E 
 
 A519\ 
 
 L E T T E R 
 
 TO 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH 
 
 CONCEKNING 
 
 FREEUaM^ iCWl) SfeVERY 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 IN BKHALF OF THK 
 
 AMERICAN ANTI-SLAYEUY SOCIETY. 
 
 ^tc 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBUSHED BY R. F. WALL(1UT, 
 
 FOR TUK AMERICAN A. S. SOCIKTY. 
 
 1852. 
 
 gmmmmmm 
 
 ■tefao'^-i 
 
/ i? 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH, 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 FREEDOM AND SLAVERY 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN ANTI-SLAYERY SOCIETY. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY E. F. WALLCUT, 
 
 FOR THE AMERICAN A. S. SOCIETY. 
 
 1852. 
 
^i 5 <i 7 "Y 
 
 George C. Rand, Printer, 3 Cornhill. 
 

 LETTER TO KOSSUTH. 
 
 To M. Louis Kossuth : 
 
 Sir — We, the undersigned, officers of the American Anti- 
 Slavery Society, — an association now in the eighteenth year of 
 its existence, having for its object the emancipation of an immense por- 
 tion of our countrymen from a thraldom which finds no toleration in 
 any part of Europe, and no parallel in any other quarter of the globe, 
 — respectfully take this method to convey to you an expression of those 
 feelings which your visit to the United States has awakened in our 
 breasts. We would gladly have had a personal audience, and were 
 intending to seek it, if not in New York, at least on your intended visit 
 to Boston ; but, from the tenor of your speeches, and especially since 
 the publication of your significant Address to the People of the United 
 States, bearing date of the 12ih December, (1) we are led to infer 
 that such an interview, if solicited, would be regarded by you as super- 
 fluous, if not intrusive. Nevertheless, for us wholly to keep silent, in 
 the position you occupy as the professed friend of universal freedom, 
 and the relation we sustain to the millions in slavery on our own soil as 
 their representatives and advocates, would be doing violence to our con- 
 victions of duty — a duty we owe to you, to ill-fated Hungary, to the 
 cause of liberty throughout the world. That duty we shall endeavor to 
 discharge with fidelity. 
 
 (1) See Appendix. 
 
Sir, we have no parade to make of our abhorrence of the despotic 
 power of Austria and Russia, or of our sympathy with bleeding 
 and oppressed Hungary. Words are cheap — professions are easily 
 made. If we had not been personally ready to meet obloquy, perse- 
 cution and danger, through long years of conflict, in behalf of the 
 down-trodden of our own land, we should be ashamed to look you in 
 the face, or to take you by the hand, as a sufferer under the rod of 
 tyranny. It is easy in America to denounce European injustice ; it is 
 not less easy in Europe to reprobate American slavery ; but to be true 
 to the principles of justice and humanity, on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 in every land, is to be sublimely heroic. 
 
 Partly through the intercession of the American Government, you 
 have been released from an irksome confinement in Turkey, — a con- 
 finement without injustice, and bringing with it distinguished hospitality 
 as well as personal safety for the time being, — and now stand on the 
 American soil, " a poor, persecuted, penniless exile," " the wandering 
 son of a bleeding nation," whose reception has been so triumphant as to 
 be without a parallel. It is very natural, therefore, that you should feel 
 — it is highly proper that you should express — strong emotions of grati- 
 tude both to the government and people of the United States. But 
 neither your release, on the one hand, nor your sense of obligation, on 
 the other, can justify you in conniving at the horrible crimes perpetrated 
 by that people and government ; nor can the condition of Hungary ex- 
 cuse you from being as honest and truthful here, as you have shown 
 yourself to be heroic and self-sacrificing at home. 
 
 We frankly confess, that our solicitude for the preservation of your 
 manhood and the integrity of your soul was extreme when we first 
 heard of your intention to come to the United States, — knowing, as we 
 did, that your visit must be made under circumstances calculated to 
 blind your vision, obstruct your freedom of utterance, shake your moral 
 firmness, and circumscribe your action. This solicitude was not dimin- 
 ished by the recollection, that no distinguished European, whether 
 statesman or divine, whether patriot or philanthropist, (with hardly an 
 exception,) had ever failed, in some way or other, to prove himself 
 recreant to principle almost as soon as he had touched our soil, by a 
 servile course of policy in regard to the omnipresent and omnipotent 
 Slave Power of the land. Still, you had exhibited so much courage, 
 voluntarily encountered so many perils, spurned so many bribes, over- 
 come so many temptations, endured so many hardships, for the sacred 
 cause of liberty in your native land, we were determined to hope to the 
 
5 
 
 last, that here it would he shown to the world, you would never 
 sacrifice principle to expediency, nor allow a padlock to he put upon 
 your lips. And when we read your glowing speeches in England, in 
 which you declared — " I am a man of justice, right and liberty, and will 
 be so my whole lifetime — little do I care what the sworn enemies of 
 justice, right and liberty may call me — there is a common tie which 
 binds the destiny of humanity — liberty, being the common bond of man- 
 kind, constitutes the union of heart with heart — how can men be con- 
 tented without freedom ? — this fair world was not created by God to be 
 a prison to humanity, neither is it created for the jailor's sake — the 
 principles of freedom are in harmony, and I love, 1 am interested in the 
 freedom of all other countries as well as my own — to me life has no 
 value, but only as much as I can make use of it for the liberty and inde- 
 pendence of my country, and for the benefit of humanity — though my 
 words and my pronunciation be bad, my heart is true to the principles 
 of freedom and liberty, not the privileges of a class, but the freedom of 
 ail for all — my heart, as well as my arm, will ever be ready, to my last 
 moments, to give effective success to those principles which are the very 
 root of my life " — &c., &c., we were inspired to hope and believe that, 
 on the blood-stained soil of America, you would stand erect, cost what 
 it might, and still " give the world assurance of a man," 
 
 " "Who would not flatter Neptune for his trident, 
 Nor Jove for his power to thunder." 
 
 Alas ! sir, already our hopes are in the dust! 
 
 Less than a month has elapsed since your arrival ; but, during that 
 brief period, you have made more addresses, and received more delega- 
 tions, — representing various professions, societies and corporations, — 
 than any other man living. Your addresses have been characterized by 
 astonishing versatility and copiousness, as well as charged with the 
 electric flame of an oriental eloquence ; you have discussed a wide 
 range of topics ; you have marked out your own cpurse, and been left 
 unembarrassed by any distinct presentation of a mooted question ; you 
 have shown yourself no stranger to the history, growth and power of 
 this nation ; and you seem to have found among us, as a people, every 
 thing to admire and extol, in strains of loftiest panegyric. But there is 
 one topic that you have shunned, as though to name it would be a crime, 
 — and that is, SLAVERY ! There is one stain on our national 
 escutcheon that your vision has failed to detect, — and that is, the blood 
 
6 
 
 of the almost exterminated Indian tribes, and of millions of the de- 
 scendants of Africa ! There is one fact that you choose to be ignurai 
 of, — and that is, that every sixth person in this land, among a people, 
 swarming from ocean to ocean, is a fettered slave, an article of property, 
 a marketable commodity, — to plead for whose restoration to freedom is 
 the most odious and the most hazardous act that can be performed! 
 
 Thus far, then, you have eyes, but see not ; you have ears, but hear 
 not — except what you suppose is in accordance with popular sentiment, 
 and will be sure to further your own designs. 
 
 Landing as you did on these shores, a liberated captive, the victim of 
 European absolutism, an exile from your native country, and asking 
 sympathy and aid in the spirit of universal liberty ; — coming here, 
 moreover, at a period when the all-absorbing question in the land relates 
 to the enslavement of the wretched millions already alluded to, — when 
 the national government is prosecuting, as guilty of high treason, those 
 who defend themselves against prowling slave-hunters and mercenary 
 kidnappers, — when the panting fugitives from Southern plantations are 
 hunted by bloodhounds, two legged and four legged, throughout our 
 wide domains, and can find succor and the recognition of their common 
 humanity only as they escape to Canada, and exchange the American 
 star-spangled banner for the British flag, — when " the propagation, pres- 
 ervation and perpetuation of slavery " are officially declared to be 
 essential to the continuance of the American Union, — when a strict 
 adherence to bloody and atrocious compromises, made in furtherance of 
 the fiendish designs of the Slave Power, is declared to be the test of 
 loyalty, not to the present administration, but to the government itself, — 
 and, finally, when the most flagitious efforts are making to seize Cuba, 
 and also still other portions of distracted, ill-fated, subjugated Mexico, in 
 order to enlarge and strengthen our doubly accursed slave system, — it 
 was natural that the uncompromising advocates of impartial liberty 
 should look to you for at least one word of sympathy and approval, — at 
 least an incidental expression of grief and shame at the existence of a 
 bondage so frightful, in a land so boastful of its freedom. How, under 
 circumstances so extraordinary and revolting, — especially as the un- 
 daunted champion of freedom, — could you expect to find neutral 
 ground ? to please alike the traffickers in human flesh, and those who 
 execrate that traffic ? to be considered as neither on one side nor the 
 other ? to be allowed to skulk behind the flimsy subterfuge of foreign 
 non-intervention, as an excuse for remaining dumb and insensate in the 
 immediate presence of millions of your fellow-creatures in chains, and 
 
herded with the beasts that perish ? Deplorable as. it is, the relation of 
 our countrymen to the Austrian government is incomparably more 
 ..opeful, a million times less appalling, than that of our slave population 
 to the American government ; yet you invoke for the Hungarians the 
 sympathy of the civilized world — for their prompt deliverance, you 
 insist that both England and America should interfere, by expostulation, 
 remonstrance and warning, — even, if need be, at the point of the bayo- 
 net and the mouth of the cannon, though both nations should thereby 
 become doubly bankrupt, though it should cause a deluge of blood to 
 flow ! The representatives of the vast slave population of the United 
 States ask you to join no particular party in their behalf, to give no 
 countenance to a bloody struggle for their emancipation, but simply to 
 recognize the shocking inconsistency and awful guilt of this nation in 
 trampling under foot its heaven-attested declarations of freedom and 
 equality ; and what is your answer ? It is, that, neither directly nor 
 indirectly, neither by oral testimony nor overt act, will you concern 
 yourself with any matter now in controversy on the American soil ! 
 You are a Hungarian : what is it to you, that, in this country, one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand kidnappers claim and possess as their property 
 more than three millions of the population ? You are a foreigner : why 
 should you " meddle " with any of our " domestic institutions " ? It is 
 not for you, but for such as reside here, to exclaim, if they think the 
 matter worth a moment's consideration : — 
 
 " What, ho ! — our countrymen in chains ! 
 
 The whip on woman's shrinking flesh ! 
 Our soil yet reddening with the stains, 
 
 Caught from Iier scourging, warm and fresh I 
 What 1 mothers from tlieir children riven ! 
 
 What ! God's own image bought and sold ! 
 Americans to market driven. 
 
 And bartered as the brutes for gold ! " 
 
 You are a fugitive from Austrian vengeance, as a rebel, and as the 
 leader in a formidable insurrectionary movement : now that you want 
 money and arms to renew the bloody struggle, why should you evince 
 any sympathy for the hunted fugitives from Southern slaveholding 
 barbarity, — fugitives who raise no standard of revolt, and whose only 
 crime is in trying to gain their freedom without any injury to their 
 merciless oppressors ? Has not every nation a right to do as it 
 pleases within its own boundaries ? If cannibalism prevails in the 
 Fejee Islands, or man-stealing in the United States, let no foreigner 
 
8 
 
 presume to interfere with the practice, even to the extent of a single 
 remonstrance ! 
 
 Such is the humiliating position you now occupy before the world. 
 Sir, your honors and laudations are purchased at too great cost ; you 
 are seeking aid for Hungary by a cowardly and criminal policy, that 
 shall turn to ashes like the apples of Sodom to the taste ; while declaim- 
 ing against Jesuitism as the scourge of Europe, you are acting on the 
 Jesuitical maxim, " the end sanctifies the means." Has it come to this, 
 O Kossuth, that you are fearful, and dare not speak ; selfish, and dare 
 not pity ; a Hungarian for Hungarians, and nothing for mankind ? 
 Cease, then, to declaim against timidity, against selfishness, against 
 national indifference to human wrongs ! Assume no longer the charac- 
 ter of a champion of liberty, talk not of being animated by a divine 
 inspiration, and quote no more reproachfully the Cain-like interrogation, 
 " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 
 
 Unquestionably, your first fatal step in this downward career was 
 taken when, in your Turkish asylum and prison, you consented to accept 
 the proffered interposition of this slaveholding government to obtain 
 your liberation ; which, if it did not necessarily imply, on your part, a 
 pledge that you would not, on your arrival here, say or de aught to 
 swell the tide of anti-slavery sentiment, or indulge in any language 
 criminating the character of the nation, was certainly so regarded by 
 the Executive and Congress of the United States, from considerations 
 both of comity and gratitude. Having taken that step, all the rest 
 have followed naturally and inevitably. 
 
 " Facilis descensus Averni, 
 
 Sed revocare gradum — 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est." 
 
 But, sir, what right had you to enter into such an arrangement, or to 
 impose upon yourself such an obligation ? Your liberation was an 
 object of great solicitude to yourself personally, and of vast importance 
 to Hungary, beyond a doubt ; but not the safety of a Kossuth, not 
 even the freedom of Hungary, can atone for connivance at crime, or 
 justify an alliance with tyrants in any quarter of the globe. Integrity is 
 more than life — honor better than success — the Golden Rule, " What- 
 soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," of 
 more importance than the overthrow of the house of Hapsburg. 
 
 Possibly, when in Turkey you accepted the proffered hospitality of 
 this nation, you were ignorant of the fact, that it is the most shameless 
 slave-holding and slave-trading nation in the world, and so made no 
 
compromise with it for favors received. Possibly, you were not at that 
 time aware of the astounding fact, that the very same session of the 
 American Congress which passed the resolves respecting the release of 
 Louis Kossuth and his associates in exile, and their transportation to 
 this country in one of its naval ships, also enacted the merciless Fugitive 
 Slave Law — a Law, which, on account of its atrocious provisions, has 
 convulsed even this hardened republic, and sent a thrill of horror 
 throughout all Europe. Possibly, you were not then apprised that, in 
 one half of the American Union, the advocates of negro emancipation 
 are outlawed, or, whenever caught, subjected to the lynch code ; that, 
 in the other half, the wealth, the talent, the respectability, the power, 
 the accredited piety, are combined to crush every demonstration for 
 the extinction of slavery. But, on your arrival in England, if hitherto 
 ignorant of these matters, you were promptly enlightened by the vigi- 
 lant friends of universal freedom in that country. Private and public 
 addresses were forwarded to you from individuals and societies, — Scot- 
 land and Ireland uniting with England in these appeals to your moral 
 sense, — expressly in reference to the slavery question in America, 
 warning you of your danger, imploring you to be true to your prin- 
 ciples on her polluted soil, revealing to you the horrors of the American 
 slave system, in some instances conjuring you not to cross the Atlantic, 
 but to announce to the world your unwillingness to purchase favor at 
 the sacrifice of honor. Nothing was left undone to purge your vision, 
 enlighten your understanding, or affect your heart. It does not yet 
 appear that you had the courtesy or courage, even in England, to make 
 a single reply to those philanthropic and Christian appeals, or in any 
 speech to allude to the subject of American slavery. 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that you came to these shores with your eyes 
 open, your mind intelligently informed, your conscience thoroughly 
 probed ; — came, alas ! not to be faithful, but time-serving — not to 
 temper praise with reproof, but to deal in wholesale flattery — not to 
 maintain an erect position, but to bend the knee to " the dark spirit of 
 slavery," so that the cause of Hungary might proi^per ! You are 
 doubly criminal ; for you not only omit to rebuke this nation for the 
 glaring inconsistency of its practice with its professions, but you have 
 already exhausted the language of eulogy upon its Union, its Constitu- 
 tion, its institutions, its greatness and power, its freedom and purity, its 
 humanity and piety. In no instance do you qualify your praise, or hint 
 at any thing to be lamented in our national career. The vanity of our 
 countrymen is proverbial, and never has it been so skilfully or pro- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 fusely administered to as by your own hand. That a candid world may 
 see, at a glance, the prodigality of your flattery, we place in one column 
 a few specimens culled from your various speeches ; and then, in an 
 opposite column, to show how widely at variance with the truth are your 
 encomiums — what deeds of horror, oppression and blood are legalized 
 in the United States — we present some of the features of our slave 
 system : — 
 
 " May your kind anticipations of me be not 
 disappointed! I am a plain man. I have 
 nothing in me but lionest fidelity to those 
 principles wliich liave made you great, and 
 my most ardent wish is that my own country 
 may be, if not great as yours, at least as free 
 and as /lappij, wliich it will be in the establish- 
 ment of the same great principles. The 
 sounds I now hear .seem to me the trumpet 
 of resurrection for down-trodden humanity 
 throughout the world." — [Reply to Dr. Doane, 
 at Staten Island.] 
 
 "The twelve hours that I have had the 
 honor and happiness to stand on your glorious 
 s/wres give me a happy augury of the fact that 
 during my stay here in tlie United States, I 
 shall have a pleasant duty to perform — to 
 answer the many manifestations of the gen- 
 erous puplic spirit of the people of this coun- 
 try. * * * Citizens, accept my 
 fervent thanks for your generous welcome on 
 my arrival to your happy shores, and my bles- 
 sing upon you for the sanction of my" hopes 
 which you express. You have most truly ex- 
 pressed what my hopes are, when you tell me 
 what you consider tiie destiny of your glorious 
 country to he — when you tell me that hence- 
 forth the spirit of liberty shall go forth and 
 achieve the freedom of the world. * * * 
 I coniideiitly hope, citizens, that as you have 
 anticipated my wishes by the expression of 
 your generous seutimentSj even so will you 
 agree with me in the conviction, that the spirit 
 of liberty has not only spiritually but materially to 
 go forth from your glorious country, in order that 
 it may achieve the freedom of the world. The 
 spirit itself is the in.spiring power to deeds, 
 but yet no deed in itself; and you need not be 
 told that those who would be free must, be- 
 sides being inspired, also ' strike the blow.' 
 Bespotism and oppression never yet were 
 beaten, except by heroic resolution, and vig- 
 orous, manly resistance. That is a sad neces- 
 sity, but it is a necessity nevertheless. I have 
 so learned it out of the great book of history. 
 I hope the people of the United States will 
 remember that, in the liour of their nation's 
 glorious struggle, they received from Europe 
 more than kind wishes and friendly sympathy. 
 They received material aid from others in 
 times past, and they will doubtless impart 
 now their mighty agency in achieving the 
 liberty of other lands." 
 
 " Citizens. 1 thank you that you have ad- 
 dressed me through your speaker, not in the 
 language of party, but in the language of lib- 
 erty, and therefore the language of the people of 
 the United States.^' * * * 
 
 " Take, for instance, the glorious struggle you 
 had not long ago with Mexico, in which General 
 Scott drove out the President of that republic 
 from his capital. Now, suppose General 
 Santa Anna had come to Washington, and 
 
 PROFESSION. 
 
 " We hold these truths to be self-evident : 
 that all men are created ec^ual ; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 
 able rights ; that among these are life, LIBER- 
 TY, and the pursuit of happiness." — [Declara- 
 tion of American Independence. 
 
 PRACTICE. 
 
 By the census of 1790. the number of 
 SLAVE.S in the United States was six hun- 
 dred and ninety-seven thousand eight hun- 
 dred and ninety-seven. 
 
 In 1800, eiglit hundred and ninety-three 
 thousand and forty-one 
 
 In 1810, one million one hundred and 
 ninety-one thousand three hundred and sixty- 
 four. 
 
 In 1820, one million five hundred and 
 thirty-eight thousand and sixty-four. 
 
 In 18.30, two millions and nine thousand 
 and thirty-one. 
 
 In 1840, two millions four hundred and 
 eighty-seven thousand three hundred and 
 lifty-tive. 
 
 In 1850, THREE MILLIONS ONE HUN- 
 DRED AND SEVENTY-SEVEN THOU- 
 SAND FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGUTY- 
 NINE. 
 
 "Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, re- 
 puted and adjudged in law to be chattels per- 
 sonal in the hands of their owners and posses- 
 sors, and their executors, administrators and 
 assigns, to all intents, constructions and pur- 
 poses whatsoever." — [Law of South Carolina. 
 2 Brev. Dig. 229. 
 
 "A slave is one who is in the power of a 
 master to whom he belongs. The master may 
 sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, 
 and his labor : he can do nothing, possess 
 nothing, nor acquire anything but what must 
 belong to his master.'-— [Civil Code of Louisi- 
 ana, Art. 35. 
 
 " The slave is one doomed in his own person, 
 and in his posterity, to live without knowl- 
 edge, and without capacity to make any thing 
 his^own, and to toil that others may reap the 
 fruits. . . The end is the proiit of the master, 
 his security, and the public peace. . . The 
 power of the master must be absolute to ren- 
 der the submission of the slave perfect. . . In 
 the actual condition of things, it must be so. 
 There is no remedy. This discipline belongs to 
 slavery." — [Opinion of the Supreme Court of 
 North Carolina, delivered by Judge Ruflin, 
 State vs. Mann, 2 Dev. Rep. 263. 
 
 " The system of slavery denies to a whole 
 class of human beings the sacredness of mar- 
 riage and of home, compelling them to live in 
 a state of concubinage ; for, in the eye of tho 
 
11 
 
 driven away President Taylor, would General 
 Taylor have ceased to bo the rightfully elected 
 Tresident of the United States, from tlie fact 
 tliat a foreign power had, for a moment, 
 forced him to leave liis place ? 1 believe there 
 is not a single man in the Unitei States who 
 would say yes." — [Sjieeck at Suuen Isla7ul.] 
 
 " Let me, before I go to work, have some 
 hours of rest upon Ms soil, of freedom, your 
 happy liome. Freedom and Home ! what 
 heavenly music in those two words 1 Alas, I 
 have no homo, and the treedom of my people 
 is down-trodden. Yoim^ Gta/it of free Amer- 
 ica, do not tell me that thy shores are an 
 asylum to the oppressed, and a home for the 
 homeless exile. An asylum it is, but all the 
 blessings of your glorious country, can they 
 drown into oblivion the longing of the heart, 
 and the fond desires, for our native land ? 
 ***** 
 
 " Even here, with this prodigious view of 
 greatness, freedom, and happiness, which 
 spreads before my astonished eyes, my 
 ttioughts are wandering towards home ; and 
 wlieu I look over the.-<e thousands of tliou- 
 sands before me, the hapjiy inheritance of 
 yonder freedom for which your fatners fought 
 and bled — and when I turn to you, citizens, to 
 bow before the majesty of the United States, 
 and to thank the people of New York for 
 their generous share in my liberation, and for 
 the unparalleled honor of this reception, I 
 see, out of the very midst of this great assem- 
 blage, rise the bleeding image of Hungary, 
 looking to you with anxiety whether there lie 
 in the lustre of your eyes a ray of hope for 
 her ; whether there be in the thunder of your 
 hurrahs, a trumpet-call of resurrection. If 
 there were no sucli ray of hope in your eyes, 
 and no such trumpet-call in your cheers, then 
 wo to Europe's oppressed nations! Tliey will 
 .stand alone in the hour of need. Less fortu- 
 nate than you were, they will meet no broth- 
 er's hand to help them in the approaching 
 giant struggle against the leagued despots of 
 the world ; and wo also to me. I will feel no 
 joy even here, and the days of my stay here 
 will turn out to be lost for my father-land — 
 lost at the very time when every moment is . 
 teeming in the decision of Europe's destiny. 
 
 " I have to thank the people. Congress and 
 Government of the United States, for my lib- 
 eration from captivity. Human tongue has 
 no words to express the bliss which I felt 
 when I — the down-trodden Hungary's wand- 
 ering chief — saw the glorious flag of the stripes 
 and stars fluttering over my head — when I iirst 
 bowed before it with deep respect — when I 
 saw around me the gallant officers and the 
 crew of the Mississippi frigate — the most of 
 them the worthiest representatives of true 
 American principles, American greatness, Ameri- 
 can generosity — and to think that it was not a 
 mere chance which cast the star-spangled 
 banner around me, but that it was your pro- 
 tecting tviU — to know that the United States of 
 America, conscious of their glorious calling as welt 
 as of their power, declared by this unparalleled act 
 to be resolved to become the protectors of human 
 rights — to see a jjowerful vessel of America 
 coming to far Asia, to break the chains by 
 which the mightiest despots of Europe let- 
 tered the activity of an exiled Magyar, wliose 
 very name disturbed the proud security of 
 tlieir sleep — to feel restored by such a protec- 
 tion, and in such a way, to freedom, and by 
 
 law, no colored slave-man is the husband of 
 any wife in particular, nor any slave-woman 
 the wife of any husband in particular; no 
 slave-man is the father of any children in 
 particular, and no slave child is the child of 
 anv parent in particular." — [Rev. Kobert J. 
 Breckenridge, D. i>. of the Presbyterian 
 Church, himself a slave-holder in Kentucky. 
 
 If more than seven slaves are found together 
 in any road, without a Avhite person, twenty 
 lashes a piece ; for visiting a plantation with- 
 out a written pass, ten lashes ; for letting loose 
 a boat from where it is made fast, thirty-nine 
 lashes for the first offence — and for the second, 
 shall have cut off from his head one ear; for 
 keeping or carrying a club, thirty-nine lashes ; 
 for having any article for sale, without a ticket 
 from his master, ten lashes; for travelling in 
 any other than the most usual and accustomed 
 road, when going alone to any place, forty 
 lashes; for travelling in the night, without a 
 pass, forty lashes ; for being found in another 
 person's negro-quarters, forty lashes ; for hunt- 
 ing with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes ; for 
 being on horseback without the written per- 
 mission of his master, twenty-five lashes : for 
 riding or going abroad in the night, or riding 
 horses in the day time, without leave, a slave 
 may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the 
 cheek with the letter II, or otherwise punish- 
 ed, not extending to life, or so as to render him 
 unfit for labor — &c. &c. &c.— [Laws of the 
 Slave States. — See 2 Brevard's Digest, Hay- 
 wood's Manual, 1 Virginia Revised Code, 
 Prince's Digest, Missouri Laws, Mississippi 
 Revised Code. 
 
 " If any emancipated slaye (infantiexcepted) 
 shall remain within the State more than 
 twelve months after his or her right to free- 
 dom shall have accrued, he or she shall forfeit 
 all such right, and may be apprehended and 
 sold by the overseers of the poor, &c. for the 
 benefit of the literary fund." — [Rev. Code ot 
 Virginia, 436. 
 
 " Every negro or mulatto found within the 
 State, and not having the ability to show him- 
 self entitled to freedom, may be sold, by order 
 of the court, as a slave." — [Mississippi Rev. 
 Code, 3S'J. 
 
 By T. J. Waish & Co.— Private sale. 1 Berk- 
 shire Sow, four months old ; 1 Susse.x Boar 
 Pig, 2J months old. A Negro Man, aged 
 about 38 ; a carpenter. Titles undoubted. 
 
 Cook at Private Sale. — Will be sold at pri- 
 vate sale, a mulatto woman, named Mary, 
 about 48 years of age. a good cook, washer 
 and iroiier, a fair pastry cook, perfectly hon- 
 est, and very cleanly, and kind and attentive 
 to children. If not sold on the first Monday 
 of .July ne.xt, she will then be ofi'ered at pub- 
 lic auction. Apply to T. B. BAKE II, or 
 JOHN STUBBS. 
 
 Cow AND Calf for Sale.— A prime young 
 milch cow and calf, for sale as above.— [South 
 Carolinian. 
 
 AnMiNisTR.\TOR's Sale.— On the first Tuesday 
 in May next, within the legal hours of sale, 
 before the Court House in Effingham County, 
 ttie following property, belonging to the es- 
 tate of Gideon C. Bevill, late of Chatham 
 County, decea.'^ed : Two Timber Carriages, 
 one Wood Flat, one Jack Screw, one WritiuR 
 
 y 
 
12 
 
 freedom to activity, you may be well aware 
 of what I have felt, and still feel, at the re- 
 membrance of this proud moment of my life. 
 Others spoke — you acted; and I ii-as free ! You 
 acted ; and at this act of yours, tyrants trembled; 
 kuiniinity shouted out ivithjoy ; the down-trodden 
 people of Magyrirs— the down-trodden, but not 
 broken— raised his head with resolution and 
 with hoi^e, and the brilliancy of your stars was 
 greeted by Europe's oppressed nations as the morn- 
 ing star of rising liberty. Now, gentlemen, you 
 must be aware liow boundless the gratitude 
 must be which 1 feel for you. You have re- 
 stored me to life — because restored to activ- 
 ity ; and should my life, by the blessings of 
 tlie Almighty, still prove useful to my father- 
 land, and to humanity, it will be your merit 
 — it will be your work. May you and ^o!«r 
 glorious country be blessed for it. * * 
 
 " What is the motive of my beiug here at 
 this very time ? The motive, "citizens, is, that 
 your generous act of my liberation has raised 
 the conviction throughout the world, that 
 this generous act of yours is but the manifes- 
 tation of your resolution to throw your 
 weight into the balance where the fate of the 
 European continent is to be weighed. You 
 have raised the conviction throughout the 
 world, that by my liberation you were willing 
 to say, • Ye oppressed nations of old Europe's 
 continent, be of good cheer ; the young giant of 
 America stretches his powerful arm over the waves, 
 ready to give a brother^s hand to your future.^ So 
 is your act interpreted throughout the world. 
 You, in your proud security, can scarcely 
 imagine how beneficial this conviction has 
 already proved to the sufi'ering nations of the 
 European continent. You can scarcely 
 imagine what .self-confidence you have added 
 to the resolution of the oppressed. You have 
 knit the tie of solidarity iu the destinies of 
 nations." * * * * 
 
 "Your generous act of my liberation is 
 taken by the world for the revelation of the 
 fact, that the United States are resolved not to 
 allow the despots of the world to tratnple on op- 
 pressed humanity. It is hence that my libera- 
 tion was cheered, from Sweden down to Port- 
 ugal, as a ray of hope. It is lieuce that even 
 those nations which most desire my presence 
 in Europe now, have unanimously told me, 
 ' Hasten on, hasten on to the great, free, rich 
 and powerful people of the United States, and 
 bring over its brotherly aid to the cause of 
 your country, so intimately connected with 
 European liberty ; ' and here I stand to plead 
 the cause of the solidarity of human rights 
 before tlie great republic of the United States. 
 Humble as 1 am, God, the Almighty, has selected 
 7ne to represent the cause of humanity before you. 
 My warrant to this capacity is written in the 
 sympathy and confidence of all who are oppressed, 
 and of all wlio, as your elder brother, the 
 people of Britannia, sympathise with the op- 
 pressed—my wanaut to this capacity is writ- 
 ten in the hope's and expectations you have 
 entitled the world to entertain, by liberating 
 me out of my prison, and by restoring me to 
 activity." # * * # 
 
 . "The people of England desire the broth- 
 erly alliance of the United States to secure to 
 every nation the sovereign right to dispose of 
 itself, and to protect the sovereign right of 
 nations against the encroaching arrogance of 
 despots, and leagued to you against the league 
 of despots, to stand, together with you, god- 
 father to the approaching baptism of Euro- 
 pean liberty. JSow, gentlemen, 1 have stated 
 
 Desk, two Negro Men, Adam and Fraiser, 100 
 acres of Land, &c. 
 
 E. W. SoLOJioxs, Adm'r. 
 
 35 Likely Neqiioes for S.iLE.— The sub.scri- 
 ber having purchased Byrd Hill's old stand, 
 on Adams street, will keep a good lot ot Ne- 
 groes, fresh from North Carolina, Virginia, 
 and Jliddle Tennessee. A partner is now in 
 Richmond, Va., and will buy a lot of plough 
 boys and small girls for the Spring trade, and 
 will be out soon. I have ample room to ac- 
 commodate traders, and board negroes, and 
 sell on commission, &c. Benj. Little. 
 
 Negroes for Sale.— A likely young mulatto 
 fellow, about 20 years old ; a boy, black, about 
 28 years old ; a boy, dark mulatto, 27 years of 
 age. The above negroes are warranted sound, 
 and will be sold low for cash by 
 
 MCivEEN- & MaBFITI. 
 
 lO^ Speculators in slaves are found on ev- 
 ery Court Yard, and at every hiring ground 
 where slaves are to be disposed of We would 
 therefore recommend to such of our readers 
 as have negroes to sell, to keep a steady eye 
 upon the market, as this species of property 
 seems to be steadily improving in point of 
 value.— [North Carolina paper. 
 
 Ranaway, on Wednesday last, my Mulatto 
 Woman, Louise, about 27 years of age, 5 feet 
 2 inches in height, hair nearly straight, and 
 is quite fleshy. She speaks the .French and 
 Spanish languages, and is shrewd and intelli- 
 gent. I will give lifty dollars for her deten- 
 tion and delivery to me. 
 
 Georoe Schumaker. 
 
 $100 Reward will be given for the appre- 
 hension of my negro, Edward Kenney. He 
 has straight hair, and complexion so nearly 
 white, that it is believed a stranger would 
 suppose that there was no African blood in 
 him. He was with my boy Dick a short time 
 in Norfolk, and offered him for sale, and was 
 apprehended, but escaped under pretence of 
 being a white man(I) Anderson Bowles. 
 
 Richmond, Va., Jan. 6, 1836. 
 
 Ranaway from the subscriber, working on 
 the plantation of Col. U. Tinker, a bright mu- 
 latto boy, named Alfred. Alfred is about 18 
 years old, pretty well grown, has blue eyes, 
 light flaxen hair, skin disposed to freckle. He 
 will try to pass as free-born. 
 
 Green County, Ala. S. G. Stewart. 
 
 $100 Reward. — Ranaway from tlie subscri- 
 ber, a bright mulatto man-slave, named !>am. 
 Light sandy hair, blue eyes, ruddy complex- 
 ion ; is so white as very easily to pass for a 
 free white man. Edwin Feck. 
 
 Mobile, April 22, 1837. 
 
 Ranaway, on the 1.5th of May, from me. a 
 negro woman, named Fanny. Said woman 
 is 20 years old ; is rather tall ; can read and 
 write, and so forge passes for herself; is very 
 pious. She jirays a great deal, and was, as 
 supposed, (!) contented and happy(l) She is 
 as white as most white women, with straight 
 light hair, and blue eyes, and can pass herself 
 for a white woman. I will give S500 for her 
 apprehension and delivery to me. She is very 
 intelligent. John Balcu. 
 
 Tuscaloosa, May 29, 1845. 
 
my position. I am a stiai.nhi-rorwai'il man. 
 I am a republican. 1 iiave avowed it openly 
 in monarchical, but free England ; and 1 am 
 happy to state that I have nothin-; lost by this 
 avowal there. I hope 1 will not lose here, in 
 republican America, by that frankness, which 
 must be one of the cliief qualities of every 
 republican." * * * * 
 
 •' I profess, highly and openly, my admira- 
 tion to;- t/ie glorious principle of union, on which 
 stands tiie miglity pyramid of your greatness, and 
 upon the basis of Avliich you have grown, in 
 tlie short period of seventy-iive years, to a 
 prodigious giant, the living wonder of the 
 world. I have the most warm w isli that the 
 star-spangled banner of the United States 
 may for ever be tloating, united and one, the 
 proud ensign of mankind'' s divine origin; and, 
 taking my ground on (/(/,■! principle of union, 
 vjliich I find lawfully existing, an establislied 
 constitutional fact, it is not to a party, but to 
 the united people of the United States, that I 
 contidently will address my humble requests 
 for aid and protection to oppressed liumanity. I 
 will conscientiously respect your laws, but 
 within the limits of your laws, I will use 
 every honest exertioa to gain your operative 
 sympathy, and your financial, material and 
 political' aid for my country's freedom and 
 independence, and entreat the realization of 
 these hopes which your generosity has raised 
 in me and my people's breast.?, and also in the 
 breasts of Europe's oppressed nations." * * * 
 
 "As to your minister at Vienna, how can 
 you combine the letting him stay there with 
 yoilr opinion of the cause of Hungary, I 
 really don't know ; but so much I know, "that 
 the present absolutistieal atmosphere of Eu- 
 rope is not very propitious to American prin- 
 ciples. I know a man who could tell some 
 curious facts about this matter. But as to Mr. 
 Hulseinann, really I don't believe that he 
 would be so ready to leave Washington. He 
 has extremely well digested the caustic pills 
 which Mr. Webster has administered to him 
 
 80 gloriously." 
 ''^Having th 
 
 ig thus expounded my aim, 1 beg 
 leave to state, that I came not to your glorious 
 shores to enjoy a happy rest — I came not with 
 the intention to gather triumphs of personal 
 distinction, but as a humble petitioner, in my 
 country's name, as its freely chossn constitu- 
 tional chief, humbly to entreat your generous aid ; 
 and then it is to this aim that I will devote 
 every moment of my time, with the more 
 assiduity, the more restlessness, as every mo- 
 ment may bring a report of events which 
 may call me to hasten to my place on the 
 battle field, where the great, and I hope the 
 last battle tvili be fought between Liberty and Des- 
 potism — a moment marked by the finder of 
 God to be so near, that every hour of delay of 
 your generous aid may prove fatally disas- 
 trous to o/jpre.fscd /ii(?7!ant«j/-" # # # 
 
 "Lafayette had great claims to your love 
 and sympathy. But I have none. I came a 
 humble petitioner, with no other claims than 
 those which the oppressed have to the sympathy of 
 free men, who have the power to help ; with 
 the claim which the unfortunate has to the 
 happy ; and the down-trodden has to the pro- 
 tection of eternal justice and of hunum rights. 
 In a word, 1 have no other claims than those 
 ivhich the oppressed principle of freedom has to 
 tite aid of victorious liberty. Then I would 
 liumbly ask, are these claims sufticient to in- 
 sure your generous protection, not to myself, 
 but to the cause of my native land — not to 
 my native land only, but to the principle of 
 
 $200 Keward.— Ranaway from the subscri- 
 ber, last November, a white (!) negro man, 
 about 35 years old, height about 5 feet 8 or 10 
 inches, blue eyes, has a yellow woolly head, 
 very fair skill. He was lately known to be 
 working on the railroad in Alabama, near 
 Moore's Turn Out, and passed as a white man, 
 by the name of Jesse Teams. I will give S.WO 
 for sutlicient proof to convict, in ojjen court, 
 any man who carried him away. 
 
 J. 1). Allen. 
 
 P. S. Said man has a good-shaped loot and 
 leg, and his foot is very small and hollow. 
 
 Barnwell Court House, L. C. 
 
 Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, 
 very much scarred about the neck and ears 
 by whipjiing. — [Mobile Commercial Adverti- 
 ser. 
 
 One hundred dollars reward for my negro 
 Glasgow, and Kate, his wife. Glasgow is 24 
 years old — has marks of the whip on his back. 
 Kate is 26 — has a scar on her cheek, and sev- 
 eral marks of a whip. — [Macon, Georgia, Mes- 
 senger. 
 
 Kanaway, Bill — has several large scars on 
 his back from a severe whipping in early life. 
 [Baltimore, Maryland, Republican. 
 
 Kanaway, nesro fellow John — from being 
 whi2jped, has scars on his back, arms, and 
 thighs,— [Milledgeville, Georgia, Standard of 
 Union. 
 
 Committed to jail, a mulatto fellow— his 
 back shows lasting impressions of the whip, 
 and leaves no doubt of his being a slave. — 
 [Fayetteville, Worth Carolina, Observer. 
 
 Ranaway, the negro Manuel, much marked 
 with irons. — [New Orleans, Louisiana, Bee. 
 
 Kanaway, the iiegress Fanny — had on an 
 iron band" about her neck.— [New Orleans 
 Bee. 
 
 Ranaway, a black woman, Betsey — had an 
 iron bar on her right leg. — [Grand Gulf, Mis- 
 sissippi, Advertiser. 
 
 Kanaway, a negro man named David — with 
 some iron hobbles around each ankle.— [Staun- 
 ton, Virginia, Spectator. 
 
 Ranaway, the negro Hown — has a ring of 
 iron on his left foot. Also, Grise, his wife, 
 having a ring and chain on the left leg. — 
 [New Orleans Bee. 
 
 Committed to jail, a man who calls his 
 name John — he has a clog of iron on his right 
 foot, which will weigh tour or five pounds. — 
 [Montgomery, Alabama, Advertiser. 
 
 Detained at the police jail, the negro wench 
 Myra — has several marks of lashing, and lias 
 irons on her feet.- [New Orleans paper. 
 
 Was committed to jail, a negro boy— had 
 on a large neck iron, with a huge pair of 
 liorns, and a large bar or band of iron on his 
 left leg. — [Memphis, Tennessee, Times. 
 
 Ranaway, a negro boy about twelve years 
 old— had round his neck a cliain dog-collar, 
 with " De Yampert" engraved on it. — [Mo- 
 bile, Alabama, Chronicle. 
 
14 
 
 freedom in Europe's continent, of which the 
 independence of tlungary is the indispensable 
 keystone. If you consider these claims not 
 sufficient to your active and operative sympa- 
 thy, then let me know at once that the hopes 
 have failed witli which Europe's oppressed 
 nations have looked to your great, migiity and 
 glorious republic — let me know at once the 
 failure of our hopes, that I may hasten back 
 and tell Europe's oppressed nations, ' Jjet us 
 fight, forsaken and single-handed, the battle 
 of Leonidas ; let us trust to God, to our right, 
 and to our good sword ; there is no other help 
 for the oppressed nations on earth.' But if 
 your generous republican hearts are animated by 
 the hi^h principle of freedom and of the 
 solidarity in the destinies of humanity — if 
 you have the will, as, to be sure, you have the 
 power, to support the cause of freedom against 
 the sacrilegious league of despotism, then give 
 me some days of calm reflection to become 
 acquainted with the ground upon which I 
 stand — let me take the kind advice of some 
 active friends on the most practical course I 
 have to adopt — let me see if there be any pre- 
 paratory steps taken in favor of that cause 
 which 1 have the honor to represent; and 
 then, let me have a new opportunity to ex- 
 pound before you my humble request in a 
 practical way ;" and let me add, with a sigh of 
 thanksgiving to the Almighty God, that it is 
 your glorious country which Providence has se- 
 lected to be the pillar of freedom, as it is already 
 the asylum to op2)ressed hu7nanity. 
 
 " I am told that 1 will have the high honor 
 to review your patriotic militia. O (jod ! how 
 my heart throbs at the idea to see this gallant 
 army enlisted on the side of freedom against des- 
 potism; the world would be free, and you the 
 saviours of humanity. Andwiiynot? These 
 gallant men take part iu the mighty demon- 
 stration of the day, proving that I was right 
 when 1 said that now-a-days even the bayo- 
 nets think. Citizens of New York, it is under 
 your protection that I place the sacred cause of the 
 freedom and independence of Hungary.'' * * 
 " — [Reply to the Mayor's Address of Welco7ne at 
 New York.] 
 
 " I am aware that your war with Mexico was 
 carried on chiefly by volunteers. . . It is a duty 
 to confes.^, that those who fought in that war 
 have high claims to an acknowledgment of 
 their brilliant achievements . . I know what 
 distinguished part the volunteers of New York 
 took in that war — in the siege of Vera Cruz, in 
 the battles of Cerro Gordo, iJontreras, Molino 
 del Key, Cherubusco, and Chapultepec, and 
 how they partook in the immense glory of 
 entering — a handful of gallant men — the me- 
 tropolis of Mexico." 
 
 " History shows eminently this truth, that 
 
 TOO ARE ENTITLED TO CALL YOURSELVES FREEMEN'. 
 
 — [Reply to the Address of Citizens of New 
 Hauen.] 
 
 " I feel that to command the sympathy of 
 generous minds is but to show the true posi- 
 tion of Hungary, and the ground on which 
 its future re.sts. By this attention, which has 
 marked your address, and all other addresses 
 received since 1 have arrived on these glorious 
 shores of America, my work and my mission in 
 this country will be greatly facilitated, be- 
 cause it will not be necessary for me to try to 
 explain my views, nor to persuade the people 
 of the United States ; for they already uuder- 
 
 Ranaway, a negro girl called Mary— has a 
 small scar over her eye, a good many teeth 
 missing ; the letter A is branded on her cheek 
 and forehead. — [Natchez, Mississippi, Courier. 
 
 Ranaway, Mary, a black woman— has a scar 
 on her back and right arm near the shoulder, 
 caused by a rifle ball.— [Natchez Courier. 
 
 Twenty dollars reward — Ranaway from the 
 subscriber, a negro girl named Molly — 16 or 
 17 years of age, slimmade, lately branded on 
 her left cheek, thus, R, and a piece taken off of 
 her ear on the same side ; the same letter on 
 the inside of both her legs.— [Charleston, S. 
 C. Courier. 
 
 " Twenty dollars reward — Ranaway from the 
 subscriber, a negro woman and two children ; 
 the woman is tall and black, and a few days 
 before she went off, I burnt her with a hot 
 iron on the left side of her face. I tried tA 
 make the letter M— and she kept a cloth over 
 her head and face, and a fly bonnet on her 
 head, so as to cover the burn. — [North Caroli- 
 na Standard, 
 
 Ranaway, from the plantation of James 
 Surgett, the following negroes: Randall — has 
 one'ear cropjjed ; Bob — has lost one eye ; Ken- 
 tucky Tom— has one jaw broken. — [Southern 
 Telegraph. 
 
 Stolen, a negro man named Winter — has a 
 notch cut out of the left ear, and the marks of 
 four or five buck shot ou his legs. — [Natchito- 
 ches, Louisiana, Herald. 
 
 Committed to jail, a negro named Mike — 
 his left ear off.— [Natchez Free Trader. 
 
 Ranaway Bill — has a scar over one eye, also 
 one on his leg, from the bite of a dog — lias a 
 burn on his buttock, from a piece of hot iron 
 in the shape of T.— [New Orleans Bulletin. 
 
 Ranaway, my slave Lewis — he has lost a 
 piece of one ear, and a part of one of his fin- 
 gers ; a part of one of his toes is also lost. — 
 [Mobile Chronicle. 
 
 Was committed to jail a negro man, says 
 his name is Josiah — his back very much scar- 
 red by the whip, and branded on the thigh 
 and hips, in three or four places, thus (J. M.) 
 — the rim of his right ear has been bit or cut 
 ofl'. — [Clinton, Mississippi, Gazette. 
 
 Ranaway a negro named Henry — his left 
 eye out, some scars from a dirk on and under 
 his left arm, and much scarred with the whip. 
 [Lexington, Kentucky, Observer. 
 
 Fifty dollars reward, for my fellow Edward 
 — he has a scar on the corner ot his mouth, 
 two cuts on and under his arm, and the letter 
 E on his arm. — [Charleston, South Carolina, 
 Courier. 
 
 One hundred dollars reward will be paid to 
 any person who may apprehend and safely 
 confine in any jail in this State, a certain ne- 
 gro man, named Alfred. And the Siiinc re- 
 ward will be paid, if satisfactory evidence is 
 given of his having been KILLED. He has 
 one or more scars on one of his hands, caused 
 by his having been shot.— [WilmingtOH, North 
 Carolina, Advertiser. 
 
15 
 
 stand it, and they are already persuaded that my 
 cause 7>ierits their sympathy and support; and 
 they are convinced, becaflse they have paid 
 attention to tlie views, hopes, and aims oi my 
 nation." * * # # 
 
 " I come here with the humble prayers of 
 Hungary and my own, seeking for sympathy 
 and aid, not to one party, but to the whole 
 people of the United States. When I see the 
 whole people of this great confederacy — not of one 
 party, but of all parties — coming forward to 
 stretch out a friendly hand to my poor country, 
 I put my trust in the God of mercy and jus- 
 tice, that he will ere long set Hungary free, 
 and place her in the position she ought to 
 hold in the scale of nations. It will be suf- 
 licient reward for me, even at the sacrifice of 
 my life, if my efforts, aided by the generosity 
 of your nation, shall contribute to the re- 
 demption of my country, and the develop- 
 ment of all those moral and material facul- 
 ties which are necessary to the welfare of 
 every nation." — [Reply to the Address of a Com- 
 tnittee of the American and Foreign Anti- Slavery 
 Society.] 
 
 '■' I wish the free women of free America 
 will help my down-trodden land to get out of 
 tiiat iron grasp, or to get out of those bloody 
 langs, and become independent and free. 
 * * * Hut I have a stronger motive 
 than all these to claim your protecting sym- 
 pathy for my country's cause. It is her 
 nameless woes, nameless sufferings. In the 
 name of that ocean of bloody tears which the 
 sacrilegious hand of the tyrant wrung from 
 the eyes of the childless mothers, of the 
 brides who beheld the hangman's sword be- 
 tween them and their wedding day— in the 
 name of all those mothers, wives, brides, 
 daughters and sisters, who, by thousands of 
 thousands, weep over the graves of Magyars 
 so dear to their hearts, and weep the bloody 
 tears of a patriot (as they all are) over the 
 face of their beloved native land— in the 
 name of all those torturing stripes with 
 which the flogging hand of Austrian tyrants 
 dared to outrage humanity in the womankind 
 of ray native land— in the name of that daily 
 curse against Austria with which even the 
 prayers of our women are mixed — in the 
 name of the nameless sufferings of my own 
 dear wife, (here the whole audience rose and 
 cheered vehemently,)— the faithful companion 
 of my life — of her who for mouths and for 
 months was hunted by my country's tyrants, 
 like a noble deer, not having, for months, a 
 moment's rest to repose her wearied head in 
 safety, and no hope, no support, no protection 
 but at the humble threshold of the hard- 
 working people, as noble and generous as 
 they are poor — (applause)— in the name of my 
 poor little children, who so young are scarce- 
 ly conscious of their life, had already to learn 
 what an Austrian prison is— in the name of all 
 this, and what is still worse, in the name of 
 down-trodden liberty, I claim, ladies of Kew 
 York, your protecting sympathy for my 
 country's cause. Kobody can do more for it 
 than you. The heart of man is as soft wax in 
 your tender hands. Mould it, ladies ; mould 
 it into tiie form of generous compassion for 
 my country's wrongs, inspire it with the 
 noble feelings of your own hearts, inspire it 
 with the consciou.sness of your country's 
 power, dignity and might." * * # 
 " All tliis power you luu e. Use it, ladies, use 
 it in behalf of your country's glory, ana for 
 the benefit of oppressed humaaity ; and when 
 
 Ranaway, my negro man Richard. A re- 
 ward of $25 will be paid for his apprehension, 
 DEAD OR ALIVE. Satisfactory proof will only 
 be required of his being KILLED.— [Same 
 paper. 
 
 Three hundred dollars reward — Ranaway 
 from the subscriber in November last, his two 
 negro men, named Billy and Tompey. Billy 
 in all probability mav resist ; in that event, 
 $50 will be paid for UlS HEAD.— [Charles- 
 ton Courier. 
 
 Two hundred dollars reward— Ranaway 
 from the subscriber, a certain negro named 
 Ben; he had but one eye. Also, one other 
 negro, by the name of Rigdon. I will give 
 the reward of $100 for each of the above ne- 
 groes, to be delivered to me, or contined in 
 the jail of Lenori or Jones county, or for the 
 KILLING of them, so that I can see them. — 
 [Nevvbern. North Carolina, Spectator. 
 
 From the Wilmington, N. C. Journal. 
 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 WHEREAS, complaint upon oath hath this 
 day been made to us, two of the Justices of the 
 Peace for the State and county aforesaid, by 
 Guildford Horn, of Edgecombe County, that a 
 certain male slave belonging to him, named 
 HARRY, a carpenter by trade, about 40 years 
 old, 5 feet 5 inches high, or thereabouts, yel- 
 low complexion, stout built, with a scar on his 
 left leg, (from the cut of an axe,) has very thick 
 lips, eyes deep sunk in his head, forehead verv 
 square, tolerably loud voice, has lost one or two 
 of his upper teeth, and has a very dark spot on 
 his jaw, supposed to bea mark- hath absented 
 himself from his master's service, and is sup- 
 posed to be lurking about in this county, com- 
 mitting acts of felony or other misdeeds : 
 These are, therefore, in the name of the State 
 aforesaid, to command said slave forthwith to 
 surrender himself, and return home to his said 
 ma.ster ; and we do hereby, by virtue of the 
 Act of Assembly in such cases made and pro- 
 vided, intimate and declare that if said slave 
 Harry doth not surrendei himself, and return 
 home immediately after the publication of 
 these presents, that any person or persons may 
 KILL and DESTROY the said slave by such means 
 as he or they may think )it, without accusation 
 or impeachment of any crime or offence for so 
 doing, and without incurring any penalty or 
 forfeiture thereby. 
 
 Given under our hands and seals, this 29th 
 day of June, 1850. 
 
 James T. Miller, J. P. [Seal.] 
 W. C. Betiencout, J. P. [Seal.] 
 
 Oye HUXDRED AND TwEXTT-FIVE DOLLARS RE- 
 WARD will be paid for the delivery of the said 
 HARRY to me at Tonsott Depot, 'Edgecombe 
 county, or for his continement in any jail in 
 the State, so that I can get him ; or One Hun- 
 dred and Fifty Dollars will be given for his 
 
 HEAD. 
 
 He was lately heard from in Newbern. whene 
 he called himself Henry Barnes (or Burns,) 
 and will be likelj^ to continue the same name 
 or assume that of Coppage or Farmer. He has 
 a free mulatto woman for a wife, by the name 
 of Sally Bozeman, who has lately removed to 
 Wilmington, and lives in that part of the town 
 called Texas, where he will likely be lurk- 
 ing. 
 
 Masters of vessels are particularly cautioned 
 against harboring or concealing said negro ou 
 
16 
 
 you meet a cold calculator, who thinks by- 
 arithmetic when he is called to feel the wrongs 
 of oppressed nations, convert hira, ladies." — 
 [Address to the Ladies of New York in Tripler 
 Hall.] 
 
 " I am sure that the sympathy of Baltimore (!) 
 will be such as to respect the cause of Hun- 
 gary, for the people and the authorities act in 
 perfect harmony togetlier in this free coun- 
 try. . . I am not egoti-stical for myself, but for 
 the great principles of liberty, which makes 
 your country so great, so glorious, and so free, 
 and also the land of protection for the perse- 
 cuted SONS OF freedom among the great brother- 
 hood of nations." 
 
 "As to your glorious Constitution. . . Never 
 forget to love it. . . Your glorious country. . . 
 The glorious republic of the United States. . . 
 Great, glorious and free. . . Let not the enemies 
 of freedomgrow toostrong(!l). . . Absolutism 
 cannot tranquilly sleep while the Kepublicau 
 principle has such a mighty representative as 
 your country is (II!). . . The United States of 
 America is a great, glorious and free country, 
 under Kepublican government . . 1 believe 
 your glorious country should every where un- 
 i'url the star-spangled banner of liberty. . . 
 The United States number many millions of 
 inhabitants, all attached with warm feelings 
 to the principles of liberty. . . You took me 
 for the representative of that principle of liber- 
 ty which God has destined to become the com- 
 mon benelit of liumanity ; and it is a glorious 
 sight to see a mighty, free, powerful people 
 come forth to greet with such a welcome the 
 principle of freedom, even in a poor, perse- 
 cuted, penniless exile. . . Through all poster- 
 ity, oppressed men will look to your memory 
 as a token of God, that there is a hope for free- 
 dom on earth, because there is a people like 
 you (!!) to feel its worth and to support its 
 cause. . . Europe has many things to learn 
 from America: it has to learn the value of free 
 institutions, and the expansive power of free- 
 dom." 
 
 " Happy art thou, free nation of America, 
 that thou hast founded thy house upon the 
 only solid basis of a nation's liberty! Thou 
 hast no tyrants among thee, to tlirow the ap- 
 ple of Eros in thy Union. Thou hast no tyrants 
 among thee, to raise the fury of hatred in thy 
 national family — hatred of nations, that curse 
 of humanity, that venomous instrument of 
 despotism." 
 
 "A tempest-tossed life has somewhat sharp- 
 ened tl'.e eyes of my soul : and had it not even 
 done so, still I would dare say, I know how to 
 read your people's heart. It is so easy to read 
 it, because it is open, like nature, and unpollu- 
 ted, (!) like a virgin's heart (!!) May others 
 shut their ears to Ihe cry of oppressed human- 
 ity, because they regard duties but through the 
 glass of jietty interests. Your jieople has that 
 instinct of justice and generosity (!) which is 
 the stamp oi mankind's heavenly origin : and 
 it is conscious of your country's power ; it is 
 jealous of its own dignity ; it knows that it has 
 the power to restore the lavv of nations to the 
 principles of Justice and right ; and knowing 
 itself to have the power, it is willing to be as 
 good as its power is great." (!) 
 
 I am here on the free ground of free 
 America (!) . . 
 
 board their vessels, a.? the full penalty of the 
 law will be rigorously enforced. 
 
 Guilford Horn. 
 June 29th, 1850. 
 
 Ten silver dollars reward will be paid for ap- 
 prehending and delivering to me my nuin 
 Moses, who ran away this morning ; or I will 
 give_^fc times the sum to any person who will 
 make due proof of his being KILLED, and 
 never ask a question to know by whom it is 
 done. 
 
 W. Skinneb, 
 Clerk of the County of Perquinotis, N. C. 
 
 About the 1st of 3Iarch last, the negro man 
 Kansom left me without the least provocation 
 whatever I will give a reward of twenty dol- 
 lars for said negro, if taken de.\d or alfve ; and 
 if KILLED in any attempt, an advance of five 
 dollars iviU be paid. 
 
 Bryant Johnson, 
 Crauford County, Georgia. 
 
 From the Sumpter County (Alabama) Whig. 
 Negro Dogs. — The undersigned, having 
 bought the entire pack of negro dogs, (of the 
 Hay & Allen stock,) he now proposes to catch 
 runaway negroes. His charges will be $3 a 
 day for hunting, and S*15 for catching, north 
 of Livingston, near the lower Jones' BluiT 
 road. 
 
 William Gambrel. 
 Not. 6, 1845. 
 
 From the, Madison (Louisiana) Journal. 
 
 Notice. — The subscriber, living on C'arroway 
 Lake, on Hoe's Bayou, in Carroll I'arish, six- 
 teen miles on the road leading from Bayou 
 Mason to Lake Providence, is ready with a 
 pack of dogs to hunt runaway negroes at any 
 time. These dogs are well trained, and are 
 known throughout the parish. Letters ad- 
 dressed to me at Brovidence will .secure im- 
 mediate attention. My terms are S5 per day 
 for hunting the trails, whether the negro is 
 caught or not. Where a twelve hours' trail is 
 shown, and the negro not taken, no charge is 
 made. For taking a negro, S25, and no charge 
 made for hunting. 
 
 James W. HAir.. 
 
 Nov. 26, 1847. 
 
 [Cy^ A negro woman, belonging to William 
 Woods, Esq., of Clay county, Missouri, re- 
 cently destroyed her three children, the old- 
 est eight years of age, by drowning them in a 
 creek. She afterwards told a negro man what 
 she had done, and where they might be found, 
 and then went and drowned herself The 
 children were found laid out, and protected 
 by some boughs to shade their faces. 
 
 Negroes for Sale. — I have again returned 
 to this market, with eighteen or twenty likely 
 negroes. I have located on the co'tier of 
 Main and Adam streets. I have plough-boys, 
 men, women, and girls, and some very fancy 
 ones. I intend to keep a constant supply 
 through the season, and will not be undersold 
 by any in the market. My motto is, " the 
 swift penny ; the slow shilling " I never get. 
 I will also pay the highest cash price for 
 young negroes. 
 
 W. H. Bolton. 
 
 Nov. 21,1846. 
 
17 ■ 
 
 Let an astonished world peruse, and reperuso, these extravagant and 
 unqualified eulogiums upon this country from your lips, as " the land ot 
 protection for the persecuted sons of free lorn," " the glorious republic 
 of the United States," whose " millions of inhabitan.3 are all attached 
 with warm feelings to the principles of liberty," with "no tyrants 
 among them," having " the instinct of justice and generosity," as " wil- 
 ling to be as good as their power is great," " the brilliancy of whose 
 stars is greeted by Europe's oppressed nations as the morning star of 
 rising liberty," whose "star-spangled banner is the proud ensign of 
 mankind's divine origin," whose " glorious country Providence has 
 selected to be the pillar of freedom, as it is already the asylum to 
 oppressed humanity," " from which the spirit of liberty has not only 
 spiritually but materially to go forth, in order that it may achieve the 
 freedom of the world," dsc. &c. ; and then read the blood-congealing, 
 soul-harrowing facts which are embodied in a parallel column, respect- 
 ing the condition, liabilities and sufferings of more than three millions of 
 the American population — stripped of every right — having nothing that 
 they can call their own, except the capacity to suffer — constantly 
 bought and sold, in lots to suit purchasers, with cattle and swine — lacer- 
 ated, scarred, branded, mutilated — if fugitives, hunted with bloodhounds, 
 shot down with rifles, in some instances a premium offered for killing 
 them, instead of returning them alive — with the eyes of their souls 
 bored out — under laws making it felony to teach them how to spell the 
 name of God, or to read Christ's Sermon on the Mount ; — and then 
 record its verdict as to your language, conduct and mission among us ! 
 Must not that verdict be — " Guilty of flattery and dissimulation ! 
 Guilty of falsehood, and recreancy to principle ! Guilty of striking 
 hands with thieves, and consenting with adulterers ! Guilty of compro- 
 mising honor, justice, humanity, liberty ! " Sir, dare you, after this 
 exposure, repeat the solemn declaration, made by you at New York — 
 " Humble as I am, God, the Almighty, has selected me to represent the 
 cause of humanity before you ! My warrant to this capacity is written 
 in the sympathy and confidence of all who are oppressed ! " He whom 
 God qualifies and sends forth to testify against tyranny is faithful in the 
 discharge of his mission ; and, surely, Divine Wisdom is never so infat- 
 uated as to send him to a nation of slave-catchers and human flesh- 
 mongers, to extol it as " the asylum of the oppressed of all nations." 
 If you were a true witness for God, instead of suppressing the truth or 
 dealing in flattery, you would be commissioned in this wise : — " Son of 
 man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that 
 3 
 
18 
 
 hath rebelled against me : they and their fathers have transgressed 
 against me, even unto this very day : for they are impudent and hard- 
 hearted. I do send thee unto them ; and thou shalt say unto them, 
 Thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they will hear, or 
 whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall 
 
 KNOW THAT THERE HATH BEEN A PROPHET AMONG THEM. And thoU, 
 
 son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, 
 though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among 
 scorpions. Hear what I say unto thee : Be not thou rebellious, like that 
 rebellious house." [See Ezekiel, 2d chap.] If you were the heaven- 
 inspired messenger you assume to be, you would imitate the example of 
 another ancient prophet, who claimed for himself, " Truly, I am full of 
 power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might," — and 
 who, in proof of the validity of this claim, spoke in the following 
 terms : — " Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the 
 house of Israel : Is it not for you to know judgment > Who hate the 
 good, and love the evil ; who pluck off their skin from off them, and 
 their flesh from off their bones ; who also eat the flesh of my people, 
 and flay their skin from off" them ; and they break their bones, and 
 chop them in pieces, (1) as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron ; 
 
 (1) To show what it is in the power of every slaveholder to do with impunity, aHd how 
 literal is the language of the prophet as applied to Southern slaveholding atrocities, read the 
 following authentic narrative from the pen of the Eev. Willum Dickey, a man of undoubted 
 veracity, who was well acquainted with the circumstances he describes : — 
 
 " In the county of Livingston, Ky., near the mouth of Cumberland, lived Lilburn Lewis, a 
 sister's son of the venerable Jefferson. He, 'who suckled at fair Freedom's breast,' was the 
 wealthy owner of a considerable number of slaves, whom he drove constantly, fed sparingly, 
 and lashed severely. The consequence was, they vrould run away. This must have given, to 
 a man of spirit and a man of business, great anxieties until he found them, or until they had 
 starved out, and returned. Among the rest was an ill grown boy about seventeen, who, 
 having just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to the spring for water, and in returning 
 let fall an elegant pitcher. It was dashed to shivers upon the rocks. This was the occasion. 
 It was night, and the slaves all at home. The master had them collected into the most roomy 
 negro-house, and a rousing fire made. "When the door was secured, that none might escape, 
 either through fear of him or sympathy with George, he opened the design of the interview, 
 namely, that they might be effectually taught to stay at home and obey his orders. All things 
 being now in train, he called up George, who approached his master with the most unreserved 
 submission. He bound him with cords, and by the assistance of his younger brother, laid 
 him on a broad bench or meat block. He now proceeded to chop off George by the ankles ! 
 It was with the broad axe ! In vain did the unhappy victim scream and roar 1 He was com- 
 pletely in his master's power. Not a hand amongst so many durst interfere. Casting the feet 
 into the lire, he lectured them at some length. He chopped him off below the knees ! George 
 roaring out, and praying his master to begin at the other end ! He admonished them again, 
 throwing the legs into the fire ! Then above the knees, tossing the joints into the fire ! He 
 again lectured them at leisure. The next stroke severed the thighs from the body. These 
 were also committed to the flames. And so off the arms, head and trunk, until all was in the 
 fire ! Still protracting the intervals with lectures, and threatenings of like punishment, in 
 case of disobedience, and running away, or disclosure of this tragedy. Nothing now re- 
 mained but to consume the flesh and bones ; and for this purpose, the fire was briskly stirred, 
 until two hours after midnight; when, as though the earth would cover out of sight the 
 nefarious scene, and as though the great Master in heaven would put a mark of his dis- 
 pleasure upon such monstrous cruelty, a sudden and surprising shock of earthquake over- 
 turned the coarse and heavy back wall, composed of rock and clay, which completely covered 
 the fire, and the remains of George. This put an end to the amusements of the evening. The 
 negroes were now permitted to disperse, with charges to keep this matter among themselves, 
 and never to whisper it in the neighborhood, under the penalty of a like punishment. When 
 
19 
 
 who abhor judgment and pervet all equity ; who build up Zion with 
 blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity; (1) yet who lean upon the Lord, 
 and say. Is not the Lord among us ? none evil can come upon us." 
 [Micah, 2d chap.] 
 
 Instead of being thus true and faithful to this nation, — in comparison 
 with whose turpitude, that of the ancient Jews whitens into virtue, — 
 
 he retired, the lady exclaimed, ' O '■ Mr. Lewis, where have you been, and what have you 
 done!' She had lieard a strange pounding, and dreadful screams, and had .^melled some- 
 thing like fresh meat burning! He said that he had never enjoyed himself at a ball so well 
 as he had enjoved himself that evening. 
 
 " Sure there "are bolts, red with no common wrath, to blast the man. 
 
 " Bloomingsburg, Oct. 8, 1824. M^illiam Dickey." 
 
 (1) In proof that this is not only figuratively but literally true in this country, read the fol- 
 lowing statement of the Kev. J. Cable, made before the General Assembly of the Presby- 
 terian Church : — 
 
 " "What shocked me more than any thing else was, the church engaged in this jobbing of 
 slaves. The college church which I attended, and which was attended by all the students of 
 Hamden Sydney College and Union Theological Seminary, held slaves enough to pay their 
 pastor, Mr. Stanton, one thocsand dollvrs a year, of which the church members did not pay 
 a cent, (so 1 understood it.) The slaves, who had been left to the church by some pious 
 mother in Israel, had increased so as to be a large and still increasing fund. These were 
 hired out on Christmas day of each year, the day in which they celebrate the birth of our 
 blessed Saviour, to the highest bidder. 
 
 "There are four other churches near the College Church, that were in the same situation 
 with this, when I was in that country, that supported the pastor, in whole or in part, in the 
 same way, viz.: Cumberland Church, John Kirkpatrick, pastor; Briny Church, William 
 Plummer, pastor, (since Dr. P. of Richmond;) Butfalo Church, Mr. Cochran, pastor ; Pisga 
 Church, near the peaks of Otter, J. Mitchell, pastor." 
 
 The following advertisement is from the Charleston, S. C, Courier, of Feb. 12, 1832 :— 
 
 "field negroes. 
 " By Thomas Gadsden. On Tuesday, the 17th inst.; will be sold, at the North of the Ex- 
 change, at 10 o'clock, A. M., a prime gang of 
 
 TEN NEGROES, 
 
 accustomed to the culture of cotton and provisions, belonging to the Independent Church, in 
 Christ's Church Parish. 
 "Feb. 6th." 
 
 In 1833, the Rev. Dr. Furman, of South Carolina, addressed a lengthy communication to 
 the Governor of that State, expressing the sentiments of the Baptist Church and clergy on 
 the subject of slavery. This brief extract contains the essence of the whole :— 
 
 " The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept 
 and example." 
 
 Not long after, Dr. Furman died. His legal representatives thus advertised his property :— 
 
 " notice. 
 
 " On the first Monday of February next, will be put up at public auction, before the court 
 house, the foUoivins property J belonging to the estate of the late Rev. Dr. Furman, viz. : — 
 
 " A plantation or tract of land, on and in the "Wataree Swamp. A tract of the first quality; 
 of fine land, on the waters of Black River. A lot of land in the town of Camden. A Libba- 
 KY of a miscellaneous character, chiefly TnEOLOGicAL. 
 
 27 NEGROES, 
 
 Eome of them very prime. Two mules, one horse, and an old wagon." 
 
 The Savannah, Ga., Republican of the 13th of March, 1845, contains an advertisement, one 
 item of which is as follows : — 
 
 " Also, at the same time and place, the following negro slaves, to wit : Charles, Peggy, An- 
 tonnette, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny, and Isaac— levied on as the property of Henry T. 
 Hall, to satisfy a mortgage fi. fla. issued out of Mcintosh Superior Court, in favor of the 
 Board of Directors of the Tkrolo^ical Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, vs. 
 said Henry T. Hall. Conditions, cash. 
 
 " C. O'NEAL, 
 " Deputy Sheriff, M. C." 
 
20 
 
 your powers of speech are tasked in framing compliments and pane- 
 gyrics. Whether at New York, Baltimore, or Washington, — whether 
 on soil nominally free, as in Pennsylvania, or on soil saturated with the 
 blood of its slave population, as in Maryland, — your praise of the gov- 
 ernment and people, the institutions and laws of the United States, con- 
 tinues indiscriminate and unmeasured. In one of your speeches in 
 England, you said — " I meet, in certain quarters, the remark that I am 
 slippery, and evade the question. Now, on the point of sincerity, I am 
 particularly susceptible. I have the sentiment of being a plain, honest 
 man, and I would not be charged with having entered by stealth into the 
 sympathies of England, without displaying my true colors." Sir, is it 
 the part of " a plain, honest man " to pursue a course so tortuous as 
 this ? Has there been nothing " slippery " in your conduct, no studied 
 avoidance of the subject, no concealment of your real feelings and sen- 
 timents, in regard to our colossal slave system ? Are you not seeking 
 to "enter by stealth into the sympathies of" America, so as to secure 
 her co-operation in aid of Hungary, by pandering to her vanity, and 
 holding her up to the world not only as without blemish, but as radiant 
 with beauty and covered with glory > 
 
 In striking contrast with your exalted estimate of this slaveholding 
 republic was the view taken of it by the great champion of Irish liber- 
 ation, and the outspoken opponent of tyranny in every quarter of the 
 globe, the late Daniel O'Connell ! Read the following extracts from 
 his numerous speeches, extending over a period of twenty years : — 
 
 I now come to America, the boasted land of freedom ; and here I find 
 slavery, which they not only tolerate, but extend, justified and defended as a 
 legacy left them by us. It is but too true. But I would say unto them, you 
 threw off" the allegiance you owed us, because you thought we were oppress- 
 ing you with the Stamp Act. You boasted of your deliverance from slavery. 
 On what principle, then, do you now continue your fellow-men in bondage, and 
 render that bondage even more galling by ringing in the ears of the sufferers 
 from your tyranny, what you have done, Avhat you have suffered, for freedom .' 
 They may retaliate upon us. They may reply by allusions to tlie slaveries we 
 have established or encouraged. But what would be thought of that man who 
 should attempt to justify the crime of sheep-stealing, by alleging that another 
 stole sheep too ? Would such a defence be listened to ? Oh, no ; and I will 
 say unto you, freemen of America, and the press will convey it to you almost 
 as swift as the wind, that God understands you ; that you are hypocrites, 
 TTRANTS, AND UNJUST MEN ; that you are DEGRADED AND DISHONORED ; and 
 I say unto you, dare not to stand up boasting of your freedom or your privile- 
 ges, while you continue to treat men, redeemed by the same blood, as the 
 mere creatures of your will ; for so long as you do so, there is a blot on your 
 
 escutcheon which all the waters of the Atlantic cannot wash out.' 
 
 # # # * # 
 
 Of all men living, an American citizen, who is the owner of slaves, is the 
 most despicable ; he is a political hypocrite of the very worst description. 
 
21 
 
 The friends of humanity and liberty, in Europe, should join in one universal cry 
 of shame on the American slaveholders ! ' Base wretches,' should we shout in 
 chorus — ' base wretches, how dare you profane the temple of national free- 
 dom, the sacred fane of republican rites, with the presence and the sufferings 
 of human beings in chains and slavery?' — [Speech delivered at an Anti- 
 Slavery meeting in 1829, 
 
 I speak of liberty in commendation. Patriotism is a virtue, but it can be 
 selfish. Give me the great and immortal Bolivar, the saviour and regenerator 
 of his country. He found her a province, and he has made her a nation. His 
 first act was to give freedom to the slaves upon his own estate. (Hear, 
 hear.) In Colombia, all castes and all colors are free and unshackled. But 
 how I like to contrast him with the far-famed northern heroes ! George 
 Washington! that great and enlightened character, — the soldier and the 
 statesman, — had but one blot upon his character. He had slaves, and he gave 
 them liberty when he wanted them no longer. (Loud cheers.) Let America, 
 in the fullness of her pride, wave on high her banner of freedom and its blazing 
 stars. I point to her, and say, There is one foul blot upon it ; you have negro 
 slavery. They may compare their struggles for freedom to Marathon and 
 Leuctra, and point to the rifleman with his gun, amidst her woods and forests, 
 shouting for liberty and America. In the midst of their laughter and their 
 pride, 1 point them to the negro children screaming for the mother from whose 
 bosom they have been torn. America, it is a foul stain upon your character! 
 (Cheers.) This conduct, kept up by men who had themselves to struggle for 
 freedom, is doubly unjust. Let them hoist the flag of liberty, with the whip 
 and rack on one side, and the star of freedom upon the other. The Americans 
 are a sensitive people ; in fifty-four years they have increased their population 
 from three millions to twenty millions ; they have many glories that surround 
 them, but their beams are partly shorn, for they have slaves. (Cheers.) Their 
 
 hearts do not beat so strong for liberty as mine I will call for justice, 
 
 in the name of the living God, and I shall find an echo in the breast of every 
 human being. (Cheers.) — [Speech delivered at the annual meeting of the 
 Cork Anti-Slavery Society, 1829. 
 
 Ireland and Irishmen should he foremost in seeking to effect the emancipation 
 
 of mankind. (Cheers.) The Americans alleged that they had not 
 
 perpetrated the crime, but inherited it from England. This, however, fact as 
 it was, was still a paltry apology for America, who, asserting liberty for herself, 
 still used the brand and the lash against others. (Hear.) He taunted America 
 with the continuance of slavery ; and the voice Avith which he there uttered 
 the taunt would be wafted on the wings of the press, until it would be heard 
 in the remote wilds of America ; it would be wafted over the waters of the 
 Missouri and those of the Mississippi ; and even the slaves upon the distant 
 banks of the Ohio would make his words resound in the ears of their heartless 
 masters, and tell them to their face, that they were the victims of cruelty, 
 injustice, and foul oppression. (Cheers.) Bright as was the page of American 
 history, and brilliant as was the emblazonment of her deeds, still, negro slavery 
 was a black, a 'damning spot' upon it. Glorious and splendid as was the 
 star-spangled banner of republican America, still it was stained with the deep, 
 foul blot of human blood. — [Speech delivered at a meeting of the Dublin 
 Anti-Slavery Society, 1830. 
 
 Man cannot have property in man. Slavery is a nuisance, to be put down, 
 not to be compromised ivilh ; and to be assailed without cessation and without 
 mercy by every blow that can be levelled at the monster Let general 
 
22 
 
 principles be asserted. And as it is tlie cause of religion and liberty, all that 
 is wanted is the unwearied repetition of zealous advocacy to make it cer- 
 tainly triumphant. Let every man, then, in whatever position he may be placed, 
 do his duty in crushing that hideous tyranny, which rends the husband from 
 the wife, the children from their parents ; which enables one human being, at 
 his uncontrolled will, to apply the lash to the back of his fellow-man. — [Speech 
 delivered at the London Anti-Slavery Society, 1830. 
 
 We are responsible for what we do, and also for the influence of our exam- 
 ple. Think you that the United States of America would be able to hold up 
 their heads among the nations, — the United States, who shook off their alle- 
 giance to their sovereign, and declared that it was the right of evenj man to 
 enjoy freedom — of every man, whether black, white, or red ; who made this 
 declaration before the God of armies, and then, when they had succeeded in 
 their enterprise, forgot their vow, and made slaves, and used the lash and the 
 chain, — would they dare to take their place among the nations, if it were not 
 that England countenances them in the practice ? — [Speech delivered at the 
 General Meeting of the British Anti-Slavery Society, 1831. 
 
 My claim to be heard at all on this occasion is included in one sentence — 
 I am an abolitionist. (Cheering.) I am for speedy, immediate abolition. 
 (Renewed cheers.) I care not wliat caste, creed, or color, slavery may assume. 
 I am for its total, its instant abolition. Whether it be personal or political, 
 mental or corporeal, intellectual or spiritual, I am for its immediate abolition. 
 (Great applause.) I enter into no compromise ivith slavery, I am for justice, in 
 the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. 
 
 ^ 75 ^ tF tF 
 
 The time has now come, ivhen every man ivho has honest feelings should declare 
 himself the advocate of abolition. He who consents to tolerate crime is a crimi- 
 nal ; and never will I lose the slightest opportunity, whether here or in the 
 legislature, or any where else, to raise my voice for liberty, — for the extinc- 
 tion OF SLAVERY. (Great applause.) Humanity, justice and religion com- 
 bine to call upon us to abolish this foul blot. But it is not England or Britain 
 alone that is stained with this crime. The democratic republic of America 
 shares in the guilt. Oh I the inconsistency of these apostles of liberty talking 
 of freedom, while they basely and wickedly continue the slavery of their fellow- 
 men, the negroes of Africa! A republican is naturally proud and high- 
 minded, and we may make the pride of the North American republicans the 
 very weapon by which to break down slavery ; for, if the example of England 
 were gone, they could not, in the face of the world, continue the odious and 
 atrocious system one moment longer. (Cheers.) Abolish it throughout the 
 
 British colonies, and away it goes in America. (Renewed cheers.) 
 
 # * # * * 
 
 Slavery is a crime, a high crime against Heaven, and its annihilation ought 
 not to be postponed. We have lately heard a good deal of the iniquity of the 
 East India Company getting money from the poor, infatuated wretches who 
 throw themselves beneath the wheel of Juggernaut's car. This is lamentable 
 indeed ; but what care I, whether the instrument of torture be a wheel or a 
 lash? (Applause.) I am against Juggernaut, both in the East Indies and 
 West Indies, and am determined, therefore, not to assist in perpetuating slav- 
 ery. Is it possible, that where humanity, benevolence and religion are com- 
 bined, there can be doubt of success ? The priests of Juggernaut are respect- 
 able persons compared with those who oppose such a combination (applause ;) 
 and I entreat you to assist in the great work by becoming its apostles. — [Speech 
 delivered before the London Anti-Slavery Society, 1831. 
 
23 
 
 I will now go to America. I have often longed to go there, in reality; but, 
 so long as it is tarnished by slavery, I will never pollute my foot hy treading on its 
 shores. (Cheers.) In the course of my Parliamentary duty, a few days ago, I 
 had to arraign the conduct of the despot of the North, for his cruelty to the 
 men, women and children of Poland ; and I spoke of him with the execration 
 he merits. But, I confess, that although I hate him with as much hatred as 
 one Christian man can hate another human being, viz: I detest his actions with 
 abhorrence, unutterable and indescribable ; yet there is a climax in my hatred. 
 I would adopt the language of the poet, but reverse the imagery, and say, 
 
 ' In the deepest hell, there is a depth still more profound,' 
 
 and that is to be found in the conduct of the American slave owners. (Cheers.) 
 They are the basest of the base — the most execrable of the execrable. I thank 
 God that upon the wings of the press, the voice of so humble an individual as 
 myself will pass against the western breeze — that it will reach the rivers, the 
 lakes, the mountains, and the glens of America — and that the friends of liberty 
 there will sympathize with me, and rejoice that I here tear down the image of 
 liberty from the recreant hand of America, and condemn her as the vilest of hypo- 
 crites — the greatest of liars. (Long continued cheers.) 
 
 When this country most unjustly and tyrannically oppressed its colonies, 
 and insisted that a Parliament of borough-mongers in Westminster should 
 have the power of putting their long fingers across the Atlantic into the pock- 
 ets of the Americans, taking out as much as they pleased, and, if they found 
 anything, leaving what residuum they chose — America turned round, and ap- 
 pealed to Justice, and she was right ; appealed to Humanity, and she was 
 right ; appealed to her own brave sword, and she was right, and I glory in it. 
 At that awful period, when America was exciting all the nations of the world ; 
 when she was declaring her independence, and her inhabitants pledged their 
 lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, and invoked the God of charity 
 (whom they foolishly called the God of battles, which he is not, any more than 
 he is the God of murder) — at this awful period when they laid the foundation 
 of their liberty, they began with these words : ' We hold these truths to be self- 
 evident : that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights ; that amongst these are life, LIBERTY, and the 
 pursuit of happiness.'' Thus the American has acknowledged what he cannot 
 deny, viz. that God the Creator has endowed men with those things as inalien- 
 able rights. But it is not the white man, it is not the copper-colored man, nor 
 is it the black man alone, who is thus endowed ; but it is all men who are pos- 
 sessed of these inalienable rights. The man, however, who cannot vote in any 
 State assembly without admitting this as the foundation of his liberty, has the 
 atrocious injustice, the murderous injustice, to trample upon these inalienable 
 rights ; as it were, to attempt to rob the Creator of his gifts, and to appropriate 
 to himself his brother man, as if he could be his slave. (Cheers.) Shame be 
 upon America ! eternal shame be upon her escutcheon ! (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Shortly there will not be a slave in the British colonies. Five lines in an 
 Act of Parliament, the other night, liberated nearly 500,000 slaves in the East 
 Indies, at a single blow. The West Indians will be obliged to grant emanci- 
 pation, in spite of the paltry attempts to prevent it; and then we will turn to 
 America, and to every part of Europe, and require emancipation. (Cheers.) 
 No ! they must not think that they can boast of their republican institutions — 
 that they can talk of their strength and their glory. Unless they abolish sla- 
 very, they must write themselves down LIARS, or call a general convention 
 of the States, and blot out the first sentence of their Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, and write in its place, ' Liberty in America means the power to flog slaves, 
 and to work them for nothing.^ (Loud applause.) * * * * 
 
24 
 
 The voice of Europe will proclaim the slave's deliverance, and will say to 
 him, " Shed no blood, but take care that your blood be not shed." 
 / tell the ^Imerican slave owner, that he shall not have silence ; for, humble 
 as I am, and feeble as my voice may be, yet deafening the sound of the wes- 
 terly T-ave, and riding against the blast as thunder goes, it shall reach Ameri- 
 ca, telling the black man that the time for his emancipation is come, and the 
 oppressor that the period of his injustice is soon to terminate ! (Cheers.) — 
 [Speech delivered at the Great Anti-Colonization Meeting in London, 1833. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell presented himself to the meeting, amid the most enthusiastic 
 cheers. After some remarks of a general nature, the Hon. and learned gentle- 
 man proceeded to speak in terms of severe censure of the conduct of the Amer- 
 icans, in continuing to keep in bondage the black population in many of their 
 States. He did not wonder at the death plagues of New Orleans, or the de- 
 vastation of its people, many of whom enjoyed health and vigor at morn, and 
 were lifeless at noon, when they had committed or countenanced crimes ivhich 
 could only he registered with the annals of JYicholas and the curses of Poland. 
 
 The Hon. and learned gentleman read several extracts from an American 
 slaveholding Act, in which it was enjoined that no judge, legislative member, 
 barrister or preacher, should speak or write anything against slavery, under the 
 pain of being sentenced to not less than three years, and not more than twen- 
 ty-one years imprisonment, or death at the discretion of the court! ! ! And that 
 no American should teach a slave to read or write, under pain of not less than 
 three months, and not more than twelve months imprisonment. (Hear, hear.) 
 The Hon. and learned gentleman flung this black dishonor on the star-span- 
 gled banner of America — in vain did it wave over every sea, proclaiming the 
 honor of the boasted republic of modern times — those who fought under it were 
 felons to the human race, (Hear, hear,) traitors to liberty, to their own honor, and 
 blasphemers of the Almighty. ' The red arm of God,' continued the Hon. and 
 learned gentleman, 'is bared; and let the enemies of those whom his Son died 
 to save, the black man as well as the white man, beware of its vengeance ! 
 The lightning careers through the troubled air resistless, amidst the howling 
 of the tempest and rolling of the thunder. O for one moment of poetic inspi- 
 ration, that my words, with the fire of indignation with which my bosom burns, 
 that my voice might be borne on the western breeze across the wide Atlantic, 
 light on their shores and their mountains, and be Avafted down the rivers of 
 America!' — [Speech delivered at an Anti-Slavery meeting in London, 1835. 
 
 He had given the Americans some severe but merited reproofs ; for which 
 they had paid him wages in abuse and scurrility. He was satisfied that they 
 had done so. He was accustomed to receive such wages in return for his la- 
 bors. He had never done good, but what he was vilified for his pains ; and he 
 felt that he could not sleep soundly were such opponents to cease abusing him. 
 (Cheers.) He ivoxdd continue to earn such, wages. (Cheers.) By the blessing 
 of God, he would yet trample on the serpent of slave-owning cupidity, and tri- 
 umph over the hiss of the foul reptile, which marked its agony, and excited his 
 contempt. The Americans, in their conduct towards the slaves, were traitors 
 to the cause of human liberty, and foul detractors of the democratic principle, 
 which he had cherished throughout his political life, and blasphemers of that 
 great and sacred name which they pretended to reverence. In reprobation of 
 their disgraceful conduct, his public voice had been heard across the wide At- 
 lantic. Like the thunder-storm in its strength, it had careered against the 
 breeze, armed with the lightning of Christian truth. (Great cheering.) And, 
 let them seek to repress it as they may ; let them murder and assassinate in the 
 true spirit of Lynch law ; the storm would wax louder and louder around them, 
 till the claims of justice became too strong to be withstood, and the black man 
 
25 
 
 would stand up, too h\g for his chains. It seemed, indeed— he hoped what he 
 was about to say was not profanation — as if tiie curiae of the Ahnighty had al- 
 ready overtaken tliom. For the lirst time in their political history, disirraceful 
 tu:nnlt and anarchy had been witnessed in tlieir cities. Blood iiad been shed 
 without l!ie sanction of Lnv, and even !Sir Robert Peel had l)een enabled — but 
 he was here in danijer of becoming political. (Cries of no, no — go on, and 
 cheers.) Well, then, even Sir R. Peel had been enabled to taunt the Ameri- 
 cans with gross inconsistency and lawless proceedings. He differed from Sir 
 Robert Peel on many points. (Laughter.) Every body knew tiiat. (Renewed 
 cheering.) It was no doubt presumption in him to difier from so great a man, 
 but yet such was the fact. (Laugiiter.) On one point, however, he fully anreed 
 with him. Let the proud Americans learn, that all parties in tliis coiminj unite 
 in condtmnation of their conduct; and let ihein also learn that the worst of all 
 aristocracies is that which prevails in America — an aristocracy which had been 
 aptly denominated that of the human skin. The most insutferable pride was 
 that shown by such an aristocracy. And yet he must confess that he could not 
 understand such pride. He could understand the pride of noble descent. He 
 could understand why a man should plume himself on the success of his ances- 
 tors, in plundering the people some centuries ago. He could understand the 
 pride arising from immense landed possessions. He could even understand the 
 pride of wealth, the fruit of honest and careful industry. Yet when he thought 
 of the color of the skin making men aristocratic, he felt his astonishment to vie 
 with his contempt. Many a white skin covered a black heart; yet an aristocrat 
 of the skin was the proudest of the proud. Republicans were proverbially 
 proud, and therefore he delighted to taunt the Americans with the superlative 
 meanness, as well as injustice, of their assumed airs of superiority over their 
 black fellow-citizens. (Cheers.) He would continue to hurl his taunts across 
 the Atlantic. And, oh! — but perhaps it was his pride that dictated the hope — 
 THAT SOME BLACK O'CONNELL MIGHT RISE AMONG HIS FEL- 
 LOW SLAVES, (tremendous cheers,) who would cry AGITATE, AGITA'l'E, 
 (renewed cheering,) till the two millions and a half of his fellow sufferers learnea 
 the secret of their strenjth — learned that they were two millions and a half. 
 (Enthusiastic cheers.) If there was one thing which more than another could 
 excite his haired, it was the laws which the Americans had framed to prevent 
 the instruction of their slaves. To be seen in company with a negro who could 
 write, was visited with imprisonment, (shame!) and to teach a slave the princi- 
 ples of freedom was punished with death. Were these human laws, it might 
 be asked ? Were they not laws made by wolves of the forest.^ No — they were 
 made by a congregation of two-legged wolves — American wolves — monsters in 
 human shape, who boast of their liberty and of their humanity, while they carry 
 the hearts of tigers within them. (Cheers.)— [Speech delivered at the presenta- 
 tion of the Emancipation Society's Address to Mr. O'Connell, 1835. 
 
 I hate slavery in all countries — the slavery of the Poles in Russia under their mis- 
 creant tijrant, and the slavery of the unfortunate men of color under their fel- 
 low-men, the boasted friends of liberty in the United States. Let the slave 
 leap up for joy when he hears of the meeting this day (cheers); let him have 
 the prospect of freedom to cheer him in the decline of life (cheers.) JFe ou^ht 
 to make our exertions strongly, immediately and unanimously (cheers.) Re- 
 member what is taking place elsewhere. Only cast your eyes across the At- 
 lantic, and see what is taking place on the American shores (cheers.) Behold 
 those pretended sons of freedom — those who declared that every man was equal 
 in the presence of his God — that every man had an inalienable right to liberty 
 — behold them making, in the name of honor, their paltry honor, an organized 
 resistance in Southern slave States, against the advocates of emancipation. — 
 Behold them aiding in the robbery committed on an independent State. See 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 how they have seized upon the territory of Texas, taking it from Mexico, Mex- 
 ico having totally abolished slavery without apprenticeship, (loud cheers,) in 
 order to mike it a new tuirket for slavery (shame !) Remember how they have 
 stolen, ciieated, swindled, robbed that country, for the audacious and horrible 
 purpose of perpetuating negro slavery (cries of ' Shame !') Remember tliat 
 there is now a treaty on foot, in contemplation at least, between the Texians 
 and tiie President of the United States, and that it is only postponed till this 
 robbery of Texas from Mexico can be completed. Oh! raise the voice of human- 
 ity against these horrible crimes (cheers.) There is about republicans a senti- 
 ment of pride — a feeling of self-exaltation. Let us tell these republicans, that 
 instead of their being the highest in the scale of humanity, THEY ARE 
 THE BASEST OF THE BASE, THE VILEST OF THE VILE (tremen- 
 dous cheers.) My friends, there is a communitij of sentiment all over the ivorld, 
 borne on the wings of the press; and what the humble individual who is now 
 addressing you may state, will be carried across the waves of the Atlantic; it 
 will go up the Missouri — it will be wafted along the banks of the Mississippi — 
 it will reach infernal Texas itself (immense cheering.) And though that pan- 
 demonium may scream at the sound, they shall suffer from the lash of human 
 indignation applied to their horrible crime [cheers.] If they are not arrested 
 in their career of guilt, four new States in America will be filled with slaves. 
 O, hideous breeders of human beings for slavery ! Such are the horrors of 
 that system in the American States, that it is impossible, in this presence, to 
 describe them; the mind is almost polluted by thinking of them. Should the 
 measures now contemplated by the Americans be accomplished, these horrors 
 will be increased fourfold ; and men, with the human soul degraded, will be in 
 a worse state even than the physical degradation of human bodies (cheers.) — 
 What have we to look to? Their honor — their generosity ! We must expect 
 nothing from their generosity (cheers.) Sir, 1 cannot restrain myself. It was 
 only the other day I read a letter in The Morning Chronicle, from their Phila- 
 delphia correspondent. A person, whose Indian name I forget, (a voice, 
 ' Oceola,') but who was called Powell, had carried on a war at the head of the 
 Seminolea, and other Florida tribes, against the people of Florida. He behaved 
 nobly, and bravely fought for his country ; and he would have been deified as a 
 hero had he fought in a civilized nation, and testimonials would have been rear- 
 ed to commemorate his deeds, as great and numerous as those which have been 
 raised to a Napoleon or a Wellington ; but what happens to this werrior ? — ■ 
 Why, these Americans having made a truce with him, invited him to a confer- 
 ence. He comes under the protection of that truce. Thus confiding in their 
 honor, is he allowed to return? O no! He is not allowed to return, but ia 
 taken prisoner, and carried captive to the fort (shame, shame !) O, cry out 
 shame, and let that cry be heard across the waves of the mighty ocean (cheers.) 
 We are the teachers of humanity, we are the friends of humanity. What doea 
 It signify to us, that the crime is not committed on British soil ? JFherever it 
 is committed, ive are its enemies (cheers.) The American, it is true, boasts of 
 having been the first to abolish the slave trade carried on in foreign vessels. 
 Why, he was. But what was the consequence ? Every one of his own slaves 
 at home was made of more value to him. It tvas a swindling humanity. It ivas 
 tvorse than our twenty millions scheme. It had the guise of humanity, but had 
 really the spirit of avarice and oppression (cheers.) I, perhaps, ought to apolo- 
 gize for detaining you (no, no! go on!); but we are all children of the 
 same Creator, heirs to the same promise, purchased by the blood of the same 
 Redeemer, and what signifies of what caste, color or creed we may be [cheers]? 
 It is our duty to proclaim that the cause of the negro is our cause, and that we will 
 insist upon doing away, to the best of our human ability, the stain of slavery, 
 not only from every portion of this mighty empire, but from the ivhole face of the 
 earth [cheers.) If there be in the huts of Africa, or amidst the swamps of Tex- 
 
27 
 
 as, a human being' panting' for liberty, let it be proclaimed to him that he has 
 friends and supporters amongst the great British nation (cheers.) — [Speech de- 
 livered at a pubJic meeting of Anti-Slavery delegates, 1837. 
 
 It is utterly impossible that any thing should exist more horrible than the 
 American slave breeding. The history of it is this : The Americans abolished 
 the foreign slave trade earlier than England, but with this consulation — no 
 small comfort to so money loving a race as the slaveholder^' — that by such abo- 
 lition, they enhanced the price of the slaves then in America, by stopping the 
 competition in the home market of newly imported slaves. Why, otherwise, ■was 
 not the home trade stopped as well as the foreign ? The reply is obvious. 
 
 To supply the home slave trade, an abominable, a most hideous, most crimi- 
 nal, and most revolting practice of breeding negroes exclusively for sale, has 
 sprung up, and especially, we are told, in Virginia. There are breeding planta- 
 tions for producing negroes, as there are with us breeding farms for producing 
 calves and lambs. And as our calf and lamb breeders calculate the number of 
 males of the flock to the females, similar calculations are made by the traffickers 
 in human flesh. One instance was mentioned to tne of a human breeding farm 
 in America, which was supplied ■with two men and twelve women. Why should 
 I pollute my page with a description of all that is immoral and infamous in such 
 practice ? But only think of the wretched mothers, whom nature compels to 
 love their children — children torn from them forever, just at the period that they 
 could requite their mother's love ! The wretclipd, wretched mother ! Who can 
 depict the mother's distraction, her madness! ' But their maternal feelings are,' 
 says a modern writer, 'treated wii'.i as much contemptuous indifference, as those 
 of ihe cows and ewes whose calves and lambs are sent to the English market.' 
 
 That it is which stains the character of the American slaveholder, and leaves 
 the breeder of slaves the most detestable of human beings; especially when 
 that slaveholder is a republican, boasting of freedom, shouting out for liberty, 
 and declaring, as the charter of his liberal institutions, these are self-evident 
 truths, ^that all men are created equal — that they are endoioed by thtir Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights — that among these rights are life, liberty, and the 
 
 PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.' 
 
 My sole object in my speech at Birmingham, and present object, is to rouse 
 the attention of England and of Europe to all that is cruel, criminal, and, in 
 every sense of the word, infamous, in the system of negro slavery in North 
 America. Mt deliberate conviction is, that until that system is abolished, 
 no American slaveholder ought to be received on a fooling ofequalitjj by any of the 
 civilized inhabitants of Europe. — [Letter of Mr. O'Connell to the Editor of the 
 London Morning Chronicle, 1838. 
 
 I have no superfluous tears to shed for Ireland, and shall show my love of my 
 country by continuing my exertions to obtain for her, justice and good govern- 
 ment; but I feel that I have something Irish at ray heart, ichich makes me sym- 
 pathize ivith all those who are suffering under oppression, and forces me to give to 
 universal man, the benefit of the exertions which are the consequence. (Cheers.) — 
 And what adds peculiarly to the claim of Ireland for sympathy and support is, 
 that in the great cause of suffering humanity, no voice was ever raised, but Ire- 
 land was found ready to afford relief and succor. — [Speech delivered at a meet- 
 ing of the British India Society, 1839. 
 
 He then came to North America, and there, thank God, he found much rea- 
 son for congratulation. There were now present forty representatives of 
 American Abolition Societies to aid them in the great straggle for human liberty. 
 Let them be honored, in proportion as the slaveholders we>e execrated. Oh! they 
 had a hard battle to fight ! In place of being honored as they were in this land, 
 
28 
 
 they had to encounter coolness and outrage ; the bowie knife and lynch law 
 threatened tiiem ; they were aboliiionists at the risk of their lives (cheers.) — 
 Glory to them ! A year or two since, he made some observations upon the con- 
 duct of the American Minister; he charged him with breeding slaves for sale; 
 he denied it ; and, in order to prove who was right, he sent him [Mr. O'Connell] 
 a challenge to fight a duel (laughter.) He did not accept it. Nothing would 
 ever induce him to commit murder. God had forbidden it, and he would obey 
 him [cheers.] The American Minister denied the charge, but he admitted that 
 he had slaves, and he admitted that he did afterwards sell some ; so let him have 
 the benefit of such a denial [a laugh.] He added, however, that he did not be- 
 lieve tiiat slaves were bred for sale in Virginia. Now, he would read some i'ew 
 extracts from Judge Jay's book, published in New-York, in 1839. He would 
 call Mr. Stevenson's attention to page 88 of that book, and that would prove to 
 him not only that slave-breeding existed in Virginia, but within twenty-five 
 miles of his own residence. [The Hon. Gentleman read several extracts, pro- 
 ving the practice ; also several advertisements of lots of slaves wanted for ready 
 money, for shipment to New-Orleans, and dated in Richmond, the very place of 
 Mr. Stevenson's residence.] He had established ngainstthe Ambassador, that 
 slave-raising did exist in Virginia — yet all these things took place in a civilized 
 country — a civilized age — advertisements of human flesh for sale, and written in 
 even a more contemptuous manner than if the subjects of them were cattle. The 
 traflic in slaves from the North to the Southern Slates was immense. In the 
 latter, they were put to the culture of sugar — a horrible culture, that swept off 
 the whole in seven years — every seven years there was a new generation wan- 
 ted. This was in a community calling themselves civilized. Why, they were 
 ivorse than the savage beasts of ike desert, for they only mangled when driven to it 
 by hunger ; but this horrible practice is carried on by well-fed Americans for 
 paltry pecuniary profit — for that low and base consideration, they destroy an- 
 nually their tens and twenty thousands. 
 
 These scenes took place in a country, which, in all other respects, had a 
 fair claim to be called civilized — in a country which had nobly worked out its 
 own freedom — in a country where the men were brave and the women beauti- 
 ful. Amongst the descendants of Englishmen — even amongst such was to be 
 found a horrible population, whose thirst for gold could only be gratified at the 
 expense of such scenes of human suffering; a population who were insensible 
 to the wrath of God, who were insensible to the cries and screams of mothers 
 and children, torn from each other forever. But there was one thing they would 
 not be insensible to — they dare not, they would not be insensible to the contempt 
 of Europe (loud cheers.) While they embraced the Jlmerican Aholitionists as 
 friends and brothers, let none of the slave-owners, dealers in human fesh, dare to 
 set afoot upon our free soil [cheering.] Let them call upon the Government to 
 protest to America, that they would not receive any slaveholding ambassador [loud 
 cheering.] Let them declare that no slave-owner can be admitted into European 
 society ; and then Calhoun and Clay, and men like them, who stand up putting 
 forth their claims to be President of the great Republic, must yield to the pub- 
 lic, universal opinion. He had made mention of those two men — he would only 
 say that Calhoun ivas branded with the blood issuing from the stripes of the slave, and 
 Clay drowned m the tears of the mothers and the children (cheers.) Let the people 
 of Europe say to slave-owners, ' Murderers, you belong not to us, — away 
 
 TO THE DESERT, AND HERD WITH KINDRED SAVAGES ! ' [cheCrS.] He begged 
 
 pardon of the savage (laughter.) Sometimes in anger he committed heinous 
 crimes, but he was incapable of coolly calculating how long or how hard he 
 could work a human being with a profit, — sometimes granting him a boon for 
 the purpose of obtaining a year or two's more labor out of him. Well, are we to 
 remain passive as hitherto ? [loud cries of ' No, no ! '] Let our declaration also 
 go abroad. Let this Society adopt it — let the benevolence and good sense of 
 
29 
 
 Englishmen make that declaration. If an American addresses you, find out at 
 once if he be a slaveholder [hear, hear.] He may have business with yoii, and the 
 less you do with him, the better [a laugh] — but the moment that is over, turn 
 from him as it" he had the cholera or the plague [cheers] — for there is a moral 
 cholera and a political plague upon him (cheers.) He belongs not to your 
 
 COUNTRY OR YOUR CLIME — HE IS WOT WITHIN THE PALE OF CIVILIZATION OR 
 
 Christianitt [cheers.] Let us rally for the liberty of the human race [ap- 
 plause] — no matter in what counti-y or in what clime he is found, the slave is enti- 
 tled to our protection ; no matter of what caste, of wliat creed, or what color, he 
 is your fellow-man — he is suffering injustice ; and British generosity, which 
 has done so much already, ought to be clieered to the task by the recollection 
 of the success it has already attained [cheers.] * * * I am zealous in the 
 cause, to be sure, but inefficient — acknowledging the humility of the individual, 
 I am still swelled by the greatness of the cause. My bosom expands, and I 
 glory in the domestic struggle for freedom which gave me a title to stand amonj; 
 you, and to use that title in the best way I can, to proclaim humanity to man, 
 and the abolition of slavery all over the luorld. — [Speech delivered at the anni- 
 versary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840. 
 
 From this spot, I wish to rouse all the high and lofty pride of the American 
 mind. Republicanism necessarily gives a higher and prouder tone to the hu- 
 man mind than any other form of government. I am not comparing it with 
 any thing else at present ; but all history shows there is a pride about repub- 
 licanism, which, perhaps, is a consolation to the republican for any privations 
 lie may suffer, and a compensation for many things in which he mav possibly 
 be inferior ; but from this spot, I repeat, I wish to rouse all the honesty and 
 pride of American youth and manhood ; and ivould that the voice of civilized 
 Europe ivould aid me in the appeal, and swell my feeble voice to one shout of 
 honest indignation ! And when these Americans point to their boasted Declara- 
 tion of Independence, exclaim, '^ Look at your practice ! ' Can there be faith 
 in man, or reliance placed in human beings, who thus contrast their action with 
 their declarations ? . . . That was the first phrase of their boasted Declara 
 tion of Independence. What was the last ? — ' To these principles we solemnly 
 pledge our lives,' (invoking the name of the great God, and calling for hig 
 aid,) 'we solemnly pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.' It 
 has the solemnity without the profaneness of an oath; it speaks in the presence 
 of the living God ; it pledges life, fortune, and sacred honor to the principles 
 they assert. How can they lay claim to ' sacred honor,' with this dark, em- 
 phatic, and diabolical violation of their principles staring them in the face.' 
 No ! America must knoiu that all Europe is looking at her, and that her Senate, 
 in declaring that there is a property in human beings, has violated her oath to 
 God, and 'sacred honor' to men. Will the American come down upon me, 
 then, with his republicanism ? I will meet him with the taunt, that he has 
 mingled perjury with personal disgrace and dishonor, and inflicted both with 
 a double barb into the character of any man who claims property in any hu- 
 man being. France, and even England, might possibly adopt such a resolu- 
 tion without violating their national honor, because they have made no such 
 declarations as America, and therefore she is doubly dyed in disgrace by the 
 course she has taken, in open opposition to her own charter of Independence. 
 * * * 1 rejoice to hear the present agitation is striking terror into the hearts 
 of the slave-mongers, whose selfish interests, vile passions, and predominant 
 pride, with all that is bad and unworthy commingled, make them willing to 
 retain their hold of human property, and to work with the bones and blood of 
 their fellow-creatures; whilst a species of democratic aristocracy, the filthi- 
 est aristocracy that ever entered into civilized society, is set up in the several 
 States, an aristocracy that wishes to have property without the trouble and toil 
 
30 
 
 of earning it, and to set themselves above men, only to plunder them of their 
 natural rights, and to live solely upon their labor. Thus, the gratification of 
 every bad passion, and every base emotion ot the human mind, is enlisted in 
 defence of the slaveholder's right. When we turn our eyes upon America, 
 we see in her Declaration of Independence, the display of ihe democratic ele- 
 ments of popular feeling against every thing like tyranny or oppression. But 
 when 1 come to the District of Columbia, there I see in the capitol and temple 
 of freedom, the negro chained to his toil, and writhing beneath the lash of his 
 taskmaster, and the negress doomeu lO all the horrors of slavery. There I see 
 their infant, yet unable to understand what it is that tortures its father, or dis- 
 tracts its mother; while that mother is cursing its existence, because it is not 
 a man, but a slave; and almost wishing — oh! what a wringing thought to a 
 mother's heart — that the child might sink into an early grave, rather than be- 
 come the property of an excruciating tyrant, and the instrument of wealth to 
 others, without being able to procure comfort and happiness for itself. That 
 is America; that is the land of ihe free ; these are the illustrations of the glorious 
 principles laid down in the Declaration of American Independence ! Tliese cils, 
 inflicted as they are by the democratic aristocracy of the ^States, are worse 
 than ever were inflicted by the most kingly aristocracy, or the most drspotic 
 tyranny. I do not mean any thing offensive to our American friends present, 
 but I do say, there is written in letters of blood upon the American escutcheon, 
 ROBBERY AND MURDER, AND PLUNDKR OF HUMAN BEiNwS, I recogvizc no Amer- 
 ican as a fellow-man, except thodc ivho belong to anti-slaienj societies. 'J'iiose 
 who uphold slavery are not men as we are, they are not honest as we are ; and 
 / look upon a slaveholder as upon a pickpocket, who violates the common laws 
 of property and honesty. 
 
 They say, that by their Constitution they are prevented from emancipating 
 the slaves in the slaveholding States ; but I look in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, and the Constitution of 1787, and I defy them to find a single word 
 about slavery, or any provision for holding property in man. No man can de- 
 ny the personal courage of the American people. With the recollection of 
 the battles of Bunker's Hill and Saratoga, — of which, indeed, I might be re- 
 minded by the portrait which hangs opposite to me, of one of the officers who 
 took an active part in those conflicts, (the Ear! of iVIoira,) with the recollection, 
 I say, of those battles, it would be disgraceful and dishonest to deny to the 
 American people, personal courage and bravery. There exists not a braver 
 people upon the face of the earth. But, amongst all those who composed the 
 Convention of 1787, there was not one man who had the moral courage — I 
 was about to say the immoral courage — to insert the word slavery in the 
 Constitution. No! they did not dare pronounce the word; and if they did 
 not dare to use the ivord slavery, are they to be allowed to adopt the thing 7 
 Is America to shake her star-spangled banner in the breeze, and boast of liberty, 
 while she is conscious that that banner foats over the heads of slaves ? Oh, but 
 they call it ' persons held to labor,' that is the phrase they use in their docu- 
 ments ; but dare any one say that slavery is implied in those words ? The 
 term applies to any person who enters into a contract to labor, for a given pe- 
 riod, as by the month or year, or for an equivalent; but his doing so does not 
 constitute him a slave, surely ; the very term is disgraceful to nature, and an 
 affront to nature's God. No wonder the Avord was not in their Declaration ; 
 you would not look to find words of injustice and cruelty in a Declaration of 
 honesty and humanity. I repeat it, they have not used the word. They meant 
 slavery : they intended to have slaves, but they dared not employ the word ; and 
 ' persons held to labor ' was as near as they dared approach to it. Can you con- 
 ceive of a deeper crime than slavery ? A crime which includes in it injustice 
 and cruelty, which multiplies robberies and murders! Ay, there is one thing 
 worse even than this, and that is hypocrisy added to it. Let hypocrisy be su- 
 
31 
 
 perinduced on injustice, and you have, indeed, a character fit to mingle with 
 the murky powers of darkness ; and the Americans (I speak not of them all, 
 there are many noble exceptions,) have added hypocrisy to their other accom- 
 plishments. They say they have no power to emancipate the slaves ; is that 
 the real reason ? It may be, that they have not power to do so in some particu- 
 lar States ; but then, what shall be said of Columbia? There they have full 
 power. Columbia is not bound by any restriction; yet in Columbia there are 
 slaves, and there they furnish further proof of their hypocrisy. O, say they, 
 we are the finest gentlemen, the wisest statesmen, the most profound legislators 
 in the world. We are ardent lovers of liberty, we detest slavery, and we la- 
 ment that we have not the power to make all free. Then I whisper, Columbia ! 
 Columbia! You have the power there, you have the authority there, to remove 
 this foul hlot; you have tiie means and opportunities ; you have, in short, every 
 thing but the tvill : the will alone is wanting ; and, with all your professions, you 
 are hypocrites. 
 
 But I will now turn to a subject of congratulation : I mean the Anti-Slavenj 
 Societies of America — those noble-hearted men and tvomen, who, through difficul- 
 ties and dangers, have proved how hearty they are in the cause of abolition. I 
 hail them all as my friends, and wish them to regard me as a brother. I wish 
 for no higher station in the world; hui I do covet the honor of being a brother 
 with these American abolitionists. In this country, the abolitionists are in per- 
 fect safety : here we have fame and honor; we are lauded and encouraged by 
 the good ; we are smiled upon and cheered by the fair; we are bound together 
 by godlike truth and charity ; and though we have our differences as to points 
 of faith, we have no differences as to this point, and we proceed in our useful ca- 
 reer esteemed and honored; but it is not so with our anti-slavery friends in 
 America; there they are vilified, there they are insulted. Why, did not very 
 lately a body of men — of gentlemen, so called— of persons who would be angry 
 if you denied 'them that cognomen, and would even be ready to call you out to 
 share a rifle and a ball — did not such ' gentlemen ' break in upon an Anti-Slave- 
 ry Society in America; aye, upon a ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, and assault 
 them in a most cowardly manner? And did they not denounce the members 
 of that Society? And where did this happen? Why, in Boston — in enlight- 
 ened Boston, the capital of a non-slaveholding State. In this country, the abo- 
 litionists have nothing to complain of; but in America, they are met with the 
 bowie-knife and lynch law! Yes! in America, you have had martyrs ; your 
 cause has been stained with blood ; the voice of your brethren's blood crieth 
 from the ground, and riseth high, not, I trust, for vengeance, but for mercy upon 
 those who have thus treated them. But you ought not to be discouraged, or re- 
 lax in your efforts. Here you have ho^nor. A human being cannot be placed 
 in a more glorious position than to take up such a cause under siich circumstances. 
 I am delighted to be one of a Convention in ivhich are so many of such great 
 and good men. I trust that their reception will be such as that their zeal may 
 be greatly strengthened to continue their noble struggle. I have reason to 
 hope, that, in this assembly, a voice will be raised which will roll back in thun- 
 der to America, which will mingle with her mighty waves, and which will 
 cause one universal shout of liberty to be heard throughout the world. O, 
 there is not a delegate from the Anti-Slavery Societies of America, but ought to 
 have his mme, aye, her name, written in characters of immortality. 
 The Anti-Slavery Societies in America are deeply persecuted, and are deserving of 
 every encouragement tvhich we can possibly give them. I would that I had the 
 eloquence to depict their character aright; but my tongue falters, and my 
 powers fail, while I attempt to describe them. They are the true friends 
 OF humanity, and would that I had a tongue to describe aright the mighty 
 majesty of their undertaking! I love and honor America and the Americans. 
 I respect their great principles ; their untiring industry ; their lofty genius ; 
 
32 
 
 their social inslitntions; their morals, such morals as can exist with slavery — 
 God knows they ciinnot he many— but I respect all in thein or about tlieni that 
 is irooil. But, at the same tiuie, I denounce and anaiheuiatize them as slave- 
 holders, and hold them up to the scorn of all civilized Europe. I would that 
 the yoveruinent of this country would determine to have no dealingg wiili lam, 
 and to tell the United States of America, Ihxl thc>j must send 7io more slavc- 
 holdinrr ncgollators here ! 
 
 I will tell you a little anecdote. Last year, I was accosted with great civility 
 by a well-dressed, gentleman-like person, in the lobby of the House of Commons. 
 Pie slated that he was from America, and was anxious to be admitted to the 
 House. ' From what State do you come ? ' ' From Alabama.' ' A slaveholder, 
 perhaps?' 'Yes.' 'Then,' said I, 'I beg to be excused ;' and so I bowed and 
 left him. Now, that is an example which I wish to be followed. 
 Have no intercourse with a slaveholder. You may, perhaps, deal witli him as 
 u man of business, but, even then, you must act with caution, as you would 
 with a pickpocket and a robber. You ought to be very scant of courtesy towards 
 him, at least until he has cleared himself of the foul imputation. Let us beware 
 of too much fiimiliarity with such men; and let us plainly and honestly tell them, 
 as a Convention, what we think of them. I am not for the employment of force ; 
 no — let all be done by the statement of indisputable facts ; by the diffusion of 
 information ; by the union of benevolent minds ; by our bold determination to 
 expose tyrannji and cruelty ; by proclaiming to the slaveholders that, so long as 
 they have any connexion with the accursed traffic in human beings, tve hold them 
 to be a different race. Why should it not be so ? Why should we not shrink 
 from them, as ive tvould with shudderi7ig from the approach of the vilest reptiles ? 
 The declaration of such views and feelings from such a body of men as are 
 now before me, will make the slaveholders tremble. My voice is feeble : but I 
 have no doubt that what I say will reach them, and that it will have some influ- 
 ence upon them. They must feel that they cannot much longer hold the sway. 
 One of the great objects of my hope is to affright the Americans by laying hold 
 upon their pride, their vanity, their self-esteem, by commending what is excellent 
 in them, and by showing how very far they come short in those properties upon 
 which they boast themselves. I would have this Convention avail themselves 
 of all such aids, and to urge them by every possible argument to abandon the 
 horrid vice by which their character is so foully disfigured. * * * We have proof 
 this day that there are those who love the cause of freedom in every part of the 
 globe. And why should it not be so ? Why should not all unite in such a glo- 
 rious cause ? We are all formed by the same Creator ; we are alike the objects 
 of the same watchful Providence ; we are all the purchase of the same redeem- 
 ing blood ; we have one common Saviour ; and our hearts beat high with the 
 same immortal hopes. And why should any portion of the human race be shut 
 out from our affection and regard .^4* * * O let a word go forth from this place, 
 that we do not deem the Americans Christians, by whatever name they are 
 called, whether Episcopalians, or Baptists, or Independents, or Methodists, or 
 whatever other name,— that we regard them not as Christians at all, unless they 
 cordially unite with us in this great work. We honor all that is really good in 
 America, and would have it all on our side in this glorious struggle — in this 
 holy cause. Let us unite and persevere, and, by the blessing of God, and the 
 aid of good men, freedom will, ere long, wave her triumphant banner over eman- 
 cipated America, and we shall unite with the whole world to rejoice in the 
 result. — [From a speech delivered by Mr. O'Connell, on the third day of the 
 sittings of the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, held in Freemason's Hall, 
 Loudon, June, 1840. 
 
33 
 
 " Faithful are the wounds of a friend." These, sir, are terrible de- 
 nunciations ; but are they not justly applied ? Let no man accuse 
 Daniel O'Connell of having been inimical to the character and pros- 
 perity of this republic. The strength of his rebuke was the measure 
 of his love. He was true to his convictions of duty. Whenever he 
 heard our boasts of freedom and equality, and then saw us wielding the 
 slave-driver's lash and sundering the ties of nature — buying, selling and 
 enslaving our fellow-creatures, on a gigantic scale — making republican- 
 ism a by-word among the tyrants of the Old World, and thus perpetuat- 
 ing the thraldom of the oppressed millions of Europe — a mighty moral 
 conflagration instantly kindled within him. It was then that the flames 
 of his righteous indignation burst out in awful grandeur and with con- 
 suming power, the intensity of which spread over the Atlantic, and was 
 felt in every section of our land. There was something sublime in the 
 attitude of this great vindicator of human rights. If he had courted 
 popularity in America, — that evanescent popularity which general cor- 
 ruption bestows upon its apologist, — if he had been intent on advancing 
 the interests of Ireland at any sacrifice, even the sacrifice of truth and 
 honor, — he would either have flattered our vices and extenuated our 
 crimes, or, like yourself, have maintained an unbroken silence in regard 
 to them. But his love of liberty was stronger than all personal consid- 
 erations, — stronger than his regard even for his own stricken Ireland, — 
 and therefore he exclaimed, on every suitable occasion, •' Oh, the 
 inconsistency of these apostles of liberty, talking of freedom, while 
 they basely and wickedly continue the slavery of their fellow- 
 men ! " 
 
 Similar was the indignation felt and cherished by Ireland's dis- 
 tinguished poet, Thomas Moore, as expressed in the following 
 lines : — 
 
 " Who can, with patience, for a moment see 
 The medley mass of pride and misery. 
 Of whips and charters, manacles and rights, 
 Of slaving blacks and democratic whites. 
 And all the piebald policy that reigns 
 In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains ? 
 To think that man, thou just and gentle God ! 
 Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod. 
 O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee. 
 Yet dare to boast of periect liberty ! 
 Away 1 away ! I'd rather hold my neck 
 By doubtful tenure from a Sultan's beck. 
 In climes where liberty has scarce been nam'd, 
 Nor any right but that of ruling claim'd, 
 Thau thus to live where boasted Freedom waves 
 Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves I " 
 
u 
 
 Where motley laws, (admitting no degree 
 Betwixt the basely slav'd and madly free,) 
 Alike the bondage and the license suit-~ 
 The brute made ruler, and the man made brute '. ■' 
 
 Not merely at a distance from us, however, but in our immediate 
 presence — face to face — has the same fidelity been shown to us by one 
 born on a foreign strand. In the year 1835, the present distinguished 
 member of Parliament for the Tower Hamlets in London, George 
 Thompson, was in this country, disinterestedly laboring by Christian 
 instrumentalities to bring slavery to an immediate end, in the spirit of 
 peace, and without the shedding of blood — in imitation of the example 
 of WiLBERFORCE, Clarkson, and other illustrious philanthropists in 
 Great Britain, for the abolition of West India slavery. After the expe- 
 rience and observation of a year, — himself nearly all that time hunted 
 for his life as though he had been a wild beast, — he registered his testi- 
 mony as follows, which is substantially as applicable to our guilty nation 
 now, as it was strictly true at that period. Read and compare it, Kos- 
 suth, with your laudations of us, and blush for your sycophancy ! 
 
 How unutterably affecting is a view of the present aspect of the country ! 
 The enslavement of the colored population seems to be but one of a hideous 
 host of evils, threatening in their combined influence the overthrow of the 
 fairest prospects of this wide republic. My fears are founded upon the symp- 
 toms every where exhibited, of an approach to mob-supremacy, and consequent 
 anarchy. In every direction, I see the minority prostrate before the majority ; 
 who, despite of law, the Constitution, and natural equity, put iheir heel upon 
 the neck of the weaker portion, and perpetrate every enormity in the name of 
 " public opinion." " Public opinion " is at this hour the demon of oppression, 
 harnessing to the ploughshare of ruin, the ignorant and interested opposers of 
 the truth in every section of this heaven-favored, but mob-cursed land. Where 
 is the freedom of speech ? where the right of association ? where the security 
 of national conveyances ? where the inviolability of personal liberty ? where 
 the sanctity of the domestic circle ? where the protection of property ? where 
 the prerogatives of the judge? where the trial by jury ? Gone, or fast disap- 
 pearing. The minority in every place speak, and Avrite, and meet, and walk, 
 at the peril of their lives. * * Were I a citizen of this country, and did 
 there seem no escape from such a dreadful state of things — if I did not, on 
 behalf of the righteous and consistent, (for, thank God, there are thousands 
 of such, who cease not day nor night to weep and pray for their country,) 
 hope and believe for brighter days and better deeds, I should choose to own 
 the dominion of the darkest despot that ever sealed the lips of truth, or made 
 the sold of a slave tremble at his glance. If I must be a slave, if my lips 
 must wear a padlock, if I must crouch and crawl, let it be before an hereditary 
 tyrant. Let me see around me the symbols of royalty, the bayonets of a 
 standing army, the frowning battlements of a Bastile. Let me breathe the 
 air of a country where the divine right of kings to govern wrong is acknowl- 
 edged and respected. Let me know what is the sovereign will and pleasure 
 of the one man I am taught to fear and serve. Let me not see my rights, and 
 property, and liberties, scattered to the same breeze that floats the flag of free- 
 
dom. Let me not be sacrificed to the demon of despotism, while laying hold 
 upon the horns of an altar dedicated to "Freedom and Equality!" * * 
 O, tell it not in St. Petersburg'! publish it not in the streets of Constantino- 
 ple! But it will be told ; it will be published. The damning fact will ring 
 through all the haunts of despotism, and will be a cordial to the heart of Met- 
 ternich, sweet music in the ears of tiie haughty Czar, and a prophetic note of 
 triumph to the sovereign Pontiff*. What American lip will henceforth dare to 
 breathe a sentence of condemnation against the bulls of the Pope, or the 
 edicts of the Autocrat ? Should a tongue wag in affected sympathy for the 
 denationalized Pole, the outlawed Greek, the Avretched Serf, or any of the 
 priest-ridden or king-ridden victims of Europe, will not a voice come thunder- 
 ing over the billows : — 
 
 "Base hypocrites! let your charity begin at home! Look at your own 
 Carolinas! Go, pour the balm of consolation into the broken hearts of your 
 Uvo millions of enslaved children! Rebuke the murderers of Vicksburg! 
 Reckon with the felons of Charleston ! Restore the contents of rifled mail- 
 bags ! Heal the lacerations, still festering, on the ploughed backs of your 
 citizens! Dissolve the star-chambers of Virginia! Tell the confederated 
 assassins of Alabama and Mississippi to disband ! Call to judgment the bar- 
 barians of Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and New York, and Concord, and 
 Haverhill, and Lynn, and Montpelier ; and the well-dressed mobocrats of Utica, 
 and Salem, and Boston ! Go, ye praters about the soul-destroying ignorance of 
 Romanism, gather again the scattered schools of Canterbury and Canaan ! 
 Get the clerical minions of Southern taskmasters to rescind their ' Resolu- 
 tions ' of withholding knowledge from immortal Americans ! Rend the veil 
 of legal enactments, by which the beams of light divine are hidden from mil- 
 lions who are left to grope their way through darkness here, to everlasting 
 blackness beyond the grave ! Go, shed your ' patriotic ' tears over the infamy 
 of your country, amidst the ruins of yonder Convent! Go, proud and senti 
 mental Bostonians, preach clemency to the respectable horde who are drag- 
 ging forth for immolation one of your own citizens ! Cease your anathemas 
 against the Vatican, and screw your courage up to resist the worse than papal 
 bulls of Georgia, demanding, at the peril of your ' bread and butter,' the 
 ' HEADS ' of your citizens, and the passage of gag-laws ! Before you rail at 
 arbitrary power in foreign regions, save your own citizens from the felonious 
 interception of their correspondence; and teach the sworn and paid servants of 
 the Republic the obligations of an oath, and the guaranteed rights of a free 
 people ! Send not your banners to Poland, but tear them into shreds, to be 
 distributed to the mob, as halters for your sons ! When, next July, you rail at 
 mitres, and crosiers, and sceptres ; and denounce the bow-string, and the bayo- 
 net, and the fagot ; let your halls be decorated with plaited scourges, wet 
 with the blood of the sons of the Pilgrims — let the tar cauldron smoke— the 
 gibbet rear aloft its head — and cats and bloodhounds,* (the brute auxiliaries of 
 
 * See the accounts in Southern newspapers of " a curious mode of punishment " recently in- 
 troduced, called "cat-hauling." The victim is stretched upon his face, and a cat, thrown 
 upon his bare shoulders, is dragged to the bottom of the back. This is continued till the body 
 is " lacerated." 
 
 '•The Vicksburg (Miss.) Register says, that Mr. Earl, one of the victims of mobocracy in 
 Mississippi, was tortured a whole night to elicit confession. The brutal and hellish tormentors 
 laid Mr. Earl upon his back, and drew a cat tail foremost across his body 1 1 1 He hung him- 
 self soon after in jail." 
 
 See also the accounts of the Mississippi murders given by a correspondent in the Charleston 
 Courier, dating his letter Tyger (how appropriate!) Bayou, Madison County, Miss. The fol- 
 lowing is an extract;— "Andrew Boyd, a conspirator, was required by the Committee of 
 Safety, and Mr. Dickerson, Hiram Reynolds and Hiram Perkins (since killed) \tere ordered to 
 
36 
 
 Southern Liberty men,) howl and bark in unison with the demoniacal ravings 
 of a ' gentlemanly mob ' — while above the Orator of the day, and beneath the 
 striped and starry banner, stand forth, in characters of blood, the distinctive 
 mottoes of the age : — Down with Discussion ! Lynch Law Triumphant ! 
 Slavery for ever ! Hail, Columbia ! 
 
 " Before you weep over the wrongs of Greece, go wash the gore out of 
 your national shambles — appease the frantic mother robbed of her only child, 
 the centre of her hopes, and joys, and sympathies — restore to yon desolate 
 husband the wife of his bosom — abolish the slave marts of Alexandria, the 
 human flesh auctions of Richmond and New Orleans — 'undo the heavy 
 burdens,' ' break every yoke,' and stand forth to the gaze of the world, not 
 steeped in infamy and rank with blood, but in the posture of penitence and 
 prayer, a free and regenerated nation ! " 
 
 Such, truly, are the bitter reproaches with which every breeze from a dis- 
 tant land might be justly freighted. How long — in the name of outraged 
 humanity I ask, how long shall they be deserved ? Are the people greedy of 
 a world's execration ? or have they any sense of shame — any blush of patriot- 
 ism left? Each day the flagrant inconsistency and gross wickedness of the 
 nation are becoming more widely and correctly known. Already, on foreign 
 shores, the lovers of corruption and despotism are referring with exultation to 
 the recent bloody dramas in the South, and the pro-slavery meetings and mobs 
 of the country generally, in proof of the ' dangerous tendency of Democratic 
 principles.' How long shall the deeds of America clog the wheels of the car 
 of Universal Freedom ? Vain is every boast — acts speak louder than words. 
 While 
 
 " Columbia's sons are bought and sold ; " 
 
 while citizens of America are murdered without trial; while persons and 
 property are at the mercy of a mob ; while city authorities are obliged to make 
 concessions to a bloody-minded multitude, and finally incarcerate unoffending 
 citizens to save them from a violent death ; while " gentlemen of standing and 
 property" are in unholy league to eflfect the abduction and destruction of a 
 " foreigner," the head and front of whose offending is, that he is laboring to 
 save the country from its worst foe; while assemblages of highly respectable 
 citizens, comprising large numbers of the clergy, and some of the judges of 
 the land, are interrupted and broken up, and the houses of God in which they 
 met attacked in open day by thousands of men, armed with all the implements 
 of demolition ; while the entire South presents one great scene of slavery and 
 slaughter; and while the North deeply sympathise with their "Southern 
 brethren," sanction their deeds of felony and murder, and obsequiously do 
 their bidding by hunting down their own fellow-citizens who dare to plead for 
 equal rights ; and, finally, while hundreds of the ministers of Christ, of every 
 denomination, are making common cause with the plunderer of his species ; 
 yea, themselves reducing God's image to the level of the brute, and glorying in 
 their shame ; I say, while these things exist, professions and boasts are "sound- 
 ing brass ; " men will learn to loathe the name of Republicanism, and deem it 
 synonymous with mob despotism, and the foulest oppression on the face of the 
 globe ! 
 
 arrest him. They discovered he was flying, and immediately commenced the pursuit, with a 
 pack of TRAINED HOUNDS. He miraculously effected his deliverance from his pursuers, after 
 swimming Big Black Kiver, and running through cane-brakes and swamps until night-fall, 
 when the party called off the dogs. Early next morning they renewed the chase, and started 
 Boyd one mile from whence they had called off the dogs. But he effected his escape on horse, 
 (fortune throwing one in his way,) the hounds not being accustomed to that training after he 
 quit the bush." 
 
37 
 
 In addition to these weighty testimonies, take that of one whose phi- 
 lanthropic fame fills the civilized world, whose spirit was characterised 
 by rare meekness and simplicity, and whose language was ever chosen 
 with the utmost precaution — the deeply lamented Thomas Clarkson, 
 of England : — 
 
 Slavery is the greatest evil which has ever afflicted your country. It has 
 heaped incalculable sufferings upon the heads of a people Avho have never 
 given you any cause of offence ; and you have done this without any right to 
 do it but your own will and the law of force. It has corrupted the morals of 
 your population to a frightful extent, by familiarizing them with cruelty and 
 injustice, by hardening their hearts, and by giving birth to erroneous opinions 
 which lead to infidelity; and, moreover, it has injured yournational character in 
 the eyes of the civilized nations of the tvorld. 
 
 You have got a slave-holding President, a slave-holding Senate, a slave- 
 holding Congress, and a slave-holding Cabinet. You have got the very sort 
 of men in these high offices, the most detrimental to your best interests. 
 
 In the common routine of business, in Congress, they have done, perhaps, 
 as well as any other men could have done ; but, whenever slavery has been 
 brought before them as a matter of business, the most malignant of tvliat ive 
 call demons could not have done tvorse. Their laws against their slaves stand 
 on record as the most bloody of the most savage nations upon earth; so shocking 
 as to produce horror and indignation in all who read them ; and so shocking 
 that one of your own judges, Stroud, who first brought them together in print, 
 is now, or was lately, buying up the unsold copies ; because, as was reported, 
 wherever the book is seen, it makes converts to the Anti-Slavery cause. Again, 
 the men filling these offices brought forward and passed the famous gagging 
 bills, and gave the power to Postmasters to open letters and parcels, thus stop- 
 ping the free liberty of speech, and of writing a man's own thoughts. And 
 why was this tyrannical law passed ? That not a murmur against slavay 
 might he allowed to transpire, and that slavery might go on uninterruptedly in 
 all its miseries and horrors as before, without censure or reproach. * * * 
 Again, the men filling these offices caused the butchery of the Indians, and 
 the extermination of some of their tribes, on the mere surmise that these 
 tribes might disturb the plantations of their brother slave-holders, and afford a 
 refuge or retreat for their fugitive slaves. Was this a proper motive for shed- 
 ding torrents of blood? And will not a day of just retribution come ? The 
 same description of men made a law, that whoever aided the escape of a fugi- 
 tive slave from the oppression of a cruel taskmaster, should be punished with 
 death; though it was commanded, of old, that no fugitive slave should be re- 
 stored to his master. Was not this setting up a legislation in direct opposi- 
 tion to the law of God ? Again, the same description of men had the audac- 
 ity to propose the annexation of Texas to the United States, so that both might 
 be one territory, and under one sway. But for what purpose was this union 
 proposed ? To have a contiguous Slave Territory, where the poor fugitive 
 could find no shelter, but must be sent back to an enraged owner, to undergo 
 whatever torture the monster's ingenuity might think fit ; and, secondly, not 
 only to perpetuate slavery in the United States, but to extend it to another 
 country, from which it might be spread we know not where. Was there ever 
 a more wicked proposition than this, to transfer the whip, the chain, the iron 
 collar, and the other hideous instruments of torture, to innocent millions, yet 
 unborn, and to an indefinite extent of country ? Could the mind of a JVero 
 have invented a more tvholesale complication of cruelty ? * * * 
 
 While slavery lasts, you will have the same sort of men in office, and, of 
 
38 
 
 course, the same sort of wicked measures, and the same sort of evils, aud 
 perhaps worse ; for, wherever arbitrary power has been once exerted success- 
 fully, it raay go to precedents it has made for its continuance. What, indeed, 
 can you hope for from a slave-holding Cabinet — a Cabinet of men who appear 
 to have no fear of God before their eyes, whose motto seems to be expediency 
 in preference of honor and honesty, and who have been accustomed to look 
 upon the sin of slavery as a common custom only, and without reproach ? 
 Will God smile upon the labors of such men ? Or, will he not rather take 
 vengeance ? 
 
 But it is not English or Irish philanthropy, that is alone stirred with 
 indignation, filled with astonishment, or melted into tears, in view of the 
 revolting spectacle presented to the world by the United States as a 
 slaveholding republic. Read, sir, the following letter to an eminent 
 American lady, (1) now in Paris, (whose name will ever be honorably 
 identified with the anti-slavery cause in this country, for her labors and 
 sacrifices in its behalf.) from the distinguished Yictoe Hugo, of 
 France : — 
 
 Madame : 
 
 I have scarcely anything to add to your letter. I would cheerfully 
 sign every line of it Pursue your holy work. You have with you all great 
 souls and all good hearts. 
 
 You are pleased to believe, and to assure me, that my voice, in this august 
 cause of slavery, will be listened to by the great American people, whom I 
 love so profoundly, and whose destinies, I am fain to think, are closely linked 
 with the mission of France. You desire me to lift up my voice. 
 
 I will do it at once, and I will do it on all occasions. I agree with you in 
 thinking, that, within a definite time — that, within a time not distant, the United 
 States will repudiate slavery with horror I Slaver}' in such a country I Can 
 there be an incongruity more monstrous ? Barbarism installed in the very 
 heart of a countrv, which is itself the afBrmation of civilization : liberty wear- 
 ing a chain; blasphemy echoing from the altar; the collar of the negro chained 
 to the pedestal of Washington I It is a thing unheard of. I say more, it is 
 impossible. Such a spectacle would destroy itself. The light of the nine- 
 teenth century alone is enough to destroy it. 
 
 What 1 Slavery sanctioned by law among that illustrious people, who for 
 seventy years have measured the progress of civilization by their march, de- 
 monstrated democracy by their power, and liberty by their prosperity! Slavery 
 in the United States f It is the duty of this republic to set such a bad exam- 
 ple no longer. It is a shame, and she was never born 1o bow her head. 
 
 It is not when slavery is taking leave of old nations, that it should be re- 
 ceived by the new. What'. W'hen slavery is departing from Turkey, shall 
 it rest in America ? What 1 Drive it from the hearth of Omar, and adopt it 
 at the hearth of Franklin r No ! Xo I No ! 
 
 There is an inflexible logic which develops more or less slowly, which 
 fasliions, which redresses according to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to 
 great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the morals, the people ; or better, 
 under all human things, there are things divine. 
 
 Let all those great souls who love the United States, as a country, be re-as- 
 sured. The United States must renounce slavery, or they must renounce lib- 
 
 (1) Mrs. Maria Westox Chapxa:?, of Boston. 
 
39 
 
 erty. They cannot renounce liberty. They must renounce slavery, or 
 renounce the Gospel. They will never renounce the Gospel. 
 
 Accept, Madam, with my devotion to the cause you advocate, the homage 
 of my respect. VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 6 Juillet, 1851, Paris. 
 
 O that to you, Louis Kossuth, it had been given to register, in a sim- 
 ilar spirit, a similar testimony ! — Mark the readiness with which Victor 
 Hugo complied with the request made to him ! Mark, too, the cogency 
 as well as the pathos of his rebuke, and on what ground he felt justified 
 in bestowing it ! — " You desire me to lift up my voice. / will do it at 
 once, and I will do it on all occasions. The destinies of the great 
 American people, I am fain to think, are closely linked with the mission 
 of France.''^ And are not those destinies as closely linked with 
 the mission of Hungary } Yet you are dumb — surrounded by slaves, 
 you are dumb — to propitiate their merciless oppressors, you are 
 dumb ! The language of the eloquent Frenchman would have come 
 with even greater pertinency and force from your lips than from his 
 own — " It is not when slavery is taking leave of old nations, that it 
 should be received by the new. What ! When slavery is departing 
 from Turkey, shall it rest in America ! What ! Drive it from the 
 hearth of Omar, and adopt it at the hearth of Fi-anJcUn ! No ! No ! 
 No ! " Still you are dumb — you " the champion of liberty " ! Tell it 
 not in Austria ! Publish it not in the streets of St. Petersburg ! 
 
 You have alluded, on several occasions, in terms of admiration, to 
 the brave and generous assistance which Lafayette rendered to this 
 country in its great struggle for independence. You have quoted his 
 example, in this particular, as a strong incitement to the people of the 
 United States to lend their aid (now that they are powerful) to the op- 
 pressed of other lands, especially of Hungary ; and thus to cancel their 
 great indebtedness. Having won for himself their gratitude, veneration, 
 and almost idolatrous attachment, for his gallant services, if any man 
 had strong temptations to avoid giving them offence by " meddling'' 
 with their " domestic institutions," Lafayette was that man. But he 
 scorned to calculate consequences, and would not be dumb. " When I 
 am indulging in my views of American prospects and American 
 liberty," he said, " it is mortifying to be told, that, in that very country^ 
 a large portion of the people are slaves. It is a dark spot on the 
 face of the nation. Such a state of things cannot always exist," It 
 is the testimony of Thomas Clakkson, that Lafayette said frequently, 
 " I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I 
 coidd have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery. ''"' 
 
40 
 
 While you would have his example of physical bravery imitated, in the 
 extension of our protecting hand to Hungary, will you repudiate his ex- 
 ample of moral courage, in rebuking us for our atrocious slave system ? 
 Not to cite any more foreign testimony, listen to the confession of a 
 Virginian — Thomas Jefferson, himself a slaveholder while he lived, 
 although the author of the Declaration of Independence : — 
 
 The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of 
 the most boisterous passions ; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, 
 and degrading submission on the other. With what execration should the 
 statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on 
 the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, 
 destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patrict of the other ! For if 
 the slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference 
 to that in which he is born to live and labor for another ; in which he must 
 lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his indi- 
 vidual endeavors to the evanishment of the human race, or entail his own mis- 
 erable condition on the endless generations proceeding from him. And can 
 the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only 
 firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are 
 the gift of God ? that they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? In- 
 deed, I tremble for my country w^hen I reflect that God is just; that his jus- 
 tice cannot sleep for ever : that, considering numbers, nature, and natural 
 means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is 
 among possible events ; that it may become probable by supernatural inter- 
 ference ! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such 
 a contest. * # * 
 
 What an incomprehensible machine is man ! Who can endure toil, famine, 
 stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and 
 the next moment be deaf to all those motives, whose power supported him 
 through his trial, and inflict on his fellow-men a bondage, one hour of ivhich is 
 fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose ! 
 But we must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, 
 and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. 
 When the measure of their tears shall be full — when their tears shall have 
 involved heaven itself in darkness — doubtless a God of justice will awaken to 
 their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, 
 or at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of 
 this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality. 
 
 Sir, if one hour of the bondage of the American slave is fraught 
 with more misery than ages of that which Washington and his com- 
 patriots rose in rebellion to oppose, — if, with only half a million of 
 slaves, Jefferson trembled for his country when he reflected that God 
 was just, — what ought now to be the language of every true friend of 
 freedom, whether sojourner or resident here, in full view of more than 
 three millions of slaves, and the general purpose to make their bondage 
 interminable } 
 
 As further illustrative of the fatuity of your mission to this country, 
 and the extravagance of your encomiums upon it, read the following 
 lines from one of Freedom's true bards in the United States : — 
 
41 
 
 " What ; shall we send, with lavish breath, 
 
 Our sympathies across the wa\ e, 
 Where Manhood, on the field of death, 
 
 Strikes for his freedom, or a grave? 
 And shall the slave, beneath our eye, 
 
 Clank o'er our fields his hateful chain? 
 And toss his fettered arms on high, 
 
 And groan for Freedom's gift, in vain ? 
 
 Shall every flap of England's flag 
 
 Proclaim that all around are free, 
 From 'farthest Ind ' to each blue crag 
 
 That beetles o'er the Western Sea ? 
 And shall we scoff at Europe's kings, 
 
 When Freedom's fire is dim with us, 
 And round our country's altar clings 
 
 The damning shade of Slavery's curse? 
 
 Go — let us ask of Constantino 
 
 To loose his grasp on Poland's throat, 
 And beg the lord of Mahmoud's line 
 
 To spare the struggling Suliote— 
 
 Will not the scorching answer come 
 From turbaned Turk and scornful Russ, 
 
 'Go, LOOSE TOUR FETTERED SLAVES AT EO>[E, 
 
 Then tdrn, and ask the like op us I ' 
 
 Just God ! and shall we calmly rest, 
 
 The Christian's scorn — the heathen's mirth — 
 Content to live the lingering jest 
 
 And by-word of a mocking Earth ? 
 Shall our own glorious land retain 
 
 That curse which Europe scorns to bear? 
 Shall our oion brethren drag the chain, 
 
 Wiich not even. Russia's menials wear? " 
 
 Sir, is it not as palpable as the noon-day sun, that, whatever else this 
 country can do, she is not in a condition either to fight the battles of 
 European liberty, or to hurl her anathemas at European despots ? Is 
 she not constantly liable to be called upon to suppress a servile insurrec- 
 tion on the part of the millions whom she is enslaving on her own soil ? 
 Is it not literally true, that " the preservation, propagation, and perpetu- 
 ation of slavery is the vital and animating spirit of her national govern- 
 ment " ? Why, then, do you persist in outraging the common sense of 
 the world, by extolling her as the abode of freedom, and the asylum 
 of the oppressed ? How can you rationally expect to receive any 
 countenance from her, in your bloody rebellion against a tyranny not 
 comparable in atrocity with her own ? Or, if her aid can be secured 
 to any extent, must it not be on the condition, — either expressed or un- 
 derstood, but certainly imperative, — that your lips will be for ever sealed 
 respecting her transendant criminality as the most active power in the 
 6 
 
42 
 
 world for the extension and perpetuation of chattel slavery ? And can 
 you comply with such a condition, without degrading your manhood ? 
 
 Instead of making the afflictive state of Hungary, and her need of 
 assistance, the justification for your silence on the subject of American 
 slavery, you are bound, as a man of honor and a true friend of freedom, 
 to imitate the illustrious example given by Daniel O'Connell, who, 
 when he was struggling against such overwhelming odds for the restora- 
 tion to Ireland of some of her ancient rights and privileges, was prof- 
 fered the most liberal pecuniary assistance on this side the Atlantic, — 
 provided he would cease to reprove us for our traffic in human flesh. 
 How he spurned the bribe — and how it will exalt you in the estimation 
 of the world to scorn a similar bribe — you will learn by reading the 
 following proceedings : — 
 
 At a special meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association, held in the 
 Great Room, Corn Exchange, Dublin, May 9th, 1843, — James Haughton, Esq. 
 in the chair, — 
 
 Mr. O'Connell said — The Association liad adjourned to that day for the pur- 
 pose of receiving a communication with which they had been honored from the 
 Anti-Slavery Society of America — a body of men whom they most entirely respect 
 — whose objects should be cherished in their heart's core — whose dangers 
 enhanced their virtues — and whose persevering patriotism would either write 
 their names on the page of temporal history, or impress them in a higher place, 
 where eternal glory and happiness would be the reward of their exertions. 
 (Cheers.) His impressions were so strong in favor of the Anti-Slavery Society 
 of America, that he thought it would not be so respectful as he would desire, if 
 he brought forward that document in the routine of business on the last day, 
 when it could not be so much attended to as it deserved. (Hear, hear.) It was 
 out of respect to the people who sent that document, that they had adjourned ; 
 and he might say, that personal respect for the chairman Avas mixed up with 
 that consideration. (Cheers.) They could not have sent a better message, or 
 a more sincere one ; and, if he now had the kindness to make the communica- 
 tion, they would receive it with the respect it deserved. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Anti-Slavery Address having been read, — 
 
 Mr. O'Connell then said : — I rise with the greatest alacrity to move that that 
 most interesting document be inserted on the minutes, and that the fervent 
 thanks of the Repeal Association of Ireland be by acclamation voted to the 
 writers of it. I never in my life heard any thing read, that imposed more upon 
 my feelings, and excited a deeper sympathy and sorrow within me. I never, in 
 fact, before knew the horrors of slavery in their genuine colors. It is a produc- 
 tion framed in the purest effort of simplicity, but, at the same time, powerful in 
 its sentiments, so at once to reach the human heart, and stir up the human 
 feelings to sorrow and execration, — sorrow for the victims, and execration for 
 the tymnts. (Loud cries of hear, hear, and cheers.) It will have its effect 
 throughout Ireland ; for the Irish people did not know what was, alas ! familiar 
 to you, Sir, and to me, — the real state of slavery in America, and of the une- 
 qualled evils it inflicts ; for slavery, wherever it exists, is the bitterest potion 
 that can be commended to the lips of man. Let it be presented in any shape, and 
 
43 
 
 it must disgust, for a curse inherent to it grows with it, and inflicts oppression 
 and cruelty wherever it descends. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) We proclaim it 
 an evil ; and though, as a member of this Association, I am not bound to take 
 up any national quarrel, still, / do not hesitate to declare my opinions ; I nevtr 
 paltered in mij own sentiments, (Cheers.) I never said a word in mitigation of 
 slavery in my life ; and I would consider myself the most criminal of human 
 beings if I had done so. (Hear, and cheers.) 
 
 Yes, I will say, shame upon every man in America, who is not an anti-slavery 
 man ; shame and disgrace upon him. / don't care for the consequences. I will 
 not restrain my honest indignation of feeling. I pronounce every man a faith- 
 less miscreant, who does not take a part for the abolition of slavery. [Tremen- 
 dous cheering for several minutes.] It may be said that offence will be taken 
 at these words. Come icliat may from them, they are my words. [Renewed 
 applause.] The question never came regularly before us until now. We had 
 it introduced collaterally ; we had it mentioned by persons who were friends of 
 ours, and who were endeavoring to maintain good relations between us and the 
 .slaveholders, but it is only now that it comes directly before us. We might 
 have shrunk from the question by referring the document to a committee ; but, 
 I would consider such a course unworthy of me, enjoying as I do the confidence 
 of the virtuous, the religious, and the humane people of Ireland ; for I would 
 be unfit to be what I would desire to consider myself, the representative of the 
 virtues of the people, if I were not ready to make every sacrifice for them, rather 
 than to give the least sanction to human slavery. 
 
 They say that the slaves are worse treated, since the cry of the Abolitionists 
 has been raised in their favor, as it has made their masters more suspicious of 
 them, and more severe against them ; but has that any weight with me .'' How 
 often was I told, during our agitation, that 'the Catholics would be emancipated 
 but for the violence of that O'Connell.' [Laughter.] Why, one of the clev- 
 erest men in tlie country wrote a pamphlet in 1827, in which he stated that the 
 Protestants of Ireland would have emancipated their Catholic countrymen long 
 before, but for me, and fellows of my kind ; and yet, two years after, I got 
 emancipation in spite of them. [Cheei's.] But it is clearly an insult to the 
 understanding to speak so. When did tyranny relax its gripe merely because 
 it ought to do so ? [Hear.] As long as there was no agitation, the masters 
 enjoyed the persecution of their slaves in quietness ; but the moment the agi- 
 tation commenced, they cried out, 'Oh, it is not the slaves we are flogging, but 
 we are flogging through his back the anti-slavery men.' [Laughter.] But the 
 subject is too serious for ridicule. I am afraid they will never give up slavery 
 until some horrible calamity befalls their country ; and I here warn them 
 against the event, for it is utterly impossible that slavery can continue much 
 longer. [Hear, hear.] But, good Heaven ! can Irishmen be found to justify, 
 or rather to palliate, (for no one could dare attempt to justify,) a system which 
 shuts out the book of human knowledge, and seeks to reduce to the condition 
 of a slave, 2,500,000 human beings ; — which closes against them not only the 
 light of human science, but the rays of divine revelation, and the doctrines 
 which the Son of God came upon the earth to plant. The man who will do so 
 belongs not to my kind. [Hear, hear.] Over the broad Atlantic I pour forth 
 my voice, saying, 'Come out of such a land, you Irishmen ; or, if you remain, 
 and dare countenance the system of slavery that is supported there, we will 
 recognize you as Irishmen no longer.' [Hear, hear, and cheers.] .... 
 
 I say the man is not a Christian, — he cannot believe in the binding law of 
 the Decalogue. He may go to the chapel or the church, and he may turn up 
 the whites of his eyes, but he cannot kneel as a Christian before his Creator, 
 or he v/ould not dare to palliate such an infamous system. No, America! the 
 black spot of slavery rests upon your star-spangled banner; and no matter 
 what glory you may acquire beneath it, the hideous, damning stain of slavery 
 
44 
 
 rests upon you, and a just Providence will sooner or later avenge itself for your 
 crime. [Loud and continued cheers.] Sir, I have spoken the sentimenis of the 
 Repeal Association. [Renewed clieers.] There is not a man amongst the 
 hundreds of thousands that belong to our body, or amongst the millions that 
 will belong to it, who does not concur in what I have stated. We may not get 
 money from America after this declaration ; but even if we should not, ive do not 
 ivant blood-stained money. [Hear, hear.] If they make it the condition of our 
 sympathy, or if there be implied any submission to the doctrine of slavery on our 
 part, in receiving their remittances, let them cease sending it at once. But there 
 are wise and good men every where, and there are wise and good men in 
 America, — and that document which you have read, Sir, is a proof, among 
 others, that there are; and I would wish to cultivate the friendship of such 
 men; but the criminals and the abettors, — those who commit, and those who 
 countenance the crime of slavery, — I regard as the enemies of Ireland, and I desire 
 to have no sympathy or support from them. [Cheers.] 
 
 I have the honor to move that this document be inserted in full upon our 
 minutes, and tiiat the most grateful thanks of the Repeal Association be given 
 to the Anti-Slavery Society of America who sent it to us, and in particular, to 
 the two office bearers, whose names are signed to it. 
 
 At a meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association, in Dublin, August 8, 
 1843, Mr. O'Connell, in the course of a powerful anti-slavery speech, said — 
 
 A disposition was evinced in America to conciliate the opinion of that Associ- 
 ation in favor of the horrid system of slavery, but they refused, of course, to sho\v 
 any sanction to it. (Hear and cheers.) 
 
 He had taken an active part in the Anti-Slavery Society from the moment 
 that he was competent to discover any one body of men acting for the extinc- 
 tion of slavery all over the world ; and standing in that Association as the rep- 
 resentative of the Irish people, who had themselves suffered centuries of perse- 
 cution, because they were attached to humanity, and to Avhat justice and reason 
 demanded ; for if they had chosen to be silent, and had boived to authority — if they 
 had acquiesced in the dictates of their masters and tyrants, they ivould have escaped 
 mamj temporary sufferings, but they woidd not have acquired the glory of having 
 adhered loith religious fidelity to their principles. Standing as their representa- 
 tive, he could not act otherwise than he had done, though the liberty of Ireland, 
 the repeal of the Union itself, ivere to abide the result. He ivas bound not to look 
 to consequences, but to justice and humanity ; and come what would, he did not 
 hesitate to throw heart and soul into his opposition to the system that would 
 treat human beings as brute beasts of the field. He spoke distinctly and em- 
 phatically, for as he wanted to make an impression, he used harsher words than 
 he would have done, if he did not know that harsh words were necessary to 
 rouse the selfish temperament of the domineering master of slaves. And he 
 did make that sensation, and he was glad of it. 
 
 At a meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association, held in Conciliation 
 Hall, Dublin, Sept. 29th, 1845, Mr. O'Connell, speaking on the subject of 
 American slavery, said — 
 
 I have been assailed for attacking the American institution, as it is called, 
 negro slavery. I am not ashamed of that attack — I do not shrink from it. I am 
 the advocate of civil and 7-eligious liberty all over the globe, and tcherever tyranny 
 exists, I am the foe of the tyrant ; loherever oppression shotvs itself, I am the foe of 
 the oppressor ; wherever slavery rears its head, I am the enemy of the system, or the 
 institution, call it by what name you will — (great cheering.) I am the friend of 
 liberty in every clime, class, and color — my sympathy with distress is not con- 
 
45 
 
 fined within the narrow bound of my own green island — no, it extends itself to 
 every corner of the earth — my heart walks abroad, and wherever the miserable is 
 to be succored, and the slave is to be set free, there my spirit is at home, and I 
 delight to dwell in its abode — (enthusiastic cheering.) It has been asked. What 
 business has O^Connell in interfering ivith American slavery"} Why, do not the 
 Americans show us their sympathy for our struggles, and why should we not 
 show a sympathy in efforts for liberty amongst tliemselves? (Cheers.) But 1 
 confess I have another strong reason for desiring to abolish slavery in America. 
 In no monarchy on the face of the earth is there such a thing as domestic slavery ; 
 it is true, in some colonies belonging to monarchies, slavery exists; but in no 
 European country is there slavery at all — for the Russian serf is far different 
 from the slave of America, and therefore I do not wish that any lover of liberty 
 should be able to draw a contrast between the democratic republics of America 
 and the despotic States of Europe — [hear, hear.] I am in favor of the demo- 
 cratic spirit, and I wish to relieve it from the horror of slavery — [cheers.] I 
 do not wish to visit America with force and violence. — I would be the last man 
 in the world to consent to it. I would not be for making war to free the negro 
 — at least, not for the war of knife, and lash, and sword ; but I would be for the 
 moral warfare — I would be for the arms of argument and humanity to procure 
 the extinction of tyranny, and to hurl contempt and indignation on those who 
 call themselves freemen, and yet keep others in slavery. I would bring ele- 
 ments of that kind to bear upon the system, until the very nam.e of slavery 
 should be regarded with horror in the republic of America — [cheers.] * * * * 
 
 In the year '2.5, when I left my profession and went over to England, there 
 was an anti-slavery meeting, at which I attended and spoke; and afterwards, 
 when I went to Parliament, another meeting was appointed, greater in magni- 
 tude. The West India interest was 27 strong in the House of Commons — the 
 Algerine bill was carried through the House by a majority of 19 — therefore, 
 the emancipation bill was in the power of the West India interest ; but when 
 they sent a respected friend of mine — the Knight of Kerry — to me, to ask why 
 I did not take a certain course with regard to it, what was my answer? I rep- 
 resent the Irish people here, and I will act as the Irish people will sanction. 
 Come liberty, come slavery to myself, I tvill never countenance slavery, at hom^ or 
 abroad! [Cheers.] I said I came here on principle ; the Irish people sent me 
 here to carry out their principles; their principles are abhorrent of slavery ; and, 
 therefore, I will take my part at that anti-slavery meeting; and though itshoidd 
 be a blow against Ireland, it is a blow in favor of human liberty, and I will strike 
 that blow — (cheers). So far was I from cultivating the slavery interest, that I 
 adopted that course, though I regretted to lose their votes. But I must do 
 them the credit to say, that I did not lose them. They acted nobly, and said 
 they would not revenge upon Ireland my attack upon them. [Cheers.] * * * 
 Let them blame me — in America let me be execrated by them — let their sup- 
 port be taken from Ireland — Slavery, I denounce you wherever you are — [loud 
 cheers.] Come freedom, come oppression to Ireland — let Ireland be as she may — 
 1 have my conscience clear before my God — [continued cheers.] * * » 
 
 They were told that the speech he made in that room would put an end to 
 the remittances from America, and that the Americans would not again con- 
 tribute to the funds of the Association. If they should never get one shilling 
 from America, his course was plain, his path ivas obvious. He was attached to 
 liberty ; he was the uncompromising hater of slavery wherever it was to be 
 found [cheers]. 
 
 Such was the spirit of an O'Connell — brave, ingenuous, disdaining 
 every trammel, scorning every bribe, soaring above all national and all 
 personal considerations ! — " I do not hesitate to declare my opinions. I 
 
46 
 
 never faltered in my own sentiments. We might have shrunk from the 
 question of American slavery, but I would consider such a course 
 unworthy of me. We may not get money from America after this 
 declaration ; but we do not want blood-stained money. Those xvlio com- 
 mit, and those who countenance the crime of slavery^ I regard as the ene- 
 mies of Ireland^ and I desire to have no sympathy or support from them. 
 I am not bound to look to consequences, but to justice and humanity. 
 Wherever slavery rears its head, I am the enemy of the system. I will 
 take my part in the anti-slavery meeting ; and though it shoidd he a 
 hloio against Ireland, it is a blow in favor of human liberty, and I 
 WILL STRIKE THAT BLOW. In America, let them execrate me — let their 
 support he taken from Ireland — slavery, I denounce you, wherever you 
 are ! Come .freedom, come slavery to Ireland — let Ireland he as she 
 may — I have my conscience clear before my God." These are noble 
 sentiments, and most faithful was O'Connell to his pledge. His love 
 for Ireland was not less strong than yours for Hungary ; but, unlike 
 you, he disdained to act a deceptive and pusillanimous part, to secure 
 foreign sympathy and aid in her behalf. Blush at your own craven and 
 selfish policy, as contrasted with that pursued by Ireland's distinguished 
 Liberator ! 
 
 So much for the spirit of the sire. Now witness how closely akin to 
 it is that of the son ! 
 
 Extract from a speech delivered by John O'Connell, M. P., at a meeting of the 
 Loyal National Repeal Association, held in Dublin, Nov. 23d, 1840 : — 
 
 He had to perform a duty which he had imposed upon himself, and a duty in 
 which he was sure he would have their concurrence that he ought to discharge, 
 to bring before the Association the atrocities practised upon the miserable 
 slaves in the United States of America. He was of opinion they would think 
 he ought to discharge it, because it was right that QJ^ ivhen putting fonvard 
 their claims to hecome^'a nation, they should be able to put forth a claim upon 
 this ground also, that they had shown their sympathy fob the slaves. 
 
 [Here Mr. O'Connell read to the meeting several cases of slaveholding bar- 
 barity in America.] 
 
 He thought when he produced such details of atrocity as these, he would be 
 acquitted of the charge of bringing forward a subject Avhich Avas not well 
 worthy the attention of the Association. Nothing could be more 
 shameful — nothing more unjust — nothing more cruel — nothing more atrocious 
 and demoralizing — than the treatment of the black slaves in America, while the 
 people boasted of their adhesion to universal liberty. But, not only did they 
 suffer such enormities to be perpetrated against slaves, but against free prople 
 also. In the northern States, where slavery did not exist, the free people of 
 color were subject to the greatest indignities. In the railway trains, there were 
 separate places for them ; in the churches, they were not permitted to sit in the 
 same pews ; nay, in the grave yards, (for they carried their dislike and con- 
 
47 
 
 tempt for the negro even there, where one would suppose all distinctions should 
 cease,) there were separate places for the interment of negroes. (Hear.) And yet 
 the country which did this called itself free. He alluded to this matter at pres- 
 ent, because the American journals which arrived that day had brought intelli- 
 gence that the Irish in America, and their descendants, were joining in the 
 rally for repeal, and that meetings had been held, at which subscriptions were 
 collected to aid the objects of that Association. (Cries of ' hear, hear,' and 
 cheers.) Every testimony of sympathy in tlieir struggles was grateful to their 
 feelings ; and it was delightful to know, that, among the new associations which 
 Irishmen formed in other lands, they and their descendants were not forgetful 
 of the older associations they had left at home. (Hear hear.) But while they 
 hold out to us the hand of brotherhood, we tell them that they come from a 
 suspected land, — a land that holds man in bondage; and if they have any con- 
 nection with, or if they approve of that bondage, then {j^ WE REJECT 
 THEIR PROFFER: we have neither kindred nor sympathy for them, if they 
 participate in the most degrading, demoralizing, wicked, and atrocious system 
 which ever Avas maintained by man. (Hear, hear.) Talk of freedom, indeed! 
 they spurned their association, if they had any thing to do with this system, — 
 nay, if they were passive observers of the atrocity; for, if it was incumbent 
 upon this nation to express their abhorrence at what they did not themselves 
 witness, it was doubly incumbent upon those who were witnesses of it, to 
 oppose the system, and to TAKE PART WITH THE ABOLITIONISTS. 
 If they did not take part against the system, they were equally culpable with 
 those who upheld it. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, if they wish us to receive their 
 aid and sympathy, LET THEM JOIN WITH THE ABOLITIONISTS ; 
 
 if not, WE SHALL REJECT AND REFUSE ALL CONNEXION WITH THEM. (Hear, 
 
 hear.) It has been attempted to mix up Catholicity with the system, and the 
 name of a distinguished individual in the southern States had been alluded to. 
 But he would not now speak of him more than to express a hope, that the alle- 
 gation was untrue; but there was no one who knew what Catholicity was, that 
 did not know, not only that its tenets did not allow of slavery, but proclaimed 
 that it was criminal in those who had any participation in the system. (Hear, 
 hear, and loud cheers.) 
 
 Reply of John O'Connell, Esq., M. P., to a letter from James Haughton, Esq. 
 
 30, Merrion Square, 27th Jan. 1842. 
 
 My Dear Sir: — I beg to assure you, and the other gentlemen of the Com- 
 mittee, that there is no abatement of zeal on the part of the Repeal Association 
 in the blessed cause of negro freedom. You would have easily seen this, had 
 you been at our meeting of Monday week, when my father alluded, in strong 
 terms, to slavery in America, and met the warmest approbation of the assem- 
 bly. The most effectual means, too, of spreading abroad the knowledge and 
 the detestation of that hideous system have been taken, by the collection 
 together, by order of the Association, of all the extracts I read at former meet- 
 ings on the subject of negro slavery, Avith a view to publish them in the form of 
 a report, and to distribute them ivith our reports. I have prepared a short intro- 
 duction to be prefixed to these extracts, and I think you will find it to speak the 
 Association's sentiments as to slavery, in terms not to be mistaken. * * * 
 
 / trust we noio stand acquitted of the charge, that our ' cry for liberty is a 
 mere selfish affair.'' We do not and did not deserve this charge. Our warmest 
 exertions are ready to be given, and, whenever the occasion offers, are given, 
 freely and heartily, to every movement in favor of the liberty and happiness of any 
 and all the branches of the universal family of man. If we have been more 
 before the public in our particular character as Repealers of the legislative 
 union between England and Ireland, it is because our first duty is to our native 
 land ; but, we have never refused nor neglected an opportunity of raising our voices 
 
48 
 
 in support and vindication of the rights of others ; and one of the strongest 
 incitements that we have to labor for the restoration of our country's legislative 
 independence is, that hers will then be the potential voice of a nation, and no 
 longer the unheeded cry of a mendicant province, upraised in the cause of lib- 
 erty and of Christianity. 
 
 I remain, my dear sir, ever faithfully yours, 
 
 John O'Connell. 
 Jaraes Haughton, Esq. 
 
 Be careful to observe, that neither the elder nor the younger O'Con- 
 nell spoke merely their ow^n sentiments, but they also spoke for all Ire- 
 land — for eight millions of their own countrymen, in a state of almost 
 unequalled physical suffering. " It was right " — nobly did they say — 
 " that, when putting forward their claims to become a nation, they should 
 be able to put forth a claim upon this ground also, that they had shoion 
 their sympathies for the slaves.'''' With you, they say — " Our first duty 
 is to our native land " ; but, they proudly add, what it is not now in 
 your power to declare — " We have never refused nor neglected an op- 
 portunity of raising our voices in support and vindication of the rights 
 of others" — even of the American slaves, across the wide Atlantic ! 
 Surely, such a people deserve to be free and independent ! 
 
 But they go further. They tell the millions of their countrymen who 
 have migrated to America, that, if they have any connection with sla- 
 very, " we have neither kindred nor sympathy for them — we reject their 
 proffered assistance." Nay, " if they are passive observers of the 
 atrocity, we spurn their association." Nay, more — " if they wish us to 
 receive their aid and sympathy, let them join with the aholitionists ; if 
 not, we shall reject and refuse all connection with them ; for it is doubly 
 incumbent upon those who are witnesses of it, to oppose the demoraliz- 
 ing and atrocious system." 
 
 Sir, the analogy between the condition and aim of Hungary and Ire- 
 land, if defective in some particulars, is sufficiently close to warrant the 
 presentation of it as an argument and an illust]*ation. " Ireland for 
 Ireland," was the watchword of O'Connell. " Hungary for Flun- 
 gary," is yours. In other words, let each nation manage its own affairs, 
 without foreign intervention. In the opinion of O'Connell, the Repeal 
 of the Union which subjugated Ireland to England was as essential to 
 the full development of Ireland, as the overthrow of the house of Haps- 
 burg is deemed by you indispensable to the freedom and prosperity of 
 Hungary. But there is this difference : he acted upon principle — you 
 are inspired by a sentiment : to save Ireland, he would not consent to 
 be gagged upon any subject — to subserve the interests of Hungary, you 
 
49 
 
 are willing not only to wear a padlock upon your lips, but to eulogize, 
 as the special champions of liberty, those who require you to be 
 silent ! (1) 
 
 There are those who seek to justify your non-committal policy on the 
 subject of American slavery. They say — 
 
 That you are here on a special mission, to the promotion of which, 
 every thing else may justifiably give place : 
 
 That what you have done and suffered for Hungary should satisfy the 
 most skeptical as to your abhorrence of oppression in every clime : 
 
 That your speeches are imbued with the warmest feelings of human- 
 ity, and abound with the noblest sentiments of liberty — and these should 
 suffice : 
 
 That the freedom of Hungary will give to American slavery, as well 
 as to European despotism, a fatal blow, and therefore that it should absorb 
 all your powers : 
 
 That to express any sympathy for the anti-slavery movement, or any 
 surprise or regret at the existence of slavery, in this country, would be 
 sure to create an intense excitement, beneath the fiery billows of which, 
 all " material aid" for Hungary would instantly disappear : hence, the 
 
 (1) " Kossuth has sacrificed the cause of liberty itself. He has consented to praise a nation 
 whose liberty is a sham. He has consented to praise the nation which tramples Mexico under 
 foot. He has consented to praise her, that he might save Hungary. Then rate him at his 
 right price. The freedom of twelve millions bought the silence of Louis Kossuth for a year. 
 A world in the scale never bought the silence of O'Conuell or Fayette for a moment That is 
 just the difierence between him and them. O'Conuell, (I was told the anecdote by Sir Thomas 
 Fowell Buxton,) in 1829, after his election to the House of Commons, was called upon by the 
 West India interest, some fifty or sixty strong, who said, " O'Conuell, you have been accus- 
 '^omed to act with Clarkson and Wilberforce, Lushington and Brougham, to speak on the 
 platform of Freemasons' Hall, and advocate what is called the abolition cause. Mark this! 
 If you will break loose from these associates, if you will close your mouth on the slave ques- 
 tion, you may reckon on our undivided support on Irish matters. Whenever your country's 
 claims come up, you shall be sure of fifty votes on your side." "No!" said 0"Connell, "let 
 God care for Ireland ; I will never shut my mouth on the slave question to save her ! " [Loud 
 cheers.] He stood with eight millions whom he loved ; he stood with a peasantry at his back, 
 meted out and trodden under foot as cruelly as the Magyar ; he stood with those behind him, 
 who had been trampled under the horses' feet of the British soldiery in 1782 and 1801 ; he 
 knew the poverty and wretchedness, he knew the oppressions under which the Irish groaned ; 
 but never, for a moment, would he consent to lift Ireland— whose woes, we may well suppose, 
 weighed heavily on the heart of her greatest son— by the sacrifice of the freedom of any other 
 portion of the race. " When," said the friend who told me this anecdote, in conclusion, 
 " when there were no more than two or three of us in the House of Commons, O'Connell 
 would leave any court or any meeting to be present at the division, and vote on our side." 
 That is the type of a man who tries, by its proper standard, the claim of all classes upon his 
 sympathy. He did for Ireland all that God had enabled him to do ; but there was one thing 
 which God had not called upon him to do, and that was, to speak a falsehood or to belie his 
 convictions. He did not undertake to serve his country by being silent when he knew he 
 ought to speak, or speak in language that should convey a false impression to his hearers." 
 —[Speech of Wendell Phillips, Esq., at tht National Anti-Slavery Bazaar, 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 middle course is the safe one — to avoid Scylla on the one hand, and 
 Charybdis on the other : 
 
 That, if you were to give your countenance to any particular reform 
 among us, you would be called upon to endorse every other — and thus 
 the cause of Hungary would be inextricably entangled and mixed 
 up with foreign or collateral issues, to its inevitable injury : 
 
 That you are managing your cause with consummate tact and judg- 
 ment, and in the best manner to secure the glorious end in view, the 
 freedom of all Europe : 
 
 That it is not to be supposed that you understand the nature or extent 
 of our slave system, or its relations to the government, and therefore 
 you ought not to be blamed, but rather commended, for declining to 
 express any opinion upon the subject : 
 
 That you are acting in perfect consistency with the doctrine which 
 you have constantly enforced as the safe rule of conduct — to wit, that 
 it is for the people of every nation to manage their own affairs, without 
 dictation, intermeddling, or influence from any other quarter — &c., 
 &,c., &c. 
 
 Such are the pleas made in your behalf. Doubtless, they embody 
 the substance of your justification, as it lies in your own mind. Cer- 
 tainly, they are not destitute of plausibility. Let us briefly examine 
 them in detail, and see whether they are conclusive. 
 
 I. It is conceded that you have a special work to perform, a cherished 
 object to accomplish, of no small magnitude, in coming to these shores ; 
 and that it would be equally impertinent and unfair to seek to divert you 
 therefrom, by committing you to any party issue or purely local interest. 
 But in what form do you present yourself ? Is it not as a penniless, 
 homeless fugitive from oppression ? Is it not as a sincere and earnest 
 advocate of liberty ? Do you not appeal to us for sympathy and " ma- 
 terial aid" on the broad principles of absolute justice, in the spirit of a 
 common brotherhood, and by all the claims of suffering humanity ? 
 Read your own words : — " The fact is clear, that the despotisms are 
 leagued against the freedom of the world, [not merely of Hungary,] so 
 that there is no hope against them but in the brotherhood of people, 
 headed and protected by England and the United States of America." 
 Again : — " England and America ! do not forget, in your proud secu- 
 rity, those who are oppressed ! Do not grant a charter to the Czar to 
 dispose of humanity ! Do not grant a charter to despots to drown lib- 
 erty in Europe's blood ! Save the myriads who would and will bleed ; 
 and, by not granting this charter, be the liberators of the world ! " Do 
 
51 
 
 you object to being measured by your own standard ? If you insist 
 that it is the duty of the American people to remember the oppressed 
 of Europe, is it impertinent to ask you not to forget the enslaved of 
 America ? When you are seen to take men-stealers fraternally by the 
 hand, and are heard to acknowledge them as the truest friends of liberty, 
 " whose heart is easy to read, because it is open like nature," is such 
 conduct to be allowed to pass without censure, because you have come 
 to these shores on a " special mission ? " You aspire to be " the rep- 
 resentative of that principel of liberty, which God has destined to be- 
 come the common benefit of humanity." Why, then, do you shrink 
 from applying that principle to the case of those who are clanking their 
 chains on our soil ? You exultingly declare — " It is a glorious sight to 
 see a mighty, free, powerful people come forth to greet with such a 
 welcome the principle of freedom, even in a poor, persecuted, penniless 
 exile !" But what have you to say of the spectacle of every sixth per- 
 son held as a chattel among that same " mighty, free (!) and powerful 
 people " ? In England, you were not thus tongue-tied. Respecting 
 the anti-slavery associations of that country, you could speak in the 
 following complimentary terms : — " These associations are bound up 
 with much of the glory of England, because it was by them that every 
 great principle was carried in that country, from the abolition of slavery 
 down to free trade." This you were quite ready to say in a land where 
 there were no slaves sighing for deliverance, no slaveholders needing to 
 be rebuked for their tyranny ; evidently because you knew it would be 
 a popular reference. But you have not the courage to bestow one word 
 of approbation upon similar associations here, whose object, principles, 
 doctrines and measures are essentially the same, and where the number 
 retained in slavery is greater than the entire population of Scotland or 
 New England ; and where your commendation would make a deep im- 
 pression, and be of vital importance in the mighty struggle for universal 
 emancipation. Alas ! you maintain a profound silence when you should 
 lift up your voice in thunder tones ; you speak when and where your 
 approving utterance is of no special value. But, for Hungary, every 
 one is bound to become an advocate or actor ! For Hungary, all the 
 burdens and horrors of a war conjointly with Austria and Russia should 
 be cheerfully hazarded, because she is oppressed ! " May others shut 
 their ears to the cry of oppressed humanity," you exclaim, " because 
 they regard duties but through the glass of petty interests ; the Ameri- 
 can people have that instinct of justice and generosity, which is the 
 stamp of mankind's heavenly origin " ! Have they indeed ? How can 
 
52 
 
 this be reconciled with the existence of slavery and the slave trade 
 among them, to an unparalleled extent ? Despotic as Austria may be, 
 she long since nobly decreed — " Every man, by right of nature, sanc- 
 tioned by reason, must be considered a free person. Every slave be- 
 co7nes free from the moment he touches the Austrian soil, or an Austrian 
 ship." Compare this Decree with the Slave Code and the Fugitive 
 Slave Bill of the United States, and then repeat in the hearing of an as- 
 tonished world your truthless declarations — " Happy art thou, free na- 
 tion of America, that thou hast founded thy house upon the only solid 
 basis of a nation's liberty ! Thou hast no tyrants among thee, to throw 
 the apple of Eros in thy Union ! " — Men, women, children, babes, con- 
 stantly in the market for sale, but not a tyrant in all the land ! " Europe 
 has many things to learn from America : it has to learn the value of 
 free institutions, and the expansive power of freedom " ! Sir, your 
 praise is the most biting satire. 
 
 II. As to what you have done and suffered for Hungary, it proves 
 how great has been your devotion to the liberties and interests of your 
 own countrymen ; but it proves nothing more. Local patriotism, coura- 
 geous and self-sacrificing to the last extremity, is no anomaly in human 
 history. To prove that it is neither selfish nor exclusive, a world-wide 
 test must be applied to it. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" 
 does not mean, " Thou, a Hungarian, shalt love every other Hungarian 
 as thyself," and there terminate : the command is of universal obliga- 
 tion. Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry as willingly peril- 
 led life, character and property, in struggling to overthrow British 
 oppression, as you and your compatriots have done in attempting to 
 throw off Austrian usurpation ; yet, while they lived, they were slave- 
 holders, and drew their sustenance, in part, from the unrequited toil, the 
 tears and blood of their plundered vassals ; and thus were guilty of 
 trampling upon the principles which they professed to hold sacred. The 
 American revolutionists counted nothing dear to them in their struggle 
 for independence ; yet, at that trying period, they held half a million of 
 slaves in " a bondage, one hour of which was fraught with more misery 
 than ages of that which they rose in rebellion to oppose " ; and their 
 descendants are now enslaving three millions two hundred thousand, 
 while holding it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are created equal ! 
 It is one thing for a suffering and an oppressed people to combine for their 
 own deliverance from a galling yoke ; it is quite another thing for them 
 to be regardful of the rights of others. It is comparatively easy to be 
 the leader of millions in arms, cheered by their approving voices, and 
 
53 
 
 supported by their physical sti*ength ; but the case is altered when he who 
 attempts to lead has few or none to follow him, — when those whose 
 cause he advocates are unable to whisper a word of encouragement, — 
 and when no turn of fortune promises station or popularity. The 
 plea, therefore, that your patriotic efforts in Hungary have demonstrated 
 your abhorrence of tyranny in every clime, is not valid, — especially as 
 on this foreign soil you have been weighed in the balance, and found 
 wanting, 
 
 III. It is true, that your speeches abound with the noblest sentiments 
 of liberty ; and these would suffice, if words were always acts, and 
 were not as cheap as the air. But what falls from your lips, in praise 
 of freedom, is precisely what the political demagogues and office-seek- 
 ers here are continually using, but (like yourself) never applying. 
 Nay, none surpass the slaveholders of the South in their rhetorical 
 flourishes against despotism, and in favor of the rights of man. In a 
 recent number of the St. Louis (Ky.) Times, the following definition of 
 Democracy was published in terms of commendation : 
 
 " Democracy is a sentiment not to be appalled, corrupted, or compromised. 
 It knows no baseness, it cowers to no danger, it oppresses no loeakness. Destruc- 
 tive only of despotism, it is the sole conservator of liberty, labor and property. 
 It is the sentiment of freedom, of equal rights, of equal obligations — the law 
 of nature pervading the law of the land." 
 
 In the same number of the Times, the following, with other similar 
 advertisements, appeared : — 
 
 Cash for Negroes. — The highest price will be paid in cash for negroes, 
 on application to the undersigned, stating age, &c. 
 
 MOORE & PORTER. 
 
 At Philadelphia, Judge Kane, fresh from the court before which, es- 
 timable citizens were on trial on the charge of treason, because they 
 would give no co-operation in slave-catching, could attend your banquet, 
 and unblushingly offer the following sentiment : — 
 
 " The cause of human freedom throughout the world ! Its enemies are the 
 same every where, and why should not its allies be the same ? " 
 
 He affected to believe that your " advent upon our shores was indica- 
 tive of a new era, not only in the history of this country, but of the 
 world " — and as though inspired by the noblest feelings for all man- 
 kind, he added, " The duties of man, originally bounded by the home- 
 stead, afterwards expanding around the social circle, had now a wider 
 
54 
 
 orbit than the country in which it pleased God to give him birth. 
 Where there icas a man, there man has found a brother." A most senti- 
 mental slave-catcher ! 
 
 Presiding at the banquet given to you in Philadelphia, Hon. George 
 M. Dallas could readily taunt Prussia with being " a vast barbaric em- 
 pire," and say — " Her structure, her policy, her cunning, her supersti- 
 tion, are inherently and irreconcilably adverse to human progress 
 rights and happiness." He could pathetically allude to your case, and 
 ask — " Why, when wandering a defenceless exile from strand to strand, 
 far separated from the sustaining sympathies of country, race, and 
 home, does inexorable tyranny, with agitated eye, follow his track — 
 while its poisoned arrows of defamation are furtively shot in advance to 
 obstruct his progress, or to deaden his appeals ? " He could talk of 
 " Despotism writhing like the huge reptile under the darts of Apollo, 
 unconsciously recognizing the might, the majesty of Liberty." Yet, of 
 all the Northern sycophants of the Slave Power, no one has more 
 basely bowed the knee than himself. It is not long since he wrote to 
 a Southern slaveholder, approving an alteration in the Constitution of 
 the United States, so as to give ample security to the slave system 
 against the growing spirit of freedom at the North ! While, sir, in your 
 case, he can express sympathy with " a wandering and defenceless 
 exile," whose track is followed by " inexorable tyranny," no one is more 
 eager than himself for the recapture of every fugitive slave who en- 
 deavors to find a hiding-place at the North ! 
 
 Under the Fugitive Slave Law, already several victims have been 
 seized and hurried from the soil of Pennsylvania, back to galling chains 
 and a frightful servitude. That State is the " keystone of the arch " of 
 the slave system, at least as far as the North is concerned. In no other 
 non-slaveholding State is there less sympathy with the anti-slavery move- 
 ment. Yet in your speech in Philadelphia, you could say — " The lib- 
 erty of this land was not only proclaimed, but also achieved. You stand 
 a proud, a mighty nation, unparalleled in history. But there is one 
 word of that prophecy unfulfilled, and that word is — all — proclaim 
 liberty to all the land. Now, as there is one Father only in heaven, 
 and as there is one mankind only on earth ; so all that prophecy cannot 
 be fulfilled until other nations are at least, if not so glorious, yet as free 
 and independent as you." The adroitness with which you overlook our 
 slave population, and apply the command, " Proclaim liberty throughout 
 all the land, u7ito all the inhabitants thereof^ to " other nations," in- 
 stead of giving it a true and natural rendering, is equally palpable and 
 
65 
 
 significant. In desiring that " other nations" may be as free as ours, 
 practically you ask that every sixth person of their entire population 
 may be made a slave, for whose deliverance it shall be deemed a fac- 
 tious and criminal act to plead ! And this, you declare, constitutes a 
 a basis on which we have " founded a building of human freedom, and 
 of the development of the human intellect, and of civilization, prouder, 
 loftier than that which humanity before you ,has beheld through five 
 thousand years" ! Sir, something more is needed, in this country, than 
 glowing generalities, to prove a man to be true to the cause of human 
 liberty, without regard to complexion or clime. 
 
 IV. To the plea, that, by securing freedom for Hungary, you will 
 give a powerful blow to slavery in America, it may be replied — first, 
 even if this should follow, (which is to beg the question,) nothing can 
 justify shuffling and double-dealing, unmerited panegyric, the substitu- 
 tion of falsehood for the truth ; secondly, that it is paradoxical to talk of 
 doing the best thing that can be done for your unhappy countrymen, 
 and for the chattel slaves of this land, by striking hands in amity with 
 the advocates and upholders of slavery ; thirdly, that if the slave power 
 of America has cause to dread your success in Hungary, then, in com- 
 ing to this country for " material aid," you are convicted of extreme 
 folly, — and in trying to propitiate that power, you are guilty of gross 
 duplicity ; and, finally, that the truth is, instead of the liberated Hunga- 
 rian striking the chains from the limbs of the American slave, the exist- 
 ence of slavery in this republic is the all-sustaining prop of European 
 absolutism, and the mightiest obstacle to the progress of liberty through- 
 out the world. 
 
 V. The excuse for your silence on the subject of slavery, (so gravely 
 reiterated as a full justification,) that, if you were to avow your real 
 sentiments, you would excite general alarm and indignation, and quench 
 every spark of sympathy for Hungary, it must be confessed, embodies 
 a terrible truth ; but, instead of relieving you from censure, it deepens 
 your criminality. It shows how absolute is the sway of the slave power 
 over this whole nation ; it is a confession, that there is no substance in 
 the welcome that you are receiving (as you flatter yourself ) as " the 
 representative of that principle of liberty which God has destined to be- 
 come the common property of humanity " ; and, with this consciousness 
 of the delicacy of your position, it renders disgusting and intolerable 
 your endless encomiums of the United States as " the land of protec- 
 tion for the persecuted sons of freedom among the great brotherhood of 
 nations — great, glorious, and free" — &c., &c. Sir, what will posterity 
 
56 
 
 think of you ? You, a homeless and penniless fugitive, but refusing to 
 manifest any sympathy for the fugitives from an incomparably worse 
 than Austrian despotism! You, " a humble petitioner, with no other 
 claims than those which the oppressed have to the sympathy of free- 
 men," but deterred from acknowledging the superior claims of the 
 American slave, who is supplicating for mercy ! You, who profess to 
 see in our " star-spangled banner, the proud ensign of mankind's divine 
 origin," but afraid to cast a glance of commiseration at the millions 
 whose " divine origin " is practically denied under that banner ! You, 
 who make the act of your liberation, *' the revelation of the fact, that 
 the United States are resolved not to allow the despots of the world to 
 trample on oppressed humanity," but dare not in the United States say 
 'ausht asainst the traffic " in slaves and the souls of men " ! And all 
 this, to promote the interests of your own countrymen, whose condition 
 is one of comparative freedom and happiness ! 
 
 " The cause of the solidarity of human rights," which you have 
 come " to plead before the great republic of the United States," is not 
 Hungarian, but universal. A people who aim or desire to be saved at 
 the expense, or to the detriment of any other, is undeserving of salva- 
 tion. This land is too full of compromisers and trimmers, to need your 
 presence to teach us how to do evil, that good may come. What we 
 need, what the world demands, is, an illustrious example of fidelity to 
 the principles of liberty, in their application not merely to one but to all 
 races and lands. You cannot be too true to Hungary ; but you ought 
 not, for her sake, to be false to America — and false you will be, if you 
 fail to rebuke her for her atrocious system of slavery. The fact, that 
 her soil is stained with blood, that there is no other institution to which 
 she clings with so much tenacity as to that of slavery, that your welcome 
 depends upon your silence where even the very stones should cry out, 
 that the universal sympathy which is expressed for your oppressed 
 countrymen would instantly be turned to rage, and thus proved to be 
 spurious — this fact alone would make you faithful and fearless, in- 
 stead of timid and parasitical, if " God, the Almighty," had selected 
 you " to represent the cause of humanity " before us. 
 
 VI. As there is, in reality, only one reason for your turning a deaf 
 ear to the cry of imbruted humanity umong us, — and that is, an appre- 
 hension of exciting popular displeasure, — it is idle to pretend that you 
 are compelled to take this course, to avoid being mixed up with a multi- 
 tude of extraneous matters that would otherwise be pressed upon your 
 consideration. The case of millions deprived of personal liberty, and 
 
67 
 
 subjected to all the mutations of property, is too distinct and too awful 
 to be put into the same categoiy with the question of tariff, or free trade, 
 or the extension of suffrage, or the distribution of the public lands, or 
 social re-organization, or national independence, or non-intervention, or 
 any other question relating to individual advancement or the general 
 welfare. In every land, men differ — widely and honestly differ — in 
 their views respecting the science of political economy, and the best 
 form of government, whether for transient or permanent adoption. But, 
 as to chattelizing those upon whom the Creator has stamped his own 
 image, " the same verdict has always been rendered — ' Guilty !' — the 
 same sentence has always been pronounced — ' Let it be accursed !' — 
 and human nature, with her million echoes, has rung it round the world 
 in every language under heaven — ' Let it be accursed ! ' His heart 
 is false to human nature, who will not say, ' Amen ! ' There is not 
 a man on earth, who does not believe that slavery is a curse. Hu- 
 man beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to herself. 
 She has uttered her testimony against slavery with a shriek ever since 
 the monster was begotten ; and till it perishes amidst the execrations of 
 the universe, she will traverse the world on its track, dealing her bolts 
 upon its head, and dashing against it her condemning brand. We re- 
 peat it, every man knows that slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, 
 his lips libel his heart. Try him ! Clank the chains in his ears, and 
 tell him they are for him ; give him an hour to prepare his wife and 
 children for a life of slaver}^ ; bid him make haste, and get ready their 
 necks for the yoke, and their wrists for the cofile chains ; then look at 
 his pale lips and trembling knees, and you have nature's testimony 
 against slavery." So isolated, therefore, is this from every other ques- 
 tion that now awakens interest or excites agitation on our soil, that, 
 whether you give a full and manly expression of your feelings, once for 
 all, or only incidentally raise a condemnatory voice in regard to it, it will 
 furnish no just occasion to extort from you an opinion on any question, 
 however important, that is strictly local in its application. 
 
 But, sir, if you are to be excused from taking one step here, in aid of 
 suffering humanity, lest it may require others to be taken, terminating 
 you know not where, then, certainly, it is not for you to insist on the 
 cause of Hungary being espoused by this nation, at whatever hazard, 
 and lead where it may ! If we should interpose, in any manner, to 
 secure freedom and independence for the oppressed of your country, 
 why not also for the oppressed of all other countries ? If we take the 
 first step which you desire, who can predict what will be the entangle- 
 
58 
 
 ments, troubles and calamities growing out of it ? What claims has 
 Hungary upon us, that Poland, tiiat Italy, that British India, cannot as 
 strongly and consistently urge ? Yet you will listen to no excuses ; you 
 bid us see that justice is done, though the heavens fall ; you implore us 
 not by inaction to " grant a charter to despots to drown liberty in Eu- 
 rope's blood " ; and you base your appeal on the ground of universal 
 humanity. Are you not condemned out of your own mouth ? 
 
 VII. As to the tact displayed by you, in the management of your 
 cause, it certainly indicates great worldly shrewdness. In England, you 
 could eulogize the government, advocate free trade, and warmly com- 
 mend the abolition of West India slavery as " bound up with much of 
 the glory " of that country ; for this was sailing with both wind and tide. 
 In the United States, your admiration is boundless for the Union, the 
 Constitution, the Government, even the Mexican war, unparalleled for 
 its turpitude, because waged expressly for the extension and perpetuity 
 of slavery. All this is congenial with the popular taste. But as for 
 free trade, the anti-slavery enterprise, &c., these are questions of " do- 
 mestic policy " with which you cannot properly meddle, because they 
 have not yet become victorious ! You will find, sir, in the end, that 
 " honesty is the best policy," and that no amount of skilful diplomacy 
 can be advantageously substituted for manly rectitude. Strive as you 
 may to propitiate the slave power, by which this government is moulded 
 and directed, it will be only to your own degradation, and without attain- 
 ing the end you desire. 
 
 VIII. The plea, that, in fairness, you must be supposed to know little 
 or nothing intelligently about slavery in this country, and therefore are 
 excusable for declining to express any opinion concerning it, is too shal- 
 low to bear an examination. It is manifest that you need not any illu- 
 mination whatever on the subject. You are not more distinguished for 
 the fervor of your eloquence, than you are for your historical knowledge. 
 Exhibhing, as you do, so familiar an acquaintance with American 
 affairs, from the earliest period, it is preposterous to assume that you 
 have yet to learn to what extent slavery is tolerated on our soil, or how 
 far the nation, as such, is responsible for it. Before leaving the shores 
 of England, (as has already been stated,) the information communica- 
 ted to you, on this point, by philanthropic individuals and associations, 
 was abundant. The excessive care you have taken, since your arrival 
 here, to say and do nothing indicative of sympathy with our down- 
 trodden bondmen, is proof not of your ignorance of their miserable 
 condition, but that you perfectly understand how absolute and all perva- 
 
59 
 
 ding is the power which grinds them to the dust ; and, consequently, how 
 unpopular and perilous it is to plead their cause. Yet you have the 
 assurance to say — " I am here on the free ground of free America. 
 The United States number many millions of inhabitants, all attached 
 with warm feelings to the princijyles of liberty " .' .' 
 
 IX. If you are acting consistently with the course originally marked 
 out by you, not to be identified with any movements among us, — and 
 with the rule you have laid down, and so frequently referred to, that it 
 is for the people of every nation to manage their own affairs, without 
 any foreign intervention whatever, — it does not prove either the sound- 
 ness of the rule or the wisdom of your conduct. For if the civil disa- 
 bilities imposed upon your own countrymen are such as should excite 
 the sympathy and elicit the remonstrances of other nations, surely the 
 utter annihilation of the rights of millions on this boasted soil of free- 
 dom justifies, nay demands, the indignant protest of every friend of 
 liberty throughout the world. How far you think we ought to go, in 
 behalf of Hungary, you frankly disclose in the following admission 
 made in your speech at the dinner given to you by the New York Bar : — 
 
 "But I 'may be answered — 'Well, if we (the United States) make such a 
 declaration of non-admission of the interference of Russia in Hungary, (be- 
 cause that is the practical meaning of the word ; I will not deny,) and Russia 
 will not respect our declaration — then we might have to go to war.' And there 
 is the rub. Well, I am not the man to decline the consequence of my princi- 
 ples. I will not steal into your sympathy by slippery evasion. Yes, gentlemen, 
 / confess, should Russia not respect such a declaration of your country, then you 
 are obliged, literally obliged, to go to war, or else be prepared to be degraded before 
 mankind from your dignity. Yes, 1 confess that would be the case." 
 
 For the relief, then, of those who are oppressed thousands of miles 
 from us, it is our duty to interfere, sublimely indifferent to what may 
 befall us, and at the risk of being " literally obliged to go to war" with 
 the most formidable power on earth ! All this is very clear to you as a 
 fugitive from oppression, and unquestionably proper for the relief of 
 outraged Hungarians ! But when you are asked, on the ground of con- 
 sistency, and by all the claims that suffering hnmanity can present, to 
 " remember them that are in bonds " in this country " as bound with 
 them," you affect to regard the call as impertinent, and declare that you 
 have no right nor wish to exert any influence in their favor ! What 
 makes your conduct the more extraordinary is, that, while you do not 
 scruple to solicit of us " material aid " — i. e. money and arms — and to 
 invoke us to run the risk of involving ourselves in a bloody revolution- 
 ary struggle on European soil — you shrink from giving any counte- 
 
60 
 
 nance, even of a moral kind, to a peaceful movement for the abolition 
 of slavery in this country, the language of whose advocates is — " The 
 principles of our revolutionary sires led them to wage war against their 
 oppressors, and to spill human blood like water, in order to be free. 
 Ours forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, 
 and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for 
 deliverance from bondage. Their measures were physical resistance — ■ 
 the marshalling in arms — the hostile array — the mortal encounter. 
 Ours shall be such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corrup- 
 tion — the destruction of error by the potency of truth — the overthrow of 
 prejudice by the power of love — and the abolition of slavery by the 
 spirit of repentance." (1) 
 
 But, sir, it is not true that you are pursuing a non-committal course, 
 (even if, in your case, it were justifiable to do so,) on the question of 
 American slavery. To say that " the language of liberty is the lan- 
 guage of the people of the United States " ; that " the United States are 
 resolved to become the protectors of human rights " ; that " it is your 
 glorious country which Providence has selected to be the pillar of free- 
 dom, as it is already the asylum to oppressed humanity " ; is not this to 
 treat the enslavement of one sixth portion of our population With entire 
 disregard, and to feed the self-complacency of their brutal oppressors ? 
 To address, as the true friends of freedom, such men as Fillmoke, "Web- 
 ster, Clay and Cass, — the great political props of the slave system, — 
 is this to occupy neutral ground ? To come to a slave-breeding, slave- 
 hunting government, like ours, as qualified to testify and act against 
 Russian usurpation, — is this to pass no judgment upon our national char- 
 acter, and to give it no endorsement ? To call slavery " a question of 
 domestic policy,^' — to require of every Hungarian resident on our soil 
 " non-interference " with it as a duty, and on pain of being branded as 
 acting " injuriously to the interest of his own country," — is this not 
 taking sides against the slave > To declare, over and over again, " I 
 never did or will do any thing, which, in the remotest tcay, could inter- 
 fere with the matter alluded to," [slavery,] — is not this to do the bidding 
 of the slave power in the most effectual manner ? 
 
 As to your theory of non-interference with the affairs of another 
 country, it is essentially anti-christian and inhuman, as exemplified in 
 your conduct among us ; for it strikes a blow at every foreign mission- 
 ary enterprise, brands the venerable apostles of Christ as intermeddlers, 
 and virtually repeals the command, " Go ye into all the word, and 
 
 (1) Declaration of Anti-ISlavery Sentiments. 
 
61 
 
 preach the gospel of freedom to every creature." To say or imply 
 that, being a Hungarian, your right to assail despotism with moral 
 weapons in any other portion of the world, terminates at the boundary 
 line of Hungary, is to be guilty of a Jewish exclusiveness, and to adopt 
 as valid the interrogation of Cain, " Am I my brother's keeper" ? 
 
 You are now at the Seat of Government, in the city of Washington, 
 the Capital of the United States. You have been introduced to Presi- 
 dent Fillmore, and to both houses of Congress. In your address to the 
 President, you say, " The star-spangled banner was seen casting its 
 protection around me, announcing to the world there is a nation, alike 
 powerful as free " — "cheered by your people's sympathy, so as free- 
 men cheer, not a man lohatever, but a pkinciple " — and " may God, 
 the Almighty, bless you with a long life, that you may long enjoy the 
 happiness to see your country great, glorious and free, the corner-stone 
 of international justice, and the column of freedom on the earth, as it is 
 already an asylum to the oppressed" ! ! In your speech at the Congres- 
 sional Banquet, you say : — 
 
 " As once Cyneas, the Epirote, stood among the Senators of Rome, who, 
 with an earnest v/ord of self-conscious majesty, controlled the condition of the 
 world, and arrested mighty kings in their ambitious march; \.hus, full of admira- 
 tion and reverence, I stand before you, legislators of the new capitol — that glo- 
 rious hall of your people's collective majesty. The capitol of old yet stands, 
 but the spirit has departed from it and come over to yours, purifed by the air of 
 liberty. The old stands a mournful monument of the fragility of human things 
 — yours as a sanctuary of eternal rights. The old beamed with the red lustre 
 of conquest, now darkened by oppression's gloomy night — yours beams with 
 freedom^ bright ray. The old absorbed the world by its own centralized glory — 
 yours protects your own nation's absorption, even by itself. The old was awful 
 with unrestricted pcwer — yours is glorious with having restricted it. At the 
 view of the old, nations trembled — at the vieiv of yours, humanity hopes. To 
 the old, misfortune was only introduced with fettered hands to kneel at the tri- 
 umphant conqueror's heels — to yours, the triumph of introduction is granted to 
 unfortunate exiles, invited to the honor of a seat. And where kings and Caesars 
 never will be hailed, for their power, might, and wealth, there the persecuted 
 chief of a down-trodden nation is welcomed as your great Republic's guest, 
 precisely because he is persecuted, helpless and poor. In the old, the terrible 
 VfB victis was the rule — in yours, protection to the oppressed, malediction to am- 
 bitious oppressors, and consolation to the vanquished in a just cause. And while 
 out of the old, a conquered world was ruled, you in yours provide for the com- 
 mon confederative interests of a territory larger than the conquered world of 
 the old. There sat men boasting their will to be the sovereigns of the world ; 
 here sit men ivhose glory is to acknowledge the laivs of JVature and of JSfatwe^s 
 God, and to do ivhat their sovereign, the people, ivills." 
 
 Sir, more biting satire than this was never uttered ; yet you did not 
 mean to be satirical. Language more at variance with the truth was 
 never spoken. As a commentary upon it, let the following scenes^ 
 
62 
 
 which have occurred in that Capital which you insist " beams with free- 
 dom's bright ray," which is "the sanctuary of eternal rights," at "the 
 view of which, humanily hopes," and in the legislative halls of which 
 " sit men whose glory is to acknowledge the laws of Nature and of 
 Nature's God," {vide the Slave Code of the District of Columbia (1) 
 and the Fugitive Slave Bill !) as specimens of what has been constantly 
 occurring therein for the last sixty years : — 
 
 The Washington Union of July 3, 1845, contained an advertisement, 
 offering for sale to the highest bidder, on the 13th of July, the following 
 property, viz: 
 
 " One negro woman, named Elizabeth, about the age of sixty years ; and 
 one negro girl, named Caroline, about the age of twenty years — seized and 
 levied upon as tlie property of Henry Miller, and sold to satisfy judicials. No. 
 22, October term, 18i7, in favor of the Post Master General; also, judicials, 
 Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, to June term, 1847, in favor of the United States, and 
 against said Henry Miller. 
 
 ALEXANDER HUNTER, 
 
 Marshal of the District of Col" 
 
 The National Era says : — 
 
 " At the appointed time, the sale took place. Two women — a mother, aged 
 about sixty, and a daughter of twenty — were sold hy the United States Marshal, 
 to satisfy a United States claim; and the proceeds of the sale were deposited 
 in the United States Treasury, in defraying the expenditures of the United 
 States Government " ! ! ! 
 
 Read the following statement from the Washington Spectator, of 
 1830 :— 
 
 " Let it be known to the citizens of America, that at the very time when the 
 procession, which contained the President of the United States and his Cabinet, 
 was marching in triumph to the Capital, another kind of procession was march- 
 ing another way ; and that consisted of colored human beings, handcuffed in 
 pairs, and driven along by what had the appearance of a man on liorseback ! A 
 similar scene was repeated on Saturday last. A drove consisting of males and 
 females, chained in couples, starting from Roly's tavern on foot for Alexandria, 
 ■where with others they are to embark on board a slave ship in waiting to convey 
 them to the South." 
 
 Take the testimony of the late Ex-President John Quincy Adabis, 
 as given on the floor of Congress in 1838 : — 
 
 " He (Mr. Pickens, of S. C.) does not know the crushing and destruction of 
 all the tenderest and holiest ties of nature which this system produces, but which 
 
 (1) "The old slave laws of Virginia and Maryland, marked by the barbarity of other days, 
 form by Act of Congress the slave code of the District. Of this code, a single sample will suf- 
 fice. A slave convicted of setting fire to a building shall have his head cut off, and his body 
 divided into quartsrs, and the parts set up in the most public places ■' " — Judge Jat. 
 
63 
 
 I have seen, tvith my own eyes, in ihis city of Washington. Twelve months have 
 not passed since a -woman, in this District, was taken with her four infant chil- 
 dren, and separated from her husband, who was a free man, to be sent away, I 
 know not where. That woman in a dungeon in Alexandria, killed with her own 
 hand two of her own children, and attempted to kill the others. The woman was 
 asked how she could perpetrate such an act, for she had been a woman of un- 
 blemished character and religious sentiments. She replied, that wrong had been 
 done to her and to them, that she was entitled to her freedom, though she had 
 been sold to go to Georgia ; and that she had sent her children to a belter 
 world." 
 
 Read the following advertisentient, and say whether St. Petersburg 
 or Vienna can match it for atrocity — a woman and her babe thrust into 
 the jail at Washington, by the United States Marshal, on suspicion of 
 being runaways, and to be soldinto slavery, if not claimed, to pay their 
 jail fees ! ! 
 
 Notice. Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District of 
 Columbia, as a runaway, a negro woman, by the name of Polly Leiper, and her 
 infant child William. Says she was set free by John Campbell, of Richmond, 
 (Va.) in 1818 or 1819. The owner of the above described woman and child, 
 if any, is requested to come and prove them, and take them away ; or they will 
 be sold for their jail fees, and other expenses, as the law directs. 
 
 Tench Ringgold, Marshal. 
 
 Washington, May 19, 1827. 
 
 Here is another advertisement of a similar character : — • 
 
 Notice. Was committed to the jail of Washington County, District of 
 Columbia, on the 23d of July, 1847, as a runaway, a negro woman, who calls 
 herself Ann E. Hodges. She is nearly black, about 5 feet 5 1-4 inches high, 
 and about 22 years of age. Had on, when committed, a slate-colored merino 
 dress, and a brown calico sun-bonnet. She says she is free, and served her 
 time out with a Mr. Benjamin Daltry, of Southampton, Va. ; and that Messrs. 
 Griffin & Bishop, of the same place, know her to be free. She has tivo scars 
 on the left leg, near the knee, from the bite of a dog, one on her left tvrist, and one 
 on the point of her breast-bone, occasioned by a burn. The owner or owners of 
 the above described negro woman are hereby required to come forward, prove 
 her, and take her away, or she xvill be sold for her prison and other expenses, as 
 
 THE LAW DIRECTS. 
 
 RoBT. Ball, Jailer, for 
 A. Hunter, Marshal. (1) 
 Washington, Aug. 23, 1847. 
 
 (1) By the report of the committee on the District of Columbia, in 1829, it appears that, in 
 three years, 179 human beings were, by the authority of the Federal Government, arrested in one 
 county of the District, and committed to prison on no allegation of crime, but merely on sus- 
 picion of being fugitive slaves! "The Marshal of the United States," says Judge Jay, " after 
 deciding on the liberty or bondage of his prisoners, is allowed to take his fees in human flesh, 
 and the condemned becomes the property of the very judge who sentenced him to servitude, 
 and who carries him into the market, there to make out of him as much money as he can! 
 • * * Thus to this judge the law offers a high and tempting bribe to sell men he knows to 
 be free, and thus he becomes a manufacturer of slaves ! " In one instance, at least, Mr. Eing- 
 
64 
 
 In 1846, a number of slaves attempted to escape from the District of 
 Columbia, the Capital which " beams with freedom's bright ray," and 
 is " the sanctuary of eternal rights," in the schooner Pearl, commanded 
 bj Capt. Sayres, bound for a Northern port. The following is an 
 account of their capture and treatment : — 
 
 " It is as I expected : the poor negroes are taken, with captain, crew, vessel 
 and alL This morning, as I left my boarding house, I saw coming from the 
 street that leads to the landing, a long procession of colored people, and quite 
 a number of soulless looking white men, marching in the direction of the 
 Pennsylvania Avenue. I hastened to meet them, and as they came in front of 
 the United States Hotel, the crowd became so dense that it was next to impos- 
 sible for them to proceed. The captain and his crew were with them, with 
 their hands manacled. As soon as the former became generally known to the 
 crowd, the most intense excitement was manifested by the multitude. Oaths, 
 that v.-ouId have made even devils tremble, were poured forth, and vengeance 
 seemed to be depicted upon their countenances. ' Drag him out 1 ' cried some. 
 
 ' Knock his d —d brains out .' ' cried others. ' Shoot him ! shoot the hell-hound .' ' 
 
 ' Lay hold of him ! hanz the d d riUain 1 ' were some of the mildest epi- 
 thets that were used by this fierce-looking band of pandemonium wretches. In 
 the mean time, some of the ofncers came to the poor fellow's relief, and he was 
 hastily put into a carriage, and driven to the jail. The procession then went 
 on towards the jail of the district, and I hastened in advance to get a view of 
 the whole. The men were tied together with ropes, by couples. Some of them 
 were fine looking fellows, but their countenances wore an expression of sad- 
 ness. There were about thirty women in the train, but these were permitted 
 to march in double file, without being hand-cuffed or tied. Some of them 
 carried babes, others led children, and many were weeping over their sad fate, 
 while ever and anon the brutes who drove them would order them to hush their 
 snivelling: and to make their order more imposing, would raise their cudgels 
 over their heads, as if about to strike. As they entered the gate that opens 
 into the jail, I counted them, and found there were ia ail eighty-five. Some 
 were whiter than the wretches who had them in custody, and looked far more 
 intellectual and worthy of liberty. The throng around the jail was immense, 
 and I could hear the most bitter imprecations against the abolitionists and the 
 abolition paper (National Era") of the District. 
 
 The vessel in which they were taken, was boarded by the steamer at the 
 mouth of the river, where she was lying at anchor for a favorable breeze to 
 take them up the bay. As the steamboat hove in sight, the negroes wished to 
 fight and defend themselves, but were not permitted to by the captain. They 
 then suffered themselves to be quietly taken, and are in jail by virtue of laws 
 sanctioned by the American Congress ; and you, sods of the Pilgrims, will be 
 under the necessity of contributing your mite to sustain this system of oppres- 
 sion. Oh I this is a glorious country. Let the star-spangled banner be flung 
 
 gold's speculations appears not to have been very productive, having sold the victim for only 
 S20. -while his jail fees amonnted to S>i S2. Xo reason is aligned for this nominal price. 
 Very probably, it was a case similar to the one described by the Hon. Charles Miner, in his 
 speech on the floor of the House of Eepresentatives, in 1S29. ■• In Angnst, 1S2I," said 3It. il., 
 " a black man was taien np, and imprisoned as a ninaway. He was kept confined nntil Octo- 
 ber. IS^. four hundred and five days. In this time, vermin, disease and misery had deprived 
 him of the use of his limbs. He was rendered a cripple for life, and finally discharged, 
 as no ont icoidd imy him.'" 
 
65 
 
 to the breeze ; let peal3 of victory rend the heavens ; let cheers go up ; for sla- 
 very has triumphed over liberty, the oppressed are retaken, and are nov/ in 
 chains to await their doom. 
 
 Ever since that period, Sayres and Drayton, the humane captain 
 and mate of the vessel in which these poor victims attempted to make 
 their escape, have been languishing in prison at Washington, and there 
 is no prospect of their liberation ! 
 
 Here is an incident which occurred in Washington, a few days before 
 your advent in that city, as related by a correspondent of the Ashtabula 
 (Ohio) Sentinel, — probably the Hon. Joshua R. Giddings : — 
 
 " Yesterday, a servant man came to my room, saying a colored woman 
 wished to speak with me. I told him to show her up. He soon returned with 
 her. She was sobbing, and evidently in great agony of mind. I asked the 
 cause of her grief. It was some time before she could so far compose her 
 mind as to relate to me her misfortune; which consisted in living under the 
 barbarous laws enacted by Congress for the government of this district. She 
 said her husband had just been sold to a slave dealer, and taken to the bara- 
 coons of Alexandria — that his purchaser was intending to take him to Alabama 
 in two or three days, — that she had four children at home. At this point, she 
 burst out into a loud expression of her grief. Her sobbings were interrupted 
 occasionally with the exclamations of " Oh God ! Oh my dear children ! Oh 
 my husband ! ' then appealing to me, ' Oh master, for God's sake do try to get 
 back the father of my babes ! ' 
 
 "I learned that her husband's name is George Tooman. His former owner 
 is a female, named Martha Johnwood, living east of the capitol some half a 
 mile. George went to work this morning in the barn, at husking corn, without 
 any suspicion of the fate which awaited him. The slave dealer and an assist- 
 ant came to the barn, seized him, placed handcuffs upon him, and hurried him 
 off to the slave pen in Alexandria. 
 
 " The woman hearing of it followed him here on foot, and returned, and then 
 sought me in the vain hope that I should be able to assist her. The day is 
 said by many to be the coldest known here for years, yet she has been exposed 
 to the keen piercing winds, although I think she was thinly clad. She^had not 
 seen her children since morning, when she left them without firewood. I en- 
 deavored to soothe her feelings by expressing some faint hope that her husband 
 might yet be redeemed — that 1 would make inquiry, and ascertain if I could 
 tind some one who would repurchase him, and permit him to remain in the 
 district. It was dark when she left my room to return to her home, rendered 
 bitter by the fate of the husband and father. The cold winds rocked the 
 building, and howled mournfully about the corners. I reflected upon the bar- 
 barous law by which Congress has authorized and encouraged such crimes, and 
 inflicted such misery upon the down-trodden of God's poor. ' I trembled for 
 my country when I reflected that God was just, and that his justice will not 
 sleep forever.' I asked myself the question, will Heaven permit such wicked- 
 ness, such barbarous cruelty to go unpunished ? Yet Mr. Fillmore in his mes- 
 sage advises Congress to abide by the Compromise as a final settlement of the 
 slave question, and leave the colored women who are wives and mothers in 
 this district to the operations of this savage law — would leave fathers here to 
 be sold in the manner above related — leave children here to be robbed of their 
 parents. And the Whig caucus resolve substantially that they will lend their 
 aid to sustain this law, which would disgrace the tyrant of Austria, and would 
 add a deeper infamy to Haynau, the butcher of the Hungarians. 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 My feelings are too much excited on this subject to write coolly. I only 
 ■wish the men of Ashtabula county, who, since 184S, have unintentionally sus- 
 tained by their voles and influence this slave trade, could have witnessed the 
 tears, the horror of mind, the deep anguish of that woman's heart, that they 
 could have heard her wailings,herejaculatory prayers for her children. Methinks 
 they would not adhere to party dictation with so much devotion." 
 
 Here is the testimony of the Hon. He.xky L. Ellsworth, for many 
 years U. S. Commissioner of Patents at AVashington, in a speech deliv- 
 ered by him at Lafayette, Indiana, in 184S : — 
 
 " I have resided ten long years in a slave territory — the District of Columbia 
 — the little spot the nation emphatically calls her own. Would to God that I 
 could say slavery was not there ! But there it is, to greet the arrival of stran- 
 gers attracted to the metropolis by business or curiosity. Yes, there it is in 
 awful reality. In full sight of great legislators — near the Western gate of the 
 capitol, and almost reached by its flag — the "Pen" is found, walled in and 
 guarded, with manacles and handcuffs, the paraphernalia of a slave ship. There 
 human beings are daily incarcerated and brought out for sale, first exposed 
 and proved, like cattle, sound in wind and limb, and then ironed and driven to 
 acclimate or die in the rice swamps, or on the sugar plantations of the South. 
 
 Here, too, the dignitaries of the land, (who travel at 8 dollars for every 20 
 miles.) come to stock their farms. 
 
 Here, too, color is a crime ; one speck of African blood consigns the un- 
 fortunate, if found at large, to the prison ; and if, as does occur, his passport or 
 manumission is lost, he is sold to slavery again ! Those who have purchased 
 their freedom live in constant fear of abduction. I have been awakened at 
 the dead hour of night, by the supplication of a domestic, that I would save 
 her sister, whom the men were carrying off". Knowing she was free, I went 
 with a friend in search of the captive. We found her in custody of "two 
 negro hunters," who showed an advertisement, S50 bounty ; they claimed her 
 as a runaway ; she protested by her tears and assertions that she was not a 
 slave. Force was threatened ; it would have been resisted at all hazards. A 
 night of horror to this girl passed away. The light of day beamed upon the 
 facts ; she was free, and proved it! How narrow her escape ! If carried far 
 away, her lips sealed in silence, when would her rescue arrive ? At the grave ! 
 
 Shall I tell you with what horror representatives at our court from foreign 
 lands behold, at the seat of government, the exhibition of the principles of this 
 free republic, where all men are by nature born equal! 
 
 Even citizens of the District have not nerve to behold the execution of their 
 wishes. Mothers are separated from their children, and the injunction not to 
 put asunder what God has joined together, is despised and rejected. Slaves are 
 sent on pretence of business, and when beyond the sound of shrieks and sup- 
 plication, they are seized and borne away to the pen. 
 
 Here it is that fathers sell their own children, and themselves rivet the man- 
 acles of slavery for ever ! " 
 
 Read and reflect upon the following revolting case, in the light of 
 Christianity : — 
 
 JFashington, .^ug. 12, 1851. 
 
 A case of considerable interest came under my observation a few days since, 
 which has caused some excitement and considerable talk in this District. A 
 Presbyterian Elder, in '■'■good and regular standing,'' a reputed " watchman 
 
67 
 
 upon the walls of Zion," — among his g;oods and chattels is owned a young 
 female, who is a member of the Congregational Baptist Church, which was 
 under the pastoral cliarge of Rev. Mr. Samson — the church at which Secretary 
 Corwin and family worship. This female displeased her religions master in 
 some way, and he — Christian man — forthwith gave her into the hands of the 
 slave traders, who took her over to Alexandria, and incarcerated her with 
 others in a slave pen, where she is to remain till a full "drove" is made up 
 for the Southern market. When spoken to upon tiie subject, the grey-haired 
 Elder excused himself by charging her with crime. The girl protested her 
 innocence, and desired, even begged, for a trial. This poor helpless slave has 
 a mother, who is also a slave, subject to all the rigors of the lower lato. When 
 apprised of the situation of her daughter, she flew to the pen, and with tears 
 besought an interview with her only child, but she was cruelly repulsed, and 
 told to begone ! 
 
 Asa specimen of the enactments adopted at Washington, by Congress, 
 for the regulation of slavery in the District, take the following : — 
 
 To deal or barter with servants or slaves, subjects the person so doing (white 
 person,) to a fine of two thousand pounds of tobacco, and in case of an ina- 
 bility to pay, then the offender, upon conviction before the proper court, is sub- 
 jected to forty stripes, save one, on the bare back. 
 
 Free negroes and mulattoes, who intermarry with whites, are made slaves for 
 life, and the whites made servants for seven years, the avails of such service 
 to go towards the support of the public schools. 
 
 Slaves convicted of pilfering and other petit crimes, are subject to a whip- 
 ping upon the bare back, not exceeding forty lashes. 
 
 Slaves caught away from their homes without a pass or permit, are subject 
 to thirty-nine lashes, to be iniiicted by any constable of the county. 
 
 If any slave shall strike a white person, and he is convicted of the same 
 before a justice, said justice may cause one of the ears of the slave to be 
 cropped. 
 
 Any person convicted of stealing any slave, or becoming accessory in any 
 manner to a theft of this character, suffers death as a felon, without benefit of 
 clergy. 
 
 Slaves guilty of rambling in the night, or running away without leave, are 
 subject to punishment by whipping, cropping an ear, branding in the cheek 
 the letter R, or otherwise, not extending to life. 
 
 In the year 1836, three hundred thousand men and women petitioned 
 Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; but 
 the legislators " whose glory is to acknowledge the laws of Nature and 
 of Nature's God," and whose power over the District is absolute, passed 
 the following resolution by the following vote — yeas, 117 — nays, 68: — 
 
 " Whereas, it is extremely important and desirable, that the agitation on this 
 subject (slavery) should he finally arrested, for the purpose of restoring tran- 
 quillity to the public mind ; therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, and propositions, relating 
 in any tvay, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, shall, without 
 being either printed or referred, be laid on the table, and that no farther action 
 whatever shall be had thereon." (1) 
 
 (1) " One of the peculiar atrocities of this resolution is, that it wrests from every member of 
 the House his constitutional right to propose such measures for the government of the District 
 
68 
 
 Such are the legislators " whose glory is to acknowledge the laws 
 of Nature and of Nature's God " ! ! 
 
 The "star-spangled banner" of the United States seems to excite 
 your special admiration, though beneath it millions are groaning in 
 bondage ! To what purpose it is sometimes used, you can learn by 
 reading the following statement of a credible eye-witness. Rev. James 
 H. DicKEv : 
 
 " In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family from a visit to the 
 Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene such as I never witnessed before, 
 and such as I hope never to witness again. Having passed through Paris in 
 Bourbon county, Ky., the sound of music (beyond a little rising ground) attract- 
 ed my attention. I looked forward, and saw the flag of my country waving. 
 Supposing that I was about to meet a military parade, I drove hastily to the 
 side of the road ; and having gained the ascent, I discovered (I suppose) about 
 forty black men all chained together after the following manner: each of them 
 was handcuffed, and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain perhaps 40 
 feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched between the two ranks, 
 to which short chains were joined, which connected with the handcuffs. Be- 
 hind them were, I suppose, about thirty women, in double rank, the couples 
 tied hand to hand. A solemn sadness sat on every countenance, and the dis- 
 mal silence of this march of despair was interrupted only by the sound of two 
 violins ; yes, as if to add insult to injury, the foremost couple were furnished 
 with a violin apiece ; the second couple were ornamented with cockades, while 
 near the centre waved the Repsblican flag, carried by a hand literally in chains. 
 I could not forbear exclaiming to the lordly driver who rode at his ease along 
 side, ' Heaven will curse that man who engages in such traffic, and the gov- 
 ernment that protects him in it.' I pursued my journey till evening, and put 
 up for the night ; when I mentioned the scene I had witnessed. ' Ah ! ' (cried 
 my landlady) ' that is my brother ! ' From her I learned that his name is 
 Stone, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, in partnership with one Kinningham of 
 Paris ; and that a few days before, he had purchased a Negro woman from a 
 man in Nicholas county. She refused to go with him ; he attempted to compel 
 her, but she defended herself. Without farther ceremony, he stepped back, 
 and, by a blow on the side of her head with the butt of his whip, brought 
 her to the ground ; he tied her, and drove her oif. I learned further, that be- 
 sides the drove I had seen, there were about thirty shut up in the Paris prison 
 for safe keeping, to be added to the company, and that they were designed 
 for the Orleans market. And to this they are doomed for no other crime than 
 that of a black skin and curled locks. Shall I not visit for these things, saith 
 the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?" 
 
 At Washington, you have had an interview with Henry Clay, (now 
 an invalid,) and have professed to regard it as a great honor. Mr. Clay 
 holds more than sixty of his fellow creatures in slavery as his property, 
 
 as justice and humanity may require. Slaves might be burned alive in the streets of the Cap- 
 ital ; the slavers might be crowded to suflbcation with human victims ; every conceivable 
 cruelty might be practised, and no one member of the local legislature could be permitted to 
 propose even a committee of inquiry, ' relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the 
 subject of slavery.' " — Judge Jay. 
 
69 
 
 audaciously declaring that " that is property which the law declares to 
 be property," even the children of God, — and that " the legislation 
 of two hundred years has sanctioned and sanctified negro slaves as 
 property," and, therefore, they are not men ! Listen to his avowal: — 
 " I am myself a slaveholder ; and I consider that kind of property as 
 inviolable as any other in the country, I would resist as soon, and with 
 as much firmness, encroachments upon it, as I would encroachments 
 upon any other kind of proj^erty. I know there is a visionary clogma^ 
 which holds that negro slaves cannot be the subject of property. I 
 shall not dwell long upon this speculative abstraction.'''' Again — " If I 
 had been then, or were now a citizen of any of the planting States — the 
 Southern or South-western States — I should have opposed, and would 
 continue to oppose, any scheme whatever of emancipation, gradual or 
 irii7ncdiatc.''' Again — " It is not true, and I rejoice that it is not true, 
 that either of the two great political parties in this country has any de- 
 sign or aim at abolition. I should deeply lament it, if it were true." 
 There is no man living, who has done so much for the extension and 
 perpetuation of slavery as Mr. Clay, or who is more inimical to the anti- 
 slavery movement. He is the President of the American Colonization 
 Society, an association oragnized by Southern slaveholders and their 
 Northern allies for the expatriation of the free colored population of this 
 country to Africa, 07i account of their freedom and complexion, whom it 
 slanderously accuses of being "the most abandoned race on earth," 
 " scarcely reached in their debasement by the heavenly light," " a curse 
 and contagion wherever they reside," "scorned by one class, [the 
 whites,] and foolishly envied by another," [the slaves,] " with no privi- 
 lege but that of being more vicious and miserable than slaves can be," 
 " in one part of the country dull as a brutish beast, in another the wild 
 stirrer up of sedition and insurrection," "forever excluded, by public sen- 
 timent, by law, and by a physical distinction, from equality," " a distinct 
 and inferior race, repugnant to our republican (!) feelings, and danger- 
 ous to our republican (!) institutions," " in this country forever debased, 
 forever useless, forever a nuisance, from which it were a blessing for 
 society to be rid," " doomed by immovable barriers to eternal degrada- 
 tion," " weighed down by causes, powerful, universal, inevitable, which 
 neither legislation nor Christianity can remove, as it is an ordination of 
 Providence, and no more to he changed than the laws of nature,^'' (1) yet 
 absurdly and audaciously maintaining, in the same breath, that *' they, 
 and they only, are qualified for colonizing Africa," — " every one of 
 
 (1) See the Annual Reports of the American Colonization Society, and its oflicial organ, the 
 African Repository. 
 
70 
 
 whom," says Mr. Clay, " is a missionary, carrying with him credentials 
 in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions " ! ! 
 The Colonization Society commends itself to slaveholding confidence 
 and patronage by further declaring, that the removal of the free blacks 
 " would prove one of the greatest securities to enable the master to 
 keep in possession his property," and would " contribute more effectually 
 to the continuance and strength of the slave system, than any or all other 
 methods which could possibly be devised." At the head of this cruel, 
 unnatural and oppressive combination stands Henry Clay, in whose 
 presence you, Louis Kossuth, reverently bow your head, and for the 
 prolongation of whose life you express the most earnest solicitude ! 
 
 It is the boast of Mr. Clay, that his slaves are " well fed and clad," 
 and that " they look sleek and hearty." Doubtless, the same is true 
 of his cattle and swine. What scenes are witnessed on his plantation at 
 Ashland, may be inferred from the following authentic incident. In 
 1846, one of his slaves obtained permission of the overseer to visit his 
 wife on a distant plantation, on condition of returning an hour earlier in 
 the morning than usual. Unluckily, he overslept his time, but presented 
 himself at the usual hour for labor, with a humble apology. The en- 
 raged overseer levelled a blow at him with a handspike, the point of 
 which passed along by the side of the slave's head with such force as to 
 cut through his hat ; and the scalp, from near the middle of the forehead 
 to the back of the ear, was cut through also. 
 
 " Wlien the wounded slave had so far recovered from the stunning effects of 
 the blow as to be able to Avalk, he turned away towards Mr. Clay's mansion, 
 to tell him of his wrongs. The overseer seeing the course he took, and guess- 
 ing at his object, put tlie dogs after him, one of which caught him by the calf 
 of the leg. This he choked off, and made his way to Mr. Clay's presence. 
 There he addressed this form of speech to his master : " Massa Clay, I have 
 worked for you now nine years, and if I haven't done my work as well as the 
 rest of the people, and been as early at home Monday morning as massa says, 
 I wish massa Clay tell me so, and not let the overseer cut my head so bad with 
 the handspike." "You impudent fellow! what sent you here to tell of your 
 working for me nine years, or any other time ? Why, you black rascal, / paid 
 sven hundred dollars for you ! Go back and attend to your work ; and I will 
 see to settling this matter with the overseer." 
 
 Meeting with this harsh rebuff, he turned into one of the negro cabins, got 
 his head dressed the best way he could, and hurried back to the hog-killing, 
 where he labored through the day as well as he was able. In the course of 
 the day, the overseer had an interview with the sage of Ashland, when these 
 "wise men and benevolent individuals came to this conclusion : " The impu- 
 dent, refractory slave must be curbed and broke in by three hundred lashes, 
 well laid on." The " Sage " directed his faithful overseer to call to his assist- 
 ance Mr. Wickliffe's overseer, that between them both, "right and justice" 
 might be done. 
 
 Some three days after this, the overseer of Mr. Wickliffe came riding up to 
 
71 
 
 where H. Clay's " well fed," &c., were at work, under the patriarchal guidance 
 of his chosen overseer, when the bland salutation, " Good morning, sir," from 
 Wickliffe's organ, was responded to by the Clay organ in the most chivalric 
 and genteel manner possible ; echoing back the bewitching "Good morning, 
 sir. Will you be so good as to dismount, and see how we get along, sir ? " 
 Persuaded to do so by the courteous bearing of the Clay man, he dismounted, 
 and stood erect in all his dignity before the "civil and respectful" Ashlanders; 
 while his brother overseer made his horse fast to a post. This done, the Clay 
 overseer tapped the half-scalped $700 slave, (not in soon enough at the hog- 
 killing on Monday,) significantly on the shoulder, with the alarming direction, 
 "Come, boy, go with us ; we have some business to attend to with you." This 
 was on an extremely cold morning in December last. The overseers led the 
 way across the fields to an old barn, near the woods. Here the victim was 
 tied both hands together, and both feet in like manner, with ropes ; after strip- 
 ping the body above the hips entirely naked. This done, one end of a rope 
 was tied fast to the rope which bound the hands, and the other end flung over 
 a beam, upon which the two overseers flung their weight, and raised up the 
 doomed slave to the proper height for receiving a kind, salutary whipping. To 
 prevent the body from turning round, a rail was passed through between the 
 legs, resting upon the rope that bound them together. All things being now 
 ready, the Clay overseer thought of his whip for the first time, which, in his 
 haste to shed innocent blood, he had entirely overlooked. To supply this 
 defect, he hastened to the adjoining wood, and cut a good armful of ox-goads ; 
 the tortured slave, in the meantime, hanging in the position above mentioned, 
 exposed to the bitter blasts of cold December. Upon his return, tiie work of 
 flaying alive commenced. After striking some 150 times, Wickliffe's over- 
 seer advised him to desist, remarking, " I think he will obey you now." The 
 infuriated Clay man had not drunk deep enough of blood yet, and renewed, 
 and for some time continued his terrible work, till the less excited and more 
 considerate VVickliffe man cried, " Stop, if you mean to spare the boy alive." 
 After having been suspended three quarters of an hpur, the victim of Ken- 
 tucky law, and Ashland usage, was lowered down, unbound, and his clothes 
 placed over his lacerated, bruised, mangled, and half-frozen body, and left 
 lying in the cold barn; while the gentlemen executioners walked off to watch 
 for other prey. The poor slave had barely strength to drag himself to some 
 friendly negro-quarters, Avhere his wounds could be mollified, the broken splin- 
 ters of wood left sticking in his mangled body picked out, and healing reme- 
 dies applied, to restore him to something like a living condition again. As 
 soon as he was able to visit his wife, he did so, and she, filled with astonish- 
 ment and horror, at beholding the condition in which he came back to her, and 
 fully impressed as she was with the certainty of his being sold down the 
 river, as soon as his wounds were healed, if for nothing else, to rid Ashland of 
 a witness to its cruelty, she advised him by all means to make his escape, as 
 soon as he could possibly bear the fatigues of travelling by night, and shape 
 his course toward a land of freedom. In obedience to the counselHngs of his 
 wife, and the promj)tings of his own heart and will, he made the attempt while 
 his wounds were in a measure yet green ; and under the protection of Him 
 who "tempers the winds to the shorn lamb," he had reached thus Ihr on his 
 way to a "city of refuge," when Prof. PI. fell in company with him. (1) His 
 guide through Ohio was a native born fellow-citizen of the chivalric, the gal- 
 lant State of Kentucky. He, too, had drunk deep and long of that death- 
 dealing cup, mingled in the Southern prison-house, the land of oppression. 
 
 (1) This poor niau stated to Prof. H., tliat " Ueury Clay, last .summer, sold ten slaves for the 
 Southern market— and the summer before, one. Also, that summer before last, one of his 
 slaves received an infliction offovr hundred lashes— vtwd. a short lime after, he hung himself" 
 
72 
 
 A beloved wife and child had for ever been torn from liis embrace by the 
 damnable operations of Kentucky slave-law. The wife of his youth, if she 
 yet survives, is now the property of a Mississippi planter, purchased for the 
 unhallowed purpose of satisfying his " tieshly lusts, which war against the 
 soul, and drown men in perdition." 
 
 Mr. Clay's chattel having succeeded in reaching Canada, a public 
 meeting was held at Amherstburgh on his arrival, the official proceed- 
 ings of which are herewith annexed : — 
 
 THE SLAVE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Amherslhurgli, March 13, 1845. 
 A public meeting of the citizens of Amherstburgh, Canada West, met in 
 Union Chapel, to hear an address from Lewis Richardson, a fugitive from 
 Henry Clay, of Ashland, Kentucky. At half-past 7 o'clock, A. M., the house 
 was called to order by Mr. L. Foster, who acted as chairman of the meeting, 
 and J. Binga, secretary. After the object of the meeting was explained by H. 
 Bibb, of Detroit, Mr. Richardson proceeded as follows : — 
 
 " Dear Brethren, I am truly happy to meet with you on British soil, (cheers,) 
 where I am not known by the color of my skin, but where the Government 
 knows me as a man. I am now free from American slavery, after wearing the 
 galling chains on my limbs 53 years ; nine of which it has been my unhappy 
 lot to be the slave oi' Henry Clay. It has been said by some, that Clay's slaves 
 had rather live with him tlian be free ; but I had rather this day have a mill- 
 stone tied to my neck, and be sunk to the bottom of Detroit river, than to go 
 back to Ashland, and be his slave for life. As late as Dec, 1845, H. Clay had 
 me stripped and tied up, and one hundred and fifty lashes given me on my naked 
 back ; the crime for which I was so abused was, I failed to return home on a 
 visit to see my wife, on Monday morning, before 5 o'clock. My wife was living 
 on another place, three miles from Ashland. During the nine years living with 
 Mr. Clay, he has not given me hat nor cap to wear, nor a stitch of bed clothes, 
 except one small coarse blanket. Yet he has said publicly his slaves were 'fat 
 and sleek ' ! But I say if they are, it is not because they are so well used by 
 him. They have nothing but coarse bread and meat to cat, and not enough of 
 that. They are allowanced every week. For each field hand is allowed one 
 peck of coarse corn meal, and meat in proportion, and no vegetables of any 
 kind. Such is the treatment that Henry Clay's slaves receive from Jiim. I can 
 truly say that I have only one thing to lament over, and that is my bereft wife, 
 who is yet in bondage. If I only had her with me, I should be happy. Yet 
 think not that I am unhappy. Think not that I regret the choice I have made. 
 I counted the cost before 1 started. Before I took leave of my wife, she wept 
 over me, and dressed the wounds on my back, caused by the lash. I then 
 gave her the parting hand, and started for Canada. I expected to be pur- 
 sued as a felon, as I had been before, and to be hunted as a fox from mountain 
 to cave. I well knew if I continued much longer with Clay, that I should be 
 killed by such floggings and abuse by his cruel overseer in my old age. I 
 wanted to be free before I died — and if I should be caught on the way to Can- 
 ada, and taken back, it could be but death, and I miglit as well die with the 
 colic as the fever. With these considerations, I started for Canada 
 
 Such usage as this caused me to flee from under the American eagle, and 
 take shelter under the British crown. (Cheers.) Thanks be to Heaven that I 
 have ^ot here at last! On yonder side of Detroit river, I was recognized as 
 property; but on this side 1 am on free soil. Hail, Britannia ! Shame, America ! 
 
73 
 
 (Cheers.) A republican despotism, holding tliree millions of fellow-men in 
 slavery ! Oh, what a contrast between slavery and liberty ! Here I stand 
 erect, without a chain upon my limbs. (Cheers.) Redeemed, emancipated by 
 the generosity of Great Britain. (Cheers.) I now feel as independent as 
 ever Henry Clay felt when he was running for the White House. In fact, I 
 feel better. He has been defeated four or five times, and I but once. But he 
 was running for slavery, and I for liberty. I think I have beat him out of 
 sight. Thanks be to God that I am elected to Canada, and if I don't live but 
 one night, I am determined to die on free soil. Let my days be few or many, 
 let me die sooner or later, my grave shall be made in free soil." 
 
 So much for the principles, conduct, character and position of Henry 
 Clay, who expresses so much sympathy for the poor Hungarians ! 
 
 Among those who have come forward, at Washington, to welcome 
 you to the Capital, is Judge Bailey. On being informed, by himself, 
 that he was from Virginia, (true to your parasitical policy,) you ex- 
 claimed — " Virginia ! the mother of statesmen ! " Yes — of statesmen, 
 under whose iron rule nearly half a million of slaves are groaning on 
 the blood-stained soil of Virginia ! One of these, (Mr. Gholson,) in 
 his speech in the legislature of that State, Jan. 18, 1832, said : — 
 
 " It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered, by steady and old- 
 fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right to its annual 
 profits ; the owner of orchards, to their annual fruits ; the owner of brood 
 mares, to their product ; and the owner of female slaves, to their increase. We 
 have not the fine-spun intelligence nor legal acumen to discuss the technical 
 distinctions drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim of ^Partus sequitur 
 ventrem'' is coeval with the existence of the rights of property itself, and is 
 founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of this 
 maxim, that the master foregoes the services of the female slave ; has her 
 nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the helpless 
 and infant offspring. The value of the property justifies the expense ; and I do 
 not hesitate to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth." 
 
 Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia, In the Legislature 
 of that State in 1832, Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared that Vir- 
 ginia had been converted into " one grand menagerie, cohere men are 
 reared for the market like oxen for the shambles.''' This same gentle- 
 man thus compared the foreign with the domestic traffic : — " The trader 
 (African) receives the slave, a stranger in aspect, language, and man- 
 ners, from the merchant who brought him from the interior. But here, 
 sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy — whom he 
 has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood — who have been 
 accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother's 
 arms, and sells into a strange country, among a strange people, subject 
 to cruel taskmasters. In my opinion, it is much tcorse." 
 
 Mr. C. F. Mercer asserted in the Virginia Convention of 1829, " The 
 tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate, when 
 10 
 
compared with the increase of its numbers in the Commonwealth for 
 twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and 
 a half of dollars is derived from the exportatio7i of a part of this pop- 
 ulation." — Debates, p. 99. 
 
 The Richmond Enquirer of Nov. 13, 1846, says — " Negroes have 
 become the only reliable staple of the tobacco-growing sections of Vir- 
 ginia, the only reliable means of liquidating debts, foreign and domes- 
 iic" ! It was stated in the Virginia Times, in 1836, that the number of 
 slaves exported for sale ' the last twelve months,' amounted to forty 
 thousand; each slave averaging six hundred dollars, and thus yielding 
 a capital of twenty-fouk millions "' ! (1) 
 
 J. K. Paulding, the late Secretary of the Navy, gives the follow- 
 ing picture of a scene he witnessed in Virginia : — 
 
 "The sun was shining out very hot, and in turning an angle of the road, we 
 encountered the following- group: first, a little cart drawn by one horse, in 
 which five or six half naked black children were tumbled like pigs togrether. 
 The cart had no covering, and they seemed to have been actually broiled to 
 sleep. Behind the cart marched three black women, with head, neck and 
 breasts uncovered, and without shoes or stockings ; next came three men, bare- 
 headed, half naked, and chained together with an ox chain. Last of all came 
 a white man — a white man, Frank ! — on horseback, carrying pistols in his belt, 
 and who, as we passed him, had the impudence to look us in the face without 
 blushing. I should like to have seen him hunted by bloodhounds. At a house 
 ■where we stopped a little further on, we learned that he had bought these mis- 
 erable beings in Maryland, and was inarching them in this manner to some of 
 the more Southern States. Shame on the State of Maryland ! I say — and 
 shame on the State of Virginia ! and every State through v/hich this Avretched 
 cavalcade was permitted to pass. Do they expect that such exhibitions will 
 not dishonor them in the eyes of strangers, however they may be reconciled to 
 them by education and habit?" 
 
 So much for " Virginia, the mother of statesmen " ! — But this is not 
 all. In the year 1831, an insurrection of slaves took place in South- 
 ampton, Virginia, — like your own struggle in Hungary. What was the 
 sequel you will learn by reading the following particulars ; — 
 
 Richmond, (Va.) August 23, 1851. 
 An express reached the Governor this morning, informing him that an insur- 
 rection had broken out in Southampton, and that, by the last accounts, there are 
 seventy whites massacred, and the militia retreating. The negroes are armed 
 with muskets, scythes, axes, &c. &c. Our volunteers are marching to the scene 
 
 (1) "A writer in the New Orleans Argus, Sept. 1830, in an article on the culture of the sugar 
 cane, says— 'The loss by death in bringing slaves fi-om a northern climate, which our planters 
 are under the necessity of doing, is not less than tweuty-flve per cent.' I ! Our tables prove the 
 same thing. Of the 40,000 slaves annually carried South, only 29,101 are found to survive ;— 
 a greater sacrifice o/ lift than that caused by the middle passage " .'—[Slavery and the Constitution, by 
 William I. JBovditch. 
 
75 
 
 of action. The Fayette Artillery and the Light Dragoons will leave here this 
 evening for Southampton. * * Col. House, commanding at Fortress Mon- 
 roe, at 6 o'clock this morning, embarked on board the steamer Hampton, with 
 three companies and a piece of artillery for Suffolk. These troops were rein- 
 forced in the Roads by detachments from the U. S. ships Warren and Natchez, 
 the whole amounting to nearly 300 men. * * * Muskets, pistols, swords 
 and ammunition, have been forwarded to Suffolk to-day, by Commodore 
 Warrington, at the request of our civil authorities. * * * We do not yet 
 know the strength of the blacks, but think they must all perish within a lew- 
 days. 
 
 August 25. Passengers by the Fayetteville stage say that, by the latest ac- 
 counts, 120 negroes had been killed. * * Several prisoners were put to 
 death forthwith by the enraged inhabitants. The celebrated Nelson, called by 
 the blacks "General Nelson," Hercules or Hark, Gen. Moore and the other ring- 
 leaders, except Nat Turner, the prophet, had all been shot or taken prisoners. 
 Turner calls himself General Turner. He pretends to be a Baptist preacher — 
 is a great enthusiast. He stimulated his comrades to join with him, by declar- 
 ing to them that he had been commissioned by Jesus Christ, and that he was 
 acting under inspired direction in what he was going to do. He is represented, 
 in a description of his person, to have " a scar on one of his temples ; also one 
 on the back of his neck, and a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, 
 near the wrist, produced by a blow." * * * The United States troops, at 
 Old Point Comfort, have been ordered out to scour the Dismal Swamp, in which 
 it is asserted from two to three thousand blacks are concealed. 
 
 A letter from Rev. G. W. Powell, under date of Aug. 27, says that "there are 
 thousands of troops in arms, searching in every direction, and many negroes are 
 killed every day. The exact number loill never he ascertained." Eleven of the 
 insurgents have already been tried, condemned, and executed. Thirty yet re- 
 main to be tried. 
 
 A young gentleman in Virginia, in a letter to his parents residing in New 
 Hampshire, says — " It is truly revolting to learn, that, without trial — in some 
 instances, ivithout the shadow of suspicion — innocent colored persons were sacri- 
 ficed without mercy to the excited passion and inconsiderate revenge of the 
 whites in pursuit. One negro, I am informed, was sent on horseback, upon an 
 errand to the next neighbor's, and commanded to go quick. While he was 
 riding along rather fast, a company of soldiers, supposing him an enemy fleeing, 
 let in a whole volley upon him, and killed both man and horse. Another was 
 taken alive, and put to death by torture. They burnt him ivith red hot irons — 
 cut off his ears and nose — stabbed him — cut his ham-strings — stuck him like a 
 hog — and, at last, cut off his head, andspiked it to the whipping post, for a specta- 
 cle and a warning to the other negroes. ' 
 
 In riding in the stage from Richmond to Fredericksburg, a passenger by the 
 name of Smith, direct from the seat of the insurrection, stated that the blacks 
 who were taken prisoners were killed in the most barbarous manner. Their 
 7ioses and ears icere cut off, thejiesh of their cheeks cut out, their jaws broken asun- 
 der, and then set up as a mark to shoot at ! If a black was found out of doors, 
 after dark, without a pass, he was immediately shot down. 
 
 Wilmington, N. C, Sept. 20. We have been under a very great excite- 
 ment here, in consequence of an expected insurrection among our blacks. It 
 appears, on investigation, that the plot was much deeper laid than we anticipa- 
 ted. * * * The leaders in this plot have all been executed — Nimrod, Dan, 
 Prince and Abraham were all shot this morning, at 6 o'clock, on Gallows Hill, 
 and their h^ads are now sticking on poles at the four corners of the town. 
 
76 
 
 Sept. 28. Three ringleaders of the late diabolical conspiracy were executed 
 at Onslow Court House, on Friday evening last, 23d inst., by the people. 
 
 It is said that four negroes who were suspected to be in the plot tverejlogged 
 to make them confess, and then hung upon their co7ifessions ! 
 
 Jerusalem, (Va.) Oct. 31. Last night, about 9 o'clock, the news reached our 
 little village that General Nat was taken alive. He reached this place, well 
 guarded, to-day, at a quarter after 1 o'clock, and was committed to prison. 
 During two hours close examination, he evinced great intelligence and much 
 shrewdness of intellect, answering every question clearly and distinctly, and 
 without confusion or prevarication. He seems to labor under as perfect a state 
 of fanatical delusion (!) as ever wretched man suffered. He does not hesitate to 
 say, that, even now, he thinks he was right, but admits he may possibly have been 
 deceived. Nevertheless, he seems of the opinion, that if his time were to go 
 over again, he must necessarily act in the same ivay. 
 
 A correspondent of the Richmond Whig says — " Nat had for some time 
 thought closely on this subject; for I have in my possession some papers given 
 up by his wife, under the lash." 
 
 We learn, says the Petersburg Intelligencer, by a gentleman from Southamp- 
 ton, that the fanatical murderer, Nat Turner, was executed, according tq his 
 sentence, at Jerusalem, (1) on Friday last, about 1 o'clock. He exhibited the 
 utmost composure throughout the whole ceremony ; and although assured that he 
 might, if he thought proper, address the immense crowd assembled on the oc- 
 casion, declined availing himself of the privilege, and told the sheriff, in a firm 
 voice, that he was ready. JVot a limh or a muscle ivas observed to move." 
 
 And this, O Kossuth, in " Virginia, the mother of statesmen " — in 
 " the glorious republic of the United States, whose millions of inhabi- 
 tants are all attached with warm feelings to the principles of liberty, 
 with no tyrants among them " ! What can equal it, in point of atrocity 
 and horror, in the history of the Hungarian struggle with Austria and 
 Russia combined ? And where has there appeared a more heroic spirit 
 than that of Nathaniel Tuknek, the unfortunate but indomitable slave 
 leader in the Southampton insurrection ? Is the State, is the nation, 
 that put him to an ignominious death, the State or nation to rally in be- 
 half of Hungary, or to arraign the Autocrat of Russia for his tyranny ? 
 
 To complete this " assemblage of horrors," we present for your con- 
 templation a few other illustrations of American slavery. 
 
 In the summer of 1845, a number of slaves attempted to escape from 
 Maryland, that they might find liberty and proteclion under the British 
 flag in Canada. If you would learn their fate, read the following state- 
 ment communicated to the New York Herald : — 
 
 Baltimore, July 12, 1845. 
 I learn from a gentleman who was present at the arrest of a gang of runa- 
 way negroes near Rockville, Maryland, that they were treated in the most 
 brutal manner by their captors. When surrounded by the Rockville volun- 
 
 (1) "Jerusalem, where our Lord was crucified." 
 
teers, they were commanded to surrender, and because cne out of forty showed 
 a determination to resist, a whole volley of balls from rifles and pistols was 
 poured indiscriminately among them. Those wounded are Ferdinand, slave of 
 Wm. Browner, a ball in the left side of his neck, which will probably prove 
 fatal ; James, slave of Edwin Jones, rifle ball in his back, which will cripple 
 him for life ; David, a slave of John Hamet, part of his cheek torn away, and 
 a ball in his back ; David, another slave of John Hamet, his right arm com- 
 pletely shattered with a musket ball ; James, a slave of Barnes' estate, per- 
 fectly riddled with balls in his side and neck, and part of his cheek torn away; 
 Mark, do., a pistol ball in the back of his neck ; James Gray, belonging to 
 Chas. Rye, severely wounded on the side of his face; Lewis Dey, a slave of 
 Colonel Miller, struck with a ball on the side of his face; Henry, slave of 
 General Chapman, a ball in his back. Had their arms been loaded with fine 
 shot, or even a little coarse salt, it would have answered every purpose ; but 
 instead of that, the deadly bullet must be used, and aim taken in every 
 instance, as will be seen by the direction of the shot, at the head and shoulders, 
 instead of the extremities. Some of them, on their return, even regretted that 
 they " could not make the damn niggers resist, so that they might have had the 
 pleasure of shooting them all down." They were all marched with ox chains, 
 handcuffs, &c., and driven through Washington yesterday, on their way to 
 their homes, more like a drove of hogs than human beings. In less than a 
 •week, those that escaped the balls of their captors will be on their way to the 
 cotton fields of Louisiana, while some at least of the wounded will die of neg- 
 lect. 
 
 The Natchez Free Trader gives an account of the arrest of a fugi- 
 tive negro boy, named Joseph, who confessed (probably under the lash) 
 to having committed various revolting crimes, including murder ; after 
 which, it was deliberately resolved that the negro should be burked 
 ALIVE ! The terrible scene is thus described : — 
 
 "The body was taken and chained to a tree immediately on the banks of the 
 Mississippi, on what is called Union Point. Fagots were then collected and 
 piled around him, to which he appeared quite indifferent. When the work was 
 completed, he was asked what he had to say. He then warned all to take ex- 
 ample by him, and asked the prayers of all around; he then called for a drink 
 of water, which was handed to him ; he drank it, and said : ' Now set fire — I 
 am ready to go in peace ! ' The torches were lighted, and placed in the pile, 
 which soon ignited. He watched unmoved the curling flame that grew, until 
 it began to entwine itself around and feed upon his body ; then he sent forth 
 cries of agony painful to the ear, begging some one to blow his brains out ; at 
 the same time surging with almost superhuman strength, until the staple with 
 which the chain was fastened to the tree (not being well secured) drew out, and 
 he leaped from the burning pile. At that moment the sharp ringing of several 
 rifles was heard : the body of the negro fell a corpse on the ground. He was 
 picked up by some two or three, and again thrown into the fire, and consumed 
 — not a vestige remaining to show that such a being ever existed." 
 
 Here is another case of human burning, as detailed in the New Or- 
 leans Bulletin : — 
 
 Another Nkgro Burned. — We learn from the clerk of the Highlander, 
 that while wooding a short distance below the mouth of Red River, they were 
 invited to stop a short time, and see another negro burned. They were informed 
 
T8 
 
 that the fellow who was prepared for the exhibition was another of the gang 
 recently mentioned as having committed enormities, and fled to the swamp — one 
 of whom was burnt, as already published. The last fellow had killed a man, 
 and carried off two women, one of whom he had violated ; and for this they 
 had him well chained, and the fagots ready, with a view of giving him a fore- 
 taste of his inevitable, ultimate end. 
 
 Take a third and final case, though the number might be indefinitely 
 extended : — 
 
 Horrible. — A correspondent of the Cincinnati Herald relates the following 
 occurrence, but it seems scarcely credible. It is said to have occurred near 
 Oakland Cottage, Mississippi : " A slaveholder, a short time previous to his 
 death, made provisions for the liberation of his slaves. Those who were 
 entrusted with the execution of his designs failing or refusing to carry out his 
 last will and testament concerning the slaves, the latter became restive and 
 impatient to enjoy their long looked for boon. At length, disappointment, 
 expecting to be sold, and incensed at their oppressors, they set fire to the over- 
 seer's dwelling, and burnt it to the ground. A little child, which they were 
 unable to rescue, was consumed in the flames. The slaves, eight or nine in 
 number, were taken, and two of them hung on the spot. The others were 
 taken into an old log-house, and chained to the floor. The house was then set 
 on fire, and they were, by a slow fire, burned to death, in a most shocking 
 manner, while the air was rent with their unavailing shrieks and screams." 
 
 Read the following heart-rending narrative, as given by Isaac John- 
 son and his wife, who have just escaped from the South, and are now in 
 Canada. It is taken from the Voice of the Fugitive : — 
 
 They were held as property in the State of Mississippi, a short time since, and 
 were the parents of an only child, which was about thirteen months old. A few 
 days before they started on the hazardous voyage to Canada, the mother learned 
 that she was sold to a slave trader, who intended to separate her from her be- 
 loved child and husband, never more to see them on tliis earth. But they re- 
 solved on running away to Canada, with their child,4)r perish by the way. They 
 succeeded in crossing over the line into what is called a free State, (Indiana,) 
 with their child, wliere they were chased until their babe was sacrificed on the 
 bloody altar of Slavery. On seeing that they were closely pursued, they broke 
 and ran to a corn field — the wife first got over the fence, and the husband hand- 
 ed her the child, with which she ran as fast as she could. She heard the pur- 
 suer saying "stop, stop, or I will shoot you down;" and before she had pro- 
 ceeded far, a gun was fired, and her child was shot dead from her back — and 
 the ball, which passed through the child's neck, cut off one corner of the mother's 
 ear. At this moment the poor mother fell down with her lifeless babe, when 
 she was rushed upon by two white men, who commenced trying to bind her with 
 ropes ; but when she cried for help, her husband came to her relief — the con- 
 test was desperate for a few moments ; the wife and husband both fought until 
 they brought down one of the party, and his- companion fled and left him. The 
 husband and wife, fearing that they would soon be surrounded and overpower- 
 ed, and seeing that their little one was dead, and that they could do it no good, 
 reluctantly left it lying by the villain who shot it. Fortunately for them, 
 they soon found a depot of the underground railroad, and one of the conductors 
 thereof was kind enough to put on an extra train, which soon landed them on a 
 soil where " no slave can breathe." We deeply sympathize with them in their 
 
79 
 
 bereavement, -while we think that it would be far better that ten thousand chil- 
 dren should perish by the Avayside, than for one to be taken back into Southern 
 slavery. 
 
 After reading an occurrence like this, indulge once more (if you can) 
 in your encomiums upon " this glorious country, which Providence has 
 selected to be the pillar of freedom, as it is already the asylum to op- 
 pressed humanity " ! 
 
 Sir, you have signified your intention to visit Boston, and doubtless 
 feel an electric thrill at the thought of standing in Faneuil Hall, and by 
 the granite shaft on Bunker Hill. What will you say, what can you 
 say, in view of a recital like the following, published in the New York 
 Evangelist ? 
 
 A Scene in Boston. — A colored girl eighteen years of age, a few years 
 ago, escaped from slavery at the South. Through scenes of adventure and 
 peril, almost more strange than fiction can create, she found her way to Bos- 
 ton. She obtained employment, secured friends, and became a consistent 
 member of a Methodist Church. She became interested in a very worthy 
 young man, of her own complexion, who was a member of the same church. 
 They were soon married. Their home, though humble, was the abode of 
 piety and contentment. Industrious, temperate and frugal, all their wants 
 were supplied. Seven years passed away. They had two little boys, one six 
 and the other four years of age. These children, the sons of a free father, 
 but of a mother who had been a slave, by the laws of our Southern States, 
 were doomed to their mother's fate. These Boston boys, born beneath the 
 shadow of Fanueil Hall, the sons of a free citizen of Boston, and educated in 
 the Boston free schools, were by the compromises of the Constitution admitted 
 to be slaves, the property of a South Carolinian planter. The Boston father 
 had no right to his own sons. The law, however, had long been considered a 
 dead letter. The Christian mother, as she morning and evening bowed with 
 her children in prayer, felt that they Avere safe from the slave-hunter, sur- 
 rounded as they were by the churches, the schools, and the free institutions of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 The Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. It revived the hopes of the slave- 
 owners. A young, healthy, energetic mother, with two fine boys, Avas a rich 
 prize. She would make an excellent breeder. Good men began to say, " We 
 must enforce this laAv ; it is one of the compromises of the Constitution." 
 Christian ministers began to preach, "The voice of law is the voice of God. 
 There is no higher rule of duty. We must send back the fugitive and her 
 children, even though Ave take our sister from the sacramental table of our 
 common Saviour." 
 
 The poor Avoman was panic-stricken. Her friends gathered around her, and 
 trembled for her. Her husband was absent from home, a seaman on board 
 one of our Liverpool packets. She was afraid to go out of doors, lest one 
 from the South should see her, and recognize her. One day, as she was going 
 to the grocery for some provisions, her quick and anxious eye caught a glimpse 
 of a man prowling around, Avhom she immediately recognized as from the 
 vicinity of her old home of slavery. Almost fainting with terror, she hastened 
 home, and taking her two children by the hand, fled to the house of a friend. 
 She and her trembling children were hid in the garret. In less than one hour 
 after her escape, the officer, with a writ, came for her arrest. 
 
80 
 
 It was a dark and stormy day. The rain, freezing as it fell, swept in floods 
 through the streets of Boston. Night came, cold, black and tempestuous. At 
 midnight her friends took her in a hack, and conveyed her, with her children, 
 to the house of her pastor. A prayer meeting had been appointed there, at 
 that hour, in behalf of their suffering sister. A small group of stricken hearts 
 were there assembled. They knelt in prayer. The poor mother, thus 
 hunted from her home, her husband far away, sobbed, in the bitterness of her' 
 anguish, as though her heart would break. Her little children, trembling 
 before a doom, the enormity of which they were incapable of appreciating, 
 cried loudly and uncontrollably. The humble minister caught the contagion. 
 His voice became inarticulate through emotion. Bowing his head, he ceased 
 to pray, and yielded himself to the sobbings of sympathy and grief. The 
 floods of anguish were unloosed. Groanings and lamentations filled the room. 
 No one could pray. Before the Lord they could only weep. Other fugitives 
 were there, trembling in view of a doom more dreadful to them than death. 
 
 After an hour of weeping, for the voice of prayer had passed away into the 
 sublimity of unutterable anguish, they took this Christian mother and her 
 children, in a hack, and conveyed them to one of the Cunard steamers, which 
 fortunately was to sail for Halifax the next day. They took them in the 
 gloom of midnight, through the tempest-swept streets, lest the slave-hunter 
 should meet them. Her brethren and sisters of the church raised a little 
 money from their scanty means to pay her passage, and to save her, for a few 
 days, from starving, after her first arrival in the cold land of strangers. Her 
 husband soon returned to Boston to find his home desolate, his wife and his 
 children exiles in a foreign land. These facts need no word painting. I 
 think that this narrative may be relied upon as accurate. I received the facts 
 from the lips of one, a member of the church, who was present at that mid- 
 night " weeping meeting," before the Lord. Such is slavery in Boston, in the 
 year 1852. Shade of Calhoun ! Has the North nothing to do with slavery ? 
 
 John S. C. Abbott. 
 
 Brunswick, Me., Jan., 1852, 
 
 Such, sir, are the deeds perpetrated and legalized in the land to which 
 you have come, to ask its sympathy and aid in behalf of oppressed Hun- 
 garians ! Whether you have not mistaken your mission, and sullied 
 your character, in so doing, let a candid world decide. Whatever may 
 be the popularity of the hour, and however you may strive to 
 propitiate the bloody power of Slavery to accomplish the end in view, 
 your self-abasement will be in vain. Hungary has nothing to hope or 
 expect from slaveholding America. 
 
 In behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, President. 
 
 Sydney Howard Gay, ) Secretaries. 
 Wendell Phillips, ) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S ABDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES. 
 
 In December last, the following brief but significant Address appeared 
 simultaneously in the New York daily papers. No one doubts its 
 special reference to the question of American slavery, although Kossuth 
 is too wary to refer to it in explicit terms, but wraps up his meaning in 
 the language of generalization. 
 
 Having come to the United States to avail myself, for the cause of 
 my country, of the sympathy which I had reason to believe existed in 
 the heart of the nation, I found it my duty to declare, in the first mo- 
 ments of my arrival, that it is my mission to plead the independence of 
 Hungary, and the liberty of the European Continent, before the great 
 Republic of the United States. My principle in this respect is, that 
 every nation has the sovereign right to dispose of its own domestic 
 affairs, without any foreign interference ; that 1, therefore, shall not 
 meddle with any domestic concerns of the United States, and that I ex- 
 pect it from all the friends of my cause, not to do any thing in respect 
 to myself, that could throw difficulties in my way, and, while expressing 
 sympathy for the cause, would injure it. 
 
 It is with regret that I must feel the necessity of again making that 
 appeal to the public opinion of this country, and particularly to those 
 who profess themselves to be the friends of my cause, to give one proof 
 of their sympathy by avoiding every step which might entangle me in 
 difficulties in respect to that rule which I have adopted, and which I 
 again declare to be my leading principle, viz : not to mix, and not to be 
 mixed up with whatever domestic concerns or party questions. 
 
 L. KOSSUTH, 
 
 New York, Dec. 12, 1851. 
 11 
 
82 
 
 AlOTEEH BISCLAIMEE. 
 
 In the course of his speech delivered at the Citizens' Banquet in 
 Philadelphia, Dec. 26th, Kossuth, in denying certain imputations cast 
 upon him, said : — 
 
 " The third incident is yet more curious, if possible ; and the more 
 abominable, because to arrest my movements, a nameless enemy in the 
 dark intended even to wound the honor of your own fellow citizens. I 
 received a letter — again a forged one. The gentleman, whose name the 
 forger so abused, has declared to me that it is a vile and stupid forgery. 
 The following is the letter alluded to : — 
 
 December 23, 1851. 
 
 Hon. Lotjis Kossuth : 
 
 Respected Sir: — It is my unpleasant duty to apprise you, that the 
 intervention or non-intervention sentiments that you have promulgated 
 in your speeches in the city of New York, are unsuitable to the region 
 of Pennsylvania, situated as she is on the borders of several slaveholding 
 States ; and after a conference with my distinguished uncle, the Hon. 
 John Sargent, the Hon. Horace Binney,and other distinguished counsel- 
 lors, who concur with me in the sentiment I feel, most reluctantly, I 
 assure you, that such sentiments are incendiary in their character and 
 effect, and as the conservator of the public morals and the peace 
 of the country, having sworn to comply with the Constitution of the 
 United States and the State of Pennsylvania, on taking upon myself 
 the office of Attorney General of the County of Philadelphia, I shall be 
 obliged to bring any such sentiments to the notice of the Grand Inquest 
 of the county for their action and consideration. 
 Respectfully. 
 
 W. B. REED, Attorney General. 
 
 Kossuth commentde on this letter as follows : — 
 
 " Now, such a letter, and yet a forgery, indeed, is a despicable trick ; 
 but though it is a forgery, still there is one th'mg which forces me to 
 some humble remarks, precisely because I know not whence comes the 
 blow. I am referring to these words : — ' Your intervention or non-inter- 
 vention sentiments are unsuited to the region of Pennsylvania, situated 
 as she is on the borders of several slaveholding States.' I avail myself 
 of this opportunity to declare once more, that I never did or will do any 
 thing which, in the remotest icay, could interfere jcith the matter 
 alluded to, nor with whatever other domestic question of your united 
 Republic, or of a single State of it. I have declared it openly several 
 times, and on all and every opportunity, I have proved to be as good as 
 my word. I dare say that even the pledge of the word of honor of an 
 honest man should not be considered a sufficient security in that respect. 
 The publicly avowed basis of my humble claims, and the unavoidable 
 logic of it, would prove to be a decisive authority. 
 
83 
 
 " What is the ground upon which I stand before the mighty tribunal 
 of the public opinion of the United States ? It is tlie sovereign right of 
 every nation to dispose of its own domestic concerns. (Great applause.) 
 What is it I humbly ask of the United States .' It is that they may 
 generously be pleased to protect this sovereign right of every nation 
 against the encroaching violence of Kussia. It is, therefore, eminently 
 clear that, this being my ground, I cannot and will not meddle with any 
 domestic question of this Republic. (Applause.) Indeed, I more and 
 more perceive that, to speak with Hamlet, ' there are more things in 
 heaven and earth than were dreamed of in my philosophy.' (Laughter 
 and applause.) But still, I will stand upright on however slippery 
 ground, by taking hold of that legitimate fence of 7iot meddling in your 
 domestic qjiesfions.'" 
 
 FURTHER AND CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF KOSSUTH'S RECREANCY. 
 
 Read the following documents, which need no elucidation : — 
 
 PROSPECTUS AND PLATFORM. 
 
 The undersigned respectfully announce to the public that their paper, 
 called the Neue Yorker Deutsche Zeitung will terminate with the end of 
 December. From the 1st of January, 1852, it will appear under the 
 title : — Demokratischer Voelkerbund, edited by Messrs. Gyurman and 
 Wutschel. 
 
 Mr. Gyurman was for three years coUaborateur for the newspaper 
 Pesti Hirlap,ihe principal editor of which was Mr. Kossuth. It is known 
 with what success this paper incited the agitation in Hungary against the 
 oppression of the family of Hapsburg, and prepared the revolution of 
 1848. During the whole existence of the Hungarian national govern- 
 ment, Mr. Gyurman was chief editor of the official paper, Koezioeny. — 
 He fled subsequently to Turkey, was exiled at the same time with Kos- 
 suth to Kutaya, and came, ultimately, on board <,he Mississippi to America. 
 Governor Kossuth recommends Mr. Gyurman in the subjoined letter, as 
 a talented, as well as a determined defender of the cause of democracy. 
 
 Mr. Wutschel is advantageously known by his activity during the 
 revolution of 1848 in Austria. These two men offer in their past life 
 surety enough for the determination of their intention, as well as for the 
 ability of their productions. MIGGUEL & CO., Publishers. 
 
 The undersigned undertake, from the 1st of January, 1852, the editing 
 of the Demokratischer Voelkerlnnd. VVe consider it our duty from the 
 outset to explain to the public, in an open and candid manner, wiiat it has 
 to expect from this paper. As this paper is intended to be pre-eminently 
 a political one, it is necessary in the first place to define our position in 
 the field of politics. We are Europeans — we came as fugitives to Amer- 
 ica, because the whole of the united princes suppressed the exertions for 
 
84 
 
 freedom of the isolated struggling people. But do not give up Europe 
 as lost. We are fully convinced that the people of Europe will have a 
 democratic future; we do not believe the "either — or" of the captive of 
 Corsica on the Island of St. Helena. Europe cannot become Cossack ; it 
 must become republican. Europe will ever be our native country. 
 Europe — its political and social condition — will henceforth be the subject 
 of our attention, the aim of our wishes and endeavors. We live for 
 Europe, we work for her freedom. 
 
 But we live in America, if only temporarily, as we are convinced. We 
 therefore cannot help taking notice of the condition of our provisional 
 home. We are not only here to look across the sea, but also, since the 
 unlimited critical 7iature of reason demands it, to look round about us, 
 while the free institutions ot" America offer so much for imitation, so much 
 to le avoided, for the future formation of Europe. Europe should not 
 copy America, because history does not copy itself. 
 
 The condition, therefore, of America will, with equal right, form the 
 second part of this paper; and here let us a'so define our position. 
 
 The word "democratic," in the American acceptation, does not define 
 with sufficient precision our stand in American affairs ; for here it has 
 lost its natural 7neaning, and, inslead, acquired a historical one, which 
 depends upon no principle, but from the laws of convenience. 
 
 The following are the pending questions of the present policy, in re- 
 ference to which we will give our course and platform : — 
 
 1. The Slavery question. With regard toil, we consider the Com- 
 promise no settled solution, hut a provisional laiv, for the abrogation of 
 which, at least so Jar as the extradition of slaves is concerned, we will 
 employ all the means ivhich a public organ can command. 
 
 ii. Land Reform. We defend the principle of land reform, and con- 
 tend against monopoly of the soil. 
 
 3. The policy of the Union with respect to Central America. With 
 reference to this point, we stand on the ground Monroe took, that every 
 interference of European powers in the affairs of the American conti- 
 nent will unhesitatingly be rejected. 
 
 4. The Tariff'question ; and 5, that of Internal Improvements, (canals, 
 rivers and harbors.) As we do not raise these questions 1o the stand of 
 our principles, but rather consider them questions of convenience, we 
 give free discussion of the same in our paper. 
 
 At all the elections we will, therefore, take particular notice of the 
 three enumerated principles. 
 
 A. GYURMAN, 
 F. WUTSCHEL. 
 
 New Yokk, Dec. 22, 1851. 
 Mr. Adolph Gyurbian, late editor of the official paper, Koezloenz — 
 
 Upon your inquiry in which way you could serve the cause of your 
 fatherland, and that of liberty, in your present position as an exile, I re- 
 ply, that you could essentially serve the cause, to which you have devoted 
 
85 
 
 yourself for many years with so much talent, perseverance and patriotism, 
 if, particularly now, when tlie struggle between freedom and despotism 
 has been renewed, you would again tread tlie path of journalism, on 
 which you gained for yourself so honoiablea position. Firmly convinced 
 tliat your industry will be congratulated and accompanied by ihe merited 
 sympathy of all lovers of freedom. L. KOSSUTH. 
 
 No sooner had these documents been given to the public, than such 
 venomous pro-slavery journals as Bennett's Herald and the New York 
 Express raised a hue and-cry against the nobly free and consistent 
 GvuR.MAN, intimating that Kossuth was thus " undisguisedly sanctioning 
 the re-opening and continuing the agitation of a question in this country, 
 which may lead ultimately to the destruction and disruption of this fair 
 fabric, before many years have elapsed' ! ! Alarmed by this clamor, 
 and determined to exonerate himself from all suspicion of having any 
 sympathy for the hunted fugitives from American slavery, Kossuth 
 promptly caused the following humiliating and disgraceful disclaimer to 
 be given to the public : — 
 
 Kossuth and the " Demokratischer Voelkerbund." 
 Commimication from the Secretary of Kossuth. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 7, 18o2. 
 
 To the New York Press : — A disingenuous attempt has been made by 
 certain New York papers to cor nect Gov. Kossuth with the Demokratis- 
 cher Voelkerbund^ and render him responsible for a paragraph in the 
 programme of that paper, relative to American domestic policy. This 
 has been done, notwithstanding his repeated declarations that he would 
 never, directly nor indirectly, interfere in any domestic question of any 
 foreign country. 
 
 The fact that Mr. Gyurman was formerly sub-editor of Kossuth'^ 
 journal, and subsequently an editor of an organ of his government, is 
 assumed, without a tittle of evidence, in the face of this unequivocal de- 
 claration, as a proof of the connection of Gov. Kossuth with the Dento- 
 kratischer Voelkerhimd, and as warranting the assertion, that the openly 
 avowed purpose of Messrs. Gyurman & Wutschet is undisguisedly 
 sanctioned and concurred in by Kossuth, «SiC, 
 
 You are authorized to state that Gov. Kossuth has no connection what- 
 ever, with that paper. 
 
 The facts are, briefly, that Mr. Gyurman applied for advice, how best 
 to occupy his time, and serve the cause of his country. To this Gov. 
 Kossuth replied, as may be seen by his letter, to this effect : — " You are 
 a distinguished journalist — follow your profession, and you will thereby 
 obtain opportunity of serving your country." 
 
 This counsel is Governor Kossuth's present connection with Mr. Gyur- 
 man — no other. 
 
86 
 
 As Governor Kossuth has no connection, dh-ect nor indirect, with the 
 paper in question, and no control over Mr. Gyurman, Governor Kossuth 
 cannot, on account of his advice to that gentleman to serve his country, 
 be, without gross injustice, made responsible for JMr. Gyurman's oc- 
 cupying himself with a question of domestic American policy, INJU- 
 RIOUS TO THE INTEREST OF HIS OWN COUNTRY, and in 
 diametric opposition to Governor Kossuth's decidedly expressed opinion 
 as to the duty and policy q/* non-interference in such questions. (///) 
 
 LETTER FROM RICHARD D. WEBB. 
 
 Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 17, 1851. 
 To Richard Andrews, Esq., Mayor of Southampton, 
 
 Sir — I beg to enclose a post-office order for one pound, as my contri- 
 bution to the collection which is intended to be placed at the disposal of 
 M. Kossuth for the Hungarian cause. 
 
 From the accounts 1 have seen in the papers of your own career, 
 your independence of spirit and regard to principle, I am induced to 
 hope for your favorable notice of the following remarks. 
 
 M. Kossuth's public course, since his arrival in England, and the 
 ability he has displayed, have created towards him an amount of enthu- 
 siasm and respect, which perhaps no man, and certainly no foreigner, 
 ever secured in the same space of time. These sentiments have been 
 perfectly spontaneous ; they are not attributable to government influence, 
 court favor, the countenance of the aristocracy, or to any thing but admi- 
 ration for the man, and interest in his cause. The feeling is national 
 and hearty, equally honorable to England and to Kossuth. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that this confidence should be main- 
 tained during his stay in the United States, and this can only be effected 
 by his strict adherence to consistency while in that country. 
 
 In no respect has M. Kossuth's ability been more wonderfully evinced 
 than in his quickness of apprehension, his readiness of perception of the 
 complicated machinery of English society, his appreciation of the im- 
 portance of our municipal institutions, his apt quotations from our poets, 
 and the amazing facility with which he comprehends the state of national 
 and even of local public opinion amongst us. 
 
 This being the case, when he visits the United States, nobody will 
 believe that he can remain ignorant, that the great republic contains a 
 nation of bondmen nearly as numerous as the Magyars, and that their 
 condition as to civil rights is as much below that of the Neapolitans, as 
 the Neapolitans are below the people of England. I allude to the three 
 and a half millions of slaves, whilst the half million of free colored 
 people are not much better circumstanced, being despised and oppressed 
 to a degree horrible in a professedly free and Christian nation. The 
 history of the world presents no other instance of a system of such op- 
 
87 
 
 pression, so maintained by the laws, public opinion, and physical force 
 of such a nation. One half of the people of the Union, the inhabitants 
 of the slave States, are kept in continual hot water by the dread of servile 
 insurrections. Those of the free States are corrupted by their false 
 position as assistant jailors of the South. For the sake of union with 
 the slaveholder, they are obliged to assist him in retaining posssession 
 of his human chattels. 
 
 This state of thing, cannot be maintained without continual resistance 
 on the part of the slaves, and of the true lovers of justice in the United 
 States. It is upheld by the slaveholders and their abettors in power, by 
 passing and upholding laws altogether alien to the genius, or even to the 
 existence of liberty. For example, the recent Fugitive Slave Law 
 makes the whole Union, including all its free states and free territories, 
 one vast hunting ground, on which any fugitive may be pursued and re- 
 captured, and every free citizen, no matter how he abhors slavery, is 
 liable to be summoned, under penalty of a fine of one thousand dollars 
 and imprisonment for six months, to assist in the capture. Kossuth, 
 himself, might be called upon in this way, immediately on landing; for 
 fugitive slaves are in no part of the Union more likely to be pursued 
 than in New York, and nowhere is the pro-slavery spirit more dominant 
 than among the merchants and leading men of that great city. Cass, 
 Webster, Clay and Fillmore hold their places as nominees of the slave- 
 ocracy of the Uniied States, about 130,(100 in number, and who by their 
 union, activity, and influence, control the destiny and shape the policy 
 of the republic. 
 
 A great portion of the people of the free States will welcome Kossuth 
 as he has been welcomed here, heartily, spontaneously, disinterestedly ; 
 but her statesmen and her rulers will only try, as the American phrase 
 is, ' to make capital out of him,' and to hide, under a pretence of zeal 
 for a great foreigner and his cause, their ov.u hostility to impartial liberty 
 at home. 
 
 It is of the utmost consequence to M. Kossuth's true lame and Euro- 
 pean influence, that he should be aware of this state of things ; that for 
 the sake of a hollow support from the main pillars of American slavery, 
 he should not withhold his indignant protest against the oppression prac- 
 tised in the United States, infinitely exceeding the injustice, cruelty and 
 insolence of all the crowned heads of Europe. 
 
 Let M. Kossuth accept the welcome and the hospitality of the United 
 States; let him express his gratitude for the kindness he receives, and 
 his hope for future assistance to the cause of liberty in Europe ; but let 
 him not ignore American slavery. Let him, on the contrary, resolutely 
 protest against it, and evince that his consistency and his moral courace 
 are equal to his talents and his illustrious reputation. True, he may thus 
 lose some of his fair-weather friends, and the good will of those who 
 would cover their own shame by the help of his great name ; but he will 
 exalt himself to a height of moral sublimity and heroism rarely equalled 
 among men. Let him raise his powerful voice in behalf of three millions 
 of slaves in a land of freedom. Let him do so for the sake of the 
 oppressor as well as the oppressed. 
 
88 
 
 In his career in Hungary, his captivity, his return, his arrival in Eng- 
 land, and his course while there, he has had no warmer sympathizer, no 
 more delighted admirer than myself. I visited England merely to see 
 him and listen to his voice, and I shall exceedingly rejoice if he withstand 
 any temptation to join in with the oppressors of the most pehed and down- 
 trodden race on earth, for the sake of any conceivable help these tyrants 
 can or may hold out to the trampled nations of Europe. Let him not 
 do evil that good may come. 
 
 I am confident that these considerations cannot fail to strike you, and 
 I therefore rely upon your bringing them before M. Kossuth, with that 
 earnestness which their importance to his reputation for consistency, 
 fearlessness, and fidelity to liberty, demands. 
 
 I am, very respecifuUv, yours, 
 
 iilCHARD D. WEBB. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S VISIT TO TI-IE U2IITED STATES. 
 
 Resolution of a Meeting of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation 
 Society, Scotland, held Nov. 6, 1851 : — 
 
 Whereas, the presence in this country of Louis Kossuth, the friend of 
 European liberty, and the prospect of his early departure to America, 
 have suggested the conviction that he might prove an important instru- 
 ment for the advancement of the cause of the down-trodden and op- 
 pressed of that land ; — 
 
 Resolved — That an address be prepared, laying before him the 
 condition of the 3,000,000 of slaves in the Southern States of America, 
 and appealing to him, as the friend of vniversal liberty, to exert his m- 
 fluence in their behalf. 
 
 Eliza Wigham, Secretary. 
 
 To THE Honorable Louis Kossuth, late Governor of Hungary : 
 
 We are members of a Society, whose object it is to embrace every 
 opportunity to aid the abolition of slavery throughout the world ; and 
 conceiving the present to be such an opportunity, we venture to address 
 you, deeming apology unnecessary, in appealing on behalf of liberty 
 to the acknowledged champion of that great cause. 
 
 We rejoice that you have been, though for so short a period, an hon- 
 ored sojourner on these our shores; but, before you leave them, to claim 
 the warm welcome which awaits you on the other side of the Atlantic, 
 we feel it incumbent on us to remind you, that, in the United States of 
 America, where a free home is tendered to you, there exist upwards of 
 3,000,000 of human beings in a state of abject slavery, held as property, 
 liable to be bought and sold, and to have their family ties riven asunder 
 at the will of a taskmaster ; while all moral and intellectual culture is 
 strictly withheld, under laws which enforce stringent penalties, and in 
 
89 
 
 some cases even death for teaching slaves to read. Yet, though thus 
 degraded to the condition of chattels, the love of liberty is strong in the 
 breast of these much-injured beings, and their struggles to attain it, 
 through trial, danger, and suflering, are equal to any of which we read ; 
 but when, through these struggles, they deem that they have secured 
 this blessing — when they place their feet on what are called the free 
 States of the American Union, instead of receiving the enthusiastic wel- 
 come which justly greets the hero of European liberty, they are met by 
 a law which forbids, by fines and imprisonment, any one to shelter or 
 aid them, and enjoins on all to return them at once to their hopeless 
 and cruel bondage, in direct contravention of the law of Jehovah, which 
 commands — " 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.' (Deut. xxiii. 15, 
 16.) This is a point which must, we feel assured, powerfully appeal to 
 the heart of one who is himself a fugitive from wrong and despotism, 
 and who can sympathise with the crushed hopes and sickening of soul 
 which must be the lot of these victims of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 We would, then, humbly entreat you to take advantage of the favora- 
 ble position in which you will be placed to plead their cause. You, as 
 the champion of liberty, will be hailed with enthusiasm by thousands 
 who claim to be her most devoted votaries, and among them will be 
 those who (with such professions on their lips) yet stand in the position 
 of oppressors of their brethren. Oh, then, we beseech you to make 
 use of your opportunity to represent to those the degradation and anom- 
 aly of their position, and to plead with them at once to forsake it by 
 " doing justly, and letting the oppressed go free," We conceive that 
 your voice would be endowed with mighty power, and your noble ex- 
 ample in having released the bondsmen of your own land would be 
 more powerful still ! 
 
 It may be deemed needful of apology, that those of our sex should 
 come before one so prominent in station ; but when it is considered that 
 wherever oppression rules, the female portion of the afilicted race suffer 
 in a threefold degree, and that more than a million and a half of our sisters 
 endure unexampled cruelty and degradation in the Southern States of 
 America, it will surely be forgiven us that we attempt to plead their 
 cause. 
 
 In conclusion, allow us once more to entreat, that by your continued 
 and constant advocacy of the rights of man, you may assail oppression 
 in every form ; and may the Most High bless and sustain you, and per- 
 mit you to see your reward in the peaceful and joyful enfranchisement, 
 not only of your own, but of all the nations of the earth. 
 We are, most respectfully. 
 
 The Committee of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, 
 
 Sarah J. Wigham, President. 
 
 Edinburgh, Nov. 18, 1851. 
 
 11 
 
90 
 
 TO THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Believing it to be a just and wise principle of action, on the part of 
 anti-slavery men, to hold men to their own avowed principles, especially 
 those men who come before the world prominently as the advocates of 
 human rights, I deemed it my duty to address the following letter to M. 
 Kossuth on his arrival in England, and 1 now publish it, as he has sailed 
 for the United States of America, that you, my friends, may have your 
 attention drawn to his course of conduct while in that land. He did not 
 reply to my letter. 
 
 This eminent man is not entitled to be 'let alone.' The world — the 
 friends of the slave everywhere — the opposers of tyranny in every land 
 — those who would honestly exclaim against oppression under every 
 shape and form — are all bound to watch his motions and scrutinize his 
 conduct. The courage and the integrity of M. Kossuth will soon be 
 deeply tested ; he has voluntarily offered himself to the trial ; and if he 
 comes off unspotted, he will be as pure gold well tried in the fire. If he 
 shall fall beneath the pro-slavery sentiment of America, he will inflict a 
 wound upon liberty by weakening men's faith, and causing many to 
 despair of the ultimate triumph of truth and justice in the world. 
 
 Indications of the quality of M. Kossuth's reception in America by the 
 enemies of freedom are already abroad. That he will have the faithful- 
 ness and the moral courage to brave their hostility I doubt, seeing that he 
 is rushing voluntarily into the lion's mouth ; but as I have been told that 
 he liberated five hundred thousand serfs in his own country, I hope and 
 pray that he may be found faithful to the colored man in America ; and 
 in the words of Gerrit Smith — an American, and a man dear to abolition- 
 ists the world over — I conclude : — 
 
 ' My reference to Hungarian heroes reminds me of the glorious re- 
 ception which this deeply hypocritical nation, standing with its feet up- 
 on the throats of oppressed millions, is preparing to give to Kossuth. It 
 flatters itself that he will not prove himself to be the enemy of American 
 as well as of Austrian oppression ; and that his sympathies, instead of 
 being commensurate with the whole human family, will be found to be 
 governed by country and caste. Thrice happy will it be — though to the 
 unutterable dismay and chagrin of this guilty nation — if Kossuth shall, 
 on American soil, confess himself to be the brother of all men — if Kos- 
 suth shall, on American soil, give proof that he is a man, instead of a 
 mere Hungarian !' 
 
 Fellow-laborers and friends, I remain faithfully yours, 
 
 James Haughton. 
 
 Dublin, Nov. 21, 1851. 
 
 ' TO M. KOSSUTH, IN LONDON. 
 
 Sir — You are now in a land where a man may at least give utterance 
 to the thoughts of his mind, in which the heart may vent itself in articulate 
 
91 
 
 breathings in favor of freedom. Go not, I pray you, to America — set not 
 the sole of your foot on that soil which is trodden by three millions of 
 slaves, and on whose behalf you, even you, dare not utter one sympa- 
 thetic word. In the so-called 'free states' of America, your deeds in favor 
 of humanity, if they still warm your heart, and give birth in your soul to the 
 language of freedom, will earn for you nothing but contempt and deris- 
 ion from the party who will surround you. In the 'slave states,' the hal- 
 ter awaits the man who whispers the accents of liberty within their bor- 
 ders. 
 
 In the former, you may escape the insults of mean men ; in the latter, 
 you may not be subjected to the death I have indicated ; but it will be on 
 one condition only. You must be no longer Louis Kossuth — you must 
 sink yourself to a level — and, oh ! God, what a miserable condition of 
 humanity that level is — with men-stealers. Your once noble nature, 
 which made you the admiration of the true-hearted among all nations, 
 will no longer shed its halo around your name. Now you are the cham- 
 pion of liberty, one of those men whose names are pronounced with affec- 
 tion, because they are synonymous with human progress in the road of 
 advancement and of civilization. In that land of whips and chains, your 
 name and your fame will be tarnished, because your tongue must be 
 mute on the great topic of universal liberty. 
 
 Taking into consideration the advantages possessed by the Americans, 
 and the high professions they make of liberty and equality before the 
 world, there is not, and there never was, a nation so dishonored ; and so 
 deep and damning is their moral delinquency on the question of human 
 rights, that few Europeans who visit them escape pollution of soul. Few 
 Europeans in the United States of America have the manliness to stand 
 forward on behalf of the God-given rights of the colored race. All, near- 
 ly all of them, are cowards in the maintenance of truth and justice ; they 
 shrink before the base public opinion of that guilty nation. 
 
 Sir, I beg of you not to go to the United States of America, and I re- 
 spectfully ask you to tell the world that you keep at a distance from that 
 land, because that there your brothers and your sisters are ranked with 
 creeping things, and the beasts of the fields, and made merchandise of 
 by their fellows. 
 
 If you act in this noble manner, your name will continue great be- 
 fore the nations ; moihers will teach children to lisp it with delight. It 
 will be a name long held in reverence by mankind. 
 
 Go to America, and listen to the blandishments of women-whippers 
 and cradle-plunderers — of a race of Haynaus, who spare not the lash 
 upon woman's flesh — and the brightness of your name is sullied forever. 
 Tyrants will rejoice, and the friends of freedom will weep, because of 
 your renunciation of those high and noble principles of liberty with which 
 your name and your acts are now associated in the minds of men. 
 
 If you be the great souled man that I hope and believe you are, and of 
 which no doubt should rest on my mind, were it not for your intention to 
 accept the hospitality of that people, whose contact, it seems to me, you 
 ought to spurn with feelings of abhorrence similar to those which must 
 animate you against Austrian and Russian tyranny, it would be an insult 
 
92 
 
 to you for me to offer an apology for thus addressing you ; therefore, I 
 make none. I address you with the freedom which one free man may 
 use to another, upon a question involving great human rights, and I trust 
 you vi^ill feel that I have done so respectfully. 
 
 I am, Sir, with sincere admiration of your character, respectfully 
 yours, James Haughton. 
 
 35, Eccles-street, Dublin, 4th Nov. 1851. 
 
 p. S. — I send this through my friend Mr. Charles Gilpin, who can in- 
 form you who I am, if you incline to inquire into my character. 
 
 J. H.' 
 
 From the " British Frieud. ' 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH, PEACE, AND AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 Few of our readers, we apprehend, but have heard of the name, and 
 fewer still but have sympathized in the sufferings of this distinguished 
 Hungarian, in his desire for the liberty of his fellow-countrj'men. For 
 the last few weeks, indeed, his has been the most prominent name be- 
 fore the public ; and attentions, such as rarely fall to the lot of public 
 men, have, it may truly be said, been even showered upon him. In the 
 midst of so much admiration and excitement, we were fearful lest some 
 of our public spirited Peace friends should, as with the torrent, be led 
 away from the consistent ground of its advocacy. This feeling appears 
 to have impressed the Committee of the London Society, and gave occa- 
 sion for the truly excellent Address to the friends of the cause through- 
 out the country. It will be found in another place ; and we commend it 
 to the careful perusal of our readers. It will well repay the trouble. 
 
 The subject of American Slavery has also, we observe, through the 
 newspapers and other channels of information, been brought under the 
 notice of Kossuth. We rejoice that this has been the case. May he bear 
 a faithful testimony in behalf of the slave in America, and not copy the 
 inglorious course of Theobald Mathew, who turned his back on his anti- 
 slavery principles ! We had the privilege of perusing several of the ad- 
 dresses sent to Kossuth on this subject, and have been much pleased with 
 him. The following was sent from this city, and was presented through 
 our kind friend, Charles Gilpin ; 
 
 To Louis Kossuth, late Governor of Hungary. 
 
 The undersigned beg respectfully to address you, on behalf of the 
 Glasgow Emancipation Society, and the Glasgow Female Anti-Slavery 
 Society, which have for their object the abolition of slavery throughout 
 the world. 
 
93 
 
 In the Address which was lately presented to you by our fellow-citi- 
 zens, congratulating you upon your happy liberation from your recent 
 imprisonment, and sympathizing with you in your desires for the deliv- 
 erance of your oppressed countrymen, some of us not only interested 
 ourselves, but, as lovers of liberty, gave it our cordial concurrence. 
 
 Our object, however, in wishing to engage your attention at the pres- 
 ent time, has reference more especially to your intended visit to the 
 United States of America. 
 
 We yield to none in our admiration of the free institutions of that great 
 and growing country. But, as the friends of universal emancipation, we 
 deem it right to acquaint you that, in that enlightened community, whose 
 Constitution declares that 'all men are born free and equal,' there are 
 held in ignominious and degrading chattel slavery nearly three and a half 
 millions of our fellow-men — deprived of all right to their own persons, or 
 those of their own wives and children — for no other reason than that of 
 possessing 'a skin not colored like our own ;' and to retain whom in hope- 
 less bondage, the whole of the constituted authorities of the American 
 people are notoriously and unmistakeably pledged — of which the enact- 
 ment by their Congress last year of the 'Fugitive Slave Bill,' is a recent 
 and most lamentable manifestation. 
 
 While, therefore, we admire the noble generosity of the United States 
 Government, in providing a refuge in that land for you and your exiled 
 countrymen, we entreat you, as the liberator of the serfs in your own 
 country, that whilst you may be gratefully acknowledging the benevolent 
 conduct of the American nation, you will not fail, at the same time, to 
 lift up your voice in behalf of the enslaved millions in their midst; and 
 that, viewing these our degraded and oppressed sable brethren as being, 
 equally with yourself and us of the white race, the creation of the same 
 God, and objects of the same redemption through Jesus Christ, you will 
 use your iniluence, in every proper and prudent way, for hastening the 
 day of their entire emancipation. 
 
 Allow us, in conclusion, to assure you that we shall continue to cher- 
 ish the warmest desires for your welfare ; and to pray that it may please 
 the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, not only to grant you His merciful 
 ])reservation, but that your humane and patriotic aspirations for the liber- 
 ty and prosperity of your beloved Hungary may be speedily, and peace- 
 fully, and happily fulfilled. 
 
 Signed in name and on behalf of the aforesaid societies, at Glasgow, 
 this eleventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and fitfy-one. 
 
 Andrew Paton, ) Secretaries to the Glasgow 
 
 William Smeal, j Emancipation Society. 
 
 Mary Welsh, ) Secretaries to the Glasgc 
 
 Eliza Anderson, ) Female A. S. Society. 
 
94 
 
 By the following paragraph, which is copied from the last number of 
 the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, it appears that Kossuth 
 was supplied with all needful intelligence in England on the subject of 
 American slavery. He appears to have made no reply in any instance 
 to the numerous anti-slavery addresses that were sent to him. 
 
 In directing the attention of our readers to the Resolution of the Edin- 
 burgh Emancipation Society, which will be found in another part of the 
 Reporter, we may mention that a deputation of the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was favored with a personal 
 interview with M. Kossuth, when he was presented with abundant mate- 
 rials whereupon to found his judgment of the character of American 
 slavery, as well as of slavery and the slave-trade throughout the world. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ. 
 
 Delivered at the National Anti- Slavery Bazaar, in Boston, Dec. 21th, 
 1852. 
 
 It is to such a nation as this that Kossuth comes — a nation sensitive to 
 a fault, servile to the last degree ; catching, with a watchful interest, the 
 first breath of foreign criticism ; hugging to its bosom with delight any 
 eulogy that falls from the lips of noted men on the other side of the water. 
 Is there any thing peculiar and to be remarked in the state of public 
 affairs at the time of his visit ? Yes, he comes precisely at the moment 
 when one absorbing question has banished all others from the nation's 
 mind. The great classes and interests of society crash and jostle against 
 each other like mighty vessels in a storm. The slave question having, 
 like Aaron's rod, devoured all other political issues, claims and keeps the 
 undivided attention of excited millions. The lips of every public man are 
 anxiously watched, and his slightest word scanned with relentless scru- 
 tiny. Pulpit and forum are both busy in the discussion of the profound- 
 est questions as to the relations of the citizen to the law, and the real 
 value and strength of our Institutions. For the first time, some men have 
 begun to doubt whether they are compatible with free speech and Chris- 
 tianity : while men, called statesmen, either emboldened by success, or 
 hardened by desperate ambition, have been found ready openly to de- 
 clare that the Union is possible only on condition that the sons of the 
 Pilgrims consent to hunt slaves, and smother those instincts which have 
 made the poets of all ages love to linger around the dungeon of the patriot 
 and the martyr — with Tell and Wallace, with Lafayette and Silvio 
 Pellico — with Charles Stuart hunted by the soldiery of Cromwell, and the 
 Covenanter shot by that same Charles Stuart at his cottage door. Kos- 
 suth lands on a shore where humanity is illegal, and obedience to the 
 Golden Rule of Christianity has just been declared treason. He was not 
 ignorant of this state of things. Private individuals and public societies 
 in England had placed in his hands ample evidence of the real character 
 
95 
 
 of American institutions, and tlie critical state of public opinion on the 
 momentous question of enslaving every sixth man, woman and child in 
 the land. Some besought him to pause ere he set foot on a land cursed 
 with such a monstrous system of oppression, and all bade him beware of 
 the temptation to which his position subjected him, of strengthening by 
 his silence or approbation the hands of the oppressor. At such a time, 
 and in the midst of such a people, we have a right to claim that he should 
 walk carefully. He knew that he must throw the weight of his mighty 
 name in the scale of one party or the other, that was waging war for 
 principle on this side the Atlantic. What has he done .? JNo man ex- 
 pected that he should go into anti-slavery meetings ; that he should take 
 ground against the Fugitive Slave Bill. No. But you remember, when 
 Alexander went to see Diogenes, and asked what he could do for him, 
 the reply of the cynic was, "Stand out of my light!" Now, the slave 
 had at least the right to say to Kossuth, "Stand out of my light! Let 
 the glowing sun of the humanity of the nineteenth century strike full up- 
 on me. Let the light and heat of those generous ideas, with which God 
 has inspired some of the white race, fall upon me, to melt these chains of 
 mine ; and let not your lavish praise be the spell that shall lull to sleep 
 the half-awakened conscience of a people who have just begun to attend 
 to the neglected, and to remember the forgotten. Throw not the weight 
 of your great name into the scale of those my enemies, who glory in a 
 national prosperity fed out of my veins, and worship a Union cemented 
 with my blood." 
 
 Take his speeches. Do they differ from those of the most pro-slavery 
 American ? Does he qualify his eulogy, does he limit his praise ? Has 
 he a word of sympathy for the oppressed, a hint, even, at any blot on 
 our national escutcheon ? Could he have spoken without taking a side, 
 unless he had used the most guarded and qualified language .'' Take his 
 speeches relating to the Constitution of the United States. Place them 
 side by side with the spe.eches of Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, 
 with those of any of the men recognised as supporters of this Union, for 
 its very quality of being an added ligament to hold the slave to his 
 master. Is not the tone the same ? Is not the eulogy of our Constitu- 
 tion as unqualified and as glowing ? Do you ever find the slightest allu- 
 sion to the fact, that one-sixth part of the inhabitants under it are denied 
 those personal rights which make the sufferings of the Magyar peasant 
 tame in comparison .'' Throughout this flood of sublime eloquence which 
 he has poured forth with such lavish genius to applauding crowds, when 
 has he been heard to speak a word for three millions of people in this 
 land, outraged and trampled under foot ; to intimate that he sympathised 
 with them; to hint that he knew of their existence? Our country is 
 "great, glorious and free ; the land of protection for the persecuted sons 
 of freedom among the great brotherhood of nations." This is his lan- 
 guage :—.... 
 
 " May your kind anticipations of me be not disappointed ! I am a plain 
 man, I have nothing in me but honest fidelity to those principles which 
 have made you great, and my most ardent wish is, that my own country 
 may be, if not as great as yours, at least as free ^nd as happy, which it 
 
96 
 
 will be in the establishment of the same great principles. The sounds 
 that I now hear seem to me the trumpet of resurrection for down-trodden 
 humanity throughout the world." 
 
 What ! free as the land where the Bible is refused to every sixth per- 
 son ! Free as the land where it is a crime to learn every sixth person to 
 read ! Free as the land where, by statute, every sixth woman may be 
 whipped at the public whipping-post! Free as the land where the mur- 
 der of the black man, if the deed is perpetrated only in the presence of 
 blacks, is secure from legal punishment ! Free as the land, the banks of 
 whose Mississippi were lit up with the horrid sight, not seen in Europe 
 for two centuries, of a man torn from the hands of justice, and burned in 
 his own blood, by a mob, of whom the highest legal authority proclaim- 
 ed, afterward, that their act was the act of the people, and above the 
 notice of the Judiciary ! Free as the land, the beautiful surface of whose 
 Ohio was polluted by the fragments of three presses — the emblems of 
 free speech — and no tribunal has taken notice of the deeds ! Free as the 
 land, whose prairie has drunk in the first Saxon blood shed for the right 
 of free speech for a century and a half — I mean the blood of Lovejoy ! 
 Free as the land where the fugitive dares not proclaim his name in the 
 cities of New England, and skulks in hiding-places until he can conceal 
 himself on board a vessel, and make his way to the kind shelter of Liver- 
 pool and London ! Free as the land where a hero worthy to stand by 
 the side of Louis Kossuth — I mean Ellen Crafts — (great cheering) — has 
 pistols lying at her bed-side for weeks, as protection against your mar- 
 shals and your sheriffs, your chief justices and divines, and finds no safe 
 refuge until she finds it in the tender mercies of the wife of that poet 
 [Byron] who did his service to the cause of freedom at Missolonghi ! (1) 
 
 But what does Kossuth wish for Hungary ? " My most ardent wish is, 
 
 (1) This allusion will be better understood by reading the following statement, copied from 
 the London Morning Advertiser :— " Those who have access to the anti-slavery papers of America 
 have long been familiar with the eventful history of 'VVilliam and Ellen Craft, from the time 
 of their romantic escape from Macon, in Georgia, (Ellen, whose complexion is white, disguised 
 as a young Southern planter, her husband personating his slave,) and of their subsequent res- 
 idence, and enjoyment of the blessings of freedom, in a peaceful home at Boston, until they 
 were driven by the Fugitive Slave Law to seek an asylum in England, (the President of the 
 United States having declared by a public document, that he would employ the military force 
 of the country for their recapture.) It is now their good fortune, with the assistance of 
 friends, to be received as pupils in the Ockham Schools, near Kiply, Surrey. These schools, 
 which are partly industrial, were esbtalished by Lady Byron for giving useful education to 
 children residing in the rural districts. All the advantages the schools possess are afforded 
 to the Crafts, in a mode which is in every respect considerate of their feelings. In addition to 
 other braHches of Knowledge, Mr. Craft is cultivating his taste for drawing under an able 
 master ; he renders himself useful by giving the boys instruction in carpentering and cabinet- 
 making, while Mrs. Craft exerts herself in communicating some of her varied manual ac- 
 quirements to the girls. The children are greatly attached to her, and both she and her hus- 
 band are happy, industrious, and making progress in their pursuits. The Ockham schools are 
 kindly and carefully superintended by the MissesLushington, daughters of Dr. Lushington, of 
 Ockham Park, which adjoins Every facility has been given by Lady Byron, by the Misses Lush- 
 ington, and by the master and mistress, for admitting and accommodating William and Ellen 
 Craft in the establishment, and for renderuig their abode there as advantageous and comfort- 
 able to them as possible." 
 
97 
 
 that my own country may be, if not as great as yours, at least as free and 
 as happy, which it will be in the establishment of the same great princi- 
 ples." "As free and as happy " ! Is that all that this loving son of Hun- 
 gary can ask for his native land ? Would he thrust back to serfdom one 
 sixth part of her twelve millions ? Would he not blush to stand so near 
 even to Austria, who compels her peasantry to learn to read, and make 
 the teaching of every sixth Hungarian a penal offence ? Would he legis- 
 late into existence a nation of Flaynaus, and authorise them to whip IVlag- 
 yar women ? Would he fill Hungarian prisons with Draytons and Sayeis, 
 the Torreys and Fairbanks ? — Hungarian graves with Crandalls and 
 Lovejoys ? Would he hang his courts in chains, that his brother nobles 
 might drag back their serfs in peace? Before he repeats such a wish, 
 let him go and meditate one hour more in that dungeon whence one of 
 his comrades went to his grave, and the other came out blind — let him 
 send his thoughts back again to that refuge which the Sultan gave him 
 when he refused, at the hazard of his Crescent, to surrender to his neigh- 
 bor State the Hungarian Craft, Sims, Long, etc., who had escaped and 
 claimed his protection. He would, if he be the man the world believes 
 him, learn there that he never could consent to make Hungary what 
 these United States are, and that he begs aid for his loved countrymen 
 too dear, if he begs it by words not truthful from the lips of Louis Kos- 
 suth. 
 
 " Happy art thou, free nation of America, that thou hast founded thy 
 house upon the only solid basis of a nation's liberty ! Thou hast no 
 tyrants among thee, to throw the apple of Eros in thy Union ! Thou 
 hast no tyrants to raise the fury of hatred in thy national family!" This 
 he says, when he knows that the newspapers of one half the Union are 
 full of the records of the atrocities perpetrated by the white men upon 
 the blacks, guilty of nothing but a skin not colored like their own. I 
 defy Kossuth to find in any German paper, at the very fount of Aus- 
 trian despotism, such advertisements as daily fill our Southern presses. I 
 defy him to match the crimes and wickedness of the press that leagues 
 with despotism in this land. Mothers sold with their infants, six weeks 
 old, together or apart. I defy him to match the advertisements coming 
 from Southern States, calling for a man or his head : — Fifty dollars re- 
 ward for a man, dead or alive ! 
 
 A land with three millions of slaves, and not a tyrant ! Free speech 
 achieved on the floor of Congress only after a dozen years of struggle, 
 and still a penal offence in one half the Union — our jails filled with men 
 guilty only of helping a brother man to his liberty — yet the keen eyes of 
 this great soul can see nothing but "a solid basis of liberty" ! Southern 
 Conventions to dissolve the Union — the law executed in Boston at the 
 point of the bayonet — riot, as the Government calls it, stalking through 
 the streets of Detroit, Buffalo, Syracuse, Boston, Christiana and New 
 York — Massachusetts denied by statute the right to bring an action in 
 South Carolina — Georgia setting a price on the head of a Boston prin- 
 ter — Senators threatening to hang a brother Senator, should he set foot 
 in a Southern State — the very tenants of the pulpit silenced, or subjected 
 13 
 
98 
 
 to a coat of tar and feathers — one State proposing to exclude the com- 
 merce of another — demagogue statesmen perambulating the country to 
 save the Union — honest men exhorted to stifle their consciences, for fear 
 the shio of state should sink amid the breakers — the whole nation at last 
 waking to Jefferson's conviction, that we have " the wolf by the ears ; 
 we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go!" Yet this man, whose 
 " tempest-tossed life has somewhat sharpened the eyes of his soul," can 
 see only a " solid basis of liberty " ! " no tyrant to throw the apple of 
 Eros in the Union ; " " to raise the fury of hatred in thy national family " ! 
 What place has such fulsome and baseless eulogy on the lips of a truthful 
 and honest man ? 
 
 Kossuth is filled with overflowing love for Hungary, which lies under 
 the foot of the Czar. Now, let us suppose a parallel case. Suppose that 
 Lafayette were now living, and that the great Frenchman had seen his 
 idea of liberty for France go down in blood. We will suppose that, 
 despairing of doing any thing at home, he had concluded to appeal to 
 some foreign nation for aid ; that Fayette, with his European reputation, 
 considered the great apostle of human liberty, and his voice the seal and 
 stamp of republican principle, Fayette goes to Vienna for help. He 
 goes to Austria for help for his side in French politics, as Kossuth comes 
 here for help on his side of Hungarian politics ; to Austria, with Hun- 
 gary bleeding at her feet, and Kossuth in exile. 
 
 After all, it is national politics in which he asks us to interfere, at 
 whatever hazard. What is Hungary ? Twelve millions of people under 
 the iron foot of the Russian Czar, by means of his puppet, the Emperor 
 of Austria. What says he to America > " I do not wish to be entangled 
 with American politics." As one of our own citizens said to me the 
 other day, — " What comes this fellow here for ? I do not wish to med- 
 dle with Austrian politics." The question of the liberty of twelve 
 millions in Hungary is as much a question of Austrian politics as the 
 question of three million of slaves under the United States Constitution, 
 and the human beings sent back as chattels under the Fugitive Slave Law 
 of 1851, is a question of American politics. 
 
 Do not think, either, that I am so far out of the way in sending Fayelte 
 to Austria. Let me turn aside before I finish the illustration. What is 
 Austria ? Who is Haynau ? The culminating star of Austrian atrocity 
 — the General whose name recalls every thing that is most monstrous in 
 Austria's treatment of down-trodden Hungary. Haynau ! What was it 
 that the European press charged upon him as his greatest atrocity > 
 Why, he whipped one woman, a countess ; he whipped one woman at the 
 public whipping-post. The press of Europe, from the banks of the 
 "Volga to the banks of the Seine, from the 'Times' up to 'Punch,' 
 denounced him as a libel on the civilization of the nineteenth century, as 
 a brute who had disgraced even the brutality of the camp, when he dared, 
 in the face of Europe, in the nineteenth century, thus to outrage the 
 common feeling of the world. That is Haynau ; but he followed the 
 example of half the States of this Union. There, woman-whipping is 
 the law and custom of the land. There are a hundred thousand men 
 
99 
 
 and women in this nation, who have a right by law to whip a million and 
 a half of women in fifteen of the Southern States. " One murder makes 
 a villain ; millions, a hero." To whip one woman makes a monster ; 
 but to whip millions by statute is to make a country, in regard to which it 
 is the highest wish of Kossuth that Hungary may be like her ! 
 
 In view of this and similar facts, I say, there is not a word of the 
 language which he applies to Austria, that is not equally applicable to the 
 land which imprisons Drayton and Sayres in the jails of the capital, that 
 pursues Shadrach without mercy — a land where women are whipped by 
 statute — and there is not a word of all this eloquent eulogy of ourselves 
 which is not equally applicable to Austria. 
 
 I send Fayette, therefore, to Austria. Kossuth, sheltered by the Cres- 
 cent, hears of the coming of Fayette to Vienna. How his heart beats ! 
 Now, from that voice, venerable with its age, strong in the millions that 
 wait its tones, I shall hear the voice of a deliverer. Now the heart of 
 every down-trodden Hungarian is to leap for joy ; now a sunbeam shall 
 light up the dungeons of my old comrades, for Fayette has entered 
 Vienna. Listen ! The first note that is borne to him down the waters 
 of the Danube is that of Fayette speaking to Haynau of his " glorious 
 entry into the capital of Hungary," as Kossuth speaks of the entrance 
 of the Americans into the capital of Mexico. He listens, and every 
 word of the eloquent Frenchman is praise of the Austrian emperor and 
 Austrian institutions ; and he says — words Kossuth had used to the 
 Americans — " Cling to your Constitution and your institutions. Cling to 
 them! Let no misguided citizen ever dream of tearing down the house, 
 because there is discomfort in one of the chambers." And suppose he 
 hears him say — " Let no misguided Magyar ever dream of tearing asun- 
 der this beautiful empire of Austria, because there is discomfort in 
 that one chamber of Hungary." What would have been his tone in 
 answering Fayette ? He would have said — " Recreant ! What right 
 have you to purchase safety to France, by sacrificing the people of Hun- 
 gary, and by eulogising tyrants? " (Tremendous cheering.) 
 
 Just such is the message that the Ameiican slaves send back to Kos- 
 suth : — " Recreant ! if you could not speak a free word for liberty the 
 wide world over, why came you to this land stained and polluted by our 
 blood } What right had you to purchase with your silence aid for Hun- 
 gary, or throw the weight of your great name into the scale of our 
 despair } " " O, no ! " said O'Connell, " I will never tread that Ameri- 
 can strand, until she removes the curse of American slavery from her 
 statute book." It was well he did not. Hardly any man can stand 
 against the temptation of our great political iniquity. 
 
 Kossuth has come here on the glorious mission of redeeming Hungary. 
 God speed Him in every step — honest step — that he takes to lift up the 
 Magyar, that he may raise the nations of Europe ! But, O ! if he only 
 lift her up by using for his fulcrum the chains of the slave ; if he only 
 lift her up by using language which shall strengthen the hearts of the 
 oppressor in this land, which shall make those who love this Union lay 
 the flattering unction to their souls — Kossuth is an experienced man, he 
 
100 
 
 understands our institutions, and sees nothing to blame in them — then 
 perish Hungary before he succeed ! 
 
 The very Congress that invited this man to our shores, and passed a 
 resokition placing a national vessel at his service, is the very Congress 
 that passed the Fugitive Slave Bill. He knows it. The very men who 
 sent for the Hungarian exile, condemned to hopeless bondage hundreds, 
 who, but for that law, might have been saved. Why, if you had stood, 
 as some of us have done, by the domestic firesides of hundreds of fugi- 
 tive slaves, who had been happy at the North for ten, fifteen, aye, twenty 
 years, and had seen the utter wretchedness of those persecuted ones, 
 when they felt that father, or mother, or wife, or child, must be borne 
 away to the Southern plantation, or must make themselves exiles by 
 going to Canada or even to England, and reflected that these scenes are 
 wrought by the very men who have welcomed the great Hungarian to 
 this country, and then, when he came, that he had no words but words of 
 eulogy, how should you judge by his spirit ? 
 
 Bear with me in yet one illustration more. Men are known by the 
 company they keep. It seems to me right to judge Kossuth so in this 
 instance. Suppose a friend of liberty had gone across the water six 
 months ago. Would he have sought the society of the illustrious free 
 spirits that were the apostles of the great ideas of that country, or would 
 he have gone to the court of the Ceesar ? Would he have gone to the 
 palace of Vienna, or to Metternich ? Would he have gone to the coun- 
 try seat of Haynau, or to any other name recognised the wide world over 
 as an apostate to principle, to humanity, to equal rights ? Or would he 
 have gone to that Kossuth, that Dembinski — to the men who are now 
 exiles, or imprisoned throughout the length of the Austrian empire — to 
 the graves of those who have been murdered in battle, or in Haynau's 
 camp ? Would not their prisons have been the first scenes of his visit, 
 that he might give his sympathy to the men who were suffering in a 
 cause so dear to his heart ? Certainly. We go where we are magneti- 
 cally drawn ; we cannot resist rushing into the arms of those whose 
 hearts beat responsive to our own. If a Socialist visits Paris, he goes 
 to Proudhomme. If an anti-slavery man goes to Paris, he goes to de 
 Broglie. As Dr. Jackson said of his lamented son, who died recently in 
 Boston, in whatever company he went, he nailed his flag high, that all 
 men might know his principles. [Cheers.] Now, I say, that Louis 
 Kossuth did not nail the flag of his principles high to the mast ; if he 
 had, Hangman Foote would never have invited him to Washington. The 
 world-wide love of man, the burning enthusiasm, the hatred of oppres- 
 sion, that gathered two hundred thousand living hearts in Hungary, 
 melted them into one giant mass by the magnetism of his great nature, 
 and hurled them like an awful thunderbolt against the throne of the 
 Caesars — all that has not crossed the Atlantic ; if it had, the pro-slavery 
 divines of New York — the men who say they dare not utter even a 
 prayer for the three millions of blacks — would never have gathered 
 around it. He will go to Washington, and to whom ? To Daniel Web- 
 ster and Hangman Foote. Had he been the Kossuth of Pesth, the Kos- 
 
101 
 
 suth whom Georgey betrayed, he would have gone to the prison of Drayton 
 and Sayres, to see the men who have been made a sacrifice for the crime 
 of loving their brother man as they loved themselves. He would have 
 said, " No matter what your laws are. I broke the laws of Austria for 
 the Magyar." The European who has rent parchments to rags when 
 they stood in the way of liberty — who has trampled on lav/s a thousand 
 years old when they stood in the way of humanity and justice — that man, 
 who comes to America, and goes not to the prison of Drayton and Sayres, 
 to the court house where the men are being tried for the Christiana riots, 
 as our press calls them, has lowered the tone of his spirit, and compro- 
 mised that great fame which came over before him. 
 
 That is the indictment the Abolitionists bring against him. It is not 
 that he is a coward, and that his philanthropy shrinks before the public 
 opinion of America. No ! We do not know that he was ever afraid of 
 any thing below God. Though no coward, he is selfish. Just as selfish 
 as all patriotism is. He loves his own land, and to that land he is willing 
 to sacrifice the duty he owes to truth. " An advocate," said Lord 
 Brougham, defending Queen Caroline, " by the sacred duty which he 
 owes his client, knows in the discharge of that ofiice, but one person in 
 the world, that client, and none other. To save that client by all 
 expedient means — to protect that client at all hazards and costs to all 
 others, and among others to himself — is the highest and most unquestioned 
 of his duties; and he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the tor- 
 ment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other.'' Now, that, 
 in another form, is Kossuth's patriotism. " I love Hungary," says he, 
 " stand aside, all ye other races ! I will so mould my language, I will so 
 pour out my eulogy, I will so lavish my praise, that I will save her ; let 
 other races take care of themselves." This, then, is the criticism of the 
 anti-slavery reformer. "Whoever strengthens the American Union, 
 strengthens the chain of the American slave. Whoever praises the 
 policy of this country since the Constitution began, whether in Florida 
 or Mexico, strengthens that opinion which supports it. Whoever 
 strengthens that opinion, is a foe to the slave. Louis Kossuth has thrown 
 at the feet of the Union party the weight of his gigantic name, and every 
 conscience that had begun to be troubled is put to sleep : " Kossuth is 
 free from American prejudices, unbiased and disinterested. He tells me 
 to love the Union. So I will observe the laws ; so I will banish the 
 slave from my thoughts, as Kossuth does. Kossuth saves Hungary by 
 subserviency to the South ; I will save the Union in the same way." 
 This is the same old principle, the world round. How much truth may 
 I sacrifice, in order to save some little Zoar in which God has given me 
 a beiiig.'' How much silencing of the truth is permitted us here by God, 
 in order that we may help him govern the world .'' How many noble 
 instincts may we stifle, how many despots' hearts may we comfort, to 
 help God save America ? None! (Great cheering.) No, he did not 
 send us into the world to free the slave. He did not send Kossuth into 
 the world to save Hungary. He sent him into the world to speak his 
 whole truth, for the white and the black man ; to feel as a man for his 
 
102 
 
 brother man, and to speak toJiat he felt ; then, if Hungary is saved, to 
 join in the jubilee with which all would celebrate her salvation. 
 (Loud cheers.) O, men are so ready to take upon themselves the great 
 responsibility of doing some great work in the world. I have got to save 
 the Union, and therefore I must return fugitive slaves, I have got to 
 redeem Hungary, and therefore I may be an American doughface, instead 
 of an European patriot. 
 
 This the verdict that history shall bring. When, hereafter, the histo- 
 rian is telling the story of some great man, who has done service to his 
 kind, if he be one who loved only his own race, or color, or country, 
 and stopped there — who loved a Frenchman, because he was himself 
 born in Paris — or, born in London, was ready to serve all Englishmen — 
 if he were one who has rendered some great service to a single nation, 
 or loved his own race and hated all others, he will say, " This was a 
 great man — he was the Kossuth, the Webster of the day." But when 
 he shall dip his pen in the sunlight, to immortalize some greater spirit 
 than that, — one whose philanthropy, like the ocean, knew no bounds ; 
 the eagle of whose spirit, towering in its pride of place, looked down 
 upon the earth, and saw blotted out from the mighty scene, all the little 
 lines with which man had narrowed it out, and took in every human 
 being as a brother, and loved all races with an equal humanity ; who 
 never silenced the truth, that the white man might longer trample on the 
 black, or thought the safety of his own land cheaply bought at the price 
 of lavish eulogies laid on the footstool of petty tyrants — he shall dip his 
 pen in the gorgeous hues of the sunlight, and write, " This was a greater 
 man yet ; he was a Garrison, an O Connell, a Fayette." [Loud and 
 continued cheers.] 
 
 Now this is the exact difference which the anti-slavery world recog- 
 nizes in Kossuth. He is the man who has been content to borrow his 
 tone from the atmosphere in which he moved. He has offered American 
 patriotism the incense of his eulogy, and has, by that course, consented 
 to do service to the dark spirit of American slavery. We find no fault 
 with any expression of his gratitude. But gratitude to the administration 
 of the country was not necessarily eulogy of all its institutions. A man 
 may thank a benefactor, without endorsing his character ! He came to 
 a land where every sixth man is a slave, and where the national banner 
 clings to the flag-staff heavy with blood, and the lips which proclaimed 
 the freedom of the Hungarian serf have found no occasion but for eulogy ! 
 He came to a land where the Bible is prohibited by statute to three mil- 
 lions of human beings, to whom, also, the marriage mstitution is a for- 
 bidden blessing, and the eminently religious Hungarian can find no 
 occasion but for eulogy ! He came to a land where almost every village 
 in the free States has more than one trembling fugitive who dare not tell 
 his true name, and the great martyr for personal liberty can find no 
 occasion but for eulogy ! He came to a land, of the fundamental 
 arrangement of whose government, John Quincy Adams says, " it is not 
 in the compass of human imagination to devise a more perfect exempli- 
 fication of the art of committing the lamb to the custody of the wolf," 
 
103 
 
 and to " call whose government a democracy would be to insult the 
 understanding of mankind ; " and the apostle of civil liberty sees only a 
 " glorious republic " — " great, glorious and free " — " the pillar of free- 
 dom ; " and all he prays for his own country is,' that "she may be as 
 free and as happy in the establishment of the same great principles " ! 
 
 He comes to a land where, according to the same indisputable authority, 
 " a knot of slaveholders give the law and prescribe the policy of the 
 country," and the indignant foe of Austrian rule, " his eyes sharpened by 
 a tempest-tossed life," finds no occasion but for eulogy ! He comes to 
 a land where, says the same venerable statesman, " the preservation, 
 propagation and perpetuation of slavery is the vital and animating spirit 
 of the National Government," and where, since 1780, slavery, slave- 
 holding, slave-breeding and slave-trading have formed the whole founda- 
 tion of the policy of the Federal Government ; and " the sharpened 
 eyes" of the European patriot, whose baptism of liberty was the damps 
 of an Austrian dungeon, sees only " a glorious country " — " great, glorious 
 and free ; " "a glorious republic ; " her " glorious flag the proud ensign 
 of man's divine origin;" the "asylum of oppressed humanity;" her 
 welcome, " the trumpet of resurrection for down-trodden humanity 
 throughout the world ; " her language, " the language of liberty, and 
 therefore the language of the people of the United States ; " his confi- 
 dence of ultimate success springs from the thought, that " there is a God 
 in heaven, and a people like the Americans on earth." He makes haste 
 to declare how easy it is to read the heart of this slaveholding, slave- 
 breeding and slave-trading people, because " it is open like nature, and 
 unpolluted like a virgin's heart ; " that others may " shut their eyes to the 
 cry of oppressed humanity, because they regard duties, but through the 
 glass of petty interests," but this slaveholding and slave-trading people 
 " has that instinct of justice and generosity, which is the stamp of man- 
 kind's heavenly origin ; knows that it has the power to restore the law of 
 nations to the principles of justice and right, and is willing to be as good 
 as its power is great" ! ! Does the great statesmanlike heart of Kossuth 
 believe all this? If he does not, is the most devoted lover of Liberty 
 ever bound to lay on her altar the sacrifice of hypocrisy ? or was any 
 cause ever yet strengthened by lips that belied the heart ? The world 
 thought his lips had been touched by a coal from the altar of the living 
 God — and, lo ! he has bargained away his very utterance, and presents 
 himself before us thus cheaply bought and gagged ! 
 
 Men say, " Why criticise Kossuth, when you have every reason to 
 believe that, in his heart, he sympathises with you ? " Just for that 
 reason we criticise him. Because he endorses the great American lie, 
 that to save or benefit one class, a man may righteously sacrifice the 
 rights of another. Because, while the American world knows him to 
 be a hater of slavery, they see him silent on that question — hear him 
 eulogise a nation of slaveholders, to carry his point. What greater 
 wrong can he do the slave, than thus to strengthen his foes in their own 
 good opinion of themselves, and weaken, by his example, that public 
 rebuke to which the negro can alone trust for ultimate redemption ? He 
 
104 
 
 whom tyrants hated on the other side the ocean, is the favored guest of 
 tyrants on this side. He eats salt with the Haynaus of Washington. It 
 is high time that he explain to Europe the geographical morality that 
 enables him to do it, and be still the Louis Kossuth whose wandering 
 steps Russian vengeance thought it worth while to follow. Could he 
 have filed his tongue as cunningly at home, why should he have ever left 
 Pesth ? Or shall we deem him a man hotly indignant at his own wrongs, 
 and those of his own blood, but cold to those of one whose skin is some 
 few shades darker than his own ? 
 
 His parallel of the non-intervention of States is not a just one. No 
 one asks England to interfere with our slave question ; but on the other 
 hand, she pronounces no opinion on our government in general ; she 
 does not expend herself in glowing, unqualified, and indiscriminate eulogy 
 of our institutions, or strengthen the hands of their friends, by holding 
 them up to the world as the first hope of redemption to oppressed nations, 
 and the fairest model of republican perfection. The same is true of 
 Kossuth. While at home, all the world asked of him was to stand in 
 his lot, and do gallant battle for his land and people. When he comes 
 here, and gives the listening world his judgment of our institutions — 
 mingling himself thus, whether he will or no, with our great national 
 struggle — he owes it to truth, to liberty and the slave, that such judg- 
 ment should be a true, discriminating and honest one. If the opinion he 
 has pronounced be his honest judgment, what will men say of that heart 
 whose halting sympathies allowed him to overlook a system of oppression 
 which Wesley called the " vilest the sun ever saw," and which made 
 Jefferson " tremble for his country, when he remembered that God was 
 just".'' If it be not his honest judgment, but only fawning words, 
 uttered to gain an end, what will men say of the Jesuit, who thought that 
 he owed it to Hungary to serve her, or, indeed, imagined that he could 
 serve her, by his lips that clung not to the truth } When Roman's ran- 
 som was weighing out, the insolent conqueror flung his sword into the 
 scale against it. So at the moment when the fate of the slave hangs 
 trembling in the balance, and all he has wherewith to weigh down the 
 brute strength of his oppressor is the sympathy of good men and the 
 indignant protest of the world, Kossuth, with the eyes of the nation fixed 
 upon him, throws the weight of his great name, of his lavish and un- 
 qualified approbation, into the scale of the slaveholder, crying out all the 
 while, " Non-intervention ! " 
 
 Truly, these eyes that see no race but the Magyar, and no wrongs but 
 those of Hungary, may be the eyes of a great Hungarian and a patriot, 
 but God forbid they should be the eyes of a man or a Christian ! 
 
 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Every heart responds to the 
 classic patriot, and feels that it is indeed good and honorable to die for 
 one's country, but every true man feels likewise, with old Fletcher of 
 Saltoun, that while he " would die to serve his country, he would not do 
 a base act to save her." 
 
105 
 
 OFFICIAL ANTI-SLAVEEY ACTION. 
 
 The following Resolutions were adopted at the Annual Meeting of 
 the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, held in Faneuil Hall, 
 Boston, on the evening of Jan. 30, 1852 : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That when we consider the critical state of parties and 
 the public mind, in relation to slavery ; the fearful struggle going on 
 between the principles of liberty and those of a merciless despotism, — 
 the friends of the one being a Spartan band, those of the other a Persian 
 host ; when we consider, also, the anxious expectation with which the 
 coming of Louis Kossuth was watched — the momentous weight attached 
 to his lightest word — his eloquent professions of devotion to the princi- 
 ples of impartial liberty, and to being governed by the higher law of 
 humanity and universal freedom — and his position as the recognized 
 leader of one half of the reformers of Europe — we are forced to regard 
 his course, in relation to American slavery — his unqualified eulogies of 
 our Constitution and its present administration — his indiscriminate praise 
 of our leading statesmen — his endorsement, in such glowing terms, of 
 the Mexican war — his purposed and pledged silence on the infamous 
 system of human bondage — his uncalled for and ungenerous, if not 
 cowardly, rebuke of a fellow-countryman, the editor of an American 
 press, for his opposition to the monstrous provisions of the Fugitive 
 Slave Bill, and his hardly disguised censure of the abolitionists — as 
 falsehood to his high professions, treason to the cause of humanity and 
 human rights, injurious to the nation he seeks to aid, fatal to his own 
 fame — in worldly phrase, " worse than a crime, a folly," if he supposes 
 such a course will gain him either sincere sympathy or effective aid ; 
 and an added blot on the dark brow of American Slavery, that she has 
 succeeded in melting, in the lap of her temptations, another of the 
 great historic names of the age, and left him " to grind in the mill " of 
 her infamous service, 
 
 2. Resolved, That the craven and time-serving conduct of Theo- 
 BOLD Mathew and Louis Kossuth, under the poisonous influence of 
 the American atmosphere, makes us remember afresh, and honor anew, 
 the magnanimous spirit and courageous consistency of that true friend of 
 America, and of the human race, GEORGE THOMPSON,— a man 
 whose sympathies, overleaping the boundaries of nationality, include 
 within their embrace the oppressed of all climes and all complexions. 
 
 At the annual celebration of Forefathers' Day, at Plymouth, (Mass.) 
 in December last, by the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society, the 
 following Resolutions were unanimously adopted : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That slavery, as it exists in this country, is neither a 
 party question nor a domestic institution ; neither a matter of geograph- 
 
 14 
 
106 
 
 ical interest, exclusively, nor purely an American affair ; but it is a sys- 
 tem of robbery, pollution, blood and atrocity, which language cannot 
 describe, nor the imagination grasp, — in comparison with which, the 
 concentrated despotisms of Europe are as the dust in the balance, — and 
 to denounce which is the right and duty of every man, whether native 
 or foreigner, who is conscious of its existence. 
 
 2. Eesolved, That the inconsistency and hypocrisy of this nation, 
 which had no parallel among the ancient Jews, are again signally dis- 
 played in the pomp and circumstance attending the reception of Louis 
 Kossuth, the Hungarian fugitive from Austrian oppression ; in its pre- 
 tended sympathy for the cause of civil liberty abroad, as represented in 
 his person ; in its affected abhorrence of the tyrannous alliance between 
 Austria and Russia ; and in the contribution of money and arms to 
 enable the Hungarians to recover their lost rights, let the effusion of 
 blood be what it may. 
 
 3. Resolved, That as our colossal slave system is the evidence of 
 our national contempt for the rigbts of man, so it serves as a sure test 
 by which to reveal the true character of ever}' distinguished foreigner 
 who lands on our shores ; and we lament to say, that the application of 
 this test, thus far, has produced the most melancholy and astounding 
 results, in either a " base bowing of the knee to the dark spirit of 
 slavery," or a cowardly silence on the subject, in order to secure the 
 favor of a slaveholding and slave-trading people. 
 
 4. Resolved, That, standing on Plymouth Rock, as the voice of a 
 cause which is the natural growth of the principles which have rendered 
 that Rock illustrious in the history of mankind ; as the friends and advo- 
 cates of impartial liberty, without regard to complexion, race, country, 
 or clime ; we record, with the deepest sorrow, the defection of one who 
 owed to his own great fame, — to the principles on which he claimed for 
 Hungary the sympathy and interposition of the world, — not only not to 
 sacrifice the Avelfare of the colored race to the benefit of his own 
 countrymen, but to have known and declared that the cause of civil 
 liberty was one the world over ; and that such a course must be fatal in 
 the end to the highest interests of humanity. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the return of this hallowed anniversary brings to 
 our glad and grateful remembrance the presence of our uncompromising 
 and unfaltering trans-atlantic coadjutor, GEORGE THOMPSON, a 
 year ago ; that we tender to him the renewed expressions of our love, 
 admiration and gratitude, for the glorious example of a world-wide con- 
 sistency of principle in his advocacy of the cause of universal freedom ; 
 and that his example is rendered still more precious and illustrious by 
 the lamentable defection of the great Hungarian exile, who is dumb in 
 the presence of three millions of chattelized slaves, as a master stroke 
 of worldly policy, but which act is one of revolting inconsistency and 
 criminal exclusiveness. 
 
107 
 
 At a meeting of the Dublin Anti-Slavery Society, held in Eustace 
 street, Dublin, the 7th of First Month, (January,) 1852, the following 
 resolutions were offered, discussed, and unanimously adopted : — 
 
 1. That this meeting has read with grave disapprobation the report 
 of an interview between a deputation of the American and Foreign 
 Anti- Slavery Society and Louis Kossuth, late Governor of Hungary, on 
 his arrival in New York, in which, after presenting an official address of 
 welcome and sympathy, the deputation intimated that " no reply was 
 desired," on the ground that, as the nation's guest, he should be absolved 
 from any expression of sympathy which might compromise his cause by 
 implicating him with any of the parties in the United States. 
 
 2. That this meeting considers that in thus voluntarily releasing Louis 
 Kossuth from the duty incumbent upon him, as upon every one, to ex- 
 press sympathy with the down-trodden millions of republican America, 
 the deputation have, according to the extent of their influence, inflicted 
 a serious injury on the anti-slavery cause, by establishing a dangerous 
 precedent for every other visitor to the United States who may plead 
 absorbing claims or pecular interests as a release from personal effort for 
 the slave, or the expression of sympathy for his wrongs. 
 
 RICHARD D. WEBB, Secretary. 
 George Addey, "] 
 
 Richard Allen, 
 Joseph Allen, 
 
 Hewetson Hduondson,)- Members of Committee. 
 William Fisher, | 
 
 Joseph Fisher, | 
 
 William Webb, \ 
 
 From the (Ohio) A. S. Bugle. 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON AND LOUIS KOSSUTH. 
 
 Dear Maritts : — Last spring, some half dozen of us, now in attend- 
 ance on the Fair, heard George Thompson, in a speech before the 
 American Anti- Slavery Society at Syracuse, utter the following words : 
 
 " A nation in chains, and talk of sympathy with the Hungarians, and 
 of sending a ship to bring to the shores of this country Kossuth ! Why, 
 if Kossuth be a consistent man, instead of bandying compliments with 
 Cass, he would send him words that would scorch his very soul, and say, 
 ' Keep your compassion for 3,000,000 of your countrymen in chains ! 
 If you have sympathy to spare, pour it over 3,000,000 of chattel slaves 
 in your midst ! Though banished from my country, from the banks of 
 the Danube to the banks of the Bosphorus, my limbs wear no chains ! 
 
108 
 
 No overseer drives me to labor in the morning ! No tyrant's frowns 
 wither my manhood ! I am free under the Sultan of Turkey, and sur- 
 rounded by his protection ! If you, Lewis Cass, or you, Millard Fillmore, 
 or you, Daniel Webster, have a superfluity of sympathy, send it South- 
 ward, and let it console 3,000,000 of Americans in bonds ! Kossuth 
 has enough for himself, and something to spare for them, and he makes 
 a contribution to the slaves of America of the sympathy tendered to 
 patriotic Hungarians ! ' [Loud applause.] 
 
 I shall doubt the patriotism and love of liberty of every man who 
 comes from revolutionary Europe to these shores, to accept the hospital- 
 ity of slaveholders. [Cheers.] If he be a patriot, a lover of liberty, 
 whether he fly from the banks of the Danube, the Seine, or the Tiber, 
 let him go to New England, and find a home with the persecuted and 
 maligned abolitionists of the country ! Let him throw in his lot with 
 them ; let him range himself under the banner of ' No Unioti with ty- 
 rants ! ' But let him not quit the tyranny of a crov/ned despot in Eu- 
 rope, to lay his manhood before 20,000,000 of confederated Republi- 
 can {}) despots in this country ! " [Applause.] 
 
 In all the speeches which I heard George Thompson make while I 
 was East, (some twenty in number,) I never heard him say a single 
 thing which produced so wonderful an effect as the first of these para- 
 graphs. I never saw an audience so absolutely electrified. It was as if 
 the very lightnings of heaven had been playing over our heads, and as 
 each of us, after the cloud had swept by and the shock was past, had 
 looked around in bewilderment and amaze. So deafening and long- 
 continued were the shouts of applause, that it was many minutes before 
 Mr. Thompson could proceed ; and there was not one man in that vast 
 hall who did not sympathize with him, and feel that he was rights and 
 that if Kossuth were one whit other than he, Kossuth would be wrong ! 
 Alas, that Kossuth has proved himself other ! Alas, that the Hungari- 
 an has not filled out the glorious picture so nobly drawn for him ! Alas, 
 that we have yet but one George Thompson ! 
 
 Yours for a consistent Kossuth, 
 
 Salem, Ohio, Dec. 31. J. T. 
 
 FroBi the London Morning Advertiser- 
 
 OlfE MILLION DOLLARS REWARD. 
 
 [from a CORRESPONDENT.] 
 
 Ran away from the subscriber, on the 18th August, 1849, a likely 
 Magyar fellow, named Louis Kossuth. He is about 45 years old, 5 feet 
 6 inches high, dark complexion, marked eyebrows, and gray eyes. He 
 pretends to be free, but says he was robbed of his freedom. He was 
 confined in the barrack jail of Kutayah, but escaped on the first of Sep- 
 tember. It is strongly suspected he was harbored by the Captain of the 
 Mississippi, as he was seen on board that ship at Spezzia, Marseilles^ 
 
/ 
 
 109 
 
 and Lisbon. Captains and masters of vessels are particularly cautioned 
 against harboring or concealing the said fugitive on board their ships, as 
 the full penalty of the law will be rigorously enforced. He was lately 
 heard of in England, where he passed himself ofT for free, but is sup- 
 posed to have sailed for the United States in the Humboldt. He has a 
 free Magyar woman for his wife, by the name of Teresa Meszleyi, lately 
 removed to the United States, and is said to be at the house of President 
 Fillmore, where it is likely her husband will be lurking, or she harbor- 
 ing him. He speaks English well, but with a slight stutter, particularly 
 if a little excited. 
 
 The above reward will be paid, if delivered to me at Vienna. If 
 lodged in any jail in any of the States, (so as I can get him,) one-fourth 
 in cash, balance in a note, payable six and twelve months, by a member 
 of the Society of Friends, said to deal in loans, Lombard-street, 
 London. 
 
 N. B. If the fellow cannot be taken alive, I will pay a reward of 
 250,000 ducats for his scalp. Terms as above. 
 
 FRANCIS JOSEPH, Emperor of Austria. 
 
 Vienna, Dec. 19, 1851. 
 
 THE AMERICAN SLAVE TO KOSSUTH. 
 
 BY W. E. CHANNING. 
 
 Where the dark Danube proudly runs, 
 Mayhap your heart, your hope may be ; 
 
 There live your brothers, — noble ones, — 
 For whom you crossed the rolling sea. 
 
 And many a vine-clad cottage stands, 
 And peasant hearts throb aching there ; 
 
 You pray, you weep, you lift your hands 
 To God, — for life, for light, your prayer. 
 
 You think of your dear sister's foiTn, 
 Crushed by the impious Haynau's blow ; 
 
 Your feelings true, your heart so warm, 
 Feel, then, for us, feel for our wo ! 
 
 Slaves in the land of Freedom bright. 
 Slaves on the wild Missouri's side. 
 
 And Texan vales in sunny light. 
 Slaves on the old Potomac's tide ! 
 
 The lash we feel, the chains wo wear, — 
 God of the Free ! shall Kossuth come, 
 
 Nor strike for us, and empty air 
 Pour from his mouth for his lost home ? 
 
110 
 
 Awake ! thou burning Magyar soul ! 
 
 Strike for thy brother slaves in view ! 
 Then calmly shall the ocean roll, 
 
 Nor vex thy heart so warm and true. 
 
 Where are our wives ? — to torture sold ! 
 
 Kidnapped our children,— love disgraced ! 
 Hope, home, affection, all for gold 
 
 At once torn out, and life effaced. 
 
 O Kossuth ! Magyar ! Man, at last ! 
 
 Betray us not, nor let there be 
 Our curses lingering on thy past, 
 
 Our hate a household thing for thee. 
 
 Are we not men ? — are we not slaves 1 
 By the dark Danube there's no more : 
 
 Thy brothers found right glorious graves 
 Along his wild, romantic shore : 
 
 And we would die — but galls the chain ; 
 
 Die — but in prison foul our lot : 
 By inches killed, the wretch's pain, 
 
 Who, dying, lives by all forgot. 
 
 Strike, then, for us, with thought and prayer, 
 God give thee power, most noble heart ! 
 
 Nor waste thy words on empty air, 
 
 But, flying slave, take the slave's part I 
 
 TO KOSSUTH. 
 
 BY W. E. CHANNING. 
 
 Spurn ! spurn the bribe ! ford not the Southron river ! 
 Death courses in its crimson tide for ever ; 
 A flood of sin too strong for man's recalling, 
 Where slavery reigns, and breeds its crimes appalling. 
 
 What freezing mockery to make slavery's speeches. 
 And waft thy blessing o'er its bloody reaches ! 
 That soil wide streaming with the negro's anguish ; 
 Their fetters clank, in prisons still they languish. 
 
Ill 
 
 Spurned, scorned and branded, they survive, half dying— 
 AVives sold, child sold— the scourge, the scourge replying— 
 Our brother-men— true rulers of this nation, 
 Victims of what? but thee and thy ovation! 
 
 On thee their deathless scorn as traitor hanging. 
 Around thy neck their chains of horror clanging, 
 Thou dar'st not meddle with domestic duties, 
 And will accept feU slavery and its beauties. 
 
 Our bragging land will wreck, and Freedom perish ; 
 God has some heart, nor doth HelFs statutes cherish; 
 Soon shall the States be lashed by dread commotion- 
 One fate to all, one flood, one vengeful ocean. 
 
 Those tortured hearts to Heaven for life are crying ; 
 God's angel to their thirsty hopes replying, 
 " The day shall dawn, this terror dark abated, 
 I am not spoused with Sin, with Satan mated." 
 
 From dismal swamps of Carolina's planting, 
 From Georgia's hills, the volleyed hymn is chanting, 
 " Give back our freedom ! slaves all past describing; 
 Hungarian martyr, spurn their loathsome bribing ! 
 
 " Demand our prompt deliverance ! cry in thunder, 
 And stir the torpid soul to joy and wonder ! 
 Burst off these chains, our freedom just demandmg,— 
 Then ford yon stream, each heart thine own commandmg ! 
 
 TO KOSSUTH. 
 
 BY WILLIAM LLOYD GAERISON. 
 
 Is it for thee to deal in glowing fiction? 
 
 To call tliis land great, glorious and free? 
 To take no note of its sad dereliction 
 
 From all that constitutes true liberty ? 
 To feel upon thy spirit no restriction 
 
 By aught that thou canst learn, or hear, or see ? 
 
 While this republic thou art warmly thanking, 
 For aiding thee once more to breathe free air. 
 
 Three million slaves their galling chains are clanking, 
 Heart-broken, bleeding, crushed beyond compare, 
 
 At public sale with swine and cattle ranking, 
 The wretched victims of complete despair 1 
 
112 
 
 The government that thou art now extolling, 
 As well-deserving measureless applause, 
 
 By its strong arm these millions are enthralling. 
 And persecuting those who plead their cause : 
 
 0, rank hypocrisy, and guilt appalling ! 
 Like Draco's code, in blood are writ its laws. 
 
 For 'tis by law the father, son, and brother, 
 Know nought of filial or parental ties ; 
 
 By law the sister, daughter, wife, and mother, 
 Must claim no kindred here beneath the skies ; 
 
 Ail at the fiendish bidding of another 
 
 Their God-given rights must basely sacrifice. 
 
 By law the fugitives from stripes and fetters, 
 Who seek, like thee, a refuge safe and sure 
 
 From murderous tyrants and their vile abettors, 
 Are hunted over mountain, plain and moor ; 
 
 Dragged back to slavery, as absconding debtors. 
 To toil, like brutes, while life and strength endure. 
 
 By law, 'tis criminal the slave to pity, 
 
 To give him food and shelter from his foes ; 
 
 For him no hiding-place in town or city ; 
 He must be hunted wheresoe'er he goes ; 
 
 And they are branded as a vile banditti, 
 Who for his freedom nobly interpose ! 
 
 Behold what scenes are in our courts transpiring ! 
 
 Behold on trial placed the good and brave, 
 For disobedience to the law requiring 
 
 That he whom God made free should be a slave ! 
 Arraigned as traitors with a zeal untiring, 
 
 And, if convicted, hurried to the grave ! 
 
 0, shall the millions here in bondage sighing, 
 Branded as beasts, and scourged with bloody whips, 
 
 The " property " of tyrants God-defying, 
 Hear not one word of pity from thy lips ? 
 
 O be not dumb, to thy reproach undying — 
 And thy great fame save from a dire eclipse ! 
 
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