Discussion on American Slavery Part 6

He would lay the principles of the American abolitionists before the audience in the words of their solemn and official doc.u.ments. He would go back to the commencement of the five years mentioned by his opponent, and read from the "CONSt.i.tUTION of the NEW-ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY," a lucid exposition of the principles and objects of the first Anti-Slavery Society (technically so called) in the United States.

"We, the undersigned, hold that every person of full age and sane mind, has a right to immediate freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime.

We hold that man cannot, consistently with reason, religion, and the eternal and immutable principles of justice, be the property of man.

We hold that whoever retains his fellow man in bondage, is guilty of a grevious wrong.

We hold that a mere difference of complexion is no reason why any man should be deprived of any of his natural rights, or subjected to any political disability.

While we advance these opinions as the principles on which we intend to act, we declare that we will not operate on the existing relations of society by other than peaceful and lawful means, and that we will give no countenance to violence or insurrection.

With these views, we agree to form ourselves into a society, and to be governed by the rules specified in the following const.i.tution, viz:

ARTICLE 1. This Society shall be called the New-England Anti-Slavery Society.

ARTICLE 2. The object of the society will be to endeavor, by all means sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion, to effect the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, to improve the character and condition of the free people of color, to inform and correct public opinion in relation to their situation and rights, and obtain for them equal civil and political rights and privileges with the whites."

He would now pa.s.s on to the formation of the National Anti-Slavery Society, in December, 1833, and submit all that was material in the "CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY."

ARTICLE 2. The object of this Society is the entire abolition of slavery in the United States. While it admits that each State in which Slavery exists has, by the Const.i.tution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in that State, it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime in the sight of G.o.d; and that the duty, safety, and best interest of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The Society will also endeavor, in a const.i.tutional way, to influence Congress, to put an end to the domestic slave trade; and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control, especially in the district of Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State that may hereafter be admitted to the Union.

ARTICLE 3. This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice; that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but the Society will never in any way countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.

ARTICLE 4. Any person who consents to the principles of this Const.i.tution, who contributes to the funds of this Society, and is not a slave-holder, may be a member of this Society, and shall be ent.i.tled to a vote at its meetings."

He would next read the "Preamble" to the Const.i.tution of the New-Hampshire State Anti-Slavery Society:

"The most high G.o.d hath made of one blood all the families of man to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath endowed all alike with the same inalienable rights, of which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; yet there are now in this land, more than two millions of human beings, possessed of the same deathless spirits, and heirs to the same immortal hopes and destinies with ourselves, who are nevertheless deprived of these sacred rights, and kept in the most cruel and abject bondage; a bondage under which human beings are bred and fattened for the market, and then bought, sold, mortgaged, leased, bartered, fettered, tasked, scourged, beaten, killed, hunted even like the veriest brutes,--nay, made often the unwilling victims of unG.o.dly l.u.s.t; while, at the same time, their minds are, by law and custom, generally shut out from all access to letters, and in various other ways all their upward tendencies are repressed and crushed, so as to make their "moral and religious condition such that they may justly be considered the heathen of this country;" and since we regard such oppression as one of the greatest wrongs that man can commit against his fellow; and existing as it does, and tolerated as it is, under this free and Christian government, sapping its foundation, bringing its inst.i.tutions into contempt among other nations, thus r.e.t.a.r.ding the march of freedom and religion, and strengthening the hands of despotism and irreligion throughout the world; and since we deem it a duty to ourselves, to our government, to the world, to the oppressed, and to G.o.d, to do all we can to end this oppression, and to secure an immediate and entire emanc.i.p.ation of the oppressed; and believe we can act most efficiently in the case, in the way of combined and organized action:--Therefore, we, the undersigned, do form ourselves into a Society for the purpose."

If there was anything for which the abolitionists as a body were peculiarly distinguished, it was for the perfect uniformity of sentiment upon all great points connected with the general question of slavery. This was attributable to the clearness and fullness with which the principles of the Society had been enunciated. Not so with the Colonization Society. You quoted the language of the most eminent of its supporters, but were immediately told that the Society was not answerable for the views or designs of its advocates. How very different a course did the Colonizationists pursue towards the Anti-Slavery Society. That Society was not only made answerable for all which the abolitionists _really_ said, and _really_ designed, but for things they never said, and never designed. No Society was more conspicuous for the simplicity of its principles, or the harmony of views subsisting among its members. All regarded slave-holding as sinful. All considered immediate emanc.i.p.ation to be the duty of the master and the right of the slave. All deprecated the thought of a servile insurrection to effect the extinction of slavery. All abhorred the doctrine that "the end sanctifies the means." But all deemed it a solemn duty to pursue, with energy and boldness, the overthrow of slavery; all were one in believing and teaching, that the means adopted should be honest, holy, peaceful, and moral. It had been said that the only weapon should be "persuasion." He (Mr. T.) believed that if no other weapon than "persuasion" was resorted to, slavery would be perpetual. He believed that the gathered, concentrated, withering scorn of the whole world, Pagan and Christian, must be brought down upon slave-holding America, ere much effect could be produced. If this was insufficient, it would be the duty of Britain to consider well whether it was right to hold the destinies of the slaves of America in her hand and not act accordingly. It would be the duty of the friends of the slave to point to slave-grown produce, and cry, "touch not, taste not, handle not" the accursed thing! Great Britain had the power, by adopting a system of prohibitory duties or bounties, to affect very materially the question at issue, and he (Mr. T.) doubted not, that, if some such course was adopted, certain of the slave States would immediately abolish slavery that they might find a readier market and a higher price for their produce.

Notwithstanding, however, the precision with which the abolitionists had stated their principles, and the wide publicity they had given them, designs the most black, and measures the most monstrous and wicked, had been charged upon them. They had been represented as "firebrands," "incendiaries," "disorganizers," "amalgamatists"--as promoting "disunion," "rebellion," and the "intermixture of the races." Again and again, had they solemnly disclaimed the views imputed to them, and pointed to their published "const.i.tutions" and "declarations;" but as often had their enemies returned to their work of calumny and misrepresentation. How totally absurd was it to charge upon the abolitionists the design of promoting amalgamation, while, under the system of slavery, an unholy amalgamation was going on to the most awful extent; demonstrated by the endless shades of complexion at the south; and when nothing was more obvious than this, that when a female was rescued from her present condition--inspired with self-respect, and became the protector of her own virtue,--and when fathers, and brothers, and husbands, were free to defend the honor of their wives and daughters, the great causes, and incentives, and facilities would cease, and cease forever, and to prove to the world how solemnly the abolitionists had denied the imputations cast upon them by their enemies, he would read from two doc.u.ments put forth during the great excitement which prevailed through the United States in August last. The American Anti-Slavery Society, in "_An Address to the public_," thus anew declared their principles and objects.

"We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the southern States, than in the French West-India Islands. Of course we desire no national legislation on the subject."

"We hold that slavery can only be lawfully abolished by the Legislatures of the several States in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such abolition is unconst.i.tutional."

"We believe that Congress has the same right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, that the State Governments have within their respective jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface so foul a blot from the national escutcheon."

"We believe that American citizens have the right to express and publish their opinions of the const.i.tutions, laws, and inst.i.tutions, of any and every state and nation under Heaven; and we mean never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the press, or of conscience--blessings we have inherited from our fathers, and which we intend, as far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to our children."

"We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the south. If by the term _incendiary_ is meant publications containing arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political evil, and that duty and policy require its immediate abolition, the charge is true. But if the term is used to imply publications _encouraging insurrection_, and designed to excite the slaves to break their fetters, the charge is utterly and unequivocally false. We beg our fellow-citizens to notice that this charge is made without proof, and by many who confess that they have never read our publications, and that those who make it, offer to the public no evidence from our writings in support of it."

"We have been charged with a design to encourage intermarriages between the whites and blacks. The charge has been repeatedly, and is now again denied, while we repeat that the tendency of our sentiments is to _put an end_ to the criminal amalgamation that prevails wherever slavery exists."

These were only extracts from the address, which was of considerable length, and thus concluded:

"Such, fellow-citizens, are our principles. Are they unworthy of republicans and of Christians? Or are they in truth so atrocious, that in order to prevent their diffusion you are yourselves willing to surrender, at the dictation of others, the invaluable privilege of free discussion, the very birth-right of Americans? Will you, in order that the abomination of slavery may be concealed from public view, and that the capital of your republic may continue to be, as it now is, under the sanction of Congress, the great slave mart of the American Continent, consent that the general government, in acknowledged defiance of the const.i.tution and laws, shall appoint, throughout the length and breadth of your land, ten thousand censors of the press, each of whom shall have the right to inspect every doc.u.ment you may commit to the Post-Office, and to suppress every pamphlet and newspaper, whether religious or political, which, in its sovereign pleasure, he may adjudge to contain an incendiary article? Surely we need not remind you, that if you submit to such an encroachment on your liberties, the days of our Republic are numbered, and that, although abolitionists may be the first, they will not be the last victims offered at the shrine of arbitrary power.

ARTHUR TAPPAN, _President_.

JOHN RANKIN, _Treasurer_.

WILLIAM JAY, _Sec. For. Cor._ ELIZUR WRIGHT, Jr.,_ Sec. Dom. Cor._ ABRAHAM L. c.o.x, M. D., _Rec. Sec._ LEWIS TAPPAN, } JOSHUA LEAVITT, } Members SAMUEL E. CORNISH, } of the SIMEON S. JOCELYN, } Executive THEODORE S. WRIGHT, } Committee.

New-York, September 3, 1835."

The other doc.u.ment to which he had referred, was an "Address" adopted at "A meeting of the Ma.s.sachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, duly held in Boston, on Monday, August 17, A. D., 1835," signed by W. L. Garrison, and twenty-seven highly respectable citizens of Boston, on behalf of the Ma.s.sachusetts Society, and others concurring generally in its principles. He (Mr. T.) would only quote a few brief pa.s.sages.

"We are charged with violating, or wishing to violate, the Const.i.tution of the United States. What have we done, what have we said to warrant this charge? We have held public meetings, and taken other usual means of convincing our countrymen that slave-holding is sin, and, like all sin, ought to be, and can be, immediately abandoned. We have said, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that "ALL MEN are created equal," and that liberty is an inalienable gift of G.o.d to every man. We know of no clause in the Const.i.tution which forbids our saying this. We appeal to the calm judgment of the community, to decide, in view of recent events, whether the measures of the friends, or those of the opposers of abolition, are more justly chargeable with the violation of the Const.i.tution and laws."

"The foolish tale, that we would encourage amalgamation by intermarriage between the whites and blacks, though often refuted, as often re-appears. We shall content ourselves with a simple denial of this charge. We challenge our opponents to point to one of our publications in which such intermarriages are recommended. One of our objects is to prevent the amalgamation now going on, so far as can be done, by placing one million of the females of this country under the protection of law."

"We are accused of interfering in the domestic concerns of the southern States. We would ask those, who charge this, to explain precisely what they mean by "interference." If, by interference be meant any attempt to legislate for the southern States, or to compel them, by force or intimidation, to emanc.i.p.ate their slaves, we at once deny any such pretension. We are utterly opposed to any force on the subject, but that of conscience and reason, which are "mighty, through G.o.d, to the pulling down of strongholds." We fully acknowledge that no change in the slave-laws of the southern States can be made, unless by the southern Legislatures. Neither Congress nor the Legislatures of the free States have authority to change the condition of a single slave in the slave States. But, if by "interference"

be intended the exercise of the right of freely discussing this subject, and, by speech, and through the press, creating a public sentiment, which will reach the conscience, and blend with the convictions of the slave-holder, and thus ultimately work the complete extinction of slavery, this is a species of interference which we can never consent to relinquish."

"We respectfully ask our fellow-citizens, whether we are to be deprived of these sacred privileges,--and, if so, whether the sacrifice of our rights will not involve consequences dangerous to all mental and even personal freedom. We have violated, we mean to violate, no law. We have acted, we shall continue to act, under the sanction of the Const.i.tution of the United States. Nothing that we propose to do can be prevented by our opposers, without violating the Charter of our rights. To the Law and to the Const.i.tution we appeal."

Such were the sentiments of the abolitionists of the United States of America.

He (Mr. T.) would embrace the present opportunity of saying a few words respecting his own mission to the United States. It had been much denounced as an impertinent foreign interference; but he thought the charge had neither grace nor honesty when it came from those who were engaged, and, as he believed, most conscientiously and praiseworthily, in seeking, by their missionaries and agents, to overturn the inst.i.tutions, social, political, and religious, of every other quarter of the globe. Mr. Breckinridge had said that it would be as just on his part to inveigh against England on account of Roman Catholicism in the west of Ireland, or Idolatry in India, as it was on his (Mr. T's.) to condemn America for the slavery existing in that country. The cases were not quite parallel. Before they could be compared, Mr. B. must prove that the population of Ireland were _constrained_ to worship the Virgin Mary--that in India, men were _forced_ by British Law to worship idols. No British subject was compelled by any law of this country, or any other country to which British sway extended, to be either a _Papist_ or an _Idolator_. But in America, men were converted into _beasts_, "according to law," and their souls and bodies crushed and degraded by a system most vigorously enforced by the strong arm of the _State_. His opponent had said, however, that slavery was not a national sin. He (Mr. T.) had to thank a friend for suggesting an ill.u.s.tration of the knotty problem.

Suppose a number of _Agriculturists_ and _Merchants_ and _Highway Robbers_ were to meet together to form a Union, and the Highway Robbers were to say--come, let us unite for the purpose of common security, and common prosperity: we will defend each other, and trade with each other, but we will not "interfere" in each other's _internal_ affairs. You, gentlemen, Agriculturists and Merchants, shall promise that you will take no notice of my felonious and cut-throat proceedings, and I, on my part, will pledge my honor not to intermeddle in the affairs of your farms or counting-houses: and suppose they were to shake hands, complete the bargain, and ratify an indissoluble union of Agriculturists, Merchants, and Highway Robbers!

would the world hold the farmer or the merchant guiltless? Mr. B. had said much of the purity and emanc.i.p.ation principles of Ma.s.sachusetts, and New-Hampshire and Maine. How came it to pa.s.s, then, that they were in terms of such close and cordial fellowship with South Carolina, and Georgia, and Louisiana, and so ready to mob, stone, and outlaw those who deemed it their duty to cry aloud on behalf of the oppressed? To return to his own mission. He would never condescend to apologize for speaking the truth. He had a commission direct from the skies, to rebuke sin and compa.s.sionate suffering wherever on the face of the earth they existed. This world belonged to G.o.d; and all men were His subjects and his (Mr. Thompson's) brethren. Men might be naturally divided by rivers, and oceans, and mountains; they might be politically divided by different forms of government, and specified lines of demarkation; but he (Mr. T.) took the Bible in his hand and deemed himself at liberty to address every human being on the face of the earth in reference to those eternal principles of justice and truth, which are alike in all countries and in all ages, and which the subjects of G.o.d's moral government are everywhere bound to respect. He would say to America and to England, silence your cry of foreign interference, or call home your Missionaries from India, and China, and Constantinople. To shew that the object of his mission was in accordance with the spirit of the gospel, he would read an extract from an article in the first number of the "_Abolitionist_," the organ of "The British and Foreign Society for the Universal Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade"--a Society with which he was connected when he went to America, and whose Agent he still was. The objects of his mission were thus set forth:

"1. To lecture in the princ.i.p.al cities and towns of the free States, upon the character, guilt, and tendency of slavery, and the duty, necessity, and advantages of immediate and entire abolition. These addresses will be founded upon those great principles of humanity and religion, which have been so fully enunciated in this country, and will consequently be wholly unconnected with particular and local politics. This work will be carried on under the advice and with the co-operation of the Anti-Slavery Societies at present in existence in the United States.

2. To aim, by every Christian means, at the overthrow of that prejudice against the colored cla.s.ses, which now so lamentably prevails through all the States of America; and to regard as a princ.i.p.al mean to obtain this desirable object, their elevation in intellect and moral worth.

3. To suggest to the friends of negro freedom in the United States the adoption and prosecution of such measures as were found conducive to the cause of abolition in this country, and may be found applicable to existing circ.u.mstances in that.

4. To seek access to influential persons of various religious denominations, and especially to ministers of the gospel, for the purpose of explanatory conversation on the subjects of slavery and prejudice.

5. To endeavor to effect a junction between the abolitionists of the United States of America and great Britain, with a view to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade throughout the world."

The principles of the American Societies, his own principles, and the objects proposed by his mission to America, were now before his opponent. He called upon him to throw aside his quibbles on legal technicalities, and point out, if he were able, anything in the doc.u.ments he had read, or the sentiments he had advanced, inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, or the genius of rational freedom. It had been said that abolitionism was "quackery,"

only four years old. He would give them a little of the quackery of Benjamin Franklin, in the year 1790. He held in his hand a pet.i.tion drawn up by that celebrated man, and adopted by the "_Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery_," the preamble of which recognizes the doctrines which are maintained by American Abolitionists at the present day, and expresses the (_now incendiary_) desire of diffusing them "_wherever the evils of Slavery exist_." Of this Society, Dr. Franklin was elected President, and Dr. Rush the Secretary. In 1790, this Society presented to the first Congress a pet.i.tion, from which the following is an extract:--

"From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still the birth-right of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of humanity, and the principles of their inst.i.tutions, your memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under these impressions, they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of slavery; that you may be pleased to countenance the restoration to liberty of those unhappy men, who, alone in a land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who, amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise means for removing this inconsistency from the character of the American people; that you will promote mercy and justice towards this oppressed race, and that you will step to the very verge of the power vested in you, for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men."

(Signed) BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, President.

_Philadelphia, February 2, 1790._"

Besides the venerable Franklin in 1790, he might refer to the truly able speech of the Rev. David Rice, in the Convention held at Danville, Kentucky, before, or soon after the pet.i.tion just read--to the sermon of Jonathan Edwards, the younger, in the year 1791--and to a most excellent sermon by Alexander M'Leod, through whose zeal and labors chiefly, the Reformed Presbyterians were brought to the determination to rid their church of slavery, an object they accomplished in the year 1802. It was a painful fact that the American community had retrograded in feeling and sentiment upon the subject of slavery. The anti-slavery feeling of 1820 was neither so pure nor so strong as in 1800, or 1790; and in 1830 the feeling had become still weaker, and the views of the community still more corrupted. This was owing to the formation of the colonization society, which, like a great sponge, gathered up and absorbed the anti-slavery feeling of the country, and by proposing the removal of the colored population, and constantly preaching such doctrines as were calculated to advance that object, drew public attention away from the duty of immediate emanc.i.p.ation on the soil, and caused the Christian community to rest in a scheme based upon expediency, and fully in unison with their prejudice against color. To those who compared the various sentiments contained in the writings and speeches of the colonizationists, with the pure and uncompromising principles advocated towards the close of the last, and the beginning of the present century, nothing was more obvious than the fact he had just stated, namely, that there had been a gradual giving up of sound views and principles, for others accommodated to the prejudices and interests and fears of the different portions of the community. For instance, nothing was more common in the records of the Colonization Society than the recognition of a right of property in man; to find the advocates of the Society, when speaking of the slaveholder and his slaves, saying, "we hold their _slaves_, as we hold their other _property_, _sacred_." Mr.

Breckinridge might say "these are not my opinions;"--but he must know they were the published opinions of the managers and chief advocates of the Society, and it was for him to explain how he could lend a Society his countenance and aid, which promulgated and upheld so impious a doctrine as the right of property in G.o.d's rational, accountable, and immortal creatures. He (Mr. T.) knew, however, that the Society could a.s.sume all colors, and preach all kinds of doctrines. At one time it was promoting emanc.i.p.ation, and at another, increasing the value of slaves, and securing the master in the possession of them. It had one face for the north, and another for the south--a very Proteus enacting every sort of character; having no fixed principles--never consistent with itself in anything but its determination by all means to get rid, if possible, of the colored man. If there was any one thing which, more than another, was calculated to demonstrate the true character and tendency of the Society, it was the opinions everywhere entertained respecting it by the colored population. It was a fact that they loathed and abhorred the Society. No man advocating it could be popular amongst them. Even Mr. Breckinridge, with all his virtues and benevolence, was considered by the colored people as practically their enemy, by helping to sustain a Society which they regarded as the most effective engine of oppression ever invented. Surely they were qualified to form a judgment upon the subject. They had looked into its workings--they had narrowly watched its movements, and had satisfied themselves that it was full of all unrighteousness. If, on the other hand, the abolitionists were, by their measures, doing vast injury to the cause of the free colored people, how came it to pa.s.s, that they had the love and confidence of that entire cla.s.s of the population? How was it that even the arch fiend of abolition, George Thompson, was by them caressed and beloved, and that they would hang for hours upon the accents of his lips--and that the tear of grat.i.tude would start into their eyes wherever he met them? The secret was soon told. He (Mr. T.) spoke _to_ them and _of_ them, as _men_. He compromised none of their rights--he exhibited no prejudice against their complexion. He did not recommend exile as their only way of escape from their present and dreaded ills. He preached justice, and kindness, and repentance to their persecutors, and maintained the right of the bleeding captive to full and unconditional liberty, with all the privileges and honors of humanity. Therefore they loved him--therefore they would lay down their lives for him. He would read a list of places, in all of which the colored people had held meetings, and denounced the plans of the Colonization Society, viz,--

Philadelphia, New-York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington; Brooklyn and Rochester, in the State of New-York; Hartford, Middletown, New-Haven, and Lime in the State of Connecticut; Columbia, Pittsburg, Lewistown, and Harrisburg, in the State of Pennsylvania; Providence, in the State of Rhode-Island; Trenton, in the State of New-Jersey; Wilmington, in the State of Delaware; New-Bedford, in the State of Ma.s.sachusetts; Nantucket; in the National Convention of free colored persons, held in Philadelphia, in 1831--by the same Convention in 1832, and, he believed, in very subsequent Conventions.