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TEN YEARS

O F

EXPERIENCE

There is strength

And a fierce instinct, even in common souls,

To bear up manhood -with a stormy joy

When red swords meet in lightning ! — but our task

Is more and nobler ! We have to endure,

And to keep watch, and to arouse a land.

And to defend an altar! If we fall.

So that our blood make but the millionth part

Of this great ransom, let us count it Joy !

F. Hemans.

boston: oliver johnson, printer.

NINTH

ANNUAL HEPOET

OF THE

I300ton jTaitale ^nti-0IaDer2 00netB<

PRESENTED OCTOBER 12, 1842.

BOSTON:

OLIVER JOHNSON, COURT-STREET

1842.

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OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY.

President. THANKFUL SOUTHWICK

Vice President. CAROLINE WESTON.

Domestic Cor. Secretary. HENKIETTA SAEGENT.

For. Corresponding Secretary. MAFJA WESTON CHAPMAN.

Recording Secretary. SARAH H. SOUTHWICK

Treasurer. HARRIET JACKSON.

Counsellors.

MARY G. CHAPMAN, LOUISA LORING,

ANNE W. WESTON, CAROLINE F. WILLIAMS,

MARGARET SCARLETT, HANNAH TUFTS.

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REPORT

It has been our practice for nine successive years, to give, at the end of each, a statement of the efforts that we have made, the obstacles that we have encountered, and the success that we have obtained. But, with each suc- cessive year, the number of those who receive our Report increases ; till, at length, it so far exceeds the number of those who possess any good information of our object, or our means of attaining it — of our principles, or our mea- sures— of our faith, or of our works, — that it becomes expedient for us, instead of beginning "with the year, to begin again at the beginning ; giving the whole, instead of a fraction of our knowledge and our experience, that both may be beneficial to the new audience who are seeking to know their duty that they may do it. We do not claim to be teachers, in any sense "which implies an assumption of superiority ; but we act under the overmastering conviction that they who have knowledge of a truth important to the welfare of all, are criminal if they withhold it from any.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE.

The great truth that has been borne in upon our minds, by observation of the course of God's providence, is, that SLAVERY IS A SIN ; and, as such, to be repented of and for- saker immediately. To this, vast numbers of persons, at

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fii'st, yield a heedless assent. Hereditary Christians and Hepublicans, as such they may have agreed to the abstract proposition of the evil of slavery, thinking it, meanwhile, one in which they have no practical interest. ' There is slaveiy in Algiers — there is slavery in the West Indies — but what have ive to do with it ? ' They have overlooked the fact of the existence of slavery in the United States. No wonder that they should have done so, since, from the day of the constitutional compromise to the present time, the eifort has been continual, on the part of all the active leading men of the countiy, whether merchants or politi- cians, clergymen or editors, to cause its existence to be for- gotten. Man after man, as he came to a realizing sense of the fact, found it for his interest to keep it out of sight. Openly to uphold it he was ashamed ; to contend agamst it he was too selfish and cowardly. His safety lay in silence. In a country like ours, where, by reason of the extent of the elective francliise, pubhc opinion reigns paramount, the effect of tliis general silence of the non-slaveholders may be easily imagined. Year by year they became more and more timorous and selfish; the slave-power became more overbearing and rapacious ; wliile the forgotten slaves were increasing in numbers, and consequently in degradation and wretchedness -— for the more numerous they become, the greater injustice is necessary to keep up the system. The spread of intelligence among them must be prevented ; for, knowledge bemg power, no man possessed of it can be retained in slavery. That dangerous element, the free colored population, must be excluded from among them ', and hence a Colonization scheme is invented, expulsory laws passed, emancipations on the spot forbidden, and all those various means for safety in sin adopted, which are seen in the diabolical progress of the slave-codes.

"When, at length, in 1829, the silence of death seemed to brood over the hopes oi Liberty ; when the number of slaves

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had swelled up to two and a half millions, and the whole body of northern freemen also were lying bound to the sys- tem by the chains of political and ecclesiastical expediency ; at that moment, God put it into the heart of one then un- known young man, William Lloyd Garrison, to devote his Hfe to the great work of Emancipation. This was the tone in which he ever spoke, and liis words were called madness and fanaticism, denunciation and infidelity :

* I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard jf emancipation in the eyes of the nation, ivithin sight of Bun- ker Hill^ and in the hirth place of Liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spolia- tions of time or the missiles of a desperate foe — yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free ! Let southern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble — let their northern apologists tremble — let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble !

' I am aware, that many object to the severity of my lan- guage ; but is there not cause for severity ? I ivill be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to tliink, or speak, or write, with moderation. No ! no ! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm ; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher ; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a case hke the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I WILL BE HEARD. The , apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

' It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of eman- cipation by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipi- tancy of my measures. The clmrge is not true. On this

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question my influence, humble as it is, is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years — ■ not perniciously, but beneficially — not as a curse, but as a blessing ; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard " the fear of man which bringeth a snare," and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power.'

He did not speak in vain. Undaunted determination and generous self-sacrifice find their echoes in every heart. Multitudes, who had neither courage nor disinterestedness, were yet enchanted by this new sound to stretch forth their hands towards the plough; and though all such turned back at the first serious obstacle, yet many were then stirred by that voice to action, who have never since tired nor stayed to rest them.

OUE, PRINCIPLES.

Human impulse ever rushes to the conflict with slavery. Even a child naturally sides with the weaker party, iiTcspect- ive of right or wrong. But we do not rest on our impulses alone. After deep thought, careful examination, and fervent prayer for divine direction — after much reading of history, sacred and profane, and deep study of our own times in connection with the past, we have arrived at the following principles. That freedom is the inalienable right of every human being: That slavery is, consequently, essential wrong — concentrated iniquity — a sin against God and man — a direct violation of every divine law — productive, therefore, of incalculable misery and crime: That right and safety demand its immediate abolition : That the con- dition and circumstances of our land being such as they are, the only hope of procuring emancipation lies in gaining from every soul an acknowledgement of the justice and necessity of its taking place immediately.

OUR MEASURES.

The body of the people were ready hastily to acknow- ledge -that slavery was wrong ; even southern slaveholders deplormg it as an evil that had descended to them from their ancestors. But, the moment that symptoms were discerned of a determined opposition to its longer continuance, men changed their phraseology. The South began to declare that it was right, and to defend it from scripture, and the leading men in Church and State, at the North, to use all their influence with the people to suppress the consideration of the subject. Had it been proposed gradually to abolish it, no opposition would have been manifested; and for this reason, that no impression would have been made. What the slaveholders instinctively know can be easily demon- strated to others ; that every form of graduahsm is delusive and impracticable. Yet this delusion continually rose as a liindrance. Ignorance of the extent and practical working of the system was found to be a great obstacle. The idea of the colonization of free men of color, as a remedy for slavery, continually blocked up our path. The workings of the fede- ral government against Freedom, because its helm was ever in the hands of the slave-power, were discerned to be a great drawback to our hopes of success. Great strength, great energy, great enthusiasm, much money, were all needed to show these things to the community, so long kept hood- winked. A few individuals here and there in the land, awake to the necessity, adopted the order of nature, and associated themselves together, for the purpose of doing all things neces- sary to effect the abolition of slavery. Association was our first and most important means. It is the order of nature, that when human beings earnestly wish the accomphshment of any particular object, they look around them for help— - they unite -then forces — they become associated. Eegular- ity, division of labor, mutual understanding, being always advantageous, they consequently become organized. 2

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It may be easily conceived that our organization would be strongly opposed. Having the extinction of slaveiy for its object, it would naturally be looked upon with terror and hatred by all other associations with which slavery was intermingled. Hence it was that the cry arose, from the leading members of every association in the land — from business and banking associations, from religious and eccle- siastical associations, from missionary and benevolent asso- ciations, from the political parties, and, finally, from Church and from State, the great national associations, — that what- ever our principles might be, our measures were intolerable. Slavery being fostered in all these associations, they of course felt that ours were at enmity with them. The fact of our banding ourselves together showed that we were in earnest, and hence the subsequent developements of latent opposition, which gave occasion to the pretended friends of Freedom to say that we had put back the cause fifty years. Some, whose love of foreign reputation and desire to stand well with posterity induced them to profess to love our cause while they deprecated our union for its promotion, told us that we should defeat our own object by this ' agitating system.' But the healthy instinct of human nature, sus- tained by experience, was a surer guide than the diseased revoltings of souls enfeebled by the exclusive atmosphere of drawing-rooms, or the stagnant air of sectarian associa- tions. * You will lose your individuality, and Truth will lose her power, if you thus persist in shouting her dictates to excited crowds.' ' We shall each be strong in the might of the whole,' was our fervent answer. Our individuality will be strengthened. Depend upon it, the soul fully possessed by the love of Freedom will know when it is hindered, and will turn and do battle with whatever hinders it. Never fear for Truth. No crowd can smother her, as long as they i will let her speak. Her nature is to multiply converts, and k her torch shall enhghten them all, without losing its bril-

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liancy. The crowd is the very place to present her claims. David thanked God that he had strength given him to ' tes- tify of her in the great congregation f and on this point we are in sympathy Avith David. Wliy should human society have been pronounced an evil, the moment it began to be founded on truth and justice ? Because it was felt to be in opposition to society founded on sin and wrong. It was not our print- ing, our publishing, or even our lecturing, that fell into con- demnation as horrible measures. It was the oneness of soul, whereby we did these things. It was the power of association, whereby the rebuke of one man was felt as the voice of ten thousand. As this ' measure ' has been so mightily blessed, and so maliciously misrepresented, it be- comes us to dwell a little in explanation of it to those whose attention is just turning to our cause, and whose minds we must disabuse of the clouds of calumny that hang between them and us. What we would not stoop to do for our own sakes, we will strive to accomplish for the slave's sake, for the master's sake, for our friends' and for our country's sake.

And first, Ours is not an elective association. We know that we are, the wisest of us, feeble and short-sighted, as all mortals are ; and we dare not assume the responsibility, w^liich in our view belongs only to Divine Providence, of saying this man is unfit to aid the cause of Freedom, or we will not labor with that woman for its advancement. Heart- iness is with us the only qualification. Whosoever will, let him come. Let even the self-seeking hypocrite seem to come. The faithful exposure of his seeming is aU that is necessary to frustrate his evil intentions.

Secondly, Ours is not an exclusive association. Calvinists though we may be, we dare not take the responsibihty of forbidding the Socinian or Unitarian to labor for the eman- cipation of the slave. Orthodox though we may esteem ourselves, we dare not, since the parable of the good Sama- ritan, go by on the other side, while the heretic is painfully

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exerting his strength alone to Hft up the down-trodden suf- ferer by the way. White though we may be, we dare not exdude the man of color from our effort to liberate, educate and upraise his race. We should doubly blush to do it. Our brows would crimson at the thought of our inconsistency as well as our inhumanity. Wealthy or fashionable though we may be, we feel most honored by the friendship of those among our anti-slavery associates whose purity of principle places them above wealth and fashion ; and schooled as we may have been by poverty to a knowledge of things as they are, we will not proudly say, what can these worldlings know, who have never suffered ? It is sufficient for this purpose that our associates, of whatever character they may be, have one spark of humanity in their bosoms. We dare not say none but the good shall be our associates. For if the bad feel a single emotion of pity for the oppressed, it becomes not even the perfect to quench the smoking flax or break the bruised reed. We have found no contamination or in- convenience in letting any one labor with us to effect good. We act in contradistinction to the fashionable, the ecclesias- tical, or the political exclusive. We know what men mean when they say of this cause, ' Leave it to us, Methodists — Presbyterians — Baptists : — leave it to us church-mem- bers : — leave it to us leaders of society: — leave it to us Orthodox : — leave it with the influential, " the right sort of men :" — leave it with our party : — leave it with the Chris- tian pubhc' We should be dull indeed not to have learned that all this eloquence of deprecation means — leave it

ALONE.

Tliirdly, Ours is not an excommunicating society. No matter what inconsistencies a man be guilty of — no matter what treachery he may have committed towards his asso- ciates or the cause, or what changes his mind may have undergone since he first advocated it — no one can remove him from the association. It must be his own act and deed.

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If he feels drawn to iis, lie comes ; — when he feels repelled from us, he goes — alike free and unquestioned. No mem- ber of the society has any power beyond that of forming and expressing an opinion of his conduct — a power equally possessed by every soul that knows liim, and not conferred by membership.

Fourthly, Ours is not a legislating society. Among the many subordinate measures lying ready for choice, as wea- pons in an armoiy, the members select the ones that like them best. One has observed the influence of slavery upon the government with particular attention. He has seen slaveholders monopolizing offices, and marked aU the trick- ery by which their system has maintained ascendancy, till the substitution of other men seems to him the most impor- tant measure, and he gives his strength to poHtical action. Another sees how much deeper lies the spiritual nature than the worldly arrangements built upon it, and he appeals to the rehgious sentiment, and rebukes the wickedness of the church. A third feels as if prayer was the great instrumen- tality ; — a fourth trusts more in preaching. The Presbyte- rian or Congregationalist trusts to bring the influence of his church to bear upon slavery, by excommunicating the slave- holder and his apologist, as he does other sinners. While he who does not believe in the abstract rightfulness of such excommunication contents himself with exposure of the true character of such men, and blames as inconsistent those who do not on this point act up to their own ideas. It is no better than cheating an associate out of the time mutually set apart to abolish slavery, to use it to get him right on aU topics on which there is a diflerence of opinion. If the self-styled ' Liberal Christian ' wishes to convert the ' close communion ' Baptist, he takes another opportunity. Seeing that we are ah yet in time and space, from that fact grows the necessity of doing one thing at once ; and why not confine one's self, at the time specified

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for the purpose, to Anti- Slavery proper, unless it is the uni- versal wish of the assembly to look at collaterals ?

An all-important measure is the speaking of the truth; and here, in the manner of speaking it, each man is governed only by his own constitution and conscience. One man is a son of consolation — another is a son of thunder ; — one fullest of pity, another of justice. One dwells on the mis- sionary, another on the mercantile aspect of the cause. One prefers to speak on a week day — another to invest his plea with the sanctity of the meeting-house and the Sabbath. One prefers a congregation called expressly to listen to him — another to speak to whatever assembly of professing Christians he may chance to be in. His neigh- bor, who is no Congregationalist or Presbyterian, and who perchance disbelieves the plenary inspiration of the Bible, will not justify him in following the scriptural rule given by Paul, that those denominations profess to be guided by. But, at the same time, that neighbor would cry shame on him for his inconsistency, should he refuse to act up to his own belief; as he does cry shame on those who deny their own religious views, rather than listen to an abo- litionist speaking for the long forgotten milhons in bon- dage. Shame on the Quaker who tramples out the inward Hght of humanity when it touches the lips of the abolition- ist ! Shame on the believer in the inspiration of Paul, who drags from the scene of his devotions that worshipper in spirit and truth who cannot scrip turally be convicted of wrong. The philosopher only — the advocate of the rights of man irrespective of technical Christianity — can consistently blame the abolitionist who makes choice of the measure of addressing, against then: will, an assembly of men convened for iheform of worship, in recommendation of the reality.

Fifthly, Our society is not a universally reformatory one. Though the platforai is of circumference broad enough to receive the whole human race, it turns upon a single point — jk

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the abolition of slavery. Our principles being such funda- mental ones, and being as they are applicable to all the wrong that is done under the sun, it is not to be wondered at that ideas of the emancipation of subjects from political bondage — of women from the subjugation of men, in the present arrangements of society — of the poor from the yoke they bear as the laborers of the rich — of the slaves of rehgious sects from the bondage of their respective sacer- docies — of citizens from the burdens of compulsory govern- ment — of the whole earth from sin and suffering — should have dawned or darkened upon the minds of our members. But we all know that whatever idea transcending that of the abolition of chattel slavery enters our minds, it is impos- sible to live it out in this association. However broad this platform, a very short experience teaches every one that he cannot live his whole spiritual life upon it ; and he thinks it no argument against our association, that it is not a church universal. Whoever among our members wishes to make other applications of these principles, does it at other times and places than those mutually set apart for their application to the sin of slavery in its most definite sense — the claim OF PROPERTY IN MAN. Whether this object be great or small, of more or of less comparative importance, it is the ONE AND ONLY OBJECT of the auti-slavcry societies. Yet, as every truth that the human soul enlarges itself to receive, is a part of every other truth, it is not possible for us, though we would, to sunder what God has joined. Truth is like a strong cable, wliich man measures and marks into fathom- lengths. The whole chain tightens whenever we cast an- chor, though we had thought in our inexperience that only a part of the length would pmj out. As ' one entire and perfect chrysolite ' cannot be made fragmentary but by an act of desperate folly, so of the complete jewel, truth. We are busied, as a society, in polishing one of its faces. We conscientiously expend all the common stock of time

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and money upon that one, and we cannot help it that the Hght, in consequence, stiikes through upon the rest, remind- ing men of the necessity of cutting them also. The man of strongly concentrative character must not quarrel with the natm-e of things which shows so many other aspects of duty to minds differently constituted from liis o^wn. Nor need the comprehensive mind complain, unless the concen- trative one strives to bind it also to one idea. Our society has but one idea, but it is not a cramping-machine upon its members. Each and all of them can, if they dare, act freely in every other capacity as well as in this. If they find themselves, as abolitionists, in opposition to themselves as Congregationalists, Presbyterians, whigs, democrats, reh- gionists or politicians, it is because slavery has taken pos- session of these latter associations. In such an emergency, they must sacrifice either the sect and the party, or else the cause of the slave. ' They must hold to the one and despise the other ;' and according to the reality of their abo- litionism will their course be. Thus the day of anti-slaveiy judgment is rolling on. It has ushered in a new era. Pro- fessions have become valueless. Men begin to judge and to be judged by their deeds, not by their words — by their mercy, generosity, justice, fidelity, steadfastness, sincerity, honest and honorable bearing, — not by their facility in say- ing ' Lord, Lord.' Hence it is that abolitionists are charged with being uncharitable in judgment, by men to whom the truth is painful as flame.

Sixthly, Our society is not a political party organization. Deprived though we are of the elective franchise, We yet might spend our strength in partizansliip, did we beheve it in the least calculated to promote our object ; did we not feel that our aim ought to be liigher and nobler ; did we not see that it is resorted to for the most part by men who have slavish ties of bondage yet strong upon their natures, and that, if sincere, the effect of their suicerity generally has been to

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I open their eyes to the fact that the best effect of party strife is to secure, at the sacrifice of principle, certain elections ; the result of which is, after all, uncertain. To legislative peti- tioning — to interrogating candidates — to scattering or with- holding votes -— to procuring by such influence the nomina- tion of anti-slavery candidates, we give great comparative approbation. But we bear an equally solemn testimony to all about to join the cause against domg the dirty work of designing political partizans, even though they call them- selves abolitionists 2Jar excellence; and against voting for any but those who are determined on the abrogation of all constitutional and legal provisions of the National and State governments, which have for their object the sustaining of slavery, or in any manner assisting the slaveholder to mam- tain his dominion over the slave.

Seventhly, Our society is not a doctrmal deba,ting club. In a large assemblage of persons, though they may be united for a single object, there will of necessity be such a diversity of mind, tln-ough the differences of bhth, education, gifts, knowledge, grace and goodness, and circumstances in life, that much talk may be necessary about all things, spiritual and temporal, in order to get the 2^oi7it faMy before the minds of all. Much patience may be also necessary to bear with illogical conclusions and crude and half-digested views. But is there a wise man, who loves Freedom, who will not exercise patience. While another brother is learning to be a wise man also ? On the other hand, will not the brother who comes newly into the cause consider himself bound to ' ask his friends at home,' rather than consume an unreasonable portion of their time in the meeting ? By earnest love of the cause, all possible varieties of mind are so harmonized that they differ without inconvenience, and without attempt- ing, in this connection, the hopeless task of universal agree-

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111 addition to these particulars, it is well to remark, that we are not an intolerant society. We blame not those who prefer to aid the cause by themselves, because they follow not us. But, inasmuch as we know ourselves to have been both successful and sincere in its advocacy, we know by that same token that whoever, professing to love it, at the same time attacks and vilifies abolitionists as a body, is either convicted of ignorance or of hypocrisy.

One word more we are bound to add, though it will, per- chance, be considered the developement of a new principle, rather than the definition of a new measure. "Whatever it may be deemed, our deep sense of its importance occasions it to modify all that we do. We travel backward into the past, making centuries our stepping-stones. Retracing eighteen hundred of these foot-marks of giant Time, we fiiid ourselves in a scene not unlike the one presented by the passing hour. In the midst of bloodshed and oppres- sion— in the midst of a fierce struggle for freedom and independence on one hand, and slavery and subjugation on the other — on the plains of Palestine, then the battle-field between the stern-souled Jew and the despotic Homan — in the midst of scribes and pharisees, and doctors of the laws falsely called divine, a great principle was promulgated. A man arises, simple in manners, austere in morals, mighty in speech, powerful in illustration, and teUs the people that force is inefiectual and unjustifiable ; that retaliation ought no longer to have place ; that no human being should darken m blood the light of life in any other, however vile ; for that the heavenly Parent causes his sun to shine alike on the evil and on the good. This new Teacher proclaims as the standard of moral perfection, love to enemies, blessing to the malevolent, prayer and labor for the revengeful and the persecuting. This was indeed Eeligion — a rebinding of the broken ties of humanity I and in view of a principle so heroic and holy, however it may subject us to calumny and

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reproach, we feel bound to declare to the slave, to the mas- ter and to the world, that whatever may be the measures that we adopt, they shall all be sanctified by the sphit of good will and peace.

OUR OBSTACLES.

The grand one is selfishness — the selfishness which we have determined to drive from our own hearts, but which we find cherished in the hearts of others. But tliis is so general a statement as to convey no definite idea to minds unused to the contemplation of the subject. We must, in order to be understood, select specimen characters of each variety of mankind, and show how self-interest prompts them to cast themselves across the path of this cause. There is the man of business, who fears to lose money, or the opportunity of making it, by being true to the principles of Freedom and Christianity that he learned as a child. He is concerned in navigation, and he wants the carrymg trade of the South. Or his fortune is in manufacturing stock, and he fears to mar it by any examination of this subject. Or he is a commission merchant, and wants consignments of southern products ; or an auctioneer, advertising negro-cloths ; or the creditor of the southern planter, holding a mortgage of the plantation and its southern live-stock ; or he is the owner of uncultivated lands, that he cannot help foreseeing will need slave-labor ; or he manufactures pistols or slave- whips ; or he is a teacher or a preacher, and fears his parish- ioners or the parents of his pupils. Perchance his sliips lie waiting a freight in southern ports, and are ofiered thousands of dollars 'passage money, which he does not feel equal to the task of refusing, though he must sign a bill of lading for said passengers, as though they were bales of goods, and must superintend their being crowded on board in irons, out of the prisons of our free nation, which are constantly lent for the slaveholder's accommodation. Again, he may per-

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sonally have no interest at stake, but then he has one son a cotton-agent in New Orleans, another a clergyman in Mississippi, or a daughter whom he hopes to marry to a wealthy planter in Georgia. His taking an active part in the cause will spread ruin beyond liimself. Tlie vigilance committees of the South keep eagle watch, A f ngie step on liis part will ruin the reputation of his childi'en there, and even peril their personal safety.

Then again, there are other relations in life than business ones. His church has named or may name him a delegate to the Baptist Triennial Convention, the Methodist General Conference, the Presbyterian General Assembly, or the Congregational General Association, and he loves that eccle- siastical distinction. Those bodies may severally come to the resolution that their respective denominations, or the interest of Zion at large, will lose gTound among the people, if they should become strict to mark slaveholding iniquity. Each local church will, in consequence, proscribe its abolition members. For a man to become an abolitionist, in this state of things, is to lose his Christian character.

Political preferment, too, is denied to the advocate of an unpopular cause ; and the man who has looked forward to being Representative or Senator, Governor or Foreign min- ister, to a seat in the Cabinet or the Presidential chair — nay, even the woman who has hoped for these things for her son or husband — will close then ears to the cry of op- pressed humanity, and vilify and calumniate the abolitionist whose victory over his own selfishness is a reproach to theirs. Thus is each in terror of his neighbor, till all nobility of spirit is lost. No wonder that these craven souls hesitate to look an abolitionist in the face.

The low standard of religion and morals is a most serious obstacle to the success of our cause. Slavery has almost prostrated the Chiistian religion in our land. There is so little vital piety in our churches, that whoever upholds the

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anti-slavery cause within them makes himself a prey. The churches of the South hold slaves both in their church ca- pacity, and through their individual members, and are sus- tained as Christians and as Christian churches in so doing, by the churches and Christians at the North ! They all thus deny Christ as a Kedeemer ; and when he appears^among them, as of old in Judea, opening to them the book of the law, and declaring from it that he has come to proclaim deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison doors to the bound, — to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to wit, the year of general emancipation ; they try, as did the Jews of old, to cast him headlong from the rock on which their city is built.

A grand obstacle is the avowed and determined neutrality of a large number of persons, owing to a degree of ignor- ance, almost incredible, of the practical requisitions of the Clmstian religion. These are the persons who compose the great body of the church members of New England, partic- ularly the women, and for whose souls their respective min- isters must render an awful account. Nothing could more clearly depict the state of mind superinduced by the labors of pro-slavery clergymen, than the following letter, ' a true copy' of the mind ordinarily considered religious. This gross darkness the light of the anti- slavery torch Vvdll shortly disperse, and unless they repent, these clergymen will be left to say like Wolsey —

' Had I but served my God with half the zeal I've served my ' sect, ' he would not in my age Have left me naked to mine enemies.'

It is the nature of democratic principles to destroy ecclesi- astical domination, and the superstitions on which it is founded. Men who think, easily see that such assumptions of authority in spiritual concerns are in perfect harmony with the claim of ownership in the body.

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Letter. ' I tliouglit that I ought at least to have given you some reasons for my avowed neutrahty on the subject of slavery. Perhaps if I had, you might have been able to remove some of my difficulties. To say that I abhor slavery so far as I am acquainted with it, and that I wish it may be abolished as speedily 2iS j^ossible, is no more than every person of com- mon humanity will say, let their views in regard to measures be what they may. It is a wicked infringement of the rights of man, a foul stain on our national character, and one for which we deserve, and I fear may yet experience, the judgments of Heaven. It seems as though no philan- thropist can help pitying the poor slaves, and wishing to relieve them ; and no Christian can be insensible to the great moral evils of wliich this system is the source. I think the abolitionists have done good in waking up the community from their indifference on this subject, but I should be insincere if I did not say that I thought they had done injury too. The topic is a highly exciting one, and it it is almost impossible to read the facts and statements con- nected with it without getting one's feelings deeply enlisted. This I do not object to, provided it occupies a subordinate place in our minds. For, after all, it is not religion, and so far as it takes the place of religion, it ought, I think, to be deprecated. I have known those who had been devoted Chris- tians before they got engaged in this subject, to become appa- rently indifferent to the advancement of Christ's kingdom, and the salvation of souls around them ; seeming to feel that they were justified in neglecting the claims of the Saviour to their services, because the cause which interested them was so important. I have known several individuals, who were professedly pious and evangelical, leave the sanctuary where the doctrines of the Cross were proclaimed, and go to hear what they believed was error, because it was preached by one of their party. I do feel, more and more,

)c:#=- ' ^ =^=>

23

that tliese '' smooth doctrines " will be the ruin of multitudes, who are thus taught to trust to their own righteousness for salvation ; and it is cause for deep regret that amj who hope they have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ should, by their example, give countenance to such fatal error. Now it seems to me, that the anti-slavery movement, as it is managed in many instances, brings all denominations upon a level, and is calculated to sink those distinctions between truth and error, which ought never to be lost sight of These are some of the difficulties in the way of be- coming an abolitionist^

In consideration of the great numbers who have been deluded into thinking that the ' visiting of the fatherless and widows in their affliction ' is not religion, it will be time here well spent to say a few words. We would say to such minds as theirs, What is ' truth ' ? and what is ' error ' ? What are ' the doctrines of the Cross ' ? They acknowledge that it is true that slavery is a sin, which ought to be imme- diately forsaken and repented of, and that no Christian can be insensible to its great moral evils, which are a foul stain on us, and for which we deserve the judgments of Heaven. Does it not follow then, on their own showing, that the ' sanctuary ' where the consideration of these things is stifled, with continual and laborious vigilance, is in fact no sanctuary at all, having lost its holiness when it began to reverberate the hypocritical ' Lord, Lord,' of those who do not the things which Christ said ? Does not the charge lie heaviest against you, decent professor, who ' hope that you have been re- deemed by the precious blood of Christ,' of ' going to hear error because it is preached by one of your party' ? Know that the abolitionists have no 2^<^Tt7/. They bind themselves to the interests of universal humanity, for this world and the next. What else is ' Christ's kingdom ' and ' the salvation y of souls' ? What is it to ' serve the Saviour' ? Is it not to

24

bind up the broken heart, to proclaim deHverance to the captive, the opening of prison doors to the bound ? Is it not to minister to the least of these his brethren, who are de- prived of all things, and steeped to the very lips in degrada- tion, crime and infamy, through the oppression practiced on them by liis pretended servants? It is a false and fatal idea, that this cause must ' hold a subordinate place, because it is not religion' It is reHgion, though not the whole of re- ligion. It is obedience to that second great commandment, ' Love thy neighbor as thyself,' which is like unto the first, that commands love to God. And will you dare to say that love to man, in obedience to God, is not religion ? Will you dare to affirm that to love man, not as rich, or white, or wealthy, or honored, or one of the same sect, or belonging to the same party, or as worthy and admirable — but as Christ loved him, overwhelmed with oppression, poverty and grief, scorned because of his race, of another blood and other associations, and spotted with the sins that his oppres- sors have caused him to commit, — will you dare to affirm, that such love for him simply as the child of God, manifested in sincerity and self-sacrifice, and with no paltry idea of one's o'wn salvation in the deed, is not religion, and the Christian religion too? Would you maintain a man as a preacher of the gospel, whose life contradicted his lips at every step, because his belief was correct ? ' The devils also believe and tremble,' and ' faith without works is dead.' For the same reason that an abolitionist will not sustain in the ministry the drunkard, the debauchee, or their apologists, by his countenance or by his money, though their creed may be faultless — for that same reason he refuses to sustain the slaveholder or liis apologist as a minister of religion. They are criminal themselves, and the occasion of crime in others. They side and sympathise with the powerful and the wicked to enslave and corrupt the weak and the innocent. We know by that token that the advancement of the Saviour's

25

kingdom, and the promotion of evangelical piety, are not in their hearts. What sense have they of the character of God, or the perfections of Christ, who will not strive to con- form themselves and the world thereto? Having sinned away their moral sense, they resist every new application of their own professed principles, which the providence of God calls upon them to make. When we see them startled and excited to enmity by such a new application, we know by that token that their seeming acquiescence in any application of them is merely a mmgHng of superstition and servility, and not a heartfelt conviction. The man who, being a professed Christian, apologises for slavery in the United States, would not hesitate to do the same for the sin he now calls the deadliest, under a similar stress of public opinion, Tlirough the hypocrisy of these men, Christianity is degraded, even below paganism. ' The beasts,' says Euripides, ' are pro- tected by the rocks, and vile slaves by the altars of the gods.' Not so in Christian New-England ! At which of her altars can the slave take sanctuary ? It is the vile master to whom their shadow yields a refuge : — so like themselves have these cravens made their gods, on the soil that their fathers sought to have consecrated everlastingly to the God of right- eousness and truth !

Though abolitionists, in their associated capacity as such, are laboring only for the extinction of slavery, yet let not the pro -slavery clergy of our land wonder at that examina- tion of their claims now going on among their flocks, which has been induced by a comparison of those claims with their conduct on the subject of slavery; — an examination, of which, in 1837, we pointed out to them the beginning, and which is the natural fruit of their unrighteous course.

Our cause is also delayed by the difficulty it meets in obtaining consideration from those women who, without having put their consciences into the hands of their minis- ters, are yet given over to frivolity, as their appropriate 4 _.^^

26

sphere. With the arrangements of society respecting women, Avliich many admit to be the cause of this frivohty, we have, as abohtionists, nothing to do, but to urge upon women to do good, in carrying forward the anti-slavery cause by every right means, and according to their own conscien- ces, though all mankind stood in the way, marldng out for them their little round. Nothing, however small, should be neglected, that comes in the shape of duty ; but the less never should be allowed to supercede the greater. ' This ought they also to have done, and not to have left the other undone.' We commend, for the justice of its views, the foUoAving extract from Dr. Channing's pamphlet entitled ' Emancipation.'

' Woman should talk of the enslaved to her husband, and do what she can to awaken, amongst his ever thronging worldly cares, some manly indignation, some interest in hu- man freedom. She should breathe into her son a deep sense of the wrongs which man inflicts on man, and send him forth from her arms a friend of the weak and injured. She should look on her daughter, and shudder at the doom of so many daughters on her own shores. When she meets with woman, she should talk with her of the ten thousand homes which have no defence against licentiousness, against viola- tion of the most sacred domestic ties; and through her whole intercourse, the fit season should be chosen to give strength to that deep moral conviction which can alone over- come this tremendous evil.

' I know it will be said, that in thus doing, woman will wander beyond her sphere, and forsake her proper work. What ! do I hear such language in a civilized age, and in a land of Cliristianity ? What, let me ask, is woman's work? It is to be a minister of Christian love. It is to sympathize with human misery. It is to breathe sympathy into man's heart. It is to keep ahve in society some feeling of human

27

brotlierliood. This is lier mission on earth. Woman's sphere, I am told, is home. And why is home instituted ? Why are domestic relations ordained? These relations are for a day ; they cease at the grave. And what is then great end? To nourish a love wliich will endure forever, to awaken universal sympathy. Our ties to our parents are to bind us to the Universal Parent. Our fraternal bonds to help us to see in all men our brethren. Home is to be a nursery of Christians ; and what is the end of Christianity but to awaken in all souls the principles of universal justice and universal charity. At home we are to learn to love our neighbor, our enemy, the stranger, the poor, the oppressed. If home do not train us to this, then it is wofuUy perverted. If home counteract and quench the spirit of Christianity, then we must remember the Divine Teacher, who com- mands us to forsake father and mother, brother and sister, wife and child, for his sake, and for the sake of his truth. If the walls of home are the bulwarks of a narrow, clannish love, through "which the cry of human miseries and wrongs cannot penetrate, then it is mockery to talk of their sacred- ness. Domestic life is at present too much in hostility to the spirit of Christ. A family should be a community of dear friends, strengthening one another for the service of their fellow creatures. Can we give the nmiie of Christian to most of our families ? Can we give it to women who have no thoughts or sympathies for multitudes of then own sex, distant only three days' journey from their doors, and exposed to outrages, from which they would pray to have their own daughters snatched, though it were by death ? '

If it must be, in the nature of things, that all women who embrace this cause are to find it working out deliverance also for themselves, shall that be registered against the cause, as a fault, by the descendants of the Pilgrims — the children of those who renounced ease and wealth, and rank

28

and fashion, for tlie same principles, and to whom the renmi- ciation gave freedom in their generation ?

But, whatever be the causes of selfish frivolity among women, (and it would be departing from our track to give them time in tliis connection,) the fact of its existence is indisputable. Is there an abolitionist, whose soul has not sunk in him on listenmg to the prattle with which so many- set tills cause of humanity aside. ' Oh I I take no interest in it — how can I ? It is so poUtical ! ' As if a woman had no country ! As if it were not the brother of her youth, and the father of her children, who must go, though the summons find them at the funeral of their father, to quench the flames of insurrection with their blood ! ' How can you expect me to take an interest in all this ? The very mention of these wretched blacks shocks me — they are an inferior race — slavery and prejudice are the ordination of Provi- dence. They are very well off' at the South — let them go to Africa — they are the descendants of Ham, and the curse of Cain is upon them. Our minister thinks you are entirely in the wrong — my husband says the North has nothing to do with it.' Ah ! what a disclosure is here of the exceeding need of labor to diffuse information, even if this woman is honest in saying these things, and should be willing to receive it. Garrison's Thoughts on Colonization, L' Instant's Prize Essay, Slavery as it is, Stroud's Laws of the Slave States, Jay on the Action of the Federal Government, Mrs. Child's Appeal for that class of Americans called Africans — will she read all these ? Her ignorance needs them all. Will she profit by them ? Her minister and her husband will do what they can to prevent. We solemnly adjure all such, masmuch as they must answer for themselves ' at the dreadful judgment seat,' to examine and decide for themselves now, upon a question so momentous. ' How low, vulgar, and uninterest- ing !' says another. ' How can I care for such a subject? Its details disgust me.' And thus they refuse to consider

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the subject in all its beauty and vastness. "What in reality is it ? Why, Freedom ! Liberty ! The ground-work of the human soul, without which it cannot have its being, but becomes brutified ! the theme of Greek and Roman story I the rallying-word of Gallic chivalry ! our own dearest her- itage from our English ancestry ! the breath of life to litera- ture, science, art ! the inspiration of eveiy soul-stirring bat- tle-song of Germany, or Switzerland, or Spain, or Scotland ! the soul of religion ! the embodiment of the sublime and beautiful in morality ! the synonyme of generous constancy, and courage, and fidelity, in this age of cowardly oppression and selfish treachery ! All this is our cause, which looks to you but as a disgusting, apochryphal story of a ' whipped back, washed with cayenne pepper water I ' You cannot come to our meetings, you say, because you hate a vulgar, unwashed crowd, ' sprinkled with negroes,' Ah I delicate friends ! what you so denominate is, after all, that grand part of God's creation, for which this 'brave o'erarching firmament,' and these ' high mountains that are a feeling,' (which you sometimes rave about,) were made. The voice of the common thousands, crying, ' Freedom forever ! free- dom for all I for the slave as for us and our children I ' is a sound that might waken even your dead hearts into life. It will shortly gain full utterance. Legislative hall, magnificent drawing-room, and metropolitan temple, too, notwithstanding the guard mounted in the pulpit, will ere long be filled with the idea ; and millions now lying crushed and imbruted, will be called up by it to their true place in the creation of God, of which your supineness and affectation of fastidiousness now help to deprive them. Are you ^villing to live, and let all this be done without you — nay, in spite of you? ' But your leading men are so unknown to us I That Garrison ! ' ' One John Milton ! ' You have not the fault of Goldsmith's ' Croaker.' You have not the gift of foreseeing, too strong upon you. Ill does it become any American to sneer, as

30

yon are constantly doing, at negroes. Not one of tliem do you meet, bending beneath the weight of -wi'ong and bondage, whose presence is not a powerful admonition to you to undo the wrong your fathers have done, if you would have your children live in peace and die in any other way than by the horrors of insurrection and anarchy. This, or the extinction of slavery, is the alternative.

But ' these negroes ' are not of such despicable descent.

Are you proud of bearing the names of Norman barons ?

Think respectfully, then, of those who sprung from African

princes, with the best blood of the South in their vems to

- boot.

But our most serioLis hindrance has been occasioned by those who began with us to advocate the cause, without counting the cost, and were turned back, against their better knowledge and against their conscientious convictions, by the pressure of the world upon them. As a traitor in the camp is more hurtful than an enemy in front, so such per- sons as these are often more detrimental to the cause than the slaveholder himself If at the moment when decisive, vigorous, uncompromising conduct is demanded by its inter- ests, one who has professed to desire its advancement is seen drawing back, apologising for slaveholders, sheltering the advocate of slavery from the disgrace he merits, giving up the friends of freedom to their false accusers, clogging the wheels of the movement with expressions of doubt as to the propriety of calling crime criminal, if the perpetrators chance to be Ms own spiritual or political leaders, or per- sonal friends, — if the professing friend is found thus con- ducting, he becomes the most serious of all obstacles. The last state of such men we have ever found worse than their first. When once they have been driven by selfishness or teiTor to retrace their steps, they immediately strive to justify themselves by calumniating the brethren they have deserted. They devote themselves, with renewed

31

energy, to the promulgation of slaveholding religion. They strive to sustain unclianged all those institutions of society, into which the roots of slavery have become so swarded, that an attempt to destroy them shakes the whole soil. We cannot give freedom to the slaves, but by removing tliis evil influence, — but by exposing tliis treachery and hypocrisy, wherever and whenever it obstructs the way. Treacherous hypocrisy, thus met, is utterly unscrupulous in its choice of weapons by which to repel the truth that destroys its chance of success. It is even ready to recall the grim old days of the conclave and the star-chamber ; and fain to steep the land in forgetfulhess of all that is glorious in the past, since the efforts of our English progenitors removed the brand of treason from the brows that bend to Kight before Allegi- ance, and since the Protest of Luther made broad the line between dissent and sacrilege.

"When traitors and hypocrites become fully possessed of the fact, that slavery is so intertwined in our country with each wholesome plant as to stop its growth, they begin to declare that it is perilous to strive to pluck it up so vigor- ously. Nay — they ask, is it not wholesome in itself, in some circumstances ? As often as it is touched, its mandrake groanings are terrible to hear, and make the listener mad. ' Church and State, Sabbath and Ministry,' they cry, ' must fall, if you touch slavery; and better, far better, that slaveiy should remain perpetual.' "When once the recreant soul reaches this conclusion of its backward track, it loses all claim to the name of abolitionist, and becomes the worst of all hindrances. The pride of consistency, however, compels them to claim the appellation. But in vain do they now strive to change the issue they at first raised, by resolving themselves into a thud political part^^, and endeavoring to escape the condemnation that their fii'st course of opposition incurred, by nominating each other as candidates for office. Their selfish folly is only the more apparent to us, and will

32

shortly become equally so to the few whom they have succeeded hi deceiving. To tliis insensate selfishness has it been owing that, in the shallow sea of national politics, the tide seems to run higher against the cause than it did some years since. Then a slaveholder could not be put in nomination for the Presidency. Now, Henry Clay, — the owner of slaves, the President of the Colonization Society, the man who said that he would never listen to a proposition for emancipation, — is put in nomination for that office.

We are no partizans. Alike to us are whig or democrat, Daniel Webster or Henry Clay, Calhoun or Van Buren. Of Birney, too, we know that many tilings are dearer to him than Freedom. We judge each by liis conduct, and not by the flouting banner under which he ranges himself; and Ave find all unworthy of the approbation of abolitionists. But Henry Clay is the man who, from his Senatorial seat, once appealed to the Women of the North to keep silence on the subject of slavery. He may have long since forgotten it, but among us it is freshly remembered ; and we are impelled to answer him by the consideration that he now presents himself for the suffrages of our husbands, our brothers and our friends.

ADDRESS TO HENRY CLAY.

Sir, — From your place in the Senate, and in the hearing of the nation, you have addressed that portion of your coun- tryivomen who have given their countenance to the abolition of slavery, adjuring them to reflect and to desist. They owe a voice responsive to that adjuration, to you, to them- selves and to their country, and much more to the holy cause of Freedom, to which they have bound themselves.

We have not thoughtlessly and carelessly sent up our spirits into the councils of the nation. It is not without the most careful scrutiny of the subject, and the deepest solem- nity of self-communion, that we have taken the position of

33

intense and life-long hostility to slavery. All your arguments before the Senate for its continuance, with others which are to our minds quite as weighty, have again and again passed before us, and have as often been found baseless and unsat- isfactory. You do but deceive yourself, in fancying that a form of rejecting our petitions would have stilled the agita- tion of the claims of three millions of your countrymen and ours, who have been rendered incapable of preferring those claims in their own persons, by the workings of your sys- tem. Would this heaven-daring amount of crime and injus- tice — would our grief and indignation, as we behold it, have been lessened by any possible mockery of forms ? No ! the work of universal abolition, which you correctly state to be our object, is one which can neither be checked nor arrested by the American Congress. It is a movement too grand and magnificent — too strong and too holy. Our free govern- ment, of which you speak — the dearest hope of civiliza- tion — has done a glorious work for the world universally. Its sixty years of operation have so strengthened the minds of many in the principles of freedom, that they revolt as from personal indignity when slavery affronts them with her baleful presence. Those principles have become an insep- arable pa^t of the existence of thousands and tens of thou- sands. They will teach them in the house, and they will speak of them by the way. They will live by them. When they behold them violated, they will overwhelm the unwor- thy deed with their reprobation, though Senates sit ignobly devising formulas by which to hush them. Of what avail is it to the slaveholder, that the general government has no power in the States ? When have the abolitionists petitioned it to exercise such power ? We know its limitations, and have never asked of you to overleap them. But, the gen- eral government is but the expression of the national heart, and it is with that heart we have to do. A moral revolution, such as began in the United States in 1829, never yet went 5

34

backward. Witness the existence of Christianity — the Reformation of Luther — the abohtion of slavery by Great Britain. The powers of speech and of the press, invested as they are by this magnificent idea, with the awful sanc- tions of la^v alike and gospel, of reason and religion, operate in a circumference larger than that described by the ma- chinery of governments. Governments are but their guards and servants, not their masters. Their eifect must evermore be freedom. Year after year, the great free voice will come up stronger and stronger ; the agitation will grow wider and deeper. No Congress can stay it — no combination can check it. It is the voice of God, announcing to the earth that slavery shall be no longer.

We have asked of the general government only what it is confessedly competent to perform, by the assumption of Congress itself, ever since its first organization ; by the con- cession of Congressional committees on the District, from time to time ; by concession of eleven hundred of the inhab- itants of the District itself, in 1827 ; by concession of grand juries of the District; by virtual assertion of ten State Legislatures ; by the recorded petitions of numerous bodies of citizens of the slave States, to be found on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives, between the years 1822 and 1830 ; by the concession of southern statesmen, legislators, and constitutional lawyers, whose great names time would fail us to enumerate. From all these, as well as from the millions of signatures to northern petitions, it appears that an overwhelming majority of the people of the United States believe, that, by the Constitu- tion, Congress possesses j90wer, unquestionable and undoubt- ed, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. All tliis is sufficient to overrule objections of far more speciousness and plausibility than the supposed suppositions of Maryland and Virginia at the time of cession, or than Mr. Clay's opin- ion of what makes a seat of government comfortable, avail-

35

able and convenient, or tlie disposition of some of the pre- sent inhabitants of the District to elevate themselves into a government for the United States on the subject of slavery, and to preserve forever, in the centre of the nation, a flow- ing well-head of shame and guilt and danger — a public nuisance and disgrace, which were it as offensive to the senses as it is to the soul, could not have place a single hour. Ai'e the United States to continue to sanction slavery because Mr. Clay's nerves are so indurated to its horrors, that he can be sufiiciently ' comfortable ' in a slaveholding District? Is slavery to be tolerated in the District, because the establishment of freedom in it would be an inconven- ience to the slaveholders of Maryland and Virginia ? Is the onward and upward march of a great people to be stayed, lest the seat of its government should become a refuge for the desolate and oppressed ? The vision your words have made to pass before us is too beautiful to fade away, without having stirred our souls to renewed exertion that it may be realized. It stimulates us to upraise again to God and men, the united strength of our supplication for the deliverance of a people groaning under centuries of wrong and bondage ; and never, till the last fetter melts away, shall we cease to call on you and every member of the government to let Freedom protect your chosen seat : — ' Hide the outcast ! Be^vray not him that wandereth ! Let mine outcasts dwell ■with thee I Deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor I '

Our great confederacy, to which you, with so much pride and satisfaction, refer — what is it? and for what purpose was it formed ? To establish justice : but the man who does not feel, in every emotion of his soul, that the power which should chain and drive him past your capitol with scourgings is unjust — it becomes not him to take her very name upon his lips. Her bandaged eye sees no distinction between the dark representative of an unbroken African

36

line, and tlie white descendant of a hundred Enghsh pro- genitors. From justice only can spring that ' domestic tran- quility/ or that assurance of ' liberty for our posterity/ which the federal league was formed to secure. Two hundred years of wrongful legislation can effect no change in the nature of things. The being you claim as your slave is a man ; and therefore in him you never did have, you never can have property. It matters not to those who look on the affairs of Time by the light of Eternity, though all the years the sun has ever measured were summoned by you to ' sanc- tify' your claim. Time can do many things ; but to destroy the incalculable difference between matter and spirit — to annul the eternal distinction between a child of God and the things with wliich God has surrounded Mm, a thousand years are as one day.

Justice, you assert, claims compensation. Compensation to whom ? Most willingly and joyfully should $1200,000,000 be paid by this nation, if it could compensate for wrong and outrage unutterable — for centuries of bondage and unre- quited toil — for forcible separation of families — for blighted aspirations — for darkened intellect — for the crushing out of the best hopes of this life, and the deprivation of those of another ! Millions on millions for the emancipated — not a cent for the slaveholder I But Mr. Clay cannot be serious in his assertion that emancipation would annihilate this im- mense value. It surely is not left him to learn of us, that emancipation only removes his calculation from its present fluctuating basis to the solid earth, the only secure foundation. Neither can it be possible that Mr. Clay fails to perceive the want of agi'eement between different parts of his speech. It cannot have escaped him, that if schools opened for slaves by humane and religious persons, were of any real utility to them, they could not have remained ignorant and unprepared for freedom. If the operation of those schools was the brutify- ing one of rendering men content in slaveiy, we rejoice that

37

the efforts of abolitionists have caused their suppression. Mr. Clay speaks of the requisitions of candor and impar- tiality, in one part of his speech, and, in another, claims that men of color shall be counted as live-stock. In one breath he appeals to the Searcher of hearts, to witness his love of lib- erty, and, in another, declares his immutable determination to oppose any scheme of emancipation, whether gradual or im- mediate. In one moment, he seems to dread that the colored race may gain ascendancy — the next, he dwells on their ignorance and numerical inferiority. Such inconsistency cannot have been unperceived by him ; nor can we, in view of his opportunities and abilities, venture to presume such ignorance as his speech supposes. "Was it unknown to you, sir, at the time of expressing" your dread of any interference with the peculiar institutions of the slave States, that nu- merous societies exist in Great Britain, comprising the choicest spirits of the nation, which have the abolition of &\^YQij throughout the ivorld for their express object? Do you not know, that no moral or religious enterprise ever was undertaken, that did not make its projectors feel, that ' their country was the world — their countrymen all mankind ' ? In this holy enterprise, Spain, France, Great Britain, Amer- ica, are as one, and each after each will the movements of their governments indicate the progress of Freedom through the nations. All the macliinery of publications, denuncia- tions, declarations, to which you allude, as wanton and cruel assaults on your institution, are brought to bear on this very question, as it exists both in European colonies and among ourselves. Englishmen, and men of all nations, whose moral 'sense is outraged by slavery, have been laboring for its ex- tinction in the midst of our nation. Why hav^e we not heard Mr. Clay's indignant remonstrance against England? Why has not a burst of overwhelming accusation gone over fi-om the South to the British Parliament, as when seven thunders utter their voices? Why has all her action on this subject

38

been outrageous violence, or crafty diplomacy? Because the South is perfectly aware that moral efforts of men of one nation to change the hearts of men of another, are a violation neither of national right, nor of international law. Because Mr. Clay knows, that the ground on wliich the missionary stands is holy ; and if the truth he promulgates makes men feel willing to loose the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, Mr. Clay can but beseech him to be silent, and draw on a brilliant imagination to picture the dreadful consequen- ces of righteousness ; trusting, meanwhile, that the murder- ous spirit which selfishness and slavery arouse in men's hearts, may quench the spirit of freedom and humanity. But, civihzation, though long stayed in her progress by domestic slavery, has yet so far triumphed over barbarism, that speech and the press are abstractly deemed free. In spite of the blinding mists of slavery, Americans in the northern States, at least, begin to discriminate between trea- son and free discussion — between the preacher of right- eousness and the political emissary — between the exercise of man's just rights, and the infliction of horrible outrages in support of wrong. ' Why,' you exclaim, ' are the slave States wantonly and cruelly assailed ? ' Why do they wan- tonly and cruelly outrage the moral sense of Christendom ? ' Why are your efforts confined to the free States ? ' Be- cause the spirit and the gains of slavery are diffused through all classes and conditions of society here. Because it is em- plo^ring time and means and opportunities to the best advan- tage, to work outward from our own hearth-stones. Cast yourself back into the recent past, and behold for ten suc- cessive years the outrage and insult — the demolition of humble dwellings — the violence of mobs — the flames of burning cities — w"hich have followed free words and right deeds in northern States, and you will instantly perceive that it is no unworthy consideration of personal safety that bids us make them the fulcrum by which to move the South.

z^ ^ — — — =^=>(

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No :— for while we gather around our own firesides, with all the shielding that our free State government can give us, and protected by the abstract opinions of our fellow-citizens, even now — in the very midst of us — 'sits Danger, with his feet upon the hearth !' It is the South which is operating upon the institutions of the North ! and the right of associ- ation denied" — of petition suffocated — of speech forbid- den — of meeting at the mercy of Violence — nay, the right to live overwhelmed by Murder - — attest with what success. It is the South who are outraging all the laws of neighbor- hood and humanity. It is you who have ' subsidized presses^ and made large pecuniary contributions.' It is you have ' sent forth numerous missionaries ' through our borders, to attack our institutions and our persons. Yours cannot live unless ours perish. You have set fire to our beautiful capi- tals ; but, God. be praised, you cannot make us have recourse to retaliatory violence. "We suffer, and we know not when shall be the end. But, sooner or later, the hour will come. The slave will be free ! "We know it, because we feel that no Senatorial breath, however potent, no words, feebly pic- turing as a wrath to come that Avhich has already been real- ized, can melt away the free soul's resolute devotedness. No labor of the President of a Colonization Society to spread before us the frightful enmity between the races, will avail to prevent us from pouring forth the spirit of re- pentance, and reconciliation, and forgiveness, into the hearts of both. Nothing which deeply concerns the human race should excite derision ; but it will not be wonderful, should the inconsiderate, both at the North and the South, be at a loss whether to deride the ignorance, or to condemn the in- sincerity, which alludes with horror to the mingling of the two races, notwithstanding it goes on under the institution of slavery, unregulated and unchecked. You appeal to cu- pidity, to prejudice, to cherished hatred, — successfully, no doubt, for they exist to an alarming extent. You assure us

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that the white man cannot treat the man of color peaceably. Sh, abolitionists are men of like passions with others, and have, like them, been colonizationists and slaveholders ; yet they have overcome their murderons hatred to the colored man. Men's hearts, and men's homes, are as open to him as to the white man, wherever the abolition sentiment has penetrated. The spirit of Freedom is even now wrestling in Massachusetts for a legislative acknowledgement of the essential equality of the man of color ; and that last relic of caste and its bigoted meanness, the marriage law, is about to be swept away.

Freedom, you fear, would excite fearful struggle, disorder and distress, at the South. In Heaven's name, sir, what exists there now but struggle, and disorder, and distress, and stripes, and tears, and tyranny, and unrequited toil, and scorn, and wrath, and families parted by force, and a spirit of mutiny, and constant apprehension, and slaves assassin- ating their masters, and ignorant wretches massacred for firing cities in their insane vengeance, or hunted with dogs for asserting their freedom ; barbarism and oppression hand in hand, violence and murder in the halls of legislation. Sen- ators reaching their places in the councils of government by yielding up the hopes and rights of man whenever ambition demands the sacrifice ? And yet, Mr. Clay would consider the event a most direful one, which should put the cause of these atrocities in jeopardy ! He would have its considera- tion evermore shifted to the shoulders of posterity, from age to age ; and yet, while loading them with his own fearful responsibilities, he professes to have at heart, above all other objects, the well being of his own descendants and his own race ! and calls on the Searcher of hearts to witness that his own beats high with the love of civil liberty ! ! Has he a love of liberty who goes about balancing his own safety and covenience, his oivn descendants and race, against the eter- nal principles which guarantee the safety and freedom of

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the world I Shame ! shame I indignantly exclaims the Christian, for the distinctive feature of his rehgion is its universality ; — the philanthropist, for he loves man ; — the true statesman and patriot, for they see that this question is no less a test now, than in the days of Wilberforce and Clarkson, of who is fit to destroy and who to save a nation. You call upon abolitionists to subdue in their hearts the love of universal hberty. We could not if we would — we would not if we could. We say with Luther, ' It is neither safe nor right to do aught against conscience. Here stand we — we can no other — God help us — Amen ! ' In a right- eous cause we know not fear ; though Mr. Clay is shaken with apprehensions of the evil consequences of universal hberty. Sir, your fears are no measure of your brother's rights. Is slavery a violation of them ? Keason and Reve- lation and the heart of man, and the voice of God in them all, say Yes ! and yet you bid us fear to present to you our petitions for the extinction of such parts of it as lie within your jurisdiction, and call this terror-stricken circle of cor- rupt pubhc opinion, which your judgement has marked out for us, ' our own appropriate and delightful sphere ! ' This style is unworthy alike of you and of ourselves — ahke un- worthy of the American Senator and the American woman. It is not the language of one high soul to another, and there- fore it passes by us as the wind. It is thus we educate our sons in Massachusetts. They must see us impervious to sophistry, or they will not truly appreciate reasoning. They must see us disregarding appeals to the educational weak- ness of woman, or they will have reason to despise the mothers that bore them. Unless they see us awake to the fallacies of an assumed authority, they will grow up its dupes and its slaves. If they behold us weakly yielding up our convictions of duty to freedom and humanity and God, when human love and honor are the bribes, can we expect them, in the struggle of life, which they are so soon 6

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to enter, to preserve inviolate their steadfast fidelity to the righteous and the true ? If they behold us overwhelmed with terrors at the rage of the wicked and unreflecting, can we expect of them a noble courage ? No : — smce our example will educate them, we shall labor to make it a good and worthy one.

But, (since Mr. Clay dwells so much on consequences,) we will direct his attention to those which must ensue, if the slaveholding States persist in those aggressions upon the rights of the free States, which are the necessary con- sequences of slavery. The form of Union, which now exists, will speedily perish, as all that is valuable in the reality has long since done ; the slaveholding States will stand alone, and will be far more exposed than they now are to the moral influences which they so much dread. They are now shielded from the full force of these impres- sions by the interposition of their northern apologists, and by the existing form of Union. Those removed, they must repent or perish. Let him be assured, meanwhile, of our constant and devoted lives in the cause of Freedom, as long as hfe shall be given us. Let him be assured that —

' Freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won ! '

OUR TEMPTATIONS.

They are those which are incident to human nature. An abolitionist is a man of like passions with a slaveholder; and the only difierence between the two is, that the former is striving to subject his mind to the dominion of right prin- ciple and good feeling. But Covetousness stands by, to urge us to keep back a part of the price of abolisliing slavery; and Ambition prompts us to cling to place and power, at the sacrifice of principle ; and Pride makes us forget the lowly bondman by intense self-remembrance ; and

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Vanity makes us ashamed to act in the presence of our respec- tive coteries, whether fashionable, pohtical, mercantile, lite- rary or clerical, in behalf of a cause which they all contemn. These are temptations from without, at the commencement of our course as abolitionists. Others assail us from within our camp. There are traitors in it, who have yielded to the temptations from without, and we hesitate to brand them as* such, lest we too should fall when tempted, and be compelled, in our turn, to feel the scorching infliction which it is the right and the duty of Fidelity to bestow. This is the tempt- ation of Selfishness, bidding us save ourselves pain and inconvenience, and, possibly, self-condemnation, at the expense of the cause. Some are tempted by the desire to make the cause subservient to their own advancement. These are they whose own little pubhc looks upon the cause with comparative toleration, and who are both busy and bold, until their efforts rouse the demon of self-interest in the cir- cle which bears down upon their own ; and then the kindred spirit that reigns in their own hearts rushes to join itself to the apparition they have unexpectedly to themselves evoked.

There is a temptation which merits peculiar notice, be- cause it besets those whose majestic patience yields to no other assault. It would not, indeed, be wonderful, if the soul whose clearness of vision sees and unravels at a glance the intricate problems of philosophy or metaphysics, morals or theology, and seizes on the right amid all these various envelopements, without staying to reconcile it with some beloved doctrine or theory, and lives by it, at whatever cost, should become impatient of other men's delay, especially if it is waiting for them in loathsome jails to make up minds distracted by the multiplicity of worldly enjoyments.

There is the temptation of false charity, which would make us doubt whether men are so bad as our own experience has actually proved them to be. There is the temptation of false humility, which makes us doubt whether we can per-

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form what we yet acknowledge to be duty. There is the temptation of intolerance, which makes a man think that his particular measure is the only one, and which impels him to denounce all who do not adopt it as the enemies of Free- dom. There is the temptation to misanthropy, growing out of the ingratitude, treachery, and various villany, which •peel away from the cause of the slave, as it gets wedged into difficult paths in its onward course.

This list might be, of course greatly extended ; but if this page suggests more than it expresses, it will not be, on that account, the less, but the more valuable.

OUR PROGRESS.

This head affords a place, where a history of intense interest to the moralist, the philanthropist, and the pscy chologist, might be recorded ; but we forbear, for it may be better read in the improved condition of the man of color, wherever our principles have penetrated ; in the improved characters of all who have embraced them ; in the changed tone of discussions in Congresses, Legislatures, Convoca- tions, Assemblies, Conferences, Lyceums and Families. As for written history, are not the materials laid up in the Anti- Slavery Offices ? Since all who choose can find them there, we will not take up time with records, but will simply state results. We will not make our Report a History, but ' an Experience.'

OUR RESOLVE.

We are bound to this cause, as to our religion, by all the most hallowed recollections and the most radiant hopes. As we look to meet God in peace at our last hour, and to be united in joy to our fellow-laborers departed, who devoted us in dying to the work of abolishing slavery, we renewedly vow ourselves to its accomplishment ; and whether we live to see that hour or not, we shall have the satisfaction and the improvement of high endeavor.

PIOUS TRU S T

(from the GERMAN OF KORNEr)

BY ELIZA LEE FOLLEN.

I.

We call on thee, with looks of gladness. And on thy word we take our stand ;

In vain with murder and with madness Would Hell deceive thy faithful band.

The world may crumble and decay :

Thy word will never pass away.

II.

Faith conquers not by faint endeavor ;

Such good is only won through pain ; Freely its juice the grape yields never,

'Tis by the press the wine we gain ; And when an angel seeks the skies, First breaks a human heart and dies.

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III.

Though in this life, full of dissembling, Temples of falsehood may be raised,

And villains in high places, trembling At power and wisdom, shrink amazed,

And with the coward's giddy fear.

The awakened people's murmurs hear ;

IV.

Though brother turn away from brother, Though bloody deeds of hate are done.

Though States the bonds of kindred smother, Forgetting their true glory's one ; —

And that united for the right

The world would own our country's might ; —

V.

Yet never of thy help despairing, Steadfast, O God, our trust shall be.

That thou, the tyrant's doom declaring. Wilt set thy mourning people free :

And though far off this day of Ught,

Who knows but thou what day is right ! ^

TREASURER'S ACCOUNT

Eliza F. Meriam, Treasurer,

To Boston Female A. S. Society Dr. 1841. Oct. 13, To cash, balance from last year, $64 75 To do. received during the year, 160 08

$224 83

Contra, , Cr.

1842. Oct. 12, By cash paid during the year, $206 91 " " Balance on hand, , . . 17 92

$224 83

Boston, Oct. 12, 1842.

E. E. Eliza F. Meriam.

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