Chapter VIII: Part 8

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.

[Footnote 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.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A. P. 30.

ANTI-SLAVERY EPISTLE OF "FRIENDS" IN GREAT BRITAIN.

"From our Yearly Meeting held in London, by adjournment from the
20th of the 5th Month to the 29th of the same inclusive, 1840.

"_To the Yearly Meetings of Friends on the Continent of North
America_.

"DEAR FRIENDS,--We think it a favor to us, and we accept it as
an evidence that our Lord is mindful of us, that from one time
to another, when thus assembled for mutual edification, and the
renewing of our spiritual strength, we are in any small measure
brought afresh to the enjoyment of that love which flows from
God to man, through Jesus Christ our Savior; and under its
blessed influence quickened to exercise of mind, not only for
the health and prosperity of all those professing the same faith
with ourselves, but for the coming of the kingdom of God upon
earth, and the universal prevalence of righteousness and truth
among men. This love has often brought us in Christian
compassion and tenderness of spirit, deeply to feel for that
portion of the great family of man subjected to the degradation
and cruelty of slavery.

"We do not cease to rejoice with reverent thanksgiving to
Almighty God, for the termination of this system of iniquity in
the British Colonies. It was an act of justice on the part of
our Legislature, and it has removed an enormous load of guilt
from our beloved country; but in our rejoicing, we cannot, nor
would we wish, to forget the hundreds of thousands of our
brethren and sisters on the continent of America, and elsewhere,
still detained in this abject condition, and liable to all the
misery and oppression which it entails upon its victims.

"We have a strong conviction of the guilt and sinfulness of
slavery, and its pernicious effects upon both the oppressed and
the oppressor. That man should claim a right of property in the
person of his fellow--that man should buy and sell his
brother--that civil governments in their legislative enactments,
should so far forget that 'God who giveth to all, life, and
breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations
of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth,' as to treat
those who differ from them in the color of their skin, or any
other external peculiarity, as beasts that perish, as chattels
and articles of merchandise,--is in such direct violation of the
whole moral law, and of the righteousness of the New Testament,
and that in a day in which the principles of civil and religious
liberty are so fully acknowledged in many of the nations of
Christendom, may well excite both indignation and sorrow. And we
cannot but regard it as such proof of hardness of heart, and
perverted understanding, that we think it can be attributed to
nothing short of the deceivableness of Satan working upon the
fallen nature of man.

"It was, dear friends, in the gradual unfolding of that light in
which the things that are reproved are made manifest, that your
forefathers and ours, were brought to see the criminality of
slavery. Thus enlightened, they could find no peace with God,
until they had put away this evil of their doings from before
his eyes--until by a conscientious discharge of their individual
religious duty, they had restored those whom they held in
bondage, to the full enjoyment of unqualified freedom. Under the
influence of Divine wisdom, and by this faithfulness on the part
of upright Friends, our religious society were brought to a
united and settled judgment as a body, that personal slavery,
both in its origin and its results, was so great an evil, that
it could be tolerated by no mitigation of its hardship; and they
felt the demands of equity to be so urgent upon them, that they
were concerned to enjoin it upon Friends every where, by a ready
compliance with such reasonable duty, to cease to do evil, by
immediately releasing those they held as slaves. Their own hands
being cleansed from this pollution, they felt it to be laid upon
them, plainly and faithfully, to labor with their countrymen to
bring them to a full understanding of the requiring of the
Divine law, and to press it upon them to act up to its
commandments. In the love of God, they were bold, both in your
country and in ours, to plead the cause of the oppressed with
those in power. We believe, and we would wish to speak of it
with modesty and humility, that their faithfulness, in
connection with the exertions of humane and devoted men of other
Christian communities, were instrumental to bring about the
abolition of the slave trade, as well as the extinction of
slavery.

"We are reverently impressed with a sense of the prerogatives of
the Great Head of the Church, to dispose of his servants, and to
employ their time, and every talent which he has intrusted them,
in such a way and manner as may consist with the purposes of his
wisdom and love. It is the concern of this Meeting, that all our
dear friends may carefully seek each to know his Lord's will,
and to ascertain his individual path of duty; at the same time
we desire to encourage one another to simple obedience to that
which in the true light may be made manifest to them; and each
to an unflinching and uncompromising avowal of his allegiance to
his Lord in all things.

"We observe with satisfaction and comfort, in the epistles from
your Yearly Meetings, which have been read in this Meeting, that
there is a very general acknowledgment of concern on this
important subject. It has often been a prominent feature in the
brotherly correspondence which subsists between us. The
expression of your encouragement in times past, has been helpful
to us, and in the trials and difficulties you have had to
endure, our hearts have been brought into fellow feeling with
you. In this work of justice and love, we have long labored
together. It has helped to strengthen the bond of our union; and
in the fresh sense of this Christian fellowship, as it is now
renewed amongst us, we offer you, beloved friends, the warm
expression of our sympathy, and our strong desire for your help
and encouragement. So far removed as we are from the scene of
slavery, we are aware that we can but imperfectly appreciate
either the sufferings of the slave, or the trials of those who
live in the midst of such oppression; nor do we believe that we
can fully appreciate either the labors of faithful Friends in
your land, or the obstacles and discouragements which have been
thrown in their way.

"The brief review we have taken of the history of our Society,
in reference to this deeply interesting subject, and the feeling
which prevails with us, under a sense of the enormity of the
evil, urges us, and we desire that it may have the same effect
upon you, still to persevere; and in every way that may be
pointed out to us of the Lord, that we may continue to expose
the evil of this unjust interference with the natural and social
rights of man. Time is short, the day is spending fast with
every one of us, and we had need to use diligence in the work of
our day. We know the high authority under which we are commanded
to 'love our neighbor as ourselves.' It is our desire on our own
account, and in this exercise of mind we believe, dear friends,
that you are one with us, that in our efforts to discharge the
duties laid upon us, we may watch against a hopeless and
distrustful spirit in times of discouragement. And O that in his
great mercy and love towards his poor afflicted and helpless
children, it might please Him to hasten the coming of that day,
even to this generation of the enslaved in your land, in which
every yoke shall be broken and the oppressed go free.

"If, in this righteous cause, we move in the leading of our
Lord, we may humbly trust that he, with whom there is no respect
of persons, who careth for the sparrows and feedeth the ravens,
will grant to his dependent ones the help and support of his
Holy Spirit, and enable them, in the face of every opposition,
to do that which is made known to them as his will.

"With the enlarged views entertained by Friends of the mercy and
love of our heavenly Father towards his children of every nation
and tongue all the world over, we desire to press it upon you
still to labor for the removal of all those unjust laws and
limitations of right and privilege consequent upon the
unwarrantable distinction of color--a distinction which has
brought so much suffering upon those settled in different parts
of the Union, and which we think must conduce to the
strengthening of the prejudices of former years, and to retard
the work of emancipation.

"It is affecting to us to think with what astonishing rapidity
slavery is extending itself upon the Continent of North America,
and how from year to year the slave population is increasing
among you. Our spirits are oppressed with a sense of the
magnitude of the evil; we tremble at the awful consequence
which, in the justice and wisdom of Almighty God, may ensue to
those who persist in the upholding of it. We commend the whole
subject to your most serious attention, and desiring that divine
wisdom may be near to help in your deliberations upon it,

"We bid you, affectionately, farewell.

"Signed in and on behalf of the Meeting, by

"GEORGE STACEY,

"_Clerk to the Meeting this year_."

APPENDIX B. P. 30.

EARLY EFFORTS OF "FRIENDS" IN BEHALF OF NEGRO SLAVES.

The following extract from Clarkson's "Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of William Penn," will show how the society of Friends, at a very early period, became unwarily entangled with the practice of slave holding; and also that the unchristian nature of it was immediately perceived by the more spiritual minded among them. It will serve also to prove that the testimony of Friends against slavery is no novelty, but is coeval with its rise as a distinct religious body. The measures proposed by William Penn on this subject, are an honorable testimony to the comprehensive benevolence of that truly great and magnanimous legislator, yet they fell short of the exigencies of the case, and of what Christian people required; consequently what good they directly effected was local and temporary. Viewed as the germ of subsequent anti-slavery enterprises of the last century, in Europe and America, their interest and importance cannot be too highly estimated.

"I must observe, that soon after the colony (Pennsylvania) had
been planted, that is, in the year 1682, when William Penn was
first resident in it, some few Africans had been imported, but
that more had followed. At this time the traffic in slaves was
not branded with infamy, as at the present day. It was
considered, on the other hand, as favorable to both parties: to
the American planters, because they had but few laborers, in
comparison with the extent of their lands; and to the poor
Africans themselves, because they were looked upon as persons
redeemed out of superstition, idolatry, and heathenism. But
though the purchase and sale of them had been admitted with less
caution upon this principle, there were not wanting among the
Quakers of Pennsylvania those who, soon after the introduction
of them there, began to question the moral licitness of the
traffic. Accordingly, at the Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania,
held in 1688, it had been resolved, on the suggestion of
emigrants from Crisheim, who had adopted the principles of
William Penn, that the buying, selling, and holding men in
slavery, was inconsistent with the tenets of the Christian
religion. In 1696, a similar resolution had been passed at the
Yearly Meeting of the same religious society for the same
province. In consequence, then, of these noble resolutions, the
Quakers had begun to treat their slaves in a different manner
from that of other people. They had begun to consider them as
children of the same great Parent, to whom fraternal offices
were due; and hence, in 1698, there were instances where they
had admitted them into their meeting houses to worship in common
with themselves.[A]

[Footnote A: "I cannot help copying into a note an anecdote from
Thomas Story's Journal for this year (1698). 'On the 13th,' says
he, 'we had a pretty large meeting, where several were tendered,
among whom were some negroes. And here I shall observe, that
Thomas Simons having several negroes, one of them, as also
several belonging to Henry White, had of late come to meetings,
and having a sense of truth, several others thereway were
likewise convinced, and like to do well. And the morning that we
came from Thomas Simons's, my companion speaking some words of
truth to his negro woman, she was tendered; and as I passed on
horseback by the place where she stood weeping, I gave her my
hand, and then she was much more broken: and finding the day of
the Lord's tender visitation and mercy upon her, I spake
encouragingly to her, and was glad to find the poor blacks so
near the truth and reachable.' She stood there, looking after us
and weeping, as long as we could see her. I had inquired of one
of the black men how long they had come to meetings, and he said
'they had always been kept in ignorance, and disregarded as
persons who were not to expect any thing from the Lord, till
Jonathan Taylor, who had been there the year before, discoursing
with them, had informed them that the grace of God, through
Christ, was given also to them; and that they ought to believe
in and be led and taught by it, and so might come to be good
Friends, and saved as well as others. And on the next occasion,
which was when William Ellis and Aaron Atkinson were there, they
went to meetings, and several of them were convinced.' Thus one
planteth and another watereth, but God giveth the increase."]

"William Penn was highly gratified by the consideration of what
has been done on this important subject. From the very first
introduction of enslaved Africans into this province, he had
been solicitous about their temporal and eternal welfare. He had
always considered them as persons of the like nature with
himself; as having the same desire of pleasure and the same
aversion from pain; as children of the same Father, and heirs of
the same promises. Knowing how naturally the human heart became
corrupted and hardened by the use of power, he was fearful lest,
in time, these friendless strangers should become an oppressed
people. Accordingly, as his predecessor, George Fox, when he
first visited the British West Indies, exhorted all those who
attended his meetings for worship there, to consider their
slaves as branches of their own families, for whose spiritual
instruction they would one day or other be required to give an
account, so William Penn had, on his first arrival in America,
inculcated the same notion. It lay, therefore, now upon his mind
to endeavor to bring into practice what had appeared to him to
be right in principle. One of them was to try to incorporate the
treatment of slaves, as a matter of Christian duty, into _the
discipline of his own religious society_; and the other, to
secure it among others in the colony of a different religious
description, _by a legislative act_. Both of these were
necessary. The former, however, he resolved to attempt first.
The Society itself had already afforded him a precedent, by its
resolutions in 1688 and in 1696, as before mentioned, and had
thereby done something material in the progress of the work. It
was only to get a minute passed upon their books to the intended
effect. Accordingly, at the very first Monthly Meeting of the
Society, which took place in Philadelphia in the present year,
he proposed the subject. He laid before them the concern which
had been so long upon his mind, relative to these unfortunate
people; he pressed upon them the duty of allowing them as
frequently as possible to attend their Meetings for worship, and
the benefit that would accrue to both, by the instruction of
them in the principles of the Christian religion. The result
was, that a Meeting was appointed more particularly for the
negroes, once every month; so that besides the common
opportunities they had of collecting religious knowledge, by
frequenting the places of worship, there was one day in the
month, in which, as far as the influence of the Monthly Meeting
extended, they could neither be temporally nor spiritually
overlooked. At this Meeting also, he proposed means, which were
acceded to, for a more frequent intercourse between Friends and
the Indians; he (William Penn,) taking upon himself the charge
of procuring interpreters, as well as of forwarding the means
proposed."--Vol. II. pp. 218-222.

APPENDIX C. P. 34.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, APPOINTED FOR THE GRADUAL CIVILIZATION, &C., OF THE INDIAN NATIVES, PRESENTED TO THE MEETING, FOURTH MONTH 21ST, 1841, AND DIRECTED TO BE PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE MEMBERS.

"TO THE YEARLY MEETING.

"The Committee charged with promoting the Gradual Improvement
and Civilization of the Indian Natives, report:--

"That although they have given attention to this interesting
concern, there are but few subjects in their operations, since
the last report, which require notice. The Indians have been in
a very unsettled condition during the past year, in consequence
of the embarrassment and distress produced by the ratification
of the treaty, and their uncertainty as to the best course to be
pursued by them in their trying and perplexing circumstances.
They still cling to the hope that they shall be able to ward off
the calamity which threatens them, either through the favorable
disposition of the new Administration and Senate, to give their
case a re-hearing, or by an Appeal to the Supreme Court of the
United States. Small as the hope afforded by these sources may
appear to a disinterested observer, they are buoyed up by it,
and seem as unwilling as ever, to look toward relinquishing
their present homes.