Autographs for Freedom Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Joseph C. Holly.]

ROCHESTER, N. Y., October 19th, 1853.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The sickness of her daughter.

Forward.

FROM THE GERMAN OF HOFFMAN, IN FOLLERSLEBEN.

It is a time of swell and flood, We linger on the strand, And all that might to us bring good Lies in the distant land.

O forward! forward! why stand still?

The flood will ne'er run dry; Who through the wave not venture will, That land shall never spy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) T. W. Higginson.]

What has Canada to do with Slavery?

The question is often asked, both in Canada and in the United States: What have we in Canada to do with the Inst.i.tution of Slavery, as it exists in the neighboring Republic? I do not think that a better answer is necessary, than that which is contained in the following extracts--the former of which is taken from a speech delivered by George Thompson, Esq., at the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada--the latter from the valuable work of the Rev. Albert Barnes on Slavery:

"Are we separated geographically and politically from the country where slavery reigns? We are, for that very reason, the persons best able to form an unbia.s.sed and sound judgment on the question at issue.

We have as much to do with this question as with any question that concerns the happiness of man, the glory of G.o.d, or the hopes and destinies of the human race. We have to do with this question, for it lies at the foundation of our own rights as a portion of the human family. The cause of liberty is one all over the world. What have you to do with this question? The slave is your brother, and you cannot dissolve that Union. While he remains G.o.d's child he will remain your brother. He is helpless, and you are free and powerful; and if you neglect him, you are not doing as you would have others do to you, were you in bonds. Know you not that it is G.o.d's method to save man by man, and that man is only great, and honorable, and blest himself, as he is the friend and defender of those who need his aid. You are dwellers on the same continent with three millions of slaves. Their sighs come to you with every breeze from the South. Oh, haste to help them, that this glorious continent may be freed from its pollution and its curse."

Extract from Barnes on slavery:

"Slavery pertains to a great wrong done to our common nature, and affects great questions, relating to the final triumph of the principles of justice and humanity. The race is one great brotherhood, and every man is under obligation, as far as he has the ability, to defend those principles which will permanently promote the welfare of the human family. * * * * The questions of right and wrong know no geographical limits; are bounded by no conventional lines; are circ.u.mscribed by the windings of no river or stream, and are not designated by climate or by the course of the sun. There are no enclosures within which the question of right and wrong may not be carried with the utmost freedom."

Other answers might be given, but these are quite sufficient.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Thomas Henning]

The Fugitive Slave Bill: a Fragment.

But ours is the saddest part of this sad business. It would be hard enough to live surrounded by bondmen, even though we had never known any other way of life. Still, for one who had grown up with young slaves for playmates and for nurses, there might be much in the relation to quiet the conscience and soothe the sensibilities. Strong attachments, we all know, are often realized, even in a condition of things so anomalous. Perhaps, too, a large number of those about us would be as feeble in capacity as humble in their circ.u.mstances. One so born might tolerate such a position. But how different,--how, in comparison, and in every way intolerable, to be set as watchmen and interceptors of these, the brighter and the better, who, beyond all controversy, have outgrown the estate of bondage, and who are so loudly called of G.o.d to be freemen, that they will brave any peril in obedience to the call! How can we do this and still be men and Christians? Would our brethren at the south do it for us? If we have, in our haste, so covenanted, must we not rather pay the penalty than fulfil the bond? I recognize obedience to civil government as the solemn duty of all save _those who without cause are made outlaws by the State_. Government protects our hearths and shelters those who are dearest to us. But we can honor the law by submitting to its penalties as well as by complying with its demands, and the penalty would be my election when a man who had seized his manhood at the peril of his life should claim of me shelter and the means of escape. Before I refuse that, "may my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Rufus Ellis.]

The Encroachment of the Slave-Power.

EXTRACT.

Such is the unholy and gigantic power that, leaving its territorial domain, has usurped the seat of freedom--that has established at our capitol a central despotism, and bends to its will with iron hand the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of our Federal Government.

I have marvelled, sir, as you have, that the Spirit of Freedom in our fair land has so long slumbered beneath such an outrage. But I imagine her awakening. As she is about to awaken in her strength, and with the voice of the people, like the sound of many waters, rebuking this insolent slave-power, as Milton tells us its father and inventor was of old rebuked, as he sought to pa.s.s the bounds of his prison-house, and to darken with his presence the realms of light--

"And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of Heaven, h.e.l.l-doom'd! and breath'st defiance here and scorn, Where I reign King, and to enrage thee more Thy King and Lord? Back to thy punishment False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart, Strange horrors seize thee and pangs unfelt before."

Faithfully yours,

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) John Jay, esq.]

The Dishonor of Labor.

The fundamental, essential cause of slavery and its concomitants, ignorance, degradation and suffering on the one side, as of idleness, prodigality and luxury-born disease on the other, is a false idea of the nature and offices of Labor.

Labor is not truly a curse, as has too long been a.s.serted. It only becomes such through human perverseness, misconception and sin. It was no curse to the first pair in Eden, and will not be to their descendants, whenever and wherever the spirit of Eden shall pervade them. It is only a curse because too many seek to engross the product of others' work, yet do little or none themselves. If the secret were but out, _that no man can really enjoy more than his own moderate daily labor would produce_, and _none can truly enjoy this without doing the work_, the death-knell of Slavery in general--in its subtler as well as its grosser forms--would be rung. Until that truth shall be thoroughly diffused, the cunning and strong will be able to prey upon the simple and feeble, whether the latter be called slaves or something else.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Horace Greeley. (Engraved by J. C. b.u.t.tre.)]

The great reform required is not a work of hours nor of days, but of many years. It must first pervade our literature, and thence our current ideas and conversation, before it can be infused into the common life. Meanwhile, it would be well to remember that--

Every man who exchanges business for idleness, not because he has become too old or infirm to work, but because he has become rich enough to live without work;

Every man who educates his son for a profession, rather than a mechanical or agricultural calling, not because of that son's supposed fitness for the former rather than the latter, but because he imagines Law, Physic or Preaching, a more respectable, genteel vocation, than building houses or growing grain;

Every maiden who prefers in marriage a rich suitor of doubtful morals or scanty brains to a poor one, of sound principles, blameless life, good information and sound sense; Every mother who is pleased when her daughter receives marked attention from a rich lawyer or merchant, but frowns on the addresses of a young farmer or artisan of slender property, but of well-stored mind, good character and industrious, provident habits;

Every young man who, in choosing the sharer of his fireside and the future mother of his children, is less solicitous as to what she is good for, than as to how much she is worth;

Every youth who is trained to regard little work and much recompense--short business-hours and long dinners--as the chief ends of exertion and as a.s.surances of a happy life;

Every teacher who thinks more of the wages than of the opportunities for usefulness afforded by his or her vocation;

Every rich Abolitionist, who is ashamed of being caught by distinguished visiters while digging in his garden or plowing in the field, and wishes them to understand that he so works, not for occupation, but for pastime; and

Every Abolition lecturer who would send a hireling two miles after a horse, whereon to ride three miles to fulfil his next appointment respectably; Though meaning no such thing, and perhaps shocked when it is suggested, is a practical and powerful upholder of the continued enslavement of our fellow-men.