A Visit to the United States in 1841 Part 6

Recollect, they all occurred and exist within the District of Columbia, and that those who elect the legislators who uphold the slave system, are justly responsible for it in the sight of G.o.d and man. Is it not all the natural consequence of your electing slave-holders and their abettors to the highest offices of your State and nation? Some of your most intelligent citizens have given it as their opinion that fully two-thirds of the whole population of the United States are in favor of the abolition of slavery; and my own observation, since I landed on these sh.o.r.es, not only confirms this opinion, but has convinced me that there is a very rapid accession to their numbers daily taking place; and yet we have the extraordinary fact exhibited to the world, that about two hundred and fifty thousand slave-holders--a large proportion of whom, bankrupt in fortune and reputation, have involved many of the North in their disgrace and ruin--hold in mental bondage the whole population of this great republic, who permit themselves to be involved in the common disgrace of presenting a spectacle of national inconsistency altogether without a parallel. I confess that, although an admirer of many of the inst.i.tutions of your country, and deeply lamenting the evils of my own government, I find it difficult to reply to those who are opposed to any extension of the political rights of Englishmen, when they point to America and say, that where all have a control over the legislation but those who are guilty of a dark skin, slavery and the slave-trade remain not only unmitigated, but continue to extend; and that while there is an onward movement in favor of its extinction, not only in England and France, but even in Cuba and Brazil, American legislators cling to this enormous evil, without attempting to relax or mitigate its horrors. Allow me, therefore, to appeal to you by every motive which attaches you to your country, seriously to consider how far you are accountable for this state of things, by want of a faithful discharge of those duties for which every member of a republican government is so deeply responsible; and may I not express the hope that, on all future occasions, you will take care to promote the election of none as your representatives who will not _practically_ act upon the principle that in every clime, and of every color, 'all men are equal?'

"Your sincere friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE.

"_Philadelphia, 6th Month 7th_, 1842."

This letter was extensively reprinted, not only in the anti-slavery but in pro-slavery newspapers, both in the North and South. In the numerous angry comments upon it, no attempt that has come to my knowledge was made to deny any one of my statements. One of the papers intimates that the vote by which the house soon after refused to adopt a specific and exclusive rule against abolition pet.i.tions, was brought about by "the sinister influence of Mr. Sturge." I need not add how happy I should have been to have possessed the influence with which this writer has so liberally invested me, and that I should have regarded it as a talent to be employed and improved to the very utmost.

I spent from the 5th to the 11th of the Sixth Month, (June) in Philadelphia and the vicinity, during which time, I made numerous calls, and met several large parties in private.

During this stay, in company with John G. Whittier, I paid a visit to my excellent friend, Abraham L. Pennock, at his residence in Haverford, Delaware county, about ten miles from the city. He is an influential member of the Society of Friends, and until recently he has been a resident in the city. He has, for many years, been an uncompromising abolitionist, and an active member and officer of anti-slavery societies; yet he appears to enjoy the respect and confidence not only of his anti-slavery a.s.sociates, but of the Society of Friends, and the community generally. I found him a warm advocate, in practice as well as theory, of entire abstinence from the products of slave labor, as well as of independent political action on the part of abolitionists. He expressed much regret that he was unable to attend the General Anti-Slavery Convention, in London, and gave his cordial approbation to its proceedings.[A]

[Footnote A: See Appendix H.]

We reluctantly bade farewell to our kind friend and his interesting family, all the members of which appear to share his zeal and untiring devotion to the cause of the oppressed, and returned to our lodgings in the city. Even now I look back to this visit as among the most grateful recollections of my sojourn in the United States.

I may mention, in this connection, that A.L. Pennock, as well as others with whom I conversed on the subject, spoke with much regret of the want of faithfulness on the part of members of the Society of Friends, in maintaining their testimony against slavery, while exercising their civil rights as citizens and electors. From all I could learn, I have been led to fear that "Friends" in the United States, with few exceptions, are in the practice of voting for public officers, without reference to their sentiments on the important subject of slavery. At the late Presidential election it is very evident that the great body of "Friends" who took any part in it, voted for John Tyler, the slaveholder.

Among the active friends of emanc.i.p.ation, who occupy a high station in our society, I can scarcely omit mentioning Enoch Lewis, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, whose talents and literary acquirements, devoted as they are, to the maintenance and promulgation of the principles and Christian testimonies of our religious society, deservedly command a high degree of respect.

Among the members of the society which have separated from "Friends" in Philadelphia and elsewhere, I met with many warm and steady friends of emanc.i.p.ation, some of whom have proved their sincerity by great sacrifices. Amongst these I cannot omit mentioning James and Lucretia Mott, James Wood, Dr. Isaac Parish, and Thomas Earle, of this city.

I republished in Philadelphia, with the permission of the author, in two separate pamphlets, for distribution amongst those to whom it was addressed, "A Letter to the Clergy of various Denominations, and to the Slave-holding Planters in the Southern parts of the United States of America, by Thomas Clarkson." This remarkable production was written after its venerable author had attained his eightieth year, and has been p.r.o.nounced by a very competent judge the most vigorous production of his pen. As its circulation had but just commenced when I left the United States, I could not judge of the effect produced by this energetic appeal from one whose name must command respect, even from the slave-holders; but I have since been informed it has been read with interest and attention.

I had several conferences with "Friends" who were interested in the cause, to discuss the best mode of engaging the members of the Society to unite their efforts on behalf of the oppressed and suffering slaves; and though no immediate steps were resolved on, yet I found so much good feeling in many of them, that I cannot but entertain a hope, that fruit will hereafter appear. I had spent much of my time and labor in Philadelphia, particularly among that numerous and influential body with whom I am united in a common bond of religious belief, and I trust of Christian affection. Of the kindness and hospitality I experienced I shall ever retain a grateful recollection; yet I finally took my leave of this city, under feelings of sorrow and depression that so many of the very cla.s.s of Christian professors who once took the lead in efforts for the abolition of slavery, efforts evidently attended with the favor and sanction of the Most High, should now be discouraging, and holding back their members from taking part in so righteous a cause. Among the warmest friends of the slave, sound both in feeling and sentiment, are a few venerable individuals who are now standing on the brink of the grave, and whose places, among the present generation, I could not conceal from myself, there were but few fully prepared to occupy. I had found in many Friends much pa.s.sive anti-slavery feeling, and was to some extent cheered by the discovery. May a due sense of their responsibility rest upon every follower of Christ, to remember them that are in bonds, and under affliction, not only with a pa.s.sive, but with an active and self-denying sympathy, a sympathy that makes common cause with its object.

Apart from the fact, that Philadelphia is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, to a member of the Society of Friends it must ever be an object of peculiar interest. Here William Penn made his great experiment of a Christian government. Here, to the annual a.s.semblies of Friends, came Warner Mifflin, and John Woolman, and James Pemberton, and George Dillwyn, and other worthies of the past, who have now gone from works to rewards. A few miles distant, in Frankford, is still to be seen the residence of the excellent Thomas Chalkley. Here Benezet exemplified, in the simplicity, humility, and untiring benevolence of his daily life, the lessons inculcated in his writings. And here, at this day, are a larger number of members of our religious society than can be found congregated elsewhere, within an equal s.p.a.ce of territory.

They are, in general, in easy circ.u.mstances, many of them wealthy, and occupying a high rank in the community.

Who can recur, without a lively feeling of interest, to the hopes and prayers of the benevolent founder of the city, as expressed in affecting terms in his farewell letter, written as he was about taking his final departure for England.

"And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would defile thee! Oh, that thou mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee! that faithful to the G.o.d of Mercies, in a life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved to the end!"

On the 11th, with John G. Whittier, I left for New York, and the next day we proceeded by steam packet to Newport, on Rhode Island, to attend the New England yearly meeting of the Society of Friends, which was to be held the next week. We arrived about seven o'clock in the morning. I found the change of climate particularly refreshing and agreeable.

During the last fortnight, the range of the thermometer had frequently reached 94 degrees or 96 degrees in the shade: a tropical heat, without those alleviations which render the heat of the tropics not only tolerable, but sometimes delightful. In Rhode Island, the climate, while we were there, was almost as temperate as an English summer.

Some parts of the New England States are much resorted to by southern families of wealth; and their annual migrations have the effect of materially adding to the vast amount of complicated pro-slavery interests which exist in the free States, as well as of diffusing pro-slavery opinions and feelings throughout the entire community. We may hope this current will soon set in the opposite direction. The season was too early for the arrival of these visitors, and the hotels were generally filled with "Friends," collected from near and distant places, to attend the yearly meeting. There were upwards of a hundred boarding at the same house with ourselves. Soon after our arrival I addressed a letter, making the same application for the use of the meeting house for my friend, John Candler, who was also here, and myself, which had been complied with at New York, forwarding at the same time my credentials. My request, however, in this instance was not granted. Yet there was plainly a willingness on the part of many to receive information, and we caused it to be known that we should be at home at our hotel, on the evening of the sixteenth. About two hundred friends a.s.sembled, and appeared interested in a brief outline of the state and prospects of the cause in Europe which I endeavored to give them.

The subject of slavery was brought before the yearly meeting by a proposition from one of its subordinate, or "quarterly meetings," to encourage more action, on the part of the society, for its abolition. A proposal was immediately made, and a.s.sented to without discussion, that the consideration of it should be referred to a committee. On the reading of the address on slavery from the London yearly meeting, it was, in like manner, immediately proposed and agreed to, that it should be referred to the same committee. At a subsequent sitting, this committee reported, that they should recommend the whole subject to be left under the care of their "Meeting for Sufferings," which was adopted. With the exception of reading the doc.u.ments, and going through the necessary forms of business, these proceedings pa.s.sed almost in silence; yet, in the several epistles drawn up to be forwarded to the other yearly meetings, allusion was made to the deep exercise of Friends at this meeting, on the subject of slavery, and their strong desire and wish to encourage others to embrace every right opening for promoting its abolition; with a plain intimation, however, in their epistle to Great Britain, of their disapproval of Friends uniting with any of the anti-slavery a.s.sociations of the day. These pa.s.sages in the epistles pa.s.sed without remark or objection. The Meeting for Sufferings, of Rhode Island, has thus virtually undertaken to do, or at least to originate, all that is to be done, during the present year, by Friends of New England, to help the helpless, and to relieve the oppressed slaves.

Sincerely do I desire, that it may not incur the responsibility of neglecting so solemn a charge. I subsequently met, on board the steamer in which we left Newport, many members of this body; with one of whom I had some conversation, in the presence of other Friends, to whom I felt it right to state, that the declarations of sympathy for the slaves, in the epistles which had been sent out, were stronger, in my judgment, than was justified by any thing which had been expressed, or had been manifested, in the Yearly Meeting. This conviction I yet retain. I afterwards obtained some authentic extracts from the laws of Rhode Island, affecting the people of color, and under which slavery is very distinctly recognized and sanctioned, even in this _free_ State. I felt it my duty to forward a copy of these to the "Meeting for Sufferings,"

accompanied by the following letter:--

"_To the Meeting for Sufferings of New England_

_Yearly Meeting of Friends._

"On pa.s.sing through Providence, from the Yearly Meeting at Rhode Island, a solicitor of that place kindly furnished me with the annexed extracts from the laws of the State of Rhode Island. I thought it best to send a copy to you, as it is probable some members of your meeting may not be aware of their precise nature; and it is a source of regret to me, and I know it will be so to my friends in England, to know that in the State in which your Yearly Meeting is held, slavery is fully legalized, if the slaves are the property of persons not actually citizens of that place;--the most odious distinctions of color also remain on the statute book, including one (Section 10, No. 2,) which is a disgrace to any civilized community. I may add, that two very respectable solicitors in Providence expressed their decided opinion, that if Friends heartily promoted the repeal of these obnoxious laws, which throw all the moral influence of the State on the side of slavery, it might easily be accomplished. I cannot but hope the subject will receive your prompt attention.

"Truly your friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE."

To soften the impression which I fear the preceding detail will give, I may remark, that I am convinced, from extensive private communication with Friends in New England, that there is yet among them much genuine anti-slavery feeling, especially where the deadening commercial intercourse with the South does not operate; and though, at present, with some bright individual exceptions, this is a talent for the most part hidden or unemployed, I trust that many faithful laborers in this great cause will yet be found among them.

During our stay in Rhode Island, we twice visited Dr. Channing, at his summer residence, a few miles from Newport. The delicacy which ought ever to protect unreserved social intercourse, forbids me to enrich my narrative with any detail of his enlightened and comprehensive sentiments; yet I cannot but add, that, widely differing from him as I do, on many important points, I was both deeply interested and instructed by his modest candor and sincerity, and by the spirit of charity with which he appeared habitually to regard those of opposite opinions. Our conversation embraced various topics. I may be allowed to mention, that he highly approved of Judge Jay's suggestion for the promotion of permanent international peace. He also made a practical suggestion on the anti-slavery movement, which I trust will be acted on--That pet.i.tions should be sent to Congress, praying that the free States should be relieved from all direct or indirect support of slavery. As the South has loudly complained of Northern interference, this will be taking the planters on their own ground.

Sixth Month, (June) 19th.--We went on to New Bedford, where, the next day, we called on a number of persons friendly to abolition, and met a large party of them the same evening, at the house of a Friend. A public meeting for worship was appointed during our stay, at the request of a minister of the Society of Friends from Indiana, which we attended. I had the pleasure of witnessing the colored part of the audience, placed on a level, and sitting promiscuously with the white, the only opportunity I had of making such an observation in the United States; as, on ordinary occasions, the colored people rarely attend Friends'

meetings. One of the waiters at our hotel told me he had escaped from slavery some years before. The idea of running away had been first suggested to his mind, by reflecting on his hard lot, being over-worked, and kept without a sufficiency of food, and cruelly beaten, while his owner was living in luxury and idleness, on the fruits of his labor. He had been flogged for merely speaking to one of his master's visitors, in reply to a question, because it was suspected he had divulged matter that his master did not wish the stranger to know.

On the 21st, we arrived at Boston, and stopped at the Marlborough hotel.

One of the first things noticed by a visitor to the States is the number and extent of the hotels, almost all of which are on the principle of the English boarding houses. Besides the number of casual visitors in a population which travels from place to place, perhaps more than any other in the world, the hotels are the permanent homes of a numerous and important cla.s.s of unmarried men, engaged in business, and often indeed of young married persons, who choose to avoid expense and the cares of housekeeping. At many, if not most of the hotels, cleanliness, regularity, and order, pervade all the arrangements, and as much comfort is to be found as is compatible with throng and publicity. Still the domestic charm of private life is wanting, and its absence renders the system of constant residence most uncongenial to English habits and feelings. An unsocial reserve lies on the surface of English character, and the love of privacy, or at least of a retirement which can be closed and expanded at will, is an extensive and deep-seated feeling. Yet the Anglo-American, even of the purest descent, has early lost the latter characteristic, while he often retains the first unimpaired. What law governs the hereditary transmission of such traits? Several first rate hotels in New England are strictly on the temperance plan, and among them is the Marlborough, in Boston, the second in extent of business in this important city, and which makes up from one hundred to two hundred beds. No intoxicating liquor of any kind can be had in the house.

Printed notices are also hung up in the bed rooms, that it is the established rule to take in no fresh company and to receive no accounts on the first day of the week, and the cooking and other preparations are as much as possible performed before hand, that the servants may enjoy the day of rest, and partake of the moral and Spiritual benefit of a weekly pause from the whirl and turmoil of secular engagements.

I had scarcely ventured to hope that I should ever witness a large hotel like this, conducted on such principles; but having now seen it, it adds additional strength to my conviction, that in proportion as Christianity is carried out in common life, in the same proportion is the lost happiness of man recovered. Too many in the present day, who are not behind-hand in profession, keep their principles more for show than use.

They acknowledge the purity of them, and have some faint perception of their moral beauty, but secretly believe, and sometimes, openly avow them to be impracticable in the present state of the world. They who exhibit proof of the contrary, are benefactors to their fellow men; and among these, justly deserves to be cla.s.sed Nathaniel Rogers, the proprietor of the Marlborough Hotel, in Boston.

We called upon several of our anti-slavery friends on the day of our arrival, and in the evening, took tea with a number of those who approve of the proceedings of the London Convention, and who concur in the principles of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The subjects discussed were the time and place of a future convention of the friends of the slave of different nations. London was unanimously approved as the place, and the preponderance of sentiment was in favor of 1842 as the time.

On the 22d we went on to Lynn. Here are a very considerable number of the Society of Friends, who are desirous of taking part in active anti-slavery exertion, when they can do so without compromise of principle. It is greatly to be regretted that in this vicinity, a few individuals, formerly members of our religious society, have embraced, in connection with their abolition views, the doctrines of non-resistance, or non-government, in church and state, and thus greatly added to the difficulties in the way of efficient action on the part of consistent members; but whatever may be the errors and indiscretions of these individuals, they furnish no valid excuse for the apathy and inaction on the part of "Friends," nor lessen, in the slightest degree, their responsibility for the firm and faithful maintenance of our Christian testimony against oppression. We proceeded, the same evening, to Amesbury, where the family of my friend and companion John G.

Whittier reside, in whose hospitable and tranquil retreat we remained till the 25th. Here I found myself in a manufacturing district, and paid a visit to a large woollen mill, and was much pleased with the cleanliness and order displayed, and with the evident comfort and prosperity of the working people, who are chiefly young women, none of whom are admitted under sixteen years of age. Any person given to intoxication would be instantly discharged. All the manufactories in this place are joint-stock companies, and the mills are worked by water power, of which there is an abundant supply.

I had agreed, on my return to Boston, to meet my abolition friends at a tea party, and found an entertainment provided from the Marlborough Hotel, in a large room adjoining one of the chapels, on a scale of great profusion, a little to my disappointment, as I had antic.i.p.ated one of a social rather than of a public character, though I could not but feel the kindness which it was intended to manifest. Charles Stewart Renshaw, from Jamaica, was opportunely present, and his information on the state of that Island added much interest to the evening, the proceedings of which, I hope, gave pretty general satisfaction. In condescension to my wish, my valued friend, Nathaniel Colver, suggested to the company to dispense with the usual form of public prayer, and subst.i.tute an interval of silence, after the reading of a portion of scripture, which was kindly complied with.

Before leaving Boston, I had a long interview with William Lloyd Garrison. His view of "women's rights" is so far a matter of conscience with him, as to be made an indispensable term of union; yet though widely differing on this, and other important points, we parted, I trust, as we met, on personally friendly terms; and certainly on my part with a desire to promote a spirit of forbearance, and with a deeper and stronger conviction that the friends of the bleeding and oppressed slave, should not spend their strength in unprofitable contention upon points in regard to which both parties claim to act conscientiously, while the common cause requires their undivided energies.

On the 28th I left Boston for the beautiful town of Worcester, about forty miles distant, on the princ.i.p.al line of railway to New York, where I had the pleasure of visiting, at his own residence, my friend, Cyrus P. Grosvenor, one of the delegates to the Anti-Slavery Convention last year. There are here a considerable number of sincere abolitionists, of whom we met a small company in the evening, in a room used as the Friends' meeting house. I gave them a brief account of the state of the anti-slavery cause in other parts of the world. In company with John M.

Earle, editor of one of the Worcester papers, with whom I had formed a previous acquaintance at the Yearly Meeting, I also called on the Governor of the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, who resides in this place. We had some friendly conversation, but he seemed cautious on the subject of abolition. The temperance cause in Worcester has made so much progress that at the three largest and best hotels, which make up nearly one hundred beds each, no intoxicating liquor of any kind is sold. A people thus willing to carry out their convictions, to the sacrifice of prejudice, appet.i.te, and apparent self-interest, cannot long remain a nation of slave-holders. In common with the rest of New England, this town is remarkable for the number, size, and beauty of its places of worship. I calculated, with the aid of a well-informed inhabitant, that if the entire population were to go to a place of worship, at the same hour, in the same day, there would be ample accommodation, and room to spare. Yet here there is no compulsory tax to build churches, and maintain ministers. By the efficacy of the voluntary principle alone is this state of things produced.

My dear friend, John G. Whittier returned home from Worcester on account of increased indisposition, while I proceeded alone to New York. The journey from Boston to the latter city is a remarkably pleasant one.

Leaving Boston at four in the afternoon, we proceed on one of the best railways in the States, at the rate of upwards of twenty miles an hour, through a very beautiful and generally well cultivated country, to the city of Norwich, in the State of Connecticut, where the train arrives about eight in the evening, and the pa.s.sengers immediately embark on a handsome steamer, for New York, enjoying, as long as daylight lasts, the fine scenery on the banks of the Thames. The night I went was moonlight; and, after long enjoying the coolness of the evening on deck, the company retired to their berths, and arrived at New York at the seasonable hour of six the following morning.

I remained in New York until the 7th of the Seventh Month (July). My friends, William Shotwell and wife, had left the city during the hot months, but very kindly placed their town house at my service, and I found the retirement thus at my command both refreshing and very serviceable, in enabling me to bring up arrears of writing. During this interval, I spent one very pleasant day with Theodore and Angelina Grimke Weld, and their sister, Sarah Grimke, who reside on a small farm, a few miles from Newark. To the great majority of my readers these names need no introduction; yet, for the benefit of the few, I will briefly allude to their past history. When the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, in 1833, Theodore D. Weld was at the Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was unable to attend on that occasion, but wrote a letter, declaring his entire sympathy with its object. Soon after, through the influence and exertions of himself and Henry B. Stanton, a large majority of the students at Lane Seminary, comprising several slave-holders and sons of slave-holders, became members of an Anti-Slavery Society. The Faculty opposed the formation of this society, and finally expelled its members from the seminary. For two or three years after, Theodore Weld was engaged in anti-slavery effort, princ.i.p.ally in the States of Ohio and New York. His voice failed at last, and for several years he was unable to address a public a.s.sembly.

Angelina Grimke Weld, and her sister, Sarah Grimke, were natives of South Carolina, the daughters of a distinguished Judge of that State; for several years they resided in Philadelphia. Having long felt a deep interest in the condition of the slaves, in the year 1837 they, in accordance with what they believed to be a sense of religious duty, visited New York and New England, to plead the cause of those, with whose sorrows, degradation, and cruel sufferings, they had been familiar in their native State. They are evidently women of superior endowments, kind-hearted and energetic, and still retain something of the warmth and fervor of character peculiar to the South.

Few, even of the well informed abolitionists of England, have an adequate idea of the extent, variety, and excellence of the anti-slavery literature of the United States, or of the amount of intellectual power which has been willingly consecrated to this service. Of the cause itself, with all its exigencies, we may adopt, in a yet more limited sense, the sentiment of the Christian poet, on the transient nature of all sublunary things,

"These, therefore, are occasional, and pa.s.s."

The time approaches when the shackles of the slave will fall off--when his suffering and despairing cry will be no more heard. Slavery itself is a temporary exigency; but its removal has called, and will yet call forth, works bearing the impress of intellectual supremacy, which will be embodied in the permanent literature of the age, and will contribute to raise the character, and to extend the reputation, of that literature. The names of Channing, Jay, Child, Green, and Pierpont, are already their own pa.s.sport to fame. Other names might be mentioned; but, one instance excepted, selection might be invidious. That exception is Theodore D. Weld, whose palm of superiority few would be disposed to contest. His princ.i.p.al works are, "The Bible against Slavery;" "Power of Congress over Slavery in the District of Columbia;" and "Slavery as it is."

All his writings are marked by varied excellence; yet their chief characteristic is an irresistible and overwhelming power of argument.

Although brief and compressed in style, he exhausts his subject; and his two princ.i.p.al works, though on warmly controverted topics, have never been replied to. He would be a bold antagonist who should enter the lists against him: he would be a yet bolder ally who should attempt to go over the same ground, or to do better what has been done so well.