AMERICAN LIBERTIES AND AMERICAN SLAVERY. MORALLY AND POLITICALLY ILLUSTRATED. By S. B. TREADWELL, ROCHESTER, N. Y. " Misirere civium tuorum." — Pity your countrymen. It is a bad cause that will not bear being reasoned upon." — Henry Clay. NEW- YORK : JOHN S. TAYLOR. BOSTON: WEEKS, JORDAN & Co. 18 3 8. Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1838, by John S. Taylor, in the. Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New- York. G. P. Hopkins &■ Son, Printers, No. 2 Ann-Btreet. DEDICATION. The following work is humbly and respectfully dedicated by its author to those of his fellow-coun- trymen, regardless of name or location, who would be more devoted to the highest and best interests of their whole country, and of all their fellow- men, than to pecuniary considerations alone, or to mere sect or party, as such only- INDEX. The following ie a list of the objections to the discussion of Slavery proposed to be answered ; in doing which, the Constitutional principles of our own free institutions and the fundamental truths of all just government, independent of sect or party, are attempted impartially to be illustrated. It is also con- clusively shown, that the slaveholding power in our country, has always been insidiously but rapidly undermining all our institutions : — SECTION I. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery at the north, be cause we are meddling with that which is none of our business, for it is un- constitutional," ...••• a S e SECTION II. -"lam opposed to the discussion of slavery at the north, be- cause it will do no good," . SECTION III. —"I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it 123 makes a great excitement, • SECTION IV. -"lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it will take away the property of slaveholders and bankrupt the south," . 137 SECTION V. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it will let the niggers all loose among us, and they will murder their masters and overrun our country as vagabonds," .... 151 SECTION VI. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because my idea of republicanism is that we should aim at ihe greatest good to the greatest number, and there are more whites than blacks — therefore J go for the freedom of the whites, and for the slavery of the blacks," . 174 SECTION VII. -"lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the Blaves are so ignorant they could not take care of themselves," . 184 SECTION VIII. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it makes the slaveholders more cruel to their slaves, and instead of our dis cussions helping the slave, it puts back his emancipation and only makes 195 his condition worse, ...••• xam SECTION IX. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the niggers are all thieves," ...••• *™ J VI INDEX. SECTION X. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, says an- other, because amalgamation would follow by intermarriages with the blacks," ........ Page 202 SECTION XI. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the blacks are so extremely offensive, I cannot bear them about me," . 209 SECTION XII. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the Bible tolerates slavery," ...... 224 SECTION XIII. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because I think no better of abolitionists than I do of slaveholders," . . 229 SECTION XIV. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the slaves are not fitted for freedom," .... 231 SECTION XV. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the blacks are an inferior race of beings to the whites, and therefore made for servitude to the whites," ...... 234 SECTION XVI. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it is a religious or sectarian matter," ..... 249 SECTION XVII. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because peace is so very desirable," ...... 293 SECTION XVIII. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because it is or will become a political subject," .... 295 SECTION XIX. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because I have been at the south, and I never was treated with greater kindness and hospitality, and the masters also treated their servants kindly, and they appeared brisk and happy,** . ... 332 SECTION XX. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because there are a great many amiable and highly respectable slaveholders, among whom are many distinguished ministers of the gospel, and other devoted and pious Christians," ..... 334 SECTION XXI. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because there arc hundreds of good slaveholders who would gladly emancipate their slaves at once, if their laws would allow them to do so," . 340 SECTION XXII. — '" I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because a great many people at the north don't treat their own domestics as tbey ought," 344 SECTION XXIII. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because our greatest statesmen and our greatest divines are opposed to its discussion, and they ought to know best, and that it is only a few fanatics, weak minded men and women, who are in favour of discussing it," , 347 INDEX. Vll SECTION XXIV. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the slaveholders will dissolve the Union if we discuss it," . Page 352 SECTION XXV. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because, al- though I hold to free discussion, and think the subject might be discussed in a way to do good, but these " modern abolitionists " are so denunciatory and abusive, and manifest such an unchristian spirit, I think the subject of slavery better not to be agitated at all, for it only excites mobs," . 3G3 SECTION XXVI. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because I d o not believe in these people who talk so much about abstract principles of right and wrong, for I believe such principles are all moonshine, . 371 SECTION XXVII. — •" I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the north are already opposed to slavery, and that is enough, . 373 SECTION XXVIII. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the subject is so absorbing, that when men become engaged in it they seem to forget every thing else and become men of one idea, and they become so wrought up that their language is denunciatory," . . 377 SECTION XXIX. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because females are engaged in it," ...... 380 SECTION XXX. — "lam opposed, says honest Frank, to having slavery discussed, because slavery is right; and I am afraid that the discussion of it through the mere sympathies of the people would utterly abolish it, which I think would be wrong," ..... 384 SECTION XXXI. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, for though slavery is a great sin in the abstract, it is a still greater one to say so, and to attempt to investigate it," ...... 386 SECTION XXXII. — "I am opposed to slavery in the abstract, and believe it to be the great and crying sm of this nation, but think it inexpedient to discuss it just now," ...... 390 SECTtON XXXIII. — "I am an abolitionist, am opposed to slavery, and in favour of its immediate abolishment ; but am opposed to the present leading abolitionists discussing it, because they sometimes intermingle in their dis- cussions some of their own peculiar sentiments on religious subjects, and I believe their discussions are injuring and perhaps overthrowing the Christian ministry and the Christian religion, and I believe I could discusa it far more orthodox," .... . 394 SECTION XXXIV. — "lam opposed to the discussion of slavery, because abolitionists will not go to the south to discuss the subject," . 401 SECTION XXXV. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because- the slaves do not wish to be free," .... 408 1* Vlll INDEX. SECTION XXXVI. — "I am opposed to discussing slavery, and to fasting on the subject, and praying audibly about it, or talking about it among our people, because it will divide our church, and when we travel south, we shall not be well received by our slaveholding brethren," . Page 411 SECTION XXXVII. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because abolitionists are in number but a handful, and it is impossible they should be right, and all the rest of the world wrong," . . . 415 SECTION XXXVIII. — "I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, because the subject is already perfectly well understood by the people," ■ 420 SECTION XXXIX. — "I am as much opposed to slavery as anyone can be, and think it is a most dreadful evil, but am opposed to having it dis- cussed, because I am a colonizationist,''' .... 424 SECTION XL. — " I am opposed to the discussion of slavery, and to eman- cipation, because the slaves are better off than the poor labouring white people are at the north." ...... 438 COMMUNICATIONS TO THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. TO SEYMOUR B. TREADWELL, ESQ,. Sir: The cause of the oppressed is one of deep and thrilling interest to us all as a nation, and infinitely more so to us as Christians. Whatever therefore shall tend to enlighten the mind, and bring it up to vigorous and prompt exertions in urging on the day for the liberation of the captive, should be eagerly sought out and put in requisition. On these premises, we lay before you the following proceedings : At a meeting of the Perinton Anti-Slavery Society convened, I. F. Benedict, Esq., Vice President in the chair, it was unani- mously " Resolved, that a Committee be appointed to wait on Seymour B. TREADWELL^Esq. and solicit for publication in the several leading Anti-Slavery papers of our land, his ingenious and highly valued address, delivered before its society, at the anniversary, on the fourth day of July, 1837. " Believing, dear sir, that your address is eminently calculated to enlighten the mind, and rectify its defects on this momentous subject, we doubt not your warm heart in this cause will prompt you to comply with what we in our instructions are directed to ask, viz., a response on your part, corresponding with the request in the aboee-mentioned resolution. With sentiments of esteem and fellowship, We remain, dear sir, co-workers with you In pleading the cause of the oppressed." ANSON P- BROOKS, > Committee JUSTUS BEARDSLEY, \ Commtttee - REPLY. It is proper here to say to the above named Committee, and through them to all the individuals composing the respectable X COMMUNICATIONS. meeting before whom the address alluded to was delivered, that, owing to its length, it was thought not advisable to offer it for publication in the Anti-Slavery Journals. But by the advices and solicitations of his friends, and from a desire to render himself, if possible, more extensively useful in the cause of the oppressed and his whole beloved country, the author has incorporated its leading principles in the following work, hoping it may be equally acceptable. S. B. Treadwell. P. S. This letter and reply are published in this connexion, as explanatory of some of the views found in this work, and also as an apology due to all interested in the request for the publication of said address, as no direct reply to the request had heretofore been made. The following are among some of the letters and notes addressed to the publisher and the author of this volume by gentlemen who have read the work in the manuscript, or in the sheets as they came from the press : — Rochester, 7 th February, 1838. S. BOUGHTON TREADWELL, ESQ,. Dear Sir : I have read a large portion of your manuscript, but have been so pressed by other claims upon my time, that I could not read it all ; and return it in the lime you set. I find what I have read full of a good spirit, with many striking, and sound, and useful views ; and will thank you to direct that a copy be sent me of the whole work, as soon as it comes from the press, on such terms as apply to others. Respectfully your obedient servant, MYRON HOLLEY. [Since the above was written, considerable additions have been made to this work.] COMMUNICATIONS. Xi MR. JOHN S. TAYLOR, Dear Sir: I have perused, with very great satisfaction, a manuscript copy of "American Liberties and American Slave- ry, by S. B. Treadwell, Esq. ;" a work which I understand you are about to publish. I believe this book to be peculiarly adapted to disarm existing prejudices, and to ^confirm in the principles of eternal justice, and true national policy, that portion of our great community whose minds are yet undecided, and consequently open to the plain de- ductions of sound unsophisticated reason, on the exciting ques- tion of Slavery in the United States. DUNCAN DUNBAR, Pastor of the McDougal-st. Baptist Church. New -York, June 4, 1838. In the above opinion, I most cheerfully concur. A. LIBOLT, M. D. New- York, June 4, 1838. I believe this work will be highly useful. A. DOOLITTLE, M. D. New- York, June 5, 1838. MR. J. S. TAYLOR, Sir: I most cheerfully concur in the above recommendations of this valuable work of which you are the Publisher, and would add, that from the very clear and conclusive illustrations of the author, I know of no publication so well calculated to meet all the ob- jections, not only to the right, but to the perfect safety of all con- cerned, of immediate emancipation ; and also the objections to am- ply discussing all topics relating both to the liberties and to the slavery of our whole country. ROBERT SEARS. New- York;, June 6, 1838, Xll COMMUNICATIONS. Rochester, February 26, 1838. S. B. TREAD WELL, ESQ. Sir: Your work on "Liberty and Slavery" I have care- fully read in the manuscript, and highly approve of the manner in which civil, social, and religious rights are therein treated. These topics I think are there impartially and thoroughly discussed, which cannot but render this work valuable to every American citizen, an important auxiliary to the cause of truth, and interest- ing to all engaged in benefiting mankind. Respectfully yours, HENRY C. FRINK. New- York, June 6, 1838. MR. J. S. TAYLOR, Sir: In accordance with your request I have examined most of the MS. copy of Mr. S. B. Treadwell's work on " American Liberties and American Slavery," with more than ordinary satis- faction. The popular manner in which the subject is treated, meets the objector on his own ground, and renders it useful to the removal of the very crude and false ideas entertained by a large class of the American people, on the important subject of Human Rights. As such, I am happy to recommend this work. THEODORE WRIGHT, Pastor of the 1st Coloured Presbyterian Church, N. T. I cheerfully concur in the above recommendation. SAMUEL E. CORNISH, Editor of the Coloured American, N. Y. MR. J. S. TAYLOR, Sir: I have read with much pleasure, illustrations of "American Liberties and American Slavery, by S. B. Treadwell , Esq.," of which you are the Publisher. As one of the people, the writer well understands the palseying circumstances attend- COMMUNICATIONS- Xlll ant on the would-be popular watchmen in authority, whether in the " chair of state," on the " walls of Zion," or in charge of that t ' life or death," the Press. Let the people thus awake themselves to watchfulness of the dangers and destiny that bethreaten us, and we will never de- spair of our republic. You will please consider me as interested to see that the work circulates among my acquaintances. NEH. BROWN, Presby. Clergyman. New- York, June 6, 1838. I think the work of Mr. Treadwell will contribute to the advancement of the cause of liberty, and of social order. N. E. JOHNSON, Ed. Evangelist. New- York, June 6, 1838. ERRATA. Page G5, 3d line from the top, for " called for the safety " — read, "called for, for the safety," &c. " 110, 11th line from the top, for " country" — read, " world." " 222, 7th line from the top, for "tall sturdy oaks ;" read, " tall cedars." " 226, 14th line from the top, for "snuffeth "— read " puffeth." " 408, 7th line from the commencement of the Section, should read, "that while we were not permitted to speak for ourselves, we did not wish to be free." PREFACE. The publication of the following brief replies to forty objections to the discussion of slavery, and remarks up- on constitutional liberty of speech and the press upon colonization and the slave laws, was first thought of by the author, through the suggestion of some of his friends, who are also the friends of the oppressed, soon after his first public address on the subject. His object in publishing them in book instead of pamphlet form, was the belief that if they could in any degree be useful in subserving the cause of humanity and his country, they might, through booksellers, obtain a more extensive pub- licity. It will be readily seen, that throughout these hasty and brief remarks, little more is done than barely to suggest some thoughts upon which others who have more leisure, more patience, and more ability, might improve, for the benefit of their country and their fellow men. It will be seen also, that the opposition to the anti-slavery principles and proceedings of the day, or to immediate emancipation, and the opposition to freely discussing the whole subject of slavery, are considered in these remarks to be entirely identified ; as all who are really in favour of fairly and freely discussing any subject, must of course, not only be willing simply, but would be desirous also, and even anxious to hear and to see all sides of it, and to have every possible view of 2 XIV PREFACE. the whole subject presented, that they might in regard to it, be enabled thereby to judge correctly and impartially. Like an honest and candid juryman, called to judge of important interests between his fellow-men, he would of course desire that all the testimony relevant to the case under consideration, might be adduced. Though the people did once, from an extraneous and forestalling influence hastily seem to condemn the free discussion of this subject, still it is now confidently be- lieved that the more enlightened part of them at least have seen their error, and are beginning to feel that we might about as well stop the pulsations of life in the human system and say it might yet long survive, as to stop free discussion and the free circulation of intelli- gence in a free government upon any plausible or party pretext whatever, and expect it could long be a free government still. The human mind, with its irrepressi- ble energies, has well been compared to imprisoned steam : the more it is pressed the higher it rises, until at length, it will, in some way, find vent. The author of these brief replies does not claim the high honour of presenting more important views on this deeply interesting subject than many others, whose at- tention was much earlier called to it than his own ; but perceiving that the present discussions in the anti-slave- ry publications are mostly designed, as well as emi- nently calculated to interest those who have more par- ticularly attended to the progress of the discussions of the subject through its different stages thus far, it was thought that a publication in the form of brief replies to the prevailing objections to the discussion of slavery and immediate emancipation, (though often in themselves, PREFACE. XV very trivial ones,) would find favour with some (the ar- guments being addressed to the plain common sense of all) who should feel disposed, if from no higher motives at first than curiosity, to hear what might be said in an- swer to the great variety of objections herein considered. The subject is also considered somewhat at length in its political, moral, and social influence upon our own nation and the world. No apology is here deemed necessary or called for, in this our " happy land of freedom" for even the most humble and obscure individual, most freely and fully offering his views to the public, on any and all subjects which he may deem as pertaining to the highest and best interests of his fellow-men and of his country. The Siamese twins, being coupled together by an in- separable fate, and of course, surrounded at all times by the same circumstances, are always subject to like impressions ; and the consequence is, that they are known never to communicate to each other. There will therefore forever remain with them an identity of person ; a perfect oneness of mind. The important lesson which it is thought might be drawn from this interesting and extraordinary fact, is, the immense advantage to be de- rived in the common intercourse of eivilized life from free discussion, by comparing mind with mind, by in- terchange of thought and sentiment, that the people may ultimately arrive at correct conclusions on all subjects for the highest possible good of individuals, of commu- nities, and of nations. If, therefore, the views which are found upon the few following pages, are not found- ed in truth, it is sincerely hoped, that by free and ample discussion, it will be shown for the general good of all XVI PREFACE. concerned. Should they not prove so to be, on a care- ful examination, the author would most certainly desire to see them blown aside like chaff before the wind. He does at present feel considerable assurance, that his views in the main, however frankly avowed and plainly expressed, will find a ready and a cordial response in the hearts and the good common sense of at least a re- spectable portion of his esteemed fellow citizens. On the other hand, he is fully aware of the prejudices and the opposition which his views must meet with, and that too from some, whose good opinion and confidence he would sacrifice much to retain, except the compromise of principle. The author is the uncompromising advocate for free and lawful discussion in its broadest and most unlimited sense, — that is of our being accountable to constitu- tional laws only, for its abuse. He considers those who differ with him in opinion, have as good a right to differ and to give their reasons for thus differing, as he has to differ from them and to give his reasons for the differ- ence. He also believes, that no one should by any means be deterred from publicly discussing a subject upon which there are a diversity of opinions ; for this is the very subject, of all others, that calls loudest for dis- cussion, and which ought most to be discussed. On all subjects upon which there is, and perhaps can be, but one opinion, it is at once obvious that no discussion what- ever is called for ; and that man who waits for a majority of the people to be with him before he will dare grapple with and discuss a subject, is like a cowardly soldier who lags behind his brave and more valiant comrades until the battle is won, and will then " bring up the rear PREFACE. XV11 and shout victory ! victory ! at the top of his voice." As to this subject being regarded as a political one, in a party sense, so far from it is the fact, that leading party politicians of every name have always been, and, as they treat every other unpopular subject, regardless of abstract right, they are still giving it (as the phrase is) more " kicks than coppers," that it should by no means attach itself either to their persons or to their political party. Like the proud ungenerous man who denied that he ever knew the name of his poor but worthy friend, because his exterior was such as he imagined would not reflect credit upon himself and his family. The author can truly say, that so far as this subject is concerned, he desires to know no man's party politics, believing that it has nothing to gain but much to lose by an identity with any political party whatever. He fully believes, that if the moral sense of the good people of these United States does not abolish their slavery, that it never will be abolished ; and should this prove so, and we remain one people, we are forever destined to be a slave-holding nation. It may be, however, that should the free discussion of this subject be yet strenuously opposed, or any unwise or despotic attempts at legislation should be made to prevent its farther investigation, the right of petition upon it tyrannically denied, or that reckless mob, or brute force should continue its outrages, ravages, and death, much longer to put it down, that the people, en masse, would come forth in their might, if not as aboli- tionists, yet as the fearless unconquerable advocates of their last hope, the constitutional right of petition, free discussion, and the liberty of the press ; and by their 2* XVlll PREFACE. honest defence of these, their great, first and last, Heaven-descended rights, a sympathy between the people and professed abolitionists, might, and probably would, unavoidably be felt, from the fact, that upon some great leading and all-important principles, they would most cordially agree. If we have no particular evidence that one is partial to us, still we are prone to regard him with at least some favour, who is particularly partial, and doing many kind offices to cur best friend. It is believed, moreover* that most men are already abolitionists in sentiment, and it is hopeful that they will, ere long be, in consistent practice ; for even the best principles lying dormant in the human heart, like " a candle under a bushel," can be of no service whatever to mankind. To exert a good influence, good princi- ples must be openly avowed and consistently acted upon. The author desires to make the request of those into whose hands his remarks may chance to fall, that, in the first place, they would grant him a fair constitutional trial ; that is, of not being rashly or hastily condemned, " contrary to law and testimony," unheard and uncon- sidered ; and that they would not let prejudice prevent them from giving his remarks, at least, a cursory perusal. And if, after having looked impartially at all the facts and arguments he has presented, they cannot yet think with him, that they would still do him the special favour to believe that he has at least intended well to his fellow- men and to his country. He could indeed have rejoiced to have seen this all-important subject discussed upon the plan he has proposed, by an abler pen than his own ; but he felt unwilling to pass off the stage of life without leaving behind him, at least some humble testimony of PREFACE. XIX the light in which he regarded this most thrilling subject, both to the philanthropist, the christian, and the patriot, as being entirely identified, as he considers it, with the destinies of millions of his coloured countrymen not only, but with the destinies of his whole beloved country. He has therefore respectfully, briefly submitted his gen- eral views upon it to his friends and fellow-citizens, not as unexceptionable in classical correctness, but rather, as the sentiments of his heart. And he is not only wil- ling, but greatly desirous, that all his fellow-countrymen, and all his fellow men throughout the world, should ever enjoy the same high, underived, and invaluable boon from their Creator, the privilege of thinking and of ex- pressing their thoughts unrestrained in any manner, by the rude and profane hand of tyranny. How much soever his language in some instances may very possibly grate upon some ears, he has never- theless endeavoured to bridle his pen, and has not dared to trust himself to speak out the deep indignation of his soul against slavery in all its abominations, (or more strictly slave-holding,) and also against the slave-holder himself, when he knows he should break the accursed yoke from the neck of his fellow man and let him go free. It would be strange if language might not be found in the following pages, in some instances, even literally to convey a different impression from what was intended ; and perhaps in many instances it might easily be made to speak entirely different both from its literal sense and the design of its author. In all this, however, he most cheerfully confides in the good sense and the candour of his reader to put such a construction only, as the XX PREFACE. general views of the author would seem to justify. It is confidently believed that no American citizen calling himself a true republican, will take it for granted that no production can possibly be worthy his perusal, because, forsooth, it may not have emanated from some one high up on the list of fame ; for this kind of sycophancy is most certainly derogatory to the true dignity of free- men, for it is only bowing down and doing reverence to ARISTOCRACY. When a new work makes its appear- ance, there is sometimes a certain class, instead of read- ing it, will quite content themselves by asking the idle questions, Who the author is, or what he is ; what his religion is ; what his politics are ; where he received his education, &c. &c. All this, too, is considered to be but the effect of a strong predisposition in human na- ture to aristocracy instead of democracy. In reply to any such inquiries, the author would just say in brief, that he professes to be one of, and one with, the people, — making no extraordinary pretensions to wisdom above his fellow-men ; and also, that he claims to be an independent American freeman, and hopes by the favour of Heaven ever to remain so. And whatever political or religious creed he may be of, or whether learned or unlearned, rich or poor, co- loured or uncoloured, he deems it altogether out of place here to obtrude considerations of this nature upon public attention, presuming others, like himself, to be entirely unable to conceive how any of these things, can possibly in the remotest sense, affect an argument or alter a fact which may be found in the following work. It is supposed to be granted that all, honestly in search of truth, are desirous, and also expecting, whenever they PREFACE. XXI succeed, to behold her disencumbered of incongruous and unseemly appendages, and to embrace her in her native costume ; the irresistibly attractive beauty of simplicity ; ever accompanied with true harmony, ele» gance, and grandeur. INTRODUCTION. My Friends, — When I was called upon by your com- mittee, to address this meeting on this occasion, I hesi- tated whether to do it verbally or to commit my views to writing.* Fearing I might omit to state some im- portant facts, I determined within the last few days on the latter. In commencing my remarks, it is proper for me to apprize you that I am not a professional man, and have not therefore been much accustomed to public speaking, and that this is the first time that I have ever attempted to address an audience on this subject. But from my convictions of the great importance of the cause for my fellow men and for my country, I found myself unable to decline an invitation to do so. I have there- fore somewhat hastily embodied some facts on this sub- ject which to me appear important for all to know, with such comments upon them as I thought were proper and called for, hoping, although some of the facts and argu- ments cannot be expected to be new to all of you, that at least some little good may be done towards effecting the peaceful and speedy emancipation of two and a half millions of our long and greatly oppressed fellow beings * Introduction to the author's address before the anniversary of an Anti-Slavery Society ; which address he was invited to give for publication, according to the letter of the committee, and his reply to it as herein prefixed. XXIV INTRODUCTION. and fellow countrymen, in our so much boasted land of " liberty and equal rights." I have myself, as it were, but just emerged from the spell of thick darkness in which I have been so long shrouded in relation to this great and absorbing subject. It can therefore hardly be presumed that I should yet have possessed myself of all the facts and arguments in relation to it, which many others have done, whose eyes have much longer been open to the truth, and whose minds have been more en- lightened by it. And here permit me to say, that my conversion to im- mediate and universal emancipation of all who are in bonds without crime, was not a rash and an inconsider- ate matter ; for, having long been a member of a Colo- nization Society, my prepossessions and prejudices were all against immediate abolition. Yet, since the first recollections of my childhood, I have abhorred the oppressor, and sympathized with the oppressed ; but being taught to believe that emancipation could never be brought about but by a very slow and almost endless process of colonization, I have remained, like our whole country, saying or doing little or nothing on the whole subject ; while slavery in our land has all the while been increasing* with most fearful rapidity, and while the north too have been essentially aiding by their votes in adding seven vast slave-states or slave-markets to the original number. But since I have regarded the subject, as I think, in its true light, my surprise and astonishment at my past ignorance of it have increased in a ratio with my knowledge and investigations of slavery itself. And now, instead of wondering at the interest which some are manifesting in behalf of the oppressed, I only wonder INTRODUCTION. XXV that all do not feel and manifest, if possible, a hundred- fold more interest, and even enthusiasm, in behalf of the two and a half millions of our own cruelly enslaved countrymen in our own land, and before our own eyes, than we ever did for the Poles or the Greeks, for whom our sympathies and our treasures flowed like water. In the first place, the principles of the Anti-Slavery Society, the anniversary of which the friends of freedom meet this day through the State and the nation to com- memorate, are precisely the same as those contained in that immortal Declaration of American Independence, which, when those great first principles of all free go- vernment were hung out and proclaimed to the world by our venerable fathers, were at once the rallying point for all the friends of freedom in the land. Nay, more ; like the needle to the pole, this magic power readily at- tracted noble and kindred spirits from other lands than this, who at once rallied around this attractive standard of liberty for which they too with our fathers fought, and bled, and died. Our La Fayette will be for ever grate- fully remembered by every true-hearted American, as a most illustrious example of this. I dare not be guilty of the sacrilege of mutilating those ever memorable words, and will therefore give a principal extract of them entire, as we can hardly err in holding them up too fre- quently in this degenerate age. " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- able rights ; among these are life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness. That to secure these rights govern- ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That when 3 XXVI INTRODUCTION. any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government ; laying its foundations and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." This quotation contains the main principles embraced in that imperishable and heaven-descended chart of hu- man rights. I shall hereafter endeavour to show, by extracts from the slave laws and by well-founded arguments, that all these glorious principles which have so long been the boast and the just pride of all Americans, (save the poor coloured man,) and which in all countries have ever been the great fear of tyrants and the fond hope of the oppressed, are totally, shamelessly, and wickedly disre- garded in our treatment of one-sixth part of our entire population. I shall show that the slave laws do by no means regard the slave as being created equal with his master, possessing rights which are not to be " trans- ferred," or, as being at liberty to pursue his own happi- ness in his own way. I shall show, too, that the poor slave does in no manner, expressed or implied, give his assent to the cruel and iron laws which are made to govern him, but that they are all against his will, and directly opposed both to his temporal and eternal well- being. I have said in brief, that the principles of the Anti- Slavery Society are those contained in the Declaration of our Independence ; and the object of the Society, by a concentration of strictly constitutional and moral means only, by a public expression of their sentiments brought to bear upon the minds and consciences of all freemen INTRODUCTION. XXV11 in our country, both slaveholders and non-slaveholders, is to resuscitate, cherish, and extend these principles universally and practically. Let these principles, which cover the whole ground of civil liberty, triumph ; they would utterly abolish slavery from the abodes of man. That the institution of slavery is legalized, and there- by attempted to be made respectable in some degree among men, in tho eyes of Him who says, "thou shalt not oppress thy fellow," can be of no avail. Who has legalized it? Men might as well, upon the same principle, legalize any other system of abominations and wickedness, such as brothels, &c, upon the plausible and wicked pretext that they were making their victims no worse off, because they were "so poor that they could not take care of themselves." I know very well, that if bodies of men will utterly abandon all the self- evident principles of right, both natural and revealed, in the government of their conduct, set up the base and fallacious doctrine of " expediency," or that " might is right," organize themselves into a banditti, and, in open defiance of God and man, make their own laws, they can pretend to regard them as respectable if they will. I suppose that even pirates upon the high seas, whose very trade is rapine and blood, endeavour to compli- ment themselves that they are the bravest and the most " chivalrous fellows " in the world. Indeed, boasting is known to be a prominent characteristic among this class of outlaws. The more wicked the deed, the more self-complacency must be assumed to soothe that never- ceasing corroding of conscience, whenever the known laws of nature or of revelation are violated. But are not larger and more powerful communities XXViil INTRODUCTION. of men accountable for their laws and their conduct, in the same sense that bands of robbers and pirates are? And does not God, seeing not as men see, hold entire nations accountable for their conduct and laws? If wicked and oppressive, does he not curse them? If righteous and just, does he not bless them? And while we should ever pray that the poor slave under his ( uel chains may be patient and wait the appointed time of his deliverance, and that the hard heart of his oppressor should speedily relent that he would voluntarily " let the oppressed go free," nevertheless, the sentiment of the poet drawn from above will forever stand, that " God hath judgement for the proud, And justice for th' oppressed." Says the great statesman, Jefferson, on the subject of American slavery, whose language has been so often quoted both by the divine and the politician, " I tremble for mu country, when 1 reflect that God is just." It appears to be an essential part of the government of Heaven over us all, to hold an entire people account- able for the doings of their representatives. And do we not all at least tacitly give our assent to the correct- ness of this principle in governments, when we are al- ways ready to attach blame to any one who gives his suffrages, without due diligence to know whether it will tend to the public good ? And if, through ignorance or from whatever cause, laws shall be enacted which, in their practical bearing or operation, shall be found un- just and unequally oppressive upon one portion of com- munity, has not that same people who made such laws an undoubted right to unmake or repeal them ? Nay, more ; cannot that oppressed portion demand it to be INTRODUCTION. XXIX done without delay, as a matter of justice and right? And ought not that people to be justly reproached with being guilty of manifest injustice and wrong, who should knowingly withhold this right, and thereby compel a portion of the community to bear an unjust and an un- equil part of the common burden ; for is not all partial legislation justly regarded as odious and tyrannical? Do we not admit this principle, in all its length and breadth, in our daily intercourse with our fellow-men 1 We would take the high and holy ground, that all nations on earth not only have the right, but that they are under the highest possible moral obligation, when they find any of their laws wicked and oppressive, to exercise that right in repealing them, and in their stead to enact righteous and equal laws for all. But if we live under a government where State rights are so con- strued as to constitute the states so far independent sovereignties as to entirely paralize the constitutional power of the general government, then this so called republic or federal government virtually consists of twenty-six independent nations, and in this case the extreme of nullification ought to prevail. We know, however, that it is not so, either according to the spirit, or the plain letter of the constitution of these United States. But when the doctrine is set up and seriously defended, to accomplish mere party or political ends or local ob- jects, by forever conniving at exclusive southern policy, that Congress has no constitutional right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and in the territo- ries, and to regulate commerce between the States, and consequently to prohibit the interstate slave trade now constantly carried on ; consistency blushes and takes 3* XXX INTRODUCTION. her flight : for who does not know that Congress has long since prohibited the foreign slave traffic? And who ever doubted the constitutional jurisdiction of Con- gress to do so ? But when the abolishment of land as well as water traffic is called for, "Ah," cries the slave- holder and his abettor, " this is unconstitutional !" When men set up such unfounded, unconstitutional pretensions for sinister ends, would not such men, under other cir- cumstances, if found convenient, most likely claim that the general government possessed supreme and unli- mited control over all the parts of the republic ; and from the same interested motives, by inverting the prin- ciple, consolidate the whole into one " snug monarchy ?" History informs us, in many instances, that there have been men in the world who possessed this magic power of thus " playing with kingdoms at their pleasure." We all hope better things ; but we also know that there is, at least, a possibility, nay more, a probability, of even all this coming to pass, and that, too, at no very distant day, unless the good people will look well to their own affairs, and not trust them too much to other and irre- sponsible hands. These remarks will for ever stand equally applicable to all men in power. Is it asked, are there no men of any political party or creed whatever to be entrusted with the high and sacred responsibilities of administer- ing government? must universal distrust prevail; and can there be no confidence reposed in man? I answer, that a well-informed and virtuous people are the only rulers to be entrusted with a free government; and whenever the people do repose confidence in their ser- vants, called rulers, it should ever be an intelligent, INTRODUCTION. XXxi enlightened confidence, not founded on party grounds, but on the broad patriotic principles of the highest and the universal good of their common country. Men who administer a free government by delegation from the people, as in the days of Washington, should, indeed, be so free from party spirit, so disinterested and patriotic, that they would at once command (as did the venerated father of our country,) the universal esteem and confidence of the whole commonwealth. But we must regard men of all parties, not so much in the moral light in which we skouklbe, as in the moral darkness in which we are — and ever bear in mind that immortal declaration, that " liberty is the price of eter- nal vigilance." To say no more, that government by whomsoever ad- ministered, which enacts equal and constitutional laws, and shall vindicate and sustain such laws most success- fully, as the guardians of all our rights and liberties, will most unquestionably deserve best of exevy enlight- ened and virtuous people, and share largest in their af- fection and confidence. Wherever in any country it has become no uncom- mon occurrence for wholesome and good laws to remain a dead letter upon the statute books of the land, unad- ministered, it has most invariably been found that the liberties of that people have been on the wane, for the very obvious reason that they had been retrograding, either in intelligence or virtue, or both, for, of course, public men in free representative governments, are in most instances but the legitimate, moral, and political offspring of the people. The world is governed too much, has first been the watchword of demagogues XXXii INTRODUCTION. seeking favour of the multitude ; then a loose, vicious, and visionary idea of a licentious and dangerous liberty has prevailed — then an infatuated and an entire reck- lessness of disposition to throw off the most common restraints of a well regulated civilized community — and finally, general anarchy and misrule — and to this suc- ceeding despotism has finished the dreadful climax of ruin. If we live under a government where it is neither ex- pedient nor safe to exercise its constitutional functions, then, indeed, it is a most fearful indication that we are already on the very eve of anarchy or revolution. But I am not yet prepared to believe this, for I trust it will yet be seen, that there is sufficient strength of virtue or moral power in the American people, nobly to uphold all the free institutions of their fathers, and to transmit them unimpaired to their children, with the high and sacred injunction, thus to hand them down to their latest posterity. When I despair of this hope I despair of the world. Still, we ought ever to remember that there is no in- herent strength in the mere abstract form of any govern- ment on earth, but that the strength of all human govern- ments lies in the intelligence and virtue of the people who are the administrators of the government. But, even intelligence alone, at the expense of justice and virtue, has ever proved but a calamity to man. We must see this from the fact, that laws which are good in diemselves, prove a mere nullity and lure but to ruin, whenever a people are too deficient in enlightened vir- tue, to demand an intelligent and proper administration of such laws for mutual safety, the establishment of INTRODUCTION. XXX11I justice, and for the general well being of commu- nity. Every government of men is intrinsically strong or weak, in proportion as general intelligence and virtue among the people increases or diminishes. I had supposed I knew my fellow countrymen, and that nothing could induce them to surrender, or to de- mand of others a surrender of the freedom of opinion ; and I believe it will yet be seen that the American peo- ple were taken by surprise by an extraneous and decep- tive influence, when they seemed to look quietly on, and witness the lawless outrages upon the sacred right of speech, and the freedom of the press, the very life- guards of liberty itself, and stood by and saw them al- most banished from the land, as though they were dan- gerous and obtrusive enemies, for the people soon dis- covered that it was their long tried and faithful friends whom they had thus treated — their intelligent and vir- tuous sympathies are now interested, and they are there- fore forthwith hastening to their rescue. They begin to see that whatever loves the abodes of darkness and shrinks its hideous head from investigation and free dis- cussion, they must forever regard as their mortal enemy, a kind of dark and concealed monster, ready, whenever an opportunity occurs, to strike the very vitals of the body politic with its poisonous and deadly fangs. Though the numerous, reckless, and lawless outrages committed of late upon the freedom of speech and the press in our beloved country, by the practical enemies of rational and constitutional liberty, which have been eagerly translated into every language of Europe, and construed, to our shame, that our country is in a state XXXIV INTRODUCTION. • of anarchy and dissolution, and exultingly claimed by foreign monarchists and despots as an unanswerable argument against the experiment of free and self govern- ment by the people ; still let us trust and believe that an enlightened, virtuous, and patriotic people, as we hitherto have been considered to be by the nations of the earth, will yet resolve in the strength of the God of our fathers, and of our father's freedom, to continue free, and that we shall yet rise in the might of our moral power, wipe away the reproach, and nobly redeem our national character from the otherwise eternal disgrace before the whole world. But this never will be done unless universal rational liberty to all in our land, whom God made free, be destined nobly to triumph. A late European writer, addressing an American, says, " The circumstances of the tragical and una- venged death of Lovejoy, will shock the moral sense of all Europe ;" and adds, " that the civil and religious liberty of the human race will essentially suffer, if such deeds much longer continue to be perpetrated in Ame- rica with impunity." The freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press, must be fully and rightly understood, and duly appreci- ated by every people who would be free, and long retain their freedom. The very fact, that the American constitution guaran- tees protection to each and to every citizen, while in the lawful exercise of these rights, at once pre-supposes that a variety of conflicting opinions and interests would often exist, wherein the majority from that naturat love of unlimited and uninterrupted power might as often be tempted to suppress the sentiments of the minority, if not INTRODUCTION. XXXV strongly constitutionally guarded in the most explicit manner. Wherein would have been the propriety of the constitution, so cautiously and so amply protecting, so far as the strongest and the most explicit language can do it, all the citizens of the United States, in the full exercise of these inalienable and fundamental rights, if those noble, patriotic, and long-sighted framers of the constitution had not wisely and sagaciously foreseen, that even an individual for himself, or for his country, might often have occasion to contend earnestly and manfully for a time, single-handed perchance, in vindication of his opinions, against a surrounding multitude of his fellow citizens, who might, perhaps honestly, but erroneously, differ with him in opinion? The man, then, who presumes to intimate that because a particular community may be opposed awhile to certain opinions, that that community have a right, therefore, by mob law, or by any other law, (which of course must be unconstitutional and an abridgement of the inalienable rights of man,) to forcibly suppress the discussion and the constitutional promulgation of those opinions, most assuredly, not only intimates that he is wiser than the immortal framers of the constitution, that only chart of American liberties, but he is also encouraging the prevalence of a doctrine fraught with iminent danger to the constitution itself, and consequently to his own and to his country's freedom and justly entailing upon himself the well merited imprecations of all posterity. We have recently heard, with much pain, the names of our venerated, fathers, in their act of throwing the obnoxious tea overboard, profanely coupled with the late Alton mobocrats that murdered Lovejoy. The com- XXXVI INTRODUCTION. parison is both false and impious ! Wendell Phillips, Esqr., at a late meeting in Faneuil Hall in Boston, in an able speech in defence of the constitutional principles and guaranties of the freedom of speech and the liberty of the press, by way of repelling the simpering, coward- ly, and dangerous doctrine, that it is " imprudent " for a freeman, an American citizen, to stand up at all times, and in all places, to defend his constitutional rights, when dis- puted — said to his vast audience: (to which he found a hearty response) " imagine yourselves present when the first news of Bunker Hill battle reached a New- England town. The tale" said he, " would have run thus : t The Patriots are routed ; the troops victorious ; War- ren lies dead on the field.' With what scorn," the speaker continued, (which elicited tremendous applause throughout that spacious Hall, so long consecrated to liberty,) " would that tory have been received, who should have charged Warren with imprudence ; who should have said, that he was out of place in that battle ; that he died as the " fool dieth V 9 " How," exclaimed this eloquent speaker, " would the intimation have been received, that Warren and his associates should have waited a better time ? "But if success," said he, " be indeed the only crite- rion of principle and prudence, " recipe jinem" wait till the end." When the right itself of the freedom of speech and the liberty of the press shall in any manner be assailed, it is not only the constitutional privilege of every man, most resolutely and vigorously to oppose the rude and treasonable assault, but, it then especially becomes at once his highest and most indispensable duty, as a good INTRODUCTION. XXXVU citizen and a patriot, to defend this right, even to the imminent hazard, if necessary, of every thing else which he holds dear, and which this right, and this alone, can protect for himself, for his fireside, and for his country. This all-important discrimination should then be ex- ercised ; that is, that it is not, as some would seem to suppose, some of the branches, merely, of the tree of liberty, which are thus profanely attempted to be lopped off by a treasonable hand, but that the axe that moment is being laid at the very root of the tree itself. The most obscure, or the most unpopular individual in commun- ity, stands most in need of the lawful and constitutional protection of all his rights. History and biography have most abundantly shown us, that many new sys- tems and new theories, which obscure and unpopular persons have introduced, and for which they have been persecuted, imprisoned, and often put to death, have subsequently proved to be of immense value to the whole world of mankind. Did time and space permit, it would truly be a most delightful employment to cite numerous and striking examples of this kind, both for the rebuke and for the gratitude of man. We see here a reason the most obvious, why truly free governments give rise to far more numerous and important discove- ries and improvements, than absolute governments. Our great constitutional safeguards and precautions show most clearly, that those wise and ever-to-be-re- membered sages, from whose magnanimous minds they emanated, well understood what they were doing ; and, so far as they could do it by constitutional provisions, were determined to guard and perpetuate the liberties of the American people, so long as they should deserve 4 XXXviii INTRODUCTION* them, or, in other language, so long as they possessed sufficient intelligence to understand, and sufficient virtue to insist, to the very last, on the full enjoyment of all those rights, so faithfully constitutionally transmitted to them by their fathers. How devoutly, then, is it to be desired, that the whole American people should be intel- ligent and virtuous. Indeed, the hope is visionary, for any people to think of long maintaining little else than the mere abstract form of a free government, short of this. But we sometimes hear of prodigal sons, who have proved recreant to all the counsel and inheritance of the best of fathers, and have " straightway spent their substance in riotous living." Shall it, indeed, be so with us as a nation 1 But, after all that the combined wisdom of sages can do, by way of constitutional provisions, there can be no such thing as getting along " comfortably in life," or of long sustaining a free government, unless in addition to intelligence, the people, who in all republics must be sovereign, will cheerfully and magnanimously exercise that wholesome and rational spirit of mutual forbearance, and will most cordially extend to their neighbours the un- abridged and peaceful enjoyment of these inborn or in- alienable rights and immunities, which we are all so ready to claim for ourselves. This would, indeed, be acting upon that great constitutional, as well as revealed golden rule, which is the very foundation of all other rules of right, in heaven or earth, and of all just gov- ernment among men. Destroy the foundation, and the whole superstructure at once falls to the ground. So we must see the " con- clusion of the whole matter " to be, that our boasted INTRODUCTION. XXXIX free institutions, will not, nay, cannot be sustained, only by intelligence and sound and rigid virtue, in the exer- cise of a healthful Catholic spirit among the great body of the " sovereign people." Who will contribute in this way to the safety and the welfare of his country, and to the wide extension of rational liberty and happiness among all the members of the one great family of man 1 Having made these few brief remarks of what I con- sidered the plain, and as one would very naturally think, the indisputable construction of the American constitution, in relation to the freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press, you will now allow me to pass on to say, that it does appear to me, aside from all po- litical or party influence, that there can be but one opin- ion on the subject of Congress possessing undoubted power, as the plain letter and spirit of the constitution now are, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in all the territories of the United States, and also of prohibiting the inter-state slave traffick, under the con- stitutional provision, that it should be the duty and the business of the American Congress, to regulate all com- mercial transactions between the States. Slaves are well known to be claimed, and in all respects consider- ed and treated, by those who tyrannically assume to own them, as articles of commerce merely. This, of itself, admitting no new slave-markets, would soon do away the great curse of slavery in our whole nation : and the slaveholders know it, which accounts for their extreme sensitiveness whenever this subject is touched ; and for their determined effort to prevent, if possible, even the very first approaches to a fair consti- tutional investigation of the matter. xl INTRODUCTION. This, however, only excites the jealousy, and the still further inquiry of every rational, intelligent, and in- dependent freeman. The slaveholder well knows that the abolitionist has planted his foot upon the constitu- tional and moral power of the nation, and he alternately frowns and trembles. You touch the District of Colum- bia, and you at once touch the common idol of all Ameri- can slaveholders. They talk about its being an " enter- ing wedge ;" but if constitutional, what have entering wedgess to do with the subject 1 Indeed,~none of the numerous constitutional cords which bind us together as a people, should, for a moment, be suffered to be severed or relaxed, by the ever treacherous hand of "expediency." But some of our time-serving politicians are all for the constitution, whon it suits their purposes, and when not, they are all for " expediency." Abolitionists consider it both their moral and constitutional privilege, and their bounden duty, to say to slaveholders, and to the world, in plain democratic as well as Christian language, (that is, by calling things by their right names,) that they con- sider slaveholding a heinous sin — a great moral and political outrage upon the inalienable rights of man, and our great reproach as a people, before heaven, and before the nations of the earth ; which ought at once to be re- pented of, and put away from us forever. But while they do this, they are also among the first and the most uncompromising advocates for the maintenance of the constitution, and the laws of the land ; and ask nothing of Congress but the most clearly constitutional action, on the subject of slavery. But they do fearlessly de- mand of Congress, as did Franklin, Jay, and all their noble associates, to step out to the " utmost verge of the INTRODUCTION. xli constitution," on this great and sacred subject of human liberty, and the only salvation of our country. To hold the slaves as servants simply, in their respec- tive slave-states, the slaveholders regard, comparatively, an unimportant object. But to rear human bodies and souls to drive to the far South, and southwestern markets, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, (Texas in covert prospect,) &c, is what they are most unwilling to relinquish. If they did not think this "entering ivedge" would soon enter into this nefari- ous busmess, they would not be so alarmed at its steady but sure approach. This vast and horrible feature of American slavery, the nation (to its shame be it spoken,) has hitherto not merely basely tolerated, but greatly encouraged it also by the addi- tion of seven slave states, while the foreign traffic it has long since very justly stamped as piracy. To what does all this amount, but holding out to the whole world the broad black mark of our deep national hypocrisy ? Who does not know, also, that the enhancement of the value of domestic slaves, had much to do in this hypocritical prohibition of foreign slaves? The conspicuous part which some leading American domestic slave traffickers took in the matter, shows but too clearly whence it originated. The world has allowed us no national philanthropy in all this, because our subsequent national acts, in constantly annexing new slave states, and all the while selling our fellow-countrymen like beasts of burden, by tens, nay, by hundreds of thousands, have been so glaringly absurd and contradictory. Southern politicians and ambitious demagogues, are still more unwilling than slave- ** growers" and slave-traffickers are, to relinquish the 4* Xlii INTRODUCTION, "institution" of slavery, from the fact, that they make it a vast and unequal engine of political power over the free states, which I will hereafter show by an exhibition of the comparative scales of representation, as exhibited in a late able address of Myron Holley, Esq. As we sometimes find it from a great variety of the same article, at once to make our selection, so it is with this most prolific subject. From its vastness, and from its various and tremendous bearings upon the positive and relative interests of all concerned, it is truly difficult to condense into a small compass, in a short space of time, sufficient matter to do any thing like justice to the numerous topics and considerations connected with the all-absorbing subjectsof American Slavery and American Liberty. I shall therefore endeavour, as well as I can, in the limited space which I have allowed myself, princi- pally to reply very briefly, to some of the most popular and prevailing objections to the free discussion of slavery, and to immediate and unconditional emancipation, with- out expatriation of all who are innocently in a cruel and wicked bondage ; and also to attempt to illustrate the constitutional principles of the right of speech, petition, and the liberty of the press. In the remarks which I may make, I shall consider myself warranted in contem- plating every opposer to the most free and unreserved discussion, in all places, of the whole subject of slavery, as being entirely identified with the most direct opposer of the anti-slavery cause itself; and either designedly or virtually, throwing his influence in favour of the perpetu- ation of slavery ; for, how much soever some may tell us they are great advocates for free discussion, I have found, after all, that some of these great advocates for INTRODUCTION. xliti free inquiry and investigation, make a kind of mental reservation in this matter, and really mean those sub- jects only which may happen to coincide with their own peculiar notions, interests, or convenience ; and that, if they do not at once manifest symptoms of applying the gag-law by brute force, they will at least look askance at every man who attempts the discussion of any other subject, or in any other manner than that which these " privileged gentlemen" shall condescend to dictate to independent American citizens. It is yet hopeful, that the people in their might and " sovereign capacity," will signally rebuke such petty tyrants in disguise. SECTION I. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY AT THE NORTH, BECAUSE WE ARE MEDDLING WITH THAT WHICH IS 4 NONE OF OUR BUSINESS,' FOR IT IS UN- CONSTITUTIONAL." This objector meets the friends of the oppressed, and the friends of the constitution and the laws, on the very threshhold, and most rudely accosts them, " enter not into this temple of slavery, for it is holy and forbidden ground," a " patriarchal or domestic institution," long sanctioned by the usages of mankind, and confirmed by the constitution of the government of the country. The man who takes this position, virtually enters his veto upon all anti-slavery proceedings of every kind, Colonization as well as abolition, for surely, if I have a right to discuss slavery in one way, I have an equal right to discuss it in another. Mr. Preston, though a slaveholding senator, faithfully and solemnly warned Mr. Calhoun of the inextricable and endless difficulty into which he (Mr. Calhoun,) was involving the entire slaveholding interest, by his introducing and inviting dis- cussion upon one side, to effect the passage of tyrannical resolutions. Mr. Preston not being quite so "fanatical and de- nunciatory" as Mr. Calhoun, saw the result more clearly. But in spite of all the advice of cooler heads, with the same kind of tyrannical, headstrong reckless- 46 LIBER TY AND SLAVERY ness, as in his nullification mania, when it required President Jackson, with all his firmness and executive power to "veto" him; he has occupied much time in eulogizing slavery as the " best basis of freedom" before the nation and the world, much to our shame as a people, claiming to have presented to the world a perfect model of a free government. On this subject, (slavery,) he was the great man of the Senate, of 1838, and was per- mitted to go his own length, and he finally made out one of the most abominable, tyrannical, and grinding systems of oppression and bondage, that ever cursed the earth, to be the very basis of all free institutions, and the only system that can maintain our government by bringing capital, as he says, in effect, to bear hard upon the necks of the labouring class of the whole country, to teach them to know " their places " — keep on at work — observe profound silence, and look up to slaveholders and tyrants for instruction and favour ; when these task- masters of the labouring class see fit, in their most gracious condescension, to listen to their humble prayers, or to notioo thfiir respectful petitions. I will here quote a few of this gentleman's own sentiments, in his own language, which indeed are now rapidly being adopted as the political creed of slaveholders at the South, and their aristocratic abettors at the North, whether politi- cal, ecclesiastical, or othprwisfi, under the wonderfully patriotic, but subtle and dangerous pretext of " preserv- ing the Union." First, says Mr. Calhoun, this would- be monarch of nullification memory, "I regard slavery as the most safe and stable basis of free institutions in the world." Second, " It is impossible, with us (at the South,) that the conflict can take place between labour ILLUSTRATED. 47 and capital, which makes it so difficult to establish and maintain free institutions in all wealthy and highly civil- ized nations, whers such institutions as ours, (slavery) do not exist ;" that is to say, as I clearly understand the gentleman, to hint, that it is so very difficult to maintain free governments, short of the capitalists reducing the entire labouring class of the country to absolute slavery, it is of no earthly use to try the experiment any longer, but abandon this puerile mode of self-government by the people, and do the whole business up at once, in the true autocratic style, that tyrants, at least, may then have freedom enough. Again, says this slaveholding monarch, on his fancied iron throne, while passing his enraptured encomiums upon southern institutions, (slave labour) as being far superior to northern ones, (free- labour) " hence the harmony, the union, and stability of that section, (the South) which is rarely disturbed, except through the action of this government." Who supposes, Mr. Calhoun, that the poor serfs of Russia, loaded down with their heavy chains, would very often disturb the government of the great Czar, with the capital, the persons, and the lives of his vassal subjects in his own hands? This is precisely the doctrine held forth by the Senate of the United States in 1838, with Mr. Calhoun at its head, for American citizens to em- brace. But it would be the embrace of death to all their liberties. Our fathers felt that resistance to tyrants was obedience to God. Could there be a true son of one of the fathers of '76, whose cheek does not crimson with shame, when he hears of such sentiments being so soon boldly advanced in the senate chamber of this nation ; we should almost think 48 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY that dishonoured sire, would rise from his tomb to rebuke, or disown his degenerate and recreant offspring ! Again, here is another sentiment from the same quarter, and of a like character with the others ; and if there can be a free labouring man in this whole Union, who is yet allowed to read, to think, and to speak, who does not sensibly feel what it means, it may next be in- delibly imprinted into his understanding or his children's, by the slaveholder's manacles and chains, and by the taskmaster's bloody lash ! " It (slavery,) makes that section, (the South,) the balance of the system, (our government) the great conservative power which pre- vents other portions, (the free-labour states,) less fortu- nately constituted, from running inter conflict. In this tendency to conflict in the North, between labour and capital, (says this same slaveholding republican,) which is constantly on the increase, the weight of the South has, and will ever be found, on the conservative side. This, says Mr. Calhoun, " is our true national position." Very true, most noble senator ; there are quite a number of sound-headed, hard-labouring Yankees of inflexible principles, who have for sometime past, seen and deeply deplored " our true national position," as having already enslaved and ground down to the earth, the labouring population of one portion of our Union, and now making most rapid strides upon the other. This same man and his associates, through senatorial resolu- tions and speeches have very artfully invited all the aristocratic influence of all parties, in church and in state, at the North, the East, and the West, to join with the united slaveholding influence of the South, to trans- form the more " unfortunate, restless, and troublesome " free-labour institutions of the free states, into the more ILLUSTRATED* 49 fortunate, quiet, and less troublesome slave-labour insti- tutions at the South. The brief English of it all is, that the slaveholding politicians of the entire South have said (through Cal- houn's and Patton's resolutions and their late senatorial argument) to all the northern aristocrats who will prove recreant to all northern interests and their boasted JefFersonian democratic principles of equal rights, and help us enslave northern freemen, before northern free- men free our more ^fortunate and quiet slaves," we southern slaveholders, and you northern aristocrats, will then share all the black and white " bleached or unbleach- ed" spoils of the vanquished between us in common stock, and revel in our affluence of unrequited toil to our heart's content, " until our eyes stand out with fatness." The late alarming congressional vote and arguments on this subject most clearly show that we have indeed aristocrats at the north with their eyes wide open, who from unhallowed interest and prejudice, and from that same slaveholding spirit and boundless ambition of holding unconditional dominion over the entire labouring population of the whole country, are already prepared deliberately to enter into this proposed subtle conspiracy against the liberties of the people, and forthwith to chris- ten the conspiracy by the name " enlarged patriotism" or " great love of Union." But if I have not hitherto much mistaken the character of the great body of the American people, and especially of the more sound in principle and hardy labouring class; if this most insulting doctrine can only be got fairly before them in due time, they will " blow it " farther than ever a slaveholder threatened of " blowing the Union," if a freemen dared 5 60 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY to say a word against slavery. The independent yeo« manry of a free country are too much accustomed to hard voluntary service, to be frightened out of their rights when they clearly understand them. Their general motto is " to ask for nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing wrong." But like all others, they are sometimes liable by various forestalling and controlling influences to misunderstand their own most sacred rights. In addition to all this, and much more that might be cited from the same source, we have of late had abun- dance of irresistible official testimony from the highest functionaries of the slaveholding states and from all the leading slaveholding politicians, regardless of party, (other than a slavery party deceptively called a Union party) that however high and " chivalrous " southern professions may be, that their sentiments as well as their practices are any thing but republican, and also that the proximity of such sentiments have been contaminating to free principles ; while slaveholding politicians by the aid of some recreant northern ones have already wrested from nothern citizens of this Union their sacred guaran tied right of petition, and are still demanding in clamor- ous tones that they surrender up to slaveholding power their right of speech, and their right to travel peaceably at the south, if known to hold sentiments unfavourable to slavery ; — these same slaveholding politicians are con- stantly discussing and portraying to the utmost of their abilities, the beauties and advantages of the slave govern- ment for all the " labouring class " over all other govern- ments in the world. It renders this kind of government, they say, so " safe, so quiet, so peaceable," and so free. When slaveholders speak of slavery being the best basis ILLUSTRATED. 51 of freedom, they unquestionably must mean, that the few have an unlimited and an uninterrupted freedom to do just as they please over the many. A very few out of the volumes of these slaveholding sentiments I will here cite from authentic documents. " Governor Swain of North Carolina says, " the cha- racter of slavery is not to be discussed." He further says, " we have an indubitable right to demand the free states to suppress such discussions totallyand promptly." Governor Lynch (a significant name) of Mississippi, holds the same despotic sentiments with Governor Swain; and adds, that " necessity will sometimes prompt a sum- mary mode of trial and punishment unknown to the law." Governor Lumpkin of Georgia in his message to the Legislature denies the right to discuss the question of slavery. He says, " the weapons of reason and argu- ment are insufficient to put down the discussion ; we can therefore hear no argument upon the subject, (slavery) for our opinions are unalterably fixed." Governor Tazewell of Virginia holds the same des- potic language, and adds, " we have a perfect right to require all the free states to adopt prompt and efficient means to suppress all associations for the discussion of the subject (slavery.) Duff Green, a leading pro-slavery editor, says, that " slavery must not be discussed ;" and adds, " it will not bear discussion." An honest admission ! ! ! But still the " domestic institution " is profanely hallowed as the best in the world. Put this and that together, they make the amount of the slaveholder's logic. Governor Mc Duffle of South Carolina, in his mes- sage to the Legislature, denies the right of discussing 52 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the question of slavery in the genuine chivalrous lynch- ing, slaveholding, despotic spirit, when he says, " I would have those who oppose slavery, if caught within our Jurisdiction, "put to death without benefit of cler- gy ;" and calls upon the north to promptly and effectually suppress all discussion on the subject. This is the " gentleman " who predicted the total enslavement of northern freemen in 25 years." — He put the time too long, unless the north awake out of sleep. Mr. Pinkney, iu his speech in Congress in 1S36, when speaking of northern people who felt disposed to discuss the question of slavery, says, "put them down by legisla- tion." Mr. Calhoun, in his despotic mail report, submitted to the Senate of the United States in 1836, expresses the sanguine hope that the free states " will be prompt to suppress the discussion of slavery." In his famous slaveholding resolutions, in the Senate in 1S3S, he exhibited the same anti-liberty spirit, and makes the same arrogant and unconstitutional demand of the free states. Here again we have the slaveholder's kind of repub- licanism unmasked by Mr. Leigh, in a speech in the Virginia convention of 1829. There must be (says this great republican slaveholder) some peasantry, and as the country fills up, there must be more — that is, men who tend the herds, and dig the soil, who have neither real nor personal capital of their own, and who earn their daily bread from the sweat of their brows. I ask gentlemen to say, (continues this chivalrous republi- can) whether they believe that those who depend on their daily labour for subsistence, can or do, ever en- ter into political affairs ? They never do, he continues, ILLUSTRATED. 53 never will, never can." Ye hardy and intelligent sons of northern freemen, can ye brook such an insult? Professor Dew of William and Mary college in Vir- ginia, shows how the spirit of slavery in his heart has taught him to despise the manual labourer, and the poor man. He says, " political power at the south (where pos- session of property is one of the qualifications of voting) is thus taken from the hands of those who might abuse it, and placed in the hands of those who are most interes- ted in its judicious exercise. How can he get wisdom (in- quires this learned slaveholding professor) that holdeth the plough, that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in labours, and whose talk is of bullocks ? This same slaveholding professor continues — "the day will come when the whole confederacy will regard it (slavery) as the sheet anchor of our liberties." He also, said " that expediency, morality, and religion, alike demand the continuance of slavery." We are proud to say to this ostentatiously literary slaveholder, that we have thousands of freemen in the free states, who, like Washington and a host of others, delight to labour with their own hands, whose knowledge of their country and their government would not suffer by comparison with his whose talk is of verbs and adverbs, of hie, hrec, hoc, &c. and of selling and goading men like bullocks. We have another fine specimen of slaveholding re- publicanism from a late speech of Mr. Pickens of South Carolina. Says this slaveholding " gentleman," (who buy3 and sells men like cattle,) " I lay down this pro- position as universally true, that there is not, nor never was, a society organized under one political system for 5* 54 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY a period long enough to constitute an era, where one class would not practically and substantially own another class." For this very reason all freemen must resist the odious and tyrannical doctrine, as for their lives, if they mean long to be freemen indeed." Says this " gentleman," (whose very trade is to press men doivn,) " society has not yet been pressed down into its classifications. All society settles down into a classi- fication of capitalists and labourers ; the former will own the latter" says this southern man-buying, man-owning, man selling, and man-chaining "gentleman." Free- men, look at the true slaveholding doctrine in all its abhorrent, odious, and naked deformity ! ! Rev. William S. Plumer, a slaveholding divine of Virginia, with his right-hand man, Rev. R. J. Brecken- ridge, (who says he is a " gentleman " and a " Kenluck- ian") is now sanctimoniously engaged in carrying on a pro slavery purifying process in the Presbyterian church, to cleanse her from all anti-slavery pollution, to present her with white robes without spot or blemish. The same distinguished southern professed minister of the gospel, with reputed eminent slaveholding piety, said, doubtless with a true chivalrous spirit) " let them (the abolitionists) understand that they will be caught if they come among us." I envy not the northern man his feelings or his present or future honour who can smile, or be secretly gratified at the existence of such doctrine in any part of our land, and more especially at its haughty demand, and constant aggressions upon north- ern liberties, upon the captivating but most delusive and dangerous pretext of preserving the Union. Should the northern people tamely submit to this gen- uine autocratic doctrine, it might indeed " preserve the ILLUSTRATED. 55 Union " in as strong chains, and in the same sense, that the poor slaves are now 'preserved. But the same act that should thus " preserve the Union " would also sign the death-warrant of our own and our children's liber- ties, as well as to make a dreadful end to the liberties of the whole nation, except the very few, who would indeed enjoy their liberty as they could wish, in revelling in the full fruition of the unrequited toils of the great mass of the vanquished in degraded submission at the footstool of despotic power. The man who says slaveholders, aristocrats, coloni- zationists, and all who are hostile to free principles, may, to any extent, in Congress and out of Congress, commend and eulogize slavery, but that the true and genuine friends of constitutional freedom must " hands off," is only saying, Stand by, publican, for I am holier than thou ! This noble and liberal-minded objector to anti-slavery discussions, to be at all consistent with him- self, should at once serve an injunction upon all agita- tors of the subject (according to Patton's resolution) in any form or manner, under any circumstances what- ever, and make it an offence against the state, worthy of pains, and penalties, and death ! ! Still he is loud in telling you he is greatly in favour of free discussion. Who would thank one to solicit him freely to discuss a given subject, and then attempt to tie his hands by such ridiculous, not to say tyrannical, resolutions as Cal- houn's late famous senatorial ones for slaveholders and their abettors, in their attempt to call to their aid the constitution of the United States to take from the people the right of speech, petition, and liberty of the press, upon the wonderful pretext that slavery and the Union could be sustained in no other way ! ! From the amount of time which this great organ of slaveholders and their 56 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY northern abettors has consumed in the late Senate, upon eulogizing slave government and stigmatizing free go- vernment, it would really seem that he regards himself as a greatly privileged being, that he alone has the only right to propose all questions and then to discuss them, or rather to eulogize his own favourite schemes in his own despotic and capricious way. The gentleman re- minds one of the long-billed stork, so very politely in- viting her neighbour fox to dine with her, and to help himself most freely to whatever he liked best out of her long-necked bottle. This trick has ever been charac- teristic of tyrants in the world. To the shame of human nature, there are also some such specious advocates for free discussion as Mr. Lumpkin of Georgia, a slaveholder, who recently said in the Senate of the United States, in the very midst of his tyrannical effort to pass gag-law resolutions for the people, that " he did not desire to stifle the voice of the people. He was willing that they should be heard ! ! But the states that had these institutions (man-holding and man-selling) would provide for their own protec- tion, and those who spoke against them would do well to keep out of their bounds, or theij would punish them." Keep dark, ye " dough faces" or never venture to be seen in the southern portion of your own country. Now, citizens of our common country, who tamely re- ceive such doctrine as this from any part of this whole land, purchased by the common toils and the best blood of their fathers, and over which the broad and sacred shield of the American constitution is thrown, I cannot but look upon as American citizens ignobly submitting themselves to voluntary degradation, very far beneath their constitutional rights, dignity, or safety. ILLUSTRATED. 57 The southern people travel at the north, and speak of northern institutions in just such terms, and express just such opinions, favourable or unfavourable, concern- ing them, as they choose to do, and no one attempts, neither should they attempt, to abridge their liberty of speech, or suppress their freedom of opinion, for they are American citizens, still under the gratefully waving banner of the American constitution. It is true that, in the course of this free constitutional intercourse of southern people at the north, numerous instances might be cited wherein they have disseminated principles alto- gether prejudicial to, and often in utter contempt of, free labour institutions ; but we have not, neither should we have, any idea of lynching, whipping, or imprison- ing them for the mere exercise of this safe and salutary constitutional right. We only ask the same equal right to be constitutionally reciprocated. And short of this our government cannot long stand a free government. Indeed, where this mutual and constitutional toleration and protection are not cordially extended, it is no longer a free government. It is free but in one portion of the country over which the government extends, but abso- lute and despotic in the other. I have yet to learn that southern institutions are any more " delicate," or any dearer to southern people, than northern institutions are to northern people ; or that the southern portion of our common country has guarantied to it, by the American constitution, any exclusive privi- leges of the freedom of speech, right of petition, or liberty of the press, — all its outrages upon, or viola- tions of, our sacred constitution to the contrary notwith- standing. 58 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY It is amusing to hear southern politicians sometimes proclaim, that if northern citizens do not desist from their investigations of the great principles of civil liber- ty, they, in return, will preach up what they call insur- rection to northern free labourers ; little knowing that the glory and the boast of the north is, that its free labour strength is the very " back bone " of the whole country. This is, as would be, for the mere extremities of the mammoth to preach the doctrine of revolt to the body. This mode of attack, however, I believe, is now nearly abandoned as a hopeless one, and the " modus operandi " entirely reversed. The favourite scheme for slaveholding politicians now is, to devise ways and means for the monied, poli- tical, and ecclesiastical aristocracies of the north to blind, entrap, ensnare, and finally enslave, the entire labouring population of the now called free states. Northern aristocrats, from the stripling to the sage in years, have entered this southern high school, and are taking lessons in the great principles of despotism, and making fine progress. In this school, whose professors must all be either political or ecclesiastical slaveholders, the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes, while they learn how to speak of " niggers" and "amalgamation," must also learn to portray the beauties and advantages of the Union in terms so captivating, and in colours so glowing, if possible, that the labourer of giant strength will even submit to be shorn of his locks and become a child, and even a slave in chains, for the sake of gazing at a fabric so splendid. Grave and reverend seniors, both political and ecclesiastical, have degrees conferred upon them in this southern school of political despot- ILLUSTRATED. 59 ism, whenever, in addition to understanding the lessons of their juniors, they can either maintain a dignified si- lence, or, the one talk of the quietude of southern insti- tutions, and of" slavery being the best basis of freedom ," and the other knows how to intimate the value of the " patriarchal institution," and can stamp all who shall dare venture an opinion of his own, independent of ec- clesiastical dictation, as an ultra fanatic, heterodox, and "worse than an infidel." But, to return to the question, that the free states have no constitutional or moral right to discuss the subject of slavery. This objection, though a very bold one, is only in perfect keeping, and probably originated from the same interested and sinister motives of all other objections to the right of speech and petition, freedom of discussion, and liberty of the press. The people are beginning to see, however, from what quarter it comes, even from the dark regions of slavery, tyranny, and blood. And the people well know, too, that tyrants the world over have ever been hostile, for the most ob- vious reasons, to an honest, independent, and unre- strained expression of opinion among the people with regard to all their undoubted and inalienable equal rights. Whatever may be the motives of such objectors, to say the least, their doctrine is that of ignorance, tyran- ny, and darkness forever, which had its origin among crowned heads and earthly thrones, the introduction and the very existence of which always depend on the igno- rance and vassalage of the many, and the knowledge and the exaltation of the few. Here are the very seeds of all aristocracy and despotism in the world. And what- 60 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ever may be said about a "prudent reserve" to maintain the Union, it is the very syren song, which, if listened to, would enchant and bewilder us, and finally lead us to ruin ! Whoever unresistingly submits himself to be controlled by this creed of lawless tyrants and despots is no longer a freeman, but has already himself, in truth, come under the iron yoke of slavery and despotism. The people have often been most speciously decoyed by flattering pretensions by artful and designing men ! Rome was thus brought under this yoke of bondage fifty years before she was aware of it, until a tyrant controlled her destinies. This, too, was artfully done, by holding out to the people that their true interest was to sacrifice every thing for the extension of empire. The doctrines of ignorance, of darkness, of muzzling the press, and of grasping at unjust power and dominion, will forever stand as much opposed to freedom, as the very prince of darkness to an angel of light. Not the business of any, and of each and of all the citizens, under a free government of their own, most freely to discuss and intimately to understand all subjects, moral, political, or scientific, which have, or may have, an in- fluence upon the interests of the subjects of such go- vernment ! ! The very idea is monstrous, and should at once be scouted by every freeman ; for it is a most pal- pable contradiction in terms, and carries its refutation on the very face of it. But the opposite doctrine of free discussion, when we consider that, in all republics, all power and freedom must of necessity, and of right ought, forever to ema- nate from the people — like the noble and glorious prin- ciples, in the declaration of our independence — would ILLUSTRATED. 61 at once seem to be "self-evident." Indeed, it would almost appear to be descending from the proper dignity of freemen to debate a question which, in itself, appears as simple as whether two and two make four. But all freemen ought always to remember, that they must be the willing and the unconquerable advocates for free discussion, even in matters which, to themselves, appear plain, ever regarding the right to discuss, and the unrestrained exercise of that right, as the very pillars of the temple of freedom, and the last hope of expiring liberty. When the heaven-born right to discuss is profanely and tyrannically invaded, to allow the comparison here, we should all act like blind Bartemias, who, when the Saviour was passing by, called to him, probably in rather an under tone at first ; but we are told, when the multitude cried " hush ! hush !" Bartemias cried so much the louder. Who denies that he acted nobly upon his inalienable or personal rights of the first prin- ciples of all moral or civil liberty? And is it not to be presumed the Saviour honoured him accordingly, by j making him "free indeed?" So we find that the adage applies, both morally and politically, that "fortune fa- vours the brave." The man who will not cry the louder, or " so much the more," when the very centre right of all his rights is invaded, never ought to expect to be free ; for he thus voluntarily surrenders his free- dom into the hands of his master, and at once becomes a willing slave. Might it not naturally be expected, that all who be- lieve that this blind Bartemias gained his freedom by crying " so much the more" when the multitude noisily 6 62 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY opposed his right to cry at all, would learn a very valu- able political as well as a useful moral lesson from it, and in similar circumstances "go and do likewise?" Indeed, from this there is no alternative. The contest for the right of speech is the battle-field for all freedom. Retreat from this field, we are then pursued even unto death ; or made prisoners for life. And now let us inquire a moment into the relation which the north sustains, both morally and politically, to southern slavery, to enable us to make up our minds whether, indeed, we have any interest whatever, in the subject ; and if so, whether the interest be of that cha- racter which gives us any moral or political right to discuss it. For example ; I inquired, not long since, of a respectable clergyman, who refused to sign a me- morial to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church on the subject of slavery in that church, what he would do, if at some future period, the slaves, having increased to some five or ten millions, and being goaded on by a sense of their past wrongs, should break out (as he admitted they probably would) into a general and dreadful insurrection, and he should be called upon by the executive of the nation to enter upon the battle-field as chaplain, to "pray for the success" of the arms of their masters and former oppressors? He promptly replied, that he would not go. Then said I to him, " If you would act upon the old adage, that ' an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure J for your own sake, as well as that of the poor slaves and their mas- ters too, and your country's honour and welfare, had you not better timely set about using all your constitu- tional political power, as well as your peaceful and ILLUSTRATED. 63 rational moral influence, to prevent, if may be, even the possibility of a calamity so direful ; lest, should you ever be thus called upon, and refuse to go, you should find yourself an outlaw, and be compelled to suffer the consequence V And do not all of us, in the free states, sustain this same unhappy, as well as guilty relation to southern slavery 1 Nay ! says one, you have used one word too many ; say not, guilty. But we will inquire into this, a mo- ment, and see how it looks. In case of an insurrection among the slaves at the South, every man at the North would at all times be liable to be called upon by the government of this nation, to aid in suppressing it ; anti- abolitionists and all, would be promptly and impera- tively called upon, not only for their money, but to leave their wives, their children, and their own otherwise peaceful and happy firesides, to take up their arms, and other dread implements of sanguinary warfare, and to march in "marshal array" to the Southern tented fields, and there to lavish their treasures and their blood, to defend the masters from the poor slaves, who would be contending for their lives, for their liberties, and for the privilege of owning their own bodies, their own wives, and their own children, with all the other rights dear to man. How dreadful would be such a conflict ! ! And what Northern arm, nay, Southern too, would not palsy in the attempt? — for in the solemn and warning language of that patriot and statesman, Jefferson, " the Almighty has no attribute which could take part with the whites in such a contest ;" for is not " wrath heaping up against 64 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the day of wrath" and are we wise to "put far away the evil day ?" "This is our true national position." And indeed, if ever so dreadful and so dreaded a calamity should fall upon the southern portion of our common country, the main dependence of defence of the slaveholders from their slaves, would necessarily devolve on Northern freemen. I will cite one or two instances, illustrative of such an event, and in confirmation of this opinion. The hu- miliating circumstance will probably never be forgotten by us, as a nation, that during the war with Great Bri- tain, of 1812, the enemy invaded Washington, burnt the Capitol, sacked the public archives, and that President Madison was compelled to flee for his life. The public journals of those times, attribute the cause of this ex- traordinary event to the fact, that the white inhabitants in the District of Columbia, in the immediate vicinity of the Capitol, were too exclusively and anxiously occu- pied in watching and guarding their slaves from a mo- mentarily expected revolt, to lend any aid to their country in such a crisis, in repelling the invaders. It is also said, from good authority, that during the Southampton insurrection, fifty negroes rode in triumph through that county, and all the whites, except such as dared to watch their own slaves, fled in consternation before them, and that the United States troops finally quelled the insurrection. Who that desires the safety and prosperity of the South, as well as his whole coun- try, will not do all that he- can constitutionally and peacefully, to abolish Slavery in his beloved land, ere the just judgements of Heaven fall upon it, to its final ILLUSTRATED. 65 destruction ? Should the government of this country ever regard the immediate emancipation of all property in human flesh and blood, in the land, called for the safe- ty of the nation, it would then know no constitutional bounds over it and a universal jubilee would be proclaimed. Would it be right for fathers, through indolence and dissipation, to accumulate a vast debt for their children to pay 1 If not, let us, while yet on the stage of life, do what we can, not to increase, but to diminish this pon- derous and overhanging weight, which, if not upon our own, must fall with crushing power upon the heads of our children. Surely, have people at the north no right to discuss, and no interest in discussing American Slavery] This view of the subject is truly terrific: yet there is a still higher, and more solemn and responsible view of it, up- on which we ought to act, and which ought to move our hearts to a deep and an abiding sympathy. It is, that two millions and a half of our own countrymen, are this moment suffering under a cruel bondage, darker than Egyptian night, sunk down by us, into deep physical, moral, social, and political degradation and ruin, and constantly passing on to the judgement, in this state to meet us, their oppressors, there, with all our guilt and their blood upon us. Who, that believes in the righteous retributions of that day, can stand under this view of it, unmoved? We can, and often do, as a people, intermingle our sympathies with others, and express our deep abhorrence to all kinds of oppression, but American oppression!! It is presumed, that even Mr. Calhoun, who says we have no business to intermeddle in any manner whatever 6* 66 • LIBERTY AND SLAVERY with the oppressions of others, at least, goes as far as to pull the mote out of his brother's eye. He has often done this to abolitionists, and has also declaimed against foreign oppressions ; but the poor victims of our own dreadful oppressions, are sunk so low, that American eyes cannot behold them. But while our heads are so haughty, and our eyes so peculiarly blinded, and our hearts so peculiarly hardened, that we can see and feel the oppressions of all lands, save our own ; the eyes and the hearts of other nations, as well as that eye that sleepeth not, and that heart that ever feels for human affliction and woes, are ever open to the claims of mil- lions of oppressed Americans, trodden down under the iron hoof of American tyranny and American despot- ism. Is it not to be feared that it is too much the case with American republicanism, if not with American Christian- ity, as it was with the Italian nobleman's religion 1 Dr. Franklin, while at Paris, being in company with an Ital- ian nobleman, when the conversation turned upon the subject of religion, which the nobleman introduced : " How comes it," says the Doctor, " that the Italians, who are born at the very fountain of religion, should possess so little of it?" "That's easily answered," replied the nobleman. " In Italy," said he, " we manu- facture, it is true, a great quantity of religion ; but like all other manufactures, it's all for exportation." I would fain hope, indeed, that it is not true with us to the same extent. We have always, as a people, most liberally manifest- ed to the whole world, our deep abhorrence to all for- eign oppressions, and ever proffered our warmest sym- ILLUSTRATED. 67 pathies to the oppressed in other lands " the world over." All this is as it should be. While we should ever maintain a rigid political neu- trality with friendly powers, we have an undoubted moral right, with proper discriminations of justice to all con- cerned, to do so. Nay, more : it is ever our most bounden moral duty so to do. And indeed, in consis- tency with our long and loud professions of love for uni- versal rational freedom, and for the highest possible good of mankind, how could we do less? But while we do the one because it is right f let us not leave the other undone, for it is wrong. In leaving the other un- done, we have rendered all our external manifestations of abhorrence to the foreign oppressor, and our proffers of sympathy to the foreign oppressed, comparatively powerless. The world has been saying to us, "what do ye more than others V 9 " First take the beam from thine own eye, that thou mayest see the more clearly to take the mote from thy brother's eye," has long been its language. What American, aware of the too just opinions en- tertained by the whole civilized world, of the enormity of American oppressions, must not feel this justly call- ed-for retort as a most powerful, cutting, and humiliating rebuke, before heaven and earth, and lay it to heart, and feel himself humbled, as in the very dust before it ? Is not our national conduct in truth, in this matter, like un- to a man who should be extremely provident to all his neighbours, while his own numerous and dependent fam- ily, to whom he professed great love and attachment, were left comparatively in a state of actual starvation ? What an enigma is man ! ! In a late speech of Ma\ 68 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY Biddle, who recently fled here from Canada, (that land where 10,000 of our slaves have taken refuge) he labour- ed much to pass very high encomiums upon this land, as the gerat asylum of the oppressed. But let it be known that we have more than double the number of slaves than the entire population of both the Canadas. It was but yesterday I felt mortified and rebuked in the extreme, as an American citizen, in hearing a poor coloured man just from Canada, apparently with much simplicity and honesty, say, that the coloured people who had fled there for an asylum from American oppressions, were opposed to the Patriot cause in those Provinces, from the very fact that they had learned that American sympathy was with the Patriots. I felt in my soul to ex- claim, O ! my country, is this indeed, even so? He then further stated that the 10,000 coloured people who had fled there from the States, entertained great fears, that should the Patriot cause ever succeed in the Canadas, all the refugees there from American bondage, would either be reduced to slavery there, or at once be given up to American slave-hunters and kidnappers. All this is as natural as for the burnt child to dread the fire. But, " O, tell it not in Gath ;" publish not our na- tional shame " in the streets of Ashkelon !" Can our oppressed countrymen, indeed, find no asylum on earth secure from the tormenting fear of the tyrant's grasp, and the task-master's lash ! Must they, for naught, be continually hunted like the wild beast of the forest? Has humanity turned away forever from this people? This most thrilling consideration, however, shows two interesting facts, both of which slaveholders and their sycophantic apologists have always most cruelly ILLUSTRATED. 69 and slanderously denied : — First, that this people have the discernment to see what government protects their rights : and secondly, that they have the fidelity to prove themselves true to that government. I mean not, by these remarks, that the people in Can- ada may not be more or less oppressed by their govern- ment, and that reform may be called for. But this is a question which I am not called upon here to discuss. To say the most, however, their oppressions can bear no sort of comparison whatever, to that of millions of Americans, born and living in our own country. And coloured people in Canada have learnt this full well, from the great and dear teacher, experience ; and they look back upon the States as Lot did upon Sodom ! As I have alluded to the unhappy state of affairs in a neighbouring power, I will just say here, that while I was gratified to hear a respectable minister of the gos- pel for whom I entertain a high regard, allude in the desk as I thought in a becoming manner to the late shocking massacre of some of our citizens by British soldiers on our frontier, I was also equally pained to learn that he has not as yet made even the most distant allusion to the previous massacre by riotous and mur- derous hands, of a valuable minister of the gospel, a brother of his own faith, shot down, it is true, not by British soldiers under at least a false shadow of pretext of the rights of warfare, but by the hands of some of his own mobocratic and recreant countrymen, for his nobly defending that for which our fathers fought and bled ; I mean suffering and dying liberty on our own soil. Why should not our sympathies for human suffering be at least somewhat proportioned to its intensity and mag- 70 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY nitude? We are most cruelly driving the poor Indian from his native lands, as in Florida, to make still more room for the curse of slavery, 15,000 slaves being already unconstitutionally held in the same territory of the United States. Here are millions of our own countrymen as it were, before our own doors and before our own eyes, already deprived of all earthly civil rights, and in their dark midnight bondage, shut out from the blessed light of Heaven ; and the dearest ties of earthly attachment among them constantly and most wickedly rent asunder forever, — and here is our countryman, and our brother, whose bosom yearning with compas- sion for their dreadful sufferings, is constrained to step forward in love to defend their rights — his inalienable constitutional right of speech and liberty of the press are again and again tyrannically denied him ; his property in his press, that engine of freedom and terror to tyrants, is again and again destroyed — and with motives so pure, and in defence, as an American citizen for himself and for his country, of all these undoubted constitutional rights, after being long cruelly persecuted, and hunted from place to place like a beast of prey ; at length perishes in his own city by lawless and murderous hands, the mobocratic tools of base tyrants behind the awful scene ! All this he endured for his suffering fellow- man, and for his country. — And is his name unworthy of even one emotion of sympathy, some humble token of regard 1 Has he indeed, (as some have even pro- fanely dared to say,) " died as the fool dieth V " I tell you nay !" but his name shall be embalmed and im- mortalized in the grateful recollections of unborn mil- lions, who will yet rise up and call him blessed ! It will ILLUSTRATED. 71 be forever honourably enrolled, not only with patriots and philanthropists below, but with martyrs triumphantly above ; — while the names of such as can " pass by on the other side" and withhold from his sainted memory the mere tribute of sympathy, at least for his untimely widoiced wife and orphaned children, will moulder in oblivion. While Lovejoy is dead he yet speaketh ! ! Before any aggressions were made upon us, to con- tribute liberally of our means, and to volunteer in per- son, to correct the opinions and the wrongs (even by the point of the bayonet) of a sister nation with whom we are at peace, has been by many among us considered noble ! But to express our opinions of the egregious and untold wrongs and oppressions of one sixth part of our own fellow-countrymen ; ah, cries a pharisee, this is a subject too sacred to be meddled with, and there are lips among us too pure to be tainted with language, in the least degree contributory to an influence so unhallow- ed. consistency, thou art indeed a jewel ! But when, when will our beloved country discover this jewel ! With regard to the jurisdiction of Congress over American Slavery, whatever Calhoun, Patton, and all their slaveholding associates, and their slavery apolo- gists and abettors, under whatever name, may say, in order to sustain the barbarous institution of slavery, and thereby to maintain their own despotic political or ec- clesiastical power, it will nevertheless be seen when all these dark clouds of interest and prejudice shall have blown over, that it is as clear as the brilliant sun at mid- day, that the Congress of the United States has a per- fect political or constitutional right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in all the territories, and the 72 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY inter-state slave traffic. This is all the constitutional political right that abolitionists have hitherto claimed, or acted upon ; and the extent of which they have asked Congress to exercise. All this, Franklin, Jay, and all their associates, also very justly claimed and acted upon on the same subject. But some modern pretended statesmen, in order to hold the enslaved, and enslave the free, have become vastly wiser in their own con- ceits than was Washington, and Franklin, and Jefferson, and all the immortal framers of the American Consti- tution. While a part of the slaveholding and pro-slavery politicians would fain confidently make us believe that the American constitution is already against the people meddling with slavery in any manner whatever, and that the slaves are now held with the same iron constitutional grasp in the District of Columbia, and in all the terri- tories of the United States as in the slave States, — other portions knowing this to be untenable ground, take the bold position, that the constitution must be altered so as to take away from the people the right of speech and petition on the subject, as they very speciously say, to support slavery and the Union. This would be like supporting one's body on the severe forfeiture of his head and his heart ! ! The arch stroke of all the master-workmen and champions for slavery and a despotical government, is, most adroitly to couple the existence of slavery with the existence of the Union ; and in this way, knowing the love the people have for the Union, they call upon them with some assurance that they will obey, to make every sacri- fice, even that of their own liberties to maintain slavery. ILLUSTRATED. 73 Let us hear what Mr. Calhoun, the great nullifier and fftouth-piece of slaveholders said on this subject, while recently haranguing the political slave-holding senators to vote for his nullification and gag-law resolutions, as he required them to do, " to a man." This shows his political view of slavery ; and his moral view is, that it is, of all others, the very best and purest institution in the whole world. At least these are principles which he now zealously holds out, and calls upon all in the nation, north and south, east and west, to rally around this his political creed, and preserve, as he says, our "free in- stitutions" by reducing all free labourers to slavery. But he can not himself believe his own professed horrible doctrine, for he often becomes " choaked," and inadvertently contradicts himself. " I regard slavery, says he, u wherever it exists throughout the whole southern section, as one common question, and it is as much under the constitution in the District of Columbia, and in the territories, as in the States themselves ; and herein lies our safery. Aban- don this, and all is abandoned." He would tell the Southern senators, if these great principles be aban- doned, theirs would be the responsibility. If they yield, if even a small portion, one or two yield, in the slaveholding states, the members from the non-slave- holding must yield. They can not do otherwise. You force them to do it. How can they stand up, when you abandon your position? How can they defend them- selves at home, when told that even southern members had surrendered the ground? Let not the fallacious hope of drawing in votes, of uniting all, induce a sur- render of the strong and impregnable ground we oc- 7 74 LIBERT* AND SLAVERY cupy. If we stand fast, (says this oft foiled demagogue, but still ambitious man,) all who agree with us from arty quarter, all who hold to our political creed, (to wit, 41 slavery is the best basis of freedom") will ultimately rally around our principles." These principles, be it ever remembered, are the lurk- ing principles of nullification, the despotic principles of trampling the people's sacred constitution with all its guarantees of freedom under foot with contempt. And finally, the principles of slaveholding politicians and ecclesiastics at the south, from their own plain declara- tions are, with what aid they can rally from kindred spirits at the north, speedily to enslave the entire labour- ing population of this nation, regardless of section or colour. The doctrine of slaveholding and of pro-slavery po- liticians is, that short of this, neither slavery nor this government can stand. Here is the poisonous bait ! .* so says Mr. Calhoun, " this is oiir true national posi- tion;" that is, we slaveholding politicians and eccle- siastics, have already " got our foot" firmly upon the necks of two and a half million of the labouring class in the southern portion of the country, and you north- ern aristocrats, whether monied, political, or ecclesi- astical, combine your despotic power, and throw your whole weight, with us, upon five millions more of this troublesome labouring class, and the Union and slavery are safe forever. We see in thi3 avowed declaration of sentiments a slaveholding and pro-slavery despotic creed, a most fearful scion, which, if the people do not soon discover and pluck it up by the roots, it will speedily grow en- ILLUSTRATED. 75 tirely beyond their reach, and finally fall upon them to their destruction. I will here give the opinion of Daniel Webster — in relation to the jurisdiction of Congress over the District of Columbia, which I presume is worth more, among northern people especially, if not with many disinterest- ed southern people, than any nullifier's opinion tha^ Gen. Jackson ever bravely vetoed. Though while Mr, Webster so clearly and so firmly gives his opinion in a statesman-like manner in favour of the constitution, he does not come out boldly against that national system of oppression in our country, which is so surely, and so rapidly undermining all our free institutions. In the very midst of all such very able expositions of the con- stitution from Mr. Webster and others, " expediency '» will still ruin the country, unless the people soon arrest its most dangerous progress in its subtly stealing away their fundamental rights and liberties. The very touch of slavery to freedom, is contamination! ! The atmosphere itself, at the very seat of the boasted- ly freest government on earth, is impregnated with moral and political pollution! Mr. Webster, like many of our northern statesmen, of which we so proudly and so justly boast ; in relation to freedom of debate on the greatest subject which hangs over our nation, must, and I hope soon will be fully emancipated, by the " sovereigu people " coming up to his help to " stay up his hands." I believe thus far, no northern statesman who ever had much reputation to retain or to lose, though often tempted by southern inducements, has ever given his opinion absolutely against the constitutionality of Con- 76 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY gress abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. Mr. Van Buren, previous to his late election to the pre- sidency of the United States, in reply to numerous and clamorous calls from slaveholding politicians, for his sentiments on this subject did not venture farther than to pledge himself, if elected, to veto any bill for the abo- lition of slavery in the District, on the ground of" inex- pediency," and an idle pretext, that the faith of Congress was plighted to the States making the cession. This, it is true, I believe, was an " expedient" stretch of con- science, and answered his purpose and the object of slaveholders in full ; as much so as though he had said in just so many words, that it is absolutely unconstitu- tional, and it was also "swallowed" by the north with much less " compunctions " and " strangulations " — It took like an indirect tax. The president, in his last message, as if nothing had happened, went on at length to recommend to Congress to exercise their jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, in all cases whatsoever, in revising or repealing obsolete laws, and enacting new ones to the full extent of the wants of the inhabitants ; informing Congress, that the people in this District had no other source to look to, and that heretofore, in the multiplicity of its duties, it had too much overlooked them. All this was well, and just as it should be. Now, with regard to the course which Mr. Van Buren took to find his way into the presidental chair, although a crooked one, it is, nevertheless, an easier path for the north to travel in, than any president hereafter will make them, so long as tyranny, the political and moral curse of slavery, governs this nation. I mean by this, that the enormous slaveholding power in this nation, is becoming I ILLUSTRATED. 77 more and more arrogant, and more and more rigorous and exorbitant in its tyrannical exactions of servile northern obedience to its dictation. If I can judge at all by the despotic, slaveholding spirit and tone of the Congress of 1838, the " dear and sovereign people " may think themselves most graciously dealt by, if the " grim monster," slavery, with his servile sycophants, does not peremptorily demand of the next presidential candidate, as the rigorous terms of his election, that he not only tread in Mr. Van Buren's footsteps, but that he go as far, on grounds of " expediency," to compromise the right of speech and 'petition on the subject of slavery, as Mr. Van Buren did to compromise the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. " This, says JWr. Calhoun, is our true national j>osition /" That odious term, " expediency," is now but a softer name for dishonesty or tyranny. Every school-boy in the United States, of six years of age, ought to read our constitution, and to read it straighter than many of our great politicians, with their crooked " expedient " eyes do read it. And unless the great body of the people will so teach their children, — their constitution, and with it their liberties, are destined, at no distant day, to be swallowed up by the all-devouring vortex of " expedi- ency," slavery, and despotism. As the opinion of Mr. Webster, on this subject, would have weight with many, I deem it proper in this place to make an extract from a late speech of his delivered in the Senate of the United States, against the passage of Mr. Calhoun's "gag- law " resolutions : ** I do not know, said Mr. Web- ster, any matter of facts, or any ground of argument upon which this plighted faith can be sustained. I see 7* 78 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY nothing, said he, by which Congress has tied up its hands, either directly or indirectly, so as to put its clear constitutional power beyond the exercise of its own dis- cretion. I have carefully examined the acts of cessions by the States, the act of Congress, the proceedings and history of the times, and I find nothing to lead me to doubt that it was the intention of all parties to leave this, like other subjects belonging to the legislation for the ceded territory, entirely to the discretion and wisdom of Congress. The words of the constitution are clear and plain. None could be clearer or plainer. Congress, by that instrument, has power to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the ceded territory in all cases whatso- ever." The acts of cession contain no limitation, con- dition, or qualification whatever. The acts of cession declare that the tract of country " is forever ceded and relinquished to Congress, and to the government of the United States, in full and absolute right, and exclusive jurisdiction, as well of soil, as of persons residing, orjo reside therein, pursuant to the tenour and effect of the 8th section of the first article of the constitution of the United States." Now, that section to which reference is thus expressly made in these deeds of cession, de- clares that Congress shall have power " to exercise ex- clusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District, not exceeding ten miles square, as may by ces- sion of particular States, and the acceptance of Con- gress, become the seat of government of the United States." " Nothing, therefore, as it seems to me," con- tinues this senator, " can be clearer, than that the states making the cession, expected Congress to exercise over the District precisely that power, and neither more nor ILLUSTRATED. 79 less which the constitution had conferred upon it." " I do not know," said Mr. Webster, "how the provision or the intention, either of the constitution, in granting the power, or of the states in making the cession, could be expressed in a manner more absolutely free from all doubt or ambiguity." H I see, therefore," says this clear-headed statesman, " nothing in the act of cession, and nothing in the constitution, and nothing in the his- tory of this transaction, implying any limitation upon the authority of Congress." Here is a clear and lucid view of the entire jurisdiction of Congress over the District of Columbia, in all cases whatsoever, and yet loads of the peoples' petitions for the abolition of slavery in this District are insultingly stowed away in the Capitol, un- read and unnoticed. ! " expediency," thou hollow- hearted, dishonest nullifier of all constitutions, and con- temner of all law, " human or divine." I have spoken of Mr. Van Buren's crooked course to find his way into the presidental chair ; but let me by no means be under- stood as supposing him to be of all men the worst. I am not at all prepared to say how many men there are .of all political parties or creeds, even at the north, who, from southern bribery, might not be induced to go much farther than even Mr. Van Buren has gone, in compro- mising the constitutional liberties of freemen to the in- terests of slavery. I know not what Webster, or Har- rison, or Clay, might be tempted to do if an opportunity presented, were the people found sleeping. In all truly free governments, the people are master, and the ser- vants obey ; but when the masters are blind or absent, these servants are idle, the vineyard undressed, or its fruit destroyed. 80 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY " Again," said Mr. Webster, on the same occasion, " looking back to the state of things then existing, and especially to what Congress had done so recently before, when it accepted the cession of the north-western ter- ritory, I entertain no doubt whatever, that Congress would have refused the cession, if offered, with any con- dition or understanding, that its constitutional authority to exercise exclusive legislation over the District in all cases whatsoever should be abridged." Mr. Webster, like many northern as well as southern statesmen, from the impression doubtless that the whole people were not yet sufficiently informed on the subject of slavery on all its tremendous bearings upon the liber- ties of the country to sustain him, has not as yet, so far as I know, fully committed himself on the subject of aboli- tion : but to show that no one can for a moment, reason logically upon the first principles of civil liberty, or upon the American constitution, (the exercise of which alone, can support free government) without falling inadver- tently, whether he will or not, into pure ancient as well as modern abolition sentiments, I will here cite a few paragraphs from a still later speech of his in the Senate . upon a subject having no reference whatever, either to slavery, or to the District of Columbia. — It will be borne in mind by the reader, in connexion with Mr. Webster's very sound remarks which I am about to cite, not only that Mr. Webster, but the whole nation, until quite recently, have always most fully admitted the constitutional power of Congress over the seat of our free government, at once to order all the handcuffs, chains, fetters, and yokes, to be taken from all innocent men, women and children therein ; but that the south ILLUSTRATED. 81 now have closed the doors of the people's capitol against the whole subject, by gag laws, to reject the people's pe- titions, in open defiance of their own constitution, and that many northern members also have proved recreant to their high trusts, and have even dared to aid in thus closing the doors of the capitol against their own con- stituents upon the dangerous, unmanly, and cowardly plea of inexpediency. If things are suffered to go on much longer at this high-handed rate, one might well think there would not be a man in the nation, coloured or uncoloured, who would have courage enough to claim his own wife and children, if a slaveholder perchance should happen to want them. — The following are the words of Mr. Webster as alluded to : "I care not, Sir, on what side, or in which of its branches the constitution may be attacked. Every successful attack upon it, made any where weakens the whole, and renders the next assault easier and more dangerous. Any denial of its just pow- ers is an attack upon it, We attack it, most fiercely attack it, whenever we say we will not exercise the powers which it enjoins. Sir, it is the nature of such things, that the first violation, or the first departure from true principles, draws more important violations or departures after it ; and the first surrender of just authority, will be followed by others more to be deplored. If there be made a first chasm, though it be small, through that the whole wide ocean will pour in, and we may then throw up embankments in vain." Mr. Webster himself, pro- bably never uttered words before this nation of more solemn import, than the few just cited. Let us as a whole nation beware before too late, lest the glorious constitution of our venerable fathers be not rendered a 82 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY nullity, a mere mockery, by false policy ; and the syren song of " expediency " finally lure us to shipwreck and ruin. The constitution must be held sacred and no- bly lived up to by the north and by the south, by the east and by the west : or though the mere form remain, the spirit of liberty will be grieved, weep over the peo- ple, and take her flight forever from the land. — Mr. Webster further remarks upon the constitution : " In- trusted with some part in the administration of that constitution, I intend to act in its spirit, and in the spirit of those who framed it. Yes, Sir, I would act as if our fathers who formed it for us, and who bequeathed it to us, were looking on us ; as if I could see their venerable forms bending down to behold us from the abodes above. I would act too, Sir, as if that long line of posterity were also viewing us, whose eye is hereaftar to scrutinize our conduct. Standing thus as in the full gaze of our ances- tors and our posterity ; having received this inheritance from the former to be transmitted to the latter ; and feel- ing that if I am born for any good in my day and gene- ration, it is for the good of the whole country ; no local policy, or local feeling, no tempory impulse shall induce me to yield my foothold on the constitution and the Union." Now regardless of party or the man from whom they emanated, what lover of the American con- stitution and of our whole country can deny these to be great and noble views 1 Yet, whatever the opinions of the friends of the author may be, in relation to his prospects for the chief magistracy of this amalgamated union ; knowing as I do, that his consistent and independent views of the constitution are carried out upon the jour- nals of the senate, and are before the nation ; to me such ILLUSTRATED. 83 an event would be little less than a miracle, with the pre- sent slaveholding, constitution-crushing power upon the nation, unless indeed like others gone before him, he too, by the bribery of human flesh, and blood, and souls, could possibly find himself capable of sliding from the high and healthful ground he now occupies into the smooth, but sickly stream of expediency. Better; far better, for the country and for the world, that he should still live and die in his integrity in the senate-chamber of the nation. Whoever heard of one's being blessed in " doing evil that good might come," or in attempting to reform a nation by first himself turning recreant to truth ? An idle dream ! — like a virtuous lady knowingly uni- ting her fortune for time, with a worthless man, upon a pretence of benevolence to effect his permanent refor- mation. In a late speech of Garret Smith, Esq. on this subject, which among the many very able and happy efforts of that gentleman for the last twenty years in the cause of suffering humanity, and all the rights of his fellow-man and his country, will not I think rate second in point of usefulness, he shows most clearly and conclusively that it has not been the efforts of abolitionists, which have rendered it unconstitutional and inexpedient to abolish the slave traffic in the District of Columbia, between the States and in the territories, and put back emancipation fifty or a hundred years : but the invention, introduction, and successful operation of the cotton gin, together with the unhallowed influence of political and designing de- magogues to advance themselves into power over all the sacrificed and crushed rights of two and a half mil- lions of our trodden down countrymen, and that these 84 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY demagogues have sunk the iron of oppression deep into the souls of these our fellow-countrymen to sustain their own ill-gotten and unrighteous political power. And is there not likewise, says Mr. Smith, conclusive evidence of the absurdity of the supposition, that Maryland had the infatuated zeal for slavery which she is now repre- sented to have had ? As early as the year 1785, her delegation voted- to free the northwestern territory from this curse. In point of thoroughness and decision, the u abolitionism " of her statesman surpassed that of the statesman of Virginia. Luther Martin, whom more than any other of her sons she delighted to honour, was a member of the convention that formed the constitution of the United States. Such was his zeal for the aboli- tion of slavery throughout the nation, that he insisted that Congress should be invested with power to effect it. Scarcely inferior to his, was the strong hold which her William Pinkney had upon her affections and admira- tion. This celebrated jurist set no bounds to his abhor- rence of slavery; and so admirable, so unrivalled, is one of the abolition speeches which he delivered in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1789, that the aboli- tionists of this day have printed and scattered tens of thousands of copies of it. " Sir," said Mr. Pinckney in that speech, " by the eternal principles of natural justice, no master in the State has a right to hold his slave in bondage for a single hour." How idle is it to represent Virginia and Maryland as clinging to slavery at the time the District of Columbia was constituted — and so peculiarly tenacious of its prolongation in that District! The truth is, that no fact stands out more prominently in the history of those States during the first fifteen ILLUSTRATED. 85 years after the beginning of the revolutionary war, than that of the decay of their attachment to this institution (slavery) which would long since have expired entirely, but for the reviving influences upon it of the invention of the Cotton Gin. As a proof of the decline of this attachment, those states, Virginia in 1782, and Mary- land in 1787, passed acts legalizing manumission. Ah ! cries the anti-abolitionist, were it not for you " fanatics," slavery would soon now be abolished. But in reply to this, let it only be remembered that the mammon of un- righteousness in the sudden and great increase of the cotton trade, swallowed up the fanaticism of the Wash- ingtons, Jeffersons, Madisons, Masons, Franklins, and Tylers, in favour of human liberty, with all the examples of emancipation in the northern states before the country. The poor slave, if not the free, may well curse the day that the Cotton Gin inventor was born. I mean by this, that the slaveholding interest through the whole nation, has became so vast and overwhelming in consequence, that, it now dares seriously to menace the liberties of the free of the whole nation. Should the question actually be put to every mother in the land, which she would choose ; to sit at the spinning wheel as in " olden times," or to see her sons enslaved ; who dares to suppose for a moment that she would say the latter 1 Nay more ! who does not know, if necessary to prevent such a calamity to her children, that she would not only sit at the wheel, but most cheerfully pull the flax also, and break it, and manufacture it entire with her own hands even, as did the noble matrons of the revolution while our fathers were contending on the battle field for our liberties. Then what is slavery, 8 86 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY and what is liberty ! and " what man seeing this, and having human feelings, must not blush and hang hiss head," if he is not doing all in his power for the speedy and peaceful liberation of two and a half millions of our suffering countrymen in base bondage, — claim not that magic name " republican," nor that more hallowed one, " christian," if it be not so. There is not a mother or a sister in the land who would not cheerfully, if ne- cessary, lay aside the piano, leave the parlour, and toil in the field even, to redeem her sons, or her brothers, from so cruel a bondage. Among many other evidences that the State of New- York, as well as other States in the Union, has not al- ways thought it unconstitutional nor inexpedient for Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, is the joint resolution of her Senate and Assembly, strongly and decidedly in favour of its immediate aboli- tion in the session of 1829, one or two short extracts from the very able report in favour of liberty ; from the report of her committee at this session for the satisfac- tion of any who may not have read the report, or if they have, may have forgotten it, I will here give : — " That they have given said memorials all the considerations which the importance of the subject demands, and have reason to believe that a vast majority of the citizens of the non-slaveholding states have for a long time regarded the existence of slavery in that district of our country as entirely inconsistent with our national character, and our republican professions and institutions. The committee cannot but view with astonishment, that in the very ca- pital of this free and enlightened country, laws should exist by which the free citizens of a State are liable, ILLUSTRATED. 87 without trial, and even without the imputation of crime, to be seized while prosecuting their lawful business, — immured in prison ; and, though free, unless claimed as slaves, to be sold as such for the payment of jail fees. That sacred spot, consecrated, as it were, to freedom, by being set apart as the seat of the national government, and the site of the great national temple of liberty, should be entirely clear of this stigma. The committee would respectfully suggest, that a resolution calling the atten- tion of our senators and representatives in Congress to this subject would likely be a help in removing slavery from that district." Feb. 16, 1829, the following re- solution was adopted : — " Resolved, if the Senate con- cur herein (and the Senate did concur,) that the sena- tors of this State in the Congress of the United States, be, and are hereby instructed ; and the representatives of this State are requested, to make every proper exer- tion to effect the passage of a law for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia." Wonder what the present senators from New- York could say to this, both of whom, in the session of the Congress of 1838, cast their whole influence on the side, not of constitu- tional liberty for all, but of unconstitutional slavery for all, regardless of colour. When we compare all these past noble efforts in favour of liberty, with the last two or three years proceedings in our empire, but disgraced State, as well as in our whole land, while pro-slavery demagogues have been able to raise their base pro- slavery mobocratic tools, to put down freedom of debate on the subject of the liberty both of the actually en- slaved and the nominally free ; and also, the late re- creant and disgraceful proceedings of Congress in the 88 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY passage of their unconstitutional, tyrannical slavery re^ solutions to abridge the liberty of speech, and to deny and suppress the right of petition of the people ; who is not ready to exclaim with indignant amazement, " How are the mighty fallen ! How has the gold become brass, and the fine gold dim." It does appear to me there can be no doubt that the truth is, so far from there being a particle of plighted faith to Maryland and Virginia on the part of Congress, never to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia without their consent, as is now pretended for effect by slaveholding politicians and their abettors, that no im- partial person can sit down and deliberately read over the plain words of the acts of cession, and the whole history of those times in relation to the very favourable state of public sentiment, both north and south, in regard to the speedy and entire abolition of slavery in the whole land, — without seeing that it was then deemed a high favour by those states, for Congress to accept the ces- sion of that district for the seat of the national govern- ment altogether unconditionally ; or, as expressed in the constitution itself, that Congress should " exercise exclusive legislative control over it in all cases whatso- ever." Who that knows that at the very time the cession was made the northern states were ripe for abolishing their slavery ; that numerous abolition societies then existed, not only in " Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New-York, and New-Jersey, but also in Vir- ginia and Maryland ; and that numerous addresses and sermons denouncing slavery in every part of the country by the Pinckneys, the Jays, the Franklins, the Edwardses,. ILLUSTRATED. 89 the Hopkinses, the Stileses, the Patrick Henrys, and the Thomas JefFersons," of those better days for free- dom, can even imagine for a moment that the north was then so dependent on the south ; that with the then prevailing sentiments, and with a large balance of poli- tical power in her favour, she would even have accepted the cession upon any other considerations than upon en- tire and independent grounds of freedom, according to the very clear, expressive, and conclusive words of the constitution itself, that Congress should forever " exer- cise exclusive legislation over the district in all cases whatsoever." It does appear to me, aside from the unequivocal language of the constitution, that it would be the very height of absurdity, under all these decidedly favourable circumstances for independence and freedom on the part of Congress, to suppose that body capable at that time of submitting to any unnecessary requisitions which should tie up its own hands, or compromise its own liberties and independence. It would certainly seem, that to one familiar with the public mind, and the state of the whole country at that time, that this could not be even a supposable case. Indeed, the people of Maryland and Virginia themselves, in these better days for liberty, were not far behind their northern neighbours in the noble cause of freedom and human rights. The public mind, at this time, from the great and in- teresting scenes of the revolution, was so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of liberty, that it could not help but fewl for every creature in vile bondage. But, alas ! how has long and continued prosperity blunted the bet- ter feelings of our natures. These states made the cession not only in full view 8* 90 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY of the proposed constitution to be adopted, immediately after, and to which they had previously signified their full assent, with the known provisions that the foreign slave-trade was to cease after the year 1808 ; and that Congress, if it accepted the cession of the district, was to " exercise exclusive legislation over it in all cases whatsoever :" but they were, moreover, so desirous that the seat of the national government should be lo- cated somewhere in that section of the country, that in the very words of the acts of cession they said, if Con- gress would accept the cession for the capital of the nation, it might make the selection in any part of those states. The words of the act of cession of Maryland, in relation to this point, are as follows, — (referring to the representatives of that State, who were to meet in New-York in March following for the adoption of the constitution:) — "And they are hereby authorized and required, on the behalf of this State, to cede to the Con- gress of the United States, any district in this State not exceeding ten miles square, which the Congress may fix upon and accept for the seat of Government of the United States." The language of the act of cession of Virginia, under precisely the same circumstances, is, " Wherein a location of ten miles square, if the ivisdom of Congress shall so direct, the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, may participate in such loca- tion." If Virginia had even cared, at that time, any thing about the preservation of slavery, while she was propos- ing to Congress to accept a portion of her territory for the seat of the "freest Government in the world" who must not see that she would not thus have proposed the accommodation of Pennsylvania. ILLUSTRATED. 91 We also read in the Virginia act of cession, these very explicit words : " Be it therefore further enacted by the General Assembly, that a tract of country not exceeding ten miles square, or any lesser quantity, to be located within the limits of this state, and in any part thereof, as Congress may by law direct, shall be, and the same is hereby forever ceded and relinquished to the Congress and Government of the United States, in full and abso- lute right, and exclusive jurisdiction, as well of soil as of persons, residing or to reside thereon, pursuant to the tenour and effect of the eighth section of the first article of the Government of the United States." So here, in this proposition of Virginia to Congress, to accept of said proposed cession, she alludes to the very clause in the constitution of the United States, giving Congress the "exclusive legislative control in all cases whatsoever," over any district for the seat of government, which Congress might accept. In either acts of cession there is not a syllable of reservation or proviso, on the part of the states so desirous to make the cession, except Virginia barely says the act shall not be so construed as to affect the rights of individuals in the soil merely." If presumptions have any thing at all to do in this matter, whoever is acquainted with the very favourable state of public sentiment towards eman- cipation at the time the cession was made, it does appear to me that they must judge, that so far from there being a particle of plighted faith implied on the part of Congress to these states, that the presumption is altogether on the other side, that the states deemed it a high favour for Congress to accept the cession on its own terms, and entirely favourable to independence and 92 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY freedom ; and that they would very soon follow the pro- posed good work of emancipation of their northern sister states. But ! the cotton gin, avarice, and dema- gogues, what hast thou done, and what canst thou not do 1 But as I have proposed to reply to so many objec- tions, I am admonished to be brief; but I cannot for- bear to add two or three facts, out of volumes that might be cited to show that the whole country, from the then existing state of things, in relation to slavery, did have good reason strongly to hope that the South would go on immediately with the North, after the adoption of the constitution, in the then so greatly desired work of im- mediate emancipation. And first, who can suppose for a moment, that the North, with a large balance of politi- cal power, would have adopted the constitution ; giving three-fifths of the slave property a representation, had it supposed that the slaves would have increased from half a million to two and a half millions, by 1S38 ; and that property, in human flesh and blood, would have thirty representatives in the national councils in 1840? Again, what had the North good reason to hope from the South, in the cause of emancipation, when every slaveholding member of Congress, from the States of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, voted for the celebrated ordinance of 1787, (one year before the cession of the District of Columbia, and the adoption of the constitution) which abolished all the slavery then existing in the great extent of country of the northwest territory ; and when these states also voted unanimously to abolish the foreign slave traffic, and when among the many noble sons of Virginia, Jefferson had publicly said " the way I hope is preparing ILLUSTRATED. 93 under the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation." Mr. Madison of Virginia, said, "the dictates of human- ity — the principles of the people — the national safety and happiness, and prudent policy, required it (emancipa- tion) of us. The constitution has particularly called our attention to it." It is to be hoped, said he, that we may save ourselves from reproaches, and our posterity the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled with slaves. Washington said, " there are in Pennsylvania, laws for the gradual abolition of slavery, which neither Maryland nor Virginia have at present, but which nothing is more certain than that they must have, and at a period not remote." A reason urged in the convention that formed the constitution, why the word slave should not be used in it was, that when slavery should cease, there might remain upon the national character, no record that it had ever been. All this shifting positions from unconstitutionality to plighted faith, and from pretended plighted faith to expediency to support the Union, only goes to prove the whole slavery cause untenable. The truth is, it is like " hoping against hope to look for a shadow of testimony ; or a single circumstance that could be tortured into plighted faith, on the part of Congress to the states, making the cession. But exactly the reverse of this might be fairly inferred. From all the then existing circumstances, there was indeed, vir- tually, a plighted faith on the part of those states, as well as all the other slave states to Congress, and to the whole people, and to the world, that they would go immediately and banish slavery from their bounds. This was then, most assuredly, the flattered and flattering hope in this country and in Europe. Indeed the world had good 94 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY reason to expect this of us, as we had ourselves just closed a seven years' hard contention for liberty. For further particulars on this subject, as well as on the subject of slavery in general, I would refer any one who has not already perused them, to the invaluable re- marks of H. B. Stanton Esq., before a committee of representatives of Massachusetts, to whom was refered sundry memorials on the subject of slavery ; and also to a phamphlet of about sixty pages, which has recently made its appearance under the signature of " Wythe," supposed to be the production of Theodore D. Weld, with ample extracts from the writings and speeches of most of the public men on the subject of slavery, North and South, for sometime previous to, at the time, and subsequent to the adoption of the constitution, showing most conclusively, that the universal expectation of the whole country was, not only that Congress, in accepting the ten miles square for the seat of the general govern- ment, reserved to itself the full power to make and unmake laws in the district at its pleasure, or as, in the very words of the constitution, " in all cases whatsoever ;" but that it possessed no constitutional power to accept a location for the seat of government upon any other ground ; and moreover, that from every expression of the whole country at that time, and of southern as well as northern members of the convention adopting the constitution at the time the cession was accepted, the universal admis- sion was constantly made, that slavery was a very great moral and political evil, and that the members finally left the convention satisfied on the subject of slavery, from the apparent impression of all, that it would very soon at least, be abolished in the whole land ; or as one mem- ILLUSTRATED. 95 ber emphatically expressed it in the convention, that although slavery was not stricken with the apoplexy, he trusted it had the consumption. But again, let it be re- peated, the cotton gin, avarice, and " politicians," have wrought a woful change in public sentiment throughout this country, since those " golden days of liberty." I regard these pamphlets as embracing a remarkably succinct and lucid view of the subject of American slavery. They are worth — I was about to say, their weight in gold, to every American citizen. It would indeed be so, if he would read their contents, and follow the dictates of wisdom therein suggested. Our whole nation might then be free indeed ! and become a truly great and a happy people, the wonder, and the just praise of the whole earth ! And while the political right, for the slave states to hold slaves in their respective states, (whatever the constitu- tion in strictness may be,) is at present generally conced- ed by abolitionists, still for the people to renounce their inalienable moral right, to speak against slavery, even here, and every where, in ail its forms ; or if they please, to speak against any law, or any article in the constitu- tion of any state, or of the United States, would be for the " sovereign people," voluntarily to open their own mouths, and to receive the odious gag by their own hands. It would be tamely surrendering the right to exercise that original right of thought, and speech, in regard to the affairs of our own nation, which we have always, and do still so rightfulully, and so righteously exercise, in respect to every thing we may deem either morally or politically wrong, the " world over." If we ever do, 96 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. indeed, meanly submit to this degradation, it will then truly be time (as other nations tell us, on account of our slavery,) to be silent forever, about all the " oppres- sions and the wrongs with which earth is filled." Could we ever come to this as a people, owing to our unaccountable hatred of and consequent desire to en- slave our coloured countrymen, (which may heaven for- bid*,) a deep sense of our own shame would then for- ever terrify us, should we ever again attempt to name the oppressions of the Greeks, the Poles, or of our neighbours the Canadians, or any other wrongs which we may conceive to be grievously inflicted upon our fellow-men. It is, indeed, a " pretty " doctrine, for re- creant senators gravely to inculcate, from the councils of this nation, in order to support the rotten and tottering fabric of slavery, that any people on earth can bind themselves up by constitutions and laws, which they have themselves no moral right whatever to lisp a sylla- ble against. This would, indeed, then be a free government with a vengeance, just as tyrants would have it — to their own liking, but at the vast expense of the liberties of the people. SECTION II. • "I AM AS MUCH OPPOSED TO SLAVERY AS ANY ONE, AND THINK IT A GREAT EVIL, BUT WE CAN DO NO GOOD TO DISCUSS IT AT THE NORTH." This objection would seem to pre-suppose that northern hands are not already imbrued in the blood of southern slaves. But let us look at facts in this matter, and see how it stands, whether, indeed, we can with truth lay the flattering unction to our souls, that we are above re- proach, or even suspicion on this subject. I know that we have long been wont to compliment ourselves, with great complacency at the north, that because we were not actual slaveholders, and daily accustomed to hear the chains, the handcuffs, and the lash, upon our innocent fellow-countrymen, therefore, we could in no sense whatever be justly implicated in the practice of holding slaves, or be identified with the slaveholder himself. But what have we been doing on this subject, by our representatives in Congress for the last half century? We have always held a majority of votes at the north, and now have forty-four majority in a joint ballot of both Houses of Congress ; yet northern votes have been ad- ding slave state to slave state, until seven have been added since the original thirteen were organized, so that our '■''free republic " now stands, made up of fourteen free states, and twelve slave states, besides the territories and the yet disputed Mexican province. (" Texas," in 9 98 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY fearful prospect of a speedy admission into the Union, notwithstanding the artful truce of the present calm,) as a vast additional vortex of human liberty ; unless the north, who now have the right, and the means, will awake in time to prevent so direful a calamity to them- selves and their children, to the nation, and to the world, to say nothing of the cruel enslavement of unborn millions of the ill-fated coloured people. Are any still incredulous about the disposition of a portion of the north to aid the south to perpetuate and to extend the institution of slavery, at almost any sacrifice of the liberties of the people, under the fearfully decep- tive pretext that this is the dernier resort to preserve the Union? Let such look carefully at the drift of the as- tounding arguments of northern members in ihe late Session of Congress on this subject, and also to what speaks louder than arguments, their votes, as recorded on the journals of both houses, as a perpetual memorial of northern subserviency to slaveholding dictation; not only at the late Session of Congress, but at many pre- vious sessions. Look too at the refusal of some to sign petitions to Congress against the annexation of Texas. This is a subject no less tremendous and thrilling than that of human liberty, and facts irresistible should be made to stand out before the people and speak for them- selves. Let us ever bear in mind the treacherous manner in which the independence of the revolted Mexican province was acknowledged. At the late admission of Arkansas into the Union, with its bloodv constitution, that slavery never should be abolished within its bounds ; sixty-three northern votes are recorded in its favour, and only fifty-three against ILLUSTRATED. 99 it; so that the north, of itself, independent of the south, would have given it admission into the Union as a slave state, and that too, with this most extraordinary consti- tution, with a majority of ten votes. It will be borne in mind also, that this is the seventh slave state thus admitted into the Union by the aid of northern influence since the original thirteen were or- ganized. We see, then, how much greater advances slavery and despotism have made in our country, both in regard to the possession of territory and political in- fluence, than freedom. The northern sons of freedom now begin to feel the same iron of oppression which holds in cruel bondage the entire labouring class of the southern portion of our country sinking deeper and deeper into their own souls. Say not, the north, whether conscious or unconscious of it, in point of fact, have not long been acting directly for the extension and perpetuation of southern slavery. Let any one look over the Journals of Congress for years past, and then longer wonder if he can, how slave- holders can dare to boast, that what they do not now own of the United States, they soon will own, that is, of the " labouring class of property." There are also, a great variety of sinister interests at the north, not known to all, or not duly considered by them, to induce many to give their influence, either directly or indirectly, fully to the slaveholding interest. Among many others which will be named hereafter, northern wholesale merchants in our large commercial towns and cities, have been lately found to hold mort- gages to the amount of many millions on southern slaves, which accounts in part for so many extensive 100 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY failures among some of our wholesaling commercial houses. Large manufacturing, and also many book and printing establishments, are deeply and extensively interested in southern trade. Many northern public houses of entertainment and places of amusement, such as hotels, theatres, &c, are greatly interested in the reception of the millions, the price of the blood of the oppression of this nation paid into their hands, Judas-like, by 50,000 southern patrons annually ; northern institutions of learning, having many southern students, whose fathers and friends are slaveholders ; numerous national ecclesiastical, as well as political bodies, (or fear of division, (each body proudly numbering Israel) ; numerous individuals at the north having slaveholding relatives, friends, and ac- quaintances at the south, for fear of alienation ; all these, with many other similar causes, — all serve as so many strong barriers of pride, of interest, and of preju- dice to the free discussion of slavery, and to the pre- valence of the righteous and heaven-approved doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation. Also to these wicked and sinister interests, and to kindred ones, are the sources of nearly all that northern benevolent colonization influence, to colonize the troublesome free 2?eople of colour only, (which so much pleases the spe- culator in human flesh,) clearly traceable. Whoever doubts this, let him carefully and impartially read Judge "Jay's Inquiries" into the origin and the whole policy of the slaveholding colonizationists, and also to look at the principles and proceedings of this pro-slavery society. It is as wicked and as flagrant a violation of justice, to make the condition of emancipation a " con- ILLUSTRATED. 101 sent to be colonized," as it would be to withhold a given amount of stolen property until the robbed man would agree to take an oath that the moment the property of which he was so wickedly robbed, should be restored to him, he would consent to be banished from the country of his birth forever. This is naked American coloniza- tion in its most odious deformity. In the effect of all these combined influences, also, do we not at once find a most satisfactory solution to the question : " Why is it that the north have suffered her own citizens to be so often mobbed, and so much abused, for peacefully dis- cussing slavery? In looking over these various in- terests at the north, every discriminating eye must most clearly discover the line of demarkation between colo- nization, (alias anti-abolition,) and the self-evident doc- trine of the righteousness of immediate and uncondi- tional emancipation without expatriation. To name but one single barrier, the mountainous piles of cotton bags, (the price of blood,) in northern commercial towns, apparently as completely shields the consciences of thousands of influential men behind them, from the most powerful and self-evident truths and arguments on this subject, as did the breastworks of General Jackson, of the same material, shield his noble band at New- Orleans from the thousand balls of Packingham. But more of this hereafter. I verily believe that all these sinister interests and pre- judices a just God regards with infinite abhorrence, as supremely selfish and sinful, when they stand in the way of our fulfilling the great golden rule, of doing unto others, as we would that others should do unto us, and that if we will not surrender them voluntarily upon the common 9* 102 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY altar of equal and righteous liberty, for the bond and the free, he will soon, in some way that we think not, take them from us by his fearful and holy Omnipotence, and perhaps leave our whole nation in ruins ; for he is not the oppressors' God, but the God of the oppressed, and the oppressors' supremely selfish comforts and splen- dour wrung from the oppressed, he will detest and turn away his face from them forever. The earth is the Lord's and all the fullness thereof. In what way the Almighty may do this, is not the pro- vince of mortals to predict. Suffice it to say, however, that he holds the hearts of all men, and the elements of Heaven and earth in his hand ; and he can speedily turn them whithersoever he will. Does it not become this nation to pause, and to consider on its ways 1 To all human appearance at present, (unless the great body of the farmers and mechanics, and all others who are disencumbered and independent of these fearfully omin- ous and dangerous influences, will look at the condition of our country in time, and at once unitedly step forward and save it,) all our liberties will soon be subverted and drawn into one great common vortex of national slave- ry. All this may be adroitly brought about, and still the mere form of a free government retained. While men are towering and prosperous, they are very prone to flatter themselves that their mountain stands strong, and that no power can move it. But it stands out upon the pages of revelation, as well as upon the annals of all time, — both for our warning and for our instruction, — that "pride goeth before destruction, and" a haughty spirit before a fall." All history and biogra- phy have proved this declaration unexceptionably true,. ILLUSTRATED, 103 and as equally applicable to nations as to individuals. The wicked are ensnared in the work of their own hands. " Though hand join in hand, they shall not go unpunished." And unless public sentiment at the North can be speedily corrected and purified, by a dissemination of many important truths among the people, in relation to the influence and bearing of the existence of slavery upon their own liberties, as well as to apprize them of the untold miseries of the enslaved, it is greatly to be feared that a kindred portion of the North to the South, will unite with Southern influence in finishing the climax of ruin to the liberties of the country by the annexation of Texas, both as a vast slave mart and as a vast balance of Southern slaveholding political power, settled down upon all the crushed rights of the people forever. Northern liberties would then most assuredly be sacri- ficed to Southern slavery ; for slavery would then rule the nation, and the North especially, with a rod of iron. I know it is said, both by the ignorant as well as by the designing, that " you abolition agitators will dissolve the Union." But nay — what does the skillful and faithful surgeon do, when called to examine a deep, dan- gerous, and festering woiuid, which would of itself, if let alone, speedily destroy the whole system? Does he not at once probe the wound, in this stage of it, to the very bottom, in hopes to save the life at least, of the suffering patient ? Let no friend to humanity and lover of his country flatter himself, that the last vestige of slavery in the United States* how much soever the just and righteous doctrine of unconditional and immediate emancipation 104 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY be morally enforced, will be the work of a moment ; or that it can ever be effected, but by a just, enlightened, philanthropic, and patriotic public sentiment through- out the North and the South, and the East and the West, with the blessing of Heaven superadded. Let no abolitionist, in his holy warfare against all the dreadful oppressions of his fellow-countrymen, dare place his weight upon any other lever, than that which is firmly fixed upon all his constitutional and inalienable rights, and the eternal and immutable principles of truth. If this great constitutional and moral lever, with its fulcrum thus placed, cannot overturn the awful Moloch of Slavery in our land, it will only prove, that as a people, the measure of our iniquity is full, and that we are given over to our own destruction, to reap the reward of our own doings ; probably by universal anarchy, or by absolute slaveholding despotism over us all. When we have looked at the numerous unrebuked mobs in the land, for the last few years, we have thought the former the most probable ; — but when we look at the alarming slaveholding and pro-slavery gag-law resolu- tions, lately passed in the dark councils of this nation, against the freedom of speech and the right of petition, the latter, if either be our fcte, would seem nearest. Still, in any event, those, and those only will be safe, who shall ever be found on the most elevated and holy ground, advocating the great, immutable, and eternal rights of God and man, for the Lord is a "buckler, and a shield to those who walk uprightly." "He WILL BE THEIR STRENGTH, AND THEIR VERY PRESENT HELP IN TIME OF NEED." Indeed, whatever calamity or judgement may fall up- on us as a nation, when we consider our long and dread- ILLUSTRATED. 105 ful oppressions of so large a portion of our own unof- fending countrymen, what could we say, but that the just, but fearful sentiment, " With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again," would be but fully verified in us. 11 But let us, as a whole people, put away our abom- inations from under the insulted heavens, and we may still humbly and safely trust in God, labour to do his will, to promote his cause, and fear no danger. We must, as a nation, destroy slavery ; or slavery will destroy us, as a nation. There can be no alter- native ! Then which will we choose, to destroy the monster, or to be destroyed by him'? W T ho does not know that the plausible pretext, either political or eccle- siastical, which tyrants in the world, have ever made for muzzling the press and in every way suppressing the general diffusion of free principles among the people, has always been their heterodox, or their incendiary cha- racter 1 Many attempts among the people, at important reform in the world, have been checked and put down for a time by the cry — incendiary! — or, — heterodoxy !! when tyrants held the power, or could make the people believe it, and thereby to become directly instrumental in the entire subversion of their own liberties. But let the truth be told, how much soever it may be con- tradicted or perverted, either by ignorant, or by interest- ed and designing men. Slavery was the beginning of the whole Texan affair. And unless the people of the north (for I have little hope from southern politicians and slaveholders on this subject) will awake in time to their true interests as well as that of the nation, slavery will, on a broad scale, and having to do with materials of a lighter hue than 106 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY usual, be the end of it. I am aware that I may be told here, that the cupidity of " land sharks " was a cause anterior to this. But let it ever be remembered, that • those who would steal a province from Mexico are still unwilling to possess it, unless they can be privi- leged with stealing men also from Africa or from the United States to cultivate the stolen province for them, that they may themselves riot in ease and luxury. And they have the effrontery, too, to ask the high sanction of this nation to all this, and propose that the good people of this whole amalgamated Union may partici- pate in the booty. And what have these freebooters had the audacity, before the world, to ask us to do, as a nation ? Why ! nothing less than to become a partner with them in wresting, by stealth, a vast and valuable province from our neighbouring nation, who has internal troubles enough of her own already, and with whom, by sacred treaty before the nations and before Heaven, we are under the highest and the most solemn obligations to live in amity and to cultivate peace, and to extend to her a moral instead of an immoral influence. But this proposed partnership is not to stop here, but must ex- tend to the rendering of this ill-gotten possession into a vast aceldama of human misery and blood. We are to become, as a nation, instrumental in extending the chains of slavery, perhaps for ever, where it does not now exist, and thus to give it a new and a powerful im- pulse through the states, where its end seemed to be drawing nigh. We are thus, as a nation too, to be made to give a most powerful impetus, both to the foreign and to the ILLUSTRATED. 107 domestic traffic in our own flesh and blood. 0, for the memory of the illustrious dead ! for our country's honour ! for the sake of our children and posterity, the down-trodden millions, and the world, may a righteous Heaven forbid it! Texas was settled principally by southern men, many of whom were deeply interested in slavery ; and we heard of no uneasiness or disposition among them to revolt until Mexico, probably actuated by her free prin- ciples, which effected her own independence in hej* liberation from Spain, set all her slaves at liberty. This, of course, embraced the eight thousand slaves held by the Texans. And do we then hear that the slaves abused their freedom, by turning about and mas- sacreing all their masters ? No ! although they owed their liberation to no good will of theirs. This whole Texan business is all perfectly under- stood in the British parliament as being wholly a slave- holding concern ; and a motion was made in that body, in the winter of 1837, to call for the documents relative to all the negotiations with the United States and Mex- ico on this subject. The motion was lost by thirteen votes only, on the ground alone that it was premature, founded in the confidence that the American Congress, then in session, would be influenced by that part of the President's message recommending no hasty acknow- ledgement of the independence of Texas. This rash act of Congress, under all the peculiar circumstances, was as shocking to the moral world as it was unex- pected. But it is only an additional evidence of the all-powerful and controlling slaveholding influence in this nation. 108 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY The whole Texan subject, in all its relations, and the course which this government has pursued towards that revolted province of Mexico, and also to Mexico itself, will unquestionably undergo a strict and jealous investi- gation in the British parliament at no very distant period ; for every member in that house, without an exception, who spoke on that subject, entered his most decided and solemn protest to Texas ever being annexed to the United States as a slave country. On such an event England would probably shake hands with Mexico, un- less pacified with a fair portion of our northern domain, as a kind of set-off for our unwarrantable encroachments upon the rights of a third power to maintain our slavery. France, too, might not be an idle spectator upon such a scene ; for she, too, would have conflicting interests. The relative location of Texas to the colonies of Great Britain on this continent, aside from the deep abhor- rence of slavery among her people, would of itself be sufficient to induce her interference, But all these, and other causes, would combine to render her hostile to such an outrage upon the self-evident rights of so large a portion of the human family. It may be asked, what right has Great Britain to in- terfere in our affairs ? I answer, she has an unquestion- able moral right to interfere (if this can be called inter- ference), in the free expression of her opinions, as all nations and all individuals have, and by right ought to have, forever. Great Britain, moreover, has a po- litical right to say something in this matter, not only because it might endanger the liberties of her contig- uous emancipated islands, but, more expressly by vir- tue of the 10th article of the treaty of Ghent, whether ILLUSTRATED. 109 known to all Americans or not, it would doubtless be remembered by England and by the civilized world, should a crisis arrive which would call it up before their gaze, to our great national shame ! It would then be distinctly seen by the nations, that while the genius of American editors, on the one hand, had been prolific in manufacturing high- wrought encomiums upon their own country, often emphatically and boastj'ulhj styling it " the asylum of the oppressed, where every man is his own master;" and on the other, that their presses had teemed with articles aiming at the discredit of the English go- vernment, while that government, with all its wrongs, is still very far ahead of ours in the great cause of eman- cipation. Yet there are those among us who seem to think it still becomes the American press to denounce abolitionists; and, directly or indirectly, to advocate slavery ; and thunder all its anathemas against the com- paratively light oppressions of some foreign powers. The exact words of the treaty alluded to are the fol- lowing : — " ARTICLE TENTH. " Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice ; and whereas both his majesty and the United States are desirous of con- tinuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition ; it is therefore agreed, that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavours to accomplish so desirable an object." As an indication of the present state of feeling among the people of Great Britain on the subject of slavery, Lord Brougham has just given notice of his intention to move, in the house of peers, a series of resolutions 10 110 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY pledging the government to a more active suppression of the slave traffic. One of these resolutions is to the effect, that her majesty be requested to take immediate measures to obtain the concurrence of the United States in negotiations, with a view to declare the traffic in slaves, piracy. How does this appear alongside of Calhoun's and Patton's resolutions, just passed in the Congress of the United States by overwhelming majorities, not to sup- press the dreadful slave traffic in our country, at which the civilized country revolts, but to suppress the right of speech, and the right of petition of American citizens, on the whole subject of American slavery, even in the District of Columbia and the territories, and on the re- jection of Texas as a slave state ? Who must not hear, in all this, our expiring constitution shrieking for help ? Did American politicians violate our sacredly plighted national faith with Great Britain before Heaven and earth, when, after indirectly aiding Texas in its revolt from Mexico, next very hastily to acknowledge its inde- pendence, preparatory, if possible, to its speedy admis- sion into the Union as a vast slave market? Did our recreant politicians in Congress violate this solemn treaty on human liberty in the winter of 1838, when they passed resolutions to trample upon the people's petitions to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia? Did the nation, or did they not, violate this treaty when they elected their President on his bold and unheard-of declaration to the world, that, if elected, he should, on the ground of " expediency," (that is, to disregard northern views, and humbly bow in reverence to the great slaveholding interest,) veto any bill for the ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THEDlSTRICT OF COLUMBIA'? ILLUSTRATED. HI While I have spoken thus plainly upon what I greatly regret, and consider altogether unwarrantable, in our present chief magistrate, to make himself President of the United States, let me not be thought in this matter as acting in the least from party considerations, either in favour or against the present administration ; for I just as freely give it as my opinion, that such is the slave- holding power in this nation at present, that to my mind it remains in great doubt, whether, if not Mr. Van Buren, some other candidate for the Presidency, may not yet go much farther, in loading the oppressed with still heavier chains, and in compromising the liberties of the nomin- ally free to slaveholders, to exalt himself to power. But I envy not that man, whoever he might be, either his honour or his peace. It remains to be seen, whether the people can yet be so far deluded by the vain cry of" Union," as to con- sent to have themselves, their posterity, Union and all, fully mortgaged forever to slaveholders by " gambling politicians." It should be known, that " Union " would be the watchword from ambitious politicians seeking promo- tion from slaveholders, until the very chains of the co- loured man are fully riveted upon white men. Ambi- tious and artful politicians, in all countries, have thus deceived the people, and sported with their liberties, adroitly holding up before their eyes some prominent object of their greatest attachment, and in this way " keeping flattering promises good to the ear, but break- ing them to their hope." Demagogues care little for colour, if they can but accomplish their ambitious de- signs. 112 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY While the vast slaveholding power remains upon this nation, the road to the Presidential chair must necessarily be a crooked, a dishonest, and a dishonourable one ; and the chair itself consequently dishonoured with a dishon- ourable occupant. My meaning is, that while the slave- holders are constantly making demands of the north, so dishonourable both to the north, the south, and the na- tion, that the people must surrender their right of speech and petition to support slavery, that I do not see how any honest or honourable man can be President of this amalgamated slaveholding and non-slavehold- ing Union. I hope and believe, that all true abolitionists, at least, who feel for the millions of our countrymen in bonds, and who know that the liberties also of the whole nation, bond and free, are far more involved in the slavery and the anti-slavery subjects, than in the sub-treasury or anti- sub-treasury, bank or anti-bank questions of the day, will be watchful that they be not themselves sold into the po- litical shambles. The people should always, by all means, well know, to whom they give their suffrages. If we cannot exercise the elective franchise in favour of rational liberty for ourselves, at least, (if not to say in behalf of the liberties of our coloured countrymen also,) we had far better remain at our farms, our shops, and our merchandise, than to go to the polls to vote away our own liberties. The plea that one candidate for office is a better man than another, while he is known to be deadly hostile to rational and equal liberty for all mankind, is a vain and deceptive one. ILLUSTRATED. 113 Calhoun and Patton say, by their most contemptible resolutions, let us choke these fanatical abolitionists, so that they can neither petition, speak, nor hardly breathe. " No ! no !" says the politest man of CLAY ; " if you take this very rash course, Mr. Calhoun, you will certainly make abolitionists of the north to a man. My method, Mr. Calhoun," continues this more in- sinuating gentleman, " is to treat this * delicate ' busi- ness very gentle and easy, and in some way or other just slily fence out these fanatics from among our friends at the north, lest they sow the seeds of truth among them, and thereby cause discord in our northern pro-slavery ranks. It must be done, Mr. Calhoun," says this same polite and experienced Senator, " in some unaccountable way, — so adroitly as not to 'produce agitation ;' so that the people generally would not even mistrust, that when we get Texas added to our power, we shall then soon serve them all according to your no- tion of dealing with agitators, and all the labouring class of human property, which, when suffered to run at large without drivers, are so annoying and so troublesome to slaveholders at the south, and to capitalists and to all aristocrats at the north." — "Be gentle, Mr. Calhoun," says this skilful man, " and you may even lead an ele- phant by a hair." Now, northern men called free, who are willing still to be duped and served up either by Calhoun's broad carving-knife, or Clay's keen razor, are, of course, at liberty to submit themselves to these skilful operators ; but if they do, a wo will doubtless fall upon them and their country : for, let us not be deceived, the issue is joined^ — there can be no alternative : Slavery for all, 10* 114 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY or freedom for all in this nation, is near at hand and inevitable. Nothing will have power in this trying crisis to cheat the people out of their liberties, except, per- chance, that charming and magic sound " Union," which may be like the ignis fatwus, or the syren song. Should it prove that the people shall think more even of the " Union," than they do of the inalienable rights of conscience and the freedom of opinion, the funeral knell of their liberties will be tolled, if they still possessed a " Union " of territory as vast as creation. The Hon. John Quincy Adams, in his speech on the Texan and Indian wars, remarked, " that if we would wage war to handcuff and fetter our fellow-men, Great Britain would wage war against us to break their chains. And what a figure should we make in the eyes of all mankind," said our venerable ex-President, " in deadly conflict with Great Britain ; she fighting the battles of emancipation and freedom, and we the battles of sla- ver y : — s he the benefactress, and we the oppressor of mankind"?" This disposition to extend the dark dominions of sla- very as an institution, or engine of despotical political power, at a vast sacrifice of human freedom, both for the enslaved and the free, is the only cause of the com- motion of these variously contending elements. Must we not see, then, the dangers which slavery exposes us to, both at home and from abroad. And who that loves his country, and sees this, will not raise the warning voice, — sound the note of alarm ! — and use, at least, his "ounce" of timely prevention before it be forever too late? When we see certain ruin approaching us, unless time- ly averted, although we may think it at some distance ILLUSTRATED. 115 from us, shall we, like one who " should hold a penny so near his eye that he could not see a dollar across the house," either sit down in perfect apathy, or in vainly triumphing in our security, crying, " peace, peace ; and still folding our arms to rest?" All admit that the horrid monster ' slavery ' must ere long be met ; but many yet cower and shrink away, and dread to grapple with him. The subject of Texas being connected as it is, so entirely with the great interests of southern slavery, is rapidly and most fearfully assuming an alarming aspect ,to the friends of freedom. Be it remembered, that a dead calm often immediately precedes the hurricane, or the earthquake. The abhorrence to the foreign slave traffic so adroitly exhibited in the Texan constitution, commends itself as was designed, to the cupidity of the whole southern slavery interest. It was virtually saying to all the southern growers and sellers of the souls and bodies of men for " filthy lucre's sake," we greatly need and must have your aid to sustain us against our legitimate go- vernment, " Mexico." Extend a helping hand now, in this our time of greatest need, and by our constitution we will swear allegiance to your slave interest forever ; that is, that we will utterly refuse to bring any human beings that may be brought to us by water from Africa, but will buy at a good price all the droves of " human cattle " from Virginia, Maryland, DISTRICT OF CO- LUMBIA, &c. &c. This is the plain English of the Texan constitution, with which she and her southern confederates, and I fear a few northern ones, are most earnestly, but at pre- 116 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY sent somewhat covertly (until the project shall be fully matured for a bold and open execution,) seeking and pressing her admission into this Union, contrary to the constitution and the laws of nations ; and calling upon northern freemen to lend themselves to help on this ne- farious business of making merchandise of their fellow- men, and thus to effect the enslavement and ruin of others not only, but of themselves and of their whole country also. It speaks volumes to northern ears, and " he that hath an ear to hear, will he not hear 1" Many of the disaffected and unrighteously revolting Texans, being originally a part of a slaveholding com- munity, and understanding well its " peculiar institu- tions," knew precisely what strings of interested sym- pathy to play upon, to produce a harmonious southern response. But it is not greatly to be hoped that such music of chains and shackles upon innocent men and women will not much longer sound very delightful to ears north of Mason and Dixon's line ; that is, that men who boast of living in nominally free states, would act like freemen indeed, and testify loudly and in earnest against the cruel enslavement of their fellow-men, es- pecially in their own country and before their own eyes. In truth, the southern prints, for years before the Tex- an revolt, had been at times indirectly discussing the feasibility, and also the immense southern advantage which would result from such a measure. Says Dr. Channing in his late letter to Henry Clay, " slavery and fraud lay at the very foundation of the Texan revolt ;" and continues this man with the mind of an elightened statesman, and the heart of a disinterested patriot and ILLUSTRATED. 117 philanthropist, the cause and the motives which led to this revolt, were so notorious, that it is wonderful that any among us " could have been cheated into sympathy for the Texan cause, as the cause of freedom." And who cannot see now, since the first Texan draught upon our unintelligible sympathies, has by us been honoured, and our first impulses of interest has measurably subsided, that it is indeed notorious, as this celebrated man justly remarks, that land speculators, slaveholders, and selfish adventurers, were among the foremost to engage in the crusade for Texan liberties ; and from the hands of these he continues, we are invited to receive a province, torn from a country to which we have given pledges of amity and peace. The argument that the Texans had sufficient cause to revolt on account of the Catholic re- ligion of the Mexican empire, amounts to just this ; that a few Americans, for example, well knowing be- forehand the religion of England, would be justifiable to settle in some part of the British dominions, and im- mediately revolt on account of what they well knew existed before they became citizens of the country. Would not this be, for example, too much like Catho- lics or any other people coming into our country, and knowing our institutions before they came, but the mo- ment they become citizens, revolt on account of them 1 Not only this, but it is not so in point of fact, that the religion of the country, was the moving cause of the famous Texan revolt, for the contrary of this can be most abundantly proved. The religion of the country is now well known to have had little or nothing to do with the Texan revolt ; but the reasons, as before stated, are now seldom attempted to be controverted. 118 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY And is it not to be feared, that unless the north can be made to see her true interests in time as well as that of the whole nation, and speak out with a voice that shall make demagogues and tyrants tremble, that there will be those at the north with an object still to suc- cumb to southern slavery interest, to secure southern favour for their own private advantage and power, by lending their influence to the south, to give this stolen Mexican province admission into our Union, for the special benefit of slaveholders and land speculators, and thereby deliberately and sacrilegiously sell the liber- ties of the north into the hands of southern slave- holders ? It has been openly said even by some at the north, that Texas must be annexed to the Union, to throw the balance of power into the hands of slaveholders, to put down abolitionists, and thus make an end of mobs. What independent American citizens, being lovers of that free government by the people for which their fathers bled and died, must not behold with pain and alarm the ominous and fearful signs of the times, when some prominent northern divines and politicians are already openly and publicly advocating a despotic go- vernment as they pretend, as the only remedy for mobs? A pretty remedy this for mobs ! ! Who does not know that a mixed government, partly free, and partly despotic, is always composed of the form of free government, with the frequent outbreakings of uncontrolled and un- punished small mobs; but that a purely despotic govern- ment, which I greatly fear the immense slaveholding interest is rapidly plunging this nation into, to maintain its despotic power, is composed of one vast and irresis- ILLUSTRATED. 119 tible mob continually and wantonly outraging all the rights of man at its pleasure, when there is none to de- liver ! Says that able and indefatigable champion of human rights, William Goodell, Esq. on this subject, " true democracy and mobocracy, are opposites, and cannot exist together. That all who favour mobs (however democratic in their professions,) will ultimately throw their influence on the side of " despotic governments." That every apologist of slavery is on the side of des- potic power, and is highly gratified to witness its strides over the constitution and the laws of a free people. That those who care nothing for the liberty of south- ern slaves, care nothing for the liberty of northern free- men. That mobs, and slavery, and despotic govern- ments, are children of the same parent ; and that those who favour the one, will also favour the other. That the supremacy of the laws, the liberty of the free, and the emancipation of the enslaved, are confederated and identical interests, which must triumph together, or be buried in one common grave ! That all true republicans must be active abolitionists, — and finally, that the pre- servation of our country from " despotic government," can only be secured by the steady and persevering sup- port of " the anti-slavery enterprise." Let the people carefully watch the movements of pub- lic men, and listen to the tone of the public press, and see if dark and insidious preparations are not most adroitly being made to harden the heart of this nation systematically to sustain, and if possible forever to set- tle down upon us the despotic power of slavery, and then judge whether the above fearful predictions may not 120 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY verily prove too true. And the captivating pretext for all this, will be the preservation of the Union, which we should all idolize, but on conditions only that it can be sustained in connexion with rational liberty for all. That liberty for which our fathers fought and bled ; that liberty, too, for which a SAVIOUR suffered and died. However this dreadful traffic in human flesh and human souls may appear to us, it is entered into by men who have become inured to it, both for pecuniary and for political purposes, in as cool blood and with as much foresight and deliberation, as we would look for a market for our cattle, or for any other articles of traf- fic. But the very climax of iniquity and treachery in all this is, that one freeman is found aiding in selling other freemen by the wholesale. ! who cannot blush at this ! " and hang his head to think himself a manl" Still there are beings bearing the " external " forms of men, who would have the hardihood and effrontery to call such a MAN a ' fanatic' But be it remembered, this is all done to maintain tyrannical power over the people. I am, indeed, entirely unable to conceive how any one short of imbibing the idea that man is on a level with the brute, can for a moment, give even his passive or negative assent to the horrid business of enslaving his fellow-man, and bartering him, both by wholesale and retail, like beasts of burden, upon any pretext of such shocking and revolting expediency whatever. And after imbibing this most debasing doctrine to human beings, that " immortal " man is, indeed, on a level with the beasts of the field, " that tend downward and perish," it would still be abhorrent to all the moral sense of our ILLUSTRATED. 121 natures, to behold any rank or order of beings with no provocation, " deliberately and wantonly worrying and devouring each other," or for * filthy lucre's sake,' cruelly trafficking in its own species. Even sharks and tigers do not do this ! The whole institution of slavery, at the South, is principally sustained by four classes of interested men, viz : ' the slave growers ;' the ' slave-sellers ;' the ' slave- buyers ,' at the far South and Southwest ; and most of all, and " most to be deplored," by political demagogues, who are aiming to extend and perpetuate the despotic system of slavery, with all its tyranny and moral abom- inations, and great and unequal advantages of represen- tation, as a means of permanent and political ascenden- cy over the North. Slaveholders have always used every art to frighten the North into servile compliance ; but they never intend to leave the Union, so long as they already have the Union in their hands ; and by the grateful help of kindred spirits at the North, (with their motto, " Love of Union, run up at mast-head,") are still grasping it firmer and firmer, into their own tyrannical power. Says the northern aristocrat (and slaveholder's abettor,) to northern freemen, "give up your right of speech, and your right of petition, to slaveholders, for the great love which you have for the Union." This has ever been the cry, and will be, if slavery con- tinues, until the very chains on two and a half millions of our countrymen, are clanking at our own heels. This may seem visionary to some ; but let it be remembered, that despotism has always insidiously stolen upon the people, like a thief in the night. 11 122 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. That no people was ever reduced, at once, from a state of rational freedom, or just and equal rights, to a state of entire subserviency and vassalage to tyrants ; and that the liberties of a people have ever been most endangered when the mass least suspected it : even as the stupor or the calmness of easy repose has often im- mediately preceded the near approach of the " grim mon- ster," death ! SECTION III. ** I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE IT MAKES AN EXCITEMENT." Would it not be surprising if this objection should have the least weight with any, except persons with ex- tremely weak nerves? — For all history shows us that no great and valuable reformation, either moral or po- litical, was ever accomplished in the world, without more or less agitation and excitement. I mean a manly, and not a brutal excitement. This is but the very natural result, arising from the adverse and opposing in- terests and influences it meets in its progress. Some persons, however, appear to be very " delicately strung" on some subjects — with nerves of brass on others. People's liking or disliking excitement, depends alto- gether on circumstances. Indeed, the principles of human nature, and the very complex fabric of human society, would at once seem to render all this jarring of adverse elements, to an intelligent mind, a matter of no surprise. Reform of no kind, in any age of the world, was ever carried forward without opposing the appetites or pas- sions, the interests or prejudices of men, in every step that was taken. There is, indeed, a natural and a moral impossibility, that any valuable reformation can be effected without it. We might as well expect torrents of rain to come down out of a clear sky. Look, for ex- ample, at the temperance reform in our land. Has 124 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY there not been more or less excitement, at times, ever since its first commencement, for the reasons just men- tioned 1 You may say, "perhaps not as great as on the subject of slavery." I answer, that the evils of intem- perance in our land, as great as they are, or have been, bear little comparison to my apprehension to the pre- sent, and still less to the prospective evils of slavery. Intemperance, though a gangrene upon the body politic, has never so entirely entwined itself around all our in- stitutions, anaconda like, North and South, and bound us, as it were, for the executioner ; and thereby, so great- ly endangered all our liberties, as has the institution of slavery in our country. In their moral turpitude, intem- perance to slaveholding, bears about the same relation as suicide does to murder. But now let us consider, a moment, the cause of ex- citements, and endeavour to see where the blame lies, whenever there is any blame to be attached to anv one. I am fully aware, for instance, that it is tauntingly said by some, that abolitionists have been the cause of ail the excitement and outrages growing out of it, which have, of late, so greatly disgraced our land. Now grant all that the accuser would ask, that it is even so ! What then? Let us inquire a moment, who has been the lawful, constitutional, and innocent cause ; and who the unlawful, and unconstitutional, and guilty cause. Every body now grants, (except slaveholding and pro- slavery politicians, or otherwise interested people,) that abolitionists, in all their proceedings, have kept within the laws and the constitution. The very fact, that reck- less mobocrats have resorted to unlawful and violent means to put down abolitionists, and thereby prevent ILLUSTRATED. 125 the discussion of slavery, is of itself" prima facia" evi- dence that all such mobocrats were conscious that they possessed no lawful or constitutional means whatever, of accomplishing their direful purposes. The truth is, that that great principle of the American constitution, that every human being is possessed of an inborn right to think and speak his sentiments freely, — which no hu- man power gave, or can take away, — stands out in " bold relief," above all other principles ; and is also im- pressed with indelible and self-evident testimony, upon the heart and the conscience of every man. It is there, as written in a sun-beam with the point of a diamond, and every man does violence to his very nature, who even attempts to erase it, or deny it. He might as well attempt to annihilate his very being. It was identified with the constitution of man, by the hand of his Maker ; and what God hath joined together, let no man profanely and tyrannically attempt to sunder. At the time of the preaching of Christ and the apostles, there was at times, great excitement. When Demetrius, the silver-smith, assembled his craft, and proclaimed to them that their business was endangered by the preaching of Paul, was there not excitement? But suppose it be said that reformers themselves, as well as their opposers, are sometimes excited : what then 1 If those who set themselves up to be reformers should ever be excited to be guilty of acts of lawless violence, this indeed, would be greatly to be lamented, and utterly to be deprecated by all good men. And all who should be actuated by any such spirit, would have great reason to doubt either the justness of their cause, or whether they were fit instruments to accomplish the 11* 126 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY work. The only weapons in reform should be "light and love ;" and even these never should be unlawfully wielded. This, however, never can impair that great first principle of a right of self-defence from lawless ag- gressions. The right, however, I think, should never be exercised except in extreme and aggravated cases, for it is certainly better to suffer wrong than to do wrong, and we may undoubtedly do wrong even in the exercise of this high and most sacred right. It must, after all, be a question between ourselves, our Maker, and our country. Here we are compelled to leave it r for no definite or invariable cases can perhaps well be prescribed. We must learn wisdom from experience, and from our friends and our foes. We know that our enemies, led on by the famous Captain Lynch, rudely assailed us with the ignoble weapons of stones ? brick-bats, &c. ; nay ! even with more deadly weapons ; but being sorely pierced by the arrows of truth, they have fled in confusion, and are now sullenly " beating the bush." And unless we can draw them out into a general engagement, into an "open field fight" to con- tend with us manfully in honourable warfare, it is to be feared they may yet rally their brute force, and by sur- prise, surround us and vanquish us. Let us therefore^ induce them if possible, to come out and measure swords of truth and argument with us, pledging our- selves to them, that by these weapons alone we shall stand, or by these alone we shall fall. Truth and love shall still be inscribed on our banner, but this banner, as the last hope of freedom, both for " the bond and the free," must still and forever fearlessly wave over the soil of the brave sons of Columbia, while all who rally ILLUSTRATED. 127 around its standard, must look up with confidence to the God of the oppressed, and to the God of holy free- dom for its ultimate triumphant success, as in the late dreadful treagedy at Alton, Illinois, when that martyr to truth, to liberty, and his country, fell, by base and mur- derous hands, while acting in every sense according to the great lawful and constitutional principle of self-de- fence, (the existence of which principle, no man dis- putes, who thinks it right to sustain civil government by physical means.) The position of defence is considered, however, by many abolitionists, on the part of Lovejoy and his asso- ciates, practically to have been a departure from primi- tive abolition principles, as adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society ; but these principles are only, that they would not encourage the oppressed to gain their liberty by physical force. Anti-slavery men, as a body, have never compromised their own liberties. Abolitionists, on the extreme point of acting in defence of their own rights, as on other subjects, probably may differ somewhat among themselves. Those who have adopted the peace principles fully, I believe, think it morally right in no case whatever to use carnal weapons,, even in self-defence. Others think that such weapons belong only to the civil magistrate. But this does not alter the fact that Lovejoy was most emphatically sacri- ficed a martyr by bloody hands for the great cause of freedom and his country. The enemies of freedom will persecute her friends, whatever principle they may act upon. Had he saved his life at this time by flight, as he previously had done in a number of instances, his mean mobocratic enemies would have readily called him 128 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY a coward, and at once proclaimed him recreant to his cause and his country. Had he died with a pen in his hand, instead of a gun, the enemies of rational and con- stitutional liberty would still have profanely said, as they had already even dared to do, " that he died as the fool dieth." " John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he hath a devil." " The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, behold a man glut- tonous, and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sin- ners." Query. " If we shall say from heaven : he will say, why then did ye not believe in him? But if we shall say of men, they feared the people : for all men counted John that he was a prophet indeed." I noticed a sentence in a pro-slavery journal, severely condemnatory of the course of this martyr, for the op- pressed, and for the dearest rights of his countrymen. It was in these words : "Like many other partially con- verted men, Mr. Lovejoy saw the evil of slavery ; but when the spirit led him to the cross, he stumbled and fell :" whether it be right in any possible case to resort to physical means for self-defence, is not here the ques- tion at issue. One thing is certain, that if it be justifi- able at all, it is equally so for one as for another, whether ministers, laymen, or neither. Another fact is equally self-evident, which is, that the cause in which Lovejoy " stumbled and fell" is a cause as much higher and holier than even that in which so many of our dear fathers, like Lovejoy, " stumbled, bled, and fell," to give us their sons liberty, as the cruel iron of oppression is sunk deeper into the souls of two and a half millions of our enslaved and suffering countrymen, than it was into theirs. What honest man in his senses can deny this ILLUSTRATED. 129 to be a fair inference? And as it regards the unkind reference to the dead, as in the words " partially con- verted." May heaven save the nation from any kind of full conversion, that would make us love slavery ; or rather not to hate it, in the same holv sense that David did the wicked, with a perfect hatred. But may it be remembered, that the answer to the enigma of this kind of hatred, is " Love to God supreme, to man universal." The principle couched in that invidious language, "that Lovejoy died as the fool dieth," is'plainly this, that an unprincipled and infuriated mob, whether sober or intoxicated, it matters not, if they happen to make up the majority of their community for the moment, whether that community be a city, a village, or a neighbourhood, have a perfect right to trample all written laws and con- stitutions under their riotous feet, and at once sacrifice property, life, and all before them, to gratify their hea- ven-daring malice. If this mobocratic principle, which is but the very essence and spirit of slaveholding, lynch- ing, duelling, &c, could once fully obtain the ascendency in the public mind, there would at once forever be an end to all order and security for property, for liberty, or for life ; for the written constitution and all the statute laws of the land, would then no longer be better than blank paper. They would then, indeed, be held up as beacons only, to invite to blood and crime. Mob law wouldthen become the order of the day. As to excitement or zeal, which shall be according to knowledge, in a good cause, we all know it to be not only sanctioned, but encouraged in the Scriptures. It is also indispensable in effecting any valuable reformation in the world. Indeed, we all generally question the sincerity of men espousing any 130 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY cause, if they manifest no zeal in it ; and such seldom gain a hearing. And how can men expect others to feel an interest in a cause in which its professed advocates or adherents manifest no interest in themselves. Lead- ing politicans call upon all their followers to do with their might what their hands find to do, and why not phi- lanthropists and Christians'? If men, in promoting a good cause, pursue their object zealously and persever- ingly, but peacefully and lawfully, and such proceedings call forth excited, ill-tempered, and sometimes violent and lawless opposition, who can be justly chargeable with improper excitement 1 If we say the former, then surely our Saviour himself, and all his apostles, might justly have been often arraigned before the bar of Caesar. The time has already arrived in our country, when some " gentlemen of property and of standing ," who were once found actually engaged to accomplish their sinister ends, in opposing and abusing by violence the friends of constitutional freedom and free discussion, are now, no doubt, " ashamed of it," and wish they had been otherwise, and more honourably and usefully employed, for their own credit, and for the honour and welfare of their country. And the time cannot be far distant, unless freedom in our beloved land is destined to be cloven down, and our liberties entirely subverted, and aristocracy and despo- tism to reign triumphant, when those houses at the north, which continue much longer to be bolted and barred by slaveholding abettors, against the bleeding cause, and the claims of suffering humanity, will probably be re- garded in history, in a light somewhat as were those that ILLUSTRATED. 131 Were closed against our revolutionary fathers, while so nobly contending for their rights, their liberties, and for the independence of our common country. " These things are not now seen, but the end is not yet." Now, if the opposers of the cause, and the hosts of apathetic neutrals, are indeed at heart, what they say they are, opposed to slavery, why will they not, in some way, manifest their abhorrence to it, in a manner that shall tell upon the hearts and the consciences of slaveholders ? And what are we most painfully ©ompelled to conclude if they will not do it? If ye are not for me, ye are against me, saith the Saviour of the world. Southern politicians, while trampling on our petitions, claim, as a reason, that the north are not opposed to slavery, and northern politicians, as well as some who lay claim to a a more sacred name, practically respond, Amen ! We often hear it adduced as a reason why nothing should be said or done on the subject of slavery in our country, because it is an exciting subject ; whereas, of all reasons conceivable, this very reason is the most powerful one, why we should both say and do much on the subject. What ! shall I be gravely told that I must neither say nor do any thing to rescue my brother in the last struggle of sinking into a watery grave, because it is an exciting subject, and I shall alarm the people ? Am I to be told, in cool blood, to hush up ! when I at- tempt to cry fire ! — when my wife, my children, my all, are just to be enveloped by the devouring flames? Had the wife and the children, in " fond expectancy," around the dear iireside of the late lamented Mr. Ly- man, recently so basely murdered in Rochester in sight of his own door, discovered, in time, the cold-blooded 132 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY and fiend-like destroyer lurking behind his ill-fated vic- tim, under cover of darkness, with the instrument of instant death in his hand, — they must give no alarm for fear of excitement ! Or, could the now disconsolate and widowed wives, and the dear orphaned children of the recently murdered Cilley and Lovejoy, have inter- posed the affectionate hand just in time to ward off the deadly shaft of the assassin, when pointed at the heart of their beloved husbands and fathers, they should not have done so for fear of excitement 1 I have not cou- pled these two cases of shocking murder because I thought them parallel, for indeed I consider them far otherwise ; but still slavery, with its legitimate spirit and influence, caused the untimely death of both of these highly valuable American citizens. By a some- what remarkable coincidence, Maine has first been called to make the sacrifice of her two sons upon the bloody altar of slavery. The demon code of slavery slew one by the hand of the vile rabble, the other by the hand of the " vile gentleman." They were both slain by base assassinators, of different grades only, for " words spoken in debate." If law-makers will not sacredly pro- tect the lives of all the subjects of law while in the ex- ercise of constitutional rights, what can they expect but themselves to fall, in their turn, by lawless and bloody hands ? The truth is, that our Creator has wisely and benefi- cently endowed us all with natures, capable of sympathy or excitement, for the most valuable and benevolent ends, to prompt us to effect our own, and one another's safety and welfare, by every just and righteous means. Some who talk about excitement, seem to speak of it as a kind ILLUSTRATED. 133 of monster in human nature. The very fact, that the subject of slavery is so exciting, is at once proof posi- tive, that the happiness, the liberty, and the lives, not of one or two only, but of millions of our fellow-beings, are every moment imminently jeoparded by it. Why was the cause so exciting which prompted the magnanimous spirits of the Revolution to arise to action almost as one man? Was it not that liberty was en- dangered 2 And had not the noble natures of our illus- trious sires been liberally endowed with the elements of this invaluable ingredient, controlled, as it ever should be, by virtue, by patriotism, by intelligence and skill, might we not now have been the mere vassals of some cruel despot over us, where the very first breath of "ex- citement " for freedom, might have been " legally " and instantly punished with death? for, even in this boasted land of the free, and in these ominous times of unhal- lowed, despotic, or mobocratic liberty, the desire for the same doctrine of tyrants to be settled upon us for ever, has been more than hinted at by some petty despots among us, asserting that to even ask for freedom is a political crime, worthy the infliction of pains and penal- ties, to deprive us of those inborn rights of "thought and speech " which first we derived from the very author of our being ; and which, with due deference, are but sanctioned, fully confirmed, and constitutionally guar- antied and transmitted to us by our fathers : signed by their palsied hand in death, and sealed by their blood. This is no fiction ! It is the voice of these, our de- parted fathers, now crying from their tombs to us, their sons, to rally around, and vigorously defend the threat- ened tree of liberty for which they died. 12 134 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY When under a despotic government, where the pro- perty and the life of every subject must depend entirely on the sympathy or the will of one man only, it is indeed well for the rights and the lives of the whole, that that natural and rational sympathy which all must feel in common for one another, should not be manifested. We hold two millions and a half of our fellow-beings in this way. When I say we, I mean just as I say. We do hold them, and treat them thus as a nation. The north may try to shuffle off this whole dread responsi- bility upon the south, but all in vain. The north can never make the south the scapegoat of this great national sin, until she has herself first repented of it, and then gone to the utmost limits of the constitution, politically, and then to the full extent of her moral influence, to do it away. But this, with the blessing of heaven, would soon wipe the foul stain for ever from the nation, and she would rise, as from her ashes, before an astonished world. And that man who will not sympathize with the op- pressed, and do every thing in his power for their amelio- ration and peaceful liberation, must be directly or indi- rectly, openly or covertly, giving countenance to the sad condition of our enslaved countrymen. Suppose every man in this nation, not a slaveholder, should exercise but a little of that sympathy, in behalf of the millions of the perishing slaves, which that father felt, when his little son fell overboard from the deck of a vessel ; think you our suffering fellow-beings would not soon be delivered from the "deep damnation" of their cruel bondage? How was this father's sympathy expressed for his perishing little son? By the exclamation, "Oh! my God ! I cannot see my child perish before my eyes with- ILLUSTRATED. 135 out an effort to save him ;" and instantly plunged into the deep, and, with his child in his arms, sank to rise no more. Though this affectionate father lost his life in the attempt, yet who denies it to have been a most noble daring ? But was it any more so, than when to save millions, the noble Lovejoy, too, " launched his bark " upon the boisterous ocean of unhallowed pas- sions, and sank forever by bloody hands 1 But as a nation and a people, instead of our feeling too much for our brethren in bondage, our servile and contracted hearts, through long habits of selfish coldness towards their sufferings, privations, and wrongs, as it were, are " twice dead and plucked up by the roots." The truth is, we have sunk this poor wretched people so far beneath our feet, that their entreaties to us for justice, for mercy, and for freedom, have long since ceased to reach our ears ; and w r e have, moreover, re- cently said, by a dignified and formal congressional vote, that we would not be troubled even with their en- treaties. But while our ear, as a nation, through our ill-gotten wealth, our pride, and all our selfish interests and hard-heartedness, has been closing up against all the claims of our greatly oppressed fellow-countrymen, there is an ear far above ours which has been open, and has distinctly heard " their every cry, their every groan, their every sigh." And may we not add, the clanking of every chain, the sound of every lash ; nay, the falling of every tear ? And, as a just being, who giveth to every one his due, he, too, hath numbered the very drops of blood and sweat wrongfully wrung from the poor down-trodden and oppressed man, by the hard heart and the griping hand of his cruel oppressor ; and in that day when he 136 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. shall make " inquisition for blood," the oppressor who has not repented, and done works meet for repentance, will no doubt receive the reward of his doings, and his works will follow him, — when all these drops from liquid fire, by retribution, may be poured out upon his conscience forever, to embitter his reflections : for in this life he had his good things, but " Lazarus his evil things." And every apologist who, in any manner, shall " daub with untempered mortar," by softening down, or attempt- ing to palliate or excuse such dreadful oppressions, will no doubt be regarded as an abettor, and will be treated accordingly. The man who is accessory to murder, and beholds the bloody attempt, and does not do all in his power to prevent it, is by all civilized laws, and by the common consent of mankind, deemed a murderer himself, and is punished accordingly. If this be a com- mon sense and a common law principle, as it regards an individual, why should it not be so, on the broad scale of the murder, or the robbery of thousands and of mil- lions of immortal beings? It doubtless is so in the eye of Him who looketh at the heart, and who cannot be mocked. A righteous God doth ever abhor him who eateth the bread of the oppressor, and drinketh the wine of violence ; and also him who is accessory to it, and doth not lift up his voice like a trumpet against it. Wholesale oppression has hardened the national heart. SECTION IV. " l AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE IT WILL TAKE AWAY THE PROPERTY OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS, AND BANKRUPT THE SOUTH." In the first place, in reply to one part of this objec- tion, I deny that man has any right whatever, from any proper authority in the universe, with profane hands to pluck his fellow man down from an elevated rank, but a " little lower than that of the angels," in which his Maker placed him, and reduce him to a common level with the beast of the field, and with goods, wares, and merchandise, to a mere thing, a "chattel" in law, and then do violence and outrage to every principle of jus- tice revealed, or written upon the very constitution of man, by arrogantly assuming to claim his fellow, his equal and his -brother, as his property. It is directly against the spirit and the grand principles of our own government, as contained both in our constitution and the declaration of our independence, and most glaringly opposed to every idea which any of us can possibly conceive, of equal justice and equal rights among men. And more than this, in despite of the utmost efforts of men in their cupidity and boundless thirst for power, to legalize slavery, and thereby endeavour, in some de- gree, to make it respectable, still, according to our own law, when slavery is practised in the most legalized and modified manner, it is but man-stealing. This declara- tion may sound harsh to some who have not duly consi- 12* 138 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY dered this subject. But let us all endeavour to look at it as it is, independent of prejudice, and to call things by their own names. Men are first stolen from Africa, forcibly brought into this country, and immediately transferred from one to another, like any other species of property. So far as I have learned, I find the laws of all the civilized nations with regard to theft, to be, that stolen property can be claimed by its true owner wherever found. And when one makes a purchase of property, he takes it at his own risk, so far as his title to hold the specific property is concerned ; and if called for by a third person, as stolen property, it devolves on the purchaser to trace back, and to prove his title to be older or better than that of the claimant, and, if unable to do so, the property must at once be surrendered to its more rightful owner ; and then he may possess it until some one can prove an older or a better title than his. As it regards man, profanely called a chattel, of course it would always be found, that the only valid title was still vested in the man who was first stolen from himself, and whenever and wherever he calls for himself, if he be an innocent man, who shall have the audacity, this side of the throne above, both against legal and moral right, to challenge his claim I For instance, let any of us be stolen from this coun- try, carried to Algiers, or to any part of Africa, sold over and over again to African masters ; should we not think we had a just right to ourselves, a title-deed from our Maker, recorded in the archives on high, by which* whenever, and wherever, we found ourselves, we could proudly and fearlessly claim ourselves to be our own lawful property ? None but the giver of life and liberty ILLUSTRATED. 139 can take them away, unless forfeited by crime. And could we make our escape, should we think it theft or robbery to take our bodies with the transcript of our title-deed engraven upon our constitution, and just to make off with ourselves without "leave or license" from any created being in the vast dominion of Jeho- vah 1 I admit this to be strong language ; but I speak with deference, and know what I speak, and mean what I say ; provided always, that we have not sacrificed our liberties to our country, by offending its just and equal laws. Short of this, I repeat it, there is no created being that can rightfully deprive us of the ownership of our- selves, and of this high and broad liberty. Every man ought to feel this, and to act upon it everywhere. " And if, and if," says one (with the slaveholding spirit and dialect), "your d — d 'nigger business' alters the case, it is your bull that has gored my ox." If this common law and common sense principle be correct, then the stolen man can most assuredly, at all times, rightfully claim himself; and without the com- mission of crime, to forfeit his liberty, could always of right, in all lands, whether rich or poor, walk forth tri- umphantly an independent freeman. This is law in its original and immutable principles, and enslaving inno- cent people is but the mere sufferance of the open and high-handed violation of the very first principles of all law. And it would not be strange if time should show, that there is not a slave in this nation, according to the broad and deep-laid principles of our constitution, ex- cept "convicts of crime," (but by implication;) for one of the most prominent of these principles is, that " no 140 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY person shall be deprived of his life or his liberty with- out due process of law." The American Anti-slavery Society has not, however, taken this ground. The recent constitutional argument on this subject, by Alvan Stewart, Esq., is at least well worthy the most attentive perusal of every American citizen and every friend of humanity and civil liberty, if for no other rea- son than to see the very strong bias which existed in the minds of our worthy fathers in favour of universal liberty at the adoption of the constitution. Little did they then think, that, instead of a speedy and a universal emancipation, seven vast slave markets would be so soon added to this Union. I believe that the strict adherence to the letter and the spirit of the great fundamental principles of our con- stitution, in connexion with those contained in the im- mortal declaration of American independence, is the only thing (under God) that can renovate and save our country from the wreck of by-gone republics ; for these are the eternal principles of all truth, both natural and revealed. Pirates, who have cut loose from all law, and are, therefore, outlaws, are the only created beings in the wide universe, that could strictly be slaveholders : for they defy all law, standing aloof from civilized man, being a " kind of law unto themselves." But even in this case, it appears to me, that such men (if men they could, in any sense, be called,) could not be regarded in any other light but that of " legal monsters," for they would have outraged every just principle of law, both human and divine, and would be " sinning against all heaven and earth." But, replies one, with all the cool- ILLUSTRATED. 141 ness of talking about any other live stock, " all this may be so by a certain 'kink in the law' as to ' tham are niggers' what are brought from Africa, but as to * tham are niggers'' what are raised by their masters, it is no such thing." Well, then, let me steal your flock of sheep of 100, and in a week they happen to have increased to 200. You come for your stolen property ; you can just take the 100 old sheep, and go home with yourself; but as to the 100 young sheep, they are mine, sir. Now, I don't see but that a man of enterprise, who is fond of the good things of this life, might in this way lawfully supply himself, and all his good neighbours too, with lamb, veal, pigs, chickens, &c, with very little change in his pocket. " But," says one, " this is small talk." I know very well that people who hate a whole sub- ject, never hear it treated to suit them ; for manner cannot be very pleasing, when the matter is offensive. The only treatment of a subject to suit such persons, is with the more solid arguments of stones and brickbats, or with open ridicule, or with silent affected contempt. But suppose slavery could be legalized by men, so that it would not be human robbery or man-stealing, (which I deny according to the very basis of all laws of the civi- lized world,) it would still be a most flagrant violation of the divine law, which requires us, under the penalty of God's displeasure, " to defend the poor and fatherless," to do justice to the afflicted and needy, to break every yoke, to deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, and to let the oppressed go free." Now let us lay aside for a moment dark and criminal 142 LIBERTY AND SEAVERY prejudice, and make the case our own ; then say whether any treatment short of this towards the oppressed can be acting up to that blessed and universally admitted " golden rule," " as you would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them." But to extend our con- ceptions again for a moment to our new home in Africa, where we are sold and driven from place to place in chains, toiling 16 hours a day in a burning sun, and grinding our own supper of corn at night, and all for our African kidnappers and masters ; think you we should deem it a crime, or that our God would charge it to our account, should we at times when denied us by our cruel " black" masters, take enough of the fruit of our own hard unrequited toil to stop the cravings of hunger, of ourselves, our wives, and our children? Yet the pale- skinned kidnappers and masters, have the hardihood to call this " stealing," and most cruelly whip, and crop off ears for it, and sometimes put to death the wretched victims of their tyrannical power for taking enough of their own hard earnings (and by right their own proper- ty) to satisfy present hunger. How sadly now are the tables turned upon us, and how the picture is inverted. To a mind that has been enlightened on this subject, and led to see, and to feel all the " horribleness " of slavery, the very soft and modified terms often applied to slaveholders, merely to pity, or to apologize for them, or at most to express a very moderate degree of blame, appears about as inappropriate as that which was once made use of to express the guilt and crime of a base assassin, who took the life of his neighbour in a cold- blooded and horrid manner. Said one, " he ought to have been ashamed" of it! ! ! But the time doubtless ILLUSTRATED. 143 will yet arrive, when the crime and the guilt of holding a human and an immortal being, as a mere chattel, an appendage only to promote the happiness of his equal and his fellow — and buying and selling him like a beast of burden, will be regarded by the whole world as much greater than that of stealing a horse, as man is superior to this animal in intellectual and moral worth, and as his hopes and his destinies may ever rise in infinite superi- ority and importance. When this time shall arrive, the crime of stealing a man, will be deemed worthy of the nations to combine to apprehend one offender. Who that has lived no longer than half a century in the world, has not witnessed changes in public sentiment which have as much, or even more astonished him, than this would ? Who that has looked over the annals of mankind, is not convinced of the extreme mutability of human opinions, and human prejudices 1 Indeed, what stands out on the records of time more prominently, and in bolder relief, than the fact, that what was popular yes- terday, has been on the wane to day, and exploded to- morrow 1 With regard to the other part of this objection, which is that of bankrupting the south to abolish slavery, it ap- pears to me, there need hardly more be said in reply to it, than that slavery itself is very rapidly doing this same work. The extent of territory occupied by slavehold- ers, being much more than equal to that of the hardy sons of freedom in the free States, who deem it honour- able to labour with their own hands ; and the amount paid into the public treasury from the slave States, being, in comparison with the free States, as one to five oniy, is 144 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY of itself proof positive, that the abolition of slavery is the only thing that can save the south from poverty, bankruptcy, and utter prostration and degradation, phys- ical, mental, and moral ; for God will ever curse the op- pressor with a blighting curse. Was it necessary here, it might easily be shown too, that natural causes have always been providentially em- ployed to effect thus gradually, but not the less certain, their own ruin. A just God hath always in reserve "Justice for th' oppress'd, And judgement for the proud." Did I dare allow myself, on this great and sacred subject of human liberty, to appeal often to the compar- atively base and sordid considerations of pecuniary in- terest, I could, without hesitation, give it as my own de- liberate opinion, that, so far from universal southern emancipation, producing southern bankruptcy, or even diminishing the aggregate value of the property of the slaveholding States, it would in reality, very soon in- crease it many fold. Many substantial reasons might be adduced from observation and experience, in full proof of this opinion. But suffice it to say here, that the vast sterile fields of the entire south, owing to the blighting curse of unrequited toil, which now rate with northern farms as one to five, would at once be brought fairly into the great market of the whole civilized world, and be cut up into suitable farms for the occupancy of independent freemen, whose industry and skill would soon bring every nook and corner of them into the high- est possible state of cultivation. But the very bad hus- bandry, almost necessarily the attendant, as might well ILLUSTRATED. 145 be expected, of unrewarded labour, now leaves those otherwise fertile fields in a measurably unproductive state. And, also, as it now is, the abhorrence which by far the greater part as well as the better part of mankind so justifiably entertain to slavery, shuts out the southern lands from any thing like an equal market with other portions of the globe, or in the same ratio that this just abhorrence to slavery, exists among men. Did an en- terprising company of northern "yankees," for instance, own the entire twelve States, were they good financiers, what would most likely be their mode of greatly advan- cing the worth of their lands from their present low value? Why, doubtless, to follow the wise example of all experience in this particular, where real estate has risen to the highest possible value and demand. They would first run out their lands into the most eligible size and dimensions for freemen to occupy ; and would next take effective measures greatly to improve the state of society, in every thing desirable to render it the most inviting to all the civilized as well as the christianized world. We have uniformly seen this course pursued where real estate has risen high in value. Even professed unbelievers in religion, who have been great land pro- prietors, or proprietors of towns or villages, have, not- withstanding, often aided liberally in the erection of houses for public worship, in the establishment of insti- tutions of learning, and in the general improvement of society ; and all professedly from purely interested consid- erations, to enhance the value of their estate, by bring- 13 4, 146 LIBERTY AND SLAVERf ing it into a better, and a more general market among men. The wealthy Girard, though an avowed discarder of all religion, often practically and professedly acted upon this principle, in aiding in the erection of houses for public worship in Philadelphia. Who does not know that the real value of rents or lots in cities, or of farms in all countries, is very much regulated by the characteristic of the neighbourhood in which they may chance to be located 1 To cite but a single case directly in point: there is now proof positive, that the moment Lovejoy fell by riot- ous and murderous hands — by the virtual countenance of the citizens of Alton ; by a kind of ominous and pre- monitory judgement, real estate in that place, that mo- ment fell also; for it is now well known, that some of the few noble souls, who were not afraid to stand up in defence of the laws of God and man, against the infat- uated and infuriated multitude, in that memorable place, now feeling themselves providentially called upon, are desirous to obey the call and testify against that city, by shaking from their feet the \ery dust of her streets," find no sale for their real estate ; being, apparently, un- der an injunction from the court of Heaven, seeming to say, " there is a heavy debt of blood against this guilty city, the discharge of which is forthwith demanded." Whether the righteous frown of offended Heaven will rest upon this verily guilty place, as a warning to the world, until the third or fourth generation, may depend upon the condition whether its inhabitants shall " do works mete for repentance ;" for if there be a righteous Governor of the Universe who will ever, in some way ILLUSTRATED. 147 that we know not, maintain the purity and the dignity of his government, inviolate, and " will by no means clear the guilty," that people should never dare to expect his complacent favour, until they lawfully render the blood of the guilty for the blood of the innocent, slain in their midst. No apologies, excuses, or prevarications, will ever be regarded, but with abhorrence, by Him who can- not be mocked with impunity. Public opinion in that place, at that lime, being against the known laws of God and man, and being thus lawlessly carried out, goes for nothing but to establish the deeper condemnation of that community. Just so it is upon an extended scale, in regard to the dreadful state of southern society, both as to slavery itself, and all its consequent train of unnumbered moral, social, and political evils. It has long been well known, that thousands of European emigrants to America, for a number of reasons, would have preferred settling in some of the southern states, had it not been for their deep and settled abhorrence to slavery. It is also well known, that at this moment there are a great number of north- ern people more or less affected with pulmonary com- plaints, who would gladly exchange their residences for southern ones, at almost any pecuniary sacrifices with- in their power, were it not for their insurmountable aver- sion to slavery, and to slaveholding society ; and that they have therefore deliberately made up their minds that they would choose rather to live out but half their days, in a northern (and to them,) uncongenial climate, but in a land of freedom, there to be obliged to have their ears pained, and their hearts afflicted and lascerated by the clanking of chains, and the sound of the lash upon their 148 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY innocent fellow beings, and the oft repeated piercing shrieks of parting friends ; all of which they well know to be but every-day occurrences, on the bloody fields, or in the dark prison-house of slavery. The southern soil is even more luxuriant than the northern, but their slavery has long been a curse and a blight upon it. There is no freeman's arm there made strong and vigorous by the just hope of reward. The experiment has already been abundantly tried in a variety of instances where the slaves of a single slave- holder, and of whole communities, have been emanci- pated, and laboured as freemen, for a just compensation : and free labour has been found, universally, to have been more productive than slave labour. Whenever slaves have been emancipated, they have leaped for joy that they were then the owners of themselves, their wives and their children ; and have generally remained labour- ing for their former masters, (when properly treated,) contented and happy, and were more faithful, and the nett proceeds of their labour have been found to be more productive and more satisfactory than while they were slaves. This has been so in South America, in Mex- ico, and in all the British and West India Islands. In- deed, it certainly would seem to need no argument to prove all this, when the vast superiority of industry, pros- perity, and wealth, on the side of free labouring commu- nities are taken into account. And as to those "monsters in human shape," who own no other property but human flesh, and make it their whole business to traffic in this article, constantly driving human souls under the whip, from the very cap- itol of the nation to the far south and southwest, chain- ILLUSTRATED. 149 ed in droves; themselves, in the mean time, often revelling in luxury and dissipation, while their miscalled or stolen property, is pining and groaning under its chains, who would not be willing, nay, rejoice, to see this class of slave-dealers, if need be, themselves reduced to the necessity of wholesome and honourable labour, and their poor, half-starved, miserable victims set free? I heard one man say, (who did not, himself, profess to be an abolitionist,) that whoever would not rejoice at this, would, most likely, himself turn pirate upon his fel- low-man, when an opportunity presented. How this might be, I will not here pretend to say, but leave it to the good sense of all to judge. The slaveholders, and grow- ers, and planters, in their self-righteous, hypocritical dig- nity retire behind the scene, and there, sanctimoniously pull the wires of the whole "accursed piratical machinery" of slavery, and with base and gross absu rdity, affect greatly to despise their own chosen " soul drivers," and their " soul buyers ;" but still are " rearing " their fellow men, with the sole purpose to put them directly into the very hands of these " base men," which they so much affect to despise, and in whose society they will not min- gle, as they say, (themselves being judges,) on account of their baseness and degradation. And these holy and consistent men, behind the scene, are also, at this mo- ment, determined to leave nothing undone in their power, to annex Texas to the Union, if possible, immediately, for an additional vast market, to furnish constant employ for this very class of beings, which they say they so much loath and abhor. " ! consistency, thou art a jewel." Would not, for instance, the common sense of pro- 13* 150 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY priety of every man in our respective communities^ readily condemn any set of men as most basely hypo- critical, who should themselves attend church on the sabbath, with all the exterior of the most unfeigned and exemplary piety, while they made a constant practice to employ a great number of men, to engage in secular business on that day, and all the while denouncing these very men that they employed as a " vile set of sabbath breakers V 9 SECTION V. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE IT WILL LET THE " NIGGERS " ALL LOOSE AMONG US, AND THEY WILL MURDER THEIR MAS- TERS, AND OVERRUN OUR COUNTRY AS VAGABONDS." It is sometimes unavoidably amusing, while mingled with regret to those who are free from the blood of op- pression, and know no fear but the fear of God, and suspect no evil but from his righteous displeasure, to observe the effect of such guilty, but groundless appre- hensions. A remarkable instance of this was shown on the 31st of July, 1834, by the American vessels which had lain for weeks in the harbour at the Island of Antigua, weigh- ing anchor, and making their escape through actual fear that the whole Island would be destroyed on the follow- ing day, being the time 30,000 souls were to be ushered into being from their nonentity in the dark dungeon of bondage into the noon-day sun of freedom ? to be trans- formed from things into men, and for the first time to sing the life-inspiring song of jubilee. Ere these fearfully guilty Americans set sail, they also most earnestly besought their friends there, to es- cape with them from the Island, as for their lives* But 152 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY their friends were not thus terrified because they had pre- viously resolved to do right, and therefore they feared no evil. They felt that to be just, is to be safe, — well, what was the dreadful sequel? Though there were 18 emancipated coloured people to one iincoloured person on the Island, it was still a seen© of great delight to all the iincoloured people to behold 30,000 newly created MEN, in extasies, thanking and blessing God and man for their new creation, and when the holy-days of their jubi!ee were over, to see them voluntarily and peace- fully go to their accustomed employments with pleasure and alacrity, not now as mere things, like unto the im- plements which they use in their labour, but as MEN, amonc the lords of creation, in a sphere " but a little lower than that of the angels." Now who that knows man- kind can wonder at all this, or think for a moment that men possessing rights in common with their fellow men, unless they do great violence to the acknowledged laws of humanity, will not feel a common interest likewise in sustaining their own government, which inviolably se- cures to them all their own rights. On this point, in a late speech in the senate of the United States, Daniel Webster says, " a man loves his own ; it is fit and natural that he should do so; and he will love his country, and its institutions, if he have some stake in it, although it be but a very small part of the general mass of pro- perty. If it be but a cottage, an acre, a garden, its pos- session raises him, gives him self respect, and strength- ens his attachment to his country. It is our happy con- dition, by the blessings of providence, that almost every man of sound health, industrious habits, and good morals, can ordinarily attain, at least to this degree of comfort ILLUSTRATED. 153 and respectability ; and it is a result, said he,, most de- voutly to be wished, both for its individual, and its general consequences. And again, speaking of Massa- chusetts, (his own state,) he says, u It is no matter of regret or sorrow to us, that few are very rich ; but it is our pride and glory, that few are very poor. It is, he continues, our still higher pride, and our just boast, as I think, that all her citizens possess means of intelligence and education; and that of all her productions, she reckons among the very chiefest, those which spring from the culture of the mind and the heart." Now, while Mr. Webster was proclaiming these noble and self-evident sentiments in favour of freedom from the senate chamber to the nation and the world, one of two or three things is apparent ; either that he did not consider the two and a half millions of people in this land, deprived of all rights, as human beings, or that he entirely overlooked them ; or, that he meant to in- clude them ; or, if none of these views be correct, through fear of freedom in debate, he designedly sup- pressed his better feelings of humanity, as well as a purer, broader, and still nobler patriotism, in minutely discussing the just claims to equal liberty, of all his countrymen, bond, or free, regardless of complexion, stature, or condition. Perhaps he deemed it imprudent, or dangerous, to meddle with so exciting a subject as that of the rights of millions of his countrymen, whose complexion is higher coloured than his own. Now it is no wonder that our nation, which has been so long stained with the innocent blood of our greatly oppressed fellow-countrymen, should be haunted " both when we wake and when we sleep," with these awfully 154 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY fearful and guilty forebodings of evil. No wonder that our nation talks about "expediency" so much, and " fears to launch away " upon the great ocean of truth and justice in regard to liberating its millions of bond- men. We are told that the " wicked flee, when no man pur- sueth, but that the righteous are bold as a lion !" I sup- pose this righteousness, and this boldness here spoken of, consists simply in a humble confidence and trust in Him, in doing right, in whose hands are the destinies of men and nations. Most of the impious and vacillating expediency of men, is but the very offspring of the oppo- site of this confidence, and in many cases betrays an entire destitution of it. There appears to be men (and perhaps not a few in high places in the nation,) who, though they would not be thought atheistical in their sentiments, yet neverthe- less act, as though there was no Supreme government over us, to which they were in any possible sense amenable. Let an individual feel conscious of having greatly injured another, in his property, or his reputation, until he repents, and makes all the reparation in his power, he will of course be constantly labouring under the painful apprehension, of being in some way injured in return. This is perhaps a kind of earnest of the judge- ment of heaven following him ; an awful omen of the future. But let us see from facts and rational argu- ments, if we will repent, and make suitable reparation, whether these fears have any foundation or existence, but in our tortured and guilty imaginations. Dr. Chan- ning, in speaking of emancipation in the West Indies, ILLUSTRATED. 155 says, " the example which these Islands exhibit of Afri- can freedom, of the elevation of the coloured race to the rights of men, is of all influences most menacing to slavery at the south. It must grow, says he, " con- tinually more perilous." Let any one read the highly credible and encouraging account of emancipated slaves in the West Indies, which I recently had the pleasure of hearing from the lips of Rev. Mr. Tinson, a Baptist Missionary for the last fifteea years on the Island of Jamaica, and longer doubt if he can, whether the colour- ed man is a human being, capable of fully appreci- ating all his rights as a man. Let him then doubt if he can, whether he should beheld (while innocent of crime,) in u vile bondage," and miserable degradation a moment, merely because his " pale skinned, or his uncoloured bro- ther, has got the power in his hands thus to oppress him, and in open outrage of all the self-evident principles of justice and humanity, violently wrests from him all his heaven-born and inalienable rights. Is this not doing violence to all sense of justice in heaven or earth? Who can for a moment believe it right for man, arbitrarily to exercise his superior power over his fellow man, merely to oppress him, and to make him miserable, as this nation are so wickedly treating both the Indians and the Africans ? Wherever slaves have been emanci- pated throughout the world, either voluntarily, or by law, they have remained quiet, and contented, conscious that they then owned their own bodies, their own wives, and their own children, they have felt " rich and happy," and have shown no disposition whatever to revenge their past injuries." Our " grateful nature," in this, as might well be ex- 156 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY pected, has ever proved true to herself. As before re- marked, this has ever proved to have been the case, whenever and wherever fairly tried. Indeed, it never can be fairly tried in any country where a vestige of slavery yet remains, for it will forever be the " damning " interest and policy of slaveholders, to oppress and to put down freedom, regardless of colour. Freedom and slavery are forever sworn "antagonists;" for the one is from above, and the other is from beneath. In the island of Antigua, as I have said, there were eighteen blacks, when emancipated, to one white, and they all remained quiet, and continued their accustomed em- ployment with far more diligence and interest than when slaves. Their former masters then doubtless treated them as human beings, as one freeman treats another freeman, and therefore they were satisfied and con- tented. In support of these opinions and statements, I will here, out of very many, cite a few interesting, encou- raging, and well-known facts on this subject, which, I think, cannot be unacceptable to any ; as most persons very justly regard well-substantiated facts with far more favour, on either side of any given question, than they do even volumes of mere assertions without proof. SAFETY OF EMANCIPATION. Joseph H, Kimbal, Esq. of New Hampshire, and Rev. James A. Thome of Kentucky, were sent out to collect facts respecting the result of emancipation in the British West Indies. They spent six months in Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, and have published the result of their investigations well authenticated. ILLUSTRATED. 157 The following extracts, for which we are indebted to the Boston Recorder, (says the New- York Evange- list,) furnish some idea of the testimony which they collected. " Both in town and country we heard gentlemen re- peatedly speak of the slight fastenings to their houses. A mere lock, or bolt, was all that secured the outside doors, and they might be burst open with ease by a single man. In some cases, as has already been inti- mated, the planters habitually neglect to fasten their doors — so strong is their confidence of safety. We were not a little struck with the remark of a gentleman in St. John's. He said he had long been desirous to remove to England, his native country, and had slavery continued much longer in Antigua, he certainly should have gone ; but now the security of property was so much greater in Antigua than it was in England, that he thought it doubtful whether he should ever venture to take his family thither. " The first of August, 1834, is universally regarded in Antigua, as having presented a most imposing and sublime moral spectacle. It is almost impossible to be in the company of a missionary, a planter, or an eman- cipated negro, for ten minutes, without hearing some allusion to that occasion. Even at the time of our visit to Antigua, after the lapse of nearly three years, they spoke of the event with an admiration apparently un- abated. " For some time previous to the first of August, fore- bodings of disaster lowered over the island. The day was fixed! Thirty thousand degraded human beings were to be brought forth from the dungeon of slavery 14 158 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY and ' turned loose on the community !' and this was io be done 4 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.' " Gloomy apprehensions were entertained by many of the planters. Some timorous families did not get to bed on the night of the 31st of July ; fear drove sleep from their eyes, and they awaited with fluttering pulse the hour of midnight, fearing lest the same bell which sounded the jubilee of the slaves, should toll the death- knell of the masters. "The more intelligent, who understood the disposi- tion of the negroes, and contemplated the natural tend- encies of emancipation, through philosophical principles, and in the light of human nature and history, were free from alarm. " As we mingled among the missionaries, both in town and country, meeting them individually and in social circles, they all bore witness to the security of their persons and families. They, equally with the planters, were surprised that we should make any in- quiries about insurrections. A question on this subject generally excited a smile, a look of astonishment, or some exclamation, such as " Insurrection ! my dear sirs, we do not think of such a thing ;" or, " Rebellion, indeed ! why, what should they rebel for 7ioiv, since they have got their liberty !" Physicians informed us that they were in the habit of riding into the country at all hours of the night, and though they were constantly passing negroes, both singly and in companies, on the roads, they never had experi- enced any rudeness, not even so much as an insolent word. They could go night or day into any part of the island where their professional duties called them, with- out the slightest sense of danger. ILLUSTRATED. 159 A residence of nine weeks in the island gave us no small opportunity of testing the reality of its boasted security. The hospitality of planters and missionaries, of which we have recorded so many instances in a pre- vious part of this work, gave us free access to their houses in every part of the island. In many cases we were constrained to spend the night with them, and thus enjoyed, in the intimacies of the domestic circle, and in the unguarded moments of social intercourse, every opportunity of detecting any lurking fears of violence, if such there had been ; but we saw no evidence of it, either in the arrangements of the houses or in the con= duct of the inmates. Dr. Daniel, Member of Council, says — " There has been no instance of personal violence since freedom. Some persons pretended, prior to eman- cipation, to apprehend disastrous results ; but for my part, I cannot say that I ever entertained such fears. I could not see any thing which was to instigate the negroes to rebellion, after they had obtained their liberty. 1 have not heard of a single case of even meditated revenge." Rev. Mr. Merrish, Moravian Missionary, says — " In my extensive intercourse with the people, as missionary, I have never heard of an instance of violence or revenge on the part of the negroes, even where they had been ill-treated during slavery. It is most surpris- ing that your countrymen should anticipate such conse- quences of emancipation. Their fears are unreasonable and groundless." Hon. H. Nugent, Speaker of the Assembly, says — *' Insurrection or revenge is in no case dreaded, not 160 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY even by those planters who were most cruel in the time of slavery. After slavery is abolished there exists no cause for rebellion. It is your nation* not Antigua, that has reason to apprehend insurrections, for slavery still exists among you. My family go to sleep every night with the doors unlocked, and we fear neither violence nor robbery." Again, in a written communication, the same gentle- man remarks : " There is not the slightest feeling of in- security — quite the contrary. Property is more secure, for all idea of insurrection is abolished forever." For innumerable, well-authenticated, and overwhelm- ing facts on the subject of the perfect safety, and vast superiority to all concerned of immediate emancipation, over all other guilty and "expedient" schemes, for the abolition of slavery, hitherto devised by the wicked policy of man, I would refer any one to the results of the unwearied labours of these men, while visiting the eman- cipated islands. The PAithenticated facts which they collected from official documents, and otherwise, have been recently published in a work of nearly five hun- dred pages. The most essential facts, however, have just been condensed into a pamphlet of one hundred and twenty-eight pages, at the trifling sum of twenty cents per single copy. Could all these deeply interesting facts at once be read by every family in this nation, the whole land would soon resound with two and a half millions of voices, in the thrilling songs of jubilee. In- deed fifteen millions of souls would have abundant cause to join in the general song of joy. One has said, that from ample experience and obser- vation, it is abundantly evident that men will work harder ILLUSTRATED. 161 for «Mr. Cash than they will for Mr. Lash." And indeed, what man could not labour with more encour- agement and vigour for himself and for his wife and children whom he loves, than for a cruel tyrannical master whom he hates, and who should sell his wife and children from him before his own eyes, into a returnless bondage; and then give him " daily stripes unnumbered," and but a peck of corn a weak for his food, ground with his own hands at night, when he should be resting his weary limbs, and nothing for his ceaseless toil of sixteen hours a-day ? And with regard to the wonderful panic of some, that the north would be overrun with the blacks, if emanci- pated, it is altogether visionary and deceptive. Who does not know that the southern climate is far more congenial to the African constitution, than the northern ? The only reason why there are even as many coloured people at the north, as there now are, (though northern laws and prejudices are still heavy upon them to what they should be) is owing solely to the most severe and oppressive laws throughout the entire dark dominions of tyranny and slavery against coloured people, " merely tantalized as free" which in effect tend greatly as is the desire and the interest of slaveholders, to entirely banish them from the slave states. And in some of the slave states they have even dared, before high Heaven and the world, to enact unconstitutional laws, to banish innocent freemen from their bounds, (some of whom their own children) because their complexion happened to be a little higher coloured than their own. I shall have oc- casion to quote some of these outrageous and plainly unconstitutional enactments soon, then all can judge for 14* 162 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY themselves whether they would evidently amount to an indirect prohibition of even a residence of this greatly abused, oppressed, and persecuted people, within the limits of such States. The freeman of this nation, knowing such dreadful outrages upon freedom to exist in our country, and will not at least testify loudly against it, with all the moral, as well as all the constitutional political influence in his power, will not, nay, ought not his turn by just retribution to come next 1 If it do not fall upon him, he is heaping up calamity and wo for his children and his country. Let an unprejudiced man of common understanding, once look at all the laws not against the slave only, but against freemen, growing out of the very nature and spirit of slavery, and necessarily so, (as slaveholders admit) to maintain slavery, many of which are clearly arbitrary and unconstitutional ; and must he not see that slavery and freedom, from the nature and tendency of each, and from the very necessity of the case,, cannot long exist together in the same government ? Slaveholders see this. and are arrogantly and tyrannically demanding that the free shall be enslaved. Who cannot see that one must- soon destroy the other, like the more powerful of two contending elements, destroying the weaker? The coloured people now called free, as well as some whites, from unconstitutional laws growing out of slavery, and necessary to maintain it, are but just one remove from absolute slavery itself. And these violations of the .sacred principles of freedom, and daring encroachments upon her rights, will ever be increasing and becoming more and more arrogant and arbitrary in their exorbitant demands, unless freedom boldly and firmly take her stand* ILLUSTRATED. 163 and say unto her haughty and tyrannical foe, thus far shal£ thou go and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be staid ! Unless there be energy enough in freedom thus to take her stand, and unless she then possess power enough to maintain it, she falls a bleeding victim to her deadly antagonist. Slaves and freemen cannot long dwell together. Either all must be free or all must be slaves. Slaveholders well understand this principle ; as McDuffie, Calhoun, and other leading southern slaveholding politicians have frankly avowed it in the councils of the nation, and they are not idle. While some at the north are trying to make slaves freemen, the southern politicians and ecclesiastics, al- most as a whole, and not unaided by northern ones, are trying much more to make freemen slaves. Our interests, so long as slavery exists, are antipodes, except that a few northern demagogues,, and some, too, who assume a more sacred garb, will court slavery, with every thing else, as a political stepping-stone to power. The affair of St. Domingo (now Hay ti) has been greatly misrepresented through ignorance, and also through de- sign, to perpetuate slavery in this country. In the first place, their 600,000 slaves were emancipated by a de- cres of France, and they enjoyed all the rights of free- men in peace and quietude eight years ; when Bonaparte, in his unhallowed career, from mere political " expedi- ency," attempted to reduce them to slavery again. But they fought as freemen (as did our fathers) in defence of all their dear and sacred rights : all that they held worth living for, — their freedom, — and banished or massacred their tyrannical invaders, and the whites of the island which were found engaged with them ; and 164 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY France meanly extorted from them thirty millions as the boon of the acknowledgement of their independence. France, however, has recently remitted a large part of this amount, and is now rapidly preparing to emancipate all her slaves. And how much better is our conduct towards them than Bonaparte's^ when we, as a nation, in shameless violation of faith, have refused, on account of our own slavery, to acknowledge the independence of this people, with a population of nearly a million, with flourishing and extensive commercial relations ? And how will it stand out in history with our indecent and hasty acknowledgement of but thirty thousand reck- less slaveholding and land-jobbing Texans, who, con- scious of being entirely unable to maintain their inde- pendence against their legitimate government, Mexico, are therefore seeking and pressing their admission into this Union, by southern aid, regardless of the con- stitution or the consequences. For a more particular account of Hayti, I would refer any one to Judge Jay's Inquiry, a valuable work, to give Ihem references to the whole authentic history of St. Domingo and Hayti. As " to turning the slaves all out loose among us," some seem to think the abolishment of slavery means turning the slaves all out reckless and lawless, " to run riot through the land," (as too many white freemen have shamefully done of late,) to prey upon the very vitals of community, without the ordinary and proper restraints of the same wholesome and rational laws which are al- ways necessary for the common safety, regulation, and good government of all communities of men. But this is altogether a vague and visionary notion. Give men their freedom, and they are then not only subjects of law, ILLUSTRATED* 165 but proper subjects ; they are then put upon their own conduct, for a character and a standing in community ; and as they value their liberty, they will ever be care- ful not to forfeit it. They have then thrown around them all the rational motives, both of fear and of en- couragement, to act right. Emancipation converts en- emies into friends of a government. Why should it not be so? This, indeed, is the very government of Heaven over us all. Our beneficent Creator has wisely and benevo- lently given us all our freedom, that we might feel our accountability to all his righteous and equal laws, hav- ing no respect to persons, colour, or condition. Genuine and rational freedom does not mean the un- restrained indulgence of a licentious, lawless, riotous spirit, which acknowledges no accountability whatever to God or to man. This is not the kind of freedom that any man, with rational and consistent views of civil liberty, wishes to give two and a half millions of his suf- fering fellow-countrymen, now under the yoke of a cruel bondage in our midst ; but that kind only which will tend to give them a proper sense of their accountability to law, both " human and divine." Would this kind of freedom be dangerous ? To secure the greatest possible amount of happiness, to the greatest possible number, the most equal, scrupulous, and conscientious protection from the whole community, must, as a sacred, shield, be thrown around each and every individual, to secure to him all his equal rights. In the ratio that any commu- nity depart from this principle, they verge towards the extreme either of anarchy, or of aristocracy and despo- tism. There is already an alarming toleration of this 166 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY recklessness, or dissipation of all freedom, in our land ; or, in other language, an utter disregard and defiance of all the laws of Heaven and earth. And as one extreme, in the natural world, is said to follow another, so this kind of riotous and lawless freedom has generally been found, from natural causes, to be the forerunner of the iron reign of despotism ; for men always have sought refuge, even under a despotic standard, from the dread- ful scourgings of the midnight, restless, malignant spirit of unbridled anarchy and misrule, that prowls about, " seeking whom it may devour." And, from the fearful signs of the times, unless we beware before it be too late forever, all history stands out to warn us, too, of our ap- proaching catastrophe. The test will soon be unavoidable, whether the so long and so much boasted republic of equal rights, is indeed " based upon slavery ;" and that without it this splendid and towering fabric must fall into chaos. Whether, indeed ! chains, shackles, and handcuffs, upon millions of our unoffending fellow-countrymen, must for- ever hold our "glorious Union " together. I have said " glorious Union !" It might be, — it should be so, — for it cost the best blood of our fathers. But should time prove, however, that it cannot be held together but by the cement of slavery, — the cruel chains of bondage upon millions of our innocent countrymen who have committed no offence against the State or their fellow- men, — the whole world would stamp such a Union as a most inglorious one ; and it would be so transmitted, in the annals of time, down to the latest posterity of man; and the descendants of Americans would often be made " to blush and to hang their heads," that their ILLUSTRATED. 167 ancestors had ever been guilty of forging these chains, and shackles, and handcuffs, for their guiltless fellow- countrymen. Let the truth always be known, and then let us ever, as true friends to our common country and mankind, "guard against the worst, but still hope and act for the best." The strength of free governments never can consist in suppressing truth, but rather in its entire and fearless developement, and its universal dis- semination, that the people who must govern, to preserve the freedom of a country, might be enabled thereby to judge correctly, and to act understandingly ; and what- ever government cannot stand before the plain and sim- ple exhibition of truth, as freemen and republicans, to be consistent, we all would, of course, say it ought to fall, — knowing that a government which cannot bear truth must be hostile to liberty : for the doctrine would indeed be an anomaly, that the people who compose the government should practise arts and deceptions upon themselves, or voluntarily blindfold their own eyes. The doctrine is truly absurd in the extreme ; as much so, as it would be to " set the blind to lead the blind." All history shows us, that whenever a people have once tamely submitted to take the incipient steps of surrendering their freedom of speech, and the press, and right of petition, without instant horror and alarm for their imminent danger, it has subsequently proved to have been but the premonitions of infatuated suicidal acts upon all their liberties, until despotism was inevitable. If our government cannot stand without the people voluntarily blinding their own eyes to their own affairs, the question is at once and forever settled, that it never can stand. It may, it is true, if the people do consent 168 . LIBERTY AND SLAVERY to be blinded upon great national subjects, retain its mere form for a time, but it will be like the whited se- pulchre only, or like a body without a soul. Even now the exclamation, I am an American citizen, is not a safe passport in all parts of this land ! We know that our government in times past, when great national questions have been fearlessly agitated and thoroughly discussed, has stood firm and immova- ble, as on a rock. And may we not fondly hope, that it will so remain in all future time 1 But let no blind nor selfish considerations of " expediency," policy, or party, induce any one to suppose, all things considered, that he is doing his country service to suppress truth or free discussion for a moment. For, aside from mere base and selfish party considerations, the old JefFersonian doctrine will ever hold good the world over, the testimo- ny of tyrants to the contrary notwithstanding, that is, that " error can be safely tolerated while reason is left free to combat it." When this staunch republican and enlightened states- man said " reason," it is presumed he did not mean those mobocratic, stony reasons which creatures called men, sometimes resort to, to sustain a cause which they know that law nor common sense will not justify. And here let me repeat the words of Mr. Clay — " it is a bad cause that will not bear reasoning upon." And how does this apply to slavery ? The very fact, that mobs resort to violence and brute force, is proof positive, that they do themselves feel con- scious that their cause is not founded in truth and jus- tice ; — for most men, doubtless, have sufficient confi- dence in their own powers of reasoning and persuasion, ILLUSTRATED. 169 to depend on these powers by which to achieve their victory, if they fully believe that reason is on their side. To use physical force, if necessary, to sustain reasona- ble laws against violence, is yet justified, or at least practised by all nations. But we all hope that the time will arrive, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks. And why shall we not begin now to bring this about? This pounding, persecuting, and shooting men's opin- ions out of them, in no part, nor in any age of the world, has ever succeeded where freedom still survived. For most men have been found to surrender up their lives before they would their opinions. The apprehension that our great first rights, " free- dom of thought and of speech," were the special gifts of our Creator, seems to have been universally inherent in the human mind, and men have ever been apparently as unwilling to surrender those first and heaven-born riohts. as they have been their interest in the Creator himself. We find the same justly celebrated sentiment of Jeffer- son with regard to the perfect safety of the unabridged exercise of the freedom of opinion, to be but the com- mon sentiment of all men who have ever been thought to favour free governments. The following language, so often quoted by all the advocates of freedom, like the other, is the offspring of a mind of like vast comprehension. " Let truth and error grapple." Whoever knew truth to be put to the worst in a free and open encounter ? And also, " He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves besides." 15 170 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY The very elements in which all tyrants necessarily exist, are the mists and the exhalations of falsehood. They are like one with inflammation of the eyes, who re- joices after a bright summer's day at the going down of the sun, and dreads nothing more than its returning rays ; and its mid-day beams are quite insufferable. And it now remains in awfully fearful suspense to be seen, whether freedom of speech and the press, are in- deed to be cloven down in our blood-bought, and yet blood-stained country; and the safeguard of liberty, the constitution as bequeathed to us by our fathers, by ruth- less mobs, composed of their own degenerate sons, trampled under foot, and in its place anarchy prevail and triumph over the land, and universal destruction follow in its train ; or whether the voice from the tomb of an assassinated Lovejoy, the American Martyr, to free- dom, humanity, and his country, — who just fell at Alton by murderous hands, — shall be loud enough to wake up the guilty slumbers of this nation to a just sense of its well-nigh lost liberties. How intensely interesting the thought, that if this the last experiment of self-government by the people fail, the last fond hope of the human race is gone ; perhaps irrecoverably lost forever. It is true, that the people of the old world have long been looking with no ordinary interest upon our now pending experiment of free and self-government by the people. What shall be the issue, the bosom of the fu- ture must alone develope. O, my countrymen, shall the last lingering hope of the world's freedom, of which our nation has so long boast- ed, as forming the nucleus, be forever blotted out, and ILLUSTRATED. 171 darkness profound be destined to brood over the earth, with the blackness of midnight ? Shall Columbus and Washington have lived in vain? Let no one who would be a genuine and a rational republican, or patriot, flatter himself into that most fatal deception, for a moment, that violent, unprincipled and reckless mobocrats, are acting on the side of consistent, enlightened, and rational republicanism ; for so far from this is the fact, that they have ever been known to be the mere echoes, and base and servile tools to tyrants and despots, who are the deadly enemies of all freedom, with a treasonable hand, adroitly touching the cords of anar- chy and misrule behind ths scene, not daring, themselves, to show to the world the naked deformity of their own lawless, unmerciful, and bloody despotism. Who must not see, that where scenes so dreadful are suffered by the people to prevail, that they must very soon effect a total subversion of all courts of law and institutions of justice among men ; when the walls of safety would then be broken down, and property, person, liberty, and life, are all at once surrendered into the bloody hands of un- restrained, merciless, and infuriated monsters in human shape. Men, in all ages, have indeed proved monsters, when all wholesome restraints have once been broken through. Who does not know that many men of office, " property and standing," in the land, have heretofore been guilty of this degrading, unmanly, and dangerous course ? Will the government of the States, and of the nation, speak out boldly and decidedly in favour of order, of the laws and of the constitution, of our beloved, but bleeding and abused country 1 Will the Senate of this nation construe our constitution into a bold, tyrannical 172 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY code, to wrest from the people the freedom of speech and the right of petition 1 Shall we all at length be re- luctantly compelled to believe that the government it- self has, indeed, conspired against the lives and the lib- erties of the people, and that bloody mobs are only ex- ecuting the secret will of reckless, despotic, and slave- holding rulers 1 How will the 'sovereign people' have it to be 1 My confidence hitherto has been, that our govern- ment would yet vindicate the violated honour of the fal- len majesty of the laws and the constitution of the land, even as President Jackson so nobly did in the critical hour of the nullification menaces and outrages. But alas ! has my confidence for myself and for my country been misplaced 1 May Heaven forbid that the Ameri- can government shall prove, at last, what its enemies have long predicted : " to be inert, and utterly insuffi- cient to govern the American people." And may the American people, who proudly boast that the govern- ment is their own, upon a crisis the most important which has ever marked their history, show to the whole world that they do by no means regard with indifference, the tragical massacre, by ruthless hands, of one of their own fellow-citizens, for opinion's sake, or" rather for nobly defending the same great principles of freedom and civil liberty, which gave us birth, as a people, and which have so long been our just pride, before the na- tions of the earth. But may the honour of our nation be promptly redeemed, by our speedily proving, to all the world, that we do consider that the perfection of all hu- man governments, consists in maintaining,' inviolably, all the equal and constitutional rights of even the most hum- ble citizen, as sacredly as those of the highest ; and that ILLUSTRATED. 173 when the blood of one citizen is spilt unlawfully, we feel that the whole body politic is bleeding at every pore. Short of this, what foreigner, as an emigrant or a visiter, can with safety set his foot upon America's blood-stain- ed soil ? Short of this, what American citizen will not only feel himself unsafe in his own country, by his own fireside, in his property or his person, but essentially de- graded in the eyes of all mankind ? 0, must it go down in the annals of time, 1o the eternal shame and disgrace of the sons of a noble race of ancestors, that in republi- can America, in mid-day, one of her own free sons was wantonly and deliberately massacred, by a base mob, which her own laws, or her own people, could not, or would not control, and all for the crime of saying that the millions of his fellow-countrymen, who are guilty of no crime, (axcept a coloured skin,) ought not to wear fetters, hand-cuffs, and chains, and be driven under the lash by cruel and soulless task-masters ? This, be it ever remembered, was the head and front of the lamented Lovejoy's offence against his fellow-countrymen, who killed him ; for which alleged crime, he was shot down by bloody hands, in the memorable city of Alton, after having most pathetically appealed, in vain, as an Amer- ican citizen, to his fellow-countrymen, to throw around him the hallowed protection of those laws, and that con- stitution of his country, which his father, and our fathers died to establish, and which he so nobly and triumph- antly defended, " even unto death" 15* SECTION VI. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE my IDEA OF REPUBLICANISM IS, THAT WE SHOULD AIM AT THE GREATEST GOOD TO THE GREATEST number; AND AS THERE ARE MORE WHITES THAN BLACKS, THEREFORE, I GO FOR THE FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS OF THE WHITES, AND FOR THE SLAVERY OF THE BLACKS." There is, doubtless, a kind of superficial notion float- ing in the brain of some people, that this is a most won- derfully expansive, consistent, rational, and enlightened idea of republicanism ; and that it is founded on the true democratic doctrine that the majority ought always to govern. If this, indeed, be modem republicanism, it is by no means (in the distorted sense in which such men pretend to understand it,) the equal right's re- publicanism of our fathers, and of the constitution, and the declaration of American independence. Now, to accomplish what we may vainly suppose to be the greatest possible good, lo the greatest possible number, we have no moral right, whatever, to act upon the arbitrary and tyrannical principle, that '* might is right," and that " the end always justifies the means ;" for we must see, that this doctrine at once annihilates all the great first principles of right and wrong, between man and man. It would, at once, strike at the deep and broad principles of the constitution itself. And LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 175 this too, would be contrary to the universal, common consent of mankind, or the laws of the great Law Giver, or the foundation of the laws of all nations. Who ever heard of an innocent individual being arbitrarily sacri- ficed, even to save the lives of many ? Such an act would intuitively shock the moral sense of the whole human race. But by volunteering, or by casting lots, individuals have frequently been sacrificed to save a ship's crew, or a nation. But, had even their liberties, not to say their lives, been thus taken from them, or, in the least degree invaded, for any purpose whatever, it would, most manifestly, have been unequal and unjust ; or, in other language, SLAVERY. Involuntary slave- ry commenced, and has ever been, and ever must be, carried on by grossly violating all the first great princi- ples of equal justice, between man and man. It may be, forsooth, that our supposed accomplishment of the great- est possible good to the greatest possible number, may be ill-judged and visionary ; and that if we pursue a course to accomplish such a purpose, and which out- rages every principle of right, as in the case of our treat- ment of our Indians, as well as our enslaved countrymen, that retributive justice may react upon us, to the entire destruction of all our boasted prospective good. Such a course of conduct, to say the least, is reckless and altogether unwarrantable ; and would trample upon all men's rights to a throne, upon the plausible pretence of some tyrant that he could in this way accomplish the greatest possible good to ^mankind. Tyrants to attain power and to accomplish their own aggrandizement, have always pursued such a course, and the people have lis- tened, believed, and been enslaved. But of one thing 176 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY we can ever be certain, that equal justice to a//, in the present tense, (not prospectively) is inculcated by the divine law, and of course it must be the highest possible sense of the principle of expediency in the government of all our actions, in relation to one another, according to that very common adage of mankind, that " honesty is the best policy." Does it require any thing more than the exercise of plain common sense, to see the tendency and the end of the universal prevalence of the " expediency" doctrine, in the sense in which it is professed and acted upon by many ? Who does not see that the term " expedient" is now hardly more than another name for selfishness or dishonesty] Not only that an unqualified license to brute force would be given, but if men, in the shape of mobs should perchance refrain (which is not probable,) from running rampant, and wantonly rioting over the whole land, still the principles would be those of nullifi- cation in the extreme. Nullification principles were the offspring of slavery at the south. And in the same ratio that we find apologists for slavery at the north, have the nullification seeds been sown among us by the hand of an enemy ; sprung up into trees and saplings, and are now bearing fruit, " some twenty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold." Everybody is willing to admit, that should a law be enacted in any of the States, contravening the constitution of the United States, it would be a mere nullity, and no one would be bound to obey it ; at the same time there is a kind of under cur- rent prevailing to an alarming extent even at the north, (which is but the deceptive lesson which nullification has taught,) that the voice of every community, whether ILLUSTRATED. 177 legally ascertained and carried out into enactments or not, must be supreme for the time being ; and every man in such community is bound to abide by it as much as he is by the written laws and the constitution of the land. If such a doctrine be not nullification doctrine in its most dreadful, dangerous, and horrid shape, I confess for one that I am entirely unable to conceive what is. This doctrine when practically carried out into all the endless and various ramifications of society, would not only make an independent government or nation of every state, city, village, school district, and neighbourhood in the whole land ; but even these different communi- ties, acsording to this doctrine, need not wait for the usual and more tardy way of arriving at justice among men (who subject themselves to civil government,) by first properly enacting the laws by a legal constitutional expression of public sentiment, and then giving every man a "fair chance" for his life and all his rights, by courts of justice, witnesses, juries, counsels, &c, but every man with his family and his property, would, at any moment, be liable upon any false pretense whatever, to be seized upon and all sacrificed in a summary man- ner without judge, jury, or witnesses. All this is but a slight delineation of what would exist. It is true, this state of things could not long be endured, for the people would cry out in their deep distress, who " will show us any good V who will be king or emperor over us ? This is the very monocracy of nullification, most subtly coiled in the late famous senatorial resolutions. But there is a kind of nullification which assumes a grander and a more lofty appearance ; which is, that the States are so many independent nations, and that they may enact laws abridging the constitutional liberties of 178 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY American citizens. Against the most arrogant and dangerous encroachments upon our freedom, of both of these kinds of nullification ; every patriot as he loves his country — his whole country — his own liberties — the liberties of his own children, and all posterity, should lift up his most solemn and warning voice, long and loud. These nullification, disorganizing doctrines, will doubtless be cherished by reckless, ambitious, and un- principled men, who are opposed to wholesome, rational, and lawful restraints, which are the only means of secur- ing " the greatest amount of good to the greatest pos- sible number," on constitutional principles of justice and equal laws for all. Our only hope as a nation, must forever be in the intelligence and virtue of the great body of the people, for they must virtually be the ad- ministrators of the government, unless indeed despotism ensue. Intelligence will ever be indispensable. But even universal intelligence alone, will prove insufficient to sus- tain and perpetuate the liberties of a people. Says a highly gifted and intelligent American lady, who does honour to her sex, and her country, " our nation, while priding itself in the education of the head, have lamen- tably neglected the education of the heart." Says an American gentleman, standing high in the councils of our country, ** crime and intellectual cultiva- tion merely, so far from being dissociated in history and statistics, are unhappily old acquaintances and tried friends. To neglect the moral powers in education, says he, " is to educate not quite half the man." And who that spreads out the chart of past ages before him, can entertain a doubt that these considerations are of ILLUSTRATED. 179 the highest moment, both for the rulers and the people of all nations who are desirous long to enjoy rational liberty, and individual and social happiness 1 National charac- teristic must forever be made up of individual charac- teristic. If most of the separate timbers, which to the eye of a superficial observer might be thought to com- pose a strong and a mighty superstructure, should, on trial, prove unsound or essentially defective, the whole of necessity would soon fall into a pile of ruins by its own weight. But I will yet indulge the fond hope, however, that the American people will still not only possess the in- telligence to see that their all is at stake in these impor- tant considerations, but that when they do see it, they will possess the virtue also to fly with alacrity to guard the last dying bequest of their fathers ; the preservation of their equal liberties. All the people who wish to support the great temple of our long idolized government, should act as one man, regardless of faction or party, as does the master builder in erecting and sustaining some mighty fabric. Should he suffer a brace to be wanting — or to be cut away in one place — a stud in another — a beam or a girt in another, and a sill or a pillar in the fourth place, like taking away the freedom of the press, the very foundation of all free government ; who cannot see that his work " would follow him," and that his air-built castle would soon fall apart, and with a tremendous crash come to the earth, and all in its way be forever buried beneath its ruins? Every man should feel that this splendid temple, reared by our fathers, is his own ; and whenever he sees a rude hand marring its beauty, cutting away its suppoits, and weakening its foundation, as quick as thought, should 180 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY he sound the note of* alarm — treason ! treason ! While this idea is couched in a figure, may it be remembered that it is no fiction. Supremacy of the laws and the constitution should ever be our motto ; but while this should be our motto, and while we should ever most scrupulously act up to it, or live in strict obedience to the laws, it need not, nay, it should not, for a moment be supposed, that every man has not the most perfect constitutional, as well as moral, right, to express his opinions most freely against any or all the laws of the land ; or if he please, the con- stitution itself. We know of no laws in our land like the laws of the " Medes and Persians," or we know of no divine right of kings. Legislators, as delegated by the people, may enact laws to-day, and repeal them to-morrow. This always has been so in our country, and always must be so, if we remain a free people. It will not do for any man in this Union to make a reserve in his mind of certain laws which happen to favour his particular interest much ; and say to his neighbour, ail other laws of the land you may freely speak against, but these are my laws, and these you shall not speak against upon the peril of your property and your life. The man who should make such a threat to an American citizen in any part of this Union, if the letter and the spirit of the constitution should be acted up to, would at once be secured as a dangerous person to run at large. The man who should do so, I should think, would as soon rob his threatened neighbour, at the midnight hour, of all his worldly trea- sures, which are of far less value to any independent human being than the freedom of speech. ILLUSTRATED. 181 One oppressive and despotic act, either in accordance with a tyrannical law, or as the edict of lynch-law, may at once deprive any of us of all the invaluable im- munities and privileges which law, in its broadest and best sense, can afford us, when righteously administered. For it is then, like an angel of love and of power, com- missioned from on high to guard with watchful eye, our every right, " both when we wake and when we sleep." What well-wisher to his fellow-man, regardless of colour, would not most cheerfully contribute his utmost influ- ence to sustain the supremacy of law, in the just and comprehensive sense in which a Literary Journalist of the day so beautifully and graphically portrays it, to wit : " The spirit of the law is all equity and justice?" In a government based on true principles, the law is the sole sovereign of a nation. It watches over its subjects in their business — in their recreation, and their sleep. It guards their fortunes, their lives, and their honours. In the broad noon-day, and the dark midnight it ministers to their security. It accompanies them to the altar and the festal board. It watches over the ship of the mer- chant, though a thousand leagues intervene ; over the seed of the husbandman, abandoned for a season to the earth ; over the student — the labours of the mechanic — the opinions of every man. " None are high enough to offend it with impunity — none so low that it scorns to protect them. It is throned with the king, and sits in the seat of the republican magistrate ; but it hovers over the couch of the lovely, and stands sentinel at the prison, scrupulously preserving to the felon, what rights he has not forfeited. The light of the law illumines the palace and the hovel, and sur- 16 182 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY rounds the cradle and the bier. The strength of law laughs forfeitness to scorn, and spurns the entrench- ments of iniquity. The power of the law crushes the power of man, and strips wealth of unrighteous immunity* It is the thread of Dsedalus, to guide us through the laby- rinths of cunning. It is the spear of Ithuriel, to detect falsehood and deceit. It is the faith of the martyr, to shield us from the fires of persecution. It is the good man's reliance ; the wicked one's dread — the bulwark of piety — the upholder of morality — the guardian of right — the distributer of justice — its power is irresistible — its dominion indisputable. It is above us, and around us, and within us. We cannot fly from its protection — we cannot avert its vengeance." Had the good people of Alton always cherished the above glowing sense of the benefit of law, and of their obligation to sustain its supremacy, would Lovejoy or Bishop now be sleeping in their tombs ? Or did the people of Illinois thus feel, would they now suffer open assassinators to run at large in their midst^with impunity ; vying for the honour of shooting down one of their own peaceable fellow- citizens ; for nobly vindicating the great and glorious prin- ciples of the American constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and the press to al!, being answerable only to constitutional laws for any abuse of it? Did the people of this nation too, entertain this pure, elevated, and consistent view of human rights, think you they would much longer allow, not only the rights of two and a half millions of their own countrymen to be arbitra- rily wrested from them, but themselves also, violently torn from themselves — sold under the hammer to the highest bidder — to be hand-cuffed and chained by ILLUSTRATED. 183 him, and then driven under the lash to work — when, where, and as long as he pleased ; and all this for no alleged crime whatever? My fellow-countrymen, we may say what we will about freedom, free principles, and equal rights, — the above heavy charge stares us in the face in the view of all the world. Try as the north may to roll it over upon the south, neither God nor man will ever acquit us, until the blood of the millions of our countrymen is washed clean from our *' guilty skirts," by at least testifying loudly against it^in word and in deed, before all Heaven and earth. SECTION VII M I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THE SLAVES ARE SO IGNORANT THEY COULD NOT TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES." This objection, on the face of it, would most certainly seem to wear the appearance of a very benevolent and humane one. But humane as it may at first appear to be, yet how can it hardly deserve a passing notice when every body knows that ignorant and degraded as the slaves have always been, most wickedly and cruelly kept, and with all the disadvantages under which they have laboured, they have always not only maintained themselves, but their princely and extravagant masters too, in all their pomp and splendour, some of whom in their rioting and luxury, have cost the poor slaves more hard toil to support them, than it has to support some hundreds of themselves, with their peck of corn a week. And if the slave, loaded down with his heavy and galling chains, has maintained himself and his extravagant master too, what could he not do, strike off these chains and give him all the intelligence and the encourage- ments of a blessed civilized and christianized life? If all the slaves in the United States should have their shackles knocked off, and endowed with the privi- leges of freemen to-morrow, and barely paid a fair com- pensation for their labour, (which would also be far bet- ter for their masters) they would at once be as capable, LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 185 from the honest avails of their labour of supporting them- selves and their families, in their accustomed mode of living, as any class of people in the world. Of this there can be no question. No one expects that the slaves should all at once rise from their degradation, and from their simple and scanty food, to all the refinements and luxuries of civilized life. Neither would this for their own good be at all desir- able. As their wants, incident to their free progressive state in civilization, should gradually increase, their knowledge and ability to supply them, would keep pace. Do we not see this throughout every condition of hu- man life, from the honest industrious peasant to the king upon his throne, wherever a government is founded and administered upon principles of justice and equal rights? These views are not only known to be correct beyond controversy, from all the examples of emancipation which the world has ever furnished, but I think they are also based upon practical common sense principles. Let any one read Thome and Kimboll's late account of West India emancipation, and doubt this if he can. Suppose it be objected, as sometimes it is, that there would be many old and infirm men and women, who would be poor, and could not labour for their support. This is the case among all people of all colours. We are told, that we " shall have the poor always with us." But would not the southern public, in case of imme- diate and universal emancipation, be under greater ob- ligation to support these infirm and indigent slaves, 16* 186 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY whose lives were well nigh spent in amassing their wealth, than even children are, if possible, to support their infirm and indigent parents 1 The frame and the constitution of some of these poor, aged, decrepid, and helpless men and women, have been broken down un- der the task-master's lash ; others have toiled out, and well nigh worn out a long and dreary existence to amass wealth for cruel and tyrannical masters. And furthermore, if all the slaves were emancipated at once, doubtless, coloured children would contribute as cheerfully towards the support of their helpless pa- rents, whenever they could be satisfied they had found them, (especially, if the parents would not disown them on account of colour,) as white children would be to as- sist their parents. But happily, we are not left to mere conjecture on these particulars. It is now settled from experience beyond controver- sy, that the coloured man whenever and wherever fairly tried, is as fully capable in every respect to sustain him- self in civilized life, as the " uncolonred man." It may be asked then, why we do not see the free people of colour better sustain themselves in this coun- try than they do? I answer, that instead of wondering at this, we ought rather to be astonished that they bear up under all their legal, moral, and social disadvanta- ges, privations, and grievances, as well as they do. There are exceptions as among all people, but I believe their comparative statisticks as to their good habits and morals, leave them not behind any other class, and much before some classes of the uncoloured people* in morals, temperance, and economy. ILLUSTRATED. 187 Almost every possible wicked means have been re- sorted to, and practised by the whites of this country, to crush this long insulted and greatly abused people, into the very earth upon which we tread. They have always been studiously caricatured and slandered in all variety of ways. They have been cruelly made the sport and the song of boys in the streets, of the drunkard in the bar-room, and of wicked men in high places. Indeed, they have been the objects upon which the wicked pride, prejudice, and caprice of the nation, have been unceasingly acting. Angels have wept, devils laughed, and all Heaven has frowned in righteous anger at these outrages upon humanity. Let us see from a {ew facts, whether this people have merited such treatment at our blood-red hands. The 10,000 fugitives from American oppression, now in Upper Canada, are represented to be as moral, and as industrious a people, as any other class in that pro- vince. The following statistics, among many similar instan- ces that might be cited, are found appended to the re- marks of H. B. Stanton, Esq. before the Massachu- setts Legislative Committee. They are mostly from public documents, and can be relied on to be correct. In Philadelphia, the coloured population amount to about 20,000, and are in proportion to the whites as one to nine. The large majority of this population have been slaves, or are the immediate descendants of slaves. In 1830, the whole number of out-of-door paupers statedly relieved in the city, was 549 : — only 22 of these, or about 4 per cent, were people of colour. Of 188 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the paupers admitted into the alms-house, the proportion was nearly the same. In the same year, the payments by the coloured people of the city to poor funds, was ..... $2,500 The expenditures for coloured poor in the same year, was . . . 2,000 Balance, . . . 500 Thus, so far from being unable to take care of their own poor, besides doing this, pay $500 per year to sup- port white paupers ! ! These facts were fully confirmed to the writer of this note, by the late Judge Vaux of Philadelphia. From careful inquiry and observation, among the 3000 people of colour in Cincinnati, nearly all of whom have been slaves, the same general facts appear. They have not only abundantly supported themselves since they weie free, but earned and paid their masters for their freedom about $250,000 ! ! ! The following recently appeared in the Pittsburgh Daily Advocate concerning the coloured population of that city. Probably the majority of these people, also, have been slaves. " It has been a matter of surprise and gratification.to those who have observed the deportment of the colour- ed population of this city, that there exists among them so much good order, and almost an entire freedom from the beastly practice of intoxication, which we too fre- quently see exhibited in our streets by people of our own race. Their conduct, so far as observed in this city, is fifty per cent, in the aggregate, more virtuous ILLUSTRATED. 189 than is the conduct of the same number of whites in the same grade of occupation and society." This is the people deemed by us, (to our shame be it said,) fit only for slaves — or if ever emanci- pated, it must be done by an almost endless series of centuries, and even then their chains must by no means be filed off, unless they are at once driven out of their country, as we drive the poor Indian ! ! ! As this insult and slander to this abused people, added to grievous prejudice and oppression, have so long been prevalent through the length and breadth of our land, I have recently felt it my duty to make considerable per- sonal inquiry in relation to it, in a number of villages and cities in our country, and to my own astonishment, the uniform testimony has been, that it was a very rare instance, that a coloured man, woman, or child, was ever seen asking alms from door to door, even in pla- ces, and at times, when it was very common for white people. All this is the more marvellous, because they are literally and wickedly shut out, from most kinds of respectable and lucrative employment. But, says one, what are all your grievances of the free people of colour in this country 1 I answer, that unreasonable and wicked prejudice, hatred or contempt, lies at the foundation of them all, and slavery lies at the foundation of this, for there is no such thing as preju- dice against colour, merely as a colour, but only as a mark oj degradation or caste, by our ideas of associa- tion. It is not the colour that is so much loathed and hated, but their poverty and degradation. Proud aris- tocratic man is altogether prone to shun and despise his fellow beings, in those circumstances which the Saviour 190 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY of the world when on earth, most sought for and com- forted. It is from this cause that the coloured people are almost entirely shut out from churches, schools, and every respectable or lucrative employment in this country. Says onother, for this reason they never can do any thing in this country. Very true, so long as a nation and a people, we conduct thus unreasonably, oppress- ively, and wickedly towards them. It would undoubt- edly, be precisely so with uncoloured, very white, or half coloured people, just reverse the order of things. Not long since, I read an account of a coloured man being excommunicated from a church because he dared to purchase a pew in a meeting house for himself and his family, instead of sitting up in one corner of the gallery assigned for " niggers." I am afraid that those who expelled him may themselves finally be expelled from that house above not made with hands. Such kind of white religion in this world may be turned into the very blackness of darkness in the next. Like the vile seducer of innocence and virtue, we have as a nation, brought this people into the most ab- ject degradation. And then upon our awfully fearful and unrighteous elevation over them, look down upon the ruins, our own profane hands have caused, with the most wicked and cruel hatred, contempt, and scorn. Is not such conduct more like fiends than christians ? At the judgement, I believe that none of us will ever be allowed to plead our wicked prejudices against colour, or against the poor, by way of apology, for our op- pression and wickedness. ILLUSTRATED. 191 Were it necessary here, I could relate numerous in- stances, of similar treatment, as the one just mention- ed, even here at the north. It would certainly seem, that he must be almost wilfully blind to passing events, who does not perceive, that the persecution of this peo- ple, is increasing in fearful extent and malignity. Lafayette, when on his last visit to this country, re- marked with astonishment, the aggravation of the pre- judices against coloured people, and stated, that in the revolutionary war, the black and white soldiers messed together, without hesitation. This prejudice against the poor and degraded, both of coloured and uncoloured people in our country, has increased in exact proportion to our wealth, our pride, our haughtiness, and independence as a nation. Yes, the coloured man, when our fathers were well nigh brought into bondage, fought and bled for their freedom, and now, we their sons, continue to enslave him for it. I am confident, that the real nature and tendency of slavery in this country, in all its bearings upon our liber- ties, are generally, as yet, comparatively but little under- stood at the north. It appears to be the whole policy of slaveholders, from a careful examination of their slave laws, not only to increase the number and strength of the chains, which bind their slaves to their horrid car, but to resort to every expedient and stratagem, which cupidity and a spirit of despotism can devise, to drag multitudes more under their chains, irrespective of colour. It has not been generally known at the north, that there are now many white persons, bought and sold as slaves at the south. 192 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY Their first and prime principle in their bloody slave code, will be seen at once, to be eminently calculated, and might have been designed, to bring multitudes of wretched victims, without distinction of colour, into their pit-falls, and doom them and their posterity forever after them, to a life of interminable and intolerable slavery. The law is this, the child must forever follow the condition of its mother. And as there are already some female slaves white, and many others nearly so, it can readily be seen, that by the progress of that wicked, and adulterous amalgamation, (which so many pretend to be so horrified at, if the slaves should have their free- dom, and all their rights protected by law,) that many white persons, to all human appearance, are thus actu- ally doomed to inevitable slavery, with their posterity, for ever after them. I will here just give one or two instances among many, that might be cited of the fruit of this first principle of the accursed slave code — I select these because they re- cently happened. The crime however, of enslaving coloured, or uncoloured people, is all the same to an impartial and unprejudiced eye. — The cases alluded to are as follow. — From the Richmond Whig. "$100 Reward " Will be given for the apprehension of my negro, Edmond Renney, alias Roberts. He is about 40 years of age, low and well made, very large mouth, pleasant countenance, and seldom failing to smile when spoken to. He has straight hair, and complexion so nearly white, that it is believed a stranger would suppose there was no African blood in him." ILLUSTRATED. 193 The balance of the advertisement merely directs what jail to lodge him in, &c. Advertisements similar to the above for white slaves, are not unfrequent at the south. * A few days ago I noticed an extract from a southern paper bidding up a reward for a slave, who was repre- sented to be a preacher of the Methodist denomination, and described as being so nearly white, that a stranger would take him for a white man. Who cannot draw the clear inference, to show what such a state of things must most inevitably ultimately result in ? And who will not start at the alarm of fire until his own house be envel- oped in the flames ? Or, who will believe every alarm to be false, until the city be in ruins? It can also be plainly seen, by the whole tenour of the slave laws, that there are a great variety of ways to engulph human liberty by various slaveholding enactments, by which free coloured people are made to forfeit their freedom forever, and all their posterity after them. I had thought I knew something of slavery, but I found I had no just conception of it before. carefully reading the slave laws, and a number of other publications which develope its true character. It will be my object purposely to avoid citing cases of shocking and horrible barbarity, (though volumes might be filled with such relations as the legiti- mate fruits of the tyranny and cruel despotism of sla- * A white young man, just escaped from southern bondage* was recently presented to a large and promiscuous audience in New- York, when the audience was asked if they would protect him from being kidnapped, and they universally and enthusias- tically responded, " We will ! ! We will ! ! " Now was his liberty any more precious to him than liberty would be to every coloured young man in bondage? 17 194 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. very,) and shall endeavour mostly to confine myself to illustrations of general principles. I shall therefore have occasion soon to quote some of the christian and republican laws of this boasted christian and republican nation, both in relation to the slave and the free people of colour in the slave states, as necessarily (the slave- holders being judges) growing out of slavery. I shall do this by way of reply to the last objection considered ; that is, that slaves are better off than poor labouring free people at the north, that we may the more fully see the extent and the depth of the degradation of two and a half millions of our suffering- fellow beings in our land, and also the comparative wretchedness and misery of five hundred thousand coloured people called free ; and further, that we may see why it is, that the coloured people called free in the slave states, (of whom slave- holders complain so much of their being a vagabond race,) are indeed a most wretched, persecuted, and suf- fering class of people, and that their degradations and wretchedness are directly chargeable upon these same slaveholders, for their cruel and oppressive laws against coloured people, ironically called free, growing out of slavery, as the slaveholders say from " stern necessity." There can be no wonder that the slaveholders and slaves themselves, tauntingly, call this abused and suffering class of people " sheep without a shepherd, exposed to de- vouring wolves," for they are not even allowed to labour with the slaves to procure their daily bread. SECTION VIII. «I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE IT MAKES THE SLAVEHOLDERS MORE CRUEL TO THEIR SLAVES, AND INSTEAD OF OUR DISCUS- SIONS HELPING THE SLAVE, IT PUTS BACK HIS EMANCIPATION, AND MAKES HIS CONDITION WORSE." This assertion, as a general thing, is denied by the anti- slavery men at the south, who feel for the slave, and are doing what they can, under their peculiar and hazardous circumstances, to give liberty to the captive. These men, some of whom were once themselves slaveholders from their location, ought to know. They hold correspondence with the friends of the slave in the different parts of the world, and rejoice that the cause of emancipation, whe- ther seen or not by all, in reality, is rapidly advancing towards a final and glorious consummation. They tell us too that the slaveholders are now beginning to feel conscious, that the eyes not only of the people of the States of this Union are upon them, but the eyes also of the whole civilized world ; and that it has already tended in many instances to the mitigation of the usual cruel and rigorous treatment of their slaves ; and that in a num- ber of instances, emancipation has already taken place, which they say, in all probability would not have been the case, if all the north and the whole world had either been mute on the subject of slavery, or had been barely apologizing for it in a way indirectly amounting to its en- tire approval. The right of trial by jury in a number of 196 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the northern states for coloured people claimed by slave hunters as fugitive slaves, has been secured by the efforts of abolitionists ; and the happy result has been, that num- bers have justly retained their freedom who would other- wise have been lynched without mercy, and at once drag- ged into bondage when there would have been none to deliver!! Some 500 fugitives from the great prison-house in the land of oppression, have been kindly assisted (according to a divine command) on their way to a land called mo- narchical to obtain their freedom. But suppose even all that the opposers of abolitionists ask be granted ; what then 1 If in the incipient stages of any given enterprise no signal signs of good were apparent, would it be either fair or sound argument for its enemies thence to infer, that it should at once and forever be abandoned? If so, then might the student lay aside his books, and fold his arms to rest for life, because he is not yet familiar with all the lore of Greece and Rome. Then might the farmer say, I will not fell the first tree in the forest, be- cause I do not now see my extensive and highly culti- vated fields, waving with an abundant harvest. The mechanic too might lay aside his tools and sit down in indolence and penury, because a seventy-four gun ship which he would build, while all its materials are in a state of nature, was not already floating with majesty and grandeur upon the bosom of the deep — or a city as by a mighty magic power spring up at once out of the forest and the quarry, with its numerous and extensive ranges of splendid buildings, and its hundred stately temples with their glittering spires towering heavenward. Upon this peculiar mode of reasoning, even the Chris- tian too might well begin to doubt the promises of his ILLUSTRATED. 197 God, and henceforth forever cease to pray for the sal- vation of a world, because prayer for this object had so long ascended on high, and yet so large a portion of mankind still remain in Pagan darkness ! Would this be good logic in the face of all history, observation, and common sense ? With regard to the mitigated treatment of slaves, it is both rational and probable, for some of the slaveholders still flatter themselves, that the men of the civilized world, will yet allow them to hold on to their immortal fellow-beings, as goods and chattels, if they will only reform and correct, as they say, the abuses of the " pa- triarchal institution." Let such look at the late move- ment in England, to change the apprenticeship system for immediate and unconditional liberty, in all the islands, where she has not already done it. Yet, be this as it may ; does it alter the case? Suppose the op- posite to be true ; what then? Shall we cease to speak, and to hold up the truth before the whole world, and to do good as we have opportunity, because others, in their tyrannical and unwarrantable interests are infring- ed upon, and in their exasperations may take occasion therefrom to do evil ? Silence upon this subject is a heinous crime, that calls for the just vengeance of a just Heaven. Suppose, for example, that wicked men, through their unbelief and their enmity to the truth, should even scourge and imprison their own wives and children, (if they possessed this despotic power, even as slaveholders do over their slaves,) to keep them away from its influence : should the ministers of Christ, there- fore, cease to proclaim the truth boldly, in all affection as they ought to proclaim it, and to declare the whole eouncil of God, whether men will hear, or whether they 17* 19S LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. will forbear? Even if this people should harden their hearts, and turn away from the truth, and perish, as did the Jews, and as have other nations ; still those, and those only, who have faithfully declared the truth, have always been clear of their blood. It is sometimes darkest just before day ; and men often exhibit most of the tiger, just before they become like the lamb. There is therefore, yet hope for this op- pressive nation. The bloody Saul of Tarsus fur- nishes the world a most striking example of this. It is recorded that he was in a rage, just before it is said of him, "behold ! he prayeth." And how grateful is the hope that slaveholders, who now regard abolitionists as their greatest enemies, will yet regard them as being, AND HAVING BEEN, THEIR BEST AND MOST FAITHFUL friends. The wonderful plea to frighten the world, that abolitionists, simply by the public expression of their sentiments against slavery, and asking Congress, as is their right and their duty to do, and as Franklin, Jay, and a host of patriots and philanthropists have done before them, to do no more than to exercise its clear constitu- tional powers, to abolish slavery in the District of Co- lumbia, in the territories, and the traffic between the States, have put the cause of emancipation back fifty years, has no foundation in point of fact, in past experi- ence, or in sound common sense. If all men should maintain a profound silence on the subject of slavery, as slaveholders so arrogantly de- mand, and as some very "peaceable " pro-slavery folks so very 4 prudently and servilely obey,' we might as well expect slaveholders would emancipate their horses, as those immortal beings, now in their talons, and which we are told were created in the image of God, and but a lit- tle lower than the angels. SECTION IX. 44 1 AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION, OF SLAVERY EE- CAUSE THE ' niggtT8 ' ARE ALL THIEVES." It is by no means admitted, that more coloured than un- coloured people are thieves, in proportion to their num- ber, in the like morally, mentally, and physically degraded circumstances. But the question at once arises, can there be another people found on the earth, so much opp; ed, degraded, and trodden under foot, of a haughty and an unfeeling world? I have already shown that coloured, or uncoloured people, having no character to lose, and in their estimation, no prospect of acquiring one, 'save by a special, divine influence,) would generally become reck- less in principle and conduct, and often careless of life itself. And, indeed, what man of common sense, un- derstanding the laws of the human mind, could rational- ly wonder if this people, so greatly wronged and oppress- ed by men calling themselves Christians, in their exas- perations, should not only curse Christians, but the very God of Christians. But, admitting all that this objector would ask, that the coloured people being most cruelly and unjustly deprived of all their rights, and sometimes too, of the food necessary to their very existence, by the whites, sometimes from painful necessity turn about, and do what these whites call " stealing from them." You will allow me to illustrate the cause of it, in most ca by the relation, simply, of one or two very brief little 200 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY anecdotes, showing, at once, the mere common, animal nature of man and beast, ungoverned, or unrestrained by moral principle : — A cat, finding herself imprisoned with a rat, even when she was sufferin g the dying pains of hunger, had no disposition to devour her usual prey, to satisfy even these last demands of exhausted nature ; but caressed it — feeling conscious, I suppose, that they were both in the like mutually dependent circumstances. And again, a man locked himself up in a room with a number of kind t domesticated cats, and for his own cruel amusement, whipped them, until finding no way of escape, in self-defence, (commonly called the " first law of nature,") they turned upon him and destroyed him. It is also said, that an eccentric man, keeps for exhi- bition, on the bridge over the Thames in London, a large cage of living animals, the stronger of which, when at liberty, have always been known to be destroying the weaker ; but, being in like mutually dependent circum- stances, they all lived in the most perfect peace and har- mony. Who can but derive a highly instructive moral les- son from all such facts, however small in themselves ? But "none are so deaf as those who will not hear, or so blind as those who will not see." Who has failed to see, as a general principle, " the world over," that when men, by any train of fortuitous circumstances, whatever, found themselves exalted far above their surrounding fellow-beings, and as they supposed, independent of them, they have manifested to all, that they lived in a region where the very atmosphere, as it were, had either quite benumbed, or narrowed down, all those common regards ILLUSTRATED. 201 and common sympathies of human life, to a mere point. But, as a hopeful and redeeming feature in the world, there stands out, in bold relief, some bright and honour- able, and noble exceptions. The general principle, however, shows most clearly, why slaveholders, and the wealthy and the powerful, as a general thing, do not feel for the poor slave, trodden down under their feet, seem- ingly, entirely out of their sight. The benevolence of the soul, should at least be sufficiently expansive to en- compass all ranks and conditions of the family of man; a feeling more circumscribed than this, could hardly be termed benevolence or philanthropy. SECTION X. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, SAYS ANOTHER, BECAUSE AMALGAMATION WOULD FOLLOW BY INTERMARRIAGES WITH THE BLACKS." This, with some persons of most exquisite and refin- ed taste and sensibility, has been a formidable objec- tion to emancipation. And while they have been appa- rently horrified at the visionary prospect of legal amal- gamation, which, they supposed, at some very distant day, might, in some instances, take place, as they say, by intermarriages, the nerves of this same class of good people have not, in the mean time, appeared to be in the least degree disturbed, at the awfully wicked and exten- sive process of amalgation, which, every body knows, has always been going on in the slave states, — and that, too, in open and shameless violation and defiance of the laws of God and man ; with the dreadful design, too, on the part of the slaveholder, of selling his own offspring into interminable and cruel bondage. The five hundred thousand mulattos in this land, are, with few exceptions, but so many living monuments and standing reproofs to our nation, of the dreadful evils of slavery, and I fear, too, of pending judgements to be visited upon us for our national sins. But, says one, let those be guilty of such violations of the laws of God and man, who will : it is a voluntary business, and I LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 203 cannot prevent it. Would not the same principle hold good in case of lawful amalgamation by intermarriages ? Would it not, of course, be a " voluntary business," and therefore without any responsibility of a third person? As I am not greatly skilled in ethics, I will leave it to those who are, to say, whether voluntary legal amalga- mation would involve moral guilt. But that illegal or adulterous amalgamation involves a vast and most fear- ful amount of moral guilt in individuals and the nation, cannot, for a moment, admit of a doubt : and every man in the nation, who does not, in addition to publicly testifying against American slavery in all its forms and abomina- tions, do all in his power, also, constitutionally and peacefully, to abolish it speedily, in an important sense, becomes accessory and partaker in this constantly ac- cumulating load of pollution and guilt upon the nation. And I wish it to be distinctly understood here, that while I oppose illegal amalgamation as I do slavery itself, I do not advocate even legal amalgamation. This is a matter with which, as a nation, or as abolitionists, in the very nature of the case, we cannot and ought not to have any thing whatever to do. It would just as much, and no more, become us to opinionate and to legislate about intermarriages between native born and adopted Americans. All see and feel that this would be an infringement upon our inalienable rights. Let me illustrate my meaning by one or two examples, and I think that all who aim at justice to their fellow-men, as their very first principle of action, will most fully coincide with this plain common-sense principle. France, for example, owed the United States a large amount of money. It was a just and undisputed claim. 204 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY Now, suppose, as a condition of its payment, France had required the people of the United States to obligate them- selves never to expend any part of this money in a war with her in any case whatever; and that no Ameri- can should ever again set his foot upon her shores with- out forfeiting his life or his liberty : think you General Jackson, as the efficient executive of an independent nation, would have consented to any such humbling and degrading terms 2 And if he had, would not the whole nation, almost with the voice of one man, have cried out, this cannot be the act of General Jackson ? And had it even proved so, would not the nation still have exclaimed, Let the money and all France sink, before we will receive it on any such terms 1 This may be too strong language. If so, the reader can easily supply an imaginary modification to suit his own taste. I have used this illustration, being fully aware that there are very many valuable men who think it wrong to go to war in any case whatever. But still the abstract doctrine of justice, demonstrated by it, shows the universal common sense of mankind, that we are always bound to do justice to all men, entirely independent of selfish conditions. How would a gentleman look, who should decline pay- ing a coloured washerwoman her just bill for her hard toil, merely on account of her colour? Finite, short- sighted man, moreover, is not legally, neither can he be morally, responsible, for consequences resulting from the performance of acts of justice, in the abstract, to all men. Do honest men hesitate a moment to discharge honest debts, on the ground that the just receiver of the money may possibly, in some way, make a bad use of it ? ILLUSTRATED. 205 I will adduce one more illustration of my meaning, which appears to me to be clear, and exactly in point. Suppose a poor, but worthy young man, had wrought faithfully for some man of wealth for many long years without taking up any more of his hard-earned wages than the most scanty living. His wages had accumu- lated to a considerable amount, which he now demanded. The wealthy man, for whom this young man had so long and so faithfully laboured, admitted the claim tahe just to the full extent ; but having a favourite daughter, and fearing she might " fall in love " with the money or the young man, and marry him, withholds it forever, and compels this same young man to work on for him, through life, for the scanty pittance of his living : and as the rich man died, to will the young man's posterity (according to the genuine slaveholding code,) for the benefit of his own already wealthy heirs. Should mo- tives so base, and so unworthy of man, as in this case, ever be seriously attempted to be carried out into prac- tice, would not the simultaneous burst of virtuous indig- nation, of the whole community, be " shame on such a man !" Never mind the daughter, but demand of the tyrant, "the just wages," to the uttermost farthing. By the very simple mode of illustrations which I have chosen here, it appears to me that no one can fail to see the force and propriety of the high and invariable obliga- tory principle, upon all men, to do immediate justice to every one, altogether independent of any known condi- tions, or conjectured consequences. Must we not all see that this " quibbling and parley- ing" about conditions and consequences, is altogether a selfish business, and has nothing, whatever, to do with 18 206 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the straightforward act of "doing justice to all men, for the sake of justice." The truth is, that just so far as we impose restrictions upon our fellow-men, as the express conditions of our performing a simple act of justice to them, in the same ratio it is an abridgement of their in- alienable equal liberties, and equal rights, with us, which were given to all men by the great first Giver of every right, or of" every good and perfect gift," and which are ever regarded by Him, with a single eye. Abolitionists have nothing, whatever, to do with amal- gamation, any more than anti-abolitionists have. It is their business, and should be the business of this whole nation, without delay, to restore immediately, the down- trodden millions of our fellow-countrymen, under our feet, all their sacred rights, as men, and immortal and accountable beings, which we, by a tyranni- cal hand, have wrongfully and most wickedly wrested from them. There is nothing more common, when men are opposed to a cause, than for them to array the strongest prejudices in human nature against it. Hence, we have heard the note of alarm, long and loud, — amalgamation! amalgamation! sounded over the whole length and breadth of the land ; and that, too, by some who were practically and foully implicated, in the very charge which themselves would falsely prefer against others. In a certain stage of the temper- ance cause, for instance, the cry of church and state was reiterated from one end of the land to the other, by its opposers, knowing well that the people dreaded nothing more. But with regard to amalgamation, who cannot see, that it might much more effectually be prevented, if the ILLUSTRATED. 207 people should require it to be done, by legal enactments, when all the sacred rights and immunities of that down- trodden and much abused people, should be restored to them, and all their interests and relations of life, secure- ly guarded, by the strong arm of law ; and when base, UNPRINCIPLED MEN, COULD NO LONGER PROPAGATE THEIR SPECIES, FOR THE UNHALLOWED PURPOSES OF GAIN, BY SELLING THEIR OWN CHILDREN INTO END- LESS SLAVERY, TO THEIR LATEST POSTERITY. I do not say that I should favour such a law ; for I must go for universal freedom and equal rights, to every unof- fending human being, regardless of coluor or circum- stances. I must abide by the doctrine, that that which God joins together no man must separate. 1 mean those inalienable rights of man, which our fathers meant, in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence : life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. " But," says one, " I am in favour of sending the 4 niggers ' all home, where they belong." So am I. But where on earth is our home, if not in the land of our birth, the toils of life, and the graves of our fathers? Could not our five hundred thousand mulattos, in this nation, in a special manner, with all propriety, most solemnly reply to us, as a nation, as did the little ragged boy to his fa- ther, who, when he had company, being ashamed of the appearance of the little fellow, sternly told him to " run home." " Father," said his unsuspecting child, " where is my home V 1 Who will dare say, " let the sin be on my head, of rending asunder all the sacred ties of kindred blood, of this greatly oppressed people, both of the living and of the dead, by a cruel, compulsory expatriation." But 208 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. of the utter impracticability of colonization, and of the decided hostility of slaveholding colonizationists, ever to emancipate their slaves to colonize them ; and also of the whole favourable bearing to perpetuate slavery, of the visionary colonization scheme ; I shall say more here- after, which I trust may be convincing to every unpreju- diced benevolent mind, that it is very far from being a system of benevolence, though many, no doubt, have honestly thought it so. SECTION XL " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THE BLACKS ARE SO * EXTREMELY OFFEN- SIVE,' I CANNOT BEAR THEM ABOUT ME." This same " exquisite " creature, in a short time after making this ostentatious parade, to give us an exhibi- tion of her extreme refinement, and great delicacy of taste, had occasion to give a " splendid party ;" and for- getting what she had said, was at much trouble and pains to procure none but "coloured waiters," to keep up the " style." Was not this consistent uncoloured lady, herself doubly a slave : to prejudice in the one case, and to fashion in the other ? Who must not see, that slavery and degradation, and not colour, is the foundation of all this wicked, proud, and haughty prejudice ; or, to speak more properly, scorn and contempt of the poor, degrad- ed, and helpless, of this cold and heartless world. Let us take a case or two more, and see how it looks, and ascertain what we can make of it. There are now, in the city of New-York, various institutions of amusement, where the keepers indignantly repulse the entrance, for a moment, of all free people of colour, however respectable, or well behaved ; but freely admit them in the capacity of slaves or servants. I heard a coloured gentleman of sound sense remark, that the more res- pectable a coloured man appeared, the more some white 18* 210 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY people would abuse him. Such wickedness and hypo- crisy as this, when tolerated and countenanced by community, generally, is enough to draw down the right- eous judgements of Heaven upon any people on earth. In times of common danger, slaves have often been eman- cipated, and uncoloured men forgot they were in arms, side by side, in common defence, for their common in- terests and safety. This is all human nature, both among coloured and uncoloured people. When men fear no danger, every one appears to be exalting himself above his fellow. And we all see, that in this way, by long and uninterrupted prosperity, nations, as well as indi- viduals, often become proud, and greatly lifted up, to a giddy and dangerous eminence. But when a sense of some great and common danger pervades a whole coun- try, we see the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the learned and the unlearned ; and, indeed, all ranks and conditions of men, meet and mingle together, and look upon each other as brethren of one eommon fam- ily, feeling a mutual and a general community of in- terests. Should other powers combine to subvert our liberties, it would not be strange to see coloured and uncoloured men, again defending their common coun- try, side by side. I suppose it is for the like wise purposes of salutary humiliation, that we are told, that it is better for us to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting. But for these things, may a kind heaven for- bid, that, as a nation, we should ever be called to mourn, as one that " moiirneth without a comforter" There are aristocrats here, at the north, who will ride by the side of" black" drivers, day after day, in the capacity of ser- ILLUSTRATED. 211 vants, while it flatters their pride and their vanity, to have the world gaze upon them, as gentlemen of dignity and fortune, perchance, that they can order their boy, Jack, Joe, or Jim, with all the haughty airs of a master over his slave ; and at the same time, these same aristocrats would feel themselves very highly insulted, if a stage, packet, or steamboat proprietor, or agent, should dare presume to give the most respectable free person of colour, a passage, at the same time, on equal terms, for the same money, with themselves, under any circum- stances whatever. At the last anniversary of the New-York State Anti- slavery Society, a coloured clergyman from the city of New-York, Rev. Theodore S. Wricht, portrayed in a most touching manner a few of the miseries, wrongs, and oppressions which this cruel prejudice wrought upon the coloured people. I verily felt, while listening to his statements, that this nation had, as it were, leagued to- gether to crush this people into the dust, until a righteous God should appear with his strong arm for their deliver- ance, by taking vengeance on their oppressors. After showing the grievous disabilities which the coloured people in this country laboured under on account of this prejudice, in being debarred the privilege of churches, and of schools, trades, &c. &c. for the benefit of their children ; and how mortifying and afflicting it was to look upon their dear children, which they tenderly loved, and whose respectability and welfare they ardently de- sired, but were not allowed to promote them, being weighed down to the earth with unreasonable prejudice ; he went on to relate a number of instances of great 212 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY affliction and death which had been caused by it, a few of which I will recite in his own language. " Miss Betsey Stockton, a coloured lady, who ac- companied Mrs. Stewart on the first mission, I think, to the Sandwich Islands, was travelling for her health. In coming up the North River, although under the pro- tection of a white gentleman, and although an intelli- gent and philanthropic woman, who had crossed the ocean to aid in enlightening and converting the heathen, she was not permitted a place beneath the deck to lay her head in the damp night. By this exposure, her health was injured and her life endangered. Mrs. Smith was a pious woman, and lived in Newburgh. She was going down the North River on the steam- boat. Night began to come on, and she thought of the infant she held in her arms. She went to the captain of the steamboat and plead for a place, where with her dear babe she might be comfortable, and its life and health not be jeoparded. Such a place she was re- fused. She arrived at the city of New- York. Her child died, and after a short period she died herself, from the cold she then caught. " I might mention also the case of the Rev. Jeremiah Gloucester, former pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. Eight years since, he travelled on his professional tour through New England — was excluded from a cabin of a steamboat over night. Al- though in poor health, like his master, he had not where to lay his head. His exposure threw him into a decline, and he died. 11 In the fall of 1828, a gentleman and lady, friends ILLUSTRATED. 213 of mine, with a little infant, came from Princeton, New- Jersey, to visit me at Schenectady. On the steamboat between New- York and Albany they were denied a place to lay their heads at night. When they arrived at Albany, they sought a passTge in the stage for Sche- nectady. The woman being light-complexioned, would pass for white. She was interrogated very promptly whether she wished a passage. She told them she did. Her baggage was put on the stage. But when she spoke to her husband, and they discovered he was a dark man, the baggage was taken off the stage, and they refused a passage in it. She sat down upon the baggage with her babe in her arms, and wept ; when some benevolent friend seeing their condition, kindly procured for them a private vehicle at an expense of four dollars, which conveyed them to my residence in Schenectady. On their return from their visit, they went to Albany, expecting to meet the steamboat Al- bany, which at that time was very favourably disposed towards the people of colour ; but, unfortunately, they were a few moments too late. Their condition then was lamentable. I went from steamboat to steamboat, and' made great efforts to procure a passage for them, so that the mother, with her infant, might return com- fortably ; but in vain was my attempt. Whilst her husband left her and went home, I was compelled to return with her to my residence in Schenectady. When the boat returned to Albany, with my companion, I ac- companied her home to Princeton." On Mr. Wright's return with his companion to Sche- nectady, he gives an unvarnished and most affecting account of the inhuman treatment they met with, in 214 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY being exposed on deck in cold stormy nights late in the fall, whereby his wife, to whom he was much attached, took cold and suddenly died. Mr. Wright cited another remarkable instance, as illustrative of the unfavourable influence which such unchristian prejudice must have upon the unchristian- ized part of the world. Some native Africans (said to have been converted to Christianity through the labours of some American missionaries to Africa) came into New-York in an African vessel, and stopping over Sabbath went to church, but sat on the steps through the whole service, because no one would give them a seat, and that this was no uncommon thing. What a specimen of American Christianity must they carry back to Africa ! Would such a report, if believed, assist our missionaries to convert all Africa to our religion? In all these cases of unchristian proscription and op- pression of free coloured people, it is well known that blacks who would bow down and degrade themselves to the whites to breathe the air of servitude or slavery in waiting on the whites, had free access to churches, steamboats, stages, &c. Will not the time come when it must be said to such whites, " these shall be received, but ye yourselves shall be thrust out V Not long since, a lady (so claiming to be) from St. Louis, on her way to Gennesee county, N. Y. (her native place,) on a visit to her friends, utterly refused to ride in a stage-coach a few miles from Buffalo with a free person of colour, of good character and of re- spectable appearance, although this slaveholding " lady" had a black female slave, of overgrown dimensions, by her side. And strange to tell, she found northern men ILLUSTRATED. 215 who had christened themselves by all the good names of the land, such as Christian, Republican, Demo- crat, Whig, &c, who very politely united in the aris- tocratic protestation of this Yankee slaveholding LADY. Northern christians and republicans could very cheer- fully ride with southern slaveholders, and their co- loured slaves, but on no account could they be induced to ride with northern coloured freemen ! ! Shame on such northern christians and republicans, — if, indeed, such they ought to be called, — who will uphold such conduct by apologising for it, for this is nothing but a modified form of northern practical slavery. If every professed christian at the north was of this character, I should regard the north as having even more of the blood of slavery upon it than the south, and should tremble for fear it might sink, or some dreadful calamity, in righteousness, rained down upon it from above. I once myself, some few years since, witnessed a scene in a northern city, which I have never been able to regard but with utter abhorrence. A well-dressed coloured girl, of respectable appearance, had paid for a seat in the stage to visit her sister, whom, I was informed, she had not seen for some years. The girl was the last one who stepped into the stage ; and as she took her seat, a lusty, full-grown and full-blooded aristocrat, who had previously taken his seat, perceiving, by his aristo- cratic eye, that the girl breathed the pure and exhilarat- ing air of freedom, the same as did his honour, he indig- nantly bounded out, and insolently demanded of the agent if he meant to insult him ! The young man, at 216 LIBERT? AND SLAVERY first not knowing what he meant, inquired, " What is the matter?" On being haughtily and roughly told by the great man, that he did not ride with " niggers," the young man " duffed the beaver," and quickly refunded the fare to the astonished and unsuspecting girl ; took off her trunk, and informed her she could not ride. She immediately, in silence, but evidently much mortified, unaided, stepped out of the coach, and all was peace and quietness. The good man resumed his royal seat with his wonted dignified complacency, apparently fearless of farther molestation : crack went the whip ; and the poor, helpless, coloured girl, left in the street to visit her sister the best way she could. But, for the honour of the northern portion of our country, I am happy to be able to say, as I was credibly informed, that this "gen- tleman" did not live nearer than a thousand miles of this northern city ; and, for one, I most certainly could wish, for the credit of a city in a land of freedom, that no other such "gentleman " would ever come within two thousand miles of it, unless, indeed, in the hopes that he might thereby imbibe better principles, and learn more civility. I cannot forbear here, to give an extract from a letter published at Glasgow, May 20, 1S37, directed to an American, Captain Bigley, of the brig Cononicus, then about to sail from that port to America, on the occasion of his refusing Dr. James McCune Smith a passage in his vessel to New-York, his native city, whence he was driven for the crime of having a coloured skin t« Glasgow, to receive his education. The circumstance produced great excitement in Glasgow, and just indig- nation against this American captain. The letter was headed — ILLUSTRATED. 217 "CONTRABAND IMPORTATION — THE AMERICAN ANTICHRISTIAN PREJU- DICE AGAINST COLOURED PERSONS IMPORTED INTO SCOTLAND." My object, more particularly in making this extract, is to show that slavery is the cause of this vain, proud, and contemptuous prejudice against coloured people ; and that it does not exist in countries where coloured people are not enslaved. American interests, northern and southern, and American associations of thought, which have " grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength," in relation to coloured people, is now the millstone about the necks of three millions of our own wretched and greatly abused countrymen. The extract alluded to in relation to the American captain refusing Dr. Smith a passage from a foreign port to his native city, commences as follows : " This, sir, is a public offence ; because you publicly advertised your vessel for passengers, without stipulation as to colour, or any other exception ; and when a gen- tleman, intending to become a passenger, applies, as above narrated, you turn round and say, ' No, sir ; I can't take you ; your complexion is not so fair as mine.' You should, in your announcement, have stated, that you would take passengers only provided they are white — not coloured people — and then the public would have known your conditions and exceptions ; but it is right now that the public should know that they are such; and it is to be hoped that the people of Scot- land WILL APPRECIATE BOTH YOU AND THEM. In YOUr country you associate with, and inflict no disqualifica- 19 218 LIBERT? AND SLAVERY tions on a man on account of the place of his birth, or his religion. He is equally eligible to places of trust and power, whether he be of Dutch, French, English, German, Grecian, Turkish, or any other origin, provided he be white, and have no African blood in his veins ; and you admit men of all religious denominations, — • Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Ro- man Catholic, Jew, Turk, Mahometan, or Infidel ; and you would give a passage to, or associate with, any of these, or with any white man, although he may be flying from his creditors, whom he may have defrauded, or from the gallows, to which the laws of his country may have sentenced him : but to a ' coloured man,' who has sustained an unblemished character, — who has pursued his studies with credit and distinction, surrounded daily with white students, — who has honourably taken his successive degrees ; and, finally, that of M. D. in Glas- gow University, to which he had been driven from New- York, his native place, — these illiberal prejudices inter- dicting him from pursuing his studies in any American university, — who, on account of his mental acquire- ments, his liberal education, his moral and religious character, and polite behaviour, is unquestionably en- titled to the rank of a gentleman ; and who, as such, has freely associated in this city (Glasgow,) and elsewhere throughout the kingdom, with gentlemen and ladies of the most respectable classes of society, — at their pri- vate tables, and in parties, and in public meetings : to such a one you refuse a passage in your vessel, for the good substantial reason that God had been pleased to make his complexion different from yours ! ! " ILLUSTRATED. 219 And have you any reason to infer that your complexion is more acceptable in the sight of God, — of that God who has " made, of one blood, all the nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth?" Do you not know that God looketh upon the heart, not upon the colour of the skin, as a test of admission to His divine favour and presence in the heavenly kingdom? You may refuse him a passage in your vessel, but you cannot refuse him a passage to Heaven ; you may refuse to associate with coloured persons on earth, but will not refuse to associate with them in Heaven ? MAY THEY NOT STAND THERE IN JUDGEMENT AGAINST YOU, AND YOUR COUNTRYMEN, FOR THE IN- JUSTICE DONE THEM HERE?* Or, think you that there will be one Heaven for whites, and another for coloured people ? Is it so that you have read your Bible? To any of my fellow-countrymen, whether by nativity or adoption, who may read all these things, and perhaps many more like unto them, and may still have no heart to feel that such treatment to their fellow-beings is not only ungentlemanly, unjust, and inhuman, but also a heinous sin against Heaven and earth, I would say to them at least, beware, lest this dreadful spell of unright- eous prejudice carry you so far to aid and abet the op- pressor in your nation, that it do not soon irresistibly * Since writing this, I have had the pleasure of an interview with Dr. Smith in New-York, where he is established in his pro- fession, — and also of hearing an address, before 3000 people, from him, in behalf of his enslaved countrymen, with so much in- telligence, classical taste, eloquence, and power, as would make any uncoloured man in the land almost desire to be a coloured ?»an, 220 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY react upon you, like the inundation of a mighty water, to deluge yourselves, your children, and your whole country, in one common destruction. And now, to sum uj> the whole matter of this intuitive, inveterate, insurmountable, narrow-souled, hatred and contempt of colour, which, some say, (let alone inter- marriages,) will never allow us to treat coloured people even with Christian civility and Christian kindness, from the light of the philosophy of human nature, and also from all history and observation, who that is divested of prejudice, "clothed, and in his right mind" cannot readily conceive of an entire reverse of circumstances, in which the coloured people, in their turn, might look upon the uncoloured with all that contempt with which we maintain our slavery, are now haughtily and wickedly so prone to look upon them. Who cannot see that this same prejudice, then, would be against the uncoloured, and the veneration for the coloured people ? This point I shall leave here, as claiming no further notice in this place. It is certainly a most profitable and interesting theme of contemplation, to take into serious consideration, why this prejudice (so called) against colour, does not exist in countries where slav- ery is unknown. That it does not, cannot be denied, for it has long been a matter of history to the great disgrace of proud and contemptuous slaveholding na- tions. However it may appear to others, I cannot say ; but to me, it certainly seems as clear as that two and two make four, that the only reason that can possibly be given, is, that in countries where the coloured people have never been enslaved, the people grow up perfectly ILLUSTRATED. 221 free from all those associations of meanness, degrada- tion, and wretchedness, as belonging peculiarly to peo- ple of a particular complexion, or colour of the skin. On the other hand, where the coloured people have al- ways been enslaved and degraded, all the people grow up with all these horrible associations of every thing that is mean and degraded, as belonging peculiarly to per- sons of a dark complexion. This is certainly, most painfully amusing to one who contemplates this principle in all its bearings, with somewhat of a philosophical eye, and a benevolent heart ; for in all this, he cannot but regard adults as "fanciful children of a larger growth." In a country where the people grow up with notions of associating every thing that is low and degraded, with persons of a dark complexion, we find that mate- rials have been in great demand by some, for impro- ving the complexion, so as to render it if possible, the very opposite of black. Some too have killed them- selves in endeavouring to produce a "delicate pale com- plexion." But just reverse the order of things, and no doubt the happy man, who should be so extremely lucky, as to make the important discovery of giving the highest possible colour and polish to the skin, would at once have made his fortune forever. This vain, and proud, and haughty disposition in man, by the mere instinctive impulses of his selfish na- ture, if not constantly guarded, and resisted by a higher and a more ennobling principle, will prompt us, equally to seek the favour of the strong and the powerful, and to avoid, or oppress the weak and the helpless. 19* 222 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY We are very prone, in this rapid and short journey of ambitious life, to do, like the weary and sun burnt traveller, who swiftly passes by, with but a glance at every object that can afford him no protection from the intensity of the beams of the mid-day sun, in order the more speedily and securely to repose himself under the cedars of Lebanon, or the tall sturdy oaks of Bashan. Human nature thus shows itself in a great variety of ways, and often under very ingenious and plausible pre- tences. For example : in relation to what is commonly call- ed prejudice against colour, many, doubtless, have been so long accustomed to think it to be as much instinct- ive, as that we like the sweetness of the honey-comb, and dislike the bitterness of gall ; that philosophising with such persons on the subject, may be of but little avail. It reminds one, however, of a man, who having been so long addicted to uttering falsehoods, that after he had truly reformed in principle, found to his astonish- ment and grief, that many of the falsehoods, and those too which he well knew to be such, when first uttered, he had actually embraced as truths. Some of the good people in this land, should they ever be brought to themselves on the subject of sla- very, "clothed and in their right minds," would hardly believe it possible that they had once been employed in making back gallery-pews low enough to sink the col- oured people entirely out of sight of the whites, in the temples erected for the worship of that being who "MADE OF ONE BLOOD, ALL THE NATIONS THAT DWELL UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, AND WHO IS NO RE- SPECTER OF PERSONS," ILLUSTRATED. 223 And to tell a good colonizationist at the present time, (while so thickly enveloped by all his " black prejudi- ces") that the whole colonization scheme, is but carry- ing out this same principle of hatred and contempt of our poor brother, upon a broader and a grander scale, he would feel himself almost insulted. One sixth part only of the human family are white. Five-sixths of the whole human race, are by the hand of our Common Parent, complexioned from the olive to the copper colour, and from the copper colour, still darker. My object, in saying as much as I have, in regard to these aristocratic principles, of what is commonly called prejudice against colour, is to bring to our minds, not only to see the wickedness, but the extreme folly of our entertaining, and deliberately cherishing such feelings against people who happen to be somewhat differently complexioned to ourselves, that we cannot extend to them even the common civilities, hospitalities, or the charities of life. This wonderful monster in human nature, is nothing more nor less than hateful aristocratic caste. To say the least of it, it is anti-republican, unreasonable, un- kind, illiberal, not to say unchristian and wicked. It must be banished from the great brotherhood of man, or infidelity, aristocracy, monarchy, and despot- ism, with their iron sway, are forever destined triumph- antly to reign over the world, all the prayers and profes- sions of Christians, and all the idle encomiums upon re- publicanism to the contrary notunlhstanding % SECTION XII. •*I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THE BIBLE TOLERATES SLAVERY." Had I room in this place, I think I could most effectu- ally prove that this is altogether a false and distorted view of the blessed, humane, and benevolent doctrines of the Bible, which proclaim peace and good-will to man, and liberty to the captive. But as men abundantly competent, have of late ably and most triumphantly de- fended this precious volume of good-will to the upright and merciful, as well as wo to the oppressor, from this foul slander ; I shall content myself for the present, to leave the reply to this objection principally in their hands. And suffice it to say here, that most persons, especially at the north, who start this objection to the discussion of slavery, are very careful notwithstanding, to give us particular notice in the outset, that " they, too, are greatly opposed to slavery, thereby (themselves being judges) virtually pretending to hold a better doc- trine than the Bible itself contains. If this is not setting up our wisdom above divine wisdom, and our righteous- ness above that which is revealed, if it be not indeed the very essence and the height of self -righteousness, I must acknowledge I know not what can be. It also, inad- vertently, betrays a total unbelief in divine revelation itself. LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 225 And indeed, who could or should believe the Bible, if it did actually countenance and uphold the institution of American slavery in all its cruelty, violence, and abominations, far exceeding those of Egyptian bondage, for which Pharoah and his host were so signally des- troyed ? The negative as well as positive practical inculca- tion by the American churches, of this false and dread- ful doctrine, has doubtless already done more to aid skepticism in all divine truth, with its endless train of consequent evils in the United States, than all the other glaring excresences of the Christian churches in our country. Infidelity itself has stood aghast ! and been exclaiming in its dark soliloquy, " if the church will violently rend asunder all the tenderest ties of life, hand- cuff, chain, and sell her own members to the highest bidders, to be driven away into a returnless and hope- less bondage, what will she not do? and is such religion from above, or from beneath? And what better is a church that can remain mute or apologise for such deeds of darkness and death, than that church which actually takes the bloody knife into its own hand. Such a doctrine, long theoretically and practically in- culcated by any religion, would be enough to overthrow it from the moral sense of all mankind. Palsied will be the tongues of the advocates of such a religion. The kind of servitude spoken of in the Bible, except by divine injunction, by way of special chastisements for the sins of a people, is no more like southern slavery, than unmixed despotism is like pure Christianity. Who that reads the Bible, can fail to see throughout its sacred pages, that the Almighty has clearly manifest- 226 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ed his righteous displeasure and abhorrence to the great sin of oppression, and his denunciations against the op- pressor, in fearful language and somewhat similar to the following : " And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task masters, for I know their sorrow." " Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians op- press them." " He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, shall surely come to want." "For the op- pression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that snuffeth at him." " Rob not the poor because he is poor ; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate." " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you, in that place which he shall choose ; in one of thy gates where it liketh him best ; thou shalt not oppress him." " Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chamber* by wrong ; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him nought for his work." " If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him or selleth him, then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put evil away from among you." " And I break the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." This last passage is doubtless figurative language. Can these and like passages be the source whence some of our northern pro-slavery friends receive their intima- tions, that while speaking of oppressors, and all th§ ILLUSTRATED. 227 dreadful oppressions and the abominations of slavery in the land ; they must be extremely careful to use very soft and smooth terms to " daub with untempered mortar," that while slaveholders are loudly and shame- lessly claiming slavery to be the " best basis of free- dom," a "divine institution," and also aiming to en- slave the free ; we should just merely say, for fear of offending them, " slavery is unfortunately entailed upon our « southern brethren,' and I do not see how they can ever possibly get rid of it. 19 Is not all this too much! like the tender mother who besought the father not to correct the wilful child for " it was sick," and could not say " I WILL ? " Ah, says one, you don't understand how to address our "southern brethren" — "they are a very chivalrous people ! ! " But I cannot forbear here to quote as being in place, the very eloquent and forcible manner in which Rev. E. P. Barrows, jun., of New- York, closes an interesting address on this subject. " When we consider, said he, that men have pleaded the authority of the Holy Scriptures, as a warrant to burn men alive for heresy ; that the monarchs of Europe profess to derive their despotic powers immediately from God, and call all resistance to their authority rebellion against Heaven, and that satan himself quoted Scrip- ture, for the purpose of inducing our Saviour into sin, we need not wonder to find the advocates of slavery claiming the sanction of a supremely benevolent God, in favour of a supremely selfish system, which author- izes men to be bought and sold, like cattle in the market, which contemptuously disregards the family relation which God himself has established, and which seals up 228 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY from the poor slave the word of eternal life, which is able to make him wise unto salvation. When God shall call evil good and good evil, when he shall put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, then and not till then, will he be found the patron of the American slave system." It should ever be remembered, that voluntary service for a longer or a shorter, a definite or an indefinite time, is not slavery, but freedom. In all this, there would be no violation of the inalien- able rights of man ; no reducing the image of our Ma- ker into the scale of the brutes, or to a mere chattel in law. There is one point of view, however, (said Gerrit Smith, Esq. in a late speech on the subject of temper- ance,) " in which this running to the Bible for the justi- fication of wicked practices, is consoling and cheering to the friends of that blessed book. It shows that the Bible is the the acknowledged standard of right and wrong, and that men are uneasy in those sins, for which they are hunting up Bible apologies." Who can but regard this a very happy and correct thought ? " for were there no genuine banks, there could be no coun- terfeit paper ! " I would refer any one, who may have any idea that the Bible sanctions slavery, to Mr. Weld's able and un- answerable Bible argument against slavery. SECTION XIII. " I HEARD ONE MAN SAY HE WAS OPPOSED TO SLAV- ERY, BUT WAS OPPOSED TO DISCUSSING IT BECAUSE HE THOUGHT NO BETTER OF ABOLITIONISTS THAN HE DID OP SLAVEHOLDERS ; FOR ALL MEN, AS HE SAID, WERE ALIKE SELFISH IN WHATEVER THEY DO." He exclaimed with an air of considerable importance, " there is no difference in mankind." This was his ob- jection to the discussion of slavery. This reminds me of a curious fable, but which I can- not stop here to relate. I would, however, just ask this square-rule logician, what he would think, in " these hard times for cash," should one of his old debtors approach him with this ex- traordinary address — "Sir, I honestly owe you five hundred dollars, the amount of which I have now in my pocket, which I might and ought to pay to you, but will not do it for the important reason, that I shall be just as selfish in paying you the money as you will be in receiv- ing it 1 " Do we not all generally suspect one's principles, when we find him thus dealing in the gross, with the motives of all mankind ? Do not these indiscriminate and wholesale dealers in the motives of all men, probably act somewhat from a 20 230 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. spirit of envy and general detraction, designing to bring all men's principles and merit down on a level with their own ? I leave this suggestion, from which all may draw such inferences as they please. It is with general principles of action, and with conduct resulting from such princi- ples, that men mainly have to do with men. The high and sacred scrutiny of motives, is the peculiar preroga- tive of the great arbiter of conscience. To say the least, one must be greatly straitened, to resort to such a fancied hiding place, from which to aid the oppressor, by venting his malignity against abolitionists, and the poor oppressed slave. SECTION XIV. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THE SLAVES ARE NOT FITTED FOR FREE- DOM." This objector seems not to consider, that this greatly oppressed class of his fellow-men, are from the very nature of slavery itself, even necessarily (as the slave- holders themselves admit,) becoming more and more oppressed, and consequently more and more unlitted for freedom. This dreadful and lamentable fact, is obvious, on the very face of the whole system of violating all the rights of men. And can this objector for a moment, suppose that the poor slave, loaded down with all his chains, (which the slaveholders say are absolutely necessary, and must still be increased,) and entirely enveloped in mental and moral darkness, can possibly be made to feel and to un- derstand all the blessings of civilized life, in which he is in no sense allowed to participate 1 As well might we instil the heavenly principles, and the benign spirit of the gospel of peace and love, into the minds of men, by all the pains and the horrors of the inquisition. As well might we teach a deaf man sounds, or a blind man colours. And more than this, 232 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY were it even practicable to teach men all the arts and sciences of civilized life, while in a state of abject sla- very, it never has, and probably never will be done, for the very obvious reason, that the whole piratical and ac- cursed business and policy, of making merchandise of human beings, beginning, middle, and end, is but one dreadful scene of violence and ruin, to all possible rights of the enslaved. The truth is, the guilty conscience of the slaveholder, while he holds on his vampire grasp upon his human prey, dares not allow him to give them the least possi- ble means of knowing and avenging their wrongs, any more than the pirate himself dares put his bloody im- plements into the hands of his ill-fated victims. But when the slaveholder draws the iron from the soul, lets go his grasp, and sets his slaves at full liberty to breathe their native air of freedom, as their benevolent Creator designed them to do, they leap for joy, and at once rally around him as their best friend, and bury their past wrongs forever. They can then begin to learn, and to appreciate the invaluable boon of civil liberty, and like men raised from the dead, to the astonishment of all, " they are seen walking uprigkthj."* Why do some men learn more than others in civili- zed life? There is, doubtless, some difference by na- ture. But the principal reason, I conceive, is, that some mark out a course of life agreeable to them, think they see their account in it, take encouragement, and * For the truth of this, read the late account of emancipation in the West Indies, by Thome and Kimball. ILLUSTRATED. 233 freely and ardently pursue it, and concentrate the whole energy of their powers to the accomplishment of their favourite object. All this enterprise is but the natural result of their freedom of thought, and of action, or of men's pursuing " their own happiness in their own way," just as the no- ble but desecrated constitution of our country, fully guarantees to every American citizen. 20* SECTION XV. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THE BLACKS ARE AN INFERIOR RACE OF BE- INGS TO THE WHITES, AND ARE THEREFORE MADE FOR SERVITUDE TO THE WHITES." This objector, I should think, must have adopted the creed, " that all is fair in politics," or, in other lan- guage, that "might is right;" or (without allusion to any man's party politics but for the sake of illustration merely,) that " the spoils of the vanquished belong to the victor" and " that the end always justifies the means." Here we see " expediency" with a ven- geance." Now, all these anti-christian, anti-republican, and des- potic sentiments, I hesitate not to say, should at once and forever be utterly discarded by every philanthropist, every Christian, and by every 'friend to mankind and lover of equal rights, as altogether unworthy of him. They should not be permitted to hold even a momentary lodgement in his mind, lest they soon transform the pure republican, or the nominal professor of Christianity, into the absolute despot. The direct tendency of the prevalence of such sentiments, is to aristocracy and despotism, and to base degeneracy throughout the whole body politic. When such sentiments prevail, "corrup- tion necessarily becomes the order of the day." I have made these remarks only as being proper and called LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 235 for, in reply to the objection in question, entirely inde- pendent of all personalities. But I make them too as being too generally applicable to all exclusive partisans in mere party politics. But to return to the point under consideration. That the coloured people are by nature inferior to the uncoloured, wants proof. . I once heard a " gentleman," who seemed to have the "bump of self-esteem" some- what more prominently developed than the " bump" of reverence, conscientiousness, benevolence, or intellect, with an air of great wisdom proving this, (or rather dis- proving it,) by gravely remarking to another, that the " nigger's " head had been weighed in "the balance" of " phrenology ," and found wanting, and therefore, he said, he should not be free. I thought I discovered, from the " gentleman's " own mathematical rules of " gauging mind," that he must himself also have been rather deficient, and the thought was involuntary, that " those who live in glasshouses had better not throw stones." But this " political phrenologist," who would bound a man's liberties by the peculiar configuration of his head, I think must himself have lacked either some of the phrenological implements, or the skill to use them. For I recollect to have seen one of this pro- fession, who, by compressing the "intellectual powers" awhile, turned them all into the " animal organs" and then, by an inverse process, after a while remodelled the same " animal" into a prodigy of intellect! It is not my province, however, in this place, neither is it at all to my purpose, to canvass the particular claims and utility of phrenology. To say no more, in looking over the publications on the subject, there cer- 236 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY tainly appears to be many things which at least look plausible, especially if one side only be considered. The doctrine, also, has some ingenious and skilful ad- vocates. But suffice it to say on this point, that even supposing phrenology to be well-founded, and true in all its length and breadth, and that our long and heavy oppressions upon the down-trodden coloured people have indeed pressed their " intellectual powers" into the " animal organs," (as this phrenologist declares,) it would still be one of the most conclusive arguments conceivable, that we ought at once to let off our vile and heavy hand of oppression upon our brother, which has thus profanely plucked him down from the dignified and elevated rank of a noble and an intellectual MAN, then thrust him under our feet, and trampled his very head (as this phrenologist would have it) into that of a mere " brute." I say, if all this indeed be so, it is certainly, of all other reasons, the most powerful and conclusive one imaginable, why the hard-hearted oppressor should at once cease his grievous oppressions, that that so much degraded head should again be "righted up" into the noble and " God-like intellectual " image in which its Maker formed it. It is surely admitted, that long and heavy oppressions will give both the mind and the body a gloomy, down- cast, and degraded appearance. But if this be so even externally, how must that immortal soul, which no mortal eye can perceive, be morally degraded, and all its vast powers wantonly crushed and prostrated. So much for the objection to some men being freemen on account of the shape of their heads ! ! I ILLUSTRATED. 237 This objection to free discussion and to all men being freemen, (if you will allow the simplicity of the compari- son,) I should think (as the little child said) is about as large as a " piece of chalk." Indeed, were we to extend and carry out all these ridiculous, not to say criminal, caprices and prejudices against individuals, we ought at once, were it practicable, to lay out this little globe into very small spots of earth upon which to colonize every person in the whole world apart from all others, in ac- cordance with the real or supposed laws of phrenology, physiology, physiognomy, &c. &c. To imagine the plan complete, we might fancy to ourselves a little island for every individual on the globe ; for every human being is, to a great extent, more or less, the creature of habit, taste, prejudice, and circumstance. For instance, some fancy one sort of person, and some another. Some fancy large, some small, and some a medium stature. Some fancy black, some gray, and some blue eyes. Some fancy black, some brown, some light, and some red hair. Indeed, nothing is more common than to find persons in the same, and in every community, with as many and di- versified tastes in all these and nameless other particu- lars, as there are features and complexions among the people. This we all believe to be a wise and benefi- cent arrangement in creation. But one thing is very happy for us all in a free coun- try, (which is a kind of saving clause,) that none need ever to »« amalgamate" any of these diversity of tastes, except from their own voluntary choice. And we all, as freemen, would at once say, that almost any lawful voluntary choice would be likely to conduce more to 238 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY our happiness than even the most " modified " state of involuntary slavery. To this, doubtless, every heart responds. But one fact alone ought to settle the question, whether coloured people originally, under like circum- stances, were not fully equal to uncoloured; and forever to put to silence those uncoloured people who are always vaunting themselves in their own conceits of intellectual superiority over coloured people. Authentic history clearly traces the origin of this long outraged and op- pressed people back, and finds them to be the ancient Egyptians, who were then the most learned and accom- plished people on the globe. What historian does not know that Egypt and Ethiopia were the instructers of Greece and Rome? Our very " narrowly contracted" prejudices, by which we are so prone to gauge their in- tellect, arising from our various associations with their long-degraded state in slavery, and also that mental in- dolence and dormancy which are the necessary attend- ants of a state of abject slavery, are surely not only incorrect, but very unfair or disingenuous criterions by which to judge. There are no inducements in a state of slavery, even if the means were not tyrannically de- nied, to unfold, and to bring into requisition the vast powers of the immortal mind of beings "created but a little lower than the angels." This desire of invidious distinctions has its legitimate and full force among people of all colours ; all circumstances being equal. We are all too prone to measure the intellect and the wisdom of uncoloured as well as coloured people from their exalted or their obscure station in society. Behold that poor man in community, for example, whose wis^ ILLUSTRATED. 239 dom or intellect no one, perhaps, ever thought of eulo- gizing. Let him, by " fortune's freak," be suddenly exalted to great wealth, and throw around him a splen- dour, and a diffusion of his bounty, that should far eclipse his neighbours, — all, at once, are lavish in his praise, and ready to bow down, and to do the same abject reverence, that but yesterday was passed by, either with contempt or entirely unnoticed. And also, when the great and the mighty ones of earth fall, we hear the expression by way of scorn and triumph, " / thought it would be so!!" These things, in large com- munities, where changes in men's circumstances are frequent, are matters of every- day occurrence, and therefore excite little attention or surprise. But they show poor "debased, morally darkened, and weak" human nature ; and upon what principle we are all prone to judge of the wisdom of men. Men are naturally aristocrats, and love to court the favour of the strong and the powerful. I think the in- fluence of this important principle of action in human nature should be clearly understood, and I would be glad if I could, to bring it out fully to view. Who, that has mingled to much extent with the various, real, or fancied gradations in human society, could scarcely have failed to observe, that the same "accursed" spirit of caste, arising from a desire of invidious distinctions among our "fellow-worms," " called free and while," only in a less degree, (owing to a variety of modifying circumstances,) to that which so universally prevails against our enslaved and coloured fellow-countrymen? Who does not see this, to the shame of communities called Christian 1 White domestics of superior moral, 240 LIREBTY AND SLAVERY and sometimes too of intellectual worth, are often treated by families with the same manner of marked inferiority as blacks are treated. Says Mrs. Scornful, / will never have a maid-servant in my house, who should dare presume to intimate to me, that she even wished to eat with me at my table, on any occasion — to dress as well as /do at any time, or to walk with me, or sit with me in church. Still, the same Mrs. Scornful says, she will treat her " maid-servants " well, [{they will keep in their "proper places. 1 '' There was no prejudice in this case in the mind of Mrs. Scornful against the dark coloured skin of her poor maid-servant, for it was much lighter than her own. Neither could there have been any just plea of inferiority on the score of moral or intellectual worth, for in both of these also, the girl was known to be much superior to Mrs. Scornful her- self. The ill effect of such a course of treatment of this highly important and valuable class of people, is at once made obvious, by contrasting the habits of the farming population of a country with that of its towns and cities. Among the latter, where domestics, regardless of colour, are studiously kept at a great social distance from their employers, it is almost universally proverbial, that they are untrust worthy ; but, among the former, where hired domestics are generally treated as members of the family in which they reside, such a complaint is seldom heard of. " He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at the length." — Prov. xxix. 21. But aye! murmurs the "dark proud demon of caste," this is what I fear. Now, this state of things, even carried to the aristo- cratic and unwarrantable extent which this case presents, ILLUSTRATED. 241 as bad and as wicked as it is, and repugnant as it is, both to republicanism and to the spirit of pure and unde- nted Christianity, bears no comparison whatever to southern slavery; where the most tender ties are con- tinually severed, and the nearest and dearest friends and relatives on earth are constantly torn asunder, and sold under the " hammer of the auctioneer," as goods, wares, and merchandise. All who are not absolute slaves, can, and often do demand their wages when not well treated, and at once change their residences. But not so with the poor bound slave for life. He cannot demand his wages, his wife, or his children, or change his residence ; for should he even intimate that he desired to do so, he would probably, in most cases, receive a severe casti- gation for it. It is true, the residences of slaves are often changed, but upon a very different principle than that upon which the residences of freemen are changed, which is to pursue their own happiness in their own way. A very bad master, by way of punishment and ma- lignant revenge, often sells the poor creatures to much worse and more cruel ones. Now, while I would hold to, and strictly inculcate all fidelity of service to one an- other in every condition of life, I have alluded to this treatment of white domestics, which, when carried to this extent, I regard as wrong, anti-christian, and anti- republican ; but I have named these too prevalent prac- tices, not so much, however, to reprove them in this place, which would be travelling somewhat out of my latitude in such a work as this, as to prove by these hings that people who think they are prejudiced against 21 242 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY a dark coloured skin, as a colour merely, are altogether mistaken. Tbeassociation, from their very infancy of such horrible ideas has deceived them. It is against condition, or degradation, or 'poverty, that the prejudice lies, and not against the colour of the skin, only in the same sense, that it might be under other circumstances, against the colour of the apparel. We merely regard the colour of the skin as a " mark " with which we asso- ciate in the mind the idea of degradation — against which degradation we are prejudiced, or to which we are opposed. Who does not know, that when he be- comes prejudiced for any cause, either in favour or against any body of people, that he is also very prone to view every one belonging to that body through this medium 2 Suppose, for instance, that two nations, one of blue coats, and the other of red coats, become highly incensed against each other, will not this singular prejudice mutu- ally attach itself accordingly 1 But who pretends to say it is against the particular colours of their coats, as colours merely? This subject will yet be viewed in a far differ- ent light from that in which it is now seen, owing to our present haughty, prejudiced, or beclouded vision. I have found that it seems to make very little difference what particular marks we may in our caprice regard as marks of degradation, whether it be the colour of the skin, the colour or the texture of the apparel, or the par- ticular style of equipage. It is quite enough for our purpose just to conjure up in our fanciful imaginations some particular marks to be marks or signs of inferiority or degradation, and all hap- pening to have such marks upon them, or about them, ILLUSTRATED. 243 we are very prone to decline equal associations with, lest perchance it might derogate from our fancied supe- rior dignity and importance in the world's estimation. We are naturally almost as ready to avoid such, as we would be persons with some infectious disease. We can however associate with them very freely as Jack, or Jim, or Joe ; or Peggy, or Betty, or Molly, as with pet domestic animals; but not as Mr., or Mrs., or Miss. Now I regard all prefixed titles as altogether unimport- ant in themselves ; but when we use them in some cases as a mark of intended respect, and omit them in others as a mark of disrespect, we see in it as far as it goes the very spirit of slaveholding, for the direct object of the practice is, to make others feel inferior to ourselves. When. I came into this country, said an emigrant, I brought several hundred dollars in gold with me, and while it lasted, the Yankees very politely called me J\lr. but now it is gone, they call me " old uncle Joe ! n Indeed, who does not know that mere words of them- selves are altogether arbitrary, and that the very sound of some which might ravish our ears by their peculiarly happy and delightful associations to us, might to others, being connected in their minds with an entirely different order and character of associations, be equally as abhor- rent and revolting; totally regardless of the term we se- lect, whether it be that of republican, patriot, or even Christian 1 The good mother for instance, who display- ed so much ingenuity and tact in naming her dear chil- dren, that she could call over their names with fluenoy in the presence of company somewhat in the following manner, " You Martha Washington, come here this moment, and mind Andrew Jackson and William 244 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY Shakspeare, while Arthur Wellington helps Napoleon Bonaparte, &c. would perhaps nearly as soon have buried one of them as to have named it Benedict Arnold, or Jack, or Sambo; yet what unprejudiced philosophical elocutionist ean discover any more respectability, or hear any more music in the mere words Andrew Jack- son, or Bonaparte, than in the words simply Arnold, Jack, or Sambo? This same principle in human nature satisfactorily accounts for the anomaly that some people " ca'nt bear Vifree coloured person about them;" but after he is tyran- nically reduced to a helpless menial slave under their feet, O then my boy (or slave) Tom, (a venerable man, 60 years old) is a very fine clever fellow, and I would not part with him for a thousand dollars. He is the best coachman, or the best house or field servant I ever owned, and will then often fawn about them as they would any other " domestic animal." Such deep, bland, and wicked hypocrisy is enough to sink a nation in ruin, and probably will sink this nation by the righteous judgements of Heaven, unless repented of and put away from us forever. The universal custom of slaveholders using the puerile term " boy," when addressing their male slaves from the child to the venerable gray-headed man, is very easily seen through. It is a kind of inter- mediate term between man and slave. Slaveholders avoid the use of the term slave, because it is annoying to their own conscious guilt, that it is wrong for man to hold his fellow man as a slave. They also entrely avoid the use of the term man, as applicable to an article which they call their property, because it would be, as they well suppose, a dangerous admission ILLUSTRATED. 245 to the slave that he is indeed a man, and should enjoy all the equal and inalienable rights of man, of pursuing his own happiness in his own way, even like unto his assumed tyrannical and lordly master ; and that it would also offend those proud and haughty feelings of fancied superiority of the tyrant, which is engendered, fostered, and con- stantly kept up under this accursed system of usurpation and tyranny over our fellow man, in contradistinction to the servile degradation of the poor oppressed and down- trodden slave. The power and spirit of this same kind of " tyranny of prejudice " was most strikingly exem- plified by an educated Turkish gentleman travelling through this country a short time since. He had travel- led much, and observed much of men and things. Still the views he entertained both of the Turkish men and Turkish women, show at once to all unprejudiced per- sons on that subject, how strangely even the most culti- vated and enlightened minds on some subjects, may still bo governed in many things entirely by an ungrounded, false, capricious, and often very criminal and cruel pre- judice. He held that the Turkish men were altogether superior to any other men on the earth ; while his most deliberate opinion was, that the Turkish women were de- cidedly the most inferior, by nature of their sex. Who cannot see, that both of these opinions, though totally false and groundless, might still have been very naturally entertained by this Turk, from the fact, that he was taught to believe and to feel, that the Turkish men were born to be lords over their female slaves ; and also from the fact, that the Turkish females had always been seen by him in a sunken, degraded state ; without in- telligence, and consequently, without influence. Did 21* 246 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY this haughty Turk live among us, would not both the men and the women of our country, endeavour to teach him an entire new lesson on this subject, even as we all should endeavour to correct the haughty views of slave- holders, and pro-slavites, in regard to two and a half millions of our down-trodden and oppressed fellow- countrymen? Do we not, moreover, see this same bias, more or less perverting the judgements of all people, from various causes, throughout every department of human life 1 And does it not arise, and is it not disingenuously cherished, from that pride of life, and that love of invid- ious distinction, so prone to human nature, and to which men too often aspire, by altogether unwarrantable, cruel, and wicked means 1 But, suppose the Africans actually to be an inferior race of people to ourselves, [which, however, remains yet to be proved,) would this give us a right to enslave them ? Far from it ! Surely the strong ought to bear with the weak ! Upon that principle, Myron Holley, Esqr., has well remarked, that " every nation on earth, but one, might be rightfully enslaved." Slaveholders and their children, omit no opportunity, from the nur- sery up, to rob the slave children of their inborn rights, to humble them, break them down, and make them feel that they must not own the most trivial thing, much less themselves. This is slavery ; and, reader, how would you like it 1 Does the kind and judicious parent, suf- fer his stronger children to enslave the weaker 1 By no means, — but enjoins upon them all, to protect each other's equal and inalienable rights, as given to them, not by an earthly parent, but by the Great Parent of all. Nay, more! a judicious parent will cheerfully grant his ILLUSTRATED. 247 aid, where most needed. We all know that this is a wholesome, just, and republican doctrine, not only for the treatment of families, but for the whole world of mankind ; and we equally as well know, that the doc- trine of absolute despots, or slaveholders, is, that of " power and might, over weakness and right ;" a doc- trine which, if suffered to prevail universally, would quickly enslave the whole human race, to the mere arbi- trary will of some one earthly tyrant. Will freemen of our dear country, behold, in time, the bold and fearful strides of this doctrine, which slaveholding is making among us? This same principle of " expediency," in the sense in which it is practised, in relation to the slave, which is supreme and unmixed selfishness, on the part of a slaveholding nation, has always, and, probably, (as long as the world shall remain as it is,) always will be practised in the world, upon the same principle, and ulti- mately to the same extent, (providing no reform, or rev- olution shall ever take place,) with all dominant political parties, without regard to colour or name ; for the ever- aspiring ambition, and the cupidity of man, know neither colour, bounds, nor circumstances. We see, too, this unhallowed power, in all unions of church and state, where all must bow down, and pay it tribute, and do it reverence ! It is, therefore, both a Roman and a Chris- tian virtue, to stand up against it, and by the power of truth, argument, and consistent action, in all proper ways, manfully resist all unwarrantable encroachments upon individual and equal rights, irrespective of party, creed, sect, colour, or condition. And, whoever will not do this, should he not be regarded with a jealous eye, as fitting and paving the way, so far ar his positive or neg- 248 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. ative influence can do it, for himself and others to be en- slaved ? Has not this ever been known to be the result of unhallowed, individual, or party ambition for power, when not timely and suitably checked by counteracting influences ? These charges are equally applicable to all parties in power ; of whatever name, in whatever age, or country. The doctrine of equal rights, and the doctrine of Cal- houn and his associates ; of the right of capitalists to own, and to buy, and sell all the labouring class, re- semble each other, just as light resembles darkness, or freedom, slavery. SECTION XVI. "I AMOPPOSED TOTHEDISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE IT IS A RELIGIOUS OR SECTARIAN MATTER." This objection has been sometimes made. It is true, that the subject of slavery is one, which at once involves all the moral, as well as the civil rights of man, and therefore, must be considered just as it is ; both a moral and a political subject. When I say " political," how- ever, let me not be misunderstood. The whole nation are under the highest possible moral obligation, to abol- ish their slavery, politically, just so far as they can do so constitutionally. I do not mean politically, on mere party grounds, but in the same sense, that the American revo- lution might have been considered a political movement, in behalf of all the rights of man. But whoever thought of opposing the cause of the American revolution, because Washington, the venerated father of our country, considered it a sacred cause, and was often found in prayer, commending it to HIM who holds the destinies of individuals, and of nations, in his hands 1 Had men acted thus in those trying times, where now would have been our liberties t The cause of emanci- pation, is emphatically the cause of human rights, in every possible sense ; for the enslaved are deprived not only of all the rights common to man, but the "great centre right " of all rights, the right to themselves. Even that 250 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY last right of mortals of humble supplication to God, or to his " brother man" to take off his galling chains, soothe his wounds, and restore to him his stolen wife and children, is peremptorily denied him by his master, and by this nation, and he is now doomed to endure his woes in solitude, in the great prison house of slavery, as was decided by the " slaveholders " vote in the Ame- rican Congress of 1837, that the poor slave had no right of petition for any relief in any possible case whatever. And, as if to doom the poor slave to eternal bondage, the servants of "the sovereign people" have just said, that the people shall nofpetition for him. All this, in- deed, only goes to show how exceedingly low in degra- dation and ruin we have sunk this wretched people. They are trodden quite beneath the sympathies of the nation, unmanned and brutalized. " Even the dog," said the Hon. John Quincy Adams, " can implore his master, but the slave must not." This was a time when an American ex-president, on the floor of Congress, literally wept over the great wrongs and oppressions of the nation. Who cannot see that " coming events cast their shadows before them?" I mean by this, that the bond and the free are most assuredly inseparably bound together in one destiny in this nation. Whether that destiny be slavery for all, or freedom for all, the future alone must disclose. Wherein consists the difference in this nation, this moment, between the men called slaves, and the men called free, in regard to that great first right of all people, of humbly entreating their " rulers," by way of prayer, or petition, to remove evils, or in the least degree to mitigate their grievances ? Why, the men called slaves, must not even write a ILLUSTRATED. 251 prayer to their rulers for any relief from oppression whatever. The men called free, may write a prayer, carry it silently in their pocket, even within the walls of the capitol, and are then most graciously permitted, in the amazing condescension of their rulers, respectfully to lay their prayer on a certain table which the " gentle- men," whom the people permit to occupy that house, have provided, principally for the depository of useless papers, considered not worth their time to read. Now, to discriminate between the difference in this treatment to people called slaves, and that to people called free, I should think it would need some improved instrument of far greater magnifying powers than the one lately said to have been invented, and to have made such wonder- ful discoveries in the moon. As to the cause of eman- cipation being sectarian, it cannot be so ; for persons of all denominations, and many of no denomination, are most cordially and mutually engaged in it, as one com- mon cause, for all the friends and advocates of free- dom and philanthropy in the land. And if religions people feel disposed to make it more a subject of moral than of political rights, what objection can any one rea- sonably have ? It is, moreover, a sacred religious duty, whenever we do act politically to do so for the best good of mankind. We should most certainly think, that reli- gious people, especially those who are in favour of mis- sionary efforts, to convert the heathen to Christ, of all others, (to be at all consistent with themselves,) ought to be the greatest abolitionists in the world, when we know that many of the better informed and more shrewd heathen, are constantly retorting upon our missionaries, with this most painful and cutting rebuke to every Ame- 252 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY rican believer, in the benevolent and divine character of our blessed Saviour. " If we enlist under your Christ," says the heathen, to American professed Christian mis- sionaries, " we are afraid he will make us all slaves." What American minister of Christ, knowing what American slavery is, and will not testify loudly against it, must not stand justly convicted, of at least a negative influence, of greatly retarding the universal spread of the Gospel? That great and noble philanthrophist, George Thom- son, Esq. of England, whose name, in all future time, will be justly enrolled among the most distinguished champions of human rights the world affords, has said that he considered himself acting for the world at large ; and that he regarded American slavery as one of the greatest barriers on the earth to the universal diffusion of free principles and the gospel of Christ. And indeed, what impartial eye that takes in the globe, must not so regard it 1 For while as a nation of politicians, we have long been loudly and ostentatiously boasting that we were the freest people on earth, two and a half millions of our innocent fellow-countrymen, or one sixth part of our entire population, have been loaded down with chains, forged with our own hands ! ! And while as a nation of professed Christians, we have nominally been thanking our God that we were not as other nations; that we were exalted unto Heaven with religious bles- sings ; that we were not bowing down to stocks and to stones, gods made with our own hands ; but that our religion was the true religion, was the purest and the most holy of all religions ; yes, while we have claimed in the view of Heaven and earth this most distinguished ILLUSTRATED. 253 pre-eminence, in the mean time we have virtually been inviting the nations to gaze, as they have done, upon the broad and dark suspicious mark upon our religion, until they are now ready lo say to us, — notwithstanding your long and loud professions, " what do ye more than others ?" " First take the beam from thine own eye, that ye may see the more clearly, to take the mote from thy brother's eye." In view of facts and of the opinions of all the civilized world, respecting American slavery, which I have been able to gather, were I to attempt to name the particular ratio, which American influence, moral and political, is lessened in the world, in consequence of our being to so great an extent a slaveholding nation, I should put it at least 75 per cent. If we are shocked when we hear that an actual heathen and barbarous people abroad, sometimes kill and eat our missionaries sent to them, would not even such barbarians be still more shocked to hear that the people in the country whence these missionaries came, when their slaves try to break their chains and obtain their liberty, sometimes consume them alive by a slow fire; and that they often actually make deliberate pecu- niary calculations, that it is more profitable to work their slaves to death in " seven years," (" when sugar, cotton, and rice, bear a good price, and they have heavy con- tracts to fulfill,") than to treat them any more lenient that they might endure a longer time ; and that many of the American born men and women, to get beyond the reach of this American republicanism and American Christianity, have put an end to their own existence ; and many others have adroitly secreted themselves for years 22 254 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY in caves and dens in the day-time, and worked nights for something to eat, for some who would thus befriend them. And is it much to be wondered at, if the foreign " heathen," do indeed call us " Christian dogs?" Now, will not all who are looking forward, and desiring that the whole world should soon be governed by none but a happy Christian influence, greatly deplore the ex- istence of all such hindrances, and readily and most cheerfully contribute whatever of moral influence they possess to remove them? While American slavery has ever been a most base and cruel libel upon the Christian religion, and while its professed friends have practically been inducing the world to believe the libel true, and while we have been labouring and praying to convert the heathen to our re- ligion, we have virtually been challenging their scorn and contempt of it. And have we not great cause to fear that for all this, our hypocrisy, we shall yet be re- warded, not according to our words or our formal pray- ers, but according to our works I Would it not be well for us as a nation, timely to remember, that God is not mocked with impunity? Even some southern slave- holding politicians themselves, who make no preten- sions to religion, most powerfully rebuke professed Christians, who either assume the attitude of opposition, or even neutrality on this subject of responsibilities so immense. Mr. Rives, in the senate of the United States, in his remarks on anti-slavery petitions to con- gress, admitted slavery to be a moral and a political evil. Mr. Calhoun, in his reply, told Mr. Rives, if he so regarded it, he was bound as a good man, to do every thing in his power to procure its abolishment. So ILLUSTRATED. 255 think abolitionists. But Mr. Calhoun has made greater progress in the science of human freedom than Mr. Rives ; for he says he has recently discovered, that slavery is the best kind of freedom. But Mr. Calhoun, after all, probably means only that it suits the interest and gratifies the tyrannical feelings of the/eu-, more to enslave the many. And again, there are those who discuss the subject of slavery, on the ground of civil rights only. And surely, it would ill-become religious people to oppose this class of anti-slavery men, as all other rights are secured to us by our proper civil rights. There are champion-, of civil liberty merely, who are deserving high praise. I heard one individual say, it certainly rnu^t be sectarian, because all presbyterians, as he said, were abolitionists. For the honour and the purity of that body, in my heart I Irish this were so. But so far from it, it is the lament- able fact that the advocates and apologists for slavery, in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, applied the keen but cruel excision knife indis- criminately, to all the northern "rotten branches" of this "strange vine" that they supposed to be in the least infected with the fanatical doctrine, that all men ought to enjoy the inalienable rights with which their benevolent Creator first blessed them, under the very plausible pretext of new measures — heterodoxy of sen- timents, and of its being a sacred duty, as good presby- terians, to abrogate all plans of union, recognised by common consent, "time immemorial." American slavery was the dark and moving cause that produced this exparte trial — this unconstitutional ecclesiastical Guillotine. And whether this bodv is Ion? 256 LIBERTY AND- SLAVERY to be governed by the slaveholding spirit of darkness* or the benign spirit of Christ, time and other General Assemblies will determine. I can call the act of the Assembly of 1837, by no softer name than the one here ascribed to it. Every such despotic act in church or in state, tends only to open the eyes of the people, to the very nature and de- mands of despotism, upon whatever hypocritical or plau- sible pretense they may be predicated. Men, who are sometimes ashamed to avow their real motives of action, are adepts at assuming very plausible apparent ones. Disguise this act as it may be, it is slavery still ; and was nothing but the same southern and northern dark pro-slavery spirit which produced it, that expelled the poor coloured man and his family from their church, for daring to purchase a pew in the house of God, in order to occupy it to hear the gospel preached. And is it not to be feared, that there may be some pro- slavery men in the excinded "rotten branches," who will yet make an effort to re-unite, to perpetuate slav- ery in that body, and in our country 1 But let us forbear to complain too much ; for if we take the side of the op- pressed, we must " remember them who are in bonds, as bound with them," and place our souls in their soul's stead, and expect to suffer with them, and to be oppress- ed also. One Rev. brother said, he did not believe in getting up these " irresponsible societies " for the discussion of slavery, or for any thing else. His meaning was, I sup- pose, that every society should be strictly amenable to some ecclesiastical body. Do not political parties, on the same ground, often ILLUSTRATED. 257 oppose free discussion and societies, as if the people were accountable to them also? Now while I would ever preserve a due regard for " pure and undefiled re- ligion," and for a holy and consistent ministry, I still believe it to be our duty to our fellow-men, and to our country, as well as to the church, to say that this jeal- ousy of the nominal church of " irresponsible " socie- ties, (as some ecclesiastical bodies have been pleased to denominate them,) has been most in exercise ac- cording to her past history, while in her most worldly, ambitious, and corrupt state. Innocence and purity have generally been " unsus- pecting." Is it not to be feared, that there is more "unholy" than holy jealousy in all this? This good brother also said, he believed in preaching the gospel, to be a remedy for all moral evils. So do all believers in the gospel. And if men, called ministers of this gospel, will not fully preach it, "but keep back part of the price" to please men; men called laymen must do it, or wo is unto them. Slaveholders too, while whipping, robbing, and selling their fellow-men like cattle, profanely hold up the sacred volume, and impiously say, " here is my warrant for such conduct." What a pity that the gospel was not preached in this country long before temperance societies were thought of; when intemperance was sweeping its thousands of the world, of the nominal church, and even some pro- fessed ministers of this gospel, into an untimely grave ! ! What a pity too, that the gospel for more than half a century before these *>. modern abolitionists " were known as such, could not have been preached at the 22* 258 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY south, while millions of wretched beings have been groaning under their heavy chains of " Christian love, and pure benevolence" in midnight moral darkness, and physical degradation, lingering out a wretched ex- istence, and dying without hope, in a far-famed, nom- inally Christian land, and without even an offer of Christ and salvation. But we suppose in both of these cases, the gospel may have been literally preached, or as some people oppose slavery, in the " abstract" but by no means has it been preached as Nathan preached to David — " Thou art the man." It has been preached in a way to suit the oppressor, but not the God of the oppressed. I always supposed that political parlies and ecclesias- tical bodies, had their own peculiar reasons for opposing what they were pleased to denominate " irresponsible " societies. But the " dear people " will sometimes be refractory, and dare to act like rational freemen. And further, (for plainness, with kindness of speech, be- comes either professed Christians, or professed republi- cans,) just so far as my observation has extended on this point, those Ministers and Christians, who oppose abolition societies, on the ground that it is the peculiar prerogative of the church, and the church only, to do away all moral evils ; while this doctrine looks well in theory, and while I do not feel disposed to contest it here, (provided, however, that it be understood that it is certain, that every branch of the nominal church, be a living branch of the living vine,) still it is somewhat marvellous to behold, that these are the very same per- sons, who, while they freely admit slavery to be "a ILLUSTRATED. 259 1 great sin, and a great evil," in the mean time are dis- obeying God, by not opening their mouths for the op- pressed and the dumb, either in the church, or out of it, but are constantly opposing the true and consistent friends of the slave. I once had the pleasure of hearing a discourse from Mark xii. 17. " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." However foreign the text, to any such purpose, the ob- ject of the speaker was to prove the unlawfulness, or impropriety of members of churches, being members of the "voluntary" associations of the day, however good their motives, or their objects. He was understood to mean, those associations only, which have for their object, the abolition of intemperance, the abolition of licentiousness, and the abolition of slavery, for I had always supposed that in this " free country," all who become members of Christian churches even, do so vol- untarily. And so long as we are blessed with the full enjoy- ment of our inalienable, civil, as well as religious, rights of conscience, it must always remain so. The admis- sion was fairly and honourably made by the speaker,, that as it regarded other "voluntary" associations of the day, he had no particular objection to them, because he believed their objects were good, and their iendency r to promote the gospel. He named the Tract, Sabbath School, and Bible Society. In what light, thought I, can this capricious partiality be regarded, but that of indirectly impugning the motives of all the members of the three excepted "voluntary" associations, out of the many in the world ? 260 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY When the Bible Society was named, it reminded me of the course which the different denominations of Chris- tians respectively have deemed it proper to adopt at dif- ferent past periods to circulate the volume of divine in- spiration, which, if done in the spirit of the gospel, I do not consider to be at all inconsistent with the speaker's most admirable late Premium Work on " Religious Dissensions ;" for any toleration short of this freedom would be an abridgement of the inalienable liberties of conscience, the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE of all free governments. I believe this is the doctrine and only this, which all true Americans have ever de- lighted to honour, and admitted to be in accordance with the primary principles and spirit of their free and repub- lican institutions. The various denominations of Chris- tians have a right to act in concert in the American Bible Society, and they have an equal right to act separately or as churches — in precisely the same sense, and in no other that I can possibly conceive, that the friends of the oppressed and of rational freedom have a right to act. In his making this, as I thought rather invidious dis- tinction among " voluntary associations," as all the so- cieties in the world, not excepting nominal churches, as they are not compelled (as the poor slave is to his task) thus to associate, must of course be " votuntary ;" a query arose in my mind, that if it be consistent for us to assume the high and sacred office of the arbiter of mo- tives and of conscience over owe. class of men, why not over all? and whether it be a justifiable partiality, at once to conclude, that because A may have assumed a better sounding name to our fastidious ear than B, there- fore his motives must be purer, and the tendency of his ILLUSTRATED. 261 conduct more salutary? Though the speaker appeared to be a man of an " excellent spirit," and of fair talents, yet he seemed, I thought, in this matter, to be much be- wildered, and evidently betrayed fearful apprehensions, either that he could not reach his subject, or that his pre- mises after all might prove treacherous. Indeed he more than once frankly admitted the attempt to be, both a " difficult and a hazardous " one. On this point, could the truth have been known, I have little doubt most of the respectable audience symyathized with the speaker, and cordially agreed with him. I endeavoured to listen to all the discourse, with candour, attention, and impartiality, but was still entirely unable to reconcile either the premises with the superstructure, or the in- congruities of various parts of the superstructure itself with one another; or, in other language, a number of his conclusions appeared to me to be altogether un- natural and forced deductions. In the first place the speaker professed a great desire for the entire accom- plishment of the great and glorious objects " which he verily believed these voluntary associations " honestly had in view, and would go as far " in his way " to bring about these great, and greatly desirable ends, as any other man. I presume before the close of his " hazard- ous undertaking " the audience was willing to concede this, for his discourse was considerably interlarded with brilliant flights of eloquence of solemn asseverations to this effect. He very freely admitted that these " volun- tary " associations had already accomplished much good, and might still more ; in creating a correct public senti- ment in regard to the great evils they proposed to banish from the land by the weight of enlightened public opinion. 262 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY But as the opposers of temperance sometimes used to say, " it will do no good if you do prevail upon drinking men to lay aside their cups, for they will only take to some other bad habits in the room of their drinking ; the speaker in the next sentence defeated all the good results he had so much encouraged us to hope was about to be effected in the world from these several ** voluntary " as- sociations, by asserting that on the whole, finally, he had never known any good accomplished by " voluntary associations." To use the speaker's own language, " they had merely effected a modification of the evils, but not a diminution ;" — that when these " voluntary " associ- ations became " strong and popular," they degenerated into something as bad, or even worse than the evils they proposed to abolish. He then undertook to prove that the nominal church was the only engine of sufficient power to abolish, and completely exterminate all the evils of earth, and bring on the glorious millenial morn. But before he had done dealing with the church, I really felt as though he was more severe upon her if possible, than he was upon " voluntary " associations themselves ; for he repeatedly said, that great numbers were con- stantly flocking into the church, " from fashion," or from the force of public opinion. He also quoted dif- ferent periods of the church when she had become pop- ular, and kings and princes had become her patrons ; and hordes of unconverted Pagans rallied around her standard, and she at once became the great fountain of moral and political corruption in herself and to the whole world. Here I could not avoid feeling somewhat pained that the speaker, as I suppose, inadvertently ILLUSTRATED. 263 omitted to draw a line of demarkation between the nominal and the invisible church ; for an unbeliever in the invisible church, I thought by this time might well begin to despair of salvation from any quarter. And here too, while I was made by the eloquence of the speaker to be- hold to the life, these immense hordes of unconverted barbarians, rallying around the standard of the cross, and thus corrupting the church, and the whole world, I could but inquire of myself how many hundred poor slaves, with their handcuffs, clanking chains, and drivers, each unconverted barbarian, probably brought along with him to pollute the sacred altar ! ! And if none at all, how much more corrupt must the southern church be (which some pro-slavery branches at the north still " hug so closely ") than was the Roman church. This to me at the time actually appeared to be a matter which almost admitted of mathematical demonstration. One broad admission of the speaker proved I think a good deal more, than he was fully aware of. He had been saying that he did himself belong to some of these " voluntary " associations ; that he had given addresses, and laboured much to promote them ; and that on the whole they had accomplished a vast amount of good in the world, and his reason for going against them " all at once " was, that they had now begun to throw the church itself into the back ground ; and there was danger therefore that soon church members would have to go up to some of " the great conventions " of these " voluntary " asocia- tions to find out what to do. Now if all this proves any thing at all, what does it prove ? Suppose an unpreju- diced and purely benevolent spirit were to descend from on high, knowing not the names of the various associa- 264 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY tions of earth, either " voluntary " or " involuntary," what spot, than where the most good ivas doing, would the angelic messenger hover around with more com- placency and delight. Though a layman, I have com- pared ecclesiastical history with the " law and the testi- mony " with some care, and have yet to learn, that the mere nominal church, has not in past periods, and may not again and again, become so corrupt that it will be scattered to the four winds with a blight from heaven, and elements of purity be preserved out of its nominal ruins. Has not this often been done, in spite of all the powers of earth and hell, to control the nominal church, by giv- ing the ark of the Lord an unhallowed touch ? Hence the solemn question comes up, in the nineteenth century ■of the christian era, " Which has most cause for alarm ! 4 voluntary ' associations, or a 'voluntary' nominal slave- holding church, ' with all her handcuffs, chains, lashes, task-masters, soul drivers, soul sellers, soul buyers, and nameless other things of abomination, which are this moment going up to Heaven, that a righteous God would speedily avenge himself of such a people as this?'" Nay, more ; I have yet to know, that the nominal Ameri- can church, with all her much abused and desecrated ordinances, may not, with great self-complacency, be thanking God, that she is not as these vile " voluntary " associations are ; and that the poor publican, from the God of love, and the God of the oppressed, may not still receive the blessing, and go away justified, rather than the " Pharisee ;" and that the poor Samaritan, whoever and wherever he may be, rather than the •• Priest and the Levite," that past by on the other side, may not, by ILLUSTRATED. 265 One who knoweth the heart, be seen to be neighbour to the wounded and the dumb, who have fallen among thieves. And, at the same time, it certainly must be, that every true lover of Zion greatly desires that she may speedily arise, — put far away all her grievous abo- minations, — having on her beautiful garments of praise and salvation, — her light being come, and the glory of the Lord arisen upon her, " as a lamp that burneth, and her righteousness going forth as brightness, when she would be as a city set on a hill, whose light cannot be hid." Here it involuntarily occurred to me what the speaker said in an anti-slavery convention a few days previous, while he was opposing the passage of a certain resolu- tion, implicating professed ministers of the gospel for "keeping back part of the price," or withholding a part of the counsel of God, for not giving the cause of the oppressed a suitable place in their ministrations at the sacred altar. The speaker stated, on that occasion, that God knew that he felt that what had been said in that convention, of the deplorable condition of the poor slave, was even more than true ; and superadded, " that the whole system (slavery) was abominable, from the foun- dation to the top-stone." That he had himself witnessed in the streets of southern cities, scenes which ought to excite the deepest sympathy in every heart. " I have literally seen," said the speaker, " a cross erected before the Court-House in Vicksburgh, so constructed as to fasten one slave on each side of it, to receive the inflic- tions of the bloody lash." He also added, " that he had seen in the streets of New-Orleans, females, with shovels in their hands, 23 266 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY cleaning the streets, with iron collars about their necks. ,? But still the speaker opposes abolitionists, principally because they have published to the world forty volumes (as he says) of the like, and still more horrible facts ! ! ! Now, while the speaker opposes abolition societies on the ground, principally, as he says, that the nominal church is the only authorized body to publish such dread- ful oppressions to the world, a query arose in my mind, whether the speaker himself had probably already pub- lished, with deep sympathy of soul, from the sacred desk, to his church, as many such distressing facts, in relation to the oppressions of his oxen suffering countrymen, as the abolitionists have done ; and, also, whether he had called upon his people, in good earnest, at once to arise, as one man, and clear their skirts, by testifying loudly (as against all sins) against this sin of sins, and abo- mination of abominations, in our land. If, while he professes to know much of the evils of slavery, and to regard slavery as the great sin and curse of our country, — and has been finding much fault with the proceedings of abolitionists, — he has not faithfully discharged this high and solemn duty to God and to man ; but has actually, all the time, been practically in the company of the priest and the Levite, barely look- ing on and passing by on the other side : I will not arraign the speaker before any human tribunal, but leave him with HIM who asked concerning a wounded man, left half dead at a certain time, " Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves V I never could have taken up my humble pen in defence of this cause, had I not regarded it as emphatically the cause of God and man ; and that whoever exalteth himself against God shall surely come ILLUSTRATED. 267 to nought : fully believing that the chariot wheels of sal- vation will roll over every seeming obstruction, and still roll on, until he whose right it is to rule shall indeed reign king of nations, as he now reigns king of saints. While the speaker was opposing these "voluntary" associations, on the ground that they effected a mere " modification" of the evils, and not a " diminution," he also said, "if the ? anti-slavery folks' would just christen their ' voluntary association ' by the name • Po- litical,' he would then join the * Abolition' Society." I was sorry to hear this, for it was at once an admission that he would consent to employ himself about the mere " modification " of evils, instead of their " diminution ;" and that he, being clothed with the " sacred office," should prefer political action, or " mere public opinion," to moral influence, to accomplish what he had just ad- mitted to be a great benevolent and philanthropic object. While the speaker most unqualifiedly declared, again and again, his deep abhorrence, and utter detestation of slavery in all its forms and abominations, and his great desire to have all done to do it away that could be done, he nevertheless objected most strenuously to the anti- slavery " voluntary " association, on the ground that the anti-slavery folks, he said, had taken the liberty to publish "forty volumes" of anti-slavery literature. He thought all that was necessary on the subject, might have been put into two or three well written volumes. The idea, too, that anti-slavery conventions should presume to send out their opinions to the world in the form of resolutions, appeared to him horrible ! Indeed, the speaker seemed to feel as though such things should hardly be tolerated in a free country, not seeming to 268 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY consider that our good fathers fled from a land of op- pression to this more favoured clime of civil and religi- ous toleration ; and that all ecclesiastical bodies in this country ever since, (his own, of course, included,) have published, not two or three " well written volumes" only, to promulgate their favourite doctrines, but just as many, either well written or ill written ones, as they pleased ; and also, that they have sent forth to the world, " time immemorial," resolutions almost unnumbered. It is very true, that among so great a multitude of re- solutions, which ecclesiastical bodies, together with all other "voluntary" associations of men, either moral, political, mechanical, or scientific, in the healthful exer- cise of their happy constitutional freedom, have been pleased to publish to the world, some of them may have contained doctrines, like the good physician's " nos- trums ;" " offensive to take, but sure to cure." There is, however, a very happy and redeeming clause for us all, in regard to the exercise of this, our so highly prized constitutional freedom, which is, that we are no more constitutionally compelled to receive and to digest all the resolutions in the world, by the wholesale, unless the prescriptions are all appropriate to our case, than we are, whether sick or in health, eagerly to devour all the medicine, of which the apothecaries in the whole land, may give the public notice, will cure all diseases. The part of wisdom, for us all in this matter, I conceive, is simply the part of honesty. And, as in the latter case, so in the former. First, to be rigid with ourselves, and find out what our moral malady (if any we have) may be, and then say, as did the sick man of courage, " Doc- tor, if this will cure me, I will take it if it kills me 1" ILLUSTRATED. 269 The good speaker did not seem to realize that these same " voluntary associations," whose constitutional and inalienable rights he would proscribe, are made up of that same people, who, with a spirit of mutual kind- ness and forbearance, have always been granting to him- self, and to all others, all those constitutional, civil, reli- gious, and ecclesiastical rights, which it has ever been his and their high and blessed privilege to enjoy, without molestation. And now, will not all these same eccle- siastical bodies, whose constitutional and inalienable rights have been so long sacredly protected by God and by man, "in our happy land of freedom," none molest- ing, or making afraid, (except, of late, now and then, a pro-slavery mob,) cheerfully manifest, at all times, in return, the same constitutional, ingenuous, and catholic spirit, of universal toleration to others, as that with which they have themselves, been so long and so high- ly favoured ? If not, with what name, but " intolerance or ingratitude itself, ought they to be branded ? It is certainly true, that were the church and the ministry what they should be, like a lighted city set on an hill, or, like a great moral army, with banners, wielding the whole truth, (not a part,) in love ; but with power against every sin, being blessed of Heaven, there would soon be no more handcuffs and chains for the innocent, no more intemperance, no more licentiousness, but the world would speedily be evangelized to Christ, and love to God supreme, and to man universal, would reign over the earth, and all captives would return to Mount Zion, with crowns, and with songs of everlasting rejoicing. But if the visible Zion, with dumb or slumbering watch- men upon her walls, rebellious to Heaven, will stand as 23* 270 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. a mighty bulwark against liberty for the captive, and the salvation of a world, what shall the friends of Zion, and of her King do, but to enter into " voluntary " associ- ations, and to weep in secret places, on account of her desolation and her slain. Hitherto, .(" with ascriptions of due praise, be it spoken,") all measures, however ap- parently powerful in themselves, against the friends of the dumb, not permitted to speak for themselves, have been mercifully overruled, and made only to hasten on the joyous day of their peaceful deliverance. What be- liever in divine truth, but must regard this as a blessed indication of the favour of Heaven 1 The true church of Christ has more than once been preserved, by " volun- tary " associations taking refuge in the caves and the dens of the earth, (cast down, but not forsaken) and that too, sometimes, from a " voluntary " ecclesiastical asso- ciation claiming to be the only true church on earth. Unhallowed ecclesiastical intolerance and proscription, always strikes at the very foundation, not only of all civil, but of all religious liberty in the world. This proscrip- tive course, which some ecclesiastical bodies are pursu- ing, towards what they are pleased, in their sovereign pleasure to denominate " voluntary " associations, in our highly favoured country of constitutional freedom, and equal rights, is no " new thing under the sun." It is but a dark relic of Popery, issuing her Bulls and her fulminations, saying to her enslaved subjects, 'Uhus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Now, allowing the motives of this speaker to be none other than pure, and kind, (which I would not call in question,,) in his thus opposing the publications of works containing opinions not exactly comporting with his ILLUSTRATED. 271 own peculiar views, still, the present enlightened part of mankind will stamp the principle itself, as far as it goes, as no less intolerant than that which is seen in the following account, which the protestant world shud- ders at, and shrinks from, with a kind of instinctive horror!! Similar accounts are often published in the books and the journals of the day, as they should be, as a perpetual memorial to man, of the dreadful effects Of a SPIRIT OF INTOLERANCE. Says the Legate of Pope Adrian VI. to the Directory of Nuremburgh, "The Pope and Emperor ought to be implicitly obeyed ; the heretics' books burned; and the printers and sellers of them duly punished. There is no other way to suppress and extinguish the perni- cious sect of PROTESTAJYTS." Says the decree of the Lateral Council, 1515, "that no book shall be printed without the bishop's license ; that those who transgressed this decree shall forfeit the whole impression, which shall be publicly burned ; pay a fine of 100 ducats, be suspended from his business for one year, and be excommunicated ; that is, given over to the devil, soul and body, in God's name and the saints' ! !" The celebrated council of Trent, whose decrees are in full force to the present hour, having never been annulled or altered, decides as follows : " Being de- sirous of setting bounds to the printers, who, with un- limited boldness, supposing themselves at liberty to do as they please, print editions of the Holy Bible with notes and expressions taken indifferently from any writer without the permission of their ECCLESIASTICAL SUPERIORS, &c. Neither shall any one hereafter 272 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY sell such books, or even retain them in their possession, unless they have been first examined and approved by the ordinary, under penalty of anathema, and the pecu- niary fine adjudged by the last council of Lateran." As late as the year 1832, Pope Gregory XVI., in his circular letter, says, " To this tends that most vile, de- testable, and never to be sufficiently execrated liberty of Booksellers, viz. of publishing writings of whatever kind they please, a liberty which some persons DARE, with such a violence of language, to demand and pro- mote!! Clement XIII. , our predecessor, of happy me- mory, in his circular on the suppression of noxious [Protestant] books, pronounces, ' We must contend with energy, such as the subject requires, and with all our might, to exterminate the deadly mischief of so many books, for the matters of error will never be effectually removed, unless the guilty elements of depravity be consumed in the fire.' The Apostolic See has, through all ages, ever striven to condemn suspected and noxious [Protestant] books, and to wrest them forcibly out of men's hands. It is most clear how rash, false, and injurious to our Apostolic See, and fruitful of enormous evils to the Christian [papal] public is the doctrine of those who not only reject censorship of books as too severe and burdensome, but even proceed to such lengths of wickedness as to assert that it is contrary to the principle of equal justice, and DARE to deny to the . church the right of enacting and employing it." The late Pope Pius VII., in his reply to the inquiries of the Polish bishops as to the course to be pursued by them in reference to the Protestant Bible Societies, says : " We have been truly shocked at this crafty de- ILLUSTRATED. 273 vice, by which the very foundations of religion are un- dermined. For it is evident that the Holy Scriptures, when circulated in the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of men, produced more harm than benefit. Continue, therefore, diligently to warn the people en- trusted to your care, that they fall not into the snares which are prepared for their everlasting ruin ;" or, in other words, that they receive not the Bible offered them by these societies. " Comment," says a valuable journal, " is unneces- sary. A word to the wise is sufficient for them. These Popes carried their intolerance almost as far, though in a much more open and manly way, than some slave- holding popes and their abettors, in the 19th century of the Christian era in Christian America ; standing be- hind the scene, and issuing their anathemas and bulls, by way of senatorial, congressional, and ecclesiastical resolutions, instigating the populace to rifle mails and burn their contents, basely to mob and disperse lawful and peaceable assemblies of American citizens ; and to destroy printing-presses and massacre their owners — burn $40,000* buildings, erected for the accommoda- tion of the people for freedom of discussion." Now, if our inalienable rights of freedom of speech and liberty of the press are to be tyrannically wrested from us, it matters little whether the despotism that does it, be called a slaveholding, a political, or an ecclesiastical despotism, or all three combined ; or whether the agents who execute the will of the despots be called officers or mobocrats. It would, in such an event, be quite suffi- * The Pennsylvania Hall, burnt by an anti-free discussion mob in the night of the 18th of May, 1838. 274 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY cient for us to know that these rights were gone, past hope of recovery ; and that we were slaves, with our handcuffs, our chains, and our task-masters for our comforters. Let the despotic doctrines of Calhoun and Patton, which have been so fearfully responded to, at the north, politically and ecclesiastically, in letter and in spirit, once be carried out, and these same men, with their northern abettors, would at once, in like manner, arrogantly assume the right to muzzle the press, and to suppress, by tyrannical laws, the publication and circu- lation of all journals of intelligence, and all books which should dare expose their ambitious purposes and designs. Should the people simultaneously arise, and call upon the press, it could, if it would, speedily, forever put a quietus upon all mobs in the land, with no heavier balls than type, and with no more pointed bayonets, than truth. There is something " rotten in Den- mark" that the people must probe, or no longer dream of freedom. Let us all beware, lest our zeal for the preservation of the nominal church merely, does not swiftly lead us into this kind of popish intolerance and proscription. It is true, mere "hollow-hearted sect or party" may for a brief season seem to prosper and triumph by such a spirit, which is from beneath, and not from above ; but vital piety and true religion never can live and flourish under the iron rod of oppression ; for where " the Spirit of the Lord is, there must be liberty." The precedent would be an imminently dangerous one, for any ecclesiastical body whatever to set up such a standard of intolerance ; for who knows what ecclesias- tical body will obtain the ascendency of the public mind first, when it might claim to be the only true church. ILLUSTRATED. 275 and from this oppressive and unsafe principle of intole- rance, the liberties, both civil and religious, of all others would, of course, at once be subverted? But who must not see, that if, indeed, this mode of reasoning prove any thing to the speaker's fovourite pur- pose, it proves altogether too much for his purpose ; for he all along freely admitted, that what had been claimed as the only true church, had not only been liable, like " voluntary " associations, in all her stages, to become greatly corrupted ; so much so, that instead of being the light of the world, and the source of all purity, she had often been the fountain of all pollution, her light dark- ness, and the blind the guide of the blind, being totally perverted, by the pride, the unhallowed ambition, and the cupidity of depraved man, from her original high and holy design, of breaking every yoke of sin, that every captive might go free ; and to assuage, remedy, or sanc- tify the woes of fallen humanity. I should certainly suppose that it would become mem- bers of the nominal church of Christ, with a knowledge of themselves, and a histoiy of the world before them, in blazing characters, instead of manifesting so much alarm about " voluntary associations," to look well to it, to see whether they are themselves in the faith ; whether they are members truly of the invisible church, whose head is ever on high. And if, indeed, they may per- chance, not be living branches of the living vine, the exhortation, that while they think they stand, to take heed lest they fall, should not be deemed by them altogether amiss. My idea is, (and if wrong, I am desirous to be cor- rected,) that all "associations," whether voluntary or 276 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY involuntary, if of man only, will come to the ground, but if of God, will stand forever; and that, consequently, the the spiritual church of Christ is just as safe, since some of her members have eaten and drunk with " jmblicans and sinners" as she was before, and that, if voluntary associations, instead of publishing forty volumes only, of "anti-slavery literature," should publish forty thousand volumes, and as many resolutions as the world could contain, she would still be safe, and as unmoved as the " rock of ages," upon which she is founded. And is it not the unspeakable consolation of every true believer, that neither " voluntary," nor " involuntary " associa- tions, principalities nor powers, nay, even the gates of hell, can ever prevail against Zion, for that the King of Zion hath spoken it ; and blessed be his nane ! Why, all these " guilty fears," that betray so great a want of faith in his word ? For, has he not told us to rejoice in the Lord always ? And again, does he not say rejoice 1 Lift up your heads ye bowed down, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and he will favour Zion. The church, whose representative head is in the Heavens, will ultimately triumph in purity, splendour, and glory ; still, the danger I apprehend of ecclesiastical bodies adopting this intolerant and proscriptive doctrine, lies deep in the present depravity of the human heart. However foreign to the motives or the wishes of the benevolent mind of the speaker, I yet most respectfully conceive, that the direct legitimate tendency of this fear- ful doctrine is, (unless mercifully overruled,) to work the entire destruction of all the good that the ordinances of the church were designed to accomplish. In reading the history of the nominal church, who has not seen ILLUSTRATED. 277 more than once a practical and most painful demonstra- tion of this? And who does not know, that even now, there is more than one ecclesiastical body in the world claiming to be the only, if not the infallible church, re- garding all others, daring to dissent, not as churches, but rather in the light in which our speaker does certain so- cieties, as " unauthorized " (not to say rebellious) asso- ciations. Even the speaker himself, and his respecta- ble denomination, (to whose claim has generally been accorded, the reputation of friends of freedom and equal rights,) by no means escapes this reprimand from the high and arrogant assumption of some ecclesiastical bodies. Indeed, we have but to glance at past periods, when some branch of the nominal church becoming powerful and corrupt, and ruled the world by ecclesias- tical domination, or spiritual despotism ; and also at the present time, in those countries where some branch of the nominal church had attained the ascendency over all others^ by means of this same intolerant and proscrip- tive doctrine, and united her power with the state, at once to give us the most forcible and alarming illustra- tion of the practical result of the same anti-republican, monarchial doctrine. Now I am one who believes that the framers of the American constitution were wise and good men, and that the spirit of universal toleration which they so clearly and so nobly manifested, they had thoroughly learned in the great and dear school of experience. For this con- stitution, (our last hope of liberty) every American citi- zen who loves and hopes still to enjoy civil and religious freedom, should forever manifest his most conscientious reverence, by ingenuously extending to all his fellow- 24 278 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY citizens, that same catholic spirit which dictated it, which is the very life and soul of that memorable chart of original human rights. In adverting to our speaker once more, I certainly cannot say less, than that I trust I duly appreciate his motives, his talents, and his virtues ; but in his truly " difficult and hazardous" undertaking, I could but sympathize, and really felt that in his treat- ment of his subject, he manifested more "Philosophy of Benevolence" than philosophy of logic* His very slight attempt to make some little distinction in what he was pleased to style " voluntary associations," (which must include of course, all the moral and benevolent, as well as all the political associations of the day,) appeared to me to be altogether a failure ; and by his ecclesiastical anathema, in reality he swept them all "by the board" " at one fell swoop," and left some one ecclesiastical body, claiming to be the only true church on earth, whether her purity be corruption, or her light darkness ; sole mistress of the world. I ask Christian freemen, and all the friends of con- stitutional, civil, and religious toleration, whether they are prepared to witness such a tragedy upon human liberty, played over again upon the stage of life. Has not some ecclesiastical power in the world, long enough, in this way, despotically experimented upon the liberties of mankind, under the dangerous pretext of advancing their sanctification and holiness? We might as well think of sanctifying the soul of a poor slave by the bloody lash of the cruel task master, or to instil a spirit of pure religion into the minds of men, by the horrors of * The speaker is the author of an interesting and valuable work entitled "Philosophy of Benevolence." ILLUSTRATED. 279 the inquisition. Let it again be said, that where the spirit of the Lord is, there must be liberty, " pure and sanctified as the mountain air." What progress I vvoud ask, has all the bulls, anathemas, and fulminations sent out to the world by ecclesiastical power, to terrify mankind, ever made, in ameliorating the fallen and sad condition of humanity ? I speak only of a spirit as op- posite to the spirit of Christ, as light is to darkness ; for the spirit of Him whose soul was all benevolence, so far as it has been manifested, has ever blessed the world. It has visited the sick, the widow, and the fatherless ; fed the hungry ; clothed the naked ; administered to those in prison ; broken all yokes and rods of oppressors ; un- done the heavy burdens, and opened the spiritual as well as the slaveholder's prisons and let the captives go free. But I speak of a power in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, arrayed and ensconsed in darkness, be- hind the American church, directly or indirectly, either forging and fastening chains upon two and a half millions of our poor, borne down, and enslaved fellow-country- men, or in some way smiting the kind hand that would fain file off these sore and galling chains, and pour wine and oil into the grievous and aching wounds they have made. " On the side of the oppressor there ivas power, but they had no comforter f Of this mighty phalanx which have vainly fled for refuge from the pending judgements of offended Heaven, behind the desecrated altar, some by silence are consenting to the death, others dividing the raiment, others attempting to atone for their sins by selling the body to give the money to the needy, or to convert foreign heathen." But will not the " foreign heathen," before they enlist for life, ask some good as- 280 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY surance that they too, shall not be sold in turn under the hammer of such a slavery, pro-slavery ; or apologist slavery church, to convert American heathen ? What would you do, reader, were you a " foreign heathen," and knew the " thirty pieces of silver," which sent your missionary to you, to be the price of the blood of mil- lions of souls 1 Would you be likely to enlist for life, asking no questions "for conscience" sake? The doctrine so speciously held forth, (not by our speaker only, but by an ecclesiastical phalanx, whose influence, I am pained to say, the soul-seller, and the soul-destroyer gladly claims,) that all " voluntary " as- sociations to promote any good objects, out of the pale of the nominal church, are necessarily unlawful and im- proper, (though very plausible on a superficial view,) is still, but a dark relic of the "dark ages of priestcraft." It will forever promote unhallowed ambition , and oppress piety itself* It is true, we know, that all salvation must come out of Zioru But I have yet to learn, that there is more than one eye in the wide universe* that beholds, with certainty, in what hearts the walls of the spiritual Zion are laid. Still we know that her walls, and her gates are salvation, and are ever before the King of Zion, and her name engraven upon his hands. But we know too, that all ecclesiastical history, in connexion with the sacred pages, abundantly informs us, that at certain periods, what has been claimed to be the nominal, or the visible church, has been the great fountain of moral pollution in itself, and corruption to the whole world. And if every church now on earth, was either a slave- Violding, or a pro-slavery church ; I could not for one, ILLUSTRATED. 281 possibly hesitate a moment, to believe, that this would be, most emphatically, one of those dreadful periods, all our prayers, professions, and missionary zeal, ap- parently, to the contrary notwithstanding. They would all be but smoke, coming up before the God of the op- pressed, and the God of holiness, who cannot be mock- ed with impunity. But, even then, the spiritual church would still ex- ist, and would ultimately prove a renovating, re- deeming, and purifying spirit, " so as by fire." Yet, I verily believe, that did the whole world know what slavery is, and saw no church in the world, but a slaveholding one, or an apologist church for slavery, they would far sooner believe in a revelation yet to come, than they would believe there was any church on earth, unless indeed, it was instituted by a being of malevolence, instead of a being of benevolence, and such a church too, would be shunned by all persons in their senses, with their eyes open, regardless of condition or colour, as they would shun the vampire, the crockodile, the crater, or the whirlpool of death! ! It does appear to me, that there can be no doubt, but that the toleration of slavery in the American churches, has contributed more, far more, by all its legitimate, demoralizing, and corrupting influences, to the preva- lence of American skepticism in all divine truth, with its consequent train of untold evils, seen and unseen, than all other causes combined. Slavery being sustained by the nominal church, ap- pears to have been the great source of moral degenera- cy in this country, which has been spreading itself for 24* 282 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY nearly a century, like a gangrene, and corrupting net the church only, but the whole body politic. And who should wonder at this 1 What mortal eye can see to what alarming extent the slaveholding spirit, with its numerous progeny of evil spirits, has already corrupted the American church? Not to name her long accustomed practice of saying to the rich man, with the costly apparel, and the " gold ring," come up hither ; and to the poor man, in plain apparel, sit thou here under my footstool ; — to say nothing of her bowing down to gods of silver and of gold, instead of the God of Heaven and of holiness : she has long been guilty of still higher, and broader, and more Heaven-daring abominations ; even that of designedly withholding the word of life from her own members, and then selling them under the hammer of the auctioneer, from all the divinely, and most endear- ingly instituted relations of life, into returnless bondage, and that too, sometimes, under the hypocritical, and Heaven-insulting sanctity, to raise money to convert the " poor heathen." I will not here pretend to say, how far in the eye of purity, all these, with nameless other evils, fall short of the corruptions, and consequent dreadful practices of the Roman hierarchy itself. If the present nominal churches in America do not speedily repent, and put away from them such Heaven- offending abominations, who can tell that God in his righteous providence, will not say to his own chosen ones, whoever they may be, whether Publicans or Sa- maritans, come out from among them, and be ye sepa- rate? ILLUSTRATED. 283 But, says one, no man should dare speculate in this manner upon " sacred things," unless he be clothed with clerical authority, and sacerdotal robes. From this high ecclesiastical assumption, however, I must for one forever dissent, as a doctrine tending directly to eccle- siastical despotism, just as much to be deprecated as any other absolute power on earth, wrongfully exercised by man over his fellow. Ail admit that the spiritual Zion of God can only be discerned by its Great Head on high. Hence, it clearly follows, that the assumption of any political or ecclesi- astical body whatever, to claim the absolute dictator- ship over any man, so far as to deprive him of his in- alienable and constitutional rights of conscience, would be altogether unwarrantable, intolerant, and imminently dangerous ; as striking at the very foundation, not only of all civil, but of all religious liberty. Ministers or laymen, professing great abhorrence to slavery in the "abstract J'' and great friendship to " an- H-slavery " " in general," and at the same time, claim- ing and exercising an ecclesiastical jurisdiction to disci- pline members of their churches, for speaking or pray- ing on the subject of slavery, agreeable to the dictates of their own consciences, is not only a glaring anoma- ly, but a most wicked and startling stride of popish despotism, against which, so far as my humble protest may go, I hope it will ever most cordially be entered, for the interests of pure religion, for the cause of holy freedom, for the highest and best good of my fellow- men, and my beloved country. A church might just as well assume the prerogative, to dictate to its members, what political party they shall 284 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY belong to, and what candidate for office they shall vote for. All this is only the principle legitimately carried out. And, indeed, it would not stop here, but by this same aggressive principle, upon inalienable rights, it would assume to tax your property, to any extent with- in the sovereign pleasure of an ecclesiastical body. All this arrogant assumption over the civil and reli- gious liberties of others ; nay, much more, is the dread- ful result of the first invasion of the sacred castle, con- taining the Heaven-descended legacy, " the inalienable rights of man." This castle once profanely entered, the spoiler rudely plunders whatever he can lay his des- potic hand upon. It should be guarded, as we guard the seat of life ; and under no pretext, however plausible, whether moral, political, or religious, should it be suffer- ed to be invaded. If this doctrine, of the infallibility of the Church, or the Pope, should ever again obtain, the Church, of course, would resume all that prerogative over her members, and ultimately over the world, which the Pope of Rome himself claimed, and which he so long exercised, with so cruel and despotic sway. The doctrine of the infallibility of the POPE, and the infalli- bility of the Church, is most clearly, one and the same thing. And all history, experience, and common sense, unite to show us, that it ends in the sacrilegious wor- ship of the Church, instead of the worship of the living and the true God ; and not in the destruction of all true piety only, but in the entire subversion of all civil, as well as all religious liberty. If the glorious millennial morn is ever to break upon an enraptured world, it will doubtless be preceded by ILLUSTRATED. 285 the dawnings of purer, freer, and more equal govern- ments among men, than the earth has ever yet beheld, when the clanking of no chains upon guiltless men, women, and children, shall be heard, nor the sound of the voice, and the hammer of the auctioneer, in selling to the highest bidder, forever, his fellow and his broth- er, " from wife, from children, and from friends un- seen," and from the desecrated communion table of his Saviour. It will also, doubtless, be a time when no man will be mobbed, or assassinated for speaking his sentiments freely. And its entire consummation, so devoutly to be wished, would be, love to God supreme, and to man universal ; as the ruling motive of all, regardless of condition or colour. Hear the voice of an American foreign missionary on this subject, in an extract from his late letter to his friends in this, his native country. " I write because it is a privilege for me, (as I think it should be for every Christian,) to take an open and decided stand in favour of those who are labouring to crush slavery. Especially is this a privilege at a time when morbid prudence, or time-serving policy is setting afloat the sentiment that it is a subject with which the missionary should not intermeddle. I must confess, that if the immediate abolition of slavery is a subject in which Christians, of every name, circumstance, or oc- cupation, whether public or private, individual or cor- porate, may not, and should not take an open, undis- guised, and active part ; then there is no subject in all the wide field of benevolent action, in which they should do so. 286 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY " Of all the abominations that have cursed the earth, where is there one more flagrant, than that of enslaving and crushing to dust our fellow-men? Of all the sins, which Christians are called upon to oppose at the pre- sent day, where is there a more heinous one than the one your society are labouring to destroy? The mere fact, that insisting upon the immediate abolition of slav- ery, and that describing in Bible language, the odious- ness of traffic in human flesh, will disoblige a class of interested persons, however great, is no proof that either sound prudence, or the religion of Christ, requires one to forbear." I consider, even the best of Christians, but men sub- ject to like passions, interests, and prejudices, of other men ; and by consequence, exposed to like tempta- tions. And while I would fain hope, that the spirit of the gospel of peace, and the love of holy and rational liberty, consisting of equal justice, and equal rights, to all men, should ever triumph in our beloved country, and prevail over all considerations of an unhallowed, selfish, and debasing character, still, of this we can have no positive assurance, until the coming of that blessed and glorious day, when " Holiness to the Lord ! shall be written on every thing beneath the sun." But who pretends that ecclesiastical bodies are not now, in a great degree, like other bodies, composed of " erring mortals," by no means entirely free, either from intentional or unintentional wrongs, or from unhallowed ambition? And as a professed believer in the Christian religion, and in its ultimate redeeming and purifying spirit and principles, and as an American citizen, and a ILLUSTRATED. 287 humble individual, I am still prepared to give it as my most deliberate opinion, that if the liberties of our be- loved country are destined ever to be subverted, to say the least, the temptations to the great national eccle- siastical bodies to participate, directly or indirectly, in the consummation of a catastrophe so direful, would be fully equal to that of political bodies. And I think there might be strong reasons adduced in proof, that they may be in some instances even greater. To men- tion no other one at present, the strong and almost in- dissoluble ties among the great national ecclesiastical bodies, with all their variously connected and equally extensive and " voluntary benevolent associations," have already drawn out fearful symptoms in portions of these bodies at the north, not only of a passive, but of an active disposition to bring all to succumb to the arrogant dictation of southern ecclesiastical assumption, (which so completely chimes in with all the outrages which our wounded and bleeding constitution and laws have suf- fered by " demagogues in the House," and by " mobo- crats out of doors,) even at the dreadful sacrifice of the most important, inalienable, and constitutional rights of a large portion of northern, but American citizens. I mean the sacred and the unmolested liberty of speech and the press. Life has also recently been wantonly sacrificed ; the life, too, of a valuable and an independent American freeman, by the tacit consent (with a few noble excep- tions) of the ecclesiastical bodies in our country. The innocent blood of Lovejoy is now reeking upon this guilty nation, of which these powerful and highly re- sponsible ecclesiastical bodies, to God, to their coun- 288 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY try, to posterity, and to the world, form an important constituent part. I said that an innocent and an unof- fending American citizen was unlawfully put to death, with the virtual consent of a large portion of the nomi- nal American Christian Church. For, to have been true to the constitution, true to their country, to their religion, and to their God, all the ecclesiastical bodies in the whole land, regardless of sect or location, at the sad announcement of the horrid massacre of one of their own dear countrymen by a ruthless mob, while in the lawful defence of his most undoubted rights, as by an electric shock, should have rallied around their * respective standards ; and a loud voice should have broken out from among them, that would at once awoke this slumbering nation into life, to call without delay, for the righteous demands of an insulted country, by the high-handed violation of the sanctity, and of the ma- jesty of her laws. Christians, patriots, and philanthropists, who care- fully observe the signs of the times, at such ominous silence, at an event so awful, may well tremble, with dark and fearful forebodings ! ! Whether the vast temp- tations to all the great national, ecclesiastical bodies, with all their associations which have been alluded to, shall form an " American Holy Alliance," or shall ultimately be more patriotically and more religiously withstood by //iem, than shall be all the political temp- tations to political bodies, remains to be seen. And whether neither ecclesiastical nor political bodies shall heroically and patriotically withstand the temptations to grasp unhallowed power, to enslave the country, but shall actually unite in effecting the entire subversion of ILLUSTRATED. 289 all our liberties, the people, of course, will look well to, if they mean long to remain free. Who can fail to see that the national church and the state, are virtually uniting on the side of slavery for all, instead of liberty for all ? But if, indeed, we are already in a state of gradual (or rather rapid) preparation for servitude and vassalage, we shall be unsuspecting, unwatchful, and lax in our energies and our efforts. We shall amuse ourselves with the syren song ; peace, and safety ; " a little more sleep, a little more slumber, and a little more folding tfu arms io sleep." And if past recovery, we shall uncon- sciously become more and more insensible to our true condition ; until our doom be sealed forever, and we can servilely hug our chains, and humbly kiss the rod that smites us. Let neither the most fastidious, nor even the most pious, feel for a moment that the consideration of temp- tations, to evils so vast, are too sacred to be thrown be- fore the American public and the world. Far otherwise! ! Such feelings would arise from contracted and danger- ous bigotry, and not from enlightened, pure, undefiled, and saving religion, which would fain exhibit the truth, and leave it with the God of truth, imploring his blessing upon it. Surely dangers so great, to all our civil, and all our religious liberties ; to property, person, — and to life itself, — are just as much proper subjects of holy conversation, and the most fervent prayer, for the most sincere and devout Christians in the land, as even the salvation of a world ; for, when civil and religious liber- ties become subverted, all such religious toleration of the inalienable rights of conscience, which the letter and 25 290 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY the spirit of our once idolized constitution so sacredly guaranties to every American citizen, would come to an end ; and our conversation, our devotions, and our pray- ers, must then no longer be dictated by Him who heareth prayer, but by man. We should not then, as now, be blessed with the high and Heaven-born privilege of wor- shipping our Maker " under our own vine and jig-tree, where there are none to molest us, or to make us ajraid." From a careful, but painful, consideration of the whole dreadful subject of American slavery, in all its fearful national consequences, morally and politically, I have at length arrived at the most deliberate, and, probably, irreversible conclusion, that the chains which now bind down to the earth two and a half millions of my dear fellow-men and fellow-countrymen, by whatever plausi- ble and sacred, but desecrated names now called, whether political, ecclesiastical, or even religious, should at once and forever be christened by their real names, " high- handed tyranny," and " Heaven-daring wickedness ;" the opinions about denunciatory language, of some of our highly esteemed fellow-citizens, (who seem not yet, from some cause, to have laid our great national op- pressions much to heart ;) to the contrary notwithstand- ing. It is therefore my settled, and, I trust, unalterable purpose, as I hope, out of regard to the best interests of my fellow-men and of my country, while life remains, peacefully and lawfully to use the sharp file of naked truth upon these cruel chains, until they fall from the limbs of my so long, and so much abused, and debased brother ; and he shall lift up his bowed head, and stand erect ; in all that original and inalienable independence, dignity, majesty, and grandeur, in which his Maker ILLUSTRATED. 291 * formed ' him, in his own divine image ; and, until our beloved country, too, shall thereby stand forth redeem- ed before high Heaven, and the nations of the earth. But let us make a more particular reference to the various plausible attitudes of opposition to all objects, to which, for any cause whatever, we feel opposed ; which we are all of us so very prone to assume ; and to which we openly, or more covertly, manifest our dislike. In a certain stage of the temperance cause, for ex- ample, there were a great many professed friends to temperance, in the " abstract" but who were much op- posed to societies and to temperance, in " detail ;" but whenever they had occasion to " open their mouths " on the subject of temperance, it was done in a way, either directly or indirectly, to injure and to wound the cause, in " particular" which they so much professed to love in " general." I have to acknowledge I do not understand such kind of " abstract" or general friendship ; and I should think it would be like self-righteousness, and that the less any good cause had of it the better. There are but two causes, in most instances, which keep persons (who might otherwise be admitted,) out of societies organized for the promotion of a given object. One is, either secret, or open hostility from interest or otherwise, to their principles ; and the other is, from lack of nerve, or constitutional, or moral stamina, fear of their popularity, in breasting popular prejudices. There are, sometimes, persons who would be willing to be known as members of certain societies in one latitude, but not before the whole world. This class will be apt to keep back " part of the price." 292 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. As the phrenologist would say, " they may possibly be in the organ of conscientiousness, benevolence, or deficient combativeness, or perchance not overstocked with any one of these ingredients." Some people are determined to be popular at all hazards ; but it requires but little dis- cernment to see, that such individuals, from the very nature of the case, must most emphatically be persons of no fixed principles of action ; unless, indeed, it may be considered a principle of action, to be " all things to all men, for our own sakes." They are the mere useless floating particles of crea- tion. Having themselves no ideas or principles, they seldom or never venture an opinion about men or things, " pro or con," unless as mere echoes to public or party sentiment. Non-committalism is their watch word and their natural element. Society, of necessity, must ever be indebted to other sources, for its pillars and strength, as much more, as the superstructure of an edifice is in- debted for its support to its very foundation, than to the vane upon its top, that merely tells the mariner when to spread his canvas. The doctrine of " expediency," and " non-committalism," are twin brothers. They are a kind of one eyed monster, and that one eye appears to be inverted ; and forever directed wholly upon self SECTION XVII. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY , BE- CAUSE PEACE IS SO VERY DESIRABLE." Is it not plain that this lover of peace has by some means reversed in his mind the good Scripture doctrine which is " first pure, then peaceable." I once heard a very peace- able and kind-hearted man, as I supposed he was, make this objection to the discussion of slavery. It instantly reminded me, however, of a toast which a veteran of the revolution, now living among us, often used to give in my hearing when a boy. On being asked why he never gave any other toast, he replied, because the soldiers, for some time before the close of the war, though nearly exhausted by its hard fatigues, and death staring them in the face from every quarter, gave none but this ; and he regarded it, he said, as comprehending all others worth giving. It was this short but very significant one, " Peace on good terms." And as the sentiment is equally applicable, morally or politically, I shall leave this objection here for all to make their own application. Who does not know that there is the peace of death, and also the peace of God, that passeth understanding ? A peace man should contend earnestly for emancipation in the same sense, and in the same spirit in which Christians are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. It certainly was a justly celebrated sentiment also of President Jackson, 25* 294 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. in adjusting national differences, "ask for nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing wrong." This in a properly qualified sense, is both Christian and repub- lican doctrine. Were we under the deep and dreadful curse of slavery in a nation where the awful stillness of the "peace oj death" reigned around us, on account of our condition, think you we should not, in the depth of our souls, be ready to pronounce a wo upon such a people? And what could be our anticipations of a Heaven in which to spend an eternity with such beings as our relentless and merciless oppressors 1 And did we suppose there were no God but their God, could we possibly desire always to be confined in his presence ? Would it indeed be hardly in the power of mind to conceive of a place where we should not in pre- ference desire to dwell forever I SECTION XVIII. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE IT IS, OR WILL BECOME A POLITICAL SUBJECT." This same plea was once urged against the temperance cause. Who cannot see the origin of this unfounded charge? And who does not know that to a drunken man all things stagger, to the jaundiced eye, all things are yellow, and that to the exclusively political man all things are political? The charge itself is unfounded; but if true, what then 1 Would not the same great prin- ciples of human rights still be involved in the subject of slavery, whether moral, political, or both? It is indeed lamentably true, that comparatively a few slaveholders, without any distinct party organization, have held the balance of power, and ruled the country with the task- master's rod of correction. It is therefore hard to tell what men would mean by such an objection. They seem to speak as though freemen had no right to think, to speak, or to act politically as well as morally in a free country. The objection amounts to just nothing at all in my estimation. If the great principles of the Ameri- can constitution are destined to triumph in this land, slavery certainly will be abolished, and universal rational freedom will prevail, whether public opinion shall be cre- ated by means of societies or otherwise ; nevertheless I think perhaps it may be best to examine this objection a little, and see what can be made of it. Does it mean 296 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY that we have one or two " lawfully established political parties in the country, and no man must dare presume to think, speak, or act politically or morally in any man- ner that might seem to be against them, or to disapprove their course or their principles in any case whatever? If this be its meaning, wo be to the man who takes this stand in a land of freedom until thk divine rights of KINGS SHALL BE ESTABLISHED FOREVER, AS IRREVO- CABLY AS THE LAWS OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS. Now the friends of this cause deny that the subject in itself is political on mere party grounds, or that they desire to make it so, but claim that the prevalence of the great and self evident moral principes it involves would, from a wholesome public sentiment, soon peace- fully and effectually accomplish the greatly desired ob- ject of universal emancipation and rational constitutional freedom throughout the land. And what they complain of is, not that any of their fellow-citizens exercise their constitutional right to oppose these principles which they deem so vitally essential to the freedom of the slave, their own and their children's freedom, and that of our common country, but that they do not oppose them in a constitutional manner, as becomes the honour and the dignity of freemen. But as it were, are sinking trenches and throwing up breastworks in midnight darkness against the approach of a friend and not of an enemy. They only ask their fellow-citizens to come out into the open field, and bravely meet them with the noble Chris- tian and republican armour of truth and argument. It is true that all questions of great and increasing import- ance are always liable to be seized upon by mere wily party politicians to be turned to their own and to their ILLUSTRATED. 297 party's account under pretence of "loving the people most dearly." But as to the anti-slavery cause, thus far, eagle eyed and " expedient " politicians of all parties, with what John Randolph would call " dough faces," have laboured most assiduously to put it far from them for the important reason that it was unpopular, and not because it was not right in itself. But public opinion will roll on, if liberty in our beloved land is destined to triumph, and leave this class of men in their own reveries, " to behold and wonder, and perish." It is however very hopeful that many who have heretofore pursued this course have paused, and are at least " considering on their way." It is certainly painfully amusing to see the " expe- dient " maneuvering of mere party tacticians in politics, on all subjects which they deem in any way likely to affect their political interests. While a subject of any kind, however humane or patriotic in itself, is decidedly unpopular, they will most unqualifiedly repudiate it ; and each party exerts its utmost influence, and often by base means to charge it over to the credit, or rather, as they intend to the disgrace of its opponents. Let the same thing become popular to-day, forgetting what it was doing but yesterday, each party at once claims to be its most fearless advocate and its principal instigator. These are grave matters of every day occurrence among men whose very trade is party poli- tics. Philanthropists must not wait for prominent politi- cal men (as such only) of any party before they will move on in this great and noble cause of human rights, or in any other cause of humanity and benevolence ; for in so doing they would be acting like the man loitering 298 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY on the bank of a river with an exhaustless fountain, wait- ing for the water to run by, that he might pass over dry shod. The anti-slavery cause in its moral bearing, from its sacredness, has little to hope from mere sordid party politicians of any name ; for these are the very men for the most obvious of selfish reasons, who have thus far been holding it up with its friends to the most cruel con- tempt and derision. I speak now of such partisans only, of any name, whether Van Buren, Whig, or Loco Foco, if their motto should be, " we must stop at nothing to accomplish our ends." Politicians of this stamp, I care not what the name, if they obtain the ascendency of the pub- lic mind, will most certainly demoralize and ultimately ruin any country, just so sure as virtue is conservative, and vice destructive. Any people to be safe must have the intelligence to see, and the virtue to adhere to the constitutional principles of their compact ; but forever re- serving their safe, wholesome, inalienable rights ; of freely discussing, and of suggesting the propriety of changes or alterations from time to time, according to circumstances, as they may conceive such changes or alterations to be for the greatest good of all concerned. Short of this kind of rational freedom it is seen at once, that there must be an end to all improvement in civilized life. But whenever leading politicians are found wanting, either in this necessary intelligence or virtue, to accom- plish some favourite scheme of their own, they often deem it " expedient " to advance doctrines unconstitu- tional, disorganizing, and dangerous. And in such cases in all countries, and in all ages, unthinking men, in a reckless, and ruthless spirit of mobocracy, have ILLUSTRATED. 299 acted only as their blind echoes and allies. It is most devoutly to be hoped that the people would keep the anti-slavery cause or the cause of freedom, which is their own cause, out of the control of any such men. This will be the only rational hope for the oppressed and for the country. It is more and more being seen and felt every day, that the cause of coloured emancipation in our land is indeed most emphatically the cause of free- dom itself for all. If this principle be not sufficiently seen and felt in time, all hope of our remaining a free people much longer will be over forever. And if an absolute government should ever be established on the ruins of the present, it would unquestionably be of the most despotic character. Let us not dare become so intoxicated with our present freedom as for a moment to dream that even all this is quite beyo?id the possibility of human events! ! If the anti-slavery cause in our coun- try is destined to succeed, the truth must and will be felt, that it is in every sense for us all, the cause of free- dom against oppression and tyranny. And it should be remembered also, that " on the side of the oppressor there is power." And while the friends of truth and freedom do not rely on physical or numerical power, they must and ought to rely largely on the power of truth and the genuine principles of rational liberty, with the blessing of Heaven. My opinion would be to the friends of freedom and the oppressed, studiously to avoid identifying this cause with any political party whatever, while they still individually nobly withhold their suffrages or cast them clearly on the side of rational liberty. The slavery interest in our country is so tremendous that no prominent and leading politician of any party (whatever 300 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY his private sentiments maybe,) will dare openly to array himself against it, until he think he shall be sustained by the people. Such men of course feel little sense of moral obligation, but all with them is party and " ex- pediency." You talk of moral obligation to such men, and you seem to them as Lot did to the Sodomites, as one that " mocks," and they cry, fanatic ! fanatic ! or in other words, thou fool ! ! Though the all-reforming power is found to lie with the body of the people, nevertheless, public men, and leading politicians, never appear to better advantage, as men, than when they plant their feet (like the vener- able Ex-President, John Quincy Adams,) on some great reforming principle, and there, regardless of pop- ular favour, or popular indignation, determine to abide the issue. Public men are by no means acting worthy of the confidence of the people, when they act only on the " time serving " principle. They should ever act as one of the people, and one with the people, having in- terests in common with them. The public are entitled to every freeman's opinions, and public men should give theirs on all subjects of public interest, as disinterest- edly, as honestly, and as unreservedly as private citi- zens. Let no professed patriot, for a moment, feel that he has done his part towards sustaining, and perpetuating the liberties of his country, by barely informing himself of the existence of impending dangers. He should also embrace every proper opportunity, to impart this infor- mation to all his countrymen, at the hazard, even of ILLUSTRATED. 301 property, of reputation, and of life itself, if necessary. The noble Lovejoy, with thousands of others in the world, who have fallen in freedom's cause, felt so. With regard to Lovejoy, when all the lumber of preju- dice, which the magic power of slavery has been man- ufacturing for ages, shall be rolled from the public mind by the strong lever of truth, his character will then be thus seen, like the sun breaking out from a gloom of clouds, and shining forth in his own native brilliancy and splendour. Hence, we see, that no one in a high sense, can be truly a valuable citizen of a free government, unless he adopt efficient means, so far as shall be within his pow- er, both to acquire, and to impart correct information in all things that pertain to the good of his country, and his fellow-men, regardless of his own sordid, private interests. Do we not see, that men in all ages, whose souls have been most enlarged, like that of Washington or Lafayette, with this disinterested love of country, or of liberty and mankind, are the distinguished patriots and philanthropists, whose names, and whose virtues, are embalmed and immortalized in the memory of man ? Such names shall live ; while the names of those who hold to, and act upon the principle, that "slavery is the best basis of freedom ," shall moulder in forgetful- ness. We know, that that most specious doctrine of " ex- pediency" so much harped upon by "demagogues," (the opponents of " fanaticks,") and which has already, .. so greatly corrupted, and endangered the stability, and perhaps the very existence of all our institutions, both 26 302 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY of church and of state, in our presumptuous and " Heav- en-daring" nation, is as widely different from this, as are the poles apart ; for the one seeks self, and the oth- er its COUNTRY. Yet, the corrupt and degenerate use of the term "ex- pedient," has come to mean, unqualifiedly, that which is best, for my most noble and beloved self, and for my beloved " party," — totally regardless of abstract jus- tice or right. It thus aims a most deadly blow, at the very root of all truth, and would fill the world with " cold and heartless selfishness, and lies." Whatever may be said by Americans, about "petti- coal government" who can but favourably regard the pre- sent Queen of England, for the excellent sentiment, recently expressed by her, when one of her Courtiers proposed a measure to her " majesty," as a very " ex- pedient " one. — " Talk not of 'expedients,' " was her noble reply, " but tell me, is it right ?" We should also, to be consistent patriots, exercise our sacred right of suffrage, with strict, and conscien- cious reference to principle, and not to men. I do not mean that principle which will lead us to best serve our favourite party, but the cause of truth, our favourite country, and posterity. For instance, I have one vote, which is as sacred and as dear to me, as though I had five hundred votes, based on property in human flesh. All others, of course, will do as they pleased, but so far as regards myself, I am perfectly willing the world should know, (call it " abolitionism," or what they may,) that I will give my one vote to no man living, to be my servant, ruler, or law-maker, unless I previously know ILLUSTRATED. 303 it to be his sentiments, that all public servants of the people should ever feel themselves under the highest possible obligation, forever to stand by, and protect the free and constitutional right of speech, freedom of dis- cussion, and liberty of the press, independent of all par- ty considerations whatever; and also to stand up firmly and immovably, under all circumstances, for the sacred constitutional rights of respectful petition from the peo- ple, to whom they owe their promotion, and whose ser- vants they are, and not only for the respectful reception of all such petitions from the people, by their servants or representatives, but for a candid examination of their claims ; and who would not insult the people, by reck- lessly trampling their petitions under their feet, or con- temptuously throwing them ow, or under the table. Should I not at least require these prominent quali- fications to be indispensable in any man claiming my suffrage, I should consider myself acting as an enemy and a traitor to my country and posterity. I have made these plain remarks in this place, as being somewhat relevant to the subject, to show what I thought were the bounds in exercising the right of suffrage, beyond which, acting with a proper regard to himself and his country, no man can pass with impu- nity, let his politics, or let his opinions about the eman- cipation of the slaves, be what they may. If the people can have a fair hearing of all subjects, I could most confidently trust the result. Whoever shall violate these fundamental and self- evident principles, for any pretence whatever, for party, or otherwise, cannot, I think, be properly regarded a consistent friend to freedom, to his country ; to his own 304 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY rights, or to the rights of others. And the evil of hi? course will most inevitably, ere long, fall back with crushing weight upon his own head, or upon the heads of his children. Such a man would receive the impre- cations and curses, and not the benedictions, of his de- scendants. One might flatter himself that he can enjoy power for a " brief space" by such a course; but it should be remembered, it is far from being patriotic. While the great and prominent object of this holy enterprise is the liberation from thraldom, and to effect the highest temporal, as well as eternal good, of two and a half millions of our suffering fellow-beings, in cruel bondage ; still, notwithstanding northern dema- gogues, who are courting southern favour, cry "hush! hush ! you traitor to the Union," whenever a northern man attempts to speak of his moral or political consti- tutional rights ; yet northern freemen, who would act for themselves and their posterity, must be unhappily and amazingly blinded, not to see that the slaveholding states are united and determined to make the inhuman institution of slavery the powerful engine of the speedy and entire subjugation of northern liberties. And will the north be made instrumental to effect her own ruin? Who does not see that the slave states, though their movements are insidious, are even now all alive for the immediate admission of the vast country of Texas into the Union, which, when politically carved up into a number of slave states, they secure the balance in the senate, and our liberties are gone ! Revolt, or base vassalage to a slaveholding nation, would then be our inevitable doom. Great men, and all men, at the ybrth, would then be in the like degraded condition. ILLUSTRATED. 305 We might then imploringly look to our Van Burens, our Marcies, our Wrights, our Adamses, or our Web- sters, for help, but look in vain. They, too, would be shorn of their locks by the demon of slavery, and the people would awake, when too late, and anxiously in- quire, what Delilah hath done this ? Who could not understand the heavy draft from the south, drawn upon northern liberties, previous to the last presidential election, and which was most basely honoured, by contending politicians of all parties, vy- ing for southern favour, by way of unheard-of abuse in a civilized land, of their own northern fellow-citizens, and even by threatening northern freemen (for the mere exercise of their undoubted constitutional rights,) with gag-law, with chains, and with death? Can it indeed be possible, in order to effect their own ends, that slave- holders and their abettors can ever again raise the " hue and cry" to any purpose against abolitionists, as being a reckless and bloodthirsty set of men ! ! ? How long will the north sacrifice her own citizens on this bloody Moloch of southern slavery? The doctrine which of late has been more than inti- mated from various quarters of our country, as being correct, that the mere impulse of the will, for the time being, of every community, or neighbourhood, is supe- rior to, and should prevail over all written laws, and constitutions, is unfounded and dangerous in the ex- treme. Indeed, it is but another name for the watch- word, " down with all laws ;" let anarchy and brute- force riot through the land ; let every man arm himself with deadly weapons of self-defence, for his life, his family, and his property. 26* 306 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY Fellow-countrymen, shall we not firmly and timely resist, this current of danger, ruin, and death, to all that our fathers so nobly won for us? Would not our de- parted fathers' blood, which purchased our dear bought liberties, cry aloud from their tombs, to warn their sons of the threatened approach of so deadly an enemy? And will not the sons of sires so noble, arise in time, and with weapons of truth, tempered with a spirit of philan- thropy and patriotism, repel the invader ? Or are we, in- deed, sunk so low, that we can look quietly on and behold the foe, thus wantonly revelling upon relics so sacred ? Ought not all who venerate the ashes of the slain for our freedom ; all who love their country, and their fellow-men, to stand erect, and manfully contribute whatever of in- fluence they possess, to roll back this tide of desolation? Who cannot see, that he who connives at, and encou- rages mobs, by holding out the idea that they must be right, because they " represent the popular will," must be aiming a most fatal blow to our only safeguards, the institutions of our fathers? Whose property, whose family, whose life, can be safe amid such a state of things ? You ask me, if I am alarmed ? I answer, it is the part of wisdom, to prevent a coming evil, even when we feel conscious that we possess a remedy, or an alternative, should it come. For one, I only speak the language of thousands, when I say, that I always did, as a general political principle, most heartily ap- prove, with proper qualifications, of that " good Jack- sonian doctrine," " to ask for nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing wrong." One of my most sacred and constitutional rights is the freedom of speech, which I cannot under any circumstances whatever surrender, ILLUSTRATED. 307 Even the " Union" itself, as much as I have idolized it, as a broad foundation of future national greatness, com- pared with this first best boon of heaven, would be to it, as a grain of sand to the globe. An eminent statesman once said, " his opinions, like every man's, were public stock, and express them he would, let the consequences be what they might ; for the precise results, he said, of the free expression of his honest sentiments he could not feel himself bound to know." My property, character, and all, are light in the balance of this first and last right of all rights, the freedom of speech. The slaveholding, or man-stealing, and man-robbing institution, aside from its being fraught in all its hideous features, with the most cruel "inhu- manity to man," by violently wresting from him all his inborn and inalienable rights, and above all, the u centre right " of all rights, the right to himself, is a most power- ful political engine, from its vastly partial and unequal scale of representations between non-slaveholding and slaveholding states, founded entirely on this abhorrent and despotic institution of slavery, which is most rapidly swallowing up northern liberties into the very vortex of slaveholding despotism. On this subject, a writer pos- sessed of a high order of talents, and sound patriotism, remarks, that " under the first census of the United States, the freemen of the slaveholding states had the privilege of electing thirteen more representatives to congress than political equality, with the non-slavehold- ing states would have given them ; and the legislatures of the first mentioned states, of designating thirteen more electors of president and vice-president, than the same equality would have given them. Under the last census 308 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY in the equality is nearly in the same proportion, though the number of representatives and electors have greatly increased. The extra representatives in congress, and also the presidential electors for property in our fellow-men will be thirty in 1840. In Virginia, the political power of five of her free- men, in respect to the same important offices, is equal to seven freemen in the state of New-York. The relative power of the freemen in the other states being greater in proportion to the increase of the number of human beings, deprived of all rights in the former. In consequence of the admission of slavery into the three new states west of the Mississippi, they send three representatives to Congress, and designate three electors of our chief magistrate, more than they could claim by any equitable apportionment. This is the reason, too, together with the fact, that at every great political movement in the nation, (as at the last presidential election ; Missouri, and the tariff ques- tions, &c. &c.) the slave states always immediately rallying on this common ground of interest, (entirely regardless of their usual party lines,) and forming one "mighty phalanx;" why, these states, with but about one-fourth part of the freemen in the Union, have al- ways been enabled, to a great extent, to give law and tone to the nation!! This is also the reason, if not timely counteracted, why slavery, to sustain itself, with ail its dreadful oppressions, will rapidly convert our nominally free government into an entire slavehold- ing despotism, both for the " bleached and the un- ILLUSTRATED. 309 bleached." * The artful pretext will be to support the Union. This may take with the north to their ultimate ruin ! ! " Ought any more new states," asks this writer, " with such unequal and ill-founded political advantages, to be admitted into the Union? Can any well-meaning citizen," continues this able writer, patriot, and states- man, " excuse himself to his own love of liberty, and say, that we ought not to explain, set up, and to defend our equal rights 1 That we ought not to speak, and write, and publish the truth on slavery, so intimately affecting our interests and our duties not only to the enslaved, but to ourselves and our posterity?" Who does not see that the despotic system of poli- tical representation for property in man is such, that even one slaveholder, give him slaves enough, might politically own and rule millions of nominal freemen ? Indeed, it is now virtually done by comparatively few slaveholders, with their 500 and their 1000 slaves a- piece ! ! Southern politicians well understand this undue poli- tical advantage which they hold over the nominally free states, and they are determined, if possible, to maintain it, by continuing to blind the north on the whole subject of slavery, by suppressing free discussion upon it, and also by perpetuating and extending this most diabolical system of grinding the poor coloured people under their iron hoof of despotism. And they would fain seem willing to make these wretched victims of their cruel power, who are now as their footstool, but the stepping- * The language of a slaveholding governor, in making this same prediction to show that white laboureis in this country must all come to slavery in twenty-five years, 310 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY stone of other footstools of a lighter hue. " Slavery is the best basis of freedom ," exclaims Calhoun and JVl'Duffie. The watchword of slavery is, that all must bow down to this idol, coloured or uncoloured, north or south, east or west. The free states having at present forty-four votes majority in both houses in Congress ; notwithstanding the very great inequality of slaveholding and non- slaveholding representation, should there prove to be sufficient intelligence and virtue in the great body of the people to bring their clear constitutional power successfully and happily to bear, in abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, in the territories, and to abolish the inter-state slave traffic ; they might yet do much, (perfectly honourable, being al- together consistent with every particle of plighted faith, which can possibly be found to be, even the most scrupulously expressed or implied,) towards pre- serving their own liberties, saving the nation from ulti- mate and absolute despotism, and at the same time take an important step towards relieving our suffering coun- trymen from their heavy and grievous bondage. This would still be giving slaveholders all the unequal and despotic political advantage they so tenaciously claim by what they call their slave representation. Many of our northern statesmen have unquestionably long seen this vast inequality of northern and southern political rights, but dared not patriotically proclaim it, lest the people should not appreciate their views and sustain them. But there is hope, whether politicians do it or not, that the people, in their might, are " now coming to the rescue of liberty." Many northern party politicians have also undoubtedly seen this, and ILLUSTRATED. 311 have desired it should so continue, and not even be looked into and discussed by the people ; for the very obvious reason, that they were either then enjoying, or expecting soon to enjoy, the ill-gotten spoils of slavery in common with southern slaveholding politicians, by way of offices of emolument within the gift of the whole amalgamated Union. Nay, more ! Some of this class at the north, in hopes by it still to enjoy the pol- luted spoils arising from this unhallowed partnership with slaveholding politicians, have gone to great and unwarrantable lengths in abusing and oppressing north- ern freemen who were endeavouring to exercise their unquestionable constitutional rights, by looking into, and investigating this subject, in immediate connexion with the great philanthropic subject of universal emancipa- tion. This great abuse of freemen has been carried on, too, by wily politicians, under the very plausible pretext of the wonderful patriotism of " preserving the Union ;" just as though the Union could not be pre- served, and the freedom of speech and the press still be sacredly maintained. What will the " sovereign people " say to all this 1 Will they barter away their right of speech for golden but visionary promises, or " sell their birthright for a mess of pottage V Which did such time-serving politicians probably care most about in thus profanely trampling on freemen's rights, — " preserving the Union," or preserving their " LOAVES AND FISHES V 1 It ought ever to be remembered, by every freeman who would still enjoy liberty, that he who advocates even the Union itself, at the dreadful and fatal sacrifices 312 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY of the right of speech, the right of petition, and the lib- erty of the press, — whatever his opinions or his motives may be, — is in reality clearly advocating the doctrine of slavery for all (not freedom,) regardless of colour. And should such a doctrine be suffered to prevail by artful politicians blinding the eyes of the people, the sequel will most unquestionably prove it to be so. As much as we have idolized the Union as a great bulwark of freedom, independence, and of national fame and glory ; and as much as we may desire to become a great and a powerful people among the nations of the earth, still let us not be deceived in this all-important question of our own liberties. The idea of a Union that associates vassalage and slavery with it, not freedom, instead of charming, should at once horrify every lover of rational liberty. To be sure, we idolize power, but do we not idolize liberty still more ? What independent freemen would not pre- fer freedom, even in the " dens and the caves of the earth," to kneeling down and worshipping at the foot- stool of despotic power? Many of our own countrymen, by the cruel oppressions of their fellows, have often been forced from the abodes of human society, to take refuge in the caves and swamps of republican America, secret- ed days, and working nights for food. And again I say, let us not be deceived ; for whatever interested and ambitious politicians may say to us through a press, which may be prostituted to their own purposes of power and self-aggrandizement over the people, if we would remain a free people, we must forever hold the great constitutional and righteous principles of the free- dom of speech, liberty of the press, and the right of pe- ILLUSTRATED. 313 tition, as much more sacred, and as much higher, than even the " Union itself," as the very Heavens (to speak with reverence) are higher than the earth. I do insist, that in this " would-be free republic," the question of Union itself should never be suffered to take the lead of the great safeguard principles of all rational liberty, " the unabridged freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press, and the right of petition." It has certainly been most painful to every consistent lover of rational freedom, that the question, even of " Union," over these very first and only saving principles, has been holding, comparatively, too great a prominence in the pub- lic mind, by means of an extraneous and a forestalling political influence, which has been altogether inconsis- tent with the origin and broad principles of all civil liberty. Union itself, of mere territory, if bound together, not only with slaveholding or lynching cords, but with strong bands of iron and steel, would not, of itself, constitute liberty, but might constitute the strongest and heaviest bonds of slavery. To act upon such a principle merely, would be like keeping the eye upon the mere superstruc- ture of some splendid and stately edifice, while the pil- lars upon which it stood, constituting its entire founda- tion, were rapidly crumbling to the earth from beneath it. How would one appear in such a case, if, while his own idolatrous eye was gazing intently with rapture and delight upon the dome itself, his own right hand was hewing down its only foundation, strength, and supports ? But, to unfold, and to sustain these great first prin- ciples of rational liberty, is most emphatically the appro- priate work of the people ; for most public men virtually act upon the doctrine of instruction from their constitu- 27 314 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ents, and seldom even warn the " dear people " of ap- proaching dangers, if such warning would be likely to obscure their own bright prospects of political prefer- ment. Hence, we must see the absolute necessity of the " people themselves " being informed, as well as vir- tuous, if they would be free. Indeed, any thing short of universal intelligence, as well as virtue, among the people, tends to aristocracy, and ultimately to despotism itself. The people must, and I hope will, think for themselves, and trust to no "great leader" to teach them, or to think for them. We may trust our property, when we will, to another, but not our liberties ; for they have been purchased at too dear a rate. They are the price of blood ; the blood of our fathers and our kindred ; too sacred to be bartered away, or credited out, on any mortal security whatever. My mind, for one, is fully made up, that we have now, and shall continue to have, northern aspiring poli- ticians, of all parties, who, to accomplish their own am- bitious purposes, will try to hush the north into silence on the subject of slavery ; if the people would listen to the syren song, and believe, until the moment, their own liberties are writhing in the very folds of that same dreadful southern anaconda : indeed, even now, whose life or property is hardly safe from the foul fiend of slav- ery or his emissaries, when he speaks out boldly, as he ought to speak, on this curse of our country, and scourge to our fellow-man. The very nature of the institution of southern slavery, from the vast advantage it gives the south, on the scale of representation, and from the effect the institution has to unite all the slave States as one ILLUSTRATED. 315 vast state on this subject, (however divided they may be on others,) gives the south already an unreasonable controlling ascendency over the north. Owing to the institutions of slavery, this great nation has long been rigidly governed by an inconsiderable minority. This certainly will be like a mountain weight upon us, if slav- ery shall continue to increase. The north, while they have been astonished at it, have not generally fully un- derstood why the south have so long, and do still, exert an influence so preponderating, so tremendous and ap- palling, in our national councils. The non-slaveholding States have men in the national councils fully equal, if not superior, to the slaveholding States ; but what do they avail? The north may rest assured, that just so long as slavery continues with its power that it now holds, just so long it is destined to live virtually under a slave- holding President (though with the mock name republi- can ;) or rather the north, so long as slavery exists in the nation, is in every sense as really destined to look up to slaveholders for their most gracious condescension, to dictate, by virtue of their human property, to mil- lions of nominal freemen, who shall be their rulers, as the Canadas are, to look to England to send them over governors from the Royal Family, against which many Americans have, quite recently, so loudly protested. Let the people but carefully watch the movements of those who so adroitly pull the political wires behind the scene, and they will soon be satisfied of this. Though I have for years been aware, to some extent, of the insidious windings about us of that dreaded, and dreadful foe to man (slavery,) but not having been in possession of all the statistics of the encroachments of 316 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY this monsterupon our liberties, never had I supposed that he had already so entirely enfolded us in his hideous coils, as the mid-day sun of truth, which recently shone so brightly in the Senate chamber of the United States, so clearly discovered to us, from that able and patriotic senator, Mr. Davis, from Massachusetts, (a State al- ways first in the cause of liberty,) while so manfully opposing the passage of the great nullfier's subtle and ominous nullification, slavery, and Texas resolutions. The extract itself which follows, from that valuable speech against the passage of resolutions so disgraceful and degrading to a free people, even more than sustains all the opinions I have ever advanced in relation to our servile dependence upon slaveholding power. " I ask," says Mr. Davis, " whether the great slave interest is to dissolve the Union 1 I appeal again to your recollections, and to those of the senator from South Carolina, (Calhoun,) and ask you whether an in- terest so powerful as to have majorities in both houses, and to maintain its ascendency in the government, is likely to have occasion to secede from the Union through fear or oppression? Sir, this interest (slavery) has ruled the destinies' of the republic. For FORTY out of forty-eight years, it has given us a President from its own territory and of its own selection. I do not advert to this in the tone of complaint, for it has been done at the ballot-box ; hut as a proof of its great strength, tact, and skill, and of the extraordinary pre- dominance it holds over all other interests, bending and shaping them to its purposes. During all this time, it has not only had a President sustaining its own peculiar views of public policy, but through him, has held and ILLUSTRATED. 317 used, in its own way, the whole organization of all the departments, and all the vast and controlling patronage incident to that office, to aid it in carrying on its views and policy, as well as to protect and secure to it every advantage. " Let us explore a little further, sir," says this states- man, standing on the elevated and constitutional rights of American citizens, *' and see how the houses of Con- gress have been organized. For THIRTY years out of thirty-six years, that interest (slavery) has placed its own speaker in the chair of the other house, thus securing the organization of committees, and the great influence of that station. And, sir, while all other in- terests have, during part of the time, had the chair in which you preside assigned to them, as an equivalent for these great concessions ; yet, in each year, when a President pro tem. is elected, who, upon the contin- gencies mentioned in the constitution, will be the Pre- sident of the United States, that interest (slavery) has INVARIABLY GIVEN US THAT OFFICER!!! Look, I be- seech you," continues this able and faithful senator, " through all the places of honour, of profit, and privi- lege ; and there you will find the representatives of this interest (slavery) in numbers that indicate its influence. Does not, then, this interest (slavery) hold the destinies of this republic in its own hands? Does it (slavery) not rule, guide, and adapt public policy to its own views, and fit it to suit the action and products of its own labour] Sir, I know that the politicians of the slave country sometimes disagree about men, and measures, of MINOR CONSIDERATION ; but On the GREAT INTEREST of slave labour, and the protection of slave property, 27* 318 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY they stand firmly together, and, like the Macedonian phalanx, shoulder to shoulder, gather around it (slave- ry), and, by mighty and concerted efforts, give it (sla- very) the lead in public affairs against all opposition. Sir, how can I better explain its all-pervading influence than to declare again that it (slavery) moves this govern- ment of fifteen millions of souls, great and energetic as it is, and disproportionate as is the slaveholding popu- lation to that of the free states 1 " With this mighty power in your hands, with proof at every vote taken in this capital of your ability to con- tinue it, can you of this interest entertain apprehensions for your safety 1 What more do you claim ? What more can you have ? How can those who hold power be oppressed by those icho have none? How can those who hold the powers of this government, fear it? I cannot believe there is occasion in the mind of any one belonging to this interest (slavery) for the dissolution of the Union, unless he be ambitious, unprincipled, and without hope of advancement ! ! It will be reasonable enough to meet danger from other quarters when it threatens mischief. " But, Mr. President, I must not omit some other proofs of the towering magnitude of the slave interest here. It claims to itself whatever of merit there is in the overlhroiv of the policy of internal improvements, and of having broken down and rendered unpopular the policy of so assessing and collecting the revenue as to protect and encourage free labour. Over this last great interest, it (slavery) claims a signal triumph for having dejeated it. I need not multiply proofs of the zeal, ac- tivity, and singular success of those who have managed ILLUSTRATED. 319 this interest, (slavery.) The integrity oj the Union is, probably, quite as important to the slave territory, as to the free. I cannot, therefore," said this distinguished senator, " credit the suggestion that the people of the south are so blinded to their interests as to court so calamitous a result. What then is it that shakes this great republic, so that it reels upon its foundation ; so that we are brought to a solemn pause here in the public business, and are gravely and solemnly devising measures to redeem us from threatened ruin'? Sir," continues this senator, " we have a set of resolutions, nearly connected, that are to go forth with healing power to calm the public mind, to allay 4 the outbreak- ings of fanaticism,' and to tranquillize the raging ele- ments. The opinion of the majority of the senate is to work out this extraordinary result. But I again ask, what it is that we are thus contending with? What that threatens calamity, and is thus easily subdued ? It is the abolitionists, that come here in no very alarming numbers, though the course pursued here has greatly in- creased the aggregate, not to threaten the government or to menace the Union, — no, sir, not at all ; but humbly to entreat and pray you to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, where, I believe, there are about 40,000 people of colour. »' Sir, they have claimed nothing, but the right to pray and beg of the senate to use its power for this purpose. What more humble and less objectionable right can be claimed by man, than the right of respect- fully entreating'? Yet, sir, the exercise of this poor privilege has brought us into grave deliberation, to res- cue the Union from impending dissolution. Sir, I can- 320 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY not participate in these fears, nor persuade myself that such causes will produce such results, or that the Union will be attacked, unless the provocation is given here. " But, sir, what is to be hoped from these resolu- tions? What are their healing properties, their power to assuage resentments, and to allay irritated passions? Are these resolutions agitating the matter to any useful purpose? I read them," said this senator; "and while a part of them seemed tome to contain certain doctrines on the subject of slavery according with the sentiments of the mover, the residue seemed to be a mere avowal of a. political creed. Nor being quite certain that I was right in the matter, I was comforted when my friend from Delaware (Mr. Bayard) rose. They professed to treat of abolition ; but the worthy senator declared that, on lifting the veil, he had discovered 'nullification' un- der the first of the series. He pointed the little fellow out to us, hidden snugly under a thin covering of ' State right gauze.'' " This senator has here made a sober, but to every in- telligent and consistent lover of liberty, a most fearfully startling exhibition of facts, in relation to the tremendous and preponderating power of the slaveholding interest in this nation, both south and north, and of its constantly increasing aggression upon all our liberties. In a plain view of facts so astounding, in addition to a long dark catalogue of others of a like character, and many of a still deeper hue which might be adduced, and fairly chargeable upon slavery ; how can any American citizen, and more especially in the States called free, even if he care nothing for the liberation of two and a half mil- lions of his enslaved countrymen, ever again have the ILLUSTRATED. 321 confidence to hold up his head and speak tauntingly of the abject dependence of distant colonies of Great Bri- tain, or the servile dependence of any other colonies upon their royal head at home ! Let no independent American citizen indulge the de- grading and dangerous thought for a moment, that these are grave matters not to be spoken of. Shall it, indeed, be said, that an " independent and sovereign people," shall not dare to know their true political as well as their moral condition? Let such an idea be scouted from a land of democratic freemen, to its own hiding place, underneath the footstool of despotic power; but let us, Americans, ever bear in mind, that a free govern- ment can be maintained in no other way than by the un- abridged and free exercise of all our inalienable rights, and that these Heaven-descended rights consist in one man having the same, and as perfect a right to speak against each and every existing law of his country, or even against the whole constitution of his government if he please, as another man has to speak in favour of them all ; " meanwhile," holding ourselves amenable to con- stitutional law only for any abuse of our rights. A sound writer and an able statesman remarks, " that the cause of freedom of speech, is the cause of universal man." " Leave this" said he, " and take what else you will away, and all else left is but a splendid mockery." Another able writer, speaking prospectively : " should the right of speech in our country ever be taken away," says, the historian would record our doom thus : u Here rose the noblest and freest empire ever reared by man. Based upon principles that were to regenerate the earth, and having poured out his own best blood like water in vin- 322 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY dication of the rights of man, it strangely became the persecutor of speech, and the enslaver of opinion — it threw itself across the orbit of human destiny, and of eternal providence, and the mighty vision faded from the world." All who like the slavery of the coloured people, and are also acting in a way to prepare uncoloured peo- ple for abject vassallage, will of course delight in this our servile dependence, and still cry peace ! peace I do'nt go too fast. The captivating pretext for all this, will be to preserve our "glorious Union." But be not deceived ; — who would exchange the meat of the cocoa for the mere shell ? And while it is our inalienable moral right, and our high moral duty, loudly to testify against all wrongs and oppressions, wherever they are known on the face of the earth, still the world will cry out with one voice, " it does not become that dark shareholding America to throw stones at her neighbours too hard, while she is so grossly exposed through her glass house, to the eyes of all mankind." What high-minded, well-informed, and reflecting American, must not feel humbled under this view, that his country has indeed been imbibing a deadly poison into her whole constitution, which is rapidly undermining her constitution, and paralizing her arm in the cause of civil liberty, throughout the earth ? With regard to " going too fast " in the righteous cause of holy freedom, we will adduce a case for con- sideration a moment, and see how it looks. We will suppose some of our own dearest friends had been kid* ILLUSTRATED. 323 napped, and were now in cruel bondage ; should we think that people, (men, women, or children,) in the country where they were thus enslaved, could well go too fast, in creating a just, and an uncompromising public senti- ment in favour of their immediate unconditional libera- tion ? Would not this be a just, and a righteous doc- trine for them to inculcate 1 The principles and proceedings of abolitionists, have been greatly misapprehended, and as often most slan- derously and meanly misrepresented, after they were understood. Anti-abolitionists sometimes with their own favourite projects (political or pecuniary) in view, have frequent- ly represented abolitionists, as a set of " base, weak, fanatical, and incendiary men, trampling on all the laws, and desecrating the constitution of the land, aiming to exite the slaves to insurrection, and to wrest them by violence from the iron grasp of their masters." Now, nothing could be more foreign to the truth ; and I trust that American history, will yet show abolition- ists to have been greater adherents, and more consistent friends to the constitution, and the laws of their coun- try, and to all their countrymen, than any other class of American citizens. And I trust it will also be seen, that they were sane men ; that they judged correctly, (notwithstanding the darkness and the clouds lowering about them,) of the virtue of the American people, and of the amount of moral influence, in the nation which might be brought successfully to bear against the great sin, as well as dangerous and threatening political evil of slavery in the land. 324 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY But if the cause of freedom be destined to be crush- ed by despotic slaveholding power, and slavery and des- potism to triumph forever over this land, it will still be recorded on the annals of all time, that the abolitionsts were the true and genuine friends of freedom in Ame- rica, but that they judged too favourably of the amount of moral power and virtue among the people, for this, with the blessing of Heaven, their only reliance ; as in other countries, would forever sweep slavery from ours. How much soever some may dislike the degrading vassalage to the slaveholding- power of the south, there can be no alternative, while slavery shall continue. Read the anxiety and management of the south, still to increase her already alarming slaveholding power. T will here insert two southern resolutions, for the ben- efit of any who may yet be incredulous on the subject, that southern politicians, at least, are actually not only in favour of pkrpetually enslaving the coloured people, but that they are also determined, if possible, to enslave the uncoloured of the north, by the annexation of Texas to the Union, (as soon as they can catch the north napping,) as a vast slave-country, and then make their horrid institution of slavery, a most fearful and bloody engine of political power, to control the desti- nies of millions, now called freemen, with its despotic iron rod. This rod of despotism, has just been mena- cingly shook over the northern people, by way of sena- torial, slaveholding, nullification, "gag-law" resolu- tions. The two resolutions, first alluded to, among many which might be given, were recently adopted by an ex- tra session of the Mississippi Legislature, on the sub- ILLUSTRATED. 325 ject of the admission of Texas into the Union, as a slave State. " Resolved, That the annexation of Texas to this Re- public, is essential to the future safety and repose of the southern States of this Confederacy." " Again resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives be requested, to use their best endeavours to procure the annexation of Tex- as to the United States, as early as possible." If the people shall faithfully continue to flood Con- gress with petitions against the annexation of Texas, 14 read, or unread," political men, from political policy, may hold off the subject. And again, whoever thinks the slaves could not take care of themselves, or that the slaveholders are very anxious to emancipate them as soon as " expedient," (as they say,) let them listen impartially to what the same Legislature have said to their constituents without one dissenting voice, on the importance for the south to annex Texas to the Union, in order to perpetuate their so much beloved institution of slavery, time without end, to themselves and their posterity, and they will be undeceived. , The frank admission of how much slavery has done for them, and how much they love it, is to be found in a small portion of their famous and laboured address, showing how indispensable Texas is to the south to sus- tain slavery, or as they say, in softer language, " system" or " peculiar institution," and reads as follows, to wit : " The committee feel authorized to say, that this system (slavery) is cherished by our constituents as the very palladium of their prosperity and happiness ; and what- 28 326 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ever " ignorant fanatics " may elsewhere conjecture, the committee are fully assured, upon the most diligent ob- servation and reflection on the subject, that the south does not possess within her limits a blessing with which the affections of her people are so closely entwined and so completely enjibred, and whose value is more highly ap- preciated, than that which we are now considering, (to wit, slavery.) Under the influence of this system, (slavery,) the rich forests of the south, and south-west, have given way to the cultivated fields, teeming with the richest products of agriculture. Villages, towns, and cities, have sprung up as if by magic. The arts and sciences have been made to flourish where the barbarian would alone have been heard to re- sound, or where savage beasts of prey would yet find a quiet asylum. To this system (slavery) we owe more than we can well estimate of domestic comfort and social happiness! To it (slavery) we are chiefly indebted for the lofty spirit of liberty which so eminently distinguish- ed the proud and high-minded inhabitants of this re- gion ! " To this system (slavery) the happiness of the white man has been augmented beyond calculation." Here endeth this part of the chapter ! Now, the fore- going sentiments, couched in the peculiar phraseology, "a lofty spirit of liberty," " proud and high-minded in- habitants," having been produced by slavery, however oreat the appearance of the solecism, still, on reflection, produces the conviction as being in sentiment remark- bly analogous ; for who doubts, for instance, that infi- delity, if it could produce any sentiments at all about Christianity, that they would be both " proud and lofty ones ?" This kind of proud and lofty republicanism ILLUSTRATED. 327 which the Mississippi " gentlemen " of their State Legis- lature, say, is immediately and alone produced by their system of slavery, is only of the same character of the slaveholder's republicanism generally, that is, " that slavery is the best basis of freedom," and is about as consistent as that which a gentleman witnessed, practi- cally carried out, not long since, in Alabama, on the oc- casion of the celebration of American independence, when a slave was made to carry the banners of freedom, (being too hard labour, I suppose, for the delicate hands of slaveholding gentlemen,) on which was inscribed in blazing capitals, " Where liberty is, there is my country." It is certainly worthy o£ nntirp, that whenever southern men have occasion to speak of the horrid and revolting business of slaveholding, (as if conscious of guilt,) by an ingenious tact, avoid the use of the word " slavery," and couch it in soft and smooth terms, such as " system," peculiar or domestic institution, &c. Sometimes also, they attempt to dignify it by calling it the "patriarchal institution." I do not wonder at all this, for doubtless, that dreadful term slavery, alias " man- stealing," grates very harshly even upon their own ears, and sometimes, perhaps, even upon their consciences, if not entirely callous and " seared as with a hot iron" And again, here is a precious little extract from a late leading southern paper. A delicious treat for northern pro-slavery ears no doubt. 44 The policy of the south is not to produce agitation and controversy (or in other words, to tolerate the freedom of speech and the press,) about this matter, (Texas,) but so to manage it that northern members of Congress may take their seats unshackled by instruction." 328 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY This kind of secrecy is rank and dark aristocracy, or slaveholding despotism I It may here be asked, did not our venerable fathers suffer the institution of slavery to enter into the federal compact? My opinion is decidedly in the affirmative; though a stranger to the history of our government might hold up the high and broad principles of freedom which run throughout our constitution, in immediate connex- ion with those contained in the declaration of our inde- pendence, and never dream of such a thing. I cheerfully make this admission, because I desire to base every argument, and every deduction, upon nothing but. truth ; but as theologians universally admit that no one can understand the strict import of every passage in the Bible, without a familiar knowledge of the history of the times in which the inspired volume was penned ; so it is with this and all similar questions. And as I have before alluded to the history of the times antece- dent to, and at the time of the adoption of the constitu- tion ; and also to the tone and spirit in the convention on the subject of slavery, to show that it was most clearly the universal expectation, and, as all might then have well supposed, the well grounded confidence that slavery had indeed received its death-blow, and would soon " die of consumption " (as was the expression of a member of the convention.") Suffice it here to say again, that the forfeited plighted faith is altogether on the part of those States which, in- stead of going home from the convention, according to express understanding, and going to work to give all their fellow-men their freedom, as the northern members did, they went home, and in the place of rearing cattle, ILLUSTRATED. 329 have ever since been rearing men, women, and chil- dren, by thousands and tens of thousands, as articles of commerce for exportation. If we are permitted to judge at all from the sentiments on record, in relation to this subject, of the worthy men composing that convention, we might well imagine their grief and amazement, should they rise from their tombs, and instead of a land of universal freedom, for which they had struggled hard seven years, behold a land al- most of universal slavery. Though the spirit and the general sentiments of the constitution would seem most clearly to condemn slav- ery in every form, yet there can be no doubt but that the convention intended to tolerate the holding of slaves in the States merely, by their fixing the slave representation. But they went even thus far, after forty days debate, in a blind indirect manner, and with great reluctance, evidently feeling conscious that there was a wrong about it ; still they unquestionably did what they thought was best under all the circumstances, from the universal ex- pression that all slavery would speedily be banished from the whole beloved land for whose universal freedom they had so long toiled. And if, in going no farther than this, in compromis- ing human liberty, under these peculiar circumstances of hope, they clearly did it with compunctions, and with ex- treme reluctance, who can dare cast the odium upon their sacred memories, against the clearest possible testimony to the contrary, that they meant to provide, as some pre- tend, for slavery to exist forever in this land, by giving slaveholders, in any possible way, the power to enslave the people during their pleasure, at the very seat of go- 28* 330 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY vernment, in all the territories of the United States ; and to sell them in droves by thousands from one end of the Union to the other? Not a syllable of even an in- timation of any of these things can be found on record. Congress has an unquestionable right at once to stop them all forever. And this clear constitutional right it is also under the highest possible moral and political ob- ligation to exercise without delay, in behalf of the great cause of human liberty, in relation to our own country, and the world. How strangely would some of our southern dema- gogues, in their "stump speeches" years gone by, when courting the favour of the "plebeians," compare with their aristocratic doctrine when defending the divine right of slavery, on the ground that the rich have a right to own, and to buy and sell the poor like cattle in the market, in order to carry out the Calhoun doctrine that " slavery is the best basis of freedom." For instance, the following- are some of the whole- some republican and abolition sentiments, uttered by the same man, in an honest and good-natured moment, in Congress in 1833, for the " dear people " to read, about the time he had his eye upon the Presidential chair, viz. " He who earns the money, who digs it out of the earth by the sweat of his brow, has a just title to it, against the universe. No one has a right to touch it without his consent," says this good republican at this particular time, " except his government, and that only to the ex- tent of its legitimate wants. To take more is robbery." Good enough " abolitionism " this, if men would but practise what they preach. And the great object of abolitionists is, to induce both ILLUSTRATED. 331 the north and the south if possible, to put in practice the good theory which they have all preached for more than two centuries, viz., that the poor slave, like all men, ought to have his liberty and his hard earnings, which is but the just reward of the " sweat of his brow." While we have preached this noble doctrine to the world, and, as it were, kept it to the ear of the poor slave, we have broken it to his hope, and conclusively proved that, as a nation, we have not really meant what we have said ; for, in the mean time, we have added seven new slave states, as so many markets for the sale and the perpetual enslavement of these same op- pressed men and women, whose enslaved and wretched condition we have ever been saying we greatly deplored, and whose sufferings we deeply commiserated. What must an impartial world think of us, who have witnessed all along how much at variance have been our "preaching and our practice" on this subject of human liberty 1 Nay, more ; what will the " God of the oppressed" think of us, who cannot be mocked with impunity, and who will by no means clear the guilty? SECTION XIX. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE I HAVE BEEN AT THE SOUTH, AND I NEVER WAS TREATED WITH GREATER KINDNESS AND HOS- PITALITY; AND THE MASTERS ALSO TREATED 'THEIR SERVANTS' KINDLY, AND THEY APPEARED BRISK AND HAPPY." Now, I doubt not, many northern people visiting iheir friends at the south, have been duped and converted over to favour and to apologize for the untold oppres- sions of slavery in this way! ! Wonder some of these northern visiters, who may not be blessed with all the good things of this life, do not at once sell themselves, and their posterity forever after them, to some "very kind master" as they might make their selection out of the whole south and southwest, a vast extent of terri- tory, consisting of twelve large slave States. Even this poor privilege, of selecting favourite masters, is always denied the poor slave ; but he is often sold from bad masters to worse ones, by way of malignant punish- ment. The doctrine which we sometimes hear, that " we should ever praise the bridge that carries us safe over," is often unsafe, and sometimes proves very per- nicious and dangerous to ourselves and to others. In many instances, it may be great wickedness and gross deception to commend a man's whole character, LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 333 because, forsooth, he may have treated us politely,, and never to our knowledge injured us. We might, in this way, become the disciples and advocates even of known robbers and pirates, for even they are often polite and liberal to their friends, for obvious reasons ! ! And again, the difference between the selected mu- latto domestic servants, (which northern visiters mostly see,) both in their appearance and the manner in which they are treated, bears about the same relation to the appearance and treatment of their " ever delving and ever whipped slaves," on their plantations, that our pet horses at the north, selected by gentlemen out of the whole country, at high prices, — kept in the finest condi- tion to appear in public occasionally, richly caparisoned, to minister to the pride or the pleasure of their owners, — do to the horses that are worn down by overworking and underfeeding, constantly doing the hardest drudgery of the induslrious and laborious farmer and the drayman. Were it necessary here, I might go on to detail at length the vastly different treatment which the house- servants in general receive, and especially in the pre- sence of northern visiters, than do the poor field slaves, who are ever under the bloody and dreaded lash of their heartless and reckless drivers. I may have occasion to say something of this hereafter. SECTION XX. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THERE ARE A GREAT MANY AMIABLE AND HIGHLY RESPECTABLE SLAVEHOLDERS, AMONG WHOM ARE MANY DISTINGUISHED MINISTERS OF THE GOS- PEL, AND OTHER DEVOTED AND PIOUS CHRISTIANS." Not long since I read what some might call, in " home- ly phrase," a kind of" milk and water" treatise, on the subject of slavery.* The author appeared to be a man who had lived some time at the south, and who still had numerous connexions residing there, most of whom were slaveholders ! t He evidently intended the work for an anti-slavery one, but it was certainly to my mind a curiously com- pounded concern of anti and pro-slavery sentiments ! ! His heart might have been right in abhorring slavery. But if so, he surely lacked the nerve and the moral courage to speak out boldly (but kindly) as he ought to speak on the subject. He seemed alternately advancing and retreating) sinning and repenting throughout his whole work!! The peculiarly outrageous and cruel slaveholder seemed to be the principal object of all his faithful and pointed remarks. But as to the " kind and respectable " slaveholders (which he would fain make out * I do not say this in derogation to the ability of the author. LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 335 that most of them were so) they were merely pitied and apologized for, and frequently higlily complimented 1 1 We should indeed pity even pirates who might be in danger every moment of being massacred by the victims of their own bloody cruelty. But what should we all think of any man who should manifest no other feeling than that of pity towards a band of pirates whom he had just witnessed massacre or capture an innocent ship's crew ? This professed opposer to slavery more than once inti- mated, that should all the slaveholders treat their slaves as these " kind and respectable slaveholders " did, he was not certain that he should oppose slavery at all even in the" abstract." Now if this principle be correct, I do not see but men of exemplary moral character externally are a highly privileged order of beings ; so much so, that they may seize upon any one and compel him and all his posterity to work forever for them for nothing ; pro- vided always, however, that they shall treat their victims " kindly " in other respects. Now if we could see one advocating this kind of doctrine in earnest, who could sympathize much to see him made the first subject of its experiment! Yet all this is nothing but American slavery with all its drapery torn off, and its " cloven foot " exposed to view in all its naked deformity. Now I am fully prepared to say, and I hope with all due re- gard to virtue and religion and every good quality in man, that these same amiable and respectable slavehold- ers^ however pious and good their intentions perchance may be, are nevertheless the very pillars of the whole accursed legalized system of robbery and man-stealing which has already so much disgraced and corrupted our nation; for take these away, and leave none but the 336 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY most cruel, openly abandoned, immoral, and outrageous ones in the business, the eyes and the hearts of the people would then be opened to all the horrors of slavery, and the whole country with one accord, both north and south, nay, the whole world would at once cry out u the rod of the oppressor must be broken, and the captives shall go free." The people then would no longer apo- logize for the oppressor, nor " choose, nor advocate any of his ways." The character of the " kind, the ' good,' the amiable and the pious" slaveholder apologizes for slavery, and tends to cast a shade of respectability over all its cruelties and abominations, which now makes it barely suffer- able in the world. This would be so in relation to any system of wickedness amojig men which can possibly be conceived of! For illustration, should all the dealers and tipplers in all intoxicating drinks in some town or city (whom we will now suppose at least able to attend to their business most of the time,) at once become notori- ous drunkards about the streets, rapidly ruining them- selves and their families ; like an earthquake, it would shock and alarm the whole community for its common safety; and would probably " instant er " fully convert them all over into ** simon pure" cold water folks, and perhaps tetotal " abolitionists "for the whole liquid traffic, which threatened so speedily their entire destruction. The gilded drapery of respectability would thus be blown aside, and they would then have occular demon- stration from the uncovered sepulchre of pollution, that an evil so overwhelming from the necessity of the case could no longer be borne. They would all be terrified at feeling the very fabric of society trembling and giving way from under them. illustrated/ 337 How true it is, " that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." It has always been the case in the world, that when any system of business was becoming unpopular, that its friends would of course labour to direct the public eye to its most respectable patrons and advocates. We all know this was remarkably the case when the respect- ability of" rum-selling and rum-drinking" was on the wane. It is the same now in relation to slavery. At the time also when the business of vending lot- tery tickets was becoming unpopular in this state, how common it was for venders of tickets to present the clergy with a ticket now and then, accompanied with their compliments, " hoping it would draw a good prize." All this was natural enough. It is also natural enough to judge whether in most cases it was done to support the clergy with a desire thereby to sustain the gospel, or to seal up their mouths in the pulpit against the business which began to be talked of as a species of gambling. The mouths of more clergymen than one in this nation, and even northern ones too, are thus sealed up by the bribery of slavery in a way which some of them little think of. Which act of wickedness and hypocrisy would God probably look upon with the greater abhorrence and more righteous indignation ; for a Missionary Society to receive a package of lottery tickets, and to add the avails to its funds, or to receive the pious donation of an affectionate wife, and mother, torn from the tender embraces of her husband and children in the Dis- trict of Columbia by some gracious hand, and by the same sainted being, if not in person, yet by proxy, whip- ped all the way into the State of Mississippi, or Ala- 29 338 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY bama, and there sold for the benefit of said society, with her posterity forever after her into endless slavery, where it would be death for any living being to teach her and her posterity even to read the alphabet, by which they might spell out the way of life and salvation ? What adds to the " blackness of darkness," of a deed so foul, is, that the avails of all this violent destruction of human liberty, and human happiness, is to be sanc- timoniously applied to the purpose of converting the " poor heathen," to the suspicious religion of a dark slaveholding nation. But let me not be understood, as denominating the blessed and benevolent Christian religion in its parity, a slaveholding religion, for judgements from on high, will doubtless yet fall upon this nation, if this our Heav- en-daring reproach, be not unfeignedly repented of, and put away from us forever. We have long enough as a nation, grieved the God of the oppressed, and insulted the Majesty of Heaven and earth, by enslaving and op- pressing his poor. It certainly would seem to require a great amount of self-coniidence, for any minister of the gospel to bear up, under the manifest inconsistency, and great absurd- ity (which every child sees and feels,) of praying much publicly, for the poor heathen abroad, but none at all for the millions of the poor heathen at home, worse off, if possible, than the poor heathen abroad. When we do the one, let us not leave the other undone. Even the veriest infidel, let his sentiments about re- ligion, or about abolition, be what they may, sees the totally irreconcilable inconsistency of all this. Were it morally possible for an unbeliever, to be converted to ILLUSTRATED. 339 any kind of Christianity, under such prayers, it would most likely be to a " slaveholding " Christianity. And with all the light on the subject of slavery, now blazing upon us, to say the least, its genuineness would be of a very doubtful character. However unkindly any reader may receive these plainly expressed views, I am still constrained to say, they are my irresistible convictions, which I must soon expect to meet at the judgement. SECTION XXI. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF * GOOD * SLAVE- HOLDERS, WHO WOULD GLADLY EMANCIPATE THEIR SLAVES AT ONCE, IF THEIR LAWS WOULD ALLOW THEM TO DO SO." This is another very plausible, but kindred apology, with many others, for the indefinite, or rather endless continuance of slavery. Let us together, carefully ex- amine this also, and see to what all this too, amounts. Grant that the slaveholder*, for fear, in an unguard- ed moment, their hearts might relent, to let the bond- man go free, have bound themselves up, by the most wicked, and penal enactments, not to do so ; it only re- minds us of the interrogatory language of the Psalmist, addressed to the Almighty, on a similar occasion. " Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law ?" Is not the same power which enacts a wicked law justly held accountable for its immediate abrogation ? And does not the anecdote of the little girl, which is sometimes told on this occasion, properly apply in this case 1 viz. A mother directed a little girl in her absence to do up the work about house. On the mother's re- turn, the work was still undone, and the little girl's ex- LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 341 cuse was, that she had been tied up to the table leg. Tied up to the table leg, says the astonished mother ! Who tied you up, my dear ? 0, I tied myself up. But, says one, this is not exactly a parallel case, for though these good slaveholders, at the south, who are so very anxious to emancipate their slaves, without delay, and cannot do it, on account of the law, did once, it is true, tie themselves up, but now they are very sorry for it ; and though they say the Bible commanded them to tie this knot, because slavery is a " patriarchal institu- tion," " and the best basis of freedom," yet they are try- ing with all their might, to untie it, but find they have tied it so hard, that they are utterly unable to do it. Now admit all this to be the case, that all these good men, are extremely sorry, they thus tied themselves up, as the Lord commanded them to do, and that they have tried every possible way to disobey God, and give their slaves their freedom, even to the ordering of their " nig- ger" drivers, to drive them to Canada, where all hu- man shackles and manacles, for "no crime in man," are forever knocked off; what I would say, is, if these good slaveholders, who would gladly without delay, give their slaves their liberty, and have tried every possible " expedient " to effect it, but that such is the rigour of their own made laws, that they can in no wise do it ; one of two things, as the natural consequence most clearly follows, viz. either that these "good slaveholders," (who would, as they say, do right,) should at once do right, and no longer impiously charge their iniquity upon God, but at once repeal, or totally disregard such Heaven daring laws, and do as God plainly commands all to do, without an exception of name or circumstance, 29* 342 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY or man-serving, and " God-provoking " " expedients," without further cavil or delay, to undo the heavy bur- dens, break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free, and trust in the God of the oppressed, for the conse- quence of simply obeying him ; or, that the whole people both north and south, who disapprove of such wicked, and high-handed oppression, and slavery laws, for both black and white, should at once rise en masse, and open their mouths boldly, and testify against it, and give the oppressor no peace until he will break the yoke, and let the oppressed go free. The north should do it of course, for they have voted with the south for the admission of slave States, with these same constitutions. For men, thus deliberately, to bind themselves up for- ever, by such horrid laws, does it not look like swearing eternal allegiance to the " grim demon of darkness ;" for should spirits from the abodes of purity, be permitted to behold such a state of things, would they not conclude it must be the " infernal regions ?" Can we not see, moreover, from such unrighteous laws, let who may enact them, how deadly hostile the very nature and genius of slavery is, to liberty 1 It seems to act upon that most miserly principle, of the old adage, of " keeping what it's got, and getting what it can." Suppose for example, that we find ourselves in a country, where the laws actually compel us to rob and to steal, should we not at once disregard such laws, or leave such a country forever ? Surely robbing our fellow-men by law, not only of all they can be made to earn by the sweat of their brow* ILLUSTRATED. 343 under the bloody lash of the cruel task-master, but of their wives and children also, and then stealing the men themselves, "from themselves," must of all others con- ceivable, by many degrees, be the basest kind of rob- bery and theft. SECTION XXII. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE A GREAT MANY PEOPLE AT THE NORTH, DON'T TREAT THEIR OWN DOMESTICS AS THEY OUGHT." This all may be true, and when so, is sincerely to be regretted, and should at once, be repented of and cor- rected, by the good sense, and the good principles of community, just as slavery should be in the nation. But nevertheless, the objection amounts to just this, and nothing more, — that, because we may have some dogs in the land which will now and then " bite folks," we should not therefore kill or cage up the lions and the tigers, that are destroying the people by hundreds or by thousands. This same class of objections was once urged against the friends of temperance ; that, because they were not perfectly temperate in all things, therefore the objector would not be found in their " so- ciety," neither must the " cold-water folks " say a word against the " drunkards and the sots," who were rapidly ruining themselves and their families, and were a pest in community. Time, however, next to eternity, that great " revealer of secrets," has already developed the insincerity and the motives of this peculiar objector to temperance ; for the moment the standard of tempe- rance was raised according to this same objector's own LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 345 prescription, forgetting what he had been saying and doing, he was the very first man (with some noble ex- ceptions) to exclaim, " ultraism — too fast, too fast ! ! !" These examples are adduced as illustrative merely. Men, to our vision, are always too fast, or too slow, in any cause to which we stand opposed. In a land of serpents, how would a man appear should he take an immovable stand, that, because the " serpent killers" would not first hunt up and kill off all the more harm- less ones without an exception, therefore, if all the people in the land should be bitten by rattlesnakes, he would not lift his finger to help kill one of them. We find objections precisely of this character often made, even to becoming Christians. " I ought to be a Christian," says one, w and intend to be ; but there is Mr. A., or Deacon B., one of your great professors, who often does so and so, and whom, I believe, will go to destruction •" and therefore, (the English is,) " I am determined to do so and so likewise, and be his com- pany." I have adverted the more freely to all these familiar and stereotyped illustrations to all temperance people, for the reason that I think every consistent temperance man, like a " Delavan," (who has recently nobly taken his stand in the anti-slavery ranks,) by the like process and dictate of common sense, will also speedily be an anti-slavery man. These, and the like objections, most clearly indicate very great self-righteousness in the ob- jector ; that is, in plain interpretation, " Stand by, for I am holier than thou, and will not be found in your society." But the light of truth, if not smothered and darkened by the hand of tyranny ; like the morning sun 346 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. upon the dew, will soon scatter all these objections to the four winds. We freely admit all these encroachments upon others* rights, and all kinds of oppression, at the north, or in any part of the world, to be wrong, and should at once cease ; but when we see men who dwell exclusively upon these things, and seem not to know, that, as a nation, we have deprived two and a half millions of men, women, and children of all their rights, and are crushing them to the very earth under our feet ; does it not remind us of the priest and Levitish religion, of " straining at a gnat and swallowing a camell" SECTION XXIII. "I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE OUR GREATEST STATESMEN AND OUR GREAT- EST DIVINES ARE OPPOSED TO ITS DISCUSSION, AND THEY OUGHT TO KNOW EEST ; AND THAT IT IS ONLY A FEW FANATICS, AND * WEAK-MINDED MEN AND WOMEN,' WHO ARE IN FAVOUR OF DISCUSSING IT." Be it so, if you please. It was recorded on a certain occasion, as a kind of check upon undue confidence in man, " that great men are not always wise ; and that neither do the aged always understand judgement." Job xxxii. 9. We also read upon the pages of divine truth, (Isaiah lx. 22,) these words, which should also tend to check our vain presumption in making flesh our arm : " A little one shall chase a thousand, and a small one a strong nation; I the Lord will hasten it in his time." And we read also : " but many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." And again : " Jesus saith unto them ; did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner 1 This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." The Supreme Ruler of the universe unquestionably overrules the affairs both of Church and of State in this world, and will yet bring order out of seeming confusion, and strength out of apparent weakness ; but whether in mercy or in judgement to this guilty nation, it is 348 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY not for mortal man to say. And has he not also said, that he would take " the weak things of the world to confound the mighty V f Did he not most emphatically do this for our fathers, when he " caused one to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to flight?" I suppose, in consequence of the wonders that he wrought in accomplishing our independence through our leader, that the God of Washington has been as much more honoured by the nations of the earth as was the God of Daniel ! ! No doubt, too, that the name of Israel's God was more venerated in the eyes of all the Philistines, when he took up little David and killed the great Goliath, than though he had killed him with a stronger man than he. I know very well that " worldly wise men," in their own vainglorious conceits, impious- ly sneer at all this, even such men as call slavery the " best basis of freedom ;" but they not only show their impiety in so doing, but their ignorance, too, of past events, both sacred and profane. Probably God knows better how to glorify his own name than great statesmen or great divines do, however wise and prophetic some may even claim to be! ! Politicians themselves, moreover, independent of the admission of the interposition of divine power, have still ever been compelled to admit that the honesty and virtue requisite to effect any great and valuable reform in all ages have been found alone (with here and there a splendid exception,) in the common walks of life. Here are found the men as a general principle who constitute the main hope against aristocracy, monarchy, and despotism in the world ; and against the doctrine that " slavery is the best basis of freedom ;" and if they ILLUSTRATED. 349 fail to be at their posts with their lamps trimmed and burning and oil in their lamps ; or in other language, if applied politically, if they fail to be intelligent, virtuous, and vigilant, we must of course forever despair of main- taining a free government by the people, and tyrants will subvert our liberties. Whenever this has not been the case in any country, first, anarchy and misrule, and ultimately despotism has ensued, as one of the most natural results in the usual train of human events. The whole is seen at one entire view " in means adapted to an end." And who that has common observation must not but see the baneful influence of the rich and power- ful as a general thing (though some noble and brilliant exceptions are most cheerfully admitted ;) who seem to be saying to themselves — "My soul, thou hast much goods laid up for thyself for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." It is this very spirit, origi- nated in the pride of colour, learning, rank, and wealth, which is constantly strengthening the iron bands of slavery in the world, entirely regardless of colour ; for who cannot see that one possessed of the presumptuous spirit to suppose that he is rich, and increased in goods and power, and hath need of nothing, would not be very likely to think much, feel much, or do much about the emancipation of "niggers?" This characteristic is not only abundantly portrayed in the Scriptures, but one which we see fully exemplified from every day's obser- vation. Like circumstances very naturally produce like sympathies, said a fugitive from American op- pression while on his way to Canada for freedom ; I dare not trust myself even with coloured people, if they have not themselves been slaves. Hence we see that 30 350 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY not many "mighty, and not many noble" will take the lead in unpopular causes. As an encouraging and redeeming principle in the world, it is true however, that patriotism, philanthropy, and religion, do, at times, induce individuals nobly to rise above all these lower and more sordid principles of action. While the north is congratulating itself with northern wealth and northen independence and feeling, that its mountain stands strong, and is tauntingly saying to the so much despised abolitionists — " Why trouble ye yourselves about southern l niggers,' ye fanatics, ye agitators, and ye incendiaries?" and is deeply absorbed in the contemplation of schemes how to get rich, and still richer, in goods " that perish with their using ;" an Omnipotent arm may bring down our high towers in a way that we think not ! I We should certainly think that the unlooked-for and unprecedented shock just felt in the pecuniary and commercial world, would teach us all, " that while we stand, to take heed lest we fall." While we have been blessed as a nation in religious toleration beyond any other people on earth ; and while the wilderness through unnumbered divine, as well as temporal blessings, has been made to " bud and to blos- som as the rose," still if the Church in this land, which has been so highly favoured with all the means of salva- tion from on high, shall be guilty of the most grievous sin against God, of withholding all these blessings from the millions of bondmen in her very midst, may he not in his righteous displeasure, at a time and in a way of which we little think, speedily deprive us too of that which we are so unrighteously withholding from others of our own countrymen? And for this proud and wicked ILLUSTRATED. 351 contempt of the immortal workmanship of his own hands t in his holy anger may he not leave us to become a distracted, wretched, and desolate people? From the signs of the times, are there not some most fearful indi- cations already of such a terrible approaching judgement, unless as a nation we speedily put away from us the great and crying oppressions of the land? Is it not to be feared that we have been sowing the winds, and may be left to reap the whirlwind." And also, if the great body of the people, either through culpable ignorance, or criminal indolence, shall suffer themselves to be deluded from their true interests by the often un- meaning sounds of the flattering accents " democracy, republican and equal rights," from aspiring and " expe- dient " politicians of any name, without consistent prac- tical specimens of their sincerity ; like other republics gone before us, in the very midst of all these self con- gratulations, ere we are aware of it, may we too not become a nation of slaves ? SECTION XXIY. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE THE SLAVEHOLDERS WILL DISSOLVE THE UNION IF WE DISCUSS IT." I might also add to this objection that the slave- holders at the south, with the aid of their servile abettors, and pro-slavery apologists at the north, will take away the constitutional right of petition, freedom of speech, and the liberhj of the press, from the people, if they attempt to discuss slavery. Did I say they will do it ? In this expression, however, I have but used the wrong tense : it should have been, they have done it. Instance the late outrageous, des- potic, unconstitutional gag-law resolutions introduced by Mr. Patton, a slaveholding member of Congress from Virginia, to prove the one, and all the disgraceful, unrebuked, pro-slavery riots in the land to put down free discussion to prove the other. The ever notable slaveholder's resolution alluded to, and which is so highly insulting to a people called free, will be found disgracing the congressional journals of American citizens, who are yet tantalized with the mere name free, as recorded December 2, 1837 : Ayes 122, Nayes 74. All the names of those who voted on this memorable occasion, both of the friends and of the enemies of the LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 353 liberties of the people, should be held up before the nation and the world ; on the one hand for grateful remembrance ; and on the other, for righteous indigna- tion, contempt, and scorn. But I have only space here to record the obnoxious resolution itself which is as follows : — " Resolved, That all memorials, petitions, and papers, touching the abolition of slavery, or the buying, selling, or transfer of slaves in any state, territory, or district of the United States, shall be laid on the table, ivithout reading, or reference, or pi'inting, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon. 1 '' If there be a freeman in this Union, (and in this case more especially a northern one,) who has the '76 kind of spirit of freedom in him, I must say, that for the time being, at least, he must be devoid of patriotic sensibility if he does not most keenly feel his own flesh shrinking and Quivering under the task-master's cruel and gory lash upon his scarred back, and feel his own limbs aching with his driver's clanking and galling chains, in the very spirit as well as the letter of this unheard-of tyran- nical resolution. I feel compelled to say, that if there be one who has not something of this feeling, that I can- not avoid the painful thought, that he must himself at least be in a rapid process of insensible preparation for slaveholding vassalage. We are very prone to speak of the aristocracy, the tyranny, and the despotism of other nations ; but where is there a power on earth, save that which is absolutely despotism itself that has ever dared to take such a stride over the liberties of the people ? How greatly do our northern delegation in Congress themselves need 30* 354 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY to be emancipated by the people, that they may enjoy perfect freedom of debate, not the freedom of the body merely, but the liberty of the soul. "When the people of Great Britain, (against whom some of our people often lavish their censures unspar- ingly) petitioned their parliament for years on the same subject, that parliament never thought of a denial to the people of their own sacred right of 'petition, and slavery throughout the whole British dominions has been in con- sequence most happily, honourably, and peacefully abol- ished. This is the very thing that American despots and slaveholding politicians are afraid of. But as to the objection to the discussion of slavery, because the slaveholders will dissolve the Union, in- stead of its being " prudence" thus to unman ourselves by surrendering all our constitutional fundamental rights to slaveholders upon such a plea, it would be like fear- ing to ask a man for a just debt, lest perchance he Should be offended and run his country, or commit suicide. The south, after all her threats and abuse of the north, unless indeed she shall become absolutely insane, and fully prepared to plunge herself into the very mouth of her own " volcano" never will seriously attempt to run away from the Union any farther than she can carry the government of the United States, with all its advantages, with her. In this sense, the south have for years been running away from, or rather running away with, the Union. There would probably be some northern sychophants to southern dictation that would hurra for the Union ! and call it all patriotism, if they actually saw the Union on wheels rolling towards JWexico, if already on the way, as ILLUSTRATED, 355 far as Texas. It is true, that by the unconstitutional and overbearing course pursued by slaveholding politi- cians towards the north, growing out of the institution and the very despotic spirit of slavery, if much longer persisted in, may become unendurable on the part of the north, and in this sense the south might indeed be said to compel the north to dissolve the Union in order to en- joy that constitutional freedom which their fathers pur- chased for them, and which no freeman without its enjoyment considers life a blessing. But I still entertain the consoling hope that the body of the people, both north and south, will yet firmly settle down upon our great fundamental and constitutional principles of rational civil liberty. In no other way than carrying the Union with her, will the south ever dissolve the Union on account of her slavery, even though it be investigated to the very depths of all its abominations. All that is wanting to abolish slavery and save the Union, is for the entire free states to stand firm to the Constitution, in nobly sustaining freedom of speech, liberty of the press, and the right of petition. If there be any danger in this case, here it lies ; for short of this, our own liberties and the liberties of the nation are gone ! ! Dear as slavery is to the south, and as long as she has worshipped this idol, she would sooner, far sooner renounce it, than she would seriously hazard the maniac and desperate attempt to run aivay from the Union any farther, as remarked, than she can carry the Union along with her. There may be some reckless, unprincipled, and ambitious politicians at the south, who, could they 356 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY imagine themselves able to stand under the heavy load, might attempt to purloin the whole Union, slavery and all, and as before said, not stop with it short of Texas or Mexico. But among the great body of the people at the south, there are most unquestionably thousands who are both enemies to slavery and friends to the Un- ion, who are themselves under slaveholding political oppression almost equal to slavery itself. What adds greatly to the present wickedness and horror of the in- stitution of American slavery, is, that unprincipled and ambitious politicians, to a greater or a less extent in the whole nation, either directly or indirectly, stop at nothing to make it a vast engine of corrupt political pow- er. It requires but little discernment to see this, to one who will just observe the moving of the waters. Political power, corrupt as it is, does sometimes accomplish won- ders. " The wicked, for a time, do often flourish and spread themselves like the green bay tree." Even to carry the whole Union to Texas and to Mexico, the southern monster " slavery " has strength to accomplish, if he can but succeed in destroying the counter -draught by lulling our northern samsons to sleep, and by bribery, employ some evil Delilahs to shear off their locks. The " hoax " about the south dissolving the Union in the sense of barely breaking off her allegiance to the federal government, has often reminded me of the turbulent and disobedient son, who would frequently threaten his good father that he would hang himself if he would not grant him certain unrea- sonable favours : till at length the father prepared a rope and presented it to his very dutiful son, at the same ILLUSTRATED. 357 time earnestly pointing out to him a convenient place where he might put his impious threat into execution. This hopeful youth becoming satisfied that he could not bring his father to his unreasonable terms in this way, remained quiet awhile ; but at length changed his threat to that of running away, never to return to his father's house. The long abused father, who by this time had learned wisdom from experience, instantly turned his rebellious and unnatural son out of his house, with the stern injunction never to return, but with unfeigned re- pentance for his former conduct, and a full determination to obey his proper and rightful authority. The sturdy lad then finding himself indeed obliged to go, reluctantly left his slighted father's house, but cherishing the secret and last hope upon which his obstinacy hung, that his affectionate father would soon be after him to importune him to return. But being disappointed in this also, and remaining away until he was reduced to want, beggary, and ex- treme wretchedness, " came to himself," and like the prodigal, returned to his father, " weeping bitterly, and humbly confessed the wrongs he had done him." Says one who intimately understands the history of our government, " the southern threat of dissolving the Union is co-existent with the Union itself. Once they demanded a tariff, and threatened to rend the Union if we did not yield. We bowed the head in submission. Again, they said, let Missouri enter the Union, or it is dissolved. We bowed again. Repeal the protective tariff, or we will withdraw. Prostrate, we again kissed the dust. Finally, this is but the sixth time that the threat has been uttered." 358 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY The danger of the Union being dissolved, (if there be danger from any quarter,) lies altogether on the " other side of the house." Should slavery be continued and ex- tended, it would doubtless ultimately dissolve the Union ; but if abolished, would " most gloriously " preserve it : and then, instead of slaveholders " blowing the Union into atoms," our posterity might become a great and an honourable nation, with its four or five hundred millions of people, all feemen indeed! But let us ever bear in mind that our constitutional liberties, freedom of speech, and the right of petition, must be firmly maintained, or these millions of our pos- terity, would be but so many millions of degraded vas- sals to some cruel and bloody despot ! It should be remembered, that without freedom of speech, all else is slavery. Let the vast country of Texas be annexed to the Union, and carved up into some eight or ten slave States for southern slaveholding political power ; and let slavery in all the present twelve slave States be still ra- pidly increasing ; and from the already vastly unequal scale of political representation between the slavehold- ing and the free states, the southern monster would soon be found dragging northern liberties to his iron car with giant strength. Indeed, we already feel his power, or rather see his teeth, and hear him growl and roar in his den, when he peremptorily demands that our mouths shall be gagged, our presses muzzled, our citizens scourged, and bids up high and tempting bounties for the ears and the heads of our northern fellow-citizens, who do not at once surren- der up their dearest and their most clear constitutional rights upon the despotic and bloody altar of slavery. ILLUSTRATED. 359 Much as the north loves the Union upon constitutional and honourable principles, consistent with rational liber- ty ; if either must be surrendered, is it not greatly to be hoped she will prefer to retain her constitutional free- dom ? Moreover, this southern monster has already banished from his dark dominions all northern citizens of the Union, so far as regards the constitutional exercise of the right of speech, so sacredly and so clearly guarantied to every citizen of the United States. American freemen cannot now travel in safety through their otvn nation, unless they will bow down and worship slavery. And what to me is most alarming in all this, is, that this voice from the south, u of thunder tones," does not awake the north to her own danger ! ! ! Does she require a voice loud enough to awake her, which awakes her only to her own ruin? I am well aware that we hear from some interested northern politi- cians, (but not from southern ones,) that we should, on no occasion whatever, be heard to lisp a syllable about north and south. But from this opinion I wholly dis- sent. Let the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, be told. I was quite recently forcibly reminded of the import- ance of" eternal vigilance, 1 '' (in a people who would long be free,) in checking the incipient steps of despotism among them, while listening to a speech of the Hon. Ashley Samson, of the city of Rochester, on the freedom of speech and the press. I take the liberty to quote a very few remarks of that gentleman, in his own language, on that occasion, as being much to my purpose in this place. 360 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY " Encroachments upon our liberties," said he, " are often gradual and insidious. The time to arrest their progress is in the commencement. " Oppression is often more dangerous in its princi- ples than in its effects. At the commencement of our revolution, the amount of actual oppression was compa- ratively small. There was, to be sure, a two-penny tax on tea, and other similar measures. Had this been all, it might have been endured. " But our fathers saw in these arbitrary acts the germ of still more high-handed oppression. They saw the gradual approach of despotism." Here the speaker most happily quoted the eloquent language of Burke, " that they (our fathers) scented the approach of tyranny on every tainted breeze." This gentleman is not yet, I believe, a professed abolitionist! ! But how can men of this class of mind lono- be otherwise? Indeed, I trust they will not be, after their attention shall long have been directed to the whole subject. The reader will doubtless see, that these enlightened and patriotic views are stiictly and forcibly applicable to our case as a people at the present time ; for if the monster, slavery, while yet in his infancy, has power to nullify one of the dearest and most valuable articles of the American constitution, and, by Lynch law, disfran- chise northern citizens of this Union, what could he not do, if suffered to live until he attain his full mammoth growth ? Would he then have but to shake his ter- rible locks, and the now called free states be compelled to revolt, or to bow down and tremble for very fear? Would not then the long delightful note, " Union," ILLUSTRATED. 361 cease to charm us, should we cease to associate liber- ty with it ? Aside from any corrupt designs of unprincipled and ambitious politicians, what possible object could the south, as a people, have, to even wish the Union dis- solved on account of their slavery 1 If they were now, with Texas and all their slavery, a nation by them- selves, and an enclosure thrown about them as high and as broad as the Chinese wall, the same powerful moral influence in the whole civilized world would still exist against the wickedness and the abominations of slavery, and would find its way among them, to their 44 eternal annoyance," upon every wholesome breeze from the four quarters of the globe. And furthermore, what additional political security for their 44 peculiar institution" would they have, by being an independent slaveholding nation? Were it even so, this moment, the slaves would doubtless re- joice at it ; for then, in escaping from bondage instead of skulking and dodging all the way to Canada, their shackles would forever fall off the moment they crossed Mason and Dixon's line. The Potomac and the Ohio rivers would very soon be as full of the oppressed sons of Africa floating to a land of freedom, as they were said to be some years ago with black squirrels at a time of their general emigration. At such an event the poor slaves would, moreover, rejoice ; because now, under their iron reign of oppression and terror, they are often told, (and as things now are, these slaveholders claim a political right so to inform them,) that in case they ever strike for their/reedom, the " whole United States would at once fall upon them, and cut them off from the 31 362 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. face of the earth." But if the slaveholder could depend on no foreign aid, the slave would soon well under- stand, that it would be master against slave, single- handed, or perhaps many of the oppressed against one oppressor Hi In contemplating the relation of this nation to its slavery, I cannot avoid regarding it, in one point of view, as harbouring within its borders an immense army of two millions and a half composed at present of its mortal enemy, with which the nation must soon honour- ably capitulate, or be destroyed by it. But honourable treaties make friends !! I do not mean that the slaves now have the physical power to destroy the nation single- handed. But should a great and a general insurrection break out, the variously contending and warring ele- ments, as a just judgement from on high, might easily effect the entire destruction of the whole nation!!! SECTION XXV. M I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BE- CAUSE, ALTHOUGH I HOLD TO FREE DISCUSSION, AND THINK THE SUBJECT MIGHT BE DISCUSSED IN A WAY TO DO GOOD, BUT THESE * MODERN ' ABOLITIONISTS ARE SO DENUNCIATORY AND ABUSIVE, AND MANIFEST SUCH AN UNCHRISTIAN SPIRIT, I THINK THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY BETTER NOT BE AGITATED AT ALL, FOR IT ONLY EXCITES MOBS." This is the very man of all others, who should himself at once, be crowned " mob-master general." It is this very class of plausible, " smooth-faced" men, who are of all others, the most dangerous. There is nothing to be feared, but every thing to be hoped, in a free government, from frank, brave, open- hearted men, who promptly speak out their honest sen- timents on all important subjects, as they should do. We always know just where to find such men, and we always have the benefit of their sentiments, for what they are worth. If the people mean long to be free, they must not only think freely, but they must also speak freely and independently ; and the man who will not do this him- self, but waits for some " great head man " to speak for him, and the man also, instead of crying, mob ! mob ! 364 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY who will not firmly stand by and protect others, in the exercise of this right, (if his manner is not so pleasant as he could wish,) is the very man who is pursuing the most effectual course to subvert his own, and his coun- try's liberties ! ! No matter what the subject before the public, we must bravely meet it, without flinching, if we would long be free ourselves, and have our country free. This objector, manifests on the very face of his ob- jection, a gross absurdity. He first finds great fault with the manner in which others discuss the subject of slavery ; then says it might be discussed in a way to do good, but will not discuss it himself. He is constitu- tionally privileged like every other freeman, to enjoy his own peculiar manner, being accountable for any abuse of this high privilege, not to an unreasonable, infuriated mob, but to the wholesome, safe, and constitutional laws of his country. The long-sighted, and wise framers of our most ex- cellent constitution, understanding mankind well, and looking down the vista of time, and beholding many millions of American freemen, with as great a variety of dispositions, temperaments, habits, and circumstan- ces, as there were individuals, and all differing in feel- ing at different times, from themselves, as much as from one another, and having an endless diversity of conflict- ing interests, saw no way in which freedom could pos- sibly be secured to each and to all, but to secure to each and to all, or rather to confirm, the Heaven-born inalienable right of pursuing happiness ; or discussing subjects in his, or their own way, being answerable for the abuse of this right to wise constitutional laws only. ILLUSTRATED. 365 These sage men undoubtedly had in their eye, all, nay ! much more than all these considerations. They doubtless supposed, that every man possessed as much of a guarantied constitutional right to say to any man, or to any set of men, that he or they had been guilty of telling a falsehood, as that they had " been guilty" of telling the truth. If the charge was slander- ous, the accused of course had the remedy, by the good laws of his country in such cases provided, with all the civil advantages of a court of justice. Every man therefore, is of course, constitutionally, just as much entitled to his own " peculiar manner " of " thinking and speaking," under these perfectly safe constitutional provisions for all parties, as he is to wear his own peculiar hat, or his own peculiar coat, of which he became lawfully possessed. And the man who attempts to deprive him of his con- stitutional rights of freedom of thought and of speech, except when he makes himself liable to some wise con- stitutional law, and then to do it in a lawful manner, is just as much a robber, nay, a robber of far more sa- cred property, than though he should take his hat, his coat, or his purse, without liberty. In a late speech of Wendell Phillips, Esq. to a large audience in Faneuil Hall in Boston, on the occasion of the assassination of Lovejoy, for his exercising his con- stitutional freedom of speech, he said, "James Otis once thundered in this Hall, when the King of England but touched his pocket; but, continued this gentleman, what mortal pen could have written down his burning eloquence, had England offered to put a gag upon his lips ! !" 31* 366 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY This is the very doctrine for any people, who mean long to be free. When any of their rights are disputed, this is the very time, most to contend for them, with undaunted courage, and MANLY FIRMNESS. And even if a man, or a body of men, were slandered by means of this wise and indispensable constitutional toleration, so necessary to establish and maintain ration- al freedom, it were far better, and more honourable to ourselves and to our country, to expose the slanderer to public gaze and rebuke, by free discussion and counter testimony, than violently to destroy his property, " break his head," or take his life ! ! If the slandered sustain pecuniary damages by the slanderer, he of course, has his remedy at the law, if he be disposed to avail himself of it. Mobocrats are always both physical and moral coivards ! ! ! But if men alleging themselves to be slandered, re- sort to a violent, or to a slanderous course in return, they are indeed but too fully proving to all the world, that their feet are upon a sandy foundation, that their cause is untenable. I was indeed quite forcibly struck with the truth of this general principle, which I think may very justly be considered of almost universal application, in just now casting my eye upon an article in a public journal, in relation to James Watson Webb, whom report says recently procured the murder of Cilley by the hand of Graves, in the late duel at Washington, for words spo- ken in debate by Cilley, on the floor of Congress, in relation to the conduct of Webb. The article alluded to is as follows : — " The general effect is, instead of relieving Webb from ILLUSTRATED- 367 the charge as to the United States' Bank, to revive the story in every man's mouth ; and men are heard in all parts of the town to express their full belief in the charge, who hitherto were silent, or doubted. People are rush- ing to the Courier office, and expressing their abhorrence of his conduct by discontinuing their subscriptions. It is said and believed, that he has already lost some 500 subscribers. Friends and foes condemn him, and abhor his conduct. A public meeting has been called ; and so great and strong was the excitement, that I am afraid he is not safe in the city." I cannot fully vouch for the truth of all these state- ments ; but only say, that should they prove in all respects correct, they do but illustrate the principle, that it is ever a bad cause which will not admit of being carefully ex- amined and " reasoned upon." If this doctrine be correct, what are we obliged to say then to slaveholders, who will not manfully meet us half way, and discuss the merits of slavery like men, instead of first menacing the north with secession, and next appealing to its aristocracy to help them in their ambitious designs upon the north? If they will do so, and will prove slavery to be right, I, for one, will most cheerfully yield the controversy, and be ready to make all reparation for injury in my power; but if they fail to do this, and I succeed in proving slavery to be wrong, and greatly oppressing my brother, then shall I claim a heavy verdict against the slaveholder, and his apologists and abettors, from a jury of all Heaven and earth. No violence, by the sordid policy of individuals, or of governments, can very long be safely and successfully 368 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY practised to parry off the influence of any dreaded re- sult of investigation. Our government once tried the experiment of attempt- ing to put down freedom of opinion in the enactment of the ever memorable alien and sedition laws. These laws, which in themselves were far less danger- ous to the liberties of the people, than are the Congres- sional gag-law resolutions of 1838, were most promptly " expunged " by the people through the elevation of Mr. Jefferson to the highest office in their gift upon the single sentiment, (of which Mr. Jefferson was the author, and the unflinching advocate while he lived,) that " error of opinion may be safely tolerated, while reason is left free to combat it." So it will continue to be with a people so long as they are destined to be free. These odious alien and sedition laws, commonly known by the name of the " gag laws," were long re- membered by the people with a kind of patriotic hor- ror ! ! ! But by the violence which has been practised of late in suppressing freedom of opinion, and in many instances passively tolerated, I have sometimes thought it was almost to be feared that that virtuous indignation which once existed against encroachments upon any of our constitutional and fundamental rights, is measurably obliterated from the public mind, and that in the days of our prosperity we had nearly forgotten what were the landmarks of our fathers. And here I cannot forbear to say again, that if we de- sire long to be free, the great fundamental principles of all truly free governments, the conscientious right of opinion, of speech, and of petition, must forever take the lead, and hold a distinguished prominence in the public ILLUSTRATED. 369 mind above all other considerations of which we can possibly conceive in relation to human governments, and all the rights of man. Even a " Union " whose territory might embrace the globe, should not for a moment be suffered to pervert our higher principles, or to blind our eyes so far, that we would sacrifice these only fundamental principles of human freedom. No considerations whatever should make us falter for a moment in the firm support of these original and broad principles of all civil liberty among men. Even the love of union, (which ought indeed in every part of the land to be but another name for liberty, should not however be suffered to deceive us, and lead us astray from the only principles by which a free go- vernment can possibly be sustained. That admirable sentiment so beautifully expressed, " liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and for- ever," is most unquestionably correct in the very sense in which it ever ought to be understood ; that is, that so long as a people are harmonious, and cordially united in sentiment, whether in political or religious faith, there will be true liberty among that people. But if this sen- timent is to be grossly and dangerously perverted, as some in our country but too evidently would have it ; and to be made to mean a union of territory merely, en- tirely regardless of all moral or political principles of action, or as the mere theatre of ambitious and unprin- cipled demagogues, whether slaveholding, political, ec- clesiastical, or of xohatever name ; then for one, I shall most certainly forever protest against any such con- struction ; for if such a construction be a correct one, 370 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. then most assuredly our disunion from Great Britain would at once have reduced us to slavery and vassalage, instead of elevating us to liberty and independence. If we mean to be freemen indeed, let us never be induced by the flattery of sychophants, or by the frowns of tyrants to desert the first great landmarks of all rational liberty, the unabridged freedom of speech and right of petition. IN either must we as a " sovereign people" degrade ourselves by cringing and begging for these RIGHTS when robbed of them by our servants, (despotically called rulers,) but take them in our own " sovereign capacity " as our own lawful property, for nothing short of this would be manifesting to the world the true dignity of a free people. I mean nothing more by this than that we should ever nobly and manfully act up to the very spirit and privi- leges of our laws, and our once idolized constitution. SECTION XXVI. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THESE PEOPLE WHO TALK SO MUCH ABOUT ABSTRACT PRINCI- PLES OF RIGHT AND WRONG, FOR I BELIEVE SUCH PRINCIPLES ARE ALL ' MOONSHINE.' " Here we see the very " cloven foot" itself exposed to horrid view. So thought revolutionary Fiance, when in her dreadful infatuation, she publicly discarded and " burned with fire " the only revelation from Heaven to men, as " a guide to their jeet, and a lamp to their path," when she then knelt down and worshipped the God of" expediency," and all were let loose; and every man's hand was found against bis fellow ; and blood flowed at every pore through the streets of Paris. The truth is, that a great and a high-minded states- man, who acts for his whole country, and nothing but his country (save his God,) and who plants his feet, as did our noble ancestors, upon the immutable, eternal, and inalienable rights of man, differs as widely from a mere quibbling, vacillating, " expediency," party politician, as are the poles apart. The one is the true beacon light that guides the weather-beaten mariner safe into port ; the other, that false, deceptive light, that " lures but to deceive," and ultimately leads the anxious mariner to shipwreck and ruin. The one, is like the very sun in 372 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. the Heavens, which ever shines by its own native light ; and the other, like that opaque body, which but dimly shines, and that, too, only by the reflection of its bor- rowed light, while all is darkness within. The one, in short, is fitted to illuminate, and to save a nation ; and the other, but to darken, bewilder, and destroy it. SECTION XXVII. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE THE NORTH ARE ALREADY OPPOSED TO SLAVERY, AND THAT IS ENOUGH." What say the slaveholding politicians of the south on this point? and how responds the pro-slavery dema- gogues of the north to it? Mr. Calhoun, a slaveholder, has just proclaimed in the Senate of the United States, as a reason why anti- slavery petitions from northern citizens to Congress should be spurned, and contemptuously trampled under the feet of the public servants of the " sovereign peo- ple," that the north were not opposed to slavery, except " women and children." There are, it is true, many noble hearted and intelli- gent females at the north, and some, I trust, at the south, who do indeed loathe and abhor slavery in all its forms, as the abomination of all abominations ; as a system which rudely and most cruelly seizes and tears their suffering and ill-fated sisters from their bosom compa- nions, — from their children, and all that they hold dear on earth, — and hurries them off into a returnless and cruel bondage. There are also many children at the north 'who are yet uncontaminated by the corrupting and " heart-hardening " process of the ever-blighting, 32 374 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY slaveholding, and party " expediency " spirit, whose 14 young and simple" hearts do indeed burn with the honest indignation of nature, at the sad story of the dis- tressing wrongs practised upon thousands of their inno- cent fellow-children in bondage, who are constantly " being torn " by the iron grasp of the slaveholder from the affectionate embrace of their fond parents. When they hear these heartrending tales of sorrow and of wo, they seem hardly to believe that such things can be done by " human" beings, and listen to the recital of painful facts with the like terror as that which is excited in their minds by accounts of the ravages of wild beasts upon their human prey. But, would it were the fact, that not only a few phi- lanthropic female hearts at the north were lifted up to Heaven in supplication to the God of the oppressed, in behalf both of the oppressor and the oppressed, but that every female heart in the nation was thus affected, and thus directed. Were this even so, it would not be long before such slaveholding, nullifying demagogues as J. C. Calhoun, at the south, who hold all religion to be bigotry, and all slavery to be freedom ; together with all their pro-slavery abettors of a kindred spirit at the north, would be made to quail before its powerful and peaceful influence ; and the " still small voice " would be found more efficient than all the whirlwind of passion; of men who speak thus contemptuously of female influence ; and such political traducers of female worth, would soon hide their " diminished heads," and the millions of our in- nocent enslaved countrymen would speedily leap for ILLUSTRATED. 375 joy, and shout the loud song of universal jubilee ; and the man then who should be found kidnapping and selling his fellow-man, would be banished from human society. And then, too, indeed, could every true patriot rejoice, that his beloved country was redeemed from ihe long pending, threatening curse of slavery, which had hung over it like a ponderous avalanche, ready to fall upon it with crushing power. The Misses Grimkie, though natives of a slavehold- ing State, have already nobly led the way ; and while the "Priest and the Levite " have passed by on the other side, these unassuming females have been the true Sa- maritans, and have wielded a moral and an intellectual power on the subject of American slavery, truly astonish- ing ; and have done honour to human nature, to their sex, and their country. How can one, calling himself a man, stand back, and carp about female " delicacy ," while his own mouth, meanwhile, is kept padlocked against the cause of the suffering, oppressed, and the dumb, in his own coun- try 1 But while the sentiments of many intelligent and phi- lanthropic females are well known on this great subject of humanitv, and for the noble and fearless expression of their sentiments, their country owe them the highest esteem and praise, I am also happy to be able to say, that there are many thousands of men, too, at the north of " sane minds," who have had the courage to break away from the thraldom of party expediency and eccle- siastical domination, and to speak out for all the 376 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. rights of man, and for their country, as becomes Chris- tians, republicans, and independent freemen. Let the fourteen hundred societies in favour of freedom, with their two hundred thousand mem- bers, speak for themselves* SECTION XXVIII. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OP SLAVERY, BECAUSE THE SUBJECT IS SO ABSORBING THAT WHEN MEN BECOME ENGAGED IN IT, THEY SEEM TO FORGET EVERY THING ELSE, AND BECOME MEN OF "ONE IDEA;" AND THEY THEN BECOME SO MUCH WROUGHT UP, THAT THEIR LANGUAGE IS DENUNCIATORY." Now, as a general thing, I believe that abolitionists, as a class of citizens, are known to attend to their relative duties in society probably about the same as other men. I have no doubt, when our fathers became men of "one idea" in their memorable struggle for their liberty, for ours, (and I fain would hope, too, for our posterity,) that there were some few among them, had they dared to have spoken out, would have said, " Though I am with you in sentiment on this subject, I do believe Great Britain is oppressing us, and will continue to oppress us more and more, unless we immediately break her yoke ; still, I do not think it prudent for us to leave our families, and to spend all our time and our property in this struggle for liberty, for it would be acting alto- gether like men of ' one idea.* " AH opposers to any great reform in any age of the world have been pleased, in order to retard its progress i to stigmatize men in some such way, who have indeed 32* 378 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY been altogether absorbed in acquiring intelligence and energy equal to the work which their hands found to do for rolling on the reformation, which they deemed worthy for the time being to command all their powers. With regard to denunciatory language I have a word to say. It is unquestionably wrong, in any. case, to apply stronger epithets to any crime, or to any criminal, than truth will justify. If men, in all their discussions and proceedings, both moral and political, would state u the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," in just such language as conveyed the exact truth, and nothing more nor less, this, doubtless, would ever stand the strictest test as an infallible criterion. But the language of different men, on all subjects, will, of course, vary as their organizations, temperaments, feel- ings, and views shall vary. But one thing is certain, which all experience and observation teach us, that to men who feel little or nothing themselves on a given subject, the language of the impassioned eloquence of a Paul or a Stephen ; or of a Hancock, an Otis, or a Patrick Henry of modern times, would doubtless often seem harsh, denunciatory, and altogether offensive and uncalled for ; and such cool-hearted persons would be ready to cry out, " ultra ! fanatic !" or, as they did to Paul, '* much learning maketh thee mad ;" or, " you are turning the world upside down." It is true, as it regards the language of Patrick Henry, in the cause of the American revolution, though very strong and bold, and his eloquence masculine and burn- ing, it was not offensive to his auditors, because every pulse beat in unison with it, and every soul responded Amen'- to all the sentiments which he uttered. Here ILLUSTRATED. 379 appears to be the great secret of language being pleas- ing or offensive. Doubtless, had the tyrants who were then forging the chains for our fathers listened to the language of many of the high-minded and full-souled orators of the revolution, while pouring forth their deep indignation against their tyranny and oppressions, they would have pronounced their language highly denuncia- tory and greatly abusive, even worthy of instant death, " without benefit of clergy." I think this must hold good on all subjects, among all men. I know of no safer, more honest, or more consistent principle on this subject, than first to see well to it that our sentiments are "just and true ;" and, when satisfied of this, that our language, if possible, exactly convey our sentiments. Just as far as our words are intentionally made to fall short of the true representatives of our honest sentiments, just so far does not the charge of " expediency," " flattery," or even Jying, justly stand against us, in the view of all earth and Heaven ? SECTION XXIX. " I AM OPPOSED TO THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY, BECAUSE FEMALES ARE ENGAGED IN IT." Why should they not be engaged in it? There are now in this far-famed Christian land — in this land which sends out its hundreds of missionaries to preach Christ to the heathen — more than a million of females in south- ern bondage, most of whom have never even had an offer of Christ and salvation, from the thousands of the ministers of Christ abroad, or at home, and in their very midst. And with regard to temporal privations and afflictions, they are not only liable any moment to be torn asunder by the hand of violence, from all the tender relations and endearments of life forever, and driven by the whip, from husband, from children, and from all that they hold dear on earth ; but wherever they may be, al- most from infancy to the grave, they are cruelly doomed to one unremitting, endless round of toil, in the sugar, cotton, and rice fields, from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, to finish their hard tasks, with but a scanty pittance of food to sustain their exhausted and often worn-out bodies, leaving their young infants alone, at one end of the long, dreary, scorched field, until they work through to the opposite end and return. Sometimes the negroes have compassion on these poor women, with their young in- fants to take care of, and neglect their own tasks, and help finish theirs, to save their wives and their daugh- LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 381 ters from the cruel stripes ; and voluntarily receive the lashes on their own bare backs. Surely, if there be a cause on earth in which it becomes females to be en- gaged, is not this one 1 Females can help make a righteous public opinion by disseminating truth, and this, with the blessing of Heaven, will soon peacefully and happily for all concerned, accomplish the greatly desired work of the universal emancipation of all the millions of our innocent countrymen who are now in cruel bonds. Let not females, then, be discouraged in their labours of love in this cause of humanity ; for the greatest oak that was ever felled, the greatest temple or city ever built, the Erie, the Ohio, and the Pennsylvania canals, nay, much more, the improvements'of the whole world, were all accomplished by single and successive blows. And to show the inconsistency, not to say hypocricy of some men, there are those who will tax all their powers of eloquence to induce females to engage in active efforts to raise heathen women from their degraded state, who will, at the same time, even " impiously sneer u at the idea of females being members of an anti-slavery society* to extend help to their suffering sister near at hand. And while I can say, that I most cordially approve of doing the one, from the same principle of benevolence, I am compelled to say, that I equally disapprove of leav- ing the other undone. Our philanthropy and benevo- lence, to be consistent, should be universal. The same wicked and aristocratic selfishness, which makes nun in Christian lands, reduce both male and fe- male to a state of abject slavery, makes men in pagan lands, reduce females to universal servitude. As Chris- tians, philanthropists, or republicans, we are equally 382 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY bound to oppose both. And what just claim can we have to these so much coveted names, if we do it not ? There are many men in our country, standing even in " holy places," who, while they give long, learned, pro- found, and laboured discourses, to prove who JVIelchisi- dec was, to establish some favourite creed, or to prose- lyte to some sect, affect not to see that there are any oppressions in this nation ; and straightway, like the " Priest and the Levitt, pass by on the other side." Most men in this country professedly, and all do at least tacitly, respect the influence of females ; feeling conscious that they possess intelligence, with minds less biassed by pecuniary interests, or by debasing party poli- tics, and less contaminated with considerations of " ex- pediency " which often prevent men from discerning, embracing, and acting upon principle. With these views of female characteristic, men cannot but pause t and reflect, when they see females espousing a cause. And in this way, through their pride or love of independ- ence, they often stand long rebuked before they will con- fess their wrong ; nevertheless, the fact has been estab- lished beyond controversy, time immemorial I believe, that the minds of men are neither invulnerable nor invin- cible, even by "the ladies" Without naming the endless toils and sufferings of the female in a state of slavery, the oft-repeated and untold scourgings, by her reckless and bruited driver, frequently under every circumstance of female destiny ; one would think, after reading the following advertisement alone, that no man would ever again be heard to speak slightly of females opposing slavery with their whole souU ILLUSTRATED. 383 (From the Brunswick Georgia Advocate.) WANTED TO HIRE. The undersigned wish to hire One Thousand Negroes to work on the Brunswick canal, of whom, one third may be women. $16 per month will be paid for steady prime men, and $13 for able women. F. & A. PRATT. P. M. NIGHTINGALE. Brunswick, January 25, 1839. Have we, as a nation, any great cause to thank the colonizationist for all his efforts, (admitting they are well meant,) to get "prime" labouring men and "able" women out of the country, when they are urgently called for by thousands ? The abolitionist desires them to remain, and to have a "fair chance " for their lives, their persons, and their property. SECTION XXX. " I AM OPPOSED, SAYS HoNEST FRANK, TO HAVING SLAVERY DISCUSSED, BECAUSE SLAVERY IS RIGHT ; AND I AM AFRAID THAT THE DISCUSSION OF IT, THROUGH THE MERE SYMPATHIES OF THE PEOPLE, WOULD EVENTUALLY ABOLISH IT, WHICH I THINK WOULD BE WRONG." The " niggers" are nothing but a species of baboon, or "ourang outang." You know, says Honest Frank, there is a "gradation of being in the scale of existence." The slaveholders have some how or other managed to get the upper hand of those "creatures" and it is just as much their right to keep it, and to hold on to them as their property, as it would be, if a company of Indians should overcome, and take a lot of buffaloes in the ivilds of .Missouri, to kill them, sell their skins, and eat their jlesh ! Now, as horrible as Honest Frank's doctrine appears in theory, just divest the whole subject of all its phari- saical drapery, and slavery is all this in practice ; and its apologists, in endeavouring to excuse or to palliate slaveholding for a moment, are encouraging a principle which leads to similar treatment ofhuman and immortal beings. The selfish doctrine of " expediency " would always end in all this towards men of all colours, stat- LIBERTY AND SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED. 385 ures, or conditions, if left entirely unchecked by tire im* mutable and eternal principle of right, " which teaches us to do to others as we wish others to do to us." Does it not become us all manfully to resist the first dawnings of this aggressive principle upon the equal rights of man 1 This doctrine of equal rights, or of doing to others as we would have others do unto us, is from aeove, and serves as a kind of" checkrein" upon the selfish, wicked, and " expedient " hearts of men, or as an anchor to hold mankind from utterly destroying and devouring one another. Some may be ready to pro- nounce this a reflection too severe upon human nature ; but I have only to refer such to the despotic and bloody annals of all past time by way of confirmation of its cor- rectness. Man, when left tohimself, independent of some wholesome influence, human or divine, has lon