GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
The reader who has accompanied me thus far, will not need to be informed that I have designedly omitted many of those remarks on scenery, manners, and institutions, which were naturally suggested to my own mind by a retrospect of my sojourn in the United States. On various subjects of great interest and importance, it would be difficult for me to add anything new or valuable to the information contained in other and well known works; while on those points to which my attention was chiefly directed, I have endeavored, as far as practicable, to incorporate the results of my inquiries in the preceding narrative. There remain, however, a few observations, for which, having found no appropriate place, I would bespeak attention in a concluding chapter.
In the Northern States, education, in the common acceptation of the term, may be considered as universal; in illustration of which it may be mentioned, that on the occasion of the late census, not a single American adult in the State of Connecticut, was returned as unable to read or write. Funds for education are raised by municipal taxation in each town or district, to such an amount as the male adults may decide. Their public schools are universally admitted to be well conducted and efficient, and combine every requisite for affording a sound, practical, elementary education to the children of the less affluent portion of the community. I need scarcely add that in a republican government, this important advantage being conceded, the road to wealth and distinction, or to eminence of whatever kind, is thrown open to all of every class without partiality—the colored alone excepted.
The following extract from a letter received since my return from a respected member of the Society of Friends, residing in Worcester, Massachusetts, will give a lively idea of the general diffusion and practical character of education in the New England States.
"The public schools of the place, like those throughout the State, are supported by a tax, levied on the people by themselves, in their primary assemblies or town meetings, and they are of so excellent a character as to have driven other schools almost entirely out from among us. They are so numerous as to accommodate amply all the children, of suitable age to attend. They are graduated from the infant school, where the A B C is taught, up to the high school for the languages and mathematics, where boys are fitted for the University, and advanced so far, if they choose, as to enter the University one or two years ahead. These schools are attended by the children of the whole population promiscuously; and, in the same class we find the children of the governor and ex-governor of the State, and those of their day-laborers, and of parents who are so poor that their children are provided with books and stationery from the school fund. Under this system, we have no children who do not acquire sufficient school learning to qualify them for transacting all the business which is necessary in the ordinary pursuits of life. A child growing up without school learning would be an anomaly with us. All standing thus on a level, as to advantages, talent is developed, wherever it happens to be; and neither wealth nor ancestral honors give any advantage in the even-handed contest which may here be waged for distinction. It is thus that we find, almost uniformly, that our first men, either in government or the professions, are the sons of comparatively poor and obscure persons. In places where the wealthier portion of the community have placed their children in select schools, they are found much less likely to excel, than when placed in contact and collision with the mass, where they are compelled to come in competition with those whose physical condition prepares them for mental labor, and whose situation in society holds forth every inducement to their exertions. To this system, which is co-eval with the foundation of the State, I attribute, in a great degree, that wonderful energy of character which distinguishes the people of New England, and which has filled the world with the evidences of their enterprise."
The preceding statements refer to New England, the oldest portion of the free States. The more recently settled Northern and Western States are necessarily less advanced, yet their educational statistics would probably bear comparison with any country in the world, except the most favored portion of their own. In the slave States the aspect of things affords a striking contrast. Not only is the slave population, with but few exceptions, in a condition of heathen barbarism, a condition which it is the express object of those laws of the slave States, forbidding, under the heaviest penalties, the instruction of the slaves, to perpetuate; but the want of common elementary education among large numbers of the privileged class is notorious. Compare Virginia with Massachusetts,—"The American Almanac for the year 1841, states, (page 210) there are supposed to be hardly fewer than 30,000 adult white persons in Virginia who cannot read and write!" An able writer gives the following facts.
"No one of the slave States has probably so much general education as Virginia. It is the oldest of them—has furnished one half of the Presidents of the United States—has expended more upon her University than any State in the Union has done during the same time upon its colleges—sent to Europe nearly twenty years since for her most learned professors; and in fine, has far surpassed every other slave State in her efforts to disseminate education among her citizens; and yet, the Governor of Virginia in his message to the legislature, (Jan. 7, 1839) says, that of four thousand six hundred and fourteen adult males in that State, who applied to the county clerks for marriage licences in the year 1837, one thousand and forty seven were unable to write their names." The governor adds, "these statements, it will be remembered are confined to one sex: the education of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect."—The editor of the Virginia Times published at Wheeling, in his paper of January 23d, 1839, says,—"We have every reason to suppose that one fourth of the people of the State cannot write their names, and they have not of course any other species of education."A
A: "American Slavery as it is," page 187.
The destitution of the means of moral and religious improvement is in like manner very great. A recent number of the "Monthly Extracts from the correspondence of the American Bible Society," contains the following extract from the 28th annual report of the Virginia Bible Society: "The sub-sheriff of one of our Western Counties stated the following fact to your agent. A jury was to be empannelled in a remote settlement of this country—he happened to have left his home without a Bible—there was no Bible in the house where the jury was to sit, and the sheriff travelled fourteen miles calling at every house, before he found a Bible. Pious surveyors stated to your agent that they had traversed every settlement in a remote section of one or two of our south western counties, that they had frequently inquired among the settlers for a Bible, but had never seen or heard of one in a region, say sixty miles by fifty."
There are few things more striking in the free States than the number and commodiousness of the places of worship. In the New England States, however general the attendance might be, none would be excluded for want of room. The other means or accompaniments of religious instruction are in the same abundance. How is it possible to evade the conclusion that Christianity flourishes most, when it is unencumbered and uncorrupted by state patronage? What favored portion of the United Kingdom could compare its religious statistics with New England?
Religion and morality, viewed on the broad scale, are cause and effect—a remark which is fully borne out in the Northern States, and in no instance more remarkably exemplified than in the spread of temperance. A few years ago the consumption of ardent spirits, and other intoxicating drinks, was as general as in England, and the effects even more conspicuous and debasing. It is now very rare, in the free States, to see a drunken person, even in the most populous cities. At the large hotels, as far as my observation extended, it is the exception, not the rule, to take any spirituous or fermented beverage at or after dinner; and no case of inebriety came under my notice in any of these establishments. I have already remarked, that some of the first hotels in the principal cities are established on the strictest temperance principles. I believe, in private hospitality, intoxicating drinks are, in like manner, very much discarded. At the tables of members of the Society of Friends, it is very rare to see either wine or malt liquor introduced; while, as already noticed, the selling, using, or giving ardent spirits is so great an offence as to be made the subject of church discipline. This is, by no means, one of the "peculiarities" of "Friends," as I believe it may be generally stated that the same practices, in most other Christian communities, would be considered as quite incompatible with a profession of religion.
The effects of this great reformation are not confined to the United States, although the change hitherto has been much more gradual in my native country; not so, however, in Ireland, now, by a happy reverse, a scene of light and promise, amidst surrounding gloom and depression. Of the American facts I have to record, connected with the temperance movement, the most grateful is the striking contrast that is exhibited in the Irish emigrants. By the divine blessing on Theobald Mathew's benevolent labors, they have generally forsaken their besetting sin of drunkenness in their native land, and if compelled to seek the means of subsistence in another country, they now at least do not carry with them habits that tend irresistibly to destitution and degradation. The Irish movement is likewise re-acting most beneficially on the native Irish, who have long been settled in America, and who are joining the total abstinence societies in great number, though hitherto the most intemperate part of the community.
In short, whether I consider the religious, the benevolent, or the literary institutions of the Northern States—whether I contemplate the beauty of their cities, or the general aspect of their fine country, in which nature every where is seen rendering her rich and free tribute to industry and skill—or whether I regard the general comfort and prosperity of the laboring population,—my admiration is strongly excited, and, to do justice to my feelings, must be strongly expressed. Probably there is no country where the means of temporal happiness are so generally diffused, notwithstanding the constant flow of emigrants from the old world; and, I believe there is no country where the means of religious and moral improvement are so abundantly provided—where facilities of education are more within the reach of all—or where there is less of extreme poverty and destitution.
As morals have an intimate connection with politics, I do not think it out of place here to record my conviction, that the great principle of popular control, which is carried out almost to its full extent in the free states, is not only beautiful in theory, but that it is found to work well in practice. It is true that disgraceful scenes of mob violence and lynch-law have occurred; but perhaps not more frequently than popular outbreaks in Great Britain; while, generally, the supremacy of law and order have been restored, without troops, or special commissions, or capital punishments. It is also true, that these occurrences are, for the most part, directly traceable, not to the celebrated declaration of the equal and inalienable right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which is the fundamental principle of the constitution; but to the flagrant violation of that principle in the persons of the colored population, of whom those in most of the free states are actually or virtually deprived of political rights; and the rest, constituting a majority of the population in some of the Southern States, are held in abject slavery. The corruptions and disorders that obscure the bright example of the American people, and detract from the estimation in which their institutions and policy would otherwise be held, generally spring from this source. So long as slavery and distinction of color exist, America will always be pointed at with the finger of scorn, for her flagrant violation of all truth and consistency. But let us not forget that this odious institution is the disgraceful legacy of a monarchy—that it is no necessary effect of republican institutions, but the reverse. Our quarrel, therefore, is not with the declaration of rights, but that this celebrated declaration should be regarded, in the instance of one class in the community, as a mere rhetorical flourish, and should thus be deprived of its legitimate practical effect.
The great feature of the political arrangements of the free States is, the absence of the aristocratic element. A pure despotism in the hands of one man has seldom been seen, except in the instances of those renowned military chiefs, whom a retributive Providence has at intervals employed as the scourge of guilty nations. An aristocracy under various forms and names, has usually been the governing power, and as the too frequent result, laws have been made and administered for the benefit of the few, and not for the many. Yet the United States of North America exhibit, however, notwithstanding their political theory to the contrary, an aristocracy of the worst kind, an aristocracy of color; in the free States of the many against the few, in affirming these to be a degraded race, as long as African blood runs in their veins; and in the slave States, for a no better reason, reducing them even when they are the majority; to the condition of brute beasts, to be held and sold as goods and chattels. And this leads me to observe that the writer who mistakes the general government of the confederacy, with its limited scope and powers, for the chief source of laws and administration in the separate States will unavoidably present a confused and distorted representation of existing facts. Each State constitutes within itself a distinct republic, virtually independent of the general government, so long as its legislation does not conflict with the specific articles of the constitutional compact; all the rights and powers of sovereignty, not specifically delegated to the Government in that instrument, being retained by the States. Hence nothing can present a wider contrast than the slavery-blackened code of South Carolina, and the statutes of Massachusetts, characterized by republican simplicity and equality.
The preceding observations in favor of the democratic institutions of the northern States, are therefore to be understood as of local application; and I would explicitly admit that a well-ordered and a well-working government on such principles must in a great measure depend upon the amount of virtue and intelligence in the community: but while a government which is based upon the principles of impartial justice requires a virtuous people properly to administer it, it has, I believe, within itself one of the most powerful elements for the formation of such a community.
On the subject of peace my inquiries elicited an almost uniformly favorable response. If we except those who would encourage the war spirit, from hopes of sharing in the plunder, or those to whom it would open up the path to distinction and emolument, there are comparatively few who do not desire the maintenance of peace. In the religious part of the community, there is a rapidly spreading conviction of the unchristian character of war, in every shape; and the President, in his late message to Congress, in stating that "the time ought to be regarded as having gone by when a resort to arms is to be esteemed as the only proper arbiter of national differences", has expressed the sentiments of the great bulk of the intelligent citizens of the United States. I believe also that the majority would be found willing to assent to any reasonable and practical measure that should preclude the probability of an appeal to arms, or of keeping up what are absurdly called "peace establishments" of standing armies and appointed fleets for the protection of national safety or honor. The late excitements on the Boundary and McLeod questions were confined to comparatively few of the population, and the report of them was magnified by distance.
But a far stronger guaranty for the permanence of international peace than any treaties, will be found in the interchange of mutual benefits by commerce. For this reason he who is successful in promoting a free and unchecked commerce, is the benefactor, not of his own country alone, but of the world at large. There are few countries where in practice free trade is more fully carried out than in the United States, but in theory the true doctrine of this subject is only in part adopted by her statesmen and leading minds. They are willing to trade on equal terms, but will meet prohibition with prohibition. Here undoubtedly they mistake their real interests, but though such a policy will not advance the prosperity of America, it will inflict tremendous and lasting injury on Great Britain. Whatever the event, we cannot complain. The terms offered by the United States, though not wise, on an enlarged view of her own interests, are yet reciprocal, and therefore fair between nation and nation. If, however, I possessed any influence with the enlightened citizens of North America, I should be in no common degree anxious to exert it against those false views of trade and commerce which distort alike the maxims and the policy of her rulers. Their manufactures flourish, not in consequence of protection, but in defiance of it. With such an extended coast, and such facilities of internal communication, prohibition is impossible. The manufactures of England are excluded, not by the revenue laws of the States, but by the corn laws of Great Britain, which forbid the British manufacturer to take in exchange the only article of value his American customer has to spare; a prohibition which, unhappily for the people of this country, our government has power to enforce. The prohibitory system is, to a great extent, impracticable in the United States; and just so far as it should be found practicable, it would prove injurious, by creating fictitious and dependent interests, which, in the course of time, would become insupportably burdensome to the commonwealth, and eventually would have to be relinquished at the cost of a fearful amount of individual distress and national suffering. Legitimate commerce is that department of the national welfare, in which it is the business of statesmanship to do nothing but remove the impediments of its own creating in past times. In all other respects, commercial legislation is a nuisance; and if under some circumstances trade is found to flourish concurrently with such interference, the fact is due either to the restrictions and regulations being practically inoperative, or more frequently, to the high profits arising from unexhausted resources, in the absence of competition, enabling commerce to advance in spite of impediments; in the same way as cultivation by slave labor, notwithstanding its expensiveness and inordinate waste, enables the first planter on a virgin soil, and with an open market for his produce, to roll in his carriage, though beggary is to be the fate of the second or third generation of his descendants.
In giving the preceding representation of the religious, the moral, and the intellectual elevation of the population of the Northern States of the Union, I have indicated the source we must look to for the abolition of slavery, to which it is now time to turn our attention, for no American question can be discussed, into which this important subject does not largely enter.
Light and darkness, truth and falsehood, are not more in opposition than Christianity and slavery. If the religion that is professed in the free States be not wholly a dead letter,—if the moral and intellectual light which they appear to enjoy be indeed light, and not darkness,—then the abolition of slavery is certain, and cannot be long delayed. In order to make this apparent, as well as to vindicate my own proceedings in the United States, it is incumbent on me to show, that the great contest, for the abolition of American slavery, is to be decided in the free States, by the power of public opinion. I have distinctly admitted, that the confederated republics have each their independent sovereignty. Neither the free States, nor the general Government, can perhaps constitutionally abolish slavery in any one of the existing slave States. Yet there are certain objects clearly within the limits of the constitutional power of the general Government, such as the suppression of the internal slave-trade, and the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, for which it is undeniably lawful and constitutional for every American citizen to strive; and the attainment of which would suffice to cripple, and ultimately destroy slavery in every part of the Union. The slave-holding power is so sensible of this, that all its united strength is employed to retain that control over the general Government, which it has exercised from the date of the independence, and never more despotically than at the present time. Amidst the difficulties which beset, and the dangers which threatened the country, at the period of the formation of the constitution, the southern States dictated such a compromise as they thought fit; and, with the great principles of liberty paraded on the face of the declaration of independence, came into the Union on the express understanding that those principles should be perpetually violated in their favor. Of the details of this compromise, by far the most important, and one which has mainly contributed to consolidate the political supremacy of the south, is the investiture of the slave masters with political rights, in proportion to the amount of their slave property. Every five slaves confer three votes on their owner; though, in other points of view, a slave is a mere chattel—an article of property and merchandize,—yet, in this instance, and in criminal proceedings against him, his personality is recognized, for the express object of adding to the weight of his chains, and increasing the power of his oppressor.
The North, in voting away the rights and freedom of the laboring population of the South, surrendered its own liberty. The haughty slave-holding masters of the great confederacy have from the beginning chosen the Presidents, and the high officers of state, and have controlled the policy of the Government, from a question of peace or war, to the establishment of a tariff or a bank. In the executive department they have dictated all appointments, from a letter-carrier to an ambassador; an amusing illustration of which I find in my recent correspondence. A late member of the Massachusetts legislature, writes on the Eighth Month (August) 26, 1841:
"One instance of the all-pervading espionage of the slave power I may mention. The newly appointed postmaster of Philadelphia employed, among his numerous clerks and letter-carriers, Joshua Coffin, who, some three years ago, aided in restoring to liberty a free colored citizen of New York, who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. The appointment of the postmaster not being confirmed, he wrote to his friends in Congress to inquire the reason, and was told that the delay was occasioned by the fact that he had employed Coffin as one of his letter-carriers! Coffin was immediately dismissed, and the senate in a few days confirmed the appointment! Is not this a pitiful business?"
If the reader, who wishes further information, will consult William Jay's work, entitled "A View of the Action of the Federal Government in behalf of Slavery," he will find ample historical proof that the internal and external administration of the Union—legislative, executive, and diplomatic—has been employed, without any deviation from consistency, to subserve the interests of the slave-holding States. Yet these States are, in population, numerically weaker than those of the North, and inferior, to a far greater degree, in wealth, intelligence, and the other elements of political power. They are strong only in the compactness of their union, while the citizens of the free States are divided in interest and opinion. Here, then, is presented a distinct and legitimate object for those of the abolitionists who regard their political rights as a trust for the benefit of the oppressed and helpless, to combine the scattered and divided power of the North into a united phalanx, which shall wrest the administration of the Federal Union from the slave-holding interest, and shall purify the general Government from the contamination of slavery, by reversing its general policy on that subject, and by the adoption of the specific measures before mentioned; while, in the States in which they respectively reside, the abolitionists feel it to be their duty to exert themselves, to wipe away from the statute book every vestige of that barbarism which makes political, civil, or religious rights depend upon the color of the skin.
Yet more important is it, however, to bring the moral force of the North to bear against slavery, by reforming the prevailing public sentiment of the religious, moral, and intelligent portion of the community. Here again, one of the most sagacious leaders of the pro-slavery party, J.C. Calhoun, has descried the danger from afar, and has publicly proclaimed it in the senate of the United States, by vehemently deprecating the anti-slavery proceedings, not as intended to provoke the slaves to a servile war, but as a crusade against the character of the slave-holders.
Although the different States are distinct governments, their geographical boundaries are mere lines upon the map; their inhabitants speak the same language, and enjoy a communion of citizenship all over the Union. The North Eastern States have by far the greater part of the whole commerce of the Union, and are the medium through which the planter exchanges his cotton for provisions and clothing for his slaves, implements for his agriculture, and his own family supplies. These commercial ties create a direct and extensive pro-slavery interest in the North. Again, the planter is yet more dependent on the North for education for his children, and for the gratification of his own intellectual wants, as the slave-holding region has few colleges, and those of secondary reputation; while I believe it has no periodical of higher pretension than the political newspapers. The pro-slavery re-action in this way, on the seminaries of the North, and on the literature of the United States, is most sensibly felt.
Another powerful cause that contributes to leaven the entire population into one mind on the subject of slavery, is the double migration that annually takes place of people of the Southern States to the North, in summer, and of the inhabitants of the free States to the South in winter. Hence follow family alliances, the interchange of hospitalities, and a fusion of sentiments, so that the slavery interest spreads its countless ramifications through every corner of the free north.
Another cause, and perhaps the most powerful of all, is the community of religious fellowship in leading denominations. The Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Presbyterians of two schools, are severally but one body, all over the Union, and as a matter of course, all are tainted with slavery, and for consistency's sake, make common cause against abolition. The pamphlet of James G. Birney, entitled "The American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery,"A offers the amplest proof that the Methodist Episcopal, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, and the Anglican Episcopal Churches are committed, both in the persons of their eminent ministers, and by resolutions passed in a church capacity, to the monstrous assertion that slavery, so far from being a moral evil, which it is the duty of the church to seek to remove, is a Christian institution resting on a scriptural basis; this assertion is repeated in the numerous quotations of the pamphlet, in a variety and force of expression that show the utterers were resolved not to leave their meaning in the smallest doubt. Indeed, it might be supposed, from the perusal of this pamphlet, that the suppression of abolitionism, if not the maintenance of slavery, was one of the first duties of the Christian churches in America.
A: Published by Ward & Co., Paternoster-row, London.
The following extracts are offered in illustration:—
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.—"Resolved, That it is the sense of the Georgia Annual Conference, that slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil."
"The Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., late President of the (Methodist) Wesleyan University in Connecticut—'The New Testament enjoins obedience upon the slave as an obligation due to a present rightful authority.'"
"Rev. E.D. Simms, Professor in Randolph Macon College, a Methodist Institution—'Thus we see, that the slavery which exists in America, was founded in right.'"
"The Rev. William Winans, of Mississippi, in the General Conference, in 1836—'Yes, sir, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, should be slaveholders,—yes, he repeated it boldly—there should be members, and deacons, and ELDERS and BISHOPS, too, who were slave-holders.'"
"The Rev. J.H. Thornwell, at a public meeting, held in South Carolina, supported the following resolution—'That slavery, as it exists in the South, is no evil, and is consistent with the principles of revealed religion; and that all opposition to it arises from a misguided and fiendish fanaticism, which we are bound to resist in the very threshold.'"
"Rev. Mr. Crowder, of Virginia, at the Annual Conference in Baltimore, 1840—'In its moral aspect, slavery was not only countenanced, permitted, and regulated by the Bible, but it was positively instituted by GOD HIMSELF—he had, in so many words, ENJOINED IT.'"
THE BAPTIST CHURCH—"Memorial of the Charleston Baptist Association, to the Legislature of South Carolina:
"'The right of masters to dispose of the time of their slaves has been distinctly recognized by the Creator of all things, who is surely at liberty to vest the right of property over any object in whomsoever he pleases.'"
"Rev. R. Furman, D.D., of South Carolina—'The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.'"
"The late Rev. Lucius Bolles, D.D., of Massachusetts, Cor. Sec. Am. Bap. Board for Foreign Missions, (1834.)—'There is a pleasing degree of union among the multiplying thousands of Baptists throughout the land.... Our Southern brethren are generally, both ministers and people, slave-holders.'"
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.—"Resolution of Charleston Union Presbytery—'That, in the opinion of this Presbytery, the holding of slaves, so far from being a SIN in the sight of God, is no where condemned in his holy word.'"
"Rev. Thomas S. Witherspoon, of Alabama, writing to the Editor of the Emancipator, says—'I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, to hold the slave in bondage. The principle of holding the heathen in bondage is recognized by God.... When the tardy process of the law is too long in redressing our grievances, we of the South have adopted the summary remedy of Judge Lynch—and really, I think it one of the most wholesome and salutary remedies for the malady of Northern fanaticism, that can be applied.'"
"Rev. Robert N. Anderson, of Virginia—'Now dear Christian brethren, I humbly express it as my earnest wish, that you quit yourselves like men. If there be any stray goat of a minister among you, tainted with the bloodhound principles of abolitionism, let him be ferreted out, silenced, excommunicated, and left to the public to dispose of him in other respects.'"
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.—"John Jay, himself an Episcopalian—'She has not merely remained a mute and careless spectator of this great conflict of truth and justice with hypocrisy and cruelty, but her very priests and deacons may be seen ministering at the altar of slavery, offering their talents and influence at its unholy shrine, and openly repeating the awful blasphemy, that the precepts of our Savior sanction the system of American slavery.'"
In page 25 is the following:—
"The Rev. James Smylie, A.M., of the Amite Presbytery, Mississippi, in a pamphlet, published by him a short time ago, in favor of American slavery, says:—'If slavery be a sin, and advertising and apprehending slaves, with a view to restore them to their masters, is a direct violation of the Divine law; and if the buying, selling, or holding a slave, for the sake of gain, is a heinous sin and scandal; then, verily, three-fourths of all the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, in eleven States of the Union, are of the devil. They 'hold,' if they do not buy and sell slaves, and, with few exceptions, they hesitate not to 'apprehend and restore' runaway slaves, when in their power.'"
Yet, in the face of evidence so overwhelming as this, showing how the whole moral atmosphere of the Northern States is tainted with pro-slavery corruption, the abolitionists are frequently taunted with the question, what has the North to do with slavery? It is, however, a part of their vocation to bear contempt and reproach. They know they are at the right end of the lever, though at some apparent distance from the object to be moved. Their mission is to correct public opinion in the free States. Let us suppose, for a moment, this object attained—the whole slave-holding portion of the churches cut off, as a diseased and corrupt excrescence; the national literature purified, and the entire community pervaded by sound Christian feeling—a feeling which should abhor all participation, in word or deed, with the guilt of slavery; and how could the South maintain, for a single day, the perpetual warfare, which would be thus waged against her from without, and seconded by alarmed consciences in her own citadel?
The rise of the present abolition movement dates from the year 1832, when a few persons met at Philadelphia, and adopted and signed a declaration of their sentiments. He, however, who would trace anti-slavery sentiments to their source, must go back to the first era of Christianity, and to the authoritative promulgation of the Divine law of love by the lips of the Savior of mankind himself. In the darkest times, since that period, the true doctrine of the unlawfulness of slavery has never been wholly lost, being in fact a part of the imperishable substance of vital Christianity.
From 1832 until the division referred to in an early portion of this work, the anti-slavery societies multiplied with extraordinary rapidity. The following account of the present state of the cause is furnished by my friend, John G. Whittier.
"He who, at the present time, judges of the progress of the anti-slavery cause in the United States, by statistics of the formation of new societies, or the activity and efficiency of the old, will obtain no adequate idea of the truth. The unfortunate divisions among the American abolitionists, and, the difficulty of uniting, for any continuous effort, those who differ widely as to the proper means to be used, and measures to be pursued, have, in a great measure, changed the direction and manifestation of anti-slavery feeling and action. Thus, while public opinion, in all the free States, is manifestly approximating to abolition, and new converts to its principles are daily avowing themselves, it is exceedingly rare to hear of the formation of a new anti-slavery society, and there are few accessions to those which are already in existence. Yet the fresh recipients of the truths of anti-slavery doctrine find abundant work for their hands to do, even without the pale of organized societies, in purifying the churches with which they are connected, and in counteracting the pro-slavery politics of the country.
"The two great political parties in the United States, radically disagreeing in almost all other points, are of one heart and mind, in opposing emancipation; not, I suppose, from any real affinity to, or love for the 'peculiar institution,' but for the purpose of securing the votes of the slave-holders, who, more consistent than the Northern abolitionists, refuse to support any man for office, who is not willing to do homage to slavery. The competition between these two parties for Southern favor is one of the most painful and disgusting spectacles which presents itself to the view of a stranger in the United States. To every well wisher of America it must be a matter of interest and satisfaction to know, that there is a growing determination in the free States to meet the combination of slave-holders in behalf of slavery, by one of freemen in behalf of liberty; and thus compel the party politicians, on the ground of expediency, if not of principle, to break from the thraldom of the slave power, and array themselves on the side of freedom.
"It is an undoubted fact, that, at the present time, the various denominations of professing Christians in the United States are more deeply agitated by this question than at any former period. The publication of such books as Weld's 'Slavery as it is,' has unveiled the monstrous features of slavery to the Christian public in the Northern States. The blasphemous attempts of Southern professors and ministers, to defend their abominable practices upon Christian grounds, have powerfully re-acted against them at the North; and church after church, especially in New England, is taking the high stand of the late General Convention in London, in withholding its fellowship from slave-holders, and closing its pulpit against their preachers.
"Recent movements in the slave States themselves encourage the friends of freedom. In Kentucky, at the late election for state officers, one of the candidates, Cassius M. Clay, nephew of Henry Clay, avowed his opposition to pro-slavery principles in the strongest terms, and staked his election upon this avowal. He was warmly supported, and his opponent only succeeded by a small majority. Tennessee, in her mountain region, has many decided, uncompromising abolitionists, whose encouraging letters and statements have been published within the last year, in the Northern anti-slavery papers. The excellent work of Joseph John Gurney, on the West Indies, and Dr. Channing's late pamphlet, entitled "Emancipation," have been very widely circulated in many of the slave States; and, so far as can be ascertained, have been read with interest by the planters. The movements of English and French abolitionists have attracted general attention, and, in the Southern States, have awakened no small degree of solicitude.
"That baleful American peculiarity, prejudice against color, is evidently diminishing, under the influence of anti-slavery principles and practice; and the laws which have oppressed the free colored citizen are rapidly yielding to the persevering action of the abolitionists. Dr. Channing has not over-stated the fact, that the provision in the Federal Constitution, relative to the reclaiming of fugitive slaves, has been silently but effectually repealed by the force of public opinion, and the interposition of jury trial, in many of the free States. In Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and New York, with the exception of its slavery-ridden commercial emporium, the recovery of a slave by legalized kidnappers is entirely out of the question. In any one of these States, it would, to use the language of a New York mechanic, be exceedingly difficult to prove, to the satisfaction of a jury of honest freemen, that a man had been born 'contrary to the Declaration of Independence.' The frontiers of slavery are every where very much exposed, and all along the line of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, the tide of self-emancipated men and women is pouring in upon the free States. I cannot give a better idea of the extent of this peculiar emigration, than by copying extracts from the Centreville Times, a paper published in Maryland:—
"'Free Negroes and Slaves.—When it is too late, the people of Maryland will begin to look for the means of protection in their slave property. We still say slave property; although, notwithstanding slaves are recognized as property by the constitution, without which recognition this confederation never would have been formed: yet such has been the effect of fanaticism and emancipation, of the intermeddling machinations of abolitionists, and the mischievous agency of free negroes—that the very owners of this species of property seem to begin to doubt whether slaves are property or not; and so much has its value become impaired, in the possession of those who reside contiguous to the non-slaveholding States, that the question has been raised, whether they are, in fact, worth keeping. Either discipline must be so much relaxed, as that the labor of the slave will scarcely pay for his support; or, if forced to labor no more than is even necessary to health and contentment, they abscond, and passing over the lines into a non-slaveholding State, are there concealed and protected. The number and the success of elopements leave no doubt of the establishment of a regular chain of posts, accessary to, and of systematic plans, deliberately organized, for their seduction and concealment. In these escapes, the free negroes are, for the most part, undoubtedly instrumental, as they are to most of the robberies committed by slaves. While at Easton, two weeks since, the slaves of two gentlemen made their escape, being each, if not recovered, a loss of one thousand dollars; and the firm persuasion was, that, in both cases, the runaways were furnished with passes by a free negro barber. Even if apprehended, these gentlemen will have been put to an expense of not less than three hundred dollars, and this without the slightest pretext of ill usage or unkindness.
"'The usual process is, when the owner is supposed to have despaired of his recovery, for some abolition or free negro lawyer to open a correspondence with the owner, representing the runaway to be in Canada, or otherwise beyond apprehension—coolly adding, with a highwayman's impudence, "take that or nothing;" and the owner has to put up with a total loss, or compromise for a third of the value of his property—the result in either case, proving an incentive to others to be off in like manner"'
* * * * *
"'There is not an interest that is not impaired, by the proximity of the free States, and the protection there afforded to slaves, and by the presence and intercommunion of the free with the slave negro. Even the value of land is diminished by it. Maryland suffers the disadvantages, without the advantages of a slave State. The disadvantage consists in the reputation, (the odium, north of the Delaware,) of being a slave State. The capitalists of the North refuse, on that account, to invest in Maryland lands, though they could buy land in Maryland for twenty dollars an acre, which is intrinsically worth more than theirs, which they could sell for an hundred. Our condition is, in fact, that of neither the one or the other; and, unless something can be done to counteract the progress of fanaticism on this subject, and that abuse of strength and heedless injustice which always follows irresponsible power, slavery in Maryland must cease, either by sale, while that right remains to the slave-holder, or ere long, by forced emancipation.
"'Virginia—once proud and independent Virginia, already half captive to the North—will soon take her place as the frontier slave State;—Maryland, with her Southern principles, eaten out by Northern men, will then assume to her the relation that Pennsylvania now bears to Maryland;—nay, it is but too obvious that, as things are now working, in process of time, and that not slowly, slavery must cease to exist in all the provision-growing States,—its northernmost line will be the line of the sugar, the rice, and the cotton culture,—the climate alone affording to the slave-holder that shelter which justice could not offer from the rapacity of his pursuers. Will the Southern still accept the shadow without the substance of equal and confederate powers? Be his relation, then, what it may—independent, confederate, or colonial—for one, we say, let it be defined. To the misery of the slave, let him not add the meanness of the dupe. Let him remember, that time and corruption have often achieved what would have defied the power of the sword;—in a word, let the slave-holder think, while yet, if yet, he has power to act.'"
I have now concluded an imperfect attempt to delineate the present state of the anti-slavery cause, on the North American continent, with incidental notices of the past history of the efforts of its friends. In regard to the future, my hopes are built on the continuance of these efforts, and on the concurrent aid afforded by the march of events, both in the United States and in the world at large, under the manifestly over-ruling power of that gracious Being, who sometimes employs human instrumentality to accomplish His purposes of mercy; but who works also Himself, by His immutable laws, and by the dispensations of His providence.
THE END.