American Scenes, and Christian Slavery Part 12

LETTER XXV.

A Sabbath at Baltimore (continued)--A Coloured Congregation--The Thought of seeing Washington abandoned--Departure from Baltimore --Coloured Ladies in the Luggage-Van--American Railways--Chesapeak Bay--Susquehannah--State of Delaware, and Abolition of Slavery --Philadelphia--Albert Barnes--Stephen Girard's Extraordinary Will.

In the afternoon of my first Sabbath at Baltimore I found, after much inquiry, a congregation of coloured people, who were some sort of Methodists. My wife and I were the only white people in the place. We were treated with great politeness, and put, not in a pew apart by ourselves, but in one of the best places they could find, in the very midst of the congregation. A serious-looking coloured man opened the service, with great propriety of manner and expression. He was the regular pastor. A black man, a stranger as I understood, preached. His text (he said) was, "Behold, I come quickly;" and they would find it in the Book of Revelation. But chapter and verse were not given, nor had he the Bible open in Revelation at all. I suspected that he could not read; and that suspicion was confirmed by the amount of nonsense which he soon uttered. At first his words were "few and far between," uttered in a tone of voice scarcely audible. Soon, however, he worked both himself and his audience into a tremendous phrenzy. The burden of his song was--how John had lived to a very great age, in spite of all attempts to put him to death; how his enemies had at last decided to try the plan of throwing him into a "kittle of biling ile;" how G.o.d had said to him, "Never mind, John,--if they throw thee into that kittle, I'll go there with thee,--they shall bile me too;" how John was therefore taken up alive; and how his persecutors, baffled in all their efforts to despatch him, ultimately determined to throw their victim upon a desolate island, and leave him there to live or perish as he might. During the delivery of all this nonsense, the laughing, the shouting, the groaning, and the jumping were positively terrific. It was Methodism gone mad. How disgraceful, that American Christians, so called, with all their schools and colleges, and with all their efforts to send the Gospel to Africa, should leave these people at their very doors thus to feed upon "husks" and "ashes!" Between 500 and 600 people were listening to this ignorant man, giving as the pure and positive word of G.o.d what was of very doubtful authority, intermingled with the crudities of his own brain. I wished to stay through the service, and perhaps at the close express my fraternal feelings; but I was so shocked and grieved at this ranting exhibition that I felt it unwarrantable to remain.

Leaving these unfortunate people, we peeped into two cathedral churches,--that of the Church of England, or (as it is here called) the Protestant Episcopal Church, and that of the Church of Rome. Both buildings are very splendid. We had been in the former some time before we felt quite sure that we were not in a Popish place of worship, so papistical were its aspect and arrangements. It was evident that Puseyism, or Popery in some form, had there its throne and its sceptre.

The avowedly Popish cathedral was crowded with worshippers; and, to the shame of Protestantism be it spoken, black and coloured people were _there_ seen intermingled with the whites in the performance of their religious ceremonies! The State of Maryland, of which Baltimore is the capital, having been first settled by a colony of Roman Catholics, might be expected to be a stronghold of Popery. Yet, it is not so. The adherents of that system are but a small minority of the population.

Baltimore is, however, a stronghold of slavery. Here Garrison's indignation against the system was first kindled--here Frederick Douglas tasted some of its bitter draughts--and here Torrey died its victim. The following are specimens of the manner in which the trade in human flesh is carried on in this city:--

"NEGROES WANTED.--I have removed from my former residence. West Pratt-street, to my new establishment on Camden-street, immediately in the rear of the Railroad Depot, where I am permanently located. Persons bringing Negroes by the cars will find it very convenient, as it is only a few yards from where the pa.s.sengers get out. Those having Negroes for sale will find it to their advantage to call and see me, as I am at all times paying the highest prices in cash.

"J. S. DONOVAN, Balt. Md."

"o28--6m*."

"CASH FOR FIVE HUNDRED NEGROES.--At the old establishment of Slatter's, No. 244, Pratt-street, Baltimore, between Sharp and Howard Streets, where the highest prices are paid, which is well known. We have large accommodations for Negroes, and always buying. Being regular shippers to New Orleans, persons should bring their property where no commissions are paid, as the owners lose it. All communications attended to promptly by addressing

"H. F. SLATTER."

"j5--6m*."

Before and since my arrival in the United States, I had thought much of seeing Washington, and, if possible, Congress in session. But such was the severity of the weather that we could not cross the Alleghanies before that a.s.sembly had risen and dispersed. At Baltimore I was within two hours' journey of the capital. Should I go and see it? No; for what can _there_ be found to gratify the friend of freedom and of man? The Missouri compromise, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War, are all a.s.sociated with Washington. The capital itself is but a great slave-mart, with its barac.o.o.ns and manacles, its handcuffs and auction-stands! Ay, and all this in full view of the national edifice, wherein is deposited that instrument which bears on its head and front the n.o.ble sentiment--"That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Under the influence of these recollections, I abandoned the idea of visiting Washington.

At 9 o'clock on Monday morning we set off by railway for Philadelphia.

While I was taking a last glance at my trunks in the luggage-van, at the Baltimore station, about half-a-dozen very clean and respectable coloured ladies came up, and made for the said van as a matter of course. It was the only accommodation that would be allowed them, though they paid the same fare as other people! They were ladies to whom any gentleman in England would have been proud to resign a seat.

But in the land of equality, they were consigned to the cold, dark, and dirty regions of the luggage-van. I noticed one important difference between the railway economy of England and that of America. In the former, as you know, the railway is haughty, exclusive, and aristocratic. It scorns all fellowship with common roads, and dashes on, either under or over the houses, with arbitrary indifference. In America, it generally condescends to pa.s.s along the public streets to the very centre of the city, the engine being taken off or put to in the suburbs, and its place _intra muros_, if I may so say, supplied by horses. In leaving Baltimore, the engine was attached _before_ we got quite out of the city; and we were going for some time along the common road, meeting in one place a horse and cart, in another a man on horseback, in another a pair of oxen fastened to each other, and so on.

Dangerous enough, apparently! yet railway accidents are much less frequent in America than in England. It is, besides, an immense saving of capital.

In our progress, we had to cross several arms of the Chesapeak Bay.

These arms were from one to two miles wide, and the railway is carried over them upon posts driven into the ground. It seemed like crossing the sea in a railway carriage. At Havre de Grace we had to cross the Susquehannah River. This word Susquehannah is Indian, and means literally, I am told, "the rolling thunder." In crossing it, however, we heard no thunder, except that of the luggage-van over our heads, on the top of the steamer. Here we changed carriages. We soon got sight of the Delaware, which kept us company nearly all the way to Philadelphia.

Delaware, the smallest of all the States except Rhode Island, we entirely crossed. A few days before, Delaware had well nigh done herself great honour. Her House of Representatives carried, by a majority, a vote for the abolition of slavery within her boundaries; but the measure was lost in her Senate by a majority of one or two. The State legislature will not meet again for two years. All parties are confident that the measure will then be triumphantly carried through.

In America, however, the abolition of slavery in any State does not always mean freedom to the slaves. Too often it is a mere transportation of them to the Southern States. Had Delaware pa.s.sed a law that all slaves should he free at the expiration of five years, or that all children born after a certain period should he free, the owners of slaves would have had an obvious interest in disposing of their human property to the Southern traders _before_ that period arrived. Mothers, too, would have been hastened Southward to give birth to their offspring; so that the "peculiar inst.i.tution" might lose none of its prey. Measures for the abolition of slavery in any part of America do not arise from sympathy with the negro, and from a wish to improve his condition and promote his happiness, but from aversion to his presence, or perhaps from a conviction that the system of slavery is expensive and impolitic. Those who feel kindly towards their coloured brother, and act towards him under the impulse of pure and lofty philanthropy, are, I am sorry to say, very few indeed.

These views may appear severe and uncharitable towards the American people, but they are confirmed by M. de Tocqueville. "When a Northern State declared that the son of the slave should be born free," observes that impartial writer, "the slave lost a large portion of his market value, since his posterity was no longer included in the bargain, and the owner had then a strong interest in transporting him to the South.

Thus the same law prevents the slaves of the South from coming to the Northern States, and drives those of the North to the South. The want of free hands is felt in a State in proportion as the number of slaves decreases. But, in proportion as labour is performed by free hands, slave labour becomes less productive; and the slave is then a useless or an onerous possession, whom it is important to export to those Southern States where the same compet.i.tion is not to be feared. _Thus the abolition of slavery does not set the slave free: it merely transfers him from one master to another, and from the North to the South_." M. de Tocqueville adds, in a note, "The States in which slavery is abolished usually do what they can to render their territory disagreeable to the negroes as a place of residence; and as a kind of emulation exists between the different States in this respect, the unhappy blacks can only choose the least of the evils which beset them." This is perfectly true.

Crossing the Schuilkyl, we arrived about 3 o'clock P. M. in Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love," having performed the journey of 97 miles in six hours, a rate of only 16 miles an hour!

In Philadelphia were many men and things that I wished to see. First and foremost, in my professional curiosity, was Albert Barnes; but being anxious to push on to New York that night, I had but an hour and a half to stay. Of a sight of the famous author of the "Notes," I was therefore compelled to deny myself. My regret was diminished, when I learned from an English minister of high standing, who, under the influence of the best feelings, and with an excellent introduction, had called upon the Commentator, that he received him with a degree of indifference bordering on rudeness.

In Philadelphia there is no Congregational Church. A few years ago John Todd, the well-known author of "The Student's Guide," attempted to raise one. He was but little countenanced, however, by Albert Barnes and the Presbyterians, and failed.

In pa.s.sing through this city, I had a distant glimpse of a most remarkable inst.i.tution. M. Girard, an old bachelor, a native of France, who had acc.u.mulated immense wealth, died a few years ago, leaving by will the enormous sum of two millions of dollars, or upwards of four hundred thousand pounds sterling, to erect and endow a college for the accommodation and education of three hundred orphan boys. The ground on which it was to be built, consisting of no less than 45 acres, he ordered to be enclosed with a high solid wall, capped with marble, and lined upon the top with long iron spikes. He also inserted in his will the following extraordinary clause: "I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any sect whatever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in said college; nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the purpose of said college." An attempt was made before the Supreme Court of the United States to set aside this will, and Daniel Webster, the great New England barrister, delivered a powerful "plea" against it; but the attempt was overruled. For some years the building has been slowly proceeding, and is not yet ready for occupation. Had I had time, I could not, being a minister, have entered the premises. To me, and to all like me, "_Procul, procul, este, profani_" is chiselled on every stone!--a singular monument of the priest-hating propensities of the old French Revolutionists.

LETTER XXVI.

Departure from Philadelphia--A Communicative Yankee--Trenton--The Mansion of Joseph Bonaparte--Scenes of Brainerd's Labours One Hundred Years ago--First Impressions of New York--150, Na.s.sau-street--Private Lodgings--Literary Society--American Lodging-houses--A Lecture on Astronomy--The "Negro Pew" in Dr. Patton's Church.

At half-past 4 in the afternoon of March 15 we left Philadelphia by railway for New York, which we reached at 10 P.M., an average again of about 16 miles an hour. In this journey I met with a very communicative Yankee, who, though not a religious man, was proud to trace his genealogy to the "Pilgrim Fathers," and, through them, to the Normans.

Intercourse, he said, had been maintained for the last two centuries between the English and American branches of the family. He also took care to inform me that the head of the English branch was a baronet.

This was but one of many instances in which I found among our Transatlantic friends a deep idolatry of rank and t.i.tles. In talking of their own political inst.i.tutions, he declared their last two Presidents to have been--the one a fool, and the other a knave,--Polk the fool, and Tyler the knave. He entertained an insane and cruel prejudice against those whose skin was not exactly of the same colour with his own, and "thanked G.o.d" that he had no African blood in his veins.

We pa.s.sed through Trenton, celebrated as the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y conflict between the British and the American forces. The Americans, I am sorry to say, dwell too fondly on the remembrance of those deadly struggles.

They cherish the spirit of war. The influence of Elihu Burritt and his "bond of brotherhood" is indeed greatly needed on both sides of the Atlantic.

We also pa.s.sed what once was the residence of ex-royalty--the princely mansion which Joseph Bonaparte erected for himself after he lost the throne of Spain. It is surrounded with about 900 acres of land, his own private property; and was still in the family, though about to be sold.

What a home has America proved both to fallen greatness and to struggling poverty! Princes and peasants alike find shelter here.

This journey conducted us through New Brunswick, Elizabeth Town, Newark,--places a.s.sociated with the name of David Brainerd, and often (a hundred years ago) the scenes of his toils and travels. But where are the descendants of those Indians on whose behalf he felt such intense solicitude? Alas! not a vestige of them is to be seen.

Having thus crossed New Jersey State, we came to New Jersey city, where we crossed a ferry to New York. After rather more than the usual amount of anxiety about baggage, &c., we reached the Planter's Hotel a little after 10 at night.

Next morning I sallied forth to gaze, for the first time, at the wonders of New York. The state of the streets impressed me unfavourably. The pigs were in the enjoyment of the same unstinted liberty as at Cincinnati. Merchants and storekeepers spread their goods over the entire breadth of the causeway, and some even to the very middle of the street. Slops of all sorts, and from all parts of the houses, were emptied into the street before the front doors! The ashes were disposed of in a very peculiar manner. Each house had, on the edge of the parapet opposite, an old flour-barrel, or something of the sort, into which were thrown ashes, sweepings, fish-bones, dead rats, and all kinds of refuse. A dead rat very frequently garnished the top of the barrel. This was the order of things, not in small by-streets only, but also in the very best streets, and before the very best houses. The pavement too, even in Broadway, was in a very wretched state.

I made for No. 150, Na.s.sau-street, where the Tract Society, the Home Missionary Society, and the Foreign Missionary Society have their rooms. To some parties in that house I had introductions. The brethren connected with those societies treated me with great kindness and cordiality, and made me feel as though I had been in our own missionary rooms in Blomfield-street. By their aid I obtained private lodgings, in a good situation and in good society.

The landlady was a Quaker, with half-a-dozen grown-up daughters. Our fellow-lodgers consisted of the Rev. A.E. Lawrence, a.s.sistant-Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society (who had a few months before become the landlady's son-in-law); the Rev. Mr. Martyn, and his wife, a woman of fine talents, and editor of "The Ladies' Wreath;" the Rev. Mr.

Brace, an editor in the employ of the Tract Society; Mr. Daniel Breed, M.D., a Quaker, and princ.i.p.al of a private academy for young gentlemen (also the landlady's son-in-law); Mr. Oliver Johnson, a sub-editor of the _Daily Tribune_, and a well-known Abolitionist; and Mr. Lockwood, a retired grocer,--who, having gained a small independence, was thus enjoying it with his youthful wife and child in lodgings.

Into society better adapted to my taste and purposes I could not have gone. This mode of life is very extensively adopted in America, --married couples, with families, living in this manner for years, without the least loss of respectability. They seldom have sitting-rooms distinct from their bed-rooms, which are made to answer both purposes; and as to meals, all meet to eat the same things, at the same table, and at the same time. The custom is economical; but it has an injurious effect upon character, especially in the case of the women. The young wife, not being called upon to exercise herself in domestic economy, is apt to become idle, slovenly, and--in a certain sense--worthless. The softening a.s.sociations and influences, and even the endearments, of "home," are lost. There is no _domesticity_.

In the evening of the 17th I went to the Broadway Tabernacle, to hear a lecture on Astronomy from Professor Mitch.e.l.l of Cincinnati, no ordinary man. Although the admission fee was half-a-dollar, upwards of a thousand persons were present. Without either diagrams or notes, the accomplished lecturer kept his audience in breathless attention for upwards of an hour. He seemed to be a devout, una.s.suming man, and threw a flood of light on every subject he touched. His theme was the recent discovery of the Leverrier planet; and perhaps you will not be displeased if I give you a summary of his lucid observations. In observing how the fluctuations of the planet Herschel had ultimately led to this discovery, he said:

"For a long time no mind dared to touch the problem. At length a young astronomer rises, unknown to fame, but with a mind capable of grasping all the difficulties involved in any of these questions. I refer of course to LEVERRIER. He began by taking up the movements of Mercury. He was dissatisfied with the old computations and the old tables; and he ventured to begin anew, and to compute an entirely new set of tables.

With these new tables, he predicted the _precise instant_ when the planet Mercury, on the 18th of May, 1845, would touch the sun, and sweep across it. The time rolls round when the planet is to be seen, and his prediction verified or confuted. The day arrives, but, alas!

for the computer, the clouds let down their dark curtains, and veil the sun from his sight. Our own Observatory had just been finished; and if the audience will permit, I will state briefly my own observations upon the planet. I had ten long years been toiling. I had commenced what appeared to be a hopeless enterprise. But finally I saw the building finished. I saw this mighty telescope erected,--I had adjusted it with my own hands,--I had computed the precise time when the planet would come in contact with the sun's disk, and the precise point where the contact would take place; but when it is remembered that only about the thousandth part of the sun's disk enters upon the field of the telescope, the importance of directing the instrument to the right point will be realized. Five minutes before the computed time of the contact, I took my place at the instrument. The beautiful machinery that carries the telescope with the sun was set in motion, and the instrument directed to that part of the sun's disk at which it was antic.i.p.ated the contact would take place. And there I sat, with feelings which no one in this audience can realize. It was my first effort. All had been done by myself. After remaining there for what seemed to be long hours, I inquired of my a.s.sistant how much longer I would have to wait. I was answered _four minutes_. I kept my place for what seemed an age, and again inquired as before. He told me that but one minute had rolled by. It seemed as if time had folded his wings, so slowly did the moments crawl on. I watched on till I was told that but one minute remained; and, within sixteen seconds of the time, I had the almost bewildering gratification of seeing the planet break the contact, and slowly move on till it buried itself round and deep and sharp in the sun.

"I refer to this fact for two reasons,--first, to verify Leverrier; and, second, to impress upon your minds the desirableness of locating our observatories in different parts of the earth. No European astronomer could have made this observation, because in their longitudes the sun would have set previous to the contact of the planet with its disk. I had the gratification of furnishing these observations to Leverrier himself, who reported upon them to the Academy of Sciences. The triumph of Leverrier was complete. It was after this that Arago, seeing the characteristics of his mind, said to him, 'Take up the movements of the planet Herschel,--watch them, a.n.a.lyze them, and tell us what it is that causes them.' Leverrier throws aside all other employments, and gives his mind to the investigation of this subject.

He begins entirely back. He takes up the movements of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and investigates them anew: he leaves nothing untouched. Finally, after having in the most absolute manner computed all the influence they exercise upon the planet Herschel, he says, 'I now know positively all existing causes that disturb the planet; but there is an outstanding power that disturbs it not yet accounted for, and now let me rise to a knowledge of that outstanding cause.' He did what no other man ever had attempted. He cleared up all difficulties;--he made all daylight before his gaze. And now, how shall I give to you an account of the train of reasoning by which he reached out into unknown s.p.a.ce, and evoked from its bosom a mighty world? If you will give me the time, I will attempt to give you an idea of his mighty workings in the field of science.

"In the first place, let it be remembered that the planets circulate through the heavens in nearly the same plane. If I were to locate the sun in the centre of the floor, in locating the planets around it, I should place them upon the floor in the same plane. The first thing that occurred to Leverrier, in looking for the planet, was this,--he need not look out of the plane of the ecliptic. Here, then, was one quarter in which the unknown body was to be found. The next thing was this,--where is it located, and what is its distance from the sun? The law of Bode gave to him the approximate distance. He found the distance of Saturn was about double that of Jupiter, and the distance of Herschel twice that of Saturn; and the probability was that the new planet would be twice the distance of Herschel,--and as Herschel's distance is 1,800,000 miles, the new planet's would be 3,600,000.

Having approximated its distance, what is its periodic time?--for if he can once get its periodic time, he can trace it out without difficulty.

According to the third of Kepler's laws, as the square of the period of Herschel is to the square of the period of the unknown planet, so is the cube of the distance of Herschel to the cube of the distance of the unknown planet. There is only one term unknown. The periodic time of Herschel we will call 1, and its distance 1, and by resolving the equation, we find the periodic time of the new planet to be a fraction less than three times that of Herschel, or about 220 years. Now, if it be required to perform 360 degrees in 220 years, it will perform about a degree and a half in one year. Only one thing more remains to be accomplished. If it is possible to get the position of the unknown body at _any time_, we can trace it up to where it should be in 1847.

"First, then, let us suppose the sun, Herschel, and the new planet in certain fixed positions, which we will represent as follows,--

[Ill.u.s.tration: A B C

Sun. Herschel. Unknown, or Leverrier Planet.