THE
ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT.
A LECTURE
BY
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
BEFORE THE
ROCHISTIR LANTIS' ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
ROCHESTER:
PRESS OF LEE, MANN & CO., DAILY AMERICAN OFFICE,
1855.
eee


THE
ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT.
A LECTURE
BY
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
BEFORE TIE
ROCHESTER LADIES' ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
ROCHESTER:
PRESS OF LEE, MANY & CO., DAILY AMERICAN OFFICE,
1855.


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :-
Had I consulted my own health, or the advice of my
physician, I should have been elsewhere, and otherwise
employed this evening. I am not well, and have not
been so for several weeks. I have usually come to this
platform to lecture on slavery--that darkest and hugest
of all wrongs—the vilest (in the language of John
Wesley) that ever saw the sun. But it has pleased
the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society to have
presented here, during the winter, almost every phase
of that terrible wrong; and I have, therefore, selected
my topic in view of that fact. It will, probably, amount
to the same thing in the end.
Some one has, happily, said, that it matters very
little which path the traveller may take; he has but
to go forward to go round the world. In like mar-
ner it may be said, that it matters little which path
of inquiry a man may pursue, or which great moral or
spiritual fact he may investigate; he has but to hon-
estly persevere to find himself, at last, at the portals
of the whole universe of truth, and speedily walking
amidst its golden glories.
The subject of my lecture this evening is, the nature,
character, and history of the anti-slavery movement. I
own that, were I here on any ordinary occasion, to

4
deliver a lecture on the question of slavery, I should
select topics of a more popular and stirring character
than those I propose to touch this evening. When I
speak of the anti-slavery movement, I mean to refer to
that combination of moral, religious and political forces
which has long been, and is now, operating and co-
operating for the abolition of slavery in this country,
and throughout the world. I wish to speak of that
movement, to-night, more as the calm observer, than
as the ardent and personally interested advocate. For,
while I am willing to have it known, that
fibre
of my soul is enlisted in the cause of emancipation, I
would not have it thought that I am less capable than
others, of calmly and rationally contemplating the
movement designed to accomplish that important and
much desired end. In making this statement, I am
quite aware of the common impression concerning the
mental abilities of my race. It has been said, that the
variety of the human family, to which I belong, excels
less in the intellectual, than in the emotional character-
istics of men ; and the great leader of the anti-slavery
movement in our country allowed himself to say, in the
columns of his paper, not long ago, that “the anti-
slavery movement, both religiously and politically, has
transcended the ability of the sufferers from American
slavery and prejudice, as a class, to keep pace with it,
or to perceive what are its demands, or to understand
the philosophy of its operations." Notwithstanding
such discouraging considerations, I presume to speak to
you, to-night, on the subject selected. In doing so, I
have one consolation, and that is, as I apprehend it, the
anti-slavery movement is, after all, no cold abstraction,
every

5
requiring a sharp and flinty intellect to analyze it.
While it is a subject of surpassing dignity, and one upon
which the wisest and best minds may be employed, it
is, nevertheless, a subject upon which the humblest may
venture to think and speak, without justly being exposed
to the reproach of treading upon ground which should
be trodden only by men of the “superior race."
One other word for my subject. A grand move-
ment on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for
any purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit
and proper to be studied. It is such, not only for those
who eagerly participate in it, but also for those who
stand aloof from it even for those by whom it is
opposed. I take the anti-slavery movement to be such
an one, and a movement as sublime and glorious, in its
character, as it is holy and beneficent in the ends it
aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it safe to
say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this coun-
try than any other subject now before the American
people. The late John C. Calhoun-one of the mightiest
men that ever stood up in the American Senate did
not deem it beneath him; and he probably studied it
as deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or
William Lloyd Garrison. He evinced the greatest
familiarity with the subject; and the greatest efforts of
his last years in the Senate had direct reference to this
movement. His eagle eye watched every new develop-
ment connected with it, and he was ever prompt to
inform the South of every important step in its progress.
He never allowed himself to make light of it; but
always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of
grave
import; and, in this, he showed himself a master of the

6
mental, moral, and religious constitution of human
society. Daniel Webster, too, in the better days of his
life, before he gave his assent to the Fugitive Slave Bill,
and trampled upon all his earlier and better convic-
tions—when his eye was yet single—he clearly com-
prehended the nature of the elements involved in this
movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned
the South; and the country, to have a care how they
attempted to put it down. He is an illustration that it
is easier to give, than to take good advice. To these
two men—the greatest men to whom the nation has
yet given birth—may be traced the two great facts of
the present—the South triumphant, and the North
humbled. Their names may stand thus : Calhoun and
domination-Webster and degradation. Yet again.
If to the enemies of liberty this subject is one of en-
grossing interest, vastly more so should it be such to
freedom's friends. The latter, it leads to the gates of
all valuable knowledge, philanthropic, ethical and re-
ligious; for it brings them to the study of man, wonder-
fully and fearfully made—the proper study of man
through all time—the open book, in which are the
records of time and eternity!
Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery move-
ment, as a fact, you need no evidence. The nation has
seen its face, and felt the controlling pressure of its
hand. You have seen it moving in all directions, and
in all weathers, and in all places, appearing most where
desired least, and pressing hardest where most resisted.
No place is exempt. The quiet prayer meeting, and
the stormy halls of national debate, share its presence
alike. It is a common intruder, and, of course, has got

7
the name of being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had
long sung, in the most affectionate fervor, and with the
greatest sense of security,
66
Togetner let us sweetly live—together let us die,”
have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and
ranged in hostile attitude towards each other. One of
the most powerful religious organizations (I allude to
the Methodists) of this country, has been rent asunder,
and its strongest bolts of denominational brotherhood
started at a single surge. It has changed the tone of
the Northern pulpit, and modified that of the press. A
celebrated Divine, who, four years ago, was for flinging
his own mother, or brother, into the remorseless jaws
of the monster Slavery, lest he should swallow up the
Union, now recognizes anti-slavery as a characteristic of
future civilization. Signs and wonders follow this move-
ment; and the fact just stated is one of them. Party
ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to take
sides for or against it, whether they will or not. Come
from where he may, or come for what he may, he is
compelled to show his hand. What is this mighty
force? What is its history ? and what is its destiny ?
Is it ancient or modern, transient or permanent ? Has
it turned aside, like a stranger and a sojourner, to tarry
for a night? or has it come to rest with us forever?
Excellent chances are here for speculation; and some
of them are quite profound. We might, for instance,
proceed to inquire not only into the philosophy of the
anti-slavery movement, but into the philosophy of the
law, in obedience to which that movement started into
existence. We might demand to know what is that

8
law or power which, at different times, disposes the
minds of men to this or that particular object—now for
peace, and now for war—now for freedom, and now for
slavery ; but this profound question I leave to the
Abolitionists of the superior class to answer.
The
speculations which must precede such answer, would
afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the
learned theories which have rained down upon the
world, from time to time, as to the origin of evil. I
shall, therefore, avoid water in which I cannot swim,
and deal with anti-slavery as a fact, like any other fact
in the history of mankind, capable of being described
and understood, both as to its internal forces, and its
external phases and relations.
First, then, let us consider its history. About this
there is much error, and little truth in many minds.
Some who write and speak on the subject, seem to re-
gard the anti-slavery movement as a recent discovery,
brought out for the first time less than a quarter of a
century ago. I cannot consent to view it thus. This
movement is older and weightier than that. I would
deprive William Lloyd Garrison of no honor justly his.
All credit must forever redound to him as the man to
whose earnest eloquence--more than to that of any
other living man—we owe the revival of the anti-
slavery movement in this country ; but it is due to
truth to say, he neither discovered its principles, origin-
ated its ideas, nor framed its arguments. These are all
older than the preacher. It is an error to speak of this
venerable movement as a new thing under the sun.
The causes producing it, and the particles composing
it, like the great forces of the physical world, fire,

9
steam, and lightning, have slumbered in the bosom of
nature since the world began. There are coal and iron,
and lead, and copper, and silver, and gold, and precious
gems in the hillsides, whereon the shepherd-boy sings,
unconsciously, his evening song. They are all there,
though he knows it not, awaiting the thoughtful dis-
coverer, and the skillful workman to bring them forth
in the varied and multitudinous forms of beauty, power,
and glory, of which they are capable. And so it is with
the elements of this history. They are prior to the
present anti-slavery movement. Whence are these ele-
ments? I trace them to nature and to nature's God.
From heaven come the rain, the snow, and the crystal-
izing 'blast, which pile up the glaciers ; and from the
same source come also those melting beams and soften-
ing breezes, which send down the thundering avalanche,
to awe and astonish the hearts of man. What, though
one passed by at the moment ! shall he ascribe to his
tiny tread the solemn crash, and the stunning reverbe-
ration? Rather let him stand, awe-struck, ascribing to
God all the glory and honor for his wondrous works.
It is a thought no less true, than consoling, that, in
fitting out this globe for its mighty and mysterious
voyage in time and space, the Great Mind who loosed
it from its moorings, foresaw all its perils, and compre-
hended all its vicissitudes--and better still, bountifully
provided for the moral, as well as for the physical
safety of its passengers. In the very heart of humanity
are garnered up, as from everlasting to everlasting, all
those elementary principles, whose vital action consti-
tutes what we now term the “anti-slavery movement."
They are the treasures of our common store-house.

10
The humblest may approach, enter, and be supplied
with arms, to meet the ills that flesh is heir to. A
thousand moral battles have been fought with them,
and they are as good as ever. Ages of oppression, and
iron-hearted selfishness, have rolled over them, and
covered them with their blinding dust ; but these have
had no power to extinguish, or to destroy them. Occa-
sional glimpses of these important principles have
gladdened the eyes of good men, at different stages of
the world's progress, who have wisely written down, to
be read by after coming generations, their apprehen-
sions of them. Noble testimonies of this sort may be
found all along the way trodden by the race. They are
the common inheritance of all men, without money and
without price. In reading these ancient testimonies,
some of them reaching back to the grand exodus of
Israel, and some to the earliest days of our country,
more than a century ago, one is filled with veneration
for the vast accumulation, the mighty bulwark of judg-
ment, of solemn conviction, of holy protest, reared for
the defence of the rights of man.
The anti-slavery movement has little to entitle it to
being called a new thing under the sun, in view of any
just historical test. I know nothing original about it.
Its ideas and arguments were already to the hand of the
present workmen ; the oldest abolitionist of to-day is
but the preacher of a faith framed and practised long
before he was born. The patriots of the American
Revolution clearly saw, and with all their inconsistency,
they had the grace to confess the abhorrent character
of slavery, and to hopefully predict its overthrow and
complete extirpation. Washington, and Jefferson,

11
Patrick Henry, and Luther Martin, Franklin, and
Adams, Madison, and Monroe, and a host of the earlier
statesmen, jurists, scholars, and divines of the country,
were among those who looked forward to this happy
consummation. But, now, let us come to the sober
record, and it will be seen that the anti-slavery move-
ment in this country, is older than the Republic. In the
records of the churches, especially, we find most im-
portant data, showing that the anti-slavery sentiment
was national at the very beginning of the Republic, and
that this sentiment got its fullest and most earnest
expression through the churches at that time. The
Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches of the
country, stood upon radical anti-slavery ground. It will
not be easy to find anywhere, in the records of any modern
anti-slavery society, testimony more vital and stringent
than is found in the proceedings of the Methodist
church against slavery, nearly a hundred years ago ;
and the same is true of the Baptist churches of the
South. The Methodist church vaulted up to the high-
est position occupied by the most ultra Abolitionists of
to-day. It denied slavery all sanction, human, and
divine, against the laws of God, and against the laws of
In 1780, that denomination said: “The Confer-
ence acknowledges that slavery is contrary to the laws
of God, man and nature, and hurtful to society—con-
trary to the dictates of conscience, and true religion,
and doing to others that we would not they should do
unto us." In 1784, the same church declared, “that
• those who buy, sell, or give slaves away, except for the
purpose to free them, shall be expelled immediately."
In 1785, the Conference spoke even more stringently
man.

12
on the subject. It then said: “We hold in the deep-
est abhorrence the practice of slavery, and shall not
cease to seek its destruction by all wise and proper
means."
Still later, in 1801 :-
“We declare that we are more than ever convinced of the great evil
of African slavery, which still exists in these United States, and every
member of the Society who sells a slave shall immediately, on full
proof, be excluded from the Society. The Conferences are directed to
draw up addresses, for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, to the
Legislatures. Proper committees shall be appointed, out of the most
respectable of our friends, for the conducting of the business. And the
presiding elders, deacons, and travelling preachers, shall do all in their
power to further the blessed undertaking. Let this be continued from
year to year, till the desired end be accomplished.”
So reads the record of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of America, more than half a century ago.
Here was an anti-slavery movement springing out of the
very bosom of the church. In what did this movement
differ from the present one? In this, and in this only,
as to time. The first looked for the gradual abolition
of slavery ; and the other looks for immediate emanci-
pation. Under the operation of the one doctrine, nearly
sixty thousand slaves have been emancipated in Maryland,
and as many in Virginia, and many more in the several
Southern States, besides universal emancipation in the
Northern States. The only new idea brought to the
anti-slavery movement, by Mr. Garrison, is the doctrine
of immediatism, as against gradualism, and thus far, it
must be confessed, that fewer slaves have been emanci-
pated under the influence of this doctrine, in this coun-
try, than under the old doctrine of gradual emancipa-

13
tion. So much as this is due to facts. Nevertheless, I
would not give up a just principle because it has been
slower of adoption than a principle less just. The doc-
trine of immediatism was not, however, original with
Mr. Garrison. Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., had
urged that doctrine upon the consideration of his slave-
holding congregation before Mr. Garrison was born.
That brave, old philanthropist met the slave-holder face
to face with the stern demand of emancipation, “with-
out delay." Dr. Hopkins was a strong reasoner, and an
earnest reformer. The Abolitionist of to-day will lose
nothing by perusing the anti-slavery works of their
noble predecessor. The Methodist Episcopal Church,
whose course on the slavery question I have been
unfolding, was not singular in its position respecting
slavery fifty years ago.
Elizabeth Herrick, too, of
England, as early as 1824, published a pamphlet in
favor of immediate and unconditional emancipation
The Presbyterian Church, and the Methodist, stood on
the same ground. In 1794, the General Assembly, of
that body, pronounced the following judgment on the
character of slavery, and that of slave-holders :-
L 1st Timothy, 1st chapter, 10th v.—The law is made for man-
stealers.' This crime among the Jews exposed the perpetrators of it
to capital punishment.'—Exodus xxi. 15. And the apostle here
classes then with sinners of the first rank. The word he uses in its
original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any
of the human race into slavery, or in retaining them in it. Stealers of
men are all those who bring off slaves or freemen, and keep, sell, or
buy them. "To steal a freeman,' says Grotious, “is the highest kind of
theft.' In other instances we only steal human property, but when we
steal or retain men in slavery, we seize those who, in common with our-
selves, are constituted, by the original grant, lords of the earth."

14
A good deal has been said and written about harsh.
language, but I think it would be difficult to find, in
the writings of any modern Abolitionist, language more
severe than this held by a religious assembly. Slave-
holders are declared to be sinners of the first rank,
man-stealers, worthy of capital punishment, guilty of the
highest kind of theft. Prior to this action of the Pres-
byterian General Assembly, the Baptist Church in
Virginia had declared itself opposed to slavery, and was
actively at work in the cause of emancipation in that
State. My assertion can be verified by referring to
Semple's History of the rise and progress of the Baptists
of Virginia :
In the year 1783, a General Committee, composed of delegates
from local associations, was instituted in Virginia, charged with "con-
sidering matters that might be for the good of the whole Society.” It
was especially the duty of this committee to be the medium through
which the Baptists should address themselves to the Legislature, for
redress of grievances, &c. At a meeting of this General Committee
March 7, 1788, delegates from four associations being present, among
“ the religious political subjects” taken up, was this:
“ 3d. Whether a petition should be offered to the General Assembly,
praying that the yoke of slavery may be made more tolerable. Re-
ferred to the next session."
I do not discover that next session anything was done; but at
the meeting of August 8, 1789, delegates from seven associations being
present, the subject was considered, and the account is thus given by
Semple, in his History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists of Vir-
g'nia, p. 79. He says:
“ The propriety of hereditary slavery was also taken up at this ses-
sion, and after some time employed in the consideration of the subject,
the following resolution was offered by Mr. Seland and adopted :
Resolved, That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of
nature, and inconsistent with a republican government, and, therefore

15
(we) recommend it to our brethren, to make use of every legal measure
to extirpate this horrid evil from the land; and pray Almighty God
that our honorable Legislature may have it in their power to proclaim
the great jubilee, consistent with the prirciples of good policy."
A fact like this could not be an isolated one; and there are incidental
circumstances scattered in the history of those times which have come
down to us, showing that the anti-slavery sentiment was wide-spread
and effective.
To it I presume is to be attributed the rise of the powerful anti-
slavery party, which for some time existed among the Baptists of Ken-
tucky, known as Emancipators. For accounts of this party, I must
refer you to Benedict's History of the Baptists, (edition of 1813,) vol.
2; pages 231, 235, 245, 250. This edition of Benedict's contains
other allusions to the subject of slavery, which are interesting. You
will find some account of the Emancipators of Kentucky, in the first
volume of the Baptist Memorial, edited by Dr. Babcock, under the
head “ Kentucky Baptists." The Rev. Dr. Peck, of Illinois, has lately
furnished, for the New York Recorder, articles on the Emancipators,
which I will send
you, if we have
spare copies.
In the minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, for the year
1789_the
year
of the
passage
of the above named resolution by the
General Committee of VirginiaI find the following :-(See edition
of the American Baptist Publication Society, edited by Rev. A. D.
Gillette, p. 247.)
“Agreeably to a recom
mmendation in the letter from the Church at
Baltimore, this Association declare their high approbation of the several
Societies formed in the United States and Europe, for the gradual
abolition of the slavery of the Africans, and for guarding against their
being detained or sent off as slaves, after having obtained their liberty;
and do hereby recommend to the churches as represent, to form similar
Societies, to become members thereof, and exert themselves to obtain
this important object."
I have the above from a distinguished Baptist, who
has fully investigated the subject; and I must express
my deep gratitude for the assistance that gentleman has
rendered me in the collection of these valuable facts,

16
which, though well known to the Baptists of the coun-
try, are yet quite unknown to the public generally. Not
having at my command the books to which he refers,
I have preferred to incorporate his letter to me as it
stands.
It is hardly necessary, in this connection, to refer to
the Society of Friends, in these early times. All who
know anything of them, know that they were emanci-
pationists. That venerable Society had made Aboli-
tionism a fundamental religious duty, long before the
oldest Abolitionist, now living, was on the stage.
Wherever that Society obtained a footing in this coun-
try, the work of amelioration went on. Slaves were
emancipated, and the condition of the free people of
color was improved. The broad brim, and the plain
dress, were a terror to slaveholders, and a praise to the
slave. When running from slavery, only seventeen
years ago, I had not transferred my confidence from
the Quakers to the Abolitionists. I believed in them
for what they had done, years ago, for my race ; and
when the Abolitionists, of modern times, have done as
much for freedom as the early Friends, they will not
have to complain that the confidence of the colored
people has been withdrawn from them. I now deny,
in view of the facts of this history, that any man, now
living, has any business to lay claim to the anti-slavery
movement, as a thing of his invention, or of his dis-
covery. We, who now work, have inherited, derived,
received this movement from the churches of earlier
times. Good men, who wrought before us, laid the
foundation upon which we are building. All along the
pages of the holy Bible, from Moses to John, may be

17
found the constructive principles upon which this move-
ment is based ; and the organizers of the present anti-
slavery societies, found here an inexhaustible mine of
material, ready to be fused into that solid bolt, with
which they now shake the land. It was here that God-
win, and Sharpe, and Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and
Fox, and Benezet, and Wesley, and Woolman, forged
the magnificent, moral armory, with which they began
the mighty struggle, and with which Lundy, Walker,
Garrison, and Leavitt, and Elizur Wright, and William
Goodell, and Beriah Green, and the Tappans, and Gerrit
Smith, and Judge Jay, have nobly continued until now.
Honor to the memory of the departed, and honor to
those who remain.
But what was the condition of the anti-slavery move-
ment twenty years ago, and how came it in that con-
dition? It is much easier to answer the first, than to
answer the last question. There were witnesses for
freedom in the church, but the church had become
comparatively dead on the subject. The friends con-
tinued to work, though with flagging zeal. The other
churches had become complicated with slavery, and
the slave was forgotten by those who were once his
friends. Lundy was at work for an anti-slavery revival,
when Mr. Garrison joined him, and raised the note of
immediate emancipation. Alas! for human frailty!
and alas ! for the poor slave. Present efforts may
promise much, but we cannot but remember that one
anti-slavery generation nearly died out without leaving
men to take their places, and so may the present. The
country which had been deploring the existence of
slavery, and deeply desiring its abolition, had become
2

18
like the world. The price of human flesh had risen,
and man stealers had become gentlemen. This brings
me to notice the revival of the anti-slavery movement
twenty-five years ago. The country was soon in a
blaze, as all know ; yet, nothing strange happened to
the early advocates of a cause, new to be sure, but only
new by the new zeal and fresh eloquence brought to its
service. The plainer the truth, and the more obvious
the justice of the demand made, the more stern and
bitter is the opposition; and for this reason, the plainer
the truth, the brighter the prospect of its realization.
The enunciation, and persistent proclamation of anti-
slavery principles twenty-five years ago, demonstrate
this. Never was there a cause more just_never one
more peaceful and harmless in its character-never
truths more self-evident. Immediate and unconditional
emancipation was proclaimed, as the right of the slave,
and as the duty of the slave-holder. This demand was
enforced in the name, and according to the law of the
living God. No sword, no bayonet, the simple truth
uttered in the love of it. That is all.
66
Weapons of war we have cast from the battle-
Truth is our armor, our watchword is love ;
Hushed be the sword and the musketry's rattle,
All our equipments are drawn from above.”
The slave-holder was not, then, an object of hate and
of execration. Had he gone into an abolition meeting,
he would have been heard with patience and courtesy
in his own defence. Yet, at this point, how was this
cause met? How was it met by the American people,
and how was it met by the church, to which latter,

19
ye
indeed, the movement owes its origin in this country, as
well as in England ?
The facts of this history are too recent, too notorious,
and too fresh in the minds of all to need minute narra-
tion; and even if this were not so, it would scarcely be
necessary to dwell long upon this aspect of the subject.
Find out what happened on the presentation of any
new truth, or any truth, which an age had lost sight of
or discarded, and you are masters of the facts which at-
* tended the anti-slavery revival. As with the mission
of the Savior of mankind, so with the anti-slavery move-
ment. The latter could
say, “had ye believed Moses,
would have believed me.” The new gospel of liberty
was tried as by fire. The old folly was attempted, of
crucifying the body to quench the spirit—of killing men
to kill their principles. There was much trial in those
early days. Lovejoy, a noble martyr, in defence of a
free
press, and a free gospel, weltered in his warm blood
at Alton. A brother of his, as true an Abolitionist, is
now a member of the Legislature of the State, which
received this bloody baptism. Crandal perished in
prison at Washington, for having, and carrying a few
anti-slavery papers in his portmanteau. The National
Era is now published there, and has the largest circu-
lation of any paper at the seat of Government. Mr.
Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston by
a mob, and took refuge in the common jail ; and is
now, comparatively, a popular man in that city, sur-
rounded by friends, rich, and powerful.
But to drop the present, and to refer exclusively to
the past. The country was like a savage drunkard,
roused from his slumbers. Speaking and writing on the

20
subject of slavery became dangerous. Mob violence
menaced the persons and property of the Abolitionists,
and their very homes became unsafe for themselves
and their families. Boston, New York, and Philadel-
phia, Cincinnati, and Utica, were under mob law.
Pennsylvania Hall was burned with fire, because it had
given shelter to the hunted spirit of liberty for a few
brief hours. As to the free colored people, a more than
demoniacal hate was roused against them—assault and
insult came down upon them without measure, and
without mixture, and a wild and clamorous cry of blood!
blood! came howling over all the broad savannahs of
the South.
6. Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified;
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."
Some one has called the period to which I have
been referring, “the martyr age of anti-slavery;" and
not having been an actor in those scenes, I may prop-
erly admire—as who could do other than admire—the
manly heroism displayed by the Abolitionists at this
trying point of their experience.
Like true apostles, as they were, their faith in their
principles knew no wavering. The heathen raged, and
the people imagined a vain thing. Conventions were
broken up, only to be held again; presses were demol-
ished, to be erected again. The anti-slavery lecturer
was pelted from one town only, to flee into another;
and the new faith of the prophets waxed stronger and
stronger. For every advocate struck down, ten new

21
ones stood up. With them, obstacles were converted
into facilities—hindrances into helps—curtailments into
increase—and curses into blessings. If you will turn to
the letters and speeches of that period, you will find that
they burn with love to the slave, as a wronged, and
bitterly abused fellow-man. His sorrows and sufferings
were the burden of early anti-slavery eloquence. It was
remembering the bondman as bound with him; and the
thought that their suffering as freemen, was as nothing
compared to that of their enslaved brother, which ena-
bled the early Abolitionists of this country to persevere,
and to make a deep impression on the hearts of men.
Mr. Garrison had been so true to the slave, that when
in England he was supposed to be, till seen, a veritable
negro. He was proud of it then, and spoke of it in
proof of his faithfulness. I shall be pardoned if I say,
he would scarcely consider this mission complimentary
to him now. I have now glanced at the reception which
the anti-slavery revival met at the hands of the world.
Now, let us see how it was received by the Church.
Besides the early anti-slavery position of the Church, to
which I have already directed attention, there were
special reasons for anticipating a better reception at the
hands of the Church, than it had received at the hands
of the cold and selfish world. The American Churches
stood already committed to causes, analogous in their
spirit and purpose to the anti-slavery cause. The heathen
in Asia, Africa, and in the isles of the sea, were not only
remembered by the Church, but were objects of special,
earnest, and energetic exertion. Prayers, and contribu-
tion boxes, were abundant for these, to save them from
the bondage of sin and superstition. Our Church sent

22
bibles and missionaries “from the rivers to the ends of
the earth.” Under its out-spread wings, were warmly
sheltered the Missionary Society, the Tract Society, the
Sabbath School Society, and innumerable sewing socie-
ties, composed of honorable women connected with the
Church. These were all, apparently, animated by an
honest desire to improve the condition of the human
race, in other and distant lands. I say, therefore, it
was both reasonable and natural to expect a better re-
ception for the anti-slavery cause from the church than
from the world.
And, yet again, there was something in the condition
of the enslaved millions at our own doors, which ap-
pealed directly to the Church ; supposing the heart of
the Church to beat in unison with the heart of the Son
of God. At the very outset of his mission among the
children of men, he was careful to range himself on the
side of the poor, the enslaved, and heart-broken victims
of oppression.
“ The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” said the great one, who spake
as never man spake, “ because he hath anointed me to preach the Gos-
pel to the
poor. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted—to
preach deliverance to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind;
to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
The Abolitionist could point to this sublime declara-
tion of the Son of God, and then point to the millions
of enslaved, captured, bruised, maimed, and heart-broken
people, whose cries of anguish ascend to God continu-
ally—and this they did. They carried those bleeding,
and heart-broken millions-poor, helpless and forlorn-
to the very altar of the Church ; and cried, “men of

23
us."
Israel, help!” They described their physical suffering-
their mental, moral debasement, and destitution ; and
said to the Church : “In the name of mercy open unto
An angel of mercy, with benignant aspect, and
streaming eyes, stood at the door of the Church, veiled
in deep sorrow, imploring, entreating, in the name of
God, and down-trodden man, for entrance; but those
who held the key, repulsed her with iron bolts. The
cry for mercy disturbed the worship-and it drove the
angel away, and went on praying. But this is not all.
In imitation, perhaps, of the example set by the world,
the Church not only rejected, but became an active per-
secutor of the anti-slavery movement. She sent forth
some of her ablest champions to battle against it. The
Holy Bible, which had furnished arguments against
slave-holding seventy years ago, was found to contain
now the best arguments for slavery.
So recently as the year 1850, she rained down mil-
lions of sermons, to prove it right to hunt slaves, and
consign them to life-long bondage. The Methodist
Church which, in its infancy and purity held so high a
position, forgot her ancient testimonies; and led off, in
a grand crusade, to put down the anti-slavery movement.
It undertook to censure and silence such of its members
as believed with John Wesley ; that slavery is the sum
of all villainies. In what striking, strange and painful con-
trast are the resolutions adopted at Cinčinnati by the Gen-
eral Conference, in 1836, with those adopted by the same
Conference in 1801. Here they are, preamble, and all :-
“ Whereas great excitement has prevailed in this country on the
subject of modern abolitionism, which is reported to have been increased

24
in this city, by the unjustifiable conduct of two members of the General
Conference, in lecturing upon, and in favor of that agitating topic; and
whereas such a course on the part of any of its members is calculated to
bring upon this body the suspicion and distrust of the community, and
to misrepresent its sentiments in regard to the point at issue; and
whereas, in this aspect of the case, a due regard for its character, as
well as just concern for the interests of the Church confided to its care,
demand a full, decided, and unequivocal expression of the views of the
General Conference in the premises; therefore,
Resolved, 1st. By the delegates of the Annual Conference, in General
Conference assembled, that they disapprove in the most unqualified
sense of the conduct of the two members of the General Conference,
who are reported to have lectured in this city recently, upon and in favor
of that agitating topic.
Resolved, 2d. By the delegates of the Annual Conferences in Gen-
eral Assembled—that they are decidedly opposed to Modern Aboli-
tionism; and wholly disclaim any right, wish or intention to interfere
in the civil and political relation between master and slave, as it exists
in the States of this Union.'
72
Here, then, was an entire change in the attitude of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the subject of
slavery. The traffickers in the bodies and souls of men
were set at ease in her Zion; and the victims of the
bloody lash were literally driven from her gates.
As went the Methodist Episcopal Church, so went the
Baptist and Presbyterian Churches. They receded from
their anti-slavery ground; despised the claims of the
movement, which their earlier and holier precepts and
example had called into being. The Churches which
began their career in love for the oppressed, had now
become the friends of the oppressor, and the bulwark of
slavery.
Here arose that crisis in the anti-slavery movement,
from the evil effects of which it has not yet recovered.

25
It will never be forgotten. The conflict was terrible to
all concerned, flinging the Church against man, and
some of the advocates of emancipation against God.
The Church stepped between the slave's chains, and the
uplifted blow aimed to break them. The alternative
presented was to oppose the Church, or abandon the
slave! Here were religion and slavery on the one
hand, and freedom and humanity on the other. The
Church raised the cry of infidelity, and her opponents
laughed at her forms and ceremonies, and poured con-
tempt upon her prayers. The Church cherished her
forms all the more for being assailed, and the advocates
of emancipation clung the more to anti-slavery, because
it was assailed by the Church, and thus unbelief and
irreligion are seen thickest where this battle has raged
hottest. The Church, by her professions, should have
been the right arm and shield of this beneficent move-
ment; but alas! she proved false to her trust, abandoned
her right mission of striking down slavery, and attempted
to strike down liberty. The slave, under the uplifted
lash of the task-master, quivering with fear, and im-
ploring mercy, could no longer look to the Church for
succor. The buyers and sellers of men were welcomed
to her bosom, and the slave, in his chains, was driven
away.
Is it strange, then, that those who once loved, began,
now to loathe the Church? Is it strange, that their
faith, in her regard for the souls of men, should wane
when they saw her shameless contempt for the bodies
of men ? Could they believe that she loved God truly,
who hated the image of God so intensely? Had the
Church of this country welcomed this movement, as a

26
long lost child, which had strayed away from its home,
in the church—had she given to it the endorsement of
her name, adopted it as her own, lent to it the aid of
her co-operation, the influence of her example—had she
given it the facilities of her wide-spread organization, the
support of her press, and the might of her eloquence,
the great battle of liberty would, long ere this, have
been decided. The slave's chains would have been
broken into a thousand fragments, and millions, now
pining in bondage, would have been rejoicing in their
liberty. Not only was here lost a splendid opportunity
for blessing the world, but a golden opportunity was
lost for bringing honor to the name of the Church, and
reverence to her ministry. A new occasion, a new
harvest, was given unto her, which she might have
gathered and garnered up for the days of drought and
moral famine, which have since rolled over her. An
invincible
army
of sable soldiers, with ample means to
scourge and drive back the allied host of infidelity and
atheism now marching against her, were foolishly and
wickedly left in chains. Three millions of joyful hearts,
clapping their glad hands in freedom, ascribing their
great deliverance from thraldom to the beneficent in-
terposition of the Church of God, would have thundered
into silence the clamor of scoffers, and made her name
glorious throughout the world.
But she flung away the golden chance, and is now
exposed not only to the assaults of sin, but on her hands,
is a more solemn controversy. The attacks of unbelief
are not so galling as the fire from the ramparts of jus-
tice and humanity. Not only has the slave been con-
verted into an enemy of the Church, and taught to look

27
elsewhere for succor and deliverance, but the sober
thinking philanthropist has been led to raise the dan-
gerous enquiry-Of what use to this sin-cursed world
is a church, whose religion and gospel are the dread of
the oppressed and the delight of the oppressor ? This
aspect of this history is of the profoundest significance
and deserves to be pondered on. The usefulness, and
the very existence of the Church, as an organization,
are involved in the use made of this subject. Let the
Church look to it. Organizations are strong, but there
is something in the world much stronger than any hu-
man organization. The eternal spirit is mightier than
all the external world; religion is greater than the form
created to express it. Forms and organizations are but
the “mint," “ annis” and “cummin." The weightier
matters of the law are judgment, mercy and faith ; and
the latter are with the oppressed and enslaved every-
where. Forms and ceremonies may pass current for a
but there is too much love among mankind for
what is real, true and genuine, to endure always what
is empty, hollow and hypocritical. It won't do for the
Church to weep over the heathen abroad, and laugh
over the heathen at home. It will not do to send Bibles
and missionaries to India, with money wrung from the
blood and sweat of the heathen of South Carolina and
Georgia, to whom we prohibit, under pains and penal-
ties, the privilege of learning to read the name of
Almighty God! It will not do to save souls abroad,
and enslave souls at home. Let the Church, then, look
to it, for here is the source of her weakness, attracting,
as well from the sky of truth, as from the clouds of
error, the exterminating bolt and the devouring fire.
time;

28
Her new moons, appointed feasts, Sabbath days, solemn
assemblies, are no atonement for refusing to do justice.
She is under the law to cease to do evil, and learn to do
well. She must seek justice and relieve the oppressed.
In a word, she must abolish slavery, or be abolished by
slavery. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, has
the same lesson to-day as in the days of Jesus. The axe
is laid at the root of the tree. Usefulness is the price
of existence. Do or die, wear out or rust out, bring
forth fruit or be cut down, is the law now and always.
Men may go often, but they will not go always to an
exhausted fountain ; they will not long search for sub-
stance where they are only rewarded with shadows. If
they do not find God and his eternal attributes among
the solemn splendors of the Church, they will turn away
from its altars and aisles, and go forth into the temple
of God's creation, and strive to interpret for themselves
the heavenly inscriptions of divine love.
Many who once stood with delight in the Church,
apart from the world, go not up with the great congre-
gation to worship now; and they tell us the Church
must make peace with the slave before it can make
peace with God. She must bring back the child of her
early love, from the wandering exile into which she has
driven it. She must return to her early testimonies,
and teach the oppressor now, as at the beginning, to
“ break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free,” and
gather around her the affections of those who esteem
mercy more than sacrifice.
Let us now turn away from the Church, and examine
the anti-slavery movement in its branches, for divisions
are here, as well as elsewhere. I will not enter into an

29
examination of their causes. God forbid ! that I should
open here those bitter fountains. I may say, however,
that the first grand division took place fourteen years
ago, and on the very minor question-Shall a woman
be a member of a committee in company with men ?
The majority said she should be; and the minority
seceded. Thus was a grand philanthropic movement
rent asunder by a side issue, having nothing, whatever,
to do with the great object which the American Anti-
Slavery Society was organized to carry forward. Before
I would have stood in such an attitude, and taken the
responsibility of dividing the ranks of freedom's army,
I would have suffered my right arm to be taken off.
How beautiful would it have been for that woman, how
nobly would her name have come down to us in this
history, had she said: “All things are lawful for me,
but all things are not expedient !" While I see no objec-
tion to my occupying a place on your committee, I can
for the slave's sake forego that privilege. The battle of
Woman's Rights should be fought on its own ground;
as it is, the slave's cause, already too heavy laden, had
to bear up under this new addition; but I will not go
further on that subject, except to characterize it as a
sad mistake.
But I propose to speak of the different anti-slavery
sects and parties, and to give my view of them very
briefly. There are four principal divisions.
1st. The Garrisonians, or the American Anti-Slavery
Society.
2d. The Anti-Garrisonians, or the American and For-
eign Anti-Slavery Society.
3d. The Free Soil Party, or Political Abolitionists.

30
4. The Liberty Party, or Gerrit Smith School of
Abolitionists.
There are others, and among them those conscientious
men and women, principally of the Society of Friends,
who may be called “free labor people”_since their
remedy for slavery is an abstinence from slave produce.
This Society formerly published in Philadelphia a
periodical, called “The Non-Slaveholder,” and kept
open a store for the sale of free labor goods; and be-
sides this, it promoted the growth of free cotton in
several of the more Southern States. This Society is
still in existence, and is quietly doing its work.
I shall consider, first, the Garrisonian Anti-Slavery
Society. I call this the Garrisonian Society, because
Mr. Garrison is, confessedly, its leader. This Society is
the oldest of modern Anti-Slavery Societies. It has,
strictly speaking, two weekly papers, or organs—em-
ploys five or six lecturers—and holds numerous public
meetings for the dissemination of its views. Its peculiar
and distinctive feature is, its doctrine of "no union with
slaveholders." This doctrine has, of late, become its
bond of union, and the condition of good fellowship
among its members. Of this Society, I have to say, its
logical result is but negatively, anti-slavery. Its doc-
trine, of “no union with slaveholders,” carried out, dis-
solves the Union, and leaves the slaves and their masters
to fight their own battles, in their own way. This I
hold to be an abandonment of the great idea with which
that Society started. It started to free the slave. It
ends by leaving the slave to free himself. It started
with the purpose to imbue the heart of the nation with
sentiments favorable to the abolition of slavery, and

31
ends by seeking to free the North from all responsibility
for slavery, other than if slavery were in Great Britain,
or under some other nationality. This, I say, is the
practical abandonment of the idea, with which that
Society started. It has given up the faith, that the
slave can be freed short of the overthrow of the Govern-
ment; and then, as I understand that Society, it leaves
the slaves, as it must needs leave them, just where it
leaves the slaves of Cuba, or those of Brazil. The na-
tion, as such, is given up as beyond the power of salva-
tion by the foolishness of preaching; and hence, the
aim is now to save the North ; so that the American
Anti-Slavery Society, which was inaugurated to convert
the nation, after ten years' struggle, parts with its faith,
and aims now to save the North. One of the most elo-
quent of all the members of that Society, and the man
who is only second to Mr. Garrison himself, defines the
Garrisonian doctrine thus :
“ All the slave asks of us, is to stand out of his way,
withdraw our
pledge to keep the peace on the plantation; withdraw our pledge to
return him; withdraw that representation which the Constitution gives
in proportion to the number of slaves, and without any agitation here,
without any individual virtue, which the times have eaten out of us,
God will vindicate the oppressed, by the laws of justice which he has
founded. Trample under foot your own unjust pledges, break to pieces
your compact with hell by which you become the abettors of oppres-
sion. Stand alone, and let no cement of the Union bind the slave, and
he will right himself.”
That is it. “ Stand alone;" the slave is to “right
himself." I dissent entirely from this reasoning. It
assumes to be true what is plainly absurd, and that is,
that a population of slaves, without arms, without

32
means of concert, and without leisure, is more than a
match for double its number, educated, accustomed to
rule, and in every way prepared for warfare, offensive
or defensive. This Society, therefore, consents to leave
the slave's freedom to a most uncertain and improbable,
if not an impossible, contingency.
But, “no union with slaveholders."
As a mere expression of abhorrence of slavery, the
sentiment is a good one ; but it expresses no intelligible
principle of action, and throws no light on the pathway
of duty. Defined, as its authors define it, it leads to
false doctrines, and mischievous results. It condemns
Gerrit Smith for sitting in Congress, and our Savior for
eating with publicans and sinners. Dr. Spring uttered
a shocking sentiment, when he said, if one prayer of his
would emancipate every slave, he would not offer that
prayer. No less shocking is the sentiment of the leader
of the disunion forces, when he says, that if one vote of
his would emancipate every slave in this country, he
would not cast that vote. Here, on a bare theory, and
for a theory which, if consistently adhered to, would
drive a man out of the world—a theory which can
never be made intelligible to common sense—the free-
dom of the whole slave population would be sacrificed.
But again : “NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.” I dis-
like the morality of this sentiment, in its application to
the point at issue. For instance: A. unites with B. in
stealing my property, and carrying it away to Califor-
nia, or to Australia, and, while there, Mr. A. becomes
convinced that he did wrong in stealing my property,
and says to Mr. B., “no union with property stealers,"
and abandons him, leaving the property in his hands.

33
Now, I put it to this audience, has Mr. A., in this transac-
tion, met the requirements of stringent morality ? He,
certainly, has not. It is not only his duty to separate
from the thief, but to restore the stolen property to its
rightful owner. And I hold that in the Union, this very
thing of restoring to the slave his long-lost rights, can bet-
ter be accomplished than it can possibly be accomplished
outside of the Union. This, then, is my answer to the
motto, “NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.”
But this is not the worst fault of this Society. Its
chief energies are expended in confirming the opinion,
that the United States Constitution is, and was, intended
to be a slave-holding instrument—thus piling up, be-
tween the slave and his freedom, the huge work of the
abolition of the Government, as an indispensable condi-
tion to emancipation. My point here is, first, the Con-
stitution is, according to its reading, an anti-slavery
document; and, secondly, to dissolve the Union, as a
means to abolish slavery, is about as wise as it would be
to burn up this city, in order to get the thieves out of
it. But again, we hear the motto, “no union with
slave-holders ;” and I answer it, as that noble champion
of liberty, N. P. Rogers, answered it with a more sensi-
ble motto, namely—“No union with slave-holding."
I would unite with anybody to do right; and with no-
body to do wrong. And as the Union, under the Con-
stitution, requires me to do nothing which is wrong,
and gives me many facilities for doing good, I cannot
go with the American Anti-Slavery Society in its doc-
trine of disunion.
But to the second branch of the anti-slavery move.
ment. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
3

34
has not yet departed from the original ground, but
stands where the American Anti-Slavery Society stood
at the beginning. The energies of this association are
mainly directed to the revival of anti-slavery in the
Church. It is active in the collection, and in the circu-
lation of facts, exposing the character of slavery, and in
noting the evidences of progress in the Church on the
subject. It does not aim to abolish the Union, but aims
to avail itself of the means afforded by the Union to
abolish slavery. The Annual Report of this Society
affords the amplest and truest account of the anti-slavery
movement, from year to year. Nevertheless, I have
somewhat against this Society, as well as against the
American Anti-Slavery Society. It has almost dropped
the main and most potent weapon with which slavery
is to be assailed and overthrown, and that is speech.
At this moment, when every nerve should be strained
to prevent a re-action, that Society has not a single lec-
turing agent in the field.
The next recognized anti-slavery body is the Free Soil
party, alias—the Free Democratic party, alias—the
Republican party. It aims to limit and denationalize
slavery, and to relieve the Federal Government from
all responsibility for slavery. Its motto is, “ Slavery
Local-Liberty National.” The objection to this
movement is the same as that against the American
Anti-Slavery Society. It leaves the slave in his fetters—
in the undisturbed possession of his master, and does not
grapple with the question of emancipation in the
States.
The fourth division of the anti-slavery movement is,
the “ Liberty Party”—a small body of citizens, chiefly

35
a
in the State of New York, but having sympathizers all
over the North. It is the radical, and to my thinking,
the only abolition organization in the country, except a
few local associations. It makes a clean sweep of
slavery everywhere. It denies that slavery is, or can
be legalized. It denies that the Constitution of the
United States is a pro-slavery instrument, and asserts
the power and duty of the Federal Government to
abolish slavery in every State of the Union. Strictly
speaking, I say this is the only party in the country
which is an abolition party. The mission of the Garri-
sonians ends with the dissolution of the Union--that of
the Free Soil party ends with the relief of the Federal
Government from all responsibility for slavery; but the
Liberty Party, by its position and doctrines, and by its
antecedents, is pledged to continue the struggle while
bondman in his chains remains to weep. Upon its
platform must the great battle of freedom be fought
out—if upon any short of the bloody field. It must be
under no partial cry
partial cry of “no union with slaveholders ;"
nor selfish cry of “no more slavery extension;" but it
must be, “no slavery for man under the whole heavens."
The slave as a man and a brother, must be the vital
and animating thought and impulse of any movement,
which is to effect the abolition of slavery in this coun-
try. Our anti-slavery organizations must be brought
back to this doctrine, or they will be scattered and left
to wander, and to die in the wilderness, like God's an-
cient people, till another generation shall come up, more
worthy to go up and possess the land.
One anti-slavery movement nearly died out fifty years
ago, and I am not prepared to deny the possibility of a

36
like fate for this one. The elements of discord and de-
terioration are already in it, and working their legitimate
results. And yet I am not gloomy. Present organiza-
tions may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause
has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations
patched up from time to time to carry it forward.
Looked at apart from the bones and sinews, and body,
it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of justice,
liberty and love. The moral life of human society—it
cannot die, while conscience, honor and humanity re-
main. If but one be filled with it, the cause lives. Its
incarnation in any one individual man, leaves the whole
world a priesthood, occupying the highest moral emi-
nence—eren that of disinterested benevolence. Whoso
has ascended this height, and has the grace to stand
there, has the world at his feet, and is the world's
teacher, as of divine right. He may set in judgment
on the age, upon the civilization of the
age,
and
upon
the religion of the age; for he has a test, a sure and
certain test, by which to try all institutions, and to
measure all men. I say, he may do this, but this is not
the chief business for which he is qualified. The great
work to which he is called is not that of judgment. Like
the Prince of Peace, he may say, if I judge, I judge
righteous judgment; still mainly, like him, he may say,
this is not his work. The man who has thoroughly em-
braced the principles of justice, love, and liberty, like
the true preacher of Christianity, is less anxious to re-
proach the world of its sins, than to win it to repentance.
His great work on earth is to exemplify, and to illus-
trate, and to engraft those principles upon the living
and practical understandings of all men within the

37
reach of his influence. This is his work; long or short
his years, many or few his adherents, powerful or weak
his instrumentalities, through good report, or through
bad report, this is his work. It is to snatch from the
bosom of nature the latent facts of each individual man's
experience, and with steady hand to hold them up fresh
and glowing, enforcing, with all his power, their ac-
knowledgment and practical adoption. If there be but
one such man in the land, no matter what becomes of
abolition societies and parties, there will be an anti-
slavery cause, and an anti-slavery movement. For-
tunately for that cause, and fortunately for him by whom
it is espoused, it requires no extraordinary amount of
talent to preach it or to receive it when preached. The
grand secret of its power is, that each of its principles
is easily rendered appreciable to the faculty of reason in
man, and that the most unenlightened conscience has no
difficulty in deciding on which side to register its testi-
mony. It can call its preachers from among the fisher-
men, and raise them to power. In every human breast,
it has an advocate which can be silent only when the
heart is dead. It comes home to every man's under-
standing, and appeals directly to every man's conscience.
A man that does not recognize and approve for himself
the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf of the
American slave, has not yet been found. In whatever
else men may differ, they are alike in the apprehension
of their natural and personal rights. The difference
between abolitionists, and those by whom they are op-
posed, is not as to principles. All are agreed in respect
to these. The manner of applying them is the point of
difference.

38
The slave-holder himself, the daily robber of his equal
brother, discourses eloquently as to the excellency of
justice, and the man who employs a brutal driver to flay
the flesh of his negroes, is not offended when kindness
and humanity are commended. Every time the aboli-
tionist speaks of justice, the anti-abolitionist assents-
says, yes, I wish the world were filled with the disposi-
tion to render to every man what is rightfully due him.
I should then get what is due me. That's right; let us
have justice. By all means, let us have justice. Every
time the abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty,
he touches a cord in the heart of the anti-abolitionist,
which responds in harmonious vibrations. Liberty-
yes, that is very evidently my right, and let him beware
who attempts to invade or abridge that right. Every
time he speaks of love, of human brotherhood, and the
reciprocal duties of man and man, the anti-abolitionist
assents—
says, yes, all right--all true—we cannot have
such ideas too often, or too fully expressed. So he says,
and so he feels, and only shows thereby that he is a
man as well as an anti-abolitionist. You have only to
keep out of sight the manner of applying your princi-
ples, to get them endorsed every time. Contemplating
himself he sees truth with absolute clearness and dis-
tinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight
of himself. In his own cause he can beat a Boston
lawyer, but he is dumb when asked to plead the cause
of others. He knows very well, whatsoever he would
have done unto himself, but is quite in doubt as to
having the same things done unto others. It is just
here that lions spring up in the path of duty, and the
battle once fought in heaven is refought on the earth.

39
So it is, so hath it ever been, and so must it ever be, when
the claims of justice and mercy make their demand at
the door of human selfishness. Nevertheless, there is
that within which ever pleads for the right and the
just.
In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the
present anti-slavery movement. I am sober, but not
hopeless. There is no denying, for it is everywhere
admitted, that the anti-slavery question is the great,
moral and social question now before the American
people. A state of things has gradually been developed,
by which that question has become the first thing in
order. It has got to be met. Herein is my hope. The
great idea of impartial liberty is now fairly before the
American people. Anti-slavery is no longer a thing to
be prevented. The time for prevention is past. This
is great gain. When the movement was younger and
weaker—when it wrought in a Boston garret to human
apprehension, it might have been silently put out of the
way. Things are different now. It has grown too
large-its friends are too numerous—its facilities too
abundant—its ramifications too extended—its power
too omnipotent, to be snuffed out by the contingencies
of infancy. A thousand strong men might be struck
down and its ranks still be invincible. Oneflash from the
heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could
light a million camp fires in front of the imbattled hosts
of slavery, which, not all the waters of the Mississippi,
mingled as they are, with blood, could extinguish. The
present will be looked"to by after coming generations,
the
age
of anti-slavery literature—when supply on the
gallop could not keep pace with the ever growing de-
as

40
mand—when a picture of a negro on the cover was a
help to the sale of a book—when conservative lyceums
and other American literary associations began first to
select their orators for distinguished occasions, from the
ranks of the previously despised Abolitionist. If the
anti-slavery movement shall fail now, it will not be from
outward opposition, but from inward decay. Its aux-
iliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, orators,
poets, and statesmen, give it their aid. The most bril-
liant of American poets volunteer in its service. Whit-
tier speaks in burning verse, to more than thirty
thousand, in the National Era. Your own Longfellow
whispers, in every hour of trial and disappointment,
“ labor and wait.” James Russell Lowell is reminding
us, that “men are more than institutions.” Pierpont
cheers the heart of the pilgrim in search of liberty, by
singing the praises of the north star." Bryant, too, is
with us; and though chained to the car of party, and
dragged on amidst a whirl of political excitement, he
snatches a moment for letting drop a smiling verse of
sympathy for the man in chains. The poets are with
It would seem almost absurd to say it, considering
the use that has been made of them, that we have allies
in the Ethiopian songs; those songs that constitute our
national music, and without which we have no national
music. They are heart songs, and the finest feel-
ings of human nature are expressed in them. “Lucy
Neal," " Old Kentucky Home,” and “Uncle Ned,” can
make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call forth
a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies
for the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root,
grow and flourish. In addition to authors, poets, and
us.

41
scholars at home, the moral sense of the civilized world
is with us. England, France, and Germany, the three
great lights of modern civilization, are with us, and
every American traveller learns to regret the existence
of slavery in his country. The growth of intelligence,
the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and lightning,
are our allies. It would be easy to amplify this sum-
mary, and to swell the vast conglomeration of our ma-
terial forces ; but there is a deeper and truer method of
measuring the power of our cause, and of comprehend-
ing its vitality. This is to be found in its accordance
with the best elements of human nature. It is beyond
the
power of slavery to annihilate affinities recognized
and established by the Almighty. The slave is bound
to mankind, by the powerful and inextricable net-work
of human brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a
man, and his cry is the cry of a man in distress, and man
must cease to be man before he can become insensible
to that cry. It is the righteousness of the cause —the
humanity of the cause—which constitutes its potency.
As one genuine bank bill is worth more than a thousand
counterfeits, so is one man, with right on his side, worth
more than a thousand in the wrong. “ One may chase
a thousand, and put ten thousand to flight." It is,
therefore, upon the goodness of our cause, more than
upon all other auxiliaries, that we depend for its final
triumph.
Another source of congratulation is the fact that, amid
all the efforts made by the Church, the Government,
and the people at large, to stay the onward progress of
this movement, its course has been onward, steady,
straight, unshaken, and unchecked from the beginning.

42
Slavery has gained victories, large and numerous ; but
never, as against this movement—against a temporizing
policy, and against Northern timidity, the slave power
has been victorious; but against the spread and preva-
lence in the country, of a spirit of resistance to its
aggression, and of sentiments favorable to its entire
overthrow, it has yet accomplished nothing. Every
measure, yet devised and executed, having for its object
the suppression of anti-slavery, has been as idle and
fruitless as pouring oil to entinguish fire. A general re-
joicing took place, on the passage of “the Compromise
Measures," of 1850. Those measures were called peace
measures, and were afterwards termed by both the
great parties of the country, as well as by leading states-
1 men, a final settlement of the whole question of slavery;
but experience has laughed to scorn the wisdom of pro-
slavery statesmen ; and their final settlement of agita-
tion seems to be the final revival, on a broader and
grander scale than ever before, of the question which
they vainly attempted to suppress forever. The Fugi-
tive Slave Bill has especially been of positive service to
the anti-slavery movement. It has illustrated before
all the people the horrible character of slavery toward
the slave, in hunting him down in a free State, and
tearing him away from wife and children, thus setting
its claims higher than marriage or parental claims. It
has revealed the arrogant and over-bearing spirit of the
slave States towards the free States ; despising their
principles-shocking their feelings of humanity, not only
by bringing before them the abominations of slavery,
but by attempting to make them parties to the crime.
It has called into exercise among the colored people, the

43
hunted ones, a spirit of manly resistance well calculated
to surround them with a bulwark of sympathy and re-
spect hitherto unknown. For men are always disposed
to respect and defend rights, when the victims of op-
pression stand up manfully for themselves.
There is another element of power added to the
anti-slavery movement of great importance ; it is the
conviction, becoming every day more general and uni-
versal, that slavery must be abolished at the South, or
it will demoralize and destroy liberty at the North. It
is the nature of slavery to beget a state of things all
around it, favorable to its own continuance. This fact
connected with the system of bondage, is beginning to
be more fully realized. The slave-holder is not satisfied
to associate with men in the Church or in the State,
unless he can thereby stain them with the blood of his
slaves. To be a slave-holder, is to be a propagandist
from necessity; for slavery can only live by keeping
down the under-growth morality which nature supplies.
Every new-born white babe comes armed from the
Eternal presence, to make war on slavery. The heart
of pity, which would melt in due time over the brutal
chastisements it sees inflicted on the helpless, must be
hardened. And this work goes on every day in the
year, and every hour in the day.
What is done at home, is being done also abroad
here in the North. And even now the question may
be asked, have we at this moment a single free State in
the Union? The alarm at this point will become more
general. The slave power must go on in its career of ex-
actions. Give, give, will be its cry, till the timidity
which concedes shall give place to courage, which shall

44
resist. Such is the voice of experience, such has been
the past, such is the present, and such will be that fu-
ture, which, so sure as man is man, will come. Here I
leave the subject; and I leave off where I began, con-
soling myself and congratulating the friends of freedom
upon the fact that the anti-slavery cause is not a new
thing under the sun; not some moral delusion which a
few years' experience may dispel. It has appeared
among men in all ages, and summoned its advocates
from all ranks. Its foundations are laid in the deepest
and holiest convictions, and from whatever soul the
demon, selfishness, is expelled, there will this cause take
up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills ; immovable
as the throne of God; and certain as the purposes of
eternal power against all hindrances, and against all
delays, and despite all the mutations of human instru-
mentalities, it is the faith of my soul that this Anti-
Slavery cause will triumph.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am not superstitious, but I
recognize an arm stronger than any human arm, and
an intelligence higher than any human intelligence,
guarding and guiding this Anti-Slavery cause, through
all the dangers and perils that beset it, and making
even auxiliaries of enemies, and confounding all worldly
wisdom for its advancement. Let us trust that arm-
let us confide in that intelligence—in conducting this
movement; and whether it shall be ours to witness the
fulfilment of our hopes, the end of American slavery or
not, we shall have the tranquil satisfaction of having
faithfully adhered to eternal principles of rectitude, and
may lay down life in the triumphant faith, that those
principles WILL, ULTIMATELY, PREVAIL.




Pam
1855
Do
Douglass, Frederick
40069
[Harper]