{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9595/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9595","id":"gutenberg_9595","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9595","summary":null,"tags":["Antislavery movements -- United States","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Slavery -- United States"],"text":"This eBook was produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n                        THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY\n\n                           POLITICS AND REFORM\n\n                              THE INNER LIFE\n\n                                CRITICISM\n\n\n                                    BY\n\n                         JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS:\n\nTHE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY\n     JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY\n     THE ABOLITIONISTS; THEIR SENTIMENTS AND OBJECTS\n     LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL\n     JOHN QUINCY ADAMS\n     THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY\n     WHAT IS SLAVERY\n     DEMOCRAT AND SLAVERY\n     THE TWO PROCESSIONS\n     A CHAPTER OF HISTORY\n     THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE QUESTION\n     FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY\n     THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY\n     CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT\n     THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872\n     THE CENSURE OF SUMNER\n     THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833\n     KANSAS\n     WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON\n     ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY\n     RESPONSE TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY\n\nREFORM AND POLITICS.\n     UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS\n     PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS\n     LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES\n     WOMAN SUFFRAGE\n     ITALIAN UNITY\n     INDIAN CIVILIZATION\n     READING FOR THE BLIND\n     THE INDIAN QUESTION\n     THE REPUBLICAN PARTY\n     OUR DUMB RELATIONS\n     INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION\n     SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN\n\nTHE INNER LIFE.\n     THE AGENCY OF EVIL\n     HAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES\n     SWEDENBORG\n     THE BETTER LAND\n     DORA GREENWELL\n     THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS\n     JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL\n     THE OLD WAY\n     HAVERFORD COLLEGE\n\nCRITICISM.\n     EVANGELINE\n     MIRTH AND MEDICINE\n     FAME AND GLORY\n     FANATICISM\n     THE POETRY OF THE NORTH\n\n\n\n\n                        THE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY\n\n\n\n                          JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY\n\nOR, SLAVERY CONSIDERED WITH A VIEW TO ITS RIGHTFUL AND EFFECTUAL REMEDY,\nABOLITION.\n\n                                 [1833.]\n\n     \"There is a law above all the enactments of human codes, the same\n     throughout the world, the same in all time,--such as it was before\n     the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened\n     to one world the sources of wealth and power and knowledge, to\n     another all unutterable woes; such as it is at this day: it is the\n     law written by the finger of God upon the heart of man; and by that\n     law, unchangeable and eternal while men despise fraud, and loathe\n     rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild\n     and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man.\"\n     --LORD BROUGHAM.\n\nIT may be inquired of me why I seek to agitate the subject of Slavery in\nNew England, where we all acknowledge it to be an evil.  Because such an\nacknowledgment is not enough on our part.  It is doing no more than the\nslave-master and the slave-trader.  \"We have found,\" says James Monroe,\nin his speech on the subject before the Virginia Convention, \"that this\nevil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union; and has been\nprejudicial to all the states in which it has existed.\"  All the states\nin their several Constitutions and declarations of rights have made a\nsimilar statement.  And what has been the consequence of this general\nbelief in the evil of human servitude?  Has it sapped the foundations of\nthe infamous system?  No.  Has it decreased the number of its victims?\nQuite the contrary.  Unaccompanied by philanthropic action, it has been\nin a moral point of view worthless, a thing without vitality, sightless,\nsoulless, dead.\n\nBut it may be said that the miserable victims of the system have our\nsympathies.  Sympathy the sympathy of the Priest and the Levite, looking\non, and acknowledging, but holding itself aloof from mortal suffering.\nCan such hollow sympathy reach the broken of heart, and does the blessing\nof those who are ready to perish answer it?  Does it hold back the lash\nfrom the slave, or sweeten his bitter bread?  One's heart and soul are\nbecoming weary of this sympathy, this heartless mockery of feeling; sick\nof the common cant of hypocrisy, wreathing the artificial flowers of\nsentiment over unutterable pollution and unimaginable wrong.  It is\nwhite-washing the sepulchre to make us forget its horrible deposit.  It\nis scattering flowers around the charnel-house and over the yet festering\ngrave to turn away our thoughts \"from the dead men's bones and all\nuncleanness,\" the pollution and loathsomeness below.\n\nNo! let the truth on this subject, undisguised, naked, terrible as it is,\nstand out before us.  Let us no longer seek to cover it; let us no longer\nstrive to forget it; let us no more dare to palliate it.  It is better to\nmeet it here with repentance than at the bar of God.  The cry of the\noppressed, of the millions who have perished among us as the brute\nperisheth, shut out from the glad tidings of salvation, has gone there\nbefore us, to Him who as a father pitieth all His children.  Their blood\nis upon us as a nation; woe unto us, if we repent not, as a nation, in\ndust and ashes.  Woe unto us if we say in our hearts, \"The Lord shall not\nsee, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.  He that planted the ear,\nshall He not hear?  He who formed the eye, shall He not see?\"\n\nBut it may be urged that New England has no participation in slavery, and\nis not responsible for its wickedness.\n\nWhy are we thus willing to believe a lie?  New England not responsible!\nBound by the United States constitution to protect the slave-holder in\nhis sins, and yet not responsible!  Joining hands with crime, covenanting\nwith oppression, leaguing with pollution, and yet not responsible!\nPalliating the evil, hiding the evil, voting for the evil, do we not\nparticipate in it?\n\n     [Messrs.  Harvey of New Hampshire, Mallary of Vermont, and Ripley of\n     Maine, voted in the Congress of 1829 against the consideration of a\n     Resolution for inquiring into the expediency of abolishing slavery\n     in the District of Columbia.]\n\nMembers of one confederacy, children of one family, the curse and the\nshame, the sin against our brother, and the sin against our God, all the\niniquity of slavery which is revealed to man, and all which crieth in the\near, or is manifested to the eye of Jehovah, will assuredly be visited\nupon all our people.  Why, then, should we stretch out our hands towards\nour Southern brethren, and like the Pharisee thank God we are not like\nthem?  For so long as we practically recognize the infernal principle\nthat \"man can hold property in man,\" God will not hold us guiltless.  So\nlong as we take counsel of the world's policy instead of the justice of\nheaven, so long as we follow a mistaken political expediency in\nopposition to the express commands of God, so long will the wrongs of the\nslaves rise like a cloud of witnesses against us at the inevitable bar.\n\nSlavery is protected by the constitutional compact, by the standing army,\nby the militia of the free states.\n\n     [J. Q. Adams is the only member of Congress who has ventured to\n     speak plainly of this protection.  See also his very able Report\n     from the minority of the Committee on Manufactures.  In his speech\n     during the last session, upon the bill of the Committee of Ways and\n     Means, after discussing the constitutional protection of slavery, he\n     says: \"But that same interest is further protected by the Laws of\n     the United States.  It was protected by the existence of a standing\n     army.  If the States of this Union were all free republican States,\n     and none of them possessed any of the machinery of which he had\n     spoken, and if another portion of the Union were not exposed to\n     another danger, from their vicinity to the tribes of Indian savages,\n     he believed it would be difficult to prove to the House any such\n     thing as the necessity of a standing army.  What in fact was the\n     occupation of the army?  It had been protecting this very same\n     interest.  It had been doing so ever since the army existed.  Of\n     what use to the district of Plymouth (which he there represented)\n     was the standing army of the United States?  Of not one dollar's\n     use, and never had been.\"]\n\nLet us not forget that should the slaves, goaded by wrongs unendurable,\nrise in desperation, and pour the torrent of their brutal revenge over\nthe beautiful Carolinas, or the consecrated soil of Virginia, New England\nwould be called upon to arrest the progress of rebellion,--to tread out\nwith the armed heel of her soldiery that spirit of freedom, which knows\nno distinction of cast or color; which has been kindled in the heart of\nthe black as well as in that of the white.\n\nAnd what is this system which we are thus protecting and upholding?  A\nsystem which holds two millions of God's creatures in bondage, which\nleaves one million females without any protection save their own feeble\nstrength, and which makes even the exercise of that strength in\nresistance to outrage punishable with death! which considers rational,\nimmortal beings as articles of traffic, vendible commodities,\nmerchantable property,--which recognizes no social obligations, no\nnatural relations,--which tears without scruple the infant from the\nmother, the wife from the husband, the parent from the child.  In the\nstrong but just language of another: \"It is the full measure of pure,\nunmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and scorning all competition or\ncomparison, it stands without a rival in the secure, undisputed\npossession of its detestable preeminence.\"\n\nSo fearful an evil should have its remedies.  The following are among the\nmany which have been from time to time proposed:--\n\n1.  Placing the slaves in the condition of the serfs of Poland and\nRussia, fixed to the soil, and without the right on the part of the\nmaster to sell or remove them.  This was intended as a preliminary to\ncomplete emancipation at some remote period, but it is impossible to\nperceive either its justice or expediency.\n\n2.  Gradual abolition, an indefinite term, but which is understood to\nimply the draining away drop by drop, of the great ocean of wrong;\nplucking off at long intervals some, straggling branches of the moral\nUpas; holding out to unborn generations the shadow of a hope which the\npresent may never feel gradually ceasing to do evil; gradually refraining\nfrom robbery, lust, and murder: in brief, obeying a short-sighted and\ncriminal policy rather than the commands of God.\n\n3.  Abstinence on the part of the people of the free states from the use\nof the known products of slave labor, in order to render that labor\nprofitless.  Beyond a doubt the example of conscientious individuals may\nhave a salutary effect upon the minds of some of the slave-holders; I but\nso long as our confederacy exists, a commercial intercourse with slave\nstates and a consumption of their products cannot be avoided.\n\n     [The following is a recorded statement of the venerated Sir William\n     Jones: \"Let sugar be as cheap as it may, it is better to eat none,\n     better to eat aloes and colloquintida, than violate a primary law\n     impressed on every heart not imbruted with avarice; than rob one\n     human creature of those eternal rights of which no law on earth can\n     justly deprive him.\"]\n\n4.  Colonization.\nThe exclusive object of the American Colonization Society, according to\nthe second article of its constitution, is to colonize the free people of\ncolor residing among us, in Africa or such other place as Congress may\ndirect.  Steadily adhering to this object it has nothing to do with\nslavery; and I allude to it as a remedy only because some of its friends\nhave in view an eventual abolition or an amelioration of the evil.\n\nLet facts speak.  The Colonization Society was organized in 1817.  It has\ntwo hundred and eighteen auxiliary societies.  The legislatures of\nfourteen states have recommended it.  Contributions have poured into its\ntreasury from every quarter of the United States.  Addresses in its favor\nhave been heard from all our pulpits.  It has been in operation sixteen\nyears.  During this period nearly one million human beings have died in\nslavery: and the number of slaves has increased more than half a million,\nor in round numbers, 550,000\n\nThe Colonization Society has been busily engaged all this while in\nconveying the slaves to Africa; in other words, abolishing slavery.  In\nthis very charitable occupation it has carried away of manumitted slaves\n613\n\nBalance against the society .  .  .  .  549,387!\n\nBut enough of its abolition tendency.  What has it done for amelioration?\nWitness the newly enacted laws of some of the slave states, laws bloody\nas the code of Draco, violating the laws of Cod and the unalienable\nrights of His children?--[It will be seen that the society approves of\nthese laws.]--But why talk of amelioration?  Amelioration of what? of\nsin, of crime unutterable, of a system of wrong and outrage horrible in\nthe eye of God Why seek to mark the line of a selfish policy, a carnal\nexpediency between the criminality of hell and that repentance and its\nfruits enjoined of heaven?\n\nFor the principles and views of the society we must look to its own\nstatements and admissions; to its Annual Reports; to those of its\nauxiliaries; to the speeches and writings of its advocates; and to its\norgan, the African Repository.\n\n1.  It excuses slavery and apologizes for slaveholders.\n\nProof.  \"Slavery is an evil entailed upon the present generation of\nslave-holders, which they must suffer, whether they will or not!\"  \"The\nexistence of slavery among us, though not at all to be objected to our\nSouthern brethren as a fault,\" etc?  \"It (the society) condemns no man\nbecause he is a slave-holder.\" \"Recognizing the constitutional and\nlegitimate existence of slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either\ndirectly or indirectly, with the rights it creates.  Acknowledging the\nnecessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous provisions\nfor its maintenance are justified,\" etc. \"They (the Abolitionists)\nconfound the misfortunes of one generation with the crimes of another,\nand would sacrifice both individual and public good to an unsubstantial\ntheory of the rights of man.\"\n\n2.  It pledges itself not to oppose the system of slavery.\n\nProof.  \"Our society and the friends of colonization wish to be\ndistinctly understood upon this point.  From the beginning they have\ndisavowed, and they do yet disavow, that their object is the emancipation\nof slaves.\"--[Speech of James S. Green, Esq., First Annual Report of the\nNew Jersey Colonization Society.]\n\n\"This institution proposes to do good by a single specific course of\nmeasures.  Its direct and specific purpose is not the abolition of\nslavery, or the relief of pauperism, or the extension of commerce and\ncivilization, or the enlargement of science, or the conversion of the\nheathen.  The single object which its constitution prescribes, and to\nwhich all its efforts are necessarily directed, is African colonization\nfrom America.  It proposes only to afford facilities for the voluntary\nemigration of free people of color from this country to the country of\ntheir fathers.\"\n\n\"It is no abolition society; it addresses as yet arguments to no master,\nand disavows with horror the idea of offering temptations to any slave.\nIt denies the design of attempting emancipation, either partial or\ngeneral.\"\n\n\"The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the name and\nthe characteristics of abolitionists.  On this point they have been\nunjustly and injuriously slandered.  Into their accounts the subject of\nemancipation does not enter at all.\"\n\n\"From its origin, and throughout the whole period of its existence, it\nhas constantly disclaimed all intention of interfering, in the smallest\ndegree, with the rights of property, or the object of emancipation,\ngradual or immediate.\"  .  .  .  \"The society presents to the American\npublic no project of emancipation.\"--[ Mr. Clay's Speech, Idem, vol.  vi.\npp.  13, 17.]\n\n\"The emancipation of slaves or the amelioration of their condition, with\nthe moral, intellectual, and political improvement of people of color\nwithin the United States, are subjects foreign to the powers of this\nsociety.\"\n\n\"The society, as a society, recognizes no principles in reference to the\nslave system.  It says nothing, and proposes to do nothing, respecting\nit.\" . . . \"So far as we can ascertain, the supporters of the\ncolonization policy generally believe that slavery is in this country a\nconstitptional and legitimate system, which they have no inclination,\ninterest, nor ability to disturb.\"\n\n3.  It regards God's rational creatures as property.\n\nProof.  \"We hold their slaves, as we hold their other property, sacred.\"\n\n\"It is equally plain and undeniable that the society, in the prosecution\nof this work, has never interfered or evinced even a disposition to\ninterfere in any way with the rights of proprietors of slaves.\"\n\n\"To the slave-holder, who has charged upon them the wicked design of\ninterfering with the rights of property under the specious pretext of\nremoving a vicious and dangerous free population, they address themselves\nin a tone of conciliation and sympathy.  We know your rights, say they,\nand we respect them.\"\n\n4.  It boasts that its measures are calculated to perpetuate the detested\nsystem of slavery, to remove the fears of the slave-holder, and increase\nthe value of his stock of human beings.\n\nProof.  \"They (the Southern slave-holders) will contribute more\neffectually to the continuance and strength of this system (slavery) by\nremoving those now free than by any or all other methods which can\npossibly be devised.\"\n\n\"So far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, the measure\nproposed would be one of the greatest securities to enable the master to\nkeep in possession his own property.\"--[Speech of John Randolph at the\nfirst meeting of the Colonization Society.]\n\n\"The tendency of the scheme, and one of its objects, is to secure slave-\nholders, and the whole Southern country, against certain evil\nconsequences growing out of the present threefold mixture of our\npopulation.\"\n\n\"There was but one way (to avert danger), but that might be made\neffectual, fortunately.  It was to provide and keep open a drain for the\nexcess beyond the occasions of profitable employment.  Mr. Archer had\nbeen stating the case in the supposition, that after the present class of\nfree blacks had been exhausted, by the operation of the plan he was\nrecommending, others would be supplied for its action, in the proportion\nof the excess of colored population it would be necessary to throw off,\nby the process of voluntary manumission or sale.  This effect must result\ninevitably from the depreciating value of the slaves, ensuing their\ndisproportionate multiplication.  The depreciation would be relieved and\nretarded at the same time by the process.  The two operations would aid\nreciprocally, and sustain each other, and both be in the highest degree\nbeneficial.  It was on the ground of interest, therefore, the most\nindisputable pecuniary interest, that he addressed himself to the people\nand legislatures of the slave-holding states.\"\n\n\"The slave-holder, who is in danger of having his slaves contaminated by\ntheir free friends of color, will not only be relieved from this danger,\nbut the value of his slave will be enhanced.\"\n\n5.  It denies the power of Christian love to overcome an unholy prejudice\nagainst a portion of our fellow-creatures.\n\nProof.  \"The managers consider it clear that causes exist and are\noperating to prevent their (the blacks) improvement and elevation to any\nconsiderable extent as a class, in this country, which are fixed, not\nonly beyond the control of the friends of humanity, but of any human\npower.  Christianity will not do for them here what it will do for them\nin Africa.  This is not the fault of the colored man, nor Christianity;\nbut an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the laws\nof Nature!\"--[Last Annual Report of the American Colonization Society.]\n\n\"The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices\nwhich neither refinement, nor argument, nor education, nor religion\nitself, can subdue--mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as\nthe subjects of a degradation inevitable and incurable.  The African in\nthis country belongs by birth to the very lowest station in society, and\nfrom that station he can never rise, be his talents, his enterprise, his\nvirtues what they may. .  .  .  They constitute a class by themselves, a\nclass out of which no individual can be elevated, and below which none\ncan be depressed.\"\n\n\"Is it not wise, then, for the free people of color and their friends to\nadmit, what cannot reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must,\nin this country, remain for ages, probably forever, a separate and\ninferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal, inevitable;\nwhich neither legislation nor Christianity can remove?\"\n\n6.  It opposes strenuously the education of the blacks in this country as\nuseless as well as dangerous.\n\nProof.  \"If the free colored people were generally taught to read it\nmight be an inducement to them to remain in this country (that is, in\ntheir native country).  We would offer then no such inducement.\"--\n[Southern Religious Telegraph, February 19, 1831.]\n\n\"The public safety of our brethren at the South requires them (the\nslaves) to be kept ignorant and uninstructed.\"\n\n\"It is the business of the free (their safety requires it) to keep the\nslaves in ignorance.  But a few days ago a proposition was made in the\nlegislature of Georgia to allow them so much instruction as to enable\nthem to read the Bible; which was promptly rejected by a large\nmajority.\"--[Proceedings of New York State Colonization Society at its\nsecond anniversary.]\n\nE. B. Caldwell, the first Secretary of the American Colonization Society,\nin his speech at its formation, recommended them to be kept \"in the\nlowest state of ignorance and degradation, for (says he) the nearer you\nbring them to the condition of brutes, the better chance do you give them\nof possessing their apathy.\"\n\nMy limits will not admit of a more extended examination.  To the\ndocuments from whence the above extracts have been made I would call the\nattention of every real friend of humanity.  I seek to do the\nColonization Society no injustice, but I wish the public generally to\nunderstand its character.\n\nThe tendency of the society to abolish the slave-trade by means of its\nAfrican colony has been strenuously urged by its friends.  But the\nfallacy of this is now admitted by all: witness the following from the\nreports of the society itself:--\n\n\"Some appalling facts in regard to the slave-trade have come to the\nknowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year.  With\nundiminished atrocity and activity is this odious traffic now carried on\nall along the African coast.  Slave factories are established in the\nimmediate vicinity of the colony; and at the Gallinas (between Liberia\nand Sierra Leone) not less than nine hundred slaves were shipped during\nthe last summer, in the space of three weeks.\"\n\nApril 6, 1832, the House of Commons of England ordered the printing of a\ndocument entitled \"Slave-Trade, Sierra Leone,\" containing official\nevidence of the fact that the pirates engaged in the African slave-trade\nare supplied from the stores of Sierra Leone and Liberia with such\narticles as the infernal traffic demands!  An able English writer on the\nsubject of Colonization thus notices this astounding fact:--\n\n\"And here it may be well to observe, that as long as negro slavery lasts,\nall colonies on the African coast, of whatever description, must tend to\nsupport it, because, in all commerce, the supply is more or less\nproportioned to the demand.  The demand exists in negro slavery; the\nsupply arises from the African slave-trade.  And what greater convenience\ncould the African slave-traders desire than shops well stored along the\ncoast with the very articles which their trade demands.  That the African\nslave-traders do get thus supplied at Sierra Leone and Liberia is matter\nof official evidence; and we know, from the nature of human things, that\nthey will get so supplied, in defiance of all law or precaution, as long\nas the demand calls for the supply, and there are free shops stored with\nall they want at hand.  The shopkeeper, however honest, would find it\nimpossible always to distinguish between the African slave-trader or his\nagents and other dealers.  And how many shopkeepers are there anywhere\nthat would be over scrupulous in questioning a customer with a full\npurse?\"\n\nBut we are told that the Colonization Society is to civilize and\nevangelize Africa.\n\n\"Each emigrant,\" says Henry Clay, the ablest advocate which the society\nhas yet found, \"is a missionary, carrying with him credentials in the\nholy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions.\"\n\nBeautiful and heart-cheering idea!  But stay who are these emigrants,\nthese missionaries?\n\nThe free people of color.  \"They, and they only,\" says the African\nRepository, the society's organ, \"are qualified for colonizing Africa.\"\n\nWhat are their qualifications?  Let the society answer in its own words:--\nFree blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves themselves.\"--\n[African Repository, vol. ii.  p. 328.]\n\n\"A horde of miserable people--the objects of universal suspicion--\nsubsisting by plunder.\"\n\n\"An anomalous race of beings the most debased upon earth.\"--[African\nRepository, vol. vii. p. 230.]\n\n\"Of all classes of our population the most vicious is that of the free\ncolored.\"--[Tenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society.]\n\nI might go on to quote still further from the \"credentials\" which the\nfree people of color are to carry with them to Liberia.  But I forbear.\n\nI come now to the only practicable, the only just scheme of emancipation:\nImmediate abolition of slavery; an immediate acknowledgment of the great\ntruth, that man cannot hold property in man; an immediate surrender of\nbaneful prejudice to Christian love; an immediate practical obedience to\nthe command of Jesus Christ: \"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto\nyou, do ye even so to them.\"\n\nA correct understanding of what is meant by immediate abolition must\nconvince every candid mind that it is neither visionary nor dangerous;\nthat it involves no disastrous consequences of bloodshed and desolation;\nbut, on the, contrary, that it is a safe, practicable, efficient remedy\nfor the evils of the slave system.\n\nThe term immediate is used in contrast with that of gradual.  Earnestly\nas I wish it, I do not expect, no one expects, that the tremendous system\nof oppression can be instantaneously overthrown.  The terrible and\nunrebukable indignation of a free people has not yet been sufficiently\nconcentrated against it.  The friends of abolition have not forgotten the\npeculiar organization of our confederacy, the delicate division of power\nbetween the states and the general government.  They see the many\nobstacles in their pathway; but they know that public opinion can\novercome them all.  They ask no aid of physical coercion.  They seek to\nobtain their object not with the weapons of violence and blood, but with\nthose of reason and truth, prayer to God, and entreaty to man.\n\nThey seek to impress indelibly upon every human heart the true doctrines\nof the rights of man; to establish now and forever this great and\nfundamental truth of human liberty, that man cannot hold property in his\nbrother; for they believe that the general admission of this truth will\nutterly destroy the system of slavery, based as that system is upon a\ndenial or disregard of it.  To make use of the clear exposition of an\neminent advocate of immediate abolition, our plan of emancipation is\nsimply this: \"To promulgate the true doctrine of human rights in high\nplaces and low places, and all places where there are human beings; to\nwhisper it in chimney corners, and to proclaim it from the house-tops,\nyea, from the mountain-tops; to pour it out like water from the pulpit\nand the press; to raise it up with all the food of the inner man, from\ninfancy to gray hairs; to give 'line upon line, and precept upon\nprecept,' till it forms one of the foundation principles and parts\nindestructible of the public soul.  Let those who contemn this plan\nrenounce, if they have not done it already, the gospel plan of converting\nthe world; let them renounce every plan of moral reformation, and every\nplan whatsoever, which does not terminate in the gratification of their\nown animal natures.\"\n\nThe friends of emancipation would urge in the first instance an immediate\nabolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories\nof Florida and Arkansas.\n\nThe number of slaves in these portions of the country, coming under the\ndirect jurisdiction of the general government, is as follows:--\n\nDistrict of Columbia ..... 6,119\nTerritory of Arkansas .... 4,576\nTerritory of Florida .... 15,501\n\n                  Total   26,196\n\nHere, then, are twenty-six thousand human beings, fashioned in the image\nof God, the fitted temples of His Holy Spirit, held by the government in\nthe abhorrent chains of slavery.  The power to emancipate them is clear.\nIt is indisputable. It does not depend upon the twenty-five slave votes\nin Congress.  It lies with the free states.  Their duty is before them:\nin the fear of God, and not of man let them perform it.\n\nLet them at once strike off the grievous fetters.  Let them declare that\nman shall no longer hold his fellow-man in bondage, a beast of burden, an\narticle of traffic, within the governmental domain.  God and truth and\neternal justice demand this.  The very reputation of our fathers, the\nhonor of our land, every principle of liberty, humanity, expediency,\ndemand it.  A sacred regard to free principles originated our\nindependence, not the paltry amount of practical evil complained of.  And\nalthough our fathers left their great work unfinished, it is our duty to\nfollow out their principles.  Short of liberty and equality we cannot\nstop without doing injustice to their memories.  If our fathers intended\nthat slavery should be perpetual, that our practice should forever give\nthe lie to our professions, why is the great constitutional compact so\nguardedly silent on the subject of human servitude?  If state necessity\ndemanded this perpetual violation of the laws of God and the rights of\nman, this continual solecism in a government of freedom, why is it not\nmet as a necessity, incurable and inevitable, and formally and distinctly\nrecognized as a settled part of our social system?  State necessity, that\nimperial tyrant, seeks no disguise.  In the language of Sheridan, \"What\nhe does, he dares avow, and avowing, scorns any other justification than\nthe great motives which placed the iron sceptre in his grasp.\"\n\nCan it be possible that our fathers felt this state necessity strong upon\nthem?  No; for they left open the door for emancipation, they left us the\nlight of their pure principles of liberty, they framed the great charter\nof American rights, without employing a term in its structure to which in\naftertimes of universal freedom the enemies of our country could point\nwith accusation or reproach.\n\nWhat, then, is our duty?\n\nTo give effect to the spirit of our Constitution; to plant ourselves upon\nthe great declaration and declare in the face of all the world that\npolitical, religious, and legal hypocrisy shall no longer cover as with\nloathsome leprosy the features of American freedom; to loose at once the\nbands of wickedness; to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go\nfree.\n\nWe have indeed been authoritatively told in Congress and elsewhere that\nour brethren of the South and West will brook no further agitation of the\nsubject of slavery.  What then! shall we heed the unrighteous\nprohibition?  No; by our duty as Christians, as politicians, by our duty\nto ourselves, to our neighbor, and to God, we are called upon to agitate\nthis subject; to give slavery no resting-place under the hallowed aegis\nof a government of freedom; to tear it root and branch, with all its\nfruits of abomination, at least from the soil of the national domain.\nThe slave-holder may mock us; the representatives of property,\nmerchandise, vendible commodities, may threaten us; still our duty is\nimperative; the spirit of the Constitution should be maintained within\nthe exclusive jurisdiction of the government.  If we cannot \"provide for\nthe general welfare,\" if we cannot \"guarantee to each of the states a\nrepublican form of government,\" let us at least no longer legislate for a\nfree nation within view of the falling whip, and within hearing of the\nexecrations of the task-master and the prayer of his slave!\n\nI deny the right of the slave-holder to impose silence on his brother of\nthe North in reference to slavery.  What!  compelled to maintain the\nsystem, to keep up the standing army which protects it, and yet be denied\nthe poor privilege of remonstrance!  Ready, at the summons of the master\nto put down the insurrections of his slaves, the outbreaking of that\nrevenge which is now, and has been, in all nations, and all times, the\ninevitable consequence of oppression and wrong, and yet like automata to\nact but not speak!  Are we to be denied even the right of a slave, the\nright to murmur?\n\nI am not unaware that my remarks may be regarded by many as dangerous and\nexceptionable; that I may be regarded as a fanatic for quoting the\nlanguage of eternal truth, and denounced as an incendiary for\nmaintaining, in the spirit as well as the letter, the doctrines of\nAmerican Independence.  But if such are the consequences of a simple\nperformance of duty, I shall not regard them.  If my feeble appeal but\nreaches the hearts of any who are now slumbering in iniquity; if it shall\nhave power given it to shake down one stone from that foul temple where\nthe blood of human victims is offered to the Moloch of slavery; if under\nProvidence it can break one fetter from off the image of God, and enable\none suffering African\n\n\"To feel\nThe weight of human misery less, and glide\nUngroaning to the tomb,\"\n\nI shall not have written in vain; my conscience will be satisfied.\n\nFar be it from me to cast new bitterness into the gall and wormwood\nwaters of sectional prejudice.  No; I desire peace, the peace of\nuniversal love, of catholic sympathy, the peace of a common interest, a\ncommon feeling, a common humanity.  But so long as slavery is tolerated,\nno such peace can exist.  Liberty and slavery cannot dwell in harmony\ntogether.  There will be a perpetual \"war in the members\" of the\npolitical Mezentius between the living and the dead.  God and man have\nplaced between them an everlasting barrier, an eternal separation.  No\nmatter under what name or law or compact their union is attempted, the\nordination of Providence has forbidden it, and it cannot stand.  Peace!\nthere can be no peace between justice and oppression, between robbery and\nrighteousness, truth and falsehood, freedom and slavery.\n\nThe slave-holding states are not free.  The name of liberty is there, but\nthe spirit is wanting.  They do not partake of its invaluable blessings.\nWherever slavery exists to any considerable extent, with the exception of\nsome recently settled portions of the country, and which have not yet\nfelt in a great degree the baneful and deteriorating influences of slave\nlabor, we hear at this moment the cry of suffering.  We are told of\ngrass-grown streets, of crumbling mansions, of beggared planters and\nbarren plantations, of fear from without, of terror within.  The once\nfertile fields are wasted and tenantless, for the curse of slavery, the\nimprovidence of that labor whose hire has been kept back by fraud, has\nbeen there, poisoning the very earth beyond the reviving influence of the\nearly and the latter rain.  A moral mildew mingles with and blasts the\neconomy of nature.  It is as if the finger of the everlasting God had\nwritten upon the soil of the slave-holder the language of His\ndispleasure.\n\nLet, then, the slave-holding states consult their present interest by\nbeginning without delay the work of emancipation.  If they fear not, and\nmock at the fiery indignation of Him, to whom vengeance belongeth, let\ntemporal interest persuade them.  They know, they must know, that the\npresent state of things cannot long continue.  Mind is the same\neverywhere, no matter what may be the complexion of the frame which it\nanimates: there is a love of liberty which the scourge cannot eradicate,\na hatred of oppression which centuries of degradation cannot extinguish.\nThe slave will become conscious sooner or later of his brute strength,\nhis physical superiority, and will exert it.  His torch will be at the\nthreshold and his knife at the throat of the planter.  Horrible and\nindiscriminate will be his vengeance.  Where, then, will be the pride,\nthe beauty, and the chivalry of the South?  The smoke of her torment will\nrise upward like a thick cloud visible over the whole earth.\n\n     \"Belie the negro's powers: in headlong will,\n     Christian, thy brother thou shalt find him still.\n     Belie his virtues: since his wrongs began,\n     His follies and his crimes have stamped him man.\"\n\nLet the cause of insurrection be removed, then, as speedily as possible.\nCease to oppress.  \"Let him that stole steal no more.\"  Let the laborer\nhave his hire.  Bind him no longer by the cords of slavery, but with\nthose of kindness and brotherly love.  Watch over him for his good.  Pray\nfor him; instruct him; pour light into the darkness of his mind.\n\nLet this be done, and the horrible fears which now haunt the slumbers of\nthe slave-holder will depart.  Conscience will take down its racks and\ngibbets, and his soul will be at peace.  His lands will no longer\ndisappoint his hopes.  Free labor will renovate them.\n\nHistorical facts; the nature of the human mind; the demonstrated truths\nof political economy; the analysis of cause and effect, all concur in\nestablishing:\n\n1.  That immediate abolition is a safe and just and peaceful remedy for\nthe evils of the slave system.\n\n2.  That free labor, its necessary consequence, is more productive, and\nmore advantageous to the planter than slave labor.\n\nIn proof of the first proposition it is only necessary to state the\nundeniable fact that immediate emancipation, whether by an individual or\na community, has in no instance been attended with violence and disorder\non the part of the emancipated; but that on the contrary it has promoted\ncheerfulness, industry, and laudable ambition in the place of sullen\ndiscontent, indolence, and despair.\n\nThe case of St. Domingo is in point.  Blood was indeed shed on that\nisland like water, but it was not in consequence of emancipation.  It was\nshed in the civil war which preceded it, and in the iniquitous attempt to\nrestore the slave system in 1801.  It flowed on the sanguine altar of\nslavery, not on the pure and peaceful one of emancipation.  No; there, as\nin all the world and in all time, the violence of oppression engendered\nviolence on the part of the oppressed, and vengeance followed only upon\nthe iron footsteps of wrong.  When, where, did justice to the injured\nwaken their hate and vengeance?  When, where, did love and kindness and\nsympathy irritate and madden the persecuted, the broken-hearted, the\nfoully wronged?\n\nIn September, 1793, the Commissioner of the French National Convention\nissued his proclamation giving immediate freedom to all the slaves of St.\nDomingo.  Did the slaves baptize their freedom in blood?  Did they fight\nlike unchained desperadoes because they had been made free?  Did they\nmurder their emancipators?  No; they acted, as human beings must act,\nunder similar circumstances, by a law as irresistible as those of the\nuniverse: kindness disarmed them, justice conciliated them, freedom\nennobled them.  No tumult followed this wide and instantaneous\nemancipation.  It cost not one drop of blood; it abated not one tittle of\nthe wealth or the industry of the island.  Colonel Malenfant, a slave\nproprietor residing at the time on the island, states that after the\npublic act of abolition, the negroes remained perfectly quiet; they had\nobtained all they asked for, liberty, and they continued to work upon all\nthe plantations.--[Malenfant in Memoirs for a History of St. Domingo by\nGeneral Lecroix, 1819.]\n\n\"There were estates,\" he says, \"which had neither owners nor managers\nresident upon them, yet upon these estates, though abandoned, the negroes\ncontinued their labors where there were any, even inferior, agents to\nguide them; and on those estates where no white men were left to direct\nthem, they betook themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon all\nthe plantations where the whites resided the blacks continued to labor as\nquietly as before.\"  Colonel Malenfant says that when many of his\nneighbors, proprietors or managers, were in prison, the negroes of their\nplantations came to him to beg him to direct them in their work.  \"If you\nwill take care not to talk to them of the restoration of slavery, but\ntalk to them of freedom, you may with this word chain them down to their\nlabor.  How did Toussaint succeed?  How did I succeed before his time in\nthe plain of the Cul-de-Sac on the plantation of Gouraud, during more\nthan eight months after liberty had been granted to the slaves?  Let\nthose who knew me at that time, let the blacks themselves be asked.  They\nwill all reply that not a single negro upon that plantation, consisting\nof more than four hundred and fifty laborers, refused to work; and yet\nthis plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the\nslaves the most idle of any in the plain.  I inspired the same activity\ninto three other plantations of which I had the management.  If all the\nnegroes had come from Africa within six months, if they had the love of\nindependence that the Indians have, I should own that force must be\nemployed; but ninety-nine out of a hundred of the blacks are aware that\nwithout labor they cannot procure the things that are necessary for them;\nthat there is no other method of satisfying their wants and their tastes.\nThey know that they must work, they wish to do so, and they will do so.\"\n\nThis is strong testimony.  In 1796, three years after the act of\nemancipation, we are told that the colony was flourishing under\nToussaint, that the whites lived happily and peaceably on their estates,\nand the blacks continued to work for them.  Up to 1801 the same happy\nstate of things continued.  The colony went on as by enchantment;\ncultivation made day by day a perceptible progress, under the\nrecuperative energies of free labor.\n\nIn 1801 General Vincent, a proprietor of estates in the island, was sent\nby Toussaint to Paris for the purpose of laying before the Directory the\nnew Constitution which had been adopted at St. Domingo.  He reached\nFrance just after the peace of Amiens, when Napoleon was fitting out his\nill-starred armament for the insane purpose of restoring slavery in the\nisland.  General Vincent remonstrated solemnly and earnestly against an\nexpedition so preposterous, so cruel and unnecessary; undertaken at a\nmoment when all was peace and quietness in the colony, when the\nproprietors were in peaceful possession of their estates, when\ncultivation was making a rapid progress, and the blacks were industrious\nand happy beyond example.  He begged that this beautiful state of things\nmight not be reversed.  The remonstrance was not regarded, and the\nexpedition proceeded.  Its issue is well known.  Threatened once more\nwith the horrors of slavery, the peaceful and quiet laborer became\ntransformed into a demon of ferocity.  The plough-share and the pruning-\nhook gave way to the pike and the dagger.  The white invaders were driven\nback by the sword and the pestilence; and then, and not till then, was\nthe property of the planters seized upon by the excited and infuriated\nblacks.\n\nIn 1804 Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor of Hayti.  The black troops\nwere in a great measure disbanded, and they immediately returned to the\ncultivation of the plantations.  From that period up to the present there\nhas been no want of industry among the inhabitants.\n\nMr. Harvey, who during the reign of Christophe resided at Cape Francois,\nin describing the character and condition of the inhabitants, says \"It\nwas an interesting sight to behold this class of the Haytiens, now in\npossession of their freedom, coming in groups to the market nearest which\nthey resided, bringing the produce of their industry there for sale; and\nafterwards returning, carrying back the necessary articles of living\nwhich the disposal of their commodities had enabled them to purchase; all\nevidently cheerful and happy.  Nor could it fail to occur to the mind\nthat their present condition furnished the most satisfactory answer to\nthat objection to the general emancipation of slaves founded on their\nalleged unfitness to value and improve the benefits of liberty.  .  .  .\nAs they would not suffer, so they do not require, the attendance of one\nacting in the capacity of a driver with the instrument of punishment in\nhis hand.  As far as I had an opportunity of ascertaining from what fell\nunder my own observation, and from what I gathered from other European\nresidents, I am persuaded of one general fact, which on account of its\nimportance I shall state in the most explicit terms, namely, that the\nHaytiens employed in cultivating the plantations, as well as the rest of\nthe population, perform as much work in a given time as they were\naccustomed to do during their subjection to the French.  And if we may\njudge of their future improvement by the change which has been already\neffected, it may be reasonably anticipated that Hayti will erelong\ncontain a population not inferior in their industry to that of any\ncivilized nation in the world.  .  .  .  Every man had some calling to\noccupy his attention; instances of idleness or intemperance were of rare\noccurrence; the most perfect subordination prevailed, and all appeared\ncontented and happy.  A foreigner would have found it difficult to\npersuade himself, on his first entering the place, that the people he now\nbeheld so submissive, industrious, and contented, were the same people\nwho a few years before had escaped from the shackles of slavery.\"\n\nThe present condition of Hayti may be judged of from the following well-\nauthenticated facts its population is more than 700,000, its resources\nample, its prosperity and happiness general, its crimes few, its labor\ncrowned with abundance, with no paupers save the decrepit and aged, its\npeople hospitable, respectful, orderly, and contented.\n\nThe manumitted slaves, who to the number of two thousand were settled in\nNova Scotia by the British Government at the close of the Revolutionary\nWar, \"led a harmless life, and gained the character of an honest,\nindustrious people from their white neighbors.\"  Of the free laborers of\nTrinidad we have the same report.  At the Cape of Good Hope, three\nthousand negroes received their freedom, and with scarce a single\nexception betook themselves to laborious employments.\n\nBut we have yet stronger evidence.  The total abolishment of slavery in\nthe southern republics has proved beyond dispute the safety and utility\nof immediate abolition.  The departed Bolivar indeed deserves his\nglorious title of Liberator, for he began his career of freedom by\nstriking off the fetters of his own slaves, seven hundred in number.\n\nIn an official letter from the Mexican Envoy of the British Government,\ndated Mexico, March, 1826, and addressed 'to the Right Hon.  George\nCanning, the superiority of free over slave labor is clearly demonstrated\nby the following facts:--\n\n2.  It is now carried on exclusively by the labor of free blacks.\n\n3.  It was formerly wholly sustained by the forced labor of slaves,\npurchased at Vera Cruz at $300 to $400 each.\n\n4.  Abolition in this section was effected not by governmental\ninterference, not even from motives of humanity, but from an irresistible\nconviction on the part of the planters that their pecuniary interest\ndemanded it.\n\n5.  The result has proved the entire correctness of this conviction; and\nthe planters would now be as unwilling as the blacks themselves to return\nto the old system.\n\nLet our Southern brethren imitate this example.  It is in vain, in the\nface of facts like these, to talk of the necessity of maintaining the\nabominable system, operating as it does like a double curse upon planters\nand slaves.  Heaven and earth deny its necessity.  It is as necessary as\nother robberies, and no more.\n\nYes, putting aside altogether the righteous law of the living God--the\nsame yesterday, to-day, and forever--and shutting out the clearest\npolitical truths ever taught by man, still, in human policy selfish\nexpediency would demand of the planter the immediate emancipation of his\nslaves.\n\nBecause slave labor is the labor of mere machines; a mechanical impulse\nof body and limb, with which the mind of the laborer has no sympathy, and\nfrom which it constantly and loathingly revolts.\n\nBecause slave labor deprives the master altogether of the incalculable\nbenefit of the negro's will.  That does not cooperate with the forced\ntoil of the body.  This is but the necessary consequence of all labor\nwhich does not benefit the laborer.  It is a just remark of that profound\npolitical economist, Adam Smith, that \"a slave can have no other interest\nthan to eat and waste as much, and work as little, as he can.\"\n\nTo my mind, in the wasteful and blighting influences of slave labor there\nis a solemn and warning moral.\n\nThey seem the evidence of the displeasure of Him who created man after\nHis own image, at the unnatural attempt to govern the bones and sinews,\nthe bodies and souls, of one portion of His children by the caprice, the\navarice, the lusts of another; at that utter violation of the design of\nHis merciful Providence, whereby the entire dependence of millions of His\nrational creatures is made to centre upon the will, the existence, the\nability, of their fellow-mortals, instead of resting under the shadow of\nHis own Infinite Power and exceeding love.\n\nI shall offer a few more facts and observations on this point.\n\n1.  A distinguished scientific gentleman, Mr. Coulomb, the superintendent\nof several military works in the French West Indies, gives it as his\nopinion, that the slaves do not perform more than one third of the labor\nwhich they would do, provided they were urged by their own interests and\ninclinations instead of brute force.\n\n2.  A plantation in Barbadoes in 1780 was cultivated by two hundred and\neighty-eight slaves ninety men, eighty-two women, fifty-six boys, and\nsixty girls.  In three years and three months there were on this\nplantation fifty-seven deaths, and only fifteen births.  A change was\nthen made in the government of the slaves.  The use of the whip was\ndenied; all severe and arbitrary punishments were abolished; the laborers\nreceived wages, and their offences were all tried by a sort of negro\ncourt established among themselves: in short, they were practically free.\nUnder this system, in four years and three months there were forty-four\nbirths, and but forty-one deaths; and the annual net produce of the\nplantation was more than three times what it had been before.--[English\nQuarterly Magazine and Review, April, 1832.]\n\n3.  The following evidence was adduced by Pitt in the British Parliament,\nApril, 1792.  The assembly of Grenada had themselves stated, \"that though\nthe negroes were allowed only the afternoon of one day in a week, they\nwould do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for their own\nbenefit, as in the whole day when employed in their master's service.\"\n\"Now after this confession,\" said Mr. Pitt, \"the house might burn all its\ncalculations relative to the negro population.  A negro, if he worked for\nhimself, could no doubt do double work.  By an improvement, then, in the\nmode of labor, the work in the islands could be doubled.\"\n\n4.  \"In coffee districts it is usual for the master to hire his people\nafter they have done the regular task for the day, at a rate varying from\n10d. to 15.8d.  for every extra bushel which they pluck from the trees;\nand many, almost all, are found eager to earn their wages.\"\n\n5.  In a report made by the commandant of Castries for the government of\nSt. Lucia, in 1822, it is stated, in proof of the intimacy between the\nslaves and the free blacks, that \"many small plantations of the latter,\nand occupied by only one man and his wife, are better cultivated and have\nmore land in cultivation than those of the proprietors of many slaves,\nand that the labor on them is performed by runaway slaves;\" thus clearly\nproving that even runaway slaves, under the all-depressing fears of\ndiscovery and oppression, labor well, because the fruits of their labor\nare immediately their own.\n\nLet us look at this subject from another point of view.  The large sum of\nmoney necessary for stocking a plantation with slaves has an inevitable\ntendency to place the agriculture of a slave-holding community\nexclusively in the hands of the wealthy, a tendency at war with practical\nrepublicanism and conflicting with the best maxims of political economy.\n\nTwo hundred slaves at $200 per head would cost in the outset $40,000.\nCompare this enormous outlay for the labor of a single plantation with\nthe beautiful system of free labor as exhibited in New England, where\nevery young laborer, with health and ordinary prudence, may acquire by\nhis labor on the farms of others, in a few years, a farm of his own, and\nthe stock necessary for its proper cultivation; where on a hard and\nunthankful soil independence and competence may be attained by all.\n\nFree labor is perfectly in accordance with the spirit of our\ninstitutions; slave labor is a relic of a barbarous, despotic age.  The\none, like the firmament of heaven, is the equal diffusion of similar\nlights, manifest, harmonious, regular; the other is the fiery\npredominance of some disastrous star, hiding all lesser luminaries around\nit in one consuming glare.\n\nEmancipation would reform this evil.  The planter would no longer be\nunder the necessity of a heavy expenditure for slaves.  He would only pay\na very moderate price for his labor; a price, indeed, far less than the\ncost of the maintenance of a promiscuous gang of slaves, which the\npresent system requires.\n\nIn an old plantation of three hundred slaves, not more than one hundred\neffective laborers will be found.  Children, the old and superannuated,\nthe sick and decrepit, the idle and incorrigibly vicious, will be found\nto constitute two thirds of the whole number.  The remaining third\nperform only about one third as much work as the same number of free\nlaborers.\n\nNow disburden the master of this heavy load of maintenance; let him\nemploy free able, industrious laborers only, those who feel conscious of\na personal interest in the fruits of their labor, and who does not see\nthat such a system would be vastly more safe and economical than the\npresent?\n\nThe slave states are learning this truth by fatal experience.  Most of\nthem are silently writhing under the great curse.  Virginia has uttered\nher complaints aloud.  As yet, however, nothing has been done even there,\nsave a small annual appropriation for the purpose of colonizing the free\ncolored inhabitants of the state.  Is this a remedy?\n\nBut it may be said that Virginia will ultimately liberate her slaves on\ncondition of their colonization in Africa, peacefully if possible,\nforcibly if necessary.\n\nWell, admitting that Virginia may be able and willing at some remote\nperiod to rid herself of the evil by commuting the punishment of her\nunoffending colored people from slavery to exile, will her fearful remedy\napply to some of the other slaveholding states?\n\nIt is a fact, strongly insisted upon by our Southern brethren as a reason\nfor the perpetuation of slavery, that their climate and peculiar\nagriculture will not admit of hard labor on the part of the whites; that\namidst the fatal malaria of the rice plantations the white man is almost\nannually visited by the country fever; that few of the white overseers of\nthese plantations reach the middle period of ordinary life; that the\nowners are compelled to fly from their estates as the hot season\napproaches, without being able to return until the first frosts have\nfallen.  But we are told that the slaves remain there, at their work,\nmid-leg in putrid water, breathing the noisome atmosphere, loaded with\ncontagion, and underneath the scorching fervor of a terrible sun; that\nthey indeed suffer; but, that their habits, constitutions, and their long\npractice enable them to labor, surrounded by such destructive influences,\nwith comparative safety.\n\nThe conclusive answer, therefore, to those who in reality cherish the\nvisionary hope of colonizing all the colored people of the United States\nin Africa or elsewhere, is this single, all-important fact: The labor of\nthe blacks will not and cannot be dispensed with by the planter of the\nSouth.\n\nTo what remedy, then, can the friends of humanity betake themselves but\nto that of emancipation?\n\nAnd nothing but a strong, unequivocal expression of public sentiment is\nneeded to carry into effect this remedy, so far as the general government\nis concerned.\n\nAnd when the voice of all the non-slave-holding states shall be heard on\nthis question, a voice of expostulation, rebuke, entreaty--when the full\nlight of truth shall break through the night of prejudice, and reveal all\nthe foul abominations of slavery, will Delaware still cling to the curse\nwhich is wasting her moral strength, and still rivet the fetters upon her\nthree or four thousand slaves?  Let Delaware begin the work, and Maryland\nand Virginia must follow; the example will be contagious; and the great\nobject of universal emancipation will be attained.  Freemen, Christians,\nlovers of truth and justice Why stand ye idle?  Ours is a government of\nopinion, and slavery is interwoven with it.  Change the current of\nopinion, and slavery will be swept away.  Let the awful sovereignty of\nthe people, a power which is limited only by the sovereignty of Heaven,\narise and pronounce judgment against the crying iniquity.  Let each\nindividual remember that upon himself rests a portion of that\nsovereignty; a part of the tremendous responsibility of its exercise.\nThe burning, withering concentration of public opinion upon the slave\nsystem is alone needed for its total annihilation.  God has given us the\npower to overthrow it; a power peaceful, yet mighty, benevolent, yet\neffectual, \"awful without severity,\" a moral strength equal to the\nemergency.\n\n\"How does it happen,\" inquires an able writer, \"that whenever duty is named\nwe begin to hear of the weakness of human nature?  That same nature which\noutruns the whirlwind in the chase of gain, which rages like a maniac at\nthe trumpet call of glory, which laughs danger and death to scorn when\nits least passion is awakened, becomes weak as childhood when reminded of\nthe claims of duty.\"  But let no one hope to find an excuse in hypocrisy.\nThe humblest individual of the community in one way or another possesses\ninfluence; and upon him as well as upon the proudest rests the\nresponsibility of its rightful exercise and proper direction.  The\noverthrow of a great national evil like that of slavery can only be\neffected by the united energies of the great body of the people.\nShoulder must be put to shoulder and hand linked with hand, the whole\nmass must be put in motion and its entire strength applied, until the\nfabric of oppression is shaken to its dark foundations and not one stone\nis left upon another.\n\nLet the Christian remember that the God of his worship hateth oppression;\nthat the mystery of faith can only be held by a pure conscience; and that\nin vain is the tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, if the weihtier\nmatters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth, are forgotten.  Let him\nremember that all along the clouded region of slavery the truths of the\neverlasting gospel are not spoken, that the ear of iniquity is lulled,\nthat those who minister between the \"porch and the altar\" dare not speak\nout the language of eternal justice: \"Is not this the fast which I have\nchosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and\nto let the oppressed go free?\" (Isa. viii. 6.) \"He that stealeth a man\nand selleth him; or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to\ndeath.\"  (Exod. xxi. 16.1) Yet a little while and the voice of impartial\nprayer for humanity will be heard no more in the abiding place of\nslavery.  The truths of the gospel, its voice of warning and exhortation,\nwill be denounced as incendiary?  The night of that infidelity, which\ndenies God in the abuse and degradation of man, will settle over the\nland, to be broken only by the upheaving earthquake of eternal\nretribution.\n\nTo the members of the religious Society of Friends, I would earnestly\nappeal.  They have already done much to put away the evil of slavery in\nthis country and Great Britain.  The blessings of many who were ready to\nperish have rested upon them.  But their faithful testimony must be still\nsteadily upborne, for the great work is but begun.  Let them not relax\ntheir exertions, nor be contented with a lifeless testimony, a formal\nprotestation against the evil.  Active, prayerful, unwearied exertion is\nneeded for its overthrow.  But above all, let them not aid in excusing\nand palliating it.  Slavery has no redeeming qualities, no feature of\nbenevolence, nothing pure, nothing peaceful, nothing just.  Let them\ncarefully keep themselves aloof from all societies and all schemes which\nhave a tendency to excuse or overlook its crying iniquity.  True to a\ndoctrine founded on love and mercy, \"peace on earth and good will to\nmen,\" they should regard the suffering slave as their brother, and\nendeavor to \"put their souls in his soul's stead.\"  They may earnestly\ndesire the civilization of Africa, but they cannot aid in building up the\ncolony of Liberia so long as that colony leans for support upon the arm\nof military power; so long as it proselytes to Christianity under the\nmuzzles of its cannon; and preaches the doctrines of Christ while\npractising those of Mahomet.  When the Sierra Leone Company was formed in\nEngland, not a member of the Society of Friends could be prevailed upon\nto engage in it, because the colony was to be supplied with cannon and\nother military stores.  Yet the Foreign Agent of the Liberia Colony\nSociety, to which the same insurmountable objection exists, is a member\nof the Society of Friends, and I understand has been recently employed in\nproviding gunpowder, etc., for the use of the colony.  There must be an\nawakening on this subject; other Woolmans and other Benezets must arise\nand speak the truth with the meek love of James and the fervent sincerity\nof Paul.\n\nTo the women of America, whose sympathies know no distinction of cline,\nor sect, or color, the suffering slave is making a strong appeal.  Oh,\nlet it not be unheeded! for of those to whom much is given much will be\nrequired at the last dread tribunal; and never in the strongest terms of\nhuman eulogy was woman's influence overrated.  Sisters, daughters, wives,\nand mothers, your influence is felt everywhere, at the fireside, and in\nthe halls of legislation, surrounding, like the all-encircling\natmosphere, brother and father, husband and son!  And by your love of\nthem, by every holy sympathy of your bosoms, by every mournful appeal\nwhich comes up to you from hearts whose sanctuary of affections has been\nmade waste and desolate, you are called upon to exert it in the cause of\nredemption from wrong and outrage.\n\nLet the patriot, the friend of liberty and the Union of the States, no\nlonger shut his eyes to the great danger, the master-evil before which\nall others dwindle into insignificance.  Our Union is tottering to its\nfoundation, and slavery is the cause.  Remove the evil.  Dry up at their\nsource the bitter waters.  In vain you enact and abrogate your tariffs;\nin vain is individual sacrifice, or sectional concession.  The accursed\nthing is with us, the stone of stumbling and the rock of offence remains.\nDrag, then, the Achan into light; and let national repentance atone for\nnational sin.\n\nThe conflicting interests of free and slave labor furnish the only ground\nfor fear in relation to the permanency of the Union.  The line of\nseparation between them is day by day growing broader and deeper;\ngeographically and politically united, we are already, in a moral point\nof view, a divided people.  But a few months ago we were on the very\nverge of civil war, a war of brothers, a war between the North and the\nSouth, between the slave-holder and the free laborer.  The danger has\nbeen delayed for a time; this bolt has fallen without mortal injury to\nthe Union, but the cloud from whence it came still hangs above us,\nreddening with the elements of destruction.\n\nRecent events have furnished ample proof that the slave-holding interest\nis prepared to resist any legislation on the part of the general\ngovernment which is supposed to have a tendency, directly or indirectly,\nto encourage and invigorate free labor; and that it is determined to\ncharge upon its opposite interest the infliction of all those evils which\nnecessarily attend its own operation, \"the primeval curse of Omnipotence\nupon slavery.\"\n\nWe have already felt in too many instances the extreme difficulty of\ncherishing in one common course of national legislation the opposite\ninterests of republican equality and feudal aristocracy and servitude.\nThe truth is, we have undertaken a moral impossibility.  These interests\nare from their nature irreconcilable.  The one is based upon the pure\nprinciples of rational liberty; the other, under the name of freedom,\nrevives the ancient European system of barons and villains, nobles and\nserfs.  Indeed, the state of society which existed among our Anglo-Saxon\nancestors was far more tolerable than that of many portions of our\nrepublican confederacy.  For the Anglo-Saxon slaves had it in their power\nto purchase their freedom; and the laws of the realm recognized their\nliberation and placed them under legal protection.\n\n     [The diffusion of Christianity in Great Britain was moreover\n     followed by a general manumission; for it would seem that the\n     priests and missionaries of religion in that early and benighted age\n     were more faithful in the performance of their duties than those of\n     the present.  \"The holy fathers, monks, and friars,\" says Sir T.\n     Smith, \"had in their confessions, and specially in their extreme and\n     deadly sickness, convinced the laity how dangerous a thing it was\n     for one Christian to hold another in bondage; so that temporal men,\n     by reason of the terror in their consciences, were glad to manumit\n     all their villains.\"--Hilt.  Commonwealth, Blackstone, p.  52.]\n\nTo counteract the dangers resulting from a state of society so utterly at\nvariance with the great Declaration of American freedom should be the\nearnest endeavor of every patriotic statesman.  Nothing unconstitutional,\nnothing violent, should be attempted; but the true doctrine of the rights\nof man should be steadily kept in view; and the opposition to slavery\nshould be inflexible and constantly maintained.  The almost daily\nviolations of the Constitution in consequence of the laws of some of the\nslave states, subjecting free colored citizens of New England and\nelsewhere, who may happen to be on board of our coasting vessels, to\nimprisonment immediately on their arrival in a Southern port should be\nprovided against.  Nor should the imprisonment of the free colored\ncitizens of the Northern and Middle states, on suspicion of being\nrunaways, subjecting them, even after being pronounced free, to the costs\nof their confinement and trial, be longer tolerated; for if we continue\nto yield to innovations like these upon the Constitution of our fathers,\nwe shall erelong have the name only of a free government left us.\n\nDissemble as we may, it is impossible for us to believe, after fully\nconsidering the nature of slavery, that it can much longer maintain a\npeaceable existence among us.  A day of revolution must come, and it is\nour duty to prepare for it.  Its threatened evil may be changed into a\nnational blessing.  The establishment of schools for the instruction of\nthe slave children, a general diffusion of the lights of Christianity,\nand the introduction of a sacred respect for the social obligations of\nmarriage and for the relations between parents and children, among our\nblack population, would render emancipation not only perfectly safe, but\nalso of the highest advantage to the country.  Two millions of freemen\nwould be added to our population, upon whom in the hour of danger we\ncould safely depend; \"the domestic foe\" would be changed into a firm\nfriend, faithful, generous, and ready to encounter all dangers in our\ndefence.  It is well known that during the last war with Great Britain,\nwherever the enemy touched upon our Southern coast, the slaves in\nmultitudes hastened to join them.  On the other hand, the free blacks\nwere highly serviceable in repelling them.  So warm was the zeal of the\nlatter, so manifest their courage in the defence of Louisiana, that the\npresent Chief Magistrate of the United States publicly bestowed upon them\none of the highest eulogiums ever offered by a commander to his soldiers.\n\nLet no one seek an apology for silence on the subject of slavery because\nthe laws of the land tolerate and sanction it.  But a short time ago the\nslave-trade was protected by laws and treaties, and sanctioned by the\nexample of men eminent for the reputation of piety and integrity.  Yet\npublic opinion broke over these barriers; it lifted the curtain and\nrevealed the horrors of that most abominable traffic; and unrighteous law\nand ancient custom and avarice and luxury gave way before its\nirresistible authority.  It should never be forgotten that human law\ncannot change the nature of human action in the pure eye of infinite\njustice; and that the ordinances of man cannot annul those of God.  The\nslave system, as existing in this country, can be considered in no other\nlight than as the cause of which the foul traffic in human flesh is the\nlegitimate consequence.  It is the parent, the fosterer, the sole\nsupporter of the slave-trade.  It creates the demand for slaves, and the\nforeign supply will always be equal to the demand of consumption.  It\nkeeps the market open.  It offers inducements to the slave-trader which\nno severity of law against his traffic can overcome.  By our laws his\ntrade is piracy; while slavery, to which alone it owes its existence, is\nprotected and cherished, and those engaged in it are rewarded by an\nincrease of political power proportioned to the increase of their stock\nof human beings!  To steal the natives of Africa is a crime worthy of an\nignominious death; but to steal and enslave annually nearly one hundred\nthousand of the descendants of these stolen natives, born in this\ncountry, is considered altogether excusable and proper!  For my own part,\nI know no difference between robbery in Africa and robbery at home.  I\ncould with as quiet a conscience engage in the one as the other.\n\n\"There is not one general principle,\" justly remarks Lord Nugent, \"on\nwhich the slave-trade is to be stigmatized which does not impeach slavery\nitself.\"  Kindred in iniquity, both must fall speedily, fall together,\nand be consigned to the same dishonorable grave.  The spirit which is\nthrilling through every nerve of England is awakening America from her\nsleep of death.  Who, among our statesmen, would not shrink from the\nbaneful reputation of having supported by his legislative influence the\nslave-trade, the traffic in human flesh?  Let them then beware; for the\ntime is near at hand when the present defenders of slavery will sink\nunder the same fatal reputation, and leave to posterity a memory which\nwill blacken through all future time, a legacy of infamy.\n\n\"Let us not betake us to the common arts and stratagems of nations, but\nfear God, and put away the evil which provokes Him; and trust not in man,\nbut in the living God; and it shall go well for England!\"  This counsel,\ngiven by the purehearted William Penn, in a former age, is about to be\nfollowed in the present.  An intense and powerful feeling is working in\nthe mighty heart of England; it is speaking through the lips of Brougham\nand Buxton and O'Connell, and demanding justice in the name of humanity\nand according to the righteous law of God.  The immediate emancipation of\neight hundred thousand slaves is demanded with an authority which cannot\nmuch longer be disputed or trifled with.  That demand will be obeyed;\njustice will be done; the heavy burdens will be unloosed; the oppressed\nset free.  It shall go well for England.\n\nAnd when the stain on our own escutcheon shall be seen no more; when the\nDeclaration of our Independence and the practice of our people shall\nagree; when truth shall be exalted among us; when love shall take the\nplace of wrong; when all the baneful pride and prejudice of caste and\ncolor shall fall forever; when under one common sun of political liberty\nthe slave-holding portions of our republic shall no longer sit, like the\nEgyptians of old, themselves mantled in thick darkness, while all around\nthem is glowing with the blessed light of freedom and equality, then, and\nnot till then, shall it go well for America!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                            THE ABOLITIONISTS.\n\n                      THEIR SENTIMENTS AND OBJECTS.\n\nTwo letters to the 'Jeffersonian and Times', Richmond, Va.\n\n\n                                    I.\n\nA FRIEND has banded me a late number of your paper, containing a brief\nnotice of a pamphlet, which I have recently published on the subject of\nslavery.\n\nFrom an occasional perusal of your paper, I have formed a favorable\nopinion of your talent and independence.  Compelled to dissent from some\nof your political sentiments, I still give you full credit for the lofty\ntone of sincerity and manliness with which these sentiments are avowed\nand defended.\n\nI perceive that since the adjustment of the tariff question a new subject\nof discontent and agitation seems to engross your attention.\n\nThe \"accursed tariff\" has no sooner ceased to be the stone of stumbling\nand the rock of offence, than the \"abolition doctrines of the Northern\nenthusiasts,\" as you are pleased to term the doctrines of your own\nJefferson, furnish, in your opinion, a sufficient reason for poising the\n\"Ancient Dominion\" on its sovereignty, and rousing every slaveowner to\nmilitary preparations, until the entire South, from the Potomac to the\nGulf, shall bristle with bayonets, \"like quills upon the fretful\nporcupine.\"\n\nIn proof of a conspiracy against your \"vested rights,\" you have commenced\npublishing copious extracts from the pamphlets and periodicals of the\nabolitionists of New England and New York.  An extract from my own\npamphlet you have headed \"The Fanatics,\" and in introducing it to your\nreaders you inform them that \"it exhibits, in strong colors, the morbid\nspirit of that false and fanatical philanthropy, which is at work in the\nNorthern states, and, to some extent, in the South.\"\n\nGentlemen, so far as I am personally concerned in the matter, I feel no\ndisposition to take exceptions to any epithets which you may see fit to\napply to me or my writings.  A humble son of New England--a tiller of her\nrugged soil, and a companion of her unostentatious yeomanry--it matters\nlittle, in any personal consideration of the subject, whether the voice\nof praise or opprobrium reaches me from beyond the narrow limits of my\nimmediate neighborhood.\n\nBut when I find my opinions quoted as the sentiment of New England, and\nthen denounced as dangerous, \"false and fanatical;\" and especially when I\nsee them made the occasion of earnest appeals to the prejudices and\nsectional jealousies of the South, it becomes me to endeavor to establish\ntheir truths, and defend them from illegitimate influences and unjust\nsuspicions.\n\nIn the first place, then, let me say, that if it be criminal to publicly\nexpress a belief that it is in the power of the slave states to\nemancipate their slaves, with profit and safety to themselves, and that\nsuch is their immediate duty, a majority of the people of New England are\nwholly guiltless.  Of course, all are nominally opposed to slavery; but\nupon the little band of abolitionists should the anathemas of the slave-\nholder be directed, for they are the agitators of whom you complain, men\nwho are acting under a solemn conviction of duty, and who are bending\nevery energy of their minds to the accomplishment of their object.\n\nAnd that object is the overthrow of slavery in the United States, by such\nmeans only as are sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion.\n\nI shall endeavor, gentlemen, as briefly as may be, to give you some of\nour reasons for opposing slavery and seeking its abolition; and,\nsecondly, to explain our mode of operation; to disclose our plan of\nemancipation, fully and entirely.  We wish to do nothing darkly; frank\nrepublicans, we acknowledge no double-dealing.  At this busy season of\nthe year, I cannot but regret that I have not leisure for such a\ndeliberate examination of the subject as even my poor ability might\nwarrant.  My remarks, penned in the intervals of labor, must necessarily\nbe brief, and wanting in coherence.\n\nWe seek the abolishment of slavery\n\n1.  Because it is contrary to the law of God.\n\nIn your paper of the 2d of 7th mo., the same in which you denounce the\n\"false and fanatical philanthropy\" of abolitionists, you avow yourselves\nmembers of the Bible Society, and bestow warm and deserved encomiums on\nthe \"truly pious undertaking of sending the truth among all nations.\"\n\nYou, therefore, gentlemen, whatever others may do, will not accuse me of\n\"fanaticism,\" if I endeavor to sustain my first great reason for opposing\nslavery by a reference to the volume of inspiration:\n\n\"Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do\nye even so to them.\"\n\n\"Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it;\nfor there is no iniquity with the Lord, nor respect of persons.\"\n\n\"Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  To loose the bands of\nwickedness; to undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and\nthat ye break every yoke?\"\n\n\"If a man be found stealing any of his brethren, and maketh merchandise\nof him, or selling him, that thief shall die.\"\n\n\"Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.\"\n\n\"And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his\nhands, he shall surely be put to death.\"\n\n2.  Because it is an open violation of all human equality, of the laws of\nNature and of nations.\n\nThe fundamental principle of all equal and just law is contained in the\nfollowing extract from Blackstone's Commentaries, Introduction, sec.  2.\n\n\"The rights which God and Nature have established, and which are\ntherefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the\naid of human laws to be more effectually vested in every man than they\nare; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by\nmunicipal laws to be inviolable: on the contrary, no human legislation\nhas power to abridge or destroy there, unless the owner shall himself\ncommit some act that amounts to a forfeiture.\"\n\nHas the negro committed such offence?  Above all, has his infant child\nforfeited its unalienable right?\n\nSurely it can be no act of the innocent child.\n\nYet you must prove the forfeiture, or no human legislation can deprive\nthat child of its freedom.\n\nIts black skin constitutes the forfeiture!\n\nWhat! throw the responsibility upon God!  Charge the common Father of the\nwhite and the black, He, who is no respecter of persons, with plundering\nHis unoffending children of all which makes the boon of existence\ndesirable; their personal liberty!\n\n\"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal;\nthat they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;\nthat among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\"--\n[Declaration of Independence, from the pen of Thomas Jefferson.]\n\nIn this general and unqualified declaration, on the 4th of July, 1776,\nall the people of the United States, without distinction of color, were\nproclaimed free, by the delegates of the people of those states assembled\nin their highest sovereign capacity.\n\nFor more than half a century we have openly violated that solemn\ndeclaration.\n\n3.  Because it renders nugatory the otherwise beneficial example of our\nfree institutions, and exposes us to the scorn and reproach of the\nliberal and enlightened of other nations.\n\n\"Chains clank and groans echo around the walls of their spotless\nCongress.\"--[Francis Jeffrey.]\n\n\"Man to be possessed by man!  Man to be made property of!  The image of\nthe Deity to be put under the yoke!  Let these usurpers show us their\ntitle-deeds!\"--[Simon Boliver.]\n\n\"When I am indulging in my views of American prospects and American\nliberty, it is mortifying to be told that in that very country a large\nportion of the people are slaves!  It is a dark spot on the face of the\nnation.  Such a state of things cannot always exist.\"--[Lafayette.]\n\n\"I deem it right to raise my humble voice to convince the citizens of\nAmerica that the slaveholding states are held in abomination by all those\nwhose opinion ought to be valuable.  Man is the property of man in about\none half of the American States: let them not therefore dare to prate of\ntheir institutions or of their national freedom, while they hold their\nfellow-men in bondage!  Of all men living, the American citizen who is\nthe owner of slaves is the most despicable.  He is a political hypocrite\nof the very worst description.  The friends of humanity and liberty in\nEurope should join in one universal cry of shame on the American slave-\nholders!  'Base wretches!' should we shout in chorus; 'base wretches!\nhow dare you profane the temple of national freedom, the sacred fane of\nrepublican rites, with the presence and the sufferings of human beings in\nchains and slavery!'\"--[Daniel O'Connell.]\n\n4.  Because it subjects one portion of our American brethren to the\nunrestrained violence and unholy passions of another.\n\nHere, gentlemen, I might summon to my support a cloud of witnesses, a\nhost of incontrovertible, damning facts, the legitimate results of a\nsystem whose tendency is to harden and deprave the heart.  But I will not\ndescend to particulars.  I am willing to believe that the majority of the\nmasters of your section of the country are disposed to treat their\nunfortunate slaves with kindness.  But where the dreadful privilege of\nslave-holding is extended to all, in every neighborhood, there must be\nindividuals whose cupidity is unrestrained by any principle of humanity,\nwhose lusts are fiercely indulged, whose fearful power over the bodies,\nnay, may I not say the souls, of their victims is daily and hourly\nabused.\n\nWill the evidence of your own Jefferson, on this point, be admissible?\n\n\"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise, of\nthe most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one\npart, and degrading submission on the other.  Our children see this, and\nlearn to imitate it.  The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the\nlineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller\nslaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated,\nand daily exercised in tyranny, cannot fail to be stamped by it with\nodious peculiarities.  The man must be a prodigy who can retain his\nmorals and manners undepraved by such circumstances.\"--[Notes on\nVirginia, p. 241.]\n\n\"Il n'existe a la verite aucune loi qui protege l'esclave le mauvais\ntraitement du maitre,\" says Achille Murat, himself a Floridian slave-\nholder, in his late work on the United States.\n\nGentlemen, is not this true?  Does there exist even in Virginia any law\nlimiting the punishment of a slave?  Are there any bounds prescribed,\nbeyond which the brutal, the revengeful, the intoxicated slave-master,\nacting in the double capacity of judge and executioner, cannot pass?\n\nYou will, perhaps, tell me that the general law against murder applies\nalike to master and slave.  True; but will you point out instances of\nmasters suffering the penalty of that law for the murder of their slaves?\nIf you examine your judicial reports you will find the wilful murder of a\nslave decided to be only a trespass!--[Virginia Reports, vol. v.  p. 481,\nHarris versus Nichols.]\n\nIt indeed argues well for Virginian pride of character, that latterly,\nthe law, which expressly sanctioned the murder of a slave, who in the\nlanguage of Georgia and North Carolina, \"died of moderate correction,\"\nhas been repealed.  But, although the letter of the law is changed, its\npractice remains the same.  In proof of this, I would refer to\nBrockenborough and Holmes' Virginia Cases, p. 258.\n\nIn Georgia and North Carolina the murder of a slave is tolerated and\njustified by law, provided that in the opinion of the court he died \"of\nmoderate correction!\"\n\nIn South Carolina the following clause of a law enacted in 1740 is still\nin force:--\n\n\"If any slave shall suffer in his life, limbs, or members, when no white\nperson shall be present, or being present shall neglect or refuse to give\nevidence concerning the same, in every such case the owner or other\nperson who shall have the care and government of the slave shall be\ndeemed and taken to be guilty of such offence; unless such owner or other\nperson can make the contrary appear by good and sufficient evidence, or\nshall by his own oath clear and exculpate himself, which oath every court\nwhere such offence shall be tried is hereby empowered to administer and\nto acquit the offender accordingly, if clear proof of the offence be not\nmade by two witnesses at least, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary\nnotwithstanding.\"\n\nIs not this offering a reward for perjury?  And what shall we think of\nthat misnamed court of justice, where it is optional with the witnesses,\nin a case of life and death, to give or withhold their testimony.\n\n5.  Because it induces dangerous sectional jealousies, creates of\nnecessity a struggle between the opposing interests of free and slave\nlabor, and threatens the integrity of the Union.\n\nThat sectional jealousies do exist, the tone of your paper, gentlemen, is\nof itself an evidence, if indeed any were needed.  The moral sentiment of\nthe free states is against slavery.  The freeman has declared his\nunwillingness that his labor should be reduced to a level with that of\nslaves.  Harsh epithets and harsh threats have been freely exchanged,\nuntil the beautiful Potomac, wherever it winds its way to the ocean, has\nbecome the dividing line, not of territory only, but of feeling,\ninterest, national pride, a moral division.\n\nWhat shook the pillars of the Union when the Missouri question was\nagitated?  What but a few months ago arrayed in arms a state against the\nUnion, and the Union against a state?\n\nFrom Maine to Florida, gentlemen, the answer must be the same, slavery.\n\n6.  Because of its pernicious influence upon national wealth and\nprosperity.\n\nPolitical economy has been the peculiar study of Virginia.  But there are\nsome important truths connected with this science which she has hitherto\noverlooked or wantonly disregarded.\n\nPopulation increasing with the means of subsistence is a fair test of\nnational wealth.\n\nBy reference to the several censuses of the United States, it will be\nseen that the white population increases nearly twice as fast in states\nwhere there are few or no slaves as in the slave states.\n\nAgain, in the latter states the slave population has increased twice as\nfast as the white.  Let us take, for example, the period of twenty years,\nfrom 1790 to 1810, and compare the increase of the two classes in three\nof the Southern states.\n\nPer cent. of whites.  Per cent. of blacks.\n\nMaryland       13                  31\nVirginia       24                  38\nNorth Carolina 30                  70\n\nThe causes of this disproportionate increase, so inimical to the true\ninterests of the country, are very manifest.\n\nA large proportion of the free inhabitants of the United States are\ndependent upon their labor for subsistence.  The forced, unnatural system\nof slavery in some of the states renders the demand for free laborers\nless urgent; they are not so readily and abundantly supplied with the\nmeans of subsistence as those of their own class in the free states, and\nas the necessaries of life diminish population also diminishes.\n\nThere is yet another cause for the decline of the white population.  In\nthe free states labor is reputable.  The statesman, whose eloquence has\nelectrified a nation, does not disdain in the intervals of the public\nservice to handle the axe and the hoe.  And the woman whose beauty,\ntalents, and accomplishments have won the admiration of all deems it no\ndegradation to \"look well to her household.\"\n\nBut the slave stamps with indelible ignominy the character of occupation.\nIt is a disgrace for a highborn Virginian or chivalrous Carolinian to\nlabor, side by side, with the low, despised, miserable black man.\nWretched must be the condition of the poorer classes of whites in a\nslave-holding community!  Compelled to perform the despised offices of\nthe slave, they can hardly rise above his level.  They become the pariahs\nof society.  No wonder, then, that the tide of emigration flows from the\nslave-cursed shores of the Atlantic to the free valleys of the West.\n\nIn New England the labor of a farmer or mechanic is worth from $150 to\n$200 per annum.  That of a female from $50 to $100.  Our entire\npopulation, with the exception of those engaged in mercantile affairs,\nthe professional classes, and a very few moneyed idlers, are working men\nand women.  If that of the South were equally employed (and slavery\napart, there is no reason why they should not be), how large an addition\nwould be annually made to the wealth of the country?  The truth is, a\nvery considerable portion of the national wealth produced by Northern\nlabor is taxed to defray the expenses of twenty-five representatives of\nSouthern property in Congress, and to maintain an army mainly for the\nprotection of the slave-master against the dangerous tendencies of that\nproperty.\n\nIn the early and better days of the Roman Republic, the ancient warriors\nand statesmen cultivated their fields with their own hands; but so soon\nas their agriculture was left to the slaves, it visibly declined, the\nonce fertile fields became pastures, and the inhabitants of that garden\nof the world were dependent upon foreign nations for the necessaries of\nlife.  The beautiful villages, once peopled by free contented laborers,\nbecame tenantless, and, over the waste of solitude, we see, here and\nthere, at weary distances, the palaces of the master, contrasting\npainfully with the wretched cottages and subterranean cells of the slave.\nIn speaking of the extraordinary fertility of the soil in the early times\nof the Republic, Pliny inquires, \"What was the cause of these abundant\nharvests?  It was this, that men of rank employed themselves in the\nculture of the fields; whereas now it is left to wretches loaded with\nfetters, who carry in their countenances the shameful evidence of their\nslavery.\"\n\nAnd what was true in the days of the Roman is now written legibly upon\nthe soil of your own Virginia.  A traveller in your state, in\ncontemplating the decline of its agriculture, has justly remarked that,\n\"if the miserable condition of the negro had left his mind for\nreflection, he would laugh in his chains to see how slavery has stricken\nthe land with ugliness.\"\n\nIs the rapid increase of a population of slaves in itself no evil?  In\nall the slave states the increase of the slaves is vastly more rapid than\nthat of the whites or free blacks.  When we recollect that they are under\nno natural or moral restraint, careless of providing food or clothing for\nthemselves or their children; when, too, we consider that they are raised\nas an article of profitable traffic, like the cattle of New England and\nthe hogs of Kentucky; that it is a matter of interest, of dollars and\ncents, to the master that they should multiply as fast as possible, there\nis surely nothing at all surprising in the increase of their numbers.\nWould to heaven there were also nothing alarming!\n\n7.  Because, by the terms of the national compact, the free and the slave\nstates are alike involved in the guilt of maintaining slavery, and the\ncitizens of the former are liable, at any moment, to be called upon to\naid the latter in suppressing, at the point of the bayonet, the\ninsurrection of the slaves.\n\nSlavery is, at the best, an unnatural state.  And Nature, when her\neternal principles are violated, is perpetually struggling to restore\nthem to their first estate.\n\nAll history, ancient and modern, is full of warning on this point.  Need\nI refer to the many revolts of the Roman and Grecian slaves, the bloody\ninsurrection of Etruria, the horrible servile wars of Sicily and Capua?\nOr, to come down to later times, to France in the fourteenth century,\nGermany in the sixteenth, to Malta in the last?  Need I call to mind the\nuntold horrors of St.  Domingo, when that island, under the curse of its\nservile war, glowed redly in the view of earth and heaven,--an open hell?\nHave our own peculiar warnings gone by unheeded,--the frequent slave\ninsurrections of the South?  One horrible tragedy, gentlemen, must still\nbe fresh in your recollection,--Southampton, with its fired dwellings and\nghastly dead!  Southampton, with its dreadful associations, of the death\nstruggle with the insurgents, the groans of the tortured negroes, the\nlamentations of the surviving whites over woman in her innocence and\nbeauty, and childhood, and hoary age!\n\n\"The hour of emancipation,\" said Thomas Jefferson, \"is advancing in the\nmarch of time.  It will come.  If not brought on by the generous energy\nof our own minds, it will come by the bloody process of St. Domingo!\"\n\nTo the just and prophetic language of your own great statesman I have but\na few words to add.  They shall be those of truth and soberness.\n\nWe regard the slave system in your section of the country as a great\nevil, moral and political,--an evil which, if left to itself for even a\nfew years longer, will give the entire South into the hands of the\nblacks.\n\nThe terms of the national compact compel us to consider more than two\nmillions of our fellow-beings as your property; not, indeed, morally,\nreally, de facto, but still legally your property!  We acknowledge that\nyou have a power derived from the United States Constitution to hold this\n\"property,\" but we deny that you have any moral right to take advantage\nof that power.  For truth will not allow us to admit that any human law\nor compact can make void or put aside the ordinance of the living God and\nthe eternal laws of Nature.\n\nWe therefore hold it to be the duty of the people of the slave-holding\nstates to begin the work of emancipation now; that any delay must be\ndangerous to themselves in time and eternity, and full of injustice to\ntheir slaves and to their brethren of the free states.\n\nBecause the slave has never forfeited his right to freedom, and the\ncontinuance of his servitude is a continuance of robbery; and because, in\nthe event of a servile war, the people of the free states would be called\nupon to take a part in its unutterable horrors.\n\nNew England would obey that call, for she will abide unto death by the\nConstitution of the land.  Yet what must be the feelings of her citizens,\nwhile engaged in hunting down like wild beasts their fellow-men--brutal\nand black it may be, but still oppressed, suffering human beings,\nstruggling madly and desperately for their liberty, if they feel and know\nthat the necessity of so doing has resulted from a blind fatality on the\npart of the oppressor, a reckless disregard of the warnings of earth and\nheaven, an obstinate perseverance in a system founded and sustained by\nrobbery and wrong?\n\nAll wars are horrible, wicked, inexcusable, and truly and solemnly has\nJefferson himself said that, in a contest of this kind, between the slave\nand the master, \"the Almighty has no attribute which could take side with\nus.\"\n\nUnderstand us, gentlemen.  We only ask to have the fearful necessity\ntaken away from us of sustaining the wretched policy of slavery by moral\ninfluence or physical force.  We ask alone to be allowed to wash our\nhands of the blood of millions of your fellow-beings, the cry of whom is\nrising up as a swift witness unto God against us.\n\n8.  Because all the facts connected with the subject warrant us in a most\nconfident belief that a speedy and general emancipation might be made\nwith entire safety, and that the consequences of such an emancipation\nwould be highly beneficial to the planters of the South.\n\nAwful as may be their estimate in time and eternity, I will not,\ngentlemen, dwell upon the priceless benefits of a conscience at rest, a\nsoul redeemed from the all-polluting influences of slavery, and against\nwhich the cry of the laborer whose hire has been kept back by fraud does\nnot ascend.  Nor will I rest the defence of my position upon the fact\nthat it can never be unsafe to obey the commands of God.  These are the\nold and common arguments of \"fanatics\" and \"enthusiasts,\" melting away\nlike frost-work in the glorious sunshine of expediency and utility.  In\nthe light of these modern luminaries, then, let us reason together.\n\nA long and careful examination of the subject will I think fully justify\nme in advancing this general proposition.\n\nWherever, whether in Europe, the East and West Indies, South America, or\nin our own country, a fair experiment has been made of the comparative\nexpense of free and slave labor, the result has uniformly been favorable\nto the former.\n\n     [See Brougham's Colonial Policy.  Hodgdon's Letter to Jean Baptiste\n     Say.  Waleh's Brazil.  Official Letter of Hon.  Mr. Ward, from\n     Mexico.  Dr. Dickson's Mitigation of Slavery.  Franklin on The\n     Peopling of Countries.  Ramsay's Essay.  Botham's Sugar Cultivation\n     in Batavia.  Marsden's History of Sumatra.  Coxe's Travels.  Dr.\n     Anderson's Observations on Slavery.  Storch's Political Economy.\n     Adam Smith.  J. Jeremies' Essays.  Humboldt's Travels, etc., etc.]\n\nHere, gentlemen, the issue is tendered.  Standing on your own ground of\nexpediency, I am ready to defend my position.\n\nI pass from the utility to the safety of emancipation.  And here,\ngentlemen, I shall probably be met at the outset with your supposed\nconsequences, bloodshed, rapine, promiscuous massacre!\n\nThe facts, gentlemen!  In God's name, bring out your facts!  If slavery\nis to cast over the prosperity of our country the thick shadow of an\neverlasting curse, because emancipation is dreaded as a remedy worse than\nthe disease itself, let us know the real grounds of your fear.\n\nDo you find them in the emancipation of the South American Republics?  In\nHayti?  In the partial experiments of some of the West India Islands?\nDoes history, ancient or modern, justify your fears?  Can you find any\nexcuse for them in the nature of the human mind, everywhere maddened by\ninjury and conciliated by kindness?  No, gentlemen; the dangers of\nslavery are manifest and real, all history lies open for your warning.\nBut the dangers of emancipation, of \"doing justly and loving mercy,\"\nexist only in your imaginations.  You cannot produce one fact in\ncorroboration of your fears.  You cannot point to the stain of a single\ndrop of any master's blood shed by the slave he has emancipated.\n\nI have now given some of our reasons for opposing slavery.  In my next\nletter I shall explain our method of opposition, and I trust I shall be\nable to show that there is nothing \"fanatical,\" nothing\n\"unconstitutional,\" and nothing unchristian in that method.\n\nIn the mean time, gentlemen, I am your friend and well-wisher.\n\nHAVERHILL, MASS., 22d 7th Mo., 1833.\n\n\n\n\n                                   II.\n\nThe abolitionists of the North have been grossly misrepresented.  In\nattacking the system of slavery, they have never recommended any measure\nor measures conflicting with the Constitution of the United States.\n\nThey have never sought to excite or encourage a spirit of rebellion among\nthe slaves: on the contrary, they would hold any such attempt, by\nwhomsoever made, in utter and stern abhorrence.\n\nAll the leading abolitionists of my acquaintance are, from principle,\nopposed to war of all kinds, believing that the benefits of no war\nwhatever can compensate for the sacrifice of one human life by violence.\n\nConsequently, they would be the first to deprecate any physical\ninterference with your slave system on the part of the general\ngovernment.\n\nThey are, without exception, opposed to any political interposition of\nthe government, in regard to slavery as it exists in the states.  For,\nalthough they feel and see that the canker of the moral disease is\naffecting all parts of the confederacy, they believe that the remedy lies\nwith yourselves alone.  Any such interference they would consider\nunlawful and unconstitutional; and the exercise of unconstitutional\npower, although sanctioned by the majority of a republican government,\nthey believe to be a tyranny as monstrous and as odious as the despotism\nof a Turkish Sultan.\n\nHaving made this disclaimer on the part of myself and my friends, let me\ninquire from whence this charge of advocating the interference of the\ngeneral government with the sovereign jurisdiction of the states has\narisen?  Will you, gentlemen, will the able editors of the United States\nTelegraph and the Columbian Telescope, explain?  For myself, I have\nsought in vain among the writings of our \"Northern Enthusiasts,\" and\namong the speeches of the Northern statesmen and politicians, for some\ngrounds for the accusation.\n\nThe doctrine, such as it is, does not belong to us.  I think it may be\ntraced home to the South, to Virginia, to her Convention of 1829, to the\nspeech of Ex-President Monroe, on the white basis question.\n\n\"As to emancipation,\" said that distinguished son of your state, \"if ever\nthat should take place, it cannot be done by the state; it must be done\nby the Union.\"\n\nAgain, \"If emancipation can ever be effected, it can only be done with\nthe aid of the general government.\"\n\nGentlemen, you are welcome to your doctrine.  It has no advocates among\nthe abolitionists of New England.\n\nWe aim to overthrow slavery by the moral influence of an enlightened\npublic sentiment;\n\nBy a clear and fearless exposition of the guilt of holding property in\nman;\n\nBy analyzing the true nature of slavery, and boldly rebuking sin;\n\nBy a general dissemination of the truths of political economy, in regard\nto free and slave labor;\n\nBy appeals from the pulpit to the consciences of men;\n\nBy the powerful influence of the public press;\n\nBy the formation of societies whose object shall be to oppose the\nprinciple of slavery by such means as are consistent with our obligations\nto law, religion, and humanity;\n\nBy elevating, by means of education and sympathy, the character of the\nfree people of color among us.\n\nOur testimony against slavery is the same which has uniformly, and with\nso much success, been applied to prevailing iniquity in all ages of the\nworld, the truths of divine revelation.\n\nBelieving that there can be nothing in the Providence of God to which His\nholy and eternal law is not strictly applicable, we maintain that no\ncircumstances can justify the slave-holder in a continuance of his\nsystem.\n\nThat the fact that this system did not originate with the present\ngeneration is no apology for retaining it, inasmuch as crime cannot be\nentailed; and no one is under a necessity of sinning because others have\ndone so before him;\n\nThat the domestic slave-trade is as repugnant to the laws of God, and\nshould be as odious in the eyes of a Christian community, as the foreign;\n\nThat the black child born in a slave plantation is not \"an entailed\narticle of property;\" and that the white man who makes of that child a\nslave is a thief and a robber, stealing the child as the sea pirate stole\nhis father!\n\nWe do not talk of gradual abolition, because, as Christians, we find no\nauthority for advocating a gradual relinquishment of sin.  We say to\nslaveholders, \"Repent now, to-day, immediately;\" just as we say to the\nintemperate, \"Break off from your vice at once; touch not, taste not,\nhandle not, from henceforth forever.\"\n\nBesides, the plan of gradual abolition has been tried in this country and\nthe West Indies, and found wanting.  It has been in operation in our\nslave states ever since the Declaration of Independence, and its results\nare before the nation.  Let us see.\n\nTHE ABOLITIONISTS  79\n\nIn 1790 there were in the slave states south of the Potomac and the Ohio\n20,415 free blacks.  Their increase for the ten years following was at\nthe rate of sixty per cent., their number in 1800 being 32,604.  In 1810\nthere were 58,046, an increase of seventy-five per cent.  This\ncomparatively large increase was, in a great measure, owing to the free\ndiscussions going on in England and in this country on the subject of the\nslave-trade and the rights of man.  The benevolent impulse extended to\nthe slave-masters, and manumissions were frequent.  But the salutary\nimpression died away; the hand of oppression closed again upon its\nvictims; and the increase for the period of twenty years, 1810 to 1830,\nwas only seventy-seven per cent., about one half of what it was in the\nten years from 1800 to 1810.  And this is the practical result of the\nmuch-lauded plan of gradual abolition.\n\nIn 1790, in the states above mentioned, there were only 550,604 slaves,\nbut in 1830 there were 1,874,098!  And this, too, is gradual abolition.\n\n\"What, then!\" perhaps you will ask, \"do you expect to overthrow our whole\nslave system at once? to turn loose to-day two millions of negroes?\"\n\nNo, gentlemen; we expect no such thing.  Enough for us if in the spirit\nof fraternal duty we point to your notice the commands of God; if we urge\nyou by every cherished remembrance of common sacrifices upon a common\naltar, by every consideration of humanity, justice, and expediency, to\nbegin now, without a moment's delay, to break away from your miserable\nsystem,--to begin the work of moral reformation, as God commands you to\nbegin, not as selfishness, or worldly policy, or short-sighted political\nexpediency, may chance to dictate.\n\nSuch is our doctrine of immediate emancipation.  A doctrine founded on\nGod's eternal truth, plain, simple, and perfect,--the doctrine of\nimmediate, unprocrastinated repentance applied to the sin of slavery.\n\nOf this doctrine, and of our plan for crrrying it into effect, I have\ngiven an exposition, with the most earnest regard to the truth.  Does\neither embrace anything false, fanatical, or unconstitutional?  Do they\nafford a reasonable protext for your fierce denunciations of your\nNorthern brethren?  Do they furnish occasion for your newspaper chivalry,\nyour stereotyped demonstrations of Southern magnanimity and Yankee\nmeanness?--things, let me say, unworthy of Virginians, degrading to\nyourselves, insulting to us.\n\nGentlemen, it is too late for Virginia, with all her lofty intellect and\nnobility of feeling, to defend and advocate the principle of slavery.\nThe death-like silence which for nearly two centuries brooded over her\nexecrable system has been broken; light is pouring in upon the minds of\nher citizens; truth is abroad, \"searching out and overturning the lies of\nthe age.\"  A moral reformation has been already awakened, and it cannot\nnow be drugged to sleep by the sophistries of detected sin.  A thousand\nintelligences are at work in her land; a thousand of her noblest hearts\nare glowing with the redeeming spirit of that true philanthropy, which is\nmoving all the world.  No, gentlemen; light is spreading from the hills\nof Western Virginia to the extremest East.  You cannot arrest its\nprogress.  It is searching the consciences; it is exercising the reason;\nit is appealing to the noblest characteristics of intelligent Virginians.\nIt is no foreign influence.  From every abandoned plantation where the\nprofitless fern and thistle have sprung up under the heel of slavery;\nfrom every falling mansion of the master, through whose windows the fox\nmay look out securely, and over whose hearth-stone the thin grass is\ncreeping, a warning voice is sinking deeply into all hearts not imbruted\nby avarice, indolence, and the lust of power.\n\nAbolitionist as I am, the intellectual character of Virginia has no\nwarmer admirer than myself.  Her great names, her moral trophies, the\nglories of her early day, the still proud and living testimonials of her\nmental power, I freely acknowledge and strongly appreciate.  And, believe\nme, it is with no other feelings than those of regret and heartfelt\nsorrow that I speak plainly of her great error, her giant crime, a crime\nwhich is visibly calling down upon her the curse of an offended Deity.\nBut I cannot forget that upon some of the most influential and highly\nfavored of her sons rests the responsibility at the present time of\nsustaining this fearful iniquity.  Blind to the signs of the times,\ncareless of the wishes of thousands of their white fellow-citizens and of\nthe manifold wrongs of the black man, they have dared to excuse, defend,\nnay, eulogize, the black abominations of slavery.\n\nAgainst the tottering ark of the idol these strong men have placed their\nshoulders.  That ark must fall; that idol must be cast down; what, then,\nwill be the fate of their supporters?\n\nWhen the Convention of 1829 had gathered in its splendid galaxy of\ntalents the great names of Virginia, the friends of civil liberty turned\ntheir eyes towards it in the earnest hope and confidence that it would\nadopt some measures in regard to slavery worthy of the high character of\nits members and of the age in which they lived.  I need not say how deep\nand bitter was our disappointment.  Western Virginia indeed spoke on that\noccasion, through some of her delegates, the words of truth and humanity.\nBut their counsels and warnings were unavailing; the majority turned away\nto listen to the bewildering eloquence of Leigh and Upshur and Randolph,\nas they desecrated their great intellects to the defence of that system\nof oppression under which the whole land is groaning.  The memorial of\nthe citizens of Augusta County, bearing the signatures of many slave-\nholders, placed the evils of slavery in a strong light before the\nconvention.  Its facts and arguments could only be arbitrarily thrust\naside and wantonly disregarded; they could not be disproved.\n\n\"In a political point of view,\" says the memorial, \"we esteem slavery an\nevil greater than the aggregate of all the other evils which beset us,\nand we are perfectly willing to bear our proportion of the burden of\nremoving it.  We ask, further, What is the evil of any such alarm as our\nproposition may excite in minds unnecessarily jealous compared with that\nof the fatal catastrophe which ultimately awaits our country, and the\ngeneral depravation of manners which slavery has already produced and is\nproducing?\"\n\nI cannot forbear giving one more extract from this paper.  The\nmemorialists state their belief\n\n\"That the labor of slaves is vastly less productive than that of freemen;\nthat it therefore requires a larger space to furnish subsistence for a\ngiven number of the former than of the latter; that the employment of the\nformer necessarily excludes that of the latter; that hence our\npopulation, white and black, averages seventeen, when it ought, and would\nunder other circumstances, average, as in New England, at least sixty to\na square mile; that the possession and management of slaves form a source\nof endless vexation and misery in the house, and of waste and ruin on the\nfarm; that the youth of the country are growing up with a contempt of\nsteady industry as a low and servile thing, which contempt induces\nidleness and all its attendant effeminacy, vice, and worthlessness; that\nthe waste of the products of the land, nay, of the land itself, is\nbringing poverty on all its inhabitants; that this poverty and the\nsparseness of population either prevent the institution of schools\nthroughout the country, or keep them in a most languid and inefficient\ncondition; and that the same causes most obviously paralyze all our\nschemes and efforts for the useful improvement of the country.\"\n\nGentlemen, you have only to look around you to know that this picture has\nbeen drawn with the pencil of truth.  What has made desolate and sterile\none of the loveliest regions of the whole earth?  What mean the signs of\nwasteful neglect, of long improvidence around you: the half-finished\nmansion already falling into decay, the broken-down enclosures, the weed-\ngrown garden the slave hut open to the elements, the hillsides galled and\nnaked, the fields below them run over with brier and fern?  Is all this\nin the ordinary course of nature?  Has man husbanded well the good gifts\nof God, and are they nevertheless passing from him, by a process of\ndeterioration over which he has no control?  No, gentlemen.  For more\nthan two centuries the cold and rocky soil of New England has yielded its\nannual tribute, and it still lies green and luxuriant beneath the sun of\nour brief summer.  The nerved and ever-exercised arm of free labor has\nchanged a landscape wild and savage as the night scenery of Salvator Rosa\ninto one of pastoral beauty,--the abode of independence and happiness.\nUnder a similar system of economy and industry, how would Virginia, rich\nwith Nature's prodigal blessings, have worn at this time over all her\nterritory the smiles of plenty, the charms of rewarded industry!  What a\nchange would have been manifest in your whole character!  Freemen in the\nplace of slaves, industry, reputable  economy, a virtue, dissipation\ndespised, emigration unnecessary!\n\n     [A late Virginia member of Congress described the Virginia slave-\n     holder as follows: \"He is an Eastern Virginian whose good fortune it\n     has been to have been born wealthy, and to have become a profound\n     politician at twenty-one without study or labor.  This individual,\n     from birth and habit, is above all labor and exertion.  He never\n     moves a finger for any useful purpose; he lives on the labor of his\n     slaves, and even this labor he is too proud and indolent to direct\n     in person.  While he is at his ease, a mercenary with a whip in his\n     hand drives his slaves in the field.  Their dinner, consisting of a\n     few scraps and lean bones, is eaten in the burning sun.  They have\n     no time to go to a shade and be refreshed such easement is reserved\n     for the horses\"!--Speech of Hon. P. P. Doddridge in House of\n     Delegates, 1829.]\n\nAll this, you will say, comes too late; the curse is upon you, the evil\nin the vitals of your state, the desolation widening day by day.  No, it\nis not too late.  There are elements in the Virginian character capable\nof meeting the danger, extreme as it is, and turning it aside.  Could you\nbut forget for a time partisan contest and unprofitable political\nspeculations, you might successfully meet the dangerous exigencies of\nyour state with those efficient remedies which the spirit of the age\nsuggests; you might, and that too without pecuniary loss, relinquish your\nclaims to human beings as slaves, and employ them as free laborers, under\nsuch restraint and supervision as their present degraded condition may\nrender necessary.  In the language of one of your own citizens, \"it is\nuseless for you to attempt to linger on the skirts of the age which is\ndeparted.  The action of existing causes and principles is steady and\nprogressive.  It cannot be retarded, unless you would blow out all the\nmoral lights around you; and if you refuse to keep up with it, you will\nbe towed in the wake, whether you will or not.\"--[Speech in Virginia\nlegislature, 1832.]\n\nThe late noble example of the eloquent statesman of Roanoke, the\nmanumission of his slaves, speaks volumes to his political friends.  In\nthe last hour of existence, when his soul was struggling from his broken\ntenement, his latest effort was the confirmation of this generous act of\na former period.  Light rest the turf upon him beneath his own\npatrimonial oaks!  The prayers of many hearts made happy by his\nbenevolence shall linger over his grave and bless it.\n\nGentlemen, in concluding these letters, let me once more assure you that\nI entertain towards you and your political friends none other than kindly\nfeelings.  If I have spoken at all with apparent harshness, it has been\nof principles rather than of men.  But I deprecate no censure.  Conscious\nof the honest and patriotic motives which have prompted their avowal, I\ncheerfully leave my sentiments to their fate.  Despised and contemned as\nthey may be, I believe they cannot be gainsaid.  Sustained by the truth\nas it exists in Nature and Revelation, sanctioned by the prevailing\nspirit of the age, they are yet destined to work out the political and\nmoral regeneration of our country.  The opposition which they meet with\ndoes not dishearten me.  In the lofty confidence of John Milton, I\nbelieve that \"though all the winds of doctrine be let loose upon the\nearth, so Truth be among them, we need not fear.  Let her and Falsehood\ngrapple; whoever knew her to be put to the worst in a free and open\nencounter?\"\n\nHAVERHILL, MASS., 29th of 7th Mo., 1833.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                       LETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL.\n\n                    HAVERHILL, 10th of 1st Mo., 1834.\n\nSAMUEL E. SEWALL, ESQ.,\nSecretary New England A. S. Society\n\nDEAR FRIEND,--I regret that circumstances beyond my control will not\nallow of my attendance at the annual meeting of the New England Anti-\nSlavery Society.\n\nI need not say to the members of that society that I am with them, heart\nand soul, in the cause of abolition; the abolition not of physical\nslavery alone, abhorrent and monstrous as it is, but of that intellectual\nslavery, the bondage of corrupt and mistaken opinion, which has fettered\nas with iron the moral energies and intellectual strength of New England.\n\nFor what is slavery, after all, but fear,--fear, forcing mind and body\ninto unnatural action?  And it matters little whether it be the terror of\nthe slave-whip on the body, or of the scourge of popular opinion upon the\ninner man.\n\nWe all know how often the representatives of the Southern division of the\ncountry have amused themselves in Congress by applying the opprobrious\nname of \"slave\" to the free Northern laborer.  And how familiar have the\nsignificant epithets of \"white slave\" and \"dough-face\" become!\n\nI fear these epithets have not been wholly misapplied.  Have we not been\ntold here, gravely and authoritatively, by some of our learned judges,\ndivines, and politicians, that we, the free people of New England, have\nno right to discuss the subject of slavery?  Freemen, and no right to\nsuggest the duty or the policy of a practical adherence to the doctrines\nof that immortal declaration upon which our liberties are founded!\nChristians, enjoying perfect liberty of conscience, yet possessing no\nright to breathe one whisper against a system of adultery and blood,\nwhich is filling the whole land with abomination and blasphemy!  And this\ncraven sentiment is echoed by the very men whose industry is taxed to\ndefray the expenses of twenty-five representatives of property, vested in\nbeings fashioned in the awful image of their Maker; by men whose hard\nearnings aid in supporting a standing army mainly for the protection of\nslaveholding indolence; by men who are liable at any moment to be called\nfrom the field and workshop to put down by force the ever upward\ntendencies of oppressed humanity, to aid the negro-breeder and the negro-\ntrader in the prosecution of a traffic most horrible in the eye of God,\nto wall round with their bayonets two millions of colored Americans,\nchildren of a common Father and heirs of a common eternity, while the\nbroken chain is riveted anew and the thrown-off fetter replaced.\n\nI am for the abolition of this kind of slavery.  It must be accomplished\nbefore we can hope to abolish the negro slavery of the country.  The\npeople of the free states, with a perfect understanding of their own\nrights and a sacred respect for the rights of others, must put their\nstrong shoulders to the work of moral reform, and our statesmen, orators,\nand politicians will follow, floating as they must with the tendency of\nthe current, the mere indices of popular sentiment.  They cannot be\nexpected to lead in this matter.  They are but instruments in the hands\nof the people for good or evil:--\n\n          \"A breath can make them, as a breath has made.\"\n\nBe it our task to give tone and direction to these instruments; to turn\nthe tide of popular feeling into the pure channels of justice; to break\nup the sinful silence of the nation; to bring the vaunted Christianity of\nour age and country to the test of truth; to try the strength and purity\nof our republicanism.  If the Christianity we profess has not power to\npull down the strongholds of prejudice, and overcome hate, and melt the\nheart of oppression, it is not of God.  If our republicanism is based on\nother foundation than justice and humanity, let it fall forever.\n\nNo better evidence is needed of the suicidal policy of this nation than\nthe death-like silence on the subject of slavery which pervades its\npublic documents.  Who that peruses the annual messages of the national\nexecutive would, from their perusal alone, conjecture that such an evil\nas slavery had existence among us?  Have the people reflected upon the\ncause of this silence?  The evil has grown to be too monstrous to be\nquestioned.  Its very magnitude has sealed the lips of the rulers.\nUneasily, and troubled with its dream of guilt, the nation sleeps on.\nThe volcano is beneath.  God is above us.\n\nAt every step of our peaceful and legal agitation of this subject we are\nmet with one grave objection.  We are told that the system which we are\nconscientiously opposing is recognized and protected by the Constitution.\nFor all the benefits of our fathers' patriotism--and they are neither few\nnor trifling--let us be grateful to God and to their memories.  But it\nshould not be forgotten that the same constitutional compact which now\nsanctions slavery guaranteed protection for twenty years to the foreign\nslave-trade.  It threw the shield of its \"sanctity\" around the now\nuniversally branded pirate.  It legalized the most abhorrent system of\nrobbery which ever cursed the family of man.\n\nDuring those years of sinful compromise the crime of man-robbery less\natrocious than at present?  Because the Constitution permitted, in that\nsingle crime, the violation of all the commandments of God, was that\nviolation less terrible to earth or offensive to heaven?\n\nNo one now defends that \"constitutional\" slavetrade.  Loaded with the\ncurse of God and man, it stands amidst minor iniquities, like Satan in\nPandemonium, preeminent and monstrous in crime.\n\nAnd if the slave-trade has become thus odious, what must be the fate,\nerelong, of its parent, slavery?  If the mere consequence be thus\nblackening under the execration of all the world, who shall measure the\ndreadful amount of infamy which must finally settle on the cause itself?\nThe titled ecclesiastic and the ambitious statesman should have their\nwarning on this point.  They should know that public opinion is steadily\nturning to the light of truth.  The fountains are breaking up around us,\nand the great deep will soon be in motion.  A stern, uncompromising, and\nsolemn spirit of inquiry is abroad.  It cannot be arrested, and its\nresult may be easily foreseen.  It will not long be popular to talk of\nthe legality of soul-murder, the constitutionality of man-robbery.\n\nOne word in relation to our duty to our Southern brethren.  If we detest\ntheir system of slavery in our hearts, let us not play the hypocrite with\nour lips.  Let us not pay so poor a compliment to their understandings as\nto suppose that we can deceive them into a compliance with our views of\njustice by ambiguous sophistry, and overcome their sinful practices and\nestablished prejudices by miserable stratagem.  Let us not first do\nviolence to our consciences by admitting their moral right to property in\nman, and then go to work like so many vagabond pedlers to cheat them out\nof it.  They have a right to complain of such treatment.  It is mean, and\nwicked, and dishonorable.  Let us rather treat our Southern friends as\nintelligent and high-minded men, who, whatever may be their faults,\ndespise unmanly artifice, and loathe cant, and abhor hypocrisy.\nConnected with them, not by political ties alone, but by common\nsacrifices and mutual benefits, let us seek to expostulate with them\nearnestly and openly, to gain at least their confidence in our sincerity,\nto appeal to their consciences, reason, and interests; and, using no\nother weapons than those of moral truth, contend fearlessly with the evil\nsystem they are cherishing.  And if, in an immediate compliance with the\nstrict demands of justice, they should need our aid and sympathy, let us\nopen to them our hearts and our purses.  But in the name of sincerity,\nand for the love of peace and the harmony of the Union, let there be no\nmore mining and countermining, no more blending of apology with\ndenunciation, no more Janus-like systems of reform, with one face for the\nSouth and another for the North.\n\nIf we steadily adhere to the principles upon which we have heretofore\nacted, if we present our naked hearts to the view of all, if we meet the\nthreats and violence of our misguided enemies with the bare bosom and\nweaponless hand of innocence, may we not trust that the arm of our\nHeavenly Father will be under us, to strengthen and support us?  And\nalthough we may not be able to save our country from the awful judgment\nshe is provoking, though the pillars of the Union fall and all the\nelements of her greatness perish, still let it be our part to rally\naround the standard of truth and justice, to wash our hands of evil, to\nkeep our own souls unspotted, and, bearing our testimony and lifting our\nwarning voices to the last, leave the event in the hands of a righteous\nGod.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                            JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.\n\n     In 1837 Isaac Knapp printed Letters from John Quincy Adams to his\n     Constituents of the Twelfth Congressional District in Massachusetts,\n     to which is added his Speech in Congress, delivered February 9,\n     1837, and the following stood as an introduction to the pamphlet.\n\nTHE following letters have been published, within a few weeks, in the\nQuincy (Mass.) 'Patriot'.  Notwithstanding the great importance of the\nsubjects which they discuss, the intense interest which they are\ncalculated to awaken throughout this commonwealth and the whole country,\nand the exalted reputation of their author as a profound statesman and\npowerful writer, they are as yet hardly known beyond the limits of the\nconstituency to whom they are particularly addressed.  The reason of this\nis sufficiently obvious.  John Quincy Adams belongs to neither of the\nprominent political parties, fights no partisan battles, and cannot be\nprevailed upon to sacrifice truth and principle upon the altar of party\nexpediency and interest.  Hence neither party is interested in defending\nhis course, or in giving him an opportunity to defend himself.  But\nhowever systematic may be the efforts of mere partisan presses to\nsuppress and hold back from the public eye the powerful and triumphant\nvindication of the Right of Petition, the graphic delineation of the\nslavery spirit in Congress, and the humbling disclosure of Northern\ncowardice and treachery, contained in these letters, they are destined to\nexert a powerful influence upon the public mind.  They will constitute\none of the most striking pages in the history of our times.  They will be\nread with avidity in the North and in the South, and throughout Europe.\nApart from the interest excited by the subjects under discussion, and\nviewed only as literary productions, they may be ranked among the highest\nintellectual efforts of their author.  Their sarcasm is Junius-like,--\ncold, keen, unsparing.  In boldness, directness, and eloquent appeal,\nthey will bear comparison with O'Connell's celebrated 'Letters to the\nReformers of Great Britain'.  They are the offspring of an intellect\nunshorn of its primal strength, and combining the ardor of youth with the\nexperience of age.\n\nThe disclosure made in these letters of the slavery influence exerted in\nCongress over the representatives of the free states, of the manner in\nwhich the rights of freemen have been bartered for Southern votes, or\nbasely yielded to the threats of men educated in despotism, and stamped\nby the free indulgence of unrestrained tyranny with the \"odious\npeculiarities\" of slavery, is painful and humiliating in the extreme.  It\nwill be seen that, in the great struggle for and against the Right of\nPetition, an account of which is given in the following pages, their\nauthor stood, in a great measure, alone and unsupported by his Northern\ncolleagues.  On his \"gray, discrowned head\" the entire fury of slave-\nholding arrogance and wrath was expended.  He stood alone, beating back,\nwith his aged and single arm, the tide which would have borne down and\noverwhelmed a less sturdy and determined spirit.\n\nWe need not solicit for these letters, and the speech which accompanies\nthem, a thorough perusal.  They deserve, and we trust will receive, a\ncirculation throughout the entire country.  They will meet a cordial\nwelcome from every lover of human liberty, from every friend of justice\nand the rights of man, irrespective of color or condition.  The\nprinciples which they defend, the sentiments which they express, are\nthose of Massachusetts, as recently asserted, almost unanimously, by her\nlegislature.  In both branches of that body, during the discussion of the\nsubject of slavery and the right of petition, the course of the ex-\nPresident was warmly and eloquently commended.  Massachusetts will\nsustain her tried and faithful representative; and the time is not far\ndistant when the best and worthiest citizens of the entire North will\nproffer him their thanks for his noble defence of their rights as\nfreemen, and of the rights of the slave as a man.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIBLE AND SLAVERY.\n\n     From a review of a pro-slavery pamphlet by \"Evangelicus\" in the\n     Boston Emancipator in 1843.\n\nTHE second part of the essay is occupied in proving that the slavery in\nthe Roman world, at the time of our Saviour, was similar in all essential\nfeatures to American slavery at the present day; and the third and\nconcluding part is devoted to an examination of the apostolical\ndirections to slaves and masters, as applicable to the same classes in\nthe United States.  He thinks the command to give to servants that which\nis just and equal means simply that the masters should treat their slaves\nwith equity, and that while the servant is to be profitable to the\nmaster, the latter is bound in \"a fair and equitable manner to provide\nfor the slave's subsistence and happiness.\"  Although he professes to\nbelieve that a faithful adherence to Scriptural injunctions on this point\nwould eventually terminate in the emancipation of the slaves, he thinks\nit not necessary to inquire whether the New Testament does or does not\n\"tolerate slavery as a permanent institution\"!\n\nFrom the foregoing synopsis it will be seen at once that whatever may\nhave been the motives of the writer, the effect of his publication, so\nfar as it is at all felt, will be to strengthen the oppressor in his\nguilt, and hold him back from the performance of his immediate duty in\nrespect to his slaves, and to shield his conscience from the reproofs of\nthat class who, according to \"Evangelicus,\" have \"no personal\nacquaintance with the actual domestic state or the social and political\nconnections of their Southern fellow-citizens.\"  We look upon it only as\nanother vain attempt to strike a balance between Christian duty and\ncriminal policy, to reconcile Christ and Belial, the holy philanthropy of\nHim who went about doing good with the most abhorrent manifestation of\nhuman selfishness, lust, and hatred which ever provoked the divine\ndispleasure.  There is a grave-stone coldness about it.  The author\nmanifests as little feeling as if he were solving a question in algebra.\nNo sigh of sympathy breathes through its frozen pages for the dumb,\nchained millions, no evidence of a feeling akin to that of Him who at the\ngrave of Lazarus\n\n          \"Wept, and forgot His power to save;\"\n\nno outburst of that indignant reproof with which the Divine Master\nrebuked the devourers of widows' houses and the oppressors of the poor is\ncalled forth by the writer's stoical contemplation of the tyranny of his\n\"Christian brethren\" at the South.\n\n\"It is not necessary,\" says Evangelicus, \"to inquire whether the New\nTestament does not tolerate slavery as a permanent institution.\"  And\nthis is said when the entire slave-holding church has sheltered its\nabominations under the pretended sanction of the gospel; when slavery,\nincluding within itself a violation of every command uttered amidst the\nthunders of Sinai, a system which has filled the whole South with the\noppression of Egypt and the pollutions of Sodom, is declared to be an\ninstitution of the Most High.  With all due deference to the author, we\ntell him, and we tell the church, North and South, that this question\nmust be met.  Once more we repeat the solemn inquiry which has been\nalready made in our columns, \"Is the Bible to enslave the world?\"  Has it\nbeen but a vain dream of ours that the mission of the Author of the\ngospel was to undo the heavy burdens, to open the prison doors, and to\nbreak the yoke of the captive?  Let Andover and Princeton answer.  If the\ngospel does sanction the vilest wrong which man can inflict upon his\nfellow-man, if it does rivet the chains which humanity, left to itself,\nwould otherwise cast off, then, in humanity's name, let it perish forever\nfrom the face of the earth.  Let the Bible societies dissolve; let not\nanother sheet issue from their presses.  Scatter not its leaves abroad\nover the dark places of the earth; they are not for the healing of the\nnations.  Leave rather to the Persian his Zendavesta, to the Mussulman\nhis Koran.  We repeat it, this question must be met.  Already we have\nheard infidelity exulting over the astute discoveries of bespectacled\ntheological professors, that the great Head of the Christian Church\ntolerated the horrible atrocities of Roman slavery, and that His most\nfavored apostle combined slave-catching with his missionary labors.  And\nwhy should it not exult?  Fouler blasphemy than this was never uttered.\nA more monstrous libel upon the Divine Author of Christianity was never\npropagated by Paine or Voltaire, Kneeland or Owen; and we are constrained\nto regard the professor of theology or the doctor of divinity who tasks\nhis sophistry and learning in an attempt to show that the Divine Mind\nlooks with complacency upon chattel slavery as the most dangerous enemy\nwith which Christianity has to contend.  The friends of pure and\nundefiled religion must awake to this danger.  The Northern church must\nshake itself clean from its present connection with blasphemers and\nslave-holders, or perish with them.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHAT IS SLAVERY\n\n\n     Addressed to the Liberty Party Convention at New Bedford in\n     September, 1843.\n\nI HAVE just received your kind invitation to attend the meeting of the\nLiberty Party in New Bedford on the 2d of next month.  Believe me, it is\nwith no ordinary feelings of regret that I find myself under the\nnecessity of foregoing the pleasure of meeting with you on that occasion.\nBut I need not say to you, and through you to the convention, that you\nhave my hearty sympathy.\n\nI am with the Liberty Party because it is the only party in the country\nwhich is striving openly and honestly to reduce to practice the great\ntruths which lie at the foundation of our republic: all men created\nequal, endowed with rights inalienable; the security of these rights the\nonly just object of government; the right of the people to alter or\nmodify government until this great object is attained.  Precious and\nglorious truths!  Sacred in the sight of their Divine Author, grateful\nand beneficent to suffering humanity, essential elements of that ultimate\nand universal government of which God is laying the strong and wide\nfoundations, turning and overturning, until He whose right it is shall\nrule.  The voice which calls upon us to sustain them is the voice of God.\nIn the eloquent language of the lamented Myron Holley, the man who first\nlifted up the standard of the Liberty Party: \"He calls upon us to sustain\nthese truths in the recorded voice of the holy of ancient times.  He\ncalls us to sustain them in the sound as of many waters and mighty\nthunderings rising from the fields of Europe, converted into one vast\nAceldama by the exertions of despots to suppress them; in the persuasive\nhistory of the best thoughts and boldest deeds of all our brave, self-\nsacrificing ancestors; in the tender, heart-reaching whispers of our\nchildren, preparing to suffer or enjoy the future, as we leave it for\nthem; in the broken and disordered but moving accents of half our race\nyet groping in darkness and galled by the chains of bondage.  He calls\nupon us to sustain them by the solemn and considerate use of all the\npowers with which He has invested us.\"  In a time of almost universal\npolitical scepticism, in the midst of a pervading and growing unbelief in\nthe great principles enunciated in the revolutionary declaration, the\nLiberty Party has dared to avow its belief in these truths, and to carry\nthem into action as far as it has the power.  It is a protest against the\npolitical infidelity of the day, a recurrence to first principles, a\nsummons once more to that deserted altar upon which our fathers laid\ntheir offerings.\n\nIt may be asked why it is that a party resting upon such broad principles\nis directing its exclusive exertions against slavery.  \"Are there not\nother great interests?\" ask all manner of Whig and Democrat editors and\npoliticians.  \"Consider, for instance,\" say the Democrats, \"the mighty\nquestion which is agitating us, whether a 'Northern man with Southern\nprinciples' or a Southern man with the principles of a Nero or Caligula\nshall be President.\"  \"Or look at us,\" say the Whigs, \"deprived of our\ninalienable right to office by this Tyler-Calhoun administration.  And\nbethink you, gentlemen, how could your Liberty Party do better than to\nvote with us for a man who, if he does hold some threescore of slaves,\nand maintain that 'two hundred years of legislation has sanctioned and\nsanctified negro slavery,' is, at the same time, the champion of Greek\nliberty, and Polish liberty, and South American liberty, and, in short,\nof all sorts of liberties, save liberty at home.\"\n\nYes, friends, we have considered all this, and more, namely, that one\nsixth part of our entire population are slaves, and that you, with your\nsubtreasuries and national banks, propose no relief for them.  Nay,\nfarther, it is because both of you, when in power, have used your\nauthority to rivet closer the chains of unhappy millions, that we have\nbeen compelled to abandon you, and form a liberty party having for its\nfirst object the breaking of these chains.\n\nWhat is slavery?  For upon the answer to this question must the Liberty\nParty depend for its justification.\n\nThe slave laws of the South tell us that it is the conversion of men into\narticles of property; the transformation of sentient immortal beings into\n\"chattels personal.\"  The principle of a reciprocity of benefits, which\nto some extent characterizes all other relations, does not exist in that\nof master and slave.  The master holds the plough which turns the soil of\nhis plantation, the horse which draws it, and the slave who guides it by\none and the same tenure.  The profit of the master is the great end of\nthe slave's existence.  For this end he is fed, clothed, and prescribed\nfor in sickness.  He learns nothing, acquires nothing, for himself.  He\ncannot use his own body for his own benefit.  His very personality is\ndestroyed.  He is a mere instrument, a means in the hands of another for\nthe accomplishment of an end in which his own interests are not regarded,\na machine moved not by his own will, but by another's.  In him the awful\ndistinction between a person and a thing is annihilated: he is thrust\ndown from the place which God and Nature assigned him, from the equal\ncompanionship of rational intelligence's,--a man herded with beasts, an\nimmortal nature classed with the wares of the merchant!\n\nThe relations of parent and child, master and apprentice, government and\nsubject, are based upon the principle of benevolence, reciprocal\nbenefits, and the wants of human society; relations which sacredly\nrespect the rights and legacies which God has given to all His rational\ncreatures.  But slavery exists only by annihilating or monopolizing these\nrights and legacies.  In every other modification of society, man's\npersonal ownership remains secure.  He may be oppressed, deprived of\nprivileges, loaded with burdens, hemmed about with legal disabilities,\nhis liberties restrained.  But, through all, the right to his own body\nand soul remains inviolate.  He retains his inherent, original possession\nof himself.  Even crime cannot forfeit it, for that law which destroys\nhis personality makes void its own claims upon him as a moral agent; and\nthe power to punish ceases with the accountability of the criminal.  He\nmay suffer and die under the penalties of the law, but he suffers as a\nman, he perishes as a man, and not as a thing.  To the last moments of\nhis existence the rights of a moral agent are his; they go with him to\nthe grave; they constitute the ground of his accountability at the bar of\ninfinite justice,--rights fixed, eternal, inseparable; attributes of all\nrational intelligence in time and eternity; the same in essence, and\ndiffering in degree only, with those of the highest moral being, of God\nhimself.\n\nSlavery alone lays its grasp upon the right of personal ownership, that\nfoundation right, the removal of which uncreates the man; a right which\nGod himself could not take away without absolving the being thus deprived\nof all moral accountability; and so far as that being is concerned,\nmaking sin and holiness, crime and virtue, words without significance,\nand the promises and sanctions of revelation, dreams.  Hence, the\ncrowning horror of slavery, that which lifts it above all other\niniquities, is not that it usurps the prerogatives of Deity, but that it\nattempts that which even He who has said, \"All souls are mine,\" cannot\ndo, without breaking up the foundations of His moral government.  Slavery\nis, in fact, a struggle with the Almighty for dominion over His rational\ncreatures.  It is leagued with the powers of darkness, in wresting man\nfrom his Maker.  It is blasphemy lifting brazen brow and violent hand to\nheaven, attempting a reversal of God's laws.  Man claiming the right to\nuncreate his brother; to undo that last and most glorious work, which God\nhimself pronounced good, amidst the rejoicing hosts of heaven!  Man\narrogating to himself the right to change, for his own selfish purposes,\nthe beautiful order of created existences; to pluck the crown of an\nimmortal nature, scarce lower than that of angels, from the brow of his\nbrother; to erase the God-like image and superscription stamped upon him\nby the hand of his Creator, and to write on the despoiled and desecrated\ntablet, \"A chattel personal!\"\n\nThis, then, is slavery.  Nature, with her thousand voices, cries out\nagainst it.  Against it, divine revelation launches its thunders.  The\nvoice of God condemns it in the deep places of the human heart.  The woes\nand wrongs unutterable which attend this dreadful violation of natural\njustice, the stripes, the tortures, the sunderings of kindred, the\ndesolation of human affections, the unchastity and lust, the toil\nuncompensated, the abrogated marriage, the legalized heathenism, the\nburial of the mind, are but the mere incidentals of the first grand\noutrage, that seizure of the entire man, nerve, sinew, and spirit, which\nrobs him of his body, and God of his soul.  These are but the natural\nresults and outward demonstrations of slavery, the crystallizations from\nthe chattel principle.\n\nIt is against this system, in its active operation upon three millions of\nour countrymen, that the Liberty Party is, for the present, directing all\nits efforts.  With such an object well may we be \"men of one idea.\"  Nor\ndo we neglect \"other great interests,\" for all are colored and controlled\nby slavery, and the removal of this disastrous influence would most\neffectually benefit them.\n\nPolitical action is the result and immediate object of moral suasion on\nthis subject.  Action, action, is the spirit's means of progress, its\nsole test of rectitude, its only source of happiness.  And should not\ndecided action follow our deep convictions of the wrong of slavery?\nShall we denounce the slave-holders of the states, while we retain our\nslavery in the District of Columbia?  Shall we pray that the God of the\noppressed will turn the hearts of \"the rulers\" in South Carolina, while\nwe, the rulers of the District, refuse to open the prisons and break up\nthe slave-markets on its ten miles square?  God keep us from such\nhypocrisy!  Everybody now professes to be opposed to slavery.  The\nleaders of the two great political parties are grievously concerned lest\nthe purity of the antislavery enterprise will suffer in its connection\nwith politics.  In the midst of grossest pro-slavery action, they are\nfull of anti-slavery sentiment.  They love the cause, but, on the whole,\nthink it too good for this world.  They would keep it sublimated, aloft,\nout of vulgar reach or use altogether, intangible as Magellan's clouds.\nEverybody will join us in denouncing slavery, in the abstract; not a\nfaithless priest nor politician will oppose us; abandon action, and\nforsooth we can have an abolition millennium; the wolf shall lie down\nwith the lamb, while slavery in practice clanks, in derision, its three\nmillions of unbroken chains.  Our opponents have no fear of the harmless\nspectre of an abstract idea.  They dread it only when it puts on the\nflesh and sinews of a practical reality, and lifts its right arm in the\nstrength which God giveth to do as well as theorize.\n\nAs honest men, then, we must needs act; let us do so as becomes men\nengaged in a great and solemn cause.  Not by processions and idle parades\nand spasmodic enthusiasms, by shallow tricks and shows and artifices, can\na cause like ours be carried onward.  Leave these to parties contending\nfor office, as the \"spoils of victory.\"  We need no disguises, nor false\npretences, nor subterfuges; enough for us to present before our fellow-\ncountrymen the holy truths of freedom, in their unadorned and native\nbeauty.  Dark as the present may seem, let us remember with hearty\nconfidence that truth and right are destined to triumph.  Let us blot out\nthe word \"discouragement\" from the anti-slavery vocabulary.  Let the\nenemies of freedom be discouraged; let the advocates of oppression\ndespair; but let those who grapple with wrong and falsehood, in the name\nof God and in the power of His truth, take courage.  Slavery must die.\nThe Lord hath spoken it.  The vials of His hot displeasure, like those\nwhich chastised the nations in the Apocalyptic vision, are smoking even\nnow, above its \"habitations of cruelty.\"  It can no longer be borne with\nby Heaven.  Universal humanity cries out against it.  Let us work, then,\nto hasten its downfall, doing whatsoever our hands find to do, \"with all\nour might.\"\n\nOctober, 1843.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                          DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY.\n\n                                 [1843.]\n\nTHE great leader of American Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, was an ultra-\nabolitionist in theory, while from youth to age a slave-holder in\npractice.  With a zeal which never abated, with a warmth which the frost\nof years could not chill, he urged the great truths, that each man should\nbe the guardian of his own weal; that one man should never have absolute\ncontrol over another.  He maintained the entire equality of the race, the\ninherent right of self-ownership, the equal claim of all to a fair\nparticipation in the enactment of the laws by which they are governed.\n\nHe saw clearly that slavery, as it existed in the South and on his own\nplantation, was inconsistent with this doctrine.  His early efforts for\nemancipation in Virginia failed of success; but he next turned his\nattention to the vast northwestern territory, and laid the foundation of\nthat ordinance of 1787, which, like the flaming sword of the angel at the\ngates of Paradise, has effectually guarded that territory against the\nentrance of slavery.  Nor did he stop here.  He was the friend and\nadmirer of the ultra-abolitionists of revolutionary France; he warmly\nurged his British friend, Dr. Price, to send his anti-slavery pamphlets\ninto Virginia; he omitted no opportunity to protest against slavery as\nanti-democratic, unjust, and dangerous to the common welfare; and in his\nletter to the territorial governor of Illinois, written in old age, he\nbequeathed, in earnest and affecting language, the cause of negro\nemancipation to the rising generation.  \"This enterprise,\" said he, \"is\nfor the young, for those who can carry it forward to its consummation.\nIt shall have all my prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old\nman.\"\n\nSuch was Thomas Jefferson, the great founder of American Democracy, the\nadvocate of the equality of human rights, irrespective of any conditions\nof birth, or climate, or color.  His political doctrines, it is strange\nto say, found their earliest recipients and most zealous admirers in the\nslave states of the Union.  The privileged class of slaveholders, whose\nrank and station \"supersede the necessity of an order of nobility,\"\nbecame earnest advocates of equality among themselves--the democracy of\naristocracy.  With the misery and degradation of servitude always before\nthem, in the condition of their own slaves, an intense love of personal\nindependence, and a haughty impatience of any control over their actions,\nprepared them to adopt the democratic idea, so far as it might be applied\nto their own order.  Of that enlarged and generous democracy, the love,\nnot of individual freedom alone, but of the rights and liberties of all\nmen, the unselfish desire to give to others the privileges which all men\nvalue for themselves, we are constrained to believe the great body of\nThomas Jefferson's slave-holding admirers had no adequate conception.\nThey were just such democrats as the patricians of Rome and the\naristocracy of Venice; lords over their own plantations, a sort of \"holy\nalliance\" of planters, admitting and defending each other's divine right\nof mastership.\n\nStill, in Virginia, Maryland, and in other sections of the slave states,\ntruer exponents and exemplifiers of the idea of democracy, as it existed\nin the mind of Jefferson, were not wanting.  In the debate on the\nmemorials presented to the first Congress of the United States, praying\nfor the abolition of slavery, the voice of the Virginia delegation in\nthat body was unanimous in deprecation of slavery as an evil, social,\nmoral, and political.  In the Virginia constitutional convention--of 1829\nthere were men who had the wisdom to perceive and the firmness to declare\nthat slavery was not only incompatible with the honor and prosperity of\nthe state, but wholly indefensible on any grounds which could be\nconsistently taken by a republican people.  In the debate on the same\nsubject in the legislature in 1832, universal and impartial democracy\nfound utterance from eloquent lips.  We might say as much of Kentucky,\nthe child of Virginia.  But it remains true that these were exceptions to\nthe general rule.  With the language of universal liberty on their lips,\nand moved by the most zealous spirit of democratic propagandism, the\ngreater number of the slave-holders of the Union seem never to have\nunderstood the true meaning, or to have measured the length and breadth\nof that doctrine which they were the first to adopt, and of which they\nhave claimed all along to be the peculiar and chosen advocates.\n\nThe Northern States were slow to adopt the Democratic creed.  The\noligarchy of New England, and the rich proprietors and landholders of the\nMiddle States, turned with alarm and horror from the levelling doctrines\nurged upon them by the \"liberty and equality\" propagandists of the South.\nThe doctrines of Virginia were quite as unpalatable to Massachusetts at\nthe beginning of the present century as those of Massachusetts now are to\nthe Old Dominion.  Democracy interfered with old usages and time-honored\ninstitutions, and threatened to plough up the very foundations of the\nsocial fabric.  It was zealously opposed by the representatives of New\nEngland in Congress and in the home legislatures; and in many pulpits\nhands were lifted to God in humble entreaty that the curse and bane of\ndemocracy, an offshoot of the rabid Jacobinism of revolutionary France,\nmight not be permitted to take root and overshadow the goodly heritage of\nPuritanism.  The alarmists of the South, in their most fervid pictures of\nthe evils to be apprehended from the prevalence of anti-slavery doctrines\nin their midst, have drawn nothing more fearful than the visions of such\n\n          \"Prophets of war and harbingers of ill\"\n\nas Fisher Ames in the forum and Parish in the desk, when contemplating\nthe inroads of Jeffersonian democracy upon the politics, religion, and\nproperty of the North.\n\nBut great numbers of the free laborers of the Northern States, the\nmechanics and small farmers, took a very different view of the matter.\nThe doctrines of Jefferson were received as their political gospel.  It\nwas in vain that federalism denounced with indignation the impertinent\ninconsistency of slave-holding interference in behalf of liberty in the\nfree states.  Come the doctrine from whom it might, the people felt it to\nbe true.  State after state revolted from the ranks of federalism, and\nenrolled itself on the side of democracy.  The old order of things was\nbroken up; equality before the law was established, religious tests and\nrestrictions of the right of suffrage were abrogated.  Take\nMassachusetts, for example.  There the resistance to democratic\nprinciples was the most strenuous and longest continued.  Yet, at this\ntime, there is no state in the Union more thorough in its practical\nadoption of them.  No property qualifications or religious tests prevail;\nall distinctions of sect, birth, or color, are repudiated, and suffrage\nis universal.  The democracy, which in the South has only been held in a\nstate of gaseous abstraction, hardened into concrete reality in the cold\nair of the North.  The ideal became practical, for it had found lodgment\namong men who were accustomed to act out their convictions and test all\ntheir theories by actual experience.\n\nWhile thus making a practical application of the new doctrine, the people\nof the free states could not but perceive the incongruity of democracy\nand slavery.\n\nSelleck Osborn, who narrowly escaped the honor of a Democratic martyr in\nConnecticut, denounced slave-holding, in common with other forms of\noppression.  Barlow, fresh from communion with Gregoire, Brissot, and\nRobespierre, devoted to negro slavery some of the most vigorous and\ntruthful lines of his great poem.  Eaton, returning from his romantic\nachievements in Tunis for the deliverance of white slaves, improved the\noccasion to read a lecture to his countrymen on the inconsistency and\nguilt of holding blacks in servitude.  In the Missouri struggle of 1819-\n20, the people of the free states, with a few ignoble exceptions, took\nissue with the South against the extension of slavery.  Some ten years\nlater, the present antislavery agitation commenced.  It originated,\nbeyond a question, in the democratic element.  With the words of\nJefferson on their lips, young, earnest, and enthusiastic men called the\nattention of the community to the moral wrong and political reproach of\nslavery.  In the name and spirit of democracy, the moral and political\npowers of the people were invoked to limit, discountenance, and put an\nend to a system so manifestly subversive of its foundation principles.\nIt was a revival of the language of Jefferson and Page and Randolph, an\necho of the voice of him who penned the Declaration of Independence and\noriginated the ordinance of 1787.\n\nMeanwhile the South had wellnigh forgotten the actual significance of the\nteachings of its early political prophets, and their renewal in the shape\nof abolitionism was, as might have been expected, strange and unwelcome.\nPleasant enough it had been to hold up occasionally these democratic\nabstractions for the purpose of challenging the world's admiration and\ncheaply acquiring the character of lovers of liberty and equality.\nFrederick of Prussia, apostrophizing the shades of Cato and Brutus,\n\n          \"Vous de la liberte heros que je revere,\"\n\nwhile in the full exercise of his despotic power, was quite as consistent\nas these democratic slaveowners, whose admiration of liberty increased in\nexact ratio with its distance from their own plantations.  They had not\ncalculated upon seeing their doctrine clothed with life and power, a\npractical reality, pressing for application to their slaves as well as to\nthemselves.  They had not taken into account the beautiful ordination of\nProvidence, that no man can vindicate his own rights, without directly or\nimpliedly including in that vindication the rights of all other men.  The\nhaughty and oppressive barons who wrung from their reluctant monarch the\nGreat Charter at Runnymede, acting only for themselves and their class,\nlittle dreamed of the universal application which has since been made of\ntheir guaranty of rights and liberties.  As little did the nobles of the\nparliament of Paris, when strengthening themselves by limiting the kingly\nprerogative, dream of the emancipation of their own serfs, by a\nrevolution to which they were blindly giving the first impulse.  God's\ntruth is universal; it cannot be monopolized by selfishness.\n\n\n\n\n\n                           THE TWO PROCESSIONS.\n\n                                 [1844.]\n\n              \"Look upon this picture, and on this.\"  HAMLET.\n\nCONSIDERING that we have a slave population of nearly three millions, and\nthat in one half of the states of the Republic it is more hazardous to\nact upon the presumption that \"all men are created free and equal\" than\nit would be in Austria or Russia, the lavish expression of sympathy and\nextravagant jubilation with which, as a people, we are accustomed to\ngreet movements in favor of freedom abroad are not a little remarkable.\nWe almost went into ecstasies over the first French revolution; we filled\nour papers with the speeches of orator Hunt and the English radicals; we\nfraternized with the United Irishmen; we hailed as brothers in the cause\nof freedom the very Mexicans whom we have since wasted with fire and\nsword; our orators, North and South, grew eloquent and classic over the\nGreek and Polish revolutions.  In short, long ere this, if the walls of\nkingcraft and despotism had been, like those of Jericho, destined to be\noverthrown by sound, our Fourth of July cannon-shootings and bell-\nringings, together with our fierce, grandiloquent speech-makings in and\nout of Congress, on the occasions referred to, would have left no stone\nupon another.\n\nIt is true that an exception must be made in the case of Hayti.  We fired\nno guns, drank no toasts, made no speeches in favor of the establishment\nof that new republic in our neighborhood.  The very mention of the\npossibility that Haytien delegates might ask admittance to the congress\nof the free republics of the New World at Panama \"frightened from their\npropriety\" the eager propagandists of republicanism in the Senate, and\ngave a death-blow to their philanthropic projects.  But as Hayti is a\nrepublic of blacks who, having revolted from their masters as well as\nfrom the mother country, have placed themselves entirely without the pale\nof Anglo-Saxon sympathy by their impertinent interference with the\nmonopoly of white liberty, this exception by no means disproves the\ngeneral fact, that in the matter of powder-burning, bell-jangling,\nspeech-making, toast-drinking admiration of freedom afar off and in the\nabstract we have no rivals.  The caricature of our \"general sympathizers\"\nin Martin Chuzzlewit is by no means a fancy sketch.\n\nThe news of the revolution of the three days in Paris, and the triumph of\nthe French people over Charles X. and his ministers, as a matter of\ncourse acted with great effect upon our national susceptibility.  We all\nthrew up our hats in excessive joy at the spectacle of a king dashed down\nheadlong from his throne and chased out of his kingdom by his long-\nsuffering and oppressed subjects.  We took half the credit of the\nperformance to ourselves, inasmuch as Lafayette was a principal actor in\nit.  Our editors, from Passamaquoddy to the Sabine, indited paragraphs\nfor a thousand and one newspapers, congratulating the Parisian patriots,\nand prophesying all manner of evil to holy alliances, kings, and\naristocracies.  The National Intelligencer for September 27, 1830,\ncontains a full account of the public rejoicings of the good people of\nWashington on the occasion.  Bells were rung in all the steeples, guns\nwere fired, and a grand procession was formed, including the President of\nthe United States, the heads of departments, and other public\nfunctionaries.  Decorated with tricolored ribbons, and with tricolored\nflags mingling with the stripes and stars over their heads, and gazed\ndown upon by bright eyes from window and balcony, the \"general\nsympathizers\" moved slowly and majestically through the broad avenue\ntowards the Capitol to celebrate the revival of French liberty in a\nmanner becoming the chosen rulers of a free people.\n\nWhat a spectacle was this for the representatives of European kingcraft\nat our seat of government!  How the titled agents of Metternich and\nNicholas must have trembled, in view of this imposing demonstration, for\nthe safety of their \"peculiar institutions!\"\n\nUnluckily, however, the moral effect of this grand spectacle was marred\nsomewhat by the appearance of another procession, moving in a contrary\ndirection.  It was a gang of slaves!  Handcuffed in pairs, with the\nsullen sadness of despair in their faces, they marched wearily onward to\nthe music of the driver's whip and the clanking iron on their limbs.\nThink of it!  Shouts of triumph, rejoicing bells, gay banners, and\nglittering cavalcades, in honor of Liberty, in immediate contrast with\nmen and women chained and driven like cattle to market!  The editor of\nthe American Spectator, a paper published at Washington at that time,\nspeaking of this black procession of slavery, describes it as \"driven\nalong by what had the appearance of a man on horseback.\"  The miserable\nwretches who composed it were doubtless consigned to a slave-jail to\nawait their purchase and transportation to the South or Southwest; and\nperhaps formed a part of that drove of human beings which the same editor\nstates that he saw on the Saturday following, \"males and females chained\nin couples, starting from Robey's tavern, on foot, for Alexandria, to\nembark on board a slave-ship.\"\n\nAt a Virginia camp-meeting, many years ago, one of the brethren,\nattempting an exhortation, stammered, faltered, and finally came to a\ndead stand.  \"Sit down, brother,\" said old Father Kyle, the one-eyed\nabolition preacher; \"it's no use to try; you can't preach with twenty\nnegroes sticking in your throat!\" It strikes us that our country is very\nmuch in the condition of the poor confused preacher at the camp-meeting.\nSlavery sticks in its throat, and spoils its finest performances,\npolitical and ecclesiastical; confuses the tongues of its evangelical\nalliances; makes a farce of its Fourth of July celebrations; and, as in\nthe case of the grand Washington procession of 1830, sadly mars the\neffect of its rejoicings in view of the progress of liberty abroad.\nThere is a stammer in all our exhortations; our moral and political\nhomilies are sure to run into confusions and contradictions; and the\nresponse which comes to us from the nations is not unlike that of Father\nKyle to the planter's attempt at sermonizing: \"It's no use, brother\nJonathan; you can't preach liberty with three millions of slaves in your\nthroat!\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                          A CHAPTER OF HISTORY.\n\n                                 [1844.]\n\nTHE theory which a grave and learned Northern senator has recently\nannounced in Congress, that slavery, like the cotton-plant, is confined\nby natural laws to certain parallels of latitude, beyond which it can by\nno possibility exist, however it may have satisfied its author and its\nauditors, has unfortunately no verification in the facts of the case.\nSlavery is singularly cosmopolitan in its habits.  The offspring of\npride, and lust, and avarice, it is indigenous to the world.  Rooted in\nthe human heart, it defies the rigors of winter in the steppes of Tartary\nand the fierce sun of the tropics.  It has the universal acclimation of\nsin.\n\nThe first account we have of negro slaves in New England is from the pen\nof John Josselyn.  Nineteen years after the landing at Plymouth, this\ninteresting traveller was for some time the guest of Samuel Maverick, who\nthen dwelt, like a feudal baron, in his fortalice on Noddle's Island,\nsurrounded by retainers and servants, bidding defiance to his Indian\nneighbors behind his strong walls, with \"four great guns\" mounted\nthereon, and \"giving entertainment to all new-comers gratis.\"\n\n\"On the 2d of October, 1639, about nine o'clock in the morning, Mr.\nMaverick's negro woman,\" says Josselyn, \"came to my chamber, and in her\nown country language and tune sang very loud and shrill.  Going out to\nher, she used a great deal of respect towards me, and would willingly\nhave expressed her grief in English had she been able to speak the\nlanguage; but I apprehended it by her countenance and deportment.\nWhereupon I repaired to my host to learn of him the cause, and resolved\nto entreat him in her behalf; for I had understood that she was a queen\nin her own country, and observed a very dutiful and humble garb used\ntowards her by another negro, who was her maid.  Mr. Maverick was\ndesirous to have a breed of negroes; and therefore, seeing she would not\nyield by persuasions to company with a negro young man he had in his\nhouse, he commanded him, willed she, nilled she, to go to her bed, which\nwas no sooner done than she thrust him out again.  This she took in high\ndisdain beyond her slavery; and this was the cause of her grief.\"\n\nThat the peculiar domestic arrangements and unfastidious economy of this\nslave-breeding settler were not countenanced by the Puritans of that\nearly time we have sufficient evidence.  It is but fair to suppose, from\nthe silence of all other writers of the time with respect to negroes and\nslaves, that this case was a marked exception to the general habits and\nusage of the Colonists.  At an early period a traffic was commenced\nbetween the New England Colonies and that of Barbadoes; and it is not\nimprobable that slaves were brought to Boston from that island.  The\nlaws, however, discouraged their introduction and purchase, giving\nfreedom to all held to service at the close of seven years.\n\nIn 1641, two years after Josselyn's adventure on Noddle's Island, the\ncode of laws known by the name of the Body of Liberties was adopted by\nthe Colony.  It was drawn up by Nathaniel Ward, the learned and ingenious\nauthor of the 'Simple Cobbler of Agawarn', the earliest poetical satire\nof New England.  One of its provisions was as follows:--\n\n\"There shall be never any bond slaverie, villainage, or captivitie\namongst us, unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres and such\nstrangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us.  And these\nshall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of God\nestablished in Israel doth morally require.\"\n\nIn 1646, Captain Smith, a Boston church-member, in connection with one\nKeeser, brought home two negroes whom he obtained by the surprise and\nburning of a negro village in Africa and the massacre of many of its\ninhabitants.  Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the assistants, presented a\npetition to the General Court, stating the outrage thereby committed as\nthreefold in its nature, namely murder, man-stealing, and Sabbath-\nbreaking; inasmuch as the offence of \"chasing the negers, as aforesayde,\nupon the Sabbath day (being a servile work, and such as cannot be\nconsidered under any other head) is expressly capital by the law of God;\"\nfor which reason he prays that the offenders may be brought to justice,\n\"soe that the sin they have committed may be upon their own heads and not\nupon ourselves.\"\n\nUpon this petition the General Court passed the following order,\neminently worthy of men professing to rule in the fear and according to\nthe law of God,--a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do\nwell:--\n\n\"The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity\nto bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as\nalso to prescribe such timely redress for what has passed, and such a law\nfor the future as may sufficiently deter all others belonging to us to\nhave to do in such vile and odious courses, justly abhorred of all good\nand just men, do order that the negro interpreter, and others unlawfully\ntaken, be by the first opportunity, at the charge of the country for the\npresent, sent to his native country, Guinea, and a letter with him of the\nindignation of the Court thereabout, and justice thereof, desiring our\nhonored Governor would please put this order in execution.\"\n\nThere is, so far as we know, no historical record of the actual return of\nthese stolen men to their home.  A letter is extant, however, addressed\nin behalf of the General Court to a Mr. Williams on the Piscataqua, by\nwhom one of the negroes had been purchased, requesting him to send the\nman forthwith to Boston, that he may be sent home, \"which this Court do\nresolve to send back without delay.\"\n\nThree years after, in 1649, the following law was placed upon the\nstatute-book of the Massachusetts Colony:--\n\n\"If any man stealeth a man, or mankind, he shall surely be put to death.\"\n\nIt will thus be seen that these early attempts to introduce slavery into\nNew England were opposed by severe laws and by that strong popular\nsentiment in favor of human liberty which characterized the Christian\nradicals who laid the foundations of the Colonies.  It was not the rigor\nof her Northern winter, nor the unkindly soil of Massachusetts, which\ndiscouraged the introduction of slavery in the first half-century of her\nexistence as a colony.  It was the Puritan's recognition of the\nbrotherhood of man in sin, suffering, and redemption, his estimate of the\nawful responsibilities and eternal destinies of humanity, his hatred of\nwrong and tyranny, and his stern sense of justice, which led him to\nimpose upon the African slave-trader the terrible penalty of the Mosaic\ncode.\n\nBut that brave old generation passed away.  The civil contentions in the\nmother country drove across the seas multitudes of restless adventurers\nand speculators.  The Indian wars unsettled and demoralized the people.\nHabits of luxury and the greed of gain took the place of the severe self-\ndenial and rigid virtues of the fathers.  Hence we are not surprised to\nfind that Josselyn, in his second visit to New England, some twenty-five\nyears after his first, speaks of the great increase of servants and\nnegroes.  In 1680 Governor Bradstreet, in answer to the inquiries of his\nMajesty's Privy Council, states that two years before a vessel from\nMadagasca \"brought into the Colony betwixt forty and fifty negroes,\nmostly women and children, who were sold at a loss to the owner of the\nvessel.\"  \"Now and then,\" he continues, \"two or three negroes are brought\nfrom Barbadoes and other of his Majesty's plantations and sold for twenty\npounds apiece; so that there may be within the government about one\nhundred or one hundred and twenty, and it may be as many Scots, brought\nhither and sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland, and\nabout half as many Irish.\"\n\nThe owning of a black or white slave, or servant, at this period was\nregarded as an evidence of dignity and respectability; and hence\nmagistrates and clergymen winked at the violation of the law by the\nmercenary traders, and supplied themselves without scruple.  Indian\nslaves were common, and are named in old wills, deeds, and inventories,\nwith horses, cows, and household furniture.  As early as the year 1649 we\nfind William Hilton, of Newbury, sells to George Carr, \"for one quarter\npart of a vessel, James, my Indian, with all the interest I have in him,\nto be his servant forever.\"  Some were taken in the Narragansett war and\nother Indian wars; others were brought from South Carolina and the\nSpanish Main.  It is an instructive fact, as illustrating the retributive\ndealings of Providence, that the direst affliction of the Massachusetts\nColony--the witchcraft terror of 1692--originated with the Indian Tituba,\na slave in the family of the minister of Danvers.\n\nIn the year 1690 the inhabitants of Newbury were greatly excited by the\narrest of a Jerseyman who had been engaged in enticing Indians and\nnegroes to leave their masters.  He was charged before the court with\nsaying that \"the English should be cut off and the negroes set free.\"\nJames, a negro slave, and Joseph, an Indian, were arrested with him.\nTheir design was reported to be, to seize a vessel in the port and escape\nto Canada and join the French, and return and lay waste and plunder their\nmasters.  They were to come back with five hundred Indians and three\nhundred Canadians; and the place of crossing the Merrimac River, and of\nthe first encampment on the other side, were even said to be fixed upon.\nWhen we consider that there could not have been more than a score of\nslaves in the settlement, the excitement into which the inhabitants were\nthrown by this absurd rumor of conspiracy seems not very unlike that of a\nconvocation of small planters in a backwoods settlement in South Carolina\non finding an anti-slavery newspaper in their weekly mail bag.\n\nIn 1709 Colonel Saltonstall, of Haverhill, had several negroes, and among\nthem a high-spirited girl, who, for some alleged misdemeanor, was\nseverely chastised.  The slave resolved upon revenge for her injury, and\nsoon found the means of obtaining it.  The Colonel had on hand, for\nservice in the Indian war then raging, a considerable store of gunpowder.\nThis she placed under the room in which her master and mistress slept,\nlaid a long train, and dropped a coal on it.  She had barely time to\nescape to the farm-house before the explosion took place, shattering the\nstately mansion into fragments.  Saltonstall and his wife were carried on\ntheir bed a considerable distance, happily escaping serious injury.  Some\nsoldiers stationed in the house were scattered in all directions; but no\nlives were lost.  The Colonel, on recovering from the effects of his\nsudden overturn, hastened to the farm-house and found his servants all up\nsave the author of the mischief, who was snug in bed and apparently in a\nquiet sleep.\n\nIn 1701 an attempt was made in the General Court of Massachusetts to\nprevent the increase of slaves.  Judge Sewall soon after published a\npamphlet against slavery, but it seems with little effect.  Boston\nmerchants and ship-owners became, to a considerable extent, involved in\nthe slave-trade.  Distilleries, established in that place and in Rhode\nIsland, furnished rum for the African market.  The slaves were usually\ntaken to the West Indies, although occasionally part of a cargo found its\nway to New England, where the wholesome old laws against man-stealing had\nbecome a dead letter on the statute-book.\n\nIn 1767 a bill was brought before the Legislature of Massachusetts to\nprevent \"the unwarrantable and unnatural custom of enslaving mankind.\"\nThe Council of Governor Bernard sent it back to the House greatly changed\nand curtailed, and it was lost by the disagreement of the two branches.\nGovernor Bernard threw his influence on the side of slavery.  In 1774 a\nbill prohibiting the traffic in slaves passed both Houses; but Governor\nHutchinson withheld his assent and dismissed the Legislature.  The\ncolored men sent a deputation of their own to the Governor to solicit his\nconsent to the bill; but he told them his instructions forbade him.  A\nsimilar committee waiting upon General Gage received the same answer.\n\nIn the year 1770 a servant of Richard Lechmere, of Cambridge, stimulated\nby the general discussion of the slavery question and by the advice of\nsome of the zealous advocates of emancipation, brought an action against\nhis master for detaining him in bondage.  The suit was decided in his\nfavor two years before the similar decision in the case of Somerset in\nEngland.  The funds necessary for carrying on this suit were raised among\nthe blacks themselves.  Other suits followed in various parts of the\nProvince; and the result was, in every instance, the freedom of the\nplaintiff.  In 1773 Caesar Hendrick sued his master, one Greenleaf, of\nNewburyport, for damages, laid at fifty pounds, for holding him as a\nslave.  The jury awarded him his freedom and eighteen pounds.\n\nAccording to Dr. Belknap, whose answers to the queries on the subject,\npropounded by Judge Tucker, of Virginia, have furnished us with many of\nthe facts above stated, the principal grounds upon which the counsel of\nthe masters depended were, that the negroes were purchased in open\nmarket, and included in the bills of sale like other property; that\nslavery was sanctioned by usage; and, finally, that the laws of the\nProvince recognized its existence by making masters liable for the\nmaintenance of their slaves, or servants.\n\nOn the part of the blacks, the law and usage of the mother country,\nconfirmed by the Great Charter, that no man can be deprived of his\nliberty but by the judgment of his peers, were effectually pleaded.  The\nearly laws of the Province prohibited slavery, and no subsequent\nlegislation had sanctioned it; for, although the laws did recognize its\nexistence, they did so only to mitigate and modify an admitted evil.\n\nThe present state constitution was established in 1780.  The first\narticle of the Bill of Rights prohibited slavery by affirming the\nfoundation truth of our republic, that \"all men are born free and equal.\"\nThe Supreme Court decided in 1783 that no man could hold another as\nproperty without a direct violation of that article.\n\nIn 1788 three free black citizens of Boston were kidnapped and sold into\nslavery in one of the French islands.  An intense excitement followed.\nGovernor Hancock took efficient measures for reclaiming the unfortunate\nmen.  The clergy of Boston petitioned the Legislature for a total\nprohibition of the foreign slave-trade.  The Society of Friends, and the\nblacks generally, presented similar petitions; and the same year an act\nwas passed prohibiting the slave-trade and granting relief to persons\nkidnapped or decoyed out of the Commonwealth.  The fear of a burden to\nthe state from the influx of negroes from abroad led the Legislature, in\nconnection with this law, to prevent those who were not citizens of the\nstate or of other states from gaining a residence.\n\nThe first case of the arrest of a fugitive slave in Massachusetts under\nthe law of 1793 took place in Boston soon after the passage of the law.\nIt is the case to which President Quincy alludes in his late letter\nagainst the fugitive slave law.  The populace at the trial aided the\nslave to escape, and nothing further was done about it.\n\nThe arrest of George Latimer as a slave, in Boston, and his illegal\nconfinement in jail, in 1842, led to the passage of the law of 1843 for\nthe \"protection of personal liberty,\" prohibiting state officers from\narresting or detaining persons claimed as slaves, and the use of the\njails of the Commonwealth for their confinement.  This law was strictly\nin accordance with the decision of the supreme judiciary, in the case of\nPrigg vs. The State of Pennsylvania, that the reclaiming of fugitives was\na matter exclusively belonging to the general government; yet that the\nstate officials might, if they saw fit, carry into effect the law of\nCongress on the subject, \"unless prohibited by state legislation.\"\n\nIt will be seen by the facts we have adduced that slavery in\nMassachusetts never had a legal existence.  The ermine of the judiciary\nof the Puritan state has never been sullied by the admission of its\ndetestable claims.  It crept into the Commonwealth like other evils and\nvices, but never succeeded in clothing itself with the sanction and\nauthority of law.  It stood only upon its own execrable foundation of\nrobbery and wrong.\n\nWith a history like this to look back upon, is it strange that the people\nof Massachusetts at the present day are unwilling to see their time-\nhonored defences of personal freedom, the good old safeguards of Saxon\nliberty, overridden and swept away after the summary fashion of \"the\nFugitive Slave Bill;\" that they should loathe and scorn the task which\nthat bill imposes upon them of aiding professional slave-hunters in\nseizing, fettering, and consigning to bondage men and women accused only\nof that which commends them to esteem and sympathy, love of liberty and\nhatred of slavery; that they cannot at once adjust themselves to\n\"constitutional duties\" which in South Carolina and Georgia are reserved\nfor trained bloodhounds?  Surely, in view of what Massachusetts has been,\nand her strong bias in favor of human freedom, derived from her great-\nhearted founders, it is to be hoped that the Executive and Cabinet at\nWashington will grant her some little respite, some space for turning,\nsome opportunity for conquering her prejudices, before letting loose the\ndogs of war upon her.  Let them give her time, and treat with forbearance\nher hesitation, qualms of conscience, and wounded pride.  Her people,\nindeed, are awkward in the work of slave-catching, and, it would seem,\nrendered but indifferent service in a late hunt in Boston.  Whether they\nwould do better under the surveillance of the army and navy of the United\nStates is a question which we leave with the President and his Secretary\nof State.  General Putnam once undertook to drill a company of Quakers,\nand instruct them, by force of arms, in the art and mystery of fighting;\nbut not a single pair of drab-colored breeches moved at his \"forward\nmarch;\" not a broad beaver wheeled at his word of command; no hand\nunclosed to receive a proffered musket.  Patriotic appeal, hard swearing,\nand prick of bayonet had no effect upon these impracticable raw recruits;\nand the stout general gave them up in despair.  We are inclined to\nbelieve that any attempt on the part of the Commander-in-chief of our\narmy and navy to convert the good people of Massachusetts into expert\nslave-catchers, under the discipline of West Point and Norfolk, would\nprove as idle an experiment as that of General Putnam upon the Quakers.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                  THOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE-QUESTION.\n\n                                 [1846.]\n\nA LATE number of Fraser's Magazine contains an article bearing the\nunmistakable impress of the Anglo-German peculiarities of Thomas Carlyle,\nentitled, 'An Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question', which would be\ninteresting as a literary curiosity were it not in spirit and tendency so\nunspeakably wicked as to excite in every rightminded reader a feeling of\namazement and disgust.  With a hard, brutal audacity, a blasphemous\nirreverence, and a sneering mockery which would do honor to the devil of\nFaust, it takes issue with the moral sense of mankind and the precepts of\nChristianity.  Having ascertained that the exports of sugar and spices\nfrom the West Indies have diminished since emancipation,--and that the\nnegroes, having worked, as they believed, quite long enough without\nwages, now refuse to work for the planters without higher pay than the\nlatter, with the thriftless and evil habits of slavery still clinging to\nthem, can afford to give,--the author considers himself justified in\ndenouncing negro emancipation as one of the \"shams\" which he was\nspecially sent into this world to belabor.  Had he confned himself to\nsimple abuse and caricature of the self-denying and Christian\nabolitionists of England--\"the broad-brimmed philanthropists of Exeter\nHall\"--there would have been small occasion for noticing his splenetic\nand discreditable production.  Doubtless there is a cant of philanthropy\n--the alloy of human frailty and folly--in the most righteous reforms,\nwhich is a fair subject for the indignant sarcasm of a professed hater of\nshows and falsities.  Whatever is hollow and hypocritical in politics,\nmorals, or religion, comes very properly within the scope of his mockery,\nand we bid him Godspeed in plying his satirical lash upon it.  Impostures\nand frauds of all kinds deserve nothing better than detection and\nexposure.  Let him blow them up to his heart's content, as Daniel did the\nimage of Bell and the Dragon.\n\nBut our author, in this matter of negro slavery, has undertaken to apply\nhis explosive pitch and rosin, not to the affectation of humanity, but to\nhumanity itself.  He mocks at pity, scoffs at all who seek to lessen the\namount of pain and suffering, sneers at and denies the most sacred\nrights, and mercilessly consigns an entire class of the children of his\nHeavenly Father to the doom of compulsory servitude.  He vituperates the\npoor black man with a coarse brutality which would do credit to a\nMississippi slave-driver, or a renegade Yankee dealer in human cattle on\nthe banks of the Potomac.  His rhetoric has a flavor of the slave-pen and\nauction-block, vulgar, unmanly, indecent, a scandalous outrage upon good\ntaste and refined feeling, which at once degrades the author and insults\nhis readers.\n\nHe assumes (for he is one of those sublimated philosophers who reject the\nBaconian system of induction and depend upon intuition without recourse\nto facts and figures) that the emancipated class in the West India\nIslands are universally idle, improvident, and unfit for freedom; that\nGod created them to be the servants and slaves of their \"born lords,\" the\nwhite men, and designed them to grow sugar, coffee, and spices for their\nmasters, instead of raising pumpkins and yams for themselves; and that,\nif they will not do this, \"the beneficent whip\" should be again employed\nto compel them.  He adopts, in speaking of the black class, the lowest\nslang of vulgar prejudice.  \"Black Quashee,\" sneers the gentlemanly\nphilosopher,--\"black Quashee, if he will not help in bringing out the\nspices, will get himself made a slave again (which state will be a little\nless ugly than his present one), and with beneficent whip, since other\nmethods avail not, will be compelled to work.\"\n\nIt is difficult to treat sentiments so atrocious and couched in such\noffensive language with anything like respect.  Common sense and\nunperverted conscience revolt instinctively against them.  The doctrine\nthey inculcate is that which underlies all tyranny and wrong of man\ntowards man.  It is that under which \"the creation groaneth and\ntravaileth unto this day.\"  It is as old as sin; the perpetual argument\nof strength against weakness, of power against right; that of the Greek\nphilosopher, that the barbarians, being of an inferior race, were born to\nbe slaves to the Greeks; and of the infidel Hobbes, that every man, being\nby nature at war with every other man, has a perpetual right to reduce\nhim to servitude if he has the power.  It is the cardinal doctrine of\nwhat John Quincy Adams has very properly styled the Satanic school of\nphilosophy,--the ethics of an old Norse sea robber or an Arab plunderer\nof caravans.  It is as widely removed from the sweet humanities and\nunselfish benevolence of Christianity as the faith and practice of the\nEast India Thug or the New Zealand cannibal.\n\nOur author does not, however, take us altogether by surprise.  He has\nbefore given no uncertain intimations of the point towards which his\nphilosophy was tending.  In his brilliant essay upon 'Francia of\nParaguay', for instance, we find him entering with manifest satisfaction\nand admiration into the details of his hero's tyranny.  In his 'Letters\nand Speeches of Oliver Cromwell'--in half a dozen pages of savage and\nalmost diabolical sarcasm directed against the growing humanity of the\nage, the \"rose-pink sentimentalisms,\" and squeamishness which shudders at\nthe sight of blood and infliction of pain--he prepares the way for a\njustification of the massacre of Drogheda.  More recently he has\nintimated that the extermination of the Celtic race is the best way of\nsettling the Irish question; and that the enslavement and forcible\ntransportation of her poor, to labor under armed taskmasters in the\ncolonies, is the only rightful and proper remedy for the political and\nsocial evils of England.  In the 'Discourse on Negro Slavery' we see this\ndevilish philosophy in full bloom.  The gods, he tells us, are with the\nstrong.  Might has a divine right to rule,--blessed are the crafty of\nbrain and strong of hand!  Weakness is crime.  \"Vae victis!\" as Brennus\nsaid when he threw his sword into the scale,--Woe to the conquered!  The\nnegro is weaker in intellect than his \"born lord,\" the white man, and has\nno right to choose his own vocation.  Let the latter do it for him, and,\nif need be, return to the \"beneficent whip.\"  \"On the side of the\noppressor there is power;\" let him use it without mercy, and hold flesh\nand blood to the grindstone with unrelenting rigor.  Humanity is\nsqueamishness; pity for the suffering mere \"rose-pink sentimentalism,\"\nmaudlin and unmanly.  The gods (the old Norse gods doubtless) laugh to\nscorn alike the complaints of the miserable and the weak compassions and\n\"philanthropisms\" of those who would relieve them.  This is the substance\nof Thomas Carlyle's advice; this is the matured fruit of his philosophic\nhusbandry,--the grand result for which he has been all his life sounding\nunfathomable abysses or beating about in the thin air of\nTranscendentalism.  Such is the substitute which he offers us for the\nSermon on the Mount.\n\nHe tells us that the blacks have no right to use the islands of the West\nIndies for growing pumpkins and garden stuffs for their own use and\nbehoof, because, but for the wisdom and skill of the whites, these\nislands would have been productive only of \"jungle, savagery, and swamp\nmalaria.\"  The negro alone could never have improved the islands or\ncivilized himself; and therefore their and his \"born lord,\" the white\nman, has a right to the benefits of his own betterments of land and \"two-\nlegged cattle!\"  \"Black Quashee\" has no right to dispose of himself and\nhis labor because he owes his partial civilization to others!  And pray\nhow has it been with the white race, for whom our philosopher claims the\ndivine prerogative of enslaving?  Some twenty and odd centuries ago, a\npair of half-naked savages, daubed with paint, might have been seen\nroaming among the hills and woods of the northern part of the British\nisland, subsisting on acorns and the flesh of wild animals, with an\noccasional relish of the smoked hams and pickled fingers of some\nunfortunate stranger caught on the wrong side of the Tweed.  This\ninteresting couple reared, as they best could, a family of children, who,\nin turn, became the heads of families; and some time about the beginning\nof the present century one of their descendants in the borough of\nEcclefechan rejoiced over the birth of a man child now somewhat famous as\n\"Thomas Carlyle, a maker of books.\"  Does it become such a one to rave\nagainst the West India negro's incapacity for self-civilization?  Unaided\nby the arts, sciences, and refinements of the Romans, he might have been,\nat this very day, squatted on his naked haunches in the woods of\nEcclefechan, painting his weather-hardened epidermis in the sun like his\nPiet ancestors.  Where, in fact, can we look for unaided self-improvement\nand spontaneous internal development, to any considerable extent, on the\npart of any nation or people?  From people to people the original God-\ngiven impulse towards civilization and perfection has been transmitted,\nas from Egypt to Greece, and thence to the Roman world.\n\nBut the blacks, we are told, are indolent and insensible to the duty of\nraising sugar and coffee and spice for the whites, being mainly careful\nto provide for their own household and till their own gardens for\ndomestic comforts and necessaries.  The exports have fallen off somewhat.\nAnd what does this prove?  Only that the negro is now a consumer of\nproducts, of which, under the rule of the whip, he was a producer merely.\nAs to indolence, under the proper stimulus of fair wages we have reason\nto believe that the charge is not sustained.  If unthrifty habits and\nlack of prudence on the part of the owners of estates, combined with the\nrepeal of duties on foreign sugars by the British government, have placed\nit out of their power to pay just and reasonable wages for labor, who can\nblame the blacks if they prefer to cultivate their own garden plots\nrather than raise sugar and spice for their late masters upon terms\nlittle better than those of their old condition, the \"beneficent whip\"\nalways excepted?  The despatches of the colonial governors agree in\nadmitting that the blacks have had great cause for complaint and\ndissatisfaction, owing to the delay or non-payment of their wages.  Sir\nC. E.  Gray, writing from Jamaica, says, that \"in a good many instances\nthe payment of the wages they have earned has been either very\nirregularly made, or not at all, probably on account of the inability of\nthe employers.\"  He says, moreover:--\n\n\"The negroes appear to me to be generally as free from rebellious\ntendencies or turbulent feelings and malicious thoughts as any race of\nlaborers I ever saw or heard of.  My impression is, indeed, that under a\nsystem of perfectly fair dealing and of real justice they will come to be\nan admirable peasantry and yeomanry; able-bodied, industrious, and hard-\nworking, frank, and well-disposed.\"\n\nIt must, indeed, be admitted that, judging by their diminished exports\nand the growing complaints of the owners of estates, the condition of the\nislands, in a financial point of view, is by no means favorable.  An\nimmediate cause of this, however, must be found in the unfortunate Sugar\nAct of 1846.  The more remote, but for the most part powerful, cause of\nthe present depression is to be traced to the vicious and unnatural\nsystem of slavery, which has been gradually but surely preparing the way\nfor ruin, bankruptcy, and demoralization.  Never yet, by a community or\nan individual, have the righteous laws of God been violated with\nimpunity.  Sooner or later comes the penalty which the infinite justice\nhas affixed to sin.  Partial and temporary evils and inconveniences have\nundoubtedly resulted from the emancipation of the laborers; and many\nyears must elapse before the relations of the two heretofore antagonistic\nclasses can be perfectly adjusted and their interests brought into entire\nharmony.  But that freedom is not to be held mainly accountable for the\ndepression of the British colonies is obvious from the fact that Dutch\nSurinam, where the old system of slavery remains in its original rigor,\nis in an equally depressed condition.  The 'Paramaribo Neuws en\nAdvertentie Blad', quoted in the Jamaica Gazette, says, under date of\nJanuary 2, 1850: \"Around us we hear nothing but complaints.  People seek\nand find matter in everything to picture to themselves the lot of the\nplace in which they live as bitterer than that of any other country.  Of\na large number of flourishing plantations, few remain that can now be\ncalled such.  So deteriorated has property become within the last few\nyears, that many of these estates have not been able to defray their\nweekly expenses.  The colony stands on the brink of a yawning abyss, into\nwhich it must inevitably plunge unless some new and better system is\nspeedily adopted.  It is impossible that our agriculture can any longer\nproceed on its old footing; our laboring force is dying away, and the\nsocial position they held must undergo a revolution.\"\n\nThe paper from which we have quoted, the official journal of the colony,\nthinks the condition of the emancipated British colonies decidedly\npreferable to that of Surinam, where the old slave system has continued\nin force, and insists that the Dutch government must follow the example\nof Great Britain.  The actual condition of the British colonies since\nemancipation is perfectly well known in Surinam: three of them,\nEssequibo, Demerara, and Berbice, being its immediate neighbors, whatever\nevils and inconveniences have resuited from emancipation must be well\nunderstood by the Dutch slave-holders; yet we find them looking towards\nemancipation as the only prospect of remedy for the greater evils of\ntheir own system.\n\nThis fact is of itself a sufficient answer to the assumption of Carlyle\nand others, that what they call \"the ruin of the colonies\" has been\nproduced by the emancipation acts of 1833 and 1838.\n\nWe have no fears whatever of the efect of this literary monstrosity,\nwhich we have been considering upon the British colonies.  Quashee, black\nand ignorant as he may be, will not \"get himself made a slave again.\"\nThe mission of the \"beneficent whip\" is there pretty well over; and it\nmay now find its place in museums and cabinets of ghastly curiosities,\nwith the racks, pillories, thumbscrews, and branding-irons of old days.\nWhat we have feared, however, is, that the advocates and defenders of\nslave-holding in this country might find in this discourse matter of\nencouragement, and that our anti-christian prejudices against the colored\nman might be strengthened and confirmed by its malignant vituperation and\nsarcasm.  On this point we have sympathized with the forebodings of an\neloquent writer in the London Enquirer:--\n\n\"We cannot imagine a more deadly moral poison for the American people\nthan his [Carlyle's] last composition.  Every cruel practice of social\nexclusion will derive from it new sharpness and venom.  The slave-holder,\nof course, will exult to find himself, not apologized for, but\nenthusiastically cheered, upheld, and glorified, by a writer of European\ncelebrity.  But it is not merely the slave who will feel Mr. Carlyle's\nhand in the torture of his flesh, the riveting of his fetters, and the\ndenial of light to his mind.  The free black will feel him, too, in the\nmore contemptuous and abhorrent scowl of his brother man, who will easily\nderive from this unfortunate essay the belief that his inhuman feelings\nare of divine ordination.  It is a true work of the Devil, the fostering\nof a tyrannical prejudice.  Far and wide over space, and long into the\nfuture, the winged words of evil counsel will go.  In the market-place,\nin the house, in the theatre, and in the church,--by land and by sea, in\nall the haunts of men,--their influence will be felt in a perennial\ngrowth of hate and scorn, and suffering and resentment.  Amongst the\nsufferers will be many to whom education has given every refined\nsusceptibility that makes contempt and exclusion bitter.  Men and women,\nfaithful and diligent, loving and worthy to be loved, and bearing, it may\nbe, no more than an almost imperceptible trace of African descent, will\ncontinue yet longer to be banished from the social meal of the white man,\nand to be spurned from his presence in the house of God, because a writer\nof genius has lent the weight of his authority and his fame, if not of\nhis power, to the perpetuation of a prejudice which Christianity was\nundermining.\"\n\nA more recent production, 'Latter Day Pamphlets', in which man's\ncapability of self-government is more than doubted, democracy somewhat\ncontemptuously sneered at, and the \"model republic\" itself stigmatized as\na \"nation of bores,\" may have a salutary effect in restraining our\nadmiration and in lessening our respect for the defender and eulogist of\nslavery.  The sweeping impartiality with which in this latter production\nhe applies the principle of our \"peculiar institution\" to the laboring\npoor man, irrespective of color, recognizing as his only inalienable\nright \"the right of being set to labor\" for his \"born lords,\" will, we\nimagine, go far to neutralize the mischief of his Discourse upon Negro\nSlavery.  It is a sad thing to find so much intellectual power as Carlyle\nreally possesses so little under the control of the moral sentiments.  In\nsome of his earlier writings--as, for instance, his beautiful tribute to\nthe Corn Law Rhymer--we thought we saw evidence of a warm and generous\nsympathy with the poor and the wronged, a desire to ameliorate human\nsuffering, which would have done credit to the \"philanthropisms of Exeter\nHall\" and the \"Abolition of Pain Society.\"  Latterly, however, like\nMoliere's quack, he has \"changed all that;\" his heart has got upon the\nwrong side; or rather, he seems to us very much in the condition of the\ncoal-burner in the German tale, who had swapped his heart of flesh for a\ncobblestone.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n              FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY.\n\n     A letter to William Lloyd Garrison, President of the Society.\n\n                         AMESBURY, 24th 11th mo., 1863.\n\nMY DEAR FRIEND,--I have received thy kind letter, with the accompanying\ncircular, inviting me to attend the commemoration of the thirtieth\nanniversary of the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, at\nPhiladelphia.  It is with the deepest regret that I am compelled, by the\nfeeble state of my health, to give up all hope of meeting thee and my\nother old and dear friends on an occasion of so much interest.  How much\nit costs me to acquiesce in the hard necessity thy own feelings will tell\nthee better than any words of mine.\n\nI look back over thirty years, and call to mind all the circumstances of\nmy journey to Philadelphia, in company with thyself and the excellent Dr.\nThurston of Maine, even then, as we thought, an old man, but still\nliving, and true as ever to the good cause.  I recall the early gray\nmorning when, with Samuel J. May, our colleague on the committee to\nprepare a Declaration of Sentiments for the convention, I climbed to the\nsmall \"upper chamber\" of a colored friend to hear thee read the first\ndraft of a paper which will live as long as our national history.  I see\nthe members of the convention, solemnized by the responsibility, rise one\nby one, and solemnly affix their names to that stern pledge of fidelity\nto freedom.  Of the signers, many have passed away from earth, a few have\nfaltered and turned back, but I believe the majority still live to\nrejoice over the great triumph of truth and justice, and to devote what\nremains of time and strength to the cause to which they consecrated their\nyouth and manhood thirty years ago.\n\nFor while we may well thank God and congratulate one another on the\nprospect of the speedy emancipation of the slaves of the United States,\nwe must not for a moment forget that, from this hour, new and mighty\nresponsibilities devolve upon us to aid, direct, and educate these\nmillions, left free, indeed, but bewildered, ignorant, naked, and\nfoodless in the wild chaos of civil war.  We have to undo the accumulated\nwrongs of two centuries; to remake the manhood which slavery has well-\nnigh unmade; to see to it that the long-oppressed colored man has a fair\nfield for development and improvement; and to tread under our feet the\nlast vestige of that hateful prejudice which has been the strongest\nexternal support of Southern slavery.  We must lift ourselves at once to\nthe true Christian altitude where all distinctions of black and white are\noverlooked in the heartfelt recognition of the brotherhood of man.\n\nI must not close this letter without confessing that I cannot be\nsufficiently thankful to the Divine Providence which, in a great measure\nthrough thy instrumentality, turned me away so early from what Roger\nWilliams calls \"the world's great trinity, pleasure, profit, and honor,\"\nto take side with the poor and oppressed.  I am not insensible to\nliterary reputation.  I love, perhaps too well, the praise and good-will\nof my fellow-men; but I set a higher value on my name as appended to the\nAnti-Slavery Declaration of 1833 than on the title-page of any book.\nLooking over a life marked by many errors and shortcomings, I rejoice\nthat I have been able to maintain the pledge of that signature, and that,\nin the long intervening years,\n\n    \"My voice, though not the loudest, has been heard Wherever Freedom\n     raised her cry of pain.\"\n\nLet me, through thee, extend a warm greeting to the friends, whether of\nour own or the new generation, who may assemble on the occasion of\ncommemoration.  There is work yet to be done which will task the best\nefforts of us all.  For thyself, I need not say that the love and esteem\nof early boyhood have lost nothing by the test of time; and\n\n                    I am, very cordially, thy friend,\n\n                              JOHN G.  WHITTIER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                         THE LESSON AND OUR DUTY.\n\n                       From the Amesbury Villager.\n\n                                 [1865.]\n\n\nIN the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the unspeakably brutal\nassault upon Secretary Seward slavery has made another revelation of\nitself.  Perhaps it was needed.  In the magnanimity of assured victory we\nwere perhaps disposed to overlook, not so much the guilty leaders and\nmisguided masses of the great rebellion as the unutterable horror and sin\nof slavery which prompted it.\n\nHow slowly we of the North have learned the true character of this mighty\nmischief!  How our politicians bowed their strong shoulders under its\nburthens!  How our churches reverenced it!  How our clergy contrasted the\nheresy-tolerating North with the purely orthodox and Scriptural type of\nslave-holding Christianity!  How all classes hunted down, not merely the\nfugitive slave, but the few who ventured to give him food and shelter and\na Godspeed in his flight from bondage!  How utterly ignored was the\nnegro's claim of common humanity!  How readily was the decision of the\nslave-holding chief justice acquiesced in, that \"the black man had no\nrights which the white man is bound to respect\"!\n\nWe saw a senator of the United States, world-known and honored for his\nlearning, talents, and stainless integrity, beaten down and all but\nmurdered at his official desk by a South Carolina slave-holder, for the\ncrime of speaking against the extension of slavery; and we heard the\ndastardly deed applauded throughout the South, while its brutal\nperpetrator was rewarded with orations and gifts and smiles of beauty as\na chivalrous gentleman.  We saw slavery enter Kansas, with bowieknife in\nhand and curses on its lips; we saw the life of the Union struck at by\nsecession and rebellion; we heard of the bones of sons and brothers,\nfallen in defence of freedom and law, dug up and wrought into ornaments\nfor the wrists and bosoms of slave-holding women; we looked into the open\nhell of Andersonville, upon the deliberate, systematic starvation of\nhelpless prisoners; we heard of Libby Prison underlaid with gunpowder,\nfor the purpose of destroying thousands of Union prisoners in case of the\noccupation of Richmond by our army; we saw hundreds of prisoners\nmassacred in cold blood at Fort Pillow, and the midnight sack of Lawrence\nand the murder of its principal citizens.  The flames of our merchant\nvessels, seized by pirates, lighted every sea; we heard of officers of\nthe rebel army and navy stealing into our cities, firing hotels filled\nwith sleeping occupants, and laying obstructions on the track of rail\ncars, for the purpose of killing and mangling their passengers.  Yet in\nspite of these revelations of the utterly barbarous character of slavery\nand its direful effect upon all connected with it, we were on the very\npoint of trusting to its most criminal defenders the task of\nreestablishing the state governments of the South, leaving the real Union\nmen, white as well as black, at the mercy of those who have made hatred a\nreligion and murder a sacrament.  The nation needed one more terrible\nlesson.  It has it in the murder of its beloved chief magistrate and the\nattempted assassination of its honored prime minister, the two men of all\nothers prepared to go farthest to smooth the way of defeated rebellion\nback to allegiance.\n\nEven now the lesson of these terrible events seems but half learned.  In\nthe public utterances I hear much of punishing and hanging leading\ntraitors, fierce demands for vengeance, and threats of the summary\nchastisement of domestic sympathizers with treason, but comparatively\nlittle is said of the accursed cause, the prolific mother of\nabominations, slavery.  The government is exhorted to remember that it\ndoes not bear the sword in vain, the Old Testament is ransacked for texts\nof Oriental hatred and examples of the revenges of a semi-barbarous\nnation; but, as respects the four millions of unmistakably loyal people\nof the South, the patient, the long-suffering, kind-hearted victims of\noppressions, only here and there a voice pleads for their endowment with\nthe same rights of citizenship which are to be accorded to the rank and\nfile of disbanded rebels.  The golden rule of the Sermon on the Mount is\nnot applied to them.  Much is said of executing justice upon rebels;\nlittle of justice to loyal black men.  Hanging a few ringleaders of\ntreason, it seems to be supposed, is all that is needed to restore and\nreestablish the revolted states.  The negro is to be left powerless in\nthe hands of the \"white trash,\" who hate him with a bitter hatred,\nexceeding that of the large slave-holders.  In short, four years of\nterrible chastisement, of God's unmistakable judgments, have not taught\nus, as a people, their lesson, which could scarcely be plainer if it had\nbeen written in letters of fire on the sky.  Why is it that we are so\nslow to learn, so unwilling to confess that slavery is the accursed thing\nwhich whets the knife of murder, and transforms men, with the exterior of\ngentlemen and Christians, into fiends?  How pitiful is our exultation\nover the capture of the wretched Booth and his associates!  The great\ncriminal, of whom he and they were but paltry instruments, still stalks\nabroad in the pine woods of Jersey, where the state has thrown around him\nher legislative sanction and protection.  He is in Pennsylvania,\nthrusting the black man from public conveyances.  Wherever God's children\nare despised, insulted, and abused on account of their color, there is\nthe real assassin of the President still at large.  I do not wonder at\nthe indignation which has been awakened by the late outrage, for I have\npainfully shared it.  But let us see to it that it is rightly directed.\nThe hanging of a score of Southern traitors will not restore Abraham\nLincoln nor atone for the mighty loss.  In wreaking revenge upon these\nmiserable men, we must see to it that we do not degrade ourselves and do\ndishonor to the sacred memory of the dead.  We do well to be angry; and,\nif need be, let our wrath wax seven times hotter, until that which \"was a\nmurderer from the beginning\" is consumed from the face of the earth.  As\nthe people stand by the grave of Lincoln, let them lift their right hands\nto heaven and take a solemn vow upon their souls to give no sleep to\ntheir eyes nor slumber to their eyelids until slavery is hunted from its\nlast shelter, and every man, black and white, stands equal before the\nlaw.\n\nIn dealing with the guilty leaders and instigators of the rebellion we\nshould beware how we take counsel of passion.  Hatred has no place beside\nthe calm and awful dignity of justice.  Human life is still a very sacred\nthing; Christian forbearance and patience are still virtues.  For my own\npart, I should be satisfied to see the chiefs of the great treason go out\nfrom among us homeless, exiled, with the mark of Cain on their foreheads,\ncarrying with them, wherever they go, the avenging Nemesis of conscience.\nWe cannot take lessons, at this late day, in their school of barbarism;\nwe cannot starve and torture them as they have starved and tortured our\nsoldiers.  Let them live.  Perhaps that is, after all, the most terrible\npenalty.  For wherever they hide themselves the story of their acts will\npursue them; they can have no rest nor peace save in that deep repentance\nwhich, through the mercy of God, is possible for all.\n\nI have no disposition to stand between these men and justice.  If\narrested, they can have no claim to exemption from the liabilities of\ncriminals.  But it is not simply a question of deserts that is to be\nconsidered; we are to take into account our own reputation as a Christian\npeople, the wishes of our best friends abroad, and the humane instincts\nof the age, which forbid all unnecessary severity.  Happily we are not\ncalled upon to take counsel of our fears.  Rabbinical writers tell us\nthat evil spirits who are once baffled in a contest with human beings\nlose from thenceforth all power of further mischief.  The defeated rebels\nare in the precise condition of these Jewish demons.  Deprived of\nslavery, they are like wasps that have lost their stings.\n\nAs respects the misguided masses of the South, the shattered and crippled\nremnants of the armies of treason, the desolate wives, mothers, and\nchildren mourning for dear ones who have fallen in a vain and hopeless\nstruggle, it seems to me our duty is very plain.  We must forgive their\npast treason, and welcome and encourage their returning loyalty.  None\nbut cowards will insult and taunt the defeated and defenceless.  We must\nfeed and clothe the destitute, instruct the ignorant, and, bearing\npatiently with the bitterness and prejudice which will doubtless for a\ntime thwart our efforts and misinterpret our motives, aid them in\nrebuilding their states on the foundation of freedom.  Our sole enemy was\nslavery, and slavery is dead.  We have now no quarrel with the people of\nthe South, who have really more reason than we have to rejoice over the\ndownfall of a system which impeded their material progress, perverted\ntheir religion, shut them out from the sympathies of the world, and\nridged their land with the graves of its victims.\n\nWe are victors, the cause of all this evil and suffering is removed\nforever, and we can well afford to be magnanimous.  How better can we\nevince our gratitude to God for His great mercy than in doing good to\nthose who hated us, and in having compassion on those who have\ndespitefully used us?  The hour is hastening for us all when our sole\nground of dependence will be the mercy and forgiveness of God.  Let us\nendeavor so to feel and act in our relations to the people of the South\nthat we can repeat in sincerity the prayer of our Lord: \"Forgive us our\ntrespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,\" reverently\nacknowledging that He has indeed \"led captivity captive and received\ngifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might\ndwell among them.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                 CHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE-DEPARTMENT.\n\n                                 [1868.]\n\n\n\nTHE wise reticence of the President elect in the matter of his cabinet\nhas left free course to speculation and conjecture as to its composition.\nThat he fully comprehends the importance of the subject, and that he will\ncarefully weigh the claims of the possible candidates on the score of\npatriotic services, ability, and fitness for specific duties, no one who\nhas studied his character, and witnessed his discretion, clear insight,\nand wise adaptation of means to ends, under the mighty responsibilities\nof his past career, can reasonably doubt.\n\nIt is not probable that the distinguished statesman now at the head of\nthe State Department will, under the circumstances, look for a\ncontinuance in office.  History will do justice to his eminent services\nin the Senate and in the cabinet during the first years of the rebellion,\nbut the fact that he has to some extent shared the unpopularity of the\npresent chief magistrate seems to preclude the idea of his retention in\nthe new cabinet.  In looking over the list of our public men in search of\na successor, General Grant is not likely to be embarrassed by the number\nof individuals fitted by nature, culture, and experience for such an\nimportant post.  The newspaper press, in its wide license of conjecture\nand suggestion, has, as far as I have seen, mentioned but three or four\nnames in this connection.  Allusions have been made to Senator Fessenden\nof Maine, ex-Minister Motley, General Dix, ex-Secretary Stanton, and\nCharles Sumner of Massachusetts.\n\nWithout disparaging in any degree his assumed competitors, the last-named\ngentleman is unquestionably preeminently fitted for the place.  He has\nhad a lifelong education for it.  The entire cast of his mind, the bent\nof his studies, the habit and experience of his public life, his profound\nknowledge of international law and the diplomatic history of his own and\nother countries, his well-earned reputation as a statesman and\nconstitutional lawyer, not only at home, but wherever our country has\nrelations of amity and commerce, the honorable distinction which he\nenjoys of having held a foremost place in the great conflict between\nfreedom and slavery, union and rebellion, all mark him as the man for the\noccasion.  There seems, indeed, a certain propriety in assigning to the\nman who struck the heaviest blows at secession and slavery in the\nnational Senate the first place under him who, in the field, made them\nhenceforth impossible.  The great captain and the great senator united in\nwar should not be dissevered in peace.\n\nI am not unaware that there are some, even in the Republican party, who\nhave failed to recognize in Senator Sumner the really wise and practical\nstatesmanship which a careful review of his public labors cannot but make\nmanifest.  It is only necessary to point such to the open record of his\nsenatorial career.  Few men have had the honor of introducing and\ndefending with exhaustive ability and thoroughness so many measures of\nacknowledged practical importance to his imrnedicte constituents, the\ncountry at large, and the wider interests of humanity and civilization.\nIn what exigency has he been found wanting?  What legislative act of\npublic utility for the last eighteen years has lacked his encouragement?\nAt the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, his clearness of vision,\nfirmness, moderation, and ready comprehension of the duties of his time\nand place must be admitted by all parties.  It was shrewdly said by Burke\nthat \"men are wise with little reflection and good with little self-\ndenial, in business of all times except their own.\"  But Charles Sumner,\nthe scholar, loving the \"still air of delightful studies,\" has shown\nhimself as capable of thoroughly comprehending and digesting the events\ntranspiring before his eyes as of pronouncing judgment upon those\nrecorded in history.  Far in advance of most of his contemporaries, he\nsaw and enunciated the true doctrine of reconstruction, the early\nadoption of which would have been of incalculable service to the country.\nOne of the ablest statesmen and jurists of the Democratic party has had\nthe rare magnanimity to acknowledge that in this matter the Republican\nsenator was right, and himself and his party wrong.\n\nThe Republicans of Massachusetts will make no fractious or importunate\ndemand upon the new President.  They are content to leave to his unbiased\nand impartial judgment the selection of his cabinet.  But if, looking to\nthe best interests of the country, he shall see fit to give their\ndistinguished fellow-citizen the first place in it, they will feel no\nsolicitude as to the manner in which the duties of the office will be\ndischarged.  They will feel that \"the tools are with him who can use\nthem.\"  Nothing more directly affects the reputation of a country than\nthe character of its diplomatic correspondence and its foreign\nrepresentatives.  We have suffered in times past from sad mismanagement\nabroad, and intelligent Americans have too often been compelled to hang\ntheir heads with shame to see the flag of their country floating over the\nconsular offices of worthless, incompetent agents.  There can be no\nquestion that so far as they are entrusted to Senator Sumner's hands, the\ninterest, honor, and dignity of the nation will be safe.\n\nIn a few weeks Charles Summer will be returned for his fourth term in the\nUnited States Senate by the well-nigh unanimous vote of both branches of\nthe legislature of Massachusetts.  Not a syllable of opposition to his\nreelection is heard from any quarter.  There is not a Republican in the\nlegislature who could have been elected unless he had been virtually\npledged to his support.  No stronger evidence of the popular estimate of\nhis ability and integrity than this could be offered.  As a matter of\ncourse, the marked individuality of his intense convictions, earnestness,\npersistence, and confident reliance upon the justice of his conclusions,\nnaturally growing out of the consciousness of having brought to his\nhonest search after truth all the lights of his learning and experience,\nmay, at times, have brought him into unpleasant relations with some of\nhis colleagues; but no one, friend or foe, has questioned his ability and\npatriotism, or doubted his fidelity to principle.  He has lent himself to\nno schemes of greed.  While so many others have taken advantage of the\nfacilities of their official stations to fill, directly or indirectly,\ntheir own pockets or those of their relatives and retainers, it is to the\nhonor of Massachusetts that her representatives in the Senate have not\nonly \"shaken their hands from the holding of bribes,\" but have so borne\nthemselves that no shadow of suspicion has ever rested on them.\n\nIn this connection it may be proper to state that, in the event of a\nchange in the War Department, the claims of General Wilson, to whose\nservices in the committee on military affairs the country is deeply\nindebted, may be brought under consideration.  In that case Massachusetts\nwould not, if it were in her power, discriminate between her senators.\nBoth have deserved well of her and of the country.  In expressing thus\nbriefly my opinion, I do not forget that after all the choice and\nresponsibility rest with General Grant alone.  There I am content to\nleave them.  I am very far from urging any sectional claim.  Let the\ncountry but have peace after its long discord, let its good faith and\nfinancial credit be sustained, and all classes of its citizens everywhere\nprotected in person and estate, and it matters very little to me whether\nMassachusetts is represented at the Executive Council board, or not.\nPersonally, Charles Sumner would gain nothing by a transfer from the\nSenate Chamber to the State Department.  He does not need a place in the\nAmerican cabinet any more than John Bright does in the British.  The\nhighest ambition might well be satisfied with his present position, from\nwhich, looking back upon an honorable record, he might be justified in\nusing Milton's language of lofty confidence in the reply to Salmasius: \"I\nam not one who has disgraced beauty of sentiment by deformity of conduct,\nor the maxims of a freeman by the actions of a slave, but, by the grace\nof God, I have kept my life unsullied.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                    THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872.\n\n     The following letter was written on receiving a request from a\n     committee of colored voters for advice as to their action at the\n     presidential election of 1872.\n\n                              AMESBURY, 9th mo. 3d, 1872.\n\nDEAR FRIENDS,--I have just received your letter of the 29th ult. asking\nmy opinion of your present duty as colored voters in the choice between\nGeneral Grant and Horace Greeley for the presidency.  You state that you\nhave been confused by the contradictory advice given you by such friends\nof your people as Charles Sumner on one hand, and William L. Garrison and\nWendell Phillips on the other; and you ask me, as one whom you are\npleased to think \"free from all bias,\" to add my counsel to theirs.\n\nI thank you for the very kind expression of your confidence and your\ngenerous reference to my endeavors to serve the cause of freedom; but I\nmust own that I would fain have been spared the necessity of adding to\nthe already too long list of political epistles.  I have felt it my duty\nin times past to take an active part--often very distasteful to me--in\npolitical matters, having for my first object the deliverance of my\ncountry from the crime and curse of slavery.  That great question being\nnow settled forever, I have been more than willing to leave to younger\nand stronger hands the toils and the honors of partisan service.  Pained\nand saddened by the bitter and unchristian personalities of the canvass\nnow in progress, I have hitherto held myself aloof from it as far as\npossible, unwilling to sanction in the slightest degree the criminations\nand recriminations of personal friends whom I have every reason to love\nand respect, and in whose integrity I have unshaken confidence.  In the\npresent condition of affairs I have not been able to see that any special\naction as an abolitionist was required at my hands.  Both of the great\nparties, heretofore widely separated, have put themselves on\nsubstantially the same platform.  The Republican party, originally\npledged only to the non-extension of slavery, and whose most illustrious\nrepresentative, President Lincoln, avowed his willingness to save the\nUnion without abolishing slavery, has been, under Providence, mainly\ninstrumental in the total overthrow of the detestable system; while the\nDemocratic party, composed largely of slave-holders, and, even at the\nNorth, scarcely willing to save the Union at the expense of the slave\ninterest upon which its success depended, shattered and crippled by the\ncivil war and its results, has at last yielded to the inexorable logic of\nevents, abandoned a position no longer tenable, and taken its \"new\ndeparture\" with an abolitionist as its candidate.  As a friend of the\nlong-oppressed colored man, and for the sake of the peace and prosperity\nof the country, I rejoice at this action of the Democratic party.  The\nunderlying motives of this radical change are doubtless somewhat mixed\nand contradictory, honest conviction on the part of some, and party\nexpediency and desire of office on the part of others; but the change\nitself is real and irrevocable; the penalty of receding would be swift\nand irretrievable ruin.  In any point of view the new order of things is\ndesirable; and nothing more fully illustrates \"the ways that are dark and\nthe tricks that are vain\" of party politics than the attempt of professed\nfriends of the Union and equal rights for all to counteract it by giving\naid and comfort to a revival of the worst characteristics of the old\nparty in the shape of a straight-out Democratic convention.\n\nAs respects the candidates now before us, I can see no good reason why\ncolored voters as such should oppose General Grant, who, though not an\nabolitionist and not even a member of the Republican party previous to\nhis nomination, has faithfully carried out the laws of Congress in their\nbehalf.  Nor, on the other hand, can I see any just grounds for distrust\nof such a man as Horace Greeley, who has so nobly distinguished himself\nas the advocate of human rights irrespective of race or color, and who by\nthe instrumentality of his press has been for thirty years the educator\nof the people in the principles of justice, temperance, and freedom.\nBoth of these men have, in different ways, deserved too well of the\ncountry to be unnecessarily subjected to the brutalities of a\npresidential canvass; and, so far as they are personally concerned, it\nwould doubtless have been better if the one had declined a second term of\nuncongenial duties, and the other continued to indite words of wisdom in\nthe shades of Chappaqua.  But they have chosen otherwise; and I am\nwilling, for one, to leave my colored fellow-citizens to the unbiased\nexercise of their own judgment and instincts in deciding between them.\nThe Democratic party labors under the disadvantage of antecedents not\ncalculated to promote a rapid growth of confidence; and it is no matter\nof surprise that the vote of the emancipated class is likely to be\nlargely against it.  But if, as will doubtless be the case, that vote\nshall be to some extent divided between the two candidates, it will have\nthe effect of inducing politicians of the rival parties to treat with\nrespect and consideration this new element of political power, from self-\ninterest if from no higher motive.  The fact that at this time both\nparties are welcoming colored orators to their platforms, and that, in\nthe South, old slave-masters and their former slaves fraternize at caucus\nand barbecue, and vote for each other at the polls, is full of\nsignificance.  If, in New England, the very men who thrust Frederick\nDouglass from car and stage-coach, and mobbed and hunted him like a wild\nbeast, now crowd to shake his hand and cheer him, let us not despair of\nseeing even the Ku-Klux tarried into decency, and sitting \"clothed in\ntheir right minds\" as listeners to their former victims.  The colored man\nis to-day the master of his own destiny.  No power on earth can deprive\nhim of his rights as an American citizen.  And it is in the light of\nAmerican citizenship that I choose to regard my colored friends, as men\nhaving a common stake in the welfare of the country; mingled with, and\nnot separate from, their white fellow-citizens; not herded together as a\ndistinct class to be wielded by others, without self-dependence and\nincapable of self-determination.  Thanks to such men as Sumner and Wilson\nand their compeers, nearly all that legislation can do for them has\nalready been done.  We can now only help them to help themselves.\nIndustry, economy, temperance, self-culture, education for their\nchildren,--these things, indispensable to their elevation and progress,\nare in a great measure in their own hands.\n\nYou will, therefore, my friends and fellow-citizens, pardon me if I\ndecline to undertake to decide for you the question of your political\nduty as respects the candidates for the presidency,--a question which you\nhave probably already settled in your own minds.  If it had been apparent\nto me that your rights and liberties were really in danger from the\nsuccess of either candidate, your letter would not have been needed to\ncall forth my opinion.  In the long struggle of well-nigh forty years, I\ncan honestly say that no consideration of private interest, nor my\nnatural love of peace and retirement and the good-will of others, have\nkept me silent when a word could be fitly spoken for human rights.  I\nhave not so long acted with the class to which you belong without\nacquiring respect for your intelligence and capacity for judging wisely\nfor yourselves.  I shall abide your decision with confidence, and\ncheerfully acquiesce in it.\n\nIf, on the whole, you prefer to vote for the reelection of General Grant,\nlet me hope you will do so without joining with eleventh-hour friends in\ndenouncing and reviling such an old and tried friend as Charles Sumner,\nwho has done and suffered so much in your behalf.  If, on the other hand,\nsome of you decide to vote for Horace Greeley, you need not in so doing\nforget your great obligations to such friends as William Lloyd Garrison,\nWendell Phillips, and Lydia Maria Child.  Agree or disagree with them,\ntake their advice or reject it, but stand by them still, and teach the\nparties with which you are connected to respect your feelings towards\nyour benefactors.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                          THE CENSURE OF SUMNER.\n\n\n     A letter to the Boston Daily Advertiser in reference to the petition\n     for the rescinding of the resolutions censuring Senator Sumner for\n     his motion to erase from the United States flags the record of the\n     battles of the civil war.\n\n\nI BEG leave to occupy a small space in the columns of the Advertiser for\nthe purpose of noticing a charge which has been brought against the\npetitioners for rescinding the resolutions of the late extra session\nvirtually censuring the Hon. Charles Sumner.  It is intimated that the\naction of these petitioners evinces a lack of appreciation of the\nservices of the soldiers of the Union, and that not to censure Charles\nSumner is to censure the volunteers of Massachusetts.\n\nAs a matter of fact, the petitioners express no opinion as to the policy\nor expediency of the senator's proposition.  Some may believe it not only\nright in itself, but expedient and well-timed; others that it was\ninexpedient or premature.  None doubt that, sooner or later, the thing\nwhich it contemplates must be done, if we are to continue a united\npeople.  What they feel and insist upon is that the proposition is one\nwhich implies no disparagement of the soldiers of Massachusetts and the\nUnion; that it neither receives nor merits the \"unqualified condemnation\nof the people\" of the state; and that it furnishes no ground whatever for\nlegislative interference or censure.  A single glance at the names of the\npetitioners is a sufficient answer to the insinuation that they are\nunmindful of that self-sacrifice and devotion, the marble and granite\nmemorials of which, dotting the state from the Merrimac to the\nConnecticut, testify the gratitude of the loyal heart of Massachusetts.\n\nI have seen no soldier yet who considered himself wronged or \"insulted\"\nby the proposition.  In point of fact the soldiers have never asked for\nsuch censure of the brave and loyal statesman who was the bosom friend\nand confidant of Secretary Stanton (the great war-minister, second, if at\nall, only to Carnot) and of John A.  Andrew, dear to the heart of every\nMassachusetts soldier, and whose tender care and sympathy reached them\nwherever they struggled or died for country and freedom.  The proposal of\nSenator Sumner, instead of being an \"insult,\" was, in fact, the highest\ncompliment which could be paid to brave men; for it implied that they\ncherished no vindictive hatred of fallen foes; that they were too proudly\nsecure of the love and gratitude of their countrymen to need above their\nheads the flaunting blazon of their achievements; that they were as\nmagnanimous in peace and victory as they were heroic and patient through\nthe dark and doubtful arbitrament of war.  As such they understand it.  I\nshould be sorry to think there existed a single son of Massachusetts weak\nenough to believe that his reputation and honor as a soldier needed this\ncensure of Charles Sumner.  I have before me letters from men, ranking\nfrom orderly sergeant to general, who have looked at death full in the\nface on every battlefield where the flag of Massachusetts floated, and\nthey all thank me for my efforts to rescind this uncalled-for censure,\nand pledge me their hearty support.  They cordially indorse the noble\nletter of Vice-President Wilson offering his signature to the petition\nfor rescinding the obnoxious resolutions; and if these resolutions are\nnot annulled, it will not be the fault of Massachusetts volunteers, but\nrather of the mistaken zeal of men more familiar with the drill of the\ncaucus than with that of the camp.\n\nI am no blind partisan of Charles Sumner.  I have often differed from him\nin opinion.  I regretted deeply the position which he thought it his duty\nto take during the late presidential campaign.  He felt the atmosphere\nabout him thick and foul with corruption and bribery and greed; he saw\nthe treasury ringed about like Saturn with unscrupulous combinations and\ncorporations; and it is to be regretted more than wondered at if he\nstruck out wildly in his indignation, and that his blows fell sometimes\nupon the wrong object.  But I did not intend to act the part of his\napologist.  The twenty years of his senatorial life are crowded with\nmemorials of his loyalty to truth and free dom and humanity, which will\nbe enduring as our history.  He is no party to this movement, in which my\nname has been more prominent than I could have wished, and no word of his\nprompted or suggested it.  From its inception to the present time he has\nremained silent in his chamber of pain, waiting to bequeath, like the\ntestator of the dramatist,\n\n         \"A fame by scandal untouched\n          To Memory and Time's old daughter Truth.\"\n\nHe can well afford to wait, and the issue of the present question before\nour legislature is of far less consequence to him than to us.  To use the\nwords of one who stood by him in the dark days of the Fugitive Slave Law,\nthe Chief Justice of the United States,--\"Time and the wiser thought will\nvindicate the illustrious statesman to whom Massachusetts, the country,\nand humanity owe so much, but the state can ill afford the damage to its\nown reputation which such a censure of such a man will inflict.\"\n\nAMESBURY, 3d month, 8, 1873.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                   THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833.\n\n                                 [1874.]\n\nIn the gray twilight of a chill day of late November, forty years ago, a\ndear friend of mine, residing in Boston, made his appearance at the old\nfarm-house in East Haverhill.  He had been deputed by the abolitionists\nof the city, William L. Garrison, Samuel E.  Sewall, and others, to\ninform me of my appointment as a delegate to the Convention about to be\nheld in Philadelphia for the formation of an American Anti-Slavery\nSociety, and to urge upon me the necessity of my attendance.\n\nFew words of persuasion, however, were needed.  I was unused to\ntravelling; my life had been spent on a secluded farm; and the journey,\nmostly by stage-coach, at that time was really a formidable one.\nMoreover, the few abolitionists were everywhere spoken against, their\npersons threatened, and in some instances a price set on their heads by\nSouthern legislators.  Pennsylvania was on the borders of slavery, and it\nneeded small effort of imagination to picture to one's self the breaking\nup of the Convention and maltreatment of its members.  This latter\nconsideration I do not think weighed much with me, although I was better\nprepared for serious danger than for anything like personal indignity.  I\nhad read Governor Trumbull's description of the tarring and feathering of\nhis hero MacFingal, when, after the application of the melted tar, the\nfeather-bed was ripped open and shaken over him, until\n\n          \"Not Maia's son, with wings for ears,\n          Such plumes about his visage wears,\n          Nor Milton's six-winged angel gathers\n          Such superfluity of feathers,\"\n\nand I confess I was quite unwilling to undergo a martyrdom which my best\nfriends could scarcely refrain from laughing at.  But a summons like that\nof Garrison's bugle-blast could scarcely be unheeded by one who, from\nbirth and education, held fast the traditions of that earlier\nabolitionism which, under the lead of Benezet and Woolman, had effaced\nfrom the Society of Friends every vestige of slave-holding.  I had thrown\nmyself, with a young man's fervid enthusiasm, into a movement which\ncommended itself to my reason and conscience, to my love of country, and\nmy sense of duty to God and my fellow-men.  My first venture in\nauthorship was the publication, at my own expense, in the spring of 1833,\nof a pamphlet entitled Justice and Expediency, on the moral and political\nevils of slavery, and the duty of emancipation.  Under such circumstances\nI could not hesitate, but prepared at once for my journey.  It was\nnecessary that I should start on the morrow, and the intervening time,\nwith a small allowance for sleep, was spent in providing for the care of\nthe farm and homestead during my absence.\n\nSo the next morning I took the stage for Boston, stopping at the ancient\nhostelry known as the Eastern Stage Tavern; and on the day following, in\ncompany with William Lloyd Garrison, I left for New York.  At that city\nwe were joined by other delegates, among them David Thurston, a\nCongregational minister from Maine.  On our way to Philadelphia, we took,\nas a matter of necessary economy, a second-class conveyance, and found\nourselves, in consequence, among rough and hilarious companions, whose\nlanguage was more noteworthy for strength than refinement.  Our worthy\nfriend the clergyman bore it awhile in painful silence, but at last felt\nit his duty to utter words of remonstrance and admonition.  The leader of\nthe young roisterers listened with a ludicrous mock gravity, thanked him\nfor his exhortation, and, expressing fears that the extraordinary effort\nhad exhausted his strength, invited him to take a drink with him.  Father\nThurston buried his grieved face in his cloak-collar, and wisely left the\nyoung reprobates to their own devices.\n\nOn reaching Philadelphia, we at once betook, ourselves to the humble\ndwelling on Fifth Street occupied by Evan Lewis, a plain, earnest man and\nlifelong abolitionist, who had been largely interested in preparing the\nway for the Convention.  In one respect the time of our assembling seemed\nunfavorable.  The Society of Friends, upon whose cooperation we had\ncounted, had but recently been rent asunder by one of those unhappy\ncontroversies which so often mark the decline of practical righteousness.\nThe martyr-age of the society had passed, wealth and luxury had taken the\nplace of the old simplicity, there was a growing conformity to the maxims\nof the world in trade and fashion, and with it a corresponding\nunwillingness to hazard respectability by the advocacy of unpopular\nreforms.  Unprofitable speculation and disputation on one hand, and a\nvain attempt on the other to enforce uniformity of opinion, had\nmeasurably lost sight of the fact that the end of the gospel is love, and\nthat charity is its crowning virtue.  After a long and painful struggle\nthe disruption had taken place; the shattered fragments, under the name\nof Orthodox and Hicksite, so like and yet so separate in feeling,\nconfronted each other as hostile sects, and\n\n         \"Never either found another\n          To free the hollow heart from paining;\n          They stood aloof, the scars remaining,\n          Like cliffs that have been torn asunder\n          A dreary sea now flows between;\n          But neither rain, nor frost, nor thunder,\n          Can wholly do away, I ween,\n          The marks of that which once has been.\"\n\nWe found about forty members assembled in the parlors of our friend\nLewis, and, after some general conversation, Lewis Tappan was asked to\npreside over an informal meeting, preparatory to the opening of the\nConvention.  A handsome, intellectual-looking man, in the prime of life,\nresponded to the invitation, and in a clear, well-modulated voice, the\nfirm tones of which inspired hope and confidence, stated the objects of\nour preliminary council, and the purpose which had called us together, in\nearnest and well-chosen words.  In making arrangements for the\nConvention, it was thought expedient to secure, if possible, the services\nof some citizen of Philadelphia, of distinction and high social standing,\nto preside over its deliberations.  Looking round among ourselves in vain\nfor some titled civilian or doctor of divinity, we were fain to confess\nthat to outward seeming we were but \"a feeble folk,\" sorely needing the\nshield of a popular name.  A committee, of which I was a member, was\nappointed to go in search of a president of this description.  We visited\ntwo prominent gentlemen, known as friendly to emancipation and of high\nsocial standing.  They received us with the dignified courtesy of the old\nschool, declined our proposition in civil terms, and bowed us out with a\ncool politeness equalled only by that of the senior Winkle towards the\nunlucky deputation of Pickwick and his unprepossessing companions.  As we\nleft their doors we could not refrain from smiling in each other's faces\nat the thought of the small inducement our proffer of the presidency held\nout to men of their class.  Evidently our company was not one for\nrespectability to march through Coventry with.\n\nOn the following morning we repaired to the Adelphi Building, on Fifth\nStreet, below Walnut, which had been secured for our use.  Sixty-two\ndelegates were found to be in attendance.  Beriah Green, of the Oneida\n(New York) Institute, was chosen president, a fresh-faced, sandy-haired,\nrather common-looking man, but who had the reputation of an able and\neloquent speaker.  He had already made himself known to us as a resolute\nand self-sacrificing abolitionist.  Lewis Tappan and myself took our\nplaces at his side as secretaries, on the elevation at the west end of\nthe hall.\n\nLooking over the assembly, I noticed that it was mainly composed of\ncomparatively young men, some in middle age, and a few beyond that\nperiod.  They were nearly all plainly dressed, with a view to comfort\nrather than elegance.  Many of the faces turned towards me wore a look of\nexpectancy and suppressed enthusiasm; all had the earnestness which might\nbe expected of men engaged in an enterprise beset with difficulty and\nperhaps with peril.  The fine, intellectual head of Garrison, prematurely\nbald, was conspicuous; the sunny-faced young man at his side, in whom all\nthe beatitudes seemed to find expression, was Samuel J. May, mingling in\nhis veins the best blood of the Sewalls and Quincys,--a man so\nexceptionally pure and large-hearted, so genial, tender, and loving, that\nhe could be faithful to truth and duty without making an enemy.\n\n              \"The de'il wad look into his face,\n               And swear he couldna wrang him.\"\n\nThat tall, gaunt, swarthy man, erect, eagle-faced, upon whose somewhat\nmartial figure the Quaker coat seemed a little out of place, was Lindley\nCoates, known in all eastern Pennsylvania as a stern enemy of slavery;\nthat slight, eager man, intensely alive in every feature and gesture, was\nThomas Shipley, who for thirty years had been the protector of the free\ncolored people of Philadelphia, and whose name was whispered reverently\nin the slave cabins of Maryland as the friend of the black man, one of a\nclass peculiar to old Quakerism, who in doing what they felt to be duty,\nand walking as the Light within guided them, knew no fear and shrank from\nno sacrifice.  Braver men the world has not known.  Beside him, differing\nin creed, but united with him in works of love and charity, sat Thomas\nWhitson, of the Hicksite school of Friends, fresh from his farm in\nLancaster County, dressed in plainest homespun, his tall form surmounted\nby a shock of unkempt hair, the odd obliquity of his vision contrasting\nstrongly with he clearness and directness of his spiritual insight.\nElizur Wright, the young professor of a Western college, who had lost his\nplace by his bold advocacy of freedom, with a look of sharp concentration\nin keeping with an intellect keen as a Damascus blade, closely watched\nthe proceedings through his spectacles, opening his mouth only to speak\ndirectly to the purpose.  The portly form of Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, the\nbeloved physician, from that beautiful land of plenty and peace which\nBayard Taylor has described in his Story of Kennett, was not to be\noverlooked.  Abolitionist in heart and soul, his house was known as the\nshelter of runaway slaves, and no sportsman ever entered into the chase\nwith such zest as he did into the arduous and sometimes dangerous work of\naiding their escape and baffling their pursuers.  The youngest man\npresent was, I believe, James Miller McKim, a Presbyterian minister from\nColumbia, afterwards one of our most efficient workers.  James Mott, E.\nL. Capron, Arnold Buffum, and Nathan Winslow, men well known in the anti-\nslavery agitation, were conspicuous members.  Vermont sent down from her\nmountains Orson S. Murray, a man terribly in earnest, with a zeal that\nbordered on fanaticism, and who was none the more genial for the mob-\nviolence to which he had been subjected.  In front of me, awakening\npleasant associations of the old homestead in Merrimac valley, sat my\nfirst school-teacher, Joshua Coffin, the learned and worthy antiquarian\nand historian of Newbury.  A few spectators, mostly of the Hicksite\ndivision of Friends, were present, in broad brims and plain bonnets,\namong them Esther Moore and Lucretia Mott.\n\nCommittees were chosen to draft a constitution for a national Anti-\nSlavery Society, nominate a list of officers, and prepare a declaration\nof principles to be signed by the members.  Dr. A. L. Cox of New York,\nwhile these committees were absent, read something from my pen eulogistic\nof William Lloyd Garrison; and Lewis Tappan and Amos A.  Phelps, a\nCongregational clergyman of Boston, afterwards one of the most devoted\nlaborers in the cause, followed in generous commendation of the zeal,\ncourage, and devotion of the young pioneer.  The president, after calling\nJames McCrummell, one of the two or three colored members of the\nConvention, to the chair, made some eloquent remarks upon those editors\nwho had ventured to advocate emancipation.  At the close of his speech a\nyoung man rose to speak, whose appearance at once arrested my attention.\nI think I have never seen a finer face and figure, and his manner, words,\nand bearing were in keeping.  \"Who is he?\"  I asked of one of the\nPennsylvania delegates.  \"Robert Purvis, of this city, a colored man,\"\nwas the answer.  He began by uttering his heart-felt thanks to the\ndelegates who had convened for the deliverance of his people.  He spoke\nof Garrison in terms of warmest eulogy, as one who had stirred the heart\nof the nation, broken the tomblike slumber of the church, and compelled\nit to listen to the story of the slave's wrongs.  He closed by declaring\nthat the friends of colored Americans would not be forgotten.  \"Their\nmemories,\" he said, \"will be cherished when pyramids and monuments shall\nhave crumbled in dust.  The flood of time which is sweeping away the\nrefuge of lies is bearing on the advocates of our cause to a glorious\nimmortality.\"\n\nThe committee on the constitution made their report, which after\ndiscussion was adopted.  It disclaimed any right or intention of\ninterfering, otherwise than by persuasion and Christian expostulation,\nwith slavery as it existed in the states, but affirming the duty of\nCongress to abolish it in the District of Columbia and territories, and\nto put an end to the domestic slave-trade.  A list of officers of the new\nsociety was then chosen: Arthur Tappan of New York, president, and Elizur\nWright, Jr., William Lloyd Garrison, and A. L. Cox, secretaries.  Among\nthe vice-presidents was Dr. Lord of Dartmouth College, then professedly\nin favor of emancipation, but who afterwards turned a moral somersault, a\nself-inversion which left him ever after on his head instead of his feet.\n\nHe became a querulous advocate of slavery as a divine institution, and\ndenounced woe upon the abolitionists for interfering with the will and\npurpose of the Creator.  As the cause of freedom gained ground, the poor\nman's heart failed him, and his hope for church and state grew fainter\nand fainter.  A sad prophet of the evangel of slavery, he testified in\nthe unwilling ears of an unbelieving generation, and died at last\ndespairing of a world which seemed determined that Canaan should no\nlonger be cursed, nor Onesimus sent back to Philemon.\n\nThe committee on the declaration of principles, of which I was a member,\nheld a long session, discussing the proper scope and tenor of the\ndocument.  But little progress being made, it was finally decided to\nentrust the matter to a sub-committee, consisting of William L.\nGarrison, S. J. May, and myself; and after a brief consultation and\ncomparison of each other's views, the drafting of the important paper was\nassigned to the former gentleman.  We agreed to meet him at his lodgings\nin the house of a colored friend early the next morning.  It was still\ndark when we climbed up to his room, and the lamp was still burning by\nthe light of which he was writing the last sentence of the declaration.\nWe read it carefully, made a few verbal changes, and submitted it to the\nlarge committee, who unanimously agreed to report it to the Convention.\n\nThe paper was read to the Convention by Dr. Atlee, chairman of the\ncommittee, and listened to with the profoundest interest.\n\nCommencing with a reference to the time, fifty-seven years before, when,\nin the same city of Philadelphia, our fathers announced to the world\ntheir Declaration of Independence,--based on the self-evident truths of\nhuman equality and rights,--and appealed to arms for its defence, it\nspoke of the new enterprise as one \"without which that of our fathers is\nincomplete,\" and as transcending theirs in magnitude, solemnity, and\nprobable results as much \"as moral truth does physical force.\"  It spoke\nof the difference of the two in the means and ends proposed, and of the\ntrifling grievances of our fathers compared with the wrongs and\nsufferings of the slaves, which it forcibly characterized as unequalled\nby any others on the face of the earth.  It claimed that the nation was\nbound to repent at once, to let the oppressed go free, and to admit them\nto all the rights and privileges of others; because, it asserted, no man\nhas a right to enslave or imbrute his brother; because liberty is\ninalienable; because there is no difference, in principle, between slave-\nholding and man-stealing, which the law brands as piracy; and because no\nlength of bondage can invalidate man's claim to himself, or render slave\nlaws anything but \"an audacious usurpation.\"\n\nIt maintained that no compensation should be given to planters\nemancipating slaves, because that would be a surrender of fundamental\nprinciples; \"slavery is a crime, and is, therefore, not an article to be\nsold;\" because slave-holders are not just proprietors of what they claim;\nbecause emancipation would destroy only nominal, not real property; and\nbecause compensation, if given at all, should be given to the slaves.\n\nIt declared any \"scheme of expatriation\" to be \"delusive, cruel, and\ndangerous.\"  It fully recognized the right of each state to legislate\nexclusively on the subject of slavery within its limits, and conceded\nthat Congress, under the present national compact, had no right to\ninterfere; though still contending that it had the power, and should\nexercise it, \"to suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several\nstates,\" and \"to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in\nthose portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under\nits exclusive jurisdiction.\"\n\nAfter clearly and emphatically avowing the principles underlying the\nenterprise, and guarding with scrupulous care the rights of persons and\nstates under the Constitution, in prosecuting it, the declaration closed\nwith these eloquent words:--\n\nWe also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest\nobligations resting upon the people of the free states to remove slavery\nby moral and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the\nUnited States.  They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous\nphysical force to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of\nmillions in the Southern states; they are liable to be called at any\nmoment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves; they authorize\nthe slave-owner to vote on three fifths of his slaves as property, and\nthus enable him to perpetuate his oppression; they support a standing\narmy at the South for its protection; and they seize the slave who has\nescaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an\nenraged master or a brutal driver.  This relation to slavery is criminal\nand full of danger.  It must be broken up.\n\n\"These are our views and principles,--these our designs and measures.\nWith entire confidence in the overruling justice of God, we plant\nourselves upon the Declaration of Independence and the truths of divine\nrevelation as upon the everlasting rock.\n\n\"We shall organize anti-slavery societies, if possible, in every city,\ntown, and village in our land.\n\n\"We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of\nwarning, of entreaty and rebuke.\n\n\"We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively anti-slavery tracts and\nperiodicals.\n\n\"We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering\nand the dumb.\n\n\"We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in\nthe guilt of slavery.\n\n\"We shall encourage the labor of freemen over that of the slaves, by\ngiving a preference to their productions; and\n\n\"We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to\nspeedy repentance.\n\n\"Our trust for victory is solely in God.  We may be personally defeated,\nbut our principles never.  Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and\nwill gloriously triumph.  Already a host is coming up to the help of the\nLord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of\nencouragement.\n\n\"Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of the people of\nthis country, and of the friends of liberty all over the world, we hereby\naffix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, under the guidance\nand by the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies,\nconsistently with this declaration of our principles, to overthrow the\nmost execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth,\nto deliver our land from its deadliest curse, to wipe out the foulest\nstain which rests upon our national escutcheon, and to secure to the\ncolored population of the United States all the rights and privileges\nwhich belong to them as men and as Americans, come what may to our\npersons, our interests, or our reputations, whether we live to witness\nthe triumph of justice, liberty, and humanity, or perish untimely as\nmartyrs in this great, benevolent, and holy cause.\"\n\nThe reading of the paper was followed by a discussion which lasted\nseveral hours.  A member of the Society of Friends moved its immediate\nadoption.  \"We have,\" he said, \"all given it our assent: every heart here\nresponds to it.  It is a doctrine of Friends that these strong and deep\nimpressions should be heeded.\"  The Convention, nevertheless, deemed it\nimportant to go over the declaration carefully, paragraph by paragraph.\nDuring the discussion, one of the spectators asked leave to say a few\nwords.  A beautiful and graceful woman, in the prime of life, with a face\nbeneath her plain cap as finely intellectual as that of Madame Roland,\noffered some wise and valuable suggestions, in a clear, sweet voice, the\ncharm of which I have never forgotten.  It was Lucretia Mott of\nPhiladelphia.  The president courteously thanked her, and encouraged her\nto take a part in the discussion.  On the morning of the last day of our\nsession, the declaration, with its few verbal amendments, carefully\nengrossed on parchment, was brought before the Convention.  Samuel J. May\nrose to read it for the last time.  His sweet, persuasive voice faltered\nwith the intensity of his emotions as he repeated the solemn pledges of\nthe concluding paragraphs.  After a season of silence, David Thurston of\nMaine rose as his name was called by one of the secretaries, and affixed\nhis name to the document.  One after another passed up to the platform,\nsigned, and retired in silence.  All felt the deep responsibility of the\noccasion the shadow and forecast of a life-long struggle rested upon\nevery countenance.\n\nOur work as a Convention was now done.  President Green arose to make the\nconcluding address.  The circumstances under which it was uttered may\nhave lent it an impressiveness not its own; but as I now recall it, it\nseems to me the most powerful and eloquent speech to which I have ever\nlistened.  He passed in review the work that had been done, the\nconstitution of the new society, the declaration of sentiments, and the\nunion and earnestness which had marked the proceedings.  His closing\nwords will never be forgotten by those who heard them:--\n\n\"Brethren, it has been good to be here.  In this hallowed atmosphere I\nhave been revived and refreshed.  This brief interview has more than\nrepaid me for all that I have ever suffered.  I have here met congenial\nminds; I have rejoiced in sympathies delightful to the soul.  Heart has\nbeat responsive to heart, and the holy work of seeking to benefit the\noutraged and despised has proved the most blessed employment.\n\n\"But now we must retire from these balmy influences and breathe another\natmosphere.  The chill hoar-frost will be upon us.  The storm and tempest\nwill rise, and the waves of persecution will dash against our souls.  Let\nus be prepared for the worst.  Let us fasten ourselves to the throne of\nGod as with hooks of steel.  If we cling not to Him, our names to that\ndocument will be but as dust.\n\n\"Let us court no applause, indulge in no spirit of vain boasting.  Let us\nbe assured that our only hope in grappling with the bony monster is in an\nArm that is stronger than ours.  Let us fix our gaze on God, and walk in\nthe light of His countenance.  If our cause be just--and we know it is--\nHis omnipotence is pledged to its triumph.  Let this cause be entwined\naround the very fibres of our hearts.  Let our hearts grow to it, so that\nnothing but death can sunder the bond.\"\n\nHe ceased, and then, amidst a silence broken only by the deep-drawn\nbreath of emotion in the assembly, lifted up his voice in a prayer to\nAlmighty God, full of fervor and feeling, imploring His blessing and\nsanctification upon the Convention and its labors.  And with the\nsolemnity of this supplication in our hearts we clasped hands in\nfarewell, and went forth each man to his place of duty, not knowing the\nthings that should befall us as individuals, but with a confidence, never\nshaken by abuse and persecution, in the certain triumph of our cause.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                                  KANSAS\n\nRead at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the state of\nKansas.\n\n                    BEAR CAMP HOUSE, WEST OSSIPEE, N. H.,\n                              Eighth month, 29th, 1879.\n\nTo J. S. EMERY,  R. MORROW, AND C. W. SMITH, COMMITTEE:\n\nI HAVE received your invitation to the twenty-fifth anniversary\ncelebration of the first settlement of Kansas.  It would give me great\npleasure to visit your state on an occasion of such peculiar interest,\nand to make the acquaintance of its brave and self-denying pioneers, but\nI have not health and strength for the journey.  It is very fitting that\nthis anniversary should be duly recognized.  No one of your sister states\nhas such a record as yours,--so full of peril and adventure, fortitude,\nself-sacrifice, and heroic devotion to freedom.  Its baptism of martyr\nblood not only saved the state to liberty, but made the abolition of\nslavery everywhere possible.  Barber and Stillwell and Colpetzer and\ntheir associates did not die in vain.  All through your long, hard\nstruggle I watched the course of events in Kansas with absorbing\ninterest.  I rejoiced, while I marvelled at the steady courage which no\ndanger could shake, at the firm endurance which outwearied the\nbrutalities of your slaveholding invaders, and at that fidelity to right\nand duty which the seduction of immediate self-interest could not swerve,\nnor the military force of a proslavery government overawe.  All my\nsympathies were with you in that stern trial of your loyalty to God and\nhumanity.  And when, in the end, you had conquered peace, and the last of\nthe baffled border ruffians had left your territory, I felt that the doom\nof the accursed institution was sealed, and that its abolition was but a\nquestion of time.  A state with such a record will, I am sure, be true to\nits noble traditions, and will do all in its power to aid the victims of\nprejudice and oppression who may be compelled to seek shelter within its\nborders.  I will not for a moment distrust the fidelity of Kansas to her\nfoundation principle.  God bless and prosper her!  Thanking you for the\nkind terms of your invitation, I am, gentlemen, very truly your friend.\n\n\n\n\n\n                         WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.\n\nAn Introduction to Oliver Johnson's \"William Lloyd Garrison and his\nTimes.\"\n\n                                 [1879.]\n\nI no not know that any word of mine can give additional interest to this\nmemorial of William Lloyd Garrison from the pen of one of his earliest\nand most devoted friends, whose privilege it has been to share his\nconfidence and his labors for nearly half a century; but I cannot well\nforego the opportunity afforded me to add briefly my testimony to the\ntribute to the memory of the great Reformer, whose friendship I have\nshared, and with whom I have been associated in a common cause from youth\nto age.\n\nMy acquaintance with him commenced in boyhood.  My father was a\nsubscriber to his first paper, the Free Press, and the humanitarian tone\nof his editorials awakened a deep interest in our little household, which\nwas increased by a visit which he made us.  When he afterwards edited the\nJournal of the Times, at Bennington, Vt., I ventured to write him a\nletter of encouragement and sympathy, urging him to continue his labors\nagainst slavery, and assuring him that he could \"do great things,\" an\nunconscious prophecy which has been fulfilled beyond the dream of my\nboyish enthusiasm.  The friendship thus commenced has remained unbroken\nthrough half a century, confirming my early confidence in his zeal and\ndevotion, and in the great intellectual and moral strength which he\nbrought to the cause with which his name is identified.\n\nDuring the long and hard struggle in which the abolitionists were\nengaged, and amidst the new and difficult questions and side-issues which\npresented themselves, it could scarcely be otherwise than that\ndifferences of opinion and action should arise among them.  The leader\nand his disciples could not always see alike.  My friend, the author of\nthis book, I think, generally found himself in full accord with him,\nwhile I often decidedly dissented.  I felt it my duty to use my right of\ncitizenship at the ballot-box in the cause of liberty, while Garrison,\nwith equal sincerity, judged and counselled otherwise.  Each acted under\na sense of individual duty and responsibility, and our personal relations\nwere undisturbed.  If, at times, the great anti-slavery leader failed to\ndo justice to the motives of those who, while in hearty sympathy with his\nhatred of slavery, did not agree with some of his opinions and methods,\nit was but the pardonable and not unnatural result of his intensity of\npurpose, and his self-identification with the cause he advocated; and,\nwhile compelled to dissent, in some particulars, from his judgment of men\nand measures, the great mass of the antislavcry people recognized his\nmoral leadership.  The controversies of old and new organization,\nnonresistance and political action, may now be looked upon by the parties\nto them, who still survive, with the philosophic calmness which follows\nthe subsidence of prejudice and passion.  We were but fallible men, and\ndoubtless often erred in feeling, speech, and action.  Ours was but the\ncommon experience of reformers in all ages.\n\n          \"Never in Custom's oiled grooves\n          The world to a higher level moves,\n          But grates and grinds with friction hard\n          On granite bowlder and flinty shard.\n          Ever the Virtues blush to find\n          The Vices wearing their badge behind,\n          And Graces and Charities feel the fire\n          Wherein the sins of the age expire.\"\n\nIt is too late now to dwell on these differences.  I choose rather, with\na feeling of gratitude to God, to recall the great happiness of laboring\nwith the noble company of whom Garrison was the central figure.  I love\nto think of him as he seemed to me, when in the fresh dawn of manhood he\nsat with me in the old Haverhill farmhouse, revolving even then schemes\nof benevolence; or, with cheery smile, welcoming me to his frugal meal of\nbread and milk in the dingy Boston printing-room; or, as I found him in\nthe gray December morning in the small attic of a colored man, in\nPhiladelphia, finishing his night-long task of drafting his immortal\nDeclaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society; or, as I\nsaw him in the jail of Leverett Street, after his almost miraculous\nescape from the mob, playfully inviting me to share the safe lodgings\nwhich the state had provided for him; and in all the varied scenes and\nsituations where we acted together our parts in the great endeavor and\nsuccess of Freedom.\n\nThe verdict of posterity in his case may be safely anticipated.  With the\ntrue reformers and benefactors of his race he occupies a place inferior\nto none other.  The private lives of many who fought well the battles of\nhumanity have not been without spot or blemish.  But his private\ncharacter, like his public, knew no dishonor.  No shadow of suspicion\nrests upon the white statue of a life, the fitting garland of which\nshould be the Alpine flower that symbolizes noble purity.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                        ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY.\n\nRead at the semi-centennial celebration of the American Anti-Slavery\nSociety at Philadelphia, on the 3d December, 1883.\n\n                              OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS.,\n                                     11th mo., 30, 1883.\n\nI NEED not say how gladly I would be with you at the semi-centennial of\nthe American Anti-Slavery Society.  I am, I regret to say, quite unable\nto gratify this wish, and can only represent myself by a letter.\n\nLooking back over the long years of half a century, I can scarcely\nrealize the conditions under which the convention of 1833 assembled.\nSlavery was predominant.  Like Apollyon in Pilgrim's Progress, it\n\"straddled over the whole breadth of the way.\"  Church and state, press\nand pulpit, business interests, literature, and fashion were prostrate at\nits feet.  Our convention, with few exceptions, was composed of men\nwithout influence or position, poor and little known, strong only in\ntheir convictions and faith in the justice of their cause.  To onlookers\nour endeavor to undo the evil work of two centuries and convert a nation\nto the \"great renunciation\" involved in emancipation must have seemed\nabsurd in the last degree.  Our voices in such an atmosphere found no\necho.  We could look for no response but laughs of derision or the\nmissiles of a mob.\n\nBut we felt that we had the strength of truth on our side; we were right,\nand all the world about us was wrong.  We had faith, hope, and\nenthusiasm, and did our work, nothing doubting, amidst a generation who\nfirst despised and then feared and hated us.  For myself I have never\nceased to be grateful to the Divine Providence for the privilege of\ntaking a part in that work.\n\nAnd now for more than twenty years we have had a free country.  No slave\ntreads its soil.  The anticipated dangerous consequences of complete\nemancipation have not been felt.  The emancipated class, as a whole, have\ndone wisely, and well under circumstances of peculiar difficulty.  The\nmasters have learned that cotton can be raised better by free than by\nslave labor, and nobody now wishes a return to slave-holding.  Sectional\nprejudices are subsiding, the bitterness of the civil war is slowly\npassing away.  We are beginning to feel that we are one people, with no\nreally clashing interests, and none more truly rejoice in the growing\nprosperity of the South than the old abolitionists, who hated slavery as\na curse to the master as well as to the slave.\n\nIn view of this commemorative semi-centennial occasion, many thoughts\ncrowd upon me; memory recalls vanished faces and voices long hushed.  Of\nthose who acted with me in the convention fifty years ago nearly all have\npassed into another state of being.  We who remain must soon follow; we\nhave seen the fulfilment of our desire; we have outlived scorn and\npersecution; the lengthening shadows invite us to rest.  If, in looking\nback, we feel that we sometimes erred through impatient zeal in our\ncontest with a great wrong, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we\nwere influenced by no merely selfish considerations.  The low light of\nour setting sun shines over a free, united people, and our last prayer\nshall be for their peace, prosperity, and happiness.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                                 RESPONSE\n\nTO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY BY THE COLORED CITIZENS OF\nWASHINGTON D. C.\n\nTo R. H. TERRELL AND GEORGE W. WILLIAMS, ESQUIRES.\n\nGENTLEMEN,--Among the great number of tokens of interest and good-will\nwhich reached me on my birthday, none have touched me more deeply than\nthe proceedings of the great meeting of the colored citizens of the\nnation's capital, of which you are the representatives.  The resolutions\nof that meeting came to me as the voice of millions of my fellow-\ncountrymen.  That voice was dumb in slavery when, more than half a\ncentury ago, I put forth my plea for the freedom of the slave.\n\nIt could not answer me from the rice swamp and cotton field, but now, God\nbe praised, it speaks from your great meeting in Washington and from all\nthe colleges and schools where the youth of your race are taught.  I\nscarcely expected then that the people for whom I pleaded would ever know\nof my efforts in their behalf.  I cannot be too thankful to the Divine\nProvidence that I have lived to hear their grateful response.\n\nI stand amazed at the rapid strides which your people have made since\nemancipation, at your industry, your acquisition of property and land,\nyour zeal for education, your self-respecting but unresentful attitude\ntoward those who formerly claimed to be your masters, your pathetic but\nmanly appeal for just treatment and recognition.  I see in all this the\npromise that the time is not far distant when, in common with the white\nrace, you will have the free, undisputed rights of American citizenship\nin all parts of the Union, and your rightful share in the honors as well\nas the protection of the government.\n\nYour letter would have been answered sooner if it had been possible.  I\nhave been literally overwbelmed with letters and telegrams, which, owing\nto illness, I have been in a great measure unable to answer or even read.\n\nI tender to you, gentlemen, and to the people you represent my heartfelt\nthanks, and the assurance that while life lasts you will find me, as I\nhave been heretofore, under more difficult circumstances, your faithful\nfriend.\n\nOAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS.,\nfirst mo., 9, 1888.","title":"The Conflict with Slavery: Part 1 from The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":46048}