{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9599/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9599","id":"gutenberg_9599","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9599","summary":null,"tags":["American literature","Antislavery movements -- United States","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Literature -- History and criticism","Slavery -- United States","United States -- Politics and government"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORKS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, Volume VII. (of VII)\n\nTHE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY, POLITICS AND REFORM, THE INNER LIFE and CRITICISM\n\n\nBy John Greenleaf Whittier\n\n\n     CONTENTS:\n\n     THE 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\n     REFORM 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\n     THE 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\n     CRITICISM.\n          EVANGELINE\n          MIRTH AND MEDICINE\n          FAME AND GLORY\n          FANATICISM\n          THE POETRY OF THE NORTH\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONFLICT WITH SLAVERY\n\n\n\n\nJUSTICE 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\n     District of Columbia ..... 6,119\n     Territory of Arkansas .... 4,576\n     Territory 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\nTHE ABOLITIONISTS. 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\n     Per cent. of whites.  Per cent. of blacks.\n\n     Maryland       13                  31\n     Virginia       24                  38\n     North 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\nLETTER TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL.\n\nHAVERHILL, 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\nJOHN 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\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\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\nDEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY. (1843.)\n\nTHE great leader of American Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, was an\nultra-abolitionist 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\nTHE TWO PROCESSIONS. (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\nA CHAPTER OF HISTORY. (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\nTHOMAS CARLYLE ON THE SLAVE-QUESTION. (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 effect 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\nFORMATION 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\nTHE 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\nCHARLES SUMNER AND THE STATE-DEPARTMENT. (1868.)\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 immediate 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\nTHE 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\nTHE 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\nTHE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1833. (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 Russell, 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\nKANSAS\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\nWILLIAM 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\nANTI-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\nRESPONSE TO THE CELEBRATION OF MY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY\n\nBY THE COLORED CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON 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 overwhelmed 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.\n\n\n\n\nREFORM AND POLITICS. UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS.\n\nTHERE is a large class of men, not in Europe alone, but in this country\nalso, whose constitutional conservatism inclines them to regard any\norganic change in the government of a state or the social condition of\nits people with suspicion and distrust.  They admit, perhaps, the evils\nof the old state of things; but they hold them to be inevitable, the\nalloy necessarily mingled with all which pertains to fallible humanity.\nThemselves generally enjoying whatever of good belongs to the political\nor social system in which their lot is cast, they are disposed to look\nwith philosophic indifference upon the evil which only afflicts their\nneighbors.  They wonder why people are not contented with their\nallotments; they see no reason for change; they ask for quiet and peace\nin their day; being quite well satisfied with that social condition which\nan old poet has quaintly described:--\n\n               \"The citizens like pounded pikes;\n               The lesser feed the great;\n               The rich for food seek stomachs,\n               And the poor for stomachs meat.\"\n\nThis class of our fellow-citizens have an especial dislike of theorists,\nreformers, uneasy spirits, speculators upon the possibilities of the\nworld's future, constitution builders, and believers in progress.  They\nare satisfied; the world at least goes well enough with them; they sit as\ncomfortable in it as Lafontaine's rat in the cheese; and why should those\nwho would turn it upside down come hither also?  Why not let well enough\nalone?  Why tinker creeds, constitutions, and laws, and disturb the good\nold-fashioned order of things in church and state?  The idea of making\nthe world better and happier is to them an absurdity.  He who entertains\nit is a dreamer and a visionary, destitute of common sense and practical\nwisdom.  His project, whatever it may be, is at once pronounced to be\nimpracticable folly, or, as they are pleased to term it, _Utopian._\n\nThe romance of Sir Thomas More, which has long afforded to the\nconservatives of church and state a term of contempt applicable to all\nreformatory schemes and innovations, is one of a series of fabulous\nwritings, in which the authors, living in evil times and unable to\nactualize their plans for the well-being of society, have resorted to\nfiction as a safe means of conveying forbidden truths to the popular\nmind.  Plato's \"Timaeus,\" the first of the series, was written after the\ndeath of Socrates and the enslavement of the author's country.  In this\nare described the institutions of the Island of Atlantis,--the writer's\nideal of a perfect commonwealth.  Xenophon, in his \"Cyropaedia,\" has also\ndepicted an imaginary political society by overlaying with fiction\nhistorical traditions.  At a later period we have the \"New Atlantis\" of\nLord Bacon, and that dream of the \"City of the Sun\" with which Campanella\nsolaced himself in his long imprisonment.\n\nThe \"Utopia\" of More is perhaps the best of its class.  It is the work of\na profound thinker, the suggestive speculations and theories of one who\ncould\n\n               \"Forerun his age and race, and let\n               His feet millenniums hence be set\n               In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet.\"\n\nMuch of what he wrote as fiction is now fact, a part of the frame-work of\nEuropean governments, and the political truths of his imaginary state are\nnow practically recognized in our own democratic system.  As might be\nexpected, in view of the times in which the author wrote, and the\nexceedingly limited amount of materials which he found ready to his hands\nfor the construction of his social and political edifice, there is a want\nof proportion and symmetry in the structure.  Many of his theories are no\ndoubt impracticable and unsound.  But, as a whole, the work is an\nadmirable one, striding in advance of the author's age, and prefiguring a\ngovernment of religious toleration and political freedom.  The following\nextract from it was doubtless regarded in his day as something worse than\nfolly or the dream of a visionary enthusiast:--\n\n\"He judged it wrong to lay down anything rashly, and seemed to doubt\nwhether these different forms of religion might not all come from God,\nwho might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with the\nvariety.  He therefore thought it to be indecent and foolish for any man\nto threaten and terrify another, to make him believe what did not strike\nhim as true.\"\n\nPassing by the \"Telemachus\" of Fenelon, we come to the political romance\nof Harrington, written in the time of Cromwell.  \"Oceana\" is the name by\nwhich the author represents England; and the republican plan of\ngovernment which he describes with much minuteness is such as he would\nhave recommended for adoption in case a free commonwealth had been\nestablished.  It deals somewhat severely with Cromwell's usurpation; yet\nthe author did not hesitate to dedicate it to that remarkable man, who,\nafter carefully reading it, gave it back to his daughter, Lady Claypole,\nwith the remark, full of characteristic bluntness, that \"the gentleman\nneed not think to cheat him of his power and authority; for what he had\nwon with the sword he would never suffer himself to be scribbled out of.\"\n\nNotwithstanding the liberality and freedom of his speculations upon\ngovernment and religion in his Utopia, it must be confessed that Sir\nThomas More, in after life, fell into the very practices of intolerance\nand bigotry which he condemned.  When in the possession of the great seal\nunder that scandal of kingship, Henry VIII., he gave his countenance to\nthe persecution of heretics.  Bishop Burnet says of him, that he caused a\ngentleman of the Temple to be whipped and put to the rack in his\npresence, in order to compel him to discover those who favored heretical\nopinions.  In his Utopia he assailed the profession of the law with\nmerciless satire; yet the satirist himself finally sat upon the\nchancellor's woolsack; and, as has been well remarked by Horace Smith,\n\"if, from this elevated seat, he ever cast his eyes back upon his past\nlife, he must have smiled at the fond conceit which could imagine a\npermanent Utopia, when he himself, certainly more learned, honest, and\nconscientious than the mass of men has ever been, could in the course of\none short life fall into such glaring and frightful rebellion against his\nown doctrines.\"\n\nHarrington, on the other hand, as became the friend of Milton and Marvel,\nheld fast, through good and evil report, his republican faith.  He\npublished his work after the Restoration, and defended it boldly and ably\nfrom the numerous attacks made upon it.  Regarded as too dangerous an\nenthusiast to be left at liberty, he was imprisoned at the instance of\nLord Chancellor Hyde, first in the Tower, and afterwards on the Island of\nSt.  Nicholas, where disease and imprudent remedies brought on a partial\nderangement, from which he never recovered.\n\nBernardin St. Pierre, whose pathetic tale of \"Paul and Virginia\" has\nfound admirers in every language of the civilized world, in a fragment,\nentitled \"Arcadia,\" attempted to depict an ideal republic, without\npriest, noble, or slave, where all are so religious that each man is the\npontiff of his family, where each man is prepared to defend his country,\nand where all are in such a state of equality that there are no such\npersons as servants.  The plan of it was suggested by his friend Rousseau\nduring their pleasant walking excursions about the environs of Paris, in\nwhich the two enthusiastic philosophers, baffled by the evil passions and\nintractable materials of human nature as manifested in existing society,\ncomforted themselves by appealing from the actual to the possible, from\nthe real to the imaginary.  Under the chestnut-trees of the Bois de\nBoulogne, through long summer days, the two friends, sick of the noisy\nworld about them, yet yearning to become its benefactors,--gladly\nescaping from it, yet busy with schemes for its regeneration and\nhappiness,--at once misanthropes and philanthropists,--amused and solaced\nthemselves by imagining a perfect and simple state of society, in which\nthe lessons of emulation and selfish ambition were never to be taught;\nwhere, on the contrary, the young were to obey their parents, and to\nprefer father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and friend to themselves.\nThey drew beautiful pictures of a country blessed with peace, indus try,\nand love, covered with no disgusting monuments of violence and pride and\nluxury, without columns, triumphal arches, hospitals, prisons, or\ngibbets; but presenting to view bridges over torrents, wells on the arid\nplain, groves of fruit-trees, and houses of shelter for the traveller in\ndesert places, attesting everywhere the sentiment of humanity.  Religion\nwas to speak to all hearts in the eternal language of Nature.  Death was\nno longer to be feared; perspectives of holy consolation were to open\nthrough the cypress shadows of the tomb; to live or to die was to be\nequally an object of desire.\n\nThe plan of the \"Arcadia\" of St. Pierre is simply this: A learned young\nEgyptian, educated at Thebes by the priests of Osiris, desirous of\nbenefiting humanity, undertakes a voyage to Gaul for the purpose of\ncarrying thither the arts and religion of Egypt.  He is shipwrecked on\nhis return in the Gulf of Messina, and lands upon the coast, where he is\nentertained by an Arcadian, to whom he relates his adventures, and from\nwhom he receives in turn an account of the simple happiness and peace of\nArcadia, the virtues and felicity of whose inhabitants are beautifully\nexemplified in the lives and conversation of the shepherd and his\ndaughter.  This pleasant little prose poem closes somewhat abruptly.\nAlthough inferior in artistic skill to \"Paul and Virginia\" or the \"Indian\nCottage\", there is not a little to admire in the simple beauty of its\npastoral descriptions.  The closing paragraph reminds one of Bunyan's\nupper chamber, where the weary pilgrim's windows opened to the sunrising\nand the singing of birds:--\n\n\"Tyrteus conducted his guests to an adjoining chamber.  It had a window\nshut by a curtain of rushes, through the crevices of which the islands of\nthe Alpheus might be seen in the light of the moon.  There were in this\nchamber two excellent beds, with coverlets of warm and light wool.\n\n\"Now, as soon as Amasis was left alone with Cephas, he spoke with joy of\nthe delight and tranquillity of the valley, of the goodness of the\nshepherd, and the grace of his young daughter, to whom he had seen none\nworthy to be compared, and of the pleasure which he promised himself the\nnext day, at the festival on Mount Lyceum, of beholding a whole people as\nhappy as this sequestered family.  Converse so delightful might have\ncharmed away the night without the aid of sleep, had they not been\ninvited to repose by the mild light of the moon shining through the\nwindow, the murmuring wind in the leaves of the poplars, and the distant\nnoise of the Achelous, which falls roaring from the summit of Mount\nLyceum.\"\n\nThe young patrician wits of Athens doubtless laughed over Plato's ideal\nrepublic.  Campanella's \"City of the Sun\" was looked upon, no doubt, as\nthe distempered vision of a crazy state prisoner.  Bacon's college, in\nhis \"New Atlantis,\" moved the risibles of fat-witted Oxford.  More's\n\"Utopia,\" as we know, gave to our language a new word, expressive of the\nvagaries and dreams of fanatics and lunatics.  The merciless wits,\nclerical and profane, of the court of Charles II.  regarded Harrington's\nromance as a perfect godsend to their vocation of ridicule.  The gay\ndames and carpet knights of Versailles made themselves merry with the\nprose pastoral of St.  Pierre; and the poor old enthusiast went down to\nhis grave without finding an auditory for his lectures upon natural\nsociety.\n\nThe world had its laugh over these romances.  When unable to refute their\ntheories, it could sneer at the authors, and answer them to the\nsatisfaction of the generation in which they lived, at least by a general\ncharge of lunacy.  Some of their notions were no doubt as absurd as those\nof the astronomer in \"Rasselas\", who tells Imlac that he has for five\nyears possessed the regulation of the weather, and has got the secret of\nmaking to the different nations an equal and impartial dividend of rain\nand sunshine.  But truth, even when ushered into the world through the\nmedium of a dull romance and in connection with a vast progeny of errors,\nhowever ridiculed and despised at first, never fails in the end of\nfinding a lodging-place in the popular mind.  The speculations of the\npolitical theorists whom we have noticed have not all proved to be of\n\n                                \"such stuff\n          As dreams are made of, and their little life\n          Rounded with sleep.\"\n\nThey have entered into and become parts of the social and political\nfabrics of Europe and America.  The prophecies of imagination have been\nfulfilled; the dreams of romance have become familiar realities.\n\nWhat is the moral suggested by this record?  Is it not that we should\nlook with charity and tolerance upon the schemes and speculations of the\npolitical and social theorists of our day; that, if unprepared to venture\nupon new experiments and radical changes, we should at least consider\nthat what was folly to our ancestors is our wisdom, and that another\ngeneration may successfully put in practice the very theories which now\nseem to us absurd and impossible?  Many of the evils of society have been\nmeasurably removed or ameliorated; yet now, as in the days of the\nApostle, \"the creation groaneth and travaileth in pain;\" and although\nquackery and empiricism abound, is it not possible that a proper\napplication of some of the remedies proposed might ameliorate the general\nsuffering?  Rejecting, as we must, whatever is inconsistent with or\nhostile to the doctrines of Christianity, on which alone rests our hope\nfor humanity, it becomes us to look kindly upon all attempts to apply\nthose doctrines to the details of human life, to the social, political,\nand industrial relations of the race.  If it is not permitted us to\nbelieve all things, we can at least hope them.  Despair is infidelity and\ndeath.  Temporally and spiritually, the declaration of inspiration holds\ngood, \"We are saved by hope.\"\n\n\n\n\nPECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. (1851.)\n\nBERNARDIN ST. PIERRE, in his Wishes of a Solitary, asks for his country\nneither wealth, nor military glory, nor magnificent palaces and\nmonuments, nor splendor of court nobility, nor clerical pomp.  \"Rather,\"\nhe says, \"O France, may no beggar tread thy plains, no sick or suffering\nman ask in vain for relief; in all thy hamlets may every young woman find\na lover and every lover a true wife; may the young be trained arightly\nand guarded from evil; may the old close their days in the tranquil hope\nof those who love God and their fellow-men.\"\n\nWe are reminded of the amiable wish of the French essayist--a wish even\nyet very far from realization, we fear, in the empire of Napoleon III.--\nby the perusal of two documents recently submitted to the legislature of\nthe State of Massachusetts.  They indicate, in our view, the real glory\nof a state, and foreshadow the coming of that time when Milton's\ndefinition of a true commonwealth shall be no longer a prophecy, but the\ndescription of an existing fact,--\"a huge Christian personage, a mighty\ngrowth and stature of an honest man, moved by the purpose of a love of\nGod and of mankind.\"\n\nSome years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the suggestion of\nseveral benevolent gentlemen whose attention had been turned to the\nsubject, appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of the\nidiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their numbers, and whether\nanything could be done in their behalf.\n\nThe commissioners were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, so well and honorably known\nfor his long and arduous labors in behalf of the blind, Judge Byington,\nand Dr. Gilman Kimball.  The burden of the labor fell upon the chairman,\nwho entered upon it with the enthusiasm, perseverance, and practical\nadaptation of means to ends which have made him so efficient in his\nvaried schemes of benevolence.  On the 26th of the second month, 1848, a\nfull report of the results of this labor was made to the Governor,\naccompanied by statistical tables and minute details.  One hundred towns\nhad been visited by the chairman or his reliable agent, in which five\nhundred and seventy-five persons in a state of idiocy were discovered.\nThese were examined carefully in respect to their physical as well as\nmental condition, no inquiry being omitted which was calculated to throw\nlight upon the remote or immediate causes of this mournful imperfection\nin the creation of God.  The proximate causes Dr. Howe mentions are to be\nfound in the state of the bodily organization, deranged and\ndisproportioned by some violation of natural law on the part of the\nparents or remoter ancestors of the sufferers.  Out of 420 cases of\nidiocy, he had obtained information respecting the condition of the\nprogenitors of 359; and in all but four of these eases he found that one\nor the other, or both, of their immediate progenitors had in some way\ndeparted widely from the condition of health; they were scrofulous, or\npredisposed to affections of the brain, and insanity, or had intermarried\nwith blood-relations, or had been intemperate, or guilty of sensual\nexcesses.\n\nOf the 575 cases, 420 were those of idiocy from birth, and 155 of idiocy\nafterwards.  Of the born idiots, 187 were under twenty-five years of age,\nand all but 13 seemed capable of improvement.  Of those above twenty-five\nyears of age, 73 appeared incapable of improvement in their mental\ncondition, being helpless as children at seven years of age; 43 out of\nthe 420 seemed as helpless as children at two years of age; 33 were in\nthe condition of mere infants; and 220 were supported at the public\ncharge in almshouses.  A large proportion of them were found to be given\nover to filthy and loathsome habits, gluttony, and lust, and constantly\nsinking lower towards the condition of absolute brutishness.\n\nThose in private houses were found, if possible, in a still more\ndeplorable state.  Their parents were generally poor, feeble in mind and\nbody, and often of very intemperate habits.  Many of them seemed scarcely\nable to take care of themselves, and totally unfit for the training of\nordinary children.  It was the blind leading the blind, imbecility\nteaching imbecility.  Some instances of the experiments of parental\nignorance upon idiotic offspring, which fell under the observation of Dr.\nHowe, are related in his report Idiotic children were found with their\nheads covered over with cold poultices of oak-bark, which the foolish\nparents supposed would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his\nox-hides, and so make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering\nlessons.  In other cases, finding that the child could not be made to\ncomprehend anything, the sagacious heads of the household, on the\nsupposition that its brain was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices\nof bread and milk to soften it.  Others plastered over their children's\nheads with tar.  Some administered strong doses of mercury, to \"solder up\nthe openings\" in the head and make it tight and strong.  Others\nencouraged the savage gluttony of their children, stimulating their\nunnatural and bestial appetites, on the ground that \"the poor creatures\nhad nothing else to enjoy but their food, and they should have enough of\nthat!\"\n\nIn consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848,\nmade an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three\nyears, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be\nselected by the Governor and Council.  The trustees of the Asylum for the\nBlind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving\nthese pupils.  The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first\nannual report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the\nSenate, is now before us.\n\nOf the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of\nmuscular motion,--the languid body obeyed not the service of the imbecile\nwill.  Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple motions;\nothers could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two were\nwithout any power of locomotion.\n\nOne of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the\nday of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could\nscarcely see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of\ntouch.  He could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would\nlie on the floor in whatever position he was placed.  He could not feed\nhimself nor chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an\ninfant.  His intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no\naffections.  A more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have\nbeen selected.\n\nA year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in\nthe condition of this miserable being.  Cold bathing, rubbing of the\nlimbs, exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances\nhave enabled him to stand upright, to sit at table and feed himself, and\nchew his food, and to walk about with slight assistance.  His habits are\nno longer those of a brute; he observes decency; his eye is brighter; his\ncheeks glow with health; his countenance, is more expressive of thought.\nHe has learned many words and constructs simple sentences; his affections\nbegin to develop; and there is every prospect that he will be so far\nrenovated as to be able to provide for himself in manhood.\n\nIn the case of another boy, aged twelve years, the improvement has been\nequally remarkable.  The gentleman who first called attention to him, in\na recent note to Dr. Howe, published in the report, thus speaks of his\npresent condition: \"When I remember his former wild and almost frantic\ndemeanor when approached by any one, and the apparent impossibility of\ncommunicating with him, and now see him standing in his class, playing\nwith his fellows, and willingly and familiarly approaching me, examining\nwhat I gave him,--and when I see him already selecting articles named by\nhis teacher, and even correctly pronouncing words printed on cards,--\nimprovement does not convey the idea presented to my mind; it is\ncreation; it is making him anew.\"\n\nAll the pupils have more or less advanced.  Their health and habits have\nimproved; and there is no reason to doubt that the experiment, at the\nclose of its three years, will be found to have been quite as successful\nas its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated.  Dr. Howe has\nbeen ably seconded by an accomplished teacher, James B. Richards, who has\ndevoted his whole time to the pupils.  Of the nature and magnitude of\ntheir task, an idea may be formed only by considering the utter\nlistlessness of idiocy, the incapability of the poor pupil to fix his\nattention upon anything, and his general want of susceptibility to\nimpressions.  All his senses are dulled and perverted.  Touch, hearing,\nsight, smell, are all more or less defective.  His gluttony is\nunaccompanied with the gratification of taste,--the most savory viands\nand the offal which he shares with the pigs equally satisfy him.  His\nmental state is still worse than his physical.  Thought is painful and\nirksome to him.\n\nHis teacher can only engage his attention by strenuous efforts, loud,\nearnest tones, gesticulations and signs, and a constant presentation of\nsome visible object of bright color and striking form.  The eye wanders,\nand the spark of consciousness and intelligence which has been fanned\ninto momentary brightness darkens at the slightest relaxation of the\nteacher's exertions.  The names of objects presented to him must\nsometimes be repeated hundreds of times before he can learn them.  Yet\nthe patience and enthusiasm of the teacher are rewarded by a progress,\nslow and unequal, but still marked and manifest.  Step by step, often\ncompelled to turn back and go over the inch of ground he had gained, the\nidiot is still creeping forward; and by almost imperceptible degrees his\nsick, cramped, and prisoned spirit casts off the burden of its body of\ndeath, breath as from the Almighty--is breathed into him, and he becomes\na living soul.\n\nAfter the senses of the idiot are trained to take note\nof their appropriate objects, the various perceptive faculties are next\nto be exercised.  The greatest possible number of facts are to be\ngathered up through the medium of these faculties into the storehouse of\nmemory, from whence eventually the higher faculties of mind may draw the\nmaterial of general ideas.  It has been found difficult, if not\nimpossible, to teach the idiot to read by the letters first, as in the\nordinary method; but while the varied powers of the three letters, h, a,\nt, could not be understood by him, he could be made to comprehend the\ncomplex sign of the word hat, made by uniting the three.\n\nThe moral nature of the idiot needs training and development as well as\nhis physical and mental.  All that can be said of him is, that he has the\nlatent capacity for moral development and culture.  Uninstructed and left\nto himself, he has no ideas of regulated appetites and propensities, of\ndecency and delicacy of affection and social relations.  The germs of\nthese ideas, which constitute the glory and beauty of humanity,\nundoubtedly exist in him; but there can be no growth without patient and\npersevering culture.  Where this is afforded, to use the language of the\nreport, \"the idiot may learn what love is, though he may not know the\nword which expresses it; he may feel kindly affections while unable to\nunderstand the simplest virtuous principle; and he may begin to live\nacceptably to God before he has learned the name by which men call him.\"\n\nIn the facts and statistics presented in the report, light is shed upon\nsome of the dark pages of God's providence, and it is seen that the\nsuffering and shame of idiocy are the result of sin, of a violation of\nthe merciful laws of God and of the harmonies of His benign order.  The\npenalties which are ordained for the violators of natural laws are\ninexorable and certain.  For the transgressor of the laws of life there\nis, as in the case of Esau, \"no place for repentance, though he seek it\nearnestly and with tears.\"  The curse cleaves to him and his children.\nIn this view, how important becomes the subject of the hereditary\ntransmission of moral and physical disease and debility! and how\nnecessary it is that there should be a clearer understanding of, and a\nwilling obedience, at any cost, to the eternal law which makes the parent\nthe blessing or the curse of the child, giving strength and beauty, and\nthe capacity to know and do the will of God, or bequeathing\nloathsomeness, deformity, and animal appetite, incapable of the\nrestraints of the moral faculties!  Even if the labors of Dr. Howe and\nhis benevolent associates do not materially lessen the amount of present\nactual evil and suffering in this respect, they will not be put forth in\nvain if they have the effect of calling public attention to the great\nlaws of our being, the violation of which has made this goodly earth a\nvast lazarhouse of pain and sorrow.\n\nThe late annual message of the Governor of Massachusetts invites our\nattention to a kindred institution of charity.  The chief magistrate\ncongratulates the legislature, in language creditable to his mind and\nheart, on the opening of the Reform School for Juvenile Criminals,\nestablished by an act of a previous legislature.  The act provides that,\nwhen any boy under sixteen years of age shall be convicted of crime\npunishable by imprisonment other than such an offence as is punished by\nimprisonment for life, he may be, at the discretion of the court or\njustice, sent to the State Reform School, or sentenced to such\nimprisonment as the law now provides for his offence.  The school is\nplaced under the care of trustees, who may either refuse to receive a boy\nthus sent there, or, after he has been received, for reasons set forth in\nthe act, may order him to be committed to prison under the previous penal\nlaw of the state.  They are also authorized to apprentice the boys, at\ntheir discretion, to inhabitants of the Commonwealth.  And whenever any\nboy shall be discharged, either as reformed or as having reached the age\nof twenty-one years, his discharge is a full release from his sentence.\n\nIt is made the duty of the trustees to cause the boys to be instructed in\npiety and morality, and in branches of useful knowledge, in some regular\ncourse of labor, mechanical, agricultural, or horticultural, and such\nother trades and arts as may be best adapted to secure the amendment,\nreformation, and future benefit of the boys.  The class of offenders for\nwhom this act provides are generally the offspring of parents depraved by\ncrime or suffering from poverty and want,--the victims often of\ncircumstances of evil which almost constitute a necessity,--issuing from\nhomes polluted and miserable, from the sight and hearing of loathsome\nimpurities and hideous discords, to avenge upon society the ignorance,\nand destitution, and neglect with which it is too often justly\nchargeable.  In 1846 three hundred of these youthful violators of law\nwere sentenced to jails and other places of punishment in Massachusetts,\nwhere they incurred the fearful liability of being still more thoroughly\ncorrupted by contact with older criminals, familiar with atrocity, and\nrolling their loathsome vices \"as a sweet morsel under the tongue.\"  In\nview of this state of things the Reform School has been established,\ntwenty-two thousand dollars having been contributed to the state for that\npurpose by an unknown benefactor of his race.  The school is located in\nWestboro', on a fine farm of two hundred acres.  The buildings are in the\nform of a square, with a court in the centre, three stories in front,\nwith wings.  They are constructed with a degree of architectural taste,\nand their site is happily chosen,--a gentle eminence, overlooking one of\nthe loveliest of the small lakes which form a pleasing feature in New\nEngland scenery.  From this place the atmosphere and associations of the\nprison are excluded.  The discipline is strict, as a matter of course;\nbut it is that of a well-regulated home or school-room,--order, neatness,\nand harmony within doors; and without, the beautiful 'sights and sounds\nand healthful influences of Nature.  One would almost suppose that the\npoetical dream of Coleridge, in his tragedy of Remorse, had found its\nrealization in the Westboro' School, and that, weary of the hopelessness\nand cruelty of the old penal system, our legislators had embodied in\ntheir statutes the idea of the poet:--\n\n      \"With other ministrations thou, O Nature,\n      Healest thy wandering and distempered child\n      Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,\n      Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,\n      Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,\n      Till he relent, and can no more endure\n      To be a jarring and a dissonant thing\n      Amidst this general dance and minstrelsy.\"\n\nThus it is that the Christian idea of reformation, rather than revenge,\nis slowly but surely incorporating itself in our statute books.  We have\nonly to look back but a single century to be able to appreciate the\nimmense gain for humanity in the treatment of criminals which has been\nsecured in that space of time.  Then the use of torture was common\nthroughout Europe.  Inability to comprehend and believe certain religious\ndogmas was a crime to be expiated by death, or confiscation of estate, or\nlingering imprisonment.  Petty offences against property furnished\nsubjects for the hangman.  The stocks and the whipping-post stood by the\nside of the meeting-house.  Tongues were bored with redhot irons and ears\nshorn off.  The jails were loathsome dungeons, swarming with vermin,\nunventilated, unwarmed.  A century and a half ago the populace of\nMassachusetts were convulsed with grim merriment at the writhings of a\nmiserable woman scourged at the cart-tail or strangling in the ducking-\nstool; crowds hastened to enjoy the spectacle of an old man enduring the\nunutterable torment of the 'peine forte et dare,'--pressed slowly to\ndeath under planks,--for refusing to plead to an indictment for\nwitchcraft.  What a change from all this to the opening of the State\nReform School, to the humane regulations of prisons and penitentiaries,\nto keen-eyed benevolence watching over the administration of justice,\nwhich, in securing society from lawless aggression, is not suffered to\noverlook the true interest and reformation of the criminal, nor to forget\nthat the magistrate, in the words of the Apostle, is to be indeed \"the\nminister of God to man for good!\"\n\n\n\n\nLORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES.\n\n\"THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,\" was\nthe significant answer of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees who\ntook offence at his companions,--the poor, the degraded, the weak, and\nthe sinful.  \"Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and\nnot sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to\nrepentance.\"\n\nThe great lesson of duty inculcated by this answer of the Divine Teacher\nhas been too long overlooked by individuals and communities professedly\ngoverned by His maxims.  The phylacteries of our modern Pharisees are as\nbroad as those of the old Jewish saints.  The respectable Christian\ndetests his vicious and ill-conditioned neighbors as heartily as the\nIsraelite did the publicans and sinners of his day.  He folds his robe of\nself-righteousness closely about him, and denounces as little better than\nsinful weakness all commiseration for the guilty; and all attempts to\nrestore and reclaim the erring violators of human law otherwise than by\npains and penalties as wicked collusion with crime, dangerous to the\nstability and safety of society, and offensive in the sight of God.  And\nyet nothing is more certain than that, just in proportion as the example\nof our Lord has been followed in respect to the outcast and criminal, the\neffect has been to reform and elevate,--to snatch as brands from the\nburning souls not yet wholly given over to the service of evil.  The\nwonderful influence for good exerted over the most degraded and reckless\ncriminals of London by the excellent and self-denying Elizabeth Fry, the\nhappy results of the establishment of houses of refuge, and reformation,\nand Magdalen asylums, all illustrate the wisdom of Him who went about\ndoing good, in pointing out the morally diseased as the appropriate\nsubjects of the benevolent labors of His disciples.  No one is to be\ndespaired of.  We have no warrant to pass by any of our fellow-creatures\nas beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy; for, beneath the most\nrepulsive and hateful outward manifestation, there is always a\nconsciousness of the beauty of goodness and purity, and of the\nloathsomeness of sin,--one chamber of the heart as yet not wholly\nprofaned, whence at times arises the prayer of a burdened and miserable\nspirit for deliverance.  Deep down under the squalid exterior,\nunparticipative in the hideous merriment and recklessness of the\ncriminal, there is another self,--a chained and suffering inner man,--\ncrying out, in the intervals of intoxication and brutal excesses, like\nJonah from the bosom of hell.  To this lingering consciousness the\nsympathy and kindness of benevolent and humane spirits seldom appeal in\nvain; for, whatever may be outward appearances, it remains true that the\nway of the transgressor is hard, and that sin and suffering are\ninseparable.  Crime is seldom loved or persevered in for its own sake;\nbut, when once the evil path is entered upon, a return is in reality\nextremely difficult to the unhappy wanderer, and often seems as well nigh\nimpossible.  The laws of social life rise up like insurmountable barriers\nbetween him and escape.  As he turns towards the society whose rights he\nhas outraged, its frown settles upon him; the penalties of the laws he\nhas violated await him; and he falls back despairing, and suffers the\nfetters of the evil habit to whose power he has yielded himself to be\nfastened closer and heavier upon him.  O for some good angel, in the form\nof a brother-man and touched with a feeling of his sins and infirmities,\nto reassure his better nature and to point out a way of escape from its\nbody of death!\n\nWe have been led into these remarks by an account, given in the London\nWeekly Chronicle, of a most remarkable interview between the professional\nthieves of London and Lord Ashley,--a gentleman whose best patent of\nnobility is to be found in his generous and untiring devotion to the\ninterests of his fellow-men.  It appears that a philanthropic gentleman\nin London had been applied to by two young thieves, who had relinquished\ntheir evil practices and were obtaining a precarious but honest\nlivelihood by picking up bones and rags in the streets, their loss of\ncharacter closing against them all other employments.  He had just been\nreading an address of Lord Ashley's in favor of colonial emigration, and\nhe was led to ask one of the young men how he would like to emigrate.\n\n\"I should jump at the chance!\" was the reply. Not long after the\ngentleman was sent for to visit one of those obscure and ruinous courts\nof the great metropolis where crime and poverty lie down together,--\nlocalities which Dickens has pictured with such painful distinctness.\nHere, to his surprise, he met a number of thieves and outlaws, who\ndeclared themselves extremely anxious to know whether any hope could be\nheld out to them of obtaining an honest living, however humble, in the\ncolonies, as their only reason for continuing in their criminal course\nwas the impossibility of extricating themselves.  He gave them such\nadvice and encouragement as he was able, and invited them to assemble\nagain, with such of their companions as they could persuade to do so, at\nthe room of the Irish Free School, for the purpose of meeting Lord\nAshley.  On the 27th of the seventh month last the meeting took place.\nAt the hour appointed, Lord Ashley and five or six other benevolent\ngentlemen, interested in emigration as a means of relief and reformation\nto the criminal poor, entered the room, which was already well-nigh\nfilled.  Two hundred and seven professed thieves were present.  \"Several\nof the most experienced thieves were stationed at the door to prevent the\nadmission of any but thieves.  Some four or five individuals, who were\nnot at first known, were subjected to examination, and only allowed to\nremain on stating that they were, and being recognized as, members of the\ndishonest fraternity; and before the proceedings of the evening commenced\nthe question was very carefully put, and repeated several times, whether\nany one was in the room of whom others entertained doubts as to who he\nwas.  The object of this care was, as so many of them were in danger of\n'getting into trouble,' or, in other words, of being taken up for their\ncrimes, to ascertain if any who might betray them were present; and\nanother intention of this scrutiny was, to give those assembled, who\nnaturally would feel considerable fear, a fuller confidence in opening\ntheir minds.\"\n\nWhat a novel conference between the extremes of modern society!  All that\nis beautiful in refinement and education, moral symmetry and Christian\ngrace, contrasting with the squalor, the ignorance, the lifelong\ndepravity of men living \"without God in the world,\"--the pariahs of\ncivilization,--the moral lepers, at the sight of whom decency covers its\nface, and cries out, \"Unclean!\"  After a prayer had been offered, Lord\nAshley spoke at considerable length, making a profound impression on his\nstrange auditory as they listened to his plans of emigration, which\noffered them an opportunity to escape from their miserable condition and\nenter upon a respectable course of life.  The hard heart melted and the\ncold and cruel eye moistened.  With one accord the wretched felons\nresponded to the language of Christian love and good-will, and declared\ntheir readiness to follow the advice of their true friend.  They looked\nup to him as to an angel of mercy, and felt the malignant spirits which\nhad so long tormented them disarmed of all power of evil in the presence\nof simple goodness.  He stood in that felon audience like Spenser's Una\namidst the satyrs; unassailable and secure in the \"unresistible might of\nmeekness,\" and panoplied in that \"noble grace which dashed brute violence\nwith sudden adoration and mute awe.\"\n\nTwenty years ago, when Elizabeth Fry ventured to visit those \"spirits in\nprison,\"--the female tenants of Newgate,--her temerity was regarded with\nastonishment, and her hope of effecting a reformation in the miserable\nobjects of her sympathy was held to be wholly visionary.  Her personal\nsafety and the blessed fruits of her labors, nevertheless, confirmed the\nlanguage of her Divine Master to His disciples when He sent them forth as\nlambs among wolves: \"Behold, I give unto you power over all the power of\nthe enemy.\"  The still more unpromising experiment of Lord Ashley, thus\nfar, has been equally successful; and we hail it as the introduction of a\nnew and more humane method of dealing with the victims of sin and\nignorance, and the temptations growing out of the inequalities and vices\nof civilization.\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN SUFFRAGE.\n\n                    Letter to the Newport Convention.\n\n                 AMESBURY, MASS., 12th, 8th Month, 1869.\n\nI HAVE received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf\nof Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R.  I., on the 25th inst.  I do not see\nhow it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so,\nthe state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the\nmeeting as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to\nsanction anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of\nduty or policy.  Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not\nembrace this occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement.\nI have seen no good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not\nhave the same right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers,\nhusbands, and brothers have.\n\nThe sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women\nof my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like\nequality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with\nnoble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their\nhousehold duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of\nunpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and\nstrengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human\nnature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than\nacquiescence on the efforts you are making.  I frankly confess that I am\nnot able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political\nchange proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to\ndo right, and the truest expediency is simple justice.  I can understand,\nwithout sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote\ndrops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment,\nthe bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it.  But in this\nmatter it seems to me that we can trust Nature.  Stronger than statutes\nor conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves\nand honors in woman.  Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed\nChevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain.\nI have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when\nthey meet on terms of equality before the law.\n\nOn the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman\nwill prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains.  It\nis her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something\nless than manhood to withhold it.  But, unsupported by a more practical\neducation, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of\nlife and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more\nthan in man's.\n\nWith great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend.\n\n\n\n\nITALIAN UNITY\n\n                   AMESBURY, MASS., 1st Mo., 4th, 1871.\n\n     Read at the great meeting in New York, January, 1871, in celebration\n     of the freedom of Rome and complete unity of Italy.\n\nIT would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to attend the meeting on\nthe 12th instant for the celebration of Italian Unity, the emancipation\nof Rome, and its occupation as the permanent capital of the nation.\n\nFor many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular\nmovement on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the\ndeliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age by centuries.  I\nlooked at these struggles of the people with little reference to their\necclesiastical or sectarian bearings.  Had I been a Catholic instead of a\nProtestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from\nPapal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical,\ndesirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the civil liberty\nwhich I prized so highly for myself.\n\nI lost all confidence in the French republic of 1849, when it forfeited\nits own right to exist by crushing out the newly formed Roman republic\nunder Mazzini and Garibaldi.  From that hour it was doomed, and the\nexpiation of its monstrous crime is still going on.  My sympathies are\nwith Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and\nsustain a republic in France, but I confess that the investment of Paris\nby King William seems to me the logical sequence of the bombardment of\nRome by Oudinot.  And is it not a significant fact that the terrible\nchassepot, which made its first bloody experiment upon the halfarmed\nItalian patriots without the walls of Rome, has failed in the hands of\nFrench republicans against the inferior needle-gun of Prussia?  It was\nsaid of a fierce actor in the old French Revolution that he demoralized\nthe guillotine.  The massacre at Mentana demoralized the chassepot.\n\nIt is a matter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has been\neffected so easily and bloodlessly.  The despotism of a thousand years\nfell at a touch in noiseless rottenness.  The people of Rome, fifty to\none, cast their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of earth\nupon its grave.  Outside of Rome there seems to be a very general\nacquiescence in its downfall.  No Peter the Hermit preaches a crusade in\nits behalf.  No one of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a finger\nfor it.  Whatever may be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the\nfugitive son of King Bomba, they are in no condition to come to its\nrescue.  It is reserved for American ecclesiastics, loud-mouthed in\nprofessions of democracy, to make solemn protest against what they call\nan \"outrage,\" which gives the people of Rome the right of choosing their\nown government, and denies the divine right of kings in the person of Pio\nNono.\n\nThe withdrawal of the temporal power of the Pope will prove a blessing to\nthe Catholic Church, as well as to the world.  Many of its most learned\nand devout priests and laymen have long seen the necessity of such a\nchange, which takes from it a reproach and scandal that could no longer\nbe excused or tolerated.  A century hence it will have as few apologists\nas the Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew.\n\nIn this hour of congratulation let us not forget those whose suffering\nand self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the\nway for the triumph which we celebrate.  As we call the long, illustrious\nroll of Italian patriotism--the young, the brave, and beautiful; the\ngray-haired, saintly confessors; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut\nout from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the\nslow, dumb agony of prison martyrdom--let us hope that they also rejoice\nwith us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving:\n\"Alleluia!  for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!  He hath avenged the\nblood of his servants!\"\n\nIn the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule\nwill strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized' world, I\nam very truly thy friend.\n\n\n\n\nINDIAN CIVILIZATION.\n\nTHE present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the\naboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of\nindifference to any class of the people of the United States.  Apart from\nall considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our\nown well-being would compel attention to the subject.  The irreversible\nlaws of God's moral government, and the well-attested maxims of political\nand social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and\nwrong of one part of the community must affect all others.  A common\nresponsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten\nignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect\nno nation has ever escaped.\n\nIt is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian\nCivilization could be appropriately used in this country.  Very little\nreal progress bad been made in this direction, up to the time when\nCommissioner Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced.  So\nlittle had been done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the\nassumption that the Indians were not susceptible of civilization and\nprogress.  The few experiments had not been calculated to assure a\nsuperficial observer.\n\nThe unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the\nimprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his \"praying\nIndians,\" by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes.\nThe salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was\ngreatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless\nconverts of Gnadenhutten.  But since the first visit of Commissioner\nLang, thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization,\nand conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature,\nand if Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been\npractically solved.\n\nThe nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are\nindeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their\nelevation.  The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those\nNorthern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and\nwho were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had\nconquered.  The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed\nfrom the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the\nScandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons\nof rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where\nghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell\nwas a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by\ndiligence in robbery and courage in murder.  The descendants of these\nhuman butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing\ninfluence of the gospel of Christ.  The report of the Superintendent of\nthe remnants of the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable\nand prosperous in Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the\nNorse ancestors of the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of\nimprovement.\n\nIt is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the\nwars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every\ninstance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic\ndisregard of their rights of person, property, and life.  The letter of\nBishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month,\n1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman,\nHarney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching\ninvestigation of the subject: \"That the Indian goes to war is not\nastonishing: he is often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in\nsilence, which never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence.\nThe best possible way to avoid war is to do no injustice.\"\n\nIt is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer\nsettlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind\nvengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the\nreal wrong-doers.  They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as\nproof that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can\nprevent their repetition.  But a moment's consideration compels us to\nadmit that atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man.  \"All wars\nare cruel,\" said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom\nhas been a great battle-field.  What Indian raid has been more dreadful\nthan the sack of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless\natrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St.\nBartholomew's day, the unspeakable agonies of the South of France under\nthe demoniac rule of revolution!  All history, black with crime and red\nwith blood, is but an awful commentary upon \"man's inhumanity to man,\"\nand it teaches us that there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's\nferocity and vindictiveness, and that the alleged reasons for his\nextermination would, at one time or another, have applied with equal\nforce to the whole family of man.\n\nA late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable\ninformation and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have\nfound in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it\nmy hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general\ncirculation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in\nthe condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind\nto a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a\npeople to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future\nrelations to the native owners of the soil to \"deal justly and love\nmercy.\"\n\n\n\n\nREADING FOR THE BLIND. (1880.)\n\nTo Mary C.  Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum.\n\nDEAR FRIEND,--It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in thy\nclass at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded them\nto read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold\nwhat I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me.  Very glad I shall\nbe if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I\nhave tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot\ndiscern them by natural vision.  I shall count it a great privilege to\nsee for them, or rather to let them see through my eyes.  It is the mind\nafter all that really sees, shapes, and colors all things.  What visions\nof beauty and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of\nblind Milton and Beethoven!\n\nI have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and\nblind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high\ndegree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of\nscenes which have been witnessed only by the \"light within.\"\n\nI thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that\nI am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer\nis that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can\nwell dispense with the outward and material ones.\n\n\n\n\nTHE INDIAN QUESTION.\n\nRead at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the\ncondition of the Indians in the United States.\n\nAMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883.\n\nI REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to\nthe pressing question of the day, the present condition and future\nprospects of the Indian race in the United States.  The old policy,\nhowever well intended, of the government is no longer available.  The\nwestward setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the\nlines of the reservations.  There would seem to be no power in the\ngovernment to prevent the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and\nthe crowding out of the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds.\nOutbreaks of Indian ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on\nthe part of the whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of\nindiscriminate massacres.  The entire question will soon resolve itself\ninto the single alternative of education and civilization or\nextermination.\n\nThe school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon\nhave proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can\nbe enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and\ndelight in the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in\nhis workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the\nlaws of the republic.  What is needed is that not only these schools\nshould be more liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened\nwithout delay.  The matter does not admit of procrastination.  The work\nof education and civilization must be done.  The money needed must be\ncontributed with no sparing hand.  The laudable example set by the\nFriends and the American Missionary Association should be followed by\nother sects and philanthropic societies.  Christianity, patriotism, and\nenlightened self interest have a common stake in the matter.  Great and\ndifficult as the work may be the country is strong enough, rich enough,\nwise enough, and, I believe, humane and Christian enough to do it.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REPUBLICAN PARTY.\n\nRead at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston,\nNovember, 1885.\n\nAMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885.\n\nI AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of\nthe Essex Club on the 14th inst.  I should be glad to meet my old\nRepublican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election\nin Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex.\n\nSome of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last\nyear saw fit to vote with the opposite party.  I would be the last to\ndeny their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I\nthink they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and\nevils which they complained of.  President Cleveland has proved himself\nbetter than his party, and has done and said some good things which I\ngive him full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him,\nand must eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his\ncarrying the party, it will be likely to carry him.  It has already\ncompelled him to put his hands in his pockets for electioneering\npurposes, and travel all the way from Washington to Buffalo to give his\nvote for a spoilsman and anti-civil service machine politician.  I would\nnot like to call it a case of \"offensive partisanship,\" but it looks a\ngood deal like it.\n\nAs a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the\nparty, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the\nDemocratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization\nno longer necessary.  But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has\nstill its mission and its future.  When labor shall everywhere have its\njust reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when\neducation shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have\nthe free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective\nof color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community\nshall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it\nfostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions\nof office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to\nwell-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will\nthe work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political\nrivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other\naim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty,\nand union.  Then may the language which Milton addressed to his\ncountrymen two centuries ago be applied to the United States, \"Go on,\nhand in hand, O peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic\nsong of all posterity.  Join your invincible might to do worthy and\ngodlike deeds; and then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving\ncurse be his inheritance.\"\n\n\n\n\nOUR DUMB RELATIONS. (1886.)\n\nIT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the\nfervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His\ncreation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league\nwith the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace\nwith him.  The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the\ngolden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to\nwarrant.  The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute\ncreation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest\nand meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world\nthere are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and\nnature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven,\nand who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents.\n\nIt is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that\nstories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men\nand animals are always listened to with interest and approval.  How\npleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been\ncelebrated in song and romance.  Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his\nbequest to the birds.  Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went,\nby flocks of birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed\nhat and his drab coat-sleeves.  Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind\nand infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat.  Of\nWalter Scott and John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs.  Of our own\nThoreau, instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend.  Emerson\nsays of him: \"His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller\nrecords of Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees\nthings, or the bees had told him.  Snakes coiled round his legs; the\nfishes swam into his hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his\ntail, and took foxes under his protection from the hunters.\"\n\nIn the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems--the sacred book of the\nMahabharata--there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness,\nwhich records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise.\nA pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces,\nand, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all\nfallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed.\nHe was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city.  But the king\nthinks of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in\nwithout them.  The god tells him they are all within waiting for him.\nJoyful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who,\nweary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter\nthe gate.  Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon\nhis faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin.\n\n     \"Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful!\n     Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog.\n     The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to\n     save him;\n     Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word.\"\n\nIn full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and\nstraightway descends, as he supposes, thither.  But his virtue and\nfaithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself\nsurrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus\nhonor and reward his humanity and unselfish love.\n\n\n\n\nINTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.\n\nRead at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing\nmore than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor\ninternational arbitration.\n\nAMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887.\n\nIT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at\nthe welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than\ntwo hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international\narbitration.  Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the\npresentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United\nStates.  It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best\ninterests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must\nrespond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his\ncolleagues who represented the workingmen of England.  We do not need to\nbe told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by\nprofessed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and\nboomerang.  We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the\ndemoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the\nspectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in\npreparing to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like\nCount Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that\nthe gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred.\n\nThe overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a\ncheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of\npeace among English speaking peoples.  I cannot doubt that whatever stump\norators and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America\nwill respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water.\nNo two nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the\nUnited States for making the \"holy experiment of arbitration.\"\n\nIn our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common\nclaims in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are\nessentially one people.  Whatever other nations may do, we at least\nshould be friends.  God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall\nnot be in vain!  May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us\nshall be the peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of\ngood.\n\n              \"When closer strand shall lean to strand,\n               Till meet beneath saluting flags,\n               The eagle of our mountain crags,\n               The lion of our mother land!\"\n\n\n\n\nSUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN.\n\nRead at the Woman's Convention at Washington.\n\nOAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888.\n\nI THANK thee for thy kind letter.  It would be a great satisfaction to be\nable to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage\nAssociation.  But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my\nhearty sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart\nand assurance in view of all that has been accomplished.  There is no\neasy royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been\nslow there has been no step backward.  The barriers which at first seemed\nimpregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and\ntheir fall is certain.  A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is\nin the air; your opponents feel it and believe it.  They know that yours\nis a gaining and theirs a losing cause.  The work still before you\ndemands on your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm,\ndignified, and self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you\nhave so much reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not\ndiscouraged by temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor\nprovoked to use any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall\nback on the heads of those who use them.  You can afford\nin your consciousness of right to be as calm and courteous as the\narchangel Michael, who, we are told in Scripture in his controversy with\nSatan himself, did not bring a railing accusation against him.  A wise\nadaptation of means to ends is no yielding of principle, but care should\nbe taken to avoid all such methods as have disgraced political and\nreligious parties of the masculine sex.  Continue to make it manifest\nthat all which is pure and lovely and of good repute in womanhood is\nentirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of citizenship, and\nthe performance of the duties which we all owe to our homes and our\ncountry.  Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt or misgiving\nas to your success, I bid you Godspeed.  I find I have written to the\nassociation rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal\noriginators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I\nshould identify thee with it.\n\n\n\n\nTHE INNER LIFE\n\nTHE AGENCY OF EVIL.\n\nFrom the Supernaturalism of New England, in the Democratic Review for\n1843.\n\nIN this life of ours, so full of mystery, so hung about with wonders, so\nwritten over with dark riddles, where even the lights held by prophets\nand inspired ones only serve to disclose the solemn portals of a future\nstate of being, leaving all beyond in shadow, perhaps the darkest and\nmost difficult problem which presents itself is that of the origin of\nevil,--the source whence flow the black and bitter waters of sin and\nsuffering and discord,--the wrong which all men see in others and feel\nin themselves,--the unmistakable facts of human depravity and misery.  A\nsuperficial philosophy may attempt to refer all these dark phenomena of\nman's existence to his own passions, circumstances, and will; but the\nthoughtful observer cannot rest satisfied with secondary causes.  The\ngrossest materialism, at times, reveals something of that latent dread\nof an invisible and spiritual influence which is inseparable from our\nnature.  Like Eliphaz the Temanite, it is conscious of a spirit passing\nbefore its face, the form whereof is not discerned.\n\nIt is indeed true that our modern divines and theologians, as if to atone\nfor the too easy credulity of their order formerly, have unceremoniously\nconsigned the old beliefs of Satanic agency, demoniacal possession, and\nwitchcraft, to Milton's receptacle of exploded follies and detected\nimpostures,\n\n              \"Over the backside of the world far off,\n               Into a limbo broad and large, and called\n               The paradise of fools,\"--\n\nthat indeed, out of their peculiar province, and apart from the routine\nof their vocation, they have become the most thorough sceptics and\nunbelievers among us.  Yet it must be owned that, if they have not the\nmarvellous themselves, they are the cause of it in others.  In certain\nstates of mind, the very sight of a clergyman in his sombre professional\ngarb is sufficient to awaken all the wonderful within us.  Imagination\ngoes wandering back to the subtle priesthood of mysterious Egypt.  We\nthink of Jannes and Jambres; of the Persian magi; dim oak groves, with\nDruid altars, and priests, and victims, rise before us.  For what is the\npriest even of our New England but a living testimony to the truth of the\nsupernatural and the reality of the unseen,--a man of mystery, walking in\nthe shadow of the ideal world,--by profession an expounder of spiritual\nwonders?  Laugh he may at the old tales of astrology and witchcraft and\ndemoniacal possession; but does he not believe and bear testimony to his\nfaith in the reality of that dark essence which Scripture more than hints\nat, which has modified more or less all the religious systems and\nspeculations of the heathen world,--the Ahriman of the Parsee, the Typhon\nof the Egyptian, the Pluto of the Roman mythology, the Devil of Jew,\nChristian, and Mussulman, the Machinito of the Indian,--evil in the\nuniverse of goodness, darkness in the light of divine intelligence,--in\nitself the great and crowning mystery from which by no unnatural process\nof imagination may be deduced everything which our forefathers believed\nof the spiritual world and supernatural agency?  That fearful being with\nhis tributaries and agents,--\"the Devil and his angels,\"--how awfully he\nrises before us in the brief outline limning of the sacred writers!  How\nhe glooms, \"in shape and gesture proudly eminent,\" on the immortal canvas\nof Milton and Dante!  What a note of horror does his name throw into the\nsweet Sabbath psalmody of our churches.  What strange, dark fancies are\nconnected with the very language of common-law indictments, when grand\njuries find under oath that the offence complained of has been committed\n\"at the instigation of the Devil\"!\n\nHow hardly effaced are the impressions of childhood!  Even at this day,\nat the mention of the evil angel, an image rises before me like that with\nwhich I used especially to horrify myself in an old copy of Pilgrim's\nProgress.  Horned, hoofed, scaly, and fire-breathing, his caudal\nextremity twisted tight with rage, I remember him, illustrating the\ntremendous encounter of Christian in the valley where \"Apollyon straddled\nover the whole breadth of the way.\"  There was another print of the enemy\nwhich made no slight impression upon me.  It was the frontispiece of an\nold, smoked, snuff-stained pamphlet, the property of an elderly lady,\n(who had a fine collection of similar wonders, wherewith she was kind\nenough to edify her young visitors,) containing a solemn account of the\nfate of a wicked dancing-party in New Jersey, whose irreverent\ndeclaration, that they would have a fiddler if they had to send to the\nlower regions after him, called up the fiend himself, who forthwith\ncommenced playing, while the company danced to the music incessantly,\nwithout the power to suspend their exercise, until their feet and legs\nwere worn off to the knees!  The rude wood-cut represented the demon\nfiddler and his agonized companions literally stumping it up and down in\n\"cotillons, jigs, strathspeys, and reels.\"  He would have answered very\nwell to the description of the infernal piper in Tam O'Shanter.\n\nTo this popular notion of the impersonation of the principle of evil we\nare doubtless indebted for the whole dark legacy of witchcraft and\npossession.  Failing in our efforts to solve the problem of the origin of\nevil, we fall back upon the idea of a malignant being,--the antagonism of\ngood.  Of this mysterious and dreadful personification we find ourselves\nconstrained to speak with a degree of that awe and reverence which are\nalways associated with undefined power and the ability to harm.  \"The\nDevil,\" says an old writer, \"is a dignity, though his glory be somewhat\nfaded and wan, and is to be spoken of accordingly.\"\n\nThe evil principle of Zoroaster was from eternity self-created and\nexistent, and some of the early Christian sects held the same opinion.\nThe gospel, however, affords no countenance to this notion of a divided\nsovereignty of the universe.  The Divine Teacher, it is true, in\ndiscoursing of evil, made use of the language prevalent in His time, and\nwhich was adapted to the gross conceptions of His Jewish bearers; but He\nnowhere presents the embodiment of sin as an antagonism to the absolute\npower and perfect goodness of God, of whom, and through whom, and to whom\nare all things.  Pure himself, He can create nothing impure.  Evil,\ntherefore, has no eternity in the past.  The fact of its present actual\nexistence is indeed strongly stated; and it is not given us to understand\nthe secret of that divine alchemy whereby pain, and sin, and discord\nbecome the means to beneficent ends worthy of the revealed attributes of\nthe Infinite Parent.  Unsolved by human reason or philosophy, the dark\nmystery remains to baffle the generations of men; and only to the eye of\nhumble and childlike faith can it ever be reconciled to the purity,\njustice, and mercy of Him who is \"light, and in whom is no darkness at\nall.\"\n\n\"Do you not believe in the Devil?\" some one once asked the Non-conformist\nRobinson.  \"I believe in God,\" was the reply; \"don't you?\"\n\nHenry of Nettesheim says \"that it is unanimously maintained that devils\ndo wander up and down in the earth; but what they are, or how they are,\necclesiasticals have not clearly expounded.\"  Origen, in his Platonic\nspeculations on this subject, supposed them to be spirits who, by\nrepentance, might be restored, that in the end all knees might be bowed\nto the Father of spirits, and He become all in all.  Justin Martyr was of\nthe opinion that many of them still hoped for their salvation; and the\nCabalists held that this hope of theirs was well founded.  One is\nirresistibly reminded here of the closing verse of the _Address to the\nDeil_, by Burns:--\n\n              \"But fare ye weel, Auld Nickie ben!\n               Gin ye wad take a thought and mend,\n               Ye aiblins might--I dinna ken--\n               Still has a stake\n               I'm was to think upon yon den\n               Fen for your sake.\"\n\nThe old schoolmen and fathers seem to agree that the Devil and his\nministers have bodies in some sort material, subject to passions and\nliable to injury and pain.  Origen has a curious notion that any evil\nspirit who, in a contest with a human being, is defeated, loses from\nthenceforth all his power of mischief, and may be compared to a wasp who\nhas lost his sting.\n\n\"The Devil,\" said Samson Occum, the famous Indian preacher, in a\ndiscourse on temperance, \"is a gentleman, and never drinks.\"\nNevertheless it is a remarkable fact, and worthy of the serious\nconsideration of all who \"tarry long at the wine,\" that, in that state of\nthe drunkard's malady known as delirium tremens, the adversary, in some\nshape or other, is generally visible to the sufferers, or at least, as\nWinslow says of the Powahs, \"he appeareth more familiarly to them than to\nothers.\"  I recollect a statement made to me by a gentleman who has had\nbitter experience of the evils of intemperance, and who is at this time\ndevoting his fine talents to the cause of philanthropy and mercy, as the\neditor of one of our best temperance journals, which left a most vivid\nimpression on my mind.  He had just returned from a sea-voyage; and, for\nthe sake of enjoying a debauch, unmolested by his friends, took up his\nabode in a rum-selling tavern in a somewhat lonely location on the\nseaboard.  Here he drank for many days without stint, keeping himself the\nwhole time in a state of semi-intoxication.  One night he stood leaning\nagainst a tree, looking listlessly and vacantly out upon the ocean; the\nwaves breaking on the beach, and the white sails of passing vessels\nvaguely impressing him like the pictures of a dream.  He was startled by\na voice whispering hoarsely in his ear, _\"You have murdered a man; the\nofficers of justice are after you; you must fly for your life!\"_  Every\nsyllable was pronounced slowly and separately; and there was something in\nthe hoarse, gasping sound of the whisper which was indescribably\ndreadful.  He looked around him, and seeing nothing but the clear\nmoonlight on the grass, became partially sensible that he was the victim\nof illusion, and a sudden fear of insanity thrilled him with a momentary\nhorror.  Rallying himself, he returned to the tavern, drank another glass\nof brandy, and retired to his chamber.  He had scarcely lain his head on\nthe pillow when he heard that hoarse, low, but terribly distinct whisper,\nrepeating the same words.  He describes his sensations at this time as\ninconceivably fearful.  Reason was struggling with insanity; but amidst\nthe confusion and mad disorder one terrible thought evolved itself.  Had\nhe not, in a moment of mad frenzy of which his memory made no record,\nactually murdered some one?  And was not this a warning from Heaven?\nLeaving his bed and opening his door, he heard the words again repeated,\nwith the addition, in a tone of intense earnestness, \"Follow me!\"  He\nwalked forward in the direction of the sound, through a long entry, to\nthe head of the staircase, where he paused for a moment, when again he\nheard the whisper, half-way down the stairs, \"Follow me!\"\n\nTrembling with terror, he passed down two flights of stairs, and found\nhimself treading on the cold brick floor of a large room in the basement,\nor cellar, where he had never been before.  The voice still beckoned him\nonward; and, groping after it, his hand touched an upright post, against\nwhich he leaned for a moment.  He heard it again, apparently only two or\nthree yards in front of him \"You have murdered a man; the officers are\nclose behind you; follow me!\"  Putting one foot forward while his hand\nstill grasped the post, it fell upon empty air, and he with difficulty\nrecovered himself.  Stooping down and feeling with his hands, he found\nhimself on the very edge of a large uncovered cistern, or tank, filled\nnearly to the top with water.  The sudden shock of this discovery broke\nthe horrible enchantment.  The whisperer was silent.  He believed, at the\ntime, that he had been the subject, and well-nigh the victim, of a\ndiabolical delusion; and he states that, even now, with the recollection\nof that strange whisper is always associated a thought of the universal\ntempter.\n\nOur worthy ancestors were, in their own view of the matter, the advance\nguard and forlorn hope of Christendom in its contest with the bad angel.\nThe New World, into which they had so valiantly pushed the outposts of\nthe Church militant, was to them, not God's world, but the Devil's.  They\nstood there on their little patch of sanctified territory like the\ngamekeeper of Der Freischutz in the charmed circle; within were prayer\nand fasting, unmelodious psalmody and solemn hewing of heretics, \"before\nthe Lord in Gilgal;\" without were \"dogs and sorcerers, red children of\nperdition, Powah wizards,\" and \"the foul fiend.\"  In their grand old\nwilderness, broken by fair, broad rivers and dotted with loveliest lakes,\nhanging with festoons of leaf, and vine, and flower, the steep sides of\nmountains whose naked tops rose over the surrounding verdure like altars\nof a giant world,--with its early summer greenness and the many-colored\nwonder of its autumn, all glowing as if the rainbows of a summer shower\nhad fallen upon it, under the clear, rich light of a sun to which the\nmisty day of their cold island was as moonlight,--they saw no beauty,\nthey recognized no holy revelation.  It was to them terrible as the\nforest which Dante traversed on his way to the world of pain.  Every\nadvance step they made was upon the enemy's territory.  And one has only\nto read the writings of the two Mathers to perceive that that enemy was\nto them no metaphysical abstraction, no scholastic definition, no figment\nof a poetical fancy, but a living, active reality, alternating between\nthe sublimest possibilities of evil and the lowest details of mean\nmischief; now a \"tricksy spirit,\" disturbing the good-wife's platters or\nsoiling her newwashed linen, and anon riding the storm-cloud and pointing\nits thunder-bolts; for, as the elder Mather pertinently inquires, \"how\nelse is it that our meeting-houses are burned by the lightning?\"  What\nwas it, for instance, but his subtlety which, speaking through the lips\nof Madame Hutchinson, confuted the \"judges of Israel\" and put to their\nwits' end the godly ministers of the Puritan Zion?  Was not his evil\nfinger manifested in the contumacious heresy of Roger Williams?  Who else\ngave the Jesuit missionaries--locusts from the pit as they were--such a\nhold on the affections of those very savages who would not have scrupled\nto hang the scalp of pious Father Wilson himself from their girdles?  To\nthe vigilant eye of Puritanism was he not alike discernible in the light\nwantonness of the May-pole revellers, beating time with the cloven foot\nto the vain music of obscene dances, and in the silent, hat-canopied\ngatherings of the Quakers, \"the most melancholy of the sects,\" as Dr.\nMoore calls them?  Perilous and glorious was it, under these\ncircumstances, for such men as Mather and Stoughton to gird up their\nstout loins and do battle with the unmeasured, all-surrounding terror.\nLet no man lightly estimate their spiritual knight-errantry.  The heroes\nof old romance, who went about smiting dragons, lopping giants' heads,\nand otherwise pleasantly diverting themselves, scarcely deserve mention\nin comparison with our New England champions, who, trusting not to carnal\nsword and lance, in a contest with principalities and powers, \"spirits\nthat live throughout, Vital in every part, not as frail man,\"--\nencountered their enemies with weapons forged by the stern spiritual\narmorer of Geneva.  The life of Cotton Mather is as full of romance as\nthe legends of Ariosto or the tales of Beltenebros and Florisando in\nAmadis de Gaul.  All about him was enchanted ground; devils glared on him\nin his \"closet wrestlings;\" portents blazed in the heavens above him;\nwhile he, commissioned and set apart as the watcher, and warder, and\nspiritual champion of \"the chosen people,\" stood ever ready for battle,\nwith open eye and quick ear for the detection of the subtle approaches of\nthe enemy.  No wonder is it that the spirits of evil combined against\nhim; that they beset him as they did of old St. Anthony; that they shut\nup the bowels of the General Court against his long-cherished hope of the\npresidency of Old Harvard; that they even had the audacity to lay hands\non his anti-diabolical manuscripts, or that \"ye divil that was in ye girl\nflewe at and tore\" his grand sermon against witches.  How edifying is his\naccount of the young bewitched maiden whom he kept in his house for the\npurpose of making experiments which should satisfy all \"obstinate\nSadducees\"!  How satisfactory to orthodoxy and confounding to heresy is\nthe nice discrimination of \"ye divil in ye girl,\" who was choked in\nattempting to read the Catechism, yet found no trouble with a pestilent\nQuaker pamphlet; who was quiet and good-humored when the worthy Doctor\nwas idle, but went into paroxysms of rage when he sat down to indite his\ndiatribes against witches and familiar spirits!\n\n     (The Quakers appear to have, at a comparatively early period,\n     emancipated themselves in a great degree from the grosser\n     superstitions of their times.  William Penn, indeed, had a law in\n     his colony against witchcraft; but the first trial of a person\n     suspected of this offence seems to have opened his eyes to its\n     absurdity.  George Fox, judging from one or two passages in his\n     journal, appears to have held the common opinions of the day on the\n     subject; yet when confined in Doomsdale dungeon, on being told that\n     the place was haunted and that the spirits of those who had died\n     there still walked at night in his room, he replied, \"that if all\n     the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was over them in the\n     power of God, and feared no such thing.\"\n\n     The enemies of the Quakers, in order to account for the power and\n     influence of their first preachers, accused them of magic and\n     sorcery.  \"The Priest of Wakefield,\" says George Fox (one trusts he\n     does not allude to our old friend the Vicar), \"raised many wicked\n     slanders upon me, as that I carried bottles with me and made people\n     drink, and that made them follow me; that I rode upon a great black\n     horse, and was seen in one county upon my black horse in one hour,\n     and in the same hour in another county fourscore miles off.\"  In his\n     account of the mob which beset him at Walney Island, he says: \"When\n     I came to myself I saw James Lancaster's wife throwing stones at my\n     face, and her husband lying over me to keep off the blows and\n     stones; for the people had persuaded her that I had bewitched her\n     husband.\"\n\n     Cotton Mather attributes the plague of witchcraft in New England in\n     about an equal degree to the Quakers and Indians.  The first of the\n     sect who visited Boston, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher,--the latter a\n     young girl,--were seized upon by Deputy-Governor Bellingham, in the\n     absence of Governor Endicott, and shamefully stripped naked for the\n     purpose of ascertaining whether they were witches with the Devil's\n     mark on them.  In 1662 Elizabeth Horton and Joan Broksop, two\n     venerable preachers of the sect, were arrested in Boston, charged by\n     Governor Endicott with being witches, and carried two days' journey\n     into the woods, and left to the tender mercies of Indians and\n     wolves.)\n\nAll this is pleasant enough now; we can laugh at the Doctor and his\ndemons; but little matter of laughter was it to the victims on Salem\nHill; to the prisoners in the jails; to poor Giles Corey, tortured with\nplanks upon his breast, which forced the tongue from his mouth and his\nlife from his old, palsied body; to bereaved and quaking families; to a\nwhole community, priest-ridden and spectresmitten, gasping in the sick\ndream of a spiritual nightmare and given over to believe a lie.  We may\nlaugh, for the grotesque is blended with the horrible; but we must also\npity and shudder.  The clear-sighted men who confronted that delusion in\nits own age, disenchanting, with strong good sense and sharp ridicule,\ntheir spell-bound generation,--the German Wierus, the Italian D'Apone,\nthe English Scot, and the New England Calef,--deserve high honors as the\nbenefactors of their race.  It is true they were branded through life as\ninfidels and \"damnable Sadducees;\" but the truth which they uttered\nlived after them, and wrought out its appointed work, for it had a Divine\ncommission and Godspeed.\n\n         \"The oracles are dumb;\n          No voice nor hideous hum\n\nRuns through the arched roof in words deceiving;\n\n          Apollo from his shrine\n          Can now no more divine,\n\nWith hollow shriek the steep of Delphus leaving.\"\n\nDimmer and dimmer, as the generations pass away, this tremendous terror,\nthis all-pervading espionage of evil, this active incarnation of\nmotiveless malignity, presents itself to the imagination.  The once\nimposing and solemn rite of exorcism has become obsolete in the Church.\nMen are no longer, in any quarter of the world, racked or pressed under\nplanks to extort a confession of diabolical alliance.  The heretic now\nlaughs to scorn the solemn farce of the Church which, in the name of the\nAll-Merciful, formally delivers him over to Satan.  And for the sake of\nabused and long-cheated humanity let us rejoice that it is so, when we\nconsider how for long, weary centuries the millions of professed\nChristendom stooped, awestricken, under the yoke of spiritual and\ntemporal despotism, grinding on from generation to generation in a\ndespair which had passed complaining, because superstition, in alliance\nwith tyranny, had filled their upward pathway to freedom with shapes of\nterror,--the spectres of God's wrath to the uttermost, the fiend, and\nthat torment the smoke of which rises forever.  Through fear of a Satan\nof the future,--a sort of ban-dog of priestcraft, held in its leash and\nready to be let loose upon the disputers of its authority,--our toiling\nbrothers of past ages have permitted their human taskmasters to convert\nGod's beautiful world, so adorned and fitted for the peace and happiness\nof all, into a great prison-house of suffering, filled with the actual\nterrors which the imagination of the old poets gave to the realm of\nRhadamanthus.  And hence, while I would not weaken in the slightest\ndegree the influence of that doctrine of future retribution,--the\naccountability of the spirit for the deeds done in the body,--the truth\nof which reason, revelation, and conscience unite in attesting as the\nnecessary result of the preservation in another state of existence of the\nsoul's individuality and identity, I must, nevertheless, rejoice that the\nmany are no longer willing to permit the few, for their especial benefit,\nto convert our common Father's heritage into a present hell, where, in\nreturn for undeserved suffering and toil uncompensated, they can have\ngracious and comfortable assurance of release from a future one.  Better\nis the fear of the Lord than the fear of the Devil; holier and more\nacceptable the obedience of love and reverence than the submission of\nslavish terror.  The heart which has felt the \"beauty of holiness,\" which\nhas been in some measure attuned to the divine harmony which now, as of\nold in the angel-hymn of the Advent, breathes of \"glory to God, peace on\nearth, and good-will to men,\" in the serene atmosphere of that \"perfect\nlove which casteth out fear,\" smiles at the terrors which throng the sick\ndreams of the sensual, which draw aside the nightcurtains of guilt, and\nstartle with whispers of revenge the oppressor of the poor.\n\nThere is a beautiful moral in one of Fouque's miniature romances,--_Die\nKohlerfamilie_.  The fierce spectre, which rose giant-like, in its\nbloodred mantle, before the selfish and mercenary merchant, ever\nincreasing in size and, terror with the growth of evil and impure thought\nin the mind of the latter, subdued by prayer, and penitence, and patient\nwatchfulness over the heart's purity, became a loving and gentle\nvisitation of soft light and meekest melody; \"a beautiful radiance, at\ntimes hovering and flowing on before the traveller, illuminating the\nbushes and foliage of the mountain-forest; a lustre strange and lovely,\nsuch as the soul may conceive, but no words express.  He felt its power\nin the depths of his being,--felt it like the mystic breathing of the\nSpirit of God.\"\n\nThe excellent Baxter and other pious men of his day deprecated in all\nsincerity and earnestness the growing disbelief in witchcraft and\ndiabolical agency, fearing that mankind, losing faith in a visible Satan\nand in the supernatural powers of certain paralytic old women, would\ndiverge into universal skepticism.  It is one of the saddest of sights to\nsee these good men standing sentry at the horn gate of dreams; attempting\nagainst the most discouraging odds to defend their poor fallacies from\nprofane and irreverent investigation; painfully pleading doubtful\nScripture and still more doubtful tradition in behalf of detected and\nconvicted superstitions tossed on the sharp horns of ridicule, stretched\non the rack of philosophy, or perishing under the exhausted receiver of\nscience.  A clearer knowledge of the aspirations, capacities, and\nnecessities of the human soul, and of the revelations which the infinite\nSpirit makes to it, not only through the senses by the phenomena of\noutward nature, but by that inward and direct communion which, under\ndifferent names, has been recognized by the devout and thoughtful of\nevery religious sect and school of philosophy, would have saved them much\nanxious labor and a good deal of reproach withal in their hopeless\nchampionship of error.  The witches of Baxter and \"the black man\" of\nMather have vanished; belief in them is no longer possible on the part of\nsane men.  But this mysterious universe, through which, half veiled in\nits own shadow, our dim little planet is wheeling, with its star worlds\nand thought-wearying spaces, remains.  Nature's mighty miracle is still\nover and around us; and hence awe, wonder, and reverence remain to be the\ninheritance of humanity; still are there beautiful repentances and holy\ndeathbeds; and still over the soul's darkness and confusion rises,\nstarlike, the great idea of duty.  By higher and better influences than\nthe poor spectres of superstition, man must henceforth be taught to\nreverence the Invisible, and, in the consciousness of his own weakness,\nand sin, and sorrow, to lean with childlike trust on the wisdom and mercy\nof an overruling Providence,--walking by faith through the shadow and\nmystery, and cheered by the remembrance that, whatever may be his\napparent allotment,--\n\n    \"God's greatness flows around our incompleteness;\n     Round our restlessness His rest.\"\n\nIt is a sad spectacle to find the glad tidings of the Christian faith and\nits \"reasonable service\" of devotion transformed by fanaticism and\ncredulity into superstitious terror and wild extravagance; but, if\npossible, there is one still sadder.  It is that of men in our own time\nregarding with satisfaction such evidences of human weakness, and\nprofessing to find in them new proofs of their miserable theory of a\ngodless universe, and new occasion for sneering at sincere devotion as\ncant, and humble reverence as fanaticism.  Alas!  in comparison with\nsuch, the religious enthusiast, who in the midst of his delusion still\nfeels that he is indeed a living soul and an heir of immortality, to whom\nGod speaks from the immensities of His universe, is a sane man.  Better\nis it, in a life like ours, to be even a howling dervis or a dancing\nShaker, confronting imaginary demons with Thalaba's talisman of faith,\nthan to lose the consciousness of our own spiritual nature, and look upon\nourselves as mere brute masses of animal organization,--barnacles on a\ndead universe; looking into the dull grave with no hope beyond it; earth\ngazing into earth, and saying to corruption, \"Thou art my father,\" and to\nthe worm, \"Thou art my sister.\"\n\n\n\n\nHAMLET AMONG THE GRAVES. (1844.)\n\nAN amiable enthusiast, immortal in his beautiful little romance of Paul\nand Virginia, has given us in his Miscellanies a chapter on the Pleasures\nof Tombs,--a title singular enough, yet not inappropriate; for the meek-\nspirited and sentimental author has given, in his own flowing and\neloquent language, its vindication.  \"There is,\" says he, \"a voluptuous\nmelancholy arising from the contemplation of tombs; the result, like\nevery other attractive sensation, of the harmony of two opposite\nprinciples,--from the sentiment of our fleeting life and that of our\nimmortality, which unite in view of the last habitation of mankind.  A\ntomb is a monument erected on the confines of two worlds.  It first\npresents to us the end of the vain disquietudes of life and the image of\neverlasting repose; it afterwards awakens in us the confused sentiment of\na blessed immortality, the probabilities of which grow stronger and\nstronger in proportion as the person whose memory is recalled was a\nvirtuous character.\n\n\"It is from this intellectual instinct, therefore, in favor of virtue,\nthat the tombs of great men inspire us with a veneration so affecting.\nFrom the same sentiment, too, it is that those which contain objects that\nhave been lovely excite so much pleasing regret; for the attractions of\nlove arise entirely out of the appearances of virtue.  Hence it is that\nwe are moved at the sight of the small hillock which covers the ashes of\nan infant, from the recollection of its innocence; hence it is that we\nare melted into tenderness on contemplating the tomb in which is laid to\nrepose a young female, the delight and the hope of her family by reason\nof her virtues.  In order to give interest to such monuments, there is no\nneed of bronzes, marbles, and gildings.  The more simple they are, the\nmore energy they communicate to the sentiment of melancholy.  They\nproduce a more powerful effect when poor rather than rich, antique rather\nthan modern, with details of misfortune rather than titles of honor, with\nthe attributes of virtue rather than with those of power.  It is in the\ncountry principally that their impression makes itself felt in a very\nlively manner.  A simple, unornamented grave there causes more tears to\nflow than the gaudy splendor of a cathedral interment.  There it is that\ngrief assumes sublimity; it ascends with the aged yews in the churchyard;\nit extends with the surrounding hills and plains; it allies itself with\nall the effects of Nature,--with the dawning of the morning, with the\nmurmuring of wind, with the setting of the sun, and with the darkness of\nthe night.\"\n\nNot long since I took occasion to visit the cemetery near this city.  It\nis a beautiful location for a \"city of the dead,\"--a tract of some forty\nor fifty acres on the eastern bank of the Concord, gently undulating, and\ncovered with a heavy growth of forest-trees, among which the white oak is\nconspicuous.  The ground beneath has been cleared of undergrowth, and is\nmarked here and there with monuments and railings enclosing \"family\nlots.\"  It is a quiet, peaceful spot; the city, with its crowded mills,\nits busy streets and teeming life, is hidden from view; not even a\nsolitary farm-house attracts the eye.  All is still and solemn, as befits\nthe place where man and nature lie down together; where leaves of the\ngreat lifetree, shaken down by death, mingle and moulder with the frosted\nfoliage of the autumnal forest.\n\nYet the contrast of busy life is not wanting.  The Lowell and Boston\nRailroad crosses the river within view of the cemetery; and, standing\nthere in the silence and shadow, one can see the long trains rushing\nalong their iron pathway, thronged with living, breathing humanity,--the\nyoung, the beautiful, the gay,--busy, wealth-seeking manhood of middle\nyears, the child at its mother's knee, the old man with whitened hairs,\nhurrying on, on,--car after car,--like the generations of man sweeping\nover the track of time to their last 'still resting-place.\n\nIt is not the aged and the sad of heart who make this a place of favorite\nresort.  The young, the buoyant, the light-hearted, come and linger among\nthese flower-sown graves, watching the sunshine falling in broken light\nupon these cold, white marbles, and listening to the song of birds in\nthese leafy recesses.  Beautiful and sweet to the young heart is the\ngentle shadow of melancholy which here falls upon it, soothing, yet sad,\n--a sentiment midway between joy and sorrow.  How true is it, that, in the\nlanguage of Wordsworth,--\n\n         \"In youth we love the darkling lawn,\n          Brushed by the owlet's wing;\n          Then evening is preferred to dawn,\n          And autumn to the spring.\n          Sad fancies do we then affect,\n          In luxury of disrespect\n          To our own prodigal excess\n          Of too familiar happiness.\"\n\nThe Chinese, from the remotest antiquity, have adorned and decorated\ntheir grave-grounds with shrubs and sweet flowers, as places of popular\nresort.  The Turks have their graveyards planted with trees, through\nwhich the sun looks in upon the turban stones of the faithful, and\nbeneath which the relatives of the dead sit in cheerful converse through\nthe long days of summer, in all the luxurious quiet and happy\nindifference of the indolent East.  Most of the visitors whom I met at\nthe Lowell cemetery wore cheerful faces; some sauntered laughingly along,\napparently unaffected by the associations of the place; too full,\nperhaps, of life, and energy, and high hope to apply to themselves the\nstern and solemn lesson which is taught even by these flower-garlanded\nmounds.  But, for myself, I confess that I am always awed by the presence\nof the dead.  I cannot jest above the gravestone.  My spirit is silenced\nand rebuked before the tremendous mystery of which the grave reminds me,\nand involuntarily pays:\n\n         \"The deep reverence taught of old,\n          The homage of man's heart to death.\"\n\nEven Nature's cheerful air, and sun, and birdvoices only serve to remind\nme that there are those beneath who have looked on the same green leaves\nand sunshine, felt the same soft breeze upon their cheeks, and listened\nto the same wild music of the woods for the last time.  Then, too, comes\nthe saddening reflection, to which so many have given expression, that\nthese trees will put forth their leaves, the slant sunshine still fall\nupon green meadows and banks of flowers, and the song of the birds and\nthe ripple of waters still be heard after our eyes and ears have closed\nforever.  It is hard for us to realize this.  We are so accustomed to\nlook upon these things as a part of our life environment that it seems\nstrange that they should survive us.  Tennyson, in his exquisite\nmetaphysical poem of the Two Voices, has given utterance to this\nsentiment:--\n\n         \"Alas!  though I should die, I know\n          That all about the thorn will blow\n          In tufts of rosy-tinted snow.\n\n         \"Not less the bee will range her cells,\n          The furzy prickle fire the dells,\n          The foxglove cluster dappled bells.\"\n\n\"The pleasures of the tombs!\" Undoubtedly, in the language of the\nIdumean, seer, there are many who \"rejoice exceedingly and are glad when\nthey can find the grave;\" who long for it \"as the servant earnestly\ndesireth the shadow.\"  Rest, rest to the sick heart and the weary brain,\nto the long afflicted and the hopeless,--rest on the calm bosom of our\ncommon mother.  Welcome to the tired ear, stunned and confused with\nlife's jarring discords, the everlasting silence; grateful to the weary\neyes which \"have seen evil, and not good,\" the everlasting shadow.\n\nYet over all hangs the curtain of a deep mystery,--a curtain lifted only\non one side by the hands of those who are passing under its solemn\nshadow.  No voice speaks to us from beyond it, telling of the unknown\nstate; no hand from within puts aside the dark drapery to reveal the\nmysteries towards which we are all moving.  \"Man giveth up the ghost; and\nwhere is he?\"\n\nThanks to our Heavenly Father, He has not left us altogether without an\nanswer to this momentous question.  Over the blackness of darkness a\nlight is shining.  The valley of the shadow of death is no longer \"a land\nof darkness and where the light is as darkness.\"  The presence of a\nserene and holy life pervades it.  Above its pale tombs and crowded\nburial-places, above the wail of despairing humanity, the voice of Him\nwho awakened life and beauty beneath the grave-clothes of the tomb at\nBethany is heard proclaiming, \"I am the Resurrection and the Life.\"  We\nknow not, it is true, the conditions of our future life; we know not what\nit is to pass fromm this state of being to another; but before us in that\ndark passage has gone the Man of Nazareth, and the light of His footsteps\nlingers in the path.  Where He, our Brother in His humanity, our Redeemer\nin His divine nature, has gone, let us not fear to follow.  He who\nordereth all aright will uphold with His own great arm the frail spirit\nwhen its incarnation is ended; and it may be, that, in language which I\nhave elsewhere used,\n\n          --when Time's veil shall fall asunder,\n          The soul may know\n          No fearful change nor sudden wonder,\n          Nor sink the weight of mystery under,\n          But with the upward rise and with the vastness grow.\n\n          And all we shrink from now may seem\n          No new revealing;\n          Familiar as our childhood's stream,\n          Or pleasant memory of a dream,\n          The loved and cherished past upon the new life stealing.\n\n          Serene and mild the untried light\n          May have its dawning;\n          As meet in summer's northern night\n          The evening gray and dawning white,\n          The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul's new morning.\n\n\n\n\nSWEDENBORG (1844.)\n\nTHERE are times when, looking only on the surface of things, one is\nalmost ready to regard Lowell as a sort of sacred city of Mammon,--the\nBenares of gain: its huge mills, temples; its crowded dwellings, lodging-\nplaces of disciples and \"proselytes within the gate;\" its warehouses,\nstalls for the sale of relics.  A very mean idol-worship, too, unrelieved\nby awe and reverence,--a selfish, earthward-looking devotion to the\n\"least-erected spirit that fell from paradise.\"  I grow weary of seeing\nman and mechanism reduced to a common level, moved by the same impulse,\nanswering to the same bell-call.  A nightmare of materialism broods over\nall.  I long at times to hear a voice crying through the streets like\nthat of one of the old prophets proclaiming the great first truth,--that\nthe Lord alone is God.\n\nYet is there not another side to the picture?  High over sounding\nworkshops spires glisten in the sun,--silent fingers pointing heavenward.\nThe workshops themselves are instinct with other and subtler processes\nthan cotton-spinning or carpet-weaving.  Each human being who watches\nbeside jack or power loom feels more or less intensely that it is a\nsolemn thing to live.  Here are sin and sorrow, yearnings for lost peace,\noutgushing gratitude of forgiven spirits, hopes and fears, which stretch\nbeyond the horizon of time into eternity.  Death is here.  The graveyard\nutters its warning.  Over all bends the eternal heaven in its silence and\nmystery.  Nature, even here, is mightier than Art, and God is above all.\nUnderneath the din of labor and the sounds of traffic, a voice, felt\nrather than beard, reaches the heart, prompting the same fearful\nquestions which stirred the soul of the world's oldest poet,--\"If a man\ndie, shall he live again?\"  \"Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?\"\nOut of the depths of burdened and weary hearts comes up the agonizing\ninquiry, \"What shall I do to be saved?\"  \"Who shall deliver me from the\nbody of this death?\"\n\nAs a matter of course, in a city like this, composed of all classes of\nour many-sided population, a great variety of religious sects have their\nrepresentatives in Lowell.  The young city is dotted over with \"steeple\nhouses,\" most of them of the Yankee order of architecture.  The\nEpiscopalians have a house of worship on Merrimac Street,--a pile of dark\nstone, with low Gothic doors and arched windows.  A plat of grass lies\nbetween it and the dusty street; and near it stands the dwelling-house\nintended for the minister, built of the same material as the church and\nsurrounded by trees and shrubbery.  The attention of the stranger is also\nattracted by another consecrated building on the hill slope of\nBelvidere,--one of Irving's a \"shingle palaces,\" painted in imitation of\nstone,--a great wooden sham, \"whelked and horned\" with pine spires and\nturrets, a sort of whittled representation of the many-beaded beast of\nthe Apocalypse.\n\nIn addition to the established sects which have reared their visible\naltars in the City of Spindles, there are many who have not yet marked\nthe boundaries or set up the pillars and stretched out the curtains of\ntheir sectarian tabernacles; who, in halls and \"upper chambers\" and in\nthe solitude of their own homes, keep alive the spirit of devotion, and,\nwrapping closely around them the mantles of their order, maintain the\nintegrity of its peculiarities in the midst of an unbelieving generation.\n\nNot long since, in company with a friend who is a regular attendant, I\nvisited the little meeting of the disciples of Emanuel Swedenborg.\nPassing over Chapel Hill and leaving the city behind us, we reached the\nstream which winds through the beautiful woodlands at the Powder Mills\nand mingles its waters with the Concord.  The hall in which the followers\nof the Gothland seer meet is small and plain, with unpainted seats, like\nthose of \"the people called Quakers,\" and looks out upon the still woods\nand that \"willowy stream which turns a mill.\"  An organ of small size,\nyet, as it seemed to me, vastly out of proportion with the room, filled\nthe place usually occupied by the pulpit, which was here only a plain\ndesk, placed modestly by the side of it.  The congregation have no\nregular preacher, but the exercises of reading the Scriptures, prayers,\nand selections from the Book of Worship were conducted by one of the lay\nmembers.  A manuscript sermon, by a clergyman of the order in Boston, was\nread, and apparently listened to with much interest.  It was well written\nand deeply imbued with the doctrines of the church.  I was impressed by\nthe gravity and serious earnestness of the little audience.  There were\nhere no circumstances calculated to excite enthusiasm, nothing of the\npomp of religious rites and ceremonies; only a settled conviction of the\ntruth of the doctrines of their faith could have thus brought them\ntogether.  I could scarcely make the fact a reality, as I sat among them,\nthat here, in the midst of our bare and hard utilities, in the very\ncentre and heart of our mechanical civilization, were devoted and\nundoubting believers in the mysterious and wonderful revelations of the\nSwedish prophet,--revelations which look through all external and outward\nmanifestations to inward realities; which regard all objects in the world\nof sense only as the types and symbols of the world of spirit; literally\nunmasking the universe and laying bare the profoundest mysteries of life.\n\nThe character and writings of Emanuel Swedenborg constitute one of the\npuzzles and marvels of metaphysics and psychology.  A man remarkable for\nhis practical activities, an ardent scholar of the exact sciences, versed\nin all the arcana of physics, a skilful and inventive mechanician, he has\nevolved from the hard and gross materialism of his studies a system of\ntranscendent spiritualism.  From his aggregation of cold and apparently\nlifeless practical facts beautiful and wonderful abstractions start forth\nlike blossoms on the rod of the Levite.  A politician and a courtier, a\nman of the world, a mathematician engaged in the soberest details of the\nscience, he has given to the world, in the simplest and most natural\nlanguage, a series of speculations upon the great mystery of being:\ndetailed, matter-of-fact narratives of revelations from the spiritual\nworld, which at once appall us by their boldness, and excite our wonder\nat their extraordinary method, logical accuracy, and perfect consistency.\nThese remarkable speculations--the workings of a mind in which a powerful\nimagination allied itself with superior reasoning faculties, the\nmarvellous current of whose thought ran only in the diked and guarded\nchannels of mathematical demonstration--he uniformly speaks of as\n\"facts.\"  His perceptions of abstractions were so intense that they seem\nto have reached that point where thought became sensible to sight as well\nas feeling.  What he thought, that he saw.\n\nHe relates his visions of the spiritual world as he would the incidents\nof a walk round his own city of Stockholm.  One can almost see him in his\n\"brown coat and velvet breeches,\" lifting his \"cocked hat\" to an angel,\nor keeping an unsavory spirit at arm's length with that \"gold-headed\ncane\" which his London host describes as his inseparable companion in\nwalking.  His graphic descriptions have always an air of naturalness and\nprobability; yet there is a minuteness of detail at times almost\nbordering on the ludicrous.  In his Memorable Relations he manifests\nnothing of the imagination of Milton, overlooking the closed gates of\nparadise, or following the \"pained fiend\" in his flight through chaos;\nnothing of Dante's terrible imagery appalls us; we are led on from heaven\nto heaven very much as Defoe leads us after his shipwrecked Crusoe.  We\ncan scarcely credit the fact that we are not traversing our lower planet;\nand the angels seem vastly like our common acquaintances.  We seem to\nrecognize the \"John Smiths,\" and \"Mr. Browns,\" and \"the old familiar\nfaces\" of our mundane habitation.  The evil principle in Swedenborg's\npicture is, not the colossal and massive horror of the Inferno, nor that\nstern wrestler with fate who darkens the canvas of Paradise Lost, but an\naggregation of poor, confused spirits, seeking rest and finding none save\nin the unsavory atmosphere of the \"falses.\"  These small fry of devils\nremind us only of certain unfortunate fellows whom we have known, who\nseem incapable of living in good and wholesome society, and who are\nmanifestly given over to believe a lie.  Thus it is that the very\n\"heavens\" and \"hells\" of the Swedish mystic seem to be \"of the earth,\nearthy.\"  He brings the spiritual world into close analogy with the\nmaterial one.\n\nIn this hurried paper I have neither space nor leisure to attempt an\nanalysis of the great doctrines which underlie the \"revelations\" of\nSwedenborg.  His remarkably suggestive books are becoming familiar to the\nreading and reflecting portion of the community.  They are not unworthy\nof study; but, in the language of another, I would say, \"Emulate\nSwedenborg in his exemplary life, his learning, his virtues, his\nindependent thought, his desire for wisdom, his love of the good and\ntrue; aim to be his equal, his superior, in these things; but call no man\nyour master.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE BETTER LAND. (1844.)\n\n\"THE shapings of our heavens are the modifications of our constitution,\"\nsaid Charles Lamb, in his reply to Southey's attack upon him in the\nQuarterly Review.\n\nHe who is infinite in love as well as wisdom has revealed to us the fact\nof a future life, and the fearfully important relation in which the\npresent stands to it.  The actual nature and conditions of that life He\nhas hidden from us,--no chart of the ocean of eternity is given us,--no\ncelestial guidebook or geography defines, localizes, and prepares us for\nthe wonders of the spiritual world.  Hence imagination has a wide field\nfor its speculations, which, so long as they do not positively contradict\nthe revelation of the Scriptures, cannot be disproved.\n\nWe naturally enough transfer to our idea of heaven whatever we love and\nreverence on earth.  Thither the Catholic carries in his fancy the\nimposing rites and time-honored solemnities of his worship.  There the\nMethodist sees his love-feasts and camp-meetings in the groves and by the\nstill waters and green pastures of the blessed abodes.  The Quaker, in\nthe stillness of his self-communing, remembers that there was \"silence in\nheaven.\"\n\nThe Churchman, listening to the solemn chant of weal music or the deep\ntones of the organ, thinks of the song of the elders and the golden harps\nof the New Jerusalem.\n\nThe heaven of the northern nations of Europe was a gross and sensual\nreflection of the earthly life of a barbarous and brutal people.\n\nThe Indians of North America had a vague notion of a sunset land, a\nbeautiful paradise far in the west, mountains and forests filled with\ndeer and buffalo, lakes and streams swarming with fishes,--the happy\nhunting-ground of souls.  In a late letter from a devoted missionary\namong the Western Indians (Paul Blohm, a converted Jew) we have noticed a\nbeautiful illustration of this belief.  Near the Omaha mission-house, on\na high luff, was a solitary Indian grave.  \"One evening,\"\nsays the missionary, \"having come home with some cattle which I had been\nseeking, I heard some one wailing; and, looking in the direction from\nwhence I proceeded, I found it to be from the grave near our house.  In a\nmoment after a mourner rose up from a kneeling or lying posture, and,\nturning to the setting sun, stretched forth his arms in prayer and\nsupplication with an intensity and earnestness as though he would detain\nthe splendid luminary from running his course.  With his body leaning\nforward and his arms stretched towards the sun, he presented a most\nstriking figure of sorrow and petition.  It was solemnly awful.  He\nseemed to me to be one of the ancients come forth to teach me how to\npray.\"\n\nA venerable and worthy New England clergyman, on his death-bed, just\nbefore the close of his life, declared that he was only conscious of an\nawfully solemn and intense curiosity to know the great secret of death\nand eternity.\n\nThe excellent Dr. Nelson, of Missouri, was one who, while on earth,\nseemed to live another and higher life in the contemplation of infinite\npurity and happiness.  A friend once related an incident concerning him\nwhich made a deep impression upon my mind.  They had been travelling\nthrough a summer's forenoon in the prairie, and had lain down to rest\nbeneath a solitary tree.  The Doctor lay for a long time, silently\nlooking upwards through the openings of the boughs into the still\nheavens, when he repeated the following lines, in a low tone, as if\ncommuning with himself in view of the wonders he described:--\n\n    \"O the joys that are there mortal eye bath not seen!\n     O the songs they sing there, with hosannas between!\n     O the thrice-blessed song of the Lamb and of Moses!\n     O brightness on brightness!  the pearl gate uncloses!\n     O white wings of angels!  O fields white with roses!\n     O white tents of peace, where the rapt soul reposes\n     O the waters so still, and the pastures so green!\"\n\nThe brief hints afforded us by the sacred writings concerning the better\nland are inspiring and beautiful.  Eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard,\nneither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of the good in\nstore for the righteous.  Heaven is described as a quiet habitation,--a\nrest remaining for the people of God.  Tears shall be wiped away from all\neyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither\nshall there be any more pain.  To how many death-beds have these words\nspoken peace!  How many failing hearts have gathered strength from them\nto pass through the dark valley of shadows!\n\nYet we should not forget that \"the kingdom of heaven is within;\" that it\nis the state and affections of the soul, the answer of a good conscience,\nthe sense of harmony with God, a condition of time as well as of\neternity.  What is really momentous and all-important with us is the\npresent, by which the future is shaped and colored.  A mere change of\nlocality cannot alter the actual and intrinsic qualities of the soul.\nGuilt and remorse would make the golden streets of Paradise intolerable\nas the burning marl of the infernal abodes; while purity and innocence\nwould transform hell itself into heaven.\n\n\n\n\nDORA GREEN WELL.\n\nFirst published as an introduction to an American edition of that\nauthor's _The Patience of Hope_.\n\nTHERE are men who, irrespective of the names by which they are called in\nthe Babel confusion of sects, are endeared to the common heart of\nChristendom.  Our doors open of their own accord to receive them.  For in\nthem we feel that in some faint degree, and with many limitations, the\nDivine is again manifested: something of the Infinite Love shines out of\nthem; their very garments have healing and fragrance borrowed from the\nbloom of Paradise.  So of books.  There are volumes which perhaps contain\nmany things, in the matter of doctrine and illustration, to which our\nreason does not assent, but which nevertheless seem permeated with a\ncertain sweetness and savor of life.  They have the Divine seal and\nimprimatur; they are fragrant with heart's-ease and asphodel; tonic with\nthe leaves which are for the healing of the nations.  The meditations of\nthe devout monk of Kempen are the common heritage of Catholic and\nProtestant; our hearts burn within us as we walk with Augustine under\nNumidian fig-trees in the gardens of Verecundus; Feuelon from his\nbishop's palace and John Woolman from his tailor's shop speak to us in\nthe same language.  The unknown author of that book which Luther loved\nnext to his Bible, the Theologia Germanica, is just as truly at home in\nthis present age, and in the ultra Protestantism of New England, as in\nthe heart of Catholic Europe, and in the fourteenth century.  For such\nbooks know no limitations of time or place; they have the perpetual\nfreshness and fitness of truth; they speak out of profound experience\nheart answers to heart as we read them; the spirit that is in man, and\nthe inspiration that giveth understanding, bear witness to them.  The\nbent and stress of their testimony are the same, whether written in this\nor a past century, by Catholic or Quaker: self-renunciation,--\nreconcilement to the Divine will through simple faith in the Divine\ngoodness, and the love of it which must needs follow its recognition, the\nlife of Christ made our own by self-denial and sacrifice, and the\nfellowship of His suffering for the good of others, the indwelling\nSpirit, leading into all truth, the Divine Word nigh us, even in our\nhearts.  They have little to do with creeds, or schemes of doctrine, or\nthe partial and inadequate plans of salvation invented by human\nspeculation and ascribed to Him who, it is sufficient to know, is able to\nsave unto the uttermost all who trust in Him.  They insist upon simple\nfaith and holiness of life, rather than rituals or modes of worship; they\nleave the merely formal, ceremonial, and temporal part of religion to\ntake care of itself, and earnestly seek for the substantial, the\nnecessary, and the permanent.\n\nWith these legacies of devout souls, it seems to me, the little volume\nherewith presented is not wholly unworthy of a place.  It assumes the\nlife and power of the gospel as a matter of actual experience; it bears\nunmistakable evidence of a realization, on the part of its author, of the\ntruth, that Christianity is not simply historical and traditional, but\npresent and permanent, with its roots in the infinite past and its\nbranches in the infinite future, the eternal spring and growth of Divine\nlove; not the dying echo of words uttered centuries ago, never to be\nrepeated, but God's good tidings spoken afresh in every soul,--the\nperennial fountain and unstinted outflow of wisdom and goodness, forever\nold and forever new.  It is a lofty plea for patience, trust, hope, and\nholy confidence, under the shadow, as well as in the light, of Christian\nexperience, whether the cloud seems to rest on the tabernacle, or moves\nguidingly forward.  It is perhaps too exclusively addressed to those who\nminister in the inner sanctuary, to be entirely intelligible to the\nvaster number who wait in the outer courts; it overlooks, perhaps, too\nmuch the solidarity and oneness of humanity;' but all who read it will\nfeel its earnestness, and confess to the singular beauty of its style,\nthe strong, steady march of its argument, and the wide and varied\nlearning which illustrates it.\n\n     (\"The good are not so good as I once thought, nor the bad so evil,\n     and in all there is more for grace to make advantage of, and more to\n     testify for God and holiness, than I once believed.\"--Baxter.)\n\nTo use the language of one of its reviewers in the Scottish press:--\n\n\"Beauty there is in the book; exquisite glimpses into the loveliness of\nnature here and there shine out from its lines,--a charm wanting which\nmeditative writing always seems to have a defect; beautiful gleams, too,\nthere are of the choicest things of art, and frequent allusions by the\nway to legend or picture of the religious past; so that, while you read,\nyou wander by a clear brook of thought, coining far from the beautiful\nhills, and winding away from beneath the sunshine of gladness and beauty\ninto the dense, mysterious forest of human existence, that loves to sing,\namid the shadow of human darkness and anguish, its music of heavenborn\nconsolation; bringing, too, its pure waters of cleansing and healing, yet\nevermore making its praise of holy affection and gladness; while it is\nstill haunted by the spirits of prophet, saint, and poet, repeating\nsnatches of their strains, and is led on, as by a spirit from above, to\njoin the great river of God's truth.  .  .  .\n\n\"This is a book for Christian men, for the quiet hour of holy solitude,\nwhen the heart longs and waits for access to the presence of the Master.\nThe weary heart that thirsts amidst its conflicts and its toils for\nrefreshing water will drink eagerly of these sweet and refreshing words.\nTo thoughtful men and women, especially such as have learnt any of the\npatience of hope in the experiences of sorrow and trial, we commend this\nlittle volume most heartily and earnestly.\"\n\n\n_The Patience of Hope_ fell into my hands soon after its publication in\nEdinburgh, some two years ago.  I was at once impressed by its\nextraordinary richness of language and imagery,--its deep and solemn tone\nof meditation in rare combination with an eminently practical tendency,--\nphilosophy warm and glowing with love.  It will, perhaps, be less the\nfault of the writer than of her readers, if they are not always able to\neliminate from her highly poetical and imaginative language the subtle\nmetaphysical verity or phase of religious experience which she seeks to\nexpress, or that they are compelled to pass over, without appropriation,\nmany things which are nevertheless profoundly suggestive as vague\npossibilities of the highest life.  All may not be able to find in some\nof her Scriptural citations the exact weight and significance so apparent\nto her own mind.  She startles us, at times, by her novel applications of\nfamiliar texts, by meanings reflected upon them from her own spiritual\nintuitions, making the barren Baca of the letter a well.  If the\nrendering be questionable, the beauty and quaint felicity of illustration\nand comparison are unmistakable; and we call to mind Augustine's saying,\nthat two or more widely varying interpretations of Scripture may be alike\ntrue in themselves considered.  \"When one saith, Moses meant as I do,'\nand another saith, 'Nay, but as I do,' I ask, more reverently, 'Why not\nrather as both, if both be true?\"\n\nSome minds, for instance, will hesitate to assent to the use of certain\nScriptural passages as evidence that He who is the Light of men, the Way\nand the Truth, in the mystery of His economy, designedly \"delays,\nwithdraws, and even hides Himself from those who love and follow Him.\"\nThey will prefer to impute spiritual dearth and darkness to human\nweakness, to the selfishness which seeks a sign for itself, to evil\nimaginations indulged, to the taint and burden of some secret sin, or to\nsome disease and exaggeration of the conscience, growing out of bodily\ninfirmity, rather than to any purpose on the part of our Heavenly Father\nto perplex and mislead His children.  The sun does not shine the less\nbecause one side of our planet is in darkness.  To borrow the words of\nAugustine \"Thou, Lord, forsakest nothing thou hast made.  Thou alone art\nnear to those even who remove far from thee.  Let them turn and seek\nthee, for not as they have forsaken their Creator hast thou forsaken thy\ncreation.\"  It is only by holding fast the thought of Infinite Goodness,\nand interpreting doubtful Scripture and inward spiritual experience by\nthe light of that central idea, that we can altogether escape the\ndreadful conclusion of Pascal, that revelation has been given us in\ndubious cipher, contradictory and mystical, in order that some, through\nmiraculous aid, may understand it to their salvation, and others be\nmystified by it to their eternal loss.\n\nI might mention other points of probable divergence between reader and\nwriter, and indicate more particularly my own doubtful parse and\nhesitancy over some of these pages.  But it is impossible for me to make\none to whom I am so deeply indebted an offender for a word or a\nScriptural rendering.  On the grave and awful themes which she discusses,\nI have little to say in the way of controversy.  I would listen, rather\nthan criticise.  The utterances of pious souls, in all ages, are to me\noften like fountains in a thirsty land, strengthening and refreshing, yet\nnot without an after-taste of human frailty and inadequateness, a slight\nbitterness of disappointment and unsatisfied quest.  Who has not felt at\ntimes that the letter killeth, that prophecies fail, and tongues cease to\nedify, and been ready to say, with the author of the Imitation of Christ:\n\"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.  Let not Moses nor the prophets\nspeak to me, but speak thou rather, who art the Inspirer and Enlightener\nof all.  I am weary with reading and hearing many things; let all\nteachers hold their peace; let all creatures keep silence: speak thou\nalone to me.\"\n\nThe writer of The Patience of Hope had, previous to its publication,\nannounced herself to a fit, if small, audience of earnest and thoughtful\nChristians, in a little volume entitled, A Present Heaven.  She has\nrecently published a collection of poems, of which so competent a judge\nas Dr. Brown, the author of _Horae Subsecivae_ and _Rab and his Friends_,\nthus speaks, in the _North British Review_:--\n\n\"Such of our readers--a fast increasing number--as have read and enjoyed\n_The Patience of Hope_, listening to the gifted nature which, through\nsuch deep and subtile thought, and through affection and godliness still\ndeeper and more quick, has charmed and soothed them, will not be\nsurprised to learn that she is not only poetical, but, what is more, a\npoet, and one as true as George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, or our own\nCowper; for, with all our admiration of the searching, fearless\nspeculation, the wonderful power of speaking clearly upon dark and all\nbut unspeakable subjects, the rich outcome of 'thoughts that wander\nthrough eternity,' which increases every time we take up that wonderful\nlittle book, we confess we were surprised at the kind and the amount of\ntrue poetic _vis_ in these poems, from the same fine and strong hand.\nThere is a personality and immediateness, a sort of sacredness and\nprivacy, as if they were overheard rather than read, which gives to these\nremarkable productions a charm and a flavor all their own.  With no\neffort, no consciousness of any end but that of uttering the inmost\nthoughts and desires of the heart, they flow out as clear, as living, as\ngladdening as the wayside well, coming from out the darkness of the\ncentral depths, filtered into purity by time and travel.  The waters are\ncopious, sometimes to overflowing; but they are always limpid and\nunforced, singing their own quiet tune, not saddening, though sometimes\nsad, and their darkness not that of obscurity, but of depth, like that of\nthe deep sea.\n\n\"This is not a book to criticise or speak about, and we give no extracts\nfrom the longer, and in this case, we think, the better poems.  In\nreading this Cardiphonia set to music, we have been often reminded, not\nonly of Herbert and Vaughan, but of Keble,--a likeness of the spirit, not\nof the letter; for if there is any one poet who has given a bent to her\nmind, it is Wordsworth,--the greatest of all our century's poets, both in\nhimself and in his power of making poets.\"\n\nIn the belief that whoever peruses the following pages will be\nsufficiently interested in their author to be induced to turn back and\nread over again, with renewed pleasure, extracts from her metrical\nwritings, I copy from the volume so warmly commended a few brief pieces\nand extracts from the longer poems.\n\nHere are three sonnets, each a sermon in itself:--\n\n\n                                     ASCENDING.\n\n     They who from mountain-peaks have gazed upon\n     The wide, illimitable heavens have said,\n     That, still receding as they climbed, outspread,\n     The blue vault deepens over them, and, one\n     By one drawn further back, each starry sun\n     Shoots down a feebler splendor overhead\n     So, Saviour, as our mounting spirits, led\n     Along Faith's living way to Thee, have won\n     A nearer access, up the difficult track\n     Still pressing, on that rarer atmosphere,\n     When low beneath us flits the cloudy rack,\n     We see Thee drawn within a widening sphere\n     Of glory, from us further, further back,--\n     Yet is it then because we are more near.\n\n\n                                   LIFE TAPESTRY.\n\n     Top long have I, methought, with tearful eye\n     Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused\n     Above each stitch awry and thread confused;\n     Now will I think on what in years gone by\n     I heard of them that weave rare tapestry\n     At royal looms, and hew they constant use\n     To work on the rough side, and still peruse\n     The pictured pattern set above them high;\n     So will I set my copy high above,\n     And gaze and gaze till on my spirit grows\n     Its gracious impress; till some line of love,\n     Transferred upon my canvas, faintly glows;\n     Nor look too much on warp or woof, provide\n     He whom I work for sees their fairer side!\n\n\n                                       HOPE.\n\n     When I do think on thee, sweet Hope, and how\n     Thou followest on our steps, a coaxing child\n     Oft chidden hence, yet quickly reconciled,\n     Still turning on us a glad, beaming brow,\n     And red, ripe lips for kisses: even now\n     Thou mindest me of him, the Ruler mild,\n     Who led God's chosen people through the wild,\n     And bore with wayward murmurers, meek as thou\n     That bringest waters from the Rock, with bread\n     Of angels strewing Earth for us! like him\n     Thy force abates not, nor thine eye grows dim;\n     But still with milk and honey-droppings fed,\n     Thou leadest to the Promised Country fair,\n     Though thou, like Moses, may'st not enter there\n\n\nThere is something very weird and striking in the following lines:--\n\n\n                                     GONE.\n\n   Alone, at midnight as he knelt, his spirit was aware\n   Of Somewhat falling in between the silence and the prayer;\n\n   A bell's dull clangor that hath sped so far, it faints and dies\n   So soon as it hath reached the ear whereto its errand lies;\n\n   And as he rose up from his knees, his spirit was aware\n   Of Somewhat, forceful and unseen, that sought to hold him there;\n\n   As of a Form that stood behind, and on his shoulders prest\n   Both hands to stay his rising up, and Somewhat in his breast,\n\n   In accents clearer far than words, spake, \"Pray yet longer, pray,\n   For one that ever prayed for thee this night hath passed away;\n\n   \"A soul, that climbing hour by hour the silver-shining stair\n   That leads to God's great treasure-house, grew covetous; and there\n\n   \"Was stored no blessing and no boon, for thee she did not claim,\n   (So lowly, yet importunate!) and ever with thy name\n\n   \"She link'd--that none in earth or heaven might hinder it or stay--\n   One Other Name, so strong, that thine hath never missed its way.\n\n   \"This very night within my arms this gracious soul I bore Within the\n   Gate, where many a prayer of hers had gone before;\n\n   \"And where she resteth, evermore one constant song they raise Of 'Holy,\n   holy,' so that now I know not if she prays;\n\n   \"But for the voice of praise in Heaven, a voice of Prayer hath gone\n   From Earth; thy name upriseth now no more; pray on, pray on!\"\n\n\nThe following may serve as a specimen of the writer's lighter, half-\nplayful strain of moralizing:--\n\n\n                                      SEEKING.\n\n     \"And where, and among what pleasant places,\n     Have ye been, that ye come again\n     With your laps so full of flowers, and your faces\n     Like buds blown fresh after rain?\"\n\n     \"We have been,\" said the children, speaking\n     In their gladness, as the birds chime,\n     All together,--\"we have been seeking\n     For the Fairies of olden time;\n     For we thought, they are only hidden,--\n     They would never surely go\n     From this green earth all unbidden,\n     And the children that love them so.\n     Though they come not around us leaping,\n     As they did when they and the world\n     Were young, we shall find them sleeping\n     Within some broad leaf curled;\n     For the lily its white doors closes\n     But only over the bee,\n     And we looked through the summer roses,\n     Leaf by leaf, so carefully.\n\n     But we thought, rolled up we shall find them\n     Among mosses old and dry;\n     From gossamer threads that bind them,\n     They will start like the butterfly,\n     All winged: so we went forth seeking,\n     Yet still they have kept unseen;\n     Though we think our feet have been keeping\n     The track where they have been,\n     For we saw where their dance went flying\n     O'er the pastures,--snowy white.\"\n\n     Their seats and their tables lying,\n     O'erthrown in their sudden flight.\n     And they, too, have had their losses,\n     For we found the goblets white\n     And red in the old spiked mosses,\n     That they drank from over-night;\n     And in the pale horn of the woodbine\n     Was some wine left, clear and bright;\n     \"But we found,\" said the children, speaking\n     More quickly, \"so many things,\n     That we soon forgot we were seeking,--\n     Forgot all the Fairy rings,\n     Forgot all the stories olden\n     That we hear round the fire at night,\n     Of their gifts and their favors golden,--\n     The sunshine was so bright;\n     And the flowers,--we found so many\n     That it almost made us grieve\n     To think there were some, sweet as any,\n     That we were forced to leave;\n     As we left, by the brook-side lying,\n     The balls of drifted foam,\n     And brought (after all our trying)\n     These Guelder-roses home.\"\n\n     \"Then, oh!\" I heard one speaking\n     Beside me soft and low,\n     \"I have been, like the blessed children, seeking,\n     Still seeking, to and fro;\n     Yet not, like them, for the Fairies,--\n     They might pass unmourned away\n     For me, that had looked on angels,--\n     On angels that would not stay;\n     No!  not though in haste before them\n     I spread all my heart's best cheer,\n     And made love my banner o'er them,\n     If it might but keep them here;\n     They stayed but a while to rest them;\n     Long, long before its close,\n     From my feast, though I mourned and prest them\n     The radiant guests arose;\n     And their flitting wings struck sadness\n     And silence; never more\n     Hath my soul won back the gladness,\n     That was its own before.\n     No; I mourned not for the Fairies\n     When I had seen hopes decay,\n     That were sweet unto my spirit\n     So long; I said, 'If they,\n     That through shade and sunny weather\n     Have twined about my heart,\n     Should fade, we must go together,\n     For we can never part!'\n     But my care was not availing;\n     I found their sweetness gone;\n     I saw their bright tints paling;--\n     They died; yet I lived on.\n\n     \"Yet seeking, ever seeking,\n     Like the children, I have won\n     A guerdon all undreamt of\n\n     When first my quest begun,\n     And my thoughts come back like wanderers,\n     Out-wearied, to my breast;\n     What they sought for long they found not,\n     Yet was the Unsought best.\n     For I sought not out for crosses,\n     I did not seek for pain;\n     Yet I find the heart's sore losses\n     Were the spirit's surest gain.\"\n\n\nIn _A Meditation_, the writer ventures, not without awe and reverence,\nupon that dim, unsounded ocean of mystery, the life beyond:--\n\n\n                       \"But is there prayer\n     Within your quiet homes, and is there care\n     For those ye leave behind?  I would address\n     My spirit to this theme in humbleness\n     No tongue nor pen hath uttered or made known\n     This mystery, and thus I do but guess\n     At clearer types through lowlier patterns shown;\n     Yet when did Love on earth forsake its own?\n     Ye may not quit your sweetness; in the Vine\n     More firmly rooted than of old, your wine\n     Hath freer flow!  ye have not changed, but grown\n     To fuller stature; though the shock was keen\n     That severed you from us, how oft below\n     Hath sorest parting smitten but to show\n     True hearts their hidden wealth that quickly grow\n     The closer for that anguish,--friend to friend\n     Revealed more clear,--and what is Death to rend\n     The ties of life and love, when He must fade\n     In light of very Life, when He must bend\n     To love, that, loving, loveth to the end?\n\n                   \"I do not deem ye look\n     Upon us now, for be it that your eyes\n     Are sealed or clear, a burden on them lies\n     Too deep and blissful for their gaze to brook\n     Our troubled strife; enough that once ye dwelt\n     Where now we dwell, enough that once ye felt\n     As now we feel, to bid you recognize\n     Our claim of kindred cherished though unseen;\n     And Love that is to you for eye and ear\n     Hath ways unknown to us to bring you near,--\n     To keep you near for all that comes between;\n     As pious souls that move in sleep to prayer,\n     As distant friends, that see not, and yet share\n     (I speak of what I know) each other's care,\n     So may your spirits blend with ours!\n     Above Ye know not haply of our state, yet\n     Love Acquaints you with our need, and through a way\n     More sure than that of knowledge--so ye pray!\n\n                    \"And even thus we meet,\n     And even thus we commune!  spirits freed\n     And spirits fettered mingle, nor have need\n     To seek a common atmosphere, the air\n     Is meet for either in this olden, sweet,\n     Primeval breathing of Man's spirit,--Prayer!\"\n\n\nI give, in conclusion, a portion of one of her most characteristic poems,\n_The Reconciler_:--\n\n\n                       \"Our dreams are reconciled,\n     Since Thou didst come to turn them all to Truth;\n     The World, the Heart, are dreamers in their youth\n     Of visions beautiful, and strange and wild;\n     And Thou, our Life's Interpreter, dost still\n     At once make clear these visions and fulfil;\n\n     Each dim sweet Orphic rhyme,\n     Each mythic tale sublime\n     Of strength to save, of sweetness to subdue,\n     Each morning dream the few,\n     Wisdom's first lovers told, if read in Thee comes true.\n\n                . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n\n                        \"Thou, O Friend\n     From heaven, that madest this our heart Thine own,\n     Dost pierce the broken language of its moan--\n     Thou dost not scorn our needs, but satisfy!\n     Each yearning deep and wide,\n     Each claim, is justified;\n     Our young illusions fail not, though they die\n     Within the brightness of Thy Rising, kissed\n     To happy death, like early clouds that lie\n     About the gates of Dawn,--a golden mist\n     Paling to blissful white, through rose and amethyst.\n\n                    \"The World that puts Thee by,\n     That opens not to greet Thee with Thy train,\n     That sendeth after Thee the sullen cry,\n     'We will not have Thee over us to reign,'\n     Itself Both testify through searchings vain\n     Of Thee and of its need, and for the good\n     It will not, of some base similitude\n     Takes up a taunting witness, till its mood,\n     Grown fierce o'er failing hopes, doth rend and tear\n     Its own illusions grown too thin and bare\n     To wrap it longer; for within the gate\n     Where all must pass, a veiled and hooded Fate,\n     A dark Chimera, coiled and tangled lies,\n     And he who answers not its questions dies,--\n     Still changing form and speech, but with the same\n     Vexed riddles, Gordian-twisted, bringing shame\n     Upon the nations that with eager cry\n     Hail each new solver of the mystery;\n     Yet he, of these the best,\n     Bold guesser, hath but prest\n     Most nigh to Thee, our noisy plaudits wrong;\n     True Champion, that hast wrought\n     Our help of old, and brought\n     Meat from this eater, sweetness from this strong.\n\n                          \"O Bearer of the key\n     That shuts and opens with a sound so sweet\n     Its turning in the wards is melody,\n     All things we move among are incomplete\n     And vain until we fashion them in Thee!\n     We labor in the fire,\n     Thick smoke is round about us; through the din\n     Of words that darken counsel clamors dire\n     Ring from thought's beaten anvil, where within\n     Two Giants toil, that even from their birth\n     With travail-pangs have torn their mother Earth,\n     And wearied out her children with their keen\n     Upbraidings of the other, till between\n     Thou tamest, saying, 'Wherefore do ye wrong\n     Each other?--ye are Brethren.' Then these twain\n     Will own their kindred, and in Thee retain\n     Their claims in peace, because Thy land is wide\n     As it is goodly!  here they pasture free,\n     This lion and this leopard, side by side,\n     A little child doth lead them with a song;\n     Now, Ephraim's envy ceaseth, and no more\n     Doth Judah anger Ephraim chiding sore,\n     For one did ask a Brother, one a King,\n     So dost Thou gather them in one, and bring--\n     Thou, King forevermore, forever Priest,\n     Thou, Brother of our own from bonds released\n     A Law of Liberty,\n     A Service making free,\n     A Commonweal where each has all in Thee.\n\n                       \"And not alone these wide,\n     Deep-planted yearnings, seeking with a cry\n     Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied;\n     But all our instincts waking suddenly\n     Within the soul, like infants from their sleep\n     That stretch their arms into the dark and weep,\n     Thy voice can still.  The stricken heart bereft\n     Of all its brood of singing hopes, and left\n     'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest\n     With snow-flakes in it, folded in Thy breast\n     Doth lose its deadly chill; and grief that creeps\n     Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there\n     The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan, and weeps\n     Calm, quiet tears, and on Thy forehead Care\n     Hath looked until its thorns, no longer bare,\n     Put forth pale roses.  Pain on Thee doth press\n     Its quivering cheek, and all the weariness,\n     The want that keep their silence, till from Thee\n     They hear the gracious summons, none beside\n     Hath spoken to the world-worn, 'Come to me,'\n     Tell forth their heavy secrets.\n\n                       \"Thou dost hide\n     These in Thy bosom, and not these alone,\n     But all our heart's fond treasure that had grown\n     A burden else: O Saviour, tears were weighed\n     To Thee in plenteous measure!  none hath shown\n     That Thou didst smile! yet hast Thou surely made\n     All joy of ours Thine own.\n\n                      \"Thou madest us for Thine;\n     We seek amiss, we wander to and fro;\n     Yet are we ever on the track Divine;\n     The soul confesseth Thee, but sense is slow\n     To lean on aught but that which it may see;\n     So hath it crowded up these Courts below\n     With dark and broken images of Thee;\n     Lead Thou us forth upon Thy Mount, and show\n     Thy goodly patterns, whence these things of old\n     By Thee were fashioned; One though manifold.\n     Glass Thou Thy perfect likeness in the soul,\n     Show us Thy countenance, and we are whole!\"\n\n\nNo one, I am quite certain, will regret that I have made these liberal\nquotations.  Apart from their literary merit, they have a special\ninterest for the readers of The Patience of Hope, as more fully\nillustrating the writer's personal experience and aspirations.\n\nIt has been suggested by a friend that it is barely possible that an\nobjection may be urged against the following treatise, as against all\nbooks of a like character, that its tendency is to isolate the individual\nfrom his race, and to nourish an exclusive and purely selfish personal\nsolicitude; that its piety is self-absorbent, and that it does not take\nsufficiently into account active duties and charities, and the love of\nthe neighbor so strikingly illustrated by the Divine Master in His life\nand teachings.  This objection, if valid, would be a fatal one.  For, of\na truth, there can be no meaner type of human selfishness than that\nafforded by him who, unmindful of the world of sin and suffering about\nhim, occupies himself in the pitiful business of saving his own soul, in\nthe very spirit of the miser, watching over his private hoard while his\nneighbors starve for lack of bread.  But surely the benevolent unrest,\nthe far-reaching sympathies and keen sensitiveness to the suffering of\nothers, which so nobly distinguish our present age, can have nothing to\nfear from a plea for personal holiness, patience, hope, and resignation\nto the Divine will.  \"The more piety, the more compassion,\" says Isaac\nTaylor; and this is true, if we understand by piety, not self-concentred\nasceticism, but the pure religion and undefiled which visits the widow\nand the fatherless, and yet keeps itself unspotted from the world,--which\ndeals justly, loves mercy, and yet walks humbly before God.  Self-\nscrutiny in the light of truth can do no harm to any one, least of all to\nthe reformer and philanthropist.  The spiritual warrior, like the young\ncandidate for knighthood, may be none the worse for his preparatory\nordeal of watching all night by his armor.\n\nTauler in mediaeval times and Woolman in the last century are among the\nmost earnest teachers of the inward life and spiritual nature of\nChristianity, yet both were distinguished for practical benevolence.\nThey did not separate the two great commandments.  Tauler strove with\nequal intensity of zeal to promote the temporal and the spiritual welfare\nof men.  In the dark and evil time in which he lived, amidst the untold\nhorrors of the \"Black Plague,\" he illustrated by deeds of charity and\nmercy his doctrine of disinterested benevolence.  Woolman's whole life\nwas a nobler Imitation of Christ than that fervid rhapsody of monastic\npiety which bears the name.\n\nHow faithful, yet, withal, how full of kindness, were his rebukes of\nthose who refused labor its just reward, and ground the faces of the\npoor?  How deep and entire was his sympathy with overtasked and ill-paid\nlaborers; with wet and illprovided sailors; with poor wretches\nblaspheming in the mines, because oppression had made them mad; with the\ndyers plying their unhealthful trade to minister to luxury and pride;\nwith the tenant wearing out his life in the service of a hard landlord;\nand with the slave sighing over his unrequited toil!  What a significance\nthere was in his vision of the \"dull, gloomy mass\" which appeared before\nhim, darkening half the heavens, and which he was told was \"human beings\nin as great misery as they could be and live; and he was mixed with them,\nand henceforth he might not consider himself a distinct and separate\nbeing\"!  His saintliness was wholly unconscious; he seems never to have\nthought himself any nearer to the tender heart of God than the most\nmiserable sinner to whom his compassion extended.  As he did not\nlive, so neither did he die to himself.  His prayer upon his death-bed\nwas for others rather than himself; its beautiful humility and simple\ntrust were marred by no sensual imagery of crowns and harps and golden\nstreets, and personal beatific exaltations; but tender and touching\nconcern for suffering humanity, relieved only by the thought of the\npaternity of God, and of His love and omnipotence, alone found utterance\nin ever-memorable words.\n\nIn view of the troubled state of the country and the intense\npreoccupation of the public mind, I have had some hesitation in offering\nthis volume to its publishers.  But, on further reflection, it has seemed\nto me that it might supply a want felt by many among us; that, in the\nchaos of civil strife and the shadow of mourning which rests over the\nland, the contemplation of \"things unseen which are eternal\" might not be\nunwelcome; that, when the foundations of human confidence are shaken, and\nthe trust in man proves vain, there might be glad listeners to a voice\ncalling from the outward and the temporal to the inward and the\nspiritual; from the troubles and perplexities of time, to the eternal\nquietness which God giveth.  I cannot but believe that, in the heat and\nglare through which we are passing, this book will not invite in vain to\nthe calm, sweet shadows of holy meditation, grateful as the green wings\nof the bird to Thalaba in the desert; and thus afford something of\nconsolation to the bereaved, and of strength to the weary.  For surely\nnever was the Patience of Hope more needed; never was the inner sanctuary\nof prayer more desirable; never was a steadfast faith in the Divine\ngoodness more indispensable, nor lessons of self-sacrifice and\nrenunciation, and that cheerful acceptance of known duty which shifts not\nits proper responsibility upon others, nor asks for \"peace in its day\" at\nthe expense of purity and justice, more timely than now, when the solemn\nwords of ancient prophecy are as applicable to our own country as to that\nof the degenerate Jew,--\"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy\nbacksliding reprove thee; know, therefore, it is an evil thing, and\nbitter, that thou bast forsaken the Lord, and that my fear is not in\nthee,\"--when \"His way is in the deep, in clouds, and in thick darkness,\"\nand the hand heavy upon us which shall \"turn and overturn until he whose\nright it is shall reign,\"--until, not without rending agony, the evil\nplant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted, whose roots have wound\nthemselves about altar and hearth-stone, and whose branches, like the\ntree Al-Accoub in Moslem fable, bear the accursed fruit of oppression,\nrebellion, and all imaginable crime, shall be torn up and destroyed\nforever.\n\nAMESBURY, 1st 6th mo., 1862.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.\n\nThe following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends' Review\nin Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and\npractice in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have\nsince more than justified the writer's fears and solicitude.\n\n\nI.\n\n                         AMESBURY, 2d mo., 1870.\n\nTO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW.\n\nESTEEMED FRIEND,--If I have been hitherto a silent, I have not been an\nindifferent, spectator of the movements now going on in our religious\nSociety.  Perhaps from lack of faith, I have been quite too solicitous\nconcerning them, and too much afraid that in grasping after new things we\nmay let go of old things too precious to be lost.  Hence I have been\npleased to see from time to time in thy paper very timely and fitting\narticles upon a _Hired Ministry_ and _Silent Worship_.\n\nThe present age is one of sensation and excitement, of extreme measures\nand opinions, of impatience of all slow results.  The world about us\nmoves with accelerated impulse, and we move with it: the rest we have\nenjoyed, whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our\nopinions, the reason of our practices, are demanded.  Our very right to\nexist as a distinct society is questioned.  Our old literature--the\nprecious journals and biographies of early and later Friends--is\ncomparatively neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications.  We\nbear complaints of a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent\nmeetings is denied, and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will\nand option.  There is a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas\nand expedients and practices of other sects.  I speak only of admitted\nfacts, and not for the purpose of censure or complaint.  No one has less\nright than myself to indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor\ndifferences of opinion.  If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not\nfind it a hard task to bear with them.\n\nBut for myself I prefer the old ways.  With the broadest possible\ntolerance for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of\nFriends.  My life has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other\nsects in behalf of the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like\nquarrelling with Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with\nme, side by side, at the rope of Reform.  A very large proportion of my\ndearest personal friends are outside of our communion; and I have learned\nwith John Woolman to find \"no narrowness respecting sects and opinions.\"\nBut after a kindly and candid survey of them all, I turn to my own\nSociety, thankful to the Divine Providence which placed me where I am;\nand with an unshaken faith in the one distinctive doctrine of Quakerism--\nthe Light within--the immanence of the Divine Spirit in Christianity.  I\ncheerfully recognize and bear testimony to the good works and lives of\nthose who widely differ in faith and practice; but I have seen no truer\ntypes of Christianity, no better men and women, than I have known and\nstill know among those who not blindly, but intelligently, hold the\ndoctrines and maintain the testimonies of our early Friends.  I am not\nblind to the shortcomings of Friends.  I know how much we have lost by\nnarrowness and coldness and inactivity, the overestimate of external\nobservances, the neglect of our own proper work while acting as\nconscience-keepers for others.  We have not, as a society, been active\nenough in those simple duties which we owe to our suffering fellow-\ncreatures, in that abundant labor of love and self-denial which is never\nout of place.  Perhaps our divisions and dissensions might have been\nspared us if we had been less \"at ease in Zion.\"  It is in the decline of\npractical righteousness that men are most likely to contend with each\nother for dogma and ritual, for shadow and letter, instead of substance\nand spirit.  Hence I rejoice in every sign of increased activity in doing\ngood among us, in the precious opportunities afforded of working with the\nDivine Providence for the Freedmen and Indians; since the more we do, in\nthe true spirit of the gospel, for others, the more we shall really do\nfor ourselves.  There is no danger of lack of work for those who, with an\neye single to the guidance of Truth, look for a place in God's vineyard;\nthe great work which the founders of our Society began is not yet done;\nthe mission of Friends is not accomplished, and will not be until this\nworld of ours, now full of sin and suffering, shall take up, in jubilant\nthanksgiving, the song of the Advent: \"Glory to God in the highest!\nPeace on earth and good-will to men!\"\n\nIt is charged that our Society lacks freedom and adaptation to the age in\nwhich we live, that there is a repression of individuality and manliness\namong us.  I am not prepared to deny it in certain respects.  But, if we\nlook at the matter closely, we shall see that the cause is not in the\ncentral truth of Quakerism, but in a failure to rightly comprehend it; in\nan attempt to fetter with forms and hedge about with dogmas that great\nlaw of Christian liberty, which I believe affords ample scope for the\nhighest spiritual aspirations and the broadest philanthropy.  If we did\nbut realize it, we are \"set in a large place.\"\n\n\"We may do all we will save wickedness.\"\n\n\"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.\"\n\nQuakerism, in the light of its great original truth, is \"exceeding\nbroad.\"  As interpreted by Penn and Barclay it is the most liberal and\ncatholic of faiths.  If we are not free, generous, tolerant, if we are\nnot up to or above the level of the age in good works, in culture and\nlove of beauty, order and fitness, if we are not the ready recipients of\nthe truths of science and philosophy,--in a word, if we are not full-\ngrown men and Christians, the fault is not in Quakerism, but in\nourselves.  We shall gain nothing by aping the customs and trying to\nadjust ourselves to the creeds of other sects.  By so doing we make at\nthe best a very awkward combination, and just as far as it is successful,\nit is at the expense of much that is vital in our old faith.  If, for\ninstance, I could bring myself to believe a hired ministry and a written\ncreed essential to my moral and spiritual well-being, I think I should\nprefer to sit down at once under such teachers as Bushnell and Beecher,\nthe like of whom in Biblical knowledge, ecclesiastical learning, and\nintellectual power, we are not likely to manufacture by half a century of\ntheological manipulation in a Quaker \"school of the prophets.\"  If I must\ngo into the market and buy my preaching, I should naturally seek the best\narticle on sale, without regard to the label attached to it.\n\nI am not insensible of the need of spiritual renovation in our Society.\nI feel and confess my own deficiencies as an individual member.  And I\nbear a willing testimony to the zeal and devotion of some dear friends,\nwho, lamenting the low condition and worldliness too apparent among us,\nseek to awaken a stronger religious life by the partial adoption of the\npractices, forms, and creeds of more demonstrative sects.  The great\napparent activity of these sects seems to them to contrast very strongly\nwith our quietness and reticence; and they do not always pause to inquire\nwhether the result of this activity is a truer type of practical\nChristianity than is found in our select gatherings.  I think I\nunderstand these brethren; to some extent I have sympathized with them.\nBut it seems clear to me, that a remedy for the alleged evil lies not in\ngoing back to the \"beggarly elements\" from which our worthy ancestors\ncalled the people of their generation; not in will-worship; not in\nsetting the letter above the spirit; not in substituting type and symbol,\nand oriental figure and hyperbole for the simple truths they were\nintended to represent; not in schools of theology; not in much speaking\nand noise and vehemence, nor in vain attempts to make the \"plain\nlanguage\" of Quakerism utter the Shibboleth of man-made creeds: but in\nheeding more closely the Inward Guide and Teacher; in faith in Christ not\nmerely in His historical manifestation of the Divine Love to humanity,\nbut in His living presence in the hearts open to receive Him; in love for\nHim manifested in denial of self, in charity and love to our neighbor;\nand in a deeper realization of the truth of the apostle's declaration:\n\"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit\nthe fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself\nunspotted from the world.\"\n\nIn conclusion, let me say that I have given this expression of my\nopinions with some degree of hesitation, being very sensible that I have\nneither the right nor the qualification to speak for a society whose\ndoctrines and testimonies commend themselves to my heart and head, whose\nhistory is rich with the precious legacy of holy lives, and of whose\nusefulness as a moral and spiritual Force in the world I am fully\nassured.\n\n\nII.\n\nHaving received several letters from dear friends in various sections\nsuggested by a recent communication in thy paper, and not having time or\nhealth to answer them in detail, will thou permit me in this way to\nacknowledge them, and to say to the writers that I am deeply sensible of\nthe Christian love and personal good-will to myself, which, whether in\ncommendation or dissent, they manifest?  I think I may say in truth that\nmy letter was written in no sectarian or party spirit, but simply to\nexpress a solicitude, which, whether groundless or not, was nevertheless\nreal.  I am, from principle, disinclined to doctrinal disputations and\nso-called religious controversies, which only tend to separate and\ndisunite.  We have had too many divisions already.  I intended no censure\nof dear brethren whose zeal and devotion command my sympathy,\nnotwithstanding I may not be able to see with them in all respects.  The\ndomain of individual conscience is to me very sacred; and it seems the\npart of Christian charity to make a large allowance for varying\nexperiences; mental characteristics, and temperaments, as well as for\nthat youthful enthusiasm which, if sometimes misdirected, has often been\ninstrumental in infusing a fresher life into the body of religious\nprofession.  It is too much to expect that we can maintain an entire\nuniformity in the expression of truths in which we substantially agree;\nand we should be careful that a rightful concern for \"the form of sound\nwords\" does not become what William Penn calls \"verbal orthodoxy.\"  We\nmust consider that the same accepted truth looks somewhat differently\nfrom different points of vision.  Knowing our own weaknesses and\nlimitations, we must bear in mind that human creeds, speculations,\nexpositions, and interpretations of the Divine plan are but the faint and\nfeeble glimpses of finite creatures into the infinite mysteries of God.\n\n         \"They are but broken lights of Thee,\n          And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.\"\n\nDiffering, as we do, more or less as to means and methods, if we indeed\nhave the \"mind of Christ,\" we shall rejoice in whatever of good is really\naccomplished, although by somewhat different instrumentalities than those\nwhich we feel ourselves free to make use of, remembering that our Lord\nrebuked the narrowness and partisanship of His disciples by assuring them\nthat they that were not against Him were for Him.\n\nIt would, nevertheless, give me great satisfaction to know, as thy kindly\nexpressed editorial comments seem to intimate, that I have somewhat\noverestimated the tendencies of things in our Society.  I have no pride\nof opinion which would prevent me from confessing with thankfulness my\nerror of judgment.  In any event, it can, I think, do no harm to repeat\nmy deep conviction that we may all labor, in the ability given us, for\nour own moral and spiritual well-being, and that of our fellow-creatures,\nwithout laying aside the principles and practice of our religious\nSociety.  I believe so much of liberty is our right as well as our\nprivilege, and that we need not really overstep our bounds for the\nperformance of any duty which may be required of us.  When truly called\nto contemplate broader fields of labor, we shall find the walls about us,\nlike the horizon seen from higher levels, expanding indeed, but nowhere\nbroken.\n\nI believe that the world needs the Society of Friends as a testimony and\na standard.  I know that this is the opinion of some of the best and most\nthoughtful members of other Christian sects.  I know that any serious\ndeparture from the original foundation of our Society would give pain to\nmany who, outside of our communion, deeply realize the importance of our\ntestimonies.  They fail to read clearly the signs of the times who do not\nsee that the hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy\nand the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence\nwill not altogether avail us; when the surest dependence must be upon the\nLight of Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own\nsouls, and confirming the truth of outward Scripture by inward\nexperience; when smooth stones from the brook of present revelation\nshall' prove mightier than the weapons of Saul; when the doctrine of the\nHoly Spirit, as proclaimed by George Fox and lived by John Woolman, shall\nbe recognized as the only efficient solvent of doubts raised by an age of\nrestless inquiry.  In this belief my letter was written.  I am sorry it\ndid not fall to the lot of a more fitting hand; and can only hope that no\nconsideration of lack of qualification on the part of its writer may\nlessen the value of whatever testimony to truth shall be found in it.\n\nAMESBURY, 3d mo., 1870.\n\n\nP. S.  I may mention that I have been somewhat encouraged by a perusal of\nthe Proceedings of the late First-day School Conference in Philadelphia,\nwhere, with some things which I am compelled to pause over, and regret, I\nfind much with which I cordially unite, and which seems to indicate a\nprovidential opening for good.  I confess to a lively and tender sympathy\nwith my younger brethren and sisters who, in the name of Him who \"went\nabout doing good,\" go forth into the highways and byways to gather up the\nlost, feed the hungry, instruct the ignorant, and point the sinsick and\nsuffering to the hopes and consolations of Christian faith, even if, at\ntimes, their zeal goes beyond \"reasonable service,\" and although the\nimportance of a particular instrumentality may be exaggerated, and love\nlose sight of its needful companion humility, and he that putteth on his\narmor boast like him who layeth it off.  Any movement, however irregular,\nwhich indicates life, is better than the quiet of death.  In the\noverruling providence of God, the troubling may prepare the way for\nhealing.  Some of us may have erred on one hand and some on the other,\nand this shaking of the balance may adjust it.\n\n\n\n\nJOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL.\n\nOriginally published as an introduction to a reissue of the work.\n\nTo those who judge by the outward appearance, nothing is more difficult\nof explanation than the strength of moral influence often exerted by\nobscure and uneventful lives.  Some great reform which lifts the world to\na higher level, some mighty change for which the ages have waited in\nanxious expectancy, takes place before our eyes, and, in seeking to trace\nit back to its origin, we are often surprised to find the initial link in\nthe chain of causes to be some comparatively obscure individual, the\ndivine commission and significance of whose life were scarcely understood\nby his contemporaries, and perhaps not even by himself.  The little one\nhas become a thousand; the handful of corn shakes like Lebanon.  \"The\nkingdom of God cometh not by observation;\" and the only solution of the\nmystery is in the reflection that through the humble instrumentality\nDivine power was manifested, and that the Everlasting Arm was beneath the\nhuman one.\n\nThe abolition of human slavery now in process of consummation throughout\nthe world furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of this truth.\nA far-reaching moral, social, and political revolution, undoing the evil\nwork of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to\nthe life and labors of a poor, unlearned workingman of New Jersey, whose\nvery existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his\nreligious society.\n\nIt is only within a comparatively recent period that the journal and\nethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to\nwhich they are manifestly entitled.  In one of my last interviews with\nWilliam Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they\nwere so little known.  He had himself just read the book for the first\ntime, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up as he\npronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in\nthe language.  He wished to see it placed within the reach of all classes\nof readers; it was not a light to be hidden under the bushel of a sect.\nCharles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard\nBarton, became acquainted with it, and on more than one occasion, in his\nletters and Essays of Elia, refers to it with warm commendation.  Edward\nIrving pronounced it a godsend.  Some idea of the lively interest which\nthe fine literary circle gathered around the hearth of Lamb felt in the\nbeautiful simplicity of Woolman's pages may be had from the Diary of\nHenry Crabb Robinson, one of their number, himself a man of wide and\nvaried culture, the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth, and Coleridge.\nIn his notes for First Month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a\nsermon of his friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than\npromote belief:\n\n\"How different this from John Woolman's Journal I have been reading at\nthe same time!  A perfect gem!  His is a _schone Seele_, a beautiful\nsoul.  An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite\npurity and grace.  His moral qualities are transferred to his writings.\nHad he not been so very humble, he would have written a still better\nbook; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which\nhe was a great actor.  His religion was love.  His whole existence and\nall his passions were love.  If one could venture to impute to his creed,\nand not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he\nexhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert.  His Christianity is\nmost inviting, it is fascinating!  One of the leading British reviews a\nfew years ago, referring to this Journal, pronounced its author the man\nwho, in all the centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to\nthe Divine pattern.  The author of The Patience of Hope, whose authority\nin devotional literature is unquestioned, says of him: 'John Woolman's\ngift was love, a charity of which it does not enter into the natural\nheart of man to conceive, and of which the more ordinary experiences,\neven of renewed nature, give but a faint shadow.  Every now and then, in\nthe world's history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of\nHumanity, on whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth\nthat it has run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over\nthe whole of the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of\nAssisi, into the secret of that deep amity with God and with His\ncreatures which makes man to be in league with the stones of the field,\nand the beasts of the field to be at peace with him.  In this pure,\nuniversal charity there is nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that\ncomes and goes in showers and gleams and sunbursts.  Its springs are deep\nand constant, its rising is like that of a mighty river, its very\noverflow calm and steady, leaving life and fertility behind it.'\"\n\nAfter all, anything like personal eulogy seems out of place in speaking\nof one who in the humblest self-abasement sought no place in the world's\nestimation, content to be only a passive instrument in the hands of his\nMaster; and who, as has been remarked, through modesty concealed the\nevents in which he was an actor.  A desire to supply in some sort this\ndeficiency in his Journal is my especial excuse for this introductory\npaper.\n\nIt is instructive to study the history of the moral progress of\nindividuals or communities; to mark the gradual development of truth; to\nwatch the slow germination of its seed sown in simple obedience to the\ncommand of the Great Husbandman, while yet its green promise, as well as\nits golden fruition, was hidden from the eyes of the sower; to go back to\nthe well-springs and fountain-heads, tracing the small streamlet from its\nhidden source, and noting the tributaries which swell its waters, as it\nmoves onward, until it becomes a broad river, fertilizing and gladdening\nour present humanity.  To this end it is my purpose, as briefly as\npossible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of\nslave-holding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of\nthat act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout\nthe world.\n\nAt an early period after the organization of the Society, members of it\nemigrated to the Maryland, Carolina, Virginia, and New England colonies.\nThe act of banishment enforced against dissenters under Charles II.\nconsigned others of the sect to the West Indies, where their frugality,\ntemperance, and thrift transmuted their intended punishment into a\nblessing.  Andrew Marvell, the inflexible republican statesman, in some\nof the sweetest and tenderest lines in the English tongue, has happily\ndescribed their condition:--\n\n     What shall we do but sing His praise\n     Who led us through the watery maze,\n     Unto an isle so long unknown,\n     And yet far kinder than our own?\n     He lands us on a grassy stage,\n     Safe from the storms and prelates' rage;\n     He gives us this eternal spring,\n     Which here enamels everything,\n     And sends the fowls to us in care,\n     On daily visits through the air.\n     He hangs in shades the orange bright,\n     Like golden lamps, in a green night,\n     And doth in the pomegranate close\n     Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.\n\n            . . . . . . . . .\n\n     And in these rocks for us did frame\n     A temple where to sound His name.\n     Oh!  let our voice His praise exalt,\n     Till it arrive at heaven's vault,\n     Which then, perhaps rebounding, may\n     Echo beyond the Mexic bay.'\n\n     \"So sang they in the English boat,\n     A holy and a cheerful note;\n     And all the way, to guide their chime,\n     With falling oars they kept the time.\"\n\nUnhappily, they very early became owners of slaves, in imitation of the\ncolonists around them.  No positive condemnation of the evil system had\nthen been heard in the British islands.  Neither English prelates nor\nexpounders at dissenting conventicles had aught to say against it.  Few\ncolonists doubted its entire compatibility with Christian profession and\nconduct.  Saint and sinner, ascetic and worldling, united in its\npractice.  Even the extreme Dutch saints of Bohemia Manor community, the\npietists of John de Labadie, sitting at meat with hats on, and pausing\never and anon with suspended mouthfuls to bear a brother's or sister's\nexhortation, and sandwiching prayers between the courses, were waited\nupon by negro slaves.  Everywhere men were contending with each other\nupon matters of faith, while, so far as their slaves were concerned,\ndenying the ethics of Christianity itself.\n\nSuch was the state of things when, in 1671, George Fox visited Barbadoes.\nHe was one of those men to whom it is given to discern through the mists\nof custom and prejudice something of the lineaments of absolute truth,\nand who, like the Hebrew lawgiver, bear with them, from a higher and\npurer atmosphere, the shining evidence of communion with the Divine\nWisdom.  He saw slavery in its mildest form among his friends, but his\nintuitive sense of right condemned it.  He solemnly admonished those who\nheld slaves to bear in mind that they were brethren, and to train them up\nin the fear of God.  \"I desired, also,\" he says, \"that they would cause\ntheir overseers to deal gently and mildly with their negroes, and not use\ncruelty towards them as the manner of some hath been and is; and that,\nafter certain years of servitude, they should make them free.\"\n\nIn 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson, revisited\nBarbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of\nslaves.  He was accused of endeavoring to excite an insurrection among\nthe blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge.  It was\nprobably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to friends\nin Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves.  It is one of\nthe first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro\nslavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the Papal bulls\nof Urban and Leo the Tenth.\n\nThirteen years after, in 1688, a meeting of German Quakers, who had\nemigrated from Kriesbeim, and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania,\naddressed a memorial against \"the buying and keeping of negroes\" to the\nYearly Meeting for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey colonies.  That\nmeeting took the subject into consideration, but declined giving judgment\nin the case.  In 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised against \"bringing in\nany more negroes.\"  In 1714, in its Epistle to London Friends, it\nexpresses a wish that Friends would be \"less concerned in buying or\nselling slaves.\"  The Chester Quarterly Meeting, which had taken a higher\nand clearer view of the matter, continued to press the Yearly Meeting to\nadopt some decided measure against any traffic in human beings.\n\nThe Society gave these memorials a cold reception.  The love of gain and\npower was too strong, on the part of the wealthy and influential planters\nand merchants who had become slaveholders, to allow the scruples of the\nChester meeting to take the shape of discipline.  The utmost that could\nbe obtained of the Yearly Meeting was an expression of opinion adverse to\nthe importation of negroes, and a desire that \"Friends generally do, as\nmuch as may be, avoid buying such negroes as shall hereafter be brought\nin, rather than offend any Friends who are against it; yet this is only\ncaution, and not censure.\"\n\nIn the mean time the New England Yearly Meeting was agitated by the same\nquestion.  Slaves were imported into Boston and Newport, and Friends\nbecame purchasers, and in some instances were deeply implicated in the\nforeign traffic.  In 1716, the monthly meetings of Dartmouth and\nNantucket suggested that it was \"not agreeable to truth to purchase\nslaves and keep them during their term of life.\"  Nothing was done in the\nYearly Meeting, however, until 1727, when the practice of importing\nnegroes was censured.  That the practice was continued notwithstanding,\nfor many years afterwards, is certain.  In 1758, a rule was adopted\nprohibiting Friends within the limits of New England Yearly Meeting from\nengaging in or countenancing the foreign slave-trade.\n\nIn the year 1742 an event, simple and inconsiderable in itself, was made\nthe instrumentality of exerting a mighty influence upon slavery in the\nSociety of Friends.  A small storekeeper at Mount Holly, in New Jersey, a\nmember of the Society, sold a negro woman, and requested the young man in\nhis employ to make a bill of sale of her.\n\n     (Mount Holly is a village lying in the western part of the long,\n     narrow township of Northampton, on Rancocas Creek, a tributary of\n     the Delaware.  In John Woolman's day it was almost entirely a\n     settlement of Friends.  A very few of the old houses with their\n     quaint stoops or porches are left.  That occupied by John Woolman\n     was a small, plain, two-story structure, with two windows in each\n     story in front, a four-barred fence inclosing the grounds, with the\n     trees he planted and loved to cultivate.  The house was not painted,\n     but whitewashed.  The name of the place is derived from the highest\n     hill in the county, rising two hundred feet above the sea, and\n     commanding a view of a rich and level country, of cleared farms and\n     woodlands.  Here, no doubt, John Woolman often walked under the\n     shadow of its holly-trees, communing with nature and musing on the\n     great themes of life and duty.\n\n     When the excellent Joseph Sturge was in this country, some thirty\n     years ago, on his errand of humanity, he visited Mount Holly, and\n     the house of Woolman, then standing.  He describes it as a very\n     \"humble abode.\"  But one person was then living in the town who had\n     ever seen its venerated owner.  This aged man stated that he was at\n     Woolman's little farm in the season of harvest when it was customary\n     among farmers to kill a calf or sheep for the laborers.  John\n     Woolman, unwilling that the animal should be slowly bled to death,\n     as the custom had been, and to spare it unnecessary suffering, had a\n     smooth block of wood prepared to receive the neck of the creature,\n     when a single blow terminated its existence.  Nothing was more\n     remarkable in the character of Woolman than his concern for the\n     well-being and comfort of the brute creation.  \"What is religion?\"\n     asks the old Hindoo writer of the Vishnu Sarman.  \"Tenderness toward\n     all creatures.\"  Or, as Woolman expresses it, \"Where the love of God\n     is verily perfected, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject\n     to our will is experienced, and a care felt that we do not lessen\n     that sweetness of life in the animal creation which the Creator\n     intends for them under our government.\")\n\nOn taking up his pen, the young clerk felt a sudden and strong scruple in\nhis mind.  The thought of writing an instrument of slavery for one of his\nfellow-creatures oppressed him.  God's voice against the desecration of\nHis image spoke in the soul.  He yielded to the will of his employer,\nbut, while writing the instrument, he was constrained to declare, both to\nthe buyer and the seller, that he believed slave-keeping inconsistent\nwith the Christian religion.  This young man was John Woolman.  The\ncircumstance above named was the starting-point of a life-long testimony\nagainst slavery.  In the year 1746 he visited Maryland, Virginia, and\nNorth Carolina.  He was afflicted by the prevalence of slavery.  It\nappeared to him, in his own words, \"as a dark gloominess overhanging the\nland.\"  On his return, he wrote an essay on the subject, which was\npublished in 1754.  Three years after, he made a second visit to the\nSouthern meetings of Friends.  Travelling as a minister of the gospel, he\nwas compelled to sit down at the tables of slaveholding planters, who\nwere accustomed to entertain their friends free of cost, and who could\nnot comprehend the scruples of their guest against receiving as a gift\nfood and lodging which he regarded as the gain of oppression.  He was a\npoor man, but he loved truth more than money.  He therefore either placed\nthe pay for his entertainment in the hands of some member of the family,\nfor the benefit of the slaves, or gave it directly to them, as he had\nopportunity.  Wherever he went, he found his fellow-professors entangled\nin the mischief of slavery.  Elders and ministers, as well as the younger\nand less high in profession, had their house servants and field hands.\nHe found grave drab-coated apologists for the slave-trade, who quoted the\nsame Scriptures, in support of oppression and avarice, which have since\nbeen cited by Presbyterian doctors of divinity, Methodist bishops; and\nBaptist preachers for the same purpose.  He found the meetings generally\nin a low and evil state.  The gold of original Quakerism had become dim,\nand the fine gold changed.  The spirit of the world prevailed among them,\nand had wrought an inward desolation.  Instead of meekness, gentleness,\nand heavenly wisdom, he found \"a spirit of fierceness and love of\ndominion.\"\n\n     (The tradition is that he travelled mostly on foot during his\n     journeys among slaveholders.  Brissot, in his New Travels in\n     America, published in 1788, says: \"John Woolman, one of the most\n     distinguished of men in the cause of humanity, travelled much as a\n     minister of his sect, but always on foot, and without money, in\n     imitation of the Apostles, and in order to be in a situation to be\n     more useful to poor people and the blacks.  He hated slavery so much\n     that he could not taste food provided by the labor of slaves.\"  That\n     this writer was on one point misinformed is manifest from the\n     following passage from the Journal: \"When I expected soon to leave a\n     friend's house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I\n     should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving\n     money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and\n     desired them to accept of pieces of silver, and give them to such of\n     their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and\n     at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked\n     clearest to me.  Before I came out, I had provided a large number of\n     small pieces for this purpose, and thus offering them to some who\n     appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them.  But\n     the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made\n     easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment\n     at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of\n     them.\")\n\nIn love, but at the same time with great faithfulness, he endeavored to\nconvince the masters of their error, and to awaken a degree of sympathy\nfor the enslaved.\n\nAt this period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, a remarkable personage took\nup his residence in Pennsylvania.  He was by birthright a member of the\nSociety of Friends, but having been disowned in England for some\nextravagances of conduct and language, he spent several years in the West\nIndies, where he became deeply interested in the condition of the slaves.\nHis violent denunciations of the practice of slaveholding excited the\nanger of the planters, and he was compelled to leave the island.  He came\nto Philadelphia, but, contrary to his expectations, he found the same\nevil existing there.  He shook off the dust of the city, and took up his\nabode in the country, a few miles distant.  His dwelling was a natural\ncave, with some slight addition of his own making.  His drink was the\nspring-water flowing by his door; his food, vegetables alone.  He\npersistently refused to wear any garment or eat any food purchased at the\nexpense of animal life, or which was in any degree the product of slave\nlabor.  Issuing from his cave, on his mission of preaching \"deliverance\nto the captive,\" he was in the habit of visiting the various meetings for\nworship and bearing his testimony against slaveholders, greatly to their\ndisgust and indignation.  On one occasion he entered the Market Street\nMeeting, and a leading Friend requested some one to take him out.  A\nburly blacksmith volunteered to do it, leading him to the gate and\nthrusting him out with such force that he fell into the gutter of the\nstreet.  There he lay until the meeting closed, telling the bystanders\nthat he did not feel free to rise himself.  \"Let those who cast me here\nraise me up.  It is their business, not mine.\"\n\nHis personal appearance was in remarkable keeping with his eccentric\nlife.  A figure only four and a half feet high, hunchbacked, with\nprojecting chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer than his legs; a\nhuge head, showing only beneath the enormous white hat large, solemn eyes\nand a prominent nose; the rest of his face covered with a snowy\nsemicircle of beard falling low on his breast,--a figure to recall the\nold legends of troll, brownie, and kobold.  Such was the irrepressible\nprophet who troubled the Israel of slave-holding Quakerism, clinging like\na rough chestnut-bur to the skirts of its respectability, and settling\nlike a pertinacious gad-fly on the sore places of its conscience.\n\nOn one occasion, while the annual meeting was in session at Burlington,\nN. J., in the midst of the solemn silence of the great assembly, the\nunwelcome figure of Benjamin Lay, wrapped in his long white overcoat,\nwas seen passing up the aisle.  Stopping midway, he exclaimed, \"You\nslaveholders!  Why don't you throw off your Quaker coats as I do mine,\nand show yourselves as you are?\"  Casting off as he spoke his outer\ngarment, he disclosed to the astonished assembly a military coat\nunderneath and a sword dangling at his heels.  Holding in one hand a\nlarge book, he drew his sword with the other.  \"In the sight of God,\" he\ncried, \"you are as guilty as if you stabbed your slaves to the heart, as\nI do this book!\" suiting the action to the word, and piercing a small\nbladder filled with the juice of poke-weed (playtolacca decandra), which\nhe had concealed between the covers, and sprinkling as with fresh blood\nthose who sat near him.  John Woolman makes no mention of this\ncircumstance in his Journal, although he was probably present, and it\nmust have made a deep impression on his sensitive spirit.  The violence\nand harshness of Lay's testimony, however, had nothing in common with\nthe tender and sorrowful remonstrances and appeals of the former, except\nthe sympathy which they both felt for the slave himself.\n\n     (Lay was well acquainted with Dr. Franklin, who sometimes visited him.\n     Among other schemes of reform he entertained the idea of converting\n     all mankind to Christianity.  This was to be done by three\n     witnesses,--himself, Michael Lovell, and Abel Noble, assisted by Dr.\n     Franklin.  But on their first meeting at the Doctor's house, the\n     three \"chosen vessels\" got into a violent controversy on points of\n     doctrine, and separated in ill-humor.  The philosopher, who had been\n     an amused listener, advised the three sages to give up the project\n     of converting the world until they had learned to tolerate each\n     other.)\n\nStill later, a descendant of the persecuted French Protestants, Anthony\nBenezet, a man of uncommon tenderness of feeling, began to write and\nspeak against slavery.  How far, if at all, he was moved thereto by the\nexample of Woolman is not known, but it is certain that the latter found\nin him a steady friend and coadjutor in his efforts to awaken the\nslumbering moral sense of his religious brethren.  The Marquis de\nChastellux, author of _De la Felicite Publique_, describes him as a\nsmall, eager-faced man, full of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in\nworks of benevolence, which were by no means confined to the blacks.\nLike Woolman and Lay, he advocated abstinence from intoxicating spirits.\nThe poor French neutrals who were brought to Philadelphia from Nova\nScotia, and landed penniless and despairing among strangers in tongue and\nreligion, found in him a warm and untiring friend, through whose aid and\nsympathy their condition was rendered more comfortable than that of their\nfellow-exiles in other colonies.\n\nThe annual assemblage of the Yearly Meeting in 1758 at Philadelphia must\never be regarded as one of the most important religious convocations in\nthe history of the Christian church.  The labors of Woolman and his few\nbut earnest associates had not been in vain.  A deep and tender interest\nhad been awakened; and this meeting was looked forward to with varied\nfeelings of solicitude by all parties.  All felt that the time had come\nfor some definite action; conservative and reformer stood face to face in\nthe Valley of Decision.  John Woolman, of course, was present,--a man\nhumble and poor in outward appearance, his simple dress of undyed\nhomespun cloth contrasting strongly with the plain but rich apparel of\nthe representatives of the commerce of the city and of the large slave-\nstocked plantations of the country.  Bowed down by the weight of his\nconcern for the poor slaves and for the well-being and purity of the\nSociety, he sat silent during the whole meeting, while other matters were\nunder discussion.  \"My mind,\" he says, \"was frequently clothed with\ninward prayer; and I could say with David that 'tears were my meat and\ndrink, day and night.'  The case of slave-keeping lay heavy upon me; nor\ndid I find any engagement, to speak directly to any other matter before\nthe meeting.\"  When the important subject came up for consideration, many\nfaithful Friends spoke with weight and earnestness.  No one openly\njustified slavery as a system, although some expressed a concern lest the\nmeeting should go into measures calculated to cause uneasiness to many\nmembers of the Society.  It was also urged that Friends should wait\npatiently until the Lord in His own time should open a way for the\ndeliverance of the slave.  This was replied to by John Woolman.  \"My\nmind,\" he said, \"is led to consider the purity of the Divine Being, and\nthe justice of His judgments; and herein my soul is covered with\nawfulness.  I cannot forbear to hint of some cases where people have not\nbeen treated with the purity of justice, and the event has been most\nlamentable.  Many slaves on this continent are oppressed, and their cries\nhave entered into the ears of the Most High.  Such are the purity and\ncertainty of His judgments that He cannot be partial in our favor.  In\ninfinite love and goodness He hath opened our understandings from one\ntime to another, concerning our duty towards this people; and it is not a\ntime for delay.  Should we now be sensible of what He requires of us, and\nthrough a respect to the private interest of some persons, or through a\nregard to some friendships which do not stand upon an immutable\nfoundation, neglect to do our duty in firmness and constancy, still\nwaiting for some extraordinary means to bring about their deliverance,\nGod may by terrible things in righteousness answer us in this matter.\"\n\nThis solemn and weighty appeal was responded to by many in the assembly,\nin a spirit of sympathy and unity.  Some of the slave-holding members\nexpressed their willingness that a strict rule of discipline should be\nadopted against dealing in slaves for the future.  To this it was\nanswered that the root of the evil would never be reached effectually\nuntil a searching inquiry was made into the circumstances and motives of\nsuch as held slaves.  At length the truth in a great measure triumphed\nover all opposition; and, without any public dissent, the meeting agreed\nthat the injunction of our Lord and Saviour to do to others as we would\nthat others should do to us should induce Friends who held slaves \"to set\nthem at liberty, making a Christian provision for them,\" and four\nFriends--John Woolman, John Scarborough, Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes--\nwere approved of as suitable persons to visit and treat with such as kept\nslaves, within the limits of the meeting.\n\nThis painful and difficult duty was faithfully performed.  In that\nmeekness and humility of spirit which has nothing in common with the\n\"fear of man, which bringeth a snare,\" the self-denying followers of\ntheir Divine Lord and Master \"went about doing good.\"  In the city of\nPhiladelphia, and among the wealthy planters of the country, they found\noccasion often to exercise a great degree of patience, and to keep a\nwatchful guard over their feelings.  In his Journal for this important\nperiod of his life John Woolman says but little of his own services.  How\narduous and delicate they were may be readily understood.  The number of\nslaves held by members of the Society was very large.  Isaac Jackson, in\nhis report of his labors among slave-holders in a single Quarterly\nMeeting, states that he visited the owners of more than eleven hundred\nslaves.  From the same report may be gleaned some hints of the\ndifficulties which presented themselves.  One elderly man says he has\nwell brought up his eleven slaves, and \"now they must work to maintain\nhim.\"  Another owns it is all wrong, but \"cannot release his slaves; his\ntender wife under great concern of mind\" on account of his refusal.  A\nthird has fifty slaves; knows it to be wrong, but can't see his way clear\nout of it.  \"Perhaps,\" the report says, \"interest dims his vision.\"  A\nfourth is full of \"excuses and reasonings.\"  \"Old Jos. Richison has\nforty, and is determined to keep them.\"  Another man has fifty, and\n\"means to keep them.\"  Robert Ward \"wants to release his slaves, but his\nwife and daughters hold back.\"  Another \"owns it is wrong, but says he\nwill not part with his negroes,--no, not while he lives.\"  The far\ngreater number, however, confess the wrong of slavery, and agree to take\nmeasures for freeing their slaves.\n\n     (An incident occurred during this visit of Isaac Jackson which\n     impressed him deeply.  On the last evening, just as he was about to\n     turn homeward, he was told that a member of the Society whom he had\n     not seen owned a very old slave who was happy and well cared for.\n     It was a case which it was thought might well be left to take care\n     of itself.  Isaac Jackson, sitting in silence, did not feel his mind\n     quite satisfied; and as the evening wore away, feeling more and more\n     exercised, he expressed his uneasiness, when a young son of his host\n     eagerly offered to go with him and show him the road to the place.\n     The proposal was gladly accepted.  On introducing the object of\n     their visit, the Friend expressed much surprise that any uneasiness\n     should be felt in the case, but at length consented to sign the form\n     of emancipation, saying, at the same time, it would make no\n     difference in their relations, as the old man was perfectly happy.\n     At Isaac Jackson's request the slave was called in and seated before\n     them.  His form was nearly double, his thin hands were propped on\n     his knees, his white head was thrust forward, and his keen,\n     restless, inquiring eyes gleamed alternately on the stranger and on\n     his master.  At length he was informed of what had been done; that\n     he was no longer a slave, and that his master acknowledged his past\n     services entitled him to a maintenance so long as he lived.  The old\n     man listened in almost breathless wonder, his head slowly sinking on\n     his breast.  After a short pause, he clasped his hands; then\n     spreading them high over his hoary head, slowly and reverently\n     exclaimed, \"Oh, goody Gody, oh!\"--bringing his hands again down on\n     his knees.  Then raising them as before, he twice repeated the\n     solemn exclamation, and with streaming eyes and a voice almost too\n     much choked for utterance, he continued, \"I thought I should die a\n     slave, and now I shall die a free man!\"\n\n     It is a striking evidence of the divine compensations which are\n     sometimes graciously vouchsafed to those who have been faithful to\n     duty, that on his death-bed this affecting scene was vividly revived\n     in the mind of Isaac Jackson.  At that supreme moment, when all\n     other pictures of time were fading out, that old face, full of\n     solemn joy and devout thanksgiving, rose before him, and comforted\n     him as with the blessing of God.)\n\nAn extract or two from the Journal at this period will serve to show both\nthe nature of the service in which he was engaged and the frame of mind\nin which he accomplished it:--\n\n\"In the beginning of the 12th month I joined in company with my friends,\nJohn Sykes and Daniel Stanton, in visiting such as had slaves.  Some,\nwhose hearts were rightly exercised about them, appeared to be glad of\nour visit, but in some places our way was more difficult.  I often saw\nthe necessity of keeping down to that root from whence our concern\nproceeded, and have cause in reverent thankfulness humbly to bow down\nbefore the Lord who was near to me, and preserved my mind in calmness\nunder some sharp conflicts, and begat a spirit of sympathy and tenderness\nin me towards some who were grievously entangled by the spirit of this\nworld.\"\n\n\"1st month, 1759.--Having found my mind drawn to visit some of the more\nactive members of society at Philadelphia who had slaves, I met my friend\nJohn Churchman there by agreement, and we continued about a week in the\ncity.  We visited some that were sick, and some widows and their\nfamilies; and the other part of the time was mostly employed in visiting\nsuch as had slaves. It was a time of deep exercise; but looking often to\nthe Lord for assistance, He in unspeakable kindness favored us with the\ninfluence of that spirit which crucifies to the greatness and splendor of\nthis world, and enabled us to go through some heavy labors, in which we\nfound peace.\"\n\nThese labors were attended with the blessing of the God of the poor and\noppressed.  Dealing in slaves was almost entirely abandoned, and many who\nheld slaves set them at liberty.  But many members still continuing the\npractice, a more emphatic testimony against it was issued by the Yearly\nMeeting in 1774; and two years after the subordinate meetings were\ndirected to deny the right of membership to such as persisted in holding\ntheir fellow-men as property.\n\nA concern was now felt for the temporal and religious welfare of the\nemancipated slaves, and in 1779 the Yearly Meeting came to the conclusion\nthat some reparation was due from the masters to their former slaves for\nservices rendered while in the condition of slavery.  The following is an\nextract from an epistle on this subject:\n\n\"We are united in judgment that the state of the oppressed people who\nhave been held by any of us, or our predecessors, in captivity and\nslavery, calls for a deep inquiry and close examination how far we are\nclear of withholding from them what under such an exercise may open to\nview as their just right; and therefore we earnestly and affectionately\nentreat our brethren in religious profession to bring this matter home,\nand that all who have let the oppressed go free may attend to the further\nopenings of duty.\n\n\"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of many\nwho are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously\nconsidered the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people\nhave long labored; and whether a pious care extended to their offspring\nis not justly due from us to them is a consideration worthy our serious\nand deep attention.\"\n\nCommittees to aid and advise the colored people were accordingly\nappointed in the various Monthly Meetings.  Many former owners of slaves\nfaithfully paid the latter for their services, submitting to the award\nand judgment of arbitrators as to what justice required at their hands.\nSo deeply had the sense of the wrong of slavery sunk into the hearts of\nFriends!\n\nJohn Woolman, in his Journal for 1769, states, that having some years\nbefore, as one of the executors of a will, disposed of the services of a\nnegro boy belonging to the estate until he should reach the age of thirty\nyears, he became uneasy in respect to the transaction, and, although he\nhad himself derived no pecuniary benefit from it, and had simply acted as\nthe agent of the heirs of the estate to which the boy belonged, he\nexecuted a bond, binding himself to pay the master of the young man for\nfour years and a half of his unexpired term of service.\n\nThe appalling magnitude of the evil against which he felt himself\nespecially called to contend was painfully manifest to John Woolman.  At\nthe outset, all about him, in every department of life and human\nactivity, in the state and the church, he saw evidences of its strength,\nand of the depth and extent to which its roots had wound their way among\nthe foundations of society.  Yet he seems never to have doubted for a\nmoment the power of simple truth to eradicate it, nor to have hesitated\nas to his own duty in regard to it.  There was no groping like Samson in\nthe gloom; no feeling in blind wrath and impatience for the pillars of\nthe temple of Dagon.  \"The candle of the Lord shone about him,\" and his\npath lay clear and unmistakable before him.  He believed in the goodness\nof God that leadeth to repentance; and that love could reach the witness\nfor itself in the hearts of all men, through all entanglements of custom\nand every barrier of pride and selfishness.  No one could have a more\nhumble estimate of himself; but as he went forth on his errand of mercy\nhe felt the Infinite Power behind him, and the consciousness that he had\nknown a preparation from that Power \"to stand as a trumpet through which\nthe Lord speaks.\"  The event justified his confidence; wherever he went\nhard hearts were softened, avarice and love of power and pride of opinion\ngave way before his testimony of love.\n\nThe New England Yearly Meeting then, as now, was held in Newport, on\nRhode Island.  In the year 1760 John Woolman, in the course of a\nreligious visit to New England, attended that meeting.  He saw the\nhorrible traffic in human beings,--the slave-ships lying at the wharves\nof the town, the sellers and buyers of men and women and children\nthronging the market-place.  The same abhorrent scenes which a few years\nafter stirred the spirit of the excellent Hopkins to denounce the slave-\ntrade and slavery as hateful in the sight of God to his congregation at\nNewport were enacted in the full view and hearing of the annual\nconvocation of Friends, many of whom were themselves partakers in the\nshame and wickedness.  \"Understanding,\" he says, \"that a large number of\nslaves had been imported from Africa into the town, and were then on sale\nby a member of our Society, my appetite failed; I grew outwardly weak,\nand had a feeling of the condition of Habakkuk: 'When I heard, my belly\ntrembled, my lips quivered; I trembled in myself, that I might rest in\nthe day of trouble.'  I had many cogitations, and was sorely distressed.\"\nHe prepared a memorial to the Legislature, then in session, for the\nsignatures of Friends, urging that body to take measures to put an end to\nthe importation of slaves.  His labors in the Yearly Meeting appear to\nhave been owned and blessed by the Divine Head of the church.  The London\nEpistle for 1758, condemning the unrighteous traffic in men, was read,\nand the substance of it embodied in the discipline of the meeting; and\nthe following query was adopted, to be answered by the subordinate\nmeetings:--\n\n\"Are Friends clear of importing negroes, or buying them when imported;\nand do they use those well, where they are possessed by inheritance or\notherwise, endeavoring to train them up in principles of religion?\"\n\nAt the close of the Yearly Meeting, John Woolman requested those members\nof the Society who held slaves to meet with him in the chamber of the\nhouse for worship, where he expressed his concern for the well-being of\nthe slaves, and his sense of the iniquity of the practice of dealing in\nor holding them as property.  His tender exhortations were not lost upon\nhis auditors; his remarks were kindly received, and the gentle and loving\nspirit in which they were offered reached many hearts.\n\nIn 1769, at the suggestion of the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, the\nYearly Meeting expressed its sense of the wrongfulness of holding slaves,\nand appointed a large committee to visit those members who were\nimplicated in the practice.  The next year this committee reported that\nthey had completed their service, \"and that their visits mostly seemed to\nbe kindly accepted.  Some Friends manifested a disposition to set such at\nliberty as were suitable; some others, not having so clear a sight of\nsuch an unreasonable servitude as could be desired, were unwilling to\ncomply with the advice given them at present, yet seemed willing to take\nit into consideration; a few others manifested a disposition to keep them\nin continued bondage.\"\n\nIt was stated in the Epistle to London Yearly Meeting of the year 1772,\nthat a few Friends had freed their slaves from bondage, but that others\n\"have been so reluctant thereto that they have been disowned for not\ncomplying with the advice of this meeting.\"\n\nIn 1773 the following minute was made: \"It is our sense and judgment that\ntruth not only requires the young of capacity and ability, but likewise\nthe aged and impotent, and also all in a state of infancy and nonage,\namong Friends, to be discharged and set free from a state of slavery,\nthat we do no more claim property in the human race, as we do in the\nbrutes that perish.\"\n\nIn 1782 no slaves were known to be held in the New England Yearly\nMeeting.  The next year it was recommended to the subordinate meetings to\nappoint committees to effect a proper and just settlement between the\nmanumitted slaves and their former masters, for their past services.  In\n1784 it was concluded by the Yearly Meeting that any former slave-holder\nwho refused to comply with the award of these committees should, after\ndue care and labor with him, be disowned from the Society.  This was\neffectual; settlements without disownment were made to the satisfaction\nof all parties, and every case was disposed of previous to the year 1787.\n\nIn the New York Yearly Meeting, slave-trading was prohibited about the\nmiddle of the last century.  In 1771, in consequence of an Epistle from\nthe Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a committee was appointed to visit those\nwho held slaves, and to advise with them in relation to emancipation.  In\n1776 it was made a disciplinary offence to buy, sell, or hold slaves upon\nany condition.  In 1784 but one slave was to be found in the limits of\nthe meeting.  In the same year, by answers from the several subordinate\nmeetings, it was ascertained that an equitable settlement for past\nservices had been effected between the emancipated negroes and their\nmasters in all save three cases.\n\nIn the Virginia Yearly Meeting slavery had its strongest hold.  Its\nmembers, living in the midst of slave-holding communities, were\nnecessarily exposed to influences adverse to emancipation.  I have\nalready alluded to the epistle addressed to them by William Edmondson,\nand to the labors of John Woolman while travelling among them.  In 1757\nthe Virginia Yearly Meeting condemned the foreign slave-trade.  In 1764\nit enjoined upon its members the duty of kindness towards their servants,\nof educating them, and carefully providing for their food and clothing.\nFour years after, its members were strictly prohibited from purchasing\nany more slaves.  In 1773 it earnestly recommended the immediate\nmanumission of all slaves held in bondage, after the females had reached\neighteen and the males twenty-one years of age.  At the same time it was\nadvised that committees should be appointed for the purpose of\ninstructing the emancipated persons in the principles of morality and\nreligion, and for advising and aiding them in their temporal concerns.\n\nI quote a single paragraph from the advice sent down to the subordinate\nmeetings, as a beautiful manifestation of the fruits of true repentance:--\n\n\"It is the solid sense of this meeting, that we of the present generation\nare under strong obligations to express our love and concern for the\noffspring of those people who by their labors have greatly contributed\ntowards the cultivation of these colonies under the afflictive\ndisadvantage of enduring a hard bondage, and the benefit of whose toil\nmany among us are enjoying.\"\n\nIn 1784, the different Quarterly Meetings having reported that many still\nheld slaves, notwithstanding the advice and entreaties of their friends,\nthe Yearly Meeting directed that where endeavors to convince those\noffenders of their error proved ineffectual, the Monthly Meetings should\nproceed to disown them.  We have no means of ascertaining the precise\nnumber of those actually disowned for slave-holding in the Virginia\nYearly Meeting, but it is well known to have been very small.  In almost\nall cases the care and assiduous labors of those who had the welfare of\nthe Society and of humanity at heart were successful in inducing\noffenders to manumit their slaves, and confess their error in resisting\nthe wishes of their friends and bringing reproach upon the cause of\ntruth.\n\nSo ended slavery in the Society of Friends.  For three quarters of a\ncentury the advice put forth in the meetings of the Society at stated\nintervals, that Friends should be \"careful to maintain their testimony\nagainst slavery,\" has been adhered to so far as owning, or even hiring, a\nslave is concerned.  Apart from its first-fruits of emancipation, there\nis a perennial value in the example exhibited of the power of truth,\nurged patiently and in earnest love, to overcome the difficulties in the\nway of the eradication of an evil system, strengthened by long habit,\nentangled with all the complex relations of society, and closely allied\nwith the love of power, the pride of family, and the lust of gain.\n\nThe influence of the life and labors of John Woolman has by no means been\nconfined to the religious society of which he was a member.  It may be\ntraced wherever a step in the direction of emancipation has been taken in\nthis country or in Europe.  During the war of the Revolution many of the\nnoblemen and officers connected with the French army became, as their\njournals abundantly testify, deeply interested in the Society of Friends,\nand took back to France with them something of its growing anti-slavery\nsentiment.  Especially was this the case with Jean Pierre Brissot, the\nthinker and statesman of the Girondists, whose intimacy with Warner\nMifflin, a friend and disciple of Woolman, so profoundly affected his\nwhole after life.  He became the leader of the \"Friends of the Blacks,\"\nand carried with him to the scaffold a profound hatred, of slavery.  To\nhis efforts may be traced the proclamation of emancipation in Hayti by\nthe commissioners of the French convention, and indirectly the subsequent\nuprising of the blacks and their successful establishment of a free\ngovernment.  The same influence reached Thomas Clarkson and stimulated\nhis early efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade; and in after life\nthe volume of the New Jersey Quaker was the cherished companion of\nhimself and his amiable helpmate.  It was in a degree, at least, the\ninfluence of Stephen Grellet and William Allen, men deeply imbued with\nthe spirit of Woolman, and upon whom it might almost be said his mantle\nhad fallen, that drew the attention of Alexander I. of Russia to the\nimportance of taking measures for the abolition of serfdom, an object the\naccomplishment of which the wars during his reign prevented, but which,\nleft as a legacy of duty, has been peaceably effected by his namesake,\nAlexander II.  In the history of emancipation in our own country\nevidences of the same original impulse of humanity are not wanting.  In\n1790 memorials against slavery from the Society of Friends were laid\nbefore the first Congress of the United States.  Not content with\nclearing their own skirts of the evil, the Friends of that day took an\nactive part in the formation of the abolition societies of New England,\nNew York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.  Jacob Lindley, Elisha\nTyson, Warner Mifflin, James Pemberton, and other leading Friends were\nknown throughout the country as unflinching champions of freedom.  One of\nthe earliest of the class known as modern abolitionists was Benjamin\nLundy, a pupil in the school of Woolman, through whom William Lloyd\nGarrison became interested in the great work to which his life has been\nso faithfully and nobly devoted.  Looking back to the humble workshop at\nMount Holly from the stand-point of the Proclamation of President\nLincoln, how has the seed sown in weakness been raised up in power!\n\nThe larger portion of Woolman's writings is devoted to the subjects of\nslavery, uncompensated labor, and the excessive toil and suffering of the\nmany to support the luxury of the few.  The argument running through them\nis searching, and in its conclusions uncompromising, but a tender love\nfor the wrong-doer as well as the sufferer underlies all.  They aim to\nconvince the judgment and reach the heart without awakening prejudice and\npassion.  To the slave-holders of his time they must have seemed like the\nvoice of conscience speaking to them in the cool of the day.  One feels,\nin reading them, the tenderness and humility of a nature redeemed from\nall pride of opinion and self-righteousness, sinking itself out of sight,\nand intent only upon rendering smaller the sum of human sorrow and sin by\ndrawing men nearer to God, and to each other.  The style is that of a man\nunlettered, but with natural refinement and delicate sense of fitness,\nthe purity of whose heart enters into his language.  There is no attempt\nat fine writing, not a word or phrase for effect; it is the simple\nunadorned diction of one to whom the temptations of the pen seem to have\nbeen wholly unknown.  He wrote, as he believed, from an inward spiritual\nprompting; and with all his unaffected humility he evidently felt that\nhis work was done in the clear radiance of\n\n          \"The light which never was on land or sea.\"\n\nIt was not for him to outrun his Guide, or, as Sir Thomas Browne\nexpresses it, to \"order the finger of the Almighty to His will and\npleasure, but to sit still under the soft showers of Providence.\"  Very\nwise are these essays, but their wisdom is not altogether that of this\nworld.  They lead one away from all the jealousies, strifes, and\ncompetitions of luxury, fashion, and gain, out of the close air of\nparties and sects, into a region of calmness,--\n\n                               \"The haunt\n          Of every gentle wind whose breath can teach\n          The wild to love tranquillity,\"--\n\na quiet habitation where all things are ordered in what he calls \"the\npure reason;\" a rest from all self-seeking, and where no man's interest\nor activity conflicts with that of another.  Beauty they certainly have,\nbut it is not that which the rules of art recognize; a certain\nindefinable purity pervades them, making one sensible, as he reads, of a\nsweetness as of violets.  \"The secret of Woolman's purity of style,\" said\nDr. Channing, \"is that his eye was single, and that conscience dictated\nhis words.\"\n\nOf course we are not to look to the writings of such a man for tricks of\nrhetoric, the free play of imagination, or the unscrupulousness of\nepigram and antithesis.  He wrote as he lived, conscious of \"the great\nTask-master's eye.\"  With the wise heathen Marcus Aurelius Antoninus he\nhad learned to \"wipe out imaginations, to check desire, and let the\nspirit that is the gift of God to every man, as his guardian and guide,\nbear rule.\"\n\nI have thought it inexpedient to swell the bulk of this volume with the\nentire writings appended to the old edition of the Journal, inasmuch as\nthey mainly refer to a system which happily on this continent is no\nlonger a question at issue.  I content myself with throwing together a\nfew passages from them which touch subjects of present interest.\n\n\"Selfish men may possess the earth: it is the meek alone who inherit it\nfrom the Heavenly Father free from all defilements and perplexities of\nunrighteousness.\"\n\n\"Whoever rightly advocates the cause of some thereby promotes the good of\nthe whole.\"\n\n\"If one suffer by the unfaithfulness of another, the mind, the most noble\npart of him that occasions the discord, is thereby alienated from its\ntrue happiness.\"\n\n\"There is harmony in the several parts of the Divine work in the hearts\nof men.  He who leads them to cease from those gainful employments which\nare carried on in the wisdom which is from beneath delivers also from the\ndesire of worldly greatness, and reconciles to a life so plain that a\nlittle suffices.\"\n\n\"After days and nights of drought, when the sky hath grown dark, and\nclouds like lakes of water have hung over our heads, I have at times\nbeheld with awfulness the vehement lightning accompanying the blessings\nof the rain, a messenger from Him to remind us of our duty in a right use\nof His benefits.\"\n\n\"The marks of famine in a land appear as humbling admonitions from God,\ninstructing us by gentle chastisements, that we may remember that the\noutward supply of life is a gift from our Heavenly Father, and that we\nshould not venture to use or apply that gift in a way contrary to pure\nreason.\"\n\n\"Oppression in the extreme appears terrible; but oppression in more\nrefined appearances remains to be oppression.  To labor for a perfect\nredemption from the spirit of it is the great business of the whole\nfamily of Jesus Christ in this world.\"\n\n\"In the obedience of faith we die to self-love, and, our life being 'hid\nwith Christ in God,' our hearts are enlarged towards mankind universally;\nbut many in striving to get treasures have departed from this true light\nof life and stumbled on the dark mountains.  That purity of life which\nproceeds from faithfulness in following the pure spirit of truth, that\nstate in which our minds are devoted to serve God and all our wants are\nbounded by His wisdom, has often been opened to me as a place of\nretirement for the children of the light, in which we may be separated\nfrom that which disordereth and confuseth the affairs of society, and may\nhave a testimony for our innocence in the hearts of those who behold us.\"\n\n\"There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in\ndifferent places and ages bath had different names; it is, however, pure,\nand proceeds from God.  It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of\nreligion nor excluded from any, when the heart stands in perfect\nsincerity.  In whomsoever this takes root and grows, they become\nbrethren.\"\n\n\"The necessity of an inward stillness hath appeared clear to my mind.  In\ntrue silence strength is renewed, and the mind is weaned from all things,\nsave as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will; and a lowliness in\noutward living, opposite to worldly honor, becomes truly acceptable to\nus.  In the desire after outward gain the mind is prevented from a\nperfect attention to the voice of Christ; yet being weaned from all\nthings, except as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will, the pure light\nshines into the soul.  Where the fruits of the spirit which is of this\nworld are brought forth by many who profess to be led by the Spirit of\ntruth, and cloudiness is felt to be gathering over the visible church,\nthe sincere in heart, who abide in true stillness, and are exercised\ntherein before the Lord for His name's sake, have knowledge of Christ in\nthe fellowship of His sufferings; and inward thankfulness is felt at\ntimes, that through Divine love our own wisdom is cast out, and that\nforward, active part in us is subjected, which would rise and do\nsomething without the pure leadings of the spirit of Christ.\n\n\"While aught remains in us contrary to a perfect resignation of our\nwills, it is like a seal to the book wherein is written 'that good and\nacceptable and perfect will of God' concerning us.  But when our minds\nentirely yield to Christ, that silence is known which followeth the\nopening of the last of the seals.  In this silence we learn to abide in\nthe Divine will, and there feel that we have no cause to promote except\nthat alone in which the light of life directs us.\"\n\nOccasionally, in Considerations on the Keeping of? Negroes, the intense\ninterest of his subject gives his language something of passionate\nelevation, as in the following extract:--\n\n\"When trade is carried on productive of much misery, and they who suffer\nby it are many thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not\nlaying their sufferings to heart.  In procuring slaves on the coast of\nAfrica, many children are stolen privately; wars are encouraged among the\nnegroes, but all is at a great distance.  Many groans arise from dying\nmen which we hear not.  Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless\nchildren which reach not our ears.  Many cheeks are wet with tears, and\nfaces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not.  Cruel tyranny is\nencouraged.  The hands of robbers are strengthened.\n\n\"Were we, for the term of one year only, to be eye-witnesses of what\npasseth in getting these slaves; were the blood that is there shed to be\nsprinkled on our garments; were the poor captives, bound with thongs, and\nheavily laden with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes on their way\nto the sea; were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to ring in our\nears, and their mournful cries in the night to hinder us from sleeping,--\nwere we to behold and hear these things, what pious heart would not be\ndeeply affected with sorrow!\"\n\n\"It is good for those who live in fulness to cultivate tenderness of\nheart, and to improve every opportunity of being acquainted with the\nhardships and fatigues of those who labor for their living, and thus to\nthink seriously with themselves: Am I influenced by true charity in\nfixing all my demands?  Have I no desire to support myself in expensive\ncustoms, because my acquaintances live in such customs?\n\n\"If a wealthy man, on serious reflection, finds a witness in his own\nconscience that he indulges himself in some expensive habits, which might\nbe omitted, consistently with the true design of living, and which, were\nhe to change places with those who occupy his estate, he would desire to\nbe discontinued by them,--whoever is thus awakened will necessarily find\nthe injunction binding, 'Do ye even so to them.'  Divine Love imposeth no\nrigorous or unreasonable commands, but graciously points out the spirit\nof brotherhood and the way to happiness, in attaining which it is\nnecessary that we relinquish all that is selfish.\n\n\"Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all His creatures; His\ntender mercies are over all His works, and so far as true love influences\nour minds, so far we become interested in His workmanship, and feel a\ndesire to make use of every opportunity to lessen the distresses of the\nafflicted, and to increase the happiness of the creation.  Here we have a\nprospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, so\nthat to turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes\nthe business of our lives.\"\n\nHis liberality and freedom from \"all narrowness as to sects and opinions\"\nare manifest in the following passages:--\n\n\"Men who sincerely apply their minds to true virtue, and find an inward\nsupport from above, by which all vicious inclinations are made subject;\nwho love God sincerely, and prefer the real good of mankind universally\nto their own private interest,--though these, through the strength of\neducation and tradition, may remain under some great speculative errors,\nit would be uncharitable to say that therefore God rejects them.  The\nknowledge and goodness of Him who creates, supports, and gives\nunderstanding to all men are superior to the various states and\ncircumstances of His creatures, which to us appear the most difficult.\nIdolatry indeed is wickedness; but it is the thing, not the name, which\nis so.  Real idolatry is to pay that adoration to a creature which is\nknown to be due only to the true God.\n\n\"He who professeth to believe in one Almighty Creator, and in His Son\nJesus Christ, and is yet more intent on the honors, profits, and\nfriendships of the world than he is, in singleness of heart, to stand\nfaithful to the Christian religion, is in the channel of idolatry; while\nthe Gentile, who, notwithstanding some mistaken opinions, is established\nin the true principle of virtue, and humbly adores an Almighty Power, may\nbe of the number that fear God and work righteousness.\"\n\nNowhere has what is called the \"Labor Question,\" which is now agitating\nthe world, been discussed more wisely and with a broader humanity than in\nthese essays.  His sympathies were with the poor man, yet the rich too\nare his brethren, and he warns them in love and pity of the consequences\nof luxury and oppression:--\n\n\"Every degree of luxury, every demand for money inconsistent with the\nDivine order, hath connection with unnecessary labors.\"\n\n\"To treasure up wealth for another generation, by means of the immoderate\nlabor of those who in some measure depend upon us, is doing evil at\npresent, without knowing that wealth thus gathered may not be applied to\nevil purposes when we are gone.  To labor hard, or cause others to do so,\nthat we may live conformably to customs which our Redeemer\ndiscountenanced by His example, and which are contrary to Divine order,\nis to manure a soil for propagating an evil seed in the earth.\"\n\n\"When house is joined to house, and field laid to field, until there is\nno place, and the poor are thereby straitened, though this is done by\nbargain and purchase, yet so far as it stands distinguished from\nuniversal love, so far that woe predicted by the prophet will accompany\ntheir proceedings.  As He who first founded the earth was then the true\nproprietor of it, so He still remains, and though He hath given it to the\nchildren of men, so that multitudes of people have had their sustenance\nfrom it while they continued here, yet He bath never alienated it, but\nHis right is as good as at first; nor can any apply the increase of their\npossessions contrary to universal love, nor dispose of lands in a way\nwhich they know tends to exalt some by oppressing others, without being\njustly chargeable with usurpation.\"\n\nIt will not lessen the value of the foregoing extracts in the minds of\nthe true-disciples of our Divine Lord, that they are manifestly not\nwritten to subserve the interests of a narrow sectarianism.  They might\nhave been penned by Fenelon in his time, or Robertson in ours, dealing as\nthey do with Christian practice,--the life of Christ manifesting itself\nin purity and goodness,--rather than with the dogmas of theology.  The\nunderlying thought of all is simple obedience to the Divine word in the\nsoul.  \"Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the\nkingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven.\"\nIn the preface to an English edition, published some years ago, it is\nintimated that objections had been raised to the Journal on the ground\nthat it had so little to say of doctrines and so much of duties.  One may\neasily understand that this objection might have been forcibly felt by\nthe slave-holding religious professors of Woolman's day, and that it may\nstill be entertained by a class of persons who, like the Cabalists,\nattach a certain mystical significance to words, names, and titles, and\nwho in consequence question the piety which hesitates to flatter the\nDivine ear by \"vain repetitions\" and formal enumeration of sacred\nattributes, dignities, and offices.  Every instinct of his tenderly\nsensitive nature shrank from the wordy irreverence of noisy profession.\nHis very silence is significant: the husks of emptiness rustle in every\nwind; the full corn in the ear holds up its golden fruit noiselessly to\nthe Lord of the harvest.  John Woolman's faith, like the Apostle's, is\nmanifested by his labors, standing not in words but in the demonstration\nof the spirit,--a faith that works by love to the purifying of the heart.\nThe entire outcome of this faith was love manifested in reverent waiting\nupon God, and in that untiring benevolence, that quiet but deep\nenthusiasm of humanity, which made his daily service to his fellow-\ncreatures a hymn of praise to the common Father.\n\nHowever the intellect may criticise such a life, whatever defects it may\npresent to the trained eyes of theological adepts, the heart has no\nquestions to ask, but at once owns and reveres it.  Shall we regret that\nhe who had so entered into fellowship of suffering with the Divine One,\nwalking with Him under the cross, and dying daily to self, gave to the\nfaith and hope that were in him this testimony of a life, rather than any\nform of words, however sound?  A true life is at once interpreter and\nproof of the gospel, and does more to establish its truth in the hearts\nof men than all the \"Evidences\" and \"Bodies of Divinity\" which have\nperplexed the world with more doubts than they solved.  Shall we venture\nto account it a defect in his Christian character, that, under an abiding\nsense of the goodness and long-suffering of God, he wrought his work in\ngentleness and compassion, with the delicate tenderness which comes of a\ndeep sympathy with the trials and weaknesses of our nature, never\nallowing himself to indulge in heat or violence, persuading rather than\nthreatening?  Did he overestimate that immeasurable Love, the\nmanifestation of which in his own heart so reached the hearts of others,\nrevealing everywhere unsuspected fountains of feeling and secret longings\nafter purity, as the rod of the diviner detects sweet, cool water-springs\nunder the parched surfaces of a thirsty land?  And, looking at the\npurity, wisdom, and sweetness of his life, who shall say that his faith\nin the teaching of the Holy Spirit--the interior guide and light--was a\nmistaken one?  Surely it was no illusion by which his feet were so guided\nthat all who saw him felt that, like Enoch, he walked with God.  \"Without\nthe actual inspiration of the Spirit of Grace, the inward teacher and\nsoul of our souls,\" says Fenelon, \"we could neither do, will, nor believe\ngood.  We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves also, to\nhear in a profound stillness of the soul this inexpressible voice of\nChrist.  The outward word of the gospel itself without this living\nefficacious word within would be but an empty sound.\"  \"Thou Lord,\" says\nAugustine in his Meditations, \"communicatest thyself to all: thou\nteachest the heart without words; thou speakest to it without articulate\nsounds.\"\n\n     \"However, I am sure that there is a common spirit that plays within\n     us, and that is the Spirit of God.  Whoever feels not the warm gale\n     and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, I dare not say he lives; for\n     truly without this to me there is no heat under the tropic, nor any\n     light though I dwelt in the body of the sun.\"--Sir Thomas Browne's\n     Religio Medici.\n\nNever was this divine principle more fully tested than by John Wool man;\nand the result is seen in a life of such rare excellence that the world\nis still better and richer for its sake, and the fragrance of it comes\ndown to us through a century, still sweet and precious.\n\nIt will be noted throughout the Journal and essays that in his lifelong\ntestimony against wrong he never lost sight of the oneness of humanity,\nits common responsibility, its fellowship of suffering and communion of\nsin.  Few have ever had so profound a conviction of the truth of the\nApostle's declaration that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself.\nSin was not to him an isolated fact, the responsibility of which began\nand ended with the individual transgressor; he saw it as a part of a vast\nnetwork and entanglement, and traced the lines of influence converging\nupon it in the underworld of causation.  Hence the wrong and discord\nwhich pained him called out pity, rather than indignation.  The first\ninquiry which they awakened was addressed to his own conscience.  How far\nam I in thought, word, custom, responsible for this?  Have none of my\nfellow-creatures an equitable right to any part which is called mine?\nHave the gifts and possessions received by me from others been conveyed\nin a way free from all unrighteousness?  \"Through abiding in the law of\nChrist,\" he says, \"we feel a tenderness towards our fellow-creatures, and\na concern so to walk that our conduct may not be the means of\nstrengthening them in error.\"  He constantly recurs to the importance of\na right example in those who profess to be led by the spirit of Christ,\nand who attempt to labor in His name for the benefit of their fellow-men.\nIf such neglect or refuse themselves to act rightly, they can but\n\"entangle the minds of others and draw a veil over the face of\nrighteousness.\"  His eyes were anointed to see the common point of\ndeparture from the Divine harmony, and that all the varied growths of\nevil had their underlying root in human selfishness.  He saw that every\nsin of the individual was shared in greater or less degree by all whose\nlives were opposed to the Divine order, and that pride, luxury, and\navarice in one class gave motive and temptation to the grosser forms of\nevil in another.  How gentle, and yet how searching, are his rebukes of\nself-complacent respectability, holding it responsible, in spite of all\nits decent seemings, for much of the depravity which it condemned with\nPharisaical harshness!  In his Considerations on the True Harmony of\nMankind be dwells with great earnestness upon the importance of\npossessing \"the mind of Christ,\" which removes from the heart the desire\nof superiority and worldly honors, incites attention to the Divine\nCounsellor, and awakens an ardent engagement to promote the happiness of\nall.  \"This state,\" he says, \"in which every motion from the selfish\nspirit yieldeth to pure love, I may acknowledge with gratitude to the\nFather of Mercies, is often opened before me as a pearl to seek after.\"\n\nAt times when I have felt true love open my heart towards my fellow-\ncreatures, and have been engaged in weighty conversation in the cause of\nrighteousness, the instructions I have received under these exercises in\nregard to the true use of the outward gifts of God have made deep and\nlasting impressions on my mind.  I have beheld how the desire to provide\nwealth and to uphold a delicate life has greviously entangled many, and\nhas been like a snare to their offspring; and though some have been\naffected with a sense of their difficulties, and have appeared desirous\nat times to be helped out of them, yet for want of abiding under the\nhumbling power of truth they have continued in these entanglements;\nexpensive living in parents and children hath called for a large supply,\nand in answering this call the 'faces of the poor' have been ground away,\nand made thin through hard dealing.\n\n\"There is balm; there is a physician! and oh what longings do I feel that\nwe may embrace the means appointed for our healing; may know that removed\nwhich now ministers cause for the cries of many to ascend to Heaven\nagainst their oppressors; and that thus we may see the true harmony\nrestored!--a restoration of that which was lost at Babel, and which will\nbe, as the prophet expresses it, 'the returning of a pure language!'\"\n\nIt is easy to conceive how unwelcome this clear spiritual insight must\nhave been to the superficial professors of his time busy in tithing mint,\nanise, and cummin.  There must have been something awful in the presence\nof one endowed with the gift of looking through all the forms, shows, and\npretensions of society, and detecting with certainty the germs of evil\nhidden beneath them; a man gentle and full of compassion, clothed in \"the\nirresistible might of meekness,\" and yet so wise in spiritual\ndiscernment,\n\n          \"Bearing a touchstone in his hand\n          And testing all things in the land\n          By his unerring spell.\n\n          \"Quick births of transmutation smote\n          The fair to foul, the foul to fair;\n          Purple nor ermine did he spare,\n          Nor scorn the dusty coat.\"\n\nIn bringing to a close this paper, the preparation of which has been to\nme a labor of love, I am not unmindful of the wide difference between the\nappreciation of a pure and true life and the living of it, and am willing\nto own that in delineating a character of such moral and spiritual\nsymmetry I have felt something like rebuke from my own words.  I have\nbeen awed and solemnized by the presence of a serene and beautiful spirit\nredeemed of the Lord from all selfishness, and I have been made thankful\nfor the ability to recognize and the disposition to love him.  I leave\nthe book with its readers.  They may possibly make large deductions from\nmy estimate of the author; they may not see the importance of all his\nself-denying testimonies; they may question some of his scruples, and\nsmile over passages of childlike simplicity; but I believe they will all\nagree in thanking me for introducing them to the Journal of John Woolman.\n\nAMESBURY, 20th 1st mo.,1871.\n\n\n\n\nHAVERFORD COLLEGE.\n\n                 Letter to President Thomas Chase, LL. D.\n\n                         AMESBURY, MASS., 9th mo., 1884.\n\nTHE Semi-Centennial of Haverford College is an event that no member of\nthe Society of Friends can regard without deep interest.  It would give\nme great pleasure to be with you on the 27th inst., but the years rest\nheavily upon me, and I have scarcely health or strength for such a\njourney.\n\nIt was my privilege to visit Haverford in 1838, in \"the day of small\nbeginnings.\"  The promise of usefulness which it then gave has been more\nthan fulfilled.  It has grown to be a great and well-established\ninstitution, and its influence in thorough education and moral training\nhas been widely felt.  If the high educational standard presented in the\nscholastic treatise of Barclay and the moral philosophy of Dymond has\nbeen lowered or disowned by many who, still retaining the name of\nQuakerism, have lost faith in the vital principle wherein precious\ntestimonials of practical righteousness have their root, and have gone\nback to a dead literalness, and to those materialistic ceremonials for\nleaving which our old confessors suffered bonds and death, Haverford, at\nleast, has been in a good degree faithful to the trust committed to it.\n\nUnder circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty, it has endeavored\nto maintain the Great Testimony.  The spirit of its culture has not been\na narrow one, nor could it be, if true to the broad and catholic\nprinciples of the eminent worthies who founded the State of\nPennsylvania, Penn, Lloyd, Pastorius, Logan, and Story; men who were\nmasters of the scientific knowledge and culture of their age, hospitable\nto all truth, and open to all light, and who in some instances\nanticipated the result of modern research and critical inquiry.\n\nIt was Thomas Story, a minister of the Society of Friends, and member of\nPenn's Council of State, who, while on a religious visit to England,\nwrote to James Logan that he had read on the stratified rocks of\nScarborough, as from the finger of God, proofs of the immeasurable age\nof our planet, and that the \"days\" of the letter of Scripture could\nonly mean vast spaces of time.\n\nMay Haverford emulate the example of these brave but reverent men, who,\nin investigating nature, never lost sight of the Divine Ideal, and who,\nto use the words of Fenelon, \"Silenced themselves to hear in the\nstillness of their souls the inexpressible voice of Christ.\"  Holding\nfast the mighty truth of the Divine Immanence, the Inward Light and\nWord, a Quaker college can have no occasion to renew the disastrous\nquarrel of religion with science.  Against the sublime faith which shall\nyet dominate the world, skepticism has no power.  No possible\ninvestigation of natural facts; no searching criticism of letter and\ntradition can disturb it, for it has its witness in all human hearts.\n\nThat Haverford may fully realize and improve its great opportunities as\nan approved seat of learning and the exponent of a Christian philosophy\nwhich can never be superseded, which needs no change to fit it for\nuniversal acceptance, and which, overpassing the narrow limits of sect,\nis giving new life and hope to Christendom, and finding its witnesses in\nthe Hindu revivals of the Brahmo Somaj and the fervent utterances of\nChunda Sen and Mozoomdar, is the earnest desire of thy friend.\n\n\n\n\nCRITICISM: EVANGELINE\n\n                    A review of Mr. Longfellow's poem.\n\nEUREKA!  Here, then, we have it at last,--an American poem, with the lack\nof which British reviewers have so long reproached us.  Selecting the\nsubject of all others best calculated for his purpose,--the expulsion of\nthe French settlers of Acadie from their quiet and pleasant homes around\nthe Basin of Minas, one of the most sadly romantic passages in the\nhistory of the Colonies of the North,--the author has succeeded in\npresenting a series of exquisite pictures of the striking and peculiar\nfeatures of life and nature in the New World.  The range of these\ndelineations extends from Nova Scotia on the northeast to the spurs of\nthe Rocky Mountains on the west and the Gulf of Mexico on the south.\nNothing can be added to his pictures of quiet farm-life in Acadie, the\nIndian summer of our northern latitudes, the scenery of the Ohio and\nMississippi Rivers, the bayous and cypress forests of the South, the\nmocking-bird, the prairie, the Ozark hills, the Catholic missions, and\nthe wild Arabs of the West, roaming with the buffalo along the banks of\nthe Nebraska.  The hexameter measure he has chosen has the advantage of a\nprosaic freedom of expression, exceedingly well adapted to a descriptive\nand narrative poem; yet we are constrained to think that the story of\nEvangeline would have been quite as acceptable to the public taste had it\nbeen told in the poetic prose of the author's Hyperion.\n\nIn reading it and admiring its strange melody we were not without fears\nthat the success of Professor Longfellow in this novel experiment might\nprove the occasion of calling out a host of awkward imitators, leading us\nover weary wastes of hexameters, enlivened neither by dew, rain, nor\nfields of offering.\n\nApart from its Americanism, the poem has merits of a higher and universal\ncharacter.  It is not merely a work of art; the pulse of humanity throbs\nwarmly through it.  The portraits of Basil the blacksmith, the old\nnotary, Benedict Bellefontaine, and good Father Felician, fairly glow\nwith life.  The beautiful Evangeline, loving and faithful unto death, is\na heroine worthy of any poet of the present century.\n\nThe editor of the Boston Chronotype, in the course of an appreciative\nreview of this poem, urges with some force a single objection, which we\nare induced to notice, as it is one not unlikely to present itself to the\nminds of other readers:--\n\n\"We think Mr. Longfellow ought to have expressed a much deeper\nindignation at the base, knavish, and heartless conduct of the English\nand Colonial persecutors than he has done.  He should have put far bolder\nand deeper tints in the picture of suffering.  One great, if not the\ngreatest, end of poetry is rhadamanthine justice.  The poet should mete\nout their deserts to all his heroes; honor to whom honor, and infamy to\nwhom infamy, is due.\n\n\"It is true that the wrong in this case is in a great degree fathered\nupon our own Massachusetts; and it maybe said that it is afoul bird that\npollutes its own nest.  We deny the applicability of the rather musty\nproverb.  All the worse.  Of not a more contemptible vice is what is\ncalled American literature guilty than this of unmitigated self-\nlaudation.  If we persevere in it, the stock will become altogether too\nsmall for the business.  It seems that no period of our history has been\nexempt from materials for patriotic humiliation and national self-\nreproach; and surely the present epoch is laying in a large store of that\nsort.  Had our poets always told us the truth of ourselves, perhaps it\nwould now be otherwise.  National self-flattery and concealment of faults\nmust of course have their natural results.\"\n\nWe must confess that we read the first part of Evangeline with something\nof the feeling so forcibly expressed by Professor Wright.  The natural\nand honest indignation with which, many years ago, we read for the first\ntime that dark page of our Colonial history--the expulsion of the French\nneutrals--was reawakened by the simple pathos of the poem; and we longed\nto find an adequate expression of it in the burning language of the poet.\nWe marvelled that he who could so touch the heart by his description of\nthe sad suffering of the Acadian peasants should have permitted the\nauthors of that suffering to escape without censure.  The outburst of the\nstout Basil, in the church of Grand Pre, was, we are fain to acknowledge,\na great relief to us.  But, before reaching the close of the volume, we\nwere quite reconciled to the author's forbearance.  The design of the\npoem is manifestly incompatible with stern \"rhadamanthine justice\" and\nindignant denunciation of wrong.  It is a simple story of quiet pastoral\nhappiness, of great sorrow and painful bereavement, and of the endurance\nof a love which, hoping and seeking always, wanders evermore up and down\nthe wilderness of the world, baffled at every turn, yet still retaining\nfaith in God and in the object of its lifelong quest.  It was no part of\nthe writer's object to investigate the merits of the question at issue\nbetween the poor Acadians and their Puritan neighbors.  Looking at the\nmaterials before him with the eye of an artist simply, he has arranged\nthem to suit his idea of the beautiful and pathetic, leaving to some\nfuture historian the duty of sitting in judgment upon the actors in the\natrocious outrage which furnished them.  With this we are content.  The\npoem now has unity and sweetness which might have been destroyed by\nattempting to avenge the wrongs it so vividly depicts.  It is a psalm of\nlove and forgiveness: the gentleness and peace of Christian meekness and\nforbearance breathe through it.  Not a word of censure is directly\napplied to the marauding workers of the mighty sorrow which it describes\njust as it would a calamity from the elements,--a visitation of God.  The\nreader, however, cannot fail to award justice to the wrong-doers.  The\nunresisting acquiescence of the Acadians only deepens his detestation of\nthe cupidity and religious bigotry of their spoilers.  Even in the\nlanguage of the good Father Felician, beseeching his flock to submit to\nthe strong hand which had been laid upon them, we see and feel the\nmagnitude of the crime to be forgiven:--\n\n     \"Lo, where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you!\n     See in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy     compassion!\n     Hark!  how those lips still repeat the prayer, O Father, forgive\n     them!\n     Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us;\n     Let us repeat it now, and say, O Father, forgive them!\"\n\nHow does this simple prayer of the Acadians contrast with the \"deep\ndamnation of their taking off!\"\n\nThe true history of the Puritans of New England is yet to be written.\nSomewhere midway between the caricatures of the Church party and the\nself-laudations of their own writers the point may doubtless be found\nfrom whence an impartial estimate of their character may be formed.  They\nhad noble qualities: the firmness and energy which they displayed in the\ncolonization of New England must always command admiration.  We would not\nrob them, were it in our power to do so, of one jot or tittle of their\nrightful honor.  But, with all the lights which we at present possess, we\ncannot allow their claim of saintship without some degree of\nqualification.  How they seemed to their Dutch neighbors at New\nNetherlands, and their French ones at Nova Scotia, and to the poor\nIndians, hunted from their fisheries and game-grounds, we can very well\nconjecture.  It may be safely taken for granted that their gospel claim\nto the inheritance of the earth was not a little questionable to the\nCatholic fleeing for his life from their jurisdiction, to the banished\nBaptist shaking off the dust of his feet against them, and to the\nmartyred Quaker denouncing woe and judgment upon them from the steps of\nthe gallows.  Most of them were, beyond a doubt, pious and sincere; but\nwe are constrained to believe that among them were those who wore the\nlivery of heaven from purely selfish motives, in a community where\nchurch-membership was an indispensable requisite, the only open sesame\nbefore which the doors of honor and distinction swung wide to needy or\nambitious aspirants.  Mere adventurers, men of desperate fortunes,\nbankrupts in character and purse, contrived to make gain of godliness\nunder the church and state government of New England, put on the austere\nexterior of sanctity, quoted Scripture, anathematized heretics, whipped\nQuakers, exterminated Indians, burned and spoiled the villages of their\nCatholic neighbors, and hewed down their graven images and \"houses of\nRimmon.\"  It is curious to observe how a fierce religious zeal against\nheathen and idolaters went hand in hand with the old Anglo-Saxon love of\nland and plunder.  Every crusade undertaken against the Papists of the\nFrench colonies had its Puritan Peter the Hermit to summon the saints to\nthe wars of the Lord.  At the siege of Louisburg, ten years before the\nonslaught upon the Acadian settlers, one minister marched with the\nColonial troops, axe in hand, to hew down the images in the French\nchurches; while another officiated in the double capacity of drummer and\nchaplain,--a \"drum ecclesiastic,\" as Hudibras has it.\n\nAt the late celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims in New York, the\norator of the day labored at great length to show that the charge of\nintolerance, as urged against the colonists of New England, is unfounded\nin fact.  The banishment of the Catholics was very sagaciously passed\nover in silence, inasmuch as the Catholic Bishop of New York was one of\nthe invited guests, and (hear it, shade of Cotton Mather!) one of the\nregular toasts was a compliment to the Pope.  The expulsion of Roger\nWilliams was excused and partially justified; while the whipping, ear-\ncropping, tongue-boring, and hanging of the Quakers was defended, as the\nonly effectual method of dealing with such devil-driven heretics, as\nMather calls them.  The orator, in the new-born zeal of his amateur\nPuritanism, stigmatizes the persecuted class as \"fanatics and ranters,\nfoaming forth their mad opinions;\" compares them to the Mormons and the\ncrazy followers of Mathias; and cites an instance of a poor enthusiast,\nnamed Eccles, who, far gone in the \"tailor's melancholy,\" took it into\nhis head that he must enter into a steeple-house pulpit and stitch\nbreeches \"in singing time,\"--a circumstance, by the way, which took place\nin Old England,--as a justification of the atrocious laws of the\nMassachusetts Colony.  We have not the slightest disposition to deny the\nfanaticism and folly of some few professed Quakers in that day; and had\nthe Puritans treated them as the Pope did one of their number whom he\nfound crazily holding forth in the church of St. Peter, and consigned\nthem to the care of physicians as religious monomaniacs, no sane man\ncould have blamed them.  Every sect, in its origin, and especially in its\ntime of persecution, has had its fanatics.  The early Christians, if we\nmay credit the admissions of their own writers or attach the slightest\ncredence to the statements of pagan authors, were by no means exempt from\nreproach and scandal in this respect.  Were the Puritans themselves the\nmen to cast stones at the Quakers and Baptists?  Had they not, in the\nview at least of the Established Church, turned all England upside down\nwith their fanaticisms and extravagances of doctrine and conduct?  How\nlook they as depicted in the sermons of Dr. South, in the sarcastic pages\nof Hudibras, and the coarse caricatures of the clerical wits of the times\nof the second Charles?  With their own backs scored and their ears\ncropped for the crime of denying the divine authority of church and state\nin England, were they the men to whip Baptists and hang Quakers for doing\nthe same thing in Massachusetts?\n\nOf all that is noble and true in the Puritan character we are sincere\nadmirers.  The generous and self-denying apostleship of Eliot is, of\nitself, a beautiful page in their history.  The physical daring and\nhardihood with which, amidst the times of savage warfare, they laid the\nfoundations of mighty states, and subdued the rugged soil, and made the\nwilderness blossom; their steadfast adherence to their religious\nprinciples, even when the Restoration had made apostasy easy and\nprofitable; and the vigilance and firmness with which, under all\ncircumstances, they held fast their chartered liberties and extorted new\nrights and privileges from the reluctant home government,--justly entitle\nthem to the grateful remembrance of a generation now reaping the fruits\nof their toils and sacrifices.  But, in expressing our gratitude to the\nfounders of New England, we should not forget what is due to truth and\njustice; nor, for the sake of vindicating them from the charge of that\nreligious intolerance which, at the time, they shared with nearly all\nChristendom, undertake to defend, in the light of the nineteenth century,\nopinions and practices hostile to the benignant spirit of the gospel and\nsubversive of the inherent rights of man.\n\n\n\n\nMIRTH AND MEDICINE\n\n               A review of Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes.\n\nIF any of our readers (and at times we fear it is the case with all) need\namusement and the wholesome alterative of a hearty laugh, we commend\nthem, not to Dr. Holmes the physician, but to Dr. Holmes the scholar, the\nwit, and the humorist; not to the scientific medical professor's\nbarbarous Latin, but to his poetical prescriptions, given in choice old\nSaxon.  We have tried them, and are ready to give the Doctor certificates\nof their efficacy.\n\nLooking at the matter from the point of theory only, we should say that a\nphysician could not be otherwise than melancholy.  A merry doctor!  Why,\none might as well talk of a laughing death's-head,--the cachinnation of a\nmonk's _memento mori_.  This life of ours is sorrowful enough at its best\nestate; the brightest phase of it is \"sicklied o'er with the pale cast\"\nof the future or the past.  But it is the special vocation of the doctor\nto look only upon the shadow; to turn away from the house of feasting and\ngo down to that of mourning; to breathe day after day the atmosphere of\nwretchedness; to grow familiar with suffering; to look upon humanity\ndisrobed of its pride and glory, robbed of all its fictitious ornaments,\n--weak, helpless, naked,--and undergoing the last fearful metempsychosis\nfrom its erect and godlike image, the living temple of an enshrined\ndivinity, to the loathsome clod and the inanimate dust.  Of what ghastly\nsecrets of moral and physical disease is he the depositary!  There is woe\nbefore him and behind him; he is hand and glove with misery by\nprescription,--the ex officio gauger of the ills that flesh is heir to.\nHe has no home, unless it be at the bedside of the querulous, the\nsplenetic, the sick, and the dying.  He sits down to carve his turkey,\nand is summoned off to a post-mortem examination of another sort.  All\nthe diseases which Milton's imagination embodied in the lazar-house dog\nhis footsteps and pluck at his doorbell.  Hurrying from one place to\nanother at their beck, he knows nothing of the quiet comfort of the\n\"sleek-headed men who sleep o' nights.\"  His wife, if he has one, has an\nundoubted right to advertise him as a deserter of \"bed and board.\"  His\nideas of beauty, the imaginations of his brain, and the affections of his\nheart are regulated and modified by the irrepressible associations of his\nluckless profession.  Woman as well as man is to him of the earth,\nearthy.  He sees incipient disease where the uninitiated see only\ndelicacy.  A smile reminds him of his dental operations; a blushing cheek\nof his hectic patients; pensive melancholy is dyspepsia; sentimentalism,\nnervousness.  Tell him of lovelorn hearts, of the \"worm I' the bud,\" of\nthe mental impalement upon Cupid's arrow, like that of a giaour upon the\nspear of a janizary, and he can only think of lack of exercise, of\ntightlacing, and slippers in winter.  Sheridan seems to have understood\nall this, if we may judge from the lament of his Doctor, in St.\nPatrick's Day, over his deceased helpmate.  \"Poor dear Dolly,\" says he.\n\"I shall never see her like again; such an arm for a bandage!  veins that\nseemed to invite the lancet!  Then her skin,--smooth and white as a\ngallipot; her mouth as round and not larger than that of a penny vial;\nand her teeth,--none of your sturdy fixtures,--ache as they would, it was\nonly a small pull, and out they came.  I believe I have drawn half a\nscore of her dear pearls.  (Weeps.) But what avails her beauty?  She has\ngone, and left no little babe to hang like a label on papa's neck!\"\n\nSo much for speculation and theory.  In practice it is not so bad after\nall.  The grave-digger in Hamlet has his jokes and grim jests.  We have\nknown many a jovial sexton; and we have heard clergymen laugh heartily at\nsmall provocation close on the heel of a cool calculation that the great\nmajority of their fellow-creatures were certain of going straight to\nperdition.  Why, then, should not even the doctor have his fun?  Nay, is\nit not his duty to be merry, by main force if necessary?  Solomon, who,\nfrom his great knowledge of herbs, must have been no mean practitioner\nfor his day, tells us that \"a merry heart doeth good like a medicine;\"\nand universal experience has confirmed the truth of his maxim.  Hence it\nis, doubtless, that we have so many anecdotes of facetious doctors,\ndistributing their pills and jokes together, shaking at the same time the\ncontents of their vials and the sides of their patients.  It is merely\nprofessional, a trick of the practice, unquestionably, in most cases; but\nsometimes it is a \"natural gift,\" like that of the \"bonesetters,\" and\n\"scrofula strokers,\" and \"cancer curers,\" who carry on a sort of guerilla\nwar with human maladies.  Such we know to be the case with Dr. Holmes.\nHe was born for the \"laughter cure,\" as certainly as Priessnitz was for\nthe \"water cure,\" and has been quite as successful in his way, while his\nprescriptions are infinitely more agreeable.\n\nThe volume now before us gives, in addition to the poems and lyrics\ncontained in the two previous editions, some hundred or more pages of the\nlater productions of the author, in the sprightly vein, and marked by the\nbrilliant fancy and felicitous diction for which the former were\nnoteworthy.  His longest and most elaborate poem, _Urania_, is perhaps\nthe best specimen of his powers.  Its general tone is playful and\nhumorous; but there are passages of great tenderness and pathos.  Witness\nthe following, from a description of the city churchgoers.  The whole\ncompass of our literature has few passages to equal its melody and\nbeauty.\n\n    \"Down the chill street, which winds in gloomiest shade,\n     What marks betray yon solitary maid?\n     The cheek's red rose, that speaks of balmier air,\n     The Celtic blackness of her braided hair;\n     The gilded missal in her kerchief tied;\n     Poor Nora, exile from Killarney's side!\n     Sister in toil, though born of colder skies,\n     That left their azure in her downcast eyes,\n     See pallid Margaret, Labor's patient child,\n     Scarce weaned from home, a nursling of the wild,\n     Where white Katahdin o'er the horizon shines,\n     And broad Penobscot dashes through the pines;\n     Still, as she hastes, her careful fingers hold\n     The unfailing hymn-book in its cambric fold:\n     Six days at Drudgery's heavy wheel she stands,\n     The seventh sweet morning folds her weary hands.\n     Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure\n     He who ordained the Sabbath loved the poor.\"\n\nThis is but one of many passages, showing that the author is capable of\nmoving the heart as well as of tickling the fancy.  There is no straining\nfor effect; simple, natural thoughts are expressed in simple and\nperfectly transparent language.\n\n_Terpsichore_, read at an annual dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at\nCambridge, sparkles throughout with keen wit, quaint conceits, and satire\nso good-natured that the subjects of it can enjoy it as heartily as their\nneighbors.  Witness this thrust at our German-English writers:--\n\n    \"Essays so dark, Champollion might despair\n     To guess what mummy of a thought was there,\n     Where our poor English, striped with foreign phrase, Looks like a\n     zebra in a parson's chaise.\"\n\nOr this at our transcendental friends:--\n\n    \"Deluded infants!  will they never know\n     Some doubts must darken o'er the world below\n     Though all the Platos of the nursery trail\n     Their clouds of glory at the go-cart's tail?\"\n\nThe lines _On Lending a Punch-Bowl_ are highly characteristic.  Nobody\nbut Holmes could have conjured up so many rare fancies in connection with\nsuch a matter.  Hear him:--\n\n   \"This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times,\n   Of joyous days, and jolly nights, and merry Christmas chimes;\n   They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true,\n   That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new.\n\n   \"A Spanish galleon brought the bar; so runs the ancient tale;\n   'T was hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail;\n   And now and then between the strokes, for fear his strength should fail,\n   He wiped his brow, and quaffed a cup of good old Flemish ale.\n\n   \"'T was purchased by an English squire to please his loving dame,\n   Who saw the cherubs, and conceived a longing for the same;\n   And oft as on the ancient stock another twig was found,\n   'T was filled with candle spiced and hot and handed smoking round.\n\n   \"But, changing hands, it reached at length a Puritan divine,\n   Who used to follow Timothy, and take a little wine,\n   But hated punch and prelacy; and so it was, perhaps,\n   He went to Leyden, where he found conventicles and schnaps.\n\n   \"And then, of course, you know what's next,--it left the Dutchman's shore\n   With those that in the Mayflower came,--a hundred souls and more,--\n   Along with all the furniture, to fill their new abodes,--\n   To judge by what is still on hand, at least a hundred loads.\n\n   \"'T was on a dreary winter's eve, the night was closing dim,\n   When brave Miles Standish took the bowl, and filled it to the brim;\n   The little Captain stood and stirred the posset with his sword,\n   And all his sturdy men-at-arms were ranged about the board.\n\n   \"He poured the fiery Hollands in,--the man that never feared,--\n   He took a long and solemn draught, and wiped his yellow beard;\n   And one by one the musketeers--the men that fought and prayed--\n   All drank as 't were their mother's milk, and not a man afraid.\n\n   \"That night, affrighted from his nest, the screaming eagle flew,\n   He heard the Pequot's ringing whoop, the soldier's wild halloo;\n   And there the sachem learned the rule he taught to kith and kin,\n   'Run from the white man when you find he smells of Hollands gin!'\"\n\n\nIn his _Nux Postcoenatica_ he gives us his reflections on being invited\nto a dinner-party, where he was expected to \"set the table in a roar\" by\nreading funny verses.  He submits it to the judgment and common sense of\nthe importunate bearer of the invitation, that this dinner-going, ballad-\nmaking, mirth-provoking habit is not likely to benefit his reputation as\na medical professor.\n\n   \"Besides, my prospects. Don't you know that people won't employ\n   A man that wrongs his manliness by laughing like a boy,\n   And suspect the azure blossom that unfolds upon a shoot,\n   As if Wisdom's oldpotato could not flourish at its root?\n\n   \"It's a very fine reflection, when you're etching out a smile\n   On a copperplate of faces that would stretch into a mile.\n   That, what with sneers from enemies and cheapening shrugs from friends,\n   It will cost you all the earnings that a month of labor lends.\"\n\n\nThere are, as might be expected, some commonplace pieces in the volume,--\na few failures in the line of humor.  The _Spectre Pig_, the _Dorchester\nGiant_, the _Height of the Ridiculous_, and one or two others might be\nomitted in the next edition without detriment.  They would do well enough\nfor an amateur humorist, but are scarcely worthy of one who stands at the\nhead of the profession.\n\nIt was said of James Smith, of the Rejected Addresses, that \"if he had\nnot been a witty man, he would have been a great man.\"  Hood's humor and\ndrollery kept in the background the pathos and beauty of his sober\nproductions; and Dr. Holmes, we suspect, might have ranked higher among a\nlarge class of readers than he now does had he never written his _Ballad\nof the Oysterman_, his _Comet_, and his _September Gale_.  Such lyrics as\n_La Grisette_, the _Puritan's Vision_, and that unique compound of humor\nand pathos, _The Last Leaf_; show that he possesses the power of touching\nthe deeper chords of the heart and of calling forth tears as well as\nsmiles.  Who does not feel the power of this simple picture of the old\nman in the last-mentioned poem?\n\n              \"But now he walks the streets,\n               And he looks at all he meets\n               Sad and wan,\n               And he shakes his feeble head,\n               That it seems as if he said,\n               'They are gone.'\n\n              \"The mossy marbles rest\n               On the lips that he has prest\n               In their bloom,\n               And the names he loved to hear\n               Have been carved for many a year\n               On the tomb.\"\n\nDr. Holmes has been likened to Thomas Hood; but there is little in common\nbetween them save the power of combining fancy and sentiment with\ngrotesque drollery and humor.  Hood, under all his whims and oddities,\nconceals the vehement intensity of a reformer.  The iron of the world's\nwrongs had entered into his soul; there is an undertone of sorrow in his\nlyrics; his sarcasm, directed against oppression and bigotry, at times\nbetrays the earnestness of one whose own withers have been wrung.  Holmes\nwrites simply for the amusement of himself and his readers; he deals only\nwith the vanity, the foibles, and the minor faults of mankind, good\nnaturedly and almost sympathizingly suggesting excuses for the folly\nwhich he tosses about on the horns of his ridicule.  In this respect he\ndiffers widely from his fellow-townsman, Russell Lowell, whose keen wit\nand scathing sarcasm, in the famous Biglow Papers, and the notes of\nParson Wilbur, strike at the great evils of society and deal with the\nrank offences of church and state.  Hosea Biglow, in his way, is as\nearnest a preacher as Habakkuk Mucklewrath or Obadiah Bind-their-kings-\nin-chains-and-their-nobles-in-fetters-of-iron.  His verse smacks of the\nold Puritan flavor.  Holmes has a gentler mission.  His careless, genial\nhumor reminds us of James Smith in his _Rejected Addresses_ and of Horace\nin _London_.  Long may he live to make broader the face of our care-\nridden generation, and to realize for himself the truth of the wise man's\ndeclaration that a \"merry heart is a continual feast.\"\n\n\n\n\nFAME AND GLORY.\n\nNotice of an Address before the Literary Society of Amherst College, by\nCharles Sumner.\n\nTHE learned and eloquent author of the pamphlet lying before us with the\nabove title belongs to a class, happily on the increase in our country,\nwho venture to do homage to unpopular truths in defiance of the social\nand political tyranny of opinion which has made so many of our statesmen,\norators, and divines the mere playthings and shuttlecocks of popular\nimpulses for evil far oftener than for good.  His first production, the\n_True Grandeur of Nations_, written for the anniversary of American\nIndependence, was not more remarkable for its evidences of a highly\ncultivated taste and wide historical research than for its inculcation of\na high morality,--the demand for practical Christianity in nations as\nwell as individuals.  It burned no incense under the nostrils of an\nalready inflated and vain people.  It gratified them by no rhetorical\nfalsehoods about \"the land of the free and the home of the brave.\"  It\ndid not apostrophize military heroes, nor strut \"red wat shod\" over the\nplains of battle, nor call up, like another Ezekiel, from the valley of\nvision the dry bones thereof.  It uttered none of the precious scoundrel\ncant, so much in vogue after the annexation of Texas was determined upon,\nabout the destiny of the United States to enter in and possess the lands\nof all whose destiny it is to live next us, and to plant everywhere the\n\"peculiar institutions\" of a peculiarly Christian and chosen people, the\nlandstealing propensity of whose progressive republicanism is declared to\nbe in accordance with the will and by the grace of God, and who, like the\nScotch freebooter,--\n\n              \"Pattering an Ave Mary\n               When he rode on a border forray,\"--\n\nwhile trampling on the rights of a sister republic, and re-creating\nslavery where that republic had abolished it, talk piously of \"the\ndesigns of Providence\" and the Anglo-Saxon instrumentalities thereof in\n\"extending the area of freedom.\"  On the contrary, the author portrayed\nthe evils of war and proved its incompatibility with Christianity,--\ncontrasting with its ghastly triumphs the mild victories of peace and\nlove.  Our true mission, he taught, was not to act over in the New World\nthe barbarous game which has desolated the Old; but to offer to the\nnations of the earth, warring and discordant, oppressed and oppressing,\nthe beautiful example of a free and happy people studying the things\nwhich make for peace,--Democracy and Christianity walking hand in hand,\nblessing and being blessed.\n\nHis next public effort, an Address before the Literary Society of his\nAlma Mater, was in the same vein.  He improved the occasion of the recent\ndeath of four distinguished members of that fraternity to delineate his\nbeautiful ideal of the jurist, the scholar, the artist, and the\nphilanthropist, aided by the models furnished by the lives of such men as\nPickering, Story, Allston, and Channing.  Here, also, he makes greatness\nto consist of goodness: war and slavery and all their offspring of evil\nare surveyed in the light of the morality of the New Testament.  He looks\nhopefully forward to the coming of that day when the sword shall devour\nno longer, when labor shall grind no longer in the prison-house, and the\npeace and freedom of a realized and acted-out Christianity shall\noverspread the earth, and the golden age predicted by the seers and poets\nalike of Paganism and Christianity shall become a reality.\n\nThe Address now before us, with the same general object in view, is more\ndirect and practical.  We can scarcely conceive of a discourse better\nadapted to prepare the young American, just issuing from his collegiate\nretirement, for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship.  It\ntreats the desire of fame and honor as one native to the human heart,\nfelt to a certain extent by all as a part of our common being,--a motive,\nalthough by no means the most exalted, of human conduct; and the lesson\nit would inculcate is, that no true and permanent fame can be founded\nexcept in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.  To use the\nlanguage of Dr. South, \"God is the fountain of honor; the conduit by\nwhich He conveys it to the sons of men are virtuous and generous\npractices.\"  The author presents the beautiful examples of St.  Pierre,\nMilton, Howard, and Clarkson,--men whose fame rests on the firm\nfoundation of goodness,--for the study and imitation of the young\ncandidate for that true glory which belongs to those who live, not for\nthemselves, but for their race.  \"Neither present fame, nor war, nor\npower, nor wealth, nor knowledge alone shall secure an entrance to the\ntrue and noble Valhalla.  There shall be gathered only those who have\ntoiled each in his vocation for the welfare of others.\"  \"Justice and\nbenevolence are higher than knowledge and power It is by His goodness\nthat God is most truly known; so also is the great man.  When Moses said\nto the Lord, Show me Thy glory, the Lord said, I will make all my\ngoodness pass before thee.\"\n\nWe copy the closing paragraph of the Address, the inspiring sentiment of\nwhich will find a response in all generous and hopeful hearts:--\n\n\"Let us reverse the very poles of the worship of past ages.  Men have\nthus far bowed down before stocks, stones, insects, crocodiles, golden\ncalves,--graven images, often of cunning workmanship, wrought with\nPhidian skill, of ivory, of ebony, of marble, but all false gods.  Let\nthem worship in future the true God, our Father, as He is in heaven and\nin the beneficent labors of His children on earth.  Then farewell to the\nsiren song of a worldly ambition!  Farewell to the vain desire of mere\nliterary success or oratorical display!  Farewell to the distempered\nlongings for office!  Farewell to the dismal, blood-red phantom of\nmartial renown!  Fame and glory may then continue, as in times past, the\nreflection of public opinion; but of an opinion sure and steadfast,\nwithout change or fickleness, enlightened by those two sons of Christian\ntruth,--love to God and love to man.  From the serene illumination of\nthese duties all the forms of selfishness shall retreat like evil spirits\nat the dawn of day.  Then shall the happiness of the poor and lowly and\nthe education of the ignorant have uncounted friends.  The cause of those\nwho are in prison shall find fresh voices; the majesty of peace other\nvindicators; the sufferings of the slave new and gushing floods of\nsympathy.  Then, at last, shall the brotherhood of man stand confessed;\never filling the souls of all with a more generous life; ever prompting\nto deeds of beneficence; conquering the heathen prejudices of country,\ncolor, and race; guiding the judgment of the historian; animating the\nverse of the poet and the eloquence of the orator; ennobling human\nthought and conduct; and inspiring those good works by which alone we may\nattain to the heights of true glory.  Good works!  Such even now is the\nheavenly ladder on which angels are ascending and descending, while weary\nhumanity, on pillows of storfe, slumbers heavily at its feet.\"\n\nWe know how easy it is to sneer at such anticipations of a better future\nas baseless and visionary.  The shrewd but narrow-eyed man of the world\nlaughs at the suggestion that there car: be any stronger motive than\nselfishness, any higher morality than that of the broker's board.  The\nman who relies for salvation from the consequences of an evil and selfish\nlife upon the verbal orthodoxy of a creed presents the depravity and\nweakness of human nature as insuperable obstacles in the way of the\ngeneral amelioration of the condition of a world lying in wickedness.  He\ncounts it heretical and dangerous to act upon the supposition that the\nsame human nature which, in his own case and that of his associates, can\nconfront all perils, overcome all obstacles, and outstrip the whirlwind\nin the pursuit of gain,--which makes the strong elements its servants,\ntaming and subjugating the very lightnings of heaven to work out its own\npurposes of self-aggrandizement,--must necessarily, and by an ordination\nof Providence, become weak as water, when engaged in works of love and\ngoodwill, looking for the coming of a better day for humanity, with faith\nin the promises of the Gospel, and relying upon Him, who, in calling man\nto the great task-field of duty, has not mocked him with the mournful\nnecessity of laboring in vain.  We have been pained more than words can\nexpress to see young, generous hearts, yearning with strong desires to\nconsecrate themselves to the cause of their fellow-men, checked and\nchilled by the ridicule of worldly-wise conservatism, and the solemn\nrebukes of practical infidelity in the guise of a piety which professes\nto love the unseen Father, while disregarding the claims of His visible\nchildren.  Visionary!  Were not the good St.  Pierre, and Fenelon, and\nHoward, and Clarkson visionaries also?\n\nWhat was John Woolman, to the wise and prudent of his day, but an amiable\nenthusiast?  What, to those of our own, is such an angel of mercy as\nDorothea Dix?  Who will not, in view of the labors of such\nphilanthropists, adopt the language of Jonathan Edwards: \"If these things\nbe enthusiasms and the fruits of a distempered brain, let my brain be\nevermore possessed with this happy distemper\"?\n\nIt must, however, be confessed that there is a cant of philanthropy too\ngeneral and abstract for any practical purpose,--a morbid\nsentimentalism,--which contents itself with whining over real or\nimaginary present evil, and predicting a better state somewhere in the\nfuture, but really doing nothing to remove the one or hasten the coming\nof the other.  To its view the present condition of things is all wrong;\nno green hillock or twig rises over the waste deluge; the heaven above is\nutterly dark and starless: yet, somehow, out of this darkness which may\nbe felt, the light is to burst forth miraculously; wrong, sin, pain, and\nsorrow are to be banished from the renovated world, and earth become a\nvast epicurean garden or Mahometan heaven.\n\n               \"The land, unploughed, shall yield her crop;\n               Pure honey from the oak shall drop;\n               The fountain shall run milk;\n               The thistle shall the lily bear;\n               And every bramble roses wear,\n               And every worm make silk.\"\n\n                    (Ben Jenson's Golden Age Restored.)\n\nThere are, in short, perfectionist reformers as well as religionists, who\nwait to see the salvation which it is the task of humanity itself to work\nout, and who look down from a region of ineffable self-complacence on\ntheir dusty and toiling brethren who are resolutely doing whatsoever\ntheir hands find to do for the removal of the evils around them.\n\nThe emblem of practical Christianity is the Samaritan stooping over the\nwounded Jew.  No fastidious hand can lift from the dust fallen humanity\nand bind up its unsightly gashes.  Sentimental lamentation over evil and\nsuffering may be indulged in until it becomes a sort of melancholy\nluxury, like the \"weeping for Thammuz\" by the apostate daughters of\nJerusalem.  Our faith in a better day for the race is strong; but we feel\nquite sure it will come in spite of such abstract reformers, and not by\nreason of them.  The evils which possess humanity are of a kind which go\nnot out by their delicate appliances.\n\nThe author of the Address under consideration is not of this class.  He\nhas boldly, and at no small cost, grappled with the great social and\npolitical wrong of our country,--chattel slavery.  Looking, as we have\nseen, hopefully to the future, he is nevertheless one of those who can\nrespond to the words of a true poet and true man:--\n\n              \"He is a coward who would borrow\n               A charm against the present sorrow\n               From the vague future's promise of delight\n               As life's alarums nearer roll,\n               The ancestral buckler calls,\n               Self-clanging, from the walls\n               In the high temple of the soul!\"\n\n                         (James Russell Lowell.)\n\n\n\n\nFANATICISM.\n\nTHERE are occasionally deeds committed almost too horrible and revolting\nfor publication.  The tongue falters in giving them utterance; the pen\ntrembles that records them.  Such is the ghastly horror of a late tragedy\nin Edgecomb, in the State of Maine.  A respectable and thriving citizen\nand his wife had been for some years very unprofitably engaged in\nbrooding over the mysteries of the Apocalypse, and in speculations upon\nthe personal coming of Christ and the temporal reign of the saints on\nearth,--a sort of Mahometan paradise, which has as little warrant in\nScripture as in reason.  Their minds of necessity became unsettled; they\nmeditated self-destruction; and, as it appears by a paper left behind in\nthe handwriting of both, came to an agreement that the husband should\nfirst kill his wife and their four children, and then put an end to his\nown existence.  This was literally executed,--the miserable man striking\noff the heads of his wife and children with his axe, and then cutting his\nown throat.\n\nAlas for man when he turns from the light of reason and from the simple\nand clearly defined duties of the present life, and undertakes to pry\ninto the mysteries of the future, bewildering himself with uncertain and\nvague prophecies, Oriental imagery, and obscure Hebrew texts!  Simple,\ncheerful faith in God as our great and good Father, and love of His\nchildren as our brethren, acted out in all relations and duties, is\ncertainly best for this world, and we believe also the best preparation\nfor that to come.  Once possessed by the falsity that God's design is\nthat man should be wretched and gloomy here in order to obtain rest and\nhappiness hereafter; that the mental agonies and bodily tortures of His\ncreatures are pleasant to Him; that, after bestowing upon us reason for\nour guidance, He makes it of no avail by interposing contradictory\nrevelations and arbitrary commands,--there is nothing to prevent one of a\nmelancholic and excitable temperament from excesses so horrible as almost\nto justify the old belief in demoniac obsession.\n\nCharles Brockden Brown, a writer whose merits have not yet been\nsufficiently acknowledged, has given a powerful and philosophical\nanalysis of this morbid state of mind--this diseased conscientiousness,\nobeying the mad suggestions of a disordered brain as the injunctions of\nDivinity--in his remarkable story of Wieland.  The hero of this strange\nand solemn romance, inheriting a melancholy and superstitious mental\nconstitution, becomes in middle age the victim of a deep, and tranquil\nbecause deep, fanaticism.  A demon in human form, perceiving his state of\nmind, wantonly experiments upon it, deepening and intensifying it by a\nfearful series of illusions of sight and sound.  Tricks of jugglery and\nventriloquism seem to his feverish fancies miracles and omens--the eye\nand the voice of the Almighty piercing the atmosphere of supernatural\nmystery in which he has long dwelt.  He believes that he is called upon\nto sacrifice the beloved wife of his bosom as a testimony of the entire\nsubjugation of his carnal reason and earthly affections to the Divine\nwill.  In the entire range of English literature there is no more\nthrilling passage than that which describes the execution of this baleful\nsuggestion.  The coloring of the picture is an intermingling of the\nlights of heaven and hell,--soft shades of tenderest pity and warm tints\nof unextinguishable love contrasting with the terrible outlines of an\ninsane and cruel purpose, traced with the blood of murder.  The masters\nof the old Greek tragedy have scarcely exceeded the sublime horror of\nthis scene from the American novelist.  The murderer confronted with his\ngentle and loving victim in her chamber; her anxious solicitude for his\nhealth and quiet; her affectionate caress of welcome; his own relentings\nand natural shrinking from his dreadful purpose; and the terrible\nstrength which he supposes is lent him of Heaven, by which he puts down\nthe promptings and yearnings of his human heart, and is enabled to\nexecute the mandate of an inexorable Being,--are described with an\nintensity which almost stops the heart of the reader.  When the deed is\ndone a frightful conflict of passions takes place, which can only be told\nin the words of the author:--\n\n\"I lifted the corpse in my arms and laid it on the bed.  I gazed upon it\nwith delight.  Such was my elation that I even broke out into laughter.\nI clapped my hands, and exclaimed, 'It is done!  My sacred duty is\nfulfilled!  To that I have sacrificed, O God, Thy last and best gift, my\nwife!'\n\n\"For a while I thus soared above frailty.  I imagined I had set myself\nforever beyond the reach of selfishness.  But my imaginations were false.\nThis rapture quickly subsided.  I looked again at my wife.  My joyous\nebullitions vanished.  I asked myself who it was whom I saw.  Methought\nit could not be my Catharine; it could not be the woman who had lodged\nfor years in my heart; who had slept nightly in my bosom; who had borne\nin her womb and fostered at her breast the beings who called me father;\nwhom I had watched over with delight and cherished with a fondness ever\nnew and perpetually growing.  It could not be the same!\n\n\"The breath of heaven that sustained me was withdrawn, and I sunk into\nmere man.  I leaped from the floor; I dashed my head against the wall; I\nuttered screams of horror; I panted after torment and pain.  Eternal fire\nand the bickerings of hell, compared with what I felt, were music and a\nbed of roses.\n\n\"I thank my God that this was transient; that He designed once more to\nraise me aloft.  I thought upon what I had done as a sacrifice to duty,\nand was calm.  My wife was dead; but I reflected that, although this\nsource of human consolation was closed, others were still open.  If the\ntransports of the husband were no more, the feelings of\nthe father had still scope for exercise.  When remembrance of their\nmother should excite too keen a pang, I would look upon my children and\nbe comforted.\n\n\"While I revolved these things new warmth flowed in upon my heart.  I was\nwrong.  These feelings were the growth of selfishness.  Of this I was not\naware; and, to dispel the mist that obscured my perceptions, a new light\nand a new mandate were necessary.\n\n\"From these thoughts I was recalled by a ray which was shot into the\nroom.  A voice spoke like that I had before heard: 'Thou hast done well;\nbut all is not done--the sacrifice is incomplete--thy children must be\noffered--they must perish with their mother!'\"\n\nThe misguided man obeys the voice; his children are destroyed in their\nbloom and innocent beauty.  He is arrested, tried for murder, and\nacquitted as insane.  The light breaks in upon him at last; he discovers\nthe imposture which has controlled him; and, made desperate by the full\nconsciousness of his folly and crime, ends the terrible drama by suicide.\n\nWieland is not a pleasant book.  In one respect it resembles the modern\ntale of Wuthering Heights: it has great strength and power, but no\nbeauty. Unlike that, however, it has an important and salutary moral.  It\nis a warning to all who tamper with the mind and rashly experiment upon\nits religious element.  As such, its perusal by the sectarian zealots of\nall classes would perhaps be quite as profitable as much of their present\nstudies.\n\n\n\n\nTHE POETRY OF THE NORTH.\n\nTHE Democratic Review not long since contained a singularly wild and\nspirited poem, entitled the Norseman's Ride, in which the writer appears\nto have very happily blended the boldness and sublimity of the heathen\nsaga with the grace and artistic skill of the literature of civilization.\nThe poetry of the Northmen, like their lives, was bold, defiant, and full\nof a rude, untamed energy.  It was inspired by exhibitions of power\nrather than of beauty.  Its heroes were beastly revellers or cruel and\nferocious plunderers; its heroines unsexed hoidens, playing the ugliest\ntricks with their lovers, and repaying slights with bloody revenge,--very\ndangerous and unsatisfactory companions for any other than the fire-\neating Vikings and redhanded, unwashed Berserkers.  Significant of a\nreligion which reverenced the strong rather than the good, and which\nregarded as meritorious the unrestrained indulgence of the passions, it\ndelighted to sing the praises of some coarse debauch or pitiless\nslaughter.  The voice of its scalds was often but the scream of the\ncarrion-bird, or the howl of the wolf, scenting human blood:--\n\n              \"Unlike to human sounds it came;\n               Unmixed, unmelodized with breath;\n               But grinding through some scrannel frame,\n               Creaked from the bony lungs of Death.\"\n\nIts gods were brutal giant forces, patrons of war, robbery, and drunken\nrevelry; its heaven a vast cloud-built ale-house, where ghostly warriors\ndrank from the skulls of their victims; its hell a frozen horror of\ndesolation and darkness,--all that the gloomy Northern imagination could\nsuperadd to the repulsive and frightful features of arctic scenery:\nvolcanoes spouting fire through craters rimmed with perpetual frost,\nboiling caldrons flinging their fierce jets high into the air, and huge\njokuls, or ice-mountains, loosened and upheaved by volcanic agencies,\ncrawling slowly seaward, like misshapen monsters endowed with life,--a\nregion of misery unutterable, to be avoided only by diligence in robbery\nand courage in murder.\n\nWhat a work had Christianity to perform upon such a people as the\nIcelanders, for instance, of the tenth century!--to substitute in rude,\nsavage minds the idea of its benign and gentle Founder for that of the\nThor and Woden of Norse mythology; the forgiveness, charity, and humility\nof the Gospel for the revenge, hatred, and pride inculcated by the Eddas.\nAnd is it not one of the strongest proofs of the divine life and power of\nthat Gospel, that, under its influence, the hard and cruel Norse heart\nhas been so softened and humanized that at this moment one of the best\nillustrations of the peaceful and gentle virtues which it inculcates is\nafforded by the descendants of the sea-kings and robbers of the middle\ncenturies?  No one can read the accounts which such travellers as Sir\nGeorge Mackenzie and Dr. Henderson have given us of the peaceful\ndisposition, social equality, hospitality, industry, intellectual\ncultivation, morality, and habitual piety of the Icelanders, without a\ngrateful sense of the adaptation of Christianity to the wants of our\nrace, and of its ability to purify, elevate, and transform the worst\nelements of human character.  In Iceland Christianity has performed its\nwork of civilization, unobstructed by that commercial cupidity which has\ncaused nations more favored in respect to soil and climate to lapse into\nan idolatry scarcely less debasing and cruel than that which preceded the\nintroduction of the Gospel.  Trial by combat was abolished in 1001, and\nthe penalty of the imaginary crime of witchcraft was blotted from the\nstatutes of the island nearly half a century before it ceased to disgrace\nthose of Great Britain.  So entire has been the change wrought in the\nsanguinary and cruel Norse character that at the present day no Icelander\ncan be found who, for any reward, will undertake the office of\nexecutioner.  The scalds, who went forth to battle, cleaving the skulls\nof their enemies with the same skilful hands which struck the harp at the\nfeast, have given place to Christian bards and teachers, who, like\nThorlakson, whom Dr. Henderson found toiling cheerfully with his beloved\nparishioners in the hay-harvest of the brief arctic summer, combine with\nthe vigorous diction and robust thought of their predecessors the warm\nand genial humanity of a religion of love and the graces and amenities of\na high civilization.\n\nBut we have wandered somewhat aside from our purpose, which was simply to\nintroduce the following poem, which, in the boldness of its tone and\nvigor of language, reminds us of the Sword Chant, the Wooing Song, and\nother rhymed sagas of Motherwell.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NORSEMAN'S RIDE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR.\n\n          The frosty fires of northern starlight\n          Gleamed on the glittering snow,\n          And through the forest's frozen branches\n          The shrieking winds did blow;\n          A floor of blue and icy marble\n          Kept Ocean's pulses still,\n          When, in the depths of dreary midnight,\n          Opened the burial hill.\n\n          Then, while the low and creeping shudder\n\n          Thrilled upward through the ground,\n          The Norseman came, as armed for battle,\n          In silence from his mound,--\n          He who was mourned in solemn sorrow\n          By many a swordsman bold,\n          And harps that wailed along the ocean,\n          Struck by the scalds of old.\n\n          Sudden a swift and silver shadow\n          Came up from out the gloom,--\n          A charger that, with hoof impatient,\n          Stamped noiseless by the tomb.\n          \"Ha! Surtur,!* let me hear thy tramping,\n          My fiery Northern steed,\n          That, sounding through the stormy forest,\n          Bade the bold Viking heed!\"\n\n          He mounted; like a northlight streaking\n          The sky with flaming bars,\n          They, on the winds so wildly shrieking,\n          Shot up before the stars.\n          \"Is this thy mane, my fearless Surtur,\n          That streams against my breast?\n\n          (*The name of the Scandinavian god of fire.)\n\n          Is this thy neck, that curve of moonlight\n          Which Helva's hand caressed?\n          \"No misty breathing strains thy nostril;\n          Thine eye shines blue and cold;\n          Yet mounting up our airy pathway\n          I see thy hoofs of gold.\n          Not lighter o'er the springing rainbow\n          Walhalla's gods repair\n          Than we in sweeping journey over\n          The bending bridge of air.\n\n          \"Far, far around star-gleams are sparkling\n          Amid the twilight space;\n          And Earth, that lay so cold and darkling,\n          Has veiled her dusky face.\n          Are those the Normes that beckon onward\n          As if to Odin's board,\n          Where by the hands of warriors nightly\n          The sparkling mead is poured?\n\n          \"'T is Skuld:* I her star-eye speaks the glory\n          That wraps the mighty soul,\n          When on its hinge of music opens\n          The gateway of the pole;\n          When Odin's warder leads the hero\n          To banquets never o'er,\n          And Freya's** glances fill the bosom\n          With sweetness evermore.\n\n          \"On! on! the northern lights are streaming\n          In brightness like the morn,\n          And pealing far amid the vastness\n          I hear the gyallarhorn ***\n          The heart of starry space is throbbing\n          With songs of minstrels old;\n          And now on high Walhalla's portal\n          Gleam Surtur's hoofs of gold.\"\n\n* The Norne of the future.\n\n** Freya, the Northern goddess of love.\n\n*** The horn blown by the watchers on the rainbow, the bridge over which\nthe gods pass in Northern mythology.","title":"The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII, Complete: The Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life, and Criticism","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":96830}