their visit, the Friend expressed much surprise that any uneasiness + should be felt in the case, but at length consented to sign the form + of emancipation, saying, at the same time, it would make no + difference in their relations, as the old man was perfectly happy. + At Isaac Jackson's request the slave was called in and seated before + them. His form was nearly double, his thin hands were propped on + his knees, his white head was thrust forward, and his keen, + restless, inquiring eyes gleamed alternately on the stranger and on + his master. At length he was informed of what had been done; that + he was no longer a slave, and that his master acknowledged his past + services entitled him to a maintenance so long as he lived. The old + man listened in almost breathless wonder, his head slowly sinking on + his breast. After a short pause, he clasped his hands; then + spreading them high over his hoary head, slowly and reverently + exclaimed, "Oh, goody Gody, oh!"--bringing his hands again down on + his knees. Then raising them as before, he twice repeated the + solemn exclamation, and with streaming eyes and a voice almost too + much choked for utterance, he continued, "I thought I should die a + slave, and now I shall die a free man!" + + It is a striking evidence of the divine compensations which are + sometimes graciously vouchsafed to those who have been faithful to + duty, that on his death-bed this affecting scene was vividly revived + in the mind of Isaac Jackson. At that supreme moment, when all + other pictures of time were fading out, that old face, full of + solemn joy and devout thanksgiving, rose before him, and comforted + him as with the blessing of God.] + +An extract or two from the Journal at this period will serve to show both +the nature of the service in which he was engaged and the frame of mind +in which he accomplished it:-- + +"In the beginning of the 12th month I joined in company with my friends, +John Sykes and Daniel Stanton, in visiting such as had slaves. Some, +whose hearts were rightly exercised about them, appeared to be glad of +our visit, but in some places our way was more difficult. I often saw +the necessity of keeping down to that root from whence our concern +proceeded, and have cause in reverent thankfulness humbly to bow down +before the Lord who was near to me, and preserved my mind in calmness +under some sharp conflicts, and begat a spirit of sympathy and tenderness +in me towards some who were grievously entangled by the spirit of this +world." + +"1st month, 1759.--Having found my mind drawn to visit some of the more +active members of society at Philadelphia who had slaves, I met my friend +John Churchman there by agreement, and we continued about a week in the +city. We visited some that were sick, and some widows and their +families; and the other part of the time was mostly employed in visiting +such as had slaves. It was a time of deep exercise; but looking often to +the Lord for assistance, He in unspeakable kindness favored us with the +influence of that spirit which crucifies to the greatness and splendor of +this world, and enabled us to go through some heavy labors, in which we +found peace." + +These labors were attended with the blessing of the God of the poor and +oppressed. Dealing in slaves was almost entirely abandoned, and many who +held slaves set them at liberty. But many members still continuing the +practice, a more emphatic testimony against it was issued by the Yearly +Meeting in 1774; and two years after the subordinate meetings were +directed to deny the right of membership to such as persisted in holding +their fellow-men as property. + +A concern was now felt for the temporal and religious welfare of the +emancipated slaves, and in 1779 the Yearly Meeting came to the conclusion +that some reparation was due from the masters to their former slaves for +services rendered while in the condition of slavery. The following is an +extract from an epistle on this subject: + +"We are united in judgment that the state of the oppressed people who +have been held by any of us, or our predecessors, in captivity and +slavery, calls for a deep inquiry and close examination how far we are +clear of withholding from them what under such an exercise may open to +view as their just right; and therefore we earnestly and affectionately +entreat our brethren in religious profession to bring this matter home, +and that all who have let the oppressed go free may attend to the further +openings of duty. + +"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of many +who are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously +considered the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people +have long labored; and whether a pious care extended to their offspring +is not justly due from us to them is a consideration worthy our serious +and deep attention." + +Committees to aid and advise the colored people were accordingly +appointed in the various Monthly Meetings. Many former owners of slaves +faithfully paid the latter for their services, submitting to the award +and judgment of arbitrators as to what justice required at their hands. +So deeply had the sense of the wrong of slavery sunk into the hearts of +Friends! + +John Woolman, in his Journal for 1769, states, that having some years +before, as one of the executors of a will, disposed of the services of a +negro boy belonging to the estate until he should reach the age of thirty +years, he became uneasy in respect to the transaction, and, although he +had himself derived no pecuniary benefit from it, and had simply acted as +the agent of the heirs of the estate to which the boy belonged, he +executed a bond, binding himself to pay the master of the young man for +four years and a half of his unexpired term of service. + +The appalling magnitude of the evil against which he felt himself +especially called to contend was painfully manifest to John Woolman. At +the outset, all about him, in every department of life and human +activity, in the state and the church, he saw evidences of its strength, +and of the depth and extent to which its roots had wound their way among +the foundations of society. Yet he seems never to have doubted for a +moment the power of simple truth to eradicate it, nor to have hesitated +as to his own duty in regard to it. There was no groping like Samson in +the gloom; no feeling in blind wrath and impatience for the pillars of +the temple of Dagon. "The candle of the Lord shone about him," and his +path lay clear and unmistakable before him. He believed in the goodness +of God that leadeth to repentance; and that love could reach the witness +for itself in the hearts of all men, through all entanglements of custom +and every barrier of pride and selfishness. No one could have a more +humble estimate of himself; but as he went forth on his errand of mercy +he felt the Infinite Power behind him, and the consciousness that he had +known a preparation from that Power "to stand as a trumpet through which +the Lord speaks." The event justified his confidence; wherever he went +hard hearts were softened, avarice and love of power and pride of opinion +gave way before his testimony of love. + +The New England Yearly Meeting then, as now, was held in Newport, on +Rhode Island. In the year 1760 John Woolman, in the course of a +religious visit to New England, attended that meeting. He saw the +horrible traffic in human beings,--the slave-ships lying at the wharves +of the town, the sellers and buyers of men and women and children +thronging the market-place. The same abhorrent scenes which a few years +after stirred the spirit of the excellent Hopkins to denounce the slave- +trade and slavery as hateful in the sight of God to his congregation at +Newport were enacted in the full view and hearing of the annual +convocation of Friends, many of whom were themselves partakers in the +shame and wickedness. "Understanding," he says, "that a large number of +slaves had been imported from Africa into the town, and were then on sale +by a member of our Society, my appetite failed; I grew outwardly weak, +and had a feeling of the condition of Habakkuk: 'When I heard, my belly +trembled, my lips quivered; I trembled in myself, that I might rest in +the day of trouble.' I had many cogitations, and was sorely distressed." +He prepared a memorial to the Legislature, then in session, for the +signatures of Friends, urging that body to take measures to put an end to +the importation of slaves. His labors in the Yearly Meeting appear to +have been owned and blessed by the Divine Head of the church. The London +Epistle for 1758, condemning the unrighteous traffic in men, was read, +and the substance of it embodied in the discipline of the meeting; and +the following query was adopted, to be answered by the subordinate +meetings:-- + +"Are Friends clear of importing negroes, or buying them when imported; +and do they use those well, where they are possessed by inheritance or +otherwise, endeavoring to train them up in principles of religion?" + +At the close of the Yearly Meeting, John Woolman requested those members +of the Society who held slaves to meet with him in the chamber of the +house for worship, where he expressed his concern for the well-being of +the slaves, and his sense of the iniquity of the practice of dealing in +or holding them as property. His tender exhortations were not lost upon +his auditors; his remarks were kindly received, and the gentle and loving +spirit in which they were offered reached many hearts. + +In 1769, at the suggestion of the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, the +Yearly Meeting expressed its sense of the wrongfulness of holding slaves, +and appointed a large committee to visit those members who were +implicated in the practice. The next year this committee reported that +they had completed their service, "and that their visits mostly seemed to +be kindly accepted. Some Friends manifested a disposition to set such at +liberty as were suitable; some others, not having so clear a sight of +such an unreasonable servitude as could be desired, were unwilling to +comply with the advice given them at present, yet seemed willing to take +it into consideration; a few others manifested a disposition to keep them +in continued bondage." + +It was stated in the Epistle to London Yearly Meeting of the year 1772, +that a few Friends had freed their slaves from bondage, but that others +"have been so reluctant thereto that they have been disowned for not +complying with the advice of this meeting." + +In 1773 the following minute was made: "It is our sense and judgment that +truth not only requires the young of capacity and ability, but likewise +the aged and impotent, and also all in a state of infancy and nonage, +among Friends, to be discharged and set free from a state of slavery, +that we do no more claim property in the human race, as we do in the +brutes that perish." + +In 1782 no slaves were known to be held in the New England Yearly +Meeting. The next year it was recommended to the subordinate meetings to +appoint committees to effect a proper and just settlement between the +manumitted slaves and their former masters, for their past services. In +1784 it was concluded by the Yearly Meeting that any former slave-holder +who refused to comply with the award of these committees should, after +due care and labor with him, be disowned from the Society. This was +effectual; settlements without disownment were made to the satisfaction +of all parties, and every case was disposed of previous to the year 1787. + +In the New York Yearly Meeting, slave-trading was prohibited about the +middle of the last century. In 1771, in consequence of an Epistle from +the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a committee was appointed to visit those +who held slaves, and to advise with them in relation to emancipation. In +1776 it was made a disciplinary offence to buy, sell, or hold slaves upon +any condition. In 1784 but one slave was to be found in the limits of +the meeting. In the same year, by answers from the several subordinate +meetings, it was ascertained that an equitable settlement for past +services had been effected between the emancipated negroes and their +masters in all save three cases. + +In the Virginia Yearly Meeting slavery had its strongest hold. Its +members, living in the midst of slave-holding communities, were +necessarily exposed to influences adverse to emancipation. I have +already alluded to the epistle addressed to them by William Edmondson, +and to the labors of John Woolman while travelling among them. In 1757 +the Virginia Yearly Meeting condemned the foreign slave-trade. In 1764 +it enjoined upon its members the duty of kindness towards their servants, +of educating them, and carefully providing for their food and clothing. +Four years after, its members were strictly prohibited from purchasing +any more slaves. In 1773 it earnestly recommended the immediate +manumission of all slaves held in bondage, after the females had reached +eighteen and the males twenty-one years of age. At the same time it was +advised that committees should be appointed for the purpose of +instructing the emancipated persons in the principles of morality and +religion, and for advising and aiding them in their temporal concerns. + +I quote a single paragraph from the advice sent down to the subordinate +meetings, as a beautiful manifestation of the fruits of true repentance:-- + +"It is the solid sense of this meeting, that we of the present generation +are under strong obligations to express our love and concern for the +offspring of those people who by their labors have greatly contributed +towards the cultivation of these colonies under the afflictive +disadvantage of enduring a hard bondage, and the benefit of whose toil +many among us are enjoying." + +In 1784, the different Quarterly Meetings having reported that many still +held slaves, notwithstanding the advice and entreaties of their friends, +the Yearly Meeting directed that where endeavors to convince those +offenders of their error proved ineffectual, the Monthly Meetings should +proceed to disown them. We have no means of ascertaining the precise +number of those actually disowned for slave-holding in the Virginia +Yearly Meeting, but it is well known to have been very small. In almost +all cases the care and assiduous labors of those who had the welfare of +the Society and of humanity at heart were successful in inducing +offenders to manumit their slaves, and confess their error in resisting +the wishes of their friends and bringing reproach upon the cause of +truth. + +So ended slavery in the Society of Friends. For three quarters of a +century the advice put forth in the meetings of the Society at stated +intervals, that Friends should be "careful to maintain their testimony +against slavery," has been adhered to so far as owning, or even hiring, a +slave is concerned. Apart from its first-fruits of emancipation, there +is a perennial value in the example exhibited of the power of truth, +urged patiently and in earnest love, to overcome the difficulties in the +way of the eradication of an evil system, strengthened by long habit, +entangled with all the complex relations of society, and closely allied +with the love of power, the pride of family, and the lust of gain. + +The influence of the life and labors of John Woolman has by no means been +confined to the religious society of which he was a member. It may be +traced wherever a step in the direction of emancipation has been taken in +this country or in Europe. During the war of the Revolution many of the +noblemen and officers connected with the French army became, as their +journals abundantly testify, deeply interested in the Society of Friends, +and took back to France with them something of its growing anti-slavery +sentiment. Especially was this the case with Jean Pierre Brissot, the +thinker and statesman of the Girondists, whose intimacy with Warner +Mifflin, a friend and disciple of Woolman, so profoundly affected his +whole after life. He became the leader of the "Friends of the Blacks," +and carried with him to the scaffold a profound hatred, of slavery. To +his efforts may be traced the proclamation of emancipation in Hayti by +the commissioners of the French convention, and indirectly the subsequent +uprising of the blacks and their successful establishment of a free +government. The same influence reached Thomas Clarkson and stimulated +his early efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade; and in after life +the volume of the New Jersey Quaker was the cherished companion of +himself and his amiable helpmate. It was in a degree, at least, the +influence of Stephen Grellet and William Allen, men deeply imbued with +the spirit of Woolman, and upon whom it might almost be said his mantle +had fallen, that drew the attention of Alexander I. of Russia to the +importance of taking measures for the abolition of serfdom, an object the +accomplishment of which the wars during his reign prevented, but which, +left as a legacy of duty, has been peaceably effected by his namesake, +Alexander II. In the history of emancipation in our own country +evidences of the same original impulse of humanity are not wanting. In +1790 memorials against slavery from the Society of Friends were laid +before the first Congress of the United States. Not content with +clearing their own skirts of the evil, the Friends of that day took an +active part in the formation of the abolition societies of New England, +New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Jacob Lindley, Elisha +Tyson, Warner Mifflin, James Pemberton, and other leading Friends were +known throughout the country as unflinching champions of freedom. One of +the earliest of the class known as modern abolitionists was Benjamin +Lundy, a pupil in the school of Woolman, through whom William Lloyd +Garrison became interested in the great work to which his life has been +so faithfully and nobly devoted. Looking back to the humble workshop at +Mount Holly from the stand-point of the Proclamation of President +Lincoln, how has the seed sown in weakness been raised up in power! + +The larger portion of Woolman's writings is devoted to the subjects of +slavery, uncompensated labor, and the excessive toil and suffering of the +many to support the luxury of the few. The argument running through them +is searching, and in its conclusions uncompromising, but a tender love +for the wrong-doer as well as the sufferer underlies all. They aim to +convince the judgment and reach the heart without awakening prejudice and +passion. To the slave-holders of his time they must have seemed like the +voice of conscience speaking to them in the cool of the day. One feels, +in reading them, the tenderness and humility of a nature redeemed from +all pride of opinion and self-righteousness, sinking itself out of sight, +and intent only upon rendering smaller the sum of human sorrow and sin by +drawing men nearer to God, and to each other. The style is that of a man +unlettered, but with natural refinement and delicate sense of fitness, +the purity of whose heart enters into his language. There is no attempt +at fine writing, not a word or phrase for effect; it is the simple +unadorned diction of one to whom the temptations of the pen seem to have +been wholly unknown. He wrote, as he believed, from an inward spiritual +prompting; and with all his unaffected humility he evidently felt that +his work was done in the clear radiance of + + "The light which never was on land or sea." + +It was not for him to outrun his Guide, or, as Sir Thomas Browne +expresses it, to "order the finger of the Almighty to His will and +pleasure, but to sit still under the soft showers of Providence." Very +wise are these essays, but their wisdom is not altogether that of this +world. They lead one away from all the jealousies, strifes, and +competitions of luxury, fashion, and gain, out of the close air of +parties and sects, into a region of calmness,-- + + "The haunt + Of every gentle wind whose breath can teach + The wild to love tranquillity,"-- + +a quiet habitation where all things are ordered in what he calls "the +pure reason;" a rest from all self-seeking, and where no man's interest +or activity conflicts with that of another. Beauty they certainly have, +but it is not that which the rules of art recognize; a certain +indefinable purity pervades them, making one sensible, as he reads, of a +sweetness as of violets. "The secret of Woolman's purity of style," said +Dr. Channing, "is that his eye was single, and that conscience dictated +his words." + +Of course we are not to look to the writings of such a man for tricks of +rhetoric, the free play of imagination, or the unscrupulousness of +epigram and antithesis. He wrote as he lived, conscious of "the great +Task-master's eye." With the wise heathen Marcus Aurelius Antoninus he +had learned to "wipe out imaginations, to check desire, and let the +spirit that is the gift of God to every man, as his guardian and guide, +bear rule." + +I have thought it inexpedient to swell the bulk of this volume with the +entire writings appended to the old edition of the Journal, inasmuch as +they mainly refer to a system which happily on this continent is no +longer a question at issue. I content myself with throwing together a +few passages from them which touch subjects of present interest. + +"Selfish men may possess the earth: it is the meek alone who inherit it +from the Heavenly Father free from all defilements and perplexities of +unrighteousness." + +"Whoever rightly advocates the cause of some thereby promotes the good of +the whole." + +"If one suffer by the unfaithfulness of another, the mind, the most noble +part of him that occasions the discord, is thereby alienated from its +true happiness." + +"There is harmony in the several parts of the Divine work in the hearts +of men. He who leads them to cease from those gainful employments which +are carried on in the wisdom which is from beneath delivers also from the +desire of worldly greatness, and reconciles to a life so plain that a +little suffices." + +"After days and nights of drought, when the sky hath grown dark, and +clouds like lakes of water have hung over our heads, I have at times +beheld with awfulness the vehement lightning accompanying the blessings +of the rain, a messenger from Him to remind us of our duty in a right use +of His benefits." + +"The marks of famine in a land appear as humbling admonitions from God, +instructing us by gentle chastisements, that we may remember that the +outward supply of life is a gift from our Heavenly Father, and that we +should not venture to use or apply that gift in a way contrary to pure +reason." + +"Oppression in the extreme appears terrible; but oppression in more +refined appearances remains to be oppression. To labor for a perfect +redemption from the spirit of it is the great business of the whole +family of Jesus Christ in this world." + +"In the obedience of faith we die to self-love, and, our life being `hid +with Christ in God,' our hearts are enlarged towards mankind universally; +but many in striving to get treasures have departed from this true light +of life and stumbled on the dark mountains. That purity of life which +proceeds from faithfulness in following the pure spirit of truth, that +state in which our minds are devoted to serve God and all our wants are +bounded by His wisdom, has often been opened to me as a place of +retirement for the children of the light, in which we may be separated +from that which disordereth and confuseth the affairs of society, and may +have a testimony for our innocence in the hearts of those who behold us." + +"There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in +different places and ages bath had different names; it is, however, pure, +and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of +religion nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect +sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become +brethren." + +"The necessity of an inward stillness hath appeared clear to my mind. In +true silence strength is renewed, and the mind is weaned from all things, +save as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will; and a lowliness in +outward living, opposite to worldly honor, becomes truly acceptable to +us. In the desire after outward gain the mind is prevented from a +perfect attention to the voice of Christ; yet being weaned from all +things, except as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will, the pure light +shines into the soul. Where the fruits of the spirit which is of this +world are brought forth by many who profess to be led by the Spirit of +truth, and cloudiness is felt to be gathering over the visible church, +the sincere in heart, who abide in true stillness, and are exercised +therein before the Lord for His name's sake, have knowledge of Christ in +the fellowship of His sufferings; and inward thankfulness is felt at +times, that through Divine love our own wisdom is cast out, and that +forward, active part in us is subjected, which would rise and do +something without the pure leadings of the spirit of Christ. + +"While aught remains in us contrary to a perfect resignation of our +wills, it is like a seal to the book wherein is written 'that good and +acceptable and perfect will of God' concerning us. But when our minds +entirely yield to Christ, that silence is known which followeth the +opening of the last of the seals. In this silence we learn to abide in +the Divine will, and there feel that we have no cause to promote except +that alone in which the light of life directs us." + +Occasionally, in Considerations on the Keeping of? Negroes, the intense +interest of his subject gives his language something of passionate +elevation, as in the following extract:-- + +"When trade is carried on productive of much misery, and they who suffer +by it are many thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not +laying their sufferings to heart. In procuring slaves on the coast of +Africa, many children are stolen privately; wars are encouraged among the +negroes, but all is at a great distance. Many groans arise from dying +men which we hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless +children which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with tears, and +faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not. Cruel tyranny is +encouraged. The hands of robbers are strengthened. + +"Were we, for the term of one year only, to be eye-witnesses of what +passeth in getting these slaves; were the blood that is there shed to be +sprinkled on our garments; were the poor captives, bound with thongs, and +heavily laden with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes on their way +to the sea; were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to ring in our +ears, and their mournful cries in the night to hinder us from sleeping,-- +were we to behold and hear these things, what pious heart would not be +deeply affected with sorrow!" + +"It is good for those who live in fulness to cultivate tenderness of +heart, and to improve every opportunity of being acquainted with the +hardships and fatigues of those who labor for their living, and thus to +think seriously with themselves: Am I influenced by true charity in +fixing all my demands? Have I no desire to support myself in expensive +customs, because my acquaintances live in such customs? + +"If a wealthy man, on serious reflection, finds a witness in his own +conscience that he indulges himself in some expensive habits, which might +be omitted, consistently with the true design of living, and which, were +he to change places with those who occupy his estate, he would desire to +be discontinued by them,--whoever is thus awakened will necessarily find +the injunction binding, 'Do ye even so to them.' Divine Love imposeth no +rigorous or unreasonable commands, but graciously points out the spirit +of brotherhood and the way to happiness, in attaining which it is +necessary that we relinquish all that is selfish. + +"Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all His creatures; His +tender mercies are over all His works, and so far as true love influences +our minds, so far we become interested in His workmanship, and feel a +desire to make use of every opportunity to lessen the distresses of the +afflicted, and to increase the happiness of the creation. Here we have a +prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, so +that to turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes +the business of our lives." + +His liberality and freedom from "all narrowness as to sects and opinions" +are manifest in the following passages:-- + +"Men who sincerely apply their minds to true virtue, and find an inward +support from above, by which all vicious inclinations are made subject; +who love God sincerely, and prefer the real good of mankind universally +to their own private interest,--though these, through the strength of +education and tradition, may remain under some great speculative errors, +it would be uncharitable to say that therefore God rejects them. The +knowledge and goodness of Him who creates, supports, and gives +understanding to all men are superior to the various states and +circumstances of His creatures, which to us appear the most difficult. +Idolatry indeed is wickedness; but it is the thing, not the name, which +is so. Real idolatry is to pay that adoration to a creature which is +known to be due only to the true God. + +"He who professeth to believe in one Almighty Creator, and in His Son +Jesus Christ, and is yet more intent on the honors, profits, and +friendships of the world than he is, in singleness of heart, to stand +faithful to the Christian religion, is in the channel of idolatry; while +the Gentile, who, notwithstanding some mistaken opinions, is established +in the true principle of virtue, and humbly adores an Almighty Power, may +be of the number that fear God and work righteousness." + +Nowhere has what is called the "Labor Question," which is now agitating +the world, been discussed more wisely and with a broader humanity than in +these essays. His sympathies were with the poor man, yet the rich too +are his brethren, and he warns them in love and pity of the consequences +of luxury and oppression:-- + +"Every degree of luxury, every demand for money inconsistent with the +Divine order, hath connection with unnecessary labors." + +"To treasure up wealth for another generation, by means of the immoderate +labor of those who in some measure depend upon us, is doing evil at +present, without knowing that wealth thus gathered may not be applied to +evil purposes when we are gone. To labor hard, or cause others to do so, +that we may live conformably to customs which our Redeemer +discountenanced by His example, and which are contrary to Divine order, +is to manure a soil for propagating an evil seed in the earth." + +"When house is joined to house, and field laid to field, until there is +no place, and the poor are thereby straitened, though this is done by +bargain and purchase, yet so far as it stands distinguished from +universal love, so far that woe predicted by the prophet will accompany +their proceedings. As He who first founded the earth was then the true +proprietor of it, so He still remains, and though He hath given it to the +children of men, so that multitudes of people have had their sustenance +from it while they continued here, yet He bath never alienated it, but +His right is as good as at first; nor can any apply the increase of their +possessions contrary to universal love, nor dispose of lands in a way +which they know tends to exalt some by oppressing others, without being +justly chargeable with usurpation." + +It will not lessen the value of the foregoing extracts in the minds of +the true-disciples of our Divine Lord, that they are manifestly not +written to subserve the interests of a narrow sectarianism. They might +have been penned by Fenelon in his time, or Robertson in ours, dealing as +they do with Christian practice,--the life of Christ manifesting itself +in purity and goodness,--rather than with the dogmas of theology. The +underlying thought of all is simple obedience to the Divine word in the +soul. "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the +kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven." +In the preface to an English edition, published some years ago, it is +intimated that objections had been raised to the Journal on the ground +that it had so little to say of doctrines and so much of duties. One may +easily understand that this objection might have been forcibly felt by +the slave-holding religious professors of Woolman's day, and that it may +still be entertained by a class of persons who, like the Cabalists, +attach a certain mystical significance to words, names, and titles, and +who in consequence question the piety which hesitates to flatter the +Divine ear by "vain repetitions" and formal enumeration of sacred +attributes, dignities, and offices. Every instinct of his tenderly +sensitive nature shrank from the wordy irreverence of noisy profession. +His very silence is significant: the husks of emptiness rustle in every +wind; the full corn in the ear holds up its golden fruit noiselessly to +the Lord of the harvest. John Woolman's faith, like the Apostle's, is +manifested by his labors, standing not in words but in the demonstration +of the spirit,--a faith that works by love to the purifying of the heart. +The entire outcome of this faith was love manifested in reverent waiting +upon God, and in that untiring benevolence, that quiet but deep +enthusiasm of humanity, which made his daily service to his fellow- +creatures a hymn of praise to the common Father. + +However the intellect may criticise such a life, whatever defects it may +present to the trained eyes of theological adepts, the heart has no +questions to ask, but at once owns and reveres it. Shall we regret that +he who had so entered into fellowship of suffering with the Divine One, +walking with Him under the cross, and dying daily to self, gave to the +faith and hope that were in him this testimony of a life, rather than any +form of words, however sound? A true life is at once interpreter and +proof of the gospel, and does more to establish its truth in the hearts +of men than all the "Evidences" and "Bodies of Divinity" which have +perplexed the world with more doubts than they solved. Shall we venture +to account it a defect in his Christian character, that, under an abiding +sense of the goodness and long-suffering of God, he wrought his work in +gentleness and compassion, with the delicate tenderness which comes of a +deep sympathy with the trials and weaknesses of our nature, never +allowing himself to indulge in heat or violence, persuading rather than +threatening? Did he overestimate that immeasurable Love, the +manifestation of which in his own heart so reached the hearts of others, +revealing everywhere unsuspected fountains of feeling and secret longings +after purity, as the rod of the diviner detects sweet, cool water-springs +under the parched surfaces of a thirsty land? And, looking at the +purity, wisdom, and sweetness of his life, who shall say that his faith +in the teaching of the Holy Spirit--the interior guide and light--was a +mistaken one? Surely it was no illusion by which his feet were so guided +that all who saw him felt that, like Enoch, he walked with God. "Without +the actual inspiration of the Spirit of Grace, the inward teacher and +soul of our souls," says Fenelon, "we could neither do, will, nor believe +good. We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves also, to +hear in a profound stillness of the soul this inexpressible voice of +Christ. The outward word of the gospel itself without this living +efficacious word within would be but an empty sound." "Thou Lord," says +Augustine in his Meditations, "communicatest thyself to all: thou +teachest the heart without words; thou speakest to it without articulate +sounds." + + "However, I am sure that there is a common spirit that plays within + us, and that is the Spirit of God. Whoever feels not the warm gale + and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, I dare not say he lives; for + truly without this to me there is no heat under the tropic, nor any + light though I dwelt in the body of the sun."--Sir Thomas Browne's + Religio Medici. + +Never was this divine principle more fully tested than by John Wool man; +and the result is seen in a life of such rare excellence that the world +is still better and richer for its sake, and the fragrance of it comes +down to us through a century, still sweet and precious. + +It will be noted throughout the Journal and essays that in his lifelong +testimony against wrong he never lost sight of the oneness of humanity, +its common responsibility, its fellowship of suffering and communion of +sin. Few have ever had so profound a conviction of the truth of the +Apostle's declaration that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself. +Sin was not to him an isolated fact, the responsibility of which began +and ended with the individual transgressor; he saw it as a part of a vast +network and entanglement, and traced the lines of influence converging +upon it in the underworld of causation. Hence the wrong and discord +which pained him called out pity, rather than indignation. The first +inquiry which they awakened was addressed to his own conscience. How far +am I in thought, word, custom, responsible for this? Have none of my +fellow-creatures an equitable right to any part which is called mine? +Have the gifts and possessions received by me from others been conveyed +in a way free from all unrighteousness? "Through abiding in the law of +Christ," he says, "we feel a tenderness towards our fellow-creatures, and +a concern so to walk that our conduct may not be the means of +strengthening them in error." He constantly recurs to the importance of +a right example in those who profess to be led by the spirit of Christ, +and who attempt to labor in His name for the benefit of their fellow-men. +If such neglect or refuse themselves to act rightly, they can but +"entangle the minds of others and draw a veil over the face of +righteousness." His eyes were anointed to see the common point of +departure from the Divine harmony, and that all the varied growths of +evil had their underlying root in human selfishness. He saw that every +sin of the individual was shared in greater or less degree by all whose +lives were opposed to the Divine order, and that pride, luxury, and +avarice in one class gave motive and temptation to the grosser forms of +evil in another. How gentle, and yet how searching, are his rebukes of +self-complacent respectability, holding it responsible, in spite of all +its decent seemings, for much of the depravity which it condemned with +Pharisaical harshness! In his Considerations on the True Harmony of +Mankind be dwells with great earnestness upon the importance of +possessing "the mind of Christ," which removes from the heart the desire +of superiority and worldly honors, incites attention to the Divine +Counsellor, and awakens an ardent engagement to promote the happiness of +all. "This state," he says, "in which every motion from the selfish +spirit yieldeth to pure love, I may acknowledge with gratitude to the +Father of Mercies, is often opened before me as a pearl to seek after." + +At times when I have felt true love open my heart towards my fellow- +creatures, and have been engaged in weighty conversation in the cause of +righteousness, the instructions I have received under these exercises in +regard to the true use of the outward gifts of God have made deep and +lasting impressions on my mind. I have beheld how the desire to provide +wealth and to uphold a delicate life has greviously entangled many, and +has been like a snare to their offspring; and though some have been +affected with a sense of their difficulties, and have appeared desirous +at times to be helped out of them, yet for want of abiding under the +humbling power of truth they have continued in these entanglements; +expensive living in parents and children hath called for a large supply, +and in answering this call the 'faces of the poor' have been ground away, +and made thin through hard dealing. + +"There is balm; there is a physician! and oh what longings do I feel that +we may embrace the means appointed for our healing; may know that removed +which now ministers cause for the cries of many to ascend to Heaven +against their oppressors; and that thus we may see the true harmony +restored!--a restoration of that which was lost at Babel, and which will +be, as the prophet expresses it, 'the returning of a pure language!'" + +It is easy to conceive how unwelcome this clear spiritual insight must +have been to the superficial professors of his time busy in tithing mint, +anise, and cummin. There must have been something awful in the presence +of one endowed with the gift of looking through all the forms, shows, and +pretensions of society, and detecting with certainty the germs of evil +hidden beneath them; a man gentle and full of compassion, clothed in "the +irresistible might of meekness," and yet so wise in spiritual +discernment, + + "Bearing a touchstone in his hand + And testing all things in the land + By his unerring spell. + + "Quick births of transmutation smote + The fair to foul, the foul to fair; + Purple nor ermine did he spare, + Nor scorn the dusty coat." + +In bringing to a close this paper, the preparation of which has been to +me a labor of love, I am not unmindful of the wide difference between the +appreciation of a pure and true life and the living of it, and am willing +to own that in delineating a character of such moral and spiritual +symmetry I have felt something like rebuke from my own words. I have +been awed and solemnized by the presence of a serene and beautiful spirit +redeemed of the Lord from all selfishness, and I have been made thankful +for the ability to recognize and the disposition to love him. I leave +the book with its readers. They may possibly make large deductions from +my estimate of the author; they may not see the importance of all his +self-denying testimonies; they may question some of his scruples, and +smile over passages of childlike simplicity; but I believe they will all +agree in thanking me for introducing them to the Journal of John Woolman. + +AMESBURY, 20th 1st mo.,1871. + + + + + + HAVERFORD COLLEGE. + + Letter to President Thomas Chase, LL. D. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 9th mo., 1884. + +THE Semi-Centennial of Haverford College is an event that no member of +the Society of Friends can regard without deep interest. It would give +me great pleasure to be with you on the 27th inst., but the years rest +heavily upon me, and I have scarcely health or strength for such a +journey. + +It was my privilege to visit Haverford in 1838, in "the day of small +beginnings." The promise of usefulness which it then gave has been more +than fulfilled. It has grown to be a great and well-established +institution, and its influence in thorough education and moral training +has been widely felt. If the high educational standard presented in the +scholastic treatise of Barclay and the moral philosophy of Dymond has +been lowered or disowned by many who, still retaining the name of +Quakerism, have lost faith in the vital principle wherein precious +testimonials of practical righteousness have their root, and have gone +back to a dead literalness, and to those materialistic ceremonials for +leaving which our old confessors suffered bonds and death, Haverford, at +least, has been in a good degree faithful to the trust committed to it. + +Under circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty, it has endeavored +to maintain the Great Testimony. The spirit of its culture has not been +a narrow one, nor could it be, if true to the broad and catholic +principles of the eminent worthies who founded the State of +Pennsylvania, Penn, Lloyd, Pastorius, Logan, and Story; men who were +masters of the scientific knowledge and culture of their age, hospitable +to all truth, and open to all light, and who in some instances +anticipated the result of modern research and critical inquiry. + +It was Thomas Story, a minister of the Society of Friends, and member of +Penn's Council of State, who, while on a religious visit to England, +wrote to James Logan that he had read on the stratified rocks of +Scarborough, as from the finger of God, proofs of the immeasurable age +of our planet, and that the "days" of the letter of Scripture could +only mean vast spaces of time. + +May Haverford emulate the example of these brave but reverent men, who, +in investigating nature, never lost sight of the Divine Ideal, and who, +to use the words of Fenelon, "Silenced themselves to hear in the +stillness of their souls the inexpressible voice of Christ." Holding +fast the mighty truth of the Divine Immanence, the Inward Light and +Word, a Quaker college can have no occasion to renew the disastrous +quarrel of religion with science. Against the sublime faith which shall +yet dominate the world, skepticism has no power. No possible +investigation of natural facts; no searching criticism of letter and +tradition can disturb it, for it has its witness in all human hearts. + +That Haverford may fully realize and improve its great opportunities as +an approved seat of learning and the exponent of a Christian philosophy +which can never be superseded, which needs no change to fit it for +universal acceptance, and which, overpassing the narrow limits of sect, +is giving new life and hope to Christendom, and finding its witnesses in +the Hindu revivals of the Brahmo Somaj and the fervent utterances of +Chunda Sen and Mozoomdar, is the earnest desire of thy friend. + + + + + + CRITICISM + + EVANGELINE + + A review of Mr. Longfellow's poem. + +EUREKA! Here, then, we have it at last,--an American poem, with the lack +of which British reviewers have so long reproached us. Selecting the +subject of all others best calculated for his purpose,--the expulsion of +the French settlers of Acadie from their quiet and pleasant homes around +the Basin of Minas, one of the most sadly romantic passages in the +history of the Colonies of the North,--the author has succeeded in +presenting a series of exquisite pictures of the striking and peculiar +features of life and nature in the New World. The range of these +delineations extends from Nova Scotia on the northeast to the spurs of +the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. +Nothing can be added to his pictures of quiet farm-life in Acadie, the +Indian summer of our northern latitudes, the scenery of the Ohio and +Mississippi Rivers, the bayous and cypress forests of the South, the +mocking-bird, the prairie, the Ozark hills, the Catholic missions, and +the wild Arabs of the West, roaming with the buffalo along the banks of +the Nebraska. The hexameter measure he has chosen has the advantage of a +prosaic freedom of expression, exceedingly well adapted to a descriptive +and narrative poem; yet we are constrained to think that the story of +Evangeline would have been quite as acceptable to the public taste had it +been told in the poetic prose of the author's Hyperion. + +In reading it and admiring its strange melody we were not without fears +that the success of Professor Longfellow in this novel experiment might +prove the occasion of calling out a host of awkward imitators, leading us +over weary wastes of hexameters, enlivened neither by dew, rain, nor +fields of offering. + +Apart from its Americanism, the poem has merits of a higher and universal +character. It is not merely a work of art; the pulse of humanity throbs +warmly through it. The portraits of Basil the blacksmith, the old +notary, Benedict Bellefontaine, and good Father Felician, fairly glow +with life. The beautiful Evangeline, loving and faithful unto death, is +a heroine worthy of any poet of the present century. + +The editor of the Boston Chronotype, in the course of an appreciative +review of this poem, urges with some force a single objection, which we +are induced to notice, as it is one not unlikely to present itself to the +minds of other readers:-- + +"We think Mr. Longfellow ought to have expressed a much deeper +indignation at the base, knavish, and heartless conduct of the English +and Colonial persecutors than he has done. He should have put far bolder +and deeper tints in the picture of suffering. One great, if not the +greatest, end of poetry is rhadamanthine justice. The poet should mete +out their deserts to all his heroes; honor to whom honor, and infamy to +whom infamy, is due. + +"It is true that the wrong in this case is in a great degree fathered +upon our own Massachusetts; and it maybe said that it is afoul bird that +pollutes its own nest. We deny the applicability of the rather musty +proverb. All the worse. Of not a more contemptible vice is what is +called American literature guilty than this of unmitigated self- +laudation. If we persevere in it, the stock will become altogether too +small for the business. It seems that no period of our history has been +exempt from materials for patriotic humiliation and national self- +reproach; and surely the present epoch is laying in a large store of that +sort. Had our poets always told us the truth of ourselves, perhaps it +would now be otherwise. National self-flattery and concealment of faults +must of course have their natural results." + +We must confess that we read the first part of Evangeline with something +of the feeling so forcibly expressed by Professor Wright. The natural +and honest indignation with which, many years ago, we read for the first +time that dark page of our Colonial history--the expulsion of the French +neutrals--was reawakened by the simple pathos of the poem; and we longed +to find an adequate expression of it in the burning language of the poet. +We marvelled that he who could so touch the heart by his description of +the sad suffering of the Acadian peasants should have permitted the +authors of that suffering to escape without censure. The outburst of the +stout Basil, in the church of Grand Pre, was, we are fain to acknowledge, +a great relief to us. But, before reaching the close of the volume, we +were quite reconciled to the author's forbearance. The design of the +poem is manifestly incompatible with stern "rhadamanthine justice" and +indignant denunciation of wrong. It is a simple story of quiet pastoral +happiness, of great sorrow and painful bereavement, and of the endurance +of a love which, hoping and seeking always, wanders evermore up and down +the wilderness of the world, baffled at every turn, yet still retaining +faith in God and in the object of its lifelong quest. It was no part of +the writer's object to investigate the merits of the question at issue +between the poor Acadians and their Puritan neighbors. Looking at the +materials before him with the eye of an artist simply, he has arranged +them to suit his idea of the beautiful and pathetic, leaving to some +future historian the duty of sitting in judgment upon the actors in the +atrocious outrage which furnished them. With this we are content. The +poem now has unity and sweetness which might have been destroyed by +attempting to avenge the wrongs it so vividly depicts. It is a psalm of +love and forgiveness: the gentleness and peace of Christian meekness and +forbearance breathe through it. Not a word of censure is directly +applied to the marauding workers of the mighty sorrow which it describes +just as it would a calamity from the elements,--a visitation of God. The +reader, however, cannot fail to award justice to the wrong-doers. The +unresisting acquiescence of the Acadians only deepens his detestation of +the cupidity and religious bigotry of their spoilers. Even in the +language of the good Father Felician, beseeching his flock to submit to +the strong hand which had been laid upon them, we see and feel the +magnitude of the crime to be forgiven:-- + + "Lo, where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you! + See in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! + Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, O Father, forgive + them! + Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us; + Let us repeat it now, and say, O Father, forgive them!" + +How does this simple prayer of the Acadians contrast with the "deep +damnation of their taking off!" + +The true history of the Puritans of New England is yet to be written. +Somewhere midway between the caricatures of the Church party and the +self-laudations of their own writers the point may doubtless be found +from whence an impartial estimate of their character may be formed. They +had noble qualities: the firmness and energy which they displayed in the +colonization of New England must always command admiration. We would not +rob them, were it in our power to do so, of one jot or tittle of their +rightful honor. But, with all the lights which we at present possess, we +cannot allow their claim of saintship without some degree of +qualification. How they seemed to their Dutch neighbors at New +Netherlands, and their French ones at Nova Scotia, and to the poor +Indians, hunted from their fisheries and game-grounds, we can very well +conjecture. It may be safely taken for granted that their gospel claim +to the inheritance of the earth was not a little questionable to the +Catholic fleeing for his life from their jurisdiction, to the banished +Baptist shaking off the dust of his feet against them, and to the +martyred Quaker denouncing woe and judgment upon them from the steps of +the gallows. Most of them were, beyond a doubt, pious and sincere; but +we are constrained to believe that among them were those who wore the +livery of heaven from purely selfish motives, in a community where +church-membership was an indispensable requisite, the only open sesame +before which the doors of honor and distinction swung wide to needy or +ambitious aspirants. Mere adventurers, men of desperate fortunes, +bankrupts in character and purse, contrived to make gain of godliness +under the church and state government of New England, put on the austere +exterior of sanctity, quoted Scripture, anathematized heretics, whipped +Quakers, exterminated Indians, burned and spoiled the villages of their +Catholic neighbors, and hewed down their graven images and "houses of +Rimmon." It is curious to observe how a fierce religious zeal against +heathen and idolaters went hand in hand with the old Anglo-Saxon love of +land and plunder. Every crusade undertaken against the Papists of the +French colonies had its Puritan Peter the Hermit to summon the saints to +the wars of the Lord. At the siege of Louisburg, ten years before the +onslaught upon the Acadian settlers, one minister marched with the +Colonial troops, axe in hand, to hew down the images in the French +churches; while another officiated in the double capacity of drummer and +chaplain,--a "drum ecclesiastic," as Hudibras has it. + +At the late celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims in New York, the +orator of the day labored at great length to show that the charge of +intolerance, as urged against the colonists of New England, is unfounded +in fact. The banishment of the Catholics was very sagaciously passed +over in silence, inasmuch as the Catholic Bishop of New York was one of +the invited guests, and (hear it, shade of Cotton Mather!) one of the +regular toasts was a compliment to the Pope. The expulsion of Roger +Williams was excused and partially justified; while the whipping, ear- +cropping, tongue-boring, and hanging of the Quakers was defended, as the +only effectual method of dealing with such devil-driven heretics, as +Mather calls them. The orator, in the new-born zeal of his amateur +Puritanism, stigmatizes the persecuted class as "fanatics and ranters, +foaming forth their mad opinions;" compares them to the Mormons and the +crazy followers of Mathias; and cites an instance of a poor enthusiast, +named Eccles, who, far gone in the "tailor's melancholy," took it into +his head that he must enter into a steeple-house pulpit and stitch +breeches "in singing time,"--a circumstance, by the way, which took place +in Old England,--as a justification of the atrocious laws of the +Massachusetts Colony. We have not the slightest disposition to deny the +fanaticism and folly of some few professed Quakers in that day; and had +the Puritans treated them as the Pope did one of their number whom he +found crazily holding forth in the church of St. Peter, and consigned +them to the care of physicians as religious monomaniacs, no sane man +could have blamed them. Every sect, in its origin, and especially in its +time of persecution, has had its fanatics. The early Christians, if we +may credit the admissions of their own writers or attach the slightest +credence to the statements of pagan authors, were by no means exempt from +reproach and scandal in this respect. Were the Puritans themselves the +men to cast stones at the Quakers and Baptists? Had they not, in the +view at least of the Established Church, turned all England upside down +with their fanaticisms and extravagances of doctrine and conduct? How +look they as depicted in the sermons of Dr. South, in the sarcastic pages +of Hudibras, and the coarse caricatures of the clerical wits of the times +of the second Charles? With their own backs scored and their ears +cropped for the crime of denying the divine authority of church and state +in England, were they the men to whip Baptists and hang Quakers for doing +the same thing in Massachusetts? + +Of all that is noble and true in the Puritan character we are sincere +admirers. The generous and self-denying apostleship of Eliot is, of +itself, a beautiful page in their history. The physical daring and +hardihood with which, amidst the times of savage warfare, they laid the +foundations of mighty states, and subdued the rugged soil, and made the +wilderness blossom; their steadfast adherence to their religious +principles, even when the Restoration had made apostasy easy and +profitable; and the vigilance and firmness with which, under all +circumstances, they held fast their chartered liberties and extorted new +rights and privileges from the reluctant home government,--justly entitle +them to the grateful remembrance of a generation now reaping the fruits +of their toils and sacrifices. But, in expressing our gratitude to the +founders of New England, we should not forget what is due to truth and +justice; nor, for the sake of vindicating them from the charge of that +religious intolerance which, at the time, they shared with nearly all +Christendom, undertake to defend, in the light of the nineteenth century, +opinions and practices hostile to the benignant spirit of the gospel and +subversive of the inherent rights of man. + + + + + + MIRTH AND MEDICINE + + A review of Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes. + +IF any of our readers (and at times we fear it is the case with all) need +amusement and the wholesome alterative of a hearty laugh, we commend +them, not to Dr. Holmes the physician, but to Dr. Holmes the scholar, the +wit, and the humorist; not to the scientific medical professor's +barbarous Latin, but to his poetical prescriptions, given in choice old +Saxon. We have tried them, and are ready to give the Doctor certificates +of their efficacy. + +Looking at the matter from the point of theory only, we should say that a +physician could not be otherwise than melancholy. A merry doctor! Why, +one might as well talk of a laughing death's-head,--the cachinnation of a +monk's _memento mori_. This life of ours is sorrowful enough at its best +estate; the brightest phase of it is "sicklied o'er with the pale cast" +of the future or the past. But it is the special vocation of the doctor +to look only upon the shadow; to turn away from the house of feasting and +go down to that of mourning; to breathe day after day the atmosphere of +wretchedness; to grow familiar with suffering; to look upon humanity +disrobed of its pride and glory, robbed of all its fictitious ornaments, +--weak, helpless, naked,--and undergoing the last fearful metempsychosis +from its erect and godlike image, the living temple of an enshrined +divinity, to the loathsome clod and the inanimate dust. Of what ghastly +secrets of moral and physical disease is he the depositary! There is woe +before him and behind him; he is hand and glove with misery by +prescription,--the ex officio gauger of the ills that flesh is heir to. +He has no home, unless it be at the bedside of the querulous, the +splenetic, the sick, and the dying. He sits down to carve his turkey, +and is summoned off to a post-mortem examination of another sort. All +the diseases which Milton's imagination embodied in the lazar-house dog +his footsteps and pluck at his doorbell. Hurrying from one place to +another at their beck, he knows nothing of the quiet comfort of the +"sleek-headed men who sleep o' nights." His wife, if he has one, has an +undoubted right to advertise him as a deserter of "bed and board." His +ideas of beauty, the imaginations of his brain, and the affections of his +heart are regulated and modified by the irrepressible associations of his +luckless profession. Woman as well as man is to him of the earth, +earthy. He sees incipient disease where the uninitiated see only +delicacy. A smile reminds him of his dental operations; a blushing cheek +of his hectic patients; pensive melancholy is dyspepsia; sentimentalism, +nervousness. Tell him of lovelorn hearts, of the "worm I' the bud," of +the mental impalement upon Cupid's arrow, like that of a giaour upon the +spear of a janizary, and he can only think of lack of exercise, of +tightlacing, and slippers in winter. Sheridan seems to have understood +all this, if we may judge from the lament of his Doctor, in St. +Patrick's Day, over his deceased helpmate. "Poor dear Dolly," says he. +"I shall never see her like again; such an arm for a bandage! veins that +seemed to invite the lancet! Then her skin,--smooth and white as a +gallipot; her mouth as round and not larger than that of a penny vial; +and her teeth,--none of your sturdy fixtures,--ache as they would, it was +only a small pull, and out they came. I believe I have drawn half a +score of her dear pearls. [Weeps.] But what avails her beauty? She has +gone, and left no little babe to hang like a label on papa's neck!" + +So much for speculation and theory. In practice it is not so bad after +all. The grave-digger in Hamlet has his jokes and grim jests. We have +known many a jovial sexton; and we have heard clergymen laugh heartily at +small provocation close on the heel of a cool calculation that the great +majority of their fellow-creatures were certain of going straight to +perdition. Why, then, should not even the doctor have his fun? Nay, is +it not his duty to be merry, by main force if necessary? Solomon, who, +from his great knowledge of herbs, must have been no mean practitioner +for his day, tells us that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine;" +and universal experience has confirmed the truth of his maxim. Hence it +is, doubtless, that we have so many anecdotes of facetious doctors, +distributing their pills and jokes together, shaking at the same time the +contents of their vials and the sides of their patients. It is merely +professional, a trick of the practice, unquestionably, in most cases; but +sometimes it is a "natural gift," like that of the "bonesetters," and +"scrofula strokers," and "cancer curers," who carry on a sort of guerilla +war with human maladies. Such we know to be the case with Dr. Holmes. +He was born for the "laughter cure," as certainly as Priessnitz was for +the "water cure," and has been quite as successful in his way, while his +prescriptions are infinitely more agreeable. + +The volume now before us gives, in addition to the poems and lyrics +contained in the two previous editions, some hundred or more pages of the +later productions of the author, in the sprightly vein, and marked by the +brilliant fancy and felicitous diction for which the former were +noteworthy. His longest and most elaborate poem, _Urania_, is perhaps +the best specimen of his powers. Its general tone is playful and +humorous; but there are passages of great tenderness and pathos. Witness +the following, from a description of the city churchgoers. The whole +compass of our literature has few passages to equal its melody and +beauty. + + "Down the chill street, which winds in gloomiest shade, + What marks betray yon solitary maid? + The cheek's red rose, that speaks of balmier air, + The Celtic blackness of her braided hair; + The gilded missal in her kerchief tied; + Poor Nora, exile from Killarney's side! + Sister in toil, though born of colder skies, + That left their azure in her downcast eyes, + See pallid Margaret, Labor's patient child, + Scarce weaned from home, a nursling of the wild, + Where white Katahdin o'er the horizon shines, + And broad Penobscot dashes through the pines; + Still, as she hastes, her careful fingers hold + The unfailing hymn-book in its cambric fold: + Six days at Drudgery's heavy wheel she stands, + The seventh sweet morning folds her weary hands. + Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure + He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor." + +This is but one of many passages, showing that the author is capable of +moving the heart as well as of tickling the fancy. There is no straining +for effect; simple, natural thoughts are expressed in simple and +perfectly transparent language. + +_Terpsichore_, read at an annual dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at +Cambridge, sparkles throughout with keen wit, quaint conceits, and satire +so good-natured that the subjects of it can enjoy it as heartily as their +neighbors. Witness this thrust at our German-English writers:-- + + "Essays so dark, Champollion might despair + To guess what mummy of a thought was there, + Where our poor English, striped with foreign phrase, Looks like a + zebra in a parson's chaise." + +Or this at our transcendental friends:-- + + "Deluded infants! will they never know + Some doubts must darken o'er the world below + Though all the Platos of the nursery trail + Their clouds of glory at the go-cart's tail?" + +The lines _On Lending a Punch-Bowl_ are highly characteristic. Nobody +but Holmes could have conjured up so many rare fancies in connection with +such a matter. Hear him:-- + +"This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times, +Of joyous days, and jolly nights, and merry Christmas chimes; +They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true, +That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new. + +"A Spanish galleon brought the bar; so runs the ancient tale; +'T was hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail; +And now and then between the strokes, for fear his strength should fail, +He wiped his brow, and quaffed a cup of good old Flemish ale. + +"'T was purchased by an English squire to please his loving dame, +Who saw the cherubs, and conceived a longing for the same; +And oft as on the ancient stock another twig was found, +'T was filled with candle spiced and hot and handed smoking round. + +"But, changing hands, it reached at length a Puritan divine, +Who used to follow Timothy, and take a little wine, +But hated punch and prelacy; and so it was, perhaps, +He went to Leyden, where he found conventicles and schnaps. + +"And then, of course, you know what's next,--it left the Dutchman's shore +With those that in the Mayflower came,--a hundred souls and more,-- +Along with all the furniture, to fill their new abodes,-- +To judge by what is still on hand, at least a hundred loads. + +"'T was on a dreary winter's eve, the night was closing dim, +When brave Miles Standish took the bowl, and filled it to the brim; +The little Captain stood and stirred the posset with his sword, +And all his sturdy men-at-arms were ranged about the board. + +"He poured the fiery Hollands in,--the man that never feared,-- +He took a long and solemn draught, and wiped his yellow beard; +And one by one the musketeers--the men that fought and prayed-- +All drank as 't were their mother's milk, and not a man afraid. + +"That night, affrighted from his nest, the screaming eagle flew, +He heard the Pequot's ringing whoop, the soldier's wild halloo; +And there the sachem learned the rule he taught to kith and kin, +'Run from the white man when you find he smells of Hollands gin!'" + + +In his _Nux Postcoenatica_ he gives us his reflections on being invited +to a dinner-party, where he was expected to "set the table in a roar" by +reading funny verses. He submits it to the judgment and common sense of +the importunate bearer of the invitation, that this dinner-going, ballad- +making, mirth-provoking habit is not likely to benefit his reputation as +a medical professor. + +"Besides, my prospects. Don't you know that people won't employ +A man that wrongs his manliness by laughing like a boy, +And suspect the azure blossom that unfolds upon a shoot, +As if Wisdom's oldpotato could not flourish at its root? + +"It's a very fine reflection, when you're etching out a smile +On a copperplate of faces that would stretch into a mile. +That, what with sneers from enemies and cheapening shrugs from friends, +It will cost you all the earnings that a month of labor lends." + + +There are, as might be expected, some commonplace pieces in the volume,-- +a few failures in the line of humor. The _Spectre Pig_, the _Dorchester +Giant_, the _Height of the Ridiculous_, and one or two others might be +omitted in the next edition without detriment. They would do well enough +for an amateur humorist, but are scarcely worthy of one who stands at the +head of the profession. + +It was said of James Smith, of the Rejected Addresses, that "if he had +not been a witty man, he would have been a great man." Hood's humor and +drollery kept in the background the pathos and beauty of his sober +productions; and Dr. Holmes, we suspect, might have ranked higher among a +large class of readers than he now does had he never written his _Ballad +of the Oysterman_, his _Comet_, and his _September Gale_. Such lyrics as +_La Grisette_, the _Puritan's Vision_, and that unique compound of humor +and pathos, _The Last Leaf_; show that he possesses the power of touching +the deeper chords of the heart and of calling forth tears as well as +smiles. Who does not feel the power of this simple picture of the old +man in the last-mentioned poem? + + "But now he walks the streets, + And he looks at all he meets + Sad and wan, + And he shakes his feeble head, + That it seems as if he said, + 'They are gone.' + + "The mossy marbles rest + On the lips that he has prest + In their bloom, + And the names he loved to hear + Have been carved for many a year + On the tomb." + +Dr. Holmes has been likened to Thomas Hood; but there is little in common +between them save the power of combining fancy and sentiment with +grotesque drollery and humor. Hood, under all his whims and oddities, +conceals the vehement intensity of a reformer. The iron of the world's +wrongs had entered into his soul; there is an undertone of sorrow in his +lyrics; his sarcasm, directed against oppression and bigotry, at times +betrays the earnestness of one whose own withers have been wrung. Holmes +writes simply for the amusement of himself and his readers; he deals only +with the vanity, the foibles, and the minor faults of mankind, good +naturedly and almost sympathizingly suggesting excuses for the folly +which he tosses about on the horns of his ridicule. In this respect he +differs widely from his fellow-townsman, Russell Lowell, whose keen wit +and scathing sarcasm, in the famous Biglow Papers, and the notes of +Parson Wilbur, strike at the great evils of society and deal with the +rank offences of church and state. Hosea Biglow, in his way, is as +earnest a preacher as Habakkuk Mucklewrath or Obadiah Bind-their-kings- +in-chains-and-their-nobles-in-fetters-of-iron. His verse smacks of the +old Puritan flavor. Holmes has a gentler mission. His careless, genial +humor reminds us of James Smith in his _Rejected Addresses_ and of Horace +in _London_. Long may he live to make broader the face of our care- +ridden generation, and to realize for himself the truth of the wise man's +declaration that a "merry heart is a continual feast." + + + + + + FAME AND GLORY. + +Notice of an Address before the Literary Society of Amherst College, by +Charles Sumner. + +THE learned and eloquent author of the pamphlet lying before us with the +above title belongs to a class, happily on the increase in our country, +who venture to do homage to unpopular truths in defiance of the social +and political tyranny of opinion which has made so many of our statesmen, +orators, and divines the mere playthings and shuttlecocks of popular +impulses for evil far oftener than for good. His first production, the +_True Grandeur of Nations_, written for the anniversary of American +Independence, was not more remarkable for its evidences of a highly +cultivated taste and wide historical research than for its inculcation of +a high morality,--the demand for practical Christianity in nations as +well as individuals. It burned no incense under the nostrils of an +already inflated and vain people. It gratified them by no rhetorical +falsehoods about "the land of the free and the home of the brave." It +did not apostrophize military heroes, nor strut "red wat shod" over the +plains of battle, nor call up, like another Ezekiel, from the valley of +vision the dry bones thereof. It uttered none of the precious scoundrel +cant, so much in vogue after the annexation of Texas was determined upon, +about the destiny of the United States to enter in and possess the lands +of all whose destiny it is to live next us, and to plant everywhere the +"peculiar institutions" of a peculiarly Christian and chosen people, the +landstealing propensity of whose progressive republicanism is declared to +be in accordance with the will and by the grace of God, and who, like the +Scotch freebooter,-- + + "Pattering an Ave Mary + When he rode on a border forray,"-- + +while trampling on the rights of a sister republic, and re-creating +slavery where that republic had abolished it, talk piously of "the +designs of Providence" and the Anglo-Saxon instrumentalities thereof in +"extending the area of freedom." On the contrary, the author portrayed +the evils of war and proved its incompatibility with Christianity,-- +contrasting with its ghastly triumphs the mild victories of peace and +love. Our true mission, he taught, was not to act over in the New World +the barbarous game which has desolated the Old; but to offer to the +nations of the earth, warring and discordant, oppressed and oppressing, +the beautiful example of a free and happy people studying the things +which make for peace,--Democracy and Christianity walking hand in hand, +blessing and being blessed. + +His next public effort, an Address before the Literary Society of his +Alma Mater, was in the same vein. He improved the occasion of the recent +death of four distinguished members of that fraternity to delineate his +beautiful ideal of the jurist, the scholar, the artist, and the +philanthropist, aided by the models furnished by the lives of such men as +Pickering, Story, Allston, and Channing. Here, also, he makes greatness +to consist of goodness: war and slavery and all their offspring of evil +are surveyed in the light of the morality of the New Testament. He looks +hopefully forward to the coming of that day when the sword shall devour +no longer, when labor shall grind no longer in the prison-house, and the +peace and freedom of a realized and acted-out Christianity shall +overspread the earth, and the golden age predicted by the seers and poets +alike of Paganism and Christianity shall become a reality. + +The Address now before us, with the same general object in view, is more +direct and practical. We can scarcely conceive of a discourse better +adapted to prepare the young American, just issuing from his collegiate +retirement, for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. It +treats the desire of fame and honor as one native to the human heart, +felt to a certain extent by all as a part of our common being,--a motive, +although by no means the most exalted, of human conduct; and the lesson +it would inculcate is, that no true and permanent fame can be founded +except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. To use the +language of Dr. South, "God is the fountain of honor; the conduit by +which He conveys it to the sons of men are virtuous and generous +practices." The author presents the beautiful examples of St. Pierre, +Milton, Howard, and Clarkson,--men whose fame rests on the firm +foundation of goodness,--for the study and imitation of the young +candidate for that true glory which belongs to those who live, not for +themselves, but for their race. "Neither present fame, nor war, nor +power, nor wealth, nor knowledge alone shall secure an entrance to the +true and noble Valhalla. There shall be gathered only those who have +toiled each in his vocation for the welfare of others." "Justice and +benevolence are higher than knowledge and power It is by His goodness +that God is most truly known; so also is the great man. When Moses said +to the Lord, Show me Thy glory, the Lord said, I will make all my +goodness pass before thee." + +We copy the closing paragraph of the Address, the inspiring sentiment of +which will find a response in all generous and hopeful hearts:-- + +"Let us reverse the very poles of the worship of past ages. Men have +thus far bowed down before stocks, stones, insects, crocodiles, golden +calves,--graven images, often of cunning workmanship, wrought with +Phidian skill, of ivory, of ebony, of marble, but all false gods. Let +them worship in future the true God, our Father, as He is in heaven and +in the beneficent labors of His children on earth. Then farewell to the +siren song of a worldly ambition! Farewell to the vain desire of mere +literary success or oratorical display! Farewell to the distempered +longings for office! Farewell to the dismal, blood-red phantom of +martial renown! Fame and glory may then continue, as in times past, the +reflection of public opinion; but of an opinion sure and steadfast, +without change or fickleness, enlightened by those two sons of Christian +truth,--love to God and love to man. From the serene illumination of +these duties all the forms of selfishness shall retreat like evil spirits +at the dawn of day. Then shall the happiness of the poor and lowly and +the education of the ignorant have uncounted friends. The cause of those +who are in prison shall find fresh voices; the majesty of peace other +vindicators; the sufferings of the slave new and gushing floods of +sympathy. Then, at last, shall the brotherhood of man stand confessed; +ever filling the souls of all with a more generous life; ever prompting +to deeds of beneficence; conquering the heathen prejudices of country, +color, and race; guiding the judgment of the historian; animating the +verse of the poet and the eloquence of the orator; ennobling human +thought and conduct; and inspiring those good works by which alone we may +attain to the heights of true glory. Good works! Such even now is the +heavenly ladder on which angels are ascending and descending, while weary +humanity, on pillows of storfe, slumbers heavily at its feet." + +We know how easy it is to sneer at such anticipations of a better future +as baseless and visionary. The shrewd but narrow-eyed man of the world +laughs at the suggestion that there car: be any stronger motive than +selfishness, any higher morality than that of the broker's board. The +man who relies for salvation from the consequences of an evil and selfish +life upon the verbal orthodoxy of a creed presents the depravity and +weakness of human nature as insuperable obstacles in the way of the +general amelioration of the condition of a world lying in wickedness. He +counts it heretical and dangerous to act upon the supposition that the +same human nature which, in his own case and that of his associates, can +confront all perils, overcome all obstacles, and outstrip the whirlwind +in the pursuit of gain,--which makes the strong elements its servants, +taming and subjugating the very lightnings of heaven to work out its own +purposes of self-aggrandizement,--must necessarily, and by an ordination +of Providence, become weak as water, when engaged in works of love and +goodwill, looking for the coming of a better day for humanity, with faith +in the promises of the Gospel, and relying upon Him, who, in calling man +to the great task-field of duty, has not mocked him with the mournful +necessity of laboring in vain. We have been pained more than words can +express to see young, generous hearts, yearning with strong desires to +consecrate themselves to the cause of their fellow-men, checked and +chilled by the ridicule of worldly-wise conservatism, and the solemn +rebukes of practical infidelity in the guise of a piety which professes +to love the unseen Father, while disregarding the claims of His visible +children. Visionary! Were not the good St. Pierre, and Fenelon, and +Howard, and Clarkson visionaries also? + +What was John Woolman, to the wise and prudent of his day, but an amiable +enthusiast? What, to those of our own, is such an angel of mercy as +Dorothea Dix? Who will not, in view of the labors of such +philanthropists, adopt the language of Jonathan Edwards: "If these things +be enthusiasms and the fruits of a distempered brain, let my brain be +evermore possessed with this happy distemper"? + +It must, however, be confessed that there is a cant of philanthropy too +general and abstract for any practical purpose,--a morbid +sentimentalism,--which contents itself with whining over real or +imaginary present evil, and predicting a better state somewhere in the +future, but really doing nothing to remove the one or hasten the coming +of the other. To its view the present condition of things is all wrong; +no green hillock or twig rises over the waste deluge; the heaven above is +utterly dark and starless: yet, somehow, out of this darkness which may +be felt, the light is to burst forth miraculously; wrong, sin, pain, and +sorrow are to be banished from the renovated world, and earth become a +vast epicurean garden or Mahometan heaven. + + "The land, unploughed, shall yield her crop; + Pure honey from the oak shall drop; + The fountain shall run milk; + The thistle shall the lily bear; + And every bramble roses wear, + And every worm make silk." + + [Ben Jenson's Golden Age Restored.] + +There are, in short, perfectionist reformers as well as religionists, who +wait to see the salvation which it is the task of humanity itself to work +out, and who look down from a region of ineffable self-complacence on +their dusty and toiling brethren who are resolutely doing whatsoever +their hands find to do for the removal of the evils around them. + +The emblem of practical Christianity is the Samaritan stooping over the +wounded Jew. No fastidious hand can lift from the dust fallen humanity +and bind up its unsightly gashes. Sentimental lamentation over evil and +suffering may be indulged in until it becomes a sort of melancholy +luxury, like the "weeping for Thammuz" by the apostate daughters of +Jerusalem. Our faith in a better day for the race is strong; but we feel +quite sure it will come in spite of such abstract reformers, and not by +reason of them. The evils which possess humanity are of a kind which go +not out by their delicate appliances. + +The author of the Address under consideration is not of this class. He +has boldly, and at no small cost, grappled with the great social and +political wrong of our country,--chattel slavery. Looking, as we have +seen, hopefully to the future, he is nevertheless one of those who can +respond to the words of a true poet and true man:-- + + "He is a coward who would borrow + A charm against the present sorrow + From the vague future's promise of delight + As life's alarums nearer roll, + The ancestral buckler calls, + Self-clanging, from the walls + In the high temple of the soul!" + + [James Russell Lowell.] + + + + + + FANATICISM. + +THERE are occasionally deeds committed almost too horrible and revolting +for publication. The tongue falters in giving them utterance; the pen +trembles that records them. Such is the ghastly horror of a late tragedy +in Edgecomb, in the State of Maine. A respectable and thriving citizen +and his wife had been for some years very unprofitably engaged in +brooding over the mysteries of the Apocalypse, and in speculations upon +the personal coming of Christ and the temporal reign of the saints on +earth,--a sort of Mahometan paradise, which has as little warrant in +Scripture as in reason. Their minds of necessity became unsettled; they +meditated self-destruction; and, as it appears by a paper left behind in +the handwriting of both, came to an agreement that the husband should +first kill his wife and their four children, and then put an end to his +own existence. This was literally executed,--the miserable man striking +off the heads of his wife and children with his axe, and then cutting his +own throat. + +Alas for man when he turns from the light of reason and from the simple +and clearly defined duties of the present life, and undertakes to pry +into the mysteries of the future, bewildering himself with uncertain and +vague prophecies, Oriental imagery, and obscure Hebrew texts! Simple, +cheerful faith in God as our great and good Father, and love of His +children as our brethren, acted out in all relations and duties, is +certainly best for this world, and we believe also the best preparation +for that to come. Once possessed by the falsity that God's design is +that man should be wretched and gloomy here in order to obtain rest and +happiness hereafter; that the mental agonies and bodily tortures of His +creatures are pleasant to Him; that, after bestowing upon us reason for +our guidance, He makes it of no avail by interposing contradictory +revelations and arbitrary commands,--there is nothing to prevent one of a +melancholic and excitable temperament from excesses so horrible as almost +to justify the old belief in demoniac obsession. + +Charles Brockden Brown, a writer whose merits have not yet been +sufficiently acknowledged, has given a powerful and philosophical +analysis of this morbid state of mind--this diseased conscientiousness, +obeying the mad suggestions of a disordered brain as the injunctions of +Divinity--in his remarkable story of Wieland. The hero of this strange +and solemn romance, inheriting a melancholy and superstitious mental +constitution, becomes in middle age the victim of a deep, and tranquil +because deep, fanaticism. A demon in human form, perceiving his state of +mind, wantonly experiments upon it, deepening and intensifying it by a +fearful series of illusions of sight and sound. Tricks of jugglery and +ventriloquism seem to his feverish fancies miracles and omens--the eye +and the voice of the Almighty piercing the atmosphere of supernatural +mystery in which he has long dwelt. He believes that he is called upon +to sacrifice the beloved wife of his bosom as a testimony of the entire +subjugation of his carnal reason and earthly affections to the Divine +will. In the entire range of English literature there is no more +thrilling passage than that which describes the execution of this baleful +suggestion. The coloring of the picture is an intermingling of the +lights of heaven and hell,--soft shades of tenderest pity and warm tints +of unextinguishable love contrasting with the terrible outlines of an +insane and cruel purpose, traced with the blood of murder. The masters +of the old Greek tragedy have scarcely exceeded the sublime horror of +this scene from the American novelist. The murderer confronted with his +gentle and loving victim in her chamber; her anxious solicitude for his +health and quiet; her affectionate caress of welcome; his own relentings +and natural shrinking from his dreadful purpose; and the terrible +strength which he supposes is lent him of Heaven, by which he puts down +the promptings and yearnings of his human heart, and is enabled to +execute the mandate of an inexorable Being,--are described with an +intensity which almost stops the heart of the reader. When the deed is +done a frightful conflict of passions takes place, which can only be told +in the words of the author:-- + +"I lifted the corpse in my arms and laid it on the bed. I gazed upon it +with delight. Such was my elation that I even broke out into laughter. +I clapped my hands, and exclaimed, 'It is done! My sacred duty is +fulfilled! To that I have sacrificed, O God, Thy last and best gift, my +wife!' + +"For a while I thus soared above frailty. I imagined I had set myself +forever beyond the reach of selfishness. But my imaginations were false. +This rapture quickly subsided. I looked again at my wife. My joyous +ebullitions vanished. I asked myself who it was whom I saw. Methought +it could not be my Catharine; it could not be the woman who had lodged +for years in my heart; who had slept nightly in my bosom; who had borne +in her womb and fostered at her breast the beings who called me father; +whom I had watched over with delight and cherished with a fondness ever +new and perpetually growing. It could not be the same! + +"The breath of heaven that sustained me was withdrawn, and I sunk into +mere man. I leaped from the floor; I dashed my head against the wall; I +uttered screams of horror; I panted after torment and pain. Eternal fire +and the bickerings of hell, compared with what I felt, were music and a +bed of roses. + +"I thank my God that this was transient; that He designed once more to +raise me aloft. I thought upon what I had done as a sacrifice to duty, +and was calm. My wife was dead; but I reflected that, although this +source of human consolation was closed, others were still open. If the +transports of the husband were no more, the feelings of +the father had still scope for exercise. When remembrance of their +mother should excite too keen a pang, I would look upon my children and +be comforted. + +"While I revolved these things new warmth flowed in upon my heart. I was +wrong. These feelings were the growth of selfishness. Of this I was not +aware; and, to dispel the mist that obscured my perceptions, a new light +and a new mandate were necessary. + +"From these thoughts I was recalled by a ray which was shot into the +room. A voice spoke like that I had before heard: 'Thou hast done well; +but all is not done--the sacrifice is incomplete--thy children must be +offered--they must perish with their mother!'" + +The misguided man obeys the voice; his children are destroyed in their +bloom and innocent beauty. He is arrested, tried for murder, and +acquitted as insane. The light breaks in upon him at last; he discovers +the imposture which has controlled him; and, made desperate by the full +consciousness of his folly and crime, ends the terrible drama by suicide. + +Wieland is not a pleasant book. In one respect it resembles the modern +tale of Wuthering Heights: it has great strength and power, but no +beauty. Unlike that, however, it has an important and salutary moral. It +is a warning to all who tamper with the mind and rashly experiment upon +its religious element. As such, its perusal by the sectarian zealots of +all classes would perhaps be quite as profitable as much of their present +studies. + + + + + + THE POETRY OF THE NORTH. + +THE Democratic Review not long since contained a singularly wild and +spirited poem, entitled the Norseman's Ride, in which the writer appears +to have very happily blended the boldness and sublimity of the heathen +saga with the grace and artistic skill of the literature of civilization. +The poetry of the Northmen, like their lives, was bold, defiant, and full +of a rude, untamed energy. It was inspired by exhibitions of power +rather than of beauty. Its heroes were beastly revellers or cruel and +ferocious plunderers; its heroines unsexed hoidens, playing the ugliest +tricks with their lovers, and repaying slights with bloody revenge,--very +dangerous and unsatisfactory companions for any other than the fire- +eating Vikings and redhanded, unwashed Berserkers. Significant of a +religion which reverenced the strong rather than the good, and which +regarded as meritorious the unrestrained indulgence of the passions, it +delighted to sing the praises of some coarse debauch or pitiless +slaughter. The voice of its scalds was often but the scream of the +carrion-bird, or the howl of the wolf, scenting human blood:-- + + "Unlike to human sounds it came; + Unmixed, unmelodized with breath; + But grinding through some scrannel frame, + Creaked from the bony lungs of Death." + +Its gods were brutal giant forces, patrons of war, robbery, and drunken +revelry; its heaven a vast cloud-built ale-house, where ghostly warriors +drank from the skulls of their victims; its hell a frozen horror of +desolation and darkness,--all that the gloomy Northern imagination could +superadd to the repulsive and frightful features of arctic scenery: +volcanoes spouting fire through craters rimmed with perpetual frost, +boiling caldrons flinging their fierce jets high into the air, and huge +jokuls, or ice-mountains, loosened and upheaved by volcanic agencies, +crawling slowly seaward, like misshapen monsters endowed with life,--a +region of misery unutterable, to be avoided only by diligence in robbery +and courage in murder. + +What a work had Christianity to perform upon such a people as the +Icelanders, for instance, of the tenth century!--to substitute in rude, +savage minds the idea of its benign and gentle Founder for that of the +Thor and Woden of Norse mythology; the forgiveness, charity, and humility +of the Gospel for the revenge, hatred, and pride inculcated by the Eddas. +And is it not one of the strongest proofs of the divine life and power of +that Gospel, that, under its influence, the hard and cruel Norse heart +has been so softened and humanized that at this moment one of the best +illustrations of the peaceful and gentle virtues which it inculcates is +afforded by the descendants of the sea-kings and robbers of the middle +centuries? No one can read the accounts which such travellers as Sir +George Mackenzie and Dr. Henderson have given us of the peaceful +disposition, social equality, hospitality, industry, intellectual +cultivation, morality, and habitual piety of the Icelanders, without a +grateful sense of the adaptation of Christianity to the wants of our +race, and of its ability to purify, elevate, and transform the worst +elements of human character. In Iceland Christianity has performed its +work of civilization, unobstructed by that commercial cupidity which has +caused nations more favored in respect to soil and climate to lapse into +an idolatry scarcely less debasing and cruel than that which preceded the +introduction of the Gospel. Trial by combat was abolished in 1001, and +the penalty of the imaginary crime of witchcraft was blotted from the +statutes of the island nearly half a century before it ceased to disgrace +those of Great Britain. So entire has been the change wrought in the +sanguinary and cruel Norse character that at the present day no Icelander +can be found who, for any reward, will undertake the office of +executioner. The scalds, who went forth to battle, cleaving the skulls +of their enemies with the same skilful hands which struck the harp at the +feast, have given place to Christian bards and teachers, who, like +Thorlakson, whom Dr. Henderson found toiling cheerfully with his beloved +parishioners in the hay-harvest of the brief arctic summer, combine with +the vigorous diction and robust thought of their predecessors the warm +and genial humanity of a religion of love and the graces and amenities of +a high civilization. + +But we have wandered somewhat aside from our purpose, which was simply to +introduce the following poem, which, in the boldness of its tone and +vigor of language, reminds us of the Sword Chant, the Wooing Song, and +other rhymed sagas of Motherwell. + + + THE NORSEMAN'S RIDE. + + BY BAYARD TAYLOR. + + The frosty fires of northern starlight + Gleamed on the glittering snow, + And through the forest's frozen branches + The shrieking winds did blow; + A floor of blue and icy marble + Kept Ocean's pulses still, + When, in the depths of dreary midnight, + Opened the burial hill. + + Then, while the low and creeping shudder + + Thrilled upward through the ground, + The Norseman came, as armed for battle, + In silence from his mound,-- + He who was mourned in solemn sorrow + By many a swordsman bold, + And harps that wailed along the ocean, + Struck by the scalds of old. + + Sudden a swift and silver shadow + Came up from out the gloom,-- + A charger that, with hoof impatient, + Stamped noiseless by the tomb. + "Ha! Surtur,!* let me hear thy tramping, + My fiery Northern steed, + That, sounding through the stormy forest, + Bade the bold Viking heed!" + + He mounted; like a northlight streaking + The sky with flaming bars, + They, on the winds so wildly shrieking, + Shot up before the stars. + "Is this thy mane, my fearless Surtur, + That streams against my breast? + + [*The name of the Scandinavian god of fire.] + + Is this thy neck, that curve of moonlight + Which Helva's hand caressed? + "No misty breathing strains thy nostril; + Thine eye shines blue and cold; + Yet mounting up our airy pathway + I see thy hoofs of gold. + Not lighter o'er the springing rainbow + Walhalla's gods repair + Than we in sweeping journey over + The bending bridge of air. + + "Far, far around star-gleams are sparkling + Amid the twilight space; + And Earth, that lay so cold and darkling, + Has veiled her dusky face. + Are those the Normes that beckon onward + As if to Odin's board, + Where by the hands of warriors nightly + The sparkling mead is poured? + + "'T is Skuld:* I her star-eye speaks the glory + That wraps the mighty soul, + When on its hinge of music opens + The gateway of the pole; + When Odin's warder leads the hero + To banquets never o'er, + And Freya's** glances fill the bosom + With sweetness evermore. + + "On! on! the northern lights are streaming + In brightness like the morn, + And pealing far amid the vastness + I hear the gyallarhorn *** + The heart of starry space is throbbing + With songs of minstrels old; + And now on high Walhalla's portal + Gleam Surtur's hoofs of gold." + +* The Norne of the future. + +** Freya, the Northern goddess of love. + +*** The horn blown by the watchers on the rainbow, the bridge over which +the gods pass in Northern mythology. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, VOLUME VII., COMPLETE *** +By John Greenleaf Whittier + +****** This file should be named wit4010.txt or wit4010.zip ****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, wit4011.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wit4010a.txt + +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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