XV.
1897.
(D(b ^o\xt^ B^afUtB.
The Anti-slavery Struggle.
Old South Meeting-house, Boston. 1897.
^
i
THE
OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS
FIFTEENTH SERIES.
1897.
BOSTON: OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE.
1897.
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive
in 2011 witii funding from
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http://www.archive.org/details/antislaverystrugOOphil
INTRODUCTION.
The Old South Leaflets were prepared primarily for circulation among the attendants upon the Old South Lectures for Young People. The subjects of the Leaflets are immediately related to the subjects of the lectures, and they are intended to supplement the lectures and stimulate historical interest and inquiry among the young people. They are made up, for the most part, from original papers of the periods treated in the lectures, in the hope to make the men and the public life of the periods more clear and real.
The Old South Lectures for Young People were instituted in the sum- mer of 1883, as a means of promoting a more serious and intelligent atten- tion to historical studies, especially studies in American history among the young people of Boston. The success of the lectures has been so great as to warrant the hope that such courses may be sustained in many other cities of the country.
The Old South Lectures for 1883, intended to be strictly upon subjects in early Massachusetts History, but by certain necessities somewhat modi- fied, were as follows : " Governor Bradford and Governor Winthrop," by Edv^in D. Mead. " Plymouth," by Mrs. A. M. Diaz. " Concord," by Frank B. Sanborn. "The Town-meeting," by Prof. James K. PIosMER. " Franklin, the Boston Boy," by George M. Tow^le. " How to study American History," by Prof. G. Stanley Hall. "The Year 1777," by John Fiske. ''History in the Boston Streets," by Edv^ard Everett Hale. The Leaflets prepared in connection with these lectures consisted of (i) Cotton Mather's account of Governor Bradford, from the "Magnalia"; (2) the account of the arrival of the Pilgrims at Cape Cod, from Bradford's Journal; (3) an extract from Emerson's Concord Address in 1835; {4) extracts from Emerson, Samuel Adams, De Tocqueville, and others, upon the Town-meeting; (5) a portion of Franklin's Autobiogra- phy; (6) Carlyle on the Study of History; (7) an extract from Charles Sumner's oration upon Lafayette, etc.; (8) Emerson's poem, "Boston."
The lectures for 1884 were devoted to men representative of certain epochs or ideas in the history of Boston, as follows: " Sir Harry Vane, in New England and in Old England," by Edward Everett Hale, Jr. "John Harvard, and the Founding of Harvard College," by Edw^ard Channing, Ph.D. "The Mather Family, and the Old Boston Ministers," by Rev. Samuel J. Barrows. "Simon Bradstreet, and the Struggle for the Charter," by Prof. Marshall S. Snow. " Samuel Adams, and the Beginning of the Revolution," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. " Josiah Quincy, the Great Mayor," by Charles W. Slack. "Daniel Webster, the Defender of the Constitution," by Charles C. Coffin. "John A. Andrew, the Great War Governor," by Col. T. W. Higginson. The Leaflets prepared in connection with the second course were as follows : (i) Selections from Forster's essay on Vane, etc.; (2) an extract from Cotton Mather's " Sal Gentium " ; (3) Increase Mather's " Narrative of the Miseries of New England " ; (4) an original account of " The Revolu- tion in New England" in 1689; (5) a letter from Samuel Adams to John Adams, on Republican Government; (6) extracts from Josiah Quincy's
Boston Address of 1830; (7) Words of Webster; (8) a portion of Gover- nor Andrew's Address to the Massachusetts Legislature in January, 1861.
The lectures for 1885 were upon "The War for the Union," as follows : "Slavery," by William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. "The Fall of Sumter," by Col. T. W. Higginson. "The Monitor and the Merrimac," by Charlks C. Coffin. "The Battle of Gettysburg," by Col. Theodore A. Dodge. " Sherman's March to the Sea," by Gen. William Cogswell. "The Sanitary Commission," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. "Abraham Lincoln," by Hon. John D. Long. " General Grant," by Charles C. Coffin. The Leaflets accompanying these lectures were as follows: (i) Lowell's " Present Crisis," and Garrison's Salutatory in the Liberator of January i, 1831 ; (2) extract from Henry Ward Beecher's oration at Fort Sumter in 1865; (3) contemporary newspaper accounts of the engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac ; (4) extract from Edward Everett's address at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, with President Lincoln's address ; (5) extract from General Sherman's account of the March to the Sea, in his Memoirs; (6) Lowell's "Commemoration Ode"; (7) extract from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, the Emanci- pation Proclamation, and the Second Inaugural Address ; (8) account of the service in memory of General Grant, in Westminster Abbey, with Arch- deacon Farrar's address.
The lectures for 1886 were upon "The War for Independence," as follows : " Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry," by Edwin D. Mead. " Bunker Hill, and the News in England," by John Fiske. "The Declara- tion of Independence," by James MacAllister. " The Times that tried Men's Souls," by Albert B. Hart, Ph.D. " Lafayette, and Help from France," by Prof. Marshall S, Snow. "The Women of the Revolu- tion," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. " Washington and his Generals," by George M. Towle. " The Lessons of the Revolution for these Times," by Rev. Brooke FIerford. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) Words of Patrick Henry; (2) Lord Chatham's Speech, urging the removal of the British troops from Boston ; (3) extract from Webster's oration on Adams and Jefferson; (4) Thomas Paine's "Crisis," No. i; (5) extract from Edward Everett's eulogy on Lafayette ; (6) selections from the Letters of Abigail Adams ; (7) Lowell's "Under the Old Elm"; (8) extract from Whipple's essay on "Washington and the Principles of the Revolution."
The course for the summer of 1887 was upon "The Birth of the Nation," as follows : " How the Men of the English Commonwealth planned Constitutions," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. "How the American Colo- nies grew together," by John Fiske. " The Confusion after the Revolu- tion, by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D. "The Convention and the Constitu- tion," by Hon. John D. Long. "James Madison and his Journal," by Prof. E. B. Andrews. " How Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution," by Henry L. Southw^ick. "Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist^ " Washington's Part and the Nation's First Years," by Edward Everett Hale. The Leaflets prepared for these lectures were as follows: (i) Extract from Edward Everett Hale's lecture on " Puritan Politics in England and New England"; (2) "The English Colonies in America," extract from De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America"; (3) W^ash- ington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the States, on Disbanding the Army; (4) the Constitution of the United States; (5) "The Last Day of the Constitutional Convention," from Madison's Journal; (6) Patrick Henry's First Speech against the Constitution, in the Virginia Convention; (7) the Federalist, No. IX.; (8) Washington's First Inaugural Address.
The course for the summer of 1888 nad the general title of "The Story of the Centuries," the several lectures being as follows : " The Oreat Schools after the Dark Ages," by Ephraim Kmerton, Professor of History in Harvard University. " Richard the Lion-hearted and the Crusades," by Miss Nina Moore, author of " Pilgrims and Puritans." " The World which Uante knew," by Shattuck O. Hart well, Old South first prize essayist, 1883. " The Morning Star of the Reformation," by Rev. Philip S. MoxoM. "Copernicus and Columbus, or the New Heaven and the New Earth," by Prof. Edward S. Morse. " The People for whom Shakespeare wrote," by Charles Dudley Warner. "The Puritans and the English Revolution," by Charles H. Levermore, Professor of His- tory in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. " Lafayette and the Two Revolutions which he saw," by George Makepeace Towle.
The Old South Lectures are devoted primarily to American history. But it is a constant aim to impress upon the young people the relations of our own history to English and general European history. It was hoped that the glance at some striking chapters in the history of the last eight centuries afforded by these lectures would be a good preparation for the great anniversaries of 1889, and give the young people a truer feeling of the continuity of history. In connection with the lectures the young people were requested to fix in mind the following dates, observing that in most instances the date comes about a decade before the close of the cen- tury. An effort was made in the Leaflets for the year to make dates, which are so often dull and useless to young people, interesting, significant, and useful. — nth Century: Lanfranc, the great mediaeval scholar, who studied law at Bologna, was prior of the monastery of Bee, the most famous school in France in the nth century, and archbishop of Canterbury under William the Conqueror, died, 1089. 12th Cent.: Richard I. crowned, ii8g. 13th Cent. : Dante at the battle of Campaldino, the final overthrow of the Ghibellines in Italy, 1289. 14th Cent.: Wyclif died, 1384. 15th Cent.: America discovered, 1492. i6th Cent.: Spanish Armada, 1588. 17th Cent.: William of Orange lands in England, 1688. i8th Cent.: Washington inaugurated, and the Bastile fell, 1789. The Old South Leaflets for 1888, corresponding with the several lectures, were as follows : (i) "The Early History of Oxford," from Green's " History of the English People"; (2) "Richard Cceur de Lion and the Third Crusade," from the Chronicle of Geoffrey de Vinsauf; (3) "The Universal Empire," passages from Dante's jDe Moiiarchia ; (4) "The Sermon on the Mount," Wyclif's translation; (5) "Copernicus and the Ancient Astronomers," from Hum- boldt's " Cosmos " ; (6) "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada," from Cam- den's "Annals"; (7) "The Bill of Rights," 1689; (8) "The Eve of the French Revolution," from Carlyle. The selections are accompanied by very full historical and bibliographical notes, and it is hoped that the series will prove of much service to students and teachers engaged in the general survey of modern history.
The year 1889 being the centennial both of the beginning of our own Federal Government and of the French Revolution, the lectures for the year, under the general title of " America and France," were devoted en tirely to subjects in which the history of America is related to that of France, as follows : " Champlain, the Founder of Quebec," by Charles C. Coffin. "La Salle and the French in the Great West," by Rev. W. E. Griffis. " The Jesuit Missionaries in America," by Prof. James K. HosMER. "Wolfe and Montcalm: The Struggle of England and France for the Continent," by John Fiske. " Franklin in France,''
by George M. Towle. " The Friendship of Washington and Lafayette," Ijy Mrs. Auija Goold Woolson. "Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase," by Robert Morss Lovett, Old South prize essayist, 1888. "The \'ear 1789," by Rev. Edward P^verett Hale. The Leaflets for the year were as follows: (i) Verrazzano's account of his Voyage to Amer- ica ; (2) Marquette's account of his Discovery of the Mississippi ; (3) Mr. Parkman's Histories; (4) the Capture of Quebec, from Parkman's " Con- spiracy of Pontiac"; (5) selections from Franklin's Letters from France; (6) Letters of Washington and Lafayette; (7) the Declaration of Inde- pendence; (8) the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789.
The lectures for the summer of 1890 were on " The American Indians," as follows : " The Mound Builders," by Prof. George H. Perkins. " The Indians whom our Fathers Found," by Gen. H. B. Carrington. " John Eliot and his Indian Bible,"- by Rev. Edward G. Porter. " King Philip's War," by Miss Caroline C. Stecker, Old South prize essayist, 1889. "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," by Charles A. Eastman, M.D., of the Sioux nation. "A Century of Dishonor," by Herbert Welsh. "Among the Zunis," by J. Walter Fewkes, Ph.D. "The Indian at School," by Gen. S. C. Armstrong. The Leaflets were as follows : (i) extract from address by William Henry Harrison on the Mound Builders of the Ohio Valley; {2) extract from Morton's "New English Canaan" on the Manners and Customs of the Indians; (3) John Eliot's " Brief Narrative of the Prog- ress of the Gospel among the Indians of New England," 1670; (4) extract from Hubbard's "Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians" (1677) on the Beginning of King Philip's War; (5) the Speech of Pontiac at the Council at the River Ecorces, from Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac"; (6) extract from Black Hawk's autobiography, on the Cause of the Black Ha.wk War; (7) Coronado's Letter to Mendoza (1540) on his Explorations in New Mexico; (8) Eleazar Wheelock's Narrative (1762) of the Rise and Progress of the Indian School at Lebanon, Conn.
The lectures for 1891, under the general title of " The New Birth of the World," were devoted to the important movements in the age preceding the discovery of America, the several lectures being as follows : " The Results of the Crusades," by F. E. E. Hamilton, Old South prize essay- ist, 1883. " The Revival of Learning," by Prof. Albert B. Hart. "The Builders of the Cathedrals," by Prof. Marshall S. Snow. " The Changes which Gunpowder made," by Frank A. Hill. " The Decline of the Barons," by William Everett. "The Invention of Printing," by Rev. Edward G. Porter. " When Michael A.ngelo was a Boy," by Hamlin Garland. " The Discovery of America," by Rev. E. E. Hale. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) "The Capture of Jerusalem by the Cru- saders," from the Chronicle of William of Malmesbury; (2) extract from More's "Utopia"; (3) "The Founding of Westminster Abbey," from Dean Stanley's "Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey"; (4) "The Siege of Constantinople," from Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman P^mpire " ; (5) "Simon de Montfort," selections from Chronicles of the time; (6) " Caxton at Westminster," extract from Blade's Life of William Caxton; (7) "The Youth of Michael Angelo," from Vasari's " Lives of the Italian Painters"; (8) The Discovery of America," from Ferdinand Colum- bus's life of his father."
The lectures for 1892 were upon "The Discovery of America," as fol- lows : " What Men knew of the World before Columbus," by Prof. Edward S. iMorse. " Leif Erikson and the Northmen," by Rev. Edward A. HoRTON. "Marco Polo and his Book," by Mr. O. W\ Dimmick.
"The Story of Columbus," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. "Americus Vespucius and the Early Books about America," by Rev. E. G. Porter. "Cortes and Pizarro," by Prof. Chas. H. Levermore. " De Soto and Ponce de Leon," by Miss Ruth Ballou Whittemore, Old South prize essayist, 1891. "Spain, France, and England in America," by Mr. JofiN FiSKE. The Leaflets were as follows : (i) Strabo's Introduction to Geog- raphy; (2) the Voyages to Vinland, from the Saga of Eric the Red; (3) Marco Polo's account of Japan and Java; (4) Columbus's Letter to Gabriel Sanchez, describing his First Voyage; (5) Amerigo Vespucci's account of his First Voyage ; (6) Cortes's account of the City of Mexico ; (7) the Death of De Soto, from the "Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas"; (8) Early Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots.
The lectures for 1893 were upon „ The Opening of the Great West," as follows: "Spain and France in the Great West," by Rev. William Elliot Griffis. " The North-west Territory and the Ordinance of 1787," by John M. Merriam. " Washington's Work in Opening the West," by Edwin D. Mead. " Marietta and the Western Reserve," by Miss Lucy W. Warren, Old South prize essayist, 1892. " How the Great West was settled," by Charles C. Coi^fin. "Lewis and Clarke and the Explorers of the Rocky Mountains," by Rev. Thomas Van Ness. " California and Oregon," by Prof. Josiah Royce. " The Story of Chicago," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) De Vaca's account of his Journey to New Mexico, 1535; (2) Manasseh Cutler's De- scription of Ohio, 1787 ; (3) Washington's Journal of his Tour to the Ohio, 1770; (4) Garfield's Address on the North-west Territory and the Western Reserve; (5) George Rogers Clark's account of the Capture of Vincennes, 1779; (6) Jefferson's Life of Captain Meriwether Lewis; (7) Fremont's account of his Ascent of Fremont's Peak ; (8) Father Marquette at Chi- cago, 1673.
The lectures for 1894 were upon "The Founders of New England," as follows : " William Brewster, the Elder of Plymouth," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale. " William Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth," by Rev. William Elliot Griffis. " John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts," by Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge. "John Harvard, and the Founding of Harvard College," by Mr. William R. Thayer. "John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians," by Rev. James De Normandie. "John Cotton, the Minister of Boston," by Rp:v. John Cotton Brooks. " Roger WiUiams, the Founder of Rhode Island," by President E. Benjamin Andrews. "Thomas Hooker, the Founder of Connecticut," by Rev. Joseph H. Twichell. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) Brad- ford's Memoir of Elder Brewster; (2) Bradford's First Dialogue; (3) Winthrop's Conclusions for the Plantation in New England; (4) New England's First Fruits, 1643; (5) John Eliot's Indian Grammar Begun; (6) John Cotton's "God's Promise to his Plantation"; (7) Letters of Roger Williams to Winthrop ; (8) Thomas Hooker's " Way of the Churches of New England."
The lectures for 1895 were upon "The Puritans in Old England," as follows: "John Hooper, the First Puritan," by Edwin D. Mead; "Cam- bridge, the Puritan University," by William Everett; "Sir John Eliot and the House of Commons," by Prof. Albert B. Hart; " John Hamp- den and the Ship Money," by Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus ; " John Pym and the Grand Remonstrance," by Rev. John Cuckson; " Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale; "John Milton, the Puritan Poet," by John Fiske; " Henry Vane in Old England
8
and New luigiand," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) The English Bible, selections from the various versions; (2) Hooper's Letters to liullinger ; (3) Sir John Eliot's "Apology for Soc- rates"; (4) Ship-money Papers; (5) Pym's Speech against Strafford; (6) Cromwell's Second Speech ; (7) Milton's " Free Commonwealth "; (8) Sir Henry Vane's Defence.
The lectures for 1896 were upon " The American Historians," as follows: "Bradford and Winthrop and their Journals," by Mr. Edwin D. Mead; "Cotton Mather and his ' Magnalia,'" by Prof. Barrett Wendell; " Governor Hutchinson and his History of Massachusetts," by Prof. Charles H. Levermore; '-'Washington Irving and his Services for American History," by Mr. Richard Burton ; " Bancroft and his His- tory of the United States," by Pres. Austin Scott; " Prescott and his Spanish Histories," by Hon. Roger Wolcott; " Motley and his History of the Dutch Republic," by Rev. William Elliot Griffis ; " Parkman and his Works on France in America," by Mr. John Fiske. The Leaflets were as follows: (1) Winthrop's "Little Speech " on Liberty; (2) Cotton Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," from the " Magnalia " ; (3) Governor Hutchinson's Account of the Boston Tea Party; (4) Adrian Van der Donck's Description of the New Netherlands in 1655; (5) The Debate in the Constitutional Convention on the Rules of Suffrage in Congress; (6) Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella, on his Second Voyage; (7) The Dutch Declaration of Independence in 1581 ; (8) Captain John Knox's Account of the Battle of Quebec. The last five of these eight Leaflets illustrate the original material in which Irving, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman worked in the j^reparation of their histories.
The lectures for 1897 were upon "The Anti-slavery Struggle," as follows : " William Lloyd Garrison or Anti-slavery in the Newspaper," by William Lloyd Garrison, Jr.; "Wendell Phillips or Anti-slavery on the Platform," by Wendell Phillips Stafford; "Theodore Parker or Anti-slavery in the Pulpit," by Rev. Edv^^ard Everett Hale; "John G. Whittier or Anti-slavery in the Poem," by Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer; "Harriet Beecher Stowe or Anti-slavery in the Story," by Miss Maria L. Baldw^in; "Charles Sumner or Anti-slavery in the Senate," by MooRFiELD Storey; "John Brown or Anti-slavery on the Scaffold," by Frank B. Sanborn; "Abraham Lincoln or Anti-slavery Trium- phant," by Hon. John D.Long. The Leaflets were as follows : (i) The First Number of The Liberator; (2) Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of Garrison; (3) Theodore Parker's Address on the Dangers from Slavery; (4) Whittier's Account of the Anti-slavery Convention of 1833 ; (5) Mrs. Stowe's Story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; (6) Sumner's Speech on the Crime against Kansas; (7) Words of John Brown ; (8) The First Lincoln and Douglas Debate.
The Leaflets for 1883 are now mostly out of print. Those of 1884 and subsequent years, bound in paper covers, may ])e procured ^mitttisemi^gf^m>%- ooiiiiteiinwi I uliimi Address Directors of Old South Work, Old South Meeting-house, Boston.
The Old South I^eaflets, which have been published during the last fifteen years, in connection with these annual courses of historical lect- ures at the Old South Meeting-house, have attracted so much attention and proved of so much service that the Directors have entered upon the
9
publication of the Leaflets for general circulation, with the needs of schools, colleges, private clubs, and classes especially in mind. The Leaflets are prepared by Mr. Edwin D. Mead. They are largely reproductions of im- portant original papers, accompanied by useful historical and bibliographi- cal notes. They consist, on an average, of sixteen pages, and are sold at the low price of five cents a copy, or four dollars per hundred. The aim is to bring them within easy reach of everybody. The Old South Work, founded by Mrs. Mary Hemenway, and still sustained by provision of her will, is a work for the education of the people, and especially the education of our young people, in American history and politics ; and its promoters believe that few things can contribute better to this end than the wide cir- culation of such leaflets as those now undertaken. It is hoped that pro- fessors in our colleges and teachers everywhere will welcome them for use in their classes, and that they may meet the needs of the societies of young men and women now happily being organized in so many places for histori- cal and political studies. Some idea of the character of these Old South Leaflets may be gained from the following list of the subjects- of the first eighty-five numbers, which are now ready. It will be noticed that most of the later numbers are the same as certain numbers in the annual series. Since 1890 they are essentially the same, and persons ordering the Leaflets need simply observe the following numbers.
No. 1. The Constitution of the United States. 2. The Articles of Confederation. 3. The Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's Farewell Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's " Healing Question." 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Con- necticut, 1638. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's Inaugurals. 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 12. The Federalist, Nos. i and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 14. The Constitution of Ohio. 15. Washington's Circular Letter to the Gover- nors of the States, 1783. 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison, 1784. 17. Verrazzano's Voyage, 1524, 18. The Constitution of Switz- erland. 19. The Bill of Rights, 1689. 20. Coronado's Letter to Men- doza, 1540. 21. Eliot's Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel among the Indians, 1670. 22. Wheelock's Narrative of the Rise of the Indian School at Lebanon, Conn., 1762. 23. The Petition of Rights, 1628. 24. The Grand Remonstrance. 25. The Scottish National Covenants. 26. The Agreement of the People. 27. The Instrument of Government. 28. Cromwell's First Speech to his Parliament. 29. The Discovery of America, from the Life of Columbus by his son, Ferdinand Columbus. 30. Strabo's Introduction to Geography. 31. The Voyages to Vinland, from the Saga of Eric the Red. 32. Marco Polo's Account of Japan and Java. 33. Columbus's Letter to Gabriel Sanchez, describing the First Voyage and Discovery. 34. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his First Voyage. 35. Cortes's Account of the City of Mexico. 36. The Death of De Soto, from the *' Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas." 37. Early Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots. 38. Henry Lee's Funeral Oration on Washington. 39. De Vaca's Account of his Journey to New Mexico, ^535- *^- Manasseh Cutler's Description of Ohio, 1787. 41. Washing- ton's Journal of his Tour to the Ohio, 1770. 42. Garfield's x\ddress on the North-west Territory and the Western Reserve. 43. George Rogers Clark's Account of the Capture of Vincennes, 1779. 44. Jefferson's Life of Captain Meriwether Lewis. 45. Fremont's Account of his Ascent of Fremont's Peak. 46. Father Marquette at Chicago, 1673. ^^ - Washing-
lO
ton's Account of the Army at Cambridge, 1775. 48. Bradford's Memoir of Elder Brewster. 49. ])radford's First Dialogue. 50. Winthrop's "Con- clusions for the I'lantation in New England." 51. " New England's First P'ruits," 1643. ^2. John Eliot's "Indian Grammar Begun." 53. John Cotton's "God's Promise to his Plantation." 54. Letters of Roger Will- iams to Winthrop. 55. Thomas Hooker's " Way of the Churches of New England." 56, The Monroe Doctrine: President Monroe's Message of 1823. 57. The English Bible, selections from the various versions. 58. Hooper's Letters to ]]ullinger. 59. Sir John Eliot's "Apology for Soc- rates." 60. Ship-money Papers. 61. Pym's Speech against Strafford. 62. Cromwell's Second Speech. 63. Milton's "A Free Commonwealth." 64. Sir Henry Vane's Defence. 65. Washington's Addresses to the Churches. 66. Wmthrop's " Little Speech " on Liberty. 67. Cotton Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," from the " Magnalia." 68. Governor Hutchinson's Account of the Boston Tea Party. 69. Adrian Van der Donck's Description of New Netherlands in 1655. "^^^ "^^^ Debate in the Constitutional Convention on the Rules of Suffrage in Congress. 71. Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella, on his Second Voyage. 72. The Dutch Declaration of Independence in 1581. 73. Captain John Knox's Account of the Battle of Quebec. 74. Hamilton's Report on the Coinage. 75. William Penn's Plan for the Peace of Europe. 76. Wash- ington's Words on a National University. 77. Cotton Mather's Lives of Ikadford and Winthrop. 78. The First Number of The Liberator. 79. Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of Garrison. 80. Theodore Parker's Ad- dress on the Dangers from Slavery. 81. Whittier's Account of the Anti- slavery Convention of 1833. 82. Mrs. Stowe's Story of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 83. Sumner's Speech on the Crime against Kansas. 84. The Words of John Brown. 85. The First Lincoln and Douglas Debate. .
The leaflets are also furnished in bound volumes, each volume contain- ing twenty-five leaflets: Vol. i.,.Nos. 1-25; Vol. ii., 26-50; Vol. iii., 51-75. Price per volume, $1.50. Title-pages with table of contents wall be fur- nished to all purchasers of the leaflets who wish to bind them for them- selves. Address Directors of the Old South Worky Old South Meeting- house, ]]oston.
It is hoped that this list of Old South Lectures and Leaflets will meet the needs of many chiles and classes engaged in the study of history, as well as the needs of individual students, serving as a table of topics. The subjects of the lectures in the various courses will be found to have a logical sequence; and the leaflets accompanying the several lectures can be used profitably in connection, containing as they do full historical notes and references to the best literature on the subjects of the lectures.
<©Iti J^outl) HeafletjS
No. 78.
The Liberator.
Vol. I. No I.
William Lloyd Garrison and
Isaac Knapp, Piiblishei^s.
Boston, Massachusetts — Saturday, January i, 1831
Our Country is the World — Our Co7intrymcn arc Alan kind.
THE SALUTATION.
To date my being from the opening year,
I come, a stranger in this busy sphere,
Where some I meet percha,nce may pause and ask,
What is my name, my purpose, or my task ?
My name is ' LIBERATOR ' ! I propose To hurl my shafts at freedom's deadliest foes ! My task is hard — for I am charged to save Man. from Iris brother ! — to redeem the slave !
Ye who may hear, and yet condemn my cause. Say, shall the best of Nature's holy laws Be trodden down .^ and shall her open veins Plow but for cement to her offspring's chains ?
Art thou a parent ? shall thy children be
Rent from thy breast, like 1:)ranches from the tree,
And doom'd to servitude, in helplessness,
On other shores, and thou ask no redress ?
Thou, in whose bosom glows the sacred flame Of filial love, say, if the tyrant came, To force thy parent shrieking from thy sight. Would thy heart bleed — because thy face is white?
Art thou a 1:)rother ? shall thy sister twine - Her feeble arm in agony on thine, And thou not lift the heel, nor aim the blow At him who bears her off to life-long wo ?
The Liberator is published weekly at No. 6 Mercliants' Hall. \Vm. L. Garrison, Editor. Stephen Foster, Printer. Terms, two dollars per annum, payable in advance.
Art thou a sister ? will no desp'rate cry
Awake thy sleeping brother, while thine eye
l5eholds the fetters locking on the limb
Stretched out in rest, which hence, must end, for him ?
Art thou a lover ? — no ! naught e'er was found In lover's breast, save cords of love, that bound Man to his kind ! then, thy profession save ! P'orswear affection, or release thy slave !
Thou who art kneeling at thy Maker's shrine. Ask if Heaven takes such offerings as thine ! If in thy bonds the son of Afric sighs. Far higher than thy prayer his groan w^ill rise !
God is a God of mercy, and would see
The prison-doors unbarr'd — the bondmen free !
lie is a God of truth, with purer eyes
Than to behold the oppressor's sacrifice !
Avarice, thy cry and thine insatiate thirst
Make man consent to see his brother cursed !
Tears, sweat and blood thou drink'st, but in their turn,
They shall cry 'more! ' wdiile vengeance bids thee burn.
The Lord hath said it ! — who shall him gainsay ?
He says, ' the wicked, they shall go away '
Who are the wicked ? — Contradict wdio can, They are the oppressors of their fellow man !
Aid me, Np:w EjN gland! 'tis my hope in you Which gives me strength my purpose to pursue ! Do you not hear your sister States resound With Afric's cries to have her sons unbound ?
TO THE PUBLIC.
In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing 'The Liberator' in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference. Since that time, the removal of the Genius of LTniversal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has rendered less imperious the establishment of a similar periodical in that quarter.
During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states — and pa7'ticiila7'ly in Neit^-England — than at the
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south. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves. Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty. That standard is now unfurled ; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe — yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let southern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble — let their northern apologists tremble — let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.
1 deem the publication of my original Prospectus ^ unneces- sary, as it has obtained a wide circulation. The principles therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisan of any man. In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties.
Assenting to the ' self-evident truth ' maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, ' that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain in- alienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park-street Church, on the P'ourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unre- flectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in Sep- tember, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied.
I am aware, that many object to the severity of my lan- guage ; but is there not cause for severity ? I 7vill be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No ! no ! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moder-
* I would here offer my grateful acknowledgments to those editors who so promptly and generously inserted my Proposals. They must give me an available opportunity to repay their liberality.
ate alarm ; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher ; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the lire into which it has fallen ; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipa- tion by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipitancy of my measures, The charge is not true. On this question my influence, — humble as it is, — is felt at this moment to a con- siderable extent, and shall be felt in coming years — not per- niciously, but beneficially — not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard ' the fear of man which bringeth a snare,' and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power.
And here I close with this fresh dedication :
' Oppression ! I have seen thee, face to face,
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow ;
But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now —
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place
Of deep abhorrence ! Scorning the disgrace
Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow,
I also kneel — but with far other bow
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base : —
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins,
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand.
Thy brutaUzing sway — till Afric's chains
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, —
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod :
Such is the vow I take — so help me God ! '
WILLI AM. LLOYD GARRISON.
Boston, January i, 1831.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
What do many of the professed enemies of slavery mean, by heaping all their reproaches upon the south, and asserting that the crime of oppression is not national ? What power but Congress — and Congress by the authority of the American people — has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia? That
5
District is rotten with the plague, and stinks in the nostrils of the world. Though it is the Seat of our National Government, — open to the daily inspection of foreign ambassadors, — and ostensibly opulent with the congregated wisdom, virtue and intelligence of the land, — yet a fouler spot scarcely exists on earth. In it the worst features of slavery are exhibited ; and as a mart for slave traders, it is unequalled. These facts are well known to our two or three hundred representatives, but no remedy is proposed ; they are known, if not minutely at least generally, to our whole population, — but who calls for redress ?
Hitherto, a few straggling petitions, relative to this subject, have gone into Congress ; but they have been too few to denote much public anxiety, or to command a deferential notice. It is certainly time that a vigorous and systematic effort should be made, from one end of the country to the other, to pull down that national monument of oppression which towers up in the District. We do hope that the ' earthquake voice ' of the people will this session shake the black fabric to its foundation.
The following petition is now circulating in this city, and has obtained several valuable signatures. A copy may be found at the Bookstore of Lincoln & Edmands, No. 59 Washington- street, for a few days longer, where all the friends of the cause are earnestly invited to go and subscribe.
Petition to Congress for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of
ColiLmbia.
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, the petition of the undersigned citizens of Boston in Massachusetts and its vicinity respectfully represents —
That your petitioners are deeply impressed with the evils arising from the existence of slavery in the District of Columbia. While our Declara- tion of Independence boldly proclaims as self-evident truths, ' that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' — at the very seat of government human beings are born, almost daily, whom the laws pronounce to be from their birth, not equal to other men, and who are, for life, deprived of liberty and the free piLrsitit of happiness. The inconsistency of the conduct of our nation with its political creed, has brought down upon it the just and severe reprehension of foreign nations.
In addition to the other evils flowing from slavery, both moral and political, which it is needless to specify, circumstances have rendered this District a common resort for traders in human flesh, who bring into it their captives in chains, and lodge them in places of confinement, previously to their being carried to the markets of the south and west.
From the small number of slaves in the District of Columbia, and the moderate proportion which they bear to the free population there, the diffi- culties, which in most of the slaveholding states oppose the restoration of this degraded class of men to their natural rights, do not exist.
Your petitioners therefore pray that Congress will, without delay, take such measures for the immediate or gradual abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, and for preventing the bringing of slaves into that District for purposes of traffic, in such mode, as may be thought advisable ; and that suitable provision be made for the education of all free blacks and colored children in the District, thus to preserve them from continuing, even as free men, an unenlightened and degraded caste.
If any individual should be unmoved, either by the petition or the introductory remarks, the following article will startle his apathy, unless he be morally dead — dead — dead. Read it — read it ! The language of the editor is remarkable for its energy, considering the quarter whence it emanates. After all, we are not the only fanatics in the land !
[From the Washington Spectator, of Dec. 4.]
THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE CAPITAL,
'The tender ties of father, husband, friend.
All bonds of nature in that moment end,
And each endures, while yet he drawls his breath,
A stroke as fatal as the scythe of death ;
They lose in tears, the far receding shore,
But not the thought that they must meet no more ! '
It is well, perhaps, the American people should know, that while we reiterate our boasts of liberty in the ears of the nations, and send back across the Atlantic our shouts of joy at the triumph of liberty in France, we ourselves are busily en- gaged in the work of oppression. Yes, let it be known to the citizens of America, that at the very time when the procession which contained the President of the L^nited States and his Cabinet was marching in triumph to the Capitol, to celebrate the victory of the French people over their oppressors, another kind of procession was marching another way, and that con- sisted of colored human beings, handcuffed in pairs, and driven along by what had the appearance of a man on a horse ! A similar scene was repeated on Saturday last ; a dnwe consisting of males and females chained in couples, starting from Roby's tavern on foot, for Alexandria, where, with others, they are to embark on board a slave-ship in waiting to convey them to the
South. While we are writing, a colored man enters our room, and begs us to inform him if we can point out any person who will redeem his friend now immured in Alexandria jail, in a state of distress amounting almost to distraction. "^ He has been a faithful servant of a revolutionary officer who recently died — has been sold at auction — parted from affectionate parents — - and from decent and mourning friends. Our own servant, with others, of whom we can speak in commendatory terms, went down to Alexandria to bid him farewell, but they were refused admission to his cell, as was said 'the sight of his friends made him feel so.' He bears the reputation of a pious man. It is but a few weeks since we saw a ship with her cargo of slaves in the port of Norfolk, Va. ; on passing up the river, saw another ship off Alexandria, swarming wdth the victims of human cupidity. Such are the scenes enacting in the heart of the American nation. Oh patriotism ! where is thy indignation ? Oh philanthropy! where is thy grief ? Oh shame, where is THY blush ? Well may the generous and noble minded O'Connell say of the American citizen, ' I tell him he is a hypocrite. Look at the stain in your star-spangled standard that was never struck down in battle. I turn from the Declaration of American Independence^ and I tell him that lie has declared to God and man a lie^ and before God and rnan I arraign him as a hypocrite,' Yes, thou soul of fire, glorious O'Connell, if thou could but witness the spectacles in Washington that make the genius of liberty droop her head in shame, and weep her tears away in deep silence and undissembled sorrow^, you w^ould lift your voice even to tones of thunder, but you would make your- self heard. Where is the O'Connell of this republic that will plead for the Emancipation of the District of Columbia ? These shocking scenes must cease from amongst us, or w^e must cease to call ourselves free ; ay, and we must cease to expect the mercy of God — we must prepare for the coming judgment of Him who, as our charter acknowledges, made all men 'free and equal ! '
When a premium of Fifty Dollars is offered for the best theatrical poem, our newspapers advertise the fact with great unanimity. The following is incomparably more important.
* At the same time this man was sold, another — a husband — was knocked off. The tears and agonies of his wife made such an impression on the mind of a generous spectator, that he bought him back.
PREMIUM.
A Premium of Fiity Dollars, the Donation of a benevolent individual in the State of Maine, and now deposited with the Treasurer of the Pennsyl- vania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, &c. is offered to the author of the best Treatise on the following subject : ' The Duties of Ministers and Churches of all denominations to avoid the stain of Slavery, and to make the holding of Slaves a barrier to communion and church membership.'
The composition to be directed (post paid) to either of the subscribers — the name of the author in a separate sealed paper, which will be destroyed if his work shall be rejected.
Six months from this date are allowed for the purpose of receiving the Essays.
The publication and circulation of the preferred Tract will be regulated by the Pennsylvania Society above mentioned.
W. Rawle, )
J. Preston, [ dwimittee,
Thomas Shipley, ) Philadelphia, Oct. ii.
MY SECOND BALTIMORE TRIAL.
I have delayed making any public strictures upon this mock trial, for various considerations ; and, in consequence of the length of the following report of it, (which, I will here barely remark, is as rich in embellishments as the ingenuity of a ser- vile reporter could make it,) I am unable, in the present number, to give my defence. Next week, however, it shall come ; in which, due notice shall be taken of Capt. Nicholas Brown's remarkable affidavit. To screen his employer from merited reprehension, he has chosen to invoke upon himself the guilt of the wicked transaction. Let him take the consequences.
Is the inquiry made, how do I bear up under my adversities ? I answer — like the oak — like the Alps — unshaken, storm- proof. Opposition, and abuse, and slander, and prejudice, and judicial tyranny, are like oil to the flame of my zeal. I am not discouraged ; I am not dismayed ; but bolder and more confl- dent than ever. I say to my persecutors, — ' I bid you defiance.' Let the courts condemn me to fine and imprisonment for denouncing oppression : Am I to be frightened by dungeons and chains ? can they humble my spirit ? do I not remember that I am an American citizen, and, as a citizen, a freeman, and what is more, a being accountable to God, I will not hold
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my peace on the subject of African oppression. If need be. who would not die a martyr to such a cause ?
' Eternal spirit of the chainless mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty ! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart, — The heart which love of thee alone can bind ; And when thy sons to fetters are consigned, — To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.'
[From the Baltimore Gazette.]
BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT,
OCTOBER TERM, 183O.
Francis Todd, ) a x- ^.i
^ ' ( Action on the case
WilHam Lloyd Garrison. j for a libel.
This cause was tried at the present term, before Archer, Chief Judge ; the evidence on the trial was in substance as follows :
In October, 1829, the ship Francis, belonging to the plaintiff, who is a resident merchant at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on her voyage from Baltimore to New Orleans, took on board at Herring Bay in the Chesapeak, as passengers, about eighty negroes, purchased by Mr. George B. Milligan, formerly of the State of Delaware, but for some years a Planter in Louisiana, from two gentlemen in Calvert County, for his own use. The agreement for the transportation of these people was made by Mr. Milligan, with Captain Brown who commanded the vessel, and Mr. Henry Thompson, to whom she was consigned in Baltimore. The Plaintiff, the owner, was not consulted nor apprised of the destination or employment of the ship, until she was about to sail. By the agreement, these people were to be found in provisions by the Captain ; but, solicitous for their comfort, Mr, Milligan had directed, before the vessel left Balti- more, that certain extra articles should be purchased for their use, such as blankets, shoes, hats, whiskey, sugar, tea, and a quantity of cotton shirting to be made up by the women during the passage, for themselves and children, with needles, thread, &c. amounting to $400. The provisions on board were all of the best quality: — for instance, prime Pork, which cost $12, and Mess Beef, which cost $11 per barrel.
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Accompanied by Mr, Milligan, these people came on board cheerfully and willingly. Their former proprietors having been compelled to part with them, they rejoiced at the prospect of still living together, instead of being separated, as they would have been if otherwise disposed of. During the voyage there was not a single instance of complaint or discontent among them, — their accommodations on board were the same as those of the steerage passengers ; — no restraint was imposed on them — no confinement resorted to, no fetters used. They arrived safely at their new home, about twenty miles below New Orleans, and when Captain Brown visited the Plantation, shortly before his return to Baltimore, he found them perfectly contented.
On the 2oth November, some weeks after the ship had left Baltimore, the following article appeared in a newspaper printed in this city, ' edited and published by Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison,' called 'Genius of Universal Eman- cipation.'
BLACK LLST.
HORRIBLE NEWS — DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN.
THE SHIP FRANCIS.
This ship, as I mentioned in our last number, sailed a few weeks since from this port with a cargo of slaves for the New Orleans market. I do not repeat the fact because it is a rare instance of domestic piracy, or because the case was attended Avith extraordinary circumstances ; for the horrible traffic is briskly carried on, and the transportation was effected in the ordinary manner. I merely wish to illustrate New England humanity and morality. I am resolved to cover with thick infamy all who are con- cerned in this nefarious business.
I have stated that the ship Francis hails from my native place, New- buryport (Massachusetts,) is commanded by a yankee captain, and owned by a townsman named
FRANCIS TODD
Of Captain Nicholas Brow'n I should have expected better conduct. It is no worse to fit out piratical cruisers, or to engage in the foreign slave trade, than to pursue a similar trade along our coasts ; and the men who have the wickedness to participate therein, for the purpose of heaping up wealth, should be ^(^^sentenced to solitary confinement for LIFE ;<,^:^^' they are the enemies of their oiuii species — highway robbers and nnirderers : and their final doom will be, unless they speedily repent, to occupy the lowest depths of perdition. I know that our laws make a dis- tinction in this matter. I know that the man who is allowed to freight his vessel with slaves at home, for a distant market, would be thought worthy of death if he should take a similar freight on the coast of Africa ; but I know, too, that this distinction is absurd, and at war with the common sense of mankind, and that God and good men regard it with abhorrence.
1 1
I recollect that it was always a mystery in Newburyport how Mr. Todd contrived to make profitable voyages to New (3rleans and other places, when other merchants, with as fair an opportunity to make money, and sending at the same ports at the same time, invariably made fewer success- ful speculations. The mystery seems to be unravelled. Any man can gather up riches, if he does not care by what means they are obtained.
The Francis carried off seventy-Ji^'c slaves, chained in a narrow space between decks. Captain Brown originally intended to take one hitjidrcd a7id fifty of these unfortunate creatures ; but another hard-hearted ship- master underbid him in the price of passage for the remaining moiety. Captain B., we believe, is a masoii. Where was his charity or brotherly kindness ?
I respectfully request the editor of the Newburyport Herald to copy this article, or publish a statement of the facts contained herein — not for the purpose of giving information to Mr. Todd? for I shall send him a copy of this number, but in order to enlighten the public mind in that quarter.
— G.
At the succeeding February term of Baltimore City Court, the Grand Jury presented this publication as a 'gross and malicious libel.' They afterwards found an Indictment against both the Editors, which was at the same term tried against Garrison alone — Lundy being out of the State. The Jury, without hesitation, found a verdict of guilty ; and after an in- effectual attempt to arrest the judgment, upon technical objec- tions, the Court imposed a fine of $50. This the Defendant was either unable or unwilling to pay, and he was therefore committed, and remained in jail for some time, till it was satisfied.
A private action for this libel had been instituted by Mr. Todd against both the Editors ; but in consequence of Lundy's absence, the process was served only on Garrison, who was in fact the writer of the article. After his conviction in the City Court, he was distinctly informed through his Counsel, that as Mr. Todd had no vindictive feelings to gratify, the suit would be withdrawn, if a proper apology, and recantation of the calumny were put upon record. This offer Mr. Garrison not only refused, but while in confinement, published a pamphlet containing, with his report of the trial, a republication of the libel, and a number of gross insinuations against the Chief Judge of the Court.
At the trial of the civil suit, the publication having been proved, Mr. Jones, the Pilot of the Francis, testified that the negroes were taken on board at Herring Bay, and that the ship then proceeded to Annapolis to obtain the necessary Custom House papers : — that they came on board cheerfully and
12
willingly — and that while he remained with them, which w^as until he left the Capes, they appeared to be contented and happy. That unusual attention seemed to have been given to their comfort and accommodation ; — their births were com- modious, the w^omen and children being separated from the men ; — their provisions abundant and of good quality ; — extra stores provided for them, w^iich were distributed daily to them by Captain Brown, and that the clothing wdiich had been furnished by Mr. Milligan, was amply sufficient for their wants. He further deposed that they were treated with kindness by Captain Brown; — that they were under no restraint, but were permitted to go about- the ship by day and night, as other passengers, and that no chains, hand-cuffs, or other fetters, were used in anv instance, nor did he believe that there were any on board the vessel.
The deposition of Capt. Nicholas Brown was then read by consent, in which he stated —
That about the middle of the month of September, 1829, he came on to Baltimore, to take charge of the ship P^rancis, of Newburyport, belonging to Francis Todd, merchant of that place, the said ship being consigned for freight or otherwise to Henry Thompson, merchant of this city — That in the month of October following, Mr. Thompson and himself engaged to carry to New Orleans on board the ship Francis, from seventy- five to one hundred black people, for account of Mr, Milligan, a very respectable planter on the banks of the Mississippi ; and that they made this engagement without consulting the owner of the ship, neither could he have knowm it, until about the time of her sailing from Baltimore — That Mr. Thompson and himself were the Agents of the Francis in Baltimore — That he sailed from the port of Baltimore with the said ship about the 20th of October, having no slaves on board, and proceeded down the Chesapeak Bay as far as Herring Cove, where he received on board of the Francis eighty-eight black passengers in families, all brought up together on tw^o estates in Calvert County ; and that they were all perfectly willing to come on board the ship — nor was any one required to compel them, they having a perfect understanding wdth their new^ master, Milligan, who was present at the time of their embarkation, that they were not to be sold again at New Orleans — but that he intended them all for his own estate. That Mr. Thompson and Deponent provided for them on board the ship, previous to
13
her departure from Baltimore, the best provisions ; in addition to which, by request of Mr. MilUgan, Mr. Thompson put on board, expressly for their use, tea, coffee, sugar, molasses, whiskey, tobacco, &c. &c. with every kind of convenience for using the same, and clothing of every description to make them comfortable, which was dealt out to them day after day, while on the passage, at my discretion ; that they all expressed much satisfaction at their treatment w^hile on board the ship ; that they had their perfect liberty on board ; that their conduct was good at all times ; that they needed not chains nor confine- ment, nor was any one of them put in chains or confined during the whole passage. That after Deponent took them on board, he returned up the Bay as far as Annapolis, where they were all examined by an officer of the Customs, and regularly cleared from that port for New Orleans. That about the middle of November, he landed them all in good health and spirits, on the plantation for which they were intended, belong- ing to Mr. Milligan, 17 or 20 miles below the city of New Orleans. That their quarters on board the ship Francis were large and not narrow^ that all of them had good comfortable sleeping places or berths, and that they were well provided wdth a plenty of blankets, «S^c. &c. — that the ship's hatches were never closed on them during the whole passage for any other purpose than to protect them from rough and wet weather and make them comfortable. Finally, from the very high opinion Deponent has of the honor and integrity of Mr. Milli- gan, their owner, he considers his act in carrying these people away as one of the best of his life.
Let it be remembered, that he was not the cause of their bondage, but that he has actually relieved their condition in some degree by carrying them to a climate much more con- genial to their nature. Mr Francis Todd and Deponent were brought up together at Newburyport, from children, and he has known both him and his business up to this time, and never knew him to carry slaves in any of his vessels ; and he verily and conscientiously believes he never had a slave or slaves carried in any vessel of his to any part of the world, except in the solitary instance of the ship Francis aforesaid ; and he knows he never owned a slave in his life.
Nicholas Brown.
Sworn and subscribed to before Samuel Pickering,
A Justice of the Peace of the State of Maryland, for the City of Baltimore, on the 9th of September, 1830.
14
Here the case closed on the part of the Plaintiff. The de- fendant did not attempt any justification of the truth of the matters published ; — he examined no witnesses, and the cause having been submitted to the Jury, they returned a verdict for the Plaintiff, with damages of One Thousand Dollars.
A late Convention of the Manumission Society of North Carolina unanimously adopted the following report of a Com- mittee appointed to investigate the subject. Coming from a slave state, it is doubly gratifying to my feelings.
' The Committee to whom was referred the communication from the Chair, report,
1. That it is the opinion of your committee that notliing libellous was contained in the article for which William L. Garrison was indicted and convicted.
2. That Mr, Garrison did not surpass that liberty which is guaranteed to the press by the constitution of the United States.
3. Your committee recommend that the Association enter their protest against the illegal and unconstitutional decision in Garrison's case.
4. That the communication entire be published in the Greensborough Patriot.'
The following commentary upon the trial was published in the Journal and Tribune of this city, some weeks since ; and, emanating from the pen of the editor of that paper — a lawyer — is entitled to much consideration.
We have read a report of the case of P>ancis Todd, of Newburyport, vs. W. L. Garrison, late editor of a Baltimore anti-slavery paper, for a libel, and we cannot but think the verdict of the jury doubtful in law, or if legal, unreasonable in point of damages. Mr Garrison edited a paper, devoted, we believe, from the best motives to the best of purposes. The charge that he made against Mr Todd, was, that he transported in his vessel a cargo of slaves from Maryland to Louisiana, there to be sold in the market, and that they, or a part of them, were in irons, or were put in irons during the passage, and were otherwise treated harshly. For this, Mr Garrison declared that he would cover Mr Todd ' with thick infamy.' Mr G. also inferred that Mr T. had made his property by carrying such freights.
W^e presume that the main fact of freighting a ship with negroes from one port of the United States to another, would be no libel, even if false^ because this is a legal and usual business, with which it is no more libellous to charge a man, than to say he had caught a freight of fish and carried them to market.— The main fact, however, was admitted to be true ; but it was denied that the slaves were carried to be sold, they being already sold to a humane master [Mr Milligan.] It was also denied that the slaves'were ironed or otherwise harshly treated. These denials not having been re- joined to by the defendant, and having in fact been supported by the evidence of the captain, and one or t\lo others, must be taken as correct,
15
and Mr Garrison's statements as erroneous, in the subordinate particulars of the irons, the harsh treatment, and intended sale at New Orleans.
It does seem to us, that to say a man puts a slave in irons, whips him or sells him, is ViO\^ pri?na^ facie a libel, even though false; because these are lawful acts for slave-owners to do, and they are done every day. If the writing state that such acts were done without cause, or to an unreasonable extent where there was cause, such writing, if untrue, might be a libel.
At all events, it was and is evident that Mr Garrison's intent and aim was to direct the force of public opinion against the sale and bondage of human beings 'born free and equal' (as a cei'tain DeclcD'ation says,) and against all ^Qxson?>, particularly Yankees, who in any way co-operate in it, or profit by it. In so doing, he attacked the laws more than he did Mr. Todd, or at least equally with him, for he charged Mr T. with nothing which the laws of any State or of the United States do not allow under certain circumstances, and no circumstances whatsoever were stated ; thus leaving the case open for the reader and the court to suppose justifiable as readily as unjustifiable cause. Here the maxim, that every thing is to be construed in the milder sense, was applicable. Mr Garrison had a perfect right, and in our opinion deserves praise for ' covering with infamy,' as ' thick ' as he could, any slave dealer, slave owner, [volnntai-ily becoming or remaining such) or slave agent or driver in the world. All the infamy w^hich he could heap upon them on the general grounds of violating the laws of God and nature, and justice and humanity, in trading in human flesh, or putting men in bondage, or holding them there longer than is absolutely necessary, was and is just, lawful, praiseworthy and profitable to the Commonwealth, and no libel at all ; and we doubt very much whether the particular allegation of putting in irons, treating Jiarshly, and carrying to market^ are in themselves libellous, though false.
UNIVERSAL P:MANCIPATI0N.
Though distant be the hour, yet come it must —
Oh ! hasten it, /// jiiercy, righteous Heaven ! When Afric's sons, uprising from the dust,
Shall stand erect — their galling fetters riven ;
When from his throne Oppression shall be driven, An exiled monster, powerless through all time ;
When freedom — glorious freedom, shall be given To every race, complexion, caste, and clime. And nature's sable hue shall cease to be a crime !
Wo if it come with storm, and blood, and fire.
When midnight darkness veils the earth and sky ! Wo to the innocent babe — the guilty sire —
Mother and daughter — friends of kindred tie!
Stranger and citizen alike shall die I Red-handed Slaughter his revenge shall feed.
And Havoc yell his ominous death-cry, And wild Despair in vain for mercy plead — While hell itself shall shrink, and sicken at the deed !
i6
Thou who avengest blood! long-suffering Lord!
My guilty country from destruction save ! Let Justice sheathe his sharp and terrible sword,
And Mercy rescue, e'en as from the grave !
O for the sake of those who firmly brave The lust of power — the tyranny of law —
To bring redemption to the perishing slave — Fearless though few — Thy presence ne'er withdraw,
But quench the kindling flames of hot, rebellious war !
And ye — sad victims of base avarice !
Hunted like beasts — and trodden like the earth,- Bought and sold daily, at a paltry price —
The scorn of tyrants, and of fools the mirth —
Your souls debased from their immortal birth ! Bear meekly — as ye've born — your cruel woes ;
Ease follows pain — light, darkness — plenty, dearth : So time shall give you freedom and repose, And high exalt your heads above your bitter foes !
Not by the sword shall your deliverance be ;
Not by the shedding of your masters' blood ; Not by rebellion — or foul treachery,
Upspringing suddenly, like swelling flood :
Revenge and rapine ne'er did bring forth good. God's time is best ! — nor will it long delay :
Even now your barren cause begins to bud, And glorious shall the fruit be ! — Watch and pray, For, lo ! the kindling dawn, that ushers in the day !
(;
JOURNAL OF THE TIMES.
TO-DAY.
Another New Year is born, and, after the similitude of man's inevitable fate, in a little space must die. Brief as it will prove, how various and important will be its history — to in- dividuals, as well as to nations ! How many thrones may it not shake, or fetters sever, or revolutions witness ! The crisis of the world has not yet come : scarcely the preface of its event- ful history is writ. Empires are to be refashioned, and a large portion of the earth reclaimed from superstition and barbarism, from oppression and idolatry. We talk of the march of mind; we marvel at the age of creation ; — but does knowledge keep pace with ignorance, or virtue with vice, or benevolence with suffering, or liberty with tyranny, among mankind? Most evidently not. How long will it take to regenerate and disen- thral benighted Africa ? how long to christianize Asia ? how
17
long to reform republican America ? how long to redeem the world ? Surely time is in its infancy. Strange that men pre- dict a millennium at so earlv a dav.
The past has been an eventful year ; the present will prob- ably be yet more troublous. Europe has just begun to feel the upheavings of the earthquake which is to overthrow its strong towers, and the heat of a fire which is to melt every chain. There are signs in the political firmament of Great Britain which portend sudden and disastrous convulsions : but known only to God are the hidden things of time.
In this country, of those who hailed the opening of the past year, there have died at least three Imndred thousand. More than a million mourners have ^gone about the streets.' How frail is man ! Who and how^ many must die the present year ? Perhaps half a million. Of this number, how many shall we or our friends make } O Life ! O Death ! O Eternity !
In this free and christian republic, too, be it remembered, there were kidnapped during the past year, and reduced to remediless bondage, more than fifty thousand infants, the offspring of slave parents ! ! ! A greater iiuviher^ this year., is to meet a similar doom I Have we no reason to fear the judg- ments of Heaven upon our guilty land t
CORRESPONDENCE.
The following is an extract of a letter from one of the most dis- tinguished reformers of the age. It contains some hints to ministers of the gospel, which ought to be given publicly for their benefit :
' The cause in which you are engaged, will certainly prevail, and so will mine ; * but when ? It is not for us to ask. God will accomplish it in his own time ; and perhaps by our means. We ought to be content to be His instruments, without aspiring to direct Him. Slavery and war will be abolished throughout all Christendom, and the abolition of them depends on public opinion ; and public opinion is directed by the pulpit and the press — by speaking and writing; and there is no other way. Unfortunately many of our ministers are too much under ' the fear of man which bringeth a snare,' and they therefore ' shun to declare the whole counsel of God.' Many who entertain correct sentiments about war and slavery, have not the moral courage to declare them. How they will answer it at the bar of God, I know not. Many seem to fear to examine these subjects, lest they should bring upon themselves greater responsibilities than they are willing to bear; not reflecting that duties neglected bring as great condemnation as crimes committed. But all ministers are not so ; there are noble examples to the
* The cause of Peace.
i8
contrary; and when the pulpit shall unite with the press, war and slavery will cease to pollute the Lord's vineyard.
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Vermont.
' Dkak Sir — One of my neighbors has just had the reading of your proposals for the Liberator, &c. He says it is professedly the very thing that is wanted. If you steadfastly pursue your object, you will in the end be crowned with the honors of the greatest vic- tory ever won by mortal powder. He would assure you, that you need fear no overthrow in the contest — for the moral power of the nation is on your side; (i) and if you fail, you lose nothing — as, in that case, it will be evidenced that but little will have been left worth preserving.
^ You will please forw^ard me a copy of your paper, which wdll be paid for when received. And believe me a friend to Liberty, Peace, Temperance and Christian Morality; yet purified from licentious- ness, violence, enthusiasm, (2) and fanaticism.'
(i) It may be; but at present it has no efficacy, being struck with a fearful paralysis. Still we confidently rely upon its awakened energy to redeem the land from the curse and crime of slavery.
(2) ^Enthusiasm"? In all great reformations, a generous and ever blazing enthusiasm is necessary to quicken the dormant, and to inspirit the heart of the reformer. But licentiousness, and violence, and fanaticism — these are traits wdiich do not belong to truth or justice.
Extj\ict of a letter from a gentle?nan in Moujit- Vernon, N^.H.
' Dear Sir : — I have recently read your proposals for publishing the ' Liberator,' and I think that no American, who makes any pre- tensions to philanthropy, patriotism, morality or Christianity, can do less than w^sh you " God speed." You w^ill please to add my name to your list of subscribers.'
WORKING MEN.
An attempt has been made — it is still .making — we regret to say, WMth considerable success — -to inflame the minds of our w^orkino^ classes against the more opulent, and to persuade them that they are contemned and oppressed by a wealthy aristocracy. That public grievances exist, is unquestionably true; but they are not confined to any one class of society. Every profession is interested in their removal — the rich as well as the poor. It is in the highest degree criminal, therefore, to exasperate our mechanics to deeds of violence, or to array them under a party banner ; for it is not true, that, at any time, they have been the objects of reproach. Labor is not dis- honoral)le. The industrious artisan, in a government like ours, will always be held in better estimation than the wealthy idler.
19
Our limits will not allow us to enlarge on this subject : we may return to it another time. We are the friends of reform ; but that is not reform, which, in curing one evil, threatens to inflict a thousand others.
For ' The Salutation ' of the Liberator on our first page, we are indebted to a lady, who sustains a high reputation for poetical merit, and whose soul is overflowing with philanthropic emotion. Will the public help us to secure her constant services ?
It will be our endeavor to diversify the contents of the Liberator, so as to give an edge to curiosity, and relieve the eye and mind of the reader. One page will be devoted to foreign and domestic transac- tions ; another, to literary, miscellaneous and moral subjects.
Lord Erskine when at the bar, was always remarkable for the fearlessness with which he contended against the Bench. In a con- test he had with Lord Kenyon, he explained the rule of his conduct at the Bar in the following terms : —
'It was,' said he, 'the first command and counsel of my youth, alw^ays to do what my conscience told me to be my duty, and to leave the consequences to God. I shall carry with me the memory, and I trust the practice, of this paternal lesson to the grave — I have hitherto followed it, and have no reason to complain that any obedi- ence to it has been even a temporal sacrifice — I have found it, on the contrary, the road to prosperity and wealth, and I shall point it out as such to my children.'
The following individuals formed the jury which brought in a ver- dict of One Thousand Dollars, at Baltimore, in favor of Mr. Francis Todd. It will doutless gratify them to see their names 'in print.' More anon.
Daniel W. Crocker, Stewart Brown,
Samuel D. Walker, George A. Hughes,
William H. Beatty, Andrew Crawford,
John Franciscus, Robert Hewitt,
George M'Doweli, James W. Collins,
G. A. Vonspreckelson, John Walsh.,
The trial of Judge Peck continues to occupy the attention of Con- gress, to the exclusion of almost all other business.
20
OUR APPEAL.
For the successful prosecution of our labors, we appeal to the following classes of our fellow countrymen, and we presume they are sufficiently numerous to fulfil our expectations :
To the religions — \n\\o profess to walk in the footsteps of their Divine Master, and to be actuated by a love which ' worketh no iir to others. To whom, if not to them, shall we turn for encourage- ment ?
To tJic philantJu-opic — who show their sincerity by their works, whose good deeds are more numerous than their professions, who not only pity but relieve.
To iJic patriotic — who love their country better than themselves, and would avert its impending ruin.
To the ignorant, the cold-hearted, the base, the tyrannical — who need to be instructed, and quickened, and reclaimed, and humanized.
TO OUR P^REE COLORED BRETHREN.
Your moral and intellectual elevation, the advancement of your rights, and the defence of your character, will be a leading object of our paper. We know that you are now struggling against wind and tide, and that adversity ' has marked you for his own ; ' yet among three hundred thousand of your number, some patronage may be given. We ask, and expect, but little : that little may save the life of 'The Liberator.' Our enemies are numerous, active and inveter- ate ; and a great effort will undoubtedly be made to put us down.
WALKER'S PAMPHLET.
The Legislature of North Carolina has lately been sitting with closed doors, in consequence of a message from the Governor rela- tive to the above pamphlet. The soutlr may reasonably be alarmed at the circulation of Mr. Walker's Appeal ; for a better promoter of insurrection was never sent forth to an oppressed people. In a future number, we propose to examine it, as also various editorial comments thereon — it being one of the most remarkable produc- tions of the age. We have already publicly deprecated its spirit.
The Publishers of the Liberator have formed their co-partnership with a determination to print the paper as long as they can subsist
21
upon bread and water, or their hands obtain employment. The friends of the cause may, therefore, take courage; its enemies — may surrender at discretion.
GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION.
We congratulate our friend Lundy on the removal of his paper to Washington city. The Lord bless him abundantly in his new situa- tion ! What zeal has he not evinced, what suffering not felt, what sacrifice not made, in the noble cause to which he has devoted his life ! Friends of bleeding humanity, uphold his arms, encourage his heart, patronize his work.
Editors who are willing to exchange sheets with the Liberator are requested to be prompt in their reciprocity.
The Cherokee Delegation to Congress have publicly denied the reports that their brethren were ready to make a treaty to emigrate, if reservations are granted certain Chiefs. They are determined to hold their ground, unless driven off by force.
The number of children between the ages of four and sixteen, in the common schools of Ohio, is believed to be not less than 350,000. The militia of the State comprises 116,000 men.
Last October, a plot for an insurrection, in which were 100 negroes engaged, some of whom were free, was discovered at Plaque- mines, Louisiana. So say the papers.
FIFTH CENSUS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
|
Counties. |
Males. |
Females. |
Colored, |
Total. |
|
Plymouth |
20905 |
21678 |
410 |
42993 |
|
Suffolk |
28586 |
31693 |
1883 |
62162 |
|
Nantucket |
3339 |
35^4 |
279 |
7202 |
|
Hampshire |
14990 |
14995 |
. 225 |
30210 |
|
Bristol |
23366 |
25178 |
930 |
49474 |
|
Middlesex |
38107 |
39348 |
513 |
77968 |
|
Norfolk |
20436 |
21296 |
169 |
41901 |
|
Barnstable |
13997 |
14363 |
165 |
28525 |
|
Worcester |
41545 |
42449 |
371 |
84365 |
|
Hampden |
15288 |
16003 |
349 |
31640 |
|
Franklin |
14447 |
14765 |
132 |
29344 |
|
Dukes |
1702 |
1768 |
48 |
3518 |
|
Berkshire |
18310 |
18510 |
1005 |
37825 |
|
Essex |
39451 |
42929 |
5^7 |
82887 |
Totals
294449
308559 7006 610014
22
Free Colored Popukitioit.
Males under ten years of age,
of ten and under twenty four,
of twenty four and under thirty six,
of thirty six and under fifty five,
of fifty five and under one hundred,
of one hundred and upwards,
Females under ten years of age,
of ten and under twenty four, of twenty four and under thirty six, of thirty six and under fifty five, of fifty five and under one hundred, of one hundred and upw^ards.
Colored males, Total number of free colored persons.
804 886 726
635 321
5
823 956 810
651 385
4
3^629
7,006
. Population of Rhode-Island, in 1830,97,212; in 1820,83,059; increase
14,153-
Population of Connecticut, in 1S30, 297,726; in 1820, 275,238; increase
22,488.
Population of DelaAvare, in 1S30, 76,739; in 1820, 72,749; increase,
3.990-
Population of New York, in 1830, 1,934,496; in 1820, 1,372,812; in- crease 561,684.
Virginia. — In 45 counties of Virginia, which by the census of 1820 had a population of 438,165, the present population is found to be 506,516, making an increase of 68,351, or nearly 16 per cent. The increase in the number of whites is 41,468, or 17 per cent; of slaves 20,635, or 12 per cent.; and of free blacks 6,248, or 40 per cent. The increase of slaves heretofore has always been in greater ratio than that of whites. There is now a greater increase of whites.
[For the Liberator.] TO AN INFANT.
Fair bud of being, — blossoming like the rose, Leaf upon leaf unfolding to the eye, In fiagrance rich, and spotless purity, —
Which hourly dost some latent charm disclose
O may the dews and gentle rains of heaven Give to thy root immortal sustenance ; 80 thou in matchless beauty shalt advance.
Nor by the storms of life be rudely driven.
23
But if, oh envious Death ! this little flower Thou from its tender stem untimely break, An angel shall the drooping victim take,
And so transplant it to a heavenly bower;
Where it shall flourish in eternal spring.
Nurtured beneath the eye of a paternal King.
G
A NOBLE SENTIMENT.
I have ever bad in my mind, that when God should cast me into such a condition, as that I cannot save my life but by doing an in- decent thing, he shows me the time is come wherein I should resign it ; and when I cannot live in my own country but by such means as are worse than dying in it, I think he shows me, I ought to keep myself out of it. — Algernon Sidney.
[For the Liberator.] NEW YEAR'S DAY.
Brightest, merriest of days! Welcomed in a thousand lays ! Not a heart but leaps for gladness, Not a brow that's veiled in sadness, Not an eye that beams not brighter, Not a step that is not lighter ! Day of joyful hopes and wishes, Prodigal of gifts and kisses ; Want, with all his pining brood. Leaps and sings for gratitude ; Nakedness — a shivering claimant — Now obtains a seemly raiment ; Sorrow wipes her tears away. On a happy New Year's Day ; All the forms of sharp distress, Charity's fair hand doth bless !
What awaits, O new-born Year ! On thy brief, untried career ? Pass not, till the world is free From the yoke of tyranny ; Broken be th' oppressor's rod. In the dust his throne be trod ; — r- Till the sea of human blood Cease to roll its gory flood. And the thundering tones of war Echo not from lands afar ; — Till the scourge intemperance. With its train, is banished hence ;
24
Of the fall the deadliest fruit, Sinking man below the brute; Foulest of impurities, Bloodiest of enemies, P)ody-eater, soul-destroyer. Universal plague — annoyer ; — I^ass not, till, from sea to sea, Christ shall gain supremacy; Idols to the bats be given — In their stead the Lord of heaven Be consulted, loved, adored, By a guilty race restored.
G — n.
The Life of William Lloyd Garrison, in four volumes, b}' his children, is an exhaustive work, — not only a complete biography of the great reformer, but a history of the whole anti- slavery struggle. Tlie eighth chapter of the first volume is devoted to the founding and early days of the Liberator, including a critical analysis of the first number. The first number was "a modest folio, of which the printed page of four cohunns measured fourteen inches by nine and a quarter." The contents of the first three pages of the first number, save a few unimportant news items not relating to the cause, are reprinted in the present leaflet, with two poems by Mr. (7arrison from the fourth page. The balance of the fourth page was made up of brief general selections without significance. The poor little publica- tion office was for some years in Merchants' Hall, a building burned in the great Boston fire of 1872. "The dingy walls, the small windows bespattered with printers' ink, the press standing in one corner, the composing stands opposite, the long editorial and mailing table co\'ered with newspapers, the bed of the editor and pul)lisher on the floor, — all these," says Oliver Johnson, "make a picture never to be forgotten." With the seventeenth number the plain heading gave way to an ornamental one with a rude cut representing a slave auction. A fac-simile of the first page of this number is given in the Life of Clarrison, vol. i. p. 232. The paper was afterwards enlarged; and its publication was conthiued to the completion of its thirty-fifth ^^olume, December, 1S65.
Oliver Johnson's "William Lloyd Garrison and his Times" is a valuable work by one who knew Garrison well. There is a brief biography of Garrison by Archibald H. Grimke in the "American Reformers" series. The spirit and significance of Garrison's efforts,, through the Liberator, are notably commemorated in Lowell's poem, "To William Lloj'd Garrison.''
PUBLISHED BY
THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass.
<9\h ^outf) HeafietiSf.
No. 79.
William Lloyd Garrison.
Eulogy by Wendell Phillips at the Funeral of Garrison,
May 28, 1879.
It has been well said that we are not here to weep, and neither are we here to praise. No life closes without sadness. Death, after all, no matter what hope or what memories sur- round it, is terrible and a mystery. We never part hands that have been clasped lifelong in loving tenderness but the hour is sad. Still, we do not come here to weep. In other moments, elsewhere, we can offer tender and loving sympathy to those whose roof-tree is so sadly bereaved. But, in the spirit of the great life which we commemorate, this hour is for the utterance of a lesson : this hour is given to contemplate a grand example, a rich inheritance, a noble life worthily ended. You come together, not to pay tribute, even loving tribute, to the friend you have lost, whose features you will miss from daily life, but to remember the grand lesson of that career ; to speak to each other, and to emphasize what that life teaches, — especially in the hearing of these young listeners, who did not see that marvellous career ; in their hearing to construe the meaning of the great name which is borne world-wide, and tell them why on both sides the ocean the news of his death is a matter of interest to every lover of his race. As my friend said, we have no right to be silent. Those of us who stood near him, who witnessed the secret springs of his action, the consistent inward and outward life, have no right to be silent. The largest contribution that will ever be made by any single man's life to the knowledge of the working of our institutions will be the picture of his career. He sounded the depths of
the weakness, he proved the ultimate strength, of republican institutions ; he gave us to know the perils that confront us ; he taught us to rally the strength that lies hid.
To my mind there are three remarkable elements in his career. One is rare even among great men. It was his own moral nature, unaided, uninfluenced from outside, that conse- crated him to a great idea. Other men ripen gradually. The youngest of the great American names that will be compared with his was between thirty and forty when his first anti-slavery word was uttered. Luther was thirty-four years old when an infamous enterprise woke him to indignation, and it then took two years more to reveal to him the mission God designed for him. This man was in jail for his opinions when he was just twenty-four. He had confronted a nation in the very bloom of his youth. It could be said of him more than of any other American in our day, and more than of any great leader that I chance now to remember in any epoch, that he did not need circumstances, outside influence, some great pregnant event, to press him into service, to provoke him to thought, to kindle him into enthusiasm. His moral nature was as marvellous as was the intellect of Pascal It seemed to be born fully equipped, ^' finely touched." Think of the m.ere dates; think that at some twenty-four years old, while Christianity and statesmanship, the experience, the genius of the land, were wandering in the desert, aghast, amaz'ed, and confounded over a frightful evil, a great sin, this boy sounded, found, invented the talisman, '^ Immediate, unconditional emancipation on the soil.'' You may say he borrowed it — true enough — from the lips of a woman on the other side of the Atlantic ; but he was the only American whose moral nature seemed, just on the edge of life, so perfectly open to duty and truth that it answered to the far-off bugle-note, and proclaimed it instantly as a complete solution of the problem.
Young men, you have no conception of the miracle of that insight ; for it is not given to you to remember with any vividness the blackness of the darkness of ignorance and indifference which then brooded over what was called the moral and religious element of the American people. When I think of him, as Melancthon said of Luther, " day by day grows the w^onder fresh " at the ripeness of the moral and intellectual life that God gave him at the very opening.
You hear that boy's lips announcing the statesmanlike
solution which startled politicians and angered church and people. A year afterwards, with equally single-hearted devo- tion, in words that have been so often quoted, with those dungeon doors behind him, he enters on his career. In January, 1831, then twenty-five years old, he starts the publi- cation of "The Liberator," advocating the immediate abolition of slavery ; and, with the sublime pledge : " I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to speak or write with moderation. I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single
inch AND I WILL BE HEARD."
Then began an agitation which for the marvel of its origin, the majesty of its purpose, the earnestness, unselfishness, and ability of its appeals, the vigor of its assault, the deep national convulsion it caused, the vast and beneficent changes it wrought, and its wide-spread, indirect influence on all kindred moral questions, is without a parallel in history since Luther. This boy created and marshalled it. His converts held it up and carried it on. Before this, all through the preceding century, there had been among us scattered and single aboli- tionists, earnest and able men ; sometimes, like Wythe of Virginia, in high places. The Quakers and Covenanters had never intermitted their testimony against slavery. But Garri- son was the first man to begin a movement designed to anni- hilate slavery. He announced the principle, arranged the method, gathered the forces, enkindled the zeal, started the argument, and finally marshalled the nation for and against the system in a conflict that came near rending the Union.
I marvel again at the instinctive sagacity which discerned the hidden forces fit for such a movement, called them forth, and wielded them to such prompt results. Archimedes said, " Give me a spot, and I will move the world." O'Connell leaned back on three millions of Irishmen, all on fire with sympathy. Cobden's hands were held up by the whole manu- facturing interest of Great Britain. His treasury was the wealth of the middle classes of the country ; and behind him also, in fair proportion, stood the religious convictions of England. Marvellous was their agitation. As you gaze upon it in its successive stages, and analyze it, you are astonished at what they invented for tools. But this boy stood alone, — utterly alone, at first. There was no sympathy anywhere ; his hands were empty ; one single penniless comrade was his only
helper. Starving on bread and water, he could command the use of types, that was all. Trade endeavored to crush him ; the intellectual life of America disowned him.
My friend Weld has said the Church w^as a thick bank of black cloud looming over him. Yes. But no sooner did the Church discern the impetuous boy's purpose than out of that dead, sluggish cloud thundered and lightened a malignity which could not hnd w^ords to express its hate. The very pulpit where I stand saw this apostle of liberty and justice sore beset, always in great need, and often in deadly peril ; yet it never gave him one word of approval or sympathy. During all this weary struggle Mr. Garrison felt its weight in the scale against him. In those years it led the sect which arrogates to itself the name of Liberal. If this was the bearing of so-called Liberals, what bitterness of opposition^ judge ye, did not the others show? A mere boy confronts church, commerce, and college, — a boy with neither training nor experience ! Almost at once the assault tells : the whole country is hotly interested. What created such life under those ribs of death ? Whence came that instinctive knowl- edge ? Where did he get that sound common sense ? Whence did he summon that almost unerring sagacity which, starting agitation on an untried field, never committed an error, pro- voking year by year additional enthusiasm, gathering, as he advanced, helper after helper to his side } I marvel at the miraculous boy. He had no means. Where he got, w^hence he summoned, hovv^ he created, the elements which changed 1830 into 1835 — 1^30 apathy, indifference, ignorance, ice- bergs, into 1835, every man intelligently hating him, and mobs assaulting him in every city — is a marvel which none but older men than I can adequately analyze and explain. He said to a friend who remonstrated with him on the heat and severity of his language, " Brother, I have need to be all oa fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." Well, that dungeon of 1830, that universal apathy, that deadness of soul, that contempt of what called itself intellect, in ten years he changed into the whole country aflame. He made every single home, press, pulpit, and senate-chamber a debating society, with /i/s right and wrong for the subject. And, as was said of Luther, " God honored him by making all the worst men his enemies."
Fastened on that daily life was a malignant attention and
5
criticism such as no American has ever endured. I will not call it a criticism of hate : that word is not strong enough. Malignity searched him with candles from the moment he uttered that God-given solution of the problem to the moment when he took the hand of the nation and wrote out the statute which made it law. Malignity searched those forty years with candles; and yet even malignity has never lisped a suspicion, much less a charge, — never lisped a suspicion of anything mean, dishonorable, dishonest. No man, however mad with hate, however fierce in assault, ever dared to hint that there was anything low in motive, false in assertion, selfish in pur- pose, dishonest in method, — never a stain on the thought, the word, or the deed.
Now contemplate this boy entering such an arena, confront- ing a nation and all its forces, utterly poor, with no sympathy from any quarter, conducting an angry, wide-spread, and pro- found agitation for ten, twenty, forty years, amid the hate of everything strong in American life, and the contempt of every- thing influential, and no stain, not the slightest shadow of one, rests on his escutcheon ! Summon me the public men, the men who have put their hands to the helm of the vessel of state since 1789, of whom that can be said, although love and admiration, which almost culminated in worship, attended the steps of some of them.
Then look at the work he did. My friends have spoken of his influence. What American ever held his hand so long and so powerfully on the helm of social, intellectual, and moral America? There have been giants in our day. Great men God has granted in widely different spheres, — earnest men, men whom public admiration lifted early into power. I shall venture to name some of them. Perhaps you will say it is not usual on an occasion like this ; but long-waiting truth needs to be uttered in an hour when this great example is still absolutely indispensable to inspire the effort, to guide the steps, to cheer the hope, of the nation not yet arrived in the promised land. I want to show you the vast breadth and depth that this man's name signifies. We have had W^ebster in the Senate ; we have had Lyman Beecher in the pulpit ; w^e have had Calhoun at the head of a section ; we have had a philosopher at Concord w^ith his inspiration penetrating the young mind of the Northern States. They are the four men that history, perhaps, will mention somewhere near the great
force whose closing in this scene we commemorate to-day. Rememiber now not merely the inadequate means at this man's control, not simply the bitter hate that he confronted, not the vast work that he must be allowed to have done, — surely vast, when measured by the opposition he encountered and the strength he held in his hands, — but dismissing all those con- siderations, measuring nothing but the breadth and depth of his hold, his grasp on American character, social change, and general progress, what man's signet has been set so deep, planted so forever on the thoughts of his epoch ? Trace home intelligently, trace home to their sources, the changes, social, political, intellectual, and religious, that have come over us during the last fifty years, — - the volcanic convulsions, the stormy waves which have tossed and rocked our generation, — and you wdll find close at the sources of the Mississippi this boy with his proclamation !
The great party that put on record the statute of freedom was made up of men whose conscience he quickened and whose intellect he inspired, and they long stood the tools of a public opinion that he created. The grandest name beside his in the America of our times is that of John Brown. Brown stood on the platform that Garrison built ; and Mrs. Stowe herself charmed an audience that he gathered for her, with words which he inspired, from a heart that he kindled. Sit- ting at his feet were leaders born of '^ The Liberator," the guides of public sentiment. I know whereof I affirm. It was often a pleasant boast of Charles Sumner that he read ^' The Liberator " two years before I did ; and, among the great men who followed his lead and held up his hands in Massachu- setts, where is the intellect, where is the heart, that does not trace to this printer-boy the first pulse that bade him serve the slave ? For myself, no w^ords can adequately tell the measure- less debt I owe him., the moral and intellectual life he opened to me. I feel like the old Greek, who, taught himself by Socrates, called his own scholars '^the disciples of Socrates."
This is only another instance added to the roll of the Washingtons and the Hampdens, whose root is not ability, but character; that influence which, like the great Master's of Judea (humanly speaking), spreading through the centuries, testifies that the world suffers its grandest changes not by genius, but by the more potent control of character. His was an earnestness that would take no denial, that consumed oppo-
sition in the intensity of its convictions, that knew nothing but right. As friend after friend gathered slowly, one by one, to his side, in that very meeting of a dozen heroic men to form the New England Anti-slavery Society, it was his compelling hand, his resolute unwillingness to temper or qualify the utterance, that finally dedicated that first organized movement to the doctrine of immediate emancipation. He seems to have understood, — this boy without experience, — he seems to have understood by instinct that righteousness is the only thing which will finally compel submission ; that one, with God, is always a majority. He seems to have known it at the very outset, taught of God, the herald and champion, God-endowed and God-sent to arouse a nation, that only by the most abso- lute assertion of the uttermost truth, without qualification or compromise, can a nation be waked to conscience or strength- ened for duty. No man ever understood so thoroughly — not O'Connell nor Cobden — the nature and needs of that agita- tion which alone, in our day, reforms states. In the darkest hour he never doubted the omnipotence of conscience and the moral sentiment.
And then look at the unquailing courage wdth which he faced the successive obstacles that confronted him ! Modest, believing at the outset that America could not be as corrupt as she seemed, he waits at the door of the churches, im- portunes leading clergymen, begs for a voice from the sanc- tuary, a consecrated protest from the pulpit. To his utter amazement, he learns, by thus probing it, that the Church will give him no help, but, on the contrary, surges into the move- ment in opposition. Serene, though astounded by the unex- pected revelation, he simply turns his footsteps, and announces that " a Christianity which keeps peace with the oppressor is no Christianity," and goes on his way to supplant the religious element which the Church had allied with sin by a deeper religious faith. Yes, he sets himself to work — this stripling with his sling confronting the angry giant in complete steel, this solitary evangelist — to make Christians of twenty millions of people ! I am not exaggerating. You know, older men, who can go back to that period ; I know that when one, kindred to a voice that you have heard to-day, whose pathway Garrison's bloody feet had made easier for the treading, when he uttered in a pulpit in Boston only a few strong words, injected in the course of a sermon, his venerable father,
8
between seventy and eighty years, was met the next morning and his hand shaken by a much moved friend. ^' Colonel, you have my sympathy. I cannot tell you how much I pity you." '^What," said the brusque old man, ''what is your pity?" '' Well, I hear your son went crazy at ' Church Green ' yester- day." Such was the utter indifference. At that time bloody feet had smoothed the pathway for other men to tread. Still, then and for years afterwards, insanity was the only kind- hearted excuse that partial friends could find for sympathy with such a madman !
If anything strikes one more prominently than another in this career, — to your astonishment, young men, you may say, — it is the plain, sober common sense, the robust English element which underlay Cromwell, which explains Hampden, which gives the color that distinguishes 1640 in England from 1790 in France. Plain, robust, well-balanced common sense. Nothing erratic ; no enthusiasm which had lost its hold on firm earth ; no mistake of method ; no unmeasured confidence ; no miscalculation of the enemy's strength. Whoever mistook, Garrison seldom mistook. Fewer mistakes in that long agita- tion of fifty years can be charged to his account than to any other American. Erratic as men supposed him, intemperate in utterance, mad in judgment, an enthusiast gone crazy, the moment you sat down at his side, patient in explanation, clear in statement, sound in judgment, studying carefully every step, calculating every assault, measuring the force to meet it, never in haste, always patient, waiting until the time ripened, — fit for a great leader. Cull, if you please, from the statesmen who obeyed him, w^hom he either whipped into submission or summoned into existence, — cull from among them the man whose career, fairly examined, exhibits fewer miscalculations and fewer mistakes than this career which is just ended.
I know^ what I claim. As Mr. Weld has said, I am speaking to-day to men who judge by their ears, by rumors ; who see, not with their eyes, but with their prejudices. His- tory, fifty years hence, dispelling your prejudices, will do justice to the grand sweep of the orbit which, as my friend said, to-day we are hardly in a position, or mood, to measure. As Coleridge avers, "The truth-haters of to-morrow will give the right name to the truth-haters of to-day, for even such men the stream of time bears onward." I do not fear that, if my words are remembered by the next generation, they will be
thought unsupported or extravagant. When history seeks the sources of New England character, when men begin to open up and examine the hidden springs and note the convulsions and the throes of American life within the last half-century, they will remember Parker, that Jupiter of the pulpit ; they will remember the long unheeded but measureless influence that came to us from the seclusion of Concord ; they will do justice to the masterly statesmanship which guided, during a part of his life, the efforts of Webster. But they will recognize that there was only one man north of Mason and Dixon's line who met squarely, with an absolute logic, the else impregnable position of John C. Calhoun ; only one brave, far-sighted, keen, logical intellect, which discerned that there were only two moral points in the universe, right and wrong ; that, when one was asserted, subterfuge and evasion would be sure to end in defeat.
Here lies the brain and the heart ; here lies the statesman- like intellect, logical as Jonathan Edwards, brave as Luther, which confronted the logic of South Carolina with an assertion direct and broad enough to make an issue and necessitate a conflict of two civilizations. Calhoun said. Slavery is right. Webster and Clay shrunk from him, and evaded his assertion. Garrison, alone at that time, met him face to face, proclaiming slavery a sin and daring all the inferences. It is true, as New Orleans complains to-day in her journals, that this man brought upon America everything they call the disaster of the last twenty years ; and it is equally true that, if you seek through the hidden causes and unheeded events for the hand that wrote "emancipation" on the statute-book and on the flag, it lies still there to-day,
I have no time to number the many kindred reforms to which he lent as profound an earnestness and almost as large aid.
I hardly dare enter that home. There is one other marked and, as it seems to me, unprecedented, element in this career. His was the happiest life I ever saw. No need for pity. Let no tear fall over his life. No man gathered into his bosom a fuller sheaf of blessing, delight, and joy. In his seventy years there were not arrows enough in the whole quiver of the Church or State to wound him. As Guizot once said from the tribune, '' Gentlemen, you cannot get high enough to reach the level of my contempt." So Garrison, from the serene level
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of his daily life, from the faith that never faltered, was able to say to American hate, " You cannot reach up to the level of my home mood, my daily existence." I have seen him inti- mately for thirty years, while raining on his head was the hate of the community, when by every possible form of expression malignity let him know that it wished him all sorts of harm. I never saw him unhappy. I never saw the moment that serene, abounding faith in the rectitude of his motive, the soundness of his method, and the certainty of his success did not lift him above all posssibility of being reached by any clamor about him. Every one of his near friends will agree with me that this was the happiest life God has granted in our day to any American standing in the foremost rank of influ- ence and effort.
Adjourned from the stormiest meeting, where hot debate had roused all his powers as near to anger as his nature ever let him come, the music of a dozen voices — even of those who had just opposed him — or a piano, if the house held one, changed his mood in an instant, and made the hour laugh with more than content ; unless, indeed, a baby and playing with it proved metal even more attractive.
To champion wearisome causes, bear with disordered in- tellects, to shelter the wrecks of intemperance and fugitives whose pulse trembled at every touch on the door-latch, — this was his home. Keenly alive to human suffering, ever prompt to help relieve it, pouring out his means for that more lavishly than he ought, all this was no burden, never clouded or depressed the inextinguishable buoyancy and gladness of his nature. God ever held over him unclouded the sunlight of his countenance.
And he never grew old. The tabernacle of flesh grew feebler, and the step was less elasti-c. But the ability to work, the serene faith and unflagging hope, suffered no change. To the day of his death he was as ready as in his boyhood to confront and defy a mad majority. The keen insight and clear judgment never failed him. His tenacity of purpose never weakened. He showed nothing either of the intel- lectual sluggishness or the timidity of age. The bugle-call which last year woke the nation to its peril and duty on the Southern question showed all the old fitness to lead and mould a people's course. Younger men might be confused or dazed by plausible pretensions, and half the North was
1 1
befooled; but the old pioneer detected the false ring as quickly as in his youth. The words his dying hand traced, welcoming the Southern exodus and foretelling its result, had all the defiant courage and prophetic solemnity of his youngest and boldest days.
Serene, fearless, marvellous man ! Mortal, with so few shortcomings !
Farewell, for a very little while, noblest of Christian men ! Leader, brave, tireless, unselfish! When the ear heard thee, then it blessed thee ; the eye that saw thee gave witness to thee. More truly than it could ever heretofore be said since the great patriarch wrote it, '' the blessing of him that was ready to perish " was thine eternal great reward.
Though the clouds rest for a moment to-day on the great work that you set your heart to accomplish, you knew, God in his love let you see, that your work was done ; that one thing, by his blessing on your efforts, is fixed beyond the possibility of change. While that ear could listen, God gave what he has so rarely given to man, the plaudits and prayers of four millions of victims, thanking you for emancipation ; and through the clouds of to-day your heart, as it ceased to beat, felt certain, certain^ that, whether one flag or two shall rule this continent in time to come, one thing is settled, — it never henceforth can be trodden by a slave !
THE MURDER OF LOVEJOY.
wp:ndell Phillips's first speech in faneuil hall, december 8, 1837.
At the great meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Dec. 8, 1837, to denounce the murder of Lovejoy by the mob at Alton, 111., while defending his printing-press, after addresses by Dr. Channing and George S. Hillard, Hon. James T. Austin, attorney-general of the Com- monwealth, rose, and in a speech of great bitterness compared the slaves to a menagerie of wild beasts and the rioters at Alton to the " orderly mob •' which threw the tea overboard in 1773, and declared that Lovejoy was presumptuous, and ^'died as the fool dieth." The speech produced great excitement. Wendell Phillips, then a young man of twenty-six, who had not expected to take part in the meeting, was unable to keep silent, and rose to reply, while that portion of the assembly which sympathized with the attoniey-general became so boisterous that he had difficulty in gaining the audience. Mr. Phillips had spoken before this at a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in Lynn, March 28, 1837 \ but this speech in Faneuil Hall was the real beginning of his great public career.
Mr. Chairman, — We have met for the freest discussion of these reso- lutions, and the events which gave rise to them. [Cries of " Question," *' Hear him," " Go on," " No gagging," etc.] I hope I shall be permitted
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to express my surprise at the sentiments of the last speaker, — surprise not only at such sentiments from such a man, but at the applause they have received within these walls. A comparison has been drawn between the events of the Revolution and the tragedy at Alton. We have heard it asserted here, in P'aneuil Hall, that Great Piritain had a right to tax the colonies ; and we have heard the mob at Alton, the drunken murderers of Lovejoy, compared to those patriot fathers who threw the tea overboard ! [Great applause.] Fellow-citizens, is this Faneuil Hall doctrine ? ['' No, no."] The mob at Alton were met to wrest from a citizen his just rights, — met to resist the laws. We have been told that our fathers did the same ; and the glorious mantle of Revolutionary precedent has been thrown over the mobs of our day. To make out their title to such defence, the gentle- man says that the British Parliament had a ri^-Zi^ to tax these colonies. It is manifest that, without this, his parallel falls to the ground ; for Lovejoy had stationed himself within constitutional bulwarks. He was not only defending the freedom of the press, but he was under his own roof, in arms with the sanction of the civil authority. The men who assailed him went against and over the law^s. The ';?io/?, as the gentleman terms it, — mob, forsooth ! certainly we sons of the tea-spillers are a marvellously patient generation! — the "orderly mob'' which assembled in the Old South to destroy the tea were met to resist, not the laws, but illegal exactions. Shame on the American who calls the tea tax and stamp act /aws ! Our fathers resisted, not the king's prerogative, but the king's usurpation. To find any other account, you must read our Revolutionary history upside down. Our State archives are loaded with arguments of John Adams to prove the taxes laid by the British Parliament unconstitu- tional,— beyond its power. It was not till this was made out that the men of New England rushed to arms. The arguments of the Council Chamber and the House of Representatives preceded and sanctioned the contest. To draw the conduct of our ancestors into a precedent for mobs, for a right to resist laws we ourselves have enacted, is an insult to their memory. The difference between the excitements of those days and our own, which the gentleman in kindness to the latter has overlooked, is simply this: the men of that day we at for the right, as secured by the laws. They were the people rising to sustain the laws and constitution of the province. The rioters of our day go for their own wills, right or wrong. Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the Hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American, — the slanderer of the dead. [Great applause and counter-applause.] The gentleman said that he should sink into insignificance if he dared not gainsay the principles of these resolutions. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up.
[Applause and hisses, witli cries of "Take that back."' The uproar .became so great that for a long time no one could be heard. At length the Hon. William Sturgis came to Mr. Phillips's side at the front of the platform. He was met with cries of " Phillips or nobody,'' " Make him take back ' recreant,' " " He sha'n't go on till he takes it back." When it was understood tliat Mr. Sturgis meant to sustain, not to interrupt, Mr. Phillips, he was listened to, and said , " I did not come here to take an}'^ part in this discussion, nor do I intend to; but 1 do entreat you, fellow-citizens, by everything you hold sacred, — I conjure you by every association connected with this Hall, consecrated by our fathers to freedom of discussion, — that you listen to every man who addresses you in a decorous manner." Mr. Phillips resumed.]
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Fellow-citizens, I cannot lake back my words. Surely, the Attorney- general, so long and well known here, needs not the aid of your hisses against one so young as I am, — my voice never before heard within these walls !
Another ground has been taken to excuse the mob, and throw doubt and 'discredit on the conduct of Lovejoy and his associates. Allusion has been made to what lawyers understand very well, — the "conflict of laws." We are told that nothing but the Mississippi River rolls between St. Louis and Alton ; and the conflict of laws somehow or other gives the citizens of the former a right to find fault with the defender of the press for publishing his opinions so near their limits. Will the gentleman venture that argument before lawyers ? How the laws of the two States could be said to come into conflict in such circumstances I question whether any lawyer in this audience can explain or understand. No matter whether the line that divides one sovereign State from another be an imaginary one or ocean- wide, the moment you cross it, the State you leave is blotted out of exist- ence, so far as you are concerned. The czar might as well claim to control the deliberations of Faneuil Hall, as the laws of Missouri demand rever- ence, or the shadow of obedience, from an inhabitant of Illinois.
I must find some fault with the statement which has been made of the events at Alton. It has been asked why Lovejoy and his friends did not appeal to the executive, — trust their defence to the police of the city. It has been hinted that, from hasty and ill-judged excitement, the men within the building provoked a quarrel, and that he fell in the course of it, one mob resisting another. Recollect, sir, that they did act with the approba- tion and sanction of the mayor. In strict truth there was no executive to appeal to for protection. The mayor acknowledged that he could not protect them. They asked him if it was lawful for them to defend them- selves. He told them it was, and sanctioned their assembling in arms to do so. They were not, then, a mob ; they were not merely citizens defending their own property: they were in some sense the ^osse comitates ^ adopted for the occasion into the police of the city, acting under the order of a magistrate. It was civil authority resisting lawless violence. Where, then, was the imprudence t Is the doctrine to be sustained here that it is impritdent for men to aid magistrates in executing the laws ?
Men are continually asking each other. Had Lovejoy a right to resist.? Sir, I protest against the question instead of answering it. Lovejoy did not resist, in the sense they mean. He did not throw himself back on the natural right of self-defence. He did not cry anarchy, and let slip the dogs of civil war, careless of the horrors which would follow.
Sir, as I understand this affair, it was not an individual protecting his property; it was not one body of armed men resisting another, and making the streets of a peaceful city run blood with their contentions. It did not bring back the scenes in some old Italian cities, where family met family, and faction met faction, and mutually trampled the laws under foot. No : the men in that house were regularly eni'olled, under the sanction of the mayor. There being no militia in Alton, about seventy men were enrolled with the approbation of the mayor. These relieved each other every other night. About thirty men were in arms on the night of the 6th, when the press was landed. The next evening it was not thought necessary to summon more than half that number : among these was Lovejoy. It was, therefore, you perceive, sir, the police of the city resisting rioters, — civil government breasting itself to the shock of lawless men.
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Here is no question about the right of self-defence. It is in fact simply this : Has the civil magistrate a right to put down a riot ?
Some persons seem to imagine that anarchy existed at Alton from the commencement of these disputes. Not at all. " No one of us," says an eye-witness and a comrade of Lovejoy, "has taken up arms during these disturbances but at the command of the mayor." Anarchy did not settle down on that devoted city till Lovejoy breathed his last. Till then the law, represented in his person, sustained itself against its foes. When he fell, civil authority was trampled underfoot. He had "planted himself on his constitutional rights," — appealed to the laws, — claimed the protection of the civil authority, — taken refuge under "the broad shield of the Con- stitution. When through that he was pierced and fell, he fell but one sufferer in a common catastrophe." He took refuge under the banner of liberty, — amid its folds ; and, when he fell, its glorious stars and stripes, the emblem of free institutions, around which cluster so many heart-stirring memories, were blotted out in the martyr's blood.
It has been stated, perhaps inadvertently, that Lovejoy or his comrades fired first. This is denied by those who have the best means of knowing. Guns were first fired by the mob. After being twice fired on, those within the building consulted together, and deliberately returned the fire. But suppose they did fire first. They had a right so to do, — not only the right which every citizen has to defend himself, but the further right which every civil ofiicer has to resist violence. Even if Lovejoy fired the first gun, it would not lessen his claim to our sympathy or destroy his title to be con- sidered a martyr in defence of a free press. The question now is. Did he act within the Constitution and the laws? The men who fell in State Street on the 5th of March, 1770, did more than Lovejoy is charged with. They were the first assailants. Upon some slight quarrel they pelted the troops with every missile within reach. Did this bate one jot of the eulogy with which Hancock and Warren hallowed their memory, hailing them as the first martyrs in the cause of American liberty ?
If, sir, I had adopted what are called Peace principles, I might lament the circumstances of this case. But all you who believe, as I do, in the right and duty of magistrates to execute the laws, join with me, and brand as base hypocrisy the conduct of those who assemble year after year on the 4th of July to fight over the battles of the Revolution, and yet " damn with faint praise " or load with obloquy the memory of this man, who shed his blood in defence of life, liberty, property, and the freedom of the press !
Throughout that terrible night I find nothing to regret but this, that within the limits of our country civil authority should have been so pros- trated as to oblige a citizen to arm in his own defence, and to arm in vain. The gentleman says Lovejoy was presumptuous and imprudent, — he "died as the fool dieth." And a reverend clergyman of the city* tells us that no citizen has a right to publish opinions disagreeable to the community! If any mob follows such publication, o.n hi})i rests its guilt! He must wait, forsooth, till the people come up to it and agree with him ! This libel on liberty goes on to say that the want of right to speak as w^e think is an evil inseparable from repul^lican institutions ! If this be so, what are they.
* See Rev. Hubbard Winslow's discourse on Liberty I \y\ys\\\z\\ he defines "republican liberty" to be " liberty to say and do what Xho. prevailing voice and will of the brotherhood will allow and protect."
IS
worth ? Welcome the depotism of the sultan, where one knows what he may publish and what he may not, rather than the tyranny of this many- headed monster, the mob, where we know not what we may do or say till some fellow-citizen has tried it, and paid for the lesson with his life. This clerical absurdity chooses as a check for the abuses of the press, not the law, but the dread of a mob. By so doing, it deprives not only the indi- vidual and the minority of their rights, but the majority also, since the expression of their opinion may sometimes provoke disturbance from the minority. A few men may make a mob as well as many. The majority, then, have no right, as Christian men, to utter their sentiments, if by any possibility it may lead to a mob! Shades of Hugh Peters and John Cotton, save us from such pulpits !
Inipriideiit to defend the liberty of the press ! Why ? Because the defence was unsuccessful ? Does success gild crime into patriotism, and the want of it change heroic sell-devotion to imprudence ? Was Hampden imprudent when he drew the sword and threw away the scabbard ? Vet he, judged by that single hour, was unsuccessful. After a short exile the race he hated sat again upon the throne.
Imagine yourself present when the first news of Bunker Hill battle reached a New England town. The tale would have run thus : " The patriots are routed, — the redcoats victorious, — Warren lies dead upon the field." With what scorn would that Tory have been received who should have charged Warren with ivipnidcnce ! who should have said that, bred a physician, he was " out of place " in that battle, and " died as the fool dieth " ! [Great applause.] How would the intimation have been received that Warren and his associates should have waited a better time ? But, if success be indeed the only criterion of prudence, Kespice Jinevi, — Wait till the end.
Presiimpiiious to assert the freedom of the press on American ground ! Is the assertion of such freedom before the age ? So much before the age as to leave one no right to make it because it displeases the community 1 Who invents this libel on his country ? It is this very thing which entitles Lovejoy to greater praise. The disputed right which provoked the Revo- lution— taxation without representation — is far beneath that for which he. died. [Here there was a strong and general expression of disapprobation.] One word, gentlemen. As much as thought is better than money, so much is the cause in which Lovejoy died nobler than a mere question of taxes. James Otis thundered in this hall when the king did but touch his pocket. Imagine, if you can, his indignant eloquence, had England offered to put a gag upon his lips. [Great applause.]
The question that stirred the Revolution touched our civil interests. Tills concerns us not only as citizens, but as immortal beings. Wrapped up in its fate, saved or lost with it, are not only the voice of the statesman, but the instructions of the pulpit, and the progress of our faith.
The clergy " marvellously out of place " where free speech is battled for, — liberty of speech on national sins t Does the gentleman remember that freedom to preach was first gained, dragging in its train freedom to print ? I thank the clergy here present, as I reverence their predecessors, who did not so far forget their country in their immediate profession as to deem it duty to separate themselves from the struggle of '76, — the Mayhews and Coopers, who remembered they were citizens before they were clergymen.
Mr. Chairman, from the bottom of my heart I thank that brave little band at Alton for resisting. We must remember that Lovejoy had fled
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from city to city, suffered the destruction of three presses patiently. At length he took counsel with friends, men of character, of tried integrity, of wide views, of Christian principle. They thought the crisis had come. It was full time to assert the laws. They saw around them, not a com- munity like our own, of fixed habits, of character moulded and settled, but one "in the gristle, not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." The people there, children of our older States, seem to have forgotten the blood-tried principles of their fathers the moment they lost sight of our New luigland hills. Something was to be done to show them the priceless value of the freedom of. the press, to bring back and set right their wander- ing and confused ideas. He and his advisers looked out on a community staggering like a drunken man, indifferent to their rights and confused in their feelings. Deaf to argument, haply they might be stunned into so- briety. They saw that of which we cannot judge, the necessity of resist- ance. Insulted law called for it. Public opinion, fast hastening on the downward course, must be arrested.
Does not the event show they judged rightly.^ Absorbed in a thousand trifles, how has the nation all at once come to a stand ! Men begin, as in 1776 and 1640, to discuss principles, to weigh characters, to find out where they are. Haply we may awake before we are borne over the precipice.
I am glad, sir, to see this crowded house. It is good for us to be here. When Liberty is in danger, Faneuil Hall has the right, it is her duty, to strike the key-note for these United States. I am glad, for one reason, that remarks such as those to which I have alluded have been uttered here. The passage of these resolutions, in spite of this opposition, led by the Attorney-general of the Commonwealth, will show more clearly, more decisively, the deep indignation wdth which Boston regards this outrage.
Phillips's eulogy of Garrison may almost be regarded as his verdict upon himself, being a survey at its triumphant close of the great conflict in which through life he stood shoulder to slioulder with (jarrison. His speech at Faneuil Hall in 1837 takes us back to the dark and stormy beginnings of the conflict. The two volumes of " Phillips's Speeches, Lectures, and Letters " contain his fiery utterances at every stage of the anti-slavery struggle, as well as his addresses upon other great reforms. A third volume is yet to come. There are biographies of Phillips by George Lov/ell Austin and Carlos Martyn, a brief sketch by Mrs. vStowe, and noble eulogies by (leorge William Curtis, A. H. Cirimke, and Colonel Higginson. The fine sonnet by Lowell is memorable. See also the beautiful poem by Wendell Phillips Stafford, in the Atlantic Mojithly, July, 1890.
PUBLISHED BY
THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH V/ORK Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass.
#1D ^outl) %ta(\tt^
No. 80.
The Dangers from Slavery
By Theodore Parker.
From a Sermon on " The Dangers which threaten the Rights of
Man in America," preached in Music Hall, Boston,
Sunday, July 2, 1854.
There can be no national welfare without national Unity of Action. That cannot take place unless there is national Unity of Idea in fundamentals. Without this a nation is a " house divided against itself" : of course it cannot stand. It is what mechanics call a figure without equilibrium : the different parts thereof do not balance.
Now in the American State there are two distinct ideas, — Freedom and Slavery.
The Idea of Freedom first got a national expression seventy- eight years ago next Tuesday. Here it is. I put it in a philo- sophic form. There are five points to it.
First. All men are endowed by their Creator with certain natural rights, amongst which is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Second. These rights are unalienable ; they can be alienated and forfeited only by the possessor thereof ; the father cannot alienate them for the son, nor the son for the father; nor the husband for the wife, nor the wife for the husband ; nor the strong for the weak, nor the weak for the strong; nor the few for the many, nor the many for the few ; and so on.
Third. In respect to these all men are equal ; the rich man has not more, and the poor less ; the strong man has not more, and the weak man less : all are exactly equal in these rights, however unequal in their powers.
rVjurth. It is the function of government to secure these nat- ural, unahenable, and equal rights to every man.
Fifth. Government derives all its divine right from its con- formity with these ideas, all its human sanction from the con- sent of the governed.
That is the Idea of Freedom. I used to call it " the Ameri- can Idea ": it was when I was younger than I am to-day. It is derived from human nature ; it rests on the immutable Laws of God ; it is part of the natural religion of mankind. It de- mands a government after natural Justice, which is the point common between the conscience of God and the conscience of mankind, the point common also between the interests of one man and of all men.
Now this government, just in its substance, in its form must be democratic ; that is to say, the government of all, by all, and for all. You see what consequences must follow from such an idea, and the attempt to re-enact the Law of God into political institutions. There will follow the freedom of the people, respect for every natural right of all men, the rights of their body, and of their spirit, — the rights of mind and con- science, heart and soul. There must be some restraint, — as of children by their parents, as of bad men by good men ; but it will be restraint for the joint good of all parties concerned, not restraint for the exclusive benefit of the restrainer. The ultimate consequence of this will be the material and spiritual welfare of all, — riches, comfort, noble manhood, all desirable things.
That is the Idea of P'reedom. It appears in the Declaration of Independence ; it reappears in the Preamble to the American Constitution, which aims " to establish Justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the gen- eral welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty." That is a religious idea; and, when men pray for the "Reign of Justice" and the "Kingdom of Heaven" to come on earth politically, I suppose they mean that there may be a Commonwealth where every man has his natural rights of mind, body, and estate.
Next is the Idea of Slavery. Here it is. I put it also in a philosophic form. There are three points which I make.
First. There are no natural, unalienable, and equal rights, wherewith men are endowed by their Creator ; no natural, un- alienable, and equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Second. There is a great diversity of powers, and in virtue thereof the strong man may rule and oppress, enslave and ruin the weak, for his interest and against theirs.
Third. There is no natural law of God to forbid the strong to oppress the weak, and enslave and ruin the weak.
That is the Idea of Slavery. It has never got a national ex- pression in America ; it has never been laid down as a Principle in any act of the American people, nor in any single State, so' far as I know. All profess the opposite ; but it is involved in the measures of both State and Nation. This Idea is founded in the selfishness of man ; it is atheistic.
The idea must lead to a corresponding government ; that will be unjust in its substance, — for it will depend not on natural right, but on personal force ; not on the Constitution of the Universe, but on the compact of men. It is the abne- gation of God in the universe and of conscience in man. Its form will be despotism, — the government of all, by a part, for the sake of a part. It may be a single-headed despotism, or a despotism of many heads ; but, whether a Cyclops or a Hydra, it is alike "the abomination which maketh desolate." Its ulti- mate consequence is plain to foresee, — poverty to a nation, misery, ruin.
At first, Slavery came as a Measure ; nothing was said about it as a Principle. But in a country full of schoolmasters, legis- latures, newspapers, talking men, — a measure without a prin- ciple to bear it up is like a single twig of willow cast out on a wooden floor ; there is nothing for it to grow by ; it will die. So of late the principle has been boldly avowed. Mr. Calhoun denied the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Indepen- dence ; denied the natural, unalienable, and equal rights of man. Many since have done the same, — political, literary, and mercantile men, and, of course, ecclesiastical men ; there are enough of them always in the market. All parts of the Idea of Slavery have been affirmed by prominent men at the North and the South. It has been acted on in the formation of the Constitution of every Slave State, and in the passage of many of its laws. It lies at the basis of a great deal of national legislation. ...
These two Ideas are now fairly on foot. They are hostile ; they are both mutually invasive and destructive. They are in exact opposition to each other, and the nation which embodies these two is not a figure of equilibrium. As both are active
forces in the minds of men, and as each idea tends to become a fact, — a universal and exclusive fact, — as men with these ideas organize into parties as a means to make their idea into a fact, — it follows that there must not only be strife amongst philosophical men about these antagonistic Principles and Ideas, but a strife of practical men about corresponding Facts and Measures. So the quarrel, if not otherwise ended, will pass from words to what seems more serious ; and one will over- come the other.
So long as these two Ideas exist in the nation as two political forces, there is no national Unity of Idea, of course no Unity of Action. For there is no centre of gravity common to Free- dom and Slavery. They will not compose an equilibrious figure. You may cry, '^ Peace ! peace ! " but so long as these two antag- onistic Ideas remain, each seeking to organize itself and get exclusive power, there is no peace ; there can be none.
The question before the nation to-day is, Which shall prevail, — the Idea and Fact of Freedom or the Idea and the Fact of Slavery ; PYeedom, exclusive and universal, or Slavery, exclu- sive and universal? The question is not merel}^. Shall the African be bond or free? but. Shall America be a Democracy or a Despotism ? For nothing is so remorseless as an idea, and no logic is so strong as the historical development of a national idea by millions of men. A measure is nothing with- out its Principle. The idea which allows Slavery in South Carolina will establish it also in New England. The bondage of a black man in Alexandria imperils every white woman's daughter in Boston. You cannot escape the consequences of a first Principle more than you can " take the leap of Niagara and stop when half-way down." The Principle which recog- nizes Slavery in the Constitution of the United States would make all America a Despotism ; while the principle which made John Quincy Adams a free man would extirpate Slavery from Louisiana and Texas. It is plain America cannot long hold these two contradictions in the national consciousness. Equilibrium must come.
Now there are three possible ways of settling the quarrel between these two Ideas ; only three. The categories are exhaustive.
This is the first : The discord may rend the nation asunder, and the two elements separate and become distinct nations, — a Despotism with the Idea of Slavery, a Democracy with the
5
Idea of Freedom. Then each will be an equilibrious figure. The Anglo-Saxon Despotism may go to ruin on its own account, while the Anglo-Saxon Democracy marches on to national wel- fare. That is the first hypothesis.
Or, second : The Idea of PYeedom may destroy Slavery, with all its accidents, — attendant and consequent. Then the nation may have unity of idea, and so a unity of action, and become a harmonious whole, a Unit of Freedom, a great indus- trial Democracy, re-enacting the laws of God, and pursuing its way, continually attaining greater degrees of freedom and pros- perity. That is the second hypothesis.
Here is the third : The Idea of Slavery may destroy Free- dom, with all its accidents, — attendant and consequent. Then the nation will become an integer ; only it will be a Unit of Despotism. This involves, of course, the destructive revolu- tion of all our liberal institutions. State as well as national. Democracy must go down ; the free press go down ; the free church go down ; the free school go down. There must be an industrial despotism, which will soon become a military despot- ism. Popular legislation must end ; the Federal Congress will be a club of officials, like Nero's senate, which voted his horse first consul. The State legislature will be a knot of com- missioners, tide-waiters, postmasters, district attorneys, deputy marshals. The town-meeting will be a gang of government officers, like the " Marshal's Guard," revolvers in their pockets, soldiers at their back. The Habeas Co^'pus will be at an end ; trial by jury never heard of, and open courts as common in America as in Spain or Rome. Commissioners Curtis, Loring, and Kane, will not be exceptional men ; there will be no other "judges"; all courts, courts of the kidnapper; all process summary ; all cases decided by the will of the government ; arbitrary force the only rule. The constable will disappear, the soldier come forth. All newspapers will be like the '^ Satanic press " of Boston and New York, like the Journal of St. Peters- burg or the Diario Romano, which tell lies when the ruler commands, or tell truth when he insists upon it. Then the wicked will walk on every side, for the vilest of men will be exalted, and America, become the mock and scorn and hissing of the nations, will go down to worse shame than was ever heaped upon Sodom ; for with her lust for wealth, land, and power, she also will have committed the crime against nature. Then America will be another Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, yea,
like Gomorrah ; for the Dead Sea will have settled down upon us with nothing living in its breast, and the rulers will proclaim Peace where they have made solitude.
Which of these three hypotheses shall we take ?
I. Will there be a Separation of the tvv^o elements, and a for- mation of two distinct States, — Freedom with Democracy, and Slavery with a tendency to despotism ? That may save one- half the nation, and leave the other to voluntary ruin. Cer- tainly, it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having two hands and two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. . . .
But I do not think this "dissolution of the Union " will take place immediately or very soon. For America is not now ruled — as it is commonly thought — either by the mass of men who follow their national, ethnological, and human in- stincts, or by a few far-sighted men of genius for politics, who consciously obey the Law of God made clear in their own masterly mind and conscience, and make statutes in advance of the calculation or even the instincts of the people, and so manage the Ship of State that every occasional tack is on a great circle of the Universe, a right line of Justice, and there- fore the shortest way to welfare, but by two very different classes of men, — by Mercantile men, who covet money, actual or expectant Capitalists ; and by Political men, who want power, actual or expectant office-holders. These appear diverse; but there is a strong unanimity between the two, — for the mer- cantile men want money as a means of power and the polit- ical men power as a means of money. There are noble men in both classes, exceptional, not instantial, men with great riches even, and great office. But, as a class, these men are not above the average morality of the people, often below it; they have no deep religious faith, which leads them to trust the Higher Law of God. They do not look for Principles that are right, conformable to the Constitution of the LTniverse, and so creative of the nation's permanent welfare, but only for expedient Measures, productive to themselves of selfish money or selfish power. In general, they have the character of ad- venturers, the aims of adventurers, the morals of adventurers ; they begin poor, and of course obscure, and are then " demo- cratic," and hurrah for the people: " Down with the powerful and the rich," is the private maxim of their heart. If they are successful and become rich, famous, attaining high office, they
. 7
commonly despise the people : '^ Down with the people ! " is the axiom of their heart, — only they dare not say it ; for there are so many others with the same selfishness, who have not yet achieved their end, and raise the opposite cry. The line of the nation's course is a resultant of the compound selfishness of these two classes.
From these two, with their mercantile and political selfish- ness, we are to expect no comprehensive Morality, which will secure the Rights of mankind ; no comprehensive policy which will secure expedient measures for a long time. Both will unite in what serves their apparent interest, brings money to the trader, power to the politician, — whatever be the consequence to the country.
As things now are, the Union favors the schemes of both of these classes of men ; thereby the politician gets power, the trader makes money.
If the Union were to be dissolved and a great Northern Commonwealth were to be organized, with the Idea of Free- dom, three-quarters of the Politicians, Federal and State, would pass into contempt and oblivion ; all that class of Northern demagogues who scoff at God's Law, such as filled the offices of the late Whig administration in its day of power or as fill the offices of the Democratic administration to-day, — they would drop down so deep that no plummet would ever reach them ; you would never hear of them again.
Gratitude is not a very common virtue ; but gratitude to the hand of Slavery, which feeds these creatures, is their sole and single moral excellence ; they have that form of gratitude. When the hand of Slavery is cut off, that class of men will perish just as caterpillars die when, some day in May, the farmer cuts off from the old tree a great branch to graft in a better fruit. The caterpillars will not vote for the grafting. That class of men will go for the Union while it serves them.
Look at the other class. Property is safe in America; and why? Because we have aimed to establish a government on natural rights, and property is a natural right; say oligarchic Blackstone and socialistic Proudhon what they may, property is not the mere creature of compact or the child of robbery ; it is founded in the Nature of Man. It has a very great and important function to perform. Nowhere in the world is it so much respected as here.
But there is one kind of property which is not safe just now,
8
— Property in Men. It is the only kind of property which is purely the creature of violence and law ; it has no root in itself.
Now the Union protects that " property." There are three hundred thousand Slave-holders, owning thirteen hundred millions of dollars invested in men. Their wealth depends on the Union ; destroy that, and their unnatural property will take to itself legs and run off, seeking liberty by flight, or else stay at home and, like an Anglo-Saxon, take to itself firebrands and swords, and burn down the master's house and cut the master's throat. So the Slave-holder wants the Union ; he makes money by it. Slavery is unprofitable to the nation. No three millions earn so little as the three million Slaves. It is costly to every State. But it enriches the owner of the Slaves. The South is agricultural ; that is all. She raises cotton, sugar, and corn ; she has no commerce, no manufactures, no mining. The North has mills, ships, mines, manufactures ; buys and sells for the South, and makes money by what impoverishes the South. So all the great commercial centres of the North are in favor of Union, in favor of Slavery. The instinct of American trade just now is hostile to American Freedom. The Money Power and the Slave Power go hand in hand. Of course such editors and ministers as are only the tools of the Money Power or the Slave Power will be fond of " Union at all hazards." They will sell their mothers to keep it. Now these are the controlling classes of men; these ministers and editors are the mouth-pieces of these controlling classes of men ; and, as these classes make money and power out of the Union, for the present I think the Union will hold together. Yet I know very well that there are causes now at work which embitter the minds of men, and which, if much enforced, will so exasperate the North that we shall rend the Union asunder at a blow. That I think not likely to take place, for the South sees the peril and its own ruin.
II. The next hypothesis is. Freedom may triumph over Slavery. That was the expectation once, at the time of the Declaration of Independence ; nay, at the formation of the Constitution. But only two national steps have been taken against Slavery since then, — one the Ordinance of 1787, the other the abolition of the African Slave-trade ; really that was done in 1788, formally twenty years after. In the individual States the white man's freedom enlarges every year ; but the Federal Government becomes more and more addicted to
9
Slaver3^ This hypothesis does not seem very likely to be adopted.
III. Shall Slavery destroy Freedom ? It looks very much like it. Here are nine great steps, openly taken since '87, in favor of Slavery. First, America put Slavery into the Consti- tution. Second, out of old soil she made four new Slave States. Third, America, in 1793, adopted Slavery as a Federal institu- tion, and guaranteed her protection for that kind of property aS' for no other. Fourth, America bought the Louisiana territory in 1803, and put Slavery into it. Fifth, she thence made Louisiana, Missouri, and then Arkansas Slave States. Sixth, she made Slavery perpetual in Florida. Seventh, she annexed Texas. Eighth, she fought the Mexican War, and plundered a feeble sister republic of California, Utah, and New Mexico, to get more Slave Soil. Ninth, America gave ten millions of money to Texas to support Slavery, passed the Fugitive Slave Bill, and has since kidnapped men in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, in all the East, in all the West, in all the Middle States. All the great cities have kidnapped their own citi- zens. Professional Slave-hunters are members of New England Churches ; kidnappers sit down at the Lord's table in the city of Cotton, Chauncey, and Mayhew. In this very year, before it is half through, America has taken two more steps for the de- struction of freedom. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the enslavement of Nebraska : that is the tenth step. Here is the eleventh : The Mexican Treaty, giving away ten millions of dollars and buying a little strip of worthless land, solely that it may serve the cause of Slavery.
Here are eleven great steps openly taken towards the ruin of Liberty in America. Are these the worst ? Very far from it ! Yet more dangerous things have been done in secret.
I. Slavery has corrupted the Mercantile Class. Almost all the leading merchants of the North are Pro-slavery men. They hate freedom, hate your freedom and mine ! This is the only Christian country in which coinmerce is hostile to freedom.
II. See the corruption of the Political Class. There are forty thousand officers of the Federal Government. Look at them in Boston, — their character is as well known as this Hall. Read their journals in this city, — do you catch a whisper of freedom in them ? Slavery has sought its menial servants, — men basely born and basely bred: it has corrupted
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them still further, and put them in office. America, like Russia, is the country for mean men to thrive in. Give him time and mire enough, a worm can crawl as high as an eagle flies. State rights are sacrificed at the North ; centralization goes on with rapid strides ; State laws are trodden under foot. The Northern President is all for Slavery. The Northern Members of the Cabinet are for Slavery ; in the Senate, fourteen Northern Democrats were for the enslavement of Nebraska ; in the House of Representatives, forty-four Northern Democrats voted for the bill, — fourteen in the Senate, forty-four in the House ; fifty-eight Northern men voted against the conscience of the North and the Law of God. Only eight men out of all the South could be found friendly to justice and false to their own local idea of injustice. The present administration, with its supple tools of tyranny, came into office while the cry of " No Higher Law " was echoing through the land !
HI. Slavery has debauched the Press. How many leading journals of commerce and politics in the great cities do you know that are friendly to Freedom and opposed to Slavery ? Out of the five large daily commercial papers m Boston, Whig or Democratic, I know of only one that has spoken a word for freedom this great while. The American newspapers are poor defenders of American liberty. Listen to one of them, speaking of the last kidnapping in Boston: ''We shall need to employ the same measures of coercion as are necessary in monarchical countries," There is always some one ready to do the basest deeds. Yet there are some noble journals, — political and com- mercial,— such as the New York Tril^?ine and Evening Post.
IV. Then our Colleges and Schools are corrupted by Slavery. I do not know of five colleges in all the North which publicly appear on the side of freedom. What the hearts of the presi- dents and professors are, God knows, not L The great crime against humanity, practical atheism, found ready support in Northern colleges, in 1850 and 185 1. Once the common reading books of our schools were full of noble words. Read the school-books now made by Yankee pedlers of literature, and what liberal ideas do you find there ? They are meant for the Southern market. Slavery must not be offended !
V. Slavery has corrupted the Churches ! There are twenty- eight thousand Protestant clergymen in the United States. There are noble hearts, true and just men among them, who have fearlessly borne witness to the truth. I need not mention
1 1
their names. Alas ! they are not very nuniercuis ; I should not have to go over my fingers many times to count them all. I honor these exceptional men. Some of them are old, far older than I am ; older than my father need have been ; some of them are far younger than I ; nay, some of them younger than my children might be : and I honor these men for the fear- less testimony which they have borne, — the old, the middle- aged, and the young. But they are very exceptional men. Is there a minister in the South who preaches against Slavery ? How few in all the North !
Look and see the condition of the Sunday-schools. In 1853 the Episcopal Methodists had 9,438 Sunday-schools; 102,732 Sunday-school teachers; 525,008 scholars. There is not an Anti-slavery Sunday-school in the compass of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Last year, in New York, they issued, on an average, two thousand bound volumes every day in the year, not a line against Slavery in them. They printed also two thousand pamphlets every day ; there is not a line in them all against Slavery ; they printed more than two hundred and forty million pages of Sunday-school books, not a line against Slavery in them all ; not a line showing that it is wicked to buy and sell a man, for whom,, according to the Methodist Episcopal Church, Christ died !
The Orthodox Sunday School Union spent last year $248,- 201 ; not a cent against Slavery, our great National Sin. They print books by the million. Only one of them contains a word against Slavery; that is Cowper's "Task," which contains these words, — my mother taught them to me when I was a little boy, and sat in her lap : —
" I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me when I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews, bought and sold, have ever earned ! "
You all know it : if you do not, you had better learn and teach it to your children. That is the only Anti-slavery work they print. Once they published a book written by Mr. Gallaudet, which related the story, I think, of the selling of Joseph : at any rate, it showed that Egyptian Slavery was wrong. A little girl in a Sunday-school in one of the Southern States one day said to her teacher, '' If it was wrong to make Joseph a Slave, why is it not wrong to make Dinah and Sambo and Chloe
12
Slaves ? " The Sunday-school teacher and the Church took the alarm, and complained of the Sunday School Union : " You are poisoning the South with your religion, telling the children that Slavery is wicked." It was a serious thing, ''dissolution of the Union," "levying war/' or, at least, "misdemeanor," for aught I know, "obstructing an officer of the United States." What do you think the Sunday School Union did ? It sup- pressed the book ! It printed one Sunday-school book which had a line against Egyptian Slavery and then suppressed it ; and it cannot be had to-day ! Amid all their million books there is not a line against Slavery, save what Cowper sung. There are five million Sunday-school scholars in the United States, and there is not a Sunday-school manual which has got a word against Slavery in it.
You all know the American Tract Society. Last year the American Tract Society in Boston spent $79,983.46 ; it visited more than fourteen thousand families; it distributed 3,334,920 tracts, — not a w^ord against Slavery in them all. The American Tract Society in New York last year visited 568,000 famihes, containing three million persons ; it spent for home purposes $406,707, for foreign purposes $422,294 ; it distributed tracts in English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Hungarian, and Welsh — and it did not print one single line nor whisper a single word against this great national sin of Slavery ! Nay, worse : if it finds English books which suit its general purpose, but containing matter adverse to Slavery, it strikes out all the Anti-slavery matter, then prints and circu- lates the book. Is the Tract Society also managed by Jesuits from the Roman Church ?
At this day 600,000 Slaves are directly and personally owned by men who are called "professing Christians," "mem- bers in good fellowship" of the churches of this land; 80,000 owned by Presbyterians, 225,000 by Baptists, 250,000 owned by Methodists, — 600,000 Slaves in this land owned by men who profess themselves Christians, and in churches sit down to take the Lord's Supper, in the name of Christ and God ! There are ministers who own their fellow-men, — " bought with a price."
Does this not look as if Slavery were to triumph over Freedom ?
VI. Slavery corrupts the Judicial Class. In America, especi- ally in New England, no class of men has been so much re-
13
spected as the judges; and for this reason : we have had wise^ learned, excellent men for our judges ; men who reverenced the Higher Law of God, and sought by human statutes to exe- cute Justice. You all know their venerable names, and how reverentially we have looked up to them. Many of them are dead ; some are still living, and their hoary hairs are a crown of glory on a judicial life, without judicial blot. But of late Slavery has put a different class of men on the benches of the Federal Courts, — mere tools of the government ; creatures which get their appointment as pay for past political service^ and as pay in advance for iniquity not yet accomplished. You see the consequences. Note the zeal of the Federal Judges to execute iniquity by statute and destroy Liberty. See how ready they are to support the Fugitive Slave Bill, which tramples on the spirit of the Constitution, and its letter, too; which outrages Justice and violates the most sacred principles and precepts of Christianity. Not a United States Judge, Cir- cuit or District, has uttered one word against that " bill of abominations." Nay, how greedy they are to get victims under it ! No wolf loves better to rend a lamb into fragments than these judges to kidnap a Fugitive Slave, and punish any man who dares to speak against it. You know what has happened in Fugitive Slave Bill Courts. You remember the " miracu- lous " rescue of Shadrach : the peaceable snatching of a man from the hands of a cowardly kidnapper was " high treason" ; it was " levying war." You remember the " trial " of the rescuers ! Judge Sprague's charge to the Grand Jury that, if they thought the question was which they ought to obey, the law of man or the Law of God, then they must '^ Obey both ! " serve God and Mammon, Christ and the Devil, in the same act! You remember the "trial," the "ruling" of the Bench, the swearing on the stand, the witness coming back to alter and " enlarge his testimony " and have another gird at the prisoner! You have not forgotten the trials before Judge Kane at Philadelphia, and Judge Grier at Christiana and Wilkesbarre.
These are natural results of causes well known. You can- not escape a Principle. Enslave a negro, will you ? — you doom to bondage your own sons and daughters, by your own act. ...
All this looks as if the third hypothesis would be fulfilled, and Slavery triumph over Freedom ; as if the nation would
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expunge the Declaration of Independence from the scroll of time, and, instead of honoring Hancock and the Adamses and \\ ashington, do homage to Kane and Grier and Curtis and Hal- lett and Loring. Then the preamble to our Constitution might read "to establish injustice, insure domestic strife, hinder the common defence, disturb the general welfare, and inflict the curse of bondage on ourselves and our posterity." Then we shall honor the Puritans no more, but their Prelatical tormen- tors ; nor reverence the Great Reformers, only the Inquisitors of Rome. Yea, we may tear the name of Jesus out of the American Bible ; yes, God's name. . . .
See the steady triumph of Despotism ! Ten years more like the ten years past, and it will be all over with the liberties of America. Everything must go down, and the heel of the tyrant will be on our neck. It will be all over with the Rights of Man in America, and you and I must go to Austria, to Italy, or to Siberia for our freedom ; or perish with the liberty which our fathers fought for and secured to themselves, — not to their faithless sons ! Shall America thus miserably perish ? Such is the aspect of things to-day !
But are the people alarmed ? No, they fear nothing ; only the tightness in the money market ! Next Tuesday at sunrise every bell in Boston will ring joyously; every cannon will belch sulphurous Welcome from its brazen throat. There will be processions, — the Mayor and the Aldermen and the Marshal and the Naval Officer, and, I suppose, the " Marshal's Guard," very appropriately taking their places. There is a chain on the Common to-day : it is the same chain that was around the Court House in 185 1 ; it is the chain that bound Sims; now it is a festal chain. There are mottoes about the Common, — '' They mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fort- unes, and their sacred honor." J suppose it means that the mayor and the kidnappers did this. "The spirit of '76 still lives." Lives, I suppose, in the Supreme Court of Fugitive Slave Bill judges. " Washington, Jefferson, and their com- patriots ! — their names are sacred in the heart of every Ameri- can." That, I suppose, is the opinion of Thomas Sims and of Anthony Burns. And opposite the great Park Street Church, — where a noble man is this day, I trust, discoursing noble words, for he has never yet been found false to freedom, — " Liberty and Independence, our Fathers' Legacy ! — God for- bid that we their sons should prove recreant to the trust ! "
IS
It ought to read, " God forgive us that we their sons have proved so recreant to the trust! " So they will celebrate the Fourth of July, and call it " Independence Day " ! The foolish press of France, bought and beaten and trodden on by Napo- leon the Crafty, is full of talk about the welfare of the " Great Nation " ! Philip of Macedon was conquering the Athenian allies town by town ; he destroyed and swept off two-and-thirty cities, selling their children as Slaves. All the Cassandrian eloquence of Demosthenes could not rouse degenerate Athens from her idle sleep. She also fell, — the fairest of all free States ; corrupted first, — forgetful of God's Higher Law. Shall America thus perish, all immature !
So was it in the days of old : they ate, they drank, they planted, they builded, they married, they were given in mar- riage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came and devoured them all !
Well, is this to be the end? Was it for this the Pilgrims came over the sea ? Does Forefathers' Rock assent to it ? Was it for this that the New England clergy prayed, and their prayers became the law of the land for a hundred years ? Was it for this that Cotton planted in Boston a little branch of the Lord's vine, and Roger Williams and Higginson — he still lives in an undegenerate son — did the same in the city which they called of Peace, Salem ? Was it for this that Eliot carried the Gospel to the Indians ? that Chauncey, and Edwards, and Hopkins, and Mayhew, and Channing, and Ware labored and prayed ? for this that our fathers fought, — the Adamses, Wash- ington, Hancock ? for this that there was an eight years' war, and a thousand battlefields ? for this the little monuments at Acton, Concord, Lexington, West Cambridge, Danvers, and the great one over there on the spot which our fathers' blood made so red ? Shall America become Asia Minor ? New Eng- land, Italy? Boston such as Athens, — dead and rotten ? Yes! if we do not mend, and speedily mend. Ten years more, and the liberty of America is all gone. We shall fall, — the laugh, the byword, the proverb, the scorn, the mock of the nations, who shall cry against us. Hell from beneath shall be moved to meet us at our coming, and in derision shall it welcome us, —
'* The Heir of all the ages, and the youngest born of time ! "
We shall lie down with the unrepentant prodigals of old time, damned to everlasting infamy and shame.
i6
Would you have it so ? Shall it be ?
To-day America is a debauched young man, of good blood, fortune, and family, but the companion of gamesters and brawlers; reeking with wine ; wasting his substance in riotous living; in the lap of harlots squandering the life which his mother gave him. Shall he return ? Shall he perish ? One day may determine.
Shall America thus die ? I look to the past, — Asia, Africa, Europe, and they answer, "Yes!" Where is the Hebrew Commonwealth; the Roman Republic; where is liberal Greece,
— Athens and many a far-famed Ionian town ; where are the Commonwealths of Mediaeval Italy ; the Teutonic free cities, — German, Dutch, or Swiss? They have all perished. Not one of them is left. Parian Statues of Liberty, sorely mutilated, still remain ; but the Parian rock whence Liberty once hewed her sculptures out, — it is all gone. Shall America thus perish ? Greece and Italy both answer, "Yes!" I question the last fifty years of American history, and it says, " Yes." I look to the American pulpit, I ask the five million Sunday-school scholars, and they say, " Yes." I ask the Federal Court, the Democratic Party, and the Whig, and the answer is still the same.
But I close my eyes on the eleven past missteps we have taken for Slavery ; on that sevenfold clandestine corruption ; I forget the Whig party ; I forget the present Administration ; I forget the Judges of the Courts ; I remember the few noblest men that there are in society. Church and State ; I remember the grave of my father, the lessons of my mother's life ; I look to the Spirit of this Age, — it is the nineteenth century, not the ninth ; I look to the history of the Anglo-Saxons in America, and the history of Mankind ; I remember the story and the song of Italian and German Patriots ; I recall the dear words of those great-minded Greeks, — Ionian, Dorian, ^tolian ; I remember the Romans who spoke and sang and fought for truth and right ; I recollect those old Hebrew Prophets, earth's nobler sons, Poets and Saints ; I call to mind the greatest, noblest, purest soul that ever blossomed in this dusty world ;
— and I say, "No!" Truth shall triumph. Justice shall be law ! And if America fail, though she is one-fortieth of God's family, and it is a great loss, there are other nations behind us ; our Truth shall not perish, even if we go down.
But we shall not fail ! I look into your eyes, — young men
17
and women, thousands of you, and men and women far enough from young ! I look into the eyes of fifty thousand other men and women whom in the last eight months I have spoken to face to face, and they say, " No ! America shall not fail ! " I remember the women, who were never found faithless when a sacrifice was to be offered to great principles ; I look up to my God, and I look into my own heart, and I say. We shall not fail ! We shall not fail !
THEODORE PARKER.
FROM THE ADDRESS BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON AT THE
MEMORIAL MEETING AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON,
JUNE 15, i860.
It is plain to me that Theodore Parker has achieved a his- toric immortality here, that he has so woven himself in these few years into the history of Boston that he can never be left out of your annals. It will not be in the acts of city councils, nor of obsequious mayors ; nor, in the State House, the proc- lamations of governors, with their failing virtue, — failing them at critical moments, — that coming generations will study what really befell, but in the plain lessons of Theodore Parker in this Music Hall, in Faneuil Hall, or in legislative committee rooms, that the true temper and authentic record of these days will be read. The next generation will care little for the chances of elections that govern governors now, it will care little for fine gentlemen who behaved shabbily ; but it will read very intelligently in his rough story, fortified with exact anec- dotes, precise with names and dates, what part was taken by each actor, — who threw himself into the cause of humanity and came to the rescue of civilization at a hard pinch and w^ho blocked its course.
The vice charged against America is the want of sincerity in leading men. It does not lie at his door. He never kept back the truth for fear to make an enemy. But, on the other hand, it was complained that he was bitter and harsh, that his zeal burned with too hot a flame. It is so difficult, in evil times, to escape this charge ! for the faithful preacher, most of all. It
was his merit, like Luther, Knox, and Latimer, and John Baptist, to speak tart truth, when that was peremptory and when there were few to say it. His commanding merit as a reformer is this: that he insisted beyond all men in pulpits — I cannot think of one rival — that the essence of Christianity is its practical morals ; it is there for use, or it is nothing ; and if you combine it with sharp trading, or with ordinary city ambitions to gloze over municipal corruptions, or private intemperance, or successful fraud, or immoral politics, or unjust wars, or the cheating of Indians, or the robbery of frontier nations, or leaving your principles at home to follow on the high seas or in Europe a supple complaisance to tyrants, it is a hypocrisy, and the truth is not in you; and no love of religious music or of dreams of Swedenborg, or praise of John Wesley or of Jeremy Taylor, can save you from the Satan which you are.
His ministry fell on a political crisis also, — on the years when Southern slavery broke over its old banks, made new and vast pretensions, and wrung from the weakness or treachery of Northern people fatal concessions in the Fugitive Slave Bill and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Two days, bitter in the memory of Boston, the days of the rendition of Sims and of Burns, made the occasion of his most remarkable discourses. He kept nothing back. In terrible earnest he denounced the public crime, and meted out to every official, high and low, his due portion. By the incessant power of his statement he made and held a party. It was his great service to freedom. He took away the reproach of silent consent that would other- wise have lain against the indignant minority by uttering in the hour and place wherein these outrages were done the stern protest. . . .
Theodore Parker was a son of the soil, charged with the energy of New England, strong, eager, inquisitive of knowledge, of a diligence that never tired, upright, of a haughty inde- pendence, yet the gentlest of companions ; a man of study, lit for a man of the world ; with decided opinions and plenty of power to state them ; rapidly pushing his studies so far as to leave few men qualified to sit as his critics. He elected his part of duty, or accepted nobly that assigned him in his rare constitution. Wonderful acquisition of knowledge, a rapid wit that heard all, and welcomed all that came, by seeing its bearing. Such was the largeness of his reception of facts and
19
his skill to employ them that it looked as if he were some president of council to whom a score of telegraphs were ever, bringing in reports; and his information would have been excessive but for the noble use he made of it ever in the interest of humanity. . . .
There were, of course, multitudes to censure and defame this truth-speaker. But the brave know the brave. Fops, whether in hotels or churches, will utter the fop's opinion, and faintly hope for the salvation of his soul ; but his manly enemies, who despised the fops, honored him ; and it is well known that his great hospitable heart was the sanctuary to which every soul conscious of an earnest opinion came for sympathy, — alike the brave slaveholder and the brave slave-rescuer. These met in the house of this honest man, — for every sound heart loves a responsible person, one who does not in generous company say generous things, and in mean company base things, but says one thing, — now cheerfully, now indignantly, — but always because he must, and because he sees that, whether he speak or refrain from speech, this is said over him ; and history, nature, and all souls testify to the same.
Ah, my brave brother ! it seems as if, in a frivolous age, our loss were immense, and your place cannot be supplied. But you will already be consoled in the transfer of your genius, knowing well that the nature of the world will affirm to all men, in all times, that which for twenty-five years you valiantly spoke ; that the winds of Italy murmur the same truth over your grave ; the winds of America over these bereaved streets ; that the sea which bore your mourners home affirms it, the stars in their courses, and the inspirations of youth ; whilst the polished and pleasant traitors to human rights, with perverted learning and disgraced graces, rot and ,are forgotten with their double tongue saying all that is sordid for the corruption of man.
A complete uniform American edition of the works of Theodore Parker is a desideratum. There is an Enghsh edition, carefully edited many years ago by Frances Power Cobbs ; but this is now rare. Two volumes of this English edition are devoted to Parker's anti-slavery discourses. Most of these are also contained in four volumes of addresses prepared for the press by Parker himself in his lifetime, but now out of print. The famous address on Webster, the discourses following the rendition of Sims and Burns, addresses before the Anti-slavery Society, and various sermons on slavery are included in these volumes. There are many volumes of
20
Parker's religious works. His lectures on Franklin, Washington, John Adams, and Jefferson were published in a volume entitled " Historic Americans."
There are two valuable biographies of Parker, that by Weiss in two volumes, and the later, briefer, and more interesting w^ork by Frothingham. Albert Reville's little book on Parker has been translated ; and there are important sketches and eulogies by Wendell Phillips, James Freeman Clarke, Higginson, Johnson, Emerson, and others. Extracts from Emer- son's eulogy are given in the present leaflet.
PUBLISHED BY
THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass.
No. 8i.
The Anti-slavery
Convention
of 1833.
By John G. Whittier.
Written in 1874.*
In the gray twilight of a chill day of late November, forty years ago, a dear friend of mine, residing in Boston, made his appearance at the old farm-house in East Haverhill. He had been deputed by the abolitionists of the city, William L. Garrison, Samuel E. Sewall, and others, to inform me of my appointment as a delegate to the convention about to be held in Philadelphia for the formation of an American Anti-slavery Society, and to urge upon me the necessity of my attendance.
.Few words of persuasion, however, were needed. I was unused to travelling, my life had been spent on a secluded farm; and the journey, mostly by stage-coach, at that time was really a formidable one. Moreover, the few abolitionists were everywhere spoken against, their persons threatened, and in some instances a price set on their heads by Southern legis- lators. Pennsylvania was on the borders of slavery, and it needed small effort of imagination to picture to one's self the breaking up of the convention and maltreatment of its mem- bers. This latter consideration I do not think weighed much with me, although I was better prepared for serious danger than for anything like personal indignity. I had read Governor Trumbull's description of the tarring and feathering of his hero MacFingal, when, after the application of the melted tar, the feather bed was ripped open and shaken over him, until
" Not Maia's son, with wings for ears,
Such plumes about his visage wears,
Nor Milton's six-winged angel gathers
Such superfluity of feathers";
* Reprhtted by permission from Whittier s Prose Works, published by Houghton, Mifflin &^ Co.
and, 1 confess, I was quite unwilling to undergo a martyrdom which my best friends could scarcely refrain from laughing at. Hut a summons like that of Garrison's bugle-blast could scarcely be unheeded by one who, from birth and education, held fast the traditions of that earlier abolitionism which, under the lead of Benezet and Woolman, had effaced from the Society of Friends every vestige of slave-holding. I had thrown myself, with a young man's fervid enthusiasm, into a movement which commended itself to my reason and con- science, to my love of country and my sense of duty to God and my fellow- men. My first venture in authorship was the publication at my own expense, in the spring of 1833, ^^ ^ pamphlet entitled "Justice and Expediency," on the moral and political evils of slavery, and the duty of emancipation. Under such circumstances I could not hesitate, but prepared at once for my journey. It was necessary that I should start on the morrow ; and the intervening time, with a small allow^ance of sleep, was spent in providing for the care of the farm and homestead during my absence.
So the next morning I took the stage for Boston, stopping at the ancient hostelry known as the Eastern Stage Tavern ; and on the day following, in company with William Lloyd Garrison, I left for New York. At that city we were joined by other delegates, among them David Thurston, a Congregational minister from Maine. On our way to Philadelphia w^e took, as a matter of necessary economy, a second-class conveyance, and found ourselves, in consequence, among rough and hilarious companions, whose language was more noteworthy for strength than refinement. Our worthy friend the clergyman bore it awhile in painful silence, but at last felt it his duty to utter words of remonstrance and admonition. The leader of the young roisterers listened with ludicrous mock gravity, thanked him for his exhortation, and, expressing fears that the extraor- dinary effort had exhausted his strength, invited him to take a drink with him. Father Thurston buried his grieved face in his coat-collar, and wisely left the young reprobates to their own devices.
On reaching Philadelphia, we at once betook ourselves to the humble dwelling on Fifth Street occupied by Evan Lewas, a plain, earnest man and lifelong abolitionist, who had been largely interested in preparing the way for the convention. In one respect tire time of our assembling seemed unfavorable.
The Society of P^iends, upon whose co-operation we had counted, had but recently been rent asunder by one of those unhappy controversies which so often mark the decHne of practical righteousness. The martyr-age of the society had passed, wealth and luxury had taken the place of the old sim- plicity, there was a growing conformity to the maxims of the world in trade and fashion, and with it a corresponding unwill- ingness to hazard respectability by the advocacy of unpopular reforms. Unprofitable speculation and disputation on one hand, and a vain attempt on the other to enforce uniformity of opinion, had measurably lost sight of the fact that the end of the gospel is love, and that charity is its crowning virtue. After a long and painful struggle the disruption had taken place. The shattered fragments, under the name of Orthodox and Hicksite, so like and yet so separate in feeling, confronted each other as hostile sects ; and
'' Never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining : They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs that have been torn asunder A dreary sea nov^ flows between ; But neither rain nor frost nor thunder Can wholly do away, I ween. The marks of that w^hich once has been."
We found about forty members assembled in the parlors of our friend Lewis, and after some general conversation Lewis Tappan was asked to preside over an informal meeting prepar- atory to the opening of the convention. A handsome, intellect- ual-looking man, in the prime of life, responded to the invitation, and in a clear, well-modulated voice, the firm tones of which inspired hope and confidence, stated the objects of our preliminary council, and the purpose which had called us together, in earnest and well-chosen words. In making arrangements for the convention, it was thought expedient to secure, if possible, the services of some citizen of Philadelphia, of distinction and high social standing, to preside over its deliberations. Looking round among ourselves in vain for some titled civilian or doctor of divinity, we were fain to con- fess that to outward seeming we were but ^' a feeble folk," sorely needing the shield of a popular name. A committee, of which I was a member, was appointed to go in search of a president of this description. We visited two prominent
gentlemen, known as friendly to emancipation and of high social standing. They received us with the dignified courtesy of the old school, declined our proposition in civil terms, and bowed us out with a cool politeness equalled only by that of the senior Winkle towards the unlucky deputation of Pickwick and his unprepossessing companions. As we left their doors, we could not refrain from smiling in each other's faces at the thought of the small inducement our proffer of the presidency held out to men of their class. Evidently, our company was not one for respectability to march through Coventry with.
On the following morning we repaired to the Adelphi Build- ing, on Fifth Street, below Walnut, which had been secured for our use. Sixty-two delegates w^ere found to be in attendance. Beriah Green, of the Oneida (New York) Institute, was chosen president, a fresh-faced, sandy-haired, rather common-looking man, but who had the reputation of an able and eloquent speaker. He had already made himself known to us as a resolute and self-sacrificing abolitionist. Lewis Tappan and myself took our places at his side as secretaries, on the eleva- tion at the west end of the hall.
Looking over the assembly, I noticed that it was mainly composed of comparatively young men, some in middle age, and a few beyond that period. They were nearly all plainly dressed, with a view to comfort rather than elegance. Many of the faces turned towards me wore a look of expectancy and suppressed enthusiasm. All had the earnestness which might be expected of men engaged in an enterprise beset with diffi- culty and perhaps with peril. The fine, intellectual head of Garrison, prematurely bald, was conspicuous. The sunny-faced young man at his side, in whom all the beatitudes seemed to find expression, was Samuel J. May, mingling in his veins the best blood of the Sewalls and Quincys, — a man so excep- tionally pure and large-hearted, so genial, tender, and loving, that he could be faithful to truth and duty without making an enemy.
" The de'il wad look into his face, And swear he couldna wrang him."
That tall, gaunt, swarthy man, erect, eagle-faced, upon whose somewhat martial figure the Quaker coat seemed a little out of place, was Lindley Coates, known in all Eastern Pennsylvania as a stern enemy of slavery. That slight, eager man, intensely alive in every feature and gesture, was Thomas Shipley, who
for thirty years had been tne protector of the free colored people of Philadelphia, and whose name was whispered rev- erently in the slave cabins of Maryland as the friend of the black man, one of a class peculiar to old Quakerism, who in doing what they felt to be duty and walking as the Light within guided them knew no fear and shrank from no sacrifice. Braver men the world has not known. Beside him, differing in creed, but united with him in works of love and charity, sat Thomas Whitson, of the Hicksite school of Friends, fresh from his farm in Lancaster County, dressed in plainest homespun, his tall form surmounted by a shock of unkempt hair, the odd obliquity of his vision contrasting strongly with the clearness and directness of his spiritual insight. Elizur Wright, the young professor of a Western college, who had lost his place by his bold advocacy of freedom, with a look of sharp concen- tration in keeping with an intellect keen as a Damascus blade, closely watched the proceedings through his spectacles, open- ing his mouth only to speak directly to the purpose. The portly form of Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, the beloved physician, from that beautiful land of plenty and peace which Bayard Taylor has described in his " Story of Kennett," was not to be overlooked. Abolitionist in heart and soul, his house was known as the shelter of runaway slaves ; and no sportsman ever entered into the chase with such zest as he did into the arduous and sometimes dangerous work of aiding their escape and baffling their pursuers. The youngest man present was, I believe, James Miller McKim, a Presbyterian minister from Columbia, afterwards one of our most efficient workers. James Mott, E. L. Capron, Arnold Buffum, and Nathan Winslow, men well known in the anti-slavery agitation, w^ere conspicuous members. Vermont sent down from her mountains Orson S. Murray, a man terribly in earnest, with a zeal that bordered on fanaticism, and who was none the more genial for the mob- violence to which he had been subjected. In front of me, awakening pleasant associations of the old homestead in Merri- mack valley, sat my first school-teacher, Joshua Coffin, the learned and worthy antiquarian and historian of Newbury. A few^ spectators, mostly of the Hicksite division of Friends, were present, in broad brims and plain bonnets, among them Esther Moore and Lucretia Mott.
Committees were chosen to draft a constitution for a na- tional Anti-slavery Society, nominate a list of officers, and
I.
prepare a declaration of principles to be signed by the members. Dr. A. L. Cox of New York, while these commit- tees were absent, read something from my pen eulogistic of William Lloyd Garrison; and Lewis Tappan and Amos A. Phelps, a Congregational clergyman of Boston, afterwards one of the most devoted laborers in the cause, followed in generous commendation of the zeal, courage, and devotion of the young pioneer. The president, after calling James McCrummell, one of the two or three colored members of the convention, to the chair, made some eloquent remarks upon those editors who had ventured to advocate emancipation. At the close of his speech a young man rose to speak, whose appearance at once arrested my attention. I think 1 have never seen a finer face and figure ; and his manner, words, and bearing were in keep- ing. "Who is he .'^ " I asked of one of the Pennsylvania delegates. "Robert Purvis, of this city, a colored man," was the answer. He began by uttering his heart-felt thanks to the delegates who had convened for the deliverance of his people. He spoke of Garrison in terms of warmest eulogy, as one who had stirred the heart of the nation, broken the tomb-like slumber of the Church, and compelled it to listen to the story of the slave's wrongs. He closed by declaring that the friends of colored Americans would not be forgotten. " Their memories," he said, " will be cherished when pyramids and monuments shall have crumbled in dust. The flood of time, which is sweeping away the refuge of lies, is bearing on the advocates of our cause to a glorious immortality."
The committee on the constitution made their report, which after discussion was adopted. It disclaimed any right or intention of interfering, otherwise than by persuasion and Chris- tian expostulation, with slavery as it existed in the States, but affirming the duty of Congress to abolish it in the District of Columbia and Territories, and to put an end to the domestic slave-trade. A list of officers of the new society was then chosen : Arthur Tappan, of New York, president, and Elizur Wright, Jr., William Lloyd Garrison, and A. L. Cox, secre- taries. Among the vice-presidents was Dr. Lord, of Dartmouth College, then professedly in favor of emancipation, but who afterwards turned a moral somersault, a self-inversion which left him ever after on his head instead of his feet. He became a querulous advocate of slavery as a divine institution, and de- nounced woe upon the abolitionists for interfering with the will
and purpose of the Creator. As the cause of freedom gained ground, the poor man's heart failed him, and his hope for Church and State grew fainter and fainter. A sad prophet of the evangel of slavery, he testified in the unwilling ears of an unbelieving generation, and died at last, despairing of a world which seemed determined that Canaan should no longer be cursed, nor Onesimus sent back to Philemon.
The committee on the declaration of principles, of which I was a member, held a long session discussing the proper scope and tenor of the document. But little progress being made, it was finally decided to intrust the matter to a sub-committee, consisting of William L. Garrison, S. J. May, and myself ; and, after a brief consultation and comparison of each other's views, the drafting of the important paper was assigned to the former gentleman. We agreed to meet him at his lodgings in the house of a colored friend early the next morning. It was still dark when we climbed up to his room, and the lamp was still burning by the light of which he was writing the last sentence of the declaration. We read it carefully, made a few verbal changes, and submitted it to the large committee, who unani- mously agreed to report it to the convention.
The paper was read to the convention by Dr. Atlee, chair- man of the committee, 'and listened to with the profoundest interest.
Commencing with a reference to the time, fifty-seven years before, when, in the same city of Philadelphia, our fathers announced to the world their Declaration of Independence, — based on the self-evident truths of human equality and rights, — and appealed to arms for its defence, it spoke of the new enter- prise as one " without which that of our fathers is incomplete," and as transcending theirs in magnitude, solemnity, and prob- able results as much " as moral truth does physical force." It spoke of the difference of the two in the means and ends pro- posed, and of the trifling grievances of our fathers compared with the wrongs and sufferings of the slaves, which it forcibly characterized as unequalled by any others on the face of the earth. It claimed that the nation was bound to repent at once, to let the oppressed go free, and to admit them to all the rights and privileges of others ; because, it asserted, no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother ; because liberty is inalienable ; because there is no difference in principle between slave-holding and man-stealing, which the law brands as
8
piracy ; and because no length of bondage can invalidate man's claim to himself, or render slave laws anything but " an audacious usurpation."
It maintained that no compensation should be given to planters emancipating slaves, because that would be a surren- der of fundamental principles. " Slavery is a crime, and is, therefore, not an article to be sold " ; because slave-holders are not just proprietors of what they claim; because emancipa- tion would destroy only nominal, not real, property ; and be- cause compensation, if given at all, should be given to the slaves.
It declared any "scheme of expatriation" to be "delusive, cruel, and dangerous." It fully recognized the right of each state to legislate exclusively on the subject of slavery within its limits, and conceded that Congress, under the present na- tional compact, had no right to interfere, though still contend- ing that it had the power, and should exercise it, " to suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several states," and "to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in those por- tions of our territory which the Constitution has placed undar its exclusive jurisdiction."
After clearly and emphatically avowing the principles under- lying the enterprise, and guarding with scrupulous care the rights of persons and states under the Constitution, in prose- cuting it, the declaration closed with these eloquent words : —
" We also maintain that there are at the present time the highest obligations resting upon the people of the free states to remove slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States. They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous physical force to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions- in the Southern states ; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves ; they authorize the slave-holder to vote on three-fifths of his slaves as property, and thus enable him to perpetuate his oppression; they sup- port a standing army at the South for its protection ; and they seize the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an enraged master or a brutal driver. This relation to slavery is criminal and full of danger. It must be broken up.
" These are our views and principles, — these our designs and measures. With entire confidence in the overruling
justice of God, we plant ourselves upon the Declaration of Independence and the truths of divine revelation as upon the everlasting rock.
" We shall organize anti-slavery societies, if possible, in every city, town, and village in our land.
" We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remon- strance, of warning, of entreaty and rebuke.
'^ We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively anti-slavery tracts and periodicals.
'^ We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering and the dumb.
''We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in the guilt of slavery.
" We shall encourage the labor of freemen over that of the slaves, by giving a preference to their productions ; and
" We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy repentance.
"Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be per- sonally defeated, but our principles never. Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement.
" Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of the people of this country and of the friends of liberty all over the world, we hereby afSx our signatures to it, pledging our- selves that, under the guidance and by the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this dec- laration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth, to deliver our land from its deadliest curse, to wipe out the foulest stain which rests upon our national escutcheon, and to secure to the colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as Americans, come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputations, whether we live to witness the triumph of justice, liberty, and humanity, or~ perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent, and holy cause."
The reading of the paper, was followed by a discussion which lasted several hours. A member of the Society of Friends moved its immediate adoption. "We have," he said, " all given it our assent : every heart here responds to it. It is a doctrine of Friends that these strong and deep impressions
L
lO
should be heeded.'' The convention, nevertheless, deemed it important to go over the declaration carefully, paragraph by paragraph. During the discussion one of the spectators asked leave to say a few words. A beautiful and graceful woman, in the prime of life, with a face beneath her plain cap as finely intellectual as that of Madame Roland, offered some wise and valuable suggestions, in a clear, sweet voice, the charm of which I have never forgotten. It was Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia. The president courteously thanked her, and encouraged her to take a part m the discussion. On the morning of the last day of our session the declaration, wdth its few verbal amendments, carefully engrossed on parchment, was brought before the convention. Samuel J. May rose to read it for the last time. His sweet, persuasive voice faltered with the intensity of his emotions as he repeated the solemn pledges of the concluding paragraphs. After a season of silence, David Thurston, of Maine, rose as his name was called bv one of the secretaries, and affixed his name to the docu- ment. One after another passed up to the platform, signed, and retired in silence. All felt the deep responsibility of the occasion : the shadow and forecast of a lifelong struggle rested upon every countenance.
Our work as a convention was now^ done. President Green arose to make the concluding address. The circumstances under which it was uttered may have lent it an impressiveness not its own ; but, as I now recall it, it seems to me the most power- ful and eloquent speech to which I have ever listened. He passed in review^ the work that had been done, the constitution of the new society, the declaration of sentiments, and the union and earnestness w^hich had marked the proceedings. His clos- ing words will never be forgotten by those who heard them : —
"Brethren, it has been good to-be here. In this hallowed atmosphere I have been revived and refreshed. This brief in- terview has more than repaid me for all that I have ever suffered. I have here met congenial minds. I have rejoiced in sympathies delightful to the soul. Heart has beat responsive to heart, and the holy work of seeking to benefit the outraged and despised has proved the most blessed employment.
" But now \\Q must retire from these balmv infiuences, and breathe another atmosphere. The chill hoar frost wdll be upon us. The storm and tempest will rise, and the weaves of perse- cution will dash against our souls. Let us be prepared for the
1 1
worst. Let us fasten ourselves to the throne of God as with hooks of steel. If we cling not to him, our names to that doc- ument will be but as dust.
" Let us court no applause, indulge in no spirit of vain boasting. Let us be assured that our only hope in grappling with the bony monster is in an Arm that is stronger than ours. Let us fix our gaze on God, and walk in the light of his counte- nance. If our cause be just, — and we know it is, — his omnip- otence is pledged to its triumph. Let this cause be entwined around the very fibres of our hearts. Let our hearts grow to it, so that nothing but death can sunder the bond."
He ceased, and then, amidst a silence broken only by the deep-drawn breath of emotion in the assembly, lifted up his voice in a prayer to Almighty God, full of fervor and feeling, imploring his blessing and sanctification upon the convention and its labors. And with the solemnity of this supplication in our hearts we clasped hands in farewell, and went forth each man to his place of duty, not knowing the things that should befall us as individuals, but with a confidence never shaken by abuse and persecution in the certain triumph of our cause.
FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY
SOCIETY.
A LETTER TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY.
Ameskury, 24th nth mo., 1863.
My dear Friend^ — I have received thy kind letter with the accompanying circular, inviting me to attend the commemora- tion of the thirtieth anniversary of the formation of the Ameri- can Anti-slavery Society at Philadelphia. It is with the deepest regret that I am compelled by the feeble state of my health to give up all hope of meeting thee and my other old and dear friends on an occasion of so much interest. How much it costs me to acquiesce in the hard necessity thy own feelings will tell thee better than any words of mine.
I look back over thirty years, and call to mind all the circum- stances of my journey to Philadelphia, in company with thyself and the excellent Dr. Thurston, of Maine, even then as we thought an old man, but still living, and true as ever to the good cause. I recall the early gray morning when, with
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Samuel J. May, our colleague on the committee to prepare a Declaration of Sentiments for the convention, I climbed to the small " upper chamber " of a colored friend to hear thee read the first draft of a paper which will live as long as our national history. I see the members of the convention, solemnized by the responsibility, rise one by one, and solemnly affix their names to that stern pledge of fidelity to freedom. Of the signers, many have passed away from earth, a few have faltered and turned back; but I believe the majority still live to rejoice over the great triumph of truth and justice, and to devote what remains of time and strength to the cause to which they conse- crated their youth and manhood thirty years ago.
For, while we may well thank God and congratulate one another on the prospect of the speedy emancipation of the slaves of the United States, we must not for a moment forget that from this hour new and mighty responsibilities devolve upon us to aid, direct, and educate these millions left free, indeed, but bewildered, ignorant, naked, and foodless in the wild chaos of civil war. We have to undo the accumulated wrongs of two centuries, to remake the manhood which slavery has well-nigh unmade, to see to it that the long-oppressed col- ored man has a fair field for development and improvement, and to tread under our feet the last vestige of that hateful prejudice which has been the strongest external support of Southern slavery. We must lift ourselves at once to the true Christian altitude where all distinctions of black and white are overlooked in the heartfelt recognition of the brotherhood of man.
I must not close this letter without confessing that I cannot be sufficiently thankful to the Divine Providence which, in a great measure through thy instrumentality, turned me away so early from what Roger Williams calls " the world's great trin- ity, pleasure, profit, and honor," to take side with the poor and oppressed. I am not insensible to literary reputation. I love, perhaps too well, the praise and good-will of my fellow-men ; but I set a higher value on my name as appended to the Anti- slavery Declaration of 1833 than on the title-page of any book. Looking over a life marked by many errors and shortcomings, I rejoice that I have been able to maintain the pledge of that signature, and that, in the long intervening years,
" My voice, though not the loudest, has been heard Wherever Freedom raised her cry of pain."
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Let me, through thee, extend a warm greeting to the friends, whether of our own or the new generation, who may assemble on the occasion of commemoration. There is work yet to be done which will task the best efforts of us all. For thyself, I need not say that the love and esteem of early boyhood have lost nothing by the test of time ; and
I am, very cordially, thy friend,
John G. Wh ri tier.
ANTI-SLAVERY ANNIVERSARY.
read at the semi-centennial celebration of the american anti- slavery society at philadelphia on the 3d december, 1883.
Oak Knoll, Danyers, Mass., nth mo., 30, 1883.
I need not say how gladly I would be with you at the semi- centennial of the American Anti-slavery Society. I am, 1 regret to say, quite unable to gratify this wish, and can only represent myself by a letter.
Looking back over the long years of half a century, I can scarcely realize the conditions under which the convention of 1833 assembled. Slavery w^as predominant. Like Apollyon in Pilgrwi's Progress^ it "straddled over the whole breadth of the way." Church and state, press and pulpit, business in- terests, literature, and fashion \vere prostrate at its feet. Our convention, with few exceptions, was composed of men without influence or position, poor and little known, strong only in their convictions and faith in the justice of their cause. To on- lookers our endeavor to undo the evil work of two centuries and convert a nation to the "great renunciation" involved in emancipation must have seemed absurd in the last degree. Our voices in such an atmosphere found no echo. We could look for no response but laughs of derision or the missiles of a mob.
But we felt that we had the strength of truth on our side ; we were right, and all the world about us was wrong. We had faith, hope, and enthusiasm, and did our work, nothing doubt- ing, amidst a generation who first despised and then feared and hated us. For myself I have never ceased to be grateful to the Divine Providence for the privilege of taking a part in that work.
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And now for more than twenty years we have had a free country. No slave treads its soil. The anticipated dangerous consequences of complete emancipation have not been felt. The emancipated class, as a w^hole, have done wisely and well under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. The masters have learned that cotton can be raised better by free than by slave labor, and nobody now wishes a return to slave-holding. Sec- tional prejudices are subsiding, the bitterness of the civil w^ar is slowly passing away. We are beginning to feel that we are one people, with no really clashing interests, and none more truly rejoice in the growing prosperity of the South than the old abolitionists, who hated slavery as a curse to the master as w^ell as to the slave.
In view of this commemorative semi-centennial occasion, many thoughts crowd upon me ; memory recalls vanished faces and voices long hushed. Of those who acted with me in the convention fifty years ago nearly all have passed into another state of being. We who remain must soon follow ; we have seen the fulfilment of our desire ; we have outlived scorn and persecution ; the lengthening shadows invite us to rest. If, in looking back, we feel that w^e sometimes erred through impa- tient zeal in our contest with a great wrong, we have the satis- faction of knowing that we were influenced by no merely sel- fish considerations. The low light of our setting sun shines over a free, united people, and our last prayer shall be